The Herd with Colin Cowherd - Hoops Tonight - Game 4 Reactions: Lakers/Wolves, Knicks/Pistons, Celtics/Magic, Pacers/Bucks

Episode Date: April 28, 2025

Jason reacts to the four awesome playoff games of the day, the New York Knicks beating the Detroit Pistons after a controversial no-call on Tim Hardaway Jr.'s final shot attempt, Anthony Edwards & the Minnesota Timberwolves beating LeBron James, Luka Doncic, and the Los Angeles Lakers, the Boston Celtics taking care of business against the Orlando Magic, and the Indiana Pacers dominating the Milwaukee Bucks.  #Volume #HerdSee omnystudio.com/listener for privacy information.

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We've got a jam-pack show for you guys today. We're going to hit on four games. I'm going to be primarily leaning into the first two games of the day. Those are the two games that I thought were most interesting. So we're going to talk Lakers Wolves off the top. And then I've got a lot of thoughts on Nick's Pistons. We'll be going shorter on Celtics Magic as well as Pacers' Bucks. But we'll have some thoughts there at the tail end of the show, too.

also no mailbag at the tail end of the show today, just so you guys know, but we're going to be hitting all four of those games, and then we'll get out of here for the night. You guys know the Joe before we get started. Subscribe to the Hoops Tonight YouTube channel, so you don't miss any more of our videos. Follow me on Twitter at underscore Jason LT, so you guys don't miss any show announcements.

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I was telling the guys before the show started, it's very rough day for my personal playoff rooting interests. My men's league team had a playoff game today, too, that we lost on a game-winning jump shot at the buzzer in OT from my former college teammate, my point guard back when I was playing in college. Shout out to Dom Banks, just an incredible player, good friend of mine,

hit a big-time shot to beat us today. So took that knife to the chest and then had to go home and watch the other knife go into my chest. in the form of the Lakers losing that game in the fourth quarter to the Minnesota Timberwolves. So obviously, before we get any deeper into it, just congratulations to Wolves fans. I'm sure you guys are very happy that I am wrong about what ended up happening in this series. And it's been especially painful for me because Anthony Edwards just continues to,

to take a special place in my basketball heart, so to speak, as I've always loved watching him play and just watching the way that he has broken my heart, so to speak, as a Lakers fan in this series, has just made me love him even more as a player. And I'm just, I'm really happy for you, Wolves fans, and you guys are in great shape moving forward, not just in this series, but moving forward for the rest of this playoff run, and for the rest of this era that you guys have put together. So to me, game four basically came down to a gamble that JJ Reddick made in the second half. A bet based on two things.

One, that the Luca LeBron, Austin, Dorian, Finney Smith, Rui Hachamura lineup was consistently generating great shots against Minnesota's defense and he wanted to ride that out as much as possible. And the Lakers effectively after tonight's game or today's game had like two and a half full days of rest before game five and Wednesday. Like they would have all night tonight off, all day Monday off, all day Tuesday off, most of the day on Wednesday. So I don't think he was worried about long term wear and tear. But the gamble was that the Lakers would be able to survive those 24 minutes without succumbing to the physical onslaught of, Minnesota. And that ended up being the give and take, right? And the Lakers just couldn't quite hold on.

I thought Ants shot making in the early fourth quarter was the first sign of that onslaught. I talked a lot after game three about how you pretty much just have to cross your fingers and hope Aunt misses those pull up threes because you can't realistically take them away. You're just going to give the best athlete in the league a crazy runway over and over again. You have to play with you have to play essentially to concede a contested pull up pullback or step back type of three right he hit three of them in the early fourth quarter including a 28 footer over austin reeves with just under eight minutes left that cut the lead down to four and that like immediately changed the tone and tenor of the game and it turned it into a high pressure half court slug vest and once again

just like in game three and in the wolves just looked better down the street stretch. Nas Reid came in. One of the few fresh legs guys on the floor there down the stretch. He immediately scored eight points. He scored against Austin on a switch. He had two long threes at the top of the key. The Lakers kind of started to show their fatigue on those two threes. On the first one, Luca beats Nas Reid off the dribble and smokes a layup, like right at the rim smokes a layup. And then in transition, Luca made a bad read. He should have matched up with Nas. Him and Nas were the last two guys back in the play, but Luca just misread the floor and ran to go guard Austin Reeves's man, even though Austin Reeves was already there.

That left Nas read open. Just a mental mistake, probably that came from fatigue to a certain extent. And then on the second one, Nas broke open on a screening action, kind of a two guys at the elbow. Nas was on the far elbow. And LeBron just was resting or fatigued or whatever it was. He just was like flat-footed, standing upright. And when Nas ran off the screen, like it probably should have been a switch, but LeBron

should have been up, like communicating with Austin. like, hey, Nas is getting ready to come up. You've got to be ready to switch. Both LeBron and Austin were just a little slow to react, and Nas breaks open at the top key and hits another three. And Ant made a very similar kickout read on a baseline drive that looked very similar to the one in game three where he hit Nas Reid on the left wing. He hit Dante Divencenzo on the left wing who drove the close out and got an and one. Another great decision from Ant down the stretch.

Ant beat a double team. He was getting double team by Dorian, Finney Smith, and Rui Hachamur out in the kind of like, left, like just in front of half court on the left side of the floor. And Rui lost contain and actually beat the double team off the dribble, forced Luca to help, it turned into effectively a triple team. That caught LeBron in like this weird three on one underneath the basket where it makes a beautiful pass to Nas. LeBron flashes.

LeBron drops it off to Jada, or excuse me, Nas Reid makes a nice connective pass to Jada McDaniels on the baseline. Austin Reeves fouls him. That ends up basically being the game winner. that lineup with Nauseri and Dante Divencenzzo in for Rudy Hatchezer, Rui and Rudy have been killing me in this series. In for Rudy Gobert and Mike Conley is probably their best lineup. It creates space while still maintaining their size in physicality.

It closed the deal yet again for the wolves tonight. And now they are in serious control of this series. It's not over. The Lakers will have their shot. We'll talk about that in a little bit later on. But this same theme from the end of tonight's, game has repeated itself over and over again in this series. Even in the game two when the Lakers won, it felt like over the course of the end of the game,

the Lakers start to look old and tired while the wolves continue to look like the wolves, and then they take control. The Lakers came apart at the seams in a bunch of basic execution details late that I do think we're associated with fatigue. On the Jadin McDaniels game winner, Rui Hachamura loses contain on a double team. When you're bracketing in a double team, the ball's here, and these are the two defenders bracketing, this guy has to prevent him from driving outside. This guy has to prevent him from driving outside.

You have to contain the ball and force Ant to make a pass. But if you go back and watch Rui, as he's sliding, you can literally see how exhausted he is with the way he was moving. On the Nause reed threes, like I mentioned, Luca smoking the easy layup and losing Nause with a mental mistake. LeBron getting caught relaxing. Austin missed several wide open threes in the fourth quarter. LeBron had zero points in the fourth quarter. It was generally uninvolved in the offense. But this is where it gets tricky, though.

I knew coming into the series that this would be a physical tug of war. I knew that the wolves would wear on the Lakers over the course of games just by being more athletic. I knew the Lakers would be able to score, but I also knew they would wear down. What I didn't predict was just how badly Anthony Edwards would win the superstar matchup with Luca Donchich. This is where the entire series turned. The Lakers were tied with four minutes left in game three. The Lakers were up two with four minutes left today.

Luca had zero points in both of those sequences from that point forward. In this series, Luca Donchich has been five for 17 in the fourth quarter. Anthony Edwards, 10 for 23. Anthony Edwards has made twice as many fourth quarter. quarter field goals as Luca Donchich in this series. Luca has one fourth quarter assist. Anthony Edwards has seven. That's the series.

That's it right there. Two games, game three and game four, coin flip games that came down to clutch shot creation from the two team superstars. And Anthony Edwards went toe to toe with the guy that many people, including myself before the season, placed as the second best player in the league. And it just straight up alpha-doged him. he stared down the guy who beat him in the playoffs last year and straight up kicked his ass the insane shot making the growth as a playmaker it's been incredible to watch

and here's how important it's been the lakers actually outscored the wolves in the last three games by 17 points in the first three quarters but aunt and the wolves have won the fourth quarters by 23 points turn two of those games into wolves wins he Anthony Edwards has been the swing between this series being 3-1 Lakers and it being 3-1 Wolves. Now, before we, like, I want to be clear before we talk a little bit about Luca here.

Luca is not the only one to blame for what happened today. As I mentioned, LeBron made several mistakes. He had a bad turnover in the final minute. He, like, it was kind of on everybody. The, the, um, there was this weird trip where Jada McDaniels tripped Luca probably should have been a foul, where that,

led to a sideline out of bounds with 17 seconds on the shot clock. Because there's 17 seconds on the shot clock, the Lakers could not inbound into the back court. They had to inbound into the front court. So that caused a very tight space. Basically, LeBron was just on the other side of half court out on that sideline. It basically took the amount of space that the Lakers could inbound to and cut it in half. And the wolves defended it pretty well. Luca was kind of in a position where he could catch, but Jaden was right on his backside. And LeBron took a bad angle. He threw it to Luca's right shoulder. Lucas' left shoulder, he probably catches it, but he threw it to the wrong shoulder. That's a bad turnover on LeBron. He took a bad three with five seconds left off the left wing in the

final minutes. He lost Nasreed on one of his threes like we talked about. He scored zero points. LeBron shares some blame. Austin Reeves missed five threes in the fourth quarter, a couple of wide open ones in the final minutes. Ruby Hachamura made a few defensive mistakes. I want to be clear, tonight is not only Luca's fault. But Luca is the one player on that team who is truly of closing that deal. And he went one for six. And he looked like completely exhausted

and lifeless down the stretch. Now before you tell me, well, Jason, he played the entire second half. That's on JJ Reddick. Well, so did Ant. Ant played 24 minutes in the second half. Julius Randall played 23 and a half minutes in the second half.

Nasreid can pull the Iwas fresh card. Everyone was fatigued. And yeah, I know that Ant is a better athlete, and he will look better when he's fatigued than Luca. But he looked like Ant. Luca didn't even look like Luca down the stretch of that game when his team desperately needed him to look like Luca. And it's been the entire series, five for 17 in the fourth quarter. So again, even though tonight wasn't entirely his fault, it was a team, a set of mistakes from the team.

my initial impression of Luca in the big picture, even beyond this series, has been that he consistently wears down at the end of games. He was also just 11 for 27 in clutch situations for the Lakers in the regular season this year. I'm not saying this to pick on Luca. I root for the guy for obvious reasons. I just want to see him reach his full potential. He's getting passed by his peers right now. Tatum is playing better than him.

Shea's playing better than him. Ant's playing better than him. Hell, Steph is playing better than him. He's leaving meat on the bone when it comes to his potential. And I genuinely believe that if he could figure out his conditioning, that he has a great chance to become the best basketball player alive, as Yokic phases out as he gets older, there will be no player in the league that has a better

combination of scoring and playmaking ability than Luca Donchich. If he could become a player that holds up over the course of games, holds up over the course of seasons and series, can stay healthy, can be operating at peak efficiency at the end of games while also being a plus defender, which he is capable of being, that's the best player in the world. That's what he's capable of doing. It is a real and achievable outcome for him. And it would literally just take one summer, one summer of obsessive.

obsessive work. The same obsessive work that all of the greats in NBA history have used to maximize their potential. The ball is in Lucas Court. And like we all knew this before. I mean, that was literally the main storyline behind the trade, right? But we got to see it up close and personal here. I can put it this simply. Had Luca played to his potential in this series, the Lakers win this series. But instead, he faded at the end of games while his counterpart on the other team was fantastic, and it flipped entirely in the other direction. Other notes that I wanted to give before we move on to the next game, JJ's decision to play everybody all 24 minutes in the second half. Look, it was high risk, but it also had high reward.

And I hate playing the results because so many things went wrong down the stretch that could have just as easily ended in a win for the Lakers. Even with everything that went wrong, the Lakers led in the final minute. And like, had they gotten it done, JJ would have looked like a genius as the Lakers went home for a long stretch of time off with the series tied. I also thought the Lakers were on the wrong end of two late calls. Luca got tripped at half court. He should have gone to the foul line after that. I thought LeBron when he stripped Anthony Edwards underneath the basket. He was more or less in the hand, wrist ball area and the game was insanely physical. You would just let a non-call go when Jaden tripped Luca. I didn't like that call. And by

the way, I'm not saying the Lakers are screwed. You know what I always said. Bad calls are a part of basketball games. You have to be prepared for that contingency. I don't blame the refs for today's outcome. I'm just saying it was a razor thin margin. The Lakers very easily could have won that game. They didn't, but I'm not going to blame it on JJ based on that result. It was a gamble. The gamble came razor thin close to paying off, and there was an obvious downside, which was fatigue and the fatigue did play a role in the loss. I think that's worth bringing up. But like Chris Finch also played Anthony Edwards the entire second half and Julius Reynolds most of the second half. Like it's not exactly the craziest thing we've ever seen. They just were

JJ was looking at it like I don't know that I can afford Vando minutes here. I don't know that I can afford Gabe minutes here. Now like I probably would have just found little short burst to get them some rest. But like I'm not going to over criticize the risk based on a result that was like this close to going the other way and looking like JJ was a genius, right? Now, can the Lakers win the series? Of course. It's really simple, actually, if you get down to it, do I think the Lakers can beat the wolves in game five on Wednesday?

Yes, I actually think they will. I think the Lakers will win this game. I think the wolves are going to win this series in game six back in Minnesota. But from there, if the Lakers win on Wednesday in game five, you have game six on Friday, it's one game in Minnesota. We know they can win. They were right there in each of the last two games. So you win on Wednesday,

then you look at it on Friday and you go, just beat the Timberwolves in Minnesota one time. And if you do, then it's game seven on Sunday. You're the home team. You're likely favored. So they absolutely can win the series. I just think it's unlikely.

I don't think Luca is going to suddenly get into better shape. He's wearing down not because he's not capable of doing the basketball things necessary. It is a literal conditioning problem. In order for the Lakers to come back and win the series, Luca would have to make me look foolish by suddenly transforming into the best player in the series, which he hasn't been to this point. So it's on the table. It's an outcome that can happen. I just think it's far more likely than not that the wolves close this out. And on that note, just again, like I mentioned off the top, just, I am happy for Wolves fans. because you guys probably got sick and tired of hearing guys like me and everyone else out there tell you how the Lakers were going to win.

Hell, the wolves themselves were sick of it. And you just have such a great team and you have such a great star. And I am really looking forward to watching them as they move forward in this postseason. Should they be able to close the deal on Wednesday or on Friday? All right, Nick's Pistons. As wrong as I've been about the Lakers Wolves series, I've been pretty right about this one. The Pistons have been right there every single game. They led by eight in the fourth quarter of game one.

They obviously won game two. They were down by three with five minutes left in game three. And they led by 11 today in the fourth quarter of game four. But over and over again, the Knicks have been able to out-execute them at the end of these games because they are the smart- Hey, it's us, the Jonas brothers. And guess what? We have some big news. What's the news, huge news?

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I honestly don't remember. I think it was on a call about what we should call it. Oh, we were thinking I'm originally calling it one of the early names of our band. Before Jonas Brothers was... This is how you guys remember it going down? Yes. I have a very different memory of this. We were talking about a thing.

a bit for the podcast for people could call in and say, Hey, Jonas. And then I wrote down on my little notepad, Hey Jonas, and offered it up as a potential title for the podcast. But thanks for remembering that, guys. Listen to Hey Jonas on the IHeart Radio app, Apple Podcasts, or wherever you get your podcast. Just listen. We don't care where you hear it. Another podcast from some SNL late night comedy guy, not quite. Unhumor me with Robert Smigel and Friends. Me and hilarious guests from Bob Odenkirk to David Letterman helped make you funny.

This week, my guest, S&L's Mikey Day and headwriter, Streeter Seidel, help an a cappella band with their between songs banter. Where does your group perform? We do some retirement homes. Those people are starving for banter. Listen to humor me with Robert Smigel and friends on the I-Heart Radio app, Apple Podcasts, or wherever you get your podcasts. The French Open is one of the toughest tests in tennis,

and I know firsthand because I competed there myself. I'm Renee Stubbs, and on the Renee Stubbs Tennis podcast, I'm breaking down everything happening at Roland Garris. Every match, every upset, and what it really takes to win on Clay. Jenchian win. I mean, she went down in three to Rabakina, but I'm delighted. She's an outsider to win the French for me. And she likes Clay.

Listen, Lena Rubakina is arguably the best player in the world right now, and I actually can win on any surface. Because if she's serving, well, good luck. Consider this your court side seat to the French Open. Listen to the Renee Stubbs tennis podcast on the IHeart Radio app, Apple Podcasts, or wherever you get your podcasts. Presented by Capital One, founding partner of IHeart Women's Sports. Imagine an Olympics where doping is not only legal but encouraged. It's the enhanced games.

Some call it grotesque. Others say it's unleashing human potential. Either way, the podcast's Superhuman documented it all, embedded in the games and with the athletes for a full year. Within probably 10 days, I'd put on 10 pounds. I was having trouble stopping the muscle growth. Listen to Superhuman on the IHard Radio app, Apple Podcasts, or wherever you get your podcasts. ...and more experienced team. Malik Beasley hits a three with eight and a half minutes left that puts the Pistons up 11.

From that point forward, the Knicks played at their ceiling. They knew they needed that game. They played peak Knicks basketball. While the Pistons on the other end made mistake after Mists. mistake after a mistake. The Knicks were able to get offense on several fronts. Mikhail Bridges actually started the run with two really tough movement threes out of the right corner in a game where he could make a shot to save his life. He had two massive ones in the right corner. Jalen Brunson got into a great rhythm after coming back from an ankle injury

suffered right along the sideline in front of the scores table. He's really solved Dennis Schroeder at this point in the series. He's figured out that he's just too big and strong for him. He had an easy layup on the left side where he just used a right to left crossover to get Dennis pinned on his right side and then just use that shoulder to create separation. Then he had a drive on the right wing where he literally went through Dennis's chest for a floater from about like seven, eight feet. But like he has solved the Dennis Schroeder matchup. He beat Kay Cunningham with a simple jab step move to get into the basket. He gave Tim Hardaway Jr. a couple of tough buckets. He had a step back going to his left on the three point line. He had another little short shot along the left baseline. Brunson was fantastic

down the stretch, but it was actually Carl Anthony Towns who saved the day and stole a win. for the Knicks hitting three jumpers. One was a simple catch and shoot off of a dumb overhelp from Jalen Duren that Jalen Brunson just kind of baited him into, just stared at the basket and pretended like he was going to ISO. Jalen just kind of sat there on the block and just was super keyed in on Brunson and Jalen just rifled a pass across the court, wide open catch and shoot three for Carl Anthony Towns,

knocks it down, just capitalizing on a bad defensive mistake from Jalen Duren. But then he hit an insane left shoulder fade away, just like he did in game three, this time over Jalen Durrance over a tougher contest. It was probably even tougher than the shot he made in the game three. Just insane right there along the baseline. Then he hits this step back three over Jalen Duren. A little shot clock kind of rescue possession ends up in the late clock situation and hits like a 28 footer off of a stepback against a great contest from Jalen Dern. Just two insane shots that turned that loss into a win for the Knicks. The Knicks scored 26 points over the final eight minutes to steal game four

and take a 3-1 lead head and back to New York. Here's a simple list for you guys of the execution errors that Detroit made down the stretch. Their first possession after McHale Bridges hit a three in that right corner to cut the lead down to eight, they ran an ISO for Assar Thompson against McHale Bridges. And anybody who watched that whole game knows Assar Thompson was really struggling in that game to do anything on offense. He was in no position to command that possession that gave it to him and he missed. That's an execution error from the vets on the floor, putting Assar Thompson in that position. Then Assar Thompson threw the ball out of bounds.

He cut to the basket off the right slot. Kay dropped it off to him, and he tried to make a connective pass to Malik Beasley, but he just didn't look before he threw it and rifled the ball out of bounds. J.B. Bickerstaff finally puts Dennis Schroeder in for him. So two big mistakes from Assar Thompson to start the run. Jalen Duren gets a defensive rebound and makes the classic. young center mistake of bringing the ball down. Brings the ball down. Josh Hart comes in, swipes it off his leg,

off the ensuing baseline out of bounds. McHale Bridges comes off of a screen. Malik Beasley gets caught on it. Jalen Duren again, when he sees a shooter coming off a screen, is supposed to be up at the level of the screen. He's way back in the paint. McHale Bridges gets another clean look right where he just made one in the right corner, knocks it down.

So literally two Jalen Dern mistakes turned what should have been a stop into three points for the Knicks. again, I'm not trying to pick on Jalen Duren or any of these guys, the Sart Thompson. I'm just pointing out the obvious fact that these are young players and young players are going to struggle with attention to detail in big, in big spots like this, right? They gave up an easy transition take foul to Josh Hart on a really bad offensive possession where Kay just stood out by like the logo while Mikhail Bridges was face

guarding him and he just watched Dennis Schroeder and Malik Beasley have a rough offensive possession, which like, that's fine. Like rough offensive possessions are part of the playoffs. It's super physical. Sometimes you just get exhausted. That's not the problem. The problem is both Schroeder and Beasley were slow to get back. You can't compound the problem by not getting back.

It turned into like a three-on-one and Cade had to just wrap up Josh Hart. Cade turned it over trying to split a ball screen. That's a little spoiler alert. He does it again later in the game. On Kat's first three, like I talked about Jalen Duren is sinking all the way into the paint. That's just dumb. That was the whole reason why they had Tobias Harris on Kat originally to begin with was to avoid that specific problem

during just struggles to guard shooting Biggs, which is why he shouldn't have been in that position on the first place. That's on J.B. Bickerstat. They need to make sure that they had their matchup set up in a way that they're not going to give up that sort of problem, especially since Kat was frying Jalen Duren anyway on an island. It's not like you're trying to protect Tobias Harris there in any way. Cat hits the fade away over Jaland during the cuts the lead to two.

Kade tries to ISO O.G. and O.O.B., which is probably the worst matchup he could attack on the floor. We talked a lot about that. Jalen Brunson has been much more surgical about being deliberate to get to the matchups he wants. That hits a three to put the Knicks up. Cade tries to split a double team again. Josh Hart is right there digging down off the strong side corner. And Kay just tries to split the double team again and turns it over again.

And like, it was just mistake after mistake, after poor decision, after poor decision. But this is just the reality of the process of development. as a basketball team. In order to win at the highest levels, attention to detail is required. And young, inexperienced teams have a habit of missing those details, especially in their first few playoff runs.

It's all good. Valuable lessons are being learned. It's just an explanation for why, even though Detroit presented so many problems for the Knicks over the course of the season, I had a feeling the Knicks we're going to pull this series out. Last note on the Knicks, I wanted to shout out O.G. Anerobie and Mikhail Bridges.

Neither of them had big scoring nights. although Mikhail hit a couple of huge threes in the right corner, but those guys defended about a half a dozen one-on-ones against Cade Cunningham down the stretch. And they didn't get beat off the dribble a single time. They forced him into a bunch of tough, contested, pull-up mid-rangers, turn-around jump shots out of the post. Brunson was getting to the rim,

and New York's defenders were forcing Cade into jump shots, which has variants. You might miss them, right? Cade's a good mid-range jump shooter, but he might miss them. there's way less variance right at the rim. Jalen hit some tough jumpers. That step back to his left, the side step three off of against Tim Hardaway, Jr. off the left wing, that's an incredibly tough shot. But he was at the rim.

And that really is the experience element. Like Kat played three playoff series last year. Jalen Brunson played four playoff series in the last two years. This team has just a lot of guys that have been in a lot of serious basketball. basketball over the last few years. That gives them an advantage in this sort of situation. Looking like the Knicks are going to close things out in five on Tuesday. All right. Very briefly on Celtics Magic and Pacer's Bus. Pacer's Bucks. I thought Tatum was fantastic down the stretch of this game. Punishing switches, he had like a little jab step jumper over Gary Harris. He made a, there was kind of like an obvious difference in

just the level of patience and deliberate nature with which Tatum was attacking. which is versus the Orlando wings. Like there was a sequence where on both ends of the floor, like Franz Wagner gets Peyton Pritchard. And he caught Peyton Pritchard as like a primary assignment a few times down the stretch, just pressuring Franz. Franz was having a lot of success attacking Porzingis. It's kind of an interesting kind of matchup decision there to just try to throw Franz off.

But Franz tries to like drive against Pritchard, but he rushes. He drives and he spins and he spins in this like rushed floater and leaves it short. Right on the other end of the floor, Tatum gets Anthony Black. and he methodically takes his time to back him down way into the lane. And Anthony Black ends up hacking the shit out of him and dragging him down into camera row and he gets two free throws. And it was just kind of crazy to see the difference between the super experienced dude who's played in like damn near 200 playoff games

and the, you know, young inexperienced team that's like kind of figuring this out on the fly and seeing the difference in just like how deliberate they were in their matchup attacking down the stretch. Tateham hit a crazy step back mid-ranger over Palo Boncaro. He drew three shooting fouls just by getting people to jump up underneath his base. I just continue to be amazed by Tatum's growth as a half-court decision maker. The big thing that stands out to me is just his overall comfort. You see this a lot with like stars that are at the peak of their powers in their like early 30s, where they have so much playoff experience already and they're so sure of who they are as a player.

they may not be quite as athletic as they used to be, but they're just so smart because they've had so much experience playing. You'll see a lot of those guys like in high pressure situations, even late round playoff series like conference finals, finals. You'll just see them look comfortable and relaxed while they're playing. Tatum's in his mid-20s, and he's out there looking like one of those guys. That's been the thing that stood out to me all season with Tatum. It's just his overall level of comfort executing in the half court,

getting this team into the right spots to get the right shots. I loved the set that Joe Missoula ran out of the timeout that got Porzingis, the dunk where he dunked his own miss. Classic example of what happens when you try to involve screening actions with two very different types of players. Derek White and Chris Hops Porzengis. Not a kind of action that you want to switch. You don't want to switch with Wendell Carter Jr.

You're there. Derek White sits a great screen. Wendell Carter Jr. falls. The magic don't switch. Porzingis is wide open under the rim. He actually smokes the layup. but he gets a really quick second jump, which is a strong indicator of how he's feeling physically

and just dunks it down, just an unbelievable play from Porzingus. Al Horford had a huge rebound or he beat Franz Wagner to the ball that led to a Derek White layup. I had a Celtics fan tweet at me after the game that this was the type of series that the Celtics would have been tied to two or maybe even down 3-1 a couple of years ago.

But here they are, up 3-1. And this was super important. they need to get the hell away from the Orlando magic before someone gets hurt. Tatum felt the urgency, executed accordingly, and got the job done. And that's why I always put such a premium on that veteran presence, that experience. Because a lot of times these games are decided by the thinnest of margins. The magic have been in this series for the most part outside of game too. They've been in every game.

It's like a more exaggerated example of some of the other series we've seen, Rockets Warriors and like Nick's Pistons. And it just comes down to late game execution. And the grownups just tend to do it better in that situation. Right? It's actually been the interesting part of the Minnesota Timberwolf series as they've been the younger team that has beat the veteran more experienced team. But here they are.

They're up 3-1. A good spot for the Celtics to be in in good shape to close out this series. All right, really quickly before we get out of here tonight, Pacers Bucks. First of all, I feel terrible for Dame to work as hard as he's worked behind the scenes. to get back on the court for that series and to suffer the type of injury that he suffered. I just hope that he's doing okay mentally.

I can't even imagine where he's at right now, especially after they had just got a big win, and it was early in the game, and you're in a position where you can potentially tie the series and give yourself a real chance to win, and it kind of reminded me, obviously, very different type of injury, but it kind of reminded me, what happened after,

reminded me of what happened in the Lakers' Sun series in game five? Yeah, I think it was game five. So the Sons were up 3-1, right? If I remember correctly, and Anthony Davis comes back. They're like, oh, Anthony Davis is back. You know, here we go. We're going to have a chance to win the series.

And probably shouldn't have come back because growing was obviously hurt. But in the first few minutes of the game, Anthony Edwards just, or excuse me, Anthony Davis just suddenly realizes that like, no, I can't be playing out here, right? So he has to leave the game. And like, you could just literally see the entire body language and the belief and, and the mentality of the Lakers just fall apart because they're like, shit. Like we can't, like we can't win this game,

this game without Anthony Davis. Like he's our anchor to everything that we do, right? And that's kind of what it reminded me of tonight. Like obviously, Janus is more important to the Bucks than Dame. And I, and Dane at this phase of his career is a different type of player. But you could literally see the Bucks just kind of let go the rope a little bit.

After that Dame injury in a weird way where it's like, you almost feel like if Dame was just out, with the blood plot for the series, you almost feel like the Bucks would have had like a different approach going into that game. Like, all, we don't have Dame tonight, but we're going to give this our best shot. And you could just tell it just suck the life out of them. And they just didn't do anything well enough. And to make matters worse, the Pacers played a phenomenal game.

It's seven guys in double figures, 36. I checked this with two minutes left. So this might be a little bit updated. But at like a minute, 45 seconds left in the game, they had 36 assists on 48 made field goals. That's insane. That's a 75% assist percentage. That's like outrageous.

They shot the shit out of the basketball. They shot damn near 45% from 3. Watching them versus the Cavs is going to be a ton of fun. Specifically the speed matchup. One of the things that I'm really excited about with that matchup is the calves in a lot of what they do to teams is play with pace, get into the teeth of the defense with their speed. And the Pacers do match up directly with that. In a lot of ways, to me, the calves are just a better version of the Pacers, right?

Like, you're going to, like Evan Mobley and Jared Allen is a better front court than Pascal Seaccom and Miles Turner. Darius Garland and Donovan Mitchell, obviously a better back court than Andrew Nemhart and Tyrese Halliburton. You know, the calves have a bunch of different guys that they can plug in at the three. But like the point is,

is like they are kind of similar archetypes of teams, but the calves are just a little better at everything, right? And that's what makes it a super interesting series because that speed element, a lot of the things that the pacer's do, they should be comfortable with going against the calves. and I think that's going to make for a very interesting series. That's my big prep for tomorrow.

We're not doing a film session tomorrow morning, but what I'm going to be doing tomorrow morning is starting to watch film on Cavs Pacers. I'm really excited to dig into that series. As for Janus, an Achilles' Terrefer Dame massively devalues the one trade asset that the bucks would have had to attempt to pivot this summer. So now the chances of Janus getting traded

are astronomically higher than they were before the injury, obviously. But just for the record, I'm not going to get into anything regarding Janus trades at this point until the postseason, or excuse me, until we're done with the postseason. That's a summer conversation. I just, I haven't even really thought about it much. Maybe we can do it for fun over a mailbag one of these nights, but like I feel relatively certain that Janus will get traded this summer, but like we just don't know what, how things are going to shake down. Like it could be a team in this playoff field that gets eliminated and is disappointed and wants to make a super aggressive move. It could literally be the thunder for

God's sakes. Like we, we have no idea what it's going to be. We'll talk about it a lot this summer. I just don't want to get into it tonight. But again, I feel terrible for Dame and I'm sure Bucks fans are in a really tough spot right now. It's not a good spot to be. And I just sympathize with you guys. And I'm thankful for you guys that you did get a championship out of the honest and Tenacompo era. And you can literally never take that away. All right, guys. That's all I have for tonight. As always, I sincerely appreciate you guys for supporting me and supporting the show. No morning film session tomorrow, but we will be live after the final buzzer of game four of Warriors Rockets. I'll see you guys. As always, I appreciate you for listening to and supporting hoops

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