The Herd with Colin Cowherd - Hoops Tonight - Jayson Tatum EXPLODES in 4th, leads Celtics past 76ers in Game 6, who wins Game 7?

Episode Date: May 12, 2023

Jason Timpf reacts to Jayson Tatum and the Boston Celtics' 95-86 Game 6 win over Joel Embiid, James Harden, and the Philadelphia 76ers to force a Game 7 in their second round matchup of the NBA Playoffs. Jason breaks down the biggest highlights from Tatum's 16-point 4th quarter performance to save Boston's season and predicts who he think will advance to the Eastern Conference Finals with a Game 7 victory. #volume #herdSee omnystudio.com/listener for privacy information.

This is an I-Heart podcast. Guaranteed Human. Another podcast from some SNL, late-night comedy guy, not quite. Unhumor me with Robert Smygel and friends. Me and hilarious guests from Bob Odenkirk to David Letterman help make you funnier. This week, my guest, SNL's Mikey Day and head writer, 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 IHeart radio app, Apple Podcasts, or wherever you get your podcasts. A win is a win. A win is a win. I don't care what I'm saying.

Yep, that's me, Clifford Taylor the 4th. You might have seen the skits, my basketball and college football journey, or my career in sports media. Well, now I'm bringing all of that excitement to my brand new podcast, The Clifford Show. This is a place for raw, unfiltered conversations with athletes, creators, and voices that not only deserve to be heard, but celebrated. So let's get to it. Listen to the Clifford show on the IHeart Radio app, Apple Podcasts, or wherever you get your podcast.

And for more behind the scenes, follow at Clifford and at TikTok podcast network on TikTok. 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 put on 10. I was having trouble stopping the muscle growth.

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What an incredible game six between the Celtics and the Sixers. An absolute nightmare game from Jason Tatum that turns around at the end on the strength of four made three-point shots. An interesting adjustment as well from Joe Missoula that they had not really tried much during the series. A lot to get into. You guys know the Joe before we get started, subscribe to the volumes 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. And if for whatever reason you guys miss one of these shows and you can't get back over to YouTube to finish, don't forget you can find them wherever you get your podcast under hoops tonight. All right, let's talk some basketball. So, you know, it's funny. I was sympathizing with Jason Tatum tonight because the game of basketball can be really cruel sometimes, specifically jump shooting, right?

I mean, it's just there's so much variance. And you see this a lot with sports that are low percentage sports, things like baseball. things like golf where you fail a lot more than you succeed, right? You know, you're aiming for fairways and on really difficult courses, you might have a day where you hit seven out of 18 fairways. Like if you're the best baseball player on the planet, you fail six out of ten times. Like, Steph Curry is shooting below 40% from three in this playoff run,

and he's the best shooter to ever touch a basketball. You work, you know, these guys, a lot of people don't realize, if I were to put Jason Tatum on a shooting machine or hand him three assistant coaches to rebound for him and have him shoot 100 catch and shoot threes, he's going to make 77, 78% of him. And if he's got a guy rebounding for him and he just does his patented little sidestep three going to his left, if he takes that same shot 50 times in a row, he's probably going to make 37, 38 of them in a shooting drill. And that's how cruel the game of basketball can be. your hard work can fail you specifically when it comes to jump shooting. You guys have seen this a lot

with LeBron James in this playoff run. LeBron James, five straight postseason runs where he shoots 37% from three on at least six attempts per game. And the dude has just struggled mightily to knock down shots in this playoff run, although he's starting to kind of get it together as of late. And like, you see him before going in six hours before the game and trying to get working on his shot. And it's like you just, all you can tell yourself in those situations, I had a really bad shooting slip when I was in college too. My second season, I shot almost 50% from three in conference play. And then the very next season, I had a stretch and non-conference play where I missed 22 threes in a row. So like I know the feeling to like know your work and to know you're capable of it and to just not see it come to fruition.

And all you can tell yourself as a shooter in those situations is that this. You're going to eventually break out of the slump, and you have to trust your form. And a lot of times, like, when I'm coaching young players, I'll tell them, like, don't even think about the shot result. Just think about your form. Focus on your form, and you won't even be thinking about your slump. Focus on just getting a good wide base, getting really good lift, limiting unnecessary motion, holding your follow-through, making sure you don't chuck, like take anything off of your shot and leave it short. Rather miss long than short.

There's a much of different things that you can focus on, but it's really hard mentally. And I mean, this is a guy that has been working his butt off. And next thing you know, you look up in a pivotal game six on the road in Philly and you're one for 14 from the field. But guess what? Jason Tatum is a fantastic three-point shooter. And he made four big ones at the end of the game and the Celtics win. And the one he made, the one that started it all there in that left corner was a really tough shot. And so I'm sure that was satisfying for Tatum.

And I bet you he doesn't even care about all those misses anymore. Now, Jason Tatum struggles because he hasn't been the same player in this playoff run, and there are a couple of different reasons for that. I think that the rhythm of the entire team has been a little bit funky this year, and we're going to talk about that a little bit when we get to talking about Boston's defense here in a few minutes. But I think one of the – and there's never one reason for that significant of a decline compared to his performance last year. But, you know, if I had to guess, I'd say it's a lack of variety.

Like, let's take a look at two guys that have been having different, postseason runs than in their past. James Harden, he had a rough night tonight, but he's had more playoff moments this year on bigger stage. He had a very big playoff moment on a big stage this year after really struggling last year. Well, last year in the postseason, James Hardin attempted 0.5 mid-range jump shots per game. This year, he's shooting 2.2. He's added a little bit of variety to his game, right? Jason Tatum, last year in the postseason, attempted three mid-range jump shots every single playoff game. And this year, he's attempting 1.4. So, that's what's crazy. Last year, Jason Tatum attempted six times as many

mid-range jump shots as James Harden. And this year, he's shooting almost half as many as James Harden. So if I had to guess, again, it's a bunch of different things. And like I said before, sometimes it's less anything other than just crazy bad luck that can come with shooting slumps. But I think that when you really start to limit yourself to three-point shots in the rim, And I understand the analytic case for that. But to me, a basketball player is at his best when he feels comfortable. And when defenses are designed to take away the three-point line and the rim, it can you play into the defense's hands when those are the only two shots you're willing to take.

I think Philly's done a really nice job in this entire series of pressuring Tatum and Brown, especially on the handle and forcing a lot of turnovers. You know what? like when when they're ball pressuring you especially with smaller guards like where's your advantage you're six nine you could shoot over the top take him down to the block take him to the midpost with a a triple threat so you don't have to dribble that's those are the advantages about those spots on the floor too it's it's also about the defense being willing to concede shots there but in addition to that it also is the best place to protect the basketball um i remember when

I was younger, I used to really struggle with ball pressure guards because I was a big that could shoot, right? So I was like, I'd six six and can shoot from deep. And so I, when I came back to town and I, I, you know, got pretty good at like stepbacks and off the dribble shooting, teams always just put little guards on me. And especially over COVID, I was like, I'm sick of having all these little guards just attacking my handle and I'm not as fast as them and I can't get by him. Let me just take them to the post. And for an entire pandemic, literally, I just worked on post moves over both shoulders, fadeaways, hook shots, things along those lines. And now whenever I have a little guard on me that's attacking the basketball, I just give the ball up and I go fight for position

15 feet from the rim and I get the ball. Don't even have to worry about dribbling at that point because he can't get to the basketball. I'm protecting it. And like, I know Tatum has all of that stuff because we've seen him do it. He's shooting over 50% from the midrange in this playoff run. So I think that's another way for him to just kind of add a little bit more variety to his offense. This is not, I'm not teaching Tatum anything. He used to do all of this stuff. I don't know if it was the analytic department. I don't know if it was just his own change in approach, but he went from being a multifaceted, a versatile player to a player that can become pretty predictable sometimes, and that could be an issue. But shout out to Tatum for sticking with it on a rough shooting night

and hitting the ones that he needed to hit. I'd been begging all series long for Joe Missoula to try something a little bit more gimmicky, right? Like we've been looking at this Warriors, Lakers series in every single game, there's some sort of significant, um, adjustment, right? Like even after five games or even after four games of that series, we have Steve Kerr starting to run more RAM action so that he can get Draymond into the ball screen on AD by getting a switch before the ball screen, right? Like, that's a little adjustment or then Draymond, like setting little like weird moving picks in the lane as Steph is driving. All these little quirks and things that they're trying. And sometimes in this series,

it's been a lot of just like, hey, it's game four and we're still running drop coverage against Hardin and Embed and giving Embed easy catches at the fast. outline, like at what point are we going to try something different? Robert Williams and Al Horford had only played seven minutes together total in the entire series before tonight, and they started Robert Williams next to Al Horford, put Robert Williams on PJ Tucker, and basically had him hawk the paint. And it was kind of a no-brainer adjustment. And again, like Joe Mazzula, here's the thing. If they survive this round, maybe it's a lesson learned that he needs to adjust a little bit sooner as they go into future rounds. But, you know, they played with fire. They were trailing late in

this one, but it ended up working out in the end. But I thought that was a really smart adjustment. Robert Williams was plus 18 tonight. One of the note on Boston, because I was just, as I was watching this particular series, like last year, some of you guys who followed the show back then might remember me saying something along the lines of, this is the best defense I've seen in the modern era. and I truly believed that at the time. I think Anthony Davis has shown a level of just overcoming the world, so to speak, for the Lakers that had some Laker defensive efforts that have been better, but they've been kind of inconsistent and they were awful defensively in game five, right?

That Boston team last year, every single night was frightening defensively. And it's largely the same personnel. Now, they did play Robert Williams and Al Horford together more last year, but they were also frightening defensively with Al Horford at the five last year. And I don't think people realize how big of a gap that was last year. Now, these numbers are coming into tonight, so they're not updated from tonight's game. But last year, let's just start with this year for perspective. The Celtics, this year are allowing 100 points per 100 possessions in the half court, right?

Transition is a little bit different. Boston was a bad transition defense last year even. But they're giving up 100 points per 100 half-court possessions this year. Last year, they averaged 88. 88 points per 100 possessions in the half court. Think about how insane that is. Lakers and Warriors, they're both in the mid-90s. Everyone else is up in that mid-90s, around 100.

Like the Celtics defense last year was at an entirely different level. Now, it's mostly the same personnel. Has Al Horford slowed down a little bit, maybe. but it's mostly the same personnel. And so my best guess at it is what most Celtics fans have been screaming all year long, which is that this team, I don't know if it's just because they've had so many long playoff runs or because they know they have the most talented roster in the league, but they just have a tendency to, on any given moment,

just kind of play down to the competition and then find themselves in some trouble. And I know it can seem like a boring answer to be. like, oh, they just need a play harder. But sometimes it really is that simple. Al Horford's not 12 points worse per 100 possessions than he was last year. This team, adjacent Tatum was one of the best perimeter defenders in the league last year. He was like a, he was literally erasing action by himself in many cases. Jalen Brown took a big step back defensively this year.

As a team, they just haven't quite been the same. And I think that's a big part of why they haven't been able to dispatch with their opponents, despite having a talent advantage. something to keep an eye on moving forward. But that said, they still got to win one more game. You know, Philly's going to come thinking they can win. They've won in Boston twice already. But they need to bring the requisite effort and focus in energy in game seven

to advance to the next round. I said this after Milwaukee lost, but like the Red Seas have parted for Boston. They match up really, really well with whoever will come out of the Eastern Conference, or Western Conference, right? Like, if it ends up being the Lakers, it's like they can pull Anthony Davis away from the paint. Horford's in a mean shooting slump himself right now, but he's got time to work through that. The Red Seas apart it. You're going to face a Miami Heat team that you're way more talented then in the next round, although Miami, I'm done over underestimating them. And then if you get to the finals,

you're going to be favored. That's how good this Boston Celtics team is. They just had to get their shit together and stop messing around. And that was a good example of that tonight. Philly, really good battle, honestly. I was impressed with them in their competitive. I mean, that adjustment with Robert Williams comes so late in the series that it's tough to adjust on the fly in a game six, especially with how great PJ Tucker has been defensively, but that's something they might have to take a look at. As a team, they just did not shoot the ball well enough. Like James Hardin and Tobias Harris, I think they combined to go something crazy, like five for 23 or something like that. I think Tobias was one of 17, and I think Hardin was what, four for 16. So I mean, you were right there. You had a lead. The player they had in green that was struggling all night, hit the shots that beat you. And that's how it goes sometimes in the playoffs.

And here's the thing. When you're playing a more talented team, that's the best you can hope for, is to be there at the end of the game with a chance to win. And they were, and it just didn't work out. And so they got to go out there in game seven and leave it all in the line and just hope for a better result. Fantastic game, though.

Shout out to Jason Tatum. Again, I don't think people realize the fortitude it takes to keep shooting when the shots aren't falling. And I was impressed by that. All right, guys, that's all I have for right now. We will be back later tonight after Nuggett stunts. The volume. Another podcast from some SNL, late-night comedy guy,

not quite. Unhumor me with Robert Smygel and friends. Me and hilarious guests from Bob Odenkirk to David Letterman help make you funnier. This week, my guest, S&L's Mikey Day and head writer 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 starting. 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. A win is a win. A win is a win. I don't care what I'm saying.

Yep, that's me, Clifford Taylor the 4th. You might have seen the skits, my basketball and college football journey, or my career in sports media. Well, now I'm bringing all of that excitement to my brand new podcast, The Clifers Show. This is a place for raw, unfilled conversations with athletes, creators, and voices that not only deserve to be heard, but celebrated. So let's get to it.

Listen to the Clifford Show on the IHeard Radio app, Apple Podcasts, or wherever you get your podcast. And for more behind the scenes, follow at Clifford and at TikTok Podcast Network on TikTok. 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 game. 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 I-Hart Radio app, Apple Podcasts, or wherever you get your podcasts. This is an I-Hart podcast. Guaranteed Human.