The Herd with Colin Cowherd - Hoops Tonight - Joel Embiid explodes for 52 points, 76ers down Celtics

Episode Date: April 5, 2023

Jason Timpf reacts to Joel Embiid's 52-point performance in the Philadelphia 76ers' 103-101 win over Jayson Tatum and the Boston Celtics. Has Embiid secured the MVP over Nikola Jokic and Giannis Antetokounmpo? Are Boston and Philly set on a playoff collision course? #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. On The Look Back at it podcast. From 1979, that was a big moment for me. 84 was big to me.

I'm Sam J. And I'm Alex English. Each episode, we pick a year, unpack what went down, and try to make sense of how we survived it. With our friends, fellow comedians, and favorite authors. Like Mark Lamont Hill on the 80s. 84 was a wild year. It was a wild year. I don't think there's a more important year for black people.

Listen to look back at it on the IHeart Radio app, Apple Podcasts, or wherever you get your podcasts. 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 grahammed.

Listen to Superhuman on the IHard Radio app, Apple Podcasts, or wherever you get your podcasts. The Volume. Hi, welcome to Hoops Tonight here at The Volume. Happy Tuesday, everybody. We are live on Amp. Don't forget if you're watching on YouTube or listening on our podcast feeds. Amp is the very first place that you guys can get these shows. Ladies and gentlemen, like it or not, regardless of who you think should win MVP, which we'll talk about later.

Joe Limbide, as of right now, has become the minus four. 470 favorite to win MVP after dominating the Boston Celtics tonight in a very important win, I thought for the Sixers, just for their psyche heading into this playoff. We're going to break down that game. We're going to talk a little bit about Joel Embed and the MVP situation. And we're actually going to take some calls from the audience. You guys know the drill before we get started, subscribe to the volumes YouTube channels. You don't miss any more of our videos.

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Again, enter your email. And code hoops. That's H-O-O-P-S for $20 off. Download game time today. Last-minute tickets, lowest price, guaranteed. All right, let's talk some basketball. So the interesting storyline in this game, as is always the case, whenever a team is going against Joel and beat, especially when we're heading into a playoff confrontation. Like, you know, we're looking at this and yeah, the Nets are going to be an interesting challenge for the Sixers. We'll talk a little bit more about that later. And the huge. still have an outside chance to get that spot, but they don't have the tiebreaker against Brooklyn. So it's probably going to be Miami versus Boston. But chances are, health permitting, we're probably going to get a Celtic Sixers playoff series here in about three weeks. And so usually what I'm looking at in a case like this is just different little matchup pieces that will probably translate into that type of playoff series. Albeit, you know, it's a regular season game. I thought it was clear from the jump that Philly wanted this one more.

I think they needed it more, like I said earlier, for their psyche. You always have to factor in the, uh, the element of players missing the games like Jalen Brown probably plays if this is a more important game. Robert Williams, obviously is going to be a vitally important piece to guarding Joe L. Embed in a playoff series. They opted in, in most cases in this game, especially when PJ Tucker was on the floor to stick Al Horford on PJ Tucker, basically helping behind and then Grant Williams on the ball.

And, you know, it's funny. difference in size there. Grant Williams kind of fared pretty well against Janus in the playoffs last year. You know, Janice is just a little bit smaller than Joel Embed, but he struggled mightily against Joel Abed in this matchup. And then for the most part, throughout the whole game, they left Joel Embed in single coverage until the end of the game when they finally started recklessly doubling off of PJ Tucker. And Joel Embed made the right reads. And PJ Tucker finally made a couple of massively important threes that ended up being the deciding factor in this game. Kind of a fascinating night for a 50-point Joel Embed game for it to be determined in large part after a tie game late on him making the right reads down the stretch.

I think everything fundamentally with Joel Embed comes down to the improvements he's made at the free throw line as a jump shot maker. You know, it's funny. I talk a lot about, you know, the physical confrontations at the, point of attack. And obviously it's different for heavy ball handlers who are hitting tons of dribble combinations. It becomes so much more about footspeed and anticipation and those sorts of things. But these confrontations at the forward position anywhere like three, four, five in the front court, they come down a lot more to the physical altercation. It's a lot more of like hitting shoulders and who's going to win that shoulder confrontation. Like are you going to blow through

the defender's shoulder or is the defender going to hold his ground and kind of keep you kind of flatten out your drive away from the rim. And it's so important in that case to have the jump shooting threat because the bigger threat you are as a jump shooter, the closer the forward has to guard you. If the forward has to guard you closely, then you can go to that rip-through move. And Embed is just so damn big and strong that he's going to win that rip-through move every single time. But if he doesn't have the jumper, then they can play off. And it's more about anticipation. And now if you slide your feet well, maybe you can take a charge or you have more opportunity to dig down from the wings and help, right? But Joel and the beat has become so unbelievably deadly with that pull-up

15-foot shot there at the free throw line that you can't play off of him anymore. Like, there's a bunch of early possessions there in that fourth quarter where, you know, Blake Griffin is in that same kind of predicament where it's like, am I going to press up on him and let him go around me or am I going to concede the shot. Well, if you concede that shot, he's just making it every single time now. And it's, it's made him borderline unguardable because if he knocks down that, if you give him the space, he's going to knock it down. If you press up on him, it's not a question of ball handling. It's not a question of anything other than the fact that he's so much bigger and stronger than you that rip through move, he's either going to get around you or you're going to foul him.

And that's why chances are your best, you know, my feeling for how to beat Philly in a playoff series is the same as it was last year. You double the hell out of Joe Olympede every time he has the basketball, turn him into a passer, try to get help off of the worst shooter on the other team, in this case, PJ Tucker, and you live with the results. And then with James Hardin, you try to turn him into a score because at this phase in his career, he's not just not quite as dynamic as he used to be scoring the basketball. But that MB matchup was a huge problem for me. It'll definitely look different in a series. I think you'll see the alternate of what you saw tonight.

Instead of Al Horford kind of being tucked back and help, I think you'll often see Al Horford on the ball. And when Al Horford is on the ball, you'll see Robert Williams on PJ Tucker hawking the paint, making it a little bit easier for Al Horford to be aggressive without fouling knowing that he's got a real rim protector behind him. But this is the chess match playoff basketball because the best offensive stretches for the Celtics

were when Al Horford was at the five and they were able to really space, filly out. And, you know, there's a lot of positive from Boston. in this game. They were in control of this game until Mb basically stole it from him with his own individual greatness. But, and Boston has looked extremely impressive here over the last couple of weeks, starting with that absolute shalacking of the Milwaukee Bucks in Milwaukee. I've always said that Boston, I think, has the most overall talent in the league.

I think that was the case last year and this year. Doesn't mean they're the best team. Talent is only one small part of what makes a great basketball team, but they do have the most talent. What that means is that when they play good basketball, their good basketball is going to be better than everyone else's good basketball. And they have so much talent on that roster. Like, look at the guard battle in this game. I would argue that Malcolm Brogden and Derek White outplayed James Harden and Tyroes Maxie in this game. And if that happens in a playoff series, that's a serious problem because Jalen Brown and Jason Tatum combined will be able to at least meet what Joel and B can bring to the table. And so I would,

It was an interesting game because I came away very impressed by Joel Embed, but at the same time, it looks more and more like Boston might very well be the best team in the conference. I've been very delicate about making my predictions because I really do want to wait until after Sunday. We have a show on Sunday. We will get into this stuff on Sunday. We're going live after that last round of games. But, you know, right now, like my safe picks are Denver out west and Milwaukee out east just because they've demonstrated. that to this point. But it could just as easily be Lakers or Warriors or Sons out west. And I could very well end up picking Boston when it's all said and done. And I do want to have the rest of this week to look to look deeper at it. But Boston's guards, you know, their dribble penetration was the story of this game. They just, on the Boston side of things. They were, it was a layup line. Philly could not contain them at the point of attack. They were consistently engaging and beat at the rim as a rim protector and help and kicking to shooters on the weak side, whether it was Al Horford or whether it was Grant Williams. There was even a little sequence there in the middle fourth where Jason

Tatum was trying to attack Tyrese maxi, drawing doubles and kicking to Derek White. They just have a lot of ability to get Philly into help and to get good shooting or get good shot opportunities. And they have the most ball handling and shooting by far in the league, in my opinion, down the roster. They've got like seven or eight guys that can all hit a three consistently and put the basketball on the floor and make plays. They are a terrifying team. And without Jalen Brown and without Robert Williams, they gave Philly a hell of a fight tonight. And here's the thing. Mbid was amazing. He was the best player on the floor by a mile. But what if P.J. Tucker misses those shots. And there's a chance that he's going to miss them potentially in multiple games in a playoff series between these two teams.

So again, I'm very impressed by Mbid. Like we talked about earlier, I think he's just about certain to win MVP at this point. Vegas tends to agree, like we talked about earlier, he's minus 470. I personally still think Janice deserves that. I think he's the best player on the best team. And I think Janice just resoundingly outplayed Joel Embed the other night. But that's irrelevant to what's actually going to happen. It seems pretty clear now that Embed's going to get it.

But, you know, interestingly enough, from the matchup perspective, I came away from this game, mostly impressed by the Boston Celtics. Sorry, we are going to take a question from the audience, but also for everyone listening, don't forget that later on tonight, we're going to have another video on YouTube. So keep an eye on the feed. In that video, we are going to be breaking down the late slate and primarily focus on the Western Conference. All right, let's see if we can get a caller on here. Hey, Jason, what's going on, man?

How are you? I'm good. What's your name, man? My name is Josh. I'm a huge Nick fan. And right now, they just clinched the five seed and they're playing the cab. So I just wanted to get your opinion on what you think. do you think the Knicks or the Cavs are more of a threat to take down one of the top three teams in the East?

Oh, that's a very interesting question. Thank you for calling in, Josh. You know, the more I look at the standings, I don't think there's too much of a threat in the first round at the bottom of the conference. The Hawks got a massive win tonight. They're most likely going to end up getting that eight seed. I trust Miami to win that playing game. And Miami, I'm a little disappointed in them that they couldn't lap Brooklyn because I like their chance. chances better against the Sixers than I do against the Celtics.

I think those two are pretty easy matchups. I think the Nets are going to beat the Sixers. The Cavs and Knicks are the two teams that have the most qualities that we associate with championship contention, right? So, like, for instance, the Cavs have a top-tier defense and a ton of rim protection. They have a ton of shot creation, both a high-level playmaking from Darius Garland and high-level shot-making from Donovan Mitchell. But my biggest concern with the calves is I don't think they have nearly the amount of spot-up talent that they need.

And I think in the back court, their perimeter defense is more than a little bit suspect and has damaged. And you've seen that, especially in clutch situations this year. The Knicks are interesting because, you know, obviously they don't have the star power that we see from other teams in the conference. But they check so many boxes that I've historically kind of connected with championship contention. Mitchell Robinson obviously doesn't have the reputation of a top tier rim protector, but that's something that he can do and can do well. They have, I think, one of the best perimeter defense cores that you have in the conference between guys like Josh Hart and Emmanuel quickly.

Even Jalen Brunson dating back to his time in Dallas really competed at the point of attack. And then they can do that to you on the other end of the floor. They've won a lot of games. They've won a lot of games this year by beating teams at the point of attack and getting tons of dribble penetration. There was a game a couple weeks ago where we saw them beat the Lakers in Staples Center when they were red hot just because no one could keep R.J. Barrett out of the lane because no one could keep quitting crimes out of the lane. Like it's just it's just one of those things where, you know, your ability to generate dribble penetration and then contain it on the other end

of the floor is a high level asset. And then last but not least from the shot creation standpoint, they have two of my favorite archetypes of shot creators. You've got Jalen Brunson as this dynamic three level score that can hit pull up threes and pull up 15 footers and pull up 18 footers. And he can knock down those floaters in the lane with the high level playmaking, but then he can also beat a switch and pick and roll. But then you've got Julius Randall who represents an entirely different type of scoring archetype, one that I've always found to be immensely important in playoff series, which is the big matchup attacking forward. Because more often than not, teams when they're confronting issues with ball handling and shooting, or when they're confronting issues with perimeter defense,

will opt for a smaller guard. You're going to see a lot of teams do this this year. There are a guy between six foot and six two that they need out there for ball handling and shooting and they need out there for point of attack defense. But the problem is, is in a switching system in the playoffs, which is what you're going to see more frequently from teams, in that sort of dynamic, having a forward that can attack those switches

by fighting down to that 10, 15 footmark and shooting those little fadeaways over both shoulders, That's a huge asset to have. And so again, now both of those teams, unfortunately, just with the way that the seating is broken down, they're probably going to end up facing the bucks. And that's going to be a really tough matchup for them. But look at it this way. The bucks are a heavy drop coverage team.

Jalen Brunson is one of the best drop coverage attacking guards that we have in the league. The bucks are going to play at any given moment, two guys below six, five on the court at the same time. Those are matchups that Julius Randall can attack. Julius Randall himself, I think, is going to have to take on the challenge of potentially battling Janus on a bunch of possessions. I'll be really interested to see how he handles that. But he's going to have the advantage of Mitchell Robinson behind him, provided that they can rotate to Brooke Lopez. So again, I don't think many of these teams have that much of a chance because the Bucs Celtics and Sixers are so much better than everyone else. But I do as of right now, like the Knicks, slightly better than the rest of that group as a team that could knock off.

one of them, but they got to beat the Cavs first, and that's another tough matchup. And again, I wouldn't pick them in a series, but I do think that they've got a chance. All right, Josh, thank you so much for calling in, man. So we've got to get back to the TV screens to watch these Western Conference games. So we're going to call it a night for right now, but I will be back on YouTube later tonight, breaking down the rest of the Western Conference slate. The Gold State Warriors are trailing after the first quarter, so it should be a fun one. All right, guys, I'll see you later tonight.

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 I-Heart Radio app, Apple Podcasts, or wherever you get your podcast. On the Look Back at it podcast For 1979, that was a big moment for me 84 was big to me I'm Sam Jay And I'm Alex English Each episode we pick a year

unpack what went down And try to make sense of how we survived it With our friends, fellow comedians And favorite authors Like Mark Lamont Hill on the 80s 84 was a wild year I don't think there's a more important year I don't think there's a more important year for black people

Listen to Look Back at it On the Iheart radio app Apple Podcasts or wherever you get your podcast 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 I-Hard Radio app, Apple Podcasts, or wherever you get your podcasts. This is an I-Heart podcast, guaranteed human.