The Herd with Colin Cowherd - Hoops Tonight - Joel Embiid leads 76ers over Celtics in Game 5, are Jayson Tatum & Boston done?

Episode Date: May 10, 2023

Jason Timpf reacts to Joel Embiid, James Harden, and the Philadelphia 76ers' 115-103 win over Jayson Tatum, Jaylen Brown, and the Boston Celtics in Game 5 of the Eastern Conference semifinals. Jason breaks down Joel Embiid's dominant performance and questions Joe Mazzulla's lack of adjustments to counter the Sixers potent pick-and-roll offense. #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. 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 IHeart Radio app, Apple Podcasts, or wherever you get your podcasts. Hey, this is Robert from the Stuff to Blow Your Mind podcast. Joe and I are both lifelong Star Wars fan, so we're celebrating May the 4th with a brand new week of fun, thought-provoking Star Wars-related episodes.

Join us as we tackle science and culture topics from a galaxy far, far away, such as the biology of tauntons and wampas on the ice planet hot, or the practicality and corporate business sense of the Sith ruling. of two. Listen to Stuff to Bole Your Mind on the IHeart Radio app, Apple Podcasts, or wherever you get your podcasts. The Volume. All right, welcome to Hoops Tonight here at The Volume.

Happy Tuesday, everybody. Round two coverage of the NBA playoffs here at Hoops Tonight is brought to you by Chase Freedom Unlimited. How do you cash back? Well, the Philadelphia 76ers go on the road to beat the Boston Celtics, resounding to take a three-two lead. A ton of thoughts I want to get into. We are also live on AMP.

So if you're watching on YouTube or listening on the podcast feeds, don't forget that AMP is the very first place that you guys can get these shows. You guys know the drill before we get started. Don't forget to 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. Last but not least, for whatever reason, you guys miss one of these videos and you can't get back over to YouTube to finish. Don't forget you can find them wherever you get your podcasts under hoops tonight. All right. So if you guys remember, I was, I predicted a big run by the Sixers early in the year as they were getting healthy.

As Tyree Smaxi and James Hardin were coming back. I liked a lot of things specifically that I was seeing with that roster makeup. And in January, they really started to take off. And then they ran into a bunch of really tough games, as every team does, and as stack the league is, in that February, March, April time of the year. And those of you guys who followed the show at that point, you might remember me frequently talking about how much I appreciated the fight that James Hardin and Joel Embed showed.

There was a specific game that they lost, and I think it was at home actually, to Boston, or Jason Tatum hit that pullback game-winning three at the top of the key, where they were up against it late in that game. And rather than letting go of the rope or just saying, hey, it's a regular season, who cares, let's just let it go. Both James Hardin and Joel Embed made a bunch of big plays down the stretch of that game, and they actually tied it late, I believe, on a foul post-up Joel Embed on Jalen Brown,

where he made a couple free throws, and they made it a game. And then Jason Tatum ended up just winning it at the buzzer. But they had a bunch of other really impressive performances down the stretch of that season. I thought it was a big part of Joel Embed's MVP case, which was essentially just he won all these big head-to-head matchups. He was a much better defensive player than Nicola Yokic. That was kind of the narrative surrounding Joel Embed's MVP, right? And I wasn't very optimistic about them in this series, but in my series preview, if you guys remember, I said,

I would have given the Sixers a very good chance to beat the Celtics if Joel Embed was healthy. There was just such a big question mark surrounding his knee. And specifically I talked about his rhythm. And the fact that at the foul line, which has become such an important part of Joel Embed's success. And I shouldn't even say success, but taking that next leap from like a guy who's just another one of the stars at the top of the league to a guy who's perennially in the MVP conversation.

The guy that can succeed and stay efficient in the NBA playoffs was that success around the free throw line. But so much of it relies on his jump shooting. And I was worried about his rhythm getting disrupted. Well, I was flat out wrong because Joel Embeddeed has been incredible. He completely shook off whatever that little rough stretch was that he had against Al Horford down the stretch of game four. And he absolutely torched the Celtics tonight. James Harden, after a couple of rough games in game two and game three,

I kind of broke down, if you guys remember, the dynamic in James Hardin's playoff history of succeeding in game ones and then struggling as the series progresses. Well, he's thoroughly shook that off too, as he has been getting shot. stronger and stronger down the stretch of this series. Not as much of a scoring performance in this game tonight, but I thought he absolutely dominated the flow of the game. He was the guy that repeatedly was setting up Joel Embed with that pocket pass to the high post there right around the elbow

where he's so successful. He just, there was an action that Philly could run theoretically every time down the floor. Now they don't actually do it every time down the floor. it's not how basketball works, but anytime they got into his step, half-court environment, they were able to run a pick and roll with James Hardin and draw Rob Williams or Alorford or whoever into kind of like a loose drop coverage around the foul line, but extended out to where James Hardin was dribbling.

And then he could just throw that pocket pass of Joel Embed, and Embed could either make a shot from the foul line, make a kickout pass to the weak side if he drew a helper, or just ripped through to the basket and try to draw a foul. That was their like go-to play. Whereas for Boston, they are yet to really uncover anything in this series that is kind of a dependable, like we can, you know, run this Jason Tatum post up from the left block and he's just going to score every single time or get a great shot every single time. Or, oh, here's this pick and roll that we run with, you know, Derek White and Al Horford that, you know, or pick and pop that just leads to a wide open three and he can make it every single time.

They haven't really established anything in that specific pick and roll dynamic with James Hardin and Jones. Joel Embed more like a short role to that foul line has been the ultimate trump card in this series. And as we've made it to Game 5, as everyone else has kind of settled into the series and all of the Sixers guys are comfortable in their matchups, right? Like PJ Tucker kind of has an idea of how he wants to guard Jalen Brown, right? Joel Embed is very much ignoring Al Horford and Al Horford had a nightmare game trying to shoot the three tonight. But as this series has progressed, James Harden and Joel Embed have elevated and became. the best players in the series. Now, the series is not over.

A lot of basketball left. This Boston team has a lot of talent, and I'm sure all you Sixers fans know, Game Six is not going to be easy. But credits to James Hardin and Joel Embed, because as we came into this postseason run, the biggest fear surrounding them was, will they be able to shake off their reputation

as being players who crater inefficiency when they get to the postseason? And instead, both of them have gotten stronger and stronger as the series has progressed. So shout out to those two guys. I think it's been such a fascinating season from the standpoint of competitive spirit for those two. Because it wasn't pretty last year. The Miami Heat kind of punched you

and you came back stronger and you've made the improvements in the areas of your game that you needed to and now you're reaping those benefits here as your one went away from the Eastern Conference finals. I also wanted to shout out the defensive effort. If you guys remember in game one, the first of two, James Harden game winners.

There was this focus on Boston's offensive execution. Like, oh, Mark a Smart post up on the final play. What the heck are they doing? Blah, blah, blah. As I went back and watched the film of that game, I thought Boston's offensive process was fine. I mean, for what Boston was doing. Philly was just defending their asses off.

They're doing a bunch of really basic, like, defensive kind of baseline principles that a lot of teams around the league used, especially in the playoffs. and they're just executing really well. So they're defending on the perimeter well. They're sliding their feet and they're flattening out drives. That's step one. They're digging down into driving lanes, right?

So like if a guy is on the left wing and I'm guarding a, and there's a ball handler on the right wing, that dude who's guarding the guy in the left wing is down at the nail, just prepared for that drive to the right. And if they make that pass, it's a hard close out. And Boston, it's interesting. They have a ton of guys that can shoot and a ton of guys that can pass and a ton of guys that can dribble.

but what they don't have are just like dead eye you cannot give this guy any space type of shooters. And so as a result, like a good hard closeout goes a long way to turning a deadly shot into a shot that they can live with, right? On the backline, the rotations. Like if anybody gets beat off the dribble, you're seeing out, you're seeing Joel Embed step in to help. And then the guy guarding the ball handler just sprints out to Al Horford. Orrford or the next guy on the wing will go to Al Horford and he'll sprint to the next guy. their rotations are incredibly sharp, and that's been from game one on in this series. They just needed to get the offensive production to make it work.

It's funny, I'm going to butcher this because I can't remember who exactly conceptualized this idea, but there's this 2-1-1 theory in the NBA playoffs. Essentially, you need your best player to win you two games. You need your second best player to win you one game, and then you need your role players to win you a game. And that's typically like the – not typically, but there's – That's a very common path that you'll see a team win an NBA playoff series with. And James Harden, your second best player, got you two games in this series. Game one by himself without Joel Embed, and then in game four, as Joel Embed was struggling with the Al Horford matchup,

James Hardin carried you home, including hitting yet another game winner. But that you needed to get a game out of Joel Embedde where he dominates, and that's what Joe Al-Mbeed did in this particular game, dominating at the rim defensively, drawing a ton of fouls, torturing them in the short role at the foul line. But that was the offensive lift they needed to carry them to their third win with a defense that has been mostly phenomenal throughout this entire playoff run. A couple of specific things they're doing. So Horford missing that allowed Joel Embed to stay at the rim. That's an important part of it.

He was blocking and bothering a bunch of shots around the rim. Chasing them off the three-point line. This is the problem of being a one-dimensional team. If you really look at this Boston Celtics team, Jalen Brown's the only guy who's really comfortable working out of the midrange, right? And it's kind of more of a, like a creative shot maker inside the three-point line, right? And he only took 16 shots in this game, which we'll get to in a minute. So, like, with that limitation, you've turned your perimeter defenders,

you've turned their task into something that's much more achievable. Chase the guy off the three-point line. If he beats you off the dribble, just try to flatten out his drive as best as you can. if you get beat, just rotate to the next shooter. You've got help behind you. The helper doesn't need to come up to the mid-range. The helper just can meet you at the basket and either take a charge or Embed, if he's there, is going to be able to deter shots at the rim,

and you rotate around. By chasing them off the three-point line, and this team not feeling comfortable doing anything but taking layups and threes, has turned the defensive job for Philly into one that's much more achievable. And that preys on Boston's weaknesses. They don't have a guy who can score in the mid-term. range. Look at the points in the paint in this game. Go to look at the team stats. I checked before we're going right after the final buzzer, so I missed some of garbage time,

but it was literally 34 to 34 in the late fourth quarter and points in the paint. So like, Philly's not getting any points in the paint either, but they don't care because they thrive in the midrange. James Hardin has been thriving in the midrange in this series. Joel Embed has been thriving in the mid range in this series. So they can live with that. But on the Boston front, when they're not getting points in the paint, they damn well better be hitting all their threes and they weren't tonight. And so it's made them a little bit one-dimensional and it's put them in some problems. So shout out to Philly.

I think a lot of their roster constructs that make them a successful playoff team have come to the surface. And big shout out to Joel and Bean and James Hardin who have guys who I personally have been very critical of in their playoff careers have overcome a lot of that in this playoff run. Really quickly on Boston, I'm really confused by the fact that Joe Mizzula, and I've been talking about this entire series, as we're going to be. we've been talking about James Harden, ISOs, and pick and roll coverage and things along those lines,

he just hasn't done anything gimmicky or tried anything to try to throw them off of rhythm, right? We're covering this Lakers series, and it's like every game, there's a monumental chess move. Like, oh, we're going to put Jared Vanderbilt on Draymond Green. Oh, we're going to start Jamichael Green so that we can put Anthony Davis in screen and roll. Oh, we're going to start Gary Payton the second. Oh, we're going to put Anthony Davis on Andrew Wiggins now. It's like both coaches are like, as soon as they start getting burned by something, they're always thinking about how they can adjust.

Whereas like we're in game four and I'm watching James Hardin work in isolation while PJ Tucker's on the floor. How does that happen? You saw it a little bit at the end of this game, but they started putting Marcus Smart on Joel Embed in fronting and then having Al Horford ignored PJ Tucker behind the back. That should have been the entire damn series. That should have been an adjustment they figured out in game two. and tried to force Philly to do something different.

So, again, you cannot be Mr. Oh, all we got to do is execute better. Yes, execution matters. But at the end of the day, when you are facing warping offensive personnel like Joel Embed and James Hardin, you have to be willing to try different things. One other thing is there's a clear hierarchy with Philadelphia. It's like James Hardin, high pick and roll with Joel Embed, or post-ups with Joel Embed, ISOs with James Hardin, right? And like every once in a while when those guys are tired, they'll toss the ball to Tyrese Maxie and have him run a pick and roll, or they'll toss the ball

down to Tobias Harris in the Post, but it's the stars that decide, like, hey, we're taking a break on this possession. There's a very clear hierarchy. With Boston, there's just so many guys that are used to having the ball in their hands. Jaylon Brown used to having the ball in his hands. Marcus Smart, Jason Tatum, Malcolm Brogden, Derek White, all of these guys are used to having the ball in their hands and making decisions. And so the hierarchy gets a little tricky. In this game, Jason Tatum in particular, was just full tunnel vision, empty the clip. And I admired it from a competitive standpoint, but like he was just driving into traffic and he was making some shots and getting to the foul line.

But like, it just ruins the flow of the offense. And everyone else is just kind of standing around, doesn't know what to do. Jalen Brown only takes 16 shots. The guards are Malcolm Brogden and Derek White are co-opting possessions. It'd be a lot easier if you had spot-up shooters around them. And it's like Jason and Jalen are the only two guys going. It just gets a lot more simple from a rhythm standpoint. We're seeing this in the Denver Phoenix series.

We got Devin Booker and Kevin Durant just deciding every single possession now that Chris Paul's out and their offense looks better. So like sometimes less is more when it comes to primary ball handling. And I understand the predicament. Jalen Brown and Jason Tatum aren't traditional point guards. So you need guys that can ball handle. But this is the catch 22 when your two best players are not great playmakers. You end up in a situation where you have to supply them with playmaking. now you just have a bunch of guys who know how to dribble and their offense can get really,

really stagnant. Look at Philly. You've got guys that are just role player specialist. PJ Tucker, role player specialist, Daniel House, role player specialist, D' Anthony Melton, role player specialist, even their other two primary guys like Tobias Harris and Tyre's Maxie, they can go six minutes at a time without touching the basketball and they don't care because there's a clear hierarchy there. And I think that's been an advantage towards Philly.

This is not over. Boston, I believe, still has more talent down the roster. They're very capable of going in and beating Philly in game six. I mean, they beat them in game three and they were up big late in game four. So they certainly are capable, but they're in a tough spot here. And I expect a raucous, desperate Philly environment as they try to end this series. All right guys, that is all I have for right now. We are going to be back later tonight on YouTube to break down game five of Nuggett Sons.

The volume. Another podcast from some SNL, late-night comedy guy, not quite. On Humor 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.

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. Hey, this is Robert from the Stuff to Blow Your Mind podcast, Joe and I are both lifelong Star Wars fan, so we're celebrating May the 4th with a brand new week of fun, thought-provoking Star Wars-related episodes. Join us as we tackle science and culture topics

from a galaxy far, far away, such as the biology of taun tons and wampas on the ice planet hot, or the practicality and corporate business sense of the Sith Rule of Two. Listen to stuff to blow your mind on the IHeart Radio app, Apple Podcasts, or wherever you get your podcasts. This is an IHeart podcast. Guaranteed human