The Herd with Colin Cowherd - Hoops Tonight - Why Celtics sluggish defense is to blame for Game 2 loss vs. Heat

Episode Date: April 26, 2024

Jason Timpf breaks down film from Jayson Tatum, Jaylen Brown, and the Boston Celtics' 111-101 Game 2 loss to the Miami Heat in the NBA Playoffs. Jason discusses why Boston's poor defensive effort is to blame for their loss and shares his level of concern with the Celtics moving forward. #Volume #HerdSee omnystudio.com/listener for privacy information.

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Just going to talk a little bit about the Celtics heat game last night as the heat just continued to do Miami Heat stuff and upset a Boston Celtics team that is unfathomably more talented last night on the road, winning by double figures, making 23-3s on 54%. That's the main concept I want to dive in today. Shot variants and what went wrong for the Celtics defensively. You guys know the joke before we get started.

Subscribe to our brand new YouTube channel so you don't miss any more of our videos. follow me on Twitter underscore Jason LT so you guys don't miss show announcements. Don't forget about our podcast feed wherever you get your podcast under hoops tonight. And then also keep dropping mailback questions in the YouTube comments. We hit one in yesterday's show, but we'll hit another one or two every week throughout the rest of the playoffs. And then last minute at least, before we get started, I want to talk to you guys a little bit about game time. I think this is a great time for you guys to get out and try to see your favorite NBA players playing live and in person. TV's great, but there's nothing like high stakes basketball in person.

person, especially in the NBA when the intensity goes up to such a crazy level compared to the regular season. And we got a lot of guys around the league like LeBron and Kevin Durant that might not be around all that much longer. And so get out there, try to see them in person and get that experience. Game Time has an incredible experience compared to other ticketing apps. They have an all-in pricing options that you don't have to worry about going into your cart to check out and having a surprise, larger amount that you have to pay. It's easy. You can check. You can check. out in as few as two taps, so it's not a convoluted process. You can get a good clean view of what your seat's going to look like before you check out so you don't have to worry about what you're paying

for. And they have awesome deals. They have exclusive flash deals and sponsored deals on tickets for football, basketball, baseball, concerts, comedy theater, and more. And with zone deals, you can pick the section and GameTime picks the seats for you in that section for big time savings. So take the guesswork out of buying tickets with GameTime. Download the GameTime app, create an account and use code hoops for $20 off your first purchase. Terms apply. Again, create an account and redeem 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, obviously every time that this sort of thing happens, and when I say this sort of thing, I mean,

a team gets red hot from three and makes a bunch of shots. The conversation has a tendency to shift in the direction of luck or shot variance or they just got red hot, you know, making it more a product of something that's out of your control rather than something that's in your control. Now, before we go any further, I want to be clear. I do believe that shot variance does play a role in basketball games. Anybody who's ever played knows that that's a thing. I just think it gets overplayed a little bit when we're talking.

about this sort of thing. In addition to that, I think it's absolutely pointless to focus on in any way, shape, or form as a basketball team, because that doesn't do anything for you. For all of you guys who were listening, yesterday I went on with Ethan Strauss from House of Strauss, and we talked for an hour and a half all over the place. We talked a little bit about my origin story. We talked about the media landscape and kind of how interesting things have changed and new avenues to kind of get into the industry. But towards the the tail into the show. We got into like a pretty long discussion about the role of luck in sports and how to address that and how to cope with that and deal with that as a basketball team or even

just as an individual. And I thought it was super, super interesting. And honestly, flowing into last night's game, it's literally like the perfect kind of setup. So make sure you guys check that one out. I tweeted out the link on my Twitter feed, but anywhere you can get House of Strauss there on YouTube as well if you don't have the substack, but Ethan does great work. I recommend you guys subscribe to him on his substack as well. But make sure you guys check that one out. But when we were talking, as far as luck goes, there's a certain amount of trying to take control of what you can control, right?

And especially as a basketball team as you're trying to compartmentalize something like what happened last night, you have to focus on it from the perspective of what you can control. So what I did this morning is I went through and I charted every single. single three-point attempt that the Miami Heat attempted in this game against the Celtics. And 23 made 3s on 54% on the surface feels like, damn, man, they just were making everything, right? Like, that's the way you're going to look at that. But of those 43 attempts, I had 27 of them marked as defensive lapses. 27 out of 43. I charted all three. I charted all 43, three-point attempts into three categories.

Make them miss, meaning you get an awesome contest and you'd be surprised if the person makes that shot. They only made them miss, so to speak, on five attempts and one of them went in. There was a heavily contested Duncan Robinson shot that went in. So they were one for five. They shot 20% on shots that you heavily contested. The next tier is what I call game plan acceptable. These are threes that are like quality,

looks in the sense that the person is relatively open, has their feed set, it is rising up, but it's either something that you kind of have to concede as part of the coverage, or it's a player that you're comfortable closing out short on. Now, these went in Miami's favor. They went five for 11 on these. That's a really good percentage on those, right? Like normally you're hoping the game plan acceptable type of shots that they go something like three for 11, right?

But I'm a big believer that even that one make them miss shot that went in and the five out of 11 game plan acceptable shots that went in, they are kind of a byproduct of how often you let them get comfortable. 27 times in this game, they let a good shooter open by virtue of a defensive lapse. And they made 18 of those. And that's a really, really high percentage. I want to be clear, even there's a universe where you play that same defensive game and they don't shoot 54%. That's the variance element. But when I talk about controlling what you control, this is literally what I mean. If we all agree that on any given night,

it's possible that a team could shoot you out of the gym. If we all just agree that that's a risk, then we have to talk about how often it happens to you and how often you allow it to happen to you. Because if you control what you can control and you avoid those defensive lapses and you apply ball pressure and you make shooters feel uncomfortable and you chase them off the line and you do all of these things,

it is far more likely that you will avoid the barrage, right? Might still happen. We've all seen games where the Miami Heat or other teams just make a bunch of threes despite the fact that you're playing pretty damn good defense. Usually not 54%, but we have seen teams play really good defense and a team still shoot 40, 42, 43% from three, right? That's something that can happen. That is out of your control sometimes.

but if you play defense the way the Celtics did last night, you are inviting a higher likelihood that this could happen. And so again, like, I'm not going to bury the Boston Celtics today. I think that's not something that I agree with. I think they're clearly playing down to their competition. They are the only team in this 16 team field right now that is playing with a substantial talent advantage, like a massive talent advantage.

Everyone else, even series like where Janus is out, I still think the Pacers and Bucks are kind of close. It's mostly matchups that I think have allowed the Pacers to tie the series, right? The Thunder blew out the Pelicans last night. Super impressive game. They shot the three really well as well. They are more talented than the Pelicans, but it's closer than this, right?

The Lakers, they have their issues with Denver. but the talent gap isn't some sort of massive chasm and more has to do with matchups and the yokech problem right this series boston has a gigantic talent advantage they're playing down to their competition now where does that matter in the grand scheme in my opinion as i mentioned before we got into this postseason run Boston is going to have a relatively easy second round too they're going to get the winner of cleveland orlando and they're going to go it'll be a smaller talent advantage in this Miami series because Jimmy Butler's been out, right? And Terry Rozier has been out. But in terms of the, in terms of the talent advantage versus Cleveland

or Orlando, it's still relatively substantial, right? You're going to be feeling good and confident in that series. So you're going to walk into a conference final series against a substantially better team than the first two rounds you played. And then you could potentially run into Denver or the team who survived the Denver gauntlet in the finals. And you need to be sharp when you get there. You can't afford to drop games early in the series because you're playing bad basketball. And so while I'm not out on the Celtics or like view last night as some sort of grand indictment of their capability of hoisting the trophy this year, it is concerning in the sense that like it makes me feel like they're not all that serious right now. Guys, wait until you see this film. We're about to look at the

film here in a minute. It ain't pretty. There are guys getting lost. lost off ball all the time. They're guys chasing Tyler Harrow around jogging around screens. It's not pretty. They did not have a, they looked like a regular season team in January. That's the type of effort that we saw, not a NBA playoff team that's trying to stomp on a team's neck, right? And so again, like, as we kind of zoom out and go to look at the film, I just want us to

keep that in mind. Like, luck is a thing that happens in basketball games. Luck is a thing that happens in life. there's a certain amount of things that are out of your control, right? But generally speaking, you can create your own luck. And one of the big ways to do that in the basketball court is if you play the right way, you minimize variance. And that goes on both ends of the floor, but we're going to focus on shooting for today.

So on that note, let's get into the film. 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.

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and they made 18 of them. I'm going to kind of just, as we're working through, I'll just kind of tell you my thoughts on the coverage with each shot. So the first three, three point shots of the game were all for Nikola Jovich, and they were all on pointless help here. So we have a ball screen with Jaime Hakez coming downhill here. right? So as he's coming downhill, Porzingis is in a drop coverage, right? In addition to that, you have Jalen Brown who can kind of help off of this corner side here. There's people in the paint, but there's no advantage here. Porzingis is in a good position to kind of contain both of these guys, right? Derek White is just sagging down to the block for no particular reason. He's not

stunting. He's not doubling Jaime. He's just standing there. So we're going to get a catch and shoot three for Nikolaovich. Not a bad contest. Not a, a bad defensive possession in like the sense that it was like a catastrophic breakdown, but you overhelped in an unnecessary way, accomplished nothing, and gave a relatively clean catch and shoot look, especially within the context of the playoffs. The next one's worse. By the way, Yovich just made one, right? So now you're thinking, okay, Yovich is feeling good.

He's confident. He just made a three, right? We have Bam here. Bam's working against Porzingis. Tyler Harrow is going to come off of a D.HO here. Here comes the dribble handoff. coming downhill. Porzingis is in position in the drop coverage to handle this.

You have guys digging down on the weak side too. Jalen Brown is helping out of the strong side corner for absolutely no reason on a guy who just made a three. Helps out of the strong side corner. Easy read for Tyler Harrow on the kickout, knocks it down. So now we're two for two with Nicole Jovich, both on overhelp possessions in ball screens. So you'd think we're going to take this a little bit more seriously now. Yovich has got it going, right? Well, we have a transition possession here.

Yovitch is going to catch on the right wing. Now, Jalen Brown knows Yovic just made two. He can see the ball. He knows this is coming here, right? So what would you do in this circumstance? You would hard close out to his left-hand side to funnel him back towards the baseline. And no matter what, you're chasing him off the line because he just made two. instead, Jalen's going to throw a short close out at him.

Look, short close out and just kind of offer a token contest. That one missed, but I charted that as a defensive breakdown. Like, the guy just made two threes off of your overhelp. He's confident and comfortable. Why are you not hard chasing him off the line? This next one is a BAM pick and pop. So again, Porzingis is in his drop coverage. Notice all of a sudden they're not helping as much out of the corners.

Then BAM is popping. BAM shot pretty well. on these pick and pop threes and these kind of like wide open uncontested threes this year. I want to say he was like 18 for 40 or something like that, 19 for 40. But again, just pretty low volume. And generally speaking as a game plan, I consider this to be game plan acceptable. So we're 0 for one on the game plan acceptable threes at this point now. On this one, I view this as game plan acceptable too.

If you can see here as Tyler Harrow is getting ready for this ball screen, Jalen Brown's just kind of digging down. digging down I don't have a problem with as long as you're in a position to rotate. It's when you're hard sitting down at the nail and out of position to rotate that it doesn't make sense. This is a good close out, good short close out, especially at this point, Jaime has it made a three yet. And it's early in the game, so you're not viewing this as a Miami barrage yet. Didn't have a problem with that one. This is just really bad pick and roll defense.

There's no ball pressure. No one's making Tyler uncomfortable. No one's flattening out his drive. Al Horford is skewed way too far over to bands. so Tyler's able to kind of get really far downhill into here. That forces Porzingis to come over. Easy clean catch for Bam. Easy pass to Yovic.

Easy extra pass to Hawkes. So again, that's just you're giving up way too easy dribble penetration in pick and roll. So again, all three threes that Miami has made to this point have been on defensive breakdowns. Tyler Harrow is their best pull-up shooter, right? And this is basically a trigger. triggering a switch, right? So normally the Celtics would switch this action, right? So essentially, as that ball screen comes, this is kind of smart action from Miami to begin with. Usually when you are switching a screen like this, you want to make sure you don't give up inside position for the slip.

So Jalen's dropping onto that low side. But this is, we got to, there's got to be more ball pressure and something making Tyler Harrow uncomfortable. Notice, just from the start of this possession, there's no contact, there's no physicality. Tyler Harrow is just confidently and comfortably setting into a stepback jump shot. I viewed that as a defensive breakdown as well, simply because Tyler Harrow is their best pull-up shooter and their best ball handler, and you're doing nothing to make him uncomfortable. Now we're dying on a screen with no show, okay? Tyler just made one. Tyler just made one. Bam's coming up to set a ball screen. Guy on ball is dying on the screen. No show from Porzingis.

That misses, but that's not good defense. Like you're fortunate when you, when Tyler Harrow misses that shot. This was, I thought, a really, Tyler Harrow did a lot of this today, or last night's game. He would pick on Sam Houser, or he'd pick on Horford, get him in switches or Porzingus as well, to get him in switches and then put him into additional actions. So we have this ball screen and then the dribble handoff, right? So that leads to the switch. So now you have to understand the play is developing at this point. So Tyler Harrow gets the matchup you wants. Now they're going to flow into a ghost screen with Duncan Robinson. So Jalen Brown is staring at this entire situation. and he's guarding Caleb Martin, who is a guy who can make shots, especially when he's uncontested,

but a guy that you're less worried about than Duncan Robinson, right? So on the go screen, we know we're going to get a hedge from Peyton Pritchard because he wants to cut off that driving lane, right? So there's our hedge, but there's still no rotation. Jalen Brown hasn't moved. Duncan Robinson, you have to understand as he's just staring at this entire action. He has to see the ghost screen coming and understand that this is going to get open by virtue of the hedge. and instead Duncan Robinson gets a clean look and knocks it down. So every single three point make to this point has been on a defensive breakdown. On this one, as we can see, Peyton Pritchard just gets caught on another screen.

As a result of him getting caught on another screen, Jalen Brown has no choice but to step up. And Horford obviously is worried about the role. And again, Caleb Martin, you're thinking, I'm sure there were a lot of Celtics fans last night, like, damn it, Caleb Martin keeps making shots. This is such bullshed it. Caleb Martin always gets hot against us. Caleb Martin wide open catch and shoot threes for the entire regular season, 1.24 points per shot. This is a very high quality shot for Caleb Martin.

You can close out short and you can offer token contests. You cannot leave him uncontested. He will make that shot. He did it all season long. And again, we also know he's a streaky shooter. So once he gets going with shots like this, he will make the tougher ones. So we're still at this point, every single defensive breakdown has led to a made shot. Again, same sort of thing here.

That one I called game plan acceptable. It's a transition pull-up three kind of type of shot from Caleb Martin. You live with that. You live with the results there. So by the way, they have not made a shot yet that was either acceptable to the game plan or well defended to the point where you made them miss. Gotta love the random transition three is from Boston. It's just a staple at this point.

So, okay, Tyler Harrow has already made a three and is their best ball handler. Nobody picks him up and he just walks into a transition pull up three. Like, this is not good defense, guys. They'll double drag. This time Peyton Pritchard stays attached and doesn't get screened. That's good defense. But we miss Jaime Hockes on the backside drives. I actually thought this was game plan acceptable as well.

So as Jaime drives on Peyton Pritchard, Jaime has been killing smaller guards and post-ups most of the season. I understood the aggressive show here. I think you kind of have to live with that shot. And also, I thought Tatum had a good rotation back. So again, as a game plan, you kind of have to double here, really good effort and close out from Tatum and you force a miss. Even if that goes in, though, I kind of more or less view that one as acceptable

within the game plan. You know, a little ghost screen action. So this one, too, I put as game plan acceptable. Like, you're closing out short on Hawkes here. He just knocks down the shot. The one gripe I have there is there's not much time left on the shot clock. But also, it's worth mentioning, like, this is where things involving comfort and confidence play into the equation. Guys are going to start.

That's our first shot that got made that was a good, like, kind of like an acceptable shot within the game plan. You're going to see those go in more often on nights when you have defensive breakdowns on 27. of your 43-3-point attempts. That's really good defense. That's, I put that one as the first one where you made him miss. Played excellent defense on the ball, forced him into a really difficult step-back contested jump shot. You forced to miss.

So for those keeping track, they're like one for five or one for six on game plan acceptable shots, and then they've made a bunch of the defensive breakdown shots. That one is good defense. He's coming downhill. There's a little bit of a token help from a Horford, but he immediately identifies the pass, closes out hard, and gets a good contest, and forces a miss. This one's on Drew Holiday. And by the way, guys, there's a lot of Drew Holiday in this set here.

So, like, over the course of the rest of this game. So Drew's on the ball. He's guarding Duncan, right? Tatum kind of digs, recovers back out. Look at Drew. Watch Drew as soon as he passes, as Duncan passes the ball. Drew relaxes. Duncan's already sprinting back out to the three-point line.

Drew is still chilling. Drew's still chilling. Now there's separation. Now it's a closeout and Duncan beats him with a pump fake. And that one actually misses, but that's a huge defensive breakdown. You've lost connection to their best shooter. So on this one, Haywood Highsmith is one of the best catch and shoot guys for Miami. And not just contested but uncontested as well. Or not just uncontested but contested as well. We're going to get a guard, guard action. So because both of these guys are guards, you kind of have to just. switch this. But instead of switching it, they treat it like a traditional pick and roll.

But either way, Hauser has to make the rotation here. You have to rotate here because this is not bam out of bio. You're not going to concede this shot. You have to chase Highsmith off the line. They leave them wide open. That's a defensive breakdown. So again, are you guys seeing Boston make a bunch of really tough contested shots here yet? Or are you seeing them make a bunch of wide open shots for good shooters by virtue of defensive breakdowns? It's not. I don't view variance as a major factor at this point in the game. Here we go. Caleb Martin already made one.

Caleb Martin made a three. Houser's in pursuit, okay, off the switch. Pullback dribble, right? Harrow's pulling it back. Houser's still chasing back over. He's going to get a good contest here. Derek White just digs down for no particular reason. And again, we know Caleb Martin uncontested threes are going in at a high rate this season.

Also, one other thing here, and this is a consistent theme, see this dynamic here? This is defending a two-man game with three players. And that is going to be a consistent theme, especially when we get into the second half. They just too often we're putting a third man into ball screens and leaving shooters open in the process. Turnover, we're out in transition. Pick and pop.

See, that's the rotation that I was just calling for on the Haywood Highsmith play. So again, you have a guard, guard kind of action. Yovitch obviously is a power forward, but more or less a perimeter oriented player, right? So you're getting a ball screen. So they're defending it the same way Horford did, right? But notice Derek White makes the rotation,

the rotation that wasn't made on that last one. I had this one as a game plan discipline one, too, because Caleb's catching on the right corner and he's made a couple threes, but he's primarily a slasher. And you can tell this is game plan discipline from Hauser, because watch him close out to the baseline side right here to handle the rip-through move.

See how that's part of just understanding. your personnel and knowing like Caleb loves that quick rip through to the baseline, especially in a rotation situation like this and you turned it into a late contest. I didn't have any problem with that. However, Caleb Martin has it going now. So maybe that should color some of the coverages the rest of the way. And also, again, Caleb Martin got two easy, wide open catch and shoot threes before that shot. So if your view on that shot is like, man, Caleb Martin's making everything.

It's like, well, he's a streaky shooter that you let get too clean catch and shoot looks to get his rhythm. This one is about not a Dunkett or Derek White getting caught ball watching a little bit. So notice Derek White is on Harrow, right? Now we have this two-man game over here. Porzingis is in drop, okay? Porzingis is in drop and is capable of handling anything that Yovich does here. Watch Derek White hesitate and lose sight of Tyler Harrow. See, Derek White's helping here for no damn reason.

Porzingis is there. You even have other guys on the back line. Tyler Harrow is the biggest threat on the floor. Derek White loses him for a second, and that buys that separation for Tyler Harrow to break free on the weak side. That's another defensive breakdown. It's a quality contest. Again, I still don't love this defending every ball screen with four players thing. That to me is just dumb overhelp.

But Tatum gets a good contest on it, at least a solid effort to get out there. Also, you defend the action four on two, but you still can't get the defensive rebound. Here we are, guys. Jalen Brown just hits a huge three. Here's the Celtics the lead. All right, guys, we're ready to lock in, right? Let's do this. Let's go on our run now.

Oh, wait, no one picked up Tyler Harrow. Like, you're lucky that missed. But, like, guys, the vast majority of these attempts are defensive breakdowns. The vast majority of them. This one I put as acceptable within the game plan. Again, if you're with Tyler Harrow, you don't want to just blitz him or come out way too high because then you're just going to exist in rotation all nights. You kind of have to trust Derek.

White to offer rearview contests and Al Horford to kind of make him at least take the pull-up jumper a little further out. And really all that happened there is Derek White bid on that jab step too much and gave up too much separation. And that is a clean look for Tyler Harrow, but that's more just Derek White has to do a better job on the ball. No one's guarding bam. We've got a kickout pass here. This is Drew Holiday again. So watch as this action is taking place at the top of the key here. watch Drew. So Drew gets switched on to Yovic. We have our ball screen. We have a kick to BAM. Porzingis is there. He's not compromised. There's no problem there. And you trust Porzingis on an island against BAM. Drew Holiday is guarding a player who's already made two, three-pointers in this game

and is just sitting at the block for no particular reason. Look at that. That's not good defense. This is just, this is not playoff effort. That's January regular season effort. Good pursuit over the top there. Watch Jalen Brown. So Jalen Brown is guarding Jaime Hakez, okay? Once again, we have a two-man game. Two guys are on the ball. I understand Bams rolling and someone needs to tag him, but you need to tag him with the low man, not one pass away.

Jalen Brown instead is tagging one pass away. Jaime Hakez just relocates to the top. That's another huge defensive breakdown to leave a shooter open. You're very fortunate that that shot was missed. This one is bad on ball defense. You're going to see a couple of these on Harrow. Again, it's a, this is a stagger where you're leading with a guard screen. This is that play that the Phoenix Suns run all the time, right?

So like, normally you want this guy to chase, but Boston's going to switch the first screen, right? So now Tatum's on ball, but he's too passive. And passive switching, again, the difference between a passive switch and an aggressive switch is this. As that screen comes, look, Tatum's now on Harrow, but he's not meeting him on the other side of the screen. Basically, if this has been communicated to be a switch, you basically need Drew to immediately switch on to Caleb Martin and you need Tatum to aggressively meet Harrow with physicality. Instead, he doesn't. He's passive. Since he's passively switched, he's not in position to navigate the screen. That allows

Harrow to break free clean coming off the other side of the screen. That's a major defensive breakdown for yet another made three. Remember correctly, I think this one might be the same. Okay, so this is really good defense. I put this was the one I put down as a make a miss that went in. So the one for five on make a misses. This was Caleb Martin with his weird like Kobe kind of drifting rip-through move. Like you, you just have to live with Caleb Martin to taking that. That said, Caleb Martin, strakey shooter, gains his confidence can make tough shots. So like the reason that went in, in my opinion, is directly related to you giving him two clean catch and shoot looks to start

the game and then him hitting a more contested one in the right corner after that. Airbald contested three for Boston. I actually put this as a defensive breakdown too. Tyler Harrow's red hot, red hot. Watch Jaylen Brown relax here. Watch him relax. See, how is he not like immediately pressing up on Harrow? This is, I put this one as fortunate to have missed. Like that, he's a red hot shooter, best shooter on the floor from Miami,

and you're kind of passively just letting him sit there comfortably and rise up. Now watch Jaylen Brown. I'm just going to put this. I'm going to put this one in slow motion. Watch, watch Jaylon Brown jog to chase Tyler. So again, you're chasing a movement shooter. This needs to be lock and trail. You need to be contacting him and following him with contact.

Watch Jalen Brown jog. That's just not good effort. That's a red-hot shooter that you're jogging to chase around screens instead of physically, aggressively pressuring him into whatever shot he wants to take. So this is an inverted ball screen. This is a difficult action to guard for the record. So we have inverted ball screen again. Big guys don't know how to navigate screens.

Guards typically don't understand how to run a drop or anything along those lines. So they end up switching it, right? then they immediately double, okay? But here's the problem. Haywood Highsmith is over here on the right wing and he's ready to relocate to the top. What are Porzingis and Derek White there? They're just standing underneath the basket. They're not accomplishing anybody, anything.

They're not guarding anybody. There's already a double team on the ball, so there's no real point in like helping here. I understand you want to be in defensive rebound position, but like neither guys in a defensive stance. They're completely upright. And so, of course, there's just an easy swing swing to Haywood, Highsmith at the top of the key. It is so, it is so appallingly bad, the three point defense in this game. So like a DHO to Duncan is such an obvious call here. And watch how passive Tatum is in his on ball defense. You're fortunate that missed. This one I put as a game plan discipline or like

acceptable within the game plan. Any sort of two-man game like this with Duncan, you have to trust this guy to chase over the top and contest and trust Al to Al Horford to contain both. You get a really good rearview contest from Hauser and he makes it. So again, Duncan actually missed the open one on the defensive breakdown and then he made the one where you did your job. So obviously variance is a part of this, but again, if you look at the shot result in this game, what percentage of the shots have gone in when there's been a defensive breakdown versus when there's been quality defense within the game plan?

Oh, look, you played great defense and chased him off the line. entire possession and they didn't get a clean look and they missed. That was the fourth make them miss attempt of the game. Drew Holiday on the ball. Switch. Notice their attacking Houser. A lot of attacking Houser in this game, but I didn't think it was his fault that things went the way they went. Drew Holiday again. Watch Drew. So Drew switches. Drew's on Dallon Wright now. Dallon Wright relocates. Once again, Houser is attached. Horford's in a drop. There is no reason to defend this action three on two, Drew Holiday gets sucked in for no particular reason. Al Horford is there. He's there and ready to help. Even Tatum's in a better position to tag the

roller. You're allowing an easy help or an easy kickout to the strong side corner for three. Now he's in a close-out situation. He has to leave his feet. It's the exact same mistake he made on the Duncan-Robinson three in the first half. Duncan just missed that one. DeLon Wright does not miss this one. Drew Holiday was a major culprit in this one. Two on the ball. that one again, that's good, that's good defense within the game plan. They're targeting Hauser again. Houser fights over the top and gets a rearview contest. He did his job.

Like, again, those contested Tyler Harrow pull-up threes, they're not going to go in at nearly the same rate as those two that Jalen Brown gave up, Jalen and Jason Tatum gave up when they were just jogging around trying to chase him over the top of screens. So notice this is, again, game plan discipline from Hauser was really good in this one. Delon Wright was like 0.6 points per pull-up jump shot with Miami this season. So clearly the game plan was duck underneath the pick. He ducks under both picks and concedes that pull-up three. That's a pull-up three you're willing to give up, obviously, under the circumstances.

Oh, look, you had a really good contest on a screening action of Duncan Robinson, and he missed. They're not making the super tough contested ones at an even in the same stratosphere of percentage as they are all of these defensive breakdowns. This one is a botched switch between Drew Holiday and Jason Tatum. So again, we have our three-man action here, right? Our three-man action is Harrow, Highsmith, and Bam, with Porzingis, Tatum, and Drew. So the main thing here is because it's effectively a double stagger,

you want to defend it the same way you did some of those other double staggers we're talking about. As soon as this screen gets set, you want Tatum to take Harrow. Tatum should be sprinting out to Harrow, and you want Drew to stay on Highsmith. That needs to be communicated. It's clear that Tatum is running over to Harrow. Instead, Drew goes over there with them.

Now they're just randomly double-teaming Tyler Harrow for no reason. It's very clear at this point. Like right here, Tatum should know, oh shit, Drew is recovering. Okay, he no longer needs me. I'm going to sprint back. But nope, neither of them do. They both stay on the ball. And then all Tyler Harrow has to do is just dribble off the screen this way

and he hits Hayward Highsmith wide open. that's a major defensive breakdown because your guards aren't communicating switches. Drew Holiday. Look at Drew Holiday. Now, Tatum has to do a better job fighting over the screen. He just walked into it. But still, even then, if Harrow looks to push downhill, Porzingis is there and drop. What is Drew doing?

He's not accomplishing anything in help, and he's just leaving a shooter open. Still defending the action three on two for no damn reason at all whatsoever and Caleb Martin's wide open. Look at this, man. What are they doing? What is Derek White doing? I just don't get it. I really, really don't get it. These are all wide open looks, guys.

High Smith, so that's got to be a switch, right? There's our switch. Here comes the ball screen. That needs to be another switch. And I don't understand why that wasn't immediately switched, the second ball screen. And Tatum's actually a little bit late closing out here and it allows Tyler Harrow to get a decent look,

but at least he got him to break his rhythm. a little bit. And then this last one, I think, was a Caleb, or Jaime Hawkes shot. Let's see. But this one was a good look, too, if I remember correctly. Yeah, just a random double team from Jalen Brown that left Hawke's wide open. He just happened to miss it. That was 43. 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. A win is a win. A win is a win. I don't care which I'm saying. Yep, that's me, Cliver Taylor the 4th. You might have seen the skits, the reactions, my journey from basketball to college football, or my career in sports media.

Well, somewhere along the way, this platform became bigger than I ever imagined. And 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 some of your favorite athletes, creators, and voices that not only deserve to be heard, but celebrated. One week, I'll take you behind the scenes of the biggest moments in sports and entertainment. And the next, we'll talk about life, mental health, purpose, and even music. The Clifford Show isn't just a podcast. It's a space for honest conversations,

stories that don't always get told, and for people who are chasing something bigger. So, if you've ever supported me or you're just chasing down a dream, this is right where you need to be. 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. Do you remember when Diana Ross double-tap Little Kim's boobs at the VMAs? Or when Kanye said that George Bush didn't like black people. I know what you're thinking. What the hell does George Bush got to? Do a little kill.

Well, you can find out on the Look Back at it podcast. I'm Sam J. And I'm Alex English. Each episode, we pick it here, unpack what went down, and try to make sense of how we survived it. Including a recent episode with Mark Lamont Hill waxing all about crack in the 80s. To be clear, 84 is big to me, not just because of crack. I'm down to talk about crack all day, but just so you all know. I mean, at this point, Mark, this is the second episode where we've discussed crack.

So I'm starting to see that there's a through line. We also have age. on the table right now. Thank you for finishing that sentence. I don't think there's a more important year for black people. Really? Yeah. For me, it's one of the most important years for black people in American history.

Listen to look back at it on the IHeart Radio app, Apple Podcasts, or wherever you get your podcasts. So again, guys, if we really dig into it, do you think, just be honest with yourself. And I'm curious in the comments, Celtics fans, if you think I'm being overly critical here, I want to hear it. Do you think the Celtics made Miami uncomfortable last night? Do you think the Celtics played Miami more into a lower quality shooting game? Or do you think the Celtics let Miami get comfortable from the opening tip and never made a concerted effort to try to break their rhythm with multiple defensive efforts and making them uncomfortable at the three-point line?

Just be honest. I want to hear. I want to hear if you guys disagree with me. And again, like, we also know that there's a psychological element to this series. Jimmy Butler is talking shit on Instagram. We know Eric Spolstra is going to play into variance as much as possible. I would not be surprised if shoot a ton of threes was the game plan coming into the game because we're not as talented and we need to find a way to try to close the gap.

You know this is coming. You know this is how they're going to try to beat you. And I don't, look, again, I'm not changing my opinion on the Celtics at all. I still view them as the second best contender in the league with a legitimate shot to beat Denver if they were to get out of the West and they were to get out of the East. I still believe in this team. But last night was not a strong indicator of where their focus is at right now. And they're going to have to sharpen that up or they're going to fall into a hole against the team that they're better than, like in the Eastern Conference finals, or a team that they're relatively even with, if not a little bit worse than in Denver in the NBA finals. Things need to get sharpened up before we get to that point.

And again, when we talk about shot variance, I'm not saying it doesn't exist. I'm not saying it's not a part of a game. But that was pretty clear evidence that Boston played a defensive game that is likely to lead to a shooting barrage. And it did. There were a lot of clean looks in that game that Miami missed. And so again, like, that's one of those things where it's so easy to be like, oh, they got 1.62 points per catch and shoot three in this game. That's kind of ridiculous.

Like, yeah, you're not wrong in terms of that being a highly productive three-point shooting game. But if you actually dig into the basketball, basketball is more art than science. If you actually dig into the basketball, those were really high-quality shots that were getting missed. All right, guys, that is all I have for today. As always, I sincerely appreciate you guys for supporting the show. We're going to be back tonight live on YouTube after the final buzzer of Nuggets Lakers. I will see you guys then. 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, 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 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 a podcast. For 1979, that was a big moment for me. 84 is 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 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 A win is a win A win A win I don't care what you'll say 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, 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 Podcast, or wherever you get your podcast.

And for more behind the scenes, follow at Clifford and at TikTok. Podcast Network on TikTok. This is an IHeart podcast. Guaranteed human.