The Herd with Colin Cowherd - Nerd Sesh - NBA Finals Game 2 Reaction

Episode Date: June 10, 2024

The nerds react to Game 2 of the NBA Finals between Jayson Tatum, Jaylen Brown, Kristaps Porzingis and the Boston Celtics vs. Luka Doncic, Kyrie Irving and the Dallas Mavericks. Timestamps 00:00:23 - The pronounced talent gap between Boston and Dallas 00:11:52 - Jrue Holiday and Derrick White’s impact on Game 2 00:18:08 - Jayson Tatum vs. Jaylen Brown 00:39:12 - Luka’s performance in Game 2 00:45:15 - What can Dallas to differently the rest of the series? #Volume #HerdSee omnystudio.com/listener for privacy information.

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Oh, don't donate to me. Charles Darwin. The nerds is where it's at. Welcome everybody back into nerdsash. As always, I'm Carson Brever. And alongside me is Logan Camden. and the Boston Celtics have taken a 2-0 lead in the NBA finals, a much more competitive game tonight than game one,

but a Boston win all the same. Logan, what is your biggest takeaway at this point from this game, from Boston taking this relatively commanding lead in the series? Yeah, I mean, I've just been so surprised, Carson, how they've been able to dictate so convincingly defensively, man, and all the big plays that they've managed to make. you go down to the wire here, and it's just huge defensive play after huge defensive play, man. Derek White has that transition block at the end.

Tatum has a clutch, and he pokes the ball away from Kyrie Irving in a clutch possession where they need a bucket. Luca, there's a turnover off a holiday ball pressure. Derek White steals the ball leads to a holiday catch-and-shoot three. I think in the third quarter in the early fourth, KP has those consecutive chase-down transition blocks on Gafford and PJ. I know they call one of them back, but it's just like one after another, after another. In this game, they force 15 turnovers, and they convert those into 21 points off of turnovers. They notch 10 steals and five blocks. They hold Dallas to an offensive rating of 105.4.

And I mentioned this stat last game. In game one, they hold them to 96.7 Dallas's offensive rating was the sixth lowest they total. A crazier stat from that game. They held them to nine assists, Carson. I know we noted that. That was the lowest amount of assist. Any team had notched in any game this NBA season, regular season or playoffs.

And the biggest difference, too, is the fact that Boston was able to withstand a really poor shooting night from behind the arc. And that's what makes this a real tough pill to swallow for Dallas. Like, it just seems like they're overmets. You have to win a game like this. You have to capitalize on it. Dallas was the number one three-point shooting team in terms of volume this season. They made the most, and they made them at the most.

and they made them at the second best clip in all of the NBA. On the biggest stage when a team is faltering at their, you know, the thing that they succeed at more than any other team in the league, you've got to capitalize on that. And they don't, man. In the first quarter, they shoot one of nine from deep. In the first half, Boston shoots three of 15 from deep. And overall, they go 10 of 39 from deep.

You just got, you just have to capitalize on that, man. And, you know, Dallas doesn't, Boston doesn't care about the other guy. off ball for Dallas, right? They'll leave Derek Jones Jr. alone. They'll leave PJ alone. They'll leave Josh Green alone. They'll leave everybody alone. Dallas can't afford to leave anybody alone, man. Any dribble penetration and kickout immediately puts his defense in rotation and gets some scrambling. You just got to win this game if you're Dallas, man. It's inexcusable. You have to capitalize on a four shooting performance from Boston. And that's a reality of the situation. And it speaks volumes about the talent differential between these two teams

that Boston's able to win a really kind of ugly offensive game for them by their standards. There's a big old talent gap here. Boston is just overwhelming in that respect compared to Dallas. And you see that even on their off nights offensively, as you say, in the first half of this game, Luke and Kyrie had 33 points. Jalen Brown and Jason Tatum had combined for 13. Boston was 3 of 15 from deep. So if you think about all of the boxes that you're trying to check if you're Dallas in terms of a Boston off night, potentially even a Boston meltdown, what is it? Tatum is really struggling as a shot maker and their three point shooting is just completely off.

And Boston was up three at halftime of this game. And that's the point where you're just kind of like, I think we've crossed the threshold where it is just too clear that the gap in supporting cast is too significant for Dallas to overcome. And that's not to say that everything went perfectly for Dallas because obviously it didn't. And as dominant as Luca especially was in the first half, but Kyrie was quite good in that first quarter. Kyrie then really was quite quiet in the second half of this game. And Luca relatively was much quieter in the second half of this game than he was in the first. Dallas also was super off in terms of their three point shooting. So if you're a Mavs fan, you might point at all those things and say, okay, it's not like we played our A game either.

And that's true. but specifically when it comes to the shooting aspect of it, the difference in Boston's off shooting night versus Dallas's is in your confidence in the shots that they're missing. We are talking about for Boston, KP going 0 of 3 from deep on good looks. Sam Howes are going 0 of 5. Jason Tatum missing not just pull up threes,

but like several wide open catch and shoot looks where the ball is swung over to him. St. goes for Jalen Brown. Like these are really good three point shooters who are missing shots that you know they are normally going to be quite good at. When you look at Dallas's off shooting night, Aluka was really good with all of his shot making,

but from beyond the arc as well, it's PJ Washington going cold, which you know is always liable to happen. It's Derek Jones Jr., Maxi Kleba, Josh Green, these guys combined in to go 0 of 8 from deep and not just from deep, overwhelmingly on above the break threes, the exact sort of shots that Boston wants you taking.

That's where there is just a pronounced difference in the off shooting nights between these two teams. And so even those things going wrong for Boston, it just wasn't enough. And honestly, you never really felt like Dallas was going to win this basketball game. These are just two teams that were built in dramatically different ways, Logan. And we are very much seeing the reality of that. And I know there were a lot of people coming into this series who believed in the value of having clearly the best player on the floor in Luca Dachach for Dallas.

Having coming into this series, you would have thought two of the three best players. certainly two of the three best offensive players with Luca and Kyrie. Kyrie hasn't played up to that level, which is one thing. But the other thing is that as valuable as that sort of star power is in terms of the historical precedent, you just don't see teams like Boston. You just don't see teams that have five top 50 players, as we've talked about, maybe the most complete starting five that we've seen in 40 plus years in this league. When you think about how these teams made their moves to like fill things out over the last year,

What was it for Boston, Logan? It was training for Christophe's Porzingis coming off of a career season, like clearly a star-level player. It's training for Drew Holiday, who was viewed as a star-level player and was arguably their best player in this game, was absolutely massive. Dallas has done an awesome job of building out their roster, but what are they doing? They're signing Derek Jones Jr. on the minimum.

They're picking Derek lively 12th overall. They're seeing what they can do to use their assets that consist of Grant Williams and two first round picks way down the line to get PJ Washington and Daniel Gafford from two of the worst teams in basketball. They did a really good job putting themselves in a position to be here. But those are two entirely different paths. And they should lead to entirely different expectations. That's not in any way to take away from Boston because they're a great, great basketball team. It's more just a reflection on how people viewed this series coming into it.

Because there is such a gap in supporting cast that, yeah, of course it's going to make more of a difference in this series than normal because we're talking about dudes who were picked up off the scrap heap and have absolutely overperformed but are all legitimately flawed in their own ways versus due to our star level basketball players. Boston has five of those dudes and it's just exceedingly difficult for me to see Dallas overcoming that. Yeah. And coming into this series, I know you made to take the Celtics front of rated and I think that's exactly what happened. You're talking about the places they came from. Boston was already a championship level contender that just had underachieved over the past few seasons.

And what did you do to that? You added two of the best complimentary guys in basketball who, you know, or at this stage in their career is just committed to win it. You know, I mean, that's the goal. Christophears is coming from one of the worst organizations in sports, the Washington Wizards. Like Drew Holliday won a title. He knows what it takes. And those guys have committed to that.

But it's a great point. The Mavericks didn't make the playoffs last year and had to have a dramatic mid-season turnaround. This isn't to take away anything from either of these basketball teams. But yeah, and I think it swung too far in the other direction, man, where the reputation of the Boston Celtics seemed to, you know, supersedes. Thank you for. And you were you, Logan?

Oh, yeah. Dude, I told you right before the show started, man. The Boston Celtics, I love doing this, man. They make me eat a big old piece of humble pie. like every time I come on here, man. And they prove that tonight. Like, it is a testament to this group top to bottom. And I want to hit on another big key thing that you're talking about with the defense.

Right. Nobody else in basketball has the luxury of this many, not only great players, but great defenders. Yeah. That can, one, match up against any of these guys in one-on-one context, but also Boston has a luxury of playing off Luca a little more. And it's not as dramatic as like Oklahoma City. was doing where they were blitzing and sending two guys every single time at the ball,

they can help off a little bit. And the Dallas guys just can't punish them enough, right? Derek Jones Jr. can't hit enough threes. PJ can't hit enough threes. PJ created a little more for himself, but can't create enough off of the advantages. And, right, because with Oklahoma City, it's like three guys getting out of position and diverting their attention to Luca. With Boston, it's like two tops every time.

It's the difference between blitzing and just helping off of bad. shooters. Yeah, and we're clearly seeing that PJ and Derek Jones Jr. are really struggling when they aren't just spoon-fed really easy, wide-open looks that are completely uncontested because of the blitz. And that was a huge reason why, you know, Dallas was able to get through the first three rounds of these playoffs. When the defense doesn't have to do that to slow down Luca Donchich, well, we're seeing that there's just a huge gap in the supporting cast, man. When you get this out of Kyrie. It's like, damn, it just really feels like Dallas doesn't have a chance. And I said this after the first show, but to eke out a win, to barely win, like in this game,

Dallas is going to have to play perfect basketball. And the reality is Boston doesn't to win games. They can play a mediocre Boston Celtics basketball game and they can win. That's not what this is, but I'm just saying on average, Dallas is going to have to play damn your flawless basketball to win one game, to eke out of victory. in Boston, for the most part, can coast a little bit more. And that's, it just speaks to the, to the massive, massive talent discrepancy. And I'm a victim of that too, man. I thought it was going to matter more.

I thought the gap between Luca was going to be more massive between him and Tatum and the rest of this group. The collective has picked up the slack and where, you know, Tatum has left them short. And Kyrie hasn't been as good enough as he's needed to be. But there's a huge, huge gap between these two teams. And that's what we've seen through two games. And you talk about Boston not necessarily playing their best. I think that the shooting is the clearest reflection. But to me, it's more about the difference between the stars.

What did I say, Logan? I said viewing this series as Luca versus Tatum is the silliest possible way to view this series. And I think that Tatum had an interesting performance in this one. I think he did some things very well. I think he did some other things very poorly. But the reality is Drew Holliday is your best basketball player in this game. And he did such a phenomenal job of providing off. offensive value, even when this was an off shooting night for everybody from Boston.

He actually shot okay from Beyond the Arc, but not at any sort of high volume. He was extremely efficient in the paint and just has such phenomenal feel offensively. His cutting off of Jason Tatum, when he drew a second defender, was excellent. He is legitimately really good in the dunker spot. And we saw some of that in game one as well. Boston just has such versatility with how they can space things. The versatility of every player in this offense, every guy essentially can fill multiple roles. You see it with Drew Holiday, his patience, his willingness to deal with physicality down low as a finisher.

He's constantly catch ready. Derek White is pretty good there. Two, he's not quite as comfortable finishing around the rim, but he can get to those sort of short-range jumpers. That's a crazy weapon to have from your guards when your wings are drawing extra attention downhill as drivers. his closeout attacking was phenomenal in this game. Just so aware of these hard closeouts and saying, I'm not going to force a shot, which we know can be an issue for the Boston Celtics historically, right?

Those sort of quick, rushed catcher two threes, as good as they are. There's a difference between a good look from deep and a forced one, and he didn't force any. He was getting down to the rim. He was beaten Luca when he wasn't rotated over quickly enough. He had a really nice finish over Daniel Gafford. He ran the floor in transition, got a couple easy buckets there, and what he does attacking the offensive glass is so valuable.

He has four offensive rebounds in this game, Logan, 11 rebounds overall. He's had a career rebounding season, but he was the number two offensive rebounding point guard this regular season. He's the number one offensive rebound and point guard in this postseason. He's getting like two offensive boards a game. And then he's always going to make the extra pass offensively. Like he just does so many winning things. It isn't always going to show up on the stat sheet like it did tonight. He isn't always going to be as involved as he was tonight.

But like we're talking about him getting you an extremely efficient 26 points. Almost none of it self-created. So consistently attacking within the flow of the offense. All of this while he's serving as the primary Kyrie defender and we know he's an all defense level guy like that is his calling card. It's been really awesome to see him recast into a different role offensively where in Milwaukee he had to be basically your co number two. He and Middleton could trade off nights.

but then you have the 22 run, for example, where Chris Middleton isn't even out there. Like there was just too much of a burden on him. Janus's limitations as a clutch creator also made him like at sometimes your de facto offensive number one in those clutch situations. And it was just too labored. It was too inefficient for him when he is allowed to just weaponize his elite, pure catch and shooting and all of this stuff that he does,

cutting, finishing around the rim, his post up play we even see at times, being this big guard at 6-4, you just get all of these connective benefits out of him. And he's really thriving. So we talk about the different paths in terms of team building. KP is the deal that you look at and you just think about the value and you're like, oh my God, that was a highway robbery. Boston had to pay a decent price for Drew Holiday.

But it was absolutely worth it. When you are in this position, when you have been to the NBA finals and you've been to a handful of conference finals, it is about making the moves that will put you over the top. It is absolutely about committing to adding those sort of win now impact guys. And Drew Holliday is the epitome of a winning basketball player, especially in this role. And I do want to give props to his backcourtmate Derek White as well.

Because it feels like collectively they're sort of the stars of the night. Game one, it was all about KP, what he came in and did with his mismatch attacking and shooting and rim protection. This game, it's about Drew Holliday and Derek White. And it's not just their raw production. some of the plays they make down the stretch. Logan, you mentioned a number of key defensive plays from Boston. So many of those are generated by these two.

You have the Derek White's steel after Drew Holiday forces a deflection and sort of throws things into chaos a bit. And then what does he do? He finds Drew Holiday for an open three. Then you have Drew Holiday making an effort play, getting an offensive board, finds Derek White for an open three. That gets this lead up to 13. And at that point, I was kind of like, all right, this thing's over and done with.

Boston finally hit a couple threes. This is a 13-point lead with just a few minutes left. But then Dallas is actually able to cut the deficit just down to five. Jason Tatum dicks around a little bit offensively, and they just leave some empty possessions on the board. And it's Derek White who seals it with the insane transition block on PJ Washington as the best shot blocking guard in the league. That's just what he does.

So there are two players who epitomize winning basketball, and they are unselfish to their cores. It doesn't need to be a big scoring night from any one of them. they're legitimately one of the best backcourts in basketball because of the elite defensive impact, the elite shooting, the connective playmaking. They're one of the best backcourts and basketball and they're the fourth and fifth best players on their own team, Logan. They combine for 44 points, 16 rebounds and seven stocks in this game.

That's just unfair. And that's the difference. KP can be your hero in game one. These two can be your hero in game two. Like they just have an advantage in that way that Dallas could only dream of. And that's kind of the story of this game. Exactly. And you can get mad at Boston Ford.

You can be mad at the abundance of town that they have. Maybe you. Yeah, maybe me. Maybe me. I kind of just like the Boston Celtics heavily. That's it. Any one of these guys can be their best player in individual basketball game. Not many basketball teams can say that, right?

You look over at Dallas, if Luca is not the unequivocally, you know, best player on the court, If he is not the best player on the court, the mads have no chance of winning. PJ Washington and Derek Jones Jr. are not just magically going to be the best player on the court in a game for the Dallas Mavericks, right? I think you probably looked at Kyrie Irving. Or it's going to be Kyrie, right? Well, that's what I'm saying. Those are the 14th and 5th guys for Dallas.

Right. There's such a, such a large discrepancy. Now, when we are talking about hierarchy, Carson, I think there's an interesting narrative that's been going on recently, especially after Jason Kitt's comments. I am the first guy that is going to push back on Jason Tatum being crowned as like one of the five best players in basketball. I really think the Jason Tatum pendulum has swung way too far in the other direction. Like I was really surprised at the Brown over Tatum narrative developing after game one we

discussed on our show, you know, is Jalen Brown or Jason Tatum the better score? and I thought that was a really good discourse. I thought that was the, you know, logical route to go. Everybody else kind of jumped the horse and said they took it a step further because Jason Kidd came out and said that Jaylon's their best player. I don't know if it was an attempt to cause dissension or if that's just what Jason Kidd thinks. You know, whatever. Everybody kind of took the bait and ran with that.

And I do think that Jalen Brown's are better to score. You know, I had that take. I think he's been more consistent in these playoffs, that he's been more aggressive. I prefer Brown, you know, getting downhill. to Tatems' reliance on the perimeter, but we have gone way too far in the other direction, man. People are saying he's nowhere close to top five. He's not top 10. And like, Tatum's not perfect in this game. In this series overall, he's 17 points, 10 rebounds, and eight and a half assists a night on 12 or 38 from the field. That's 32% overall. And he's 414 from deep. He's

just under 29% from deep with nine turnovers. He's not been great offensively. But everybody has been so quick, Carson, to, like, actually call Jason Tatum a complete bozo. I mean, it is, it's gotten slanderous. It's liable, man. Look, man, I want to, I want to clown on Jason Tatum, too, but you guys are taking it too far. It's not even fun anymore. I have to be, like, rational with this, man. Look, he didn't score well. He's missing open threes. He is missing point-blank layups. He has been uncharacteristically bad for. protecting the basketball. All of these things are true. And there is something, Carson, about Tatum and the lights, and I do worry about him. Like, I wonder if the pressure of big games

gets to him. I wonder if that is just a fundamental characteristic and part of the Jason Tatum experience. We have a big enough sample size to wonder that. But I'm not just going to, you know, completely overlook all of the great things that he does for this Boston Celtic team. He does so many little things, you know, that are just separate from just scoring the basketball and putting it in the basket. He's constantly creating downhill pressure. I thought Jalen Brown and Tatum abused Luca on defense and anybody really got in their way. It was easy. It was just easy for these two to get downhill. And guess what? Tatum shot wasn't hitting, so he started getting downhill. Great. Thank you. He was playmaking his ass off. You talk about when Holiday cut, that's just chemistry, man. These two

guys are on the same wavelength, and it was beautiful. He's got the one where he draws the double on holiday. He comes in. He's got another one where he just feeds a pinpoint pass to cutting holiday between two defenders. But he was consistently making great decisions. He provided elite defense and rebounding. And I just don't want to overlook all of the great things that Tatum is doing because he had another bad night shooting from the field.

Like, we're just going too far with this, man. I don't know what's next. Like, is Jaylon Brown a top 10 plays? All of a sudden is Tateham not top 20. Is he not top 20? Like, how long are we going to go, man? Can we find a common ground? Like, I just, I don't want to be the guy defending Jason Tatum,

but we've just gone way too far, man. We have gone way too far with the Tatum slander. That's very big of you, Logan, because I know how you feel about Jason Tatum. The discourse surrounding him is going to be, pretty difficult to stomach, I would imagine, if things continue as they are. And he is a really interesting superstar. And the reason for that is that there is an offensive inconsistency with him that you don't

see from almost any other top 10 player. There's also the lack of an A plus trait with him that is pretty rare among these absolute superstars. And so that lends itself to some of these offensive off nights where you can just kind of look at yourself and say, okay, how does he stack up to these other? guys. Within the context of this performance, his playmaking was legitimately excellent. And he has been the best of his career this year in that respect. And I think has had a really nice postseason overall. And he's consistently, as you say, getting downhill in the important

stretches of this game, not necessarily to score, but putting the defense in rotation and specifically targeting Luca Donchich, man, like just absolutely burning him over and over again. And then he's making these laydown passes. He's consistently making kickouts. He's not going to wow you, right? He's not going to make the sort of supernatural reeds that we see from the league's elite playmakers, but he is doing his job. He is creating good shots for his teammates pretty consistently. And of course, on the other side of the ball,

and defensive impact is pretty much always going to be underrated when we talk about NBA stars, NBA players in general. It's just not nearly as appreciated as, ooh, look at how cool that bucket was, understandably so. But he's the guy who enables their entire defensive scheme. the ability of him to guard the fives, to hold up against them on the glass, and to also switch on to Luca Donchich and still be a quite good option guarding him. Like that has prevented these lobs being spoon fed to lively and Gafford that we normally see.

That has enabled Boston to not have to sell out with these blitzes that we see the couple spots when they do send you to the ball on Luca or Kyrie. They are actually allowing very easy shots for their teammates. It is Jason Tatum and his versatility that has allowed Boston in many ways to defend Dallas so effectively. He's been their best defensive rebounder this entire postseason. He's been great there in this series. But his shot making has been very off, like very off. He has been very inefficient as a score through two games.

And his finishing could absolutely be better. Like we're talking about some points left on the board in the paint around the rim as well. And in the fourth quarter of this game, Logan, I mentioned him dicking around earlier. Like, you get some bad Jason Tatum misses. He goes one of seven in the fourth quarter. And particularly what frustrated me is I love Tatum getting downhill. And I like him being aggressive. I like him trying to draw fouls.

I just thought there were a couple spots where there was a big, a rim protector, clearly in position to just defend him vertically. And he just kind of forced, was trying to punch on people. And he got met at the rim. And so those kind of feel like wasted possessions. but he's going to be inconsistent offensively. He had six boneheaded turnovers in game one. Like, this is just the Jason Tatum experience.

And it makes him the hardest NBA player to talk about because he exists in such a fascinating space where he is this very complete superstar. But he's kind of the B plus of a lot of things superstar, right? He doesn't have that a plus trait. And he is more inconsistent as a score in offensive player. So he inherently does stuff that's underappreciated. when he's off as a score, the rebounding, the defensive versatility, the playmaking in a series like this. And those performances get underrated. But then at the same time, you have the fact that

he is the best player for the Boston Celtics. And he is the frontman of a historically talented basketball team, a basketball team that is topping some of the all-time charts and net rating and point differential and very likely is going to march their way to an NBA title this year. And because we have such a tendency to conflate best player with that team's greatness, we have such a tendency to conflate team result with individual impact, that makes him overrated at times. I saw a tweet today, which is so ridiculous. But when something has like 6,000 likes or whatever, you can't just write it off and say, oh, nobody actually thinks this. And the guy said, Jason Tatum is going to have such a Steph Curry S career in the sense that

nobody appreciates him as the best player live in any moment. But then you look back and you just go, wow, he's a top 12 to top 15 player ever. And that's where I'm just like, what are we talking about? Because there very clearly is a delineation between him and the top five guys who concretely to me are Yokic, Yonis, Luca, NB, and SGA in terms of the offensive dominance and the offensive consistency, right? Those guys do have their overwhelming traits that just present them with a floor on that side of the ball.

Tatum just doesn't approach. And so you can take him out of those conversations. The Celtics being so great doesn't put him in there. But at any point after that, he's somewhere in that range. I said, coming into the playoffs, I had him as my number nine player. If he had a really good final series, I said, I could see him all the way up to number six. He's somewhere in that range. So to put him on either side of the spectrum beyond that to me is just wrong.

But unfortunately, I feel like that's where a significant portion of people actually lie when it comes to Jason Tatum. He is so polarizing and his offensive inconsistency is frustrating. But his defensive impact, his versatility, his rebounding, like that does provide a floor there. So I think most people just end up getting Jason Tatum wrong in one way or the other. And it lends itself to very, very dumb discourse. I just think this is who he is. And that's not to say that he is going to shoot 6th of 22 going forward.

To be clear, he absolutely can play better. He could have some legitimately awesome offensive games down the street. but you do know there's always the possibility of this. And there's the possibility it happens in back-to-back games, which isn't the case for the dudes who some people try to compare him to. We should just all come to terms of that. We should come to terms with Jason Tatum is a top 10 player. Jason Tatum is on an amazing basketball team.

He does a bunch of stuff that allows him to impact the game at a high level when he isn't dominating offensively and as a score. But he also has an inconsistency there that we have to acknowledge because it's real. And I think the Celtics front office realized that too, you know, it's a big component of why you add Holiday and Porzingis to alleviate some of that pressure. I think they recognized, all right, man, maybe this guy can't carry the load of an offense the way we need him to. Let's get even more help. And the one area I really do want to give Tatum credit for growing in is as a playmaker.

I mean, he really collapsed and fell apart. You know, he didn't score well in his last finals. But the biggest pitfall of Tatum was his inability to make good decisions and playmates. and, you know, just even like bear the load as a number one guy creating offensively. And he's completely blossomed there. That has been a huge part of the growth in his game. And so he's, again, I always think he's going to be inconsistent as a shooter. But that is real tangible growth.

And again, with a team this talented, his skill set lends itself to still playing winning basketball because of that. And another thing I want to hit on, I'm waiting for Tatum to have the breakthrough game in these finals. Yeah, he's knocking down everything. where because the thing that I keep coming back to with all of this Tatum tape from game one in game two is that he's getting to great looks. Like all of his shots are basically open threes that he's either creating off of the dribble or off the catch and he's just missing them or their layups right at the rim where again he's like rimming out. And I know it's got to be frustrating for him. It's frustrating for all of us. But they're going to fall at some point.

Like it's going to balance out. And I know that Tatum is just waiting also for it to happen. And so, you know, I just think discourse around Tatum has gotten really dumb. And I just, I don't know, man. It's the most frustrating thing, I think, in basketball right now. And I didn't really see this coming. And I think you make the perfect comp. Like, if you take Tatum out of this situation,

he's not going to be as impactful as these other guys that carry bigger loads. Again, that doesn't mean that we should just wipe away all the other great things he does on the basketball court. And he's a complete basketball player. He impacts every facet of the game. Absolutely. And it's just, it's gotten really toxic around discourse, man. And I want to, I want to settle this and put this one to bed. I appreciate you taking that stance with Jason Tatum. I do think overall, he's probably getting more hate than deserved right now because of what we talk about,

because of what basketball fans tend to notice and appreciate. And that's not what he has done in this series. But there is an expectation if you're going to be held to, okay, yeah, this guy is one of the generational talents. this guy could be the number one on any number of teams and they would win the title. Like he's in a privileged situation where there is so much shot making around him that he doesn't have to be that dude as a shotmaker and a score every night. And there's nothing wrong with that.

We just have to acknowledge that and understand that because the Celtics are different from the historical precedent and that they are probably going to win the title without a top five basketball player. That normally doesn't happen. But the response to that shouldn't be, oh, because they won the title, Jason Tatum is top five. Maybe it's just, hey, this is an exceptionally talented basketball team, one of the best that we've ever seen in that respect. Let's appreciate what Tatum does, but let's not get silly, goofy, irrational about it in either direction.

I do want to give some props to Jalen Brown as well because I thought this was another game where he got downhill. He again defended well. He made some really nice kickout passes. He had a few too many turnovers, but overall it was a good showing, and he was also putting the defense into rotation and had to, more of an impact maybe than the raw box score, the raw scoring numbers would indicate.

But really what stands out to me is just Boston's consistent ability to exploit these Dallas switches and the inability of Dallas to keep them from creating this dribble penetration and to keep them from creating these great spot-up looks for their awesome shooters. We talked about what Jason Tatum was doing to Luca Dons, which is so consistently easily getting by him off the bounce. And Boston has been able to, accomplish what Minnesota just couldn't.

And that is really target Luca on the defensive end and really make him pay. And there's a couple reasons for that. Number one, there's just more dudes on Boston who are so skilled offensively and are athletic enough to actually target Luca. But more than that, to me, it is about the comfort that you have with their playmaking and their spacing and the level of aggregate offensive skill. Because we saw if he got that switch with Luca, while the paint was going to be loaded up, right? He was going to see help. So it's not like he was just going to beat

him off the balance. And then, y'all, I'm getting an open look around the rim. That wasn't the reality. He was going to have to make the necessary reads as a playmaker. And the dudes around him we're going to need to knock down shots. And Tatum has just been better as a playmaker. And even though Boston wasn't making a lot of those open threes tonight, they end up making enough of them. And their shot quality is so good that you feel like over the course of the series, like things are just going to get a lot better for them offensively than they were in this one. So that's just what's great about this Boston offense. They have so many ways to attack.

They're so complete. And most teams can't punish these Mitch matches in the way that Boston is built to. Like nobody or hardly anybody has a dude like KP who is that exceptional attacking this matches. He was the most efficient post score in basketball this year. So game one, you see it in this game, even though he doesn't play. that much and then he leaves this game hobbled. But there are several spots where he gets that Kyrie switch. That's just an automatic bucket for him.

Daniel Gafford also is struggling to contain these dudes off the bounce off with some of these switches. So Dallas has just been able to trust their guys to defend well enough in space and then to trust the backline defense to help and to take away those easy looks around the rim. And Boston is just so great at shooting that as we anticipated, they have been a really difficult counter in that way. Well, Dallas has been able to load up the paint and really settle, right, and dictate and win on that side. With Boston spacing, you just can't have it. Like, you get that initial dribble penetration from Tatum or Jaylon Brown, whoever it may be. And then it's like, the house is on fire, you know? Uh-oh.

It's going to be a swing, swing, swing, open three. It's going to be really tough, man, because it's just, it's a good contrast to what Dallas wants to do defensively, man. And I think that's an interesting part. Dallas won on the defensive side of the ball. Like that's why this team was really good. Like, look at Kyrie were going crazy offensively. You know, PJ and Eric Jones Jr. were giving you whatever. They won on that side of the ball. And I think that's a common theme for a lot of the teams that were deep into these playoffs.

Outside Indiana, Boston won defensively. Minnesota won defensively. Dallas won defensively. And then they got enough offense, right? Dallas can't win defensively against Boston. And that's a conclusion I'm reaching. They just, there's too much shooting. There's too many guys who can put the rock on the floor.

And Luca, I feel for Luca a little bit just because of the offensive load that he has to take on. And then the fact that they're going at him, Luca's injured and got this huge responsibility offensively. Like he's just, I don't think he's going to be able to stop anybody. Like there's moments, right, where he can put a body on somebody, but he got cooked in this one. I also want to give props to do. That monster dunked the Jalen Brownhead in transition.

where he had to crossover on Luca. That was just gnarly. Also, I want to give a big shout out to Boston's collective and what they did on the glass too. This is a really, like, minute detail. But Boston's ability to just put a body on somebody. And like all of these guys are such great winners. Brown, Tatum, Holiday Man, White.

There's such a commitment to doing all of the little things. And one of those little things, man, it's just tagging a guy on the glass. Dallas hasn't been able to win defensively against Boston. They also haven't been able to win on the class. I know that Lively and Gafford get theirs statistically like on the rebounds, but when they wanted to, Boston was dictating that too. Like they just have so many guys that crash and go all out.

I was impressed with their effort there. Dallas seems outmatched, man. Dallas seems really outmatched. And I'm, I don't know, man. I don't want to see a sweep. It feels like what is what's lurking around the corner, Carson. Interesting. I don't know if I necessarily agree with that. I just think sweeps are generally pretty tough to pull off against very good basketball teams.

And as commanding as this 2-0 lead may feel right now, you just held serve if you're Boston. And I don't think that we have an update on KP. Like it didn't look bad. I would presume that he's going to play. Stay on the court for a couple more minutes. But he was clearly hobbled and he didn't return to the game after he came up hobbling, whatever that was with his leg. That would potentially open a door for Dallas.

So I wouldn't go as far as to say sweep or whatever. But the path to them, again, now you have to win four out of five. That path is crazy, crazy long to me. So we will talk about that on the other half of a break. What went wrong for Dallas? What needs to go better going forward after some quick words from draft kings. We are this close to crowning an NBA champ. And with the action heating up on the court, it's even hotter at draft king's sports

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podcast network on TikTok. So, Logan, when we look at this Dallas performance, first thing that stands out is that Luca got his and he, in terms of the box score, has a pretty strong performance. And in that first half, was really quite dominant offensively. What did you make of his performance? I thought it was a masterful performance. I know he ends up getting the eight turnovers. And shout out to Boston for being really opportune with when they, you know,

blitzed him and stuff. Pritchard has one where he's creeping up behind him. There's other ones where there's a little cheeky double team and he ends up getting the ball poke loose. It was great, though. I mean, 32, 11, 11 on 12 of 21 from the field, four of nine from behind the arc. They flash some of these stats up during the broadcast, but he's got the most points per game following a loss in NBA playoff history, more than Michael Jordan in first quarters after a loss. He was averaging 13 points per game on 60, 50 splits in these playoffs. He, again, not just 13 points in this one.

In the first half, he gives you 23. I want to give him a shout out for his just exquisite passing, man. The passing in this game was phenomenal. There's one where he's doubled in the corner. He has a crazy kickout to PJ where PJ can't make the defense pay. That's what some of this is frustrating, man. Lucas diving these guys up, or these are like all-time highlights, and they're not hitting shots. He's got a no-look kick to Josh Green.

He misses a corner three. Some of them do convert. He's got that nice dump off to Derek Jones Jr. But there's so many. The one that really stuck out to me, too, was he's matched up with Horford on the elbow or on the wing near the end of the shock clock. And he gets PJ cutting around the free throw line, like off of a shot. So many great passes, killing guys out in isolation, shooting over the tops of guys. Luca did get his. And ultimately, guys can't punish him enough for his gravity. but I thought it was encouraging the way he was able to play make after game one, only not just one assist there.

I think that has more to do with his teammates, not converting than anything else. But he's able to be weaponized more as a playmaker in this one. It was a really good game, man. And he's just got such an insane burden on his shoulders. Maybe he could have executed a little better in the fourth quarter, but that's kind of the only area where, you know, I felt like Luca left is short.

This is an all-time offensive performance from one of the games. great offensive players. All time. I mean, he's still got a huge burden on his shoulders, man. He's not getting any of his. It is really good. The eight turnovers is problematic, but everything else Luca gives you you'll take. And I don't mind those, man.

When everybody else is struggling so much, like, I understand Luca trying to put the entire team on his back, man. He's a monster. Well, I just think all time is too strong an adjective. He was off to a crazy, crazy start to this game, like extremely dominant and was just cooking every individual matchup to a different level than we saw in game one where like as a score, he was relatively successful but wasn't like crazy efficient. And when you consider how much they were able to limit him as a playmaker, that was a successful game plan overall for Boston. This game was different. He was just too big for Derek White.

He was bullying him. The mid-range shot making was incredible over the top. He was too shifty for Jason Tatum was consistently getting by him off the bounce. And even when he was really well defended by anybody, like his pull-up shooting was just out of this world. But the key for Boston that I'm very glad that they realized and they primarily stuck with is that you just have to live with that largely. Now, they did get a little bit more aggressive sending two defenders to him in some

spots. But I thought, as you say, they were selective with that and generally had the element of surprise working to their advantage in some way. Or you just had some dudes make some really good defensive plays for them. Like when KP is showing high while Tatum is still recovering and Luca tries to get that behind the back pass out to PJ and Tatum picks it off. I thought they had a very smart blitz with KP when the shot clock was winding down and he was on lively.

So that's a spot where you absolutely want to force the ball out of Lucas hands because it's like, okay, lively catch the ball at the free throw line with three seconds on the shot clock. That's not a good spot for the Dallas offense to be in. So they did send two defenders his way some more. But when they were doing any sort of like conventional predictable sending two to the ball, like that's where you start getting these wide open looks for his teammates, lob for Derek Jones Jr. Wide open dunk for Derek lively that we just hadn't seen.

So I want to give them props for not over committing to Luca and being smart about when they did bring to because the reality is you are just better off with Luca having to take 25, 30 shots. all of them working in single coverage. A lot of them difficult. Then you are allowing these wide open, extremely high value shots for his teammates. And then he ultimately did hurt them with the turnover, eight of them.

And I thought that Boston did a really nice job of bringing pressure. And they brought some physicality in some spots that I think forced him to turn the ball over. You have another spot where KP is a deterrent, trips him up, forces him to travel. But he does go one of six in the fourth quarter. So this was a really, really good Luca game. And overall, if we're doing blame pie for Dallas,

he's a very small part of it because of how much Kyrie struggled because of the offensive limitations of his whole supporting gas. But he was bad defensively. And down the stretch, like he did struggle. And he didn't get anything easy in this game. So if you're Boston, you're fine with that. You know that he's going to be the best player on the floor. You know that he's going to be the best score on the floor.

And they did allow him to get his teammates going more in this game, just out of necessity. again, they had to dedicate some more attention to him in these spots. But overall, like this wasn't enough on its own to fuel Dallas to win. That's not to say that Luca didn't do enough. That's just to say that with the other limitations of this roster, it wasn't enough. And I think that's where you look at Kyrie more than anybody else because he has to be way better going forward. And that's where when we talk about how it's like Dallas has to win this one because Boston is off in terms of their three-point shooting and Tatum is off.

the reality is to cash in on that sort of off night, you probably just need Kyrie to be really, really good. You probably need not just Luca to be really good offensively. You need both them. You need them to combine for 60, as we've talked about. And Kyrie through two games of this series is averaging 14 points per game on 37% true shooting, which is just brutal. And he was able to win with his quickness in a few spots,

but he also got blocked by Derek White one time that he beat him off the bounce. And so he wasn't extremely successful, finishing in the paint, but more importantly, he's missing damn near all of his pull-up jumpers, and he's not getting a lot of easy stuff offensively. And what's even more problematic about that for Kyrie is that we've raved about his all-around impact throughout this postseason, which has never really been his calling card, but the level he's defended at, the level that he's been out as a playmaker has been really impressive.

The problem is now he actually can get hunted defensively because this Boston team just has so many big wings, so many good offensive players. he doesn't hold up as well in this matchup. And now he's not drawing enough defensive attention to have a big playmaking impact like he could against OKC for an example. So they need him to be great as a score, and he has been really bad as a scorer. So we can point fingers at a lot of dudes for Dallas

who haven't been good enough because there are plenty. But to me, the guy who is most disappointing is Kyrie, because everybody else, it's like their limitations are their limitations. leave bad shooters open and they don't make shots. It's disappointing. It's not shocking. Kyrie struggling this much has been really costly for Dallas in this game much more than game one because this is the one where you had the opportunity and he did not seize it whatsoever. Yeah, and I do want to commend Boston's defense one more time for just making life hell on Dallas, taking away all the easy stuff like we're talking about easy corner opportunities

for shooters, lobs over the top. Like you talk about that one lob to Derek Jones, Junior. It's like damn, man, that's like the one time Boston, you know, didn't get set up. That was in transition when Boston's been really, really consistent. Well, really. Yeah, but they had him set a screen and they sent to it, Luca. Really stout. But that's what I'm saying is they weren't set up fully and that's why they were able to exploit that. But when Boston has been able to set up and get their defense like going, that's just never there. It's never an option. And they played Luca really physically. Again, Luca eats his, but he is

working for these shots, man. Like when Drew and Jalen Brown were on him, it is, they are banging, man. It is really physical. And they're doing the same thing with Kyrie, man, just making him work. Don't do that. I'm sorry, I was just a bit alarmed by the phrasing there.

They're just making these guys work. And that's what you do to great players. It just make life difficult on them. Kyree, two games, Carson, you mentioned the true shooting number. He hasn't hit a three. He's 0 of 8 from behind the arc. It is crucial that he gets going from there. And the biggest issue really is that, you know, we haven't had a spurt.

We haven't had a stretch from Kyrie. And that's what his value has really been in these playoffs is, Luca, you do your thing for the first quarter, all right? You need to pick up the slack in the second. I got you. All right, Luca, you can take the whole first half. I got you in the third quarter. It's when Kyrie can give you these microwave moments of,

all right, we're stalling out. The engines, you know, the engine's stalling here. and he gives you that little extra boost, that little extra kick at the most opportune time. And there are moments in this game. Doris mentions it on the broadcast. Hey, fourth quarter time. Kyrie hasn't been going. It's his time to eat.

And we just haven't seen that at all from him. We just need signs of life. We need one of those stretches. And this is a game again that you just got to capitalize on. And that's the scariest aspect of this game to me. I don't want to beat a dead horse with his tape. But the fact that you don't capitalize on. on poor shooting and Jason Tatum having a bad scoring night.

That's the recipe for a Dallas win. That's a huge component. Tatum stanks scoring the basketball. The Celtics lull themselves into shooting a bunch of threes and they don't make them. They generated a ton of open looks. I'm actually not really mad at their shot quality or decision making. All of the looks were basically open, but they were all from deep. The next two recipes, the keys to that recipe are Kyrie and Luca Ball out.

Luca balled out. Kyrie didn't. I agree. He's been the most disappointing player. in these finals. And his job isn't, that's what I want to emphasize about this. Kyrie's job, it's not that it's not difficult. And he had a good first quarter. He had eight points in the first quarter. He had eight the rest of the game. We just need stretches. We need stretches of great Kyrie where it's eight minutes of high impact

Kyrie just going out there and getting buckets. We don't need really an entire game. I trust Luca to give me three great quarters. Can Kyrie give me one? And that really would make the difference. I just don't really see it getting easier for Kyrie. You look at all of these things. It's not that I don't think Kyrie's going to play better. I think Kyrie will have a better game three or game four. It's just going to balance itself out.

I think Kyrie's that great of a basketball player. But the opposition is not going to get any easier. He's going to have Holiday. He's going to have Brown. He's going to have Derek White. And he's going to have Forzingis at the rim. This is just a really tough defense to be matched up against. But I'm optimistic.

Kyrie's a great player. They're going to go back home. that's key number one though for Dallas getting a basketball game is that Kyrie just gives you more and again I think he's a great player I think going back home he'll play a little better but this great defense isn't going anywhere no it's absolutely not and this is a defense that is a really really tough matchup for Dallas specifically as we talked about because of what they can do with Tatum because of their switchability because for Kyrie of the fact that you're dealing with the best

defensive back court in basketball. It is, of course, a really tough draw, but he has to be significantly better. And I do think he'll be better going forward. The question is just, is that little too late. And the answer is probably yes, because, again, when you are at this sort of overall talent deficit, it has to be about your two dudes being out of this world. I've talked about this as being just in terms of peak, the best offensive backboard that we've seen because the shot creation, the shot making is so overwhelming,

Normally, Kyrie has not lived up to the task whatsoever through these first two games. And so I think you put the blame more on him than anybody else. I do want to give some props to the MAF supporting cast because even though we're talking about how big the difference is between these two teams in that respect, that's always been very apparent on paper. And that's not like, oh man, these dudes are totally letting you down. Now, are there spots where dudes need to knock down wide open shots? Absolutely.

Absolutely. Absolutely. But Boston having way better supporting cast players isn't necessarily like the fault of Dallas is. They traded for Kyrie. They had no assets at that point. They were just doing what they could. So we shouldn't be saying,

oh, Derek Jones Jr. You need to be as good as Derek White. PJ. You need to be as good as KP. Like obviously that's ridiculous. And I thought these guys did some good things. PJ's close out attacking was really good. And he was physical as a driver.

He got to his little floater game. Daniel Gafford had a significantly better game and particularly in that second half. I loved how he attacked the glass. I thought his touch finishing was impressive. And particularly he has that stretch for back-to-back possessions. They go to him in the post against Jason Tadden. He gets two easy buckets.

That was some offensive punch that he hadn't provided in game one and lively really can't provide. He doesn't have that sort of physicality and that sort of touch around the rim. And Derek Jones Jr., I thought, did a better job of cutting and of doing some of the off ball stuff using his athleticism as he had. has throughout these playoffs. But again, that inability of a number of these supporting guys to hit those above the break threes is just absolutely killer.

It's PJ Washington, Maxi Kleba, Josh Green, Derek Jones Jr. All of them. They combine for one of 13. And that just allows KP to play drop when he's involved, when one of them is being used as a screener and he can ignore them and they're bricking wide open looks. Literally no contest. And it allows Boston to be more aggressive with their help in spots. So the impact that that has on this offense goes beyond just the box score.

It goes beyond just the wasted possessions when they miss a shot because it basically means that if Luke is going to use KP's man as a screener, well, he's kind of playing one on two. And he's still been able to get KP in space enough or he can just get a sliver of space for his pull up shooting. And he's been able to create some good shots for himself. But that's a disadvantage. And you're kind of playing four on five offensively with the level that these dudes are at. So one of the biggest things to the Mavs having hope going forward is going to be figuring out who can make shots, who can bring offensive value. Because after game one, I thought, let's see more Maxi Kleba.

Because when you play that Jumbo lineup with him and PJ and a big, then you just have the ability to switch, particularly with KP on the floor and not worry nearly as much about him, just getting these super easy mismatches where he can shoot over these smalls because four or five dudes on the court can guard him at least decent. well. And Derek Jones Jr. had really struggled as a shooter in game one. But they both struggle mightily as shooters in this one. And at least Derek Jones Jr. is bringing you some value with his athleticism offensively. Also, Boston wasn't as deliberate about attacking those KP switches.

They didn't do it with the same volume. And so you were able to get away with it a little bit more again. Like when they switched Kyrie on to him, then mostly they went to KP a couple times and he got a couple easy buckets. But it's definitely disappointing. Because although we can't hold these guys to the same standard, they're just not as good. Like missing the wide open threes, that's inexcusable. It's killer.

I mean, yeah, it's killer all first half, man. Especially in that first quarter, dude, Porzingis wasn't even going out to Maxi Kleba. He owned Cleba in the first quarter, man. He stuffed him one time. Lucas creating these easy looks for him. He airballs a three that leads to the Jalen Brown monster Dunkin' Trans. position, you have to hit those shots. And, like, I know that sounds like a simple key moving forward, but literally which one of

you guys is going to hit open threes? Because I really don't care at this point. If it's, I think you got to keep PJ out there and try Derek Jones Jr. As much as possible. But it's like, is it Josh Green? Is it Exum? Exum hit an above the break three. I almost, I was shocked.

Yeah. I was like, wow. Dallas Maverick made it above the break three. whoever it is, that guy's going to get burned. And Boston has so many of these multifaceted guys. You know, Dallas just doesn't. And I do think the other guy that if we're looking, I know you said this last show, and I agree, I think we got glimpses of it in this one.

If there's going to be a third guy that steps up for Dallas, it's going to be PJ Washington. And I like what we got more when he would get those D.Y switches. He gets to a couple of floaters in this one. He's the guy that I'm looking at. And again, more of this is on kind of. I read, yes, the aggregate here deserve blame for just clanging open threes. That may get lost in the shuffle, too. You know, they go, I think it was six to 26 from behind the arc in this game.

Like that's also inexcusable from Dallas's supporting cast. But again, man, that's, it completely limits what this Dallas offense can do, the ceiling, right? We're going to load up on Luca. We're going to put, you said it perfectly. Four on five. You can't win like that. You have to punish the other team for playing like that. If Christops is going to drop, you've got to punish them.

And they just didn't do that. Again, the thing, though, I'm encouraged that these things will balance out, right? I feel like we're – that's what I said from game one, man. I was like, it's got to balance out, right? And that's what's scaring me about a potential sweep here from Boston. Like, damn, what if it just doesn't balance out? And Boston just runs the table these next two games. But that's what I'm waiting on.

I'm waiting for a great Kyrie game. I'm waiting for these guys to actually help Luca and knock down some shots, but it's concerning. Like, I don't know, there's very little, like, really encouraging things that I can take away from Dallas in these first two games. And there's a lot of areas where I feel like Boston could be even better. Jason Tatum, I think, could shoot the hell out of the ball next game and just go nuclear. We have yet to see a good game from Jason Tatum scoring the basketball. You mentioned it just now.

I think they all the second half, I was like, well, one, why is why is, Porzingis not out there, too, when he was, I was going, damn, man, put him into action. Let's just get a small dude on Christops and run these boys out of the building. There are so many more areas where I think Boston can play even better. And there are very few areas where I really see, like, Dallas completely turning it around. That's where I'm at. You said it pretty well. I do think there are areas Dallas can improve.

These guys could make wide open threes at a better clip than they have. have. Kyrie can play better. But I do look at Boston and you highlighted two of the key areas. Tatum can absolutely play better. KP can be on the floor more and be more involved. And the update is that there's basically zero concern. He didn't aggravate his calf injury at all.

He says he's going to be out there game three no matter what. I would like to see him out there even more. I understand the conditioning. But it's like we're in the NBA finals. He's a game breaking player. I understand that to some extent you feel like you can target him a little bit more out of pick and roll than Horford, but I do feel like because of the fact that he's really not guarding the bigs very much. And so they're not getting behind him on the role. Like,

I'm not too worried about KP guarding those actions and offensively. Like, he just brings such a different dimension with his mismatch attacking and defensively with his rim protection as well, although Horford is clearly more switchable and has been good overall in this series. And then the other thing is just what we talked about, the fact that they were ice cold from deep and you love the shots that they got. And you love how constantly that Dallas defense was in rotation. And Dallas defended the three point line better, I thought. I thought that they rotated better.

But still, Boston left a lot of meat on the bone in this one. So going forward for Dallas, I still think that we could see a little bit more trying to get PJ Washington involved when he has the Derek White matchup as a mismatch attacker. I think that we've seen what he can do as a driver there. He does have a physical advantage. I do wonder if we see more of Gafford going at Tatum. I did not expect that to be the case coming into the series. I did not think that would be something that they would try.

But again, first possession of game one, what happened? Gafford drew a double there and he was able to create an open three for a teammate. And then in this game, you have the sequence where he gets two easy buckets out of the post over Tatum. Like Tatum holds up well there. And you wouldn't generally entrust Gafford with that sort of responsibility. ability to create for himself, but he is bigger there and he does have good enough touch. It's definitely not something you can try with lively, but I wonder if they go to that more at all. And then it really is going to be like, who's the duty you can trust out of this entire

group? Because I don't think there's a big enough gap between Derek Jones Jr. and Dante Exum and Josh Green, like where you are just absolutely married to your rotations there. And Exum does bring a little bit of playmaking and ball handling and pushing in transition and He's still bringing that defensive value. Like if one of those dudes can step up, then that's a dude who I would be willing to play if on Dallas and that's a dude who could make a difference. But ultimately, I still think they're going to struggle to create the easy offense that they're used to.

They're not going to manufacture those same corner threes. They're not going to manufacture those same lobs. It's going to be about Luke and Kyrie being great in their matchups and the supporting cast just doing enough. And at this point, I am much more confident in Boston's formula. As I was beforehand, I felt pretty confident that Boston was going to win. this series. And if they weren't, it would have to be because Luke and Kyrie were just so, so great. And Kyrie hasn't been that. Yeah, Dallas is scrambling and searching for answers.

And I think Jason Kidd is going to look to his rotation next game to really, you know, see who they're going to rock with. And what sucks about that is, again, the complete value that you're getting out of these Boston role players compared to the other guys. You're always sacrificing something, you know, by subbing out one of these guys. If you take Derek Jones junior out, you're losing something defensively if you're putting in an Exum or Josh Green. They may bring you more shooting, but that's another defensive liability if you're running your starters. Right now you have Luca, Kyrie, and Green or XM. I'm not saying that well. Green's actually been all right on Tatum. And I'm not saying like that it's just you're losing

a lot of size and there's another point. Green probably is defensively, but damn, he was I don't necessarily agree. I mean, I love Derek Jones Jr. defensively and he's super long and athletic, but he's 6-5 and slight. So, like, if you're worried about the mismatch attacking, there's not a massive difference there. Of course, there is a difference. And Derek Jones Jr. is definitely better than these guys. It's just a question of, like, if he's missing all of his wide open threes,

how much can you play him? Yeah, and if somebody else can make their wide open three, which nobody else has. And if I'm, and if that guy's hitting shots, I would be willing to play him more. And the final thing I'll say on that, I feel like a lot of people, if you're listening, would probably point to, like, Jaden Hardy and go, oh, well, he's clearly, like, their best offensive creator off their bench.

He's a guy where, like, that defensive gap really is, like, if, man, this is not at all, like, a key to me to game three or anything. Like, if you're in DefCon, you know, four mode and Luca and Kyrie are completely off and you need to, I don't know, switch the mojo up and get, like, four or five Jaden Hardy minutes here to see if he can get something going. 4J 90 minutes. Calling it, that's the difference to the series. That is not by any means the solution, but that's kind of a point, man. There is no easy solution. Who the hell is going to hit a shot for the Dallas Mavericks?

That's the big question heading into game three. And we will soon find out. I don't know, man. I guess I'd probably give Axelm a little more burn. I like how he looked out there tonight. But yeah, Dallas has got to be better in basically every facet, man. Are you, so you're sticking to your guns, man, you think it's going to be Boston and six? You still think that Dallas gets two games?

No, probably not. I think that they probably win one of two at home. And I think Boston probably finishes it off. In five, I was confident in Boston coming into this series, but the gap through two games has been really quite big. And it's going to be tough for Dallas to find all of the answers that they need. I also think they should stop switching everything. With KP, I think it's a no-brainer because I think that Boston's a no-brainer because I think that Boston and can do even more damage there.

But even with like the Tatum Lucas switch, that's a spot where I would just hedge and I would try to recover to Drew. And like coming into this series, I was like, you know what? I think that you would probably rather make Tatum win in that matchup than you would potentially concede an open pick and pop three to Drew Holiday. There's not a good answer there.

But at this point, the problem is Luca can't contain Tatum off the dribble. And so you're conceding a wide. open three anyways. In fact, you're conceding a more open three because now Tatum's really getting into the teeth of the defense and you're just totally helping off of a really good shooter. That's been really, really exploitable. And I think that Dallas does need to mix things up there. This is a different series. This is a different offense that they're facing. And all the props to him, man, this Boston team showed a whole bunch of signs of being very, very special during the regular season.

And it was not adequately appreciated. And throughout the playoffs, there was really very little credit given to them whatsoever. And I will say, as I have many times, I am not trying to claim whatsoever that I have been the dude throwing the Boston parade. I didn't pick them to win the title coming into the playoffs. And I had not been lauding them with praise throughout the first three rounds of the playoffs because they hadn't played anybody remotely close to their caliber as a basketball team. But coming into this series, Logan, I did make sure to say, let's understand the gap in talent here.

Let's understand Boston is clearly the favorite here. And let's appreciate how great this team really is. And this has been a very convincing couple of games from them, even though this wasn't like a dominant win for them. Because again, they're able to win while falling short in what makes them as lethal as anything as a basketball team, that being their three point shooting. Any final thoughts before we get out of here? Nas read. Nas read Logan RIP no longer in the

Playoff field All right guys Appreciate you tuning in As always We'll be back with a show Before game three We'll talk some big picture stuff With this series

And maybe whatever else pops into our head But of course We'll be back after that game as well If you want more of our content It is across our YouTube channel All of our full shows All of our video essays

I made one on KP After game one Still relevant He does a lot of the same stuff at a high level And will throughout this series Luca, nope, Logan, congratulations, Logan, I just confuse you with Luca Donchus.

That's a fantastic player comp for you. Logan made a prospect breakdown about Matas Puzellis. Today you can go ahead and check out. So that is across our YouTube channel. You can listen to the show across audio platforms. You can also follow us across social, TikTok and Instagram at NerdSesh to see clips from the show and all of our trivia content,

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