The Mismatch - Celtics-Mavericks Game 1 Analysis, and Will Dan Hurley Leave UConn for the Lakers?

Episode Date: June 7, 2024

Verno and KOC react to the Celtics' Game 1 blowout victory, as they take a 1-0 series lead in the Finals (01:54). They discuss Kristaps Porzingis's dominant return, how the Celtics defense dramatically affected the Mavs offense, shot-quality numbers, expectations for how the Mavs can respond, and more takeaways from Game 1. Next, the guys dive into the latest rumors involving the Lakers' head coaching search that now includes UConn’s Dan Hurley (38:32). Can the Lakers offer Hurley enough to make the jump to the NBA? How would this affect LeBron James’s situation? And how would his potential jump affect the college basketball world? The NBA had their scouting combine in Italy, as they guys finish off the show debating whether international prospect Nikola Topic’s ACL injury will impact his draft stock, as well as some more draft talk (55:51). Got a question for Verno and KOC? Send them an email at [e-mail]! Or you can send the guys a tweet @ChrisVernonShow and @KevinOConnorNBA! The Ringer is committed to responsible gaming. Please visit www.rg-help.com to learn more about the resources and helplines available. Hosts: Chris Vernon and Kevin O’Connor Producer: Jessie Lopez Social: Keith Fujimoto Learn more about your ad choices. Visit podcastchoices.com/adchoices

What's up everybody. Justin Vera here from group chat on The Ringer NBA show. And we want you to come hang out with us for a live podcast recording on Tuesday, June 18th at 8 p.m. Bigwas, Rob Mahoney, and I are kicking off the Ringer residency at the L. Ray Theater in Los Angeles. Get your tickets now at the ringer.com slash events while they last. Hope to see you there. Welcome to The Mischmatch. I'm Chris Vernon. And join him as he does every Thursday night from The Ringer.com is Kevin O'Connor, aka Kevin Obama, Kevin O'Connor, Kevin O'Colmer, Kevin O'Clymer, Kevin O'Brien, Kevin O'Blessarian, Kevin O'Speer, Kevin O'Brien.

How are you doing tonight? Finals, we're here. So we got game one of the NBA finals. Not a great game. 107 to 89. The Celtics reigned victorious in game number one. It was an absolute avalanche. In the second half of the first quarter, led by one Chris Stavs Porzingis, and it was the largest lead after a first quarter of a game one in NBA finals history.

The lead then swelled up to 29, got down to eight in the third quarter, but it felt like the Mavericks were pushing a gigantic boulder uphill, and then it finally just came back down on them. And then with five minutes left to go, the white flag is waived and Boston ends up winning by, I guess the final tally was 18 points, but this was not a highly competitive game one to say the least. Overarching thoughts now that this game just ended that we just watched. Well, the Celtics won this game off of two runs, the 15 to 2 run at the end of the first quarter,

and then the 14 to 2 run at the end of the third quarter when the Mavericks cut it to 8 points. Mizzula calls a timeout with 427 to go in the third quarter, and then they go scoring 14 to 2 to finish the quarter, and then they just win the game. So I think those two runs want it for Boston in the game. In terms of overarching thoughts here, like what does game one mean for game two in the rest of the series? I think Dallas, we saw a lot of what we talked about ahead of the series

in that they were unable to find Gafford and lively for any lobs. Boston did an amazing job with their switching defense and their size and side, helping inside, preventing any lobs at the rim. They took a central source of Dallas's offense away from them. And I think that removed a lot of the shot quality that we saw the Mavericks get in all three of their series in the Western Conference playoffs on the way to the finals here. Whereas Boston, it felt like over half of their shots were from three. They got a lot of good quality shots. It felt like everything was tough for Dallas.

And granted, things might feel a little different if Kyrie hit some open threes. He had three or four open three-pointers that he bricked. If Lively doesn't have such a terrible game with some cheap fouls and the pivot foot, the travel that he had, I mean, like he was a real, it looked like early season Duke Lively. Maybe it's different. But it felt like game one, things were just easier for Boston on the offensive end, a lot more than it was for Dallas. And I think the people who picked Boston in the series,

that's a lot of what they anticipated with the Celtics versatility on defense. Well, and I think one of the things that ran through my mind and watching that first run that you were talking about because it was just this barrage of shots, I actually thought they were up by 17, and I know they shot a freaky percentage, but the amount of open shots that they were generating at open threes that they were taking, they took 20 threes in the first six.

17 minutes of that game. How many of those? There's seven threes in the first three minutes of the game. How many of those are they even like, I get it that, you know, Dallas is closing out and, you know, you're still not supposed to make that high of a percentage at game speed. But they were on fire. I thought of even could have been even bigger with the shots that they were creating

for themselves. And then the biggest thing, which is we did a lot of. analysis about this. We talked about how having that amount of time leads to paralysis by analysis. And one of the great unknowns and one of my great questions coming in was, I don't trust the Porzingis thing. Now, this is a one game, or this is one game. It's not a one game series. It's a seven game series. And so we will see. But. Amazing. I mean, I got a, look. He was sensational. I mean, this is not like, not only was it.

it not like feel your way back into things. He was by far the best player on the floor. Oh my God. It wasn't even close. And I was like, okay. Like this is how you can fall into the, hey, the Boston thing. We just watched them play depleted teams. And it wasn't like they ran them off the floor.

They were playing in close games against teams that we didn't necessarily think that they should be playing a bunch of close games with. And he wondered, are they, is this what they are without Porzingis? Are they just playing to their level of competition? What is it? But it had been so long since we had seen that team with Porzingis. And then when he comes back and then that is a better Porzingis than we ever even saw him be during the year.

Like those performances are few and far between where he's by far the best player on the floor and he is deterring everything at the rim on one end and he's knocking down every shot on the other end. And it was like, my God, you start to remember, oh yeah, this is the reason they won 60-something games because this guy brings a whole other problem to the table. And I know you've been big on all season saying he's the one that unlocks that thing. Man, there was, you just watched that first 12 minutes of that game. You would think that's the best player on earth.

Yeah, you could watch the first 12 minutes or you could just watch the last three minutes of the first quarter. Yeah. Because he had like two sequences during that amazing Celtics 15 to 2 run where he altered a shot at the rim once on defense on one of them. and then he got a switch against a smaller guy at the elbow and he just shot over him. I think it was Josh Green. And then like 30 seconds later or a minute later, he hits it above the break three, like an early offense for Boston. And then back on defense, he blocks Kyrie Irving, a pull-up by Kyrie of all people. He blocks the shot, outlets the ball.

And then that's when Sam Hauser hit the crazy corner three-pointer and the Celtics, you know, TD garden crowd just absolutely exploded. But Porzingis had two sequences on defense and offense where it was just like, okay, this guy looks like the best player on the floor right now. And I thought Porzingis effect was in full display for Boston in that first quarter and really throughout the game. And he looks like the X factor, but not just like the X factor, but potentially a guy that like those finals MVP odds should move a little up for him in the series. Well, and look, they will obviously have different challenges for him. Kim, that's the fun of a series, is that now Dallas will inevitably come out looking much different for the next game. In fact, they came out looking much different in that second half. And Boston, second quarter, second quarter even.

I mean, like really right away. Then they kind of let it, they let go of the rope when they were trying to come back in the second quarter. And then Luca hit that late three, which gave them, at least it gives you a little hope. and it's like, hey, maybe they could make a game out of this. Came out in the second half and they played great. Meanwhile, Boston was, it reminded me of once upon a time. Is that where you're going to go? No, just once upon the time, a football coach told me he was like,

once your team turns it off, it is hard as hell to get them to turn it back on. And they're, and it's hard. They were bludgeoning them. They're looking up at the scoreboard there by 29 in this game. And it is hard to maintain the level of intensity that got you up 29. So I'm not going to fault them that badly. But there's certainly, you could watch, as you mentioned, the last six minutes of the first quarter, and that is the absolute best of the Celtics.

Defense, offense, devastating, both ends. You could watch the first six minutes. of the third quarter, and that's the worst of the Celtics. Like, we did see both within the context of the game. A couple overarching things. Yeah. I mean. I think with that first six minutes of the third quarter, Chris, I know Dallas got

to eight, but I almost feel like they could have done it a little sooner in the quarter. Like that, the beginning of that third quarter on Boston was so ice cold on offense. Dallas was missing a lot. of shots early in the quarter. And then eventually they got it to eight. But I felt like even when they got it to eight, I'm like, this should be even closer. Like if Kyrie just hit some of these open threes.

And then obviously, like he misses another open three at the end of the quarter, lively has the travel and a myriad of a number of mistakes for Dallas helps Boston. In addition to Boston's effort, like they did turn it back on. Oh, Jaylon Brown turned it back on. Jaylon Brown, dude, the block. Did you see the double block play, Jalen Brown? Like Jalen Brown prevented a lob to Derek Jones Jr. at the rim. And then later in the same possession, he rotates over and blocks Derek Jones Jr.

Dunk attempt at the rim. It looked like a like Draymond Green type of defensive versatility, just protecting the room as kind of a small, quote-unquote, smaller guy. I don't know. It was amazing. It was incredible. Jalen Brown, I thought there was that segment when Dallas started. Alice started to cut it and it got to eight and it ballooned back up and they went on that 11-0 run. That felt that Jalen Brown spurned that on.

Fuel. He was like, no, no, no, no, no. He's like, no, no, no, no chance. Meanwhile, I love Doris Burke. But good grief, Doris. If you didn't stop talking about how Jason Tatum not doing anything was awesome, I was going to lose my mind. She's like, the patience.

And I'm like, their lead has gone to shit. They were up 29. Now they're up eight. And he's just an innocent bystander to what is taking place. Like, I get that maybe the criticism has gotten too heavy. And their expectation is too great on what Jason Tatum is. But this felt like very, very forced watching the game. A younger Jason Tatum would have been, you know, wouldn't it pass that ball?

and whatever. And I'm like, hold on now. Like, this is where the star stops it. And he says, this ain't happening tonight. And he did have a couple drives. But, I mean, again, it was Jalen Brown making those plays that flipped it back into Boston's favor and gave them all that energy. Meanwhile, I'm listening to the broadcast.

It's like, I was supposed to be convinced that Jason Tatum not doing anything was great. At one point, he had like more turnovers than field. goals and I'm being told that this is Jason Tatum showing maturity. I'm like, what? What is going on here? The point is that Boston team is so good. They didn't have to have a great Tatum. He was fine.

He was fine tonight, right? But certainly nowhere close to a great Tatum game by any means. The rest of his team really picked him up. I will say. But that's what Boston is, Chris. Sure. That's exactly what they all. They got that many awesome players.

They got so many different guys that can step up on different nights. I mean, Tatum had 16 shots for the Celtics. Brown 12, Porzinius, 13 off the bench, white 11, I mean, like pretty even distribution. Like Holiday 9, Horford 8, it's a lot of guys taking shots. Whereas Dallas, it's 26 Luca, 19 Irving, 11 PJ Washington, like a big drop off from your top two guys. Boston was pretty even throughout the game. And I think that's kind of representative of what Boston is. I mean, watching the game tonight, like you, like, actually during that, that Dorisberg conversation about Tatum, which lasted for, I don't know, felt like a long time on the broadcast.

Right. We're talking about Tatum. And I was thinking about an old, self-expans will know this, an old quote by Jay Crowder during the 15-16 season. And the conversation that year with Boston was, do they need a super? Do they need to make a trade? And Jay Crowder said, we're one superstar. And it kind of represented a kind of gritty, up-and-coming Celtics team. And that's a totally different roster than the one we have today with Boston.

But I just thought about that quote tonight in the sense that, like, Boston doesn't need their quote-unquote superstars to be superstars to win games. They have a roster full of good players. and together that's what's made them a 64 win team during the regular season. That's why they've smoked the weak east in the playoffs and why they very well could beat the Mavericks too. It's because the depth of their roster with high-quality talent spread throughout, not just the stars. The NBA finals are here and Fanbills giving you a chance to win alongside the champions

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Restrictions applies. He terms at sportsbook. That fandal.com. Think if I'm a Dallas fan or, frankly, if I'm Jason Kidd, I can go back after this one and I can say, okay, number one, we always lose game one. The outlier was actually the Minnesota game, right? Yeah. We know what they're bringing to the table.

We have seen how they are trying to defend us. You've got to trust us to be able to come up with ways to make this easier for you. Number two, there's no way we're going to get smashed on the three point like that over and over again. Number three, I am very happy with 107 being their total. That's, to me, these games are going to have to be played. Once you're getting into the 120 to 130 range, like, that's not, Dallas can't play that way. They're not going to be able to match the scoring of Boston. But if they can keep these things in a range under like 110, I think they're going, like,

defensively, again, you can't let that number swell up. And they were much better defensively in the second half than they were in the first half. And Boston obviously did some favors by missing some shots where they made everything. It felt like in the first half. But I think if you, if you grab this tape and you say, look, here's what we did in the second half. We improved this at the second half. Now, as I said, the boulder was too big. It collapsed on us while we're pushing it up the mountain.

But we had our chance to put the fear of God in them, and everybody started to get on the little pins and needles when it got to eight. So here's the best of, and here's what we can pull from that. And if we can hold this team to 107, we're going to be able to win games in this series. because we can score 108. What we can't do is have them scoring 123, and now we're asked to be scoring 124.

Like, we ain't got the horses for that. And so I actually think that the game is in that range, but they got, I mean, they got demolished at the three-point line, demolished. And obviously, their three-point defense was not good enough. I'll be interested to see what the shot quality numbers say on this game, but just with my, just with my, my eyes watching it.

I thought both teams got a ton of open threes. Totally. It felt like, man, this whole boxes and elbows thing and then closing out, this is, they had seven guys make multiple threes. That's an NBA finals record. So that's what you're up against this time. Well, they have, I saw someone post earlier tonight. The Celtics had more threes than, you know, one of the 90s,

Bulls teams did in the finals, the entire finals. And I think it was like the first half, the Celtics had more made threes than the Bulls did the entire night, one of the 90s finals they had. But I mean, you're right. Like the three point disparity is massive. 42 out of 82 shots for Boston were three-pointers. They make 16 out of those 42 attempts. 27 of 84 attempts for Dallas from three. They make only seven of them.

And as you said, a lot of open threes. I mean, Kyrie was 0 for five from three. I think three or four of them, maybe four of those were wide open attempts. And, you know, PJ Washington, O for three in the game, Hardaway, O for one. I mean, Luca even over four for 12. But for Boston, the Celtics are now 35 and four on the entire season when they take at least 50% of their shots from three. 35 and four. That includes 6 in the playoffs.

That's a 74 win pace. Oh, look, I've got one even crazier that I had pulled from Sean Grandy, who is the outstanding radio voice of the Boston Celtics. He had posted maybe earlier in the week, and I had saved it. Celtics shooting threes above 32 percent. So if they just hit 32 percent of their threes in a game, what was their number tonight? What did you say their percentage was tonight? 16 to 42, 38.1 percent. Okay, 38.

So obviously this applies again. So we can add this to it. Okay? So if they shoot above 32% for the game from three, they are now 69 and 8. If they shoot lower 32% or below, they are 8 and 12. Well, that's like the same exact win percentage. It's like 73.48% win percentage on your status.

and it's like 74.56% or whatever. I forget the number exactly on the stat that I gave. Either way, a 74 win pace. 74 win pace. Okay, I actually have the shot quality number right now. This is going to stun you. So the final score of this game was 107 to 89. Just based on the shots that were taken in the game

and the percentage that these guys usually make the shots that were taken, right? Because Kyrie was what, like 6 of 19 or something? I mean, he was pretty brutal himself. The shot quality score was Mavericks 105, Dallas 104. I'm sorry, I'm sorry. Mavericks 105, Celtics 104. Yeah, I don't know. I don't know about that stat.

I don't know. Well, it's not a stat. It's just a... Yeah. Yeah, I just don't know. I just don't know about the stat. I just... Well, it's just if the game is played on paper.

Yeah, I don't know. I don't know about that. It's just math. Yeah. The game's played on paper, and this player takes this shot. Here's the percentage that he usually makes it. from this in this situation. And again,

games aren't played on paper. It's just, I'm skeptical. Games aren't played on paper. You know what I mean? But I do think that what you will find is that and your eyes told you the same thing when you were watching. I mean,

you said earlier, Dallas missed a ton of shot that were wide open, right? Like there's a percentage of those that are going to drop typically that did not for Dallas tonight. And so I did not leave this thinking this is going to be a mauling in this series. And yet, there's no doubt in my mind that in that first quarter, I was going, oh, my God, what I have let this moron, Kevin O'Connor, not flip me this time. And I'm riding with the Mavericks on this.

What have I done? I should have been the evil twin and gone against him, picked his former hometown team. But I didn't, here I am going, I don't trust Porzengis, and the guy looked like a Hall of Famer. He was unbelievable. Blocking everything at the rim. He was, oh, he's a force of nature. My issue with that shock quality stat, just to go back to that is it's not just threes. I mean, Boston shot 57.5% from two-point range.

Dallas shot 49.1% from two-point range. And I think, you know, if you rewatch all of those two-point attempts, a lot of those were tough shots for Dallas. A lot of those were better looks for Boston. So, like, I don't know if that shot quality set your opponent is, like, using tracking data with defender distance and all that. type of stuff that, you know, sport radar and second spectrum and like those tracking

companies use the cameras, but if it's purely based off of location, I don't think it's fully representative of what we saw tonight personally. I think, well, I mean, I could explain to you what all is going into, like their shot quality matrix,

but I mean, this has become a very big brand shot quality has that has also been very good at determining bet and how series are going to go. And we'll see with Dallas. You know, they can play it's so much better. And you're right, like, it should have been closer. It definitely should have been closer.

I just also think you could say Boston could have even hit more shots in this game, too. Really? I mean, you just told me what they made from three. I mean, that's a 16 or 40s. They could have had a 44% night from three or 41% night, you know. I guess we're just talking about what's more likely. Sure. Right.

What's more likely to take place? And that's ultimately the variance with three-point percentage. And Dallas was dismal. That's the way it goes, right? Again, these things aren't played on paper. They're played in an arena. And so some nights you go over 27, as you said earlier. When it comes to shock quality, I said it to you on Monday night's show when we were

previewing the series, how Minnesota allowed the second least to lobs throughout the entire season. Dallas figured them out. They were able to get lively and get. Gafford's shots at the rim passes to them at the basket. They did not have that against Boston tonight. I can't recall a single instance when Gaffler reliably got a lob attempt out of a pick and roll. The only one I can remember is Derek Jones Jr.

when Jalen Brown blocked them at the rim and prevented it from even happening. They have to figure that out with Boston. Whether it comes out of pick and rolls or dribble handoffs or those guys sitting in the dunker spots, they have to find a way to get those guys easy shots to the basket because then that's what forces Boston's defense to collapse even more and opens up more, you know, rotation passes, swing, swing, open three, you know, Luca or Akari on the second side attacking a closeout. They need like to force that defense to collapse in and part of that stems from, I think, Gafford lively just getting those shots at the room.

Otherwise, they're pretty useless on offense if they're just screening and they're not getting those shots. Yeah, and they can certainly get a better lively. He has been a very disruptive force throughout these playoffs. In fact, I saw where Tim McMahon had this stat leading into the finals, it was crazy, that of the trios involved in the NBA playoffs, he, Donchich, and Kyrie were number one in terms of net rating. When they had shared the court together, they were plus 19.7 per one. hundred possessions. I mean,

so they were killing their opponents. They did not get that lively. I did think he got taken out of himself with the fouls. You know, young guy got a little frustrated. And then I thought that, you know, kids left him in there and let him get his fifth.

And then they had to pull him. And then by the time he would even have come back in the game, they ran, they had run off that, you know, and he was in there for part of the run that Boston went on, that 11-0 run, which ballooned it back up to 19. But they had that thing at 8, and in the course of that,

lively got like two fouls on two drives to the basket. Tatum drove at one point. Jalen drove at one point, and Jalen got that fifth one. Or, yeah, yeah, that fifth one on him. And I thought maybe, I don't know, maybe you could have pulled him at four. It's dicey, obviously. Hard enough. You're trying to climb the mountain at that point and get all the way back.

But they could certainly get a better lively. You talked about Lobbs. The other thing we talked about, that Boston was very good at defending Lobbs, also great at defending corner threes. How many corner threes do you remember from Dallas tonight? I mean, that has been a staple. Not too many, no. None? I mean, I don't remember.

We've been watching them play against Oklahoma City. We've been watching them play against Minnesota. And it's like, PJ Washington. Derek Jones Jr. You know, you see these guys in the corners. Kleba, who was supposed to be, like, very helpful in this series, he doesn't even look at the rim. Yeah, he didn't do anything. He doesn't look at the rim when he catches the ball.

Like, what the hell are you out of here for? I can't remember a single thing Kleba did tonight. No. I honestly can't. Oh, he set that big screen on Jalen Brown, right? Like blindsided him. I think he did that. I don't know.

I told you, I can't remember a single thing. He did. Dude. He's invisible out there. The reason I do, this is the reason I remember this play. They caught the rebound. They got another stop. They're going out on a break.

They throw it up to Kleba. He turned. Literally no one's around him. And defenders are running away from him like he has a disease. And he just stood there. He never even looked at the rim. He's standing on the offensive end. with the ball, and he just waited for the rest of his team to get up there.

It's like, you could shoot, you could drive, you could possibly even dribble the ball, that it was like, he wasn't, he was just like, all right, well, let me wait until Luke or Kyrie gets up here and I'll give the ball to them. And I'm like, what are you even doing, bro? What are you like, what are you out here for? Who knows? I got the corner three stat for you, Chris. Let me hear it.

All right. So in the playoffs, so far throughout the playoffs, the Mavericks have attempted 14% of their shots from Corner 3. That's been their shot diet. 14% of their shots. Tonight, out of 84 shots, only three of their shot of their shot. attempts were corner threes, 3.6% of their shot attempts. I would imagine that as a playoff low, and I'd probably also bet I don't have that data

that it's a season low. I'd be curious to know how it stacks up against every season, every game of the entire season. Three corner threes, that's going to be near a season low. And now, was that a playoff number the first one you gave? Or was that a season number? Those playoffs, 14% of their shots during the playoffs have been corner threes. I mean, so that's a huge part of your offense. Yeah.

Right. Yeah, that's a lot. Yes. And that's where those guys are standing, right? Like, I mean, that's where we've seen PJ Washington kill you. Derek Jones, Jr., kill you. And so now, if you're having to shoot those shots from places that you are, there's a lot of guys in the league. That's the threes they practice.

They're not shooting above the break. threes a lot. You know? Get this up where they're ever standing on offense. When we talk about, like, so many of these guys that, like, have made themselves valuable in the league, it's like, can you defend your position? Can you defend other positions and be malleable on defense? And then knock down corner threes.

Like, that is a role in the NBA to defend and knock down corner threes. Well, so now you're putting a lot of pressure on some guys that, like, That's really what they do. What else are you going to do, bro? The one thing I'd be worried about if I were a Mavericks fan is Boston, everybody knew what they were going to try to do. Take away the lob, take away the corner three. Right.

And so you finish the game with zero lobs, and you finish the game with three corner three point attempts out of 84 total shots. I brought this up in our preview. You were right. And you knew it for a week, and you didn't have the game play. for game one. So that's what I'd be worried about if I were Mavericks fan. If he didn't have it ready for game one, is it really going to be any different moving forward in the series? Or is just something you're going to have to adapt and figure out other ways to win and change who you

are, whereas Boston is continuing just to do what got them there in the first place? Well, and I think maybe you wanted to see it and he wanted it to play out because how much of that in terms of like the lobs especially was you're going to test out and poor Zingas and you're going to make him involved on this stuff and and he drops we're going to knock down corner threes that make him not want to drop anymore or we're going to knock down I'm sorry threes that aren't going to make him want to drop anymore well they miss those right you can't you've got to make him pay for staying down by the rim And the second thing is how many times was no lob available because he is by the rim?

And it's like, we just watched Indiana shoot like 77% at the rim against Boston. This is a different. And this is what we talked about regarding Porzingis in our preview of this. It's a radically different team. and he is necessitated in this particular matchup. What he does rim protection-wise and how he unlocks that offense by being able to stretch their guys

all the way out away from the basket. And I just did not expect that awesome of a poor Zengis. I didn't. I don't know how anybody could have. He hadn't played in 40 days or whatever it was. But he was at his absolute apex. He really, so good.

I mean, I can't tell you. He elicited the most texts in a while, just from friends, as everybody is watching that going, holy mackerel. This guy is just killing the game. He's blocking everything they're trying at the rim on one end, and he is knocking down every shot on the other end. What are you going to do, right? How many minutes did he even play tonight?

21. Jesus. Mm-hmm. He had 20? 20 points and 21 minutes, yeah. Yeah, it's pretty efficient, bro. Yeah. That's crazy.

I don't know. Did you walk away thinking this isn't going to be competitive that Boston is just the much better team? Or did you walk away going, that's just game one, still think it's going to be a long series? I walked away feeling like the Celtics continue to do what they've done all season. and the Mavericks look like the team that's going to have to make adjustments from what they like to do. And certainly they have, we've seen the Mavericks in this spot many times before. And I guess we're going to see how they were able to respond in game two because we've seen them lose a lot of first games in series. In fact, as we mentioned, the Minnesota thing was an outlier.

They've been the team that loses game one and wins game two. I guess we'll find out. Because I think that tonight, as that ended, and we had talked about, why does Vegas have this at five? I was doing the math like in my head, and I'm like, well,

if Boston wins two, and then they split in Dallas, then they just close it out at game five at home, and friggin' Vegas is right again. But I kind of think Dallas is going to respond. I do.

I thought Boston played really, really well. I did. I thought they played really, really well. One thing on the Dallas side, Chris, like you talk about moving forward in the series, 26 shots for Luca might have to be more. I know he was the best player on the Mavs.

I know he had a good game overall, but I said this to you last round in regards to Minnesota and the need for Anthony Edwards to offer more. I repeat it again now. I think Luca might have to have some games in this series, serious where he takes, 33, 34, 35 shots to win some of these games. Nobody else is going to do anything. They did a good job stopping the other guys.

Yes, they did. And I think Luca needs to force Boston to say, we need it. Take the ball out of your hands. I think that, like, it needs to get to that point where they're throwing hard doubles at him. Yeah, it was opening. Tonight, wasn't it? Yeah, very random. they were more straight up.

They were okay with Horford on an island against him. Porzengis on an island. And it was like, okay, we know this guy is going to go big. But PJ Washington, you ain't doing shit. Derek Jones, you ain't doing shit. And none of y'all. And Kyrie, you ain't aren't either. Right?

Like we're going to my, we are not. And we talk about this going into the series. There's a couple different ways to try to defend them. you saw so much attention paid in like Oklahoma City, but they were done in by Derek Jones and PJ Washington. And then you saw Minnesota. And they weren't able to slow down either of them. And that was their big problem.

Right. So tonight, Luca did have a really good game, but Boston did a great job on Kyrie. And it's like, if they're not going to get big number out of Kyrie, where else is that big number coming from? hot PJ Washington lively laws like that like it's going to be some stuff like that yeah and that's the that's where Boston has a much easier answer to that if I'm not going to get the big Tatum night well shit I mean we weren't expecting them to get 20 out of Porzengis but they can we know there is that

guy and there's certainly nobody off of that Dallas bench that's going to get you 20 unless it's you know unless Jaden Hardy gets to play the last eight minutes of a game and take every shot. He may get 20. That's right. Maybe. I don't know. Fun game one, not nearly as fun as I think it did not meet the anticipation because I was so excited for this. And it wasn't a great game by any means.

But it does at least make me, I'm not depressed about the series. and thinking that game two is not going to be good. So hopefully we get an epic game two. Let me ask you about a couple other things that have happened since we last spoke. What do you make of the Lakers have honed in on JJ Reddick only to find out the Lakers have honed in on Dan Hurley? I am so confused by all of this. What has happened here?

Got any theories? It's very possible that they successfully have just buried this news that they actually did it with all misdirection. It's also possible. That's theory one, that they actually were successful in that. Theory two is that there is a split within the Lakers organization and leaks are coming from different places. And maybe Polinka, who doesn't talk to a lot of people, you know, was the one who had Hurley in mind the whole time and other factions of the front office wanted. Reddick throughout. That's possible. It's possible that Hurley emerged recently as a candidate as somebody that they could pluck away from Yukon and that that changed things. I think those

are three, you know, sensible possibilities. And I think the fourth possibility here is that Dan Hurley is simply using the Lakers as leverage to get an even bigger deal from Yukon. He signed a seven year or a six year, $32 million contract before last season. So after they won one title, but before they went back to back, it's possible he may try to leverage them into more money and just go back to Yukon. That's possible as well. Yeah, but he can't screw around with that, though, Kib, because you know, every one of those Yukon kids has already got their bags packed and is already being offered a million dollars

to go play everywhere else across the country. If he leaves the transfer portal opens for them right away. Right. Right. Uncon can't screw around with that either. No, right. They need to do what they can to keep her, like considering he is an unbelievable coach. Oh, for sure.

He's unbelievable. I'm so, so the weird thing is this. Over the last like two or three days, so I subscribe to Mark Stein's substack, and I read this thing yesterday just kind of make me perk up. And this is before all the Dan Hurley stuff happened. And he had just mentioned that, like, I think in his deal it mentioned that like most people, I guess, aware of the situation,

think that the preferred choice of Anthony Davis is like James Barrego. Why would Anthony Davis prefer James Barrego, though? Like, isn't that so random? AD wants James Barrego. No, it was something about the time in New Orleans. or something, that they were there when he first came into the league or something or rather. In fact, in fairness to Mark Stein, I don't want to misquote him. So let me find this.

And then I'll tell you exactly what it says. I believe Stein did have that in there. But like, it's just so interesting to me that like AD would prefer like an assistant coach from his, you know, rookie season. Okay, here we go. As first reported here on May 27, it's now an open secret in league coaching circles that the Lakers would still want Borego on the coaching staff if Redick indeed proves to be their choice as a head coach. Yet I've heard skepticism about the Pelicans' readiness to let Borego, currently an associate head coach in New Orleans under Willie Green, make that sort of a lateral move while still under contract. Can the Lakers get Borego to go if they don't make him the head coach? and then it says that those two had kind of separated themselves,

and then he brought up even Monty Williams. Anyways, he said it has been suggested in some corners of the league that Lakers star big man Anthony Davis probably prefers for Barago to get the job over Reddick. Not only has Barago been a head coach twice already in Orlando and Charlotte compared to Reddick's lack of head coaching experience, but he and Davis overlapped briefly during Barago's first. stint with the Pelicans after Davis was drafted number one overall in 2012. And so that's what was said about that.

Anyways, he also mentions in that article and others over the course of the last couple of days, which I just perked up about that JJ Redick is now a full-time media member. And JJ Redick obviously just called this finals game tonight. And that JJ Reddick has a vote. And he did not vote Anthony Davis in any of the 10 slots for all. defense. And the fact that that was like bandied about, I was like, you know that, that sounds petty, but that is a thing. Totally reasonable. Totally. It's a thing, right? It is. It's a thing. If the guy has a vote. Players look, I've, I've had players hit me up about my vote saying,

like, what, you didn't do this? You know, like, really? I've had, I've had players do that to me. It's like, players I've never spoken to before. Players I've never contacted in my life. Like they've contacted me on two or three occasions and my what seven seven or so seasons voting right and it's like so I I would bet someone as high profile as j j renic Anthony Davis for sure knows yes exactly exactly right and this is a guy that says I'm the best defensive player in the league yeah and I don't get the credit that I deserve and then he sits there and goes and I don't get the credit I deserve because of guys like j j jreddick you know I mean like I don't know well did did you see, speaking about the Hurley side of things here, did you see the post that I made

quoting the Mike Francesca interview that he had with Dan Hurley on Wednesday? Francesca interviewed Dan Hurley for his podcast on Wednesday. Oh, get it. And in that interview, Hurley brought up NBA coaching without even being asked about

it. And what he said was, I do a sponsor one day if the right NBA situation, right NBA situation were to come along to really testing myself. And then Francesca kind of interjected and then Hurley continued where an organization wants a tone setter to come in and instill a culture with young players in an organization that wants to pursue championships. The young players comment there was very interesting there. Yeah, it feels like, and it also, because one, when you were going through the different machinations of this.

It does feel like if they brought in Dan Hurley and just listening to Woj describe it on ESPN this morning, that it's like a stake in the ground. This is a Lakers decision, not a decision,

made with LeBron in mind. Dot, dot, dot. But Dan Hurley would be the best for the development of Brony. And I'm like, what? I know, I know. Who cares about the 55th pick of the draft? Like, what are we talking about? They'd be great for Max Christy and Brunny.

Like, what are we doing? Nobody hires their head coach to develop the 55th pick of the draft. What? It just felt like an olive branch throwing out to LeBron, right? Like, hey, we know that you want your podcast co-host, but we're going to hire this guy in complete defiance of you. But it's actually the best thing ever for your kid. What? what are we doing it's so good i mean i i think the late i mean look everything that's been

reported especially by local lakers media i believe to be true in that lebron and clutch of lost power and they've lost say and what decisions are made and that's happened ever since the russle westbrook trade where they push for that and ever since then it does seem as if clutch has lost power within the lakers with that said if you're drafting brawny with you know if you're buying a second round pick after he was not good at USC, clearly you're doing that because of LeBron's presence. Even if the influence isn't there, the influence is merely because he's under contract on your team.

So there's still influence there. Bringing in Dan Hurley, though, I think would definitely be a polinka-driven decision and getting the guy that he feels is the best head coach for the job for the present and for the future post-Lebron James. Rich Paul himself said to Chris Haynes in an on-the-record interview, said that the Lakers should be thinking about building around Anthony Davis and with their decisions rather than LeBron James. Rich Paul said that on the record.

So I think everything's pointing to, we're near the end with LeBron as a Laker, possibly as an NBA player, whether that happens this summer or whether it happens next year or the year after that, we're nearing that point. And so the Lakers have to think about their future here with their head coaching hire, but also have to think about their future with the time. transactions that they make, do you really want to go all in with three future first round draft picks with a 40-year-old guy who's not quite in his prime anymore, an AD who's been fragile up until

last season? I don't think you do. So I wonder with the Lakers here, if everything here is all misdirection. If the Reddick stuff is all misdirection and then they go with their guy Dan Hurley. If the brawny stuff, they end up just not drafting brawny. And if actually the Lakers are like, you know what, you're right, we do want a youth movement and we want Dan Hurley to be coach of it. And LeBron, if you do want to get traded to Phoenix or you want to get traded somewhere else, go ahead. I wonder if that's the direction the Lakers are going as soon as this off season. But if it's not this off season, it is coming sooner than later, it appears.

Well, and here's the thing regarding Hurley, the guy is an absolute basketball savant. There is no doubt in my mind that if we're just doing the math, That's Wits thing and it's about coaching basketball, he will be great. It will all be about personality and demeanor. And can that transfer? Because there is a different type of personality. I have covered college coaches and I have covered NFL coaches. And I have covered college coaches and I have covered NBA coaches.

There is a different personality. That fiery, yelling, hard nose. like those guys are not around anymore. They're just not. It's more of the cool, calm collected, having relationships with the players, right? Missoula. Missoula's cool com collected on the sidelines.

And has a relationship with the players. But I mean, like, you know, I grew up and it was, and I'm not, look, I'm not saying, like John Cal Perry, Rick Patino, Tim Floyd, like a bunch of these college guys that came in, And a lot of stuff that they did and the way they treated NBA players that couldn't get away with it in college, right?

You do have to treat the players differently. Even John Beeline, those guys ended up hating him, right? John Beeline is a basketball genius and fell straight on his face, right, when he came to the NBA. And, you know, because John Beeline's like, these kids don't even know how to set screens or throw a correct bounce pass. And it's like, all right. Like, I mean, that is a thing that is a college thing that for sure is applicable, but guys are not nearly as receptive as they are when they are on lower levels. The other thing is you don't get to pick your team. You know, there's that clip that went around with Dan Hurley.

And again, I'm a huge Dan Hurley fan and I think he's a basketball genius. There's that clip that went around about Dan Hurley saying how I built this team, how I evaluate these players. I'm not like other coaches I put my phone away at AAU tournaments. I'm watching how he interacts with his teammates. I'm watching how he interacts with his coaches. I'm watching how he plays on the defensive end. And I'm watching how he plays on offense without the ball. I'm watching his parents.

And I'm seeing what kind of parents and what am I going to be dealing with? What can affect our program? Like those are all things that you can control in college that you cannot control in the NBA. yet. You can't control that stuff. You can't control who these guys are talking to. You can't control what family they come from. You can't evaluate mom and dad before they're on your team. You can't evaluate whether or not, you know, they're going to dapp everybody up when they get checked out of the game. And all of these things that he was talking about, the evaluation mattering, it may just be that he could put all that to the side and just coach basketball and great

basketball coaches or great basketball coaches or great basketball coaches. But some guys do, you know, they need the guys that will fall in line and I'm in charge and everybody else falls in line. In college, the coaches are the stars in the NBA. There's really only one guy that gets everybody to fall in line. And that's Popovich. Spolster's the closest. And maybe this guy could pull it off too.

Maybe he could. But, like, you just have to have so much success before they all fall in line. And I don't know. I mean, I don't know. I think it'd be terrible for college basketball, too, because that would just mean none of these guys. You'd have, like, Izzo and few left. Yeah. And Jay Wright's left and Shosheski's left and Williams's left and Calipari got run out of Kentucky.

And there's going to come a time where they're all going to go, you know what, I ain't putting up with this shit. Yeah. I got to re-recruit these kids every day. Every day. And by the way, Hurley, Hurley in that same exact interview, literally the next question from Francesco was about that. And Hurley kind of like, as he has a lot of the time, complained about the transfer portal and all that stuff

and how there needs to be rule changes and how tiring and difficult it is for every team and how it's going to get worse in the years to come and all that stuff, right? How the amount of changes that need to be made in college basketball. So if you're Dan Hurley, to me it's more a matter of timing. Do you want to make that leap right now to the NBA? Are the Lakers the right job for you, considering everything you're talking about

and considering the age of LeBron and AD and all that? The time is right? Is it right now for you? It's hard to find a more prestigious job, though, than the Los Angeles Lakers. And even if you do fall flat on your face there, there will be other high-profile college jobs waiting for you once you get back. Leaving Yukon, though, man, back-to-back championships.

They got caravan back. If they had a top five to ten recruiting class, they have a chance to win it again next year. Leaving that with a chance the three Pete would be tough. But boy, like if the Lakers are giving you like double the pay. Oh, no. The only way he would do that, he is, when we see the contract, it's going to make us gasp. Massive. Because it has to be that for him to, he, life is leverage.

Yes. He's getting paid a fortune at Yukon and is set. He's a made man who's won two national titles, right? you would have to pay him an absolute fortune to take that Lakers job. I think he'd have to become. Monty Williams money. What's Monty get like $12 million annually or something like that, right? Dude, I swear to God, Mark Stein mentions Monty Williams in that story.

There's no way. As a possible, if he gets run out, that maybe the Lakers could do something. For what it's worth, Monty's deal was $78.5 million for $6.6. years. And like I said, the Hurley deal was six years, $32 million, I believe, with Yukon. So, like, over-double the money is what Monty Williams got. You got to be getting at least on Monty Williams deal, maybe even more than that, right? Even, I mean, look, even though he's never coached in the NBA, the guy is undoubtedly, I mean, from a tactical standpoint, X's and O's, yes, he'd have to change some things. Like, Yukon part of their success in call.

is the deliberate pace that they move. They have one of the slowest possessions times in all of the nation. It's like 18, 19 seconds per possession. That's not going to work in the NBA. You need to go faster. But I think Hurley, with his sets, with the way he coaches a half-court offense, and the way he empowers his players can work with tweaks at the NBA level. And he himself knows it would be a challenge.

But I think he's a good enough coach that he could actually be one of the rare college to pros guys that could actually work out. Will the Lakers paying that money? They've been cheap before. They didn't want to pay Ty Loo. That's how they ended up with Darbin, or Frank Vogel. I mean, they were cheap getting a first-time head coach

and Darbinham as well. Well, are they actually going to pay up here? We'll see. I guess that conversation happens this weekend. All right. Draft is three weeks from tonight. We're obviously going to have a ton of time to cover that. I do have to ask you one question, though.

Looking at your mock draft, And I think you had put up the mock already before this news came out. But what do we do with the Topich kid who has the ACL injury? I know his agent tried to tamp it down immediately saying, hey, I don't think it's going to affect that much because of his age or because of. But in a year of non-sure things, it's certainly a scare when you've got a guy who's kind of flown up the boards. become a kind of consensus top 10 pick and now has this ACL thing. And I have no real gauge of how much that could affect him or not or what level of player is he. You know, we have had guys in the past, whether it's Blake Griffin, Kenyon, Martin,

guys that came, Chad Holmgren for that matter, well, I guess he got injured after he came in. But some guys that have gotten injured and they're still just so overwhelmingly talented. everybody's willing to overlook an injury and figure, hey, this guy's going to go a little bit lower than what he should, but the success rate of coming back from these injuries is great. So where does this kid fall in that kind of discussion? Well, I had a number eight to the Spurs on my mock draft this week. Okay.

I think the agent could be right that it doesn't change a lot. I can still see him going eight to the Spurs. I could still see that. But if death doesn't help, and I would say it's more likely to hurt than keep things the same, considering the amount of good quality talent that there is in this draft right now. I talked to a GM on the phone this week, and we were just chatting about the nature of the class,

and he says to me, he's like, I think there's eight or nine top five quality guys. It's just there's no number one or number two quality talent. And I said to him, I was like, well, I think there's like, you know, 16, 17 top 10 quality guys. It's just, you know, not all of them are top five talents. There's just a lot of good quality talent in the drafts. And so for someone like Topich, who is a very good prospect, he's 6'5 foot 6, he's a playmaker, a downhill attacker.

So he's good size for his position. He needs to improve his three-pointer as a point guard, but he's a great free-throw sugar. He has good touch near the rim. You would expect the three-pointer to improve in the years to come. I still think he's a lottery pick, but I could definitely see him falling out of top five consideration for some teams. and maybe he moves definitely towards that mid to late lottery range. You could not see a free fall, like a 25 and he's still on the board. No, I don't see that.

I think he's got too much size for the position and, you know, too much talent as a passer and an attacker for him to fall that far. But, I mean, I could see him fall into, I don't know, 14, 15, 16. I wouldn't rule it out necessarily. The one thing that could hurt him this week, in addition to the torn ACL, is the fact that in Italy this week, The NBA Draft Combine was conducted for a lot of international prospects. Risa Shea, Salon, Topich as well.

His wingspan was negative. Six feet five and a half inches and he measured at six feet. Point seven five inches height. So his wingspan was slightly shorter than his height. Alligator arms, huh? Yeah, that's never a great thing when you have negative wingspan. So that's one thing teams will look at and say, that's not great.

Risa Shea's measurements came in as well, a potential top three pick. Risa Shee measured in at 6.8 and a half height, 6.9 and a half wingspan. Wish he was a little bit bigger. You know, wish the wingspan was closer to 7 feet or 7 foot 1. So that's a little disappointing. Were anybody's international combat numbers freaky?

Salon had pretty good numbers. 6.9 without shoes, 7-1 wingspan. and also he's 203 pounds right now as an 18-year-old, so he'll only get bigger with his wide shoulders, wide frame in the years to come. But I think that's all the new stuff for the lottery guys. I mean, Saar already measured, others had already measured. But yeah, that's all updated in the ringers NBA draft guide. Like all the updated measurements are in there.

And the new mock, I think we'll do another one on Monday or Tuesday. And you'll probably have to lower topage on that one. Yeah, I'll probably lower him a little bit on my board as well. I mean, I have him on my board right now at six. You have one point had him like two, right? Yeah, I'll tell you, I'll tell you where I had him in a minute. Let me pull up my history. I think you had him two one time.

Let's see. Because I remember being taken aback. Yeah, I had him two at one point. Yeah, I had him four or five most of the year. I had them two at one point for a short bit, and then I have had him at six, ever since the most recent update. We got three weeks to the draft, obviously you're going to be updating that mock draft every Monday.

And there will be more news that comes out. A lot to shake out, man. A lot over the next three weeks. The Hawks haven't even had like guys in for the number one pick and workouts yet. Like they haven't, from what I understand, had Saar and yet. They haven't had Bozellis in yet. It totally feels like a year that by the time we get, there could be a story about how.

who's got the number two pick, Portland? Wizards. But Wizards. Yeah, yeah. About how Rob Dillingham went to Washington and made every shot he took in the whole workout for an hour and a half. And everybody would have Rob Dillingham as the number one guy like the next day. That's the long way. I agree.

Totally agree. And I totally agree with you. And that's something I've been thinking about with. Yeah. I mean, I guess it's very possible. It ends up. Risa Shea and Sarr is the top two picks. in some order. It's very possible that ends up happening. But it's also possible that

they get those guys in for workouts and the weeks leading up to the draft and they're like, you know what? Let's go with Donovan Klingin. Or Modis Buzellis works out for the Hawks and he shoots the hell out of the ball in a workout and he looks super athletic as he does on video. And you're like, okay, Buzellis is the number one pick. So like I think Castle, another guy. Sure. What if the Hawks trade down from number one and a team's trading up for Klingen or they're trading for Castle or whoever it might be. There's so much that can shake out now. And so when I look at the

Fandual odds for the number one pick in the draft, Sarr minus 170, Risa Shea plus 150, but then it drops off. Klingin plus 2,000, Buzellas plus 10,000, Castle plus 10,000. Wow.

Those are interesting odds there for guys who, you know, very well maybe, depending how things shakeout could be. I'm not saying to bet a lot on it. But it's interesting to see those odds for guys that are very much in the top three conversation. When the team hasn't even had

Sarr or Rises Shea or Buzellas or any of them in for a workout yet. We had talked about this long ago and we had compared it, you know, this is a draft that is known as not top heavy

there's not the obvious stars there. And we likened it to many months ago the Anthony Bennett Ola Depot draft. And that day that happened, I remember Jeff Goodman reporting that Anthony Bennett was going to go number one to Cleveland and everybody was like, what the hell?

Anthony Bennett's going to go number one? And I could totally see that happening this year. It happens. It's happened in these drafts. I remember a couple years ago in the NFL. That Daniel Jeremiah, like, upgraded a mock draft in the morning with

Baker Mayfield going number one. And everybody was like, what? Like, he knows something. And then Baker Mayfield obviously went number one in the draft. Like, this feels like this is wide open. That I could go have an unbelievable 90-minute workout

and get drafted number one overall or something. What if, uh, what if the hawks are idiots. You never know. You never know. Plus 20,000. Are they really? Yeah.

Plus $8,000. They have odds up there for only 10 guys. Let me go ahead and say this too. Look, depending on what the Hawks do, I don't know, because we figure they're going to have an off season. We talked so much about maybe a Trey Young to the Lakers thing. Let me promise you this. If they hired Dan Hurley, they ain't getting no Trey Young.

No. I'll just go ahead and get that one out of the way. Not a chance. You can decide. You can have one or the other, but unless you want to murder on your hands, you ain't getting both of them because Dan Hurley would strangle him in game one. He loses mind. He could not take that.

No way. That'd be oil and water for sure. So who knows? The Hawks may have a big off season. They got some shaking up to do. so they may not even draft number one. I mean, it's,

I mean, what you just said, like just the division of like, Trey and LeBron and A.D. And Dan Hurley. And then Dernhaley as coached just like, no. It just makes me thinking about Billy Donovan

when he, when he got hired from Florida, which had motion and movement and beautiful half-court offense. And then he got hired to Oklahoma City. And it's Russell Westbrook, pick and roll after pick and roll after pick and roll after pick and roll, And it would just be the same thing with Dan Early with this gorgeous, unbelievable, innovative Yukon offense in the half court and the motion and the beauty that they play with.

And they go to the Lakers that it's like LeBron A.D. pick and roll. Right. Every possession. Rui Hachamura standing in the corner. Tarin Prince standing in the other corner. Oh, my God. He's going to start putting his hands in his pockets like Darwin Ham. DeAngelo Russell taking an ill-advised step back.

Guys, like, if this, I'm going back to Yukon. Oh, man. Or I could boss everybody around. That is the fun of coaching at college. You get to boss everybody around. You don't get to boss guys around at the NBA. You know, they make too much money. They'll tell you to buzz off.

All right. Finals one, game number one is in the books. Thank you to our executive producer, Jesse Lopez, as always. And Kevin, I will talk to you on Monday night. Looking forward to or have a good weekend, everybody. Must be 21 plus in present select states or 18 plus in D.C. Fandul is offering online sports wagering in Kansas under an agreement with the Kansas Star Casino LLC. Gambling problem, call 1-800 gambler or visit Fandul.com slash RG.

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