Denver Down, Knicks' Controversial Game One Win, and Riley's Presser

John Schuhmann

And now the low post. Welcome to the Low Post podcast. It's Tuesday morning. Oh my God. John Schumann of NBA.com.

Zach Lowe

You don't know this, but your ban has been lifted. You were banned for your support of Argentina over Croatia in the World cup, but your ban has been lifted. You are one of the very, very best to do this. The godfather of the power rankings. How are you?

John Schuhmann

I'm excellent. I think I've gone to four playoff games at Madison Square Garden so far, and they've all been wacky and thrilling.

Zach Lowe

These nights are gonna kill me. I mean, we had a kicked ball that wasn't a kicked ball. Another 40 point masterpiece from jail and Brunson in a legal screen that was for some reason called with 12 seconds left in a game that Indiana could have still won. Um, I believe they were down. What are they down?

One. At that point, after 15 seconds left. After a parade of challenges and a, a Jalen Brunson turnover on the sidelines where he threw the ball off of Tyres Halliburton, then it hit him. And then there was a way from the play foul and suddenly the game was over. The Knicks just again driving away like bank robbers into the night.

Get it, get a win. And then in Denver, oh my God, Rudy Gobert misses the game to be with his, to be there for the birth of his daughter. And thank God the Minnesota Timberwolves won the game because the takes, the takes, John Schuman were going to be just unbelievable across the board. The fact that it was Rudy Gobert of all people, and the Wolves just absolutely destroyed the, the Denver Nuggets and I mean destroyed in every possible sense. Jamal Murray is nine of 32 for the series.

The man threw a heat pack onto the court during the game and then did the Dylan Brooks where he's like, you know what, I'm just trying to talk to the media after the game. I'm out of here. Second game in a row he's done that, I believe threw a heat pack onto the court, did not get teed up for it. Mark Davis said after the game that he wouldn't have teed him up anyway because wouldn't have ejected him. Rather he would have teetered up but not ejected him because he didn't throw it in a hostile way at somebody.

Totally dangerous Bush league act by a guy who's way better than that. And the Nuggets were just broken in every sense of the word. KCP was supposed to guard Anthony Edwards. Anthony Edwards has rendered that undoable. They tried Aaron Gordon on him he's too fast for Aaron Gordon.

Suddenly, Justin Holiday was tasked with guarding Anthony Edwards. That doesn't seem to be a good answer if you've already arrived there after two games and two losses at home, you are in big, big trouble. This is the matchup the Denver Nuggets were eyeing all year. This is the team they fear is the wrong word, because champions don't fear anybody. But they were wary of, they respected.

And Minnesota in two very different games, one with Gobert using the defensive blueprint we all thought they would use with Gobert and Aaron Gordon. And one without has just blown the doors off the Nuggets in this series. And look, Mister Schuman, very much like right now, if you had to pick a favorite to win the NBA championship, and I can't believe I'm saying this out loud, it looks like it might be the Minnesota Timberwolves. What are your. I mean, I don't even know what to say about last night's game.

The Nuggets just rolled over, lost control of their emotions from Michael Malone to Jamal Murray all the way down, and frankly, just got embarrassed and embarrassed themselves on their home floor. And I don't know, we could talk about what answers they might have going forward, but, like, answer number one is they just got to stabilize and find a way to get back into game three. I mean, they were in game one until the end. Last night was just an epic disaster. Yeah, I'm kind of stunned, I guess, just because I think I've developed this kind of reverence for the Nuggets over the last two years.

John Schuhmann

Right. Where, yes, the Celtics were, you know, by far the best team in the league this season by every measure. But the Nuggets outplayed them in their two head to head matchups. Right. And so you talked about power rankings.

Like, I basically felt like the whole second half of the year, I could have had either one of those teams at number one and had a good explanation for it. Right. Um, no matter what was going on. So, yeah, it. It's.

It's kind of stunning. Um, all credits of the wolves. The defense was absolutely terrific last night. I do think the Nuggets weren't particularly sharp. Um, you know, there was one sequence late in the first quarter where Anthony Edwards had the ball in transition, and, like, they didn't pick him up, and then Aaron Gordon picked him up late, got crossed over, and then he had that layup over KCP where he kind of need KCP in the midsection next possession.

That was a timeout, I think shortly after that, Aaron Gordon took a pull up 18 foot fade away with, like, plenty of time left on the shot clock, which was confusing to me. Um, right after that, they allowed an Alexander Walker layup in transition. And then right after that, uh, there was the possession where Jokic, uh, wasn't aware of the shot clock and they got a 24 2nd violation and they. Were, they were late in the clock the entire first half. It's just like, oh, my God, there's 4 seconds on the shot clock and they have not cracked open a sliver of space anywhere on the floor.

Zach Lowe

Um, to your point, generally, I, and I said this before the series, that Minnesota is one of the only teams I've ever seen that makes Jokic think at all and sometimes overthink. This was something else. This was the whole entire nuggets. Denver, the Denver Nuggets offensive ecosystem was completely out of sync. It went a haywire.

Like, there were multiple possessions where Jokic did not touch the ball. And it's like, why is Aaron Gordon shooting this 20 footer over Mike Conley? And Jokic hasn't touched the ball yet. I mean, they were just completely broken and busted. And all credit to the Wolves, who, by the way, showed their versatility in this game because they have, three of their best players are big men.

They prefer to play two of them together tonight or last night, one of them misses the game. And I said before the series, like they have quietly, because of how good Alexander Walker has been, primarily, but also slow mo and a little bit of Monte Morris. They've developed a team that can play both directions. They can shift Jada McDaniels to the four, they can shift slow mo to the four and play one big. They did that last night.

Alexander Walker has been one of the great acquisitions of the last couple of years. On the fringes by Tim Connolly, who must be just both loving this and also just emotionally torn apart by all of it. And Nas Reid. That's the best defensive game Nasreed has ever played. Last night, I just, I could not remember another one.

I mean, he was all over the place, inhaling shots, inhaling the ball like. But Nasreed, not known as a defensive player. He was my pick for 6th man of the year. I don't think he's ever played better defense. And the Nuggets were just, they just went haywire.

They just lost the plot completely. Yeah, I'll even go back to that, that possession that was sort of highlighted as the, the peak of the Wolves defense, where they trapped Jamal Murray as he, after he crossed half court, I mean, he got the ball. He eventually got the ball to Reggie Jackson, and there was still plenty of time left on the clock, and it took a second for McDaniels to get back to Jackson. So there was this seam in the defense, and Jackson just caught the ball and stood there and then basically stopped the ball. Rather than attacking the paint and drawing a defender and keeping it moving, they were finding an open shooter or whatever, and it was just like, why did, you know, they just showed this, all this tenacious defense, and you got the ball and there's a seam in that defense.

John Schuhmann

Why are you just holding the ball at the. At that point? And eventually, I think that's the one. I don't know if it ended up with Murray missing it or getting blocked on a three and. Yeah.

Zach Lowe

How many blocks did Nasrid have last night? I just felt. I felt like he was just everywhere. I've never seen Nazri play like that. Did someone say something bad, like, about his family before the game?

Like, it was unbelievable. You know what? It's funny. I didn't realize that go bear didn't play until after the game was over. So I was at.

John Schuhmann

I covered the Knicks Pacers game and was writing on that as the Nuggets Wolves game is going on, and I'm checking the score, and then I finish up just as the game is over, and I see the score. And Nuggets scored 80 points, by the way, their least efficient game, playoffs or regular season in the last six years. The Nuggets, I'll bet you. I'll bet you right now, it's the least efficient game that Jokic will ever be a part of. What if he logs, like, more than 25 minutes in a game until he's, like, 37 years old and just kind of walking around out there like old man Arvida Sabotas.

Yeah. And so, like, I get on the train, and I back home, and I put up. Pull up the game on my phone to watch the first half. And at that point, I see Kyle Anderson on the floor, and I was like, why is Kyle Anderson in the starting lineup? And at that point, I realized that go Bear wasn't playing.

And then it jogged my memory that, you know, he was possibly gonna miss the game for the birth of his child. And so I was like, wait a minute. They held the Nuggets to 80 points without Gobert. And then, like you said, that possession, maybe. I mean, there was a lot of crazy possession, but the most stunning may have been the one where Jokic had two jump hooks blocked and then he got the ball back and missed the, missed the sort of contested lefty jump hook and it's just like, wow, you don't, you do not see that happen very often.

I think Nasreed was the sort of the defender on those two initial shots. Well, I mean, let's, let's, here, here are some other things that are happening in this series. Jamal Murray, I mentioned his nine of 32 doesn't look like himself, is clearly limited by the caf injury. That's life. That's the playoffs.

Zach Lowe

Like it's, he's out there and he's not playing well. He was three of 18 last night. Peyton Watson has been kind of vaporized from the rotation. Did not get into the second half last night. That seems like kind of a disaster for the Nuggets.

He's a good player. Reggie Jackson limped off the floor at some point in the fourth quarter last night. KCP is dealing with an ankle injury. It's like everything that could go wrong is going wrong, some of it of their own making. And the Wolves are just, are just rolling.

And for the series, the Nuggets are actually shooting 36% on threes. That's not bad. 43% on twos through the first two games of the series. And you can see, look, I don't know. One day Tim Connolly will come on the low post podcast and we'll talk about the Gobert trade.

I don't know how specifically that trade was really aimed at Denver and Jokic. I'm sure it was part of their thought process. Like, hey, if we're ever going to win in this window, we going to have to beat this team and we're going to need size. And when the more you watch these teams play, the size really stands out. And I, and credit to Tim Connolly for seeing this.

He built the Nuggets. He understands how they play. They're an interior passing team. They're not a spread pick and roll team. In fact, when they run spread pick and roll, that kind of looks funny.

Like, oh, Peyton Watson's over in the corner spot enough. Like that doesn't make any sense. And, and the way to disrupt that is with just size and athleticism. And I remember the last game these guys played in the regular season that Denver came back and won in Denver and it looked like they were going to clinch home court as a result. And of course, then they lose to the spurs, which then triggers this whole cascade of events.

They lose the spurs in Game 81, where they end up being second seed instead of first seed, and in this matchup, earlier than maybe they wanted. But I remember writing in my notes and this really, I thought of it again last night. They're so big and so athletic and so fast. I sometimes think back to the 2016 series between Oklahoma City and the warriors, where the warriors were this smaller. Now, Denver's not small.

That's a distinct, that's the distinction. They were a smaller team that relied on feel and passing and iq and shooting. And for like four or five games, they were looking around at this thunder defense of just like young, giant, athletic guys being like, oh my God. What I like, I don't even know where to go. And that's kind of what this series has felt like to me so far.

And I just like, we can talk about, the interesting thing about talking about answers going forward for Denver is, is they've played two completely different Minnesota teams and now they're going to get back to playing the one that they faced in game one, presumably with go bear. But I mean, there's, there's nothing encouraging to take away from that game. And before we go forward, I do want to say this. All the attention on Minnesota's defense, deservedly so. They were the number one defense in the NBA all season, wire to wire their number one in the playoffs, too.

I think the real subplot of what's happening with Minnesota, if you want to project really forward and say, why does this team all of a sudden look like favorites? They're the number one offense in the playoffs, and that is a sea change for a team that was 17th or 18th for most of the season. They are number one in offense for the playoffs. And we can talk about why. Some of it is offensive rebounding, some of it is good shooting, some of it is they're getting to the rim a lot more as a result of the offensive rebounding, a lot fewer mid range shots.

But overall, there's just a calm and a polish to them that I've talked about over and over, over where particularly ant and cat are not forcing anything. Ant started to force it late last night when he went into like, we're up 30 and I'm just going to start dancing a little bit mode, but that's fine. You're allowed to do that when you're Anthony Edwards and you're destroying the world. But both of those guys are making simple, easy, poised decisions and all of a sudden, this team that we all thought of, well, if there's going to be something that undoes them, like it's hard to win when you're the 17th or 18th offense. They're number one in offense for the playoffs.

And that's the stat to monitor going forward because that's why as much as anything else, not only are they winning, they've dominated and they haven't lost yet. I don't know what you've seen from their offense. It's interesting to you or where you want to spin this, going into Minnesota for game three where that crowd is going to be absolutely hellacious on the Nuggets. Yeah, so like they're one. They scored 120.8 per hundred possessions over their six games.

John Schuhmann

Like you said, number one in the playoffs. Also their best six game stretch of offense since a stretch right before the all Star break, which included two games against Portland. So, you know, take that for what it's worth. Dominating did dominating play in those games? I'm not sure, but the difference.

So they're the only team that has a higher effective field goal percentage in the playoffs than they did in the regular season. So effect, obviously offense has gone way down. Effective field goal percentage has gone way down. 15 of the 16 teams have a worst effective field goal percentage in the playoffs than they did in the regular season with the Wolves being the exception. But the big difference is offensive rebounding percentage with, they absolutely dominated, dominated the offensive glass against Phoenix.

You know, they were, let me see what it was. But yeah, so they, they've seen it just a huge jump in offensive rebounding percentage. It hasn't been as big in this, in this series as it was in Phoenix series, but it's still huge. You know, we've seen obviously how much it works for, for the Knicks and yeah, Edwards and Towns have been, you know, remarkably efficient. I don't know, you know, how sustainable it is going forward.

But even if they don't shoot as well as they have over these first six games, the offensive rebounding has been terrific. I think they've done a decent job of taking care of the ball. So yeah, I think that part is absolutely sustainable. It's not necessary. And you know, if you dominate the glass and just defend as well as they do, then yeah, they, they're in a, obviously a great position.

Zach Lowe

To me, what's sustainable is the decision making because the feedback loop is in motion right now where ant is realizing, and I talked about this feedback loop with the regular season. If I just make the simple pass like two on me, I don't need to hit the roll, man. I don't need to do the cross court corner pass like I can do those passes now and then, but if I just ping it to the guy next to me and he continues along the chain, we get good stuff. Sometimes the ball comes all the way back to me and we're winning. Like, I don't have to do this crate, this crazy stuff.

And cat, same thing. Like, there's a possession early in the game where Kat. They run some kind of pick and roll where kat ends up with Jamal Murray on him. And in the past, what's going to happen there is Kat's going to go post up Jamal Murray and maybe fall over or commit an offensive foul or hit Jamal Murray in the face or his arms are going to like. Like he's going to lose control of his extremities and his arms are going to hit somebody.

This time he fades out to the corner and said, I'm going to continue to space the floor for you, and. But I have Jamal Murray on me. And Ant loads up into a pick and roll with Kyle Anderson. I think the defense loads to him. Jamal Murray just leans a little bit off cat and Ant sees that, kicks it right to him.

And Cat doesn't take, I think, what he didn't force a contestant three. He just calmly took it, dribbled, like, into Jamal Murray's chest and just laid the ball up and in. It's like, that's just the calm decision making that both those guys have going for them right now, and they continue to make those kind of plays. I'll say this, there are two Edwards, similar sort of Edwards possessions that stood out to me. One midway through the second, he sort of gave the ball up, but then he had KCP on him and he immediately, like, went to go take him into the post, and KCP was kind of helpless and fouled him.

John Schuhmann

And Minnesota was in the bonus midway through the second. So it's like he. He gave the ball up, but immediately said, I'm taking this little guy into the post. Drew a foul. He's also had a couple of.

Zach Lowe

He's also had a couple of give and go cuts on similar plays. That was. Yeah, that was the other one he had. He got. He had a pump fake where he got holiday in the air.

John Schuhmann

He gave it to Kyle Anderson right away and then just, you know, with his, you know, explosiveness, just took off for the rim and got a dunk. And those were the two where it's like, he know, yes, I'm giving the ball up, but I know I still have an advantage here and I can use my, you know, my athleticism my explosiveness, you know, to get past these dudes or draw foul or whatever, to bully these dudes, not settle basically, you know, and not worry about having to give the ball up in the middle of a possession. The fact that we're two games in and Denver has already concluded KCP can't guard him is just a disaster for the Nuggets because they don't have another great answer. Their best answer is Christian Brown or Peyton Watson, neither of whom is a shooter. I know Christian Brown made a three, a corner three in game one.

Zach Lowe

That was a big shot, but. And that's why you're seeing so much Justin Holliday. You know, I talked before the series about how I think we're going to see some lineups with Michael Porter Junior as the kind of true and only power forward. Like, no Aaron Gordon, no Peyton Watson. And I just to.

Just to juice the shooting and space colbert out a little bit. Even though Gobert didn't play last night and like, Justin Holiday just. That's. There's just too much Justin Holiday going on. They didn't sign Justin Holiday to play this many minutes in these kind of games.

Okay, so Gobert will come back for game three, presumably, is what are you looking for from. And so we reset the series to how it looked in game one. Stylistically, what are you looking for from Denver? As like, how can they just make this interesting in game three? I'll go back to game one and the point you made about Denver inside the arc, they actually outscored game one.

John Schuhmann

They actually outscored the Wolves from three and outscored the Wolves at the free throw line, but were outscored on two point shots, which is rare for Denver. I mean, this is a team that, you know, as good as it is, depends least on three point shooting, and, you know, does get to the line, but doesn't depend on it a ton. So the fact that Minnesota was able to outscore them inside the arc in that, in game one, was the sort of thing that stood out to me. You know, I don't know what to say if Murray's not going to be at his best, I don't know what they can do. The one thing, the one action that I love that the Nuggets run a lot is when they sort of run a Murray Jokic pick and roll or handoff toward the empty side of the floor.

You know, the play that I'm thinking about, like where the other three guys are all on the left side, Jokic is at the top of the key and hands the ball off to Murray going to the right so that there's no help on that side. I haven't seen a lot of that. I think in these first two games. It's a play I like just because it allows, it almost forces you to switch or not bring any, you know, not have any help. But, like, if, you know Jamal Murray is ten for 37, you're dead.

Zach Lowe

That's it. 27% from mid range in the playoffs, which is the worst mid range, you know, among players with at least 20 mid range attempts and down from 47% in the regular season. If he's not, if he's going to shoot like that, then I don't. I don't know what the answer is on that end of the floor, at least. Yeah.

And we've seen Denver try some of the things that I suspected they would try. Like last night, they used Aaron Gordon as the ball handler in a couple of pick and rolls, which I thought they would do with Gobert on him. And those didn't really go anywhere. They ran a couple of Jokic Gordon inverted pick and rolls, which I think they'll run more of. One of them got a lob for Gordon.

I think either to start the second half or start the game. We saw a Jokic KCP inverted pick and roll, which is the only weak spot in Minnesota's defense is Conley. And it's not even that weak, but it's weak by comparison. And the problem is, like, that's just not KCP's game. Like, and he like, slipped into open space and got a layup and Kyle Anderson blocked him at the rim on it.

Kyle Anderson was sensational on both ends of the floor last night, but that's just, if you're learning, it's the same problem that. That the Pacers are going to have. Trying to hunt Brunson is like, we're shifting too much of our offense to a guy, that's fine, but, like, that's not really what we want to do. I think what's interesting is, is going back to the Gobert on Gordon thing when they ran in game one, the Murray Jokic pick and roll. So we'll accept that Gordon's off the ball and go bear is lurking back there.

We're just going to accept that. We're not going to mess with it. Like, we'll do some stuff, whatever. We're going to run our two man game. The Wolves are selling out a lot of times to prevent the pocket pass back to Jokic.

They do not want Jokic to get the ball in open space. And so Murray's turning the corner and he's got that floater with Gobert lurking on the back line. And Jokic had one late in the game, maybe the one that was broken up when he. When. When he threw the lob to Aaron Gordon.

Like, those are the shots that they're going to have to hit a lot of over go bear to win this series. And they have space, a lot to do it. They're just not easy. I mean, for them, they're good shots, but they're not easy shots. And go Bear is going to contest a lot of it.

And I think Jokic, on a couple of the ones that go bear broke up late in the, in game one, including the one that made all the highlight reels, I think he's just going to have to look to score more on those plays. Like Gobert is playing him for the pass, he wants to make the pass, the floater is there, he's going to have to take it. And the other thing you saw them try to do is run two actions at the same time so that Murray and Jokic are running something on the ball and Gordon is setting a flare screen or setting a pin down off the ball to try and distract Gobert. And Colbert was not having any of it. Gobert was like, I don't give a crap what you're doing over there.

I'm ignoring you. And those actions, I think they're going to have to mix up who is where. Like, sometimes Gordon's going to have to be in the action and Jokic will have to be off the ball and they're going to just have to run them with more oomph, with more power, with more speed and time them right. Like their timing was all off, the one thing would be happening after the other. And it just.

They're going to have to dig really, really deep into their bag to even have a shot to score enough against this defense. And they're going to have to make a lot of those floaters that the Wolves aren't conceding, but their scheme kind of concedes a little bit and they just didn't make enough of them. And if Jamal Murray doesn't make a lot of them, it's just. It's just Minnesota has complete control of the series and they've been the best team in the playoffs. And like, I'm afraid to even say it out loud for Minnesota fans, but this, this is a.

Sometimes you just see it, John. Like this is the magic of the playoffs. Like, a team feels it. They feel it. They're going through their own process of self discovery.

Like, holy crap, we're this good. Like, we can do that. Let's dial everything up another notch. Let's dial everything that's working up another notch. Their confidence grows.

They almost, like, look like they get bigger and taller and the other team shrinks and look like the playoffs can go the other way, too. Like, Denver is running into a matchup. That's tough for them and it's too early to really have this discussion, but they lose this series. KCP's got a player option. Aaron Gordon and Jamal Murray are eligible for big money extensions.

Like, there could be some tough decisions coming in Denver, but I don't, I don't know what else to say about counters for game three. I just want to see Denver come out with, like, a little focus, a little intensity. Don't get off kilter. Make Minnesota earn game three. Good thing is that they have three days off, right.

John Schuhmann

In regard to Murray's injury. In fact, like, if you had, if you hadn't told me he didn't look terrible, right? Like last night, I like, if you had said, if you didn't know that he was hurt and you didn't really know the players or didn't see the rap on his leg, you wouldn't have necessarily said, oh, that's, that guy's definitely hurt. He's just not, just not as effective. But I mean, and obviously, we don't know the extent of the injury and what he's feeling, but hopefully three days off is a, is a positive in that regard.

Zach Lowe

But Towns has been awesome through two games. He does have at least four fouls in every playoff game. And only Carl Anthony Towns could commit a foul in the jump ball of the opening game of a playoff series. So it could only happen to him. And what's happening, sorry.

John Schuhmann

I'll say this about team, about the Wolves. They are team New Jersey, right? You can take the NBA out of New Jersey. You can't take New Jersey out of the NBA. Carl Anthony Towns, Nas Reid, Kyle Anderson, team jersey.

I don't root for any team, but I like that we have three jersey guys on this team that's doing so well. Look at you. Not a lot of people represent for New Jersey. I was and a Virginia Tech grad and a Virginia Tech alum in Nikhil Alexander Walker. So maybe they are my favorite team going forward.

Zach Lowe

Not a lot of people represented for New Jersey. I was a New Jersey resident for two years, a long time ago. I've always had a little soft spot for, for Jersey. I don't even, oh, towns, the fouls. Yeah, just, and what's happening with Edwards is just, I mean, this was, this, this decision making is all it was.

Separating, like, an all NBA player from, oh, my God, this guy could actually become the best player in the NBA. Like, that's all it was. And he's in and it's helping. His shooting percentages. It's helping.

It's just extraordinary what's happening. God damn the wolves. Unbelievable.

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Nick Spacers it wasn't a kick. Here are things that happened in that game. The kick that wasn't which led to Dante Devoncenzo's go ahead three. The first time that the Pacers showed real help at Jalen Brunson, who was cooking Andrew Knappart cooking. Aaron D.

Smith cooking. Everybody that they threw at him one on one. Brunson ran 15 isos last night according to second spectrum. One point .615 points per possession. That is, that's very, very good.

That's insane, actually. And they finally send help and he makes the right pass and Devo makes them pay after a kickball. That wasn't a kickball. Indiana should be furious about that. The illegal screen.

John Schuhmann

Can I say one thing about that? That was a weak double team. That was a weak double. Like, Aaron Nismith came to double, but he did not really, like, he, his hands were down. He did not, like, put any kind of pressure on Brunson.

To the fact that Brunson was able to make an easy one handed pass to DeVincenzo. It's like, if you're going to double in that situation, then put some pressure on the dude. Almost like you did later when they were trying to force a turnover in the backcourt. And then Halliburton didn't really, Halliburton was a little too slow with his rotation up to D Vincenzo. So, like, I understand, like, yeah, that that was a different scheme, but, like, yeah, if you're going to double, then double the heck out of them and make that a much more difficult pass.

Zach Lowe

Fair. Indiana also just a not good defensive team for the entire season. Even towards the end, when they got better, they were average. And so that's kind of what average teams do on defense. They execute just at a so, so level.

I mean, Brunson, I guess he's just gonna have 40 points in every single game now. I mean, this is, they just, and, and the whole basis of it is his ability to make a contested 17 foot jump shot. Like, it's just not supposed to work this well for a guy who's never taller than the guy who's guarding him. I mean, it's just unbelievable. That's the whole, like, yeah, he'll get in for some floaters and once in a while he'll hunt Halliburton and get the defense in rotation.

He's got a little driving seam and he'll go, but it's basically like, this shot is so efficient, and it's not like the Knicks are grinding these games out. Their offensive rating last night was 123.5 per hundred possessions. That would have been number one in the league by far. They're one of the best offensive teams in the NBA in the playoffs. It's just, I mean, look, I don't.

I'm not getting into the greatest nick this and that, but he. I mean, this is. This playoff run alone is going to vault Brunson into, like, pantheon of Knicks players, maybe even above Carmelo Anthony, if he's not already there. But here are some things that happen. TJ McConnell had multiple mcConnell's in the game, multiple steals in the back court.

Obi top had dunked through his legs. Isaiah Hartenstein made a half court shot before halftime. There was a kicked ball that did not touch anybody's leg or foot or knee or anything. And by the way, John Schuman, it's not even supposed to be a kicked ball. If you, the offensive player, just throw the ball and it hits my leg because I'm just standing there.

That's not even supposed to be a kick anyway. That was a horrendous call. It was obvious in real time. The Pacers couldn't challenge it. That sucked.

The illegal screen call is awful. It's awful. If you were gonna call that, if you're going to call that, that is like, if you ranked every screen that happened in the last 20 seconds of a close game this season by illegality, that probably ranks 5742nd. And you call it then in that game, and then, of course, you challenge it, and it's like, well, he's technically moving, and so challenge is unsuccessful. You could not call that.

I I'm rarely like the you cannot call that in that moment guy. Cause the rules are the rules. You could not call that in that moment. Especially after I waited through 17 challenges and out of bounds plays to see if the Pacers were going to have a chance to win the game. They don't even get to run a play.

That sucked. What an insane game. I don't know. Where else do you want to go? Halliburton had six points.

I mean, that's just not good enough. And two bad turnovers late in the game on pocket passes to Miles Turner, the one that OGN and Obi stolen and went the other way for a dunkin. Um, I guess we got to start on, like, Andrew Nebhart on Brunson. One on one is just not going to be tenable. And so I don't know where you go from there.

I would probably start Nismith on him in game two just to put some size he'll get niece with in foul trouble. And I wonder how, if this maybe is crazy. I don't know. I wonder if we're going to see Siakam on him at some point just for the size and just live with Nismith on and Obi and, and rejigger the matchups that way. But Andrew Nembard is a good defender.

He's just not big enough to bother Brunson the way that ooble did. I guess you got to start there. Like, what are you doing if you're the Pacers? Because I can't just let this guy dribble into 17 foot jump shots again. It's funny, they were, Nemhardt was guarding Brunson, and they were setting screens to get knee Smith on him.

John Schuhmann

So it's not like, it's not like Brunson is bothered by a Nie Smith. And like, he was. He was getting by him a few times, if I remember right. So, like, Brunson's primary defenders were Nemhardt and then McConnell, and they were setting screens to get switches onto bigger defenders to the point that you made where, like, he's, he's small, but still can score against bigger guys. The other thing on the Nemhardt point, and to your point, of all the things that happened, that away from the play foul was brutal, where the Knicks are up one with the ball, and I forget how much time was left.

I think 12 seconds after. After the offensive foul, right after the offensive foul. And the last thing you could do is commit away from the play foul, because now that gives them the opportunity to go up four and the game's over. And so even if Brunson had him beat, like, just let him go. And if he gets a layup, that's better than committing it away from the play foul.

Probably, you know, when, you know, maybe the odds of them missing a free throw aren't zero, obviously, but that was brutal like that. And that was the second one they had in the game. So there was another free point, I believe it was earlier in the fourth quarter, where baseline out of bounds, where Devincenzo sort of deked somebody. I think it was shepherd. And Shepherd called, got.

Got away from the play foul. Well, Indiana got a little frenzied on defense several times during the game. You pointed out two of them. There was an. And then the knee Smith chasing, trying to chase down.

Zach Lowe

Horrible, right? Horrible. And I was yelling in real time, what are you doing? And they get a Josh Hart, and one, he misses the free throw, and they, of course, get an offensive rebound because Hardenstein just shoves Miles Turner under the basket, and Josh Hart comes and rebounds. His own mission.

Four free points for the Knicks. They were down five, and an Obi hit a three early in the fourth quarter. I think it might have been the first Knicks possession of the fourth quarter when the Pacers were up seven. And they ran. I think it was a McBride in an OB two man game on the right side.

And the Pacers, just like, Siakam, went flying at Miles McBride, like, out of control. McConnell was trailing the play and, like, gambled in space for a steal, and OGN and Obi was wide. Just like, chill. It's a deuce. McBride pick and roll.

Just chill. Just make them make a play. Don't give them an open three. But going back to the Brunson question, I mean, maybe there are some coaches who would say, actually, we should just make him make 17 foot jump shots over Andrew Nebhart. Again, I it doesn't seem like that's going to be a workable strategy against Jalen Brunson right now.

John Schuhmann

Well, that was the. What Nick Nurse basically said in the previous series. Like, yeah, he's scoring 40 points per game, but, like, all these games have been close. And, yeah, despite him scoring 43 last night, the Pacers had a chance. Right?

Like, but I do. You know, I guess if you put Siakam on him and like you said, nismith goes to Ananobi, it's not a bad option, because I don't think you're worried about Ananobi playing a bunch of one on one or bullying nismith a ton in the post, right? Maybe there's a couple of those possessions, but it's not huge. I do think that Siakam liked to match up with Ananobi on the other end of the floor. Like, he looked comfortable in that matchup.

Yeah, that was fun to watch. Like, these two teammates, former teammates, going one on one a lot, and Siakam absolutely getting the best of. Do you think the Raptors front office just has banned this series from being broadcast on their televisions inside their headquarters just like that? Oh, that channel's blacked out today. Oh, okay.

It's amazing. Like that. Those two guys, last two pieces from a championship team now facing each other. Yeah, it's. It's.

It's fun, but, yeah, that was fun to watch on that end of floor. But, yeah, I think back to the other ends, I guess, to your point, the Knicks did score efficiently overall. And, yes, they have. They scored efficiently overall in the playoffs. But, like, it's not like they're dominating these games.

Their defense just, I guess, hasn't been quite as good as it was in the regular season. I think your primary concern is, continues to be rebounding. Like, I would think when you're looking at matchups, like, what's going to help us rebounding wise? What's going to hurt us rebounding wise? Most or least, you know, I thought they did.

Pacers did a terrific job on the glass in the first half. Isaiah Jackson. They dusted off Isaiah Jackson and he was really good on the, on the boards. Of course, the Knicks are just relentless. And don't, just don't stop.

They had three second chance points in the first half, 13 in the second half. Josh Hart is just a menace. Like, dude plays 48 minutes and has more energy than anybody else in the last two or three. It's, he's. I don't know what to say.

Like, he's just incredible. And Tibbs expanded the rotation by one guy. We saw precious jewel come in for. A couple minutes or so. Yeah, a couple brief stints.

Zach Lowe

I thought he might have to expand it a little bit more than that just because, you know, it's a game one four minutes for Precious Achilles, to your point about the rebounding, we did not see any. Indiana played a center the entire game against Milwaukee, and a lot in the regular season, they would play Siakam and Toppin together at the four and the five. It just can't. I just said the name Toppin. The man dunked through his legs in a close playoff game.

Imagine if he had blow in that dunk. If he had blown that dunk, Rick Carlisle might have murdered him on the, the series might be over. It might be canceled because Rick Carlisle murdered obi top in, in full view of a television audience. And Isaiah Hardenstein made a half court shot. That shot has to go down in Nick's lore.

Like, they won the game by whatever. What did they win by? Three. Four out of it ended up being a four point game. They got three points on Isaiah Hartenstein, 58 footer at the buzzer.

That's ridiculous. Every possession counts. Every possession counts. Shoot your heaves, kids. Don't let it fly.

Thank you. Shoot your heaves. The basketball gods. Remember the people in the regular season who are too cool to shoot your heaves because all my, my percentage points are going to go down. You stink.

Non heavers on Brunson. Well, I don't. I don't know what else is there to say on, bro. I just don't know what, what else you just. He's unbelievable.

John Schuhmann

He hasn't been particularly efficient in these playoffs. Right. But, like, he has since the first, since the first two games against Philly, he's been efficient enough. Yeah. And whether he's efficient or not, the Knicks need all of it, right?

Like, they need him to be that dude and more offensively, for them to survive. Right. And not only because he scores all these points, but also, he'll draw a double team and find open guys, but also, he bends the defense and then allows them angles towards, you know, those, all those offensive rebounds that they get. Like, the fact that he draws so much attention is a big factor in, in their offensive rebounding. Well, I mean, and it goes without saying, they're missing their second best shot creator by a mile.

Zach Lowe

And Julius Randall, who would play every single second. Jalen Brunson would be on the bench alongside starting, obviously, and they might be able to actually rest Jalen Brunson for, like, normal periods of time if they had Julius Randall. And they're missing boy on Bogdanovich, who's one of their three or four best offense creators, but to the credit specifically of Dante DeVincenzo and OGN and Obi, those guys are giving them just enough something from nothing offense every game for the Knicks to get by. And by the way, you want to know about playoff readiness. And we were talking about Jalen Brunson defenses and Tyrese Halliburton defenses.

The, these teams both on the, on the tent pole, pick and roll. So Brunson Hartenstein on one end, Halliburton Turner on the other end. Both of these teams do not want to blitz. They want to, they want to come up pretty high, but they essentially want to drop, like a high drop, corral the ball, handler, get back and reset. And Jalen Brunson, look real comfortable with that.

Like, okay, I can just keep dribbling until you, big man, retreat. I'm now back in a one on one situation. They don't want to blitz. And when they broke out the blitz as, like, a change of scheme tactic, both the offenses were immediately ready for it. They blitz Brunson.

He hits Hardenstein in the short roll. Hardenstein hits Steven Shenzo for a wide open three. He misses Diplitz Halliburton the very first time. Oh, you're going to catch Tyrese Halliburton off guard. No pass to miles Turner.

Dunk. That's, that's just playoff readiness by both teams and both point guards. But look, we got to go to the other end of the floor, because Tyrese Halliburton can't have six points. Like, what what did you notice Nick's defense on Tyrese Halliburton? How can they get him going?

Obviously, he hasn't been the same guy since his hamstring or whatever it is in the middle of the season. Like, what can, what can we look for there from the Pacers? You know, I'd have to, like, rewatch a little bit, but my initial, like, just because I'm taking notes on every possession and, you know, sort of right, more focused on what's happening than like, one individual's effort. But at halfway through that game, I was like, I think Devincenzo is doing a really nice job on Halliburton as far as navigating screens, staying with him in isolations or when he rejected screens. So I think number one, I think it starts with DeVincenzo just being able to stay attached as much as he has.

John Schuhmann

But like I say, I think they are giving him a ten, you know, a little bit more attention from second and third defenders and therefore other guys are going to be open. But yeah, he does, you know, obviously the pacers need more just juice from him. I love the, I love, you know, that he's just always looking to pass the ball ahead. They had a couple of, you know, sequences, you know, where they scored in transition or got a good shot in transition after makes or after made free throws. And that's all about Halliburton and his just willingness to pass ahead.

So I don't think, like, oh, he scored six points. It was a bad, terrible game for him. Like, he is still the engine that makes that offense go. But, yeah, it kind of stinks that, like, he's not the same player that he was at the start of the season. He hasn't been the same basically since his injury.

Zach Lowe

It's interesting that both the bucks and now the Knicks, you know, on the, on the Halliburton Turner pick and roll have, have essentially decided, like, we do not want to blitz you. We do not want to make the read easy for you because you are a pass first player. We're not going to give you this pass. We're going to come up high enough that you can't just come up and shoot a three, but we're going to make you dribble. We want you to be a prodding dribbler and we want Miles Turner to pop out for threes that we can corral you and come back and contest.

And we do not want to just give you easy passes. And the Knicks executed that pretty well. Now Tyrese Halberd is so good. He's going to punish that scheme now and then in miles turn. By the way, here's a question I thought of last night during the game.

Schumann, is Miles Turner now a better offensive player than defensive player? Oh, it's a good question. He definitely, I have to look at his, at his numbers. I haven't, like, I can't say that I've looked at Miles Turner's overall season numbers to compare them to last season. I do love that.

John Schuhmann

Like, he's a full time center now, like, you know, like an offensive center, meaning that he will roll to the rim. You know, prior to the, you know, Halliburton Sabonis trade, he wasn't in a great role offensively and his role has been much better since that trade. And he's the full time center and he's got a great point guard. He did get open a couple times on pick and pops. To your point where Halliburton was coming off that screen and able to get a little bit of penetration, not necessarily getting all the way to the rim, but Keith Parkenstein with him for an extra couple of dribbles that left Turner open, I don't think the Knicks were necessarily wanting to rotate to that from, from somewhere else.

So he's going to get shots. He's definitely going to get open shots. And like you said when they blitzed, he was smart enough to roll and got a couple of easy looks defensively. Yeah, you're right. I don't think we really felt his impact a lot.

He had one great block, if I remember correctly, that turned into a transition sequence for the Pacers. That's a great question. I don't, I don't, you know, obviously, Indiana is not a great defensive team. They're improved with Siakam. You know, just having a rangy forward like that is, is valuable.

There was one play fact last night where the Knicks ran a empty side pick and roll and Siakam was the low man on the weak side coming all the way over to the strong side, strong side block to help prevent the easy pass to the roll man. The ball swung to an Obi on the opposite side and Siakam was right there to run him off a three. And just having that sort of ranginess just makes them just a little bit better of a defensive team than they were earlier, earlier in the season, obviously. Do you make, do you make picks? Did you make a pick in the series.

For this one? I just picked Knicks. So for us, they asked us to pick every series, just a winner, and then if we did the season, if we did the series preview, we were picked. We picked games. And I did the Celtics Cavs series preview.

Zach Lowe

We'll talk about that. I picked Nixon six. I thought this sounds right. I thought this would be a competitive series. Like, I have a lot of Knicks fans, friends who are penning their.

Penning them into the conference finals. I thought, I thought the Pacers would make this a competitive series. I was going to pick Nixon seven. And then I thought, you know what? That's.

That's home team in seven. I don't want to overdo that pick. If I'm going to pick the Knicks, let me have the Knicks close it out in six in Indiana. I think it's going to be a good. A good series on Halliburton.

Devon Shenzo was great. I don't think they can really afford to use an and Obi on him in this series because they need an and Obian Siakam and they need his help defense on the back line, which is big against Philly. I liked, I think they, if Devon Shenzhen was on Halliburton and Ananobi's on Siakam, I would like them to lean a little bit more into the Halliburton Siakam two man game. Cause they're not. The Knicks are not going to want to switch that and have miles turner space to floor.

They got some good stuff out of that. And on offense, they need to make Jalen Brunson work more. Jalen Brunson saved his. I'm going at Halliburton stuff for the end of the game. Last eight minutes of the game, every possession was, where's Halliburton?

Let me find him. And the Pacers actually did pretty well to switch and rotate out of that. I don't think the Pacers made Brunson work hard enough on offense. The Knicks were really smart to hide him on Nismith instead of Nemhart from for like the last two thirds of the game. Cause nismit needs.

Nemhardt is used to setting screens for Halliburton and running that kind of two man game. Niece with can do it. And they did it a little bit, but it's not quite as much of his comfort zone as is for Nebhart, who's got such good feel for the game. But there was one play just for instance, when, okay, you want to give a lot of the offense to Nemhardt because he has. He has Brunson on him.

Sometimes they ran him around like a Halliburton screen and then into a pick and roll with Miles Turner to try and just get Brunson moving a little bit. And Brunson got hit by Halliburton screen, but they don't want to switch him out to Halliburton. He ends up on Miles Turner. Miles Turner gets a post up and an easy bucket. I think they need to make him work a little bit more.

And part of that is just Halliburton's got to be better. This was a, I just can't even believe all the crazy stuff that happened in this game. Feel bad. Feel bad about. The ending was a bummer.

The ending was a bummer. I would like to see that possession play out and see how the game goes. It was right there for the Pacers, though. I mean, that's right there for the Pacers. Yeah.

John Schuhmann

I was speaking to somebody before the game. Yes, I favor the Knicks in this series, but the Pacers winning this series wouldn't shock me. They're very good team. The Knicks are, you know, have a, depending on seven guys, you know. Right.

And like, so that, how many, you know, so therefore you need like more than half of your guys that you're playing to play well to win a game for the most part. And so, yeah, I think this is serious. The series is obviously still very much up in the air. One game, very close. But I mean, maybe the Knicks just gonna play, just gonna win a bunch of close games.

Six of their, I think six of their seven games have been within five in the last five. All four games at MSG have been within three in the last two minutes. Yeah, buckle up for a next game. I just, the thing I love about the playoffs is how dialed in the players and the coaches are. Like, they're just in ways that if you're just kind of half watching the game, you may not even notice.

Zach Lowe

Like I mentioned the blitzing and how both teams were just immediately prepared for that. Like these games, if there's one, like, like they had a chew on Ben shepherd for, because the Knicks had more bigs on the floor than the Pacers did immediately. They ran Ben shepherd off two pin downs and he got a three. Like, we're going to make you chase in the fourth quarter. Like four minutes left.

I mentioned how Brunson, how Halliburton, I'm sorry, Brunson was going at Halliburton. Halliburton was on Devon Shenzo. They switch Halliburton over to Josh Hart, like midway through, about four minutes left, hoping that the Knicks just say, well, we don't want Josh Hart in the action. We'll just. Halliburton can hide over here.

The Knicks immediately see, immediately. Not one possession passes. You're on Josh Hart. Josh Hart comes screen for Brunson. The Pacers immediately see that the Knicks have seen it and drag Halliburton out of the play and switch somebody else onto Josh Hart.

Halfway through, it's like this. These teams are so dialed in. The playoffs are awesome. Okay, let's quickly go to the two series that are starting to night. You previewed Cavs, Celtics, the Cavs with, I would say, a rather uninspiring win over the Orlando Magic in seven games.

Although I kind of like how Donovan Mitchell went old school. Like, I'm just going to get into the lane and get to the free throw line and carry us over the finish line if I have to. Even if nobody scores any points in the fourth quarter, as happened in game six. Give me, give me a couple minutes. Just what's.

I picked Boston and five. I know they don't have Porzingis. I don't think they need Porzingis. I think they have a good enough big man depth behind Horford and they're just better than Cleveland. But Cleveland has played the Celtics well the last couple years.

They're actually four and three against Boston in the last two years with some. There's the Dean Wade game, Dakaris Lavert overtime game. There's a lot of games. What are you looking for in this one?

John Schuhmann

Yeah, I think the first thing I'm curious about is how they defend Mitchell. Like, like you said, I got, I think I picked Celtics in five as well. And I don't think there should be much drama. But I am curious about how they defend Mitchell just in case that maybe dictates. Dictates further matchups.

I go back to two years ago when the Celtics swept the nets. And do you remember after, and Kevin Durant did not have a good series. And after game three of that series, he was in the press conference and basically admitted that he was like, in his own head, like he didn't know whether he should be shooting more or passing more. And I just remember, like, the Celtics weren't double teaming him, but they were like perfectly spaced off the ball against him. Right?

Like, it was like if he was coming off a pick and roll, that third guy was in just the perfect position to make him wonder, what should I do when I come off this pick and roll? If he was isolated, the two guys that were one pass away were like, perfectly. And I always think of this, like, the first time I started thinking about, like, defensive spacing and how you can. How. Where defenders are supposed to be, like, just say, pretend Donovan Mitchell is isolated against Al Horford at the top of the key, that gets a switch and, like, where are those two guys that are one pass away?

And I'm sort of curious to see how they defend him in that manner. I don't think they're, you know, they're not going to send double teams because they have so many great defenders, but I'm curious as to, uh, how. How much attention they put on him and then how he reacts to that because Darius Garland has not been great in this postseason. Um, you know, Jared Allen, as. As we speak, is listed as questionable for game one.

If he was unavailable for a game seven, I'm not sure how he's going to be available for a game one. Two nights later, Dean Wade is out, which I think is. Is important because of Allen's absence. Right. Like, if you've only got one of your starting bigs, then you need, like, a true power forward.

And, like, so Cavs just need more from other guys just to make this interesting. Like, can. Can George Niang make a shot? Like, that would be nice. Right?

Who's gonna guard Tatum? I guess Max juice. That's. That's the most interesting question to me is how does Cleveland match up defensively? It's almost easier for them with one big than with both Allen and Mobley.

Zach Lowe

You could see Mobley on Tatum if you want to put a wing on Horford. I think we'll see a little bit of that. I'm interested in who guards Jalen Brown and who guards Derek White because I think the league took note of Miami putting hero on Jalen Brown and trying to bait Boston into moving its offense away from Derek White and Jason Tatum and toward Jalen Brown. Now, Jalen Brown, to his credit, kind of figured that one out by the second and third game of that series and just said, oh, I'm just going to beat the hell out of Tyler hero until this is untenable, but it's going to be interesting to see where they move the pieces around. I don't want to do too much on this because the game's going to start soon, basically.

But I will say I think Cleveland is going to play better against Boston than they did against Orlando. And it's not because Boston is a worse defensive team than Orlando. They're roughly equivalent. They're not as physical. And I think the magic physicality really bothered the Cavs and I think the Cavs, just having gotten through the first round, are going to play a little looser, a little more comfortable.

Like, I think they'll look better against Boston than they did against Orlando. I mean, it would hard for them to look worse. Their offensive rating was 100 even in that series. It's like sub Grizzlies match unit level offense, but I just don't know on talent and size and everything, Boston is just obviously has been a better team all year. I don't really know.

You know, we'll see. I think Cleveland will put up an okay fight, but Boston in five feels feels right to me. For the ones who get it done, Granger offers high quality supplies and solutions for every industry, as well as access to product specialists who have the knowledge and experience to answer your toughest questions. Plus, their commitment to being your safety partner can help you keep your facility safe and your people safer. Call or click granger.com or just stop by shopping for Mother's Day is usually a challenge because you wait until the last minute.

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The other series that I'm really, really excited for is Oklahoma City, Dallas. I think this is going to be a fascinating series. Dallas coming off a six game win over the Clippers who just kind of limped out of the playoffs. We'll talk about them in a second. Obviously, there's a million interesting matchups in this series.

You have DeLuca Kyrie duo who are going to be facing Lou Dort and Jalen Williams defensively and I think to me this start and the Kliba at Maxi Kliba being out for Dallas, I think looms large. Takes one of their the Kliba at center card, which they didn't use as much against the Clippers after in the last two games of the series. But it's, it's a nice ace in the hole for them. And he was good at the four, too, alongside their centers and even alongside PJ Washington and the Gafford Ladley duo. I think what's interesting about this matchup right from the jump is the Pelicans did not until it was pretty late in the series and mostly with Nance, put their centers on Josh Giddy.

They kept Jonas Valentunas on Chet Holmgren, and the Thunder exploited that in a million different ways. I'll bet you from the opening tip of this game tonight that Daniel Gafford is on Josh Giddy and probably PJ Washington is on Chet Holmgren, and maybe Derek Jones junior is on Shay Gilders Alexander, which means Kyrie is going to have to guard somebody. And he was awesome against Harden. Like all credit to Kyrie, he, he defended James Harden really well. He wanted the assignment.

He even got it when there were other guys on the floor who could have taken it. He was awesome. But I think, I think this is going to be the series where Josh Giddy sings or swims and the Thunder sink or swim with him. And, and the good news about thunders, they have alternatives like Kaysen. Wallace has defended Luca decently and Kyrie decently.

Aaron Wiggins could be big in this series, but I think that's going to be, I think right from the jump we're going to see that strategy and how Oklahoma city, I mean, they've ready for it. They've seen it a billion times. Dallas is one of the first teams to do this in the regular season, so I think that's the most interesting part. Tim Hardaway junior, also back. That could help the Mavs.

What are your thoughts? So Josh good, he's nine for 18 from three in the playoffs. I believe he's 39% since the all star break or something like that. And, like, if you look at his three point rate, meaning the percentage of his shots that have come from three, it's way up. I mean, so I mean, that's obviously, that's going to be a product of, of how teams are defending him.

John Schuhmann

One note, Gilders Alexander's usage rate against Dallas in the regular season was his lowest usage rate again against any opponent. His 22 points per game were lowest, I think, against any opponent or any Western Conference opponent. And Derek Jones junior was, like you said, was the primary matchup there. So they've done a nice job of sort of, I guess, getting the ball out of his hands.

I think one thing I will look at, obviously, is Dallas offensive rebounds versus transition in Oklahoma City's end of the floor. Oklahoma City in the regular season led the league in transition points differential. They were first in transition points per game and first in transition points allowed per game. That seems good. Yeah, that's pretty good.

They did that even though they weren't a great defensive rebounding team, and obviously because they didn't care about offensive rebounding, that obviously helped their defensive transition, which I think is important in this series because one of the improvements in the Mavs is their ability to run this year, and that comes from Kyrie Irving, his willingness to run, and Luka Donchis additional willingness to pass the ball ahead. And so I'd be fascinated to see, like, how many transition opportunities Dallas gets. Obviously, those two guys are terrific half court players, but if you can slow them down, that, I mean, like we said with the Knicks, like, every possession counts, and if you can minimize Dallas's transition opportunities and maybe force them to take some tougher shots in the half court, that'll go a long way. On the flip side, Oklahoma City is a turnover forcing machine on defense. Speed, hands, tenacity, and Dallas, always with Luca, is one of the lowest turnover teams on offense.

Zach Lowe

I think for Dallas to win, they need to keep that differential in their favor. I think if that tilts at all to Oklahoma City, the Mavs are in a little bit of trouble. I wonder then, like, I mean, they're, they're low turnover because they, they don't pass a lot, right? Like, they're on a heavy ISO team. In part, and it's, Luke could do.

John Schuhmann

Is do his thing and, and draw defenders and make, I wonder if, I mean, Oklahoma City will be more aggressive maybe towards the ball and, like, just force some ball movement. I don't know. Um, that may be a. They do like to watch for. They do like to speed teams up.

Zach Lowe

Um, sometimes just like, just randomly throw some pressure at people to just speed them up against the clock. Uh, they're also just, I think Oklahoma City's defense was underrated the whole season because everyone focused on the rebounding, and Chet is skinny and yada, yada. They are as good as it gets in the league. Like, as good as Boston, as good as Minnesota, even at covering space off the ball and by that I mean shading, helping, but not over committing. They just seem everywhere at once where you're like, that looks open.

Actually it's closed. That alley looks old. Actually, it doesn't look that open. They just make you think they cover space really well. What Lou Dort did to Brandon Ingram in the first round should be illegal.

He should be in prison for that. That was unbelievable. The Lou Dort Jalen Williams tag team is, is really, really good. It's going to be interesting to see how they approach Luca if and how the Mavs defense approaches Oklahoma City. They flirted with switching a little bit against the Thunder and trying to sort of just grind away their passing game.

We might see PJ Washington at center a little bit. I don't love that look for Dallas, but without Kliba we could see it. My pick for this series is Oklahoma City. I won Oklahoma City in seven, but I'm. That's not like, I think Dallas can obviously win the series, but I like Oklahoma City in this series.

I think they're just really, really good. A little fresher. But this will be a test of their depth. It'll be tested Dallas's depth, too. Like, one of the reasons they beat the Clippers was Derek Jones.

Junior made plays off the dribble and made shots. Josh Green is going to have to make plays off the dribble and make shots not to ex them. Same thing. But I like the thunder in this series. Who did you pick?

John Schuhmann

I picked the thunder and I guess if I had to pick games, I'd say seven. Like, the only thing that'll surprise me is a sweep in either direction. Like, just these two teams are just too good and they have sort of matchup advantages, I guess, against each other. I will say, like the one game in the regular season, Irving and Doncic only played one game together, and that was the game that the Mavs crushed them right. Right after the trade deadline.

Zach Lowe

I think that was the first or second game for their new guys. Yeah. And that was the second most efficient game that any team had against the Thunder this season. So, yeah, I mean, I do favor the Thunder just because they are good. They are so good.

John Schuhmann

They're a little, they just have more talent from, you know, I guess three to seven and they have home court advantage. But Dallas winning wouldn't shock me at all. No. All right, let's really quick. Rapid fire through fallout with three different teams.

Zach Lowe

Orlando spirited effort loses game seven in Cleveland. After going out to a big lead, Cleveland comes alive offensively. Franz Wagner shoots one of 15 miserable offensive series for him and for the Magic, other than Paolo Bancaro, who is absolutely 100% for real, I mean, we knew this team needed more offense. The magic need more offense. They'll probably try to find it via cap space and trade and all that.

Their big decision will be, does that player or players, how much do they need the ball? I think they are rightfully hesitant to, like, bring in a ball dominant player, and that's fine, that's okay. But obviously they need more shooting and more juice on offense, and we already knew that. But it was the Franz Wagner jump shot thing is bizarre to me that he became, like, the worst high volume three point shooter in the NBA this year. It's like, I don't understand how he became Russell Westbrook.

That's weird, but I'm going to assume that's a fluke. But I don't really have much interesting to say other than Paolo is a little turnover prone. But that's what happens when you're by far the number one playmaker on a team that doesn't have a lot of shooting. Like, those passes and drives are really hard, but good effort. They're tough as hell.

I thought they did well to take Cleveland. I picked Cleveland and seven in that series. I thought Orlando did well to get it there. Yeah, I think definitely they need another guard, but, like you said, like, it would help if Wagner sort of got over whatever struggles he was having. So, like, it's obviously a huge summer for him.

John Schuhmann

Just as in regard to fixing that three point shot that just disappeared, I want to say, after January or maybe even before January.

And so, yeah, I'm. I mean, I think maybe it was a year or so ago, like, I wondered if they had a starting guard on their roster at all. And I think Jalen Suggs has turned into a starting caliber guard in this league, but you have to compliment him and those other two guys, like you said, a certain way. Right. So I don't know.

Like, I don't think Trey Young is the fit, you know? Right. Like, I. He would be the. Maybe the first name you think when you see a young team that needs a.

Needs a guard who can shoot, especially. So. I don't know if that's a fit. And so I don't. I'm going.

I don't know. I'm going. No, on that one for Orlando. I don't know what they think. They liked trae young at the draft.

Zach Lowe

That's too much of a sea change right now, a culture change, a stylistic change. Like, I'm just not doing that. I think their dream, from what I know, their dream would be, like, if you could find, like, a younger drew holiday, a young Chris Middleton. Like, those guys are hard to find, but, like, that's the kind of guy they. I mean, that's why they're rumored to be linked with older versions of those players in free agency.

Team two, very briefly, the Pat Riley press conference yesterday was just. I mean, just almost like, if I. If you asked me to do an impression of a Pat Riley post season, post playoff elimination press conference, I don't even think I would be that over the top with my Riley ness, probably. First of all, like, props to the heap heat and Pat Riley for being available after every season like this. And then props number two for being so candid.

John Schuhmann

Right? Like, you do not get this from 29 other teams, basically, and you don't get the availability from several of them. You know, lots of teams have their top executive available at this time of year or maybe right before the draft, and none of. None of those guys are nearly as Candid Riley was. Do you think if the Knicks won the championship, if they would make Leon Rose available for an interview?

Zach Lowe

Like, is that what it would take for Leon Rose to do an interview, a press conference, like, like, win the championship? Or is that even, like, you know what? We just can't. We can't share our thinking with you at all? I'd say it's about 40, 60 in favor.

John Schuhmann

I say, you know, the 60 being. No, he's not available. 40, 40% chance. Yes, he is available. Anyway, I said on the podcast last week that this is going to be a very interesting offseason on a lot of different fronts, with all of these teams who are all in or mostly in for this season, already out in the first round with some.

Zach Lowe

Some of them with limited avenues to improve, some of them with, like, Philadelphia and Miami, with more interesting avenues to improve. And I said, look, I'm training my eyes, and Miami first. I think there could be some fireworks there. Jimmy Butler is eligible for a huge extension. I don't know how those talks are going to go.

I don't know what happens if they don't go. Well, I said, I could see a scenario where they trade Jimmy Butler for a bunch of assets and they try to turn those assets into somebody else who's younger and a better fit on their team. Team going forward with Jimmy Butler's window there being five years of incredible success, two finals, conference finals, two first round eliminations, but still, like, despite a middling regular season record. The payoff has been immense and he's been immense in the playoffs. And Pat Riley said that they did, they were not going to planning to trade Jimmy Butler.

Also said about 17 times that Jimmy Butler and everyone else on the team needs to be more available and play more games next season. Also said repeatedly he did not seem excited to begin extension talks with Jimmy Butler. Mentioned that they didn't have to do that until next season. Mentioned that to make that kind of commitment to a player, they had to know he was available. That is flammable.

I don't, you can, you can say, we're not planning to trade them. You say that other stuff that is flammable. Language that has my gaze even more trained on. I don't know what's going to happen in Miami, but I know that one way or another, they could be the first domino of the offseason in the NBA. Those comments were, and again, it's Riley.

Riley has long since passed the I give zero. You know, what's about anything I say, I will say anything that's on my mind. I don't care who I. He told Jimmy, now this was a little tongue in cheek, I think, but still, he told Jimmy, you're not on the court to play Boston in New York. You should shut your mouth.

He could have said that a little bit more politely, like, even if you're tongue in cheek, you could have been like, you know, I just wish he wouldn't have said anything. He wasn't available. He was like, no, I'm going to hit him with the jab and then the right hook and, and be, be pretty blunt about it. That is, that opened a lot of eyes around the NBA, let's put it that way. My phone was lighting up during the Riley press conference.

They are maybe ground zero for the NBA offseason starting right now. I never know, like, what to make of this team. I just don't, like, they're, like you said, like, they've been so mediocre over the last two regular seasons, but they're the team you don't want to face in the playoffs this year. I, like, I don't think, I haven't, I didn't double check, but I don't think they were worse without Jimmy Butler than they were with Jimmy Butler this season. Right.

John Schuhmann

Like, they are somehow, you know, not that affected by his absence in the regular season, at least. Obviously they needed him in that, in that playoff series. Yeah, Stan Van Gundy mentioned that in their last game, to which my reaction was, I don't really care what those numbers say. Like, they're just way, way worse without Jimmy Butler in games that actually matter. What gets me excited about this team is Jaime Hawkes, junior Nikolajovic, and those two guys are rookies.

But at the same time, I can't imagine the Heat taking a purposeful step backward in order to build for a team three or four years down the line. Adebayo is still young enough to have him as an anchor on that timeframe. But, like, it's just hard to imagine that this team, like, purposefully taking a step backward. No. And I mentioned fake Jimmy Butler trades on last week's spot.

Zach Lowe

You can go listen to that. Even if his extension, at least, whether it's with the Heat or anywhere else, if it, if it happens, is at least short. Like, it's not going to be one of these four year albatross kind of extensions, the one he's eligible for. Now, the last team I want to talk about is the Clippers. It was so anticlimactic that I, and there's so much else going on in the NBA that I don't think it drew enough attention.

What a catastrophic ending to the Clippers season that was. Kawhi can't play the last part of the series and they just lifelessly skulk out of the playoffs with absolutely no juice. No juice. I mean, if you watch their offense, look, I think ty lose a good coach. The Lakers have been openly smitten with the idea of getting Ty Lou.

They're probably not going to be able if the Clippers resigned him. He said he wants to have the Clippers. That won't happen. I don't think, like, Tyloo had a nice, they had a nice 30 game window where they were dominant. You watched them play in Dallas without Kawhi Leonard.

They just had no offense at all, nothing. They would run one pick and roll. That was it. Like no one else was moving around, like they had no plan. I was aghast that PJ Tucker started the game in game six.

I was even more aghast that he started the second half after it was obviously a disaster to have him on the floor. I just think they needed to go all in with Harden, man, Powell, George Zubatz. Like, if I got to play that lineup 22 out of 24 minutes to save my season, that's what I'm doing. They do not control any of their picks until 2030, 1st or second rounders. I don't believe terrence man is eligible for an extension.

Norm Powell has two years left on his deal. Paul George is obviously entering free agency. I have no idea. I mean, they, I guess they're going to run it back. Like that's what they want to do.

They want to run it back. Paul George still hasn't signed his extension.

Like I said before the season, I think the Clippers, I think the window is just about closed. Then they got hard in and to their credit, reopened it. Then they just lost it. I don't know why or how. And then the Kawhi, it's just, this is three years in a row.

Kawhi can't finish the season. And it just is what it is. It's the same knee over and over. I think it's like they can run it back. Like, I saw, like, Sam Amick, who's wonderful, wrote, like, they want to bring back their three superstars.

Like, superstars. They all superstars now. Like, I don't, I think this team is, is over as, as a contender. Like, I mean, like, it's not even crazy to say they haven't been out of the first round in three years. I think if they bring the band back together, I just don't see a roadmap for them to be a championship contender in a west where everyone almost is going to be good.

I, but I also don't, just don't know what they should do and more importantly, as they move into the toilet dome, what they actually have the stomach to do. But this, this iteration of the team has run its course. Even with Harden, I don't think they could win. They were so good for like three months. You know, they were the best team in the league basically for a three month stretch, like a longer stretch than, like, Dallas was good.

John Schuhmann

Right. Like, I sort of unmentioned. Unfortunately, for all of their aging superstars, the season is very, very long and requires like 100 plus games. Yeah, that's the, I mean, yeah. And quiet.

Leonard was really good. I had him second team all NBA. Like, I think he was, he was, I think he may have been even first on my list when I started first or second on my list when I started to put together the second team. But, like, it's like, just hasn't been able to finish seasons. James Harden was really good, you know, but, and had a couple good games in the playoffs.

But, you know, he had a very. Good first four games, won them game four almost single handedly down the stretch in Dallas. A clutch, clutch, super clutch game, and then game five and game six. This is the problem with Harden. Everybody has bad games.

Zach Lowe

Like Ty Lu says, everyone's entitled to have a bad game.

James Harden's bad playoff games are so bad. They're, they're like f, they're either like ten turnovers or three of eleven. There's no, and he's, it's not as if, well, I can dial in on defense and set a lot of screens and do all this other stuff. They're just, so this is what I said last year when you had the crazy good games in Philly and the crazy bad games in Philly, it's like, can you just give me a b every game? Like, I got Joellen beat on the team.

If you give me a b every game, we're going to be fine. I'd rather have that than a, a f, f, C a. Like, you just give me a b and he can't do it. I don't know if that's about, more about like, him, who he is internally or the type of player that he is and that he has the ball all the time. Right.

John Schuhmann

Or at least, you know, not, not as much with this team as in the past, but you're talking about his, his career playoff resume, has the ball all the time, shoots a lot of tough shots. And so, yeah, you're going to have, you know, highs and lows, I guess, maybe with that type of player, but I guess, you know, the type, you know, who he is inside and his ability to sort of step up and be, be a great player in the most important moments in the postseason is also, you know, I guess, in question. I just, I didn't get a chance to address it because it happened over the weekend. I just, it cannot be overstated. What a nightmare ending that is to the Clippers season.

Zach Lowe

People should not just drive by it and speed by and move on to the other stuff. This is a team with Kawhi Kawhi Leonard, James Harden and Paul George, and they look like they're just absolutely going nowhere and they just limped out totally lifeless. Yeah. I don't know what they do. Like, because they were so, like, if you're Lawrence Frank, it's like, man, we were, we were there.

John Schuhmann

Like, we had the best team in the league for a long time. Yeah. You're starting to see, you're starting to sound like the Bulls. Like, hey, we. Alonso, like, right?

But like, and also, like, it's been five years now, right? It's, this is five years with three playoff series wins. Three playoff series wins in five years. And now they've, they've come they've hit a certain age now where it's like, wow. But at the same time you're sort of hamstrung as far as what you can do going forward.

Maybe like you just, yeah, I don't know, like maybe can it, can George exercise this player option and we just give this one and they sign Harden to a one year deal and we just give it one more chance and I don't know. I said this last week, if I'm Paul George and all I care about is winning a title, that's all I care about. Not, that may not be his number if that's like, I don't care where I live, my family's preference for where I live is immaterial to me. I like he's, whatever friendships he's got with the Clippers. Like, all that is immaterial.

Zach Lowe

All I need to do is find me the best situation to win. It's not in LA anymore. I'd rather go to Philly and, and play with Maxi and embiid. That's a better shot. And get in the east.

Like the east stinks still compared to the west. All right. John Schumann NBA.com power rankings every Monday are just filled with nuggets, no pun intended. Nuggets. I believe Boston was number one in the power rankings this week, is that correct?

John Schuhmann

Correct. So basically in the playoffs are basically just doing it after every round. And yeah, I still believe in the Celtics. And, you know, your, your opening where you think maybe the Wolves are the title favorite at this point. At this point.

Now that the Nuggets are down zero two, I think I would point to Boston still. Well, Boston was my pick to win the title before the season. Boston over Denver does. Well, we'll see. I mean, I'm not going to totally give up on Denver, but that did not have the air of a team.

Zach Lowe

I think Jokic even said after the game, hopefully we can go up to Minnesota and put up a fight. I'm like, I know you're just saying stuff to the press, but like, put up a fight. Okay. John Schumannba.com one of the very best. It's fun to finally have you on.

I will see you soon at a basketball game. Thank you, sir. All right, Zach.

John Schuhmann

All right, Zach.

Denver Down, Knicks' Controversial Game One Win, and Riley's Presser

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1: Opening Discussion

2: Knicks' Controversial Win

3: Denver's Struggles

4: Minnesota's Rise

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