Potential Porzingis Injury Fallout, Series Defining Stats, and Hurley Turns Down Lakers
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And now, The Low Post. Welcome to The Low Post podcast. It's Tuesday afternoon. Game three of the NBA Finals is not until late tomorrow night so we can luxuriate in a little extra time to do the X's and O's and the previews. Steve Jones Jr. won half of the dunker spot. You know him. You love him. How are you, sir? I'm doing good. Good to be here. Great to be here. Excited to talk some finals and break down the X's and O's.

That's what you do. This is where basketball is played. Okay, I'm going to throw a number at you. You ready? I'm ready. If you ask me, boil down to one stat. If I got to just choose one stat to explain to people why Boston is up 2-0 in the finals, two wins away from capping a dominant season with a championship.

outscoring the Mavs by 25 points through two games, although game two got a little fun at the end. Do you think that was a foul, by the way, on the P.J. Washington layup that Derek White blocked? I thought that was a play on. Good effort.

There's no last. I anticipated the last two minute report and there isn't one because I guess it didn't meet the criteria. How about you get a little courage and just for the finals, we get a last 48 minute report. How about that? Like if the last two minute report doesn't exist for this play, what are we doing? Okay. If I had to choose one stat and there's a lot of stats I could go with, I'm going to hit you with it. You ready? I'm ready. Okay.

Catch and shoot threes. Dallas, 6 of 28. Boston, 20 of 60.

That's the whole series right there boiled down to one number. Boston has more than double the amount of catch and shoot threes. I don't even care about the accuracy rate, which is awful for Dallas and like not great to bad for Boston. It's the attempt volume is the whole series. And we can talk about all the reasons why that is. But if you ask me to boil it down to one stat, that's one offense functioning at a high level, like 30 catch and shoot threes per game.

would have led the entire league for the season, would have been number one among all teams. 14 catch-and-shoots per game, catch-and-shoot threes per game, which is what Dallas is averaging, would have been last...

by a mile the 30th ranked team in catch and shoot threes was the Clippers 19.7 a game so basically six below the least catchingest and shootingest three-point team in the league is that interesting to you does that tell a story to you because it tells a story to me I think it tells the story I think it ties in not just the offenses but how committed Boston's been defensively for Dallas in this series the

The struggle has just been how do we generate different looks? How do we get Boston to shift? When you watch game one, when you watch game two, Boston's help defense is locked in. They're staying. We switch if we have to. And then in game two, to add to your stat, Drew Holiday roaming, Derek Wyatt roaming. We're going to actually show a little help on you, Luka. So, yes, you have it going. You drive in the paint. We're going to go ahead and commit. You can pass it to Josh Green, and we'll see if he makes us pay or Maxi Cleaver space, see if they make us pay.

But I think that willingness to believe in your personnel, that you can defend Luka and Kyrie in those one-on-one scenarios combined with

We don't think you can make us pay is huge. And on the flip side, Boston's ability, this whole series to get to drive and kick. And I think not just the volume of shots, as you mentioned, the quality, like they are, they are generating quality looks time and time again, by manipulating the spacing, moving the big around Jason Tatum, Jalen Brown, making quick decisions, getting in the paint, forcing the help and kicking. So yeah,

If Dallas can't generate those kind of shots, it's going to be tough. If Boston keeps generating these type of shots, they're going to go ahead and probably seal the deal. So off the net rating or the ratings for the series, 113 points per 100 possession for Boston's offense, 100 for Dallas's. Dallas's figure is just beyond unsustainably bad, and it will come up. It would help if Kyrie Irving could hit some shots, and we'll talk about him. He's been...

Very, very not good. That 113 number from Boston would have ranked like 20th in the regular season. Like it's not it's not a good number. I also don't really think it means very much because I think Boston's process has been very good. The shots they're getting are really good.

as evidenced by all the threes they're getting, all the catch-and-shoot threes. They have 81 three-point attempts, I think, through two games. Most of them are really good. If they start hitting a requisite amount or, God forbid, they get hot, if they keep getting these same kind of attempts, an avalanche is coming. And by the way, the other thing is Jason Tatum has missed a bunch of chippies at the rim. I think he's shooting 54% at the rim for the series. They're not far off.

From really cracking the Dallas defense in a way that shows up in the numbers. But let's start there. Have you liked Boston's offense? Do you agree that despite an offensive rating that would rank 20th in the regular season, they are having a good offensive series and defense?

Are a couple of hot games away from just blowing the doors off the Mavs? Yes. I've liked Boston's process. My concern coming into the series was, will they get in their own way? Will they actually drive the ball enough to keep the pressure on Dallas's defense? Will their tempo be good enough?

Those possessions where it's 16 on the clock and they haven't done anything. And there's 14, one screen. Now there's 10 and we're kind of standing around. They've had those in the series, but not to the degree where Dallas can really load up and help defensively. So I've liked what they've done offensively. I like the conviction and they've just stuck with it. They've, they've hammered the spacing over and over again. The, the,

The driving kick game, you know, not going for the home run play on the first drive, getting to the second drive, third drive, keeping Dallas in rotation. That's been key to me. So I really like Boston's process. They have to keep their pedal on the metal in this one. But I like that you mentioned the optionality. There's a variance with Boston. Jason Tatum makes shots. It looks different.

Al Horford or Porzingis has a three-point game. It looks different. Derek White goes off. If Drew Holiday keeps up with Shaq's stat lines, there's a lot of different options where Dallas might be trying to figure something out and Boston has a whole different answer. I like the phrase stuck with it. They've stuck with it because to me, although it hasn't been a particularly pretty series or a statistically super pleasing series for Boston, I love the way they have played for exactly that reason.

This has been a very focused and tough 96 minutes of basketball for them. They have made very few mistakes on defense. And even the first three rounds of this playoffs...

And particularly starting with the Hawks series last year, they would have periods where they did, you know, just make a little like little blips of defense, blowing switches, not closing hard enough to good shooters, losing good shooters, closing too hard to bad shooters. Not, not anything bad. Like every team makes mistakes, but like 10%, 15% more of them than you would think a team this talented on defense would make. That's down to like,

If you don't take advantage of the mistakes they do make, you're not getting any other opportunities in the series. They have been absolutely locked in, minimizing all that. And on offense, stick with it. You said it. Like, yes, they've had a couple. Like, I thought Tatum settled for a couple. You know, you get lively on a switch with 15 on the shot clock. You take a step back three. I understand he's trying to get in rhythm on his jump shot. He cannot make a three.

You're having success when you drive it. Just drive it every time. Jalen Brown took one fading baseline, right baseline, long two on the same switch. I think he had Gafford, 15 on the shot clock. A couple of hero ball shots here or there. How many times with the Celtics in the past?

have, particularly when the threes are missing at this rate, when the catch and shoot threes are not going in, they would have, again, not a total landslide of bad possessions, but they would laze back into bad habits. The possessions you're talking about where Tatum and Brown say, this isn't working. I'm just going to dribble and dance and I'm going to shoot an 18 foot fadeaway jumper through the misses, but

Through the bricks, through the mysteries, they have just put their head down and said, we are going every single time because you can't stay in front of us. And they're hunting the centers and they're hunting Luka. And that's basically it. A little bit of Kyrie, mostly those guys, man to man. Dallas has given the switch every single time almost. They're not fighting to avoid those switches at all.

I think that's something we might see a little bit more of in game three. Should see a little bit more of like do something other than just surrender at the first sign of a pick.

And they're just saying, we're putting our head down. By the way, we're not even going to hesitate. Like on some of these, they're not pulling the ball out at all to survey the defense. They see the switch and they continue their forward momentum. There is no delay, no nothing. It has been a very focused, calculated series. And that's a tribute to them. If they go on to win this series, that's a fitting sort of culmination of this era. We've shed this sort of vestige of past Celtics teams today.

Even when the shots aren't going, we're going to continue to put our head down. Would you like to hear some stats about that, Steve Jones Jr.? Absolutely. I have the tracking data, the second spectrum tracking data. Jason Tatum, 29 drives in game two. Jason Tatum has been in the league since 2017. Where do you think that number ranks in every game Jason Tatum has played regular season and playoffs?

Top five? One. Well. Jalen Brown, 23 drives in game two of the NBA Finals. Where do you think that number ranks in all the games Jalen Brown has played since entering the league in 2016? I'm going to Price is Right this. Three? Two. You went over. You lose. Two. Boston, 66 drives in game two of the NBA Finals.

I'll give you one guess where that ranks for their season, just this season, every game they've played. Oh, shout out to the Coyotes. One? One. There we go. Now, those drives on the surface look unproductive. 0.786 points per possession on shots taken directly out of those drives, which means the driver shoots or one pass away shoots.

Zoom out for the full possession, 1.02, which is not good, but that gap shows you that two, three passes down the chain, you're starting to get some really good stuff. And I just love the looks they're getting. They're getting wide open shots over and over again, and they have just sliced apart the Mavs defense. So my question to you is, before we flip it to the other side, what, like...

Luka is who he is defensively. There will be four or five positions a game where, for whatever reason, either he's not tired, his many injuries, including most recently the chest injury, is not bothering him. It's right out of a timeout. He just feels good, whatever it is. He likes to match up. There will be four or five positions a game where he stands up his guy. And you're like, okay, he moved his feet that time. But he is who he is. He's going to get blown by a lot. The center's...

Gafford is just out of his depth defending those guys one-on-one in space. I thought Lively would at least put up some resistance. He's been terrible. He's minus 30 for the series. Minus 30. That's the worst of all Mavericks players. He has more fouls than points in the series. They needed an A Lively series to have any chance and it's been an F so far. Those guys are who they are.

You're in the video room like you have been in the past for teams, on the coaching staff. What are you cooking up defensively? Because you can't just rely on, well, look, our half-court defense, the numbers are pretty good. They're missing threes. I don't think you can rely on that. What are you cooking up in the lab as some semblance of like, here's how we can contain the ball or contain this offense? I think when it comes to Dallas, if you're thinking in that mindset...

Number one, you're probably trying to say, hey, can we give them a gap a little bit more if we continue with the switching? Can we play off them a little bit more? Can we time our help up a little bit different? You saw the difference between game one and game two between Dallas trying to find comfort with those rotations. And, you know, Boston had put a guard, Drew Holliday or Derek White, at the dunker spot. Kyrie didn't know if he had to step up. If the corner man had to step up, it was chaos. Game two, they felt more comfortable. So now how do we build on that? If we keep the switching up,

Give a pocket, drive, maybe let's not commit help every time. Maybe let's see if we can contest and keep it in front and just make it tough too. Try and mix it in. I think you have to try and give Boston a different look with the help.

Because if you watch those games, Jason Tatum, a lot of the time when he drives, he's taking that extra dribble late in the paint to make sure someone commits. So it's going to be either a dump off or a kick out to the corner late. And now we're in rotation. I think you need to also focus if you're going to rotate. We have to be a lot better with the help. We have to communicate a lot better. So that second and third drive doesn't get us. As far as changing the scheme with Luca, it's not going to be like a hard show or a hedge.

When he's on the screener, when he's on the ball handler, can he at least try to get over screens a little bit and have the screener defender hedge out? Is that unrealistic? You could do that. I think the one concern I would have right off the bat is because of Boston's personnel, and you have Drew Holiday and Derek White who are good at screening and slipping out,

Does that now open up a new portal for you to where, okay, they're on the short roll, we're sucking in, now they're getting other threes from a different way? So I think they could fight over or they could have like a Kyrie or someone kind of show out and let Lucas slide under and try and give them a different look that way. But I just, I think for Dallas, their whole idea is, has been to try and make the rotations they want to make.

and not be in rotations because they're putting two on the ball just purely in pick and roll. Which I don't disagree with because like you're –

Boston's answer is going to end up in the same place no matter how you defend this stuff. If you hedge, if you trap, they see that every game a million times. Derek White is going to slip into space and spray it out for threes. Drew Holiday, if Luka's on him and that's been the assignment, he's going to slip into space and spray it out for threes or just lay the ball up if your help is not on point. Boston's ready for that. I only mention it because...

The same diet of just switching over and over again is not really working despite what the numbers say and the aggregate. They're just getting lucky on missed shots for the most part. I just think you got to mix in more stuff. Now, you mentioned the dunker spot. We said the name of your podcast. There it is. We'll say it a few more times. Boom. Yeah.

You mentioned that, and that's an important area because the Celtics are very calculatedly putting Kyrie's guy in the dunker spot. So if you beat the first line of defense, the last line of defense is a 6'2 guard who is no line of defense against Jason Tatum and Jalen Brown. And you saw this fun little chess match playing out in game two where Kyrie's guy would creep into the dunker spot.

Someone else on Dallas would be like, that's bad. Kyrie, you get out, switch places with me. I'm going to get into the dunker spot. Then the next level chess match started where the Celtic would then

get out of the dunker spot and try to bring a new guy in there who had Kyrie, whoever had Kyrie on him would go into the dunker spot. I think the next, next step is if Kyrie's over on the sideline guarding Jason Tatum, cause he just switched out to him to get out of the dunker spot, give the ball to Jason Tatum and let him cook Kyrie Irving. I think there's like counters for everything, but you mentioned that,

And that's sort of like a hybrid between a man and a zone. Like you're playing man up high and you're like, maybe you want Gafford to stay in the dunker spot and he's just sort of tagging who's ever nearby. That's kind of a hybrid man zone. A couple of people who were at game two suggested to me, and Tim Legler suggested this on my podcast before game two, maybe they should just try going zone.

Just like full out zone. And I poo-pooed it with legs and just said, I just think Boston has too much shooting. I just think you're just dead if you do that.

But maybe I sort of misinterpreted his suggestion and just in too much of a black and white way. Like, yeah, you can't go zone like 30 possessions in a row, but can you mix it in for four here, three here, and then on the next two, we're going to switch and on the next two, we're going to hedge. Like, is that, is it an ingredient that can work or is Boston just too good of a shooting team? Like you just can't zone them.

Well, I think the one thing, and I don't have the numbers in front of me, but it feels like every time a team has decided to tap the zone button against Boston, Boston's been ready. Like Jason Tatum has made it his life's mission to never get beat by a zone in the playoffs again. I think as a rhythm disruptor, it could be useful. Can we get set? Can we make you think? Can we get you to slow down just for a heartbeat, maybe buy ourselves a couple possessions?

Maybe we can throw it in after a timeout. Maybe we can throw it in against your second unit. Can we just get you kind of closer to the mud? And if that's an outlet that we could use just to kind of buy us some time, I think that works. And so I think the whole point for Dallas has to be how do we get them to get it in their own way to a degree? How do we get them to slow things down and play in this half-court game that kind of benefits us so we can have some wiggle room? The other issue is with the zone is, well, you kind of got to score the basketball.

To really set that zone up. So if you're not scoring, how many chances are you going to get to really load that zone up the way you want to? But I think it would be a helpful tool. Mix in some zone. Play off a little bit. Give a gap. Say, hey, take some of these shots. Go ahead and take some pull-up twos. Try and bait them. Do something to make them do something else. Boston conquering a good zone. And I'm not sure that Dallas could really functionally put out a great zone at this point.

Would also be sort of a fitting if they go on to finish the job. And I'm not counting Dallas out there going home. They have the best player in the series, although he's dealing with a lot of bumps and bruises. It would be a fitting culmination in that we've seen the zone stall out Boston's offense at least a little bit before. The most famous example was the Miami series in the bubble. And Miami tried it again here and there last year. I thought it was most effective in the bubble. And guess what?

Bubble is four years ago. A lot of stuff has happened since the bubble. Boston has new players, all of whom...

Poor Zingas, Holiday, White are comfortable operating out of the middle of the zone. Tatum has gotten comfortable operating out of the middle of the zone. They have more shooting everywhere. They've learned sort of how sometimes the best thing to do against a zone is just run your normal offense. Run a pick and roll. You can still get matchups that you like in a zone. It would kind of be fitting in that sense. But I don't mind it at this point with...

to mix it in just because I don't think they can sustain this barrage of open threes much longer. At some point, Boston's going to just make like six in a row and you're going to be underwater. The other thing they've tried to do is play bigger with Kaliba at the four and

And either lively or Gafford. And the idea there is just more size. Like Cleba can switch a little bit in theory. He has not been able to keep guys in front of him. And it's just one more big guy with rim protection skills. That's somewhere out there to put you in that dunker spot chess match. But here's, here's the numbers through two games, Cleba and either lively or Gafford minus 22 and 18 minutes. Like Cleba just hasn't been good enough. He doesn't look comfortable shooting with his shoulder or,

Kleba at the center has actually been okay, but in such a limited sample size, they're plus eight and 13 minutes with Kleba as a small ball five. I don't know what you think of those lineups, Steve. I just think, again, plus eight and 13 minutes doesn't mean much to me. I just think the deficits you put into your lineup, the lack of rim protection and rebounding,

outweigh the benefits against Boston and doubly so if Kleeba is just not gonna be able to shoot threes. I don't think you can out small and out shoot Boston. Out five. I don't think you can out five out Boston. No, I'd agree. And I think you see sometimes the mindset for Dallas with some of those lineups is to try and fix the defense and while you may get some stops, are you converting on the other end? And do you put yourself in the same box? Because

I mean, Chris S. Porzingis will guard Dante Exum. If Chris S. Porzingis is guarding Kleber, do whatever you want on the perimeter. We're going to feel good. And some of those lineups kind of open up some different coverages for Boston. You saw in that second half of game two where, hey, we'll actually come up to the level and we'll stick with you in this pick and roll. We'll be a little bit more active because we feel confident about who's popping and who's rolling. So I think that's kind of the tough part for Dallas, especially when Porzingis is coming off the bench.

and he's got people he can help off of, and now he can also protect the rim, and that's just having an impact for you in those end-of-first-quarter, start-of-second-quarter type scenarios.

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Luka Doncic received a painkilling injection before game two to numb the area of his thoracic contusion, sources tell Tim and Malika. The expectation is that Doncic will get another shot before game three. Don't love that for the Mavs. I've never had a painkilling shot before. I don't know if any player, without naming them on teams that you work for, if you've seen painkiller shots here and there, but it tells you that

that the reality matches your eyes, which was Luca kind of tugging at his chest, you know, over and over again. And we killed, I don't think we've, I don't think we've publicly pinpointed, um, uh, the source of the injury, but people are, um,

pinpointing that the charge he took from Jalen Brown. So that's obviously bad news for Dallas. Tim Bontemps just tweeting as we're doing this, Steve, we're getting, we're getting updates left and right. Tim Bontemps, the Celtics just announced that Kristaps Porzingis is day to day with a left leg injury. He also appeared to tweak his right leg in game two. And then there's a bunch of medical gibberish in the press release that, that has medial and retinculium and words. I don't know.

tendons and stuff. We saw him kind of limping around at the end of game two. They took him out and played Horford at the five. Okay, let's sit back. I mean, none of this is great for either team. Luka sounds like he's a sure thing to play. Day to day, based on what I heard from Celtics people right after game two, there was optimism that Porzingis would be okay to play game three. Day to day at least raises the question like, okay, something's really...

We sure do.

Luca is battling, and I have seen plenty of guys battle this time of year to get on the floor and do what they can. So salute to him. The Porzingis, I don't know what to make of that. Hopefully he's all right. But if he were to not play, where would Boston pivot? Because he's been so important for them in this series. Which big would you play? And what does that open up for Dallas, just in theory? If you're going Cornette, now he's in a drop.

I'm sure Dallas would be excited about something that's not a switch. And what do you, what does that open up for you? So that's a, that would be a big, that would be a big loss for Boston if Porzingis went down because he's versatility and his defense has allowed them to have that same conviction throughout the entire lineup and also allow Al Holford to just go as hard as possible when he plays.

Tim McMahon just tweeted this. Joe Mazzulla says this is a, quote, serious injury and the Celtics medical team will make the decision about Chris Dex for Zingas availability. He's doing anything and everything he can to be able to play.

Alright, there's your window for the Mavs. I mean, there it is. The window is cracked open for the Mavericks to get back in the series because everything we just said about Porzingis and the difference he makes, the trickle-down effects of the rotation as Cornette comes in the game. And as I was about to say, the Celtics have dropped back with Porzingis a little bit. But, you know, Cornette is an even deeper drop. He's pretty good at that. But that's a...

That's not a good matchup for Boston. Luka going at a Luke Cornett drop. And obviously the five out spacing disappears with Luke Cornett. Maybe we see Brissette at the five as a small ball five. We saw that against Indiana. Yeah.

you know, Dallas is going to treat him like a non-shooter. He frankly has been mostly a non-shooter. You could see Tillman dusted off at the five. He can do a little bit of switching. He can do a little bit of everything defensively. He's versatility smart. It's not a great matchup for him. They're going to treat him like a non-shooter. He's been a non-shooter in Boston. They tried to get him into the corners to shoot threes. It didn't work. Woo. Didn't expect this in the middle of our podcast, Steve.

Uh, nope, neither did I, but, uh, that's, uh, that's big. And you mentioned some of the defensive impact. My mind also goes to how would this help Dallas having what they would conceive as a help point? We talked about, Hey, maybe they can't rotate as much. Now do we have someone that we can feel we can rotate on? Does that change the weight of Boston's lineup?

Does that open things up for Dallas on the other end? Do they feel more comfortable attacking those matchups, even if a Bursette or a Tillman switches? We've seen Luka attack anywhere and everyone. And does this also open up a window for Kyrie Irving?

to where, hey, you are not Al Horford or one of these million perimeter wings or guards that are trying to defend me. You just come over here, whatever coverage you're in, I'm just going to try and attack you and see if you guys blink that way. So that's pretty big news. Well, and to say the least, I mean, Kyrie Irving –

I don't care. I mean, I care. Porzingis, no Porzingis. The Mavs are not winning four out of five against a team that's 78-20 if Kyrie Irving doesn't start making shots. And that start, he hasn't made a three yet. And he's missed open threes, tons of open threes.

I also, Steve, like he feels in these games like a little frenzied to me. I thought he took a few shots in game two where he's dribbling, dribbling, dribbling, dribbling. His guy is right in front of him. There's another help defender in his lap. As you said earlier in the podcast, the Celtics, for all the noise about, well, the Celtics are making Luka and Kyrie.

play one-on-one. Sometimes they are. In game two, they dialed up their help a little bit off of Jones, off of Green, off of Washington, and it really showed bodies kind of right in their face.

And Kyrie just kind of looked at that and instead of making the simple kickout pass to PJ Washington wide open for three or whoever, so I'm going to take this fading 18-footer off the dribble. And you could feel him like, I got to get going. I got to get going. I got to get going. Maybe this gets him more in-rhythm shots. But this is – it's hard to call it like a break because Luka and Porzingis injury news just came through at exactly the same time. But this is –

There's always a little window that opens up for the underdog if they need a break, whatever it is. This could be that window because we mentioned the trickle-down effect, but it's also like they're going to need more out of Horford. They're going to have to stretch Horford as far as he can go. Can you get more Hauser and Pritchard just filling minutes, or do their defensive disadvantages in this series come to the fore with more extended time, more time when both Luka and Kyrie are on the floor together instead of just one against them?

This is a curveball. It's a big curveball. I know Boston will have that confidence, but you mentioned Al Horford. If those minutes are extended, are those switches the same? Is he containing the same? Does that give Dallas some flexibility with their lineups to have comfort with some of the defensive lineups we had mentioned, feeling like they can also produce on the other end? I'm intrigued. My mind's just kind of swirling with a bunch of ideas.

But what are they? What are some of the ideas? Give me some more ideas. Well, I think number one, do you have someone that you can now attack off the drive? Do you get a more traditional pick and roll coverage?

does that open Luka Doncic up to where you're asking someone else to be at the level and now that opens the roles up because I think part of what Boston has done a really good job of is we put Tatum or wing on a big we take away your pick and roll we switch if that if that were to shift how much does that now open up for Dallas if you're having help points off Luka does that now open the kicks do they make shots to make you pay

Kyrie gets going. There is a formula and a path for Dallas to push. And Norpo Zingas kind of cracks that door open a little bit more. I don't even know where the hell we were going to go with this. This is a lot to take in. Let's just focus on the Horford at five lineup, the core lineup. Defensively, what else is Boston doing to frustrate the Mavericks pick and roll game? Luka threw two games.

On a million pick and rolls, 0.89 points per possession directly out of those plays, 1.01 total. Those are horrible numbers for the regular season, 1.09, 1.2. So like way below Luka's number, way below the league average. What else is Dallas doing to sort of strangle that game where Luka is scoring okay, but nothing else is really happening out of those?

Well, just the mindset and the ability to switch is going to allow you to stay at home. And so I know people like to talk about the corner three stats. We talked about the catch and shoot stats. Part of Luka's game is being scheme proof. There's only one scheme that he's getting. And if everyone else is staying at home, there's no kickouts. So there's no opportunity for Dallas to get to drive and kick. And if Kyrie Irving is also a switch because of the bulk of Boston's personnel, they're in a scenario where we feel comfortable with four out of five guarding either of you.

And if we have to switch out, we will switch out. If not, we'll just kind of drop and get back. So that's just keeping everything flat for Dallas to where there's not the same driving cake. There's not the same rotations. And I think you look at Boston's personnel. They're able to keep the ball in front. So even if you were to get a pick and roll and you're able to get a switch and you get a drive in the paint, they're containing that and staying at home. So you don't even get that portion of it.

As good as Gafford and Lively have been for Dallas as far as lob threats, there's no threat of the lob. There's no drop to get a late lob. And how many times are you really going to throw it into them in the post?

Is it really a mismatch? Although Gafford kind of went to work a little bit in game two and got the first possession of game one too. He's like, all right, Daniel Gafford, do your thing. Yeah, he went out to him a couple times, but is that making Boston blink? So when you have that ability to have been with that kind of conviction, I hate to compare series, but...

Minnesota had such a great defense, but Minnesota had pieces that Dallas could poke at to where, do you want to do this with Rudy? Do you want to do this with Kat? So they could create that uncertainty and then open things back up. With Boston, they have not been able to get them to blink. They have not been able to get them off their game plan. And even when I think it was game two, Kyrie and Luka start with like 21 combined points on 9-12 shooting. And it's like, oh, they only have two assists.

That's the bit like that's that's the issue. You're not opening things up because Boston will allow it. And that's where Dallas has to find a way to they have to they've got to keep making the plays and force Boston rotations that they don't want because they're nailing the switches. It's not like you're getting two on the ball. And now P.J. Washington's rolling or Derek Jones Jr. is rolling. They're just kind of put everything in a box.

Um, the Tatum on Gafford slash lively matchup has been a big deal for Dallas. It really muddles their pick and roll game and their, their path to what they want to do.

because Luka with a lob-catching center, that's plan A, because then you've got to, against a traditional defense, the big drops back, help comes in, all the passes open up for Luka. Against this defense, they're just switching Tatum onto Luka, and one thing Luka decided in game two was, Jason Tatum can't guard me, I can get by Jason Tatum. I'm going to hunt that matchup a little bit more, even if they switch it.

And Boston was like, okay, go one-on-one. Like your teammates are going to be excluded from this process. And if you get cooking, which you did, we'll shade more help at you off the right guys. And so you'll give us the kickouts that we want. The alternative when Boston is in that matchup is, okay, I still want to attack Horford or Porzingis or whoever is the five. Well, I got to use Jerick Jones Jr. or PJ Washington to do it. And...

On a lot of it, if it's Horford, they'll switch Horford onto Luka on those plays. And they'll do it because if Derek Jones Jr. rolls to the rim and Luka just burrows, the way he burrows into your shoulder, gets a little bit by Horford. Well, Derek Jones Jr. is rolling to the rim, which means his defender, which is now Drew Holiday or Jalen Brown,

is in the lane as a first line of defense to cut you off. Right behind him is Tatum on Gafford slash Lively lurking around the basket. And if necessary, from the other side is Derek White or whoever, just, hey, I'm off PJ Washington, just I'm showing a little help. And they've really designed that very well. And you can see Dallas

kind of trying to problem solve around this and they've got solves for it. But, and if that Derek Jones Jr. or PJ Washington or Josh Green pops for three, the Celtics are like, that's cool. You go pop for three. We're going to use your guy to pester Luka from behind and get in his passing lanes. Like they've just really done a good job

of mixing in tactics because it's not a switch every time sometimes it's a drop sometimes it's a high drop the one thing it won't be is a blitz they're just not going to give them the blitz the only times they've really done it are a couple of poor zingas like oh god i'm out of position i got a blitz and then late in the shot clock if there's like less than five they will blitz because they're just betting you don't have time to make enough passes to really beat us

That's pretty much it. Like Boston has hit a lot of the right buttons, as you like to say, defensively against Luca. The, there is no button that just says Kyrie miss Kyrie, please miss. That's not a real button. At some point that Kyrie is going to make shots. I think Kyrie is going to make shots. I, it was one of the things I thought coming into the series, if I'm Boston, is he the person I just lock in on and say, we're going to go ahead and have a multiple guys who can bother you and defend you and can test your shots and just make you make it tough.

and try and take you away from that blend of playmaking and shot making. You see the effort Jayla Brown has given one-on-one against Kyrie Irving. They've tried to put Kyrie off ball, and then you realize it's Drew Holiday guarding him, and he's denying screens and top-locking and making it tough. They've just done a really good job of working to crowd his space and just keep containing his drives. I think that was probably the key to me early in Game 2, where it looked like Kyrie was starting to establish, hey, I can get in the paint, I can finish,

I can make some of these shots. But as the game wore on, that activity didn't wane. They have multiple defenders who can guard them. And if they're able to keep it in front, it just makes it tough. Because, again, we don't have to show help. We can. But we're throwing you off rhythm because you have to deal with the one-on-one play. You have to deal with the help. And now you're trying to figure out your gaps and where you can attack.

And they, this is a series where Dallas needs Kyrie to score. That's the assignment. He has got to score. He's got to be the person that potentially makes Boston blink. I don't know if it's maybe he can win the Horford matchup. He can beat a big and now Boston feels that they have to do something different. But if Kyrie can't find a rhythm and make Boston pay, it's going to be really tough. What other places could the Mavs look? We've, we've focused on the Luca pick and roll duel, which is always the sort of most fascinating chess match for,

We could sit here and say, oh, Kyrie's got to make shots. Well, great analysis by us. Thanks for tuning in. What are some other places Dallas can look

Other than transition, which they have just not been able to. Their points per possession in transition, and they're not getting a lot of opportunities so far, 0.7 points per possession in transition. That's like almost impossible in the NBA through two games to be that punchless in transition. And credit to Boston as sort of like the chase down block by Derek White. This is why they're the number one transition defense. Wire to wire all season. They get back. They're huge. They're smart. They're fast.

In the half court, are there any other little areas for Dallas to poke at? P.J. Washington, I'm intrigued to see if he can get something going against Derek White. Is that via the post-up? Is it an elbow catch? Is it some drives from the perimeter? Can they get back to some of their double drag actions or Spain stack pick and roll? Some double pick and rolls just to kind of maybe see if we can get Boston to mess up a switch? As someone who's worked for a team,

So

Sometimes in a playoff series, you can get a little bit of tunnel vision, if that makes sense, to where you are looking at the terms of what a team is doing and saying, if we beat this, you'll do something different. So if we can get Luka cooking, maybe they'll blink or we can establish something on these matchups, like starting the game, attacking Derek White and Drew Holiday. Doesn't seem like the best idea, but you got Luka, so you can go ahead and go for it. Maybe we can get Kyrie going this way. And now you're trying to get him to look in a specific fashion as opposed to

some of the concepts that you might be more willing to use in different series of the regular season, it can kind of just rotate where you just kind of lock in on what's beat this as opposed to the overall, if that makes sense. I like that. There has to be some explanation because these are like all tools that have been helpful for them. What else? I mean, you mentioned PJ Washington on Derek White.

I think they just have to... Derek White is an... He might be the best defensive guard in the entire NBA. Like, no slight to Derek White...

Luca just has a big size advantage on him. And I'm surprised that we haven't seen Luca try to run guard, guard, pick and rolls or wherever Derek White is, if it's PJ Washington, to try and get that switch. And maybe Boston won't give that switch, but you got to work at it. And if you do think Boston is switching, you can do all the stuff you mentioned for Boston. Slip out of screens. Like do all those things where you slip out ahead of the switch, you get the ball moving. Like I want Luca and Kyrie...

I get that they're guarded by like-sized defenders in Drew and Jalen who can switch their two-man game. Let's run it a little bit like off the ball. Let's run it more on the couple times on the ball just to see what happens. Maybe we can slip out of it and get some stuff there. And obviously, like when Peyton Pritchard's in the game and Hauser's in the game, they go at those guys. They haven't gotten too much out of it yet, but there were some scripted sets they ran there. I just think they need a little more variety. I got another stunning stat for you. You ready?

I'm ready. I mentioned Dallas's points per possession in transition. Dallas only has 26 turnovers through two games, 13 a game. That's good. Boston has 25, so the turnovers are even. Difference is 16 of the 26 turnovers Boston has forced are steals. Boston's points per possession on those steals, 2.1 points per possession off live ball turnovers, off steals.

Like those turnovers have just been a complete disaster for the Mavs. Boston is getting dunks and threes every single time as evidenced by a number above two. A lot of that's been Luka turnovers that have been forced by just airtight, pressurized defense. Arms are getting on basketballs and passing lanes. You mentioned, you know,

Your offense has got to help your defense. They just have to find a way to eliminate the catastrophic turnovers. You're going to have turnovers and you're going to have live ball turnovers. Just the ones where you have no shot to get back on defense are just absolutely killing them. Like if that figure is a normal figure, both of these games are closer.

I'd agree. I'd agree. And I think Boston is such a high spurt team that those runs where they're able to mix those threes in and push and run and get easy ones. It makes it hard, especially in this kind of battle when you're trying to figure things out offensively. So I think if you're Dallas, your mindset has to be how can we work to quiet those run? How can we quiet those spurts? Can we now just make this a pure half court game? Does our offense help there? Because it's funny. We talk about a lot of these concepts with Boston's defense and

It may not be the best analysis, but you don't feel as comfortable with those in the fourth quarter if it's a tight game. The job for Dallas is to try and figure out how to get there and sustain to get there to where now you mentioned Luka hunting Derek White. That feels a lot different in the fourth than in the first. Or if Kyrie finds a matchup, that feels a lot different in the fourth than in the first. The mindset for Dallas just has to be to find a way to put 48 minutes together. What if you could hear your favorite song for the first time again?

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Why? Mobile One, for the love of driving. Visit loveofdriving.us slash radio to learn more. More on Porzingis. Let's think through. We just got this news while we're doing this. A couple other Porzingis things that jump out.

I mentioned that the best thing that Boston can do when they get the switch of Dallas centers on Tatum and Brown is drive it, drive it, drive it, drive it. The flip side of that has often been Porzingis posting up guards and he's eaten very well on those shots. Now, he hasn't gotten the easy ones that are right at the basket, but he's made a ton of shots. That's a vehicle and a tool that goes away if Porzingis...

If Porzingis can't play, I think, you know, on his drops, there were a couple possessions I highlighted in game one when he dropped on pick and roll defense where, and I talked about this before the series, you felt the difference between him and Horford, the literal size difference and reach difference between him and Horford, where he could sit back and play two. He can play the roller and he can play Luca. And as long as you get a little support from the sides, not much,

He made Luka think about it on some, like the lob, oh, is the lob there? Is the lob not there? And he had one where I think there was a lob to Gafford that was a wayward pass and another one that got to Lively, but Lively was in, like Lively was not in good position. He was under the rim and he stepped out of bounds. That goes away as well. And none of that is, you know, the most obvious is just

Your best big man shooter goes away and you may have to play a non-shooter for really the first time in the entire series. Needless to say, it's a big deal. And, you know, look, Dallas hasn't played at home yet. Four out of five against Boston is going to be a very tall order. I thought this series was pretty lopsided through two games and...

I wavered when Greeny asked me on Get Up this morning, is Dallas going to get one of these games at home? I said, I guess. That was the mood. That was the feeling I had. Maybe. I'm not feeling that strongly about it, but I have enough respect for Luka and Kyrie that I'll give them one. Now it's like, all right, Boston is going to have to dig even deeper because this is a – and they've done it against Indiana and Cleveland and

And part of the Miami series, this is a completely different animal. And the Indiana games were like all but one of them were wildly close games. And Indiana had like a 90% win probability in three of them with like three minutes left in each game. And Dallas has some different closers. So this is where...

The rim protection point you made is key. And now if I'm Kyrie Irving, I'm Luca, if I'm facing someone that's a different type of big, is that now a quicker decision for me? Am I not thinking the same way? I think Porzingis had some really timely buckets as he subbed in with that group to help sustain either extend the run or keep them in it and keep pressure on Dallas. So you can't necessarily recreate that.

do you have the same certainty with what you want to run um Dallas can now probably feel comfortable defensively so I just think it kind of changes some of the battlegrounds and some of the rhythm moments you know the Luke and Kyrie minutes when they're attacking you know the Pritchard Houser lineup it's felt like you have the idea but you haven't had the production if that shifts how much does that help Dallas overall I just think it's uh on the second thought though

I like this. I like let's get the internal monologue going, Steve. It's on second thought, though, if Dallas has to go get game three in a hypothetical world, let's say Porzingis doesn't play. If I'm Boston, I'm leaving it all on the floor because if we go up 3-0, what are you going to do about it? So I'm glad that we reached after all this talk about the dunker spot, not the podcast, but the actual spot.

and the podcast, and chess matches, and this and that. I'm glad we ended at the most basic possible thing, which is if Dallas doesn't win game three, they're screwed because no one has ever come back from three out. Really? High-level analysis, 47 minutes in to the low post podcast. As we're recording this, Steve Porzingis just spoke to the media. He was asked about his availability for game three, how he feels, how he injured his leg. He said he's doing everything he can to...

to get ready for game three. And you're going to see some tweets that say, Porzingis says he's optimistic about playing in game three. What really happened, he did say that, but what happened is a reporter asked him, are you optimistic? And he said, yes. And then followed up by saying, I'm optimistic. So the word was kind of put to him and he agreed with it. He didn't just come out proactively and say, I'm really optimistic about

I'm going to play in game three. So that's where we are with Porzingis. I don't know what the hell you were saying before. Oh, that we were celebrating our ability to say Dallas better win game three. Well, there's always a plot twist in the NBA finals. It's never easy. And it was never going to be easy for the Celtics to go to Dallas and win anyway. And now we'll see if he plays, if KP plays or not. Luka's getting painkiller injections.

It's a long slog to get through 82 games plus how many of these teams played now, 15, 18, 20, something like that. That's a lot of basketball games, and you're starting to see the toll that it can take. The only other thoughts I had left over, I mentioned that some people hanging around the series in Game 2, Game 1, experts, et cetera, mentioned Dallas playing zone. There was some...

So befuddlement is the wrong word, but some curiosity that in need of some juice on offense that Jaden Hardy played two minutes and Tim Hardaway Jr. played zero. And I understand why Jaden Hardy's young and young guys are going to make mistakes. Jaden Hardy was huge in getting them here. And Tim Hardaway Jr.'s defense has been such a liability that he's been pushed to the fringes of the rotation.

Those guys are going to have to be heard from, I think. Hardy, yes. Hardaway, I'm just surprised that the ship has sailed so far on Tim Hardaway Jr. that he just can't even get in the game. It feels like to win this series, and boy, is that a tall order. Four out of five against a team that's lost 20. Two in the playoffs total so far. It seems like they're going to need a Tim Hardaway quarter at some point where it's like, oh, Tim Hardaway had 16 points in the third quarter and helped us get back in the game. It feels like that's going to have to happen.

I think I would be surprised if he didn't get a crack at it in game three, just because of his ability and willingness to shoot the ball. And potentially when you talk about a shooter like that, there is a reputation aspect to it. So does that lessen some of the, we'll funnel these shots. Does he get a driving kick, something like that? He's got to give them a boost. I, I just wondered, you know, the defense is the defense, but your defense right now is where it's at. You need to score some points.

The Hardy portion, this doesn't feel like his series because Boston seems very encouraged anytime he dribbles the basketball, and he likes to dribble the basketball. So can you live with his mistakes in Tim Hardaway's defense as opposed to them staring at Dante Exum and Josh Green and be like, go ahead, do whatever you would like? I got one other bit of high-level basketball analysis for you. Ready? You know what would really help the Mavericks? What? Hit their free throws.

Ah, the free throws. Hit your damn free throws. I sound like, hit your free throws. They're free for a reason. They're called free for a reason.

All right, the other big thing that happened in the NBA this week was that Danny Hurley turned down a six-year, $70 million offer to coach the Los Angeles Lakers of Los Angeles, California, and LeBron James and Anthony Davis. The offer, according to Woj, would have made him the sixth highest paid coach in the NBA behind Steve Kerr, Greg Popovich, Eric Spolstra, Tyronn Lue, and Monte Williams. Four of those coaches have won NBA titles. The other is Monte Williams, and Detroit just paid him.

All kinds of money that coaches around the world are thanking him for that. Okay, that happened. So, well, I'll just ask you, when the Woj bomb came yesterday that Danny Hurley was not taking the job, what was your reaction? Okay, that was pretty much my reaction. The unfinished business at UConn, that was pretty much the number one thing I had.

I was not surprised. I was a little surprised that the money number didn't come in a little higher. I mean, if the offer was going to be this gigantic and this mammoth, I thought it would have been better than $11.7 million a year. I think it was. I can't believe I'm saying that about anybody making $11.7 million a year. That's quite a lot of money. Yeah.

And you can defend it from the Lakers perspective. Like four of those coaches have won NBA championships. The other was in the finals. And did Monte win coach of the year? I think he won coach of the year once in Phoenix. And Danny Hurley has coached no NBA games. It's cool that you won two college championships. Does that translate? We don't know. That seems like a fair offer. It just, if it's a moonshot, you got to make it a moonshot. And they didn't quite get there. The six years is what stood out to me.

that was like, that's a pretty big commitment. I know things can shift and change in today's NBA when it comes to those, but a head coach getting six years at the gate, I was like, well, maybe they were leaning a little bit more on that than the dollar amount. I will say, you know, there's a lot of like, oh, how embarrassing for the Lakers. It's so embarrassing. They have so much egg on their face. I mean, they have a little, you have a little egg on your face. Like just like, you know, someone threw an egg at you and it like hit your shoulder and it splattered on your face a little bit.

I don't really get what's so, I mean, yeah, they got, I guess they got spurned and this is a team that wanted Tyloo and then wanted Monte Williams. Didn't get those guys and ended up with who they got. By the way, Frank Focal won an NBA championship as the head coach of the Lakers and then got fired a couple of years later. Um,

I don't find it particularly embarrassing to make a run at Danny Hurley, offer him a very good contract and not get him and have to pivot to James Borrego or JJ Redick or whoever else ends up in the conversation for the job. Like the Lakers are going to be all right. Like I don't, I don't find this to be some humiliating sequence of events for them. I do wonder, uh,

The reason I wasn't surprised is it's a big, big jump in every possible sense. Geographically, everything for a family and different league and all that. The Lakers job is if you ranked all the coaching jobs, the Lakers job is probably somewhere in the middle. Yeah, it's L.A. L.A.'s awesome. I love Los Angeles and tried to get my family to move to Los Angeles for like five years. Didn't work out for me. I live in Connecticut now. Connecticut's worse than Los Angeles. Yeah.

Despite what Ned Lamont, governor of Connecticut... Can we get the governor? Anyway. Might tell you. And it's the Lakers. The Lakers are... Everybody loves when the Lakers fail. The Lakers are a polarizing topic. It's the Los Angeles Lakers. 17-time NBA champions. Magic. Magic.

Kareem, Wilt, West, Baylor, Kobe, Shaq, LeBron, on and on and on. It's a big time stage, a big time job. And if you can have it for your whole rest of your professional life and be the next Riley and next Jackson, awesome. It's also a team that's essentially fighting for its life to get into the play-in tournament every single season since they won the championship. That's just the reality in the West.

And yes, they have three first round picks to trade this summer. They will certainly try to trade those picks for an impact player. There's just not a lot of evidence that this team is going to be anything but what I just described in the next couple of years. After the next couple of years, LeBron, who is almost 40, will presumably retire at some point. At some point, he's going to retire from professional basketball.

Then you have to figure out a whole post LeBron James world. Anthony Davis is a great centerpiece. He's a great player. He's also 30, 30 plus, whatever he is now. He's not getting any younger. And you and I can sit here and say, well, it's Los Angeles. Some star is going to choose Los Angeles. Probably. Yeah. At some point.

Doesn't happen every summer. We're not that far removed from Carmelo Anthony saying no thanks. Dwight Howard saying no thanks. LaMarcus Aldridge saying no thanks. Kevin Durant being like, I'm not even giving you guys a meeting. Is that cool? Can we just not meet? I'll just send you a text.

Maybe next time. Like it happened. They were bad for five, six years in a row. They were bad. Like it was the days of Nick Young and Jordan Clarkson and D'Angelo Russell. And oh, here come the baby Lakers up there. Go to baby Lakers to Los to New Orleans for Anthony Davis.

It's a great job in a lot of ways and just an okay job in a lot of ways. And it's in the wrong conference. There ain't no Indiana Pacers making the conference finals in the West. It's not happening. There are too many good teams in every direction of the standings. They are coming for you.

No, I'd agree. And I think to bounce off that, it kind of was interesting to see kind of the talk about building out a program and the development of certain players being a key piece for the Lakers, while also the Lakers not really always being the most patient team to a degree. So what would that pivot even look like? But I mean, the coaches are so competitive. If the Lakers call, you're going to listen. Oh my God. You're going to think about it. That's going to be a thought because...

If I can swing for the fences and I nail it, I'm the guy. Yeah, I saw someone say Cleveland was a better job than the Laker job, and I didn't know what to do about that. No disrespect to anyone. Can we see who's on the team next year before we make any kind of declarations like that? It's cold in Cleveland, man. It's cold. I'm so old now. People are like, when I told people I wanted to move to L.A.,

Aren't you going to miss the seasons? That's one of my favorite lines. Aren't you going to miss the seasons? If you've been to Los Angeles, it's 77 degrees and sunny every single day. You don't have to have a jacket.

You don't have to like when you have little kids, you know, you got to put your boots on and you got to put your hat on and you got to put your gloves on. Oh, we've upgraded from mittens to gloves and gloves are complicated for your little fingers and it takes nine minutes to get outside. Oh, my flight's delayed because there's a snowstorm. All of that goes out the window. It's Los Angeles. It's amazing.

You said the word program. I would like to make a motion that program is banned from the NBA lexicon starting immediately. NBA teams are not allowed to refer to themselves as programs. We're building a program here. We're very serious about...

about basketball and the development of our players as men. This is a program. It's not a program. You're a corporation that employs professional basketball players for finite periods of time until you trade and or release them. No one's allowed to say program. Only the Heat are allowed to say culture. Heat culture gets reluctantly grandfathered in. No one else is allowed to talk about, well, you know, I relate. Culture's fine. Program's out. No one's allowed to say program. I got nothing else to say about the Lakers. They need a coach.

Um, they said, Woj reported today. They'd like to have one before the draft. That seems like a good idea. Seems, seems smart. Let's make sure we have that in tongue. Steve Jones, Jr. Uh, any parting thoughts on the NBA finals? That was a, that was a rollercoaster ride. We just took together. Yeah. Finding out the Porzingis news was very interesting. Uh, I have a thought, uh, is Drew holiday, just the NBA finals MVP. We're going to do that now. Cause I think he is just want to float it out there. Uh,

I usually protest talking about finals MVP until we're like, I guess the team has two wins. It feels early. I think I would probably vote for Drew Holiday by a little bit over Jalen Brown. Tatum is currently the Vegas favorite. That's probably factoring in A, Boston winning, B, Tatum starting to make shots. I think it would be Drew Holiday. I thought his game two was an absolute masterpiece and his game one was not all that dissimilar.

I will say... Let me see what Tatum is shooting for the series. Tatum is shooting 12 of 38 in two games. Can't give a Finals MVP to someone shooting 31%. You just can't do it. However...

20 rebounds, 17 assists, mostly very good defense, although he's had trouble with Luka. He's not shooting well, but I do think Tatum is playing well. I don't know if you agree, but there's just so much attention on his shooting and what he is and what he isn't. I think he's playing really, really well.

Yeah, I agree with that a hundred percent. I'm not certain why the noise is so loud with the amount of playmaking that he's done consistently in the quick decisions. And we talked about how well Boston's playing. I don't know if they do that. If Jason Tatum decides to, I need to shoot more or he's not making play after play. Like how many times would he shoot six for 22 and you would think Boston would win. I'm going to read you some tweets from my friend, Jeff Stotts, who's come on this podcast before in the street clothes, Twitter handle, um,

He's an injury expert. He's the best in the business. Regarding Porzingis, the medial retinaculum, I'm saying that wrong, R-E-T-I-N-A-C-U-L-U-M, whatever that is, is connective tissue that serves as the roof of the tarsal tunnel. Think carpal tunnel, but in the foot. It anchors multiple structures in place, including the tendon of the posterior tibialis.

Okay, this is all jargon, but if that thing is torn, which we don't know what it is, if it is, the tendon can shift out of place, causing pain and instability of the ankle or foot.

I have only one comp in my database. He has a huge database of all NBA player injuries, but it was in conjunction with another traumatic ankle injury that required surgery. So not relevant. It will be interesting to see how this is managed, but given his injury history, there is reason for concern. As far as I'm concerned, that is the Oracle of injury speaking there. And so, uh,

Yeah, Porzingis said he was optimistic and all that. It's going to be interesting to monitor Steve Jones. And if you wanted to monitor the actual basketball game, nobody better to do it than Steve Jones and Nikias Duncan on the dunker spot. And...

And you are tweeting every game, not quite as vociferously, as frequently as you did in past playoffs, but still a lot of tweets every game, X's and O's, videos. You want to know what happened in the basketball game? I tell you all the time. Follow Steve Jones on Twitter. Steve Jones 20, I think, right? 2.0, but it comes out as 20. Boom. That's me. Thank you, sir. Thank you for riding the roller coaster with me. Hopefully you're not nauseous. I appreciate you. Y'all have a good one.

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