Timberwolves & Pacers PREVAIL + Conference Finals LOOKAHEAD! 🔥 | The Lowe Post

Timberwolves & Pacers PREVAIL + Conference Finals LOOKAHEAD! 🔥 | The Lowe Post

and now the low post welcome to the low post podcast it’s 10:45 eastern time on a Sunday night two game sevens one slightly anticlimactic the other whoa boy two nights ago Anthony Edwards held up seven seven fingers so we’re going back to Denver for seven and game seven ends with Anthony Edwards holding up another hand to wave goodbye to the Denver Nuggets fans didn’t seem popular in Denver I loved it talk your talk you just knocked off the defending NBA champions on the road Anthony Edwards shot six of 24 but jayen McDaniels was huge Carl Anthony towns what a moment for Carl Anthony towns who chilled out for almost an entire game and almost an entire Series against what everyone considered including me the favorite to win the Western Conference this year and played a wonderful calm game seven and Kevin Pelton the second half of this game the first half of this game ended in disastrous fashion for the Minnesota timber rols Christian Brown had a Chase Christian Brown who was fantastic and outplayed Michael Porter Jr that’s going to be a whole different discussion for the Denver Nuggets had a chase down block the Nuggets get a basket at the other end Suddenly It’s a 15-point game they come out of halftime Jamal Murray joic pick and roll Jamal just you know dribbles into the the paint sees goar in the paint and is like oh you’re not you’re not like actually going to do anything I’m just going to lay the ball up over you about a minute later Rudy goar on a fast break inexplicably passed the ball by Anthony Edwards like 20 feet from the rim I don’t even know what happened with the layup it might have slipped out of his hands it might have just and to that point Rudy goar was not having a good game and on the other end Jamal Murray hits a corner three it’s 5838 early in the third quarter the home team the defending Champions are up by 20 and in an instant every single thing about the game changed Kevin harand said it on the on the broadcast from 5838 to 9282 Minnesota before it got a little funky at the end a 5424 run since that Jamal Murray Corner 3 highlighted by a whole bunch of stuff lots of stuff happened and I I just thought Denver played maybe the best half of basketball I’ve ever seen this the defensive basketball I’ve ever seen this core play together in the first half and Minnesota trumped it in the second half with an absolutely hellacious effort everybody that played contributed Nas Reed was unbelievable when cat was in foul trouble cat forced joic in the post into some of the toughest shots you’ll ever see yic take take joic took I I think it ended at N9 threes in this game maybe there was a 10th one at the end that I forgot about it was yeah um that alone is a tribute to how difficult they found it to get any kind of looks and look Jamal Murray and Nicole yic finished this game combined 69 points jic 13 of 28 Murray 13 of 26 against this defense that’s enough Aaron Gordon Four Points look you don’t expect scoring from Aaron Gordon he does everything else Michael Porter Jr his fourth straight singled digigit scoring game three of 12 seven points he 1 three felt very big at tied the game kcp Five Points holiday nothing Jackson nothing had a horrible turnover early in the fourth quarter when things were starting to get hairy Christian Brown was great he only scored five points they didn’t shoot it great I mean Murray shot it pretty well 13 of 26 but they did enough this was about Minnesota despite a scattershot passive disengaged first half from Anthony Edwards who couldn’t seem to kind of figure out what to do and where to go against Denver’s defense just absolutely roaring back to life when it looked like for any other team a lot of other teams it was just getting away from them I don’t know where where do you want to start KB I mean do you want to start at Rudy gobear making an 18 foot fadeaway jumper on a on a blown possession and and and then following that up on the very next Denver possession by playing his Tech Rover defense and stuffing Aaron Gordon at The Rim when jic did the classic slip pass that against every other team is a dunk but against this team is not the Rudy goar Renaissance in the second half after for clumsy and oish and all the things that people consider the the goar critics love rebounds in the second half and literally rebounds he only had two offense rebounds but he drew fouls on several box outs made his free throws seven of nine where do you want to start I mean what what a season for min OTA who is now in the Conference finals against the Dallas Mavericks uh they’ll probably be favored in that series I would imagine just a crazy series for Minnesota to win the first two like they did in Denver just doing something to Denver in game two that you never have seen happen to this team they completely unraveled Denver wins the next three punctuated by one of the greatest offensive performances you’ll ever see by any individual player in yic in that game five and then Minnesota I don’t know what the hell happened to Denver in game in game six I don’t even know what the score was and then tonight what just a ferocious rally where would you like to start what happened in the second half I want to start with two places number one I think this is an important point that you sort of touched on but I think we need to make clear is that you know there is an inevitable thing that even in a series this good and this classic it it becomes about what the team did wrong to lose the series rather than what the winning team did right to win the series because that’s easier to get off jokes and you know hot takes and things of that nature and there should be none of that in this series these are clearly two of the four best teams in the playoffs even though they are not going to be two of the four teams in the Conference Finals either one of them you know had they won this series could easily have won the championship this wasn’t some failing for Denver even though I think there are some interesting things to discuss with their Supporting Cast this is about how good the Minnesota Timberwolves were and throughout the series I mean I think you know even if Denver had somehow come back from the the 10-point deficit to win this game late like it would have felt like they stole this series more than that they you know kind of kind of controlled it oh is the defending Champions and that’s Testament to what Minnesota did right from the start of this series you know had had two really bad games one really bad game at home in game three Denver was just awesome in games four and games five but dominated twice against the defending champs and then the other thing I want to say like the unsung hero the the one guy you didn’t mention I think in from Minnesota who played a really key role is Mike connley Jr and the Minnesota training staff getting him ready to go after he was severely injured enough with this calf strain to have to miss a crucial game five and to not just be on the court but able to contribute because we saw with OG anobi we’ll talk about this later like what goes wrong when you try to return from a muscle strain too early and you’re just not able to help your team and that wasn’t the case with Mike Conley he was legitimately important picked you know Jamal Murray’s pocket at one point for a pick six as part of that run in the fourth quarter and you know so so a shout out to the Minnesota training staff which I think uh you know probably will not hear a lot of it but deserves it in the wake of this game yeah he had the the picked Jamal Murray um at half court I believe the deficit was seven at that point for Denver late in the game and it led to an ant Corner three early in the shot clock and it got A-Rod leaping out of his seat on the Baseline um and then reaction shots I don’t know if he was I I I didn’t was he there I didn’t seeast um and he also Conley hit a massive end of shot clock like contested three after the Michael Porter junor 3 that I mentioned tied the game at 72 to put the to put the Wolves up 75 72 and it did feel like once they got the lead they had to keep the lead how about how about what will be forgotten is C just like alltime bad Baseline out of bounds turnover with like a minute left and I think they were up seven at the time like what he almost threw he might as well just throwing the ball into the crowd it was such a bad turnover um but cat was unbelievable and look the game started to turn I mentioned it was 5838 an ran a pick and roll with goar at like 920 left in the third quarter and to that moment those two players the up the-middle pick and roll combination for the timber wolves were going to be the kind of goats not the good kind of goat the the other kind of goat for Minnesota in this game and ant for one of the only times to that point in the game was like I don’t really care what the defense is I’m just I’m just putting my head down and driving into the paint and they hedged hard yic hedged hard like he always does and ant got low and just zoomed split the Hedge split the split yic went down the middle and got jayen McDaniels a corner three Jaden McDaniels who punched the wall last year couldn’t play in this series just an absolutely massive two games for him they do not win either of these game well they win game they don’t win this series in this game in particular without Jayden McDaniels uh he was massive um it was just a really like for for them to win with ant shooting six of 24 and kind of no showing on offense in the first half is is just a really terrific accomplishment I agree with you like I I saw some tweets about how oh boy um you know whoa the takes on joic tomorrow or the takes on goar tomorrow or the takes on Marie tomorrow like the main guys showed up and played well even gobear like you could tell yic was tired at the end of the game he you you you don’t see him get beat on rebounds like like the couple that gobear beat him on for fouls once Minnesota by the way Minnesota being in the bonus was also a big deal and gobear had was had had a lot to do with that um yeah ant six of 24 Seven assists you like that only one turnover you like that and just the defense like Nas Reed came in I I Nas Reed’s best defensive games in the series are the best defense he’s ever played in his career and man Denver is out in the second round and this is just going to be like on the one hand you want to say like boy what a what a weird and tough tough break for them to draw this Minnesota team that they have been eyeing with with a weariness for a year plus now because of how they match up we’ve talked aded Nao about that you know you know they lose that San Antonio game in game 81 to drop from the number one seed and oh God the bracket breaks for them like this is going to be life in the Western Conference it’s only going to get harder and every year the second round of the playoffs is going to be like how did that team how did those two teams play in the second round I mean less so maybe for Dallas Oklahoma City although that was a heavyweight battle in its own right I mean this is yes it’s a bad matchup yes it’s whatever word you want to use unfortunate unlucky that these two teams faced each other in the second round and what could end up being the deao NBA Finals I actually think it’s premature to say that given that Boston has been the best team statistically in the league the whole year and in the playoffs admittedly against the junior varsity bracket to date um but this is like this is going to happen every year the West is only going to get better every single year going in the next two three years and I don’t know what what else what other takeaways here I mean obviously viously some Vindication on the gobear trade uh the Tim Connelly bowl is won by Tim Connelly um at Tim Connelly’s team uh Chris Finch just shouting and sitting and sometimes standing up and limping around I don’t know where we’re I don’t want to talk I we’re gonna have to have the Denver like what happened in a Michael Porter Jr discussion where do they go from here as they hit the second apron potentially with kcp up for a new deal and Gordon’s extension coming not far from now I don’t want to get there yet I want to let I want to let Minnesota luxuriate In This Moment 20 years after the last time they got this far in the playoffs what else struck you about their performance as they got back I mean Denver had 37 points in half of a basketball game 37 it’s Unthinkable yeah I mean I think that the Edwards third quarter stretch was really fascinating and it’s kind of fitting that he finished this game six of 24 because you know I saw our buddy Sam amch bring it up on Twitter like one of the comparisons for this one is this was much higher scoring but the 2020 Celtics Lakers game seven uh at the conclusion of of you know what had been a really hardfought Series where Kobe shot six of 24 but you know I think had 15 rebounds in that game was terrific defensively pal gasou was awesome is the the Lakers outlasted his Celtics team that was without Kendrick Perkins and famously without the starting five that still hasn’t still hasn’t lost in a playoff here but it was one of the better 6 for 24 games you could play from Anthony Edwards at least in the second half because you know he was aggressive in terms of you know trying to actually draw the double as opposed to just allowing himself to be trapped and then get get uh the nuggets in rotation and try to create plays that way so you mentioned kind of that first pick and roll uh at the 920 Mark of the third quarter after they had gone down 20 then towns makes a couple free throws are their next scores after that and then they had a stretch of five consecutive scores where it was either Edwards scoring getting an assist or there was one play where it was a mik Conley 3 where they had really good ball rotation after he got off of it and Jaden McDaniels technically got this the assist but that that was all set up by Edwards he got the hockey assist on that play and I think it was that stretch that really kind of changed the tone of the game even you know if Edwards wasn’t necessarily their best player in this game wow I mean we knew this was going to be a tough series I big Denver in seven obviously that that did not pan out Minnesota won and seven but it it feels like it feels like a this this this series The turn was already starting for Carl Anthony towns but this series feel like he cemented himself as I’ve shed I mean we’re like two years from removed not like we are two years removed from a playoff series against the Grizzlies where he like could not even stay on the floor and in some games was completely absent offensively to the point where you were like did he did he just not even get the ball for 20 straight minutes how how how is that even possible and the fouls are still there I mentioned the hilariously bad Baseline out of bounds turnover but for the most part he played a calm polished off defensive game took what the defense gave him took his time against smaller guys made threes you know he’s been the best three-point shooter in the playoffs and defensively look he guarded Durant in the first round that’s a tough matchup for him he did he did a manageable job he did like a good enough job that they didn’t have to break their entire defensive scheme just to address that it was totally untenable for him to guard Kevin Durant and he was awesome guarding I mean like no one is going to shut down yic no one’s going to stop yic the whole point of how Minnesota plays defense is to coordinate help to Carl towns and to Rudy gobear in certain ways from certain places against yat but he bodied him up he was tough he was physical he was physical on the boards like it’s it’s been a long time coming for him and the moment the goar trade was struck the the the the trade machine Fanatics and including me were like where where does Carl Anthony towns make senses looks like they’re only get out of jail freeg guard financially well I got you know good news and bad news for whoever wins this ridiculous fight for ownership of the Minnesota temple wolves which just fittingly cannot be 100% not embarrassing at any moment even a crowning moment but whoever wins this fight you are in finance you are in financial jail like you have to keep this team together they are obviously too good and I’m sorry you’re just going to have to pay a lot of luxury tax too bad yeah if the timber rols do win the championship do A-Rod and Mark Lori try to like jump the stage because I assume it’s in the in the NBA Constitution that the trophy is handed to the the managing the governor of the team who would still be Glenn Taylor but no you know who they should hand it to in that case none of you all get to have the trophy I whether the game whether that happens whether it’s in Minnesota or let’s face facts probably Boston um and and or if Minnesota gets by Dallas which is a matchup we’re going to talk about and I think a fascinating matchup crunch the mascot should get the trophy and they should interview Crunch and he should just say nothing because he’s a mascot and he can’t talk and that should be the end of the interview that Malika or Doris or whoever is doing it this year does on the final stage forget the owners give it to Crunch or bring out kg or somebody like that um just I I I want to talk more about Minnesota well let’s talk about cat a little bit more so the Gober trade I think there were you mentioned this is validation I think there were two sets of reasons to be critical of the gobear trader or skeptical of it and one of those were the financial and draft pick cost of acquiring Rudy goar and what that means for the timberwol future and let’s be clear that that bill hasn’t come du yet like they gave up you know a relatively meaningless draft pick and you know Walker Kessler wasn’t going to contribute uh once they drafted rudig go bear there’s still picks out there and the tax bill is going to be enormous come next year once the Anthony Edwards and C extensions kick in but the other other set of criticism was is this going to work in the playoffs because you know cat had been better probably as a center than as a power forward to that date even though it’s causes a lot of defensive problems you know is he going to be able to defend fors in the playoffs is there going to be enough spacing and those set of questions the Timberwolves have def definitively answered in the positive with the Mike Conley trade being a big part of why they were able to work that out cat individually I mean this is kind of a fascinating Point like he has this terrible playoff reputation it’s based on like 11 games he had played two playoff series in his career at the time of the gobear trade the one that they played against Houston in the first round in 2018 can we count the playin game where he was also terrible as the playoff game so 12 not if we want to say that the play in is not the playoffs which I think we still want to do but but a fair point he assuming this series goes five games will play as many playoff games this season at a minimum as he had in his entire career before this year so so you know this is now a big chunk of his playoff track record and this has been cat for the most part being excellent defensively you know in tough tough matchups and making good decisions offensively I heard Bill Simmons say on his pod recently that it’s fair to judge an individual team something to this nature that it’s fair to judge an individual team’s single season championship in conjunction with what follows in terms of how how lasting does that Championship feel how indicative of the team’s true quality was it based at least a little bit taking into account what happens next and he used some of the recent NBA champions who have kind of fallen on their faces a little bit in the next year implying I think that maybe that it demerits the champ ionship just a little bit Denver is now a one championship team going forward another another year another no consecutive Champions since the the first two years of the KD Warriors which is really not a long time in the scheme of NBA history um but none of them getting out of round two is was mention none of them getting out of round two wild this doesn’t feel like any kind I mean and and people then point to like Denver’s road to the title last year was littered with low seeds and playing teams and all of that this doesn’t feel like that to me because they were so dominant over those teams in the playoffs last year 16 and four and this was a series that went to the hilt between two teams who could win the title I don’t know if you disagree but if if you do say so if not I’m I am though interested in not necessarily litigating that because to me each Championship is different and special and awesome and can be left left you know where it is I I do think there are some qu there this this series raises some questions about the Nuggets going forward given the financials of the team particularly with Michael B Jr who was just not good in the series and has been going through an enormous amount of family stuff obviously but um I I don’t know like what what do you if you’re Calvin Booth you have a couple of drinks tonight you go to the office tomorrow you start sifting through the rubble with your staff what what kind of discussions do you think you’re having in there so I say first off to the bigger question this this loss strikes me as somewhat similar to Milwaukee losing to Boston in the 2022 second round and we didn’t have you know Chris Middleton didn’t play at all in that Series right so that was a huge asterisk Jal Murray is playing through something with the calf injury it it doesn’t seem like it’s you know that’s obviously not as serious as not having Chris Middleton at all but it’s the same thing where it was a really hardfought series against a good opponent it doesn’t you know say anything I think about the the true nature of the previous year’s team and then the other element of it is look we knew all along the loss of Bruce Brown Jr in particular to a lesser degree Jeff Green was going to leave them thinner and you know relying on younger players pton Watson got played out of this series you know I’m optimistic for his long-term potential to to be a contributor but not this year I I think he obviously would have played right away in the next series um had they Advanced and and I did wonder at times did he did did Michael Malone go too quickly away from him but you know Justin holiday was really good including defensively I thought Justin holiday was great agreed so just but Justin holiday only played nine minutes tonight Reggie Jackson played five minutes it was basically a six milon rotation everybody but Michael V Jr played all the other starters played at least 40 minutes and one of the fascinating I think contrasts from this year to last year is last year the combination of just yic and Murray and then playing at altitude it felt like anytime you got in a late game situation Denver was going to you know be be the stronger team in that situation it’s not as true in hindsight as you think it is but in this series there were minus seven in what counted as clutch Time game within five points last five minutes in game one of the series I haven’t seen it yet tonight but they were clearly negative in that span again uh that that sort of trump card that they’ve had that has allowed them to outperform their Point differential the last couple years in the regular season as well as the playoff run it suddenly did not hold for them in this series in the couple of games that were close and more broadly the starting five that has been the best lineup in the NBA for quite some time now essentially since it they acquired Aaron Gordon and were able to have this starting five together after acquiring kcp was not just bad in the series and I don’t remember what it what it was I it was I think was minus 50 in this series coming into tonight’s game right but it was it was not great against the Lakers either and not great for the full playoffs overall and part of that is just Jamaal Murray shot badly for most of the playoffs and Michael Porter Jr shot badly for the last third or so of it but it it is interesting how that just kind of flipped and they could not sustain any kind of Rhythm I mean part of it is I I I think teams have gotten smarter about how they defend Denver I don’t know who got gets credit for the first team to put your rim protector on Aaron Gordon I I and do it sustainably Minnesota is the headliner in that regard but the Lakers copied that to some to some effect um not the same effect and I don’t I don’t think the Mavericks who have tried it also in past matchups with them uh can mimic it quite as well as the as the wolves do it so I think part of it is teams have gotten smarter um but part of it is probably just Jamal Murray’s dealing with a calf injury they had some bad shooting luck uh but you you just look down the line Jamal Murray is an unrestricted free agent after next season Michael Porter Jr’s got a bunch of years left on his contract Aaron Gordon has a player option for 25 26 he’ll be extension eligible for then for a bigger deal kcp has a 15 million player option next season that at first blush he should probably Decline and sign a longer term deal that may start at even more than 15 a year and you just start doing math it’s it’s going to get financially a little bit ugly if you have joic Murray Porter Gordon kcp that starting five is going to be very very expensive maybe too expensive um this is how fast it comes at you in the NBA with the with the tax in the second apron you’re the toast of the town you got the best starting five in basketball people are throwing around the dword way too Loosely way too Loosely like Dynasty is this next how about how about slow down on Dynasty slow down on Michael Jordan comparison let’s to slow down on some of the hyperbole winning a title is really really hard that’s why everyone is special but it comes at you fast like the financial realities come at you really really fast and and and you have to plan ahead like I I don’t know what’s going to happen in the offseason the season just ended but it I would I would keep half an eye on the Nuggets yeah I mean did you know this is going to be a financial situation next year as you mentioned if they resign Pope to a bigger number and I mean he’s kind of a fascinating free agent because you know everyone he’s been such an Ideal three and decog on multiple championship teams going back to the 2020 Lakers but he’s 31 you know he didn’t have a great offensive playoffs this year and if you are looking at like how can we replace someone in the starting five and keep the same formula I think Michael Porter Jr is shooting at his size is somewhat harder to replace than kabia pawell Pope’s combination of defense and shooting like if if you’re projecting that pton Watson can eventually be good enough to play that role maybe you start to think about whether he’s the guy who who has to be kind of sacrificed for the financial situation Michael Porter Jr is a very interesting guy to think about because he makes a I I just closed the window with the Nugget salary unfortunately but he makes a lot of money for a lot of years like 36 38 40 for the next three years something like that yep and in Denver he has essentially been a shooter um who who has made huge strides defensively and on the glass but on offense a shooter who yes occasionally shows flashes of like attacking Closeouts and making the next play and throwing some nice passes and and all of that but just hasn’t gotten much opportunity to handle the ball in traditional ball handling situations to really do much as a passer the postup game maybe because of his back issues that he’s had in the past just he just do not really post up smaller guys he just shoots over them which is fine he’s 610 with an unbelievable jump shot and for that salary on this team that’s trying to win it all where he’s an absolutely perfect fit and they don’t really need another guy to do a ton of heavy lifting on the ball maybe a little lifting but not a ton he’s fine you start trading him to other teams where he’s like a number two offensive option and the Reps just haven’t been there and the Reps that you’ve seen are not like oh yeah I could totally pencil this guy in for like 18 to 20 pick and rolls a game and a few post-ups like that that’s that’s obvious that he can do that it’s not obvious like he’d be a tricky fit I mean I heard Simmons mention Philadelphia and that’s why you know that’s why he’s such a clean fit there if that I mean he just made up like trading him to Sixers cap space and all it’s just fanciful stuff for now but you have the embiid Maxi pieces that are very much like the Murray yic pieces in their own way I don’t know just interesting times for Denver tough one tough one for the Nuggets just tough tough draw tough matchup they knew it was tough and uh and they’re gone goodbye yic by the way 10 three-pointers tonight tied his second most ever in a playoff game the previous two both came in the 202 first round against Utah and Rudy goar so you know even though goar can’t defend him one-on-one as we saw in game five he he still has been able to force him to the perimeter a little bit well that’s the series in the bubble where Mike Conley misses the crazy three-pointer at the end of game seven that would have won the series um for Utah uh a series in which I believe you was Utah up 3-1 in that series was that the first of two 3-1 comebacks for Denver and like not only they were they up 3-1 but they were up 3-1 in such a fashion that you in one single series and that was a weird season for I mean not weird that was a completely abnormal season but in one series you swung from maybe this construction of the Nuggets just isn’t as good as we thought to like oh here come the Nuggets they’re awesome and then they win the next round this construction of the Nuggets is amazing um all right Dallas Minnesota Western Conference Finals um Dallas these teams played I think four times in the regular season none of them came after the trade deadline all of them came before the trade deadline so you can no no PJ Washington no Daniel Gafford um so you can throw them in in the garbage if if you want um it’s it’s going to be a fun matchup obviously we have two unbelievable three unbelievable ball handling Superstars uh Jaden McDaniels will get the Luca assignment Anthony Edwards has guarded Kyrie Irving a lot that gets a little trickier with this alignment of the Mavs because Mike Conley has got to guard somebody do you want him on Derrick Jones Jr or PJ Washington that gets a little tricky but when the Mavs play other lineups it’s a little easier to move him around but if you have ant on Kyrie and mcdel on Luca for any part of the game you can switch their two-man game which they leaned into down the stretch of both game five and game six against Oklahoma City in a way that to to try to get Luca with Cas Wallace or other smaller guys on him um we get Luca versus goar pick and roll battle uh that’s that’s always been kind of an interesting interesting one to watch um yeah this is uh I don’t know what else what else what else strikes you at first blush about this match up I I think you’re underselling how much to throughout those regular season games uh Kyrie and Luca played a combined three games they play together one game but I combined three out of the eight possible games uh here’s what I wrote down is the uh the total minutes leaders for the Mavericks in the those games you like to guess which player played the most game minutes against the Timberwolves for the Mavericks this season for the Mavericks yes I’m very excited I love when people spring crazy trivia on me Grant Williams gr Williams is number two number very wa wait hold on hold on hold on hold on hold on Josh green no he was not in the top six I don’t think all right who was it Tim Hardaway Jr played the most Dwight always kicking around the Mavericks rotation you can’t get rid of Tim Hardway Jr Dwight Powell was fourth Jaden Hardy was fifth so yeah I think we can safely through those games and the and the one game that Kyrie and Luca did play together was unsurprisingly the Lone Dallas victory at home I mean this is going to be this is going to be fascinating one of the things I looked up when we were preing at that point what we after game five thought would be a matchup against Denver in a five on five last week the question was who would better match up with yic Dallas or OKC and one of the bits of research I did for that is like if you split teams by the size the weight of their opposing front Court the three heaviest players who play among the five players who played the most minutes in a game which teams do better against smaller front courts or bigger front courts and okoklahoma City somewhat predictably does better did better against teams the smaller front court but Dallas actually had an even more extreme split of this and that remained true after the trade deadline when they started playing bigger with with Washington at the four and and Gafford typically at the five so that’s an interesting piece of this to me is you know Dallas was able to kind of play bully ball in the last round against Oklahoma City now they’re going into a situation where they are going to be the smaller team at least the FR uh and their rebounding has been one area where they’ve completely reinvented themselves since the trade and they’ll need that against a Minnesota team that is actually not as good a rebounding team as you think they should be but they’re they’re big at least um Dallas’s total avoidance of turnovers is going to be a potential pivot point in this series that’s a that’s a Luca Luca thing Minnesota forces a lot of turnovers so if you take away those from the Wolves if Dallas can do that and same thing against the Thunder they limited the turnovers against a thunder to some degree um and just fun matchups like I bet you know Derrick Jones Jr likely starts guarding Anthony Edwards that’s fun you put PJ Washington on cat Kyrie on Conley Gafford and Lively on goar and Luca gets to hide on Jan and mcdels and they’ll go they’ll go after Luca like other teams have done and Hunt Luka down and you know Rudy will drop back on the pick and roll and and um Luca will have to navigate that as he’s such an expert at but this this is um and and Luca will will hunt Conley too and try to get post hubs against Conley it’s it’s the Mavs just have this way of kind of ugly is the wrong word but like the these Mavs games are are grimy games slow and grimy and uh could it could be a fun physical series what what else what else to look for I’m fascinated whether Derrick Jones Jr can keep this up because you look at his game on paper you know like a we low3s three-point percentage shooter not a guy who makes a lot of plays off the dribble off Closeouts like PJ Washington Jr does like he’s the kind of G guy that should be played off the court in a playoff series and not only has that not happened yet like he only got stronger as the series went on against Oklahoma City and started making a ton of Threes And you know they have Alternatives there with Josh green but certainly they’ve been at their best with Jones in that spot and have the ability to play Green and Jones together as they did on Saturday night when Washington was in F trouble I I guess I’m just curious can Minnesota exploit that or is you know Jones just going to stay on this heater from Beyond the AR he’s been I mean talk about a swing player in that Oklahoma City series the shooting the defense the ability to make plays on the short role like he he changed the face of that team in to a degree that I the Mavericks did if they had expected it they would have signed it into something better than a one-year minimum contract I mean it was just a what a what a season what a playoffs for for him so far yeah it will be uh this will be fun Luca LCA back in the Conference Finals any takeaways from that series by the way particularly for the Thunder looking looking forward other than the fact that they helped as I said last week that they helped the Mavericks at the trade deadline and got absolutely nothing out of Gordon Hayward which is depressing so this I think sort of relates to my point about talking so much about the team that loses a playoff series and what went wrong for them I think that sometimes there’s a Peter Principle to playoffs and particularly the NBA Playoffs because there’s these seven game series where you know weaknesses get picked at and highlighted over the course of a series where you’re always going you’re almost always going to keep playing until you come up against a team that is better than you or at least exposes your weaknesses because you know I Dallas and Oklahoma City they were they were tied over the course of the series Dallas won two the clo three close games I I think this easily could have gone the other direction but I but now there is kind of this Panic after the fact of well how could Oklahoma City not have done anything at the trade deadline obviously they needed you know this specific archetype of player in terms of a you know 6 foot eight 6 foot n guy who can space the floor by shooting the three but also make some plays off the dribble so that our choice wasn’t just between you know Dallas let daring Josh giddy to shoot and going to these much smaller lineups with Cas Wallace or Isaiah Joe or or even Aaron Wiggins in that spot I and I I think that’s that’s kind of unfair to how good the Thunder were over the course of the Ser season and and even perhaps this series play in their style I mean I’m just glad that I was on record all over the place saying that PJ was was one of my favorite if not my absolute favorite Oklahoma City Thunder trade Target and really like a trade Target that I I kept saying someone needs to go get PJ washingon out of Charlotte he is exactly the player that you described although he was a little bit languished in Charlotte but if you had watched him over multiple years and I realize nobody watches the Hornets other than crazy people um like me you you realize that there was something there but I you know it doesn’t really it doesn’t really bother me uh Dallas just just strangled them on offense just strangled them they had nowhere to go and everyone’s going to point to the open threes they missed I thought Dallas did a good job of making those late clock semi contested oh God I got to take this threes to a disproportionate amount our buddy Seth part now had some tweets about this last week that their shooting percentage on open threes was broadly the same as it had been I think this was through game five in the regular season it was just the proportion of Threes that were open were weighed down and and you know I didn’t look at it as granularly using the second Spectrum tracking data that we have access to but it it didn’t suggest that Oklahoma City was underperforming its shot quality and then in fact it shot quality in this series was not very good I I do think one thing that happened that maybe that can’t reflect is Oklahoma City that like Shay gilis Alexander in particular lost trust in the shooting in a way that I didn’t necessarily expect where he just kept kind of continuing to drive into traffic instead of making the kickout pass to perhaps a semi contested three and it’s fascinating me is at the same time that Derrick Jones and you know you mentioned Washington 32% three-point shooter this season even after the trade it wasn’t a product of his shots in Charlotte that continued and all of a sudden went Bonkers from three in this series and then you on the other side have Lou Dort 39% shooter from three this year so much talk about his Improvement and all of a sudden it kind of deserts him in this series and you know Wiggins and Wallace guys who shot the three well in the regular season didn’t in this series and is there some some sort some degree of like regular season versus playoffs or is it just it’s a small sample size even a six-game series Dort will be a fascinating test case for next season because he’s 39% this season and we have this because NBA calendars are divided into Seasons we look at Seasons and when players show uptick with age we tend to assume like they are improving as players do he had been like 33 33 33 33 33 every year and 29 one year before this year maybe this year is a you know you’ve written a lot about how many how many attempts do you have to take before you get a good handle on whether this is real or not maybe this ends up being just a random lip but I also think I wrote this last last week I also think one of the things that Thunder have learned about themselves is they need another way to get the ball into the paint more reliably than just this endless array of drives drives drives like they I think they need a little bit of a power gear Jaylen Williams should be able to post up smaller guy like a mismatch hunting gear that’s of the bully variety like Luca will do to people like Luca will do to Mike Conley soon um whether it’s Jaylen Williams I mean I when I wrote that Josh giddy was one of my most intriguing players for the season coming into the season I wrote it specifically because you could see this coming his fit with the Thunder it was very obvious that he could potentially be the odd man out if he didn’t develop either a jump shot or he has the size to develop a postgame not necessarily even to score just like if you’re gonna hide little guys on me and I realized the league went the other way and hid big guys on him but I can back you down get close enough to the rim you got to send help and then I’m a passer and Che rolling to the rim is nice he does that well he doesn’t do it enough but he does it well you just he’s just got to get to a point where teams can’t be like just Tim Hardy junr just like guard chett like he’s not going to do anything to you because of his size but great season for Oklahoma City they ran into a tough matchup they played well and who knows if Shay doesn’t foul PJ Washington in the left corner maybe we’re going to game seven tomorrow we got no games tomorrow KP yeah what are we gonna do with ourselves what happened on CH I think he should watch christops porzingis tape like constantly because that’s the evolution that he made to become a threat and that same sort of like really high center of gravity that isn’t you know typically a good thing for players in the post but porzingis has been able to leverage just that high release and his ability to get deep enough position to become a dangerous postup player on switches and that’s exactly the evolution that chat you know should ideally make it’s going to be a great series we’ll have a lot of time to talk about the Mavs and what’s gone right for them um Luca getting a little bit bouncier and healthier is going to be massively important in this series I’m not sure what the reporting has been publicly on Maxi kba and whether he could make an improbable return at some point in the playoffs but you know we’ll see all right let’s flip to the Eastern Conference where the New York Knicks with their season on the line uh played a lineup of Alec Burks Duce McBride Dante Devan chenzo pre shua and Isaiah hartenstein and lost to the Indiana Pacers who put up 130 points set the freaking NBA record for playoff field goal percentage by shooting 67% in a game seven on the road against the remnants of the Knicks but still very nice game from Pascal sakam Tyrese halberton figured a lot of stuff out in this series to 26 points nobody missed a shot and the Knicks uh tried to play OG and Obi that was uh alarming uh he could essentially not move I I don’t really know that I I I’d have to really rack my brain to remember a player trying to play while looking so limited and he miraculously made two shots and they they rightfully rightfully yes Dan brings up Willis Reed I understand the Willis Reed comparison is is the obvious one but I mean in recent history u in an era of load management and much more attention to player health and training to see a guy out to be hardened in game five against Milwaukee in 21 that was a that’s that was a good one where he really gutted it out and played a lot of minutes but he could move I mean like he OG and anobi could essentially not move uh and then Jaylen Brunson breaks his hand uh at the end of the third quarter fractur his left hand and at that point I had the same sensation I had sitting on prro in the 2019 finals between the Warriors and the Raptors where Klay Thompson towards ACL it’s like let’s just end it let’s just we end the series end the season this is getting too depressing there’s nobody left and so the Pacers move on the Knicks move into the off season the Pacers look they you can only beat who’s in front of you and they beat them they beat both teams they beat the Bucks in six without Giannis and they beat the Knicks in seven without a whole bunch of people not just Brunson in this particular game but Josh hard dealing with an AB Trin and an Obi getting hurt Midway through the series mitell Robinson Bo and bogdanovich Julius Randall probably somebody that I’m forgetting um there’s a lot of places to go here there’s a lot of debate still around the NBA it was a Hot Topic at the combine even in Chicago about tibs and the minutes and what role this plays in all these injuries and some of them are just R like broken hand bogdanovich has a broken wrist Randall has a shoulder issue um the anobi one is interesting because he’s out for a long time right because of the elbow and he comes back and all of a sudden he’s playing a ton of minutes but by that time the Knicks are out of options I don’t I don’t I don’t know if you’re interested in going in going there um I I I do think like it doesn’t help I I don’t know how much it hurts but but it doesn’t help and watching Alec Burks in these games it’s like yeah maybe that guy should have played like the whole time should have been playing but obviously a crushing end to what was really a nice borderline magical season for the Knicks and the Pacers hey look man this is the Eastern Conference you make a trade you trade three first round picks for a pretty goddamn good player he fits with your already awesome player you got some pieces that make sense around it you wake up you’re in the Conference Finals it’s the East it’s the sweetest deal in the NBA it’s the East Indianapolis the the center of basket professional basketball in the country for the next couple weeks here between the uh Conference Finals and then Caitlyn Clark early in her career so yeah it’s a an exciting time in Indiana but I on the tibs thing I definitely think that there was too much of a movement early in the playoffs to like credit him for playing his players all these minutes and having it turns out it was all bogus he he’s they were right all along that none of this mattered that more minutes is good if you’re ready to play them and it was especially an odd contrast to pose against Nick nurse who has not been known for being shy about playing his players big minutes in the in the past either so you know that whether that was like really a huge Edge for the Knicks over the Sixers I’m not sure I by I as you said it’s hard to trace other than you know the anobi injury was a muscle strain that’s the one that’s most associated with fatigue and overuse and so that’s the one that maybe you could say is related to the minutes I think people are too quick to draw a correlation either way but you know my general approach would be all else if we if we’re not certain let’s be cautious with the guys who are you know the the most important part of this team and you as you said Burks like just inexplicably didn’t get a chance like tibs never seemed to trust him after they got him even though he had been there before you know it wasn’t like with bogdanovich it didn’t maybe surprise me as much because there does seem to be kind of an aversion to guys who are not tibs guys sometimes but Burks had been a tibs guy a couple years ago when he was there in his first stin and then all of a sudden wasn’t this time and he showed that he he still had plenty left in the tank when he once he finally got an opportunity in this series so that was a little bit frustrating I would say um where do you want to start Pacers Triumph Nicks demise what comes next for New York who of course is still famously loaded with their own draft picks other teams draft picks a bunch of tradable salaries and will be on the hunt for Star players who I I don’t know which ones I I really don’t know which ones I’m not just saying that fous like I don’t know what star players are going to be available to them this Summer cat is going to the Conference Finals scratch him off the list embiid is a sixer until prove it otherwi wi and the Sixers have a gazillion dollars of cap space to load up their team that almost beat the Knicks with and be kicking and literally kicking everyone in site um I know Stephen A Smith mentioned dein Booker I continue to hear regardless of what Matt isia and James Jones say publicly about we’re not trading anybody I continue to hear that Deon there is no Devon Booker like trade requests coming you know not not in the foreseeable future anyway uh so I don’t know who it would be do you want to start Nick’s demise or Pacers Triumph and obviously they will now be colossal underdogs against the Boston Celtics who again life in the East have the Celtics been in the been participating like they’ve been participating in the playoffs I’m pretty sure they’ve been playing games my my schedule happened to work out such that I missed a lot of the Boston Cleveland games in round two and that was it was perhaps not the worst series for me yeah you and Donovan Mitchell and Caris LT and Jared Allen and by the way okay here’s something that really grinds my gears this this synonymous bull that comes out after a guy doesn’t play about sources within the team questioning whether he should have taken I think they’re reporting is like a painkiller injection or questioning whether he could have played if you’re going to do that if you’re a source within the team and it has to be sources within the team come out and say it publicly you’re G to question that dude’s toughness given that this has happened with other players where you hear this murmuring come out like oh this guy should be playing oh he’s not toughen it out and then they play and they get hurt worse and we don’t need to enumerate the examples if you’re going to say that put your name on it say I am so and so from the Cleveland Cavaliers and I think Jared Allen could have played don’t launder it through the media and have it be anonymous sources questioning Jared Allen’s toughness if I’m Jared Allen and I read that I go right to Kobe alman’s office and I said I don’t care who said this I want to get traded yeah uh all right well let’s talk about Indiana’s Triumph I guess I like how you I mean I agree with you I don’t know what to add on that one uh so game sevens are typically like what we saw in Denver Minnesota they’re usually these tense low-scoring Affairs if you look at the 60 series that have gone seven games in the last decade the offensive rating in game seven is three points per 100 possessions lower than the series average the field goal percentage is 43% compared to 45% overall everyone’s like so nous to make a mistake you know defensively and and gets tight and they’re playing so hard defensively that the shots don’t fall and here we have Indiana setting an alltime record for field goal percentage in a game seven and even though New York was incredibly depleted in this game and looked at times out of gas I don’t think this was about what New York wasn’t doing defensively Indiana’s shot quality in this game According to second spectrum’s you know metrics that incorporate uh player ability Quantified shot probability was like unremarkable it was just uh remember the the Miami win at Boston had been the best shot making game of the playoffs by that measure that that game two win this was yeah sometimes I wonder if that game really happened that that game happened fever dream this was like 60% better in terms of shot making relative to shot quality than that game so I don’t know maybe there’s something about these shots that you know second Spectrum this ver I’m looking at the version that doesn’t incorporate the the limbs data uh cuz I’m not sure how calibrated that is yet maybe will find out these were actually were amazing shots but it seems like Indiana just picked a great time to not be able to M um yeah they did not miss Aaron neith literally did not miss and he was critical in the stretch in the third quarter where the game after the Knicks got it to six and you wondered are they actually going to do this after being down by 20 whatever they were down by are they actually in front of this Garden Credit to Garden crowd the Knicks got one basket to cut it to 18 and the crowd erupted to its feet as if it they were down five with a minute and a half left in the game and they almost got back into it and N Smith was huge in that stretch um and they there was also um there was also the TJ McConnell classic TJ McConnell steel and then an and one for n Smith that the game as the game got out of hand um by the way TJ McConnell holy smokes you know I I is I’m watching him hit all these jump shots I remember during the pandemic when everything kind of stopped our editors were like hey I know there’s like no basketball but could you do some fact simil of your 10 things column just to like fill fill some space and I was like well I don’t have I can’t do 10 every week because there’s nothing going on I can do five and the first one I did maybe this the second one I did I wrote about McConnell’s uh just strange tendency to take like full-throated 9- foot jump shots like where most where most people take floaters and layups and Runners he stops eight feet from the rim and takes like a proper jump shot as if he’s trying to heave the ball 35 feet and I actually texted him I was like hey this is kind of a a funny little thing I don’t I’m not making fun of you I it works you shoot like 50 something per on these shots and we talked on the phone and he was like yeah all my teammates make fun of me for it like Jeremy Lamb had a had a practice routine where he would like dribble six feet from the lande and then mock like bend over real deep get get his knee Bend and like leap up into the air to make fun of TJ McConnell um halberton it’s been a really interesting postseason for halberton who hasn’t been the same guy since his own leg injury in the middle of the Season couple of games where he was really passive um and just didn’t really do anything like didn’t move off the ball didn’t go get the ball didn’t try to get the ball back after giving it up and his assists are down from I think 10.9 in the regular season to 8.9 or something in the playoffs and it’s because teams are just not giving him the easy passes they know what a great passer is so they’re they are really low to Blitz him on the pick and roll just get give him the easy reads where the Indiana machine starts firing they’re turning they’re making him prod a little bit on the pick and roll prod in a drop back defense doesn’t figure it out and whether it’s because he’s not his leg is still bothering or whatever his three-point rate has like skyrocketed in the playoffs 60 something perc of his shots have been threes and he’s kind of problem solved his way through these Series where he found ways to get himself open relocating rejecting screens and kind of u-turning out for threes he hit one of those late in the game he had like a dribble handoff three where he threw the ball ahead to to n hard and went and got it and took a three and it’s it’s been the games where he’s passed passive or has been passive you kind of have to remind yourself that what makes this guy special what makes him who he is is he is pass first he wants to get other people involved this is his first playoff exposure to defenses that are just totally dialed into everything you do and it shouldn’t be surprising that he’s kind of trying to figure out the balance between playing the way I usually play versus just scoring more when my team needs me to score more because this defense is awesome these defenses are playing me and totally different ways than regular season defenses did and I thought as this series went on he kind of found a new equilibrium to his game a new ways to punish teams and part of it was just hunting a lot of threes and finding them and hitting them in this series I thought it was a very good close to the series for him it’s just there’s just it’s unavoidable to talk about how injured the Knicks were I mean I I think I had this discussion last year what what do you want to say about Halbert before I go back to the Knicks yeah I mean it’s a little bit reminiscent obviously not on the same level but but what sometimes happen to Steve Nash in the playoffs during the seven seconds or less Suns era where teams would decide hey we want this guy to beat us as a scorer not as a distributor like he has in on route to these MVPs all season and he had like you know like a 40-point gameing I think against Dallas and in 2005 in the conference semifinals but it felt he like felt distinctly uncomfortable the entire time because it’s not how he’s wired to play but you know at the end of it you look up at the end of the series uh he averaged 21 points seven assists shot 54 from the field 44 from three Dante dvan chenzo was the only guy who averaged more threes than him in the second round other than Donovan Mitchell in three games like he had an awesome series I think he you can make a case that he was the best point guard in the series as much of a load as Jaylen Brunson was carrying for the Knicks and I I think game by game you see how he and cakam are going to fit together and particularly how they can kind of work out the Kinks in their own two-man game with Miles Turner spacing the floor and we saw in this game it’ll be interesting to see how the Celtics match up with them um that the Knicks put their centers on seak for most of the game because they’re just their their their power forwards are too small to guard him um and that kind of got them leaning into their Twan game a little bit and obviously the speed with and every time the Knicks did that like all right we want hartenstein on seak well siakam’s not guarding hartenstein on the other end of the floor and he would just fly after stops like you are not finding me Isaiah hardenstein I am too fast I’m gonna Sprint out and some unlucky dude who’s not you is gonna end up guarding me or No One’s Gonna end up guarding me and I’m gonna get a run out layup or someone behind me is going to get a run out layup um the two of them were very good in this series obviously the Knicks will look back at game three and what could have been when they almost won in Indiana there’s some late game shot making from Andrew nart in particular in that game and some officiating stuff that always seems to pop up in these Knicks games I you know I don’t know what other Pacers take away the it’s a good team I mean it’s clearly a good team it’s just I don’t know it’s kind of just the road they got is what it is yeah I mean I feel somewhat similarly about Boston and Indiana going into the series where we just haven’t really gotten a good gauge on how on how good these teams are because of the fact that they’ve dealt with so many injuries on the other side and you know hopefully these two teams can stay healthy and we’ll find out a lot more about you know at least one of them in this series because it it did feel like particularly in the Milwaukee series like there was a an unseriousness about them defensively that lingered over from early in the regular season that we thought hoped maybe in the second half of a season that they had licked I mean maybe I’m reading too much and it was just kind of a barent shot making by Milwaukee to have won that game five without Damen lard and Giannis and be able to extend that series and you know New York was a very good team in the first two games of the series when they beat Indiana and just had a great night same thing in game five at home uh Pacers still haven’t lost a home game in this playoffs that’ll be an interesting contrast to the Celtics who seem to play so much better in the road much better on the road in the playoffs yeah I was talking Celtics just try it out just try out going up 20 in a series see how it feels see if you’ll like it see if it suits you like oh 20 see see if it’s comfortable just give it a shot don’t lose game two game one or game two in particular at home to an inferior team here’s a question I asked somebody last week I already forgot who everybody’s fully healthy in the East every team every team that every team roster post trade deadline is healthy who is the second best team in the Eastern Conference I mean my instinct is still to say Philadelphia is you know in addition to embiid being at less than 100% I don’t think you know we talk nearly enough about DeAnthony Melton’s absence and how much it changed things for them Ian you can certainly make a case for New York though and like if you were going to talk yourself into head the Knicks one and Jaylen Brunson not broken his hand like this becoming a series is okay OG can maybe come back you know probably not in game one but maybe at some point in this series and we saw them go into Boston and win late in the regular season and look really good like and then I I haven’t even considered Milwaukee but I think Milwaukee that that unseriousness also came out whoever I pulled last week and forgive me I’m forgetting who the guest on my own podcast was that I asked this also said Philadelphia totally fine answer do they have the best guy of of these teams um just a total oneman destroyer of everything in embiid and a ideal co-star in Maxi I think it’s the Knicks and I’m I’m I’m I’m going down swinging on that I think if you put Randall Robinson bdon all the guys I just think their depth and their versatility and their toughness um I I I would I would just take the Nick and the Bucks just I’m sorry I know some of it was Health with Middleton but you we just never had like a week of elite Milwaukee Bucks basketball didn’t it didn’t happen and I we all know the drama the coaching changes everything I just I just can’t I can’t give that title to you Milwaukee Bucks after this this fake title that I made up of the second best team of the East can’t give it to you I think it’s the next by the way Randall is even in a great season he’s still a polarizing player where teams look at people look at their record with an anobi and Brunson together how good har has looked as a starter um and just wonder like are the Knicks quote unquote better off without Julius Randall and I understand the thinking I understand that it might be like absolutely ideal if he became some sort of like super sub six-man type that plays all the minutes Bronson doesn’t play or maybe you start him and can still rejigger the rotation that way I just think the shot creation is against the best defenses you need as many guys who you can give the ball to and just be like just do something get two on the ball and create and obviously if the Knicks are going to hunt around for stars to trade for and I think they will his salary is going to fit into those trades so maybe the question is moot it should be noted ogan and obi’s a free agent and obviously the Assumption around the league given that they traded for him given his relationship with Leon Rose and the and CA and all that that it’s you know potentially a donish deal but you just you never know I can tell you this teams with cap space are going to go after are going to make the call and be like here’s a whole lot of money Nicks do what you will yeah I mean Philadelphia their first call huh Philadelphia undoubtedly makes that call I’m making you pay for it at least if I’m Daryl Mory um what else Pacers what we want talk about Pacers Celtics uh you know what do you think the possible return of Christof porzingis means to this series number one do you feel like that’s going to be an issue for the Celtics in the first two games not having that size and that ability to kind of play Big with him and Horford for together going up against a you know a team that you know whoever you put on seak whether it’s Tatum or Jaylen Brown you’re going to be giving up a degree of size to him in that matchup so it would be nice to kind of have that as an option on the table to go to the two bigs and I wonder not only they they they best two big I mean they’ve toyed with Horford and and cornette they just don’t like to play that way it’s a little slower and not enough shooting um you wonder if in if you would see Horford on sakam or zingas on cakam and a wing on Miles Turner to mimic what I just mentioned the Knicks doing I it it should not matter Boston’s just better it shouldn’t matter obviously it’s it’s helpful but um I I don’t think it should matter to me the the interesting question starts with I I think the matchups are are interesting um you know for for like Boston has had Drew holiday guard Pascal cakam in a couple the prior matchups um and Derek white on Halle Burton and you and you trickle down from there um but they’ve they’ve had a lot of guys guard Halle Burton and we know the Celtics are going to go after Halle Burton defensively the Knicks tried to do it interestingly they had a hard time getting the Brunson Halbert and switch to the point that maybe that wasn’t even the the goal the goal is just to get the Pacers rotating the Celtics are much more vicious and sort of practiced at this um I if I were the PAC halberton has mostly guarded Derek white and I understand there’s like not a lot of great choices when you’re facing Boston there there’s just no safe place to go I would be tempted to put him on Drew holiday instead and put n Hart on Derek white seak has guarded Jaylen Brown quite a bit n Smith on Tatum and the centers on the centers and just say hey look Derek White’s been a top three player for us all season a lot of times a top two player in the playoffs a lot of times the top two players slumped a little bit lately our whole bread and butter is like Tatum Derek white Jaylen Brown Dereck white I just I I I want to see what it feels like with Tyrese halberton not in those actions as often obviously the Celtics have other ways to drag him into those actions I know Drew holiday could post up Tyrese halberton and and really hurt him on the Block and maybe they just do to Tyrese Alberton what Aaron Gordon did to the Heats small guards in the first six minutes of game one in the NBA finals and just play that strategy out of existence but I’m interested in in in kind of how the teams match up with each other I just don’t I mean this is these are the two best offenses in the league number one and number two and the one of them also was the second best defense in the league and the other one was the 24th best defense in the league I just don’t I just don’t know and Boston has the best Boston was number one in transition defense pretty much all season by almost every measure and that’s where Indiana feasts I don’t know like talk me into this being competitive KP I don’t know if you’re aware of this the Celtics have a tendency to drop games sometimes that they shouldn’t especially at home but you know to your to your original point about porzingis and this shouldn’t matter like that is the other element of why it’s all the more important to go up two nothing in this series is be able to delay him coming back you know needing to bring him back as long as possible and you know ideally if if you can take care of business without him all the way to the NBA finals I mean I don’t know maybe you’d want to get him some game action because you know coming back into that match up whatever it would be would be very difficult but you know if if you’re able to do it for like 15 minutes in game four or game five that that’s a lot more comfortable than we need him to start game three because this is a must-win for us all of a sudden uh as far as where halberton slots defensively I mean I think the other thought on the Celtics and them drawing switches more is well sometimes maybe teams are willing to concede those switches because Sometimes the best thing you can do against the Boston offense is give them a mismatch to pick at so that they isolate and get then stagnate and you know there’s not a lot of ball or player movement now starting halberton on Drew could manufacture that same thing if you’re going at him one-on-one is opposed to giving the ball to your guys who are better offensively than Drew holiday yeah Boston is better when you hedge and try to trap and they it forces them to pass the ball and then the ball gets moving and the ball’s just got to keep moving like I keep harping on the shot clock doesn’t doesn’t expire at 10 there are 10 more seconds Jason Tatum like you could keep doing stuff but the Celtics have been I think just fine in the playoffs they’re going to be huge favorites in this series um you know I guess one small thing Indiana has kind of going for them which is nice is that um they fouled the beesus out of everybody they’re dead last in free throw rate opponent free throw for the season and Boston doesn’t really get to the line so maybe that’s a weakness that is mitigated in this matchup um but Boston is going to be a heavy favorite and they should be and if this is a if there’s a game six of this series I think that qualifies as a mild surprise to me if there’s a game seven of this series I think that qualifies as a massive surprise I picked the Celtics and four over the Heat and the Celtics and five over the Cavs I think Celtics and five is probably like the Vegas favored outcome of or by at least the plurality of all the seven outcomes in this series and it’ll probably be my pick I want to think about a little bit more the Celtics are just awesome the Pacers this is a great run the Pacers are really good the Pacers at least are good at off offensively that you better bring it every game you better bring your defense to every game like if you have a fem minute period where you just screw around and like oh we messed up a couple switches and H I chased an offensive rebound I probably shouldn’t have like you’ll be down 15 points before you know what happened yeah me you said they’re the two best offenses in the league they’re the two most efficient offenses in NBA history so you know both of these teams can put points on the board uh I’m looking at this at ESPN bet uh Celtics 4-1 is the most likely result and then Celtics 40 is more is a you know lower odds than Celtics 42 so considered more likely to be a sweep than to go six games oh well that’s disrespectful material perhaps ignorant of the Celtics track record which does not include a lot of sweeps includes a lot of Series wins but not many sweeps big Series win for Obie toppins do you have any hot any hot take reaction to uh JD McDaniels going for the bounce the ball off the floor self dunk at the end of the the Wolves Nuggets game I I no you know what look you’ve won this was one of the better series we’ve watched even there weren’t really any classic individual you know finishes in this series it was incredible series it was an incredible game uh I think you deserve to celebrate you know after you went went on the road and did that to the defending Champions you were in that right you know why I I almost never mind these like these Shenanigans play to the buzzer it’s cool you also I you also risk humiliation but by failing to execute this play and I think jayen McDaniels is kind of a stone cold tough guy and knows that he’s also risking someone coming after him and is totally okay with that like I think like I if I try this and I get fouled hard in the air or someone off that bench comes at me I’m like cool I deserve it like I’m not going to I’m not going to be like well that’s mean that you that you came after me that’s unnecessary I’m just having fun out here I think he’s ready for that so I didn’t mind it at all and I definitely did not mind I guess Reggie Miller was saying on the broadcast that joic and some other people seem to not take it well that Anthony Edwards was waving goodbye to the crowd I’m all I’m all for let me man manufacture animosity man give I I love flers like manufacture enemies like I needed to stick it to these fans I liked it I it was like a very dramatic wave like it was like very was a very twirly wave I like that did it did it get into a parade wave do we do we have to do an analysis faster than that too it was faster than that also like there were still 30 to 4 Break Down The Wave for us maybe there were 30 to 45 seconds left in the game it wasn’t like there were eight seconds left in the game and Carl Anthony D had just had a Bonkers turn I’m just I’m just saying it was like I was like oh he’s already waving to the crow that’s aggressive um any other parting shots on the series the Knicks elimination the the previewing the next round anything else we didn’t get into or or the playoffs in general any takes you’ve been trying to fire off I think we got to most of them I I wanted to mention the the playoff Peter Principle I guess the other the other thing I had was uh on Dallas one leftover note like how interesting it is that there’s been so much talk in this playoffs about continuity and the importance of that obviously Indiana made the SE yakum trade New York made the anobi trade and one of those teams was going to make it but if you look at guys who actually got traded at the deadline like Xavier Tillman senr played 9.2 minutes for the the Celtics because of blowouts Alec Burks you know played a fair bit for the Knicks at the back end of the series uh because of you know their their depth issues and then those are it among guys who played almost at all who got acquired at the Terry deadline and then you’ve got Dallas who has these two starters they add at the deadline and they look like they’ve been playing together for 20 years as you wrote about last week what I mean Denver doesn’t really have anything to trade like even a lot of second round picks are out the door is there should they have any regret about just like yeah we’re cool like I I just don’t know what alternatives like even even Royce O’Neal got three second round picks you know um it’s interesting because their approach I think was somewhat similar to Oklahoma City’s and that they’re like wor thinking long term so that they are out these first round picks because they traded them all to get the draft picks they became Payton Watson and Julian Str and and you know Hunter Tyson and uh guys off there that are deeper not in their rotation at all like that’s been their philosophy is we want to prepare for this coming Financial issue by developing our own Replacements in house and you know Justin holiday certainly seemed to be a case of we’re going to sign somebody who’s not too good that Michael Milan’s gonna play him all season over Payton Watson like he’s good enough that if we need to play him and he was very good in this series he can help us but he’s not too good and that’s an interesting contrast I think to you know some of the teams at the top of the West you know the older teams in the west were constantly turning those backend spots looking for bargain minimum guys but there’s no continuity year to year I’m glad we’ve reached a great stupid deep cut like not stupid but just classic just I want to talk about this guy I do think Julian Strather was gonna be in their rotation if he didn’t get hurt I liked I liked how he was playing early in the season he’s and his shooting ability I thought was I just think he would have been in the rot or at least like a candidate to be in the rotation um but I’d have to go back and look at what was really possible for them um because they just didn’t get enough out of all the guys that you just mentioned other than Christian Brown and they also just didn’t have a lot of matching salary like you know it’s either Reggie Jackson or Zeke Naji those are the only two guys on the team making between three million and 15 million Zeke Naji did Zeke najibe he must have got in garbage time I mean the Nuggets did not have a lot of garbage time other than the other the a couple of blowouts in this series the Lakers was like total non-garbage time series um that mean he they they did pay him like a fouryear $ 32 million contract and he has some interesting skills I know the analytics the advanced stats paint him as a terrible NBA player but um I don’t know anyway Denver’s out Denver’s out Denver is out jic can go to the horse farm much sooner this year than last year there is no parade to be cranky about the parade will be somewhere else and one of the somewhere eles it could be is Minnesota uh Minnesota Dallas and Boston Indiana I will be heading up to Boston for games one and two of that series uh on Tuesday Morning Kevin Pelton thank you for your Insight thank you for your time late at night here not so late at night where you are um always appreciate you having having you on all right thanks for having I mean I believe you’re shipping up to Boston is the expression here right I’m am tracking Up To Boston whatever that counts as put me in a nice cozy Amtrak let me put my headphones on ignore everyone and get some writing done and go back up to Boston you heard him if you see Zach on the train don’t say hello no don’t do it uh KP thank you sir thanks

Zach Lowe and Kevin Pelton react to Game 7 wins for the Minnesota Timberwolves and Indiana Pacers, questions in Denver and New York going forward, Knicks injuries, and more. Plus: Quick thoughts on Mavs-Wolves and Celtics-Pacers in the Conference Finals, what’s next for the Oklahoma City Thunder, and much more.
 
0:00 Welcome to The Lowe Post Podcast!
0:30 Anthony Edwards and the Timberwolves send home the defending champs
17:50 Reflecting on the Rudy Gobert trade as the Wolves advance to the WCF
19:53 Denver Nuggets fail to repeat as champions
30:31 Dallas Mavericks vs. Minnesota Western Conference finals lookahead
36:36 Thunder vs. Mavericks takeaways
43:09 Indiana Pacers advance to the Eastern Conference finals + Knicks offseason questions
1:00:06 Pacers vs. Celtics ECF lookahead

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