Celtics-Heat Game 6 Reaction: Boston forces Game 7 with Derrick White buzzer-beater | Hoops Tonight

Alright welcome to Hoops

tonight

here at volume happy Saturday everyone we're live on AMP so if you're watching on YouTube or listening to the podcasts don't forget Amp is the first place you can get coverage of these shows . of the Eastern Conference Finals is presented by Chase Freedom unlimited, how do you recover? Well, that was literally the wildest ending to a basketball

game

that I remember seeing in my time covering the NBA and it was kind of funny because of the way both teams made their impact down the stretch, it kind of aligned with their identities.

Miami got back into the

game

with a couple of really smart last minute adjustments and then the Celtics made a bad shot and in the process opened up an opportunity for an offense. rebound to win the game let's break it all down. I have many ideas that we are going to delve into. you know the exercise before you start. Subscribe to the volumes YouTube channel so you don't miss any more. our videos follow me on Twitter at underscore Jason LT so you don't miss any show announcements and if for some reason you miss one of these videos and can't come back to YouTube to finish, don't forget you can. find them wherever you get your podcasts on Hoops

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Especially for instant

reaction

programs, I try to have bullet points that I look for, when I work the next day, usually the notes are a little more detailed, but every time you are, there is a very close game, it's always complicated, right , because everything can completely turn around when a team steals it, like what almost happened tonight and then Boston ended up stealing it again, but I thought I want to focus, I want to focus on the end of that game before we get to the end. Oh, to some of the other things I noticed because there were some very specific reasons why Boston is taking control of this series again and I want to delve into those things, but at the core of these two teams they have an identity. and one of Boston's identities is that they struggle with late game execution and fair and General execution against, you know, schematic challenges and one of the um uh a big part of Miami's identity is that they're always the team that look to make schematic adjustments and they seem to have an advantage on that side of the game and then they have a superstar who always has supreme confidence in late game situations, which gives them an advantage, so Boston is up nine, I think, with two and a half minutes left or something like that, and Eric Spolster. he made two adjustments to the way he attacked on both ends of the court that changed things pretty quickly and the first was he switched to Zona and again the great thing about Zona and the way spolster uses it is that he never uses it enough as to really give the opponent a chance to figure it out.

There was a game early in this series where he didn't use it at all in the first quarter and then he used it a ton in the second quarter and then he didn't use it. nothing in the third quarter and then used him a ton in the fourth quarter, that's something he tends to do more as a rhythm disruptor than a real defensive base scheme, so he goes to the Zone late in the game and Boston just has no idea what to do with him, they were already a little rattled over the course of the second half, most of their success came on the defensive end of the floor and they only found little bits of offense here and there, but that gave them a ton of stops in a row down the stretch at the other end of the court.

There's something strange that was going on during the course of the game, we'll go into that a little bit more later, but Jimmy Butler was not confident at all with the ball in his hands, so they were running a bunch of things for Duncan Robinson. He was basically the focal point of the offense for half of the fourth quarter and, well, really for most of the fourth quarter and the interesting thing about that is that down the stretch of the game after you know, after talking, Surely he went to Zone and they began to return. Jimmy Butler regained control of the offense, but they started doing it with ghost screens with Duncan Robinson and what's interesting.

That is, they established Duncan's fear throughout the quarter with his shots. I think he made a couple of threes. And he, you know, was generally the guy that they were running everything for, but as a result, Boston was overreacting to those. ghost screens, so remember what a ghost screen is when you have a guard to guard action, in this case Duncan Robinson attacks Jimmy Butler, but instead of setting the screen, he just runs or he just does a dribble handoff, something that will try to trick Boston into thinking they need to switch or help and in those situations it opened up opportunities for Jimmy Butler to go downhill and again the dribble handoff and a ghost screen have um similar functionality in that specific case so if Tatum for La instance is chasing Duncan Robinson and doesn't want to leave him because Duncan made a couple of threes and Jimmy is being guarded by Derek White and Derek White as Duncan runs past, it gives him a little angle for Jimmy to drive and Tatum not. there to help because he's chasing Duncan that right lane is open and Jimmy Jimmy started going downhill and started getting to the foul line on the right and that's how quickly things changed.

Boston simply couldn't score against the Miami Zone. Beyond that pull-up three that Jimmy did to start the run, it was all downhill right on that right side of the rim and he started to, I don't know, dig deeper through sheer force of will and start getting more of that elevation. that he needed to finish around the rim and draw fouls and then on that final possession, I don't know what the hell Al Horford was thinking, but he was too physical with Jimmy Butler while he was driving and it seemed like he wanted to. to take a three, I think Jimmy understood the reality of a game seven in Boston and how hard it was going to be to win and it looked like he was going to kill it and Horford caught him, but then on the other end of the floor, which is so funny is that I just explained to you schematically through the zone and through the dho ghost screen with Jimmy and Duncan how Miami smartly worked its way back into the game by taking advantage of its basketball IQ advantage on the other end of the court Austin Mark is smart three seconds left three seconds left and you're down one point and he makes an impossible fade three over his right shoulder on that left wing on an incredibly difficult shot, but if you guys come back and watch the replay MAX The structure is protecting Derek White in the boundaries and he's completely ignoring it and playing almost near the top of the key to deter those guys running off screens and so when that pass was made the structure didn't have a chance to get Derek White back in time and you know it's kind of a No-No in general to ignore the incoming passer in a situation like that, not only because of the offensive rebound that ended up taking place, but all it takes is a quick pass back, let's say Marcus Smart catches that instead of shooting it, Derek White just goes inbounds, to that left wing, he could get a touch back pass for an open three, that's why most coaches don't ignore to the passer inside the field in a situation. like that, but again, I'm never going to doubt Bolsterer's decision making.

He's a basketball genius and, in my opinion, the best coach in the league, but as a byproduct of that decision, there's no body on Derek White, so he just gave that away. an extra effort, championship effort, to run there and barely pull that thing out with a tenth of a second left to steal that game and send it to game seven, so it was a wildly entertaining game with a wild comeback and then stolen again at the Boston Celtics'

buzzer

-

beater

. I don't know, I'd love to hear from you in the YouTube comments if any of you have an opinion on a game that had a crazier ending than that.

We've all seen crazy comebacks. We've all seen crazy game winners. I've never seen such a crazy comeback game that feeds directly off of that crazy winner of a game for the other team to save a team from elimination, truly incredible stuff, so let's dive into some. of the dynamics of the series that have swung in Boston's favor, so in my opinion this series swung back in Boston's favor based on two matchups that they were losing in a dramatic sense during the first three games. Now, to be clear, I think. Boston is the more talented team, so it's funny when I look back, as a basketball fan, at this Celtics team in particular, um, no, they have a lot of unpleasant qualities, uh, as a team, you know, their chemistry is a a little strange, sometimes.

Don't play, you know, sometimes they play great team basketball, but other times they stray away from it. They can be arrogant and go for long stretches without playing hard, which is not an objectively unpleasant quality, so there's a lot of things there that aren't necessarily my favorite basketball team I've ever covered, but at the same time, the talent is undeniable, they're the most talented squad in the NBA, in my opinion, without a doubt, much more talented than this Miami Heat. team and that is the main reason why they have achieved three straight victories and why they have a very good chance of being the first team to come back from 3-0 in NBA history, Ryan, if you don't.

Can you do me a favor? Can you pull the line for game seven? I'd love to see that I bet you it's like eight points um but yeah there's no doubt that talent is the biggest determining factor but if you look at how Miami went up 3-0 and how Boston regained control. First, I look at two matchups. Jason Tatum has changed the dynamic of the confrontation with Jimmy Butler and has begun to dominate him in a way that he did not do in the first half. of the series I said on several occasions that I thought Jimmy was a better player, Tatum has been the better player over the course of the last three games, and then, bam, in a bio, if you remember in the second game there is a Gabe Vincent three.

I think on the right wing and on the play, um uh, he gets an offensive rebound because Al Horford just throws him a silly box, he just reaches over the top, he kicks it back. Jimmy Butler ends up working his way back into the post. and misses another jumper and Bam off Bio just dumps it like he's Aaron Donald or something and gets the rebound and dunks home with two hands, that battle completely changes over the course of this series finale Al Horford. he's starting to win those box matchups, he's starting to bother him at the rim and forced misses, he had a gigantic block in the second half, just aiming high at uhio to the top and sending him back, he's reversed the dynamic of that. matchup, so Miami's two best players suddenly became their two most inconsistent players down the stretch of the series and instead it's been guys like Caleb Martin, Duncan Robinson and Gabe Vincent who have had to step up for Miami to keep them competitive between those two. things that have happened, Ben would have changed this series from the beginning, Butler played Jason Tatum, bam, torching Al Horford, uh, Jalen Brown really struggled throughout the series for the most part, that was a big part of it downplay their competition to that point. was a big part of Miami's early lead with Jason Tatum, there's been a market, a change in the way they attack, so through the first 16 games of this playoff run, Jason Tatum had made just 11 jumpers mid-range, resulting in just under seven tenths of a mark per game, he has achieved eight in the last three games of this series, so he has averaged almost three marks per game since then,a lot of the similar things we talked about in previous videos that are starting to shed more light on the team. he's starting to work more with the bat with his back to the basket and make shots that he can make at a higher rate than the threes where Miami is sitting and pressing and, uh, the struggles he can sometimes have finishing. traffic around the hoop and you know it's me.

I tweeted this before, but there are three reasons why I think store variety is so important in the NBA. I talk a lot about this, but it makes you less predictable, so yes I'm defending you. hundred possessions and you do 50 step backs, jump shots and 50 drives to the rim like towards the end of that set of 100 possessions. I'm going to have a pretty good idea of ​​how to defend yourself because you're doing the same thing every time, but as part of what makes a guy like Luca Doncic so difficult to defend is that in 100 possessions you know you're not going to have many of them that are look the same, he will shoot from different points on the court. to attack you from many different places, sometimes he will face you, sometimes he will post you, sometimes he will attack you with a live dribble as if from every point on the court and it adds that variety, but beyond that. is what allows you audible Jason Tatum has really struggled with that three-point shot in this series, it's not working, so what do you do when that doesn't work if you keep attacking with the live dribble from 30 feet and they know it? you don't trust your pull-up three, that makes you even easier to defend, but if you can listen to it and say "ok", this doesn't work, let me hand the ball over and work towards the right side of the floor I have a height advantage against Jimmy Butler I work a lot on these little short jump shots from 17 to 18 feet in face-up situations after spins on both shoulders I work a lot on these things let me get down here and there was that big stretch in the second quarter that obscene run he made where he was just attacking Jimmy Butler faced him hard, took a step back, sort of a side step, dribbled into the lane going to his left and took a little easy shot over the top. then the next possession faded again over his left shoulder.

They are closer to the rim. They're not that three-point shot that you don't trust. It just gives you another thing to uh, uh, go to and then the third thing is it allows you to organize your attack based on your matchup. I've told the story on the show before, but like me, when I was younger I used to hit a lot of Threes off the dribble and So most of the kids in town that were little guys would just start pressuring me with the ball because I didn't. I was a great ball handler back then and if you put pressure on me from the three-point line I could really struggle and So over the course of my twenties I started adding a lot of post-up stuff because I knew that if I added stuff post-up so every time they changed a small guard I could just put the ball down and go.

I go up to the post and ask for the basketball and then once I start killing the kid on the post they can put a bigger defender on me and then I can take him back to the perimeter and start attacking with a live dribble where my speed it gets faster. an advantage when you have the uh, when you diversify your attack, you allow yourself to be able to choose your method of attack based on what the defense allows you Jason Tatum has always had those things, he has been a good post player, he has been a guy who can attack from mid-range, he abandoned it during the course of this season for some reason.

I've shared a ton of shot charts where you just see a ton of threes from the top of the zone and shots in the paint. and I don't know what I don't know if that was from someone on the coaching staff I don't know if that was from someone in the front office I don't know if it was just him simplifying his offense but for some reason that was the way he did things and that Flipping has been a big part of his improved attack throughout the series. Now you could say Jason, that's eight hits, 16 points in three games, what's that like?

What a great thing, everything in basketball is connected, those eight shots are what allow you to feel more confident, feel more comfortable to gain a rhythm, he only made two mid-range jumpers during that second quarter attack, but he made many other plays. as a playmaker, he felt very upright, he just had great rhythm that's all connected, if you don't get those easy mid-range shots and you miss your pull-up threes from the top of the key, maybe you won't get in that pace, maybe you don't feel confident and good about yourself, that's a very important thing, since Jason Tatum has won the psychological battle with Jimmy Butler in the last three games, think about how much that matters for the whole team.

It seeps into the roster when you're flanking a star who is playing better and carrying himself with more confidence than the star on the other side, making you feel more confident in your ability to win. That is the great belief we talk about. Go the extra mile to win games, you have to believe in your ability to achieve the end goal, give yourself the fight you need to go that extra mile when you're really exhausted and Jason Tatum has changed that dynamic over the course of this series and Yeah, I think that something stupid like eight mid-range jumpers and a three-game stretch can go a long way toward that wave of confidence.

I thought Boston's defense was fantastic tonight. You know, I talked about this before. The Zone was a big part of that late run for Miami, but Miami was having a lot of success against Boston in their man-to-man defense in the second half, as well as being very physical by getting deep into the driving lanes and slowing down Jason Tatum, They got a lot of stops in that second half, but Boston kept control of the game for the most part because they were also dominating the game on the other end of Florida before that late run and I haven't looked at the stat sheet since but before.

That last run Miami had 28 points in total paint as if Boston was dominating all those Rim matchups. Jimmy Butler loves to drive really hard to the left of him and do a jump on a guy's chest and roll back over his left shoulder for an uppercut. shot, he wasn't even taking that shot down the stretch of this game at least until the stretch when he started getting aggressive to the rim, but he wasn't even looking to shoot when he was downhill largely because scared not scared scares the word He was wrongly worried that he wasn't going to be able to get a decent look or that he was going to be blocked just by the sheer amount of Rim protection that Boston was throwing at them with Al Horford and Jason Tatum was flying around Jalen Brown was flying around Robert Williams was doing all kinds of plays they had in Miami's head in the painted area to the point where they are two better athletes.

My Jimmy Butler bio and Baymeadow were really fighting down there. And again, Boston's offensive struggles are a big part of their identity, but their defensive identity can get them through those stretches, and they did. I want to talk about Jimmy Butler for just a minute because I thought it was interesting that they went through. Duncan Robinson, as much as they did in that fourth quarter and up until that final run, really struggled and this is becoming a recurring theme with Jimmy Butler and you have to give Jimmy credit because he almost stole that game and that's just La Jimmy Butler's supreme confidence never gets down enough to let three and a half bad quarters get to him down the stretch.

Credit goes to Jimmy there, but his impact has taken a nosedive over the course of this series finale and this is it again. a recurring theme last year in the Eastern Conference finals, the same kind of deal as in the middle part of that series, not the same guy now that he was banged up, but I think he's a little banged up in this series as well and that It's part of the deal. as things progress you can get these great Jimmy Butler games and moments but you can also get these stinkers in there too and that's part of what comes with that Jimmy Butler experience, that's what happened in the Finals of 2020.

I remember it like you knew it. The fifth game he'll go for 40 and steal a game and then in the sixth game he's completely ineffective, you know, and again, like when people I see a lot of Heat fans and people say, "Oh, Jimmy Butler is so good as your favorite player. everyone is as good as LeBron or everyone is as good as Kevin Durant or Steph Curry or Giannis and this is the difference, the difference is when you get to this level, like LeBron James has eight points in a game like me. I think Jimmy had a couple of single-digit scoring games in last year's Eastern Conference Finals, everyone would be having an apoplexy about it, like they're part of the Jimmy Butler experience, it's like you get a game from another world of him three. or four times in a series, but in those other games he may just look exhausted.

I don't really have a good explanation for it. I don't know if he got hurt. I don't know if it's just the sheer amount of energy. He's required to be as impactful as he is in the sense that he's fatigue-related, but you know in three of the last four years they've made the Eastern Conference Finals and in three of the last four years he's gentle. from being fatigued on the way to being eliminated and having had some tough games, it's become part of the Jimmy Butler experience, which again shows you what we like as we move away from this because when we look at game seven, I probably like Boston.

They're going to win, they're eight point favorites, um, which is what I had predicted, obviously, Miami can win. Boston is a cocky team, don't be surprised if they waste time and then the game is close and Miami steals it, it's certainly on the table but I think Boston will probably win and even if Miami wins I don't think they have any chance win in the NBA Finals against Denver and at a certain point when you look from this Jimmy Butler clearly isn't capable of doing this alone, you know, bam in a biography, he's a fantastic player, but he's not going to go blow for blow with another team star during a seven-game series at this stage, right?

Eric Bolster is the best coach in the world. he leagues, but he can only do so much with the amount of talent he has on the roster, at what point does Miami put together a more functional talented roster to have a better chance of competing in these environments because you have a certain point? "How good is Eric Spoolster and how good is Jimmy Butler in these late game situations and I know as a man, we are one legitimate shot away as a Creator and another forward, an athletic forward, far from being a team that can win it all legitimately, but right now." It's like squeezing every last drop out of the sponge and the sponge is completely dry when they get eliminated in some final round of the playoffs, so at a certain point you have to give them a bigger sponge, so to speak, all of that.

Well, I hope Boston wins game seven. It seems that, in any case, the scare that occurred in the final stretch will inspire them to make the necessary effort. I will definitely give Miami a chance. I would never give them less than a 30-40 chance of winning a game like this with the amount of faith I have in Eric Spolster, Jimmy Butler and Bio's Bam, but I think Boston will win and I think for all those basketball fans that's better because I think Boston will give Denver a much better place. fight in the final, if we get to that point, okay guys, that's all we have for now, tomorrow we'll take off.

I'll see you on Monday night for game 7 of the Eastern Conference Finals, as always, I appreciate you rocking. with us and see you then thank you