Transcription
That was good. It's a good Browns talk, guys. Real good Browns talk.
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We mentioned it a little earlier. We talked about Darius and the toe injury, but the reports out of game one that if this were a regular season situation, the Cavs would most likely shut down Darius for two full weeks, no practice, completely get him off his feet to help that big toe recover. Jared Greenberg, who was doing sideline last night for TNT, said there was growing concern over the significance of said toe injury. Jason, you mentioned beforehand you would sit him until they needed him. And the need time maybe right now, but if you were the Cavs, how would you handle the Darius Garland toe situation, knowing the fact that there's a good chance he's not gonna be 100% at any point in the postseason now?
Yeah, I think time's up. And you have to, he has to try it, you have to test it out. There's no structural damage; if it's a pain tolerance thing. If he can't go, he can't go, but I think you at least have to have to put him out there and try. Uh, I do think that it was let's hold this off as long as possible, uh, wait till lose the game and then reassess, well, you know, I obviously I don't think anyone anticipated losing game one. I don't think anyone anticipated the Pacers shooting it as well as they did, and if there's any way for him to go now, he's gotta go, and I get the sense that I think he is gonna try, and we'll see how effective he is because just because a guy's out there doesn't mean he's gonna be able to perform at the level that we're accustomed to him seeing. Uh, we talked earlier about the way that the Pacers are pressuring full court, you know, Ty had an 8-second violation last night, didn't even get it over the over the line, um, and just the way that they, they're gonna have, they're gonna need him to, to guard on the defensive end as well, and you know, Kenny was mentioning the mentioning the stop start on the toe and, and how difficult that is. This isn't easy, and this is less than ideal, but this is the situation that they find themselves in, and you can't let this series get out of hand, and you can't go on the road down 0-2, so it's unfortunate that this is the spot that they're in. Uh, I worry more about beyond this series even, you know, I think this is something that's probably gonna linger into the Boston series, and it's just the reality that they have to deal with. Uh, this is a team trying to win a championship, and I don't know how you do that if you don't have Darius and effective -- I'm not gonna say healthy and effective Darius Garland and --
Jerry, you mentioned Mike that Jared Greenberg said they'd sit him for 2 weeks in the regular season.
Well, Tuesday, yeah, Tuesday will be 13 days since he last played. So I mean, that's basically 2 weeks. That's what I thought. So I listen, I'm never gonna say to a player, you should play. It's your body. I can't tell you how to feel, but I would think if Darius Garland can play at all, he's got to give it a shot Tuesday, you know, in a perfect world they would have won yesterday, and then you just keep sitting him until you lose a game. But because they lost the first game and obviously game two has now become huge, if there's any chance he can play, I think he's got to try to push through it. Hopefully he will.
Here's the question I would ask the doctor, and I think I already know the answer to this. We've all had a turf toe or toe-related injury. And we know the pain is, is through the roof. It does come down to pain tolerance, but here's what I, I would wanna know from the doctor. If we throw him out there and it's not completely healed, explain to me the risk of him either re-injuring it and resetting the clock to day one or even more suffering more of an injury where now it becomes a situation where you're gonna lose him for a month. So I would want the doctors to explain all of that to me, where are we in the healing process? Is it like a scab where it heals and when you rip it off, you're back to day one, but now it's gonna heal quicker? I don't know. I have no idea, but I would want to know that from the doctor, but Jay, I agree with everything you said. You would, I, I think they were erring on the side of caution and said, look, we just mowed through Miami. We may not need him in game one. Let's take a look and see what we look like without him. And by the third quarter when it was 60 to 48 or 80 to 68, I'm pretty sure at that point if you were to ask them, you know, what were you thinking about whether or not you need Darius now? Yeah, we do need him. My, my biggest fear with him is it's, it's almost like a finger injury to a pitcher. It's everything. It's the contact point. You use it every single time you throw the ball; you're using that finger. It's the same thing you mentioned the start and stop. Is there another position in all of basketball that has more stopping and starting than the point guard? No, that's it. And so you know it's like if somebody tells you on your race car that your brake pads are bad, well, that could be an issue. So you gotta play them, you gotta see what it looks like and then you reassess as the game is going on. If at halftime he says I can't go, I, I think I've, I've done something that then you then you sit them, but I, I think back the first thing that comes to mind is all of the series, big series in recent sports memory where Cleveland, you know, I think a lot of the Indians when they went into a series where they're they're decimated their starting staff is decimated. Um, 16-17 also NBA series with, with the Cavs where, you know, God, what would it look like if we were a full strength, and I know injuries are a part of it. I get that, but a big part of this whole game that we play of competitive athletics, a big part of it is luck. Can you stay healthy? Mike said it's a battle of attrition. It is. We're only on game 5. We've got 4 guys on the injury report and not just 4 guys. Four guys, and that's, you know, sometimes you get lucky and sometimes you don't.
Part of the reason that this Darius injury situation is so unfortunate is if you go back to when it happened against Miami, it was game 2. That was the game in Cleveland where they had that historic 2nd quarter and then they let Miami kind of sneak back into it, and the only reason Darius was even in at the end of the game was that Cleveland had allowed Miami to make it a contest where these guys actually were in the game very late. Now obviously that's happens; it's basketball. Teams are gonna go on runs. I'm not saying that game should avoid that that game should have been over 12 minutes before Darius was even at a position to be in the game in the 4th quarter. Now he had already heard it before in the regular season. He had re-aggravated it, but even with the Cavs and how many times do we talk about how we loved Kenny Atkinson load managing, not playing any starter too much. Darius was playing a career-low 31 minutes. You can do all the right things and still have bad luck. You can't prevent everything. It's a contact sport. It is a physical sport. It takes one bad step, one freak incident or accident to get hurt when it matters most after preserving your body for six months in the regular season, and it's just incredibly unfortunate. It's not a death sentence, but it's incredibly unfortunate. That one game into the 2nd round of the playoffs, the Cavs are looking at a hinder Darius, and I wasn't there last night, but from all reports, Donovan, DeAndre and Evan are all dealing with some injuries for game 2 now. If you play, you play; it's the playoffs. So that's true.
Uh, Jay, you mentioned that little breakdown I did earlier. You guys want to see it real quick? I had a, uh, so this is focusing on how Cleveland got caught up allowing so many open looks from 3 yesterday. A lot of it is a testament to what Indiana did. But there were some simple communication breakdowns and simple defensive philosophies that Cleveland used against Miami that I just don't think work against Indiana. So I picked 4 plays from last night, did a little breakdown on the telesttraor this morning, so, uh. Here, uh, I'm gonna do a read first then we'll play that real quick. Let me do a fan read just to get these in. But this breakdown's brought to us by FanDuel. The NBA playoffs are in full swing, and every night delivers highlight-worthy performances, major momentum shifts, and can't-miss moments, whether it's a game-winning shot or a breakout player, there's never been a better time to get it on the action. 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Part of the reason the Cavs have a tendency to overhelp, but last night they didn't communicate nearly well enough defensively to limit some of those opportunities for Indiana. In game two, that's gonna have to change. I found a few examples in game one that shows the breakdown in communication. We'll talk about how you can fix it before Tuesday night. Let's look at this first play here, and the Cavaliers are in relatively good defensive position to start here, and on this play, it's either a lack of communication between Max Strus and Isaac Okoro, or a tendency to overhelp in a situation the Cavs did not need to. So on this play, Jarvis Walker is gonna drive middle. Hunter and Strus are gonna trade that off. And when the ball gets kicked back to Tyrese Halliburton here, he's sizing up Jared Allen one on one. You can see it right here. Which leaves Max Strus and Isaac Okoro to guard Aaron Nesmith and Jarvis Walker. Walker's gonna cut down the paint here and kind of circle out to the corner. One of the two Cavaliers has to follow Jarvis Walker. The other one has to stay on Aaron Nesmith. But when I let this play through, watch what happens. You're gonna see both Cavs follow Jarvis Walker in some capacity, leaving Aaron Nesmith wide open for 3. So what happened there when Walker drives to the paint and kicks the Halliburton and Halliburton starts to size up Jared Allen, Okoro and Strus either don't communicate, Hey, I got Walker, you stay high. I got Nesmith, you stay high, or because they're so worried about the Halliburton drive, Strus knows Nesmith but decides to get 2 ft in the paint and hang out in this area to force Halliburton to be a passer. That was their defensive strategy against Miami, specifically Tyler Herro, and against Tyler Herro it worked. They said anyone but you can beat us offensively. Against Indiana, it's hard to overhelp, especially against Halliburton, because he's a fast first pass first caliber player. And as you can see here, once that drive happens, look where Strus is. His head's on a swivel. He's trying to find Jarvis Walker. I believe it was a miscommunication. Him and Okoro didn't communicate who had Walker, who had Nesmith, and at this point when the pass is being made, Strus has 2 ft in the paint, and that's about 8.5 ft between Strus and Nesmith. In today's day and age, the way Indiana shot in game one, that is way too easy, way too uncontested of a look to give up on a consistent basis. On this next play, similar situation, different guys at play here. The Pacers gonna find Tyrese Halliburton on the top of the key. He's gonna attack Ty Jerome, and as he drives right, DeAndre Hunter steps up to help. His man, Benedict Mathurin is gonna slide to the corner. Halliburton's going to see the help, make the pass to the corner. Dean Wade's gonna come out to contest, and it's a decent contest, but once again, the way Indiana shot in game one. It didn't matter if the Cavs had a hand up or not. They were knocking down triples. My question on this play, it wasn't a lack of communication. It's a did the Cavs really need to help to that level? When Halliburton gets a chance to attack Ty Jerome here, he's gonna turn the corner to his right hand as he turns. Imagine Hunter doesn't help. So imagine Hunter and Mathurin, they're gonna be both in the corner for the sake of this. Halliburton's trying to drive to the lane with Dean Wade in the paint, Andrew Nembhard in the paint, Pascal Siakam in the paint and the reigning defensive player of the year, Evan Mobley in the paint. Do they really have to help? Does DeAndre Hunter really have to step up to cut off this driving lane? I'm not so sure. I think that's a difficult enough angle and enough congestion in the paint that the Cavs in that situation would be better playing it straight up, having Hunter stick to his man, and not giving up any semblance of an open 3. However, they did help. They overhelped in my opinion, and it's a decent close out from Dean Wade, hand up, chopped his feet, that is not an uncontested look. Indiana shot the lights out of the ball and then ends up in 3 points. Next clip, this one I am most positive was a lack of communication. The Pacers set up this high ball screen here. It immediately generates the switch, so Jared Allen is now on Tyrese Halliburton. Donovan Mitchell is on Myles Turner, but the key on this play, watch DeAndre Hunter. The score is 107, 104. Cavs are down 3 with 4 minutes and 42 seconds to play. As I let this play through, watch Hunter communicate, try and point, shout to Donovan Mitchell, I got roller, you get my guy. I'm bigger. I'll get the big, you rotate over and you eventually get Nembhard. But once again, watch DeAndre Hunter as this plays through. He's pointing, he's yelling, he's doing everything he can to get Donovan's attention. Either Donovan doesn't hear it or Donovan doesn't listen, but the result is a wide open 3 for Andrew Nembhard in a clutch situation. When this play starts, they get the switch. The Cavs are in decent position here. The issue is the execution as he points, if Donovan gets over, it's a much tougher pass here for Tyrese Halliburton. If they want to feed Myles Turner in the post here on the roll, you have a 6-8 DeAndre Hunter with long arms ready to deter the pass, can at least provide some resistance instead. It's either a lack of proper communication or a lack of execution. It looks like DeAndre Hunter is communicating to Donovan Mitchell. For some reason, Donovan doesn't respond properly and it leads to a wide open 3 for Andrew Nembhard, just simply not good enough. And last clip here, you gotta give Indiana some credit. They're a really tough team to defend, especially when they have 5 guys on the court at any given time that can create off the dribble, can make threes, and force you into rotations. On this particular play, the Cavs get caught in a slight bit of uh miscommunication. Evan Mobley's in perfect health position. His man is in the corner, but he also has to help on Nembhard here because Max Strus hadn't fully recovered yet. Siakam finds Mathurin to the corner. It's an undisciplined close out from Evan Mobley. It's the one knock on this defensive play. Don't leave your feet. You don't have to jump there. We saw Dean Wade earlier chop his feet get a hand up. That's the proper way to close out. Instead he jumps, turns it into a 5 on 4. Myles Turner, the Pacers center, then drives the lane, forces Jared Allen to come down, kicks it to Siakam, which forces Donovan to recover. Siakam's gonna make another great pass from here to the corner without even landing, and that means Jared Allen, who you can see in this position, is now gonna have to sprint out to the corner to help. It's just great offense and great offense beats good defense, but when you have 5 guys on the court and you're shooting as well as Indiana did last night, it's extremely difficult to guard. Speaking of that hot shooting, the Pacers made 19 3s in game one. They did that just 5 times in 82 regular season games. The Cavs, on the other hand, made just 9 threes in game one. It's the only time all season they haven't made at least double-digit 3s. But the big number to look at here is the uncontested shots. Indiana had 66 uncontested shots per NBA.com tracking data on just 83 field goal attempts. The Cavs 49 uncontested attempts on 98 overall field goals, not good enough. The Cavs are a better defensive team than we saw in game one. They have the tape. They know the adjustments that need to be made. The question is, will they do it on Tuesday night?
Well, that's the best 7 minutes of our show. I'm glad we put it in there. That great job, Mike. I'm not blowing your horn. No one else in this market is capable of doing that.
Thank you. If you're a Cavs fan and you want to get into the weeds on the X's and O's and the execution and what is actually going on, that's this is the only place you're gonna get that. That's really, really, really well done. It's really well done. -- It's Mike -- or Bruce Drenan, those are your only options, OK. -- No, I gotta do -- that. But bottom line though, a lot of the open shots they got is is communication breakdowns. It was really uncharacteristic for the Cavs who had been