J. Kyle Mann

And Kyle, you talked about just the total absence of movement that their offense devolved into over the course of this game.

That stuff is still fixable.

Even with poor space, if you are committed to getting some sort of flow in your offense, you can find it.

It's just incumbent on guys like Paolo, guys like Franz, to be fair, who I thought had a pretty terrible game and was completely bottled up over the course of this one, to not just be attacking in the most straightforward paths possible, to be like a little more Jalen Suggs, Anthony Black, and a little less Paolo Franz Wagner.

I don't even mean that in the sense of who has the ball, but like how they choose to attack and how predictable those attacks are.

especially when I think they can be back-footed so easily.

And I want to give credit for that back-footing to the Pistons overall, GB Bickerstaff in particular, but also Asar Thompson, who I thought was just awesome in terms of picking really unpredictable times to jump the ball, to really insert himself into plays.

He would just show up out of nowhere

in a way that's like a very particular kind of menace.

And you could see the magic over the course of the game trying to anticipate when they might experience that and ultimately failing or slowing down or not taking advantage of some opportunities that were right there in front of him.

And I just think...

Having a player who can do that based off of, yes, like the freedom and the trust from the coaching staff to pursue those kinds of opportunities, but also like pure instinct, basically, to be an all world level defender who can muck up any play based off of a kind of timing that you have internalized that nobody else knows.

That's a very specific kind of weapon that I think Orlando is going to have a hard time with.

The sum total of all this, too, we should note, Orlando with the lowest scoring total of any team in the playoffs in any game so far.

And boy, did it feel like it.

And their lowest total of the year, right?

Didn't they say that on the show?

That's also a low bar to clear.

It just sucks.

I'm with you on overall your appraisal of his performance in the first half of this game, JV.