Matapsha Hotboy
Appearances
No Dunks
Pacers Return To East Finals, The Dort Report & What Tatum's Injury Means For Celtics
Yeah, the money is an interesting part of it, unfortunately. They're a second-apron team, and they're already paying their guys a lot of money at the top. With Garland getting into his extension here.
No Dunks
Pacers Return To East Finals, The Dort Report & What Tatum's Injury Means For Celtics
Yeah, Mitchell's getting paid a ton. Yeah, the starters are getting paid a ton. So you might have to decide between moving on. It's like the OKC days. Are we riding with Ibaka? Are we riding with Harden? You might have to decide on Garland or Jared Allen in one of those situations. Well, yeah, Garland, unfortunately, he didn't perform, especially here in Game 5.
No Dunks
Pacers Return To East Finals, The Dort Report & What Tatum's Injury Means For Celtics
He just wasn't right, obviously, physically. Yeah, that whole thing. But you look at Donovan Mitchell and the way he –
No Dunks
Pacers Return To East Finals, The Dort Report & What Tatum's Injury Means For Celtics
tried to get this team a win in game number two where he scored 48 points and everybody else is injured he had this team on his back and i love the way that this guy gets up physically every time he's down underneath the hoop every single time he's on his chest he could just sit there just you know get a rest for 10 seconds he just pops up so fast like he's in a play already
No Dunks
Pacers Return To East Finals, The Dort Report & What Tatum's Injury Means For Celtics
You love that about one of your leaders. You love what Evan Mobley has done. So it's the supporting guys. It is the question, especially because the front office took on a lot of money when they traded for DeAndre Hunter. That is a ton of money. So you're in your second apron. You really don't have a lot of ways to maneuver, so you may just have to get a lot cheaper in terms of your salary.
No Dunks
Pacers Return To East Finals, The Dort Report & What Tatum's Injury Means For Celtics
No, they got him for the Boston Celtics to be able to switch onto Kristaps Porzingis and be tough there. But you saw him in game number five. He had problems guarding Pascal Siakam. It's understandable, but they just went right at him when Pascal Siakam had an opportunity to go at him. And so that is a problem, yes. They do need a few more dogs.
No Dunks
Pacers Return To East Finals, The Dort Report & What Tatum's Injury Means For Celtics
That's just the way that it's going there for that team. It is so interesting, the second apron. You can't take on more money in trades. Okay, that makes sense. But you can't trade more than one salary in one trade. You can't aggregate salaries. That's strange. That's a strange part of it. Like, why can't you just lump together four monstrous contracts for one little tiny one, you know?
No Dunks
Pacers Return To East Finals, The Dort Report & What Tatum's Injury Means For Celtics
Like, there's ways around it. Anyways, these are tough rules there. They're very tough rules, and yeah, it's totally true that Ty Jerome, you can't bring him back. You literally can't. 10 mil to pay 62 million?
No Dunks
Pacers Return To East Finals, The Dort Report & What Tatum's Injury Means For Celtics
He does all this reaching and stuff. He doesn't play physically enough.
No Dunks
Pacers Return To East Finals, The Dort Report & What Tatum's Injury Means For Celtics
But then they come right back and he hits a corner three. He was in a lot of big shots. So that was wild. It went from nine to six, then he misses three free throws. Oh, this is over. But then the next play, he's in the corner and hits another three.
No Dunks
Pacers Return To East Finals, The Dort Report & What Tatum's Injury Means For Celtics
Yeah, that would have helped. He tried. He obviously tried with every single ounce that he had to get to his first conference finals ever. And it has not happened. He had a freaking great series, even though he's banged up, even though he didn't shoot well in game five. But he just needed some pals, like the Pacers did, unfortunately.
No Dunks
Pacers Return To East Finals, The Dort Report & What Tatum's Injury Means For Celtics
No, he came into 2016, so it must have been right after they made it. All right, three for him. Three for him. Yeah, Miles Turner is a guy that people wonder, would he stay with Indiana? And there was talks about him leaving, and then they trade to Mutz once, and then he's there. And then he just had this reputation of... Not being a guy you could rely on.
No Dunks
Pacers Return To East Finals, The Dort Report & What Tatum's Injury Means For Celtics
But, man, the guy just hits big shot after big shot. Step backs. This man loves his step backs. And he hit the absolute dagger. Even though the game was over, he hit the last corner three. So, yeah, he's got this incredible reputation of guys you can depend on. And maybe we should give the refs a little bit of credit for not calling a goaltend. Because...
No Dunks
Pacers Return To East Finals, The Dort Report & What Tatum's Injury Means For Celtics
That could be a way for the referees to go to the video review and see, okay, was it a goaltender or not? You call it and then you can go back on it.
No Dunks
Pacers Return To East Finals, The Dort Report & What Tatum's Injury Means For Celtics
I think I'm all random now. Okay.
No Dunks
Pacers Return To East Finals, The Dort Report & What Tatum's Injury Means For Celtics
Maybe it was designed for Abe Lincoln to come in in his black suit.
No Dunks
Pacers Return To East Finals, The Dort Report & What Tatum's Injury Means For Celtics
Shout out to Google and not X. Worse searches on X. Much better on Google.
No Dunks
Pacers Return To East Finals, The Dort Report & What Tatum's Injury Means For Celtics
Well, the nerves are gone for OKC. Last year, round two against Dallas. They were home in game five. Dallas got up. And OKC? bails a little bit. They just weren't the same type of team. And it looked like this could happen in the first half. Denver, taking it to them. You know, destroying them on the boards. Up 10 on the boards and going into the fourth quarter.
No Dunks
Pacers Return To East Finals, The Dort Report & What Tatum's Injury Means For Celtics
It didn't look all that good, but... Kudos to Mark Dagnon playing Lou Dort. In hindsight, what a great move. While it was happening, no one thought it was a good move. Don't do it. Now, obviously, he put him out there for defense was the primary thing. Played Jamal Murray, who had finally a bad quarter in this game. He was one for six in the fourth quarter.
No Dunks
Pacers Return To East Finals, The Dort Report & What Tatum's Injury Means For Celtics
J-Dub. Yes, J-Dub. Jalen Williams, obviously, probably the best series of his career. the not good one, the other one, who played Jokic as well as he possibly could. Great plus minuses. Yeah, that's what he did. But Shea, I thought you could see the growth, even in game three, fourth quarter, he was one of eight, where he tried to go for the dagger.
No Dunks
Pacers Return To East Finals, The Dort Report & What Tatum's Injury Means For Celtics
And then in game four, I thought he was a little bit better at not going for the dagger. And same in this one. Even though he hit the dagger, he didn't force it.
No Dunks
Pacers Return To East Finals, The Dort Report & What Tatum's Injury Means For Celtics
He just let the game happen. And you can usually, when you're up... Sorry, when you're the big-name guy and you're asked, come on, go do it. Are you going to go do it? I thought that's what he was in Game 3 when Denver was able to go up 2-1 in this series, and he's grown. And you could see that dagger triple where he was awesome.
No Dunks
Pacers Return To East Finals, The Dort Report & What Tatum's Injury Means For Celtics
And it goes from half to half for him because in the first half he just wasn't himself. Four turnovers, 11 points on 11 shots. He didn't look all that good. Second half he was monstrous. 8 of 12, 20 points. And that dagger triple to be along Lou Dort and be along Jalen Williams and be along Chet Holmgren for the ride. This looked like a complete team.
No Dunks
Pacers Return To East Finals, The Dort Report & What Tatum's Injury Means For Celtics
It looked like completely different than round two against the Mavs last year.
No Dunks
Pacers Return To East Finals, The Dort Report & What Tatum's Injury Means For Celtics
Yeah, he was the monster. I mean, Luke, excuse me, Jokic was the guy who played every single minute of the second half, just like he did last game. And so, yes, he's absolutely guest. And that's part of the reason why Calvin Booth was let go in the front office. There just isn't a big to help him out. You go to DeAndre Jordan. I mean, Dario Sarge was the play. It could be the backup center.
No Dunks
Pacers Return To East Finals, The Dort Report & What Tatum's Injury Means For Celtics
It hasn't worked out. Obviously, they just need it. Some minutes, and it has not helped at all. But Dagnall making that decision on the OKC side of not going to somebody else other than Lou Dort, who did hit threes in this series. He hit multiple threes in games one and games two. Then he got a little – he got cold. He got super cold in games three and games four.
No Dunks
Pacers Return To East Finals, The Dort Report & What Tatum's Injury Means For Celtics
But you could go back to halftime. You could say – Lou Dort should be out for Alex Caruso at half. Caruso's hot. He's hitting multiple threes so far tonight. He had a couple threes in the first half, so you could say that, and people were wondering. I mean, you can't stop Jamal Murray. He can't hit threes. What is he out there for? But you go to him. He stayed with it.
No Dunks
Pacers Return To East Finals, The Dort Report & What Tatum's Injury Means For Celtics
Yes, the offensive rebound at the end was monstrous. So great decisions, obviously.
No Dunks
Pacers Return To East Finals, The Dort Report & What Tatum's Injury Means For Celtics
Oh, we should. Congratulations. Big time. Big time. I hope you audio podcast listeners are okay with a little smack there. Fantastic performance by the Pacers. When it sure looked like the Cavs were going to win their first home game of the series to start. They look so good. They were just hanging back with all five Pacers. They weren't doubling. So those passing lanes weren't there.
No Dunks
Pacers Return To East Finals, The Dort Report & What Tatum's Injury Means For Celtics
As long as it's not Josh Giddey, we're good. Whoever out there, you can play. So yeah, it has worked out.
No Dunks
Pacers Return To East Finals, The Dort Report & What Tatum's Injury Means For Celtics
Yeah, it's totally true.
No Dunks
Pacers Return To East Finals, The Dort Report & What Tatum's Injury Means For Celtics
He's an incredible screen navigator.
No Dunks
Pacers Return To East Finals, The Dort Report & What Tatum's Injury Means For Celtics
Awesome to watch. Somebody make a video.
No Dunks
Pacers Return To East Finals, The Dort Report & What Tatum's Injury Means For Celtics
It seemed like his hot three-point night, where he hit one in the first half, and Strother hit one, too, in the first half.
No Dunks
Pacers Return To East Finals, The Dort Report & What Tatum's Injury Means For Celtics
But they were depending on those guys in the second half again, which they have been doing, obviously, a lot with this team, unfortunately. They don't have the depth. They don't have the Wiggins, Case and Wallace. They play everybody. They'll give you a J. Will, Aaron Wiggins, Case and Wallace, all great minutes.
No Dunks
Pacers Return To East Finals, The Dort Report & What Tatum's Injury Means For Celtics
Yeah. But Dagnon has even taken Isaiah Joe out of the rotation a little bit.
No Dunks
Pacers Return To East Finals, The Dort Report & What Tatum's Injury Means For Celtics
Because they're playing the rest of their depth. There's just too much depth on that team.
No Dunks
Pacers Return To East Finals, The Dort Report & What Tatum's Injury Means For Celtics
They just had nowhere to go. They were playing incredible basketball to start. And for the first time in the series, I think Tyrese Halliburton had to say, all right, this is on me early in the game. He hasn't had to do that yet. By far his biggest performance of this series where he had to drop 31 is that second quarter where they're down 19 points. He goes bang, bang, bang, bang, bang.
No Dunks
Pacers Return To East Finals, The Dort Report & What Tatum's Injury Means For Celtics
I'm just still thinking about Jokic's last shot.
No Dunks
Pacers Return To East Finals, The Dort Report & What Tatum's Injury Means For Celtics
That's five shots in a row. He had five threes where he had to step back and take monstrous threes. He decided I'm going to have to do this. And the Cavs weren't willing to match as they went into the third quarter there. It was a super close game. Yeah, four-point game at the half. This turned into a different game in the third quarter where the Cavs' Darius Garland was not there.
No Dunks
Pacers Return To East Finals, The Dort Report & What Tatum's Injury Means For Celtics
Modern medicine is a wonderful thing, though. He could come back. We're talking about eight months from now. I mean, that's not too far. It's in the middle of the regular season towards the back end of the regular season. So he could come support this very good team. You're just going to ask more of Jalen Brown and more of Derek White. Primarily, you know, Chris Epps Porzingis is still there.
No Dunks
Pacers Return To East Finals, The Dort Report & What Tatum's Injury Means For Celtics
Kenny's to have a great year. Yeah. But there's still lots of good players on this team.
No Dunks
Pacers Return To East Finals, The Dort Report & What Tatum's Injury Means For Celtics
Not with what they're paying right now. They don't have an option, really.
No Dunks
Pacers Return To East Finals, The Dort Report & What Tatum's Injury Means For Celtics
Yeah.
No Dunks
Pacers Return To East Finals, The Dort Report & What Tatum's Injury Means For Celtics
I'd argue they are a championship contender. I know it doesn't seem like that, but you can end up with those guys that we just mentioned and be a four seed, a five seed. You can still have a championship pedigree going into the playoffs. You know, you need Tatum, obviously, to win. And we're talking 8 to 12 months. He could be back in February. He could be back in March.
No Dunks
Pacers Return To East Finals, The Dort Report & What Tatum's Injury Means For Celtics
He's not going to look the same, and that's unfortunate. But I do think all these guys that were saying, oh, Derek White, he could be a number two guy on the team. So him and Jalen Brown got to work it. Yeah. Does this new ownership say, we just bought a team, but we got to rebuild this thing? I think they'll try and hold on to guys. Like, Porzingis has only got one year left.
No Dunks
Pacers Return To East Finals, The Dort Report & What Tatum's Injury Means For Celtics
He just was not himself. Max Shrews had an 0 for a night. Mitchell wasn't shooting the ball all that well either. So a lot of holes there. They stopped passing the ball. If we go and look at the player tracking stats in NBA.com, I mean... I hate those stats, but at the same time, they had over 100 more passes on the Pacers' side. It was a pretty big discrepancy from 328 down to 215.
No Dunks
Pacers Return To East Finals, The Dort Report & What Tatum's Injury Means For Celtics
You give it a whirl one more time and see what happens. The questionable one is Drew Holiday. He didn't look like Drew.
No Dunks
Pacers Return To East Finals, The Dort Report & What Tatum's Injury Means For Celtics
Well, I'm referring to him or I'm pointing him out because he only has one year left on a contract. It's not like he's got this monstrous contract for five more years. What are you getting for Porzingis now? Probably not a lot. $30 million coming off the books plus all that luxury tax that you pay for it could be the recipe here.
No Dunks
Pacers Return To East Finals, The Dort Report & What Tatum's Injury Means For Celtics
It could be the move unless somebody wants to take a chance on Kristaps Porzingis. They need a big is what after evaluating this whole – This whole roster, they need somebody to replace not only Porzingis, but Al Horford as he gets old, who is playing center for this team in a couple of years.
No Dunks
Pacers Return To East Finals, The Dort Report & What Tatum's Injury Means For Celtics
Yeah.
No Dunks
Pacers Return To East Finals, The Dort Report & What Tatum's Injury Means For Celtics
They stopped passing while the Pacers used all their weapons. You know, as Shea Gillidge's Alexander said post-game in his game, he said, you're only as good as your weakest link. Well, the Pacers don't have one. I mean, to see Thomas Bryant have huge buckets in that third quarter to just keep the Cavs arena going. Dead silent. It did feel like a funeral, as Greg Anthony said. It felt dead silent.
No Dunks
Pacers Return To East Finals, The Dort Report & What Tatum's Injury Means For Celtics
Who wants it?
No Dunks
Pacers Return To East Finals, The Dort Report & What Tatum's Injury Means For Celtics
because this coming year is the last year for not Jeremy Grant, but everybody else, basically. Danny Abdiah probably one of the best dollars per point contract in the league, along with Andrew Nembhard. I would throw him in there since we're just talking about him, but that guy makes a ridiculous contract. But just him and Jeremy Grant are the only guaranteed ones, really.
No Dunks
Pacers Return To East Finals, The Dort Report & What Tatum's Injury Means For Celtics
And they brought in Ty Jerome, who they didn't have in the first half because they needed somebody to score basketball. They went defensive, and that helped. Whoops. Yeah, he was bad defensively. Tyrus Halliburton and Rick Carlisle did a great job of taking advantage of situations. Tyrus Halliburton went right at Ty Jerome over and over.
No Dunks
Pacers Return To East Finals, The Dort Report & What Tatum's Injury Means For Celtics
So after this coming year, Aiton's off the books, Simon's off the books, Robert Williams off the books. Matisse Thibel is no longer there. But then, you know, you got your young guys still in scoot, clinging, sharp. Yeah, very bright. Very bright future.
No Dunks
Pacers Return To East Finals, The Dort Report & What Tatum's Injury Means For Celtics
Yeah, I'm taking the Celtics. Why not? Because I said the same thing about the Cavs yesterday. I felt like they will win one game at home this series. So I'm saying the same thing for the Celtics. They haven't won a home game yet. They've got to do it. They've got obviously a great home crowd. We'll see what they can do, though. Yeah, we need a Jalen Brown game for that.
No Dunks
Pacers Return To East Finals, The Dort Report & What Tatum's Injury Means For Celtics
Oh, that's a toughie. Yeah, I do think it's over.
No Dunks
Pacers Return To East Finals, The Dort Report & What Tatum's Injury Means For Celtics
Thanks for joining us. And remember, former teammates could both advance to the conference finals tonight in Anthony Edwards and Carl Anthony Towns. You think they call each other and say, hey, congratulations on advancing to the conference finals.
No Dunks
Pacers Return To East Finals, The Dort Report & What Tatum's Injury Means For Celtics
Pascal Siakam went right at DeAndre Hunter over and over and over again. So they got him. They got him. And they took it into the fourth quarter. And, yeah, the Cavs tried. And, yeah, Donovan Mitchell tried. But it's all for the Pacers. This is all about the Pacers. Fantastic performance throughout this game led by Tyrese Halliburton.
No Dunks
Pacers Return To East Finals, The Dort Report & What Tatum's Injury Means For Celtics
Again, for the first time where he had to be the guy early in the game. Obviously, we saw the game winner. But he hasn't had more than a 21-point game until this 31-point performance. Even in the first round, he didn't have such a big game needed. So... the leader, obviously, of this team.
No Dunks
Pacers Return To East Finals, The Dort Report & What Tatum's Injury Means For Celtics
Yeah, it seemed like there could be a different Pacers team there where they went down in the second quarter, but Tyrus Halliburton just brought them on back. What'd you say?
No Dunks
Pacers Return To East Finals, The Dort Report & What Tatum's Injury Means For Celtics
Yes, I said bang, bang, bang.
No Dunks
Pacers Return To East Finals, The Dort Report & What Tatum's Injury Means For Celtics
They felt like they're getting deeper and deeper.
No Dunks
Pacers Return To East Finals, The Dort Report & What Tatum's Injury Means For Celtics
Yeah, every single one consecutively. I mean, the Pacer lanch. that seem to be happening. Yeah, that's what they do. I mean, it's it resembles the Cavalanche, which happens in Cleveland. That's what it felt like. Yeah, it did. And going from game four, where the Cavs got absolutely destroyed by the Pacers, you know, they just they just couldn't match their level whatsoever.
No Dunks
Pacers Return To East Finals, The Dort Report & What Tatum's Injury Means For Celtics
You thought that the Cavs in that first quarter were somewhat matching it. And Kenny Atkinson's decision of bringing Isaac Okoro and Dean Wade into the lineup instead of Ty Jerome was working. Defensively, it was. And they're up 19. But the Kenny Atkinson moves did not work. It did not work earlier in the series while Rick Carlisle, every button he pressed...
No Dunks
Pacers Return To East Finals, The Dort Report & What Tatum's Injury Means For Celtics
Yeah, Mobley looked like the guy to go to at the beginning of the game, and maybe you can definitely rip Kenny Atkinson for that for not going to him more. He looked so calm and so comfortable and not rushing anything and just looked patient, just looked like, hey, I'm bigger than Pascal Siakam. I can take him down there, and I can hook him.
No Dunks
Pacers Return To East Finals, The Dort Report & What Tatum's Injury Means For Celtics
And he did a nice job of that, but they did end up going away from that and going to their guards who were unable to perform and... DeAndre Hunter came in and did some offensive things, but he couldn't stop anybody on the defensive end. So that's the unfortunate part. But hey, it's all about the pacers in this one.
No Dunks
Pacers Return To East Finals, The Dort Report & What Tatum's Injury Means For Celtics
I was definitely keeping an eye on that. It was impossible to miss this time.
No Dunks
Pacers Return To East Finals, The Dort Report & What Tatum's Injury Means For Celtics
Yeah, yeah, during plays for sure. It's like somehow the braids are not tied down enough.
No Dunks
Pacers Return To East Finals, The Dort Report & What Tatum's Injury Means For Celtics
He's always adjusting like that.