For me, writing can be a solitary thing. As I write this, it’s 10:03 p.m. Game 2 of the Eastern Conference Finals just ended. I am sitting on the couch.

This season, I have been fortunate to be credentialed, affording me an opportunity to not only attend the games in person, but to observe many longtime newspaper sportswriters, local TV journalists, and national periodical writers.

On Monday, I drove up to Oklahoma City for games 1 and 2. Eight hour drive and many hours hanging out at Paycom Center. I had some amazing conversations with Carolina Teague (Spurfect), Tom Petrini (Spurs on SI), Maxime Aubin (L’Equipe), and Matt Guzman (Spurs on SI). Over the course of the season, I have witnessed their press conference style and gleaned knowledge from their writing. They all hustle, writing into the wee hours of the night. Their work ethic inspires me. I slept very little in Oklahoma, to say the least.

Late night games lead to later night writing. Morning media availability, shoot arounds, practice, pre and postgame press conferences followed by yeat another high-adrenalin game. With the series set for games every forty-eight hours, there is little time to reset.

In addition to the local coverage for the Spurs, the Western Conference Finals has brought in national writers, many who I follow intently. I heard one writer from a national magazine state that he’sdwanted to see more Spurs games in person throughout the regular season, but spends most of the year traveling to multiple locations and can’t quite lock in on one team until the postseason.

This is my ninth year with Pounding the Rock. I have written more than 3,000 posts, and to be honest, I am still finding my voice. Sitting with these writers — in some cases for hours in a car, or talking through footage while rewatching Game 1, or over Chinese food while analyzing the Knicks game 1 comeback in real time — I heard in perspectives I hadn’t considered. I was privy to minds that are locked on basketball 24/7.

Personally, I am partial to Pounding The Rock. This is where I started my Spurs journey. And so, as the postseason intensifies, I am increasing my visibility and promotion of this site. If you don’t follow me on X.com (formerly Twitter) you can catch my pre and post game videos: https://x.com/JephDuarte

I also am now posting exclusive behind the scenes video content on Facebook and Instagram.

There is an abundance of Spurs info out there, but PoundingThe Rock.com is home, and has a great team of contributors. I appreciate all of you who read the Open Thread and encourage you to follow the other members of this crew.

Game 3 tips off tonight back home in the Frost Bank Center. I’ll be there to get updates on Mitch Johnson’s pregame press conference, player availability, shoot around, starting lineups, and to capture the vibes as the Western Conference Finals get a Fiesta makeover.

Go Spurs Go!

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Cooper Flagg’s season came to an end a month ago, but the Dallas Mavericks young star has had a positive offseason by way of Rookie of the Year honors. On Wednesday, he followed that up by being a unanimous selection to All-Rookie First Team.

A panel of 100 sportswriters and broadcasters from around the world all cast votes for the honor, and each and every one had Flagg on First Team. Flagg averaged 21 points, 6.7 rebounds and 4.5 assists per game across 70 games. His rookie numbers astoundingly resulted in him leading the Mavs in total points, rebounds, assists and steals, putting in him rarified air with only Michael Jordan as the only rookies to ever accomplish the feat of leading their team in those categories.

Flagg joins 11 other Maverick players who have earned either First Team or Second Team rookie honors. Familiar faces like Luka Doncic, Roy Tarpley, Sam Perkins, Jay Vincent and former head coach Jason Kidd all took First Team honors in the past, with others such as Dereck Lively, Josh Howard and Marquis Daniels taking Second Team honors.

Flagg also joins 12 other teenagers to garner the honor, and is second youngest (LeBron James) to ever do it  at 19 years and 112 days old at the time of the award. Flagg arguably outperformed high expectations coming into the league and is poised to be the focal point of the team for years to come. Masai Ujiri said as much in a press conference Wednesday morning, as the team continues to overhaul in advance of the draft in June. It is unknown what is yet to come, but we do know the Mavs will be conducting a search for a new head coach, drafting another young player to pair with Flagg, and possibly overturning their roster to meet Ujiri’s vision. One thing that is for sure, is that Dallas has their key piece to build around, in Cooper Flagg.

 I invite you to follow me @_80MPH on X, and check back often at Mavs Moneyball for all the latest on the Dallas Mavericks.

Alabama had one of the most NBA-centric offenses in college basketball, and it’s all thanks to Nate Oats and how he schemes up his players for success. One of the players that benefited from that is Amari Allen, who could be considered a Swiss army knife for what he brings on the floor, but doesn’t have one specific thing that he excels at.

At 6’8, Allen is a player who can defend multiple positions, but is best when he’s a help defender or as the low man. That’s a plus for Allen as NBA teams value those types of defensive instincts, and with his size, he can make a real difference in those areas (6.9 rebounds per game). On the other hand, he still has to work on his point of attack defense, as he got distracted at times when he was in those situations. He also had a hard time not fouling, which could be a big problem at the next level.

The one thing to love about Allen is his feel and IQ for the game, which can make up for some of the mistakes that he may make on defense.

On offense is where his IQ comes into play, and Oats put him in pick and roll positions where he was the roller, and he knew where to go with the ball. His passing was key for Alabama (3.1 assists per game), and he showed the ability to be a reliable short roller, while also making plays for others if there was a better option. His unselfishness is what sticks out, which is important in a league where ball movement reigns king.

As far as getting his own offense (11.4 points per game), Allen’s finishing might be at the top of the list of things that Allen does well. Oats wanted him to attack closeouts, and that’s what he did whenever he got the chance. When he had a straight line drive, it was almost guaranteed that Allen was going to finish. On the downside, he did have issues getting past bigger defenders, and there were times throughout the season where he got stuck and forced up bad misses. It’s obvious that when he gets pressured, it might end up being a bad shot or a turnover.

When it comes to his shot, Allen was a solid catch-and-shoot player, and he shot 34% from the 3-point line. He could definitely find more consistency in that area, and if he does, he can become a solid rotational player in the league. He wasn’t the type of player to seek out his own shot in college, which is also something that he may have to work on, but only if a team wants him to develop that part of his game.

If the Hawks are looking for another wing that is known for making the right play, Allen would be a good option for them. He’ll most likely be there when they pick at No. 23, but it will all depend on if he’s the best player on the board at that point.

In 1987, Detroit was building what would soon become a championship team. With a backcourt of Isaiah Thomas and Joe Dumars, Rick Mahorn, second-year player Dennis Rodman, Bill Laimbeer, Vinnie Johnson, and John Salley, the core was set.

And they had Boston in a nice spot in the 1987 Eastern Conference Finals.

The Pistons had crushed the Celtics in Game 4, 145-119, and were poised to win in Boston in Game 5. Even better for them, Robert Parish had injured his ankle and Kevin McHale was having a subpar game and was in foul trouble to boot.

So when Larry Bird’s drive was blocked with time running out and Detroit ahead 107-106 with mere seconds left on the clock, it looked like it was over for the Celtics.

Well, not quite.

As it turned out, Bird stole the inbounds from Thomas to Laimbeer and hit Dennis Johnson for a layup with one second left. Bird didn’t make friends, but he hated Laimbeer, who he (correctly) considered a dirty player.

Boston would go on to win the series, 4-3. This video is of the entire game, which is much better than just the final :17 seconds, and well worth your time. It was a very different kind of basketball.

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Games can be won and lost in short spurts.

The Cleveland Cavaliers found that out the hard way once again as they dropped Game 2 109-93 to the New York Knicks.

After blowing a 22-point lead in an eight-minute meltdown in Game 1, it was 18 unanswered points in the middle of the third quarter that cost them Game 2. Both were fueled by poor offensive execution.

Now, the Cavs are in a 0-2 hole for the second consecutive series.

The offense once again abandoned them in a critical part of the game. They went scoreless in a five-and-a-half-minute stretch in the third quarter when the game was decided.

That simply can’t happen in the postseason, against an opponent that is this good offensively.

The outside shot deserves a lot of blame here.

The Knicks have been willing to give up three-point looks all season if it means they can secure the paint. That’s why they ranked 29th in opponent three-point frequency all season. That showed through once again.

New York was willing to concede open attempts from three if, in doing so, they were preventing a look inside the arc. That’s how Sam Merrill was able to generate seven three-point looks in 23 minutes. And if you look at the shots below, all but the last attempt were quality looks.

The issue was that none of them went down.

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The same is true for Cleveland’s other shooters. Max Strus went 1-4, Donovan Mitchell went 2-7, and Jaylon Tyson went 0-3. When four of your best shooters combine to go 3-21, there’s not a whole lot you can do to overcome that.

“We didn’t shoot the ball well,” Kenny Atkinson said afterward. “I thought our process was right. … At the end of the day, you have to put the ball in the hole.”

Playoff basketball is about making the most of what your opponent gives you. The Knicks are content with giving up the three-ball. And this was the second-straight game the Cavs shot far below their season-long average from deep.

Conversely, Josh Hart played better offensively than he had at any point in the postseason. The Cavs dared him to make shots in Game 1, and he didn’t. In Game 2, he went 5-11 from three en route to a game-high 26 points.

There’s no way to take away everything. Teams are simply too good at this point in the playoffs.

You have to be willing to give up something. What the Cavs gave up came back to bite them. What the Knicks gave up didn’t. And that’s ultimately what made the difference in this game.

There were other areas the Cavs couldn’t take advantage of offensively.

The Cavs took the same percentage of shots at the rim as the Knicks, but they just couldn’t convert there either. Only 61.5% of their looks in the restricted area went down.

Going hard to the rim allowed them to attempt more than twice as many free throws as the Knicks, but they didn’t make the most of that either, leaving 10 points at the line.

Overall, the Cavs got to the spots they wanted on the court. Forty percent of their looks came from three (62nd percentile), 34% came at the rim (61st percentile), and they had more free-throw attempts. That’s the balance you want

But basketball comes down to converting those shots, not just generating them.

“We just didn’t make shots,” Mitchell said. “I loved everything about the looks we got. Some days, you just miss the open ones. … Offensively, I’m not worried at all.

That said, the Cavs need to do a better job of getting the bigs involved.

Evan Mobley scored 10 points in the first quarter, but took just two shots the rest of the way. Jarrett Allen was physical in the paint offensively, but wasn’t rewarded enough for his work, as he had just 13 points on 5-10 shooting.

The story is always the same for the Cavs. The offense is at its best when the bigs are a focal point. When they aren’t, the offense can become too dependent on the outside shot.

New York knows this. That’s part of why they’re selling out to cut off passes inside and clogging the paint.

There’s something to be said about the Cavs not being able to flex their strengths as easily as you’d like. It often feels like they take the path of least resistance if it’s opened to them. Given the skill of their bigs, they do need to make it a priority to get them going, even if it’s difficult.

Missing shots influences the defense. Every misfire, particularly from deep, is an opportunity to run the other way off the rebound.

The Knicks benefited from this. They were able to get into their half-court sets quickly and establish an offensive rhythm more easily. This resulted in every member of their starting lineup scoring 14 or more points.

Jalen Brunson beat the Cavs with his passing, not his shooting. His 14 assists were one shy of what the Cavs had as a team.

Cleveland tried to vary the defensive looks against him after he torched them down the stretch of Game 1. They sent two to the ball and hedged more often than they did on Tuesday, and Brunson made them pay. He quickly got the ball out and found the open man, which is exactly what you need to do in that situation. His teammates rewarded him for that trust.

Some of that is due to picking on James Harden. He held up better down the stretch of Game 1 than the results would lead you to believe. Brunson hit a lot of tough shots. That’s what he does.

The doubles and different looks came from Cleveland wanting to avoid what happened in Game 1. New York went back to the well again and had success, but more so because the rotations and doubles created more problems than they actually solved.

What you can’t do is let Brunson have his cake and eat it too. That’s what it felt like at times in this game with the easy reads he was presented with.

Despite that, this game was lost on the offensive end. Even with things getting away from them, the Knicks scored just 109. That’s a point total the Cavs have surpassed in all eight of their postseason wins.

What makes this frustrating is the fact that the Cavs are getting clean looks, and could be getting better ones if they could get Mobley and Allen more involved. If they’re able to continue to create good looks, then this isn’t over yet. That is, if Mitchell is healthy.

Afterward, Mitchell reiterated that he’s feeling great. That clarification was needed because he looked anything but that on the court.

The burst that we’ve become accustomed to seeing from Mitchell wasn’t there. He wasn’t moving quickly laterally on defense, and his drives to the basket were more line drives than quick side-to-side moves. That usually indicates some type of lower-body injury.

Mitchell still put up a game-high 26 points on 8-18 shooting, even with the three-ball not falling. That speaks to how skilled he is as a scorer. But if the explosiveness isn’t there, then it’s difficult for the Cavs to establish a consistent offense. They need him close to 100%, or at least as close as possible, after coming off two straight seven-game battles.

The Cavs can still get back in this matchup, but they’ll need their best player to be his best self if they want to do so.

A few notes on Josh Hart after the Knicks’ win over Cleveland:

Mike Brown had high praise for Hart after Hart poured in a team-high 26 points in the Knicks’ Game 2 win on Thursday.

The coach compared Hart to a future Hall-of-Famer whom he’d coached in San Francisco.

“They're different players, but they're similar players because Andre (Iguodala) is edgy too. And Andre's a hell of a player. I mean, he's a great player, and he does so many little things that if you're not careful, you won't appreciate them,” Brown said late Thursday. “And it's the same with Josh. He does so many little things that don't show up in his box score.”

In Game 2, Hart had seven assists and four rebounds. He also defended well (the Cavs shot 39 percent from the field).

“But he does so much more — start with versatility that he gives us defensively that, you know, you have to — starting with me — be careful to not dismiss it,” Brown said. “And then on top of that, because he's so impactful, as a connector, (I’ve) got to give him probably more leash than anybody else. You know, I got to let him go be him and get out of his way. 

“And, you know, that's hard sometimes as a coach because you're looking at X's and O's and you want everything to be perfect. You're looking at the box score, you're looking at this, with Josh, and Andre, all that s--t that should be thrown out the window because those dudes are winners.”

The Knicks are six wins away from winning on another level. They are two wins away from an NBA Finals appearance.

It’s thanks to Hart, who went 5-for-8 from beyond the arc after missing his first three attempts from deep. The Cavs have been giving Hart plenty of space to shoot the ball.  The strategy worked well in Game 1 as Hart missed four of his five attempts from three.

But he bounced back in Game 2 and now the Knicks could be 96 minutes from a berth in the Finals.

“It's just who Josh is,” Brown said.  “He's a gamer; he knew what he had to do in terms of the adjustments he needed to make, in order to be effective, not just for him for the team and be really decisive. Not only that, he helped us get out and transition. 

"We have to play fast, so we're not going against a set defense all the time. You know, when you get out of the transition, if you're a team that cross-matches, it’s going to be hard for you to find the right bodies. That’s how we’re going to have to play. We’re going to have to play fast versus their cross matches and see if we can get something earlier in transition.”

For the first time since he was a sophomore in high school, Sam Hauser finished a season of basketball shooting under 40% from three. At 39.3%, we’re just shy of being able to morally round up, and thus a brilliant streak of shotmaking has come to an end.

Unfortunately, a close to his Celtics tenure may not be far behind.

In many ways, Hauser had a strong season. He averaged career highs in points (9.2), rebounds (3.8), assists (1.5), and minutes (24.8). He also started in 49 games, which was more than his previous four seasons combined. He had a relatively slow start to the year, but played a genuine part in helping the team vaporize the gap year notion by April.

The second half of the season was particularly encouraging. Over his last 45 games, Hauser started 44 and averaged 10.5 points while shooting 40% from three. He had games of nine and eight made threes in the final month, operating in easily the most prominent role of his career.

Hauser held the starting gig into the playoffs, and was even their most efficient three-point shooter, knocking down 16/38 (42.1%).

The unfortunate truth is that even with his strong shooting performance, Boston was considerably worse with Sam on the floor in their first-round loss.

A -16.3 net rating swing is hard to wrap your head around, especially when it’s the offense that took the largest hit. The answer is in the shot location data.

With Sam on the court, the Celtics attempted significantly fewer shots at the rim (16.9 frequency vs. 21.8 without him) and saw their three-point efficiency dip to 29.1%, compared to 38.2% in his absence. They leaned into far more midrange attempts as a result.

The explanation is not complicated. Hauser is a highly respected marksman, but he’s also third in the entire NBA in three-point attempt rate, with 83.9% of his field goal attempts coming from behind the arc. A team’s worries are limited to keeping vision on him and closing out hard. There is no true threat of a drive when the defense is in rotation — he finished the series with four shots at the rim.

None of this is meant to bury him. Hauser is a good basketball player. He’s a smart team defender, moves the ball quickly, and can shoot off movement as well as anyone on the roster. The Celtics have gotten a ton of value from this partnership.

That’s actually the point.

At some stage, you’ve seen everything a player can give you. Boston is at that stage with Sam Hauser, and they probably know it.

Hauser is a specialist with one of the more useful skills you can have in basketball. The questions this offseason aren’t really about what he is, they’re about how the Celtics can redistribute his minutes to build a flexible rotation.

Jordan Walsh, Baylor Scheierman, Hugo Gonzalez, and Ron Harper Jr. project to be more dynamic two-way pieces. They bring athleticism, and while their skills are less refined, their roles are more malleable. Walsh and Gonzalez are wing-stopper types you can throw into matchups against the other team’s best perimeter options. Scheierman and Harper Jr. can make things happen on or off the ball, and have no hesitation to make a play when the ball swings their way.

The Celtics are elite at protecting the basketball, ranking first in limiting their own turnovers, but they rarely force mistakes, finishing second to last in steals. While Hauser is a solid positional defender, he has a conservative style that doesn’t generate many deflections or turnovers. Shifting minutes to that group would be an injection of defensive playmaking and help the Celtics build on their advantage in the possession battle.

Opening the door to see if any of them can take another step forward is in the Celtics’ best interest, and Hauser is the right option to make that happen.

His contract is clean and genuinely good value — four years, roughly $11.6 million annually through 2028-29. A lot of teams need supplementary shooting and haven’t grown their own. Boston has built the infrastructure to handle the loss of a shooter like Sam.

Brad Stevens spoke candidly in his end-of-season press conference about the Celtics’ lack of rim pressure contributing to their early exits the past two years.

“One of the things we’ve got to figure out is how to have more of an impact at the rim. And we do need to add to our team to do that,” Stevens said.

As much as the organization values Hauser, he is a culprit in their rim pressure deficiency. He also likely represents the most tradable contract to find help in that regard.

The Celtics’ salary picture makes this even clearer. Tatum, Brown, and White account for 77.7% of the active roster payroll. Everything below them drops quickly to rookie contracts and minimums. Hauser’s $10.8 million next season is the closest thing Boston has to a mid-sized contract. It’s the most realistic tool in trade conversations, and the easiest pathway if the Celtics want to acquire a proven impact player without dismantling their core. Hauser’s contract would get them in the ballpark, and his shooting ability should make him an attractive trade target rather than just a number on a spreadsheet.

Hauser has been a great success story for this front office. He developed from an undrafted unknown into a reliable rotation piece on a championship team. The issue isn’t about what he is doing wrong, but that the Celtics have likely capped out in terms of how much value they can get from him as the first wing on the floor after Brown and Tatum.

They have an opportunity to pivot away from their flaws into a more dynamic version of themselves. Finding someone who can threaten the paint off a closeout, while opening the door for the wing group to develop, is a good place to start building the next great version of this team.