CLEVELAND, Ohio – The NBA playoffs should represent basketball at its highest level.
Instead, one listener asked Terry Pluto on the latest episode of the Terry’s Talkin’ podcast, it seems like they’ve become a showcase for an entirely different game – one where teams built on ball movement and precision are punished while physicality is celebrated.
“Playoff basketball is the brand that I can’t stand watching,” wrote listener KK in an email. “It’s not fundamental. It’s just how much can you push, shove, hit, and sometimes mug it and get away with. Nothing is defined, so the Cavs aren’t used to playing that way. Plus they’re not very good at it when they try.”
Pluto said the change in officiating fundamentally changes how the game is played and which teams succeed. Teams like Cleveland built around skill and movement suddenly find themselves playing what some see as an entirely different sport in the postseason.
“I said, yeah, some of these games are like the NBA of the ’90s, which led to all the rules about grabbing people,” podcast Pluto said. “If you want to clean it up, you can clean it up. You just call a bunch of files early and say, this is not going to happen.”
Pluto referenced a conversation he had with legendary coach Mike Fratello about Denver’s playoff series: “They just allowed OKC to totally mug (Nikola) Jokic,” he said.
Pluto’s solution is straightforward:
“If you want to clean it up, you can clean it up,” he said. “You just call a bunch of fouls early and say, ‘This is not going to happen.’
“I would even announce it for the playoffs. I want to see more freedom of movement and just… I want to see regular-season basketball see it called that way and you start going the other way, you’re going to hear a lot of whistles. The games are not going to be fun to watch.
Want to hear more of Terry’s take on the playoffs? Listen to the full episode:
If you have a question or a topic you’d like to see included on the podcast, email it to sports@cleveland.com, and put “Terry’s Talkin’” in the subject line.
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Note: Artificial intelligence was used to help generate this story from Terry’s Talkin’, a weekly cleveland.com sports podcast. Visitors to cleveland.com have asked for more text stories based on website podcast discussions.
