Join John Zannis, A. Sherrod Blakely, Noa Dalzell, and Bobby Manning as they recap the finals rematch between the Boston Celtics and the Dallas Mavericks! Tune in for instant analysis, player reaction, and more.
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SportsTranscript
00:00:00Hard hat's all about showing up to play hard, doing what it takes to win.
00:00:07If you want to cement legacy, win another.
00:00:10He's your third center.
00:00:11You don't want to pump him up too much, but it's hard not to.
00:00:14This is maybe the most I've ever agreed with you.
00:00:21What's going on guys?
00:00:22Garden Report style, John Zanis, Sherrod Blakely, Bobby Manning out sick, believe it or not.
00:00:28He is legitimately.
00:00:29He was on the road trip, had to come home.
00:00:32Poor Bobby was banged the F up.
00:00:35Noah is out in Dallas.
00:00:38She'll be reporting in a little bit.
00:00:40Jimmy Toscano being a rock star somewhere.
00:00:42We're shorthanded, Sherrod.
00:00:43What can we do?
00:00:44We're going to win.
00:00:45What can we possibly do?
00:00:47Just the two of us.
00:00:48Make it all about boomer rage.
00:00:49The two of us can't carry a show by ourselves.
00:00:52Can we?
00:00:53No.
00:00:54No.
00:00:55We can't.
00:00:56We need reinforcements.
00:00:58What do we do, people?
00:01:00What do we do?
00:01:01Let's go.
00:01:02What do we get?
00:01:03Bang!
00:01:04Bang!
00:01:05Boomer rage is in the building!
00:01:11What do we need here?
00:01:12Here we go, baby!
00:01:13Here we go!
00:01:14We're back!
00:01:15Here you go.
00:01:16Good game.
00:01:17Nick Jelso is here.
00:01:20My light needs to be turned up.
00:01:21I need to turn my light up.
00:01:23I'll be right back.
00:01:24Oh no, no, no.
00:01:25Wait, wait, I know how to do this.
00:01:27We'll just move you out of here, we're going to the bullpen.
00:01:32Went to the bullpen with Nick Jelso, he's back.
00:01:34Nick, I can get you off the screen, back on the screen.
00:01:38Anyway.
00:01:39I forgot.
00:01:42I was on bad behavior last show?
00:01:44I don't think so.
00:01:45Yeah, I yelled a little.
00:01:46I got a little mad.
00:01:47I think I deserved it.
00:01:50And I think the people who I got mad at deserved it.
00:01:52However, I will start this game off by saying two things.
00:01:56And I think it's very clear what the headline is.
00:02:02The guards were obviously great, and I
00:02:05think that changed everything.
00:02:06But on the whole, and I think it's
00:02:08in no small measure due to Derek White and Drew Holliday
00:02:12looking like the old versions of themselves, which is missed.
00:02:15This is the most Celtics-like the Celtics
00:02:18have looked in a long time.
00:02:21It wasn't perfect.
00:02:23There are still some pockets and some moments.
00:02:25But it was by far the most Celtics-like.
00:02:27I think that was the scariest thing for me,
00:02:31that through this whole time of wondering
00:02:35whether they were going to look OK, pull it together,
00:02:38blah, blah, blah, and this and that, almost at no point
00:02:40did they look like themselves.
00:02:43It was a ghost.
00:02:44It was a whisper of what they once
00:02:46were, assuming that at some point or another,
00:02:48they were going to recapture it.
00:02:50And I never quite, you know they have it in the bag
00:02:54because you've seen them do it, but there was no evidence.
00:02:57And we hadn't seen much of it.
00:02:59And this was the most, I thought,
00:03:00Celtics-like they looked from the second quarter
00:03:03on in terms of moving the ball, the off-ball movement,
00:03:06the way that they were catching on the run.
00:03:09People weren't standing around.
00:03:11The offense was moving, and it looked normal.
00:03:15And yeah, the shots fell, but not at a ridiculous rate.
00:03:18I mean, they fired up a ton of them, but they shot 38%.
00:03:21That's about what you expect for this team.
00:03:24And they were earned.
00:03:25They were more drive-and-kick shots,
00:03:27more shots where they got the defense in rotation.
00:03:30So again, pleased to see that they
00:03:32looked like the Celtics again.
00:03:35Yeah, I thought the most telling stat that ABC brought up,
00:03:39which again, I think this speaks to what you're talking about,
00:03:41John.
00:03:42This was the first game all season long where every starter
00:03:44had 15 or more points.
00:03:46That kind of balance we just haven't seen,
00:03:49but we know they have that in them.
00:03:51And so to me, that was very telling.
00:03:52You're right.
00:03:53They did jack up a lot of shots.
00:03:54But I thought that there seemed to be
00:03:56more purpose with their shot selection in this game.
00:03:59For example, when Dallas was trying
00:04:01to basically take away some of those threes
00:04:04and really make it very difficult,
00:04:06they found guys at the elbow.
00:04:08Imagine all that damn real estate
00:04:10in the middle of the damn court.
00:04:11Swing the ball to a Jalen Brown on the elbow,
00:04:14knocks the shot down.
00:04:15Swing the ball to Tatum.
00:04:16Yeah, swing it to Tatum.
00:04:17Tatum gives him a head fake, spins for a layup.
00:04:20It was as if they finally embraced the fact
00:04:22that we can utilize the threat of the three-point shot
00:04:26to get some easy baskets.
00:04:27And if those easy baskets aren't there,
00:04:29then we'll just shoot the threes like we do.
00:04:31This was as close as we've seen, to your point, John,
00:04:34of them utilizing that muscle memory of winning a championship
00:04:38in a way that you're supposed to.
00:04:40You're supposed to be able to read
00:04:41and react to what the defense is doing and make them pay.
00:04:45Movement without the ball.
00:04:47Finally, a little movement without the ball.
00:04:51The extra pass being made tonight.
00:04:55Haven't seen that in quite a long time.
00:04:57And defense, folks, defense.
00:05:00I mean, I think that's probably also
00:05:04one of the more bigger-telling components of this game.
00:05:08I mean, the defense was back and out-rebounding Dallas.
00:05:14Just better body language altogether, Sherrod.
00:05:19And, you know, you hate to say it
00:05:22because you don't want to be Debbie Downer,
00:05:24but the threes were falling today.
00:05:27I mean, and I don't want to be the guy who says,
00:05:30what happens when the threes don't fall again?
00:05:33But that has to be the constant thing
00:05:35in the back of Celtics fans' heads.
00:05:37It has to be.
00:05:38Because we know the Celtics can dominate
00:05:42when they're hitting the three-point shot.
00:05:45And all aspects of their game get better
00:05:48when they're hitting the three-point shot.
00:05:50So-
00:05:51Yeah, they do.
00:05:52But the one thing I'll say about this game, though,
00:05:54that really jumped out to me was that
00:05:56they were doing the kind of things
00:05:57that if the three-point shot wasn't falling,
00:05:59if they continued to do the things they were doing,
00:06:01they were still going to win this game.
00:06:02They were attacking.
00:06:03And they were using the threat of the three-point shot
00:06:05and their ability to make it
00:06:06to keep Dallas kind of guessing the entire game.
00:06:10Whenever they had dribble-drive action,
00:06:11Dallas wasn't sure,
00:06:12is Tatum going to try to go to the basket
00:06:14or is he going to kick it out?
00:06:15And if he kicks it out,
00:06:16can we rotate quick enough to contest that shot?
00:06:19And the Celtics just really kept Dallas,
00:06:21the entire game, off balance.
00:06:22And even though Dallas made a little bit of a run there
00:06:25in the second half and in the third, fourth quarter,
00:06:28you never got the feeling that this game
00:06:29was out of Boston's control.
00:06:31Yeah.
00:06:32You just, Dallas just,
00:06:33they were making it mildly interesting.
00:06:35Right.
00:06:36It wasn't even, and again, I think that's,
00:06:37everyone's like, they beat Golden State by 40.
00:06:39I know, but that one felt like an anomaly.
00:06:41What I loved about this game was
00:06:44they didn't actually shoot that well.
00:06:46As Nick's saying, the threes fell fine.
00:06:48They shot a lot of them.
00:06:49The volume, the amount that they shot is great.
00:06:52They fell at a 38% click.
00:06:53It's not outrageous.
00:06:54That's what you expect, the norm.
00:06:57They shot 42% overall from the field.
00:06:59Not great.
00:07:0030, 33 assists is great.
00:07:04So it's the process.
00:07:05You go on to talk about Joe Mazzulla and his process of,
00:07:09you know, I want to see us doing it the right way.
00:07:12This felt earned.
00:07:13Like they went about things the right way.
00:07:15That's what I like about it different here in this game
00:07:20versus, and they did it largely
00:07:21without Tatum really getting involved until,
00:07:24you know, deeper into the game.
00:07:26I mean, he was only at 10 points almost through it,
00:07:28like through three quarters.
00:07:29So they didn't even really need it.
00:07:32It wasn't like one of these Jalen Brown takeovers either
00:07:35where Tatum was standing around while Brown was cooking.
00:07:37You had everything.
00:07:38It was spread out, like Sherrod said.
00:07:40Derek White finally started hitting the shots
00:07:42and made a huge difference.
00:07:43Holiday.
00:07:44And the best part, and they shot them with the confidence
00:07:47that they were shooting them with before
00:07:49and seeing them go down.
00:07:51And you just see they get in a rhythm.
00:07:53And again, Mazzulla's mentioned it.
00:07:55Yeah, it is.
00:07:56It's a little bit, a little boomery in here.
00:08:02It is.
00:08:03It is.
00:08:07I don't mind.
00:08:08It's the balance that was great because nobody,
00:08:10Tatum wasn't great.
00:08:11Brown was pretty good.
00:08:13Tatum didn't shoot that well in this game at all.
00:08:16He didn't shoot well at all, actually.
00:08:18I mean, Brown didn't knock down a three here.
00:08:21So he's 0 for 5.
00:08:22Tatum's 4 for 12 from deep.
00:08:24Tatum's the only guy.
00:08:25Tatum was a minus 4 in this game.
00:08:28He's the only guy in negative territory.
00:08:30Not a great Jason Tatum game, which is a difference.
00:08:34And they didn't need it because he got so much balance.
00:08:36And that's what feels like last year too.
00:08:39It wasn't that everything was perfect.
00:08:41They had so many games last year where you're like, wow,
00:08:44Brown and Tatum didn't play well at all.
00:08:46And they won by 20.
00:08:47Like, what other team could have that happen?
00:08:49No one.
00:08:50There's no team out there where the star or two
00:08:53of their two alphas both are bad.
00:08:57And I'm not saying they were bad tonight.
00:08:59Brown had a good game.
00:09:00Tatum was not great.
00:09:02But that didn't matter when other guys could step up
00:09:05and do what they did.
00:09:05And they had that so many times last year.
00:09:08And just feels like a little less this year
00:09:12with the consistency.
00:09:13So again, hats off to White and Holiday for, again,
00:09:21we've said this before, I've said this,
00:09:23I've gone on record with this before.
00:09:26No one is more important than,
00:09:28I know Jason Tatum is Jason Tatum, it sounds stupid,
00:09:31but the most important person to play well
00:09:35on this team might be Derek White.
00:09:37And when he plays well, they're almost unbeatable.
00:09:40And when he doesn't play, you notice so many things
00:09:44are missing.
00:09:45So having Derek White not be himself
00:09:47for as long as he's been, and then seeing him be that,
00:09:50I feel like that was the thing that kind of gave me life
00:09:53and gave me a little bit of air tonight.
00:09:55It was like, there's a feeling of invincibility.
00:09:57When Derek White's got it going,
00:09:59I feel like everything goes better.
00:10:02And that third quarter, like all of Celtics Nation
00:10:05almost at the same time was like,
00:10:07oh, there he is, there he is.
00:10:10We knew he was out there somewhere.
00:10:12Yeah.
00:10:13Similar with Drew, but I'll be honest with D. White,
00:10:16it is so obvious when he's on off
00:10:20that the team really does play differently.
00:10:23And seeing him in the second half tonight
00:10:24was like both angles in one game,
00:10:27because in the first half kind of invisible,
00:10:29but in the second half really, really rose to the occasion.
00:10:33And seeing Drew back, great too.
00:10:36Yeah.
00:10:37I thought you had some really tiny-
00:10:39Should I make a Boomer reference right now?
00:10:41Drew, as he's getting older, is reminding me of DJ
00:10:44at the end of his career, more and more and more.
00:10:47Yeah, that's an oldie, but for sure,
00:10:49I was doing that just for John, by the way.
00:10:52I know, that's why I called your name out, ZZ.
00:10:55Holiday's got a much smaller can.
00:10:59Yeah, you heard me.
00:11:00Much smaller what?
00:11:01DJ was all can.
00:11:03He was all, you know.
00:11:04All ass.
00:11:05Yeah.
00:11:06And freckles.
00:11:08Hey, the craziest thing about Dennis Johnson
00:11:09for most people who grew up watching him in the 80s,
00:11:12seeing this kind of crafty veteran, you know,
00:11:14who wasn't, he had like a 44-inch vertical in his prime.
00:11:21He's like-
00:11:22Very true.
00:11:23And his brother, who never played in the NBA,
00:11:24reportedly had like a 50-inch vertical, which is insane.
00:11:28Dennis Johnson was a frigging crazy high flyer,
00:11:30but Holiday's never quite had that in his game.
00:11:33No, I mean, DJ couldn't shoot like Holiday can.
00:11:35Holiday's shooting this year has been an aberration.
00:11:40Really weird that he's gone so cold.
00:11:42It's been very DJ-like at the end of his career,
00:11:44hitting big shots and missing everything else.
00:11:46Tonight, he was great, Drew.
00:11:48He was.
00:11:49He was really, really good.
00:11:51But not just the amount of shots,
00:11:52but just the timeliness of them was really important.
00:11:56Yeah, he was really good.
00:11:58But Derek White, he's a super glue of this team.
00:12:03Without him playing well, they become very vulnerable.
00:12:08They become extremely vulnerable.
00:12:09When he's playing well, there's few teams
00:12:12that can beat them in a game,
00:12:13let alone his best of seven series.
00:12:15Yeah, because he's the guy.
00:12:16I mean, look, K.P.'s the cheat code,
00:12:20and that's always a matchup that you can exploit,
00:12:22and you can run things through him
00:12:24until another team has to figure out what to do about it,
00:12:26and then it opens up a lot of things
00:12:28for your offense sometimes, too.
00:12:29So we know the K.P. effect.
00:12:32But I think that White is kind of that other guy there
00:12:34who creates his own offense on this team
00:12:36that can take a lot of the pressure off of Tatum and Brown.
00:12:40And sometimes, like I said, when he's got it,
00:12:44he's not afraid to do anything.
00:12:45That's the best thing about Derek White
00:12:47and the evolution of Derek White
00:12:50over the last year and a half is that
00:12:52he was just confidently pulling up and shooting threes
00:12:55and doing all of this stuff.
00:12:56Just watching it not fall
00:12:59and watching how frustrated he was getting,
00:13:00it affected him throughout.
00:13:02You'd see him make underek White-like mistakes
00:13:05on offense, defense, the whole thing.
00:13:09Stuff you were not used to.
00:13:10That's what was so weird.
00:13:11I was like, Derek, I thought you were past that,
00:13:13but he'd been playing well for so long.
00:13:15He just hadn't endured anything like this.
00:13:18It's been a stretch.
00:13:19It's probably, I mean, I don't wanna go box score
00:13:22by box score.
00:13:22It feels like it's his best overall game in a month.
00:13:24Yeah.
00:13:25Yeah.
00:13:26Yeah.
00:13:27And then I believe this, too.
00:13:28I believe this.
00:13:29I believe some of the integration here is an issue
00:13:34with working KP back.
00:13:36It's not an accident that the starting lineup tanked
00:13:41once he came back in there, not blaming him,
00:13:44but they started kind of getting away from themselves,
00:13:47trying to utilize him and figure things out.
00:13:50And all of a sudden their spacing got all screwed up
00:13:52and they just weren't the same team.
00:13:53Everything got out of whack.
00:13:55So for the people who are in the
00:13:58everything will be fine school of thought,
00:14:01I think that that's an easy thing that you can look at
00:14:03is the reintegration of KP and trying to figure out
00:14:06how they played again when they hadn't done it
00:14:08for a long time might've messed them up a little bit.
00:14:12It's not uncommon, too, when you reintegrate a star player.
00:14:14It's not uncommon.
00:14:16Right.
00:14:17I think another factor that may have come into play
00:14:19with D-White this year is just the role
00:14:22and expectation of him.
00:14:23Andrew, this is so boring, dude.
00:14:26This is so boring.
00:14:27You can't spend an hour doing this.
00:14:28It's so boring.
00:14:30It is.
00:14:31It really is.
00:14:32I get it.
00:14:33You think I don't like Jalen.
00:14:34It's so boring.
00:14:35Anyway, go on, Sherrod.
00:14:37I'm just, I'm just trying to like-
00:14:38I'll let you keep doing it.
00:14:40It's just really boring.
00:14:41Anyway, go ahead.
00:14:43I was just marinating on that comment about JB.
00:14:46Damn. Wow.
00:14:49Well, he was doing it for 15 minutes
00:14:51before I jumped in here too.
00:14:54Jalen Brown, he's going to do the Jalen Brown thing.
00:14:56He's going to blame Jalen.
00:14:57Very original, Andrew.
00:14:58Come up with a new intro.
00:14:59Jalen still turns the ball over in traffic
00:15:03and he did it again tonight.
00:15:04So I'm not going to smash on him.
00:15:06He had a great game, but he still can't dribble the ball.
00:15:09No, but the thing with Derek White though
00:15:12is that, you know, he's no longer, you know,
00:15:15the best kept secret for the Celtics.
00:15:17Everyone knows what he can do.
00:15:18Everyone is game planning much differently now
00:15:20than they've done in the past.
00:15:21And I think for Derek,
00:15:23that takes a little bit of getting used to.
00:15:24The Celtics, they love the fact that Derek
00:15:27has the ability to just kind of fill in here.
00:15:29Whatever gaps exist,
00:15:30Derek White has the ability to fill that in.
00:15:32But now all of a sudden,
00:15:33they don't necessarily look for him to be that gap filler.
00:15:35They look for him to be a guy
00:15:37that has a prominent, established role
00:15:39in what they're doing at both ends of the floor.
00:15:40And teams are treating him a little bit differently.
00:15:44What I will say with this, go ahead.
00:15:46No, I was going to say,
00:15:48I think this one is a decent one also.
00:15:50Yeah.
00:15:51Persons here took some off,
00:15:52took the ball out of people's hands also.
00:15:54It was also something that was weird with this team.
00:15:57To Nick's point, and I don't mean to get,
00:15:58you know, to try to contradict,
00:16:00Jalen Brown did have back-to-back zero turnover games
00:16:02after turning it over five, you know, three games ago.
00:16:06And that game where he and Tatum
00:16:07were both throwing it all over the place.
00:16:09So again, good ball.
00:16:10I don't, what did they finish with?
00:16:12They had two turnovers.
00:16:14Five turnovers of total.
00:16:16They had two, I think, heading into the fourth.
00:16:18Did they end up with five?
00:16:20I think they ended up.
00:16:22Yeah, they ended up with five.
00:16:24Five turnovers.
00:16:25Crazy.
00:16:25Yeah.
00:16:26That's wild.
00:16:27Yeah.
00:16:28Yeah, I mean.
00:16:29With 33 assists.
00:16:30That's where I was going next.
00:16:31Crazy, right?
00:16:32That is indicative of Celtics basketball.
00:16:35Moving the ball, getting open shots
00:16:38from around the three-point line.
00:16:39A lot of assists.
00:16:41And yeah, you saw it tonight.
00:16:43And again, John, when you were out,
00:16:45or you tossed out for one second,
00:16:46I said to Sharada, just worry, you know,
00:16:50when the three-point shot, if they hit another,
00:16:51they're gonna hit another bump in the road
00:16:53where they're not hitting threes.
00:16:55Is everything, does everything slouch back down
00:16:57to this level?
00:16:59Here's the crazy thing, guys.
00:17:01Forget all that.
00:17:02They're four and one in the last five games
00:17:04and they fucking sucked.
00:17:06I mean, I think that goes to be said for something.
00:17:08You gotta say something.
00:17:09This road trip, they were four and one and they sucked.
00:17:12Three and one.
00:17:13And yes, look, you're talking about the, you know,
00:17:16a crap win over a depleted Clippers team,
00:17:20getting blown out by the Lakers
00:17:20in one of the most embarrassing,
00:17:21one of the more embarrassing games of the year
00:17:23where they were non-competitive,
00:17:25non-competitive in this game.
00:17:27And then look, and we know who's missing for Dallas.
00:17:29This is a team you should have blown out.
00:17:31And some people might look at the score and say,
00:17:33well, that wasn't good enough.
00:17:35And again, I'm not looking at the result.
00:17:37I am looking at the process.
00:17:39That's what Joe wants us to do, right?
00:17:42That's the point.
00:17:43They went through, they did the whole,
00:17:46they talk about like trusting one another, you know,
00:17:49you want to go back to the Marcus love and trust days.
00:17:51That's the point.
00:17:52You've got to rely on one another
00:17:55and let everybody do their thing.
00:17:57And the biggest key, and again,
00:17:59the biggest thing I liked was they do get ISO happy
00:18:02in the sense that there's always mismatches
00:18:04and you're always going to hunt it.
00:18:05They could have spent all game long
00:18:07just switching onto Kyrie and they didn't.
00:18:09And that's a better offense when they do that.
00:18:12So that, and again, they might be victims
00:18:15of their own success.
00:18:16We've listed how many things now
00:18:17that should be good things
00:18:20that maybe threw them off kilter a little bit.
00:18:23And that was really good first quarters
00:18:25with Jason Tatum playing well through the first quarter,
00:18:28something he hadn't done in the past.
00:18:29Well, that screwed up Jalen Brown a little bit
00:18:32and his overall numbers are down.
00:18:34Peyton Pritchard scoring a crap ton of points off the bench.
00:18:37Well, that might've messed up other people
00:18:39because all of a sudden he was looking for his own offense
00:18:41instead of coming in here and being a catch and shoot guy.
00:18:44And that might've disrupted things for some people.
00:18:47We talked about the reintegration of KP.
00:18:49All of these things are good things,
00:18:51but they were like, things were off.
00:18:55It was disjointed in a weird way.
00:18:57So again, the best version of these guys is this version
00:19:01where they're moving the ball around.
00:19:02People aren't just standing around
00:19:04waiting for somebody to cook or get the kick out three.
00:19:07They earned their threes.
00:19:09They drove, they moved, they relocated.
00:19:11They did all of that stuff.
00:19:12That's what I mean.
00:19:13It looked Celtics like, but on paper, yeah,
00:19:15this should have been a 25, 30 point game.
00:19:17So some people are looking at it like,
00:19:18eh, it's still not a great win.
00:19:19And it's a three in one trip,
00:19:21but like two of the wins are against teams
00:19:23that had literally half their players missing.
00:19:26And it's fair, you know, it's, but again,
00:19:29encouraging with the huge win over Golden State in this one,
00:19:33I feel better about it than I did.
00:19:36You know, you should feel much better about it
00:19:38than you did 24 hours ago, for sure.
00:19:40Well, they look more like the team
00:19:42that won a title last year.
00:19:44They look like them.
00:19:44I said, I recognize them.
00:19:46Yeah, and they've been able to win up to this point
00:19:49in large part, just simply because
00:19:51they're just more talented than the other team.
00:19:53They're not necessarily playing great basketball.
00:19:55They just have better players
00:19:56and they're finding ways to stack those Ws.
00:19:59But this was a game where just the way they went
00:20:01about winning this game was very reminiscent
00:20:04of what we saw over and over and over and over again
00:20:07a year ago.
00:20:08Lots of balance, guys contributing at both ends
00:20:10of the floor, getting very tangible contributions
00:20:13from the bench.
00:20:14They didn't have anyone go off for big scoring us,
00:20:17but damn, Cornette on the boards,
00:20:18Pritchard on the boards, Al did his thing.
00:20:20This was a complete team win
00:20:23with lots of different contributions
00:20:25from lots of different guys.
00:20:26And if you're the Celtics,
00:20:27this is the blueprint to win a championship.
00:20:29This is how you do it.
00:20:31You put on the floor a group that no one can really lock in
00:20:35and say, if we just limit one or two guys,
00:20:37we've got a really great shot at winning this game.
00:20:39Not when you got seven other guys
00:20:41who are playing at a really high level
00:20:43and playing together.
00:20:45No doubt, no doubt.
00:20:46We're gonna keep talking about this.
00:20:48I think it looks like we've got an interesting
00:20:50Derek White stat we might put up on the board
00:20:52from our producer, Jackson Tolliver,
00:20:54manning things back at home.
00:20:56And we are still waiting for Noah.
00:20:57We'll get some sound to play for you coming out
00:21:00of Dallas in a little bit too.
00:21:02As we said, Noah's down there, you know,
00:21:04holding down the fort for us.
00:21:06So we will get that as well.
00:21:08But before we do, we're going to hear
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00:22:51And we're checking it out here and boy,
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00:23:03Jalen Hurts, 31.5 rush yards, looks pretty tasty as well.
00:23:07Saquon Barkley, all he does is score touchdowns.
00:23:09So again, a lot of good stuff you can get in on.
00:23:12Of course, there's Josh Allen, Travis Kelsey
00:23:14and the Chiefs, Bill's game, which is one of the biggest,
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00:23:21I mean, not probably, definitely.
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00:23:35All right, let's get back to it.
00:23:37I'm throwing up some stuff here.
00:23:38And one of the things we were talking about
00:23:40was Derek White playing ridiculously well.
00:23:43And it was interesting, right?
00:23:45There was, he didn't start well.
00:23:46I think it was one for seven.
00:23:47And the one make was on a missed corner three
00:23:50where he was wide open and a rebound came back,
00:23:53kicked back out to him.
00:23:55And he knocks down the return one
00:23:57and you just see the shoulders drop and he's like,
00:24:00oh, and after that, he got back into it.
00:24:03And again, that third quarter
00:24:04is kind of where everything happened.
00:24:05And this is from Celtics statistician, Dick Leip,
00:24:09Richard White, who had 16 points in the third,
00:24:13had only two quarters of his career with more points.
00:24:15He had 18 in the second against Charlotte
00:24:17in February, 2023,
00:24:19and in the third against Washington in 2021
00:24:22when he was with the Spurs.
00:24:23So again, one of his best quarters.
00:24:27And again, much needed here.
00:24:30And I really feel like that's the time,
00:24:31that was when everything kind of turned here.
00:24:33Celtics definitely had a terrific second quarter,
00:24:36but that third quarter is when everyone kind of like exhaled
00:24:38like a little bit here with like, oh,
00:24:41and it really, again, I can't harp on it enough
00:24:45how much of that had to do with Derek.
00:24:47Yeah, it just felt that that was when everything
00:24:50kind of settled down to the point where, okay,
00:24:53we're back to being who we are.
00:24:55This is what we do.
00:24:56This is how we win.
00:24:58And I don't think they've had a lot of games
00:24:59where they came away feeling that way.
00:25:02So to me, the interesting thing now is
00:25:04how can they build off of this?
00:25:05I mean, obviously they're not gonna play identical to this
00:25:08because their opponent is gonna be different
00:25:10up coming up next,
00:25:11but can they deliver similar attributes
00:25:15in their next game that we saw in this one?
00:25:17I'm curious to see how they respond.
00:25:21I am also.
00:25:22Nick, what else do your boomer eyes see?
00:25:28Nah, man.
00:25:28I mean, I'm just really relieved,
00:25:30I think for all the same reasons
00:25:32you guys are talking about.
00:25:34I have a question for you though.
00:25:36And you guys are obviously the brains on this panel.
00:25:40I'm just here to kind of make everybody lighten up
00:25:43and giggle a little.
00:25:45But how much of what we've seen the last five games
00:25:49or more, seven games, eight games,
00:25:51has been the fact that everybody we're seeing now
00:25:56for the most part is the second time.
00:25:58And therefore scouting reports are out.
00:26:02So, and tonight, Dallas,
00:26:04I think this is the first time they played them
00:26:06since the finals.
00:26:07And they didn't do a great job
00:26:09of defending the three-point line.
00:26:11Obviously the Celtics countered with great ball movement
00:26:15and they were moving around more as well.
00:26:19But how much of it is that scouting report?
00:26:22Because you mentioned KP and bringing him back,
00:26:27but then also D. White.
00:26:29And then Pritchard hasn't been as great.
00:26:31But recently as well,
00:26:32how much of that is going around
00:26:33with the scouting report coming out?
00:26:35Do you guys think?
00:26:36Or is it just all on the Celtics?
00:26:40So are you asking whether the Celtics
00:26:42are figuring people out
00:26:43or people are figuring it out?
00:26:44This is the second time around that teams are playing them.
00:26:47Therefore they've had a look.
00:26:49They have a lot of film.
00:26:50It's more than halfway through the season.
00:26:52So teams are game planning differently.
00:26:55I think there's, that's a factor.
00:26:58There's no doubt that that's a factor,
00:26:59but I don't know if it's a huge factor.
00:27:01And I say that because for a lot of teams,
00:27:04their first goal around when they saw the Celtics,
00:27:06they didn't have Porzingis.
00:27:07And so this is their first time seeing KP in the mix.
00:27:10And he's an absolute game changer for the Celtics.
00:27:13There's so many more things they can do
00:27:15when he's on the floor.
00:27:18But I do think that it's kind of like
00:27:20when rookies have this amazing start
00:27:22and then they hit this lull
00:27:23and they think that it's the rookie wall.
00:27:24It's not that they hit the rookie wall.
00:27:26It's just that there's a scouting report on it.
00:27:27There's video on it.
00:27:29Teams can game plan differently
00:27:30because they've seen what they can do at this level.
00:27:32And so I think that's some of what's happening
00:27:34with Peyton Pritchard.
00:27:35Teams have, you know, they had an idea
00:27:37of what he could do at the start of the season.
00:27:39And then they realized he's doing way more than that.
00:27:41And so now there's a little bit of an adjustment period.
00:27:43And Peyton, you know, they're really good players.
00:27:46They figure out what they have to do
00:27:47in order to continue to be successful.
00:27:49The great ones, it just happens organically.
00:27:52Peyton's a good player.
00:27:53He's going to figure that out.
00:27:54And he still reminds us from time to time,
00:27:57you know, these last two, three weeks,
00:27:58that he still can be that guy.
00:28:00But I think the Celtics, more than anything else,
00:28:02they're figuring out themselves.
00:28:04They're figuring out the combinations and the rotations
00:28:08and just the groups that work best for them
00:28:11night in, night out.
00:28:12And the Porzingis stuff is disappointing
00:28:15because I think he's played really well.
00:28:17He has, yeah.
00:28:19Especially the last couple of weeks
00:28:21when he's really kind of found his rhythm, yeah.
00:28:23But everybody else is kind of trying to adjust to him,
00:28:25I think, where you're seeing struggles.
00:28:27And that's common.
00:28:28We've seen that a lot over the years
00:28:29when you're integrating a big component of the team,
00:28:32reintegrating them after injury.
00:28:35Yeah, which is why I'm not worried about his role
00:28:40and his impact on winning
00:28:41because when the games truly matter, which is the playoffs,
00:28:44I think they will have figured it out.
00:28:46And I think tonight was like really
00:28:47one of the more tangible signs we've seen
00:28:50that they're kind of figuring out how to play
00:28:53at a relatively high level with him in a mix.
00:28:57Yeah, and Al has to re-acclimate to the bench too.
00:28:59And that's not always been an easy transition for him too.
00:29:02So all the way around, re-acclimating is a big factor.
00:29:07Go ahead, John.
00:29:08No, you're right.
00:29:09There's a lot that he has said is if you want it,
00:29:11I'm not going to call it the excuse train,
00:29:13but if you want to find reasons, there's quite a few there.
00:29:16And that's why I think a lot of it would help.
00:29:20Like as the season goes on,
00:29:22I think you can see things start to look more Celtics-y
00:29:27and it wouldn't be that surprising
00:29:30simply because of all of these things,
00:29:31which I think are factors.
00:29:33And it is weird because something's off
00:29:35without being able to put your finger on it.
00:29:37And I don't believe like there's a mutiny in the locker room
00:29:40and everybody hates each other right now.
00:29:42You know, we did talk about last game,
00:29:43how roles change as well.
00:29:45So that sometimes is, and we just addressed it here
00:29:48where Pritchard all of a sudden is trying to get hit.
00:29:50Everyone's trying to get theirs a little bit.
00:29:51You don't know how that goes with it.
00:29:53What's funny, Nick, is as you mentioned,
00:29:55you know, us being the brains of it,
00:29:56normally I'm the comic relief.
00:29:58Everyone else is the brains.
00:29:59But when you come in, I have to, I have to slide.
00:30:02It's like when Luke starts, you know, I have to jump.
00:30:04I have to jump into the,
00:30:06I have to jump into smart guy territory
00:30:08to kind of offset the buffoonery that's going to ensue.
00:30:15Sometimes I can pull it off, sometimes not.
00:30:17I don't know.
00:30:18On a video recently that I did,
00:30:19I think someone posted,
00:30:20this is the least basketball intelligent guy
00:30:23on this network.
00:30:24And I thought, first I was kind of hurt by it.
00:30:27And then I thought, you know, I'm doing something right.
00:30:29I'm supposed to be the least,
00:30:31like all you guys are supposed to know
00:30:33what you're talking about.
00:30:34I just come on for some entertainment value,
00:30:36which by the way, I'm going to dip now.
00:30:39So I'll see you guys later.
00:30:40That's it.
00:30:41That's the cameo.
00:30:42I'll see you guys later.
00:30:43I didn't even let you do the, I was waiting.
00:30:45I was going to tee you up for something.
00:30:47I was going to let you boom.
00:30:48All right, I'll wait.
00:30:48I'll wait then.
00:30:49If I'm getting teed up, I'll wait.
00:30:51I've got something for you.
00:30:52I was slow playing.
00:30:53All right, I'll wait.
00:30:55I'll wait.
00:30:56Look, I do think there's something about the Celtics,
00:30:58I wouldn't say figured out,
00:30:59but again, they've been doing a lot of the same stuff
00:31:01and they're leaning on things that worked.
00:31:03And I think teams were messing with them.
00:31:04I think that they were picking them up a little bit higher,
00:31:07pressuring them more, getting in on them,
00:31:08not letting them, the catches were higher.
00:31:10They weren't getting into their actions
00:31:12the same way they wanted to.
00:31:14And I think some of it was just settling
00:31:16or kind of the invincibility factor.
00:31:18What I do know is,
00:31:20what's almost a guaranteed win for the Celtics.
00:31:23It's not when Derek White plays well.
00:31:24It's not when they have the whole starting lineup.
00:31:26It's when they face Kyrie Irving,
00:31:28who is now one in 15 in his last 16 games
00:31:31against the Celtics,
00:31:32or one in 15 since he stepped on that damn logo.
00:31:36I'm going to tell you right now,
00:31:37the Mystique is still alive.
00:31:42Kyrie stepped on Lucky and what's happened?
00:31:45He's one for 15.
00:31:47In today's NBA,
00:31:49you have to look for every reason
00:31:51to feel good about Celtics, Mystique and Pride
00:31:53because they don't celebrate it anymore, the young heads.
00:31:56So I'm going to tell you right now,
00:31:58Kyrie Irving put his foot on that fucking logo
00:32:02and since then, one of 15 and zero and one in the finals.
00:32:06So yeah, I'm not even mad at him anymore, dude.
00:32:09I'm not even mad at him
00:32:10because the dude can't buy a win and he's been relegated.
00:32:14That's it, I'm not even mad at him.
00:32:15I got canceled for Kyrie on my own network in 2020.
00:32:19I'm not doing it again.
00:32:21Yeah, well, again, maybe the only thing,
00:32:24I don't necessarily believe in the karma or the Mystique.
00:32:28Maybe the only thing I've ever agreed with
00:32:29that Curt Schilling says was Mystique and Aura
00:32:32are the names of dancers at a nightclub.
00:32:34So like, I don't, famously said that
00:32:39about the Sox facing the Yankees in 2004,
00:32:41which was great because they broke a curse then too.
00:32:44I don't buy any of that stuff,
00:32:45but I do buy that Kyrie, and he wasn't horrible tonight,
00:32:51but I do buy that he gets the yips
00:32:52a little bit against Boston.
00:32:53It's in his head, baby.
00:32:55We own real estate.
00:32:56We own real estate in that head,
00:32:58especially when he comes here.
00:33:01Yeah, just let it rip free up there.
00:33:03We saw it in the finals.
00:33:04We've seen it in damn near every regular season game
00:33:06since then.
00:33:08And really, when you look at this particular game,
00:33:12there's a different kind of defensive energy
00:33:15when they're matching up against Kyrie.
00:33:18And part of it is because they know he's really good,
00:33:20but also part of it is because they know how things ended.
00:33:23And the kids grew up.
00:33:24They'll never own up to the fact that, you know,
00:33:28that was very problematic with things with Kyrie,
00:33:31but they've moved on and they've won a championship.
00:33:33And you better believe there's a part of them
00:33:35that knows that championship was even sweeter.
00:33:38They surpassed him.
00:33:42They have surpassed Kyrie in regards to
00:33:46who is the preeminent team,
00:33:49who's going to be going further, who's more relevant.
00:33:52They have surpassed him.
00:33:54And you know what?
00:33:55All of my animosity towards Kyrie is gone.
00:34:01You know, I have made peace with the situation
00:34:04in the finals when he couldn't even talk himself
00:34:07out of a circle with all in his head.
00:34:10Everybody was in his head.
00:34:11So I have made peace with Kyrie.
00:34:14I told you, I thought the booing Kyrie
00:34:17was the most tired, boring nonsense.
00:34:20It's not fun anymore.
00:34:21I've been over it for so long.
00:34:23It's already, it's been, it's over.
00:34:26I mean, Kyrie was cast out, you know.
00:34:29We won.
00:34:30I will say this.
00:34:32I will say this.
00:34:34He has, I did not think this was going to work
00:34:40with him in Dallas.
00:34:41I didn't either.
00:34:42And it has.
00:34:43He gets them to the finals and he's been a good soldier.
00:34:46I, the way Kyrie was trending,
00:34:48I thought Kyrie was heading into Antonio Brown territory,
00:34:50you know, where he's just going to take off his jersey
00:34:53and run off the court or something.
00:34:56It's true.
00:34:57Turned him around, man.
00:34:58But the whole Kyrie leprechaun and the hatred.
00:35:01Yeah.
00:35:02You had every right to boo him and you were mad at him
00:35:04when he left, but it ended up making your organization
00:35:07overall better in a couple of years.
00:35:11And once that happened, it was over.
00:35:12If he left them in tatters.
00:35:14Yeah, you should.
00:35:14And Kyrie's out there winning championships.
00:35:16Absolutely.
00:35:17Still have sour grapes, but it's been over for a while.
00:35:20It doesn't really.
00:35:21But it was iffy there for a while.
00:35:22I mean, three years, it looked like he set the franchise
00:35:25back for 10 years and it was only two or two seasons maybe,
00:35:29but it looked at, and for me,
00:35:30it ended when they raised the Larry O'Brien trophy
00:35:35on the parquet against him.
00:35:36And now I'm just done with Kyrie.
00:35:38He doesn't even, I was thinking tonight,
00:35:40what Kyrie still plays for these guys.
00:35:42Hell, he's been a good soldier this year.
00:35:44Not trending, not saying stupid things.
00:35:47He's been amazing.
00:35:48He's been amazing.
00:35:49You know what though?
00:35:50Part of it is first of all, Kyrie is no idiot.
00:35:53He's smart enough to know that this is where
00:35:55he makes his money.
00:35:56He's a basketball player.
00:35:58And I don't think it was a coincidence
00:36:00that there were some questions
00:36:01about the types of contracts,
00:36:03what his next contract will look like
00:36:05when he was just trending in that Antonio Brown zone.
00:36:08So Kyrie had millions of reasons to start flying right.
00:36:13And you know, in today's climate,
00:36:15he's had plenty of ammunition to talk stupid
00:36:18or say things that maybe would deter that,
00:36:21his mission to get back to reputable status
00:36:25where he could garner a large contract again.
00:36:29So there's been a lot of ammunition.
00:36:30He's not bit at all.
00:36:32So he's definitely on a mission
00:36:34to be the best behaved he could possibly be.
00:36:36Right.
00:36:37And he's with a team that he has a definitive,
00:36:38I'm the number two guy.
00:36:40Yes.
00:36:41The best Kyrie Irving that we've seen
00:36:43has been when he has been next to the man,
00:36:46not the man, but next to the man.
00:36:48And that was, to me, that was the problem in Boston.
00:36:52They wanted him to be the man.
00:36:53And you had some young guys who were like,
00:36:55well, you know, someday we're going to be the man.
00:36:57And Kyrie just didn't know how to handle that whole situation.
00:37:00That's the irony of Kyrie's entire existence
00:37:04is he left the man to carve out his own legacy
00:37:10after winning a title with the man.
00:37:12And within a year and a half, he was like, I want-
00:37:16This man is hard.
00:37:18I need, I need, I need super friends, you know?
00:37:20Like, and so he went and he, you know, did the thing there.
00:37:24So yeah, no doubt about that.
00:37:26But I thought you might want to,
00:37:28I thought you might want to take a crack at Kyrie.
00:37:30Oh, I'll never, ever, ever give up the opportunity,
00:37:33even though I have most, most wholly
00:37:38given up my animosity towards Kyrie Irving.
00:37:41Who is your number one Celtics villain now, Nick?
00:37:45On the team?
00:37:47No, no, no, no, no, no, no, no.
00:37:48Don't tell us who you hate on the Celtics after a win.
00:37:51Who is the-
00:37:53I was all ready.
00:37:54No, who, who right now, like,
00:37:56which opponent is your number one Celtics villain?
00:38:00That's hard because, you know, I have my personals,
00:38:03which, you know, don't always coincide with-
00:38:05No, I don't want Nick agendas.
00:38:06I would take Giannis.
00:38:08I can't stand to watch Giannis.
00:38:10And I don't even know that it's his fault completely
00:38:13as much as it is the referees, you know,
00:38:16because he can't tippy toe into the paint
00:38:18and they put them on the line.
00:38:20It's herky-jerky.
00:38:21The game starts and stops.
00:38:23I'd say it's probably fucking Giannis.
00:38:25Yeah.
00:38:25I'm going to get booted for all the cursing.
00:38:28Yeah.
00:38:29Well-
00:38:30I would say Giannis, yeah.
00:38:32Yeah, it's not bad.
00:38:33Jimmy Butler, I can say, too.
00:38:35I was going to say Jimmy.
00:38:35That's the guy that I would have picked.
00:38:37It was Butler until he, until he kind of-
00:38:39No, now I'm more annoyed with him.
00:38:40Until he went Antonio Brown on us, basically?
00:38:42Yeah, I mean, like, come on, man.
00:38:45Why does everybody think that he's, like,
00:38:47God's gift to basketball?
00:38:49I mean, he is, he was good,
00:38:51but everywhere he goes, he ends up in this mess.
00:38:54Sure, but I will say this.
00:38:56No player has flipped my opinion of him
00:39:00in a more resounding way than Jimmy Butler
00:39:02watching him in those playoffs
00:39:03and him just go into, I'm just going to do it all mode.
00:39:07And-
00:39:08And he did.
00:39:09And he did.
00:39:10And I, like, no, absolutely.
00:39:14Ton of respect for Jimmy Butler,
00:39:16but he's old and he thinks he's not anymore
00:39:20and he wants to get paid like a young guy
00:39:21and that's where we are right now.
00:39:23And yeah, there's some guys out there,
00:39:24it's a matter of when, not if,
00:39:26they have an expiration date on them
00:39:28and Jimmy Butler has expired in Miami.
00:39:30But I guarantee if he goes somewhere,
00:39:32he's going to be Jimmy Butler again,
00:39:34or at least a 90% version of him.
00:39:37And he's going to do things for that team.
00:39:40All Pat Riley, John had to do was this.
00:39:44It was like Godfather 2, right?
00:39:46And Jimmy was gone.
00:39:48Jimmy is now suspended again, isn't he?
00:39:51Yeah.
00:39:52Yeah, yeah.
00:39:53Yeah, but Jimmy has been annoying
00:39:56to Celtics fans for sure.
00:39:58Over the years, LeBron has always been number one.
00:40:01We need a villain.
00:40:02We need a villain bad.
00:40:03There's no one on New York that qualifies as a villain.
00:40:05Giannis isn't quite, though he is,
00:40:07he can be a real dick when you play him.
00:40:09So he does, you get the blood going.
00:40:12Just trying to-
00:40:12He doesn't talk enough trash to the Celtics.
00:40:15Yeah, he's got villain potential though.
00:40:18Yeah, he does.
00:40:18Yes, he does.
00:40:19Celtics haven't played a meaningful playoff series
00:40:22since they ousted, since they bounced Kyrie
00:40:25when he decided he was done with Boston there.
00:40:29So it's tough-
00:40:30George annoys me, but these are annoying to me.
00:40:33They're not Celtics.
00:40:35These aren't, there's not Celtics hated
00:40:38because you know why?
00:40:39I think you just said it all when you said it, John.
00:40:41There hasn't been much competition.
00:40:43It is MB2, but he's fallen off.
00:40:44He's a great villain.
00:40:46He's still funny.
00:40:47Yeah, I mean, he's training towards irrelevancy like-
00:40:50But he's, the two biggest villains
00:40:52are irrelevant this year.
00:40:53So yeah, anyway, that was Nick Jelso time, everybody.
00:40:58I got a lobster tail and a cannoli from Modern Market
00:41:02sitting on my countertop, so I'm out, baby.
00:41:05I fricking love lobster tails.
00:41:07My favorite Italian pastry shop pastry.
00:41:11All right, like we said, we're going to keep going.
00:41:13We're hoping to get Noah on here.
00:41:15If things, you know, get moving a little bit
00:41:19with the post-game stuff in Dallas,
00:41:22and we're hoping to get a little bit of sound
00:41:23coming out of the garden, out of Dallas as well
00:41:26on the Celtics' 122-107 win
00:41:29against a depleted Mavericks team.
00:41:31Still more to talk about here before we get to it.
00:41:34Want to tell you about another one of our sponsors.
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00:42:33That was a good win against Houston, a good game,
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00:42:41And again, a couple tough little road trips out here
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00:43:28Let's bring it back here.
00:43:29And again, with Sherrod Blakely,
00:43:31we did have Nick Jelso hanging around
00:43:34and the Celtics complete a three and one road trip.
00:43:38How do we feel about it overall?
00:43:39How do you feel about this performance on the road trip?
00:43:43A bit of a mixed bag, but again, three and one is three and one.
00:43:47And they were three and one on the last one,
00:43:49and we didn't love it.
00:43:49And I said, all I'm going to remember from that one
00:43:52is OKC looking like they were a much better team
00:43:54than the Celtics, even though they
00:43:56had a good win against Houston, a win against Minnesota
00:43:59when they couldn't hit shots, and then another victory
00:44:02against, who was the fourth one?
00:44:03I feel like it was a depleted team that they played there.
00:44:06But this one, again, three and one, three and one.
00:44:09Denver, Denver without Jokic, right?
00:44:11Yeah.
00:44:11No, this feels, I think this is a little bit different only
00:44:14because of the way that this one ended.
00:44:18And it ended with them getting a win that looked like themselves.
00:44:22You feel as though they're starting to figure this
00:44:26particular group out.
00:44:28Because even though they brought pretty much everyone back
00:44:30from the band last year, with guys having different roles,
00:44:33different expectations, and dealing
00:44:35with different limitations.
00:44:36You look at a guy like Sam Houser, who
00:44:37was healthy all of last season, not so much this year,
00:44:40and just adapting to that.
00:44:42And the bottom line is they're coming back
00:44:45from this West Coast trip playing
00:44:46the kind of championship basketball
00:44:48that we saw last season.
00:44:50And by that, I simply mean lots of different guys
00:44:52contributing at a relatively high level,
00:44:55making it extremely difficult from a matchup game
00:44:58planning standpoint for their opponents
00:45:00to figure out what you need to do to beat them.
00:45:01Because they've got so many different ways
00:45:03that they can hurt you.
00:45:04And it's feeling better.
00:45:07Essentially, it looks better than figuring out
00:45:10how to work with KP.
00:45:12That's going to be such an important factor in them
00:45:16getting a legitimate shot at repeating.
00:45:18How does he reintegrate with this group?
00:45:20And more importantly, how are they
00:45:22able to function at a high level with him on the floor?
00:45:26Yeah.
00:45:26Some people are disagreeing here.
00:45:30Win two, lose one.
00:45:31That's fine.
00:45:32Actually, I didn't even.
00:45:34It is really interesting.
00:45:36Because again, 32 and 14 is 32 and 14.
00:45:40And I was watching the game from home in the halftime.
00:45:43And Stephen A. Smith was saying nothing of tremendous value.
00:45:50But he did say the Celtics got embarrassed by the Lakers.
00:45:55And they don't want to go out and lose back-to-back games
00:45:58for the first time all year.
00:45:59And I was thinking, there's no way that's correct, right?
00:46:02And I went back and looked at it.
00:46:03And it was not correct.
00:46:05But they've only lost back-to-back games
00:46:06a single time this entire year.
00:46:10And I was like, in my mind, yeah, it was the Orlando
00:46:15when they lost to that depleted Orlando
00:46:17team on the second night of a back-to-back there following
00:46:21whatever the game was.
00:46:22It was Orlando and Philly, exactly.
00:46:24So that was it.
00:46:27And I didn't realize that.
00:46:28Because again, it's weird to have played basically 500
00:46:33ball for a quarter of the season at 10 and 9.
00:46:35And it really was one win, one not.
00:46:38So many of the wins, though, were bad wins
00:46:42that they felt like losses.
00:46:43So much about the season feels worse
00:46:47than it is than the record would indicate.
00:46:50Because again, it's 32 and 14.
00:46:53And again, it's not.
00:46:56I mean, it's still a team with a plus 9 point differential.
00:47:00Cleveland is tops at 9.8, at least in the West.
00:47:03Oklahoma City is lapping the field.
00:47:05So you're not that far off.
00:47:08It just feels weird.
00:47:10Because it just doesn't feel.
00:47:11I mean, I think it's a testament to who they were
00:47:15and what they were last year.
00:47:16I thought it was a joke.
00:47:18That's why Jimmy got mad at me all year long.
00:47:20Nothing worried me at any point during the year.
00:47:23Because I'm like, guys, they're so.
00:47:25I mean, not the only person who thought it.
00:47:27They were so much better than everybody last year.
00:47:30It didn't matter.
00:47:32We were saying 40 games in.
00:47:33I was like, the first meaningful game they're going to play
00:47:35is the game one of the finals.
00:47:40They were going.
00:47:41There was no question about it.
00:47:43It's not that bad.
00:47:44So how do we feel?
00:47:44I said it earlier.
00:47:46Yeah, the Golden State thing is great,
00:47:48even though that really snowballed into something crazy
00:47:51to get to that 40 point total.
00:47:53And I do really feel good about this.
00:47:54Feeling like it was the most Celtics like game
00:47:58we've seen in a long time.
00:47:59So I feel better about this three in one trip
00:48:02than the last one, even though they had probably
00:48:04tougher wins against tougher opponents
00:48:06in that last three in one trip.
00:48:07That's that's where I'm coming from.
00:48:08Yeah.
00:48:09And I like I like what they had.
00:48:11I like the upswing here.
00:48:12Yeah.
00:48:13Yeah.
00:48:13The one thing I think people aren't really paying attention
00:48:16to is that as amazingly awesome as they were a year ago,
00:48:20there are three games behind that pace now.
00:48:24So like literally that's it.
00:48:27Three wins less than they had a year ago after after 46 games.
00:48:31And so the wheels have not fallen off.
00:48:34The sky is not falling.
00:48:35They're pretty much on a very, very similar track
00:48:40that they were last year.
00:48:41And I think by all accounts, they
00:48:43haven't played great basketball this year.
00:48:46They've been OK.
00:48:47They've been pretty good most nights.
00:48:48But they're just figuring out ways to win games.
00:48:50And to your point, John, this game
00:48:53was the first one in a really long time.
00:48:55And one of the few games they've had this year
00:48:57where they looked like themselves.
00:48:59And again, I'm not focusing on the difference in the score
00:49:04and the shot making and all that.
00:49:05It's just the way they played, the ball movement,
00:49:08the low turnovers, different guys contributing.
00:49:11All five starters had 15 more points.
00:49:14First time that's happened all year.
00:49:15You start going down just some of the things
00:49:17that they did in this win over Dallas,
00:49:19even against a depleted Dallas team.
00:49:21They're still NBA players.
00:49:22They're still going out there and play hard.
00:49:24That was the one thing that without Lucas in the mix,
00:49:26they play harder because they don't have a choice.
00:49:29And we've seen teams that play hard,
00:49:31they typically give Boston a run for their money.
00:49:34So this was a good win because I think it really
00:49:37puts into motion a blueprint of sorts
00:49:40on how they're going to have to play going forward if they're
00:49:42going to get to the destination of their choice, which
00:49:45is obviously getting back to the NBA Finals and winning it again.
00:49:50Yep, there it is.
00:49:58It's on and muted, I think.
00:50:01I was saying, Sherrod talked about balance
00:50:03and that being the way to win.
00:50:05Here's a little stat for you.
00:50:08Tonight's the first time since last year, around this time,
00:50:11about a full year, that all five Celtics starters
00:50:14scored 15 plus points, which again, great to see
00:50:18from this team and great to see from these guys.
00:50:20The balance, I think, was there.
00:50:22And you felt it.
00:50:23You felt it all night long.
00:50:24So that was definitely good stuff.
00:50:27A couple of people in the chat are jumping in here
00:50:29with a couple of things.
00:50:30And I did want to touch on this.
00:50:31I don't have the numbers there.
00:50:34And Sam Houser didn't do much, only 14 minutes.
00:50:38He only played four in the first half.
00:50:40He was prime cheerleader on the bench, really into the game,
00:50:43but didn't get a lot of run in this.
00:50:46But sneaky, sneaky, Sam Houser is all of a sudden
00:50:50hitting threes again and at a pretty damn good clip now.
00:50:56And again, I don't have the entire numbers on it.
00:50:59But just for the month of January, he's back to 40%.
00:51:05So he's up over 40 for January from three, which is great.
00:51:09And we were worried about him.
00:51:11And we shouldn't be.
00:51:13And I think he was around there for December also.
00:51:15It hasn't been bad.
00:51:19Two or three in this game, two or four,
00:51:21had that five of seven game recently
00:51:24against LA and Golden State here.
00:51:27So again, on this trip, really, really, really,
00:51:30really good from Houser.
00:51:31And let me do the math real quick here.
00:51:33We're looking at four, eight, 12, 12 from 20.
00:51:3612 from 20 on this road trip from Houser from three.
00:51:40So you got to definitely feel good about that
00:51:42because this is a, you look at last year's concerns entering
00:51:50the year, bench, right?
00:51:53And then Houser played really well.
00:51:56And you got some decent contributions from Pritchard.
00:52:00And you felt good.
00:52:01Then this year, all of a sudden, Pritchard's six man of the year
00:52:03just haven't seen much from Houser.
00:52:05If Houser gets anywhere near back to where he was last year,
00:52:07that's a huge thing.
00:52:09It is.
00:52:10It is.
00:52:11It is.
00:52:11It's a huge thing.
00:52:12And he's trending in the right direction.
00:52:14I mean, if you start looking at his three point shooting month
00:52:17by month, October, he was less than 30%.
00:52:19November, he was about 35%, I believe.
00:52:23And in December, he was over 40%.
00:52:25And he's over 40% now.
00:52:27So he's clearly looking more and more like the same Houser
00:52:31we knew from last season.
00:52:32And a lot of that, I think, is kind of quite obvious.
00:52:35This is health.
00:52:36He hasn't been nearly as healthy this year as he was a year ago.
00:52:39And it looks like he's starting to be
00:52:42a little bit more consistent in terms of not just
00:52:44his availability, but his availability at a high level
00:52:47to do the things that he's literally paid to do,
00:52:50which is knock down shots.
00:52:51So my only concern with Sam is his health.
00:52:54Because if he's healthy enough to go out there and play
00:52:57his game, that is going to be a major boon for the Celtics.
00:53:00Yeah, and it wouldn't be fair.
00:53:03And again, Bobby Manning might be in an ER somewhere.
00:53:07I'm not entirely sure.
00:53:09I don't think so because he was tweeting about this game.
00:53:12But he'd lose our minds if we didn't talk about Luke.
00:53:15This was, look, Luke was, Luke mattered today.
00:53:20Luke was good.
00:53:21Luke was murdered today also.
00:53:24That was a 20 out of 10 dunk.
00:53:27That was an unbelievable facial by Grimes.
00:53:33Was it Grimes?
00:53:34Yeah.
00:53:34Oh my god.
00:53:36But Luke was good.
00:53:38And again, the plus 21, this was no joke.
00:53:40The Luke minutes were winning minutes, nine rebounds,
00:53:42five friggin' assists from Luke.
00:53:45The two blocks he was contesting all night,
00:53:47he was really competitive.
00:53:49This was, yeah.
00:53:51This was a good Luke game.
00:53:52Yeah, this was the highlight reel.
00:53:54And yeah, he had almost a late in the clock
00:53:57step back from the elbow when he had no choice but to shoot it.
00:54:00So yeah.
00:54:01Yeah, and obviously, Luke, he didn't shoot the ball
00:54:04particularly well, but he did so many other little things
00:54:06for the Celtics to get this win.
00:54:08His playmaking, his rebounding, and really,
00:54:11rebounding in traffic.
00:54:12I mean, it wasn't as if he was just grabbing long rebounds
00:54:15where no one is near him.
00:54:16He was actually going up and holding his own
00:54:19in the trees, so to speak.
00:54:21This is what they need from Luke.
00:54:22The thing about Luke, he has to find
00:54:25ways to contribute other than just setting great screens.
00:54:28Whether it's rebounding, passing the ball,
00:54:30getting a bucket every now and then,
00:54:31but do something that you can statistically
00:54:34put your cap on and say, this is what Luke
00:54:36brought to the table tonight.
00:54:38And I think we're starting to see him do more and more of that.
00:54:41And for those who are wondering, well, why now?
00:54:44What's changed?
00:54:45I got one word for you.
00:54:47Kata.
00:54:48He's got a guy that's gunning for his minutes, who
00:54:51is showing he can do some things that he can't quite do,
00:54:54and vice versa.
00:54:56So if you're Luke, you have every reason and every incentive
00:54:59to step your game up.
00:55:00And I think he's done a really good job of that of late.
00:55:03I like this comment.
00:55:05Knocked the lemon squares right out of him.
00:55:10Oh, Luke, lemon square.
00:55:13He was good tonight.
00:55:14It was good.
00:55:15Look at the stat.
00:55:16Again, everyone's focusing on the run.
00:55:18Not everyone.
00:55:19People are saying two points, whatever.
00:55:21The nine rebounds, Luke doesn't rebound.
00:55:24When Luke rebounds, Luke two blocks.
00:55:27That's, what's the knock on Luke?
00:55:29He's seven feet, but doesn't play like seven feet,
00:55:30except when he catches it around the rim
00:55:32and has a nice little deft touch there.
00:55:35Then he's seven feet tall, but he's not
00:55:36playing big on the other end.
00:55:39Nine rebounds.
00:55:41I think six were defensive.
00:55:43Three offensive rebounds.
00:55:44Again, really, really good game.
00:55:46And we didn't mention it, but another factor
00:55:49tonight's game is the 17 offensive rebounds,
00:55:52or whatever they ended up with, were insane.
00:55:54Some of those were a little fluky on the long threes.
00:55:57They were getting a few of those.
00:55:59But other than that, others, they battled.
00:56:04Yeah, they battled and they got them.
00:56:0517 offensive rebounds was really impressive tonight here,
00:56:10because I know, again, Dallas is missing lively.
00:56:12But that was great.
00:56:14That was great.
00:56:15Nick is proud of himself that he's awake tonight.
00:56:19Nick, it's only 9.
00:56:20It was a 5.30 game.
00:56:22It's 9 o'clock, buddy.
00:56:24It's not that crazy.
00:56:27This was late for Nick.
00:56:30He can't believe it.
00:56:32Nick hasn't seen 9.30 in I don't know how long.
00:56:36He's really doing it tonight.
00:56:37Proud of you, buddy.
00:56:39So yeah, we'll give our flowers to Luke as well.
00:56:41Celtics do return home again.
00:56:43And I know everyone is going to start on the trade deadline
00:56:50stuff.
00:56:50We're not going to get into that yet,
00:56:53because I think it's kind of pointless.
00:56:55But heading into that All-Star break
00:56:57might be a nice little reset for them as well.
00:57:00So I think that that would be all right.
00:57:04Yeah, Nick, we know.
00:57:05You're up at 4.30.
00:57:08The techs come flying in early.
00:57:12They do.
00:57:13But again, yeah, Celtics have a little stretch here.
00:57:16And let's look at what's ahead.
00:57:17We're looking at Houston on Monday.
00:57:20It's a four-game week again, I think.
00:57:22Chicago, when we saw them have a tough time with Chicago
00:57:27recently, then they're off to New Orleans, Philly
00:57:30with a game coming up next in a week,
00:57:33about nine days against Cleveland.
00:57:35That should be fun.
00:57:36For those people out there, I'm not saying it's happening yet.
00:57:43But it's closing a little, a little, a little right now
00:57:48on the Cavs.
00:57:49They're still six back in the loss column.
00:57:51But Cleveland was losing tonight.
00:57:53It's closer, 89-80.
00:57:55They were down close to 20 points earlier against Houston.
00:57:58It'd be interesting if they can whittle that thing down.
00:58:01A lot of people have given up hope on that one seed.
00:58:03It'd be interesting if they can whittle that thing down
00:58:05to two or three games heading into the All-Star break.
00:58:08I think that that would be a different story altogether.
00:58:11But yeah, an interesting stretch of games.
00:58:13We'll be back with it, with all the Garden reports,
00:58:17again, starting on Monday.
00:58:19But again, as far as tonight goes,
00:58:21the Celtics do defeat the Dallas Mavericks 32-14.
00:58:25We're not going to be hearing from Noah tonight,
00:58:27but that's all right.
00:58:28There'll be more stuff coming on our channel
00:58:30later from Noah and from the Celtics locker room.
00:58:33So you definitely want to subscribe to that
00:58:37and for more Celtics content throughout.
00:58:40And we'll be back on Monday as well.
00:58:43Enjoy your weekend, the rest of your weekend.
00:58:47For those of you out there, if you haven't already,
00:58:49check out PrizePicks.
00:58:50You want to get involved.
00:58:51It's not just football, but football's super fun.
00:58:53And we know a lot of you guys like to play around there.
00:58:55So again, download that PrizePicks app.
00:58:58Play five, get 50 instantly.
00:59:00If you're looking to go to any games, right here,
00:59:04game time is the place to be.
00:59:05Download that app, create an account,
00:59:07use code CLNS, $20 off your first purchase.
00:59:10Terms do apply.
00:59:11That is Sherrod Blakely.
00:59:13We want to thank Nick Jelso for jumping on and adding
00:59:15a little bit of spice and life and boomerism
00:59:18and valuable insight.
00:59:20Nick's not just a pretty face.
00:59:23He knows basketball.
00:59:24He knows what he's talking about.
00:59:26But he plays his role well.
00:59:29So yeah, thank you very much to Nick.
00:59:31Thanks to Sherrod.
00:59:32Thank you to all of you guys.
00:59:33Apologies to Andrew.
00:59:34I'm sorry.
00:59:35I didn't mean to pop off like that.
00:59:36I was getting, I don't think I'm unfair to Jalen.
00:59:39I think Jalen deserves some of the criticism that came his way.
00:59:42But he frustrates me like no other player.
00:59:44I can't, I don't know why that is.
00:59:46I don't know why it is.
00:59:48I find him, he just, he gets me.
00:59:50We all have that one.
00:59:52We have that one.
00:59:52He gets me.
00:59:54There's always something.
00:59:55But when he's great, he's great.
00:59:57And so, yeah, thank you guys again
00:59:58for hanging out and watching.
01:00:00We will see you on Monday.
01:00:01No one's sneaking a vegan brownie by me,
01:00:03I'll tell you that.
01:00:04Okay, you know what, John?
01:00:05I'm gonna do it.
01:00:05You have to feel that way too, Bobby.
01:00:07I have to feel that way?
01:00:08Let's slide out over and make Luke your first center.
01:00:11Bobby, we gave you Luke an hour earlier.
01:00:13We're not gonna end this on a damn conversation about Luke.
01:00:25We're not gonna end this on a damn conversation about Luke.