The Boston Celtics have all but locked up the first seed in the east. We break down which Eastern Conference opponents matchup well with the Celtics...and which teams don't.
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Check out last week's underrated plays vid: https://youtu.be/tAVippsZXts
️Subscribe to the podcast: https://podcasts.apple.com/au/podcast/first-to-the-floor-a-boston-celtics-podcast/
Follow us on Instagram: https://www.instagram.com/firsttothefloor18/
Watch live Celtics games with us: https://playback.tv/celticsblog
Check out Spooney's latest column on CelticsBlog: https://bit.ly/3UCITHv
JOIN OUR DISCORD SERVER: https://discord.gg/H75UWjmtya
Please LIKE this video and SUBSCRIBE to the channel!
#bostonceltics
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SportsTranscript
00:00:00 [MUSIC]
00:00:10 Wayne Spooney here with First to the Floor. I am riddled with COVID here, so I apologize.
00:00:29 I will try to keep the sniffling to a minimum, but I've got my guy Jake Eisenberg here with me.
00:00:34 What's up, Jake? You've got your Jake here with you.
00:00:37 It's the brain fog, man. The COVID brain fog. You had it. You had it right. No, we're good.
00:00:44 Apologies for the three minute delay for everybody watching live to get my toilet to stop running.
00:00:50 We're on water tanks where I live, and we ran out of water. We got a delivery of water,
00:00:56 so I have water again, which is great. But now I'm hypervigilant. I'm like,
00:01:00 "This thing's got to stop immediately. I'm not paying for water. It's ridiculous."
00:01:05 Anyway, we're here. One more day, Spooney. And the boys are back.
00:01:10 We're back, finally. And we're going to jump into it here, a couple of good things that Jake
00:01:15 completely came up with that I'm riding the back of. But real quick, before we dive in,
00:01:20 like and subscribe, please, please. We just hit 3,000 subs, which is really awesome.
00:01:25 Oh, yeah, dude. Thank you, everybody.
00:01:26 Yes. Thank you so much. We appreciate the support. We appreciate the comments.
00:01:31 We appreciate the likes. Please keep them coming. Now on to 5K. Playbacks are back for the month of
00:01:38 March. So CelticsBlogPlayback.tv/CelticsBlog. Jake and a rotating cast of who's who of Celtics
00:01:48 blog writers and first of the floor guys will be in there. So definitely check those out for every
00:01:53 single Celtics game. Playback.TV/CelticsBlog. And then I have a big piece coming out on Jalen
00:02:01 Brown's defense and whether he deserves to be all NBA defense. I think drop in tomorrow. So
00:02:06 definitely check that out. So, OK, the meat of this episode, we are going to rank our Eastern
00:02:12 Conference fear rankings for the playoffs. Nobody cares. The regular season's over as far as I'm
00:02:17 concerned. Right. Seriously. Yeah, this is just the runway. But first, I think what makes the most
00:02:23 sense is let's talk about what it is the formula is to beat the Celtics and then we can jump into
00:02:31 the fear rankings and say, hey, what teams do this best or why are we scared of this team?
00:02:35 So real quick, Jake, before I toss to a couple quick stats in losses, the Celtics defensive
00:02:41 rebound percent 70.7 in wins 73.4. So a pretty big split there. And the Celtics are 23 and four
00:02:50 when the opponent shoots 35 percent or worse from three. So two big things for me, rebounding and
00:02:57 the other team's got to make shots. OK, OK. I love that. All right. I didn't do a statistical
00:03:03 analysis of how to beat the Celtics, but my mantra is always can you short circuit Celtics offense?
00:03:14 And that's obviously the Celtics of the past. The last couple of years has that's been their
00:03:21 downfall, has been especially late crunch time against Miami game, game four against Golden State.
00:03:30 That's been where the Celtics fall. It's like if you can't stop them, this is why the Bucs
00:03:36 have always struggled with this Celtics matchup, because they have not they just don't have
00:03:39 answers for the Jays on the wing. So for me, it's like, can you bring out the bad habits of the
00:03:46 Celtics, get them back into attacking bad matchups, get them into turning the ball over a lot?
00:03:52 That's how Miami has been able to beat them in in years past. So those that's the lens for me,
00:03:58 the way I'm looking at it as I look at which teams I prefer not to play,
00:04:02 which teams I would prefer to play as we go forward here.
00:04:05 Yeah, and I think like part of that, too, is like getting an offensive rebound,
00:04:11 getting additional possessions, turning them over short circuits the offense, too,
00:04:16 because it just keeps the ball out of the offense's hand. Right. And I was surprised,
00:04:21 actually, the turnover percentage is basically unchanged in wins and losses, but it's actually
00:04:26 still pretty high. It's like over twelve and a half percent. So they're going to they're going
00:04:31 to give you the ball, right? They're going to give you extra possessions and you got to just
00:04:36 get shots up on the other end when you're playing offense against this incredible elite Celtics
00:04:42 defense and attack the glass and make your shots. But frankly, there's just not a lot like it's
00:04:48 really hard to figure out ways how to beat this team, dude, because it seems like especially with
00:04:52 KP now, they just have answers for everything. And you're right, like short circuit the offense.
00:04:56 But that's really hard to do with Porzingis. Oh, so on the on the turnover percentage,
00:05:01 right. So twelve point four and losses, twelve point six and wins like that's that's good,
00:05:05 though, right? Like that's not it's pretty good. I think that's that's fifth in the NBA.
00:05:10 From what I'm OK. All right. I thought it was like 10th. OK, I'm pretty sure. Yeah,
00:05:16 that's fifth. All right. Right now, because I'm pretty sure I looked at that recently and I was
00:05:20 like, OK, the turnover numbers are actually pretty good. So but yeah, that's what I think. Yeah,
00:05:26 the offensive rebounding, I can see PJ Tucker right now just like grabbing offensive rebounds
00:05:30 in their Miami series and flying in. And obviously that's been an issue lately. I don't think I'm not
00:05:37 super concerned about it long term just because of the way that they're getting rebound and
00:05:43 the teams that they play. I don't see it being a massive issue outside of potentially New York
00:05:49 as an offensive rebounding team. But when they're locked in, they've been a really good
00:05:53 defensive rebounding team still. They're at sixth on the season and they're like mid-teens
00:06:00 over the last kind of 10 games when it started to slip, which I think will come back. Yeah,
00:06:05 there was like a three week stretch there where they were like 25th in defensive rebounding,
00:06:09 which is just effort. It's that crazy January schedule. Like that's not a long term issue.
00:06:14 Everybody rebounds. Tatum's an incredible defensive rebounder for his position.
00:06:18 Both the guards are really solid and JV is a solid defensive rebounder. So I'm not super worried
00:06:24 about that. I am always and will always be worried about like the, oh, it's a tie game. You force a
00:06:31 bad shot with 45 seconds left and then they get the offensive route. But that happens to everybody.
00:06:36 That's not like a fault. Yeah. Dude, I mean, like look at the Timberwolves overtime win.
00:06:40 Derek White, Tatum misses the second free throw. Derek White comes in, gets a rebound and we win.
00:06:46 And Jalen's been really good in like some clutch offensive rebounding moments as well. And I
00:06:51 actually haven't had like offensive rebound percentage this year to last year. I don't know
00:06:56 that's changed that much. I know they're 18th this year. I don't know. It feels like Tatum's been
00:07:01 doing a little bit more where like he'll go in for like a floater or something and he'll really
00:07:06 fight to get the second miss lately. I would like to see that be something that they kind of maybe
00:07:12 try a little bit in the playoffs as well. But all right. Who wants the first pick here? We're
00:07:17 going to do this draft style of who we're most scared of or who we're, I guess I'll ask you this.
00:07:24 Are you scared of anyone? I feel like I'm going to think back when we get eliminated from the
00:07:33 playoffs and like the Eastern Conference finals and be like, I was such a dumb ass for saying
00:07:37 this, but not in the East. Not really do. Yeah. I feel like we match up with everybody really well.
00:07:45 And a lot of these teams have some, like some of the teams we'll talk about have some weird
00:07:50 injury stuff going on or they're like young and haven't done it before. Or they just have like
00:07:56 really glaring weaknesses that you can exploit. And that's probably the best thing you can say
00:08:00 about the self-censors just like Tatum and that it flows from him being so versatile,
00:08:06 having no weaknesses that you just build a team around them that also has no weaknesses. So
00:08:11 there's not anyone that I'm like, Oh no, we got those dudes in the second round. We're screwed.
00:08:16 How about you? There's only one and that's more of an existential. Okay. You take first pick.
00:08:24 It's still Miami to me, man. It's still Miami to me. And we're going to touch on everybody and
00:08:32 why maybe they should be higher than Miami. And I went back and forth on this, but like,
00:08:36 how do you get Miami? How do you get the Celtics? I mean, to do their dumb stuff. And
00:08:43 I just don't see the personnel on any of these other teams. I mean, the Knicks were going to get
00:08:49 too defensively that I think can give the Celtics trouble as well with some guys. And you've doing
00:08:54 this piece on Jalen Brown's defense. And I don't think like the, the offenses of these other East
00:09:00 teams. I don't like Jalen Brown could be really elite defensively against simple, simple offenses.
00:09:07 Like Jalen Brunson is going to be picking role. It's going to be a lot of Giannis coming downhill.
00:09:11 Like while we saw Jalen play awesome defense last year against the sixes, it's like, we know what
00:09:17 they're doing. They're not like Miami. What do they do? It's all the handoff stuff. It's cuts.
00:09:23 It's guys flying around screens. It's really, it's really, really like efficient. It's complicated.
00:09:30 And that's where Jalen Brown can like get lost off ball. And like of the guys on the Celtics,
00:09:35 he's really the only one where I have that, have that concern. Aussie field. Yeah. Nah, Jake,
00:09:41 that Miami is off. Miami's off our back. Monkeys off our back. It's not until we do it in the
00:09:45 playoffs. Like we beat them in the regular season last year as well. And like looking at like
00:09:51 looking at their stats, right. It's just not, it's just, it's useless. On the season, net rating
00:09:57 18th, last 15 games, net rating 20th. It's like the same shit. Defense is top 10 though.
00:10:03 Eighth in the last 15, eighth on the season. And their offense is in the twenties again. It's like,
00:10:09 they have this ability to get hot. They just, they have the types of shoes, like the offense,
00:10:14 like whether it's Duncan Robinson to be, but we can kind of do his thing. I'm like, again,
00:10:19 I'm with you. Like, I really would be, I'd be confident going in to a heat series, but I just
00:10:26 know the Spodevil Magic, he's the only coach in the NBA really that I'm like, he can cook some
00:10:33 stuff up. But with a healthy Porzingis, it's very clear that their weaknesses are going to be
00:10:40 massively mitigated by having him. And like the, the BAM situation on how destructive he can be.
00:10:46 He just really neutralized with Porzingis, whether it's BAM on Porzingis and the spacing concern or
00:10:54 the switching offense. And now if you're going to switch BAM onto Tatum or Jalen,
00:10:58 they're like, just not going at him. They're just going to throw it to the Latvian guy. It's like,
00:11:03 even on BAM, he's able to like, to do it. So obviously health is a massive,
00:11:07 massive piece of all of this, but Miami for me still is the number one team.
00:11:14 Okay. So I don't necessarily disagree with Miami being number one. It's probably who I would have
00:11:22 taken if we see Miami, I want them in the first round for a couple of reasons. One,
00:11:27 we won't have any playoff mileage on us at all. And I think that's part of why Miami has been so
00:11:34 difficult to play these last couple of years. It's just always in the Eastern conference finals,
00:11:39 we're running tight benches like that bubble year, we were going like six and a half deep.
00:11:44 They were worn, they were worn down last year. I mean, Tatum rolls his ankle and they just did
00:11:49 some dumb stuff, but it's just like Miami beats you up. They play really physical.
00:11:53 And after a six game series in a seven game series, like that's really difficult to play.
00:11:58 And I just want them to like, get that monkey off their back immediately. Not including the
00:12:05 calves guy. Come on, we'll get to the calves, but so I, but I think Porzingis just changes the
00:12:11 calculus on both sides of the ball so much that I just think we match up so much better against
00:12:18 them this year. And they, they've lost a lot of talent, man. Like Lowry for his faults is really
00:12:23 annoying. He gets into passing lanes, he gets into your handle, he takes charges and he has,
00:12:28 makes big threes. He's gone. Vincent's gone. Max Struess is gone. And I know like, they just pluck
00:12:34 these guys out of like high school somewhere, like G-league teams. And they're like, Oh,
00:12:39 this guy's like a really solid role player, but that's a lot of very good NBA talent. That's no
00:12:44 longer on the team. I mean, Lowery is a shell of himself, so whatever, but compared to their team
00:12:48 last year and like their two best players need to score in the paint. And we've never like when Rob
00:12:57 Williams is on like one leg, he's still like a good rim protector. But the one year we beat them
00:13:03 was when we had a healthy Rob Williams. He could shut down the paint and it stabilized.
00:13:07 Like half the series. Yeah. Yeah. For half the series. Right. And even when you look at the
00:13:12 on-offs against the Warriors, when we had like a halfway healthy Rob Williams, he's like a massive
00:13:16 positive. So with KP's rim protection, I think that really limits a lot of what Bam and Jimmy
00:13:21 can do getting downhill, getting into the paint. And then we can just switch everything out on the
00:13:25 perimeter. They're going to be tough. They're going to be difficult, but I think we could wrap
00:13:30 that up in like five or six. And I just think let's just get it over with in the first round
00:13:35 and go from there. So I, again, I don't necessarily disagree, but I think of the
00:13:41 teams that like have the karmic ability to really do like go to another level. They look like they,
00:13:47 to me, are the team that can do it. But yeah, if I'm, I don't hate the idea of playing them in the
00:13:52 first round. I think this is the Eric Weiss theory as well. Yeah. Right on, right on cue here in the
00:13:56 chat. How many times have the Celtics like done the thing specifically the last playoffs where
00:14:01 they like clearly weren't as focused as they should have been. Philly game one being maybe
00:14:07 like a top of that list with no M bead and like Harden has that game winner. If they play Miami
00:14:11 in game one, you can guarantee they're going to be fucking ready to go. And they're going to be
00:14:15 locked in because they know what this team can do. So that's like, and if they're locked in against
00:14:20 Miami in a, in a first round series, when they're fresh and Miami's fighting every day, every,
00:14:24 every game, like in the lead up to the playoffs, they're going to have that advantage. So there's
00:14:30 absolutely something to that as well. But yeah, again, it kind of goes back to like, I do think
00:14:35 there's a re as there's a world where the Celtics cakewalk the East. And if you're not in the
00:14:39 discord, we were just talking about this before we hopped on here. Like the Celtics right now are
00:14:45 a tier above everybody else in, in the Eastern conference on the season. First net rating first,
00:14:52 I didn't realize they'd moved it to first offense, offensive rating for the season because the paces
00:14:56 have dipped a little bit because of the Halliburton injury, but like they're first in the NBA and
00:15:01 offense for the whole season. Dude. Like that's, that's nuts. And we're not even shooting the three
00:15:08 like that. Well, we're yeah. We're eighth from three this season. So like good, but not like,
00:15:14 Oh, well they're shooting unsustainably hot from three. That's why they're the first offense. So
00:15:19 yeah. Like this offense is absolutely cooking, man. And KP just gives us so many options against
00:15:23 the heat defense, but should I pick my team here? Yeah, you go. Okay. I'm between two. If you told
00:15:30 me if you're a Sixers fan, for some reason, watching this, if you told me MB was going to be
00:15:34 a hundred percent healthy, I would probably take a Sixers. I guess it's between three, but that's
00:15:42 why I'm not going to pick that because I think even if he comes back, like, like, I think I said
00:15:47 it, you know, a couple of weeks ago, like he can't get in shape when he has an entire season to ramp
00:15:52 up. There's no way this dude is going to be in playoff shape if he has like two weeks to play
00:15:56 before. So I think I'm going to go with the Knicks and I don't really, I'm not like super
00:16:03 worried about beating the Knicks. I think there'll be really annoying to play against. Like this is
00:16:08 where the offensive rebounding really comes into play. Mitchell Robinson, Hart and Steen, Josh
00:16:12 Hart is a great rebounder for a guard too. Like he's always crashing the glass. My guy, Deuce
00:16:17 McBride. I know he's going to hit a couple like stupid. Is he gone now? No, no, no. Deuce is still
00:16:22 there. They traded Quentin Grimes, Grimes, Grimes. That's right. Sorry. Yeah. Thank God.
00:16:26 Whoa, whoa, whoa. Pump the brakes. Come on. My dude. Yeah. They're not trading Deuce. He's a
00:16:31 foundational piece, but so, and I just think like Brunson is probably good for a game where he
00:16:37 basically just like hits a bunch of shots. He has no business hitting. And I mean, we've talked about
00:16:42 a bunch, neither of us believe in Julius Randall, but they got guys to throw at the Jays. They got
00:16:47 Ananoby. They got Josh Hart who like, I don't think can stop the Jays, but if it's one of those
00:16:53 like scuffy games where the refs let them get handsy and play extra physical, then he probably
00:16:58 can do a decent job. Brunson's obviously great. And then, you know, they got legit rim protection
00:17:05 and we can attack that with KP, but if KP is like a little bit cold for a couple of games
00:17:10 and they can just park Mitchell Robinson in the paint, I think they could give us some problems.
00:17:16 The Knicks were third on my list. So not far away here. I absolutely understand the concerns here.
00:17:23 And obviously OG Ananoby, the idea of him can be quite scary. What's great about this Celtics
00:17:31 team is they've been really purposeful about not attacking the wrong myth, like matchup. And it's
00:17:36 like, I understand, oh man, he could give Tatum trouble. Firstly, historically Tatum's actually
00:17:41 done pretty well against OG. Like he hasn't been a guy that's given him a ton of trouble. I'm sure
00:17:46 there'd be a game or two where he could give Tatum some trouble. No question. One of the best
00:17:50 defenders in the world. But this team won't just attack OG Ananoby, Tatum, Isos, as it's not going
00:17:58 to be the offensive game plan. That's not going to go to that. I find, I just have a hard time
00:18:04 believing that a team led by a six foot one guard as their best player is going to be the team that
00:18:12 beats the Celtics. But again, going back to the lens of how do you beat the Celtics, the offensive
00:18:16 rebounding, the defense, like of the teams in the East that can really guard, the Knicks are the
00:18:23 best outside of the Celtics. Right? Like the Cavs statistically are always good, especially in the
00:18:30 regular season. But if you have Garland and Mitchell, we're going to get to, and the Shrews,
00:18:37 like just not enough perimeter guys to really hang with the Jays. And then the rim protection,
00:18:42 the thing I'll say about the rim protection, there are certain guys that Tatum is comfortable
00:18:47 attacking as a rim protectors and some that he's not. And going back to the opening night with
00:18:53 Mitchell Robinson, he had some really nice drives just attacking him. And he is a guy that he seems
00:18:59 comfortable attacking. So, and again, as we're saying, we're not necessarily super scared of
00:19:04 these guys, but I think having the Knicks high on this list, a team that can be really physical,
00:19:09 you know, the Celtics, not the toughest team ever. I think that's fair to say. And, and so like a
00:19:17 team that's going to be coached by Tibbs, they're going to like just be insanely tough. So that's a
00:19:25 great, that's a great, great choice of team. Yeah. Well, and, but also I think like part,
00:19:29 so the Knicks six best vet rating this season, their fifth in the last 15 games, I think that
00:19:33 was like first or second for a while. And they've been hit with injuries the last like couple of
00:19:37 weeks here, but once they got OG, they were really took off. They were like 15 and one at some point.
00:19:43 But we have guards. So Brunson can really kill you in the mid range against drop,
00:19:49 which we obviously drop a ton with KP, but most teams don't have Derek white and true holiday.
00:19:54 And even kind of Pritchard's gotten pretty good at like getting over the screen rear view contest
00:19:59 thing, or KP just comes up high enough to slow it down. So he can't get a shot off. Then the guard
00:20:03 comes back and recovers. So we just have the personnel to guard Brunson better than any team
00:20:08 in the NBA, like full stop. And frankly, it's probably not that close. So yeah, I I'm not
00:20:13 really worried that I think it's like heat and then a bunch of other teams that you could make
00:20:18 a decent argument argument for it too. Yeah. Look, and if Brunson, like, is he going to really
00:20:26 beat the Celtics over a series by going nuclear in the mid range? I've probably not. So these are
00:20:32 the Brunson stats against the Celtics this season, six for 21 opening night, eight for 10 for 21,
00:20:38 pretty like pretty solid. And then eight for 17. Like he's going to just have to be better than
00:20:44 that to have a chance. Right. And the Julius Randall piece of it, I mean, I just, I just,
00:20:51 I just don't, he's a bum. I like I'm I'd be more, I'm like scared because he's going to hurt
00:20:56 someone. Yeah. Yeah. He's going to like Ram Tatum into like the, the basket or something like that
00:21:02 and knock him out. But yeah, other than that, no Randall does not scare me. I can just picture
00:21:07 like seven step back threes that barely catch Ram or something like that as like next fans are going
00:21:12 ballistic on Twitter, but all right, next one, is it, are we doing snake draft or we go, we might
00:21:18 as well go straight up. It's not like we're playing these two playing each other. I say,
00:21:22 I say we can. But no, I think, I think it's a, I think it's my turn here. And I, I was tossing up
00:21:30 Knicks and, and this team, but the box I have next and I get that they're a disaster. I get it.
00:21:37 But Giannis is a machine. Like, I don't think he's getting anywhere near enough credit for how
00:21:46 insane he is this season. Like he's covering up for so many issues. Dame has been bad,
00:21:52 like injury stuff. They only have four players that can really start as like real contender
00:21:57 level rotation guys, like crowd is their fifth guy on some nights it's Conninson, whatever.
00:22:02 Giannis has been so good. And so just like, but he's going to be clearly the best player in a
00:22:08 series and you know, the Celtics got him well. So like, and again, I'm not worried about the
00:22:15 box generally, but that's a guy that can go. Nuclear is very, is special. Going to go down
00:22:21 as like a top 20 top, whatever guy of all time. But I mean, this is actually, you know what,
00:22:27 this is probably a good time to cue this bad boy up. One second.
00:22:29 Tara, I cannot believe.
00:22:55 The box and Doc Rivers, man. I mean, what a, what a weekend for them, dude. I mean,
00:23:02 I've got a, I've got a tweet here from a man, dragon fly. Jane's babe. Wake up. Doc Rivers
00:23:12 said he doesn't even know why Milwaukee hired him. Then JJ Reddick said all doc does is make
00:23:17 excuses. Then Austin Reeves defended doc. Who's his dad. But that was a bit of a surprise because
00:23:21 they have a strained relationship. Then March and Gortek quote, teed the JJ quotes with a checkmark.
00:23:26 It's just like, what is going on with the box? Dude. It's like every day, every day doc has a
00:23:32 new quote about how, like, he didn't really want to coach the team. He's like, I really wanted to
00:23:37 start coaching the team after the all-star break. It's like, ah, I thought this is a lot harder
00:23:42 than I thought it was going to be in like doc has clearly his own coaching concerns, but I don't
00:23:51 care who's coaching this team, dude. There's like real roster concerns with this team. And Giannis
00:23:58 is papering over so much of it. And the irony of Dame winning the three point contest and the
00:24:04 all-star MVP amidst having like his worst season in a while and looking like he is potentially
00:24:12 cooked is incredibly ironic. And then he has that viral tweet about naming his five favorite,
00:24:18 his go-to starting five and leaves Giannis off the five. It's just like, it doesn't stop.
00:24:24 And we made the, I think I've made the comparison. This team reminds me of the 18-19 Celtics. This
00:24:30 reminds me of the Kyrie Celtics, the team that lost to the Bucks ironically in the second round,
00:24:36 where like it was impossible to quit this team. Like every couple of weeks, the Celtics would
00:24:41 have this monster win. Overtime W against the Raptors comes to mind, like Kyrie going head to
00:24:47 head against Kawhi and they win. End up winning 48 games. But you just couldn't quit them because
00:24:54 like they had the talent. They were so deep and like all the warning signs were there. The every,
00:25:01 the vibes were terrible. It was clear that no one was happy. We had the, but then we had the
00:25:04 beautiful Kumbaya plane trip across to LA where Kyrie gave a speech and that healed us for like
00:25:10 a week or two. And like Nathan Marzion, the king of Bucks Twitter came back at me and said, "The
00:25:16 difference between this team is Giannis gives this team a higher floor and Dame's not Kyrie."
00:25:22 Whatever. I was like, well, Kyrie is actually a lot better than Dame.
00:25:24 Yeah. That version of Kyrie is way better than this version of Dame, dude.
00:25:28 And that version of the Celtics was really deep, like 10 plus deep. Like this Bucks team is,
00:25:33 is thin as hell. So all that to say, it sounds like I should have them a lot lower on my list here.
00:25:42 But, but I still with Giannis, I have them, have them at three.
00:25:46 Yeah. So I was because of Embiid and we just don't know what's doing. That's who I was picking
00:25:51 between was the Bucks and the Knicks. And I think you just have to, and like, look,
00:25:55 I've been spending a lot of time on Bucks Reddit and it is very fun. And like, dude, you're right.
00:26:01 It's like the stuff they're saying about the team sounds exactly. I'm sure you could like verbatim
00:26:07 find some Reddit quotes of me being like, they'll put it together, man. Like give them till the all
00:26:12 star break to figure it out. And it's like, just stopped. Like it just stays the same the entire
00:26:18 season. And you're right. There's tantalizing. Like they turned up against the Celtics. They
00:26:22 looked like world beaters against the extremely tired Celtics team that didn't show up, but Hey,
00:26:27 like Dame went off, man. Like, well, he could do that in a playoff series, but.
00:26:31 Well, they beat the, they beat the Nuggets. Like it's like they had their best win of the
00:26:34 season. They blow out the Nuggets and they come back and they get blown out by the fucking
00:26:38 Grizzlies. It's like this. Yeah. Yeah. Which was a very fun game to watch, man. Like that was,
00:26:43 that fed me, man. Uh, so yeah, I, I just like, they don't who guards Jalen Brown and Jason Tatum
00:26:51 on this like Pat Connerton and Jay Crowder, Chris Middleton. Yeah. Pat Bev, I guess maybe
00:26:59 like Middleton has looked better than I anticipated offensively, but that dude is just not like a
00:27:06 wing stopper anymore. Like he's just not that guy defensively anymore. And the Jays kind of
00:27:10 had their way with him a lot, even when he was two years younger in that run to the finals.
00:27:15 I mean, they were, they were crossing Middleton or Middleton, not that year, um, that season,
00:27:21 but not the playoffs rather. Yes. Yes. Yeah. Every time he's played since. Yeah. Yeah.
00:27:27 They, they, they've been cooking, like even before the year that they, they beat the box in the,
00:27:30 in the second round, but Middleton didn't play like all the games in the regular season. They
00:27:35 always, there's a, there's a stat that I love. It's like the last 17 games that the Celtics
00:27:42 have played against the box. The Celtics shoot like 39, 40% from three. And it's like,
00:27:46 that's a monster sample size against one team. And that's, that's like a variety of things. Now
00:27:51 it's, it's one of those things where like, it's like a self-fulfilling prophecy, which is why
00:27:54 I don't want to play the heat. It's like the Celtics have confidence against the box. They
00:27:58 know they can cook anyone out there. They're going to get open shots. Everybody knocks like, um, the,
00:28:03 the game they lost in overtime where everybody sat, uh, last year and like Derek White and Sam
00:28:09 Howser go to overtime and they, they lose it. Grant Williams get like with Scarlett, Grant
00:28:13 Williams gets a ball swung to him on the wing, wide open. He pumped fakes and dribbles off his
00:28:17 foot. They lose the game. Uh, but like that, like we just have confidence to get that team.
00:28:22 Sam Howser gets the, uh, the Wisconsin or, or a boost by, by being in his hometown on the road
00:28:28 against those guys. But you just get a generate open threes against those guys. And the Celtics
00:28:33 have confidence against his team to knock him down. But again, Giannis. So there's me.
00:28:39 Yeah, I I'm with you. And yeah, like Giannis should definitely be like even odds with Jokic
00:28:45 and the MVP, like even defensively, he's covering up a ton for them to like, they got the, like the
00:28:49 seventh best defensive rating in the NBA. Like there's no reason that team should be anywhere
00:28:55 near top 10 on defense. So, um, in the last, in the last, in the last 15, just last 15, last 15.
00:29:01 I typed it wrong in the, um, in the, in the shape that's on me. I set you up for failure there.
00:29:07 That's all right. That's all right. But even the fact that there's a 15 game sample size where
00:29:12 there are top 10 is absolutely ridiculous, dude. Like there, there just shouldn't be that high. So
00:29:17 Giannis has been everywhere. Yeah. He'd be the best player in the series, but it'd be a matter
00:29:22 of like by how much, and I don't think it would be enough to overcome like the massive talent
00:29:26 differential basically everywhere else. So, okay. Before I take my next team, I think we got to jump
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00:29:55 You have a best for us Jake. Okay. Go ahead. The bull Celtics line tomorrow is seven and a half.
00:30:06 Celtics favored. Yeah. Like the PTSD in me, just like the, like the emotional fan is like, I don't,
00:30:13 I don't want to touch it, but, um, it feels like a pretty nice spot for the, uh, for the Celtics to
00:30:20 seven and a half, like coming out of the all-star break. Gonna be rested, gonna be hungry to whip
00:30:27 some ass. Yeah. I like that a lot in theory. Yes. In theory, I'm sure. But, um, so I liked that.
00:30:35 I would hit that up. So seven and a half, not bad. We're going to get to XT later, by the way,
00:30:39 everybody in the chat, Tillman, we're going to hit him after this little breakdown. Don't you worry.
00:30:44 We'll be, we'll be there. Okay. So next I think, man, at some point, like is like the specter of
00:30:53 Embiid playing big enough that I take them over probably a team that's playing much better right
00:30:59 now. I don't, I just don't think it is. I think I'm going to take, this is correct. I think this
00:31:05 is the first off the rails pick. I think I'm going to take the Pacers and here's why we saw what can
00:31:13 happen with insane shooting luck in insane three point shooting differential in the Eastern
00:31:18 Conference finals last year. So I think if you play a series a hundred times, the Celtics would
00:31:24 win 90 times, but the Pacers have enough shooting. They play it like a tempo that can make us
00:31:30 uncomfortable because they play so fast. They got a stretch big that KP occasionally. I mean,
00:31:36 I don't really Miles Turner doesn't scare me, but like stretch bigs have given KP some fits at times
00:31:42 this season. So, and I just think Halliburton, those crowds and Indy are going to be absolutely
00:31:48 electric. He feeds off the crowd and he can just make shots that you cannot defend. Cause he's
00:31:54 pulling up like 32 feet from the basket and you just can't get out on him. And like, he'll,
00:31:59 he can have a game or a couple of games like that. Can he have four? Probably not. But I don't know,
00:32:06 man. Like I think if I'm picking between the calves and the Pacers, I think just the randomness
00:32:11 of the way the Pacers play basketball scares me more than like the calves where I know what I'm
00:32:15 getting. Wow. That's a good, that's a great argument. I had not conceded that cause they
00:32:22 were definitely low on my list here. I'm not sure I can quite get them this high. Even with that.
00:32:29 It's fair. It's fair. Because part, part, part of why the shooting variants in the Miami series
00:32:35 fucked us was not only them going nuclear at 43.7%, but we shot below, we shot like 28% for
00:32:43 the whole series. And like part of that is Miami's defense, like making us uncomfortable. I don't
00:32:50 think the Pacers can do that to us. So that's, that's the difference I think. So I can't have
00:32:55 them that high, but I like that. I like that angle and that has me a little more concerned
00:33:00 and maybe I might bump them up one slot in my list here, but yeah, I like that, but I just don't,
00:33:07 they can't stop us. And so, um, yeah, yeah. But, but yeah, that's, that's now I'm slightly
00:33:14 more scared than I was before. It's the fear rankings, right? Halliburton scares the shit
00:33:19 out of me. Although I guess the calves have somebody that scares the shit out of me too.
00:33:22 So, um, and I just think like they have, they have, they're just really deep with a lot of like
00:33:28 different types of players. So they can go to different guys depending on like,
00:33:33 and like Siakam's good, man. Like he's really good defensive player. Like the Celtics have
00:33:38 always kind of owned him, especially Jay Leno. What's funny is that he is really good, but we
00:33:42 cook him and then like Drew now like has some awesome defensive highlights with him on the
00:33:48 paces. Like that's the perfect guy for Drew is like a guy it's a little taller, a little bigger,
00:33:53 but like not quick. It's like Posse Arkham did it's just the Celtics torture him. He's the
00:34:00 perfect guy for Jalen too. Cause he doesn't buy off screens and catch and shoot. Like he just
00:34:04 tries to get you down in a stance and beat you one-on-one and Jalen's like taking his cookie.
00:34:09 Like it's bullying at this point with Jalen. Yeah, he's absolutely. Yeah. It's always backed.
00:34:17 Yeah. Yeah. Back to the bubble. Like, yeah. And once that, again, it's a self-fulfilling prophecy.
00:34:22 It's like Jalen believes it's Siakam believes it. And then next thing you know, he's back to
00:34:27 like his career taking a two-year dip because of that series again. I like it. I like it. I'm not
00:34:34 sure I can go with them above and this is where I, it's like Cav sixes for me. It's like, okay.
00:34:40 Where, yeah. Where it's, I think I got to go. I think I got to go sixes like on the chance that
00:34:48 MB comes back healthy and he like peaks at the right time for the first time in his life where
00:34:56 it's like, he comes back with five weeks before the playoffs. And like, he looks like shit for
00:35:01 the first like two and a half, three weeks, but then right into the play in, I don't know that
00:35:08 we'd be pretty unlucky for them at that point too, because if he looks really bad in the,
00:35:13 in the seven, eight for him to actually lose and then win the next one. But I think the sixes
00:35:20 peak MBE. That's a scenario again, like similar to the honest thing where that's a player that can be
00:35:27 very dominant, but I still like the six, the Celtics, even with a healthy MP, like,
00:35:35 yeah. In the chat here, sixes don't scare me at all. Celtics just own them.
00:35:38 They didn't do anything at the deadline that I was worried that they would do.
00:35:42 Like Buddy Heald absolutely helps their offense in a vacuum, but like, what are you going to do?
00:35:49 Play Maxi and Buddy Heald at the same time against the Celtics? Good luck, dude.
00:35:53 Yeah. Yeah. And then you're like sitting Melton down. Okay. Thank you. I think Melton's a better
00:35:58 player than Buddy Heald is like just straight up. So yeah, I, I like, that's who I was thinking
00:36:04 about going with instead of Indy. I just wanted to spice it up a little bit, but they don't scare
00:36:11 me just because I just don't trust MBE to be peak MBE by the time the playoffs roll. He'd have to
00:36:17 come back like next week, I feel like for me to really be scared. But there was a report he was
00:36:22 at practice today, whatever the hell that means. So probably, yeah, probably in a suit watching,
00:36:27 but whatever, you know, sweat suit watching, but whatever. So yeah, I'd like Heald. I kind of does
00:36:33 nothing for me because I mean, obviously it helps the offense, but he really undermines their
00:36:38 defense. Like Batum looked actually really good defensively, I guess, against us. I'm so much
00:36:43 more concerned with him. Yeah. Yeah. Right. So I mean, they just have like a really weird team
00:36:49 where it's like, other than Batum, all their wings have these like insane strengths and insane
00:36:55 weaknesses. And again, it just goes back to the Celtics not really having any weaknesses you can
00:36:59 pick at and then they can exploit your weaknesses on both ends of the floor. So and I don't know,
00:37:05 I'd like is a 38 year old Nick Batum going to be the guy that gets the Sixers to like the Easter
00:37:10 Conference finals finally? Probably not. And then like Melton's great, but like Maxie, Heald,
00:37:18 Tobias Harris, like as your kind of defensive line, it doesn't really do. That's not moving
00:37:24 the needle for me at all. And since Maxie's like incredible start, he's just been like really good
00:37:31 instead of like elite guard. And so like he was terrifying when this season first started, but
00:37:36 he tends to struggle against the Celtics anyway. Again, it's kind of like Brunson. We just have
00:37:41 so many different guys. We can switch everything. We got a ton of guys we can throw at him. So
00:37:46 yeah, I think five is probably about right for the Sixers.
00:37:51 Yeah, I think that's fair. And as you was talking, I'm like, yeah, I'm not scared. And again,
00:37:56 go back to our overall point here, not really worried about anybody, which is kind of what
00:38:00 keeps coming up here. We've got to go Cavs at this point, I think. And they could be tough,
00:38:08 but we played them with no Mobley, which is interesting. And like that was like,
00:38:13 when they played really well, Mobley came back in the middle of their hot stretch.
00:38:17 They ironically lost to the imbeedless rookie council Sixers, like Sixers were missing everybody.
00:38:23 And they almost lost to, I'm forgetting who, but they almost lost another one like late.
00:38:30 So it looked like they started to crumble up a little bit.
00:38:30 Was it Memphis? No, it wasn't.
00:38:32 Yeah, I think it was Memphis.
00:38:33 I think it was, but yeah, so, but like Mitchell, like he's just can go nuclear on you. And then
00:38:45 like they have some room protection, but like the lack of perimeter defense for them. And then
00:38:52 they, if they're going to play Allen and Mobley, I know Mobley has like started to hit a couple of
00:38:57 threes lately, but we're talking like, yeah, we're talking about five game, 10 game sample size
00:39:05 randomly for someone that can't really shoot at all. Even the free throws aren't great. So
00:39:13 I just like from a Celtics defense perspective, that team, I think you can really start to scheme
00:39:19 against, which is what they ran into against the Knicks last year. And if you, yeah, so if you
00:39:24 can't score on the Celtics, then good luck. Yeah. I think if this was like, Hey, we're playing this
00:39:30 team tomorrow in a regular season game, the Cavs might be number one for me, honestly. But I think
00:39:35 going back, like, yeah, you can just scheme around them on both sides of the ball too,
00:39:39 especially with our personnel and the fact that we have two bigs that can shoot like Mobley will
00:39:45 probably be like an elite perimeter defender as he ages and gets a little smarter, but he's just
00:39:51 not right now. Jared Allen, great rim protector. You can get him out and take advantage of him
00:39:56 out on the perimeter. And the fact that we have pull up shooting against their drop coverage,
00:40:00 like if Tatum's pull up is going, this is going to be a very short series. So, and yeah, like
00:40:06 Karis LeVert, like he had those goofy games against us. I just don't think that's the type
00:40:10 of stuff that happens in the playoffs, you know? Yeah. We've come out the other side on,
00:40:15 on the Karis LeVert bullshit. Yeah. Right. Yeah, exactly. And Struess, nice player,
00:40:20 doesn't have the black magic anymore. You know, he'll make some threes. He'll have some defensive
00:40:25 possessions where he looks okay. And then he'll have some where he completely gets dusted. So,
00:40:29 you know, nice team. I honestly, if you told me Garland wouldn't play at all in the series,
00:40:35 I might be a little more afraid of them. And I love Darius Garland, but she's just such a terrible
00:40:40 fit next to Donovan Mitchell, man. Like if I'm the Cavs, I'd rather just like, let's go big.
00:40:45 Let's have Mitchell have the ball in his hands for, you know, 70 possessions or whatever,
00:40:50 50 possessions. He does everything for us and we just attack teams like that. But with like,
00:40:56 with Garland, it just undermines their defense so much. So Cavs are a great team. They got
00:41:01 something there. I just like, don't love how it all fits together. It's funny. Like no one would
00:41:07 trade Darius Garland for Derek White or True Holiday, but like the Cavs would be so much
00:41:14 better if you replaced Darius Garland with Derek White, just from a defensive perspective and being
00:41:19 like that secondary guy. Whereas like as good as Garland is, like they just, they need more on the
00:41:25 other end of the court. All right. We've got a question here. What about Orlando? They're lost,
00:41:33 it feels like for both of us. - Yeah. The jig is up with Orlando, man.
00:41:37 It's up for them beating us. It just is. - So like looking at their numbers and stuff,
00:41:44 on the season, 15th best net rating, last 15 games, 14th best net rating. Offense on the season,
00:41:52 24th, 18th, last 15. On the last 15 games, defense has slipped to 11th, fifth on the season. If you
00:41:59 have a unit that's like in the 20s, you're not winning a playoff series against anyone, let alone
00:42:05 the Celtics. And so before this, I was like, I think I would rather play the Pacers than the
00:42:11 Magic, but you've convinced me to flip that. And like, there's going to be no shooting explosion
00:42:17 from the Magic. That's not happening. And so like, give me the team that's just not going to be able
00:42:24 to score against the Celtics. I know that goes against my core tenant of being a team that
00:42:28 can defend and kind of short circuit the Celtics offense. I don't think it matters when their
00:42:35 offense can be so bad. - And like, they are a regular season
00:42:40 defense to me too. Like they're relying on Bataetse a lot. Like we can play him off the floor. Wendell
00:42:44 Carter is great, but, and he can switch a little bit, but like he can't guard Jason Tatum or Jalen
00:42:51 Brown out in space. He probably can't even stand in front of Derek White out in space. And Paulo,
00:42:56 he's just like, really, I have Paulo and Franz Wagner on my fantasy team. So I check out a lot
00:43:02 of Orlando. Like he, he's not a great defensive player either. And like those two, it's just like
00:43:09 something's off with them on the offensive end, man. It's like, they both want to operate in each
00:43:13 other's space and it's kind of your tourney, my tourney. And like, they'll get into pick and roll
00:43:19 together and stuff. And that's kind of fun, but most teams just like, okay, we'll just switch it.
00:43:23 Cause our four, our three and four are on you guys anyway. So like this changes nothing. So
00:43:27 yeah, their offense is just, it's like painful to watch at times, dude. Like it is really rugged,
00:43:34 but they'll play hard. I just, to me, the magic have like maybe a higher floor than Indy,
00:43:41 but like a way, way, way lower ceiling. - Yeah. Paulo, he started like the season
00:43:48 kind of hot shooting from three, but like above 40%, but then it's definitely dropped off. I'm
00:43:54 just kind of like checking the last 15 games from Paulo here. I was still, but it's on just
00:43:59 smaller volume. Like he's got some of the worst pull-up shooting numbers in the, in the league
00:44:03 when they start popping up. Like he was kind of a fake all-star too, like Pauls English probably
00:44:08 should have made the all-star game over, over Ben Chero as well. But yeah, that's a, that's a good
00:44:13 call. I think higher floor game to game just peculiarly because of the defense. But these,
00:44:17 these are, these guys are probably at the top of my list of who I want to play in the first round.
00:44:22 Yeah. Them, them in the paces, but yeah, I like it. - Franz is shooting 32% from three,
00:44:30 like his shot has kind of disappeared too. No. And like Suggs is shooting the ball well,
00:44:36 but like Paulo it's on tiny volume, man. They just have like nobody that compromises your
00:44:40 defense from a spacing standpoint. So like get, get the magic. We, once we beat them back to back
00:44:46 and like handled them in that little home stand, I was like, okay, monkeys off the back. I got,
00:44:50 Orlando does not worry me at all. - Yeah. We were like, okay, we finally
00:44:56 understand that we need to take you guys more seriously than we've been taking the Pistons and
00:44:59 the Hornets. And as soon as they did that, they blew them off the court, like two games in a row.
00:45:03 So yeah, I'm not, not too worried about them. All right. So I guess like to wrap,
00:45:09 wrap this part of it up is like, my question to you, we're talking about in the discord is,
00:45:14 do you think the Southerners can cakewalk the East? Do you think the Southerners should cakewalk
00:45:20 the East? Cause like, I don't think they should play a seven game series. They probably will play
00:45:26 one, but like, as it stands right now, like obviously some things can change between now
00:45:32 and the playoffs. I don't, I don't see why they would go seven against anybody in the East.
00:45:36 - Yeah. So is like, if they go six, six, six, is that a cakewalk? It's probably pretty close.
00:45:42 That's a board, that's a cake stroll, maybe, maybe not a cakewalk, but a cake jog or something. But
00:45:48 yeah, I mean, I'm with you on like no seven game series. Yeah. I, it's hard to see how,
00:45:55 like, other than the Celtics just imploding and short circuiting, which they absolutely can do.
00:46:01 We know they can do that. Like, you know, if you're looking at your first round series is
00:46:05 going to be like the magic, then maybe like the Bucks and then the Knicks, like you should probably
00:46:12 wrap, that should be four, five, six, six at most. Yeah. I mean like they probably, if they're,
00:46:20 if they continue to play the way they've been playing this entire regular season, they will
00:46:24 cakewalk the East. And I like, and I think they're going to win a championship, but you just,
00:46:30 the playoff ball is just a little bit different. I don't really have the questions about Joe,
00:46:34 but I think you could say like they run into the wrong team, the wrong coach. Like he could get
00:46:39 coached a little bit. So I think they probably should cakewalk the East. Like none of these
00:46:45 teams really can batch up against them. That's the thing. Like they probably play one seven game
00:46:51 series just because that's like the nature of the playoffs, but they really shouldn't.
00:46:57 They really fucking should have man. Like six, six, six would be, would be fine. I mean,
00:47:01 we would all be freaking out after the first round six game series, but
00:47:04 it gets the magic, take us to six. That'd be terrifying.
00:47:09 Yeah. Which like, Oh, here we fucking go again, which could easily happen. Like, you know,
00:47:14 the, you know, in small sample sizes, but like, I'm trying to look at it objectively and not let
00:47:22 last year's team and the years, the team's previous color this year's team. And like this
00:47:28 year's team is so much better. Like if this team is in the 22 finals against the warriors,
00:47:34 they win that series in five or six. Like, like, as you said, that the Rob Williams numbers,
00:47:39 when he was on the court, they won those minutes. If Paul Zingas plays in that series, they win.
00:47:44 That's not even counting the growth of Tatum and Jalen from two years ago. So it's like,
00:47:50 they're so much better than that team was two years ago and better than the team last year.
00:47:56 Like easily statistically I test emotionally, like you pick the way that they're better and
00:48:00 they're better at it. Offense defense, like consistency crunch time, offense, diversity
00:48:06 of offense, diversity of defense, even health. Like you take like Brogdon and Rob versus
00:48:13 Paul Zingas is really the only health risk on the team. Yeah. So looking at it that way,
00:48:20 I'm just like, this team is so much better. The East is worse. The East is worse. So it's like,
00:48:26 we should be, we should win easily, but I understand playoffs, et cetera, but like,
00:48:32 I think we should. Yeah, man. I mean, I, frankly, there's not a lot of teams,
00:48:37 I guess the Clippers and the Nuggets are probably the two teams out West that really scare me.
00:48:42 But I think that Clippers, we, I, that was just a bad, that was just a shitty game. It happens.
00:48:46 The West scares me way more than anyone in the East, like all four of the teams really.
00:48:50 Oh yeah, yeah, definitely. Definitely. Like even if OKC was in the East, they would be my number
00:48:55 one for sure. Like easily number one. So yeah, man, I just like it, I just keep getting this
00:49:02 feeling that this is the year dude. And like, I feel like I've generally been like, it's more
00:49:07 likely than not. They lose, like, let's not go crazy. Even when we were in the finals, it's like,
00:49:11 Golden State's a great team. Like I'd try not to get too high, but man, this just, it feels like
00:49:17 everything's kind of fallen into place for them. And like the fit with KP, you're right. He's just
00:49:22 revolutionized their offense in such a sustainable way. Whereas before it was like, okay, if the
00:49:28 shots aren't falling, maybe you get Tatum getting downhill, but he can't always do that. And you
00:49:33 know, in the playoffs it's harder, you know, they let a lot more contact go. So yeah, man, like if
00:49:40 they roll to the finals and lose in the finals, it might be over for me. Like I might just have to
00:49:46 quit all content and I just might be done. Like if they go like sweep five games, five games and
00:49:51 lose in the finals, dude, like I'm just gonna, it's over. I'm vlogging off. If they do cakewalk
00:49:58 the East, you gotta feel pretty good. Cause I think the teams in the West are going to just
00:50:01 destroy each other. Like the West is so much deeper. Like the Nuggets run was pretty light,
00:50:07 but the West is way better. And again, a lot can change. The Clippers could get not healthy and
00:50:12 that's, that's very possible. So we'll see. We'll quickly touch on this one. Then we'll hit Tillman
00:50:19 in the game tomorrow. But Tatum, you mentioned Tatum. Windhorse had this weird thing about Tatum
00:50:26 and MVP stuff and people holding against him in the finals. Do you buy any of that? Like Tatum was
00:50:35 fourth in MVP voting last year and sixth year before that, the year they actually went to the
00:50:39 finals. But like he's been back to back first team all NBA. He's like in the fifth, sixth range,
00:50:46 seventh range max on MVP polls right now. I actually don't believe that from Windy at all.
00:50:53 Like I don't think that he hasn't been a top three player in the league this year. So far.
00:51:00 Yeah. I don't think like the media holds that against him, but I think fans of other teams
00:51:07 have so little to latch onto when they're trying to hate on Jason Tatum. That that's like the last
00:51:13 thing that he's done poorly that you can be like, see, this guy sucks. He was bad in the final.
00:51:18 Actually, if you look at his stats, like he basically just couldn't finish at the rim
00:51:22 and that was it. Wasn't that bad? Yeah, no, it was average, like 27 and seven. Yeah,
00:51:27 the turnovers were bad. And the two games we won, he had two turnovers in both games.
00:51:31 And then he didn't have a game below four after that. So, ouch, that kind of sucks. But
00:51:35 so no, I don't think people like I don't think like if you're having a serious discussion with
00:51:42 someone, I don't think they're holding that against him at all. And I think most people
00:51:46 recognize he's gotten considerably better since then, maybe on both sides of the ball, honestly,
00:51:52 but if you're interacting with Milwaukee trolls and Sixers trolls, that is the first thing you're
00:51:57 going to hear. So like, does like the dregs of the fandom hold it against them? Yes. But who
00:52:04 gives a shit what they think anyway? So, yeah, I think Wendy, you know, it's all Starbreak, man.
00:52:10 He's got to whip up some chaos, some content. I respect it, I guess. So where would you have Tatum
00:52:17 in the MVP right now? Like Yoko Chyana's Shay, I feel are pretty tight at three. I think I probably
00:52:24 have Tatum at four right now. Yeah, I'd easily have him over Luka. I just I'm getting to the
00:52:29 point where Luka where I think he's overrated just because he puts up massive counting stats.
00:52:33 And like, I know the offense is pretty and he's amazing, but like, dude, everybody leaves this
00:52:37 team and gets better. And like, like Jalen Brunson's like a star now. KP looks amazing.
00:52:43 Grant Williams is like banging threes and playing defense and like watch him. Just if you catch a
00:52:48 Mavs game, just focus on Luka on defense. Just watch him play defense. It is embarrassing,
00:52:54 dude. So gimme Tatum. Kawhi is the guy that it's like, I don't know where you put him. Tatum's
00:52:59 stats are better than Kawhi, really. And you know, he's going to play and he's playing more.
00:53:04 Tatum has the I mean, Kawhi has the efficiency over Tatum, but like Kawhi is 25, 6 and 3.
00:53:12 And Tatum is like 28, 8 and a half and 5 now. So like he's definitely and by the end of the
00:53:19 season, he's probably going to end up having like 10 games played more than Kawhi. So that's the one
00:53:24 guy that might keep Tatum off first team Olympia. But otherwise, like he's a luck for a second team,
00:53:31 but probably first team as well. All right. Celtics are back tomorrow. Celtics Bulls. Biggest news of
00:53:38 the day. Xavier Tillman, the X-Man, X-Goal give it to you. Off the injury report. I tweeted like
00:53:48 five minutes before it came out. I need the NEB injury report. Xavier Tillman probable. And he's
00:53:54 just off the injury report completely. So we're living life. The X-Man's back tomorrow. I'm
00:54:00 assuming he's going to play like, what are your expectations? Do you think he's going to get in
00:54:04 there? Yeah, I think you give him like the Luke Cornett minutes, like, you know, assuming everybody's
00:54:09 healthy, which I think everyone is other than Springer. I think he gets like eight, 10 minutes.
00:54:14 I think the cool thing about Tillman is Joe has been forcing these like Cornett Al Horford minutes,
00:54:20 which is just like been terrible. X can play with Al Horford on offense. You can have Horford
00:54:25 spacing out to the corner and then you can run pick and roll with Tillman in the short roll.
00:54:30 And like, he's really, really good about that in that I wrote about it a couple of weeks ago
00:54:34 on three leaf clover. Like he is an awesome passing big man, you know, for position and
00:54:40 defensively like him and Al can switch a little bit. Certainly they can switch better than him
00:54:45 and Luke Cornett can. So I don't see why you don't, you know, I don't think he's going to
00:54:49 come in and play 25 minutes a night. There will be games where he does when KP or Al's out. But
00:54:54 yeah, I mean, look, you got a new toy, man. You got to play with it, right?
00:54:59 We know we have with Luke Cornett, good player, great third big,
00:55:03 but let's if he's legitimately off the injury report, like Luke Cornett minutes, as you said,
00:55:09 like 12 minutes would be kind of a bigger night considering everybody's healthy. So like,
00:55:14 let's give those minutes to Tillman and start experimenting and start to see what he can do.
00:55:19 Yeah, I love that idea. Like the Al Tillman, that should be the switch everything lineup,
00:55:24 probably like if you still want to have some size and have rebounding and stuff like that,
00:55:28 like that could be really, really dangerous. I was just going back and looking at like random
00:55:34 Tillman games because I think it's better to look at the 22-23 season as opposed to this season,
00:55:38 obviously, when it comes to the Grizzlies. And he had a game against the Warriors, I'll post it on
00:55:44 Twitter later, but like had 14, 10 rebounds, five assists, two steals against like Trey, Steph,
00:55:51 Clay, and they won by double digits in that game. And like, just looking at the highlights from that
00:55:58 game, like the floater stuff, the passing is definitely there. But then I went back and I
00:56:03 looked at his numbers over the past couple years. Because some of the conventional field goal
00:56:09 percentage stuff that people have been throwing out there is like bad. I've seen like the 41%
00:56:14 field goal or whatever. But you go back and look at the last two seasons. And I'm like, okay,
00:56:19 22-23 season, when the Grizzlies were good, restricted area 71.3% on 174 attempts. Very good.
00:56:29 Non-restricted area paint 51.4%. That's like, that's nice floater. That's really good floater
00:56:37 numbers. Really good floater numbers. That's on 105 attempts. You go back a year previous
00:56:41 in the restricted area, 60.4%, not as good, but still like fine. 96 attempts. But again,
00:56:48 the more important thing to me, the non-restricted area paint 47.3% on 55 attempts. So two years
00:56:54 sample size of him being like a 50% floater range guy, and he's going to get the ball.
00:57:00 We've been talking about Tatum in the short roll, like Tatum picking rolls, Derek picking rolls,
00:57:04 finding Tillman in those spots. And then he can either play make out of that, or he could be
00:57:10 legit, you know, just hitting those floaters. And like, I think we might be underselling the
00:57:16 offense a little bit. Obviously this is the best time to raise our expectations and hopes and
00:57:20 dreams. And then he goes like over five tomorrow, but I don't know. I think the, I think the offense
00:57:26 could be a little under, undersold at this point. Yeah. He's a good screen. Like, dude, he is a
00:57:31 wise dude, man. Like he can set a monster screen on people and he is not afraid of like, you know,
00:57:36 Tatum does his little push with the screen. Like Tillman will lay your ass out with a screen,
00:57:41 which like, we love it. That's part of why Luke has so much value to this team. Cause he actually
00:57:45 sets good, strong, firm screens. So that'll be excellent. The short roll stuff. It's just going
00:57:51 to be there always. Like, that's just going to be that, that part of the paint is wide open
00:57:56 all game long against the Celtics. KP eats from there, but like Tillman's not going to share the
00:58:02 floor with KP that much. Like we don't need him to space out to the corner. He's like for his 10,
00:58:08 12 minutes a night, he's going to be in the short roll and he's going to be making plays.
00:58:11 And like, I didn't realize the non-restricted area was so consistently good. Like I think Tatum's
00:58:17 like low forties and a non-restricted area. Oh yeah, he's like 37. Yeah. Oh, he's that bad. Yeah.
00:58:22 So like that, like flirting with 50% is like ridiculously good. So that's a legitimate weapon.
00:58:28 The one thing I hate bigs who can't shoot free throws and can not shoot free throws, dude,
00:58:34 it's painful. So you'll probably, you might see some like hack a Tillman here just to get Joe
00:58:40 back for being like the only guy who still does it. But yeah, we might be underselling the offense
00:58:45 a little bit. Like, dude, his passing is legit and there's a lot of people to pass it to on
00:58:49 the Celtics. So I think he's going to be a seamless fit, man. Brad done it again, dude. He's done it
00:58:53 again for nothing. Hell yeah, dude. I mean, we're all pumped Celtics back tomorrow. The X-men,
00:59:00 I know like X-Con give it to you, the X-men that's kind of X-men, X-man. I don't know.
00:59:06 Like those are the kind of the nicknames that he's picked up from the Grizzlies. If you're a
00:59:10 listener of First to the Floor, you know we love to come up with ridiculous names for dudes. So I'm
00:59:15 sure we'll come up with something soon. Maybe it's just one of the X-men's name, like not just X-man,
00:59:22 but like, is it Wolverine? Is it Storm, et cetera? Cyclops. Yeah, something to percolate for everybody
00:59:31 out there over the next couple of days here. But Spoonie man, good to see you. Good to be back
00:59:37 talking to C's. Playback tomorrow, me and Ben will be live. I haven't spoken to you about that yet. I
00:59:45 know it's an early one, so that can be tricky for you. But tomorrow, playback, get back in there,
00:59:50 everybody. And then me and Ben will be doing late night tomorrow as well. Celtics are back. This is
00:59:55 the push, fellas. We got less than 30 games left. Let's do this. All right, everybody, go Celtics.
01:00:04 I love the Celtics!
01:00:06 [Music]