The Celtics brought the best version of their defense down to Miami for Game 3, limiting the Miami Heat to just 84 points and shutting down their perimeter play. What adjustments did the Celtics make, and how sustainable is this throughout the rest of the series? Plus, reacting to Jimmy Butler's in-game comments and looking ahead to Game 4.
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SportsTranscript
00:00:00 [Music]
00:00:27 All right, Celtics late night. Sam LaFrance is here again. He's back.
00:00:32 We're back.
00:00:33 And we're winning. We're up 2-1. Celtics dominate. 20 point win. 104-84.
00:00:42 A defensive master class. Never in doubt. Sam, how are you? How's the heart?
00:00:48 Fantastic. This is like the best day I've had in probably two weeks. Just watching them
00:00:55 womp the heat. Never even had to think about it. They didn't even mess around at the end.
00:01:00 They just played defense, tried, built a lead, and then didn't give it up.
00:01:08 Wow. Yeah, like no reason to really panic, I guess, at any point in this game. I think
00:01:18 we did though.
00:01:19 We panicked a lot. Derek White's dad, Richard White, if you're listening,
00:01:29 friend of the program, completely owned me on Twitter earlier. We'll pop it up here.
00:01:33 The heat cut the lead to about 18. I think that was the closest the heat got in the third quarter
00:01:40 was 18. And I tweeted, "F*** Celtics, dude. Put them away." After the game, Mr. White,
00:01:47 "1 by 20, have a Foster's." And then I said, "I'm sorry, because I'm a coward. I'm not built
00:01:54 for this like these athletes are, like the parents of athletes are. Mr. White's calm,
00:02:01 collected. Not you, not me. We were screaming, but no reason to. They took care of business.
00:02:08 I was thinking about before the game, I was like, "Oh man, the Celtics would be f***ed if I had to
00:02:12 play in this game. I'd be like, "Oh my God, we're going to lose. We're going to lose. We're going
00:02:16 to lose." They'd be like, "Dude, shut the f*** up." We did Celts at the Roundtable a couple of weeks
00:02:25 ago, right before they signed Nemi to the final roster spot. Who should they sign for the final
00:02:30 roster spot? I joked, "You could sign me." And my whole purpose would be to be there as a regular
00:02:37 guy so they could all look at me and be like, "Oh yeah, I'm way better than him." Just in case you
00:02:42 need a confidence boost. But if I was on the roster, I'd be like, "I don't know, guys. Maybe
00:02:47 we're going to lose the heat again." Game one, game two.
00:02:50 "Got to get it together." Yeah. What if they shoot 50% from three every game, guys? It's
00:02:55 going to be so bad. Just crying on the bench. Going out and I'm just crying.
00:03:00 Every time the heat hit a shot, you're just collapsing into your chair. It's like,
00:03:04 "Can someone get Sam out of here, please?" I would be the most electric camera zoom guy ever.
00:03:11 Did you see the zoom they did of Matt Ishbier yesterday in the Suns game?
00:03:14 Yes.
00:03:14 And he's just devastated. That would be me every time.
00:03:16 Yes.
00:03:16 Like, the Suns would be up 15 after being up 25. I'd be like, "Don't know about this one, chief."
00:03:22 It's happening again. It's happening again. But no, this was... Man, it was a rough 72 hours,
00:03:28 I think, for most people involved. If you're one of those people that's able to
00:03:33 not care that they lost game two, that it was like, "Oh, that's a lucky game." And just ignore
00:03:40 the previous lucky games that the heat have had. More power to you. I woke up every time I woke up,
00:03:46 first thing I thought of was, "I cannot believe they lost that game. And oh my God,
00:03:52 if they lose this next game, they will be down 2-1 and my world will be over."
00:03:57 And so, power to those people who weren't living their lives like that. I went for a hike,
00:04:02 two hour, really difficult, up a mountain. And 60% of my thoughts were just like, "Fuck,
00:04:07 they better win tomorrow, dude. They better win tomorrow."
00:04:10 Fuck, should I jump?
00:04:10 Yeah, I got to the top. I'm like, "You know what? I don't actually have to find out if I just
00:04:15 trip at the top here. That'd be great."
00:04:18 My whole life's goal is, "I really didn't take the Celtics. I mean, the heat to win this year
00:04:26 is a plus 6,000. Am I an idiot? Why didn't I even... I should have threw my whole account on
00:04:30 and I would be making four grand. I just threw 80 bucks on the heat."
00:04:35 Yeah, I went over the top on the Celtics insurance the last couple... That was the
00:04:38 problem with the extra two days off too, is because I had more time to continue to look
00:04:42 at the line because the line went up. It started at like... I don't even know what it ended at,
00:04:47 but the money line moved a fair bit between when it opened and when it closed. And I was like,
00:04:52 "Oh, I got to keep loading the boat to protect myself."
00:04:56 And so, as we said in the playback stream, I'm happy to pay for Celtics wins throughout the
00:05:00 playoffs. I didn't bet on the heat before game two because I was stupid and thought that after
00:05:07 game one, "Okay, we're past this. No, Jimmy Butler, not going to be an issue." And so,
00:05:14 I've overcorrected so everybody can thank me for donating a Celtics win to the playoff bank.
00:05:20 Sam, I'm sure you were happy they took this game seriously in that they didn't wear
00:05:25 home whites on the road.
00:05:28 Correct. This is just great progress, learning from your mistakes in game two where you didn't
00:05:34 really dress properly. I did a whole write-up for Celtics blog. And oddly enough, I referenced a
00:05:39 great article from The Athletic that came out in January. And they actually interviewed the Heat's
00:05:45 equipment manager. So, he was... Or not equipment manager, I'm sorry. Chief marketing officer.
00:05:50 Very different job. He didn't want to promote him. But anyways, he's talking about every year
00:05:55 since 2006, Miami has done what they call white hot playoffs. They give out all these white t-shirts
00:06:00 to the crowd, blah, blah, blah. But they only wear white at home. And I thought to myself,
00:06:05 "Is this where the voodoo magic comes from?" The basketball gods respecting honor. And the Celtics
00:06:12 wore white jerseys on the road today. Excellent work. Really not that hard. Not hard at all.
00:06:16 What color did the Heat wear today? Did they wear white today?
00:06:21 Okay. They did. See, not even the white jerseys.
00:06:24 When the playing field's even and one team isn't committing treason, then the Celtics have an
00:06:30 advantage. But when the Celtics are pissing in the face of the basketball gods, sometimes you're
00:06:34 going to have the Heat shoot 50% from three. All right. So, did we overreact to game two?
00:06:42 That's what I want to know. Because there's plenty of people that were like, "See? That's the fake
00:06:47 magic game." I've got a clip from Joe Mazzulli here talking about what the last 72 hours were like,
00:06:54 in comparison to our last 72 hours, I guess. You just have to find that balance of focusing on
00:07:00 what's most important. I think sometimes when we have a lot of time off, we can easily start to
00:07:04 come up with all these things. And at the end of the day, the game's pretty simple.
00:07:07 You've got to find the simple things that you can execute, the simple things that you can take away.
00:07:12 And then how do you just bring the right mindset and the physicality? To me, I know it's
00:07:17 mundane and the playoffs create a lot of hysteria, but there's no difference between
00:07:21 regular season and the final game. You just got to bring it. Mentally, physically,
00:07:24 emotionally. You just got to bring it. You got to execute. And so it's just preparing yourself
00:07:28 for that. Had me until he was like, "There's no difference."
00:07:33 Yeah, yeah, yeah. One thing I definitely agree with is the playoffs can create a lot of hysteria
00:07:41 because that's exactly how I feel and we feel, especially as fans throughout the playoffs.
00:07:47 But yeah, Mazzuola, he's right to an extent. The reality is you just have to bring the level of
00:07:58 execution and mindset to each game. And they didn't bring it, the right execution and mindset
00:08:05 to game two. The question is why not, I guess. And why did they bring it to game one? And why
00:08:11 did they bring it to game three, but not to game two? Was that just like, they needed that one
00:08:15 little spark and now we're back on track? I guess we're going to find out, but it's hard to say,
00:08:20 obviously. Yeah. I mean, Joe Mazzuola loves getting choked out, so maybe the team just
00:08:26 loves getting choked out too. And they needed that to motivate them to actually try in a playoff game.
00:08:30 But what he had to say in that little clip is fantastic because his real take and his real
00:08:37 thought process in the two days off that were far too long was that, "Hey, let's get it together.
00:08:46 Let's start trying in these areas that we know we can be better at and we can eliminate the
00:08:52 leaving it up to chance part of why we lost in game two." And that's exactly what they did in
00:08:58 this game. We watched the game on stream. Their defense from the tip was excellent.
00:09:03 Their hustle was excellent. The shooters weren't as open as they were in game two.
00:09:07 They switched more. Porzingis held his own against the guards in the switch. Porzingis held his own
00:09:13 against Bam Onabayo in the switch. And Bam was somebody that had a fantastic game too.
00:09:18 And I personally was worried about, because of the home opener back in October, he cooked the
00:09:25 Celtics inside. He got anything he wanted because he's stronger than Porzingis. Porzingis was very
00:09:30 clearly in his head today. Not only did he come out after game one and be like, "I don't care
00:09:34 about Bam," which is not the context of him not caring about Bam. He's trying to win is really
00:09:39 what the quote meant. But that came out and Bam was asked about it after game two. And there was
00:09:45 definitely a little bit of a chip on his shoulder today, trying to get a little extra buckets.
00:09:48 And he forced a little bit. He got chippy with Porzingis in the third quarter. Porzingis was
00:09:53 setting the screen. They were pushing each other, thought they were going to get double techs.
00:09:56 And that man Bam could not get a basket in the paint with Porzingis. Porzingis was underneath
00:10:00 the basket. He was underneath the backboard and Bam still missed the layup. That's how much he was
00:10:07 embedded in Bam's thoughts. - Yeah, the arc of the Porzingis-Bam
00:10:13 battle has been great for this whole series. And in this game in particular as well, after game one,
00:10:19 we get the question to Porzingis after game one, "What's the battle with you and Bam going to be
00:10:26 like?" And Porzingis, I love when he's positive, he does this head movement in the presser and he's
00:10:31 like, "You know, it's not about me and Bam. It's about who's going to be in. He's going to be
00:10:35 around. It's not about me and Bam. It's about the Celtics and the Heat." And Bam obviously took it
00:10:40 to him, really games one and two, but specifically game two. But today you pointed out in the stream,
00:10:46 Bam had that and one that went over the backboard early in the game. And Bam's walking back to the
00:10:53 free throw line being like, "He can't f*cking guard me." And from that moment, Porzingis could
00:10:59 f*cking guard him. Like, from the jump. And so that's a huge piece for this series and for Porzingis,
00:11:08 I think just from a confidence perspective, like stay down on those pump fakes and just contest
00:11:15 with those crazy long lap Viennams. Because you're right, he had Bam on lock all game long. What did
00:11:21 Bam end up with? Eight for 18. And how many blocks did Porzingis have? Two blocks. Felt like more.
00:11:28 Gonna have to go back and watch how many contests he had today. But two blocks, five for nine from
00:11:33 the field, but then Bam to go. He's going to be a massive source of offense and field goal attempts.
00:11:40 If you hold him to that eight for 18 mark, that's just... When he's shooting two-pointers as well,
00:11:46 like if he's going eight for 18 on threes or whatever, then that's a problem. But it's all
00:11:51 in the two-point range, eight for 18. That's beautiful. Just shooting paint shots, eight of 18.
00:11:57 Not good. He used all his makes up in game two. That's what happened. And the funny thing is
00:12:02 about game two is it really didn't feel like they were doing a terrible job guarding him either.
00:12:06 Like a lot of those makes in the mid-range were contested, like Porzingis was outstretched.
00:12:10 And it's nice to see that the effort was actually rewarded with fair results today instead of the
00:12:16 nonsense that we had to watch in game two. But man, just the sheer amount of headache he was
00:12:23 able to give Bam was excellent today. And I'm looking forward to that going forward in the
00:12:27 playoffs because throughout the season, it was just like a little bit of worries. Like, well,
00:12:31 what if they run into Embiid? Which is still a thing. Probably won't go the same as Bam.
00:12:37 Embiid is far more skilled, MVP level player, of course. But it's like, "Oh, okay. Yeah,
00:12:43 maybe he has a little bit of an answer." And not for nothing, Horford looked great too.
00:12:47 When he was given the reps, there was no chance. Like the solidity that Porzingis provided was
00:12:54 almost doubled when Horford was on Bam. There was not even any muscle given up in that matchup.
00:12:59 Yeah, I loved it from, but yeah, to be able to go to Al as well, the defense overall was
00:13:04 fantastic. I want to stick on Porzingis a little bit here. I've got his presser here as well.
00:13:09 How did you feel over the last couple of days and how did that kind of set you up for tonight?
00:13:12 Oh man, it was a long two days, just the way it burns inside after a game like that,
00:13:20 after a loss like that. And me not having, probably having my worst game as a Celtic.
00:13:25 It really burned inside. I'm not going to lie. So it was a long two days until I got another
00:13:31 opportunity and I made some adjustments and I didn't fall too much into their game of this
00:13:37 physical, like all the time. And that's what they want me to do. So
00:13:42 a little bit different and yeah, completely different game today.
00:13:45 I love it. So this is the one, there's a few bits in there, but like the piece that like
00:13:53 he mentioned, them trying to pull me into, it felt like he kind of held himself back from kind
00:13:57 of going into exactly what they're trying to pull him into, but pulling him into like the physicality
00:14:03 and you mentioned it before, it looked like he was going to maybe get like a double tech at one
00:14:08 point and that is kind of, they tried to frustrate him last game and it worked by being physical with
00:14:14 him. Just felt like he played his game, didn't try and, they didn't try and force it to KP today.
00:14:18 Like he only ended up with nine shots, ended up getting to the free throw line six times,
00:14:23 five for six from the line, just like a smooth, poisingus game. He ends up hitting those three
00:14:28 pointers, which he didn't hit last game, but again, he didn't force it. He had that like
00:14:31 monster trailer three in the second game, which like airballed, whereas all of his shots today
00:14:36 were in rhythm, in the flow. And like, this is a fear coming into the playoffs was like, okay,
00:14:43 poisingus has been incredible all season long. Is he going to be someone that carries into the
00:14:48 playoffs? Like the physicality, we've been talking about how poisingus has lightened the ass all
00:14:53 year long and he looked at least medium weight in the ass today. Especially like, yeah, being able
00:15:00 to hang under the rim and still contest BAM, but then to be really comfortable offensively and just
00:15:07 pull points out of the mud because the heat, they still held the Celics to 104 points. The Celics
00:15:13 still didn't shoot awesome from three, but that's the whole point of poisingus is like in a game
00:15:17 like this, can you manufacture points? And he has 18 points on nine shots. Like that's, that's just
00:15:23 huge for poisingus. Yeah. And, uh, you know, he talked to his shit before too. Like after game
00:15:30 two, he was like, he basically did Kyrie without having the Kyrie result. He was like, you're not
00:15:37 going to see that again. I have to be better. And then he actually like came out right away.
00:15:42 There was no doubt has a, I think he made a three to start the game and he had a big alley-oop dunk
00:15:48 on a roll. There was no doubt that he came to play today, right from the tip. And that's what
00:15:53 you need out of guys that are going to be the pillars for your championship success. Like
00:15:57 the mentality bounce back from him was great. The Celtics have been great at bouncing back all
00:16:02 season. And this has been a nice resurgence that they still have the, Oh yeah. Okay. We messed up
00:16:11 our bad. We're going to be accountable. We're going to go back. We're going to be better in
00:16:15 the next game and actually meet it because last year, all you heard was, we're going to be better.
00:16:21 We're going to be better. We're going to be better. We're going to be better. And then they
00:16:23 would go out there and just shit the bed time and time and time again. My favorite one is
00:16:28 Malcolm Brogdon. But it was ironically enough against the wizards comes out.
00:16:35 He's like, we want the one seed and then they fucking get killed by the wizards. It's like,
00:16:42 I don't know, be serious. And then they actually like got a pseudo one seed. Cause the Bucks lost
00:16:48 the first round. So they had home court through the whole Eastern conference run. And they just
00:16:52 didn't win their fucking home game. So it doesn't matter that that is the one complaint I had.
00:16:57 And I know we kind of shot this back and forth in the playback. Like if I could like pick,
00:17:02 I would low key swap game two and three, just because you could be like, okay, like they are
00:17:07 serious at home all the way. Like don't mess with the Celtics. The garden garden is still a fortress.
00:17:13 Like, I don't love that. We saw a low energy, low effort game from them in game two, but
00:17:17 I am very impressed that they came out in a very tough place to play a Casillas center
00:17:23 down in Miami there with the half empty arena. And they did kind of just dominate wire to wire.
00:17:29 Yeah. I actually did win this game wide. Why I don't believe the heat led for a single second
00:17:35 in this game. So like the bounce back Celtics, this has been a thing going back to you.
00:17:42 Like they, every time their back was against the wall in that playoff run down three, two against
00:17:48 the box down three, two against the heat. No, they were down. They were tied. Yeah. Six is now down
00:17:55 three, two down three, two against the box. Well, even like they lost game six in Boston to your
00:18:02 point about the garden not being a, which the Jimmy Butler 46 point bomb. I mean, they lost game
00:18:08 three in the garden as well. Marcus Smart has like the heroic hurts. His ankle comes back in,
00:18:15 hits a three straight away. They like, how do you not win that game? Like in the garden with like
00:18:19 that type of juice with Marcus Smart putting like the Willis Reid Cape on. And that's been a thing
00:18:24 that has happened. But look, you have that one slip up. Hopefully game five is, you know, that's
00:18:31 the last home game of this series. That'd be ideal. But so that's going to be the thing. How do
00:18:35 they handle now the success? Because that's been, that's always been the problem with this team.
00:18:40 It's like, they get the 40 point leads. They get the 20 point leads. They go up in series.
00:18:45 They get the easy matchups in the playoffs, whether it's the Hawks or this heat team. I do think this
00:18:52 heat team in particular, like does provide like some value. It's like, you kind of have to be
00:18:56 locked in because they will capitalize on all your mistakes. They will not stop scratching and
00:19:03 clawing and all of a sudden they can, they can go on a run. So how do they handle the success
00:19:08 of like, okay, you've won one game in a row. Can we now win this? Be the first team in the
00:19:14 series to win two games in a row. Hang the banners. What'd you do? Yeah. But yeah. So
00:19:19 champagne. Yeah. I lagged my bad. My bad. No, no, no. I was trying to figure it out.
00:19:30 So I sure hope that they just kind of keep game two with them. I think, I mean, I don't know.
00:19:37 It's really tough to say. Cause like you said, they won one in a row. I'm already like penciling
00:19:41 Monday as a win, which is a dangerous thing for me to do. It just feels like they kind of are like,
00:19:47 okay, yeah, we got our ass beat in game two. Probably shouldn't have dropped that game.
00:19:52 We let our guard down. That's what happens. We let our guard down. It might be like kind of
00:19:57 a blessing that they can just take a peek back and be like, okay, we are a great team, but we can
00:20:04 still lose if we don't take it seriously all the way. And that's aside from the uniforms. They just
00:20:10 didn't lock in defensively in that game. They didn't close out hard. They changed all these
00:20:15 things tonight and they worked harder and they won this game on defense. They scored three more
00:20:20 points than they did on Monday. I mean, Wednesday, and they would have lost Wednesday if they had the
00:20:25 same offensive performances tonight. If you just swap them identically, it may have changed the
00:20:30 flow of the game a bit. That's the type of thing. Like you need to like, just remember this,
00:20:35 remember what it took to win this game, what it took to win game one and, and just completely
00:20:41 carry on, carry on, be like, okay, job's not finished. And Tatum kind of said it in his
00:20:47 little walk-off interview. That was like, Hey, uh, yeah, no, no, no. We can all like have a good
00:20:52 time after the season. This is the playoffs. It's time to lock in. Yes. Thank you. Agreed. Agreed.
00:20:59 Whatever you did after game two, do the same thing after, after game three. Yeah. Like I was talking
00:21:05 about the defense. Cause I clearly, this was a defensive win. Like broadly the Celtics shot 29.7%
00:21:12 from three, which is obviously not very good, but the heat shot 32.1. So better than the Celtics
00:21:17 and the Celtics one by 20. Pretty good sign. Um, the difference is obviously the volume of threes
00:21:24 in this game. Like they did not allow the heat to get threes off. They contested everything.
00:21:29 They ran them off the line. The heat shot nine for 28, 28, three point attempts. And in game two,
00:21:36 they shot 43. So like that, that was the, that's the difference. And the game plan, I was like,
00:21:42 the game plan went from, you know, game one, they kind of did them to make shots as well.
00:21:48 They just didn't make them game two. They did them again. Yeah. Eric Weiss. Um, I didn't actually see
00:21:53 Jaylen's reference. Um, I did see your comment under my tweet before, uh, but simple principles,
00:21:59 your two shot making has superior depth and breadth personnel wise, make you make them
00:22:04 beat you on the tough stuff. Don't dare them to beat you on the easiest stuff. And like,
00:22:08 that's what we were saying after last game and yesterday, it's like, they can't score on you.
00:22:13 Like just God, your yard make, make Hama Hawkins, make Tyler hero. Like, like, honestly,
00:22:20 I'm very impressed with how my Hawkins honestly made that guy can, that guy can,
00:22:23 yeah. Well, he was five for 13 and like, and all of those makes for tough. And, uh, Tyler hero goes
00:22:34 five for 16. All of them were pretty much all of them were tough. It's like, make these guys earn
00:22:39 every single bucket, get over this. I'm not even sure how much they adjust it defensively. I'm
00:22:43 going to have to go back and watch. Like they'd still didn't, they didn't switch everything,
00:22:48 but the screen navigation was so much better there and like playing drop coverage, but also like
00:22:54 executing a switch. If a guy gets caught on a screen, then switch it. And like having the
00:23:00 communication, having like being in sync to know when certain guys are going to make certain
00:23:05 decisions is something that we've become accustomed to all season long and in game one. And then game
00:23:10 two, it completely fell apart. So like adjustment wise, I personally didn't notice a ton different.
00:23:16 And we did say that, like, I'm not sure I need to necessarily adjust, like, just do what you do
00:23:23 better, like contest everything. Don't, don't dare them to make stuff. Just like, just do what you,
00:23:28 you the second best defense in the NBA for a reason. Just play, treat them, treat like you,
00:23:33 you held the Denver Nuggets well below their season average in scoring both times. Just pretend like
00:23:38 the hit the fucking heat, other Denver Nuggets again. And that's what they did tonight. And
00:23:41 that's why they had 12 points in the first quarter. And that's when the game effectively
00:23:45 ended right there. Yeah. So I, it's funny. I just finished talking to Jack of course. And
00:23:50 he was telling me at the press conference, Joe Mazzola was like, he really didn't want to concede
00:23:55 that they made adjustments. And he just kind of talked about like, similar to what you had to say,
00:24:00 or you played in his clip. I think that was pregame. He was talking about how they spent the
00:24:04 72 hours. And the one I played today, I think, Oh, it was postgame. Okay. And it's kind of funny
00:24:11 because the only thing they, it was like biggest adjustment ever try just try. And if you could
00:24:17 see the effort, like Pritchard, we had the moment in the stream where we went nuts because he
00:24:22 crashed the glass, got a putback and Derek White cashed in on a few putbacks as well.
00:24:27 Getting those extra shots helps like extra shot attempts are good. That's what you need.
00:24:33 And that's how you can win dog fight games. I loved it. I love the defensive effort. You
00:24:37 mentioned the screen navigation. I think Jack pinpointed Pritchard as a guy that did a tremendous
00:24:42 job of chasing hero around. That is just excellent stuff to get from your bench, a spark plug guy.
00:24:49 He's supposed to be the guy that comes in and scores buckets. Instead, he's getting offensive
00:24:53 rebounds and navigating the screens on defense. That guy rules. I love Pritchard.
00:24:58 Yes, dude. Pre-John Pritchard, man. Tenacious P was out there today. Three for five from the field,
00:25:04 three rebounds, two offensive rebounds and assist. He actually did have two turnovers.
00:25:09 I honestly don't remember the turnovers off the top of my head, but man, yeah, he came in,
00:25:13 hit a big three early. But yeah, the fact that he comes in and he's like the dirty work guy,
00:25:19 while also being the six foot one, supposed to space the floor kind of guy. Really important
00:25:26 minutes for him, man. I absolutely love it. Something that maybe they did a little bit
00:25:31 more, they pressured ball handlers a bit more. I know Bill Simmons had the tweet being like,
00:25:36 "Oh, I can't believe the Celtics figured out they should pressure the team that has no ball handlers."
00:25:41 And it worked because they won the turnover battle 12 to five. And that's the key to winning any
00:25:47 heat game is when the turnover battle. And when you're winning at 12 to five and the points off
00:25:52 turnovers, I don't have a number right in front of me, but it was like 20 to four or like they
00:25:55 dominated the turnover points off turnover battle. And if you're doing that against the heat,
00:25:59 there's no chance for them to really hang around. And so yeah, control what you can control.
00:26:04 I love it. Pressure like Duncan Robinson. I mean, I don't think he's healthy. When I watch him play,
00:26:10 there's clearly something going on there. But Caleb Martin had two turnovers. Tyler Heer had
00:26:17 four turnovers. They should be having turnovers. And this is why you run them off the line.
00:26:22 Force Caleb Martin to put the ball on the ground. Force Tyler Heer to make moves and work himself
00:26:28 into the ground. And eventually he starts to turn the ball over. Yeah. To your point, Caleb Martin
00:26:33 tried to drive a closeout today and kicked the ball out of bounds. He literally dribbled it right
00:26:37 off his fucking foot in the first quarter. And we were like, "Oh yeah." That's right. He can make
00:26:42 catch and shoot threes if you leave them wide open. But if you ask him to do anything more than that,
00:26:46 it's probably not going to go very well. And everybody not named Tyler Hero is pretty much
00:26:52 the same story. Heywood Highsmith had a couple of nice drives today. Can you think of anybody else?
00:26:57 Can you think of anybody else that has really killed them in a shot creation, drive the closeout
00:27:02 type of thing? Even like Bam. Bam is a superstar player. He's really a defensive talent more than
00:27:07 anything. He's just a hoss down low, but he does make difficult shots from time to time.
00:27:12 He does have an offensive game. And instead he's taking everything difficult. Jaime Hacquez is
00:27:19 taking everything difficult. And the rest of these guys are just hanging out and running off of Bam
00:27:23 screens, which they figured it all out today. And because they did that, it was an easy win.
00:27:28 And they did. So in game two, the heat out Celtics, the Celtics in game three,
00:27:34 the Celtics out heated the heat. They messed up the game for my end.
00:27:39 Yes. Yes. I like this. I like that. We don't need to, we don't need to play like the Celtics.
00:27:44 Hey man, this is, this is definitely a game and a win for the, the Celtics can win other ways
00:27:50 because they, they, they got off 37 threes, not a ton, didn't shoot better percentage in the heat.
00:27:56 They, they mucked it up. They, they, as I said, they took the fight to the heat and that's,
00:28:02 that's what you have to do against this team. Yeah. They really, they're fucking,
00:28:07 they make you earn it. These, these Miami Heat guys. Speaking of, I know you, you,
00:28:15 you you mentioned a tip in before Derek White. It's been too long, 28 minutes in here. We haven't,
00:28:21 we haven't spoken about Derek White here. I mean this, this game, like they awesome defense to
00:28:26 start the game. They hold the, the heat to 12 points, but the second quarter Celtics go 42
00:28:32 points scored to the heat 27, 42, 27. And like effectively that's when the game's over, right?
00:28:37 Like the, he actually won the second half technically because they won the fourth quarter
00:28:43 23 to 17, but that second quarter and Derek White was unreal in that second quarter. Derek White
00:28:50 goes five for seven, two for four from three, 12 points. And he had much of, I'm going to call it
00:28:57 the play of the game here, but he had a reverse Uno card PTSD moment.
00:29:03 Spolstra had a look at PTSD. I love it. He had the Bill Simmons with like the helicopter in the
00:29:20 background picture, but it was actually Spolstra seeing the tip and go. And it's about time. I'm
00:29:25 sick and tired. I'm the only that have to deal with this stuff. The flashback is so disgusting.
00:29:31 Derek White credit to him for having no faith in Jalen Brown as Jalen Brown is
00:29:36 he's already sprinting towards the rim. So what does that say?
00:29:41 Yeah. I hate, I do hate that. I had to come up with Jalen miss. I wish I could have come off
00:29:46 like an anybody else missed free throw. I hate that. Yeah. Derek White probably knew that one
00:29:51 wasn't going in. Yeah. I learned that rule today. So apparently if you're on the outside of the
00:29:55 three-point line, you can go as soon as the ball is released. I thought it was from outside the
00:30:00 three-point line. You can't like you're like similar to the free throw shooter. The guy
00:30:03 shooting the free throw can't move until it touches the rim. Apparently you can go as soon as
00:30:08 the ball is released from outside the three-point line. I'm not sure why people don't do that more
00:30:11 often. I guess it's so you can't get runouts back the other way, but Derek White and then the flash
00:30:17 to Spolstra's face there. I really love to see that. Speaking of Spolstra and like, I shouldn't
00:30:25 go too far off base here, but Spolstra is definitely searching from a personnel perspective.
00:30:32 No Kevin Love. We saw Thomas Bryant today as well. Once the Celtics, you know, stopped letting the
00:30:39 Heat play a Celtic strategy, the roster on the Heat isn't quite up to snuff here, but sticking
00:30:44 on Derek White, man, those 12 points in that second quarter when the Celtics are at their best,
00:30:51 I feel like is when Derek White is being aggressive and like coming into the series,
00:30:55 coming into the playoffs in general, like I had like one point or one stat for each player. I
00:31:00 didn't even have a stat for Derek White. It's like you just know it when you see it with Derek White.
00:31:05 When he's just taking over in little spurts, being aggressive because so much attention gets
00:31:11 shaded towards Jason and Jalen. Like he's getting these easier matchups, whether it's got Jovic or
00:31:16 Hiro or Highsmith. He can attack. He starts to have success and the next thing you know,
00:31:21 he's getting downhill, helps coming. He finds that little lob to Al Horford for a little alley-oop,
00:31:27 probably the first alley-oop from Horford we've seen in a little while. But yeah, Derek White
00:31:32 being aggressive is just like one of the number one symptoms of the Celtics being successful.
00:31:37 It's true. I want to credit Jack because he mentioned this to me in our recording,
00:31:43 not to ruin the whole thing for anybody that's actually going to watch it.
00:31:45 But he was talking about Derek White having possessions where he was the point guard.
00:31:53 And like there was a lot of Tatum at point guard today and there usually is, but when Derek White
00:31:59 did it today, Jack mentioned it being when they were taking over the game. He slowed everything
00:32:04 down. He made sure the ball moved. He made sure the right shots were shot. And on top of all of
00:32:10 that, he hustled. He had several offensive, what do you have? Two offensive rebounds, three, three
00:32:16 offensive rebounds before I start talking on my ass. And he had two of them were put backs.
00:32:20 Don't know about the third one. He had an incredibly clutch stretch in this game. And
00:32:26 one thing we talk about with the Celtics all the time is, hey, they suck in the clutch and it's
00:32:32 facts. And at the end of games, I don't think they're very good. I hate watching them play a
00:32:35 close game. Heart monitor, uh, catastrophe, but at the same time with basketball, there are clutch
00:32:43 moments throughout the game, regardless of what the time or even the score says, because Miami
00:32:48 was trying to make a comeback in this game. Obviously they didn't want to just roll over
00:32:52 and die. It's not what the Miami heat do. And it felt like Derek White made very timely baskets,
00:32:57 whether it were the putback ones, whether it were a couple of threes he made, I think he had one in
00:33:01 particular when they were kind of chipping in the lead and he just brought it right back to 22.
00:33:05 Those are the shots that need him to hit. And typically in crunch time, he actually is
00:33:10 an incredible shooter. So I think that bleeds over into those big momentum shots too. And that's huge
00:33:16 for him. Yeah, dude, Derek White. I think, I mean, Mr. White, if you're listening, I think
00:33:23 there's a chance you might be, you keep applying to the tweets, like just, and I know the Celtics,
00:33:29 like there's been plenty of times when it's like, when, when Derek White's being himself,
00:33:34 that's good for this team, like Tatum, Jalen. And I just think it's just in his nature to take a
00:33:39 step back and like, kind of let things unfold. And hopefully today is like, go, they go back
00:33:45 and watch the film. They go back and watch what he did in that second quarter. Like I'm, I'm
00:33:49 absolutely, I'm with you. Like all the numbers of Derek White, uh, Pausingas pick and roll numbers.
00:33:55 They're like absolutely elite. There's a reason why Derek White like is tops in the league in
00:34:00 estimated plus minus when it's usually just superstars. Like he just is one of those guys
00:34:05 where good things happen. And the more that he's involved, the better, like he's really, he really
00:34:12 kind of is like the star version of Marcus Smart. It's like, there's, there's, there's, there's very,
00:34:18 like, there's, there's no, no, no yes moments with Derek White. It's just like, oh, he's just doing
00:34:23 the right thing. Like very rarely is the decision that he makes the wrong thing. It's like, oh,
00:34:28 that make, that's the correct thing to do. He's like, when he, like, he takes pull up threes when
00:34:34 he has to. And it's like, whereas someone else might try and move the ball. It's like shot clocks
00:34:38 getting down to seven or eight and he gets the ball swung to him and he just pops it. He, you
00:34:43 know, he misses a bunch of them, but it's like, get that shot up. That's like, that's more valuable
00:34:47 than whatever we're going to find with seven seconds left on the shot clock. Yeah. He's like
00:34:50 the yes, yes, yes version. And Marcus kind of had to, I hate that. I kind of took a shot at Marcus
00:34:56 right here. But I'll bring it back once we start talking about true holiday. Don't worry. So yeah,
00:35:02 I think, yeah, go ahead. Derek White, not for nothing also was like the guy that tried his
00:35:09 very best to win game seven. Like he had a takeover. Yes. Stretching game seven last year.
00:35:15 He can do it. Like he can legitimately create for himself. He can create for the rest of the team.
00:35:20 He had a possession where he cooked Jovich. He hit him with a mid range step back like a superstar
00:35:25 would. You don't see Derek White take mid range fallaways. That is a superstar level of shots.
00:35:31 You don't guys like Derek White don't get to take shots like that. And he has permission.
00:35:35 So credit to him. He ruled in this game. The Celtics are absolutely at their best when he
00:35:41 is firing and he's just confident and he's willing to take the shots and take the risks
00:35:45 because he might be like their third best offensive player. Seriously.
00:35:50 Yeah, look, he's legitimately a three level scorer. He doesn't get to the range a lot,
00:35:56 but that was something he did more of when he was in San Antonio. I don't have the mid range
00:35:59 numbers up in front of me here, but I bet you they're like just like everything that
00:36:03 Derek White does. I bet you they're pretty good because all of his numbers are pretty good.
00:36:06 Yeah. Like that, that mid range pull up over Jovich was awesome. So like him being the guy
00:36:14 is like super important and he has gone in and out of playoff games and series since he's arrived in
00:36:21 Boston. And this year in particular was like, okay, he's taken another step up. Part of that
00:36:28 with Marcus going out the door, they like, they absolutely empowered him to be this version of
00:36:33 himself. And we hadn't really seen that version of Derek White at all in this series until today.
00:36:37 I'm wondering if I'm just blanking on how good he was in the first game of this series,
00:36:42 but I don't remember him being like a takeover or anything.
00:36:43 He had like 13 points, but he didn't really have points until the game was over. I don't think.
00:36:48 He just wasn't very involved. He didn't take a lot of shots early in game one from my memory.
00:36:53 And he did play a big role in kind of helping them put out the fire in the fourth quarter,
00:37:00 but he didn't really have like a big hand in building the lead.
00:37:04 He was six, he'd have 20 points on six for 10, four for eight. So he had more points
00:37:10 than this game, which is, so we're misremembering it, but I don't know. I guess that game was also
00:37:17 different. Like we felt like we needed the points more in this game. Like everybody was,
00:37:21 like we were just kind of dominating that game kind of from the get-go, I guess. But the point
00:37:27 stands, we got aggressive Derek White in game one and we won by 20. We got aggressive Derek White
00:37:34 again and we won by 20. And what did we not get in game two? Aggressive Derek White. So
00:37:39 more aggressive Derek White is always the move. Jason Tatum, Jalen Brown,
00:37:44 probably should talk about them. The guys that are the superstars on this team.
00:37:48 - Yeah, yeah, sorry. Fuck those guys. They're incredible.
00:37:52 - Yeah. Jason Tatum, 22 points on 16 shots, six for 16, two for seven from three, eight for 12
00:38:01 from the line. 12 free throw attempts, I love. Eight for 12, I don't love. That's 66.7%. 11
00:38:08 boards, six assists, zero turnovers. So like overall, like good game. Obviously you probably
00:38:14 want him to make one more of those threes. Got a stat for us here. Players with over 3,000 playoff
00:38:22 points before turning 27 years old. Kobe, LeBron, Jason Tatum. Pretty good.
00:38:29 - He probably fucking loves that. He's going to try so hard to pass LeBron this season.
00:38:34 - So it's just him and Kobe. You know what was funny is when I opened the box score,
00:38:42 I could not believe Tatum was six of 16. And I am typically the notice every bad Tatum thing
00:38:47 ever guy. This wasn't a game that felt like that. It actually felt like a Tatum takeover game where
00:38:52 he was dominating and making all the shots and he hit them all when they mattered. I can't believe
00:38:58 he only made six shots in this game. I guess they all felt big and him getting to the line for 12
00:39:03 free throws obviously is important too. Just overall great game. He had control of this game.
00:39:08 He was the puppet master. Made tremendous passes to his teammates. Six assists and I'm sure he had
00:39:14 plenty more of connecting assists too. - That Hauser assist at the top.
00:39:18 - The dime in the cup. - Yeah, that was beautiful.
00:39:23 So I think that's why it probably feels better is it coincided with the Derek White second quarter.
00:39:27 So Tatum, second quarter, 13 points, three rebounds, two assists, zero turnovers obviously.
00:39:33 But three for six, two for four from three and five for six from the free throw line. So like
00:39:38 he did take over in that second quarter and kind of as we said before that second quarter was,
00:39:42 that was the game. And so he took over and the game was over. Solid game. I think Tatum's been
00:39:48 great in this series so far. Hasn't been incredibly efficient in games one and three, but the way that
00:39:56 he's controlled the game in those games. We wanted him to take over more in game two. That was like
00:40:03 the one guy that was kind of really, really cooking and we would have liked to see like,
00:40:06 ironically that was his most efficient night. Scoring the ball was game two, but
00:40:10 I definitely felt like he was more impactful in the last two games. But yeah, I know,
00:40:15 just like, we call it a captain's knock on first to the floor here. It's for the cricket fans out
00:40:22 there. Captain's knock, just a real steady performance. Didn't get out, just really steady
00:40:28 the ship. And that's all we needed from Tatum today was just settle the ship down, play good
00:40:32 defense and zero turnovers against the Heat team for Tatum is really important.
00:40:35 It really feels like the captain's knock should be the goal every game for Tatum. I think the
00:40:48 Celtics are truly at their best if he's just doing what is like what he needs to do and he's not
00:40:54 doing anything extra. Now there are absolutely going to be times where he has to do everything
00:41:00 and that's fine, but this team is so good. They got all these guys. He doesn't have to have 35
00:41:07 points. He can. And it's great when he takes over a big game. He's done it in the past. He's had
00:41:14 massive games and big back against the wall spots. And that's what makes him great. But also what
00:41:19 makes him great is having six assists, 11 rebounds and 22 points while only taking 16 shots, which is
00:41:25 far less than people expected. Just overall solid game. Can't complain at all. I don't love the
00:41:33 three. Yeah, I know, but seven, seven, seven is not too many. That's that's down from his normal
00:41:39 amount. So that's okay. Yeah, dude. Like the best version of this Celtics team is the spread
00:41:44 offense. Like Jalen ends up having 20 shots in this game, but like 22 points, 22 points, 18, 16,
00:41:53 like, and that was the same in game one in that everyone was very, very even. Like no, like Tatum
00:42:00 had the most field goal attempts in game one, but he only had 18. It was 18 for him. Jalen had 12,
00:42:05 Paul Zinkes had 13, Derek White had 10, Drew Holliday had eight field goal attempts. He made
00:42:10 two. So it was nice, nice, nice and spread around. Yeah. And that's, I think that's the version of
00:42:18 Tatum. Well, look, there's going to be moments. I think that's going to be the key though.
00:42:21 Game two, can he feel it? And like, I need to go, I need to go superstar mode because we needed him
00:42:29 to take over. And cause it was just one of those games. Whereas like today we didn't, it was,
00:42:34 it was a team, team effort. Moving the ball was the right decision. There are going to be moments
00:42:39 where we're going to need him to take over. It's like, can he sense those moments and then go to
00:42:44 that level? Cause I think that can be, that's probably a piece of the game that is just like,
00:42:49 it's hard to kind of figure out at times. It's just kind of funny that he just didn't have to
00:42:57 do anything. Just, just hanging out a game. And it also, it's funny in game two, all season,
00:43:05 I have been shouting to whoever will listen, give the ball to Chris stops down the stretch.
00:43:12 And it almost felt like they were trying to save that, like up their sleeve for a close
00:43:15 playoff game. And they really tried to force it to them. And it just wasn't the night for it.
00:43:20 It was just a really weird spot for them to all of a sudden finally try and do the right thing in the
00:43:25 clutch. Like that would have been a perfect spot for regular season Tatum. Just okay. Watch this.
00:43:30 Like he had to do it. I'm all in no problem with it.
00:43:35 Loved it. Loved it. Captain's knocked Tatum. We love to see it.
00:43:40 Um, yes. Jalen solid. Yeah, of course. Yeah. Always top to bottom baby. The Jalen Brown,
00:43:53 uh, mostly solid game again, like the over four from three, but he ends up 11 for 20. So
00:44:01 only, only took one free throw over one. I don't know. I think the free throws is going to be
00:44:06 something we're going to have to just live with at this point. Um, calculated miss rather than
00:44:11 getting one point. That's right. So maybe that's just all in thing. Everybody start rebounding
00:44:16 Jalen Brown free throws here, but yeah, I thought it was solid. He, he like attacked hero the
00:44:23 correct way for the most part. I thought going through guys getting to the rim. Um, I wonder
00:44:27 if I can pull up his, uh, his shot chart from, from this game. Cause I feel like it was like
00:44:35 very, um, a lot around the rim today, but for the most part, I liked his, um, liked his game.
00:44:42 Yeah. Shot zone. Yeah. Most 12 of his attempts. Yeah. Actually pretty much everything came from
00:44:47 the paint and except for the three point shots. And that's the type of Jalen that I like,
00:44:51 like he's just gotten so good in that mid range in that paint area. There's like little floater shots.
00:44:55 So didn't hit any threes, but I didn't think he forced any threes either. And so I thought Jalen,
00:45:02 you know, again, Jalen one, two, if I can get one turnover from Jalen,
00:45:05 that's usually pretty symptomatic of Jalen having a pretty, pretty good game.
00:45:12 Yeah. I mean, I liked that he was 11 of 16 inside the arc. Very good. Yeah. Very good. He was under
00:45:20 control on the drive. The turnovers reflect that that is when Jalen's at his best that stretch he
00:45:25 had in March when he was just dominating games, the 46 point, whatever he had in Denver, that was
00:45:31 because he was going to the basket and he was doing it strong. He was knocking guys out of the way.
00:45:35 And he looked like nobody could stop him. Saw a little bit of that tonight, went through hero a
00:45:39 couple of times, had some great drives, had some nice cuts without the basketball. That's a great
00:45:45 way for him to get involved. It's a great way to limit the turnovers, not worry about him trying to
00:45:49 handle the ball on the drive because it's not something he's the greatest at. That's when he
00:45:54 can impact the game. Go for it. I'm in. Do it. Jalen cut. Be ready without the ball. I love the
00:46:00 game we got from Jalen today. I like the shot selection. I thought he forced a few couple
00:46:04 mid ranges that weren't the greatest, but overall he's so efficient inside the arc. Go ahead.
00:46:10 Yeah, no, it's perfect, man. He's really cut down on his three point attempts. And he said
00:46:15 that earlier in the year, like that this team doesn't need that for me. He's the rim pressure.
00:46:19 He's like, can we just get a bucket sometimes? And like he gets, he gets you good looks. 11 for 16
00:46:25 inside the arc is absolutely beautiful. Jalen and Jason, like they were, and they were excellent in
00:46:31 game two as well. We kind of struggled offensively outside of those guys. I thought they rebounded
00:46:36 quite well. The only guy that I think had a not great game, Drew Holiday, one for five, one for
00:46:45 three from three, two rebounds, six assists, one steel, two blocks, two turnovers. I feel like
00:46:53 we're getting the Drew Holiday that we were warned about in the playoffs. Kind of, but also he's not
00:47:01 like actively hurting them. He had, he had it like team high plus minus today. And some people believe
00:47:07 in plus minus some people don't, but he did a lot of that in game two as well. He gets, that's
00:47:11 cause he gets to play with Tatum. I mean, it's fair. It's fair. He did a good job moving the
00:47:17 ball, which is kind of his primary offensive function. I suppose he sets, he makes the right
00:47:24 reads. He's calm. If he has to be the, the nail guy against his own, he's not making layups,
00:47:31 which isn't the greatest thing in the world. He did get a three waved off cause his foot was on
00:47:36 the out of bounds line. So he actually low key should have six points to a four from three
00:47:41 and two of six from the field. That would look better. It would look better. But I don't know.
00:47:47 He's still like did an okay job on defense. Jack had high praise for his defense. I know in the
00:47:52 stream, the gang wasn't thrilled with his defensive output. His closeouts sometimes
00:47:58 weren't the greatest, but overall, I don't think he's actively hurting them. He's still kind of
00:48:04 tackling the things that they need him to tackle. He had two blocks and a steel in this game. So
00:48:08 like the statistic defense was pretty deep, decent. Obviously that's not everything.
00:48:12 So he's not actively taking away from the team. I'm cool with it. His, his job is to be the fifth
00:48:18 guy in the starting lineup. And that's, that's been the theory with Drew this whole year. It's
00:48:23 like, if we do get the offensive bed sheeting from Drew, it's not going to have a massive impact on
00:48:30 the team. At least it shouldn't. Like when he was the second option or the third option for the Bucks,
00:48:35 him having those catatonic offensive outputs is obviously going to be a disaster. But like he had
00:48:41 five shot attempts tonight. Like he literally was tied for last on the team on shot attempts. Even
00:48:49 Hawford had more shot attempts than him. Even Hauser had more shot attempts than him. So it's
00:48:53 like, okay, that's, that's what I like to see. Last game he forced it. He had 12 field goal attempts
00:48:58 and he was forcing it. Tonight, didn't force it. I don't mind him taking pull-up threes,
00:49:02 even though they don't feel like the right shot at times. In the playoffs, you got to get shots up.
00:49:08 You got to try and get points out of the mud. He was sixth in the NBA on all players that took more
00:49:13 than two pull-up threes per game this year. 39% on pull-up threes. Elite, elite number. So you have
00:49:20 to be, you have to live with him taking those shots. He was better today. I thought he made
00:49:26 some really nice plays. I'm just like, I'm wary. And I do think he will try, he will settle in
00:49:33 similar to how he took the longest to settle into his role on this team, which I've said before in
00:49:38 the playoffs. Maybe it's just kind of the same thing again, where we just kind of like got to
00:49:42 get to a point where Drew gets comfortable with himself in this new context in the playoffs.
00:49:48 Because Joe Mizzou can talk about how the playoffs and regular season are the same. They're just not.
00:49:55 And I think maybe Drew, he needs to figure that out a little bit.
00:49:59 Yeah. So I'm curious if the Celtics play really well Monday and they blow out the heat again,
00:50:07 do you keep them out there a little bit to try and get some kind of offense going to get them
00:50:12 a little bit comfortable putting the ball in the basket? Like tonight, it was really weird when they
00:50:16 subbed out and brought in like the bench guys because Jalen and Derek White were still on the
00:50:20 floor. Maybe Drew's in that role where it's like, okay, Drew, run a pick and roll, get a layup,
00:50:24 see it go through the basket, be comfortable taking a step back three. Like the three he
00:50:29 made today was kind of a big one. I think I've said every shot that I talked about somebody
00:50:33 making was a big one. They are all big, but I can see the concern. Like I get it. His numbers
00:50:43 haven't been good very so far, but at the same time, I'm, I'm cool with like his role. He has
00:50:49 like a good place on this team where like, like you said, you can handle the offensive stuff.
00:50:55 He's fitting in the team. He's not actively hurting them. He's not forcing it in this game,
00:51:00 at least. So that's fine. It'll be fine going forward. And maybe he will get a rhythm. That'll
00:51:04 be great. Yeah. The three point shots too, looks good. Mostly like, as you said, he had a foot on
00:51:09 the line today should have been two for four. So like if he's going to be shooting well enough
00:51:14 from three, that's really the only thing that I think really matters from an offense perspective,
00:51:20 as long as he's not like turning the ball over too much for how much he's touching the ball,
00:51:25 which like two turnovers for how, how high his usage was today is like not ideal, but you know,
00:51:31 overall, okay. I'm just getting, I'm getting like, I can, I can see there being moments where I'm
00:51:39 like, okay, maybe Drew needs to go to the bench and it needs to be the Horford Pauls Ingus line
00:51:44 up instead. Sure. I wonder if, if that doesn't get waved off, if he has a better game.
00:51:50 You know, like see the first one going, get comfortable like that kind of thing that could
00:51:54 have happened for him today too. If it, I mean, I guess he technically still buried the shot,
00:51:58 so he should have that like mental, like yes, in his mind, but he should be okay.
00:52:03 Yeah, I can be fine. All right. Anything, what else we got? So Cornette played today.
00:52:09 He's fine. Which, so he came in early. He was fine. KP got those two fouls early. So I think
00:52:15 that was part of why he came back in. Didn't love how Mazzullo went to the Horford Cornette lineup.
00:52:22 It's not something that's been super amazing this year, but I do understand putting him in when
00:52:27 they were struggling to find some offense. Derek White and Cornette had been awesome in the pick
00:52:31 and roll this year. And it's like, okay, let's throw Cornette out there. Maybe they find some
00:52:35 easy baskets off the pick and roll. They didn't. Joe did not stick with Cornette for long. Cornette
00:52:40 played five minutes in this game. Was a minus six. It didn't work. It wasn't, but it wasn't,
00:52:44 I didn't think it was disastrous, disastrous by any means. No, I mean, Cornette is fine.
00:52:51 The great thing about Luke Cornette is if you don't notice him, good game. If you do notice
00:52:58 him for a good reason, it's house money. And it's very rare that you're like, huh, this guy sucks.
00:53:03 Get him off the floor. It just doesn't happen. He sets good screens. He rebounds. He can test
00:53:08 well at the rim. He's fine. He got put in a few switches today. Don't think he got cooked,
00:53:13 but he didn't look super comfortable. I don't expect to see a ton of him in this series,
00:53:17 but there could be a place for him somewhere down the line in the playoffs. It's just kind of hard
00:53:22 with Porzingis and Horford being such mainstays in the rotation that you're like, does Cornette
00:53:27 really need to take either one of these guys off the floor? The answer is no.
00:53:31 No, yeah, exactly. If there's no foul trouble, then there's no reason for him to play. But dude,
00:53:37 it's nice to have him because like he can come in and just be like, if you, that's all you need
00:53:41 five minutes. And then that's the K and if it's not disastrous, then that's the KP foul trouble
00:53:48 solved. It is interesting to me that it's not Tillman. Where like when that Tillman trade
00:53:53 happened, I was like, oh, we're going to get Tillman in the playoffs. He's kind of built
00:53:56 for the playoffs, switch everything, kind of a really good defender,
00:53:58 but he's definitely the fourth big on this team. I don't really expect to see him.
00:54:06 Celtics undefeated with Cornette. Missing piece.
00:54:09 I like that. What's up brother? Jesse in the chat. Welcome, welcome, welcome.
00:54:15 Special Cornette, special Hauser, special plays. All right, Hauser, two for four from three. Dude,
00:54:27 man, he just comes in, he plays solid defense, he hits big shots. You talk about big shots.
00:54:32 Hauser, was he two? I got my one for five today. I look at all three. I got all three of my box
00:54:40 scores up here. So I'm like, did I screw that up from the first three games? Yeah. So one for five,
00:54:46 but the one that he made was big. So it is a tricky matchup for Hauser because like the way to
00:54:54 exploit Hauser's defense is to run him through screens. In isolation, Hauser's good defensively,
00:54:58 but when he now starts navigating screens, that's when he can struggle. And so this matchup can be
00:55:05 a little bit tricky for Hauser, but so I can understand going to Cornette to see if they can
00:55:13 survive some of those minutes without going to Hauser. But two for six, doesn't kill you.
00:55:17 He ends up being a plus 15 in this game, but yeah, not a huge Hauser game now that I've read
00:55:25 the box score correctly, but I think going forward he can play. But yeah.
00:55:30 But one technical draw. Got Tyler Hero to throw the basketball out.
00:55:35 Yes, which was weird. Tyler Hero, none too pleased that Sam Hauser is a white guy from Wisconsin
00:55:41 because that shows other people what a white guy from Wisconsin should act/sound like. And
00:55:47 Tyler Hero also being a white guy from Wisconsin does not act or sound like that. So he probably
00:55:53 isn't too pleased that, you know, "Oh man, they might know I'm being a phony."
00:55:59 He's a tier one, tier one phony Tyler Hero.
00:56:04 Did you see his post-game outfit?
00:56:06 Oh no, but I've...
00:56:08 He looks like such an asshole. Not that you would be shocked.
00:56:11 I mean, one that stuck out to me from some time is he was wearing like a beanie that looked like
00:56:16 he had that head like, he wears like a bunny rabbit hat. And like, granted I'm the guy wearing
00:56:21 a colorful bucket hat right now, but like, Tyler Hero wore like a beanie that looked like...
00:56:27 Yeah, yeah, it's also true. He like, yeah, it's kind of supposed to be dumb. And so,
00:56:32 but he had this beanie that had like rabbit ears on it. And I legitimately found
00:56:36 a two-year-old hat that was a rabbit beanie and it looked identical. So like, I don't know,
00:56:42 man. Yeah, I'm not a Tyler Hero guy. He's got the pubes on the chin. Gotta get rid of those as well.
00:56:46 Yeah, good job by Hauser drawing a technical. I'm not sure why Hauser,
00:56:50 Hero was so mad at Hauser. He just kind of like tripped and he got the foul call too.
00:56:55 He's like, "You can't be blowing up my spot like this. People are going to start asking why I don't
00:57:00 sound like you." People are going to start wondering why I'm not loading up on cheese
00:57:05 in the post-games. It's just like, "What's going on here?" I mean, I don't know. Look,
00:57:10 we got game four. Thankfully only one day off here. We don't have to... Yeah, which I think is
00:57:16 good. We don't get to revel in the... I'm ready to go now. Let's get the next game under the road.
00:57:20 I can play right now. I'm ready. Let's get going. Let's get up 3-1 in this series.
00:57:26 I'm feeling better now. Obviously, after a win, we feel better. But
00:57:31 just play defense. That's this series. It's like the Heat are going to have success mucking up
00:57:38 our offense. Just come out and do the best possible job you can playing defense. Lock
00:57:44 the fuck in on that end. I don't see how the Heat can win this series or win another game for that
00:57:48 matter. Any closing thoughts, Sam? Literally, please just try. I'm just asking, please try.
00:57:55 Maximum try. Just try. Maximum try. Yeah. Well, Denver loses tonight. The one night I loaded up
00:58:03 on Denver Moneyline. Did you? I did. I loaded up on their Moneyline last game as well. So,
00:58:10 we'll call it even. But I'm surprised. Denver don't know how to step on the throat. But here's
00:58:17 everyone that's going to say like, "Oh, Denver, they should get shit by the media for losing."
00:58:22 They won a title. They went 16-4 in the playoffs last year. They, to me, have earned the benefit
00:58:27 of the doubt. The Celtics have not earned the benefit of the doubt, in my opinion. So, yeah.
00:58:32 That's my take on people thinking that with their nuggets. Yeah. They absolutely have earned it.
00:58:40 Yeah. They did have the doubt last year for what it's worth.
00:58:42 Yeah. I doubted that part. I was like, "Fucking Jokic, it sucks."
00:58:47 Put him in a pick and roll, dude. Yeah. Yeah. Put him in a pick and roll. That'll work.
00:58:53 Yeah. So, another team, 3-1, Celtics 2-1. We'll be back at some point with another podcast. We'll
00:59:01 be back streaming game four. Sam, thank you for sticking out for late night. Oh, yeah.
00:59:07 Been a pleasure as always. Go watch the How 'Bout Them Celtics postgame show as well, which...
00:59:12 When was that one we dropped in? 5 AM our time. 9 PM Australian time.
00:59:17 Let me know what time difference. Even though you guys got a couple over there,
00:59:21 but I know one of them. I know one of them is 4.
00:59:23 All right. That's impressive. I can't do the reverse. I can only go Australia to the US.
00:59:28 I can't flip it. I guess it's the same, but in my head, it gets confusing. All right. Blorp,
00:59:34 Rivens, Mary Poppins, Landon, The Real Daryl, Jazz, everybody listening to the audio podcast.
00:59:40 It's been a pleasure. Until next time.
00:59:44 Go Celtics.
00:59:58 (upbeat music)