Celtics vs Cavaliers NBA Cup Preview: How Did Cavs Start 15-0? | Garden Report
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00:00Hey, Bobby Manning here. Welcome to round two of our attempt to talk Celtics Cavs. Welcome
00:09back in everybody here and of course tomorrow we got the undefeated Cavs going against the
00:14champion Celtics. Second round rematch here as we always do when we talk Cavs. We got
00:19Justin Rowan here from the chase down podcast. Not going to run back over everything we talked
00:25so far. Went through a little Cavs, what's different this year, Mobley's success, all
00:30that's been a big part along with better pace, better offense for that team. And I think the
00:37Kenny Atkinson thing is worth tracking back on here, Justin, because obviously there's a team
00:41that's running it back, had a lot of injury issues last year and we didn't really get to see them at
00:46full here, but they make a coaching change. One that, you know, despite as high as I was on this
00:50team, I wasn't sure about that one. I know sometimes it has to happen, but I feel like JB
00:56was great there and built this awesome defensive structure. I wouldn't have liked that move as
01:00much if it wasn't Kenny coming in because just a phenomenal offensive coach, a guy who threw all
01:06his ingenuity in Brooklyn and, you know, was obviously part of the Warriors team that beat
01:10the Celtics a couple of years ago on that staff. I felt great about him coming in here and making
01:15some needed changes offensively. So what have you seen from him and what he's implemented so far
01:20to shake up this offense and make it the number one offense in the league? Yeah, I think Kenny
01:25has really benefited from his experience and it's something he's talked about a lot where, you know,
01:30he took the firing in Brooklyn pretty hard and, you know, there's a lot of self-evaluation and
01:36stuff like that. And then, you know, he had the opportunity to coach under Ty Lue. He had the
01:41opportunity to coach under Steve Kerr. We got to be part of a championship there and really kind
01:45of embrace the challenge of, you know, continuous improvement and learning how to manage those
01:51star personalities. And coming to Cleveland, the thing he's talked about a lot is we're not going
01:58to change up everything, right? Like, we're not going to change up what we're doing defensively
02:03because there's such a strong foundation there. We don't have to reinvent the wheel when it comes
02:07to the offense because the funny thing about the offense, a lot of it was coordinated by Luke
02:11Walton, you know, coming from that Warriors system. There was already a foundation of, all right, we
02:16have some split cuts. We have, you know, sets where Mobley's bringing up the ball. What's really kind
02:21of changed has been just, I guess, the ability to get buy-in and just cleaning up the low-hanging
02:28fruit, right? Like making sure that nobody is passing up those open shots. We've seen it time
02:33and time again with Darius Garland where teams would go under and he's such a pass-first player,
02:38he wasn't punishing them consistently. Now, Garland is taking those shots every single time
02:43and that's forcing the defenses to have to play him honestly, to, you know, kind of pick their
02:49poison. We're seeing more off-ball opportunities for both Darius and Donovan Mitchell as a result
02:55of Evan Mobley generating offense. We're just seeing, you know, consistent ball movement.
03:00One of the things that he did throughout training camp was they would practice with an 18-second
03:04shot clock rather than a full 24 just to really emphasize, hey, we got to get this tempo up.
03:10Like, the funny thing is it's not like the starting five is playing dramatically quicker. In fact,
03:16when I checked two games ago, the last time they had all played, all four of them,
03:20they're actually playing like a possession slower when you look at the pace. But the biggest
03:25difference is that pace is no longer grinding to a halt when it gets to crunch time. They are
03:29consistently running their offensive sets, even when they get tired. And that was the biggest
03:34thing they would get out. They would do good things at times last year, but when push came
03:39to shove, when they played some of the best defenses, when it came to the playoffs, the bad
03:43habits would all come through. And I think cleaning up the low hanging fruit and really just getting
03:48that across the board buy-in from the players and building off of the foundation that was already
03:54there. That's kind of been the secret recipe here that's made Atkinson so effective so far
03:59as a Cavs head coach. Yeah. And I think they're in a good position to take advantage of the Celtics
04:06where they're vulnerable right now. And we talked about a little bit in our first recording there,
04:10the Celtics rim protection issues. I think they were 23rd in opposing percentages around the rim
04:16last time I looked, 27th in points in the paint. The Raptors just hammered them the other night.
04:21So yeah, that's going to be a spot where obviously the Cavs are efficient, effective.
04:27They can get the ball in there to mobile. They can get the ball in there to Alan in particular,
04:31who I'm excited to see. And you know what I was saying before we came off the other stream,
04:34that's pretty cool about this calf start here is, you know, I, I love this team a year ago when we
04:39saw them in more full positions, obviously tied Jerome's a guy who only played two games last
04:44year. That's now back in the fold and looking good. So all of that I'd say is exciting because
04:51you're going to see this team now as it always could have been. And if, you know, whether Mitchell
04:57left or they traded Garland or Alan or whoever that might've been, we always would have been
05:00looking back at this, like, oh man, what if they were just healthy that year? What would this have
05:04looked like? Or what could they have done? That's, that's all what we're seeing right now. Like you
05:10get that extra chance now you get a new coach. And this obviously is a team that has major,
05:15major potential, but based on what we've seen so far, who they've played that whole thing,
05:23how real is this? Like, is this going to be one of the best teams in the NBA this year?
05:26Is this a team that could push the Celtics in the East when push comes to shove?
05:31Yeah, I think Boston should remain the title favorite. And I think, you know, going into
05:36series, I would pick Boston in that series. But I do think that the calves are kind of uniquely
05:41situated to, to push them, right? Like, I think they've played Boston very well over the last
05:47couple of years that we've seen, you know, the two big tandem be very effective against them.
05:53I thought they did a good job last year, not only game two, where they went into Boston
05:57and had that blowout win, but even game four with no Mitchell, no Alan that, that game really came
06:04down to the wire and, you know, Boston had 30 more free throws in that game. And I'll always be,
06:09you know, I'll always be that. Yeah, yeah, yeah. Because, you know, I'm not like you,
06:15you have to be a journalist that's objective. I can be a biased fan and complain about stuff
06:19like that. But, you know, I thought they were clearly even in that game, no, no Mitchell,
06:25no Alan Garland was, you know, a shell of himself. Mobley was playing through a high ankle sprain
06:30throughout that series. So there was a lot of things going against them, but they found ways
06:35to be competitive. The Garland, Mitchell, Struess, and Mobley four-man unit had a positive net
06:42rating against Boston in the playoffs. It had an elite defensive rating, which, you know,
06:47you always wonder, can the two guards hold up defensively when they're playing in elite
06:52offense like Boston is the two bigs enough to cover up for it? Well, you didn't have the two
06:57bigs and you had, you know, a six, five small forward and Max Struess, and you did hold up
07:02well defensively. So I think stuff like that is at least encouraging. I do think, you know,
07:07Boston with Porzingis is a different animal, Boston with Jason Tatum, having a corrected jumper
07:13is a different animal than we saw in the playoffs last year. So, you know, it's never going to be
07:18a one-to-one comparison, but I think the Cavs are really putting themselves in a good position to,
07:24you know, avoid Boston until the conference finals. And I think, you know, what we've seen
07:29in the playoffs the last five, six, seven, eight years is you just got to kind of hang around. You
07:35got to, you know, be competitive, be in position to capitalize on lucky breaks if they come along.
07:41And I think the Cavs certainly can, you know, challenge Boston and maybe take advantage of
07:46an opportunity there. But this is a team that should have some runway moving forward as well.
07:53Yeah. And I feel good about their chances tomorrow. I think the Celtics are four-point
07:57favorites at home. And the one thing that's going to be interesting to watch.
08:01Absolutely should be. Every small forward is dead for the Cavs right now.
08:05Yes. Right. And that's a factor here for sure. How are they going to stay in front of Tatum and
08:09Brown with all those wings out? When they're healthy, I think they have some wing questions
08:13here as we've talked about for years now. So with Wade out and Wade's officially out for this game,
08:19Dean Wade, El Coro, Merrill, and Rovert as well. Wow. Like that's all the wings right there.
08:27Drew's out. We got to add Max Drew's to the equation as well. He's out.
08:32Yeah. And he's been out for most of the season. So that's definitely a
08:35concern tomorrow. Celtics concern, no poor Zingas, bad rim protection to start this year. So
08:40vulnerabilities on both sides. I'm interested to see how that shakes out. But when both sides
08:44are full, if it does come down to a playoff series, the one thing I'm going to look at so far
08:49that I do find interesting here is I think the Cavs are taking better quality threes
08:54overall from the numbers I've looked at, but they're not getting up the total. Certainly
08:59that Boston is and who is right. I mean, they just take it to the extreme. They did it last
09:04year and now they've taken it to another level this year and you just see team after team and
09:09the Raptors actually did a pretty good job of it on Saturday. I don't know how they did
09:13taking no threes and keeping up with the Celtics through points and the pain alone.
09:18But for most teams on the opposite side of this, you just look up at the three point totals at the
09:23end of the game and how many threes each team's hitting. And it's just a staggering amount that
09:28you have to overcome as a team going against Boston here. And you know, the Cavs, they got
09:32Mitchell who can get them up on his own and Garland, you know, a pretty solid three point
09:36shooter and he's on fire to start this year. You got some wings who are off to solid starts there,
09:42but you also have the two non-shooting effectively bigs there. So in this matchup,
09:47it's going to be interesting to see what weighs out heavier here. The Cavs' interior scoring
09:54or the Celtics' ability to just get threes up in droves.
09:58Yeah. And you know, Cleveland has taken a, funny enough, they've taken a step back in terms of the
10:03volume of three pointers that they take there. And that surprised me.
10:07Yeah. And honestly, I think it's really just a result of how the offense plays,
10:13which is, you know, equal opportunity. Let's attack what the defense is giving us.
10:18And we really have seen them kind of come out bombs away in the first quarter where they are
10:22getting a lot of threes up. And then the defense gets into such a scramble trying to contain
10:27their three point shooting that they're just feasting at the rim. Like they are generating
10:32easy, easy opportunities at the rim and they kill you in points of the paint.
10:35So I don't think it's necessarily a philosophy of, you know, not taking as many threes or anything
10:42like that. I think they are capable of getting up 40, 50 threes if that's what the defense is
10:46giving them. And they're very comfortable doing that. But they're looking for the highest quality
10:52shot at all times. They are looking for early opportunities offensively. And if those are
10:57coming at the three point line, I think they're going to take them. I think they're going to have
11:01to get into a shootout with Boston. Like I think as counterintuitive as that is, they're missing
11:07depth on the wing when it comes to their ability to guard defensively. One of the things they've
11:11kind of fallen back on, you know, throughout the season so far is going to a zone to throw teams
11:17off and, you know, it gets teams out of zones, bombing away from three, know what Boston wants
11:21to do bomb away from three. So I think Cleveland is going to have to play this relatively straight
11:27up. And, you know, if they're feasting at the rim, like, I think they're going to continue
11:31to hunt those shots. But as soon as you try to account for that, they are going to kick it out.
11:36They are going to generate wide open three point looks. And, you know, that's part of why they,
11:41they currently have the best offensive rating in NBA history. Like they, you know, that's the
11:46number one offensive rating in the league so far. I think it's a good example of, and honestly,
11:51I think Boston gets a bad rap when people talk about, you know, jacking up threes and whatnot,
11:56Austin gets that many threes up because they have five playmakers on the court at all times.
12:01Like they generate high quality looks. It's not like the Houston James Harden Rockets where,
12:07you know, just running, pick and roll spamming to the spot up shooters. Their three pointers are the
12:13result of their excellent playmaking. And I think Cleveland is really leveraging a lot of playmaking
12:18with their lineups. You know, you talk about Mobley and Allen not being high volume, three
12:24point shooters. Spacing has been fantastic with those two. The offense has been fantastic with
12:28those two because both of them are quality playmakers and they are very mobile bigs.
12:34And I think that that's something that's carried over from Golden State where
12:37Golden State always had really good spacing. They didn't always have really good shooters. You know,
12:42you think back to the strength in numbers teams, Leandro Barbosa, Sean Livingston, Draymond Green,
12:47Andrew Bogut. Like there are so many, a Festus Azili, like there are so many non-shooters on
12:53the court, but it never felt that way because there was always structure. There was always
12:57playmaking. There was always movement. And I think that that has been one of the big things
13:01that Kenny Atkinson has brought to this offense. Yeah. And it's interesting. You said the zone
13:06point out there. I wonder if we'll see that tomorrow. The Celtics haven't seen much.
13:11I promise you, you will see zone there. They're running it at the highest rate in the league.
13:15I don't love the zone defense. It's probably like the one kind of nitpicking thing that I got to do,
13:20but you know, it has overall been pretty effective. Yeah. And I could see it being
13:26effective against the Celtics who haven't gone inside often, who, yeah, I think Tatum's been
13:31a good place as a playmaker to start this year, but it helps to have Porzingis out there in the
13:35high post against the zone, or at least a big, that can threaten you a little bit in there.
13:39Offensive rebounding. That's something they wanted to do at a high level to start this year,
13:44and they haven't been amazing at it. So that's another way you can beat the zone that they
13:50haven't done to start this year. And of course the threes, whether that's there or not tomorrow
13:54is going to be a big deal. They've cooled off a little bit to start this year after a hot,
13:58hot star, especially on opening night there against the Knicks. So it's going to be an
14:02interesting game strategically. It really is. And I know there's some absences on both sides.
14:07That won't give us a full picture here, but if you want to get into the building tomorrow,
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15:30get that offer over there and let them know we sent you. So continuing on with our Cavs talk here.
15:37They've been interesting to watch this year. Obviously Garland's in a much better place
15:43off the injuries and he obviously got all the Celtics pressure in that series a year ago with
15:49Mitchell out especially. And Mobley, who I felt like at times was so tentative offensively in the
15:54past, just flourishing in a new way offensively. They're empowering him with the ball in his hands.
15:58There's a lot of interesting stuff that they're doing with him in particular. And it's good that
16:02Garland stayed it out here. That definitely could have been something that went a different way over
16:07the summer there. And he stays and whether it's him playing off Mitchell or Mitchell playing off
16:13him, there's a lot of variety there that they can go to offensively. And then you throw in Mobley as
16:18a ball handler too. And Lovert when he's out there. You don't have five playmakers out there,
16:22but we've seen Allen grow in that category too. So it's not traditional, but there's a lot of
16:26playmaking on that Cleveland side too. Even Ty Jerome I love. I would argue they do have five
16:31playmakers out there because when you look at kind of like the assist percentage and stuff like that,
16:35Darren Allen last year was right there with playmaking bigs like Isaiah Hardenstein. He's
16:40someone that does get those short roll opportunities. He's a very intelligent passer.
16:47He's very good kind of in the half court. He's a nice connecting piece there. But you're right,
16:52getting Darius back, not only him returning to the team, but returning to form and
16:57exceeding anything that we've seen in the past has been the biggest thing. Because
17:01I've consistently said Darius is a straw that stirs the drink offensively. When they had their
17:07best season as a team in 22-23, the difference between Darius being on court and off court
17:13offensively was the difference between a number two offense in the league and the 29th offense
17:18in the league. We're seeing that once again this year where when Darius is on the court,
17:23they have a 126 offensive rating. They have a 112 offensive rating when he's off the court.
17:28You know, normally you kind of assume that it's Donovan Mitchell that's leading that charge,
17:33but the offense has actually been 12 points better when Mitchell is on the bench versus
17:38when he's on the court. And I don't say that to say, you know, that Donovan's been bad offensively.
17:44I think Donovan's had a very nice season and it's kind of more speaks to the balance that
17:50they've had offensively that they haven't had to overburden Donovan Mitchell. And I think when
17:55Darius is rolling, he elevates everyone else's game in a way nobody else on the team does.
18:01So I think moving on from him would have been a monumental mistake, especially when you think
18:06about where his trade value probably was at coming off such an injured and bad season.
18:13So there's the Cavs. What are your Celtics thought to start this year? Because
18:17not tons different here. Same players back for the most part. I think the biggest revelation
18:22is obviously Keita being in that mix at center after signing a two-way deal a year ago,
18:26having a big impact there, particularly on the defense when he's played. I'm sure he'll be a
18:31big part of this matchup tomorrow as well with all the bigs that the Cavs play. Pritchard,
18:36who's actually questionable for this game, which is rare. I mean, he played 82 last year,
18:40has a thumb sprain. So I'm sure he'll try to go through it, but he is on the injury report
18:46ahead of tomorrow and he's probably the biggest other revelation here. The six man of the year
18:49favorite after two years ago having no minutes on this team with Brogdon here. So that's been
18:55a major difference on this team as well compared to a year ago where he was solid and would give
19:00you spurts. But every night he's been given 25, 30 minutes and a major shooting as well as
19:05playmaking burst for this group. Yeah. I mean, my thoughts on Boston is they're the title favorite.
19:11I think they are by far the best team in the NBA. I've seen some kind of hand wringing about
19:19not taking teams as seriously. Like you mentioned how Toronto was able to get to the rim at will.
19:25I think that's a veteran team that's got a lot of older players that's looking at the Hawks
19:30without young. Yeah. Like that kind of stuff happens, man, especially early in the season.
19:36Like teams don't take their preseason seriously anymore. So the first few weeks of the season
19:40basically are. So you've been through this 2016, the Cavs when they mostly run it back in 17.
19:47Yeah. Is that what you saw that regular season, just some nights like that?
19:52Not as much because I think Kevin Durant to the Warriors kind of energized them where they're
19:57like, you know, we got to we got to kind of get this thing together. They brought in Kyle Corver
20:02that season that was kind of their their early like November trade acquisition. And, you know,
20:07for my money, the 2017 Cavs were the best roster that the franchise has ever assembled. I think by
20:13far that was the best team they've ever assembled. So it's a little bit different. But, you know,
20:17when you look at Boston, it's a different situation because you got guys that had not
20:23only a very long NBA season, but they're coming off an Olympics where, you know, they were traveling
20:28with the team, whether whether or not they were playing in Jason Tatum's case, you know, that
20:33still he didn't have a long Olympic run. It's still it's not downtime, though, right? Like
20:38you're you're still traveling with the team. You're dealing with it. You know, you're practicing,
20:42you're doing all that kind of stuff. Like, it's a very, very long season. And, you know,
20:47they're managing the Kristaps Porzingis situation as well. Like, they're going to take a conservative
20:53approach to the regular season because they are so damn good. And the floor is so damn high
20:59that they're going to end up with a top two seed in the Eastern Conference, basically,
21:03even if they are coasting. So I'm not I'm not concerned about the Celtics at all. I think that
21:08they are, you know, by far the class of the league. I expect the effort level Tuesday to be
21:14higher than we've seen from Boston, basically all season. I expected to look more like opening
21:21night against the Knicks than any of those other games. But, you know, being able to flip the
21:26switch, that's not always a guarantee. But I think I think that's going to be a game that they get up
21:31for. And not just because it's the NBA Cup. Yeah. And it's it's weird. This East, we knew
21:37would take a step back this year beyond even what it was. But, man, I don't think either of us
21:43expected how bad it's been for the for the most part here. And I don't think it's as bad. I don't
21:49think it's as bad as the standings, either. Like, I think so much of it has to do with injuries.
21:52Like all these teams have gone so banged up, like, you know, Orlando's a very good team if they have
21:57Palo Banco. I think, you know, the six years, if everyone was there, I think that they would be
22:01right up there, too. Right. Like in these even getting banged up, you know, you got Achilles
22:06blowing out left, right and center. You got but it's probably it's probably panic time for the
22:12box. Right. Yeah. Like I all due respect, I just like they have not found ways to get better.
22:21They have gone older. They have not gone better. And, you know, Gary Trent, Jr.,
22:25there's reporting out there that Toronto didn't want to give him five million a year.
22:29When you have a twenty five year old and a team that is desperate to have young talent,
22:33if a franchise is willing to move away from a twenty five year old, that's probably not a good
22:37sign. You know, Delon Wright hasn't kind of elevated things. Obviously, they're missing
22:42Chris Middleton. But, you know, I just I feel like the East has kind of passed them by. And I think
22:48as a Celtics fan and as a Cleveland Cavaliers fan, we should be very, very happy that the New York
22:53Knicks gave up all of their picks and all their asset chest for Mikhail Bridges and Carl Anthony
22:59Towns rather than waiting for Giannis to become available. Right. And that's even if they get a
23:05little healthier and the guy, the only guy who can really come back there is Mitchell Robinson,
23:09who's been on and off the court for the most part anyway, beyond this one big injury here.
23:15That one, I'm not feeling good about at all. And I started to really turn on them a little bit as
23:21the season got closer and started thinking about their depth and what towns has been defensively.
23:26And it's been a disaster on that end, as good as he's been offensively there.
23:29But they'll be a playoff game. The biggest thing to me, though,
23:32is and I think in this modern NBA where parody is such a big deal, I don't think I don't think any
23:39team is completely devoid of talent. Like you look at the worst teams only like Toronto Raptors right
23:44now, they're still competitive in every single game because, you know, they've got a decent
23:48amount of talent. I just think what you see and what you're seeing with these records is because,
23:55you know, the baseline is so high, if you don't kind of have that star talent,
23:59and you don't have the depth to kind of get you over the hump or your team like Philly,
24:03that's sacrificed the depth to get the high end talent. If you're missing that high end talent,
24:09you're going to be in a lot of trouble calves. They've been able to navigate, you know,
24:13losing Maxtors for the, you know, start of the season here. They've been able to, you know,
24:20sit Evan Mobley when he was out with an illness. They've been able to sit Donovan Mitchell to give
24:24him a rest, you know, because they've got four all-star level talents. If you still have,
24:30you know, a deep bench and three all-star level talents out there on the court,
24:34they're functionally the 21, 22 Cleveland Cavaliers that were the two seed heading into
24:40the all-star break, won 44 games, even with all the injuries that they had, like that was still a
24:45very, very high kind of floor. And I think the supporting cast, when you look at guys like Ty
24:49Jerome, Karis LeVert acclimated to the system, Sam Merrill, like I think the supporting cast is
24:54even better than that. So they have such a high floor, whereas some of these teams that sacrifice
24:59that depth to get the high end talent, that talent is missing time. You're going to get in
25:03a lot of trouble. Yeah, absolutely. And it's going to be interesting to see what teams actually make
25:09the playoffs out there in the East. It's pretty early to start thinking about that, but one thing
25:14is going to change here pretty quickly. If the Celtics are going to run away with this East here,
25:18Krzysztof Porzingis seems like he's on the verge of a return here. He practiced today with the
25:23GLE team. That's, that's where this could get scary, especially where I, I, I, I obviously,
25:33you know, as a Cavs fan, get lucky breaks. That would be great. I love it, but I want this team
25:39to measure themselves against the best in the league. I want to see Krzysztof Porzingis back.
25:43I want to see Boston fully healthy. I think being able to test yourself, iron sharpens iron. Like
25:50you, you figure out where you have to improve internally. You figure out, you know, what we
25:54have to do from an off season perspective, from a trade perspective, all that kind of stuff.
25:59I want to see the Cavs face the Celtics at full health. I want both teams to be fully healthy.
26:05Obviously pick Boston in that situation, but you know, I want to see, can the Cavs give them a
26:11competitive six, seven game series? You know, when you look at both age and finances, I don't know
26:17if this Boston team is going to be able to keep it together forever. So if the Cavs are right there
26:22with a core that is very young and they're starting to get picks back from the Mitchell
26:29trade and stuff like that, I think being able to hang around and capitalize if the
26:34door does get creaked open, I think that that's kind of where you want to be as the Cavs organization.
26:42Who you got, Tamar? Who you see winning this one?
26:45If a coral plays, I'll feel better about it. If, if we do have a coral Merrill and Levert all
26:54playing, I'll, you know, I'll, I'll be a Homer here and I'll pick Cleveland. My, my gut says
26:58Boston. I think Boston's going to come out and, you know, give their best effort of the season.
27:04And given, you know, the, the talent that they have, given the fact that it's at home,
27:08given that it's the NBA cup and everyone gets excited about that, I think cup game
27:14must win cup game. Yeah, exactly. You guys have your back against the wall, but Cleveland Cleveland's
27:19gone up for these games too, man. Like I think back to the game where the Lakers were coming
27:24into town, you know, LeBron James, all the, you know, the national shows are talking about like,
27:30you know, they're a serious contender. They're looking like one of the best teams in the league
27:34early in the season. And the Cavs just buzz saw them. I just absolutely smoked them. Warriors
27:39come in second, best defense in the league, you know, first real test that this Cavs offense is
27:43going to have to face. You know, they, they look like a contender again, and the guys were up 41
27:48at halftime. Like, you know, they've, they've gotten up for a lot of these games and no,
27:52even if they are missing, you know, Max Drewis and Dean Wade, they still do have kind of the
27:58core for it. And I was very, very, very relieved to not see Darius Garland's name on the injury
28:03report coming in this one. He missed some time in the Charlotte game. It seemed like his back was
28:08acting up, but the fact that he's not carrying a questionable designation is obviously a really
28:12good sign. Yeah, I'll go Cavs here. I think that rim protection issue is a big one for Boston right
28:19now. And I don't know how they're going to keep those guys off the glass, prevent them from
28:22scoring in there and the pace too. Like it's, there's some things to figure out for Boston
28:26defensively right now that I think are going to be a problem in this game, but if it's bombs away
28:29from three and they're 40%, it could be a Boston blow it as well, but I'm going to lean Cleveland
28:35in this one, but either way, it's going to be a fun game tomorrow. I want to give a quick shout
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29:59Thanks to Justin Rowan for being here. Really looking forward to this game tomorrow. And I'm
30:03sure, uh, the chase down guys will be breaking it down over there after as we will be here on
30:08Celtics post game, Justin, good talking to you as always. Good talking to you. And, uh, I really hope
30:13that, you know, Chris Dasporzingas and Max Struess are back for the, uh, the rematch that we have in
30:18early December. I I'm hoping we get to get a taste of both of these teams fully healthy. Yeah.
30:24Next one's right around the corner, just a couple of weeks away in Cleveland. And
30:27that was a great atmosphere during the playoffs. I really enjoyed going out there and checking it
30:31out. So, uh, we'll see you tomorrow night from the garden. Thanks, Justin. We'll talk to you
30:36in December and, uh, that's it for now. Noah Dalzell, you got Boston coming up right now,
30:41live on Salinas media and Celtics all access. See you guys.