On this episode of the Big 3 NBA Podcast, A. Sherrod Blakely, Gary Washburn, and Kwani Lunis dive into the Celtics' recent back-to-back losses, a first this season. They discuss how concerning it is and what it could mean for the team moving forward. The crew also hands out some end-of-the-year superlatives and previews Boston’s upcoming matchup with Indiana.
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SportsTranscript
00:00Up for the layup! Oh, blocked by James!
00:02Larry Burns scores 60 points. Look at the Boston players smiling.
00:07Michael Jordan is not only the best basketball player,
00:09but he's the most exciting basketball player to ever play.
00:12Retainer fires away. Pumps it in! 51 for James Retainer.
00:25Hello everyone. Welcome into our post-Christmas Day game edition
00:29of the Big 3 NBA podcast. I'm Kwanye Lunas, joined by H-Rod Blakely and Gary Washburn.
00:34How were your two Christmases? Wonderful. Wonderful.
00:42Still enjoying it. Still enjoying it. Got a whole song.
00:46Wonderful. Wonderful. I'm having a good one. It's been a good one. I can't even lie. It has been
00:51really, really good. I got no issues, no complaints. I mean, I'm feeling in the spirit
00:57with Gary Washburn. That's real. I mean, that's real. I mean, I can't even hate on Gary right now.
01:05I can't even think of anything I can hate on him from right now. You know, there's a ton of stuff
01:09out there, but I can't think of anything at this moment. So yeah, I'm in the Christmas spirit still.
01:14Love that. How you doing, Gary Washburn? My man. My man.
01:18I'm good. Yeah. Happy holidays to you. Happy holidays.
01:22Yes, but I ain't going to bring up none of that stuff. I ain't going to bring up
01:27all the stuff we, you know, all the dirt you did over the years.
01:31So it's a Christmas gift. I ain't going to bring none of that up.
01:34Why? I ain't going to bring up the time. No, I ain't going to bring up.
01:38This is why our people can't have nice things.
01:41Shout out to our friend Dwayne Rankin from the Arizona Republic.
01:44Yes.
01:45If you don't follow him on the signs, follow him. Follow him on Twitter and follow me.
01:48One of the best rants that we have heard.
01:53And you check, just do us a favor and you'll be glad to get it.
01:58Very entertaining.
01:59Very entertaining. But anyway, yeah. Been a good holiday. It seemed like December went really fast.
02:08Then it was 25th. But just blessed to be here. Blessed to have family. You know,
02:15you always got to be thankful for your family and that you're spending another year and, you know,
02:21all the good things that the holidays bring. And hopefully
02:25everybody looks forward and is prepared for a great 2025.
02:30Absolutely. Well, one thing I know that Celtics fans are probably not grateful for is the fact
02:35that the Celtics did lose that Christmas Day game at the TD Garden 118-114. And of course,
02:41it was to Philly, the Sixers. Tatum with 32 points, 15 rebounds for assists. Brown 23-7.
02:48But no Drew Holiday because of that shoulder impingement. Overall, it was an entertaining
02:53game towards the end. But what did you two, what were the biggest takeaways from that loss for
02:58Boston? This is a bad one. I mean, they've had a couple bad ones and this was bad. One, because
03:04of the location. Two, because of the time of year. And three, they were already coming off a
03:08disappointing performance. So you would have thought that they would have been even more
03:11locked in for this game. But they just never seemed to get any kind of flow, any kind of mojo,
03:16any kind of swagger that we're used to seeing the Celtics have. And Philly played like they
03:20had nothing to lose, which in many respects they did. It was one of the few occasions where they
03:24had their big three together. And you would think that for them to beat the Celtics, oh, it means
03:30that all three of their big three were clicking. And then you look at Paul George's box line,
03:33you're like, wait a minute, that's Paul George? I mean, if you watch the game, you're just like,
03:38nah, that ain't Paul George. That's like some little Grinch wannabe Paul George faking a funk,
03:44trying to be like Paul George on Christmas. Somebody got them little Paul George little
03:48outfit or something. They just trying to pretend to be Paul George. Nah, that was really Paul
03:52George. He has not been that good, even when he has been healthy for the Sixers. And four for 15,
03:57most nights is not going to cut it to beat a team like Boston. But Boston, they just didn't,
04:03again, they just didn't put their imprint on the game the way they are typically used to doing.
04:08And you can go down the line after you get past Tatum and Brown, the guy that typically steps up,
04:14Peyton Pritchard, was horrible. I think he was like, what, one for nine, I think, shoot,
04:18or something like that. So he was a non-factor. And then you look at the guys in those reserve
04:22roles, no one really stepped up to fill the void that Drew Holiday's absence had created.
04:28And frankly, not only did they fail to do that, but they failed to do the roles that they normally
04:33occupy. And Philly was just making everything and then some. And then we'll talk a little bit
04:37about it later. But I mean, this was a game where just the Celtics, they didn't put their
04:42imprint on a game that you would have thought they would have played with a little bit more
04:45force, a little bit more focus. And the end result is you catch NL. That's what happens in the league.
04:53Yeah, I thought the Celtics just came out slow. I just think they're just not playing well.
05:01They're just playing with a real kind of lackadaisical attitude, with a real laxness.
05:07And it's something that's going on. I'm not talking about there's controversy or anything
05:14like that. It just could be fatigue. Although they had all this time off during the in-season
05:21tournament to get some rest and things like that. But you come off this game against Orlando where
05:28you're up 15 at halftime and you just literally blow it and melt down the fourth quarter against
05:34a bunch of kind of no-names, Tristan Da Silva and Trevlin Queen. And they had three of their
05:41top four scores. So you think, like Sherrod said, you'd be mad. And you just kind of stumble into
05:47the Philadelphia game. And the Sixers got talent. They haven't played well this season. I think
05:54they got off to a 2-13 start. But ever since then, I think they're now 11-17. So they're like
06:01nine and they're like Milwaukee. They're starting to get it back. So they're going to be around in
06:07the playoff race. They're going to find their way. And they're finding their way. And you got
06:14Embiid, George, and Maxey. And then you just let Maxey just have his way. 16 points in the first
06:22half. To me, the defense has slipped. They turned the ball over too much. Six turnovers in the first
06:30quarter. The crowd never really got into it to the last few minutes of the game. It was obviously
06:37full house Christmas Day. Everybody's feeling good. And the fans were just sort of like,
06:41give us a reason to cheer. And the Celtics just came out, fell behind early. I mean,
06:46I'm just, it was a disappointing performance. Defensively, this team has some issues.
06:51And like Sherrod said, the bench gave them nothing. I looked at, the guy I focused on
06:57is Sam Houser. And it's sort of starting to become a concern. Because if you look at Houser,
07:07okay, looking at Houser, the last few ballgames, okay, Houser in December
07:14against Sherrod's Pistons at home, his last good game, he had 20 points or he had two good games.
07:21The Detroit-Milwaukee, he had nine threes. He had 36 total points. He comes back against Memphis.
07:30He plays nine minutes. He's 0-2, no points. A couple of nights later at Washington,
07:36he has 12 points. Okay, it's the Wizards. With the last two games, he's played 30 total minutes
07:43and he's gotten up one shot, 0-1. No goose eggs in the last two games. The Orlando and
07:50Philadelphia game, they gotta have something from him. And then, as you guys saw, they
07:57thrown him out on defense against Tyrese Maxey. And it's not going to work. It's a mismatch.
08:06Maxey views that as a disrespectful move and he should. And he cooked him. And you can't,
08:14well, we asked Mazula, well, what do y'all do against Maxey? Because y'all don't seem to defend
08:22him well. This is not new. He went off in the playoff series. He's gone off. Well, you make
08:28him go left. He took some shots he wanted to take. He cooked you guys, right? 33 points.
08:39And I'm going to pull Dwayne Rankin here. I don't even want to talk about it. I ain't
08:44going to bring up Caleb Martin. I ain't going to bring that dude up. I mean,
08:48when the Celtics are going to learn? When the hell are the Celtics going to learn?
08:52This dude just does well against you. It is you. It's a you problem.
08:56They ain't even going to bring that up.
09:00Yeah, I ain't going to bring it up.
09:01They ain't even going to bring up that.
09:02I ain't going to say nothing. I'm going to do y'all solid. I'm going to stall y'all out.
09:08The old cats, I'm going to stall you out. I know the young people don't know what that means.
09:13When you stall somebody out, stall him out like you gave him a break.
09:18I ain't going to bring that up. I ain't going to bring that up. I ain't going to bring up that
09:25he cooked him. He killed him in the Eastern Conference Finals two years ago. Same dude.
09:29Yeah, that's right.
09:30And you just leave him open for threes. Well, you know, he was 30%. I get it.
09:3830% entering the game. It's you. You know that. Some dudes just cook the Celtics. We have a list.
09:45Ed Smith is on that list.
09:47Ed Smith. Ed Smith. Some dudes just cook the Celtics.
09:51I ain't going to bring up Ed Smith, how he cook them. We're going to bring that up.
09:54We're going to bring that up.
09:56Mo Wagner. They're just certain dudes that just kill the Celtics. He is one of them. He's on
10:01the top of the list. You got to like, after the third one, maybe you say, okay, it's his night.
10:07We've got us. Nope. You just keep letting him shoot them. And he goes seven for nine.
10:13That's losing basketball. Just sticking. We're not going to adjust. We're going to stick to this
10:18game plan. We're going to hope he starts missing. No, these are NBA guys. I mean,
10:24you guys watch the pregame. Dudes be hitting eight, nine threes in a row. And you're like,
10:30damn, that dude ain't even a three-point shooter. These dudes do practice this shot.
10:34So there's times where they're going to get hot. And to me, I just think they need some adjustments.
10:41They need some leadership. The bench needs to be better. We talked about Peyton Pritchard
10:46is now in a slump. He was over eight from three. He's three for his last 19. Teams are starting to
10:52really defend him hard. Like he has reached, he has, he has gotten on the scouting report.
10:57They know, okay, when this dude comes in the game, he's a shooter. He's going to spark the team.
11:02And so you don't have that spark coming off the bench. You don't have Hauser scoring anything.
11:07He literally took one shot in his last 30 minutes. He missed it. So where's your bench? So you're now,
11:14you're depending on the starters, you know, no Drew Holiday, poor Zingas got hurt. We'll see how
11:20that goes and how long he's out. So this team has issues and they got Indiana coming up. That's not,
11:26Indiana's playing well. So who knows? I ain't going to bring that up though.
11:32No, don't bring that up. We'll actually get into that. And right before we wrap up this episode,
11:37but the Celtics, as you pointed out, have lost now back-to-back games the first time this season,
11:43injury, illness. There's so many concerns at this point, but I'm going to have you
11:46both pick and roll. Is it a big deal? Much ado about nothing or somewhat concerning that they've
11:53had these back-to-back losses. What'd you think, Gary? It's a concern. It's a concern. I mean,
12:00this team is, as I wrote last night, 37 and four at home last season, this season, 11 and five.
12:08They've already lost more home games. We're not even in the December through December yet than
12:12they did last, all of last year. So I'm not sure what they've got to, obviously you want to get
12:24healthy and health is an issue, but you got to start playing some defense. You got to make some
12:28statements. I mean, you can't always just be chucking the threes and think that's going to
12:33save you and you're not scoring in the paint. You're giving up, you're not getting any stops.
12:39Great. It's great to shoot threes. Hey, we all love the three ball, but last night, 20 for 49,
12:47they hit 20 of them. All 20 were by their starters. All their starting lineup had really
12:53good days from the three-point line. All of them hit half their threes. White, Brown, Porzingis,
13:00Horford and Tatum all hit half their threes. So you would think they would win that game
13:08and they lost and they lost. The defense was not there. They gave up 17 threes.
13:16They gave up, Philly went to the line 19 times. You're fouling too much. You're not playing good
13:24defense. So they got some problems they have to address and just not, oh, we're going to get out
13:30of this. Oh, we're good. No, no, no. You got to play your way out of this. They got to play
13:38hard 100% of the time. Quit being lackadaisical. These stretches, you come out against Orlando,
13:45you're up 15 at halftime. And I was at that game. They should have been up more.
13:49They had chances to go up 20. Then you allow a 7-0 run to begin the second half and the game
13:55was completely changed. Then you let two-way guys get you. You let the team shove you around.
14:02And then you come into this game and you don't play with no fire. You don't play like you mad.
14:07You play like, oh, they're a losing team. We're just going to blow them off the court with
14:11threes. No, the three is a great weapon to have. But to me, you got to defend. It doesn't matter.
14:19Teams are starting to one, counter the Celtics three-point shooting. And two, they're being
14:23more physical with them. You pushing them around. The Celtics are getting known as
14:27charade. You don't want to get known as a soft team. Push them around. What are they going to do?
14:33Nothing. Complain to the officials. And the Celtics got to start pushing back.
14:39Yeah. I think these two losses, I think it's a big deal. Because to me, it amplifies the concerns
14:46that some had with this defending NBA champion. And that is, they would not play with the same
14:51level of aggression, same level of consistency, the same level of focus and fire that they did
14:56a year ago. And you understand that they can still be a really good team and do that.
15:01But the problem right now appears to be is they haven't figured out that happy medium between
15:08playing with a certain level of focus and fire and going all out. Because if they went all out
15:14every game, they could beat every team they played pretty much by a damn near 20, 30 points. We saw
15:18that last year. That's kind of how this season went. It looks as though they're trying to figure
15:22out how can we be a little bit more, have a little bit more juice, a little bit more gas in the tank
15:28at the end of the season, but still be really good in the process. And what happens is that
15:32we get games like these last two games where they ease up on that too much and can't finish teams
15:39off. And part of that is because so many of the part-time players who aren't Tatum, aren't Brown,
15:47but are integral to their success, are not getting it done. If Peyton Pritchard goes into a slump
15:52and you have Sam Houser not knocking out shots, and you're not getting any other juice off the
15:56bench, and you have guys like Drew Holiday who misses a game here and there because of illness,
16:00or Al with load management, or Presangus with an injury, you're now all of a sudden,
16:05you have a lot more instability with your squad than you had. And that instability is going up
16:11against teams that are looking at you as the standard that they want to be. And they're
16:16playing their best basketball. You start looking at just the shooting numbers and split numbers
16:21for the teams that typically beat the Celtics. And those teams, when they beat Boston,
16:25that's usually one of, if not their best game of the season. And that's the kind of competition
16:30that you're facing on a night-in-night-out basis. And if you're Boston, you can't afford to just
16:34kind of put it in cruise mode and beat teams the way you think you can. Because right now,
16:40as Gary pointed out earlier, teams are starting to figure out how to get to be the best version
16:45of themselves on a little bit more consistent basis. And those are the teams that the Celtics
16:50are starting to see. And those are the teams that if we're being honest and keeping it real,
16:54those are the teams that are kicking their ass. And if they don't figure this out,
16:58they're going to be doing the same thing this summer that you and I are going to be doing,
17:01and that's watching basketball. And that's not what they want to do. That's not the plan. That's
17:05not the goal. That's not the expectation, particularly when you go all in on the
17:10championship team that you had a year ago and bring them all back. And Gary, I don't want to
17:15bring up the fact that it's been damn near a decade since a team repeated the champions because
17:20they typically don't play as hard as they did. Now, I'm going to bring up the fact that that
17:24soft label that you touched on is a label that the Celtics really up until the last couple of years
17:30have been trying so damn hard to shed. That was part of who they were perceived as being.
17:35And it looks like they're having moments where they look like that team from two, three, four
17:38years ago that many, frankly, just if we just physical with them, that will be enough to beat
17:44them. And the last couple of games, even though the Celtics, the numbers may show that they've
17:48done pretty good on the boards, that does not reflect the physicality that they are, frankly,
17:53receiving from teams. And to be candid, they're not responding to accordingly. So this is a big
17:59deal, these two losses. And the next couple of games they got coming up against a feisty team
18:04like Indiana that in many ways is kind of like Orlando and Philadelphia as far as teams that
18:10there are great expectations for. They struggled out the gate, and now they're starting to figure
18:15some things out. And this game is going to be a much tougher game now than it would have been
18:20if they played like two, three, four weeks ago. All right. Before we go any further, I want to
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20:03So let's switch up the rundown a little bit and get into some fun superlatives as we close out
20:08the year for the Celtics. I'm going to give you five categories. We'll go by category. We'll
20:14start with the first one. Most likely to succeed. Most likely to succeed for the Celtics. You know
20:24what? I'm going to go with my man Peyton Pritchard. And here's why. Here's why. This is a
20:33dude that said, if y'all not going to play me, trade me. And so they said, OK, we're going to
20:40play you. And not only has he played well, he has far exceeded his contract, what he's getting paid
20:47now. And to me, those are the building blocks of a guy that's going to be successful. Someone who
20:50is willing to bet on himself that, yeah, I know you've got the sixth man of the year. And yeah,
20:55I know you got the defensive player of the year. But damn it, I'm Peyton Pritchard. I'm Peyton
21:00Pritchard. And they were like, yeah, you Peyton Pritchard. And to me, again, when I think about
21:06people who succeed, that's the kind of confidence that you've got to have that you are him. Even
21:10when you have shown absolutely no signs of anyone other than your mom, your daddy, your girlfriend,
21:14and your BFFs that you are him. So to me, that's what I think about when I think of
21:20people who are likely to succeed, that kind of unshakable faith in themselves.
21:25I like it.
21:30I don't know. Most likely to succeed. I'm going to go.
21:42I'm going to go with, hopefully, I'm going to go with Chris Taspor-Zingas.
21:47OK.
21:52I think he'll get it together. I think he'll get his health right.
21:56And I think he'll just have that impact. I think he'll get stronger as the season goes on. I think
22:04they'll manage his minutes, but I think he'll have a big impact down the road. I think right
22:09now he's still trying to, as they say, get his legs under him. And he's going through some ups
22:15and downs physically, but I think he will have definitely an impact on his team.
22:22And he'll succeed. Yeah, I'm just going to go out.
22:25Pretty good one, Gary.
22:26Yeah, I like how these are going already. Yeah, I like this. All right.
22:29I'm just going to jump out and give him the benefit of the doubt.
22:33Give him some props. All right. I know you guys see the rival videos. I know you see
22:37them at the podium post-game. Who do you think is the best dressed?
22:42You know, that's a good one.
22:44It is.
22:47You know, they put him on a big screen and people were just like, I don't know about him, but I like
22:54Jay Springer. I like his swag. I like his swag. He is very different, very unique. He is his own guy.
23:02And it don't matter whether he don't play, it's about that swag. If you didn't know that he didn't
23:08play, you would think that he was like a rotation starter playing 28 minutes a night on a bad night,
23:18and he just got that swag about him. I'm just like, okay, okay. I respect that. I respect that.
23:25The way he dresses has a lot to do with that confidence that he has.
23:28Much respect to Springer.
23:29Dress for the job you want.
23:31Facts. Facts.
23:34I'm going to go again with Porzingis. I like when he dresses up. I mean, he dresses, you know,
23:42he wears nice suits. He definitely has that great tailor with the seven foot three suits.
23:52Right.
23:52He better have a great tailor.
23:53Yeah. He don't get nothing off the rack, obviously. It fits him well. He can definitely bring it
24:02and I'm going to my old school situation here, my old school status of like, I like when these
24:09dudes kind of wear suits every now and then. I like when they dress up. I like when they take
24:13it seriously and they're not all wearing stuff that's just like, what is that?
24:20What are those?
24:22They looking like they just went to a used clothes store and just picked stuff out and
24:35just throw it on and like, oh, this is, look at my fit. I like when they coordinate. I like when
24:43they have nice colors. I like when they wear, they dress for the occasion. I'm not saying that
24:49these guys, none of them do. There's no real terrible dressers on the Celtics.
24:55Guys, you're looking like, man, what the hell is he wearing? There's some casual guys,
25:02but I like Porzingis is just kind of like, he can bring it. He'll just come out with a suit every
25:07now and then. And as you know, when we first started covering the league back in the day,
25:13like suits were normal. Like guys wore suits to the arena. They wore suits for the interviews.
25:18Like it was the Michael, the end of the Michael Jordan era. And as you know, like now.
25:23That's why AI was so controversial because he changed the game in that sense.
25:28Because when Michael, the last few years, everybody kind of was like, be like Mike.
25:33And Mike set the tone of like, you wear suits, you wear suits to the game. You get, you go and
25:38your teammates would get you, your veteran teammates might hook you up with a tailor,
25:44the guy, the tailor who did the team, the local guy in the city who would hook you up and you'd
25:50get five, six suits and these guys would wear suits to the games. They'd wear suits for their
25:55postgame interviews. They would not, they wouldn't, it was just a different time.
25:59And then Porzingis kind of brings me back to that, where these guys,
26:03you know, every now and then, I'm not saying you got to wear one every day. This is not the old
26:07days. You know, the coaches don't even wear suits anymore, but it's good to see a player just kind
26:14of, you know, say, hey, today I'm going to look, I'm going to look, I'm going to look a hundred
26:18percent. I'm going to look, I'm going to look like a million dollars as opposed to like,
26:22you know, some of the stuff and maybe wearing like, you know, and it's not the young.
26:27I remember Portland came in last year and it was like Scoot Henderson and some of these guys that
26:32are like 20 and 21. And like, my man, it'd be hurting your eyes. It'd be like, oh my God, like, what is this?
26:39What's, what's going on here? Like, who, who said that? Who signed off in this fashion?
26:44You know, like who said, that's a good look, man. You should wear that. Yeah. Like,
26:48I don't know who said that, but I'm going to give it to Porzingis is best dressed.
26:54I think it's safe to say your burner account is one by the name of Vinny Goodwill on X because
27:01we tweeted that we're posted that on Christmas day saying as the unofficial new year of the NBA
27:07season, why aren't coaches wearing suits? Let's do this. You know, the whole like pull over and
27:14and then they, you know, funny, they all wear black ones. They all look alike. They're like
27:20matching. It's like, are the coaches coordinating? Right. Like nobody wears red or green. Everybody
27:27just wears the black one. So it's like, no colors, no color, no design. I don't like it.
27:34I don't like this. I like the, I like the suits. I like the suit.
27:40All right. Moving on class clown.
27:46What do you got Gary? I got one. Not really. We used to, they used to be obvious one. Yeah.
27:58Man, that's a hard one. You think about it, Gary. I'll jump in. To me, to me,
28:06the class clown has got to be Luke. It has to be Luke. He's the one, he's the one guy that is out
28:13there on the floor playing that you're just like, why is he playing? And then you listen to guys
28:18talk about him in the locker room. In general. Yeah. In general, he keeps things lively. He
28:22keeps things loose. And his sense of humor has a lot to do with that. I mean, this dude makes
28:27living squares. And when he talks on a podium, it feels like an engaging conversation with someone
28:37who's just, it's not, it doesn't feel like an interview. It feels like you're having a
28:39conversation. He'll have some lighthearted moments. They don't make some little dry dad
28:45jokes here and there. And to me, you can kind of see how a guy like that has value in your
28:50locker room besides what he does on a basketball court, but just his comfort level with who he is,
28:55what he can do, and not being, putting up some kind of facade about, man, I'm just glad to be
29:01here. He is that, but at the same time, he wants you to just kind of see a little bit of who he is.
29:07I mean, Luke, just watching him play and some of the stuff that he does on the court and on
29:11the sideline, you can tell that from a sense of humor standpoint, he's probably the one guy
29:16that's the most loosey goosey in that locker room. And you need guys like, you need a player
29:20or two like that. Now I'm not talking about, you don't need the big baby Davis type loosey goosey,
29:26because that's a different kind of loose. Yeah, right. Him and Nate Robinson and them guys back
29:32in the day. But you definitely need someone who doesn't take this game too seriously. It's a
29:37serious game, but damn it, you're playing basketball at the end of the day. So.
29:41Yeah. The last two years at the Shamrock Foundation Gala, Luke has emceed a portion of
29:47the event and there's usually a lot of comedy surrounding it. And he's just naturally funny,
29:52you can tell. Exactly. But also intelligent. So it ties in very well.
29:55Yeah. Yeah. I mean, the Vanderbilt grad, you know, and just his journey. Yeah. I mean, exactly. Just
30:02his whole journey to get into the NBA. You know, he came in as a guy who was a stretch big, and yet
30:07he don't shoot stretch. He doesn't stretch the floor at all. At all. I'm still trying to wrap
30:13my arms around that concept. You know, guys are coming to the league. I mean, who comes to the
30:19league supposed to be like an elite defender and they become a great three-point shooter and their
30:23defense is trash? That doesn't happen. But Luke, but that's the Luke Corden story. Stretch big,
30:30who doesn't stretch the floor? He just plays. All right, Gary.
30:34Are you going out or you want to go? We can keep moving if you want to go, Gary.
30:39If you ain't got nobody.
30:44Classic crowd. Hold on. I'll go Derek White. He's always a fun-loving guy.
30:51Yeah. I like that.
30:52Fun-loving guy, you know, doesn't take himself too seriously.
30:57Got his own beer. Got his own beer.
31:00I'm all for the Derek White.
31:03Yeah.
31:03Great job. Great job. That was a good one. All right. The best tandem.
31:09Oh, this is easy. It's got to be Brown and Gary's boy from Latvia.
31:17That bromance is unlike any bromance we've seen.
31:20What's that, brothers?
31:21Yeah. Because the thing that it did more than anything else, it made Jalen Brown, I think,
31:26a little bit more palatable to folks who weren't feeling him the way they should have been feeling
31:31him. I mean, Jalen is a really intelligent guy who thinks through a lot of things. But people
31:36ask, how does he really work with his teammates? They like him and they work with him, but does
31:40he rock with anybody? Is there anybody that he's down with? And here comes this seven-foot-three
31:47dude from Latvia, which is nowhere near Marietta, Georgia. And yet, you would think that they grew
31:53up in the same hood, went to the same corner store, ate the same popsicles, just the way that
31:58they interact with each other. And it's great to see. And I don't know if there's another tandem
32:04on this team that is more just blatantly obvious that they like each other the way Porzingis and
32:14Jalen are. So to me, that's the best tandem I got.
32:17Cool. I like that.
32:19I'm going to go with Tatum and Derek White. They are like-
32:24That's another one, too.
32:26These guys are best buds. And they like each other and they sometimes dress alike in terms
32:34of they wear the headbands together in one game. I think that they're a funny ten and they've
32:40really bonded over the last couple of years, obviously. So people don't know. It's kind of
32:46developed this year. I think people were like, you know, thought they was cool and all that. But
32:51now they're totally doing their thing in terms of just being teammates, brothers. You can tell
32:59that they're very close. They joke and laugh with each other in the locker room. So I'm going to
33:03say the dynamic duo of Derek White and Jason Tatum.
33:07That podium moment, that podium moment that they had-
33:10You found out about his favorite?
33:12Yeah. And he looked at you like-
33:16That was priceless.
33:17What was his favorite? Was it Al?
33:18That was Al.
33:19Yeah, Al was it. I mean, it makes sense though. It's Al.
33:21Right. But the reaction was like, wait, wait.
33:24The betrayal. You can see it.
33:27I thought we was family. What is this? No, that was good. That's a good one, Gary.
33:32Yeah. From a business perspective, the third one would be Peyton Pritchard and Jalen Brown,
33:36because the fact that he wears his performance gear and just obviously he's getting paid to do
33:41it. But I think that says a lot when you're willing to vouch for a teammate's brand,
33:46especially knowing that he's up against a Nike and an Adidas. So
33:51I think that relationship is admirable in just that business sense also.
33:55Yeah. My favorite bromance, which they're not teammates now, obviously,
33:59because one is here and one's not, but Peyton and Blake Griffin, I enjoyed that tandem.
34:03Oh, that was my- Yeah.
34:04That was a really good one, because that was, I mean, that was like, wait a minute.
34:09You would never, nothing about it.
34:11Young fella, you don't play. Big fella, Hall of Famer.
34:15Right.
34:16Jumping over Chia's in an All-Star weekend.
34:18Best bromance.
34:19And y'all, okay.
34:21Yeah.
34:22Okay. I enjoyed that.
34:23Yeah. All right. Finally, king of the courts.
34:30The big kahuna prize.
34:34I'm going to take this one, Gary.
34:36Go ahead.
34:38It has to be Al freaking Horford.
34:41Hey.
34:42It has to be Al, because here's the thing. If you vote for anyone else, they would say,
34:47nah, it's got to be big Al.
34:49Look at him on Christmas. That man, age what? Age who?
34:55The thing, Al, no matter what role you ask him to be in, whether it's on or off the court,
35:01Al is just him. He's always that dude that you respect. He's always that dude that's like,
35:06basically, he has a presence about him that sets him apart from everyone else on his team.
35:15And the crazy part about Al is that you look at Al now at what? I think he's 38, 39 years old.
35:21Al pretty much looked the same as he did when he was 28, 29 years old.
35:24So not only does he have that stately presence, but the brother don't age.
35:31Does not age. His game might age, but he don't.
35:34That Dominican love.
35:36That's the king right there. That's some king stuff right there when you have that presence.
35:43How many players in the league is he considered their daddy? I mean,
35:45Giannis at one point, he was Giannis' daddy. Embiid, he was his daddy.
35:52Yeah, exactly. He is son in these kids. There are very few players
35:58whose son as many players as Al Horford has. That's some king action right there.
36:03Absolutely. That's your king of the court.
36:08King of the court. Yeah, you can say Al, I guess. I mean, that's a pretty good one.
36:17I knew as I'm winning over.
36:19Jason, because he's a dad and he's always seen Deuce. And he's
36:27probably arguably the best player on the team, him or Jalen.
36:31I don't have a strong one on this one.
36:36Gerard took Al. He pleaded the campaign for Al, so I'm all for that.
36:41He's just on the bandwagon.
36:46I don't have a strong take on this one.
36:49All right.
36:50Al it is.
36:51Well done.
36:52And before we go too much further, I want to give a shout out to our good friends at
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38:22All right. As we look ahead, we'll wrap up, but let's talk about that game on Friday, Indiana,
38:29twice, back to back actually, and then Toronto on Tuesday. What are your
38:32expectations for those two games against Indiana? And then of course, that Toronto game?
38:39On paper, it should be good games. I think the Celts are going to blow them out both times.
38:43I think the Celts are going to have one of those, come to the altar moments where they
38:49realize, okay, look, we need to start flexing and letting these folks know that we're still the
38:55champs. And these are two games against a team that, it's a very playoff setting where you're
39:02playing the same team at home, back to back times with like a day in between, very much what you
39:06were going to be doing in the playoffs. It's that time where the Celtics have to take advantage of
39:11these opportunities to remind folks why they're the champs and why if you happen to see them in
39:15April or May, this is what you might be in store for. It's about, I mean, and Gary, you kind of
39:22know where I'm going with this. It's about guarding your turf. It's about letting them
39:25recognize they can't just roll up on your block and take over your hood. And that to me is where
39:31the Celtics are. They got to remind folks that they're the champs and that this whole NBA space,
39:35this is their hood. They're the champs. They run this thing. And these are the opportunities when
39:40they get a chance to remind folks of just how good they are. And more importantly, just how
39:45they are the standard, not you, not you want to come up. We are here. You're trying to come up
39:50to us and we need to put you back where you belong in your place. And this is an opportunity to do
39:54that. I expect them to play very well. I expect to see some of their best basketball these next
39:59couple of games. Yeah, I'm not so sure about that. I know you not Gary, cause you just Gary.
40:06Yeah, this is Gary. I think Indiana, two tough games. They've had great battles with the Pacers
40:13over it and they've lost to the Pacers already this year. I think those, the Pacers are playing
40:18well. They won at Sacramento. They won at Golden State. They are playing well. So to me, those are
40:28going to be two difficult games. Siakam, Halliburton, Nimhard, Matherin, guys who can put
40:36the ball in the hoop. They're going to have to be ready. And they just can't lean into these games
40:41and play one good half and expect the win or expect, Hey, we're going to rally. So we're
40:46going to shoot a bunch of three pointers. Like even if you get three pointers, even if you make
40:51them and they found out against Philadelphia, they were 20 for 49. They were 40% from three.
40:57Usually teams that hit 23s are going to win. You got to get stops. You got to, you can't allow
41:0336 point quarters. Your defense has to be better. You can't leave guys wide open who are killing
41:09you from the three. It's that night. The same, like it wasn't Embiid. Embiid had a solid night,
41:16but he was a minus 18. They won that game with Embiid on the bench, the early fourth quarter.
41:22They didn't bring them back into like four minutes left. They're trying to rest my man.
41:26My man, you know, he don't have the endurance he used to. So they won that game without Embiid.
41:32They were, they were better. They were plus 22 with Embiid out of the game. That says a lot.
41:39So those are other guys getting in your ass and you got to be better than that.
41:43And you can't underestimate these. These are NBA players. You can't think, Oh, we'll just
41:48hit two threes. We'll just get Sam to hit a couple of threes. We'll get Peyton to come into
41:52the game and get hit some threes and we'll be fine. No, that's not going to solve your problem.
41:58You got to be a better defensive team. You got to have, um, like Sharad said,
42:02you got to guard your yard. You got to do, you already got five losses at home.
42:07And yet for all of last year, that's embarrassing. 11 and five.
42:11And here come the New York Knicks. Remember that Southerners, I think we're six or seven games,
42:17um, up on the Knicks a couple of weeks ago. Now they're two, the Knicks are playing better.
42:21Like then getting the number two seed isn't even guaranteed at this point. Cause teams,
42:26Orlando is going to get healthy and they're going to start playing better. Cause they're
42:29just going to be better with their talent. The Knicks are, have found something. They're,
42:35they're lighting it up. They're, you know, bridges is playing. Well, town is playing.
42:39Well, like they're getting guys, teams are coming at the Celtics. They're not intimidated.
42:45And they're not scared. And the Celtics got to respond back with some swagger and some,
42:51and exert their power over these teams, as opposed to letting them in the game,
42:56starting out slow, you know, and then also two guys, you know, missing free throws. I mean,
43:03you know, just Jalen missed two key free throws. Like, you know, you're missing free throws. You
43:08do, you know, Jason missing free throw, like just things that are just sloppy basketball that you
43:14can help getting technicals, like just stuff that's just like, you know what? Like it's something's
43:20got it in and you can't just shoot, shoot threes to make everything better. Like in three points,
43:25shoot your way out of this. You're going to have to come as a team, play harder.
43:30There was one play last night where like Gershon, you know, and it was good to see him and talk to
43:36him after last night's game. He's playing well, like Keith Pompey, our friend, Philadelphia said,
43:41he's been the most consistent sixer this season, right? Our friend Gershon,
43:45everybody made fun of Gershon and now he's got himself together. He's obviously older,
43:50more mature, got his body together and everything. But there was one play where
43:54the sixer said he desperately needed a rebound and Gershon just went for the ball and just
44:00beasted the ball from like guys. He out hustled them, you know, he chased a rebound down. I mean,
44:07when's the last time a Celtic besides Derrick White, it's just like, just beasted for the
44:13offensive rebound. It didn't land in his head. He just like, no, mine, like, no, like,
44:19you know what I'm saying? Like, I'm giving us another possession. I'm going to assume
44:23this guy's going to miss the three and I'm going to get the board. I'm hitting the board. It's like,
44:28they got to get back to basics. And so I don't think this will be any type of an easy stretch.
44:33You would think two games against Indiana, then one against Toronto,
44:37Vanik, the schedule gets hard. You've got their road trip, Minnesota, Houston, Oklahoma city,
44:43Denver. Yeah. So they're going to find out about themselves if they don't know already.
44:48So they got to get it together. I don't think it's going to be easy.
44:53All right. Well, that's a wrap on this week's episode. Before we go though, we ask that one
44:58gift from all of our listeners and viewers, as you may have heard in a previous episode,
45:03we are actually one of the finalists for the best basketball podcast in the sports podcast awards.
45:10So all you have to do is go to sportspodcastgroup.com slash shortlist categories, go to
45:17the best basketball category, find the big three, which is actually right on top. Cause I think it's
45:22an alphabetical order vote for us once or twice and closing for those votes actually end January
45:2913th. So you have a lot of time to do that. Tell a friend that you also think like this podcast,
45:34cause we're trying to win baby, but that's all. That's the only thing we ask for it. If you don't
45:40want to do that, just give us a review or, you know, write a comment, just engage, stay engaged.
45:45We appreciate that everyone that has been with us up until this time with the end of the year,
45:51it's actually, this is what we started this in December, 2020, right?
45:56Something like that. Yeah. Wow. Four years. So, and then we added Gary. Yeah. Who made it better?
46:06Yeah. Yeah. That's what I was thinking. Exactly. Exactly. Gary, that's what I was thinking.
46:10You made it better. I ain't going to bring up.
46:18Oh my God. It's why we can't have nice things. Happy holidays to all of our viewers and
46:24listeners. And we'll be back before the new year. So thank you for listening
46:27and enjoy the rest of the week.