Celtics reporter Noa Dalzell recaps the Celtics’ 3-1 Western Conference roadtrip, which was punctuated by a 15-point win over the Mavericks. Noa dives into why the road trip was encouraging despite a letdown loss to the Lakers, with updates on Kristaps Porzingis’s latest status, how Derrick White turned his night around, and why Jaylen Brown is confident that the Celtics will be just fine. Tune in for the latest episode of You Got Boston.
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SportsTranscript
00:00What's up everyone? This is Noah Delzel and I'm here with a You Got Boston episode live
00:22after the road trip. I guess not live because I'm actually pre-recording this one. But I'm
00:26in my hotel in Dallas. I'm leaving Dallas in a couple of hours here and heading to the airport.
00:32And this was a really fun road trip. I had a great time. Started in Golden State
00:36with a blowout win over the Warriors. Then we headed to LA for back-to-back games against the
00:42Clippers. Overtime win. One of my favorite games of the season because we got to see Jaden Springer
00:47put on his offensive masterclass. And then we saw the Celtics fall to the Lakers. And that was
00:54a lackluster game. Not just the fact that they lost but also just very low energy. So definitely
01:00not the trip highlight. And then to close things out with a win over the Dallas Mavericks last
01:05night, Saturday, in front of a really good crowd in American Airlines Center. Kind of a return to
01:12the NBA Finals. And just a great game for a lot of players. One of those games where all the starters
01:19had it going. And Derek White really was the headliner from that one. And so another 3-1 road
01:26trip. Can't really complain when that's where you're at. The Celtics improved to 32-14 on the
01:35season. So it's three games behind where they were at last year at this time. Really not too shabby.
01:41And another 3-1 road trip improves them to the best 17-6 on the road this season. So
01:49actually been pretty good on these West Coast road trips. This is the second one this month
01:52where they won three or four games. Last month they dropped the one to Oklahoma City. That was
01:56a great game. But this one they lose to the Lakers. So both road trips they won the first two, lost
02:02game three, won game four. So followed kind of a similar pattern there. So I was at all four of
02:08these. And I wanted to just kind of chat a little bit about what I took away from these games.
02:14And then also I had like the best seats ever to the Dallas game. I have no idea why. I was looking
02:20for my seat, trying to figure out where I was labeled. Usually I walk around and I find my
02:25label, my name and SB Nation on it. And I would sit section 19. I was looking. I was like, where's,
02:31you know, I'm up in the stands, kind of in the loge near the concourse looking for my seats.
02:36And then all of a sudden I realized that my seats were actually literally the first row. And that's
02:40why I couldn't find them because I couldn't anticipate that I would be seated there because
02:44I've never seated there. And honestly, most NBA arenas don't even have a media section right
02:48behind the scorekeeper's table. So I was like, okay, this is going to be an awesome game,
02:52regardless of what happens, because I'm going to be able to hear everything and see everything.
02:56And I could literally hear players talking with one another and arguing with the referees and
03:00Joe Mazzullo and he was saying, so I'm actually writing up and I'll have that out soon. Just like
03:04takeaways from that seat, because it just gave me a completely different vantage point than I
03:08normally do, but they normally have. But in any case, I think if you're a Celtics fan, you have
03:14to feel pretty good about the team right now. I know people are, I've been disappointed with the
03:19lack of consistency. It hasn't quite felt like, okay, this is the team that I, that they know
03:25and love. And this is not like every single night they're coming out and blowing teams out of the
03:30water. But even so, despite that, I think that there's an element of there, they've been pretty
03:36good. And I know this motivation is a bit more consistent, but they've been pretty good. They're
03:40racking up enough wins to still have the third best record in the league and the Cavs have been
03:44faltering. So they're actually making a push for the number one seed. And I don't think anybody's
03:49worried. And I know what players tell the media is always going to be taken with a grain of salt,
03:53because there's elements of like, you know, maybe the players are just trying to not say the wrong
03:59thing, or, you know, they're not going to let us in on what's really going on. So there's a lot of
04:04different pieces and components to it. I could just say someone who's around the team, I think
04:10this group is really, really comfortable, really, really confident. They know they haven't played
04:13their best yet. They know that they're not anywhere near where they can be. And despite that, it's not
04:20that this is a 500 team. It's not like this team is like the sixth seed. It's been, you know, a
04:24month and a half of inconsistent basketball. And even then, they've had some really good stretches
04:28and really good moments and really good victories. So I just want to say, personally, I feel really
04:33good about where they're at. And I'm probably in the minority there a little bit. But I just think
04:38they're going to rack up, they're going to kind of hit the stretch where they're going to really
04:42rack up a bunch of wins and get to this place where all of a sudden, we're like, okay, they've
04:46won, you know, nine of 11. I do think that's going to happen. Jalen Brown said so yesterday. He's
04:50like, it's going to happen. Christoph Porzingis said so as well. He's like, it's coming. It's
04:55happening. It's happening. So their confidence hasn't wavered. The personnel hasn't changed.
04:59Everybody's healthy right now. So I don't really feel like I have a reason to think that they're
05:02not going to be able to put together more inconsistent stretches. And I know people don't
05:07love hearing the excuses of like, oh, it's, you know, it's championship hangover, or it's just
05:12hard to be there beyond 100 nights a year. But I think that it's also just the reality of life,
05:18like the same way that on our jobs, we have off nights. I have podcasts where I'm like, I sucked,
05:23and I couldn't keep my train of thought or articles that are just below my standard. And it's like,
05:27I know I can make the article better. So why isn't it the best ever every single night? Because it's
05:31just not realistic. It's just not life. And I asked Steph Curry, you know, on the first day of
05:36the road trip after the game, I asked him about what people that don't, aren't in the locker room
05:41in NBA, aren't on, you know, on a team, what they don't understand about being in an NBA locker room
05:48after winning a championship and what that experience is like. And it was really interesting
05:52what he had to say. He said, you know, all summer teams are preparing to hunt you. They're preparing
05:59to figure out ways to beat you. They're studying film. And then you have to go in every single
06:04night. Teams are so, they're getting up. They're so excited to play you. And I think we've been
06:09heard, we've been hearing that from the Celtics, but Steph's won four championships. So he's been
06:12in this position a number of times. He's gone back to back once. That was with Kevin Durant,
06:162017, 2018. But he's four times been in this position where he knows what it's like to come
06:22off a championship. And to hear him say that, to hear Steve Kerr say, like, I see Steve Kerr said
06:26outright, if I was a Celtics fan, I would not be worried about this team. So to have that experience
06:31as well. I don't know. I just think, like, I get it. I get why fans are concerned. I get why,
06:37you know, media has been hard on them. I understand, like, they're not playing up
06:40standard consistently and night in and night out. But everybody that's in this field that has
06:44experienced this firsthand is basically telling us, like, this is kind of the way that goes.
06:48It doesn't mean that I'm guaranteeing that they're going to go back to back. Like,
06:51I think that that's really, really hard to do. Nobody's done it in six years. There's no reason
06:55to assume that this team is going to be able to get it done. That being said, I really do think
07:00that they're well positioned to do so still, despite the fact that since December, they haven't
07:05been the same team that they were in October, November. So I'll rattle off some observations
07:11just from last night's game. First, I mean, Derek White's story here. He's really been struggling.
07:16His shot attempts have gone down since Porzingis has rejoined the team. He actually said he was
07:22pretty candid yesterday, which I was a little bit surprised. This is exactly what he said when
07:26he was asked why he was scoring if it's been down. He said, obviously, KP comes back and kind of
07:31changes some things, but also I've shot it like crap. So those two points come together and you
07:35don't score very many points. So you just got to continue to do what I need to do to get prepared
07:38and just know that it's going to turn and try to make shots around when I'm wide open.
07:42That's just what I did today. So he blatantly said, KP coming back has changed the dynamic.
07:48And he doesn't need to say it because we all see it, right? But even so, I think that
07:53the fact that he feels comfortable saying that, like, it's the truth, right? It's where things
07:56are currently at. Porzingis talked about this as well. He said, you know, it's so important
08:03that Derek White is confident. He said we're a different beast when D. White gets going.
08:08And so everybody's acknowledging it. Joe Mazzullo talked about how important it is to empower Derek
08:13to make sure that he's aggressive. Jalen Brown said he hasn't gotten the same amount of looks
08:17or he hasn't been as confident recently. Today was a good sign. We got to keep building on that
08:20going forward. So there's no question on this team that this team is completely different
08:24when Derek White is at his best. I would actually say he might be the most important player in that
08:28sense. Like last year, when he wasn't in the lineup, those were the games that they were
08:31the most likely to lose. This season, the same is true. But also when he's struggling, it's really
08:36hard for this team to be the same team that they have been consistently over the past year and a
08:40half. And I think the backboard, you know, Derek White finishes with 23 points last night, Drew
08:44Holiday finishes with 17. He had the most threes that he had in the game all season. He had five
08:48or 10 from three. Like that's what's going to get this team into, you know, that's what makes this
08:53team impossible to beat or really, really challenging to beat. It's not just Jason Tatum
08:57and Jalen Brown having good games. And so that's why during this most recent stretch, when they
09:01haven't quite been themselves, I have felt like, okay, we know that this team is, you know, Jalen
09:08and Jason are going to get theirs. They're multiple-time all-stars. They're very consistent.
09:11They have lots of experience in accolades. The backboard is the X factor. And I think when they're
09:16at their best, this team is the best team in the league. And when they're not at their best,
09:19they're not. And so it was super encouraging to see Derek kind of come into his own. That third
09:24quarter was awesome. Front row seat to it. He had 16 points in the period. At one point, he got
09:29outscored the Mavs single-handedly. He had 16, they had 14. The bench was just going crazy. You
09:34can just tell this is the guy that everybody loves. And so it was really cool. It was really
09:37cool to see that. You could just tell he was relieved. I think he's been wearing the frustration
09:41of his offensive struggles on his face. And so that's the big story from last night, I would say.
09:47Obviously, different games on this trip have had different stories. Jayden Springer was the story
09:51from the Clippers game. We talked about that on this post-game show. But I'm a huge fan of his.
09:55I just love the way he plays defense. And I really do wish that the current NBA allowed
10:00for there to be more non-shooting guards. And I'm not even sure that he's a non-shooting guard.
10:04He's been improving his shot. But I just think the gift that he has in the defensive end,
10:08it should be enough to keep you out there. It's just today's NBA. It's just not. So
10:12we'll see if he gets more run. But he's been really, really, really fun to watch. And that
10:15was an awesome performance. Something else to note from last night's game, Porzingis returned to
10:22Dallas for the first time. That was his first time playing in American Airlines Center since he was
10:26traded to the Wizard in 22. And I was kind of surprised when I realized that. There were some
10:32boos. But overall, there were also clearly a lot of people that loved him there, from staff members,
10:36workers, just people kind of in and around the organization of the arena. He was chatting it up
10:41the whole time. He said it was really nice to be back. He says he has some great relationships
10:45with many people. I miss a lot of these nice people. These nice people, it's always good
10:49to come back. And Porzingis has been looking great. I mean, he really has. This month, he's
10:54shooting 47.3% from three. So this is like, he's the best defensive player on the team this month.
11:00And just consistently, he's averaging 90.5 points per game. He's not had any injury issues or
11:05anything like that in a couple of weeks now. So it's been pretty remarkable to me just to see.
11:10Since the Rockets game and the previous road trip, the only game that he missed was against
11:15the Clippers on the first night of a back-to-back. He hasn't had any injuries. I know it's only a
11:19couple of weeks, but that's the longest stretch that he's gone in quite some time. And I asked
11:23him post-game, where are you at? He's been giving us percentages of where he's at. I think he said
11:2880% a couple of weeks ago. Last night, he said 92.7%. So he said his rhythm is back. Physically,
11:34he's still not perfect. And that's just a matter of his wind. Obviously, he's not going to be in
11:40position to be in 100% good shape when literally a month ago, he was seeded. He didn't have a
11:47normal off-season or any of that, but he's working towards that. And I think, I know people, I've
11:51gotten this question a couple of times. I know people are concerned that it's not quite the same
11:54Porzingis, that we're not seeing the same returns. They're not, they're like a plus one net rating
12:00with him in the lineup. Whereas last year, they were like a plus 11. I don't, I think this is one
12:05of those examples of correlation rather than causation. I don't think that him being back
12:09is why they're struggling. I think they happen to be struggling and he happens to be back in the
12:13lineup. That being said, like you don't want to see his shots and his attempts come at the expense
12:19of like now Derek White's on while within the offense. And so that's like the only thing I can
12:23think of that would be a legitimate reason why they're worse off right now. I don't think they're
12:27actually worse off, but I think that there is an adjustment period when he's rejoining the team
12:31to like make sure that he is finding a good rhythm and he's comfortable. And sorry, that Derek's
12:36finding a rhythm, that Derek's comfortable and Drew as well. And then it's not like they're just
12:40throwing it down to him in the post and trying to hunt mismatches the whole game and nobody else has
12:43a rhythm. You could say that about a guy going for 50 on a given night. Like it still potentially
12:48hurts their teammates if they don't find a rhythm for the whole group. And we've seen that games
12:53like where Jalen Brown goes off at 15 in the first quarter and it's like they're actually losing and
12:57halftime because nobody else got all their feet under them. So another bright spot though from
13:01this trip. He was really consistent. He's probably the most consistent player over these past few
13:05games. So just good to see after he dealt with when he first came back from that ankle injury,
13:10from the ankle surgery, he had so many different things that he was dealing with. Foot strains,
13:14ankle sprains. So I was starting to worry that he wasn't going to be able to string together
13:18some consistent performances, but ultimately he was in fact able to do so. And this was
13:24been a really, really good month for him. 19.5 points per game, 49.1% shooting.
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14:31your first $5 lineup. PrizePix, run your game. I'll also mention just in general, we talked about
14:37the bouncing back thing. There was a really funny moment last night. There was a quote on the board.
14:42Let me actually find the exact quote because this is pretty funny. There's a quote in the locker room
14:47that's attributed to Jalen Brown. Let me find it. It says, we want to make sure we come together
14:53and look each other in the eye and put our best foot forward. You see a lot of teams that won't
14:57do that. Dash Jalen Brown. And then someone asked Jalen about that quote and was like,
15:05oh, when did you put that up there? And he was like, I didn't write that. I don't even think
15:07I said that. But whatever takes the inspire of these guys is fine for me. So that was pretty
15:12funny. And I asked him, you know, what has given him this confidence that despite the fact they've
15:19had some really bad losses, he's just like so even-keeled this year. And so was Porzingis.
15:23So honestly, they kind of all have been. But Jalen's the one that in years past, he'd be like,
15:27this is unacceptable, like kind of calling out the team via the media. And this season,
15:32it's just like, he's not concerned. And I think for some people, it's frustrating because they
15:35want to see him get riled up. They want to see the guys say this is unacceptable to kind of
15:38affirm what they're feeling from watching this team play. So I asked him, what has given you the
15:43confidence to stay so calm and steady after these tough losses? And he said, this is a great quote.
15:51I'll read it in full. Just like, one of my favorite quotes is, winter always turns to spring,
15:55no matter what. So when things are not going your way, just stay the course. The tide will turn.
15:59We've had enough experience to know what that looks like. So can't complain when it's not going
16:03your way. You just got to have more detail, be more focused, embrace it, and then get ready for
16:07it to switch the flip. So I think he meant flip the switch, but that's what he said. So I think
16:14part of it is the championship. It's the fact that this group has won together.
16:17They don't want to point to it too much because ultimately, like, that's not
16:22that year as in the past. But like, last year, Jalen was not like this. And this year, he is.
16:27And so I do think there's an element of it. And that's like a result of the championship and just
16:30him feeling just like a lot of faith in this group and himself and his team and the process
16:35in the adversity, all that. And then Porzingis was really enlightening. He's like the best
16:40quote on the team. He really is so candid and open with the media. He said, we're definitely
16:44working toward getting our killer instinct back. We want to have that. Some moments,
16:48we look really good. Some moments, not so good. Some moments, we've cruised a little bit. It's
16:51kind of been a mix of everything. I think it's important for us to keep adding to what we have
16:55in these kinds of games, to keep adding, to keep taking steps forward, to keep pushing each other,
16:59keep holding each other accountable. We have great support around us, the coaching staff and
17:02everybody. Just have to keep making steps forward as a team. I think it's happening. I think it's
17:05happening. Just patience and not overreacting to every little bump on the road. So that's been
17:10the key for this team. And I think it's frustrating people points because everybody wants to see
17:15consistency. And I do think they need to go on a little bit of a one streak here, especially
17:18heading into All-Star break. But they are not getting rattled after these losses. And they
17:24know that they're not at their best. He said, we're working on getting our killer instinct back.
17:29That's not great to hear. You want to have your killer instinct as a team. That's how you win
17:33basketball games. It's why they've been getting outscored routinely in fourth quarters. I think
17:36they're letting their foot off the gas a little bit. But that's a lot better than saying there's
17:40an issue in the locker room. It's a lot better than saying there's a major injury or guys are just
17:47not able to play as well as they did previously. I think it's a mindset thing. And I thought that
17:53this team might be immune to it because they have some really competitive, intense personalities in
17:57the locker room. But even if Joe was crazy and spent all summer reading about going back to back
18:03and Richard is obsessed with dribbling the ball or whatever it is, there is going to be human
18:08nature that infiltrates the locker room. And I think you're seeing that. And I think that
18:11Porzingis spoke to it. They need to get their killer instinct back. He said last year, we were
18:15like a lion. This year, there's been times where we've looked like a house cat. So that was another
18:20funny line. So it was just a lot of openness from the players with us about where things are at and
18:26where they need to go and where they need to be. So it was great to hear from him that their
18:31confidence is not faltering from Jalen. Every time I talk to Jalen in these past few weeks, I'm like,
18:36okay, if Jalen Jones has come and Jalen is enjoying the struggle and enjoying all this,
18:41as much as he says that he is, and I do believe him because he tends to be pretty candid with the
18:44media, I think people should internalize that to a certain degree. And recognize that confidence
18:50can waver. I think Derek White lost a little confidence. He's going to get that back. Drew
18:53Holiday, he has two championships. He's been there in so many big moments. He's pulled through.
18:59A little bit of a slow start to the season is not going to make me think, okay, Drew Holiday is
19:02washed. I hear people say that stuff and I don't know how people jump to conclusions so quickly
19:08when we all know shooting is so variable. So we'll see exactly how things pan out here. But overall,
19:13I thought that this was a really good road trip. And just honestly talking to the guys really
19:16raised my faith in how things are going. I love using game time for all of my ticketing needs.
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20:28Download the game time app, last minute tickets, lowest price guaranteed. One of the side note I
20:32wanted to mention, so Jordan Wallace and Baylor Shireman both have their parents in attendance
20:37last night. Jordan has like a whole fan section. He's from Dallas so this was his first time
20:40actually playing in an NBA game in Dallas. He was with the team last year but he did not check
20:45into the game. His parents were there, his godparents, his girlfriend. It was like a whole section.
20:50He only played the last minute and a half. He missed a three but it was so cool just to have
20:53to get that experience and after the game he was like eating his post-game meal and Derek White was
20:58like, dude you have like people waiting for you. Like I have to go, I'm gonna have to go apologize
21:02to them on your behalf because like how late you've been. They were all kind of making fun of
21:06him. He was taking his time eating his post-game meal. Baylor Shireman was with the team. He has
21:13been with them for this entire road trip and he had a really good game versus the Warriors. I mean
21:18it was like garbage time but he played four minutes and scored five points and recorded
21:22some career highs in his very young career. He's from Nebraska. His family flew in from Nebraska
21:27to the game. It was a couple hours, it was an hour flight. I talked to them a little bit before the
21:31game. It was his dad's first time in a Celtics game this season. His mom was at banner night so
21:37he didn't play. I was hoping that they were going to be able to hold on to that double
21:40digit lead because they were up by like 20 in the beginning of the fourth and then
21:43the Mavs made a little bit of a push there and that's what kind of prevented them from digging
21:48deeper into the bench. But I thought that it would be, it was just nice to meet them. I had never met
21:53them before. So just two of the youngest guys. They're two early draft picks in the past two
21:58seasons. Jordan Walsh, Baylor Shireman, both with the team and both with the kind of family
22:05in attendance at this game. So that was something else that just kind of, I always just like to
22:12know those little tidbits of kind of who's in the building, what people are going through
22:16at various points. Also wanted to note just a couple other like tidbits that Peyton Pritchard
22:21and Luke Hornet were both a plus 21 team high. Peyton Pritchard also had a team high nine rebounds.
22:27So his scoring has been a little bit down but he's been doing a lot of other things. He had
22:30nine assists the game before versus the Clippers. So like he's been doing a lot of different things
22:35on the court to stay impactful even though his shot hasn't been as consistent as it has been
22:40in the past. And he's also one of those guys that with Porzingis back in the lineup
22:43is going to eat a little bit of some of his shot attempts as well. So at the end of the day like
22:48when guys shoot less or you know when there's a new guy in the lineup like those shots are coming
22:54from somewhere. So it's great that Porzingis is back. He elevates their defense. He makes them
22:58more versatile, dynamic. It's you know he makes them a better team. I do believe that. But there
23:03is an adjustment period of just figuring out what everybody else is going to do in the meantime.
23:08And I think like that's why there was a moment there where I was like you know maybe Al goes
23:12in the starting lineup when you have Porzingis come off the bench just because that original
23:15starting five group has been so good together. Really so consistent. So all of that being said
23:21I think walk away from this trip thinking they still have a little bit of the same issues. Like
23:25the Lakers game was a goose egg. Defense was really lackluster there. Ball movement was
23:28tough. It was tough to watch them get so impacted by Lakers defense that like hasn't been great this
23:33season. Although their game plan was really good the other night. But I think more of the positives
23:38stand out for me as well. I'll just rattle through. I haven't published an article yet
23:43but I'll just mention a couple things that stuck out just from sitting in those seats. Like that
23:47was so fun. I wish I could have those every single game. I understand now why people pay
23:52for courtside seats. Why it is a priority for people. I wouldn't pay for it but if I can get
23:56a media seat there I definitely would love it. So one thing I was gonna say just things that stuck
24:02out to me that I think you maybe see a little bit from the TV and from wherever you're seated if
24:05you're at a game. But it's just different when you have that point of view. Sam Cassell literally
24:11does not stop talking. You know last year Tatum said he talks more than anybody I've ever met in
24:15my life. I see that he's really chatty. I see him talking pre-game. He's kind of like the mayor of
24:20T.D. Gordon. But this was another level. Like I was actually pretty stunned to see how much he was
24:25chatting it up. Yelling from the sidelines. Yelling at the referees. Talking to the players.
24:29There's certain guys that he talks to a lot like Peyton Pritchard. He's constantly in his ear.
24:34So it was funny to watch and just I was like right behind him. So I was like okay that was
24:38just something that stood out that I wasn't quite sure of. He was yelling a lot of like defensive
24:42commands. Like yelling to JB to shift or Tatum to go faster and transition. So you can tell as the
24:48lead assistant that he's really empowered to impact this team. And he's really empowered to
24:54you know just be himself. You have a large personality. Another thing that really stood
24:59out to me in this game. This really stood out to me. It is such a so much more of a physical game
25:04than you can possibly see on TV. And obviously I go to games in person. I watch most of these games
25:09in person. It's actually rare when I watch a game exclusively on TV. And I usually sit either like
25:14in the balcony or in like the loge seating in a TD garden which is like kind of diagonal. But it's
25:18again it's like far away from the actual gameplay. This was the first time that I've sat in those
25:24seats. And I watched a lot of G League games from that same angle. The G League is nowhere near as
25:29physical as this. Every time like someone goes to the basket they're getting hit. So it's just a
25:33question of like when you call it. That's why it's tough sometimes when players get mad
25:39about a foul call. And everybody's like you go back and you rewind the play and you're like okay
25:43but you did hit his arm. I understand them a little more now because they're not calling a
25:47lot of those plays. A lot of times you know arms are being hit and that's it. They're leaving it.
25:53They're not blowing their whistle because you would literally have to be calling a foul like
25:56every 45 seconds if you were calling any contact. So this question of marginal contact. I don't know
26:02maybe last night was just a physical game but it's a little bit less marginal and a little bit
26:06more overt than I had realized. A couple times Jalen Brown was like bodying Kyrie Irving. I was
26:12like that is definitely a blocking foul. A couple times Tatum went to the basket and got hit and
26:17didn't even react. Like it wasn't even one of the times where he was asking for a foul. And I was
26:20like okay I just saw like three different guys slap his arm on the way over the basket. So
26:25it's just something that doesn't translate on the television screen. I don't really know why.
26:29It did never translate to me before when I was sitting up high. Obviously I recognize like it's
26:33all harder to score than it looks. People are playing harder defense than it looks. But sitting
26:37in that spot I was like this is a really physical game and it does not translate to the television.
26:42And I need to go make sure that I relay this message to the world because I got really lucky
26:47that I got the seat and just go from there because I was pretty stunned honestly just to see what
26:53that looked like. Another thing I was going to mention that stuck out to me. So this is like my
26:57favorite part. I could hear everything Joe was saying during the game when he was yelling out on
27:01the court. Not when he was like whispering to the coaches. But he's a guy that everybody knows.
27:05Mazzoula ball. He's an offensive minded coach. That's what he's known for. He was outwardly
27:10prioritizing defense by a million times. On offense, good ball movement. Open three. Made
27:15three. He was very neutral. Barely reacted. Maybe it would be like good. Yes. Like affirming that
27:22they executed correctly. But defensively deflections, steals, hustle plays, diving on
27:30loose balls, offensive rebounds. He was emphatic. He was celebrating them. He was praising players.
27:35He was openly expressing how happy he was to see certain plays develop. Not the same on the
27:41offensive end. So it's very clear that he is outwardly rewarding defensive plays and hustle
27:46over like made shots. And to the media, he doesn't really talk about that. I mean,
27:52obviously, even if you mentioned a guy scoring, he does a lot of other things. But
27:55it's very clear that as much as he's known as an offensive minded coach, and I think that's
27:59been a knock on him in the past where people don't think that he criticizes defense enough,
28:03or he prioritizes it enough, especially his first year as a coach. I think that that became
28:06like a talking point where even players were saying we've lost our defensive identity.
28:10It's very clear that this is what he's emphasizing to his team. And I was kind of fascinated
28:15watching that develop. Another thing I was going to say, I mean, I always watch the bench,
28:19but just like Luke Cornett and Sam Hauser were the lead that bench mob. They were on their feet
28:24the whole game. At one point, Sam had played only four minutes and it was like midway through the
28:27third quarter. And he was like on his feet at every single play. Came in, finally checked into
28:33the game, hit a three right away. So that was fun to watch. And just like their energy, like you can
28:38tell that they love Derrick. You can tell that they really want Derrick to regain his confidence
28:41and to play better. And he was one, like they celebrate for everybody, but you can tell that
28:45sometimes there's certain guys that just, there's a little bit of an extra, extra attention, extra
28:49push. And he was in that position where like whenever he was playing well, the bench was just
28:53going crazy. And then the last thing I'll say is just, there's a lot more banter in between players
28:57than I realized. I know that Jalen Brown has a relationship with Kyrie Irving that's pretty good.
29:02There was one moment where Kyrie threw the ball out of bounds and like hit a kid in the face and
29:06he got a bloody nose. And Jalen was like, what the hell was that pass Kyrie? Like kind of making fun
29:10of him. So it was funny to see both him and Derrick were kind of bantering a bit. Derrick, I know I've
29:15noticed this on the broadcast and just from my seat that he's always like kind of laughing with
29:19opposing players. Jalen, I haven't noticed it as much and it might've been more of a Kyrie thing
29:23or like a certain relationship with guys on the Mavs. But it was pretty cool to see. It was pretty
29:28fun to just see like how much there is too that these guys that you don't really see on the
29:34broadcast. Jalen said it after the Clippers game, he said I'm a lot funnier than people realize.
29:38He said it's something that he wishes people knew about him. He said they think because I don't
29:41smile when I talk to the media that I'm serious all the time, but I'm a lot funnier than people
29:44give me credit for. And I was thinking about that as I was watching this game because I was like,
29:48he is kind of joking around a lot. And it was funny just to see that side of him and the other
29:53guys as well. And then yeah, it was funny. Scott Foster was the ref so I was like watching him do
29:59the challenges and it was fun to be able to tweet out if the challenge was successful before he even
30:04said it because I could hear what they were saying. So I probably will never have those
30:07tweets again unless I go back to Dallas and win the Steve lottery. I don't know how I ended up
30:10there but it was a really cool experience. I'm ready to add in full kind of observations from
30:14that perspective just because whenever I'm granted a good opportunity as a reporter like
30:18being at an NBA Finals game or sitting in a specific spot, I always want to make sure I can
30:22relate what I took away from that with everybody else. That's my responsibility as a member of
30:26media. So in any case, we're closing out this road trip 3-1. I will be back. I actually won't
30:34be at the Rockets game on Monday. It's like the first game I'm going to miss in like a year.
30:38But I'm going to be in Miami covering Unrivaled, the new women's basketball 3-on-3 league. So you
30:42can follow along for that coverage. Please subscribe to my YouTube channel, U Live Boston
30:47Podcast. You can also subscribe to CLNS Media. All the press conferences from all the road trip games
30:52are posted up there. So if you want to just check out what players are saying, watch it for yourself.
30:56Also the Garden Report, our postgame show, all those episodes are there as well. I'll wrap it
31:01up here. Thank you so much for tuning in. As always, I'll have another episode probably later
31:05this week. I'll be back in Boston and we'll do some more analysis and coverage. But I
31:08appreciate you all following along. Have a good one and talk to you later.