The Boston Celtics held off a 3rd quarter surge by the Indiana Pacers to win 129-124. It took big contributions from the entire Celtics starting five, including 30 points from Jayson Tatum, 25 from Jaylen Brown, 24 from Derrick White and 17 from both Porzinigis and Holiday. It looked like the Celtics were going to pull away after a dominant first half, but the Pacers came out as the aggressors turning it into a game all the way down to the final seconds.
Chuddy and Nick discuss what they saw and respond to a call-in from the voice-mailbag for the first time on Chuddy’s Corner! All that and more from around the league.
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00:00 – 34:47 Celtics vs Pacers game recap
34:47 – 38:58 – Listener voice-mailbag
38:58 – 43:26 – Siakam and Nesmith’s impact
43:26 – 44:36 – Pritchard appreciation segment
44:36 – 1:01:36 – Around the NBA: Joe Mazzulla’s interesting commentary, Free Rondo, Ben Simmons is back, Wolves/Thunder controversy, the Cavs and Knicks are hot, Bucks and Nuggets 10 second violations, the Grizzlies don’t have enough players, Salary cap and All Star Weekend.
1:01:36 – 1:05:13 – Lakers Preview
Photo credit: Brian Babineau/NBAE via Getty Images
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Greetings Chudlins! Welcome to another episode of Chuddy’s Corner. It’s about 10 15 p.m. Tuesday January 30th. We just watched your Boston Celtics pull out a win over the Indiana final score of… Jesus, I don’t even have it in front of me. What was the final score? That’s bad.
I’m not used to reading the intro. We pulled it out. It was 129 to 124. Ended up being a lot closer than it looked like it was going to be. Amazing first half, not the best second half, but a wins the win. We got Kristaps Porzingis back. We took down the Indiana Pacers.
I am your host for the evening. King Chuddy joins tonight. by our special guest host, Nick Pereno. Nick, how we doing? What’s going on, Chud? Interesting game. I told you before we fired it up that halfway through I had my notes going as if
It was going to be a blowout and then I was scrambling to reorganize in the fourth. But no, it didn’t turn out how I thought it was going to. Still a good game. Strong finish down the end. Happy with the win no matter how however it looks.
No, it’s definitely nice to have you on after a win. The Pacers, they are a frisky team. They did not quit. Turned out to be a pretty good game. And when they’re required, closing things out down the stretch. So we will get into all of that in just a moment.
But first, a little housekeeping. Please follow the show at Chuddy’s Corner on all social media. That’s C-H- You can go to chuddiescorner.com, the new website launched about a week and a half ago. We’ve got a few articles up, every podcast is there, every blog, you’ll find all
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Not only is he our guest host, not only is he a co-founder, he is the sponsor of the show. That’s the man right there, Nick Carino. Nick Carino Real Estate. You can go to nickcarino.com, the former home of the Shuddy’s Corner blog where it was birthed.
But now you can go there for all of your real estate needs. I mean, you talk about a multi-talented guy here, a versatile threat. He’s in the real estate game, doing whatever. He’s filling in for Dugouts on Chuddy’s Corner. Truly doing it all.
I don’t know where he finds the time, but we appreciate everything that Nick does for the show, including filling in here for our usual host, Dugouts, who is out yet again. And it seems like whenever the Chuddy bar happens to hit, he just has to be out partying. So congrats to Dugouts.
He hit on tonight’s Chuddy bar parlay. But as a result, obviously partied a little too hard and was not able to pot again. That’s why we were lucky enough to have Nick on standby. So thanks again, Nick, for joining us.
Thanks all our listeners and make sure you check out all of that stuff. Anyway, getting into the game now. Celtics-Pacers, 129, 124. Celtics win the rubber match first occasion because of the in-season tournament. We played the Pacers five times this year. So it was two and two.
Heading into today, final game of the series. So the Celtics win the season series three to two. And this was just a wild game. really wild game. Started out Celtics just getting whatever they wanted, playing with purpose, going right to the rack, Tatum driving, Dishonuked, dropping it for a KP dunk,
Then Tatum got it going, he hit a couple threes, Brown got it going inside, we were going right at him, getting layups, then Derek White hits a couple threes, he picked up right where he left off from the Pelicans game last night, and Porzingis
Pops in, he’s hitting a step back three, I mean, everything you could have had going was going. Great to see, we were absolutely flying, kind of taking it to him, opened up a 10 point lead like before you could even blink.
Saw some weird rotation stuff as Tatum came out after only five minutes, Brown came out a couple minutes later, and we played almost, I think it was four and a half minutes at the end of the first quarter there with neither Jay on the floor.
Did not matter because Derek White was hotter than fish grease. He was, whatever slump he was in, he seems to. had broken out of it in a massive way. He was hitting everything. He was getting inside, driving to the rack. He was hitting his floater, he was hitting layups, he was hitting threes.
He had 15 points in the first quarter, just an absurd start. Shipped it into the second quarter and it was even more of the same from that point. I would say that was like maybe some of the best offense. I’ve seen the Celtics play, just an absolutely incredible second quarter to
Follow up a really good first quarter. Again, they had it all going. Tatum, absolutely driving and like finishing so hard above people or he was dunking getting into the paint getting to his spots He had the mid-range going he had the three ball
Going he was getting to the line Truly looked like at the peak of his powers unstoppable type stuff. There was nothing they could do white was basically just as hot Drew was everywhere on both ends flying around he seemed like he was getting his hands on every block
Every steel He was making up not shooting a lot, but every time he seemed to just feel pull up three He would stop hit that For Zengis, we already mentioned he was having it going from inside and out. The starters in the first half combined 75 points. The team scored 81 points.
I think it was the most points they’ve scored since like the 70s. They said something like that. It was almost had a bid for the most points ever in franchise history, which was like 85, I think they said.
They finished with 81 and the starters had 75 of those, which was the most ever for the starting unit. So only got six bench points from Sam hit a couple of threes, but the starters cannot play much better on offense.
Like you said, seemed like it was headed for a blowout, but the whole time, as well as we were playing, the P-Stars were hanging around. They were kind of trading baskets. A ton of that was offensive rebounds. You could see it on full display in the second quarter.
The Celtics were just standing around. It was like they didn’t want to finish possessions. Playing fine defense, but the offensive boards, the second chance points was 19 to two second chance points at halftime. And they had basically double as many shots to us.
So we, at one point, I think we were 10 of 11 from the floor in the second quarter, and they were like 10 of 18. So we… It was basically the same thing, just when we were getting stops, they were getting offensive rebounds and putting it right back in.
So again, managed to hang around Halliburton, hit that huge running off glass, almost half court, buzzer beater to cut it to 15 right before half, felt like kind of a momentum play and felt like, man, for how well we played, like, it didn’t feel like that big of a lead.
It was 15, we had it as high as 21, I think, at one point. Felt like we should have been up a little more. And then the Pacers came out of the second half and they just kind of blitzed us on both ends. They really took it to us.
Again, more of that offensive rebounding. They were getting right in the paint. Halliburton got it going a little bit. Siakam just, the way he uses his body to get into the basket, make it tough for the shot blocker is really impressive. Nemhard and Neesmith, those two guys, man, what dogs?
Like so much hustle. Those guys just bust their ass. Again, they were just outworking us completely. The stuff we were doing the first half was just like a step slower. The shots weren’t there. We went a little bit cold and the Pacers got hot and that lead was…
Was gone in like a minute. They hit a couple threes, they’re getting all boards, they’re getting stops, and they’re hitting threes. And before you know it, it was a three point game. Next thing you know, it’s a tie game out of nowhere. And it was just the lead, absolutely gone. Everything had stagnated.
Suddenly find ourselves in a dogfight with about 15 minutes left to play in the game. Tried to reset a little bit, had a few big plays down the stretch of that third quarter. We were able to open out a little bit more.
Went into that fourth quarter, I think with a three point lead, four point lead, something like that. So now in a battle. caught a little bit of a break as Tyrese Halliburton, who was returning from injury, had already hit his minutes restriction. I’m not exactly sure how that worked out.
I’m guessing they were down by so many that Carlisle was just like, screw it, let’s just play them as long as we can. Then obviously they cut the 21 point lead all the way down to Ty. I think they even took the lead at one point. And the minutes were done.
So we didn’t see Halliburton at all in the fourth quarter. Again, kind of a break, but the way Nemhart was playing, I’m not even sure if it was a break, it was, cause he was awesome. Fourth quarter. Suddenly just felt like a whole different game. Everything had slowed down.
You could feel the defense pick up on both sides. And that was really how the Celtics won this game, was through their defense. Started that fourth quarter with an interesting lineup out there. And Nemeus Kata, great minutes.
He played some good minutes in the first half, but I thought he was amazing in the fourth quarter. Hauser, Pritchard, Nemeus all out there with I believe Drew and Tatum. And they played great. They held down the fort.
You could tell, I don’t know what was said in the timeout huddle in between the third and the fourth quarter, but the message got across pretty clearly to cut the shit with the rebounding, because suddenly they weren’t getting every offensive rebound anymore, and that changed the game. It basically stopped them from scoring.
The way the defense locked in the fourth was amazing. Again, we were able to kind of hold down the fort, got a few, hit a few shots, a few big plays here and there. Tatum, some great place to close it out.
And then down the stretch, we were kind of up 7-8, and we were just going inside. drawn fouls, Porzingis kept getting to the line, Tatum got to the line, uh, Drew was getting in there. Drew, what a game Drew had, um, he was awesome.
And then again, felt like we had won the game for maybe the third or fourth time with about two minutes left. I think Scali even said like one more stop in the games over, up nine. Of course, like the Pacers hit two quick baskets.
We do our usual slowdowns at the end of the shot clock, miss a couple shots. They come right down and score. Suddenly it’s a five point game. Uh, Holliday has that. bizarre eight second violation, which is kind of the second game in a row where
He’s been just like way too careless down the stretch. They had a shot, of course, it’s a three point game. Joe no time out, we come down, lob it up to Porzingis, which you know is a fine way to start the possession, but he’s totally unaware that Buddy Hield’s sneaking
Around, pokes it away. Suddenly the Pacers have the ball, down three with about 30, 35 seconds left. And from there I will say that was one of the best defensive possessions I’ve seen all season from the Celtics. So There’s a lot of different type of clutch plays and people will obviously gravitor
Towards like game winning buzzer beaters But in terms of a clutch defensive possession the Celtics just battling through so many screens holiday got blatantly offensive screen Illegal screen by Turner. They had just called it on Porzingis at the other end didn’t call it on Turner Probably got flattened.
He got up Nemhart who I mentioned was absolute Bulldog had been getting in the paint The entire game, working the driving kicks, he could not get by Holliday. Holliday was fighting through screens, he was not letting him push past him.
Just great individual defense, forced a kick out to the corner to Aaron Neesmith. Derek White smothered him, blocked it out of bounds. Three seconds on the shot clock. They threw it underneath to Miles Turner, turned around, and I don’t know who
Blocked his layup first, Tatum or Porzingis, but whoever didn’t get it, the other one was right there behind him, Great Z, and just to force a shot clock violation in that situation. Unreal, maybe the defensive possession of the year has to be in the running.
So cool way to kind of close out the game. And then I think there was like a four second differential and the Pacers chose the foul to clutch free throws by Drew and able to just salt it away. Five point win. So got a little hairy.
Joe at his press conference last night said, you know, he embraced blown leads and wanted to face adversity. And we certainly caught that tonight. So. You can look at this game, I think, a few different ways. You can be a little disappointed, blowing a 21-point lead, letting them come all the
Way back, almost beat us without Halliburton down the stretch. Or you can look at it as a game where our defense stepped it up, got the job done, and battled them to win. Workman’s like fourth quarter and ended up pulling out a hard-fought winning crunch
Time over a playoff team that’s playing pretty well lately. So, I don’t know, how do you view the game as a whole? Well, I don’t think like you’re saying, you can look at it one way with, you know, they were missing Halliburton for fourth or whatever it was, but it doesn’t really
Work like that in the NBA, in my opinion. I mean, when you play, I mean, obviously he would have helped in the fourth quarter, but you know, you’re playing professional basketball teams. That’s a good team, you know, pretty much top to bottom. They have plenty of good players.
So obviously Halliburton would have helped, but, you know, any given night, any, any team can pretty much. be it any other team in the NBA, it’s very, it’s very competitive. So, um, I don’t want to use that, you know, I don’t want to take anything away from the Celtics because of that.
But, um, yeah, the second half, like I was saying, I was ready for a blowout first half, I was, you know, thinking about firing up the pod. Yeah. I mean, 81 points, but like you said, even though we scored 81, I think they, what did they score 55 or something?
They, it’s they 66. Oh, 66. Yeah. So. Even in some of these first halfs where you’re blowing up in the scoring 70, 80 points, still some of these games are just letting these other teams hang around, keeping pace at whatever 50, 60.
And it looks good on paper because we’re up 10, 15 points and we scored 70 points, 80 points, but we also just let up 50 or 60 on the other end. So it’s like in a The way we got to that lead because, you know, when we, our driving kit game, I
Think we’ve talked about a lot, is probably where our best offense stems from. Pushing the pace and, you know, even off of makes or off of defensive rebounds, the faster we get up the floor, the better it works for us, I think, I mean, in most cases. And then, Mm hmm.
White’s in the game, if he gets the ball off a rebound or whatever, off a make, he’s up in his, he’s at the elbow in like five seconds. And then at that point he’s either, you know, got the defense on their toes. You know, he’s got him on a position or whatever.
And then the rest of the players know what they’re doing. They know where to be or what cuts to make or whatever. You either get an easy layup, you get a easy shot, you get someone open for three. And I mean, that’s how we really. That’s how we really make the offense flow.
But that’s all great if you’re playing defense on the other end. And I don’t think we were playing poor defense necessarily throughout the game. And I don’t even think in the third, we really played poorly. I think the pace was just kind of outworked, outplayed us. You mentioned a lot of offensive rebounds.
I think we put up 25 points or whatever. I think it was 37 to 25. Yeah. in the third, but you know, I think the paces are a good team. And like Scal kept saying, they’re not going to, they’re not going to go away. They’re not going to die.
And you know, there, he’s there, uh, they’re his favorite, uh, league pass team, I think he said, uh, so it’s nice to know that Scal’s at least watching bat other basketball games are on the league. Um, but he’s right. I mean, they’re, you know, Pretty young, feisty, they’re well coached.
And like you always say too, a 10, 15 point lead in the NBA is not safe under pretty much any amount of time. I mean, we even saw it tonight. We were up, you know, we got up eight, 10 or whatever in the last three, four
Minutes and it was still ended up being one of the three point win or whatever. So you gotta play, gotta play 48 minutes and we gotta play better defense, more focused. Gotta get rid of those offensive rebounds. But again, we were missing out too, and to a lesser extent, Cornett, but still, it
Was a good game. We just, I think part of it was slowing down in the third, not coming out with as much energy as the Pacers did. And ultimately, that’s what let them get back into it. And at least we battled in the fourth to finally pull it out.
And that’s what we’re doing. Defensive possession you mentioned too, that was a big one on my notes. That was just a thing of beauty. It was like the double, double poor Zingas Tatum block. I think Tatum is actually the one that got his hand on it, but just a thing of beauty.
I mean, everyone was moving, you know, it was a masterclass in defense. Um, especially, you know, late in games, late in shot clocks, you don’t see a lot of, you know, uh, 24 second violations because, you know, there’s too much, too much at risk to not take a shot.
But yeah, it was nice to see that even after letting the lead slip away, we still have what it takes to lock down when we needed to and we didn’t get, hang our head and whatever.
So I was happy with the way we finished, but it was a little bit of a hard attack game for third and fourth quarter there. Yeah, well it definitely got a lot more interesting than it seemed like it was
Gonna be and I think again you got to give a lot of credit to the Pacers you mentioned how fast these could evaporate in the league especially against a team like that we’ve talked to Pacers have you know a historically great offense they
Just fly up and down the court and they really I mean they got the lead down and it seemed like almost half a quarter it was down to like three points with you know with still 18 minutes to play in the game so the last like quarter and a half
Was really just a close grinded out affair. Whereas the first, before that, you know, the first half especially in the beginning of the third was just so wide open. The defense I thought was okay. I didn’t think it was like bad, but again, it was just the offensive rebound.
It was just a lot of standing around. We do a good job contesting the initial shot. Again, I thought Drew was absolutely incredible on defense. He’s guarded Siakam a lot of the night. He guarded Nemhart down the stretch where he had to, and he just was not getting moved off his spot.
Great D. It seemed like he… should have had more blocks and steals than it ended up showing up in the box score because it just seemed like he was affecting almost every single play awesome defense um and again they were just crashing so hard that Pacers seemed
They’re just they have so many guys like that are just such pests and Pascal I think fits in so well because he’s almost like an all-star version of a guy who’s just like makes his bread off hustle and hard work like that’s kind of Pascal’s
Game he’s just really good at but knee smith I mean we see Especially against us seemingly. NEM Hearts and other pasts. Buddy Healds kind of getting in on the action. Turner was playing some real bully ball. Good for him. They made it tough on us. They really did.
And again, in the third quarter, they just absolutely blitzed us. A lot of the stuff we were doing stopped working. And when they’re putting all their shots right back in, you know, part of a stop is defense, but it’s not a stop until you secure the rebound.
And we just, again, weren’t doing that. Twenty seven to four through two and a half quarters on second chance points. It’s just. Absolutely pathetic. It really is. I want to do give a tip of the cap to the bench.
I thought they played great How’s our early good game three or five on threes a lot of timely ones. Prichard was really good already. Shouted out Kata He had like three blocks He had a great sequence at the beginning
Of the fourth where there was a jump ball and first he tipped it and caught it Himself, which is hilarious. I’m not sure if he knew that you aren’t allowed to do that Then he got another jump ball at the free throw line almost like two seconds later
Tipped it ahead to Brown who did like a tip pass to him. I couldn’t even tell if it was intentional or not and Kada caught it and just like almost, seemingly in slow motion, like drop step, power slammed it and won like right through two pacers. So it’s funny with Kada.
I mean, like you see, he really, it’s funny just how much he reminds me of like young, young Rob Williams when there’s like no discipline and you just have no idea what he’s gonna do. But one second he’ll make a play and you’ll be like, holy shit, like.
Those block that block or that dunk is like the best play I’ve ever seen and then he’ll make a play two seconds later where it’s like he’s running around on defense with the like a chicken with his head cut off I guess no clue where should be but
You can see like the skills are there to be a really good player I’m just not sure he can channel but he stepped it up for us tonight It was funny looking back at the box score for like as great as the starters played for almost the entire game
They all had a minus a plus minus in the negatives except holiday was plus two and then Sam Houser plus 14 Prichard plus 12 K to plus 15 So, you know, and again, it was really the weird kind of funky lineups with those guys where we started off.
So things tightened up in the fourth quarter. We mentioned after just a brutal, brutal third quarter that, you know, those third quarter blues strike again all the way down to a three point game after we’ve been up as much as 21 and up 15 and a half.
And then kind of had to write the ship in the fourth quarter. And it was that weird lineup I mentioned to start with Kata, Hauser, Prichard, Tatum and Holliday. And I think we started on like. 12 to two or 14 to two run something like that right out of the gate.
And again, it was you could tell locking it on defense, focusing on getting to the rebounds and just making it happen. And that kind of fueled us. And then we got, I think, a backup to, like you said, a 10 or so point lead.
Got a little hairy again towards the very end, but that was really what wanted for us. And, you know, there’s, there’s no style points. We got up, we built that lead back up at the start of the fourth quarter, the
Starters game back in, and we were able to at least hold on down the stretch and get the W. Yeah, and down the stretch to when I think it was when Indiana took that one point lead. I don’t know if it was the end of the third.
I think it was at the end of the third. Yeah, so they just can’t they just took that one point lead and then go back to talking about Derek White again and how we pushed the pace. He immediately gets the ball off that one point lead sprints up the floor.
He’s you know, 10 feet from the hoop defense collapses. hits how’s it for a wide open three. So, I mean, that’s like, it’s so cool. It was a huge play and it’s just like so obvious what, you know, that does for our
Offense and how important he is to our offense, because it’s not like, it’s not like that’s some skill that no one else possesses. It’s just in the moment he’s like, oh yeah, let’s do this instead of, you know,
Whatever slowly walk it up the court and get into a half and do a half court set. But, um, so, you know, that’s great to see. And I think those, you know, Although there’s obviously a lot of the, you know, statistics and topical parts of
White’s game that people see and are like, Oh yeah, this guy’s good. But then there’s still, he does things like that. The little things that like go unrecognized or it’s like, you know, in addition to that, it’s just, it’s just great. It’s, it’s such a luxury to have him. Yeah, exactly.
To have a guy who is not conventionally one of your best, you know, well, you wouldn’t think of him like looking at the team as one of your main three even go to guys. And yet down the stretch of game, sometimes he’s like the most poised player.
And you can just put it in his hands and you know that he’s, you know, going to do the right play. So it’s good to see the old Derek back, whatever the slump was going through recently as he’s been struggling straight up. And you know, it’s hard for that not to affect you.
We’re getting shades of back to two years ago in the first playoff run when we went to the finals and it felt like he just completely like lost his confidence. If you remember there are times where like he didn’t even want to shoot wide open shots.
So you get a little bit of PTSD, but it’s good to see starting in the fourth quarter last night against the Pelicans. And then again, tonight for most of the game, especially that first quarter, he was absolutely lights out shooting and then took it home with contributing in some other ways.
So again, really good win. I think these are the kind of things that you build on, like you said, you know, blowing them out for a 25 point wins are easy and whatever, but you probably kind of, you know, get earned some more battle scars from a game like this.
And this is, this is going to help you out more for a playoff game where it slows down and you do have to grind it out by working your ass off, getting to the free throw line, getting stops, getting rebounds.
And for the second straight night, I thought the Jays really stepped it up on the glass. You could see. You know, obviously we’re lacking some bigs. We played small at times. We were playing with Kada and, you know, Tatum and Brown were stepping it up,
Getting in there and rebounding like big guys, pulled down some big ones down the stretch. So again, just seeing your superstars contribute in ways that aren’t just scoring for the second straight night. And again, playing a team like the Pacers that just plays so fast with so much pace, so much energy.
I don’t want to make excuses, but it’s easy to imagine that the being the second night of the back to back after playing another up tempo game against a good team in the Pelicans where we had to exert a lot of energy to come
Back and win, I’m sure the legs might have caught up to them a little bit in that second half and the Pacers were a little bit fresher. They probably know that sometimes we don’t come out of the half with the most energy
And focus, especially when we have a big lead and it seemed like they capitalized on that. We dropped the rope a little bit, but again, able to steady the ship, able to pull out wins down the stretch and that’s what good teams do. That is what good teams do.
Can play sloppy for a little bit of the game, things are going poorly, that could easily turn into an ugly loss, and instead they played a really good fourth quarter for the most part and did enough to get the win. That’s all you can ask for.
That’s what regular season is for pretty much. It’s nice to kind of have these tests in the regular season as much as we’d love to win by 30 every game. That’s just not reality. So it’s nice. We’ve been able to win. Exactly.
It’s like we’re not going to just steamroll every team in the playoffs by 30 points. We’re going to get into these grind out games where the score of quarters aren’t going to be 45 to 40. It’s going to be 24, 25 to 23.
So you have to be able to win that way too. You still have to be able to win with defense against the best teams, against playoff teams in big situations. And it’s cool to see the Celtics do that. Obviously, I don’t like blowing 21 point leads, but…
I do like seeing us close out games, winning the fourth quarter, and winning with really defense first and out-toughing them when it seemed like we were getting a little bit bullied from that third quarter there. Yeah, but like big picture, we’ve, it seems mostly that we have been able to win
In multiple different ways this year. Um, and this, you know, kind of being another one, I mean, we’ve showed, we’ve won games where our threes aren’t falling. We’ve won games where we can’t not hit a three. We’ve won games where we’ve played poor defense. We’ve won games where we played great defense.
We’ve come back from big leads and we’ve given up big leads. I mean, you know, it’s. It’s not like consistent. That’s not going to be, you know, consistent game. The NBA is too long sleaze and whatever, but that’s what you want to do during the regular season.
You want to get yourself, you want to be able to see yourself in multiple situations and learn how to get through it. Cause like you said, the playoffs are completely different animal and you don’t want to kind of learn how to navigate your way through different situations on the fly in the playoffs.
So that’s, that’s what we’re trying to do here. And you know, it’s nice to see us. You don’t be able to do that. Yeah. Well, and not only that, but it was like almost all of those in this one game. In the first half, we saw where we are flying.
The ball was absolutely humming around. Like, I don’t want to undersell how awesome that first half was because the pace, the ball movement and the shooting were like, honestly, as good as they can be. Tatum in especially that second court that might like dark white.
That’s maybe as good of an offensive first quarters he had Tatum. That was like almost as good of an offensive second quarters he had. And then J.B. Drew and K.P. were all awesome, too, like just an unbelievable offensive first half.
So it’s like we got that version of a win in the first half, let it go again, and then got the other version of the win where it’s like the gritty, slow-mo, playoff defensive battle win in the fourth quarter.
So we got the blowout game and the close crunch time in both in one, just ignore what happened in the third quarter. And we’ll be all right. But again, the reason this was even a close game, and I guess the one cause for concern, there’s more of a cause for concern.
Early in the season. I feel like we haven’t been talking about it a lot lately, but the Pacers shot 108 attempts. We only shot 87. So 21 more shots. Again, that’s just kind of a simple math game there. They had 50 rebounds. We had 40.
The big one, they had 19 offensive rebounds and we had seven. That’s 19 offensive rebounds. I mean, that is just brutal. Like the Pacers, they’re a good offensive team, but I mean, that, that’s just unacceptable. And I think the Celtics know it. And I think you could see.
By the way, they played in the fourth quarter and stopped giving them up that it was clearly something we could control when we put our minds to it. So again, 31 to 6 second chance points. The only reason really the Paces got back in this game and never got close.
And again, I think at least 27 or 29 of those were before the third quarter. So through three quarters, almost 30 second chance points again, and it was a three point game. So we just clean up the glass even half the times and we’re still up almost 20 points.
That’s how we let them back in that. So clean that up. Like you said. No Al, no Luke, second night of a back-to-back. So something we can fix, not like a major cause for concern. But that, if you’re looking for what happened and how that game got as close as
It is, you really have to look no further than that. Yeah, the, I mean, that kind of encapsulates, you know, the offensive rebounds in the third quarter, because it’s all, like we said, they, they came out with more energy than we did.
And we came out a little bit slow and offensive rebounds, I say, you know, 50% of getting offensive rebound is probably hustle energy and, you know, you know, just going for it. Um, so. where you could see just four or five Celtics standing around and one of those Pacers guys.
Again, it’s not like they’re these huge, you know, it wasn’t like Shaq was out there playing volleyball, if anything, you know, Porzingis was the biggest guy out there, but it was these, their wing guys, there’s Neesmith, there’s Siakam, there’s Nemhart, you know, guys like that just crashing with so much effort and
Aggression that that’s why they’re coming up with the ball. They just, well, you know, wanted it more to use the cliches. But that’s what it looked like. That is absolutely what it looked like. But other than that third quarter stretch, I mean, the only other real issue I had,
Which was late in the fourth, I think it was like, you know, we started to do that classic Celtics thing where we walk the ball at the court, try and, you know, run up, run out the clock. I mean, it’s tail as old as time for us.
But, you know, I think we’re getting better about that. I think. But it does make me nervous when we see games like this where it gets tight and things start to tighten up. And are we gonna always resort back to the walk it up, slow it down, kill the pace,
Half court off its kind of thing? Because I think it’s pretty obvious that that’s not the way to get it done. And we’re at our best when we’re keeping the pace, we can still milk the whole clock. Exactly. It’s not like… out of position, move the ball around.
There’s still ways to milk the clock while running your offense and getting the defense to on their heels a little bit. And I thought we were doing that for the most part in that fourth quarter. Like we were playing slowly, but again, a lot of possessions seem like we’re doing a
Very good job involving Porzingis. Uh, they had Niece Smith on him a lot who, I mean, credit to Niece Smith. He was working his ass off on defense on Porzingis. Completely overmatched and came up with a few nice plays, but we were getting into Porzingis, he was scoring inside.
He got to the free throw line a bunch. Tatum too, the way Tatum has been driving lately is unreal. Uh, Brown too got in there a few, like in the fourth quarter. We were barely shooting threes. I felt like we were taking it to them. We were finishing possessions.
It was great Uh, so like I was mostly fine with that It was really just like those last two or three minutes We were up nine and that’s when we’re like It’s like we could finally sniff the finish line and that’s where it started those possessions
Where it’s like, you know 23 seconds of dribbling and just going for that one step back dagger Which like yeah, if any of those fall that is a dagger and we win and the end’s fine But we you know, we do that two positions in a row and miss and then
Again just the awful holiday eight-second violation which is like unforgivable and then white with again the feed to Porzingis which again I like that at that point it’s like yeah go to Porzingis get him a post-touch and just you know he partially he has to have more
Awareness partially someone has to give him a heads up that hey my heel’s sneaking up behind you to strip the ball so it was really just like two almost two or three possessions in a row but I thought for the most part yeah you saw him lurking over there.
It’s like every, we all saw it coming. Yeah, would you like to see joke all the time out there? Um, no, I wish someone just said, Hey, poor thing is behind you. Someone’s coming. I think that would have been fine. Oh yeah, throw it up high or whatever.
But I mean, you got to know that he’s, he’s lurking back there. And if, if he doesn’t know someone’s got to tell him, I don’t know, maybe they did. He just didn’t hear it, but, um, that, that wouldn’t, you saw that one coming from a mile away.
You, you read the quarterback’s eyes on that. That is true. That is definitely true, but again, it worked out something hopefully to build on and to learn from and you know, Hopefully all of these games like this are the ones
Hopefully to build good experience and these are the kind of games and you know, like I said, we can talk about pushing the pace playing fast having these 40 point quarters, but it’s just When in playoff basketball, this is not how it is. The game is going to be like this.
So For better or worse, you got to find ways to play through these situations and honestly as much as it makes me uncomfortable to watch The more kind of games like this that we have to grind out and win along the way,
Probably the better suited will be in the longterm, you know, in May, June, where we do get into games like this against good teams. It’s inevitable. And so we got to be ready. Yeah, this is, I mean, like we said, this is the regular season is where you wanna
Face adversity because you’re gonna face it in the playoffs. So, you know, it’s just, it’s not what you wanna see when you’re watching the game. I mean, nobody wants to see this happen, but once it’s over and you know, you have
Some time, next day we’ll be looking back and be like, you know what, that was a good win. Yeah, right. All the points count the same. Like I don’t, you know, we scored 81 points in the first half and I think we scored 48 or 49 in the second half.
So obviously that’s way worse. But like I said, you score enough points, it doesn’t matter when you get them as long as you score more. And as long as the Celtics do that, I’m not gonna care. Like I said, there’s no style points.
There’s no aggregate scoring and points differential and all that, like the in-season tournament. So… A win to win, it doesn’t matter if you kind of limp to the finish line or what. And that wasn’t even the case, again, for the record tonight.
We went out and won that game in the fourth quarter and closed it out the way we had to. Again, it got hairy, but that’s all right. We did get a live voicemail call into the show from Chuddy Head in Newburyport.
Nick, if you’d like to play the voicemail for the audience, you can set it up and… Yeah, let’s fire it up. I think we screened it for content to make sure it’s appropriate for the young ones, but apologize if not. Alright boys, it’s Jason. A new report.
I’m in bed so I get a whisper. You’re up by 200 at the half. My god close it out. Why did you let it get so close at the end? It’s ridiculous. Please, for the love of god, get your head out of your asses. Let’s go green.
And I’m not going to tell you what I’m wearing, because I’m in bed. No need to know. Thanks. Well, thank you very much to Jason in New report. We love all our fans and we absolutely love the engagement We appreciate the call.
First of all, special thank you to Jason for not sharing his bedtime wardrobe I think we’re all better for that. As for the call, yeah, I mean, I think Jason captured what a lot of Celtics fans are feeling in a lot of these games and he’s right, you know, you’re up 20, the
Lead’s gone It’s frustrating, it’s scary, it’s not what you want to see. But I think like we talked about, this is the way the NBA goes. We saw last night, we were down 17, came back and won the game.
So these leads come and go, but I think one of these things you have to think about, they always say it’s a game of runs, which is true, but it’s so hard to make that run, to come all the way back, that the hardest thing to do is to kind of
Keep it going once you reach that point. And we saw that tonight where it was like, they worked so hard to come back into it. tie the game to even take a one point lead. And then that was kind of where like their energy for that run kind of dies.
They weren’t able to push that lead out anymore. The Celtics were able to punch back. And then again, had that big run to start the fourth quarter where we took the lead back and we were able to close it out.
So I know you don’t want to see it happen like this, but like I said, you kind of just have to think about it in certain points. We made our giant run in the first half. They made a giant run in the second half.
We made a run in the fourth quarter and that was ultimately what he was able to close it out. So. Jason, we all feel that extra stress. The Celtics have definitely taken a few extra years off of our lives with some of these late game situations.
But at the end of the day, I think you just gotta be grateful that we were able to pull it out, that we were able to make more big plays than the Pacers were down the stretch. And then ultimately we improved to 37 and 11. Best record in the league by several games.
You gotta appreciate it. Like I said, a win’s a win. Doesn’t matter how they look. Winning ugly is still winning. And again. We all know the Celtics can win pretty. We know we can go out, win by 40, make every shot, look awesome.
Winning ugly is what will define championship teams and that was an ugly win tonight. But like I said, those are the way you win in the playoffs. That’s playoff basketball, that kind of gritty, tough, hard fought win where
You’re kind of take a punch in the mouth, stagger into your corner, come back and punch your way to a victory. So. Take a deep breath Jason, we hope you’re comfortably in bed getting some sleep after what was ultimately a nice Celtics win. Yeah, thanks for calling in Jason.
And we love the phone calls. We love the voicemails. We’ve got some more coming. We have one in the bank and I know we’re going to be working on a mailbox, a mailbag segment, I think soon, hopefully maybe later this week or something. But yeah, so keep them coming.
Yeah, so if there are like more macro type of mailbag questions, we will save them for a giant mailbag section. Feel free to add those in. If you want to call in live during a game like Jason did, we’re happy to riff with you during the show like that.
So like I said, we appreciate all of the engagement. We appreciate the listening. We appreciate all of it. So thank you again, Jason, the first voicemail to be played on the show and certainly far from the last. So like I said. We appreciate all the support.
With that, anything else you want to hit on from this game or the Celts in general before we swing around the NBA? Um, so the only other things I had here, uh, I think is very obvious why the Pacers went and got Siakam.
Um, you can kind of see how like easily he’s fitting in and, you know, he added much needed element to their, their roster. I mean, his length defense, post play toughness, he can hit open threes. I mean, he does, you know, a little bit of everything and a little bit of everything
That they, you know, needed pretty much. I mean, you know, they weren’t, they’re not the most, the best defensive team in the league. And, you know, like, like Scal said, he’s not going to go in and change their whole
Team’s, you know, defensive makeup and they’re going to all of a sudden be like a top five defense, but he, he helps, he can match up with, you know, some of the longer wings he can play big. He’s just a really good player.
Of he stabilizes their lineup to having him in there more like it allows Turner to be more of a roamer and a true rim protector because Pascal can like get tough and guard. And then, you know, you’ve got then you got knee Smith, who can play the two guard instead of the three.
So you just get like a bigger lineup in general, bigger, tougher guys. And it does kind of transform them. And again, he fits in so well on offense because he just loves to get out and run. He’s flying up the court fits in perfectly with this kind of running gun team.
And, you know, the same thing on offense where teams like aren’t really afraid of Turner being like a conventional down low center. So now they’ll you know, you’ll end up a lot with your center on Siakam or something like that, where, you know, you can hide a smaller guy on Turner, whatever
Siakam will go down low. He can abuse that. He can outwork those guys with quickness. You saw him kind of getting by our big guys on the perimeter and then down low. I mean, again, the way he moves his body, like he did.
He did such a good job of almost just kind of like hard dribble and almost just like bumping Corzingis back just enough so that he like. can’t reach out and block his little like leaners and little like close hook shot. So yeah, Siakam, he’s like, just does everything you’d want.
Again, he’s almost like a superstar in like a role players kind of kind of body and stuff. So yeah, awesome get for them. Awesome fit. And again, it’s kind of unfortunate just as a fan in general that we haven’t gotten to see their team fully healthy that much with Hal Burton out there.
Again, I think this is only the second time they both played together and neither one. has really been a full game. So looking forward to when we do get to see that again. I think, I think Scal and Mike said it well at the end of the game where Scal was
Like, can’t wait to watch them in the playoffs. And Mike was like, yeah, I just hope it’s not against us. Yeah, I don’t think anyone wants to play them in the playoffs if they’re fully healthy.
So and you know, I don’t want to I don’t want to bring it up every time we play the Pacers, but Neesmith is just a solid player. And you know, for anyone, you know, I know when we got when we gave him up, everyone was like, yeah, whatever, good riddance.
And I mean, I think still I’d make that trade 10 times out of 10. But he’s blossoming. great little ball player and I mean he does all the little things. I mean he’s basically did basically what he did for us in short stints just at a
Much higher level and somehow he learned how to shoot. So I think he was kind of what we were all hoping he would be or what he would turn into be. He just didn’t have the opportunity to do that here.
And I know we talk about this every time we put up the Pacers but I’m just so proud of him. good. Yeah, no, he’s become a really good two way player. And again, like you said, I don’t think it’s even so much that we like gave up on him or whatever.
He needed the opportunity. He didn’t get it here. Now he gets to play a ton. And that’s why he’s gotten good. Like he was just never I don’t know if he ever becomes this player. If he’s stays on the Celtics for better or worse.
So he’s been able to blossom there and he’s found an awesome role as like their go-to defensive stopper on the outside. He brings all that effort and energy and he’s finally figured out how to shoot. So we finally see him that shooting skill and he’s become like he said, just like
Really, really good role player for them. So I’m happy for him. Honestly, I root for him. I like the Pacers, I like Neesmith, I’m happy. I know he thinks like. He has this big rivalry with the Celtics and I think part of that is him just like finding ways to motivate himself.
But I… Yeah. No, I’m a fan of his and I’m a fan of that team. Yeah, it’s a fun team to watch and you know, a bunch of guys you can root for, especially Neesmith. Good for them, like what they’re doing down there. Yeah, absolutely.
Anything else or should we rip around the NBA? Um, that’s all I got. I mean, I know it wasn’t a big Prichard game, but I just want to. A little Prichard appreciation. I thought he played really well. He didn’t put up, he didn’t have the numbers, I guess, but, um, I just love
His, I love his motor and I love the way he keeps the ball alive. I think, I think someone said it was Cal Center or something where he just never gives up the dribble. He’s you always say he’s in, uh, Gretzky’s office. Is that what it’s called? Yeah. Oh yeah.
But I mean, it seems like a little thing, but it’s just being, sometimes just dribbling around keeping the ball alive. Things open up and it’s just a. People are expecting him to stop and then on the defense and he doesn’t. And that just allows one extra second for someone to cut.
And next thing you know, it’s like a backdoor layup or dunk. Yeah, those are great. to know that as I appreciate him after that slow start to the year he’s found his way into my heart. Oh, absolutely. The whole bench. Like I said, Prichard, Hauser, Keita. Huge hat tip to them.
The stats won’t show it, but those guys were awesome tonight. So good for them. All right. Anyway, another Around the NBA stuff. Start with staying with the Celtics. So last night, Joe Mazzulla just had some very interesting commentary over the last few days.
It started last night where I alluded to it earlier after the Pelicans game when asked about it. He, you know, kind of said like, we have to get, he’s been saying for a few days now, how we have to get rid of this like entitled feeling that we are just gonna
Expect to win. And he’s like, we have to go and actually win the games. So he was talking about the Pelicans game, but he said, you know, I hope we get behind by more and have to come back. He said, I hope we blow leads.
Basically saying how adverse situations are good for the team, good learning experiences and things that we’re gonna need down the stretch. I don’t think he meant to will this. tonight’s game into existence or we blew the 21 point lead and had to happen.
But I just thought it was very interesting and introspective of him to say. He also gave some really good commentary last night, kind of when asked about the game plan of the Pelicans game and how, even though they started off kind of
Rocking us, he was happy with playing the math game and living with it because we were forcing the shots they wanted. He said, you know, it was guys like Herb Jones, Larry Nance, Ingram hitting threes. And he’s like, those are shots that we are happy to live with. So I love.
How much detail Joe will go into his answers about basketball. And I think it really gives a good insight as to, you know, for the people who think he’s kind of just asleep at the wheel, like you look at how much thought this guy
Puts into every single thing that’s happening during the game and all these decisions. And I mean, you can see it really every night watching him, but it’s cool to hear how much depth you will go into talking about it. So that was really cool. And then today, before the game.
I don’t know if you call it this, but they went in and asked him for an injury report. This was like two hours before the game he went in and he’s like, yep, he’s like Luke doubtful, Al out, whereas Zing is questionable.
And one of the reporters was like, can you expand on that? And he said, he was like, you know, I can’t talk about that. I just have a bird brain or something. So clearly throwing a subtle shot at our frenemy, Kendrick Perkins with the bird brain comment. So I just love Joe.
I don’t think he’s the best coach in the league, but I think he is a good coach. I think he gets it. a shitty raw deal from a lot of people and I just love the way he handles the media
So a lot of good soundbites from him in the last 24 hours that as someone who covers the team like we do, I appreciate it. Yeah, he just seems like he’s like such a serious stoic sort of man that a lot of people think he’s just like, yeah, right.
But he’s like, he’s got his finger on the pulse and he’s funny and I think clearly the team loves him and he’s a likable guy. It’s just like he doesn’t, I think his real personality isn’t who it seems, you know, outwardly and, you know, when he’s on the court or whatever.
It’s just, yeah. And like you say, he’s not the best coach in the league, but I think he’s proven to be a good NBA. Yeah. And like you said, when he, when he, when he gives those in depth answers, it shows,
You know, he’s not trying to flex, but it shows what he, he knows basketball. Um, so, you know, it’s, it’s nice to have coaches that are willing to open up to and give you some real answers. So it’s refreshing. No, it’s a breath of fresh air. I appreciate it a lot.
So that was cool stuff to see. And then I’m sure, you know, we’ll probably have more sound bites from after this game to talk about next show. So we love Joe. In other news, former Celtic Rajon Rondo arrested in Indiana for possession of a firearm, some marijuana, some drug paraphernalia.
Nothing really to add to this. I didn’t even read the story. I’ll just say, you know, free Rondo. Not really. Should there’s anything to add to that? Free Rondo. He’s a Celtic and we want him free. I’m sure he’s been set up or framed or had a good reason or whatever.
So yeah, Rondo, we support you. Free Rondo. And open invite, we will happily give you our platform. Rajan, if you wanna come on the show, plead your case, explain your innocence. We have your back 100%, so please come on the show to discuss. Oh yeah, exactly.
Very, this is a safe space, say whatever you want. Other news last night, we had the return of Ben Simmons and he looked great. Almost had a triple double. I think he had 10, eight and 11. He was doing it all on both ends, leading the Nets to a huge win.
They looked as good as they have in a while. Um, it kind of was hitting me as I was watching this last night that at some point, like it’s almost stopped being funny and now it’s just kind of sad. He was such a great player and I like just miss him out there.
You know, I was never the biggest fan of his, but like. I just want to see him back in the NBA and at least playing well. Like it’s really kind of like a tragic NBA story what’s happened to this guy at this point.
So I hope he can at least get like some semblance of a career back. I don’t know if I’ll ever be an all NBA player again, but it’d be nice to see him out there at least like contributing consistently to a basketball team. Yeah, I like Simmons.
I mean, the idea of Simmons is awesome. I mean, you know, we saw it the first few years in the league. Like he looked like he could be, you know, I mean, obviously he was an All-Star. He could look like he could have been the future of the NBA. He was all NBA.
I mean, his tool set is just unbelievable. I mean, his defense, you know, his position, his size obviously makes him a mismatch. Like, it’s just like, you know, obviously he can’t, he’s got… He’s got something going on upstairs where something’s not right, but if he can
Figure that out, even if he’s not who he used to be, if he’s 75% of who he was at his best, that’s still a good player. He could definitely contribute to winning basketball if he’s in the right headspace and playing the right way. Oh.
Let’s hope this is the start of the comeback for Ben Simmons. We’re supporting that at this point. I’d rather make fun of him for stuff happening on the court than off. Let’s put it that way. Another game last night, we talked about it briefly,
Great game, a hard fall win by the Wolves as we were kind of reacting in live time. Then I saw after the game Anthony Edwards coming right out and just I think he said the refs were fucking cheats or something like that. He was ripping the refs.
He said it’s tough to play 8 on 5. He said go ahead and find me. He was pissed. There were a lot of bad calls clearly down the stretch and then… Today, the last two minute reports was basically backing up the refs, which is ridiculous.
I don’t know if you’ve seen some of the plays. Edwards went up for a donk, Shea slapped him right across the arm. They said that was like negligible contact. Whatever the saying is, incidental contact, like marginal, all this shit. Again, I continue to wonder why they even bother with these last two minutes
Reports. Like they only serve to make things worse. Kind of. It’s like, no matter what, what does ref say, you can’t win. You either admit you fucked up. or you double down and then look like you’re just kind of defending them. So I don’t know what’s going on with the officiating this year.
It’s worse than ever. And I hope they can do something before the playoffs and make some changes next year to, I don’t know, to maybe take some of the objectivity out of the ref’s hands or something. But it’s clearly bad. And it feels like more than it’s every few days.
We’re seeing a player or coach spout off and basically happily get fined to get in there to sense with how bad the roughing is. So. Hate to see it and kind of put a damper on a really, really good game between two of the best teams in the West.
So, not a big fan of it. usually don’t see somebody get that upset at a win. So you know it was bad if he was still fired up and willing to get fined after winning the game. Bizarre. Then we had the Cavs.
We talk about the hottest team in the league, the Cavs 10 and 1 in their last 11 and beat the other hottest team in the league. The Clippers last night in pretty convincing fashion. They also got Evan Mobley last night back to the lineup after missing over a month.
And now it sounds like as soon as possibly tomorrow night, Darius Garland will be back as well. So, uh, maybe the hottest team in the league and getting even healthier. They are right up there and The Knicks and the Cavaliers have quietly nipped, are starting to nip right at the
Heels of the Sixers and the Bucks. In fact, as we’re live right now, it’s halftime of the Sixers game, but as it stands, the Knicks are actually a half game ahead of the Sixers for the three seed in the East. And the Cavs, I think, are only about a half game.
I think if the Sixers lose, they might be like the fifth seed, suddenly. That’s how close the Cavs and the Knicks are. So, you know, as Celtics fans, I’m sure we’re obviously kind of focusing on the top and keeping our distance between Milwaukee and Philly, but meanwhile,
The four and the five, the Knicks and the Cavs, are closer to those two and three teams than they actually are to the Celtics. So the East is not the East of old anymore. There’s a lot of good teams in the East and these playoffs are gonna be super interesting.
And it’s like, I don’t even know as a Celtic fan what I’m rooting for anymore. Like all of these teams look really good. And I don’t know. So the Cavs seem legit, the Knicks seem legit. A lot going on. It’s good stuff. Another game last night, another great game. The Nuggets.
Held off the box. There’s a lot of interesting and funny stuff from this. I don’t know if you caught it. It was a good game. The Nuggets were able to close him out down the stretch a lot with some defense. Nuggets’ defense was very solid and Jamal Murray was great down the stretch.
Jokic obviously did his thing. But I don’t know if you saw, all night they were kind of all over the refs for Janos’ free throws. They were counting. Jokic was in the paint, like waiting for the rebound. Animatedly looking at the refs counting on his fingers like imploring the refs to
Call the 10 second violation Multiple times and then finally in like the last few minutes of a tight game They finally called it and he went crazy the crowd’s flipping out Um, and it’s like stupid because then you honest there their whole thing.
They’re just like, oh well how can you call it now and Like that’s the thing to me is like if it’s a rules a rule How about you just call it every time like I agree because there shouldn’t be inconsistency But also if you’re the nuggets is like that is the rule.
So you should be calling it, but how about we just call it every time. And how about you don’t take 15 seconds to shoot a free throw, get the ball, take a breath, take a dribble, shoot the damn thing. Like let’s, if it’s gonna be a rule, let’s just enforce it.
Like if it’s not a rule, then just say it’s not a rule. But if it is a rule, like the guys say it and they’re counting, clearly they’re getting to 10, 12 seconds every time. And then you finally call it down the stretch. Again, just like bad, stupid officiating.
So I’m glad they called it. But then it just opens this whole other Pandora’s box. Well, it’s like, you haven’t been calling it for three and a half quarters, and now you just randomly decide to like, make a statement now. So I can see why that’s frustrating.
It was obviously Doc Rivers’ first game coaching the Bucks. Tough loss and Doc just giving us more awesome soundbites after the game. Basically, it’s just praising how awesome, he loves doing this. Like, I mean, he’s been parading this thing since he got hired of how he’s in
Like such a compromised mission and how it’s so hard for him in the box. And they have seen all… so much to overcome with this impossible situation that he wouldn’t wish on anyone in the world to have to take on.
And last night it was him saying how he was so happy with how well, with how little of the offense they knew, but they were able to run all his plays. And he’s like, yeah, we were able to score off all my ATOs and all my out of bounds plays. Like that’s great.
But he’s like, I really wish like, I want them to be able to score off of their plays that they know better. So I was like, even already he’s basically saying like the play. Yeah, the stuff I brought in is great. But like, uh.
You know, they need to get better at the stuff they were doing before. It’s like the guys just… Don’t stop entertainment. We love absolutely none. And you know, they hired him off the street and paid him $40 million to do this. So maybe, maybe he shouldn’t. Maybe we’re the idiots. I don’t know.
But yeah, we also talked about the Grizzlies, how they had to sign someone to a 10-day. Mark… Or Matt Hunt… Matt Hurt. just to avoid forfeiting the game, to have an eighth guy on their roster. He played 23 minutes, scored 10 points for them, fresh off the street.
The disaster season for the Grizzlies, they were awarded three hardship roster spots because of all the injuries. So they got to sign three guys with a 10 day contract. One of them was hurt who they had last night. They got two more guys who even I am not familiar with.
Crazy season for the Grizzlies. And that roster, I mean, it’s just getting… Crazier and crazier by the day. So not sure I’ve seen a team this bitten by the injury bug maybe ever So I keep saying kudos to them for continuing to fight That is cool.
And then just a few kind of little things came out today that the next year’s salary cap will be 141 million it was projected at 142 million comes up 1 million short not really a big deal Jalen Brown it’ll cost him 2 million dollars off what his extension was supposed to be.
So Jalen Brown everybody, you know That started go fund me for him the poor guy. I think he’s only gonna get like 298 million or I don’t know the exact numbers, but he lost a couple million dollars today with that news A couple other guys did as
Well But I think it all you know overall in the grand scheme of things. It’s not gonna make a huge difference It’s very close to what the projection was And then the only other interesting news, I don’t know if you have any thoughts on this but they’ve added an event to this year’s
NBA All-Star Weekend, which is coming up in a couple weekends. The weekend February 18th is the All-Star Game. So February 17th, All-Star Saturday night. Of course, still has the skills, skills challenge, the three-point contest and the dunk contest, and they’ve added a new event, which is a 1v1 three-point shootout
Between Steph Curry and Sabrina Inescu. Um, yeah, so… of them? just the two of them from my understanding. They’re yapping back and forth a little bit on Twitter. It’s going to be all for charity. She’s saying she doesn’t want any advantages. She’s going to shoot from the NBA line too.
So, you know, great. NBA, I’ll be honest, NBA Saturday night used to be camp miss. I feel like when we were younger growing up, I absolutely loved looking forward to it. Now, you know, I’m a sicko, I’m a junkie, so I still watch it. But it has
Lost a lot of the luster and so far the players who have been announced for the Dunk contest Mack McClung and Jaime Jaquez Jr. just not inspiring at all. So hey, they gotta try something. Maybe this will work and end up being the most you know interesting exciting moment of the night.
So like I said props to them and Adam Silver for trying. I don’t know if this is it, if this is the answer but um hey something’s better than nothing and it could be cool. Two amazing shooters like I guess it’ll be entertaining. I’ll already be watching so why not.
Yeah, I mean, I guess I’ll watch the replay on Twitter or something, but I don’t know if this is the answer, but I guess it’s interesting. I mean, keep throwing shit against the wall, I guess, until something sticks. But I was actually just watching some replays of the 2016 DUN contest today.
The Zach Levine and Aaron Gordon. So that was pretty good. And I mean, even back then. Even back in 2016, I remember thinking like, oh, you know, dunk contest isn’t as good, isn’t as good as it was, you know, in high school or whatever, like five years prior to that.
Now looking back at it, I’m like, wow, that was actually not bad. So. level of stars and dunkers of like even current modern day like guys like who are at Levine and Gore. Like at the time we were like oh there’s no star power.
Now guys on that level would be like this is amazing. We’re getting G-leaguers and non lottery pick rookies like. It’s not great. I would take, I would take Levine and Gordon this year over who we’ve had the last few years. I would too. I would too, 100%. That would be awesome.
Yeah, so, I don’t know. But yeah, we’ll see. We’ll see. We got all of that coming up. Again, All-Star Reserves will be announced this Thursday night, actually right ahead of Celtics hosting the Lakers. This Thursday night, that will be our next game.
So next time we come to you, we will be recapping the Celtics and the Lakers. We will also know who the Celtics… All-star reserves are I think we can go ahead and put Jalen Brown in Dark maybe
Not sharpie, but I’m willing to use like a uniball pen for that one and then I Would say poor Zingas and or Derek White in very light pencil I think it’s honestly like a coin flip and it’s gonna come down to that last wild card spot I don’t think there’s
Any way they’re both gonna make it But I think I’d say there’s like a 50% chance that one of the two sneaks in there for that last spot but I won’t really be surprised either way and You know, it would be cool for either of those guys to make it, of course,
Especially Derek, because it feels like this is kind of his like maybe one chance to make it. And he’s obviously so worthy. But you look up and down at the star power and all the guys he’s competing with.
And like, if he doesn’t make it, it’s going to be hard to be like, oh, he got snubbed, whatever. Like all of those guys are super worthy. And no matter what the, you know, 13, 14, 15 guys who just miss out on it are really, really good. And there’s no shame in that.
So. We’ll see, and if he doesn’t make it, hopefully, you know, that’s just, we use that for even extra motivation going forward. So that’s that. Something to look forward to. And of course, something to look forward to is the Lakers and their one trip of the
Season to Boston to play in TD Garden. That will of course be on national TV. I haven’t looked, but I certainly hope it’s on NBC Sportsnet as well. So we don’t have to watch the TNT feed. I was grateful tonight.
That they were on both sides was not subjected to Reggie Miller or whoever the hell was calling the game. Hopefully that’ll be the case again Thursday night. That will be the next game. The Lakers just got embarrassed in Atlanta by the Hawks tonight.
Anthony Davis did not play second night of a back to back because they got smashed by the Rockets last night, smashed by the Hawks tonight. Next up is the Celtics. We obviously took pretty good care of them on Christmas day in LA. Hoping for more of the same. We will see.
If LeBron, if AD are playing, they’re basically questionable for every game. I don’t know if AD was just sitting out back to back type of situation instead of Achilles and Ankle and who knows what else. So any thoughts on the South Lakers game before we get out of here?
I mean it doesn’t really matter who’s playing I think when it’s Celtics Lakers It’s always fun. Yeah, I mean Lebron’s gonna be there and You know, like I said, it’s any it can always get up for a Celtics Boston game and then You know just having just having
Lebron out there’s You know makes it all the more fun. And I mean, I know people like to you know dog on the brah not because for Well, I was just going to say. Exactly. trip he has in the garden left.
Yeah, and he’s been a fun rival and villain for about 20 years for the Celtics at this point. And like you said, who knows how many more of these games in the Garden for LeBron will have. You can’t imagine, it’s too many, so appreciate them. I hope that the Celtics absolutely dominate them.
The Lakers are floundering. It would be a great time to kick them while they’re down. But I have a feeling they will come out, give their best effort, and do everything in their power to get a win. So, hopefully it will be a fun game, and we will see you. Thursday night.
Thank you everybody for joining us. Thank you Nick for filling in admirably dog Else will be back with me on Thursday night. Thank you again for sponsoring the show everybody go to Nick Perino calm Any and all real estate needs this man’s got you covered and you know now too that he’s a
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