The Boston Celtics Are 1 Game Away From Being Champions

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what’s the word y’all the Boston Celtics are one game away from being the 23 23 to 24 NBA champions game three wasn’t pretty for either side um even though that wasn’t time in the third quarter where both Jaylen Brown and Jason Tatum were phenomenal and I think that the Boston Celtics got their lead up to as high as 22 and then end my notes um with 10 minutes and 30 seconds left in this game when it was a 20-point lead the Dallas Mavericks won in a 20-2 run and then now I’m looking at this game like no way no way the Boston Celtics going to blow this game and make this very interesting as we know you know the numbers no team has ever come back three whether it be the first round second round Conference Finals or the finals so so history says this is reps and history says it was reps and during that 20 to2 run I was thinking to myself that if they blow this game it is anybody serious but they didn’t um they got a jayen brown mid-range pullup jump shot in isolation they got a cut for Jason Tatum for a dunk and nonetheless they put it all together and they got this win final score is 106 to 99 this is the third straight game all three games of the NBA Finals the Dallas Mavericks failed to hit 100 points and in a regular season they did that 12 total times and they got it three times in this one series alone again I think the the main story about the Boston Celtic shouldn’t be the amount of three point shots they get up it shouldn’t be about this shouldn’t be about that it should really just be about their defense because they have just been put in a strangle hole on the Dallas Mavericks this entire series and this is just what they did and I was a little bit skeptical about it because in the last series versus the Pacers there were some really really highs scoring games where I was a little bit worried about the Celtics defense and I had to remind myself that these guys have a as many def Luca Defenders Kyrie Defenders as any team in basketball where they legitimately have four guys that can guard both of these dudes at least give him problems make it tough and all other team of basketball really had that and we continue to see it now this is this is the moment of time I got to give some tough love to my guy Luca Don Luca Don is is in this Elite Class of player we talking top tier best of all time type tier where no matter what their statline says if you were just a box score Watcher it would look like they had a great game Luca today 276 to6 40% from the field right um he’s in a Elite Class like Nicole yic it’s very rare that you can see a box score when Nicole yic looks like he had a bad game but there are games of course just like everybody where it was a bad game LeBron James at least in his prime I guess you still kind of see that to this day but in his prime there were plenty of times LeBron James Ed the game with 37 and 7 and I walked away like that wasn’t the most that wasn’t the greatest performance from LeBron James that was one of that was kind of a lackluster one and that’s kind of the way I feel about Luca donz in this one again this is tough love I love LCA donz he’s one of my favorite players to watch but this one he felt like he reverted it back to the Luca dontis that we were critical of early in this playoffs where it was like brother first round you remember the first round of the playoffs where all the conversation wasn’t about the Dallas Mavericks winning the first round it was like man Luca dones can not stop complaining to the referees referees and granted this was not a well uh whistled game it just wasn’t there were times where I felt like it was consistent and they were letting these boys play there were times LCA dones got to the basket and he drew some contact and it wasn’t a whistle there was a fast break dunk when Jason Tatum got fouled objectively he got fouled and they didn’t blow the whistle so in my mind okay they’re going to let him play I I agree that this was not the greatest whistle but at some point you have to just go out and hoop and I thought we had turned the Cor Warner on that remember second round in the playoffs after game number two Luca dones in game number three did not talk to the refs at all regardless of whether or not he thought it was foued he thought it was a bad whistle he didn’t complain one bit purely hoops and we saw that again in the a little bit in the last series he did kind of revert back to his left but this was one of them games where again I understand you weren’t getting the whistle that you wanted right there were some times where you definitely deserved a whistle but if you recognize that you’re not getting that there is nothing that can into the referees can really do there was one possession in the third quarter that I remember remember very vividly where Luca Don or Luca Donis shot a three he thought he was fouled it was actually back-to-back possessions where he shot a three and he ended up on the ground was he foul was he not that’s not for me to decide that was the referees and everybody else um but instead of getting up and hustling back on defense he sat there he talked to the referees and it ended in an easy bucket for the Boston Celtics and in a game like this where it is a seven-point game and a lot of that was free throws I mean at one point they were down to three it was it was 93 to 90 at one point when PJ Washton double clutched the three-point shot where he was wide open on I don’t know why he did that possessions like that matter and and one thing that I I remember um I remember coob saying when you get to the finals you remember co co got a lot of finals experience you have to recognize that every single possession could matter you hear it all the time in basketball you hear it all the time everywhere every pitch matters everything m no but in the finals that’s legitimately the case and there not a lot of people that could realize that in real time right there’s nobody that’s literally playing every single possession to their their fullest potential going 100% every single possession that’s unrealistic but in times like this you got to keep that in the back of your mind and the fact that he fouled out let’s be real I want I need to go back the footage a ain’t live Just sh I want to go back and watch all six of his fouls I counted three myself that were completely completely avoidable one was just him putting this hand in a cookie jar to stop it wasn’t even a fast break it wasn’t even a fast break he put a hand in a cookie jar I think that was his first foul and little did he know that with with three minutes left in the game that first foul was going to come back to bite him there few times where he tried to stop a Fast Break by putting his body in front of somebody but he’s not set and that was the six foul as well so in the game like this and and shout out to this to the Mavericks they got a couple easy baskets after he fouled out to make it feel like it was still interesting but as a neutral fan I want to see Luca dones on the court for those last couple minutes I saw the game winner in Minnesota I saw the game winner get the Clippers in the bubble I want Luca donic on the floor when it matters as a neutral fan we didn’t get that and that was him that that was him not playing the discipline level of basketball that we want to see from him and I’m trying to figure out where where I really sit on all of this I’m trying to figure out where I really sit on him because there’s no surprise this man is getting injections to stop the pain he’s got a knee thing he’s got an ankle thing he is as beat up as anybody in his entire finals so I kind of want to give him a little bit of wiggle room on the fact that his defense has been ridiculously bad all series long but then again this is the finals this is the finals so I don’t I don’t know why I land I don’t know why I land but you watch these games it has been just bad the Celtics have made it a point to put him in as many actions as possible and in oneon-one defense for the majority of this playoff run and that’s why I feel like this is more injury related than anything because in OKC I thought he had so many possessions where he really sat in that chair and he he really uh played good defense uh same thing in that last series but there there are so many possessions in one-on-one defense where he just is allowing a man to get past him okay my lateral quickness not what it needs to be I have an ankle thing I have a knee thing whatever but in this game I thought his in his defense in space his help defense all of that it would it just regressed to like really really really bad same thing with Kyrie now these are the only two Team guys on the on the team that are doing anything offensively for you too so you can also play that car like Kenny these guys are exerting so much energy on the offens side of the ball again I understand that as a talking point as well but I I just remember the play where uh Jaylen Brown got an open three in a corner because Kyrie Irving lost the ball while he was in gap it’s just too many things like that and when you are struggling to score the ball when you are struggling to t uh touch triple digits in the game those possessions are again going to matter more so with Luca being 25 years old remember this guy this this kid is only 25 years I can say it because I’m old than him this this kid is 25 years old and when you get to this level this early in your career here right cuz let’s this series is most like it’s 99.9% over I’m giving them a a small of percentage percentage to make it happen but I ain’t I ain’t like the things I’ve seen so far when you get to this level and you get to the finals that first Finals it’s tough not many people that are leading the team at 25 years old if any if any I mean I guess Magic Johnson and let’s say in the current ERA not many people are able to lead a team to the finals at 25 5 years old and win it but all of those guys that on top of my mind have done it like LeBron James let’s let’s because the LeBron James parallel with Luc Don just get scarier and scarier by the day by the age of 25 I think he’s also had five all inba appearances he’s also had two MVPs Lucas has zero but he’s been in conversation for him all the time um 2007 right that was that was Braun’s first year in the finals he was about 25 years old as well it didn’t go well for him it wasn’t a long series hell it wasn’t even really a productive series by LeBron James and standards but it was his first time there and he learned a lot for the next time and then the next time and then he realized like I should get some better teammates I get about teammates that’s not something Lucas’s gonna do um but it is a it is a learning process when you’re a 25y old guy and because Luca Don is as good as he is I thought they had a chance in the series right I again the moment the Celtics acquire Drew holiday I said on our podcast that is the team I am picking to win the finals and I’ve have never I’ve never switched up but in this I I didn’t think it was a 100% Celtics win I thought this would be a more competitive series again some of these games gone down to the last couple possessions so it has been competitive um but when you’re a 25y old Superstar you’re dealing with all of these injuries it’s a learning process and I think the next step for LCA donic is is recognizing that that other part of basketball the other side of the ball and and just hitting a Next Level there because there are some players that we’ve seen who have had the the title of bad defensive players as a superstar and they completely Roll History to get rid of those titles Steph Curry at one point was known as a bad Defender the reality is he’s not a bad Defender and his championship runs he was just the worst defender on the court because they have Klay Thompson Kevin Durant Draymond Green you know and eggy like yeah you’re going to pick on the 6-2 point guard even though he’s not a bad Defender um Nicole yic for the big portion of his career he was known as a bad Defender but over the last three or so season he has switched that with his fast hands and his good decision making Luca dones already has some really good fast hands it’s just the matter of the decision making and with him being him being a guard it is a little bit tougher right because other teams are going to try to make him work a little bit more than what other teams make joic work but still that’s the next evolution of Luka donic the offensive side of the ball brother does not mean you a world that are better if it it might be one it might be one offensive player in the world that is better than Luka Don you can argue that there is zero and I won’t even be mad at you so it’s about that next side of things and um I’m I’m not uh uh planning a funeral just yet I’m opening the I’m leaving the door open uh but it feels like that’s the oh forget that forget all that whatever I was talking about way way too much Tim Hardway Jr today and I’m not a fan of this team I don’t care who wins I understand playing Tim Hardway Jr I you you you tested in the in game number one I think he played seven minutes right Tim Hardway Jr you’re talking about a team like the Dallas Mavericks that don’t get nearly as many threes up as the Boston Celtics it makes sense for you to play a guy like Tim Hardway Jr who can hit four threes in the quarter and change the whole landscape of the game again I understand that but in that seven minute stretch of game number one you realize that he’s not really that I don’t think he played in game number two so the fact that he went from 0o minutes to 19 minutes and again through the last three of these minutes is when LCA donz fouled out so let’s say it was really roughly 15 to 16 real minutes I can’t take it I can’t take it anymore I can’t take Maxi CA minutes every single second Maxi CA was on the floor I I was pulling my hair out as well he is he is in his own mind he’s in his own head I know his shoulder hurts when he shoots the ball but hell he’s struggling catching the ball at this point I I can’t see any minutes from him in this in next game I just can’t I just can’t I can’t I can’t do it anymore and I’m speaking as a neutral I can’t even imagine what Maris fans feel about Maxi CER right now but again in game number three this has been the case for the entire series um Missoula ball has been working they’ve been winning the numbers game 46 three-pointers attempted 17 makes that’s a 37% clip which is 4% less than their season average but still you make 17 threes while the Boston Celtics make oh the uh Mavericks make nine it’s hard to win a basketball game when you’re losing you’re starting off every game losing by 816 uh uh six uh 24 points you lost the three-point battle by 24 points and that has been the story for game number one and game number two and continues to be the case in game number three now the Celtics have just done a damn good job of preventing you from hitting or attempting threes so I don’t even know what you do if you’re the the Dallas Mavericks you have a statistical solid game from Luca you have the best Kyrie Irving game of the series and you you still don’t pull it out um it’s been a good right it’s been a good R but the are probably going to be champions in a couple days