From Blow Out to Blown Out: Clippers scorch the Celtics homecoming | First to the Floor

From Blow Out to Blown Out: Clippers scorch the Celtics homecoming | First to the Floor

Back first to the floor making every big play for the Today trying to get it what a play by card watch him die for the ball right here look at this [Applause] Hustle Ben Val with first of the floor thank you for joining us hope you’re doing well the Celtics suffered in the words of Drew holiday a good oldfashioned ass whooping at the hands of the Los Angeles Clippers last night losing 115 to 96 and it was not that

Close the Seas were down by 36 at one point guys it’s not all bad though the Celtics blew the pants off the Miami Heat just a couple of days ago and we’ll get to that too Jake Eisenberg and Wayne spoon are both here spoony how’s it

Going man I’m doing all right man you know it’s the end of the weekend here on the East Coast back to the Grind back to daycare thankfully so there is light um but yeah not a great game did not really enjoy watching that although the garbage

Time stuff was kind of fun but when your highlight is the garbage time when you’re down 30 not great yeah absolutely have we got salty Jake today no I think I’m going to be a really helpful light in the darkness uh okay I don’t know how there is actually

Darkness but there definitely is uh it it’s like because we’re losing so little the reaction to each loss is more than ever before it’s what it feels like to me like it definitely happened last year losing losing is always bad people always are upset what they lose you

Should be that’s what sports is all about but this year in particular oh my Lord dude everybody’s just freaking out after every single loss but no I’m not I mean maybe I’m salty towards the overreactions yeah why not yeah and we are going to get to that we are going to

Get to like a message to the doomers because I I feel the opposite guys like we’ve we’ve won so many games and lost so few that when we do lose it’s like ah whatever like lost number 11 who gives a [ __ ] like I barely know this feeling and

The there been such a large sample size of goodness from this team that it’s going to take more than that to rock the boat for for the sand fan out there uh if you will so just very quickly before we get to everything else a bit of

Housekeeping and this will uh take a minute so skip forward go to the bathroom if you don’t care about promotion stuff guys we’re so close to 3,000 subscribers here on YouTube please subscribe to the YouTube channel if you’re already subbed hit that like button or do both it helps us put this

Show in front of more eyeballs shout out to all the audio podast listeners as well please subscribe there as well if you enjoy the show leave a five star rating and review subscriber numbers are really helpful when it comes to reaching out to potential guests so please don’t

Hesitate there also did you know that you can watch Celtics games with us live sign up on the Celtics blogs playback room playback. tv/ Celtics Blog the link to everything that I’ve already mentioned and and about to mention are all in the description below playback it’s an awesome platform and allows us

All to watch the game together on a shared digital screen Sim similar to what we’re doing right now but it’s instead of us purely on the screen it’s the game and our faces as well it’s a lot of fun meanwhile Wayne spoony he’s put a new piece up on Celtics blog a

Trade primer the trade deadline’s only 10 days away guys so spoony stuff it’s always great check it out is there is there a little teaser I haven’t teed you up before we started recording spoy but can you give us a little teaser at all about your your trade primer yeah so

This really isn’t written for like sickos like you two right like who basically know the trade rules who have looked through like the who makes less than $8 million on every te and looked at all the targets if if the trade rules are confusing to you if you don’t you

Know if you see people throwing out a bunch of names it really just lays out here’s what the trade rules are here’s what our asset chest is right now two firsts 8 seconds um tradeable contracts and then here’s some types of names that we can go after dudes who make x amount

Of money who aren’t good who are on the right type of team right because Milwaukee ain’t trading people to us right so it’s like you’re Atlanta’s San Antonio’s your Detroit so it’s just like a three steps like on the way to help you better understand how the trade

Deadline might go and the more I look at it the more I think we’re going to make a trade it might probably be a small one but I think we’re going to trade for somebody definitely going to do something yeah well check that out if you need a refresher like I probably do

Like I was saying guys I’m so wrapped up in the amazing Celtics that I’ve kind of shied away from the details coming up to the trade deadline so I’ll have to check that out for a bit of a refresher and finally before we get to the Clippers

Game and the Heat game uh we’re watchingg the first of the floor Discord server in fact it’s already live we’ve got a couple of people who have jumped in there again the link is in the description you can scan this barcode here which will take you to our link

Tree page where you can uh subscribe to everything we’ve mentioned so far including the Discord Channel why are we launching a Discord Channel well to be honest it seems like a thing that podcasts do and we are a podcast that’s what we’re doing but you know we’ve had

Enough people ask us to do it so we’ve gone ahead and done the thing and it’s a great way for you to interact with us and for us to interact with with you which we always say is our favorite part of doing the show uh you can also

Massively contribute to the show so our podcast run sheet is there so you can see it as we’re building out the framework for each episode you can annotate over that running sheet you can comment and add suggestions on what you want to see included or omitted from the

Show maybe you didn’t want us to talk about the Clippers game today but no one’s been in there so we’re going to do it you can suggest a new podcast segment you can suggest clips for underrated plays series but for the most part it’s just a place to hang out and talk some

Celtics and sort of Celtics Vibes you know good vibes constant therapy if you need it maybe we can argue about you know whether or not Sam how that could be upgraded or not you know just just normal normal stuff that people do absolutely I can’t wait to see more

People file in there Aussie Phil who just uh gave us a thumbs up in the chat he’s in there already good to see all right guys I’m sorry for the rant onto the Clippers game and [ __ ] uh spoony what happened why why did we lose this

Game so badly I’m glad you threw to me first because I think there’s like a very obvious answer but then if you look at the numbers maybe not so like I I went through and I combed through these are 11 wideopen 3es we complet like most

Of these are not even close um that we completely bricked we shot 18% on 11 open 3es and we shot 22% on 20 three wideopen threes and I think a lot of those makes were like at the end of garbage time with uh the you know where

The game was like totally over so we were just absolutely terrible but the Clippers also shot 22% on open three so uh we I think the big thing is yes the shots weren’t going down yes we didn’t have porzingis but the only thing that I’m kind of concerned about is they let

The lack of shot making and maybe the lack of a whistle affect their energy other than Jason Tatum who I thought was awesome basically every minute he was on the court um and really this game started to get away from us even in the first quarter when Tatum came out um

Yeah Luke missing that tip just so bad it wasn’t just the thre yeah it was bunnies so many well we missed so many bunnies too it was like the orange ball it was orange ball didn’t go in game from three from mid-range from from the rim nothing and then absolutely Jason

Tatum was like I loved his approach he was attacking he he did you know Paul George did a good job drawing a TR on him but he just could not get a call to save his life he attacked the rim relentlessly got one foul call but he

Was like one of the only ones where it didn’t let didn’t impact his overall effort and everybody else I thought he was actually quite mad in a way that I haven’t seen him act very often at all and it felt like it was directed at everybody the the rest of the players

There was a comment that he made in the post game that some people ran with as like a Joe criticism which I think maybe you could spin it that way I just thought he was upset with the people on the court I thought the decision making

From a lot of guys wasn’t good just the inability to finish at The Rim it definitely impacted defensive intensity with which I’ll be honest has been maybe not happened at all this year like has been absolutely a staple of and also it’s something that happens to a lot of

NBA teams dude they could not buy a single bucket it’s just like how mentally strong does a team have to be before like enough misses finally breaks you and it felt like it finally kind of broke them today they couldn’t exactly get anything three point mid-range two

Point at The Rim easy putbacks every little bounce was going the wrong way and they just like yeah it it it just impacted them on the other end and I do think that part of it was just they kind of got up for that Miami game but and they weren’t able to

Kind of carry it in into this game but yeah orange ball didn’t go in the copium is like classic first game back from a road trip even though it was sort of a truncated road trip only the three games there but they just like we said blew

The pants off Miami which we will get to but then you come home you’ve got seven games here at home you’re settling in and you just don’t come out with that pop not to discredit the the Clippers defense cuz it was incredible and absolutely like muddled up the Celtics

And what they like to do offensively it’s probably the one game uh in a while where we needed our curve ball in Chris Taps porzingis just to give us the adequate spacing add to that Al Horford apparently dislocates his finger like a couple of plays into the game and he had

Maybe some of the most wide openen three-point attempts in this game and it was clearly bothering him those shots don’t go down you guys have already said it the Clippers get out in transition things start to bother the Celtics on both ends and the kns over basically a

Quarter or a half into the game and that’s essentially what Joe Missoula said I don’t have any quotes from missoula’s postgame but he basically echoed those sentiments that the ball wasn’t going in the Clippers started to get out in transition our defense started to becom impacted by that

Defense was so bad I’ve never seen that before from this team like it they look like the buck or the sixes so that’s why like I’m not worried because we have a monster sample size of what we’ve seen from this team and that’s not what we saw yesterday

And I don’t know if you want to talk about them more broadly whether or not we’re concerned or not yet but like this game in particular like you flush it like yeah we we played this team in on the other road trip we blew them out there was no kawhai but

There was no porzingis I understand switching defenses can give us trouble obviously they gave gave us trouble yesterday but part of it was like you have to you just have to make shots in the NBA and and they weren’t able to do that be like I can see people talking

About we wish we had T Ty was swatting everything our old friend um this is why he’s not on the Celtics because he’s getting legit like backup center playing time on the Clippers which he he’d be playing the Luke cornet role on this team so that’s why he’s gone to the

Clippers maybe we we can bring him back one day but you you flush this one and you get ready for New Orleans yeah and I thought it was interesting like the way I thought the Clippers yeah their switching was is trouble without porzingis but we can still beat a switching defense without

But they overlo side like you get it to the right or the left side they basically like flushed like four Defenders on that side like sometimes K Tatum would catch the ball in the wing and he they’re basically fourman zoning up against them and he’s making the right play and

That’s like just swing swing and it’s an open Corner three and we got a million of them and I’m pretty sure we made literally one corner three that entire game you know so it’s like you’re punishing the defense the appropriate way and you just can’t capitalized man I

I it was frustrating to watch I imagine it was extremely frustrating to play in too yeah I saw some clippers journalists like they clipped the game um you know not to to say that I don’t know I was going to make a clip his pun there but I

Couldn’t couldn’t quite tie it together in my mind basically did yeah anyway they CL they clipped some possessions from the game from the Clippers perspective and it was like oh man look at the Clippers defense isn’t it amazing and like four out of the eight clips that they showed resulted in wide open

Looks for from Beyond The Arc for the Celtics and they just didn’t make them so yes credit the Clippers defense but half of those possessions resulted in wide open shots the Celtics normally hit at a high rate one of the highest in the league you know you can’t fault the

Process for the Celtics until they just clearly got bogged down in the results and that was it like we’ve already said and Jake sorry go ahead I was going to say it’s funny because remember with the Jazz game like the Jazz has was beating were beating everybody Sixers bucks you

Name it they winning and they came into Boston and we just blew them off the court and like you go back and watch they missed so many wide open looks and the Cs just like we’re up 40 all of a sudden it’s like if some of those looks

Go down in the midst of the Utah Jazz playing that well I think that’s a completely different game and that’s just sometimes what happens in a basketball game in the midst of these crazy schedules it’s just like one and a half quarters gets away from you and the

Other and that’s it and there’s not really any way for you to bring it back you’re like well we got a back toback coming up in two days let’s get out of here non-conference opponent as well it’s like we we just we just beat the our rivals last game this like the only

Way we’re going to see the Clippers again is if we see them in June so it’s like we already smoked him once this year too and not just the three is not going when you miss layups right like you’re down a guy in transition and so all of the sudden they’re just running

Back down your throat and we missed a ton of layups and they took advantage I mean credit to the Clippers though they played really really well like Terrence man was just flying out of nowhere for offensive rebounds so they played really well that they deserve to win that game

But that’s certainly not a 30o blowout if we shoot you know I I think even just like a little bit better in the first half we stay a little more connected this this comment here about celix are guaranteeing to choke this year fourth year in a row um they’ll haul up 75

Threes make three of them and the coach will say they were good looks with no plan B go back and watch all the misses not even the threes like they missed a shitload of non- Threes like this was a purely yeah here we go thank you uh Dan greber like

You have to put the orange ball in the basket one way or another and they were not able to do it from any spot on the court consistently and then what happens if you’re not making threes teams don’t start to close out harder that’s just and then and then it’s impossible to

Attack the paint because that’s where they’re loading up from you it’s like you want to play inside out that’s fine but if you’re not knocking down any shots then it’s like a self-fulfilling prophecy you can you just the defense is going to be loaded up in the middle

You’re not going to be able to attack they’re going to get out and run the other way because you’re trying to force it at The Rim when they’re loaded up not get calls yeah yeah oh my God the calls Jason Tatum dude oh my God he was

Fantastic man because like he had some really incredible plays like he took Paul George to the rim he should have got an M1 on Kawai um yeah pretty anticlimactic way for him to reach 11,000 points but he had some really nice moments as well yeah early he was

Taking both Kawai and PG to the rim with success and we’re like here we go Tatum’s not going to let us lose this this game like he’s the dominant wing of all the dominant Wings in this game but unfortunately orange ball did not go into the hole which is the prevailing

Sentiment coming away from this one just for audio listeners the greeny tweet that we were referring to earlier basically says both the Celtics and Clippers were both really bad on openwide open three-point attempts last night Boston 7 of 33 LA Clippers 9 of 35 the true difference in the game was in

Open SL wide open twoo field goal M production Boston three of eight LA Clippers 15 of 22 three of eight from two that what that doesn’t seem real on open wide open on open wide open TW thank you that’s why it’s confusing that’s exactly and part of why the

Volume for the Clippers open wide open twoo field goals was so high was the transition opportunities they were just like literally just shooting fast break layups and the Celtics were not because the Clippers were putting the ball in the basket which makes it really hard to get transition opportunities and it just

It just snowballed I have a bunch of cleaning the glass stats here which factors out garbage time which is like half the game I’m not going to read them off cuz it’s just a worst version of everything we’ve already discussed whatever let’s just move on so yeah the long-term concerns I

Will I want to I want to I want to get into this because like okay let’s do it the C okay can we at least all agree that the Celtics are going to lose some games they’re not going to go no 70 all right heartbreaking every time damn it

It’s devastating yeah look it hurts hurts me just like it hurts you guys you know I’m I’m butter man but they are going to lose some games the the record is 73 and N they lost some games too the the KD Warriors won 67 games we’re like

On Pace to win 62 games like M so we’re going to lose some games so what way is acceptable because everybody gets really upset when we lose close games because that’s our Achilles heel apparently and that’s our weakness but you know we’re so good that this is the third third

Triple third double digit loss of the season so it’s like okay we don’t really get blown out because we’re so good but then we get blown out yesterday and everybody freaks out so we can’t decide whether or not we want a blowout or a close game so would you rather us so and

Now the the popular thing going around Twitter has been the Celtics recently have lost to the Thunder the Clippers and the bucks so like the Celtics have not been incredible against the best teams so okay that’s that’s okay but so would you rather us win those games and lose like

The OKC Thunder did to the Pistons by 20 points today would that make people feel better I don’t I have a feeling that would not make people feel better if we were losing games to the Pistons as opposed to losing games to the Clippers and the nuggets and so what way is

Acceptable so we’ve got I’ve got a few tweets here and I shout out Celtic Twitter for really doing going a war these last couple days Cory B one of the um one of the he just anytime slander pops up he goes off for like 48 straight

Hours um so worst losses of the season for each top five Eastern Conference Western Conference Team Celtics have lost to the buck by 33 the buck have lost to the Cavs by 40 the Sixers have lost to the Knicks by 36 the Knicks have

Lost to the buck by 24 the Cavs lost to the heat by 33 the Nuggets beat the Thunder by 33 t-s lose to the Sun by 28 Clippers lose to the Celtics by 37 you get the point all of the contenders have monster blowouts by really good teams okay let’s

Let’s look at best records against teams below 500 Celtics are 15 and two against teams below 500 very good best record against teams above 500 Boston Celtics number one in the league 20 and nine and last one Daniel Greenberg again doing the Lord’s work Celtics offense versus

Top 10 defenses first in the NBA B like a lot so they’re really good they have to lose some way every team loses to the like the best teams I’m pretty sure the the losses you want are the only way to beat us is if the best teams beat us that’s

That’s the mark of a really good team is the only way to beat them is like the best teams typically in close games they’re going to lose some games and I we got to figure out which one you’re going to be out to accept that was [ __ ] beautiful Jay yes breach dude

Breach that that’s the clip that’s the clip for guy U so and you know what I want to know how many of those losses above 500 teams are without porzingis like I’ve seen going around like well the Celtics aren’t going to win the title without Chris STS porzingis no

[ __ ] name another team that’s not going to win the title like that’s going to win a title with one of their top three out like maybe the Lakers they’re not going to win the title anyway but third player sucks yeah exactly so like yeah of course we need our third maybe second

Best player maybe second most important player and then you look like the difference between the Miami game and the Clippers game the way that we can attack the defense that the Clippers were playing which Miami also plays with porzingis is just night and day he completely transforms the offense and we

Have been the best team against the best teams like I I just don’t know what people want from them other than yeah literally to win every game obviously that we’re probably going to lose games in the playoffs too I hope people are prepared for that yeah no sweep every

Round I’ll add to that sometimes you just lose to the [ __ ] Charlotte Hornets as well sometimes that just happens 7210 bulls not to draw too much of a comparison there they lost to the like the um debut Toronto Raptors right like in their first season ever I

Believe the the demon St Toronto Raptors they lost to that team sometimes it just happens sometimes you just [ __ ] the bed as in life as in basketball as in anytime ever it just happens and maybe this was a combination last night of a bed [ __ ] and coming up against a

Really good talented team with a really rare limited tool set in that they have the Personnel on the wings to really counteract the JS what would be good to counteract that you said it Chris Taps pingis he wasn’t around for this one I’m sorry about that we lost the game also

First game home from a a long road trip or longish road trip I already said it was a short road trip so I’m not going to lie that’s a that’s a documented phenomenon right that you do often lose those games more so than than not so I

Will also add that um the Celtics have they’re tired for the first best road record along with the OKC Thunder in all of the league they win on the road obviously they got the first uh home record as well there’s plenty good going on for the Celtics and to get

Online and to winge and moan about you know the flaws of this team and how they’re doomed to choke again first of all I would say just enjoy it like this is the best team since 2008 the beginning of 2009 right enjoy that it’s a thing that not everyone gets like in a

Lifetime if you look at other fan bases we’ve got it right now they’re so good they’ve lost [ __ ] all games it’s super enjoyable they’re going to [ __ ] the bed every now and then it’s fine and then you know look at the Personnel that we’ve got going into the playoffs look

At the job we’ve done touchwood preserving them thus far and managing load and minutes we’ve done a really good job there this team has its sights set on the playoffs so who gives a [ __ ] if they lose a couple of regular season games it’s crazy I will add to that

Though guys is there an issue with people like greeny who was a dear friend of the show and we love very much like platforming these doomers on Twitter because really they only get Mass exposure when they get quote tweeted and then the argument gets thrown back in

Their face is there an issue there I do I do want to say like it’s good to be upset like you everyone can be sad that your team lost and like ah dang shoot not again we lost like that sucks I would have loved to have beaten uh the

Clippers like like you know it would honestly have been nice to like step up and beat one of the best teams in the Western Conference absolutely like we’re not trying to you know police the way that everybody’s feeling but like you to go all the way off the deep end

And and be like there’s no chance this team can ever do anything like well then what then don’t watch Dude then what’s what what’s even the point like if if that’s if that’s where we’re going to go and it’s never in the context of of all

These of all these other teams so yeah like obviously be upset and and you know be upset your team loses but then get get get back on the horse how do you want your your Celtics to respond you want them to be like oh We’re not gonna we’re gonna choke again that’s great

Accent let’s let’s let’s let’s not let’s not try and get better because that’s what they’ve been doing has been responding to down moments like they’ve only lost two games in a row once I think this season and uh you know let’s let’s see them respond against a pretty

Good Pelicans team yeah and can I just say like KP obviously important I think he’s specifically important against a team like the Clippers cuz guess what they’re 10 and three without him this year so they’re they’re still one of the best teams in the NBA even without poor

Zingis so like that’s how talented they are that’s how good they are and guess what they’re going to lose games it happens it sucks yeah get sad get upset but it’s not a referendum on their title odds when they lose a game in January it’s just not and I think maybe there’s

People being like oh these these guys floody first of the floors always so positive optimistic Etc like we if if things like contined to slide and like we objectively think the team is like not going to reach their potential or what ever but like I think we can we can

Comfortably say for like 10 days Plus or so now like they haven’t been playing as best their best basketball relative to the rest of the season like you know the the Raptors game was close the Spurs game ended up as a blowout but you know that was closer than it should have been

Where we want walshy time and that and that takes us a while to get there the Jays didn’t play great against the Nuggets like they’re not playing as well as they have throughout the most of the Season they’re definitely on a bit of a Down swing at the moment part of that’s

Like Derek White’s kind of back come back down to earth um J like Jaylen and Jason have have particularly been fantastic lately that Rockets game where Jaylen and Jason looked like they went out till 5 in the morning um and paping pinga saves the day oh but then they

Bounce back against the Mavericks right now they’re not playing consistently at their Peak right now and that’s that’s fair I’m totally comfortable to say that but like I absolutely subscribe to an 82 game regular season there’s going to be ES and flows we’re coming to the allstar

Break we’ve been we’ve been we’ve been playing badly and what are we like seven and three in our last 10 like you just got to keep grinding these things out seven and three in our last 10 we have a three- game lead on the one seed

Like it’s not going to be perfect but keep grinding keep grinding keep grinding we’ll get there before we get to our FanDuel ad read just to flip the table here the game against Miami was joyous to say the least how how can that game go so far in that direction spoony

Compared to the Clippers game which we’ve talked about going so far in the other direction yeah I I think the LA porzingis especially against similar defensive teams and then like dude we shot like 55% from three against Miami so did Miami too that was what was nuts

Is that they kept you close because they were yeah but I but ultimately Miami just doesn’t have the Firepower they didn’t generate nearly as many threes like a lot of their buckets when they were keeping it close were these like really difficult mid-range twos the difference is that like kawhai hit a

Bunch of those too because he’s kawhai [ __ ] Leonard and he that’s like his shot man that’s why he’s one two finals MVPs that’s why he other than injuries would probably be one of the greatest players of all time and Bam and Jimmy are very good but they’re obviously not

On that level so I think that’s a part of it and then you know you just see some of the weaknesses show um without KP on the offensive end uh and you know again like it’s the shooting the shooting the shooting I hate to beat a

Dead horse but uh sorry but but we but but like we Giddy Up um but like the we got whatever we wanted against the Heat and like obviously there’s going to be that shooting disparity but man these easn conference matchups are so much more important I’ve said it

Before we’re going to play if we can play any of these Western Conference teams in the playoffs it’s going to be one team and if we make the finals that means we would have figured some stuff out and played pretty damn well to make it to the finals so I’m going be feeling

Pretty good by the time we get there with my team built of like 25 to 30 year olds like the Clippers congratulations on having a good six we stretch for the first time in the history of the Kawai and Paul George era like there’s there’s

A long long way to go right like part of why Tatum and Jaylen are always there is because they’re able to play get themselves into a top three seed and play playoffs playoff series after playoff series kawhai made it through two playoff games last year that’s it uh

Once his minutes load went up this heat game so much more important I know the heat were on it backto back um against the Grizzlies who by the way Heat have lost six in a row here and like they make this Terry Rosier trade and we’re look we’re all terrified and scarred as

We as we should be any sane person should be scarred from what the Miami Heat have done to us in we’ve gone to some dark places but man Tatum and Jaylen a year Tatum and Jaylen a year older new version of Derek White porzingis though and you saw it in this

In this game like he is he can’t they can’t handle him dude like he can shoot over every single person on that team the whole secret to the to the heat was like switching bam onto the Jays you switch bam onto the Jays all of a sudden paing us their next

Best defender Jimmy Bower great defender 6’6 vers 7 foot3 he he just turned and shot right over him multiple times like they’re too small a back court of hero and Terry Rosier then Haywood he Smith at three Jimmy at the four like Jimmy at the four last year’s cool

That was before Jason Tatum added another 12 PBS of muscle like um KP I thought as well once he climatized to Jimmy Butler’s pump fakes like the Celtics are so disciplined now dealing with the Jimmy P fakes that once you stay down on those he basically has to

Hit all mid-ranges keeping him off the line is just that’s the only thing that matters and KP will get there once you get to the playoffs but dude KP in that matchup like I feel so much I actually kind of want the heat now I think we got

Him I don’t know if I can ever take myself there but I I like the confidence and the one thing I wanted to call out was just the recognition of the Heats Zone in this game it felt like they were recognizing that zone formation like in transition on their way up the court

Which is just such a far a far cry rather from last year then obviously the added personnel with dealing with that zone but even when KP had gone out with his ankle sprain there was some high low with Al and cornette to to deal with the

Zone we see seeing guys um slash across the zone and get the ball at the nail in the perfect position and then the perfect off ball movement to counteract that defense so it just feels like they’re well studied they’re well versed in the spoler heat defenses and they had

A counter for everything they threw at them um which is just such a relief after years of of struggling with it now we’re going to come back in a moment and do our Eastern Conference check-in but first a quick word from our sponsor the NFL regular season is wrapping up but

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Before we started recording to see if I could find anything on the pels game tomorrow unfortunately it’s not up yet I guess because like some injury reports solidified yet but I would take and this is speculative obviously as our all bets the Celtics money line plus Jaylen Brown

Points over whatever that’s set out Jaylen Brown had a terrible game shooting wise and in other facets as well he’s not going to have back-to-back terrible games I has it a guess um and the Celtics are not going to lose back-to-back games as they haven’t all year so I’m confident in the Celtics

Winning this one I’m confident in a bounceback game from Jaylen Brown thoughts Jake spony yeah love it love it um something that’s been working for me has been Tatum if you doing a same game pay Tatum 2 plus made threes he just like he takes eight a game like every

Anytime he goes under eight attempts is like kind of an outlier um I went back and looked at like all of his three-point m games there’s like a few zero and one games but for the most part he always at least makes two so yeah Celtics money line T him to make two

Plus threes maybe you do an alternate jayen points like I’m guessing the lies at like 24ish get that down to like 19 a half lock it up dude and I’m pretty sure could be wrong but I think that they’re doing like three leg same game parlays

And if one leg fails you get bonus bet back I’m not a scientist but I think that’s that’s good process it’s good process because you get the bonus back back on like only three legs the odds like you get to like plus whatever plus 100 or whatever um that’s

A that’s a good process what’s been providing some value for me lately interesting yeah and I bet you herb Will Herb Jones probably be on Tatum and I think Ingram’s playing I haven’t I probably should have checked before this podcast but and the Jays have historically diced up Ingram as most people

Do’s yeah he’s just so slow on the perimeter so I love that and yeah with valent chunis he’s going to get open mid-range jump shots all game long now look we’re at the halfway point of the season is and there’s been a lot of Shifting in the teams in the

Standings below us with a bunch of Trades occurring prior to the trade deadline and and I don’t know about you guys but for me the the impetus for this segment Eastern Conference check-in is the Knicks are looking a little terrifying right guys six and one in their last seven they’ve got the where

Did I have it in in the last two weeks I just had this up in front of me last two weeks they’ve got the eighth best offense the second best defense and the second best point differential per cleaning the glass ojan and Obi is killing it um Brunson is doing his thing

As always and it just looks like that team is really starting to gel Personnel wise under Tom Tibido uh I’m not sure when we Face them next but have they emerged as sort of like the second scariest team aside from the Celtics in the East recency bias obviously plays a

Factor here but come on yeah okay so the Knicks are kind of like my second team for some reason I love their announce announcing crew I they have yeah they have Duce McBride WVU guy who has now getting a bunch of minutes now that Quickly’s out there and playing pretty

Damn well he was good yesterday against the he yeah yeah yeah he’s been playing really well since IQ left yeah I think they’re like 13 and3 or 12 and three since the OG trade so they look really good I also saw tweet maybe four five six days ago that uh opponents are

Shooting like 29% on open threes against them since they got OG so I think some of this is a little bit of shooting luck for their defense but um so that’ll come up but yet you know the schedule’s been kind of soft but they’re a really good team they’re really interesting the

Thing I don’t that doesn’t scare me is I have said it since I’ve been on this podcast I you say Julius Randall does not terrify me in the playoffs at all man he is a playoff like he’s a guy whose game downgrades in the playoffs like those crazy step back threes that

He can just like fire away in the regular season just stop going down he’s really out of control at times he’s really bad at handling doubles and pressure um he’s turnover prone like crazy and they really rely I mean he is their number two option he has a massive

Usage rate they need him to win games and I just don’t I just don’t believe him in him in the playoffs and we have great Personnel to guard Brunson but the Knicks are really good they’re up there man I think they’re closer to Philly than they are well Cav’s been playing

Really well too so there’s some good teams in the East now dude there’s no the playerss are going to be tough the eight seed is the magic like unless we get lucky and someone like the Bulls or the Hawks like wins the playin and sneaks into the eight seed it’s going to

Be a hard first round series relative to some years previous that that’s just three that’s just the reality but you know we’re a good enough team where I’m still not going to be too concerned about like a magic or a Pacers um series but the Knicks in particular I was

Getting to a point where I was getting a bit scared about the Knicks too but I hadn’t actually really sat down to watch them amidst this stretch that much lately so I sat down locked into this Heat Nicks game yesterday and spoony that was my first takeaway was the same

Julius Randall dude like you just can’t and he did it last playoffs as well he is a black hole and he just does not have that self-awareness to realize that it’s going badly like when he’s bad it can be so destructive and like yesterday

They were able to win like the game by a lot but like yesterday in a game that they played well done six for 14 four turnovers like when a defense is locked in it’s similar to embiid in that like when Dean fidson is really key on key in

On him his weaknesses are kind of really easy to exploit the turnover stuff he doesn’t pass he’s just not a great passer and so like when he goes into like I’m really pissed off mode tries to back guys down bll in a china shop he’s

Really kind of easy to upset I feel like yeah he’s a guy that has terrible mistake recovery and underrated skill something that Jason Tatum does not have he uh he’s incredible at mistake recovery he has completely forgotten whether or not he made or missed the last shot or whatever like he’s just

Locked in possession to possession whereas Randle can like really let things spiral from not only within a game but from game to game in the playoffs like as far as a Celtics matchup goes I think it would be tough and the the Knicks have historically played the Celtics pretty tough

Ironically the two guys that really cook us where have been RJ Barett and quickley yeah and and and they’re gone so like Brunson you know we obviously kind of match up pretty well with him just with our size on in the guard and the wing positions and then even OG like

It hasn’t been a guy that’s really given us trouble when we’ve played the the Raptors recently so I think the Nick to give some other teams some serious trouble like I think that the Knicks could easily beat any of the buck uh Sixers or yeah basically those two I

Think that the second round with with a Knicks team playing like this with this kind of Defense could really give maybe not the Sixers I don’t I think this I’m kind of at the point with where I’m at the sixes are number two just because of the way that embiid’s playing but I

Think that I think the Bucks just because of their defense would would potentially really struggle with the Knicks great year to be the first seed going into the playoffs obviously a long way to go but there’s this real sense that like these guys are going to beat

The [ __ ] out of each other in those earlier rounds of the playoffs before one of us one of them gets to us rather in the second or or third round uh which is very exciting other two teams there only two other Eastern Conference teams

To be over 500 in the past two weeks one of those is the Cavs they’ve been 5- one the other is Milwaukee they’ve been 5-2 of those two teams I feel like we should talk about the bucks right who have undergone a pretty significant coaching change Jake what are your thoughts on on

Doc Rivers to the Bucks on one hand man we did everything we could to try and keep Adrian Griffin there we we walked in and we lost by a million points to the box and even that didn’t save Adrian Griffin’s job because that I think that was bad it was it’s

Very clear how much they hated him because they are playing like completely inspired relative to the way they were playing especially on defense before Adrian Griffin left so that’s kind of a bummer but then they turn around and hire Doc Rivers and it’s like if you want if you want a real eloquent

Soliloquy on Doc Rivers and what he means for the buck go and listen to the r Ricky Sanchez podcast it’s like that Meme um you know the the two super strong guys doing a handshake and it’s like Celtics fans Sixers fans yes zero belief in Doc Rivers like it’s like I

Was thinking about it I think I I think I would want like who would I be happier for or less upset if they were to actually make the finals between the buck and the sixes put my mind in a freaking pretzel I can’t lie um couldn’t really couldn’t really figure that

Figure that one out but Doc is just not a good playoff coach and they did such a good job of outlining like Doc’s a freaking wizard dude like oh Doc’s going to raise the floor of this team he always has good relationships with star players all of his rosters always make

It you know good regular seasons and they they at least get to the second round or Conference Finals and they do blow some blow some leads in the playoffs but they raise the floor sure or does he selectively only choose rosters that are incredible so it’s like

Anyone could be taking these rers to 50 plus wins and the second seeds and second round of the playoffs because it’s like he only play has rosters with top 75 players the Celtics roster in ‘ 08 like the fact that really he only got one title is kind of like not even

Meeting expectations with that team right they should have gotten probably one more obviously the kg injury the the Lob City Clippers is one of the most disappointing areas of basketball ever the Kawhi and Paul George error massive disappointment obviously iny wise Sixers fans hated dock rivers and he he um met

The exact same standards as Brett Brown did so it’s like okay now he takes a little break and all of a sudden he’s got Damon jannis it’s like man this guy he’s he knows what he’s doing well if what doesn’t make sense to me is like their floor is obviously really high

That’s not the problem like they’re 30 and 13 or something like that like they were winning games the floor is very high their problem is they need somebody who’s a tactician at the highest level because they have such a a bizarre roster where they start essentially two

Bigs and then no good Wing Defenders so like you I would have gone and got Kenny Kenny Ain yeah Atkinson from Golden State or something like that somebody who’s like really a technical basketball mind like Doc great seems like a great guy I really enjoyed him on Simmons

Podcast I’m disappointed that he’s got a job so he’s not going to be on there anymore um but yeah I I just like how many times does Doc have to get out Joe Missoula out coached the [ __ ] out of him in that Sixers Series last year here uh

I mean it’s but for James Harden having two absurd shooting games that that didn’t go in five essentially so um I I just it I just doesn’t make a ton of sense to me is like these dudes are already going to win a ton of regular

Season games like why do you care about that at all I guess my concern is with Adrien Griffin it couldn’t have gotten any worse than it already was right now they’re bring in Doc Rivers and you have to presume just from his experience alone it has to be somewhat better has

To be somewhat of an improvement and my concern is like you said they floor is already extremely high almost anyone could go in there from a coaching perspective and be like just give Yannis the ball everyone clear out get the [ __ ] out of the way and that’s a good offense

So like to what extent you would be worried from a slight uptick in production Jake from The Buck given this coaching change well that’s what I mean so like it would have been better if Adrien Griffin had stayed and they would have been like we’re going to give him a

Full season so like I have like you got to give credit for the bucks for pulling the pin cuz it’s pretty funny like everyone outside of buck land was like there’s so many obvious issues with everything that’s going on with the box like they’re a complete House of Cards

The net rating doesn’t match the record the point differential doesn’t match the record they’ve like stolen five to seven games with these like like the Kings missing four free throws uh at the end of a game like like a bunch of that stuff happen plus also the 30th easiest

Strength of schedule like that was all contributing and it’s just funny because bucks front office clearly agree with all the people that were not Buck fans because they’re like yeah this is this is not going to work and so you’re absolutely right Ben this is an improvement but what what I what makes

Me happy is that they didn’t go out and get a Kenny ainson or someone like that where you would have been like that guy is like a legit coach or a tactician as opposed to a personalities guy it’s like great that that’s that’s a as you said

That’s a floor play boony as opposed to like the biggest issues with the reason they fired Bud like like Bud was a floor raiser he was a good coach like he got them yeah like he got them to the one same problem pretty much every year that

He was there what they needed is like an actual tactician who can make adjustments in the playoffs which is something that doc doesn’t do so yes this is technically an improvement so at first that’s like damn it but then it’s like then they they and also they sign

Him to a three-year deal this is Damen Lillard’s Prime now is capped by Doc Rivers ceiling unless they want to pay three coaches because they’re now paying Bud Griffin and Doc yeah so that’d be four coaches if they get a new one yeah that’s crazy yeah oh interesting good luck to him I

Guess uh anyone else you want to touch on like I I talked about somewhat erroneously a number of teams being over 500 in the East uh we’re joking about in the chat here a note for the podcast listeners that Philly are also above 500 in the past two weeks but we don’t

Recognize that here as Celtics fans anyone else um tickling your fancy spoony in the E conference is from the Celtics perspective the the Cavs have been playing really well they’ve actually started to play really well once Moy went out so it seems like they kind of figured something out but also

Didn’t because he’s going to come back and then what the hell going toen so I’m not real worried about the Cavs and then other than that I mean we’ve obviously talked a lot about the heat the magic I think have kind of shown their ceiling and are kind of drifting back towards

Like hey a nice above average team they don’t really scare me in the play they definitely don’t scare me in the playoffs they’re just too young too in experienced not enough shooting but they could make a move they got a lot of assets and that’s the one team I got my

Eye on in the trade deadline like they could cash in some stuff they got tons of tradeable contracts too so they could get scary real quick that’s why the Celtics I think are pretty guaranteed to make some type of move is because Phil’s gonna do Phil’s gonna try and do

Something pretty significant that would shock me if they don’t the Bucks can’t really the Nicks still have plenty of chips the pace has already made a move for cakam they could probably make another move if they wanted to as well and the magic absolutely have ammo to do

It as well the good news is they can’t all get significantly better because there aren’t that many significant players available but that’s definitely something to to keep an eye on um but I Sixers have definitely easily moved into the team that I am the most afraid of I

Understand we’re scared we own them or whatever to me that they’re like the second best team because I I’m guarant I guarantee they make a like a good move yeah and he talked about tacticians earlier Nick nurse is a fantastically good coach and Joan beid unsurprisingly and somewhat as a result of that

Coaching change has looked amazing he is injured at the moment I believe he’s got some sa us which is as much as we love The Shard and frer report on the show we never celebrate opponent injuries and we should have mentioned as well uh with Julius Randle he dislocated his shoulder

As well so he’s probably going to be out for while too which looked absolutely nasty um so best of luck to those guys but yeah look suffice to say playoffs are going to be interesting trades are going to be made and we are going to have a trade deadline show which we as

We are live here on the internet I’m just now talking about for the first time but I assume we’re going to do it right it’s going to be really really spicy um so look at to our channel for that and make sure you subscribe guys let’s finish up on the upcoming schedule

New Orleans Pelicans tomorrow in Boston the second of this seven game home stand the pels they’ve got the 14th ranked offense the 10th ranked defense in the last two weeks though that defense has been ranked 28th which is not great and they’re two of six in their last six

Games but with losses to the Thunder the Bucks the Suns MAV so good teams U but they’re sort of one of these middling teams wouldn’t you say Jake yeah they they’re a team where like you see that they’re playing the bo like oh if they

Have a good game they might have a shot at actually taken down the buck but they just Zion’s just not the same guy I I like our ability to I yeah it’s kind of like the opposite of the Clippers it’s like okay you’re going to start

CJ Ingram and Zion none of those guys can guard the Jays and Herb Jones is a great Wing Defender I I love Trey Murphy he might be like right at the top of my list of like role players that I would want on the Celtics too small just too

Small to deal with the power of the JS and the that they have especially like true holiday as well but you know offensively they they got Firepower like this this uh rookie dude oh my his name’s uh escaping me right now um but he’s um Hawkins Hawkins yeah dude he’s been just

Insane shooting from three like Trey Murphy can like they they have the Firepower like to pop off CJ McCollum like definition of professional scorer no injuries on the Pelicans report thank you Mitch in the chat here here they’ll be ready to play they’ll they’ll be as you said Ben they’ve been struggling

They’ll be looking to like try and get a win and as we know everybody gets up for the Celtics so um you Ingram Zion that that was a discussion Ingram Zion versus Tatum and Jaylen and so like there’ll be some juice to this game and what we saw

After the Celtics lost to the Bucks big time they came out and had a really big performance so we want to see them do the same tomorrow yeah I’m surprised their offense is ranked so low because when you look at the roster there’s like a version of this team that could make a

Ton of sense if Zion was like two years ago Zion and not this kind of like 85 90% of what he was where they just like surround him with a ton of shooting um and like Val chunis is just anchoring the backline but I I think yeah we can

Get anything we want just put valent junis in a pick and role he’s going to have to play super deep Drop Like and that nobody can stay in front of the Jays other than herb Jones but Joe’s done a really good job like getting Elite Defenders off of the Jays or just

Having one J camp in the corner and space it out and attacking four on four so I’m pretty confident about this one especially coming off a loss it just feels like they’ll be really hungry they’ll play really hard and yeah just a lot better well maybe hinging on the

Personnel available for the Celtics tomorrow here’s the injury report up on screen problem with the big man here Al Horford left neck sprain no mention of the finger he’s questionable Luke cornette left hamstring tightness there’s a problem that plagues me on daily basis he’s doubtful and the Zinger

Chris Taps porzingis left ankle sprain he’s questionable also we’ll talk about the paces I guess as a means of answering this question guys spoony who would you rather have KP slal for if this question makes sense would you rather have KP for the Pelicans or the

Pacers so I think I’d rather have KP for the Pelicans because you can stretch valent chunis out and um they want to get downhill they want to attack the rim so having his Rim protection there is great and then I I the Pacers are one

Team that can kind of exploit the way we play defense with KP because they have so much shooting they play so damn fast so I think I’d rather have Al for the Pacers and KP for the pels just because very specific matchup wise yes that’s all sound reasoning and

Turner’s been doing a good job like KP struggles a little bit with the stretch bigs and kind of all big struggle with stretch bigs that’s kind of the cheat code in in basketball and in the NBA but I want to win the Pacers game more so I

Want KP for that game so as as much as like they can kind of make things difficult KP is more helpful for pretty much any matchup because he’s just ridiculous and the best layer so I I would I would I would vote the Pacers game because like I’m excited to see

Like sakam and and halberton it’s it’s kind it’s not a big game but it’s it’s a game that I think has some narrative juice to it frustrating again that one of these games has a little has a back-to-back element to it but um I would almost rest both of them

If if uh Al’s NE I’d be surprised if KP plays tomorrow I think they give him one more day shame yeah yeah I think that’s a really good point like just it’s a back toback he’s got to play one of the games you may as well give him one more

Day’s rest as much as like I’m a simple man I would like to win tomorrow because we lost yesterday so for that reason give me KP tomorrow but obviously it’s much more complicated than that hence why any NBA job is well above my pay grade and psych psychological

Capabilities uh the PAC is three and five in their Eight Games first look at the or since the seak trade rather but you know they’ve sort of been Flander like I just said three and five in the past eight it’s not like they’re being crazy dominant since acquiring sakam halberton

He’s obviously been injured he’s out today against the Grizz with quote injury management um so unsure it’s unclear if he’s going to be playing against the Celtics at this stage I would have to imagine in any way capable yeah he loves to get up for the Celtics everybody like that’s what I’m saying

Dude they like you know what let’s just rest you for this and play against the Celtics enough let us live our lives dude Jesus right so Jake uh potentially big nus ker day tomorrow you are you ready for that are you prepared can we just put Tatum at Center

Dude H can we put lar Cent please anyone balshi at Center uh I don’t know but maybe like it it almost maybe kada can step up I’m going to believe in it even though very confident sounding Jake I don’t yes I don’t want it he was he was not good in

Garbage tying it was just anyway can he cater to our deepest desires we’ll we’ll see tune in tomorrow to find out on the Celtics blog playback room right Jake you guys going live tomorrow we’ll be live for the playback room as well you know it was a blowout when we were

Discussing um whether or not bones Highland could win an MVP in any era of of NBA basketball um we think we needed to go back to the 40s I think for him to actually to win one but uh it was it was some great chat and uh we we’ll be

Hopefully uh higher spirits and if it’s a blowout it’s in favor of the Celtics yeah Celtics uh playback. tv/ Celtics blog join the room get in there if you don’t have League Pass don’t worry we can give you a VIP pass give you access to everything and uh Off to the Races

Absolutely all right that’s going to do it for this one thank you so much for joining us please subscribe to the podcast YouTube channel like the stream and join our new Discord server which is live as of today we’ll be back a little later in the week spoony Jake love your

Work guys until next time go Celtics I love the Celtics

The Boston Celtics had the mini road trip of a lifetime, text two-stepping their way to victory against the Mavs and Rockets before turning up the Heat against Miami. So, what the heck happened when they returned home to face the Clippers in the first of seven home games? How exactly did the Clippers make us look like mere mortals?

Plus, a check-in around the Eastern Conference, including the rising New York Knicks.

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