NBA GameTime | No one in the East can challenge the Celtics! – Isiah Thomas on Boston win vs Bulls

NBA GameTime | No one in the East can challenge the Celtics! – Isiah Thomas on Boston win vs Bulls

Celtics which is that they just win they’re just better than everybody else right now ninth straight win for the Celtics they finish a 5 and0 week how often does that happen in the NBA where you play five games let alone win five games and they’re 15 and zero on the

Season when they hit 20 or more threes it’s a game time presented by KIA here from our Atlanta Studio good to have you with us the Hall of Famer Isaiah Thomas Sam Mitchell I’m Matt Weiner we talked about how good Boston was before the game and there was nothing about that

Game which would lead any of us to change our opinions Celtics are they are the state-ofthe-art right now in the NBA they they are the standard and and what you love about them is that every night they come out and they play to their standard very rarely have we seen this

Season where they’ve had just a real stinker right they they come out every night and they play how they’re going they do what they want to do they play to their Style and they’re forced teams to play the way they want them to play not necessarily adjusting their style to

Other teams yeah it’s weird to me teams try to play their style it reminds me of Golden State when they were winning everybody tried to outshoot them and I sit back and laugh how can you go to outshoot two of the greatest Shooters have Boston how many teams back up

Center and back up two guard when you’re starting other forward Jaylen Brown and other guards Drew holiday and guys are out Pingas and he can step in and get your 20 and the backup two guard can get your 20 and shoot a great percentage I mean this team is loaded with talent and

The number one thing that they do to Isaiah point they play to their strength they know who they are and what they are and they don’t deviate and the thing about it in order to beat them you’re going to have to create a different style of play in order to beat them and

Try to make them play a different game but if you try to play their game look they got how many wins by 20 and 30 points this year I mean the point differenti 11 and 12 points game they’re blowing people out I I don’t see anybody in the Eastern Conference that can

Challenge them maybe get one maybe get two games but I can see Boston losing two games going through the whole playoffs until they get to the finals well they’re a really good defensive team as well number two in the NBA and defensive efficiency and the number one

Offense but it’s a modern NBA offense which is why the efficiency is so high they had more threes in anybody in the league they shoot them at a very high clip tonight 21 of 48 which means they were plus 36 from the three-point line Bulls aren’t a very good three-point

Shooting team they’re not a very prolific three-point shooting team at this point can you win if you’re not an elite three-point shooting team at a high level you can if you can stop the other team from making threes the problem is say that one more time if you can stop

The other team from making if you can guard them yeah you can win but the problem is look at the way that Boston offense is set up who you shut down because this is the problem they’ll take the two jayen Brown and Tatum and others

Can get to the paint when they get to the paint what do you as a coach I don’t care what you say you rather give up a guy chasing out trying to chase down a three than give up a layup I don’t care how good a shooting team you are you’re

Not going to sit there and let teams just get layup after layup after layup that defense is going to collapse but you got to figure out a way to keep your guy in front so you can stay home so if you can’t guard your man individually against him that’s the problem nobody

Can guard those five guys they’re going to find a weak Link at some point that they’re going to explore yeah I I would say those eight guys yeah because they they have Shooters all around the floor and this is what you got again the front office and the coaching staff is in sync

Right the front office is saying we’re going to go get Shooters and we’re going to shoot approximately 40 to 503s a night this is how we’re going to play and we’re going going to find the players who can shoot the basketball and then we got a coach who understands the

Type of system we want to play so everybody’s in sync and nobody’s deviating there’s no well what do you think of this what do you think of that no everybody is on the same page and that’s what makes him so difficult to be you know everybody’s using the same math

Everybody around the NBA wants the same shots they have the players stop but you have to have the players on theer and this team is loaded that way and they just it all fits it all makes it fits for them because the players fit the system right you can’t take this system

And do it in Orlando why Orlando don’t have the shooters those young guys can’t make threes like Boston can so Orlando give them credit they played their strength because they’re trying to get to the free throw line 50 times a game now how do you beat it right that’s

That’s the next question you have to defend and this is what I know about NBA players right the 450 of them as good as they are on offense they can be that good on defense when they decide that they want to lock up and not let you get

A a three-point open shot off they can do it now come playoff time right that’s that’s the question for me how different does it get yeah playoff time you know th those 53s and we we watched the Atlanta Hawks a couple of years ago when buis over here right and you know they

They were shooting threes you know crazy they got to the playoffs played against the Pacers and I think they went like you know two for 40 or some some crazy number we watched Houston do it y lose the playoff series so we have seen in the past where

Teams are good enough to to shed off the three-point line and make it difficult Boston adjust yeah typically those looks aren’t there the way they are in the regular season when a team when an entire franchise has a chance to scout a team yeah for days on end put together a

Report really think about a team for a week at a time that’ll be a challenge for Boston cuz they’re they’re very three heavy offense but man they are who stepped up everyone stepped up and that’s how the Celtics get to win 124 to 113 in Chicago over the Bulls Celtics

Postgame live Tom Giles Eddie house we’re have forsberg joining us later tonight we’ll hear from Drew and scow as well but Eddie your thoughts on the Celtics and their ability to hang on and finish this one off against the Bulls yeah they got it done you know and

Guys stepped up in in in moments where they needed to Luke cornette rebounding the basketball we just highlighted that Peyton pidg playing the way he’s been playing uh assisting the basketball getting his teammates involved the last couple games has been phenomenal the one thing I would say is that I know it’s

Back to back but I would like them to sh up their defense you know uh Chicago nearly shot damn near 60% from the field I mean that’s just a little too high of a number but that’s nitpicking we still got the victory but when you’re trying to win a championship you have to

Nitpick and you got to stop things before they start and and and become something that you can’t stop 57.3% uh were the Bulls from the field yeah that that is that’s pretty good but at the same time Celtic still find a way to win this game by 11 points meanwhile

Uh let’s head back out to the United Center Abby chin standing by with Al Horford Al this game was a battle Chicago kept it close with their ball pressure how did you guys finally get some separation and get the win in the fourth uh I felt like we got a a great

Start in the fourth quarter uh that unit that was Sting there really set the tone for us and once we got in there we were able to just close the game out three-pointers made the difference you had five of them in this game what is it

Like being on the floor the way that you guys can spread and know that you are surrounded by Elite Shooters uh yeah I mean we’re you know we’re running our offense with good Pace JT puts a lot of pressure on on the defenses as you can tell and uh you know we’re beneficiaries

And I’m taking advantage and I’m taking my shots no question about it luk cornette just passed by a monster on the offensive board tonight what kind of impact is he making on this team now unbelievable his energy relentless on the glass key offensive rebounds tapouts putbacks um he’s doing everything for us

Down there finally Al you guys were without three starters you win your ninth straight game no matter who is on the floor for this team you guys have a great opportunity to win what is so special about this group yeah I think that’s how Joe wants us to be right be a

Team that um anybody can come in with our system and we can kind of figure it out and make things happen and our guys were really buying into it and and we’re seeing uh we’re seeing it with with these winds and the way that we’re playing no question about it Al thank you

Congrats all right let’s bring in Drew and scow now and uh fellas I guess once again you got Five Guys scoring in double figures Luke cornette 13 rebounds and uh they just keep finding new ways to win and a new way to win here with

The 57th of the Season yeah I think the biggest thing is like tonight was Cornett tonight like him hitting the glass he had a big load keeping Andre Drummond off the glass with the pressure he puts on the other side of the floor and everything works in unison it it

Doesn’t work for Jason Tatum if you don’t have a guy that set a screen and roll to the basket if you don’t have space and have Al Horford in the corner or Sam Hower when you have those things we become really tough to stop and we

Should like we be it it’s average for Derek white to step up and knock down big threes in the fourth quarter but we get used to it but it’s still not an easy thing to do and Derek white lived for those moment and it feels like forever ago at this point but remember

The Celtics did miss their first four three-pointers of this game so I’m sure there are a lot of people in their living room across New England W too many threes why do we always Chuck these threes well you see why because I know four threes is not exactly a large

Sample but the Celtics have won three games against the Bulls this year they’ve swept the season series they made 20 plus threes in all of them Joe talks about shot quality all the time and shot margin they dominate both those categories and they win again yeah they

Had six points I think in the first five minutes Eddie six points in the first five minutes and then they ended up with 31 in the quarter it it felt like it could have been one of those nights but then then it wasn’t yeah but I I want to ask scal uh

Something real quick so I you know I don’t want a nitpick but when you trying to win a championship you have to nit pick right everything matters the the smallest of details 57% from the field that’s a little bit too high and was it something what what was the reason why

They were able to have shoot 57% from the field what was it that you were seeing out there because I I just felt like everything was kind of like a count slow a little bit late on things I know it’s a back to back but it’s the small

Details that wins you championships what was you seeing out there exactly what you saw Eddie I think in the fourth quarter we did go to a different level defensively but for the first three quarters I think I mentioned it a few times and I don’t know if it’s because

We were double big or anything like that it just didn’t feel like we had that same impact on the ball and you know when you’re short-handed and on a back to back you I can expect that but it was really refreshing to see them at the end

You know just rise up to a different level defensively but no what you saw was correct but well you know like it is a small sample size it’s just one game with a short-handed roster and Joe wanted to go double big in this in this game so there’s a lot of variables to

That I’m I’m curious how we play in Atlanta how we play in New Orleans and really more than anything how we play against Oklahoma City coming up because to me if you can guard that team that you can guard any team in the entire NBA any night because that they’re they’re

So aggressive driving the ball all right uh one last thing for you guys because I I feel like often times when we talk about offensive rebounding we talk about it as a negative we we never look at it the times when the Celtics are great on the offensive glass but they were great

On the offensive glass Night Luke coret had five offensive rebounds OA Brett had another three uh it’s just how refreshing is it to see that side of things I mean it’s a sacrifice when you’re going to play double big then you have to figure out you know where where

Those shot margins are going to come from so we did we did pound the glass today was part of our you know our the way we wanted to run offense I think ultimately it did open up the three-point shot because people were cracking back but uh it’s not something

That you should Bank on it’s nice to see but it’s not something that the Celtics look at that and say this is where we’re going to win a championship it’s something that’s nice if you need it like on a situation like this and the bus are a good rebounding team too Andre

Drummond’s one of the best rebounders of his generation so for those guys to do what they did against this team very Impressive fore fore for for s Speee spee for for for e foree foreign for fore you

NBA GameTime | No one in the East can challenge the Celtics! – Isiah Thomas on Boston win vs Bulls