‘THE CELTICS SHOULD BE EMBARRASSED!’ – Shannon Sharpe on BLOWN 30-point lead vs. Hawks | First Take

‘THE CELTICS SHOULD BE EMBARRASSED!’ – Shannon Sharpe on BLOWN 30-point lead vs. Hawks | First Take

The Celtics had their nine-game winning streak snapped and blew a 30-point lead in their first half against the Atlanta Hawks last night falling 120 118 crewed up at the moment Tim legler is in the house Brian windhorse gracing your screen of course that’s Shannon sharp

And I’m Molly hi guys uh Shannon what do you think about this blown lead is it something or nothing oh it’s absolutely something we’ve seen them blow leads of 11 to the Sixers 18 to the Hornets 12 to the magic 17 to the Warriors 12 to the

Nuggets 22 to the Cavaliers and 30 last night to the Hawks without their best player in Trey young this is absolutely something because now teams feel like no matter how big a lead you get on them they feel comfortable that knowing that you will mess it up yourselves and give

Them an opportunity to get back into the ball game now we understand what the three-point shot can do but the Celtics got to be embarrassed by a lead of 30 Without A team’s best player it was almost like what we saw last week who uh the Suns when they lost to the Milwaukee

Bucks without Giannis to blow a 30-point lead and look at all the lead uh they’ve lost 15 times this season I mean eight leads 30 points 22 points 12 points 11 points 17 12 181 that’s embarrassing this is absolutely something and I want to see

Wendy and legs you know see if they can do a Houdini and escape this one listen I think there’s two components to Shannon I think one component is the complacency and distraction component and I think that was part of last night you’re up 30 it’s

The Hawks you got the one seed locked up huge gap for home court advantage and and they got a little bit sloppy and careless I don’t think that is a pattern with the Boston Celtics but the second part of it is which is this their shot selection at times they take more threes

Than a team in the league they can fall in love with that shot and if they go cold that is the formula to try to get back against the Boston I think the numbers I saw this morning they missed 16 straight threes in the last 10

Seconds of a shot clock in the last three quarters of that game so their offense their execution the quality of looks wasn’t there and if there’s one thing what that I think about with the Celtics and I think about a vulnerability and this is nitpicking a little bit it is their propensity to

String together three-point shots possession after possession and if you hit a cold streak you can see teams erase big leads look by the way 20o leads in this league don’t mean anything anymore but we see that on a regular basis because of the number of Threes

Teams take both ways because if you got a big lead you still take threes you get H cold stretch you’re allowing teams to get back in the game and then the number of Threes that your opponent takes down 20 just do the math on it you’ve got a

More likelihood to make up that difference now 30 is a whole another story teams are 152 and0 152 and0 up 30 this year going into last night okay that’s the first time we’ve seen it all season so I do think there is something to the style the Celtics play allowing

Teams back in games because of the way they run their offense I do think it’s something to watch for in the postseason okay losing a game in you know late March it’s not that big of a deal especially because Drew holiday and Derek white were out in this game last

Night here’s what’s a big deal for Boston the way and what happens to their offense Under Pressure now there’s been a bunch of games this year guys where the Celtics have had a big lead handled their business and had no problem in crws they’ve got a lot going for them

They’re awesome they got the number one seed but this is a team that has repeatedly over the last few years had games in the palm of their hand had playoff series in the palm of their hand or were in great position in playoff series and let it go and they have a

Propensity for some reason to get distracted it drives their fans crazy I have watched it in person Time After Time After Time o in in the playoffs over the last couple of years the end of this game watch this possession this possession is infuriating this team is loaded with

Talent Watch What Happens there is nobody moving at all right under if you can see underneath the 116 it says two timeouts Joe moua just let this go nothing happens look at the shot that they get if you’re a Celtics fan you’ve seen this play out time and time again

There’s a and and it’s it’s not something that you’re say is going to hold the team back you know in a game against it Atlanta in March but it could screw up a playoff series when you have this happen there’s a stat that I think is very important if you’re looking at

The Celtics in the first quarters of games they are top 10 in the league in Pace they play very very fast in the fourth quarters of games what you saw on that play right there happens all the time they are second from the bottom in

Pace they slow to a halt this is a weakness guys there is not many weaknesses with this roster they have a ton going for them and when they’re at full power they’re awesome this is a weakness they slow down at the end of games they they they move away from

Contact we’ve seen Jason Tatum time and time again in clutch situations go to that fallway the the Celtics it’s very hard for me to believe that Boston has not getting to the finals but if I’m going to present you a case it’s going to start with their ability to execute

And play with Pace in those late game situations but here’s the thing that you guys missed both of you guys could they get to the finals yes but the question was is this a problem absolutely legs you laid out because they shoo the three they make the most but they also if you

Hit a cold spot you allow the team to get back into the ball game so what happens in the playoffs you get up 20 and all of a sudden you hit that uh that cold stretch where you’re shooting threes and you allow the team to get

Back into the ball game so to answer Molly’s question both of you guys elaborated and went on and y’all f a buster and I allowed you to do it that was your three four minutes of talking time but this is what legs and Wendy is saying this is absolutely a problem they

Just went about a wrong way of getting home to tell you that it’s a problem are you higher on the clips or the Lakers right now hold on now all of a sudden we got I thought they had found their identity I remember they came out the

Break they had won like 20 or 23 games they know who they are James Harden is the leader of this team Russ is the Energizer PG and kawhai if this team stay healthy now all of a sudden here we are three weeks from the end of the season and we

Still searching for an identity come on I thought this was the team this is the team that they can give the nuggets a run for their money nobody wants to face the Clippers and now they’ve been blown out at home at first it was if they play

At noon you know they were complaining about playing these 12:00 games what this game was last night and the Pacers beat the brakes off them uh so yeah who I got I got the I’m just saying listen I I I love that little monologue you did it was highly entertaining you’re very

Entertaining to watch on television I just wanted to make sure you answer the question before Wy jumped in who who was who was Western Conference player of the week what team did he play for anth Davis okay and two weeks ago who was Western Conference player of the week

LeBron James have the Clippers had one of those guys in the last month no now we’re going player of the week okay got you all right really really deep bu okay the Lakers the Lakers we got you you finally maybe you’ll go to a game now uh

Wendy okay so it’s very hard in all honesty and Shannon you are right in the fact that a lot of us really thought the Clippers had turned the corner and we’re I mean I’ll be honest with you it’s kind of hard to get hotels down here at LA

Live I booked some hotels for the finals cuz I thought the Clippers had a shot I wasn’t picking them I also booked him in Denver but I thought they had a shot this was the most impressive basketball they were playing their defense has absolutely collapsed they were never a

Great defensive team but they were getting real good production from all areas of their offense James Harden was being very efficient and they were playing strong defense they since the All-Star break they are 28th out of the 30 teams in the league in defense and that’s I think what Ty Le is talking

About being soft and look there’s a couple of things you see AIT zubot just getting destroyed right there AIT zubach hasn’t been the same player since he was out with injury he just hasn’t been as effective on the interior um bad organization defensively also James Harden since he had that shoulder injury

Hasn’t been the same offensive player so they may have some guys that are just not 100% but that defense is hard to square where I think if you’re a Lakers fan uh which I think we’ve got one here I would say that even though the Lakers haven’t been playing very good defense

Either and you’ve heard me talk about this and by the way the Clippers are 28 since the All-Star break the Lakers are 27th so it’s not like they’re impressing me what the what the Lakers can do that gives teams pause and gives people thinking a chance is that they have

Another gear and you can see it there are some games where LeBron has more energy and I would almost argue that I don’t want to make a make a feel on on the Lakers until I see him play the first four or five minutes of a game in

My view as soon as you watch LeBron the first four or five minutes you can either say he’s got his legs tonight or he doesn’t and you know the the last couple of times the last couple of games he’s had his legs and he said after the

Game on uh over the weekend he was exhausted and guess what he’s probably not playing tonight in Milwaukee in a one game setting which is what the Lakers are headed towards I think they’re extremely dangerous because they can turn that defensive intensity up LeBron can save his legs and Go full

Bore I think the Lakers are more dangerous the Clippers are not going to have to play a one game situation probably but if right but right now guys they’re in fifth place and they’re starting an Eastern Conference road trip and six place is only a couple games back they have completely lost their

Momentum and then their process of losing their playoff positioning look you don’t want to be leaking oil this time of year and and look I I’ll also admit that when they played that stretch where it looked like they had found cohesion shortly after James Harden got there because they had a little breaking

In period with him where they lost some games and then they hit their stride and everybody was playing every night and guys were playing at a high level and they were winning games and it did look like they had the depth and the offensive talent and the defense to be

Able to challenge a team like Denver maybe more so than anybody else in the west because all those other teams had question marks but let’s look at what’s going on here over the last six weeks we’re all talking about the same thing but when you really dive into the

Numbers Shannon Wendy here’s what’s really scary they are one and nine in the last month and a half against any team that’s in the top six in the EAS or west conference so they’re playing good teams and they’re losing to all of those teams and then the few wins they do have

Are against Bottom Feeders this has gone on for six weeks this isn’t a small sample size and I get tired also of hearing identity when people say lack of identity it’s a euphemism for lack of effort that’s all that is they’re not playing hard enough they’re not physical enough they’re not Tough Enough

Defensively can they turn that around look we’ll see is there another gear to be had for these guys I don’t know because what scary James hard and Paul George really if you look at their numbers during this stretch they really haven’t dropped off they’re efficient they’re hitting their season scoring

Averages during that time nothing’s really changed James Harden a slight down tick in his shooting percentages he’s not quite as efficient as he was but nothing crazy Norman Powell a slight down tick so they’re these guys are playing every night and they’re playing close to the level they were earlier in

The year they just can’t beat anybody because their defense isn’t good enough and so the answer to the question right now absolutely the Lakers if the Lakers play the Clippers right now in the best of seven series the Lakers would beat them of course I mean you see you see I

Mean take the surprise out your boy legs I mean you seem surprised by that statement you just made I am surprised the surprise going to stay in my voice if I’m talking about the Lakers winning the series we might have brought up the one team in the west right now that I

Would pick them to beat in a seven game maybe Phoenix as well the way that they’re playing they probably will be the two teams but there’s some other teams I think time getting by if they play OKC if they played OKC they’ll beat OKC yeah if the Clippers have a bad Eastern

Road Trip which they’re leaving on I think today or tomorrow okay they they could end up playing the Lakers in the second playin game it it we’re down to 10 or so games left in the season if the Clippers don’t start to get some wins it

Could be a one game it could you know they’re not even on that list but they’ve got 27 losses they have a bad they’re only two games clear seven okay that would be hugely disappointing and hugely they got a 350 million payroll hely Disappointed

On First Take, Shannon Sharpe, Tim Legler and Brian Windhorst join Molly Qerim to react to the Boston Celtics 120-118 loss after having a 30-point lead in the game. Then, the panel debate if they are higher on the Los Angeles Lakers or Los Angeles Clippers.

0:00 Reaction to Celtics loss to Hawks
3:00 Brian Windhorst reacts
6:15 Higher on the Clippers or the Lakers?

#espn #nba #firsttake #celtics #lakers

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