CHAMPIONSHIP OR BUST FOR THE CELTICS?! – Shannon Sharpe EXPECTS IMPACT from Boston 👀 | First Take

CHAMPIONSHIP OR BUST FOR THE CELTICS?! – Shannon Sharpe EXPECTS IMPACT from Boston 👀 | First Take

do you give the Pacers a legit shot versus the Celtics I do I give them a legit shot I don’t think they’re going to get swept am I picking them to beat the Celtics no I’m not but I’ve seen them play the Celtics this season and I’ve seen them beat the Celtics yes they have a team that’s very capable to get up and down they don’t they don’t play a whole lot of Defense now but the problem that I have with the Celtics is that as Jay will mentioned they they they shoot themselves in games or they can shoot the other team uh shoot the other team uh right back into the game so with that being said I expect the Celtics to probably win this series 42 but do they have a legitimate chance yes as long as tyres if we get the tyres halberton that’s aggressive that’s pushing the pace because sometimes he gets L and he wants seum to do it or he wants these other guys to get it done but I believe he’s their best player he’s he’s the guy that went to the allstar game he’s the guy that’s been an All-Star mulp on multiple occasions so yes I give them a legitimate chance do I expect them to beat the Celtics no I don’t because I do I still believe the Celtics have a little bit too much but the question is can the Pacers get to their bench again Boston has a very formidable uh uh bench also but I’m actually you know what a match up I’m actually looking to see it pyton Pritcher versus TJ McConnell that’s the matchup that I want to see I want to see two guys that’s tough as wet leather going after each other because both of the guys come into the ball game and they immediately change the tempo of the game so yes do they have a legitim chance of beating the Celtics yes do I expect them to do that I don’t I agree Shannon I I have first of all I have Celtics winning in six but I have Indiana Indiana hasn’t lost at home since March Indiana protects home court we’ve seen Boston give up home court at times not protect home court at all we’ve seen Boston beat themselves at times and when you have a team that go can beat themselves you have to give the opponent a shot and the Pacers play Fast the Pacers just this postseason alone are almost 20 points more as as far as points per game go in the first 10 seconds of the shot clock so the Pacers are hitting shots and if Boston is dying by the three instead of living by the three which we’ve seen them do before subit to the three even when they’re not hitting them the Pacers can win games I have the Pacers winning either two at home or stealing one on the road and winning one at home real quick before we jump in the Boston can beat themselves point it’s huge it’s major I I I think due to the history of them beating themselves is why they won’t do it again I think they took so much scrutiny last year to losing to Jimmy Butler in that Miami Heat team I don’t think this is a year where we’re going to see that now is anything possible I don’t ever like to say that a team can’t go out there and win they lacen up their shoes just like the other Five Guys in the or the other 12 14 guys in the locker room but Boston’s a more superior team yes uh halberton uh we look at his numbers this year versus Boston they’re not strong he’s about to go against two of the most elite defenders in the league at his position Drew holiday Derek white this isn’t a series where they have any advantage at any point uh Halle Burton does have to be to Shannon’s point he has to be the best player he’s been up and down this entire playoffs for them to even being Hees he go for 11 or or the passive point guard we need him to be a score Force point guard because it’s in his nature to be unselfish anyway he’s always going to make the right pass you saw last game he came into madis Square Garden it was slow at first when he started picking up scoring what it did for the rest of that team was huge how they’re going to be able to make this competitive is should be the question I don’t think they’re going to win but how they make it competitive is playing at a high Pace uh emotionally moving on from winning that series and even being happy to be in the Conference Finals they can’t that any of that energy and then most importantly their bench production has been huge I like pton Pritchard but the the the impact that McConnell’s had is on a whole different level because he does it on both sides of the ball he’s turning Brunson all the way up the court the issue is he can’t turn Drew because Drew is too big he’s going to put him on his hip and he’s going to back his low ass down all the way till he gets to the paint and then he also has Tatum and brown and other guys from a size Advantage they don’t have the guards to guard them uh and it’s not like they have a big interior as well Miles Turner is more of a stretch five anyway so I I don’t really any advantages in the Pacers way I think they can make this competitive but do I have them winning or or or going to the finals absolutely not Boston is a superior team they should win in six or five yeah you have to walk a little bit of a line with the Pacers because on one hand we just saw them have an incredibly impressive performance in a road game seven for a team that almost nobody on the roster had ever played in any game seven much less on the road but you know you you cannot look at them fairly and not point out that in the first round they play the Buck Team without Giannis and an injured Dame Lillard and in this last round was a just there were Knicks players falling down all over the court there’s just no way you you you you can you can give them credit and also say the road hasn’t been tough the one thing I’m going to say and I’ve seen this before in the NBA with high seeds the Celtics haven’t played a high octane high energy game really in a couple of months they secured that number one seed and by Joe missoula’s own admission used the last like three four weeks of the Season as a testing ground he was throwing out lineups he doesn’t normally do testing weird strategies throwing in different defenses and weird alignments sitting guys in various times they go into a first round series with no Jimmy Butler they had a monum of pressure because they lost game two they go into a second round Series where maybe there could have been some pressure from the Cavs but then Donovan Mitchell goes down and they’re going to face a Pacers team that has been playing absolutely must win games for the same period the Pacers had to to really make sure that they secured the number six seed they couldn’t mess around and fall back to seven Philly was going with them all the way down to the end of the season so they were playing high stakes regular season games they come into the postseason immediately start on the road are facing the higher seeds have to play from a deficit in the last round against the Knicks and so while Boston has an overwhelming Talent Advantage especially considering what the Pacers have seen in this postseason I have just seen this one that comes to mind is 2009 Cavaliers go 80 in the first two rounds of the playoffs wait nine days before they have to play the Orlando Magic Who coming off a road game seven win and it was like the cows are running in mud and the magic were on a track so I just want to see the first quarter two quarters tonight to see how the Celtics deal with a team that’s playing so much more Rhythm basketball look I’m not saying that the the uh and I agree with you Austin that when you look at it position by position Boston has the superior but you talking about a team make or Miss they’re looking to push Tempo the Boston Celtic the problem that they have is that because they live by the three even when they’re missing like 12 in a row they’ll continue to shoot them and the lead will get bigger and bigger and bigger for the opposing team I like the Pacers for the simple fact like I said I’m not picking them to win the game but why I believe they can make this a series is their style of play they’re going to push Tempo we watched them against the Knicks and we could say well the Knicks will beat up but early in the game when they were healthy as they were going to be going into that game they would make a basket and the ni and the Pacers was laying the ball up on the other end before the Knicks crowd could stand and Applause they would miss a shot and Nim hard was taking a three at the other end and was switching it so as long as they continue to play their style of play their style of play is pushing Pace the problem that the Celtics have now the Celtics doesn’t have a Jaylen Brunson at the guard position Austin Drew holiday although he’s a bigger guy he can’t go off of 40 like Brunson and so I I think the thing is for him the question is is JB and JT are they going to be consistent because in in this postseason Jaylen Brown has been the most consistent of the Celtics player now the last two games we saw Jason Tatum still not the efficiency that you like but we saw him pick up his play but Jaylen Brown has been their best player through the first two rounds of the playoffs yeah there’s there’s the Celtics definitely have have something to prove and and and I think Drea made a great point is to the Pacers at home they’re they were much more confident team there one of the reasons why we saw halberton go up and down in this series with the Knicks was that those first couple games at mden Square Garden he he didn’t kind of want it you know and he was he kind of got frustrated by people who were calling him out because he was like no no I’m still helping my team when I go into the basket and stuff like that and I try to kick it out they needed to be aggressive and and he he wasn’t aggressive on the road you know he early in that game on Sunday he kind of had a layup that he passed up and I think his bench barked him a little bit and then he hit then he hit couple of those threes going to his left like those he got to those step backs and those going down calmed him down so the difference between the Pacers at home in the road especially halberton is really different so what I would just say to the Celtics is if you mess around and lose at home like you have for years now yeah the the assumption that you can just win get get it back on the road like they did in the first two series I would just warn them about that in fact that would almost be my biggest thing I would say between the Pacers and the other teams the heat the Heap dropped two at home to the Celtics the the the the Cavs dropped two at home in the Celtics they were competitive but the Celtics didn’t really have to work that hard they should not assume that they’re going to go into Indie because they play differently there and it’s a tough environment do this thing though like if if Boston loses one game we’re just like man they’re just giving away games like sometimes like if Donovan Mitchell goes for 40 or something like that like these guys are Pros you can’t win every single game but they do lose games where we feel like they should win no I know that but they just won in five I mean like they they lost one game how they lost I think it was how looking a little like less energy looking looking like not locked in or not engaged at all like that was that was the but nobody has the Pacers beating the Celtics no but the question is do they have a legit shot to of course they do of course they but Austin but Austin you will concede this the further you go along the better the chances the harder it becomes that you give up home court that you can get it back you must admit that because a difference is is that Indiana they’re fully healthy they’re a lot better they’re in a lot better position that if you they steal a game and and whole serve once they go back home the more so the Cavaliers because Donovan gets injured Jared Allen’s not played so forth and so on I don’t think anybody thought the Milwaukee once jannis goes down no and and D missed a game or two nobody thought the Milwaukee Bucks was going to be was going to be Indy but the problem that you run into is that now these teams get better and better as you go further and further along you’re playing with fire you let a team steal a game and now all of a sudden they really really start I believe Indiana believe they can beat Boston but you give them an extra boost of confidence when you let them steal one of these games at home right take us home and then we’ll go to the West well well here’s the thing well last time Indiana played Boston they lost by five and that was in Boston again that was a long time it was a few months ago but what did Indiana do in that game they took 20 more field goal attempts than Boston that’s their Pace the way they get up shots again they lost by five I get it christops porzingis also played in that game he had 17 and 12 so and what did Indiana do really well against the Knicks they remounted well so christops braus isn’t playing in the first couple of games Indiana’s been rebounding well Indiana’s Pace they’re going to get up a lot confidence is high and Boston has lost game two in both of the series so I do think Indiana can steal one if it’s going to be one it’s probably game two and Indiana’s going to protect home court this can be a series with the Pacers 100% and it can go to six or seven games I’ll say this Indy beat I saying I saw Indy Beat Boston in inseason tournament also you saw that Austin yeah they beat him twice and in the inseason tournament but in the playoffs they haven’t played a team like this they’re about to play Conference Finals Celtics I mean this this is Peak form this will be a good I mean they haven’t had a t like this you mean you mean Pete you mean uh Conference Finals Boston that lost game seven at home last year you mean that that that that that okay I think this team from all the the the the BS that has been talked about them fair or not fair Shannon I think the Celtics this year are in position right now and they even know they have to know that the route that they’ve gotten right here they have to take advantage of this this is this is the best route they’ve ever had to get to the fin win the team they have to be Denver’s out Denver’s out like they got to beat Minnesota or Dallas if they beat Indiana what what here’s the thing look about the East look at the Eastern Conference Joel embiid was hurt Jimmy Butler goes down Brunson Julius Randall Mitchell Robinson bonovich John’s Hart gets hurt oh you’re not g to get an easier Path U Giannis gets injured Dame Lillard gets injured you will not have an easier path getting out of the Eastern Conference and that’s no shade and please like normally when you say no disrespect is disrespect coming but if you look at what Boston potentially would have had to go through Donovan Mitchell gets nicked up Jared Allen is hurt you decimated a great point they’re not going to get an easier path than what they have right now [Music]

On First Take, Shannon Sharpe, Brian Windhorst, Austin Rivers and Andraya Carter join Molly Qerim to discuss if the Indiana Pacers have a legit chance to win the Eastern Conference Finals over the Boston Celtics.

0:00 Do the Pacers have a legit chance vs. Celtics?
2:30 What to expect from the Pacers
4:30 Windy breaks it down!
6:00 “Boston is superior!” – Shannon Sharpe
10:00 Season progression for the Pacer

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