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00:04 Media Network.
00:05 Hey, Bobby Manning here.
00:08 Welcome to the Garden Report in Memphis after the Celtics beat the Grizzlies 102-100 in
00:15 a messy, difficult to watch at times, and uncharacteristic effort from the Celtics against
00:25 an extremely short-handed Memphis team that came into this about 7.5 point underdogs when
00:32 Jalen Brown's status was up in the air tonight with the groin strain.
00:36 Goes to 12, so Celtics significant favorites here and basically fought possession for possession
00:42 with the Grizzlies after going up by 10, quickly squandering that lead midway through this
00:46 game.
00:47 The first quarter for Boston was solid tonight, attacking mismatches with Porzingis, finding
00:54 open shooters, Sam Hauser started this game 4-4 from 3, but then from there turnovers,
01:00 fouling, 40 fouls between these two teams kind of bogged the game down too.
01:06 Goes all the way down to the wire to a play where the Celtics had a two point lead late,
01:10 a couple key baskets in crunch time, and then got an offensive rebound, Derek White I think
01:16 swooped in and grabbed it, and they had a chance to just run out the clock, about 9
01:20 seconds left, instead Tatum threw to a cutting Holliday, Holliday took a layup dunk attempt
01:28 with about 3-4 seconds left on the clock, misses it, gives the Grizzlies a chance to
01:32 run out.
01:33 The Grizzlies actually end up taking a wide open Santiago Dama three point attempt for
01:38 the win just before the buzzer, he misses it, I believe Conchara got the putback attempt
01:45 that Porzingis ended up blocking, and the Celtics escape with a win here that Joe Mizzou
01:50 admitted after the game, they really didn't deserve here.
01:54 Here's Joe on that.
01:55 I mean listen, we got lucky to win that game.
02:00 We talk about it a lot on both, you can win from losses, you can learn from losses, you
02:06 can learn from wins, and sometimes you're ok with a loss because you did some right
02:09 things and sometimes you're pissed because you didn't deserve to win, and I didn't
02:12 think we deserved to win the game because of a lot of the stuff that we did.
02:15 And so at the end of the game there you either have to make the layup or you have to get
02:19 fouled, there's no like, that's just how it is.
02:22 So you either got to make it or you dribble the clock out and you get fouled and you make
02:25 your free throws and the game's over.
02:26 So credit to the Grizzlies for the way they played, I thought they just outplayed us at
02:32 times.
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02:51 So Joe stopped short of saying this was a game where the Celtics looked down on their
02:58 competition or didn't play to their potential or anything like that, but in other ways saying
03:04 that they didn't play with discipline, not loving the consistency, possession to possession,
03:11 rebounding, all those different things.
03:12 I think said it in his own way, said he didn't love it overall tonight in this one.
03:17 And this really I think, just from my perspective, was the first time the Celtics all year didn't
03:23 bring it to a game.
03:24 They've had different games where they've missed shots.
03:27 Tonight just didn't look like a Celtics game, they didn't take the amount of threes they
03:30 usually do.
03:31 Bad decisions around the rim killed them throughout this one.
03:34 Porzingis, trailing by four, took a bad hook shot attempt inside that Drew Holliday actually
03:39 swooped in and grabbed.
03:40 Dumped to Jalen Brown and then Jason Tatum had a go ahead three point shot after that.
03:45 Tatum didn't take a three until the fourth quarter on that shot.
03:51 So that would have been his first game in four years where he didn't take a three point
03:54 attempt and that I think more than anything was emblematic of just how weird of a game
03:59 this was for the Celtics here.
04:01 But they do win key plays late, some nice stops on Aldama as well as Bain on a three
04:08 point attempt late.
04:09 Aldama threw this weird pass behind his back that helped bail the Celtics out here.
04:13 That was Joe's assessment after this one and Porzingis said it more succinctly that maybe
04:18 they did look down on the competition a little bit tonight.
04:20 So you don't love to see that but just like on Friday, Celtics find a way to win here.
04:24 I wouldn't give them that much credit as I think you do on Friday with their late game
04:29 execution.
04:30 I think Porzingis sharpened this one but win's a win and they're back at it tomorrow against
04:34 the Hornets.
04:35 We'll have coverage of that remotely.
04:37 And that's the last word here from Memphis.
04:40 A little bit more on Smart coming up but other than that, CELNTIS Media, Celtics All Access.
04:44 Subscribe over there.
04:45 We'll talk to you soon here on the Garden Report.
04:48 [Music]
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