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00:00a spanking of the grizzlies oh beat the grizz and then last night it wasn't looking good early
00:05no but uh i was able to carry him to a win late by being in the house yeah really good
00:10cashing some bets when are you going again when's your next good question scheduled i don't know
00:14tbd 2-0 against a spread as well with you in the house i believe uh yeah i think by by tip last
00:19night the celtics were under when we left yesterday they were favored but i think they
00:22were underdogs by uh by tip time that was another game where i was kind of shocked how close the
00:26number was the detroit game we were talking about that last week and they covered that like
00:30well some quality games maybe maybe vegas is seeing uh something because we said for that detroit game
00:37we're like what is what does vegas know about this line this is a weird line and maybe it's just as
00:42simple as they see them playing better basketball turp because they have now won as you just said
00:46four out of their last five their four wins are over four of the top six teams in the east
00:51orlando detroit cleveland new york now they mixed in a loss at minnesota but pretty good game too
00:57no it was so i mean they are they are playing better maybe it's as simple as that yeah for in
01:02if you look out even further than that in their last 15 their nine and six seven and three in their
01:06last 10 and like you said four and one of their last five and to me it's just they're bringing that
01:10edge and they're bringing that swagger that they talked about that they needed to bring like
01:14obviously the the roster isn't as talented as it used to be but the way that they're playing each and
01:19every night just giving it maximum effort bringing that intensity it's it's tough for opposing teams
01:24to overcome that and i think a lot of that comes down to the mind to the mindset and to the culture
01:28that joe mazula has established here and that the players are really upholding because it's just been
01:33incredible what they've been able to do well i'll go back to the loss to brooklyn so they had the
01:37back-to-back the home and home so they lose to brooklyn and they were 500 at that point and you're
01:41like brooklyn no and that like that roster so bad that loss was it was even yeah right and it wasn't like a
01:47back-to-back it just happened to be the same opponent two straight games and the loss is like
01:50overshadowing some of the wins early in this streak too i'm like that was such a bad loss to such a bad
01:54team yeah so that was i feel like the team could have gone one of two ways i mean it's only 16 games
02:00in but they were 500 so they're literally treading water and that's one where you're like all right if
02:04this is going to be a playoff team specifically a top six like a real playoff team you can't drop games
02:10to the dregs of the league but then they follow that up with this great five i mean great five game
02:16stretch i would have been happy with like two and three even just because you're playing really
02:20really good teams and they're four and one they got what washington tomorrow who's another one of
02:25these awful teams so they could keep this thing going and they've even had injuries during this
02:30time too and so i don't know maybe it is figuring out the roles of some of these guys you know for a
02:35handful of them they were used to having tatum on the floor he's not and then for another bunch of
02:40them they just weren't even on the celtics before so maybe they're all just kind of finally
02:43figuring out how to all fit together and when we talked last week we talked about it was kind of
02:47too early to decide what this team was and that this upcoming stretch was really going to define
02:51it and i mean you just have to be happy with what you've gotten from this team so far even last night
02:56for example guys like ugo gonzalez he changed the game in the second quarter what he was able to do
03:00to carl anthony towns who was featsing on them in the first quarter josh minot hit big three a big
03:05three in the fourth quarter and he's been very consistent from three this year it's guys that you were
03:09hoping jordan walsh in the fourth quarter those putbacks and the like the defense he
03:12provided like the guys that you were hoping would take the leaps are taking the leaps and they're
03:16having success in doing that so i understand like people want to tank people like oh it's better the
03:22return on investment is better for this team to tank but i think with what you're having now with
03:27this team these guys emerging the jordan walshes the namish katas the josh minots these guys looking
03:32like they can contribute looking like future pieces you kind of take that right well but yeah well i'm happy
03:38you said it the way you said it they all contribute and they all look like future pieces what are they
03:42i mean they're probably all 20 games in right we don't know well we don't but they're probably all
03:46bench pieces is what i would say on on like a good championship caliber team with tatum back
03:51i don't know about kata though kata's like luke cornett ish right about 40 million across three
03:56years i don't know but but i'm saying he might be a starter that's a bench big well he could be a
04:00starter i think he is i think he can be a starter i don't i i do agree where jordan
04:04walsh in a championship team i don't think he's in starting lineup same thing with josh minot walsh
04:08and minot and gonzalez they're all young and i'll give this to you last night keith i don't know if
04:12you could tell this on tv i was in the building no it was hard but you could really you could really
04:16tell in the building uh nope i did not wear my abu dhabi shirt i did take it home with me i didn't
04:20put it on uh yet but i uh you could see when gonzalez came in and i'll credit missoula on this
04:27missoula kind of spun the dial because i don't think he quite has that spot figured out they have four
04:31starters right now they know what they're gonna do it's brown it's white it's pritchard it's kata
04:35those guys are gonna start kata did not have a great night early on towns and so they're kind
04:40of spinning the dial right walsh got the start didn't go great minot got some minutes they went
04:44to yugo and he did he did change the game defensively on towns who was just feasting on
04:50kata and jalen brown so i think last night was a good look and i think the last couple of weeks
04:57reflect well on missoula as well i think that is coaching that's not paint by numbers
05:02huck up threes he went through a few different things last night and ultimately he found something
05:07by going to gonzalez that that's good coaching even go back to xavier tillman against the calves
05:11he was out of the rotation wasn't playing at all that night who was hurt for that game
05:15kata and white they were right they went in and started tillman and no one expected that right
05:21people thought maybe they go with the small ball start josh minot in there with jordan walsh
05:24maybe star garza which we've seen them do and they went with xavier tillman and it worked so i
05:30give joe mazula a lot of credit because this team like i said earlier is really they're living up to
05:34the standard that he holds them to and then he's clicking all the right buttons for this team like
05:39if i know they're 12 and 9 it's like you're not going to throw a parade over a team that's three
05:43games over 521 games into the season but or 22 games into the season rather but this is a lot better
05:49than a lot of people would have expected especially given the schedule at the beginning of the year i
05:53mean and they're beating quality teams they have seven wins against teams 500 or better it's the
05:58second most in the nba behind the detroit pistons who have eight they're tied with the magic the
06:02reigning champion oklahoma city thunder and the denver nuggets that's a good ball club and they
06:06are they have been better than people expected and they deserve a lot of credit for that and
06:10joe's at the top of that i hate to do it but you also deserve some credit because i was like two
06:14weeks ago talking about jalen brown playing like an all-nba player and i was like i don't know because
06:17like you kind of need the wins to sort of and he was he was scoring points but they were losing and
06:23they're losing to some bad teams i mean this stretch that he's on now is as good as we've ever seen
06:28right from from jalen brown i know it's very different he's played almost his entire career
06:32with tatum or even other you know guys that can score you look out there now like yeah he's gonna
06:37need to score 30 or 40 on certain nights but he has he's been pretty consistent and he's a guy that's
06:42not afraid to go to the basket he's a guy that's not afraid to shoot twos right he's not he's not
06:46afraid to do that but uh he's been great over the last couple of weeks just night in and night out
06:50he's giving them a chance to win he's averaging 29 six and four the only other players averaging
06:55that stat line are janice luka donchich and nicole jokic sounds like an all-nba yeah i was gonna say
06:59that's pretty solid pretty good two mvp three mvp candidates right but but all all those guys are
07:04going to be in the playoffs so like if the celtics sink back down and they miss the postseason
07:08that is a big difference between him and those other guys so look now that they're in playoff
07:12position he's playing well i i do think you're onto something terp and maybe it's just they
07:17started slow they were missing tatum brown had to find his role missoula had to find out what he had
07:23on the roster and they're starting to get their footing and maybe it's just as simple as that but
07:27they i do think they have to be a playoff team for brown to really be an all-nba player and two quick
07:31thoughts one one on the playoff team thing this conversation changes with one injury right like
07:36that we're still like they are there's a long season to go and we still as much as we're praising the
07:41depth like these guys have contributed in the roles they have been in if everyone is elevated
07:46again we're talking a lot differently about this team so yes we got to kind of pump the brakes in
07:51that sense but i mean night just night in night out he's giving them what they want and the best
07:55thing about what we've seen from jaylen brown it's not the scoring everyone knew we can score i mean
07:59the 40 points in two of the last three games is great but how he's creating for others and especially
08:03in that cleveland game like how he was deferring in the fourth quarter even last night just deferring
08:08passing out to jordan walsh trusting guys like josh minot like that's going to go a long way when
08:13jay when jason tatum is back because it kind of takes off him a little bit now that jaylen brown's
08:18been forced into that role where he's reading the defenses he's the number one guy when he comes back
08:23that's only going to make him better so i mean this has just been a great year for him i mean the
08:27development has been there there was a lot of questions going in a lot of talk about whether or not
08:31he can be a true number one and i think he's answered that pretty resoundingly what have you seen from
08:35peyton pritchard i think that you know the conversation about him coming off the bench
08:38or starting like that's pretty much over like he's been out there he had the monster game a couple
08:42nights ago almost a career high 42 points he's still shooting 33 from three where he's been
08:49pretty consistently a 40 three-point shooter is that just the types of shots he's taking or is it
08:55like just not a great shooting year for him is there anything you see more attention from
08:59defense because it's about the same number of shots as it was last year it's just i'm sure with the
09:04guys around him they're not quite as wide open yeah we've talked about it with those with him
09:07and derrick white right like they're a lot of their shots are now pull-ups as opposed to catch and
09:11shoot threes and those are a much more high efficient shot and that's kind of the result of being a one
09:17or two when you're on the floor sometimes when the lineups with jaylen brown's not out there so
09:20i think some of it is kind of balancing that new role but to pritchard's credit like he's as a point
09:26guard has done a terrific job just running the offense his assist to turnover over ratio is
09:32incredible one of the tops in the nba so as a point guard he's been great but with both him
09:38and derrick white they need the scoring right like you can't expect jaylen brown to go out and score
09:4240 points well every night there are some lineup like brown was in early foul trouble last night and
09:47some of the lineups that really you really do you just need guys who can put the ball in the basket
09:52and it's like some of these lineups are i'm using as a kata and white and pritchard and uh
09:59simon's yeah what maybe shireman last night yeah oh no maybe that's what it was shireman early and
10:04you're looking at it going who the hell is going to score and it really it really does have to be
10:08those two or simon's and yeah it's basketball is about more than just putting the ball in the
10:13basket but when brown's off the floor and without tatum this year they do need those guys to do that
10:18i'm with you on that and you look at the anthony simon's game streak recently you look at like 12
10:22points last night he shot five and nine not crazy but he gave them what they needed in the first half
10:27and really kind of helped steady them out in the first half and he did that against cleveland as
10:31well so i think he is getting a little bit more comfortable in his role especially in the first
10:35first half he's been great coming in just being aggressive right away giving them the scoring they
10:39need but i think once he gets he continues to get more acclimated and he's kind of talked about it
10:44he's growing more comfortable joe mazula talked about it last week where he sees him getting more
10:47comfortable in the role like you go from being a primary option to being the sixth man on a team that was
10:52kind of figuring itself out you're not necessarily the primary ball handler all the time anymore
10:56so it was an adjustment and i think he did deserve some patience and some grace in that process and
11:01the as when he starts to click a little bit more i think it's going to do wonders for this offense
11:06what are the chances though that let's say he does kind of figure it out and then two months from now
11:10they trade him i mean still high high still pretty high i think if everyone if you're going to circle
11:15any name on this roster that could go at the deadline i think it consensusly would be now if if
11:20they're a top six seed and they trade simons and let's say he's playing well right like you know
11:25occasional 20 point game but just like consistently double figures off the bench and he's he's like
11:29the third team's third leading scorer i guess fourth leading scorer and they trade him for
11:34you know expiring a picks and expiring deal or whatever like i don't know like that's gonna piss
11:40a lot of people off i think people would do it if it's for a big i think people i was just gonna say
11:44so that's different so that's what i was gonna ask if they're trading some of they trade him for
11:48picks that's unconscionable okay to me but they might they might yeah yeah but if they made a
11:53trade for a roster fit that that is what they need right another big i would say another big and the
11:58small they found something with the small ball and i think it works with what they're doing and the way
12:01they want to play how they want to create chaos like they found something there but you need big
12:06men going to the postseason right we were just giving cato's flowers he can be a starter but
12:10behind him that's very suspect evan mobley will have 25 rebounds or whatever so if you're going
12:16to make a move it would probably be people would want a big man but like right now and again we
12:21don't really know because we haven't seen it with this ownership group like right now you kind of give
12:24them the benefit of the doubt that the moves made in the offseason were because of the second apron
12:28and they kind of were very open about that but if they trade him out and just kind of get picks and
12:33duck under the salary the luxury terrible then you can talk about it differently so look to me
12:37simon's for a big maybe it balances your roster out better maybe tatum's coming back so that makes
12:44even a little bit more sense like i can get behind that simon's for picks is just that's not the red
12:50socks adage it's like oh the in-house trade deadline or whatever they used to say yeah coming back
12:55well it also depends on how simon's is playing like i like simon's i might even like the idea of
13:00simon's more than even what we've seen night in and night out so if he's kind of struggling i think
13:04people will excuse it and be like oh we trust brad but if he's like having a lot of good games
13:09and then they just flip them it's gonna really irritate people what uh because i don't want to
13:14go too far with the celtics and how they're playing they are playing better they're still
13:17the eighth seed in the east but to me how they played over these last five does cement
13:21our offseason expectations they should be a top six seed in the east win 40 something games you
13:27shouldn't be in the play-in games you definitely shouldn't be in the lottery talking about tanking
13:32even though they started poorly i never got on board with that but they should be a top six seed
13:37in the east is that a fair expectation what are your expectations now they've kind of leveled out
13:42through 22 games my expectations really haven't changed a team a little bit over 500 and that's
13:47what they've been and right now if you look at it like they win those brooklyn and utah games two very
13:52winnable games they could be looking at the third seed in the eastern preference right it's still very
13:55close of the season anybody would have signed up for that anybody like they could be ahead of
14:01cleveland who would have thought that coming to the air ahead of orlando like they are right there
14:05and there were kind of glimpses of it earlier in the year like even that knicks game the second
14:09game of the year i know people don't necessarily like to count quarters or anything but like they
14:13outscored them in three of the four quarters it was that really bad second quarter was a huge run
14:16that did them in and they fought back and made that pretty close in the fourth quarter until
14:20new york pulled away so there were signs about this team early on and it was kind of this growing
14:25pains like what does joe have on this roster what do these guys have in their new roles and now
14:29once they start to figure that out you're starting to see things click a little bit so i'm with you
14:33guys like this looks like a team that has the making has they have the ethos they have the talent
14:38and they have like the mindset to overachieve and expectations all right it's pure hoops not just pure
14:43celtics so the nba record for most wins in a regular season is 73 by the gold state warriors back in 2016
14:51the oklahoma city thunder are currently 21 and 1 how many wins do they finish with i think they're
14:58going to go over 70 like i really do yeah it's they're 21 and 1 i think they were 75 i think they
15:04i think they break the record okay they did a lot of this without jaylen that's what i'm saying
15:07was an all nba player one of the great jaylen so we just came back top jaylen for sure jaylen they
15:11started 8 no they lost to portland they've won 13 in a row since they're 21 and 1 yeah that's how you
15:17defend the title they are they're gonna break they're gonna break the record yeah look at
15:21opening night they went to double overtime and then they had another two night first two games
15:25were both double over the year yeah houston and indiana it is just what like that team is just so
15:29insanely talented and again they're doing without an all nba player they haven't even been fully
15:33healthy they haven't been fully shea gilder's xan is doing the same stuff that he's done last year
15:37he's like every night when we do the best nba performer of the night he's in there i was kind of
15:42shocked to know they only have seven they're seven and oh against teams over 500 though so maybe that
15:47could be kind of like earlier in the year like you know dropping yeah the west is the west is very
15:51talented but like yeah man it's hard to pick against that team right now like just they're so
15:55good okay so you're the field who would you take to win the championship right now it's okay see i
16:01mean we're talking about i was i was field at the beginning of the year i was field so i thought i was
16:05more wide open but then seeing the eastern conference the way that it is like i like detroit detroit's nice
16:10but right am i picking that to take the thunder no i gotta take the thunder i'd pick a gentleman's
16:16sweep is what i would pick and like in the west like really who's who's good enough to be i mean
16:20the combination of luca and austin reeves is light i'm speaking of all nba reeves for sure is right
16:27now i'm excited to see that team on friday night yeah that's gonna be that's gonna be a lot of fun
16:31to see that it's a great test for the celtics like slowing down a guy like luca like because i bet
16:35you jordan walsh might get that assignment like he's kind of taken over that role where jalen
16:42brown's had the last couple years where jordan walsh is now guarding the best players and he's
16:46done a heck of a job he did a great job last night james harden i mean you look at that game he had
16:50like 40 points but if you watch just how frustrated he made james harden i would actually brag i went
16:55into the locker master after and asked james harden about it he's like yeah i don't know he was just
16:58like so frustrated i did not want to talk about it at all but tyron luke gave him like a lot of credit
17:03for it and like jordan walsh is really making a name for himself in the league he's getting on
17:07scouting reports and it's just crazy to think that that guy was out of the rotation a month ago
17:11and now he's in your starting lineup and you're truly developing into a legitimate nba player real
17:16quick uh the tatum video that was making the rounds the one-on-one video your your thoughts on how he
17:22looks and what and if that means anything for his timeline yeah i mean it's tough to judge the timeline
17:27because like only he knows only he has that timeline circle circled like they have it they've kept that
17:31very close to the vest but i will say like we have gotten glimpse of him at practices and it's
17:35been a lot of just like off the dribble shooting stuff and just from those brief like those brief
17:41interactions those brief like viewings like he doesn't look like he has any limitations no it
17:45doesn't look at it all and we kind of talked about it once he got hurt like there's just no data for a
17:5127 year old getting in tearing his achilles like this kind of injury and getting the surgery right
17:56away which we heard was such like a positive thing in the recovery and by one of the best
18:00achilles surgeons in the world like it seems like everything was just kind of falling in line
18:04and it does seem like again like i don't know like i don't know what his timeline is i don't know what
18:08he's planning to be but it just looks like from seeing him there are no limitations but i will say
18:13too and we talked about this as well it's kind of unfair to expect him to come back and be an all nba
18:18player true like i think that's something a lot of guys didn't even try it people are looking at
18:22the south 16 they're like oh like hey they're right in the thick of things in the east wait until they get
18:26jason tatum back like yeah that would be great right but that's he's playing 16 minutes the most
18:30important thing is just getting him on the on the floor and like letting him relearn his body letting
18:34him trust his body again because that mental hurdle is just going to be so hard to get over so
18:38i just think it might be a little bit overzealous to look at it be like oh this team's going to
18:43have jason tatum look out the east is wide open because he's not going to come back and be an
18:46all nba player that's just an unfair expectation 617-779-7937 you can talk celtics here with jones
18:52and keith that is pure hoops with turp justin turpin weei.com weei you can follow him there
18:59at justin m turpin for all of his uh celtics coverage press conferences practice footage
19:05game breakdowns etc turp as always we appreciate thanks so much all right thanks guys thank you
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