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Sports Illustrated NBA Insider John Karalis joined the show to discuss the Celtics opener against the Pistons, including Jayson Tatum’s poor performance, Paul George’s big game, the 76ers, and more.
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00:00john what's up buddy how you doing i'm doing great keep keep introducing me i like this
00:06listen all i know is that we were watching the game in real time when we were on the air
00:11yesterday
00:11and the last 30 minutes of our show when they ended up blowing that might have been the most
00:16the easiest radio i've ever done like the phones just blow up and it's crazy because it's after
00:22one game but at the same time no team should give up a lead like that almost ever especially that
00:28late in the game what did you get out of yesterday yeah so there's a few different things there like
00:34number one like yes when you're up that much at that point in the game it's about making buckets
00:42just find a way to make some buckets stop their runs finish this thing off at the same time
00:49the nba nowadays especially with the three-point shot a 20-point lead even if you were going into
00:55the fourth quarter with a 20-point lead we've seen those get erased so the one thing that i i
01:02keep
01:03thinking with the celtics is like when you when that lead hits 20 it's like everybody buckles up
01:10their seatbelts like all right here we go we're about to hit some turbulence right the the pilot
01:14flips on the passenger seatbelt sign and we're ready to you know try to land this plane and it's never
01:19smooth so i i went back and i looked and you know like the execution was bad and a lot
01:26of things but
01:27i also want to make sure that we're giving the detroit pistons the proper credit for what happened
01:33in that game as well because their defense was off the chart yeah it was awesome they stopped
01:39everything the subjects were trying to do i think the jalen duran saga and their disappointing playoff end
01:46kind of made everybody think like ah well the pistons are going to take this big step back and i
01:50don't
01:50know how good they are they're good that defense is top notch so it really was a combination of things
01:57right you you let up a little bit you the other team is desperate they start hitting some shots you
02:03kind of rush your offense you lead to some misses they come down and hit some easy ones and just
02:08starts
02:08to cascade into the celtics problem and one of the things you have to figure out now without jalen brown
02:14who's going to be the guy that when jason tatum doesn't have it like he didn't have it in this
02:18game who's going to be the guy that comes down settles things down hits a couple of shots settles
02:24down the team and instead of giving up a big run you okay fine pistons going a nine-oh run
02:31salvage answer you know seven two run and you kind of like ease back into things you take control back
02:37that's a big question that they're going to have to answer anything surprise you john with the front
02:41court the new look uh big fella university i guess i probably expected too much from mitchell
02:45robinson in game one and uh kata was in foul trouble again what'd you think yeah look it was a
02:51bad game
02:51for those guys kata was i think in the second quarter when the southwicks were starting to really build
02:57that lead kata was really good defensively i think offensively both guys kind of were were struggling
03:04they you know mitchell robinson i don't know if the preseason did him a disservice because i think
03:12the preseason does everybody a disservice to be honest with you it's just a big pile of trash
03:15that you didn't play anybody good i don't know what you can expect a lot of the things that they
03:21are trying to do they're doing in scrimmages against each other you're just not going to get
03:24the type of fight that you got from the pistons in scrimmages against each other you're just not
03:29going to try to hurt each other pistons don't care and so i think mitchell robinson came in and just
03:35got beat up and let himself get beat up and that was a really really rough start uh what did
03:42he do
03:42he had an offensive foul right away on the screen he let an alley-oop slip through his hands he
03:48threw
03:48a pass away then he goes to the bench like four minutes into the game and they had to go
03:53a different
03:53direction a lot of what happened in that third quarter was with luca garza on the floor luca garza
03:59i love him he's he's one of the hardest workers you're going to find that dude works his butt off
04:04every minute he's on the floor he should never play against the detroit pistons they just beat the
04:09hell out of him that's not a good matchup but mitchell robinson was so bad early on and he said
04:16it
04:16he told gary watchburn of the globe that he told the straight he he admitted everything that i'm saying
04:22here uh he was so bad that joe had to do try to do something and then because that defense
04:30was so
04:31good you had your only hope was will they respect luca garza's three-point shooting will they respect
04:40sam hauser's three-point shooting spread the floor it didn't go that well and so the centers
04:45all around were mostly really disappointing in that game uh but it's only the first game so
04:52they're but they have a lot to work on john i feel like one of the reoccurring themes for this
04:56team is
04:57just lack of getting to the rim not enough free throw attempts uh they were outshot for free throws by
05:04by by 11 uh in yesterday's game you know there's teams like okc you know the spurs the knicks uh
05:11the pacers that just attack attack attack and it's i know this is a three-point shooting team but
05:17why who why why don't we have guys that attack to rim and who do you think would be best
05:21suited for
05:21that and it probably was jb before but now now that he's gone who's who needs to pick up that
05:26slack
05:28it's a double-edged sword with getting to the rim because you also don't want to force getting to the
05:33road you make a good point the celtics definitely need to get to the free throw line
05:37and that should be tatum right tatum took one free throw so those 11 free throws that the celtics
05:42were outshot by just give tatum 10 more free throws yeah and it's basically even that's how
05:49it's supposed to go so that's on tatum and but at the same time the tatum missed a bunch of
05:58layups
05:58and those layups miss miss layups i know everybody wants to talk about the celtics three-point
06:04shooting and i totally understand why so few people want to talk about what missed layups do
06:09a missed layup especially a miscontested layup is so damaging because invariably there was a play
06:18last night where tatum goes up he had tarik white wide open on the corner for a three and he
06:24didn't
06:24get him the ball instead he went to the rim he took a layup and he missed it because it
06:28was challenged
06:28by two guys and people don't think of it because like hey he tried to get to the rim not
06:33a big deal
06:33except tatum ends up tangled up with the camera person because he's on his back they come down
06:39and they javante green got the ball passed to jaylen jern in the corner got the ball back and shot
06:47the
06:47shot a three-pointer just as jason tatum was coming back into the play and they make the three so
06:54that
06:54ends up being a five on four so tatum has to be the guy that gets to the rim but
07:00he has to play off
07:01two feet he can't get too cute he has to play through contact not avoid contact and if he's
07:07going up and he's being challenged he has to pass out of it get to the corners for the corner
07:13three
07:13point shooters those guys shoot those shots at somewhere around 50 that is a very good percentage
07:20for a three-point shot in those corners wide open so i agree they need to get to the free
07:25throw line
07:25but it has to be the right way what did you think of the sixers last night there john
07:31yeah the sixers look great game for them they you had all four of their their big stars
07:37get at least five assists so that was those you know for them that was good to see they came
07:43out
07:43they want to prove something right everybody's kind of like questioning them a little bit and
07:47um can they fit are there enough basketballs and so on and so forth so they went out and did
07:53what
07:53they're supposed to do um you know jaylen looked good everybody looked good but the questions that
07:58i think over the long long haul that are are kind of plaguing the sixers i guess i can say
08:05still are still there right you still had andre drummond put up a double double on them in the first
08:10half and that's andre drummond right like he's he's toast right um but he put up a double double on
08:16them what happens in the games when mb doesn't play they already lost ariel hook 40 to a torn
08:22achilles they're really thin in the center spot so they're gonna they still have to make a move
08:27they have to figure out how to shore that up before the season is over so we saw the best
08:32of
08:32them opening night like you're supposed to see the best of these guys on opening night
08:35yeah i want to see what they look like in january when they're worn down and they're just like get
08:41us to the playoffs that that's going to be where we really really see the sixers so great performance
08:46you got to have that but early season success for them is not going to be the most indicative thing
08:52they remind me of me i remember in high school we had to do like a like it was like
08:56the mile run
08:57and i remember at the very beginning because all the girls were looking i ran as fast as i could
09:01and
09:01we took off and by the end of it i was like dead like halfway through i was like
09:06that's what i believe the sixers is like they wanted to come out hot and show the world but you
09:11got an old-ass joel and bead you've got lebron who's even older not old-ass joel and beads more
09:16like
09:16hurt ass and then you've got you know lebron who is old and then you've got maxi who's got the
09:21pressure all the pressure in the world of winning a championship for the first time or bust and
09:25then jalen who's probably still going to be great i i just think that that it's a recipe for some
09:30sort of i don't want to say implosion but at least discontent within those starting four
09:37yeah look you have to you have to put start you have to start putting pressure on each of these
09:41teams this is i know it's a very joe missoula thing to say but you you do have to start
09:46putting
09:46pressure on all these teams every team in the east has questions and when you are able to solve
09:54those questions the sooner you get to them the the sooner you can fix them and then that that'll help
09:59you down the line so yeah the pressure on the sixers will be there at some point um and and
10:06we'll
10:06have to see how they handle it well john corrales one of the best to cover the team he is
10:11your celtics
10:11beat writer for celtics on si.com also locked on celtics locked on nba locked on everything
10:17uh appreciate it uh john for coming on man and uh and you know listen if anything there was a
10:24lot to
10:24write about last night listen you know the worst thing for business is mediocrity the best thing
10:31for business is extreme success or extreme failure and especially the extreme failure so
10:36you know yay i suppose i don't know sure yay for now and you know what listen to the season
10:41of a
10:42team that i believe to be in a good way very boring almost like the spurs were back in the
10:46day uh this
10:48this was nice this was a nice little weird thing that obviously got the phones going crazy all right
10:52appreciate it john thanks for coming on it's gonna happen it's gonna happen now thanks guys
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