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The guys breakdown last night's Celtics/76ers game in Philadelphia, including Jaylen Brown’s attitude towards his former teammates and his poor performance.
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00:00As a Celtics fan, it was everything you wanted.
00:04It was the Celtics not only won, but Jason Tatum looked like the bigger man in all of it.
00:11It looks like they made the right decision.
00:13Paul George was unbelievable yesterday, and Jalen Brown made a fool of himself
00:19and was the worst player on the court.
00:20He had egg on his face, boy.
00:22He did.
00:22Can I be that guy?
00:24It's not quite what I think your dream scenario would have been.
00:27Okay.
00:27It was 76-all, and you blew the doors off them, right?
00:31Yep.
00:31Wouldn't you have preferred, though, they didn't just win by a barrage of threes,
00:35but rather a close fourth-quarter game where Tatum escalated at the end?
00:39Can we get to the question about the playoffs now?
00:41Let's do it.
00:42Okay.
00:42Because did yesterday's game, because I've talked about how I believe Jalen Brown's going to get better,
00:49and I believe that it's kind of unfair right now looking at the two of them
00:52and thinking all things are equal when Jason Tatum has been in the same system,
00:55with the same coach, with the same players, and everything.
00:58He's like, the team fits him like a glove right now, whereas Jalen Brown is in a completely new situation
01:03with a whole bunch of different offensive weapons that he doesn't know how to play with yet
01:07in a new city with a new coach.
01:09He's going to get better, though, because he's a good player.
01:11Whether you think he's a D-bag or not, the guy's a good player.
01:16So, Ted, what you saw last night, does that mean anything to you
01:21as far as what you believe the playoffs will end up looking like?
01:25No, that means, to me, it doesn't.
01:26I mean, they're not going to shoot 45% from three points.
01:29The playoffs, the defenses are just, they just lock in on you.
01:33The book on the Celtics is out-physical then,
01:36and you play them hard at the three-point line,
01:39and they shoot up a bunch of bad shots.
01:42They're not a team that can adjust.
01:44They got to the free-throw line five times.
01:47I know.
01:48But Paul George was 6-11 for three.
01:51You haven't seen Paul George yet in a playoff series.
01:54Maybe he can hit threes in playoff games.
01:57Okay, so you think this game does feed into the playoffs?
02:00Are you just trying to distract me?
02:01I'm not trying to be a, I know you think I was just trying to poke you.
02:05I'm trying to make a case, and you just interrupt every point.
02:08All right, go ahead.
02:08Okay, so they're not going to shoot 45% from threes.
02:12It's getting to the line only five times.
02:14Are you kidding me?
02:17Can we count on Sam Houser to be the player he was last night?
02:22Yeah.
02:23I mean, seriously.
02:24I mean, who else was, oh, plus, Sam Houser, Peyton Pritchard.
02:29Yep.
02:29I don't know if he's going to be the guy in the playoffs
02:32that is going to be a plus-26 player like he was last night.
02:35I just think there's Jordan Walsh.
02:37I don't know.
02:38I mean, what is he out there for?
02:39I mean, he's the only negative player in the starters.
02:42The biggest of the starters.
02:44You're right.
02:44He was a minus six.
02:45What are we doing with Jordan Walsh, man?
02:46I don't get that guy.
02:48So, I don't know.
02:48There's just a lot of things to me where that was not going to hold true
02:51in a playoff series where you're 45% shooting from the three.
02:54Okay.
02:54Now, I agree with you.
02:56I think your point is well taken.
02:57But my only addendum to that is Paul George now is convincing me
03:01that maybe he is the guy, the answer, that we haven't seen
03:05in a playoff series with Tatum.
03:06And maybe he can just because he's an all-star caliber player
03:10that maybe his three-point game will translate into the postseason.
03:13They will need that to win.
03:15But to Ted's point, I think that's not something you should count on
03:18from the other guys.
03:19I think that it's not a one game.
03:20They play seven games.
03:22Can they do it every four out of seven?
03:24I just don't think they can.
03:26So, I'm kind of stuck in between the two because I'm starting to think
03:31that if Paul George can stay healthy, which I don't think anybody agrees,
03:34or if he can have a donut in the middle of the season,
03:37like a donut hole where he plays for the first couple of months
03:40and then he takes two months off from injury
03:42and then comes back in time for the playoffs and is effective,
03:44he does play off Jason Tatum really well.
03:48And to be quite honest, it is a better fit when they're firing
03:51on all cylinders than Jalen Brown and Jason Tatum were.
03:53You guys can think I'm crazy when I say they play off each other
03:55better than when JB was here.
03:58Dude.
03:58What do you mean?
03:59They won a championship together.
04:00Are you out of your mind?
04:01Those guys have proven you right, Ted.
04:04They absolutely have.
04:04The way they've been playing, it's like, you know what?
04:07And that is a Brad Stevens.
04:09That's the thing you can give Brad Stevens credit for.
04:11Now, as I said, we can't go spiking the football
04:13because the problem was we don't know how injured Paul George
04:16is going to be and how he's going to last the entire season.
04:18But if all is equal, you're right about that.
04:22The other thing you have to consider, though, is with the Sixers,
04:26Jalen Brown's going to get better.
04:28LeBron James and Jalen Brown are going to figure out
04:30where their places are.
04:31I don't even consider Embiid when it comes to that team
04:35because I think he'll be injured and ineffective.
04:38Watch him last night.
04:39He was injured for the first three games of the playoffs last year
04:41and then came back and was a force.
04:43Yes, he was.
04:43He laid on the floor last night for like three minutes.
04:45Yeah, so to me, I think that that team's going to get better,
04:51although you're going to have one of their major players,
04:53I think, isn't going to be a part of it.
04:55Jason, the one thing you say about LeBron James is, you know,
04:59when it comes to the playoffs, that dude has seen everything,
05:01literally everything you could throw at him, he's seen it.
05:03And I think he'll do well, not be classic LeBron James,
05:07but he'll do just fine.
05:08And you can't win a playoff series if you rely on the three
05:12as much as the Celtics do.
05:14Last night was one of those amazing nights that happens every once in a while
05:17with the Celtics where everything went in.
05:21And I'm talking like contested, uncontested, they were hitting everything.
05:25And I'm talking about everyone was hitting everything.
05:27Paul George, Peyton Pritchard, Sam Houser.
05:31Somehow in the playoffs, defense gets better,
05:34and you don't always get that lucky.
05:36Well, not in 2024.
05:38Could we agree they had one playoff run where the threes pretty much fell every series?
05:43Each team they played in the playoffs didn't have their best player.
05:46Can I list for you?
05:47Now, I have six core Celtics beliefs coming into the year
05:50that have all been shaken after last night.
05:52Okay, I love it.
05:52Okay.
05:53Number one, the JB trade was an all-time bad trade.
05:56I now am questioning whether that's true.
05:59Agreed?
06:00I mean, you kind of have to back up.
06:01After last night?
06:01After last night, you're like, holy bole.
06:03What you saw, if this is the beginning of, you know, yesterday was a good sign that you may be
06:08right about that.
06:09That was a definite good sign.
06:10Number two, Paul George is not a legit all-star.
06:13Because Terp said he was, and we mocked him.
06:15But maybe he is.
06:16If he continues to play this well, he may be.
06:19Number three, we had our guy Mannix on.
06:21He said the Celtics don't have enough shot creators.
06:23Maybe Pritch is.
06:25I don't know.
06:26You can't rely on him, though.
06:28He dribbles into the lane, and then he can't get a shot off because he's so small down there.
06:34Could he become one?
06:35Sure.
06:35Have I seen him be one in games?
06:37Absolutely.
06:37There's certain games, but he's got to be more consistent.
06:40Number four, Joe Mazzola is lost.
06:42Number five, Brad Stevens is a dummy.
06:44And number six, the Celtics are not true contenders.
06:47I am now evaluating all six of those after one performance in Philadelphia.
06:51It's a good list to reconsider.
06:53Because all of those things, after yesterday, you can put a little merit behind it.
06:56Here's the thing, too.
06:57Joe Mazzola in the playoffs, if the Celtics, they're really good at being frontrunners,
07:02which they were in 2024.
07:04So Joe Mazzola's coaching didn't become a factor in these games.
07:09But late, tight games, crunch time within five points in the last five minutes,
07:13I don't trust Joe to make the right decisions.
07:15The third quarter last night, he took a couple good timeouts.
07:18I was like, all right, Joe.
07:19He did.
07:19I was like, nice.
07:20Yeah, he had a 16-point lead.
07:22Then they went down to a 12-point lead.
07:23I was like, boom, timeout.
07:24I loved it.
07:25I loved it.
07:25If I'm LeBron, I'm going up to Jalen Brown, and I'm saying, all right, we got that out
07:30of our system.
07:31Let's now learn how to play some basketball together.
07:33Because I have a feeling this has been a huge distraction for Jalen Brown.
07:36It's been hanging over his head for the longest time.
07:38Game one is done.
07:39You did it.
07:40It didn't turn out the way you wanted.
07:42We don't care.
07:43Let's figure out how to make this work.
07:45Dude.
07:45I mean, he's probably your fourth superstar on that team, and they're all kowtowing to him
07:50last night?
07:51Yeah.
07:51508 text says, best moment of the game was LeBron crying on the floor after a graze
07:55of his face.
07:56Another one literally barely touched his face.
07:59Another one down on the ground for seven minutes.
08:01I don't know if I didn't text you guys.
08:02I think I was texting somebody else.
08:04It's like, LeBron, come on.
08:07If there's anybody, it's almost as if a sniper-like shot.
08:11Oh!
08:12And when they replayed it, and it was a finger on his nose.
08:15It didn't even look like it poked him in the eye, but oh, he couldn't get up.
08:18Move over, Daniel Day-Lewis.
08:21Dude, I was impressed when they had that big lead, and then they got down to, like, what
08:25it was, Tide, right?
08:26Tide, 76-0.
08:27And then they pulled away on a little 9-0 run there.
08:30Threes started falling.
08:31978 text, if Paul George wins finals MVP, does Tatum get jealous and have him traded?
08:35Yeah.
08:36Yes!
08:37That would be kind of funny.
08:38That's awesome.
08:38Youości-Lewis was like a three-year-old Vielen, Kก.
08:38You know C-5 at Riser before that if he wasn't going to be done.
08:38I was surprised to have someone who knew it.