In the latest episode of Talkin C's, Bobby Krivitsky, Jack Simone, and Sam LaFrance discuss what went wrong for the Celtics as they failed to close out the Warriors. They also highlight the bright spots from the loss and preview Wednesday's game against the Kings.
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00:00 And we are back with another episode of how about them Celtics talk and sees Bobby Kravitz
00:13 of SI media group. Bobby, how you doing?
00:15 Doing fantastic and got my sleep on the back end. So, you know, we're just surviving these
00:20 10 o'clock tip offs, even with overtime.
00:24 It's weird because as we're recording this Warriors played last night, you guys will
00:27 see this a little bit before they play the Kings and it's back to back 10, 10. Then they
00:31 go to three 30 against the Clippers on the West Coast.
00:37 This is like a blessing of a West Coast trip. You only have these two late games. Then it's
00:42 like you said, three 30 and Christmas at five 30. So it's just like regular walk in the
00:46 park for these two special afternoon games. We locked out to be honest.
00:52 Not complaining. Just, it just throws me off schedule wise. Cause I spend the whole night
00:55 waiting like all seven 30 and then we got three more hours and then three 30 it's like
01:00 right in the middle of the day. But unfortunately Celtics started off the West Coast trip with
01:04 the loss to the Warriors. They were up by as many as 17 points. Sam and I talked about
01:08 it on the channel last night. Bobby, what are your instant reactions from that loss?
01:12 I think that in the fourth quarter they played not to lose and it was evident they were less
01:18 aggressive. They didn't push the pace as much. And I think what's not getting discussed is
01:25 how bad they were defensively. They only got something like two stops within the final
01:29 10 minutes of the fourth quarter. Their pick and roll defense deteriorated. They lost track
01:34 of Curry a few times. They let Clay Thompson get free for a three. And I know it was from
01:40 distance. It wasn't right at the line, but he's Clay Thompson. He'll take and make those.
01:44 And so it just seemed like, and we can talk about luck and everything else under the sun
01:47 with this game, but it just seemed to me like the fundamentals that we praised them for
01:53 on the homestand that Jalen Brown said, this is what defines Celtics basketball.
01:58 They abandoned those when it mattered most. Yeah, I think that's the thing that like really
02:03 set a lot of people off, even though a lot of people don't know how to voice it correctly,
02:08 including myself at times. But we did talk about the defense last night because it was
02:12 a glaring issue. It's the same thing that happened against the Pacers, except it kind
02:16 of happened quicker against the Pacers. Pacers got right back into the game in the third
02:20 quarter. Last night, they at least won the third quarter. They haven't been playing
02:23 well in the third quarter. All they've won. I think they won by what, nine points or something
02:27 in the, in the third and chase center, but then they lose by double digits in the fourth
02:32 quarter, have it go to overtime.
02:34 They lose. And it's largely in part because they can't play defense. If you go back and
02:39 you just watch all of the offensive possessions from the Celtics, they threw haymaker after
02:43 haymaker, but they didn't do any blocking. They didn't block the blows. The Warriors
02:47 threw back at them and it was just three and then three the other way and three the other
02:52 way and they got nowhere. They actually played really solid offense until the last minute
02:57 of the game. Of course, there was the possession where they missed five shots.
03:01 And I mean, for that, you can be like Derek white, three good look Tatum three, Chuck,
03:07 another Derek white, three good look. Jalen missed layup. Good look. Horford tip, not
03:12 a bad look. Like four of the five looks were pretty like acceptable. You can't complain
03:18 too, too much about the offense. And I think that's a positive because I w we're so used
03:23 to complaining about the threes and they did miss a franchise record threes.
03:29 But the real area of issue is the, is the defensive end because they just didn't tighten
03:34 up enough. They let the same thing happen to them. Horford had a rough shooting night,
03:39 but on the defensive end, he was consistently targeted, which is fine. It's going to happen.
03:45 But at the same time, you have a big guy out there. Why even put them out there? If the
03:48 offensive rebounds are being given up because he's too busy having to guard the perimeter
03:53 because they're targeting him, it really doesn't prove why he should be out there.
03:59 Cause he's not being utilized the way he typically would be. If that makes any sense. I don't
04:04 know. I talked a lot. I don't know. See, I don't blame necessarily Al Horford and I'm
04:10 not saying you were, but I feel like rather than saying he shouldn't be out there, it
04:13 should be, why aren't the other guys getting the rebounds? Like, what are we doing? We're
04:16 just going to stay at like, like on that last session of the game, I think the one you're
04:20 referencing or maybe it was over time. A couple of them when the Warriors got the rebound
04:24 and Steph Curry made the crazy shot. Like you look at the replay, Al Horford had to
04:28 guard Steph Curry driving to the rim and an argument with a loyal listener. He did of
04:34 the show on Twitter. He was like, it's Al. He let up the rebound. I was guarding Steph
04:38 on the drive. And then Derek White, Jason Tatum, and Jalen Brown proceeded to watch
04:41 the rebound fall to somebody else. Like that's not on Al. Al guarded the shot. It's, it's,
04:46 it's not easy to get a rebound after you just had to guard a drive. And so, uh, yeah, I
04:52 can pull up the clip. Let me, I'm just curious if the ball hit the ground because when I
04:55 watched this back this morning, it looked like it was Tatum's rebound and we can talk
05:00 about the ankle thing, but if his ankle was bugging him, that's probably why he didn't
05:05 have the same burst to the ball as it hit the rim.
05:08 It kind of, it kind of sucked. I mean, you never want to see an offensive rebound beside
05:11 the game like it did. Yeah. And then another point I want to make, cause these things go
05:16 hand in hand or I'll wait until after the clip here, since it's pulled up, you can talk
05:20 through the clip on mute. But yeah, so Steph drives, gets to good defense, great defense
05:25 by Al. And then, I mean, I guess you credit partially Kuminga for just making a good play
05:30 on the ball.
05:31 He was excellent last night.
05:32 Yeah. Trace Jackson and Kuminga just got there first.
05:35 There's no body on him because Derek white is trailing from behind Curry. Yeah. If anything,
05:42 this is as far as good of a game as he had, like there's no reason for Derek white to
05:46 leave his feet there like that, that like if you want to really look at it, he had a
05:50 few of those blocks from behind and the way Curry shoots the ball, he doesn't have a chance
05:54 at it, which is unfortunate because you're all in on that if you're Derek white.
05:59 So you can't hedge your bets and get back to make any sort of contact with trace Jackson
06:03 Davis. Watch this one too. So Tatum goes to block out Kuminga because Kuminga makes a
06:08 good play on it. These two are containing Kerry drew holiday and Jalen Brown play ball
06:13 watch. They play let's see what's up.
06:15 Drew holiday doesn't want to completely abandon Chris Paul. So he's not the, the call is not
06:21 for him to go all in to stop the roller or to contain Steph Curry there. So he kind of
06:28 did his job in playing a zone and not again, not leaving Chris Paul open for a kick out
06:34 three. It's just unfortunate. And maybe at that point, based on where holiday is on the
06:40 floor, he could have rotated over to box out trace Jackson Davis, but he doesn't have position
06:47 and there's minimal time to close.
06:49 So that's criticizing someone for not making that extra effort to go beyond their responsibilities.
06:54 It was just tough. It was tough break trace Jackson Davis. I mean, give him his credit.
06:58 He did a great job of getting in there all night. And at that point there was just no
07:01 body on them because Steph drew too, because that's what player star players do. But like
07:07 y'all said, defensively, it was just like the Celtics. The frustrating part was you
07:12 saw the moments where they could defend successfully throughout the game, like through the first
07:16 half and et cetera.
07:17 And then you saw the big possession or Peyton Pritchard denied the ball to clay and Steph,
07:21 you saw the big block by a Horford or he stuffed him at the room and pass the ball in bounds.
07:24 You saw good possessions, you know, where Jalen Brown would step up and have a big play.
07:29 But when it mattered, it just felt like it didn't even feel like they played terrible
07:33 defense. It just felt like they were a half second to a second too late on every contest.
07:39 And unfortunately that's all that matters when you're playing Steph Curry and clay Thompson.
07:43 And so that's just not good enough. Like you said, it felt like they were so hesitant,
07:48 might not be the correct word, but they were playing with the idea of we're winning. Let's
07:53 not lose the game. And I think because of that, they were like, I don't want to close
07:56 out completely in case he drives.
07:58 And so then they're just a second late. And then, I mean, we looked at the play by play
08:01 last night, they scored on five straight possessions and four of them were threes. You're not going
08:05 to win many games when you allow that many stops in the last seven minutes of the game.
08:09 And so it was frustrating to watch them just collapse like that on the defensive end.
08:12 Yeah. It all went hand in hand where their struggles to score offensively, Sam, you referenced
08:18 it, a franchise record, 41 misses from beyond the arc. I mean, Sam Hauser went 0 for 6 from
08:23 three last night, 0 for 7 from the field. And when you can't buy a basket, even when
08:29 you're getting good looks, now the other team gets to live in transition.
08:33 And so that fueled the Warriors having an 18 to 4 advantage in the paint, in the final
08:38 frame. And all of a sudden they used that to get in rhythm from beyond the arc. Now
08:44 they're running, they're seeing the ball go through the hoop. Everyone's getting involved
08:47 in the offense. And sure enough, Clay starts hitting threes. Steph had 13 points going
08:52 into the fourth quarter. He put 20 on him in the last 17 minutes of the game. And it
08:58 was just a disaster. Not to mention, it's harder to push the pace, especially on the
09:03 road when they have momentum in a building that gets that loud. When you have to take
09:07 the ball out, it feels like every single time in the fourth quarter, almost quite literally.
09:12 And so it all just kind of spiraled against them where the lack of success offensively
09:18 made it that much harder to stop what I don't care what they're doing overall for the season
09:23 is still a very dangerous offense.
09:25 It's true. And I think that's a good point. Having to take the ball out really hinders
09:30 your ability to get out in transition, a place where they played pretty well this season
09:34 when they've done it. But, oh, it just sucked to watch them in overtime, not be able to
09:39 score. And it's even worse because despite not being able to play in transition, they
09:45 still play decent offense in the fourth quarter. They just couldn't capitalize and string stops
09:51 together. If they get two extra stops, they wouldn't even one, I guess, technically, because
09:55 you went to overtime.
09:57 But when you get two stops there, it's a comfortable win. They, they did everything right. Offensively.
10:04 They made a lot of big shots. They had the one possession where they missed five straight,
10:09 but besides that, like, and of course the last shot of regulation, there's not too much
10:14 offensively for me to complain about. And I love to complain. I didn't have a problem
10:18 with the 41 threes. They missed only the ones that were bad. They created a lot of good
10:23 threes by swinging the ball.
10:25 They played out of the low post when they were actually forced to slow down the game.
10:29 Tatum did a good job. They went at Curry who had five fouls. They posted him up. He drew
10:34 a double every single time. Then the ball was kicked out to the close guy and it was
10:39 swung all the way around to the weak side a couple of times and they got great looks
10:42 on it. It's unfortunate that they didn't fall. The missed open threes are the things I am
10:48 least upset about after yesterday, which is very rare.
10:53 I mean, they missed so many lamps, just, just so many layups at huge times in the game.
11:02 I mean, Al Horford had that tip in that wasn't even close. That ended up going out of bounds.
11:07 Jalen Brown had a rough miss at the end of regulation. Jason Tatum had a rough miss.
11:10 I think it was at the end of overtime. Like they just couldn't make a shot at the end
11:13 of the game. It's like they were in their own heads at the rim. And Joe was always talked
11:17 about it before. He's like, Oh, you talk about threes, talk about the layups. And like, like
11:21 Sam said, I thought the threes were good. I thought almost all the threes were good.
11:24 Derek White took 18 threes in that game. That's insane. He took 18 threes, but no one noticed.
11:30 Exactly. No one noticed though, because they were all good threes and that's what matters.
11:34 Al Horford took 10 threes. She shot three of 10, but they were all good threes. Like
11:38 it's tough to complain, at least in my opinion about the shot selection, like you just said,
11:41 because they were all within the flow of the offense, at least for the most part, the exception
11:46 being Jason Tatum, who decided to shoot a lot of not paint shots.
11:52 He shot three of six in the paint last night and he shot two of 11 from not in the paint
11:56 last night. Cause technically that shot at the end of the regulation was a two. I was
11:59 writing about it last night. It was effectively a three. But he, he was awful. Like, like
12:08 truly awful in that game. Shooting wise. He had, I think eight and seven rebounds assists.
12:13 So like he made some impact elsewhere, but he, he killed him with the shot selection
12:19 he had in that game. Like I watched all the shots last night when I was writing every
12:24 single three and long range shot or non paint shot, we'll call it outside of one was either,
12:29 or a pull up a contested shot or both.
12:32 Like none of them were within the flow of the offense, zero of the shots. And while
12:37 I think a lot of that blame goes to Tatum, I also feel like it's important to acknowledge
12:42 that like, can we work to get them some better shots? Like, can the Celtics often just try
12:46 a little bit harder to get your best player involved in the flow of the offense? So I
12:49 think both those things are important. Yeah. I'm not a fan of the Tatum pull up threes.
12:53 He's shooting like 30% or something on them for the season. It just, it doesn't work for
12:58 him. It doesn't play to his strengths. It's not good team offense for sure. So I don't
13:04 like it whatsoever. And to your point earlier, Sam, it's why they probably could have stood
13:11 to have called a timeout at the last possession regulation there because Tatum didn't have
13:16 a going and with the ankle injury, he wasn't attacking downhill and it's just too complicated
13:22 of a situation.
13:23 And I don't think it's productive to let it play out and say, Hey, get the ball to Jalen
13:26 Brown. For example, I don't think anything good comes from stopping on the fly to make
13:31 sure that happens and telegraphing what you're doing to the defense. So I wonder if Joe Missoula,
13:36 he said publicly that he didn't regret his decision. I wonder if he second guesses it,
13:42 you know, afterwards and privately at least, and he would have gone a different route there.
13:48 See it's funny, like the timeout thing in Jack, you'll understand this reminds me of
13:55 when you play blackjack and you have certain things you can do when you have to make a
13:59 decision, you can double down.
14:00 If you have, let's say a 10 against an eight, where if you don't get the double, you might
14:05 lose. It's a risk. It's a gamble. But I think if you stay true to whatever your strategy
14:11 is, you can't really get mad at it. That's how I feel about the timeouts. I don't hate
14:15 that they didn't call a timeout. I just think it's less about Joe and it's more about his
14:20 trust in Tatum. Like maybe it's too much faith in him to make the correct decision. And that
14:25 moment of the game, which I just think it changes when you, when he has, because of
14:29 the ankle injury and the impact it had on how Tatum played that, that in that specific
14:34 context, I think it changes.
14:36 And that's fair. And you did mention the 30% earlier. So I have, I saw this tweet today.
14:42 Somebody sent it to me. This is from Jason Tim. Jason Tatum's obsession with pull up
14:46 threes is one of the strangest superstar trends in the league. There are eight players in
14:50 the league who take at least five of them a game. They all shoot 35% or better on them,
14:55 except for Tatum, who is below 30%. He was below 30% last year too. So Tatum, he's not
15:03 good at three bad.
15:06 Well I wrote about this this summer, I think, or late in the playoffs, like he used to be
15:12 good at them. Like so his percentages effectively went from catch and shoot wasn't great. Or
15:18 there was some percentage where like they were like cross match, like a graph, like
15:23 Tatum's pull up percentage used to be really good and now it's really bad, but he's taking
15:26 more pull ups and his catch and shoot used to be really good. Then it was bad. Then it's
15:30 good again. But then like the, like his shot profile has been so weird over the course
15:34 of his career. And the way I always phrase it is I'm okay with him taking some pull ups
15:40 throughout the course of a game.
15:41 My thought process is he's Jason Tatum. We know he can make them. He is a talented player
15:46 as long as they're sprinkled in and they're not like in the worst moments. Like I'm fine
15:51 with him taking a couple of them. It's whatever, like it's fine. He took it in the worst moment.
15:55 Like that is like the one thing, like the one thing you should not do is take it in
15:59 the moment where you need a bucket. And that's exactly what he did. And it's not even like
16:03 he took a pull up three, like the one he took against Philly where they drew up the play.
16:08 He got, you know, downhill, then he stepped back and he had one. He had no space. He had
16:13 Jonathan Kuminga all over him. And what's worse, let me, I'm going to pull up the clip
16:18 so I can show you my thought process here. What's worse. He had a lane. He could have
16:23 gotten by Jonathan. Like, like this is not like, maybe I'm crazy and maybe Jonathan Kuminga
16:29 would have recovered or kept going in time. But to me on this play, it looks like he could
16:34 have kept driving right and drove into Steph Curry, who by the way, played the entire fourth
16:38 quarter and overtime with five fouls. And they just like, if anything, I think they
16:43 focus too much on trying to attack curry that they got out of the restaurant. Like, and
16:48 that's burned them on multiple occasions this season. Like you're telling me at this moment,
16:56 you can't burst of speed downhill. Look, look at this. Maybe it's the ankle, but don't you
17:01 think that he had ends in a kick out to Horford? That's what I was saying. So I wrote this
17:05 in the article. I'm saying I've wrote about Tatum's final shot for Southwest block today.
17:10 Tatum decided to take the shot. Not only that you had Jalen Brown here who is playing great
17:14 all night. And I'm not saying he's open, but like, that's another option. You had Derek
17:17 white who'd been red hot all night and you get to this point, ready? Watch him, watch
17:21 him beat Kuminga. Look at Al Horford. I don't care that he's three for 10. He is wide, but
17:28 naked open. You make the pass every time. Like, and this is something that Trace Jackson
17:33 Davis recovers to that though. I think that's a contested three at this point in the play.
17:40 But it would have been better than this new cover photo just dropped. Oh my God. It's
17:50 awful man. It even though he's Jason Tatum thing doesn't matter to me anymore. Like if
17:57 he's shot 30% on it, sub 30% this year, sub 30% last year. It's like, well, if he's Jason
18:04 Tatum, maybe it's a bad shot for him. Like these other high volume, three point guys,
18:10 the superstars Curry's an unfair comparison, but he's just somebody that comes to mind
18:14 because he can create his own shot.
18:17 He gets a lot of looks from running around in, in catch and shoot and Tatum to his credit
18:21 has been good at catching shoe. So if you want to be like, Hey, Missoula, your fault,
18:26 be like, do more Tatum catch and shoot plays because he had one he made yesterday and it
18:31 might've been the only catch and shoot three. He took all game. It was even the one he didn't
18:35 take a question. It was, it was his only catch. It's the one where Derek White got the rebound
18:41 Al Horford got it and then kicked it to Tatum at the top of the key in transition. It was
18:45 the only catch and shoot three he took and he made it. It should happen more like I have
18:48 confidence in him making catch and shoot threes.
18:51 I just don't think the offense needs to come to a standstill so he can do super cool ISOs
18:56 anymore. Yeah, I totally agree. I also feel like the more dribbles he takes before the
19:02 sidestep three, I actually think the better that it helps him get in rhythm, especially
19:07 just anecdotally. I just said that wrong, but you know what word I went for that when
19:11 he goes between the legs into it, I think he's better than when it's just a hesitation
19:16 dribble and then he gathers the ball, you know, as it's in midair, so to speak and sidesteps
19:21 and fires it. So I think there's a process that helps produce better results for Tatum
19:27 when he does it.
19:28 But yeah, we're all in agreement in terms of the volume of it. We'd like to see and
19:32 how we feel about that shot profile for him overall. The other negative, and I do want
19:37 to get to some positives here, but the other negative that stood out of course is they
19:42 lost the minutes with Curry on the bench with five fouls at the end of the third quarter
19:46 that I believe it was 11 to four is what they got outscored by. And so they did go into
19:52 the final frame leading by double digits, but it was 11 when that was a prime opportunity
19:58 to put more significant of a cushion, you know, in between them and golden state.
20:04 Yeah. I mean they did everything they could, as Sam likes to say, to lose this game, they
20:11 did it all. They were like, Oh, we traded the golden state pick to the blazers. Let's
20:17 make sure that it has as little value as possible. We're going to make sure they get a win tonight.
20:22 That that draft pick spot is going to be affected by us. If we have anything to say about it,
20:28 it was just frustrating to see them collapse on both ends. It felt like they went away
20:31 from what was working the whole night. It felt like they slowed. Like I said this in
20:35 when we recapped the game, it felt like obviously when it gets too late in the game, the general
20:41 idea is slow down the offense.
20:43 Make sure you focus on getting a good shot. That doesn't work for the Celtics. They're
20:46 not good when they slow down the offense. They need to keep up the pace because that
20:49 that's what it was killing the Warriors all night. The Warriors could not keep up with
20:52 the Celtics pace and then they just decided to be like, yeah, no, we'll slow it down.
20:55 We'll focus on good shots, but they're not good at doing that. And so it failed miserably.
20:59 And that's when things went downhill. That's when Steph Curry and Clay Thompson were able
21:02 to get in the rhythm and that's when the Celtics lost the game. And this is not a game you
21:06 should have lost. Obviously it was annoying to see. Bobby, you said positives. I'm curious
21:11 to know what the positives were for your perspective.
21:13 Well, so it's more for 36 minutes or almost 36. There were positives. One of my favorite
21:19 things when it was going well for them is how consistently they would get a defensive
21:25 rebound and quickly look up ahead. And typically those outlets were going to Jalen Brown, pushing
21:31 the pace. And what came of that? What we saw of him as a passer, where he drops it behind
21:36 him to Derek White for a layup or they get a good look at a three day miss, but they
21:40 have the advantage in terms of positioning. So they get the offensive rebound and it leads
21:45 to a second chance basket. That was something in particular that stood out and was a nice
21:51 carry over from how well they played in the five game homestand.
21:57 You want to get real mad? I opened up the box score to be like, I thought this was a
22:02 good Jalen game. Cause I did. I think Jalen has continued as positive play as of late,
22:08 but I had it open from last night's pod and I had the fourth quarter box score open. Jalen
22:13 Brown, only two shots in the fourth quarter, Jason Tatum, Oh, four, not, not what I would
22:18 like to see from Tatum, but for the full game, we, I think we got a pretty good Jalen night,
22:23 28 points on 10 of 22. It didn't feel like he was forcing too much. Like you said, his
22:29 decision making has become much, much better. I also think we had a good namey game. I don't
22:33 think we talked about the best game of the season for him. Yeah. He double double for
22:37 the man off the bench. Good for him. Even if he's getting his own misses, like got to
22:42 respect it.
22:43 Yeah, no, it was good. He, I mean, you almost wish he was good enough for them to keep him
22:50 on the floor late in the game. Cause he was the key for them. Like not only not losing
22:55 the offensive rebounding battle, they were winning it early in the game. Like they were
22:58 winning the rebounding game early. Cause Nimi was doing such a good job, but he's just not
23:04 in tune enough defensively to keep them in those late game spots yet. Which is unfortunate
23:08 because then the South, and he doesn't stretch the floor. So they're going to go to Horford
23:12 over him obviously, but it's, it changes the spacing. I will say though, something that's
23:18 not going to show up on the stat sheet, but I think was apparent to most people watching
23:21 he sets fantastic screens and that makes everyone better.
23:25 It's so good. It's so fun to watch Nimi set screens. Do you guys think this stretch for
23:30 Nimi could potentially earn him a slot in the real rotation when Cornette comes back?
23:36 Cause people were talking about it yesterday. I had somebody replied to me on Twitter. Like
23:40 look at this, like Cornette's out. He's playing well. And like if he continues to impact the
23:45 game, like he was a plus 10 in this game yesterday. It helps that he was playing against Dario
23:52 Saric, but like, I don't know. Like you said, like good screens. He makes a positive impact.
23:58 He blocked. Did he get a block yesterday? No, I don't think they gave it to him, but
24:02 he at least deterred the shot at the rim. Like he's the reason it missed. He does a
24:06 pretty decent job at just like kind of getting his fingerprints on stuff in a good way. I
24:10 don't think he's perfect. I don't think he's like a, like solid, like he's not better than
24:16 Horford. He's not going to be your number one backup big by any means, but he can give
24:19 you minutes. He played 20 minutes yesterday and he was fine.
24:23 I think he's solid. I still don't think he's better than Luke Cornette quite yet. I still
24:27 don't think I'd play him consistently over Luke Cornette. I think matchup pace. Like
24:31 I think if Luke was healthy, you'd still probably play him against the Warriors because of the
24:34 rebounding because of Kevon Looney and trace Jackson Davis. But I think overall Cornette's
24:38 still a better defender. He's better positionally. He still gives you a little bit more. I think
24:44 he's probably a better finisher around the rim as well for what it's worth. I'd still
24:48 go to Luke Cornette. I do think Nimi has earned more opportunities, especially based on the
24:52 matchup though. Yeah, I think that I agree with those points,
24:57 but I also see, whereas Luke Cornette is basically, he'll keep the car at 10 and two and go the
25:03 speed limit and get it where it needs to go. Just fine. Kata has a chance to get it there
25:09 faster if I'm going to stay committed to this analogy. I just think that there's more impact
25:13 from him in his minutes. That doesn't always mean that he's better or, you know, it's easy
25:20 to not appreciate what Cornette brings to the table because it's not flashy. It doesn't
25:24 pop, but I think there's a real reason to give more of an investment to playing time
25:30 to Kata. The foul trouble and the issues that Jack brought up are all relevant and real,
25:36 but I also think that if they can develop him and continue to fine tune him, knowing
25:42 that he has a higher ceiling, including from a team contribution standpoint, I think that
25:48 it's worthwhile to continue to play Kata. Yeah. I mean, no fouls yesterday. I don't
25:54 think right now. 21 minutes almost, but no files. Good for him. Big balance back. I'm
26:01 filing out the season at it. Yeah, you can see it. You can see the progression at the
26:07 time of recording this and by the time it drops, the Celtics will be playing the Kings
26:10 tonight at 10 PM. I feel like this has the chance to be a great bounce back game because
26:17 the Kings are a good team. The Kings, I feel like heading into the season. A lot of people
26:20 thought the Kings would be the team bouncer in the playoffs like, oh, they're not going
26:24 to be as healthy this year. All these things. They're 16 and nine right now. Fourth in the
26:27 Western Conference. They are four games up on the Warriors in the standings. Now it's
26:33 not the same exactly. However, obviously, but it's they play a lot like the Pacers in
26:39 the sense that they play elite offense and defense is questionable. Not quite as questionable
26:45 as the Pacers. But this is a King's team that is great in offense. It feels like it's a
26:50 good chance to the Celtics to bounce back. However, if they don't come to play, it's
26:53 also equally as a good of a chance for them to continue the downward spiral. Unfortunately,
26:56 Bobby, what are you looking for in the Kings game? I don't see how someone could look at
27:00 this knowing the context and not consider it a huge challenge for the Celtics physically
27:05 in terms of the quick recovery and the high octane offense they're about to go against
27:10 and then mentally between the loss and the travel and how frequently they've been playing
27:15 and all of that. And I don't just mean the travel, obviously from San Francisco to Sacramento,
27:19 but from East Coast to West Coast and then to have to go back to back. And yeah, I think
27:24 this is going to be a huge test for them. We don't know at the moment, is Jason Tatum
27:29 going to play? We know that Al Horford won't. They get Kristaps Porzingis back. And on that
27:34 play Jack, when we were watching it there on film from Tatum at the end of regulation,
27:39 I'm just thinking about, man, if it's Porzingis in the far corner instead of Horford with
27:43 all due respect to big Al, that that I think that pass is more likely to happen and the
27:49 shots more likely to go in. And so it's going to be nice to have him back to go up against
27:55 the bonus and what Porzingis brings to the offense, but just a huge test in terms of
28:00 the speed that Sacramento brings to the table and having to deal with that all night long.
28:06 First and foremost, big Nimi revenge game energy have to have to take that into account.
28:13 Also big prove to me you can get stops game for the Celtics. You mentioned the Celtics,
28:18 the Kings being one of the top offensive teams in the league. Some of the Pacers Pacers.
28:23 First thing I thought about was all the free makes they gave them in the fourth quarter,
28:28 just consecutive basket after basket, after basket coming off a game like yesterday where
28:33 you lost because you couldn't get stops. This is a big private game to me. It is a great
28:37 bounce back spot for the Celtics. I don't know who's going to play. I just look to see
28:41 if the report was out. It's not, but I think it's, I mean, you know, Horford's out poor
28:46 guys tuckered out from shooting all the threes yesterday.
28:50 I do think having Porzingis yesterday would have impacted some of the things that went
28:55 wrong. His length would have been sick to have on the glass and his quick bounce could
29:00 have helped on that play where Curry was defended by Horford, but the offensive rebound went
29:06 to Kuminga and trace Jackson Davis and ultimately to Chris Paul. He's there. Maybe he's able
29:11 to tip the ball the other way. Who knows? But I'm excited to see him back. I love Porzingis.
29:16 I think he plays with good energy. I think the team is significantly better when he plays.
29:20 I think he is the main upgrade that they got this summer, despite holiday being all star
29:27 level player, a better version of Marcus smart to a lot of people. I think Porzingis gives
29:33 them a new dynamic that teams of years past haven't had. I mean, watching yesterday, it
29:39 felt like you were watching last year's team. That's what it felt like to me.
29:43 Yeah, sorry. I, sometimes I can't tell when you're done. I was just like, I know I pause
29:51 if I like feel my, my like, you love yourself a dramatic effect. You love, you love a dramatic
29:59 pause. He's got, I know I'm still not used to it three years later. Um, yeah, this Kings
30:06 team, Darren Fox is playing like a top 10 player in the league. Uh, he's amazing. I
30:11 think people are going to be really shocked at just how good Darren Fox is playing now.
30:15 Mad. Yeah, mad. But fast forward, you know, how many hours, seven hours from now when
30:19 he drops like five of 17 shooting, I look like a moron. Uh, but Darren Fox is aggressive.
30:25 He's great. He's shooting very well. I think he's shooting like 45% from deep, uh, as of
30:29 late. So he's, he's been cooking to watch the Simona's and offensive hub. Keegan Murray
30:33 just made 12 threes and three quarters. So get ready to get angry online when he does
30:36 that. Um, but this is big, big test for the Celtics defense, particularly like you said,
30:43 um, cause this is a good Kings team. This is, this is one of the top X teams in the
30:48 league. Like they're going to be a playoff team again. They're, they're very well coached.
30:51 They're very good on offense. Uh, Celtics need to come to play because regardless of
30:55 who's available to whether or not Tatum plays, we don't know. Uh, it's a big game, but did
30:59 we miss anything? Did we get it all? Any other thoughts?
31:01 Just a thought I had is we were talking about the defense is that going back to when Sabonis
31:06 was on the Pacers, the Celtics have struggled to contain him in the short roll. He's consistently
31:11 gotten that shot and knocked it down against Boston. And then also obviously that two man
31:17 partnership with Fox consistently gets the air and these open looks off the dribble coming
31:23 across the middle of the paint into this fadeaway style jumper. And so, yeah, we're all talking
31:28 about the defense and it needs to be much better against the pick and roll than it was
31:32 in the fourth quarter last night. Definitely for what it's worth, it's Celtics
31:37 have won four straight over the Kings two straight swept them last year with this iteration
31:43 of the team. But after the big, uh, Hey, they're good movement.
31:48 Yeah. Uh, big game for the Celtics. Big rest of the West coast trip. You're already own
31:53 one on the West coast. Got to flip the script now. Uh, Bobby, any final thoughts for get
31:58 out of here? Yeah, I think we covered it all in that. I've
32:00 talked enough. Awesome. Uh, make sure to check out Bobby's work on inside the Celtics, uh,
32:07 sports illustrated SI media group. Um, subscribe to have about themselves and all that same
32:11 take it out. Yes. Thank you very much for watching. Talk
32:15 and seize collabed with inside the Celtics. Part of SI media. Big thanks to Bobby for
32:21 hanging out with us. We always love chatting with them. You can follow them on Twitter
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33:23 These guys are ridiculous. These guys are ridiculous.
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