Max: Celtics Still Team to Beat in NBA | Cedric Maxwell Podcast
After two disappointing losses on the road, are Jayson Tatum & the Celtics struggles concerning for a team with championship aspirations? Cedric Maxwell and Josue Pavon discuss on the latest episode of The Cedric Maxwell Podcast!
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00:00 (upbeat music)
00:02 - Cedric Maxwell podcast is powered by Price Picks,
00:14 the exclusive daily fantasy partner
00:16 of the CLNS Media Network.
00:18 - All right, it's another episode
00:19 of the Cedric Maxwell podcast.
00:21 I'm Josue Pavone.
00:22 He is Cedric Maxwell out on the road.
00:25 And Max, I think I can smell that humidity, man.
00:27 You know when you just hop off a plane
00:29 and you obviously know, but that you just,
00:33 you can feel it as soon as you step off.
00:35 It's just something in the air,
00:36 whether you're outside or not.
00:38 And you're sending off those vibes for sure, man.
00:40 Max coming at us from Phoenix, Arizona,
00:42 from the desert with a Boston Southeast
00:44 continue their road trip that hasn't evolved
00:48 into any type of wins.
00:49 And we'll get into that of course,
00:51 especially the latest matchup against the Denver Nuggets.
00:54 Max, I need your take on what happened with Jason Tatum.
00:58 And then we'll talk about everything else.
00:59 But first and foremost, man,
01:00 Denver Nuggets, Boston Celtics,
01:02 the matchup that everyone was waiting
01:04 for a potential NBA final preview,
01:07 which I still think is in the cards
01:08 for both of these teams,
01:10 especially after seeing the way the Denver Nuggets
01:12 performed against the Celtics.
01:14 They beat Boston 115 to 109,
01:17 yoke-ish, ridiculous out there,
01:19 triple, double, Aaron Gordon putting in the muscle,
01:22 putting in the work, Jamal Murray.
01:23 But question remains, Max, what happened to Jason Tatum?
01:28 - Well, Tatum started out, he knocked down a couple of shots
01:30 and then after that, he just kind of faded.
01:34 It looked like Brown was the more aggressive guy
01:37 during that game.
01:38 Jalen Brown, 40 points plus,
01:40 and really just seemed to be 41.
01:43 You give me that Jalen Brown for the rest of the year,
01:46 I take that.
01:48 Emotional, mean, just had an attitude about him all day.
01:53 I almost got thrown out early in that basketball game.
01:57 Jalen gave him a technical,
01:59 and then after that, Tommy Brothers,
02:00 he did Tommy Brothers like this,
02:02 gave him the wave off,
02:05 and that's one thing you don't do with NBA refs.
02:09 It was a good game.
02:14 Celtics got back in it.
02:15 I was more impressed by the Celtic following.
02:19 Man, that place was rocking with Celtic fans.
02:23 And at the end, Jason Tatum had a chance
02:26 to put the Celtics ahead.
02:29 Great comeback, came back,
02:31 Tatum had a three-point shot with a foul.
02:35 The Celtics down by two.
02:37 Brown forced a turnover.
02:40 Tatum ended up with the ball in the corner by himself
02:42 and just missed the three.
02:44 But those things are gonna happen,
02:46 but again, it was a very competitive game.
02:50 Denver kind of controlled the flow of the game,
02:52 but then the Celtics got in
02:54 and did what they needed to do.
02:56 For all you guys right now listening to us,
02:58 we appreciate you being the listeners
03:01 and the viewers and all that stuff.
03:03 This is me right now acting like Ray Charles today.
03:06 'Cause I'm out here in the sun,
03:07 it's about 75 degrees right now here in the desert,
03:10 so I'm just trying to give you guys a taste of heaven.
03:13 Watch how this goes.
03:15 - Watch how this goes.
03:17 Oh, that's what this is?
03:18 Oh, it looks like a flex, but okay.
03:20 I really appreciate that.
03:22 It would be, this would be a flex from my balcony here.
03:27 - Man.
03:29 - I'm looking up on, we're in Scottsdale, Arizona actually,
03:34 and just a beautiful time.
03:36 But the Celtics had their opportunity,
03:39 had their opportunity to win the game.
03:41 Tatum didn't play great, but again,
03:44 he didn't play poorly, but you look for superstars
03:47 to step up in superstar moments.
03:50 - Right, and I guess, you know what, Max,
03:51 I guess I should have framed my question better
03:53 because I guess that's pretty much what I'm getting at
03:56 in the sense of people questioning this whole,
03:58 is he taught, when the top five Tatum shows up,
04:01 when he's not, he disappears sometimes in these big games.
04:04 You know, you talk about that quick start
04:06 that he got off in that first quarter,
04:07 and yeah, you hit that big three in the corner,
04:10 all's forgiven, right?
04:10 Everyone would say, oh, hey, Tatum didn't have it,
04:12 but he hit the big one.
04:13 He misses the shot in the corner,
04:15 but just, I just felt like it was that version of Tatum
04:18 where like things aren't going his way
04:20 and he gets a little pouty sometimes
04:21 and hey, to his credit though,
04:23 a year ago or two seasons ago,
04:25 he would, we see a three for 18 stat line.
04:29 We see, you know, he finishes with 15 points,
04:31 eight assists, four rebounds,
04:33 but it's those five turnovers that stand out most, right?
04:36 And I don't, like the way the Denver Nuggets defended him,
04:41 I saw it as, it wasn't just doubling him
04:43 and giving him that pressure,
04:44 but it was taking away what he likes to do
04:47 when he gets in those situations,
04:49 the first person he passes to.
04:50 Like it seemed like they just knew his tendencies,
04:52 but again, I mean, I guess my question overall is like,
04:57 do you expect Tatum to just flip that switch
05:00 or do you chalk it up to,
05:02 oh, he just didn't have it that night?
05:03 - I think it was that game,
05:05 that game in particular that rolled off of,
05:07 I think what really bothered people
05:09 is it rolled off the game he played in Cleveland
05:13 where he only had, I think, two points in the second half
05:17 after scoring 20 in the first half,
05:19 doing whatever they want to,
05:21 something to about 22 in that game
05:23 and they never, they stopped playing.
05:26 And I think that bothered a lot of people,
05:28 but it was gonna be a tough game playing in Denver.
05:32 Aaron Gordon played really well,
05:34 Bob St. James played well.
05:35 Didn't get a lot from White.
05:38 White was more of a facilitator in that game,
05:41 but Drew Holiday, who had those two big threes
05:46 to put him in the back, - Back to the back, yeah.
05:47 - to make it a one possession game.
05:49 So I liked the effort, I liked what happened.
05:53 The results at the end of the day
05:55 weren't what the Celtics wanted,
05:56 but now you have to turn the page
05:58 and get ready for a big game when you're playing here
06:01 and you don't want a three game losing streak
06:03 to turn into something else.
06:05 So you gotta put the fire out
06:06 while you're out here in the land of the desert,
06:08 so to say.
06:10 - What do you make of Celtics' late game execution?
06:12 Because unlike last season,
06:14 that humongous winning streak that went into double figures,
06:18 we didn't see the Celtics necessarily
06:21 go down to the wire with a lot of opponents, right?
06:23 They seem to put these guys away
06:24 before it gets to that point,
06:25 or a handful of times where they seem comfortable
06:29 closing it out, right?
06:31 Closing out quarters, what Joe Mizzou talked about,
06:33 by the fourth or midway through the fourth,
06:35 a lot of these games throughout that 11 game winning streak,
06:37 the game was essentially over.
06:39 Now you see the Celtics team tested
06:41 in these back to back games,
06:43 Tuesday night, Thursday night,
06:45 and yeah, Dean Wayne went on for 20 points
06:48 in that fourth quarter, five three-pointers,
06:50 you know, outscoring the Celtics in the fourth quarter alone.
06:53 That type of stuff isn't gonna happen all the time,
06:54 but what do you make about the Celtics' execute
06:57 when they're in those situations?
06:58 - You get back in that game the way you did.
07:00 You're down by nine or 10
07:02 with about less than two minutes to go,
07:04 and then you make it a one possession game.
07:06 So everything was good there.
07:08 Defensively, stuff,
07:09 Pozendis was really good again.
07:12 He did a lot of things.
07:13 But you're gonna have a problem though.
07:15 Still, everybody has the same problem with Yoki's,
07:18 and I was talking to Brad Stevens about it,
07:20 operation,
07:22 turns into a basketball operation for the Celtics,
07:24 and we were walking out to the plane,
07:26 we said, "That guy is good.
07:28 He is damn it good."
07:30 - He's a bad man.
07:32 - And I talked to him, I said,
07:33 "The thing that you don't do with Yoki's
07:36 is you can't,
07:37 what you try to do with most players
07:39 is speed them up,
07:41 get them out of their comfort zone.
07:43 He continues to be in his comfort zone.
07:46 He is that turtle that's gonna just slowly
07:49 get away against once again."
07:51 Biggest thing about this,
07:52 you wanna take this biggest takeaway,
07:53 I got you, biggest takeaway.
07:55 The Celtics have not played their A game yet
07:58 against these guys.
07:59 You're not seeing the A game from the Celtics.
08:02 So if the Celtics are at their A game,
08:05 I still believe that they're a better team.
08:08 - Are we gonna see these two teams face off in June?
08:10 I hope, man, I hope.
08:12 It could be classic NBA finals right there.
08:14 - I tell you what, it wouldn't be.
08:16 It wouldn't be no happiness for me going to Denver though,
08:18 because ain't a damn thing to do up in there.
08:21 I'm out here.
08:22 - Really?
08:22 Oh man, I heard it.
08:23 - I'm out here ready right now.
08:24 I'm out here ready right now.
08:26 They shit to do a fucking thing.
08:28 (laughing)
08:30 - Max said this is no way, man.
08:32 - This thing has no way.
08:34 I went to Capitol Grill,
08:36 met a nice woman there, the bartender,
08:39 served me some good food.
08:40 But other than that,
08:41 shaky.
08:43 - She ain't got nothing for you, huh?
08:45 - Then ain't nothing for your boy in Denver at all.
08:47 But it was about the game.
08:50 It's a good arena.
08:51 It's lively there.
08:53 The Celtics have done something,
08:56 and they were just showing the standings.
08:58 So I would just feel seven games ahead
09:00 of the closest team to them in the Eastern Conference.
09:03 But I did see,
09:05 I did like what Cleveland has done lately.
09:08 They beat Minnesota, and then they beat the Celtics.
09:11 So they did that without Donovan Mitchell.
09:13 - No fighter.
09:14 - Cleveland's that team I told you before,
09:16 I said that they can give themselves a problem
09:18 because of their length and their physicality.
09:22 I did not know that
09:24 D. Wade was going to be a problem.
09:30 I didn't think he was fucking D. Wade.
09:32 Dwayne Wade.
09:33 (laughing)
09:35 - Do it all.
09:37 Testing my skills on prize picks this season
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09:54 Pick more, pick less.
09:55 It's that easy.
09:57 - Sort of the formula of how to beat the Celtics, right?
10:05 You gotta give me fast paced.
10:06 You gotta score in transition.
10:08 You gotta make them pay off those missed shots,
10:10 especially the threes.
10:11 So this one over 80 from behind the yard
10:13 in that fourth quarter against the Cleveland Cavaliers.
10:15 And the Cavs made them pay for damn near
10:16 every one of those shots.
10:17 - I think the Celtics,
10:19 the Cavs played out their ass that day.
10:21 And the Celtics essentially--
10:24 - They were down by 20.
10:25 - Celtics essentially gave them the game.
10:27 They stopped playing.
10:28 - 22.
10:29 - And that was a problem,
10:31 just that they stopped playing in their game.
10:33 But I still don't believe,
10:36 I don't look at anybody in the East right now
10:38 being on the Celtics level
10:40 if the Celtics have their A game.
10:42 And you have to have your A game during the playoffs.
10:46 - Right, right, absolutely.
10:47 And they're experienced enough, man.
10:49 I think that's the key part in this.
10:51 When you look at it across the conference,
10:53 I just, even with these two losses,
10:56 I just don't see a team out there in the East
10:57 in the best of seven series
10:59 that can beat the Celtics team.
11:00 You know, like you said,
11:01 this isn't the best version of them
11:02 that we've seen the last couple of games.
11:04 But you know that in the best of seven,
11:06 they're not gonna do that, you know,
11:08 two, three times, four times in a series.
11:10 - Seven games, seven games in a series.
11:12 - Right, right.
11:13 The last Celtics win,
11:14 and I know this was about a week ago,
11:16 it might even feel longer than that,
11:17 but we haven't spoken since this whooping
11:21 that we saw on TV Garden on Sunday morning, man.
11:23 Sunday matinee.
11:25 The Golden State Warriors,
11:26 I have never seen an NBA game like that,
11:30 especially in the first half
11:31 where a team just dominates the other, you know, like.
11:35 - Whoa, whoa, whoa, wait a minute.
11:36 - Have you seen something like that, Max?
11:38 - Wait a minute, Josue.
11:39 Didn't you see that same game
11:42 when Milwaukee dominated the Celtics?
11:45 - This was different.
11:46 - Didn't you see that?
11:47 - That was, yeah, I did see that.
11:49 - Didn't you see that same game in Milwaukee?
11:51 'Cause this was a scheduling game.
11:54 It was tougher than, you know,
11:55 last game of East Coast.
11:57 Now the Celtics obviously played with their A game,
12:00 and that was a difference.
12:02 But Milwaukee was one of those games
12:05 where Milwaukee beat the Celtics,
12:06 had them down by 35 or whatever,
12:08 and Joe Mazzullo didn't quit.
12:11 The starters-- - He had the white flag.
12:12 - Yeah, and in the third quarter,
12:14 no, Kendrick Perkins had a problem with that.
12:17 He was like, "Boy, I can't believe
12:18 "that you would do this."
12:19 Well, didn't Steve Kerr do the same thing?
12:22 I mean, there was no-- - Yep.
12:23 - He did not play, he didn't.
12:25 And coaches, this is--
12:27 - I was gonna say, Max, Steve Kerr told us
12:28 he made that decision mentally
12:30 around the beginning of the second quarter
12:31 and in the first quarter.
12:32 - Yeah, coaches know a lot more than analysts, Dave Perk,
12:37 than knowing what their teams can do
12:42 and what their teams need.
12:44 As an analyst, we're always gonna look at it
12:46 and try to be a little bit more critical
12:49 about the coaching that we knew
12:51 it seemed didn't happen that day in Milwaukee.
12:54 It was an old-time game, you beat Minnesota,
12:56 and then you came there, it was this early game, snow.
13:01 It was just an ugly time,
13:03 but coaches know essentially what they wanna do.
13:06 But that beat down that they put on Golden State,
13:08 seemed like it might've helped Golden State
13:10 because Golden State came out,
13:11 won a couple games after that.
13:13 - Man, they beat the Brinks off the Bucs.
13:16 Not like the Celtics did to them, but it was, yeah.
13:19 - And the Bucs just lost it again to the Lakers.
13:23 - Lakers, yeah.
13:25 So, the Lakers are trying to make some noise
13:27 and the Fakers are trying to make some noise,
13:29 but there are some teams out there
13:32 that need to be in the Western Conference right now.
13:34 They'll make some noise, but first things first,
13:36 Celtics have to win this game here.
13:38 I don't think Devin Booker is gonna be playing tonight,
13:41 but if he's not playing, the Celtics have to make Lorraine pay
13:46 and you have to make him pay on the defensive end.
13:49 He's long, he's athletic, but if you're gonna get to them,
13:53 you got to get to them on the defensive end,
13:55 making them use some of that energy and stuff
13:57 just to become their shooting boxers.
13:59 It was around as good as anybody, they gave it a shot at.
14:02 - Right, 100%.
14:04 And as for the Lakers, man,
14:06 they just got that win at the end, man.
14:09 It was really, really close.
14:10 No LeBron James.
14:11 LeBron was looking like you with the shades on, indoors.
14:15 - Let me take my shades off real quick so you can look.
14:17 At least you know it's me, but now I got it.
14:20 I'm out here in the sun, so I got to pull it back on, okay?
14:22 - Yeah, yeah, no, that's--
14:23 - Thank you, Al-Maj.
14:25 - That's how you're supposed to use them, man.
14:26 - Thank you, Al-Maj.
14:27 - I've never been a fan of the whole shades indoors, man.
14:29 Did you used to do that back in your day?
14:31 - I'm not at all.
14:33 I mean, I don't know when they got that look,
14:35 but I'm not the same way with men wearing hats
14:38 in the building either.
14:40 I'm not a big fan of, you know, when you come into,
14:43 I'm from the South, when you come into a building,
14:45 baseball cap, whatever hat you have on
14:50 should not be on your head.
14:52 If you come in, it's a real gentleman.
14:53 So, yeah, but the shade look outside in the sun like this--
14:58 - It's a must.
15:00 - Let me get that look off real quick.
15:02 - Yes.
15:04 - And get that look off the day before.
15:06 - That's the vibes right there.
15:08 - The sun, and this is just,
15:10 I'm glistening a little bit right now
15:12 because I'm out here in the sun,
15:15 and it's supposed to be like 70,
15:18 maybe 72, 73 degrees today, maybe a little bit more.
15:22 So I'm headed across this way,
15:25 let me get my finger across this way,
15:28 I'm gonna get to the pool that I'm gonna talk to you on.
15:31 Slowed out today with a mango,
15:35 strawberry mango pina colada.
15:38 - Ooh, damn.
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16:15 - Let's get you out on this, man.
16:17 NBA player of the month,
16:19 Eastern Conference player of the month, Jason Tatum,
16:21 Western Conference went to Luka Doncic,
16:23 but the player of the week last week was Jalen Brown.
16:27 Talk about this stretch of basketball
16:29 we're seeing from Tatum since the All-Star break, man.
16:30 It just seems like he has dialed in
16:33 and on another level right now.
16:35 - I hope it, and I hope this aggression
16:37 goes off to Tatum the same way.
16:41 I'm just being a little bit more aggressive,
16:44 you know, his attitude towards different players.
16:47 You know, Brown is getting back to 80s basketball,
16:51 where it's like he ain't got no friends.
16:53 And I'm all get it ready again.
16:56 I love this shit.
16:57 I love it, love it, love it.
16:59 This shit is unreal when you think about playing
17:02 with that kind of aggression,
17:04 especially during our time now,
17:06 that the 20s, 2020s, 24, you know,
17:10 players are normally a lot more friendly.
17:13 He's starting to take this thing to heart.
17:14 And if you're gonna win the championship,
17:16 you can't be afraid to step on some damn toes.
17:20 You know, you gotta be like Papa Josue, you know,
17:24 when he used to tell you what to do.
17:27 He wasn't trying to make no damn friends.
17:29 That first thing your mom and dad used to tell you
17:31 back in the day, and something happened,
17:33 you're like, "Yeah, I'll tell you,
17:35 I'm not your damn friend, okay?
17:37 I don't know how to talk to you."
17:38 (laughing)
17:39 - Who do you think you're talking to like that?
17:40 - I'm your parent, okay?
17:42 I'm your parent, okay?
17:43 This way, I'm your parent.
17:45 So, you know, get off all that.
17:46 And that's what I love about, you know,
17:48 Brown here in this last week or so, you know,
17:52 just aggression.
17:54 And that's gonna suit the Celtics that much better.
17:58 - Right, right.
18:00 Yeah, man, one time I dropped the guys
18:01 or something like that.
18:02 I was like, "Yo, you guys just leave me alone."
18:04 She's like, "Guys?
18:05 Guys, you talking about your mother and father?"
18:08 I was like, "All right, you're right, you're right."
18:11 Slipped up, 12-year-old Josue in his feelings,
18:14 you know, going through puberty.
18:16 He said, "Guys, would you guys just leave me?"
18:19 I said something like that, like,
18:20 "You guys just leave me alone,"
18:21 or something like that.
18:22 They were like, "Guys?"
18:23 They looked at each other like, almost like laughing.
18:25 Like, "Who are you talking to right now?"
18:26 (laughing)
18:28 - We appreciate you guys obviously listening,
18:31 watching, subscribe, share the episodes, man.
18:34 We appreciate your support and all the positive feedback.
18:37 That's gonna do it for this episode
18:39 of the Subject Maxwell podcast.
18:40 We'll see you guys next week.
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