Jared Weiss covers the Boston Celtics and the NBA for The Athletic. Jared joins the show to discuss the C's dissent into the playoffs, KP's recent play, and Tatum being the American face of the league. Twitter: @JaredWeissNBA
3:24 Celtics clinch NBA’s best record
8:20 Porzingis first full-season is as good as you could hope
15:17 Who should Boston play down the stretch
21:00 Does the NBA want Tatum to win the title?
Available for download on iTunes and Spotify on Thursday, April 4th, 2024. Celtics Beat is powered by PrizePicks, the official daily fantasy sponsor of CLNS Media. Download the app today and use the promo code CLNS for a first-deposit match up to $100!
3:24 Celtics clinch NBA’s best record
8:20 Porzingis first full-season is as good as you could hope
15:17 Who should Boston play down the stretch
21:00 Does the NBA want Tatum to win the title?
Available for download on iTunes and Spotify on Thursday, April 4th, 2024. Celtics Beat is powered by PrizePicks, the official daily fantasy sponsor of CLNS Media. Download the app today and use the promo code CLNS for a first-deposit match up to $100!
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00:00 I live an hour outside of Albany, so I could have gone to see Kaelin Clark, but it was like $500
00:05 get in price for the first couple of games. And then the LSU. $500? Yeah, the LSU game was out.
00:12 The get in price was outrageous, just going to tell you. My dad and I were like, you know,
00:18 Kaelin Clark's like only an hour, we should definitely go. And we're like, uh, all right,
00:22 well, maybe not. Those are a little, those are a little steep. That's an unfortunate, but good
00:26 sign that women's college basketball is doing pretty well. If they're playing in Albany and
00:29 they're still selling tickets for that insane of a price. So Celtics is powered by prize.
00:34 The exclusive daily fantasy partner of the CLNS media network.
00:38 What's up everyone. Welcome to a new edition of Celtics beat the regular season. It is winding
00:45 down. We have only a half dozen games remaining before the playoffs begin. My goodness. Thank God,
00:52 thank God. I don't want to say we're running out of things to talk about with this team because
00:55 there are things to talk about, but you know, I think you can make the case that running out of
01:00 important things to talk about, you know, it all becomes much more relevant, much more magnified.
01:05 Obviously when we get to the post season, Celtics are riding a three game winning streak all by
01:11 double figures. Most recently, the absolute curb stomping of the OKC thunder and the,
01:17 the hometown kid, Mark Dagnall on the other side. And I granted OKC incredibly short, no SGA,
01:24 no J dub Celtics at full strength for what feels like a rarity these days. They've been load
01:30 managing guys left and right, but everyone of note out there in Boston obviously responded
01:35 a commanding win. So let's talk a little bit about that. What's been going on. What is to
01:40 come going forward. Jared Weiss here from the athletic, of course, Evan Valenti is here. I am
01:44 Adam Kaufman. Welcome in boys. Good to see you, Jared. What's going on. Just enjoying another
01:50 Celtics game where it's like a two possession game. And then I look up and all of a sudden
01:54 they're up by three. I don't know how that happens. It is wild too. Cause you know,
01:59 like from a betting perspective, I, so I looked at it the night before I see the line at Celtics by
02:05 eight and going, I don't know. I mean, I think SGA J dub, I think these guys are going to be back.
02:10 I know it's the second end of the back to back, but they didn't play the night before. It's a
02:14 bigger game. It's, you know, more notoriety playing in Boston seemed like they could have
02:19 gone that night before, but didn't precautionary. I think they're going to play. I'm going to stay
02:24 away from that line. Those guys get ruled out midday. I pounced on Boston nine and a half
02:30 and, you know, grew to, I don't know, 11, 11 and a half by the time the game actually tipped off
02:36 and going back through that game, Boston was largely in front throughout. And then to your
02:41 point, you know, it's, it's a, it's a mostly a, a single digit game for a while. And then like
02:47 mid third quarter, you sort of just, you know, blink, snap your fingers, whatever. And Boston
02:53 finishes the game on what a 40 to 12 run or whatever it was. And, and just won that thing
02:58 going away. We've been having a lot of talk on, on this, a lot of conversation on this show of
03:04 late Jared last couple of weeks about closing out games. Now it doesn't really apply to last night.
03:10 This isn't one of those, you know, crunch time minutes, five point game or less in the final
03:15 five minutes, Boston again, blue doors to end this game. But when you see them a little bit
03:22 earlier on, obviously respond in that way, you know, put a stranglehold on the thing.
03:27 Don't let up. Don't take your foot off the gas. Just close this game. Does it give you
03:31 any more confidence in their ability to win some of those close ones down the stretch that have
03:36 maybe caused fans a little bit of uncertainty of late?
03:40 No, because we're game 75, six into the season. They've been doing this for
03:47 six months now, five months, whatever it is, they've been doing it long enough. This was not
03:54 nothing new. Also just no, no real challengers from OKC, like the two offensive stars, that team.
04:01 So I wouldn't take anything from this game, but I would just say that there's not, you don't need
04:06 to poke holes at this point. I think their body of work is pretty solidified. This point of the
04:11 season, just like not really reflective of how things are going to be. I think I think that
04:16 Atlanta series probably made it pretty clear. Like they're fine. They're good. You know,
04:23 the questions with them are just more about how does a team fare over the course of a series
04:28 against them when they get a feel for how the Celtics play and does the Celtic style, does it
04:33 lose, does it lose its edge when they're not just getting a team that's like just coming from
04:37 playing another team and they're getting used to them? You know, I think it's going to, it's
04:41 probably going to flatten that gap, like that massive statistical gap that they have over the
04:46 rest of the league. But I don't think it's going to really change much. I think they're the best
04:50 team and they're going to have, they're going to have control against pretty much any team they
04:54 play besides Denver. And if they have, you know, it's not just, oh, they're the best team. Like
04:59 we feel like they're the best team, that the deepest, the most talented, when healthy, all
05:02 this stuff, they have literally clinched the best record in the NBA. So no matter what happens going
05:08 forward, they have that. They, we were talking with Greeny barstool, Greeny, Dan Greenberg,
05:12 when he was on with us a few weeks back about that whole 60, 20 thing. Well, they are now 60
05:17 and 16. So they've hit the 60 wins before 20 losses. Who knows, maybe won't even get to 20
05:22 losses. How nice would that be? But also I heard this on the broadcast last night, and I don't
05:26 remember exactly the number, but I, it was something to Jared. You'd probably know it was
05:30 something to the effect though of Boston now has the most 25 plus point wins in a single season in
05:37 NBA history. I think it is. So it's just all of these blowouts, like you said, they've, they've,
05:42 this is not new. They've been doing a lot of this ebb. So, you know, you, you tell me, I mean,
05:47 does it alter your thinking about this team at all? Or do you look at it and say, all right,
05:53 you know, shorthanded thunder team on the other side. Yeah. They've done this to a bunch of teams.
05:57 None of this really matters until we see what they can do against what we deem inferior
06:02 competition in the post season. Well, I'll tell you the fact that they only have three losses at
06:07 home is a big deal for me. You know, this is a team that really stunk at home, the playoffs last
06:11 year to an annoying point, right? I mean, Philadelphia, that was just not fun to watch
06:17 in your home floor. Miami comes in, does the same thing. And it's like, all right, well,
06:21 this is supposed to be easier to hope not harder. The Southerns are literally making this harder
06:25 on themselves in order to try and get back to the NBA finals as we all know, came a little bit short,
06:30 but I do like the fact that they've held court at home with the exception of three games.
06:33 And they haven't really been tough. There was the LA Lakers loss, which is annoying because LeBron
06:39 and 80, we're not in that game. There's the nuggets game that obviously the two point loss,
06:46 and you could point to literally any time in that game where, you know, I forget was who was
06:51 shooting free throws, but I had three offensive rebounds in that possession towards the end of
06:54 the game and just had three wide open threes. None of them went in. That was annoying. And then I'm
06:58 forgetting the last loss. I forget, but it's just one of these things where is a team that took home
07:03 court seriously. And we'll see if that plays into the playoffs. You know, we talked about developing
07:09 good habits, but that's something that I've been, I've been looking for the at-home dominance. And
07:14 if they're going to have home court throughout the entire playoffs, it's good to have home court in
07:18 a place where he didn't lose really this season. So, you know, yeah, we can, the last couple of
07:24 weeks have been kind of tough just because you knew where Boston was. You knew that they could
07:28 kind of like take their foot off the gas a little bit towards the end of the year and coast into the
07:31 playoffs, which is what you want. You want guys to be healthy, but at the end of the day, you're
07:35 looking for good habits. They might've, and we'll get to this, I think in a little bit here with
07:38 Jared, but they might've found something here with the poor Zingas at the end of games. He's
07:42 talked a little bit about ramping up. He did this last night post game about ramping up, you know,
07:48 making sure that his body is ready for, for the post season. And I'm sure everybody else is holding
07:52 themselves. It's the same, you know, standard as KP is all the stuff that you're, that you want to
07:58 hear after games, people are saying, and you know, it's just been sort of coughing like a six month
08:03 dance here. Okay. It's just, everybody is who cares about the regular season. Nobody really
08:09 cares. Some of the playoffs are almost there. Folks were almost there. This is the toughest
08:13 stretch. I think personally, it's just like the, all right, we can get this over with now we're
08:17 finally here. Well, while in the meantime, there are certain little things we can poke at, but
08:22 you know, last night's game, as Jared said, I'm not taking really anything away from that. Oh,
08:25 and the fact that KP looks fantastic. That was about it. Well, I have to take us there getting
08:30 the KP. Well, all right. So the end of game struggles are one thing. And I'm sure we'll talk
08:36 about that. But the one thing I'll say, Jared, and I've had this conversation with a couple of
08:40 people already just throughout the day, the past couple of days, is this basically what you were
08:45 expecting from Chris taps, poor Zingas when the trade was made this entire season, or is he been
08:52 better or worse than you think? Because I'm, I'm looking at the entire body work of Porzingis and
08:56 what I thought you would be when he first came into Boston. And I got to tell you, he hit every
09:03 check Mark I was looking for. And then above that he's been as good as you could possibly imagine.
09:09 I had little, not like not nightmares, but little memories in my head of watching Marcus smart,
09:15 kind of like have his way with Chris apps, forcing us a little bit as forcing us to catch it like at
09:20 the nail or at the elbow. Marcus knew how to get into his body enough to bother that shot. That
09:26 seems doesn't seem to bother him anymore. The passing has been tremendous. The shooting has
09:29 been great. The spacing, the defense at the rim. I mean, he's been as advertised, if not more so,
09:36 in my opinion, how about yours? I would say he's like 85th percentile of what he possibly could
09:44 have been as far as so like the main reason they got him was the pick and roll game and working him
09:52 out of the high posts. And I think he's been pretty close to as good as you could have hoped
09:57 for as far as just his dynamic and two man actions offensively and his ability to stretch the floor
10:03 and all that. That's been pretty much as they could have hoped on offense. I think the only
10:08 thing that's been a little bit lacking is they don't use them in the hard role as much as I
10:13 would have expected. They don't get to that like deep post entries, the lobs quite as much as I
10:18 thought that they could have. And I'm not even sure why, because they they do do it pretty well,
10:24 just not as much as I expected. They don't get him to the low block as much as I thought they
10:29 could. They don't have they don't they don't very often have second units where the whole offense
10:34 is just enter it to him on the low block. They do it a decent amount. A lot of it's more in the kind
10:40 of mid to high post area and not as much way down there where he really commands a double.
10:45 And then I think just the other thing is they don't they don't do that to make him a passer.
10:51 They don't run a ton of like, you know, rub actions where they'll have a cutter come like
10:56 right up against where he's posting up and then it draws a double and then he can drop off stuff
11:01 like that. They do it every once in a while, like they don't do a ton of high low with him where
11:06 they get him the ball in the post and then somebody flashes underneath the rim. These are
11:10 all things that you've seen them do, and they certainly do it a decent amount. I just thought
11:14 that they would do it more than we've seen. And I don't know if that's just because there's several
11:20 other great players that they run the offense through or what exactly that is. But I thought
11:24 he would be I thought they would use the full range of his ability, especially especially his
11:29 post passing ability more. And it seems like a lot of the time when he passes out of the post,
11:35 it's really kind of just he's in the mid post, you know, kind of just outside of the paint,
11:40 a little bit higher up towards the free throw line, a team doubles, and he just kind of makes
11:44 the easy pass to the three point line and they swing it around. Not as many backdoor cutters
11:49 and kind of stuff like that. Not as many complicated actions as I could have imagined
11:54 that they would do, or at least I envision them doing before the season started. And I think
11:58 probably part of that is also that their offense is a little bit more simplified, like their offense
12:03 a lot of the time can be just find a mismatch, post up that mismatch, everybody spaces around it.
12:10 And that overall free flowing nature, I think, has allowed them to kind of overall have the
12:15 kind of offense they want, but then sometimes limits them a little bit and how creative they
12:20 can get. And so generally, there hasn't been an issue, maybe it'll be a bit more of an issue in
12:25 the postseason. But offensively, he's been like, as far as utilization and range of possibilities
12:32 for creativity, it's been like an A-. His actual performance has been like a 94 out of 100. Like,
12:39 it's been really, really good. It's about as good as you could have hoped for without like fully
12:43 maximizing potential. And then just on defense, his execution, a lot of the drop stuff and ice
12:50 stuff that they do is good, but it's not like incredible. It's very, it's shouldn't say good,
12:54 it's very, very good. Like he's just sometimes the angles he takes are a little blah. He gives
13:01 guys a little more space than I think he should. And then they're able to shoot over him, stuff
13:04 like that. And then they haven't used them as a switcher as much as they could, but they've kind
13:09 of started to roll that out more. And we'll see how much they use on the playoffs. But frankly,
13:14 like you mentioned him talking about ramping up that was I was asking him a question in on
13:18 Wednesday night about how his reputation has been amazing lately. And I was I asked him and I asked
13:25 Joe like, is that just that he's been parking more near the rim lately? So he's getting a ton
13:30 of stops or is it getting better? And especially KP was basically like, I'm kind of just like,
13:35 I'm ramping up now. Like I'm playing harder and it's going to look even better. So it'll be really
13:41 interesting to see in the post season, how much his intensity level on defense takes a, like a jump.
13:45 What do you imagine these last half dozen games look like? And just to give people an idea,
13:52 there are five at home of the six, the one road game in Milwaukee, who knows if stars even play
13:57 in that one, as much as you'd like to think it's going to be Tatum Brown against, you know,
14:01 Janice and Dame, who knows. And I mean, it's just that, that box thing. It's a whole other thing,
14:07 especially with the comments made by talk rivers last night, throwing, you know, everybody under
14:11 the boss. I mean, that man just it's, it's unthinkable. The even criticizing the travel
14:17 crew and people not taking road game seriously. It's he, he does no wrong doc, but you have
14:23 Sacramento, Portland, New York, Charlotte, Washington, mostly bad teams down this stretch
14:30 year of the regular season that are going to be at the garden. And so, you know, what percentage
14:34 of these six games do you think we see everybody out there versus a rotation of guys that are
14:40 sitting out? Maybe even that regular season finale is a full-on, you know, red claws call up
14:47 situation and, or I guess main Celtics now no longer the red claws. And yeah, along with the
14:56 Sears tower, it is still Staples center. Exactly. Or, you know, the experimentation on the floor
15:02 in terms of rotations, in terms of, you know, just the way that like we've seen Missoula play
15:09 with Porzingis a little bit of late in terms of how he uses him defensively and on what caliber
15:14 of player and size of player that he goes against, you know, things that, oh, you know, we haven't
15:19 done as much of this in the regular season. We may see more of it in the playoffs. We're going
15:23 to work on this. How much of working on things do you think is going to happen in these next
15:27 couple of weeks? Yeah, these games should not be real. It should be all BS. It should be like,
15:33 they should be resting the vast majority of their starters. And most of these games,
15:37 Oh, shape or set should be taking the ball up the floor. Steve McIlegg should be playing the five,
15:42 like they should be, they should be messing around. I would say, don't, don't play Jordan
15:46 Walsh because the main like has a real chance to win. And frankly, I think it's better for Jordan
15:52 Walsh if he just wins with main and tries to get, and tries to get the G league championship and
15:56 give them that level of experience. Like that's where he should be playing. I think JD Davidson's
16:01 ankle injury. I can't remember if he's playing or not, but I'd imagine he's probably just going
16:04 to sit out and stay with the team. So it's like, give the main guys their championship and just
16:09 build, you know, focus on them contending there and staying with that team. You don't need to
16:13 develop them in these last few games. So they should be starting the end of bench guys. They
16:18 should be giving Peyton Pritchard significant responsibility. They should be having Sam
16:22 Hauser running some pick and roll and like doing a lot of playmaking off the catch. They should be
16:27 playing Xavier Tillman and Luke Cornette a lot in like figuring out who's going to be getting those
16:31 first round matchups. Cause they're probably going to need one of those guys a little bit
16:34 in the first round. If they, especially like what if they end up with Philly or something like that,
16:38 you're going to really need Xavier Tillman for that series. So I would ramp those guys up,
16:42 give your main guys some rest. I mean, for God's sakes, Sheila Brown needs to stop playing a lot
16:46 of minutes. You need to, I mean, you gotta like the main guys aren't going to just sit out the
16:51 rest of the time. Like they need to stay. They need to stay in rhythm. You got to play them a
16:55 little bit. Honestly, if I'm Joe, I'm bringing JT and JB off the bench and I'm just messing around
17:01 just to do weird stuff and experiment and all that. But you look at who they have left. It's
17:05 like, all right, Sacramento is playing for something. They're trying to get out of the play
17:08 in Milwaukee. They've got a slight lead on the East. What do they have? Like two games or something
17:14 like that on Cleveland's a game and a half on Cleveland. What's really interesting is New York.
17:21 They have one more game left against New York. New York is kind of fighting for home court in that
17:25 first round series. And with Julius Randall out for the year now and OG and Anobi, who knows if
17:30 he's going to be back with New York, sadly is in a really tough spot, which is such a shame.
17:33 Because frankly, they were the second best team in the East this year when they were fully healthy.
17:37 And that second round series against New York would be amazing. Also, I just don't feel like
17:43 going to Orlando. I'd rather go to New York in the second round, assuming it plays out.
17:46 But so most of these games are going to be against teams that are tanking. I mean,
17:52 Charlotte just announced that Clifford is stepping down. It's like, I don't think they're
17:56 trying to win games at this point, necessarily. I think they're just trying to fool around.
18:00 Although I guess if I'm Steve Clifford, I'm probably trying to get whatever win I can
18:03 before I may be enforced into retirement. So these games, it's just a lot of tanking teams
18:08 and teams that are just kind of like you have no idea what they're going to do. But I assume the
18:14 Bucs are going to play their guys in that one to solidify the two seed and get home court advantage
18:19 in the second round. Didn't they play their guys at the end of the season two years ago or last
18:24 year? I forget when that was exactly. Remember that being a little bit of tension? There was
18:28 the ducking the nets, particular portion of the season two years ago that got a little nuts.
18:36 And it was like, you know, I don't know why you're, you know, everybody made a big deal out
18:40 of it in Boston, something for games, although all of them were close. So let's just throw that
18:44 out there. It wasn't like that was a tough sweep. Yeah, they didn't kill him, but it was a sweep.
18:49 So didn't really end up mattering. So, yeah, I mean, you know, it doesn't for me, if you're
18:56 looking at it from a subject standpoint, Jared, it's like, you know, who cares what the Bucs do,
19:00 because they're probably going to get I'm not a big Cleveland guy. I don't know where you're at
19:04 on that. I like some of their parts. I don't love the way the team functions in total. And I do feel
19:10 with you about the Knicks, but it's just like one of these things where, you know, can we stop
19:15 Jalen Brown from hurting his hand before we get into the postseason here? Because this is two
19:18 years in a row of this, and I'm just getting kind of sick of it, to be honest with you.
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20:16 - I was gonna say, I mean, as far as the Cavs go, they barely been healthy for a couple months.
20:24 So it's hard to even really judge who they are and what they're going to be.
20:27 The Brown thing for sure. I mean, it just, and this is just universal as far as Boston goes and
20:33 any fan of their team would say the same thing. Let's just enter the playoffs healthy, see where
20:39 things go from there. I know it's more physical. I know guys, you know, play harder if you will,
20:44 have a tendency to get more banged up, but just stay healthy, stay available. And we know what
20:49 this team is capable of. And to that end, Jared, this is something Evan and I were talking about
20:54 a little while ago. So I, you know, just scrolling social media, be it, you know, Twitter, Instagram,
21:00 whatever, I have come across now multiple new Jason Tatum commercials that I had not seen.
21:08 There was the watch commercial that, you know, that one, I think it's a couple of weeks old.
21:13 And then I just saw for the first time, a new jump man commercial, obviously for his sneakers,
21:18 we know he's done, you know, Subway and various like Doritos or chips or whatever else among
21:23 other things. I mean, he has to be, I don't, I didn't look this up. So I can't say this as a
21:28 certainty, but it feels like, and I've mentioned this earlier, it feels like he is as far as
21:34 American born NBA players, the guy who is in the most advertisements right now, he is the face as
21:42 far as the NBA goes. Do you believe that, you know, I, I know the NBA doesn't quote fingers,
21:47 like root for any specific team to win a championship, but how much would the league
21:52 do you think like to see Boston a marquee franchise that hasn't won a while, obviously,
21:57 but with Tatum who is, you know, perennially now in the MVP conversation, he's not going to win,
22:02 he shouldn't win, but he's a guy that gets that attention. He's, you know, he'll, the talking
22:07 heads will, we'll discuss him and his candidacy and all of that for years to come as they have
22:12 been for a couple of years already. He's a first team, all NBA guy each and every year. And now
22:18 he's getting the gigantic contract record setting this coming off season. How much would the league
22:24 like Tatum and the Celtics to win a championship? Sure. David Stern is pulling some strings right
22:31 now from the creative, they get up. Can they get a solid Lakers final? I'm sure they're still
22:36 rooting for it. Yeah. I mean, sure. Of course they want, I'm sure the league office would love
22:43 for Tatum to be the one that comes out just because it gives them the real national star
22:48 turn and gives them more of an international star turn as well. He is now like a key sneaker face.
22:53 He like the last year or so is his branding is really kind of taken off where he's got multiple
22:59 endorsement deals. He's basically the face, the face of Jordan brand right now. And he's in one
23:06 of the biggest markets and he's a package deal, right? Like he comes with deuce and deuce deuce
23:12 as of juice. He really does. Like people love deuce at least on the internet. I think he actually
23:17 is a real draw for sure. And he's going to be in Jordan commercials. I assume at one point,
23:21 if he hasn't already, I can't even remember. But yeah, I mean, JT is definitely becoming like a top
23:27 five face in the league right now is as like the older faces start to kind of slowly phase out.
23:33 So sure, of course they would want that. People bring up the American thing. I think Tatum probably
23:40 has more juice in America than like a Luca then certainly then like Yoko and Embiid who just
23:48 aren't really aren't really marketed at a prime level. Giannis is like someone who I think people
23:55 tend to leave out of the conversation. I feel like Giannis is still one of the biggest faces of the
24:00 sport. And he, you know, unlike JT, Giannis really, really shines in the branding spotlight.
24:06 Like he's got a huge smile on his face. He brings a ton of charisma and energy. And he I think he's
24:12 been kind of the ideal guy to be the face of the league because he really loves being in front of
24:17 people and being in front of the cameras while JT is very introverted. And it's like, you know, I
24:22 mean, he's, he's certainly grown and improved, but he's a very introverted person. And so that's
24:27 where the quandary I think comes to the league is like, do you want your main American star at this
24:34 point so far? Cause like, obviously, yeah, we're just coming for that. And Andrew Edwards is one
24:38 of the most charismatic players I've seen in my time in the league as is Giannis. Yeah. But and
24:46 has so much MJ to him, right? Like his game looks exactly like MJ's his swagger is similar to MJ's
24:51 even kind of looks a little bit like MJ. Like he has that MJ it factor. And that's why I think if
24:56 he ever like wins at a high level, he'll probably be that guy. But also his shoe is incredible.
25:02 Although I've actually warmed up the JT shoes, actually like his shoes, but ants that first
25:06 shoe was just amazing. Adidas knocked it out of the park. But so I think with JT, it's like, yes,
25:10 they want, they, they're obviously the league would like to have at least like one American
25:14 player who is competing at like that, that has the championships is at that top, top level.
25:20 Just because it's like easier to market him to middle America, probably. And, but I, but the
25:29 point I'm making is I think it's overblown the whole American thing. It's like Giannis is Giannis
25:34 is from Greece, but he is as charismatic and enjoyable as relatable of an athlete as possible.
25:40 And I think it's just kind of showing maybe the rest of the country, like we're all from the
25:44 Massachusetts area, right? So we're kind of used to diversity and we're used to global diversity
25:49 and all that kind of stuff. So I think that's something that we come to expect while I think
25:52 marketing to like middle America and like other parts of the country, it's, you know, it's maybe
25:57 a little bit harder of a sell. So I think at the end of the day, it's like the MBA is in great
26:03 hands right now with with Giannis and with Ant coming in. But when you have, it's really about
26:10 just the person's personality and it's like JT, Luca, Jokic, these guys are real introverts and
26:17 they don't sell like they don't try to be a part of selling the, you know, with their personality
26:23 and like being engaging and fun in the way that guys like Ant and Giannis and MB do. And so,
26:29 yeah, I forget where I was going with all this because we're kind of lost in it, but
26:34 Boston, big star, that's a plus. That's a win for the MBA for sure.
26:39 Yeah. I mean, ratings wise, you're seeing what
26:45 important stars in primetime do with Kalen Clark and Iowa. I mean, like, what was it? 12.3 million
26:51 people watched that game. And it was, again, you know, what a lot of people Ryan Russollo,
26:56 and then you're not into it. I was that's what I what is I replied to a friend of mine who tweeted
27:01 that what what was he talking about there? Like Ryan Russollo saying that he turned the game off.
27:05 It's like that. Listen, okay, if you're one of those people, it's like, I don't want to watch
27:09 women's athletes and like whatever, I guess can't really be sold on it. I thought that game was
27:13 amazing. It's awesome. Yeah, it's like, if you can get over the fact that they're not dunking,
27:19 and just like a pre, like, I mean, I'm an X and O's person. So I so it's like the women's game,
27:24 honestly, from an X and O standpoint is more interesting a lot of the time now because of
27:28 how simplified the NBA NBA game has become. And the whole time I'm watching that first half with
27:34 LSU in Iowa, I'm screaming at the TVs. I'm like, why are you in drop coverage on Caitlin Clark?
27:39 So it's like, for me, it was a fascinating X's and O's experience. So I love that game. I didn't
27:44 know like the end of the game slogged on but the whole time I'm like, I can't believe LSU was
27:47 continuing to fight and stay in this. So I loved it. It was that was one of my favorite games of
27:52 basketball I've watched like all year. That wasn't like a down to the wire kind of game. And for me,
27:57 it's someone who doesn't watch a lot of women's basketball just because like, I don't really watch
28:02 much basketball outside of the NBA. That's like, that takes up most of my time. I don't I don't
28:06 even know. I honestly don't even know who's in the final four at this point. Like as far as players
28:10 are concerned, Caitlin Clark and Angel Reese are probably the only two athletes I think I know that
28:14 are currently that are I guess Angel got eliminated. But like that game had star power and it had
28:20 interesting strategic elements to it. And Kim Mulkey is like the most entertaining coach I've
28:26 ever seen. Like her outfits are wild. Her antics are wild. Like it's fun to watch. She's insane.
28:31 I can't tell if I'm rooting for her or against her. I have no idea. But like, that's what makes
28:34 it fun. So I mean, that game was like that if if you're trying to get sold on watching women's
28:40 basketball, like I feel like that game was the perfect selling point. You're either going to
28:43 accept it or you're not, I guess. But that was just the I mean, a little segue on this because
28:48 what the hell, we're a basketball show. We don't have to be just selfies or just men or just NBA
28:52 or anything else as far as Caitlin Clark goes. And and yeah, like I'm not a gigantic consumer
28:57 of women's basketball, be it the W or college level. But, you know, everybody at this point
29:02 in time knows the Caitlin Clark story. And, you know, there aren't too many of her games that I
29:07 have watched in full. This one, you know, I was I won. I was invested in it. I bet on it. But I,
29:13 you know, was I wanted to see like all the hype surrounding again Clark versus Reese in this
29:18 matchup. And so I wanted to watch this thing. And, you know, it just what what stunned me. I don't
29:23 know, maybe you know more than I do in this respect. So you weren't as surprised. But what
29:28 stunned me watching this thing was. Everybody knows their commercial ads about it, like we know
29:35 Caitlin Clark's range and we've all seen the highlights and we know that she's just an absurd
29:40 shooter and, you know, going back to the all-star break, the conversation of let's get her and
29:46 Sabrina and the all-star game next year, not the game, but the three-point contest against Steph
29:50 and Dame or something like that, like it's, you know, because she obviously projects to be in the
29:55 WNBA at that point, number one, overall pick all of that. But watching this game, what I certainly
30:01 didn't know, and I realized the diehards of of women's college basketball are well aware, but
30:06 I am not that. I mean, I had no idea that her playmaking ability was at such a high level.
30:13 I mean, obviously I knew she could shoot, but the passing was like out of control. Her ability to
30:19 set up her teammates is like she's she's not this one trick pony that I feel like she sort of gets
30:24 advertised as. It was, I thought that was as compelling as anything else.
30:30 One thing that I think was really fun about watching her is that, you know, a lot of the
30:35 time in the NBA, it's like you got, you got other guys like Luka and Jokic who basically just kind
30:40 of sit back and then just make absurd plays. Or you have like a JT, for instance, who is someone
30:46 who's really good at deep driving kicks. Like that's something he's really improved at. And
30:51 watching her, it was honestly a little like, it felt like a bit of a throwback in that I was
30:55 seeing her kind of running pick and roll and then throwing really early pocket passes to the roller
31:00 and stuff like that. And it was just cool to watch kind of more of the traditional pick and roll
31:04 style that we had maybe 10 years ago before, or like the game kind of got to the evolution where
31:09 it is now, where she was just making a lot of really early passes. And for me, like, that's
31:13 the part that's really interesting for me. It's not so much the, I'm going to drive super deep,
31:18 and then I'm going to be able to make that, you know, like kick out, or I'm going to hang in the
31:21 air, make that kick out. It's like, can I get over a screen and then pass ahead of into a space
31:28 where a teammates about to enter into as opposed to just like finding a stationary shooter.
31:32 And that's the stuff that I think is really, really fun to watch, because that's where it's like,
31:36 this person is one like taking a risk. And two, the team is on such a string that they're just
31:43 throwing that pass, hoping that that cutter is going to be there. Like that stuff, you don't
31:46 see as much in the NBA anymore, just because of everything either being collapsed post up,
31:51 like Boston suing or real spread out five out stuff, or like dunker spot stuff, where it's
31:56 like you just drive and then you draw two, two, and then you drop it off. So like, there's a lot
32:00 of that kind of stuff in there that I think is the stuff that's really interesting. You don't even see
32:03 as much in the NBA anymore. Well, I'm a big narrative street guy. So I'm eager to bet on
32:08 Caitlin Clark and I would to beat Yukon after she talked about how all she dreamt about when she was
32:15 younger was playing for the Huskies and they didn't even give her the time of day. So I'm,
32:19 I'm all about the what, how ugly this could potentially look in the next game.
32:24 Oh yeah. I mean, I, it, she's been box office all year. This tournament has been literally
32:31 one big buildup to see how far she would go. She's delivered no question. No disrespect to LSU. They
32:38 were tremendous angel Reese and she was dominating that game to start and then got hurt. And then
32:43 that's true. The apology was, I think it wasn't a real good barometer of how good of a player she
32:50 is. And some of the stuff that's come out afterwards is disgusting. Not really, not really
32:54 down for that. But I it's, it's been fun to watch and, and, you know, between Juju Watkins, I thought
33:00 one of the best games of the tournament was Baylor USC. That was a tremendous game. And it came down
33:05 like the last couple of minutes in the fourth quarter, but it was basically a two point game.
33:09 The entire game. I, I almost feel a little bad because I was so close. I live an hour outside
33:14 of Albany, so I could have gone to see Kalen Clark, but it like, it was like $500 get in
33:20 price for the first couple of games. And then the LSU dollars. Yeah. The LSU game was get in price
33:27 was outrageous. Just going to tell you, I did consider my dad and I were like, you know,
33:32 Katelyn Clark's like only an hour. We should definitely go. And then we're like, oh, all
33:36 right. Well, maybe not. Those are a little, it was a little steep. That's an unfortunate,
33:39 but good sign that women's college basketball is doing pretty well. If they're playing in Albany
33:43 and they're still selling tickets for that insane of a price. So they were, it was harder. It was
33:47 more expensive to go to like any Katelyn Clark game than most of the tournament games in the
33:52 men's side this year. I'm just going to be flat out about that. That's probably rather watch her
33:56 play the NBA next year and makes a fraction of what she'd make stay in college. But you know,
34:03 that's the reality of the game and the sport and everything. Right. At least she can get that $5
34:08 million payout going and playing, you know, 10 games in the big three over the summer. So there's,
34:13 there's that, but Hey, real quick, before we do sign off, we, you know, we, we've mentioned,
34:17 obviously the women may as well touch on the men. So Yukon's a powerhouse. I think we all know that
34:23 at this point in time, the Huskies really should make it back to the back for the first time since
34:28 Al Horford's Florida Gators back in 0 6 0 7. But they've got this upcoming battle with another
34:34 offensive powerhouse juggernaut in Alabama, but not nearly the defensive team that the Huskies
34:39 are on the other side, Zach Eadie and Purdue against DJ Burns and NC state DJ Horn as well.
34:45 You know, betting wise for anyone that cares about that. I mean, one I've had a Yukon futures ticket
34:53 for a while, so give me the Huskies, but I'm on Yukon to cover in this game. I actually like
34:57 NC state with the points. I saw it. It's nine and a half 10 right now. I think NC this, this has just
35:02 been Jared. I don't know how closely you've been paying attention to the tourney, but NC state
35:07 has been just such a fun story, obviously from, you know, getting the automatic bid,
35:12 doing the Kimball Walker Yukon winning five games in as many days to win the ACC.
35:18 And then this run, they've gone on a tournament and you know, no, they, they're not going to
35:22 beat Purdue as an 11 seat. It's not going to happen. You know, we'll get that Yukon Purdue
35:26 matchup that everybody wants in the final, but I think the Wolfpack can keep it close and that's,
35:32 that's enough for me to be entertained. I hope you're not sending it to me because I have no
35:37 idea what's going on. You should watch this stuff. You'd like that. I will. Yukon's going to roll.
35:42 Ain't going to matter. I mean, I'm reading, I'm always reading for the underdogs. So I'd like to
35:46 see NC state win, but I NC state's in the final four for both, right? Yes. Yeah. So that'd be
35:53 cool to see a Cinderella win for both. I don't know if they get to Mecca Okafor and Diana Taurasi
35:59 last time that happened. I'm pretty sure the irony that the Yukon would have to go down for both of
36:05 those. That'd be cool. I mean, yeah, I'm a new, I'm a new Englander. So I'd love to see you call
36:09 it wood, I guess, but I thought you were going to say I'm a new Englander. So college sports
36:13 doesn't matter to me. Well, that too. I mean, listen, I went to BU, I grew up, I mean, shout
36:18 out to BC. A part of the reason why I just enjoy watching a woman's game is when I was a kid,
36:22 the BC woman's team would give tickets to my elementary school. So when I was really young,
36:27 I would go watch their games and it was, I had a great time. So, and I was three feet tall. So
36:33 everybody looked tall to me back then. So that was, yeah, I'm barely above three feet now. Yeah.
36:39 So let's BC's involved. I probably, if should it be, you was involved. That would be all about it,
36:43 but I don't think we're, I don't think my, my terriers are getting anywhere near that anytime
36:48 soon. So believe it or not, this was a Celtics podcast. Caesar back at it on Friday tomorrow,
36:54 as we sit here right now, game at home against the Kings shouldn't be too compelling, but who
37:00 knows some of these games go, go a little wonky. We saw what happened in Atlanta, obviously. So
37:05 you got the Kings and the Blazers to take you through the weekend. We'll be back with you next
37:09 week at some point in time. And we're just inching closer to a playoff preview and probably
37:14 means next week. We'll, we'll start to dive into potential first round match-ups and seeding and
37:19 all of that good stuff. But one thing we do know Jared and Evan is that Boston firmly planted
37:25 a top, the NBA in the standings and hopefully come banner raising time in a couple of months as well
37:31 for Evan Valenti for Jared Weiss. I am Adam Kaufman. Check out Jared's work in the athletic.
37:35 We didn't have time to get to it, but a great piece on a conversation with Grant.
37:39 Williams about what a miserable effing teammate he is and terrible person. So you should make
37:44 sure you check that out and we'll talk to you again next week.
37:52 [Music]