How the Celtics Won Game 3 and What to Expect For Game 4

CLNS Media Sports Network

How did the Boston Celtics change up their approach to ensure a Game 3 win? How will the Miami Heat respond in Game 4? Plus, unsung heroes from Game 3, Jayson Tatum's subtle brilliance, and a look around the rest of the NBA.  Please LIKE this video and SUBSCRIBE to the channel!  Check out this week's underrated plays vid:      • Underrated Celtics Plays You Might Ha...   ️Subscribe to the podcast: https://podcasts.apple.com/podcast/fi... Follow us on Instagram:     / firsttothefloor18   Watch live Celtics games with us: https://playback.tv/celticsblog Check out Spooney's latest column on CelticsBlog: https://bit.ly/3UCITHv  JOIN OUR DISCORD SERVER:     / discord   Buy our MERCH, Support the show!: https://bit.ly/fttfmerch

Transcript

00:00 [Music]

00:24 Welcome into another episode of First to the Floor. Ben Vallis here. Thank you for joining us.

00:28 Hope you're doing well. We're here to thankfully talk about Celtics winning

00:33 Game 3 down in Miami alongside me as always Wayne Spooney and Jake Eisenberg. How's it going guys?

00:38 It's going a hell of a lot better today than it was two days ago. I can tell you that much.

00:43 The mood has improved. Yes.

00:45 Sphincters, sphincters have unclenched. Which I was just thinking before I came out here.

00:50 I was on the balcony, coffee, been up since four in the morning trying to get my head fresh for

00:55 this one. I'm like as nice as it is to have the sphincters feeling you know looser. I think they

01:01 should just try and remain clenched. I think everybody including the players just keep that

01:07 feeling of desperation because that's what I think we all need to maintain. That would be my message

01:12 to the team as well. Clench those sphincters. It certainly doesn't need to be said among our

01:16 circles. Certainly I think a small moment of reprieve and then back to full clench until

01:22 we're at least up by a surplus of two games. So coming out of this one obviously the win,

01:27 20 point win 104 to 84. The takeaway from all of the post-game presses, Spooney, was

01:32 we didn't make any adjustments. We just played harder. Do you actually agree with that?

01:37 So I think maybe like it depends on how you define the word adjustment, right? I think

01:45 they certainly played differently than they did in game two. We were okay with Porzingis switching

01:53 some but I still think we tried to avoid it pretty hard and he was a drop a lot and Al was in drop

01:58 some. So I do think part of it was like let's just kind of close out guys, right? Like that's not

02:04 an adjustment I think like an NBA player or coach would really think of. Not that they wouldn't

02:11 think of it but they would probably wouldn't refer to that as an adjustment. That's like

02:14 just playing harder, playing smarter. Offensively though, Tatum was way more involved as a ball

02:19 handler and as the primary creator and I think maybe it's like hey we do these five to ten things

02:25 on offense. It's not an adjustment to do numbers six, eight, and ten more often than you do one,

02:30 two, and three. It's just like that's what the game is calling for. It's not like we're

02:34 upending our scheme or doing some crazy matchup stuff or like hey Al Horford you're the point

02:41 guard. You know it's not like massive adjustments so I think they're probably one being a little

02:46 coy and a little like that's Joe's personality like what adjustments? Here's my favorite towns

02:53 you know like I think there's a little bit of that because there definitely were things that

02:58 were different but I don't think it was like toss it all out the door. Let's you know let's man up

03:04 switch everything is the Udoka style defense this game like it definitely wasn't that but I think

03:09 there were like tweaks that were really effective tweaks. Yeah is it an adjustment to give the ball

03:16 more to Jason Tatum? I guess Joe's like what's your definition of adjustment? I guess you know

03:21 media people and so to him it's like no that's just in the flow of the offense we just Tatum

03:26 decided to be more aggressive at certain times but yeah that was Tatum and Derek I thought at

03:32 times throughout the game like being more aggressive offensively and we talked about it with

03:37 with Greeny a little bit like defensive adjustments do you want to see them go to a switch everything

03:42 or is it really like we know that they're some of the best screen navigators in the NBA we know that

03:47 they had the second best defense in the league by playing a predominantly drop defense for most of

03:52 the year and they just played it better that's that's often a lot what happens in the playoffs

03:57 like one game one player or one thing doesn't seem like it's working it's like you look at the

04:02 film it's like you can you can get to this spot before that guy you can contest that shot better

04:07 and we sit here back here being like oh no these things didn't work but it's like sometimes one guy

04:12 they or the or a team or a coach just brought the fight to the Celtics more so in the second

04:17 second game yes they closed out on shooters a lot more that was probably the biggest adjustment it

04:21 was like okay we're not going to play the we dare you to make shots game we're going to like force

04:27 you to take tough stuff we're going to run you off the line a lot more that was that's the biggest

04:30 thing is like we're not going to just dare Caleb Martin to go forward for a five because we're

04:36 sick of him will yeah we're sick of him saying fine and actually doing it yeah which is still

04:41 an adjustment of one's approach of one's mindset sure it's not an x's and o's adjustment but to

04:46 come out with a renewed approach and effort i think is it was the necessary adjustment and

04:50 you guys talked about it with greenie um jalen talked about on his or during his walk-off

04:56 interview the importance of getting the first punch we saw that in game one came out early

05:01 went on a massive like 14 or run or whatever it was and we never gave up the lead from that point

05:06 it was a similar approach in this game although it had more of a classic playoff game feel like

05:11 early on basically the whole game with the exception of the second quarter buckets were

05:15 hard to come by and had that really gritty playoff feel which is great if you're winning because

05:19 deficits feel larger than they are because you know the effort that's required to make those

05:24 deficits up but jalen talked about the importance of getting that first punch and the heat actually

05:28 got some pretty good like openish looks early in the first few minutes of the game jovich took the

05:34 first shot open-ish like a contest but plenty of airspace within the context of the shots made in

05:39 game two for him to hit that and then second shot double pin down actually really cool play it was

05:45 bam is the second screener right near the top of the arc and hero is positioned as the first screener

05:50 close to the corner but then as jovich goes to run by that hero screen he quickly stops and

05:54 repositions himself as the first screener and suddenly hero is running off those screens he

05:59 comes off that second band scream plenty of space i'd had drew and jalen just like completely lost

06:05 defensively so much space but he misses the shot which is one that he hits nine times out of ten

06:10 in game two and we just got lucky there meanwhile on the other end and this kind of leads into the

06:14 other adjustment which was just kp's mindset on both ends kp's hidden alube dunks he's hitting

06:20 open threes and actually generating offense for us well we're kind of getting lucky i think to

06:24 begin with that the that the heat didn't hit with that first punch and then sticking with the

06:29 adjustments kp defensively kp and al did such a good job in drop defense and we're switching all

06:36 the off ball screens but we're playing drop on that one five pick and roll the hero bam pick and

06:41 roll and our um chases of the ball handler going over the screen and trailing the ball handler al

06:47 and kp just did such a good job long latvian arms out containing the ball handler and then kp i want

06:53 to get to his main adjustment staying down on the bam pump fakes just getting good contests those

06:59 long latvian stems up in the air troubling bam you see him get sort of exponentially frustrated

07:05 as the game went on and just what what a response from kp overall but defensively i thought in

07:11 particular he just did such a good job on this one yeah one thing on the screen navigation so

07:16 full disclosure i was a little intoxicated watching this game yesterday so my main takeaway was

07:21 happiness you know like let's go dude but i i re-watched a good amount of it uh today just

07:27 because i was like i i gotta like kind of refresh my mind on what was happening in this game

07:32 this may have happened not i don't think it happened a lot but it seems like sometimes bam

07:37 cheats and his illegal screens get so high up because he moves we just kind of like ducked

07:43 under it a couple times and like you don't really lose out um like you're not kind of giving up a

07:48 pull-up jumper in that case because bam is like moving out of the way almost so you just duck

07:53 under it really quick not like that soft like i'll just let you go over the screen and you know it's

07:58 ish smith so go ahead and take a pull three but like an aggressive going under and that seemed

08:03 to work a couple times and i think it's a good adjustment against bam setting every single time

08:09 he sets a screen it's illegal so that's just like one little thing i noticed that um you know it

08:15 just it just makes sense when you see it but it's not something you think about like well just go

08:19 under if he's gonna keep moving like almost out of the way so um i i forget where else where i was

08:24 gonna go with that so jake please save me here i think like talking about kp in the defense but

08:29 like i noticed that a lot there we go i i think i think you know talking about how the players

08:34 are emotional and trying to figure out how certain things are actually playing out can be difficult

08:38 i find in the playoffs because uh the analytical mind tends to be gone uh in the midst of the chaos

08:44 here but like if we want to quantify by the amount of times i screamed at the screen about bam moving

08:50 screens way less in game three than any of the other two two games which probably speaks to

08:56 your points like okay one are we just getting more comfortable with how he's setting screens and we're

09:00 getting over them better but also it's like okay yeah if he's gonna come up and he's gonna lean

09:04 that's gonna leave like a couple inches the other way and yeah they did go under a few more screens

09:09 and they're just yeah getting more comfortable it is just like culture shock i remember talking

09:14 about this before the series last year like miami just plays in a way that's really physical and

09:19 really different to a lot of other teams and you come out of the regular season in a period where

09:24 you just haven't had to really focus and haven't had to deal with like the level of physicality

09:27 that bam and the heat bring so it took you because i mean derek white got clobbered in game one at

09:32 the end of that game by that moving screen um or the game game two there was just like one of the

09:37 most egregious moving screens by bam he looks like an offensive lineman looks like cole strange

09:42 um for the patriots moving um to get derek white and this game definitely didn't feel that as much

09:47 with kp though take those bumps stand out stay down bam isn't tall he's like six eight six nine

09:54 kp 7.3 with the plus wingspan at one point bam had him under the basket and kp just kept kept

10:02 his arms up and he still got a finger on the on the on the ball after bam put it up it's like just

10:08 make those shots difficult and bam eventually he's not going to make every single mid-range jumper

10:14 and it kind of water kind of found its level there yeah definitely we're actually recording our first

10:19 playoff edition of our underrated plays series after we wrap up this pod and and kp's defense

10:24 on bam is going to feature heavily in that one it's such a good indicator of how locked in

10:29 this team is to watch them on the defensive end and we've kind of covered the pick and roll

10:34 coverage but scram switching as well like luke cornet played five minutes there was one instance

10:38 where off ball peyton pritchard got caught up on on bam adebayo who by the way scal can't say his

10:44 name it's bam out of bayou like credence bought on the bayou pronunciation like surely they're not a

10:50 producer in his ear being like adebayo adebayo his name is adebayo like he's also been in the league

10:55 for like a decade and we played the heat so many times yeah it's very cedric maxwell what was

11:02 what was maxwell's um adebayo i think that's right yeah friend of the show um but i digress

11:10 uh yeah peyton pritchard got uh stuck on on bam adebayo at one point and uh and cornet just

11:16 immediately called out the scram they switched it before the heat could take advantage of it and

11:19 that was just one instance of many throughout the game um the second quarter i want to go out

11:25 on a limb and say this is the best stretch of celtics basketball in recent history better than

11:30 third quarter pelicans better than overtime against the timberwolves because like we said

11:34 buckets were hard to come by jason tatum didn't have the most efficient shooting game but to begin

11:40 the second quarter it was kind of tatum and a modified bench lineup tatum hits those two pull

11:45 up threes early hits hauser with that sweet sweet dime on the cut and like for the first half of the

11:52 second quarter and we'll get to the second half of that quarter which is all the derrick white show

11:56 it was all jason tatum everywhere both ends just the beautiful game a captain's knock as we love

12:02 to call it here sure he had a few dot balls in this game but he was hitting boundaries uh early

12:06 in the second quarter there as i know spoody likes to say yeah um and it felt like the heat sent to

12:13 at tatum way more in this game than they did in in game two which was an odd decision i thought

12:19 because we've clearly demonstrated or tatum has demonstrated his ability to take advantage of that

12:23 kind of coverage and he was just able to go straight back to it passing the shit out of

12:27 the ball six assists in this one who knows how many potential assists uh it was just incredible

12:31 second quarter from from jason tatum with this one yeah i just thought he was aggressive early

12:36 uh like willing to get downhill and then if you're getting downhill they have to send help like you

12:40 can't not send help or he's just gonna have a layup line the entire game and then you just build on

12:45 that and they're just like well this guy's gonna cook us so let's not let that happen and then his

12:51 passing he has figured miami's defense out like full stop they throw him all these goofy man looks

12:57 they throw him that three two two three hybrid zone does not matter he's like hitting all these

13:01 incredible passes he had one he was down in the near corner um against the zone and he just like

13:08 took a dribble like he was like half posting up and he just like zips it to drew holiday although

13:14 across the entire defense drew takes like two dribbles kicks at the hauser hauser missed the

13:19 open three but it's just like it's it's not it can be kind of uncomplicated to beat a zone right

13:25 like just make the right decision and it's going to be wide open because there's so many gaps in a

13:31 zone um and you can overload it with multiple guys uh that are one defender's responsibility

13:37 and i thought tatum was just kind of he was the marcus smart maestro out there dude like he

13:43 totally dominated this game in my opinion even though he only went 6 for 16 from the floor

13:48 uh free throws yikes especially in the first half i think he went like three of six in the

13:54 first half on the line uh but he pulled it together um or in the first quarter i think

14:00 he missed three but uh regardless he uh he was really awesome and i think he might even been

14:05 better defensively like he was fucking everywhere on defense like a lot of the scram switching and

14:11 things like that he was just like covering for people non-stop and his help out of the corners

14:16 on drives he's just so good at like sticking a hand in there making the driver uncomfortable

14:21 then they have to like pick it up a little earlier than they want to or move the ball and all of a

14:25 sudden the leaning tower of kpza is like ah i'm here try and shoot it now tyler hero and they

14:31 miss or they just kick it out um so i thought i thought he was just freaking awesome dude

14:36 yeah he's so good at the help at the nail all over the place like he's like a lot of guys will kind

14:41 of fake stunt to make sure they don't leave a shooter but he is able because he's so long

14:46 is able to actually impact the ball handler on the drive while also like if the ball handler does make

14:51 that pass he's so good at recovering and getting a steal on that play as well like he's switching

14:56 one through five he's covering bam he had a block on bam um in the post like he's like this heat

15:02 team doesn't have a player that can switch on to tatum and cook him it's it's kind of ridiculous

15:08 yeah for him to go 6 of 16 and him for it to still be fantastic that pass um to how's i have i have

15:14 that clip here because that was us both free throws good for hot kids 39 23 celtics leading by 16 here

15:24 with 7 12 left at hauser on a great feed from tatum lefties got the goggles out yeah yeah he's

15:35 he's he's looked really good in this series and like efficiency wise hasn't been it hasn't been

15:39 there for him but game two ironically that was the game where he wasn't super efficient i mean

15:43 what was the most efficient um but yeah the way that he controlled the game today um yesterday

15:48 and quarter two that's that's the thing right there and we called for it was like tatum's

15:53 cooking all if he's gonna switch everything there's no one on this team outside of bam

15:58 that you feel that he shouldn't be attacking and even bam he's like able to still he's gotten

16:03 stronger with the ball he's gotten stronger just in general he's able to get a shoulder down

16:07 and then spray out to a shooter after someone helps a little bit more tatum and more derrick

16:12 white like that was the key to the second quarter those two guys when they have the ball that's

16:17 when the team's at their best yeah hell yeah dude derrick white i mean like it's definitely the next

16:22 cab off the rank after after tatum a 21 12 first quarter for the celtics but then yeah that 42 27

16:29 second quarter is really where our bread was buttered in this one and yeah we talked about

16:33 the little flourish from from tatum particularly in the beginning of the second quarter then derrick

16:37 white he finishes off the missed jalen brown free throw which i know you guys talked about on late

16:42 night last night and shout out to sam lafrance by the way for filling in for us on these late

16:46 night shows to keep the ball rolling that's been awesome sam's great and check out the how about

16:50 them celtics podcast on youtube and all the great shows under the clns umbrella including celtics

16:55 lab we love those guys but speaking of loving people derrick white second half of that second

17:01 quarter a couple of threes that free throw tip in doing all of the transition ball handling i think

17:05 that the heat uh known for for pressuring guys full court and just forcing you to get into your

17:10 offense a little later and derrick white probably one of the few players as elite as our top seven

17:15 are one of the few players who can like truly handle that responsibility under the kind of duress

17:20 that they put you under he was just incredible we finally got that d white emergence that we'd

17:25 kind of been waiting for that we got way earlier against the hawks in the first round last year

17:29 like we had the derrick white game in game one or two derrick white just like completely balls out

17:35 on the table i'm taking the [ __ ] over of this game and then in the third quarter i thought that's

17:39 where his biggest shots were hit because that's where the heat was starting to come back started

17:43 to turn up their defensive intensity and find a little bit of offense themselves and they cut it

17:47 to 19 at one point god forbid and i know but at the time i was scared what's the hashtag here uh

17:54 from jordan in the chat keep the clench with the we retained the clench in that moment yeah i got

17:58 roasted by derrick white's dad for tweeting something angry about the celtics and he's like

18:02 i'm like he said first to be fair i tweeted a dream the game and i said [ __ ] celtics please

18:10 put them away and then he said after the game one we won by 20 have a fosters and everyone's

18:16 roast i'm kind of getting roasted for it which i which i should be but like everyone that's

18:21 roasting me guys i'm tight with where this is me and mr white's band you know we're boys this is

18:27 this is this is this is a bit i get freaked out he settles me down it's all it's all good times

18:34 white hit that like pull up jumper in the third quarter that was like a deep mid-range that looked

18:40 look we say sam hauser's you know the white carmelo anthony derrick white that he looked

18:45 like carmelo anthony on that shot i mean picture perfect pull up jumper right over jovich which

18:51 is just like a shot he never really takes but the fact that you know the heat are cutting into the

18:57 lead like regardless if it was still 19 we all know we have the ptsd like that's real man like

19:02 i needed that shot to go in um i kind of want to see a little bit more derrick white mid-range stuff

19:08 especially against teams like the heat where like i think you can just get to it and they'll just

19:12 kind of let you have that shot sometimes um give me some more derrick white middies and he had one

19:17 finish i think it was in the third quarter where he's like you know i don't know he he didn't

19:22 stumble but he looks kind of out of control and he just like is like six feet away and banks it

19:27 righty off glass and hit that was just like that is so freaking hard to do with the defender draped

19:33 all over you and it just makes it look so easy and it's like like you said ben critical juncture in

19:38 the game like that those are huge baskets like the clutch buckets don't just mean last five minutes

19:44 of a five-point game like you miss that shot they come down they hit a three it's 16 the crowds going

19:50 i don't wild for whatever a heat crowd going wild is like um so like to me that yeah yay

19:57 let's go what happened i was looking at my phone um but uh yeah i i just think like that those were

20:03 really a couple of really important buckets and they weren't easy either which i think is important

20:08 for like where derrick's mindset is yeah i just pulled those two buckets up and they were in the

20:13 third quarter and they were back to back it's caleb martin starts pressuring derrick like like

20:18 up the court and derrick white kind of flips spins back the other way goes right hand drive and as

20:24 you see caleb on's all over him but probably was a foul finishes right hand and this is why we want

20:29 more derrick white because like for example bam is on um pausing us right and so derrick and

20:36 pausing us run like a little screen a screen action pausing is kind of just like slips it and

20:40 pops and bam has to kind of respect pausing us at the three-point line jovich can't really hang

20:46 like as good as a you know he's quite mobile for a six foot ten guy but derrick white he's like

20:52 you know able to kind of crack him off the dribble and jovich is like i've got it literally frozen

20:56 right here derrick's pulled up and jovich is like kind of like or like slipping like he's not even

21:02 able to get a hand up before derrick white rises and that's the key i think like so much to this

21:08 team is like there's going to be attention the best defenders are going to be on jaylen jason

21:12 and pausing us derrick is often going to have a mismatch and like him being aggressive is always

21:19 always good for the celtics either as a ball handler or as a screener or so like just like

21:25 with that mid-range pull-up it wasn't necessarily a derrick white isolation can we just get a screen

21:30 from another player to come in get a little bit of movement derrick attacks or vice versa someone

21:36 sets a screen drew set a couple of screens and derrick's just he's so good at finding guys if

21:41 they're going to switch everything guys are slipping these screens those little over the

21:44 top passes into the teeth of the defense guys come down true holiday pass it right back out

21:49 to derrick for a pull-up three it's just catch and shoot bang derrick white screening touching

21:53 the ball derrick white more always yeah a very mature stretch of basketball there in the third

21:59 and derrick white i guess our most mature player maybe al hofford you could throw him in that in

22:03 that pile as well but uh really good stuff at a time where yeah those those sphincters were um

22:08 getting a little tight there i don't know guys jake what else stood out to you with this one

22:12 i mean just the the fact that they didn't let the heat um get a rhythm at any point like there was

22:18 the the beginning of the third quarter that was when i tweeted the angry thing um the fact that

22:24 they didn't let anything snowball and i think that this the offense is going to be hard in this

22:29 series and hard in the playoffs like that's just the reality of playoff basketball they stuck with

22:34 the defense throughout the game i didn't feel like at any point the heat had a run like i think that

22:39 that third quarter was like the closest they had to a run but outside of that it was like every time

22:44 that there was a little bit of momentum they got to they got to something that i that i believed in

22:49 it didn't feel like there was consecutive like extended stretches where i was like what are

22:53 they doing out there on either end so i just thought it was a mentality game for these guys

22:58 um i mean another thing that stuck out to me i haven't had time to fully watch the gorman

23:02 cut yet on playback.tv/stealthexplore we were watching the game they unfortunately don't have

23:07 the local broadcast so i haven't been able to watch the gorman broadcast the last two games

23:13 which is annoying but um watching the second quarter just before pritchard was huge pritchard

23:19 has like a drive on caleb martin to the rim and he has that offensive rebound like just that's

23:25 all you need in the playoffs from like these role players to come off the bench and just have a tiny

23:31 little spurt and hold off a run or extend a run and pritchard solid man like really really big plays

23:40 dude we had five turnovers five that's nothing um and that's that's how the heat go on runs like

23:48 that's all they can do because their half court offense has actually been kind of effective as

23:53 far as half court offenses go in the playoffs we have like the ninth or twelfth uh somewhere

23:59 in between there the 13th best half court defense in the playoffs right now but we also have by far

24:05 the highest percentage of our defensive possessions are half court possessions and the

24:10 worst transition offense is more efficient than the best half court offense so if you keep the

24:15 heat in the half court and i bet most of that is because of game two with their incredibly hot

24:20 shooting i bet if you took that game out their half court offense has probably been dreadful

24:25 so you keep the heat out of transition you keep them in the half court which we've been doing an

24:29 incredible job like we've mostly protected the defensive glass too i think they're just not

24:35 gonna have a lot for you unless they shoot 60 from three um which i'm not obviously not counting out

24:43 that that can happen again or maybe two more times but um that's just that's a very difficult thing

24:49 to do for games um and if the celtics keep playing like this i mean their floor of performance will

24:57 be really really high and i don't think they need to play their best game to beat the heat i mean

25:01 they didn't they haven't really played their best game outside of game one uh and a 10 point loss

25:06 where the heat shot an anomaly amount of threes and then just a wire to wire kind of shit stomping

25:12 uh in game two where what we should do we don't even think we crack 30 percent from three yeah

25:17 29.7 percent from three so you just keep them out of transition don't turn it over you're

25:22 going to be just fine yeah i thought our transition defense was really locked in our

25:27 semi-transition defense as well there were multiple instances where we either turned it over

25:31 uh or sorry there were multiple instances where um of a missed shot um we would uh sorry off a

25:39 heat miss shot sorry i'm completely butchering this uh we we would just completely stop them

25:44 from getting uh up the court there was one heat baseline out of bounds play under the basket where

25:48 we force them to throw it completely away like they threw it over um all of their offensive

25:53 plays into our backcourt just like completely gave up the ball there were multiple instances

25:58 where the heat would just straight up shitty in this game and just threw the ball away and yeah

26:02 credit our defense but i thought we forced them uh into a higher amount of errors particularly

26:08 when they were in transition but then there are an equal amount of instances where it seemed like

26:12 they just coughed the ball up or dribbled it off their foot or threw it out of bounds from an

26:15 unforced error perspective as well so the heat they are going to be better we are going to get

26:19 to the game for adjustments and what both teams will change moving forward but like this was far

26:23 from the heat's best game despite our turned up defensive intensity as well so the heat will come

26:30 out better uh in that game four i do i do just want to circle back on peyton pritchett a little

26:34 bit because um i felt like he was like not solely but hugely the antidote to the heat's like

26:41 physicality and like alpha kind of energy for lack of a better term pritchett came out he was like

26:47 yelling at guys oh pete amazing thank you sir the super chat there what a legend shout out to the

26:52 nation of latvia and pete in the chat thank you uh very much appreciated um i appreciated peyton

26:59 pritchett in this one really we just see his energy his physicality there's the best layer

27:03 on the screen if you're watching on youtube uh he was just such a difference maker in this game

27:08 and keeping up our intensity and kind of staving off the heat's intensity i thought like kind of

27:13 for once we were clearly the alphas in this one and to me pritchard pp spearheaded that yeah tatum

27:20 talked about it in the presser as well like being the team that hit first and pritchard dog just

27:27 definition man like doesn't matter defensively he had a possession where he posted up on jovich

27:33 and forced an out of bounds and they got to reset and and close out the defensive possession

27:39 he just brings it everywhere man like i still can't get over the fact that like what he ends

27:44 up three four five like seven points off the bench you take that every day of the week but like

27:48 he doesn't need to score a lot coming off the bench which is crazy for a six foot one dude like

27:53 this whole job really i thought was going to be shooting to still have an impact like the offensive

27:58 rebounding two offensive rebounds again here today like that just has to drive you absolutely nuts

28:03 if you're a heat fan i love the little bits of this team like hitting back heat style you know

28:09 derek white getting the offensive rebound throwing some ptsd back in the heat's face for once and

28:14 pritchard kind of like doing the dirty work that like if you're gonna do the little dirty things

28:19 as well or like better than the heat then they just they don't do not have the horses to keep up

28:25 and that's exactly the the role and the job of pritchard and hauser and pritchard's built for it

28:30 he just sneaks through all these little cracks offense defense i thought he was much more

28:34 aggressive in this game um love to see it yeah it just felt like he junked up the heat's offense at

28:41 times which is crazy for a guy who like people probably consider a bad defender he's not but

28:47 my guess is if you asked a fan of another team whether he's like okay at defense they probably

28:51 say absolutely not but he he can just stick with guys like he just keeps everything in front of

28:56 him and outside a hero a hero who isn't much bigger than pritchard so it's not like he's going

29:00 to be spotting you know pull-ups in pritchard's face like none of these dudes have the handle

29:05 to really create against him so they're just going to kind of i'll live with jovich shooting over the

29:10 top of pritchard or caleb martin i mean he's just going to be there and i felt like he was like

29:14 knocking balls loose which just like even if you don't get the steal it just slows their offense

29:20 and like messes up the timing and you almost have to like reset the whole possession all of a sudden

29:25 there's like nine seconds on the shot clock left and duncan robinson has the ball and all of a

29:30 sudden the shot clock is now expiring because he didn't get the shot off which i think happened

29:34 twice in game three i'm pretty sure um so yeah he he was really awesome and yeah like hauser

29:40 we talked a lot about hey you know maybe the defense won't translate maybe they'll do a really

29:44 good job of attacking him they kind of have but he hasn't been unplayable i do think joe's sort

29:49 of protecting him a little bit because his minutes have been he got the most minutes i think of this

29:54 of the series in game three but he's been clearly the eighth guy um with pritchard being like the

30:02 absolute bang on seventh guy sometimes playing more minutes than horford so joe clearly trusts

30:08 him and i think for good reason well maybe we're about to say the same thing jake but that's

30:14 clearly i think to me other than like you must and will shoot a whole bunch of threes in game two

30:19 going at hauser and putting him in screens has been the most intentional thing that they have

30:23 done uh offensively i think but like you said we've protected him to the point where he's still

30:28 largely obviously not referring specifically to his plus minus here but um from a zoomed out i

30:33 guess anecdotal perspective he's been a net positive to the team just in how he's been able

30:36 to stretch out the heat zone which again we're going to get to in our urp segment after we're

30:41 done recording here i think he's been an overall net positive for the celtics on both ends despite

30:46 the heat kind of going at him a little bit now look we've got to get to this ad read but i also

30:50 feel like we can just keep talking about this game easily for another 20 minutes why don't we go

30:54 around the room one more time one final point it could be an individual player it could be another

30:58 adjustment that you're looking at on game three we'll get to our ad break and we'll come back and

31:02 talk about game four and the rest of the league i'll start i think clearly it has to be mentioned

31:07 the turnover disparity of the points off turnovers spoonie you mentioned the celtics only had five

31:11 turnovers the heat had 12 the celtics had 24 points off of turnovers which that's medically

31:17 it's not hard to determine that's basically a bucket off off each turnover there which is just

31:22 incredible efficiency from the celtics and normally it's the inverse of that if you think back

31:26 historically these matchups against the heat they're handsy in the paint they turn you over

31:30 they get out in transition and they score that's like one of the only ways they've been able to

31:33 generate offense for the celtics to have that incredible second quarter which i'm calling the

31:37 best stretch of celtics basketball in recent history and turn the heat over that many times

31:41 and score that efficiently off those turnovers in a must-win game incredible yeah um i i had

31:49 oh you know al hofford i think just shout out to the big dog i just he comes out he only goes one

31:55 for four in this game here but the defense that he's playing connecting the the group together

32:00 i just i feel very safe with him out there i've enjoyed the kp pausingus lineups as well i feel

32:07 like when they're out there together i feel like they've got a lot of size they're just dominating

32:11 the class on that end and yeah just al hofford and the fact that they're keeping him in that

32:16 22 minute range they did a good job with everybody's minutes yesterday because they

32:20 ended up blowing them out but like kp under 30 minutes hofford 22 minutes one day off should be

32:26 fresh to take the 3-1 lead uh so drew holliday went one for five i thought this was like clearly

32:33 his best game of the series um and he i think he had six assists and like it wasn't like hey

32:40 drew take the ball and make a play and we're gonna put you in pick and roll it wasn't like

32:45 that type of playmaking which i felt like he tried to do a little bit too much of in game two

32:50 especially it was like the ball gets swung to him he drives a close out or he like finds the gap in

32:56 the zone and gets to the middle and makes the right pass it was kind of the type of playmaking

33:01 that we want drew holiday to be doing one of these days his shots gonna really start falling

33:07 in the playoffs too i bet it's gonna happen um but and i thought he was like a much much better

33:13 defensive performance from him um he had a ton of closeouts where he like the closeout hard but he

33:19 did it under control so he didn't concede a straight line drive either so he i thought he

33:23 was just like really really solid which is all we need from him maybe round two is when things start

33:30 to kick in for drew maybe the finals it'll happen eventually we just gotta hang on long enough now

33:34 look we're gonna come back and talk about game four adjustments and a look around the league at

33:38 other playoff series going on but first here's a quick word from our sponsor prize picks prize

33:42 picks is america's number one fantasy sports app with more than three million members it is the

33:47 easiest and most exciting way to get in on the action while you watch your favorite sports and

33:51 players you just pick more or less on two or more player stats and watch the winnings roll in march

33:57 is over but the biggest moments of college basketball tip off in the month of april be a

34:01 part of the action on prize picks for both men's and women's college basketball and get in on the

34:06 playoff action went up to 100 times your money on prize picks as you and the world's best players

34:10 take the game to a new level during basketball's postseason you can even make the play in rounds

34:15 like seem interesting since we all know the celtics won't be there quick withdrawals easy

34:20 gameplay an enormous selection of players and stat types are what make prize picks the number one

34:25 fantasy sports app personally i'm looking at derrick white more on points because they are

34:31 criminally low and we all know derrick white is going to come up big in the postseason so download

34:37 the app today and use code clns for a first deposit match up to a hundred dollars download

34:42 the app today and use code clns for a first deposit match up to a hundred dollars that's right

34:49 download prize picks use that code clns for a first deposit match of one hundred dollars and

34:54 supplement your hoops viewing experience a lot it's a lot of fun spoonie and jake and i have

34:58 had a little round robin of less or more picks on on various um little game situations and just

35:05 spicing up our mostly digital relationship as as celtics content creators it's been a lot of fun

35:10 so make sure you check out prize picks use that code clns for a first deposit match of one hundred

35:14 dollars now guys game four i'll just start with my smooth brain take and then maybe it'll stand

35:20 up i don't know if it's that smooth brain adjustment wise the heat don't they just kind

35:24 of have to go back to shooting a [ __ ] load of threes is it that simple it's our only chance

35:29 it's our only chance is okay is their only chance is to suppress the celtics three-point attempts

35:35 and to get three-point attempts up and like in in game two the celtics shot 37 the heat shot 28

35:42 it's way more about the attempts at the percentage because i i do agree i think that they especially

35:47 early they did miss a couple and you wonder like does the game look a little bit differently if

35:51 they're able to get a couple of those to go down i still think defensively they would have been

35:54 able to to squash the heat at some point but three-point attempts one way or another i think

36:01 what you can control is their attempts i think you're like they're gonna they're gonna try and

36:06 run you off the line um and contain one-on-one better than they did in game one but defensively

36:12 on the celtic side you have to just guard your yard that that's i hate to make it like that

36:17 simple but it's like they have the ability to deal with these guys like they're there's not

36:22 talented enough to get up enough three-point attempts if you're really locked in defensively

36:28 they shouldn't be it's like tyler hero he's a legit good like pick and roll ball handler and

36:34 but he does not shoot a high enough percentage on pull-up threes consistently on super high volume

36:40 with guys like derrick drew jalen chasing him around and making him work on the other end

36:45 that absolutely ben just like keep the attempts down like funnel funnel this funnel the ball

36:51 into bam it does if he goes 12 for 20 that's like you're just not gonna lose on 24 points

36:59 on 20 shots from bam at a buy yeah i the the only thing i can think we might see

37:06 is like inverted pick and rolls where like bam is the ball handler and maybe like hope that can like

37:12 make kp one drag out of the paint so he can't just sit as a rim protector and to make him defend in

37:18 space right because we are not when bam sets the screen kp is just basically in drop unless it's

37:24 an emergency situation and we're just parking him at the rim as much as we possibly can

37:29 that might be one way they can kind of generate that because if we leave kp and drop

37:34 then it's it gets really weird with you know hero's guy who hero's setting the screen then

37:40 our dudes like you don't it's kind of really strange it could probably make us a little

37:45 uncomfortable but also he can just go under on him you know and so maybe he gets a runway and

37:51 can get himself to the rim and then we gotta send help then he's a pretty good passer so i don't

37:56 know that's really like the only thing that they haven't tried yet that i thought like maybe is

38:01 something they could do is just like they looked their best when kp was uncomfortable um and that's

38:07 i think one way they could maybe make him look uncomfortable yeah that's what i was gonna say

38:12 is that like they just have to double down on making life difficult for kp because life looks

38:16 so difficult for our entire team when that was the case and so i worry as i tend to do that uh the

38:23 heat are gonna really turn up the physicality and the intensity to like a risky level as far as like

38:29 kp not becoming injured in some way i just feel like like it's not an unethical approach to be

38:34 really really physical with a guy who has wavered in the past from from being on the receiving end

38:39 of that physicality um but i worry about to what extent do they need to turn up the volume there

38:45 to make life difficult for kp to what extent like can we survive that which is probably a little bit

38:50 melodramatic on my part but we are kind of clutching at straws as far as what the heat can do

38:55 and i think they really do need to double down on that approach um fortunately we saw kp have a

39:00 really strong uh sort of mental and physical bounce back to that level of play uh in this

39:06 most recent game in game three it looks like kp has sort of adjusted his approach to how he defends

39:11 bam out of bios even if they do get bam like downhill going at kp i sort of trust him now

39:17 to not bite on his fakes and not get too drawn into to being in early foul trouble we'll see

39:22 how that goes at least we know that we've got healthy luke cornet cornet positive to come in

39:26 for a five minute spell if it does hit the fan there but yeah it's gonna have to be making kp

39:31 really uncomfortable it's gonna have to be jacking up fuck load of threes essentially the game to

39:36 approach you try and dust that off and and have a go at that again meanwhile i think the celtics

39:42 are gonna be doing everything they can to redo their best rendition of game three which was

39:48 limiting the heat's three point attempts being really physical with dan peyton pritchett coming

39:51 off the bench being the alpha essentially um i think sam had this on late night last night

39:57 jake which is just out heating the miami heat rather than the heat out celtics in the celtics

40:02 yeah look because like the heat stuff is like in their control right like being gritty being tough

40:07 being physical can you match that also kp did touch on it in how like the heat are trying to

40:15 drag him into this physicality thing and trying to frustrate him and kp did a good job of kind

40:21 of flailing around yesterday uh he drew a few fouls on like um them kind of bumping him off

40:26 ball and stuff keep grifting that's what i would say like because like he's not going to win a

40:32 physicality battle necessarily like like trying to go you know ask for us with pam at evaio like

40:39 as we know just you know somewhat lighter in that area so like do what keep doing what you're doing

40:45 try to play your game like flop around a little bit grift a little bit um but yeah don't don't

40:51 get frustrated don't force it like get the ball up high kick the ball back out for me it's tempo

40:57 like you talked about the points off turnovers who knows if you're going to get 12 to 5 you're

41:01 probably going to get 10 ish turnovers again make sure you're running off those make sure you're

41:05 running off misses that's something you can control like defensively i think we know the game

41:09 plan it's like just stay locked in be tight on your communication like maybe do we do we see a

41:16 jalen on tyler here i think i know you talked about that um spoonie but like defensively i think we

41:20 know the game plan but offensively can we get going because we obviously we were we were elite

41:25 in game one we were pretty good in game two first half struggled game to second half and this game

41:32 i don't think the process was necessarily that bad but obviously 29 from three relatively good

41:37 volume of threes 37 three-point attempts i think that's fine like the number of possessions in a

41:41 game like this is going to be a little bit lower i would i don't hate being 35 plus in three-point

41:46 attempts but can we just can we be better can we be 33 from three because i think if we can get to

41:51 the 33 34 35 from three like if we have a good offensive performance while still being good

41:58 defensively then they it's probably curtains yeah i just keep the ball in tatum's hands man like

42:05 just keep letting him run the show along with derrick um and just keep the ball away from

42:11 drew holliday unless he's like off the catch and he's taking a pull-up or driving a close out

42:16 uh i think those are my keys right there just going home up three one compared to going home

42:22 tied two two there's just such a difference there like just crazy opportunity to just wrap up the

42:27 series like obviously this is in no way an analytical take just kind of typical of me but

42:32 please just win the [ __ ] thing obviously it's so important like it's such an important juncture

42:36 of the game treat this like you treat a game three is it a must win i mean it's not really

42:40 a must win but it also is kind of a must win right in terms of just setting yourself up for success

42:44 down the line long term and the playoffs here i can't get there i can't get there with the must

42:48 win they're all must wins i think game game game three was way more of a must win than game four

42:53 is a must win like obviously we want to like this is a huge game like this is a massive pivot point

42:58 in any series any series that's two one it's like game four is like one of the most pivotal

43:02 games of a series again not great analysis but three one very different to being two two for

43:09 either team so like this is this is the series this can have an impact on your outlook for the

43:16 rest of the playoffs can you go up three one coming back home to boston we can close it out in

43:20 five and like everyone's feeling really good and we're going to talk about how the rest of the

43:24 conference and league is shaping up and how wrapping this series up in five is like really

43:30 important like obviously things can be out of your control but like can you come out control what you

43:34 can control and win the freaking game demoralize them three one back to the garden please don't

43:42 go hawks on us and lose and lose game five at home please yes yeah that's right no ice tray in the

43:47 garden uh and terry rozier is confirmed out for game four dillon right is probable and i think

43:53 that's the extent of the health report for both teams there's no reported injuries for the celtics

43:58 at all which is great touch wood hopefully it stays that way and let's segue now to around the

44:02 league and i'm just seeing now on the timeline as we're recording this pub that middleton is now out

44:08 of this bucks paces game as well i don't have any of the details maybe he's being ejected like

44:13 bobby portis was or maybe he's injured i'm seeing a lot of like we're cursed tweets from bucks fans

44:18 so i'm guessing he's injured portis obviously ejected earlier in the game dame out yannis out

44:25 um things are looking pretty grim for for the bucks there jake yeah i'm seeing me i'm seeing

44:31 a quick clip of middleton limping after he did something i can't chris middleton tried to reverse

44:36 lay up on the baseline and went to the ground after it um yeah so he's back to the locker room

44:41 obviously like yeah i'd feel pretty cursed too man i mean yannis goes down with the calf before

44:46 the season games out with an achilles strain boy portis just got ejected and now middleton's out

44:52 i will say though it's 66 70 right now obviously whoever's listening to this podcast will know the

44:57 result of this game this is doc rivers turns into spolstra in these like this is like guys like the

45:03 funny thing about doc is it like he refuses to coach any team that doesn't have like multiple

45:08 hall of famers on it to make sure that his teams are at least competent but like all of his best

45:12 coaching performances are when he's shorthanded but he always does well in those spots he's probably

45:17 he should probably that's why he should maybe be the one uh coaching the hornets uh next season and

45:21 not charles lee or jj reddick but alas like yeah obviously kind of a big deal like the pacers should

45:28 win this game by the time we finish this we won't have any idea really by the time this podcast

45:32 finishes but um this is this is obviously huge yeah massive i hope middleton's all right um

45:39 but i i don't know like man at some point like this is just kind of who somebody is right like

45:47 they always just get hurt and when you build your team around one of those dudes as a found it like

45:52 look at the clippers with kawaii like you build you count on those dudes to be your top you know

45:58 in your top three like you are absolutely playing with fire we're playing with fire with

46:02 with porzingis like if i never mind i'm not gonna say the next sentence i was about to say um yeah

46:09 uh so it it just it sucks but also and you build your team around like a mid-30s scoring point

46:16 guard like that's the kind of stuff that happens man that's why you want guys in their prime and

46:21 not dudes who are in their mid to late 30s so it sucks for the bucks i mean they they probably will

46:28 win this game that because yeah and the nba is stupid but um yeah i hope he's all right and we'll

46:34 just see i don't what did portis do i do we know he was it was over the like they shouldn't have

46:39 ejected him probably but he he pushed nem hard which he got the one tech four and then he kind

46:44 of swiped at his head not like a punch but like just kind of like like get out of here buddy

46:49 tried to kind of grab his head and it kind of ended up being a slap to the head so they gave

46:52 him two separate technicals for the one altercation about yeah i agree i agree so but they needed him

47:00 and now he's gone and again talking about going up to up three one versus tying the series of like

47:06 if the bucks can somehow squeeze this thing out next thing you know who knows maybe yannis is back

47:11 for game five or back for game six and the series like they just hold on just long enough and then

47:16 all of a sudden they're they're back to form for the next round it's hard to say i despise the bucks

47:22 but i would not wish this on my worst enemy that's just a brutal cascading run of bad injury like

47:27 but we're getting word in the chat here that uh middleton is back on the court so maybe hopefully

47:31 everything's okay there moving on to the nugget series where lebron had one of his infamous on

47:36 the court tantrums this time directed at his own bench when they didn't challenge an out-of-bounds

47:40 play but the big news coming out of that i know it's the worst love to see it uh what you don't

47:47 love to see is injury uh coming from anywhere and the big news coming out of this one is jamal maris

47:52 questionable for game five with a calf strain which can be one of those lingering debilitating

47:57 injuries and again want to reiterate you don't wish injury on anybody but like it takes a lot

48:02 of luck on the other side of the coin to win a championship or to even be in position to win a

48:06 championship the nuggets looked upon as one of the biggest challenges or threats to the celtics

48:10 potential finals run and you see this come up and it does make your like i always find it difficult

48:17 to talk about this delicately like again don't wish injury on anybody but as a celtics fan you're

48:21 like oh that's kind of interesting because maybe it improves our overall chances of winning a title

48:26 this is how it goes dude rob doesn't if rob's knees work we may you have a title already and

48:31 we win that golden state series like this is the reality the raptors don't win a title without

48:35 kevin durant blowies and blowies blowing his achilles and clay blowing his acl in the same

48:40 series it's reality of the title the box don't have a title without um hardened and kairi getting

48:45 injured and look the nuggets have been playing with their food for a while now like they blew

48:51 the number one seed by losing to the spurs in the last week of the season they in every game in this

48:58 lakers series have kind of looked like [ __ ] in the first half jamal marie even before this had

49:03 not looked good obviously has that insane game winner and they have that massive 20 point comeback

49:08 but again haven't looked good really like compared to what they're capable of and then they look like

49:14 [ __ ] again in game four and they're like yeah who cares we can go back to denver and win that one

49:18 well this the nuggets in particular like or any team loses their second best player and they're

49:26 going to struggle like the murray jokic two-man game is the reason they're so elite so losing him

49:31 is a problem but anytime they've had one of their five guys out they have not looked the same they

49:36 are not a deep team then now you're relying more on peyton watson reggie jackson who have been fine

49:41 but not anywhere near like that's that five-man unit is just so ridiculous and fits so well

49:47 together you take one out especially jamal murray that's a real problem you think about what the

49:52 lakers have done can they steal one more all of a sudden they go six the wolves win lose the wolves

49:57 win today they sweep they're rested as a team that can challenge the nuggets you start to draw

50:02 up like a oh nuggets kind of [ __ ] around here and maybe they're going to screw themselves yeah

50:09 i think that five-man group for the nuggets is by net rating one of the very best in the nba

50:15 especially of like super high minutes units so that'll be tough for them like hey i said nuggets

50:21 in six so at least i'm looking less stupid that it might actually get to six i thought it was about

50:26 to be a sweep but um yeah it's i've actually really liked jamal murray i think he's got a

50:31 really just kind of fun sort of unique game so that sucks and i don't want to see the lakers win

50:36 any more games than they need to either but uh yeah i don't know man like that west is gonna be

50:42 it's gonna be brutal like i mean the the mavs and the clippers aren't like don't look amazing

50:48 but i also think they can kind of make teams play down to them especially the clippers they just

50:52 have so many like wings and and bodies that they can throw at teams so it's not going to be easy

50:58 for the nuggets to get out um even with a healthy jamal murray and yeah you said it ben like these

51:03 soft tissue injuries injuries just they just don't go away unless you really rest it and you can't

51:09 really afford to do that in the playoffs yeah a timely eric weiss comment in the chat is probably

51:15 most likely going to annihilate la and game five regardless of of jamal murray's status but uh at

51:20 this point we're just looking to make the nuggets work a little bit and so hate to extend an olive

51:25 branchy kind of praise to the lakers but thank you for extending that series by at least one game

51:30 look we're basically out of time here guys but i'll give you both a shot at this like

51:34 what other series around the league currently stands out to you at the moment we've had some

51:38 spiciness with the the sixes today going down uh three one and extremely dirty plays multiple dirty

51:44 plays by joel and b and then we're looking we're not going to look ahead too far but the the magic

51:49 cav series is also looking pretty interesting yeah we're not looking ahead our sphincters are

51:54 tightened but we can both tighten our sphincters and notice that cavs magic that both teams look

52:02 not very good and the fact that the cat the magic of even that thing up at four

52:07 celtics finish this in five that series is going to go minimum six it's probably going to go seven

52:14 that series is probably going to go seven and two like really good defensive teams and both teams

52:20 like with offensive issues are going to come out of that thing like bruised and battered just finish

52:24 this thing as fast as you can lock in because that series neither of those teams look very good

52:29 just come on that's what i'm looking at like those guys i'm glad that the cas evened it up

52:34 because that's going seven yeah i think so too and i've probably watched the most of the magic

52:39 cav series of any other first round series um i i love the magic dude i got franz and paulo are two

52:45 of my keepers of fantasy i've watched way too much magic this season um and i love jaylen suggs is

52:51 awesome too so yeah i agree with you jake i think it's going seven and i think it's a total coin

52:56 toss on who wins that game seven um so that'll be interesting but i think we match up better with

53:04 both of those teams than maybe we do against even this version of the heat frankly um just because

53:10 i think we can spread them out i don't think their defense can really stop us and i think they would

53:14 have a lot of trouble scoring so i think i'd probably rather play the magic just because

53:19 donovan mitchell scares me but he's been terrible so he's been bad maybe not yeah

53:22 uh so ira winderman the heat one of the heat beat reporters just tweeted out kevin love says they

53:29 have a quote way better game plan for monday there you go jake's all over it i assume that's you jake

53:35 uh could be spoonie sorry spoonie no it's not uh so we'll see not a lot of detail there from k love

53:43 um i suspect it might continue to include not playing kevin love or duncan robinson very many

53:48 minutes because they were both shockingly terrible uh but we can hope for more than that we can hope

53:53 for some kevin love and some duncan robinson for us to to go out uh with our offense so we'll see

53:58 but look let's wrap it up there that's going to do it for this one thank you so much for joining us

54:01 we'll be back live on the first of the floor youtube channel for celtics late night after

54:05 game four in the meantime please like subscribe leave us a five star rating and review on your

54:10 preferred podcast platform and check out the how about them celtics podcast the celtics lab podcast

54:15 and all the awesome content under the clns network umbrella spoonie jake love your work guys until

54:20 next time go selfies i love the celtics

Category

Transcript

Recommended