Celtics vs Heat Round 1 NBA Playoffs Recap and Breakdown | Garden Report
Bobby Manning welcomes Anthony Chiang of the Miami Herald to the Garden Report for a recap and breakdown of the Celtics vs Heat round 1 series, a look ahead to what he expects from Boston going forward in the playoffs and what Miami will do this offseason starting with the Jimmy Butler extension debate.
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00:00 Hey, Barry Manning here.
00:06 Welcome to the Friday edition of the Gern Report.
00:11 We have here to talk about the Celtics Heat series that was and what's next for Miami
00:17 after four playoff series between these teams.
00:21 Anthony Chang, welcome in from the Miami Herald.
00:23 Been wanting to have him on forever here.
00:27 He's finally here, straight from exit interviews down in Miami.
00:32 Not the series we expected, Anthony, split the injuries, or that it could have been.
00:39 And I think this could have been a great series at full strength, but down Josh Richardson,
00:44 down Jimmy Butler, by the end of it down Jaquez and Moore, it just didn't have any potential
00:51 to turn to anything here, especially with the level that the Celtics reached this season
00:56 coming in.
00:57 I don't think Boston played a phenomenal series, but they just had to defend a little bit,
01:03 execute offensively to the bare minimum, and they were going to come out of this series
01:08 with a win in five games.
01:09 And if it wasn't for that one historic shooting night Miami had, this could have been a sweep
01:15 easily as many predicted it to be.
01:17 So no real surprises here out of this one, just because of the health.
01:21 Yeah, I mean, that was the story of the Heat season, pretty much.
01:25 I mean, that used a franchise record, 35 different starting lineups, so many different combinations.
01:31 Jimmy Butler, Bam Manobao, and Tyler Hero played 27 games together all regular season.
01:36 Just so it was just full of inconsistencies, different players in other lineup at different
01:41 times.
01:42 And then that just continued in the playoffs.
01:44 It got worse in the playoffs, right?
01:45 Because Jimmy missed the entire first round, Terrell Zero was out, Duncan Robinson was
01:50 a shell of himself.
01:51 Because Duncan Robinson was very important to the Heat in the regular season.
01:54 Obviously, as you mentioned, Jaime Jacas was out for that final game, and Josh Richardson
01:58 was out for pretty much the entire second half of the season.
02:02 It was just, yeah, like you said, this series, I think, could have been competitive, for
02:06 sure, if the Heat was healthy.
02:07 I'm not saying the Heat would have won this series, but I think it would have gone longer
02:09 than five games.
02:10 But with those guys out, they really had no shot.
02:14 It was probably a surprise in the playoffs game, too, that they even won that game with
02:19 who they had available.
02:20 And I know it took a franchise record amount of threes in a playoff game, and it was kind
02:24 of the anomaly.
02:26 But just impressive that they won one game, to be honest with you, because Boston is so
02:29 good this season.
02:30 Yeah, and that singular Heat, man.
02:33 I know you know that from writing.
02:36 I hate how it sounds.
02:37 I know, I'm sorry.
02:38 I'm sorry.
02:39 That's like drilled into me at this point.
02:40 Yeah, no, I know.
02:41 I know.
02:42 I can tell.
02:43 I had that in college with the Orange.
02:46 But it's interesting where they're going to go from here.
02:50 And I guess we can start with them and get on to some Celtics stuff later.
02:54 The big thing that I know you wrote about and you've talked about it, Jimmy Butler's
02:57 extension.
02:58 You know that this is a guy who they've built their team around to this point.
03:03 They've made multiple finals now around him, and he's had some unbelievable playoff performances.
03:09 He's truly become one of the great playoff performers we've seen.
03:12 But he's in his mid-30s and he wants Jalen Brown money.
03:16 It looks like here.
03:18 And you can't argue with that.
03:20 The production to this point has been on par with anybody else in the league.
03:25 But you saw the slippage this year.
03:27 It goes from an all-NBA guy to a guy who's not, who doesn't play as much.
03:31 The regular season results aren't quite there.
03:34 And it's a big reason that this team has been an eight seed the last couple of years here.
03:39 And that's tough.
03:40 You know, you can dig yourself out of it with upsets and go on these great runs.
03:44 But you put yourself in a difficult position by being that kind of team during the year.
03:47 And when you pay that kind of contract, it's going to be tougher to put a team around him
03:52 at that point.
03:53 So it's a grueling decision.
03:56 More often than not, it feels like the teams just do it as the Celtics did with Brown.
04:00 And not a similar situation, obviously, because of the ages, but still a difficult one to
04:04 give that kind of money, that kind of cap commitment to a guy who you're not totally
04:08 sure you want to do that for.
04:10 And again, the age being the big difference here.
04:14 How do you think this is going to play out with him?
04:16 To be honest with you, I don't know.
04:18 It's going to be a really interesting decision.
04:20 I don't know if the heat knows at this point.
04:23 They don't have to make a decision pretty much until July at the earliest because the
04:26 window opens July 7th.
04:27 And they have technically, Jimmy gets the extension he wants.
04:31 They have until June 30th next year to get this done.
04:35 Jimmy wants it before the start of the season, as you would imagine.
04:39 He wants it earlier rather than later.
04:40 He's going to be 35 in September.
04:43 He wants a two year extension at 116 million it is.
04:47 It's basically adding a year to his current contract, right?
04:50 Because he already is guaranteed next year at his salary for this current contract is
04:54 a player option the following year.
04:56 This extension that he wants would be ripping up that player option and would start that
05:00 season.
05:01 So you're pretty much adding one more year to Jimmy's contract at $60 million when he's
05:06 37 years old.
05:07 That's a lot of money.
05:09 Yes, it's just one more year, but that's a lot of money for a player who like you said
05:13 this year.
05:15 He was good, but he wasn't all NBA, Jimmy, right?
05:18 He missed 20 plus games.
05:20 The playoffs he wasn't available.
05:23 But like you said, if Jimmy is going to make a case for this extension, he has a strong
05:27 one.
05:28 I mean, he's the heat has been one of you could argue they've been the most successful
05:31 team in these last four years before this season because of Jimmy Beller.
05:35 They've got the three Eastern Conference finals, two NBA finals, obviously haven't won a championship,
05:40 but this has been probably and you guys might laugh at this because of the Celtics history,
05:45 but this is probably been the second most successful era in history.
05:48 They haven't won a title, but they've been consistently making deep runs into playoffs
05:52 and that's been because of Jimmy.
05:53 So does he give in and give him what he wants?
05:57 Do they try to call his bluff and say, well, we'll play out.
06:01 You're under contract for at least one more year guaranteed.
06:04 Let's wait till the next offseason and does Jimmy cause a mess when they do if they do
06:09 that.
06:10 So it's going to be really interesting to see and it's also going to give us an indication
06:13 of what the heat are thinking.
06:14 If they give them that extension, that means he is going all in with this build, right?
06:18 They're going to continue to move forward with this build.
06:20 Yeah, those probably change some of the pieces around BAM and Jimmy, but they're going to
06:23 go all in with Jimmy and BAM as the core again.
06:25 If they don't give it to them, that means they're pivoting probably and it might be
06:29 a new, a new heat, new look to the heat roster.
06:33 So I don't know how it's going to happen.
06:35 I'm really intrigued to see what happens.
06:39 But right now it's really too early to say one way or the other.
06:42 Yeah, I think there's three ways it could go.
06:45 You kick it down the road, which probably is the most likely scenario I'd imagine just
06:50 because it's easy to wait until that deadline at the very end that you mentioned there.
06:57 I think it's more likely you extend him if you can add another piece here.
07:01 And obviously they tried to do that last summer with Lillard, didn't work.
07:04 I don't know who's going to be available this summer.
07:07 You know, obviously people are speculating with Durant and you know, who knows what's
07:11 going to happen with Giannis here.
07:13 I'd imagine he's going to be staying at least another year in Milwaukee.
07:16 So you just don't know who's going to be out there.
07:18 And obviously the whole Lillard thing, given the pieces that he had, didn't come together.
07:23 So it's tough to say they would come together for another star at that point.
07:27 And you know, if it is just going to be Butler, Bam coming back with a similar core here,
07:32 and I know they hit on Hawkins, maybe they can hit on another draft pick here, come back
07:36 healthy, bring back Roger for a full training camp.
07:38 I think there's a lot of reasons you could say, run this back and it'll go better next
07:42 year.
07:43 But how much better?
07:45 And that's the question they're going to have to ask now.
07:47 What is the ceiling for this team?
07:48 Because even at their best the last couple of years here, they ended up losing in the
07:53 finals and losing pretty convincingly, you know, to the Lakers in 2020.
07:57 And then of course the Nuggets last year.
07:59 So I think being in, there's something to say about being in that mix and maybe something
08:03 breaks your way and you end up being a champion.
08:06 I think that's always something a team wants to be in position to do.
08:10 But you also have to think a little bit about the longterm, I think.
08:12 And the tough question here with Butler is obviously they could trade him, but who would
08:19 want him and how much could you get for him at that point?
08:22 If you don't want to sign him longterm, if you don't want to commit to that, you know,
08:26 super max money here.
08:28 And it's tough to think about who would want him around the league, just given the age,
08:32 you know, given, you know, you have bad teams that are probably want to rebuild around their,
08:36 you know, young core players and you have good teams who have their guys and he would
08:39 have to fit in as probably a second or third piece on those teams.
08:42 So I have a tough time thinking about anybody who would, you know, not only want him, of
08:47 course the team would want him, but want him at that price.
08:50 And that's the tough position they're in here is even if they don't want to do this deal,
08:53 I don't know if they can get a ton for him if they want to move on.
08:56 Yeah, no, I agree.
08:58 I think the heater is in a really tough spot because I think you take the emotion out of
09:03 it.
09:04 Probably the logical decision is don't give him that money and just kind of see how this
09:08 plays out.
09:09 Like I said, kick it, kick it down the road and maybe next offseason deal with it.
09:12 But Jimmy might make a mess out of this if they do that.
09:15 Right.
09:16 So it's just, you don't know.
09:17 I mean, Jimmy has he's done that before, right, with Minnesota.
09:22 You've seen him do that before.
09:24 So it and the question is, as you said, Jimmy is still very good.
09:31 But what it has to be a team that feels like they're a Jimmy Butler away from winning a
09:36 championship, right?
09:37 Like that feels like they want to go all in right now when they cash in some chips to
09:43 get Jimmy Butler.
09:44 Again, I'm kind of with you where I think the most likely outcome, just because it's
09:52 probably the path of least resistance, is the heat just gives him what he wants.
09:57 Right.
09:58 And you kind of see, kind of let this era play out.
10:00 Again, it's just adding one more year.
10:02 It's like a very expensive year, but just adding one more year to it.
10:05 It's not like you're paying him until he's 40 years old.
10:06 It's adding one more season to his current contract.
10:10 I feel if I had to predict, I think I would predict that outcome, but I'm not I wouldn't
10:17 bet on it.
10:18 That's for sure.
10:19 Because I could easily see it going the other way as well.
10:22 What do you make of the other pieces on the team here and what they'll do around Jimmy
10:26 if they do keep that Jimmy Bam core intact?
10:28 They obviously go out and trade for Roger and some up and down results there up until
10:34 the injury and a weird injury that keeps him out this whole first round.
10:39 I don't know what happened there, but he'll be back at least for another year here with
10:43 one year left on his deal.
10:44 So I'd have to imagine he'll be part of the core they build here.
10:47 But you do have that hero piece that's been floated around a million times now.
10:53 Some draft picks, I'm sure as well here.
10:57 Are they going to look to consolidate, go after another star, you think?
11:00 Or are they just going to try to keep building around this core?
11:03 Hawkeyes, Jovic, who factored into a playoff series here for the first time in year two.
11:08 And then another draft pick potentially here.
11:11 And they have drafted pretty well in recent history here.
11:14 So it wouldn't be the worst way to go.
11:16 But again, when you're going up against the Celtics and some of these top tier teams in
11:20 the East, does that team have conference winning ceiling to it right now?
11:27 Yeah, I mean, I think this team is always going to go for the star if there's one out
11:31 there.
11:32 Right.
11:33 I mean, we have a history of that, whether they get them or not.
11:34 That's a big question mark.
11:35 I mean, if Donovan Mitchell becomes available, let's say he wants out of Cleveland and Cleveland
11:39 loses early in the playoffs.
11:40 That's a good name.
11:41 That's been going on, obviously.
11:43 But that's one that's been linked to Miami for years.
11:46 So I think that is one to watch, right?
11:50 Depending on how things go for Cleveland in the next few weeks.
11:55 I do think, though, I mean, do they have the best assets in the NBA?
11:59 No.
12:00 But they have some pieces where if a star says, I want to go to the Heat, they have
12:05 enough pieces to get a trade done.
12:07 Right.
12:08 With young players, like you said, with Haka, Jovich, they have a couple of picks they could
12:12 put in a deal.
12:13 Rozier, which I know he was out with the neck, but his contract is not a bad one.
12:19 And it's going to be it's coming up on expiring soon.
12:22 And he's still a good player.
12:25 And Tyler Hero, I know right now his stock is down.
12:27 But again, there might be a team out there.
12:29 He's still young, still in the right role, can be an effective player, is a good scorer.
12:35 So they have pieces where they could put together a good enough package, probably get a deal
12:39 like that done for a guy like Donovan Mitchell.
12:43 But I think it's going to come down to that player saying, I want to go to the Heat, because
12:47 there are other teams out there that have better packages they can put together, whether
12:51 it's the Knicks, right, or the Nets, who have all these picks, and they have more assets
12:55 in the Heat.
12:56 So it's going to take, I think, both things where, obviously, he has to go after him,
13:01 but also the player that the star has to ask to go to the Heat, kind of like what Damian
13:05 Lillard did last year, but it just didn't, it didn't work out in the end.
13:09 Is Roger gonna be okay?
13:10 I know he didn't talk today.
13:13 Yeah, I didn't talk today, but I think he's gonna be okay.
13:17 There's still some, they're still going through some tests to kind of determine exactly what's
13:22 going on with the Knicks.
13:23 It's kind of unclear at this point.
13:24 At first, he I remember it happened and he missed a game against the important game against
13:29 the Pacers, and he said, I just woke up on the road, you know, I kind of woke up with
13:32 some pain in my neck, I'll be fine next game.
13:34 And he went on to miss like he hasn't played.
13:36 He didn't play after that.
13:38 So it was kind of surprising.
13:40 But it's a neck injury, right?
13:41 So they're being really cautious with it.
13:43 From what I hear, he should be fine next season, he should be fine to play.
13:48 But he is, there are still tests being done to determine the exact, exactly what's going
13:52 on.
13:53 Yeah, because you see in some of the reporting, it's like, oh, it's not career threatening.
13:56 And you're like, huh, like, yeah, you hear something like that.
13:59 And you're like, oh, gee, like, how, how bad was this?
14:02 And it stinks.
14:03 He wasn't part of the series, obviously, as a former Celtic and Richardson in it, too.
14:06 It could have been such a fun series at full strength, I feel like especially given some
14:10 of the series these teams have played in the past, but ends up being pretty non competitive.
14:14 I want to hit on the Celtics and some of your impressions on them before we get out of here.
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14:37 Another round about to start here either on Sunday or on Tuesday, Celtics Cavaliers, maybe
14:42 Celtics Magic.
14:43 It was fun seeing all these projections through round one, some big ones on Tatum, the Heat
14:47 were able to hold them pretty low in terms of points there.
14:50 So he ended up being a good guy more often than not to go less on this series.
14:54 So try it out.
14:56 There's more games tonight, more games every night, pretty much here through the rest of
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15:05 Let's talk some Celtics, Anthony, what did you think of them?
15:08 Obviously, the Heat, I think held down their offense a little bit just based on what it
15:12 was during the regular season.
15:15 But defensively, they were able to lock down whether it was Porzingis in the middle there
15:20 or Horford for that fifth game.
15:22 And the pace was great, I felt like, even though he went down and they were able to
15:26 get into some of their bench units and produce.
15:28 So overall, I was pretty satisfied here.
15:30 It wasn't the best series for Tatum, just with how much attention the Celtics showed
15:35 him, but he was able to turn into a passer and beat the Heat that way as well.
15:39 So do they look like that definitive favorite to you just based on what you saw here in
15:44 the series?
15:45 Do you still have some questions about them as they move forward here in the East?
15:49 I think they're the definitive favorite in the East, for sure.
15:52 I mean, especially with Milwaukee out, right?
15:56 The Knicks look like probably the team they might face in these conference finals, just
16:01 based on what we saw in the first round.
16:03 I think, again, I just think Boston's talent is overwhelming.
16:07 When it comes to, if they get to the NBA Finals against a team like Denver or a team like
16:11 Minnesota or Oklahoma City, I think that's going to be a competitive series.
16:14 I think Boston, they're definitely better.
16:18 I think the addition of Drew Holliday, Porzingis, if he can get healthy, make a huge difference.
16:23 I mean, we saw in the first few games of Porzingis.
16:25 I mean, that kind of changed the equation in the matchup against the Heat.
16:28 You really couldn't play zone much anymore.
16:31 Just the switching and taking advantage of matchups with the Heat switching, with Porzingis,
16:36 his shooting, it changed a lot.
16:40 So Porzingis can get healthy.
16:41 I think that's obviously important.
16:44 But look, they are historically the best offensive rating ever, I think.
16:48 Is that right?
16:49 In the regular season?
16:50 Second best defense in the NBA.
16:52 They were the best team in the NBA all regular season.
16:55 So to me, considering I think the easy path to have in the East, I would put them down
17:00 as a favorite to win the championship at this point, just because I think they do have the
17:05 easiest path to get to the finals out of all the contenders, including the West teams.
17:09 Yeah, and that was great to see in round one.
17:12 And that's a big reason I wanted to see them against the Heat.
17:15 Obviously you had to get that zone matchup in and handle that.
17:18 And they did to a point where the Heat couldn't use it consistently throughout the series.
17:22 They could not play it.
17:23 Yeah, yeah.
17:24 Yeah, I've never seen a team get the Heat out of zone quicker.
17:28 Usually their zone is pretty effective because Eric Spolscher does a good job of kind of
17:32 morphing the zone based on the matchup and is able to change it based on different teams'
17:36 strengths and their offense.
17:38 But they could never get it to work against Boston.
17:40 Because I mean, every lineup they have out there has five shooters and that's really
17:44 unique.
17:45 Yeah, and they did some interesting stuff.
17:46 I mean, they tried to put Hiero on Brown to absorb that matchup and get Brown shooting
17:50 a ton.
17:51 And, you know, I guess just slow down and put the offense in a one-dimensional spot.
17:57 And that worked in game two.
17:58 I think the Celtics shot like two for 14 against Hiero in that game and went at him over and
18:03 over again to no avail.
18:05 But you're right, they attack matchups.
18:07 You know, Kevin Love would come into these games, especially in game...
18:10 It was crazy watching in game five just how methodically they drove Love off the floor
18:14 the instant he came out there.
18:16 That's stuff they did all year.
18:17 And obviously the Porzingis addition, by and large, was for the heat.
18:23 You know, to have that layer to their offense against a zone and a defense like Miami's.
18:28 And even though they benefited from Miami's poor health in this series, I think you saw
18:34 shades of their offense being able to execute at a level that probably wins this series,
18:39 even at full health, I feel like.
18:41 And obviously there's some layers to a guy like Richardson being out there who's switchable
18:44 and can guard all those positions.
18:46 They really missed him here.
18:48 Roger would have been a much better option than some of the guards you saw in this series,
18:51 certainly.
18:52 And, you know, Butler's a guy who can steal a game on his own.
18:55 So it's just so tough to take a ton from this series.
18:59 But the offensive execution in spurts for Boston was really good here, even without
19:04 Porzingis.
19:05 And the interesting thing for them going forward without him is now they're 22 and four without
19:09 him this year.
19:10 Their offensive rating is actually a little bit better.
19:12 They played faster in that game five without him and they got out to that 37 point lead.
19:17 So I think those are the positives you pull from this series.
19:21 And I'll keep saying it with Tatum.
19:22 I didn't love his play in this series, but he had a 10 assist game in game one.
19:27 He moved the ball well.
19:28 He defended.
19:29 I think he had 12 rebounds in game five as well.
19:31 So he did all the other things.
19:32 When you looked at the way the heat regarding him, it really was two, three guys lined up
19:36 against them for a lot of this series, trying to force them to be a passer.
19:40 Yeah.
19:41 And I think another encouraging thing is, like you said, I know it was against the watered
19:44 down heat team, but they didn't shoot the three ball well in some of those games.
19:48 And the Celtics still won.
19:49 I think that's been one of the knocks on the Celtics.
19:51 They're so dependent on the three ball.
19:53 If they go cold, they can't really win.
19:55 But their defense is great, obviously, as you know.
19:58 And they did other stuff on offense to score enough points to get by the heat.
20:02 I know they didn't need to score that many points against the team because he struggled
20:05 to score.
20:06 But I think that was encouraging that they were able to survive some.
20:10 Again, it wasn't a great shooting like Boston has done for most of the season.
20:16 There were some games there where they needed to do other things to win and they were able
20:21 to do it.
20:22 So here's my big question.
20:24 After four series in five years, two in a row here, three in a row actually, is this
20:33 the last we've seen of these two teams?
20:35 Is this rivalry going to continue?
20:39 So you see the Heat continuing to be relevant, continuing to be there in the playoffs with
20:44 the Celtics team and just figuring out a way to compete.
20:48 Yeah, I mean, is it always going to come in the Eastern Conference Finals?
20:52 Probably no, right?
20:54 But I think, yeah, I think the Heat are just because of the makeup of the Heat, they're
20:57 always going to try to win, right?
20:59 They're always going to try to go for it.
21:00 They're not a team that's going to take many steps back to rebuild.
21:04 So yeah, I think the chance that the Heat and Celtics can meet up again next season
21:09 or in a few seasons, I don't think that's out of the realm of possibility.
21:11 And if Jimmy is back next season, which again, he's under contract for the Heat, so the chances
21:16 are he will be back.
21:18 I think in this East, the Heat should be a playoff team, right?
21:22 So I don't think it's over.
21:26 What's their biggest need, you feel like?
21:28 Well, they need shooting.
21:30 I know, I mean, they need three-point shooting.
21:32 It's essential.
21:33 I mean, around a roster built around Jimmy and Bam, which pretty much are two non-three-point
21:38 shooters, those are your two best players.
21:39 It's very unique, right?
21:40 A team's two best players don't shoot many threes.
21:43 You need to have elite two-point shooters around them.
21:46 And I think this year, whether it was because of injuries or guys just not shooting well,
21:50 they just didn't have enough of that.
21:52 And I think that, I mean, you saw the offense, I think we finished the 21st ranked offensive
21:56 rating, two straight years with a bottom 10 offense in the regular season.
22:01 They got really hot in last year's playoffs, as you know, and as many people know, to make
22:06 it to the finals.
22:07 But that was, I'm not saying that was an outlier, but that was a two-month run.
22:11 And then this year, again, the three-point shooting was up and down.
22:15 So I think they need shooting.
22:16 I think they need more size.
22:17 We saw that again in this series, they need more size.
22:20 Bam is a center.
22:23 I still think he's a center, but he's 6'9", right?
22:25 So if you could have another big body to play next to him in certain matchups, I think that
22:28 will help.
22:29 And then I think you need probably another point guard in the roster, another ball handler.
22:35 So they do have some needs they need to fill.
22:38 But I think number one would be shooting, because this team needs to have a better offense
22:42 out there.
22:43 They can't keep just winning with a top five, top 10 defense.
22:46 They need to score points in today's NBA.
22:49 And as we record this, we're going to see a game six tonight between the Cavs and Magic.
22:56 Obviously, the winner of this will move on to play the Celtics in round two.
23:00 What do you think of these two teams?
23:05 How do you think they could end up challenging the Celtics here?
23:07 Obviously, you probably saw bits and pieces of these teams throughout the year, just covering
23:11 the heat.
23:12 What kind of challenge do they present?
23:14 I actually feel like they're pretty similar teams coming out of round one here that the
23:19 Celtics might see coming up.
23:21 Yeah, I mean, Orlando's defense was one of the best in the NBA all season, right?
23:25 So I think that's the one way they could probably challenge Boston is just kind of similar to
23:29 the heap of healthier roster where their offense isn't great.
23:34 But if they can muck up the game and make it a little low scoring and make it physical
23:38 and kind of get to knock the Celtics offense off out of rhythm.
23:43 I mean, that's one way I guess, but I just can't see either of these teams really competing
23:48 with the Celtics to be honest with you.
23:50 I don't think it's gonna be a long series.
23:52 Cleveland, I think has more talent.
23:54 Obviously, with Donovan Mitchell and Evan Mobley and Jared Allen and former Heat player
24:00 Max Struess and Darius Garland.
24:02 So they have talent, but again, I just haven't, they've been so up and down this year.
24:07 The offense has kind of been weirdly like inconsistent, even though they have guys who
24:13 could put some points up.
24:15 So I really do, I mean, yes, could either of those teams win a game or two?
24:22 Sure.
24:23 I mean, without poor Zingas, I just can't see Boston having much trouble with Orlando
24:27 or Cleveland.
24:28 I love that though.
24:29 Celtics Heat rematch and then Max Struess in round two.
24:33 It's like, oh, the Heat are behind us and then he's popping up again.
24:36 Never, never.
24:37 They're always there.
24:38 The Heat missed him and Vincent this year.
24:42 I wasn't sure if they were going to, but Vincent was hurt all year, but Struess was awesome
24:46 for Cleveland.
24:47 I think either one of those guys, at least one of those guys staying in Miami probably
24:51 would have helped them this year.
24:52 They're probably expecting to be able to add a little later or something like that.
24:56 And you end up with none of those guys this year.
24:59 So that was a killer.
25:00 They definitely took a step back this year.
25:02 But, and that's going to leave you at home here for the rest of the playoff race.
25:06 I don't know if you're happy or upset about that, but it's the reality.
25:10 Yeah.
25:11 I mean, I've become so used to not like the season ending for me in either late May or
25:16 early June.
25:17 And this year I have an extra month.
25:19 So I have some time to fill, but it's okay.
25:22 Right.
25:23 It happens.
25:24 And not every year can you go to the conference finals or the finals.
25:25 So we actually, it was funny.
25:27 I actually interviewed today, Eric Sposio was like, I don't know what I'm going to do
25:30 with this time.
25:31 I'm not, we didn't plan for this.
25:32 Like I, I'm not used to this.
25:33 None of us know what we're going to do for the next three, four weeks.
25:35 I know Curry was talking about that too.
25:38 Yeah.
25:39 Yeah.
25:40 It's different.
25:41 It's different for sure.
25:42 Well, 15th overall pick.
25:43 That's not a terrible spot to be.
25:44 I know it's a shaky draft by most, you know, assessments here, but he'd have made the most
25:50 of that.
25:51 And I think they'll be looking forward to off season as well.
25:53 They're in the past Celtics finally get through that heat team after last year's bizarre East
25:58 finals and do so pretty handily here.
26:01 Anthony, good talking to you throughout the series.
26:03 Appreciate you hopping on here.
26:05 I'm probably talk to you sometime early next season.
26:08 Enjoy the summer.
26:09 Sounds good.
26:10 Thanks man.
26:11 Have a good one.
26:12 Good luck the rest of the way.
26:16 All right.
26:17 So before we get out of here, obviously about to go watch Cavs magic.
26:22 We're going to have a series preview coming at some point this weekend, if it is the Cavs
26:26 that win tonight.
26:27 So stay tuned for that.
26:29 Obviously plenty of preview on both sides coming your way tonight.
26:32 If there is a game seven, looking at what both of these teams could bring to the Eastern
26:38 conference semifinals here.
26:40 So stay tuned for that as well.
26:44 We'll see what happens in game six here tonight.
26:46 Again, seven o'clock tip.
26:47 So this will be starting just any minute now.
26:49 I don't think we'll be going live tonight.
26:52 So stay tuned for some tomorrow, probably to preview the series.
26:55 If it is going to be Cavs Celtics here and they'll get started on Sunday.
26:58 So a pretty quick turnaround here.
27:00 If the Cavs take care of business tonight, they'll be heading right from Orlando to Boston
27:04 directly if they win this one tonight.
27:06 But of course, magic are favorited tonight.
27:09 They're at home.
27:10 They've won every game in this series at home.
27:11 So there certainly could be a game seven on Sunday that forces the Celtics to wait until
27:15 Tuesday for this next series to begin.
27:19 We of course are also brought to you by Game Time.
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27:48 So Sunday afternoon, you feel like getting a last minute ticket, you could save up to
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28:53 Great partner here at the Garn Report.
28:56 And that's our show for tonight.
28:58 I'm going to go watch Cavs Magic right now.
29:02 I want the Cavs to take care of business tonight.
29:04 I don't want to be sitting around here for five more days.
29:06 We'll of course have more practice coverage tomorrow.
29:09 Joe Sway and I were over there today.
29:10 Interviews are up now over on CLNS Media.
29:13 So check all that out from today.
29:15 And that's all I have to wear on Celtics Heat.
29:17 It's over.
29:18 4-1.
29:19 Celtics took care of business here, and I'll give them credit for doing that.
29:21 They did a great job in this series, just blowing by them and taking care of business.
29:25 I know Al had some comments about that today as well, that they weren't able to do that
29:29 last year against the Hawks.
29:32 This year, they get it done.
29:34 So that's it.
29:35 I'm Bobby Manning.
29:36 I'm thanking you guys here tonight.
29:37 Enjoy your weekends, and hopefully we'll see you here on Sunday with a postgame garden
29:41 report.
29:42 Stay tuned, of course, for a series preview as well.
29:44 I'll grab some of the guys together to talk about the Cavs if they win tonight.
29:48 And that's it.
29:49 Stay tuned for this.
29:51 We might do this tomorrow.
29:53 More Kendrick Drake talk on dome theory.
29:55 Of course, check out my show, Dome Theory, here on CLNS Media as well.
29:59 I appreciate you, man, talking about that and tuning in when we do go live, me and the
30:03 guys over there.
30:04 So we'll have that for sure this weekend as well.
30:06 I think we're planning on tomorrow, probably around five o'clock.
30:10 So yeah, might be some double-barreled action tomorrow between Dome Theory and a Cavs magic
30:15 postgame Cavs Celtics series preview tomorrow.
30:19 So we'll be busy this weekend.
30:20 But that's it for tonight.
30:23 Enjoy the game, everybody, and we'll talk to you soon.
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