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00:00 NBA, we are still waiting until Thursday night for game one in Boston between the Celtics
00:09 and the Mavericks.
00:11 But talking time has begun for everyone involved in this series.
00:16 There'll be a lot of it between now and Thursday, that's for sure.
00:19 And what is the main topic of discussion already, Scotty, with the Boston players?
00:25 Well, of course, it's going to be Kyrie Irving, who was with the Celtic team a few years ago.
00:30 In fact, he was there in Jason Tatum's rookie season, Scotty.
00:34 So Tatum immediately gets asked about Kyrie Irving for the first question to get us going
00:40 for this week.
00:41 Here's Tatum on Irving's time with the Celtics.
00:44 It wasn't just like it wasn't a Kyrie thing.
00:46 It was all of us.
00:47 Like we all took part in why that season wasn't a success.
00:52 And we all learned from it.
00:53 We all moved on.
00:54 You know, some of us stayed here, other guys left and have done great things since that
01:00 season.
01:02 So I just look at that as a learning experience for my second year.
01:07 Look at New Balance sponsoring the Celtics.
01:10 Listen, I said this on Betting Above the Rim all weekend, including with that fascist
01:16 Adam Kaufman, who's on the take for the Celtics, and Foster's Lager, another homerized, milk
01:21 toast Celtic fan, that Kyrie Irving is coming in there and he is going to absolutely sleep
01:29 with their wives.
01:30 He is going to haunt them like no other because there's not one guy that can stop him.
01:37 There's not one guy.
01:38 And I listen, I think that Drew Holliday is the best perimeter defender in the NBA.
01:44 He can't guard both of them.
01:46 He can't guard Luca and Kyrie Irving.
01:49 And I don't think anyone can guard either one of them.
01:51 So they're going to get theirs.
01:54 You know, you better batten down the hatches in Boston.
01:57 It's coming.
01:58 There's a big storm coming.
02:00 And it's those two.
02:02 Those two are an absolute problem.
02:05 And you know what?
02:06 He played there.
02:07 It didn't work out.
02:08 And now he's going to come back and he's going to sleep with your girlfriend.
02:11 OK, because he's coming.
02:13 Trust me, you that guy.
02:15 If there's anything I know about these two is one, Kyrie's going to put on a show to
02:20 say, look what you could have had.
02:23 And then the other one is going to do it because he loves when everybody hates him and thinks
02:27 he's an underdog.
02:28 Luka Donjic, he gets off.
02:31 And if he thinks it's bad in Minneapolis with those candy ass fans, wait till he gets a
02:37 load of the racists and the language in Boston at the Garden.
02:42 I mean, these are the worst, most evil fans on the face of the earth in a basketball arena.
02:48 I know they think that they're bad asses in Philly.
02:51 There are a bunch of guys wearing fake leather jackets that think they're mobsters.
02:56 Everybody's a tough guy in Philly because they got a gun in their glove box.
02:59 OK, that doesn't make you a bad ass in Boston.
03:02 They're just straight up racist and hate it.
03:04 Everybody and I mean, you can quote me on that, though, that is the most racist, hateful.
03:10 I mean, it's an orgy of venom in that arena.
03:13 He's going to get all of it.
03:14 Chris Stapps, did he do any more today than he did yesterday?
03:16 He did everything the team did.
03:18 We'll go significantly harder tomorrow.
03:21 But you know, today was kind of moderate.
03:24 But he went through everything that the team did today.
03:27 There you go.
03:28 You mentioned some of the drills he was able to do yesterday.
03:31 What were those and just how do you kind of look going through those?
03:34 Just basketball drills.
03:35 He looked pretty good.
03:36 He can walk.
03:37 He can walk.
03:38 I mean, the bottom line is, listen, I love Zinger.
03:41 I've always liked him.
03:42 I like his game.
03:43 I know what he does.
03:44 He stretches these.
03:46 He can hit deep shots.
03:49 He alters shots and everything else.
03:51 But I will tell you what, he I think he, you know, lumbers down the court.
03:58 I think he's slow.
04:00 I think he's got leg problems.
04:03 He's got calf problems.
04:05 I frankly think that, you know, this kid Lively's just got more bounce, more hop, more speed,
04:15 plays more intense at the rim.
04:18 You know, Porzingis doesn't play at the rim in my view.
04:21 He plays outside.
04:23 And this other guy attacks the rim, lob dunks, block shots, dives for 50-50 balls.
04:31 Porzingis doesn't do any of that.
04:33 So he knows if Porzingis goes down, he may not get up.
04:38 So he not diving for any loose balls on the floor.
04:41 He strictly gets the ball.
04:43 They leave him open.
04:44 He shoots.
04:45 He either makes it or he doesn't.
04:46 If he's on, he's lethal.
04:48 If he's off, I kind of think he sucks.
04:52 When he's off, he's really off.
04:54 Like when he's cold, he is, he can drag them down.
04:59 I'm telling you, they won without him.
05:01 Now they're going to inject him in again and give him the ball all the time.
05:04 Bottom line is, in my view, it's got to be Tatum, Brown and White scoring.
05:10 And Pritchard does an incredible job off of the bench.
05:13 I know what Porzingis means to them and brings to the table, but he just missed a month.
05:20 So I put no faith in his body whatsoever, Mike.
05:26 I don't put much faith in it either, honestly.
05:28 I would, like you said, they've gotten here without him.
05:32 I would wait till maybe we're closer to 100%.
05:34 And if he is, there's going to be rust that he's going to have to get off as well.
05:38 Now we'll try, Scotty, Mazzulla on Kyrie coming into Boston and being the villain.
05:43 Let's see.
05:44 Rightly or wrongly, Kyrie is going to be perceived as a villain in this series.
05:50 Aren't we all?
05:51 In someone's eyes.
05:52 Pardon me?
05:53 We're all villains in someone's eyes.
05:54 Yeah, exactly.
05:55 How about this guy?
05:58 This guy is so boring.
05:59 Tuning out the noise.
06:00 Is that something that you take into consideration?
06:01 This guy didn't have fun in his setting.
06:02 He's a great player.
06:03 He's done a lot of good things.
06:04 I think just how he's carried himself, how he's played this postseason has been one of
06:15 the fun things to watch as one of the themes in the NBA.
06:18 So he's a great player.
06:19 Aren't we all the villains?
06:20 He's done a lot of great things in the course of his career.
06:22 He's playing really well.
06:23 You have to respect that.
06:25 You can't take that for granted.
06:26 And you have to be ready to guard him at a high level.
06:29 It's the most important thing.
06:32 You know, well, just so we're clear, no one can guard him.
06:36 No one can guard him.
06:38 So I don't want to hear it.
06:39 And this guy's personality, honestly, he's like a can of paint.
06:44 He's fun at parties, man.
06:45 And he like, that's like, he had a chance like to do something like maybe kind of off
06:51 the cuff and be like, have a little bit of a joke.
06:53 He's like, aren't we all the villain sometimes?
06:55 Like you got to look at the camera.
06:57 Like it was probably serious, too.
06:58 Like he wasn't even trying to joke around.
07:00 It's worse than the guy.
07:02 It's all business all the time.
07:05 Never has any fun ever.
07:07 And then, you know, everyone, they all say the same thing.
07:10 I guarantee it.
07:11 There's no one that likes being around him.
07:13 That guy.
07:14 Oh, he's like, he is.
07:15 He's a stiff.
07:16 I don't care what anybody says.
07:17 You can have him.
07:18 On the other, on the other side, Jason Kidd, Scotty, he's playing things fast and loose
07:28 as they get ready for game number one Thursday night is they're going to start ramping up
07:33 all of their preparation today.
07:35 Here's Kidd.
07:36 Same messaging as the Western Conference and the first round and second round.
07:40 It's just basketball.
07:41 It's just more of you guys.
07:42 Here we go.
07:43 It's just basketball.
07:44 It's just basketball.
07:45 It's just basketball.
07:48 Enjoy it because you're not guaranteed to be here every year to understand that there's
07:55 one goal and that's to win a championship.
07:58 And there's only two teams left and we're one of them.
08:01 And so to take pride in that, but to enjoy it and to understand it's not the hardest
08:09 thing to do as much as we said.
08:11 The last round is the hardest thing.
08:14 You know, so for this to enjoy this, the atmosphere, to enjoy the media, the attention and to,
08:22 to be ready to do your job and that's to find a way to win on the road.
08:26 I think it's a little bit like going to the final four, going to the NBA finals.
08:32 All eyes are on you all over the world.
08:35 It is what it is.
08:37 But I think it comes with a tremendous amount of stress and losing, you know, adds to that
08:45 stress and levels you can't imagine.
08:48 You lose the first game, everybody starts tripping.
08:50 You lose another one and you go down to, I mean, people are losing their minds.
08:55 So I do, I do not believe that it is fun whatsoever at all.
09:00 Zero fun.
09:01 It is not fun.
09:02 This is win at all costs.
09:07 That's it.
09:08 You have to win.
09:09 When you get to this stage, you have to win.
09:12 And you know, I've gotten to that stage four times undefeated and lost and it's the worst
09:18 feeling in the world.
09:19 There is no fun.
09:21 Okay.
09:22 I remember a guy laughing at me after we lost one of a mafia and I told him, come over here
09:26 and I'll give you, I'll wipe that smile off of your face.
09:30 I was ready to knock the kid's teeth out.
09:33 Losing sucks so bad.
09:34 So I don't want to hear how fun it is.
09:36 It's not fun at all.
09:38 It's stressful is what it is.
09:39 Playing in a championship game.
09:41 You got butterflies, you're stressed out.
09:43 You might even cable in your pants.
09:45 [Music]