What to expect from the Mavs in Game 2 | Celtics Lab - video Dailymotion

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The Boston Celtics took Game 1 of the 2024 NBA Finals in emphatic fashion thanks to a surprisingly spry Kristaps Porzingis in his first game in the '24 NBA Playoffs in over a month, and perhaps the best defensive game of Jaylen Brown's career.  Even on a night that saw Jayson Tatum go 6-of-16 from the floor, he still found ways to impact the game, and Boston as a whole limited Dallas to just 9 assists and 4 shot attempts between bigs Daniel Gafford and Derrick Lively II. The Celtics roared out to a 29-point lead only to see the Mavs cut it to 8 points in the third frame, but a healthy dose of the clamps coupled with a trademark Boston scoring barrage put Dallas away for good.  To talk over what they saw in Game 1 of the series, the hosts of the CLNS Media "Celtics Lab" podcast, Alex Goldberg, Cameron Tabatabaie, and Justin Quinn, convened postgame from TD Garden.  They also preview what might be coming in Game 2 of the series on Sunday evening, so if you want to gloat a bit or just need to get your bearings, this is the pod for you.    The Celtics Lab podcast is brought to you by Prize Picks and Gametime.  Prize Picks! Get in on the excitement with PrizePicks, America’s No. 1 Fantasy Sports App, where you can turn your hoops knowledge into serious cash. Download the app today and use code CLNS for a first deposit match up to $100! Pick more. Pick less. It’s that Easy! Go to https://PrizePicks.com/CLNS  Gametime! Take the guesswork out of buying NBA tickets with Gametime. Download the Gametime app, create an account, and use code CLNS for $20 off your first purchase. Download Gametime today. Last minute tickets. Lowest Price. Guaranteed. Terms apply. Go to https://gametime.co !

Transcript

00:00 Welcome to another edition of the Celtics Lab podcast. I am your guest host for the

00:13 moment, Alex Goldberg. Cam is wrapping up the presser with our beloved Celtics, Jay

00:19 Mazzullo, Derek White, and Jason Tatum coming on shortly. With me as always is Dr. Justin

00:25 Quinn, and we are here to recap game one of the NBA finals. Yes, we are finally here,

00:31 folks. Boston Celtics cruising to a big game one win against the Dallas Mavericks, and

00:38 we're just getting this series started. So let's see. This Celtics Lab podcast is brought

00:44 to you by PrizePix, the exclusive fantasy basketball partner of CLNS Media Network.

00:49 Celtics Lab is also brought to you by Game Time Tickets, last minute tickets, lowest

00:52 price guaranteed. And hey, if you enjoy the pod that is to come, why don't you check out

00:57 the How 'Bout Them Celtics podcast, the First to the Floor podcast, and the many other New

01:00 England sports podcasts available on the CLNS Media Network. Again, we all know why we're

01:06 here, folks. It's the NBA finals. It's game one, and Boston just steamrolled to a huge

01:13 victory. Dr. Quinn, how are we feeling?

01:18 I am feeling like the best case scenario came out and made my worries about this series

01:26 look a little foolish, which is exactly the kind of foolish I like to look. I can't help

01:32 but feel a little silly for puffing up what the rest of this team could do. We all know

01:42 what Kyrie can do. We all know what Luca can do. There were moments where Luca was cooking

01:47 a bit, but we really need to give the Celtics their flowers. Everything we asked them to

01:52 do, they've done for the most part. There were a couple of minutes to let go of their

01:56 rope a little bit, but even then, they just flipped the defensive clamps on and that was

02:01 it.

02:02 Yeah, my overarching takeaway from this game is actually not so much about the Dallas Mavericks,

02:08 who I think honestly played, I thought, a pretty decent game. They got a lot of good

02:13 looks. They just missed shots. I think if they had made some of the threes that they

02:19 got, this game would have been a lot closer. But this game was about Boston and it was

02:24 about the level of execution that they can reach when they are at their best, which I

02:29 don't think was even for the entire game. To be clear, Boston has another gear that

02:34 they can go to and that's what's so frightening about this, if you're a Dallas Mavericks fan.

02:40 The defensive intensity was just exactly what you're looking for from this team, from the

02:45 jump. The rim protection was elite. Boston finished the night with nine blocks, three

02:52 of which were just emphatic rejections by Jalen Brown, who really stood out on that

02:57 end. And Drew Holliday just continues to be an exceptional point of attack defender, along

03:03 with Derek White. Holliday finished the game plus 20. In general, the Mavs just never looked

03:11 like they got into a comfortable rhythm on offense, even though Luka Doncic got his and

03:16 he is going to get his for the remainder of the series, let's be clear. Luka was exceptional.

03:23 Pretty much nobody else on Dallas was able to make an impact offensively. And that to

03:27 me is more than anything, just a testament to the outstanding defensive effort that Boston

03:32 can give when they're fully healthy and ready to go.

03:35 Let's talk about that a bit. I think there were four field goal attempts by Derek Lively

03:40 and Gafford together, combined. That's impressive.

03:46 And it speaks to strategically the Celtics approach, which I think we kind of both were

03:52 thinking was somewhat likely, but it played out in pretty dramatic fashion tonight for

03:58 Boston. It's clear that they want to choke the rim off completely against this Dallas

04:02 team, in some ways flipping the Dallas script on them. Dallas has absolutely thrived with

04:09 points in the paint in the postseason. That's been the number one source of offense for

04:13 them is using their two elite finishers in Luka and Kyrie to set up actions at the rim

04:20 where they can lob to their athletic bigs in Gafford and Lively. Boston clearly emphasized

04:27 from the jump, you are not getting that lob. Jason Tatum did a great job walling off Derek

04:32 Lively on the short roll. Daniel Gafford was a non-factor in this game. He just, he kind

04:38 of seemed like he didn't exist out there. Porzingis, Jalen Brown, Horford all defended

04:45 the rim really effectively. And what stood out to me about that rim protection in particular

04:51 is that, so rim protection, when most people think of rim protection, they think of the

04:56 stuff that happens at the rim, the block shots, the great contest to throw off a hard shot

05:04 at the rim. And Boston did plenty of that, but rim protection is not just blocking shots

05:10 or being tall or getting in the way. Rim protection also involves disrupting dribbles and drives

05:16 to make those shots more difficult to even attempt. And one thing that really stood out

05:21 to me just watching the game is that every time Luka got into the paint, you saw a second

05:28 help defender coming in from the weak side to jam up that dribble, to make him think

05:33 twice, to make that shot more challenging. Now, Luka is one of the most adaptable players

05:40 in the NBA. So I fully expect that he's going to be prepared for that. That early double

05:45 or that late double that comes at the end of the possession when Luka is driving into

05:50 the paint, he's going to try and read that. And I imagine Boston will have to anticipate

05:55 and prepare for that for next game. This is going to be a series full of adjustments.

05:59 But what stood out to me is Boston's rim protection, not just in the form of blocking

06:05 shots or contesting shots, but also in the form of providing really timely and quick

06:10 rotations to prevent Dallas from even getting good shots at the rim.

06:19 You're muted. You're muted.

06:20 You know, what stood out to me more than maybe anything I can think of is Chris Hepp's

06:26 Porzingis being way more ready to go than I think any of us really thought.

06:32 Yeah, I think that's a huge part of the story tonight. And it's one that people are going to

06:36 harp on pretty consistently. But Porzingis exploded for 18 points off the bench in the

06:43 first half. He was red hot to begin as soon as he came in. Neat curveball by Joe Mizzoula,

06:51 one that I didn't really expect, but was pretty happy to see play out. I was a little worried

06:58 about Porzingis coming off a prolonged absence of being a little rusty. And Mizzoula, to his

07:06 credit, stuck with the lineup that got them there. Porzingis played two and a half playoff

07:12 games. Boston rolled the Eastern Conference with Al Horford starting at center. Horford was

07:17 terrific again. And I think Mizzoula pretty wisely decided, "Hey, we're going to keep this

07:24 thing going. We don't want to disrupt the flow that we're in right now." And the idea of bringing

07:29 Porzingis off the bench to match minutes with Lively throws a real challenge at this Dallas

07:34 team. I mean, Lively had, you know, four fouls almost instantaneously, it felt like.

07:41 And he was very much getting the rookie treatment. And honestly, this is the first time I've seen him

07:46 in the postseason look like a rookie. Yeah. And I think a big part of that is the

07:50 spacing threat that Porzingis provides is just so hard to deal with. This is the first truly five

07:56 out team that Dallas has played in the postseason, with apologies to the Thunder. If you're starting

08:02 Josh Giddey, you are not a five out team. And, you know, I think that really showed both in

08:10 terms of the three-point shooting, obviously, you know, Celtics had another historic three-point

08:15 shooting night, which is just hilarious that they keep doing this. But also, you know, one of the

08:21 things that manifested that in that was Derek Lively had to play way out on the defensive end,

08:29 and that opened him up to dribble penetration, particularly Jaylen Brown was pretty relentless

08:35 in every time he got switched with Derek Lively, he was taking it to the basket. Jason Tatum too,

08:41 I think they really tried to hunt him on the perimeter. And Dallas has got some tough decisions

08:47 to make with this big man rotation, I think, because Lively looked a lot like a rookie out

08:53 there as to your point. And I just think Gafford is a little too small for the Celtics front court,

09:00 as things are currently constituted. And you really can't go small against Boston.

09:05 You know, just the size, like when Missoula went to the double big lineup, it was startlingly

09:14 effective in a way that it really hasn't been throughout this season. You know, I was very

09:19 impressed with Joe Missoula. He did a terrific job tonight, you know, just making consistent,

09:27 accurate reads on the defensive end and really hitting the switches and, you know, kind of

09:32 setting Boston up for success. And you know, one thing about setting yourself up for success is,

09:39 if you're trying to, for example, you know, I don't know, set yourself up for success in,

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10:50 for the first deposit match up to $100. So speaking of picks, Justin, you know,

10:59 one of the things that we try to do over at the lab here is make picks on, you know, the games.

11:06 And we try to make picks on, you know, how these games are going to play out. And in order to

11:11 really understand that, we need to go deep. We need to go into the quarter by quarter breakdown.

11:16 So let's start with your thoughts on the first quarter.

11:20 Well, let's bring in someone who was there live and direct to see the first quarter.

11:28 So first quarter, what did we see in the first quarter, Cameron?

11:32 What's up? I hope we're seeing good Wi-Fi. I'm sitting courtside at TD Garden where the Wi-Fi

11:39 is never good. So apologies in advance. We saw Luke Dantzschitz make shots and Boston just have

11:48 a few errors that kept things close enough. I think at one point it was like 15-14, Dallas.

11:54 And then from there Porzingis came in. He was huge. I think he had 11 in the quarter.

11:59 Boston, a bunch of threes. And that was it. Them's the breaks. Dallas, just like there's

12:06 no way they can keep up the Celtics offense when it's humming like that. The only times that things

12:12 got close were when Dallas played as aggressive as we've ever seen them play on defense. It wasn't

12:18 enough to really slow Boston down. And the Celtics had a few too many turnovers. Stop me if you've

12:24 heard that one before. So the first quarter saw really good basketball. A few just like hoops.

12:30 That was just tremendous. They were going back and forth there. But once Boston took control of

12:36 this game, it was Blouses. Dallas had one assist and no corner threes. That's Missoula ball, baby.

12:43 This hook line and sinker, they got Dantzschitz. He had 30 points, 10 rebounds.

12:48 - Nine assists in the whole game for the Mavericks. I had to look that up and check

12:54 because I didn't believe it. Yeah. - Yeah. I mean, to the point we were

12:58 making earlier, and I know you just popped in, Kim, but choking off that lob just does so much

13:03 for stopping this Dallas offense. So many of their assists and their best looks are generated

13:09 by Luka and Kyrie knifing into the lane and then throwing it up to Lively or Gafford. If those guys

13:15 can't get up off the bounce and really make that a consistent lob threat, things get really hard

13:21 really quickly. Another thing I noticed is that Boston pretty early seemed very comfortable with

13:29 letting PJ Washington shoot threes. They pretty explicitly made that part of their game plan,

13:35 and that continued throughout the game. But I think they bet, and it appears to have paid off,

13:41 that PJ Washington's shooting numbers would look a little bit more like they did in Minnesota than

13:47 they did against Oklahoma City for this series. Another thing that jumped out to me, Sam Hauser

13:55 came off the bench and looked extremely confident for this first quarter, particularly on defense.

14:02 He had a couple of terrific stops. He stonewalled Kyrie Irving, which is not something that I think

14:09 anybody would have expected heading into this matchup, myself included. Sam was great. And

14:15 if Boston can actually go seven deep with Horford, obviously, and Porzingis alternating as that fifth,

14:22 sixth guy, and then one of the other bench guys, be it Sam, be it Pritchard, really whoever,

14:30 that makes things very hard for Dallas very quickly. Let's swing to the second quarter.

14:37 So obviously, Boston. Yeah, go ahead.

14:39 Can I just hop in on that?

14:41 Credit to Sam Hauser, obviously. But guess who had a big, awful game? Kyrie Irving. He was

14:48 horrible. 0 for 5 from 3, 6 for 19 from the field, 12 points, 2 turnovers. Celtics defense really

14:57 gave it to him, and he was never comfortable. There was a stretch in the first and a stretch

15:01 in the third where he strung his feet back together. But by and large, Kyrie was not just

15:06 a non-factor. He was a net negative for the Mavericks. Huge credit to the Celtics defense

15:14 on that. But I don't know. Kyrie Irving is a guy who really gets in his head in the postseason,

15:18 and we talked about this before the series. We saw him completely lose his cool in the playoffs

15:24 when he was a member of the Celtics. He did not have composure tonight. Definitely a thing to

15:29 keep an eye on, because if the Mavericks don't have their second offensive weapon, even at good

15:35 level, their goose is cooked, man. For sure. I think one thing to keep in mind is that Kyrie

15:41 Irving took and missed a number of wide-open threes, and that's a big part of whether he had

15:47 a good game or a bad game. Obviously, you don't really want to give those looks to Kyrie over the

15:53 course of a series. If he does get hot, that becomes problematic very quickly. But that being

15:58 said, when he's missing them, it chokes the life out of this Dallas offense. So much of what they

16:06 do relies on Luka having space to create. Luka was gassed out there, man. I mean, he got his 30,

16:14 but that was not- He was wincing coming down the court, too, man. It looks like-

16:19 Yeah. Second quarter, real quick. So speaking of Kyrie Irving, he briefly heated up in the

16:27 second quarter and started to kind of turn on a little bit. But I think to me, what stood out

16:35 for that second quarter, and I'll let y'all take it after this, is that that's where you really

16:42 felt the impact of that Kristaps Porzingis off the bench. And I know he did a lot of his scoring

16:48 in the first quarter. Defensively, Porzingis looked outstanding in the second quarter. He was

16:54 flying in, contesting shots, blocking shots, generally getting in the way. And he hit a couple

17:02 of shots which I think are just so important to the Celtics team, the "I'm taller than you" shots,

17:10 which really break open this offense in a pretty serious way.

17:15 I thought they were going to defend that better based on what we saw in previous rounds. And at

17:20 least in the first game, they did a really horrible job of defending KP when he was doing that.

17:25 Yeah. And I think one of the- Yeah, go ahead, Kim.

17:28 The only player- Someone asked Porzingis about this. I think it was Malika Andrews basically

17:34 being like, "You are a unicorn. Let's remind ourselves of that." The only time you would

17:39 really get practice guarding that would maybe be Chet Holmgren. And he is, I don't know,

17:44 20 years old and wasn't ready for the postseason. So I agree just that why didn't Dallas defend it

17:50 better. But it's such a unique thing to know how to defend that you can't really get that many reps

17:55 in. Yeah. And from a personnel standpoint, Dallas is not super well equipped to defend those shots.

18:01 Derek Lively is kind of the only guy out there who is really tall enough to contest that.

18:06 And Derek Lively really struggled on the perimeter tonight. As soon as he got pulled out into the

18:12 kind of perimeter area, whether it was Tatum, Brown, I mean, Drew Holiday even took it to

18:17 him at one point. Double Biggs too. That was definitely pulling him out. Absolutely.

18:22 Lively is going to need to make some adjustments in this series if Dallas wants to-

18:28 Not fouling would be a good adjustment. Not fouling for sure. But they might have

18:34 to play him in a deep drop because I just I don't think you can have that guy switch out

18:38 on the perimeter and have it work. Can we use that to talk about game two?

18:43 And can I talk about one of the things that I'm eager to look at?

18:46 Before we talk about, we can probably, we saw what happened in the third quarter. I mean,

18:53 Dallas came out with their best punch. It didn't work. But before we transition to game two,

19:00 let's talk about Jason Tatum a little bit because he had a good game and he had a bad game at the

19:05 same time. Right. But in my opinion, this was actually a really good game from him because

19:11 his shot was clearly not falling, but he gave the game literally everything else it needed.

19:15 To that point, if you look at how Dallas was playing, it was clear from the jump that their

19:21 number one most important priority on defense was send to it Jason Tatum literally every possession.

19:28 They did not want Jason Tatum to get hot. They sent to when he was in the lane. They sent late

19:35 doubles when he was out of the three point line. And every single time that they did that, Tatum

19:41 drove the ball and kicked to somebody to set up a secondary action, which is exactly what you want

19:47 from Jason Tatum in that situation. Too often, he has tried to force bad shots in previous post

19:54 seasons. In that exact scenario, you can tell that he really trusts the guys out there because,

20:00 you know, I can't even count the number of times that they sent to it. Jason Tatum and his response

20:06 was take it to the basket, look for the kick out, swing the ball around, open corner three or open

20:12 drive to the rack. Just a really mature performance. And even though his shooting was so-so

20:18 and really has been the whole playoffs, again, when the entire defense is geared towards stopping you

20:26 and you're still able to impose your will on the offensive end, that's getting into special

20:32 territory. Yeah, he was a plus 19. I think only Drew Holliday was more. And I think Alex, to your

20:38 point, he got a lot of hockey assists or like hockey assists that don't show up in the stat

20:42 sheet. But so much of Boston success was Tatum and Brown. I don't know if you guys talked about

20:48 Jalen earlier. No, we didn't. We mean to give him he was really the best player all around

20:52 through the whole game. Jalen kicked so much ass on defense. That was one of the three blocks.

20:59 And yeah, one of the blocks, man. Sorry. Go ahead. I was gonna say after the game,

21:06 I asked him about the blocks and the steals. And he did this with every question that I asked. He

21:11 was just like, we're on to whether or not he believes that he really wants to be the

21:17 you know, the the mirror version of himself, which is not resting on his laurels, not celebrating the

21:24 moment, but staying singularly focused. So I would hazard that was the best defensive game I've ever

21:29 seen Jalen Brown play. And his response in so many words was, yeah, but we have another game on

21:34 Sunday. Yeah, Cam. No, I totally agree. And speaking of having another game on Sunday,

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23:20 Yeah. Good stuff. Can I talk about game two now? Yeah, let's talk about game two. And then I got

23:29 to go. Joe Missoula outcoached Jason Kidd in a big, loud, obvious way. And I know that Jason Kidd

23:37 has nearly as many cards to play. But I think that's something I just think I don't know. Jason

23:43 Kidd was coaching for his job like eight months ago. I don't know why suddenly we think that he is

23:47 a super high caliber coach. And Joe Missoula is to quote, theoretic, absolute sicko. I think that

23:56 the coaching matchup heavily favors Boston here. And again, there's only so much I mean, Dallas can

24:01 do. Derek Lively is 20. It's like he's not ready for this moment. He's not ready for this moment.

24:05 That's not on him. But I think Joe Missoula was ready for everything Dallas tried. Boston was a

24:13 few main shots away from that run in the third quarter not even happening for the Mavericks.

24:17 I think Joe Missoula outcoaching kid in a big way is something not to just like look out for in game

24:24 two, but at this point, something to expect. Yeah, I mean, I want to pump the brakes a little

24:29 bit just in that Dallas is one of the absolute best teams at adjusting in the postseason based

24:35 on what we've seen. They have won every game to that they've played so far in the playoffs.

24:39 And all of them have been on the road. It's clear that Jason Kidd and his staff are going to try and

24:45 change some things up. I would not be surprised, for example, to see Dallas try out some small

24:50 ball lineups just to open up the spacing a little bit. You could see Maxi Kluber at the five.

24:54 I would not be surprised to see tweaks like, I don't know, for example, trying to maybe get

25:02 more shooters out there, have like Lucas surrounded by shooters at all times. To your point, Cam,

25:09 there are only so many adjustments that you can make at this point. Both of these teams have

25:13 watched hours and hours and hours of film on each other. And the rosters are what the rosters are.

25:19 There's only so much you can do. But Dallas has shown an ability to just over the course of a

25:25 series. And I do think while it is true that Joe Mazzullo, I think, sound way out coach Jason Kidd

25:31 tonight, Dallas is going to come out desperate in game two and they're going to be playing

25:37 super duper hard. And I imagine that that is going to be a much tighter game.

25:41 Game two question for y'all. Does Brasinga come off the bench?

25:47 Oh, that's a good one. Oh, clip that. That's the best question we're going to get. Okay.

25:52 Ask it again. Is he coming off the bench,

25:55 Chris? I think no. I think that Joe Mazzullo, to your point, Cam, is a sicko when it comes to

26:10 making adjustments on the fly. If I'm Joe Mazzullo, I'm trying to keep Dallas on their toes

26:18 24/7, 365 for this series. I am trying to throw them every single weird curveball that you can

26:25 possibly throw to take them off their game, to take them out of their rhythm. I would not be

26:30 surprised to see Horford and Brasinga's alternating starts in this series at all. It might be crazy,

26:37 but I think there's a level of trust on this team where, given what Horford did at the beginning of

26:45 the year, volunteering to come off the bench, even though he was the team's longest tenured

26:50 player, and by all rights, he could have said, "Hell no, I'm not doing that." That has created

26:56 a level of trust and sacrifice for this team that I think really can't be overstated.

27:02 So let's get funky with it, Joe Mazzullo. Start Porzingis in game two, and then start Al

27:08 Horford in game three. Keep him guessing. Just for intrigue, I'll go the opposite direction.

27:14 While I don't think that Dallas is the most athletic or fast team, I also think Ljubodan

27:23 Cic the other day was like, "Look, my knee is not 100% not playing extra basketball this summer."

27:30 That feels really telling. Austin was so aggressive from the jump. I think Dallas was

27:36 out of gas at the seven-minute mark, and Porzingis came into the game. Now suddenly, you bring in a

27:42 20-point score, one of the league's premier and most unique offensive weapons. I think

27:47 that's going to be just something that Dallas can't match. And bringing Horford into the game

27:52 just doesn't do that in the same way. Alex, I love the suggestion that Mazzullo is dancing circles

28:00 around Jason Kidd. I just think that having a Jamal Crawford who is 7'1" come in the game is

28:08 such an interesting card to play. I wouldn't mind seeing that again.

28:14 Justin, you asked the question. What do you think? I think it's going to be

28:17 more Porzingis playing time, still coming off the bench in the next game. That's the last time he

28:26 comes off the bench. I think that we will see his load increase more as the series progresses,

28:33 and Al shrink just a little. I don't think he's going to shrink much lower than it is now. I

28:37 think he only played like 30 minutes tonight, which I think is about perfect to get the most

28:41 out of Al. But I could see Joe being a sicko and trying something like this, even though I think

28:50 that this is the more traditional way to ramp up Porzingis in the context that you have available

28:55 to you. And that's what we expect, right? So it really wouldn't surprise me if we're wrong,

29:01 and Alex is right. So Horford played 30 minutes and Porzingis only played 21 minutes. If it wasn't

29:08 as big of a blowout, those numbers only go up a few more minutes. What an absolute luxury

29:15 it is to not need those guys to play 40 minutes. So much of the series is down to this is such a

29:26 well-created roster. This is 10 years in the making of roster building, and they nailed it.

29:32 I don't know. We haven't seen in a long, long time. I'll say that much.

29:38 Because yeah, Tatum is good and dealing with double teams, but

29:41 the way that this team is put together is so staggering.

29:44 Yeah. When they're firing on all cylinders on the defensive end,

29:50 things get pretty special for Boston. Just like the fact that Derek White and Jalen Brown and Drew

29:59 Holliday were all just mauling Luca as soon as he got across half court, forcing these brutal

30:05 turnovers that are just back breakers where the ball comes loose and it's an open fast break dug.

30:12 I think Draymond Green has made this point a couple of times, and I don't agree with Draymond.

30:18 He does make some good points occasionally. There's a difference between turnovers,

30:25 between the types of turnovers that you have. There's some turnovers that happen in the flow

30:30 of an offense that are just built in. If you pass the ball around a lot, if you move the ball the

30:36 way that Celtics do, there are turnovers that are going to happen as a result of that. Somebody will

30:41 get their hands in the way. Somebody will cut off a passing lane and there'll be a miscommunication,

30:48 something like that. Then there are turnovers that are back breakers where Derek White comes

30:53 up and just mugs you at half court. That is a different kind of turnover than a turnover that

30:59 comes as a result of a miscommunication on a drive and kick sequence. If Boston continues to

31:04 get those kind of turnovers, this is going to be a very hard series for the Mavs. It was only one

31:12 possession and I griped about it on social media earlier. No more pregnant defense. Just stop that

31:19 crap. It was only one stupid possession at the end of the first quarter and it immediately bit them.

31:26 We didn't see any of that in the second quarter. We didn't need to. If there is a close game,

31:30 please, for the love of God, do not do that crap. >>

31:33 Am I supposed to just start telling stories? >> You should probably tell us something about

31:42 what you saw. >> One more quick point before we do that.

31:45 Continue to crash the offensive glass. Boston owned the offensive glass tonight and it really,

31:52 really showed. They were so impressive on that. Shout out to Peyton Pritchard,

31:58 who didn't really even have that good of a game, but just jumped into the lane to get

32:04 extra possessions, to knock people around a little bit. That guy's a bowling ball, man.

32:09 He plays a lot. >> He guarded Luca for a full possession

32:12 and Luca did not score, which for someone who is shorter than me, it's a pretty amazing height.

32:17 >> He's learning a lot. >> Beat, beat.

32:19 >> He's learning a lot from Drew Holiday about how to just use momentum to bump into people and

32:26 create havoc. I think the guard rebounding just continues to stand out as a massive piece of why

32:33 the Celtics are so successful. Anyway, Cameron, press conference time, what happened?

32:38 >> Both teams had 10 offensive rebounds tonight, for whatever that's worth. What happened was

32:45 this team is a bunch of little go Missoula minions. Missoula gave nothing in the post-game

32:52 press conference. He kind of mumbled through some analytics and he talked about defense and he

32:57 talked about staying ready. And anytime he's asked, I mean, since April, all the games are the same.

33:04 This is preparing like any other game. It's just one game. He gives you nothing. He doesn't offer

33:10 the moment. He doesn't want the moment. And then of course, Porzingis doesn't have that instinct.

33:18 He comes in, he's like, I loved the crowd. I had so much fun. This was fun. He's having a blast.

33:22 But then Jalen comes in and says, we got to win. It's just one game. Derek Welk comes in.

33:26 We got to be better in game two. We got to be way better in game two. Tatum offered that he's

33:32 nervous, but like in a cute way. But then same thing. He understands that it's about the future,

33:38 not the present. So it continues to be this really Bradstead's Jomila Juggernaut, which is

33:45 the guys are really laser focused on the outcome and disciplined in that resolve, whether or not

33:53 they feel it on their bones, whether or not it keeps them up at night, that they are

33:55 giggly and excited. The way that they compose themselves is steely. And you see it on the court.

34:04 They are a little flappable, but by and large, I don't know how many times this postseason have

34:10 they been truly out of sorts for more than eight minutes, nine minutes to get it together. And

34:16 it's different. It's different than the teams in the past. I know that everyone is expecting the

34:24 same old Celtics because it's five years they came up short and this is year six.

34:28 It's different. They are different players, different personnel, different experiences,

34:33 and a different coach. I think that the press conference is just like a reminder that even the

34:42 relief of winning game one after a week off, no, they were still tough as nails. They weren't

34:49 going to give an inch. These guys are tired of losing. They're all tired of BS. Joe Mizzoula

34:59 does not like to play footsie with the media. And I think his players are a little more open to it,

35:06 but they don't want to give anything. They don't want to give. I mean, Jalen, there were times

35:11 where he'd start giving kind of like a human answer and then he'd like hear himself and then

35:14 you could like probably see it on the tape. He'd like bring it back to sports jargon.

35:22 Otherwise, the finals are a zoo. So many media people. I had the really awesome experience of

35:30 watching Tim Kalashov catch up with Jackie McMullin. It was like I was in an episode

35:34 of Around the Horn. That was really cool. Can you guys believe there might only be three more Celtics

35:43 games this season? I'm here for it. I'm not ready for summer, but also, whoa.

35:51 I'm ready for duck boats, which I will be visiting Boston this summer, but not in time for that. So

35:58 y'all better freaking enjoy those for me because they are coming. Let's calm down, folks. It's just

36:02 one game. All right. Well, in the meantime, Alex is ready for bed. So close up shop, Alex. Yep.

36:09 Sounds good. All right. This episode of the Celtics Live podcast is brought to you by PrizePix,

36:14 the exclusive fantasy basketball partner of the CLNS Media Network. Celtics Live is also brought

36:19 to you by Game Time Tickets, last minute tickets, lowest price guaranteed if you enjoyed this pod.

36:24 Check out the How 'Bout Them Celtics podcast, the First to the Floor podcast, and the many other

36:28 New England sports podcasts available on the CLNS Media Network. I'm Alex Goldberg. I play in the

36:34 band Divine Sweater. If you like the music at the top, go listen to us on all streaming platforms

36:39 and follow us on Instagram, Spotify, Twitter, whatever. Justin Quinn, The Doctor, where can we

36:46 find your stuff? Well, usually it goes better when I'm unmuted, unlike last time. And the Celtics

36:54 Wire. And if you are listening to us on this podcast, well, you found the other major place

36:59 where you will find my work. And Mr. Cam, Big Cam, Mr. T, where can we find your stuff? Those

37:08 are my three nicknames. Celtics Wire, Celtics Lab, the Autograph app, incidentally. And

37:16 I don't know, Google. Yep. Sounds good. I'm around. I'm around. Fabulous. And if you liked

37:26 what you just heard right now, please take a moment to listen, like, subscribe, and follow

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37:37 You can listen to us on Spotify, Apple Music, Apple Podcasts, SoundCloud, whatever. We got it.

37:45 Thanks very much for tuning in. Celtics take game one. Let's get game two.

37:51 [Music]

What to expect from the Mavs in Game 2 | Celtics Lab

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