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00:00Terp, I want to ask you about the Celtics' defense here, because one of their calling
00:04cards last year, and of course two years ago when they went to the finals, was how good
00:08they were defensively.
00:09Last year, of course, top three, O rating, D rating, net rating.
00:13This year, their defensive rating, it's hovered around 10 for most of the year.
00:16They're eighth right now.
00:18They give up 118 to Philly, 117 to Chicago last week.
00:22How come their defense, although it's still good, how come in your eyes it hasn't been
00:26as dominant as it was a year ago at this time?
00:29Yeah, no, you're 100% right, John.
00:32And they learned that in 2022 when they went to the NBA Finals.
00:35They made it, obviously, because of their defense.
00:37Then they learned then that you also need the offense to complement it.
00:41And Joe Mizzoula really, he really emphasizes the fact that the game's connected on both
00:45ways, that you need good offense to have good defense and vice versa.
00:48And for the Celtics, the intensity, the effort, and the focus just really haven't been there
00:54this year.
00:55We're seeing some defensive lapses that we just haven't really seen from this team.
00:58And I think that could be having different guys in another lineup.
01:01But I look at that play on the side out of bounds when Tyrese Maxey dropped the ball
01:06with 1.1 seconds on the shot clock and still made the layup because there was just nobody
01:11there to contest it.
01:12So we're just seeing lapses that we're not really used to seeing from this team.
01:17So I do think it's, you know, part of it is the inconsistency of guys just haven't been
01:21there.
01:22And I think that's one of the jobs for Zingas, not being there for the rim protection is
01:24a big deal because that's been an issue for them.
01:27And he was supposed to shore that up and the numbers were trending in that way when he
01:30got back.
01:31But he just hasn't been out on the court enough.
01:34So I look at the rim protection as an issue and also teams are just getting up more threes.
01:38We saw Chicago do that, Orlando tried to do as well.
01:41Teams are trying to match the Celtics in threes and that's automatically can kind of fluctuate
01:46that number.