Deep Dive
Shownotes Transcript
Welcome to the Low Post Hoop Collective joint podcast from the parquet after the Celtics win game two. We're taping this for the second time because we had a tech snafu. Someone kicked out a course. Cedric Maxwell kicked out our cord on take one. I don't remember what the hell we said. We got to do it all again. You ready? Yeah, but here's the thing. It was a really good... Of course, we're going to say that. It was a really good podcast. Gina Auriemma came by, made some sort of joke about...
I can't remember now because it's lost to digital history. Gino Auriemma came by. I believe he was with Paige Beckers. I don't know why he's here. He likes basketball. And we said hi to him in the middle of the podcast. He just crashed. Gino Auriemma crashed the podcast. I know. And then he said something like... I said, congrats on getting your new contract. I was worried that you may not keep the job. Yes, you were very worried. And he said...
of course it's lost to history now it doesn't matter what i said something about cleveland he said i should have had cleveland offer me the job i could have maybe gotten a better contract that happened we have video of it we don't have audio of it well we do have a video of it well and that makes me feel better we're not making it up okay so let's do the podcast again are you ready yeah who won the celtics won 105 to 98. yeah um i'll try and recreate what i said at the top last time
The Celtics get up 39 threes, only make 10. But that's 13 more threes than the Mavs got up. They were 6 of 26 on threes. Jason Tatum...
One of the better six of 22 games you'll see. 12 assists, I said before, and now I remember. I ran into someone who's close to Jason Taylor before the game. You did say that. Before the game, I said, hey, what do you think about what Jay Kidd said about Jalen being the best player on the team? And this person said, all day yesterday, we reiterated, reiterated, I told everyone I know, Jason is not taking the bait. He's not taking the bait. If anything, he's going to have 15 assists tonight. He had 12. Can I just say, though?
Jason Kidd is actively double teaming Tatum because he knows how important he is. So he can say that Jalen is their best player and Jalen has been awesome. But on the Hoop Collective, we talk about actions over words. His actions make it seem like he thinks Jason Tatum is the best player. That's all.
Drew Holiday, an absolute masterpiece of a basketball game. Without question. On both ends of the floor. As we said in the first podcast, if this was a best of three and the Celtics won tonight, my vote for MVP would go to Drew Holiday. 26 points on 11 of 14. Derek White.
18 points, 4 of 10 from 3. He hit a big 3 to put him up 14. Before things got a little dicey at the end, Boston's offense went kind of into prevent mode. Got a couple of good looks still out of it. Missed them all. And you could feel, you could feel, uh-oh, is this the catastrophic fall from ahead? Crunch time loss. We've been dreading all season long for the Celtics. And then there was a moment, Brian Windhorst, which I know you want to talk about. Jason Tatum with about a minute to go.
drives by Luka or somebody, meets Derrick Jones Jr. at the summit. Derrick Jones Jr. blocks him. Here come the Mavs. 55 seconds left to go. Down five. Having made an 8-0 or 9-0 run to cut it from 14 to 5. 9-0 by my Mav. Kyrie's bringing the ball up.
Bounce pass to P.J. Washington. P.J. Washington goes up for a layup or a dunk. Derek White. Oh, blocked by White. Derek White with a spectacular. This is why I'm the greatest shot blocking guard in the league. This is why I'm the greatest shot blocking guard since Dwayne Wade. Spectacular block. But. P.J. White. You know, in the first podcast.
You had watched, you hadn't watched the replay. I hadn't watched the replay. You questioned whether I, whether there had been a foul. No, no, no. I said, I got to watch it again. And so in real time on this glorious podcast that doesn't exist, I queued up the video. I pointed it at the camera. We watch it. I said, there is Jalen Brown's hand on his back. I can't wait for the last two minute report. And we said,
P.J. Washington go to the line, cut it to three, cut it to four. P.J. Washington was actually a maverick who made his free throws tonight. Four of four. And at the very least, Boston's win probability is still very high. This is, as you said multiple times on Podcast No. 1, Lost History. This is not the reason Dallas lost the game. But at the very least, there would have been a nice, juicy, delicious, testy moment for Boston's offense, which is already...
I wouldn't say off the rails. They got a couple of good looks. They were just taking all the time off the clock, and we didn't get it. So, yes, Boston would have had the ball up three with probably a timeout to set up their play. I'm not saying it would have changed the game.
The reason why Boston won this game, in my view, was that Dallas had some horrible turnovers. 15 turnovers cost them 21 points and because they missed free throws. Eight for Luka, as you pointed out on the first spot, including some wild. And a couple of just awful ones. And then when they hit the two threes in the fourth quarter, when they, the Celtics, hit the two threes, it basically gave them the separation. Kyrie had a terrible turnover in there as well.
So those turnovers really were a big factor in why they lost. It was not the missed foul call. But the missed foul call is what, if you're a Dallas fan, you're just steaming mad about. And it just felt like every time Dallas would get it to 7 or 8,
Boston would come back with a run or Peyton Pritchard would hit a borderline half court shot at the buzzer of the third quarter off the glass, which is like a big shot. It was down to six. Yeah. Dallas, Luca hit it at three. Kyrie had gotten to the line. It was like, okay, here they come. This is the game that the Celtics were, you know, like this was the blueprint for Dallas. Hang around, hang around, let your great players take you over the finish line. And then Peyton Pritchard popped the balloon at the end of the third quarter. Yeah.
Having said all that, Boston only scored 105 points. What were they from three-point range? 10 of 39. 39 attempts is a win for Boston, plus 13 attempts. That is a game you need to beat them. Also, we should mention the Mavs, you alluded to it, 16 of 24 at the line, can't leave points at the line. Eight missed free throws, 15 turnovers for 21 points.
Lose a game where Boston shoots what? What is 10 of 39? 28% or something like that? 25.6%. 25.6%. Well, look, here's... It was bad math. Of course it was 1 of 4. Here is just... I said on Podcast One... Let's reference it a few more times. Yeah, keep talking. It was brilliant. Some of our best work. I think I used some good vocabulary. You did. Cedric Maxwell talked trash to...
James Worthy. Cedric Maxwell asked James Worthy about his ass. Which I would just say that happened two years ago after they got up 1-0 in San Francisco. He said, and I quote, tell James Worthy to smell our ass on the way by. He said it again. He was on his way to the 18th banner. So he's done it again. 10 of 39. Okay, well, here's the just unending problem.
- Persistence, that's the word I wrote down. Tatum and Brown just would not stop going to the rim. They kept their dribbles alive long enough to suck in extra help. - Kept getting fouled. - They were getting fouled.
And they'd take them 5 of 6, Jalen 4 of 4. Not a ton of free throws, but Boston was in the bonus more than usual in this game. But they just got the matchup they wanted. Oftentimes Luka, sometimes Kleba, sometimes Lively and Gafford, and just beat them off the dribble, beat them off the dribble, put their head down, and they just produced one kick out three after another. They're easy looks. Boston is not making them. Hauser even was 0 of 5. Hauser 0 of 5 is like a black swan event. And...
Yeah, Boston got a good look every time down the court. And I just don't know what Dallas is... I was waiting to see how they would adjust after game one when what I essentially described just now is what happened over and over in game one. And there were little adjustments here or there. Like tonight, they tried...
to make sure that a bigger player was guarding the Celtic and the dunker spot. Usually P.J. Washington, sometimes Gafford, just so like when you get there, at least there's a big guy with big arms at the rim. And to do that, sometimes in the middle of possession, they would yank Kyrie out of there, switch places with a bigger defender,
And that would leave Kyrie on Tatum or Brown a lot. And Boston is going to watch film and see that and say, hey, if we have like eight, nine on the shot clock, give it to those guys with Kyrie on them because they're hunting Kyrie too and getting good stuff out of it. Now let's talk about the play of the week. The pressure to follow up Hypnotic and Cognac weighing heavily on the team. Hypnotic was in the cup, blue and ready for the play. And boom, Onyeho Tequila came in with a smooth assist to Hypnotic's tropical fruit finish.
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I thought I just was waiting to see how would Dallas adjust. Would they try not to give up the switches easily? Sometimes they did, but not that often. Boston basically got every matchup they wanted, went at it, and it's a very simple game plan. And that is why we should bring this up again. That is why the Porzingis...
leaving the game late with like a little limp or something that Doris was talking about on the on the broadcast is so important because Boston spacing is materially different with Horford versus Porzingis and look Dallas is facing a huge uphill battle against a team that is now 78 and 20 for the season 14 and 2 in the playoffs but they're going home they have Luka and any
We're recording this now, not so short after the game, but still we don't know about Porzingis, what's been said about Porzingis. Any limitation or something, the door just cracks open just a little bit. I know you wanted to really emphasize the importance of that. Yeah, I would say two things about the Celtics. One, on a night when they couldn't make a three,
Drew Holliday goes 9 of 9 in the paint, and I believe 7 of 7 in the restricted area. Masterpiece. Maybe it was 6 of 6, but he had 7 very close to the basket. So him doing that is huge. He's plus 25, or plus 26, I think, in the two games of this series. KP. Porzingis is plus 25. Holliday, I believe, is plus 26. Vitally important play, especially on this night. Porzingis is plus 25.
in the two games, plus 13 in game one, plus 12 tonight. The ability to bring him off the bench, game-changing. And so that calf, even if he can still play but is limited, that's the one thing that if you're Boston, you know, Boston's win probability, I'm just going to guess in my own personal win probability without the analytics, Boston's win probability is probably...
85%? For the series? Yeah. Yeah, I think that's fair. The one thing that you're going to give Dallas a chance at, other than the fact that they're going home, is what if Porzingis is not able... What if he's knocked out or greatly reduced? That would give you a better chance. Well, not only is their spacing materially different, but the reason they're switching so much, Dallas, and switching their centers into bad matchups... And by the way, Lively...
for the first time looks a little frenzied and overwhelmed that has had a bad series. Gafford was good tonight. But the reason they're doing that is because they're afraid of Porzingis shooting pick and pop threes. I actually thought they might try to test them a little bit. And they switched up their schemes a little bit, a couple of veer-back switches here and there, but I thought they would test them out a little bit, and they didn't. They just kept on switching, and then you have the trickle-down effect of, God forbid, he can't play, whatever.
Cornette has to come back into the rotation all that we should probably mention Kyrie Irving 7 of 18 another bad game against the Celtics
And you were very impressed, I know, with just there's just no he's facing elite big defenders all over the place. Yeah, he can't get he can't get by Holiday and White. When he does get by them, they bring Tatum or Porzingis or Horford over. He can't generate the windows that he needs to generate to shoot the ball, go into the basket. And he's also missing his outside shot.
But he just can't generate the windows. It's been very hard for him. Tatum defended him really well on switches. I don't know if this was left into the second part of the podcast or not, but I mentioned that Luka went at Tatum quite a bit in the first half. Instead of being so obsessed with attacking Boston's bigs wherever they were, he just sort of accepted, okay, Tatum's on Gafford, bring Gafford to me, they'll switch, and you got by Tatum.
a bunch of times and Dallas had a bunch of other counters that they went to a little bit. It didn't help. They had 98 points. They missed a lot of threes too. Six of 26. But Kyrie, the standout possession to me was when Kyrie came roaring down the left wing or one of the wings, right wing in transition I think, and Derek White just stood him up. Like standing up a full speed Kyrie Irving
and making him stop, turn around, and pass the ball backwards. That was an unbelievable defensive play. It's the same possession where he forced him to travel? He had that possession where he forced Kyrie to travel. Maybe, yeah.
You mentioned the turnovers. I mean, Luka, the game got somewhat out of hand for Dallas, four minutes left in the fourth quarter, when Drew deflected a pass in the backcourt back to Luka. Luka throws this long lollipop pass down the right sideline that Derek White steals. It leads to a Drew three. It goes up to 11. Derek White hits a three on the next possession. All of a sudden, it's 14, and it looked hopeless. Then it got a little dicey. But, yeah, Kyrie's 7 of 18.
Look, at some point he's going to have to have a game because Luka, although he had eight turnovers, and he's playing with an injury too. What's the thing that they say when you have ten turnovers? What's that? I don't know. There's like a saying. That quadruple double if you have ten. You know you have four strikeouts, a golden sombrero if you have ten turnovers. I don't know. It's like a –
But Kyrie, 16 points on 7 of 18. The entire Mavericks. Tragic triple. There's some saying. Tragic Johnson. No, something else altogether. The entire Magic bench. The Magic are not in the finals. The entire Mavericks bench had 9 points. Tim Hardaway Jr. didn't get in. Yeah. I said in the first pot that you could say that maybe they should play Tim Hardaway.
You could say that you could play more Jaden Harvey to try to get some action. Do I honestly believe with all my heart, do I say it with a full throat that I would really make a difference? No, not really. But, you know, that's something that they could do. Um...
I don't... Yes, I mean, the Celtics were prepared for that. They expected him to play because they expected the Mavericks would need to up their shooting quotient. Didn't play at all tonight. Jaden Hardy only played two minutes. That surprised me. Just another shot creator is so desperately needed. It just feels like the Tim Hardaway ship has sailed. Yeah, I know. And you can't bring it back. I'm just saying it to say it, to be honest. And Kleba...
Looks like a shell of himself shooting threes, and the Celtics are putting poor Zingas on him. His shoulder is messed up. And just saying, go ahead, launch all the free shots. He doesn't trust his shot. You launch all the free. We've talked about how the Celtics did show a little bit more help towards Luka, particularly after he got cooking. Sometimes a double team, sometimes a late kind of almost double, sometimes just digging down, showing help, shading over, and almost all of it was off Jones, Griezmann.
Green, Exum, when he got in, he did make a three. They got a little more aggressive showing Lucas some bodies. We'll see. Porzingis is big, and we'll see if Kyrie can get on track. Dallas might have to see if there's any sort of sets that they can do to generate some better shots because...
They are just having... Boston is generating good shots, like, I feel like 80 to 90% of the time. Dallas feels like they're generating good shots about 50% of the time. And a lot of times that's Luka doing it himself. So...
I just think that's a horrible trend. They got to figure out a way. They got to figure out some sets. They got to figure out some options they can go to to give themselves a better chance. They've failed to crack 100 in two games. And they tried stuff tonight. Like, I think the first play of the game was some kind of screening action designed to get Derek White onto Luka. And he posted him up and either drew a foul or scored. He posted him up again in the second half.
And made a fadeaway jump. They definitely told P.J. Washington to attack the rim. He was more aggressive. He was great. P.J. Washington is making these floaters like they're nothing. They ran a couple set plays to get Peyton Pritchard onto Luka. Luka exploited that. I think he's going to have to try to do... You can't move Drew Holiday. I get it. But here's the thing with Boston. They're like, okay, fine. We'll have Peyton Pritchard defend Luka two or three times. They're fine with that. It's hard to stop Luka with anybody on him. So...
They're not. You know, they ran more of their like double screening, double drag actions. They set more picks for Luca at half court, which is something that always works because the defense just is never ready for it. And one of their best plays of the game was Lively set a pick for him at half court and then flipped the screen three times. It took three picks all in a row, all going further down the floor until the screen hit Drew Holiday and
They trapped Luca as a result. Lively got a dunk. Like, that's how hard it is. You got to do all this creative stuff over and over and over again and run all your best stuff just to get a little traction. But you don't want to write off Dallas. They're going home. Like, they're going home. But, you know, it's going to be a tough road. Well, I got to go do SportsCenter so they can listen to whatever was left of what we recorded earlier. Yeah, hopefully Cedric is in there somewhere in Dallas.
Hopefully this goes a little more well. - That sound you hear that sounds like a record scratch is his probably $500 shoe dragging over our recording equipment. - Well, Brian, this was quite an adventure here tonight.
Will I see you? I don't remember if this survived. Will I see you for game five back here? This survives. This is why it's hard to do this because we don't know what we said in the part that survived and what we didn't say in the part that survived. Apologies for the snafu, but we made something of it. I'm sure there was some brilliant insight somewhere. We made chicken salad. We made chicken salad out of chicken something.
I'm sure there was some brilliant insight. Maybe a joke got lost in history. Something is lost in history. Other than the Geno thing that was mildly interesting, he might have been throwing shade at somebody, was that you hadn't seen the replay of the P.J. Washington foul, and I sort of felt a little bit supreme to you for four seconds. That was lost. I think actually you may have...
benefited from that because I... Normally, you have everything locked down. You know your mess of notes is superior to my... is superior to me. But I had seen the replays and you hadn't. So that's one of those plays that this is a little blind spot for me. It's such a spectacular play at a critical time of the game that I just get caught up in like, oh my god, that just happened and then the game ends and I didn't look back at it. You alerted me to it. Well, they actually, on the broadcast, they...
It was so amazing in the moment, and Breen had a great call, and it really decided to find the game, and I think they went to break, but the truck saw it and brought it back, and they pointed it out. By the way, we should mention Cedric Maxwell, I don't think this survived, did mock the Lakers for hanging in the in-season tournament banner. He did. That was a good time. So let me just say what happened there.
That was Cornbread Maxwell, Cedric Maxwell, former Finals MVP. 81. Celtics legend, play-by-play radio guy, or color. I set the bait for him. It's not that hard. He wants the bait. You threw in a lot of chum. Yeah. A lot of chum. He, you know, has this sort of, the Lakers are sort of the shadow opponent here because the Celtics are trying to get their 18th banner ahead of the Lakers.
I'm aware. Yeah, I'm just telling the listeners. And Cornbread, he couldn't stop himself from coming over and talking trash to James Worthy. And then as he walked away, he kicked out our microphone. Yeah, thanks, Cornbread. I will say...
I was mildly relieved that the Lakers so generously and Dan Hurley so generously have decided against until tomorrow, apparently, making this decision to not upstage game two. I told people I don't want this happening during the game. Let the game be the thing. Tomorrow you can have. Okay. This is going to post tomorrow. It's going to post in like two hours. I know. It'll be less than that. I guess that's technically tomorrow. All right.
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I'll see if I can get Shaq to talk trash next. Shaq accused me of taking too long at the urinal in Game 1.
Jokingly. Jokingly. I don't know what to say about that. Yeah, I don't know. I don't want to be compared to Shaq. It's late, and we're having a little fun. Look, okay, let's just say it. The Celtics right now are 14-2 in the playoffs. Yeah. And 78-20 for the season. Yeah. I'm just saying. Those are real numbers. Those are their records. Yeah.
They're two wins away, whether you like it or not, whether you feel it or not, whether you ever feared them or not, whether you ever respected them at this level or not. They're two wins away. Now, if it goes to seven and it's a total nip and tuck and they get blown out a couple times on the way and they win in seven, different story. Obviously, I'm not counting Dallas out. Dallas could easily come back and win. I'm just saying they're two wins away from like, whoa, that's a hell of a season, at least by the numbers. Yes, and I'm...
I would love to say that this is insurmountable for Dallas, but the Porzingis thing has gotten me paused. Porzingis, going home, Luka. Although, you know, we should mention that Luka was questionable tonight with the rib thing that was added to everything else he's got. Didn't, like, he was kind of tugging at the rib cage in warm-ups, was walking a little more gingerly, now came out like a house of fire and, like, looked amazing, but...
You just don't know. He was listed as questionable. No one thought he was going to play. But you just don't know. He gets hit one more time like that. Does it get exacerbated? We should mention that he's also playing with stuff. Yeah, and he got slowed down in the second half of this game. He got slowed down. They had some success doing that. I'm trying to think. I just don't. I thought we'd see a little bit more.
a little bit more dramatic defensive adjustments from the Mavs tonight. Whether it was not switching as easily, not giving the switch as easily. There was a little bit of that, like Veer switches on the pick and pop and all that, but
It was kind of the same story where it's just the Celtics can get wherever they want, whenever they want, and produce open threes. Boston got a good look almost every position. That's what I'm saying. They just can't give that. There's got to be some answer, and I don't know what it is. I'm not as smart as Jason Kidd in their coaching staff. You just can't give that Luka switch over and over and over again because from there it's just elementary. Bottom line, if Boston scores 105 points at home, you've got to beat them.
They're now 37 and they were 37 and four at home in the regular season, two losses in the playoffs, undefeated on the road, going into Dallas in three days. What's today? Sunday, Wednesday's game three. I have no other concluding thoughts. I guess Jack is elsewhere. Uh, and, um, Wendy, uh, thank you for making a little time. Thank you. Hoop collective. Will I see, will I see you back for game five? Uh, you will see me back for game five. I'm not asking about your schedule. I know your schedule. Um,
I'm asking about will we be back here for game five. I'm going to go, yeah. I'm not going to disrespect Alex like that. The S word has been uttered by some people tonight. Not Celtics people, to be clear. Just some people who are here. Like, it's a sweep. It's over. The kind of things you hear after a game two win. I'm going to say we're back. We're back. Boston is beautiful this week. Yeah.
Let's come back. There was a lot of stuff going on in Boston yesterday. Boston showed out for Pride. I didn't know this city showed out for Pride like that. It was Pride Day. Well, Pride Month, but Pride Parade Day. There was some Red Bull racing thing in the river. The Savannah Bananas were at Fenway Park. Blue Man Group was here. Oh, Blue Man Group. I think so. Never seen Blue Man Group. Yeah, it was a big day in Boston. I just want to say something. Have you ever been to the Rock and Roll Hall of Fame?
In Cleveland? Yeah. Yes. They have various documents from famous musicians where they would scribble their lyrics. This is how Mick Jagger wrote Satisfaction or whatever. It might have been Keith Richards. I don't remember. Your papers, your note papers... Springfield? ...could be used somewhere. Springfield? This is one of those things that...
Could be. Oh, can I bring up one more aside? Yeah. I need your advice as a well-traveled individual. Yeah. So we have a tradition in our house, the finals, because my daughter gets sad when I leave. I said, okay, so we get to pick one prize you get.
depending on which team wins the finals. And it has to be something at least nominally linked to that team's city. So if she loves Boston. I already gave away my OVO jacket. I never got one. So if Boston wins, she immediately wanted Boston cream pie. We have to buy a Boston cream pie. We get to eat it. For Dallas, I tried to sell her on barbecue. Barbecue for kids, it's too tangy. It's not good. I need a good Dallas idea. I don't have any good Dallas ideas. Like what's a Dallas thing? Filet mignon.
I guess I could do, yes, steak. Like a lasso? Yeah. Listeners, help me out. I need something if Dallas wins. I still need it. Like a little thing of oil? I don't like that. Oh. All right, I got nothing else to say. Boston 105, Dallas 98. Got a little dicey at the end. Boston found a way to pull it out, and we go on. Game three, obviously, must win. No one's ever come back from 3-0. We all know that. Got to win. Foul on Jalen Brown. Foul on Jalen Brown. Last two-minute report. Buckle up.
MC, missed call. Thanks, everybody.