Luka Fouls Out, Celtics Survive Late Mavs' Rally to go up 3-0, and Remembering Jerry West
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And now, The Low Post. Welcome to The Low Post on a somber day in the NBA. We will talk about the passing of an absolute giant in Jerry West at the age of 86 later today, later in this episode rather. But we're going to start with an absolutely wild NBA Finals game in which the Boston Celtics...

Went into Dallas, took a big lead, made a lot of threes, Celtics formula, and part of the Celtics formula is melting down on offense in the fourth quarter when you have a lead. I think it's been an overblown part of their formula, but there was going to be a game, a moment, a stress test. This was it. They kind of failed it on offense, even though Jalen Brown made a monster jumper with a minute left over Tim Hardaway Jr.,

to put them up by four. It ended up being the biggest shot of the game. Some crazy stuff happened after that. They defended well enough. They win. They are up 3-0. Jalen Brown is the frontrunner, I would say, for finals MVP after one of the best all-around games he's played offensively in this game. I think he had eight assists, and he finished with eight assists. Eight assists, three turnovers. Eight assists is a lot for Jalen Brown. And Luka Doncic fouled out

fouled out of an NBA finals game with four minutes and 12 seconds left in the middle. And this is not a typo. I checked this of an eight minute stretch in which the Boston Celtics taking one awful shot after another, committing one bad turnover, ill-advised attacks on the best Dallas defenders for some reason, ignoring matchups, just falling apart. They scored two points,

in eight minutes and a 91 to 70 game became a 93 to 90 game. And Luka Doncic trying to slide his feet in front of Jalen Brown in transition was called for a blocking foul. I wish it could have been a play on. It couldn't have been because Jalen Brown fell over. And so they whistled something. And once they went to review,

Mo DeKeele, how are you, by the way? I'm doing great, Zach. Once they went to review, it was pretty obvious there was not going to be clear and sustainable evidence to overturn the call. I had no problem with the call. Again, I wish it could have been a no call. I thought the P.J. Washington illegal screen in overtime should have been a no call or overtime. What am I talking about? My mind is it's late on these. It's late. Just at the end of the game, there was a P.J. Washington illegal screen that stunk.

And you could see it in Mark Davis's face looking into that video monitor. I got to do it. I got to tell this crowd.

that Luka Doncic, the best player in the series, who was not the best player tonight, was 11 for 27 and fouled out of the game, is gone, is disqualified from the game. Dallas could not complete the comeback. They gave it a game effort. I mentioned Tim Hardaway Jr. was the victim on that Jalen Brown jumper, a tough jumper. He was in the game because Luka Doncic had fouled out. That's going to be the headline, Mo. That's going to be the headline over Boston taking a 3-0 lead.

Over Boston, now going to 15-2 in the playoffs with a net rating coming into tonight of plus 11 per 100 possessions. It's probably going to be right around that. This was a seven-point game in the end, so it'll probably drop to plus 10.5.

So statistically, if they close this out, whether it's 16 and 2, 16 and 3, 16 and 4, however Dallas tries to get back in the series, it's going to be an all-time great playoff run by the numbers. Even if you don't think it feels that way, the numbers are going to be inarguable. Jalen Brown...

Just the synergy of Jalen Brown and Jason Tatum after all these years and all this growth together, finding little seams in the Mavericks defense, finding each other after they found those little seams in the Mavericks defense. Another masterpiece from Drew Holiday, who's just everywhere, making every play, keeping the offense moving with drives and kicks and relocations and offensive rebounds. Another stout performance by Derek White, four threes.

11 gigantic minutes from Xavier Tillman, some stops on defense and a corner freaking three. Where did that come from? Well, look, when they got him, they were going to experiment with that and it didn't work and they kind of scrapped it and scrapped him. And what a moment for Xavier Tillman, who they got for nothing at the trade deadline as an insurance policy. They needed insurance because Kristaps Porzingis was out with a leg injury. Maybe we've seen the last of him in the series.

You know, people look back at that Celtics trade. How'd they get two first round picks in addition to Porzingis? Yeah, it's a lot. This is one of the reasons why it was priced in. Sam Houser, three gigantic threes. The Mavericks defense, I thought, was the best it's been at the basket and maybe the worst it's been on the perimeter. But the headline, not 79-20, not 15-2, not 3-0, not a very close, maybe not that close race for finals MVP.

which really is just the whole team, it's going to be Luka fouling out. And I'll just put it to you before I ask the question, Mo. Do you have any problem with the fouls in terms of the calls themselves? The only foul I really had an issue with that I thought could go either way was the fifth foul, the one with Jalen Brown. Because I thought Brown did hook him, but it's a hard one to kind of decipher because Luka's arm's underneath him and then Brown's coming across and hooking him.

It's a hard one there. I think it's a 50-50 call. I don't know if it gets overturned if you challenge on that one. But I think that's the only one I think I would be really upset with in terms of the Luka fouls. Otherwise, I...

Look, it's a blocking foul. I hate it. I hate the call. Brown initiates all the contact, but it's the right call. Luka wasn't in any position to take the charge. Like you said, Brown goes to the ground. It's going to get called. It's going to get whistled. It's the end of the play. It breaks up the whole play. So for me, at the end of the day, I think it's just, all right, you just got to keep moving on with that. That fifth foul is the one maybe I probably would have challenged if I was a kid just to see.

So here are the fouls in order. The first one is in the middle of the first quarter. He reaches in on Jason Tatum in the left corner as Tatum is trying to drive on him. And obviously the Celtics hunted Luka all night. The Mavericks did their best to, I don't know if they were playing a zone, a hybrid zone, a half zone, half man, trying to keep their bigger players in the dunker spot, trying to keep Luka and Kyrie out of the action, but Boston found them. So he claimed that Tatum hooked him.

I thought it was a foul on Luca. Second foul, and this reminds me of the foul version of when Draymond Green got suspended in the finals, and it was the accumulation of points more than the final blow, although the final blow was not a good one. You make your bet on these. Like Derek White gets a rebound under the rim, a defensive rebound, 94 feet from the basket you're defending. You reach in, you commit a second foul. You don't think it's going to matter. It ends up mattering.

And that was a frustration one because he missed the shot. He had a floater in the lane. He misses the shot. And then I think White was passed to and somebody else got the rebound. And then he reaches in to try to get that steal. Like you said, just can't give those away. Well, and we saw some bad Luka habits in this game come back to bite him. The Celtics got five absolutely free points at the end of the first quarter when Luka fell down on step back threes twice.

That's not all on him. On the second one, which ended in a Tatum dunk, everyone else crashed the glass. Like someone other than the shooter has to be in position to get back on defense on some of these. The first one was more on him. He fell. He complained Sam Houser hit a trail three before he could get back in his five, five free points. Okay. But that's the second fell. He comes into the fourth quarter with two fouls. It's basic. 11th, the first possession of the fourth quarter, he posts up Jalen Brown and hooks him. It's a, it's a,

It's not quite a 50-50 call. It's like a 60-40 call, 65-35. It's probably a foul. 925 of the fourth quarter, he reaches in on Peyton Pritchard after Peyton Pritchard kind of gets around him like 45 feet from the rim. Stupid foul. You made your bet on that one. Fifth foul is the one you mentioned. Went after a scramble. Jalen Brown kind of gets inside position on him and they give him the ball and they get all tangled up and he falls over and he looks like he's swimming freestyle on the floor. And that's a foul. And then the blocking foul.

You know, if you ran...

If a computer simulation and basketball is not a computer simulation, it's for its first of four games. If you ran a simulation of those fouls, those plays rather a thousand times on a good percentage of those thousand simulations, he's coming out with 5,000, not six. There's one, there's one no call in there somewhere, but I don't think you can point to any of them as egregiously bad calls. I don't think the last call was an unfortunate call. I don't think it was a bad call.

They're going to whine about it. I don't know. Maybe they won't whine about it. The game just ended. I don't know what they're saying in the press conferences. We'll see, uh, maybe producer Dan and everyone on, if, if there's an, if there's an interesting quote, kind of let us know. Um,

But, you know, and can we all stop with the money sign? Because if every player is going to make the money sign, then it's like the lottery conspiracies. If every player is accusing the league of rigging it against them, against their team, well, who is it rigged for then? Just the league, I guess. Like, it's the dumbest. The money sign thing is stupid. Just got to retire. I hope it's a heavy fine. Fair enough.

for that again because I just think it's getting ridiculous but Zach I also think this is Luca's first time he's gotten he fouled out this season I was looking at it on basketball reference and I think that's the this is the first the first time he's been disqualified by fouls at this point in the season he's come close a few times with five and and I mean it's just a killer

can i can we just the other headline is and should be that boston melted down on offense in the absolute most predictable boston way just taking for and look this teams do this when they get leads big leagues big leads like this they're not the first team to do it but every possession was just milk the shot clock and then take a contestant to jump shot if it wasn't that it was there were two

separate possessions in that fourth quarter run one by Brown one by Tatum where they get PJ Washington on them with with the ball and like 10 on the shot clock the Mavs are running out of good defenders in this game because they over indexed on shooting which is a move that the Celtics waited for them to make more Tim Hardaway Jr. He ends up being a complete zero Cleba is a complete zero those two guys being complete zeros is devastating to them

but they minimize Derek Jones, Jr. Minutes and increase Josh Green minutes to get a little more shooting. And Josh Green does hit a big three to cut it to 11 on those two possessions. You have your star players, but you have them against one of only two good defenders left on the floor. Really? Plus defenders for the Mavs. Kyrie had a couple of good defensive possessions. He's I wouldn't call him a plus defender. Um,

And they both and elsewhere on the court is somebody one time Tatum, I think, with Luca on him. And instead of going there, they drive into P.J. Washington, lose the ball. And you're helping the Mavs offense with your bad off. It just inexplicably.

Bad Boston offense. And a play that will be forgotten to history, Moe, that I must just detail now. It's going to be forgotten to history because you're going to think it's over. Boston by four with 48 seconds left. P.J. Washington misses a decent fly-by corner three. Al Horford gets the rebound.

inexplicably sprints the ball up the floor for absolutely no reason when all he's got to do is stop and hand it to someone who's a guard. Anyone, anyone else literally on the floor, just stop. He loses control, falls out of bounds. It's a turnover. He also had a travel in the middle of the fourth quarter when the Celtics were just going completely haywire. The Mavs defense was good on first watch and I'll watch it again tomorrow.

I thought that comeback was more about bad Boston offense and Dallas starting to get hot offensively than it was any like genius defensive performance by the Mavs. No, it's what we've been afraid of about the Boston Celtics really the entire year. Like this was the thing we were most afraid of. It's them going to prevent offense. Like I have a clip in the set just under the seven minute mark. Jalen Brown has Lucas, which is onto him off of a pick and roll. They're up six.

He milks the clock, comes off the pick and roll, gets Lucas switched on to him and then takes a sidestep three. I mean, it was comical. Some of the stuff we were seeing, you know, Jason Tatum, I think with the three minute mark takes a sidestep three, which was hilarious considering in the wired segment, he was talking about staying away from sidestep three. It's like that exact shot and he's taking it. And it's, you know, the, the whole thing about it is once you, the math were able to string stops. And again, part of that has to do with Boston's offense, you know, playing the way it was and,

They were able to get going, get faster looks, get quicker looks, get running a little bit and kind of shake up Boston to a degree. Like to cut this lead down to one at, you know, basically towards the end of this game. It's it's wild and it's frustrating. This is the stuff that frustrates me. The only thing I can say, the saving grace is that Boston's defense is so damn good.

that it allows them to get away with this. You know, it's, I feel like that character in Breaking Bad screaming that they can't keep getting away with this, but it's, you know, that's exactly it because their defense is always going to be there. That's the one thing that's been constant for them really the whole way through is their defense has been solid. And in the last five minutes,

They had some legit, really good stops. Tatum kind of blanketed Luka under the rim on a switch, and Lucas had success against Tatum the last two games and forced a tough miss. Holiday...

as they have done all season, stayed with Kyrie on a transition rush or a semi-transition rush, forced a leaning bank shot miss. You know, Derek White really just smothered Kyrie on a right-hand, right-side drive that ended in Derek White saving the ball back to Josh Green, lively, got a put-back dunk, but that was initially very good defense.

But look, I mean, even even Horford after that play, that terrible turnover where he runs it up the court, he switches on to Kyrie and is with Kyrie the whole way who takes a leaning three pointer very heavily contested. Like I thought they got legitimate stops down the stretch.

Uh, Dan is sending us quotes, Luka Doncic, who couldn't play physical. I don't know. I don't want to say nothing, you know, six fouls in the NBA finals. Basically I'm like this motions with palms out. Dan says, thank you for the stage notes, Dan. Come on, man. Better than that.

You know, honestly, I thought the biggest gripe that he had in the game was about halfway through the fourth quarter. I think it was almost a three-point game, maybe a six-point. I think it was a six-point game at this point. The Tatum push? The Tatum push. Luka beat him on a drive. And again, he's been hunting that switch and went up with a right-handed drive. And I thought Tatum shoved him. I thought it was a...

At first glance, I thought, well, that's a foul. I can't believe they didn't call that. I went back and watched it again and said, maybe my eyes deceive me. Sometimes that happens. Sometimes you see a new angle. I was like, no, that's a foul. Like that was a legit two points or two free throws. Anyway, you can't count points the way Dallas has shot free throws for most of the series and the most of the season that I thought they should have got.

Yeah, I mean, that's just the I felt like he got a couple of times where he could have gotten gone to the line a little bit more throughout the course of the game. But that one was maybe the most egregious, especially time and score in that situation. And I think that's, you know, we're going to end up probably talking about that a little bit more because Luca fouls out. But I also think at the end of the day, man, it's just the Celtics are so good.

I mean, they just, I mean, you talked about a Sam Houser with the three threes, you know, and I thought he actually really held up defensively again. And, you know, for those who aren't paying attention, Sam Houser's it average, like can, can be okay. Defensively, you can survive with him on the floor. I think they get big minutes from him. And I think that was a big sort of swing defensively.

That five-point swing at the end of the first quarter that you talked about, I think it was huge and kind of changed the game and really put the Celtics – they cut the lead. They go in the first quarter down one. I felt like that swing right there really made the Celtics go, okay, we're fine. We're going to win this game. I think that built their confidence right there. And look, Dallas did tighten up on defense in the fourth quarter. They deserve credit, particularly for those turnovers. Yeah.

They also, as the game got away from them, they also let go of the rope a little defensively. So Brown has the monster dunk at the end of the third quarter when Hauser sets a flat screen and Luka just does nothing. And now Luka's injured. Like, Luka's playing through injuries. Like, the thoracic thing, Tim McMahon and Malika Andrews reported yesterday that he had a painkiller injection before game two. Not sure if he had one before game three, but, like, that's indicative of, like, yeah, the guy's hurt.

Kyrie had the awful closeout on the strong side three by Jalen Brown on a nice pass from Tatum. The very next play, Derek White runs a simple cut across the foul line. Nobody, nobody follows him. He just, he just makes a three.

And the price of going all offense, they even played PJ Washington at center for a hot second in the game, which they had not done yet, is that you have Hardaway, Irving, Luca out there. There's just too many places for Boston to target when things get gummed up a little bit. And, you know, if you want to point to a basket that kind of epitomizes when the Celtics were running this well,

I thought the Mavs defense kind of confused them for parts of tonight's game because they disguised what they were doing. And like sometimes it was it was a hybrid. Would you say it was a hybrid zone for like most of the game?

Yeah, they were kind of like it would almost try to is a disguised zone. It would look like man and then it would fall into a zone. And, you know, that was the way to keep lively and, you know, in the paint and near the dunker spot, because really the Celtics didn't have a lot of action going into the dunker spot. I think that was a good thing, a good adjustment the Mavs made. But I would say that I think you're about right. It was more kind of like a man zone ish sort of situation. And sometimes it would lean more toward man to man, like out of nowhere, they'd play almost a straight man to man.

Um, but when you're switching, I said this after game two, when you're constantly yanking guys in and out of the dunker spot to, to make sure that Kyrie's not down there, that Luke is not down there. You have some size down there or some leapers down there. You're, you're, you're switching yourself into bad matchups on the perimeter. And I thought, but I said, after game two, I think Boston's going to see that on film. And if they have time, they're going to go to that. So if you want an example, um,

Eight minutes left in the third quarter, and it's just one that sticks in my mind because it's Tatum and Brown. This tandem that for so long has been picked apart and nitpicked. Is there enough playmaking between them? Do they amplify each other?

They switch Luca out of the dunker spot, but he ends up on Tatum on the right wing. Immediately, the ball goes to Tatum. He burns Luca, bounce pass, Jalen Brown dunk under the basket. Just really good synergy. And I thought Drew, I already talked about Drew Holiday's movement off the ball and on the ball and just keeping things moving was phenomenal.

But that fourth quarter offense, it's going to be seared into our memories. And they won the game. They won the game with their defense. They won the game with a couple timely baskets. Tatum got a dunk on a very daring entry pass from Derek White. When he threw it, I was like, what are you doing? I was like, come on. And then I mentioned Brown's jumper over Hardaway, I think. I'm pretty sure it was Hardaway. Again, we're doing this right after the game.

And look, the other formula for Boston, this has been the story of the series. 17 of 46 on threes, Dallas 9 of 25. So I saw, I just checked Twitter briefly after the game, and I saw a lot of, well, the takes on Luka are going to be firing tomorrow. The hot takes are going to be scorchers. I assume some of that is going to be about the fouls. But I think some of it seemed to be about

Why is Dallas not getting these threes? Why does Dallas's offense suddenly seem so ISO heavy? And is that on Luke? Are we back to the heliocentric? Oh, he doesn't make his teammates better thing, which I've always thought was kind of mostly nonsense. But I'll put it to you. Why does it feel like they are stuck in mud? Why can't they get catch and shoot threes? Boston has doubled them up in catch and shoot three point attempts in the series. What's going on?

Yeah, and I heard that stat that you said last time after game two, the 60 to 30 in spot up three situations. And that's just after game two. I think the one part of it is the Celtics design for the most part is they try not to come in on help. And mostly they take away the corner threes. And I think that's where the Mavs

really made most of their hay throughout the course of the playoffs was the corner threes. And they just simply took it away. There was the one I can remember off the top of my head, PJ Washington got one in the corner when Al Horford helped off the strong side. And I was like, that's, that's the mistake that they don't, that's what they don't want to give up. And I think they've really done a good job with that. But I also think,

Dallas has gotten to not so much heliocentric, but to match up heavy or match up hunting sometimes a little bit. And I think they've they focus so much more on that. They kind of forgot who they were. It's it's really fascinating. And I think there was maybe one or two double drags today.

Like I didn't feel like you saw it and you thought, okay, they're going to start breaking it out again. And they had some half court picks, which I think they need to do more. But you saw it once you saw one Spain stack pick and roll, you know, the one where there's a back screener involving one, the whole game. I might've missed one. And I was like, okay, they're going to run that. And then it just went, it just went away. Right. And they're getting good stuff out of that. That's a difficult thing to cover. And I think they just tend to keep going away from that and go into like a one, four or one, five.

pick and roll to try to go at Horford or whoever it is they want to feel like targeting. And I feel like they've gotten so focused on that stuff that it slowed everything down. Their half court offense was slow. Like if you go back and watch their offense in Minnesota, just the half court possessions, not even transition.

There was more pop. There was more speed. There were more, you know, actions and guys moving and things like that. This one, it just looks like everybody's sort of stagnant and then waiting for the, for Luca or Kyrie to come off a screen and make something happen. And I felt like they really kind of all series long. I feel like they've lost that and lost kind of who they were in that. And I don't have an explanation for why I, you know, I'm texting people after game one going like, where are the double drags? Like that was one of my favorite things they were running. And I think that's,

Part of it is Boston kind of shook them up a little bit with Tatum on Cafford or Lively, but I feel like that's like letting Dallas off the hook because I still think you could run a second screen after that. And I feel like they've just gotten too locked in and too heavy into focusing on matchups and not looking at what they try to do. And that's how they've sort of, to Boston's credit, with their scheme and the way they defend,

I think they just, hey, we're eliminating the corner threes. You're not going to make enough above the break threes. You're not going to take enough above the break threes. We're going to be fine. And that's exactly how it's played out. I think a lot of it is Boston. I think Boston deserves more of the credit than Dallas deserves the blame. But it's always there's always a little bit of both. But you mentioned Tatum on Gafford and Lively.

and it hasn't taken away that pick-and-roll combination, which is what Luka wants to do because Luka's been able to get Tatum on switches and go at him. But it's taken away the lobs, and it's taken away the kick-out threes because we saw it. I mean, they did some damage against Peyton Pritchard and Sam Hauser eventually. They got into them a little bit. Those guys, I thought, played mostly quite well. And JJ Redick said it on the broadcast.

Maybe the podcast, too. They they're going to live with those guys making twos and credit Joe Missoula like, you know, his his critics may call him stubborn and hardheaded. I think you need a little bit of that. You know, there's there's always this debate on like when a non shooter makes two or three threes in a row, like you got to start closing out to him. I think for Joe Missoula, that's going to be like seven threes in a row before we start treating him any differently.

And especially when they get a lead, they're just going to live with those because they're going to miss some. Some they're not going to get the best matchup that they want. You know, Horford's going to defend them pretty well on switches. He'll have help behind him. They just weren't going to give him those threes. I don't think they blitzed Luka one time. Did they blitz him once today? No, not that I can remember. And obviously, maybe we'll see something on the rewatch. But I don't remember a single blitz on Luka. I think that was a...

Big thing for them. If we're going to stay, that's the other thing Boston has done. I think that has been most impressive is they've stayed with their defensive scheme the whole way. Like whatever their plan is, there's really been very little deviation and they've been kind of solid with it. And they haven't had to deviate because Dallas hasn't been able to really break through and attack it in a way that forces them to change. And I think that's,

One of the things, there's slippage here and there, there's mistakes here and there, but for the most part, everybody's on the same page and they know exactly what they're trying to do. And that includes, we're not going to blitz Luca. We're not going to do anything random like that. We're just going to stay solid.

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How much did you think they missed Porzingis tonight? Because they won the game, and they've won a lot of games without Christoph Porzingis in the playoffs. But it was just undeniable the sort of electricity that he injected into their offense and their defense, too, that I think they did miss him. But those two minutes were a huge lift. And one of the reasons they were a huge lift is they got Horford a nice long rest in the middle of the second half, so they didn't have to overextend him. They never played Tatum at center.

Look, I mean, again, Boston is 15 and two in the playoffs with the net rating. That's around 11. It no matter how you slice it, if you ignore the context, it's going to be an all time great run. Assuming they don't do the thing that no team has ever done that they actually came closest to doing. Would that be something if they were after nearly doing it last year, being the team that gives it up?

Look, I feel like we all collectively spoke this near choke job into existence tonight. And you're dangerously doing that. But the number but and people are going to hammer them, then dig, dig into it. You can't place them in that discussion. I mean, the discussion they're in statistically, I hate to break it to people is going to be like mid 90s bulls.

Durant era Warriors 14 Spurs like those are the teams that I'm not going to do the whole stats now but like that's where they are in like two losses would be the third or fourth fewest ever in like a modern playoffs where you need 15 or 16 wins the Lakers had won the Warriors had won 2001 Lakers and 17 Warriors and

But then you're going to go back in the context and say, well, the Heat didn't have Jimmy Butler, and then they didn't have a million, you know, hakes by the end of the series. The Cavs didn't have Jared Allen, and then they didn't have Mitchell and Levert at the end of the series. The Pacers didn't have Halliburton for the last two games of the series.

But the Celtics didn't have their starting center for damn near the entire playoffs. And they just keep winning. And because they keep winning and yeah, those games against the Pacers were high wire acts like the Pacers, the Pacers have played the Celtics tougher than anybody I think so far in the playoffs. Um,

I mean, they easily could have been up 3-1. A couple of them, if they play a little better at the end of games, they could have easily been up and had the lead in those series. But I think the more important thing, Zach, too, I think people, we tend to just forget how dominant Boston was in the regular season. 79-20 is their combined record. I mean, for whatever we want to ding them for, the injuries, the teams they faced that had so many injuries, that's not their fault.

Because we would also be killing them if they lost to any of these teams. If they had lost to Cleveland without Jared Allen and Donovan Mitchell and had lost the series, or even if it went six or seven, we would have been like, oh, how could you do this? And what's going on? Like, we can't not give them credit if we're also going to give them a whole lot of blame. And you can't just shove the Porzingis injury into the like, oh yeah, but that like seventh paragraph of like,

like the old, but after all this stuff, like, oh, we should mention that. Like, it's a big deal. It's a big deal. It's a huge deal. Yeah, it's a huge deal because he was part of what changed them so much offensively. You know, the switches and how he would attack that in the high post and get a small on him or the pick and pops. Like, he changed so much of them offensively in terms of what they would get. I think it's important to kind of just understand their place sort of in the history if they go on and win this. And I think they haven't lost a game since game two of the

The Cleveland series, like that's a hell of a win streak. If I could do math in my head, I'd give you the numbers, Zach, but I think it's might be 12 now, 12 in a row that they're going to possibly end this on a 13 game win streak. Like that's pretty impressive in its own right. Like when we talk about it, it's, it's, you know, this is the team that whether we like it or not, we're going to have to talk about as one of the most dominant playoff runs and really regular season runs we've seen since those KD warriors. I'm still, I'm,

My mind isn't all the way there yet to start putting this team in historical perspective. I will say, despite what the numbers say, they don't feel as inevitable to me as some of those other teams that statistically are going to be placed with. And I think that's okay. That's hallowed, hallowed ground. It's okay if you look at the playoff opponents they face and just...

Look at your gut feel of it, even if you're like me and you think they were over-criticized for a lot of the season. Reminder, I picked Boston to win the title at the beginning of the season. I picked them to win this series. A lot of people picked the Mavs to win the series. I was actually surprised how many people did. I think on ESPN, 9 out of 17 picked Dallas of those of us who pick. Some of us don't pick. I think we get too excited sometimes or get too ahead of ourselves with the way they kind of beat Minnesota. Because basically after Minnesota beat Denver,

I think a lot of people had Minnesota was going to run it up on Dallas. And I think that kind of – then Dallas beats Minnesota. Well, oh, well, we were going to pick Minnesota. So now we got to pick Dallas. And I think a lot of people get a little bit too excited with that. I thought Dallas – I did not think Dallas – I picked Boston in six. And I thought Dallas would make this a very competitive series. They made tonight a very competitive game. They kind of made game two competitive down the stretch as Boston went into prevent mode.

But I do think it's okay to just say, I know what the numbers say. Great team. My brain can't get to all-time great team. But I'll tell you what, if they win Friday...

And they just what a nice round number that would be 80 and 20. Like just our cavemen, our cavemen brains that love what you say. Well, that's very pleasing. Dan is sending me another Jason kid quote after the game, sending it to us. I'm going to read it now again. Like we're not seeing there could be like Kyrie could be saying like vicious stuff about the refs. Derek Lively, anybody. We're not we're only seeing what we're seeing here.

Because I like to concentrate on the podcast and the guest. I don't want my attention divided. Jason Kidd was asked if there was any discussion challenging Luka's fifth foul, the one you mentioned. Maybe we should have challenged all of them, he said. Reporter followed up and said it looked like Jalen Brown hooked Doncic.

Kid looks can be deceiving. I assume maybe that's the other way around. I don't know what that means. It doesn't seem like, again, based on the limited quotes, we're seeing that they're mouthing a full throated like we got robbed campaign, which is a little bit which is a little bit telling. What else you want to talk about with this game? I think we got to talk about the third quarter because I think that was just such an impressive game.

Celtics performance as much as we were harping on their offense in the fourth quarter. What it was in the third quarter was just massively impressive. You know, Jalen Brown with 15 points, I think he was six and nine, three assists. And I think he was just

They had Dallas grasping for answers like, you know, they put them in a vice. They crushed them on offense. They held them to 19 points defensively. Like that's just sort of the thing where you just throw your hands up and you're looking around. And I thought I was like, wow, they might have clinched the finals defensively.

In the third quarter of game three, it really felt like the Mavs were letting go of the rope. We talked about the big Brown dunk at the end of the quarter, but it just felt like there were no answers. And everything the Celtics were doing were in perfect control. They got up, I think, nine threes in that quarter. Dallas only got up two. It goes back to what we were talking about, just the attempts, the numbers.

you know, just favored Boston in this situation. And that whole performance right there, I was just like, well, this is the team. This is what we're talking about when we talk about how good they are. This is the Boston Celtics. And of course, they put up the fourth quarter and we go like, oh God, this is the other side. It was a great quarter. They were humming. They made a lot of threes. The avalanche was coming. I mean, I said it and I wrote it after game two. They keep getting these looks. The avalanche is coming and it came.

Can't forget the Derek White bank shot on a dead possession. Banked three when Dallas had it down to 10 again.

He also had a couple of bailout baskets in game two. Timely buckets for Derek White, which is relevant to what the next little message we have in the chat from Andrea, our video producer, Joel Embiid, did the Bucs give them the championship? The hot takes are flying. And look, I have said, and it's going to be a cold take and maybe a freezing cold take. And he has a picture of Drew Holiday with the tweet, apparently. Shout out, Joel.

Great tweet. Just great. Like we've been eliminated tweets every year from Joel Embiid. We're watching, watching the playoffs. By the way, I did see some speaking of old six current and old Sixers. And we're going to talk about that more now.

I did see Ben Simmons' return to Instagram off-season mode. Can you just stop, man? Stop. I'm done. I'm just done. I'm getting a little punchy. It's now past midnight. I'm thinking about the drink I'm going to have once we stop recording this podcast because I'm too wired. I'm getting a little punchy, Mo. I love punchy, Zach. Punchy Zach's the best one. Embiid raises an interesting point, which is the holiday trade. My freezing cold take is I still think it's a trade the Bucs should have made. I think the Bucs had hit

had hit a roadblock with the roster that they had and that Dame as an offensive loosener for an offense that just couldn't quite get out of the mud enough was a good bet

And I've said this many times. I don't think they would have made it if they knew where Drew Holiday was going. And they couldn't control the process. Someone someday will tell the inside story. I don't know all the details of why they couldn't control the process, how hard they tried to convince Portland to control the process and make it a three-team simultaneous trade. They couldn't. They knew this was a risk.

It was a risk they were willing to take. Maybe they thought he'd go to Miami and the heat wouldn't be good enough. Maybe they thought he'd go to the Clippers while they're in the other conference. It was a risk they were willing to take and credit Boston.

after they got the Porzingis deal done, which I didn't like enough. I was too low on that deal, partly because of his health. I said, it makes me a little nauseous that they're losing part of their defensive identity with Marcus smart, their switch ability. And I worry about Porzingis his health. As soon as they got drew holiday and they got like a better version of the Marcus smart switch ability on defense, a better shooter, a better office player, better everything. I picked them to win the title. Um,

It's a great, great trade. Brogdon, Robert Williams, and two first-round picks, one of which came in the Porzingis trade. And it's just, I keep mentioning this, Mo. People focus on the Warriors' loss in the finals two years ago when Tatum was 24 and Brown was 25. I think they get too much flack for that loss. It was a good playoff run. They did not play great in that finals. The Warriors did.

Last year against Miami is a disaster, and they deserve to get slammed for that. And frankly, they were lucky to get out of Miami. Not lucky, but they really came close to choking away the Miami series the year before when they made the finals. Now, I don't know if people go back another year to 2021 when the Celtics are 500, 500. Now, injuries, Jalen Brown missed the whole playoffs with injuries in the end of the regular season. They had a bunch of COVID stuff.

They were 500. Their roster around Tatum and Brown was an absolute mess. Kemba's game was falling apart. The Hayward situation had resolved itself negatively for them. Their rookies weren't ready. Tristan Thompson was making $10 million a year. It was a disaster signing. And they got obliterated in five games in the first round by the Brooklyn Nets of Kyrie Irving. Kyrie Irving, former Celtic. That whole experiment had gone bust in their face.

The idea that Kyrie was going to be their bait to get Anthony Davis, that had blown up in their face. And that was an idea that they had, one of many. And they get obliterated by the Nets four games to one. Five, those five games, five of the 16, those three Nets stars ever played together. One of the all-time great stats. They still talk about that series within the Celtics. The feeling of not quite hopelessness, but of, oh, ****.

Did our window close before it opened? Is this team going to run us the next three, four seasons? Because how did we get here where we've been so good for so long and our team feels so uncertain, even with two young tentpole stars? And piece by piece, they completely remade it. And if I am remembering this right off the top of my head, I believe...

The only player in Boston's eight-man rotation right now that was drafted by the Boston Celtics with a pick that was the property from start to finish of the Boston Celtics, I think is Peyton Pritchard. I think he's the only one. White is traded for, Holiday is traded for, Horford is signed and free agency traded, reacquired for Kemba Walker.

Tatum and Brown are Nets picks with an assist from the Sixers in the Markel Fultz disaster flip-flop trade for Boston. Housers undrafted. Who am I forgetting coming off to? Porzingis is obviously a trade. Cornette? Luke Cornette?

Not drafted, not accounting him. He's not part of their core rotation. We're done with the core rotation, guys. That's pretty unusual. And take them around our Celtics, obviously. It's sort of a semantics designation that they weren't Celtics picks. But they gradually remade that team.

And it's from Danny Ainge and the next trade in 2013, which gets them Tatum and Brown also helped get them Kyrie Irving. There was a next trade that went out in that pick to what Brad Stevens and his front office has done since 2021 for

remaking this team. It's really a masterstroke of team building and whether it was on purpose or by accident or there's a couple what if moments where the picks that became Tatum and Brown could have gone out the door or one of Tatum and Brown could have gone out the door if the right things aligned. The Celtics didn't trade those guys. They kept them together. They tuned out the noise and now they are in their primes at 26 and 27 years old. This team is not going anywhere. They still have a win to finish the job

But it's just been a very interesting road for them. All these conference finals, all these years, six of the last eight conference finals haven't gotten over the hump. At some point, you got to get over the hump. It looks like they're going to get over the hump. Yeah, I mean, it's not even that. Just remember the stuff where do you trade Jalen Brown for Kawhi Leonard?

Durant. Durant. Two summers ago. And I was on the bandwagon of, I wouldn't do it. I'm not even sure I would have done it straight up. And people thought I was insane for saying that at the time. And it wasn't really even on the table. Like, the Nets were going to demand so much. I just don't like trading young for old. Yeah, or a guy on a one-year contract, which would have been quite better. And by the way, I've been wrong about tons of stuff, to be clear. But I...

We all have. We all have. We all have. They could have tried harder to get Kawhi, and they didn't, and that looked really bad when the Raptors got him, and he won the title. Everybody knew he was walking. Everybody knew he was walking. Yeah, but it's also paid off for them. I mean, they've been in, like, it feels like a thousand conference finals at this point. Like, they're...

They're there regularly. It's a team that expects to be there all the time. And as you said, this is a young group that can be together for the next three or four years.

And they can, there's no reason why they couldn't possibly go on a run. And you look at the way the East looks right now, NBA moves fast, literally by next October, we might be talking about how crazy the Eastern conference looks and how deep and strong, but right now you look at it going like, who's really going to stand up to Boston. Who do you feel that confident in with the way things are looking at this current moment? And I think that's the stuff that's so interesting with it is they

They stuck to their guns. They stuck with the two young kids, despite all the questions of, can they play together? Can they work together? As we were saying, can you amplify each other or whatnot? I think anytime somebody has those questions, we should show them the clip of Tatum driving baseline against that zone-ish situation from the Mavs and hitting Brown for the dunk. I think there's a lot of different things that you can see in what they've done. Like this is, to be honest, a great job from Danny Ainge to bring the pieces together and a great job from

Brad Stevens to kind of put the finishing touches on everything. That poor Zingas trade, I was with you. I was like, oh, that's interesting. If he's healthy, that's great. I don't know. We'll see. And then the Marcus Smart trade,

Like, I'm not a big Marcus Smart guy, but I was like, wow, that's really ballsy because you know how much he means to the team and everything that goes with it. And I think that's the whole instance. And they get Drew and it works out. But it's like, I think when you look at this team and everything they've been through and the whole thing with Imei Udoka to Joe Mazzulla last year, I think it's a pretty impressive team.

long run from the Celtics team. And again, that's the thing that freaks me out is they're still so young. Tatum has been, we've been talking about Tatum for eight, seven years at this point, and he's still just 25, 26. Like we're at the start of his prime, really. It does look like they're going to get over the hump. Yeah. You mentioned smart. I've said this before. I said it when I had Brian Scalabrini on the podcast in the middle of the season. I think one of the things that happened in the smart trade was the

I do think there was some identification of an issue within the Celtics of Marcus Smart's great. We love everything he brings to our team. His toughness, his leadership occasionally gets a little loud and rambunctious for everyone around him, and those things always pass. All of it. Some timely shot-making, some timely not shot-making. I do think there was a feeling of...

He wants to hold the ball a little too much. He wants to be maybe not an equal of Tatum and Brown, but like a big three. And the biggest quote-unquote weakness of the Celtics, they don't have really any weaknesses, is I don't think there's anyone on the team that you would say is like a great passer. Like, you know, you don't see like a lot of Jason Tatum highlight of his pass. He's a good passer. I think they have a lot of good passers.

And I think that's what they've done. They recognize that and they said, let's get a lot of good passers, a lot of good cutters, a lot of selfless, intuitive, read and react players, and a lot of shooting. And all of that together will compensate for the lack of like the one guy that is just a Jokic or a Doncic or a LeBron or a whatever. And I think their bet on the smart trade was,

a little bit more movement on and off the ball in his place a little bit more. And Marcus smart's a great player, but I think they bet, right. I think they identified that issue correctly. That's kind of right on with, with what it is. And I, I,

I'm an LA guy. So there's always, and I grew up a Laker fan. So there's always, I'm not a Laker fan anymore, but there's always a little deep rooted dislike of Boston just because being from LA. So all those years, but you got to give them credit, man. This team has just been phenomenal for them to be one win away from the finals. Like,

you know, good on them. And, and, you know, like I know they were, I probably was one of them where I've criticized them probably more than I should have during the regular season. Cause I, I didn't like sometimes the way their offense looked.

They got it done. And I've, I've always said it's been their defense. I love watching their defense. Just watching these guys, the block Derek white had that led to the transition dunk for Tatum, which he got, he should have gotten an and one for, but like just watching the way they defend is unbelievable. And that's all five guys. Like there's not a lot, it's not any weak points defensively with that team. And it's fun to watch them. I've been seeing that all year for all it's the column I wrote about them before the finals.

For all the noise about their offense, and this game tonight is why there's been noise about their offense. This fourth quarter tonight is why there's been focus on it. It was number one in the league, and yet still...

Their defense was taken for granted. It was talked about like they got two guys on the all defensive team. Jalen Brown wanted to be a third. Tatum's really good. Horford's really good. It was talked about. Orzingas' rim protection was talked about, but it was taken for granted a little bit in the discussion of their team and it should not have been. It is their bedrock. It's the thing that travels game to game. It's the thing that wins them games when the threes, when the avalanche doesn't happen.

Closing thoughts on this game. Kyrie Irving showed up big after two bad games in Boston. We should have talked about him earlier. Apologies. 13 of 28, four of six on threes, 35 points had to play 45 minutes played well, lively played well off the bench, 11 and 13. Finally, they got some offensive rebounds only seven for the game, but he got three. You know, that was one of the risks of putting Tatum on their centers. It's a risk that has not really been a risk, but at least it was tonight. Yeah.

Horford, 37 minutes, looked pretty spry the whole game. Just to, you know, it wasn't a pretty win, but it was a tough win, and it was a win that tested them in the end. I'm not sure they passed the test offensively, but they passed it enough, and they passed it on defense, and their defense has been great the whole series. Traveling to see your fave sports team is cool.

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Brown for the series now is averaging a team leading 24 points a game, 55% shooting, 5.7 assists per game. So he closed the assist gap, which was quite large tonight. Six rebounds. So 24, six and six on 55% shooting Tatum 21.7. Let's call it 22, nine boards, seven assists. So he's got the better sort of ancillary numbers, 36% shooting 29.6% on threes.

I think it's got to be Brown, but it's a tribute to their team that they have five guys averaging 15.7 points or more. And I think Drew Holiday, look, I'd love to make the sort of nerd case for Drew Holiday, who has just been unbelievable the whole series.

So he's the fifth leading scorer. It's whatever. He's essentially in a three-way tie to being the third leading scorer on the team. I think what Brown did tonight and the shot making that they just desperately needed, he made another jump shot in the middle of the fourth quarter when they the one that broke the streak when they had no points that felt like a life raft for them.

I'd like to reward Tatum's all-around play. I think he still is. I never waver. He's the best player in the Celtics. The nine rebounds and seven assists are awesome. I just think the shooting gap is pretty enormous, and Jalen made the biggest shot of the series tonight, and the scoring gap is big enough. I think right now, for me, it would have to be Jalen Brown. What about you?

What about you? Yeah. I, I, yeah. I mean, to be honest, I had drew going into this game as the finals MVP. I thought the way he had been over the first, I think that was fair. I think it was neck and neck. I might've leaned him. I don't think you can anymore. No. And especially there's a game left. There's a game left. Mo is a game left, but that third quarter for me, one with Jalen Brown, that one really kind of won me over where I was like, Oh, it's gotta be Jalen. And you know, I just think he's been so much better. And, and,

It's not a shot at Tatum. I think Tatum's the best player on the team, but I think Brown has been the best player in this series. And I think that's why he's going to end up being the finals MVP unless we get some like wildly insane game, game four from Tatum or holiday. It's three. Oh, Boston's been good enough. Dallas hasn't been good enough. The season could end on Friday, which is now technically tomorrow, or we could all go back to Boston for a game five. We'll see.

Doesn't feel like Dallas has four straight wins in them. Sorry. It's never happened before. It'll happen. At some point, it'll happen. It almost happened last year. At some point, it'll happen. For people who forget, Mo worked for the Clippers and the Spurs before pivoting to media. Did you ever work with Jerry West? Did you encounter Jerry West in your Clippers time at all? I did not. I was out before Jerry West came in. I met him once or twice very briefly.

Hi, how you doing? Nice to meet you. And then kind of kept moving, but did not get the luxury or the pleasure to work with him when he came to the Clippers. This one, you know, between Bill Walton and Jerry West, it's been a tough week for NBA, you know, longtime NBA employees, friends of theirs, obviously fans.

These are two giants of the game. And Jerry West, I mean, look, I didn't know Jerry West. I know two of his sons pretty well. I've always gravitated to Jerry West. And I don't, I can explain a little bit why people can go back and find podcasts in the past where I've said, you know, it's a tribute to the Lakers organization that there's just a never ending greatest Laker of all time debate between Kobe and magic and Kareem and

and Shaq if you want, and whoever else that I'm surely leaving out. I say all the time, the guy whose name doesn't get mentioned enough as a candidate for the number one spot is Jerry West. 25,000 points, 5,000 assists, 5,000 rebounds. He's in that club. I think there are 11 guys in that club. There were no three-pointers when Jerry West played, including when he hit a half-court shot to send a finals game to overtime. Two-point shot would have won the game. Great defensive player.

I think the ultimate sort of just basketball tribute to Jerry West, he made 14 All-Star games. He made an All-Star game every year he was in the league, I think. He made 14 All-Star games. There are seven guys in the history of the NBA who were selected to more All-Star games than that. Seven.

Jerry West, again, seven guys, 15 or more all-star appearances. Jerry West had 14, so he's next on the list. And of those seven, he acquired two of them in the same week as a general manager. Kobe Bryant and Shaquille O'Neal.

And he coached a third in Kareem Abdul-Jabbar. Like, if that doesn't tell you what a giant this dude is in the history of college basketball, Olympic basketball, professional basketball, and that's before you get to his stint with the Warriors, where he threw himself in front of any Clay Thompson for Kevin Love trade. His stint with the Grizzlies, where he helped rebuild that team, build it into something.

And then his stint with the Clippers, where he's been a sounding board for everybody in that organization. And by the way, lesser known, he threw himself into a James Worthy for Mark Aguirre trade with the Dallas Mavericks in 1986 when he was with the Lakers. And it's a shame that his people can go back and read about how his relationship with the Lakers soured. He and Phil Jackson didn't get along at all.

He kind of left on bad terms, and it never quite went away, I think, for the West family, the somewhat hard feelings between the Lakers and the Wests. But the reason I always loved Jerry West...

was just how inhuman is almost the wrong word the man just bared his soul i mean if you want to read a book this book right here west by west his autobiography this dude lost all the time just lost and lost and lost on the biggest stages lost to the celtics all the time um

And before the hot takes in the rings culture, he's living proof or was living proof, will always be living proof in my mind that there was a time where you could lose the finals over and over again and get the nickname Mr. Clutch because people focused on how you played instead of what the result was. Won the finals MVP. The only player ever to win finals MVP as MVP

A losing player, 1969, when the Lakers had the balloons above the arena in game seven and they were going to celebrate finally beating the Celtics. And everyone saw the goddamn balloons and said, what are you doing? What are you doing? Leprechauns travel. And he writes in the book when he got that MVP, he did not feel like he deserved it. And it wasn't like one of those things like we lost. I don't want it.

Jerry West opens up and has opened up publicly beyond this book and other books written about him. Roland Lazenby wrote a fantastic book called Jerry West, the life of the life and legend of a basketball icon, abusive father, depressed mother, older brother who he idolized was killed in the Korean war, dire poverty growing up in West Virginia, hated the nickname Zeke from cabin Creek, by the way. Yeah.

And how all that stuff scarred him. He battled with severe depression and anxiety all his life. And the feelings he had of unworthiness and the misery he felt on losing to the point that he in the book, there are times where he sounds so depressed that he can't function is the word he uses. And he uses other words and he coped with it in all kinds of ways that were damaging to him.

it wasn't just like one of those, I hate to lose, get things like a lot of, a lot of ultra competitors. He was the one who called himself a wolf, not a dog. I'm a wolf. They hate to lose. There was something different about the level of despair is a word he used a lot. He felt despair, despair about his life, despair about losing. And like, you know, famously he couldn't even watch Lakers games when he was the GM, he would drive around and so until it was, it just ate away at him. And then he used that pain to,

as as a shield for other players modern players who were going through losing like like lebron james losing in the finals who were going through intense criticism you know brian winhorse retold the story today in his piece on jerry west about how after the 1969 finals he's out for a jog and some random person calls him a choker and he wants to just beat the guy up because it ate away at him so much he was not a choker obviously it was mr clutch

Uh, that's a, that's a story that I remembered from Jerry's book. Um, he, he, and he, he, you know, even before DeMar DeRozan and Kevin Love made it okay to talk about mental health, Jerry West was already doing that. Um, and if, if people haven't read that book and they want to get to know Jerry West, the human being and where he came from West by it's, it's one of the best autobiographies of an athlete period. Um,

Just a giant. We haven't even mentioned that he's a giant of a guy. Yeah. I mean, it's just no, I mean, there's not more we could say. I mean, he's an, he is the NBA. Like that's just who he is. You know, everything he's done, he's been a player, a coach, executive, executive multiple times. He's had his hands on multiple championships. It's a legend. And it's, it just sucks when we lose them.

You know, when we lose the legends and it's a bit, it was a weird waking up to the news this morning and going like, wow, that's a, that's a tough one there. I mean, one of the best tributes to him is that the 60 Celtics who beat him over and over again,

All like wanted him to win. All felt like he deserved to win. Jerry West specifically deserved to win. Of course, he finally does win in 1972 when they win a million games in a row. Elgin Baylor gets hurt at the beginning of that season and has to retire. Wilt's on the team.

That was a, it was a tough one. I spent a lot of time today just sort of rereading. I have all these dog ears and sticky notes in his books. Cause I've always been fascinated by him. And, um, it just seemed like he would never die. Like he'd be at games making, making, you know, snide jokes about this and that forever and ever. But, uh, obviously I'm too young to have like watched Jerry West play in any meaningful way, but, uh,

The numbers speak for themselves. The respect he has universally around the league speaks for himself. And Mo, one of the cool things about him too was not one of these retired players who thinks the league stinks today and wants to tear everybody down. That's the fun part. I mean, he loved the game. He loved it now. I mean, the stuff, the stories, like you said, making sure the Warriors never trade clay, like he understood what the...

what the Warriors could be with clay and stuff and all those things that go with it. Like it's, I mean, we, he, he was a great ambassador of the game now, you know, and I think that's one of the more important things. I think that we, we need more of those guys. And I think, you know, him and even, and Bill Walton,

you know, to a large degree as well, you know, having to have these finals kind of start out with losing Bill Walton. Then now, I mean, close to ending with, with Jerry West's passing, it's, it's a little difficult, man. I think he's in the hall of fame three times. Yes. As a player, a contributor, and as a member of the 1960 Olympic team, which is an all time. And people want to read about that team. That's Oscar Robertson, Jerry West. I mean, it's an all time great Olympic team. Um,

And the numbers, like I said, speak for themselves. And he did win a title in the end. But anyway, that's my Jerry West thoughts. Mo, do you have any parting thoughts on this game, on the Mavericks, on the Fouls, on the Celtics, anything we didn't hit? No, I think it's just a...

I think maybe we didn't give Kyrie enough love for how good he was in this game. I think from the very beginning to the end, you felt like there was the, he was fully locked in and it's, it would have been more fun. Let's just be honest. If Dallas had won and we would have had a little more intrigue going into game four, but just got to credit Boston's defense, man. It's just so damn good. It's so hard to score against them. And the Mavs have yet to break a hundred in this series. And that's, you know, a big credit to Boston. Yeah.

Wow. All right, MoeDeKil, you can read him at The Athletic.

Sometimes Bleacher Report on Twitch doing all sorts of streams. What else have you been doing? You did something with my buddy Zach Harper today somewhere. I don't remember. On the NBA, we've been doing pregame shows for the finals about two hours before each game. Zach Harper, Alexis Morgan, and myself doing it on all the NBA platforms. So Friday, 3.30, we're going to be talking about Game 4. And probably there'll be some conversation about crowning the Celtics.

Well, it might be our last finals pregame show, Mo. Maybe not. At some point, if this league and this planet exists long enough, it will happen. Somebody will do it. It doesn't feel like this is going to be the year. Mo DeKeele, thank you for staying up late for me. Thank you guys for listening to The Low Post. We'll check back in Friday after the game when either the Celtics will have won the title or the season will be very serious and we'll be going back to Boston. Thanks, everybody. For the first time, Monday Night Football streams exclusively on ESPN+.

Jim Harbaugh makes his long-awaited return to the Monday Night Lights. Touchdown, LA! And the Chargers end of their lead. As the Chargers meet rookie Marvin Harrison Jr. and the Cardinals in the down. Murray scrambling. Harrison! 60 yards, touchdown! Chargers-Cardinals. Monday, October 21st at 9 p.m. Eastern. Streaming exclusively on ESPN+. Sign up now at ESPN+.com.