Boston’s 3-1 Meltdown

Cold Open And Game 7 Pain

SPEAKER_00 0:07

Missing the point. I wonder what we're here to talk about. Is it the Boston Celtics? Is it their generational collapse against the Philadelphia 76ers? I'm here with Mike Marcangelo. It's a podcast. Today's podcast is about how I may or may not kill myself. Mike, what'd you think of that game?

SPEAKER_01 0:30

What did I say in the group chat? Only a Boston team could turn what should have been a gappier, impressive fight season into a fucking disappointment. And that's what it was. The game was just a tale of two separate quarters, right? In the first and fourth quarter, the Celtics played like absolute ass. Both quarters. I'm sorry, the first and third. In the second and fourth, they played their drop zone. They drove to the bucket. They tried to score from the mid-range. And what do you know? They erased a 15-point lead fucking twice.

The Three-Point Addiction Problem

SPEAKER_00 1:08

Yeah. And then we just started jacking up threes from cold players that hadn't been hadn't been used in the rotation, which was really fucking depressing. I don't like to be right. I don't, not when it comes to this kind of stuff. I do like to be right. I don't like to be right about this. Sure. Joe Mazzula's not the guy. He's gotta go. He's 100% gotta go. He this is him. He won one championship with, let's be honest, a cakewalk and an absolutely fucking stacked roster. And he's officially wasting the prime of our two best players. Two players, I don't know if they're gonna be on the roster next season together, at least. But we'll talk about that a little later. Joe Mizzula was completely devoid of ideas for four straight games. And I think the idea that he is some sort of motivational guru is all well and good in the regular season. It's not a playoff strategy to run hard and be active. That's everybody's strategy. It's the playoffs, everybody's doing that. So it's nice that you got them to do that in the regular season. I think you outperformed the model in the first 50 games of the regular season. I thought we were gonna lose more than we did because of the shakeup of the roster in the offseason last year. But and I give you credit for that, Joe. But you had no answers for Joel Embiid once he came back and Tyrese Maxie for the whole series. And despite claims to the contrary that you were trying different stuff, it really didn't look like that to me. He thankfully benched, finally vent benched Vucevic, finally didn't let him just embarrass himself trying to guard Joel Embiid. That like finally saw that. But here's the thing. And I know that was true for two whole games, two whole losses, and then another half a game. And that shouldn't have taken that long because I, as an armchair asking athlete, sitting, throw back to our very first show, sitting on the couch, should not be hammering the same thing into the Discord to you, chuckle fucks, saying he can't guard Embiid because it was playing for all the world to see. So finally we start putting bodies on him. Yeah, he's gonna get you. Like it is it is a thing. Like it is Joel and Bede. When he's playing like that, he's gonna get you. My main issue, honestly, wasn't even sure. Once we put bodies on him, we slowed him down a little bit. I think during the comebacks, I think that you alluded to. I think we did really later when we started playing physical, we started wearing him down, making him play defense. They got fucking scared at the end that they were gonna get swatted. It was like, dude, you gotta be stronger. Uh quite frankly, despite his box score, I thought JB was quite poor. Derek White was awful again. I don't blame the role players that came on to shoot threes. They didn't get a chance to get into rhythm for the entire series, so I don't really understand what the fucking thinking was there.

SPEAKER_01 4:09

Just to point out, just based on the putrid way he played this entire series, I think it is not fair to say that Derek White had a bad game seven. Because if I were to tell you that he was gonna score 26 points, have a couple of uh key blocks and a couple steals.

SPEAKER_00 4:25

He was atrocious. So is everybody, I get that. But the moment when he has a wide open shot, looks it off, takes a step forward, and then shoots, I'm like, I know that's not going in because it is you did it with all the confidence of a fucking fart that you think is gonna be a shit. Like, I can't, I it was like a new leaving his hand. Whenever that happens, whenever they don't just fucking rise up, it's not going in most of the time. I would say I don't have the exact stats in front of me, but like I knew right away that shit wasn't going in. And the unfortunate part was Kata was running to the fucking bucket. He was running to the cup. All you have to do is just lay it off to him, and he's just he's getting two points. We're ahead.

SPEAKER_01 5:04

I don't think they missed him, they missed Keda under the bucket four. I was gonna say four times last night. I think here the most frustrating part of this for me is during the last three games, so they're the last three losses in the final five minutes of the fourth quarter. The Celtics across three games, DK, across three games or five for 48 shooting.

SPEAKER_00 5:31

That's so bad.

SPEAKER_01 5:33

You can't they missed the last, let's see, the last 14 shots of game of game five, they went they missed 11 of 12 in the last two minutes last night, and then it was something abysmal again in game six. Listen, if you would have lost, if it because we're talking still talking about Joe Mazzula, if you would have lost these games, shooting 40% from three and hitting seven out of your last 11 three-point attempts in the fourth quarter. Yeah, you and I, but you and I wouldn't be sitting here saying, you know what, fire him. We would have lost because we got outgunned.

unknown 6:05

Sure.

SPEAKER_01 6:06

Didn't get outgunned.

unknown 6:07

No.

SPEAKER_01 6:07

The thing that they pride themselves on during the course of the regular season for the second straight year and three out of the last four years, they haven't been able to do in the playoffs.

SPEAKER_00 6:18

Yeah, I told you this is what playoff Joe Missoula fucking basketball looks like. This is what he all is.

SPEAKER_01 6:25

I do believe that he has pretty good assistant coaches around him. Wasn't Sam Cassell's the nick like moniker while he was a player, like Mr. Mid-range? Like what the fuck is what is he talking to these players about?

SPEAKER_00 6:38

I just have the head coach design decides the plan. I think the default lies with him. I think the players, it's hard for me because he annoys me so much, fucking second row Joe. Like he really fucking annoys me so much that it's hard for me to not blame Derek White's lack of confidence on him. It's hard for me to not blame. Like, what I would love to have been in the room for the conversation about Tatum's knee. Because I think if he told me he was like 70%, I would have him played. I would have had him play. Like, no, no question about it. I think, like, obviously, you're always missing a Jason Tatum. He's if he's not out there, he's our best player. I thought that I blame him though, in a way, because like it was hard to get back into rhythm without him in the team. You know what I mean? Like, we had that going, and then he gets us into a situation where we're relying on him again, which is just what happens when a player of his caliber is on the court. Like, it's not that's not his fault necessarily, but it's god that fucking annoyed the shit out of me that we just I really thought we were gonna look, and we did at times, those comebacks, especially, but I really thought we were gonna look like the team we looked like for most of the regular season. Me too. Yeah, because for half when it counted, yeah, yeah.

SPEAKER_01 7:46

Second and fourth quarter we did up until the last three minutes of the fourth quarter. But it that that entire game is exactly why if you're saying that they should fire Joe Mazzula, that it should happen because we saw like the first seven minutes of the first quarter. And shout out to Ray, who has been the biggest Celtics apologist throughout the course of last two years, saying seven minutes in that this team's cooked and losing all faith. I didn't. I if you remember, I said, nah, I actually kind of like the what the what he's doing. I think it's gonna take some time and they'll figure it out. And then when they when he decided, okay, we're gonna we're gonna abandon everything that we've done the last three games and we're gonna play differently. Jesus, it worked. But then he just he just couldn't, or they couldn't decide, well, we're not gonna keep shooting threes, we're just gonna keep going to the bucket because it would have worked.

SPEAKER_00 8:35

That's the thing. It was the most of course it would have worked, but it was the most obvious example of that. Like I it's so clear in that game. It's uh we always say it when they're just jacking up fucking whole Hail Mary threes, but we could see it more clearly, in my opinion, in that game seven than we ever have before. That was so fucking clear that we could just go to the hoop, especially. I would just like to point out if anyone wants to argue with that, just freeze frame the amount of times that Kada was just running unaccompanied to the basket and we shot a three. Like he would have just had he wouldn't have even had to dribble the fucking ball if you make the right play. So I can't stand that kind of shit. I really can't. I can't stand not seeing that stuff. And it has to be a game plan, it has to be an instruction. Honestly, to be real with you, there's a difference between should he be fired and will he be fired. And I wonder if we have the same answers to both of these questions. So should he be fired? In your opinion?

SPEAKER_01 9:37

Yeah, if it turns out that everything that we've seen in the last in these last two years has been because he won a championship and they gave him full control of strategy and play, then yes, he should be fired. Absolutely.

SPEAKER_00 9:49

Will he be fired? No. That's sad.

Why Mazzulla Gets The Blame

SPEAKER_01 9:53

You know what? Can I put an asterisk next to that? I think if Wick was still in control, the answer would be no. I think the new owner, I think Brad, now winning front office player of the year, person of the year for the two out of the last three seasons. I think having those two factors, especially the Brad Stevens factor, meaning the entire league is telling you that your general manager put a better team in front of you than ever thought possible, and you still exited early. Then I think that could change the conversation.

SPEAKER_00 10:26

It's just depressing. Here's some names of available coaches in the offseason.

SPEAKER_01 10:31

Sean you don't know, you don't need to look. It's I would promote Sam Cassell.

SPEAKER_00 10:37

That's an option. Sean Sweeney, he's the associate head coach of the San Antonio Spurs. He's widely regarded as a top-tier first-time coaching candidate. Chris Quinn. I don't think he would come to Boston. Chris Quinn, frequently mentioned, top-tier candidate from Miami. Becky Hammond. A lot of speculation there. That's come up. We wouldn't be able to do that.

SPEAKER_01 11:02

What about your boy? What about your boy? He's a free agent again. Tom Thibodeau? Doc.

SPEAKER_00 11:08

Doc Rivers, that's no, that's a no for me, dog.

SPEAKER_01 11:11

Haven't you seen his resume, bro?

SPEAKER_00 11:13

Yeah, that's gonna be a no for me, dog. Thank you. Frank Vogel.

SPEAKER_01 11:19

Thibodeau does interest me.

SPEAKER_00 11:21

Thibodeau interests me too, because you know, we gotta beat the bitch out of this team. I gotta tell you. I sent you guys a meme that's gonna be a good idea. All the reasons that we keep God this guy, I Abdi, I sent you this tweet. Done with spreadsheets, done with advanced stats, done with anything that involves a formula. Basketball is about who's a bitch and who isn't. It is. It is the mental fragility of this Celtics team is my biggest note. And that tells me that Missoula's thing is bluster. Because he talks a lot about character resilience, willpower, forcing your will. It's a lot of honestly, borderline Andrew Tatisms. Like it's very like it's very, it's very like wishing. Let's not go there. It's not exact, it's not like obviously misogynistic, like hateful rhetoric that like is ruining in next generation, but it is the same tenor of saying bullshit with your whole chest, and it's bullshit until it isn't, Joe. Like, unfortunately, this team are a pack of mental midgets. Sorry, mental little people.

SPEAKER_01 12:26

He talks about all the things that that he has no control over and that you can't prove because he's not going to change the things that he has control over in the game.

SPEAKER_00 12:35

He says that he's always saying so much and saying nothing at the same time. And it's fun and quirky and weird in February, but it's fucking infuriating in May. And he's just not he's not applying a game plan that I can really see like being effective. I don't know. I just I don't see us winning another championship with Jomozoula, like that the field is different.

SPEAKER_01 13:02

This arguably would have been the chance because you the entire league waxed by OKC in the finals. Yeah, if something happens there, but I would say like the entire league slept on you for 60 games.

SPEAKER_00 13:15

Yeah. 65.

SPEAKER_01 13:18

And again, you and I, like we had a friendly wager. I said that they would win more than 50 and a half games. But I never thought they were gonna be the two seed. Nobody did. This was the reason why this is so infuriating is because our like we we did not have to rank them this high. It was it we were completely open to the fact that this could be a six or seven seed team that is gritty and just bows out in the first round, but it's fine. Like they put up a they put up a fight. But to go up 3-1 and to do what 32 other Celtic teams have never done before and lose a series after leading 3-1, by the way, with game seven at home, is fucking embarrassing. And now the conversation is now turning to it, wasn't just a gap year that they overachieved. No, it's a you might have to fire your head coach, and you might have to blow up your your star-started roster with Jason Tatum and Jalen Brown. And by the way, that video that you sent me, not to get ahead, of Tatum and Embiid laughing at the end of the game, that pisses me off more than it should.

Should He Be Fired Or Not

SPEAKER_00 14:25

It I think it should piss you off to no fucking end. It that is that I couldn't, I was beside myself when I saw that, to be honest with you. I'm not sure. Four o'clock in the morning. Yeah, it was a fucking four o'clock in the morning. I had a rough Saturday, not including, also including the Celtics fucking losing. It's actually probably why I drank so much. It's trying to hide fill the void. I gotta tell you, man, that's unacceptable. That is absolutely fucking unacceptable. Larry Bird wouldn't even talk to his closest friends if they got traded to another team. Get your chuckling ass into the fucking locker room. Don't ever let me see that kind of shit ever again. That made me want to trade him. That made me want to I literally, I think if I was the GM, I'd be like, I if I was the owner, I'd be like, yo, tell him I'm thinking about trading him for that. Just tell him straight up. He can come talk to me if he wants to tell, and he should apologize to me and then he should tweet and apologize to the fan base. And I I I now actually understand what you're saying. I am irrationally angry about this. I'm now I'm hearing myself talk, and I realize I am irrationally angry about this, but it's just the timing of it. It really stung, man. It really stung to see him yucking it up and having a great fucking time in his street clothes with his buddy Joel Embiid. I that today's NBA, and I'm sorry to kids these days, get off my lawn, but today's NBA is a pack of pussies. You can't I would you would never have caught KG fucking laughing after his team with an with the opposite with a member of the opposite team when this fucking team got knocked out in game seven at home.

SPEAKER_01 15:56

Look at JB. Do you see him do any of that shit?

SPEAKER_00 15:59

No. Fucking infuriating dude.

unknown 16:02

No.

SPEAKER_00 16:03

I know this is gonna be an unpopular opinion. If we're gonna go get Giannis in the summer, like everyone seems to say, I'd rather pair him with Jalen Brown.

SPEAKER_01 16:10

Just to be clear though, the cap does work out that we could get Giannis without trading either JB or JT.

SPEAKER_00 16:16

Is that true? Yes, just veteran minimums across the board for the rest of the roster.

SPEAKER_01 16:21

You have to get rid of obviously Hauser.

SPEAKER_00 16:23

Definitely don't Vucevic, that's fine. Yeah, Pritchard's gone.

SPEAKER_01 16:28

Derek White would be gone.

SPEAKER_00 16:31

That's fine.

SPEAKER_01 16:32

Let's talk about the turnaround of of Peyton Pritchard in your eyes. Because it's been a slow burn uh since he was the real BK's rookie of the year pick. But now like he's one of three people out there that just tried the hardest.

SPEAKER_00 16:47

He tried really hard. He's uh he's now evolved. I think this season, I would people, some people may argue last season this happened, and that I would maybe accept that it in bursts, but I I think this season he's become a really reliable scoring option, a two or three option. And I also he's gotten better. He's incorporated a lot of stuff in his game that makes him more of a pure point guard than he was when he first came into the team. So I actually really like his game now. I think the raw version of it that included really lackluster size on the defensive side of the ball, his defensive work rate has evolved to the point where he's impossible to hate because he's fucking running around, just absolutely just bothering people on defense the entire time. I saw him one-on-one with Joel Embiid and Joel Embiid passed. So, like, I at that point, you're all fucking good in my book, buddy. We're fine. I like that he uses his size to his advantage when he's dribbling into the lane. I like that he goes underneath the basket really effectively for that reason because he's not taking up a ton of space in the baseline to baseline situation. Yep. I think his passing's gotten better. I think another jump would be nice to see him his vision expand. Like, I think his passing ability is good, but I do think he missed a couple of passes where I'm like, I wonder if we put the ball in his hands more and we let him dictate the offense more because I'm really seeing some actual point guard shit out of him, not just dribble pull-up shoot, which was pretty much his game when he was in, or spot up shoot, which is pretty much his game when he's a rookie.

SPEAKER_01 18:19

Which is now Derek White's game.

SPEAKER_00 18:20

Right. I I would be I'm not turning on Derek White by any means. I think he can obviously turn it around, and I obviously don't think he has much trade value, or his trade value is probably diminished after that performance in that in the first round. I was about to say conference finals. I was like, yeah, in the first round of the fucking playoffs. But to me, I think I'm at the point where Peyton Pritchard's a more important piece. Would I give up both of them and just figure it out for Giannis and those three guys playing together? Absolutely. Because here's the thing about Giannis, he works his fucking ass off. He works his ass off already. Like he's already his work rate's undeniable already. So to me, I think maybe you sign a savvy, make a savvy point guard signing. You keep Keda, probably, right? Can you can we afford to keep him?

SPEAKER_01 19:05

I I ran this through the numbers. Let me just pull this up.

SPEAKER_00 19:11

Because I just think that I think it's really hard to decline the idea of having Giannis, Tatum, and Brown on the same team. I it's really hard. And I think you have to do it for whatever it takes it takes. So would you agree with that?

SPEAKER_01 19:25

Yes, it requires a complex multi-team trade. How this would work is we get Giannis, and then we would have to unload Pritchard, White, a 2028 and a 2029 first round pick, along with Keda.

Coaching Candidates And Team Identity

SPEAKER_00 19:51

Would you do if the salaries are pretty much identical? So if it was on the table, I'm not sure it would be, but would you do Jalen Brown for Giannis straight up?

SPEAKER_01 20:00

I would rather pair Giannis with Jalen Brown.

SPEAKER_00 20:04

I get that, but in this hypothetical, this is the deal that's being offered.

SPEAKER_01 20:12

Wow.

SPEAKER_00 20:14

No. No, I mean I love JB. I thought he was atrocious at times in that game seven, but some of his, I mean, there was a little old habits, left-handed dribbling into the lane stuff happening, and a lot of turn, a lot of turnovers by the team. Can we talk about that? Really sloppy at points, right? It's that one point where we like missed, then there was a bad pass, and Hauser almost dribbled it out of bounds, and then he had to jump and pass it backwards to Kata, and then it was just an awkward. I think that was when White caught it and he almost shot and then he hesitated and then he shot and we missed. I fucking absolutely like diabolical performances from some of these guys. I saw Sam Hauser do an interview after the game. This is this is just gonna be a half an hour Celtics bitch fest, just so you know, because I don't even really have the energy to talk about the remainder of the NBA.

SPEAKER_01 21:01

But I'd like to sprinkle in a little bit of embiate hate too when we get a chance.

SPEAKER_00 21:06

Sure, we'll talk about the Sixers for definite. I just wanted to point out two post-game press conferences that really fucking annoyed me. One was Sam Hauser was like, if half of those shots that we missed went in, we would have won. And I was like, if my aunt had balls, she'd be my fucking uncle. What nonsense are you saying? That is if if I didn't wake up this morning, I'd be dead. I don't understand. Like, water is wet. Yeah, if you made more shots, you would have won the game. But let me tell you something else that could have happened. You could have gone to the fucking hoop and then you would have won the game. The other one was JB saying Embiid flops. I have a tough time both agreeing with the fact that Embiid does fucking flop. He does. And he was getting some he got some pretty egregious fucking calls across the course of this series after he came back. But also. Can we talk to Jalen Brown about his stiff arm? Because I'm sure it worked all it worked all regular season. They're gonna start whistling that in the playoffs. Yeah, both things can be true. So why is he the one saying it then? I want a guy who stayed disciplined and didn't give up stupid fouls and made all his free throws. That's what that's the guy I want to be talking about in beat flopping. That was guarding him. I meant in the series.

SPEAKER_01 22:25

Oh, that that'll never fuck. Listen, if Jalen, if JB goes to the line early in the game.

SPEAKER_00 22:30

Can he shoot like 55% in game six?

SPEAKER_01 22:32

And he misses his first one, it's almost a guarantee the Celtics are gonna win that game. Usually, and that's usually what happens. It's not a Celtics win without a JB miss free throw.

SPEAKER_00 22:40

But what I would say even if that was true, I still might like a full-body spine cringe when he fucking when he shoots free throws. That's a practicable skill. You need to be in the fucking like gym every day, putting up a thousand free throws from here.

SPEAKER_01 22:57

Yeah, every year he doesn't do we said this in 2023. Like that exact quote is what you said. Is like that is if there's one thing beat a dead horse, but it's still true.

SPEAKER_00 23:07

It's still true.

SPEAKER_01 23:08

I think he said what he said because if you remember like the sequence of events in that game, Embiid threw Jalen Brown to the ground after the whistle and got that and got that flagrant, and then give he gave a little stare down, but then one of these. And then the very next play, it's clear that there was contact, but Embiid threw himself to the ground from JB. And then JB was it looked at the rest, he's like, You're telling me that I did that to a guy that's 300 pounds. So I think that's why he does that. And the problem, Ray said it too. Embiid doesn't have to do that because he is good enough without it. I hate him because he does that. But I don't think I can call him lazy. I you can't, I don't think you can call Joel Embiid lazy because the guy plays what 38 minutes a game in the playoffs? Like every time that we play against him, he almost plays 40 fucking minutes. He's always putting up 25 to 30 points of 12 rebounds and eight assists. I don't now would I want him as a Celtic? I don't think so. Not with this head coach, but I hate him because of the flopping, I hate him because of the jawing, but I don't he you can't call him lazy anymore. Like and you being me and us as a collective.

Tatum’s Knee And The Postgame Optics

SPEAKER_00 24:19

No, he turned me around this series by just absolutely fucking putting his balls on our team's heads. We had no answer for him. Like when he came back, I don't know. I do I stand by my criticism of Missoula's defensive choices, especially like even Vuoch on a one one-on-one. That's crazy. But damn, dude, that guy really can get whatever he wants. Like, he can get whatever he's wants. His mid-range game's sick. It's like absolutely fucking filthy. Like, he can just like the way he was just fucking patting his defender on the head with a slick little mid-range shot whenever he wanted. When if he was able to get to his spot, we've had success with him in the past, not let him get there. That's I think the only thing you can really do. Hoping he's gonna go cold. Horford, exactly. Hoping he's gonna go cold, that's not gonna work. That's not gonna happen because he'll he can just turn it on at any time. We we I think we've established this. So for me, uh he won me over a little bit, to be honest. I've always liked Maxie, and it was hard for me to be enjoying him beating the shit out of the Celtics, too, because he was flying, like he was flying all around the fucking court. He had a a gear that none of our defenders could seem to keep up with, especially Derek White. I think I think Walsh had one pretty good game against him, and we did a podcast right after that. And I was like, Yeah, Walsh did really good. He got around the screens finally, and then that just stopped happening. So that got really fucking frustrating too. I appreciate that observation on and beat, to be honest with you. I think it takes a lot of character, Mike, to to for a man to admit when he's wrong, and it did make me think, yeah, I think I felt the same way. I honestly I think, and this is not cope. I just spent 30 minutes talking about how we fucking suck. I think I'm okay being beaten by this version of Philadelphia if they continue to be this version of Philadelphia for the remainder of the Eastern Conference playoffs, because I think if they do, they're walking to the finals. Because I like I have no idea if Embiid can stay healthy. I have no idea what New York does about him. I it's gonna really annoy me if I see New York figure them out. It's gonna, and that happened to us last season on the other end when we played New York, and then they got figured out fucking immediately in the next round. And I was like, oh my god, if that happens, that's really gonna annoy me. I don't think that's what's gonna happen. Based on what I saw, yes, the Celtics made a lot of mistakes. Yes, their game plan was either atrocious or non-existent. Yes, Tatum didn't play in game seven. We can't use that as an excuse. That's we basically we all shared the same. I was talking to you guys, I was talking to another group chat. Everybody's well, probably better. We've watched them without Tatum all season. Like, maybe that's the answer right now in this series. We all said that. I said that in my other group chat. I fucking thought that. So we can't be like, oh, Fulker Tatum, yucking it up with him beating the sidelines, very annoying. But if Philadelphia continue to play like that, I think they're gonna be really hard to beat. And that's not because I don't think that the Celtics made a ton of mistakes. Would you agree?

SPEAKER_01 27:19

Yeah, I think you're he's in this series, he played unbeatable basketball. Yeah, like it was unguarded.

SPEAKER_00 27:30

They look like a great dude. They were the better duo, they were just the better duo.

SPEAKER_01 27:33

And you're getting 38 minutes a night and and 15 points a game from Paul George at 36, too.

SPEAKER_00 27:39

Like that that's how that's another that's honestly another demerit on JB, I have to say. Like, I thought he was getting cooked by George for those losses, and I think he was fucking clamping him up for the wins. So that was actually a big swing, too. That was that really annoying. Okay, this is cathartic. How do you feel?

SPEAKER_01 27:59

I I'm just so fucking angry that I'm angry. Like they put me in this position. I know. I mean it's a good one. Well, they didn't have to they didn't fucking have to.

SPEAKER_00 28:10

The second team in NBA history to cough up a 3-1 series loss in the 3-1 series lead in the first round.

SPEAKER_01 28:15

And again, 32 other Celtics teams have been up three to one, and none of them have lost.

SPEAKER_00 28:20

No, so we put a black mark on the history of the franchise. Good job, guys. Correct. These are the kind of stats that really foment rage.

SPEAKER_01 28:27

Like it really one last thing I want to say. I think the team cleared Tatum to play, and I think him and his team said him and his staff said no. Really? Because this is the same Celtic roster that told us that there was nothing wrong with Kemba's knee. There was nothing wrong with Kate with Katie's foot. These are the same doctors. I think I I think this is a lot of things.

SPEAKER_00 28:49

Our physio room is sketchy.

SPEAKER_01 28:51

No, it's fine, yeah. Yeah, Kemba's knee is fine.

SPEAKER_00 28:53

It's like really hanging on by literally two really weird injury things, like in a kind of in a row, error, era by era, right? So it's uh okay. Yeah, I agree with you.

Giannis Trade Math And Sacrifices

SPEAKER_01 29:02

You I think it's like it it reminded me of the gr of Gronk and the Patriots and the Patriots. He can play, and him, this doctor's being like, nah, we're not gonna do that. We're just not.

SPEAKER_00 29:10

I guess you're well within your rights to do that because it is your knee, but no, it isn't. That's a Celtics knee. Correct. We pay for that.

SPEAKER_01 29:19

Get out there. Or like if you're not gonna get out there, don't be on camera like seriously, just fucking laughing after your team without you got his ass kicked. That's a fireable offense. It is. That is a fucking fireable offense. If listen, if Joe Mazzula had gone up to the head coach and was doing and was doing that thing. Speaking of he never smiles, or if any head coach would do that, then you'd be like, okay, that's they're fucking gone because they don't have it. But we hold somehow, for some reason, we hold star players to a lower standard.

SPEAKER_00 29:52

We don't, not here. We just got really mad at him. Okay, great. Thanks for making me feel better, Mike. Just to end on something, I also did mention to you on the last show that we did together that LeBron was really impressing me in that series. And then I really think to come out and like almost cough it up. And then instead of doing what we did, just going out there and handling fucking business, like literally with nobody around him. It's vintage. It's these are vintage LeBron James performances of 41. All the credit in the world to him. When he gets absolutely blasted off the face of the earth in the next round, I'll still say, man, LeBron, round one, epic. 2026, epic. Love that. Love that playoffs.

SPEAKER_01 30:32

Not to keep you up longer than I have to, but you did say that it's you did say if they get past uh if they get past the first round, and this would be you might have to reconsider your my LeBron take in general. Your LeBron goat take. You said he might be the goat. So you said last week. So is he?

SPEAKER_00 30:56

He's the best player we've ever seen play. I saw Jordan play live. Or did you really like conceptually? Twice.

SPEAKER_01 31:02

I saw I saw the Wizards, Jordan, so I knew that because I had seen him in '98 after, and then I saw him in O2. When I saw him in 02, I was like, wow, I really saw him when he was fucking great.

Pritchard’s Leap And Roster Priorities

SPEAKER_00 31:12

Yeah. Yeah. Okay, let me rephrase. He's the best player whose entire career we've been with. 100%. And I think that gives us a unique perspective. He's the best player, he's been the best player in basketball for like most of my life. It feels like. So it's it to me, it's and it's like he was the best young guy. He's now I've there's never been a better old guy. There's never been a better rookie, in my opinion. There's never been a better old guy. Sure, he didn't win the titles that Jordan won in the middle, and is but he he went to the finals, what, eight straight times? That's pretty impressive. I'm not old man LeBron. I have a warm feeling in my heart for him, and I did LeBron sucks, fuck him, for my entire Boston fandom Cavs heat, Eastern Conference, sending JT home with a fucking three dagger in his face, like that. All this shit. It's he's been a thorn in my side, a merry villain for many a year. But I honestly I have a warm place in my heart, and then he's joining the Lakers now, which is I'm like, okay, cool. I hate them, but I do I have a warm place in my heart for him, and I'll tell you why. It's I think it was probably a privilege to watch him play basketball, and he's still doing it at a crazy level. Yes, he's our guy, he's our era guy. Like me and you, he's our era. So you might have caught Jordan, but this is LeBron James. We're we have been watching basketball in the LeBron James era for quite some time. Real quick, who's your pick to come out of the West? Is it and why is it still OKC? And who's your pick to come out of the east? Just so we have it on record now going into round two.

SPEAKER_01 32:42

So obviously, I have Thunder Spurs in the Western Conference Championship. I I think Thunder will take that series in six, but I think this is gonna be fun. And then I have again, if all is if all's equal, we should be we should see a Thunder 76 years finals.

SPEAKER_00 33:00

Okay. I'm gonna say it's like watching my two favorites fight each other because I really love the Spurs and I really love Anthony Edwards. I really loved it. What? He's not out indefinitely. He's gonna come back.

SPEAKER_01 33:16

No, he's out. He's they said it was four to six weeks.

SPEAKER_00 33:20

Oh shit.

SPEAKER_01 33:20

So I so I don't think he can come back for the wait, hold on a second.

SPEAKER_00 33:25

I have to look at this. I really liked when Stefan Castle said free Palestine to that uh to that Israeli basketball player and made him get really mad. That made me like the Spurs even more. It was right after he got fouled twice and then he dunked on him, and then he said free Palestine and put the fucking ball on his chest. I'm with that, I'm based as fuck. So I enjoyed that. Secondly, Victor Weminyama is now the face of the league. He's won, I think he's won that race. I really thought it was gonna be Ant. It's not, it's Wemby. I really like the stuff he says. I really like the man that he's becoming, the way he's evolving before our very eyes. His game is it's not even it's not just good, it's impossible. It's the most impossible thing, and I'm not even talking just in the NBA, it's the most impossible thing I've seen happen more than once. It's so nuts. I it does nothing but encourage simulation theory in my mind. I really think we're living in a fucking video game. That is crazy. That's real. I have to have to see this guy play in person. Have to. Yeah, it's a calling at this point. It's nuts. So I think even with Ant, they'd have trouble. So I agree with you. I'm not sure.

SPEAKER_01 34:37

You think he we both we both agree that he could shut down Embiid, right?

Embiid Respect Maxey Fear

SPEAKER_00 34:42

I would love to see that. I would I would love to see that across a playoff series. I would love to see I would have liked to see him and Jokic battle it out for seven games. That's a little disappointing, but I want to see what Gobert does to him because I can't explain Rudy Gobert's defense, but that doesn't mean that it wasn't effective on the best offensive player in the league for that entire first-round series. I'm excited to watch that. I wonder if the NBA playoffs will keep their juice because despite obvious being obviously upset about the results of the Celtics series, this has been a great playoff so far of overall across the two, like crazy shit's gone down. The magic capitulation when they had the series in hand and they let them come back. And I was like looking at the score looking score. I was like, Oh shit, I gotta put this on. I was like, because they're up big from from even the Knicks making beat down so bad it became fun again because you wanted to see how many they could score. That's a like an absolutely novel thing that had that doesn't usually happen in what is what had been up until that point, a pretty hard-fought series, right? And then it was like a fucking curb stomping, which I enjoyed actually. It was funny to me. And then there's been a lot of juicy narratives going around the league. I agree with you. I've got Spurs, OKC in the finals. I'm picking the Spurs to come out of the West. Bold fortune favors the bold in the Eastern Conference. Let me just look at who plays each other here because it's weird because it's 76ers. We lost to a fucking seventh seed.

SPEAKER_01 36:06

I mean, the Raptors rep seven.

SPEAKER_00 36:07

Okay, they're gonna play the Knicks. Pistons are gonna play either the Cavs or the Raptors. Uh it's probably gonna be it's probably gonna be Pistons 76ers. If they can, like I said, if they can continue to pay play like that, and then I wonder what it would look like if we sent 76ers against the Spurs for the finals. That would actually be a pretty interesting finals, and it would allow me to cheer really hard for the Spurs and Victor Wemanyama, which would be really fun for me. That would be really fun for me, Mike. I like my scenario. I think your scenario is more likely. I'm just maybe I'm a dreamer, but I'm not the only one. They may say I'm a dreamer, but I'm not.

SPEAKER_01 36:53

Yeah, I've I've also heard that fucking song before, so I'm very well aware of what you're doing.

SPEAKER_00 36:58

Yeah, no, I wasn't hiding it. I didn't say I wasn't trying to claim that was my quote.

SPEAKER_01 37:02

No, I didn't, yeah, you're right.

SPEAKER_00 37:03

What's your favorite narrative that's gone on across the two conferences so far? What's the been your favorite series?

SPEAKER_01 37:09

For the West, it's this is Wemby's time. It's now you just see if you can stop him. Is he enough to overcome OKC if they play each other? And that wagon.

SPEAKER_00 37:19

I do think he is a good supporting cast too. I really like the rest of his guys.

SPEAKER_01 37:22

But that will get lost in the shot. It will be Wemby versus OKC. Right? Can that can the alien fucking?

LeBron Debate And Bracket Picks

SPEAKER_00 37:28

Is it is having the best player? Do they have the best player in the series on paper going into that matchup? Or is it SGA? It's gonna be interesting to see who affects the game more. Yeah, I get that, but it's gonna be interesting to see who who affects the game more because I think that SGA is kind of superpower, and I know people call him like a foul merchant and they call him boring. That may or may not be true, it may be true. But the thing that he does is he has an incredibly high impact on every game that he plays in. His stats are typically the most important part of the overall score of the Oklahoma City Thunder. Who's guarding him? You pretty much lose them completely offensively on their side of the ball. It's everybody's in fucking foul trouble, so you're just impacting the game to a huge degree, right? He's at the foul line scoring automatic buckets all night, which is just a clean, fundamental, effective way to consistently score in the NBA. And I would have loved to A have the Celtics be better at them, and C, B, sorry, I skip B, get to the line more. And how do you get to the line more? You fucking drive to the hoop, but I'm not gonna relitigate that. We're done talking about that for the rest of the season. So yeah, I'd have to I'd have to see. I would I think that's the interesting thing to watch in that series. I I really do. Who's actually because damn, he really does affect the game, Wemby, too. You know, like the the big the big blocks, like everything. So that's gonna be interesting.

SPEAKER_01 38:56

Not to make you not to make you hate me, but my favorite storyline from the east objectively is in Bede getting that thing off his fucking back. That's true. And doing after going 0-3 against the Celtics, he's down 3-1, and he that that series literally was one when he decided just to come back from appendicitis and play or appendactor, whatever the fuck he had. He changed the entire thing.

SPEAKER_00 39:23

It's true. I know we beat him in his first came back, but that was basically a warm-up game, and then we were fucked from that point forward. No answer to the case.

SPEAKER_01 39:28

Still played like 38 minutes and scored 27 points, but it's fine.

Wembanyama Hype And Playoff Narratives

SPEAKER_00 39:32

But but if that's the case, you can live with that, right? That's not what kept him. Like he just started absolutely smashing us. He was just going through everybody we threw at him, especially. Um what about you? What about you, DK? I agree with you completely about the Celtic 76 because I would have given the same answer. I I think it I might have been able to justify picking the magic beat and the pistons just because it was the eight-seed beat and the one seed, but then they just completely fucking capitulated. The story didn't end the way that we wanted to. I think it's been really interesting. I wouldn't call it the most interesting, but I think Raptors Cavs has been really interesting because I thought there was less parody there than your typical four and five seed going into an Eastern Conference playoffs. But there seems to be like they seem to have answers for each other in a lot of different ways, and it's been interesting. I'd still it still smells to me like it's the Cavs making more mistakes than they should and not playing up to their ability. I think we'll see a different version of them in the next round. I think they'll they got a little bit of the yips in this one at times, and I think that they're gonna if they get there. I think they're gonna get there, and I think that I think it's better for us if they get there. I think they match up better against Detroit, and I think they they have a better chance of beating Detroit and making the Eastern Conference Finals more interesting. All right, Mike. Hey, that was fun. That was cathartic. And what I do like that we did is we actually did fit in a little chat there at the end about the rest of the NBA playoffs because I needed to lock back in. I don't want to just be done now that the Celtics are out. That's not the kind of basketball watcher, ball knower I want to be. So I can lock back into some narratives now. Hey, I really appreciate that, man. And maybe you did the same favor to the folks back home. What do you think? I don't know. Okay. For myself, for Mike Barcangelo, this is Ben getting the point.