Latest / The Philadelphia Sports Table | Philly Sports News & Views / OPPOSITION TERRITORY: Boston Celtics
Transcript
- 0:00Hey, everybody, it's Jeff. We wanted to let you know we recorded
- 0:02this podcast episode on Tuesday, January twenty third, twenty twenty four. By
- 0:08the time you hear this, some things may have changed, but we hope
- 0:10you enjoy the show. All right, everybody, Welcome to Opposition Territory here
- 0:39at the Philadelphia Sports Table podcast show, the longest running weekly Philly sports podcast
- 0:43show in the world. That's right over ten and a half years strong.
- 0:45Thank goodness, we are not previewing anymore Philadelphia Eagles games, Thank goodness.
- 0:52It is great to get back into the groove of things after this terrible collapse
- 0:56of an Eagle season. As you know, we've talked about it on a
- 0:59regular show. Oh but I am looking forward getting into some NBA talk here,
- 1:03specifically within the Eastern Conference. We're gonna be taking a look at on
- 1:06this Opposition Territory podcast the Boston Celtics, number one team in the East thus
- 1:11far, Philadelphia seventy six ers, number three team in the East. I
- 1:15mean, over the course of these next few months here, these top teams
- 1:19are gonna be jockeying for position for sure, gonna be looking to take out
- 1:23the Boston Celtics at least. I know the Bucks and the Sixers for sure,
- 1:29as well as some other teams. But we're gonna get into this Celtics
- 1:33team what we've been seeing from them as of late. We got a great
- 1:37guest, let's get right to it. It is great to have back on
- 1:40the show to talk about this Boston Celtics team coming to us from celticsblog dot
- 1:47com, Great SB Nation site. And also he's one of the co hosts
- 1:51of How About Them Celtics, and I love talking to him about Eastern Conference
- 1:57ongoing things that are happening, and again with the Boston Celtics, Jack Simone,
- 2:01how you doing, Buddy good? How are you doing, Jeff?
- 2:05Thank you for having me on the show again. Yeah, it's great to
- 2:07have you. Man. I'm doing okay because I mean, quite frankly,
- 2:09the seventy six Ers having a pretty good season. They get rid of James
- 2:12Harden and things start clicking. You know, it's amazing. That is how
- 2:15most most teams find things. That is, that's how a lot of the
- 2:17teams, you know, you get rid of James Harden, things tend to
- 2:21trend upwards. I suppose, isn't it incredible, Like it really is incredible.
- 2:24You know, you know, you know, whether it's Houston, you
- 2:27know, whether it's seventy six Ers, you know Brooklyn, you know,
- 2:30you get rid of him, and there seems to be some sort of hope
- 2:32at the end of the line when it comes to these teams. So we
- 2:37look, man again, it's great to have you on talk about this Celtics
- 2:39team, and I'm actually first hoping that you can help give us some outside
- 2:46perspective as it pertains to one Joe el Embiid and the season that he is
- 2:51actually having, because sometimes sometimes I think I'm too close to it. I
- 2:54think my co hosts who come on our regular show are too close to it
- 2:59sometimes, even though they give pretty good, you know, objective type of
- 3:02opinions here. But like, my gosh, what he did last night putting
- 3:06up seventy points. He's just having an amazing season, and we just didn't
- 3:10necessarily think, I think in Sixers Nation when the season was starting that we
- 3:15would see this type of play from him on the court necessarily. So as
- 3:21somebody who covers these Celtics, you know, you're looking at what's going on
- 3:23with the East, various players in the East. What are your thoughts on
- 3:27Joel Embiid and how he's performed this season. Yeah, I mean, seventy
- 3:31points is ridiculous. That is it would be hard for me not to start
- 3:37there. Seventy points in the game is absolutely absurd. Taking two three pointers
- 3:42yeah, Like, I mean he made one, Like, how what are
- 3:46you supposed to do with that? How are you supposed to defend that?
- 3:49Yeah, And he's been incredible. He's been a top three player in the
- 3:53league, if not the best player in the league, probably the most dominant
- 3:57scorer we've seen since take your pay Like, it's incredible what he's doing on
- 4:01the court this season. He deserves a ton of credit and stuff I've been
- 4:03hearing a lot, and that I agree with is he deserves credit for his
- 4:06playmaking a lot too this season that I don't think he gets enough absolutely fair
- 4:11share for. Yeah, he's been awesome. The Sixers are obviously great and
- 4:15Max he deserves a lot of credit for that too, but without him,
- 4:18they're not what they are. Thirty I laugh for your time to look at
- 4:21his stats. Thirty six eleven and a half and six assists on those shooting
- 4:26splits. Yeah, it's absurd. It's it's just insane what he's doing plus
- 4:30a career not a career high, but to one point nine blocks a game.
- 4:32Like, he's one of the best two way players in the league.
- 4:35He's arguably the best offensive player in the league. He's easily, in my
- 4:40opinion, the best scorer in the league. It's just a matter of and
- 4:44I'm sure you guys talk about this in here all the time, like he
- 4:46doing the playoffs like like, that's just what it comes to in terms of
- 4:49in terms of regular season play, he's probably the best player in the league.
- 4:54Although there is that pesky sixty five game requirement for the awards that he's
- 4:58pressing up upon right now. Absolutely very pesky. Yes, it's very pesky.
- 5:02And you know, when it does come to the Sixers, you know,
- 5:05they won six in a row. As of us recording this right now,
- 5:10you know, three and a half games behind the Celtics, the third
- 5:13in the East. A lot of stuff is clicking for this team on the
- 5:15court. But like you just said, you know, you know that pesky
- 5:18little thing to the back of our minds here. If the postseason was starting,
- 5:24say next week, Jack, how concerned would you be about the Sixers
- 5:30if they would were to face the Boston Celtics, if they were to have
- 5:33to face each other in the postseason, Say again, if the postseason started
- 5:38next week, what's your level of concern And from a postseason standpoint, do
- 5:44you think they would scare you? Again here at the end of January,
- 5:46as we're looking into February, what are your thoughts. I would say,
- 5:51if you gave a fear level from like one to ten, yes, I'd
- 5:55say maybe like a four. Okay, which is it's not it's not it's
- 6:00not a reflection of how like good or bad Joel Embiid is. But like,
- 6:03historically speaking, the Celtics are one of the very few teams who have
- 6:08had an answer for Joel Embid Absolutely, and the answer being the one the
- 6:12Sixers tried to steal from the Celtics, and Al Horford and also Drew Holliday
- 6:15has guarded him very well this season. So they've had guys that they can
- 6:19throw at Joel Embiid, they've guarded him well. The talent level there is,
- 6:24I would argue, like just the depth of Celtics have I think is
- 6:27a little bit better. And then Tyres MAXI the Sixers second best player and
- 6:30a clear All Star this year hasn't exactly played very well against the Celtics either.
- 6:33I think it'll be a little different with him as the second option.
- 6:35We'll so we'll see what he could do there and we'll see how he performs
- 6:39in really his first postseason as that bona fide like secondary score on a champion,
- 6:44hippope ful team. But I just think with the history there in the
- 6:47postseason, with how well the Celtics have played the played the Sixers, and
- 6:51honestly, I'm I think the Sixers will be more difficult to knock out this
- 6:58year than they have in other years. But if you ask a lot of
- 7:00Celtics fans and you just go on Celtics Twitter, they would rather play the
- 7:03Sixers than probably five out of the other six top seven seats in the West.
- 7:10And I think it's just because, like there is that baseline of they've
- 7:14never even like they've never beaten exactly Like why president here, Yeah, there's
- 7:18precedent for that. I mean why again, as an outside perspective on this,
- 7:25why is it that the Celtics continually you know, I'll use the I'll
- 7:28use the phrase quote own the Sixers at times. I mean, is it
- 7:31I mean, is it just one on one matchups? Coaching? What do
- 7:35you think it is why the Celtics usually get the best of the Philadelphia seventy
- 7:40six ers when when we when we see these type of matchups, and we
- 7:43have in the past, I think a lot of it is just the matchup
- 7:46of Al Horford defense Joel Embiid very well, and now you have Drew Holliday
- 7:50too, who has been defending centers all season at at a high level,
- 7:54and so they have one of the best defensive setups in the league to guard
- 7:58Embiad, especially when you factor in the fact that you'll have Al on him,
- 8:01and if Al get switched off, you can put a smaller guy on
- 8:05him. And it's not the perfect, you know, one to one comparison,
- 8:07But last year was Grant Williams and this year can beat your Holliday and
- 8:09you know, smaller defender guarding him, and then you just send help and
- 8:13then you force other guys to beat you. And in years passage, don't
- 8:16think the Sixers have had the best other guys quote unquote that can beat you,
- 8:20like PJ. Tucker maybe not making his threes or some other guys not
- 8:24making their threes in the past, and that's why I think the Sixers are
- 8:26almost a little bit better set up this year to beat them because I think
- 8:28they have weirdly enough, even though they traded James Harden, I feel like
- 8:33they have a more well rounded supporting cast. Like Dnt Melton played really one
- 8:35in the playoff last year. I think he'll be good. I think Tobias
- 8:37Harris is having a much better season this year. I think whoever they can
- 8:41trade for will play well. Nick Buttoom has been awesome, yes from three
- 8:45for the Sixers this year, and Maxi's taking that massive leap, so I
- 8:46don't think it'll necessarily be as easy. But I also think a part of
- 8:50it is just like the Sixers know they always lose to the Celtics, like
- 8:52this, This is not like some secret like they know in their head and
- 8:56be going on here. Yeah. Absolutely. I mean it's been years since
- 9:01the quote, but Embiid was like, this isn't a rivalry. They always
- 9:03beat us, like yeah in kinder words, Yeah, and you know he
- 9:07still knows that because it's still true, Like they beat him last year,
- 9:11they've beat him in years past. There is just this hump, and every
- 9:13regular season the Sixers beat the Celtics once or twice and fans are like,
- 9:18oh, we're back, and then the playoffs come around and like, nope,
- 9:20no, it's the same stuff. Yeah happens, And so I do
- 9:22think part of that is that mental like they know what happens. But I
- 9:26think the bigger parties like they just have the best defensive infrastructure to slow down
- 9:31em Beid. Yeah, folks, you know we've been talking sports psychology on
- 9:35this podcast in recent weeks, especially as it pertains to the Philadelphia Eagles.
- 9:37I think it's something we need to keep in mind as it pertains to the
- 9:41seventy six ers teams. It pertains too this you know, quote rivalry between
- 9:46the Sixers and Celtics. So I'm sure we're gonna be getting into that more
- 9:48on this podcast platform in the future. But as we're moving along here,
- 9:52Jack, you know, the star power of the Celtics, I mean it's
- 9:56obvious. You know, see, we got some really good starters playing up
- 10:00in Boston here, and we knew they'd be cooking on all cylinders this season.
- 10:05But there were some questions as far as depth and as far as what
- 10:09this sixers bench was going to be and you even mentioned, you know,
- 10:13the depth just a couple minutes ago, and that depth has really become somewhat
- 10:16of a strength for the Celtics, you know, when they have needed it.
- 10:20So I'm wondering if you can talk about what we've been seeing in terms
- 10:24of the Celtics depth and how certain pieces may be important for the team down
- 10:28the stretch here. Yeah, of course. So obviously, like you said,
- 10:33the starting lineup is the starting lineup, it's five all star caliber players
- 10:35who all of whom, if they were the third option or second option on
- 10:39the team, could be an all rights. Yes, your holiday dear,
- 10:43And I'll even I'll throw Al Horford in this because as much as you want
- 10:46to say bench guy, like he's a starting caliber player who's just their stay,
- 10:50which is Yeah, I was talking about it on our podcast last night,
- 10:52like that is a crazy luxury to have. Yep, that the Celtics
- 10:54luckily past that. Sam Hauser has been awesome this season, shooting forty percent
- 11:01from deep on five and a half attempts a game. He's like third or
- 11:03fourth on the Celtics in three point attempts a game in twenty minutes, like
- 11:07he just he gets in that game, he is shooting at three and it
- 11:09doesn't matter if it's contested, and a lot of them go in, and
- 11:13so he's been awesome. He's also been like a very very good defender this
- 11:16year, which is not something you see a lot. I asked Joe Missoula
- 11:18a couple of weeks ago and he said, straight up, he goes,
- 11:20yeah, he's a white guy, so you probably didn't think he can defend,
- 11:22but he's been able to defend forever. And he's been really good and
- 11:28a lot of teams end up like in the Rockets game specifically, they were
- 11:31sending you know, Jabari Smith, they were sending Dylan Brooks just one on
- 11:33one, like, oh, I beat this guy, and then it was
- 11:35just like terrible shots because he's a good defender. So they call it Howser
- 11:39Island, and he's been able to sort of shut people down from that perspective.
- 11:43Peyton Pritchard, fresh off his contract extension this summer, has been great
- 11:46for them as well. He's averaging eight three and three, shooting well from
- 11:50the field in from three. He's just been a solid tertiary point guard behind
- 11:56Drew Holliday and Derek White, like he's just doing everything they need him.
- 12:00He started off the season slow shooting, but he's picked it up, shooting
- 12:01around thirty eight percent now from deep. But he's averaging three point three rebounds
- 12:07and three assists sneakily also one of the best like offensive rebounding guards in the
- 12:11league for some reason, like he's just crashing the class, which is super
- 12:15fun. That's probably Oh and then Luke Cornett. Luke Cornett gets a terrible
- 12:18rep. If you ask like half of Celtics nation, they will absolutely hate
- 12:24him. But he has been awesome this season. He has been a great
- 12:26defender, he has been a great offensive rebounder, he has been a great
- 12:31screener. He's doing all the little things the Celtics need from him. So
- 12:35he gets a ton of flak from Celtics fans who want to see nimiash Keida,
- 12:39who is one of the Celtics two ways guys who is good but just
- 12:41not quite as defensively sound as Cornett. They want to see him get some
- 12:45more minutes. But Cornett has been like a rock for the Celtics and past
- 12:48that you probably won't see much else in the playoffs. So shaper set's been
- 12:52solid. It's been a really good rebounder and a good cutter and he did
- 12:54finish her around the rim. But I think that about covers the Celtics depth,
- 12:58which I mean to the season was very questionable for them. Yeah,
- 13:03very questionable. It's uh, it's been nails. It's been very good.
- 13:07It really has been. And it seems like every single piece of the depth
- 13:11for the Celtics, they they have some sort of role to play and that
- 13:15role hasn't necessarily just tapered off or dropped off a cliff. It's been consistent
- 13:20and I think that's really been the key for this team as well. And
- 13:24again, folks, we're talking to Jack Simone at Jacksimone NBA on Twitter,
- 13:28Celtics blog dot com, and he's co host of how About Them Celtics,
- 13:33Great great podcast, And uh, I kind of want to get into some
- 13:37you know, underrated aspects of this team and also some weaknesses too here Jack,
- 13:43because I'm wondering, you know, which player you know looking at this
- 13:46from Okay, seventy six ers third in the East right now, they're wanting
- 13:50to really you know, you know, make make even more noise if they
- 13:52possibly can and and it is you know, gonna be targeting some weaknesses,
- 13:58uh, but also making sure that the underrated aspects of this Celtics team may
- 14:03may not get their fair share or get their due. So I'm wondering which
- 14:07player or even what aspect of this Celtics team have really been the most underrated
- 14:13here this season? Essentially, you know what part of the team hasn't necessarily
- 14:16gotten the love maybe they deserve. I'm going to go to not a player.
- 14:22I think Joe Mizula deserves a lot more credit. Okay, this season
- 14:24has gone for the Celtics. Yeah, he got a lot of criticism obviously
- 14:28in the postseason last year when the Celtics went down three er to the Heat.
- 14:31They brought it back. They did, losing seven, but like,
- 14:33it's not like it was a sweep, right, And the first season he
- 14:37talked to he won on the JJ Redick Pot at the start of the year
- 14:41and he said, last year I was thrown into the fire. I mean
- 14:43you have to remember he was brought on board as the Celtics head coach in
- 14:46October, like a week out from training camp and resports, Like, yeah,
- 14:50here's a staff that is not yours, it's the past coaches. Here's
- 14:54a team that you know was built for another coach that was going to coach
- 14:58this team. Here is you know, a guy who was this you know,
- 15:01a second bench guy, like behind the first row. We're gonna put
- 15:05him in as the head coach because you know he's you know, familiar with
- 15:09the players. And he was just like, yeah, I really just relied
- 15:11a lot on the talent on that team because we had a really good team
- 15:13and I didn't fully know what I was doing, Like, I, what
- 15:18do you want for me? Like yeah, And so he's been a lot
- 15:22more open and honest this year. One of the big things was he said
- 15:26something along the lines of last year, I didn't emphasize defense a lot because
- 15:31in my mind, as a guy who was always, you know, a
- 15:33hard nosed defender in college, it was just a given that you should play
- 15:35hard on defense. But I guess I have to actually tell the players that.
- 15:39And so he's been which is just an all time quote, and like
- 15:43it makes it makes some sense because he like from his perspective, he's just
- 15:46like, yeah, just play hard on defense. It's not that difficult.
- 15:50And you know, a lot more this year of Celtics have broken out a
- 15:52two one two zone. They've gone a lot of you know, free safety
- 15:56defense with Drew Holliday or KP playing off the ball. They've done a lot
- 15:58of Drew Holliday. He's been challenged to be the quarterback so he can like
- 16:03help over no matter what, like he has the freedom to move. They've
- 16:06done a lot of you know, Tatum guarding Shay Luca was guarded by JB
- 16:10last night. They switched a lot of stuff up. So yeah, he's
- 16:12emphasized a lot of defensive things this year. Offensively, he was able to
- 16:17bring in a new coaching staff, so Chounsey Phillips is on the team.
- 16:19Charles Lee is on the team on the coach staff former Celtic Phil Pressey.
- 16:22He brought in some other guys as well. They focused a lot more on
- 16:26post ups. Tatum and Jalen are getting into the post ups. Jalen Brown
- 16:29is getting out in transition and focusing on getting his buckets there more and speeding
- 16:33up the tempo. Derek White is running a ton of pick and rolls with
- 16:36Porzingis and Tatum even and Tatum and Derek White are screening for each other like
- 16:40KP's getting a lot of post ups. Cornette and Derek White have run a
- 16:44really nice too many game, Like there's so many intricate things that I think
- 16:48Joe Mazzola doesn't get credit for because of how talented this team is on paper,
- 16:52But he truly has been awesome this season, not only with the on
- 16:56court stuff and running this basketball team, just the way he's presented himself and
- 17:02talked with the media. Like he came in the media room after a game
- 17:06like last week, he just looks at Bobby Manning, who's a reporter for
- 17:10Sealed, as he goes, are you we're gonna tie? And he goes
- 17:11yeah. He's just like starts joking with the media like he's just so much
- 17:14more comfortable this year, which is is not something you knew you got last
- 17:18year from him. Like he would say on the JJ Redcott, he goes,
- 17:21when I was an assistant, I would take the service elevator up here,
- 17:23go to the film room, and take it back down so I wouldn't
- 17:26have to talk to anybody. He was the most introverted guy. He just
- 17:29wanted to work. He just wanted to talk about basketball, and so I
- 17:32think it took him a year to open up and get comfortable in the role,
- 17:33and now that he is, he's it's very fun and it's very good
- 17:37to see. You look at Joe Sozola, and you take a look at
- 17:40Nick Nurse too, and I'll tell you right now, these are two coaches
- 17:44where that contingency of NBA fans that say coaching really doesn't matter that much,
- 17:48where it's the superstars and it's the talent on the court that's really gonna get
- 17:52the job done. I'm sorry, Joezola, Nick Nurse. You see what
- 17:56has happened with these teams when you have new leadership as your head coach and
- 18:00new coaching philosophies to coach amazing talent on the field. You see what's happened
- 18:06with Joel Embiid actually better than his MVP season last year, Tyrese Maxi developing
- 18:11the way he has. You've just analyzed what has been happening with this Celtics
- 18:15team and how Joe Mazzula has brought a new philosophy to this crew over the
- 18:21course of now over a year. Coaching absolutely matters, and I think these
- 18:26two gentlemen here in twenty twenty four, Jack absolutely put to rest that notion
- 18:30amongst certain fans that coaching really doesn't matter in the NBA. Definitely. I
- 18:34mean Nick Nurse has been awesome in Philly this year. He deserves credit for
- 18:37that. That team's playing regardless of Joe Embiid's thirty six points tonight. Yeah,
- 18:44he's great. I will say a lot of At least my co host
- 18:45Sam as not the biggest Nick Nurse fan, only because he hates the it's
- 18:52the now famous mouth, the gape complaining about the call, Like what do
- 18:55you mean, like the now wide open, Like, yeah, that is
- 18:57iconic Nick Nurse. Yeah, but you can't you count doubt his talent as
- 19:02a head coach. He's awesome, absolutely, all right. Well, as
- 19:04we're moving along here, as I mentioned, kind of wanted to get into
- 19:07maybe what where the Celtics maybe a little bit vulnerable here. You know,
- 19:11we're talking about the depth before, how it has become a strength. We
- 19:15thought initially during the early parts of the season that it could be a liability
- 19:18for the Celtics. What do you think is taking its place in terms of
- 19:22what might actually be the biggest weakness of the Celtics team. I think it's
- 19:26the same thing that has kind of caught up to them in recent years.
- 19:30They get in their own way a lot. It hasn't been nearly as relevant
- 19:33this season, but you've seen it pop up a few times over the past
- 19:37few games. The Denver game, they lost one or two one hundred.
- 19:41They scored I think it was four points in the last five minutes of the
- 19:44game. You're just not gonna win basketball games like that, right. Their
- 19:47offense completely went out the window. They slowed things down, they lost the
- 19:49flow. They got good shots, right, Me and Sam did a sort
- 19:53of like breakdown. We looked at all their shots in the fine to five
- 19:56minutes, and they were all fine shots, but just they slowed down the
- 20:00tempo and they stopped playing the offense that got them to that point in the
- 20:03first place. You saw in the Houston game too. They ended up pointing
- 20:07the same thing with the Dallas game, but they just sort of slow down
- 20:08their offense and play a different style and sort of try to, like NBA
- 20:11games naturally slow down towards the end, and that's not the brand of basketball
- 20:17that suits the Celtics, and so they sort of give into that and then
- 20:21take their foot off the gas. The Indiana game they got again caught up
- 20:26and playing a style that doesn't suit them. Indiana is very we're going to
- 20:29run, We're only gonna play offense. And the Celtics, while they do
- 20:33thrive in transition as much as you don't want to slow the game down completely,
- 20:37they love getting into the half court, finding mismatches and attacking them and
- 20:41then zipping the ball around from there. The Indiana game was just run,
- 20:44run, run, score, score score, and if you're getting a shootout
- 20:47with the Pacers, you're gonna lose. It's just like how it works.
- 20:49And so that's what they got caught up in in that one. The Milwaukee
- 20:52game, they got blown up by thirty. Weirdly enough, that is,
- 20:56in my opinion, the least concerning loss of the season. Sometimes you just
- 21:00don't have it. And it was so clear the Celtics just weren't going to
- 21:03make shots. Anomaly. Yeah, yeah, Bobby Porters was making contested three
- 21:06pointers. You lose, sorry, that's whatever. But then in the OKC
- 21:11game, like third quarters have been another thing that thats have for some reason
- 21:15killed the Celtics this year, Like they just lose third quarters and when you
- 21:18come out of the second half and the other team can get that momentum.
- 21:22Like you can go into halftime up ten, but if the other team wins
- 21:25the third quarter by eight, you go to the fourth up two, you
- 21:26don't have momentum and that other team is going to be able to build on
- 21:30that. And so I think the third quarter has been a big one,
- 21:33although they've solved it at times, but it's kind of trickling its way back
- 21:36into the fold. And then just the inability to consistently perform on offense.
- 21:41I think it is what could catch up to them this season because they've been
- 21:45a lot better offensively this year. I think they've stuck to their game plan,
- 21:48they've gotten good shots, and they've been able to attack miss matches this
- 21:52year, but they too many times have they settled for bad shots in the
- 21:56wrong moment, or they've slowed down the pace too much, or they've you
- 21:59know, played the wrong brand that doesn't suit them to try to match the
- 22:02moment of the game. They just have to put their head down focused on
- 22:04doing what's right for them offensively, and I think they'll be all right.
- 22:08But yeah, all right, I think that would be the biggest thing they
- 22:10could get in their way, all right, Very good. Well. To
- 22:11close us out here, I'm wondering what your top three biggest concerns are for
- 22:17the Celtics as we're getting ready to head into February here is we're staring down
- 22:22the trade deadline and as the top teams in the East are really jocking for
- 22:26position here, what are those top three biggest concerns for you as we close
- 22:30out our discussion here, Jack, Good question. I think number one is
- 22:33what I just said, like the inability for them to just play their brand
- 22:38of basketball. Like I said, too often they get caught up in trying
- 22:42to match the other team or trying to slow down because the game calls for
- 22:45just play the brand of basketball. That has led to the dominance that has
- 22:51been shown this season by the Celtics, because when they do, they've been
- 22:53awesome. Two Weirdly enough, and this was sort of I don't know the
- 23:00quick word for it. They like they fixed this in the MAVs game last
- 23:03night. As we're recording this, I think they too often get caught up
- 23:07in Jason or Jalen Brown, Jason Tatimer, Jaylen Brown have to be the
- 23:10guy in the final five minutes, like they have to score, but no
- 23:12one else that's to do it. Like in the in the Rockets game,
- 23:15I think it was Porzingis and Derek White led the team in shots and they
- 23:19won because those guys were awesome. And so I think the Celtics have to
- 23:22be more comfortable just letting anybody make a play because Porzingis is an All Star.
- 23:26Derek White, my opinion, is an All Star. Giliday was an
- 23:30All Star last year. Like as on the team, there's tons of stars
- 23:34on the tam there's out of other guys that can do things. Yeah,
- 23:38Kristaps Porzingis might be the most unguardable player in the NBA because of the talent
- 23:42around him. Because you can't double him. You put him in the post.
- 23:45He's seven foot three. He's been awesome in those post moves. He's
- 23:48shooting. Let me let me see, he's shooting sixty five percent from two
- 23:52this year. I'm pretty sure. Sure he's shooting like seventy percent in the
- 23:53paint. Like, you can't stop him because you can't double him in because
- 23:57the Celtics are putting him in great spots like Shengun was guarding him and he
- 24:02would either drag him to the three point line and get an open three because
- 24:04Shingun's trying to drop, or you know, Shangun would drop or follow him
- 24:11to three point line, and the Celtics have an open lane. Derek wh
- 24:11had an open layup, or they'd put Jalen Green on. I'm trying to
- 24:15be cute, and Porzingos just post him up and do nothing. So I
- 24:17think getting more comfortable with having other guys close games is important. Although you
- 24:22want the best player to have the ball, but still, yea, I
- 24:25think they should be more comfortable with having them. And I'm sure you saw
- 24:27this coming. Top three concern just please stay healthy, knock on the good
- 24:33every time, like Porzingis and a Orford and whoever. Just if they can
- 24:37stay healthy for the playoffs, please, Like Porzingis was out with knee inflammation
- 24:41against the MAVs last night. Good please, it's fine. Let him his
- 24:45knee be inflamed. Quote unquote, Yeah, keep him healthy for March,
- 24:49April, May, June and we'll be good. So I'll go with those
- 24:52threes my top three. If Joe El Embiid is healthy during the playoffs,
- 24:56I honestly believe we could see a Celtics sixers Eastern Conference Final I actually do
- 25:02believe that. I think it's very very possible. Again, all comes down
- 25:04to health. So at the end of the day, folks, you gotta
- 25:07follow Jack on Twitter at Jack Simone NBA if you are over there, how
- 25:14about them Celtic's podcast and also celticsblog dot com. Jack, you are always
- 25:18so wonderful and gracious to come on the PST podcast show here. Thank you
- 25:22so much, buddy, Come on back down the road. I'd love to
- 25:26talk to you again, my friend, anytime. I appreciate you having me
- 25:30And as I said last time, shout out the Jason Kelsey. Jason Kelsey
- 25:33still like my favorite. Oh there and listen, listen. I will also
- 25:37say, I know it is now like it's become like not cool to say
- 25:41that because of the whole podcast, and he's like, oh, he's over
- 25:42popular now. I want it on record that I said it on this podcast
- 25:45a long time ago, any right, like this was this was a well
- 25:48backed thing that I have been on record saying I would love Jason Kelsey.
- 25:52I love it. We even did a bit, We even did a bit
- 25:55on our We even did a bit probably about a month ago, Jack,
- 25:56where we were just saying you know what, we're actually kind of getting tired
- 26:00of it. It's like, we love it, you know, we love
- 26:02the Philadelphia brand getting out there, but man, it was getting to be
- 26:06a little it was getting out little much. I like hearing that from somebody,
- 26:08somebody to make sure that it was on record that I was I beat
- 26:11the hype, you know, I was. I was here before the hype.
- 26:15Absolutely. Well, let's you know, let's talk more NBA at some
- 26:18point down the road, Jack, I'd love to have you back on my
- 26:21friend anytime. Thanks for having me. Good times talking with Jack. I
- 26:26absolutely love his take on Jason Kelsey, the whole Kelsey phenomenon. I'd love
- 26:30to talk to him more about that at some point down the road. But
- 26:33that's gonna do it for us here on Opposition Territory. Make sure you're following
- 26:37us on Twitter x at Philadelphia PSD. You can follow me at Jeffrey Underscore
- 26:41Warren. I am over on threads as well and getting involved in that activity
- 26:47and those communities over there at mister jeff Warren and you can follow the show
- 26:51there too at Philadelphia's Sports Table. If you are new to listening to the
- 26:55PSD podcast show, when you have subscribed. We hope you have, and
- 26:59if anything happens to your podcast feed, you can head on over to Philadelphia
- 27:00Sportstable dot com. We've got all of our shows over there. You can
- 27:03give them a listen, give our PST Special podcasts a listen, done some
- 27:08movie reviews, we talked some music in the past as well. Fun podcast
- 27:11to listen to for sure. All right, folks, that's gonna do it
- 27:15for us. Take care, we'll catch you next time.