Garden Report: Celtics vs Pistons Post Game Show on CLNS Media – C’s Win Game of the Year vs Detroit
We interrupt this regularly scheduled pie baking to bring you a garden report. Bobby Manning game of the year. Celtics beat the Pistons. What do you think? Unreal. Crazy call late. The miss free throw. We’re going to remember that one for a long time as I like to say. All right, Joe Mazul Joe Mazula going to be coming to the podium shortly. We are going to start the show right now. Always has to be a shot at somebody. They’re never clean. They have to run. That’s the only shot they have. They do it for 82 games. We’re about to find out. He already has shown he’s capable of. Did surprise me. I thought we were going to hang in there. This makes me think that we do need to be humble. I actually think you’re the only one who deserved that beating. Bob’s gone. He was here and now he’s gone. So, it’s just me. Cut the music. Bobb’s gone. Anyway, doesn’t matter. Game of the year. And yeah, there’s been a lot of pie baking going on. And yeah, I’m seeing the comments. I might have been up. I might have been up early, but it’s okay. It’s an all night affair. And we had plenty of time to stop down, watch what was clearly the Celtics game of the year. I think everybody universally felt exactly the same way. And honestly, I’m not a moral victories guy. Had they lost this one, certainly didn’t want to see them lose it. the the way it almost went down with a with that foul call at the three-point line, you know, at at at half court and being awarded the three free throws. And Bobb’s still trying to get in here. And that’s uh you’ll get to him when we get to him. That would have sucked. But even if they lost in a competitive game, the way that they played, this was game of the year. It’s as fun a game uh as I can remember. I I’ve had people in my, you know, I’ve got people in the in the chat in my comments saying, “Is this the best game in the last like three years?” Um, it’s crazy. Uh, it was fun, man. It was fun. And there’s just so many things to talk about. Uh, you know, you know, what went down late. Uh, you’ve had the Derek White kind of revival, surviving without Necada snapping the Pistons 14game win streak. Uh, you know, Baylor Shyman playing with tremendous amounts of confidence. Uh, Celtics finding a small ball rotation that worked. Who the Amari Williams all of a sudden coming in here supplanting Luca Garza as the as the as the go-to big. They didn’t use him a lot, but they definitely um, you know, were going more Williams than Garza. And Bobby, I’ll start with you. We’re going to get to Joe in just a minute here, but before you get disappear again, why don’t you give me your your your prime takeaway from uh from tonight? Yeah, it’s right up until that last four seconds. I thought this was one of the better Joe games we’ve seen. coaching wise and obviously it was a great Jaylen game too, but I thought the lineup management, the circumstances where you’re so under manned at that big man spot where Detroit’s so strong, they’re dominating the glass throughout this one. And they just found ways around it by, as we always talk about, thriving in the little areas, forcing the turnovers as they did at the end, creating the three-point looks, all kinds of different ways and contributors up and down this lineup all the way down to the G-League you mentioned and Amari Williams there. So, I thought this was a Joe master class until the following up three, which I normally don’t have a problem with, but we’re going to hear from Joe about it here. Let’s Let’s hear what he’s got to say. Here’s Joe Misoula. Start with John. Joe, you went small a lot uh against their size. What What did you see that that was effective with that? Uh yeah, thought one, it just gave us some cross matches in the offensive end. I thought it put them in some tough spots offensively. They’re a really good defensive team. Uh when they can slow you down with their physicality and I thought that kind of uh we were able to play with some space there and then defensively I thought we we battled it almost forced us uh to have a heightened awareness uh physicality that’s necessary to be able to play and and uh I thought we did a the best job that we could um you know on the offensive glass throughout the throughout those stretches. You you’ve talked a lot about how the defensive rebounding is going to be what it is for a lot of this, but you’re going to have to offset it with your own offensive rebounding, forcing turnovers. It seems like this is the type of game, this is the type of performance that you might have been talking about. Is this kind of like where you kind of hope it was or how do you see it in that regard? Uh, well, I held shot 47% from three, so that makes up for a lot of other stuff, but you know, we got 20 points off turnovers. I’m sure they, you know, dominated the the shot margin. Uh, and so, uh, every game’s just going to be completely different. To me, tonight wasn’t about the execution as it was kind of the mindset, you know, that we played with and, uh, uh, the multiple efforts that we played with. I mean, they had, you know, they they, uh, from an execution standpoint of more offensive rebounds, more free throws, etc. But I thought tonight we just had the grip, you know, and kind of the the toughness to uh, to do whatever it takes to win and and we got to try to fight for that every night. Uh Joe Amari has not really been much with you guys and he spends 15 minutes of the game here today. What was the preparation of getting him ready to go for this game? Your thoughts about that experience? Uh yeah, uh to me it starts with Amari. Uh just being able to play those 15 minutes and then it trickles down to uh the the connectivity of game work that Phil does and their assistance and uh just our player development staff. Uh just the continuity for the ability to guy to step right in and know the plays, know the coverages. uh all the pregame work that the the the player development staff does on on the court and then with personnel uh that’s just kind of a testament to the alignment uh you know one to Amari’s you know mindset but also to the staff. So um you know I think all those things combined uh just felt just as comfortable for him to be on the floor tonight. I thought he did some good stuff. Joe certainly it won’t show up in the box score but can you talk about Jaylen’s box out that led to Payton getting that rebound at the end? Yeah, again, I mean, I think he’s he’s given everything he’s got on both ends of the floor and uh obviously he had a great night night offensively, but those plays right there, right? I think uh just timely plays that we have to make and uh you know, he made that and um there was there was multiple of those uh it’s funny went small. I felt like we protected the rim better than we did when we have bigs out there sometimes because I think the heightened awareness and and kind of more of the like, you know, we don’t have another choice. we have to do this and uh Jaylen led that, but we had some big time plays really by by uh everybody who was out there tonight. How did Derek’s second half help you just respond to to the Pistons put pushes there? Yeah, I mean that’s Derek uh whenever he’s not playing well, I kind of get excited because I know it’s when it comes out of it, it’s going to the other side of that is better than what uh is so much better. So that’s just the trust that I have in him as a player. So, I mean, and uh uh that’ll never waver. And so, you know, in the first half, you can kind of see he made to me uh outside of Derek, the two plays that I think changed the game. And really, this is a credit to uh the city and the Garden is, you know, we’re nine and eight. Uh and, you know, and haven’t probably played as well as we wanted to have, but uh Baylor jumps on the floor for a loose ball. Derek sprints back the full length of the floor and gets a back tip and the entire energy in the garden shifts. And I think uh you know the the city the guard appreciates uh regardless of record or or result they just appreciate that type of mindset that type of effort and that’s uh you know what we brought and I think those two plays in particular and when Derek made that play I knew he was going to uh you know snap out of it and so it’s just a credit to him. Joe, with Baylor, what about the work he’s done over the past two years since he’s gotten here has elevated him to the point where he’s he’s in, you know, the realm of trust for him to be guarding Cade in in the final five minutes of this game? Like, what about his work and everything he’s done has put him in that position? Yeah, again, it’s him, it’s his mindset, it’s his preparation, but, you know, it’s it’s the staff, it’s the the daily stuff that goes into it. But the, you know, to me, the physicality, he just cares. Uh, he cares. He wants to be good. Has an understanding of what success looks like for him. and uh whether it’s studying personnel, whether it’s working on it and things. So, it’s it has a lot to do with them, it has a lot to do with the player development staff where you know when these guys get out here, they’re fully prepared. Uh and I think the trust just comes from the trust. It’s funny, everyone looks at uh you know, the trust coming from a successful night, but for me, the trust comes from the response to failure. You know, when you take a look at all these guys tonight that have made winning plays, whether it was Jordan or Baylor or Amari or Josh or Ugo, the trust comes from when you mess up, how do you respond to it? and and I trust him more when they when I see that um than I do when it goes well for them. And you know, he’s done a great job of of uh doing that throughout the season. What does his response to failure failure look like? Like what has that been for you guys? Yeah, he just he has an understanding. He takes the the he takes uh what he’s done well where he needs to get better at and he applies it immediately. And uh again, you know, you have to have thick skin and so he has that and he can work through uh he can work through failure, he can work through mistakes, he can work through critic. What you talking about right now? This makes him better. And I think all the guys there are are showing moments of that that’s what I thought. Okay, you guys are up three trying to foul. What’s the decision there with with about 5 seconds left on whether to give that foul, whether to not give it and just play solid. I mean, I thought it’s tough because you know, you got Duncan Robinson on the floor, Kate’s got 40. I thought at 9.9 we fouled a little bit too early, you know, but you don’t know that. You want to It’s a It’s a It’s a balance of executing versus feel. And you know, Duncan Robinson had inbounded it, so he was probably going to come and and set a brush screen that could have opened up something and then now you can foul. So, I thought we went, you know, it’s we executed it, but I think 9.1 early on the second one in a full court one, you’re looking to do it around half court. And that’s, you know, credit to to uh Cunningham. He timed it up perfectly. Uh, you know, but it’s there’s no right answer there. It’s just we have to just have the feel for it. What’s funny is we didn’t do it in a full court setting against the Clippers and Harding gets a shot off. So that is uh you know that’s just the epitome of the late game is kind of a crapshoot in some senses you know. Final couple questions Gary and then John Joe the fact that it the call was changed how did you react but how did you not overreact to that? You could have went ballistic when they changed it from a two-shot foul to a three-shot foul preparation to get that rebound to assume that maybe he’s not going to hit all three. Yeah. I mean, what is it? Um, I mean, at that point, I just couldn’t really cost I didn’t want to cost my team any more time. I think, you know, the players deserve to win that and it was my responsibility to stay as present as I can. And to what was going to happen next if, uh, you know, if it was a different situation, I may not have responded that way, but I think uh, the players deserve to win, so it’s my job to uh, to give them the best chance at that. And the best chance was to to not respond, you know, but it’s also a 50-50 call. Like, I mean, you know, I don’t know that it was one way or another. afterwards if we had a timeout. Do we challenge? We could, but you don’t know that they’re going to reverse it. You know what I mean? So, at the end of the day, that’s just it is what it is. I mean, it’s a it’s a bang bang play. We did our best to execute it. It wasn’t there, but you know, our guys deserve to win, so I got to stay in there. And this seemed like one of those games, Joe, where keeping your timeouts and not falling for the challenge benefited you. That second timeout when you didn’t get the ball in, but it just seemed like your coaching and the and the kind of the the decisions kind of led to this. Well, no. We were we used two in the first quarter, so we were down. Um, and we won the challenge, which helped, but they challenged in the third quarter, which allow got the timeouts back to even. And so, I thought that was a big play. You know, they challenged and it was not a point uh it wasn’t worth points. It was just worth a possession, but they used both mandatories at that time. And then that got the timeouts back uh to even and then we were able kind of to execute throughout there. But that that swing from us using both in the first and them challenging on a mandatory to get the possession brought that back to even and then we were able to kind of execute through there. But I I thought it had more to do with just kind of, you know, our our guys, you know, the mindset and and the physicality and uh just the grit that they play with. And like I said, uh I want to thank the the the Garden for that because they just appreciate great basketball. And I told the guys that like at the end of the day, we just have to try to do that every single night. uh the result obviously matters but uh we’re in a place where uh they just appreciate you know the grit and the toughness and I thought we exemplify that and and that’s the standard that we have to try to work through every night. Joe, you talk about that grit and all that stuff. You coming off two games, you know, a loss to Brooklyn which is disappointing. Uh a win against Orlando where there was that huge comeback and it kind of feels deflating. Then you come into this game and you these guys kind of put it all out there. They were fighting. What does it say about them and and you know, how do you get to that point where it’s like you put that behind you and focus on this and stay present like you said? No, I mean I think that’s the challenge of the regular season is how many of the 82 can you be the best version of yourself and then of the 48 minute games, how many of those minutes can you be at your best and that’s that’s just the challenge, right? Uh and the guys have it in them. Uh you could do it in uh training camp when there’s no travel, there’s no back tobacks, there’s no you know the drill is only 10 minutes, it’s not 48 minutes. There’s so many variables once the season starts that test your uh the discipline, the toughness, and all the things that go into making the decision easy to have a great practice. We have to just fight to do that. And you saw uh and trust me, we’re going to have more games like this, but we’re going to have some where we where we don’t play well. Uh but over the course of 82, um you know, we just have to fight to be as consistent as we can in the things in in the best version of ourselves, which I thought was out of 48 minutes, we played uh you know, about 40 of that tonight. Thanks, And there you have it, Joe Misoula on what again is probably the Celtics uh win of the year and the uh game of the year. Great stuff from Joe there. Yeah. Yeah, that was Yeah, I thought that was that was his best press conference of the year. I thought it was even killed, informative, and honest. I loved him saying that he doesn’t even know whether they would have been able to overturn that cade foul call there. Love the explanation on why how they’re following in those situations. He does bring up a good point that they didn’t foul against the Clippers at the end of that game and Harden got a point, you know, clean three-point show off. How do you play it? It is a feel thing. It’s a feel thing. You have to put trust in the players, right? Just don’t screw it up. My philosophy would be foul every time, but you have to trust your players to not ever have it be close. And if you can’t trust them Yeah. And that’s what that’s how you have to play it is it’s all it’s the strategically it’s the right thing to do, but it is dangerous. But here’s the downside. Yeah. It’s dangerous, especially when they know you’re going to do it. And on the first foul, Cade was pulling up. That was a close one, too. They knew it was coming and he was able to, you know, pull up and try to get a shot off in that situation. and they put that one on the floor quickly. Good execution in that spot, I thought. Even though Joe, as he mentioned there, felt like they gave, you know, left too much time on the clock. But I, you know, you want it both ways in that situation. You want a foul, but you also want to do it at the right time. Like it does create a lot of indecision. And both of those were scary close. And obviously the second one ultimately was to being a three-point foul in that situation. And that’s why there is some debate over whether you do it or don’t in those situations. And I’m going to give Joe a lot of praise tonight. And this was the one issue I had with this game for him with those two decisions in those spots to foul. But I like the explanation and I like the honesty about that situation and how difficult it is. So, you know, I’ll give him a pass on that. And this game was phenomenal by him. Just brilliant. The mentality thing there. I love that he felt like they were getting better room protection and awareness with the small ball lineup. I was screaming for them to go small at the beginning of this game cuz I just didn’t think they were going to get enough out of any of the bigs. And Amari was fine, especially relative to expectations in his first game, but he didn’t give you a ton in those spots. They didn’t utilize him much. I I like the Mayard and eventually Shyman Howser Walsh look, which was I mean they went against Jaylen Dur with Jordan Walsh, Baylor Shyman, and Sam Hower this game and it worked. So, credit to John. This was a hell of a coaching performance. You know me, Bobby. I mean, for years I’ve been clamoring for this. You know, I want to see the Celtics when, you know, when they were healthy and, you know, and, you know, the previous iterations of this team, I wanted to see small ball lineups with Tatum at the five. Tatum five, Jaylen four, put three guards out there and then just go, you know, Golden State Warrior style. like, you know, just play it, make them, and I’ve always said if if you have strength, make teams adjust to you rather than have to match up other people. In this case, it’s almost the opposite. It’s we’re just overmatched, so we’ve got to do different things and we’ve got to we’ve got to find other ways to win, you know, within the margins outside of, you know, places where we know we’re going to get beat. Um, and they found them tonight. Uh, it was interesting the combinations that they used. They still got beat up on the glass for a while. the second chance points weren’t so bad, but in the end, uh, the Pistons did edge them out by a considerable margin. Um, so they really had to scrap to to make this one happen. U, you know, ultimately you’re going to look at the box score and be like, well, it was the shooting, and they did. They made they made their shots. They they they were able to knock down their threes, and that uh had a lot to do with it. But again, you’re going to look at this game, you’re going to remember the energy, and you’re going to remember who you got that energy from. So, among the things that we want to talk about, uh, certainly the resurgence of Derek White’s going to be the headline, but I I I gotta tell you, Bobby, that’s just not the thing I’ve been concerned with, uh, at all this year. Um, I I don’t think he’s a worse player. I think that there’s a burden on him to score more, which is harder. Um, so he’s going to have to work harder for his points, but I didn’t think he became a bad player overnight. I never really got super concerned with uh the Derek White situation, but I do think there’s just interesting revelations here in terms of who’s useful and how on this team and like, you know, look at look at look at a couple of guys we had written off for dead. Okay, we wrote Jordan Walsh off for dead at the beginning of the year. Useless, out of the rotation, you know, won’t be playing at all. Passed by other people, DNPCD to start the year. starting lineup and he hasn’t given it away since he’s since he’s jumped in there made huge huge huge um you know plays uh down the stretch that steel you know uh the defense on Kade Cunningham uh late and Derek White coming over and the double and he turns it over you know critical play in this game uh you know he he didn’t get a great whistle but he was competitive with him all night long I thought and then Baylor Shyman where the hell does that come from you know like you know like Shyman I think he played 31 minutes tonight. Is that right? 30 minutes. 30 minutes. Trust me. They cut off the two Yeah. They cut off the two guard lineups and they went three wings to have more size on the floor. Exactly. And that’s what they did. When you go small, you can’t do three guard lineups. So, you got to play more wings. And a guy like Shyman’s going to step up. Hower, his minutes went up. But, I mean, again, you know, I think people wrongly would call like Shyman the Hower clone or the Hower replacement because their games are totally different. But, they do play the same position. And the fact that Baylor Shyman’s playing 30 minutes and Sam Hower’s playing 17 tells you something in terms of trust. Yeah. And also I think position and skill set. You do get a little bit of playmaking with Shyman, which is what I keep stressing. I love that Joe gave him the shout out for the dive on the floor there in the moment that that was in the guard because I do think that was the loudest moment here this season when he the behind the back face. Yeah, the behind the back which they screwed up on the other end. But I know I know. Too bad they couldn’t close that out cuz that was a great that’s play of the year if if they finish that off. But he’s he’s versatile and I feel like in the pockets they’ve put him in, it’s been those situations we talk about all the time where it’s a shot or two deciding whether he has a good or bad game, but he’s been able to do decent stuff in those minutes. The defensive numbers for him this year are great. Obviously, he survived in this game outside of the following without major issues. And that’s going to determine whether he can get into games consistently or not because I do feel like for some of the good moments he had last year, the defense was rough and I almost felt like coming out of that rookie season that he was going to be a guy that you had to hide on that end of the floor. But they switched a lot tonight. Like they put guys in positions against Detroit’s bigger players where they had to guard up. They probably didn’t have a choice. Uh that was the story of this game is they they didn’t have a choice except to do what they did here. Maybe for uh Williams aside, but we can get to him in a little bit. I know these little chirpy chirpy fans want to say it, but you have to get used to the fact that I’m going to call it how I see it. This was the first game all year long that I thought mattered in terms of the competition, who they play. I’m serious. You remember that stretch? Was it was it last year or two years ago, Bobby, that like the Celtics went like 30 games in a row and you’re like nothing here matters, you know, like the results didn’t matter. Like not it didn’t you knew they were going to the playoffs. You knew they were going to be a top seed. I think it was the the championship year and it was like not it’s impossible to gauge how they’re going to be in the playoffs. They’re playing crap opponents who were missing players and they’re just rolling up wins and the one seed was that not no game had any Here’s why I disagree on that that comparison because we knew who that Celtics team was. No, no. What I’m saying is I’ve yet to know who they are off of any game really this year except for this one. Right. Are you willing to accept this? Cuz we left open the possibility that they were going to be bad this year. Have we at least learned that they’re not a bad team? Um, no. Uh, I I’ll put it this way. I don’t know if they’re I I would say again I want to wait a little nothing about them has been bad this year. What I mean Bobby like look like I said is I I really did say let me get through this stretch to to formulate a strong opinion and that’s not wishy-washy because you know again I’m not going to say like oh Detroit played it a bad game. Celtics made them play that way you know like I thought a lot of it had to do with the Celtics energy and the way they made them play. So I I’m not taking anything away from it at all, but like if they lose four of the next five, this won’t matter as much. So again, you really want to see we’re just going off what we’ve seen so far. The stretch of play, and that’s why I want to wait to see it. But through the first x amount of games, I just felt that there was too many games where you weren’t able to get a good sense of it. The one thing you got a good sense of clearly early is that they’re going to try really hard and that’s going to be good enough to win you a lot of games against a lot of teams. uh certainly in the Eastern Conference. So the fact and the fact that that middle class is so big then early on I think just effort alone that Joe was getting them to play and some contributions from guys you didn’t know if they would be flatout zeros raised the bar beyond the lowest level we had it set which was like are we really starting Kada and counting on May not for minutes that could have been that could have gone horribly wrong. So, I absolutely agree, Bobby, that like the lowest like how bad how low can you go? They’ve they’ve they’ve cleared that bar and I don’t think they can get they can get there. I don’t think they can they’ll never be as they’ll never be as bad as as we thought the worst case scenario was. Uh, assuming assuming start assuming full health, I don’t think they could be as bad as the worst fears that people had, myself included. And again, I put them at 38 wins, like close to 500. And that was factoring in maybe having a because they don’t have a lot of depth. You lose a player for, you know, a little stretch of time, it’s going to be harder to win. But [ __ ] man. They won without Kada. He’s not your best player, but he’s one of your more critical ones because you don’t have any Yeah. He’s one of your more irreplaceable players. And the Celtics even said what he does. Yeah. Yeah. Derek said it at practice yesterday. He goes, “We don’t have anyone who can replicate what he does out there.” And Bobby had 54 wins. Bobby had like 44 wins or 45. 48 45 something like that. 45. I had 38. Jimmy Jimmy had the low. Jimmy was 35. Yeah. And listen, we described, you know, I was talking to um someone about this the other day. John, it’s so funny how much we’ve argued and disagreed when we pretty much looked at the season, give or take, a handful of games, the same way. like they’re going to be floating around 500. They’re going to be battling. There’s going to be huge challenges for them to remain competitive. And that’s what the s that’s what the season’s been. Like they found a lot of solutions. Every time they found one, it feels like another hole opens up that they have to plug. But they’re moving fast to fix that when it happens. And that’s another thing I’ll give Joe credit for here in this game in particular. How quick were those subs flying, John? It’s like, oh, Darren’s in. Here comes Williams. Oh, he’s off the floor. You know, small ball again. Like they were constantly changing coaching his ass off. There were stretches where Minot was effective here. The second he went sideways, they got him right off the floor. I mean, the the changes throughout this game, the adjustments were constant. And it’s the attention to detail. It’s the intuitiveness of Missoula that I feel like he doesn’t get enough credit for. Like he’s on top of things. And yes, I I will say again that they’ve had terrifa being the first blemish. they’ve had some good injury luck. You’ve seen a lot of other teams losing critical players for long stretches. Um the Celtics would have a very difficult time coming back from something like that. So again, all things considered the way that it’s gone. But again, you don’t know how it’s going to go the rest of the way, but certainly the the floor the floor has been raised. I would think you know that that for for sure I’ll say at least that I don’t know how good they can be but the floor has been raised because I did think that the floor was a low30s win team potentially. Um and and it feels like it feels like that’s out the window barring something catastrophic at this point. Anyway, um it’s not going to be a super long show. We do want to warn you guys in advance, but we’re going to hang around here uh and get to some more guys over uh at the podium for sure. Uh, we want to give a quick shout out to one of our sponsors and that’s our pals over at Prize Picks. Download the Prize Pick app. Use code CLNS to get 50 in your lineups after you play your first $5 lineup. And you guys uh know the deal by now. Uh, whatever you want to do here. It’s whatever season, whatever sport, it doesn’t matter. You can mix and match sports. Focus on one game, focus on one time window, one evening. Uh it’s it’s easy to play more or less on two to six player stat projections. You get your picks right. You could cash in up to 2,000 times your cash. Uh personally, like I said, I like to lock in on one game because I I really can’t I get too anxious uh jumping around or one like time window if you’re doing football games. But lots of cool options, lots of great promotions, free squares going on all the time. Flex plays. You can cash out. Your lineup isn’t perfect. You can stack players, so you can use one player uh and use multiple stats off of their uh game all in one lineup. And again, you just saw that offer on the screen. You download that app. Code CLNS. Get 50 in your lineups when you play your first $5 lineup. Once again, download the app, use code cls, get 50 in your lineups after you play your first $5 lineup. Prize picks. There it is. It is good to be right. Uh bringing it back here, Bobby. Uh, and again, let’s go around. I I would say outside of Derek White just hitting shots. Did you notice anything different about him today? Because again, I I I want him to shoot with that swagger. I think like people got a little frustrated where he uh, you know, you know, he’s you know, just jacking threes. the early stat lines early in the season, 11 threes, 12 threes, 13 threes, so so so many of those types of situations. That can get a little bit ugly. Um, and they weren’t going down, which was worse. And people are like, “Is that all he’s going to do all year?” That’s what he’s got to do. He He’s got to just see it and shoot it. That’s just got to be his game, and he’s got to He’s got to live with the results off of that, you know, that he’s Yeah. Not a ton of indecision from him in this one. He did get ready. Exly. Get it. Pull it. Right. There was a play he got fouled on the three-point line where he’s dribbling. He’s trying to find space for himself and then he just decides, “All right, I’m I’m just going up with this.” And then gets fouled. And the the free throws for him are something I’m looking at because he keeps talking about those as you It’s good to see a free throw go down. It’s, you know, nice to get in a rhythm there. You know, hit a shot closer to the basket as as he talks about these struggles here. And he had seven free throws tonight. I feel like through most of these games, he’s had like one, two, three maybe. So, he got there a lot more in this game. I feel like those three got him going in the second half and then it was just a volcano from there. Six of 11. Feels like he got out of that slump. I I started to notice too just the way his shot looked in the second half. Pure great off the hands. He felt like those were going in and they were nothing but net um when they went through. So he looked great out there. Probably took a million shots, you know, this week with a couple days off. Um the practice yesterday, I asked them, I’m like, “How you dealing with these struggles?” cuz you’ve seen the head down, John, after the misses. You’ve seen him bosch layups. That’s what I That’s where I do feel bad. Yeah. And he said, “I just got to play better.” Like that’s all there is to it. Like he just owned it and was like, “In every facet, I got to play better right now.” And listen, we’ve given him credit for the defensive contributions, but when you’re shooting 35% from the field and 30% from three like he was to start this year, that’s canceling out a lot of the stuff that’s going on the offensive end, particularly when this team’s counting on you to be great. like they’re not saying, “H, you know, if White’s fine, we’ll be good.” He needs to be great for this team to be the best version of itself. And he hasn’t been close to that on the offensive side. Now, I like the playmaking. I’ve like the aggressiveness. I like that they’ve continued to involve him over this stretch, but it’s not just make miss. We obviously know that as we’ve had that discussion a million times with Tatum, John, but you can’t make no shots. And that’s where he was for a little while there. And this could be the start of something. Obviously, they have a couple days off after this, so won’t immediately car carry over to another game, but I feel like this was the purest his shot looked all season. It looked great off the release. Yeah, it did. And it did. It looked like old Derek White. And again, you see that and then the defense is up at the end. Yeah. I mean, and then again, he does he does everything. He’s doing all that little stuff uh all game long. So again, I’ve had no concerns over White Bobby. Pop quiz. Who led the team in plus minus today? Oh, great question. Who was it? Was it Williams? Anthony Simons. Simons. Ah, that’s bogus. What’ he play? Three minutes plus 13 in 11 minutes. None of his shots really fell, but he was in there. Uh, he was in there for free throws later. He was the loser of going wing heavy in this one. Wing heavy. And he got he got he got shoved out. It’s so funny. But yeah, he did. He got he’s the odd man out in that situation as well. And I’ll say this because we’ve and we’ll have this discussion tonight, I’m sure, a little bit. When he came out in that first half, he has a long conversation with Sam Cassell. You know, Cassell is pointing some stuff out to him on the sideline. Have a little embrace. Simons is nodding like you can tell when we talk about buying John. This is a guy who might given the contract situation, given his role where it was where it is compared to last year. This is the guy who could veer off the path, right? And all the comments he’s made, all the stuff we see of him, even just his engagement on the court, he’s hanging in there. And you do have concerns about where the season’s heading for him as his role becomes more diminished, but he’s embracing the tough coaching. Feels like he’s solid with Joe. They’ve been realistic about what the role is going to be like for him and he said it’s challenging after last game. But he’s hanging in there and that’s important because right now they need everybody. Like Joe keeps saying it. That’s how they’ve coached. That’s how it’s been through all these different games. They’ve they’ve had games where he’s been crucial and important. Yeah. Brooklyn here, the Orlando games. Tonight wasn’t that night. And I think he understands that. Yep. No doubt. Uh, we do want to tell you, uh, we have one little programming situation. Uh, we have a Black Friday sale on our Garden Report merch. Not programming, but a CLNS update. If you use the code Black Friday, you go to shop.clsdia.com. It’s all there. You want your hard hat. This is the epitome of a hard hat win. You know what’s ridiculous is I don’t have one. Jimmy didn’t give me a hard hat. Um, so I’d be wearing it. I would have worn it tonight, but it’s I don’t have a hard hat. And this was an absolute hard hat win. You want to get yours, go for it. 30% off right now. Use code BlackFr uh and at shop.cls media.com and the link is there. You see it uh up on the screen and it’s in the chat. Uh go check it out. Grab some CLNS merch if you want it. Uh and uh 30% off Black Friday sale. It is yours for the taking. We are still waiting for other guys to hit the podium here uh as the Celtics uh win again the game of the year. Bobby, uh without question uh defeating the Detroit Pistons, snapping a 14 win streak. I’ll ask you outright. I know like they’d been playing really well, but after watching them today, are you like, “Ah, I don’t see it.” Or do you see why why they’ve been as good as they’ve been? I think they look great and because they have a lot going for them. Great relative in the East, right? We’ve seen a lot of crap teams so far. My thought watching this game and I’m biased, right? This is one of my favorite teams in the league to watch over the last couple years. I love Cade. What a killer moment for him after a 40-point game to miss the game time free throw here. But, uh, they looked like the highest level team we’ve seen to begin this year. I like, you know, watching the Celtics. Dur’s the favorite right now for most improved player. Thompson’s figuring out his role as he gets deeper into his career right now. They got He’s got to find some offense if he’s going to keep starting though because right now he’s just a defensive guy. Yeah. And they they have a lot of guys like that. You know, Stewart’s not giving you a ton of offense. It’s more the rebounding and size with him. Lever’s an awkward fit there to some degree, but they need a guy who can create his own shot. Holland’s in that department, too. So, doesn’t have a superh formulated offensive game, and that’s who they are as a team. They’re middle of the pack offense. They’re great. You’re telling me this isn’t the team that could use an Anthony Simons? Interesting, right? Because we made the Schroeder comparison a lot and they went out and got him last year and he fit great there. So, that’s been, you know, would you take back Harris Lever? I don’t know. But I’d have to do my trade machine magic to see if there’s something there. I mean, they they are intriguing without doing any of the math. Uh, and obviously Malik Beasley was crucial to what they were doing last year. I’m actually surprised that they’re number one in the East because I thought they take a step back as they try to figure out, you know, what they’re going to be without Beasley, who obviously Cade’s the guy who makes everything go there, but Beasley was their heart and soul in many ways before the uh, you know, gambling allegations, but um, it’s it’s a tricky thing right now with them. They’re obviously not in a league of their own. They’ve separated themselves a little bit with this win streak. Now, how do they handle this after uh, you know, losing it? It’s it’s going to be a packed standing in the East for pretty much the whole season. I don’t see anyone separating themselves. But if we’re talking about teams we see going to the finals out of the East, it’s them. I don’t know if I believe in the Raptors yet who are number two. No, no, no. But I like them. What’s interesting, Bobby, when we look up and down those standings, just, you know, everyone you do your projections on who you think is going to be good. But I’ll tell I’ll say right now and again it’s early but you had the Celtics ahead or equal to Detroit, Toronto, Miami and Atlanta who are all ahead of them um and other teams that we thought might be a little bit better uh have fallen off or kind of in that in that mix with Boston. So, it really is going to be interesting how this works uh here because again, I don’t I don’t you assume a couple of teams will break from the pack, but I get the feeling that four through nine is going to be pretty tightly packed for a lot of the year. So, again, a lot of different things can happen here. I And that’s why I believe in the Celtics, John. It’s it’s the conversation we’ve had going back to the preseason. The East is not great. Yeah. Here’s We are seeing Derek White coming to the podium. Derek White bounceback game. Here he goes. questions. Derek, let’s start with the obvious one. How’d it feel to kind of have that second half and kind of break out of some of the struggles that you’ve been experiencing? It felt good. It felt real good. Um, just really just feels good to help the team win, honestly. Um, yeah, it’s good to see some go in finally and then just roll from there. And you had that, you know, the crowd every time, every time you hit one, it was they were all huge shots. You get the crowd going behind you. Just that atmosphere. Joe was talking about the crowd responding to the grit and all those plays. How was that atmosphere for you? Yeah, it was fun. Um, playing a garden is always a blessing. Um, but especially like a game like that. um competitive, physical, um hustle plays, little plays like that, like Garden Live for stuff like that. So, um uh a lot of us made those big time plays and um Garden Garden got behind us and kind of helped us get that dub. Amari plays over 15 minutes tonight. He’s getting matched up with Jaylen Duran. Just what did you see from him overall in his ability to come up and contribute? Yeah, I thought he was he was great. Um, I mean, Duran’s one of the best bigs in the league right now. And, uh, I mean, Stewart, like those are those are guys that uh, it’s a a physical uh, physical game down there. And he he came in, held his own, um, changed some shots around the baskets, blocked some shots, and um, gave us a really good minutes in there when we needed him. So, um, credit to him to to come in. I mean, he was he was with us yesterday for practice, but um come in kind of as his first welcome to NBA. Um you get Jiren or Jaylen Durant and um figure it out. Joe brought up the play where you tracked down Ivy and and stole it from him from behind. I think you ended it with like a alleyoop to Josh at the other end. Can you take us through that play? And then Joe said he knew you would snap out of it once you made that play. Um, does does something like that give you a rhythm as much as making a shot does? Like, how does that work for you? Yeah. Um, I mean, I think just plays like that just kind of who I am. Um, like who I’ve always been. So, it’s kind of like a I get back to, you know, had nothing to do with making shots, missing shots. I was just all hustle. So, um, I mean, that’s just the the beginning of how to get me going. and um and I know Ivy’s is going to push in transition and um just try to run as fast as I can and chase him down. Derek Baylor obviously had that scoring run in the first half and he comes down guarding Cade in the final five minutes. When he gets as hot as he did in that first half, he starts playing with a lot of confidence. Like what do you see confidence do for him and what have you seen from him behind the scenes that has led to this point? Yeah, he was uh amazing for us. Uh he kind of kept us in the game. um who knows what the score would have been uh without those those threes he hit and um the pull up and everything he did. So um and then defensively he’s just super solid. Um always in the right position um kind of made made him work and and forced some turnovers for us. And so um he’s a guy that I don’t think really lacks confidence. Um but it was great to see him like get the time he got today and take advantage of and make a lot of little plays for us. And then when he does get going, he starts talking to like both benches. What is he saying when he’s coming over and like screaming at you guys or screaming at the other bench? Like is is there anything any go-to lines of his or is it just chicken? It’s probably what he was saying on when he made it, but other than that, who knows what brother says? Derek, you guys obviously went small for a huge chunk of that game um without Nimi. What’s your comfort level now for those groups of like Jordan and Josh at center now? what what does that look give you guys on both ends of the floor do you feel like? Yeah. Um we’re tiny out there but um just got to find a way and then I mean obviously um Josh and Jordan they get to guard the fives and stuff like that and so um credit to them just competing at a high level. Um, I mean, sometimes we have lineups that you’re out of position, but um, just try to find a way and then, um, we can’t get stops, we can’t get get rebounds and able to just spread it out offensively. And so, um, those guys have done a lot of great things for us this year and compete every night. And so, uh, it’s, uh, we got a lot of faith and trust in them. Uh Derek, we talked about the big shots tonight and like they were tremendous, but like even throughout the season, you know, even when you’re struggling, you’ve made big shots in prior games. How does that factor in mentally for you? How do you keep composure in those moments even when things aren’t going well? I don’t know. Uh when I told somebody one game, I was like, I might not make anything else, but I’ll make a big one. But I I don’t know what it is. Uh just trying to embrace the moment. Uh hopefully I continue to do it. Um and um a lot of just was being in the right position and um just shooting it with confidence. Derek White wasn’t worried. Bobby Manning, I wasn’t worried. He’s going to play. I get a little worried. I get a little worried about slumps as they as they I don’t It’s not the slumps. It’s the thing we talked about which I think is legit. you know, everybody having to play up and new role if there’s too much of a burden, right? Like I said, you know, we’ve said this all year, Jaylen Brown is used to being a guy who just give me the ball and I’m going to try to score. You know, Derek White is always been a three or a four, you know, option and he’s benefited from the gravity of some of the players around him. Uh certainly, you know, when he’s been with the Celtics. So, um that’s a different adjustment for him having a little bit more defensive attention. uh and being relied upon to score. It’s Derek White’s scoring games, even though he, you know, was scoring with good cons with consistency, were bonuses and it wasn’t necessary. Meaning Derek White could have a could could go for seven points one night on one for eight from three, do all of the little things needed to win and other people could carry the load. You can’t do that as much here. So, when they lose and he shoots poorly, I think it’s magnified. But I think you go back and you look at him last, you know, last year there’s plenty of times where he wasn’t putting up big numbers because he just wasn’t relied upon to do so. So I, you know, and I feel bad because like you like to think of a guy like Derek White is um, you know, a rock out there, right? He’s so he’s so he does the right thing so often and, you know, he’s he’s he’s poised uh and he’s smart and and you know, just a great all-around player. But you absolutely see it weighing on him. Uh the body language is crazy when he’s missing his shots or when he he has a bad turnover. He’ll just drop his shoulders and he gets really bummed out. Um and it does affect him uh other aspects of his game as well. So uh yeah, rough start, you know, rough start for for for White to this season. So even though I wasn’t super worried, I’m at least relieved that he kind of gets gets it off his chest a little bit and has one of these types of games. Yeah, for sure. And after tonight, he ends up back up to I mean, it’s still 35 and three, so he’s got a little ways to go to drag those numbers up, of course. But, uh, it’s a good start here. And again, the fact that the shot looked pure, there was another three. He ends up hitting six in this one, but he pretty much had a seventh that was down and rolled out. So, it was looking awesome throughout that second half. And obviously, he did pretty much all his work after halftime in this one. So that’s impressive too that he got off to a slow start here and turned it around in just a half when they needed it. A crunch time win for this team. They haven’t been good in that department either. I think that’s worth mentioning that they get it done there despite some execution hang-ups you can have about the final two defensive possessions there. So it’s always going to be scary. I love Do you agree with Joe calling crunch time a craft shoot? Like he he always says it. He always says it’s just 10 possessions. There’s other possessions in a game that matter just as much at the end of quarters, end of a half. I do feel like crunch time should matter and should be discussed when it’s swaying a team’s results as it has this team. I mean, look, if you if you have one of those games where you go like 3 minutes and 30 seconds without a field goal, you know, um or or you’re clearly trying to do something but executing poorly, you’re fouling on defense, the offense stagnates, you’re playing ISO ball. That’s a breakdown, you know. So, it’s not just, oh, we just played basketball the way we always played and just some of the things that we were doing earlier didn’t happen late. Shrug your shoulders and move on. No, it changes. It absolutely changes. And you’ve seen them change. And, you know, some of our greatest frustration with these with Celtics teams in the past, and a lot of them have been Tatumcentric, uh, you know, fair or not fair is the ball would stick on offense. So they would go into a prevent defense with a big lead and kind of milk the clock and, you know, and and and and stop running their offense and and and get, you know, worse quality shots or just settle for for the first open three or whatever it is that they would get. Uh that’s a failure. You know, that’s a failure when you’re up and you’re letting another team and you’re not getting stops or you’re fouling and you’re not playing the same type of defense. That’s an absolute failure. Um couple things we want to talk about before we bring Noah on to the show. Uh, I I did want to ask because Bobby I don’t want to be the guy who’s uh starting this conversation because everyone assumes I have some sort of agenda, but uh you kept texting me that you thought you you I think somebody took pictures of it. Jaylen was trying to stretch out a little bit uh and it looked like you said you’re there. You said it looked like he was uh kind of fiddling with his leg or his hamstring. He looked like he was tight and struggling a little bit. Is that is that is that true? He he stretches on the sideline often. You know, when he’s out of the game, he’s taking his fourth quarter break there. And it did seem like he was getting into it more intensely than he would normally in those situations. And then once he checked in with about 8 minutes left out of a timeout, was jumping around. Still saw him stretching it more. And then there was a rebound that bounced over near their bench that he chased down. And you could see him grimace a little bit in in my view when he was chasing that down and had a stop short just in front of the Celtics bench there. Um could see him grabbing it just a little bit. Obviously was able to close the game out and score down the stretch while dealing with whatever discomfort might have popped up there. And maybe it was just some tightness or discomfort that’s been visible at other points that I didn’t see. But I thought that was uh you know something that stood out in the fourth quarter more than it has in other situations here. And obviously I mean Joe said a week or two ago that the hamstring injury was completely behind Jaylen. He was fully healthy at a certain point after being in the year with it. So I do wonder if that popped back up here tonight. I don’t know what you saw Noah. Before Before Noah goes I I have to say What are you smiling about Noah? Nothing. I just there were some distractions around me. Apologies. Oh no it’s all good. Um, I do have to say that I I have to bail. Bobby and Noah are going to take you the rest of the way. May there be many pies. May there be I won’t take it personal, John. May there be many pies in your future. Celtics win of the year. Uh, and I’ll let you guys uh uh take it from here. So, what do you see then? We will we Oh, we were going to listen to Jaylen. I don’t see the sound here right now, but what did he have to say after the game? And what did you see healthwise there in the fourth? To be honest with you, I didn’t I didn’t think the health I didn’t really notice much of a health issue. Like I thought that he had some takes that maybe he was seeking contact out too much or he just wasn’t getting calls. Maybe it was just bad calls. But he he stretches so much on the sideline. Like he’s always he’s been doing those hamster stretches since I started covering this team. Like that’s been a pretty staple scene on the sideline. So it’s kind of like the the back heater that Baylor and Sam and guys have. Like I it’s not nothing that stood out to me. Um it was a physical game. He took a lot of falls. He said he was going to feel it like, you know, I think he said it was just like this just kind of how these games go. But on the injury front, yeah, I did not have any antennas up. Yeah, it’s something I saw. We’ll see what comes out of it. They got a couple days off here before a trip and I doubt it would impact his availability in any way given how he finished this game because obviously he played through hamstring discomfort, tightness to begin this year and did a good job of it. And again, it didn’t impact him much down the stretch there, but I did see him grabbing it. Did see him going to it a little bit. We can talk about his game because we didn’t a lot uh with John here. 3310 and five crucial and win down the stretch. Two steals, two blocks. Does finish a minus nine and two with seven from three, but I thought his aggressiveness as it has been all season was super important here. Yeah, to me the way I kind of look at a game like that is, you know, obviously was not his night from a shooting efficiency standpoint. He’s been really efficient all year and tonight he was 12 of 31 and he had some I think he I do think there were some mis calls. I think there were some where maybe he prioritized getting contact over finishing. I don’t, you know, I don’t really know. But quala defenders. Yeah. Sometimes the box score is sometimes the efficiency and all that like it’s not the bottom line. And like this to me was like a gutsy Jaylen game. Like he had a lot of big plays. He made a lot of important things happen. I mean the 10 rebounds, every rebound in this game was massive, right? He was the leading rebounder in a game where rebounds were going to be hard to come by. So to me like it wasn’t a great Jaylen game by his standards for this season, but he was a part of a lot of winning plays that were very important in this game. So kind, you know, I feel like Kate Cunningham actually had a game recently where I forget how many shots he took, but it was a ridiculous amount of shot. It might it might have been in the 40s and people were kind of talking about how he was not efficient. But sometimes it’s just about willing your team to win. And I think he did enough tonight uh regardless of kind of the box four has its pros and cons. you know, he had two steals, two blocks, like just made things happen. For sure. Um, we can dive through a bunch of players here. Uh, before we wrap the show, we were talking quite a bit about Derek White and we just heard from him. Was there anything different in his game that you saw tonight that allowed him to break out of the slump at least for a game? Yeah, it’s just Derek and Baylor are similar in my eyes in the sense that like they have to have this pep in their step when they’re playing and they both had it tonight. Baylor kind of always has it honestly. It was funny. I asked I don’t know did you guys play the Baylor sound or no? No. So Baylor, I was asking him about like does he ever does he ever want to do like the blowing the kisses and the talking trash when it’s like not appropriate because they’re like down by 30 or that sort of thing. And he was like yeah because I think it happened in the Rockets game and I think Derrick has this similar thing where the heat check threes like the three he was three for three from three in the fourth quarter and two of them were like kind of heat check threes, right? They’re the kind of shot where you don’t know any better. It looks like maybe it’s not a good shot and for Derek that’s a good shot, right? He almost has like a Steph Curry like trigger at times where it’s like what is that and then it’s like oh that went in that was you know that’s that’s good. And so to me it’s just like when he plays with that joy and that confidence and like with that flow like he’s just a completely different player. And there have been a lot of games this season where it’s like yeah he was two for 10 or three for 14 or whatever else it might be and like you could look at the box and say just had an off shooting night but that never I’m never going to harp on like the shooting numbers. But what I will notice is if a guy like doesn’t seem like he has that same like joy and bounce. And I think there have been a lot of moments this season where he hasn’t had that. And tonight he obviously had that and I don’t know what comes first, right? Is it the three ball falling? Is it getting a steal? He obviously had some big defensive plays in this game. Um but he was 1,00% himself in this one and you could see it on his body language on the sideline, all of that. I we literally talked about this like a week ago, right? That he didn’t have that mojo. Um, and some guys are just like more emotional players and you can just see it on their faces and he is one of those guys for sure. Uh, we talked a bunch about Derek. We didn’t talk much about Amari and I know that’s right up your alley know and you’ve watched a ton of him to begin this year with the G-League team. The numbers have been outstanding up there. So, I’m not stunned they went to him here. I did imagine when I saw that he was going to be with the team here that it would probably just be in more of a reserve role and if guys were in foul trouble or whatever emergency could happen, he’d step in. But they went right to him. He was clearly part of the game plan as you heard Derek say there. He practiced with the team. So they went into this game saying, “I’m going to be part of what we’re doing clearly here.” They went to him almost immediately in that first time out and he made some plays. His size definitely impacted Duran and I think that’s what they wanted out of him here. Maybe they didn’t want to get him overly involved because it’s his first game, but I was pretty stunned at how uninvolved he was offensively given that he’s a hub passing facilitating big. They didn’t hit him on any rolls. He didn’t take a shot it looks like here. Zero assists. He was mostly just trying to crash and defend a little bit out there and play with some energy, which I guess fine for your for your debut, but I was pretty uh baffled by his usage here, even though he did have an impactful game. I wasn’t honestly like at the end of the day, I I spoke to Omari in the locker room after the game and he didn’t even know he was going to play today, right? Like he did not really he thought that he didn’t know he was gonna like like I don’t think he could have known this morning. asked. I’m like, “Did you know this morning that you were going to maybe play 15 minutes tonight against Jaylen Dur?” And he was like kind of laughed like, you know, so he has no he he knows the plays. He knows the schemes. There’s a lot of overlap from Maine and Boston. And obviously we’ve we’ve gone up there quite a bit. We’ve tracked that. There’s a lot of synergy between the programs. There’s a lot of carryover between guys that got the roots in Maine. He was prepared, but at the end of the day, like I was amazed he played 15 minutes and I was amazed that Joe was lining up his minutes with Jaylen Duran and thought that he his impact was felt and on the offensive end like he’s he’s still pretty raw and you know he’s he’s doing his thing in the G-League, but I never would have thought that they would kind of work through him. U not that they can’t not that they shouldn’t have like maybe maybe it would have benefited them to to do a little bit more because he obviously has a like a vision for a cord vision and ability to pass that we didn’t really see much of. There was like one or two passes where I was like, “Okay, that’s the Amari Williams we we know.” Uh I think he had a beautiful kind of like hooked pass to a three-pointer. I forget who it was that shot it, but yeah, this is kind of what I This is more than I would have expected to see him. Like when we were when we were watching him in warm-ups, like I would not have projected and I don’t think he would have. And as soon as he comes in in the first quarter, I was like, “Oh [ __ ] like it’s going to be that kind of night.” Pretty amazing. He plays more than Garza and Tilman certainly who didn’t get into this game. No Buché here. So I’m surprised to hear he didn’t know he was going to play. I know that’s how they I know that’s how they go about it, but I wonder if he had some sense or even in the practice yesterday how he was We’ll have a full story on Celtics blog so you can you can read his words directly, but yeah, he didn’t he didn’t know for sure and I I understand that’s what they do. Um but clearly they had a plan for him to get into this game quickly once Garza’s minutes didn’t go sideways. I mean, they just didn’t give Garza much runway here. The first half stint I didn’t think was a disaster. The second half stint was a little worse, but was pretty short, too. They start Garza in this one, but it looked like the plan, or at least the adjustment, was to get away from him pretty quickly here. Yeah. And I don’t I don’t know how much Joe thought he was going to see of Luca Garza this morning. Like, I’m always curious with this this kind of stuff. Like, Joe had to guess five hours ago. Like, was was Omari Williams going to play more minutes than Luca Garza? like did he know and just doesn’t want to say relay that or did you see just kind of a feel for the game? I’m not sure. But they found to me the most remarkable part of this game is how much they were able to survive the minutes where it was they were just the smaller team. Um and then also like I asked Jaylen about Amari and he was like that was big time. Like that was this is a guy who has not been around, right? Like that was like a and he this is like a prime time game, national game. Obviously Detroit has two of the one of the best front courts in the NBA. So I think everybody was like really happy with his effort. Um, and yeah, I don’t know. I don’t know what what the plan was. Like, it’s it’s was one of the biggest mysteries for us, the line of decisions and how impulsive they are, how premeditated they are, how much does Joe relate to the players. Yeah. Because Joe’s not going to talk about it. Yeah. And I think what what we’ve gleaned over the last few years of covering Joe is that players don’t really know in advance whether when they’re going to play. And I think the key is to just be literally be ready. Like that’s not like the be ready thing is not like a a just a mantra they say like it’s Yeah. Apologies. Um, so but yeah, I like seeing like Josh. I like seeing the lineups with Josh and Jordan and Ugo and just like the chaos that those guys reap. Like I it just it’s really fun to watch. It’s from just a basketball standpoint. It’s really fun to watch. And there were moments where I was like, “Yeah, like I the vision is just playing out right now in front of us.” So, one more thing on Amari here because Kada he’s daytoday Joe said before the game um couple days off here before the Minnesota Cleveland back to back. There is a chance I think Kada could play in that because Ryan Calbrunner went down with a lowgrade sprain too center big guy. He he got back in three days and it looked you know I watched the video earlier today. It looked almost exactly like Kad’s ankle turn. Cadence didn’t look super serious and we saw him at practice walking around not comfortably. A little gingerly, but he wasn’t limping. He didn’t look super limited in his He was walking around fine today. Yeah. And he walked around fine today. So, I wouldn’t be stunned if Kate is back before long. But let’s say he does miss another game here. Was this matchup specific to Detroit or do you feel like Amari could stay involved here for as long as Kada is out? Oh yeah. Yeah. I mean, he’ll travel with them, I’m sure, to Minnesota and Cleveland. And, you know, there’s, you know, it’ll probably be matchup specific a little bit, but, you know, he’s a big B. Like, the one thing I’ll say is I know his height is not a mystery. Like, I was shocked by how big he looked. First time we ever met him, I couldn’t believe how giant he was. Yeah. And honestly, I think I didn’t really realize it until tonight. Obviously, I was at summer league and everything and I covered him there. But something about seeing him on an NBA court against those bigs like it was I was like, “Okay, there’s the like he has the NBA body for a center, right? And he has some feel for the game that you can really teach.” So, I would I think he’s probably going to get more opportunities these next few games. Like, listen, we everybody we everybody had their takes on what the Celtics did in the second round of the draft and should they have taken Caulkin or should they should they taken these other guys? And I’m not but let me finish my thought. You You know, you’re so like premeditatedly upset. I just was so I was so prepared for you to get carried away. I’m not getting carried away. I’m saying that there is something that they liked about him that made them say, “We are comfortable trading down.” I haven’t really seen that that thing yet. You know, like I seen him in Summer League, I’ve seen him in Maine, he’s had good flashes of things, but they have they’ve done a good job of finding these kinds of like these kinds of players where maybe at first we don’t see the vision and then it clicks, right? like a lot of people were really down on Jordan a month ago and now everybody feels a lot better about Jordan. So there’s some there’s a reason why they picked Amari Williams. There’s a reason why they were comfortable trading down. I’m not saying it was the right decision. I have no idea. We’ll see how everybody’s career pans out over the next few years. Um but it’s not like this guy they just picked him off the like he was just available in the G-League pool and now they’re like they they went and drafted this guy, right? They wanted him and Phil Prey said that he’s going to be a beast. like you know they they said he’s gonna he has a high ceiling and I think there’s a lot of a lot of excitement about him and the organization even if right now he’s not he’s obviously not a finished product. Yeah. And for people who don’t know his story he he grew up in uh the UK started basketball pretty late in his life. Um you know went to a lower level college and then transferred to Kentucky. So he’s pretty early in his development track here and you can tell with all the work they’re putting into him in Maine so far. They’re trying to get his screening down. There’s a lot of technical things that he’s working on that um they’re trying to use to acclimate him to the system here because he’s great with the ball in his hands. He pretty much was the point guard for Kentucky last year and that’s probably not what he’s going to do here necessarily in whatever role he ends up and of course tonight they didn’t play through him a ton, but they are a little bit in Maine. Uh they’re trying to get down the screen and roll and you know mismatch hunting role that you know they do here for the bigs. So, I think it’s a big credit to him that he’s far enough along with some of the things they want to see from him that he gets this opportunity right here, but I’m hesitant to say that we’re going to see a breakthrough from him early this season and a ton of minutes from him with the big league. And, you know, that’s not the expectation for him in year one. We all remember what Luke did when he got here and obviously his circumstance was a little different, but these guys take some time. Kada took a couple years through the Celtics development as well as Sacramento system here. So, I think he’s a guy who’s interesting long term. I don’t have massive aspirations for him. And listen, I’m not going to get into the Cal Brener Williams thing here today cuz I think it’s too early to have that conversation. I’m not either. I don’t have a take on it. I’m just saying that like sometimes we forget that the team went out and picked this guy for a reason, right? Like it’s not like I think he’s not Yeah. He’s not at the forefront of like fans minds because Yeah. You know, he’s not a big name, but he is somebody that they sought out, right? Yeah, for sure. And this is an important development for the team because Horford, Porzingis, all those guys go out the door. Cornet, you have Kada for one more year, which is great. Who knows if you’re going to be able to lock him up long term this off season or when he gets the free agency. So, you do need to constantly have guys on the back burner who are developing and can project to play big man minutes for you into the future. We’ll see if that’s what his outlook is for this team. Obviously, he’s a guy who is in the tail tail end of the second round or undrafted territory for a lot of draft analysts going into this year. But he does do one thing well at a high high NBA caliber level, which is what you always look for, and it’s see the floor, pass, facilitate, make good reads, and that is a big part of the Celtics offense. So, it’s not surprising to me that they like him. I just won’t understate the fact that he’s on a two-way. Cal Brener gets the whole deal. the tax situation. We remember it a couple years ago with Walsh, right? They traded back three times and the talking point after they picked him was he was comparable to some of the other guys who were available at the other spot. We liked a bunch of guys who we all thought were comparable there. So, my best guess is that they saw Cal Brener and Williams as comparable for the price there and they end up trading back, getting some future picks and there you have it. I no judgment on Williams. I’m not knocking him for tonight. The chat’s getting on me about it already here. I was just surprised that they didn’t play through him a little bit more here. As far as the first game goes, outstanding, especially given the circumstances, especially given the matchup. A+ form Williams here. I thought his poise was great. He didn’t look overwhelmed out there, which I thought was the most important part. I was amazed. I was like, “This guy’s been playing in Portland, like in a high school gym, and now this was the most electric night of the year, right? Everybody said it. This was the best crowd of the season. Prime time game. The Pistons are on the verge of making history, and like this guy’s coming in in the first quarter and matching up against like Yeah. So, pretty cool. Pretty cool stuff. I think that was one of the one of the many stories. I’m sure you guys have talked about some of the other stories, but awesome Baylor minutes that just kind of saved them a little bit in the first half. Um, I don’t know. Yeah, like Baylor, Jimmy’s not here. Remember what I said last week? Yeah, I was getting made fun of. I was like, Baylor’s creeping. He’s he’s starting to emerge a little bit here. And this was obviously a breakout game for him. Looked again comfortable. He didn’t hesitate at all out there defensively. We’ve talked about how good he’s been to go from like a fiveminute pocket in his case to 30 minutes here and play them well. He fouls out, right? That’s the downside of this performance. But as far as his comfort and poise went, he he hit shots right away and did a bunch of other stuff, too. The rebound was awesome. I’m glad Joe shot out that moment for sure. Uh yeah, Baylor played with just a like tenacity and like he’s just so he’s such an electric player when he’s on that it is really contagious. Like it fed the crowd tonight. Like those plays that he makes, the way that he reacts, the way that you can see the emotion on his face like for a home game, it’s like an extra bonus every time he does something positive because of just the way that it it kind of plays out. And um yeah, he was like again I actually don’t I don’t know that they won this game if he doesn’t hit those shots in the first half because they were having they started off this game pretty cold and he was he was struggling a bit um off the rip there. So and it’s what’s been cool about this season is that it’s a different person every night whether it’s Josh or Jordan or Ugo or Baylor like they each have something that they’re better at Sam than the other and they’ve each had kind of their moment of like this is the Baylor game, this is the Ugo game. Like it’s it’s almost been like you if you have it tonight, you’re you’re going to get the opportunity. And like that has not been the case for the Celtics over the past few years, right, in the past. Yeah. If you have it, it doesn’t really matter because Porzingis and Holiday and Tatum and Brown and Derek and you know, like it just those are that’s going to be who closes the game. But it’s really up for grabs and I can imagine that it’s very very motivating for a lot of these guys, especially the guys that have been around for the last few years and haven’t really had that opportunity, right? Like if for Jordan like now it’s there, it hasn’t really been there, right? So, I’m sure it creates kind of a fun atmosphere. Jaylen’s talked about how it’s been fun. Like, it’s fun for the locker room for everybody to know they have a real chance. Yeah, for sure. And I think the way they managed the rotation is someone’s followers. I legitimately think this was Joe’s one of Joe’s better coaching efforts ever. Given the circumstances, how overwhelm overmatched they were personnel-wise, Detroit’s success coming into this game. I don’t think there’s a game quite like this through his tenure. maybe the nights where they were setting everybody or a bunch of guys were out, but in terms of just monoemano head-to-head, both sides have all their guys, aside from Kada, obviously, which was another factor in this one. I I don’t think I’ve gone into a game feeling, oo, this this might not be their night, and then have them come through like this way through Missoula’s tenure here. This might be his biggest upset win uh that we’ve seen so far. I I don’t think that would be bold to say. Yeah, it’s funny because the Celtics were like not big underdogs like by the betting lines entering this game and I was kind of like how are they not massive underdogs? Like the Pistons have been the best team in the Eastern Conference. They have this big gap in the front court, but yeah, they just they found ways to find I mean Joe said it postgame, but like they the the lineups that they were running created offensive advantages and that was critical and they you know they shoot 46% from three in this one. So that can’t be understated as far as the the impact of, you know, their kind of the role they played in in trying to win this game. Like I don’t, you know, there was no margin for for not having a good shooting game tonight. But at the end of the day, like they’re 10 and eight. And I know we’re not supposed to talk about it like this, but they’re a couple of plays away from being even better than that. And I think this is better than most people would have projected them at this point of the season. Well, this is what we’re going to What’s their pace now? What’s their 8 to2 game pace for? Who wants to do this math for Oh, I thought you meant what’s their pace like pace? No, no, I don’t care about that. Yeah. So, I’m doing the math. You can figure out the pace. I do want to ask you this. 45.5 game pace. Perfect. That’s where we were both floating more or less. Yeah. And I said that to John earlier. I was like, it’s crazy that we keep arguing and keep debating, keep going at each other when we generally have the same view of how the season’s going to go here. And I think the one John, this was John’s message since you weren’t on here. He’s still hitting pause saying, “Let’s see how they do going through this stretch.” He doesn’t see enough games. This was the first one he said that he could take away from like this was the first one where he felt like he learned something about this team. But I feel like we should all agree, at least based on what we’ve seen to this point, that they’re not a bad team. I think that’s what we’ve learned. There was a scenario this year where they were bad. They started 0 and3 and I was a little scared after how that Detroit game in particular went, which is what got them to 0 and three. Totally different results since. And if we cut off those three games, what are they? 10 and five cents. Yeah, it’s pretty good. They’re not a bad team. That’s that’s for certain. And I guess that’s the one thing we’ve learned because you’re like I agree with John. they’re about to enter a more difficult stretch. They have played some teams that had a lot of injuries and whatever else. And I, you know, that’s just the nature of the NBA today as well. Um, but they’ve been blown out once this season. It was just the Rockets game and it was on the second night of a backto-back. Even the Nets game, even the Knicks game, like those weren’t great games, but they they competed and gave themselves a chance with a few minutes to play. So, for this team to have been blown out once, they’ve been in a lot of crunch time games. Sometimes the crunch execution has left some room to be desired, but like at the end of the day, that’s always how it is. And we tal like Joe kind of talked about it, but like they fouled today. It was the wrong decision. They almost made the wrong decision against the Clippers. Like I don’t know. I wish that wasn’t an option. I was complaining about this in the press room before Joe came. But like I don’t think you should be allowed to foul down three intentionally when you’re at in the last possession. Like that should be a take foul. Like I think we should just have to guard on that play. But if since you can foul, I guess you should. But I hate I hate that play so much that I can’t even weigh in on the basketball. I mean, I like I I Come on. I hate it. You can’t not weigh in because you hate it. I mean, is it the right play? Like, it wasn’t in this case because it was called a shooting foul, right? But maybe a second earlier would have been the right play. Like, it has to be executed really well. That’s why I think it’s an interesting Joe said it himself. Like, it’s kind of 5050. It depends. It really depends on like the exact circumstances. And I love that response by him because that’s the one I don’t want to see Kate Cunningham pull up for a three like he was on one, you know? I don’t want to see that either. But I don’t think you should have the option to consider this. This is it’s a stupid basketball decision. Like I hate when I watch NBA League pass and two random teams are playing and they’re down by three and I’m like, let’s see if they can hit a game tying three and they’re like, oh, we’re going to foul down three for the next seven minutes. Like it’s bad for the league. They should change it. But well, as long as it’s a rule, we’re going to debate what they should and shouldn’t do in those situations. I have no strong take on the Celtics postgame show. Uh I don’t love the approach of fouling every time in that circumstance, which I’m glad Joe said that there’s some feel to it and that there’s some leeway. Obviously, they didn’t in the Clippers game. Derek said they should have on that shot. Uh and I do think generally it’s a smart play, but this is the downside. And on two straight plays, they came very close and obviously did in the second one to fouling on the three-point shot there. They got extremely lucky that Cade missed the free throw there. So, it’s a great win. It’s a phenomenal performance. It’s obviously their highlight of the season so far, but when it comes to that crunch time conversation, still some execution left to be desired in that circumstance. And the Clippers game too, right down the stretch of that one, Harden got a wide open three-point play uh to potentially tie that game as well. So, they should have won two or three games late, but with every negative thing though, they also made a lot of clutch time plays today. Like Jaylen has the big and one, Derrick has the clutch threes, big rebounds, like you know, so you’re never going to you’re never going to make all the right crunch time plays. Like there’s always going to be some you mess up. It’s just did you make enough? And I honestly did think they made enough play. Obviously, yeah, Kate hits that last free throw, they maybe they lose in overtime, but I think they made enough. They did and that’s why they won 117 to 114. We will continue the conversation here uh which I’m with what I’m sure is going to be an awesome uh standup. Noah’s got You got Boston coming as well on this game. A lot of positives to pull from this one. She had a conversation with Amari Williams as well after this game to check out on Celticsblog.com. Check out our coverage over on clsdia.com of a great game here. And of course, check out all our podcasts across the CNS media network. Patriots coming up on Sunday. Hey, make sure you go subscribe to the Patriots Press Pass channel for their coverage. Check out the store. 30% off Black Friday. Use the code Black Friday to get 30% off t-shirts, winter hats, hard hats. I like the sweatshirt. Which one of these would you want on your wish list, Noah? I would like be the hard hat, right? Yeah, I like the hard hat. I don’t have one. Why don’t I have one? Well, go over there, shop. Use the code Black Friday. Uh, shout out to our Bobby. You can get me one for Thanksgiving. Is that a thing? No, but it can be. All right, I’m up for it. Uh, download prize picks. Use code sale CNS to get $50 in lineups over there after you play your first $5 lineup. And that’s a wrap for us here at TD Garden. More to come. Again, subscribe CNS media Celtics all access for all our coverage here, all our podcasts. Um, the stream I believe now is over on CNN Media exclusively. So, make sure you’ve subscribed there. Uh, for all the postgame reaction to this one, Jaylen Brown and Baylor Sherman talked in the locker room. We didn’t get to that. So, of course, go to uh CNS Media for those press conferences. And we will be back on Saturday for remote coverage of Timberwolves Celtics. We’ll all be live right after the game. So, it’ll be one of those shows where we have a full discussion here throughout the show, which I always enjoy as well as we enjoy the holiday weekend here. And with that said, happy Thanksgiving to everyone out there. Thank you so much to everyone who watches every show, tunes in, supports, says hello at the games. Always feel blessed about the support you guys give us here. And uh that allows us to cover the team like we do here. And I appreciate all the kind words everyone always throws our way. Um all the support going back five, six years now since we’ve been doing this stream. So thankful to everybody. Hope you have a great, peaceful, safe holiday with your family. Moving and we will be back. Yeah, I’m very passionate about Thanksgiving as you can tell. I’m really excited about tomorrow. I have chills with that outro. Bobby, what’s on the menu, Noah? Uh, I’m making a kale salad with sweet potatoes and tofu. That’s all I know. There you go. Thanksgiving the Noah Delzo way. Uh, we got more to come. A lot of talk a lot to talk about this game. So, I’m I’m excited to continue the conversation here. And that’s a wrap for us here for John who took off to bake some pies, for Noah, for Harrison and behind the scenes. Thank you everybody. And we will talk to you on Saturday after Celtics Timberwolf Celtics win two straight to begin this uh Thanksgiving week here. So, happy Thanksgiving everybody and peace.
CLNS Media’s John Zannis and Bobby Manning break down Boston’s 117-114 win over Detroit with Noa Dalzell joining from TD Garden with more postgame reaction.
00:00 – Game of the Year
2:00 – Celtics’ Small Ball
4:30 – Joe’s Coaching Masterclass
18:44 – Resurgence of Derrick White
48:00 – Noa Dalzell joins from TD
52:03 – Baylor discussion
54:01 – Amari Williams impactful debut
1:08:08 – Offense
1:12:25 – Clutch time execution
The Garden Report on CLNS Media is Powered by:
💰 Prize Picks – Sign up at http://prizepicks.onelink.me/LME0/CLNS & Download the app today and use code CLNS to get $50 in lineups after you play your first $5 lineup!
10 comments
REFEREES COOKING GAMES BUT STILL LOST TO THE CELTICS WITHOUT JT.
Winning hurts us right now, that's just the reality. At this rate we'll be drafting 23rd… look how we missed out on Thomas Sorber last draft.
How can anyone say that Brown had a good game when he had to take 30+ shots to score 30 points
Happy Thanksgiving, everybody.
And is it ever! Whatta game. Whatta win. Needed a bit of luck at the end, but that'sa really good team we went tit for tat with. I'm stunned!, and when you consider we didn't have Queta! Wow. It'sa road, getaway game before a holiday for the Pistons but still. They have been mowing teams down! If we played this team nine more times I'm not sure we could beat them again, but who cares! We won this one.
On offense the Pistons worked hard, set hard screens to get the match-ups they wanted and got them and they still couldn't beat us. Great, gritty win for the Green. Our best game of tye year.
Hey, stat monkeys, listen up: Tonight's game is a prime example of how individual's stats are just about worthless. We won tonight because we held Cunningham in check. What!, you say, he got 38 (or whatever) points, he had a great game. No, we defended him well. He consistently got the match-ups he wanted and whoever was on him did a good job. When we blitzed we did it well; when we pressed we did it well; when we tried to speed him up more often than not we did. Our defense on him is what won us this game, however many points he ended up with.
Not a good game for DW haters.
Not a good game for PP haters.
Not a good game for Simonistas. It's playing Russian roulette keeping on the floor when he's scoring. When he isn't he is the mother of all liabilities. Admit it, yee Simonistas, if you didn't know who he was or his history and you saw him play for the first time today you'd be asking yourself why this guy was in the league. He was that inept.
My thanks to Coach Bick for keeping Duren on the bench most of the second half, The Cs couldn't have won otherwise.
My thanks to Coach Maz for keeping AS on the bench most of the game. This is precisely the kind of game when he collapses into rubble. He far from unstoppable, and when he is shut down he's a real negative.
Xmas wish list: keep Amari Williams on the team and playing regularly. He got his backside handed to him today, but that's part of the maturation process. He can pass/playmake a bit and kinda-sorta protect the rim. Garza is never going to be more than a back-up if that. Queta n Williams are our two best centers–play them.
Play Hugo more or send him to Maine .
33.30
John
Why don't you buy one (hard hat)
😉
What s sure about JB is he really went at it from the start and maybe that s the reason why it wore on him.
am i the only one who thinks bobby and noa would make cute couple? their flirting and innuendos during this show kinda made me blush and get giddy about y'all! i see a connection and a spark there! anyway great show and phenomenal W for the C's.
Ballsy win. Stopping a team on a double-digit winning streak is no small feat.
Great basketball/Celts discussion as always.Definetely better then anything else I heard on radio or tv in the local market recently.
Specifically liked the small ball and Simons fitting on the Pistons talk from J.Z. &Bobby.Think Duran would have been too quick for Queta like Claxton was last Friday.Hope Joe doesn't completely discard it when Queta is back.(not to knock Queta-nice player/ he will definetely be missed against the Wolves size .).
Also liked Noa's idea about the fouling on a 3 at the end of game being similar to a take foul.Lkke it from a basketball purist standpoint/ getting a true winner.And speeding up the game.Simarily wouldn' t mind the G league free throw rule being experimented with in the NBA as well.
00:00 – Game of the Year
2:00 – Celtics' Small Ball
4:30 – Joe's Coaching Masterclass
18:44 – Resurgence of Derrick White
48:00 – Noa Dalzell joins from TD
52:03 – Baylor discussion
54:01 – Amari Williams impactful debut
1:08:08 – Offense
1:12:25 – Clutch time execution
The Garden Report on CLNS Media is Powered by:
💰 Prize Picks – Sign up at http://prizepicks.onelink.me/LME0/CLNS & Download the app today and use code CLNS to get $50 in lineups after you play your first $5 lineup!