New York Knicks vs Boston Celtics Game Of The Week Preview

New York Knicks vs Boston Celtics Game Of The Week Preview

New York Knicks facing off against the Boston Celtics. Thank God this one is not a 700 p.m. start time. Making me rush home. Too big to get old. Too crazy, man. Got to make sure little man gets to bed. But 7:30 p.m. is the start time for this game. So, you know, we got to come correct. Got to get ready. Got to bring my guy Bobby Manning back on the show. If you already know who he is, come on. You already know what who this man is. He is a Celtics and NBA reporter for CL CLNS media. You can catch him over at the Garden Report. He does a phenomenal job breaking down the Celtics. Make sure to give him a follow. Great basketball mind. Make sure to hit that thumbs up button for your boys. Subscribe to the channel if you haven’t already done so. This is going to be a good one, man. For Nick Knicks fans, we’re excited because hey, we’re looking pretty good so far against the Cavs. Celtics, you know, you had uh Edgecomb, you had Maxi. Lost by one point, Bobby, but uh interesting different showings for for these teams to start off the season. Yeah, and that’s a killer for the Celtics if I’m them because you’re up 13 at the start of the fourth. You have everything rolling your way for the most part. They were winning a lot of small battles in this game. Joe Embiid only hit one shot and wasn’t out there in crunch time and you still squander it. And there’s going to be a lot of games this year. It’s a totally different Celtics team where they just aren’t in it. Guys are hurt. The opponent’s just much better than them. And that’s why we’re all chucking this team up somewhere above or below 500 in that territory. But if you’re going to exceed expectations, if you’re this team this year, you have to win those games. That was tough. And I pulled a lot of positives from it. I love Derek White’s performance and I think he’s going to shock a lot of people around the NBA this year with how consistently dominant he is with Jason Tatum out. There were other contributors. Nemesis Kada at center certainly is someone who’s gonna have to step up for this game tomorrow. We’ll get to that. But there were some bright spots here and there throughout this game. I thought their style, their approach, their system was impressive at times. Uh but the crunchtime execution was not great. Uh the transition defense number coming out of that game out of all the teams in the league who played their first games, they were dead last by far guarding in transition. Obviously, that’s something the Knicks love to do as well here. and their big man depth, which was already thin, lost another body in Luca Gagarza, who went out in concussion protocol almost immediately. So, I mean, they’re coming into this game on Friday with two bigs and two unproven bigs at that. So, they’re up against it going into this game. I haven’t looked at a line yet. I would guess it’s like five and a half. Five and a half, you’re saying? All right, let me pull it up right now. Let’s see what we got here for the line for tomorrow between the New York Knicks and the Boston Celtics. Let’s see if we can find this real quick around here. Uh let’s see. Let’s go to the NBA there. Let’s see. More NBA. Can we find this game? Here we go. So, it is five and a half. Look at Bobby. Look at this guy. He knows the teams. He knows the league. He watches on every single game and then some. That’s why we got you on the show, Bobby. But, you know, you’re giving a little preview for for the Celtics. We’ll certainly get into some Celtics storylines and breaking this game down. But I got to ask you first, you know, since the last time we spoke, you came in bold and brash thinking that uh the Celtics were going to take out the Knicks. Don’t think I don’t think I’m gonna let you live this one down, man. Don’t think I’m going to let you live this one down. Is anyone believe anything I say after after Great prediction. But look, man. Knicks, you know, shocked the world, beat the Celtics in the semiis. Now we’re in a different position. We made some moves this off seasonason. Added Jordan Clarkson, Gerson, Yabiselli, we got Mike Brown, Yabu. We got a lot of guys. Yaboo was a former Celtic man before he had to go back to France. So I’m sure you’re very familiar with his game and and his uh you know who he is as a player. But I got to start off with what did you think about the Knicks offseason moves? I I love the coaching hire. Now listen, I I I didn’t love Byron Tibs. I don’t love a lot of those coach firings around the league that that seem to happen routinely now. And that one was especially difficult. I’m sure even for Knicks fans given what he gave to the team over the, you know, four or five years he was there. I understood it though. You know, things getting stale, everyone probably not being on the same page organizationally and in the locker room and his style probably not fitting the modern game perfectly or even this roster. I know a lot of Knicks fans in my life, you know, I went to Syracuse, so a lot of New Yorkers, a lot of Knicks fans, and they were frustrated, you know, even with the success they had last season. I’m sure you felt similar. It felt like they left something on the table with how they handled their rotations. You saw in that Pacers series, too, once they started going a little deeper into the bench, they grew more competitive. Uh, the double big lineup, which we talked about going into that Celtics series, formulated a little too late there. And so, I get it. And I love Mike Brown. I think he’s already showing some ingenuity, you know, coaching up that offense there, and he’s always been a good defensive coach, too. So, the drop off isn’t massive there. Now, this was a max effort team last year, a team that played at starters as many minutes as it possibly could. So, comparing regular season success last year to this year is going to be difficult because I do think they’re probably gonna experiment a little more, try some things, get guys more rest. Obviously, you know, two key guys are injured to start the year, which isn’t great. So, this is a team that could take a step back potentially in the regular season to take a step forward in the playoffs, which, you know, has to be exciting if you’re a Knicks fan. That’s why you make a move like that. As far as the roster moves go, I love the Yaboo one, especially coming off the year. He had low stakes role in Philly, obviously, right? They were a bad team. They didn’t have a ton to play for. he got to play a ton of minutes and and have freedom in those minutes. So, translating that to actually returning to a smaller role in New York on a team that has championship expectations, I’ll be interested to see how that goes for him because that’s obviously the spot he was in early in his career in Boston and couldn’t break through and find consistency. So, um it’s a different situation for him, but I still like the move, especially at the money they paid there. Clarkson, I don’t know. Like, h, you know, is he a big part of a playoff series? Like, he’s definitely a regular season innings eater kind of guy who’s going to give you 10, 15 points, maybe more on some nights and and just be available, but I I don’t know if he’s a major contributor in a playoff rotation at this stage of his career. We’ll see. Like, he was just floating out there in Utah and playing on a bad team for so long at this point. That’ll be interested to see what he has left to contribute. And the Brogden thing was too bad cuz I like that pickup too. Like if he if he was anything close to healthy, close to himself, that would have been helpful. But when you looked at the preseason productivity from him, it wasn’t quite there. And he just hasn’t been on the court consistently since he was in Boston. So um not a shocker to me that he made that decision to retire. And you know, Shamut coming back, I think, is a smart move out of that group there. I know Matthews was in camp and showed some things, but um Matthews, um Shamut rather, carved out a pretty good role into the playoffs. So, you know, this was one of my uh higher, you know, ranked off seasons. They would probably be in my top 10 um in terms of the moves they made here. And they didn’t have to do a ton like keeping this roster together, bringing guys back. Um, even the coaching change and what looks like it’s going to be the move when Mitch does get back of starting Towns and Mitch together, I think is a smart decision. The bummer is that he’s not there out of nowhere really. Um, alongside Hart, who was banged up a lot in the preseason, it felt like. So, uh, they’re going to get to test their depth pretty quickly here, almost immediately. The Towns thing was weird the other night, too. You know, him going doubtful out of nowhere. like this team’s not in a great health position to start the year, but as I said, it’s not about where you are right now. It’s about where you are in April, May, hopefully June for them. Exactly. And that’s the whole premise of what the front office wanted to do this offseason. Bringing in Mike Brown. You know, the big thing that they wanted was somebody who would be collaborative with not only the players, but the front office and the medical staff. And we obviously won’t know the full depth of how collaborative Tom Tibido was, but the fact that they made that a point of emphasis for this offseason is clear as what they wanted. And look to say, let’s go with what CP, you know, uh, tweeted out the other day a report is that he said that if Mitchell Robinson and Josh Hart needed to play, it was like do or die situation. They probably would have been out there for game one. But because it’s not a do or die situation, they’re going to rest these guys to make sure that they’re fully healthy because as you already stated, Bobby, the big picture is postseason run. And so, yeah, they’ll probably take a step back. You know, I’ve been on a couple other shows and say, “Hey, I expect this team to win 54 55 games. I’m not expecting to go into that 60 mark territory because they’re not trying to win the regular season.” This is not Tom Tibido. This is not a guy who Mike Brown in and this front office is not about, hey, let’s accumulate as many wins as possible. I also I also think they’re looking at it from a standpoint where you know having homec court advantage doesn’t seem to be a big thing anymore either. So why gone for something where you look at the Cavs who were number one last year lost to Indiana in the second round. You look at what the Celtics had. They had homec court advantage. They lost to the Knicks in the second round. So it doesn’t really matter with homecourt advantage. It’s are your players healthy and how well is a team producing where when they’re in that postseason uh run. So, I I agree with you on that standpoint. I like the moves. I am actually I actually like the Clarkson signing. I think with Yaboo and Clarkson, this is where you experiment with the depth and see who has it going for most of the night. And if Clarkson has it going, look, this is a guy that can drop 2530 in a in a given game if he’s feeling it. And so, all you need to do is just to make sure that he’s feeling it that night and then it’s a positive for you. And with Yabu, I think it’s going to be based on how he’s producing as well because I liked what Ariel Haporti showed in game one uh for the Knicks. I like him, too. And and look, the the the depth for this team and how Mike Brown just in game one utilized it was just so refreshing because it’s like, okay, if you’re giving guys confidence and opportunity, they can actually go out there and produce something for your team and be pride like another more minutes, more opportunity. There’s guys up and down the side. You’re even using a little bit of Tyler Kick, who I I don’t think they used much of last season at all. Yeah, he had some good minutes, too. Yeah, he had some good minutes, too, in in yesterday’s game. You know, was just playing aggressive, making the right pass. We know he’s a really good passer, but the fact that he’s given the confidence for Mike Brown in game one to go out there and just attack the lane, try to finish some layups, even layups that he missed, it was like, okay, you’re someone’s instilling confidence in you to go take these attempts, which is what you want to see, especially for that position where you want to make the defense collapse as you attack the paint. So, I like I like what I see so far, man. I like what I see so far from Mike Brown and uh the new look Nick’s roster. Very inspiring indeed. And hey, salut to Nick Nation. Thank you all for tuning for another game preview. With me on the other side is my guy Bobby Manning. He covers the Celtics for CLNS Media. So, make sure you go check him over there. You can go find him on the Garden Report as well as one of the hosts of that show. So, make sure to go tap in and check out his work over there. And hey, make sure to support one of our sponsors. All right, tonight’s sponsor, we got two of them. One of our sponsors is DraftKings. All right, so all of your favorite NBA players are back and DraftKings Sportsbook, an official sports betting partner of the NBA, is the place to bet on NBA stars this season. New customers, bet just five bucks and get three months of NBA League pass. Plus, score $300 if you bet if your bet wins paid in bonus bets. So download the DraftKings Sportsbook app and use code KFTV. That’s code KFTV. Bet five bucks and get three months of League Pass, plus get $300 in bonus bets if your bets win. In partnership with DraftKings, the crown is yours. Gambling problem, call 1800 gambler. In New York, call 8778NY or text hopey 467-369. In Connecticut, help is available for problem gambling. Call 888789777 or visit ccpjet.org. Please play responsibly on behalf of Boot Hill Casino and Resort. Pass through of per wager tax may apply in Illinois. 21 plus age and eligibility varies by jurisdiction. Void in Ontario. Restrictions apply. Bet must win to receive bonus bets which expire in 7 days. Minimum odds required. NBA League pass autorenews until canceled. Additional terms at dkng.co/audio. Limited time offer. So, remember to use that promo code KFTD to get up to $300 in bonus bets after you place $5 and you get three months of League Pass free. All right. Shout out to our sponsor at DraftKings. All right, Bobby. Now, let’s get to your team, man. Let’s get to the Celtics because some big changes happened this off seasonason. You traded KP, you traded Drew Holiday. Obviously, we know about the Tatum injury. We saw that all happen in the postseason, although he’s recovering quite quickly. You know, he’s on the court. And uh even talking to Tom Tibid, speaking of which, a guy who’s still getting paid by the Knicks, but hey, I was gonna say he’s out there in Boston. He’s been collaborative with Boston. Good god, man. You win a championship over there, help the Knicks twice, and now you go back to Boston to go help them be like, “Hey, this is what you did against wrong, man.” And you know, I love the Knicks fans. I love the passion. I was bummed about that cuz that was Jaylen who was talking about how oh Tom was here and he was you know telling us about how the Knicks beat us and blah blah blah. I thought that was such a cool story and then it blew up. It became such a big deal online that no one wanted to talk about it the next day. Joe shut it right down said that’s not what he was doing here. Derek White didn’t want to talk about it. So I want some of the details of that. You know his his day in Boston is his time and you know he’s been around a bunch of teams obviously right? So, you know, this wasn’t an unusual appearance for him, but I thought that was really what like what insight did they get from him? You know, what did they learn from that meeting? We how did the Knicks beat the Celtics? I want to know. Obviously, that wasn’t something I was expecting. Um, and listen, credit to Tibs. I mean, he coached circles around Joe in that series, and I’m a I’m a Missoula guy. Um, I think he’s been underrated in the imprint and impact he’s had on this team. But that was a rough series for him between playing KP too much and not getting the Luke Cornet fast enough who was dominant later in the series, too little, you know, of Payton Pritchard minutes, and there were just gripes I could go on about for days when it came to Joe’s management that series. I didn’t like the following of Mitchell Robinson. Obviously, their shot selection in game one was questionable as they squandered the massive lead. There’s just a million things from that series that are still so frustrating to look back on, especially given the opportunity. Talk about it. Well, you know, once you look back on it and you knew you were going to probably lose Porzingis and then Holidays you mentioned, but then you lose Cornet, too. You lose Horford on top of it, who nobody would have pictured leaving before that Tatum injury, then the Tatum injury on top of it. Like, talk about a nightmare. And you know, I still think this this thing Celtics fans tell themselves of like, yeah, you know, if Tatum was healthy, blah blah blah. But even at that point, they were down three to one when he got hurt effectively because there was only three minutes left in the game at that point. That series was just so devastating. I guess the team they they dominated all year. That one, man, that one still hurts. So, what do you think of this team? I mean, you said you mentioned above 500 earlier in the show. Is that like the expectation amongst media Celtics fans? Like where where do you see this team moving for this year? Do you see them going to be in the top six? What’s the outlook for the Celtics? They have they have a lot of holes to plug on the roster like there, you know, you look up and down even in the starting lineup and you’re like, “All right, where’s the rebounding? Where’s the consistent defense? Um where’s the playmaking?” And I thought on opening night which showed more than anything was Jaylen Brown did some good things. Derek White did some great things. Uh but no one else was there to help them out, especially when the Sixers packed it in and loaded up on them late. Um it got difficult in the half court for them. And you know, their offensive numbers were good coming out of that game. Their defensive numbers in the half court were pretty solid, maybe been great against Embiid and company there, but they got torched by Maxi. They got torched by Edgecom. Rebounding is going to be difficult for them all season. the big man position almost immediately became a revolving door with Kate getting pulled after three minutes and Tilman’s out there for a little bit and then guards that like Joe just has these guys cycling in and out of the game and you know one interesting thing Joe said and I I feel like Joe you know if I’m going to be optimistic here institute a intriguing system during training camp where they’re playing fast where they’re defending aggressively where they’re swarming around and just playing with max effort for all their minutes and going deeper into their rotation. So, I that’s how they have to play. You know, Jaylen said this year given that they’re not as talented, given that they’re not as experienced, and I’m interested to see how that works out because I do think that can be a formula for success. Like, they borrowed some things from the Pacers that allowed them to be successful. They borrowed some things from the Thunder defense and forced 20 turnovers a game during the preseason. So, there’s some interesting stuff they’re trying. And at their best, in the opener, they were super competitive. Um, but at their worst, their roster, which you can look at on paper and judge based on the guys who just haven’t played a lot in their career, it’s a flawed roster. So, how do you work around that? Can you sustain even a single significant injury um without, you know, I hate to use the word, but tanking like an injury or two and this team could be in that territory this year. I’m going to be optimistic and say they are healthy. they are, you know, playing effectively in that system and Joe’s getting the best out of this team. This is a big year for Joe where I think he could actually get a lot of credit for the team success without people just saying, “Oh, he has the best roster. Of course, they’re good.” Um, so there’s a there’s a significant year for him, for Brown, stepping into the Tatum shoes, as well as Derrick White, who again, I think people have this idea of who Derek is, just a steady guy. um he he could be an all-star this year, you know, for sure with the amount of responsibility and um workload he’s gonna have. And he’s just he can just be a statistical monster. And you know, if I’m the Knicks and I’m looking at that roster on the other side and I’m like, “All right, who do we have to look out for? Who do we really have to take out of this game?” I’m doing everything I can to take Derek White out because uh he he’s just everywhere screening, shooting. I he took like 15 threes in the opener. Um you know, huge block in transition. Yeah, he’s everywhere. He’s one of one of the best role players in the league. If you want to call him the best role player in the league, like I don’t think that’s a stretch. Um and obviously you can be a star in your role, you know, in this league. So, um that’s the good side of things. The big man position, massive question as you look at this game on Friday. What are you doing against Towns? What are you doing against OG and Huck and just that massive aggressive Knicks front line there? Um like I said, it’s going to be an uphill battle in this game. This is one of the matchups and there’ll be these. It’s weird as a Celtics uh you know follower to actually look at a game and say I don’t know if they can win this cuz every game was winnable for them in the past. Joe said that should continue to be the case but I’ll be intrigued to see how they stay in this one against this team. Yeah. And I look with the way that the Knicks team was rebounding especially with OG. I mean it’d be a totally different scenario too if we had Mitchell Robinson and Josh Hartback. I mean those guys are just monsters on the board. So, you know, in game one, Knicks outrebounded the the Cavs. Uh was like 48 to 32 or 36, something along those lines. So, I expect him to replicate the same thing, especially since you’re talking about the Celtics not having any front court depth. I mean, this is this this was the closing lineup for the Celtics last night. If you know, you want to look at rebounding size. Simons, Pritchard, White, Brown, Kada. Wow, that is not great. Not great. I And this is not even to like be like tooting the horn be like, “Oh yeah, Knicks are just gonna cream them.” But it’s like the way that OG was rebounding. I mean, he had 14 boards last night. He he filled the role of like Josh Hart very admirably considering that this is a guy who wasn’t getting double- digit rebounds like that last season. So, look, winning basketball games is, you know, who is going to take possession of the who’s going to control the glass, right? Who’s going to clean it up? And so, if the Knicks are going to have this advantage over the Celtics, and I see the Celtics having a massive uphill battle, unless, which is this is totally in the Celtics hands, they are just shooting whites out from all over the place. And that’s totally that’s totally a possibility, especially with Payton Pritchard, Derrick White, Jaylen Brown. um those guys can just create shots and knock them down at a high clip. So that would be the one way I could see that the Celtics could, you know, do that like to be in this game against the Knicks, but it’s still going to be uphill battle if they’re not if it’s if they’re not doing that. Yeah, I think they’re two paths to victory are forcing a ton of turnovers, which if I’m looking at the Knicks on opening night, 13, you know, probably a little higher than you want it to be, but not an awful number for them in that game. Uh but the Celtics are going to pressure them like fullcourt press, um double teams left and right, scrambling, rotating, collapsing. Like they’re going to give up more threes this year because they want to pack the paint. They want to throw a bunch of bodies at a guy like Towns and just make other teams uncomfortable. That’s been Joe’s big thing this preseason is let’s not allow the Brunsons of the world, the Towns of the world to play comfortably, attack one-on-one, see individual defense. like this Celtics defense used to be guard your yards, switch everything, just stay in front of the other guys, maybe give up a three here or there to a bad shooter, but you know, we’re cutting things off. We’re staying in front of guys. You’re going to notice it almost immediately tomorrow. Like they’re going to send two up Brunson around a screen. They’re going to rotate behind and, you know, bring some guys off shooters to guard town. So, I’d say this game is going to be, you know, Bridges OG. Yeah, those guys hitting threes cuz they’re going to get a lot of open threes the way that the Celtics are going to guard that pick and roll uh between Brunson and Town. So, it’s a whole different approach. And I’ll credit Joe, like one of the big questions we had over this off season is, are they just going to continue to do the same thing here? And they clearly aren’t. They almost completely transformed their system on both sides of the floor. Still going to be a lot of threes. Um still going to be, you know, a lot of Jaylen, a lot of Derek, some familiar faces there. Sam Hower, too, is an underrated name to watch out for, but um I think their style is going to allow them to be better. Let’s see. Can you guys hear us now? Can you guys hear us now? Do we have Do we have audio back? Do we have audio back? Let me know before we keep going. Got some New York sounds out the window here. I’ll let people know we’re back. We know. All right, there we go. We are back now. I can hear the audio back on the show. We are back up and going. Sorry about that. Yeah, I was just talking about the system and how this team can be a greater sum than the parts on paper, but someone has to emerge among the other guys. Now, when you’re looking at the Celtics roster, who are you looking out for? Like, outside of like the the, you know, obviously White, Brown, like those kind of guys are you going to be looking at first and foremost, but is there anyone on this roster that intrigues you? Newcomers, guys who maybe showed a little bit during the preseason, you know, Anthony Simons is probably gonna be the guy like he showed a little bit during the preseason. I do like his game. So, that’s a guy off the bench that, you know, for you guys that I would be a little bit more not extremely concerned about, but he’s certainly a guy that can put up points. And so, when I look at how do you compete with a scrappy team that, you know, let’s say for like a lack of a better word, you know, is just what are they playing for this year? It’s like a soft reset just to like gather some assets, see what you have on on this roster. Now, like sometimes you can fall asleep at the wheel when you’re a team that’s like the Knicks in the position where like, yo, we got bigger aspirations. Do are we going to go like 110% every single night? A guy like Anthony Simons could take advantage of that. And so if your bench isn’t ready, if the team’s not ready, he’s a guy that I would say, hey, watch out for him because his shot creating, his athleticism, his ability to get to the rim, like he offers a lot of that three-level scoring as a young budding uh scorer like in this league, like that’s a guy I’d be worried about. Outside of that, Peyton Pritchard, of course, just because his shotmaking is just his shotmaking is more annoying than anything else because it’s like, “All right, man. We we just guarded you for like five minutes. Somehow you take a step back and now you just knock it over. And the thing is like it’s the height difference too. So if it’s like you would see somebody like Muel Bridges on him, he dribbles around, just circles around you and then next thing you know he finds just like a sliver of space, puts up a shot, drills it, you’re like come on, man. Like it’s just so backbreaking when you have to work that hard and then next thing you know you don’t even stop somebody. So those are probably he’s another guy too like you know there were a couple years early in his career where he just wasn’t playing and ever since you know he’s gone back in the rotation it’s like all right I’ll play 40 minutes as hard as I can like I’ve been waiting to play and and that’s where he’s at in his career a lot of guys with stuff to prove on this roster. I was thinking it was funny cuz like the team put out a post with him actually narrating it. Isaiah Thomas came to mind that year, you know, where it was just, you know, there were some talented guys on that roster like Marcus Smart and Al Horford, but it was mostly just a bunch of role guys coming together playing insanely hard every night um with one guy rising way above um and having an MVP level year and they made these finals with with that, you know, just sort of scrap together team. Um, not that that’s the upside of this team necessarily, but that’s the kind of competitiveness I could see in the regular season from them. And just again, if they’re going to, you know, press and play this like all out defensive style and force turnovers and foul, like, you know, they’re going to be one of those effort teams that pull wins that you don’t expect out of regular season games against teams that are sleepwalking. And obviously, you know, I I wonder if he’ll be at the Gar. I would imagine he will be. Uh you mentioned it earlier, the Tatum factor, like that looms over everything here. Is he back in February? Is he back in March? Where’s the team at that point? Because if he has a miraculous recovery here and there’s a couple things that happened over the offseason right after that injury that could allow him to come back than quicker and quicker than anyone has before. Then the whole conversation around this team changes of like, all right, can this team go on a run? You know, if Tatum’s anything close to be who he’s, you know, who he used to be. I don’t anticipate that being the case even if he does come back. Like that injury just takes so long to get your confidence back and return to your full effectiveness. So I feel like the hype’s a little too high around, you know, he’s coming back and saving the day right now just because of all the videos and everything. But the fact that it’s even a conversation right now does have to have everyone on the team being like, “All right, like can we hold the line here until he gets back later in the year?” And you know, who knows what happens at that point. So, you know, that’s the most optimistic view of this year is that guys emerge. There’s all this there’s all this excitement about being able to play more and the coaching’s good and they just take people by surprise. But like I said, there’s there’s a pessimistic view of this year where oh man, Jaylen misses three weeks and we’re going to lose almost every game while he’s out. Like that’s, you know, in play because this team’s just so thin. There is no de like particularly at the big man position. And I said it to you before we started recording. Their big man rotation tomorrow night is Nemesis Kada, Xavier Telman, and maybe a little Chris Bouche. Like that’s it. That’s all they have at center going up against Towns and OG and all these other guys in the front court. Salute Nation. Thank you all for tuning for another game preview. With me on the other side is my guy Bobby Manning. He covers the Celtics for CLNS Media. You can also find him over at the Garden Report. He is one of the hosts of that show as well. Also, make sure to support our other sponsor, man. We got another sponsor for this show and it is called Their name is called. Give me a second. Square. 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All right, let’s get back to this. Let’s let’s start to wrap this thing up. So, Bobby, we kind of tapped we kind of like started to get into it. You talked about a lot about the front court depth and how that’s going to play out in this uh game for tomorrow, but is there anything else that you’re seeing between these two teams as of right now that you know concerns you? For me to start off, I think the the shot creating for this team is going to be problematic for the Celtics just because, you know, with a team that likes to get downhill and if you’re not going to have, you know, the front court depth, it’s not only like impactful from a rebounding standpoint, who is stopping guys like Jaylen Brunson or anybody else who’s capable of getting downhill, even Jordan Clarkson, and stopping them from getting to the rim. I mean, we even got to see MueL Bridges. He’s more confident in attacking the rim right now. OG Anobi, you know, he brought up the ball quite a bit of times yesterday and is willing to get downhill. So, Mike Brown is empowering a lot of these players to drive and get to the cup. So, if you’re not going to have that front court depth, I think something that we’re going to see in this game is the Knicks trying to take advantage of the lack of Celtics rim protection and see if they can just force them to collapse there and then create generate open threes on the perimeter. Yeah. And if you look at the Philly game, the Celtics gave a 43p point attempts. Philly hit 16 of them. So they were able to find a lot of VJ Edgecom obviously used that to you know have a career night from three and Maxi was just ridiculous and obviously I think there’s some similarities between Brunson and Maxis’s game. White had a tough time containing him around screens and you know trying to you know be in sync with the big men like those switches and just you know pick and roll defense were difficult for the Celtics to navigate in that game. So, you know, the transition points were the most devastating, but they did get hit hard in the half court at times, too. Like Maxi hit three straight threes at one point. Um, one of them was in transition, but that turned the game around for Philly early in the fourth quarter. So, the Brenton matchup’s going to be difficult for any team, but especially this one right now with where the defense is at, the big man and, you know, size mismatch speaks for itself. And then, you know, I think the other underrated thing about this is that the Knicks just play with a level of speed and aggression that I think is almost going to match Boston’s like that that hit them hard alongside like the you know difficult environment MSG is to play in during that playoff series and you know if if the Knicks are going to throw some defensive pressure right back at the Celtics like are they able to prevent turnovers? I thought they did a pretty good job with that against Philly who didn’t pressure them a ton. Um but the Knicks are going to do that. Um, and you know, they’re going to be aggressive with some of their pick and roll coverages. And the one area they might be able to maybe expose, as is going to be the conversation around this Knicks team all year, is the, you know, Brunson Towns, you know, defensive uh pick and roll coverage. And I just don’t think they have enough at center right now, unless Kada has another big game and he’s a threat um to even make that a a challenge for the Knicks right now. Like, this isn’t Porzingis there anymore. This isn’t Al Horford out in the pick and pop. Like they just had such a wealth at that position in the past and now it’s an unproven cast that again suffered an injury with Luca Garz in game one who’s going to be out for this matchup here. So um they’re going to compete. They’re going to keep this close. Again, five points I think is fair. Like they’ll be in that range for a lot of this one. But can they limit the Knicks runs enough to actually take and hold on to a lead late in this game? I don’t see it yet as this team continues to navigate and figure out who they are. The Knicks know who they are even with some new pieces and a new coach. Like the core is still intact. There’s enough of the fabric of last year’s team, even without Robinson and Hart for them to be able to win a game like this at home. So, um they’ll take the Knicks by like five or six. So, you’re sticking with the line, man. You’re sticking with that five and a half line. You know, you called it early, so that’s what you’re going to stick with. I think that’s who these Celtics are going to be this year. Like competitive, keeping it close, but how many games can they actually finish? Um, I’ll be interested to see what Jaylen Brown does in that sense cuz I don’t think he got the opportunity to close out last game. I don’t think he got the shots and looks. Part of that was Philly, you know, doubling and getting him off the ball in in some of those situations. But I’ll be looking for him to demand the ball and, you know, take advantage of those situations in this game, whereas Philadelphia forced him out of those situations last game cuz obviously that can be the guy who is a game breaker down the stretch. And he’s had some big games against the Knicks in his career for sure. I remember that double overtime opening night game a couple years ago and um a handful of others that he’s had against this team even in the playoffs last year despite the injury he was playing through. and he’s a little hobbled right now himself coming back from a preseason hamstring tweak, but he’s close enough where I think he can have a big game here to keep the Celtics in it. And like I said, look out for Derek White, man. You’re going to be amazed by how good he looks tomorrow. I know how good Derrick White is. I had him on my fantasy basketball team last year, man. A good choice. And hey, and let me tell you something. When I drafted him, everybody was trying to trade was trying to send me trade offers, and they were the wackest trade offers I’ve ever seen. If you’re tuning in from that league, you all know who you are, man. Some of you got the craziest names, too. So, I can’t even put them out there and say what the team names are in the fantasy. Forget forget fantasy. Real life. I think one of the interesting storylines, depending on how the Celtics season goes, is I I think pretty much every team in the league would want Derek White. Oh yeah, man. I would want Derek White on my team. Are you kidding me? Like to have that guy on your team, he’s fantastic. He’s absolutely fantastic. He does everything. He does everything we talked about. He could rebound, he makes, he can score, assist, like all of that, man. Like his IQ and just like being a star. Like if you’re talking about being a star in your role, there’s like a handful of guys who are stars in the role. I would say like Draymond is, Derek White is, Josh Hart is. Like there’s not a lot of guys who are legitimate stars in their role who get who, you know, properly get the like recognition for how good they are and how impactful they are for their team. Like Josh Hart is the same way. This guy rebounds, he playmakes, hustles, he’s a ball hawk, he does a lot of things. You know, he’s not the greatest scorer, but on some nights he can be. and what he did last season by just getting damn near a triple double every single night, you know, it’s impactful for what he had to do for that starting five and the workload that he had playing damn near 40 minutes. So guys like that like Derek White, like they don’t get enough recognition and I know they get the it’s jokes when people are like, “Oh, this this guy could be an all-star.” And it’s like the guy’s really good, man. Like when you watch him play, it’s like all these guys are really good that we’re talking about who are stars in their role, but very few get that opportunity like a Draymond Green to be nominated, right, and get the all-star accolade. So, got to give kudos to those type of guys who are just stars in their roles, man. But I’m glad that you brought up Jaylen Brown, though, because he is part of one half of this key matchup that I have for tomorrow. It is him and OG Anobi. Now, it could be I’m I’m expecting Macau Bridges to get some of that responsibility, too, to guard Jaylen Brown. But I think when you think pound-forpound, strength for strength, it’s going to be OJ Anobi, which was the switch that they did uh in the postseason last year when these two teams faced off. So, I’m looking for OG to take that responsibility and try to contain Jaylen Brown. Now, going into this matchup, I’m expecting Jaylen Brown to continue to want to show the league that, hey, I know Tatum gets a lot of love. That’s my boy. You know, it’s probably what you think. That’s my boy. I want him to continue to get a lot of love, but I should be getting some love, too. Everyone says I was the one that needed to be traded. Everyone questioned the contract that I got. And what what better time to show that you you feel deserving of all of this than to go against the team that knocked you out. And we saw the clip circle social media where he’s like, I don’t know how we lost against the Knicks. I got Knicks fans, you know, talking at me, chirping at me. So, it’s like this is a prime opportunity for him. And once again, it goes back to OG showing, hey, this is why I’m worth my contract. I’m ready to take on this assignment again. And let me show you that game one where I put up over 20 plus points. Got you 14 boards. 24 points to be exact. 14 boards. All right. Gets you three steals and a block. Like, hey, I’m here, too, so let’s compete. Yeah. Yeah. No, it’s a great point. I, you know, didn’t think about those comments, but yeah, those were interesting. And then it was obviously a difficult game six in that building that ended the season where Brown fouls out and I think had seven turnovers and truly one of the worst games I’ve ever seen him play. So, I’m sure that’ll be in his mind. Um the memories of obviously the Tatum injury happening there in game four and um the emotion of that night still even sticks with me. You know, seeing Horford in the locker room right after reacting to it and um just guys sitting in the hallway real emotional like there was that was just such a heavy night for this team and then obviously their season comes to an end and remember pretty much everybody in that locker room wondering like is this it? Am I gone? Like have we played our last games together? And for quite a few of that guys that was obviously the case there. um you know Porzingis in particular you know who heads out the door we got some clarity on you know what happened there during that series and you know that’s still I mean I’ve never seen anything like that and I think most Celtics fans look at that too and say that’s a big reason Boston lost that series is Porzingis going from let’s say a 10 to a two on on a scale of one to 10 in terms of effectiveness like he just lost all his powers could barely move and whatever that pots thing is that the athletic wrote about made a lot of sense to me cuz that’s what it looked like out there. He couldn’t stay up straight. He couldn’t you know like he it was it was insane. Um so you know that was interesting this week too as we think of some of the memories of that series which even for me man that was that was tough to watch especially after what I was expecting to happen in that series. And obviously it was a great run for the Knicks. I think the uh the energy is going to be awesome in the building tomorrow night. Celtics going to be super motivated. And again, I think when you, you know, you look at that roster, you look at the game, you’re like, is this probably a win? But when you see how the Celtics are playing stylistically, I think it’s going to shock a lot of Knicks fans how much they’ve changed, how aggressive they are, how athletic and and just different from that slow, slogging team that they saw in the second round there. And it was a big conversation with Brad Stevens in the front office coming off that loss was, man, did we look slow, man. plotting, but I don’t think they’re going to like I’m not going to be surprised and I and I hope Knicks fans aren’t surprised about that because, you know, when you don’t really have to play for anything this season, like they’re just playing to be competitive at this point, right? Like there’s not a lot that they have to lose. It’s honestly they’re it’s a gift for them to be like, “What’s the expectation for you this year? If you don’t if you don’t make the playoffs, there’ll be some questions about Jaylen Brown, but not the rest of the roster. If you do make the playoffs, it looks good for Jaylen Brown.” And it’s like, well, is this not really the championship roster? They’re missing a couple guys and they’re retooling. So, I’m expecting these guys to go out there and play like they have nothing to lose. And to be quite honest, I think the other coin, the other side of the coin to this equation to why I think this game is going to be as close as you think it is, is because the Knicks are trying to implement something new. And even against the Cavs, who look, they were they didn’t have um Garland, they didn’t have DeAndre Hunter out there, okay? They didn’t have Max Truce. They dealt with their injuries as the Knicks were dealing with their injuries, but it was a close game still. And so it’s bec part of it is because this team, the Knicks are trying to figure out who they are. They may they know who they are, but they’re still working on that identity to show on the court. And so because of that, I still think it’s going to be a close game. And these teach and look, when you have things to prove, the game’s going to get tight and shots are going to be made. Obviously, shots are going to be missed. There’s going to be some turnovers. guys are going to want to prove themselves. I I expect this to be a close game, too. And so, with that being said, who’s your X-factor for the Celtics for tomorrow? Oo, I’m going to go Simons. I’m glad you brought him up earlier. Like, he eased his way into the first game. I remember his first preseason game, too. Him, you know, saying I was nervous, you know, like a new team, my my first trade ever of my career, trying to fit in with some of these other guards. Like I’m not going to lie, I was nervous out there for the first time. And then second preseason game, six threes, all that impact that you remember him from Portland leading that team and scoring and just being dynamic out there as a three-point shooter. Um, is is he that comfortable into his second regular season game after trying to fit in with, you know, Jaylen and and Pritchard and White in the first one? He was good in the first one. I thought his defense flashed. Um, he scored 13 points, I think, on efficient shooting. He just didn’t assert himself a ton. So, I think there’ll be more opportunities for him to do that in this game and they’re going to need it to keep up with the Knicks scoring here. So, um I’m expecting them to play him a little more, involve him a little more here, push him to be more impactful. And um you know, that’s obviously one. And then another is is Kada who’s obviously going to have to hold up against Towns and company inside. Though, I would suspect the Celtics start Jaylen against Towns as they did on Embiid in that first game and just switch that. So, um, those are two guys to watch for on that Celtic side outside of like who you would who you would obviously like typically name. Yeah. Okay. I like that. I like Anthony Simons as a as an option. I’m going to go with Carl Anthony Towns just because I know he’s dealing with a slight hamstring injury. I know he didn’t have a great game in game one. He went five of 12 from the field. Scored 19 points. Got to the line uh nine times. Went eight to nine uh with his free throw attempts and got 11 boards. And from the stat sheets, like the shooting p the shooting percentage isn’t what’s great. But knowing that he’s playing with a with a slight hamstring injury, not looking great out there yesterday in game one, I’m looking to see if he can just step it up a little bit while still being working out the Kings in this Mike Brown uh offense and looking like the dominant offensive center that he can. Because if Boston is not going to have any front court depth or anybody that contain him, I think what if this game could seriously get out of hand if Carl Anthony Towns decides to be who he who he is, which is one of the best scoring big men in the league. So if he’s out there and just dominating, I could see this game instead of being like a close game, I can see this game tilting in the Knicks favor and being uh, you know, a double digit win for the New York Knicks. Yeah. and he obviously dominated the Celtics who switched them, kept them off the three-point line, but credit to him. He took advantage and just overpowered the Tatums and and wings that Celtics threw him in the playoff series. It’s going to be again a little bit of a different coverage he sees in this one. He’s going to see double teams, full collapses on him on the post. Um, how much is he able to pass out of that? How much is he able to navigate that? I think those are going to be big factors in whether the Knicks win or lose this game because again I think the Knicks whole game plan is going to be or the Celtics whole game plan rather is going to be to try to frustrate a guy like that. Get the ball out of his hands. Make sure he isn’t able to shoot the ball cleanly at all. Um even follow him at times. Like that’s how they’re going to approach him this game which is completely different from how they approached him in the playoffs. Yeah, it’s going to be a fun one tomorrow. It’s going to be a fun one tomorrow though. Looking forward to see how both these teams compete in game two. I mean, we try to take a lot from game one. It’s an 82 game regular season, man. There’s a lot there’s a lot of data to still be collected as these teams start to mold and mesh into their own. But, Bobby, I always appreciate you coming through, man, and chopping it up with me. Please let the listeners know where they can find you. If you got any work up and coming, we should be on the lookout for Yep. We are live after every game over on CLNS Media. So, go subscribe over there on YouTube. a bunch of podcasts every week, off day shows, um, standups from the garden, whether in Boston or New York, whatever garden you want, we’ll be there. And, uh, you know, a lot of coverage throughout the year, obviously. So, check that out. Boston Sports Journal right over there occasionally as well as Celticsblog.com. And of course, uh, my workday is over on stemedia.com. So, check all those out. Once again, make sure to go give Bobby a follow. He does a great job covering the Celtics and the league. So, make make sure to go give him a follow and go give him your support. Once again, Switzer Knicks Nation. And I know there’s some Celtics Nation in here. You guys always seem to come through, man. And always leave some comments in here. Same on our stream, man. We’re going to be seeing the Knicks fans tomorrow. I’m sure. I am sure you’re going to if it’s a win tomorrow for the Knicks. I am sure they’re going to be on your live stream commenting like there’s no one tomorrow because I know I know for sure cuz I’ve seen it. when the Knicks lose against the Celtics game. Celtics fans are piling in the chat, piling in the comments section. Not expecting much this season, but hey, I know. Hey, we’ll see what happens tomorrow, man. We’ll see what happens tomorrow. I’m confident in the Knicks, but we’ll see. Bobby, once again, I appreciate you for coming through. Knicks Nation, Celtics Nation, even if you’re here, hit that thumbs up button for your boys. Subscribe to the channel if you haven’t already done so. Okay, make sure to support our sponsor, DraftKings. Use that promo code KFTV to get up to three months free for NBA League Pass. And when you bet $5, get up to $300 in bonus bets. Also, make sure to support our other sponsor, Square.com. So, make sure to go to square.com/go/kftv to learn more about your community and supporting your neighborhood spots. Okay. And salute to all the franchise channel members in here, man. I see Atala the Great. Shout out to you. I see Jack City 718. Shout out to you. We got Melo Mike in here. Appreciate you as well. Zack New York to LA. appreciate you for being here as always. Who else? Oh, we got my we got my guy KG7 in here. Always showing up. Okay, who else we got in here, man? Who else we got in here? I saw John Tento in here. I saw Junior Koma. Appreciate you guys for throwing coming through as well. We got Omar in the chat, too. Appreciate all you guys for tapping in and staying with us. Once again, we’ll see you tomorrow, man. You already know what it is. We’re going to have the playbyplay and post game. So, make sure to stay tapped in as the New York Knicks take on the Boston Celtics in Madison Square Garden at 7:30 p.m. All right, everyone. We out. Peace.

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