← Green With Envy: A Boston Celtics Podcast
Green With Envy: A Boston Celtics Podcast
Are the Celtics actually in trouble? Game 2 Reaction + Game 3 Preview
00:48:12
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- [00:00]
Will
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- [00:27]
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- [00:56]
Greg Monakis
This is Mike Gorman, and you're listening
- [00:58]
Will
to Green with Envy with Will and Greg. All right, everybody. Game 2 didn't quite go the same as Game 1. Celtics find themselves in a 11 series against the Philadelphia 76ers after a 11197 defeat at the TD Garden in Game 2. We've got ourselves a real series on our hands here. We didn't have coverage for you guys in game one. Some travel plans. I was sick. Stuff happened. Well, there wasn't much to cover in game one. There's a whole lot to cover in game two. So we're going to stop messing around. We're live here immediately following game two on YouTube and Twitter. So if you guys are joining us, make sure you get in the chat. Otherwise, sit back, relax. You guys know the deal. This is Green with Envy. Let's lock in. What up? Welcome into another edition of Dream with Envy. It is a Green with Envy playoffs post game Live. Unfortunately, it's not the celebratory kind. I was really hoping that we were going to get some pretty good vibes going into this one, but instead, the Celtics fall in game two to the Sixers, 111 to 97. One of the more surprising defeats. Although game two, as we've seen over the last couple of nights, has had some surprising results across the NBA. So the Celtics are not alone in this endeavor, as always. This is your boy, Will. We're checking in. How you doing? How you living? Joining me as he does each and every time, my best friend, co host and the coach of our podcast, the one and only Greg Monakis. Greg, I'm. I'm super interested to get your coaching thoughts on what happened tonight. Or is it more of a player? There's Honestly, it's. You know, it may a couple that we missed Game one. Like I said, I was sick. We also had some travel stuff. It just didn't work out. We were like, let's just bang. Let's put them all together. Game one, game two, game one. We really weren't gonna have that much to talk about. I don't think we are short of topics at all after this game tonight, so I think we're gonna have a lot to get into from all different angles.
- [03:15]
Greg Monakis
Celtics fell harder tonight than Victor Wembanyama. Not sure if you saw that Will, but when we found his face real quick in concussion protocol.
- [03:23]
Will
Oh, my God. Okay. I. I've been running around all night. I'm kind of solo dadding it. I've got the kid on one screen here. I've got a couple things going on. I finally found time to make myself like a peanut butter sandwich, and I was like, I gotta eat something before we podcast. And so I ran in between one of the commercials to do this, and I heard something, and I was like, I don't have time to go back and hear what that is. But I didn't go back just because I thought it might have been exactly what you just said, and I didn't want it to be that. So I thought if I just did it.
- [03:56]
Greg Monakis
Fell on his face, Smacked his face off the floor. He's in concussion protocol, out for the game. So panic around a lot of teams right now. A lot of, you know, the Knicks are panicking, the Celtics are panicking, The Nuggets are panicking.
- [04:10]
Will
Panicking. The Jokic is panicking. It's. This is kind, honestly, yes, this is going to be a little bit of a. Of a damper on, like, the Celtics perspective, but this is kind of what the NBA wants, right? A little bit of parody, a little bit of. A little bit of sizzle, a little bit of spice. Like, it did feel like going into this first round and it still may play out this way. No, no series is past game two, Right? It felt like other than like, T Wolves Nuggets, and even that felt like it had a pretty strong, lean Nuggets, at least in my opinion. Most of these series were chalk, right? It felt like most of these series were chalk. Lakers, Rockets were a bit weird, and people didn't really know what was going to happen there, especially when you throw in the KD injury and they're kind of whatever, it's in their own area. But every other matchup kind of felt like, yeah, this is maybe four Maybe five, six if we get lucky. Like they didn't feel like a couple series where you're like, this is a toss up and all of a sudden we're getting a lot of parity in game two where we're seeing results that we didn't expect.
- [05:06]
Greg Monakis
Yeah. And I, you know, people that might be freaking out right now. This is the playoffs. You know, when everybody was saying this was going to be a sweep after the, after game one, I was kind of quiet. I was like, I don't think that's the case. I think the Sixers are super talented, man. And you saw that talent play out. Paul George is playing the best basketball he's played in like five years. He looks awesome out there. Like, he is taking this matchup against Jason Tatum and Jalen Brown very personally. And he, he looks every bit the player that those two guys look right now. So if Paul George is able to match with. Jays are doing just from an if, like a pure confidence level on the court and impact level. He looks great on offense and on defense. Maxi is going to do all the stuff that Maxi does. We don't have anyone that can guard him except for Jordan Walsh and then BJ Edgecomb. Like, he was the, he was the X factor wild card coming to the
- [05:58]
Will
series as a rookie, like opening night.
- [06:00]
Greg Monakis
The dude is so talented. And if we're just going to leave him open, as the game plan dictated in game one that we carried over into game two, like, it just like this game was bound to happen. And The Celtics go 13 for 50 from three. And when the Celtics shoot like that from three, that's 26%. That's pretty easy math to do. 13 out of 50. Just multiply those numbers by two and you get the percentage and that's not good. 26% from three. Not good.
- [06:26]
Will
Yeah. And so actually hold. Give me one second here, Greg.
- [06:29]
Greg Monakis
Yep, you're good. Will's probably doing some dad stuff right now. There he is.
- [06:34]
Will
He's back. We're right back. We're right back. I had to do a quick, quick monitor handoff here. So we're. We're all set to go and we're cooking. But I did want to talk about Paul George because I thought Paul George was, you know, even though the, The Sixers, you know, got got waxed in game one, I thought he was actually not bad. Like watching that game. I was. And I looked at it and like his plus minus was second best on the team at minus 10, but considering everyone else was minus 20, 25, whatever. Like I was like, okay, my eyes kind of lined up with what I saw. And you know, I, I think this is, and this is something I brought up briefly. I think within the, within the Ceru podcast that we did that like, Paul has been playing pretty solid basketball.
- [07:11]
Greg Monakis
I called him washed. I was wrong. Yeah.
- [07:13]
Will
And, and well, here's the thing is though, is like, I think he's playing a very reserved version. Reserved, best version of himself, if that makes sense. Right. He shot the ball 13 times tonight. He went to the, you know, he went to the line six times in the last game. He went to the line, I think it was eight or nine times. And, and got his points that way. Like he's doing what he needs to do while knowing that like this is Maxi and Edgecomb's team and you know, if Embiid comes back, that's a whole other wrinkle. We'll see what that means. But right now I think he's cool to be like, I'm the guy that can be the outlet when needed. Like you guys are going to kind of control things and then I'm going to step in when needed and I'm going to play my role on defense because for us to have a chance, I've got to be as close to the best version of my defensive self. And I think playoff P. For all the, all the he gets, he's been pretty good in both games. Even though the, the first game was a blowout. And then tonight, man. Yeah, tonight's just VJ Max, whatever you want to call the backcourt, like it's those guys just stepping up. And I know if you just look at Maxi's box score, 11 of 28 doesn't scream the most efficient. But you know those last two daggers he had when you thought the Celtics might have a chance, like, he's just a big time player. So he's, he's a guy that I've, we've talked about. I've always enjoyed watching. And then with VJ Edgecomb, it, like I said, it just felt like opening night all over again. Where we watched this happen in the first game of the season. We were like, okay, I heard this VJ Cod Edgecomb kid is all right. And then he dropped 30 plus his first night in the NBA. And here we are, game two of the NBA playoffs. Now 80 plus games later, he's doing the same thing right back.
- [08:49]
Greg Monakis
Double, double, double, double out of the rookie. 30 and 10.
- [08:52]
Will
He's great.
- [08:52]
Greg Monakis
And he, he was just everywhere on the court. Maxi 12 for, 11 for 28 in this game. But, you know, the defensive approach on Maxi has been thus far. Deep drop right where we're basically playing a 2, 1, 2 zone. You know, it's, it's just like there's a, a guy on the ball handler. They're going to come up and screen Kada or Vuchevic is sitting there like they're Victor Wembanyama or something at the free throw line. And it's like, these guys are not 7 foot 4 aliens. They're. Kate is a very good defensive player. Booch is not a good defensive player. But if you're going to put a very good defensive player in Derrick White out on an island against, against Tyrese Maxey, that's not a recipe for success. White is awesome. But the moment you get shook, there's no help. You can have a guy sitting in the gap and flying, flying off there to peel switch that, which was, you know, the whole thing that they did in game one. But if guys are making the three pointers, you're not going to be able to give as much gap help. And that's what we saw tonight. Like those last two threes that Maxi hit. The gap help wasn't there because we had to hug the shooters out at the three point line. So they called timeout and they decide to remove Kada from the equation and insert Nicola Vuchevic. Which I didn't know if that was supposed to be a good recipe to change things, but that was the thing that we did.
- [10:10]
Will
I texted you that I audibly laughed. Like I came out of the timeout. It's. It. That. That was one of those timeouts was like, all right, this is our last chance here. And you're kind of like, hands on your knees. You're kind of like, all right, what's, what's, what's the move here? What, what, what are we going to have to insert a last second effort? And when it was just replace Kada with V, I was like, we're done, we're done. This game's over. I. That. That was a move. That wasn't even a move. Like, I don't, I don't know what that was at that point in the game to, to signal that you still are, are gonna try to have a, a chance at making a last second comeback because that was certainly not gonna be it.
- [10:45]
Greg Monakis
Yeah, no, that, that was a rough game. Rough Joe game. Rough game overall for everybody outside of Jaylen Brown. Jaylen was.
- [10:52]
Will
Let's, let's do this. Let's, let's Start with Joe and then, then we'll go into kind of like player by player and we'll, we'll just kind of like zigzag from there. But let's start with Joe because we're talking about the defensive scheme against the, the. I think there's a couple schematic things with Joe and then I have a couple of questions about rotations that I want to get to. But let's. We're kind of already on the schematic part of it. So you've talked about the drop coverage that we're playing. I see our guy here, Fred, in the chat was asking about why did we not change our three point defensive approach. And I think that's at least a valid point of like, hey, you want to let Edgecomb shoot threes, you want to, you know, sag off certain guys, like, I get it. But then when the guy is starting to knock him down, like, you have to respect it to a certain degree. And, and I do think, you know, whether that all falls on Joe or. I mean, honestly, there was a couple times where the Celtics just lost communication. There was one in the second half where Edgecomb ended up wide open by himself on the wing. And it felt almost like comical the way that he got open where there was like four Celtics that went the other way. And it was, it was like a Three Stooges routine. But I'm curious to know your overall thoughts on either. If you want to keep talking about why you think Joe is into this drop coverage or if he should have switched up some of his defensive approach after the. The Sixers were hitting shots versus not hitting shots in game one.
- [12:12]
Greg Monakis
Well, this, I think this is what we saw last year against the Knicks, right? Like Joe would come into, come into the game with a good approach and then he was unable to make the necessary in game adjustments. And then you gotta, I mean, you gotta put it on him to some degree, but at the end of the day, it's the players, right? So I don't know, man, like the, when the moment you see somebody is hot, like Edgecomb is hot and he is so talented, you have to make an adjustment there. You have to show more bodies when you know, when he has the ball and pick and roll or if he's the guy playing off the ball, you got to give less gap help, which I think they did to some degree. It's just that opened up Maxi, just we're kind of living and dying with Maxi shooting pull ups or getting into the paint and shooting a runner right? You saw what happened. The couple possessions where Keda did come up a little bit higher. Maxi just went right by him. So I don't know if, if that was just something Joe's like, you know what? We can't come up in, in hedge because if we hedge, Maxi's just going to destroy us. And then Drummond gets a free lane to the rim. And if Joel Embiid ends up coming back, like that's a whole nother problem the Celtics are going to have to deal with. Right. So it's, it's, I don't know if you want to talk rotations, I don't know if you want to go to Jordan Walsh.
- [13:31]
Will
Maybe let's do it because I think that plays into actually as you were talking as like part of this to me is like I don't fully understand. Joe more or less went to like a seven man rotation tonight and I don't really understand why the numbers, numbers are a little bit skewed. Charman was really more around nine minutes, Walsh around seven minutes. If you take out like the two to three minutes of, of garbage time. And so if you look at just going with Hauser, Tatum, Kada, Brown, White, Vuch and Pritchard, that, that was the majority of the night with like the little sprinkling in of, of Walsh and Shireman. And I thought, specifically in the first half, I thought he was good. I thought he gave the Celtics a little bit of pop.
- [14:11]
Greg Monakis
He's just better than Hauser, dude.
- [14:13]
Will
Yeah, he not, he knocked down a three. I, I'm starting to love Baylor's little floater game. They kind of come from all these weird, funky angles. I had no idea why he didn't play in the second half. And then Jordan Walsh, like, I, I understand his deficiencies on the offensive end, but at the same time we talked about it like the reason that you put him back into the rotation the last 10 games of the season is for the times you face Tyrese Maxey. So before the times you face Jalen Brunson, Lamello Ball, whoever, all these other guys like, so use them.
- [14:43]
Greg Monakis
Right?
- [14:43]
Will
Like, and I even feel like in the second half for at least a little stint, Jordan Walsh gave a little bit of energy defensively and then he was just gone again. So I, I, I'm a little confused after what we've seen all season that Joe kind of shrunk it down and specifically just went to this, this grouping of seven and kind of cut down two guys that it, it felt like could have made real impacts against the, against The Sixers.
- [15:06]
Greg Monakis
Yeah. And like to give Joe some credit, you know, the Celtics make a comeback with that seven man rotation and we're down to with the ball and Tatum bricks a three from the wing and then Maxi hits back to back threes. Derrick White misses a wide open three in between that. Right. So the game was right there for us to, to retake. And I think going to a seven man rotation partially had to do with the Celtics being down. And in the playoffs, you know, like every game is so important. You can't just give a game away if you're down. You need to go with your guys that, that got you there. And he's going to go with, you know, the guys that have been with the team for, for a few years and been in the rotation. This is why I said before, before the playoffs we were talking about the utility belt players and we had penciled Charman into the rotation and I said, I don't. I think Charman's more of a utility guy in, in Joe's mind just because he, at the end of the day, Joe is going to go with the, the trusted veterans. Right. Really what it comes down to in my opinion is Sam Houser versus Bayless Irman and Hauser, although he's been shooting really well of late, he was 2 for 8 from, from the floor tonight. Didn't make much of an impact outside of that. I would just rather have another guy that can break people down off the dribble and Hauser can't do that. Right. So Charman, I just think he makes a little bit more of an impact. He's more likely in a game like this to get a loose ball to take a charge dive on the floor, like that's what it felt like this game needed. And Jordan Walsh I think fits that mold too. You know, Walsh ended up only three rebounds, but in those seven minutes that he was out there, I feel like he was really competing for every inch of the floor and Hauser doesn't really own his space out there on the court. I feel like Shireman and Walsh, you can feel them scratching and clawing for every inch of the court. And I don't know, man, I just think I, I'm not saying bench Sam Houser. I'm just saying we shouldn't just default to Sam Houser playing over Charman and Walsh when we know they are the better matchup for this series.
- [17:06]
Will
Yeah. And I think, Listen, Baylor shot 40 on the season and when Sam shooting 2 of 8 and Derrick White shooting 2 of 10 and Peyton Pritchard goes 04. Like you need someone else that's going to be able to knock down shots. Like listen, we'll talk about the Jays here in a, in a minute in their games tonight, but end of the day like there really wasn't anyone else that kind of stepped up scoring the basketball at any point in this game. And Greg, I don't know if this is going to make you laugh or cry, but you know what? I thought in, in my head tonight
- [17:40]
Greg Monakis
could have used him Anfre Simons could
- [17:42]
Will
have used a little inferno tonight. Tonight. Tonight would have. Tonight was a pretty good example of a game of, of why you wouldn't have wanted to make that trade because whatever Vuch gave you, which he was fine. I mean I think for him playing the deep drop, there's only so much he's going to be able to do. It's a terrible matchup for him to you know, hang defensively, but he can bang with Drummond and like he was, he was okay. I didn't really have anything crazy, negative or positive for, for Vuch but like
- [18:08]
Greg Monakis
had a good first.
- [18:09]
Will
I mean, I mean but I think Garza could have done exactly that. And so then if you still had Simons then you could have had the possibility of the inferno when you don't have anyone else popping for you right now from the Derrick White, Peyton Pritchard, Sam Houser group.
- [18:23]
Greg Monakis
Yeah. And this is why when you know people talk about the, the talent level between the Celtics and other teams like Derek White is awesome, Peyton Pritchard is awesome. But they're not like markedly better than like pick a, pick a starting guard and in on a playoff team. You know what I mean? Like Derek White does on offense, Derrick White does like a lot of great things overall but his offensive game is, is relatively limited. You know, if, if he's not knocking down his three pointer, Derrick White like isn't really giving you that much on the offensive end besides being a connector, which is great to have connective tissue out there on the court, but when you juxtapose that with Maxi and Edgecomb and he was like God damn, these guys are just like shot out of a cannon. The, you know, you talk about the Anthony Simons effect like that's what both of those guys have. They just have that like extra little giddy up to them that Derek White doesn't have. Payton Pritchard doesn't have. You know, they're, they're more like skilled methodical players and they don't have that like extra burst that Simons brought to the table, you know, and, and that we, we were hoping that Tatum would offset some of that which he has. You know, Tatum, Tatum has been good. Tonight was a little bit of a struggle for him just in terms of scoring the ball. He ended up with ridiculous stat line 19 for 19, 14 and 9, you know, but it just, like, didn't feel like the Jason Tatum finger on the pulse of the game, figuring out all the chess pieces that just wasn't there from Tatum tonight. But Jaylen was great.
- [19:47]
Will
Yeah. So before we get into the Jays here, one of the things that I'm, I'm curious of if you, I don't know if you would think that this would make a difference. And listen, Derrick White has struggled with his shot all year. Right? Like, this has been like, an ongoing thing that we've been kind of keeping an eye on. But I, I, I do feel like usually, even when Derrick White has a bad shooting night, I'm like, well, he affected the game in so many other ways. This is one of the few games I'm just like, it just wasn't a good Derrick White night. Right. Yeah. So two things cross my mind. One, I don't think there's any injuries with Derrick White, but I do feel like just, I don't know, he didn't, he didn't move the same to me. I don't, I didn't notice anything specific. Just something that, that cried.
- [20:23]
Greg Monakis
Can I, can I posit something to you, Will?
- [20:25]
Will
Yeah, go for it.
- [20:26]
Greg Monakis
We're watching him on a court with Tyrese Maxi and BJ Edgecomb.
- [20:31]
Will
That's true. That's true. They, they just make him an in in comparison, make him look a little bit slower. That's fair. That's fair. The other thing that I'm curious of, and, you know, I didn't really track this a ton towards the end of the season, but, like, during the regular season, his, his usage was up around 22%.
- [20:50]
Greg Monakis
Big thanks to our sponsor, Better Help, for partnering with us for this important
- [20:54]
Will
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- [20:58]
Greg Monakis
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- [21:02]
Will
So having a counselor and working with BetterHelp, that gives you an opportunity to really start to unpack. But people don't understand when you unpack things, you also open up a box that you're not always sure what's inside. So I think that's why seeing a
- [21:16]
Greg Monakis
professional is extremely important.
- [21:18]
Will
If you need someone to open up to visit betterhelp. That's betterhelp.com89 to get started.
- [21:26]
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- [21:58]
Will
For this game, it's 16 and so some of the things that you would see from him during this regular season, specifically before Tatum is. Even when his three point shot wasn't going, you could see him more so than ever kind of force his way to get into the lane and get that floater of his going which, which, which you know is, is a pretty, it's a weapon, right? Like it's, it is something that he can get to and utilize. Now it's, it depends who's guarding him and situationally. But I am wondering if the reduced usage. Maybe he's deferring a little bit or. I don't know. I'm just trying to figure out what, what feels off about, about Derrick White and more so him than Pritchard. Because Pritchard, we just know it's, it's. It's kind of one of those things where some nights it's going to be there and it's really gonna pop and there's going to be some nights where, where it, it kind of, especially in the playoffs when the lights get a little bit brighter, it's going to shrink just because of the, the different defenses and the, and the pressure that goes around it. So I think a guy, I'm trying to just figure out like how he's the key to this thing being the third guy. Right. Like, like we need a consistent third guy to get us 12 to 15 points every night and do so in a pretty reasonable manner.
- [23:07]
Greg Monakis
Yeah, we probably need to give him a few more on ball opportunities, especially when the shot's not fallen as a, as a floor spacer. One thing I'm thinking about though, Will, is just, you know, I'm kind of already looking ahead to game three and the schematic things that I saw from game one to game two, one thing I'm really interested in and Derek White kind of plays a part in this. So the Celtics run that little action where they have the big man up at the top and they you know, they throw the ball to him with a little delay action or they run the little flare screen. They throw the ball over the top to Derrick White or Jason Tatum coming off that flare from Cato or Vuchovic. The Sixers guarded that really well tonight.
- [23:46]
Will
Dude, Andre Drummond, I noticed that as well.
- [23:49]
Greg Monakis
Andre Drummond did this in the regular season as well. But he, he's really tricky right there out there, like looking at jump pass lines. I think he actually had a steal tonight, but he's always kind of mucking things up there. I thought they did a really good job not just conceding switches. I felt like Paul George really fought to stay in the right spot. I thought Maxi and Ubre did a really good job communicating and not just passing Maxi off to somebody. And then Maxi did a really good job when he was tasked with being the hedge man or the second defender, bringing the ball handler out towards the sideline and not letting them turn the corner right. So I thought they did a really good job there. And the Celtics were unable to enter the ball in at the nail, so they didn't really get those mismatches that they wanted. Mostly because the Sixers did a good job switching out of that so that Paul George would run up and get rid of Maxi, you know, scram, switch somebody out there. It's. It'll be really interesting to see what the Celtics do to counteract that because their offense this year has been that. That set in Spain, pick and roll. That's pretty much all they've done all year. Right. So is it a Vuchevic in the post? Is it going back to Jalen in the post? Is it more Tatum in the post? Is it Derrick White actually running high? Pick and roll? It's going to be interesting to see what levers Joe decides to pull because the Sixers seem like they made the necessary adjustments, which makes sense because they were the team that had to adjust after getting blown up by 30. So now that the Celtics have double digit loss tonight, what will Joe Missoula look to do in game three? I would hope part of it would, would be maybe adjusting the pick and roll coverage on, on the defensive side.
- [25:24]
Will
Yeah, I think that specific pass you mentioned was definitely something that stood out to me because I kind of rewatched some of the highlights of game one this, this afternoon and you saw it a bunch of times in game one where that worked successfully. And then tonight in this game, like to your point, you saw the, the Sixers defense kind of set up almost like a safety that is trying to decoy, like into that throw, like, make you think it's open and then be there to pick it off or. Or tip it. And so it was interesting to watch that just from like this afternoon watching game one to watching game two tonight. And it felt like, you know, and part of this is the Sixers only had, I think, what was it, seven turnovers in this game. Like, there wasn't the same amount of just there was easy buckets for the Celtics to get in game one. There was much less of that in game two. Like, it felt like everything the Celtics did in game one, Philadelph either was giving them easy buckets and then the Celtics were making them work for every single bucket they got tonight. Philly got a lot more buckets in transition. They got a lot more buckets, a lot of easier buckets or buckets that didn't feel like, you know, like I think of in game one. Like, it's like Maxie driving through the lane, hitting four or five guys, spinning, spinning. And then he's got a hook, a crazy hook shot, and like he somehow makes it in, right? Like, that was some of a lot of theirs. Or Kelly Oubre just getting physical for two rebounds on a put back. Like, Uber was good, man. I mean, this has always been the thing with Philly, right, Is that I think when you look at their team and you look at like the top guys that they have, when you look at Uber, you look at Paul George, you look at Edgecomb, you look at Maxi, I think we would throw Grimes in there. And if they had mb, it's like, that's a solid seven. That's a solid seven guys that they have. And like, you know, Drummond, Bona, like, they did enough tonight. They did enough that Drummond was actually pretty solid, I thought tonight. Really, you know, I don't want to give the Phil, Philly too much credit here, but I do love that they turned Andre Drummond into at least a somewhat respectable three point shooter. That's a fun wrinkle for a guy who's been in the league 13 years and now has hit 30 plus threes this season.
- [27:30]
Greg Monakis
But Greg, I, I think just real quick on the on the front court thing, Philly's front court outplayed our front court, which can't happen when they don't have Joel Embiid. Right? Like, we can't. We can't let the Philly backup bigs outplay Vic and Kata. That just can't happen. Drummond was great. Bona had some moments and then, you know, Paul George if he's gonna match the. If he's gonna offset some of what the J does. I'm not gonna say match. I. That's the wrong word. He's going to offset someone with the Jays do. And then Edgecomb and Maxi, man, like, I think the Celtics could be in for a long series. I. I would probably. I think the smart money would be on Celtics still figuring out a way to get this done in. In five games. But Joel Embiid comes back, man, the Celtics could be in trouble.
- [28:16]
Will
I'm not there yet. We'll. We'll see. I don't think. I think. Has there been any update on Embiid that he's doing anything after his strength
- [28:23]
Greg Monakis
and conditioning, returning to play? So.
- [28:26]
Will
Okay.
- [28:27]
Greg Monakis
They haven't ruled him out for Game 3 yet.
- [28:29]
Will
Well, here's the thing. Before he has surgery, he's Strength and conditioning is usually not his strong suit. So I don't. I don't think it's going back in a month. Yeah. I don't know how long his ramp site.
- [28:39]
Greg Monakis
No, but, dude, like, if MP Comes back and he's anything close to what he was before the appendicitis, which is like 80 of what he used to be, like, talent for talent. They're arguably a more talented team than we are.
- [28:54]
Will
I don't think that's crazy. I think we're still probably more talented, but I don't. But I think I. I understand what you're saying. It's. It's a. It's way closer than you probably want to give credit in a 72 matchup, too, right?
- [29:04]
Greg Monakis
Yeah.
- [29:05]
Will
Like, that's. That's the ultimate. Ultimate point of that. And, yeah, I think this is. So. This is also something I thought about, is, like, you mentioned it, right? Like, they're the team who just got their ass kicked on Sunday, so they got to make adjustments. Celtics, we feel great. We're having a great time. It's the Boston Marathon. Like, what a great day. We're just hanging out. Like, we feel great. They're like, this is it. We're playing with a desperation. And you. You can never fake a desperation in a team. Right? Like, that team is always going to come out a little bit more of an edge. And I also wonder if there was this added level of desperation where it's like, if we don't get this game, the strength and conditioning for Joel Embiid does not matter. We're down to it. Like. Like, there's like. Like, you know what I mean? Like, this is the game for them. Where it's like not even like, you know, we have to go back and defend home court. It's like we have to get this game because then we know we're guaranteed that we're coming back to Boston and like, we have like a longer window of when we can get MB to get going. So I wonder if that gave them like an extra level of their desperation of like, this is the game, this is the game where we want our captain, our guy coming back. Like, we gotta get this one tonight.
- [30:11]
Greg Monakis
This is, this might be stupid. Do you think that the referees calling a technical file and Jaylen Brown's dunk changed the course of this game? I've been thinking about that all night.
- [30:21]
Will
So I, I, I, I thought about that briefly because I, I caught the, the first quarter before I had to pause it and, and do baby stuff. And like first of all, what a technical. Like just like it's the market opening of the game. It's the opening of the game. The crowd is hype, it's the playoffs. And I, I didn't see the Jalen do the full throat slash. That's what I thought.
- [30:47]
Greg Monakis
Yeah, he just bumped into and like kind of stepped over him a little bit. That's it.
- [30:51]
Will
That happens every time. Like that happens all, you know how big these dudes are and they're crowded around. Like, it's just like, that's an, it was an insane technical and it like, honestly, it's one of those things that, about the game, that, about the NBA that, that infuriates me is that you can see that play happen 10 times and five times. It's a technical. Five times it's not. And you have no idea why. No idea.
- [31:12]
Greg Monakis
Yeah, I, I truly think, I truly think it affected the game. Dude, though, I was like. Because There was a 30 second pause after that dunk. Like, that's the first pop from the garden. And you probably, you might be able to run that into a 20 point run. You know what I mean? Just all the momentum, I mean they
- [31:28]
Will
kind of, that's my only pushback because they kind of did leverage that into a pretty sizable run in the first quarter. And then they just closed the first quarter like.
- [31:38]
Greg Monakis
Yeah.
- [31:38]
Will
And so then it ended. I think they ended up with what, a three point lead when they were up 13 with like two, three minutes left to go in the first. So that I'm with you, that, that thought crossed my mind. But I was like, I don't know how I can make this argument. When they did get themselves to a pretty Sizable lead in the first quarter and then just kind of blew it with, with bad play at the end of the quarter. If, if it had dramatically shifted at that point. I'm with you, though, but it, I don't think it's a bad thought because it did cross my mind because it was, it was pretty egregious. But let's talk about the Jays here before we, we start to look ahead at, at game three. Let's start with Jalen. We're talking about him right now in that dunk. Jalen tonight finished 11 of 24, 5 of 12 from 3. 7 rebounds, 4 assists, only 3 turnovers, 36 points on the night for Jalen. I mean, honestly, like I, I think for both of the Jays. I will say I did. Neither one of them are going to be anywhere near the top of my list of why they lost this game. I thought Jalen Brown, overall, this, this was just a really. This was a good Jalen Brown game. I had. I thought there was a few moments in the, in the first half where he made a couple decisions that I, I was worried about, but then I thought he actually just got better from that point after those decisions.
- [32:50]
Greg Monakis
I think it's a great point here by our guy Fred. He says the JB slow starts is very. Tatum. He was responsible for that terrible first quarter close. I. I agree. I think the. In the first quarter when Tatum went to the bench, that's when Philly went on their run and JB didn't rise to the moment to carry the team like he needed to. I'd have to go back and watch the sequence of events that happened there. But I do remember thinking like, damn, smoked layup.
- [33:14]
Will
Kind of a weird pass on the baseline. I hated that end of quarter shot, trying to go for the, the foul. Like, just shoot it, man. Like I like. Yeah, I think there was a few different moments mixed in there that, that we were all looking at.
- [33:28]
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- [33:58]
Greg Monakis
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Will
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Greg Monakis
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- [34:20]
Will
Call 1-800-granger.
- [34:21]
Greg Monakis
Visit granger.com or just stop by Granger for the ones who get it done. Yeah, so, I mean, I'm not gonna knock jb. Yeah, you think you knock him for that moment, but he was the one guy that I felt like really brought it tonight. Tatum, 14 rebounds, nine assists. Like I can't go too hard on the guy, but the three pointers, man, like he's, he just, just doesn't have the three pointer going right now. You want, you don't want to discourage him from shooting it because the moment we start being like, oh, Jason Tatum's 1 for 6 from 3. He then hits the one from the corner and then it's like, all right, now Tatum, once he hits one, you're like, okay, he's liable to hit three or four in a row. And then he missed the one that would have put us up by one before the Sixers go on that crazy run. So, I mean, I don't really know what to say other than they need to be marketedly better than Paul George. And I think Paul George was able to offset a little bit of what the Jays do and we need them to completely outplay Paul George and to make him look washed up.
- [35:22]
Will
Yeah, I mean, I think that's all fair. I mean, I think for me, the, the three point shooting with Tatum is, is really the only thing that I could, I could call out because this is still a work in progress with tape, right? Like this. It, like this is still not like, you know, like I, I think if, if this is next year, right, we're looking at this and we're like, Tatum cannot have two free throw attempts, right? Like, that's going to be something that jumps out to us. But right now it's just not something that I would feel comfortable being like, Tatum has to. That guy that's getting physical and getting like, it's still such a build up that, you know, the, the scoring. Because it is typically over the last couple of years for him has been combined with getting to the line 7, 8, 9, 10 times a game, and, and his ability to drive and get downhill and we're seeing it in little, in little pieces, right? Like his ability to kind of snake the screen and get downhill, he's getting that back that Wasn't there the first, you know, six, seven, eight games. Like, that's. That's becoming a much more prevalent part of his game again. And so I think that's coming and. Or something that, like, him getting him living in that 19 to 25 range, I'm very cool with. Like, especially when he's putting up 14 rebounds and nine assists to three turnovers. Like, I have to be okay with that. And that's why to me, again, when I look at what Jalen did, I look at what Tatum did, it's Hauser 2 of 8. It's. It's Derrick White 2 of 10. It's Pritchard. 004. Like, yeah, it's.
- [36:45]
Greg Monakis
It was the other guys. You're right. It's not the Jays. It's not the Jays. It was the other guys tonight night.
- [36:49]
Will
Yep.
- [36:51]
Greg Monakis
Nobody did.
- [36:52]
Will
That's kind of what it comes down to sometimes. And like, tonight we didn't hit our threes. They went 19 of 39. They shot 48.7% from three. We shot 26%. So there's a lot of other things. But in this game, this is something that definitely. That definitely stood out here.
- [37:08]
Greg Monakis
So we got a comment here from Yo Z4W podcaster D. White has been hot garbage for most of the year, hurting us big time. Now we also got a comment from our guy Alex. JT had some phenomenal passes that the guys just missed. I think that's great. Yeah, like, JT probably could have had 15 assists if guys knocked down shots tonight. So I think it's a great call out, Alex. Yeah, I mean, D. White hasn't been good. He has not been good on offense this year, so he needs to step up. I expect Derrick White to have a big game three.
- [37:41]
Will
All right, well, let's talk about game three here for a little bit before we wrap up. So two nights off for the Celtics here, so they don't play game three until Friday night. So Friday night, 6pm game or 6pm Central, 7pm Eastern game here. Celtics and Sixers. What do you think is the number one thing that you would say after watching this game tonight? That if. Let's go. You're a coach of the podcast here. I'm putting you in the Joe. Well, don't go to the Joe Missoula mindset. You have a. You have a family here. I don't want you to get a wolf or build a moat around your house tonight. Yeah. Or sleep with duct tape on your mouth. There's a lot of things. Okay, now you're freaking me out. I need you to stop with that. Look, what, what would be the thing that, that you would guess as a coach and what you watch from Joe Missoula. What do you think is his adjustment going into this next game?
- [38:33]
Greg Monakis
I mean, that's a great question.
- [38:35]
Will
Give me what your adjustment would be and then maybe that will lead you into what you think Joe Missoula will do.
- [38:42]
Greg Monakis
I mean, I think Joe Missoula might just stay the course, man. He's one of those guys that plays the numbers. And if he thinks that the shooters on the Sixers aren't going to continue to knock down three pointers at the clip that they knocked him down tonight, I wouldn't be surprised if he starts the game in the exact same defensive coverage that he did in games one and game two. Maybe you'll see some matchup switches. Like, maybe Derrick White isn't the guy that. That's there. Maybe, maybe it's. If it's Drummond starting, maybe you put Tatum on Drummond and you put Keda on Ubre or something like that. Like, maybe there's a matchup coverage there. That way you don't have to be in such a deep drop. Yeah, but I, I would expect Missoula to, before he does a schematic, like a full schematic change, to look at the matchups and then to take a look at the scheme.
- [39:37]
Will
Yeah, I, I mean, to me, like, even though, like the, the drop coverage versus Maxi just feels like a crazy call, like, as someone who's, who's not a great X's and O's, you know, guy, like, I'm just like, hey, maybe something you don't want to do is give Maxi a ton of space. He's the fastest guy in the league, and he's an amazing shooter and he can stop on a dime and they can blow by anybody at any time. Like, that just feels like a. You're asking for a little bit of trouble. But to me, at the end of the day, like, was the defense great tonight? No, but I. But I also think Philly shot a little bit above their weight. So in that respect, like, I totally agree with you that I do see Missoula kind of just sticking with the percentage.
- [40:16]
Greg Monakis
Yeah, they were 19 for 39, 48.7% from 3.
- [40:21]
Will
Right. And. And so in that respect, I actually don't have much of a problem with Missoula sticking with that. What, what I do have an issue with this Is you scored 97 points, scoring under 100 points in today's NBA Is like, like that's kind of crisis, right? Like that's like that's like that's a really bad performance, especially for a team that was the number two offensive rated team. So to me, that's kind of where my focus goes almost even more than, than the defensive side of the ball is like, how do you get the ball movement? Like, like, like the ball wasn't jumping the way that it has for this team all season, specifically in the second half. Like it. Second half. And this is actually. It's funny. I think usually when we think of it's too much my turn, your turn with the J. Like, we kind of look to them like they kind of had to. No one else was doing tonight. Like, it kind of had to be one of the two of them.
- [41:09]
Greg Monakis
And to, and to Alex's point when they did make the right pass, guys weren't hitting the shots, you know. And I, I do think the Celtics are very. Jason Tatum pick and roll heavy right now. Like, it feels like, I don't know, 40% of their offensive possessions are JT high pick and roll. Off the top of my head. Alex, in the chat, he says he'd like to see more small ball with JT at the 5. That'd be interesting just because Drummond and Bona are such monsters. Like, I don't know if they're actually going to be able to do that and not get crushed on the boards. He says it might make it easier to cover the three ball instead of giving them wild.
- [41:44]
Will
Yeah, you know, it's. It's an interesting thought. Alex, thank you for, for bringing that up because I had thought about that and it's one of those things where yes, I, Obviously Bona and Drummond could give us some problems on the boards. At the same time, Tatum had 14 rebounds. So I, I think it could be worth a try. Like, Keda and Vuch haven't been exactly dominating the boards. Right. Like, Tatum's our best rebounder. So you have that and then you have the flip side of it where. Okay, cool. Now guard us. Guard us. When we have, you know, Derrick White, Peyton Pritchard, Baylor Shireman, Jalen Brown and Jason Tatum out here we've got all shooters, all guys that can handle the ball, all guys that can drive. Like, good luck trying to stick. Stick with us. And like you talked about, like some of the switching that they would do off ball. Like, okay, we'll just keep. Like, that's a team that can just move so freely on offense that I, I did. It did cross my mind that if that would be something that, that could be an interesting wrinkle to see try
- [42:44]
Greg Monakis
and you try and draw out a little bit more Dominic Barlow, who I thought played well tonight. So maybe they like, that's, that's their counter, right? They probably go Dominic barlow at the 5. I think anytime you can get one of their like end of bench players into more, more action, like actual game time action, probably a good thing just to force their hand just to see what happens. I don't know though, man. I, I think the Tatum at the 5 lineup is, is good and it definitely unlocks some things. But so much of what we do is out of pick and roll and out of getting great screens from our bigs. Like, I don't really know what that offense even looks like.
- [43:24]
Will
That's, that's a fair point. That's probably one of the biggest reasons why, why Joe hasn't gone to it. And we, and we only saw it briefly. Like I, I maybe a couple of times right when Tatum came back. Like, and, and I don't think it's an offense. I don't think it's a lineup. Never mind. Nothing. I don't think it's a lineup that would be sustainable for long stretches. But I think again, this game felt like multiple times just didn't have juice.
- [43:46]
Greg Monakis
Well, I 100 to Alex's point, I 100 expected the adjustment to be Tatum at the 5 when they brought in Vuccvich at the end of the game.
- [43:54]
Will
Right.
- [43:55]
Greg Monakis
Like, that's what I thought was gonna happen.
- [43:56]
Will
Yeah. Yeah. 100. That's. That felt like that was the only move left to at least try to get back in the game. Right. And so to me, that's where I think. And you don't, they don't have to save it for, for that particular point. But this could have been a point in the, you know, third quarter or whatever, whatever. Insert whatever point that you would like where it's like, all right, let's try this for two, three minutes and let's see if we can change the vibe up of this game right now. Because it felt like for large stretches it was like this just doesn't feel like the Celtics night right now. And it's like, all right, we got to change something. And if it's not going to be inserting Jordan Walsh to guard Tyrese Maxey, which is how he made his name, if it's not Baylor Shireman who's been shooting light. Been shooting, I think they said on the broadcast his last. I forget how many games it was, but he's 15 of 30 from three. Like, if you're not gonna play him more, you're not gonna use his floater game, you're not going to use his defense, which has been really good all season. Then, like, let's try this. Like, there's got to be more to it.
- [44:47]
Greg Monakis
I would have liked to have seen a white J's Shireman and Walsh lineup tonight.
- [44:52]
Will
Right?
- [44:53]
Greg Monakis
I would have liked to see that for two minutes.
- [44:55]
Will
Yeah. Like. Right. Like, I think something like, I think even that would have been. Would be a really interesting wrinkle to try and throw out there. But end of the day, Greg, maybe this is just. Is the game two curse back.
- [45:07]
Greg Monakis
Could be.
- [45:08]
Will
Could be. And you know, Celtics just defending, defending home court. Game two. Not a great track record with this team.
- [45:14]
Greg Monakis
Spurs currently up by seven on the. Up at eight on the Blazers with seven and a half minutes left. Wemby has not entered the game because he is in fact ruled out. So.
- [45:26]
Will
Oh, dude, that's so devastating. I, I really wanted to, I really wanted to act like I did not hear that. I was like, they're breaking in for this. It's gotta be Wemby. But I'm just, I'm just gonna pretend like it didn't happen and I'll, I'll check it later. But I obviously hope Wemby's okay. The playoffs need. Need Wemby, man. Wemby's just, just freaking awesome. But quickly, before we sign off here, any other thoughts on just, you know, Knicks lose game two. Timberwolves come back, win game two. Pistons lose game one. Any. Anything jump out to you from these first three, four days of the playoffs?
- [45:59]
Greg Monakis
It's just fun, man. It's just fun. Watch your basketball is fun. I'm. I'm enjoying the playoffs. I've. I've made a lot more time to watch almost every single game. I don't think there's a game that's gone by that I haven't at least caught a quarter of. So I just like being locked in, you know, during the regular season, it's hard to dedicate so much of your time to, you know, a random Thunder vs Suns game and in the regular season. But in the playoffs, you can find some time for it. So it's been fun watching basketball, seeing, like, the trends around the league I haven't been able to watch. This is probably the leave amount of NBA basketball I watched in a calendar year. So to, to lock in for the playoffs, I'm just going to be interested to see what trends I may have missed. Just only really only watching Celtics games this year.
- [46:45]
Will
Yeah. Yeah. I've been been knocked out the last couple days, so I haven't watched as much as I would have liked to. Did catch CJ McCollum just go scorched earth on the Garden last night.
- [46:57]
Greg Monakis
He was like calling Jalen Brunson into every action. Brunson. Brunson looked silly on defense against each other and then dude.
- [47:04]
Will
And then nah picked his pocket at that. Maybe the biggest play of that game was not picking his pocket on the right sideline then feeding Jalen Johnson for the dunk on the other end. And the Hawks never, never gave up the lead after that. Hawks look frisky, man. I. I still kind of similar to the Celtic Sixer series. I still would. I still don't see the Knicks losing that series. But I always said I thought that was going to be probably about a six game series.
- [47:29]
Greg Monakis
Yeah. Playoffs are a war of attrition, man. So every game, every extra game you have to play is another opportunity for one of your star players to go down with a massive injury as it happened last year to the Celtics. So.
- [47:41]
Will
Amen. I'll tell you this Pistons magic game too. I'm locking in tomorrow night. That's a, that's a, that's a big fun game to see what's going to happen there. The schizophrenic magic. Who knows what's going to. Who's going to show up for them. But that'll do it for us here. We'll be back over the week. So Celtics don't play again until Friday. So likely we will have coverage for you guys of, of both Games 3 and 4, probably over the weekend. Unless. We'll take a look. We'll. We'll keep you guys posted. You know where you find us. You find us on YouTube, you find us on Twitter. You find us everywhere else. Tick tock. Wherever. We're everywhere. Just make sure you follow @Green MVPod. You'll know when we're podcasting next one.
- [48:20]
Greg Monakis
We got only fans.
- [48:21]
Will
Yeah, we don't. But I know that there's more. There's more than just pornography on there from what I've. I've learned. So there's comedians on there. I don't know if it says podcasting made it to only fans yet. Is that a thing yet? It.
- [48:35]
Greg Monakis
I would howl laughing if we created an only fans and we actually get a subscriber. I would.
- [48:40]
Will
Wait, wait, wait. Hold on, hold on. Have. Have we. Actually. Should we be the ones to. Maybe this could be our niche. Maybe this is. We. We get in there first because I know comedians are in there. I think there's like a few other like niche things that are. Are non pornographic that are. That are in there for only fans. Like may maybe where the. The basketball. The first basketball podcast.
- [49:10]
Greg Monakis
Nothing but pictures. Your side boob. You like that side.
- [49:14]
Will
So Jason Tatum. Jason Tatum has nice side boob. You know who else has a side?
- [49:19]
Greg Monakis
You like that side boob. Well, you shouldn't because that's my side boo.
- [49:25]
Will
And we'll throw in a few feet pictures Just. Just for the. The true.
- [49:28]
Greg Monakis
You got nasty feet. You got those long that you got. Dude, this disgusting.
- [49:33]
Will
Yeah, dude, I know. Lorena's told me a couple times. I should. I should make an only fans. It'd probably be a. Be a niche for the. For my. For my weirdo feet. We. We've discussed it jokingly a couple times. I don't. I wonder if one day we'll actually just seriously do it. We'll get bored and just be like, ah, it. Let's throw a couple.
- [49:47]
Greg Monakis
Dude. I saw. I saw this. I saw this thing on Instagram. I don't know if it was actually real, but it said that these girls like paid their way through Coachella just by selling feet pick on something called like feetfinder.com and I was like. I was like, there's. There's no way. That's all they're is just. They're like, yeah, guys. Guys don't want like porn or anything like that. They just want a connection. You. You. You could sell one. One pick of your big toe and make like $2,000 out of it. It's like, Jesus Christ. People.
- [50:17]
Will
I. I mean for the. For the.
- [50:18]
Greg Monakis
People are dying for connection and in the age of AI, people are dying
- [50:22]
Will
for just a sake of our society. I hope that's not true. If it is, the. The end is near. The end is near.
- [50:28]
Greg Monakis
Give me one pedicure at big toe and I'm good.
- [50:33]
Will
All right, that's about it. That's gonna do it for this episode of Green with Envy. Celtics and Sixers tied 1 1, heading to Philly Friday night. We'll be back with more over the weekend. Stay locked in with all things being with Envy and we will catch you guys later.
- [50:58]
Greg Monakis
Until I hit the floor.
- [51:01]
Will
Every time I hit this high it's you I find it don't take much no more until I'm at your door.
- [51:14]
Commercial Announcer
You're juggling a lot but you can still squeeze in a financial plan with the Northwestern Mutual Financial advisor as your partner. It's not only possible, it's personalized. So if you're tying the knot, closing on a house or welcoming a little one, you'll be ready for whatever life tosses your way. It's the right time to feel less stressed and more certain. That's a better way to money. Let's get started at NM.com, the Northwestern Mutual Life Insurance Company, Milwaukee, Wisconsin.