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- [00:00]
Commercial Narrator
When you manage procurement for multiple facilities, every order matters. But when it's for a hospital system, they matter even more. Grainger gets it and knows there's no time for managing multiple suppliers and no room for shipping delays. That's why Grainger offers millions of products in fast, dependable delivery so you can keep your facility stocked, safe, and running smoothly. Call 1-800-GRAINGER Click grainger.com or just stop by Ranger for the ones who get it done.
- [00:31]
Mike Gorman
Hey, Sal.
- [00:32]
Will
Hank. What's going on? We haven't worked a case in years.
- [00:35]
Mike Gorman
I just bought my car at Carvana and it was so easy.
- [00:38]
Greg Manakis
Too easy.
- [00:39]
Will
Think something's up? You tell me.
- [00:41]
Mike Gorman
They got thousands of options, found a great car at a great price, and it got delivered the next day.
- [00:48]
Will
It sounds like Carvana just makes it easy to buy your car, Hank.
- [00:52]
Mike Gorman
Yeah, you're right. Case closed.
- [00:55]
Commercial Narrator
Buy your car today on Carvana. Delivery fees may apply.
- [01:00]
Mike Gorman
This is Mike Gorman and you're listening
- [01:02]
Will
to Green with Envy with Will and Greg. All right, everybody, Coming to you live here. It's a Green with Envy Post Game Live. Celtics get the 114 to 98 home win. Back door into the 4020 Club on the season. A big night from Nemi Esqueda, presented by. Whoops. I can't wait to get into it. This is another Green with Envy Post Game Live. You guys know the deal. Let's lock in. What up, what up, what up? Welcome into another edition of Reboot with Envy. It is a Green with Envy Post Game live. Coming to you fresh off a Celtics 114 to 98 win over the Philadelphia 76ers, splitting the season series 2 to 2 in what could be a potential future playoff matchup. As always, this 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 Manakis. Greg, Celtics getting a lot of love here on Sunday night basketball. They had the Lakers last week, Sixers this week, got the Cavs next week. So a lot of exposure for the Celtics here. And tonight we got left with. I don't know if you heard Reggie Miller mention this during one of his five minute monologues about whoop. Or just like the other 17 times he mentioned, this is the Nemius K game. On that part, he's undoubtedly correct.
- [02:44]
Mike Gorman
Nemi Esqueda was unbelievable in this game tonight. He finishes 10 for 14 from the field, 7 for 10 from the line, 10 offensive rebounds. 17 total rebounds, 4 stocks and 27 points. A career high. He didn't get to that 30 point that you. You asked our boy Mark to check. I don't know why you went 30. Like he could have went 25. His career high was like 19 before that.
- [03:09]
Will
I didn't put a ton of thought into. I just wanted to join the bandwagon because he seemed into it and I was like, it, I'll throw five on it with you. But like as was going on, we probably should have done 25 because 25 is, is pretty outside of Gata's range. Is. And, but, but I will say when he made that little run at the end, I was like, oh my God, he's. He's making a run at it. I think we would have needed that last Baylor 3 that went in, you would have needed like a put back dunk and catch. A catch an one on the, on the lower.
- [03:35]
Mike Gorman
I know. I was actually trying to think how he would get to 30. I was like, is there a world in which they just leave K to open and like a delay action at the top of the screen and he bombs A3. That would have been storybook. But yeah, K, this is, you know, I texted Alex during the game and I was like, we're starting this podcast talking about Neemius Kada. And that was in the first half was when he was initially doing his thing. And when you see him juxtaposed against Andre Drummond who's, you know, veteran big, who is known for being one of the best rebounders of all time and Kada has just kind of given him the business on the boards and he's given everybody on Philadelphia just fits around the rim with his presence, his size, his timing. He had that one possession at the very end of the game to seal it where he blocks Maxi and then comes out and covers Edgecomb on the same possession. And when you see that level of defense, when he can play up to the level at the three point line, and then you think about the way Vuch was just getting cooked in the deep drop like in the third quarter and early in the fourth quarter, like this is why when we made the trade, I'm going to repeat it again for those of you that are unaccustomed to green with envy. When we made the trade for Nikola Vuchovic, that was a bet on Nemi Esqueda being your future center, your current center and long term piece holding down the front court for the Boston Celtics because you could have easily played, put in a lot more Chips and gone and get Avich's Zubac. Right? You could have done that. You could have put together an offer and instead you say, we don't need Zubot, we got big Neemi. The Portuguese beast is here and he's here to stay.
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Will
I'm so glad you brought up that defensive possession that he had against Maxi and Edgecomb on the left side of the three point line on that, you know, towards the end of the game. That's not the number one highlight, but that's probably the number one sequence of this game because I think that was when Philly was really kind of building that momentum. And listen, Edgeco and Maxi are a scary combo. Like when you think about their long term future, like that's a backcourt and I like England. You throw Grimes in there too, I think. And we'll talk about them because I think Peyton Pritchard did not enjoy his night tonight and I think they had a big reason to do with this. We'll talk about that later. But, but sticking with Nemi on that, like those are the exact type of guys, especially from what we had seen of Nemi going into the season, right? It's like, oh, these guys are going to put him on skates. And listen, sometimes Nem look like a, look like a, a deer that just came out the womb there with some of his limbs flying around. Those are the type of guys that you're like, ah, this is gonna be a rough matchup. And for him to have that defensive stance against those two. And really his defense all night like, and all season like the, the progress that we've seen on the defensive end, you can look at any numbers with him in the lineup. The Celtics, who are now a seventh ranked defense on the season overall, like, Nemi's a massive part of this because all season, whatever lineup you've put out there with him, they'd been a top five level defense. Everything around him is starting to kind of actually catch up to what he's been doing all year. But I think you know him tonight with you mentioned the four, the four Stocks, three, three official blocks, but so many other altered shots and his knowledge on both ends of just where to be spatially. Like it makes me think back to the development that we saw with Luke Cornette over the last couple of years and how Luke, you know, certainly never had the athleticism that Neemi has. But now you're kind of seeing the knowledge that Luke had. But now with Neemi athleticism and right.
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Mike Gorman
It's like, it's like if you took Luke Cornette and Robert Williams and you melded them into one player, you end up with Nemi is Keda, right?
- [07:04]
Will
They had a beautiful biracial Portuguese baby.
- [07:09]
Mike Gorman
That's kind of what we're seeing. And you know, it's funny, at one point the broadcast called out, they're like, are we seeing KG out here tonight? And like, there have been times this year where I've texted in the group, I'm like, dude, Nemi kind of reminds me a little bit of kg. Like his impact on the defense, defensive end is just un. Unbelievable. He's not the. He doesn't have the defensive iq and he's not the backline defender and communicator that Kevin Garnett was that made him so goddamn special. But you see these moments out of Keda where you understand why the Celtics were just. We're just like, you know, I think we, we might be able to get by with Nemi's K as our starting center. And then at the trade deadline they're like, I think we're going to be okay with Nemius K to holding this down for the, for the foreseeable future.
- [07:51]
Will
I've said it for, for a month now. Brad's. That's got to be Brad's top. One of his top two things that he's got to do this off season is go secure Nene before the. Because the price is going to keep going up and obviously playoffs will dictate a lot of what that price ends up being. But going and getting Nene on some type of hopefully 1012 million dollar deal, like you got to go do it now because you, you can see what the potential is. And if you play this out, he may not be here the year after next.
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Mike Gorman
Right.
- [08:21]
Will
Like you're gonna, you're gonna be left in a tough position. So I think that's got to be at the top of Brad Stevens to do offseason this go secure Nemi esque, which I, you know, I. Going into the season I was pretty, you know, I feel like there has been some Kada support throughout the years. Just like. Because I think he reminded us so much of Rob Williams and everything. Rob Williams meant one healthy and I always thought it was a little overblown. Like I could see it, but I always thought it was a little overblown because Neemi just used to make so many mistakes. Right. And I still remember this, Greg, the preseason game against the Raptors when in the first five minutes I think Nemi had four fouls and like Two of them were moving screens like they were just all the stuff. Like, Jesus, this is how we're starting the season. Yeah. This is Gap Year 101 type of stuff. This. And now where we're at 40 wins, 20 losses, 60 games in. It's. I just. I couldn't have seen this coming in a million years that this would have gone this well for Nemia Scana. But it's awesome to watch.
- [09:17]
Mike Gorman
Yeah. You know, let's just call this out. He wasn't playing against Joel Embiid tonight. Right. Joel Embiid was out in this game. So he was going up against Drummond and Bona. But still to put up the numbers that he put up, 27 and 17. Like, he was. He was the MVP on the court tonight. Jalen Brown was. Was pretty close, but Nemius Keda was just a beast on the boards because he. How many minutes did he even play in this game? I feel like he said 27 minutes.
- [09:44]
Will
It's over. 27. Yeah, yeah.
- [09:46]
Mike Gorman
27 minutes out of him tonight, but really special stuff out of Keda.
- [09:50]
Will
Well, the thing is, Greg, the reason why it's so celebrated is that this isn't an isolated night. Right. Like, I think right at one point in the year we were like, what does a successful season if this team. And I don't think we've ever dreamed the Celtics would be a 2 seed in this position without Jason Tatum, where we're like, realistically considering a Finals run. We never thought this was possible, like, not at all. But we were like, okay, if this team's gonna crack a six seed, a five seed, even sniff like a four seed. We were like, Nemi's. Can I just got. He's got to get consistently to like 10 points, eight rebounds. And he's like, even. Even though that is roughly what his averages are, like 10 points of nine rounds, whatever. Whatever it is, like, he's so far exceeded that because we knew that like an out could exist out of him because we saw the potential. But the reason that it's so celebrated right now is that the consistency is there and now it's consistent. Consistent spike, spike. Consistent spike. Like, like there's no drop down to games where I'm come. I'm coming on here with you after a game expecting to look at. Yeah, man, Nemi was, you know, four rebounds and two points, one of five and didn't really contribute defensively. That's not a game that, that, that's not a Nemius K option in my mind going into any game. Right now. And that's what is. It's kind of mind blowing.
- [11:02]
Mike Gorman
He's been very consistent this year. Let's go to the other MVP of the game, Jalen Brown, who played 38 minutes tonight. Nine for 17 from the field, seven for seven from the line. He finishes with eight rebounds, eight assists, and a grand total of 27 points. So him and Keda tie for the game. High Mimi escape. That's got to be a first for Keda, right? Yeah, that's great. So Jalen Brown 27, 8 and 8. Another game where he's just filling up the stat sheet. And it was a nice reminder that Jaylen Brown has been playing at an MVP level because there have been some games of late where I'm like, yeah, the numbers, the numbers are still there. But Jaylen Brown didn't quite have the impact that he had earlier in the season. I didn't feel like I felt his presence as much as I felt that he felt really in control of this game. And especially in a game where Payton Pritchard was non existent, we needed Jalen Brown to run the show. And Jalen Brown did run the show very well. 27 points, eight assists, eight rebounds.
- [12:01]
Will
Yeah, I think the eight assist is what stands out to me. Man. We've talked a lot this year about the patience right. Of him drawing to finding the right read and even at times doing the same thing that we praise Jason Tatum for growing into is above and beyond the right pass, like almost the next pass, like skipping over the hockey assist and just getting the assist, like the pass from him to Ugo in that first half. That was great. I would have leaned a little bit more. More on like Ugo was more impressive with the finish than the Jalen Brown pass. Both were very nice. But you know, Jalen Brown with the eight assists, you know, since the all Star break. Greg, you take out that Denver game, which just the legs were dead. That dead. You know, after that first half or after the, you know, first quarter and a half, Celtics just didn't have a chance. They just weren't gonna have it. Here's the assist numbers for Jalen Brown, golden state. He had 13 assists in that triple double, seven assists against the Lakers, seven assists against Brooklyn in the blowout. Or usually nine assists against Brooklyn in the blowout. And then auses here tonight. Like, this is the continued MVP evolution of, of Jalen Brown. Kind of like we just talked about Nemi's consistency. We talk about Jaylen Brown's, not his. It's a growing part of his game, but certainly not the strongest is his playmaking. And if you listen to a lot of the, you know, national podcasts are starting to have these MVP conversations. It's like the one area he gets dinged because he's going up against Cade, he's going up against sga, going up against certainly Jokic. Right. Or even Anthony Edwards. At times they're like, yeah, it's slightly better for, for some of these other gu. And you know, Jaylen's kind of putting him on notice a little bit here. Like, listen, I ain't as far behind this as you guys, as some of you might think that I am. It depends which one you listen to. But Jalen's making a hell of a case with more of these all around games, which is really when we were praising Tatum to be in that MVP conversation, that was the level Tatum got to where you were like, yeah, I just expect 28, 10 and 6 or 7. And that's just the line every night. And that's kind of what Jalen's been doing here since the All Star break was, save for that Denver game when just nobody had it.
- [14:03]
Mike Gorman
Yeah, you know, he only took 17 shots tonight. I believe in the last game, maybe he only took 12 shots. I feel like he's like 9 for 12 from the field or something like that. And those are the games that we need to see more frequently out of Jalen Brown. We can't have these games where he's shooting 28 field goal attempts like, like Maxi did tonight. Maxi shot a ton of shots tonight, and it's just too much to put on one guy's shoulders. And it's not a sustainable to get you to a deep playoff run if you have one guy who's taking all those shots. And on a game where Peyton Pritchard didn't have it tonight and he only took four shots in this entire game. That's a game you would expect to look at Jalen's SAT line and be like, oh, he probably took 30 shots and he didn't. He played within himself. He continued to move the ball. I feel like he probably had like 15 potential assists in this game as well. I've just been really impressed with his play. But it is interesting you brought up the playmaking aspect of it in terms of the MVP conversation because it's almost like he's listening, which he probably is, is to all the scuttlebutt around him.
- [15:01]
Will
It's. I was listening to the Zach Low show at one point because Zach Lowe has been like, not in Zach. I was like, everyone thinks I'm just dogging Jalen Brown because I'm putting him behind some of these guys. He's like, it's so close. But I just don't think he's there. But it. But I've listened to him on Simmons. I've listened to his show. It's happened a couple times, and it does sound like it. And like, in my head, I was at the gym the other day. I was like, I know Jalen's private business. I wonder if Jalen. Because I think, what does Zach Lowe do? Work with? I think Amazon maybe. Like, I wonder if, if, like, if he was on like an after game show. If, if Jaylen Brown would just call it out. Because Jaylen Brown loves calling out the media on different things. I was in my head, I could picture him being like, yo, Zach, nine assists. What you think? Am I still fifth? Am I still fourth? Like what? Like. And I could picture that happening.
- [15:44]
Commercial Narrator
When you manage procurement for multiple facilities, every order matters. But when it's for a hospital system, they matter even more. Granger gets it and knows there's no time for managing managing multiple suppliers and no room for shipping delays. That's why Grainger offers millions of products in fast, dependable delivery so you can keep your facility stocked, safe, and running smoothly. Call 1-800-GRAINGER Click grainger.com or just stop by Grainger for the ones who get it done.
- [16:14]
Greg Manakis
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- [17:05]
Mike Gorman
for sure. Yeah. And I just think, like, it's almost as if he's listening and he said, okay, I'm averaging 29 points, career high, but that's not enough. I guess we're, you know, 40 and 20 this year, but I guess that's not enough. I'm guarding the best player on the other team in the biggest games, in the biggest moments. But I guess that's not enough. I guess I'll just try and go for the, the LeBron stat line, the 27, 7 and 7. And you guys praise LeBron for that for all these years. When are you gonna start praising me for doing all the great that other guys are doing? And just, you know, when you go back to the MVP conversation, go back to the Luka Doncic conversation. Like, I take Jalen Brown over Luka Doncic 10 times out of 10 at this point. Like, Luka Doncic is, does not impact the game on the level that Jalen Brown does. Man, he's a great offensive player, but he's just nowhere near the level of player and competitor that Jalen Brown is.
- [17:57]
Will
Yeah, guest of the guest of the show. Jason Timp had had a good clip that I saw going around about him talking about Luca, where he was like, he might have, you know, arguably one of the two highest highs of anybody in the league for, like, when he's on. But the issue with Luca is if he's not hitting that high of high or if he's not on with his offense, like, it's the lowest of lows of anybody that's in this top tier conversation, because there's no alternative. There's nothing else. He's not going to be a defensive guy. Like, he's, he's big, but he's not.
- [18:28]
Mike Gorman
And people talk about, people talk about how he's a good rebounder. He's not a good rebounder. Like, he gets rebounds, but I wouldn't call him a good rebounder. Like, in a big moment. If you're going to ask me who, who's going to get this rebound, Jalen Brown or Luka Doncic, I would Pick Jalen Brown 10 out of 10.
- [18:43]
Will
Yeah, it's really interesting because, like, I don't think before this season there was ever a second that I would have thought about Jalen Brown as better than Luka Doncic or that I would choose him over Luka Doncic. And this year it just, I, I can't, I, I can't understand the people who are making arguments. If you've watched the Lakers where you're like, yeah, Luke is having more of an impact on that team in a positive way than what Jalen Brown is doing with the Celtics. It's, it's just really interesting to think about. And I do think something else, Greg, I, I've thought about recently is, I think in general, when we talk about who the Best players are in the league. We probably do it the wrong way. Like, I think we need to actually look at it from more of a team building point of view. Like, let's line up the best eight, nine guys. Like, rank them as to how you can build. Like you need one of these guys to win championship, but how you can build a team around them. And like Wemby's probably one and then everyone after that is probably all the two way guys. It's Jalen Brown, it's Jason Tatum, it's Anthony Edwards, Jay Gil Alexander. Like, it's probably those guys even more. I mean, Jokic kind of transcends it to a certain degree. But like, all of those guys that play two ways, like, those are the easiest guys to actually build a championship team rounds. That's why for me, I'm like, I'm with you now. I'm just like, the more and more. Even though Luca's gotten to a finals, Luke has been successful. Like, it's so hard to build a consistent team around what he does night tonight. And you see with Jalen Brown, there's games where, especially with this roster, he's going to take 28 shots because he kind of has to. But then there's nights where he can pull it back, back, and you get 9 for 17. You get great defense, you get 8 rebounds, you get 8 assists, you get all these other things that a guy like Luca just doesn't bring. And watching Jalen's evolution to add instead of just remain like Luca has, like, that's another part that I think pushes him up a notch in MVP and like, tears of the league, if you will.
- [20:35]
Mike Gorman
Definitely, definitely. Yeah. Jalen's been great. Any. Anything else you want to hit on in this game?
- [20:39]
Will
Game, Yeah. I mean, you mentioned Peyton Pritchard. I think we got to talk about it just for a little bit because it was pretty glaring watching Pritchard get. Get locked down. It just. It was a very weird night for Peyton Pritchard. And not just to get locked down, but to have four shots right. Like, it. Like you felt the tentativeness coming out of. Out of Peyton Pritchard. And it did make me think a little bit. Like, there was two different thoughts I had, Greg, where one was like. Like, I really enjoyed Neemi. And even though, like, Vucovic was getting beat on that drop, which we knew is gonna happen, like, he had nine defensive rebounds in this game. Like, that was actually a big part of this game. I thought it was just like a professional front court night between him and Keda like it was a pretty professional front court with of course, you know, vuch, he played 20 minutes. We knew that Vuch is going to be a 20 minute guy. And like you said, it's a bet on Keda being able to play 25 to 30 and then Vuch is just coming in for the rest. But he knocked down the shots he needed to, gave you the defensive rebounds that you weren't really getting from, from Luca Garz. Even though he was giving you energy and offensive rebounds, he was terrible on the like. At least Vuch gives you that. So you got this real professional, you know, Knight from the front court. But the other side of it was, you know, if you didn't get the surprise 27 from Nemi, you were really feeling Anthony Simon's not there because Pritchard was giving you nothing. You kind of needed one more guy to give you some juice. If the, you know, especially if the Sixers had Paul George and Embiid, this could be a very different game. And so know it was interesting to see Pritchard be so tentative, Pritchard to get kind of locked up. And I think some of that is just a credit to Grimes and Edgecombe clearly made it their mission to not let Pritchard get going. But even when he had little glimpses, it, I don't know, it was just very weird to see Pritchard tentative because we just don't see that anymore from him.
- [22:22]
Mike Gorman
Yeah, tentative, not playing with confidence. I texted Phil with about six minutes left. I was like, Joe needs to get Pritchard off the court, man. He has no confidence tonight. And ended up pulling him two minutes later to get Hauser back in the game. So you ended up with Peyton Pritchard finishing the game on the bench and the Celtics finish the game with their starting five, which has been rare this year when Peyton Pritchard's been coming off the bench. But since that Lakers game, Will Payton Pritchard has had three games where he didn't play well. So the Phoenix Suns had a lot of very athletic wings that they were throwing on him. Payton Pritchard goes 2 for 13, 0 for 5 from 3 for 8 total points against the Nuggets, another team that was just like crazy energy, athletic, just up in his Jersey. He goes 1 for 6, 3 points in that game, bounces back against the Nets like everybody did, right? He had 22 against the Nets of nine for 12. But then he goes over four tonight. So that's three out of the last four games where Peyton Pritchard has Not played well. And teams seem to be, like, really locking into the scouting report and not allowing Peyton Pritchard to bully them on those baseline drives and not allow him to get to his spots in the middle and play off of two with that little fadeaway jump shot that he's been loving this year and not allowing him to get open threes. Like, tonight. The four shots that he took were all three pointers, and they were all bombs. Right. And I think he need the Celtics.
- [23:41]
Will
They were kind of. To get going, too, right? They weren't. They weren't good shots. They were. They were desperation. If I hit this, maybe this will give me some juice.
- [23:48]
Mike Gorman
But then he wasn't shooting the ones that were there. Right. There was that one play where the Celtics. We got a steal, and then it was like a three on one fast break, and Pritchard was bringing the ball up in the left.
- [23:58]
Will
Couldn't believe he didn't pull.
- [23:59]
Mike Gorman
Yeah. And it was like, that's a.
- [24:00]
Will
He.
- [24:00]
Mike Gorman
He pulled that in the finals against the warriors.
- [24:03]
Will
Like,
- [24:06]
Mike Gorman
right. Like, he ends up passing it to Shireman, and then that. That play gets stuffed. I think there was, like, a chall on. On that. And then we end up.
- [24:13]
Will
Maxi got underneath the basket with V and, like, pulled him down to the ground to kind of end the.
- [24:17]
Mike Gorman
Okay. Yeah. And then we, like, I don't think we scored on that possession, though. And that was, like, a big moment where I felt like if Pritchard's feeling it, he's going to shoot that. And even when he's not feeling he's going to shoot that. It was a very weird and kind of alarming performance out of Pritchard tonight.
- [24:30]
Will
It really was, man. And there was several. I mean, there's. I mean, there's one where we end up getting the Jordan Walsh three out of it. That kind of rolled around and went in, but it was like Richard had the shot, Pritchard had the lane, and he passed both of them and kicked it back to Jordan Walsh. And I'm like, listen, man, you're Peyton Pritchard. Like, you're the second leading scorer on this team. You had the both of those shots. Like, I'm glad Jordan Walsh took it, because if Jordan was gonna play, he's got to take that, and I'm glad it went in. But, like, if we're ranking just, like, in the moment, what are the top three options here? Like, you went with option three. There was option one and two, and that's not the Peyton Pritchard that. That we need. So you know, I, I'm not alarmed certainly yet given the season. And I think the last podcast we had, we were on here raving about Peyton Pritchard killing the Lakers, you know what I mean? Or two podcasts ago, whatever it was. So it's certainly not a lot like alarm bells going off. But because this could be a potential playoff matchup, like, it's definitely something you think about because then you add in, you know, say Paul George is back. Like that's another guy that like you could between Paul George, Kelly, U. Grimes, like Edgecombe, like, that's a lot of guys that throw at him. And if there's no Jason Tatum, like, of course Jason Tatum coming back changes a lot of the dynamics of who can cover what and what you're paying attention to. But if you're thinking about this from the Celtics making whatever a run looks like with sans Jason Tatum, like that's an alarming performance from Pritchard because you can't have that. Like that's, you can't bank on getting 27 from Nemi. Like that really bailed this team out tonight. And also probably a guy that we didn't mention yet is Baylor Shireman, like his performance as well with some hustle plays, knocking down some timely threes despite going two of nine. But he had to put those up because you weren't getting anything from Pritchard. And so, you know, it's, it's a lot to put on your reserves, which you can do for a game in a seven game series and get away with it. But if that became a trend, like that's super alarming and that, that could be a downfall in the playoffs based on, you know, what other teams are doing and what other teams are seeing against Pritchard.
- [26:29]
Mike Gorman
Yeah, let's go to Baylor Shireman, man, because he, he continues to be my favorite player on the Celtics. If we're doing the, the power rankings
- [26:36]
Will
right now, I like the, I like, I like his thumbs up with his fractured thumb. I was a big fan of that, of that celebration.
- [26:41]
Mike Gorman
It's good stuff. It's good stuff. But he continues to be my, my favorite of the young wings right now. The, the, the power rankings, it's got to go Baylor, Ugo, Walsh. Right? That's, that's what it is right now at this point in the season. That's probably what it's going to be. But if you look back all the way until, let's see the Celtics last, what's that, maybe like 12 games or so. He's only played under 20 minutes. One time. That was the game against the Heat where he played 19 minutes. Starting with the. The game against the Mavs, he played 28 minutes. And since that game against the Mavs, the only game he's played under 20 minutes was against the Heat. So Joe Missoula clearly trusts him. He has trusted him all year, dating back to those challenge calls that we saw early in the year where Baylor called for a challenge and Joe immediately, without hesitation, challenged it were like, damn, like, Joe really trust Baylor. And he's just continued to prove that he has Joe's trust and he has the entire team's trust. So when you think about Jason Tatum's impending return, we're hopeful it could be happening this week. Baylor Shireman is got. I think he's going to stick in the starting lineup. We talked about it before, but I do think it's going to be Sam Houser that ends up on the bench because Baylor has just become too important of a defender ender and a rebounder for this team. And his ability to hit, dude, recovery players.
- [28:00]
Will
He made multiple recovery plays tonight, bro.
- [28:03]
Mike Gorman
He's Marcus Smart. He's white Marcus Smart with a J. I Did you.
- [28:08]
Will
You texted that earlier today. It was making me think we gotta. Well, maybe you should be the person to come up with it. We got to come up with like, Post Malone had white Iverson. We got to get like a white Marcus or a white. I don't know. I don't know. So we gotta. We're gonna make it sound better than that, but we need that. That same anthem for it because I don't know how wrong you are now. Like, it feels like those. The. The play to break up, the. The alley oop. And then when he. He created the turnover and then he went back and made up for it again.
- [28:34]
Mike Gorman
That was like the ultimate Marcus experience, right? He's the one that turns it over, but then sprints back and knocks the ball out of bounds. Perfect. Perfect example.
- [28:41]
Will
And you add in the un. The, you know, the unconsciousness from. From shooting the ball, like, just completely forgets that he just bricked, like, horribly a couple shots tonight. Hit a couple. Hit the big buzzer beater at the end of the first half, you know, had two to back where it's like, dude, on the second one, you couldn't take a step in. Like, you had time to, like, reset yourself. You were just like, nah, I got it again, man. I'm letting it fly. It's very white Marcus Smart. It's. I mean, there's. There's a lot there, and it's. And we mean this in a positive way. Like, this is a very positive version of. Of Baylor Shireman that we're getting again. I. I think you're right about the starting lineup. Like, it just makes more. It makes sense that if Tatum comes back, back, keep Shireman, move Hower back you Baylor lefty Marcus. Yeah, I got that in the chat here. Yeah, I think it makes a lot of sense, man. I think that's the right move. I really do. And, you know, I guess that kind of brings us to. To Tatum, right, Because this was the game everyone freaked out about a week or two ago. Oh, my God. NBC picked it up. NBC's doing this and that. You know, I thought it was a little bit. Bit overblown, but we're in the window. The documentary is off and running. We're. We're up to part two, I think. I think part three is dropping thing right now as. As we're doing this. Have you watched any of the first two parts yet?
- [30:00]
Mike Gorman
I watched the. The first part, which. Okay, let's look at the Celtic schedule. Let's just do this again. The Tatum watch.
- [30:07]
Will
Yeah. Well, so just for the upcoming week, I've got. I've got the upcoming week in front of me right here, so. Celtics play tomorrow night against the Bucks, by the way, won seven out of their last 10 without Giannis still in 11th place. So not really too much to worry about.
- [30:19]
Mike Gorman
The Bulls tonight, though.
- [30:20]
Will
Okay. Yeah, exactly. Not. Not much to worry about there after that. Pretty fun week for the Celtics, actually. So they got the. On Wednesday. I'm actually pretty pumped for that game. Hornets, Wednesday night. We're gonna go live after that game. I think that'll be fun. Got Khan, Lamelo, Brandon Miller and crew. They've been wrecking through people over the last, you know, 20, 25 games. Then on Friday, Mavs, we got Cooper Flag's debut in Boston. That's an interesting. You know, is he gonna play, though?
- [30:45]
Mike Gorman
Isn't he out?
- [30:46]
Will
Jason Tatum, is Cooper Flag out? Oh, I might have missed that.
- [30:49]
Mike Gorman
Yeah, I think there was. There's a note that they might shut him down for the year.
- [30:53]
Will
Oh, God, that would suck. That would suck. We don't even get one Flag game in Boston. Well, maybe that game will become a lot less fun. We. And then next Sunday in Cleveland, we get another potential playoff matchup against the Cavs. So that's the week ahead that we have coming up here. But if we're just looking at the overall schedule, there's still obviously some opportunity. So after that Cleveland game, it's San Antonio, which your boys will be at. So if you're listening, if you're in the Texas area, you're going to be at that game. Shoot us a DM, shoot us a message. Celtics noise gmail.com hit us an email. We'd love to get together and hang out during that game before maybe even try to or organize something day off and then they play OKC on Thursday night and then it's back home for that three game home stand which is really where I think it's leaning towards that. That's the biggest homestand for the Celtics Saturday against Washington on the 14th, Phoenix the 16th and then golden the 18th. Those feel like the games that he would have to come back to also get the reps. They talked on the broadcast and we've talked about it. It feels even though the Celtics might still do doesn't feel very Celtics culture organization doing everything the right way that they would just throw Tatum in with like five games left and be like here's the playoffs. Like you feel like you need at least 10, maybe 12, maybe even 15 games for him to really get a chance to have a warmup.
- [32:19]
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- [32:50]
Will
Lifelock how can I help?
- [32:51]
Commercial Narrator
The IRS said I filed my return but I haven't.
- [32:54]
Mike Gorman
One in four tax paying Americans has paid the price of a identity fraud.
- [32:57]
Commercial Narrator
What do I do?
- [32:58]
Mike Gorman
My refund though. I'm freaking out.
- [33:00]
Will
Don't worry, I can fix this.
- [33:02]
Mike Gorman
Lifelock fixes identity theft guaranteed and gets your money back with up to $3 million in coverage.
- [33:07]
Commercial Narrator
I'm so relieved.
- [33:08]
Will
No problem. I'll be with you every step of the way.
- [33:10]
Mike Gorman
One in four was a fraud paying American. Not anymore. Save up to 40% your first year. Visit lifelock.com Special offer terms apply how about this? Well, so his birthday is March 3rd. Jason Tatum has said many times in the past he's always used the Hornets as like the example of the team he doesn't sit out against. It's like Tuesday night in Charlotte. He's playing right. This is a Home game, but we're playing against the Charlotte Hornets. I think there would be a little bit of poetry to him returning to a game against those Charlotte Hornets, even though they are not the Charlotte Hornets of years past. Right. As we've seen this year, they're playing great basketball. But I do think, you know, we were chatting with Alex, our producer. In the chat, he says that his contract is 314 million million. The St. Louis area code is 3, 1, 4. So there's a game against the Wizards on March 14th. And then Alex, I actually believed you. And I repeated this information where he said that the first episode of the documentary was 3 minutes and 14 seconds. And I went and double checked today because I was like, that would be some Tatum to. To like, drop a little subliminal there. And it was actually 309. And there is no game on March 9th. So last misinformation. What do you know?
- [34:24]
Will
Yeah, I mean, the Charlotte game was the first one that everybody was like, that's the game when. When Tatum's. I'm coming back at home. When I do, whenever I do, it's gonna be at home. That was the night everyone kind of circled. I've heard this 314 theory before or starting to float around as well. It's just so funny because Tatum is so calculated that everyone's like, there's got to be like a rhyme or reason season. And what if he just like, springs up at like, you know, that Phoenix game on a Monday night? It's like, yeah, this just gets announced, like Monday afternoon, Monday night, there he is on the court. Like, that would be the antithesis of typically what we expect with Tatum. So it'll be funny to see, but we're in the middle of it right now where this is definitively the stretch. Like, there's. I mean, really, Greg, if you look at it, if he's gonna come back at home, I think we have five game, five home games, games left. That it's either happening or it's not happening. It's Charlotte on the 4th, it's Dallas on the 6th, Wizards on the 14th, Phoenix on the 16th, Golden State on the 18th. Once we get past that, it just starts to feel like there's not enough games. That with as calculated as this organization is, as this culture is, as Tatum and his team are about coming back the right way, that they would just throw him into the mix with so little because you. They think about Tatum in general when a season starts, he's a slow starter, right? Like, he's been a slow Starter. And so you coming back from this injury, you got to get mentally right. I saw, I saw our guy Dana Barrows today was on Instagram talking about like how he had this ankle injury that like he could have come back from. Took him a year and he's like I was ready physically like probably eight months into it, but for four months I was like damn, why is everybody moving so fast? Like it took me mentally like catching up to it it and it just feels like you're setting yourself up for, I don't want to say failure, but you're setting yourself up for the potential of long term failures that can steamroll if you don't do this comeback properly. And I'd rather just roll with this team than force it if it's not there.
- [36:27]
Mike Gorman
I would say the absolute last possible date would be Celtics Hawks March 27th because that's the 10 game mark. So there's, there would be 10 games left in the season there. So I'm going to say that's the last possible date. If we don't see him by that day, I'm pushing it back, holding out hope, but I do think he needs 15 games. But who knows? Who knows man?
- [36:48]
Will
I'll tell you what Greg, I don't disagree with you, but I would push it Back to the 22nd against the T Wolves as the last date only because there's two back to backs that come after that Hawks game. No chance the Celtics are playing him and I a back to back. Right. So that would be the only thing that I would say is is probably the 22nd would be the drop dead date which is right after the, the three game home stand that, that I mentioned. There's one road game against Memphis in between and that's where it seems to kind of be nice to have a cushion to come back. Right. Because it's Washington at home, Phoenix at home, Golden State at home. Go to Memphis for one game, then you got three more home games. Minnesota, okc, Atlanta. So you're back for, you know, about two and a half weeks and you only play one road game. Like that's kind nice way to you know, react re acclimate yourself is in front of your home crowd for the majority of it. So yeah, I think that's the, the biggest window that we're looking at. But we'll see no real, no real major updates, no video drops as far as practice and all that since our last podcast. So not too much to speculate on. Greg, before we wrap up tonight, I just want to kind of look quickly at the NBA standings. As we've talked about before, some Celtics backdoored the 4020 club. So technically it's supposed to be 40 wins before 20 losses if you go back and kind of really look at it. But yeah, Celtics still put themselves in position. Here they go 40 and 20. So if you include them, it's them, the Pistons, the Thunder, and the spurs that officially kind of break that rule. What are, what are you snickering at over there?
- [38:22]
Mike Gorman
It's just not the rule. The rule is it's, it's 40 wins before 20 losses.
- [38:27]
Will
I know. That's, that's why I said, like, they, they backdoored it. That's what I'm saying. Like, it'. It's not, it's not technically, but, you know, 4020, they're in, they're in that mix. Then when you look at the kind of top 10 teams in both offensive and defensive rating, it's actually a pretty crowded group right now. Okc, Spurs, Pistons, Knicks, Rockets, T. Wolves and Celtics all qualify. So a pretty decent list of, of contenders here. But Greg, I think the basketball is getting really good just all around. Like, I'm enjoying a lot of these playoff intensity matchups, like, even out there, outside of Celtics games right now.
- [39:01]
Mike Gorman
Yeah, I was really upset with myself today because James went down for his nap around noon, and that was when the Knicks and Spurs were starting. I ended up watching a little bit of the first quarter and I was like, I could watch this game or I could take a nap while my kid naps. And I ended up taking the nap. So I woke up, I saw the Knicks blew out the spurs, and I, I kind of caught up on the game from there. But the Knicks continue to be a team that I think is probably the team that comes out of the East. If I'm being completely honest with myself,
- [39:30]
Will
I think that was their seal on today. That, that, that was the, that's the vision, right? For the.
- [39:34]
Mike Gorman
Did you watch the whole game?
- [39:36]
Will
No, I, I, I watched most of the first half and then a little bit of the third quarter, and then I had to go out somewhere.
- [39:43]
Mike Gorman
So what'd you say?
- [39:43]
Will
So I missed the end of it. So, I mean, what I saw was their defense was so much better than I've seen in, in recent viewings. Right. Like, I mean, I just think they're, they're inconsistent, which is crazy, but, like, they have the bones of it to be a good defense. Like when I watched them against the Pistons and like, Cade just carved them up. Maybe it Was just Cade being that exceptional. Right? Like, I like, Cade's on a crazy runner. He's the only kid's. The only guy I would put above Jalen Brown, the Eastern Conference this year. Like, Cade's been. Been that good. And I was watching, I'm like, Nick's. Like, you guys theoretically have a team that I should look at when it's Nick's Pistons and it's like over seven games. You can throw og, you can throw heart, you can throw bridges, you can throw, you know, Alvarado to be a pest. You can throw Sohan in there. You know, Dor is like a long body that's, you know, which I didn't. I didn't see how many threes he got up today, by the way, the Grant Williams special. Yeah, that's wild. But you have all these bodies that I would think, like, add up to more, and you got Mitchell Robinson on the back. And the Knicks defense has, for the most part, pretty underwhelmed me until today, where I was very impressed with their defense. Even early in the game, they were struggling offensively. The defense was keeping them in, and then their offense kind of. Kind of took off at a. At a later point. And, you know, now, like I said, they're third in offense, they're ninth, and deep defense, like, that's kind of a really winning formula for New York. And I'm with you. I think at their best, they're still the team I would pick to come out of the east right now before any potential Jason Tatum comes back. And it's hard for me to see anyone besides them if they can perform to that level. But that's the thing. They might not. They just might not show up one night. I don't know. That's the biggest question for the Knicks.
- [41:23]
Mike Gorman
For me, Yeah, I. I just think they. With Jalen Brunson, I'm such a big believer in what he can do in a fourth quarter. I just think he's absolute nails and crunch time, time. Cat is the big question mark. I. I don't think I'm breaking any news there. I've said that a million times in this podcast. It's just like everyone, like, I. I don't know that he can be your second best player in a. In a. On a championship team, but I don't know that he has to be for the Knicks. I think they have a. They have bridges, they have og. I think either one of those guys could be the second best player on a championship team. Now, I do want to talk about One thing as we look ahead towards the playoffs, we'll. The Celtics have like, I think it's the third hardest strength of schedule remaining in the league. Definitely a top five. I can't remember exactly where they fall, but here are some of the, the names that they play. They're just the teams that they play. Milwaukee, Charlotte, Dallas, Cleveland, San Antonio, okc. You get some easy ones. Washington, but then you're back with Phoenix. It's a tough team. Golden State might have stuff back. Memphis is a easy one and you get Minnesota, okc, Atlanta, who looks good with Kaminga. Charlotte again, Atlanta again, miam, Milwaukee, Toronto, Charlotte again, New York Knicks. And then you end the season with the Pelicans and the, the Magic. But having, you know, two games against the Thunder, three games against the Hornets that are playing really good basketball, a game against the Knicks in there. We have some tough games coming up and I, I really interested to see if Tatum doesn't come back. This team that we've believed in all year, do they really have the bones of a contender or is it just because they haven't played some of these top teams yet in the, in the, the league?
- [43:03]
Will
Yeah, this is something that did cross my mind as I was kind of doing some, some prep work here for like the last month and a half that we have left. It's like, man, there's a lot of tough teams on there, you know what I mean? And like the spurs and OKC are the teams with the second and third best records in the entire league. And we got to play OKC twice, right? Like, haven't played them at all. Minnesota, you just listed all the games that are, that are coming down the pipeline. And you know, we, we'll find out a lot. I mean, I do think that the Celtics, two of the things that really help the Celtics, that make them maybe a level below the highest level of contenders is one, they've been healthy all year, right. They've just avoided the injury bug. No major injuries, obviously, aside from Tatum being out. And that's helped them to be able to maintain that they have such a high effort level and that high effort level. When you don't have injuries typically, then you're able to kind of mask against anyone that may have more talent. Talent, but maybe they're on an off night or they're missing a guy, right. And you have all your guys, even if they're not, you know, to, to the same level. And those things, when you get to the playoffs, generally teams, if they're real contenders, they're Healthy and they're typically playing just as hard, right? And they're going to have all their guys and that usually kind of offsets and it's like, cool. You're gonna be plucky and you're gonna, you know, I think in the Celtics case, I would be surprised if they didn't make it to the second round of the playoffs at this point. But you know, they would be kind of a team where you're like, that's, that's where this, the, you know, the joy ride ends and somewhere in that, in that second, in that second round. So I'm really interested for this last run of the season here because I think it's going to be really fun and really interesting to see how we actually stack up against these other playoff teams, man. And like, you know, I think okc, because they are constantly in and out with people and they're finally getting some guys back, that's going to be a really fun test. And same with the spurs, because those two teams, they, they play just as hard as almost anybody night in and night out, but they have more talent also than most people. So I think those will both be some really good tests for the Celtics here. But yeah, I think it's a fair point to bring up. And you know, let me ask you this. Celtics right now have a game and a half lead on the Knicks for the two seed. They're three games up on the Cavaliers to guarantee themselves a home court in the first round. How much does home court even matter anymore? Is it just matchups? Like, is like, which I think it's like, does it like. Yeah, right. So that's why I'm like, I don't even know if I care if the Celtics hold on to the two seed. If it's like, if it more matters, who's the opponent would be in the second round? Is it gonna be the Cavs or the Knicks? Like, what's the better matchup? And that's.
- [45:40]
Mike Gorman
I would, I would almost like, if I really had to think about it, I would probably want to drop to the four seed so that we avoid the Knicks in the second round and then we play the Pistons in the second round. That would probably be my, my preferred PAT half towards Easter conference finals because I just don't think we match up well with the Knicks.
- [45:58]
Will
Yeah, it's. Yeah, I think the Knicks right now are tough to see us beating in a seven game series. And that might even be with Tatum coming back, to be honest.
- [46:07]
Mike Gorman
Like, yeah, they have a ton of talent on that team, man.
- [46:10]
Will
Yeah, it's just, it's just a matter of like those maddening games where it's like. And maybe a lot of it's just Cat because Cat's maddening. So maybe that's, that's just the epicenter of will the Knicks will rise and or fall. But yeah, that's, that's going to do it for this episode here of Green with Envy. This has been a Green with Envy post game live. Celtics get the big win against the Philadelphia 76ers, 114 to 98. As we mentioned, they're on a back to back tomorrow. They're in Milwaukee on a Monday night Bucks still without Giannis. I don't know if there's been any more recent updates as if to if or when he's going to play again. Likely won't be tomorrow night. We'll see who the Celtics have activated for that game. And then rest of the week home against Con canipple and the Charlotte Hornets on Wednesday night. We'll have something for you guys after that one. And then Friday night against Dallas, maybe Cooper flag. And then Sunday, another nationally televised game against the Cleveland Cavaliers. So fun week ahead here for the Celtics. Make sure you guys stay locked in with us here at Green with Envy. At Green Envy Pod. Hit us up on all of our socials, Twitter, YouTube, make sure you guys check out our tick tock. Tick tock's popping. Shout out to Alex here for getting that going. Keeping the clips coming, keeping them fresh, keeping them them hot. We appreciate you and yeah, Greg, any final thoughts here before we wrap this up and send everybody out?
- [47:29]
Mike Gorman
Shout out to Big D, the Portuguese Beast. Let's go, baby. Keep it rolling.
- [47:32]
Will
Let's go. We'll see you guys later in the week. Peace.
- [47:44]
Mike Gorman
Until I hit the floor
- [47:48]
Will
Every time I get this high it's you I find it don't take much no more until I'm at your door. Why have I asked my electrician I found on Angie.com to bury my pet hamster?
- [48:05]
Mike Gorman
I was so moved by how carefully
- [48:06]
Will
he buried my electrical wires, I knew I could trust him to bury my sweet nibbles after his untimely end. This is very strange, Angie. The one you trust to find the ones you trust. Find pros for all your home projects@angie.com.