← Green With Envy: A Boston Celtics Podcast
Green With Envy: A Boston Celtics Podcast
Payton Pritchard and the Celtics Put a Whooping on Luka Doncic and the Lakers
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Arby's Announcer
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Greg Banis
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Will
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Greg Banis
This is Mike Gorman and you're listening
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Will
to Green with Envy with Will and Greg. All right everybody. Celtics go belt to ass on the Los Angeles Lakers 111 to 89 now 20 on their West coast road trip following the all star break. We break it down for you. We give you the latest Jason Tatum update because it's that time of the year so you guys know the deal. This is Green with Envy lock in. Welcome into a Green with Envy's hope game live. Celtics over the Los Angeles Lakers in LA. Just that much sweeter when it's in LA. 11, 289. As always, your boy Will we checking in. How you doing? How you living? Enjoy as he does each and every time my best friend, co host and the coach of our podcast. A happy early birthday if you're listening to us here on a Sunday night. A happy on time birthday if you're listening to us on a Monday morning. And just maybe a belated birthday for listening to us in the future. To my guy, the one and only Greg Banis. Entering, leaving, appropriately based off the game we watch tonight, leaving his Marcus Smart year and entering his semi oula year. Happy birthday man. Glad to be here with you.
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Greg Banis
Well, where, where is the Lakers offense going to come from? Is it Luka Doncic? Is it Lebron James? Is it Austin Reeves? The whole reason the Lakers have these three guys is because they're supposed to be good at offense. I don't know what the hell happened. They certainly don't play defense.
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Will
They didn't break 90 tonight. And in a day and age where, you know, I think I saw the other day that Missoula's Celtics have. It's either three or four of the top 10 offenses of all time since he's become the head coach in a day where offense reigns supreme. And you, you think to your point, you're putting together a team where that's your identity. Right. Like we talk a lot about, the Pistons have a star and an identity and that's part of what makes them so great. Identity of the Lakers is we have three ball handlers. You can't stop. Well, if you can't put up 90, I don't think you're winning most nights. And tonight the Celtics put the clamps on. Just a masterful performance again. Second game of the road trip here for the Celtics post all star break again. I'm just keep repeating it because it's beautiful. 111 to 89 is the final here. And Greg, there's definitely a lot of guys that we got to highlight kind of individually, but I want to start just from kind of a. A high level, holistic view on this game. Yeah. Because you, you texted me or you texted in one of our group chats that that first half felt like some. Like there's levels to this. Right. Like it felt like a big time statement. And you saw from the early on, early on in this game that Joe Missoula had the idea of setting a different tone for this game to challenge the Lakers and all those guys that you mentioned and every. Basically every single one, that every single person that played for the Celtics was up to the challenge tonight.
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Greg Banis
So great to see, man. You know, when you think about the Lakers after last season, the One thing that J.J. redick said is we need to get in championship shape. I don't know who on that roster he was talking about because nobody's in championship shape on that roster. And the Celtics just went 94ft for 48 minutes. And they just put Luka Doncic back into his Nightmare from the 2024 Finals. That's why I'm wearing the hoodie. That's why I'm wearing the ha. That is because the Celtics made Luka Donches confront his worst nightmare, and that is Jaylen Brown, man. Like, Jalen wasn't on him the whole night, but Jalen was there and he was like talking to Luca. He picked his pocket a couple times and you know, he was. He was the Guy that was out here being like, I'm the MVP in this game. Can everybody stop with this Luca Doncic nonsense? Luca, Donkey Luca, fatso Luca doesn't play defense. Like, get this guy out of here with this MVP talk with Luka Doncic. He's not that guy.
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Will
Back. Yeah. Two. Two of the. My favorite parts of this game tonight were Luca getting exposed for doing the annoying Luca that people just seem to overlook. And I'm talking about he shoots a three, he makes it. He sits on the floor and complains. Ugo Gonzalez beats him down the court, gets an easy bucket. Luca again, complaining, not paying attention on defense. Ugo back door, cuts him, gets an easy bucket. Like, those are things that I love to see. And to your point, I think I was thinking about this during the game, and you have the built in history, the Celtics and Luca now from the finals, and you have this kind of growing narrative of Luca being placed. You know, even before Jalen Brown, it was kind of a Tatum argument, right? Where it was all these top five listens. Like, are we just ignoring that Tatum is 100, the more well rounded player out of these guys? We're just going to completely ignore that because Luca scores 33 and Tatum scores 29. 30. Like, we're just ignoring everything else that kind of goes along with it. Now this year, it shifted Jalen Brown. And Jalen, like you said, tortured him in the finals, tortured him again tonight at different points. And I feel like Luca, if we had to do an individual ranking of, like, players that Celtics fans. That draw the ire of Celtics fans. I think Luke, I don't know if he's at the top, but he's pretty. He's pretty close if he's not. I haven't really given too much thought about it, but I was. But Luke has got to be right there.
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Greg Banis
He's such a donkey, dude. He's such a donkey. Like, everything donkey from you, the Luca donkey. Dude, get that smelly ass out of here. Dude, I can't stand Luca. It's so great to see him just doing the same he was doing back in the finals, where Jalen is just out there like, bro, do you want to compete or do you want to complain? Because it seems like all you want to do is complain. And every time we play Luca, if he's not like cooking in the first quarter, he's holding his knee, he's pretending like he's hurt, he's doing all this stuff, it's like, dude, just play basketball. Will you just play basketball at some Point. Like, you're so goddamn talented, and you're just wasting, like, the prime of your career, being out of shape, not playing defense and complaining to referees like, what are we doing? It's.
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Will
It's.
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Greg Banis
But I. I do. I do want to shift to some of the positive stuff. Unless you've got more. I'm. I'm happy to cook Luca all night if you want to keep cooking Luca.
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Will
I got one more thing, because I was thinking about this as well, is I. I think everything that you just said is to Joe Missoula, the opposite of, like, the purity version of basketball is like, Luke is like, an insult to, like. I think IME was kind of the same way, actually. Right. Like, em. Eme And Joe Missoula feel like the way that Luka Doncic is like, that the way that he performs on the court despite his talent is an insult to, like, their belief in how basketball should be played. And I think it's funny because I think a lot of the traits that he has is also something that Joel Embiid does a lot of. And those seem to be two guys that the Celts are just like. We are going to, like, you might get some stats, you might score 30 points, but we are going to terrorize you. We are going to make sure that because we know you're out of shape, that it is shown for everybody to see, and we are going to humiliate you, despite the fact that you each might have 30 and 10. Like, you guys might have that, but you're going to lose by 20, and everyone is going to know that you're the reason why or you're one of the biggest reasons of that pie. And so it's interesting to think of how Missoula, in his four years, has attacked those two specifically because they live in this, you know, or MB did until basically recently with all his injuries, but lived in this rarefied air. And those are guys that the Celtics just kind of love to attack.
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Greg Banis
Yeah. And you just know Joe Missoula loves finding, like, mental frauds, you know, And Luca Donchic, Joellen Bead. I think those are two guys.
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Will
He.
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Greg Banis
He would have a staring mat match with and be like, all right, who's blinking first? And it's gonna be you, because I'm sure as hell not blinking. Did you see Joe Missoula addressing Bobby Manning in the press conference where Bobby Manning asked him if Jason Tatum participated in practice and Joe Missoul, dead stare, did not answer? Dead silence. That's exactly what would happen if. If him and Luca Doncic were in a stair match. Luca would blink first, and Joe Mizzou would be like, I got you. I got you. It's the same that, you know, Mike Tyson used to talk about back in the days. He would stare people in the eye, and then he would wait for someone to look away. And it's like the moment someone looked away, he's like, I know. I got him. And that's really what it is with. With the Celtics and Luka Doncic is like, everything that they do, as you said, is designed to expose his flaws. And they're going to make him play defense. Right the lake just go zone for majority of the game because Luca can't guard anybody. They pick him up. 94ft wasn't a good zone. Shout out to Baylor Shire, man, who played great defense on him all night. Shout out to Ugo, who is, you know, right there behind him. And the Celtics were just, you know, they were just menaces the entire night. They were making every single play. And I just kept thinking like, man, this is the. The purity that you talked about. The Celtics DNA that just traces back to the Larry Bird era and traces all the way back to the Bill Russell time. Like, this is the basketball that Celtics fans just appreciate and love. That play, dude, where Derrick White had the steal and then Ugo gets. Gets the ball, kicks it back to Derrick White, throws it up to Vuchevic for the alley oop. Like, that was. That is just like basketball in a nutshell that endears Celtics fans to the game. It's like that type of play, that type of effort, and it was just all up and down the roster, man. Like, give me anybody on the roster, and I'll tell you what, they did great tonight. It was phenomenal.
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Will
Well, let's go with the big dick Menace himself. Let's go with Peyton Pritchard, who put his Sir Arlen pain just on the table tonight. Payton pressure just unbelievable since he's gone to the bench, I think came in averaging just under 22 in his last seven games since he's gone to the bench tonight, 10 of 14, six and nine from three, four or four from the line. Finishes with 30 points, four rebounds, eight assists, another buzzer. Beat it. Like I was trying to explain to Lorena tonight because I. Because it was just. That first half was so great, such good vibe. And it ended on that Peyton Pritchard buzzer beat.
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Greg Banis
And she was like, were you just giggling to yourself?
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Will
Yeah, I was just like, oh, my God, I said something out loud. I don't Remember what exactly was it? She's like, what happened? I was like, so there's this. I was trying to explain it. I was like, there's this guy who like buzzer beaters happen, but they don't happen super frequently, especially to like one person. And he just keeps hitting them. Like, I don't know how else to describe it. He just keeps hitting him. It's funny as he went for this little stretch where he didn't hit him, and now I think he's hit like five in his last 13 games over, you know, whatever it is. And Peyton Pritchard, I think we got to start here because he was he unbelievable start to finish. Really came in and gave the Celtics a. A boost, right? I think probably that in that first quarter, early second quarter when the game was still a little bit tight, and that's really when it shifted along with all the other hustle plays that you're talking about. Pritchard was the offensive engine that kind of ignited everything tonight.
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Greg Banis
Oh, he was so good, man. In this Game, Like 10 For 14, 6 For 9 From 3. It Just Felt Like 30 Points On
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Will
14 Shots for your. For your Sixth Man Coming In. That's crazy, dude.
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Greg Banis
He was just so good. And there was nobody on the Lakers that. That can guard anybody really. Like, they don't have any good defensive players. Like poor Marcus Smart. It just looks like a corpse out there. Guys playing like 30 minutes a night for the Lakers and I mean Marcus might as well have been playing for the Celtics tonight as bad as he was. Big thanks to our sponsor BetterHelp for
- [12:39]
Will
partnering with us for this important conversation about mental health.
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This Steve Smith here, former NFL wide
- [12:44]
Greg Banis
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Will
So having a counselor and working with BetterHelp, that gives you an opportun 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.
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Arby's Announcer
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- [13:02]
Will
professional is extremely important. If you need someone to open up to visit betterhelp. That's better. H E L p.com89 to get started
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Greg Banis
with Pritchard though, man, like when he gets people out in space, he talked about it. I caught very briefly, he did the post game interview on the court and he was like, man, just like the ball. And they were like, you didn't have to put people on skates like that. He's like, this is just what I do. Like sometimes when, when I get the ball in space. I just like to, I, I just like to make my moves. Yeah, this is what I do. And it was great to have one Reggie Miller on the call tonight because he mentioned at the end of the game, you know, all the flack that he got because Caitlin Clark didn't like the comparison to Peyton Pritchard. When Reggie Miller was asked about who he would compare Caitlyn Clark to and she basically cried about it. It's like, well, he, he had a reason to compare Katen Clark to Payton Pritchard because Peyton Pritchard is a baller and he hits like, like deep 30 foot shots at the buzzer, like all this great stuff that Kate and Clark does. Yeah, Peyton Pritchard does the same, right? He's not, he's not like the face of the NBA like Kay and Clark is the face of the WNBA and women's basketball, but Peyton Pritchard is so goddamn good. And Reggie Miller, Jamal Crawford, who, you know is, is from the same area out in, out in the Pacific Northwest as Peyton Pritchard. And he was just talking about him all night. They were just singing his praises all night. It was great to see because Pritchard, people recognize that he's good, obviously six man of the year last year, but he doesn't get quite these moments that some of the other guys get on national TV where he just balls out. Like the Celtics used to famously give him, you know, the, the games against Detroit back in the day, the games against Charlotte where they'd be like, hey, yeah, like we don't really need like Tatum and Brown to do their thing. Let's just run it through PP so we can get his stats up.
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Will
And what do you have back to back triple doubles, like the last day of the season, like his year two and year three or something like that, when he got to. Got to run the. And I think it's really cool that we've had a chance to watch, you know. And this is the beauty of the Celtics having this culture, right, where we've seen a lot of these guys in their entire progression. And now you see when Pritchard is feeling it, number one, his teammates, including Jaylen Brown, who's going to be in the MVP conversation, are like, I trust you, man. You're cooking. Like I'm, I'm out the way. This is your show right now. And they feel that confidence through him. And you can watch him on the court in the way that he maneuvered, maneuvers, and especially because it's not. It used to just be like, oh, Peyton's hot from three. And that's how he got a lot of his points. Now he's like, come get this business. Inside the lane. Pivot, foot inside out. Use my body. Little, little chicken wing. Get. Get some space.
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Greg Banis
The Jalen Brunson special, man, I call. I. I've been saying it for years. He reminds me of right handed Jalen Brunson and playing off of two feet in the lane. I really think if you asked him, if you gave him truth serum and they had him in a candid moment and say, whose game do you study? I guarantee you he studies Jalen Brunson's tape because the, the way he plays off of two feet, it's just special, man. Like, not many guys can do it. Not many guys can do it at that size. But, you know, it's funny that you went to seeing Peyton Pritchard's progression, because as I was talking, I was like, man, how cool is it that Peyton Pritchard has, like, reached the potential that we hoped when we drafted him? You know, was it late first round or early second round? Whenever we drafted him, he was like,
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Will
like, like in the twenties. I forget exactly what it was.
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Greg Banis
Yeah, I want to say it was like late 20s, but maybe, you know, look. Maybe look. But yeah, man, just to see, you know, when, when he first joined the Celtics, okay. And we were like, man, Marcus Smart better watch out because Peyton Pritchard's coming for those minutes. And it didn't really manifest until Smart left the Celtics and Pritchard really had
- [16:39]
Will
to pump the brakes in the great white hope. We know what that does to the city of Boston when that happened. So we were like, all right, we can't.
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Greg Banis
We. We can't.
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Will
We can't put the, the gasoline on this flame right now.
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Greg Banis
Yeah. And then, but. But his rookie year, remember, he was like, starting to get some minutes at the end of games, and then he hurt his knee, ended up, like, losing a lot of momentum. That rookie year and, and coming out of Oregon, like, he was such an interesting prospect because he was undersized, Obviously a white guy, you know, spent either three or four years in college. I think he was all four years. And. Yeah, and he was just one of those guys where people like, yeah, he's, you know, he's an older. He's an older rookie. We don't know what he's going to be in the NBA. Yeah, he's going to be able to hit some threes, but, like, is he going to be able to compete? Is he Going to be able to hang athletically. And he is just every single year added something to his game. He's an absolute tank. Like nobody can. If you, if you try and back him down, you're not backing him down. If he takes you into the post, like you're getting pushed off your spot. All these things that Peyton Pritchard does are things that he's clearly had to work on and hone his craft on for the last decade. And it's, it's showing, man. He's, he's turning into a really special player.
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Will
And here's the biggest thing I think long term with him is, is we've said over the last couple years teams with that are big and with length can sometimes give him trouble. Those are just bad matchups. Now listen, Lakers not a good defensive team, but they're a pretty big team. Like overall, right? Like, and he was seeing Jared Vanderbilt, he was seeing Rui, he was seeing
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Greg Banis
when he put Jared Vanderbilt on his ass. Dude, with that step back three, that was, that was the highlight of the year for Pritchard.
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Will
Yeah. And, and so the fact that he's taking these guys on again, Lakers, not world beaters when it comes to the defensive end, but just the, the size of some of these guys that Pritchard's going up against that are 6, 5 and above, right? Like, and that's not giving him, not to say that you can't find defenders that would give him trouble that fit that mold, that are probably top tier. But, but that's kind of the point is like, you got to get to like an OG to be like, yeah, OG would probably bottle him up and have trouble with, but like, if you're going anywhere below like that top level of guys, Pritchard's just playing and he's cooking. It doesn't matter like what team, like, and he's going to find a way to contribute. And that even, just, you know, adds even more fuel to the fire when you think about, you know, Tatum coming back. And now it's like, okay, so now you got to choose your top defenders and like, you're not taking the OGs or whoever those top defenders are off, off of Tatum Brown. And so now you're leaving White and Pritchard back to deal with your third, fourth, fifth level defenders. And that's just so much trouble for the opposing defense. And Pritchard is, you know, I, I, I, I think just the bench roll. Some guys just, just, you know, that's just their thing. Like Jamal Crawford was on the call tonight. Him and Lou Will, that was just their thing. Those guys could have easily been starters in a lot of, lot of other positions. This might just be Pritchard's thing. It's just like, yo, let me be the sixth man. He played what, 30, just about 38 minutes tonight. Like he can still doesn't have to start, but he can still play 30 plus close to 40 minutes on nights when, when he's cooking like this. So I, I, I, it's been awesome to see him come back into this role and not regress and in fact actually take what he learned as a starter and seemingly just apply it to the, to his role that he's back in again. He was so successful.
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Greg Banis
Yeah, he led the team in minutes tonight. 38 minutes off the bench.
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Will
Let's talk about get him off the court. Yeah, Joe's gonna get him off the court though, when we're, we're up. Yeah, let's go. Jaylen Brown here. Just real quick. I'll give you his stats and I'll let you run with it here. He played 36 minutes, not the most efficient night. 10 of 28, 3 of 9 from the field. Did get to the free throw line 12 times, 9 of 12, 8 rebounds, 7 assists, 3 steals, 32 points plus 18. Another all around game coming off a triple double against the Golden State Warriors. Greg, have a way out of here. Wanted to get the, the stats out there for everybody though.
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Greg Banis
It just goes back to the, the quote that he had that we, that we referenced on the last podcast. We're talking about like how his game doesn't really translate well to the analytics of everything. You know, 35 from the field, 32 points on 28 shots. If you just look at the box score, you might not understand the impact that Jalen Brown had on this game. Be like, oh, Jalen's out there chucking or whatever. Like Jaylen Brown is, is playing the best basketball of his life and he's doing exactly what the team needs him to do. The defense that he has, like the playing defense in big moments, I think is what really stands out with Jalen. These, these plays that swing the tide of the game, these rebounds where he comes flying off the, off the perimeter and you know, two hands, grabs a rebound in traffic. Like all these things that Jaylen Brown does and when you see other guys hitting shots like Jalen, I think he's averaging like 12 or 13 potential assists a game this year. And you know, the last game he
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Will
had 20 assists in the last two games.
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Greg Banis
Yeah, it's because guys are hitting shots now. Like, Jalen creates guys. He gets guys open every single night. It's just the Celtics need him to do a lot, and he, he's willing to, you know, shoot through bad nights, and he's not worried about his field goal percentage. He's just out there doing what the team is asking him to do. And the defense that he had tonight, Luca, on LeBron, on Reeves, you know, everything that he, he needed to do and the Celtics asked him to do, he's willing to do it. And that's, that's just leadership. And that's what Jalen Brown, you know, has been all about this season. And it's great to see him do that. Back in la, after the whole Beverly Hills incident where, you know, he had that breakaway dunk hanging on the rim, and I was just like, imagine in Jalen Brown, you know, you know, flipping off the. The LAPD or Beverly Hills cops, like,
- [22:14]
Will
we must be best friends. I had a very similar thought. And also our friend who doesn really follow basketball, Texas about it today. And so it was kind of fresh in my mind. And as he was going for that dunk, I was like, I wonder if you would just hang on and just go, Beverly Hills.
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Greg Banis
Yeah.
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Will
Wait, what's the. Colin Sexton.
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Greg Banis
Oh, you didn't see him flip off the rim?
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Will
Oh, I did see that actually. Last week or something. Yeah, okay, I did see that. But yeah, I was thinking about that with Jaylen Brown. And, you know, as we're. We're live right now recording this here, I'm kind of of periodically refreshing NBA.com hoping we get the hustle stats, because I think. And Jaylen Brown was, was a leader in this tonight that I want to see is how many deflections the Celtics had. Not all of them ended up in steals. So I really want to see what the deflection numbers look like for the Celtics in this.
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Greg Banis
Yeah, the only, the only stat that like, kind of showcases exactly how dominant the Celtics were, I think, are the rebounds. The Celtics out rebounded the Lakers 61 to 47 in this game.
- [23:13]
Will
Game. Yeah, I mean, I, I, I think just in general, like, Jaylen Brown set, He set a tone, and he also closed. That's the part that I think stood out to me is when he closed the game out. Right. Because Pritchard did so many things that we already talked about. I think we need to talk about Nemus Ka here in a minute because he was awesome as well. But I, I think at the end of the day, one of the things that you look to from your superstars is you can have kind of an iffy game, game through three, three and a half quarters, but you got to be able to shut that door when the opportunity comes. And Jalen absolutely did that tonight. Right. And that's the thing that really sets the top tier superstars apart. Like I was watching Nick's Rockets last night. Brunson was kind of quiet, kind of bottled up towards the end of the game, and then he scored like 11 of their last 13 or something. I forget what the exact number was, but hit three, four massive shots down the stretch this game. You know, the. The Lakers in the fourth, I think they got it to maybe within either seven or eight, maybe nine, something like that. Where it. Okay, maybe they're gonna. Gonna come here and make a little run in. Jalen just put the kibosh on it, right. And then got it up to that 20 and then it was just waving the white flag. So I think that's the other next level here is, is there's two things. There's the allaroundness that Jaylen Brown is getting to showcase as he is the main guy. And then number two is, I think him being able to seize the moment, understand the moment, and know when it's time. Time to kind of put your foot on somebody's neck and just shut the door. And he did that tonight and extended the lead to a point where, you know, we had subs playing the last three minutes of the game.
- [24:49]
Greg Banis
Yeah. And you mentioned Keda. I do think. Excuse me. I do think we need to talk about how he just outplayed DeAndre Ayton for the second time this season. Like, straight.
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Will
Yeah, I mean, I was thinking about this because that. That was your. That was your. Okay. Why would I ever want deandre Ayton when I just have neemia scan beta? Like, that's the. The better player of the two. No doubt.
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Arby's Announcer
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- [25:37]
Greg Banis
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- [25:44]
Greg Banis
Yeah. I mean, he had three blocks in this game. Couple huge blocks on LeBron. Just. Just one of those guys. That is another developmental success story that the Celtics just keep pulling out. They're like all these guys that the Celtics have that are homegrown talent. Like, obviously Kada wasn't drafted by the Celtics, but we developed him. You know, Jaylen Brow, Sam Houser, Nemius K, Baylor Shireman. Derrick White has emerged with the Celtics. Peyton Pritchard, Jordan Walsh, Hugo Gonzalez, like all these guys that are homegrown products, it's. It's really special to see. And Keda turning into this level of player, it's. It's just a game changer because, you know, there's a lot of questions about whether or not Vuchevic might steal the starting role when the Celtics made that trade. And it's just no question. Nemi Escada deserves to be the starter for the rest of the season and for the rest of the time that he's in Boston is if the Celtics can afford him and at the end of next season. But he was just great tonight, man. You know, four for five from the field, had that monster dunk in traffic, hit both his free throws, 12 rebounds, four offensive rebounds. I feel like he had some big ones in the fourth quarter as well. He was just great. He's just great. And going head to head against DeAndre and the Lakers fans got to be like, what the hell? Like we're supposed to have the number one pick guy, you know, like, why do. Why do we have. Why is our. Our former number one pick playing worse than this guy who got cut by the Kings?
- [27:09]
Will
Any red flag for you with Keda that seemingly his over under for the number of times that he's going to fall in one game is about three and a half. Any. Any concern that he just constantly ends up on the ground at random points and either hits his head or the. The fall against the Warriors. I can't lie. I laughed when he fell over. He pulled the West Todd, which if you. If you know, you know. And I just, I just. I just feel like there's just a lot of times where Kada ends up looking like a baby deer and just is like, I'm like, K. He's on the ground again. He gets back up every time. But that, that's. That's. At this point, that's the only concern I have with K. Because the rest
- [27:49]
Greg Banis
of it's great, man. I'll tell you what, the Celtics wouldn't be able to survive without Nemi K. He's been that good?
- [27:53]
Will
No, he, he. Yeah, he. I mean, obviously Jaylen Brown's the MVP of this team, but K might be second just because of, of where he was, what the expectations were for him. And you know, I definitely was a guy that came in saying what he's given us right now would have. If you had told me what we were getting from Keita right now is what we were getting, I would not have believed you. I would have been like, maybe. I would say it's probably a bridge too far and he's maybe a level below what we're getting. But right now it's. I mean, if to your point that you said earlier, if the Celtics is here next year, the Celtics can find a way to get him on one of those team friendly four year, you know, Luke Cornett type contracts that we couldn't do this off season for Luke, but if we could do one for, you know, Nemi next year, like that's your starting center. I don't think we need to worry about a starting center. We need a long term backup. Maybe that's Fuch, maybe that's somebody else. But I, you know, if you can lock in Nemi this upcoming offseason, which I think that should be at the top of Brad Stevens priority list, like this is your center potentially for the next five years. And I feel great about it.
- [28:51]
Greg Banis
That's what I said when, when the Celtics didn't trade for Zubots. Right. I was like, trading for Vuchevic is a bet on Nemi's case. Keita, because you're. If you're going for Zubots, that means you don't believe Kate is your starting center for. For the next five to seven years. Trading for Vuchevic means you've seen enough from Keda. You understand that he is the guy.
- [29:13]
Will
Yeah. Let's go to. I want to bundle these next two guys here into one. And you've touched on it a little bit. I want to talk about Baylor Shireman and Hugo Gonzalez because the two of them, this is a lot for Joe to put on a rookie. Rookie and a second year guy where basically from the jump he's like, so you guys tonight, not a big deal, but you guys are gonna guard Luka Doncic all night, so good luck. And they were up to the task. You know, Luca finished with on the night. I think he was missing 9 of 9 of 22 and 19 complaints to the ref. 5 rebounds, 3 assists, finished with 25 points, only 2 turnovers. But. And I think, I don't know if it was Reggie or Jamal pointed this out and this is something that we've seen, as I mentioned mentioned, the Celtics do with Embiid, with guys like Luca who, they're just like, you guys aren't in shape. So what we're gonna do is maybe you'll get some buckets early, you'll get some buckets here and there when you get in the lane or get in transition. But if we just keep making you work, odds are you're gonna stop before we do because we've got the, we've got the cardio, we've got the bodies that we can continue to throw at you and you're not going to have the mental fortitude to be able to over. You're gonna have the mental fortitude or the physical stamina to overcome this. And, and that was a big part of what Baylor, Shireman and Ugo were able to bring. Just constantly harassing Luca. So I'd love to get your coach's take on, on their approach to, to just being in Luca's grill for most of the night.
- [30:36]
Greg Banis
I mean, I think that's actually a relatively easy job. To ask a young guy with energy is just to pick up 94ft, right? If it was somebody who played a little bit more of an unpredictable style of, of offense, it might be a taller task. But Luca, you know what he's going to do, man, he's going to dribble the ball up slowly against pressure. He's going to try and bait you into, into, you know, pump fakes, jumping on pump fakes, which he was able to get Ugo once, I don't even think he ever got Baylor. And he's just going to move at his pace. So as long as you don't fall for the fakes, you're just going to get in his grill and you're going to make him work. And those guys are two of the hardest working guys in the NBA. And when you go up against Luca, who's one of the, the like least hard working guys in the NBA, it's just such a stark comparison to see that juxtaposed against each other, offense and defense. And Baylor and Ugo were up to the task, man, as you said. And it's, it's on JJ as well for the Lakers. It's like you have LeBron, you have Reeves, just have them bring it up. Like, why are you, why are you guys having Luca deal with 94ft of pressure the entire game? Unless this is him trying to get in shape for the playoffs. Playoffs?
- [31:45]
Will
Yeah. I mean Reeves was really. Until the, until the last couple of buckets he got was kind of a no show in most of this game. Right. Like you didn't feel Reeves's presence at all. LeBron had a little bit of a run, but you know LeBron's 40, right? Like, there's only so much you can expect out of LeBron night tonight.
- [32:01]
Greg Banis
He looked 40. Yeah, he looked 40. First time.
- [32:04]
Will
He's a 40 year old, but he's 40. Yeah. So I, I mean, the Celtics tonight, I just think their identity was, you know, just too much for the Lakers. Their identity was, was what won them this game, their mindset. And they came out from the jump and it overwhelmed them. Do you have anything else that you wanted to get to here? I got one thing I want to go to outside of this game. Anything else that, that you had from this game that you wanted to hit on?
- [32:27]
Greg Banis
No, I'm good.
- [32:29]
Will
All right, so I wanted to look at this here, Greg. So the Celtics right now are 37 19. Are you familiar with Phil Jackson's 4020 NBA race rule?
- [32:38]
Greg Banis
I am. I don't know what it ends up meaning is. It just means you're a real championship contender.
- [32:43]
Will
Right. So it's similar to what I've used a lot, which is like if you have a top 10 defense and a top 10 offense, rating wise, typically that's at the end of the season, that's usually your, your pot of contenders. It's not 100%, but generally. So in Phil Jackson's 4020 theory, if you can win 40 games before losing 20 games, that's over 90 of the NBA champions since 1979 meet that criteria. So it's a pretty good meas take. So Celtics, I didn't think we're going to have a chance to really get to this, so I hadn't really put too much thought into it. But as they're 37 and 19 gr, let me read you the. The next four games Celtics have here. So they're halfway through this west coast trip. We've got a day off and then a back to back coming up here Tuesday, Wednesday, Phoenix, who just lost Dylan Brooks, he broke his hand or fractured his hand.
- [33:31]
Greg Banis
He's out for a walker out.
- [33:33]
Will
So I'm not sure I have to double check that. But if that's the case, Phoenix, either way, undermanned. Denver kind of constantly dealing with some, some injuries, but of course, still Denver still Jokic, still Jamal Murray Co. Still, let's have a day off. They come back home and then they've got Brooklyn on Friday, followed up with Philly in that March 1st game that's been so, so talked about on Sunday night. That got flexed into Sunday night basketball for next week. So those are your next four games. Games. Celtics got to go 3 and 1 to hit that 4020 rule. There's a good chance that they hit that rule. And that's really crazy to think about from where we started the season when we lost three games in a row. If you're like imagine, think back to the podcast we did, which was hilarious. I kind of want to go back and listen to it because it's so stupid now. When you think about how everything else that has happened here. I think at one point we surmised guys might not win a game until. What does the season start in October? I think we said November. Yeah, they might go a whole month.
- [34:37]
Greg Banis
We thought we were gonna have the pacer season, man. We really did.
- [34:39]
Will
Exactly.
- [34:40]
Greg Banis
But Booker is out. So Burks and Booker both out. Aaron Gordon, Pton Watson still up for the Nuggets.
- [34:46]
Will
So Celtics got to go 3 and 1 in this stretch to hit the 4020 rule. I think they get it done, man. Like, it's lining up that this is a path for them to find. And again, it won't necessarily really definitively make them a championship contender, but for them to get here and Jason Tatum still hasn't come back, that's remarkable, man.
- [35:09]
Greg Banis
This is probably the most fun I've had watching a Celtics team since the Isaiah Thomas here, where that was just like so out of the blue, like, nobody saw that coming. Nobody saw the king of the fourth. Nobody, aside from a handful of people, saw this coming out of the Boston Celtics and they are, excuse me, I'm struggling here. They are the fourth. Fourth best record in basketball right now. Only the Pistons, the Thunder and the spurs have better records than the Boston Celtics at this point in the season. It's remarkable.
- [35:40]
Will
Yeah, we're going to do a deeper dive here later this week on just the Celtics, the the east landscape. Joe Missoula for coach of the year. We got a special guest coming on here that we'll have later in the week to help break us down with all of that because it really just has been been that special of a season. And so for the Celtics to be on the precipice here of a 31 record against a banged up Phoenix, a banged up Denver, a Brooklyn team that's looking towards next year, and then a showdown with Philly, which Embiid is banged up as well, too shocker that. You know, I don't know what his return date is, but he was getting evaluated over the break, as far as I know. I don't think there's been a return date set. And of course, everyone's eyes are peeled to that game as potentially a return from Jason Tatum, which leads us into probably our final topic of the night here. Greg Tatum watch. Dun, dun. Did you like that? I put Brian Fantana in the thumbnail.
- [36:33]
Greg Banis
Yeah, I saw that.
- [36:33]
Will
Yeah.
- [36:34]
Greg Banis
Made me giggle.
- [36:36]
Will
Tatum, watch day 35. We got the latest updates here or in latest by updates, by the way. All I'm saying is we got maybe some new info. And to Bobby Manning's question that Joe Missoula did not want to answer. Answer. We got a photo of him participating with the actual Celtics. So last week, Tatum gets activated and practices with the main Celtics this week as they had two days off between the warriors in the game plan against the Lakers. They had the opportunity to practice. We get some still shots. I don't believe there's any video. I didn't see any video. Unless. Unless you did. I just saw the. The still frame of him driving against Luca Garza with an active shot clock in the background, which some are like, hey, this is a live scrimmage. Potentially trying to ramp Tatum back up the broadcast today. They mentioned the quiet work again, the documentaries getting momentum. It feels like it's happening, Greg. It just has to happen. Like, I can't. Like this is too much buildup and too much. Just too much buildup for it not to happen. Right. There's too much going on. Too much smoke.
- [37:39]
Greg Banis
Yeah. Yeah. We don't need collective blue balls as. As Celtics nation like this. This needs to happen. We need. We need to reach the climax of this. Of this retirement turn.
- [37:49]
Will
Yeah. No more edging. I think we're. I think. I think we're ready. I think we're ready for this one
- [37:52]
Greg Banis
to reach the oven. The oven is. The oven is beeping. It is. It is ready to cook. Insert Jason Tatum. Insert Jason Tatum here.
- [38:04]
Will
Man. A lot of. A lot of stuff you can do with what we just said right there. But, Greg, So we're two games away from hitting the home stretch where, as we've said here a couple times now, between the 27 7th and probably about the 18th against the Warriors. Like, that's the window. Are you bold enough to. To officially lock down a particular date that you think it's definitively happening?
- [38:26]
Greg Banis
I'm ready to buy tickets for the Celtic spurs on March 10th. Let's go.
- [38:30]
Will
Well, that's coming. I'm getting those either tonight or tomorrow. So we're going to be locked in on that. So if you guys are going to be at if anyone here is listening, that is in Texas is going to be at that game, hit us up, slide into the DM celticsnoise gmail.com Would love to connect with you guys. We will be in San Antonio for that game and hopefully we'll get a chance to see Jason Tatum in that one. But Greg, I think we're gonna wrap it up here for tonight because like I said, we got another podcast coming here in a day or two. We're gonna deep dive into the Eastern Conference, the playoff picture. Joe Missoula, how this season has come to be and what to expect down the stretch. But any final thoughts here, Greg, before we sign off on this one?
- [39:07]
Greg Banis
Nah. Thanks everyone for rocking with us, man. Let's keep it going.
- [39:11]
Will
Okay? Happy birthday. So make sure if you guys are listening here, shout out. Make sure you give Manakus music a follow here. Wish him a happy birthday. Year 37 coming on the book 37 man. Late offic. I think you you've already said this officially late 30s starts in approximately three and a half hours. How you feeling?
- [39:31]
Greg Banis
Existential crisis begin.
- [39:36]
Will
All right. Hopefully Greg's still still doing okay by the time we check in with you guys later this week. But again, Celtics 11111289 over the Lakers belt to ass. Enjoy the rest of your Sunday enjoy the rest of your Monday for listening to this the day after the game and we will catch you guys later this week. Peace. It don't take much no more
- [40:03]
Greg Banis
Until
- [40:03]
Will
I hit the floor Every time I get this high it's you I find it don't take much no more until I'm at your door.
- [40:18]
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