Greg Monakis (3:05)

Yeah, Celtics were up 13. It looked like they were like really locking in. And then Jalen, for whatever reason, just decided it was his show for three minutes in, in that third quarter. And Joe took him out of the game. Joe was like, dude, what are you doing? And he literally took him out of the game, put Jordan Walsh in. He got that nice steal. And, and you know, that was, that

Will (3:27)

was the one time I thought that

Greg Monakis (3:29)

was the one injection of energy, right?

Will (3:30)

Jordan Wall. Yeah, that was the one time where I was like, okay, we can turn this around. We don't have to just go down this rabbit hole of embiid taking over. And be was good in this game. Like, I like, I don't like Joel Emi. He's one of my least favorite players players in the NBA. He was good in this game. But yeah, we, we did a lot of this to ourselves and it feels a lot like some from last year. Right. Like we know exactly where this goes to. And you know, I, I do hate to. To pile on Jalen Brown, but he kind of deserves it tonight, you know, -17. And to me, like you kind of said it right, like the way it, it felt like Jalen Brown was trying to prove he could close the series out on his own. Like, that's, that's what I interpreted what I watched out of Jalen Brown the second half. And early in the second half, I was getting very concerned with some of the decisions that he was making. And it seemed to spiral throughout the team. There's other things that we're going to talk about, but from a tone setting aspect of your best player all season, that's where it feels like this game that, that's where it kind of starts. It ends there as well. But. But that's definitely where it starts.

Greg Monakis (4:40)

Yeah, he needs to be better. We've been giving him praise all season, right? So when he has a stinker, we have to call it what it is. We've been calling Jalen Brown's top three MVP all season long. We've been over here just like on Jalen Brown corner for 82 games. And then, you know, we've been defending him so far in the playoffs, even though he hasn't played up to the standard that he set for himself over the first 65 games of the season. I mean, we can talk about him. We can talk about Derrick White. You asked me like, well, I mean, hey, listen.

Will (5:11)

I mean. I mean, Derrick White didn't play tonight, so I think it's a little weird if we're gonna. If we're gonna go ahead and pile on a guy that. That didn't even play in the game today. Like, I mean, if I could even think of one thing Derrick White did, maybe we could talk about it. But I don't think there's a thing Derrick White did in this game. I really don't.

Greg Monakis (5:26)

He was just.

Will (5:27)

Greg, can we give him the honorary Tobias Harris award? Because he just. He. He. Damn. He apparently.

Greg Monakis (5:32)

He apparently invoking the name of Tobias Harris. Okay. Yeah. I mean, that's. White is looking like, man, 36 minutes of blah, just nothing out there on the court. 97, 94.

Will (5:45)

I love what Joe did to start the game to try to get Derek going. Got him going with. Tried to get him two floaters in the lane. Not three point shots because it's not going. And we've talked about this in one of the other earlier pods in the series, like, get that little floater, get a little more of his usage going. And Joe tried to do that early in this game. Ended up proving or not. But I. It was something I had noted at the very beginning that I was like, all right, I like. I like what this is. And it. I. I don't know, man. I don't know what's going on with

Greg Monakis (6:12)

our guy, but 97, 94. Celtics are starting to have a little bit of momentum. Ball swings to Derrick White, left corner three. And I don't know about you, but I was like, that's not going in. Like, all. All Derrick White this. This season, I've been. I've at least been holding out hope that that shot's going in. And tonight was the first time I was like, why? Like, God damn it, Derek White shooting the shot right now. Like, there's no way that thing's. And it just got me thinking, like, where was Peyton Pritchard in that fourth quarter? Where was Peyton Pritchard?

Will (6:42)

Like, Sam, that's my next point, man.

Greg Monakis (6:44)

You hit two threes. Okay, fine. But Joe, like Sam, they have not been able to guard Peyton Pritchard this series. Where was he in the fourth quarter?

Will (6:52)

He scored 32 points last game. Greg. He cooked the entire city of Philadelphia in Game 4. He's the only Guy that played meaningful minutes in this game that has a positive plus minus. And he didn't play two the entire first eight minutes of the fourth quarter. I think he closed the third quarter, but he didn't play any play the first eight minutes of the fourth quarter. As that game is slipping away, like, even if you're not taking out Sam because he hit those shots, take up Derrick White. Like, I'm sorry, Peyton Pritchard would have been better. Better than Derrick White in those moments. Like, I understand that the defensive reasons for that, but at this, it's. It was. It was really baffling where, you know, I joked to you and Alex in our group chat, I was like, did I miss Peyton Pritchard getting hurt? Why is he just not on the. On the court here as this game is slipping? Say he's been your best player or not your best player, but he's been one of your best players over the last three games. Like, no doubt about it. So that. That was. That was Joe's biggest head scratch for me. The rest of this kind of falls on the Derrick White, the Jalen Browns. You know, Nemi was in foul trouble all game. When he was able to stay out of foul trouble, I thought Nemi was okay, but I mean, it's. It falls on mostly Derrick White and Jalen Brown is where it mostly comes down.

Greg Monakis (8:04)

Yeah, Tatum was okay in this game. I thought his fourth quarter was kind of disgusting as well, where he just.

Will (8:09)

Everyone's scored 11. It was gross.

Greg Monakis (8:11)

I mean, someone has to step up and be a leader in the fourth quarter. And they all just started pointing fingers, right? They all wanted to do it on their own. Nobody was doing it on their own. And when we say they all, we mean the Jays. It was Tatum and Brown because Derrick White, like you said, he just stood there. He didn't do anything. Neemi, I thought, brought a lot of energy in the fourth quarter. I think you had to go to Nemi just because Embiid was really good. We can talk about the Sixers here in a second. But Vuchovic just couldn't do anything with Embiid. So I think Joe wanted to try and slow Embiid down, putting KEDA on him so they wouldn't have to send to Adam B. Because you saw what happened when they did send to. But yeah, Tatum and Brown just. They didn't play like superstars tonight in a game where I don't even know if they needed to play like superstars. They just needed to be good.

Will (8:59)

And they weren't even in the second half, it was. It was. I mean, in the first half, I think I didn't really have much like, I thought the first half went kind of the way the Celtics wanted it to for the most part. You could probably nitpick some stuff just that second half. Just such a disaster in that second half, man. Every stereotype that people would want to put on the Celtics team too much. My turn. Your turn. Shooting. You know, basically you deliver, die by the three. You make threes, you win, you lose. Three. You don't hit threes, you lose. Like, the Celtics are defining their stereotypes. Even though I feel like we spend all season being like, this team is so much more than what these, like, high level attributes that are associated with them are. And at the end of the day, when they lose, like in the Knick series, like in a night like tonight, you kind of have to sit back, look in the mirror and be like, those kind of held true tonight. Kind of held true that. That.

Greg Monakis (9:52)

What's interesting, though, in this game, they only took 39 threes in this game. And I think that has something to do with Philadelphia's approach on defense, because I do want to talk about how great Philly was. I thought Maxi was awesome on defense. I think Jalen not being able to solve Maxi at the N is really concerning. And if they're just gonna let Maxi play ISO defense on JB and he can't take advantage of it just because they. That that's what happened tonight. They weren't sending help. So JB was like, okay, I'm gonna go one on one against Maxi, and he just fell into the trap, right? The Celtics figured they would just live and die with Jalen and ISO at the nail, and he. He was unable to deliver. And then he just, like, got in his own head, started making the wrong reads, forced up a lot of shots at the free throw line. Just like, ugly, ugly shots. But I think a lot of it had to do with Maxi just playing really good defense in isolation. And then, you know, I think Nick Nurse deserves some credit because he went Quentin Grimes over Kelly Oubre, which is something they probably should have done two games ago because Grimes just. Every time he's on the court, he's bringing energy. He's hitting three pointers, he's playing solid defense. So there was just. I think that the defense that Philly played and then Joel Embiid just looking like an MVP again. Joel Embiid was awesome in this game. I hate giving Joel Embiid credit, but he deserves it, man. He Completely dominated the second half. He slowed the game down. He allowed the Celtics to, I mean he allowed the Sixers to just kind of play off of him. And he went into the post. You know, the whole thing with Embiid is like, are you going to settle for jump shots and threes? Are you going to be the seven foot beast that you are? And he was a seven foot MVP tonight.

Will (11:30)

Yeah, I mean their big three is, is really what is the difference? Plus, plus what Quentin Grimes gave them off the bench. And that's kind of their recipe, right, Is can we get our big three to be the big three. And then between, you know, Ed U and Grimes, can we get one more guy to pop right? Like that's kind of their recipe to make it work. And tonight Paul George ends up with 16 points, nine rebounds, seven assists. And I thought played some, some really good defense for them as well. I thought he came up really big in certain spots. You mentioned Embiid. He finishes with 33 points, 4 rebounds, 8 assists, 12 of 23 from the field, 9 to 10 from the free throw line. I'd have to see when this updates here. I feel like he was settling early and him when, as soon as he stopped settling, the game changed big time for the Sixers. And then you mentioned Maxi, who easily his most efficient game. Right. That's been one thing Celtics have been able to do with Maxi, even when he's been effective, is make him inefficient. Tonight he was 10 of 18 from the field, had 25 points, 10 rebounds and five assists. And those rebounds are a part of, I think that defensive effort that you talked about from Maxi and Yeah, and then of course Quentin Grimes, as you mentioned, 18 points for him. He was a really big difference maker for them off the bench. Yeah, man, it's, it's tough. Joel Embiid really changed this game. Probably, you know, in that third quarter where he just, he felt like he hit every mid range jumper that he took. Right. And then he started getting post position in the, you know, parts of the second quarter, into the third quarter. And at that point then when you combine that with Grimes hitting shots, it just became really difficult for the Celtics to defend the way they wanted to. And Kata was in and out of foul trouble the entire night. That's part of it. And so you got to rely on Vuch, you got to rely on Garza. And the Sixers just made the Celtics make difficult decisions on, on defense all night.

Greg Monakis (13:18)

And you want to hear a fun stat, Will?

Will (13:21)

I'm sure it's not going to be that fun.

Greg Monakis (13:23)

But yeah, I'll hear it in the second half. Joel Embiid was 7 for 10 from the field. Do you want to guess what the Celtics were in the second half? Oh, my God.

Will (13:32)

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Greg Monakis (14:31)

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Will (14:34)

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Greg Monakis (14:36)

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Will (14:54)

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Greg Monakis (14:56)

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Will (15:01)

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Greg Monakis (15:02)

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Will (15:09)

7 for 32.

Greg Monakis (15:13)

Not that bad. 12 for 12 for 42. The Celtics only made five more field goals than Joel Embiid did in the entire second half. And Joel Embiid took 32 less shots. So that's not good.

Will (15:28)

Yeah, that's not good at all, man. It's. It's. This is a tough one, right? Because it felt like last game the Celtics had recaptured that mojo. Like, listen to the Zach Lowe podcast earlier today where it's like, so this kind of remind everybody, like, hey, the east is real weird, but remember, we're still the best team in the East. It's back to being weird again. Again. Like, I Don't know. Like Magic are up three one. Knicks are seeming like they're gonna, gonna go back up three two here on the Hawks. They're, they're up right now of 79, 62. Cavs, Raptors, God only knows. Like, I mean, I, I don't know what to make of this east anymore, Craig. It's just, it's all, every time you think you have it figured out, something happens. And now the Celtics are one and two at home. And you know, this is, this has been a trend that I really haven't been able to figure out. Like, even in the, the postseason runs, you know, to the finals, the Celtics lost multiple home games even in, you know, their, their road to the conference finals and finals in 22, 24. All these other years, like defending home court has continued to be a theme of the Jays era, that they have really struggled and I don't really get it. I, I, I honestly, I don't even have an educated guess as to why it happens.

Greg Monakis (16:43)

I just think they, like, when they were up 13 there, I, I just was watching their body language on the court and it felt like they just, they thought, hey, the game is ours now. We, we're gonna go on one of those patented Celtics runs, we're gonna hit 10 threes in a row and again it's going to be a 30 point game. And then they started playing hero ball. And that started with Jalen, as I mentioned earlier, but that I, I just think for whatever reason, they need their backs up against the wall just a little bit for them to feel like, like they're going to come with the right mindset. So I don't really know what to say, but I do want to give a lot of shouts to the chat because the chat is popping off tonight. So shout out to cool, genuine Phil who puts the blame pie. He says 60% JB 30, white 10 Joe. He also says the Sixers defense was solid. Mouthpiece617 Shout out to Mouthpiece. I haven't seen you in a while. Says we need to attack the basket hard. I do think some of that has do with Embiid playing much better defense in the second half and being willing to make the second effort. I thought Embiid was, was great. We got a comment here from yo z4w. Derek doesn't even, doesn't even spell Derek's name right. And I don't think Derek deserves his name spelled correctly. Yeah, it needs to be. Needs to put the podcast mic down and get back in the gym because he's going to blow the series. Yeah. Derek White has not been great shout out to our guys.

Will (18:05)

Do you know what Derek White is for the series from three.

Greg Monakis (18:08)

Greg God. 4 for 18.

Will (18:14)

7 of 32. Okay, so the percentages probably kind of line up. Yeah, that's, it's not good for a guy.

Greg Monakis (18:22)

Fred, he says, I'm not able to move off of jb. The non JT minutes shouldn't be minuses with a quote unquote MVP candidate on the floor. Dang. Freddie hitting him with the quotation marks. And then Freddie also says, has Drummond missed a three this series? Yeah, dude. When, when Embiid got hurt at the end of the third quarter and Drummond came on for a second, I was like, oh, man. Like, I kind of would prefer Embiid on the court to Drummond just because, like, Embiid had just dominated and I felt like he was gonna run out of gas. But Drummond came in, hit that corner three, gave them great minutes, and Embiid came back in and was awesome in the fourth quarter.

Will (18:59)

I think it's at least one a game. He's hitting that corner three. Right. So he's got at least probably five threes in this series. So he's basically matching Derrick White when it comes to three point output. So let's all put that in perspective. Yeah, that's, that's, that's not great, man. And I, I, I'm just so not used to. And this is the second game in the series where when it comes to Derrick White, like, we've seen him shoot bad, we've seen him be in shooting funks, but usually you still see these winning plays that you can point to. This is the second game in the series where I feel like I can't do that. And that never happens with Derrick White. Like, even like last game when he was shooting poorly, he had three blocks, had a big offensive rebound, and you know, you could point to these other things he. Tonight you just literally can't point to anything substantial that Derrick White did in this game. And that's the part that is leaving me just as a such a big Derrick White fan, it's leaving me so hung up on how to feel about our guy. Like, my guy. Like, I love Derek. Like, it's hurting me, man. It is hurting me to just D.

Greg Monakis (20:11)

Smart is playing better basketball right now than Derek White by a mile. What is happening? What is happening? Why is like, what happened when Artemis went to the moon? Like, did they exchange some sort of energies up there and, you know, put souls in different bodies Like, I don't know what is happening right now. Not great. J. Philly. I'm assuming this is a Philly fan. He says Embiid on the block is unstoppable. Celtics interior defense is weak. Good on the perimeter. Yeah, man, Embiid was really good tonight. And if that's the Joel, I'm like, smart money is that Joelle Embiid is not going to be able to do this again in two days after playing 38 minutes tonight and banging up his knee. But the thing is, like, they still have like Edgecomb hasn't been good for a couple games. They have a VJ Edgecomb game sitting there. They have a Tyrese Maxey scores 40 game sitting there. They have a lot of talent on that team.

Will (21:01)

I mean, Grimes is capable of 40, right? Like he's done 40 before. He's capable of 30, pretty for sure, you know, with the 18 points he had tonight. And you know, when we first talked about the potential of Joel Embiid coming back, like this version of the Sixers is what was scary, right? And it's been honestly the, the hidden gem of, of the Sixers has been how consistent and how good Paul George has been. Like, Paul George has been an absolute rock for them in this series. Like you can basically bank on it that he's been playing solid defense and then just having an all around game in every single game, even the games that they've lost. He just feels like you look at it and he's 19, 7 and 7 somewhere in that range. Like that's been Paul George every single game. And for all the he gets about being playoff p podcast P. Like he's for a guy who's gonna be in for a guy who's gonna be in the hall of Fame, who probably still thinks of himself as more than what he's showing here. Like, I do think the, the reserved Paul George deserves a lot of credit for, you know, for the Sixers still being alive in the series. Another comment here from JJ Philly. I think the Celtics thought that they would lay down in the third when down double digits. Sixers showed hard. I agree. Actually, I do agree with that comment. Like, I got sucked. You're a Philly sucked. You're a Philly Sixers fan, whatever. But I do agree, do agree with you on, on that comment so we can find common ground. But let's, let's start to look ahead here, Greg, because now I was really banking on Thursday off. I was looking forward to it. Thought it was going to be a nice week to just chill out, relax and catch up on some of the other series. But nope, nope, nope. Going back to Philly here for game six on Thursday night. Other than Derek White coming out of a coma, what are some of the things that, that you're looking for in game six?

Greg Monakis (22:55)

Let's see. As, as we look ahead to game six, I do want to give Alex, our producer, some love also. He says JB has to stop with the push off. He has at least one offensive file in each game. Yeah, that's definitely. I would like.

Will (23:09)

Green said he leads the playoffs and offensive fouls, which is not surprising because it happens once or twice a game. Yeah.

Greg Monakis (23:15)

And I, I would like for Jalen to figure out a way to play without using that battering ram as a, you know, just a way to create space. But that's the way he's played all season, you know, and I, I don't know what the difference is between what he does and what Shay does, except that Jalen is just like being very obvious about it, you know, Like, Shay kind of sneaks that chicken wing in there and Jalen just like, I think

Will (23:42)

it's also just so he's bigger and stronger. Right. So it looks, this is, this gets to like what a Jalen Brunson can get away with or know what? And even I hate when Joel Embiid flops because he does flop at his size. But there are things that he does that just look way worse that everyone else does, that's smaller and it just doesn't look as bad. Like there's a bunch of that stuff. And so I think Jalen Brown also just is bigger, stronger. It looks different than Che, who's a little bit like sleeker. Right?

Greg Monakis (24:14)

Like a cat out there.

Will (24:15)

Yeah.

Greg Monakis (24:16)

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Will (24:17)

Exactly. So I think some of it's an aesthetic thing, is my point. Point. Liberty Mutual customizes your car and home insurance to save you money. That's it. That's the ad. No bells and whistles. No, guys. I said no bells and whistles. No. Trombones are fine. Visit libertymutual.com and make the switch today. Liberty. Liberty. Liberty.

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Greg Monakis (25:19)

Yeah, no for sure. Yo Z4W says Missoula. Missoula needs to bench Derrick White and stop being scared to do it. You know, we were advocating for that earlier in the pod. We said it should have been Peyton Pritchard instead of Derek White in the fourth quarter or Peyton Pritchard instead of Sam Houser. But it shouldn't have been Derrick White and Sam House. They're both out there on the court.

Will (25:38)

Not playing the first eight minutes is criminal. Like I, like, honestly, I don't think Joe is the biggest part of. Of blame for, for this game by any means. In fact, I thought he tried to do his best to do the opposite of Joe Missoula instead of playing through. I thought he called a couple great timeouts to be like, guys, what. What the are we doing here?

Greg Monakis (25:55)

Right?

Will (25:56)

But, but not, not putting in Peyton Pritchard who's been hot for the last couple games. That just was crazy, man. I just like I, I still can't believe Peyton Pritchard just was on the bench while this all fell apart.

Greg Monakis (26:09)

Yeah, I mean, I, I don't know what, what even else to look for, man. Like I, I thought this game was the game. We're going to close them out. We're. We're the better team, I think. I think we're the better team, you know? Like, I don't, I don't even know anymore, man. Like the, the Sixers have so much talent on their squad that if like Tatum and Brown don't play at this level where they're getting everybody involved, but also being two way superstars and like doing everything because they are the differentiating factor. Like if you look at players three through 10 on each roster, it's like, I don't know like which 3 through 10 is like really better. Right? It's just. Are the Jays gonna ascend to the superstar levels that they are? But then you have Joellen Bead who's been an MVP in this league, man, like head to head. Obviously Joel Embiid has a terrible record against the Celtics in the playoffs, but he's still a former mvp and he's seven foot one and we've seen him be the most dominant player on the court many games in, in his life. So they're gonna have a lot, a lot to do. I think a lot of it has to do with just looking in the mirror and not playing selfish basketball and start playing Celtics basketball. So hopefully Jalen can, can learn from this game tonight. And Derrick White, hopefully he has, you know, as he's shaving his head, trimming his facial hair, he looks in the mirror and realizes that he's still the guy that Celtics fans know he can be, because he is not something.

Will (27:36)

I don't know, we got, we gotta, we gotta wake Derek White up, I

Greg Monakis (27:38)

don't know, knock some of his teeth out. You know, maybe that's what Derrick White needs. A playoff classic playoff trip to the dentist for Derrick White. Get him right.

Will (27:46)

Well, I mean, again, I hate to keep coming back, but I didn't even. There's not even a hustle play I could look to from Derrick White. And I don't say he wasn't hustling or anything obviously, but like there just wasn't that extra play from, from Derrick White that you expect to see out there. And that's, and that's really tough. And so some of this does come down to ultimately, Greg, the Celtics need to some shots, right? They went 11 of 39 from 3 and a lot of those looks were pretty good looks, right? Like, I mean, you end up with even Pritchard who are praising here. He was one of five from the three point line. Tatum was four of 12. I do feel like that especially, I think it was off of kind of like a loose ball. Celtics trying to, trying to get back into it maybe when it was down seven or five or seven, I can't remember. And Tatum got the ball and just the, the brick was so bad. It felt like he missed two shots in one shot. You know what I mean? Like, yeah, it was pretty deflating to be like, oh, I, this, this might not be our night if that's, if that's what's happening.

Greg Monakis (28:43)

And then he missed those two free throws. Like what? Like, yeah, I mean, Tatum had 24 and 16, four assists and three steals. Like it was. This game wasn't on Jason Tatum, but he didn't step up in the fourth quarter when we kind of needed him to do.

Will (28:57)

Yeah. And you know, it's. Again, Tatum's still coming back from the injury, so it always feels a little bit difficult right now to be like, hey, Tatum, we need you to do, to do more. But you know, we're one game away from our season being on the line, right? Like that's, that's. Now the predicament is that you're on the road with one, one more loss, one more bad half of basketball, and all of a sudden you're, you know, we've seen this play out, right, Miami game seven, make a great comeback and Tatum rolls his ankle. First play of the game and all the comeback doesn't matter, right? So you're putting yourself now in a spot where on the road if you can't get it together before we come back to a one game, literally anything can happen in one game. We've seen it with Grant Williams, we've seen it with Kelly Olenek. We've seen on the other side with Jason Tatum's ankle. You just don't know what that one game is going to bring. And it felt like it's just avoidable. That's, that's the ultimate downer of this is that it felt very, very avoidable. And you know, looking at game six, like you said, I, this is kind of what's great about playoff basketball is like there's not really much to be done adjustment wise, right? Like it's mostly going to come down to at this point, do your dudes play better than their dudes? Like your top dudes, do they play better than the other team's top dudes? And that's where it's, it's going to probably come down to the Jays. We need a little bit more Peyton Pritchard and of course Derrick White showing up like that's, that's probably the end all be all for this team come Thursday night.

Greg Monakis (30:24)

We got some comments and stats here from Alex in the chat. He says the Celtics free throws are a problem. 20 for 28 in Game 4, 14 of 23 tonight the Celtics are now 25 and 18 at home in the playoffs since 2021, 20, 22. They are 25 and 11 on the road since 22. It doesn't make any sense.

Will (30:47)

Such an elite playoff, like 25 and 11 is like a crazy elite number for road playoff games. And then 25 and 18 is just so pedestrian at the same time. Like it's, it's really confound. Do you even have any wild theories on why we struggle at home? Like I like it's, it's the same team. Like I don't really understand. I, I, I, I don't have a reason, reason for it whatsoever.

Greg Monakis (31:12)

I, I mean other than my TD guarding crowd can be a little overrated. Take that we have. That's the only thing is like the crowd I think at times can like their, their anxiety in their, you think

Will (31:29)

you think it waivers too much and

Greg Monakis (31:31)

like I, I think it's, I think it's kind of tangible and maybe it's because of the record at this point that they. They've seen the Celtics blow so many games at home that they just kind of are on edge and they don't give the players the energy the whole game. The. The players dictate the energy of the crowd more than the crowd dictates the energy of the game. And I do think that that's part of it.

Will (31:52)

I think maybe at the same time, like when. When we hit a couple shots, the place erupts. And it's one of the best home courts in the NBA. Like, you know, like it's, you know, it's tough. But let's, let's answer this question here before we. We wrap up on this one since we're coming back on Thursday now. Thank you. Celtics at Lucas special. And if this goes seven, what do you think happens?

Greg Monakis (32:16)

I think the Celtics win. I just like can't wrap my head around the Celtics not being in the second round of the playoffs. Yeah. History tells us that Joel Embiid loses in the playoffs and Jason Tatum wins in the playoffs. So I think that's going to happen in Game 6. I think the Celtics take care of business in game six. I think it's going to be a hard fought game, just like game three was. But I think they figure out a way to get it done.

Will (32:39)

Yeah, I feel like they get away with an ugly victory late. Right? Like something where it's like almost Jimmy Butler s. We're like, I'm pretty sure that three is going whatever. Whenever Tyrese Maxey takes the game winning shot in game six, I'm gonna feel like it's going in. It might rim out, it might not. And the Celtics are gonna somehow, I think, crawl out of Philly with a 4:2 series victory. I. Yeah, I. Even if this gets to seven, I just. I'm with you, Greg. I can't imagine a world in which Joel Embiid in his one, probably one of his most injured seasons, right. This is the year that he pulls off a 3:1 comeback to, you know, kind of flip the script.

Greg Monakis (33:19)

Stranger things have happened.

Will (33:22)

Like, it's, it's. It's not impossible, especially when you give that, you know, Tyrese Maxey and Paul George are there, right. So you could look to be like, well, he's never had this support, like these level of guys. Maybe Edgecombe, like you said, pops off again for another game too, and Grimes, so on and so forth. So there is definitely a script for it. But it feels like I still think the Celtics are coming out of the series and it's disappointing. Tonight, I still think this is all just as it's been all year. It's been an imperfect roster, Right? So shout out to Brad Stevens, executive of the year. Like, did a great job with what he had to do with all the salary cap minutia and getting around whatever and setting this team up to still be. Be incredibly successful this year. But we're seeing. And this is what's happening not just in this series, but in series all over the NBA. All the things that we pointed out, they're like, hey, maybe they're not as big of flaws. You know what the playoffs usually tell you? They're still pretty big flaws. Is like, what you're gonna see with a lot of these rosters. Just ask the Pistons. Just ask the Rockets. Ask a bunch of these teams that are like, you know, I think we can get by with these. And usually in the playoffs, those things become harder to do. And you're seeing a little bit bit of that with the cell team. And we knew that was going to be the case. So I. It sucks. I think we gotta battle through it as fans. And I think ultimately, come the end of Game 6, I expect the Celtics to be 42 winners in the first round.

Greg Monakis (34:44)

And I expect to be drunk, I'll tell you that. Yeah, I'm gonna drink. I'm drinking in the game. Luca special 599. What do I think happens over the next couple games? Greg will be drinking whiskey, so I know that's gonna happen.

Will (34:55)

I like it. So that's. Hey, right there. That's. That's reason enough to tune in Thursday night after game six. Celtics Sixers, Celtics up three two. They go for the close on the road. Road Warriors 25 and 11 since 20. 21, 22. Great stat from Alex on the road. See if the celtics can close this out and move on to round two. That's gonna do it for this green with nv. Post game live. Celtics fall to the sixers. It's three two. We'll be back Thursday night after game six. Appreciate everybody joining us in the chat, watching us on YouTube and Twitter, listening to us on the audio. Appreciate y' all as well. Five star review. Hit us up. Have a great day. See y'. All. Third day night. Peace. Every time I get this high I lose my mind. Every time I get this high it's you I find it don't take much no more until I'm at your dark.

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