EMBRACE THE NOISE: Why Joe Mazzulla Doesn't Want Celtics To Avoid Negativity

Summary

Locked On Celtics – EMBRACE THE NOISE: Why Joe Mazzulla Doesn't Want Celtics To Avoid Negativity
March 25, 2026
Host: John Karalis (JK)
Guest: Tom Westerholm (TW)

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Episode Overview

In this thoughtful and lively episode, John Karalis and Tom Westerholm dive into the Celtics’ mindset as the regular season’s spotlight intensifies. The central theme revolves around head coach Joe Mazzulla’s philosophy: rather than urging his team to “block out the noise” of media and public opinion, he wants players to embrace it—and ultimately negate its power.

The episode covers:

• How the Celtics and Joe Mazzulla deal with outside criticism and attention
• The psychology of handling media scrutiny and “noise”
• The team’s internal chemistry, highlighted by the Celtics’ “Board Game Bros”
• Playoff standings, seeding scenarios, and how the rest of the season may unfold

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Key Discussion Points & Insights

1. Embracing the Noise: Joe Mazzulla’s Philosophy

[01:41–12:49]

• “There’s no such thing as noise.” (JK, 01:41)
  • John recounts practice discussions on how the Celtics can't realistically avoid external opinions, especially with the increased national TV exposure.
  • Joe Mazzulla’s approach: instead of shielding oneself, let the noise in so it loses its power. Don’t hide from criticism; accept it as part of the privilege of being in the NBA.

“Don’t turn your phones off. Because it gives you, it still gives the words the power. You’re hiding from the words. Let it in, but make it so they don’t bother you. Take the power away from the words.”
—John Karalis (05:04)

• Mazzulla aligns this with his expectations of his players facing criticism, particularly referencing Jason Tatum's handling of scrutiny.
• Tom agrees, expanding that being in the NBA means you’re “where everyone wants to be”—and so even the negatives are, in some sense, part of the dream.

“Everybody wants to be where you are, and you want to be where you are...trust me, this thing that you think is bad, where there’s noise on social media and all this stuff, it’s okay...You wouldn’t change anything about this.”
—Tom Westerholm (06:47)

• The idea: Build mental “immunity” by repeated exposure, similar to the Princess Bride’s iocane powder. (JK, 09:10)
• The healthy way is to process, compartmentalize, and move on—since ultimately, “what matters is what’s in the locker room and what impacts winning.”

“Once again, I think Joe Mazzulla distills everything down to what matters and what doesn’t...Don’t hide from the noise, don’t shut it off. Take it in, accept it all, listen to all of it. So it just becomes dumb and you just go, ‘oh god, this is so stupid. Why was I ever bothered by this?’”
—John Karalis (11:54)

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2. Media Relations: Longevity and the Permanent “Noise”

[09:40–12:49]

• John uses his own long tenure as a beat writer as an example of the unavoidability of media in the NBA: media members outlast every player’s career.

“I will be in that locker room longer than any player’s career. You’re not getting rid of us, you’re not getting rid of me...So embrace it, soak it in, accept it and say, ‘okay, I just got to answer the questions of the media.’”
—John Karalis (10:26)

• Media figures (and “talking heads”) often thrive on hot takes; players should learn to compartmentalize those opinions.

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3. Handling Criticism: The Jalen Brown Example

[12:49–14:08]

• Tom references Jalen Brown’s experience with ongoing, often unfair criticism as a model for facing adversity and using it as motivation.
• “You can choose how you respond to the noise or how you don’t respond...” (12:49)

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4. The ‘Board Game Bros’—Team Bonding or Just High-Stakes Craps?

[17:56–24:54]

• The Celtics’ culture is highlighted by a wholesome feature: younger players bonding over the board game Catan during plane rides.
• But Tom, an experienced player, reveals that Catan with money quickly resembles an “evolved version of craps”—a dice game with stakes and chance.

“Catan with money on it is basically an evolved version of craps, right?...I mean, everything that I laid out to you is craps. That’s what we’re talking about here.”
—Tom Westerholm (19:09)

• The segment humorously compares today’s Celtics’ “wholesome” fun to the rowdy card games and arm wrestling from the Garnett-Pierce years.
• There’s competitive fire beneath the Celtics’ mild-mannered appearance, and John speculates future stories will surprise fans.

“You put all those egos and all that competitiveness and all that money onto these team planes—there’s no doubt that things get crazier than any of us even know. And I’m sure, 10 years from now...there’s going to be a story or two. ‘Oh my God, that happened on a team plane?’”
—John Karalis (24:30)

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5. Eastern Conference Standings & Seeding Implications

[25:02–36:42]

• The hosts break down the current Celtics-Knicks battle for the #2 seed, the importance of home court, and whether it’s worth pushing for over resting/star management down the stretch.

“Do you care if it’s second or third? Does it matter to you?”
—John Karalis (29:53)

• Tom’s take: It matters, especially for a potential NY-Boston playoff series—both atmospheres are big, but Jason Tatum’s health matters even more.
• Head-to-head matchups and tiebreakers (notably the April 9 Celtics/Knicks game) could decide seeding.
• The schedule is dissected; both teams have comparable levels of difficulty remaining.
• The value of momentum, rest, and whether the Celtics will prioritize seeding or health is debated for the regular-season finale.
• The likely first-round opponents (Atlanta, Toronto, or Philly) are assessed as non-threatening.

“The Raptors do not scare me. I don’t think very highly of the Raptors, quite honestly.”
—Tom Westerholm (36:35)

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Notable Quotes & Memorable Moments

• On embracing criticism:
  “You want this...When you are in the NBA, you’re going to be talked about...everyone wants what you have. So trust me, this thing that you think is bad...this is precisely where you want to be.” —TW, 06:03–07:10

• Princess Bride analogy:
  “You spend years dealing with it. You build up the immunity by exposing yourself to the iocane powder.” —JK, 09:10

• On media presence:
  “I will be in that locker room longer than any player’s career.” —JK, 09:40

• On the Celtics’ evolving team culture:
  “That’s like the motorcycle gang compared to what this team is, in general.” —JK, 21:37

• On Catan:
  “It’s as wholesome as poker night…But...they’re also just gambling their butts off.” —TW, 22:10

• Eastern Conference honesty:
  “The Raptors do not scare me. I don’t think very highly of the Raptors, quite honestly.” —TW, 36:35

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Timestamps for Key Segments

• Embracing the noise – Joe Mazzulla’s philosophy: 01:41–12:49
• Media longevity and handling negative press: 09:40–12:49
• Jalen Brown on handling criticism: 12:49–14:08
• Board Game Bros & Celtics team culture: 17:56–24:54
• Standings talk and playoff seeding implications: 25:02–36:42

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Tone

Lively, self-deprecating, and occasionally playful—especially with dog-related interruptions, nerdy analogies, and good-natured jabs about pop culture references. At its core, the episode offers a mix of real insider analysis on mental toughness, team chemistry, and playoff positioning, grounded in authentic Celtics locker room insight.

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For listeners seeking a deep understanding of Celtics culture, coaching philosophy, and playoff anticipation (with a dash of board game analysis and backstage hilarity), this is an essential episode.

Transcript

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[John Corrales]

How did the Celtics block out the noise? Well, Joe Mazzulla says there's no such thing as noise. Hey, welcome back to the show. I'm John Corrales. Today's show brought to you by FanDuel. During the tournament, FanDuel is offering $300 back in bonus bets every day for 10 days. Head to FanDuel.com to get started. Later on, we're going to talk about the standings and by the time you listen to this, the Celtics and Knicks may be tied. We'll take a closer look at that. In the second segment, we'll get into the board game bros and how this little wholesome group of fellas is bonding over a board game on the plane. But we're going to start with the Celtics trying to block out the noise with the most wholesome guy that I can think of. It's Tom Westerholm.

[Tom Westerholm]

What up?

[John Corrales]

Oh, that was a short one.

[Tom Westerholm]

That was very short.

[John Corrales]

You know why that was a short one because the second time I've said that joke, because the first time, massively disrupted by my little dog who ripped the entire rig apart and forced me to start over.

[Tom Westerholm]

So it took you several minutes to get reoriented. If I, If I couldn't see you, I would have been pretty concerned for your well being.

[John Corrales]

It was, it was just. Yeah, everything fell apart and it took a very strong mental kind of reset to get me back to here where I.

[Tom Westerholm]

Well, and then you. And then you brutally punished him by picking him up and letting him lick your face a bunch. So. Yeah.

[John Corrales]

Yeah, that was just the. It was the worst thing I could think.

[Tom Westerholm]

I've been, I've been like, literally, I'm on the phone with animal cruelty at this moment to tell them about how,

[John Corrales]

how I picked him up and held him and let him lick my face. Correct.

[Tom Westerholm]

Yes.

[John Corrales]

Little did you learn your lesson someday. The Celtics had practice on Tuesday and the. My line of questioning was about the noise that we talked about on yesterday's podcast where the Celtics have been flexed into a ton of national TV games as the, the, you know, season winds down. That brings a lot of attention, a lot of opinions, a lot of talking heads nationally, locally, everybody's got something to say and it's, it's impossible to not have that get into the locker room. Right. It's just, you can't because you're asking a bunch of 20 somethings to not pay attention to social media, which. Good luck. Good luck. So ask Joe about that. And he basically is of the opinion of, like, and he's kind of been this way with other things. You embrace it. It's kind of like when he said, you know, when in that documentary, I brought it up a few times, Jason Tatum has on, you know, faces unfair criticism. He has to deal with unfair criticism. And like, Joe's like, he gets to, he gets to do this because this is what he asked for. And this is kind of along the same, the same lines of, you, you want this, you want to be the team where people on the outside are going, oh, wait, is something wrong? Because that means everything has been so right for so long. And he said there's basically, there's there is no such thing as the outside noise, no such thing as ignoring it. Something good can be a distraction and, and so on and so forth. So there, there. It's just, everything is noise. So what you think is negative, having your family on the road with you could be a negative because they keep you up and you, you lose out on Your sleep. But so it's an interesting kind of dynamic for Joe where I think a lot of us would say, hey, ignore it. Turn your phones off. Do all this stuff. And Joe's like, no, no, don't. Don't turn your phones off. Because it gives you, it still gives the words the power. You're hiding from the words. It's. Let it in, but make it so they don't bother you. Take the power away from the words. And this way, whatever people say, if it doesn't impact winning a basketball game, you're like, ah, whatever.

[Tom Westerholm]

Yeah, yeah, for sure. And I think to Missoula's point, right, You. When you talk about, like, you want this, right?

[John Corrales]

You.

[Tom Westerholm]

You want all of this. I think a big part of what he's saying, it's not just like, hey, you want to be the team that everybody's talking about. You want to be in this, you want to be in the NBA. You know, like this, this is like you wanted to be here. And, and when you are in the NBA, you're going to be talked about when you are one of the best players. You are going to be talking about when you are, you know, when you're in this situation. Like, even, I mean, even, you know, the worst, the worst teams in the NBA are still talked about. Like, it comes with the territory, right? And it comes. And this is such a, you know, it's a highly sought after. It's like, you know, that's the whole point, right? Like, everybody wants to be a professional athlete and these are the guys who actually pulled it off. And you know, like, I think, you know, obviously there's, you know, there's positives and negatives with that. But I think for Missoula, I think what I take from that, I don't know how much of this is what he actually means, but you know, what I take from that is like, everybody wants to be where you are, and you want to be where you are. In fact, you would, you know, everybody who retires from the NBA misses it immediately, right? Like these, these are guys who. Everybody wants what you have. So trust me, this, this thing that you think is bad, where, you know, there's noise on social media and all this stuff, I like, it's okay, sure, I see how that would be distressing in some way. But this is precisely where you want to be. Like, yeah, in the NBA, as a general rule, you want to be here playing basketball for a living. And I like, you know, I think when you and I think, you know, we kind of Touched on this before we started talking, but, you know, these guys are all adults, and I think that what Missoula, probably what it sounds to me like what Missoula wants them to kind of get is you, like, deal with this, right? Just, just get over it, you know, like, understand it, feel it, whatever you need to do, but then move beyond it because you're exactly where you want to be. You wouldn't change anything about this. And, hey, if, like, we're winning basketball games, you know, to some extent, like, we're winning basketball games, this is a great situation to be in. And the sooner you can kind of like regularly hear the outside noise, like you said, don't avoid it. Hear it, feel it, like, process it, Regulate yourself, and then just go about your business. If you can make that a quick process, you're going to be in a great position. You know, you're going to be mentally stronger. And I, if I, I don't know that, that's part of the impression I get from him, is that that's kind of what he wants to see from these guys, is, hey, be able to be able to kind of dig yourself out of this. Like, just, just go through it. Like, you know, do what you got to do, Go through it, deal with it. It's gonna be okay. You're gonna come out the under, other end of this still very, very wealthy, and you're still gonna, you know, exactly, like, you're gonna be in exactly the position that you want to be in.

[John Corrales]

You want, you're, you're a Princess Bride guy. Like, Princess Bride.

[Tom Westerholm]

I, I, I have not seen the Princess Bride. I know that, like, everybody, everybody gives me that face.

[John Corrales]

See ya.

[Tom Westerholm]

Everybody gives me the face that you just gave me. It's not on purpose. I just never saw it. Jeez.

[John Corrales]

Well, to the normal people who have watched Princess Bride, this is Dread Pirate Roberts with the iocane powder. You spend the years. Just a nod and say, that's a great analogy, John.

[Tom Westerholm]

Perfect.

[John Corrales]

You spent years dealing with it. You build up the immunity by exposing yourself to the iocaine powder. That's cheese, man, that. I can't tell you how good that was. Tom.

[Tom Westerholm]

Nailed it.

[John Corrales]

I did. I did. It's perfect. People in the comments. Any normal people have watched Princess Bride here. Okay, so here's, here's the one way I would put this to all of these guys. I will be in that locker room after Jalen and Jason retire. I will be there after Derrick White retires. I will be in that locker room longer than any player's Career. That's something that you guys, basketball players need to understand. That you take one journalist, one person who, one beat writer who is in a good comfortable place, and that writer will be there longer than any of you. Which I say, not to brag or anything like that. I'm not pumping myself at all. I'm saying that as you're not getting rid of us, you're not getting rid of me. I am part of that locker room, like it or not. And very easily will hear the arguments of like, well, that, that sucks, that's terrible. We don't like that at all. Like, yeah, it probably does. You know, you don't want.

[Commercial Announcer]

It's.

[John Corrales]

It is in a way ridiculous that you're in the locker room, you're changing, and I'm just standing there like, you know, like, we're all, we're all there and you go like, I gotta put a towel around me. I can't just, you know, go do whatever. Point is, we're there, we're going to be talking, we're going to be asking questions, you're going to be answering questions. To Joe Missoula's point, this is what you wanted when you go to the NBA. This is part of the deal. So embrace it, soak it in, accept it and say, okay, I just got to answer the question of the media. Let's all just have a decent relationship in that locker room. We're all going to get through it together and it's fine. And if you hear outside noise, you're like, okay, let's just. The stuff that, the stuff that people say, that doesn't come from the people in that locker room. Now that something you compartmentalize and say, Michael Velger is paid to be an agitator. He's paid to be the guy that has a very one sided opinion because he needs people to call in. He needs people to argue with him. The people who aren't in that locker room that have these big strong opinions are, are paid to have those opinions. Brad Stevens makes this point all the time. So just be like, okay, there's. It's just a thing. It's fine. We're going to get past it and we're going to move on. So I appreciate where he's coming from. Once again, I think Joe Missoula distills everything down to what matters and what doesn't. And I think I really do love his approach. Don't hide from the noise, don't shut it off. Take it in, accept it all, listen to all of it. So it just becomes dumb and you just go, oh, God, this is so stupid. Why. Why was I ever bothered by this?

[Tom Westerholm]

Yeah, yeah. Because, I mean, you look at. You look at Jalen, right? And it's. How much has been said about Jalen over the course of his career that just, like, wasn't fair or wasn't like, you know, wasn't even if it was fair, wasn't kind, you know, like. Like, how much stuff have, you know, sports talk radio and social media, how much of that stuff has come across? How much of that stuff has. Has hit Jalen over the course of his career? And Jalen's response to that? You know, it's. You know, there's been exceptions here and there, obviously. Like, Jalen has had his. His gripes with the media, but Jalen's response overall, like, you know, the overarching course of his career has been to work his butt off and become one of the best players in the NBA. And, like, you know, like, you can just do that. You know, you can choose how you respond to the noise or how you don't respond to the noise or whatever it might be. And, you know, if you respond the right way, like, good things happen.

[John Corrales]

I just wanted to bring the culprit. So he's here, and you probably hear the ASMR on the mic there of him giving me the kisses. This is Speedy, and this is the guy responsible for take three of this podcast. So. All right, all fair.

[Tom Westerholm]

He's trying to create a take four, but, you know, he was.

[John Corrales]

He was, but we stopped it. All right, ready? Ready to move on to segment two, Speedy? Yeah. Okay, when we come back, we'll get into. There goes Speedy. We'll get into the board game Bros and the most wholesome story you're going to find coming up next. Today's show is brought to you by Quo. This is the springtime, and your business needs a little bit of a refresh with its communication. And Quo, spelled Q U O, brings you today's episode because they'll help you with the missed call scatter text and no clear thread of who said what. It's the number one rated business phone system on G2 with 3,000 reviews trusted by more than 90,000 businesses. Lets your entire team share one business number so you never miss a call, a text, or an opportunity. Everything lives in one clean thread on Quo. Calls, texts, voicemails, they're all there, so you can have everybody on the same page. It's the worst customer experience when you have to repeat yourself, but it's so it's so fulfilling when you call somebody and they all know exactly what everybody's been saying to you. It helps you keep your customers. So you want to make this a season where no opportunity, no customer slips away. You can try quo for free and get 20% off your first month. Your first six months. I'm sorry. @quo.com locked on NBA the whole team sees the conversation. Nothing falls through the cracks. So go to quo.com lockdown MBA quo no missed calls, no missed customers. Today's show is also brought to you by Robinhood. What if sports were traded like markets now? You can put your sports IQ to work in real time with Robinhood Prediction Markets. It's not you against the house. It's you participating in a live market. You can buy or sell your positions live all game long. Use your sports knowledge in the moments that matter. Robinhood Prediction Markets changes the game. It's people moving the action so when the momentum shifts, you can move with it. I always knew the game, but never had a dynamic way to apply that knowledge. Now I can actually take part. Live In a market powered by people, you're no longer just a spectator. Play by play, you decide. Trade every play with Robin Hood now available across the U.S. download the Robinhood app now to begin Futures and cleared swaps Trading involve significant risk and is not appropriate for everyone. Event contracts are offered by Robinhood Derivatives llc, a registered futures commission merchant and swap firm. Thanks for making Lockdown Celtics the number one Celtics Podcast in the World. It's on the number one sports podcast network on the world and I have been hosting this show for 10 years now. I'm John Corrales. I'm a beat writer covering the Celtics for Sports Illustrated's Celtics on SI. I've been covering this theme for 20 years. That's why I can say things like, I'll be in that locker room before and after guys, because that's kind of been the case. I've seen a lot of players get through that locker room and I've been there the whole time. So I try to bring some of that inside knowledge here to this podcast. One of the things that I've seen in this locker room, Tom, you have been in there too. You have seen it. Guys that aren't really together. Bunch of misfits, bunch of like, I don't know if these guys get along. This group, though, for the past few years has just been a nice, solid bunch of Boy Scouts and nothing hammers that home. Tom quite like the story Noah Dalzell wrote About the settlers of Catan. Is that what it's called? Catan something or other?

[Tom Westerholm]

Yeah.

[John Corrales]

I, I, I am not a nerd. I have a, a life. And I don't know what this game is. Now, I don't want to belittle it because I'm not going to sit here and call Peyton Pritchard a nerd because he's really excellent basketball player, but I don't know what the hell it is other than it's a board game. And yeah, these guys have thrown some money on there. But you've played it, you know it.

[Tom Westerholm]

Yeah.

[John Corrales]

What, what, what's going on?

[Tom Westerholm]

Well, so, so it's a, it's a dice game. And I, before we started recording, I described it. I, it's, it's really similar. It's very funny that these, one, that these guys are putting money on it and that two, it's like, oh, man, look at these wholesome guys playing this game. Because catan with money on it is basically a, like a, like an evolved version of craps, right? Because you're, you know, when you roll the dice and, you know, you try to have houses on certain blocks and you know those blocks have a number on them. And let's say, you know, one of the blocks is a, is a six, and you get, or if you roll a six and then you use the ore to buy things, right? Or you use grain and you, you know, let's say that grain is an 8, you roll an 8. If you have a, a, like a settlement on the grain, and on the grain, that's an eight. You roll an eight, you get grain, use the grain to buy things, right? So I mean, you know, if there's money on it and you're rolling an eight, you know, you're getting money for when you roll an 8 because you had something on the 8. That sounds like crap to me. All right? Like, that's exactly what that is. So I mean, you know, it's, you know, you, certain things get you certain amounts of points. You get up to 10 points, you win. It's, you know, it's, it's, it, there's, it's a very, aside from the crafts aspect of it, and there's like a little bit of strategy and how you, you know, how you build the game. But, you know, a lot of it comes down to, you know, did you get the right, you know, did you, did, did the five hit A bunch of times and you had something on the five. You know, again, it's, it's, it is, it Is it is a close cousin of gambling.

[John Corrales]

So did these wholesome guys, all these boy scouts, did they just sneak a high stakes gambling story into, you know, a board game packaging? Is it, Is that what this sounds like?

[Tom Westerholm]

It, it kind of said, listen, I, I'm, I enjoy craps. So when I play catan, I'm like, oh, this scratch is a little itch for me. Like, I like this one. This is a good one. Like, I like it. I, when I play it, I'm like, man, you know, I'm not, I'm not sitting there like, man, I'm being wholesome playing catan. You know what I mean? Like, that's not.

[John Corrales]

Yeah, because that's kind of how it was presented. It kind of was like, oh man, look at these board game guys, these little boy scouts.

[Tom Westerholm]

And they're having fun. I mean, well, yeah, they're having a good time. Like, that's wholesome, right? They're a bunch of, bunch of, a bunch of, bunch of. Fellas, enjoy.

[John Corrales]

I remember the stories of Kevin Garnett and Paul Pierce and Glenn Davis and the, the big expletive laden arm wrestling, you know, competitions and high stakes card games and Kevin Garnett ripping his shirt off and saying, I'm the silver back in this. And all of that's like, that's, that's in this. Dot, dot, dot.

[Tom Westerholm]

No. And then he stops talking. Probably.

[John Corrales]

There's, there's an ellipses in there and there's, you know, for, for, you know, just shortening it, right? Paraphrase.

[Tom Westerholm]

Yeah, yeah, yeah, yeah, yeah, yeah. So

[John Corrales]

that's like, that's like the motorcycle gang compared to what this team is, is in general. But

[Tom Westerholm]

this team is the, the Hellfire Club from Stranger Things.

[John Corrales]

Oh, great. A reference I don't understand.

[Tom Westerholm]

I got him. Let's go.

[John Corrales]

We're even. We're even. It's. It's interesting. I, I love the fact that these guys are all like, oh, yeah, man, it's just a board game and we lose pieces. And you, come on, you're like, this is just a dice game.

[Tom Westerholm]

It's just a dice game. It's just a nice game. Listen. And I'm like, I, I do think it's awesome. I think it's awesome. That's a bunch of, you know, a bunch of pals, like, playing a game together. It's like, it's as wholesome as like a poker night. You know what I mean? It's like, you know, all the neighborhood dads get together and play poker like, you know, and have A good time. I also think that's wholesome. I think human interaction is wholesome. But. But it is a dice game, and it is. I mean, everything that I laid out to you is craps, right? Like, that's. That's what we're talking about here. So they're playing craps and they're having fun, so it is awesome. But they're also just gambling their butts off. Like, I don't know what to tell you.

[John Corrales]

There's. There's 41 plane rides out there, right? Like, plus preseason, plus who knows where else and playoffs and all that. There's. There. You gotta pass the time. If you're on the same plane with all these people all these times, you. You got to figure something out and

[Tom Westerholm]

look like, much like the KG Celtics, this is a bunch of competitive dudes. Super competitive dudes. So, like, you know.

[John Corrales]

Yeah.

[Tom Westerholm]

I mean, I don't know. Maybe nobody's like, yanking their shirt off and like, you know, yelling. Yelling stuff. Or maybe there's somebody is. I don't know. They did like, you know, we aren't on the plane. Maybe somebody is like, you know, it's a dice game. Like, maybe somebody's getting worked up.

[John Corrales]

I. I'll just say before we move on, no matter how, like, I've. I've characterized these guys as just a bunch of good dudes. Like, every single one of them is a good person. I think that has never gotten into any trouble. That Jason Tatum is a. A good dad who does a lot of charity work. Jalen Brown is trying to change the world with his charity work. These guys are. Are all high, high quality human beings just on their own. Forget basketball. All of that said, you put all of those egos and all that competitiveness and all of that money onto these team planes. There's no doubt that things get crazier than any of us even know. And I'm sure 10 years from now when Jason and Jalen are pushing 40 or whatever and they start telling. They. They get out of the game and they start telling stories, there's going to be a story or two. We're like, oh, my God, that happened on a team plane. There's going to be a story that comes out and they'll be like, oh, wow, these guys weren't the boy scouts that we thought they were. Yeah.

[Tom Westerholm]

Also, Grant Williams has got to be livid that there's all these catan players around now. And he's got

[John Corrales]

that weird.

[Tom Westerholm]

He.

[John Corrales]

He made it into the conversation today for sure. All right, let's come back to the standings because the Celtics, we're recording this before Knicks Pelicans. So we don't know what's happened yet, but what could happen is that the Celtics are tied by the time you listen to this. We'll talk about the standings and where the Celtics sit when we come back. Today's show is brought to you by indeed. You need to hire and you need to fill that spot with somebody that fits all of your needs, not just somebody you hope works. And that's why you need indeed sponsored jobs. They are going to act like your advanced scouts. They are going to act like the people the Celtics and other NBA teams have that goes out and finds the people with the skills, experience, the location, all of that stuff that you need to find the right, right person to fill that job. So check it out. There's in this one minute that I'm going to be talking to you here, 27 hires going to be made in just one minute worldwide according to Indeed data. So you better get yourself over to Indeed sponsored Jobs and find the people that check all the boxes that you are looking for. Spend less time searching, spend more time actually interviewing candidates and you will save yourself stress. You will save yourself time. You will get more results when you need the right person to cut through the chaos. This is a job for Indeed sponsored jobs. You will get $75 in sponsored job credit to help your job get the premium status it deserves@ Indeed.com podcast. Go there right now and support the show by saying you heard about this podcast. Heard about Indeed on this podcast. It's indeed.com podcast. Terms and conditions apply. Need to hire. This is a job for Indeed sponsored Jobs. Today's show is also brought to you by FanDuel. It's tournament time. One of the best times of the year. You got your brackets, whatever teams are left, buzzer beaters, upsets. It's non stop action from opening tip to the final cut down of those nets. Right now FanDuel is giving you new customers a way to stay in the action all tournament long. You get $300 back in bonus bets every day for 10 days. That means 10 chances to stay involved throughout the entire tournament. You can mix it up however you want. Game picks, futures or even same game parlays for bigger potential payouts. It's perfect for the tournament because every day there's something new. There are different matchups. There are new storylines. There are new ways to get involved as the bracket unfolds. Visit FanDuel.com to sign up today when you're there. Set your limit, set your budget. Whatever you can afford to lose. That's what your budget should be. Fanduel will help you gamble responsibly. FanDuel.com get in on the action. Thank you for making lockdown Celtics your first listen every day. Head on over to lockdown celtics supercast.com you're an everyday join the everyday club. For five bucks a month or fifty bucks for the year, you can get ad free audio compatible with Apple, Spotify and all the other major podcast apps. So go there to get your ad free audio and you get access to our Discord server for in game chats. Lockdown celtics.supercast.com to join the everyday or club Tom the Celtics are, you know, they've been holding on to the second seed for, for a while and right now though they and The Knicks have 47 wins. The. The Knicks have one more loss, but they could have one more win by the time people listen to this podcast because they play the New Orleans Pelicans. Not a great team. And the Pelicans are on the road at New York and the Celtics. I mean, I'm sorry, the Knicks do pretty well at home. 26 and 9 at home, the Pelicans are 9 and 25 on the road. It all kind of points to a tie. We just did a podcast about, hey, maybe the, maybe the Celtics can catch the Pistons and get to the top seed and the Pistons just went out and beat Washington twice in Golden State and beat the Lakers and now they have the. The Atlanta Hawks tomorrow.

[Tom Westerholm]

Cade Cunningham, Ewing theory. I'm calling it.

[John Corrales]

Yeah, that's it. So, so we can safely forget about the first. The top seed now. They, they, they've handled their business. They fine. Done that. That's done. The Celtics are. What are they. So I said 40, 47, 24. So that's. There's 11 games left. You're not making up five games in 11. Five games in 11 games. So unless it's a complete and utter. Com just Detroit has to lose all the rest of their games.

[Tom Westerholm]

Yeah.

[John Corrales]

So now it's up to second and third. Do you care, do you care if it's second or third? Does it matter to you?

[Tom Westerholm]

I think it matters a little bit. You know, I, I think, I mean, look, I, I think especially, you know, you got New York, Boston. Like let's say the Celtics get through the first round, right? Let's assume. I think that's probably a. I feel good about, I feel good about them getting through the first round. I like where the. I think the east is a lot stronger this year than, you know, previous seasons. I think, you know, one to eight is going to be pretty good. But I do, you know, feel like the Celtics will get through the first round, you know, and then I do think it matters somewhat, right, because, because New York, Boston, you're talking about two, you know, like, big atmosphere buildings, right? Like that's, you know, TD Garden, msg. Like, I think it's, I think it's got something. You know, I think, I think what matters a lot more is how, like we talked about yesterday and earlier, you know, today a little bit like how good Jason Tatum is, right? How to what extent he gets back and to what extent he's able to raise the Celtic ceiling that matters a lot more than home court advantage in the second round. So to me, if it came down to do you push Tatum versus do you, you know, like, then obviously you prioritize Tatum's health. Obviously you. But you also prioritize him getting back. You know, like, I think you, you prioritize moving his rehab along to a point where he can be helpful in the postseason and, you know, can be productive in the postseason. So I do think it matters and I, I think that like, you know, it's, it's certainly worth striving for the, the two seed if you can get there. And I mean, I think look like, like, let's say that the Knicks beat the Pelicans and the Celtics lose to the Thunder. That also doesn't mean that the Celtics are out of, you know, that that doesn't doom the Celtics to the third seed, that they can still absolutely rally back. They have something of a tough schedule, but they also have a head to head against the Knicks. Right. So there's, there are opportunities here to rally. Even if you go down by a game over the next, you know, few days, like, you can still get back there. But I do think it matters to some extent. But I also don't think it's the be all and end all.

[John Corrales]

Here's that head to head on April 9th is going to be the big one, right? That just might be the winner of that game gets the second seed. Important to note, the Knicks have the tiebreaker.

[Tom Westerholm]

Yes.

[John Corrales]

And they, they've weirdly, they've played one more game in the division. They, they could end up with the same amount of losses and one more win in the division. So regardless, Knicks have the tiebreaker now. And so that game becomes really, really important for Boston if they want that second seed. Here's New York's remaining schedule, New Orleans on Tuesday night, then at Charlotte, at Oklahoma City, at Houston, at Memphis, home against Chicago, at Atlanta, the Celtics back to back against Toronto and then Charlotte to wrap up the season. So tough, tough games.

[Tom Westerholm]

Yeah.

[John Corrales]

Celtics have OKC Wednesday night, Atlanta on that Friday, then at Charlotte, back to back at Atlanta, at Miami, at Milwaukee, back home, Toronto, Charlotte, the New York game in New York, back to back home against New Orleans and then Orlando on the last night of the season. So I would say it's pretty close schedule wise. In fact, Tankathon has Boston as the fifth toughest remaining schedule at a 54.4 winning percent.4544 and the Knicks at 0.532. So it's almost like it's right there

[Tom Westerholm]

and it's gonna flip. It's gonna flip. Those two will flip as soon as the Celtics play the, the next. Right, like that or the, the, the Thunder. I mean like that's, that's gonna make a huge difference.

[John Corrales]

Right, right. Because the, the, the Pelicans game comes off for the Knicks and the, the Thunder game comes off for the Celtics. So yeah, that'll. That'll make it. So it's strength is. This is just going to come down to just, you know, I don't know, it's gonna become, it's gonna come down to the wire. It could come down to the last few games, which we'll wrap it up on this.

[Tom Westerholm]

This is the standings version of It's a make or miss league. It's a win or loss league here.

[John Corrales]

Yeah, that's right. But here's. We'll wrap it up on this quick discussion at the end of the season when it comes time to like we're gonna rest guys or not risk. Does that change. Do you think that changes how the Celtics affect the rest? Do. Does that change? Do you think they play everybody in that last game of the season? Because they're gonna have to wait anyway for the playing tournament. Everybody has to wait for the playing tournament. So maybe they go a little more all out to win rather than rest. Some guys, you know, people always say, oh, I'm getting tickets to that Orlando game. And I'm like, get ready for a lot of Max Shoga. But maybe not. Maybe that's gonna be an important game.

[Tom Westerholm]

I mean especially because again, you're ramping up Jason Tatum, right. Like, I think getting him the more reps you can get him, it's. He had 60 some odd games of rest to start the season. Like.

[John Corrales]

Yeah, right.

[Tom Westerholm]

He's like as far as, you know, as far as freshness, he's very fresh. You know, he's. You can, I think you can. Yeah, I think there's a, there's a chance that he's playing in that game as they continue to get him ready for the postseason.

[John Corrales]

That could be like a 38 minute game for, for Tatum, actually. That could be like one last stretch out before he gets, you know, a week of. It's practice, but yeah, just kind of. Yeah. I don't know. It's gonna be interesting to see the, the, the way the season is shaking out, I think. I think, you know, obviously you want the higher seed, but, you know, maybe you look at that six seed and you say, yeah, Atlanta Hawks, if it stays. Right now, it's Atlanta, Toronto, Philly in that mix. Philly, I don't know how they're gonna finish, but yeah, I know Atlanta's on a little bit of a roll, but does that. I'm not afraid of them. You're afraid of Toronto.

[Tom Westerholm]

I'm neither of those teams. I mean, the, the Hawks, I, I kind of like the Hawks. I kind of like some of the stuff they got going on. But, but a lot of their wins were real weak teams.

[John Corrales]

I mean, Twinkies, man. Twinkies, man, they had.

[Tom Westerholm]

Which they took care of business against

[John Corrales]

them, but that's exactly right. Yes, absolutely. But you know, still, Twinkies, like, they, It's a little bit inflated.

[Tom Westerholm]

So I don't, I. The Raptors do not scare me. I don't know very highly of the Raptors, quite honestly.

[John Corrales]

And, you know, so when the Raptors

[Tom Westerholm]

win the championship, hopefully I get. I'm saying this because then when the Raptors win the championship, I want to be on, you know how like the Celtics put out that, like, oh, like I'm picking the Mavericks. I'm picking the Mavericks video. Yeah, I want to be on that. I want to be on Toronto's version of that.

[John Corrales]

Toronto doesn't scare me one bit.

[Tom Westerholm]

Not one bit.

[John Corrales]

Not at all. Well, yeah, and plus, if, if they, if they fall to third and you know your opponent, you know, it's the three six, you'd have to wait for the play and you just. All right, we're going to start preparing for Atlanta and you get that, you know, so. All right, Good stuff, Tom. Appreciate you, man.

[Tom Westerholm]

Appreciate you, man.

[John Corrales]

Appreciate you listening, watching Bearing with me and little Speedy, the Yorkie mix that terrorized the show ever so briefly. And then my big guy, Teddy, who just went through knee surgery is sitting here. He wanted to get in on the action. He's like, why don't I get on the podcast? And then he just laid down because, because, you know, recovering from knee. Amazingly, I'm not the first creature that has gone through major knee surgery in this house. So that's. That's a big upset. Thank you for listening. Thank you for watching. Appreciate you being here for all of this and. Oh, can we. Tom, can I show this?

[Tom Westerholm]

Yeah. Oh, yeah, yeah, yeah.

[John Corrales]

There's Bear. Hi, Bear. So everybody's dogs made the appearance.

[Tom Westerholm]

Now dogs are all here.

[John Corrales]

Thanks for listening. Thanks for watching. Now share the podcast. Tell everybody dog lovers, everybody share the podcast and tell everybody they should be listening to and watching the Lockdown Celtics podcast here on the Lockdown Podcast Network. It is your team every day. This podcast is brought to you by Colgate Total. We take oral health as seriously as you take sports. That's why Colgate Total Active Prevention uses advanced technology to help prevent oral health problems like cavities and gingivitis before they start. It's clinically proven to provide 24 hour antibacterial protection with twice daily brushing after four weeks of use. So get a winning routine and prevent oral health problems before they start. Shop Colgate Total Active Prevention at a retailer near you.

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[Tom Westerholm]

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[Tom Westerholm]

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[Tom Westerholm]

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