Speaker 1: Welcome in into NBA Polster production of iHeartRadio in the NBA.
Speaker 1: I'm Sarahcusetack, NBIA analyst for the Yes Network, and today
Speaker 1: is Tuesday, May twenty eighth. From our extraordinary core group
Speaker 1: of NBA journalists are joined now by NBA dot Com
Speaker 1: senior writer Steve Ashberner and Ash. We got a holiday weekend.
Speaker 1: We got a sweep by the Celtics as they took
Speaker 1: care of business in the Eastern Conference, advancing to the
Speaker 1: finals once again in a one O five, one of
Speaker 1: two win against the Indiana Pacers. It was a three
Speaker 1: point victory last night that they came back from a
Speaker 1: fourth quarter deficit, much the same on their Saturday win,
Speaker 1: another three point win coming back from a deficit. We
Speaker 1: saw that exhilarating Game one which Jalen Brown hit the
Speaker 1: game time three to send the game into overtime. He
Speaker 1: was in fact named the Eastern Conference and MVP awarded
Speaker 1: the Larry Bird Trophy. But overall for the Celtics, I
Speaker 1: think there's kind of just been mixed discussion on the
Speaker 1: fact they've only lost two games here still advancing to
Speaker 1: the finals, but just what they look like, how they
Speaker 1: have played. They obviously were able to advance in terms
Speaker 1: of how they closed out, in particular three of these
Speaker 1: four games in the clutch time. But when you look
Speaker 1: at that victory yesterday and just kind of the totality
Speaker 1: of how the Celtics look throughout this Eastern Conference Finals run,
Speaker 1: what's your takeaway with this Boston team.
Speaker 2: Hi, Sarah, Well, let's start out with the fact I
Speaker 2: picked Boston to win the series in five games because
Speaker 2: it seemed like five games was the way they do things.
Speaker 1: Well.
Speaker 2: They swept here, so you know, much credit to them
Speaker 2: for not succumbing and having a throwaway game in the
Speaker 2: first round Miami, you know, hit a ton of three
Speaker 2: pointers and beat them. Second series, Cleveland took a game
Speaker 2: rather handily from them in Boston, so they learned in
Speaker 2: that sense. I also think that rather than suffer a
Speaker 2: loss in this series, they sort of split up trouble
Speaker 2: across three of their victories, where all three were pretty
Speaker 2: shaky games one, three, and four. And you know, whether
Speaker 2: they're responding to criticism, whether they're locking in and getting
Speaker 2: into a groove that will pay dividends in the finals,
Speaker 2: I think that remains to be seen. It's all it's
Speaker 2: all sort of in hindsight that we know these things,
Speaker 2: but I think that Boston has found its way. I
Speaker 2: think they they've taken their their opponents, at least in
Speaker 2: this round, they took them more seriously. They you know,
Speaker 2: they could have lost several of those games, but they prevailed,
Speaker 2: and I think that that showed their experience, their pois,
Speaker 2: their familiarity with maybe not so much in the regular season.
Speaker 2: They weren't a great clutch team, but maybe they're learning
Speaker 2: for those minutes in tight games. So yeah, I think
Speaker 2: that they're sort of on track now to replicate, at
Speaker 2: least in performance, if not outcomes, the great regular season
Speaker 2: that they had, and I think that's what raised the expectations.
Speaker 2: You know, they were dominant during the first eighty two
Speaker 2: and we expected then they would be dominant against playoff competition,
Speaker 2: particularly playoff competition that was missing key players like Jimmy Butler,
Speaker 2: donovand Mitchell at times Tyrese Haliburton. They didn't look dominant,
Speaker 2: but there their ledger twelve and two looks pretty dominant.
Speaker 2: So I'm encouraged by what we've seen. I think that
Speaker 2: we're going to see the best of the Celtics postseason
Speaker 2: wise in the final round.
Speaker 1: Yeah, and I guess that becomes my question to you.
Speaker 1: You mentioned a lot of those things. We also saw
Speaker 1: their depth. I know they're playing without Christaps Porzingis. We'll
Speaker 1: see if he will be able to make a return
Speaker 1: for the finals. But whether it was Jalen Brown and
Speaker 1: hitting that key three point shot, Drew Holiday, some of
Speaker 1: his defensive stops have changed the complexion of the game.
Speaker 1: Jason Tatum, who once again you look at the game
Speaker 1: like yesterday twenty six points, eight assists. I think the
Speaker 1: hope is that he will still be a little bit
Speaker 1: more consistent from beyond the arc. Al Horford knocking out
Speaker 1: seven threes in one game. Of course, what Derek White
Speaker 1: Drew I had mentioned, Drew Holliday handful off the bench.
Speaker 1: But we've seen this, We've seen this team advance to
Speaker 1: the finals before, and it's been the same core. It's
Speaker 1: been the same questions. It's been the questions about do
Speaker 1: they have a closer, can they close out tight games.
Speaker 1: We will get to the Dallas Mavericks and the Timberwolves,
Speaker 1: who may advance given the fact that the MAVs are
Speaker 1: three to zero with the lead in the series playing
Speaker 1: tonight and have two proven closers that have been extraordinary
Speaker 1: down the stretch and surgical. Is it title or bus
Speaker 1: for this Celtics team if they don't come out of
Speaker 1: this season, in this postseason with a championship trophy carrying
Speaker 1: and holding up that Larry O'Brien.
Speaker 2: I think it is. I mean, within the context of
Speaker 2: life shall go on regardless, I do think it is
Speaker 2: not in Boston.
Speaker 1: If they were the rest of us and the.
Speaker 2: Question becomes, Okay, what's bust look like? You know, does
Speaker 2: bus look like a major trade? Does bus look like
Speaker 2: a coach firing? No, I don't believe that. You know
Speaker 2: what happens? Do they tear up the core? I just
Speaker 2: can't see that. But in terms of you know, absolute disappointment, yeah,
Speaker 2: if if they were on track to face the Denver
Speaker 2: Nuggets in the finals and Denver were to beat them,
Speaker 2: to me, that would be sort of an acceptable loss
Speaker 2: by Boston. They could say, well, we made it to
Speaker 2: the finals, we ran into the ending champs. But given
Speaker 2: who's going to be there, you know, a Dallas team
Speaker 2: that was underrated and you know, low expectations from most
Speaker 2: of us all year, even Minnesota. If they pull off
Speaker 2: the you know, the the unprecedented. You know, those are
Speaker 2: teams that this Boston team is supposed to be. So yeah,
Speaker 2: I think it is. I think it is championship or
Speaker 2: bust at this point. It's just that, as I said,
Speaker 2: I'll be like Charles but repeating myself, what is what
Speaker 2: is bust? And it will be a crushing blow. Will
Speaker 2: it be the end of this group?
Speaker 1: No?
Speaker 2: Will it lead to major changes? I don't believe so.
Speaker 2: But this is the Celtics Larry O'Brien trophy to lose
Speaker 2: at this point, and hopefully they approach it as their
Speaker 2: trophy to win and they can go out there and
Speaker 2: be their best selves after these first fourteen playoff games.
Speaker 1: I'll tell you what if bust ends in Kyrie Irving
Speaker 1: celebrating on that Boston on that Blaver Lucky, there's gonna
Speaker 1: be it may be rock bottom over there. But but
Speaker 1: you mentioned that just in terms of I think again,
Speaker 1: as we will get to it's one thing. If it's
Speaker 1: potentially the Denver Nuggets, a team that won the title
Speaker 1: last year but given some in some ways a surprise
Speaker 1: and the coming together of either Dallas or Minnesota, I
Speaker 1: think it'd be a very tough pill to swallow for
Speaker 1: the Celtics, for the organization, for what they've continued to
Speaker 1: build if that is not the the outcome on the
Speaker 1: other side of things. Indiana Pacers. I don't know if
Speaker 1: it's it's good for anyone to hear a close fought
Speaker 1: sweep or you know, moral victories, but it was fun
Speaker 1: to watch the Spacers team and how they came out
Speaker 1: and played. They played the last two games without Tyree's
Speaker 1: Halliburton Andrew Nemhard Saturday in that game three loss, had
Speaker 1: third two points just the other night twenty four points,
Speaker 1: ten assists. Pascal Siakam obviously, I think you saw signs
Speaker 1: of him and the chemistry and synergy created between him
Speaker 1: and Tyrese Haliburton throughout the course of the season, looking
Speaker 1: at how that may grow. He will be an unrestricted
Speaker 1: free agent. I think the expectation is that they will
Speaker 1: sign him and sign him to a max Obi Tappin,
Speaker 1: who really started to kind of find his role in
Speaker 1: his fit, will be a restricted free agent. TJ McConnell
Speaker 1: will be up for an extension. What do you think
Speaker 1: is next for the Pacers given how they played? I
Speaker 1: think they created an identity, a style in Rick Carlisle's
Speaker 1: way of how he really played to his personnel. What
Speaker 1: do you think is next year, this offseason and entering
Speaker 1: next season for the Pacers.
Speaker 2: Well, I think they look at themselves differently now. That's
Speaker 2: that's a big change as they head into a training
Speaker 2: camp and next season. I think that they you know,
Speaker 2: it was one thing to get out out of the
Speaker 2: lottery and you know, snag a playoff spot, uh, top six,
Speaker 2: and then and then you know, do what they've done.
Speaker 2: I think this has been the surprising part, and uh
Speaker 2: they'll be better off for that as well. Obviously they're
Speaker 2: inexperience showed late in these games. Even Rick Carlisle seemed
Speaker 2: to uh not be at his best a couple of
Speaker 2: times in terms of calling timeouts and other things he
Speaker 2: did or didn't do. And that's that's a little that's
Speaker 2: a that was a little concerning. It's sort of like,
Speaker 2: you know, I'm sure the players are thinking, well, these
Speaker 2: coaches been here before and and succeeded, and so you
Speaker 2: know the timeout that wasn't called, well, actually timeouts in
Speaker 2: games one and three, and and situations with you know,
Speaker 2: the inbounds pass and you know the breakdowns. I mean
Speaker 2: they went three and a half minutes in Game four
Speaker 2: at the end, they didn't score, they missed all their shots,
Speaker 2: they had a couple of turnovers. They got outscored I
Speaker 2: think seven zip. You know, those are sort of closing
Speaker 2: situations where your coach can help. And then of course
Speaker 2: Tyrese Haliburton as an All NBA third team guy, he
Speaker 2: snagged that on her, which means he'll get the super
Speaker 2: Supermax deal now, an extra forty one million dollars over
Speaker 2: what he already had bargained for. And you know, beyond
Speaker 2: him to just to step up. I know that in
Speaker 2: that series Boston kind of targeted him at times defensively,
Speaker 2: so there's improvement on that end, but certainly taking charge
Speaker 2: of being able to, you know, be a closer getting
Speaker 2: in consideration for a Clutch award. That's a you know,
Speaker 2: that's a good goal for him. So I think the
Speaker 2: Pacers are positioned well the East, a lot of fluidity.
Speaker 2: You can move up or down I think fairly quickly.
Speaker 2: And it was fun. It was a fun team to watch.
Speaker 2: Not a not a flawless team obviously, and they have
Speaker 2: lots to work on at this stage.
Speaker 1: We saw a sweep in the East as tonight we
Speaker 1: will find out if we will see a sweep in
Speaker 1: the West. Dallas Mavericks have taken these first three games
Speaker 1: against Minnesota Timberwolves. Similarly said, it has been a hard fought,
Speaker 1: tightly contested series in those first three games, but the
Speaker 1: experience and the ability to close has proven itself, and
Speaker 1: how Luca and Kyrie Irving have played together with the
Speaker 1: Mavericks alongside the rest of their counterparts and really just
Speaker 1: key components of what the role players have done in
Speaker 1: stepping up and hitting some really critical shots. It has
Speaker 1: not been the same for Minnesota. I think Anthony Edwards
Speaker 1: is still put up solid numbers, but not quite what
Speaker 1: we've seen through the course of the postseason in terms
Speaker 1: of production, in terms of those key moments, and certainly
Speaker 1: not for Karl Anthony Towns. Will Minnesota find a way
Speaker 1: to extend this series here tonight in Dallas.
Speaker 2: Anything is possible. I mean, you know, look, I've been
Speaker 2: doing this long enough that when a series is three
Speaker 2: to zero, you know the last thing you want to
Speaker 2: see is a moral victory by the team that's behind.
Speaker 2: But obviously to them it can be more than that,
Speaker 2: because it does earn you that next home game, and
Speaker 2: then you think, okay, we win that, and the pressure
Speaker 2: is entirely on the Dallas Maverick at that point. So
Speaker 2: I mean it's you can work through the thought process.
Speaker 2: I have expected better from Minnesota just based on what
Speaker 2: they did against Phoenix and Denver. You know, this is
Speaker 2: interesting from the standpoint of styles. The team's play. Minnesota
Speaker 2: was built to beat the Denver Nuggets. That style gave
Speaker 2: the Phoenix Suns all the trouble they could possibly have,
Speaker 2: and yet here against Dallas, it seems almost like it's
Speaker 2: a liability that Dallas has, you know, more mobile, more
Speaker 2: more leaping big men than the Minnesota you know anchors
Speaker 2: up front with with Gobert and Karl Anthony Towns. And
Speaker 2: of course Karl Anthony Towns has not been playing like
Speaker 2: a big man in this series. He's, in my opinion,
Speaker 2: shot way too many threes. He's eager to back up
Speaker 2: his boast of being the best shooting big man in
Speaker 2: NBA history. I think there's a little lot of sorts
Speaker 2: with you know, how to find himself, and Dallas has
Speaker 2: been able to exploit that with with Luca and Kyrie
Speaker 2: and the way they are able to just dissect the
Speaker 2: drop coverage with with Rudy, you know, there's motivation there,
Speaker 2: I think by Mavericks players that you know, old defensive
Speaker 2: player of the year. Sure I'll take that on. And
Speaker 2: we've seen that with with Gobert's challengers. So yeah, it's
Speaker 2: been it's been unfortunate Minnesota's you know, slip has been
Speaker 2: showing a little bit in their inexperience. You think about
Speaker 2: it with with these series that four zip and three
Speaker 2: zips so far, I mean, we still had the potential
Speaker 2: a pretty good shot at a Minneapolis Indianapolis finals because
Speaker 2: these games could have tipped other ways, and all of
Speaker 2: a sudden, now it's Minnesota Indiana, which might not thrill
Speaker 2: the TV ratings people, but it would be you know,
Speaker 2: a fun matchup Dallas and Boston. If it goes that way,
Speaker 2: and history suggests it shall, then you know that's going
Speaker 2: to be intriguing as well. You've got those superstars on
Speaker 2: on Dallas. But yeah, Minnesota might have it in them.
Speaker 2: The problem is is that they think, Okay, we're gonna
Speaker 2: get this this Mavericks team and drag it to Minnesota.
Speaker 2: Target Center hasn't been that difficult a place for the
Speaker 2: visiting team. I mean, the people that do everything they can,
Speaker 2: but the results at Target Center, you know, have have
Speaker 2: not been great in the postseason, so it doesn't sort
Speaker 2: of have that formidable you know that onus against you know,
Speaker 2: a team like Dallas haveing go up there and oh
Speaker 2: now it might be three to two. So I think
Speaker 2: Dallas can go into Minnesota and win just to have
Speaker 2: more basketball, to be honest, in a greedy sense, and
Speaker 2: since I don't have to go flying around for those games,
Speaker 2: I want to see the series extend. We're already going
Speaker 2: to have nine nights without Eastern Conference basketball and you know,
Speaker 2: so a little extra in the West. I think that
Speaker 2: a lot of us would appreciate.
Speaker 1: That, as do I. I don't know if that means
Speaker 1: that that's your pick that Minnesota will will get a
Speaker 1: game here, but that's that's what I'm going with, going
Speaker 1: with it, I'm going with it. I'm hoping it, But
Speaker 1: I do I think they have a lot of pride,
Speaker 1: and I think they have a lot of still resiliency
Speaker 1: left in them. And I also think to your point,
Speaker 1: it's amazing. I think it just shows the fine line
Speaker 1: of what a possession game and what one possession means
Speaker 1: in the playoffs, and also the factor of experience or
Speaker 1: ability to have closers that can come at your throats
Speaker 1: when needed to finish the games off. But either way,
Speaker 1: it will be fun to watch that game. We'll be
Speaker 1: taking place tonight here and we will find out before
Speaker 1: we know it. But we're going to take a quick
Speaker 1: break and talk about the legend Bill Walton who passed
Speaker 1: away at seventy one. Welcome back to MB Paul Sarahkustak,
Speaker 1: joined by the great Steve Ashberner, and ask some some
Speaker 1: just really unfortunate news to hears. The NBA had shared
Speaker 1: the other days that Bill Walton, the Great Bill Walton,
Speaker 1: larger than life, passed away from a prolonged fight with
Speaker 1: cancer at the age of seventy one. You look at
Speaker 1: his basketball resume, a two time NCAA champion at UCLA,
Speaker 1: playing under another icon in John Wooden, becoming a three
Speaker 1: time NASH Player of the Year. He went on to
Speaker 1: win two NBA titles. He was the NBA's MVP, he
Speaker 1: was the sixth Man of the Year. But more than anything,
Speaker 1: and I know you can speak to this, it was
Speaker 1: his personality. It was his love for life. It was
Speaker 1: the passion that he brought to everything. We had the
Speaker 1: great joy to listen to him for so many years
Speaker 1: as a basketball analyst and a broadcaster. When you heard
Speaker 1: the news, when you reflect back about Bill, what came
Speaker 1: to mind for you?
Speaker 2: Yeah, you know, this one hit hard because he was
Speaker 2: such a presence and his exuberance was palpable. I mean,
Speaker 2: Bill Walton every time I saw him, whether it was
Speaker 2: at an official function, a game he was calling, a
Speaker 2: Hall of Fame induction, or you know, running into him
Speaker 2: at O'Hare when he was being pushed in a wheelchair
Speaker 2: because of back issues at that point, long long retired,
Speaker 2: But you know, it's just he would light up when
Speaker 2: when people would come up to him. And if it
Speaker 2: was somebody that he knew, like me and obviously many
Speaker 2: more even better, he was, you know, a touchstone of
Speaker 2: sunshine and happiness. But if it was strangers I would see,
Speaker 2: like at that airport, where it was almost like he
Speaker 2: knew people got excited seeing him, and in a way
Speaker 2: he was trying to impart a little bit of that
Speaker 2: or reflect a little bit of that back and make
Speaker 2: you know, be excited for talking to them. And it
Speaker 2: seemed almost without fail I mean, even when he was
Speaker 2: in you know, great discomfort, he could turn it on,
Speaker 2: you know, for moments and then kind of recede so
Speaker 2: that he didn't have to be grumpy in a personal exchange.
Speaker 2: I mean, he would just sort of, you know, take
Speaker 2: his exit and the guy, I mean physically, you can't
Speaker 2: help but feel for the guy. I mean, this this
Speaker 2: particular illness that brought his demise cancer. I'm not sure
Speaker 2: how many of us even knew what he was going through.
Speaker 2: I mean, you knew the structural stuff through the years.
Speaker 2: I mean, the foot, the ankle that so hampered his career,
Speaker 2: back issues, you know, even you know, in retirement that
Speaker 2: had him about as low as you can get mentally
Speaker 2: because of the NonStop pain. You know. The other thing
Speaker 2: I think of is that I've heard from time to
Speaker 2: time people speculate or criticize and say, you know, he
Speaker 2: shouldn't have been part of that fifty Greatest NBA Players
Speaker 2: of All time, he shouldn't have been on the seventy
Speaker 2: five Greatest Players team because his NBA contributions were relatively meager.
Speaker 2: Two time All Star, I believe, two time All NBA,
Speaker 2: one time MVP. That doesn't tell the story, and frankly,
Speaker 2: I don't think. Look, he's in the Hall of Fame,
Speaker 2: because the Hall of Fame is more than just the NBA.
Speaker 1: What.
Speaker 2: I don't think you can even tell the story of
Speaker 2: the NBA without Bill Walton. I mean, he is vital
Speaker 2: to so much of it. You know, high draft picks
Speaker 2: with expansion teams, the struggle in Portland, sort of the
Speaker 2: old school, old fashioned attitudes towards injuries, and how he
Speaker 2: was disparaged in Portland when he couldn't play, and then
Speaker 2: of course the elation when he finally could that championship
Speaker 2: in nineteen seventy seven, when the Blazers started out down
Speaker 2: two against Philadelphia and then roared back to take the
Speaker 2: next four games. The consummate team at that point, the
Speaker 2: best sort of ensemble togetherness, chemistry on the floor that
Speaker 2: I think has only been replicated by that twenty fourteen
Speaker 2: San Antonio team. The beautiful basketball that they played, and
Speaker 2: you know, and then the struggles and it seemed like
Speaker 2: he was gone. I mean, that was the end of
Speaker 2: Bill Walton. The Clippers' days resurgence, I mean, Phoenix Rising
Speaker 2: when he was with Boston be a sixth man, an
Speaker 2: MVP who settles into and thrives in a sixth man role.
Speaker 2: He was the standard. A lot of us felt, well,
Speaker 2: maybe Derek Rose could pull that off one of these days.
Speaker 2: But I mean, just you think about the sublimation of
Speaker 2: ego to go from the best player in the game,
Speaker 2: acclaim by your peers because they did the voting when
Speaker 2: he won the MVP, to he's going to fill exactly
Speaker 2: the role that the Boston Celtics in nineteen eighty five
Speaker 2: eighty six needed. And you know that big team became
Speaker 2: with his presence and contributions, you know, arguably the greatest
Speaker 2: NBA team ever. So all of that, and that doesn't
Speaker 2: even get into what he did after that, and the
Speaker 2: sideshow stuff of his grateful dead obsession and allegiance, and
Speaker 2: I mean, just a life fully lived. You can't think
Speaker 2: of him without thinking of him smiling. And you know,
Speaker 2: most of us would be lucky to hit the high
Speaker 2: in one category that he hit in almost everyone.
Speaker 1: Well said, ash Well said, and I think you said
Speaker 1: the most important things of a life well lived. And
Speaker 1: it's hard to think of him without thinking of him smiling.
Speaker 1: So for all the accolades, for all the achievements, the
Speaker 1: Hall of fame career that he put together. I think
Speaker 1: more than anything, it was just the exuberance that he
Speaker 1: brought to every single interaction with every single person or
Speaker 1: any time you turned on your TV screen, and that
Speaker 1: in itself is a truly truly successful life. So we
Speaker 1: will honor him, we will remember him, we'll celebrate him,
Speaker 1: and as always, just appreciate it with this game that
Speaker 1: we love. So Ash will continue reading and watching all
Speaker 1: your stuff. We thank you for your time. We'll be
Speaker 1: interested to see here tonight on TNTA thirty pm Eastern.
Speaker 1: As I mentioned, Timberwolves trying to stave off the MAVs
Speaker 1: to extend this series, as Dallas has a three to
Speaker 1: zero series lead. Until next time, we'll talk with you soon, Ash,
Speaker 1: You're welcome, sir. NBA Post with Sarahkustak is a production
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