Speaker 1: On this episode of the Heat Check, the finals are here,
Speaker 1: well nearly here, and we have now a bunch of
Speaker 1: interviews for you from people who actually cover these goddamn teams.
Speaker 1: We start with an interview with Boston Globes Adam Himmelsbach
Speaker 1: himmelsbaka got a weird case? Why is he around?
Speaker 2: We move on to Dallas ten p. Fifty three the
Speaker 2: Fan with Eric.
Speaker 1: Chiafalo, who was absolutely excellent, and then we end it
Speaker 1: with an interview with NBA podcaster and betting extraordinary read
Speaker 1: Walck Anthony. No time to waste, brother, Let's jump right
Speaker 1: into it and drop that motherfucker beat that should be Rihanna.
Speaker 1: All right, guys, finals are here to get us ready.
Speaker 1: I bring you not one, not two, not three, no
Speaker 1: actually just three three interviews. They were all recorded on
Speaker 1: my other show bt MGM to Night, which year seven
Speaker 1: to eleven Eastern on the radio in most major markets
Speaker 1: and also live on Twitch as well as YouTube live.
Speaker 1: And we will start with Adam Himmelsbach, who covers the
Speaker 1: Celtics for the Boston Globe. He broke down the series
Speaker 1: from the Boston Celtics perspective, and I think it was
Speaker 1: super insightful, So let's get right into it.
Speaker 3: Adam Himmelsbock covers the Celtics for the Boston Globe, but
Speaker 3: he jumps on with us and Adam, we were talking
Speaker 3: about this before, and obviously you're going to be as
Speaker 3: rooted in as much as anybody. The Celtics team won
Speaker 3: sixty four games, but we know the history in the
Speaker 3: past of the expectations, fair or not, and where they've
Speaker 3: been and then falling short of winning a championship. Does
Speaker 3: it feel different around this team right now in terms
Speaker 3: of not only the expectations, but the confidence level and
Speaker 3: what they can do in the finals this time?
Speaker 4: Yeah, I would say so. It's they've had really all year,
Speaker 4: just a really business like approach to everything they've done.
Speaker 4: And you know, really that starts with Brad Stevens, goes
Speaker 4: down to Joe Mazool and then also to the players
Speaker 4: they've had and like Drew Hollidays and Derek White, Christosporzingis
Speaker 4: in addition to this core that's been around. They've obviously been,
Speaker 4: you know, to this level before, and they've been the
Speaker 4: conference finals year after year, and this entire season was
Speaker 4: really geared toward getting to this point. And they were
Speaker 4: so consistent with it and so matter of fact with it.
Speaker 4: I mean, to not have a single three game losing
Speaker 4: streak all year, it's pretty incredible. You know, every even
Speaker 4: the great team generally have rout and then to get
Speaker 4: in these playoffs and sure they're playing undermanned, you know,
Speaker 4: overmatched teams, but they're taking care of them. They've lost
Speaker 4: twice the entire playoffs. So now they're really to this
Speaker 4: point where they've been waiting for all year, and it
Speaker 4: seems like they're just really eager to get it started.
Speaker 1: So the folks talk about this preview. Some say that
Speaker 1: Derek White's going to be tasked with guarding Kyrie a lot,
Speaker 1: and some others say that.
Speaker 2: Drew Holliday will be on Kyrie.
Speaker 1: How do you see that matchup looking and then how
Speaker 1: do you see if it is White versus Kyrie working
Speaker 1: out over the series.
Speaker 4: Yeah, it's not a bad problem to have, right if
Speaker 4: you're the Celtics. You have two guys who have been
Speaker 4: first team All Defense for a second team All Defense.
Speaker 4: I should say in this case this season, Drew his
Speaker 4: first team last year, Derek was the second team last year.
Speaker 4: And you can kind of pick your poison. But the
Speaker 4: Celtics have such like a switch heavy scheme. Sometimes there's
Speaker 4: a lot of attention paid to who's on who They
Speaker 4: switch constantly. You know, Drew will start on Kyrie on
Speaker 4: one possession and six seconds later he's Derek's guy, you know,
Speaker 4: handed right off and they kind of are really on
Speaker 4: a string at that end of the court. Tatum will
Speaker 4: have time on Kyrie, Jalen Brown will have time on Kyrie.
Speaker 4: So they feel pretty good about just being on the
Speaker 4: throat so many different bodies that both Kyrie and Luca.
Speaker 3: What type of role can we expect from Kris STAPs
Speaker 3: for zingis when he's back, is it going to be
Speaker 3: maybe more limited minutes? Is he going to be kind
Speaker 3: of the going out there in sort of the same
Speaker 3: rotation and expectations that are there.
Speaker 4: Yeah, it's hard to tell right now, just because we
Speaker 4: haven't really seen him and he hasn't completed a full
Speaker 4: practice that we've seen yet. But my gauge is that
Speaker 4: he's going to practice tomorrow and I'm assuming we'll talk
Speaker 4: to him then and kind of see where he's at.
Speaker 4: But the big thing that Celtic got stressed all along,
Speaker 4: this took maybe a little bit longer than they're initially hoping.
Speaker 4: Maybe they aired on the side of cof when they
Speaker 4: it's pretty clear they're going to take care of the
Speaker 4: patiers regardless. But there have been no setbacks. There's been
Speaker 4: nothing that's really been a concern, So certainly all signs
Speaker 4: are pointing to him being back. Then it will just
Speaker 4: come to Look, it's not like, you know, if you
Speaker 4: sprain your pinky finger or something can't play for a while,
Speaker 4: you can still run and keep your card. He obviously
Speaker 4: hasn't been able to do that as much with the
Speaker 4: nature of his injury, so it might take a little
Speaker 4: time for him to get back to playing, you know,
Speaker 4: thirty five minutes a game.
Speaker 1: How do you expect Derek Lively Junior to factor in.
Speaker 2: To this playoff series?
Speaker 1: Obviously we're not sure if he's fully recovered from his
Speaker 1: injury from the Wolve series.
Speaker 2: But what do you.
Speaker 1: Expect from him in terms of him being an X
Speaker 1: factor against the Celtics.
Speaker 4: Yeah, he's been really good, really impressive rookie. Another a
Speaker 4: duke guy like Jason Tatum, obviously Derek and really Daniel
Speaker 4: Gafford and several guys on the stats team that are
Speaker 4: really love threats. I mean, the Mavericks had like twice
Speaker 4: as many al yups in these playoffs, is like every
Speaker 4: other team. And that's something where getting Christa's back will
Speaker 4: be a big help to have a seven foot two
Speaker 4: long guy down there who's able to try to, you know,
Speaker 4: congest things in the paint a little bit and be
Speaker 4: more of a vertical threat like Albert d a great defender,
Speaker 4: but he plays a little more below the rim. Generally, Yeah,
Speaker 4: should there should be some good matchups really all over
Speaker 4: the court.
Speaker 3: Adam, who would you give the coaching matchup to in
Speaker 3: this series?
Speaker 4: That's always tough to say, you know, I think, really
Speaker 4: I'm probably Joe Mazill will be the first to tell
Speaker 4: you it comes down to the players more than anything
Speaker 4: he's doing. And I'm obviously not around Jason Kidd very
Speaker 4: often in my job, but I can say that Joe
Speaker 4: has absolutely been much more kind of enough focus is
Speaker 4: the right word, but he's much more aware of what
Speaker 4: he's trying to do, much more aware he is trying
Speaker 4: to implement this season. He was thrown in this really
Speaker 4: almost impossible spot last year, like basically finding out a
Speaker 4: week before the season starts a before training camps starts
Speaker 4: that he's the new head coach of the Celtics after
Speaker 4: not even having been a bench coach. He was a
Speaker 4: behind the bench assistance the previous season, but he's his
Speaker 4: comfort level is a lot better, and more than anything,
Speaker 4: the players are so much more comfortable to him and
Speaker 4: they have like full trust to him. They're obviously going
Speaker 4: to be some few rocky moments last year, but that's
Speaker 4: completely gone now. These guys are all in with kind
Speaker 4: of what he's been preaching, you know. The biggest thing.
Speaker 4: He's pushed his sacrifice all year, making sure guys realize
Speaker 4: that they're really talented. So some nights, twenty shot guys
Speaker 4: only going to get ten shots and they gotta be
Speaker 4: okay with that. And the guys have bought in, and it's really,
Speaker 4: like I said earlier, it's just been kind of unbelievably
Speaker 4: low stress year for a team that over the past
Speaker 4: few years has had some high stress moments.
Speaker 1: Obviously, having a team is stacked as the Celtics is
Speaker 1: is a great problem to have an embarrassment of riches,
Speaker 1: but it feels like in terms of like the national discourse,
Speaker 1: a player that essentially has been negatively impact in the
Speaker 1: narrative department based on that is Tatum because he doesn't
Speaker 1: have to do all the things that Luca needs to
Speaker 1: do in order to carry his team.
Speaker 2: Do you think that we'll expect some of.
Speaker 1: The same thing in terms of the Celtics being next
Speaker 1: man up, any any guy can go off any night.
Speaker 1: Or should we expect Tatum to sort of try to
Speaker 1: duplicate what we see from Luca.
Speaker 4: Yeah, that's a good question, Like there's no doubt Tatum.
Speaker 4: You know, his numbers mostly dipped from last season. You know,
Speaker 4: you averaged more than thirty points a game last year
Speaker 4: and found about twenty six this year, and his shots
Speaker 4: were down, And that was just like you said, It
Speaker 4: wasn't because he was doing anything wrong or was playing worse.
Speaker 4: It's because they have a lot of weapons and that's
Speaker 4: just how it's going to be sometimes. And to Tatum's credit,
Speaker 4: he did a really good job at year. He was
Speaker 4: still even with these weapons, he was still the number
Speaker 4: one focus of opposing defenses night after night, facing a
Speaker 4: lot of double teams, and there were times in the
Speaker 4: past or sometimes he kind of try to force his
Speaker 4: way out of them and try to make a play,
Speaker 4: whereas now he just kind of patiently reads what's going on,
Speaker 4: makes the right pass. A lot of times that doesn't
Speaker 4: even isn't even the one that gets the assists because
Speaker 4: it's the past beyond that, the pass from the past
Speaker 4: that gets the assists. But he's been a willing distributor
Speaker 4: and just kind of playing within the flow of the offense.
Speaker 4: Is there a part of him I'm sure you know
Speaker 4: obviously Jalen MVF of a conference finals, like, I'm sure
Speaker 4: there's a part of Jason that sponsor in mind everyone
Speaker 4: that he believed one of the best. He's one of
Speaker 4: the best players in the world. He believes like top
Speaker 4: of the top players in the world, and he wants
Speaker 4: to show people that on the biggest stage and getting
Speaker 4: a second chance after the matchup against the Warriors didn't
Speaker 4: go as well two years ago.
Speaker 3: Talking to Adam Himmelsbock bet MGM tonight, we know this team. Obviously,
Speaker 3: the Celtics team looks different than where they were last year.
Speaker 3: Chris STAPs Porzingis has won, but Drew Holliday has just
Speaker 3: been such a massive addition to them as a leader,
Speaker 3: as a defenders, as everything. I mean, he's a guy
Speaker 3: that's obviously been in this position before. There may not
Speaker 3: even be a true answer for this, but I really
Speaker 3: just kind of want to gauge in where you are
Speaker 3: and Drew Holliday and his value to this team. It
Speaker 3: does his veteran leadership and experience in the finals even
Speaker 3: outweigh what he's been doing on the court in the
Speaker 3: playoffs for them.
Speaker 4: I'm not sure if I but it's definitely important. Joue
Speaker 4: Mozil has said multiple times this year, even back to
Speaker 4: like whatever January March, a number of times he would
Speaker 4: like pull Drew aside. Drew obviously the only player in
Speaker 4: this team has won championship and say, hey, you know
Speaker 4: when you're with the buck and things on sideways during
Speaker 4: the situation, how did you guys get.
Speaker 3: Out of it?
Speaker 4: How did you How did you make your way up
Speaker 4: when when things are going great? How did you not
Speaker 4: get too high? He's been seeking basically any any kind
Speaker 4: of morsel of information he can get from Drew, just
Speaker 4: about that championship experience. And Drew wasn't just like like
Speaker 4: the one thing, if Drew was just a guy on
Speaker 4: that team who took some threes and whatever, like he
Speaker 4: has real leadership qualities. He's so steady at both ends
Speaker 4: of the floor, and like we're saying earlier, like he's
Speaker 4: a guy who sacrificed his shots. His score numbers were down,
Speaker 4: but we've seen during these playoffs a little bit he's
Speaker 4: not afraid to remind everyone, Hey, if they're Knights too,
Speaker 4: where the matchups right and things are going. I'm not
Speaker 4: afraid to back my guy down, put that little lefty
Speaker 4: hook in over and score my twenty two points either.
Speaker 4: Somebody you guys have to account for too. So you
Speaker 4: know he's been beneficial. Obviously we talked about his defense,
Speaker 4: his offense has come about, and like you said, his
Speaker 4: leadership is really strong as well.
Speaker 1: Is there a deeper bench player? I know that you
Speaker 1: know in the playoffs rotations are shortened, but is there
Speaker 1: someone that is like eighth or lower in the rotation
Speaker 1: that you think could actually have an impact in this series,
Speaker 1: someone like a Sam Hauser or Luke Cornett or Peyton
Speaker 1: Pritchard for the Celtics.
Speaker 4: Yeah, all three of those guys have got chances. Obviously,
Speaker 4: Luke's roll will be reduced assuming christophs is back playing
Speaker 4: closer to regular minutes. But Howser's the one I think
Speaker 4: to keep an eye on. He was excellent basically all
Speaker 4: year long. He's one of the best three point shooters
Speaker 4: in the NBA. He came off the bench, he made
Speaker 4: two and a half threes per game, and it just
Speaker 4: hasn't been there during these playoffs. I think part of
Speaker 4: it is, yes, he has had a reduced role, and
Speaker 4: if you're a shooter, sometime it's a little harder to
Speaker 4: get that rhythm going, knowing, all right, I'm not going
Speaker 4: to get six threes tonight, I'm only going to get three.
Speaker 4: He missed that first one and then all of a
Speaker 4: sudden things become a little rocky. But he hasn't been
Speaker 4: able to establish his rhythm. And there were games where
Speaker 4: he really, I don't want to say carries the Celtics,
Speaker 4: but there were games where you know, they were in
Speaker 4: a little run. Other team goes down to ten oh
Speaker 4: round and then two hous or threes and thirty seconds
Speaker 4: and everything's right again. So they would for sure like
Speaker 4: to see him get going again.
Speaker 3: All right, Adam Himmel's back of the Boston Globe. Thanks
Speaker 3: grimonamos Man, no problem, dry the games set.
Speaker 2: Thank you so much to Adam.
Speaker 1: Next we move on to Eric Chiafalo of the Dallas
Speaker 1: ten point fifty three the Fan. Eric was here to
Speaker 1: help us prepare from the Mavericks standpoint, and it was
Speaker 1: also very entertaining, extremely insightful, and he had lots to
Speaker 1: stay about a key Mavericks player who might actually be
Speaker 1: the X factor in this series.
Speaker 3: Listening, Eric Chiefalo jumps back on those one O five
Speaker 3: three of the Fan and I guess the first question
Speaker 3: from a Dallas side of things, then, how are people
Speaker 3: in Dallas? How are you looking at this potential Kris
Speaker 3: STAPs Porzingi's return in game one?
Speaker 5: You know, it's interesting. Great to be honest with you
Speaker 5: guys once again, a very exciting time here. This is
Speaker 5: going to be an awesome finals. And the storyline between
Speaker 5: Kyrie going back to Boston and kp going back to
Speaker 5: Dallas wants the series swings back over here, absolutely a
Speaker 5: talking point. I don't think it's anywhere as close to
Speaker 5: the same level of sort of hate and hostility that
Speaker 5: Boston still feels towards Kyrie. I don't think it's quite
Speaker 5: the same. I do expect some boo birds at the
Speaker 5: Double AC when Porzingis gets announced. I know Chandler Parsons
Speaker 5: was alleging that the crowd was going to be doing
Speaker 5: all sorts of you know that the that the crowd
Speaker 5: was going to be booing porzingis every time he touches
Speaker 5: the ball. I don't know that it'll go that far,
Speaker 5: but he will definitely hear some animosity a good chunk
Speaker 5: of his time once they come bring this thing back
Speaker 5: to Dallas.
Speaker 1: Yeah, and Luca came out eric and said, yeah, it's
Speaker 1: not really true. I didn't dislike Havingham in Dallas. Like
Speaker 1: when you remember the time where KP and was in Dallas, like,
Speaker 1: what was the vibe around him and what was sort
Speaker 1: of any friction centered on.
Speaker 5: Well, a lot of it, I think from the fan
Speaker 5: base perspective was just the the inability to consistently be
Speaker 5: in the lineup and be healthy he was. I mean,
Speaker 5: he just wasn't somebody that you could depend on, and
Speaker 5: that's been that's been the case by and large throughout
Speaker 5: his career a little bit, but he's also KP has
Speaker 5: lent voice to the fact that he just wasn't fully
Speaker 5: understanding his role on the way that the Mavericks were
Speaker 5: using him, and hey, no post ups, we want to
Speaker 5: get you, you know, just just out on the three
Speaker 5: point line and you'll be kind of a catch and
Speaker 5: shoot dude. And it just never really meshed with the
Speaker 5: way that Luca. Whatever Luca needs as a sort of
Speaker 5: a robin or a co star, Porzingis just wasn't really
Speaker 5: fitting that on or off the court. It never felt
Speaker 5: like they had a great relationship. At times, it felt
Speaker 5: like there was plenty of friction. So I don't I
Speaker 5: don't know, I don't know just how much they actually
Speaker 5: like hated each other, like some people will sort of
Speaker 5: put their neck out there and report on. But I
Speaker 5: do know that it just it never really worked on
Speaker 5: the court, and I think off the court was a
Speaker 5: similar situation.
Speaker 3: It's worked well though with Luca and Kyrie. Now at
Speaker 3: this point, are you, given where we are now from
Speaker 3: where this duo looked at the end of last season,
Speaker 3: how surprised are you that not only Luca and Kyrie
Speaker 3: have seemingly found chemistry and understand their roles and have
Speaker 3: a bromance going on, which is awesome, but also this
Speaker 3: MAVs team is in the NBA Finals and they tanked
Speaker 3: last year at the end of the season.
Speaker 5: I know, I know, it's crazy. It's crazy just going
Speaker 5: back less than a year ago, and as you mentioned,
Speaker 5: you're tanking at the end. You've just traded for Kyrie,
Speaker 5: and all you have to show for it is that
Speaker 5: you are that you're throwing the end of the season
Speaker 5: because you're trying to go get a draft pick, and
Speaker 5: that has worked out beautifully. I mean that decision to tank.
Speaker 5: It obviously garnered a fine from the NBA, and a
Speaker 5: lot of fans at the time were not happy about it.
Speaker 5: When we were discussing it plenty, it was, you know,
Speaker 5: I was on board with it because I understood that
Speaker 5: the Mavericks even making the playoffs last year, which even
Speaker 5: if without the tank, hindsight tells you they wouldn't have
Speaker 5: made the playoffs anyways. But that was a team going
Speaker 5: nowhere fast, completely flawed in a bunch of different ways,
Speaker 5: and Luke and Kyrie were not on the same page
Speaker 5: when it comes to how exactly to conduct, especially late
Speaker 5: in the game scenarios, these clutch situations that have been
Speaker 5: so dominant in and they've had such great chemistry throughout
Speaker 5: the season in this postseason, they didn't have that last year.
Speaker 5: There was plenty of times where you're letting the buzzer
Speaker 5: go out while the ball still on one of your
Speaker 5: hands because you're kind of playing hot potato and nobody
Speaker 5: knows what they really want to do. So this offseason,
Speaker 5: and especially once they got into training camp and they
Speaker 5: go to Abu Dhabia's team, I think that's when the
Speaker 5: Luca and Kyrie bond really began and they were committed
Speaker 5: to be in the best versions of themselves. And a
Speaker 5: lot of that is credit to Kyrie acknowledging, Hey, Luca,
Speaker 5: this is your team. You are the men here. I'm
Speaker 5: the veteran. I will be your Robin at any moment
Speaker 5: that you need me to be a batman in a
Speaker 5: clutch situation. He can do that. But yeah, it's been surprising.
Speaker 5: This is better than the most optimistic opinion that you
Speaker 5: had on the Kyrie trade when it initially happened. This
Speaker 5: is way better than you could have even really imagined.
Speaker 5: It's been perfect. And Nico Harrison, the general manager who
Speaker 5: just got the extension today, As a matter of fact,
Speaker 5: I mean, he's a guy that has made great decisions.
Speaker 5: If it was his decision the tank and then draft Lively,
Speaker 5: what a home run of a decision. That was you
Speaker 5: botched the Grant Williams thing, but then you make up
Speaker 5: for it at the trade deadline and you're able to
Speaker 5: get a PJ. Washington and then of course you get
Speaker 5: Daniel Gafford as well, and that's the trade that really
Speaker 5: cemented this team as being a title contender. So this
Speaker 5: whole year has just been crazy.
Speaker 3: Man.
Speaker 5: This time last year we were wondering is Luca a
Speaker 5: ticking time bomb with when is he gonna go be
Speaker 5: the superstar demanding the trade? And now here we are
Speaker 5: four victories away from him being a twenty five year
Speaker 5: old champion.
Speaker 2: Yeah. No, it's absolutely bonkers, just crazy.
Speaker 1: Back to Kyrie. I was talking to a couple of
Speaker 1: friends about this today. How do you think the matchup
Speaker 1: is gonna go in terms of who's gonna check Kyrie
Speaker 1: the most? Because you've got Derek White and you got
Speaker 1: Drew Holliday both too, all NBA guards, And then how
Speaker 1: do you think Kyrie does against guys of that ilk.
Speaker 5: Well, it is going to be a It's gonna be
Speaker 5: a tough challenge for sure. Holiday and White are as
Speaker 5: you mentioned, two of the best guards in the sport
Speaker 5: when it comes to playing defense. So I think either
Speaker 5: one of those guys will see plenty of time on Kyrie.
Speaker 5: We know how much Boston likes to switch anyways, and
Speaker 5: so as long as that remains their defensive identity, I'm
Speaker 5: sure a lot of these guys are going to get
Speaker 5: their chance on Kyrie. But I would think you would
Speaker 5: start things off with Drew Holiday sort of drawing that assignment.
Speaker 5: I think Jalen Brown probably draws the initial Luca assignment,
Speaker 5: but then everything with adjustments and hunting different matchups and
Speaker 5: however it is that Boston decides to play some of
Speaker 5: these pick and roll situations, it's all going to be
Speaker 5: super super interesting. But when it comes specifically to Kyrie,
Speaker 5: I do think that if you're Boston, you feel pretty
Speaker 5: good about the idea that you have two guards that
Speaker 5: you can really take turns on Kyrie giving him some fits. Now,
Speaker 5: Kyrie's always going to find ways to get his seems
Speaker 5: like a dude right now who's in a great mental place,
Speaker 5: And when it comes to sort of the the the
Speaker 5: hostility he's going to receive at the Garden, you know
Speaker 5: he's going to want to perform at the highest level.
Speaker 5: But Kyrie's shown that he's willing to just go stack
Speaker 5: up a bunch of assists if he's not able to
Speaker 5: get his for whatever reason. Oklahoma City did a great
Speaker 5: job defending Kyrie and his numbers, especially the scoring numbers.
Speaker 5: They they they showed that they reflected that he was
Speaker 5: not quite the same score throughout that series. And I
Speaker 5: think a lot of the physicality that Oklahoma City brought
Speaker 5: you will get as well defensively from Holliday and White
Speaker 5: and everybody else that matches up on Kyrie. So it's
Speaker 5: gonna be a tough drawl, I would say for Kyrie,
Speaker 5: and I'm looking forward to seeing how that he kind
Speaker 5: of stands up to the challenge here. But with the
Speaker 5: way Boston switches man, every everybody's gonna get to take
Speaker 5: their turns on Luca and Kyrie.
Speaker 3: Talking to Eric, you follow BETEMGM tonight, would you say that,
Speaker 3: Derek Lively, we always love to talk about X factors,
Speaker 3: right and we know so much about Luka and Kyrie.
Speaker 3: We spent a lot of this talking about Luka and Kyrie,
Speaker 3: and rightfully so, because well, they've got to play at
Speaker 3: their highest level of the MAVs want to win this series.
Speaker 3: But would Derek Lively be the guy that you kind
Speaker 3: of look at that like they need a third guy
Speaker 3: doing something. Is he that guy to you or is
Speaker 3: there somebody else?
Speaker 5: You know? I think that he has been in a
Speaker 5: lot of minds. He's the third most important player on
Speaker 5: the team. Some people would say PJ. Healthy Luca, unlike
Speaker 5: what you had versus Oklahoma City, where those first few
Speaker 5: games he's unable to do the same type of scoring
Speaker 5: due to the injuries that he was playing through. So PJ.
Speaker 5: Washington was able to take on that role of being
Speaker 5: a guy to go get some buckets, put up multiple
Speaker 5: games of twenty points or whatever in that series, and
Speaker 5: so at that point I felt like, Okay, PJ. Washington's
Speaker 5: that guy. But now with a healthy Luca, who you
Speaker 5: know is going to get his at every turn. I
Speaker 5: do think Derek Lively is probably that that third most
Speaker 5: important piece outside of Luca and Kyrie, and he's been
Speaker 5: so amazing for this team this whole time. That injury
Speaker 5: was a little bit crazy, looked extremely painful, but he's
Speaker 5: obviously going to be good to go now, and it's
Speaker 5: going to be It's gonna be an interesting because the
Speaker 5: way that the Celtics spread the floor and one of
Speaker 5: the one of the things that the Mavericks had done
Speaker 5: so well with Lively, Ain't Gafford, has been the rim protection.
Speaker 5: But you know that Boston is going to want to
Speaker 5: draw those guys out of the paint as much as possible.
Speaker 5: So I'm I'm wondering a little bit how much Jason
Speaker 5: Kidd will go to Maxi kleebat lineup that way. Yeah,
Speaker 5: I think there. I think you you with the Mavericks,
Speaker 5: you have that versatility with the healthy Kleiba, something you
Speaker 5: didn't have really throughout that Timberwolve series. But now having him,
Speaker 5: I think that'll be an interesting piece and interesting change
Speaker 5: up for Jason Kidd to throw out there at times.
Speaker 5: But if Lively can be the best version of himself, uh,
Speaker 5: I think there's going to be a chance here where
Speaker 5: at some point you look at go gosh, dang it,
Speaker 5: why is this dude coming off the bench? He might
Speaker 5: need to start at some point in this series. How
Speaker 5: long how long before that adjustment gets made. They are
Speaker 5: clearly a better team with him on the floor and
Speaker 5: what he's able to do when it comes to the
Speaker 5: pick and roll with Luca, I mean, it feels like
Speaker 5: it's unstoppable and he is one of these big that
Speaker 5: can pass out of the pick and roll as well
Speaker 5: in a really impressive way. So, yes, Lively being at
Speaker 5: the height of his powers, and I do think he
Speaker 5: will be a monster when it comes to getting on
Speaker 5: the glass. And when you've seen the Boston Celtics struggle
Speaker 5: at times this year, they've got dominated on the on
Speaker 5: the boards. When it comes to the offensive rebound big spot,
Speaker 5: I think Lively could have a huge impact that way.
Speaker 5: But yeah, I'm looking to see when is he going
Speaker 5: to get in the starting lineup at some point this year?
Speaker 1: For Derek Lively to be the leading rebounder of this
Speaker 1: series is twelve to one. You think that's that's a
Speaker 1: good bet considering how this thing might actually play out
Speaker 1: matchup wise.
Speaker 5: I do think that's a pretty good bet right there.
Speaker 5: Absolutely I do, because especially now and I mentioned he's
Speaker 5: coming off, to think at what point does he come
Speaker 5: in and start or how much of it it is, Hey,
Speaker 5: Derek Lively is just so much more effective than Afford
Speaker 5: or Hey, we want to play some more small ball
Speaker 5: with Kleiba, So it's going to be more like a
Speaker 5: Derek Lively Kleba situation. He's getting caffered one who suffers
Speaker 5: the minutes consequences. So I think you're gonna get a
Speaker 5: healthy dose of Derek Lively no matter what in this series.
Speaker 5: And he's just such an active dude when it comes
Speaker 5: to the glass and he will have some great opportunities
Speaker 5: with I mean, the sis factor for the Celtics is
Speaker 5: just not quite there, so I do I like that
Speaker 5: back quite a bit.
Speaker 3: At twelve to one, Chief Erchie have follow one O
Speaker 3: five to three of the fan. Great to have you
Speaker 3: on again, Man Live.
Speaker 5: QUI thank y'all so much.
Speaker 1: Thanks shout out to Eric and next week turn into
Speaker 1: Red Wallock of the Early Read podcast. Reid has absolutely
Speaker 1: no dog in this fight because he is a sick
Speaker 1: Nets fan, so he gave us his mostly unbiased take
Speaker 1: of the finals, except that I know that he hates
Speaker 1: Kyrie Irving enjoy.
Speaker 3: Adam Himmelsback covers the Celtics for the Boston Globe and
Speaker 3: he jumps on with us and Adam we were talking
Speaker 3: about this before, and obviously you're gonna be as rooted
Speaker 3: in as much as as anybody. The Celtics team won
Speaker 3: sixty four games, but we know the history, the past
Speaker 3: of the expectations fair or not, and where they've been
Speaker 3: and then falling short of winning a championship. Does it
Speaker 3: feel different around this team right now in terms of
Speaker 3: not only the expectations, but the confidence level and what
Speaker 3: they can do in the finals this time?
Speaker 4: Yeah, I would say so. It's they've had really all year,
Speaker 4: just a really business like approach to everything they've done.
Speaker 4: And you know, really that starts with Brad Stevens, goes
Speaker 4: down to Joe Mazzulla, and then also to the players
Speaker 4: they've had and like Drew Hollidays and Derek White, Christosporzingis
Speaker 4: in addition to this corps that's been around. They've obviously been,
Speaker 4: you know, to this level before, and they've been the
Speaker 4: conference finals year after year, and this entire season was
Speaker 4: really geared toward getting to this point and they were
Speaker 4: so consistent with it and so matter of fact with it.
Speaker 4: I mean, to not have a single three game losing
Speaker 4: streak all year, it's pretty incredible. You know, every even
Speaker 4: the great team generally have rough and then to get
Speaker 4: in these playoffs and sure they're playing under manned, you know,
Speaker 4: over match teams, but they're taking care of them. They've
Speaker 4: lost twice the entire playoffs. So now they're really to
Speaker 4: this point where they've been waiting for all year and
Speaker 4: it seems like they're just really eager to get it started.
Speaker 1: So the folks that talk about this preview, some say
Speaker 1: that Derek White's going to be tasked with guarding Kyrie
Speaker 1: a lot, and some others say that Drew.
Speaker 2: Holliday will be on Kyrie.
Speaker 1: How do you see that matchup looking and then how
Speaker 1: do you see if it is White versus Kyrie working
Speaker 1: out over the series.
Speaker 4: Yeah, it's not a bad problem to have, right if
Speaker 4: you're the Celtics. You have two guys who have been
Speaker 4: first team All Defense for a second team All Defense,
Speaker 4: I should say in this case this season. Drew his
Speaker 4: first team last year, Derek was second team last year.
Speaker 4: And you can kind of pick your poison. But the
Speaker 4: Celtics have such like a switch heavy scheme. Sometimes there's
Speaker 4: a lot of attention paid to who's on who They
Speaker 4: switch constantly. You know, Drew will start on Kyrie on
Speaker 4: one possession and six seconds later he's Derek's guy, you know,
Speaker 4: handed right off and they kind of are really honest
Speaker 4: string at that end of the court. Tatum will have
Speaker 4: time on Kyrie. Jalen Brown will have time on Kyrie,
Speaker 4: so they feel pretty good about just being on the
Speaker 4: throat so many different bodies that both Kyrie and Luca.
Speaker 3: What type of role can we expect from Kris STAPs
Speaker 3: porzingis when he's back. Is it going to be maybe
Speaker 3: more limited minutes? Is he going to be kind of
Speaker 3: the going out there and sort of the same rotation
Speaker 3: and expectations that are there.
Speaker 4: Yeah, it's hard to tell right now, just because we
Speaker 4: haven't really seen him and he hasn't completed a full
Speaker 4: practice that we've seen yet. But my gauge is that
Speaker 4: he's going to practice tomorrow and I'm assuming we'll talk
Speaker 4: to him then and kind of see where he's at.
Speaker 4: But the big thing that Celtic got stressed all along
Speaker 4: is this took maybe a little bit longer than they're
Speaker 4: initially hoping. Maybe they aired on the side of cof
Speaker 4: when they it's pretty clear they're going to take care
Speaker 4: of the pacers regardless. But there have been no setbacks.
Speaker 4: There's been nothing that's really been concern so certainly all
Speaker 4: signs are pointing to him being back, then that will
Speaker 4: just come to look. It's not like, you know, if
Speaker 4: you sprain your pinky finger or something can't play for
Speaker 4: a while, you can still run and keep your cardio ups.
Speaker 4: He obviously hasn't been able to do that as much
Speaker 4: with the nature of his injury, so it might take
Speaker 4: a little time for him to get back to playing,
Speaker 4: you know, thirty five minutes a game.
Speaker 1: How do you expect Derek Lively Junior to factor in.
Speaker 2: To this playoff series?
Speaker 1: Obviously we're not sure if he's fully recovered from his
Speaker 1: injury from the Wolf series, But what do you expect
Speaker 1: from him in terms of him being an X factor
Speaker 1: against the Celtics.
Speaker 4: Yeah, he's been really good, really impressive rookie another a
Speaker 4: duke guy like Jason Tatum obviously Derek, and really Daniel
Speaker 4: Gafford and several guys on the stats team that are
Speaker 4: really lob threats. I mean, the Mavericks had like twice
Speaker 4: as many al yups in these playoffs, is like every
Speaker 4: other team. And that's something where getting Christa's back will
Speaker 4: be a big help. To have a seven foot two
Speaker 4: long guy down there who's able to try to, you know,
Speaker 4: congest things in the paint a little bit and be
Speaker 4: more of a vertical threat like Al Horford's a great defender,
Speaker 4: but he plays a little more below the rim. Generally, Yeah,
Speaker 4: it should. There should be some good matchups really all
Speaker 4: over the court.
Speaker 3: Adam, who would you give the coaching matchup to in
Speaker 3: this series?
Speaker 4: That's always tough to say, you know, I think, really
Speaker 4: I'm probably Joe. Macviill will be the first to tell you.
Speaker 4: It comes down to the players more than anything he's doing.
Speaker 4: And I'm obviously not around Jason Kidd very often in
Speaker 4: my job, but I can say that Joe has absolutely
Speaker 4: been much more kind of enough focus is the right word,
Speaker 4: but he's much more aware of what he's trying to do,
Speaker 4: much more aware he is trying to implement this season.
Speaker 4: He's thrown in this really almost impossible spot last year,
Speaker 4: like basically finding out a week before the season starts,
Speaker 4: a before training camps starts that he's the new head
Speaker 4: coach of the Celtics after not even having been bench coach.
Speaker 4: He was a behind the bench assistance the previous season.
Speaker 4: But he's his comfort level is a lot better, and
Speaker 4: more than anything, the players are so much more comfortable
Speaker 4: to him and they have like full trust to him.
Speaker 4: They're obviously going to be some few rocky moments last year,
Speaker 4: but that's completely gone now. These guys are all in
Speaker 4: with kind of what he's been preaching.
Speaker 3: You know.
Speaker 4: The biggest thing he's pushed his sacrifice all year, making
Speaker 4: sure guys realize that they're really talented. So some nights
Speaker 4: twenty shot guys only going to get ten shots and
Speaker 4: they gotta be okay with that. And the guys have
Speaker 4: bought in, and it's really, like you said earlier, it's
Speaker 4: just been kind of unbelievably low stress year for a
Speaker 4: team that over the past few years has had some
Speaker 4: high stress moments.
Speaker 1: Obviously, having a team is stacked, as the Celtics is
Speaker 1: a is a great problem to have an embarrassment of riches.
Speaker 1: But it feels like in terms of like the national
Speaker 1: discourse player that essentially has been negatively impact in the
Speaker 1: narrative department based on that is Tatum because he doesn't
Speaker 1: have to do all the things that Luca needs to
Speaker 1: do in order to carry his team.
Speaker 2: Do you think that we'll expect.
Speaker 1: Some of the same thing in terms of the Celtics
Speaker 1: being next man up. Any any guy can go off
Speaker 1: any night, or should we expect Tatum to sort of
Speaker 1: try to duplicate what we see from Luca.
Speaker 4: Yeah, that's a good question, Like there's no doubt Tatum.
Speaker 4: You know, his numbers mostly dipped from last season. You know,
Speaker 4: you averaged more than thirty points a game last year
Speaker 4: and found about twenty six this year. His shots were down,
Speaker 4: and that was just like you said, It wasn't because
Speaker 4: he was doing anything wrong or was playing worse. It's
Speaker 4: because they have a lot of weapons and that's just
Speaker 4: how it's going to be sometimes. And Tatum's credit, he
Speaker 4: did a really good job that year. He was still
Speaker 4: even with these weapons, he was still the number one
Speaker 4: focus of opposing defenses night after night, facing a lot
Speaker 4: of double teams, and there were times in the past
Speaker 4: or sometimes he kind of try to force his way
Speaker 4: out of them and try to make a play, whereas
Speaker 4: now he just kind of patiently reads what's going on,
Speaker 4: makes the right pass. A lot of times that doesn't
Speaker 4: even isn't even the one that gets the assists because
Speaker 4: it's the past beyond that, the pass from the past
Speaker 4: that gets the assist. But he's been a willing distributor
Speaker 4: and just kind of playing within the flow of the offense.
Speaker 4: Is there a part of him I'm sure you know.
Speaker 4: Obviously Jalen was MVP has a Conference finals like I'm
Speaker 4: sure there's a part of Jason that sponsor in mind
Speaker 4: everyone that he's he believed one of the best, He's
Speaker 4: one of the best players in the world. He believes
Speaker 4: like top of the top players in the world, and
Speaker 4: he wants to show people that on the biggest stage
Speaker 4: and getting a second chance after the matchup against the
Speaker 4: Warriors didn't go as well two years ago.
Speaker 3: Talking to Adam Himmel's bock Bet MGM tonight, we know
Speaker 3: this team. Obviously, the Celtics team looks different than where
Speaker 3: they were last year. Chris STAPs Porzingis has won, but
Speaker 3: Drew Holliday has just been such a massive addition to
Speaker 3: them as a leader, as a defenders, as everything. I mean,
Speaker 3: he's a guy that's obviously been in this position before.
Speaker 3: There may not even be a true answer for this,
Speaker 3: but I really just kind of want a gauge and
Speaker 3: where you are and Drew Holliday and his value to
Speaker 3: this team is it does does his veteran leadership and
Speaker 3: experience in the finals even outweigh what he's been doing
Speaker 3: on the court in the playoffs for them.
Speaker 4: I'm not sure if that weighs it, but it's definitely important.
Speaker 4: Joue Mozil has said multiple times this year, even back
Speaker 4: to like whatever January March, a number of times he
Speaker 4: would like pull Drew aside Drew obviously the only player
Speaker 4: in the team has won championship and say, hey, you know,
Speaker 4: when you're with the buck and things on sideways during
Speaker 4: this situation, how did you guys get out of it?
Speaker 4: How did you how did you make your way out
Speaker 4: when when things are going great? How did you not
Speaker 4: get too high? He's been seeking basically any any kind
Speaker 4: of morsel of information he can get from Drew, just
Speaker 4: about that championship experience. And Drew isn't just like like
Speaker 4: the one thing if Drew was just a guy on
Speaker 4: that team who took some threes and whatever, like he
Speaker 4: has real leadership qualities. He's so steady at both ends
Speaker 4: of the floor, and like we're saying earlier, like he's
Speaker 4: a guy who sacker priced his shots. His score numbers
Speaker 4: were down, but we've seen during these playoffs a little
Speaker 4: bit he's not afraid to remind everyone, hey, if they're
Speaker 4: Knights too, where the matchup's right and things are going,
Speaker 4: I'm not afraid to back my guy down, put that
Speaker 4: little lefty hook in over and score my twenty two
Speaker 4: points either somebody you guys have to account for too,
Speaker 4: So you know he's been beneficial. Obviously we talked about
Speaker 4: his defense, his offense has come about, and like you said,
Speaker 4: his leadership is really strong as well.
Speaker 1: Is there a deeper bench player I know that you
Speaker 1: know in the playoffs rotations are shortened, but is there
Speaker 1: someone that is like eighths or lower in the rotation
Speaker 1: that you think could actually have an impact in this series,
Speaker 1: someone like a Sam Hauser or Luke Cornett or Peyton
Speaker 1: Pritchard for the Celtics.
Speaker 4: Yeah, all three of those guys have got chances. Obviously,
Speaker 4: Luke's roll will be reduced assuming Christops is back playing
Speaker 4: closer to regular minutes. But Howser is the one I
Speaker 4: think to keep an eye on. He was excellent basically
Speaker 4: all year long. He's one of the best three point
Speaker 4: shooters in the NBA. He came off the bench, he
Speaker 4: made two and a half threes per game, and it
Speaker 4: just hasn't been there during these playoffs. I think part
Speaker 4: of it is yet he has had a reduced role
Speaker 4: and if you're a shooter sometimes it's a little harder
Speaker 4: to get that rhythm going, knowing, all right, I'm not
Speaker 4: going to get six threes tonight, I'm only going to
Speaker 4: get three. He missed that first one and then all
Speaker 4: of a sudden things become a little rocky. But he
Speaker 4: hasn't been able to establish his rhythm. And there were
Speaker 4: games where he really, I don't want to say carries
Speaker 4: the Celtics, but there were games where you know, they
Speaker 4: were in a little run. Other team goes down to a
Speaker 4: ten oh round and then two hous or threes and
Speaker 4: thirty seconds and everything's right again. So they would for
Speaker 4: sure like to see him get going again.
Speaker 3: All right, Adam Himmel's back of the Boston Globe.
Speaker 4: Thanks griming on was man, no problems really games good.
Speaker 1: Big shout out to Adam, Reid and Eric. That's all
Speaker 1: the time that we have this episode of the Heat Check.
Speaker 1: Come back tomorrow for an all new episode and check
Speaker 1: out the feed for past episodes and mini episodes would
Speaker 1: drop unexpectedly like a hot take about Kaylyn Clark. Do
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Speaker 1: of the playoffs.
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