Part 1: Detroit’s Comeback, Philly’s Resurrection, and Celtics Questions With Zach Lowe

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For some reason, I didn't realize until after the game had ended that they had only scored 19 points in an entire half of basketball. Like, I just didn't put to do the math in real time. And I looked at the box score and I just stared at it like the Mona Lisa had appeared in my house. I just sat there in silence for like 30 seconds. It's looking at 11-8 next to each other and being like, is that even possible? And look, if not for a late run of full-court press and Detroit comedy turnovers at the end of this game, we would have been looking at like 105 points combined over six quarters of basketball for an NBA playoff team. And it ended up being, I think, 113 instead. But still, I mean, like 113 points in six quarters is kind of a problem. I know. Franz Wagner is out. That's a big deal, but not great. I screenshotted the second half box score of Orlando. And I think I'm just going to keep it in my Apple Cloud for the rest of my life. Four for 37. 108 was the field goal percentage. They were two for 18 from three. They had 17 rebounds and Detroit had 34. Said half as many. Seven turnovers. Paolo and Bain combined were two for 20. Suggs was 0 for 6. And Bain was minus 39 and a half. And just one half, minus 39. It's really, really special. The fact that they didn't cover or even cover like a double-digit spread. They lost by 14. They were up 24 early in the third quarter. It was, and at home, it was an amazing collapse. They were laughing at the Pistons. Like, I mean, literally, like Duncan Robinson, remember, I think he threw an inbounds pass out of bounds all the way to the other sideline. And Desmond Bain grinned in his face, like cackled in his face. Wendell Carter Jr. was laughing. They were mocking the Pistons up 24 in that game. And then they missed, I don't remember, it was like two dozen shots in a row. They just could not make any baskets for a team that's been a horrendous offensive team now for a long time. Absolute, it's funny, like, how would you regard this, right? Like it was a disaster season, disaster season. Everyone's hurt all the time. It doesn't gel. It doesn't gel. Then it gels. And they blitz the Hornets in the play-in tournament, the team that like all of the NBA world outside of Orlando was rooting for the Hornets to get into the playoffs. They go up 3-1 against the number one seed. And it's like, all right, this is the team 50 and a half over under. They got their mojo back. Maybe the Mosley-Bancaro thing is fine. Wow. And then they lose the next three games in increasingly dispirited fashion. And do you look at this like, well, we lost to the number one seed in seven games without our best or second best I guess after this Palo game, I would say second best player. He's second best. Yeah. That's not so bad. Or is it so bad? It's a, it's a, it seems very bad right now in the moment. Well, think about a week ago. So I remember talking to my dad after the Celtics were up 3-1 and just being like, see, I told you we, we wanted to play Philly over Orlando. That was the consensus, right? That was seven days ago. So many things. Things flipped in eight days. Like the Knicks, all their fans were in complete panic when they were down 2-1. They have this must-win game, game four in Atlanta. And it feels like if this game goes wrong, we could just see the Knicks completely blow everything up. Now they're the favorites to win the East, like pretty convincingly. And then Orlando and Philly basically switched places. I had, before we get into game seven, I had some big picture stuff. And you brought up Franz. Does Orlando win this series if he doesn't get hurt? Because I, I feel like they win game six. I do feel like they had figured out at least something with him defending Cade that made it reasonable to shut down Detroit offensively, at least a little bit. Once Franz was out, Cade went basically apeshit. Up 3-1, you would say they probably do, I think. But I, I don't really care, honestly. Like he gets injured and the entire team, other than Bancaro. And Bane, Bane was, Bane was good for the bulk of the series and okay today. Got, got some points late when it was out of hand. He was okay. He was okay. I'm going to give him okay. I'm not going to give him four first round picks. Good. Well, I mean, that's the bigger picture is that, yeah, Franz goes out and he's defending Cade pretty well. He's a well-rounded offensive player. The fit with Bancaro has never been great, but the talent is the talent. And then they just cease to function as an offensive basketball team. And they're paying jail and sugs. $32 million next year. He has four more years left on his contract. He can't make a shot. Anthony. Not only can he not make a shot, his shots are going left, right, long, short. You almost don't know which direction they're going. It's like a compass. Anthony Black is extension eligible. And I don't even know where to begin with negotiating that contract. I know where I'd begin with if I were his agent. They are paying Bane, Bancaro and Wagner, like $135,000. $135,000,000 combined next year. They're in the tax, right? Next year, no matter what happens. They're way into the double tax. Jet Howard. They declined his fourth year option for next season. He was a fairly important first year on pick. Jace Richardson. Now he's the 25th pick. Couldn't get on the floor. Tristan De Silva, like kind of role got scrunched a little bit toward the end of the series. Like there's it's. And then if sugs is just. If sugs is going to be the $32 million glue guy, eat level glue guy like the Derek White. We'll talk about Derek White series. The Derek White of the magic once every three weeks for two games, then that contract is is a borderline disaster. And his shooting in this series was like it. It's just not acceptable for a guy in that role. I'm sorry. He didn't used to be nearly as bad of, I don't know what happened to him in this series. Like I almost the shots were so bad. It made you wonder was he hurt. Yeah. So you talk, they just started Paolo kicks in next year. The five for two 40, whatever that is. And then Franz year two, he's got four for one 84 left. Bain's at 39 42 45 brutal. And then you mentioned the sucks. That's. They also have Carter at 18 and 19, and they have Batase at seven and a half next year. So they have really no outs to get under the tax unless you trade Suggs and get a $4 million guy back, something like that. They are also missing all their picks. They have 27, they have 31. And in 2029, they can swap with Memphis, but it's Memphis' call. And that's all they have for picks because of the Bain trade. Do you think, I still want to dive into this game seven, but do you think that after Bain and Bridges, these trades are just done now? This was like this thinking outside the box, zag, we're close. These picks aren't going to matter anyway. This is a way for us to elevate our team and go to another level, but we're not getting an All-NBA player, maybe not even an All-Star. I mean, it's not a coincidence. I don't think that both those teams are in the East, right? And the East sort of has this openness to it that convinces these teams who have not really done anything. I mean, Orlando, has not really done anything in the, they haven't won a playoff series with this group of guys. Like, but it convinces them that like, we can jump all the way from that to, if you're trading four first round picks for an in his prime late 20s veteran, you're saying like, we think we can make the finals right now. I thought that trade was fine for them because I liked it for them, to be honest with you, because I just didn't know what other direction, what other player were they going to get that fit everything that they needed? We all knew that they had overpaid, but it was the sort of, but then you look, at the opportunity costs, they're stuck now. Like they don't have a lot of outs other than trading. You never want to be in a position where you're out is trading one of your best players from a position of like, we don't really have anything else to do. And that's kind of where they are. I want to say, I liked the Bain trade when it happened. I did too. Because I thought, I hate putting it this way, but I honestly thought he was better. Like even what you saw with Franz out, I thought there were moments. Remember, there was that stretchy out of Memphis where he was like running their offense and scoring 25, 27 a game. I actually wanted to see what that would look like on this team with those two guys. And then they had, it was a classic, not enough, not enough plates at the table for everybody's situation sometimes. And you could see him kind of step back. He'd step up, he'd step back. I thought this would be like, okay, Franz is out. It's Desmond Bain time. And it's just, well, maybe he's not that guy. I don't know. What do you see? It's not only not enough, it's not enough plates. It's like everyone is trying to get the same food or food is being tossed. It's like the main guys just don't fit very well together. And Paolo is a classic, like he has the game and style of a number one offensive player because he doesn't have the game and style of a number two offensive player because of his shooting liabilities. But he's just not good enough at the number one offense, despite a brilliant game today when no one else was with him. He's just not, he's just not good enough at the number one offense. He's just not good enough at that level as a number one guy yet. Maybe he'll get there someday. And so you just don't, the whole team's offense just feels amorphous, unformed, lack of identity, lack of cohesion, lack of understanding on a lot of possessions of like what they want to do. And all of that just coalesced into that second half of game six where they just did all the wrong things, attacked all the wrong matchups, missed all the wrong shots and just had no plan B on everything. Any possession after one action. And that's just, it's just a weird mix of guys. And you want to keep saying, well, if they're healthy, if they're healthy, if they're healthy, even when they've been healthy, it just hasn't worked well enough on offense. Game six, second half was a good example of, it's nice to have an old school guard on your team that can be like, come on guys, calm down. And the guy could, it could be zombie Mike Conley. It could be anybody. But I think they're probably expecting black who I think had some moments this year. And even in this playoff series had a couple of moments, but I think for where they needed him to be, he just couldn't get there. It's a weird team. He's the same issue as Paolo, just many tiers down the league hierarchy and that he is like an on-ball creator kind of player, but just not good enough to do that a lot at a high level and doesn't have the jump shot yet. I mean, he shot it much better this year, but he's never going to shoot it at volume or he hasn't yet to be an off ball. Like it just, there's just a lot of pieces that don't, fit together to add up to more than the sum of their parts, which we knew like this is the, this has not been a good offensive team ever in this era. Sometimes you got to rise to the challenge. Like me today, I'm incredibly hung over. I can't even tell you what happened yesterday, but there were a lot of drinks and it was bad. And, and I'm fighting through it today. And maybe the audience barely knows, except for the nine times I stammered. And when I could remember, it was a game seven yesterday, Philly and Boston. I just, I chucked, I chucked that one up to you're having a tough emotional time. That's, that's, I just, I, I gave you, I give you some grace on that one. Well, it was my daughter's 21st birthday yesterday. And we decided to go to a bar in Manhattan beach and watch the Celtic game and drinks ensued. And, and then the game was tense. And we're going to talk about that later. Her first, Zoe's first drink ever on the 21st birthday. Well, midnight, midnight, Friday night was the first official legal in a bar. Here's my ID drink, which is always fun. Always nice to be there for those big picture for Detroit. Cause they were great today. They finally got an awesome Tobias Harris game in a, in a must-win situation. Love it. I was thinking about Doc Rivers. Cause I think his two favorite players. He's probably coached in the last 15 years where Maxie and Harris and both of those guys were awesome. Maxie we'll talk about later. Hey, look, I don't want to get too far ahead. And I don't know that this outcome is particularly likely, but we are one. Round away from a entire city of Philadelphia versus Tobias Harris conference matchup. Oh my God. It is possible. Well, he was great. He had 17, the second quarter, they had a 40 points, second quarter. And, uh, and it was basically Tobias and Cade Dern was at least rebounding. I don't know what's happened to him offensively. Again, I voted for him second team, all NBA, and he's just completely lost his confidence with like the little quick jump hooks. And, uh, I don't know. And it's beyond like, oh, Orlando's doing something. I, he just seems spooked to me. And that would be the biggest red flag I would have. We don't know who they're playing yet in the next round, but the fact that he's just a complete mess from four to eight feet around the rim, I don't really fully understand what happened to him. Yeah. I mean, part of it is what Orlando has been doing since game one, which is we're going to go under every Cade pick and switch and at the same time and take away your roles to the rim and every role to the rim felt like, um, like just, oh my God, that, that's what the whole regular season looked like. And we haven't seen it. And then like one would happen per game. You'd be like, oh my God, it's like an alien landed in my backyard jail and during got a free roll to the rim. But you're right. That I think that got into his head and it just feels like every time he gets the ball with a smidgen of an opening in the paint, he's just almost throwing it up there, like rushing it up there. It's like these quick shots, there's no touch on it, but I will give him credit. Like he pounded the offensive glass today, which if we're going to switch against him, he has to do and his rim protection. It was pretty goddamn solid the entire series to the point that the outcry among some Pistons fans for more Isaiah Stewart, less jail and during even start Isaiah Stewart kind of petered out. And so does Isaiah Stewart's minutes. And we got more Paul Reed and we got, look, we all like Isaiah Stewart's a fun NBA character. We all enjoy seven minutes today. I mean, these fouls where he's just throwing people to the ground and running them over is just, you're hurting your team. I understand it's like your, it's your identity. It's the role you play on the team, but there's a way to do that without. And Mo Wagner is a good actor, probably exaggerated, but like, you just can't play like that. And I think even JB Baker staff is like, dude, come on. Well, and then you have Cade who in game five as 45 and just single-handedly drags them through that game game six in the second half, 24 points, nine rebounds, four steals, nine and 10 from the free throw line. And then 32 and nine today. So this goes from, Hey, do you think it'd be a hundred percent? Yeah. For this, for this, uh, Orlando series to, Hey, this is why he probably would have been number four or number five for MVP. He would have been an absolute first team on BA guy. And I just thought he was incredible. I mean, that's everything him and maxi, everything you would want from your best guy in a playoff series. Um, he was great. He hit threes and teams are going to dare him to shoot threes. And he knows that. And he had enough of them in this series defensively. He guards Paolo now and then like he'll guard up, he'll guard down. He plays hard. He makes plays at the rim. He plays really occasionally, like any star player, he'll get a little bit unfocused away from the ball and try to rest a little bit, but he plays really hard on both ends of the floor. And the other guy, the sort of pendulum of referendums on this type of player is so interesting because it's hard to be a non-shooting perimeter player in the playoffs. We all know that we all know what happens to them. We need a name for those guys. I feel like the Thompson twins. I feel like a SAR Thompson fought through that and was undeniably a major asset for the Pistons coming back and winning this series. Just unbelievable defensively flying everywhere. Yeah. And they started using him more in the offense as a screener, as a cutter, as a DHO guy. And I think that's what you have to do when teams ignore them and you're in, he's this spectacular of an athlete. It looked after two or three games, like, oh, another non-shooter is going to be like kind of exposed in the playoffs and a SAR Thompson fought through that. And like, it was plus 12 yards. 12 today. I think he was playing plus 13 or 14 coming into the series. Like he was a big part of their comeback. You know, I looked up before. So what were they in? So they're 16 for 33 today in threes, Detroit. Heading into this, I looked at the basketball reference where they have the series stats and they have everybody ranked in different categories on their playoff page. Detroit was 16th in three-point percentage heading into today, 29.7. So they finally had a game where they hit some threes. And what's interesting is Duncan Robinson felt like he missed like six wide open ones. So it really could have been like a 22 for 33. So good game for them. Not sure if it was an aberration three-point shooting game because I don't, other than Duncan Robinson, and even like Cade's been a little spotty. I don't know how many people I trust in big moments. We will see. It's still an amazing, amazing, amazing comeback for them. And then for Orlando, is it fair to say Mosley has completed the definitely getting fired improbably has saved his job, definitely getting fired. Triple Axel. We don't see this very often. I was thinking about that in game six and game seven. And if you were Orlando's front office and you had been leaning toward firing him before the play-in tournament and everything like that, I think you'd have to lean that way again because the offense is just so rudderless and without any cohesion at all. And it just, at some point, something has to change. And I am interested, I think their pivot is one of the more interesting stories of the offseason. And it has to go beyond a coaching change if that happens. And I just don't know, I don't know what it is. I don't know what their move is to shake this roster up in a way that makes it more functional. Well, you know what doesn't make sense is trading Giannis for Paolo. Who does it not make sense for? Orlando. Because it doesn't get them any closer to being anywhere. Yeah, you look at- I'd rather just keep Paolo and see how this plays out. You look at their roster around Paolo slash Giannis and it's undeniable that you would kind of feel there's just not enough shooting. And, you know, who knows what people will do. And I'd also have to probably put more stuff in that. So that was a really fun fake trade during the season, but I think that one has now expired. And I got not much other stuff to put in it, right? Like my picks went out in the Bain trade. My young guys aren't playing much. Other than Anthony Black, I don't know what else I got. No, your move this year is- We like this team. We're going to change coaches. We're going to see how this goes. Paolo is no longer a poison pill guy. We want to see what this looks like for the first half of the year, and then we'll figure it out. But I think, and by the way, is Billy Donovan? No inside info, but this is the kind of team I would want to coach if I was Billy Donovan and I wanted to keep coaching in the NBA, right? A lot of young assets. It's almost like a grad, like an older college team. Well, he's- He's certainly been linked- There's an identity. The rumor mill has certainly linked him to this job potentially. Obviously, there's the Florida connection. Don't you think Billy Donovan, when he thinks of what type of team he'd like to coach if he stayed in the NBA, is it just like anything but the Bulls? It's just like, anything's going to feel great. Just any other job's going to feel fantastic. Or he probably looks at all the guys he had on the roster the last couple years and wonders, maybe we should have made a run. Kobe White? No, Io? All these dudes? Oh, God. Let's not do it. Let's not even do it. We're going to take a break. I have a very important big picture question for you about the league, and then we're going to rehash, sadly, the Celtics Sixers. Ooh. The Bill Simmons Podcast is brought to you by FanDuel. It's been a wild playoff run. Not over yet. 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But game four, game five, for one of the two teams, there's this realization with like five minutes left in the fourth quarter where it's like, uh-oh, our fate is suddenly in real flux right now. Who's stepping up? What are we going to do? Let's calm down. Can we rise to the moment? Or are we going to shrink from it? It's as great as opening up a Michelob Ultra, a nice cold one, crisp, refreshing, the ultimate prize. Plus, as the official beer partner of the NBA, they're giving fans a chance to win courtside tickets, custom merch, and more. You could be at one of those games when the pressure rises. Michelob Ultra, superior is worth playing for. Enter now at MichelobUltra.com slash courtside. Michelob Ultra courtside. 25 to 26. No purchase necessary. Open to U.S. residents. 21 plus. Begins on October 1st, 2025. Ends on June 30th, 2026. Multiple entry periods. See official rules at MichelobUltra.com slash courtside for free entry, entry deadlines, and prizes and details. All right, we're going to talk Celtics Sixers. But I have a big picture question for you because we saw, we almost saw Orlando, they had just taken care of business in the second half. An eight seed would have won. And then a seven seed would have won. Which they did with Philadelphia. And then a six seed won with Minnesota, even though they lost multiple people. It's, and I, listen, this isn't the first time this topic has brought up about regular season versus playoffs. And we know they're two different sports. I think the thing that has changed for me is wondering, like, if I was in charge of a team, how much value would I even put in the regular season anymore? And would my only goal be to have everybody healthy in April? And would I not care about seeds at all? Right? Because even when you talk about Denver, Minnesota, it's like, shit, they won. If they had lost, they could have played Lakers Houston. And that was where seeds matter. I think you could look at this season and be like, you know what? None of the seeds really mattered at all, except who's going to have game seven thunder spurs, because that's going to be the only series that really ultimately matters. Right? Other than that, put anyone in any seed and we probably would have had competitive series with any of the other 14 teams for the most part. And I'm just wondering. I'm just wondering, like the Celtics, if they had to do this over again, how much of the stuff would they have done differently knowing what they know now? Well, what's, what's stuff like just lighten the load on Derek White. So he's not whatever happened, worn out or whatever the hell happened to him. And this, I'm talking Derek White, 10 less games, 300 less minutes, Jalen, eight less games, 400 less minutes, Tatum, 30 minute max the entire time. And that's, I mean, I've been saying this on the pod for weeks now. The putting the minutes on Tatum, like they did. I feel like that that caused the injury. I'm always going to feel that way. It made no sense to me as they were doing it, him playing 43 minutes in one game and 40 and another in the playoffs. I just thought it was insane. Don't you think part of that, there had to have been some sports science behind that. If like, if we're going to actually ramp him up for big playoff minutes, we got to ramp them up. Like in the regular season, we have to sort of give him heavier minutes loads than you would expect. I mean, like, did you see his quotes today though, about his quotes today were basically like, yeah. My right leg's not as strong as my left leg yet. You figured this was going to happen. Like he had, there was one quote in there that made me wonder like, damn, um, this is what he said. It was just unfortunate timing, but I guess a little bit to be expected. Right. I was away for 10 months and then I came back and I'm playing every other day. I was playing 36 to 40 minutes. So it's not unusual that something would come up. Um, it was inevitable at some point I was going to have to deal with something that kind of came at the worst possible time. Wasn't inevitable. Shouldn't they have just played this 20, 30 minutes, like look at how the spurs have treated Wemba Yama basically his whole career, but especially this year, like they've been adamant about not trying to put too many miles on him. And conversely, like I look at Denver and I know Joker had to make the all NBA run, which probably in retrospect was a bad idea. Um, but they're just putting all, all these miles on Yoko Jumuri who immediately, you know, looked like they ran out of gas in the first round. So would you rethink how you. how you treat the playoffs versus the regular season? Just holistically from what we're watching right now. First of all, this entire conversation is music to Adam Silver's ears. How can we make the regular season matter even less and seem less relevant for like an unending slog of six months of games? Like, please let's have more teams think this way. There need to be fewer games. We know there need to be fewer games. Everybody knows and agrees there need to be fewer games. But we know that we know that's not happening. No, no, no one is actually willing to make whatever sacrifice is necessary to do that. So then. we're stuck in this situation where, yeah, the playoffs are a completely different game than the regular season, uh, different types of players, uh, have different kinds of playoff experiences than in the regular season, like the 16 game versus 82 kind of players that Draymond Green famously said a few years ago. And the gap is getting bigger. Kirk, Kirk Goldsberry wrote about this for the ringer last week, that the, the gap in style between the regular season and the playoffs is just getting wider and wider to the point that they are the same sport, but very different versions of it. Right. And I mean, sure, ideally, Philly, if you could just know, I'm going to be a top six seed, so at least I'm not in the play-in tournament. Because you can't risk that, no matter what. I don't know, Philly risked it. Philly got, what, 30 games out of Embiid? How many did he actually play? He played some amount of Embiid games. 38 games. Paul George took a 25-month suspension vacation for whatever he did and came back and looked better than ever and looked like 2021 Paul George. The only people they put real minutes on the whole season were Maxie and Edgecombe. Maxie played a lot of minutes. He ended up only playing 70 games, but he played 38 minutes a game. He led the league. Vijay was a rookie, played 35, but that's young legs. But none of it mattered because for five games of the playoffs, they had their team. It's really just shocking how quickly Philly just materialized. Like, oh, this is the dream Philadelphia 76ers team that we never thought we would see. And like, oh my God, here it is. Like, Joel Embiid is firing behind the back passes to Kelly Oubre, who's dunking and everyone's going crazy. And Tyrese Maxie's roasting everyone. Yeah, but even in real time, people still weren't believing it when it was happening. The Celtics were, I think, minus 2,200 after game four. Even after they lost game five, they were minus 1,100, which House and I were both like, whoa, that seems crazy. And then in game seven without Tatum, they were six and a half point favorites, the Celtics. I thought that was going to be a 50-50 game. I didn't think anybody should be favored. I was shocked by that, but nobody believed in Philly until they did it. I mean, we all have Philly fans in our lives. We have some at The Ringer and Spotify. I have just random, I've had random Philly fans that I have not heard from in months reach out in the last 48 hours. They're just as shocked as everybody else. The ones that are reaching out to me are like, I can't, I'm just walking around with a big grin on my face. I can't even believe what's just happened. I'm in shock is a word that multiple of them, they just, they, even they are like this, this happened. Like this team just suddenly clicked into place like this. I can't believe it. It was incredible to watch as it was happening. Game two, I just thought the Celtics played like crap and Philly made some threes. I wasn't alarmed, but game five, I was alarmed and talked about it on the pod after game six was equally alarming. You look at the last second half of game five, game six, game seven, Philly basically dominated those three games. I mean, they were up, I think 15 plus in all the games. The Celtics never really had a lead ever. Always felt like they were playing come from behind basketball. And, um, there's a few things I'm shocked by. One, um, one was just how kind of competent Embiid looked like he, he wasn't doing, we've seen him come back from not playing and he falls down a lot. And you always think like the next one, like he was, I thought pretty good. That was about as good as you're going to get from him defensively. Like protecting the glass, some of his passing. I thought, I just thought he played well. I was really surprised by that. Right. He was outstanding on both, on both offensively, especially defensively. It can come and go for him a little bit, but he was moving around a lot, very well in games five and six game seven was good enough. And offensively, he was absolutely brilliant in that game. And Paul George, you know, who I guess was sick in game seven, but Paul George just was the equal of, of Brown and Tatum on a lot of these minutes and quarters. You know, game seven, maybe not as much, but that one was shocking. Kelly Ubra's defense, which I was like, ah, he's, he's not bad. He gives an honest effort. Like he was invaluable. Um, and, and then, you know, just riding Maxie, the one thing you could have predicted. And we did our most intriguing players draft. And I think I took Maxie as my leap guy. Cause I was like, this is fits the profile of if somebody was going to make the massive leap, it's, he kind of checks a lot of those boxes. He was, he was awesome. And, and he was, he, if you think about like the next series, them versus the Knicks, if they win, it'll be because he's the best player in the series, which sounds like stupid and cliche, but that's usually the best part usually wins the series and they would need him to just go nuts in the series. I think, I think the Knicks can throw some stuff in a bead. I don't know if Paul George can do that again. Edge comb one game. You had that stat. What was he? Oh, for 16 in the losses from threes. I, that wasn't me, but yeah, it was. It was something like that. It's it swings hard with VJ's three point shot. He's trick or treat from three, which is fine, but I'll tell you what's never trick or treat with him. Absolutely fearless and is just unafraid of any of these big moments wants the ball and entry in transition for a guard. Who's not huge. He has just meteorically risen into like, he's one of the five most terrifying players in transition in the entire league. You just, it doesn't even matter if somebody's back. If that guy's bigger than him, if he's got a head of steam, he's going to finish over you and there's just nothing you can do about it. Yeah. It reminds me of some of the, some of the all time, great transition guards we've had that you knew in the first year, like Rose and Westbrook were both like this. Westbrook just taken over like Jesus. Seems like shut out like a cannon. Um, I thought Nick nurse was awesome in this series and conversely, I thought Missoula was bad and we can talk about that now or later, but I've been, I've been waiting to hear you weigh in on whatever the Zulu was incredible in the regular season. It was honestly, I voted for him for coach of the year. I thought he was incredible. I would have too. And I don't know what they were thinking with this playoffs. I have so many questions and look, did Philly win the series or did Boston blow it? I think the answer is both. Um, they went back to their 2024 style without the same players is my biggest issue. They slowed it down. They didn't put pace. They gave up on their bench. And I was saying. On the podcast at the time, I didn't really understand it. It was interesting. Jalen after the game yesterday was like, I actually liked how we played. I thought we looked like us. Like that's, that's who we were all season. That's kind of how I felt. So this team, they gave up on the bench until they started half of it in the most important game of the season. Well, that almost seemed like symbolic for Joe. Like just to say, I screwed up. I did this wrong, but the problem is, so you have two different problems. One is you do the assignments for Vucevic trade. You have to get under the luxury tax, which I get. And I, I understand all the benefits for that. But my dad, who is the most bitter I've ever heard him after a playoff series loss, I was going to have him on the podcast today. And he's so mad about the series that I decided not to have him. Cause he was just furious at everybody. And after the game, he was like, I was going to go up to Chisholm and congratulate him for getting under the luxury tax, like just furious. Because not only do you not have Simons, who I think would have had at least a couple real moments in the series. He would have mattered. He got injured, but who knows what would have happened? Well, did he get injured? I don't know. He had like a lottery injury, but, um, but then you bring Vucevic in. So you have that swing and I just felt, this is my honest feeling. I think Missoula treated this series. Like let's figure out what we have for when we play the Knicks and the Pistons and whoever comes out of the west. We're going to, I'm going to use this as my litmus test series. I'm going to see what I have with Vucevic. I'm going to shorten my rotations. I'm going to try to do the 2000. 2024 thing again. And they just got away from what, what succeeded for them. The bench was the superpower of this team. It was guys like Hugo and Walsh coming in and being maniacs for five, six minutes. And he just punted on it. And then in a game seven, it's like, Hey, Shireman, can you go back to being awesome? Like you were the last two months of the season? It's like, you've been yanking me around. Of course he went in zero points in game seven. This guy was a real asset down the stretch. So I just, I really think Missoula screwed the series up, but I'm always going to think that. I was going to say, if he was in the lab experimenting in preparation for the next rounds, what, what was the game seven experiment? Was that like me melting things on the Bunsen burner in ninth grade chemistry class? Just like throwing a pen cap on the, Oh, look, it's melting. What experiment was taking place? That was, that was an admission of I screwed up. I need to ride with my bench guys in the crowd. I listen, Garza starting is totally explainable to me because they're trying not to get Kata in foul trouble. Right. And they're trying to move Kata more of Kata. You know, they're trying not to get Kata in foul trouble. And they're trying not to get Kata in foul trouble. Missed a couple and we never saw him again. Um, and Shireman should have started for Tatum. And even though he was getting yanked around all series. And so I thought it was going to start the Ron Harper thing did catch my attention. That one was like, huh, because he just hadn't played I wasn't against it, I wasn't against it, but I was like, oh, okay. And I think they put them in an unfair spot, which is another thing you have to think about. Um, I probably would have just started Walsh and been okay, but this is goes to the bigger thing of like, you're playing Tatum and Brown, these big minutes in the first six games. And you're not giving those minutes to the bench guys. So then when you actually need the bench guys. That you're basically throwing them in cold. I just don't get it. Walsh playing only five minutes is pretty surprising. And I know he's, you know, he's not going to be guarded on the perimeter, although he shot okay this year, but defensively, he was far and away their best option on Maxie from the start of the season until now. And I just like, if you're going to play, if you're going to juggle it up and play all these random dudes, like, it seems weird to me that, you know, falling through the cracks is the one guy who's actually guarding Maxie pretty well and Jalen Brown done a great job against him. Yeah. In the season. Yeah. Really, really effective. And Jalen Brown took the assignment in, in game seven and was like, fine, but there was just nothing that they, I mean, in the end, maybe it wouldn't have mattered. He's Max. He was just too brilliant and to a multifaceted and offensive play. air for whatever they threw at him. But just the whole game was just starting with Tatum being not on the injury report to questionable to out to the starting five to them falling behind early, coming back late. And just the whole game was just very weird. This episode is brought to you by Workday. Guessing is for game shows, not your business, especially when your margin for error is zero. 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Instagram will continue adding built-in safety features to help create age appropriate experiences. Learn more about teen accounts and Instagram's ongoing work to protect teens online at instagram.com slash teens. This episode is brought to you by 7up. Okay. This one's a case for conspiracy bill. Let's bring them in. Ever noticed lemon is everywhere from lemon recipes to lemon scented cleaning supplies. And when it comes to lemon lime sodas, why is lemon always first? There's a reason. A shadowy organization called the Lemonade has been padding the stats, keeping big lemon in the lead for decades. But let me tell you something. The sip is about to be flipped. 7up is fighting back, swapping lemon lime for their lemon soda. Their new lime lemon soda. Now lime comes first. 7up, flip the sip. I knew on Thursday that we weren't going to see Tatum. I was convinced. I said it on the pod. You could tell he was hurt and they weren't going to mess with it. And it was the other leg. And this is what always happens when these people have these traumatic injuries to one leg, you know, favoring the other leg. And it's always a concern because you're putting more stress on it. And they played him too many minutes. I mean, the big thing for me is I don't think they were beating San Antonio or OKC. So it's not like, oh, we blew the title. It's more like, I just know if we did this, if you just reset button this and went back two weeks and you basically have to win those first two games, he had a feeling Embiid was going to come back midway through the series. But the way they played game two with all the threes, just letting Maxie and Edgecombe do whatever they wanted. And then game five was, you know, even worse. But I just, I know they would have tried to mix that up, used a bigger bench. Like even what Minnesota did against Murray, let's put some miles on Murray. Let's make them dribble the ball up 94 feet. You know, I know Maxie is the minutes later in the league, but at least like they, they just made it so easy for him. I felt like he was going downhill, like a running back for two straight weeks. Right. I, by the way, I don't know how much we're going to talk about it because it starts tomorrow, but Anthony Edwards was just upgraded to questionable for game one of that series. You mentioned Minnesota, um, and cleared the Timberwolves said he's cleared for all basketball activities, uh, on-court activities, and upgraded to questionable. I, the DiVincenzo injury is, is heartbreaking. It's always sucks. And it's, he's a big part of their team. I can't wait for that series of, and is like a full go and is, you know, those, the last couple of games he played against Denver, he did not look like himself. He was not assertive. He was not explosive. And if he's closer to himself, I mean, he's already had a 50 point game against them this year. The idea of him trying to dunk on Wemby by itself is just beyond intoxicating. You got the French center battle. Like there's a lot to love about this matchup that we haven't really gotten to sink our teeth into because it was just, we just didn't know who was going to be left of the Minnesota Timberwolves. And by the way, kudos for the Minnesota Timberwolves you've talked about already for finding a way to win that series against the nuggets without so many guys, that was an awesome, awesome effort by them. Yeah. And that's the thing. They, they figured it out. They, they zagged a little bit. They tried to do some different things. Like the Terrence Shannon thing was incredible in the, like, just, not only just playing him, but unleashing him and just saying, go attack your mom or his legs are dead. Uh, and conversely with the South's Missoula was so good during the season. And I just didn't see the ingenuity in the same way. It really felt like he was trying to replicate 24. And I can't say this strongly enough. This was not the same. This was always supposed to be a transition year into next year, get under the tax. And instead of Porzingis and drew holiday and, and, uh, Horford, you have guys that just aren't as good and aren't as experienced on the team and you weren't gonna be able to replicate it. So that I think that super power for this team was the bench and the unpredictability and the wild card nature of just these guys that would have these weird heat checks. It was happening all year and it just, they went away from it. I, I said it last night, um, on my reaction pod with Pina, it just felt like the Sixers and the Celtics like swapped arcs in, in astonishingly fast fashion. And that the six became the team that they were always able to be on paper, but never would be in reality. And then they became it. And the Celtics became the team that I was low on before the season. It looks so foolish for being low on because they had shed so much talent because there was so much uncertainty about their big man rotation. And all those concerns just were completely invalid until they were immediately valid at the most pressing possible time. I wish you're how many years has your dad been a season ticket holder? 54. If you're a 50, absolutely furious. You, if you've been a season ticket holder for 54 years, you can absolutely go up to Bill Chisholm and sarcastically congratulate him on ducking the, all the aprons. You can give him a, you can gift him an apron. You should have bought him an apron with like, congratulations. We lost him the first round. Here's your apron. Go barbecue with this. The only way to defend it is did they know Tatum was going to look like he did? They hoped he was going to look a lot like it, but they didn't know when they did that move because they also didn't have to do it. Um, they thought Tatum was going to replace the Simon's minutes, but they really misscouted Vucevic. It seems like, cause they, he just was done. You could see it. The moment he showed up in the team, didn't look right. Got hurt, came back, didn't look right. Came in the playoffs was clearly a disaster matchup, um, against any, any Philadelphia big man, basically. But especially when Embiid came back, they had to see two more games that that wasn't going to work with him versus Embiid. And that was their big move. You know, they, they could have, I guess that if you're going to criticize them, then they maybe could have flipped Vucevic for something else. But, you know, I think they thought he was, I think they thought he was going to help. Like I really do. And it was just a misfire. And the Tatum, you mentioned the Tatum comments today about, you know, it was inevitable something would happen. I remember saying like, I'm a little hesitant to crown Boston as the favorites because I just, I, I remember making this gesture of ups and downs. There's going to be ups and downs with Tatum. I'm recovering from this injury and there just weren't any. And I just sort of let myself believe. And I think everybody else did that there would there, I guess there's, this is just a medical marvel. There are not going to be any downs. He's playing a ton of minutes. He's playing awesome. They've been the best team in the East. And then at the worst possible time, there was, we don't really even know what happened when it happened, what the injury is, but I don't, I just don't believe it was the knee either. I know they had to say that, but it was during the game. You could see it was his calf and they had, the stuff on his, the wrapped around his calf. And, you know, I think he, it was unclear whether he was cleared to play or not. I thought his, his words were interesting about him and his trainer decided not to play. So clearly, um, they didn't feel comfortable with it. And I don't think they should have, I don't think it was worth it. They weren't going to win the title this year, let him go. But to find out after the season that his right leg was only 85% of his left leg or like didn't have the, he's not going to be able to build the calf up fully until, you know, the summer. So that's, well, why were you playing 42 minutes a game then? The whole thing is a little bit, a little bit strange, but Philly went and took the series from him. And this is the, I mean, the conversation I really want to have with you is like, so what now? Like, you're not like, like, I don't know. I just would say what, what now for the Celtics? Well, first they have to go to the doctor and see if they can find a cure for, we got great looks disease. Cause that's been three of the last four playoffs of losing a game and then talking about how great the looks were after. And by the way, the looks were great because they were coming back at the end. They got four straight awesome shots and they missed all of them. And that's why they lost. So this was always my, and I would go back and forth playfully with Mike Budenholzer about it. It was my thing with every Budenholzer team that would be eliminated from the playoffs. It was like, well, we just, the shooting luck went against us. And it was why I would always make fun of the Celtics. Like, well, congratulations. You can hang the banner for like expected effective field goal percent. It was like, same thing. You have four. It's great that you had an unbelievable expected effective field goal percentage. It's awesome. That's a wonderful process. And yeah, you just missed. Well, all you got to do is just miss three times in seven games and then have another game where the team outplays you substantially or whatever. And then your season is over. It's not a hundred game series. It's like a very finite amount of time. And if this thing isn't working, the right answer isn't always just keep doing the thing until it works. You got to have some other thing. I mean, this has been my thing with Boston forever it doesn't it's they want a title the fact is they want a title they have a great core I'm not sure what if anything they can really do in the off season Pritchard let them down in this series too other than his one game for some great game for great game for and other than that I don't I forget hold on I'm going to queue up his stats he just he just wasn't good enough in the series and the shot that killed me Jalen missed a couple Hauser had one around the rim but the one that killed me was two minutes left Kata makes a great play at the rim comes back down Kata's running the floor and beads jogging back Kata's out running him Brown it would have been a tough pass to him there's some Celtic fans today that were like oh Jalen missed miss Kata it's the ball ended up in the right spot it was Pritchard in the corner wide open to take a lead and he missed it and I would take that shot a hundred times out of a hundred and if they if he makes that shot I honestly think they win did the crowd my dad said the crowd was his loud as any crowd they've had for a playoff game during the during the comeback like he was like the energy was electric it was we could knock it over the hump and all we needed was that one shot and it just never went in but I would have taken my chances with that shot you know I would bet my life he was gonna make that shot that's why sports are so cool and I know it's not a great day for Boston fans but I've seen that game so many times in my head and in my life and what happens is that's that shot goes in the crowd goes bananas and a team on the other end with a history of postseason letdowns and hiccups just sort of melts down a little bit and the game peters out and the Celtics win in in your soul and my soul like when that shot goes up that's what I'm envisioning and it went completely the other way not only did the shot miss but Philly and Maxi in particular play yeah but he like rose up under that kind of pressure in a hostile environment and put the game to bed and that it was just like a very against script kind of ending even in the bar it was a it was like one of the so I can't even imagine what it was like to be there well PG and Maxi from three were 45 for 95 wow I don't know if that's replicable against the Knicks and the Knicks I mean that there's a whole bunch of reasons the Knicks are a better matchup than the Celtics were Embiid in those four games was in the game seven he was 28-9-7 he missed 150 regular season games in the last three years and magically turned back into Joe Embiid at the worst possible time for the Celtics I was thinking about it I saw the Sixers play two games during this season that I thought made them intriguing as a dark horse one was against the Celtics and then Embiid got hurt right after that I think then there was another one that was against the Celtics and then Embiid got hurt right after that I think I want to say it was against maybe the Knicks on a Saturday or maybe the game somewhere around that range when they played the Knicks and were really going toe-to-toe with them and I was just like man there really is a ceiling with this team but we all do that right like we this is I know but think about it they played six good games all year probably and they're in round two though there's a reason that we just never thought we would see the apex version of this team for any prolonged period of time and by the way we still have to see it for a prolonged period of time because now it gets every other day you know for the rest of the way and obviously this is a pretty soft travel schedule for them Philly New York is an easy trip and all that but the stat I will keep just hammering about and always Maxie always Maxie and in this series Embiid is those two combined for all the heavy lifting they do on offense 3.3 combined turnovers per game two per game for Embiid who's had a history of like bad turnover games in the playoffs and 1.3 for Maxie and Maxie never turns the ball over it's one of the secret superpowers he just never turns it over and like that's a that's a astonishingly low number for those two guys combined this episode is brought to you by TikTok when you watch a football game you follow the ball right well there's a video on TikTok where this guy says to watch the players without the ball watch the routes and the action away from the play I'll change how you see the game and guess what he's not wrong that's the thing about discovery on TikTok one video can change the way you see the game you can learn something new or see things in a completely different way your next discovery is waiting on TikTok visit TikTok.com discover more alright quick break this episode is brought to you by Fire TV you ever sit down ready to watch the game only to search and scroll endlessly if so you need Fire TV it shows your live games from your favorite teams all in one place right on the home screen no more searching just sit down and turn on Fire TV separate subscriptions may be required feature and content availability may vary where where is Maxie for you now and the best players in the league list I'm just going to read you the best players well I had him on I had him on all NBA third team all NBA I'm going to read you right now okay you wouldn't put him against you wouldn't put him over Joker SJ or Wemby so let's cross them off feels premature I mean right now yeah I know no yeah it would feel premature to put him over those guys you wouldn't put him over Luca no would you put him over ant healthy no there's six would you put him over Cade now that's kind of an argument yeah you get into this morass of like Brunson Mitchell Cade you know Curry is still in there and and it's just a bunch of guards that are just depending on your taste depending you might have a case yeah yeah so you might have a case to be the number one guy in that so that's the seven spot unless you want to put Giannis over all of those guys I think Giannis still belongs over all those guys and and I definitely remember ringer 100 doing it every month there were there was a he was around like 10 11 12 a lot for me during the season I don't know where I had him on my latest one but I definitely remember one in particular when I moved him up like very early in the season from like 19 to 11 and it felt like yeah he's that's about where he is right now so this goes back to one of my favorite dumb topics the all-time aberration 2020 kovat draft just zooms and maybe some illegal workouts with guys wearing masks on where Edwards goes first and then Weisman go second off of three college games LaMelo third it goes Patrick Williams Isaac Okoro four or five killing Hayes is seven Denny is nine it's a great pick Halliburton is 12 Denny must be doing great for the Wizards these days is a great pick by the Wizards at number nine yeah they got credit for that your guy Poku is 17 wait a second my guy Poku your guy Poku how did that happen and then listen to this the 20s okay Tyrese Maxey 21 yeah quickly 25 Pritchard 26 Jaden McDaniels 28 and Bain 30. well we're gonna have to do a redraft of this draft this summer for fun it sounds great I mean this is a bonkers like how does this happen well you're just leaving out so many guys who are in the 20s Leandro Balmaro I literally don't even remember him he played seems like he played 49 games whoever he was he played for I I just have no memory of him doing anything in the NBA not one thing uh and all Raptors fans know this draft well because they picked Malachi Flynn one spot ahead of Desmond Bain uh well that a pick traded by the Boston Celtics um and then the second round is just pretty much a train wreck it's Sam Merrill at 60 and uh I didn't know I forgot Sam Sam Earl was Mr. Irrelevant that's right Isaiah Joe's in there Vic Kretschy uh but yeah just the the 20s of that draft getting Tyrese Maxey so this to you know my guy Daryl I think not only saved this job with this series but I think you got to look back at like Maxey the edge cone pick the Paul George even though Embiid and Paul George were one and two in the worst contracts draft now that's looking better I think Daryl sticks around now oh I I don't know I can't wait to see what's coming next now I think Daryl sticks around now oh I I don't know I can't wait to see what's coming next oh I that's one of the ripple effects I oh I that's one of the ripple effects I oh I that's one of the ripple effects I meant to mention last night is I think meant to mention last night is I think meant to mention last night is I think nurse and Maury both are at oh yeah but nurse and Maury both are at oh yeah but nurse and Maury both are at oh yeah but the crazy thing about um the crazy thing about um the crazy thing about um Maxi and edge comb is the Sixers were Maxi and edge comb is the Sixers were Maxi and edge comb is the Sixers were like very very close to getting neither like very very close to getting neither like very very close to getting neither of those guys right um it took a Mike of those guys right um it took a Mike of those guys right um it took a Mike Muscala Avalanche of threes on the last of the season to flip that maxi pick into Philadelphia's possession. I forgot about that. And then at the lottery last year, it looked like they were going to give their pick to Oklahoma City, and then they moved up, shoop, up to number three and got edgecombed. So this is what it turns on sometimes. It's like multiple sliding doors within sliding doors. Well, as we discussed those sliding doors, is Jalen on the Celtics next year? Why did it take you so long to get here? This is the most exciting moment of the podcast. We're going to wrap up here and then go watch this other game and come back for part two. So tell me the rationale. Are you trading him to just reset the finances, restock the assets, and go to Jason Tatum and Derek White and be like, I know we just won 57 games or whatever. This is going to signal to you that this might actually be the gap year. Or are you trying for some sort of three for one that fits better, one for one that fits better? Can you get younger in the trade with a cheaper guy in the spot? Are you going for it next year or are you taking a step? back next year oh i think you're going for it next year so then i don't know what i'm on the record as i want jaylen brown to play his entire crew at the celtics i get in arguments about him i hate the stupid plus minus thing that goes around with him and look at the moment he comes out they're way better it didn't happen yesterday i just like jaylen brown i think he plays hard and and he's durable and i think he's aged about as well as you could expect from a 10 year forward in the league um this would be the time to trade him right now because 57 61 and 65 the next three years money wise tatum's 58 62 and 67 and if you're going to make a case to trade him it's like can you just afford two guys making that much money so i've i have not and you want a title with them i have not sat and played around with the jaylen brown trade machine i suspect that you have and you might have some ideas i don't know though i mean i i haven't either and i haven't really wanted to do it and also the loss just happened yesterday but i in my head it's something like well there there's is is the yannis move which i think they would be one of the contenders for yannis and i think jaylen as an asset that either goes back to milwaukee or goes to a third team and then that team gives their stuff to milwaukee would be how that trade goes like a team like atlanta where he's from a team that that controls um this milwaukee situation with their pick this year uh so it's something i don't know if it's a good trade but it's something like that they could get super creative because they have this 27.7 million trade exception where you could take somebody back on a team that has cap space like a dyson daniels where you just take that back with atlanta's pick put daniels into the trade exception trade jalen and now you have a max player trade except they'd have like the biggest trade exception of all time and see what you can do with that or you look at a team like new orleans and could you just go trey murphy you could do that or you look at a team like new orleans and could you just go trey murphy herb jones and a contract trey murphy jordan pool and a pick like something like that where you're carrying the pool contract for a year it's such an expiring but you've reset around a cheaper jalen brown basically that would be the mindset i hope they keep them together i'm just going to say that again and i'm going to keep saying it but i would understand if these are the kind of discussions they're having in dark depressing rooms right now yeah i i again having not gone through it those two teams just i'm looking at the standings over here just jumped and jumped into my head i mean i was trying to think like rockets flame out is there something there but i don't know what the trade would be um you know i didn't think i didn't think of the pelicans actually that you kind of surprised me with that one in terms of like but it's interesting um yeah there's a lot and i'm sure this will be a podcast topic at some point but utah's another one like utah they just did a lot of stuff though they just i know they just made some big some big moves yeah but what about i mean well how about can i give you another version of this scenario sure what if jalen brown goes to the team and says it's time i want my own team why wow is it this is just are you is that are you coping is this coping yeah this is coping it's it's been a 24 hours then i applaud your you know we've seen weirder things in the nba than jalen brown deciding i'd like my own team now you know i just something just pop a team that just popped in my head and we're about to go watch their game is like if it's just a disaster cleveland loss in this game you know this is a team that just hasn't been able to fill a wing spot with a player like that but he just it's just hard his contract is so big and i don't know yeah what they'll be thinking but we'll see we get maybe cleveland wouldn't buy 30 and then would they be favored in the next round over detroit i have no idea but that would be that series is going to be in wild either way whoever it is i vote for keeping them together because we've already seen them win in a little it did happen um and i think that they can improve around the edges with this team especially with the trade exception i think hauser probably like if we're going realistic i think hauser gets traded because you can he's 10 11 and 12. you can i think a lot of teams could use somebody like him and you could just move shireman and hugo into those minutes right and then that 27.7 i think you can get somebody good with that and i think they'd want to bring simons back simon's a free agent they have their mid-level to use they're going to be good with that i think they'd want to bring simon's back simon's a free agent they have their mid-level to use they're going to be good with that i think they'd want to bring simon's back simon's a free agent they have their mid-level to use simon's a free agent they have their mid-level to use i could see him coming back i thought they were a guard short this whole season anyway um so i think getting a guard and figuring out another big man to put with kata would be the two things i would look at but who knows i this is the nba we're prepared for anything at all times and if yannis is actually on the table and says at some point like i'd love to go to boston and play with jason tatum like they're going to try to have conversations about that and they just lost in round one i feel the same way about denver like they like sean said today on espn everyone's on the table for denver except yokage they're accepting calls and like that's how they should feel they lost in round one with one of the best players of this century and they should be thinking that way yeah that was kind of a no moment but yeah yeah obviously but um no but that's significant that they said every player is on the table yeah because what's going on that means jamal murray's i was going to say what aaron gordon's on the table what's unsaid is jamal murray's i mean aaron gordon the aaron gordon thing is just we've unfortunately reached a point at which i i if i'm building the nuggets i have to now if i were building nuggets i would see all the medical records i would know everything but from the outside looking in i just can't assume he'll stay healthy for an entire playoffs ever ever again the leg stuff just crops up over and over again i don't really know what to do with that because they're just not close to the same team without him it goes back to what i asked you 20 minutes ago maybe your goal is just to get him healthy in april may june and you're treating him like a car in the garage that you just take out for a spin once a week but can you even do that like you you i don't know you can find the sports science people on lots of teams i know a lot of them who will tell you like that actually there are there are sports science guys who will say the players aren't playing enough because it does them a disservice to try to try to ramp them up to like okay now you we've been treating you with kid gloves all season the playoffs you're gonna play 42 super hard minutes every single game for the rest of the way right even if you did that with aaron gordon like i don't know that he would be able to stay healthy for a month straight even if you treated the regular season like a big a big nothing but anyway we're far afield and we have a game seven to uh another game seven coming up yeah so this is the end of part one we're gonna come back after after toronto cleveland a game that i think already has had two shots and maybe a gin and tonic before it even started i'm prepared for anything in this game you open this podcast by saying all the crazy stuff that has happened over the last five days and we forgot the rj barrett shot that hit the ceiling on the same goddamn rim as the kawaii shot from seven years ago like that was up there for a long long time and just it was halliburton shot but in toronto and in game six we're going to get the play that led up to rj barrett evan mobley for some reason being thrown the ball even though he's the worst free throw shooter out there and seemed like got body checked from behind i mean we never saw the best possible replay of that but all of a sudden the ball's out of bounds and it's toronto's ball and rj barrett i didn't think it was going in did you uh when it bounced straight up at this point i'm just saying when he was releasing it did you know it was going in no but when it bounced on the rim i'm now conditioned to be like i it it could be perfect it could be going right up and right down so i was actually not surprised when it went in but yes when scotty barnes sort of stumbles in there and kicks it out you're like it's not really what they were looking for down one and then boom it goes in and here we are game seven all right we're gonna watch game seven uh and then we're gonna come back for a part two that'll be a little shorter than this podcast thanks for letting me talk out the celtics apologies we just scratched the surface i think there's more well fortunately we have many more podcasts coming uh thanks to gahal and eduardo as well and uh we'll be back on netflix ironically uh right after game seven see you in a little bit must be 21 plus and president select states for kansas in affiliation with kansas star casino or 18 plus and president dc kentucky or wyoming game problem call 1-800-GAMBLER or 1-800-MY-READYWOMEN gambling problem call 1-800-GAMBLER or 1-800-MY-READYWOMEN 800 my reset call 888-79-7777 or visit ccpg.org chat connecticut or md gamblinghelp.org in maryland hope is here visit gambling helpline ma.org or call 800-327-5050 for 24 7 support massachusetts or call 877-8 hope ny or text hope ny in new york for louisiana call 877-770-7867 this episode is 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Now lime comes first seven up flip the sip.