The Ringer NBA Show - NBA Finals Game 1 Reactions | The Answer

Episode Date: June 3, 2022

Chris and Seerat debate and analyze every angle of the Boston Celtics’ impressive victory over the Golden State Warriors in the first game of the NBA Finals, including Boston’s defensive game plan against the Warriors’ Big Three (14:13), the interesting coaching moves made from both benches (28:23), and the probability of the Celtics continuing their magical fourth-quarter shooting streak through the rest of the series. They end their discussion by speculating on the adjustments Golden State will make and sharing their picks for Game 2 (32:37). Hosts: Chris Ryan and Seerat Sohi Producer: Chris Sutton Learn more about your ad choices. Visit podcastchoices.com/adchoices

Hey, it's Bill Simmons. We're not just reacting to the NBA playoffs on my podcast. We're also doing it on the Ringer NBA show and the Mismatch podcast podcast. They are coming after some of these NBA playoff games. Check it out Monday, Wednesday and Friday nights on the Ringer podcast Network. Hello, and welcome to the Ringer NBA show. It's The Answer. I'm Chris Ryan. I'm joined by Siritt Sohey. What's up, Siritt? Chris, who's your favorite beetle? I've always been a John guy personally. Oh, okay. So you're also a walking red flag. That's cool. we are coming to you on Friday morning from Parts Unknown. We're here to talk about game one of the NBA finals. What else could we be talking about? Sir, last night we saw Boston win 12108 under just a quote, what the fuck is variance amount of threes from the Celtics?

And, you know, we didn't really get a chance to do like a straightforward. Here's my prediction for the finals pod. So should we pretend like we always knew that the Celtics were going to tear Boston up in game one? I would say so. But I think my Warriors pick. and my subsequent now backing off of that Warriors pick could be informative. So I think that this is a good place to start, which is Boston obviously hugely impressive last night. Were they so impressive that they changed your mind? Were they so impressive and so

ferocious on defense and was that fourth quarter so, like, wondrous that you're like, I have to rethink everything I thought about Golden State and this series? In a word, yes. Yes, I hate to overreact to a game one, but I think that's exactly what I'm going to be doing today. Maybe it's not so much of an overreact. action. Now, you had the Celtics in six or seven, right? Yeah, I just felt like I had a bad feeling about this. You know, as like a Philadelphia and I had a bad feeling about this, but. About the insurrection. I, about the CC Mark Jones, not the answer. But I felt like Boston was like giving me 04 Pistons fumes on defense. And even though the Miami series felt like it was mucked up a little bit, and even though that Milwaukee

series was like a complete rock fight in a lot of ways, that was probably my favorite series of the playoff so far. I just felt like Boston's defensive intensity and defensive prowess was at a level that maybe Golden State had not seen in the playoffs yet and would have a hard time unlocking long term. And also just like the young legs in Boston just Al Horford accepted really, really stood out to me. So what did you see? I think the closest thing that the warriors got to something as physical as Boston was probably Memphis, right? And I think like, Dylan Brooks. Yeah, Dylan Brooks for for the short little bursts in the series, where he was actually able to play.

But I do think, like, you know, we've been calling Memphis and Boston basically just each other's mirrors for the entire regular season, right? So it actually does follow that a team that doesn't make as many mistakes as Memphis did that had a little bit more experience in the playoffs and also a little bit more size, too, would give the Warriors fits and then also take away some of the things that allowed the Warriors to win. Watching Boston against the heat, and I think this is maybe a place where I didn't give the heat enough credit for capitalizing on some of the mistakes that Boston made.

I just thought that I had a number of moments watching them thinking there's no way you can do that against the Warriors. Like there's no way that Jalen Brown can drive into four guys and there's no way that they can make these errant passes in the perimeter because the Warriors are going to punish you in transition and like essentially be able. I also thought that the Warriors would be a little bit more intentional about getting out in transition in this game, considering how good the Celtics. Salfcourt defenses, and we didn't really see that either. But now I'm kind of left in this

place after watching this very interesting first half, first 18 minutes really of the Celtics figuring out they were in the finals. Like you get some, you get like this Jason Tatum airball and you get a Jalen Brown airball and a rush shot and you get two Jalen Brown travels, which actually now that I think about it, there were some Jalen Brown mistakes, but they were deadball mistakes, which makes a huge difference. Yeah. We didn't really get the interceptions, right? And we had the Tatum missed free throws

and like I think on his first free throw attempts. Like you could tell the Celtics were kind of feeling the moment. Well, tight. Yeah. Yeah, exactly. And right at that time, like we've got ESPN ticker talking about how this is the least, like the biggest disparity in finals difference, in experience difference of the finals.

Yeah, it was like 120 to nothing, basically. Literally zero, zero finals experience, which is shocking since watching this game. How was Al Forford not been in the finals every single year? But we'll do it. I digress. They basically figured out how to play within those 18 minutes. We saw so many adjustments and we saw everyone really calm down to where now I'm like, how do the Warriors beat a version of Boston that's not going to beat themselves?

I got to hang out last night and watch this game with Kirk Goldsbury, who I used to work with at Grantland and still works at ESPN, obviously. and Kirk and I were watching and I was like, damn, dude, like, that's only four points after Steph's first quarter. And he was pretty confident that there was going to be the third quarter Warriors appearance, which there was. But I just felt like both times, it looked like it was getting a little out of hand in the third quarter, but both times that Boston took the punch as well as you can take it from the Warriors. And, you know, we've had so many playoff games this postseason that just got out of hand so early. and it felt like the team, like I even feel like that game seven, Boston, Miami is a perfect example of like Boston had such a good start and Miami was just never able to claw all the way back from that or like the energy that they had to expend to get it back to level.

It meant that they were almost tapped out towards the end, although Boston obviously nearly crashed into a mountain in that game. I just thought that like Boston took the punch the best I've seen a playoff team do against the Warriors in a long time. and it kind of made me wonder, you know, you're talking about the level of experience disparity. Do you put any stock into this recent history success Boston has had, albeit under different coach, albeit with different players? But they're like, I think Steve Kerr's like seven and nine versus the Celtics since he took over Golden State. Do you describe any relevance to that statistic or to that factoid? Or do you think it's just like these teams rarely play one another and they happen to match up well together? No, I definitely think there's something to it, especially.

when you look at that last regular season game that they played that Boston won. I think it kind of just goes back to all the things that we know that Golden State struggles with. They struggle with physicality, with size. Boston has not just one six, eight score who can barrel into anybody. They have two. You know, in times through that stretch, they've had Al Horford, and they've always had Marcus Smart, who, despite game one, his game one performance, has been one of the more reliable guys to have defense Steph Curry.

So they've always had some of the ingredients. But I also think there's an element, too, where I think it just speaks to how talented Boston has been this entire time while also being inconsistent. Like I think if you went back, you would find a lot of games that were probably on ESPN where, you know, the Celtics were having like a 500 season, but like they decided to get up for the Warriors, right? National TV, Boston. Right, exactly.

I thought it was pretty interesting watching this game last night and seeing these different tendencies maybe come out possibly from the coaches, I think, you know, in terms of the conservative element of Steve Kerr or maybe probably the, possibly the sentimental part of Steve Kerr playing Igwadala extensively in the fourth quarter or in the second half at least. And then this sort of radical things that Udoka was trying, like especially almost like benching smart in the fourth quarter for Pritchard and letting Pritchard stay out there and play with Derek white and throwing this like kind of undersized guard combo. I know Bill and Bob talked about this on Bill's pod, but like that was obviously for me, the turning point of the game was this strange

bench mob clash that happened in the beginning of the fourth quarter. And the whole time, I think everybody is just looking at their watches or looking at the clock on on the game and being like, you're going to bring stuff back in or what? This is the finals. This isn't like a February Wednesday game, right? Maybe that's another reason where it felt like a regular season game to me. I was texting you during the game and I was like, yo, what is it about this game that just doesn't feel like the NBA finals. Now, that could have been the first quarter threes that Steph got. That could have been any number of things, but I think that's probably part of it. Like, curse rotations were definitely interesting throughout this game. The Iguodala,

Dremont minutes together were kind of a disaster. And I also think that the Jordan Poole, Auto Porter, Iguodala, Dremont, I don't even remember who all was out in the court anymore, but it was basically Jordan Poole Auto Porter and a lot of guys who just don't shoot the ball out there with him, which was just not really a good lineup. It was weird because sometimes these configurations actually do work out well for the Warriors, which is why I never, I never like to do too much Monday morning quarterbacking with Kerr. I think he gets a little too much of it, but I also think that, especially in the finals, like some of these lineups that you're going to play, you have to balance out your shooting with like your kind of fun playmaking

guys. Like that's kind of what's always allowed the Warriors to be the team that they are and allowed guys like Iguodala and Dremont to thrive. And it just didn't have that balance this time around. It was almost like, you know, after the game, I think somebody on press row was like, well, you played Iguodala big minutes. And he said, well, I don't know if he played big minutes. I mean, it went from zero to 12. They were 12 big milk minutes. Yeah. I was noting I didn't think necessarily that he was going to throw Kaminga and Moody out there. I was wondering if Peyton would get out there just because, I mean, he was available and he does serve like an incredible purpose for them defensively, and I thought maybe on some of those Boston runs, he would have been,

like, a good guy to have out there. I think maybe Kerr just wanted to get the Iguadala experience over with early in the series to see what he had in the tank. And I think it was, like really mixed results. It felt like he made a couple of things happen out there, but also gave the ball away a couple of times. I thought the bigger problem was just who he played with, when anything else. Yeah. And I do think we need to see more Peyton. The Warriors just didn't really get anything in transition this game, which was a big problem. I think the biggest stuff that came for them was in the third quarter where they had that huge run. But aside from that, like, they got 10% of their points in the fast break. And that's actually been pretty consistent with them throughout

the playoffs without Peyton. So I think just getting him back in there, get that number back up to, like, I think it's around that 13, 14% range when he's on the floor, especially when he shares the floor with Igwadala. If you want to play Igwadala, I think maybe that's a better configuration, like those two guys getting their hands in the passing lanes. Then maybe Jalen Brown is coughing it up. again, right? Like that's, that could, that could be the thing that turns a series a little bit for them. What do you think is a bigger deal? The, probably not very likely to reoccur Al Horford, Marcus Smart, Derek White, all lighting it up from three on the same night. Or Jason Tatum mirroring, no shooting Kobe. That's, that's what the mom of arm band was about, was that he was going to take on.

Phoenix Suns game seven. Yeah, Phoenix Suns game seven, Kobe. No, I mean, Jason Tatum, but he became like a remarkably effective playmaker, which is something Boston often really needs, is somebody to kind of orchestrate offense. And he was, he was like splitting doubles and he was passing out of doubles. And he was doing like a really good job, like keeping that offense afloat, even if he wasn't scoring. After the game, a couple of warriors, or at least specifically Draymond, was like, well, I'm okay with losing a game with Horford, White and smart shooting the way they did. Like, let's see if they can do that again. But it's like, okay, but are you going to, are you going to get a 20 more points from Tatum game though and what happens then? So I think if they don't switch up their

coverages at all, I mean, Tatum's going to have a better night. There's no question about that. Like you can take out that early air ball. You can take out some of, I think they got him out a rhythm by the end of the game. Like there were a couple of drives where it felt like he was like going to go to the rim, then he decided to pass out or vice versa that I think he would probably like to have back that, you know, he probably will adjust. But aside from that, I think if you do stick to the same coverage, Tatum's not going to have a high-scoring series and he's going to have to be

this playmaker. I think that's sustainable. I think we've seen him make that improvement pretty much throughout the regular season, throughout the playoffs and have probably one of his most impressive playmaking games, if not his most impressive playmaking games ever. And that was a second half adjustment.

I think it was in the post-game press conference where EMA talked to him and had the coaching staff talk to him and look over some of the plays that he was making and hit those corners after. Like they busted the Warrior Zone pretty easily because of his playmaking. Hit the corner three. They had eight corner threes.

That's usually like, I mean, they hit, they hit a lot of them. Like they got 12 attempts, which is right like around where they are in the playoffs when they win games. And they get far less when they lose. So that to me is sustainable, right? Like the plays that Tatum is making is sustainable. The other one, it's just tough because, look, like, if it was, was a regular season, Draymond's right, right?

Mm-hmm. But we're now going into, like, Derek White has just decided to become this guy now, right? Like, this is like, this is a carryover from the Heat series. This is not an outlier game. Obviously, regression is going to hit at some point. But, like, it kind of just reminds me of that quote of like, yeah, in the long run, this will change, but in the long run, we're all dead. So, like, it doesn't matter.

Does it matter? You already lost one game, and now you have a must-win game, too. Boston just needs to have this happen for three more games. Right, exactly. Exactly, and they can do that. We've seen them do that. Like, that's how they won the Heat series. They had a couple games, like,

and in the Buck series, too, I think that's why they've had, like, the variance has been crazy. And we should probably expect that for this series, too, considering how many threes the Warriors get up. And that's another part of this, too. The Warriors hit 19-3s. Like, we can talk all day about the Celtics hitting 21-3s.

It's the Warriors match them. Yeah. The Warriors match them. And I also think that they kind of played into, into Boston's hands. The NBA Finals are here. and so is your chance to score big on Fandul's sports book throughout the NBA finals. Fandul is giving new customers $200 in free bets guaranteed when you place your first $5 bet.

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1-800-Nextstep or text next up to 533442 in Arizona, 1-88-78-9-7-77. Or is visit CCPpG.org slash chat in Connecticut, 1-8009 with it in Indiana. 18777-70 stop in Louisiana, 18778-8-NY or text Hope N.Y or text Hope NY for 667-9 in New York. Tennessee Redline is 1-800-8-9-9-9 or visit 1-800-Gambler.net in West Virginia. Do you want to talk about the Celtics defensive game plan? I can't tell you. Like this is very like troubling for me, but like watching them basically bleed the warriors out for 23 seconds. And then seeing the warriors just be like, all right, I guess this is just like auto.

There was one or two Draymon threes that wound up just being like the like the Boston seemed to start the defensive possession by being like, this is going to end with a Draymond three. Just so you guys know. And that's what happened. or this is going to end with just like an awkward somebody's baseline and now has to hit a guy in the corner. It's like a broken hammer play or whatever it was, but it was just basically like these completely shattered glass plays because Boston makes you take the worst possible shot that you have. I'm so used to watching defenses where they can kind of like focus in for a possession or two at a time. But to have that kind of sustained intensity and sustained, they get so many stops.

it just feels like it was so unrelenting that I was like, this might be the number one quality of any team in this series. Boston's defense might just be so good. And I know that they're one, two, and defensive rating for this season. I'm not saying the Warriors aren't good at defense, but I don't feel like they're that good at defense. No, I think that the gap between one and two is pretty strong between them,

especially when you consider that Boston stats are also brought down by that first few months of the season. Like, the Warriors defense has been a lot more slippery than I think their numbers indicate, too. They've had a lot of nights where they just haven't, haven't had it. And they just, like, they're not really matching Boston's physicality. Like, it's funny, there was this play that happened, like, right when the cameras were on Steve Kerr in the timeout, and he's talking about, hey, like, we're not really playing with enough

physicality. They made a run, but we just got to get a stop and a score and we'll be in great shape. And right as that happens, Al Horford, he intercepts a pass. Yes. Right in front of his face, which doesn't really happen to Draymond very often, which actually would have turned into, I think it was going to be a Kavana Looney dunk. Like there was somebody slipping on the weak side. And if Horford didn't intercept it, yeah, like there's a very good chance that it does go exactly that way. And we're looking at a very different result. Like, I thought that

was a very key play because then they go down. I love watching Horford dribble in transition. I think I just love everything about Al Horford after today. It's his birthday. Happy birthday. I think, you know, it's got to be a good one today. It's hard to remember a late period renaissance like this. It's incredible. All, all you have to do is go to Oklahoma City for for a few months not play basketball and get a new, like, and just get like a new lease on life. It's like, it's like the Chris Paul thing all over again. We were looking at his contract and we're like, yo, like that back end is going to be really bad.

Then he goes to Phoenix and gets extended because right now what I'm thinking is like, what's Al Horford for getting paid next to you? But no, like their defense just like, yeah, it put it put the clamps on and they got running in transition and they hit all these threes. And I'm just really impressed with the adjustments. Like, first of all, like, you have this game plan, which I think the Celtics were kind of confused by what they were supposed to execute because, like, there's no way in the world. Yes, but they were dropping on Steph. Right.

So before the game, Marcus Smart said something along the lines of, like, they want to make sure that they keep the Warriors out of the paint because, like, they know, obviously everybody knows they shoot a lot of threes. Curris talked about this, too. I think the threes, as much as they are, like, that's what the Warriors do. They want to get looks at the rim before they get threes. They want to leverage those threes and, you know, have it turn into like a Kavana-Luny slip or like a Draymond short roll and hit somebody else for a lob or whatever it is. Or like, or Clay Thompson like seems like he's going to, you know, use the floppy and then he just cuts back door and he has a layup. Like they way prefer those to actually getting the three-pointer. They know that the threat of the three-pointer is what allows them to get those easy buckets.

And I think the Celtics game plan was to try to prevent those easy buckets. First quarter, that didn't work either way. Like they were giving up a lot in the paint. And a lot on the perimeter. And a lot on the perimeter, right? But I went back and kind of looked at the things that they, like the moments where they seem the most confused. Obviously there was like the Steph coverage and the drops, especially with Robert Williams. But there were also moments.

Like I think there was a Derek White, Marcus Smart switch where there was a slip. And they both went to the slip and that's how Steph got another three. And that kind of got me thinking like, okay, they're, they just kind of over committed to coverage a little bit. And then I think they readjusted in the second half. They switched way more in the second half. Williams came up on those drops. And Williams really did guard.

I mean, considering the fact that he's dragging one leg around there pretty obviously. Like he's really spry when he's on one end of the floor or another. And he had a couple of really good transition plays too. But I thought like when he was just coming up in a normal Boston's getting into their half court set, Williams was often lagging a little bit. leg was dragging a little bit, which is problematic because Tatum was usually also lagging because he was still complaining to the refs. Like, I think that it's like, Tatum's obviously having a

really good postseason. And he is not the only dude who spends way too much time bitching at refs. But they're going to get like in a two point game or something like he needs to like get out of his feelings for sure and get back up up the floor. Because there's almost guaranteed if he takes a shot and it doesn't go in, he throws both arms up and he spends like two. two, three seconds looking at the ref. And it's like, that is going to, that's going to really cost them. Yeah, especially against the Warriors. Also, shout out Grant Williams picked up his first foul. Didn't say a damn thing. I don't think I've ever seen that. I don't think I've ever seen Grant Williams not talk to a referee. Did you see the one where Dremont tried to get Kurt a challenge

in the fourth quarter? Yeah. And Jama. That's the Warriors, uh, yeah, the Warriors player development coach, Jamma Malila, who was, uh, in the rapters before. He just like does like the, no, he did thumbs down. The thumbs down. I thought, I thought he did like the Jonah Hill like throw, Oh, money. No, it was, it was definitely like, like, a gladiator. It was just like, no, thumbs down. And I was like, this is harsh, brother. Like, like, because I think that the get me the challenge is becoming a little like,

and oneish. Yeah, it's like, it's like, do you say no? And I suppose Kerr had not, didn't have a ton to lose by challenging, but he was just like, was that? It's like, he had a shirt. You know what I mean? Like, I think everybody was like, yeah, you grabbed a shirt. And that dude was just like, thumbs down.

I thought that was an incredible moment. That was awesome. Also, like, really, like, do they, I don't know how this works. Like, do they see the play that quickly in their iPads? I think that they now have, like, basically a staff watching video feeds constantly now behind them to give them, like, real-time analysis, but also to check those calls and stuff like that. That used to not be allowed. Back when we were kids. Just Larry Brown doing the eye test, you know?

Even just a few years ago, I remember the Raptors used to, like, have these guys running back and forth between the locker room and, and, and, like, the bench. because they weren't allowed to actually do it in a locker room. Anyway, yeah. Yeah, VHS days. My favorite thing is in soccer when a manager gets, like, sent off from the touchline because he's being too aggressive. And he goes up into like the stand somewhere. And then he's like talking on his Bluetooth and has like, you know, he's basically like

walkie talking to the coaches down on the field. I wish maybe like Steve Kerr should try a power move like that. Go up to like Lacobs box and just like Bluetooth down, AirPods it. Yeah, next time he gets ejected. I feel like a coaching ejection could happen in the series. By the time game five rolls around? Yes. I didn't think anybody was going to get ejected.

Maybe game four, actually. I would see that happening on the road, actually. Yeah, maybe a game four, a big loss. Like, Warriors tie it up in Golden State go back. Maybe they win game three, but get blown out in game four. Right. The reps just aren't giving them anything. I want out of this town.

Let's talk a little bit more emotionally about these teams, or at least like their personalities. Because I think that you and I were both kind of like confused as to what we were supposed to feel about these teams. I don't necessarily think everybody goes into sporting events needing a rooting interest or having their, their, like, heart be in it. Like, I kind of, like, find myself always slipping into, like, a fist pump here or there. I wouldn't say that I was, like, cheering for Boston last night. I would never do that, but I was deeply amused and kind of, like, intrigued by what happened. Like, I was kind of like, I'm glad this is happening. This is going to be a really fun series. There's no way Golden State's just going to get walked on. So we're going to

get like a nice long competitive, interesting series. Did you find yourself kind of like enamored with Boston at all at all or what? Yeah. So I went into the series knowing I would be confused. I kind of always root for the Warriors, especially in the playoffs. But there's things

about this Boston team that I just love. And then like you get, once we started getting into fourth quarter Al Horford, I think I was converted. I really want it for this guy. Like I really, really, really want it for him. And I think he really, really wants it for himself. Bill and I'll all Bob actually talked about this in the podcast too, about is Al Horford really, you know,

is he better than Draymond Green? I'm not really quite ready to go there, but I think in the spirit of that discussion, it is absolutely shocking to me that this is his first NBA finals. Like, he's just kind of a guy that should be here every single time. I have a more specific question for you then. Is Al Horford better than Draymond Green since he started his podcast? I mean, like, look, Dr. Tramon's number is in the post-podcast era.

It's a good question, isn't it? It's a very good question. It's a great question. It happens to all of us. I would say that I'm not as good of a player since I started podcasting, you know? I think it's actually up my game a little bit. I got to think about things a little bit more now. I think it's like, I mean, just if you brought an alien down to Earth and we're like,

watch these two guys play in this postseason who's better, I think you would definitely say Alhorpe. Yeah, in this postseason, yes. Who did Kirk say was the most Spursian? He wouldn't budge on that. He's very closed off about Spurs' lore. I mean, obviously, like, both teams have Spurs lineage and Pop Tree lineage. I thought that was an interesting question. You asked me this last name when we were watching the game, and you were like,

these two teams both have such spurs. He's like, Al Horford is a spur. Yeah. Derek White was a spur. Tatum was the spur that was promised. Like, he was the spur that they always needed, probably. He was Kauai. Yeah.

Jalen Brown, I could definitely see being a spur. For sure. Absolutely. like off the court too just political involvement to be generally very smart guy probably loves drinking wine I think like all these guys probably drink wine right

and like exclusively I think Peyton Pritchard likes like IPAs no that checks out that checks out but like seriously like with the emotional engagement with this with this series like I guess the question was really more like as Boston climbed back into it

and as it was like this is happening and then they go up in the fourth did you find your heart racing strictly for Al or did you just be it were you like this Boston team despite myself is pretty fun to watch well I don't I don't share the same sort of like hatred and history with Boston I actually quite like them so that wasn't that didn't really figure into it too much but I think for me I was just shell shocked watching the Warriors like that was probably outside of really feeling for Horford that was probably the strongest emotion I had because it's kind of rare to watch them

have a game where this wasn't a high turnover game for them, where they just didn't really beat themselves. Yeah. I guess. Like, it was, it was very weird to watch a team just kind of consistently execute their offense against them. And I think, like, that five out, they found something with that five out lineup, not playing Williams and Horford together than having Horford at the five, just shooting all

these threes. I don't think the Warriors were necessarily prepared for that. I think they wanted to pack the pain a little bit, and they really punish him on that. So that becomes kind of a decision that you have to make. It kind of goes back to what Draymond said. Yeah, that was probably the biggest thing. What about you? The idea of Boston not beating themselves is interesting because, like, since January,

I just consider them kind of workmanlike in the way that they've moved through their season. And even in challenging moments in the postseason, I feel like they've never really gotten, they've never really gone on tilt. Like, they've had games where it's been like, wow, the Mark or Smart experience is now playing at Woodstock. like we are definitely like in the throes of madness right now i kind of wonder whether or not there was a little bit of that's why he wasn't put out there in the fourth quarter like they were riding pritchard for a little while like maybe udoka was like a this is working with pritchard

and white but b let's like bring marcus back with like five minutes left rather than eight or i don't even know what the base substitution pattern would have been for him but it definitely seemed like they were holding him back on the bench and letting that that backcourt go for a little while longer that it was almost like, this is like fire insurance against Marcus coming in with a can of gasoline. Yeah, I also think that there's just something

you can take advantage of with the Warriors, the way that they play is that they're not going to see a guy like Peyton Pritchard out on the floor and change their entire game plan. So that kind of gives Boston the advantage of being able to play him.

And if I was Steve Kerr, I would, I would ruminate very deeply on that because you've got Steph and Clay on that roster, especially Clay. I think they could get Clay going in isolation in some of those situations. Yes, yes, he's back. He's back.

He also had a pretty good game yesterday, too. Is he? Look, I think talk of his demise is just getting a little bit dramatic. I'm not trying to denigrate him. I'm just wondering, for one thing, it feels like he's a little bit of a black hole when it comes to giving the ball up when he gets it. But he's always been that way. He's always been that way.

But I guess maybe it felt different before the injuries. But second of all, it just feels like the possibility of, him getting to the rim is zero. So whether or not that means, like, his game feels like it has less dimensions or he's a little bit more of a, like, a niche player now. I don't know. But it definitely felt like, look, pool sucked last night. I mean, pool just got overwhelmed.

But I wonder whether or not having a more dynamic player out there in the perimeter would help, you know? Like, I mean, I think he's going to ride or die with Clay Draymond and Steph this time. but I do wonder whether or not there is like an element to letting Poole like be like a primary like getting like primary threat of getting to the rim. Yeah. Well that makes sense obviously just like Poole is much better at getting to the rim than Clay is

but Clay only had 14 shots yesterday. Yeah. And it's not like he had a like he didn't have too bad of a game. No, he didn't throw the game away or anything like that. No, I mean he had a couple of mysteries that you kind of usually expect him to make and I think that's maybe something we ought to get used to as part of the Clay Thompson experience right now. He had a reverse that almost went in against Robert Williams that felt like Old Clay, at least in terms of the drive. And I thought he had a great first half defensively against Jaylin. Obviously that switched. And I think that also had to do, I think, was Celtics switching their game plan a little bit as well. Like, I think he's almost there. I mean, he's not all the way there, but he's almost there. And maybe that's something

that flips next season, right? But I'd say, like, yeah, get him going a little bit more. One thing that was really, really interesting to me was like the Dramon lack of dribble handoffs. Like the amount that those turned into layups. I'm never that comfortable with Dramon shooting. You know, anything like past six, like when he's like, when he's got like four dribbles in him, like, oh, no, I don't know. Right? Like, I prefer that to go to somebody else. But there was his play in the third quarter where he faked a handoff with Clay and Jalen was on Clay, but I think he could have gotten that one through.

And then I think he wanted to go to Curry. And Tatum is just like, no. you are not getting this ball of stuff curry and I think the the technique of just not guarding draymon at all and then relying on your ball denial to not to have those to have that not funnel to curry and clay

the way that the warriors usually do to punish teams we're not guarding dray is a pretty interesting strategy and I'll be curious to see how it works for the rest of the series any other notes from this game I mean I don't know if you wanted to talk more about the coaches I think we talked a little bit about Steve

Kirk Galaxy Braining of those lineups with Iggy. We talked about Emey, going with Pritchard. I thought that his defensive adjustments, or maybe the players at defensive adjustments, like we said, were really notable. But what do you think? What's the game two look like?

The last thing on Eme, I'll say, is like, so Jackie Mack had this great feature on him that dropped a couple days ago. And Chris Haynes today reported that, going into the fourth quarter, Eme basically told the team that they were playing like a bunch of punks. and like is this really how you want to go out?

And just reading that feature and seeing that and just watching him all year, I just feel like the Celtics turnaround is like brought to you by immigrant slash first generation values. We're just going to be ruthlessly honest. I'm not going to care about your feelings because the facts are the facts and why would we lie about them and like don't take it personally. Even if you do take it personally and we get like, I personally don't get why you take it personally.

So we're just going to keep doing things the way that we're doing them and hopefully you get with the program. I'm not personally a huge fan of this approach as somebody who's experienced it for my entire life. But at the same time, like, as I get older and I just get over it, I'm like, I'm kind of down for this to win the NBA finals. Yeah, maybe not as like a family planning technique. Sure. Like when I was 17, I would have hated him. Now I'm like, you know what?

I get it. I get it. And maybe these guys have been together just long enough to receive that message. You know what I mean? Like maybe there was a little bit of an air in January where I was. I wonder if the message was like, if this doesn't work, it's not me who's going. Right. You know?

And we've kind of like invested in this idea of Jalen Jason and Marcus being this core. We got Horford in. They make this trade for Derek White. They were already winning when they traded for Derek White. But then it was like, it obviously was a really good pickup in terms of like giving them a really meaningful sense of depth that a guy who is able to play. play with the starters or a second unit. But I wonder whether or not there was essentially like a tacit understanding that it's like,

it's not email who's getting fired in his first season as coach of the Celtics. It's probably one of us that's getting traded. I think that's what it was. Like, wasn't there a moment where it was that was kind of communicated to the locker room? Like, oh, you don't like this guy? Cool.

I mean, there was so many players only meetings and closed door meetings that who knows what was discussed. It could have been book club for all I know. But like, and if it was book club, I would love to know what books they were reading because they definitely like changed their season. Yeah, yeah, maybe like some growth mindset books or something like that. Or maybe just like some Cormac McCarthy and they were like, this is how we have to play.

There was a road as a metaphor for the season. Yeah, since we didn't get to do a game one prediction, do you want to do a game two prediction? Yeah, sure. I think the Warriors will win. I think they'll adjust some things. Like we might see Gary Payton come out of the box. I think they'll be more aggressive in transition. And I think they'll be more intentional about getting points in the paint.

They only had like 24% of their points came. from the paint which it's just like that's not what they like i think the dallas series are around like the 40% mark in most games i'd love to see wiggins get in the paint more yeah i think he had like a couple uh poster attempts like i think he's a little little like high on the fumes of that dunk on donchage and i think i wonder whether or not he's like every time i get some day late i'm going for like a dunk from the free throw line but i would love to see some more bread and butter boring post stuff from him because i think he could be really effective you know that's actually funny because like now i'm thinking like what would the worst like long term out

come that would be a short-term gain would be like an Andrew Wiggins game winning three because then you would just know what would happen for like the next four games after that never driving again I will go also with a Warriors win I do think it's going to be a little bit more of a defensive affair though I think it's yeah they're I think 120 is going to be a real outlier score yeah we didn't get like the number one defense playing the number two defense game yes this time around we got like the two best three-point shooting teams playing each other game so I think, yeah, that'll be, that'll be different. A couple, maybe tighter, tighter rotations, perhaps.

Yeah. Well, I mean, or I wonder whether or not there's a, if, I wonder how quickly Kerr is like, well, that didn't work. You know what I mean? Like, if he's like, okay, so now let's try Cominga in the third quarter or something. Like, or whoever. Like, I wonder if he's going to rotate the minutes that Iggy got, will they go to Payton, will they go to Camingo?

Will you see a moody cameo? Like, are you going to get any different kinds of guys? And whether or not Grant Williams loses, like, some time out there. because Pritchard was obviously a pretty effective player in the second half. Yeah, yeah, absolutely. Well, it'll be, it'll be interesting. It better be. It's the NBA finals.

I mean, it just hasn't been a requisite thing for, like, most of the playoffs for the games to be interesting. So, fingers crossed. I will say, though, this is like a pre-inter league play World Series for me. Like, I do feel like this is a legit, you never get to see these teams really play. When Cleveland and Golden State were locked up together, it felt like they were always playing. You know, they would play.

these epic series in the finals they would usually play like on Christmas or something like that it felt like they were always bound to be playing one another there's a little bit of like I can't believe the Warriors and the Celtics are in the finals even though there are a lot of statistical indicators that say like they should be but I

I am kind of like thrilled by like the newness of this matchup me too there's a lot of novelty there's a lot of novelty like there's these moments there were a lot of feel out moments in this game right that you have early Kvon Luni getting challenged by Jilline Brown and Jason Tatum and KOC had a great stat that in the second half that only

happened seven times. Yeah. So they don't really know each other either. And that is that will probably be the most exciting thing about this series is both these teams are like excellent readers of film and of each other's tendencies. Like you've got Marcus Smart and Al Horford and and in Draymond Green and Iguodala and like both coaching staffs that are going to they're like by the game by game six of this series. I think both sides. are going to have figured out each other in ways they're going to be pretty fascinating. Yeah, I can also see them getting overly familiar with one another and getting kind of chippy out there between Smart and Williams and Dremont and those guys.

I'm here for that. Yeah, me too. We were produced today by Chris Sutton. Thank you, sir. I'll talk to you next week. Enjoy the finals. Until then.