Welcome to the Low Post Hoop Collective joint podcast from the parquet after the Celtics win game two. We're taping this for the second time because we had a tech snafu. Someone kicked out a cord. Cedric Maxwell kicked out our cord on take one.
I don't remember what the hell we said. We got to do it all again. You ready? Yeah, but here's the thing.
It was a really good—of course, we're gonna say that. It was a really good podcast. Gino Lorima came by, made some sort of joke that I can't remember now because it's lost to digital history. Gino Lorima came by.
I believe he was with Paige Beckers. I don't know why he's here other than he likes basketball. And we said hi to him in the middle of the podcast. He crashed the—Gino Lorima crashed the podcast.
I know. And then he said something like—I said, congrats on getting your new contract. I was worried that you may not keep the job. Yes, you were very worried.
And he said—of course, it's lost to history now. It doesn't matter what I said. Something about Cleveland. He said, I should have had Cleveland offer me the job.
I could have maybe gotten a better contract. That happened. We have video of it. We don't have audio of it, but we do have video.
Well, that makes me feel better. We're not making it up. Okay, so let's do the podcast again. Are you ready?
Yeah, who won? The Celtics won. 105-98. Yep.
I'll try and recreate what I said at the top last time. The Celtics get up 39 threes, only make 10. But that's 13 more threes than the Mavs got up. They were 6 of 26 on threes.
Jason Tatum, one of the better 6-of-22 games you'll see. 12 assists, I said before. And now I remember. I ran into someone who's close to Jason Tatum before the game.
Before the game, I said, hey, what do you think about what Jay Kidd said about Jalen being the best player on the team? This person said, all day yesterday, we reiterated, reiterated. I told everyone I know, Jason is not taking the bait. He's not taking the bait.
If anything, he's going to have 15 assists tonight. He had 12. Can I just say, though, Jason Kidd is actively double teaming Tatum. Because he knows how important he is.
So he can say that Jalen's their best player. And Jalen has been awesome. But on the Hooplas Collective, we talk about actions over words. His actions make it seem like he thinks Jason Tatum is the best player.
That's all. Drew Holiday, an absolute masterpiece of a basketball game on both ends of the floor. As we said in the first podcast, if this was a best of three and the Celtics won tonight, my vote for MVP would go to Drew Holiday. 26 points on 11 of 14.
Derek White, 18 points, 4 of 10 from three. He hit a big three to put him up 14. Before things got a little dicey at the end, Boston's offense went kind of into prevent mode. Got a couple of good looks still out of it, missed them all.
And you could feel, you could feel, uh-oh, is this the catastrophic fall from ahead crunch time loss we've been dreading all season long for the Celtics? And then there was a moment, Brian Windhorst, which I know you want to talk about. Jason Tatum, with about a minute to go, drives by Luka or somebody, meets Derek Jones Jr. at the summit.
Derek Jones Jr. blocks him. Here come the Mavs. 55 seconds left to go, down five.
Having made an 8-0 or 9-0 run to cut it from 14 to 5. 9-0 by my math. Kyrie's bringing the ball up. Bounce pass to P.J.
Washington. P.J. Washington goes up for a layup or a dunk. Derek White blocks by White.
Derek White with a spectacular, this is why I'm the greatest shot-blocking guard in the league. This is why I'm the greatest shot-blocking guard since Dwayne Wade. Spectacular block. I said, congrats on getting your new contract.
I was worried that you may not keep the job. Yes, you were very worried. And he said, of course, it's lost to history now. It doesn't matter what I said.
Something about Cleveland. He said, I should have had Cleveland offer me the job. I could have maybe gotten a better contract. That happened.
We have video of it. We don't have audio of it, but we do have video. Well, that makes me feel better. We're not making it up.
Okay, so let's do the podcast again. Are you ready? Yeah, who won? The Celtics won 105-98.
Yep. I'll try and recreate what I said at the top last time. The Celtics get up 39 threes, only make 10. But that's 13 more threes than the Mavs got up.
They were 6 of 26 on threes. Jason Tatum, one of the better 6-of-22 games you'll see. 12 assists, I said before. And now I remember.
I ran into someone who's close to Jason Tatum before the game. Before the game, I said, hey, what do you think about what Jay Kidd said about Jalen being the best player on the team? This person said, all day yesterday, we reiterated, reiterated. I told everyone I know, Jason is not taking the bait.
He's not taking the bait. If anything, he's going to have 15 assists tonight. He had 12. Can I just say, though, Jason Kidd is actively double-teaming Tatum because he knows how important he is.
So he can say that Jalen's their best player, and Jalen has been awesome. But actions, you know, on the Hoop Collective, we talk about actions over words. His actions make it seem like he thinks Jason Tatum is the best player. That's all.
Drew Holiday, an absolute masterpiece of a basketball game. Without question. On both ends of the floor. As we said in the first podcast, if this was a best of three and the Celtics won tonight, my vote for MVP would go to Drew Holiday.
26 points on 11 of 14. Derek White, 18 points, 4 of 10 from three. He hit a big three to put him up 14. Before things got a little dicey at the end, Boston's offense went kind of into prevent mode.
Got a couple of good looks still out of it. Missed them all. And you could feel, you could feel, uh-oh, is this the catastrophic fall from ahead crunch time loss we've been dreading all season long for the Celtics? And then there was a moment, Brian Windhorst, which I know you want to talk about.
Jason Tatum, with about a minute to go, drives by Luka or somebody. Meets Derek Jones Jr. at the summit. Derek Jones Jr.
blocks him. Here come the Mavs. 55 seconds left to go, down 5. Having made an 8-0 or 9-0 run to cut it from 14 to 5.
9-0 by my math. Kyrie's bringing the ball up. Bounce pass to P.J. Washington.
P.J. Washington goes up for a layup or a dunk. Derek White. Oh, blocked by White.
Derek White with a spectacular. This is why I'm the greatest shot-blocking guard in the league. This is why I'm the greatest shot-blocking guard since Dwayne Wade. Spectacular block.
But P.J. Washington. You know, in the first podcast, you hadn't watched the replay. I hadn't watched the replay.
You questioned whether there had been a foul. No, no, no. I said I've got to watch it again. And so in real time on this glorious podcast that doesn't exist, I queued up the video.
I pointed it at the camera. We watched it. I said, there's Jalen Brown standing on his back. I can't wait for the last two-minute report.
And we said, P.J. Washington go to the line, cut it to 3. Cut it to 4. P.J.
Washington was actually a Maverick who made his free throws tonight. 4 of 4. And at the very least, Boston's win probability is still very high. This is, as you've said multiple times on podcast number one, this is not the reason Dallas lost the game.
But at the very least, there would have been a nice, juicy, delicious, testy moment for Boston's offense, which is already, I wouldn't say off the rails. They got a couple of good looks. They were just taking all the time off the clock. And we didn't get it.
So, yes, Boston would have had the ball up 3 with probably a timeout to set up their play. I'm not saying it would have changed the game. The reason why Boston won this game, in my view, was that Dallas had some horrible turnovers. 15 turnovers cost them 21 points and because they missed free throws.
8 for Luka, as you pointed out on the first pod. Including some wild. And a couple of just awful ones. And then when they hit the two threes in the fourth quarter, the Celtics hit the two threes that basically gave them the separation.
Kyrie had a terrible turnover in there as well. So those turnovers really were a big factor in why they lost. It was not the missed foul call. But the missed foul call is what, if What's the thing that they say when you have 10 turnovers?
What's that? I don't know. There's like a phrase. Like a quadruple double if you have 10.
You know, you have four strikeouts, a golden sombrero if you have 10 turnovers. I don't know. It's like a... But they, like, Kyrie, 16 points on 7 of 18.
The entire Mavericks... Tragic triple double. There's something saying. Tragic Johnson.
The entire Magic bench had... The Magic are not in the finals. The entire Mavericks bench had 9 points. Tim Hardaway Jr.
didn't get in. Yeah, I said in the first pod that... Thanks, Ted. That you could say that maybe they should play Tim Hardaway.
You could say they should play more Jaden Harvey to try to get some action. Do I honestly believe with all my heart, do I say it with a full throat, that that would really make a difference? No, not really. But, you know, that's something that they could do.
I don't... Yes, I mean, the Celtics were prepared for that. They expected him to play because they expected the Mavericks would need to up their shooting quotient. Didn't play at all tonight.
Jaden Harvey only played two minutes. That surprised me. Just another shot creator is so desperately needed. It just feels like the Tim Hardaway ship has sailed.
Yeah, I know. I'm just saying it to say it, to be honest. And Cleveland looks like a shell of himself shooting threes. And the Celtics are putting points.
His shoulder is messed up. And just saying, go ahead, launch all the three-point shots. He doesn't trust his shot. You launch all the threes.
You mentioned, you know, we've talked about how the Celtics did show a little bit more help towards Luka, particularly after he got cooking. Sometimes a double team. Sometimes a late kind of almost double. Sometimes just digging down, showing help, shading over.
And almost all of it was off Jones, Green, Exum when he got in. He did make a three. Like they got a little more aggressive showing Luka some bodies. We'll see.
Porzingis is big. And we'll see if Kyrie can get on track. And Dallas might have to see if there's any sort of sets that they can do to generate some better shots because they are just having... Boston is generating good shots, like, I feel like 80 to 90% of the time.
Dallas feels like they're generating good shots about 50% of the time. And a lot of times it's Luka doing it himself. So I just think that's a horrible trend. They got to figure out a way.
They got to figure out some sets. They got to figure out some options they can go to to give themselves a better chance. They've failed to crack 100 in two games. And they tried stuff tonight.
Like, I think the first play of the game was some kind of screening action designed to get Derek White on to Luka. And he posted him up and either drew a foul or scored. He posted him up again in the second half and made a fadeaway jump. They definitely told P.J.
Washington to attack the rim. He was more aggressive. He was great. P.J.
Washington is making these floaters like they're nothing. They ran a couple step plays to get Peyton Pritchard on to Luka. Luka exploited that. I think he's going to have to try to do...
You can't move Drew Holiday. I get it. But here's the thing with Boston. They're like, okay, fine.
We'll have Peyton Pritchard defend Luka two or three times. They're fine with that. It's hard to stop Luka with anybody on him. So they're not...
They ran more of their, like, double screening, double drag actions. They set more picks for Luka at half court, which is something that always works because the defense is just never ready for it. One of their best plays of the game was Lively set a pick for him at half court and then flipped the screen three times. It took three picks all in a row, all going further down the floor, until the screen hit Drew Holiday.
They trapped Luka as a result. Lively got it done. That's how hard it is. You've got to do all this creative stuff over and over and over again and run all your best stuff just to get a little traction.
But you don't want to write off Dallas. They're going home. They're going home. But, you know, it's going to be a tough road.
Well, I've got to go do SportsCenter so they can listen to whatever was left of what we recorded earlier. Yeah, hopefully Cedric is in there somewhere. That sound you hear that sounds like a record scratch is his probably $500 shoe dragging over our recording equipment. Well, Brian, this was quite an adventure here tonight.
Will I see you? I don't remember if it survived. Will I see you for Game 5 back here? It did survive.
It did survive. This is why it's hard to do this, because we don't know what we said in the part that survived and we didn't say the part that survived. Apologies for the snafu, but we made something of it. I'm sure there was some brilliant insight somewhere.
We made chicken salad out of chicken something. I'm sure there was some brilliant insight, maybe a joke got lost to history. Other than the Gino thing that was mildly interesting, he might have been throwing shade at somebody, was that you hadn't seen the replay of the P.J. Washington foul.
I sort of felt a little bit supreme to you for four seconds. That was lost. I think actually you may have benefited from that, because normally you have everything locked down. You know, your mess of notes is superior to me.
But I had seen the replays and you hadn't. So that's one of those plays that, this is a little blind spot for me. It's such a spectacular play at a critical time of the game that I just get caught up in, like, oh my God, that just happened, and then the game ends and I didn't look back at it. You alerted me to it.
Well, they actually, on the broadcast, it was so amazing in the moment, and Breen had a great call, and it really decided to find the game, and I think they went to break, but the truck saw it and brought it back, and they pointed it out. By the way, we should mention Cedric Maxwell, I don't think this survived, did mock the Lakers for hanging the in-season tournament banner. That was a good time. So let me just say what happened there.
That was Cornbread Maxwell, Cedric Maxwell, former Finals MVP. 81. Celtics legend, play-by-play, radio guy, color. I set the bait for him.
It's not that hard. He wants the bait. You threw in a lot of chum. Yeah.
A lot of chum. He, you know, has a sort of, the Lakers are sort of the shadow opponent here because they're trying, the Celtics are trying to get their 18th banner ahead of the Lakers. I'm aware. Yeah, I'm just telling the listeners.
Okay. And Cornbread, he couldn't stop himself from coming over and talking trash to James Worthy. And then as he walked away, he kicked out our microphone. Yeah, thanks, Cornbread.
I will say, I was mildly relieved that the Lakers so generously and Dan Hurley so generously have decided against, until tomorrow apparently, making this decision to not upstage game two. I told people, I don't want this happening during the game. Let the game be the thing. Tomorrow you can have.
Okay. This is going to post tomorrow. It's going to post in like two hours. I know.
I'll be the less than that. I guess that's technically tomorrow. All right. Is there anything else that needs to be said or are we done here?
No, we're not done. Okay. We're not done. Okay.
Hey, sports fans, the ESPN app has all of ESPN all in one place. The ESPN app is your home to thousands of live events, ESPN shows and originals across every ESPN network and service. And now you can check if you already have ESPN unlimited as part of your TV package for no additional cost. Visit activate.espn.com to learn how to access your account or sign up.
Then start streaming in the ESPN app. It's all of ESPN all in one place. Sign up or activate now. I'll see you on Get Shaq to talk trash next.
Shaq accused me of taking too long at the urinal in game one. Jokingly. Jokingly. I don't know what to say about that.
Yeah, I don't, I don't know. I don't want to be compared to Shaq. It's late and we're having a little fun. Look, okay, let's just say it.
The Celtics right now are 14 and two in the playoffs and 78 and 20 for the season. I'm just saying those are real numbers. Those are their records. They're two wins away.
Whether you like it or not, whether you feel it or not, whether you ever feared them or not, whether you ever respected them at this level or not, they're two wins away. Now, if it goes to seven and it's a total nip and tuck and they get blown out a couple of times on the way and they win in seven, different story. Obviously I'm not counting Dallas out. Dallas could easily come back and win.
I'm just saying they're two wins away from like, whoa, that's a hell of a season. At least by the numbers. Yes. And I'm, I'm, I would love to say that this is insurmountable for Dallas, but the Porzingis thing has got me paused.
Porzingis going home, Luka. Although, you know, we