The New Year Knits close out to Detroit Pistons last Thursday in dramatic fashion with Jalen Brunson's game win a series ceiling shot on the road in Detroit. They are now matched up against the reigning world champion Boston Celtics. No game one already done. Do you think they have a chance to win the series or is Austin just too dominant to make this match up a competition?
In the third quarter, the Boston Celtics took 20 field goal attempts. Of those 20, 19 were three-pointers. The Celtics were wildly uneven in their defeat launching an NBA player for record 63-pointers and missing a postseason record 45 of those attempts. Jason Tatum who finished with 7, who finished 7 for 23 overall and 4-0 team from beyond the arc repeatedly set up for outside shots.
Instead of playing aggressively to get to the basket, even as the Knicks were set up with foul trouble. And then in the front court also not going to leave Jana Brown out of this as well because he was all for nine from the field in three and he finally hit one and was one of 10 for the game as well. So who y'all have in this series and how many games? Next and six.
Come on Nick. I'm sorry, bro. This is what I've been saying about. This is what I say when it comes to like if you are a fan of a team, you should always believe you have a chance.
You didn't think that yesterday, before the game, you didn't think that before the game. I told you I called you out. I said, I called you out. I'm not reading what I'm putting in the chat right now.
I put in the chat. I was like, the Knicks got to win Game 1 because game two, they're getting blown out. So the only time the best time to still a game as the role team in a playoff series is Game 1. Because you don't because everything is that you still trying to fill each other out of the team, even on the next plane, the same division as a Celtics and they played multiple times and the Celtics got the best of them.
Handily, this was that last game felt like when the Giants went against the Patriots in that last regular season on the way to the Super Bowl where they faced the Pats again. And they gave even lost that game. They gave him confidence and to play him again, if they ever did, we here right now. Bro run, you said he taught me.
I think he taught me. I can't make a play as better than Jaylen Brunson right now. I can't make a play as a player in the playoffs. Yeah, that'd be a next show.
That'd be a great show. That'd be a great. That'd be a great. He's the best player in the playoffs.
He's getting the biggest shots. Biggest shots. Hey, look, he better than it. Hey, hey, the other thing I said was Brunson was more important to that team that Luca was on when he was there and then they got rid of and they started failing.
Then they went and got Kyrie. I agree with that. And the last thing I would say before that somebody else go, Jaylen Brunson is on the greatest sports contract of all time. Yeah.
Tell I can't tell. He's on. He's getting a $25 an hour loop to do all these different things. I can't tell me that I was.
I was. Hey, he's on. But he's the head next contract. Maybe he's done it this time.
He is. He is. He is. That's a different conversation for a different day.
Yeah. Sure. I think like after watching that Boston game, this was more about Boston than it was. New York for me and that bossing and they missed 43 three points and if they just make 10 more 45 if they make just 5% more three points.
That's a win. You know what I'm saying? I will say that night. No, I will say this though.
My issue with Boston watching that game is that they hunted the three versus playing basketball. There were a lot of opportunities where they're playing like a two-man game with Jason Tatum and Jason Tatum is looking for the three gives the ball up and instead of back cutting up and getting an easy bucket because there was no weeks. There was no help. He's standing there getting the ball to shoot a three again.
So for me, passive for me, if I'm Joe Missoula, I'm letting them know, hey, look, we understand that three is better than two, but an easy two is better than three all day. And they left too many easy twos on the table for me. And when I look at that, you know, the next how to go on a crazy run, just like that, that gave one against Detroit in New York. Like, for me, that's not a sustainable way of basketball.
And for me, it's just minor tweaks on the Celtics and versus what the Knicks got to do. I think the Knicks are playing above their pay grade. But we'll see if they will be able to say, yeah, we play in the Washington Generals, some shit, bro. Listen, the problem that we have right now with the Knicks is not that they're not talented.
It's not that they're not good defenders. It's just once again comes out of time, the Thibodeau. Jalen Brunson is being asked just like D-Rose was, just like Jimmy Butler was to carry the entire load of the offense. And you got to get bailed out with Miracle Shots from OG, the Step-Backs and the Detroit series from Cat.
But you can't rely on that. You can't think that those type of sets and those outcomes are going to just happen really nearly. They're like, I don't like the Miracle offense. I don't like riding Brunson that heavily.
But if it's working, who am I to actually disparage it too much? I think that the Knicks have a great chance in this series. My heart wants the Knicks in seven. I just feel like you can't go against the back-to-back champs without any repeatable, reproducible offense.
The Knicks defense is going to be tough. They're going to get runs just off of the fact that it's a Tibs-led team. But something is just telling me that Missoula, Tatum and Brown are going to come through in seven. I hope I'm wrong.
This is more of a head and heart pick. My heart is with New York. I want the Knicks to be good again. I want the Knicks to come back to glory.
I think it's good for the NBA. When New York has a really good team, especially I'm in New York right now. But the fans are going crazy, bro. Like, everybody's outside.
I'm in the Heights right now. So it's lit. So people are very excited. But heart nicks.
My head says the Celtics in, I never bet with my heart. So I'm going to just go on my head here and say that Boston wins. Narrowly, game seven. So Nick, you trying to get out of New York a lot?
That's what it is. Yeah, that's what he's trying to get out of New York. Yeah, that's what he's trying to get out of New York. You let me know where you are going to make pull up.
All you put up. All I'm saying is this. I want to say Knicks in seven. But to me, if it goes back to Boston, I just don't trust that.
You don't trust that. Even on the Knicks, I'm defeated on the road. I just don't trust the game seven, not in Madison Square Garden, where they got the home crowd. For me, it's Boston in six, man.
I think that the Knicks are going to do what they've been doing all year. They struggled against the top teams, even though they're playing much better now. Like you said, I just don't trust OG knows guys to continue to play ball. He played out of his mind in this game.
And I don't see. Oh, we can't play else. But I just don't think you can keep it up at this pace. I just don't think so.
And this was a game that Boston lost more so than the Knicks won. Don't do that. Don't be hating, bro. I swear.
I swear. I'm not even kidding. I was. I was like Boston lost it.
And this is where I want to get to the blue. I know you got your talking points, too. And I wanted to call out Joe Missoula. Do we know if he's a good coach or not?
Because we don't know because we thought I lose a good coach. Because to me, to me, he did the same thing. Steve Kerr punk ass doing right now. He inherited a bad bitch that he think he could go out here and get bad bitches.
I don't think so. He got too much confidence in a team that was literally championship ready because they went to the championship the year before he got there. So to me, you're a good coach makes adjustments. Like you said, if you vote, before I you mentioned Ken in the written outline, the Knicks were in foul trouble.
Cats always in foul trouble. So he was irrelevant most of the world court. And they could have easily like when y'all said it, Jason Tatum on Brunson, why are we not exploiting that? At least they get to the foul line.
Bulli ball. You can't. Joe Missoula can't say bro, we miss 35 threes. Well, it's not taking it to the home.
You know, and I think the other thing is the players on the court can say that. Tatum and Brown have been in these situations before. They both can drive to the hoop and get foul. They know it's not like they don't have experience.
I don't know why they kept doing it to take 19 threes out of 20 shots is insane. And on top of that, you have a pretty sizable leading. You blow it like that to score nine points and let them go on and run like that. It's inexcusable.
Tatum or Brown never should have let that happen at all. You win that game. When the game gets close, we talk about LeBron and when he was the game, we close, put your head down and go to the basket. Slow the game down.
They didn't do any of that. They kept checking threes. I think that's because neither one of them are at number one. Tatum is not a number one.
Brown is not a number one. Neither one of them are going to take it amongst himself to be like, I'm going to dominate this game. Like Brunson does. Brunson better than say he better than Brown because he's willing to be a person to be like, I'm going to win this game for us.
And that's why I like the next. I don't want to sit on Brunson because I think y'all people are going insane. It's legit. It's legit.
He's a beast. He's a fucking crazy bro. Everybody go back and rewatch our top 10 list and I swear it was just me and Nick who said Brunson is easily top 10. I don't know.
The I test facts. It's like the I test is what I go off of sometimes then when the numbers back it up. I just don't see how you can't verify that man. Like he's certified.
The ability to be that is like five 10 first off. So and he and he play bigger than Jason. He gives me more. Better than title.
Thanks. I will. You know what? You know what?
You know what? Yes. I'll say yes. I'll say yes.
But for anybody who's afraid to say yes, if you running five on five at YMCA, it's based off of if you only saw that one game yesterday and you get to pick at the YMCA, who you want that little dude over there or the other big tall lights can do, most people going to pick that little short deal because he was giving work. If we go off of it, I was alien coming to earth and I saw that one game. I was like, he's better than him. And it's not even close actually because he wants contact because I'm tired of hearing the whole of he's a foul bater and all that stuff.
He's a small guard, bro. I have respect for guards because I understand that they have a short shelf life and if they don't give people something to think twice about when they jump and big guys, you know, try to, you know, swap the ball away. They have to draw fouls, right? Every, every small guard has done it unless you were just outrageously athletic like D Rose.
I say, Thomas did it. Chris Paul does it. Trey Young does everyone's done it. So this criticism that we have for Jalen Bronson when he's delivered over and over again as the number one option in New York, everything that just shows me that he's that guy.
He's tough on me, but at the same time, if you tell him, we got one shot to win the game and I got to play defense. I don't want to see Brunson over Tatum. I'd rather see Tatum than see Brunson. Why?
Why? Because Brunson is, I'm saying Brunson is going to hit that shot. Oh, okay. You say you were the hell.
Okay. Got you. Yeah. I read if I'm playing defense, I'd rather play Tatum on the, if I'm a defender, I'd rather go against Tatum.
Tatum is going to settle for that 18 foot shot. That's your Brunson. He got his weapon. Like he did in that Detroit game and he's going to hit that shot.
That's what I'm saying. Tatum is really good. I'm not knocking him and saying that he's not good, but Brunson got a different drive in his. He do not have.
Tatum do not have what Brunson got. Hey, this goes back to the conversation you all just had about Jason Tatum versus Luka. And y'all was saying like, why Jason Tatum is better? Jason Tatum just doesn't have like that that want to.
Like in his game, like it's not like his game doesn't look nice. His game, you can look at his game and be like, all right, yeah, I know he's over. But it's just like he doesn't have that mentality on that. That's Theo that when you look at the same way, some of y'all, y'all look at the Brun versus Jordan.
It just doesn't have that killer man talent that you're looking for. And that's what Jason Tatum just doesn't have. It's a different type of like game ball. It's just it's not a feeling.
Exactly. And Brunson is bringing back the ghost of Carmelo with how clutch he is in these games. So that's why I'm just like, you know what I'm saying? You know what, you know what Jason Tatum is the John legend of small forwards.
It's like, is the nigger talented? Yeah, for sure. The nigger even got classic probably. But I want to hear that shit.
Fucking hell. I don't want to get out of shit, bro, because I run listen to so many more people. I rather watch so many more people play. And I just think that so many more players in the league, I probably say I six or seven guys to me, they're just better, bro.
The thing that and this is not a shit on Tatum session, which is talking about the series. The reason why I my heart wants to mix the win this game, I mean, when the series is because when the chips are down, I for the life of me cannot recall a high stakes moment where Tatum rattled off 10 by himself, eight by himself in high leverage moments. In the first quarter when it's front running time, yeah, the nigger gets three back three and we're like, man, Tatum is killing like third quarter come and you got a smaller guy only like people saying he's stepping back. Pulling back, he's passing, he's trying to get, step back jump.
And it's like, I need to see the eight all run there, bro. I need to see that six all run right there. And I rarely see that and I could be wrong, but I don't see that often. Hey, you know who has done that?
And that's what I'm saying, especially against Rudy go bare, but we're not gonna go back to that series. But can you trip on that point, bro? You know, Lucas still that guy. You can't let it go too classic.
It's first two albums. No, he got two. He got two. You're looking for me.
You're looking for me. Once again, once again, it's broad. That's a little fine. John Legend as a.
Yes, Nick, a classic. Get a little bit. Listen, listen, listen, listen. I got to listen to once again.
Two. I didn't know the day. Two. You know what I'm saying?
You're like, I don't show. I agree with you. I love it. That's what I'm saying.
He got John Legend. I'm not sure. My thing is, I agree with Q and P for when they talk about this offense and how it's played. And I've been talking about late game execution.
They did. They've been doing it well through Brunson. That's not gonna work all the time. They should have won a regulation.
You know what I'm saying? I like that a lot, but again, I was nervous about going into OT. But I will say this that the Celtics are not gonna miss that many. It's literally impossible to miss that many threes again.
And the next perimeter defense, even though they got my kill for just an OG, and Josh Hart and it's gonna have to step up, even tenfold now, because Boston got back against the wall because they just like, they gonna be just looking like the C.A.A.S. were as far as if you go down to two. It's gonna be unknown. I know dog's on Boston Team is gonna feel like they got their back into the wall.
Jay Lebron. Look, I get them drooling. Don't try that. And you got my half off of there.
Does he matter? Does he matter though? We're just- We're just having- Drew's got injury, poor Zynga's got an injury, it's a weird illness. I just- You're so in love with Broxin that y'all just shitting on the whole self-esteem.
I just wanna- I know, definitely not doing that. You're definitely not doing that. I just said I don't have a dog. I'm sitting on them, they ain't got no dogs.
They got no dogs. They got no dogs. I'm sitting on them and saying they don't have no dogs unless you count- What's my man name? The point guard?
I just said I just drew all of that. You don't even know. I don't even know what's make. You know what we got?
Right. They're white and Jalen Brown are like the three like guys that wanted I think those are three guys I know they main person. That's the best person on the team to suppose if you thought he not a dog He liked Drake he got a bunch of shooters around him, so it's like damn is he dangerous too I mean sometimes I I'm more so shocked about how consistent he's been the most consistent player in the playoffs I'm shocked by his production output coming from his size and everything and I just am like I'm more so nervous about the rest of the Like it's basically cat cat half 14. He had a double double 14 and 13 I believe but he got into foul tripping if we needed him in that game He wouldn't have been able to be there because of the foul trouble So to me it's like even oh when he was in Minnesota Anthony was like I was a young bull talking about something a quit taking goofy I saw you remember some of the statements Nick was saying about Julius Randall when he was on the next He was saying he was one of the best golf boards in the league.
He was underrated. He was saying he was better than who got Who's on the harps that got traded to Utah? But you're way go yet. Yeah, it was a lot of height Consistency of Russian is key but also I need the other players to step up I need cat to look like the second best player if not the best player in the series We're just gonna play defense like you did down the stretch too I love what bridges did and he was clutch, but to me cat is the one that he's the most talented player We have on our team, but we can't win the series without cat balling.
I'm right now Even with what we're bruns are doing you but you know what get count on cat get you is the same thing It's always been so that's why that's why That's why at some point like we just saw my way to the endo. He got to grow up though, right? Is it some point he has to show up and be the person that he claims that he is right? Is over it?
So the person he's shown us so far y'all seeing that's it I think that's it. I think that's it's I Caught in town gets a bad rap to me sometimes I understand the soft criticism I understand all that I think a more sober view of his game is that he's really talented He has high highs and he has very noticeable lows whereas some players can get by with you know Having a quote unquote bad game on off game because they affect the they affect him on other ways like you know Because somebody like Bronson could have you know 14 points in a game, but you can see that he's trying you can see that he's I don't lose ball You see that he's setting up team and you see that he's impacting the game with gravity whatever it is Right, you know pick a role, you know setting guys up with cat he gets in his head a little bit and he's really frustrated when the shots Not falling or when he's not getting the you know foul called on him Oh, he goes he drives into the paint because he normally has like one thought process I'm gonna shoot this ball and if I'm breaking in four times in a row I'm gonna just try to go full steam ahead to the basket and then when the rest don't reward that because he's going up what some people Consider to be weak. He kind of just gets ejected in the game defense starts to take a hit I'd still on the other side though as a next hopeful in this in the series The highs of cat you just got to get one or two games from him for that to affect the other team because if cat goes off next game He gets 27 whatever he can be shitty even the next game after that But it's the fact that they've seen him do it. I know it sounds like you know Excuses, but I think cat just got to lock in on giving us 15 points nine rebounds and anything above that is just a guy's in anything below that We really can't accept it