Boston beats the Lakers on Christmas Day, and making sense of trade rumors with Bobby Krivitsky | Celtics Lab - video Dailymotion

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The Boston Celtics beat the Los Angeles Lakers on Christmas Day, the best kind of win for Celtics fans in the regular season if not the NBA Finals. And they did it despite in-game injuries, strong rallies from their opponent -- and most importantly, an ego-boosting hot start that has tended to absorb their killer instinct in the past.  To celebrate the win (and what we saw in it that should reach well beyond the holiday tilt) with other Boston fans, the hosts of the CLNS Media "Celtics Lab" podcast linked up with Sports Illustrated's and "Talkin' Cs" podcast host Bobby Krivitsky to break down the victory.  We also get into recent Kelly Olynyk trade rumbles and what they mean with a closer look, get caught up on the news more generally, and even make some decisions about what sorts of gifts we want to return from our holiday haul -- basketball-related and otherwise.  Join us for a special holiday edition of the pod, and felices fiestas to you all.  The Celtics Lab podcast is brought to you by FanDuel.

Transcript

00:00:00 probably a backwards move. I would certainly say that that is a backwards move. I agree.

00:00:05 Not everyone agrees with us. And it's not happening. They're not trading Al Horford,

00:00:09 period. And they're definitely not doing it if the return is Kelly Olenek.

00:00:12 Season's greetings, everyone, and welcome back to another edition of the Celtics Lab podcast.

00:00:27 I am your temporary host, Alex Goldberg. Dr. Cam is out. He's doing holiday stuff. He's

00:00:35 hanging out. But Dr. Quinn is with me, as always. Justin, how are you doing?

00:00:40 Not too shabby. A little tired, a little sick, like most of us getting ready for the holidays.

00:00:47 But there's lots of basketball to talk about, which is not depressing basketball to talk about,

00:00:53 which I was a little worried about after the Golden State loss.

00:00:56 Yes, of course, Steph Curry tried to put a lump of coal in the Celtics' stockings this season,

00:01:02 but it seems that they got back in the Christmas spirit and they're doing just fine. We're going

00:01:07 to talk about all of it in just a minute. The Celtics coming off a pair of big wins,

00:01:13 their connection to a new NBC sitcom. And of course, we are going to break down the Celtics

00:01:21 Christmas Day game against the Los Angeles Lakers. But first, this episode of the Celtics

00:01:27 Lab podcast is brought to you by FanDuel, the exclusive wagering partner of the CLNS Media

00:01:32 Network. JQ, shall we jump right into it? We got some news to cover.

00:01:36 Yeah, I'm not going to be as useful for the Sacramento blowout. We have a pair of blowouts,

00:01:44 one of which I missed because I was sick as a dog, as the people who watched the last podcast

00:01:49 probably started to notice was coming on a little bit better now. Cam, thank you for covering that.

00:01:56 But the game was evidently pretty sick as well in a much more positive sense.

00:02:01 Yes, it was. You were not the only one missing that game. Of course, Jason Tatum was out for

00:02:07 that one with an ankle injury, but it did not seem to matter in what was, I would say, a pretty

00:02:14 light on defense affair. I think that's the big conclusion that we can take away from that game,

00:02:19 is that neither team was particularly interested in getting a tremendous amount of stops. The Celtics

00:02:25 obviously won the game in blowout fashion. Derek White was interested in getting stops,

00:02:31 particularly getting three blocks. He was terrific. He also had 28 points along with

00:02:36 Jalen Brown, who had 28 points, and the Celtics ultimately blew out the Kings 144 to 119.

00:02:44 It's interesting. I was watching some of this game. The Boston Music Awards were that night,

00:02:50 so I had to play a lot of catch up. But in watching the highlights, a couple of things

00:02:55 stood out to me. The first being that obviously no defense was played at all by these teams,

00:03:01 particularly the Sacramento Kings. The Kings are really fun. They have a super electric,

00:03:07 charged up offense, but man, they cannot get any kind of qualitative stops. They seem like a team

00:03:15 that should be pretty aggressive at the deadline in pursuing some wing stoppers. I don't know if

00:03:20 you have any thoughts on the Kings broadly that you want to share before we get into the rest of

00:03:25 this game. No, not really on the Kings. I do want to talk a little bit about a narrative that has

00:03:34 popped up in the absence of Jason Tatum. The team tends to play faster. He doesn't really like to

00:03:41 play very fast. He likes to walk the ball up, play more of an ISO-friendly game, which is not

00:03:45 the way the Celtics play the best. I'm not saying, no one is saying that they are better without

00:03:52 Tatum, but I'm curious about your thoughts on whether Mr. Jason should be moving up the court

00:03:59 a little faster. I think I'm always in favor of the Celtics playing faster in general. I feel like

00:04:06 at their best, they are a team that really kind of blows the doors off of everybody with their

00:04:11 open court speed. I do think there are going to be some matchups that they encounter in the playoffs

00:04:17 where that's logistically not going to be as easy as it would be against a Sacramento Kings team

00:04:24 that again has literally nobody capable of stopping them in the open court. With apologies to your

00:04:30 Davion Mitchells, Keegan Murrays of the world. I think against Miami, they're going to need to be

00:04:37 able to play a half court game. Against the Bucs, they're going to need to be able to play some half

00:04:41 court basketball. If they make it to the finals and they run into the Wolves or the Nuggets,

00:04:46 they're going to need to be able to play in the half court. So ultimately championship level teams

00:04:51 need to be able to do both. But I'm definitely more towards the school of the Celtics should

00:04:58 play faster whenever possible. This one thing I wanted to touch on, again with the Sacramento

00:05:05 Kings game, you really do see the impact of Chris Dapps Porzingis in this game. Every time that he

00:05:12 was on the floor, the Kings really didn't have an answer in terms of his spacing, his shooting,

00:05:18 and his size. He really kind of overwhelmed their front court and it just kind of didn't matter who

00:05:25 they threw at him. Now the thing again that I really want to emphasize with Porzingis is that

00:05:31 more than anything, he strikes me as an additive scorer. He's a guy who in hunting for his own

00:05:39 shot and in hunting for his own offense, just by virtue of the gravity that he attracts,

00:05:45 really shifts the kind of landscape of the court. And he opens things up despite, you know, I think

00:05:53 he's a fine passer, but I don't think anybody would say that he's like a point center in the

00:05:59 mold of a Jokic or something like that. He's not by any means an elite passer, but just by virtue

00:06:05 of being a scoring threat, he opens things up for the rest of the team. And I think you really saw

00:06:09 that in this Kings game where, you know, now with Porzingis on the floor, like JaVale McGee can't

00:06:16 just hang back in the paint and try and block shots. Sabonis has to actually like move around.

00:06:22 You can't just keep him in a low drop and expect that to work. And then guys like Drew Holiday,

00:06:29 guys like Derek White, guys like Jalen Brown can really get going in the open court. So

00:06:35 seems like it's been another kind of seamless fit in the Brad Stevens era. You know, I don't think

00:06:42 there's too much to take away from this game. Again, the Kings are an abysmal defensive team,

00:06:47 but as far as games go, you know, obviously coming off of the back of a fairly disappointing loss in

00:06:56 Golden State, it's good for the Celtics to kind of get back to their identity with this game.

00:07:01 And it felt like that's very much what they were doing. Let's shift gears and talk about the next

00:07:06 game, which, yeah. Real quick, before we go, I wanted to get your opinion. I heard this,

00:07:12 I forget who was, who brought this up, but they seem to think it was a thing. And I have not heard

00:07:18 any reporting that this is a thing, but the fact that Porzingis set out the next game, which we

00:07:25 could talk about a little bit as well. Do you think that the folks on the NBA show over there

00:07:34 are correct that the Celtics are now alternating Horford and Porzingis? Or is that just a guess?

00:07:41 I would gather that it's not so much that they're intentionally alternating them as it is that

00:07:51 in this particular stretch of the season, I think they're trying to be particularly cautious with

00:07:57 Porzingis and his calf. Obviously he's coming off of a calf strain. Those are injuries with

00:08:04 calf strains where the big problem with calf strains is overuse. If you work that muscle too

00:08:11 hard, then it will start to kind of tighten up. And so that requires some pretty kind of thoughtful

00:08:19 daily management. So I think you're seeing this alternation strategy in part because of that,

00:08:25 and in part because Al Horford doesn't play back to backs and that Kings game was,

00:08:29 I believe, a back to back. So I think with that strategy, I think that's more a by-product of

00:08:36 just like the Celtics kind of general injury and in Horford's case, age management practices.

00:08:44 I expect that once Porzingis has had a little bit more time to kind of rest that calf muscle a

00:08:50 little bit, you should start to see him more regularly in the starting lineup. But I mean,

00:08:56 this is why you have Al Horford coming off the bench as such a luxury. Like the fact that you

00:09:02 can seamlessly alter between two starting quality centers is pretty massive for this team. And being

00:09:11 able to have the luxury of that is, I think, a real win for a team that I think the big concern

00:09:18 around them was front court depth. So far, if anything, their front court depth has been a

00:09:23 strength. And we'll talk about that a little bit more in this Clippers game, because I think there

00:09:28 were some contributors to that that are starting to bolster what I think a lot of people assumed

00:09:34 would be kind of a thin front court. So far, it's been really strong. I was one of those people too,

00:09:40 and I definitely want to touch on that. But before we get too far away from a comment that you made

00:09:45 in passing that I think is actually worth revisiting, why were you at the British Music

00:09:51 Award, the Boston Music Awards? I was at the Boston Music Awards because my band, who you

00:09:57 heard at the top of the podcast, playing our single "Two by Two" from a couple albums ago,

00:10:02 "Divine Sweater" was nominated in four categories at the Boston Music Awards. We came away with some

00:10:08 hardware for Best Indie Alternative Band of the Year, which was very fun. And it was just a really

00:10:17 fun show. It was a good time. We got to see actually some friends of the pod, and that's

00:10:22 going to be a little hint, which we will be coming back to hopefully in a couple episodes.

00:10:27 Got to see some friends of the pod at the BMAs. Great Boston performers, you know, want to shout

00:10:33 out like Neems, Clark D, May Speaks, all terrific. Just really, really awesome night. Folks, the

00:10:43 Boston music scene is very much alive and well. There is a lot of good stuff going on there,

00:10:48 and if you haven't heard of any of the artists I just rattled off, make sure to check them out

00:10:52 because there's some really good stuff going on. Cape Crush, you know, Mako, Shallow Pools,

00:10:59 all excellent. And yeah, it was just a really fun night. And we'll talk a little bit more about that,

00:11:07 I think, in a future episode. So let's move on to this Clippers game, which happened last night.

00:11:15 Jason Tatum was back for that one in a big way. Obviously, Christoph Porzingis was out,

00:11:21 as we mentioned before. Long story short, Celtics blow out the Clippers on the road. No Kawhi

00:11:29 Leonard with a hip injury. He was out. And for the Celtics, this game was over, I think,

00:11:38 midway through the second quarter, pretty much. I'm curious to hear your take on it first,

00:11:43 and then we'll kind of jump into the minutiae. But what did you see out of this game?

00:11:48 I saw a Clippers team that is a lot better than I think people ever thought that that collection of

00:11:54 players would be able to be on the court. And interestingly, one of them was not on the court.

00:11:59 So that might be part of why they were so good, at least early. But then you can also counter that

00:12:05 the recent success was not sustainable against Boston. They fell apart after the first quarter,

00:12:10 really never got back into it at that point. By halftime, the game was basically over.

00:12:15 I mean, garbage time pushed it to, I think, a 39 point lead at one point in the fourth quarter.

00:12:23 And it was, in my opinion, one of the more complete games we have seen from the entire

00:12:30 Celtics roster. We got some really good bench contributions from guys that we were hopeful

00:12:35 would be able to contribute at least a little bit. Consistency is going to be the thing moving

00:12:39 forward with both of those bench players, that being O'Shea Brissett and Nimesh Keta.

00:12:45 Both of them, I think, have the potential to play really big reserve roles. Let me be clear,

00:12:51 not roles in general, but as reserve players with this team, with their skill sets.

00:12:55 Both of them, front court players who can fill in for roles that some of the players we've been

00:13:02 mentioning, who for reasons because of their age or their health history, really don't want to be

00:13:09 necessarily relying on them, particularly in the regular season when there's any reason whatsoever

00:13:14 to give them a rest. And honestly, it was a pretty balanced game. I mean, even Tatum, who has not

00:13:20 been playing so great, really played within the role expected of him, did not try to shoot us out

00:13:27 of the game a la Marcus Smart in the past. And as a whole, I think it was, you know, according to

00:13:36 Joe Mazzola, it was not a statement game, but it was a statement game in my opinion.

00:13:39 You're muted.

00:13:46 It's tough to make a true statement game without Kawhi Leonard, obviously. You know,

00:13:50 I think he's been by far the Clippers best player this year and is a huge part of their recent

00:13:55 success. But that being said, you know, James Harden, I know he's had kind of a down year

00:14:01 relative to MVP James Harden, but he's still a pretty good player. Paul George, still a really

00:14:06 good basketball player. Russell Westbrook has been coming off the bench and has been playing

00:14:11 really well for the Clippers. So it's not like they beat a bunch of nobodies here.

00:14:15 Now, the rest of the Clippers bench very much struggled in this game. Terrence Mann with a

00:14:20 notable zero points on O of 10 shooting. You're not going to win a lot of games like that. You

00:14:26 know, Daniel Tice had 15 points, but one rebound, you know, and again, the game was pretty much over

00:14:34 by the second quarter. So a lot of those bench struggles is, I think, just kind of getting shots

00:14:39 up and hoping something will go down. But it was a pretty complete game from Boston. You know,

00:14:45 headliners Jason Tatum, who got 30 points, four rebounds and two assists, but really all of the

00:14:51 starters played quite well. Al Horford only had six points, but he made up for it with eight

00:14:56 rebounds and five assists. Drew Holliday was terrific again with 26 and seven. Derek White

00:15:03 continues to play well, 18, three and three and another three block performance. Jalen Brown,

00:15:10 24, six and two. But as to your point earlier, I think despite the starters all playing really

00:15:18 well, the story of this game has got to be the guys coming off the bench and contributing.

00:15:23 I want to start with O'Shea Brissett, who got 12 points and he was three of four from downtown. I

00:15:30 think that's the real number that we want to take a look at here. Those shots from the corner looked

00:15:36 pretty clean as well. What do we think of Brissett's possible role in this rotation

00:15:42 and his outside shot and whether those two things are connected?

00:15:47 Oh, they're absolutely connected. I actually, the morning of the game, wrote an article on what he

00:15:53 needs to do to stay on the floor in conversation with some other thoughts for some other analysts

00:15:59 on the topic. And that is what he needs to do to stay on the floor. He needs to hit his shots,

00:16:05 but he also needs to get some run. And both happened and hopefully he can continue to build

00:16:10 on this. I think a lot of his potential for success is going to depend on his coach trusting him,

00:16:18 which for whatever reason, Mazzola has not really trusted him. Probably, as you have pointed out a

00:16:24 couple of times, his shot being the main issue. But even when his shot is not falling, he has been

00:16:30 a positive contributor when he has gotten some minutes. So I think a little bit more patience

00:16:35 is in order because at this point in the season, I think it's fairly safe to say

00:16:39 that as much as I like Svee Mikaliuk's game, he just isn't putting enough other stuff together

00:16:47 and his shot is not falling. He's shooting like 20% or something like that in the season from

00:16:50 the three-point line, which is really the main reason he's on this roster. Lamar Stevens is

00:16:55 offering some stuff, but isn't really finding the shot quite the same way, even though it is,

00:17:00 you know, it's serviceable in the moments when he has been hitting or been getting an open shot.

00:17:07 He's been taking them and making a couple. But I mean, he's like shooting like 33% from the

00:17:14 three-point line this season as well. So really, I think that Brissett is one of two,

00:17:22 the other guy isn't really even a bench player, but he's really the only bench player who's

00:17:28 consistently brought things that have helped the Celtics, even when the shot isn't falling.

00:17:33 So I think that that role is kind of starting to come together as long as Joe doesn't ice him again.

00:17:40 Pritchard, I think he's stable enough at this point and confident enough at this point that

00:17:46 I think he's going to have a role with the team moving forward as well. Hauser very clearly has

00:17:51 cemented a role, but Nimesh Keta, I think, and I want to get your thoughts on this because

00:17:57 in my opinion, he is earned at this point, if we do not have the Celtics giving him a full contract

00:18:06 by the end of the season, I get for financial reasons why they're not doing it now, it makes

00:18:10 a whole lot of sense, but they need to retain him and develop him. He's only 24 years old and he has

00:18:17 shown enough already that he is easily leapfrogged Luke, in my opinion, on what he can bring to a

00:18:23 team. I want to talk about Keta in just a second, but just one more kind of quick thing to mention

00:18:29 with Brissett, who I think has actually been playing pretty well. And I agree, I think he has,

00:18:35 if he has earned the right to kind of play more with this rotation and to earn some trust,

00:18:40 the big thing with Brissett and why that shot matters so much is that Brissett is largely going

00:18:46 to be playing in lineups with Peyton Pritchard and with Sam Hauser on the floor. I would bet,

00:18:52 I feel like Missoula has been most comfortable deploying him in those bench heavy second

00:18:58 quarter lineups where usually you're talking like Al Horford at center, Brissett, Hauser,

00:19:07 Pritchard, and then one of the Jays out there as the kind of primary wing creator. If he wants to

00:19:14 play, he's going to have to hit shots because in those lineups in particular, there's usually

00:19:20 enough spacing and shooting on the floor that defenses are almost always going to sag off of

00:19:25 Brissett. So he has to make them pay for that. Now, if his shot is not falling, there's other

00:19:31 ways that he can do that. That involves crashing the glass, that involves playing good defense,

00:19:35 which he has been. But ultimately, as long as Brissett is on the floor in lineups where Hauser

00:19:42 and Pritchard are also out there, defenses are going to be geared towards making sure that

00:19:48 Hauser and Pritchard don't get shots up. They're going to be trying to take away their airspace.

00:19:53 And Brissett is going to be the guy who is open. If he's open, he has to shoot, he has to shoot

00:19:59 with confidence. And if he makes them at an even semi-decent clip, then I think he is going to be

00:20:06 in line for some actual run with his team. Let's get to Keta, who was the other kind of

00:20:11 standout bench performer of this. So a couple of things to note. He had 14 points, career high,

00:20:19 12 rebounds. He had three assists. And in general, I think beyond the stat sheet, what I noticed is

00:20:26 that Keta's activity is kind of very notable. He's crashing the glass, he's throwing his body around.

00:20:33 In general, he's really kind of making his size and presence felt, in particular in the lineups

00:20:41 where he is with Al Horford, when both of them are on the floor. So I'm going to flip this on you

00:20:46 because I know that both of us are pretty high on him and think that he can contribute. What are the

00:20:51 things that is stopping Keta from having a bigger role with this team so far?

00:20:56 - Luke Cornett's a better player than he gets credit for, for one thing. And they're not just

00:21:02 going to give up on him. They're going to let each battle for those minutes. And they're not just

00:21:08 going to give them to Keta because he has one or two or even three good games in fairly close

00:21:13 succession. It's a long season. He still makes pretty stupid mistakes, a lot less than he started

00:21:19 the season making. And ultimately, if we're talking about giving him the role, then that's

00:21:29 the main reason. It's a long season. Luke has been with him a long time. They need to find out what

00:21:36 they have in both. There is a world where that competition, the ability to stick with a championship

00:21:44 team rather than to be trade ballast for some other player, might be enough to awaken a version

00:21:52 of Luke that we have seen in the past. And his role is not going to be the sharpshooter that I

00:21:56 think that Cam has mentioned he wants to see on previous episodes. But it would be nice to see

00:22:02 a three every other game or so coming from him, just as a wrinkle that we don't really see from

00:22:07 him when he is open. And he is open sometimes. But if we're talking about the financial aspects of it,

00:22:16 the two-way salary that Keta is earning right now does not count against the cap. And making him,

00:22:24 every dollar counts right now, particularly with whether or not it could limit what they want to

00:22:28 do in the future. And every dollar they can squeeze out of the deal they have him on now

00:22:36 is worth trying to. They're not going to upset him if they tell him, "Yeah, we are going to pay you,

00:22:41 and we are going to make sure that you are paid with a guaranteed deal of multiple seasons moving

00:22:45 forward. So don't worry about anybody being upset. Don't worry about losing anybody." This is exactly

00:22:52 how they should be playing this. Yeah, I think if there is one thing that's kind of holding Keta

00:22:58 back in terms of making an active contribution on the floor, there's still a problem with perimeter

00:23:05 players, high-level perimeter players really being able to hunt him in pick and roll, particularly if

00:23:11 the Celtics go to switching sets. If you have Keta in a deep drop, more often than not, it's going to

00:23:18 work out just because of his pure size. But whenever perimeter players are able to get him

00:23:24 switched out, he definitely looks really uncomfortable defending on the perimeter.

00:23:31 And I think it's not like Luke Cornett is brilliant at that, but just from the kind of

00:23:36 experience and knowing his angles a little better, I think Missoula has a little bit more confidence

00:23:44 in Luke to kind of bear down on those switches. But I do think Keta's offensive rebounding in

00:23:53 particular really stands out as a high-level skill that can earn him minutes in the right matchups.

00:23:59 And I think the key for him going forward is if he can just learn to get a little bit better

00:24:06 at things like pre-switching, at things like kind of knowing that the defense is probably,

00:24:12 or that the offense is probably going to be targeting him for those switches and doing

00:24:18 what he can to kind of quick hedge and then recover so that somebody who is better at

00:24:24 containing the perimeter can switch back out, kind of really play into, lean into that switching

00:24:30 system. I think he will ultimately have some upside that should earn him, I think he could

00:24:38 potentially be the third big for this team. We'll see. I think there's a lot of time between now

00:24:45 and the playoffs when it really matters. And as well as he has played, and he has played well,

00:24:50 I want to give him some flowers. We've never seen him in the playoffs at any point in his career.

00:24:56 I don't know what he looks like in the postseason. And my concern with him is that

00:25:03 defenses will go out of their way to target him if he is on the floor, or offenses rather. But

00:25:10 so far he's playing really well. He deserves his flowers. And I think to your point,

00:25:15 if you can get value from him at the contract that he's playing at, then at the very least,

00:25:23 it makes Luke Cornett a movable piece, a player who could be serving as outgoing salary in a

00:25:31 trade deadline deal or something like that. I don't know that that deal necessarily comes along.

00:25:36 It's not like Luke Cornett is making a ton of money, but at the very least, it gives you a

00:25:42 little bit more flexibility. One thing that happened in this game that does not have to do

00:25:49 with anything on the court is that in the second quarter, we got a guest appearance by not only

00:25:56 Wick Grosbeck, the Celtics owner, but also Donald Faison, the former star of Scrubs playing Turk,

00:26:04 for any Scrubs fans out there. They took over the booth for the entire second quarter, and it led to

00:26:12 some, I don't know, some interesting commentary. It wasn't necessarily-

00:26:18 - I was nice. I like to hear about the game that's happening on the call a little.

00:26:22 - Yeah.

00:26:23 - And thank you for Drew for keeping that happening.

00:26:26 - Appreciate that, Drew. Definitely a shout out to Drew, friend of the pod. But-

00:26:32 - Carter.

00:26:33 - Yeah. I don't know. It was a weird moment. They were on the broadcast to do promo for

00:26:44 a new sitcom, which is based off of Wick's life, as well as his wife, Amelia Fazzolari,

00:26:52 and her ex-husband, rather, George Geyer. I guess-

00:26:58 - Very, very relatable.

00:27:00 - Yeah, right. Exactly. Yeah. I guess the premise of the sitcom is that Donald Faison is playing

00:27:05 a version of Wick Grosbeck, who is a sports franchise owner, who also lives with his wife

00:27:16 and her ex-husband, which I guess is what Wick is currently doing. What do you think of that

00:27:24 as a potential for a show that lasts multiple seasons? What do we think here?

00:27:29 - I think if it's done right, it could. It could. I did not see the pilot. It came out last night.

00:27:35 I will definitely check it out. It's got a good cast, good writing crew. I don't see

00:27:43 why it couldn't work. It's an interesting concept. Very, I don't know, thoughtful,

00:27:51 I guess, is the best word I can come up with. I don't know, personally, how tenable

00:27:56 this nesting approach is, where they share the same house, but they don't live there at the same

00:28:00 time, so the kids don't really experience the disruption of a typical divorce. I think that's

00:28:05 a really noble idea. I don't, I think most of the comic relief we would see in most situations would

00:28:13 be kind of more akin to what you would expect to see on "Roseanne" or some, you know, lowbrowish

00:28:20 kind of a comedy like that. But that's not what this is aiming for, so I'm really curious to see

00:28:25 what they pull off. - I'll be honest in saying I am not going to watch this show, with apologies

00:28:35 to Wick and Donald Faison. As you mentioned before, this does not strike me as an eminently

00:28:41 relatable scenario for me as a very much not billionaire. I think, yeah, I get the kind of like

00:28:52 odd couple and a half type thing that's going on. Gonna be honest, it's not for me. I will be

00:29:02 watching the final season of "Curb Your Enthusiasm." This one, not so much. But nonetheless.

00:29:09 Wick's commentary, I thought, was more interesting than Donald Faison's, in particular because Wick

00:29:18 was asked about the Jalen Brown supermax, which was the big story of the offseason,

00:29:23 will the Celtics re-sign Jalen Brown and make him the highest paid player in the NBA? Spoiler

00:29:27 alert, they did. And he was asked about whether he is okay with that, which I guess is kind of a

00:29:36 self-answering question in that he did it, so he has to be at least somewhat okay for it.

00:29:41 But he said something along the lines of, "You invest in making the team as good as it can be.

00:29:46 If you can't do that, you can't be the Celtics owner," when asked about Jalen Brown's contract.

00:29:53 This is music to Celtics fans' ears, I'm sure. But what did you think of these comments regarding

00:29:59 Jalen's extension? Well, that comment actually almost flew under the radar because it was really

00:30:05 supposed to be about Jalen, but it was broad enough where we definitely need to be waving

00:30:12 that in every social media forum if there's ever a whiff of financial reticence in the near-term

00:30:19 future for this team. If the unthinkable happens and they don't get back to the finals this year,

00:30:25 never mind win it, yeah, maybe we might want to be a little bit more gentle with crucifying him for

00:30:33 saying something like this. But if this team does what we all think it should do, then this is

00:30:40 something to tattoo on his forehead. With all respect to you, Wick, if you do balk at paying

00:30:48 Derek White, for example. Yeah, I think where this comes into play is that the Celtics are

00:30:54 going to have a really busy offseason this year, regardless of whether they win the title or not.

00:30:58 If they don't win the title, perhaps changes will be made. But ultimately, if you want this team to

00:31:06 be as good as it can be, then it probably means that you're looking at extending Derek White,

00:31:12 extending Drew Holiday, and extending Jason Tatum all in this offseason, which is going to result in

00:31:19 the largest luxury tax bill in NBA history and is going to be easily the most expensive team

00:31:26 ever fielded. You're talking levels that are equivalent to some entire country's gross

00:31:32 national product in terms of what is going to be spent. Yeah. So Wick, I hope you are ready to do

00:31:40 that. I hope you are interested in investing to make this team as good as it can be, because I do

00:31:46 not want to be the one paying that tax bill next year. Now, I would love it if you paid that

00:31:52 billionaire owner, Wick Grosbeck, because it would make me much happier as a Celtics fan, and it's not

00:31:58 my money that would be going into those pockets. So I don't want to do any pocket watching. But

00:32:04 what I will say is, if you're going to talk big, spend big. That's my Christmas message to you,

00:32:11 Wick Grosbeck. And I'm sure that Derek White, Drew Holiday, and Jason Tatum will all appreciate

00:32:17 your generosity and Christmas spirit come, say, July or so. Speaking of Derek White, once again,

00:32:24 just want to mention that he had three blocks. And I know I mentioned that earlier about the

00:32:29 Kings game. Well, I mentioned it because he had three blocks in the Clippers game as the co-president

00:32:34 of the Derek White fan club that is currently on this broadcast. I once again am obligated to shout

00:32:41 out Derek White, who continues to be the best shot-blocking guard in the entire NBA. And I think

00:32:48 at this point, we now need to shift into getting serious about this Derek White all-star propaganda.

00:32:55 Folks, Derek White deserves to be an all-star. He is one of the best guards in the Eastern

00:33:00 Conference. He's been playing absolutely out of his mind this year. And I feel like there's a

00:33:06 credible argument that in some ways he's been the Celtics' second-best player this year. So the Derek

00:33:13 White propaganda experience is coming in full force over the course of the next couple of weeks,

00:33:18 Celtics' lab listeners, get ready. It's going to happen and it's not going to stop happening.

00:33:22 Any additional thoughts before we move into the breakdown of the Celtics' Christmas Day experience

00:33:30 against the Los Angeles Lakers? Just that for those of you who are reticent to vote for Derek

00:33:36 White because he doesn't have the typical numbers, think of the Atlanta Hawks that got, I think,

00:33:42 four all-stars in one all-star game. They all had lower than usual numbers. Or even to make it more

00:33:48 relatable to Celtics' fans, think of Marcus Smart, winning defensive player of the year. He had a

00:33:54 profile which did not really resemble most guards and what he did on the perimeter was worthy enough

00:33:59 to keep him in that conversation to the point where he won it. Most guards do not block three

00:34:04 shots in a game in their career, right? Never mind several times in the space of a month. So,

00:34:11 yeah, he deserves to be an all-star. I'm even going to make a more relevant example.

00:34:16 Drew Holiday, last year, made the all-star game despite not having, I think, the stat profile

00:34:24 that a typical all-star player would. And this was not a particularly controversial selection.

00:34:30 Pretty much everybody agreed that Drew Holiday was a worthy all-star last year. Derek White and Drew

00:34:38 Holiday are putting up pretty similar numbers. With Derek White, it's as always, you know,

00:34:44 the shot blocking is amazing. The shooting efficiency is amazing. The intangibles is where

00:34:49 Derek White really stands out. This guy just finds a way to impact the game, whether it's with

00:34:55 shooting, passing, rebounding, defense. No matter what happens, whenever Derek White is on the floor,

00:35:02 we always feel better about the Celtics' chances of playing well and winning that game. So, folks,

00:35:09 hit those buttons. Hit it two, three times a day. Derek White, all-star game. Let's make it happen.

00:35:16 Okay, I want to pause the action here and tell you that you can score early this NFL season with

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00:35:52 partner of the NFL. All right, welcome back, dear listener. We're jumping into the lab portion of

00:35:58 the program, and with us, special guest for the holidays of SI Media Group, it's Bobby Kravitzky.

00:36:04 Welcome back to the pod, Bobby. How is your Christmas going? My Christmas has been tremendous.

00:36:10 As someone who covers the Celtics, they made the content and workload much more enjoyable,

00:36:17 and I think people, as much as everyone loves to vent after a loss, business tends to go up when

00:36:23 they win, especially in a rivalry clash against the Lakers. So it's a pretty good Christmas for me.

00:36:29 How's everyone doing? Doing great. Can't complain. Had a lovely holiday time with my partner,

00:36:36 Annabelle's family up in Tuckahoe, New York. Watched a very fun basketball game, and I'm

00:36:41 excited to break it down with both of you. JQ, how is your Xmas going? Not too shabby. Had a nice

00:36:48 Bacalao torta here in Mexico City, which is how we roll in these parts on this day.

00:36:53 Then I got to watch a fun game where it looked like things were going to come apart in the second

00:36:58 quarter, even maybe a little bit later in the game as well, and the Celtics dug into defense,

00:37:04 as we were discussing off air, and did something we've been begging for. So it was a good day.

00:37:10 All right, so let's get into it. Let's just jump right into the game.

00:37:15 Celtics pull off a big Christmas Day win against their hated arch rivals, the Los Angeles Lakers,

00:37:22 in LA to cap off a four-game road swing in which they go 3-1 with the only loss

00:37:28 being, of course, the aforementioned Golden State collapse in overtime.

00:37:33 Bobby, let's swing it to you first. Let's get the overall impression.

00:37:39 What did the Celtics do to pull away for this win here?

00:37:42 Yeah, and first off, I'll say that I think the loss in Golden State, Drew Holiday spoke post-game

00:37:48 about how that really set the tone for the rest of the trip, and not to spend too much time

00:37:54 rehashing their past matchups, but you could see it in the way they came out against the Sacramento

00:38:00 Kings. There were those anecdotes from the NBC Sports Boston broadcast crew of Drew Carter and

00:38:05 Brian Scalabrini that it was dead quiet when they were going from San Francisco to Sacramento.

00:38:10 Then they just came out and they put it on them from start to finish. Then they get another

00:38:16 dominant win, 145-108, against the Clippers. You could see the Celtics backed it up,

00:38:22 and they channeled, I think, the lesson and the frustrations of that loss in the Bay

00:38:27 into the rest of their California stay. As far as this one, we are going to talk about what

00:38:33 Justin teased in terms of something that we've been begging for, but I was really struck by

00:38:39 their offensive approach. They shot 31 percent from beyond the arc in this game, and just the

00:38:45 pace, even when they weren't playing up-tempo, they gave themselves most of the shot clock to

00:38:50 operate with, starting their attack around the 18-second mark on a consistent basis.

00:38:56 They were well-spaced, and that allowed them to then correctly target the right mismatch. They

00:39:01 went at Austin Reeves repeatedly in the second half. They were driving downhill, creating good

00:39:07 shots. To me, it was the way they played, despite not shooting well and overcoming those struggles

00:39:14 from three-point range, that really stood out as much as anything for me.

00:39:18 Yeah, the fact that they were only shooting 30 percent from three and still found a way to win,

00:39:25 and that Joe Mazzuolo did not get in the way of them running the same play over and over and over

00:39:30 and over again. He loves that. That's right up Joe's alley.

00:39:37 It was a beautiful thing to watch.

00:39:38 We'll get into the minutiae for each quarter in just a moment, but the thing that jumped out to

00:39:45 me is that, in particular, I think Jason Tatum did a great job setting the tone tonight. I think

00:39:52 Jason Tatum is the master of the quiet 30-ball, where you don't see the explosive scoring presence,

00:39:59 you don't see him lighting teams up and getting into heaters unless it's against the Sixers in

00:40:04 the playoff series or something like that. But in general, he just kind of chips away with timely

00:40:11 baskets. He was getting to the line, he was getting threes, he was just finding his flow in the

00:40:17 offense, but he was really dictating the floor game throughout. He made a number of really good

00:40:22 passes, he timely rebounds, and in general, I think he just played a really complete game from start

00:40:29 to finish. It didn't really jump off of the screen that he was completely dominating, but if you look

00:40:35 at his pace and his approach to the game, just really solid effort from Tatum all around. It's

00:40:42 the kind of thing where he might not be winning MVP this year. I think that boat has probably

00:40:48 left the dock at this point, but if he plays like this on key matchup nights, the Celtics are going

00:40:55 to be a bear to take on. Just a really spot-on floor game. Let's get into each quarter. I want

00:41:02 to kind of break down bit by bit what we're seeing. So Bobby, you're going to get first

00:41:07 crack at all of these. We'll start with the first quarter. What did you see in the kind of initial

00:41:13 phases of the game as far as your observations went? So right away, what you look for is how

00:41:20 are they matching up defensively? And it was smart to put Christoph Porzingis on Jared Vanderbilt

00:41:25 and let him roam as the free safety. And it wasn't so much that the Celtics were keeping the Lakers

00:41:31 from the basket, but when you have a primary defender there plus a seven foot three center,

00:41:37 it's going to be difficult to score. And even on quality looks from LeBron and Anthony Davis,

00:41:43 they were having trouble putting points on the board. And so the Celtics, that fuels their

00:41:47 transition attack. They go up 12 to nothing. They build that to an 18 point lead. And so that's what

00:41:54 I saw was that defense laying the foundation for their success and allowing them to find an early

00:42:00 rhythm. It's interesting to me that as he ages and kind of develops into, I think, a still incredible

00:42:10 but different player in LeBron James, he has, you know, he kind of uses the first quarter as a

00:42:16 feel out where he tries to kind of, you know, see what the defense is throwing at him, kind of see

00:42:22 where his spots are going to be in the game and kind of pace. But against this Celtics team with

00:42:28 their offense being what it is with the spacing, with Porzingis in the post and with Brown in

00:42:34 particular, who I think has really done a nice job, like staying super aggressive at the very

00:42:40 beginning of games this year. And I think that's intentional. I think Missoula has basically told

00:42:46 the Celtics like, "Hey, first quarters are JB's. Like, he's setting the tone." But against this

00:42:53 type of team with this kind of offense, you really can't afford to have a feel out quarter if you're

00:42:59 LeBron James or really anybody for that matter. Celtics have been coming out swinging in these

00:43:05 first quarters in so many of these games. And it really gets, you know, the tempo and the pace

00:43:10 going for sure. But it also puts the defense on their heels. And I think one thing that stood out

00:43:16 to me is that in kind of hindsight, the deep hole that the Lakers were in, they had to claw really

00:43:24 hard to get back from that. And by the time the fourth quarter rolled around, it seemed to me that

00:43:30 they were pretty gassed. We'll get into that later. But I think that's one of the things that jumped

00:43:34 out to me about this first quarter in hindsight. JQ, what do you got? You guys pretty comprehensively

00:43:41 covered what I saw. The only other things I would add is Boston's attack early was a lot more varied.

00:43:47 It was really just Anthony Davis and LeBron to start on offense for the Lakers. And while I

00:43:54 realize that is typically how they roll, they really didn't get any significant contributions

00:43:59 from anyone else in the first quarter, at least until that 9-0 run at the end of the quarter.

00:44:05 There was a little bit of the, "Oh my goodness, we are so amazing" kind of Celtics for a little bit.

00:44:11 And because, as you have noted, there's that feeling out quarter that tends to be how the

00:44:18 Lakers roll, it ended up putting Boston a little bit at ease in a way that has really hurt them in

00:44:24 the past. But it didn't last after that run, like immediately into the next quarter they responded,

00:44:32 which I guess we could jump to that. For sure. Just a couple of stats to highlight. As we

00:44:39 mentioned before, Jalen Brown got off to a super hot start. He was 5-6 and that contributed to a

00:44:46 12-0 run right from opening tip. Jalen and Christoph Porzingis, despite Porzingis getting

00:44:53 two fouls early, they had some really good moments, including a nifty behind-the-back pass

00:45:00 into Porzingis in a post-mismatch, which was just a beautiful play. In general, I think Porzingis

00:45:07 really established himself in the post with Brown as a kind of primary scoring threat.

00:45:13 One thing that was of note to me is that Mazzulla did not take Porzingis out after the two fouls.

00:45:20 He actually left him in for a little bit longer. And I think that did, to some degree, help. That's

00:45:26 a little bit of a risky gamble, but it paid off this time. The Lakers made a late run,

00:45:32 but it was pretty clearly the Celtics' quarter to start off. What else, JQ?

00:45:37 I wanted to touch on your earlier comments about Keita's difficulty with perimeter players. This

00:45:43 was not a great game for him in terms of what he was able to contribute that shows up in the

00:45:49 stat sheet. But considering how not great of a matchup it was, I think he equated himself pretty

00:45:54 well. Yeah, no, it's interesting. I think Keita, he had some moments in this game where he was

00:46:01 pretty clearly overmatched. Particularly, I did notice that LeBron was definitely directing the

00:46:08 defense to attack him on the perimeter. And Torian Prince got really hot from deep. And a lot of that

00:46:15 was with Keita on the floor. So I still think the defensive issues are very much there. But with

00:46:22 Keita, it's all about energy, rebounding, and just using his size to influence possessions.

00:46:27 I think there were definitely some moments where he did that, even if overall, I think he did get

00:46:33 played off the floor. Let's move to that second quarter. So obviously, Keita starts off with a

00:46:40 goaltend. But a bunch of other things happen. This was the quarter where the Lakers really made

00:46:47 a pretty impressive run. Bobby, I'll swing it to you. What did you see from the Lakers' response

00:46:53 that, if anything, might give you pause or just general observations about this quarter?

00:47:01 I'm not ducking the question here. I liked the Celtics' approach offensively,

00:47:08 upon first review at least. Maybe I go back and look at it tomorrow and change my mind,

00:47:12 because there's certainly room to be more critical when you get that second evaluation of it. But

00:47:18 overall, I thought it was a pretty balanced approach. They started the second quarter,

00:47:22 they were 3-for-6 from beyond the arc. Pritchard had a pair of layups. They had another basket

00:47:27 from just outside the paint. It was just a matter of threes weren't falling. And because of that,

00:47:33 the Lakers were able to live in transition. And now all of a sudden, guys are loose,

00:47:38 they're in rhythm. That fuels more people getting to touch the basketball.

00:47:43 And I think that what happened with Keita and Torian Prince specifically was more about a

00:47:49 defensive structure and philosophy, where the Lakers just don't have enough floor spacing right

00:47:56 now. And it was a mistake to leave Prince open and treat him like he's Rui Hachimura or Jared

00:48:02 Vanderbilt. But he was knocking them down, credit to him. I don't think that was Keita getting lost

00:48:09 in the shuffle, if you will, or the slow processing speed. And now he's not getting

00:48:13 out there when he needs to be recovering. I think that was by design on the Celtics part.

00:48:18 And it really worked against the poor shooters on the Lakers. But Torian Prince's reputation

00:48:24 is as a 3-and-D wing, and he made them pay for it.

00:48:26 Yeah, no, I think that's probably accurate. And I think overall, the process was pretty sound.

00:48:34 I noted that Stephen A. Smith and Mike Wilbon were apoplectic at halftime, that the Celtics were

00:48:40 taking too many threes and missing them. And as we Missoula ball truthers here know,

00:48:47 there is no such thing as taking too many threes. And that ultimately did bear out. But

00:48:51 when it looks ugly, it looks ugly. And the Celtics started missing threes, and

00:48:56 things gum up, and the Lakers get out in transition.

00:49:00 And in the second quarter, I have no problem with bombing away from three. And again,

00:49:05 they were good shots, at least for the most part. So if ever you're going to do it, yeah,

00:49:09 you can look at the margins and say they got outscored 34-26 overall and 14-8 in the paint,

00:49:15 as Anthony Davis went off in the second quarter. But if you're ever going to do it, the second

00:49:20 quarter makes as much sense as any because of the margin for error you have to overcome it after.

00:49:25 For sure. There's kind of two big pieces that stood out to me in that second quarter. The first,

00:49:30 obviously, what you just mentioned is that Anthony Davis was terrific, both in the second quarter and

00:49:35 throughout this game. But the second quarter is where he really started to assert his will as an

00:49:40 offensive player. It seemed like there were multiple times where Porzingis sitting in foul

00:49:47 trouble, Celtics playing bench-heavy units and chucking up a lot of threes, and Anthony Davis

00:49:52 got a lot of mismatches that he completely abused. He's playing as well as I've seen him play. And

00:49:59 if there's any sort of optimism that the Lakers can come out of with this game, it's that Anthony

00:50:04 Davis is looking really, really good. The other thing, of course, that we have to talk about is

00:50:10 the collision. LeBron James, LeBron James, need Jalen Brown in the back, leading to both of them

00:50:18 collapsing on the court, though I will note that LeBron James took a pretty long look at Jalen

00:50:23 Brown on the court before also collapsing into the heat that he was in, and then got up and seemed to

00:50:30 be, well, just fine. So he lied into the conspiracy theory that he saw Jalen was hurt, and he said,

00:50:36 "Oh, you know what? My knee's pretty banged up, too." I'm not saying a conspiracy theory. I'm

00:50:41 just noting that there was a long pause. The man did a chase-down block, which was successful

00:50:46 to an extent. We could talk about the challenge in Scott Foster's hilarious comment.

00:50:52 Yes, Scott Foster, of course, master of the media. He goes to the stands afterwards and says,

00:51:02 "After confirming that the chase-down block was a clean block, you're not going to like this,"

00:51:08 in reference to the Lakers fans, which was always fun. Of course, that was a foul on Torian Prince,

00:51:15 yours truly, called that as he was watching it. Just throwing that out there.

00:51:18 Yeah, no, I mean, obviously, there's that. Jalen Brown goes back to the locker room at half,

00:51:25 I think. My heart was definitely a little bit in my throat. Bobby, when Jalen went back to

00:51:31 the locker room, how were you feeling about the Celtics' chances of actually winning this game?

00:51:36 Well, I knew that if he could come back, he would, right? And so I was looking at the second quarter

00:51:43 and kind of putting it on an island where, yeah, Boston was on its heels that frame,

00:51:48 and the Lakers had really found something where they could capitalize on their size down low,

00:51:53 and Anthony Davis was going off. So you start to wonder, okay, at what point is Drew Holiday going

00:51:58 to get this assignment? Because it's just not working right now. And so I didn't look at it as,

00:52:05 "Oh, boy, they might lose this game." I more just looked at it and thought, "Okay, right now,

00:52:10 it's pretty obvious to everyone that Jalen's hurt, they're not shooting well from three,

00:52:15 and Anthony Davis is going off, but let's see what happens in the second half."

00:52:19 Yeah, that was one of the things I was alluding to, that in seasons past, you just knew that that

00:52:26 would be the end of the game, right? But we've been conditioned positively this season enough

00:52:32 to realize that that collapse, that third quarter collapse, particularly this season,

00:52:37 we have not been seeing great third quarters from them. This is one of their better third quarters

00:52:42 that we've seen, I think. Maybe not the best, but one of the best.

00:52:46 Yeah, let's jump right into it. So, of course, listeners, Jalen Brown returns from the locker

00:52:52 room to start the third quarter with a one-point game, Celtics with a sliver of a lead that

00:52:59 evaporates immediately when LeBron James gets an open layup. But after that, the Lakers took the

00:53:06 lead, and then the Celtics, kind of middle to end of this third quarter, really turned on the Jets.

00:53:12 Bobby, what did you see as far as the Celtics and how they were able to separate in the third

00:53:17 quarter? What worked for them? I saw Christoph Porzingis going off,

00:53:21 that repeatedly, they were getting switches even when the Lakers didn't have to. And when you do

00:53:27 that, when you're not forced to switch, it typically ends poorly for the defense. And

00:53:32 especially when you have someone who's 7'3" and can punish you down low, that's why he's here.

00:53:37 And that was a huge difference, again, because they weren't shooting well tonight. So to be

00:53:41 able to have easy baskets down low and Porzingis getting to the free throw line, that was huge for

00:53:47 them. And then defensively, it wasn't so much that I thought they were great on that side of the ball,

00:53:54 but you could see that they were focused, that misses from long range didn't take from their

00:53:58 physicality either. And I thought the rotations were pretty good. So I liked the, again, defense

00:54:05 being the foundation for their success and targeting the right mismatches offensively.

00:54:10 I would add into the later in that quarter, the bench really stepped up. There were some

00:54:17 timely makes from Hauser, from Al shooting, I think a quarter three pointer. It was not,

00:54:24 by a long shot, the best bench performance of the year, but it was one of the most

00:54:29 timely bench performances of the year in terms of shifting the momentum back in Boston's way.

00:54:35 Another thing that jumped out to me is that one thing the Celtics really struggled with

00:54:40 in the second quarter was they were getting killed on offensive rebounding. That was a big part of

00:54:46 why Anthony Davis was playing so well, just creating a lot of extra opportunities. They

00:54:51 really tightened the screws in the second half and committed to some quality gang rebounding.

00:54:56 I noticed Drew Holiday in particular was really getting active and making sure that the Lakers

00:55:03 were only getting one possession, which I think matters a lot, particularly when you're going

00:55:08 against an older team. Those second possessions are the life of a slower, older half court based

00:55:15 team. If you don't give them that, there's so many leak out opportunities that as the game

00:55:22 progressed, you could see that Boston was really starting to capitalize on some of those. Jalen

00:55:28 Brown started heating up again after the injury scare. I think one thing that really jumped out

00:55:35 to me was, we mentioned earlier, Jason Tatum's process. He was terrific with the second unit in

00:55:41 particular in this game. He did a really nice job getting Al Horford and Sam Hauser going. Derek

00:55:48 White, of course, terrific. The Derek White all-star campaign continues to gain momentum.

00:55:53 JJ Reddick just tweeted that Derek White should be an all-star. JJ, 100% agree, come on the pod

00:56:00 anytime that you want to talk about how Derek White should be an all-star. The third quarter,

00:56:06 I think, was a real standout for Boston in terms of just getting back to their process. One thing

00:56:13 that Missoula has been harping on all year is closing quarters and how important it is for this

00:56:19 team to really close these quarters strong. You saw that today with their process in the third

00:56:24 quarter. Boston really committed to finishing out that quarter strong. One thing that was kind of

00:56:30 curious, and I'd be interested to hear your take on this, Bobby, is that Darvin Ham actually opted

00:56:38 to not close the third quarter particularly strong. I know that LeBron James is 38, and it's

00:56:43 frankly miraculous that he is playing as well as he is. But what did you think of Ham's process in

00:56:50 terms of taking LeBron out for what would ultimately become that kind of critical third

00:56:55 quarter run for Boston? Save your chips for the fourth quarter. I understand the Lakers are not

00:57:00 a good shooting team, but you go into the final 12 minutes down by nine, you're right there in

00:57:06 striking distance. It certainly didn't go their way, and credit the Celtics for that, in the final

00:57:11 frame. But I have no problem with not playing LeBron at the end of a third quarter. Teams typically

00:57:17 do not play their stars to end that frame, and the Celtics, that was a switch. I'm so glad that you

00:57:23 brought up Tatum's facilitating. He only gets credited with two traditional assists, but he was

00:57:29 the engine that made it all go for them offensively, and that was a switch where it wasn't Jalen Brown

00:57:35 closing out the third, it was Tatum, and he certainly did a tremendous job. So credit Joe

00:57:40 Mazzulla, credit the players on the floor. You guys also touched on the second unit for making

00:57:44 that work. One other player that I want to shout out here is Drew Holliday did an excellent job

00:57:50 against LeBron James. James only had two points in the third quarter. Holliday was able to mix up,

00:57:57 preventing him from getting to the basket, with still finding time to be a free safety.

00:58:02 And the play that stands out there is when he comes off of LeBron, he blitzes Anthony Davis,

00:58:08 nearly forces the turnover, and Christoph Porzingis picks up a cutting James. They get

00:58:14 the block. Some say it's Derek White. It got credited in the stat sheet to Porzingis,

00:58:18 so I'll give it to him on this one. Yeah, I thought it was Porzingis as well, but I had

00:58:23 to look at it a few times, and that play right there was an example of when the Celtics were

00:58:29 on a string defensively, and also just how disruptive Drew Holliday was at that end of the

00:58:35 floor. I thought it was interesting. Like that was the most layups I may have ever seen LeBron

00:58:41 miss in a single game, and Drew definitely had a hand in several of them, but they just looked

00:58:46 really, really tired by the end of the third. And I wonder if they just all kind of knew or even

00:58:52 discussed the fact that they just didn't have it, because as you mentioned, they cut it to single

00:58:56 digits in the final frame, but they never really went for it. Like most teams, particularly on a

00:59:02 Christmas Day game, on the game between the Lakers and the Celtics, you would think that they would

00:59:06 be really going for it, but I mean, they have not done well since the in-season tournament,

00:59:11 and I don't know. They might have just spent much of their energy for the foreseeable future just

00:59:18 to do that, because they did not seem to even want to try to do it tonight.

00:59:23 That is kind of interesting. Yeah, let's jump into the fourth quarter now that we're here. You

00:59:28 know, I did notice that with the last two minutes in the game, or three minutes really, I was pretty

00:59:33 nervous. You know, 10-point lead, 13-point lead is really not much with three minutes in the NBA

00:59:39 today, but the Lakers kind of curiously took their foot off the gas towards the end. Let's go back

00:59:45 to the start of that fourth quarter. Really chaotic sequence to start things off. Sloppy basketball on

00:59:52 both ends, lots of turnovers, lots of running around, some not-so-great shots, but I actually

00:59:59 think to some degree that that sloppiness played to the Celtics' advantage. You know, I think one

01:00:05 of the things that this team has been doing better at than last year's team is surviving

01:00:11 chaos situations and being able to navigate those, and sometimes that does happen in a basketball

01:00:17 game. Bobby, what stood out to you as far as kind of stabilizing that kind of chaotic start to the

01:00:24 fourth quarter? Yeah, Joe Mazzulla talks about them being able to throw a curveball at other

01:00:29 teams. You also have to be able to hit it when it comes at you, and sometimes that's not from

01:00:34 the opposition, it's just how the game is unfolding. So like you said, sloppy is the perfect word to

01:00:39 describe it, and out of that the Celtics seemed to find their rhythm to hit the curveball. And

01:00:46 then it became this offensive approach that we started the show praising them for, where they're

01:00:51 going to work early in the shot clock, they're targeting Austin Reeves and making a living off

01:00:56 of it, and consistently just getting good shots and playing smart basketball. So they only had

01:01:02 four turnovers in the second half, same for the first. Three of those, at least two of them,

01:01:08 came early in the fourth quarter, but they took care of the ball for the most part, and that was

01:01:14 huge. So I really liked their approach and how they were able to get Austin Reeves on an island

01:01:20 with no help. And that's why I think the Lakers, they ultimately waved the white flag a little bit

01:01:25 early, because they couldn't dictate the terms of play. And they're watching Rui Hachimura and

01:01:32 Jared Vanderbilt get sagged off of when they have the ball, and that's kind of making it where you

01:01:37 have to kick it out to them, or just bang your head against the wall, which wasn't working either

01:01:42 in the second half. And then offensively for the Celtics, they're scoring at will on them. So it

01:01:49 just kind of came a point where the lack of energy and emptying the tank for the in-season tournament,

01:01:55 plus just not having the personnel to land a counterpunch.

01:02:01 Yeah, I think that's right. And I think that one thing that really stood out in terms of the kind

01:02:06 of chaos portion of that fourth quarter is that ultimately the guys who really stabilized things

01:02:12 for Boston were Drew Holiday and Al Harford, who despite being in a live ball crazy situation with

01:02:21 bodies flying everywhere and with all sorts of weird kind of mangled possessions, Drew Holiday's

01:02:28 rebounding and Al Harford's kind of patience shooting and just kind of getting in the way

01:02:33 defensively really helped to stabilize what could have been, I think, a chaotic stretch

01:02:38 for a previous iteration of this team. It's just so useful having kind of quality vets that have

01:02:46 seen every single situation in front of them before in those two guys to really kind of bring

01:02:52 them back to earth. It started off crazy, but after stabilizing, Derek White and Jason Tatum did a

01:02:59 really nice job targeting Austin Reeves, as you mentioned, Bobby, getting into the flow of the

01:03:04 offense and really getting downhill. And it's starting to attack the rim, relying a little bit

01:03:09 less on the three ball and kind of grinding their way to a victory. They also got to the line a lot

01:03:15 in this quarter, which I think really helped them. Again, that's something where typically, you know,

01:03:20 the vet team trying to slow the pace of the game down and chip away at a big lead wants to get to

01:03:27 the free throw line. But the Celtics were the team that really started to implement control of that

01:03:32 area throughout. JQ, anything that we missed from the fourth quarter or really anything else in this

01:03:38 game? Not that I could think of. That was a pretty comprehensive treatment for a single game.

01:03:46 I will say that one thing that did stand out to me, we mentioned the shooting, the Lakers actually

01:03:52 shot better from three in this game and still ended up losing the contest. The rim protection

01:04:00 for Boston, I think it was like seven blocks to one. That's really the only other thing that stands

01:04:04 out in Boston's favor significantly in terms of team statistics. And honestly, I do think that

01:04:13 the Lakers are one of the better teams in the West, but they really need to figure out

01:04:17 how they're going to navigate the rest of their season with this, shall we say,

01:04:23 lack of energy, if there's going to be any chance of a banner 18 collision, which I'm sure the NBA

01:04:29 and we would love. But based on what we just saw, I am not entirely sure that that would be the most

01:04:35 exciting seven game series or even a seven game series without some other changes.

01:04:42 There is one statistical margin that jumps out to me that really tells the story of how Boston

01:04:47 won this game, which is that Boston beat the Lakers by seven assists in that margin, 31 to 24.

01:04:54 And I think that really tells the story of this game. There were a number of possessions where

01:04:59 the Celtics offense was really crisp, two, three, four, five passes. They did a nice job too,

01:05:07 of passing with intent to penetrate rather than just kind of passing the ball around the arc.

01:05:13 I know that sometimes this team is a little guilty of overpassing and just kind of swinging the ball

01:05:20 around the top of the arc aimlessly until hopefully a three generates this time around. And again,

01:05:27 I know I keep going back to this, but Jason Tatum in particular was looking to use passing

01:05:33 as a way to kind of penetrate the interior of the defense and then get into kickouts. And there were

01:05:39 a few beautiful possessions that I think really stood out to me. And ultimately that plus seven

01:05:46 assist margin, I think is a big part of why Boston won this game. We got a couple other things to

01:05:54 talk about here in the lab portion of the game. Bobby, any other stats that you want to hit on

01:06:00 before we kind of jump into our next set of topics? Yeah. And I think both the assists and

01:06:05 how well the Celtics were screening in this game, especially the second half, set up the foundation

01:06:12 for some of these numbers. I mean, look at how many examples there were where Boston got a bucket

01:06:17 because they're going after, again, I'll bring them up, Austin Reeves. And there's nothing that

01:06:23 the screening defender can do. He's taken out of the equation. So now it is Austin Reeves on an

01:06:29 island and he's just not athletic enough. He doesn't have the foot speed to be able to stay

01:06:33 in front of someone. So that was one thing is the screening you touched on the ball movement,

01:06:39 58 points in the paint and eight point advantage in that category. When you're not shooting well,

01:06:44 you got to score from somewhere and that's how they did it. And then on top of it,

01:06:49 being able to get stops and have a pretty sound strategy in terms of who they wanted to leave open

01:06:56 outside of Torian Prince, that translates to being able to play in transition. What basketball team

01:07:01 at any level is not at their best when they're able to get out and run and push the pace. So

01:07:06 they have a 23 to 14 edge in fast break scoring. And I've mentioned the ball, the ball security

01:07:13 earlier, only eight turnovers to the Lakers 12. And most importantly, sometimes it's just the

01:07:18 giveaways that will cost the team. But you say, man, they really didn't capitalize on those

01:07:23 mistakes 19 to three in points off turnovers in favor of Boston. So I really thought that

01:07:29 the Celtics in those categories points in the paint, fast break scoring, ball security and

01:07:35 points off turnovers that they were outstanding. And again, when you look at all those wins on

01:07:40 the margins, most of them point to the Celtics favor. - For sure. All right. So that's it in

01:07:48 terms of the game recap. We got a couple of other things to talk about. Just some other news that we

01:07:55 should drop in here. Mark Stein suggests that the Boston Celtics are monitoring a familiar face,

01:08:01 Kelly Olenek in his situation on the Utah Jazz. Now he does not say that Boston is trying to trade

01:08:10 for Kelly Olenek. Justin, walk us through why they're not trying to do that. - Yeah. So I'm sure

01:08:16 by the time you were listening to this, you've seen one of the many articles discussing how the

01:08:21 Boston Celtics want to trade for Kelly Olenek. And I'm sure they would love to trade for Kelly

01:08:26 Olenek, but there's some difficulties there. Namely, one of the things that I myself, thanks

01:08:33 to Yossi Goslin, our resident friend of the pod, Cap Guru, who clued me in on this when I was

01:08:41 throwing some ideas around, I don't remember if it was for him or not specifically, but

01:08:45 under the new CBA, you cannot do the kind of trade that brought Malcolm Brogdon, for example,

01:08:52 to the Celtics because you cannot aggregate more than one veteran minimum contract or minimum

01:08:59 contract of any kind into one of those deals, right? So that means the only way that you can

01:09:05 actually trade for Kelly Olenek with the contracts that Boston has on their roster,

01:09:10 even with Peyton Pitchford's poison pill contract, the only way to get it done would be to trade Al

01:09:15 Horford or a larger contract, at which point you are at best making a lateral move and probably a

01:09:21 backwards move, right? - I would certainly say that that is a

01:09:25 backwards move. - I agree. Not everyone agrees with us.

01:09:27 - And it's not happening. They're not trading Al Horford, period. And they're definitely not

01:09:32 doing it if the return is Kelly Olenek. - Exactly. Love Kelly, great guy, wonderful,

01:09:37 would love to have him back in green. Al Horford is way more important to this team. So I don't

01:09:42 think that's happening, but there is another possibility. - Wait, there is more, exactly.

01:09:47 - Yeah, walk us through it, JQ. - Okay, so regular listeners can recall when

01:09:53 Aishwarya Blakely was on the last pod and we actually discussed exactly the kind of scenario

01:09:59 that the Celtics would be monitoring such a situation for, namely the fact that more CBA

01:10:05 stuff, apologies if this makes your eyes glaze over, but it's important in this context. Teams

01:10:12 that are above the second apron, like the Celtics are, cannot sign free agents who make large

01:10:17 amounts of money, namely anything over the full MLE. This season, that would be $12.4 million.

01:10:23 Kelly Olenek makes $12.2 million. So he would be able to join the Celtics if bought out. And

01:10:32 he might go someplace else, you never know, but he does have a relationship. He does know the

01:10:37 organization and he would get some real time. So when you consider all those things, the possibility

01:10:43 of adding a ring to his repertoire with a team that drafted him and the fact that the Celtics

01:10:48 really could use a player with his skillset, of course they're monitoring him. And Stein does not

01:10:54 make stuff up. Stein does not do things that are disingenuous. He said something a lot of people

01:11:01 ran with it in the wrong direction in a very understandable way. But if you read very close

01:11:06 to what he wrote, he said they are monitoring it and for good reason. - Yeah. As much as I would

01:11:13 love to have Kelly back on the Boston Celtics, at the end of the day, the ball is in Danny Ainge's

01:11:19 court. And I gotta be honest, I don't think it's super likely given that in all likelihood,

01:11:26 Kelly is going to get some trade buzz. I think there's gonna be a number of different teams

01:11:31 that will be looking to employee services. However, if he does get traded to, for example,

01:11:37 I don't know, a team that is not so much looking to contend, there is definitely buyout potential

01:11:43 there. But knowing trader Danny, I would be pretty surprised if he just lets Kelly walk for nothing.

01:11:49 All right. So that's all for the news and for the game segment. We have one more segment that

01:11:56 we're gonna try and wrap things up with. It is Christmas and we are having a grand old time here

01:12:02 talking about the holidays. And I had a nice time this morning. My girlfriend's parents got me a

01:12:10 lovely shirt in general. Let's be real here, people. The presents are what it's all about.

01:12:17 And to that end, Bobby, we're gonna swing it to you to play a little game about some presents that

01:12:23 you might want for this year's holiday season. We're gonna do three categories. One present you

01:12:29 want in the NBA. To return. To return. Oh, interesting. Yeah, that's true. Sometimes,

01:12:36 no, that's fair. And sometimes you get presents that you want to re-gift. Sometimes, you know,

01:12:41 you want to keep the receipt and send it back. And so to that end, Bobby, we're gonna swing it to you.

01:12:46 What is something you would like to re-gift or return to the store for the following three

01:12:51 categories? In the NBA, with the Boston Celtics, and in life generally? Something you want to send

01:12:57 back with a receipt. Let's start with in the NBA. What is something you, Bobby, would like to send

01:13:04 back? Something I'd like to send back in the NBA. If you had asked me before the season, I would

01:13:11 have said the in-season tournament. But that turned out to be quite the success. The generating buzz

01:13:16 with the Encore product is a huge win for the association. So that's a tough one there. For the

01:13:23 NBA to send back, you know what? It's actually what we were just talking about. I'm not a fan

01:13:28 of the new collective bargaining agreement. So I would like to go to the old one, this more punitive

01:13:34 one. And the ramifications of it, I don't enjoy the structure of it. It feels to me like the players

01:13:40 ultimately lost out on this. And that tends to happen, but too significant a margin in my

01:13:47 estimation. So I'll send back the new collective bargaining agreement. You have to learn stuff.

01:13:52 The middle class of the NBA is just eradicated at this point. It's either mid-level exception or

01:13:58 lower or very close to maxing up. No one wants these popsicle headaches. Yeah. All right, JQ,

01:14:05 what do you want to send back in the NBA? So this might surprise people, but I actually

01:14:14 want to see Christmas Day jerseys. They need to bring them back. Why? Well, if they're really,

01:14:20 really ugly, you will never see them again, ever, ever. No one wears. Have you ever seen anyone

01:14:27 wearing a Christmas Day jersey? Right. And if it's great, then it's a classic and people will get

01:14:32 them. And maybe we will actually see one for once, but it's a perfect arena where if you want to

01:14:36 experiment and get weird, there you go. Right. I know it's a little bit odd, particularly because

01:14:45 I have been, you know, I hate the shirzies from way back in the day. I hate the Enya Celtic

01:14:51 pub Celtics jerseys. Like I'm not a big fan of Jersey experimentation, but in my opinion,

01:14:57 this is the venue. If you're going to get weird with jerseys to do it.

01:15:01 Yeah. And I think that, you know, there's so many iconic Christmas Day looks like, you know,

01:15:06 I know the IT for Celtics are probably not in the same tier as this team, but man,

01:15:11 they have some good Christmas trees. I would like to send back to the NBA, the indefinite suspensions

01:15:19 that keep on getting tossed around for various player problems and aggressions and things like

01:15:25 that. Folks, the indefinite suspension is a little bit of a cop-out. Pick a set number of games,

01:15:32 say this is the amount of games that you're suspended for, and then have dudes come back.

01:15:36 I think Draymond Green's most recent suspension is a perfect example of this. If Draymond Green

01:15:45 is ultimately suspended for eight games for repeatedly punching people in the face,

01:15:49 that is a bad look for the NBA. I, you know, am totally in favor of Draymond getting whatever

01:15:56 help he needs. I would love to see him back on the court. He's a terrific basketball player,

01:16:01 but folks, let's just have a set amount of suspensions, set amount of games and be done

01:16:07 with it. I don't want to see like this lame cop-out indefinite suspension that people get

01:16:13 all up in arms about. They're like, Oh, an unprecedented punishment. Can't believe that

01:16:19 the NBA would take such a strong stand on that. If Draymond is suspended for two weeks, is that

01:16:24 actually a strong stand? I don't think so. I'm out on the indefinite suspension. Anyway.

01:16:30 All right, Bobby, you have receipts for one thing about this Boston Celtics team, a team that has

01:16:37 currently got the best record in the league is coming off of a huge Christmas day win against

01:16:42 their arch rivals on the road in general, playing some excellent basketball. But what do you want

01:16:48 to re-gift about this team? I really like a lot of the changes from the things that I think all

01:16:55 contributed to their demise a season ago. They're all of a sudden playing better in the third

01:17:00 quarters. They're overcoming when they don't shoot well from beyond the arc. There's all,

01:17:05 you know, defense is again, the foundation of their success led by Jalen Brown. They're pushing

01:17:10 the tempo. So at the moment, it's easy to get lost in what they're doing well. Three and one on a

01:17:17 challenging West Coast trip. Yes, I know Kawhi didn't play for the Clippers, but to me, I still

01:17:24 look at this team and it's more so I'm holding on to the receipts than getting ready to return the

01:17:31 gift. It's more like, hey, let's not put this in the wash just yet because it could shrink and ruin

01:17:36 the chances. If we're going to wear this Christmas sweater, let's make sure to avoid the wine and

01:17:41 anything that might stain it. Because while this is all great right now, the Warriors game is also

01:17:46 a reminder that they are maturing. They haven't fully made the transformation just yet. So some

01:17:53 of these factors that they deserve praise for right now could also be what ultimately comes

01:17:58 back to burn them. And therefore you don't lose the receipt. All right, JQ, you got something

01:18:05 to return for this team? Yeah, the decision to not have Jordan Walsh play in one freaking

01:18:11 minute of the season to this point. I get it. He has a lot of work to do, but he could have played

01:18:19 in the last two or three minutes of this game. He definitely could have played in the last several

01:18:22 minutes of the last two games. And if they don't have him playing in the Detroit game one way or

01:18:27 another, win or lose, I'm going to be first in line with my receipts. You would have to think

01:18:35 that one of the Christmas presents that Jalen Brown and Jason Tatum probably have earned is a

01:18:40 day off against the lowly Detroit Pistons. Celtics, just a quick aside, please do not be the team that

01:18:47 the Pistons break their losing streak against. Come on, guys. I know that they're probably going

01:18:52 to sit a bunch of people, but like O'Shea Bressett, Peyton Bridgerd, Sam Houser, my dudes,

01:19:00 let's get this done. I'm not trying to be- So that was going to be my question is, how would

01:19:04 you two, asking both individually, balance? They go three and one on this West Coast trip,

01:19:09 they win in LA against the Lakers on Christmas, but then come home and they're the team the

01:19:13 Pistons get over the hump against. I would not be super thrilled by that.

01:19:19 That's a hugely devastating type of loss. But the good news about that forthcoming game is that

01:19:25 I think this is the prime time case for the Derek White all-star experience. I'm saying,

01:19:32 rest the Jays, rest Porzingis, let's get Derek White onto that all-star team. Derek, I want to

01:19:38 see 45 from you against this Pistons. Get that number up.

01:19:42 For me, it's hard to find things to want to return for this Celtics team, so I'm going to

01:19:50 return something from the Celtics ether generally. Edie Garden, the new seats are too small.

01:19:57 I don't know what to tell you, but the last time that I was there sitting in the bleachers,

01:20:02 I was cramped, it was uncomfortable, it was not a good time. And the TD Garden is already cramped

01:20:08 and uncomfortable as it is, or it was beforehand. But at least then it was a little bit better. I

01:20:14 had a little bit more elbow room to work with. The bleacher seats in the TD Garden are too small,

01:20:20 folks. And if I'm going to ask Celtics to return anything this year, it would be that,

01:20:26 please return to the old seats. They were not great, but they were at least better than what

01:20:31 they currently are. I have heard this complaint in several corners. Yeah. All right, Bobby,

01:20:37 we'll give you the last crack for this last prompt. What is something you want to return

01:20:42 in terms of having your receipts for life generally? Obviously, you know, holiday season,

01:20:47 a lot of things I hope are going well for you and yours, but there's always some things that

01:20:52 get stuck in your craw around these times. So what's something that you want to return in your

01:20:57 life? I want to return when someone has a holiday party and there are guests who contribute nothing

01:21:05 and also don't help the vibe. And, you know, they're not a good conversation. They don't

01:21:10 bring good energy and they didn't bring anything to eat. They didn't bring a bottle of wine or any

01:21:15 alcohol. Those people who are the ones who didn't contribute to the class project but still got an

01:21:20 A, I want to return their invitation. The Tristan Thompson of holiday parties, if you will.

01:21:27 Precisely. Good stuff. All right, Jake, you're turn. What do you got?

01:21:31 Definite old man tick. Let's try to normalize actually calling people that we want to be in

01:21:40 touch with on the holidays. Texting is cool. Social media, what's up? It's great. I appreciate

01:21:47 it. I'm not saying those are bad. Let's call each other a little bit more. I am in total

01:21:53 agreement with that as a big proponent of the call, which is sometimes to the annoyance of

01:21:57 my friends and family. But nonetheless, I'm all about the call. And for me, my thing that I want

01:22:03 to return that I have so many receipts for, but no store will accept it is once again, the

01:22:10 coronavirus pandemic is spiking up and it is making life miserable for everybody involved.

01:22:16 I got COVID once this year. My girlfriend got COVID once this year. A lot of my friends have

01:22:21 gotten COVID. And while the cases are in many respects getting milder, there are still many

01:22:27 people out there for whom even a mild case of COVID is in fact really, really bad. And I am

01:22:33 just annoyed that it keeps spreading and spreading and spreading every winter and that this appears

01:22:39 to be our new normal. So people, one thing that you might want to consider in this Christmas

01:22:44 spirit is when you're going outside, particularly if you are like me going into crowded subway cars

01:22:50 with a bunch of people in Brooklyn, maybe consider that mask. I know it's annoying. I know it's

01:22:55 uncomfortable. My beard gets sweaty and gross. I hate it just as much as everybody else, but I'm

01:23:01 also tired of everybody getting sick. So would love to return COVID to the store. Would love to

01:23:07 not have to have that one floating around again. - I really like that as a person with an auto

01:23:13 immune disorder who has a mother who ended up, even though she was vaccinated, getting COVID and

01:23:21 really having it screw her up. I still wear masks everywhere I go, anywhere where there is enclosed

01:23:30 spaces because of it. And listen, I know for most of us, it's not a big deal, but there's people

01:23:36 all around you with situations like me and my family, who, as Alex said, it could be potentially

01:23:44 devastating. So I understand it's a big drag, but so is carrying around an oxygen bottle for the

01:23:49 rest of your life. So please. - And let's be clear just on this, and then we'll leave this behind,

01:23:55 but I am also not perfect on this. I need to be better about this myself, but as a live musician

01:24:01 who likes to attend concerts and play at them, it's always better when half of the audience isn't

01:24:07 infected with something at the show. So please consider the mask. Anyway, Bobby, I hope that

01:24:13 your holiday has been lovely. I hope that you have had a wonderful day and a nice evening watching

01:24:18 our Celtics trounce the hated Lakers yet again. Anything else that we can expect from you in terms

01:24:25 of writing, pods, anything else? Where should we find you? - Much appreciated. The holiday's been

01:24:30 fantastic, and I hope that applies to the two of you as well. And when it comes to finding my work,

01:24:36 we've got wall-to-wall Celtics-Lakers in coverage of this West Coast trip, including themes that we

01:24:41 take away from them going three in one. So you can find that si.com/NBA/Celtics, inside the Celtics.

01:24:49 You can find me on Twitter. I've said it on this program because it's the truth. I have an

01:24:53 addiction to it, though I refuse to call it X. That seems like a weird move. So @BobbyKravitsky,

01:24:59 you can see how it's spelled, K-R-I-V-I-S-K-Y is the last name for those listening to the audio

01:25:06 version of this. And then me, Jack Simone, and Sam LaFrance, two other good friends of this show,

01:25:12 we recently started our own Celtics podcast because that is the thing to do. It's called

01:25:17 Talk and Seize, and that drops every Monday, Wednesday, and Friday, wherever you get your

01:25:21 podcasts from, plus YouTube. - Thank you, Bobby. And if you liked what you heard on this episode,

01:25:27 then you can find the Celtics Lab podcast on Apple Podcasts, Spotify, YouTube, and all sorts

01:25:33 of other platforms. Please like, subscribe, and leave us a review. This episode of the Celtics

01:25:38 Lab podcast is brought to you by FanDuel, the exclusive wagering partner of the CLNS Media

01:25:44 Network. Justin, Bobby, pleasure to have both of you on. Hope you had a lovely holidays,

01:25:50 and wishing you both good tidings in this coming new year, as well as another banner for our boys

01:25:57 in green. Have a happy holidays, everyone. - Feliz fiestas, compadres.

Boston beats the Lakers on Christmas Day, and making sense of trade rumors with Bobby Krivitsky | Celtics Lab

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