The Boston Celtics won Game 4 of their 2024 NBA Eastern Conference first round series with the Miami Heat to take a commanding 3-1 lead at Kaseya Center on Monday night, but the win came at a cost. The Celtics lost star big man Kristaps Porzingis to what is being described as a calf strain, and could miss substantial time as a result.
How does Porzingis' injury impact the rest of the series vs. the Heat? Assuming Boston advances (and we should), how do the team's rotations change in terms of minutes distribution of frontcourt minutes change -- and who gets them?
The hosts of the CLNS Media "Celtics Lab" podcast took a deep dive into Boston's Game 4 results and what it means for the team moving forward. We also take a quick look around the league at some other developments that may impact Boston as well, focusing on what we want to see in Game 5.
The Celtics Lab podcast is brought to you by Prize Picks and the Game Time app.
Get in on the excitement with PrizePicks, America’s No. 1 Fantasy Sports App, where you can turn your hoops knowledge into serious cash. Download the app today and use code CLNS for a first deposit match up to $100! Pick more. Pick less. It’s that Easy! Go to https://PrizePicks.com/CLNS
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How does Porzingis' injury impact the rest of the series vs. the Heat? Assuming Boston advances (and we should), how do the team's rotations change in terms of minutes distribution of frontcourt minutes change -- and who gets them?
The hosts of the CLNS Media "Celtics Lab" podcast took a deep dive into Boston's Game 4 results and what it means for the team moving forward. We also take a quick look around the league at some other developments that may impact Boston as well, focusing on what we want to see in Game 5.
The Celtics Lab podcast is brought to you by Prize Picks and the Game Time app.
Get in on the excitement with PrizePicks, America’s No. 1 Fantasy Sports App, where you can turn your hoops knowledge into serious cash. Download the app today and use code CLNS for a first deposit match up to $100! Pick more. Pick less. It’s that Easy! Go to https://PrizePicks.com/CLNS
Take the guesswork out of buying NBA tickets with Gametime. Download the Gametime app, create an account, and use code CLNS for $20 off your first purchase. Download Gametime today. Last minute tickets. Lowest Price. Guaranteed. Terms apply.
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00:00Alrighty, welcome to the Celtics podcast brought to you by PrizePix, the exclusive fantasy
00:12basketball partner of the CLNS Media Network. And if you enjoyed this podcast, check out
00:16the How About Them Celtics podcast, the First to the Floor podcast, and the many other New
00:19England sports podcasts available on the CLNS Media Network. I'm Cameron Tipton-Tobias,
00:24I am your host, I'm joined by Alex Goldberg, Dr. Justin Quinn, and we are recording just
00:28after a 102-88 Boston Celtics victory over the Miami Heat in the opening round of the
00:34NBA postseason. Boston now holds a 3-1 series lead, and we will talk about that. We will
00:39also talk about an apparent injury to Chris Tapps Porzingis, but I'm choosing to walk
00:45on the sunny side of the street because I get to, because I'm the host, so...
00:50But you still can walk, unlike Chris Tapps Porzingis, from his little walk.
00:54Yeah, okay, now that you did that, let's bring people up to speed with where we're at, because
00:59listeners are in the future. So, last we heard, they don't think it's an Achilles injury,
01:07and thanks to our friend Josue Pavone, we saw images of Porzingis walking around in
01:12a walking boot. So, we'll talk more about that later. Anyways, the good stuff was, probably
01:19Derek White is the headline there, but I'll let you guys decide. Alex, what's up in Brooklyn
01:24and what was your big positive takeaway from Game 4?
01:29Not too much going on in Brooklyn, just, you know, hanging out. It's finally warm here,
01:34so I think we're gonna be adjusting our lives around what will hopefully be a nice run of
01:40summer weather. But in terms of the Miami Heat and the Boston Celtics, speaking of Heat,
01:46I think the positive takeaway of this game is, at least to me, that this Miami team has
01:53no business being in the playoffs, and I think the Celtics showed that pretty convincingly,
02:00regardless of who was out there. I mean, the main takeaway is that, you know, Derek White
02:03can emerge and be a kind of third star, borderline level player as needed. That's the headline
02:10for sure. And, you know, I think the Celtics' defense was also pretty terrific throughout
02:15this game. Those are the big ones.
02:16You're not early, but we can talk about that in a second.
02:20Yeah.
02:21Or can I?
02:22We'll do the good stuff. We'll do the bad stuff after.
02:24The good stuff is the Celtics played like ass on defense to start the game and immediately
02:31found that the Heat were not hitting literally every goddamn shot. So this time it did not
02:38burn them very badly. But the positive aspect of that is they figured out what they were
02:43doing wrong really quickly, fixed it. And for the most part, that was really the last
02:47time we had any problems with defense.
02:50Yeah, I would specifically shout out Drew Holliday and Al Horford, who had like stereotypically
02:55great individual defensive performances. I'll take the bait that the headline was Derek
03:01White is the biggest positive. 38 points career high for Derek White in the postseason. And
03:05I think outright, I may have that wrong.
03:08No, he is. Yeah, definitely. Definitely his career high from a postseason game. I actually
03:13don't even think his previous ones were particularly close.
03:16His previous one was 36.
03:18Yeah, didn't realize. Derek White, didn't realize you were built like that.
03:22Well, he did with the Spurs. So yeah, he's been at it for a while. He had eight three
03:25pointers, which ties the Celtics postseason regulation record. And fans of a certain age
03:31will remember Ray Allen's 50 point nine three point performance in a triple overtime game
03:35against the Bulls in 2009. So that was fun to look up and reminisce about. Anyways, yeah,
03:42Derek White hit a bunch of threes, which was cool. But it's also a reminder of how deep
03:47the Celtics team is. It's kind of a broken thought experiment. If you put Derek White
03:52on a different team, would he be the second best player? But like, I don't know. 38 postseason,
04:00like how many guys? I think the list of guys who've scored 40 in the postseason with Celtics
04:04is like maybe a dozen, and they've been playing Celtics basketball since the 40s. So he was
04:08really knocking on the door of like super rarefied air.
04:11I mean, in the end of his Spurs run before he got hurt, Derek White was primed for some
04:18potentially really big stuff. He looked really, really good towards, like he had that one
04:23playoff run that I remember pretty distinctly, probably the one that you were just referencing,
04:27where there were games where Derek White looked like the best player on the court and the
04:31Spurs were completely overmatched and he got injured, but he looked really good. I think
04:37there's definitely like, you know, it's we've beaten this into the ground since he was traded
04:43to Boston. But like, what a home run by Brad Stevens to get that guy for the amount for
04:49the value that he did. I mean, holy crap. I mean, there's that. But there's also like
04:53at the beginning of this year, we were plausibly saying is Derek White can be an all star.
04:57And he kind of slowed down a little bit there in January and February. But if they're going
05:01to get November, December, Derek White for this postseason run, or even parts of this
05:04postseason run, that's here for it. They're adding an all star caliber player. I mean,
05:08we weren't over our skis and suggesting that he's an all star. So happy for Derek White
05:13because he's a good dude, but also just tremendously important for the Celtics moving forward.
05:18And yeah, Alex, the point that you raised an important one, like, I don't think we know
05:24much of anything that he team played like dog doo doo. Bam out of bio was great. 25
05:29points, 17 rebounds, five assists to find great and a couple of dirty plays to go with
05:35it. Thank you. I I'm not as scandalized by that. He was the only he player trying and
05:43successful at that. So trying and what? Yeah, trying closing out under shooters at a dead
05:49ball plays and shoving people to the ground. Yeah, that's not basketball, man. Again, I
05:55rooted for Kevin Garnett too hard and too visibly and vocally to say much. It shouldn't
06:00do it. But it's not like he didn't invent the shit. Like, lots of guys are doing like
06:04the closing on Jason Tatum. He didn't mean to do that. It was a silly thing to do. But
06:10it wasn't just don't do it. Yeah, he shouldn't have done it. But I wasn't dirty. Like, I
06:13don't think he meant to injure his very good friend. I'm sure he didn't mean to injure
06:17him. But it's just like, don't do that. Like, don't. Why would you bother doing that? Also,
06:23we're here. I'm gonna this is the only amount of time I'm gonna spend on this for this podcast.
06:28But Stan Van Gundy, come on, man. Have some shame. I didn't listen to that. Oh, my God,
06:33it was absolutely deranged. Stan Van Gundy. My Lord, dude. Jason Tatum did not deserve
06:40to land on Bam Adebayo's. Isn't it Jeff Van Gundy? No, this was Stan. Stan Van Gundy. Yeah,
06:46Jason Tatum did not. He works for the Celtics. Sorry, I was being dumb. Jason Tatum did not
06:51deserve to land on Bam Adebayo's foot and possibly hurt himself because the Celtics
06:56didn't give the requisite effort while they were up 20. Unbelievable. Like this. There
07:04is bad commentary in basketball games. I think we all know that at this point. He's usually
07:08pretty good. That's very characteristic. This was a particularly bad night for for big Stan
07:15and definitely one that made me question his abilities going forward.
07:21I was also a local broadcast. I will say it was an awful game. Like it wasn't a good game. Like
07:25they're quite a good game. There were times where the Celtics strung together some good looks. And
07:32when they wanted to, they scored with like unbelievable ease. And then they took their
07:36foot off the gas. And so a lot of like the data that you could pull from this game is noisy and
07:41messy. So I'm glad I didn't have to talk about it for 48 minutes because it was pretty boring game.
07:46I will say, so I didn't get the Van Gundy thing. I don't think anyone deserves to get hurt. That
07:52seems like that's no poor, poor, ridiculous. While we're airing out grievances, the NBA is
07:58review processes. It's so bad. It's a television product, make it snappy. Like no one cares about
08:05the integrity of the call. Or if they do, the second that there is a review like they do in
08:10the NFL, have someone review every, every whistle, every play. So that by the time the ref even like
08:16looks up to consider reviewing it, someone with like a referee credential has already done so.
08:21Like why do they? Or just put a time limit on it. Two minutes max. Absolute max. There's
08:28challenges that literally go four, four, five entire commercial breaks length. And they're
08:33still doing them when you come back from the commercial break. That doesn't need to happen.
08:37If you can't do it in two minutes, and I'm a person who actually does like review,
08:42I don't want to see it. But then also they do this stupid thing where like,
08:45then the ref has to talk in what can only be described as a microphone from the 1980s to a
08:52really loud room of people. And you can never hear what they have to say. It's so stupid. Like
08:56write it down or something like hold it up survivor style. I don't understand.
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09:54It's good. It's good the Celtics won. They're playing an inferior opponent and they're going
10:04to close out the series. Teams that are up 3-1 in the series, coming into tonight, have won 95%
10:09of the series. It's only been 13 times that a team has come back from down 1-3. So I think
10:15Boston's probably fine, which is to say that we can, I think, turn our attention to the Porzingis
10:22injury. Because technically, it's not doom and gloom, but the good stuff. The good stuff is
10:28pretty obvious. Well, no, I just mean like for the game writ large. A better version of me would
10:33have looked up Boston's record with Chris Tapps out of the lineup. He missed 25 games this season.
10:37I'm pretty sure they were like 22 and 3. They were very good. Yeah. So can I keep going? I have
10:45a few things to say. Sure. Do it. Yeah. This is not reporting. This is a thought that I'm having,
10:53especially as someone who has a chronic calf injury. I was talking to my physical therapist
10:57about Giannis' injury last week or two weeks ago. And he was saying, yeah, when you're soleus,
11:03which is the group of muscles that connects to the top of the Achilles, when that's strained or weak
11:09or tight, it pulls the Achilles and it can feel like it's really acute. And when I've dealt with
11:14that injury, like there are times where I like hobble around. Alex, I don't remember if I had
11:19that injury when you were playing hoops with us, but I was like running around like late Dirk
11:23Nowitzki, like barely moving my feet off the ground. So this is not reporting, but I suspect
11:29he's dealing with something like noted athletes, me and Giannis are dealing with, which is a calf
11:35injury that can present itself in shooting Achilles pain that left untreated could result in Achilles
11:43tear or injury of some description. But I want to be clear, A, no one yet has said
11:49Chris Tapps has an Achilles injury. And B, I'm speculating. I'm not, I have no inside reporting.
11:56It's me and my physical therapist. Shout out to wellness in motion in Brookline.
12:00Okay. So that's my take on the injury. Justin, what about you?
12:04Um, it's concerning. You know, we don't, there has been no reporting. We have heard that, uh,
12:09from, from Adrian Wojnarowski, they, they do not believe, but again, this is still not tested
12:14when MRI, which is going to be the final word, uh, what the nature of the injury is. So we could
12:20be looking at anything from a game to several months. We have no idea what the nature of this
12:26injury is, but for me, mercifully, the best, the best thing we have going on here is an Eastern
12:32conference runway where all of the matchups should be winnable. No matter how long it takes to get
12:38to the finals. So with that said, let's hope it's way earlier than that. Can I, Alex, before you go,
12:44I'm just going to give a real timestamp live where I think it's just tweeted good W tonight.
12:49D white is special. Thanks for all the support. We'll be good. Strong emoji. Okay. Let's go.
12:54Just saw that. And, uh, that's, uh, hopefully a sign that, um, things are headed in the right
13:00direction for Chris Tapps for Zingas. I think it's pretty clear at this point, at least from
13:04where I'm sitting, I would be very surprised if we see Chris Tapps for the rest of this series.
13:10And I would be pretty surprised if we see him in the next round as well, uh, given just how cautious
13:15Boston has been with his injury. Uh, I just feel like, you know, they have at this point to, to
13:21your earlier point camp, they played a significant percentage of the season now with Al Hartford in
13:27the starting lineup without Chris Tapps for Zingas. And they've had some success in those situations.
13:33It's not like they lack experience in that. Um, so they will be very cautious with whatever
13:39Chris Tapps injury is. I mean, listen, the reality is we're not going to know until the MRI comes
13:45back, which is going to happen tomorrow. Um, you know, from what I've seen, if it's a grade one,
13:51if we're assuming it's a calf strain, which I think is not unreasonable. If it's a, if it's
13:56a grade one calf strain, we're probably looking at a timeline of one to two weeks. If it's grade
14:01two or higher, that could potentially be, you know, we're talking out until the finals or
14:06something of that nature. Um, typical timeline on that is three to six. That's what Giannis has
14:11right now for context. And, uh, we haven't seen him all this series against the Pacers. I doubt
14:17we will see him. Um, and you know, Giannis Antetokounmpo is the most important player
14:23on a Bucks franchise that very desperately needs to win right now. Um, if he's not playing,
14:29you know, that like, like that, that's not a guy who will like take games off. Um, you know,
14:35just to, just because like, if he's not playing, he can't physically be out there. And so if Chris
14:41Dups has a grade two calf strain, the Celtics need to be prepared to, um, play without him
14:47basically until the NBA finals, um, or pretty darn close to it, which would be hard. I mean,
14:53like that's, you know, he's been a huge part of their success this year when he's on the court.
14:57Boston has been a juggernaut. And when he's not on the court, um, you know, they've been very good,
15:02but I think pretty much everybody who pays any attention to this team understands that there's
15:08a level they can hit with Chris Dups in the court that they just can't with, you know,
15:12cause when you're starting Al Horford, that's great. Al Horford is still a starting caliber
15:16NBA player, but now you've got extended Luke Cornette minutes. You've got extended Xavier
15:20Tillman minutes, et cetera. So before you continue, I want to hear how each of you
15:27think that Joe Mazzola should be handling these minutes because I'm worried he's going to lean
15:31into Al Horford and we need him later on in the series. This is not a series where he's very
15:37important in my opinion. He's important. Don't get me wrong, but he's more important in future
15:41matchups. Well, I think Justin, the answer to your question really depends on who the Celtics
15:47are playing because the Pacers present like a fundamentally different challenge than the Magic
15:51and Boston would face either of those two teams in the next series. Well, no, they would face
15:56Cleveland or Orlando. Oh, Cleveland. Sorry. Cleveland. Even more so. I feel that. And Alex,
16:03to your point, the conference finals would start about three weeks from today. So a conference
16:08finals return, depending on the nature of the injury, could be tough. But Justin, I'm going
16:11to answer your question as soon as I pause the action and talk to you about our friends over
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17:08Gametime. Alrighty, Alex, you want to do what happens if they play the Magic and I'll do what
17:14happens if they play the Cavs? Sure. And Justin, you're the ref.
17:18Sounds good. So if the Boston Celtics, they're going to close out Miami. If they don't close
17:24out Miami, I'm going to walk into oncoming traffic. So they're going to close out Miami
17:29and it's going to be fine. And in the next round, they're going to face a feisty, up-and-coming,
17:35young, long, athletic Orlando Magic team that just cannot shoot the basketball at all.
17:42But holy smokes is their defense for real. And a team that has frankly given Boston
17:46some challenges here and there in these past couple of years. Like I said, they're long,
17:50they're athletic, they're physical, they're well-coached. Jamal Mosley, I think, has done
17:54a really good job with that team. So if Boston is going to play Orlando, there's a couple of
17:59things that they're going to need to be looking for. The first is this, Boston has to make their
18:05shooters earn it. And by that, I mean, this is a great series for Drew Holiday to start mucking
18:11things around, playing off ball, playing in zone coverages, disrupting passing lanes. The Magic
18:18don't have a player who can be a high-level individual primary creator. They do it by
18:25committee and sometimes Wagner will get hot and sometimes Paolo will get hot. And that's been
18:30their play up to this point. So that leaves a lot of room for the Celtics help defenders to be
18:36extremely active, to play the zones, to play the passing lanes, and to make life difficult for
18:43Orlando on the offensive end. So I think starting off, you have to make their shooters earn it. And
18:49by that, I don't mean leave them wide open because leaving people wide open, even on bad shooting
18:54teams, is never a good idea in the NBA playoffs. But, you know, force them to actually
19:01have to shoot the ball. It really means protect the paint more so than anything. To that end,
19:07you can expect to see, particularly if Porzingis is out, there's going to be some Luke Cornette
19:12going on in this series. There's going to be some Xavier Tillman going on in this series.
19:16The emphasis will be on packing the paint and on controlling the glass. That is going to be huge
19:22because the Magic absolutely feast off of offensive rebounds and off of transition attacking
19:28points. So the key to beating Orlando is Boston needs to own the glass from the jump. They need
19:35to make them earn it on the defensive end and then on the offensive end. And then for Boston's
19:41offense, Orlando is super physical. It's super long. It's super athletic. They absolutely love
19:49when guys take a lot of dribbles and play isolation basketball and there's not a lot of
19:55cutting and there's not a lot of movement because that gives all of their long athletic wings
19:59a chance to set up shop and block shots and be in the way. So the number one thing on offense
20:06that Boston desperately, desperately, desperately needs to do if they're going up against Orlando
20:11is lean into Missoula ball, pass the rock, move quickly, get into your options quickly,
20:18don't give them a chance to get into a set defense, really push that pace, kick the ball around
20:25and get the ball out to shooters. Like I think playing, this is where you run into a tricky
20:30challenge because on the one hand, you want to play perhaps a guy like a Cornette or a Tillman
20:38just for defensive purposes and for particularly controlling the glass, as I mentioned earlier,
20:43but the appeal of playing a five-out lineup against this magic team, particularly given how
20:48good they are defensively and the extra ball movement and passing that you're going to need
20:53to really break them down, that's going to be an interesting wrinkle and an interesting chess mess.
20:57So that's what I'm looking for in that series. Okay. I think a couple things about the Cavs
21:05in respect to the Cavs. I just can't see a world where they could do it. So I think the Celtics can
21:13save Al Horford pretty good here, which I would hope that they would. And there's a couple people
21:19for whom that becomes really important. First of all, I think Xavier Tillman, again, I'm curious
21:23that we haven't seen, I think, a single minute of him. The series, he's not Al Horford, like I'm not
21:30getting it twisted here, but not just because they look alike on television.
21:34But his style of play is about as close as you're going to get on the Celtics roster,
21:37apart from the man himself. Or I feel like we spent stretches this season saying like,
21:43wow, Jason Tatum playing free safety on defense is really fascinating. Let's see some more of that.
21:49And, you know, Mobley and Jared Allen are big, I'm talking about the Cavs now.
21:54But I don't think that they can command the Cleveland offense in the same way. So I think
22:02I don't know, I would just like to see Jason do what Al does. And this would be like a good lab,
22:06no pun intended for him to check that out. I also think, with respect to Darius Garland,
22:12who like broke every part of his face several different times this season, and
22:19Spider Mitchell also had a bunch of injuries. Just like get chesty with them on the perimeter,
22:28such that you don't need Al Horford to do it all. I'm still, Justin, I'm glad you asked the
22:32question, because I'm really weary of Al Horford playing a ton of minutes in the front part of the
22:37postseason. And obviously, the same, he's most valuable in the hot and the more advanced rounds,
22:41in my opinion, as well. He played 34 tonight, I believe that's like 10 more than he's been
22:47playing all series, they kind of needed all 34 minutes of it. So I don't think it ought to be
22:54too big of a challenge next series to keep Al's minutes down. But I sincerely hope it's an
23:01imperative. Easier said than done, like Joe Missoula coming to Al and saying like, Hey,
23:05remember how you couldn't hit threes last year, because you were so tired, you don't get to play
23:09that much this series. I don't think that that conversation goes over super well. After
23:16No, um, I don't think so. But it is you're not wrong. And it's probably like one of the chief
23:22concerns with the poison is injury because Alex, to your point, or someone said it,
23:26the calves of the magic are not beating the Celtics. Like,
23:29no, the concern is injuries along the way. Now, whether you win or lose, in my opinion,
23:36certainly, and then I mean, we'll podcast a couple times between now and then. But when they
23:42presumably face the Knicks in the conference finals, that's going to be fascinating to
23:46speaking of which we'll talk a little bit more here, but like and subscribe to our podcast,
23:51because we again have an irregular schedule. And we don't want you to miss an episode. So by
23:57telling your favorite app, hey, I like this podcast, you'll be dialed in. Because again,
24:03we're not doing our usually weekly episode, we're doing it when it's relevant. Also,
24:07shout out to Bryce, my colleague from work. He always asked me about the podcast. Hey, Bryce.
24:12Okay. Um, so let's do this. Alex's. We're all right, Miami. Good luck, Miami,
24:18on your offseason endeavors, actually. On the Celtics on podcast, bad luck,
24:25terrible luck. I am. I don't want to see them in the playoffs again for several seasons.
24:32Okay, well, shelve your emotion for a second and put on your empiricist hat. Scale of
24:3910 being 100% 100% or no percent. What likelihood is that Miami is like a bona fide
24:47player in the postseason next year? Well, I'm assuming full health.
24:53Donovan Mitchell is going to be on the Miami Heat next year. So they're going to be in the
24:58somebody like that, if not him. I don't know if it's going to be a good decision. It could be
25:05Rodney Beal. That would be dark. Yeah, no, I know. But like, the they're going to try to make a
25:13move. I don't think they're really going to make a move that bad. But I mean, speaking of the suns,
25:18there's going to be some teams that made mistakes this year. And they're going to grab someone from
25:24one of those mistakes. And the question is, will they continue to be a mistake?
25:29I would be. I'm fairly confident that as long as Miami has Spoh and Jimmy and Bam, as the
25:38architecture to build around, they're going to be part of the conversation every year that they are
25:44healthy. I think they have some chips to play in the offseason. They're in a pretty they're in
25:51actually given how over leveraged a lot of other Eastern Conference teams are, they're in a pretty
25:56good position to grab at least one other difference maker. I fully expect them to be back next year.
26:03I mean, I will say that I agree with that. But Jimmy is 34 going on 35.
26:09He did say healthy.
26:12But being 34 is just, he's not gonna be Jimmy. But like, we probably have seen peak Jimmy Butler.
26:19I think that's right. But I think if they get somebody who can basically, you know, carry the
26:23regular season load for Jimmy, which I think is a possibility, then they're going to be fine.
26:29Well, Justin, since you said the secret word, sons, I have, I'm, I got three things to say,
26:33but I'll do quickly. First of all, it occurs to me that as much of a disaster as it would be for
26:40the Celtics to come up short this season, unless they like lose to the heat here, they're not going
26:45to have the biggest disaster of the season in the NBA, the Suns, the Lakers, like there are other
26:51teams that are going to end up looking more pathetic, even if the Celtics come up disastrously
26:56short. Second, to that end, I pitched this on Twitter, and I'm just pitching it again, because
27:02I like the sound of it so much. I want LeBron, Kevin Durant, and Steph Curry to team up together.
27:08I don't, I believe the smoke that LeBron may have played his last game for the Lakers.
27:13I believe the possibility that the Suns are so in a corner that they have to trade Durant,
27:19and Steph Curry deserves whatever Steph Curry wants, except for, you know, housing diversity,
27:25apparently. Like that sick burn, thank you, sir. I mean, it's gross, Steph, come on. Anyways,
27:34a couple of people, including Big Waz over at the Ringer, said, hey, the smoke about Devin
27:41Booker going to New York is worth considering, and check me out, Devin Booker would be an icon
27:50in Miami, and would be a really fun, fun, fun team. I know you guys hate the Heat,
27:57but I think that that would be- But they can't afford Booker.
28:00I also don't think- What if he puts his thumb on the scale?
28:02I just don't think the Suns are going to trade Devin Booker, is what it comes down to. I think
28:08they think of him as their franchise player. Yeah, but he might not. Does the NBA?
28:12Maybe, but it's possible, for sure. But I don't know. I think they would be much quicker to try
28:19and move Kevin Durant than they would Devin Booker. No, no, I don't disagree with that,
28:24but I also think it's possible they could move both if the star players come to them and say,
28:29hey, I mean, guess who Devin Booker could ask for tips? Kevin Durant. He forces his way off teams
28:36all the time, right? I'm just saying, there was a lot of conversation today about seemingly
28:43reasoned takes that Booker could bolt, and goodness gracious, the number of people trying
28:51to score points within the Suns organization by way of leaks today, it doesn't look good.
28:56So anyways, good luck to the Suns. Celtics party keeps rolling.
29:03Quickly, game five is Wednesday in Boston. Other than a win, anything you're particularly looking
29:12for? I think I have an answer. Well, I have an answer. End the series. End it quick. Do it
29:19mercilessly. Yeah, that's the main takeaway. I am going to be interested to see, because I do
29:25think Porzingis is not going to play in this next game. I would be absolutely stunned if he is able
29:32to go. And frankly, I would be a little worried about what's going on with the Celtics training
29:36staff if they even allow him on the court. So I will be interested to see how much Luke Cornett,
29:43how much Xavier Tillman, how much will the kind of additional rotation guys be taxed in here?
29:50Because I think the kind of cascading effect of the Porzingis injury is not just that you're
29:56going to see more minutes for Tillman, Cornett, et cetera. It's that you're also probably going
30:01to see a shift in how the Celtics play with their bench guys. You might see them leaning into a
30:06small ball lineup more, or maybe going the opposite way, playing like double big sets to try and make
30:13up for the lack of rim protection. I will be very interested to see the kind of tactical and rotation
30:20adjustments that Joe Mizzoula makes in what will almost certainly be a game that they won't have
30:25Kristaps Porzingis and will still feel, I think, tremendous pressure to close the series out in.
30:32Yeah, just on that quickly, the lineup of Pritchard, Holliday, Hauser, Tatum, Horford
30:39has gotten some good play. And I really, really, really like that group. I think I said that the
30:42other day. I wouldn't be surprised if Horford takes Porzingis' spot in basically the other
30:48version of that rotation. And then you could see Tillman or Bursette fill in for the group that I
30:54just named. That would be really interesting to me. Just quickly, I guess it's like a boring
30:59last thing to say. Actually, it's a super boring last thing to say, but I think an important one.
31:03The second quarter, Boston won 19 to 12. The thing that we have said going into the series was
31:11don't let Miami slow it down and muck it up because they're better at it than you are. And I don't
31:16think Boston intentionally meant to slow it down, but it was reassuring that in probably like the
31:21ugliest, like you would need to go watch like a bunch of kindergartners play basketball to see
31:26basketball that was like that ineffective. Save Derek White, who was really good. It was encouraging
31:33that Boston didn't let go of the rope and like still stayed in the driver's seat, even though
31:39the quarter was like preposterously bad. And I don't know, I feel like sometimes when the going
31:45gets tough, they can like kind of throw up their hands and then other scrappier teams take advantage.
31:50And I was happy and impressed that they didn't do that. And I thought they responded to Porzingis'
31:55injury quite well. I mean, they really took it to the whole in that third quarter there.
31:59Yeah. Derek White got fouled on about three dunk attempts that he made all of, but that's okay.
32:06Anyway. All right. Well, on that note, Derek White, good job out of you. We're very proud of you.
32:12Come on Celtics Lab podcast anytime you like. I'm sure you know that. This episode of the Celtics
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32:36It helps us a lot and helps you never miss an episode. Until then, thanks for listening.
32:40Thanks, Alex. Thanks, Justin. And we'll catch you later.