Jones & Keefe: Justin Turpin on the Celtics' defense

Watch Jones & Keefe: Justin Turpin on the Celtics' defense - WEEI-FM / WEEI on Dailymotion

Transcript

00:00Terp, I want to ask you about the Celtics' defense here, because one of their calling

00:04cards last year, and of course two years ago when they went to the finals, was how good

00:08they were defensively.

00:09Last year, of course, top three, O rating, D rating, net rating.

00:13This year, their defensive rating, it's hovered around 10 for most of the year.

00:16They're eighth right now.

00:18They give up 118 to Philly, 117 to Chicago last week.

00:22How come their defense, although it's still good, how come in your eyes it hasn't been

00:26as dominant as it was a year ago at this time?

00:29Yeah, no, you're 100% right, John.

00:32And they learned that in 2022 when they went to the NBA Finals.

00:35They made it, obviously, because of their defense.

00:37Then they learned then that you also need the offense to complement it.

00:41And Joe Mizzoula really, he really emphasizes the fact that the game's connected on both

00:45ways, that you need good offense to have good defense and vice versa.

00:48And for the Celtics, the intensity, the effort, and the focus just really haven't been there

00:54this year.

00:55We're seeing some defensive lapses that we just haven't really seen from this team.

00:58And I think that could be having different guys in another lineup.

01:01But I look at that play on the side out of bounds when Tyrese Maxey dropped the ball

01:06with 1.1 seconds on the shot clock and still made the layup because there was just nobody

01:11there to contest it.

01:12So we're just seeing lapses that we're not really used to seeing from this team.

01:17So I do think it's, you know, part of it is the inconsistency of guys just haven't been

01:21there.

01:22And I think that's one of the jobs for Zingas, not being there for the rim protection is

01:24a big deal because that's been an issue for them.

01:27And he was supposed to shore that up and the numbers were trending in that way when he

01:30got back.

01:31But he just hasn't been out on the court enough.

01:34So I look at the rim protection as an issue and also teams are just getting up more threes.

01:38We saw Chicago do that, Orlando tried to do as well.

01:41Teams are trying to match the Celtics in threes and that's automatically can kind of fluctuate

01:46that number.