Jones & Keefe: Is Jrue Holiday or Kristaps Porzingis more important to the Celtics' repeat hopes?

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00:00He made a legitimate case for Eastern Conference Finals MVP, if you look at the numbers comparatively

00:05to where Jalen and Jason were.

00:07And even in the finals, like game two, 26 points, like he had huge performances in the

00:13postseason and I leaned Drew just because that's why they went out and got him.

00:17They knew he was going to be on the floor and in the postseason when it mattered most

00:20and he was going to step up and play well when it mattered most.

00:23Like he's built that reputation and I keep going back to it, like when he was introduced

00:27as a Celtic, Brad Stevens was smiling the entire time.

00:31Like wouldn't take his eyes off Drew, kept smiling because they knew like that was the

00:36piece and it's funny, Savimi Hyluck was here last week with the Jazz and he was reminiscing

00:41on the championship run and he was asked like, when did you know this was a championship

00:45team?

00:46It was like when they got Drew.

00:47So Drew Holiday is the piece right there and they've kind of showed last year they can

00:51do it without Kristaps and I think he's going to be very important this year.

00:55If they are going to do it again, they're going to need Kristaps Porzingis, but I would

00:58lean with Drew being more important.

01:00See, I know we saw them win without Porzingis essentially last year and Holiday was great.

01:05I just feel like Holiday hasn't been as good this year and Oklahoma City specifically,

01:11you could need, you would need Porzingis even more.

01:14I mean, I, that's the matchup where they need him for sure.

01:16I mean, the matchups last year, I mean, you get to the finals and the two best players

01:19on the other side are both point guards and you're like, yeah, of course you want to.

01:21I also don't want to overlook game one from Kristaps.

01:24Like he punched them in the mouth right away.

01:26Like he swung that momentum right in Boston's favor, right from the opening quarter.

01:30So I give him credit for that.

01:31Might have been a six game series without him, that's true, yeah.

01:33They still would have won the series, but like that, when you're looking up and you're

01:37just getting overpowered like that, that opening run was incredible.

01:40So I don't want to discredit Kristaps because he was key in that, but I still do lean Drew

01:45and it's the thing is with Drew Holiday is not everything he does is quantified statistically.

01:50What he does as an anchor on the defense and his ball pressure and his ability to guard

01:55one through five is so important.

01:57So it's dangerous with Drew Holiday to just look at the box score because I think him

02:02and Al Horford sacrifice the most on this team where Al Horford's the one that comes

02:05off the bench after starting his entire career.

02:08And Drew Holiday, who's been a capable scorer who's led teams in scoring is not taking as

02:13many shots.

02:14Maybe it's unfair of me to just like give him the benefit of the doubt and say, well,

02:18I've seen it before.

02:19Drew Holiday will flip the switch.