Celtic Chalk Talk: Boston Goes 3-1, Stuns Magic, and Prepares for the Playoffs

Steve: [00:00:00] Hello everybody. Another, it's time for another great week of Celtic Chalk Talk. I'm your host, Steve Purciello, lifelong Celtic fan for going back to the Bill Russell days. So I've seen a lot and watched a lot and can comment a lot. Before I begin, I just wanna mention you're listening to one of the independent. Fan driven shows on the Peach Basket Network. There's a whole bunch of podcasts and it's really advisable. If you like this one, go listen to someone. Some of the other ones, they're excellent. We're not carried by a big media company, which means that. What you have comes straight from our heart, really and what we believe in. If you believe voices like this should be heard, please support us. We need your support to keep going. And I think if you give us a chance, you're gonna the content because I think we, we are rabid fans who watch and understand the game. Now the week for the Celtics was an interesting week. They went three in one and it was really up. It was some ups and downs and all the other stuff [00:01:00] that goes with it. They opened a week playing Charlotte Hornets and it was an interesting game. Charlotte hung around and played well for first three quarters. And in the fourth quarter, Boston just dusted him and they ended up winning the game by 11. Charlotte shot well early and really seemed to play their best ball early. Like they were coming out to prove there's something. They ran an interesting thing. They would run all their shooters off the big man dia bate. And when he came off of them, Boston would play in drop coverage. So they were getting wide open threes and they were hitting him. LA Melo just went wild. He really killed him. He ended up with 36 for the night, six threes. Charlotte seemed to run outta gas. The shooting slowed down. They ended up shooting 33 for percent from three and so on. Jalen Brown exerted himself and became the player he always is when they need him. 35 and nine, nine rebounds, but 35 points and some big ones down the stretch to put the game away. Tate, although Boston played the first [00:02:00] six minutes of the fourth quarter when they took off without t without Jalen, brown, Tatum had 23, 5 and four. Good game. Pritchard in the fourth one went, went off and had 12 points. That was part of the beginning of the fourth quarter when Boston put it away. Cda another strong game, 12 and five. Derrick White had 12. Kovich was still not shooting well and struggling and that became a problem. And we'll talk about that as we go along. But he was one for 10. Walsh came in and played some great defense on Mello and really shut him down in the fourth quarter. Or, maybe MLO just ran outta gas, but he did a great job to get Boston over the top. Boston scored the last 10 of the third quarter to take the lead for the first time. For not the first time, but. An early late lead, 90 to 87, and then in the fourth quarter Boston won a 23 to 15. That means it was a 33 to 15 way to end the game, which put it away for Boston. Good win for the Celtics. [00:03:00] And it squashed a little bit of Charlotte thinking they could play with Boston, which is more important. The next game was Thursday night and it was our. Our rival, the Knicks. This was a rough loss. 1 12, 1 0 6. I'll start it by saying JB did not play important piece. Josh Hart made two huge threes, and we're gonna talk about the coaching decisions in a second, in the last minute. To win the game for the next Tatum was. 24, 13 and eight, and he was great. K to 10 and 10. Prichard had 23. Shyman, shot the hell out of the ball. Had 20 six for seven, I believe from three. But just tremendous. He kept him in the game in the fourth quarter. It was a big threes that really kept him going. Boston had trouble. Stopping the pick and row with Townsend Roland, with Townsend Brunson. Now Boston plays a lot of drop, especially with Caden in the game. When that happens, you've got towns who can shoot threes, so you got a problem. [00:04:00] You also have Brunson who, if he gets the smaller guy, a bigger guy like Cada, he can make him dance and hurt us. So Boston's gotta come up with some ideas to go around it. The other thing Boston did, and it hurt him, they have played where they have allowed and Joe Missoula likes to pick the worst shooter and not, and put their big man on him and really not guard him. Now for the playing the Knicks, that means Josh Hart not guarding Josh Hart. Hurt them. He hit the two big threes at the end of the game wide open and that's what put the game away. Now Missoula's gotta come up with a different idea. I don't know what the right idea might be. If Cade's gonna cover towns, he's gotta not drop. He's gotta stay up to the level of the ball and even possibly go out in what's called a hedge, go out in front and take away that dribble by Brunson off the screen. Because if he can do that. Then maybe you can stop the whole [00:05:00] thing. And you're forcing Brunson to come back going the other way. And towns is being guarded 'cause Cada can just naturally pick up towns off of that. That's one thing he can do. The other thing would be, like I said, put somebody else on him. Maybe even go small and put Tatum on him. 'cause Tatum could probably hold his own against Brunson in a switch, but they, there's gotta come up with an idea on that. 'cause that's what hurt Boston throughout the fourth quarter when the Knicks made a run after Boston was winning by seven. And the other idea is you can't, you've gotta guard Josh Hart. He's proven now in pressure situations he can shoot. Those are things Missoula's got to figure out if the Celtics do play. The Knicks Next game was an easy win against the new Orleans Pelicans, which really was a harsh show because most of their team, their starters, for their starters were playing. And Boston could name the score. They won 1 44, they won 18, but it wasn't even that close. They were winning from the beginning and it just never [00:06:00] became a game. The, their team, I don't know what New Orleans is doing. They don't have their first pick. They just I don't know what they're trying to do. It was just horrible. Boston did tie a record for threes. They had 29. A positive was Vukovich finally shot the ball and he was shaking off some of the rust. He had three threes. Now I understand giving guys rest. I don't know why they rested him Sunday. Because he needs to play and just get himself back into the game. He did have three threes in that game. Hauser was on fire, eight for 12 from three, and as I said, 29 tying a league record for the most threes ever made. So it was an easy win. And nice. Now, yesterday, one of the most surprising games I've seen in a long time, the Celtics beat the magic by five points. But what was interesting about it was the Celtics. Didn't have any of their players. The starters First seven really playing. So here you are, you're going in with Shireman Harper and [00:07:00] Garza as your offense. And Tanja played well in this game as well. But the interesting thing was, orlando had a lot to play for. They lost home court in the playing game and they needed that. I think. Now what happened ar Orlando got off to about a seven to 10 point lead and they were holding it into the third quarter, and then Boston caught fire, couldn't miss hitting threes all over Shireman and Harper and so on, and. Just hurting Garza, hitting the threes. And Boston all of a sudden took about a 10, 12 point lead into the fourth quarter, 13 point lead and new all the magic almost oh my goodness, we got a problem here. They came back, they tied the game with 30 something seconds left Missoula calls, time out. They take it out. Now Missoula likes the two for one, so he wants to get a shot out by 30 seconds. Garza gets the ball on the left wing in three point land with a guy right next to him, [00:08:00] and he throws the three up and it goes in and it was just beautiful to watch. It was good for Garza and so on. Orlando had two chances at threes missed them both. Boston held on Walsh, made two clutch foul shots to, to help hold on. And Boston gets the win. Stunning win. It tells me also the magic. I don't know if they're all buying in. And I, and if I were Jamal Mosley, I'd be a little concerned about keeping my job because I don't know if they're playing hard for 'em. 'cause they should have just put this team away, the shelter team away in no time. Couple things to talk about. First of all. Bay Shireman is becoming a real player. He can shoot he can shoot threes and he's gotta be guarded. He's shot under pressure against the Knicks and made a bunch in the fourth quarter. Yesterday. He shot real well. He had a lot of points and he was just, he was great. He had 30, Harper had 27 and it was just a great thing. Luca had 27 and 12 rebounds. [00:09:00] Luca is an outstanding rebounder, Vukovi. You gotta like his baseball card back of his card, meaning he's had a great career so you gotta go with him. But that brings up something that's interesting. Luca Garza has done nothing to lose his position. He's played well. Yesterday was a great example. Keep in mind, Orlando had their best players out. Boston didn't, and Luca showed up as better, a better player than Wendell Carter, who's a nice basketball player. He's the magic center. So it says a lot for Luca and how hard he works. You gotta admire him. If I'm the Celtics, okay, you got Vukovic. Unless Vukovich wants to come back cheap next year. I go with Garris as my backup. I know we need rim protection and Luca doesn't provide that, but I still he could score off the bench and he can help you. The other thing we'll talk about for a second is the playoffs. Playoffs are beginning. Yeah, Boston will play [00:10:00] Saturday, I believe, or Sunday rather at one o'clock they will play the winner of the Philadelphia, Orlando game. I'm not concerned about Orlando, though they have talent. I don't think they, they are playing well together and I don't think they wanna be together. I don't think there is a great deal of affinity between the team. Philadelphia could be interesting, but they have no mb so I think Boston would be a. Pretty good favorite and should be okay. Boston's gotta sort out some things about minutes. Hugo didn't play yesterday. He was hurt, but they've gotta figure out how much they're gonna use Walsh, how much they're gonna use Shire and so on. Walsh is a smart, either he's got it or he doesn't, so you find out usually the first couple minutes if he's got it. Shireman is just a steady player, moves his feet, stays in front of people. Fun to watch. So they've, that's the big choice there. Otherwise you've got your Pritchard and you got, the rest of your bench [00:11:00] with Vu or Garza and so on. But those are the decisions that have to be made. I don't think UO will be getting big time playing time meaning in tough situations. So that's where we are. We're opening up Sunday. We'll be back next Monday with another show and. Again, if you've just heard us for the first time, come on back. 'cause I'm always there and I'm always to listen. If you have a comment about what we're talking about please do it. 'cause we will talk about it in the in the next week. Any comment or questions? Again, thank you again. My name's Steve Perello, Celtic Chalk Talk. 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