Celtic Chalk Talk: Episode 3 - Celtics Analysis: Wins, Weaknesses, and New Hope

Untitled project from SquadCast === Steve: [00:00:00] Welcome to Celtic Chalk Talk. Another good week, and we can just discuss a little bit about the Celtics. My name is Steve Perillo. We do Celtic Chalk Talk every Monday. We'd be glad to have you take a listen, especially if you're a Celtic fan. I'm a Boston Celtic fan. I've been a Celtic fan for many years. Going back to Bill Russell this week we're just gonna talk about the week they had as well as. Some of the positives we saw and negatives, if they are the first thing they opened up with is they played New Orleans and that's a game they should win, but they were oh and three going in. And what happened was they did win of course, but it was great to see them play so well in the fourth quarter. In the fourth quarter, they hit a bunch of threes. Anthony Simons hit a few and they also defended very well. And they just took New Orleans outta the game and really blew 'em away. A couple good things. Josh Minot. He's an outstanding on the ball defender and he's really good off the [00:01:00] ball for coming from nowhere and making steals. He's got long arms, he's always able to get his hands on the balls, and he's a real good rebounder. He could play I'll have more on him in a little while. The other thing I really was impressed with was NES Kda. He had a bunch of rebounds in that game. He had, I believe, 11. Which is a great game to have. So it was a positive for Boston. They get their first win. Then they again, came back and they played Cleveland at home. Cleveland's an interesting team. Cleveland is struggling right now, and I was quite surprised that Coach Atkinson of Cleveland would pull his team with a little over two minutes left and only down 12 or 14. You have Donovan Mitchell who can always hurt you I don't wanna read into the Cleveland situation, but it doesn't sound great. But as for Boston, they really played well. They shot the ball real well, especially in the first half when Cleveland was shooting the ball real well. So Boston was able to negate that advantage. [00:02:00] Donovan Mitchell went off in the first quarter and from that point on, he was silent. I know he was hurt and I know he wasn't. Game, it was a game time decision on whether he'd play, but. He, he's still Donovan Mitchell for the Boston Celtics. Some of the positives, K to 13 rebounds. Now you are really seeing the defensive rebounding getting better for Boston. He also, Sam Hauser had seven seven threes and he was on fire. The thing that upset me or made me think though, Boston got wobbly in the fourth quarter. If Cleveland came on, they might've pulled it off. Boston still struggling in how to win. And that that's not a good thing. Boston, Cleveland made the Celtic fans a little nervous in the fourth quarter because. Of what Boston was doing. But what it did show signs was Boston could be a good team. They need to learn how to win, and I'll get into that in a few seconds. Next was Philly. [00:03:00] And Philly. Boston Got out to over a 20 point lead early in the second quarter as the game progressed. Boston. Lost the lead. Philly, in fact, took the lead, I believe in the third quarter. And really from that point on, it was cut, touch and go both teams back and forth and both teams playing well. Boston getting a little bit of the better of it. But it was back and forth. The things that impressed me were you go in Minot, they just bring so much energy and if you've ever played the game, you understand guys with high energy on your team make you play that way. And that's what they're good at. The negative down the stretch, Jayla Brown, Mr. Faus shot Minot missed two. And both times they could have really put Philly away and Philly missed. They had two shots at winning it in the last 15 seconds. They missed shots. Maxie had about a 10 footer that was fairly, non it was defended but not real well and he missed it, which was a stunner and the final shot was not a good [00:04:00] one, and B just forced a three at the buzzer. The problem here, when you miss three foul shots down the stretch, what does it tell you? It tells you have a team that's talented 'cause they had to lead. But they don't know how to put a team away. And that is an important thing in being a good team. Boston needs to begin to learn to be able to put teams away. And that starts with Jay Om Brown, of course. But the, and the last game of the week. The less said about it, the better. Boston was playing their fifth game in seven nights. They really had no energy. In fact, Missoula pulled brown after 22 minutes and didn't use him again, and that was in the third quarter. Houston presents problems, even if Boston was rested, their big. They're physical and they can score, they can shoot. They shot real well in this game from three. But Boston continued to give 'em corner threes and a lot of times on the strong side. And if you understand [00:05:00] basketball, if you are a defender and you're, the ball is on your side, the strong side on the wing, and you're guarding the corner person, you don't leave him. You don't leave him. Boston did that continuously in the third and throughout the game, and they were getting wide open. Threes and Jabari Smith and even Thompson, who's not a great shooter, we're cashing in on it. Boston's gotta fix that. It's just a mistake. They continued to make. But don't forget, Houston had two days off. They came in strong and ready. Boston coming off a tough win against Philly wasn't strong and ready, naturally in a game like that with a good team, you're in trouble. And Boston was in trouble and they really, they tried, but they just couldn't compete on that giving night. Now let's talk about some of the positives and things that are going on. Jalen Brown is getting better and better as the Boston Celtic go-to Guy. [00:06:00] You have to remember, Jalen Brown was never, it was always Tatum, the go-to guy. He's starting to pick it up. He's scoring, he's he's doing a lot of things and he's leading and he's also defending at a good level for a star player. He will get better and better as time goes on. What Jalen, Jalen is playing in all NBA territory so far. So that's one of the great positives. Now, Josh Minot, I had mentioned before, great defender and they're putting him on the best players on other teams and he's struggling at times, but he's holding his own. The other thing, he's a rebounder. He can grab rebounds. Those are good things to have on your team. And he's a good four, meaning, the next big man outside of the center and he's holding his own on that end defensively. Also, he can he can disrupt. He [00:07:00] also can steal things, steal the ball. He does a lot of good things on the defensive end. Not to mention guarding the best guy on the other team. If he gets an offensive game, he's gonna make some money in the NBA. He'll still do okay. He'll make some money, but he can really become a really good player. Think guys like Lou do who've made themselves into decent offensive players. Hopefully Minot takes that step. The next thing that, that's a negative, Peyton Prichard and Derek White can play. We know that we've watched him shoot. We've watched him score. We'd watched him do some great things. Derek White always had the uncanny knack at the end of a game to hit a big shot to put Boston in the lead or put him away as a winner. He's not doing it. He's not shooting at a good percentage this year, nor is from three, nor is Payton Pritchard shooting at a good percentage from three, from past. Unless something's crazy. [00:08:00] They're gonna come on. Boston needs them to come on. That will just make the Celtics a better team. The other one is UO Gonzalez. UO is a good defender. He's raw. He's all over the place on the court. He commits a lot of fouls. The only way for someone that's raw to get better is to be on the court. I hope that Boston continues to use him, but I also hope that he goes down to Maine and gets a lot of playing time. He needs to be on the court. He's shown the ability to make a three. He's shown some offensive ability. Boston doesn't need that right now though. They need his defense and energy. And he's got that. It's just got to come on each week at each game. He will get better. Be patient. He's a rookie. He's played now what? Seven NBA, not even seven. 'cause he sat out to five NBA games. So give that time and it'll be fine. [00:09:00] The last one is Nes cda. CDA had an interesting week. He had. 11 rebounds against New Orleans, 13 against Philly, and really looked like he was coming on. He does show signs of being good. Two things I would suggest for the Celtics to do. He needs more playing time. More than 25 minutes a night. He needs to go for the 35 or 30 and like A player does. The other thing is if he's going to be good, he's gotta bring it every night. The last two games of the week against Philly and New Orleans, he only had four rebounds. They need him to rebound. They need him to do the extra things on the court. Which brings me to the last thing, defensive rebounding, which I talked at nauseum about last week. Boston improved a lot. I'm reading off something here. Boston defensive rebounds. In the last couple games, 82% of the [00:10:00] rebounds against New Orleans, 80 against Cleveland, 81 against Philly. All great numbers. The last one, not good. 72 against Houston. I look at that as a tiredness and Houston being bigger and more physical. Boston does need. To get another big or hope that Cada just continues to develop. Now, last thing, what those four games last week did was open my eyes. You have to think about this. They're playing in the Eastern Conference. The Eastern Conference is not strong. The Nixon Cleveland are. What I thought would be a wasted year isn't, in other words, a developmental year. I think this team as constituted and with if Tatum comes back, can make trouble in the East. They have some offense, they need a rebounding, more rebounding, but they have things that are very, that are good and they can hold their own against the good teams [00:11:00] in the east. I don't know if they can play against some of the good teams in the west, but they can hold their own. They just need to continue to play and get better. I, again, and I wanna say most importantly, I don't think this is a throwaway year. I think they could be a problem for a lot of teams in the division. It depends on a lot of things. One of them is cater, just continuing to develop. The other is Jalen Brown, just continuing to be the go-to guy and the player. They need Pritchard and White to begin to hit more threes. If all of that comes along, they can a problem. That is the thing that I am most optimistic about. This this concludes the week. I hope you, you listen. I hope you enjoy. If you have a comment, make it thank you and we'll talk next week.