April 20, 2025 • 20 mins
The Jays had an off night. No problem. Derrick White and Payton Pritchard were there to pick up the slack with a combined 49 points on 62 percent shooting! And Jrue Holiday was all over the court, asserting himself on defense and drilling 3-pointers. Those three players are the reasons why Boston was able to dominate this game while The Jays had an off night. We’re sounding off on that, plus the Celtics’ intensity and physicality, following the Game 1 win.
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Speaker 1 (00:06):
Sound Off with me folks on the Boston Celtics dominating
Game one of their first round series against the Orlando Magic,
despite the fact that Orlando's top two players played above
their average while Boston's top two players played below their average,
and yet the Celtics are heading home tonight as winners
(00:27):
by seventeen points. We're gonna dive into how that happened
right now, Welcome into the postgame podcast. This is sound Off.
We have this podcast coming out on both YouTube and
audio channels for all home games and on audio platforms
for all away games. Okay, so you can get this
every single night in audio format and for home games
(00:50):
you can get it on YouTube. I appreciate you watching,
I appreciate you listening. And for those of you who
do not know, all you have to do is reply
to my post on x after the final buzzer and
you can be a part of this podcast. Give me
your feedback, give me your commentary. I want to know
what you're thinking after the final buzzer, and I pull
a few to include each night. Now listen, I'm getting
(01:12):
over a little bit of a cold. Okay, I'm just
gonna save this upfront, so there might be a couple
of times when I've got to clear my throat, maybe I've.
Speaker 2 (01:19):
Got to take a swig of water.
Speaker 1 (01:23):
I apologize, I'm battling through this, and I hope you
can bear with me. Okay, I want to get get
that out of there. Up front tonight, we've got some
comments from our fans. We're gonna be talking about Boston's
intensity level. We're gonna be talking about Derek White saving
the day with his thirty point game, and we're gonna
talk about what the Celtics did defensively during Game one
two slow Orlando down. But first we got to go
(01:47):
back to what I open with the fact that the
Boston Celtics won this game despite the Jays combining for
only thirty three points on thirty nine percent shooting from
the field, and they won this game by seventeen points.
How does a team do that in the playoffs? The
only answer is by being great from top to bottom,
(02:09):
and the Celtics proved it all season long, and they
proved it again tonight. Tonight, their two best players were
Derek White and Peyton Pritchard. Those two guys combined for
what forty nine points, nineteen of them coming off the
bench from Peyton Prichard, thirty of them coming from Derreck White.
I mean, you have Drew Holliday dominating the third quarter
(02:31):
at both ends of the court with his defense and
with his three point shooting. Those three guys impacted the
game the most out of anyone on the Celtics roster.
That doesn't even include the J's. So the fact that
the Celtics can do this, excuse me behind Derek White,
(02:51):
Peyton Pritchard, Drew Holliday and then get what you get
from the rest of the crew and you still win
by seventeen points over a really good Orlando Magic team.
Just an incredible start to this postseason for Boston. This
was a reminder of just how deep this team is.
So let's dive into it with a little bit more
(03:12):
depth here. Derek White was unbelievable. His career high in
the postseason, I believe is thirty eight points. Tonight he
had thirty on ten for eighteen shooting. This guy almost
had You know, he always reaches in his pocket pocket
full of threes after he makes series. He almost had
two pockets full of threes tonight. He had seven made
(03:33):
three pointers on twelve attempts. Seven for twelve from distance, incredible.
Orlando's entire team made ten, so he only made three
fewer three pointers than Orlando's entire team in this game.
Derek White, unbelievable as always, also adds in four rebounds
(03:54):
to assists, a steal, and a couple blocks, getting it
done across the board as he always does, keep moving
down the line. Peyton Pritchard comes off the bench to
score nineteen points in twenty five minutes. Less than twenty
five minutes. Let's put a bow on what this means
for the game. Peyton Pritchard outscored Orlando's entire bench all
(04:17):
by himself. He scored nineteen, Orlando's bench scored seventeen. That's
all you need to know about how these two teams
reserves in second units matched up against each other.
Speaker 2 (04:32):
In this game. Peyton Pritchard outscored.
Speaker 1 (04:36):
All of Orlando's reserves all by himself, and he did
it in the same fashion that we've seen all season long.
Speaker 2 (04:44):
Elite three point shooter plays.
Speaker 1 (04:46):
At a pace getting to the basket that is so
difficult for defenders to read and react to. They've got
to respect his shot, his fadeaway shot in the mid
range and then if they bite on it, he just
pulls with that step through and gets to the rack
or uses his strength to create a shot at the rim.
Peyton Pritchard is awesome. He is going to be the
(05:07):
sixth Man of the Year. I guarantee you that. And
the fact that the Celtics have him playing at this
level as they head into the postseason and now win
their first game of the postseason is monumental for this team.
And we can talk a little bit more about Drew
Holliday too. Don't forget about Drew Holliday, a two way,
(05:29):
super impact player that is just flying under the radar
for the Boston Celtics. The reason why Last season he
shot about forty two percent from three point range and
he was pretty darn healthy throughout the season. This year
more along the lines of thirty five thirty six percent
from three point range, and he missed some time. So
(05:50):
with that drop in three point shooting and with that
drop in health throughout the regular season, I think a
lot of people are just forgetting just how great he
really is. Drew Holliday can win playoff games by himself
by the way that he impacts games at both ends
of the court. That's what he did tonight. He only
scored nine points, he only had five assists. He did
(06:14):
have three steals in this game. But like those rown
numbers don't tell the whole story. Can you imagine what
it feels like to have him in your grill all night?
Like he might makes life difficult for anyone he is defending.
Hence the three steals. Tonight also drills a few three pointers.
So like, this is the time of year when Drew
(06:34):
Holliday knows time to up the annie, time to start
playing at a level that maybe I didn't reach during
the regular season. Well, now it matters more than it
has all year long. I've got to take it up
a notch. And he did that tonight. So do not
forget about Drew Holliday, one of the best two way
players in the league. When we're talking about being able
(06:57):
to impact on defense and also put the ball through
the basket on offense. The Celtics don't ask him to
score a lot. That's why he doesn't score a lot.
But that doesn't mean he's not capable of putting the
ball through the basket at a very high rate. The
bottom line, when we talk about everything that we've just
mentioned here in the first five six minutes of this podcast,
(07:20):
however long this has been, is Orlando cannot win this
series with only its two best players. Franz and Paulo
were great tonight, they lost by seventeen points. The reason
is because they didn't get much of anything from anyone
else on the roster. And if that happens throughout this series,
(07:42):
Orlando's not going to win this series. It's not going
to happen. It's not possible. The Celtics are too good.
It's as simple as that. So when you've got Derek
White and Peyton Pritchard and Drew Holliday being arguably the
three most impactful players for the Celtics in this game,
(08:06):
it's a reminder of just how great and just how
deep the Boston Celtics are. It's as simple as that.
All right, let's get into these comments from our fans.
First up, we've got Tomo on Boston's intensity level.
Speaker 2 (08:21):
Then we've got excuse.
Speaker 1 (08:23):
Me, Then we've got f Low eleven on Derek White
saving the day, and then last off, we've got Playoff
Green Guru on what the Seas did defensively to slow
the Magic Town let's go into our first one right here.
All right, first up, Tomo, you're on the clock here.
Tomo says, they raised their intensity level in the third quarter.
(08:47):
They met Orlando's physicality and d White and Prichard balled out.
Couldn't agree more. I'm pretty sure anyone watching this right
now agrees completely with what you just said, Tomo.
Speaker 2 (08:59):
But let's dive in a little bit. That third quarter.
Speaker 1 (09:04):
That was when Drew Holliday started to assert himself defensively,
and by the way, he took that defense and rolled
it into the other end of the court with some offense.
Speaker 2 (09:12):
Two had some assists.
Speaker 1 (09:13):
I don't know how many assists, actually, I'm gonna pull
up the numbers right now of exactly what he did
during the third quarter.
Speaker 2 (09:19):
Drew Holliday during the third quarter all nine of his points.
Speaker 1 (09:26):
Four assists, two steals, and a rebound, and he played
the whole quarter. The Celtics were riding his back. That
was when he upped his level of energy, not necessarily effort,
but it was just like the intensity, that's the great word, Tomo.
That rose to a whole other level. And it started
(09:46):
with Drew Holliday and then the rest of the team
just fell in line and coming into this series, the
word physical in physicality, those words have been thrown around
quite a bit, including from all of Boston's coaches and
players who have spoken to the media heading into this series.
Orlando is arguably the most or one of the most
(10:10):
physical teams in the NBA. The only way to compete
with them is by matching that or at least coming close.
To Tomo's point, Boston matched that physicality during this game,
and in particular during that third quarter, and I think
Joe Mizula is gonna be able to point to that
and look at the film and say, fellas, like this
(10:30):
is the recipe for success. All we have to do
is do this. We have to play this hard with
this much physicality. We need to play through these guys.
Don't let them play through us. That's what the Celtics
did during this game. Sure enough, they win by seventeen points.
So great to see. You know, I said this a
(10:50):
couple of days ago when Orlando did win the seventh seed,
is that this is kind of like a perfect matchup
for the first round of the post season for the Celtics.
Speaker 2 (11:01):
If they can win in advance.
Speaker 1 (11:03):
And the reason I say that is because having to
play with physicality from the get go of your playoff run,
that just kind of like makes you clock in. It
makes you dial in, It makes you understand what you
need to do every night in order to win a championship.
So it's not like the Celtics have to you know,
They're just gonna win this series going away without having
(11:24):
to play physical basketball or anything like that, and then
maybe in the Eastern Conference Finals or something like that,
then suddenly, oh shoot, we got to play physical We
got to take that out, dust that off and be
able to bring our physicality to the table. No, they're
playing with physicality right now, right out the gates in
this postseason, and I think that is a great thing
(11:44):
for the Boston Celtics as they go and try to
make a deep run for the second consecutive year and
try to win yet another NBA championship. Tom oh I
appreciate this comment. They did raise their intensity, they did
meet Orlando's physicality, and d White and Pritchard we all, I'll.
Speaker 2 (12:00):
Know it, those boys balled out all right.
Speaker 1 (12:04):
Next up, we've got e Flow eleven who says D
White bailed them out. I'm gonna go ahead and disagree
with the terminology. I don't think that Derek White bailed
anyone out. I think that this night, with Derek White
scoring thirty points is simply an exclamation point in the
(12:26):
end of the sentence of the Boston Celtics are the
deepest team in the NBA. He could have scored fifteen
points and the Celtics still might have won this game.
I don't think he bailed the Celtics out. I think
he was just hot. The Celtics knew it. They got
him the ball. He took eighteen shots, that was the
second most on the entire team. This wasn't about him
bailing the Celtics out. This was simply about Derek White
(12:53):
rising to the moment. The Boston Celtics knowing that he
was rising to the moment and getting the ball and
right him, like, let this guy lead you if he's
shooting the ball that way, seven for twelve from distance,
blocking two shots, grabbing a steal, dish assists. The Celtics
aren't picky with who needs to lead them each night.
Speaker 2 (13:16):
It can be anyone.
Speaker 1 (13:17):
It can be Peyton Pritchard, Chris Alsporzingis, Jylen Brown, Jason Tatum,
Dereck White, Drew Holliday, El Horford, Sam Houser. It can
be anyone who steps up to the plate on any
given night, and tonight it was Derek White. So I'm
not sure if you're trying to say that he bailed
(13:39):
them out in terms of like the Celtics wouldn't have
won this game without him. If that is what you're saying,
I totally disagree. I think the Celtics would have won
this game if he only scored ten or fifteen points
because someone else would have stepped up. That's how it
works with this Celtics team. That's how it's worked all
season long, when they won sixty one games despite barely
(14:02):
being healthy. This team is incredibly deep, it's incredibly talented,
and Derek White was the guy on this night who
stepped up. They're gonna need this to happen many more times.
If they're gonna win fifteen more games in this postseason,
someone other than Jason Tatum and Jaylen Brown are going
(14:24):
to have to play great. That's what it takes to
win a championship. You need other guys to play great.
You need balance, you need depth. The Celtics have that,
and they showcased it tonight. Derek White was unbelievable, almost
had two pockets full of threes. Hopefully we see more
of that coming up Wednesday night in Game two. All right, folks,
(14:48):
last comment of the night. This one's coming in from
Playoff green Guru, who says defense anticipated their passes, picked
their pockets. Thirteen steals as it team, great playmaking from
Jason Tatum.
Speaker 2 (15:03):
No one's talked about that.
Speaker 1 (15:05):
All their attention was on the Jays, which allowed d
White and Pritchard to flourish. Let's start out talking about
that defense, because that's the first word in Playoff green
Guru's comment here. Defense period. Let's look at the box score.
It's right there for us to see. Thirteen steals from
(15:25):
the Celtics. All five starters had a steal. I'm gonna
go down the list. Jalen Brown with two, Jason Tatum
with one, Christas Porzingis with four as a big man,
Derek White with one, and Drew Holliday with three. Then
you've got Peyton Pritchard and Tory Craig each adding in
(15:45):
one off the bench. But when you are active like
this on defense, and you could tell it was a
game plan for the Celtics. They wanted to play with
active hands. They wanted to tip the ball away, take
away passing lanes. Time Polo Bencero or Franz Wagner had
the ball in their hands, they wanted to play active
off the ball, Try to pick balls off, try to
(16:08):
play with your hands in passing lanes. See what happens,
and what happened tonight is the Celtics. They got thirteen
steals and they wound up with how many points off turnovers?
Let's find that number. Twenty four points off of Orlando's
fifteen turnovers, including those thirteen steals. You want to know
(16:33):
how many points Orlando scored off of turnovers tonight? Eight
eight points. The Celtics scored three times as many points
off of turnovers than Orlando, twenty four to eight. That's
(16:54):
how you win playoff games. You take care of the
ball and was assert yourself to a point where the
other team does not take care of the ball, and
when you force turnovers, you take advantage. That's what the
Celtics did tonight. I just went down the box score
like all five of their starters logged at least one steal.
(17:17):
They combined for eleven steals in this game. That tells
you right there, that doesn't happen by chance. That tells
you that was an emphasis going into the game. They
want to make that happen. Now, does that mean it
will happen in future games, We don't know. We're gonna
have to wait and see if Orlando kind of reacts,
(17:37):
watches the film make some adjustments.
Speaker 2 (17:39):
Who knows.
Speaker 1 (17:40):
But going into this game, the Celtics wanted to play
with active hands. They wanted to assert themselves defensively, and
they did exactly that. I'm gonna tell you right now.
That is one of the biggest things that you can
take away from this game is that the Celtics did
that on defense on Night one of the postseason. They
(18:02):
started doing this later in the regular season. Joe Missoula
was telling them, you remember that road trip, six game
road trip, they swept it. Joe Missoula was telling the guys,
let's up the intensity, Let's make the other team feel uncomfortable.
Let's make them cough the ball up, turn the ball over.
(18:25):
They made the other teams do that throughout that run,
and now they're doing it in the postseason. So just
great to see from the Celtics right out of the
gates in Game one of the NBA Playoffs. If they
continue to do that on defense, and they continued to
score the basketball, which we know they're going to, they
(18:47):
might have an off night, maybe two in a seven
game series. But it's not gonna be more than that.
They're too good, they're too balanced, they have too much depth.
But if they play like that on defense and they
score the way we know they're gonna score, good luck
to the rest of the NBA as we go through
(19:09):
this postseason. All right, great start for the Boston Celtics.
That's one win down, fifteen more to go to get
to a championship. But let's dial it back, Okay, it's
three more to advance to the next round. The Celtics
have another opportunity Wednesday night in Game two to try
to take a commanding two to zero lead in this series.
That game will be played at seven o'clock. You can
(19:31):
watch it on TNT and by the way, for anyone locally,
that game will be on NBC Sports Boston. So I know,
if you want to hear Drew Carter, you want to
hear Brian Scalabrini, tune into NBC Sports Boston. For anyone
else outside of the market, make sure you tune in
to TNT again. It's Wednesday night at seven o'clock. I'm
gonna have another episode right here, on YouTube and on
(19:53):
your favorite podcast platforms right after the game. Check out
my post at the end of the game. Send in
your comment. Mary, I'm gonna pull a few and I
can't wait. Let's see you Wednesday night. Let's hope the
Celtics come out for the team provision
Sound Off with me folks on the Boston Celtics dominating
Game one of their first round series against the Orlando Magic,
despite the fact that Orlando's top two players played above
their average while Boston's top two players played below their average,
and yet the Celtics are heading home tonight as winners
(00:27):
by seventeen points. We're gonna dive into how that happened
right now, Welcome into the postgame podcast. This is sound Off.
We have this podcast coming out on both YouTube and
audio channels for all home games and on audio platforms
for all away games. Okay, so you can get this
every single night in audio format and for home games
(00:50):
you can get it on YouTube. I appreciate you watching,
I appreciate you listening. And for those of you who
do not know, all you have to do is reply
to my post on x after the final buzzer and
you can be a part of this podcast. Give me
your feedback, give me your commentary. I want to know
what you're thinking after the final buzzer, and I pull
a few to include each night. Now listen, I'm getting
(01:12):
over a little bit of a cold. Okay, I'm just
gonna save this upfront, so there might be a couple
of times when I've got to clear my throat, maybe I've.
Speaker 2 (01:19):
Got to take a swig of water.
Speaker 1 (01:23):
I apologize, I'm battling through this, and I hope you
can bear with me. Okay, I want to get get
that out of there. Up front tonight, we've got some
comments from our fans. We're gonna be talking about Boston's
intensity level. We're gonna be talking about Derek White saving
the day with his thirty point game, and we're gonna
talk about what the Celtics did defensively during Game one
two slow Orlando down. But first we got to go
(01:47):
back to what I open with the fact that the
Boston Celtics won this game despite the Jays combining for
only thirty three points on thirty nine percent shooting from
the field, and they won this game by seventeen points.
How does a team do that in the playoffs? The
only answer is by being great from top to bottom,
(02:09):
and the Celtics proved it all season long, and they
proved it again tonight. Tonight, their two best players were
Derek White and Peyton Pritchard. Those two guys combined for
what forty nine points, nineteen of them coming off the
bench from Peyton Prichard, thirty of them coming from Derreck White.
I mean, you have Drew Holliday dominating the third quarter
(02:31):
at both ends of the court with his defense and
with his three point shooting. Those three guys impacted the
game the most out of anyone on the Celtics roster.
That doesn't even include the J's. So the fact that
the Celtics can do this, excuse me behind Derek White,
(02:51):
Peyton Pritchard, Drew Holliday and then get what you get
from the rest of the crew and you still win
by seventeen points over a really good Orlando Magic team.
Just an incredible start to this postseason for Boston. This
was a reminder of just how deep this team is.
So let's dive into it with a little bit more
(03:12):
depth here. Derek White was unbelievable. His career high in
the postseason, I believe is thirty eight points. Tonight he
had thirty on ten for eighteen shooting. This guy almost
had You know, he always reaches in his pocket pocket
full of threes after he makes series. He almost had
two pockets full of threes tonight. He had seven made
(03:33):
three pointers on twelve attempts. Seven for twelve from distance, incredible.
Orlando's entire team made ten, so he only made three
fewer three pointers than Orlando's entire team in this game.
Derek White, unbelievable as always, also adds in four rebounds
(03:54):
to assists, a steal, and a couple blocks, getting it
done across the board as he always does, keep moving
down the line. Peyton Pritchard comes off the bench to
score nineteen points in twenty five minutes. Less than twenty
five minutes. Let's put a bow on what this means
for the game. Peyton Pritchard outscored Orlando's entire bench all
(04:17):
by himself. He scored nineteen, Orlando's bench scored seventeen. That's
all you need to know about how these two teams
reserves in second units matched up against each other.
Speaker 2 (04:32):
In this game. Peyton Pritchard outscored.
Speaker 1 (04:36):
All of Orlando's reserves all by himself, and he did
it in the same fashion that we've seen all season long.
Speaker 2 (04:44):
Elite three point shooter plays.
Speaker 1 (04:46):
At a pace getting to the basket that is so
difficult for defenders to read and react to. They've got
to respect his shot, his fadeaway shot in the mid
range and then if they bite on it, he just
pulls with that step through and gets to the rack
or uses his strength to create a shot at the rim.
Peyton Pritchard is awesome. He is going to be the
(05:07):
sixth Man of the Year. I guarantee you that. And
the fact that the Celtics have him playing at this
level as they head into the postseason and now win
their first game of the postseason is monumental for this team.
And we can talk a little bit more about Drew
Holliday too. Don't forget about Drew Holliday, a two way,
(05:29):
super impact player that is just flying under the radar
for the Boston Celtics. The reason why Last season he
shot about forty two percent from three point range and
he was pretty darn healthy throughout the season. This year
more along the lines of thirty five thirty six percent
from three point range, and he missed some time. So
(05:50):
with that drop in three point shooting and with that
drop in health throughout the regular season, I think a
lot of people are just forgetting just how great he
really is. Drew Holliday can win playoff games by himself
by the way that he impacts games at both ends
of the court. That's what he did tonight. He only
scored nine points, he only had five assists. He did
(06:14):
have three steals in this game. But like those rown
numbers don't tell the whole story. Can you imagine what
it feels like to have him in your grill all night?
Like he might makes life difficult for anyone he is defending.
Hence the three steals. Tonight also drills a few three pointers.
So like, this is the time of year when Drew
(06:34):
Holliday knows time to up the annie, time to start
playing at a level that maybe I didn't reach during
the regular season. Well, now it matters more than it
has all year long. I've got to take it up
a notch. And he did that tonight. So do not
forget about Drew Holliday, one of the best two way
players in the league. When we're talking about being able
(06:57):
to impact on defense and also put the ball through
the basket on offense. The Celtics don't ask him to
score a lot. That's why he doesn't score a lot.
But that doesn't mean he's not capable of putting the
ball through the basket at a very high rate. The
bottom line, when we talk about everything that we've just
mentioned here in the first five six minutes of this podcast,
(07:20):
however long this has been, is Orlando cannot win this
series with only its two best players. Franz and Paulo
were great tonight, they lost by seventeen points. The reason
is because they didn't get much of anything from anyone
else on the roster. And if that happens throughout this series,
(07:42):
Orlando's not going to win this series. It's not going
to happen. It's not possible. The Celtics are too good.
It's as simple as that. So when you've got Derek
White and Peyton Pritchard and Drew Holliday being arguably the
three most impactful players for the Celtics in this game,
(08:06):
it's a reminder of just how great and just how
deep the Boston Celtics are. It's as simple as that.
All right, let's get into these comments from our fans.
First up, we've got Tomo on Boston's intensity level.
Speaker 2 (08:21):
Then we've got excuse.
Speaker 1 (08:23):
Me, Then we've got f Low eleven on Derek White
saving the day, and then last off, we've got Playoff
Green Guru on what the Seas did defensively to slow
the Magic Town let's go into our first one right here.
All right, first up, Tomo, you're on the clock here.
Tomo says, they raised their intensity level in the third quarter.
(08:47):
They met Orlando's physicality and d White and Prichard balled out.
Couldn't agree more. I'm pretty sure anyone watching this right
now agrees completely with what you just said, Tomo.
Speaker 2 (08:59):
But let's dive in a little bit. That third quarter.
Speaker 1 (09:04):
That was when Drew Holliday started to assert himself defensively,
and by the way, he took that defense and rolled
it into the other end of the court with some offense.
Speaker 2 (09:12):
Two had some assists.
Speaker 1 (09:13):
I don't know how many assists, actually, I'm gonna pull
up the numbers right now of exactly what he did
during the third quarter.
Speaker 2 (09:19):
Drew Holliday during the third quarter all nine of his points.
Speaker 1 (09:26):
Four assists, two steals, and a rebound, and he played
the whole quarter. The Celtics were riding his back. That
was when he upped his level of energy, not necessarily effort,
but it was just like the intensity, that's the great word, Tomo.
That rose to a whole other level. And it started
(09:46):
with Drew Holliday and then the rest of the team
just fell in line and coming into this series, the
word physical in physicality, those words have been thrown around
quite a bit, including from all of Boston's coaches and
players who have spoken to the media heading into this series.
Orlando is arguably the most or one of the most
(10:10):
physical teams in the NBA. The only way to compete
with them is by matching that or at least coming close.
To Tomo's point, Boston matched that physicality during this game,
and in particular during that third quarter, and I think
Joe Mizula is gonna be able to point to that
and look at the film and say, fellas, like this
(10:30):
is the recipe for success. All we have to do
is do this. We have to play this hard with
this much physicality. We need to play through these guys.
Don't let them play through us. That's what the Celtics
did during this game. Sure enough, they win by seventeen points.
So great to see. You know, I said this a
(10:50):
couple of days ago when Orlando did win the seventh seed,
is that this is kind of like a perfect matchup
for the first round of the post season for the Celtics.
Speaker 2 (11:01):
If they can win in advance.
Speaker 1 (11:03):
And the reason I say that is because having to
play with physicality from the get go of your playoff run,
that just kind of like makes you clock in. It
makes you dial in, It makes you understand what you
need to do every night in order to win a championship.
So it's not like the Celtics have to you know,
They're just gonna win this series going away without having
(11:24):
to play physical basketball or anything like that, and then
maybe in the Eastern Conference Finals or something like that,
then suddenly, oh shoot, we got to play physical We
got to take that out, dust that off and be
able to bring our physicality to the table. No, they're
playing with physicality right now, right out the gates in
this postseason, and I think that is a great thing
(11:44):
for the Boston Celtics as they go and try to
make a deep run for the second consecutive year and
try to win yet another NBA championship. Tom oh I
appreciate this comment. They did raise their intensity, they did
meet Orlando's physicality, and d White and Pritchard we all, I'll.
Speaker 2 (12:00):
Know it, those boys balled out all right.
Speaker 1 (12:04):
Next up, we've got e Flow eleven who says D
White bailed them out. I'm gonna go ahead and disagree
with the terminology. I don't think that Derek White bailed
anyone out. I think that this night, with Derek White
scoring thirty points is simply an exclamation point in the
(12:26):
end of the sentence of the Boston Celtics are the
deepest team in the NBA. He could have scored fifteen
points and the Celtics still might have won this game.
I don't think he bailed the Celtics out. I think
he was just hot. The Celtics knew it. They got
him the ball. He took eighteen shots, that was the
second most on the entire team. This wasn't about him
bailing the Celtics out. This was simply about Derek White
(12:53):
rising to the moment. The Boston Celtics knowing that he
was rising to the moment and getting the ball and
right him, like, let this guy lead you if he's
shooting the ball that way, seven for twelve from distance,
blocking two shots, grabbing a steal, dish assists. The Celtics
aren't picky with who needs to lead them each night.
Speaker 2 (13:16):
It can be anyone.
Speaker 1 (13:17):
It can be Peyton Pritchard, Chris Alsporzingis, Jylen Brown, Jason Tatum,
Dereck White, Drew Holliday, El Horford, Sam Houser. It can
be anyone who steps up to the plate on any
given night, and tonight it was Derek White. So I'm
not sure if you're trying to say that he bailed
(13:39):
them out in terms of like the Celtics wouldn't have
won this game without him. If that is what you're saying,
I totally disagree. I think the Celtics would have won
this game if he only scored ten or fifteen points
because someone else would have stepped up. That's how it
works with this Celtics team. That's how it's worked all
season long, when they won sixty one games despite barely
(14:02):
being healthy. This team is incredibly deep, it's incredibly talented,
and Derek White was the guy on this night who
stepped up. They're gonna need this to happen many more times.
If they're gonna win fifteen more games in this postseason,
someone other than Jason Tatum and Jaylen Brown are going
(14:24):
to have to play great. That's what it takes to
win a championship. You need other guys to play great.
You need balance, you need depth. The Celtics have that,
and they showcased it tonight. Derek White was unbelievable, almost
had two pockets full of threes. Hopefully we see more
of that coming up Wednesday night in Game two. All right, folks,
(14:48):
last comment of the night. This one's coming in from
Playoff green Guru, who says defense anticipated their passes, picked
their pockets. Thirteen steals as it team, great playmaking from
Jason Tatum.
Speaker 2 (15:03):
No one's talked about that.
Speaker 1 (15:05):
All their attention was on the Jays, which allowed d
White and Pritchard to flourish. Let's start out talking about
that defense, because that's the first word in Playoff green
Guru's comment here. Defense period. Let's look at the box score.
It's right there for us to see. Thirteen steals from
(15:25):
the Celtics. All five starters had a steal. I'm gonna
go down the list. Jalen Brown with two, Jason Tatum
with one, Christas Porzingis with four as a big man,
Derek White with one, and Drew Holliday with three. Then
you've got Peyton Pritchard and Tory Craig each adding in
(15:45):
one off the bench. But when you are active like
this on defense, and you could tell it was a
game plan for the Celtics. They wanted to play with
active hands. They wanted to tip the ball away, take
away passing lanes. Time Polo Bencero or Franz Wagner had
the ball in their hands, they wanted to play active
off the ball, Try to pick balls off, try to
(16:08):
play with your hands in passing lanes. See what happens,
and what happened tonight is the Celtics. They got thirteen
steals and they wound up with how many points off turnovers?
Let's find that number. Twenty four points off of Orlando's
fifteen turnovers, including those thirteen steals. You want to know
(16:33):
how many points Orlando scored off of turnovers tonight? Eight
eight points. The Celtics scored three times as many points
off of turnovers than Orlando, twenty four to eight. That's
(16:54):
how you win playoff games. You take care of the
ball and was assert yourself to a point where the
other team does not take care of the ball, and
when you force turnovers, you take advantage. That's what the
Celtics did tonight. I just went down the box score
like all five of their starters logged at least one steal.
(17:17):
They combined for eleven steals in this game. That tells
you right there, that doesn't happen by chance. That tells
you that was an emphasis going into the game. They
want to make that happen. Now, does that mean it
will happen in future games, We don't know. We're gonna
have to wait and see if Orlando kind of reacts,
(17:37):
watches the film make some adjustments.
Speaker 2 (17:39):
Who knows.
Speaker 1 (17:40):
But going into this game, the Celtics wanted to play
with active hands. They wanted to assert themselves defensively, and
they did exactly that. I'm gonna tell you right now.
That is one of the biggest things that you can
take away from this game is that the Celtics did
that on defense on Night one of the postseason. They
(18:02):
started doing this later in the regular season. Joe Missoula
was telling them, you remember that road trip, six game
road trip, they swept it. Joe Missoula was telling the guys,
let's up the intensity, Let's make the other team feel uncomfortable.
Let's make them cough the ball up, turn the ball over.
(18:25):
They made the other teams do that throughout that run,
and now they're doing it in the postseason. So just
great to see from the Celtics right out of the
gates in Game one of the NBA Playoffs. If they
continue to do that on defense, and they continued to
score the basketball, which we know they're going to, they
(18:47):
might have an off night, maybe two in a seven
game series. But it's not gonna be more than that.
They're too good, they're too balanced, they have too much depth.
But if they play like that on defense and they
score the way we know they're gonna score, good luck
to the rest of the NBA as we go through
(19:09):
this postseason. All right, great start for the Boston Celtics.
That's one win down, fifteen more to go to get
to a championship. But let's dial it back, Okay, it's
three more to advance to the next round. The Celtics
have another opportunity Wednesday night in Game two to try
to take a commanding two to zero lead in this series.
That game will be played at seven o'clock. You can
(19:31):
watch it on TNT and by the way, for anyone locally,
that game will be on NBC Sports Boston. So I know,
if you want to hear Drew Carter, you want to
hear Brian Scalabrini, tune into NBC Sports Boston. For anyone
else outside of the market, make sure you tune in
to TNT again. It's Wednesday night at seven o'clock. I'm
gonna have another episode right here, on YouTube and on
(19:53):
your favorite podcast platforms right after the game. Check out
my post at the end of the game. Send in
your comment. Mary, I'm gonna pull a few and I
can't wait. Let's see you Wednesday night. Let's hope the
Celtics come out for the team provision
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