December 29, 2024 • 20 mins
We’re sounding off tonight on a 123-114 loss by the Boston Celtics to the Indiana Pacers, as the Celtics showed inconsistencies compared to their 37-point win against this very same team two nights before. Joe Mazzulla admitted after the game that Boston is showcasing inconsistent play at both ends of the court, which on this night was mainly at the defensive end. That being said, Jaylen Brown scored another 31 points and the Celtics still had a chance to win the game during the fourth quarter. How did it slip away? We discuss.
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Episode Transcript
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Speaker 1 (00:06):
Sound off with me boths on the Boston Celtics having
inconsistency bite them again Sunday night against the Indiana Pacers.
This is a Pacers team that Boston beat by thirty
seven points on Friday night and now inconsistency issues lead
to a nine point loss on Sunday. The Celtics loss
(00:28):
one twenty three to one fourteen during this game, and
Joe Mizzoula went to the postgame press conference and he
singled out the inconsistencies at not one end of the court,
but at both ends of the court. The Celtics just
doesn't seem like right now they can play multiple games
in succession with consistent play at both ends of the court.
(00:49):
It seems like it's either one end or the other
is affecting them on a nightly basis in a negative fashion.
Tonight it was the defensive end. Indiana had an incredible offense,
a performance fifty three percent from the field as a team,
almost forty percent from three point range, and then they
get twenty two points from the free throw line. So
(01:10):
that defensive inefficiency and inconsistency from the Celtics allowed Indiana
to catch a rhythm on offense and that happened early on,
and the Pacers never looked back. And remember this is
a team that was in the Eastern Conference Finals last
season against these Celtics, and let me remind you, while
(01:32):
it was a sweep, multiple games were close and multiple
games could have easily gone in the other direction. This
Pacers team, I don't care what their record is right now.
I believe it's sixteen and seventeen, hovering right around five
hundred as we're about thirty five games into the season.
But I don't care what the record is. That team
has talent and by the way, they had more of
(01:54):
their talent on the floor tonight on Sunday than they
did Friday when the Celtics demolished them by thirty seven points.
So you can't overlook the Pacers. This team is really good.
And when they came out of the gates and they
were able to start catching a rhythm at a high
level offensively during the first quarter, when you give that,
you give that rhythm and you give that ability to
(02:17):
the other team, and a Pacers team that has talent
up and down the roster, it's always tough to turn
that off. And tonight that was the case for the
Celtics as they allow one hundred and twenty three points
on fifty three percent shooting from the field. A great
game by Indiana, not so great for the Boston Celtics.
But listen, despite that, the Celtics had a chance to
(02:39):
win this game, and somehow they now have nine losses
on the season. Somehow they still have yet to lose
a game by ten points. So there's a little bit
of a positive you can still take out of this
game that the Celtics still have. They've yet to have
a game where they've been blown out and had no
chance of winning. Tonight, they lose by nine, and they
had multiple chances during the fourth quarter to come back
(03:02):
and win this game. One in particular, they were down
by I think it was eleven somewhere around there. They
go on a run, they cut it back down to two,
Jason Tatum with a monstrous slam down the lane, and
one gets the call and starts yelling at his defender.
It looked like he was feeling good in that moment.
(03:22):
It looked like the Celtics were feeling good in that moment.
But then somehow it doesn't continue. And the interesting thing
to me is that Indiana didn't even call for a
time out after that and one play by Jason Tatum,
and by the way, I don't think it was a dunk.
I think it was just an and one play in
the paint, if memory serves. But Rick Carlisle didn't call
(03:43):
for a time out. He just let his Pacers continue
to play it out. And that was a great decision,
and the Pacers wound up figuring it out. They answered
that run after they had been up by eleven or
so and it came down to two. They then responded
with a thirteen to zero run to put this game away,
and it only took about three minutes off the clock
(04:03):
for them to be able to go on that thirteen
zero run turn it back to a fifteen point game,
and at that point this game seemed to be over.
One other interesting thing that occurred at that time, when
the Celtics fell behind by fifteen, they were about four
minutes left, Joe Mizoula sent a bunch of his end
of the bench guys to the scorers table to check in.
Drew Peterson was out, was going to check in Jaden Springer,
(04:28):
Xavier Tillman, Nimias Kaida. All these guys were up at
the scorers table to check in. A timeout is called,
the Celtics go to a huddle, and then they come
out of that timeout and a lot of their main
guys are still on the floor, like Tatum's still out there,
Prichard's still out there, Derek White is still out there.
I'm not sure exactly. I think Al Horford was out
there as well, So I'm not sure what exactly changed
(04:49):
in that moment that Joe Miszouola changed his mind from
sending in a bunch of reserves and kind of waving
that white flag to saying, no, we're gonna keep making
this run and we're gonna try to either get back
into this game or maybe send a message to those
guys who were put back out on the floor. I'm
not exactly sure what his mindset was there, but I
thought it was interesting to point that out that he
(05:10):
had the white wave flagged or the white flag waved.
There's my dyslexia kicking in. He had the white flag waved,
then a timeout is called and he kind of retracted
it and sent his guys back out there. So just
something interesting in observation I thought I would point out
during this game. A few things that stood out to me,
(05:31):
some of them more negative than others. The free throw shooting.
I mean, it's tough to watch that the Celtics were
only twelve for nineteen from the free throw line tonight.
This is a team with so much skill in shooting.
That shouldn't happen tonight. They actually had more misses seven
than Indiana had, which was five, but Boston took eight
(05:51):
fewer free throw attempts. So you miss more and you
take away less. That'll tell you that the percentages were
in totally different areas for these two teams. Indie shot
eighty two percent from the free throw line, the Celtics
just sixty three percent. Another thing that stood out is
during the fourth quart of the Celtics, on another run
that they were trying to get back into the game,
they cut the deficit down to six, They've got the ball,
(06:14):
and then Peyton Pritchard very uncharacteristically commits a couple of
careless turnovers on entry passes. Entry passes have been a
little bit of an issue for this team this season.
I feel like that's an area where the team can
concentrate a little bit more on their entry passes. And
make sure that their quality entry passes that cannot be
(06:35):
picked off by opposing teams. These two, in particular, were
entry passes into the lane, not an entry pass into
kind of a post up area or a high elbow
post or anything like that. These were on cuts to
the lane to teammates, and Peyton Pritcher's passes just happened
to be picked off. So not good moments there. I
do feel like that is an area where the Celtics
(06:56):
can improve the rest of the season. So something to
watch their well. Defensively, we already talked it just felt
like the Celtics weren't engaged all the way around, particularly
in the same fashion that they were Friday night when
they won by thirty seven. So there's that inconsistency that
we're talking about both ends of the ball or both
(07:17):
ends of the court. The Celtics played great on Friday tonight,
decent offense, not so good defense, and I just think
that the engagement just simply was not there tonight. Lastly,
a positive to point out after this game Jalen Brown
another thirty point game. He just scored forty four the
other night and now he scores thirty one to tie
(07:39):
for the game high in that category thirteen of twenty one.
From the field, he had himself a great offensive performance.
He's got seventy five points over his last two games.
So Jalen Brown certainly finding of a rhythm and he's
getting it done in all three levels. It's really fun
to watch him be able to score at will right
now against his opponents. Let's take a few much from
(08:00):
our fans. First up, we're gonna have the sorous on
Boston's defensive identity. Next up, we've got Jack Garwood on
concerns that he has about how often teams are putting
together hot streaks within games against the Celtics. This is
an interesting one. I'm looking forward to talking about that.
And then lastly, we've got Jacob on the Pacers matchup,
(08:22):
which we just touched on. This was an Eastern Conference
finals matchup last season and then the month of December
for the Celtics as a whole. So let's get into
the first one here. This one's coming in from the Sourus.
All right. The Soros starts us out saying need to
re establish their defensive identity, but the loss isn't that
(08:44):
much of a concern Without two starters. We've gotten this
far into the episode at this point, and I still
have not mentioned the fact that Jrew Holliday and Christaus
Porzingis did not play in this game. The Celtics have
been missing those guys relatively consistently over the last couple
of weeks, and those are two very important players when
it comes to Boston's defense as a whole. Drew Holliday
(09:07):
is one of the best perimeter defenders in the league.
And I've said this before. If you listen to all
the episodes, I'm sure you've heard this before, But Drew
Holliday one of the best perimeter defenders in the league.
And then Christas Porzingis is basically the shot blocker for
the Boston Celtics at the rim. So you're missing key
players on both ends of your defense, both on the
(09:28):
perimeter and around the basket. And I'm not making excuses here.
This does not excuse the Celtics from the effort in
the connectiveness that they showed during tonight's game, but it
is important to point that out that they were missing
those guys, and those are two very very good defenders,
particularly in their specific roles within this defense, and not
(09:50):
having those guys out there certainly is going to change
things a little bit for you. You would hope that
it wouldn't change it quite as much, especially you look
at last season. Anytime someone will out the Celtics, their
identity at both ends of the court and the level
at which they executed at both ends of the court,
it didn't change. That was one of the very important
factors for this team last season. Anytime someone was out,
(10:14):
someone else stepped in and the team just kept on
chugging along at both ends of the court. So tonight
you're missing two starters again, two critical defenders again, and
yet you just aren't able to have that consistency at
the defensive end of the floor, a defensive identity. Look
what the Celtics did last season is they were going
(10:35):
to get under your skin. They were going to apply
pressure on the perimeter, and then they were going to
defend the rim with their seven footers around the basket.
Be it if it was Tomas Caida backing up christaus Porzingis,
if it was out Horford giving a little rim protection,
Luke Cornett, all of these guys behind christaus Porzingis. There
was rim protection last year on top of having some
(10:57):
ball pressure on the perimeter, and we're just not seeing
those two things enough and as consistently as we saw
last season. So the source, it's hard to disagree with
you here. The defensive identity. They have to find it,
they've got to relocate it. Then they've got to re
establish it. Let's hope that that happens when the new
(11:18):
year turns in. Hopefully they've got those two important defenders
back in the lineup when the new year comes in,
maybe even beforehand, when the Celtics play their final game
of twenty twenty four on New Year's Eve. All Right,
Next up, Jack Garwood says, starting to get a bit
worried about how many teams we're allowing to accelerate and
(11:38):
take the game away from us. Happened the other night
with the seventy six ers on Christmas, and same again tonight.
Got to snap these hot streaks much sooner, all Right.
I told you on the open that this was one
of the interesting ones that I wanted to touch on because
this is an observation that I made throughout last season
(11:59):
that the Celtics always had an answer. They always had
a way to stop teams from going on massive runs.
If you rewind to the year before they won the championship.
In the seasons prior to that, teams always found a
way to go on long runs, especially in the games
that the Celtics lost. The Celtics just didn't have answers
(12:20):
for them in those moments. Last year, Boston almost always
had an answer in one way, shape or form. If
it was defensive, it was offensive. They always figured it out,
and teams weren't able to go on massive runs, particularly
when the game was hanging in the balance. That's how
the Celtics wound up with sixty four wins, and they
barely ever got blown out. This year, it hasn't seemed
(12:44):
like they've quite had that like counter punch quite at
the level that they had last season. And that's not
to say that it won't resurface as they hopefully get
more healthy and more consistent throughout the rest of the season,
But right now that counter punch doesn't seem to really
be there, and to great evidence of that. As Jack
points out, the Celtics pull back to within two with
(13:05):
about seven minutes left in this game. They've got all
of the momentum. They're in their home arena. Jason Tatum
with a monster and one to get the Celtics back
to within two. After el Horford made a big three
pointer his first three of the night. Things are feeling good,
and then that CounterPunch just doesn't continue and you allow
(13:26):
a Pacers team to go on a thirteen to Zho
run when the game is hanging in the balance. You
just didn't see that happen very often last season, and
as Jack points out here, it's happened a couple times
just this week for Boston and talking about Christmas Day
the loss to the seventy six Ers, as Tyrese Maxi
and the seventy six Ers kind of pulled away for
(13:47):
that win. And then tonight you see it in the
fourth quarter again, this time against Indiana with the Pacers
their advantage went down to two, then they respond with
a dominant thirteen to Oher run. So that CounterPunch. We've
got to keep a lookout for that this season as
the Celtics go into the new year. Counterpunches are so
(14:09):
critical to being able to have long term success in
the regular season and in particular during the postseason. When
you can stop teams from going on runs like major
runs within games, you're always gonna have a chance. And
by the way, I just got to point this out again,
the Celtics did still have a chance to win this
game tonight, Okay multiple times during the fourth quarter. It
(14:32):
just kind of got away mid to late in the
fourth quarter and they weren't able to make that final
CounterPunch to snap that streak that the Pacers were putting
together when they scored thirteen straight. So I'm gonna be
keeping my eye on that the rest of the season.
Hopefully you will too, and hopefully we see better results
from the Celtics when it comes to answering the call
(14:53):
and being able to stop the opponent from going on
major runs when the game is hanging in the balance.
All right, last comment of the night coming in This
is from Jacob, and Jacob says Pacers are solid in
a bad matchup for Seas, But seven and six is
the worst month I can remember in a while for
(15:16):
these Boston Celtics. All right, let's dive into the first one.
We talked about this a little bit with earlier on,
but Jacob says Pacers are as solid, are solid and
a bad matchup for the Seas, Like, don't overlook these
Pacers there's a reason why they were in the Eastern
Conference Finals last season. That was not a fluke. This
is a good team. They can beat anyone in the league,
(15:38):
and they could probably beat anyone in a seven game
series in the league if they're playing their A game
during all seven of those games, or at least for
the majority. We saw their A game tonight. This team
is a very talented offensive team. You saw Tyrese Haliburton
have a great game. He scored thirty one points to
match Jalen Brown's thirty one as the leading scorer, and
(16:00):
then six players on the Pacers scored at least twelve
points during this game, so there was balance around the roster.
And throughout this game they were scoring in the paint,
sixty six points in the paint. They got out shot, Okay,
Boston made seven more three pointers than the Pacers, and
the Pacer still won by nine points. So that goes
(16:24):
to show you that they were finding other ways to score.
They were beating the Celtics off the dribble getting into
the paint. Either the player that beat his defender off
the dribble was scoring at the rim, or he was
dropping it off for a big man to score at
the rim. This team has a lot of talent, both
inside and out. Siakam is a great player, Miles Turner
always can turn it up and have a great game.
(16:46):
Mathurin solid. Andrew Nemhart he's a thorn in Boston side.
He's solid as well. And then you've always got guys
coming off the bench like TJ McConnell bench. But these
are guys that you never know what they're going to
do on a nightly basis. But they tend to play
really well against the Boston Celtics. So can't overlook the Pacers.
This is a good team. Okay, I don't think anyone
(17:07):
should overlook them. They played really well tonight. The final comment,
just talking about this seven and sixth December as a whole,
Jacob says, this is the worst month I can remember
in a while. Well, Boston only lost eighteen games all
season last year. Okay, they've lost six already just in December.
(17:28):
I talked about this during the last episode, either on
Christmas Day or on the episode on Friday Night when
the Celtics took on the Pacers. That this month. In
my opinion, and this is just my opinion, I think
a lot of these struggles have actually had to do
with inconsistency with Boston's lineups, okay, and that's fort multiple reasons.
(17:50):
They've had players going in and out of the lineup
for injury purposes. Drew Holliday has missed the most time
this month that he's missed literally, he got to the
Boston Celtics with his shoulder impingement, missed another game tonight.
Christas Porzingis has kind of been in and out of
the lineup throughout this month, so he's been inconsistent. And
(18:11):
then on top of that, the Celtics have had it
in inconsistent schedule as a whole because of the NBA Cup.
And by the way, I think in the long run,
I've said this before, I think in the long run,
that's going to come back to help them. But right
now it's hurt and it's going to help them because
of rest. By the way, Okay, Jason Tatum got a
full week off, Al Horford got a full week off. Now,
(18:33):
Drew Holliday's out with an injury. But it's not like
it's his legs or anything. He's gonna come back and
be fine. He's getting time off, So I think that
this is all going to help them in the long run.
But when you're missing players with injuries throughout the entire month,
players are in, players are out, you don't know who
you're gonna have every night. And then on top of that,
with the NBA Cup, you've basically got I think it
(18:54):
was two games in seven days, or three games and
twelve days, something like that. Consistency on the schedule where
you're just not playing, I think a rhythm can easily
kind of go by the wayside. So you combine those
two together, and I think that is what has led
to Boston struggles this month. Just a seven and six
record that is certainly not what we all expect out
(19:16):
of them, That is certainly not what they expect out
of themselves. And let's just hope that as they turn
the calendar into twenty twenty five, they're able to turn
their consistency up, They're able to get full health and
make sure that they've got the same lineup taking the
court far more often than not. They just haven't been
able to have that so far this season. So great
(19:36):
comment from you here, Jacob. I agree with you on
both of these, and let's just see if the Celtics
can get back into the win column when they come
back on the court on New Year's Eve when they
host in a matine By the way, this is a
matinee game. They're not playing at night when they host
the Toronto Raptors. So that will be the final game
of twenty twenty four, and then we turn the calendar
(19:57):
into a very challenging month of January. All right, that's
a wrap for sound Off with the Boston Celtics tonight.
I appreciate you giving us a listen or a watch.
Make sure you click to subscribe, and then make sure
that you answer my post on X after the game
on New Year's Eve with your comments and your takeaways
from what the Celtics gave on the sport. So thanks
(20:18):
again for listening and I'll see you to stay nast
Sound off with me boths on the Boston Celtics having
inconsistency bite them again Sunday night against the Indiana Pacers.
This is a Pacers team that Boston beat by thirty
seven points on Friday night and now inconsistency issues lead
to a nine point loss on Sunday. The Celtics loss
(00:28):
one twenty three to one fourteen during this game, and
Joe Mizzoula went to the postgame press conference and he
singled out the inconsistencies at not one end of the court,
but at both ends of the court. The Celtics just
doesn't seem like right now they can play multiple games
in succession with consistent play at both ends of the court.
(00:49):
It seems like it's either one end or the other
is affecting them on a nightly basis in a negative fashion.
Tonight it was the defensive end. Indiana had an incredible offense,
a performance fifty three percent from the field as a team,
almost forty percent from three point range, and then they
get twenty two points from the free throw line. So
(01:10):
that defensive inefficiency and inconsistency from the Celtics allowed Indiana
to catch a rhythm on offense and that happened early on,
and the Pacers never looked back. And remember this is
a team that was in the Eastern Conference Finals last
season against these Celtics, and let me remind you, while
(01:32):
it was a sweep, multiple games were close and multiple
games could have easily gone in the other direction. This
Pacers team, I don't care what their record is right now.
I believe it's sixteen and seventeen, hovering right around five
hundred as we're about thirty five games into the season.
But I don't care what the record is. That team
has talent and by the way, they had more of
(01:54):
their talent on the floor tonight on Sunday than they
did Friday when the Celtics demolished them by thirty seven points.
So you can't overlook the Pacers. This team is really good.
And when they came out of the gates and they
were able to start catching a rhythm at a high
level offensively during the first quarter, when you give that,
you give that rhythm and you give that ability to
(02:17):
the other team, and a Pacers team that has talent
up and down the roster, it's always tough to turn
that off. And tonight that was the case for the
Celtics as they allow one hundred and twenty three points
on fifty three percent shooting from the field. A great
game by Indiana, not so great for the Boston Celtics.
But listen, despite that, the Celtics had a chance to
(02:39):
win this game, and somehow they now have nine losses
on the season. Somehow they still have yet to lose
a game by ten points. So there's a little bit
of a positive you can still take out of this
game that the Celtics still have. They've yet to have
a game where they've been blown out and had no
chance of winning. Tonight, they lose by nine, and they
had multiple chances during the fourth quarter to come back
(03:02):
and win this game. One in particular, they were down
by I think it was eleven somewhere around there. They
go on a run, they cut it back down to two,
Jason Tatum with a monstrous slam down the lane, and
one gets the call and starts yelling at his defender.
It looked like he was feeling good in that moment.
(03:22):
It looked like the Celtics were feeling good in that moment.
But then somehow it doesn't continue. And the interesting thing
to me is that Indiana didn't even call for a
time out after that and one play by Jason Tatum,
and by the way, I don't think it was a dunk.
I think it was just an and one play in
the paint, if memory serves. But Rick Carlisle didn't call
(03:43):
for a time out. He just let his Pacers continue
to play it out. And that was a great decision,
and the Pacers wound up figuring it out. They answered
that run after they had been up by eleven or
so and it came down to two. They then responded
with a thirteen to zero run to put this game away,
and it only took about three minutes off the clock
(04:03):
for them to be able to go on that thirteen
zero run turn it back to a fifteen point game,
and at that point this game seemed to be over.
One other interesting thing that occurred at that time, when
the Celtics fell behind by fifteen, they were about four
minutes left, Joe Mizoula sent a bunch of his end
of the bench guys to the scorers table to check in.
Drew Peterson was out, was going to check in Jaden Springer,
(04:28):
Xavier Tillman, Nimias Kaida. All these guys were up at
the scorers table to check in. A timeout is called,
the Celtics go to a huddle, and then they come
out of that timeout and a lot of their main
guys are still on the floor, like Tatum's still out there,
Prichard's still out there, Derek White is still out there.
I'm not sure exactly. I think Al Horford was out
there as well, So I'm not sure what exactly changed
(04:49):
in that moment that Joe Miszouola changed his mind from
sending in a bunch of reserves and kind of waving
that white flag to saying, no, we're gonna keep making
this run and we're gonna try to either get back
into this game or maybe send a message to those
guys who were put back out on the floor. I'm
not exactly sure what his mindset was there, but I
thought it was interesting to point that out that he
(05:10):
had the white wave flagged or the white flag waved.
There's my dyslexia kicking in. He had the white flag waved,
then a timeout is called and he kind of retracted
it and sent his guys back out there. So just
something interesting in observation I thought I would point out
during this game. A few things that stood out to me,
(05:31):
some of them more negative than others. The free throw shooting.
I mean, it's tough to watch that the Celtics were
only twelve for nineteen from the free throw line tonight.
This is a team with so much skill in shooting.
That shouldn't happen tonight. They actually had more misses seven
than Indiana had, which was five, but Boston took eight
(05:51):
fewer free throw attempts. So you miss more and you
take away less. That'll tell you that the percentages were
in totally different areas for these two teams. Indie shot
eighty two percent from the free throw line, the Celtics
just sixty three percent. Another thing that stood out is
during the fourth quart of the Celtics, on another run
that they were trying to get back into the game,
they cut the deficit down to six, They've got the ball,
(06:14):
and then Peyton Pritchard very uncharacteristically commits a couple of
careless turnovers on entry passes. Entry passes have been a
little bit of an issue for this team this season.
I feel like that's an area where the team can
concentrate a little bit more on their entry passes. And
make sure that their quality entry passes that cannot be
(06:35):
picked off by opposing teams. These two, in particular, were
entry passes into the lane, not an entry pass into
kind of a post up area or a high elbow
post or anything like that. These were on cuts to
the lane to teammates, and Peyton Pritcher's passes just happened
to be picked off. So not good moments there. I
do feel like that is an area where the Celtics
(06:56):
can improve the rest of the season. So something to
watch their well. Defensively, we already talked it just felt
like the Celtics weren't engaged all the way around, particularly
in the same fashion that they were Friday night when
they won by thirty seven. So there's that inconsistency that
we're talking about both ends of the ball or both
(07:17):
ends of the court. The Celtics played great on Friday tonight,
decent offense, not so good defense, and I just think
that the engagement just simply was not there tonight. Lastly,
a positive to point out after this game Jalen Brown
another thirty point game. He just scored forty four the
other night and now he scores thirty one to tie
(07:39):
for the game high in that category thirteen of twenty one.
From the field, he had himself a great offensive performance.
He's got seventy five points over his last two games.
So Jalen Brown certainly finding of a rhythm and he's
getting it done in all three levels. It's really fun
to watch him be able to score at will right
now against his opponents. Let's take a few much from
(08:00):
our fans. First up, we're gonna have the sorous on
Boston's defensive identity. Next up, we've got Jack Garwood on
concerns that he has about how often teams are putting
together hot streaks within games against the Celtics. This is
an interesting one. I'm looking forward to talking about that.
And then lastly, we've got Jacob on the Pacers matchup,
(08:22):
which we just touched on. This was an Eastern Conference
finals matchup last season and then the month of December
for the Celtics as a whole. So let's get into
the first one here. This one's coming in from the Sourus.
All right. The Soros starts us out saying need to
re establish their defensive identity, but the loss isn't that
(08:44):
much of a concern Without two starters. We've gotten this
far into the episode at this point, and I still
have not mentioned the fact that Jrew Holliday and Christaus
Porzingis did not play in this game. The Celtics have
been missing those guys relatively consistently over the last couple
of weeks, and those are two very important players when
it comes to Boston's defense as a whole. Drew Holliday
(09:07):
is one of the best perimeter defenders in the league.
And I've said this before. If you listen to all
the episodes, I'm sure you've heard this before, But Drew
Holliday one of the best perimeter defenders in the league.
And then Christas Porzingis is basically the shot blocker for
the Boston Celtics at the rim. So you're missing key
players on both ends of your defense, both on the
(09:28):
perimeter and around the basket. And I'm not making excuses here.
This does not excuse the Celtics from the effort in
the connectiveness that they showed during tonight's game, but it
is important to point that out that they were missing
those guys, and those are two very very good defenders,
particularly in their specific roles within this defense, and not
(09:50):
having those guys out there certainly is going to change
things a little bit for you. You would hope that
it wouldn't change it quite as much, especially you look
at last season. Anytime someone will out the Celtics, their
identity at both ends of the court and the level
at which they executed at both ends of the court,
it didn't change. That was one of the very important
factors for this team last season. Anytime someone was out,
(10:14):
someone else stepped in and the team just kept on
chugging along at both ends of the court. So tonight
you're missing two starters again, two critical defenders again, and
yet you just aren't able to have that consistency at
the defensive end of the floor, a defensive identity. Look
what the Celtics did last season is they were going
(10:35):
to get under your skin. They were going to apply
pressure on the perimeter, and then they were going to
defend the rim with their seven footers around the basket.
Be it if it was Tomas Caida backing up christaus Porzingis,
if it was out Horford giving a little rim protection,
Luke Cornett, all of these guys behind christaus Porzingis. There
was rim protection last year on top of having some
(10:57):
ball pressure on the perimeter, and we're just not seeing
those two things enough and as consistently as we saw
last season. So the source, it's hard to disagree with
you here. The defensive identity. They have to find it,
they've got to relocate it. Then they've got to re
establish it. Let's hope that that happens when the new
(11:18):
year turns in. Hopefully they've got those two important defenders
back in the lineup when the new year comes in,
maybe even beforehand, when the Celtics play their final game
of twenty twenty four on New Year's Eve. All Right,
Next up, Jack Garwood says, starting to get a bit
worried about how many teams we're allowing to accelerate and
(11:38):
take the game away from us. Happened the other night
with the seventy six ers on Christmas, and same again tonight.
Got to snap these hot streaks much sooner, all Right.
I told you on the open that this was one
of the interesting ones that I wanted to touch on because
this is an observation that I made throughout last season
(11:59):
that the Celtics always had an answer. They always had
a way to stop teams from going on massive runs.
If you rewind to the year before they won the championship.
In the seasons prior to that, teams always found a
way to go on long runs, especially in the games
that the Celtics lost. The Celtics just didn't have answers
(12:20):
for them in those moments. Last year, Boston almost always
had an answer in one way, shape or form. If
it was defensive, it was offensive. They always figured it out,
and teams weren't able to go on massive runs, particularly
when the game was hanging in the balance. That's how
the Celtics wound up with sixty four wins, and they
barely ever got blown out. This year, it hasn't seemed
(12:44):
like they've quite had that like counter punch quite at
the level that they had last season. And that's not
to say that it won't resurface as they hopefully get
more healthy and more consistent throughout the rest of the season,
But right now that counter punch doesn't seem to really
be there, and to great evidence of that. As Jack
points out, the Celtics pull back to within two with
(13:05):
about seven minutes left in this game. They've got all
of the momentum. They're in their home arena. Jason Tatum
with a monster and one to get the Celtics back
to within two. After el Horford made a big three
pointer his first three of the night. Things are feeling good,
and then that CounterPunch just doesn't continue and you allow
(13:26):
a Pacers team to go on a thirteen to Zho
run when the game is hanging in the balance. You
just didn't see that happen very often last season, and
as Jack points out here, it's happened a couple times
just this week for Boston and talking about Christmas Day
the loss to the seventy six Ers, as Tyrese Maxi
and the seventy six Ers kind of pulled away for
(13:47):
that win. And then tonight you see it in the
fourth quarter again, this time against Indiana with the Pacers
their advantage went down to two, then they respond with
a dominant thirteen to Oher run. So that CounterPunch. We've
got to keep a lookout for that this season as
the Celtics go into the new year. Counterpunches are so
(14:09):
critical to being able to have long term success in
the regular season and in particular during the postseason. When
you can stop teams from going on runs like major
runs within games, you're always gonna have a chance. And
by the way, I just got to point this out again,
the Celtics did still have a chance to win this
game tonight, Okay multiple times during the fourth quarter. It
(14:32):
just kind of got away mid to late in the
fourth quarter and they weren't able to make that final
CounterPunch to snap that streak that the Pacers were putting
together when they scored thirteen straight. So I'm gonna be
keeping my eye on that the rest of the season.
Hopefully you will too, and hopefully we see better results
from the Celtics when it comes to answering the call
(14:53):
and being able to stop the opponent from going on
major runs when the game is hanging in the balance.
All right, last comment of the night coming in This
is from Jacob, and Jacob says Pacers are solid in
a bad matchup for Seas, But seven and six is
the worst month I can remember in a while for
(15:16):
these Boston Celtics. All right, let's dive into the first one.
We talked about this a little bit with earlier on,
but Jacob says Pacers are as solid, are solid and
a bad matchup for the Seas, Like, don't overlook these
Pacers there's a reason why they were in the Eastern
Conference Finals last season. That was not a fluke. This
is a good team. They can beat anyone in the league,
(15:38):
and they could probably beat anyone in a seven game
series in the league if they're playing their A game
during all seven of those games, or at least for
the majority. We saw their A game tonight. This team
is a very talented offensive team. You saw Tyrese Haliburton
have a great game. He scored thirty one points to
match Jalen Brown's thirty one as the leading scorer, and
(16:00):
then six players on the Pacers scored at least twelve
points during this game, so there was balance around the roster.
And throughout this game they were scoring in the paint,
sixty six points in the paint. They got out shot, Okay,
Boston made seven more three pointers than the Pacers, and
the Pacer still won by nine points. So that goes
(16:24):
to show you that they were finding other ways to score.
They were beating the Celtics off the dribble getting into
the paint. Either the player that beat his defender off
the dribble was scoring at the rim, or he was
dropping it off for a big man to score at
the rim. This team has a lot of talent, both
inside and out. Siakam is a great player, Miles Turner
always can turn it up and have a great game.
(16:46):
Mathurin solid. Andrew Nemhart he's a thorn in Boston side.
He's solid as well. And then you've always got guys
coming off the bench like TJ McConnell bench. But these
are guys that you never know what they're going to
do on a nightly basis. But they tend to play
really well against the Boston Celtics. So can't overlook the Pacers.
This is a good team. Okay, I don't think anyone
(17:07):
should overlook them. They played really well tonight. The final comment,
just talking about this seven and sixth December as a whole,
Jacob says, this is the worst month I can remember
in a while. Well, Boston only lost eighteen games all
season last year. Okay, they've lost six already just in December.
(17:28):
I talked about this during the last episode, either on
Christmas Day or on the episode on Friday Night when
the Celtics took on the Pacers. That this month. In
my opinion, and this is just my opinion, I think
a lot of these struggles have actually had to do
with inconsistency with Boston's lineups, okay, and that's fort multiple reasons.
(17:50):
They've had players going in and out of the lineup
for injury purposes. Drew Holliday has missed the most time
this month that he's missed literally, he got to the
Boston Celtics with his shoulder impingement, missed another game tonight.
Christas Porzingis has kind of been in and out of
the lineup throughout this month, so he's been inconsistent. And
(18:11):
then on top of that, the Celtics have had it
in inconsistent schedule as a whole because of the NBA Cup.
And by the way, I think in the long run,
I've said this before, I think in the long run,
that's going to come back to help them. But right
now it's hurt and it's going to help them because
of rest. By the way, Okay, Jason Tatum got a
full week off, Al Horford got a full week off. Now,
(18:33):
Drew Holliday's out with an injury. But it's not like
it's his legs or anything. He's gonna come back and
be fine. He's getting time off, So I think that
this is all going to help them in the long run.
But when you're missing players with injuries throughout the entire month,
players are in, players are out, you don't know who
you're gonna have every night. And then on top of that,
with the NBA Cup, you've basically got I think it
(18:54):
was two games in seven days, or three games and
twelve days, something like that. Consistency on the schedule where
you're just not playing, I think a rhythm can easily
kind of go by the wayside. So you combine those
two together, and I think that is what has led
to Boston struggles this month. Just a seven and six
record that is certainly not what we all expect out
(19:16):
of them, That is certainly not what they expect out
of themselves. And let's just hope that as they turn
the calendar into twenty twenty five, they're able to turn
their consistency up, They're able to get full health and
make sure that they've got the same lineup taking the
court far more often than not. They just haven't been
able to have that so far this season. So great
(19:36):
comment from you here, Jacob. I agree with you on
both of these, and let's just see if the Celtics
can get back into the win column when they come
back on the court on New Year's Eve when they
host in a matine By the way, this is a
matinee game. They're not playing at night when they host
the Toronto Raptors. So that will be the final game
of twenty twenty four, and then we turn the calendar
(19:57):
into a very challenging month of January. All right, that's
a wrap for sound Off with the Boston Celtics tonight.
I appreciate you giving us a listen or a watch.
Make sure you click to subscribe, and then make sure
that you answer my post on X after the game
on New Year's Eve with your comments and your takeaways
from what the Celtics gave on the sport. So thanks
(20:18):
again for listening and I'll see you to stay nast
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