Episode Transcript
Available transcripts are automatically generated. Complete accuracy is not guaranteed.
Speaker 1 (00:06):
Now off with these folks on a geno night at
TV Garden, and it's just so happened to come on
the second night of a back to back.
Speaker 2 (00:13):
That's right.
Speaker 1 (00:13):
The Boston Celtics took it to the Memphis Grizzlies tonight
at TD Garden with a final score of one thirty
one to ninety five. This was an unbelievable team win
from top to bottom. Everyone who checked into the game
played well. It was a great thing to see from
the Boston Celtics, And most importantly, most noteworthy is that
(00:35):
this came on the second night of a back to back.
The Celtics just lost in the final game of a
three game road trip last night down in Philadelphia. They
had to fly back to Boston and then play this
game tonight. Not only did they play it, but they
played it at a wildly high level. And I just
have to say this, it doesn't matter who you're playing
(00:57):
or who you're not playing. If you're playing on the
second night of a back to back and you're able
to take it to another NBA team and just completely
dominate the game from start to finish on the second
night of a back to back, it says a lot
about the character of your team. So while a lot
(01:18):
of people will talk about the fact that Memphis did
not have John Morant during tonight's game, it didn't have
multiple other players playing in this game. I want to
talk about the fact that that doesn't matter. What matters
is the Celtics came out and they played one of
the best games of their season at both ends of
the court. Finally, the shooting caught up to everything else.
(01:42):
Because the Celtics have been playing solid basketball in every
aspect except shooting the ball. Well, tonight, the shooting caught
up to everything else, and the Boston Celtics wind up
shooting what was it in this game, fifty one percent
from the field, forty one percent from three point range.
When you couple that together with everything else that they've
(02:03):
been doing, the small things, the important things, the details,
you're gonna put together a pretty strong game. And that's
exactly what we saw from the Boston Celtics. So the
shooting catches up to everything else, and that leads to
a season high total in assists. That's right, thirty four
assists for the Boston Celtics during this game. That is
(02:24):
a season high, three more than their previous season high
of thirty one, and this was a team effort in
this category. Peyton Pritchard nine assists, Jalen Brown six assists,
Anthony Simon seven assists. We got a couple guys with
four assists.
Speaker 2 (02:41):
This was just a.
Speaker 1 (02:42):
Great all around performance. The ball was popping, had really
good energy behind the ball, and you know what, I
just want to go back to the beginning of the game.
You could tell that the Celtics had a really good
juice and rhythm behind them, Like it felt like when
they took the court, they felt good about themselves and
they should like they've been playing strong basketball. They know
all we had to do was start making shots and
(03:04):
we're gonna win a lot of games. And they started
making shots tonight. The ball, like I said, had just
had really good energy behind it. Seemed like everyone was
trusting in one another from top to bottom, no matter
who was on the floor, and that translated through to
just a really strong all around team performance during this game.
So thirty four assists a season high. Let's see if
(03:26):
the Celtics can catch up to that anytime soon in
their next handful of games. Another thing that I've got
to point out is that Peyton Pritchard is back. I
already mentioned in this podcast that he had nine assists
to lead the game during this contest, but he also
scored twenty four points on eight for fifteen shooting five
(03:47):
for ten from distance. He had a stretch where he
just completely took over this game. This is the Peyton
Pritchard we've all become used to seeing, and it's the
Peyton Pritchard we haven't seen a lot of so far
this year as he has adjusted to this starting role
for the Boston Celtics. Listen, there were too many people
calling for Peyton Pritchard's head early on in this season.
(04:10):
We're three weeks in. I personally have heard way too
many people saying, Oh, he's not good enough, he can't start,
He's got to come off the bench. He doesn't have
what it takes to play against the other team's best players.
He does. We've known this for years. He just had
(04:30):
a rough couple of weeks shooting the basketball. But now
he's finding his rhythm. There is no question about that.
I wouldn't even say finding his rhythm. I would say
he's got his rhythm. And you look at some of
these clips that are playing right now like he took
over this game by scoring inside, by scoring outside, by
finding teammates for assists, as I said, a huge contributor
(04:53):
to that season high thirty four says he had nine
of them. That's over a quarter of the assists on
the team and the season high.
Speaker 2 (05:04):
And get this number.
Speaker 1 (05:06):
Get this number, plus forty two in the plus minus category.
That's right, the Boston Celtics outscored the Memphis Grizzlies by
forty two points while he was on the court for
his thirty plus minutes of action. If that don't scream impact,
(05:27):
I don't know what does.
Speaker 2 (05:29):
He was awesome tonight. Go through the numbers one more time.
Speaker 1 (05:34):
Twenty four points, game high, nine assists, six rebounds, eight
for fifteen from the field, five for ten from long range.
Speaker 2 (05:42):
Three for four from the free throw line.
Speaker 1 (05:45):
Probably the most complete game we have seen from Peyton
Pritchard so far this season. Just a really top notch
performance from him. Starting to show all of those doubters
you shouldn't doubt me. You've seen too much of me
to doubt me. No one out there should be dotting
this guy. He's gonna have more games like this than
(06:07):
he has had, not succeeding early on in the season.
I guarantee you that as this season continues on, so
Peyton Pritchard plays well, the Celtics dish out thirty four
says and within that, Luca Garza had a really strong
game coming off the bench. You love to see every
time this guy gets in and gets a solid amount
of playing time, it seems like he really makes an impact. Tonight,
(06:31):
he played only seventeen minutes, but somehow during those seventeen
minutes he told him fourteen points and seven rebounds. I
was talking to one of my friends during the game
and he was just saying to me, like, Luca Garza
is not ultra athletic, and I think we could all
admit that. I think he would admit that. It's not
about his athleticism. It's about his physicality, it's about how
(06:53):
hard he plays, and it's about his skill. He is
a very skilled player. We've seen the push shot from
him recently. We've seen three point shots from him recently.
In fact, he hit two of them tonight on three attempts.
We've seen the rebounding, the timing, the basketball IQ of
(07:13):
setting screens, being in the right place at the right time,
and he's popping with games like this of nearing double
doubles tonight fourteen points and seven rebounds, also dished out
one assist efficient from the field six of eight, two
of three from long range. So we're seeing more and
more of these performances from Luca Garza where he's making
(07:36):
a significant impact for the team while he is on
the court. Again, he only needed seventeen minutes to log
those numbers. Tonight of fourteen points in seven assists, another
great game from him and just continues to show that
he has these different types of shots in his offensive repertoire.
Speaker 2 (07:53):
I don't think all of us.
Speaker 1 (07:54):
Really knew a whole lot about that before he came
here to Boston. He hasn't played a lot in the NBA,
and I'm pretty certain not a lot of Bostonians, new
New Englanders and Celtics fans watched IOWA back in the day.
So we're learning about Luca Garza in real time, and
he is showing us that maybe his offensive bag is
(08:15):
a little bit deeper than all of us thought when
he got here. All right, let's dive into a couple
of comments from our fans. First up, we got we
got Next, who comments on the Celtics inconsistencies so far
this season, and then Brian on why he loves games
like we saw tonight, and it might not be as
obvious as everyone thinks. All right, let's dive into it here. First,
(08:37):
up is we got next?
Speaker 2 (08:43):
All right? We got next? Is up first?
Speaker 1 (08:45):
And their comment is bad night, good night, bad night,
good night. Get used to it, all right, This is
basically a comment about Boston's inconsistencies so far this season.
And I think we can all agree that there have
been inconsistencies, Like tonight, they shot the lights out. Last night,
(09:05):
they couldn't really make a shot down in Orlando. They
had a game where they really struggled to put the
ball through the basket. Some nights the defense is really good.
Some nights it's kind of mediocre. So there have been inconsistencies. However,
if we can kind of zoom out and take a
ten thousand foot view of this team, and if you
(09:26):
forget about what you've watched and we just look at
the results, that might give you a little bit of
a different opinion on this and that maybe the Celtics
are a little bit more consistent than maybe our eyes
are telling us. The Celtics are now six and four
in their last ten games. Two of those losses are
one possession losses, so they are let's say five points
(09:52):
I mean, I'll do the math ran yet, yeah, five.
Speaker 2 (09:57):
Six points.
Speaker 1 (10:00):
Away from being eight and two in the last ten.
And I know a lot of people out there might
get upset about this. You know, there's no we can't
just take moral victories here in Celtics Nation. And I'm
not saying that they should. What I'm saying is that
maybe this team is playing a little bit better and
more consistently than our eyes are telling us from what
(10:21):
we see on the court every night. Maybe they're more
consistent than that, and the results are kind of telling us.
They are six and four in their last ten and
there are only a few possessions away from being eight
and two in their last ten. I think both of
those numbers are pretty strong. If the Celtics wins six
out of ten games on that pace for the rest
(10:42):
of the season, it's a pretty darn good clip Like
they're gonna wind up with upper forties wins, maybe into
the fifties wins. So maybe this team is actually a
little bit more consistent than we all think, and maybe
Joe Mizoula is kind of hinted at that he has
liked what he has seen. And truth be told, as
(11:04):
I've told you on sound Off throughout this season so far,
like I've actually liked what I've seen out of the
Boston Celtics. There's just that big thing that hasn't happened. Well,
two big things. Number one is learning how to finish
off close games, learning how to win those close games.
And number two is just inconsistency of shooting the ball
(11:25):
and making shots at a high clip that I can
tell you, I totally agree with you. Good night, bad night,
good night, bad night. That is true with shooting the basketball.
Everything else I actually think has been pretty consistent. So
it's great to see the effort night in and night out.
It's great to see the care level and the care
factor is high for this team. And now the team's
(11:48):
just got to get a little bit more consistent offensively
and then maybe they will grab a few more wins
than what we've seen here recently. But again, six and
four in their last ten, only a few possessions away
from being eight and two in their last ten. Both
of those numbers are pretty darn good.
Speaker 2 (12:06):
All right.
Speaker 1 (12:07):
Final comment of the night coming in from Brian, who says,
I love games like this. The rotation is expanded. You
get the players that are trying to get more minutes
by playing well. The top of the rotation can rest
up before the days off, which the Celtics have the
next three days off no games. Bouchet gets time, Ron
Harper Junior gets NBA minutes, Baylor gets minutes, Baylor Shireman.
(12:30):
That is almost everyone gets time, and really everyone did
get time in this game. Everyone checked in with the
exception of Xavier Tillman, and every player with the exception
of Ugo Gonzalez, scored during this game. By the way,
Googo Gonzalez is coming off of sprain. He was questionable
to play in this game. He wound up playing, But
(12:52):
I digress. All the rest of the players scored in
this game. So you saw Baylor Shireman hit a couple
of threes, Chris Bruschet hit a couple of three. Really,
Josh might Not came off the bench and played well
during his twenty two minutes. He finished with nine points
and five rebounds and for assists during this game a
block shot. He played really well, So really, top to
(13:15):
bottom on the roster. Everyone got an opportunity number one
and number two. Everyone capitalized on that opportunity. So it's
really great to see that this just continues. Joe Mizula
told us at the start of this season that there
might not be a rotation quote unquote where you know
who's gonna play, how they're going to play, in terms
(13:37):
of how many minutes do they start, did they come
off the bench. There might not be a true rotation
on this team this season. I think we're starting to
understand why everyone kind of brings a little bit something
different outside of those guys who we know they're gonna
play Derek White, Peyton Pritchard, nimiash Kida, Jalen Brown, Sam Hauser,
outside of that group, Like, everyone brings a little something
(13:59):
different to the table, and some of those things might
apply and help the Celtics on one night, and some
of those things might apply and help the Celtics on
a different night, and therefore you might get a different
mix of players. But we're seeing that, like literally everyone
on this roster can make contributions and be a part
(14:20):
of a winning process.
Speaker 2 (14:23):
And so now we just have to wait.
Speaker 1 (14:25):
For everything to click with the offense and then that
winning process is going to happen much more consistently. So Brian,
I totally agree. I love games like this where you
get to see what everyone on the roster can bring
to the table, and everyone can play with no pressure
on their shoulders and no one breathing down their neck
to potentially take them out of the game if they
(14:47):
make a mistake.
Speaker 2 (14:48):
Just play free.
Speaker 1 (14:49):
And when you play free and you play well, maybe
that starts to snowball, and you play free and play
well even when that pressure does exist, but you don't
think about it. So a great confidence builder for the Celtics,
a great confidence builder for every player who checked into
this game tonight, And now the Celtics have an opportunity
to grab another one. After a few days off, they'll
(15:10):
be back on the TV Garden floor on Sunday afternoon.
Speaker 2 (15:14):
It is a matinee game. They will play host to.
Speaker 1 (15:16):
Kawhi Leonard, James Harden and the Los Angeles Clippers. So
the Celtics in on that game will have an opportunity
to even out their record on the season to seven
and seven, and then who knows where they might go
after that. So thanks for giving us a listen tonight
on sound Off. Make sure you send in your comments
after the final buzzer on Sunday. I'll take a couple
(15:39):
of them right here again for another episode Sunday afternoon.
Until then, enjoy the rest of your week, and we'll
see you Sunday night.