May 10, 2025 • 20 mins
Carson solo reacts to Jayson Tatum, Jaylen Brown and the Boston Celtics delivering a huge response in Game 3 vs. Jalen Brunson, Karl-Anthony Towns and the New York Knicks.
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Episode Transcript
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Speaker 1 (00:04):
Oh my god, how could he do that? Why? Charles Darwin?
Speaker 2 (00:16):
The nerves is where it's at.
Speaker 1 (00:19):
Welcome everybody back into Nerd Sash. As always, I'm Carson Breber,
but alongside me today there is no Logan Camden. It's
a Carson solo show because Logan has been sent to
the Gulags. Unfortunately, no Logan is at his sister's graduation.
But it's just me today and we've just got one
game to talk about. Because the game later on today
(00:42):
is Warriors Timberwolves, and Steph Curry isn't gonna play and
there's a big break.
Speaker 2 (00:45):
I figure we might as well just get an instant.
Speaker 1 (00:47):
Reaction out to talk about this Celtics Knicks game because
that is the more interesting series, and then tomorrow we
will talk about the Wolves and Warriors with the rest
of the Sunday slate. But this was a massive, convention
seing response from the Boston Celtics, who obviously fell down
two games to nothing to New York in very shocking
fashion in this series, just absolutely crumbling in the first
(01:10):
two games, becoming the first team ever to blow back
to back twenty point leads. This was a massive win
for them and not a surprising one. Like I said
coming into this game that I expected this to be
a double digit Boston win. I've honestly been trying to
put it out anywhere and everywhere that I can after
Game two that I still thought the Celtics were gonna
(01:31):
win this series because there was a whole lot of
doom and gloom and panic. And like the Celtics deserve
to be reamed for what they did in the first
two games. It was horrifyingly bad at basketball, but they
played so so far below their standards, and it was
like two back to back outlier horrible performances, and they
are just the much better basketball team. And I really
(01:54):
couldn't see them not turning things around in this series,
not improving their offensive process, not shooting the ball a
lot better. They were already doing a great job defensively.
They just had to keep that up. And in this
one they did all those things. This is how the
Boston Celtics are supposed to look in this matchup. It
starts with the Stars playing significantly better, but just as
(02:17):
important as the fact that Boston's supporting cast and their
offensive weaponry came through in a huge way in this
one and That's what really sets them apart. It's not
the Brown Tatum duo that is so exceptional. It is
the fact that they have a Derek White who is
such a lethal shooter and such a capable creator. It's
the fact that they have a sixth Man of the
Year in Peyton Pritchard, who was absolutely electric offensively in
(02:39):
this game.
Speaker 2 (02:40):
I thought the aggregate.
Speaker 1 (02:42):
Shooting they have was overwhelming in this game, as it
often is, and just their ability to get the defense
in rotation and then trust everybody to make a play.
Everybody is a threat to shoot, everybody is a threat
to put the ball on the floor. Everybody can make
the pass. That's what makes the Celtics so special and
that was on full display.
Speaker 2 (02:59):
In this one.
Speaker 1 (03:00):
Peyton Pritchard was outstanding. I do think he's probably the
MVP of this game. First of all, just shooting the
hell out of the ball on pull ups off the catch,
but also cooking Mitchell Robinson off switches, which we haven't
seen either of the Jays able to do. Like Mitchell
Robinson is really capable guarding out in space, but Pritchard
just has that special combination of shiftiness of quickness as
(03:21):
a small guard he was creating a lot of separation
for his pull up jumpers and using his quickness very
effectively in this game, so he comes through with a
monster performance. Derek White was just absolutely money as a
jump shooter, and everybody was doing their job. Like Drew
White or Drew Holliday doesn't have a super big box
score impact in this one, but I thought that he
shot the ball well. I thought that he created some
(03:43):
good shots for others where he's posting up using his
strength and then drawing the defense in making a kickout pass.
I thought that al Horford was just in the right
spots and he knocked down shots, he cut well, He
was active on the offensive glass. Even christophs Porzingis continues
to play limited minutes with the illness and still looks
out of rhythm. To me, his situation has just been
a bummer. But I thought that he was able to
(04:05):
get to some efficient looks and he was able to
even make a couple nice reads as a passer. So
they're just creating advantages consistently, and they are making the
most of those advantages, and you have to give credit
for the supporting cast for that. But also Tatum and
Brown were bot significantly better, and specifically Tatum, even though
it's not a pretty shooting night, I thought was really
(04:27):
really good as a playmaker, and I thought that he
was much more composed and in control in this game.
Biggest thing that he had going as a score by
far was the fact that he really found his pull
up three, which had been so badly off in the
first two games of this series. But he was able
to step into a couple of really good looks with
Cat playing drop. I don't understand why the Knicks were
(04:48):
playing drop first stretch of the first half against Tatum,
with how well even Cat has been able to guard
him off of switches like that's been a challenge for
Tatum trying to score on those bigs off switches all series,
and they were able to just kind of get him
a couple of really comfortable pull up looks because Kat
was just sitting too deep in that drop. And I
thought that they were gonna play Cat in like sort
of a high drop coming into this series, but then
(05:10):
the switching was working. They went away for a time,
then they went back to it and they were switching
the bigs out on Tatum, which was more effective, but
he got some great looks from deep they were falling,
and he's just consistently involving Jalen Brunson in the action,
and then you're forcing the defense to make a choice
every time they don't want to give up that switch.
Brunson has defended better on those switches that I thought
(05:30):
he would have than he did in the regular season,
for sure, And when Tatum did get an outright switch
on Brunson late in this game, he still committed an
offensive foul. Like he was not good as a one
on one score on those isolations and switches in this game, still,
Tatum was not at the level you'd like to see
him at there, but the pull up three was going,
and he was consistently finding ways to draw to and
(05:51):
then find the open man. And that's where you get
Derek White getting such a great shot quality. That's where
you get some of the wide open catch and shoot
threes that Boston was able to generate in this one.
So that's where I thought he was really valuable, just
creating that initial advantage, putting the defense in rotation, making
the read. I thought the Jalen Brown was really really
good in the first half of this game. He ended
up putting up some more middies in the second half
(06:14):
that I didn't really love, but I thought his approach
to start this game was great. You were getting him
playing bullyball against the smaller wings, if that's Josh Hart,
if that is Jalen Brunson, if that's mckel Bridges, where
he just has such a big strength advantage. He was
maximizing that. And then when he was getting the cat switch,
he was doing a really nice job of backing up,
just building himself a runway. So he's starting his attack
(06:37):
from twenty eight feet out way beyond the three point line.
And then either Cat's gonna have to step up a
little bit and now he's got a guard further out
in space, or Jalen just has even more of a
runway to get downhill, so he was able to get
past him on a couple drives. Overall, huge improvement offensively
from Boston in this game in a number of ways.
(06:58):
And this is why they're so special, man. I mean,
just so much firepower, so many weapons, everybody on the
floor being a threat. And obviously this is a historically
great three point shooting team, and this is a great,
great offense. This is an offense that last year was
a top ten relative offense in NBA history, and this
year wasn't quite as insane, but we know that they
(07:19):
were able to produce good looks from three at an
unprecedented rate, and everybody on the floor is a three
point shooting threat for them in a way that we've
really never seen in the history of this game. So
it was a huge bounce back from the first two
games when I thought they did shoot really poorly, but
they also weren't getting shots that I loved.
Speaker 2 (07:38):
Especially in Game one.
Speaker 1 (07:39):
I thought that they were settling for a lot of
really tough pull ups, and then they got better looks
down the stretch in Game two, and they did just
miss some good ones, but still on some really key possessions.
Tatum and Brown forced the issue took some really tough
shots that I did not like from them. Now, we
didn't see Boston tested in the clutch in this game,
but obviously they didn't have to get there. They just
were convinced the better team throughout this entire game, instead
(08:02):
of just convincingly being the better team throughout three quarters
like they were in Games one and two and then
melting down down the stretch. But really where Boston has
been consistently great in this series, is on the defensive end, and.
Speaker 2 (08:16):
I think that they've done a really good.
Speaker 1 (08:17):
Job on Jalen Brunson. He ends up getting his numbers
in this one, and his efficiency wasn't good, but it
wasn't terrible. But he's able to give you twenty seven points.
But they have limited his efficiency overall. Coming into this game,
he was shooting like thirty seven percent from the field,
and he still shoots about forty percent in this one,
and they did a really nice job of keeping him
(08:39):
from getting others going because they can mostly guard him
one on one. I think that Drew Holliday has just
been phenomenal in that matchup. And they're also doing a
great job of exploiting the non threats on the floor
for New York so they can dedicate extra defensive attention
to Brunson. For example, whenever christophs Porzingis is on the floor,
Brunson is trying to use man as a screener, but
(09:02):
KP is basically just playing drop and ignoring whoever that
screener is because a lot of the time KP is
on a wing like oftentimes he's on Josh Hart who's
not much of a threat as a roller or a popper,
and so KP can basically just be big as hell
and deter Brunson drives and he doesn't have to worry
(09:23):
so much about Josh Hart being a scoring threat, even
if he's ignoring him. Even when KP has matched up
with Mitchell Robinson. Mitchell Robinson is not a very good
offensive player off the role. So I thought they were
able to exploit those couple of liabilities specifically Josh Hart
and Mitchell Robinson I'm looking at, and I thought that
they were able to allow the Celtics to dedicate extra
(09:46):
defensive attention to Brunson, especially out of pick and roll,
without being punished. But overall, this just was not a
good offensive game from the Knicks. The ball really did
not move for them. It was lots of tough one
on one offense, and that really applies for everybody. I mean,
mckil bridges was living on a very mid range, heavy
shot diet and he's very good from there. He was
able to make those looks, but cat lots of physical
(10:08):
tough drives for him into traffic where they were doing
a great job on him, and then Brunson again gets
his but still not super efficient and not super impactful
as a playmaker. I did think the rim protection from
Boston was outstanding in this game, and that's where I
thought Christaps Porzingis was easily his most impactful. But I
also thought that Al Horford was great there. They just
(10:31):
made it so so difficult for anybody on the Knicks
to score at the rim, and that's obviously an extremely
valuable thing to do as a defense. So we're three
games deep in this series. The Knicks have a one
to ZHO five offensive rating. Their offense has really been
kept in check and Jalen Brunson is averaging twenty four
points six assists on just better than fifty one percent
(10:54):
true shooting. So the Celtics have to be very very
happy with their defensive performance. They just had to clean
up the offense, and they did in a big way
in this one. I do want to talk about one
more dynamic that I thought was problematic for the Knicks offense,
and that is Mitchell Robinson's free throw shooting and the
ability of the Celtics to just put him on the
(11:15):
line so consistently. He is having the worst free throw
shooting postseason. We have ever seen in the history of
this league. Actually, he had the worst percentage from the
line that we'd ever seen in a single postseason with
at least twenty five free throw attempts coming into this game.
He ended up improving his percentage slightly, I think, going
(11:35):
four to twelve from the line. But he's shooting under
twenty nine percent, and he's doing so much good stuff
out there. He's dominating on the offensive glass, he's guarded
really well on switches, and again Pritchard got him a
couple times in this game, but against Tatum, he's still
doing a good job. Tatum had an offensive foul where
he just couldn't separate from Mitch and got a little frustrated.
(11:56):
Tried to use his physicality but ended up pushing off.
So whenever Mitchell Robinson is on the floor, if the
Celtics are near getting the knicks in the bonus, or
if the Knicks are in the bonus and you are
outside of those last two minutes of the quarter, you
just got a foul Mitchell Robinson. And I can't remember
if I talked about this after last game. It definitely
wrote down notes about it, but I can't remember if
(12:16):
it got lost in the shuffle somewhere. But the only
reason that they went away from that later in Game two,
I think is just because their bigs were in foul
trouble and like they didn't have a howser available to
just sort of have rack up some fowls. Their depth
just isn't quite the same right there down one body,
(12:37):
and again the bigs were all kind of in foul trouble.
But that's been extremely effective every single time that they've
gone to it, the hack of Mitch strategy, and if
you can get him off the floor, that's a big
win for Boston because he's doing so many other things
at a positive level, but he can single handedly torpedo
the Knicks offense when you're able to put him on
the line like that and he just cannot make a shot.
(12:58):
So terms of where this series is headed from here,
I feel very confident, honestly that Boston is gonna win.
Like I said, I still felt that they were gonna
win after Game two, but seeing them clean up all
the things that they needed to, even though it's still
not a super efficient scoring performance from Tatum or from Brown.
Speaker 2 (13:17):
They did what they needed to do.
Speaker 1 (13:18):
They don't have to be dominant in this matchup, like
they have advantages that they can exploit. I think if
they still can absolutely produce better individually than this, but
it's more so just about them doing the right things,
them creating the right kind of looks for the offense,
and then a bunch of great shooters making shots. And
instead of shooting twenty five percent from deep, the Celtics
(13:39):
make twenty threes in this game, and they shoot fifty
percent from deep. I do think that they are just
the much better team on both sides of the ball.
They've really done their job defensively in all three of
these games, and the offense just had to catch up,
and they really did in this one. And like props
to the Knicks collective defense for what they did in
games one in two. But I do think I think
(14:00):
that Og is really the only consistently high impact defensive
player they have in their starting lineup. Mitch has been
really good there, but even mckel he's good, but he's
at a strength disadvantage. Josh Hart is at a size
and strength disadvantage. Brunson again has held up better than
I would have thought in this series, but he can
still be exploited. So They've defended above my expectations, but
(14:23):
when Boston is playing the basketball that they're capable of,
it still doesn't matter. And the Nicks still don't have
the defensive personnel to slow them down. So Boston is
down to one. But I do feel like they are
just so comfortably the better team that they're gonna come through.
And there's some parallels to like the OKC Denver series
in terms of how these series have both gone through
(14:45):
three games, and that like, you have the one team
that has clutched out two very very close wins, and
then you have the higher seeded team, the more dominant
team throughout the regular season, who like has only won
the one game, but that one win has been absolutely dominant.
And I do think that, like, there's reason to be
concerned about both Boston and OKAC in the clutch because
(15:07):
they've both really struggled. But the distinction I would make
there is I do think that Denver has been able
to play Okac more evenly through the first three quarters
of their wins. Like, yeah, okay See was the better
team for most of Game one and Game three, but
Denver was really hanging in there in Games one and two.
Like the Knicks were getting destroyed. Boston was clearly the
(15:31):
far better team, the far better team, and then they imploded,
And I just don't think that that is something that
you can depend on, Like Denver has stayed within range
and then they've out executed Okasee convincingly and like the
last three, four, five minutes, whereas the Knicks to win
had to count on Boston just like fully blowing up
(15:53):
and missing a bunch of open looks or taking a
bunch of bad looks when they could have generated better ones.
And I really just think the Knicks don't have a
path to being dynamic enough offensively to keep up with
Boston because the Celtics are doing such a good job
on that side of the ball. But my thought, like
with all these series where we have these favorites who
(16:15):
are all now down two to one, if it's the Celtics,
if it's the Calves, if it's the Thunder, like, I'm
betting on the better teams across the board, and I
know that there's been a lot of panic about those
high seeds and all of these matchups, and I get
it because you look at the numbers. Historically, you go
up two oh, you win ninety three percent of the
time you go up to one, you win three out
of four of those series. But the thing is, I
(16:37):
mean the vast majority of the time that that happens,
it's the better team that's going up two oh or
it's the better team that's going up to one, and
that's just not the case in these series. Like Boston
is the much better team. I think that okay See
is better than Denver. They certainly have more margin. I
think that Cleveland is better than Indiana. And now they've
put themselves in positions with both the Calves and the
(17:00):
Celtics getting Game three obviously sparing themselves of being in
that historically unsalvageable position of being down three to zero.
Now I feel very good about their chances to come
back and win the series. Boston even more so, but
Cleveland I feel good.
Speaker 2 (17:14):
About as well.
Speaker 1 (17:15):
I was really surprised by how many people were like
giving up on the Celtics, because again I was super
hard on them after Game two.
Speaker 2 (17:23):
You had to be.
Speaker 1 (17:24):
It was terrible, But I still thought they so clearly
had so many advantages in so many ways to improve
in just so much more talent and just a resume
as a far superior basketball team to the Knicks, and
they crushed them throughout the regular season, so obviously they
still got work to do if we do get to
(17:44):
another clutch game, like just as I think if that's
Denver's path against ok See, gutting out the clutch games
out executing them there, it's the same exact thing for
the Knicks. That's where you think, Okay, Jalen Brunson is
probably going to be the best player on the floor
in the last few minutes of a game, and Tatum
and Brown have to be better and they can't get
in this super stagnant, ISO heavy mode and they can't
(18:05):
be forcing up these tough shots that they were in
games one and two. I just don't know, honestly, if
the Knicks are gonna get to another one of those
clutch games like without Boston collapses, and I mean that
truly collapses, largely self inflicted in games one and two.
This would be a three to zero lead for Boston.
That's not to downplay the Knicks. I just think Boston
is definitely the better team. All right, guys, that's gonna
(18:28):
do it for today. Just a quick little pod solo
show from the Boy obviously I miss my sweet Logan
and he will be back tomorrow. We will both be
back tomorrow reacting to what should be an awesome day
of games with both Calves, Pacers and thunder Nuggets. If
you want more of our content, there is plenty more
of it all across our YouTube channel. All of our
(18:49):
full episodes, all of our postgame live streams are here,
also our video essays and video breakdowns, and you can
follow us across social TikTok and Instagram at nerd sesshon,
Twitter at nerd Underscore. There's actually one more thing I
want to say real quick about this game. This Christoph
pazingis illness is just a real bummer. And even though
I thought that he gave Boston pretty good minutes tonight,
(19:11):
he just clearly can't give them that much, and he's
not in rhythm and he missed a couple of good looks.
But constantly we're hearing about how his fatigue is a factor,
how his conditioning isn't there because of this sickness just
sapping his energy, and.
Speaker 2 (19:27):
That does suck.
Speaker 1 (19:28):
Obviously, big Al is able to step up and give
them really good minutes, but KP is a special sort
of weapon when he's right, and he really struggled in
the first round series. He was just flat out bad.
But now it's like, man, he he's playing okay, but
he's clearly not right, and we'll see how that impacts
things for Boston going forward. I certainly don't think that
(19:48):
they need him to win this series. I think that
they can do it without him, but in a potential
Eastern Conference final series could be a little bit more
of a concern. They still have just special lineup versatility.
They really don't need any one of these guys outside
of Tatum all that much. But it is a bummer
that he's not able to be the best version of
(20:09):
himself for the second straight postseason after what happened to
him last year as well.
Speaker 2 (20:14):
Now I'm done for real.
Speaker 1 (20:16):
Congratulations to the Celtics, stay alive, get in the big win.
I will see you guys all tomorrow and with that,
as always, I have been Carson Breber. There is no
Logan Camden anymore. He ceased to exist and this was
nerd Sash
Oh my god, how could he do that? Why? Charles Darwin?
Speaker 2 (00:16):
The nerves is where it's at.
Speaker 1 (00:19):
Welcome everybody back into Nerd Sash. As always, I'm Carson Breber,
but alongside me today there is no Logan Camden. It's
a Carson solo show because Logan has been sent to
the Gulags. Unfortunately, no Logan is at his sister's graduation.
But it's just me today and we've just got one
game to talk about. Because the game later on today
(00:42):
is Warriors Timberwolves, and Steph Curry isn't gonna play and
there's a big break.
Speaker 2 (00:45):
I figure we might as well just get an instant.
Speaker 1 (00:47):
Reaction out to talk about this Celtics Knicks game because
that is the more interesting series, and then tomorrow we
will talk about the Wolves and Warriors with the rest
of the Sunday slate. But this was a massive, convention
seing response from the Boston Celtics, who obviously fell down
two games to nothing to New York in very shocking
fashion in this series, just absolutely crumbling in the first
(01:10):
two games, becoming the first team ever to blow back
to back twenty point leads. This was a massive win
for them and not a surprising one. Like I said
coming into this game that I expected this to be
a double digit Boston win. I've honestly been trying to
put it out anywhere and everywhere that I can after
Game two that I still thought the Celtics were gonna
(01:31):
win this series because there was a whole lot of
doom and gloom and panic. And like the Celtics deserve
to be reamed for what they did in the first
two games. It was horrifyingly bad at basketball, but they
played so so far below their standards, and it was
like two back to back outlier horrible performances, and they
are just the much better basketball team. And I really
(01:54):
couldn't see them not turning things around in this series,
not improving their offensive process, not shooting the ball a
lot better. They were already doing a great job defensively.
They just had to keep that up. And in this
one they did all those things. This is how the
Boston Celtics are supposed to look in this matchup. It
starts with the Stars playing significantly better, but just as
(02:17):
important as the fact that Boston's supporting cast and their
offensive weaponry came through in a huge way in this
one and That's what really sets them apart. It's not
the Brown Tatum duo that is so exceptional. It is
the fact that they have a Derek White who is
such a lethal shooter and such a capable creator. It's
the fact that they have a sixth Man of the
Year in Peyton Pritchard, who was absolutely electric offensively in
(02:39):
this game.
Speaker 2 (02:40):
I thought the aggregate.
Speaker 1 (02:42):
Shooting they have was overwhelming in this game, as it
often is, and just their ability to get the defense
in rotation and then trust everybody to make a play.
Everybody is a threat to shoot, everybody is a threat
to put the ball on the floor. Everybody can make
the pass. That's what makes the Celtics so special and
that was on full display.
Speaker 2 (02:59):
In this one.
Speaker 1 (03:00):
Peyton Pritchard was outstanding. I do think he's probably the
MVP of this game. First of all, just shooting the
hell out of the ball on pull ups off the catch,
but also cooking Mitchell Robinson off switches, which we haven't
seen either of the Jays able to do. Like Mitchell
Robinson is really capable guarding out in space, but Pritchard
just has that special combination of shiftiness of quickness as
(03:21):
a small guard he was creating a lot of separation
for his pull up jumpers and using his quickness very
effectively in this game, so he comes through with a
monster performance. Derek White was just absolutely money as a
jump shooter, and everybody was doing their job. Like Drew
White or Drew Holliday doesn't have a super big box
score impact in this one, but I thought that he
shot the ball well. I thought that he created some
(03:43):
good shots for others where he's posting up using his
strength and then drawing the defense in making a kickout pass.
I thought that al Horford was just in the right
spots and he knocked down shots, he cut well, He
was active on the offensive glass. Even christophs Porzingis continues
to play limited minutes with the illness and still looks
out of rhythm. To me, his situation has just been
a bummer. But I thought that he was able to
(04:05):
get to some efficient looks and he was able to
even make a couple nice reads as a passer. So
they're just creating advantages consistently, and they are making the
most of those advantages, and you have to give credit
for the supporting cast for that. But also Tatum and
Brown were bot significantly better, and specifically Tatum, even though
it's not a pretty shooting night, I thought was really
(04:27):
really good as a playmaker, and I thought that he
was much more composed and in control in this game.
Biggest thing that he had going as a score by
far was the fact that he really found his pull
up three, which had been so badly off in the
first two games of this series. But he was able
to step into a couple of really good looks with
Cat playing drop. I don't understand why the Knicks were
(04:48):
playing drop first stretch of the first half against Tatum,
with how well even Cat has been able to guard
him off of switches like that's been a challenge for
Tatum trying to score on those bigs off switches all series,
and they were able to just kind of get him
a couple of really comfortable pull up looks because Kat
was just sitting too deep in that drop. And I
thought that they were gonna play Cat in like sort
of a high drop coming into this series, but then
(05:10):
the switching was working. They went away for a time,
then they went back to it and they were switching
the bigs out on Tatum, which was more effective, but
he got some great looks from deep they were falling,
and he's just consistently involving Jalen Brunson in the action,
and then you're forcing the defense to make a choice
every time they don't want to give up that switch.
Brunson has defended better on those switches that I thought
(05:30):
he would have than he did in the regular season,
for sure, And when Tatum did get an outright switch
on Brunson late in this game, he still committed an
offensive foul. Like he was not good as a one
on one score on those isolations and switches in this game, still,
Tatum was not at the level you'd like to see
him at there, but the pull up three was going,
and he was consistently finding ways to draw to and
(05:51):
then find the open man. And that's where you get
Derek White getting such a great shot quality. That's where
you get some of the wide open catch and shoot
threes that Boston was able to generate in this one.
So that's where I thought he was really valuable, just
creating that initial advantage, putting the defense in rotation, making
the read. I thought the Jalen Brown was really really
good in the first half of this game. He ended
up putting up some more middies in the second half
(06:14):
that I didn't really love, but I thought his approach
to start this game was great. You were getting him
playing bullyball against the smaller wings, if that's Josh Hart,
if that is Jalen Brunson, if that's mckel Bridges, where
he just has such a big strength advantage. He was
maximizing that. And then when he was getting the cat switch,
he was doing a really nice job of backing up,
just building himself a runway. So he's starting his attack
(06:37):
from twenty eight feet out way beyond the three point line.
And then either Cat's gonna have to step up a
little bit and now he's got a guard further out
in space, or Jalen just has even more of a
runway to get downhill, so he was able to get
past him on a couple drives. Overall, huge improvement offensively
from Boston in this game in a number of ways.
(06:58):
And this is why they're so special, man. I mean,
just so much firepower, so many weapons, everybody on the
floor being a threat. And obviously this is a historically
great three point shooting team, and this is a great,
great offense. This is an offense that last year was
a top ten relative offense in NBA history, and this
year wasn't quite as insane, but we know that they
(07:19):
were able to produce good looks from three at an
unprecedented rate, and everybody on the floor is a three
point shooting threat for them in a way that we've
really never seen in the history of this game. So
it was a huge bounce back from the first two
games when I thought they did shoot really poorly, but
they also weren't getting shots that I loved.
Speaker 2 (07:38):
Especially in Game one.
Speaker 1 (07:39):
I thought that they were settling for a lot of
really tough pull ups, and then they got better looks
down the stretch in Game two, and they did just
miss some good ones, but still on some really key possessions.
Tatum and Brown forced the issue took some really tough
shots that I did not like from them. Now, we
didn't see Boston tested in the clutch in this game,
but obviously they didn't have to get there. They just
were convinced the better team throughout this entire game, instead
(08:02):
of just convincingly being the better team throughout three quarters
like they were in Games one and two and then
melting down down the stretch. But really where Boston has
been consistently great in this series, is on the defensive end, and.
Speaker 2 (08:16):
I think that they've done a really good.
Speaker 1 (08:17):
Job on Jalen Brunson. He ends up getting his numbers
in this one, and his efficiency wasn't good, but it
wasn't terrible. But he's able to give you twenty seven points.
But they have limited his efficiency overall. Coming into this game,
he was shooting like thirty seven percent from the field,
and he still shoots about forty percent in this one,
and they did a really nice job of keeping him
(08:39):
from getting others going because they can mostly guard him
one on one. I think that Drew Holliday has just
been phenomenal in that matchup. And they're also doing a
great job of exploiting the non threats on the floor
for New York so they can dedicate extra defensive attention
to Brunson. For example, whenever christophs Porzingis is on the floor,
Brunson is trying to use man as a screener, but
(09:02):
KP is basically just playing drop and ignoring whoever that
screener is because a lot of the time KP is
on a wing like oftentimes he's on Josh Hart who's
not much of a threat as a roller or a popper,
and so KP can basically just be big as hell
and deter Brunson drives and he doesn't have to worry
(09:23):
so much about Josh Hart being a scoring threat, even
if he's ignoring him. Even when KP has matched up
with Mitchell Robinson. Mitchell Robinson is not a very good
offensive player off the role. So I thought they were
able to exploit those couple of liabilities specifically Josh Hart
and Mitchell Robinson I'm looking at, and I thought that
they were able to allow the Celtics to dedicate extra
(09:46):
defensive attention to Brunson, especially out of pick and roll,
without being punished. But overall, this just was not a
good offensive game from the Knicks. The ball really did
not move for them. It was lots of tough one
on one offense, and that really applies for everybody. I mean,
mckil bridges was living on a very mid range, heavy
shot diet and he's very good from there. He was
able to make those looks, but cat lots of physical
(10:08):
tough drives for him into traffic where they were doing
a great job on him, and then Brunson again gets
his but still not super efficient and not super impactful
as a playmaker. I did think the rim protection from
Boston was outstanding in this game, and that's where I
thought Christaps Porzingis was easily his most impactful. But I
also thought that Al Horford was great there. They just
(10:31):
made it so so difficult for anybody on the Knicks
to score at the rim, and that's obviously an extremely
valuable thing to do as a defense. So we're three
games deep in this series. The Knicks have a one
to ZHO five offensive rating. Their offense has really been
kept in check and Jalen Brunson is averaging twenty four
points six assists on just better than fifty one percent
(10:54):
true shooting. So the Celtics have to be very very
happy with their defensive performance. They just had to clean
up the offense, and they did in a big way
in this one. I do want to talk about one
more dynamic that I thought was problematic for the Knicks offense,
and that is Mitchell Robinson's free throw shooting and the
ability of the Celtics to just put him on the
(11:15):
line so consistently. He is having the worst free throw
shooting postseason. We have ever seen in the history of
this league. Actually, he had the worst percentage from the
line that we'd ever seen in a single postseason with
at least twenty five free throw attempts coming into this game.
He ended up improving his percentage slightly, I think, going
(11:35):
four to twelve from the line. But he's shooting under
twenty nine percent, and he's doing so much good stuff
out there. He's dominating on the offensive glass, he's guarded
really well on switches, and again Pritchard got him a
couple times in this game, but against Tatum, he's still
doing a good job. Tatum had an offensive foul where
he just couldn't separate from Mitch and got a little frustrated.
(11:56):
Tried to use his physicality but ended up pushing off.
So whenever Mitchell Robinson is on the floor, if the
Celtics are near getting the knicks in the bonus, or
if the Knicks are in the bonus and you are
outside of those last two minutes of the quarter, you
just got a foul Mitchell Robinson. And I can't remember
if I talked about this after last game. It definitely
wrote down notes about it, but I can't remember if
(12:16):
it got lost in the shuffle somewhere. But the only
reason that they went away from that later in Game two,
I think is just because their bigs were in foul
trouble and like they didn't have a howser available to
just sort of have rack up some fowls. Their depth
just isn't quite the same right there down one body,
(12:37):
and again the bigs were all kind of in foul trouble.
But that's been extremely effective every single time that they've
gone to it, the hack of Mitch strategy, and if
you can get him off the floor, that's a big
win for Boston because he's doing so many other things
at a positive level, but he can single handedly torpedo
the Knicks offense when you're able to put him on
the line like that and he just cannot make a shot.
(12:58):
So terms of where this series is headed from here,
I feel very confident, honestly that Boston is gonna win.
Like I said, I still felt that they were gonna
win after Game two, but seeing them clean up all
the things that they needed to, even though it's still
not a super efficient scoring performance from Tatum or from Brown.
Speaker 2 (13:17):
They did what they needed to do.
Speaker 1 (13:18):
They don't have to be dominant in this matchup, like
they have advantages that they can exploit. I think if
they still can absolutely produce better individually than this, but
it's more so just about them doing the right things,
them creating the right kind of looks for the offense,
and then a bunch of great shooters making shots. And
instead of shooting twenty five percent from deep, the Celtics
(13:39):
make twenty threes in this game, and they shoot fifty
percent from deep. I do think that they are just
the much better team on both sides of the ball.
They've really done their job defensively in all three of
these games, and the offense just had to catch up,
and they really did in this one. And like props
to the Knicks collective defense for what they did in
games one in two. But I do think I think
(14:00):
that Og is really the only consistently high impact defensive
player they have in their starting lineup. Mitch has been
really good there, but even mckel he's good, but he's
at a strength disadvantage. Josh Hart is at a size
and strength disadvantage. Brunson again has held up better than
I would have thought in this series, but he can
still be exploited. So They've defended above my expectations, but
(14:23):
when Boston is playing the basketball that they're capable of,
it still doesn't matter. And the Nicks still don't have
the defensive personnel to slow them down. So Boston is
down to one. But I do feel like they are
just so comfortably the better team that they're gonna come through.
And there's some parallels to like the OKC Denver series
in terms of how these series have both gone through
(14:45):
three games, and that like, you have the one team
that has clutched out two very very close wins, and
then you have the higher seeded team, the more dominant
team throughout the regular season, who like has only won
the one game, but that one win has been absolutely dominant.
And I do think that, like, there's reason to be
concerned about both Boston and OKAC in the clutch because
(15:07):
they've both really struggled. But the distinction I would make
there is I do think that Denver has been able
to play Okac more evenly through the first three quarters
of their wins. Like, yeah, okay See was the better
team for most of Game one and Game three, but
Denver was really hanging in there in Games one and two.
Like the Knicks were getting destroyed. Boston was clearly the
(15:31):
far better team, the far better team, and then they imploded,
And I just don't think that that is something that
you can depend on, Like Denver has stayed within range
and then they've out executed Okasee convincingly and like the
last three, four, five minutes, whereas the Knicks to win
had to count on Boston just like fully blowing up
(15:53):
and missing a bunch of open looks or taking a
bunch of bad looks when they could have generated better ones.
And I really just think the Knicks don't have a
path to being dynamic enough offensively to keep up with
Boston because the Celtics are doing such a good job
on that side of the ball. But my thought, like
with all these series where we have these favorites who
(16:15):
are all now down two to one, if it's the Celtics,
if it's the Calves, if it's the Thunder, like, I'm
betting on the better teams across the board, and I
know that there's been a lot of panic about those
high seeds and all of these matchups, and I get
it because you look at the numbers. Historically, you go
up two oh, you win ninety three percent of the
time you go up to one, you win three out
of four of those series. But the thing is, I
(16:37):
mean the vast majority of the time that that happens,
it's the better team that's going up two oh or
it's the better team that's going up to one, and
that's just not the case in these series. Like Boston
is the much better team. I think that okay See
is better than Denver. They certainly have more margin. I
think that Cleveland is better than Indiana. And now they've
put themselves in positions with both the Calves and the
(17:00):
Celtics getting Game three obviously sparing themselves of being in
that historically unsalvageable position of being down three to zero.
Now I feel very good about their chances to come
back and win the series. Boston even more so, but
Cleveland I feel good.
Speaker 2 (17:14):
About as well.
Speaker 1 (17:15):
I was really surprised by how many people were like
giving up on the Celtics, because again I was super
hard on them after Game two.
Speaker 2 (17:23):
You had to be.
Speaker 1 (17:24):
It was terrible, But I still thought they so clearly
had so many advantages in so many ways to improve
in just so much more talent and just a resume
as a far superior basketball team to the Knicks, and
they crushed them throughout the regular season, so obviously they
still got work to do if we do get to
(17:44):
another clutch game, like just as I think if that's
Denver's path against ok See, gutting out the clutch games
out executing them there, it's the same exact thing for
the Knicks. That's where you think, Okay, Jalen Brunson is
probably going to be the best player on the floor
in the last few minutes of a game, and Tatum
and Brown have to be better and they can't get
in this super stagnant, ISO heavy mode and they can't
(18:05):
be forcing up these tough shots that they were in
games one and two. I just don't know, honestly, if
the Knicks are gonna get to another one of those
clutch games like without Boston collapses, and I mean that
truly collapses, largely self inflicted in games one and two.
This would be a three to zero lead for Boston.
That's not to downplay the Knicks. I just think Boston
is definitely the better team. All right, guys, that's gonna
(18:28):
do it for today. Just a quick little pod solo
show from the Boy obviously I miss my sweet Logan
and he will be back tomorrow. We will both be
back tomorrow reacting to what should be an awesome day
of games with both Calves, Pacers and thunder Nuggets. If
you want more of our content, there is plenty more
of it all across our YouTube channel. All of our
(18:49):
full episodes, all of our postgame live streams are here,
also our video essays and video breakdowns, and you can
follow us across social TikTok and Instagram at nerd sesshon,
Twitter at nerd Underscore. There's actually one more thing I
want to say real quick about this game. This Christoph
pazingis illness is just a real bummer. And even though
I thought that he gave Boston pretty good minutes tonight,
(19:11):
he just clearly can't give them that much, and he's
not in rhythm and he missed a couple of good looks.
But constantly we're hearing about how his fatigue is a factor,
how his conditioning isn't there because of this sickness just
sapping his energy, and.
Speaker 2 (19:27):
That does suck.
Speaker 1 (19:28):
Obviously, big Al is able to step up and give
them really good minutes, but KP is a special sort
of weapon when he's right, and he really struggled in
the first round series. He was just flat out bad.
But now it's like, man, he he's playing okay, but
he's clearly not right, and we'll see how that impacts
things for Boston going forward. I certainly don't think that
(19:48):
they need him to win this series. I think that
they can do it without him, but in a potential
Eastern Conference final series could be a little bit more
of a concern. They still have just special lineup versatility.
They really don't need any one of these guys outside
of Tatum all that much. But it is a bummer
that he's not able to be the best version of
(20:09):
himself for the second straight postseason after what happened to
him last year as well.
Speaker 2 (20:14):
Now I'm done for real.
Speaker 1 (20:16):
Congratulations to the Celtics, stay alive, get in the big win.
I will see you guys all tomorrow and with that,
as always, I have been Carson Breber. There is no
Logan Camden anymore. He ceased to exist and this was
nerd Sash
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