A collapse in the third quarter and a forgiven hit to Jaylen Brown's head drop the Celtics in Indiana.
A collapse in the third quarter and a forgiven hit to Jaylen Brown's head drop the Celtics in Indiana.
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Mike Quigley:Offering in-depth analysis on all things Boston Celtics With your hosts Jim and Mike Wigley.
Jim Quigley:Alright, we're back with another episode of HODE FILE. Mike, the Celtic's got the Timble Ops coming off a split of the paces. Mike, we're just going to start with you, because I know you have some things you want to get off your chest in terms of the end of that paces game, with officiating and league reviews and things of that nature. So take it away.
Mike Quigley:Yeah, it was awful. I don't think the Celtics deserve to win that game or be in that game because of their effort in the third quarter, but they were in the game and, quite frankly, they should have won the game. That wasn't a good challenge in my opinion, because it was clearly called a foul on the floor. It's always called a foul that way. Those calls never get overturned. The Celtics should have been at the line with three seconds left and Indiana had no timeouts. Christoph Rosengas isn't going for the rebound in that situation because the whistle's blown and that's how Indiana ends up with the ball.
Mike Quigley:It was just a complete fuck-up. It was a clown show, and it's crazy to me that it goes to Sokakis and they're making that decision like what? What were they thinking? I don't understand the whole thing, and it was a great game too to end like that and the hands of the referees, yeah, and there was other things that I was frustrated about that have to do with the Celtics, like the end of the game. I thought I don't like the way they handled the last 36 seconds of that game, especially that last possession. But we can get into that.
Mike Quigley:But the referees, like every single time there is a replay and it's right in front of our face how obvious the call is. As viewers, we still don't know what's going to happen because it's so frigging inconsistent across the league. The officiating in the NBA is so bad. Every year we don't know how they're going to call games, every game. We don't know how they're going to call games when we have a playoff game, depending on who the refs are. We know who's going to win some of these games. It's just so bad and I don't understand why the commissioner can't fix it.
Jim Quigley:Well, it's interesting because you talked about how Sacacacus actually is the one that did the video review makes a call. So I actually think the official's got it right on the floor and, as someone that used to referee and you're trained to, if there is incidental contact you don't blow the whistle, but I don't know how you look at that as incidental contact. When someone goes through someone's head to get to the ball, I know he drove, the contact with the ball was clean, but he hit him in the head first and I just To me it's like that's in every level of basketball. That's called a foul and there's no replay to review it. That's just a foul and that's why I think all the players in Yusofl LeBron's reaction on Twitter is because they've been playing this game for over 20 years and everywhere they've gone.
Jim Quigley:That's a foul. Now we're going to slow it down to super slow speed and we're going to go into the depths of the rulebook and we're going to really get technical here. I just I think that's absurd, and especially when it's supposed to be clear and obvious for a change. That wasn't clear and obvious, I think, by any definition of the rule, and maybe we're so long we're collial staff like thought that this could happen and that's why they challenged it. I don't know. And then, when you go down the other end of the floor and you know, the League Two Minute reports that there was an illegal screen on Turner. That's one of the things that my biggest frustration is. I don't know what an illegal screen is. That call is so inconsistent across the league, that's so inconsistent.
Jim Quigley:If God's push off on a screen, they don't get called. A big guy does a minuscule thing wrong, they get called. If it's down the end of the game, they don't call, unless they're in the stands, not the bio. Yeah, it's like I don't know. I really don't know what they're looking for with an illegal screen anymore, like I don't know that call. But I thought the Przingis one was a foul and the League Two Minute report. I think the cover their ass on the Jaylen Brown thing said that wasn't a foul, that that was also incidental contact it doesn't make sense.
Jim Quigley:No, and to me Przingis kind of jumped into him and there was contact. I don't really see that as incidental, but I feel like they were covering their ass because Przingis got some of the arm and a clean ball. I just you know that. To me none of that makes any sense. That doesn't make the game better. It hurts a product. To me that should have been a quick review, a call back to the official that it was declined. Now what's interesting is Mike and you know let's talk about the last 36 seconds.
Mike Quigley:But part of that last 36 seconds is Joe Missoula didn't have a review because he took a bad review, which is something that's not down all season Earlier in the game on the Brown offensive charge and if you know, I don't want to blame that on, I don't want to blame that on Missoula, though that comes from his bench.
Jim Quigley:Well, missoula has been too mad, you know, but they lost their review on, like Kyle Isle where, you know, maybe that game goes into overtime. The Celtics still have it. Clearly it would have, if that's what the league is saying, you know. So, you know those are the breaks sometimes and but you want to talk about the last 36 seconds. We should definitely talk about the trend in Celtics losses that we're seeing with the third quarters. But you know, go ahead with those last 36 seconds.
Mike Quigley:Yeah, the last two minutes in 36 seconds. The last two minutes.
Jim Quigley:Okay.
Mike Quigley:There was two minutes and 36 seconds in the game with the Celtics came out of a timeout. Me and you were both texting back and forth. I think they were down six and we were like they don't deserve this, they're not playing hard, blah, blah blah, whatever.
Jim Quigley:Yeah, the down kind of took over yeah.
Mike Quigley:And then they went into He-Man mode and got themselves back in the game. But that last 36 seconds I like I'm not going to argue against NBA philosophy. That first possession, I guess the data says, the analytics says you want to get a shot off quick, so that's what they did. Brown didn't make the shot, whatever.
Jim Quigley:Hey, we're going to start a different. Then you make the stop.
Mike Quigley:Yeah, you make the stop. Why don't we have a call of time out, especially when J? Is not on the floor Like what are we doing? Man and especially how. Brown got bailed out because he got filed, but that was not a good look. If he didn't get filed, that wasn't going in. Like I just don't understand. Like this is a trend with Missoula going back to last year, why don't we ever set something up in those situations, like every other NBA franchise?
Jim Quigley:I get it Like I think there's a point where you can see what's happening when the ball gets over half court, whether you're going to have numbers or not in an opportunity to score right it's. Sometimes it is better not to go with the time out because of defense and scramble mode. I think as soon as Jalen Brown started dribbling that ball towards the corner, they should have used it and something together. And especially, I thought Missoula out of timeouts was amazing and out of bounds plays were just amazing, especially in that Coronet one, yeah, and they did it all game. They were getting good looks all game. And that the one at the end of the game, yeah, great point with Coronet, it almost worked. So, yeah, I like what you actually, I think he's really good out of that. Like that's one area he's improved drastically since last year is, you know, sidelines, out of bounds and under the hoop. Like he's been really, really good at putting the Souths in position to score. But yeah, no, I don't disagree with him, I don't disagree with you.
Mike Quigley:That's my, that's my rant about the end of the game and the reason that I think we both agree and I'm sure you'll get into more specific details, like you usually do, to help this pod about the play of the third quarter, the Celtic third quarter. Well, I mean, like you're better off, like, oh well, I remember the plays and like exactly, what happened?
Mike Quigley:But anyways, their effort was just not not there. Their effort was just not there and I thought the coaching effort wasn't there either because they stayed in the defense. That clearly wasn't working and you saw it early on in the third quarter when Aaron Eastmuth was just being left open for three. I got shooting 45% from three the Celtics weren't even getting out on. And then once again you saw a 40 point quarter. So two out of the last three games in the third quarter on the road they've given up 40 points. They give up 45 to the Thunder and they gave up it was either 43 or 44 to Indiana, and at one point in that third quarter Indiana was 12 of 13 from the floor.
Jim Quigley:Yeah, they started out on the first seven, eight possessions. It was ridiculous and some of it was in man, some of it was in zone. I am like I agree they stuck in zone in the fourth quarter for way too long in particular, and I actually I am glad they're doing some two on two and they're doing some different stuff, just to get it on tape and give team something to think about. I they would just they've been too predictable over the last two seasons defensively know exactly what they're going to do. I think wrinkles are important and I'd like to see another one. You know, I just think having them and hopefully you get better and against different teams, that works. But clearly it was. It was not working this night. It was Indiana struggled against it on Sunday night of Saturday night whenever they played, because of the first time seeing them and clearly they had to figure it out.
Jim Quigley:The bigger issue to me was just, you know, against the thunder. I thought the thunder just played out of their minds and maybe the Celtics could have played harder in that third quarter. You know, it was really tough to tell because of how well the thunder were playing in this one. I thought a lot of it was effort. I thought they were losing any loose ball. You know the few times Indiana did miss shots. They recovered the offensive rebound and then score. There was a lack of attention and detail outside of their offensive possessions. The crazy thing is they went in with a nine point lead and they shot like something like six and nine or six for 10 to start the third quarter. Right, really good. And they and they lead with stout at three and like.
Jim Quigley:To me, that's just, it's inexcusable. It really is inexcusable for that to happen. And it wasn't like Missoula didn't call a time out during that stretch. He did, and then he didn't respond. And you've seen seven out of the eight losses that the Celtics have had. You've seen third quarters like this. So you know, at times the third quarters have been great, but they've all been in wins and look, it's tough to nitpick a team that's winning at a 800 level. Right, you know they're winning almost 80% of their games. Little bit less than that now, but they've been really really good.
Jim Quigley:But there is a trend here. So I think it's something we really need to keep an eye on. Is this a team that every eight or nine games, gets into a slump like this and goes through two or three just because they take the foot off the gas a little bit. Or, you know, they think because they played so well in the first half, the game's over and you know, human bad habits kind of kick in. Or is this a trend, that's something that's worse than that and we have to be concerned about in the playoffs? Hopefully it's a former, not the latter, hopefully it's just a thing that happens in the regular season and the focus kind of wanes because they've been playing so well and the foot kind of goes off the gas and isn't something that leaks into the playoffs, where every possession matters. So, but it's happened enough now, no matter who bosses.
Mike Quigley:Yeah, and you know credit to the Pacers for how hard they were playing, especially to Team J McConnell. I think that when Halliburton went down they certainly could have full booted in and fought about the next night, but McConnell's effort just wouldn't allow that to happen. The Celtics weren't matching his effort. They weren't getting to the same lose balls that he was.
Jim Quigley:I also thought that this was a little way. They were not just drives, they were letting McConnell go through the hoop, like it's. Like the ball resistance was so poor you know it's not always getting loose balls the ball resistance was so poor that anyone on the Pacers could get to the basket and then find a man for an open three and the Celtics were lazily helping, like why are you helping on a McConnell drive On a computer? Like that's a lack of focus, lack of effort, you know, even though it doesn't even show up on the screen.
Mike Quigley:And I also thought of a lack of adjustments too, because you had Porzinga's covering McConnell for way too long.
Jim Quigley:Yeah.
Mike Quigley:And it clearly wasn't working, going back to the first half. So I don't know I get why they were trying to do it, but it wasn't working and they just were like banging their head against the wall that entire game. And I also thought offensively they weren't going to Porzinga's and Brown enough. They kind of got away from it when those two in holiday were probably your best offensive players the other night and they went through a stretch where Brown was stuck at 32 points. That didn't make sense to me. He wasn't stuck there because he was missing shots, he was stuck there because they stopped running action for him to just drive to the basket.
Mike Quigley:I think sometimes a Missoula's going to step back in and just get back to what's working and just not a great game. This is going to happen. I think I also agree to take a look at that trend that there are quarters every five or six games or what have you moving forward? Big game tonight, jim, I don't know if there's anything you wanted to say about it. I saw on the injury report we got three guys who may be out. Yeah, poor thing is Al, and I forget who the other person is. So you figure some guys are sitting tonight and tomorrow, so big two games. Minnesota is coming in on a back to back. They played their Lando last night. I don't know if it ended up being a blow up, but they were up by like 20 in the first quarter, so did they arrest their guys.
Jim Quigley:No, not really. Outside of Anthony Edwards, everyone else was plus 30 minutes. Edwards was like 26, 27 minutes, but everyone else was plus 30.
Mike Quigley:So maybe they won't have legs. That could help.
Jim Quigley:They didn't get in until today. They're not getting into early this afternoon. They're not even here yet because of the weather. So the Celtics look it's a revenge game. They've been really good in revenge games. I think it's something that they're using to motivate themselves. Being at home really means something to them. Minnesota is coming off a loss. This should be a game that the Celtics handle their business. All the things that all they indicate is a pointing in that direction. You know they should. There should be a one that they handle their business, even if they have a guy to out.
Jim Quigley:I just going back to the Indiana, one last thing I want to say, mike, is we got to give Jaylen Brown his kudos. You brought him up having 32 points Last couple minutes of the game. The reason they got back into it was because of his offense, whether him kind of starting the offense and then finding the open man, or he made a couple big shots down the end of the game to put him in the spot to have a chance to work. So he was great coming off one of his worst efforts of the season against shooting efforts against Indiana two nights before. But yeah, tonight they should be all right.
Jim Quigley:You also brought up how they're going to handle these back to backs. I think there's be some guys sitting tonight. Based on the injury put. I wonder if they have some guys sitting in Minnesota. I mean against Milwaukee as well. You know they managed Jaylen Jason Tatum in that Indiana game where he got a night off. I wonder if maybe we see Jaylen Brown get a night off as well soon, because clearly I think that's important to them is managing these guys as much as getting wins. So they're all kind of going in, you know, full blow at the end of the season and into the playoffs.
Mike Quigley:And something I'm really looking forward to tonight is how does Brown and Tatum handle the ball pressure that they're going to get from McDaniels and Edwards? That was something we struggled with down in Minnesota. Minnesota gets up in you. We'll see on the second night of a back to back how much they get up in you and then also how we defend the Anthony Edwards, because the last two or three times we played Minnesota Edwards has gone off.
Mike Quigley:So whether you're going to put Brown on him or try Tatum, or try Holiday trying to figure out that matchup. And that's always interesting to see because the Celtics have so many different guys they can throw at him. I know, for example, the Orlando game against Pabllo when he had 30 in the first half. They went through like three guys before they finally figured out it was Holiday that was going to stop them. And I hope they're creative like that tonight because it may be a team effort to figure out how to slow this guy down.
Jim Quigley:Oh, for sure. And then the thing I'm most curious about tonight's game is Tatum's been just on another level the last three games. He's played OK, cu and then Indiana was probably the cherry on top. And the one part of his game you could really criticize this season is his three point shooting percentage and his jump shot. It's been a bit of a struggle. He's been finishing out the rim real well, he's been getting to the free throw line at a high rate, he's been moving the ball, he's been rebounding, defending, so all those other parts of the game have been great. But he's shooting in his struggle, but not over the last three games, certainly not against Indiana, where he made five or six series. So good defensive team. A night off A night off for him's got to feel like a vacation. So he's going to have fresh legs ready to go and I'm just eager to see what he looks like against this tough defense and well rested, and I expect him to play really really well again tonight. And then Mike, for a big one against Milwaukee, right.
Mike Quigley:Yeah, yeah. So big Eastern Conference games for our night. Another preview of, most likely, the Eastern Conference final. Unless things go bananas like last year, we'll see. We'll see what that game's like. Milwaukee cannot defend our wings, so I expect the Celtics, even with tied legs, to get their points out Another small guard that I don't think the Celtics can defend.
Mike Quigley:Tomorrow night it's probably going to go off. So I expect I honestly I expect two very close games these next two nights. It should be good, entertaining basketball. I think you know we all want Celtics to go two and two. Two and all. That's tough, so I would be happy with one and one in this stretch, but I also wouldn't be surprised if the Celtics blow doors and win both.
Jim Quigley:The game tonight and that's that's almost. Historically have been like a death sentence in the NBA. The regardless of the situation is five games and seven nights is usually just not good. So it will be interesting to really see how the Celtics handle tonight, what they're going to lace up, who they're going to lace up and then what they're able to do tomorrow. I expect the Celtics fans to be a little bit more expanded than we were going to do. They're going to go to a short bench here. Um, and I don't know if the game is my prediction for tomorrow night against Milwaukee. I don't know if tomorrow night is going to be indicative of what Milwaukee Celtics match up would typically look like.
Mike Quigley:No, it won't be no way, because either holiday poor Zingas are out. One of those guys are two of them.
Jim Quigley:We're not going to be surprised if Jaylen Brown gets a night off tomorrow night. That would not shock me. I doubt it, but it wouldn't shock me.
Mike Quigley:Yeah, yeah, I mean it's a good point, because if they're trying to sit Jaylen Brown, I guarantee you he does not want to sit against the Rockets no. I guarantee none of those guys want to sit the big game.
Jim Quigley:No, no, I forgot about that game. Interesting, yeah, um. Hey, mike, I gotta cut that out. I'm not sure if you get into about five questions, but we'll do that the next time, right, um, any closing thoughts from you.
Mike Quigley:No, just two great games. We'll check back in probably after these two and go.
Jim Quigley:Celtics Go, Celtics Alright.