With an extra day between series, this was a great day to look back at the Celtics series against the Philadelphia 76ers to talk about how Joel Embiid is a total frontrunner and how James Harden is a complete playoff fraud. John Karalis of Boston Sports Journal and Tom Westerholm discuss all that before getting into the Heat series, how Boston SHOULD win the series easily but Miami is just too good to blow off like that.
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44 Comments
The basketball gods don't favor floppers. Too bad Embiid started learning it from Harden, they'll never win.
“Front running frauds”😂😂😂Is it Wednesday yet? LFG!☘️ Thanks John & Tom🙏🏻☘️🔒
The Revenge Tour is Real!!!
If the Celtics keep the double big lineup and stay focused on defence they can win this 4-1. Must win the first two games at home.
Apologies aside to Tornado Tatum, bring on the Heat!
Vamos Celtics from San Francisco ☘️🖤💚🖤💚☘️🤍🖤☘️🤍☘️💚
To be fair ya the Heat beat the Bucks but let's not act like Gianni's didn't miss almost 3 games as he only played 10 minutes into game 1 and missed game 2 and 3 of the series lol also I never thought the Bucks was that great or any better then they was last year smh let's be honest Brook Lopez was their best player in that series besides Giannis lmfao
As much as I love making fun of philly, our guys still went 7 with them lol. Regardless, bring on Miami
Jokic the real MVP Joel’s tears finally got him enough sympathy votes from the media who sees 3 as a magic number
Loved watching John be petty as thats just not the type if guy john is. Which just says that much more bout how bad Embiid, Harden, Doc and Morey all are lmfao
Keys to the series:
1. How injured is Jimmy? Which jimmy will show up? People are making assessments on the heat based on the jimmy they saw vs. the bucks. The jimmy we saw post-injury and vs. the knicks is the more likely one we see this series or at least for game 1. That's more recent. He hasn't been phenomenal post-injury. he looks mortal. 6-24 for example.
2. What defensive schemes will Spo bring out to slow down JB/JT? Zone? Box and 1? Who's going to guard JT/JB assuming jimmy takes on 1 of them. strus or vincent are a matchup advantage. if smart gets vincent that's a post/off the nail or zone-breaker mismatch. How will Mazzula adjust? Will Mazzula grow up coaching-wise this series?
3. Who's going to win the 3-point shooting battle? The celtics shot an unsustainable percentage from 3 to start the season. The heat, specifically duncan, shot an unsustainable percentage vs. the bucks (and why they beat the bucks and stubborn Bud who refused to veer away from drop). Will Al snap out of his shooting funk?
4. Will Mazzula stop being a stubborn tool? Rob has to start and play close to 30 mins. We are winning the minutes with Rob. We are winning all the double-big minutes. We are even or losing the single-big minutes. Mazzula ball is too inconsistent to work in the playoffs. The more accepting Mazzula is of returning to the Udoka formula of defensive focus, rebounding and double big like they did the last season, the quicker the C's wrap up this series. The next step in Mazzula's development is to play a big off the bench (and thus maintain a double big setup) when rob or al has to rest. Grant, blake or muscala have to play in this series and maintain double big. I'd push for blake or grant to play. We are atrocious when we roll out 3G lineups. smart, white and brogdon shouldn't be on the floor together. when brogdon and white come in, they should only be replacing jt, jb or smart.
We have actually been winning in spite of Mazzula instead of because of him (at least before sixers game 6). I wil give mazzula his props for starting to make effective adjustments.
5. Which JT are we getting? the one who starts working inside out from sixers game 7 or the dribble between the legs, sidestep 3 shot chucker from the earlier games? Will we get a JB 40-50 piece finally? We are due. If these 2 score 20-30+ each, each game, this series will be over quickly. JT in game 7 is as good as the jimmy vs. the bucks we saw.
bonus: imo Rob can be put on either vincent or love as a roamer. Those 2 are shooting 33% from 3 (below league average) and 36% from the field. Yes almost identical numbers for both of them. This imo will be the key to our success on defense. Rob is a big key to this series.
The coaching matchup is what makes me nervous. I have a ton of respect for Spoelstra, and I think he's going to take advantage of Mazzulla at times.
embiid deserves that MVP even tatum and brown affirm that
☘
Jokic couldn't win MVP again.
Between getting Harden or keeping Ben Simmons Philly took the better option. Neither option gets them over the hump though.
Didn't Jackie Mac basically get cancelled for a similar Embiid impression? Only calling it out cause I love your show John and don't want to see you get in shit.
John, you are so petty. Hah hah hah. Loved this show, man.
Making fun of Philadelphia after we almost lost to them on game 6 is stupid. I skipped all that shit.
Deja vu. When Bird Celtics beat Nique Hawks in 7th game in Boston in the 80s, after Bird said Hawks couldn’t win game 7 after Hawks lost game 6 in Atlanta, the point guard of the Hawks was Doc Rivers. Ca caw. BTW, the greatest shootout ever in NBA was Bird vs. Nique in game 7.
My biggest fear is coaching in this series
The only reason I almost respect the 76ers is because they were once the Syracuse Nationals being from Syracuse. Anyways we definitely got some Unfinished Business FRFR !!! 18 Coming Soon
Hope we can win in 5 or 6 which of course I am sure will mean it goes 7. Thanks for the insight as always @John
Defense is key the rest of the way if it wasn’t for Tatum us Celtics fan would be sad we was close to a 1 2 3 Cancun 😂😂 🍀🍀🍀🍀🍀🍀
As a heat fan ✊🏾 listening to Knick fans talk don’t know any basketball we respect the Celtics but damnit we want to break this 1-1 series!!! Heat in 6 but imma listen to your podcast tho 😂
Like
4 areas of concern would be
(1) i think C's hunting mismatches will slow them down and will eventually work bad for them.
(2) Coaching battle is really scary, spo vs joe. Spo always have something up his sleeves.
(3) And Boston playing down their opponents and not capitalizing on opportunities has been their bad habbit.
(4) Referee / foul hunting when whistles are not going for them
We will really see how much they have learned and grown in this series.
Of course, I hope Boston wins in 4 or 5 or 6 or 7. But, it is just hard to trust these guys completely based on their performances in the regular season and vs hawks and sixers.
#LetsGoCeltics #BleedGreen 💚☘️🇵🇭
It's way more on Embiid than Harden. Harden won them two games. What did Embiid do? Tom is just buying into the narrative Embiid himself has created.
Sure, Embiid was injured in this series. But what is his excuse in every playoff series before this one? Because his career playoff stats are TERRIBLE. And they only get worse the later you go in the playoffs. For his career he averages 24 ppg 46/29 shooting splits. In the second round he averages 23 ppg 43/29 shooting splits. In elimination games he averages 22 ppg on 38% shooting. As a big man. Let that sink in. This isn't even getting into the turnovers, or turnstile defense, or 4th quarter scoring versus 1st quarters.
For some reason this dude has gotten a pass for years. I don't know if it's just that he's such a dominant regular season player. Or that he's just really good at deflecting blame. But Harden has faced way more scrutiny than Embiid ever did. And yet Harden is the one who's made the conference Finals. Harden is the one who almost took down the Warriors with Kevin Durant. Embiid wishes he had Harden's playoff resume.
He is neither a doctor nor even a river. What a fraud.
It’s okay to dunk on the 76ers today. I’ve never seen a team more committed to tanking so they get what they deserve.
Playoff Jimmy is a fictional narrative. It's a narrative created by Jimmy Butler himself. Has he had great playoff games? Of course. But when you dig into his playoff stats, they're at least as inconsistent as Tatum's. I don't hear anyone saying "playoff Tatum." Maybe Tatum hasn't mythologized himself enough? Maybe he hasn't posted enough 4am workout videos? I can tell you one thing: Tatum has never had a series as bad as Butler's series when they got swept by the Bucks. Dude averaged 15 ppg on 30% shooting. And that's rounding up. He was also bad in multiple other series.
That the series went seven clouds the issue; makes it seem like the difference was being "clutch" or not. Not really. The C's aggregate score was something like 62 points more (I'm not counting). That means the C's outscored the Sixers by NINE points per game. That's not close or even close to close. The Sixers were not, are not and will not be anywhere CLOSE to as good as the Celtics.
So, why do so many "experts" get fooled? The continuing fraudulent dynamic that "superstars" are everything in the NBA. And superstars with sexy, freak athletic gifts ALWAYS get the benefit of the doubt (perfect example: so long as he can WALK, "experts" will continue to gush about Zion. Only 2 years ago, MANY were saying he was a greater player than Tatum–when he'd been in the NBA about 5 minutes. Think about that). So, even a lot of analytics-based people will lose their minds and throw in with star power (it's okay basketball expert frauds–baseball does the same thing). All this Embiid piling IS starting to carry though. About time. I mean, he's been a frontrunning fraud for years now–there's always been an excuse–but yes, finally, people are starting to declare that maybe, just maybe his superstar freak athletic gifts alone don't translate to actual greatness or winning. Who knew?
No matter how much better we are than them talent wise, coaching is a big factor the heat get the best out of the players they have and we don’t. We are bound to give them a game which we haven’t gone a series without doing so since last year in the first round and it’s not because we swept them, we pulled out wins we were supposed to and not
If you didn’t have embiid atleast in your top 2 mvp list you’re delusional and obviously hating. I’m a Celtics fan but it was undeniable that he dominated the regular szn which isn’t the playoffs and you should differentiate the 2. Just because you don’t like or respect someone doesn’t mean they weren’t the most valuable player this year. You can’t even give a decent reason why 2 people were ahead of him. I can’t ever root for embiid either, he’s my African brother but I’m the playoffs he’s def not that guy, you make legacies in game 7’s him and harden aren’t new to this pathetic play in big games either, but good thing there’s a whole other step when it comes to a big playoff performer. Embiid is a talented top 3-5 big and is unstoppable most of the time but he needs to be obsessed with post szn success as much as winning the mvp which he deserved
Just start Robert Williams ride with it he’s an impactful beast bring grant off bench for Al an give Hausers minutes for brown an Tatum in spots there’s your 9 man rotation
Let’s go HEAT!!! ☄️☄️☄️☄️☄️☄️
Instead of making any sort of prediction I've just listed some key things I hope will happen:
1. I'm generally quite positive about this one. I hope the Celtics don't come out as relaxed about their opponent. Again, Miami isn't playing with a full roster AND like the Sixers their main man is nursing an injury. Spo might go super meta and actually sit Butler for game 1 just to fuck with the Celtics mentally.
2. I hope Tatum's game 7 performance has finally awaken him for the post-season. If we can even get half of that game Celtics are hard to beat.
3. We need Rob and I hope he brings the energy we need to really cement wins, or at least set the tone from the start.
4. Lastly, I'm hoping for the first two home games to be won and steal either game 3 or 4. Traditionally, its been the most effective and surefire way to put away your opponents. Even if its tied after 4 games I'm fine with that, I think Miami will have 2 good games in them and the rest will be up to the Celtics to really clamp down and get dirty.
Ah fuck it! Celtics in 5.
4-2 Celtics
Even if mazulla will try to ruin this, Smart gonna step up and be the coach on the floor like he did in game 6
This series is going to be either a sweep or a 7 games win
coaching and the heat's zone-watch the zone Joe
My only concern would be Celtics bringing their A-game every single game. The worst version of themselves is going into games too cocky And thinking they’ll win with half assed effort
Thankfully Joe was better than Ime in the regular season and got the Celtics home court advantage in this series so if Butler DOES force a Game 7 at least it’ll be at home.
Sixers tears are the best tears
I call them the Miami feet. Cus they stink