NBA Today | Boston are exposed! – Perk reacts to Hawks beating NBA-leading Celtics for the 2nd time

NBA Today | Boston are exposed! – Perk reacts to Hawks beating NBA-leading Celtics for the 2nd time

Wi if You who’s their dog who’s going to hold them accountable welcome to NBA Today presented by Levis there is no way that the Celtics could drop two games to Atlanta in a week right what if I told you what if I told you welcome to NBA Today presented

By Levis what’s up everybody I’m Richard Jefferson in from Malika Andrews Rota shelburn is here to help hold it down in the studio we have our senior writer uh Zack low is also with us and despite countless texts and calls to our producer Kendrick Perkins is also going

To be with us for the next hour and perk unfortunately it wasn’t a McFlurry but we did have a Deon flurry in Atlanta last night de jante got his shots up early and often 44 points on 40 how many shots shots how many including hitting all five shots in over time look

Murray’s mentality was just to get them up and he gave them uh an outstanding effort out there and look where was that in the dunk contest I don’t know where it was in the dunk contest but oh my God Jaylen Brown look you don’t get a body

Out there on the dunk contest but in the fourth quarter dejonte Murray going to work and look they have so many Defenders on the Celtics roster that none of them everybody’s going to get that work all NBA Defenders all NBA Defenders the best team in the league

And Deonte Murray he sees them and he just goes to work look at this over top of porzingis offensive rebound out those are those are just dagger threes and look Celtics up by three tie it right there I look I I don’t know what you do

If to Celtics you take two straight L’s to Atlanta but look I’m always been a person that says hey these are the things that can kind of help get you locked in down the stretch in overtime like we said Deonte Murray knocking down shot after shot in the overtime for

Atlanta it was just impressive look Boston’s not going to go away they’re going to fight they’re going to grind Jaylen Brown bucket Celtics up by one now 6 seconds to go in overtime Celtics up by one Drew holiday not Prett good defense that’s great defense that I stand by the best

Defense versus the best offense I’m taking the best offense look at jonte Murray going against through holiday we already saw Derek white get some of those but look at him he down there dancing in Atlanta it was just an impressive impressive night for Deon Murray what he

Was able to do out on the floor just bucket after Buck we don’t have time to show all 44 shots I mean we don’t have that but Deonte Murray he had some comments after the game [Applause] why is it that the Celtics losses feel so loud let’s start with the good news

Richard they feel so loud partly because there’s so few of them and they never win close games they only win blowouts and so we have very few dramatic Celtics moments to talk about and they’re all this but their crunchtime offense is too slow and too predictable and it’s

Mediocre League wide and that’s not going to be good enough against the best defenses who are going to play you in close games in the playoffs it’s not a crisis it feels like a crisis because the Celtics are the best team we hold them to a high standard and they don’t

Lose very often but just give the ball to Jason Tatum and everyone else stands around hasn’t worked well enough last year the year before or this year they need to get more Dynamic why is kristofh porzingis just standing in the corner possession after Possession come up and

Set a screen run a pick and pop get the offense moving Derek white the best screen Setter on the whole team run around to do some stuff this isn’t good enough it’s not a crisis this is the best team in the East it’s all fine in

The big picture but there are going to be games that come down to this just like these last two Hawks games and the Celtics need to get a little more juice to their late game offense yeah they need a little bit more juice again like you said though they’re blowing out so

Many teams and when they get to these close games when they lose everyone wants to be concerned but big perk how big of a red flag do you think these late game issues are that keep popping up I I wouldn’t say that it’s demoralizing but I will say it’s very

Disturbing especially at this moment right and I feel like we’re we’re constantly every time the Celtics play and lose one of these games we are revisiting this conversation because they haven’t corrected the problem Jason Tatum he hasn’t corrected the problem he’s still not showing up when they need

Him the most in the clutch time moments and you know this Richard at this point of the Season all the teams that are in the postseason or in the playin tournament they’re starting to gear up for the postseason meaning they have NBA Scouts that are in the stands that are

Watching the Boston Celtics you know why because they need a game plan and right now they look vulnerable and that’s a huge that’s a huge part of why I have concern because going into the postseason you want the Scot to say you know what we’re going to try to do this

We’re going to try to do that you don’t want teams especially your opponents in the Eastern Conference getting any type of confidence and when you look at the people that are walking down the sidelines meaning the head coaches that are in the Eastern Conference you have a

Tom Tibido who is a great head coach you have a Eric foser you have a Nick nurse you have a Doc Rivers so Joe Missoula I know it may feel like fun in games right now but you’re going to have to do your part in these clutch game moments in

These times coaching against the other people on the other side of the uh Court I mean I think the Celtics have just been coasting this last part of the Season trying they’re resting guys people who have little injuries like Jason Tatum have been sitting games here

And there they’re just trying to get to the finish line of this regular season because as you keep seeing they have an 11 game lead on the Bucks okay 11 game lead for second place here they they it’s really hard to keep that level of performance they’ve had all year long

When they would benefit more from making sure their key guys have time get into the playoffs fresh aren’t burning themselves out in the regular season the problem is when you take your foot off the gas even a little bit you get games like this you build the big lead you

Think you can just hold it then you get a team like the Hawks who by the way they’re in 10th right now I’m I’m not saying we we look we don’t look at the bottom of the Eastern Conference play in tournament as much as we do the west but

The Hawks are in 10 that could be a potential first round series again I know that they’ve had that but you don’t want to give a team like that confidence especially if it’s a team you might see in the first round well and the Hawks are fighting for something that’s I

Think the thing that people greatly underestimate the Boston Celtics come to town you’re going to have more fans there it’s going to be more energy you’re fighting for something I get it but to stay on the Hawks the Celtics they might struggle late in games but the jeante Murray does KN Murray has

Three buzzer beaters so far this season the first of which came on January 17 with the gamewinner over Marquel fols to knock over the magic that was a big big shot and then two nights later Murray had the heat absolutely sick with this pullup three to win the game and it

Might have also been on Udonis Haslam’s Jersey retirement night so that makes it a little bit worse and then here on Thursday night the McFlurry continues with a huge bucket to sink the Celtics in overtime those are the gamees when you get to beat the Celtics you remember

Those for the rest of your life and look the Hawks have been without Trey young for 22 games this season and it’s shown some interesting Trends the Hawks have a winning record in those games and improved on the defensive end with de jonte Murray running the show so my

Thing about this is perk my question to you Deonte clearly plays better when he’s the one running the show so do you think it’s time to kind of end this Trey young dejonte Murray experiment I’ll leave it up to you big guy Richard are you asking me to get uncomfortable

That’s what you’re asking me right now to have an uncomfortable conversation because you can hear The Whispers And and in all fairness to Trey young he have to expect that this conversation was going to come about because when you get injured and your team start to play

Better without you and the guy is leading your team that play your position this conversation needs to be had and I think that the Atlanta Hawks is going to have to make a decision this upcoming off season whether they want to continue with de jonte Murray or whether

They want to go with Trey young now if they decide to go with the jonte Murray and he is quin Snider guy there’s still some interesting teams out there for Trey young like the San Antonio Spurs or maybe like the Los Angeles Lakers but do

I think this this Duo right now has ran his course and it’s has come to an end I absolutely do I mean look they’re 10th in the East that 10th in the East and they’re playing slightly better without him in the lineup but some of that could

Also just be Clarity it could be schedule could be injuries that they’ve gotten guys back from even though Trey young is out and I do think both of them will hear their name in trade talks and the biggest difference is quite frankly Trey young makes a lot more money so

It’s harder to make a trade for Trey young than it is for dejonte and I and I think it’s when we get to the season we’ll see who the biders are I think perk you mentioned those those teams I think you’ll hear a lot more more teams out there because nobody outside of

Philadelphia or Orlando really has cap space this summer um and the only way to get a star players probably to trade for one and there’s a lot of teams that be interested in the services of these two guys so I I expect both of them to hear

Their names it’s a function though of who wants them and what are they willing to give up because we’ve now seen a year and a half of of them under Quinn Snyder and he’s had an evaluation period you have to decide is it time to break them

Up but at what cost what are you getting back in return I’m not uncomfortable perk I don’t know about you my chair is comfortable my Blazer’s comfortable this is a very comfortable conversation because we’ve got two years of evidence now that deante Murray plus Trey young equals

Mediocre they are minus 150 total points for the season with those two guys on the floor they just don’t add up to more than the sum of their parts they’re mediocre with Trey and deante they’re okay probably mediocre with Just DE jante if there’s no change in the

Quality of your team you should absolutely trade one of them for as many draft picks and future assets as you can get just to stock the cupboard again with all the stuff you traded out the door to get to jante Murray and put this team together look it’s not a surprise

Really that they haven’t taken a step back because there wasn’t that big of a step back to even take it’s not a surprise that their defense is better without Trey young and by the way Jaylen Johnson’s hurt sad B’s hurt Anu is hurt like the Hawks are not whole and that’s

Another reason by the way I don’t want to hear this Celtics lost last night excused by the 11 game lead and their coasting the Hawks have half their team and I watch that game start to finish the Celtics the Celtics played hard and they wanted to win that game they were

Not coasting in that game they were fired up they were playing hard against a team that had half its roster basically and they still lost the Celtics are fine in the big picture of their crunch time offense is just okay it’s not a disaster it needs to be

Better but I just don’t want these Atlanta losses wiped away is oh they mean nothing it’s just a team that was coasting that team wasn’t coasting last night they wanted to win and they couldn’t yes that was the key especially coming off a loss so you have an

Opportunity for a get back and the team is short-handed and you still get the L to me that is the issue that is when you start to worry about not worry about the Celtics because I think they’re going to be fine they my pick to go to the fin

But you start to worry about hey are we really as locked in as we’re supposed to be are we as locked in as perk is supposed to be but this is ESPN’s next Wednesday double header Jason Tatum and the Celtics host the Thunder at 7:30 for spe Speech d For he He for I for foree foree spee Spee for for For come on me

NBA Today | Boston are exposed! – Perk reacts to Hawks beating NBA-leading Boston Celtics for the 2nd time in 4 days