INSTANT REACTION: Celtics hold Pelicans to 92 points in bounce-back road win

INSTANT REACTION: Celtics hold Pelicans to 92 points in bounce-back road win

[Applause] by porzingis 73 drive and Dish what do you guys call them cookies and cream cookies and cream that was cream to cookies that’s correct all right one three assist there for chrisos porzingis says Jaylen Brown had 17 points on the night Celtics postgame live Tom Gil scal Celtics get

The win 104 to 92 and I don’t really think the game felt that close honestly the way the Cel kind of distanced themselves in the second half but considering the way this game started first quarter in particular pretty good that they were able to to turn the page and turn things up

Defensively yeah I like what they did and it’s not just I would say halfway through the second quarter you could start to see the team all right this is what the Pelicans do and here’s how we got to do it you saw porzingis meeting

Zion at The Rim you kept the body on him I thought we did a great job of closing out to their Shooters and we really won the paint battle after that first quarter so love uh from that moment on but the third quarter is the real difference Celtics come out weren’t

Burning it up on the offensive end but we’re amazing defensively yeah and that was uh the key holding him to 11 points in the third quarter we’ll talk more about that coming up we also want you to let us know who should win tonight’s Tommy Ward that is your poll question

Presented by zeni the official eyewear of the Boston Celtics and you’re looking at the five starters for the Celtics as well as Al Horford in this one again first time in a very long time that they’ve had their top 10 available and we saw Joe moula go nine deep tonight to

Get this win but Christoph porzingis with a big night is as he put in 19 and 10 and really was assertive on the defensive end with those four yeah I think the third quarter him being around the basket was a real problem for New Orleans think about it like Zion has

Been a force getting downhill attacking but you know if you have guys at the rim and you can make Zion Williamson after he’s elevating with a body on him now he’s thinking about where porzingis is at it makes a big difference and I thought that that was like the kind of

The momentum changer of the game like before like I just said like we weren’t amazing in that third offensively but it shows how and we’ve said it seen it all year we can win a lot of different ways today we hung our hat on the defensive end and

Not only we hung our hat with the physicality in the paint on the defensive end and to go further into that because early in the game Zion was going after right he was attacking him the Celtics were persistent though you saw him kind of throw different bodies

You know Drew holiday on that one possessions helping over forcing the jump ball but porz they they went after him and and again for him to rack up four blocks in that situation they felt like they stood their ground and that was one of the things you talked about

Pregame as well was defending at The Rim Yeah you got you got to be able to do that and and the way that the Celtics use porzingis it’s there was a few times where Zion was where porzingis was on Zion and and Zion would just shoulder to

Chest go right up and lay it up but when he’s off the ball and this is how we’ll see when we play the Bucks in the playoffs if they if they’re the team that makes it porzingis will be that RoR remember remember what we went to the

NBA finals with Rob Williams was that RoR and we are it it it does make us a special defensive play team with porzingis there and all the physicality that we have outside of of porzingis at The Rim all right I know ab’s trying to catch up with porz so we’ll get you out

To New Orleans uh as soon as she’s able to grab him but again the stic skin the win this one 104 to 92 and this kind of felt like the most aggressive game from him maybe is the the way of putting it in in a while for porzingis you know

Full he was out for a little bit well that’s what I mean and yeah since back so you got Tom you got to understand the game plan here right like um when you play a team that plays Five out like porzingis is going to be less effective

But when you play a team that’s physical like porzingis becomes an issue right like sometimes you can’t counter physicality with physicality like if you look at Zion and you look at porzingis Zion has so many so much more weight and he’s so much bouncier but porzingis has

Height and length so porzingis was able to use his length at the rim and he had to be down there battling saw a couple times challenging shot turnar around and rebounding the ball so today you could see like porzingis had to do that for us

To win the game if if he wasn’t that for us I’m not saying we wouldn’t have won but we would have to find a different way him at The Rim as you can see the points right 37 points in the first quarter 20 points in the second for New

Orleans 11 points in the third and I felt like they were thinking about him and then that allows the perimeter players to guard up on the three so it makes us a much better defensive team when you have that Rim protection all right as mentioned he standing by with

Abul let send it back to the Smoothie King Center aby’s got porzingis christops the defense went to another level after that first quarter what changed for you guys we just knew we couldn’t be in cruise control uh you know these these teams are hungry they need these wins maybe we at this point

Of the Season don’t need them as much but still we want to come out here and compete at at a high level every and and uh once we we we hit another gear the game just flipped you had a double double to go along with four blocks how

Were you able to get some Advantage with your size yeah I feel like uh last game just I didn’t play up to my level uh on on all aspects of the game and even tonight you know the three ball wasn’t falling for me uh but uh but there are

So many ways how me and and us as a team we can impact the game if things are not going perfect for us and uh and that’s what I did tonight just also turn up another another notch and uh and that’s what we’re going to need uh rest of this

Regular season then even more in the postseason you said yourself you guys may not need these wins and Joe told us pregame the temperature in the locker room hasn’t changed but why was it important to get this one for you guys ah we just we just don’t want to we want

To be a hungry team no matter what we want to you know we haven’t done anything and um and and then back toback losses to Atlanta it’s not our our DNA you know and it just didn’t sit right with it with us so uh we came out here

Tonight and and got us a dub question about it Kristoff thank you congrats thank you all right let’s bring Drew and Eddie now joining us once again from New Orleans and uh Eddie I’ll start with You Chris house porzingis just talking about those two losses in Atlanta didn’t

Really sit right uh clearly they were more sort of more aggressive defensively and it really sounded like that’s where you saw this game changing uh in the second quarter yeah it was definitely with their defense and porzingis spearheaded he got a couple blocks there in that second quarter and then also I

Thought the the jayen brown guarden Zion Williamson not giving him a full head of steam to come downhill like pressuring him and we turned him over a couple times made it uncomfortable before you know it he missed some easy bunnies and then after he missed the easy bunny he

Went to the free throw line he missed free throws I thought our defense changed everything and it was the intensity I thought defensive intensity not only the intensity but the connectivity that they had with one another they were on the proverbial string tonight for sure and you know why

Christops porzingis had such a good game tonight talk to me because I gave him a high five in the tunnel on the way at listen listen to him Hey listen to him this is a big time matchup you know like sometimes physicality is hard to see on

TV but you it seemed like today the the Celtics answered the call to the physicality after the first quarter you know what scal and you’ll appreciate this this is the most excited I’ve been to have the Courtside seat as opposed to you know being upstairs where we are in

Some of the Arenas because I really wanted to see Zion up close and personal and in the first quarter he was amazing man he was amazing but we were giving him the opportunity to get downhill and he was just taking up that space everybody thinks that you’re supposed to

Sag off of him because he doesn’t shoot shots he wants to get where he’s going but once he gets like a a a locomotive right coming downhill it’s hard to stop him and his balance is great his uh his center of gravity is off the charts and his strength and explosion is different

And and seeing it in person you really respect what he brings to the table so seeing what Jaylen Brown did tonight I have uh new found respect for how physical he was and you know what I compare it to scal is when we were in Oklahoma City I brought this up a few

Times since that game but when Jason Tatum said I got Shake gilis Alexander after he was cooking the Celtics for the first half of that game Tatum took that assignment and really shut him down down the stretch and case he ended up winning that game but Brown sort of did the same

Thing with Zion and we didn’t really know how the Celtics would deal with Williamson tonight because we saw a lot of Drew holiday he was the main defender on him in the first matchup at the Garden tonight it was mostly Jaylen Brown I gave him a ton of credit cuz he

Was getting beaten up out there he was out here falling on wet spots think he’s going to have to throw those shoes away I don’t know what he was wearing but he was slipping and sliding and he was still playing that well yeah that might

Be the last time he wears those but if if he’s going to play defense like that and it was it was a shoes was it because of the shoes then maybe wear them again I mean he still played well offensively but I thought defensively just the way

He dug in and took the physical challenge against a physically imposing player like Zion Williams we all know what he brings to the table and Jaylen Brown not one time did he back down I mean it he picked him up at half court you know and sometimes that’s what it

Takes it’s the small things that that changes how you going to approach it so the team seen how hard he was playing they seen christops getting block shots next thing you know their level went to a whole they went to a whole another level all right it’s a good win and uh

Now they can take that win to Charlotte where I guess we be talking to to you guys there so Drew and Eddie thank you

Eddie House, Drew Carter, Scal and Tom Giles offer instant analysis and reaction to the Celtics’ 104-92 win over the New Orleans Pelicans. Plus, Abby Chin talks exclusively with Kristaps Porzingis about the win

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