Boston Celtics clinch top overall seed, win 60th game, beating OKC Thunder by 35

Boston Celtics clinch top overall seed, win 60th game, beating OKC Thunder by 35

Boston Celtics clinched the top overall seed christops porzingis was amazing and this is exactly what Joe mou has been talking about when it comes to stopping runs and figuring things out I’ll explain right now on the lockdown Celtics podcast thanks to Blockbuster Brad it’s holiday season Dro Drew in the mix and

Three from KP no we not on the next watching competition like Al on Yannis juice and big de still being count SP been a r te going up in the RAF watching game locked on after on the breakdown CL like a tip from D white on the breakdown

John on the mic documenting domination m p back B all Nation R and J to start we lock on home of the winners hey there welcome back to the lockdown Celtics podcast right here in the lockdown podcast Network where it’s your team every day and I’ve got your

Covered every single day Monday through Friday plus bonus podcast on the weekend when they play so subscribe wherever you get your podcast watch the show on YouTube get in the comments section let me know what you’re thinking if you’re new to the show I’m John corales I used

To play a long time ago now I’m covering the Celtics for Boston Sports Journal today I’m coming to you from the TD Garden I’m in that same room last time I was here the alarms went off so hopefully the alarms don’t go off this time around because that would just be

Weird uh I am talking about Boston Celtics 135 to 100 win over the Oklahoma City Thunder no Shay gild Alexander no Jaylen Williams Jay dub the big dude uh their second best player so take that for what it’s worth uh would it be a 35-point win

Over them no but I feel like it still would have been a win because the Celtics treated this like a clincher they said after the game they treated this like a playoff Clincher Joe Missoula said we wanted to simulate this this is a clinching game so let’s do it

Let’s clinch it let’s make this meaningful and they did so I think this was a game that they were kind of gonna go out and Win Regardless Today’s Show is brought to you by FanDuel make every moment more right now new customers get $200 in bonus Bets with any winning $5

Bet that’s 200 bucks if your bet wins visit fanduel.com lockon to get started so later on Jaylen Brown’s bounce back which impressive you know like it was it was impressive that he stayed in this moment I’ll talk about that later I’ll talk about the the run that third quarter there was a let’s

We’ll call it 18 minutes from the start of the third quarter through halfway through the fourth quarter that’s just I love that whole that whole stretch from the OKC run to the stabilizing to the answer it just it’s nice segmented pieces that we can talk about and it’s all part of this

This I I just I just love that stretch so I I’ll get completely into that uh in just a second but let’s start with the Celtics have clinched the top overall seed they’ve won 60 games there’s six games left they’ve won 60 games before anybody in the East has gotten to 50 and

No guarantee that anybody else in the East is going to get to 50 at this point uh they have won the the 60 games before they’ve lost 20 they may not lose 20 games games so there there are like I said six games left and the Celtics have

Uh we’ll see how it goes over these next six games I have no idea what to expect honestly because as I’ve said before they need to ramp up they need to keep guys fresh they need to keep that chemistry the cohesiveness got guys got to keep sharp and you you don’t want to

Lose three weeks of uh playing NBA basketball right because the Celtics have this entire upcoming week uh so basically two and a half weeks I’d say they have the rest of this week they have the Friday game they have all of next week uh and then they

Have a a Sunday game and then they have a week off while the playing tournament gets figured out so that’s still a lot of time they still need to stay sharp like I said so there will be games where guys go out there and play like it’s a playoff game there are going

To be games here where Tatum and brown get 40 minutes just because they need to play 40 minutes of NBA basketball to stay uh fresh to stay to to keep that cardio up so it’s going to be interesting navigating the next six games and and that’s going to be

Basically the storyline how do you navigate these next six games get the guys the playing time that they need get other guys on the bench some time get Xavier Tillman this is a critical time for Xavier Tillman right figure some things out because he has still has a

Potential to be a big contributor in the playoffs because he’s switchable because he’s versatile they’re going to need potentially they’re gonna they’re going to need him to step up so there’s a lot of time to discuss all of that stuff so they’ve locked up the top overall seed

No one’s catching them at this point uh however the West shakes out the West shakes out the Celtic’s going to have that home court advantage which could be big could be big in a series against the Denver Nuggets the the whole altitude thing is is a maybe a bit overblown I’ve

Talked about that on a mailbag podcast I don’t think it’s something that hangs over an entire series but it’s still one hell of a homec court advantage for the Denver Nuggets and you just don’t want to have to deal with that now the Celtics all they have to do is win every

Home game which they’ve almost done all season long they’ve only lost three times in Boston so all you got to do is win every home game and you win yourself a championship that’s it’s as simple as that you don’t want it to go like that

You want to win games in the road you want to close out a first round Series in four or five six Max but four or five so you have to win on the road to do that and and all of that but you still have put yourself in this position where worst case

Scenario outside of actually losing but the worst case scenario the the path to winning a championship simply involves win all your home games and now you will win a championship so what more can you ask for this is what you work for and the

Celtics set out to win this uh to to to clinch this game in this I thought it was really smart of Missoula to tell the team to say hey look we’re here this is the opportunity let’s take this opportunity they want to simulate uh a a

A closeout win let’s go out there and simulate that this is this means something so let’s try let’s treat it as such and it gets them motivated guys after the game talked about like finding that motivation in in this spot and that that to me is any little trick any

Little thing that you can do to get guys going and hey treat this like a closeout game great the Celtics went out there treated it like a closeout game and and they won they they did a good job I think in the first quarter uh it was it was a little bit

Back and forth and and the Celtics didn’t exactly hit a ton of shots uh Josh giddy was got going and I think once once Josh giddy came out in the first quarter that changed a lot for the OKC Thunder obviously with no SGA no jdb that it’s just a different team and that

You take away your two top options it’s going to hurt any team so I’m not going to sit here and be like uh not throwing about a win I’m not turning this into this is what’s going to happen if they meet in the finals no it’s not this is

Meaningless in in terms of that but meaningful in that they they clinched and accomplished something and then something that they set out to do giddy comes out giddy was getting to the rim at will I didn’t like the way they were they were protecting the rim necessarily

Um but they got enough stops at The Rim porzingis was awesome five block shots uh but once giddy came out the Celtics were able to go on a run to close the first quarter the Clos of quarter strong that’s what they try to do seven-point lead after one they doubled it heading

Into halftime so had a nice seven uh 14-point lead Kristof porzingis punished the mismatches punished them like crazy uh anytime they switched onto a smaller guy onto him he he got that that switch and and got to the spot that he kind of wanted they made a little bit of an

Adjustment uh after the the initial kind of burst uh try to get him better position get him better balance uh porzingis and and the coaches talked about it and they kind of repositioned his his footwork and instead of letting some of the guys get underneath him and

Kind of push him off his spot he kind of claimed his spot a little bit better and was amazing and got to got to what he needed to do uh finished Drew CH hren out to clear driving lanes and just was that they had no answer they really had

No answer for porzingis in this game he finished with 27 points 12 rebounds four assists five block shots a steal three offensive rebounds uh no turnovers uh 11 to 14 shooting three of three from three two of two from the line if you want a nitpick you probably

Want them to get to the line a little bit more but there were a couple of files that didn’t get called whatever fine not a big deal uh porzingis sets the tone porzingis was uh this is the the what you want from porzingis they went to a Zone porzingis got to the

Middle of it kind of posted up at the free throw line busted that they didn’t really go to they they couldn’t go to the Zone after that once it was clear that porzingis was going to punish that they got away from the zone so porzingis was the driving force behind the Celtics

Offense and then they just kind of flowed off of that uh Tatum had a good game uh Jaylen Brown I’ll talk about him later but uh they got they got some good performances Drew holiday had a nice performance uh Derek white picked his spots uh so and and good performances

Off the Bench Al Horford I’ll talk about him in a minute because he was critical in that third quarter Payton Pritchard I’ll talk about him because he was critical in that third quarter as well but he kind of throughout the game so just a nice uh take advantage of a

Short-handed team and and take advantage of those mismatches that’s exactly what the Celtics were supposed to do they came out and they did it let’s get into that third quarter because that third quarter was the the make or break here the the thunder make their run because

They’re still a good team they still have good players the Celtics did exactly exactly what they needed to do this is the ultimate to me blueprint of how you’re supposed to approach when a team makes a run I’ll talk about that in just a second Today’s Show is brought to you by

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Discussion third quarter okay this is the this is the critical point here Celtics are up 14 nice lead not a big lead though not a big enough lead we’ve seen that Celtics have had bigger leads and lost those people are worked up because over the course of that road

Trip the Celtics have lost big leads so here come the thunder right thunder make their run uh in that third quarter they cut a 14o lead down to seven it’s an 114 run Celtics call a timeout so let’s start with that 114 run Celtics call a timeout all of the talk about Joe

Doesn’t call timeouts well there you go they treated this like a game they wanted to win uh like a clinching game so in that situation Missoula calls the timeout no worries about that right so segment one of this series here that I’m talking about the first chunk of it is

Is OKC makes a run good for them Chad Holman comes out he’s super aggressive uh the the Thunder are forcing turnovers they got two turnovers and they got a block shot on a Jaylen Brown uh layup which might as well be a turnover right because when you get blocked at The Rim

It starts in the uh five on four and the way Jaylen was playing through the first three quarters he wasn’t getting back into the play so that those basically become turnovers and turnovers fuel these runs you don’t score they do that’s what a run is 11 to four is a

Whole lot of them scoring and not enough of you scoring so they call a timeout part two stabilizing it’s very much like a like an ER episode you get the first is the trauma now you’ve got to stabilize the patient how do you stabilize the patient you got to start

Making some shots and the Celtics come out and start making shots Al Horford is huge in this regard pton pit is huge in this regard because Payton comes in and is his energy he’s moving the ball he’s pushing the ball the Celtics are moving the ball around the perimeter they’re

Getting good looks now for the next four minutes or so it’s just trading buckets and that’s okay this is you’ve what that does is it stops the run right it’s the turnit it stops the bleeding so OKC has now cut the lead to seven and it doesn’t really go anywhere beyond

That it drops to six goes up to eight uh back down so it’s right there everything for a couple of minutes is like four minutes is Thunder score Thunder get fouled which they got fouled a ton in that third quarter there like seven eight fouls on the Celtics in that third

Quarter which was part of the problem too and they got away from that in the fourth quarter but whatever it was however the the Thunder were scoring they scored a lot they scored 36 points in the third quarter not the best quarter at all defensively but here they’re making the

Run they’re still a good team right there’s still we’re not going to sit there and say they’re just SGA and J do Hol grin’s good the other guys that they have are good right so they keep scoring but now the Celtics are answering so now that stops the run

It doesn’t stop their scoring it just stops the run and this is where the Celtics have had the problems all along they they all they keep doing the things they get they go cold they stop hitting shots they stop getting to the rim they stop getting to the free throw line

Those are all things the Celtics have to keep on doing so that’s part two part three is now Boston has to go on a run of their own which Payton Pritchard keys with a steal uh with about four minutes to go so that last four-minute chunk or

So now the Celtics go on a run of their own and now it’s up to the Oklahoma City Thunder to start uh answering and now they’re on their heels prit gets the steel for the first time the entire quarter it’s now we’re at like the somewhere in the three minute Mark or so

Between three and four minutes the Celtics have actually had now consecutive possessions where they’ve scored two Tatum free throws and a SAM Houser three-pointer Five Points in a row they hadn’t scored on consecutive possessions the entire quarter all of a sudden now boom 124 run and the lead is back up to

13 the lead was 14 at the half now it’s back up to 13 so now you’re back to almost where you started a little bit more back and forth to close the quarter the lead settles at 10 but the damage has been mitigated at that point you

Have thrown a little bit of an answer and to go into the fourth quarter up 10 rather than up two or down anything is huge this is the blueprint for how you stop and answer a run Celtics did what they had to do Joe moula comes in calls the timeout

They stabilize Al Horford hits Big Shots Pit’s running the offense they go on a run and now we head into the fourth quarter and it’s Jaylen Brown time and I tell you I ate my work because what I said to my colleagues on press row I knew as soon as I said it

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Enjoyed that Wednesday show if you didn’t go watch it but it’s the entire league covered all week long so go check it out wherever you get your podcasts and watch it on YouTube it’s a good show Jaylen Brown in the third quarter I mean Jaylen Brown through the first three quarters was

Just awful awful and he said it he said he had a crap game and he said it in a much more uh specific and uh more uh I’ll say vulgar way I don’t think it’s that big of a deal to say it but I can’t

Say it on this show so he said he had a crap game he admitted it he’s he knew but I will say that in the past there would be no getting Jaylen Brown out of whatever Funk he’s in at that point for whatever reason he said he didn’t feel his best so

He struggles incredibly through three quarters okay I said after he dribbled the ball off his feet and it went out of bounds with a minute to go in the third quarter which by way was I talked about the turnovers of the third quarter the Celtics had the two turnovers in the

Jaylen block shot got blocked that turnover where he dribbled the ball off his feet with a minute to go was the only other turnover in that quarter so that was that’s how good the Celtics were in responding so after he does that I turn to my colleagues on press row uh the

Guys from Mass Live Steve hu from The Herald and I was like guys I don’t normally say this about star players but they might need to sit Jaylen Brown down and we all kind of like chuckled at it like yeah man he’s having a a horrible game like that they might actually need

To bench Jaylen Brown at this point and then as soon as I said I’m like huh watch him come out and hit the first three three like three-pointers in a row to start the fourth quarter and he immediately hits a three-pointer and Steve hwit and I look at each other like

Oh man to the point where I was like if he hits two more I’m going to need you to tweet what I said as confirmation so some so they believe what I said but he goes off in the fourth quarter he hit he was four of 14 in

Quarters one through three he was four of four in the fourth quarter he steps up and has an AB absolutely perfect stretch first six minutes of the fourth quarter to go uh 10 points four for four uh two of two from three he had uh I

Think a couple of assists in that in that spot as well he just was spectacular like like the first three quarters didn’t even happen so credit to him because he he knew he was playing poorly and as I said like in the past there’s no doubt Jaylen Brown would have

Completely gone into a shell now this was I’m talking about like years ago I’m not saying that this is like last year but this is years ago and I I I bring that up and I bring it up you know I’ve brought it up more than once this season as a a to

Highlight just how far he has come as a player that he’s he’s got gotten so good that he’s able to shake these things off and it was a pretty significant thing to shake off because he like I said was not playing great he had five turnovers

But not after the fourth qu in fact let me just double check he did have I think he had one in the fourth quarter but that was like towards the end where I don’t even think he should have been in the game at that point the Thunder kind of RA raised the white

Flag and said all right garbage time and Missoula kind of had all of his guys back out there I don’t know if he was expecting the Thunder to to kind of toss in the towel there but he got everybody out eventually but Jaylen was uh huge in that fourth this was a point

Where like I said the Celtics had sus gotten through that third quarter they held off the Run they kept that lead at double digits heading into the fourth and it was a a critical stretch Jason Tatum was sitting on the bench to start the fourth quarter what were the Celtics

Going to do with Tatum on the bench and have you really mentioned Tatum uh in this podcast because Tatum had a really good game uh overall but it felt like so many other things happened other than Tatum’s you know what what tm’s game was but he had 24

Points seven rebounds three assists he just didn’t play in the fourth quarter so kind of like like oh yeah kind of forgot about him because in in that fourth quarter when all that run was being made it was it was jayen and it was other guys so credit to credit to Jaylen for

Stepping up for not forcing Joe moula to put uh Tatum in any earlier and and being you know owing Tatum to kind of sit the entire fourth quarter and kind of keep the minutes at a reasonable spot so yeah Jaylen Jaylen stepped it up so now I don’t know what’s GNA happen now

Celtics play Sacramento on Friday uh Jaylen did say he’s dealing with a sprained ligament in his left hand I don’t know how that’s going to impact him it seemed like the fall in New Orleans kind of made something worse in there it seems like he’s trying to play

It by ear I don’t know if him taking a little bit of time off is a good idea or playing through it is a good idea I really don’t know it kind of depends on the injury whatever he needs to do to get it right he should get it right and

And take his time so maybe he sits out Friday maybe he sits out on Sunday May who knows and maybe the next time he’s we see him play as Milwaukee give him give him some time to to get his his hand right a little bit or I don’t know

Maybe maybe sitting out doesn’t doesn’t matter with this kind of injury because it’s not going to get right in two three days hard to say but I hope he he gets that better I hope it’s not an issue in the playoffs uh because it would be a

Shame for that to be something that’s a hindrance uh moving forward but great finish great recovery to a very bad game for him steps up when they need him to and the Celtics blow it open in the fourth quarter uh clearly not a 35-point game throughout this but it ended up

Being a 35-point win just because of the fourth quarter and circumstances uh definitely not that that dominant a win overall but a good win a nice win their 60th win and now the Celtics can kind of figure out how they want to close out the season I will obviously be here

After all of these games I will be here to talk about those uh moving forward and you know maybe maybe a couple of these games on the weekends this podcasts get a lot shorter because who knows what’s going to come out of them uh but playoffs are around the corner

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The Celtics have clinched the best record in the NBA with a big win over the OKC Thunder. It’s their 60th win of the year, and it came thanks to a heavy dose of Kristaps Porzingis. John Karalis of Boston Sports Journal explains how Porzings was a problem, why the third quarter was textbook process for answering an opponent run, and how Jaylen Brown shook off a horrible first three quarters to dominate the fourth.

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Locked On Celtics is a daily Boston Celtics podcast by Boston Sports Journal beat writer John Karalis. It’s an inside look at the C’s from a former professional basketball player who is at practices & games.

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