FULL REACTION: Another Celtics MELTDOWN vs. Knicks & Thunder BLOW OUT Nuggets | SC with SVP

FULL REACTION: Another Celtics MELTDOWN vs. Knicks & Thunder BLOW OUT Nuggets | SC with SVP

Road teams. That’s been the story in these playoffs. And in the NBA, it’s preposterous. 5-0 are the road teams in the conference semis. Of course, we know the Knicks came roaring back in the Garden, right? The reigning champs from Boston. This is the bounceback game, the zigzag game. They went 15 to 60 from three. You’re banking on the home team being the better team. Heavens to Betsy. This is a foul, but we don’t care cuz OG and Anobi dropped the hammer on the other end. Tatum down low goes through Muel Bridges sees up 13. Next possession, Jaylen Brown had a rough night from three in game one. They all did, did the Celtics, but he hits that one. Now it’s Tatum Porzingis. He buries the three. Celtics 40-2 this season when they lead by 20 or more points. That’s regular season and the playoffs. So they’re up 20 again under seven to go in the fourth. And you wonder how close does New York have to get for it to get nervy. All right, it’s 10. Al Horford with a miss. Here comes Brunson. 10-point game. Catch and pull. Bridges had 14. They all came in the fourth. It’s now a seven-point game. In transition, White looks crosscourt. Tatum clean look. No, the Knicks miss 13 consecutive shots in the fourth quarter. Tied for the longest streak in the fourth quarter, a playoff game since 98. But New York’s got to make it hurt. Float game. Josh Hart five-point game under three to go. A four-point game. Jaylen Brunson Hart the miss. Carl Anthony Towns had 21 and 17 boards and the free throw. It’s a one-point game now. It’s Brunson going to do that little drive, give the contact and try to step back. He gets the bucket. The Knicks lead. The 20-point lead is gone. Now Boston missing. Brown missing the white with the putback. It’s Brunson in transition with the right hand. It’s a three-point lead. 24 seconds to go. Celtics on an inbound. Watch where this screen comes about midcourt. Tatum attacks the rim, drops the dunk. Celtics lead by one. On the other end, Brunson draws the contact and the foul from Drew Holiday. He makes the first to tie things at 90 and New York has the lead under 13 to go. Boston has a timeout. They decide to play on. Tatum this time being guarded by Mitchell. Such a great defender. Tatum tries to find Brown and pass it back, but it’s Bridges again with remarkable defense. He closed down game one when he stole it from Brown here. Basically rips it from Tatum and New York. Remarkable. They come back from down 20 on the road for the second consecutive game. They’re going crazy outside New York. Five straight road wins. Here’s Brunson after yet another dub. I would prefer not to, but um we need to start the game a lot better. Um sustain how we play. We got to find a way to limit their runs. You know, they’re going to go on runs. They’re a great team, but um we got to just find a way to limit their runs. And so, um not get in the hole like that. We can’t take anything for granted. We got to find ourselves uh executing at a higher level. We can’t keep doing these 20 point uh leads for Boston and hope to come back and win the game. We got to we got to play better. We got to shoot better. We got to execute better. Um we can’t start having that kind of Knicks basketball being played down 20. We got to start from the start the game that way and uh finish the game that way. 48 minutes. Three little things on what unfolded at TD Guard. The Knicks, the only team in the last quarter century with a 20point comeback win in consecutive playoff games. In fact, they’re the only team with multiple such wins in an entire series. Again, you’re talking about reigning champions here. New York 5-0 on the road this postseason after winning all three games in Detroit. I still don’t know how they did that. Now two in Boston. I don’t know how they did that either. All five by three or fewer. Longest road winning streak in Knicks postseason history. breaking a tie with the 99 squad who won four. Pretty grim on the other side. Jason Tatum and Jaylen Brown a combined two for 19 from the floor in the fourth quarter, including 0 for nine from three. Tatum did not make a field goal in the fourth quarter of game one. Brown didn’t have one tonight. Here’s Brown on yet another difficult loss. Two games we up 20 points. Somehow end up not with wins. um is inexcusable. Um I feel like we played a little bit fast and sped up, a little antsy, you know, just uh just a rough night. Joe, what was the uh thought process with not calling timeout there of 12 seconds left? Uh had one left, got a good look on the exact same play uh 20 seconds earlier. Tried to execute the exact same thing. They did our job of uh their lower pickup point and we weren’t able to get the advantage. Good fullcourt setting. They weren’t they subbed out Towns, weren’t able to sub out. Brunson had uh action there and we just didn’t execute. The reigning champs just lost back-to-back games on their home floor to start a series. Became the first team in history to blow 20point leads in both. We just we just said that. I don’t know what to say about it. I cannot believe they did it. I cannot believe they looked so uncertain in the process. Tim Leggler in a moment. First, Steve, we have this uh this news in to the newsroom. We have an action Bronson report. Okay. Uh, a sweep was once again predicted. There was a profanity directed towards Boston which I cannot repeat. I was invited to the game Saturday. I asked what time he was going. This is where I have to speak as him. Whenever the game starts, which is an appropriate response. Sadly, I’m unable to attend due to family obligations. This was an action Bronson report out there soon. Happy to have you here uh tonight. Look, there’s a ton. Obviously, uh Celtics are 25 for a 100red from three in two games. Can you imagine that? That’s I mean 25 for 100. I I mean we’ll get Yeah, we’re going to we’re going to unwrap the bigger issues with this team off. Yeah, I just I just I just wanted to mention that Missoula had a timeout. His clock management in this situation has probably a little bit to be uh a little bit to ask for. I don’t know. You tell me. What did you think of it? Well, look, I would have been really interested in this last sequence regardless, but listening to his sound made me really interested in taking another look at it because he said they wanted to run the same action twice in a row. Now, here’s the first one he’s talking about. Boston down one, 24 seconds to go. Jason Tatum, uh, as you can see, is right here taking the ball out of bounds and the guy primarily guarding him on this possession is right here, OG Anovia. You’re going to see McBride’s going to clear out because his responsibility is going to be pick up Derek White. So, those guys are emptying out. So, this pickup point, as Joe Misoula alluded to, is in the back court. This now allows this blast screen action right here. Al Horford is going to run up to a dead sprint at half court. His job is going to be to clip off OG Anobi. Does a great job of it. If he does that, Jason Tatum knows the guy behind him is a center. It’s going to be Mitchell Robinson. And there he is. And he’s flatfooted. Tatum blows by, gets the dunk. amazingly to get a dunk in that situation to go up one. Now here they go. Brunson makes the two free throws. No timeout even though you have one in your pocket if you’re Missoula cuz he said I want to run the same action. Thought we could get the same thing but the Knicks had a much deeper pickup point. You don’t see any defender on Jason Tatum in the back court. That makes an enormous difference. There’s nobody in this space that there wasn’t a last possession which tells you where they are and it’s right here. Al Horford is against setting the screen. The problem is now both defenders involved in it are here. And not to mention the fact the Knicks have three other guys. So there’s a shell at the three-point line. This is what Jaden Jason Tatum is looking at coming across half court. So here’s my question, Scott. Even at this point, 9.8 left. You’re down by one. There’s Joe Mazula right there. You could still call timeout right now because clearly based on what you thought you’d see, the Knicks defended it differently. As you would expect, they just gave up a dunk and the game is on the line. He elects not to. I find it odd to trust your team on a night they were this bad offensively to go make a play. And Jason Tatum right here gets loose with his handle. This really affected the whole thing cuz I think what Jason Tatum wanted to do was drive in here and go to this step back mid-range. And if you can get Mitchell Robinson off of you, you might be able to get a clean look. But he fumbles the ball, ends up taking it down to the baseline. And this is what’s really incredible to me now. These two games, you get two defenders here, Scott. Somehow someway that ball has to find Jaylen Brown. It just does. This is two games in a row, Scott, where their best two players not only don’t get off shots, they don’t even get the ball out of their hands to someone else to make a play. And it’s bridges both times. Bridges both times. Strips the ball out of Jaylen Brown. Makes the play right there. You rarely see great players in those moments not get a shot off or find someone and trust them to make a shot. They were incapable of doing either and as a result the Knicks go out of there, you know, with two wins. And so I’m I’m really questioning Missoula with that last time out. Your team was so bad offensively. Take it off their plate. Give them something designed in that huddle down one going downhill to the rim to try to maybe get a call or something going to the basket. There’s two things here. There’s the melt on Boston’s side and that’ll make talk radio in Boston a field day uh on Thursday, but there’s the fight from New York. You hear me and Steve talk about it all the time. We’re not joking when we say stay in the fight. New York did it twice in a row and they won both fights. Now it’s not a knockout. You still got to win two more. But how does the fact that they were able to to summon this twice now going back to the Garden? How does this play out moving forward? Well, listen. Obviously, they’re going to feel pretty good going into that crowd on Saturday up to nobody expected this. At best, you’re hoping for a split, right? You steal the first one and you’re probably almost certain you’re thinking split. Let’s go to Madison Square Garden and rock that place and take control of the series. Now, they’ve got a situation where they’re telling themselves no matter what transpires over the first 36 minutes of the game, they are, to your point, never out of the fight, never out of the game. and actually in a lot of ways comfortable in that situation. Now Jaylen Bruns alluded to it. You can’t keep dodging these, right? You you got to be better. No, it’s not sustainable, right? But at the same time, they know Boston has something going on psychologically right now in these moments. You see the shooting percentages two fourth quarters in a row. Inability to make a play at the end of the game from their best players. The Knicks feel like if we can just get you to that spot, we’re going to handle it better because we’re tougher and more confident, particularly I think in their best player, Jaylen Brunson. Gives them a lot of confidence they can operate under that duress. I mentioned New York’s been great on the road in the postseason. They won five straight. Boston’s been a tremendous road team. They’re going to need to be uh or this they’re going to be done. So, Brian Winhorse joins us now on the program. And Brian, you’ve been a guest in the decade that we’ve done this show. You know the routine around here. We try to be reasonable. Try not to overreact. Game one was one game. 20-point lead evaporates. Knicks win. All credit to him. It’s one game. All right. Now it’s two games. And it’s not like this can just blend into the ether of a season. It’s a short series and you got to win four. The Knicks have done it twice. What do we make of these now two games, Brian? Well, yeah. Before I had to leave TD Garden because the fire alarm went off. And you can select your metaphor. You can have a little contest to see who’s got the best one for the Celtics situation. I was in the Celtics locker room and they’re they don’t really understand. They can’t put their finger on exactly what happened. They’re a little bit shell shocked because these leads have just melted away from them. And honestly, down the stretch of this game, the Knicks were the more poised team. And when I went into the Knicks locker room, one of the things that they were talking about was just how comfortable they are in that position because they they’re like, “It’s okay. As long as we get it to within five points, within five minutes, we got the clutch player of the year.” It’s not the way you would normally think about it. Normally, you would be the underdog and you’d be down on the road and you’d be panicking. It’s the inverse. And I’m not sure if that’s going to continue, but it’s a it’s a situation and a feeling that I’ve not seen before. That’s well framed and I just I have a hard time watching this Boston team play and I saw a Rasillo tweet to this point that you’re thinking this is a group that’s won a title and they look shook and they look small and they look uncertain in places where they should be the exact opposite of all those things. Now they could go to New York on Saturday then they could win and the whole world looks different but they better. I just wonder based on watching these last two fourth quarters where you stand on what you believe you’ll see moving forward. I don’t I’d like to come on here and be very strong and give you strong analysis and strong opinion on what’s happening. I don’t quite have a good feel for it. Um, what I will say is the two Knicks wings, Male Bridges and Ojanobi, have outplayed the two $300 million Celtics wings in the fourth quarter of these two games. The other thing I’m going to tell you is at the end of the game, Jaylen Brunson wants the ball and wants the the situation. He is totally comfortable doing it. Jason Tatum is not. He’s not comfortable doing it. Now, he had this incredible dunk. In fact, in the Knicks locker room, one of the things that the players were talking about, you know, the Celtics ran the same play twice in a row in the last minute, and they were just so praising Mitchell Robinson, the way he defended it differently the second time than the first time, which, you know, enabled the the Knicks to win the game. I’m not being able to form in a strong opinion on what’s going on. I just know that the Knicks shouldn’t have the better personnel and the more confidence, but they do. Saturday afternoon at the Garden is now for the Celtics season. The Celtics, I will say this, they’ve won a road playoff game in 11 straight series. In six of those series, they’ve won multiple road playoff games. They are of this era the greatest road playoff team that we have. So, it is absolutely not over. But the chips are all down at the Garden on Saturday. And when I left the arena with everybody else, I left with Jaylen Brunson. We were both heading for the exits. The Knicks were excited to get on the plane. I bet they were. They uh they stole two and now that’s as big a game as the Garden seen in a long long time. 3:30 ABC. Brian Winhorse. Appreciate the time and the perspective as always. Game two in OKC. Home teams have not won a playoff game that ended tonight in a big bad way. Nuggets have never led 20 on the road and still haven’t. Early on a 12-point lead. Shay Gilis Alexander probes the defense a step back buries it on a night when OKC would shoot 56% from the floor. Everything’s going down. They’re up 3613. Isaiah Joe all alone in rhythm. Give me all three of these. It is a 4521 lead after the first. Plus 24 in the first quarter. They’re best in any quarter in the history of their playoffs in the franchises history. People in Seattle don’t like when I bring it up. They used to be there. Seattle will have a team again someday and they should. That’s Kase Wallace in transition. Aaron Wiggins. I like Turtles. It’s all home team. Oh, there’s a follow from Wiggins. 6841. Let’s run. Woohoo! Shay! Jaylen Williams. OKC had 87 at the half, the most in any half in NBA postseason history. They nearly outscored Boston and a half, leading by a lot in the third. There’s Shay with the drive down the lane, then just puts on the brakes just very casually hits the Jay. Another Shay bucket. It’s a bounceback win by a lot. Here’s SGA. We knew it was at stake tonight. Um, we uh we came out desperate. We wanted to just take care and control the things that we knew we could and we did a pretty good job of that. Specifically to start the game, we clearly threw the first punch tonight, the first hit, and uh that’s why we got to the start. We did. It’s just about trying to trying to replicate that and adjust as they adjust and and be a better team come game three. It is only one game, but it’s interesting history and context here. It’s the 23rd time since 1983 that a playoff game has been decided by at least 40 points. You’ll remember what the Thunder did to the Grizzlies in the first round. All 22 of the previous winners also went on to win the series. Yeah, we we didn’t uh we didn’t um basically it was one team playing tonight. Uh even the m turnovers, misses, uh they were aggressive, they were going by us, they were rebounding the ball. They were just better. They were much much better than us today. And that’s the score. That’s why the score is so bad. Nicole, how do you deal with their physicality when they’re It seems like you’re always getting called. Reaction, you personally reacting. How do you deal and kind of play through their physicality if they’re going to let especially smaller guys I mean just just uh try to try to fight for for the position as best as you can you know and and uh and uh deal with consequences and then you fouled out in the third quarter. I think that’s the first time I don’t think position was the problem. They scored other teams scored 149 points. Uh Tim Leggler is with us. Let’s go rapid fire here. Yeah. OKC won just one game but they played to their ceiling. They remind us what that look what that looks like. What do you make of this series based on tonight’s result? This was the OKC team I watched all year. They were they were much better on the boards, which Jokic just alluded to. They got dominated in the first game. They cleaned that up. But the other stuff, the fast break points, the points off turnovers, the pace, the efficiency, the depth. You saw it all. Now, you don’t expect the 50-point playoff game, but OKC seemed like they were the one home team, Scott, that like said enough’s enough. They they did it for all of They did it for all of these home teams that are losing games and they did it in a big way. OKC has been the best team I’ve seen all year long and they showed you tonight what they look like at their best. You’re heading to San Francisco to call games three and four. Uh game uh the Warriors are going to be without Steph Curry because of the injury to the hamstring for at least a week. H I start to ask how do you win three more games without him? How do you win games at all without Steph Curry for Golden State? Good news for the Warriors. what they’ve been hanging their hat on for the last 3 months is their defense. Um and and that’s going to keep them in games cuz Minnesota is susceptible to that. Their three-point shooting is very streaky. Golden State’s defense is legit top shelf. The question is how do the role players get open and score points with Steph Curry not on the floor drawing all of that attention which makes the game easier. I expect Jimmy Butler to be great. They’re running the offense through him. But it’s those other guys, you know, Moses Moody and Pajki and maybe you get a sighting of Kaminga probably going to have to play some minutes. How good is Draymond going to be? You know, you watched the other night the fourth quarter. We both talked about it. Desperate like Steve Ker’s like, “Please someone make a shot to stop this run. I got a feeling it’s going to look a lot like that over these two games.” I think we both have the same thought independent of being with each other. I’m like 86 is enough to win. You better make a basket in the last six or seven minutes. They finally did and they got the win. They’ll have to win without Curry. We all thought all year in the East, Cleveland and Boston, that’s who’s playing for the Eastern Conference Finals. They’re both down 02. At least in Cleveland’s case, you could explain it to a degree because of injury. Is there a path back for them given what they are currently lacking due to the loss because of the injuries they’ve got? I’m going to say no. I don’t think they overcome this. And it’s look the injuries you can’t just dismiss it. An all-star caliber point guard, the defensive player of the year is also an all-star in Moley and then another guy who might be your overall best perimeter defender. Uh so you have now have a situation three of your top five players aren’t there. I don’t know when they’re coming back, but here’s the caveat. They’re playing a team that has probably over the last two years been the most underrated team in the NBA. The Pacers are a really good team with an offense that can be unstoppable when they get rolling. And right now, they are playing at that pace and with the Cavs so short-handed, losing two at home, I don’t know how they recover from this. And again, I think that’s a two-prong thing. It’s not just the people that are out for Cleveland. It’s that Indiana like and I I told you upstairs earlier I was guilty of sleeping on them early this year because they didn’t play well and it’s like you forgot that they made it to the finals last year and competed of the Eastern Conference. I mean they’re they look like a wagon at the moment right now. It’s going to be a lot for them to to overcome. Speaking of wagons, we’re not going to have you here and not get some thoughts. Commander Leggler, the news that they’re building on the RFK site, I’ve just assess. Where is is commander there? Is he do we have him? Do we see? Yeah, there you go. There you go. I might have to break that out at a game this year. I’ll buy you guys. I will find you an outfit. I don’t want some cheap, you know, Halloween store costume. I want to legit You might have to contact the the military to get something sent to my house. I’ll make some calls. Yeah, cuz I might break that out if you do it. All right, but in all seriousness, the the for old-timers like us, the idea of going back to that site, that team’s long gone. I get but there’s optimism and to be back there. How do you frame the significance of I lost my dad in 1992. My fondest memories of him growing up were the time we spent together RFK Stadium. So to think that you’re going to put a stadium back on those hollowed grounds. It just gets better and better. It’s fun to have a football team again. It it is that. And by the way, you know that you know you got some some folks in your section some season ticket holders. So I think we team up with some beer pong in the parking lot tailgate. They’re children, Tim. I have little kids. I’m not drinking. My little guy will probably be pretty good at beer p though. Tim, great to see you. Travel safe.

On SportsCenter with Scott Van Pelt, Tim Legler and Brian Windhorst join to give their reactions to the Boston Celtics giving up a 20+ point lead for the 2nd-straight game vs. the New York Knicks and the Oklahoma City Thunder blowing out the Denver Nuggets by 43 points to even up the Western Conference Semifinals at one game apiece.
0:00 Knicks vs. Celtics Game 2
3:09 Players’ reactions
5:29 Action Bronson report
6:20 Tim Legler Touchscreen
11:35 Brian Windhorst joins
15:24 Nuggets vs. Thunder Game 2
18:42 Legler talks the blowout
19:37 Leger on the rest of the playoffs
21:57 Commander Legler

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