No, no, come home, Come home, come home.
On this episode of the Heat Check, it's a little updates on the New York nixt I know it's a back to back next sort of situation, but we have new tea, new updates, and boy, they just keep keep on keeping on with that whole uh giving up twenty five point plus leads might be time to panic. We also finally put a little respect on the Boston Celtics, just in time for them to lose to the Detroit Pistons, the worst team in the NBA. I'm kidding sort of, you know, but on that note, drop.
That beat perfect right lay.
So, last episode we broke down the inexplicable decisions, well decisions yes, by the New York Knicks to stand pat at the trade deadline. No one knows why, no one. Since then, shit has continued to go off the rails. On Saturday, Knicks blow a twenty three point lead in the second half to my Blazers getting outscored by thirty five to eleven in the fourth quarter. We talked about that on Monday, how it's possible to score just eleven points in a quarter against one of the worst teams
in the NBA. Defensively is a mystery to me beyond me. And then and then against the trash ass ok Homa City Thunder, top bottom two, bottom two team in the league, missing their two best players by the way in Shae Kilgris, Alexander and Lou Dort completely out of the game. Uh, they blew an eleven point second half lead and lost in overtime to the again Oh Klahoma City Thunder with no Shay and no Doort House way how I don't know.
And oh, yes, Tibbs tried to call a time out late in the game and got teed up because he pulled a Chris Webber did not have did not have a timeout, which is a bit of a problem. It's a Mike McCarthy situation here, folks, like, what are you doing, my guy? And that was a bit of a problem considering that was a tie game at the end of regulation.
And then last night they were up twenty eight points against the Nets, Yeah, net twenty eight at the Crib to the Brooklyn Nets, only to lose handily to a team that did not have Kevin Durant, that did not have Kyrie Irving, did not have Ben Simmons, did not have of course, James Harden because he's been traded. Cam Thomas, twenty seventh pick in the draft, went absolutely bananas, shooting tween tween from thirty step back, no defense on Cam.
He had sixteen points in the fourth quarter alone. It is officially a sweat, a panic at and within MSG not only as the garden, as the umbrella, as the corporate structure that owns the Knicks. This team is three and thirteen in the last sixteen games, sinking, sinking down
the Eastern Conference standings. Everyone is struggling, from Evan Fournier, who, like I've always been saying, shows up once every three games, to Kemba Walker who's consistently in the doghouse, to Emmanuel Quickly, who, over his past seventeen games is shooting just twenty six point eight percent from the field and twenty three point nine percent from three. How bad is this, you might ask me, Well, bad enough to write multiple segments on
them in a week. But old man Thibodeaux, who is wed to running his starters out there forty minutes plus a game, has just said he is committed to play in the youth, to going with the youths. He said We've got a young team that can get better, and that's where we have to concentrate. Get these guys better. Look Mitchell's development, RJ. Barrett's development, Quentin Grimes development, Emmanuel quickly Obi topping. That's where our focus is right and
Julius is still young and can still grow. Sure sounds like this is now a rap for the season when you're talking about the youth's and developing the youths, especially when your name is Tom Thibodeau, who's like basic ethos for coaching is fuck them kids, Like I'm running out Taj Gibson, I'm running out d Rose in crunch time when he's talking about Quentin Grimes, who's a very good young player, but he's talking about the youth's in a way that is completely counter to his identity as a coach.
And that's how you know this season is a cooked, it's a wrap. He's literally like, all right, we're gonna just see who we have here, see what we have. Notice he didn't say Cam Reddish at all in that mix. Who they traded for This year is now all about assessing who can be the future instead of who is here that can help you right now? Because it's very clear no one's here that can help you right now.
Otherwise they wouldn't be three and thirteen in their last sixteen games, and they wouldn't have blown eight straight twenty point game leads, you know. And so now all of this has been fodder for the New York papers to sound off on what's the deal with TIBs? Is his but medium hot? Super hot? Burning? Is he almost out the door? What's happening? This is the man, folks, who is your twenty twenty one coach of the year. How could he actually be on the hot seat?
Well?
Is he actually on the hot seat? I don't know. New York Post seems to think he might be in my viewpoint, I mean, like, is the Post anyway in my viewpoint? Well, considering Tom Timbodau is on a five year deal. He got hired to a five year deal right when he was brought on board immediate. He is there under contract getting paid unless he gets fired for costs through twenty twenty five. And Dolan not a huge fan of having multiple guys on the books at the
same time, just simultaneous guys on the payroll. He's not a huge fan of one thing for sure, though nothing is a certainty in this business. You know. Just ask the Brooklyn Nets whether they thought James Harden would blow this thing up in less than twelve months time. Which is now, why how you know things are bad? How you know that anything could change at any given moment with this club, is that we're now getting Derek Rose injury updates about the fact that he's coming back right away.
He's here, He's coming back right after all Star break, folks, Everything's okay. Once d Rose is back, He's going to rate the ship. I was like, that's a strange time to put out an injury update on a guy we haven't heard about in the last three months, have not heard one peep, and now it's like d Rose is coming back, he will be back. Should TIBs be the one that is primarily held responsible for the Knicks issues? Probably not. Who should be held responsible for the issues
of the Knicks? Well, that is a longer discussion for another day. I don't have that time right now. We've got to give the Celtics their flowers and that's the next segment. Yo, yo, Let's talk about the up until last night when they got beaten, my destroyed Pistons, Boston Celtics, hottest team in the association right now, and we've seen like a little bit of transformation, so it's time I have to give you guys your flowers. And the change has been remarkable, I would say, and of course credit
to me. I have to and will always acknowledge when I'm wrong. But I wasn't really wrong before because they would go on these four game winning streaks and then they'd lose seven. They'd win two and then lose four. They just up and down and up, and I was like constantly last year apologizing and then recanting the apology and and then apologizing again. And then I was like, you know what, maybe that's this identity of this team.
Maybe all they are is just a roller coaster. Maybe they're one of the most inconsistent teams with a ton of potential that is going absolutely nowhere. And that is exactly what happened, which is why Brad Stevens departed and a new general came into town.
This year.
They win eight in a row and then checks Notes loses to the Detroit Pistons. The day I'm writing a segment for the next episode, the worst team in the NBA folks, So how much has really changed? I'm kidding, I'm kidding. They actually are a good team. I think this year they really did lose the Pistons, but somehow, someway it feels different. I don't actually see a four game losing streak coming. I don't see a skid coming. So the question for folks to think about is twofold.
When did the Celtics become a different team? And more importantly, why why? The when question I've identified it is easy to answer. Numerous times this season, Udoka has called out the Celtics for publicly excoriating really for lacking efforts and for being soft, like you are soft, and particularly after a terrible loss to the Knicks on January seventh. This is what Eme said. It was rock bottom January seventh, so like a little more than a month ago, this
is what he said. It's lack of mental toughness to fight through adverse times, and it's across the board. It's a turnover here, it's a bad shot there, it's a misdefensive assignment here, several misrebounds tonight. And so all of this seemed bad at that time, and it came to a head following a terrible loss to the Philadelphia seventy six ers, which you might not remember. Troe l embiid and remarked after the game why the Celtics were so easy to beat? And I thought I would play that clip for.
You if you compare you know, uh, tonight from the other night. You know, it's kind of easier to guard. You know, Charlotte. That moved the ball extremely well, and you know they had shooters all over the place, and that made a bunch of jump shots. Obviously, you know Boston his malls a mall of an isle every team. Uh so he kind of becomes easier to kind of
load up and trying to stop him. And you know, I thought, kiss and you know guys, you know, we challenge our perimeter guys, uh to contain the ball, and I think they did that Tonight's casual.
He didn't even like clown them. Really, he was just like, listen, Uh, Charlotte, they're just a better team, truthfully. Like they shooters, they moved the ball really well. They've got them all over the place. They make a bunch of jump shots. Boston. I mean, they're just he just said it, so chill, like Boston, They're just a nice, so heavy team. Everybody knows that, so it becomes easier to load up and
try to stop them. And guys like Matis Steibel, it's like work when you know Jason Tatum's gonna go dribble, dribble, drible, dribble, dribble, dribble, dribble, dribble, dribble, dribble, dribble, dribble thirty footer, Like you know, it's pretty easy. Well, we know what he's gonna do, which is not past the ball. He drug them out back and laid their corpse on the street, and he drove over them without even meaning to. He said, that's so matter of fact,
and cue the Jordan meme. The Celtics caught note of that presser and they took that personally, and something at that very moment apparently clicked in the Boston locker room, because since that game, they've been winning. And there's one reason we can identify that they have become so much better pretty much overnight, besides their defense, passing, just passing the ball. It's unusual how just cutting without the ball, passing said ball around till you get an open look
can help you win games. Somehow, some way em Udoka has gotten Celtics to do the one thing that they haven't done in the last three years as well as earlier this year. And his introductory presser, Udoka said, you know, Hunter Brad Stevens that we're among the worst in the NBA for assists that year, that we are going to play team basketball, and he's fought tooth and nail and clawed and tried carrots and tried sticks, tried a blend of carrots and sticks and found out a way. Okay,
it's not just me. Maybe Joe l Embiid needs to say some mean things. In other words, Joelle being like all they do is I soo, which everyone knows, like this is not a new concept. We all know that that's what Boston Celtics have been doing. But Joe Allenbian said it's just so casual, and I think it just hit different, hit different, and all of a sudden they started to share the rock. Udoka says, I think that the Celtics, this team are embracing being playmakers, helping everyone
else score. And it is pleasing to me and noticeable when we play that way. Turnovers are down, assists her up because we're just getting rid of the ball and that's why they're winning. And that lost to the Pistons you can identify and make sense because you realize in that game they had no Marcus Smartin, they had no Robert Williams, two guys that have been very instrumental to this team identity shifting. And because they're buying into EMA's ideas,
I think this team is not the same as previous years. Also, they did go back to ISO basketball when they lost to the Detroit Pistons last night, So it just goes to show you there's about a one to one correlation between ISO and else. Here's another reason I think they're different. The Celtics played the Sixers again for the first time since Embiid absolutely excoriated them publicly and very casually in mid January, and exactly almost one month later this time
they played them in Philadelphia earlier this week. Udoka gave them all of the pregame motivation that they needed, showing that quote from Embiid about it being easier to defend the Celtics than the Hornets, which the Hornics are not like some world beater, They're decent team, but Udoka said it stood out to me when he said it. I bet it did. I bet it days like listen, you see, everyone knows what you're gonna do. Bet it did. So the Celtics went out and just took a baseball bet
to the Sixers. They want by forty eight points. Shite, and the Sixers were fully healthy at that time. I cannot believe this, but they held Philly to eighty seven points. The remarkable number, though, is that they only scored fifty seven points in a full three quarters. Deshaan Hoorn scored fifty seven points sometimes in a quarter and change what three quarters? Fifty seven points? They held mb to just nineteen points. They had to sit. Embiid's asked down because
he was getting such a bad beat down. That game was in l as soon as the tip came down, Like what, He's only played nineteen minutes and he's averaging thirty four points during the previous twenty five games. Let me say it again for the folks in the back, Joel Embiid right now is averaging thirty four points in the last twenty five games. That was his lowest point
total sense prior to Christmas. We are here thawing snow right now, we are a long ways from Christmas, and according to The New York Times, Doc Rivers said he and this is basically what the New York Times said about Doc Rivers. Doc Rivers, the coach of the seventy six ers, spent the game looking as though he were in line at the DMV. After the game, Doc said, you can literally see the improvement of their ball movement.
The old Boston is more ISOs. This Boston is driving and playing with each other, and that is what makes them so much tougher. No shit, Like, why is this a complicated concept? They've also been one of the most best defensive teams in the NBA and they've just gotten better by adding Derek White, which as a side road kind of going back to the Knicks like this shows.
This move shows that Brad Stevens is all in on emy Udoka because emy Udoka played for and learned under Greg Popovich, put a style of play in that San Antonio wrinkle and mode, and then they went out and got a fucking san Antonio spur to fit right into his system. You don't do that when the guy's locked down for another three to four years. If you don't believe that this is the coach of your future. When you get players that do not fit with the style
of coach that you have, that shows two things. You're either stubborn with a huge ego or you don't believe in that coach long term. So you're getting other pieces that fit some other guy that may be there in the future. So that's actually a really good thing and shows that e Ma and Brad are on the same page. And all of a sudden, Derek White just plugs right into the system being a better defender, doing everything that he knows works for where he just was. Have all
the problems in Boston been fixed? No, I mean you just saw. You just saw what they can be. Right, It's still a wonky roster. They're times that they revert back to their natural state, like their natural DNA is to just do a million dribbles and a contested step back twenty footer. Or when Marcus Smart is in the game, he literally brings the ball up and shoots from the top of three nine seconds in the shot clock without passing to anyone, sometimes at crunch time, sometimes multiple times
a game. So this is a team who has that propensity. If you can corral them and stop them from doing idiotic things like that. This team can be dangerous. Just ask the Sixers how capable the Boston Celtics are at beating the shit out of a team who was just the number one team in the East last year. So I would personally love, love, love love to see a first round matchup between the Celtics and the Sixers, which would be fireworks for days and fodder for an out
or for revenge situation too. My god, I cannot wait. That's all the time that we have for the Heat Check. Will be back Monday with a new episode. Please do not forget to download, subscribe. Please tell your friends and follow us on social at this heat Check and at trist to Creek on TikTok. Thanksgi