On this episode of the Heat Check, the finals are here, well nearly here, and we have now a bunch of interviews for you from people who actually cover these goddamn teams. We start with an interview with Boston Globes Adam Himmelsbach himmelsbaka got a weird case? Why is he around?
We move on to Dallas ten p. Fifty three the Fan with Eric.
Chiafalo, who was absolutely excellent, and then we end it with an interview with NBA podcaster and betting extraordinary read Walck Anthony. No time to waste, brother, Let's jump right into it and drop that motherfucker beat that should be Rihanna. All right, guys, finals are here to get us ready. I bring you not one, not two, not three, no
actually just three three interviews. They were all recorded on my other show bt MGM to Night, which year seven to eleven Eastern on the radio in most major markets and also live on Twitch as well as YouTube live. And we will start with Adam Himmelsbach, who covers the Celtics for the Boston Globe. He broke down the series from the Boston Celtics perspective, and I think it was super insightful, So let's get right into it.
Adam Himmelsbock covers the Celtics for the Boston Globe, but he jumps on with us and Adam, we were talking about this before, and obviously you're going to be as rooted in as much as anybody. The Celtics team won sixty four games, but we know the history in the past of the expectations, fair or not, and where they've
been and then falling short of winning a championship. Does it feel different around this team right now in terms of not only the expectations, but the confidence level and what they can do in the finals this time?
Yeah, I would say so. It's they've had really all year, just a really business like approach to everything they've done. And you know, really that starts with Brad Stevens, goes down to Joe Mazool and then also to the players they've had and like Drew Hollidays and Derek White, Christosporzingis in addition to this core that's been around. They've obviously been, you know, to this level before, and they've been the conference finals year after year, and this entire season was
really geared toward getting to this point. And they were so consistent with it and so matter of fact with it. I mean, to not have a single three game losing streak all year, it's pretty incredible. You know, every even the great team generally have rout and then to get in these playoffs and sure they're playing undermanned, you know, overmatched teams, but they're taking care of them. They've lost
twice the entire playoffs. So now they're really to this point where they've been waiting for all year, and it seems like they're just really eager to get it started.
So the folks talk about this preview. Some say that Derek White's going to be tasked with guarding Kyrie a lot, and some others say that.
Drew Holliday will be on Kyrie.
How do you see that matchup looking and then how do you see if it is White versus Kyrie working out over the series.
Yeah, it's not a bad problem to have, right if you're the Celtics. You have two guys who have been first team All Defense for a second team All Defense. I should say in this case this season, Drew his first team last year, Derek was the second team last year. And you can kind of pick your poison. But the Celtics have such like a switch heavy scheme. Sometimes there's a lot of attention paid to who's on who They
switch constantly. You know, Drew will start on Kyrie on one possession and six seconds later he's Derek's guy, you know, handed right off and they kind of are really on a string at that end of the court. Tatum will have time on Kyrie, Jalen Brown will have time on Kyrie. So they feel pretty good about just being on the throat so many different bodies that both Kyrie and Luca.
What type of role can we expect from Kris STAPs for zingis when he's back, is it going to be maybe more limited minutes? Is he going to be kind of the going out there in sort of the same rotation and expectations that are there.
Yeah, it's hard to tell right now, just because we haven't really seen him and he hasn't completed a full practice that we've seen yet. But my gauge is that he's going to practice tomorrow and I'm assuming we'll talk to him then and kind of see where he's at. But the big thing that Celtic got stressed all along, this took maybe a little bit longer than they're initially hoping. Maybe they aired on the side of cof when they it's pretty clear they're going to take care of the
patiers regardless. But there have been no setbacks. There's been nothing that's really been a concern, So certainly all signs are pointing to him being back. Then it will just come to Look, it's not like, you know, if you sprain your pinky finger or something can't play for a while,
you can still run and keep your card. He obviously hasn't been able to do that as much with the nature of his injury, so it might take a little time for him to get back to playing, you know, thirty five minutes a game.
How do you expect Derek Lively Junior to factor in.
To this playoff series?
Obviously we're not sure if he's fully recovered from his injury from the Wolve series.
But what do you.
Expect from him in terms of him being an X factor against the Celtics.
Yeah, he's been really good, really impressive rookie. Another a duke guy like Jason Tatum, obviously Derek and really Daniel Gafford and several guys on the stats team that are really love threats. I mean, the Mavericks had like twice as many al yups in these playoffs, is like every
other team. And that's something where getting Christa's back will be a big help to have a seven foot two long guy down there who's able to try to, you know, congest things in the paint a little bit and be more of a vertical threat like Albert d a great defender, but he plays a little more below the rim. Generally, Yeah, should there should be some good matchups really all over the court.
Adam, who would you give the coaching matchup to in this series?
That's always tough to say, you know, I think, really I'm probably Joe Mazill will be the first to tell you it comes down to the players more than anything he's doing. And I'm obviously not around Jason Kidd very often in my job, but I can say that Joe has absolutely been much more kind of enough focus is the right word, but he's much more aware of what he's trying to do, much more aware he is trying
to implement this season. He was thrown in this really almost impossible spot last year, like basically finding out a week before the season starts a before training camps starts that he's the new head coach of the Celtics after not even having been a bench coach. He was a behind the bench assistance the previous season, but he's his comfort level is a lot better, and more than anything, the players are so much more comfortable to him and
they have like full trust to him. They're obviously going to be some few rocky moments last year, but that's completely gone now. These guys are all in with kind of what he's been preaching, you know. The biggest thing. He's pushed his sacrifice all year, making sure guys realize that they're really talented. So some nights, twenty shot guys only going to get ten shots and they gotta be
okay with that. And the guys have bought in, and it's really, like I said earlier, it's just been kind of unbelievably low stress year for a team that over the past few years has had some high stress moments.
Obviously, having a team is stacked as the Celtics is is a great problem to have an embarrassment of riches, but it feels like in terms of like the national discourse, a player that essentially has been negatively impact in the narrative department based on that is Tatum because he doesn't have to do all the things that Luca needs to do in order to carry his team.
Do you think that we'll expect some of.
The same thing in terms of the Celtics being next man up, any any guy can go off any night. Or should we expect Tatum to sort of try to duplicate what we see from Luca.
Yeah, that's a good question, Like there's no doubt Tatum. You know, his numbers mostly dipped from last season. You know, you averaged more than thirty points a game last year and found about twenty six this year, and his shots were down, And that was just like you said, It wasn't because he was doing anything wrong or was playing worse. It's because they have a lot of weapons and that's just how it's going to be sometimes. And to Tatum's credit,
he did a really good job at year. He was still even with these weapons, he was still the number one focus of opposing defenses night after night, facing a lot of double teams, and there were times in the past or sometimes he kind of try to force his way out of them and try to make a play, whereas now he just kind of patiently reads what's going on,
makes the right pass. A lot of times that doesn't even isn't even the one that gets the assists because it's the past beyond that, the pass from the past that gets the assists. But he's been a willing distributor and just kind of playing within the flow of the offense. Is there a part of him I'm sure you know obviously Jalen MVF of a conference finals, like, I'm sure there's a part of Jason that sponsor in mind everyone that he believed one of the best. He's one of
the best players in the world. He believes like top of the top players in the world, and he wants to show people that on the biggest stage and getting a second chance after the matchup against the Warriors didn't go as well two years ago.
Talking to Adam Himmelsbock bet MGM tonight, we know this team. Obviously, the Celtics team looks different than where they were last year. Chris STAPs Porzingis has won, but Drew Holliday has just been such a massive addition to them as a leader, as a defenders, as everything. I mean, he's a guy that's obviously been in this position before. There may not even be a true answer for this, but I really just kind of want to gauge in where you are
and Drew Holliday and his value to this team. It does his veteran leadership and experience in the finals even outweigh what he's been doing on the court in the playoffs for them.
I'm not sure if I but it's definitely important. Joue Mozil has said multiple times this year, even back to like whatever January March, a number of times he would like pull Drew aside. Drew obviously the only player in this team has won championship and say, hey, you know when you're with the buck and things on sideways during the situation, how did you guys get.
Out of it?
How did you How did you make your way up when when things are going great? How did you not get too high? He's been seeking basically any any kind of morsel of information he can get from Drew, just about that championship experience. And Drew wasn't just like like the one thing, if Drew was just a guy on that team who took some threes and whatever, like he has real leadership qualities. He's so steady at both ends of the floor, and like we're saying earlier, like he's
a guy who sacrificed his shots. His score numbers were down, but we've seen during these playoffs a little bit he's not afraid to remind everyone, Hey, if they're Knights too, where the matchups right and things are going. I'm not afraid to back my guy down, put that little lefty hook in over and score my twenty two points either. Somebody you guys have to account for too. So you
know he's been beneficial. Obviously we talked about his defense, his offense has come about, and like you said, his leadership is really strong as well.
Is there a deeper bench player? I know that you know in the playoffs rotations are shortened, but is there someone that is like eighth or lower in the rotation that you think could actually have an impact in this series, someone like a Sam Hauser or Luke Cornett or Peyton Pritchard for the Celtics.
Yeah, all three of those guys have got chances. Obviously, Luke's roll will be reduced assuming christophs is back playing closer to regular minutes. But Howser's the one I think to keep an eye on. He was excellent basically all year long. He's one of the best three point shooters in the NBA. He came off the bench, he made two and a half threes per game, and it just
hasn't been there during these playoffs. I think part of it is, yes, he has had a reduced role, and if you're a shooter, sometime it's a little harder to get that rhythm going, knowing, all right, I'm not going to get six threes tonight, I'm only going to get three. He missed that first one and then all of a sudden things become a little rocky. But he hasn't been
able to establish his rhythm. And there were games where he really, I don't want to say carries the Celtics, but there were games where you know, they were in a little run. Other team goes down to ten oh round and then two hous or threes and thirty seconds and everything's right again. So they would for sure like to see him get going again.
All right, Adam Himmel's back of the Boston Globe. Thanks grimonamos Man, no problem, dry the games set.
Thank you so much to Adam.
Next we move on to Eric Chiafalo of the Dallas ten point fifty three the Fan. Eric was here to help us prepare from the Mavericks standpoint, and it was also very entertaining, extremely insightful, and he had lots to stay about a key Mavericks player who might actually be the X factor in this series.
Listening, Eric Chiefalo jumps back on those one O five three of the Fan and I guess the first question from a Dallas side of things, then, how are people in Dallas? How are you looking at this potential Kris STAPs Porzingi's return in game one?
You know, it's interesting. Great to be honest with you guys once again, a very exciting time here. This is going to be an awesome finals. And the storyline between Kyrie going back to Boston and kp going back to Dallas wants the series swings back over here, absolutely a talking point. I don't think it's anywhere as close to the same level of sort of hate and hostility that Boston still feels towards Kyrie. I don't think it's quite the same. I do expect some boo birds at the
Double AC when Porzingis gets announced. I know Chandler Parsons was alleging that the crowd was going to be doing all sorts of you know that the that the crowd was going to be booing porzingis every time he touches the ball. I don't know that it'll go that far, but he will definitely hear some animosity a good chunk of his time once they come bring this thing back to Dallas.
Yeah, and Luca came out eric and said, yeah, it's not really true. I didn't dislike Havingham in Dallas. Like when you remember the time where KP and was in Dallas, like, what was the vibe around him and what was sort of any friction centered on.
Well, a lot of it, I think from the fan base perspective was just the the inability to consistently be
in the lineup and be healthy he was. I mean, he just wasn't somebody that you could depend on, and that's been that's been the case by and large throughout his career a little bit, but he's also KP has lent voice to the fact that he just wasn't fully understanding his role on the way that the Mavericks were using him, and hey, no post ups, we want to get you, you know, just just out on the three point line and you'll be kind of a catch and shoot dude. And it just never really meshed with the
way that Luca. Whatever Luca needs as a sort of a robin or a co star, Porzingis just wasn't really fitting that on or off the court. It never felt like they had a great relationship. At times, it felt like there was plenty of friction. So I don't I don't know, I don't know just how much they actually like hated each other, like some people will sort of
put their neck out there and report on. But I do know that it just it never really worked on the court, and I think off the court was a similar situation.
It's worked well though with Luca and Kyrie. Now at this point, are you, given where we are now from where this duo looked at the end of last season, how surprised are you that not only Luca and Kyrie have seemingly found chemistry and understand their roles and have a bromance going on, which is awesome, but also this MAVs team is in the NBA Finals and they tanked last year at the end of the season.
I know, I know, it's crazy. It's crazy just going back less than a year ago, and as you mentioned, you're tanking at the end. You've just traded for Kyrie, and all you have to show for it is that you are that you're throwing the end of the season because you're trying to go get a draft pick, and that has worked out beautifully. I mean that decision to tank. It obviously garnered a fine from the NBA, and a lot of fans at the time were not happy about it.
When we were discussing it plenty, it was, you know, I was on board with it because I understood that the Mavericks even making the playoffs last year, which even if without the tank, hindsight tells you they wouldn't have
made the playoffs anyways. But that was a team going nowhere fast, completely flawed in a bunch of different ways, and Luke and Kyrie were not on the same page when it comes to how exactly to conduct, especially late in the game scenarios, these clutch situations that have been so dominant in and they've had such great chemistry throughout the season in this postseason, they didn't have that last year.
There was plenty of times where you're letting the buzzer go out while the ball still on one of your hands because you're kind of playing hot potato and nobody knows what they really want to do. So this offseason, and especially once they got into training camp and they go to Abu Dhabia's team, I think that's when the Luca and Kyrie bond really began and they were committed to be in the best versions of themselves. And a lot of that is credit to Kyrie acknowledging, Hey, Luca,
this is your team. You are the men here. I'm the veteran. I will be your Robin at any moment that you need me to be a batman in a clutch situation. He can do that. But yeah, it's been surprising. This is better than the most optimistic opinion that you had on the Kyrie trade when it initially happened. This is way better than you could have even really imagined.
It's been perfect. And Nico Harrison, the general manager who just got the extension today, As a matter of fact, I mean, he's a guy that has made great decisions. If it was his decision the tank and then draft Lively, what a home run of a decision. That was you botched the Grant Williams thing, but then you make up for it at the trade deadline and you're able to get a PJ. Washington and then of course you get Daniel Gafford as well, and that's the trade that really
cemented this team as being a title contender. So this whole year has just been crazy.
Man.
This time last year we were wondering is Luca a ticking time bomb with when is he gonna go be the superstar demanding the trade? And now here we are four victories away from him being a twenty five year old champion.
Yeah. No, it's absolutely bonkers, just crazy.
Back to Kyrie. I was talking to a couple of friends about this today. How do you think the matchup is gonna go in terms of who's gonna check Kyrie the most? Because you've got Derek White and you got Drew Holliday both too, all NBA guards, And then how do you think Kyrie does against guys of that ilk.
Well, it is going to be a It's gonna be a tough challenge for sure. Holiday and White are as you mentioned, two of the best guards in the sport when it comes to playing defense. So I think either one of those guys will see plenty of time on Kyrie. We know how much Boston likes to switch anyways, and so as long as that remains their defensive identity, I'm sure a lot of these guys are going to get
their chance on Kyrie. But I would think you would start things off with Drew Holiday sort of drawing that assignment. I think Jalen Brown probably draws the initial Luca assignment, but then everything with adjustments and hunting different matchups and however it is that Boston decides to play some of these pick and roll situations, it's all going to be
super super interesting. But when it comes specifically to Kyrie, I do think that if you're Boston, you feel pretty good about the idea that you have two guards that you can really take turns on Kyrie giving him some fits. Now, Kyrie's always going to find ways to get his seems like a dude right now who's in a great mental place, And when it comes to sort of the the the hostility he's going to receive at the Garden, you know he's going to want to perform at the highest level.
But Kyrie's shown that he's willing to just go stack up a bunch of assists if he's not able to get his for whatever reason. Oklahoma City did a great job defending Kyrie and his numbers, especially the scoring numbers. They they they showed that they reflected that he was not quite the same score throughout that series. And I think a lot of the physicality that Oklahoma City brought you will get as well defensively from Holliday and White
and everybody else that matches up on Kyrie. So it's gonna be a tough drawl, I would say for Kyrie, and I'm looking forward to seeing how that he kind of stands up to the challenge here. But with the way Boston switches man, every everybody's gonna get to take their turns on Luca and Kyrie.
Talking to Eric, you follow BETEMGM tonight, would you say that, Derek Lively, we always love to talk about X factors, right and we know so much about Luka and Kyrie. We spent a lot of this talking about Luka and Kyrie, and rightfully so, because well, they've got to play at their highest level of the MAVs want to win this series. But would Derek Lively be the guy that you kind of look at that like they need a third guy doing something. Is he that guy to you or is there somebody else?
You know? I think that he has been in a lot of minds. He's the third most important player on the team. Some people would say PJ. Healthy Luca, unlike what you had versus Oklahoma City, where those first few games he's unable to do the same type of scoring due to the injuries that he was playing through. So PJ. Washington was able to take on that role of being a guy to go get some buckets, put up multiple games of twenty points or whatever in that series, and
so at that point I felt like, Okay, PJ. Washington's that guy. But now with a healthy Luca, who you know is going to get his at every turn. I do think Derek Lively is probably that that third most important piece outside of Luca and Kyrie, and he's been
so amazing for this team this whole time. That injury was a little bit crazy, looked extremely painful, but he's obviously going to be good to go now, and it's going to be It's gonna be an interesting because the way that the Celtics spread the floor and one of the one of the things that the Mavericks had done so well with Lively, Ain't Gafford, has been the rim protection. But you know that Boston is going to want to draw those guys out of the paint as much as possible.
So I'm I'm wondering a little bit how much Jason Kidd will go to Maxi kleebat lineup that way. Yeah, I think there. I think you you with the Mavericks, you have that versatility with the healthy Kleiba, something you didn't have really throughout that Timberwolve series. But now having him, I think that'll be an interesting piece and interesting change up for Jason Kidd to throw out there at times.
But if Lively can be the best version of himself, uh, I think there's going to be a chance here where at some point you look at go gosh, dang it, why is this dude coming off the bench? He might need to start at some point in this series. How
long how long before that adjustment gets made. They are clearly a better team with him on the floor and what he's able to do when it comes to the pick and roll with Luca, I mean, it feels like it's unstoppable and he is one of these big that can pass out of the pick and roll as well in a really impressive way. So, yes, Lively being at the height of his powers, and I do think he will be a monster when it comes to getting on
the glass. And when you've seen the Boston Celtics struggle at times this year, they've got dominated on the on the boards. When it comes to the offensive rebound big spot, I think Lively could have a huge impact that way. But yeah, I'm looking to see when is he going to get in the starting lineup at some point this year?
For Derek Lively to be the leading rebounder of this series is twelve to one. You think that's that's a good bet considering how this thing might actually play out matchup wise.
I do think that's a pretty good bet right there. Absolutely I do, because especially now and I mentioned he's coming off, to think at what point does he come in and start or how much of it it is, Hey, Derek Lively is just so much more effective than Afford or Hey, we want to play some more small ball with Kleiba, So it's going to be more like a Derek Lively Kleba situation. He's getting caffered one who suffers
the minutes consequences. So I think you're gonna get a healthy dose of Derek Lively no matter what in this series. And he's just such an active dude when it comes to the glass and he will have some great opportunities with I mean, the sis factor for the Celtics is just not quite there, so I do I like that back quite a bit.
At twelve to one, Chief Erchie have follow one O five to three of the fan. Great to have you on again, Man Live.
QUI thank y'all so much.
Thanks shout out to Eric and next week turn into Red Wallock of the Early Read podcast. Reid has absolutely no dog in this fight because he is a sick Nets fan, so he gave us his mostly unbiased take of the finals, except that I know that he hates Kyrie Irving enjoy.
Adam Himmelsback covers the Celtics for the Boston Globe and he jumps on with us and Adam we were talking about this before, and obviously you're gonna be as rooted in as much as as anybody. The Celtics team won sixty four games, but we know the history, the past of the expectations fair or not, and where they've been
and then falling short of winning a championship. Does it feel different around this team right now in terms of not only the expectations, but the confidence level and what they can do in the finals this time?
Yeah, I would say so. It's they've had really all year, just a really business like approach to everything they've done. And you know, really that starts with Brad Stevens, goes down to Joe Mazzulla, and then also to the players they've had and like Drew Hollidays and Derek White, Christosporzingis
in addition to this corps that's been around. They've obviously been, you know, to this level before, and they've been the conference finals year after year, and this entire season was really geared toward getting to this point and they were so consistent with it and so matter of fact with it. I mean, to not have a single three game losing
streak all year, it's pretty incredible. You know, every even the great team generally have rough and then to get in these playoffs and sure they're playing under manned, you know, over match teams, but they're taking care of them. They've lost twice the entire playoffs. So now they're really to this point where they've been waiting for all year and it seems like they're just really eager to get it started.
So the folks that talk about this preview, some say that Derek White's going to be tasked with guarding Kyrie a lot, and some others say that Drew.
Holliday will be on Kyrie.
How do you see that matchup looking and then how do you see if it is White versus Kyrie working out over the series.
Yeah, it's not a bad problem to have, right if you're the Celtics. You have two guys who have been first team All Defense for a second team All Defense, I should say in this case this season. Drew his first team last year, Derek was second team last year. And you can kind of pick your poison. But the Celtics have such like a switch heavy scheme. Sometimes there's a lot of attention paid to who's on who They
switch constantly. You know, Drew will start on Kyrie on one possession and six seconds later he's Derek's guy, you know, handed right off and they kind of are really honest string at that end of the court. Tatum will have time on Kyrie. Jalen Brown will have time on Kyrie, so they feel pretty good about just being on the throat so many different bodies that both Kyrie and Luca.
What type of role can we expect from Kris STAPs porzingis when he's back. Is it going to be maybe more limited minutes? Is he going to be kind of the going out there and sort of the same rotation and expectations that are there.
Yeah, it's hard to tell right now, just because we haven't really seen him and he hasn't completed a full practice that we've seen yet. But my gauge is that he's going to practice tomorrow and I'm assuming we'll talk to him then and kind of see where he's at. But the big thing that Celtic got stressed all along is this took maybe a little bit longer than they're initially hoping. Maybe they aired on the side of cof when they it's pretty clear they're going to take care
of the pacers regardless. But there have been no setbacks. There's been nothing that's really been concern so certainly all signs are pointing to him being back, then that will just come to look. It's not like, you know, if you sprain your pinky finger or something can't play for a while, you can still run and keep your cardio ups.
He obviously hasn't been able to do that as much with the nature of his injury, so it might take a little time for him to get back to playing, you know, thirty five minutes a game.
How do you expect Derek Lively Junior to factor in.
To this playoff series?
Obviously we're not sure if he's fully recovered from his injury from the Wolf series, But what do you expect from him in terms of him being an X factor against the Celtics.
Yeah, he's been really good, really impressive rookie another a duke guy like Jason Tatum obviously Derek, and really Daniel Gafford and several guys on the stats team that are really lob threats. I mean, the Mavericks had like twice as many al yups in these playoffs, is like every other team. And that's something where getting Christa's back will
be a big help. To have a seven foot two long guy down there who's able to try to, you know, congest things in the paint a little bit and be more of a vertical threat like Al Horford's a great defender, but he plays a little more below the rim. Generally, Yeah, it should. There should be some good matchups really all over the court.
Adam, who would you give the coaching matchup to in this series?
That's always tough to say, you know, I think, really I'm probably Joe. Macviill will be the first to tell you. It comes down to the players more than anything he's doing. And I'm obviously not around Jason Kidd very often in my job, but I can say that Joe has absolutely been much more kind of enough focus is the right word, but he's much more aware of what he's trying to do, much more aware he is trying to implement this season.
He's thrown in this really almost impossible spot last year, like basically finding out a week before the season starts, a before training camps starts that he's the new head coach of the Celtics after not even having been bench coach. He was a behind the bench assistance the previous season. But he's his comfort level is a lot better, and more than anything, the players are so much more comfortable to him and they have like full trust to him.
They're obviously going to be some few rocky moments last year, but that's completely gone now. These guys are all in with kind of what he's been preaching.
You know.
The biggest thing he's pushed his sacrifice all year, making sure guys realize that they're really talented. So some nights twenty shot guys only going to get ten shots and they gotta be okay with that. And the guys have bought in, and it's really, like you said earlier, it's just been kind of unbelievably low stress year for a team that over the past few years has had some high stress moments.
Obviously, having a team is stacked, as the Celtics is a is a great problem to have an embarrassment of riches. But it feels like in terms of like the national discourse player that essentially has been negatively impact in the narrative department based on that is Tatum because he doesn't have to do all the things that Luca needs to do in order to carry his team.
Do you think that we'll expect.
Some of the same thing in terms of the Celtics being next man up. Any any guy can go off any night, or should we expect Tatum to sort of try to duplicate what we see from Luca.
Yeah, that's a good question, Like there's no doubt Tatum. You know, his numbers mostly dipped from last season. You know, you averaged more than thirty points a game last year and found about twenty six this year. His shots were down, and that was just like you said, It wasn't because he was doing anything wrong or was playing worse. It's because they have a lot of weapons and that's just how it's going to be sometimes. And Tatum's credit, he
did a really good job that year. He was still even with these weapons, he was still the number one focus of opposing defenses night after night, facing a lot of double teams, and there were times in the past or sometimes he kind of try to force his way out of them and try to make a play, whereas now he just kind of patiently reads what's going on,
makes the right pass. A lot of times that doesn't even isn't even the one that gets the assists because it's the past beyond that, the pass from the past that gets the assist. But he's been a willing distributor and just kind of playing within the flow of the offense. Is there a part of him I'm sure you know. Obviously Jalen was MVP has a Conference finals like I'm sure there's a part of Jason that sponsor in mind everyone that he's he believed one of the best, He's
one of the best players in the world. He believes like top of the top players in the world, and he wants to show people that on the biggest stage and getting a second chance after the matchup against the Warriors didn't go as well two years ago.
Talking to Adam Himmel's bock Bet MGM tonight, we know this team. Obviously, the Celtics team looks different than where they were last year. Chris STAPs Porzingis has won, but Drew Holliday has just been such a massive addition to them as a leader, as a defenders, as everything. I mean, he's a guy that's obviously been in this position before.
There may not even be a true answer for this, but I really just kind of want a gauge and where you are and Drew Holliday and his value to this team is it does does his veteran leadership and experience in the finals even outweigh what he's been doing on the court in the playoffs for them.
I'm not sure if that weighs it, but it's definitely important. Joue Mozil has said multiple times this year, even back to like whatever January March, a number of times he would like pull Drew aside Drew obviously the only player in the team has won championship and say, hey, you know, when you're with the buck and things on sideways during this situation, how did you guys get out of it? How did you how did you make your way out when when things are going great? How did you not
get too high? He's been seeking basically any any kind of morsel of information he can get from Drew, just about that championship experience. And Drew isn't just like like the one thing if Drew was just a guy on that team who took some threes and whatever, like he has real leadership qualities. He's so steady at both ends of the floor, and like we're saying earlier, like he's
a guy who sacker priced his shots. His score numbers were down, but we've seen during these playoffs a little bit he's not afraid to remind everyone, hey, if they're Knights too, where the matchup's right and things are going, I'm not afraid to back my guy down, put that little lefty hook in over and score my twenty two points either somebody you guys have to account for too,
So you know he's been beneficial. Obviously we talked about his defense, his offense has come about, and like you said, his leadership is really strong as well.
Is there a deeper bench player I know that you know in the playoffs rotations are shortened, but is there someone that is like eighths or lower in the rotation that you think could actually have an impact in this series, someone like a Sam Hauser or Luke Cornett or Peyton Pritchard for the Celtics.
Yeah, all three of those guys have got chances. Obviously, Luke's roll will be reduced assuming Christops is back playing closer to regular minutes. But Howser is the one I think to keep an eye on. He was excellent basically all year long. He's one of the best three point shooters in the NBA. He came off the bench, he made two and a half threes per game, and it
just hasn't been there during these playoffs. I think part of it is yet he has had a reduced role and if you're a shooter sometimes it's a little harder to get that rhythm going, knowing, all right, I'm not going to get six threes tonight, I'm only going to get three. He missed that first one and then all of a sudden things become a little rocky. But he
hasn't been able to establish his rhythm. And there were games where he really, I don't want to say carries the Celtics, but there were games where you know, they were in a little run. Other team goes down to a ten oh round and then two hous or threes and thirty seconds and everything's right again. So they would for sure like to see him get going again.
All right, Adam Himmel's back of the Boston Globe.
Thanks griming on was man, no problems really games good.
Big shout out to Adam, Reid and Eric. That's all the time that we have this episode of the Heat Check. Come back tomorrow for an all new episode and check out the feed for past episodes and mini episodes would drop unexpectedly like a hot take about Kaylyn Clark. Do not forget to fallow the Heat Check throughout the rest of the playoffs.
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