Boston’s Playoff Adjustments, Defensive Stops, and Game 4 Blowout

Untitled project from SquadCast === squadcaster-ff7e_1_04-27-2026_112825: [00:00:00] Welcome to another week of Celtic Chalk Talk. My name's Steve Purciello, Boston Celtic fan forever. Remember the Russell Days? So I go way back and I could tell you lots of stories about it. But for today, we're gonna talk about this week. But before we do, I'm just gonna mention this Celtic Chalk Talk is part of a network of podcasts on the Peach Basket. If I really suggest that you go and look into the peach basket.net and look at other people that are as talented as this, if not better. This is an organic. Group of people who are basketball fans giving thoughts on the NBA. It is something that I think everybody should experience listening to because I think there's a lot of great points being made by a lot of very big fans who understand the game. That's something I suggest that everybody take a shot and look at. For the Celtics this week. It was an interesting week. The [00:01:00] first game they played was last week. They played Philadelphia in game two of the series. That might've been one of the worst games the Celtics played since last year playing the Knicks. They were horrible. They shot 26% from three, which is just a nightmare. And 39%. Overall, but that wasn't the real story. The defense was worse. They were in constant drop and all Philly was doing was having Drummond or bona set screens up high at the three point line and Max or Edgecomb go off of that and be wide open 'cause of the drop. This was a problem. Boston had to figure something out to stop this. They didn't do it that night and they were getting wide open. Threes Edgecomb shot very well. Maxi always shoots well, so they were able to beat Boston. Every time Boston made a run, it seemed Philly ran something off. Those the, off the screen, the high screen and Maxie or Edgecomb would make a big three to hurt Boston. It was just it was [00:02:00] just not a good night. The Philadelphia shot the ball real well. Maxie had 29. Five for 12. From three. It just was bad. Edgecomb was six for 10. From three he had 30. Philly was 19 for 39 from three. Now you understand there is a such a thing as a team being hot, which Philly was, but what you don't understand is. The adjustments that weren't made, and I was disappointed 'cause I think Joey Missoula is one of the best coaches in the league later in the game. What Boston was doing was Cada at times or Vukovich would come up and hedge. That means they came up to the side and tried to take away the dribble off the screen until the recovery was made by the defender. They did that sporadically. They didn't do it in orphan enough and then they would go back to the drop and Philly would burn 'em. It was just a bad game, terrible game. Boston didn't play well and so on. So now that's set up [00:03:00] a one-to-one series and we're going back to Philly and we got a problem 'cause we got two games there. And if we don't show and we also have M beads looking and waiting and lurking in the background. Game three was an old fashioned tight, tough game. Boston managed to win it 1 0 8 to 100 by making some big shots down the stretch. The game, it was an old fashioned game of news whistles constantly. You never saw flow developing. So it wasn't a fun game to watch, but it was fun in the results. The fourth quarter was Tatum had two big threes at the end off one was off a Derrick White rebound, a great rebound from the weak side. Grabbed it, kicked it out. Tatum hit the three, and that really ended the game. He, but he hit two big ones in the last. A couple min, last minute or two, one other big play. Tatum had the ball on the right wing. Dribbling, looking to get some sort of opening. [00:04:00] Got nowhere with about four or five seconds left on the 24. Kicked it to the corner to Pritchard. Pritchard hit a little a three going to his left. Great shot. One of the other keys to winning the game key. Tatum took over the fourth quarter and with the help of Pritchard but Jaylen Brown in the third quarter got rolling. He had about eight or 10 points in a row that really helped put it away. Philly. For Philly Maxie was great and he gets rolling. You gotta look out. He's such a great scorer. Reminds me for you old time fans of Celtics, of Cedric. Tony. Tony was the cell. Boston Strangler. Some of you remember, he could shoot from anywhere. And he hurt Boston over those years. Just a great player and I guess back in the eighties. But anyway, that's what Maxie reminds me of. Tatum had 25 4 rebound seven assists, good game. And JB had 25, 7 and four opposite 4, 7, 7 4, but which [00:05:00] meaning seven rebounds for assist Derek White I have to give so much tr credit to for that. Big rebound and Kickout that was off of Vu miss and that was really what helped put it away. What was interesting and what I kept coming back to in this game was Boston has championship DNA and they know how to win tight games, and that's what they did in this game. That's an important thing to keep in mind with the Celtics. Then we go to yesterday's game. It surprised me. Joel Embiid was back and you naturally, you get a little worried because he's great, and when he's healthy, he's great. But Boston went out and just blew the doors off. 1 28 to 96, they got off to a big lead in the first quarter. Never looked back. Peyton Prichard first half 18 points was on fire. Everything he threw up found the net. It was just beautiful to watch for Philadelphia. They had an MB in and he's a great player. So with the great [00:06:00] player, Philly has a problem. Their problem becomes very simple. They've run a really a guard oriented offense with Paul George. Paul George should get the ball more 'cause he's trouble and he can score. He's a professional scorer, but he, and that's another subject. But with MB back, the offense now goes away from guard oriented to more playing off Embi Philly struggled with that early and really had trouble finding themselves. Because of that change over in the offense, as good as Abi is adding him at this point is difficult to adjust to. The other thing was Edge Cone really didn't shoot well. He struggled. And, you know he's gonna have better nights down the road. Just hopefully Boston could end it before he really goes off. It, their offense will get better. But Jason Tatum and Jalen Brown in the third or fourth quarter they scored all the points. They were just on fire. Tr Tatum finished 37 and 11 JB [00:07:00] 27 and won. JB sat out the fourth quarter. They didn't need 'em. It was that easy of a win. Prichard, as I said, 18 in the first half, 32 total, he was going for the record that Kevin McHale has. 34 off the bench in a playoff game. But he couldn't, he was kinda outta gas down the stretch and they pulled him early with about six minutes left. Boston really took everybody off the four, down the stretch. Philly shot overall 41% from the four, but they were way worse than that in the first half. They started scoring in the third quarter. And that, that's when it, they. Raised their percentage, obviously, and they shot only 30% from three th there's the story. But Boston, I think it's credited for good defense. And I wanna mention Jared Wal Jordan Walsh. Played a great game. He was in the second quarter and naturally his energy and he was on the Jordan Good Jordan Walsh, and that energy is so infectious to the [00:08:00] rest of the team. For Boston, they shot 48% from the four and get this 45% from three. That's the reason why you win. They also had 14 offensive rebounds and they had a 63 to 49 rebound edge, and that plays out in a way that Boston might, wouldn't miss a shot. Rebound, kickout, miss a shot, rebound Kickout three and they were doing that, they were getting two and three shots, which has to be a demoralizing thing for the Philly team. Now they're three to one. They play tomorrow night. Important, to put 'em away. You don't wanna give that team life 'cause of maxi. NFMB starts, they start meshing again. It's not gonna be easy. You can't get too confident. You can't say it's over till it's over. It would be nice to win tomorrow night to, so Boston gets a couple days off before the next series, but we'll have to see something. A couple other notes I just wanna mention Kovich, he's gotta [00:09:00] show more. He's got to show more. It seemed like when Boston played against any team, he was on his shooting, just ran Boston and just wore him down. He always made a big bucket. Could hit a three. He's making some threes, but he's gotta become more consistent defensively. He brings very little to the table. And that's a problem, especially if Kada continues to get in foul trouble. Brown. I don't wanna criticize him 'cause he's so good, but he needs to learn to see the court. It seems like if he starts into his dribbling is one thing on his mind that's to shoot and score. Sometimes people are wide open on the wings and in the, and in the corners and he's gotta see them and get 'em the ball. If wide open threes, we've proven shower shyman and even Jordan Walsh. They can hit these as well as we'll talk about Derrick White in a second, but even Derrick White's starting to come out of it. And I'll just mention that Derrick White has struggl. In the last couple of weeks of the season and now shooting threes the positive. Last night he hit two in [00:10:00] a row. The last two he took, he went two for four for the night. But it's important. That could be a positive and if D White finds his shooting range, it just makes Boston better. I can't say enough about DD White on the other parts of the court defensively. He's tremendous. There's, he's done it twice in a series where he is chased down blocks when Philly players were going for layups last night against Maxi, it's invaluable. He just has to begin to start making the big shot. He made the big play off the rebound, and even with him not shooting well, he still needed, but. It would help a hell of a lot more if he was able to shoot. Anyway, that's it for this week. Let's, we'll be back again next week to talk more Celtics Chalk Talk. And until then, enjoy it and enjoy the playoffs. Thank you.