The Celtics Are Just Too Much for the Mavericks | Group Chat | Ringer NBA

Justin Verrier, Rob Mahoney, and Wosny Lambre recap Game 3 of the NBA Finals, in which the Boston Celtics weathered a late run from the Dallas Mavericks to go up 3-0 in the series. They discuss Luka Doncic’s undisciplined defensive performance, Jayson Tatum’s continuously confounding series, and the death of NBA legend Jerry West.
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[@nf2203]

I love Rob Mahoney. He's just the best. KOC if KOC wasn't trying that hard and was more analytical.

[@yofuman]

I remember loving rob’s breakaway podcast when he was back at SI several years ago

[@matt23151]

Rob is what KOC used to be. At some point KOC transitioned into the hot takes realm. Miss the old KOC

[@noahcdmx1985]

But Wos is traaaash

[@WesleyMarsh9758]

Rob is so underrated, probably the best out of the ringer outside Bill and Ryen

[@Jonteponte71]

Luka coming back from offseason ripped sounds like NBA fanfiction at this point :)

[@crayzmusic]

Tatum plays elite defense so switching him with Luka WOULD make a huge difference

[@lanceellis3863]

"I hate his form" we know Woz, we know

[@lanceellis3863]

Woz did a lot of celtics slandering 🤡 let the apology be as loud

[@sirisaacmormont5445]

He’s despised the city of Boston for years 😅

[@PutXi_Whipped]

Put some respect on Joe Mazzulla’s name.

[@PutXi_Whipped]

Ringer NBA somehow never communicated that the Celtics are 68-7 including 12-1 in these playoffs when they shoot 33.3% or better from 3.

[@jlinc187]

I’m actually pretty sure they don’t watch basketball and just talk about it.

[@vegn]

Long time listener -- first time watcher. I guess I never realized the Justin could pass as Max Strus's twin.

[@josephrafferty6763]

The replace Luka with Tatum is such a silly question. You would build your team entirely differently with Tatum instead of Luka (assuming you're not dumb).

[@tim.noonan]

2k brain-rot

[@abcsorensen]

Tatum needs to be the tough shot maker from 15 feet, not 27 feet. The midrange is the skill that has disappeared in The Back to the Future analogy. If we're advocating for stats, someone needs to look at how Tatum scored from tough 15' shots vs. 27' shots. There have been a lot of opportunities for him to pull up from midrange but instead fumbles his way toward the basket. The Celtics can repeat as champions if he goes back to doing what everyone told him to stop doing 😂

[@CrankyKong317]

I don’t understand why he doesn’t get that he shot that 3 at the end of the game & bricked it then brown comes down the very next time the run the same play brown make the mid range jumper and they go up 5

[@williamharris7849]

they'd maintain these leads better if they took higher percentage jumpers when up double digits instead of continuing to hoist 3's.

[@bostonoles]

Tatum is also guarding some big dudes in the paint. I’m sure he’s worn out a lot of the time on offense

[@Jonteponte71]

This discourse has gone full circle since he used to have a midrange jumper and was heavily criticized for going to it instead of just "rembering he is 6 feet 9" and going to the hoop. At this point I don't really understand why he doesn't have a floater in his game though. It seems like a lot less work.

[@taylor7264]

Tatum has led the league in pull up 3pt efficiency at volume twice and was top 5 this yr actually I think what’s going on is that he’s a rhythm guy. N when he’s not in rhythm in looks bad. He’s a lot like Lebron who famously added something to his game every summer but the other side of that is that in order to build a new skillset he stopped working on the things that worked for him in the past. We’ve seen him be up and down on his 3pt shot too. Last yr bron clearly worked on his 3 and he was a good shooter this szn. The yr prior it felt like he focused more on his post game and he struggled. Bron shot it well from 3 in some of the Miami years too. I think it depends on his focus going into the szn Playmaking and driving&finishing at the rim was a bigger weakness for jt or more accurately a bigger need for the Celtics so he focused on that more recently . I think he’ll be able to dust off his pull up 3pt shooting whenever he n his team think that’s the most efficient use of his time in the off szn

[@taylor7264]

Tatum was 40% on 8 step back 3s a game 3 n 4 yrs ago. Thats why he takes them n that’s why he thinks he’s nice at them. I just think he’s taken that skill for granted and focused on other parts of his game - I think justifiably too. I mean his team needs him to draw two more than they need him to shoot over the defense rn clearly.

[@brandono6906]

Yo that my guy from TYT. This my first time seeing this podcast but it won't be my last. Go Celtics

[@Dinkledorf98]

Mavs drank the koolaid when they heard the media giving them the title before game one

[@taylor7264]

Good pod. This is my favorite pod of all the ringer basketball shows including bill’s. Woz’ laugh n asshole nature is the mvp But what the show is missing during these finals is an explanation of how/why woz was so embarrassingly wrong abt this series ! 😂 I mean if some1 accused him of not knowing ball does he rly have a defense?? What happened?!?! 😂

[@taylor7264]

Mavs are overmatched from a personnel & COACHING standpoint ! Mavs don’t seem as prepared to execute the details on the margins

[@LouLou-cm3pp]

Good point: Tatum needs to tweak his game the way Brown has this year. Then, look out.

[@robertriteman3227]

i have watched the NBA for 50 years and in all that time I have never seen any star player in a Conference finals or Finals be so disdainful of making any effort of Defense as per Luka. Alan Iverson had more respect for practice then Luka has for playing defense which is why he may be a top offensive player but he will never be a Top 5 all around player .

[@josephmcloughlin3007]

The question of what happens if you swap Tatum and Luka makes no sense. They’ve been on their respective teams long enough that the roster is constructed around them. So of course both teams are worse if the players are swapped…neither system is designed to accommodate the other players style

[@PutXi_Whipped]

Woz is cooked like the rest of the Ringer NBA flunkees

[@Jawnderlust]

These 3 sweet sweet faces

[@troymackey9588]

Luka isn't a context guy? Have him on a team with little defence. The guy hit a 50 in a game 7 last year. He did the same thing in 2022 against the Bucks. Backs against the wall, Tatum steps up big.

[@raneynewman8315]

If you adjust for shot difficulty Tatum is one of the best 3 point shooters in the league (metrics before this playoffs). The problem is the shot selection not his ability.

[@josephrafferty6763]

I mean, the single person in the Cs building who is most responsible for where the Cs are right now is absolutely Brad Stevens. Obviously, he's not a player, so he can't be MVP(layer), but Bob's point is spot on. Obviously saying he's the most valuable player is a bit tongue in cheek.

[@Paul_pp]

These guys never heard of a shooting slump.

[@crayzmusic]

Dont you dare put embiid above Tatum

[@KK-pm7ud]

If the Mavs had Embid it would be a different series

[@tim.noonan]

@@KK-pm7udYou’re right. They’d be out by the second round.

[@Deaddlynedly]

Its crazy how Luka is so trash defensively and useless without the ball. No cuts or screens nothing but he is top 5 material yet apparently that's an impossible level for JT to reach? All he needs to do is fix up his shot selection and get some low post in his game

[@2011thetemp]

Woz can sing!

[@taylor7264]

100% coming into the series I said Indy’s offense w/o Hali was going to be harder to guard than Luka n the mavs. But Luka’s 🍆 was so far down the medias throat that they couldn’t see it

[@taylor7264]

So much more movement in Indy’s offense in addition to siakam mismatch attacking

[@mtuktuk9627]

i think there is too much who has the best player on the team convo that people forget just how fucking crazy good this celtics team is on every position, if your 2 through 6 is sooo much better then the other team and the 1 is just a tier higher then the Cs one....noc chance and i think the only reason people did not think higher on them is bc the east was so weak this year

[@Von199X]

Mavs is missing 1 more scorer to compete..Need to find that in the off season. I wish they got Kelly Oubre for cheap

[@Lord_Clarke]

Having 5 fouls and trying to draw a charge at the 3pt line is the dumbest thing ever stop trying to sugar coat it

[@Amotcho]

When did you guys hire Laurence Fishburne?

[@redraymon]

Someday Justin will just accept Tatum for who he is, but the hate has not dissipated from his soul yet. 😂

[@taylor7264]

Yo woz Kobe couldn’t win w/o HOFers next to him either. You’re comparing him to the 2nd best player ever lmaoo. We know he’s not Lebron…but could he be Timmy?? Could he be Kobe?? I think so for sure It’s funny you bring up Lebron playing w Tristan Thompson bc he was the starting center for Boston in ‘21. They lost in the first round bc Jb n kemba were hurt. They started grant williams n Romeo Langford in that series v the kd/harden/kyrie nets …Tatum stole a game in that series by himself w a 50 ball. Not to mention 46 v bucks n 50 v Philly and another 50 ball in 21 in the play-in game. So it’s def in him…I think he just has to grow into the “alpha” role….same way Lebron did. Since we’re comparing him to Lebron now. Lebron came up short over n over despite that monster game from him c Detroit etc…it took time for him to learn how to really control a game start to finish…once he got older, looked around n saw that all his comp was to old or too young he felt comfortable to take over. I think we’ll see Kobe level Tatum in his 28/29 yr old szns

[@rohanpande5074]

Tatum is that guy. Recency bias is insane. He is def better than Shai and kawhi rn

[@Von199X]

Tatum wants to be Kobe so bad but it's Jaylen Brown's game is more of a Kobe

[@ghostofkenny]

yeah, Jaylen's the one who can look like Kobe for a quarter or a half here and there. Tatum is more in the Paul George bracket.

[@lanceellis3863]

How in the fuck am I listening to a Tatum hate fest right now? Lmaooooooooo This is ridiculous

[@Jonteponte71]

People have just collectively decided that this Tatum is the finished product even though both him and Brown have added things to their game *every single season* they have played together. But for some reason at barely 26 years old, Tatum will just stop developing his game right here? Yes. It is ridiculous.

[@lanceellis3863]

@@Jonteponte71 100%!

[@Paul_pp]

This guy on the right is straight up hater and mentally challenged. If you put Tatum in Lukas position and he just had to focus on offense he would do the same stats Luka does. Such a hater. Jaylen Brown wouldn't play as hard on defense with Luka as his partner instead of Tatum. Tatum had a finals run at age 24 and put up all the numbers but came up short at the end when he was hurt and exhausted, so he made adjustments to his game to get the Ring.

[@crayzmusic]

Dude on the right is annoying af

[@PutXi_Whipped]

Woz

[@HeyCross-ss3wv]

Worst nba finals in nba history. Not a mavs fan btw

[@markc1839]

Just shows that the Celtics front office dwarfs the other dumb dumbs on other teams. In this environment to be able to out maneuver teams and build a stacked roster shows superiority to other front offices.

[@KK-pm7ud]

The Lakers with Shaq and Kobe vs the Nets was pretty bad

[@KK-pm7ud]

​@@markc1839The Lakers would have made a move for Jrue if they were in the East and had something Portland wanted.

[@johncarlostorres160]

Woz: "It's not in him" regarding Jayson Tatum. Lmao they said Jaylen Brown wouldn't improve either. This is only the start for the Celtics. They're going to be a dynasty and Tatum is going to be better.

[@johncarlostorres160]

Big Woz is a smart guy but his hatred for the Celtics and erection for Luka Doncic makes this a hard listen

[@Terbmagic4]

Tillman father died in the beginning of playoffs. He sat out until now.