Are the Celtics doing this AGAIN?

Boston Celtics.

Hmm. Last night. Game five at home to the Philadelphia 76ers. No bueno.

But we do know that they can win in Philly in game six and then roll the dice in a game seven. Jeff Goodman from stadium, field of 68, field of 12. Do you have any other fields that we can promote? To get out to because it's finally hit 70 degrees here in Boston. Oh, look at my.

Yeah, get a little sun, a little sun in my my pale. You know what? All right. Look at you. All right.

So explain to me. I know you are. You are in on what the Celtics are doing and what they have done. Are they doing this again? Uh, making things interesting. Yeah.

Too interesting. Yeah. They, they, they, they enjoy doing this, especially with a rookie head coach now. Um, you know, I, I think he made some questionable decisions at the end of game four. I love Joe Missoula. I've known him a long time.

People are crushing him here in Boston right now. And again, I, I think they're getting tired of this act. And, and by this act, I mean, just seeing no intensity, no really, no intensity. You know, I think it makes me feel emotion with this team, a bunch of cool dudes that just kind of look this interested at times, but. You know, again, they're talented.

They're probably more talented than anybody from one to eight. Uh, I wouldn't be shocked if they come back and win this series. I also wouldn't be shocked if they get blown out and Philly and game steps.

Jeff Goodman is joining us here from stadium at Jeff Goodman on Twitter. They've been knocking on the door. for like six years, for the last six years they were in the Eastern Conference Finals. They were in the NBA Finals last year, had a 2-1 lead against the Warriors with game four at home. They lost game four at home, understandable that they would lose game five in Golden State, and then they came home and lost game six as well. We're starting to see, they're having trouble winning these big games on their own floor. They played with their food against the Hawks. Yeah, they did. They did and they should have, you know, swept the Hawks.

But again, you know, I think it comes down to intensity and coming out and pushing it right away. You know, there's some questionable things even last night. I mean, they played this defense again, this drop coverage against MP that I just don't understand. You know, Missoula said after the game, well, they'd be giving up a bunch of threes to the roll guys to fill these roll guys, like, you know, Josh names and some of those guys.

But it's just too easy for MP. And, and Matthew was on last night. You know, frankly, the two guys that have really been critical for the Celtics this year, Malcolm Brogdon and Derek White were not existent as was Robert Williams, as was Jaylen Brown when it mattered. So they have a huge margin for error, but kind of everything went wrong last night. They didn't make shots. Horton was, I think over seven from three and one corporate's not making threes and being can just play free safety. And when he does that, Jason Tatum never looked at the basket. He never really, I think he drove once in the third quarter, but other than that, he was scared as was most of the Celtics team to drive on Joel and understandably so, because I mean, man, Joel is just a beast.

He's amazing. And James Harden went into the way back machine in game one and stole the game that Boston probably never thought that they would lose a real quick, final thing about the Celtics. If they don't advance past Philadelphia. And I still think that they absolutely can. The, the, if consider changing the makeup of the team or does you just keep rolling these, this group back because it is incredibly talented.

Yeah. I mean, listen, I said this before the season, I think this team needed a PJ Tucker type. Now there aren't a ton of those in the NBA, but I, you watched PJ the other night, get into and beat at the end of game four, like nobody's doing that with the cell. The only one who could possibly do it is Marcus smart. And I'm not sure they respect him enough that he can really do that and get on Tatum and Brown and some of those other guys or for Bragg and Derek white, they don't really say a word. Right.

So I, I don't know. I mean, I don't know if you just try to do a little tweak, you know, Missoula, here's the thing like, and again, I preface this with, with, I really liked Joe as a guy and I've known him forever, but they gave him the job permanently midway through the year instead of all that mattered for the soap exchange was what was going to happen in the playoffs. So something's ownership to me made a stupid move, flat out stupid because you just wait, wait and see what does in the playoffs, because ultimately that's what you're going to judge him by this year.

Right? Can he take this team? Even if they lose in the NBA, that's one thing, but if you're losing a Philly here in a series that you should have worn, I think a lot of people are going to question.

Is he the right guy? And I'm not sure he is yet. I think like Joe Missoula with a few years experience is going to be a completely different coach. Unfortunately, there's not time for on the job training with a guy like Missoula with what he inherited. No, no, no question about that.

All right. Let me ask you about at least one other thing here. Bob Huggins went on a Cincinnati radio station on Monday and gave us a couple of homophobic slurs just in the course of general conversation. The University of West Virginia University, for whom he now works, they said, we do not condone that. Huggins apologized, sincere, I'm sure, too late, I'm sure for a lot of people too late. They docked him a million dollars off of his salary.

Your thoughts on whether or not that really matters? I actually like what they did with them. I'm happy that environment. I just think we've seen too many people. And again, this was an egregious word. This is a word nobody should be using. And most people haven't used for a long, long time.

Right? My guess is when Bob Huggins was growing up, he's a little bit older, a lot older than me. They're probably using that word. They were using it probably a little bit when you and I were growing up. Sure.

That doesn't mean it's okay to use it to be out of everybody's vocabulary right now. He came out and was remorseful. In his statements, at least, I'd still like to hear it from him. But he was remorseful. I just feel like we're so quick, right to just, hey, you're done. You're screwed up career over. We don't want to see you again. This is how you're going out instead of, hey, listen, like, we all make mistakes, varying degrees. This is a bad one.

But to me, again, it can be a learning experience. Bob Huggins has done a lot of good for a lot of people, a lot of kids, a lot of people in the profession. You talk to anybody who's played for him, anybody who's coached with against them in the industry. They'll all tell you like Bob Huggins has a heart of gold. He screwed up royally here and he, you know, he's paying the price. Maybe not as much as some people would like. They want him fired. I say, you know what?

Hopefully he learns from his mistakes and grows even at his age. Jeff Goodman is joining us here at Jeff Goodman Hoops on Twitter. Here's the thing about what Huggins did. If it cost West Virginia money, if they started losing sponsors, they would have had no problem sending Bob Huggins away. Sure. Right.

Because every single situation like this, it all comes down to, did you mess with the money? And this to me is probably a very acceptable way for all parties to move forward. Yeah, I mean, we're in West Virginia here. You know, if it was in Massachusetts, where I live, there's no way in hell he'd still be the head coach. It's true.

You're 100% right. You know, I mean, it's part of where where he coaches and, you know, but again, I'm happy. I've known Huggins a long time. And again, I've known how good he's been to a lot of people, a lot of young coaches, a lot of older coaches, a lot of players. So he screwed up. And again, I think he'll pay the price here. You know, maybe again, not as much as some would like, but, you know, he'll, he'll, he'll hopefully learn from it.

Jeff Goodman, by the way, I've been giving the Twitter wrong. It's at Goodman Hoops, watch stadium, field of 68, field of 12. Final thing, because I have to go and I appreciate your time. But I do want to talk to you more down the road about things like Hunter Dickinson, and where we where we're going with that issue in college sports. But are you are you in your, it's how you're going to come to a Canes game. So we were gonna get our game, you know, we're four hours from Jersey. We're going to drop through a game in Jersey, but we were waiting and thinking they would beat Jersey, which hopefully they will here as a hell of a performance last night. And, you know, we're kind of waiting to see, do we wait for maybe a Stanley cup finals appearance? And we want to go to a game of Carolina. We've been every year lately.

We love it there. So I think we got to figure out who's going to watch the dog number one, if all, because I can't come down without my wife. She's probably a bigger fan. She was watching the game the whole night last night while I was at the Celtics game, giving me updates. So she and Mike Craig, she and Mike Craig were the ones last night.

Mike is great. I love it. We will be down there. It's whether it's next round or do we wait and do Stanley cup finals. So you may have to help me with tickets for those. They're going to, they're going to be hot.

They're going to be, we're going to spend a lot of money for those. I will do the best I can. Jeff Goodman. I appreciate your time, my friend. You got it, man.

You got it. But by the way, for the people who don't know, Mike Craig, who used to work at Duke, right, is now the, the athletic director at St. John's in New York City. And I do these Canes Corner podcasts live on YouTube. And I kid you not, Mike Craig makes a comment every single time.

Every time. Here he is. There's my man, Mike. Go Johnny's. Love him. And yeah, Mike's a huge, huge Caniac as is Jeff Goodman and his daughter and his wife. And hopefully they'll all be down here.