On this episode of Green With Envy, hosts Will Weir (@willbon13) and Greg Maneikis (@miniminoe) discuss the lessons that Celtics can learn from playing two conference rivals in three straight games. First, they react to Jaylen Brown’s recent dominance (0:00-10:00), then they get into what went down in the mini-series with the Miami Heat (10:00-17:00), and before the break they give a quick preview of the Celtics matchup with the ultra-athletic Toronto Raptors (17:00-23:00).
After the break, they hit on the recent reports of the Heat’s interest in acquiring Grant Williams and why it makes Zero sense for the Celtics to do such a thing (24:00-29:00). At the end of the episode, the boys give their weekly “Vibe Check”. Will discusses his hatred of player tributes and Greg lauds the recent trend on social media with AI “art.”
Jaylen Brown has been a lightning rod of constructive criticism and debate on this very website, but there is no denying his play over the last two games. With Jayson Tatum finally looking human, Jaylen has stepped up on both ends of the court. Without a doubt, his two way performance against the Nets was his best this season as he finished with his second straight double double to go along with with 2 steals and 4 blocks. It’s fair to want our players to be better, but when they are great. they also deserve their flowers. Jaylen Brown is a bonafide star and he has really stepped it up with his recent play.
At times this season, the Celtics offense has looked unstoppable, but we finally got a chance to see what it might look like in the playoffs. Against the Miami Heat (granted with the return of Jimmy Butler), the Celtics came crashing back down to earth. The Heat took away first options, picked up the ball closer to halfcourt, and generally just mucked up the game to where the Celtics had to work harder for their points. Tatum got in early foul trouble, and the team was never able to find any sort of rhythm. It was like watching videos of a Shakira belly dance turn into Elaine “getting the party started.” However, this is a good test for the Celtics, as they’ll need to be prepared for when the “blueprint” is out on how to slow them down. It’ll be fun to see how Mazzula adjusts on the rest of this six-game road trip.
Tune into this episode to hear extended discussions on all of these topics, and be sure to follow the boys @GreenEnvyPod to stay up to date with all things Celtics.
