We’re sounding off on Jrue Holiday coming through in the clutch to steal Game 3 away from the Indiana Pacers with a perfect final minute that included five points and the biggest defensive play of the NBA postseason thus far. We’re also diving into Jayson Tatum putting up a stat line that literally no other player has ever logged before in an NBA playoff game, and then we take comments from the fans on Boston’s composure and stability, Holiday’s impact on the team, and a potential finals matchup.
What's up everyone, This is Mark Tomiko. First I just gotta say thank you for listening to sound Off, But secondly, I gotta tell you you've probably been listening to these episodes through the View from the Rafters feed on your podcast platforms. Well, we just launched a brand new dedicated feed to sound Off this week, so make sure you go and subscribe to that feed so you can get all of the episodes, not only the rest of this season, but in future seasons whenever we have sound Off episodes. So again, I know you've been listening to these through the View from the Rafters feed. These will not continue to go up on the View from the Rafters feed. Go over and search for sound Off with the Boston Celtics and please subscribe. I appreciate you listening, and here's the latest episode of sound Off with the Boston Celtics. Sound Off folks on Drew Holiday stealing a game from the Pacers and when I say that, I mean it literally. Holiday Steele was the highlight of a chaotic final minute in a game that easily could have gone either way. The Celtics were up one when Jason Tatum drove to the lane and missed a driving layup with ten seconds left. The Pacers grabbed the rebound and they had a chance to win it. And Andrew Nemhard is the player who took the ball the other way. And listen, Nemhard had already had an unbelievable performance to that point, a career high thirty two points that he had scored up until that point of the game, and you had to think that that's the guy the Pacers wanted to take the shot. Nemhard went for it. The problem is Drew Holliday was on the other side. Holliday picked him up in transition. In watching the play back, this is so interesting to me of how thin the line is of success to failure. Holiday almost fell over as he was backpedaling down the court and stopping to defend Andrew Nemhard right above the three point line. He lost his balance. I thought he was going down, but thank god, he has a ton of course strength. He's an insane athlete. He regained his balance just in time to have his instincts kick in and take over. Nemhard took the ball with his right hand, tried to dribble around Drew Holliday, but Holiday knew that he was doing that. Before he even did it, he jumped into Nemhard's driving path. He beat Nemhard to the spot and at that very moment he stuck his left hand in at the exact same time and poked the ball away. Now he actually wound up he as in Holiday wound up grabbing the ball taking it out. In transition, he was fouled in transitioned by Pascal Siyakima. Sure felt to me like that was a take foul. They reviewed it, it was not called one. So Holiday went to the line with one point seven seconds left, with a chance to make it a three point game. And you know he's gonna make him because Drew Holliday is clutch. If you haven't watched him his entire career, if you don't remember what he did with the Bucks when he was with the Bucks as they won that championship, Drew Holliday is clutch. And he proved it yet again tonight. He canned both free throws to make it a three point game. And that meant that the very worst situation the Celtics could find themselves in would be going to overtime. So the Celtics are up three one point seven seconds left Indiana calls for time out, and out of that timeout, they actually got a pretty good look for Aaron Neismith. He caught the ball in a little flip pass shovel pass as he was coming down into the right corner along the sideline. He caught the ball, turned, got a good look as he faded away from the basket at the buzzer. But thank god, that former Celtic had one last shot for the Celtics in his bag. He missed the shot long and with that, the Boston Celtics snagged total control of the series with a three to zero lead. And let me remind you, no team in the history of the NBA has ever come back to win a series after falling behind three to zero. The Boston Celtics nearly accomplished that feat last season. That was in a series that they were playing against the eighth seed. So in my opinion, if it's ever going to happen, it's going to be when a much higher seed is down three to zero to come back, not when they're up three to zero to have the other team come back. I think the Boston Celtics are in prime position to grab a berth into their second NBA Finals in the past three seasons. Now there's a whole lot of momentum behind the Celtics, and that is mainly obviously because of Drew Holliday's clutch play down the stretch. But Jason Tatum is back on track. And not only back on track, but he was historic during this game. According to our Taylor Snow at Celtics dot com, one of our top Celtics insiders, with the stats that this kid pulls up, it's unbelievable. Listen to this. Jason Tatum is the first player ever in the history of the NBA to score at least thirty six points, grab at least ten rebounds, and dish out at least eight assists during a playoff game while not committing a single turnover. And by the way, he just so happened to shoot fifty two percent from the field as well. That is incredible. That is near perfection. So let me be clear on what this stat is. I just rattled off the numbers and said, no other player has ever done this in an NBA playoff game. So let's be clear. MJ didn't do this, Lebron didn't do this, Bird Magic, Kobe and Duncan didn't do this, Luka kd Steph Kawhi Jokic, none of them have done this. Only Jason Tatum has ever done what he did tonight in Game three against the Pacers out in Indiana, And some people have had the nerve to question Jason Tatum this postseason. Give me a break, Give me a break. This guy is elite. He has been outstanding and dominant in his postseason career since his rookie season. Just ask the Philadelphia seventy six ers. Just asked Lebron and the Calves. Jason Tatum's been doing it since day one. That doesn't mean that he's historic every single night. Neither was Lebron, neither was MJ. But he is one of the best players in the league every time he takes the floor, and he showed it again tonight doing something that no one has ever done before. Now, with regard to this game overall, I posted early in the third court, I said, if the Celtics were gonna get back into this game and make it a six to eight point game and have a chance to win, it was going to be through their defense. That's exactly what happened. The Celtics dialed up the defense like fifty notches during the second half. It was incredible to see what they did during the second half as compared to what they did in the first half. At that end of the court. They held Indiana to thirty eight percent shooting over the final two quarters. They blocked nine shots during the second half. This was after a first half where Indiana got anything it wanted, anything it wanted scoring at the rim at will were the Pacers during the first half. But Boston finds a way to bounce back, and there was a great time out where they took a SoundBite from Joe Miszula during that second half. He said, listen, don't even pay attention to the scoreboard, pay attention to how we are playing. Be intentional on every possession. And it worked. It worked. Celtics were down eighteen points to this game during the second half late in the third quarter and they flip the switch defensively, and as we all know, great defense is what jump starts great offense. That's exactly what happened. That second half. Defensive performance was a dominant, we are better than you defensive performance, and that is something that we can't overlook because Boston's defense tonight in Game three of the Eastern Conference Finals, rediscovered its tenacity at that end of the court. This is what the Celtics are capable of on defense. Now, it's on tape. Now, it's a visual and mental reminder. Joe Missoula will use this performance for the rest of the season to say, this is what makes you unbeatable. This is how great you are at the defensive end when everyone gives all out effort and when everyone is defending as a unit. The way the Celtics played defense during the second half, that is a scary thing to look at for the Indiana Pacers and for any team that the Boston Celtics could potentially face if they wind up getting to the NBA Finals. All right, let's take some comments from the fans. First up, we got Matt Delio on this being a game the Celtics would have lost in past seasons, Brandon Stanley on Drew Holliday's impact all over the court, and then Viper Vault Gaming chimes in with our third comment on a potential finals matchup. All right, let's dive in. Matt Delio, you're up first, Let's get it. He says, this is a game they lose in previous seasons, but they are battle tested and now have the vets to maintain composure and stability in those moments. I've been saying this all season long, particularly on this podcast series, that this team is different, and it's exactly what Matt Delio was saying right here. This is a game the Celtics wouldn't have won in past seasons. They wouldn't have won it. They would have made some mistake. They wouldn't have made the big play defensively, might have turned the ball over, missed some free throws. Something would have happened. Not tonight, Not tonight, Not with this team. Jason Tatum is a different player now than he was in past seasons. Jalen Brown is a different player now than he was in past seasons. Derek White has more experience than he's ever had and before he came to the Boston Celtics, Drew Holliday his addition to this team with championship experience. Al Horford is another year older. Wiser played fewer minutes this season than he's ever played with the Boston Celtics. He's ready for this playoff run. This team is different and when it comes to difficult scenarios where some teams fold and some teams overcome. What Matt is saying that the past versions of the Celtics might have folded in these scenarios. This Celtics team that won sixty four games during the regular season, that dominated at a historic level every team in the league. This team is the type that overcomes. Nothing snowballs on this team. I said it the other night on one of our SoundOff episodes. This team is different. They don't let things snowball, and as Matt said, they are battle tested and they've got the veterans to maintain composure and stability. Those are great words to use to describe this group. They are composed and they are stable in these very important moments. Like Chris Paul said before this game on ABC, those little moments are the ones that make big differences in playoff games. Well, the Celtics came up clutch and did exactly what they needed to do tonight in those key moments. Let me remind you that's exactly what they did during Game one as well. All right, next up, we got Brandon Stanley saying Drew no other words, he's the difference this year. Well, one of the differences. Great to see JT get his shot falling again. Gutsy Win loved to see it. Brandon, let's start out with your comments on Drew Holiday. You say no other notes. He's the difference this year. I couldn't agree more. Talking about what we just had in our last comment about poise composure, Drew Holliday drips both of those. He is always composed. He is always cool, calm and collected. Nothing rattles him. He is one of the people who provides this team with stability in those key moments. He was the guy during that final minute. He was the guy. He's the one who scored the driving and one layup through contact to give the Celtics their first lead at one twelve to one eleven. Since I believe that was their first lead since the very start of the second quarter, jew Holiday was the guy. Drew Holliday was the guy who grabbed the steal on Andrew Nemhard, the steal that sealed this win. Drew Holliday was the guy who went to the line with one point seven seconds left and made not one, but both free throws to make it a three point game. In make sure that the worst the Celtics would have was overtime. He was perfect during that final minute. Perfect. So, as Brandon says, there's nothing else to say about him, He's the difference this year. He is championship experience, championship know how that stuff rubs off on teammates, that permeates into the guys around him. I think when you can see him being so calm down the stretch, and this is throughout the regular season, two, it calms other guys down. I think that happened tonight as well. And yes, great to see JT get back on track with a shot. He had not been shooting great this postseason. There's no ifs ands or butts about that. But tonight he's sure as hell. Did twelve of twenty three from the field. That's over fifty two percent. He canned half of his ten three pointers. Free throw line not so great, seven of eleven, only sixty four percent there, But inclusive of everything else that he brought to the table, who cares about the free throw line? We know he's coming into this game. He was an eighty seven percent free throw shooter in these in this postseason, so I am not worried about the free throw stroke. Once he gets back going in the rest of his game, which he did tonight, that's when it's uh, oh, sorry to see you, opponent, Like life just got a whole lot more difficult with the way that Jason Tatum is shooting the ball now, so great to see him get back on track. This was a gutsy win, Brandon. This was poise, cool, calm, collected all the way across the board and has started with Drew Holliday. An unbelievable win for the Boston Celtics. All right, our last comment of the night coming in from viper Vault Gaming saying, I'm thinking they're gonna lose in the finals to the MAVs. I think they're very thankful to be up three to zero in not down two to one. Oh, viper Vault Gaming, your perspective here, I respect it. I appreciate you sending it into me tonight for me to include in sound off. But your perspective is the type of perspective that we have been hearing from all of the pundits out there on TV and radio throughout this postseason run, who always seem to find something wrong with the Celtics or Jason Tatum or Jalen Brown. But they just so happened to gloss over the exact same stuff or worse going on with other teams and other players in this postseason. And here is perfect evidence for you, viper Vault gaming. You are saying the Celtics are thankful to be up three to zero and not down two to one. I mean, did they pull a couple of games out of their hat. Absolutely, they could easily be down two to one, but they're not because they earned the wins. But you're saying this about the Celtics and that they're going to lose to the MAVs in the finals. I think that you might be I don't know, not paying much at ten to the fact that Dallas is lucky to be up to h against Minnesota. Dallas has won those two games by a combined four points. Either of those games could have gone the other way, no question about it. Luka Doncic had to hit a shot with a second left or three seconds left, whatever it was to give Dallas a win in game two. So are they lucky to be up to oh and not down two or tied one to one? How are you only looking at this from one side of the coin. Why is it always that the Celtics have something wrong but no one else does. This has been the narrative all postseason. Everyone wants to doubt the Celtics, and I get it they're doubting because of what they've seen in past seasons. But every team is its own entity. This team is completely different than the teams from seasons past. Christas Porzingis is on this team and hopefully he'll be back in the lineup soon, and Drew Holliday is on this team, and that changes everything. This team's better, it's more skilled, it's better defensively, it's got a different mindset, it's more poised, it's more composed, and it knows how to go for the kill when blood is in the water. So are the Celtics lucky to be up to one? Sure, go ahead and say that they won a couple of games that easily could have gone the other way, But don't say that while avoiding what could have happened on the other side in the West. It's not like Dallas has been dominant in these two wins. They barely won those first two games. So viper Vault Gaming, I appreciate you sending this in, but you're doing the same thing that the national media is doing, and you're only looking at one side of the coin. Take a step back, take a broader look, and understand that they're the Celtics can do good. Okay, this Celtics team can be trusted. They are seventy five and twenty on the season. I will repeat that they are seventy five and twenty. It's ridiculous and people still want to say they can't be trusted. I don't get it. I don't know if I ever will, but I'm gonna try to stay calm here. I guess I'm lucky. This is the end of the episode. Folks, thank you again for participating in sound Off. What a win for the Celtics one fourteen to one eleven over the Pacers to take a three to zero series lead, and as I reminded you earlier, I will do it again. No team in NBA history has ever come back from a three to zero deficit to win the series. So I would say the Celtics are sitting pretty right now with a potential berth into the NBA Finals in the coming week. Now, the Celtics will have a chance to punch that berth into the Finals on Monday night, that is Memorial Day folks. An eight pm tip on ESPN, the Celtics will take on the Pacers out in Indiana with one more win to punch their way into the NBA Finals again. I appreciate you all participating in sound Off again and I will see you again Monday night for another episode of sound Off. Have a great weekend, folks. Stay safe,