Inside the NBA Reacts to the Heat defeating the Celtics in Game 7 of ECF

16 for 77 the last two games. Listen, they play what we prefer to as hero ball. Game seven excited. They wanted every play to be pretty kiddy. They wanted to shoot the three. They were actually trying to get the crowd involved, but when they went zero for 10... To start the game. That should've... Actually zero for 12. Yeah, zero for 12. That should've told them... Independent of the second quarter, yeah. That should've told them, hey, settle it down. Let's get the, you know, pace the game back in our favor. Let's take high percentage shots and let's take the wide open shots. Well, there's a reason, Ernie, that it's never happened in the history of basketball. There is a difficulty of winning four straight games after losing three. So there's no room for error. There's no room for letdown. There's no room for human nature. There's no room for anything that they put themselves in. It wasn't the fact, I don't feel like... They could have a game like this, but if you played your first three games in a different manner, you're not even putting yourself in a position. There's a reason it's never happened in the history of basketball. Yeah, but, Ernie, listen, Kenny... Right, but this is the thing about the Celtics. Like we said, we never know how they're gonna play. This is one of the most inconsistent, talented teams I've ever been around. You got two guys who are all NBA. You got the defensive player of the year. You got the six-man of the year. And in the last month, since the playoffs started, a couple games, you say, what the hell happened against Atlanta? What the hell happened against the Sixers? And then you come out here, and you get down three zip with the first two games at home. Then you play two magnificent games. Then you really play three magnificent quarters. Then you try to choke game six away. I mean, I'm surprised. I'm shocked that Miami won the game, but I'm not shocked they won the game. I'm shocked they won by 20. Yeah. For the second straight postseason, the Celtics with six home losses in their gym. Wow. In a postseason. First 75 years of team history. It never happened. And they get knocked out here in the Eastern Conference Finals. That's not what you call championship caliber. You know, they tried to do it the hard way. They get accomplished. Listen, I'm not a shooter. I play with a lot of great shooters. Glenn Wright, D. Scott. And the reason why I say mix it up, this is what the great shooters I play with. D. Scott missed two shots. He's putting his head down. Kenny, you missed two shots. You're putting your head down. You're mixing it up. When my team goes 0 for 10 the first quarter, you know what I'm telling everybody? Don't shoot another three. Shoot another three, and I'm going to punch you in your face. Let's get the ball inside. Let's take high percentage. No, seriously. This is a game seven clothing game. My team is 0 for 10 in the first quarter. I'm going to the bench and say, next person shoot a three, I'm going to punch you in your face. But the one thing that disappoint me, go back and look at the entire season. I think what happens is, when you got really, really good players, you can make tough shots, but you can't survive on tough shots. You survive on open shots and layups and mid-range and things like that. Because you can get a shot. I mean, Kenny's the best shooter on this show, easily. And he knows, give me, what percentage would you shoot on wide open shots? Wide open threes, probably closer to 60, 55, 60. Contested threes, you're in the 30s. So it balances out to, if you're a good shooter, 40%. And that's the thing. And people act like, man, this is basketball. Nobody survives on tough shots. Defense, rebound, and easy shots always are going to be the way to be successful. You just can't survive. You can win some games. Question for the panel here. Because after three games of this series, when Boston was down three-love, there was talk. Is Joe Mazzullo the man for this job? He forces, or the Celtics force, a game seven. Now the question, is Joe Mazzullo the man for the job? Can I answer that first? Okay. Me and Chuck, we have a different perspective on this. You know, Chuck believes, like, for me, it's, you know, coaches, X's and O's, pregame speech. But me, as the president of the team, as the leader of the team, it's my job to get myself going. And it's my job to show the guys that, hey, this is game seven. I come to play, follow me. If you don't want to follow me, throw me the ball and get out my way. I don't really rely on, you know, coaches, coaches, coaches. I feel you always have to do it by yourself. I've always done it by myself. I've had great guys that give great speeches. Pat Riley and Phil Jackson gave great motivational speeches. But I knew coming in that, hey, I got to get it done. And I don't need them to say, come on, Chuck, get it going. I knew what I had to do to get it going. So that's just, you know, my perspective on that. For me, I think coaching is more than just motivating you. I think it's... It's more than speeches. Yeah, it's 100%. There's execution. There's thought process. The question you asked is Joe Mizzoula. Unequivocally, I think yes. Because this is his first year. He's the man for the job. It's his first year in a situation, and he's got his team to the Eastern Conference Finals, one of the four best teams in basketball. Okay. Did he make a couple of egregious plays in earlier series? Possibly. But they got through those. This series was more about monitoring, for he will learn as a coach from an outside looking in. I just feel that he will learn that when we go 0 for 12, it's also not... It's my responsibility to figure out what play to call that creates penetration and does not make us a perimeter team. That's the difference. So when you ask me what I keep shooting, I would shoot open threes. But I would think, how do I get a penetration play for Clyde Drexler, for Kim Olajuwon, Vernon Maxwell, because we're staying to perimeter. We used to call it mooning people. We're staying around the moon, and we have to figure out a way. So that's where I think Joe Mazzulla can fine-tune this, fine-tune things, and help his players be great. And they have great players. I would never say a coach should get fired. Coach Mazzulla did a good job. He made some mistakes. All coaches make mistakes. I didn't like his answer about we need to stop being less relied on the three. Me and Shaq disagree. Shaq don't think coaches are important at all. And Shaq, the reason I disagree, well, first of all, coaching is important. But the biggest problem I have with what you say is, you are a great, great player. I don't think coaches are bought in to help the best player. I think they're bought in to help the other players. Like, a guy who's great is going to always be great. But I think the one thing that Spoh does, he gives those guys so much confidence. Strews, Duncan Robinson. Caleb Martin. You can see, they play free. And Gabe Benson. They never turn down an open shot. Kenny, what can a coach do for you? He can't give you confidence. But what? But he can take it away. Yes. But my question is, when he says no about living and dying by threes, a great coach said one time, and I love listening to great coaches, because I think what they said, he says, you're not coaching it, but you're allowing it to happen. So it's your fault either way. You're either coaching it or allowing it to happen. And we sit here for the last seven games, and their strategy is, we're just going to jack up a bunch of threes. If they go in, we're going to win. If they don't go in, we're going to lose. That's not going to work, man. You've got to have a plan B. Nine for 42 from deep tonight, Boston Celtics. Fall to the Miami Heat, who are the Eastern Conference champions, heading to the NBA Finals against Denver. 103-84, Jimmy Butler, 28-7-6. Caleb Martin at 26-10. That's in the word of the night, Caleb. Chuck hyping up Shaq for vacation season. Henry.