Draymond Green breaks down the Celtics' Game 1 win, praising Marcus Smart's playmaking and Defensive Player of the Year award. He warns the Nets can't sustain relying on Kyrie and Durant to dominate every night, then spotlights breakout playoff performers like Jordan Poole, Tyrese Maxey, and Jalen Brunson.
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What's up everybody? It's Draymond Green. Make sure you subscribe to the Volumes YouTube channel below so you don't miss any more of this great content going forward. The Celtics and Nets series, one game in, is by far the most exciting series of the year. Now again, we'll see where it goes from here, but between Kyrie letting them fans know exactly how he feel, Which hurt Jackson's heart because Jackson would've been in the crowd getting all of that from Kyrie. With Kyrie letting them fans know exactly how he feel while going out and scoring 39 points while doing that. That series, absolutely incredible. Who won that game? I forgot. You know, down 17 points. Come storming back because you have two of the greatest offensive players, to not only come storming back, but actually take the lead and then Boston have to fight back to eventually get the win. But let's talk about this final play for a second. Jalen Brown caught that ball and we all know Jalen Brown shooting that ball out of control. Whatever, no problem. Jalen then gets to the baseline, realize I don't have anything, spins back, settles down into the post. Beautiful. Surveys the floor, see Marcus on the left wing wide open. Skip pass, swing it. Marcus Smart shoots that shot 10 times out of 10. Leading up to this year. He's shooting that shot 12 times outta 10 leading up to this year. Marcus Smart shot fakes and drives. Jason Tatum, who goes on record saying, "I was just going to the rim to try to get a rebound," receives a pass from Marcus Smart running full speed has the body control and wherewithal to spin, know exactly where he is on the floor, have a terrible angle for the layup, actually make the layup, it catches the front rim and goes in. Basketball gods are alive and well. And what were they rewarded for? They were rewarded for Jaylen Brown not forcing up a terrible shot. That is growth for Jaylen Brown. That is the growth that has the Celtics in the position that they're in. That is the growth that had people saying, you need to split those two up because they have not, they hadn't seen it. No one has seen that growth. Kudos to Jaylen Brown. That was beautiful. Everybody thought you were shooting that ball. That was absolutely beautiful. Kudos to Marcus Smart, who I've been praising. His floor game, I mean, Marcus Smart and what he's done for that team and being the point guard. See, no one says for all these years he could have possibly been playing out of position because guess what? When we all loved Marcus Smart and him coming to the NBA, what position did Marcus Smart play? Marcus Smart was a point guard. Marcus Smart was a true point guard. Yeah. Which is what we all loved about Marcus Smart. He was a true point guard that could go score. Marcus Smart became a guy who wanted to go score and didn't really care about being a true point guard. Insert Ime Udoka, insert Draymond Green, Draymond Stoudemire, insert Aaron Miles, the point guard whisperer. Marcus Smart goes back to who Marcus Smart was, playing point guard beautifully. Whole team changes, whole season changes. And then look at the results in game 1. That's all a byproduct of Marcus Smart becoming the point guard that we all believe Marcus Smart was when he was coming into the NBA. And it's beautiful to see. Absolutely beautiful to see those young guys figuring it out with the help of OG, old head Al Horford. It is beautiful to see. Gotta give a lot of kudos to them. Now, Kyrie and KD, who are by far two of the most skilled guys in this league, by far two of the best scorers we've seen, Like they're incredible. My worry for the Brooklyn Nets is those two guys have to play so well for them to win. That's hard. Like in a playoff series, everybody's focused on these guys. That's a very hard task to play that well all the time. Yeah. But when you got those two guys, you always have a chance. And that's what we've been seeing as of late. They needed to win games down the stretch. They leaned on those two guys. They needed to win a play-in game. They leaned on those two guys. They needed to get back in Game 1. They leaned on those two guys. I think this series, number one, this should not be a first round series. It is totally unfair to the Boston Celtics. It's totally unfair to the Brooklyn Nets. That they are playing each other in the first round series. But as a fan of the game of basketball, I love it. I mean, it doesn't get much better than this in the first round. Congratulations to Marcus Smart winning the Defensive Player of the Year Award. First guard since Gary Payton. Absolutely amazing. And again, when you win, everybody wins. Everybody wins. If the Boston Celtics were still having a terrible year that they started off having when they were 22-22, 23-23, whatever it was, Marcus Smart would not be your Defense Player of the Year. So just goes to show you how important winning is. And for all those kids out there that may come across this podcast, you wanna, you're looking for a skill,— to master, you wanna go master 3-point shot? Great, by all means, go ahead. You wanna go master ball handling? By all means, be my guest. But the best skill anyone can master is winning. Because when you win, everybody wins. Awards start piling in, rings and championship trophies start piling in. When you win, money starts piling in. Everything happens when you win. So if there's one lesson I can give to my young, Listeners out there, master the art of winning. That's more important than anything. And as you can see, Marcus Smart is a testament to that. No one has talked about Marcus Smart in years as far as Defensive Player of the Year goes. They're winning, boom, first guard since Gary Payton. Absolutely incredible. I thought it was a shame that Bam Adebayo wasn't top 3. I'm not sure what Bam has to do to get in the top 3. But it was a crying, I mean, shame that he didn't make the top 3. I can go on and on about that, but I think we all know how ridiculous it is that Bam Adebayo sitting first place in the East, did not make the top 3. Absolutely terrible. Terrible. But Bam, I'm not sure what you gotta do, my brother. I think you and Joel need to sit and have a conversation and both figure out what y'all need to do. 'Cause it just don't be adding up to me, man. It don't be adding up to me. I see Bam outta Bayou. I see him switch on the 5. I see him be the catalyst to that defense, be the anchor to it. I see all of that. I see it, Bam. I appreciate your defense, my brother. I don't know what you gotta do to get some recognition for it. And you know, before we get outta here, I just wanna talk about a few guys that's caught my eyes throughout this playoff, these first few days of the playoffs. Jordan Poole, number one, as I've spoke about, Jordan Poole has been absolutely incredible. Tyrese Maxey has been absolutely incredible as well. I think he's, the way he's playing off of James, And the way he's playing off of Joel, it's great. I mean, what he's added to that team is making them a real contender. It's a huge part of the reason they've been destroying Toronto these first 2 games. Gotta give that kid a lot of credit, a lot of credit, the way he's really come along over these first couple years of his career. Gotta give him a lot of credit the way he's showing up in these playoffs. I go back to Maxie. Maxie, I've never seen a moment too big for Maxie. I remember watching Maxie as a freshman go up against my beloved Michigan State Spartans. And I think if I'm not mistaken, that game was at Madison Square Garden. This kid single-handedly beat us. I mean, he's hitting threes from like 4 or 5 steps behind the 3-point line. Like, who is this kid? Like, he single-handedly beat my Spartans. I've never seen him shrink in a moment. Another one of those guys that irrational confidence, love the moment. Gotta give Tyrese Maxey a bunch of credit. I think he's been absolutely sensational. I mean, and— He's a beast. To do that again alongside Joel Embiid, alongside James Harden, alongside Tobias Harris, you have to have some type of irrational confidence going on to just be like, yeah, I'm gonna just go do this. Like, yeah, nah, I'm gonna go take this shot. Like, I'm not looking for them. I'm gonna go. Absolutely incredible. So much props to Tyrese Maxey. Him and Jordan Poole are, if I'm just going to name two, Those are the two guys that jump out at me in their performances and what they've done. And then Kyrie Irving as well. I mean, they, it was in a losing effort in a very tough game, but Kyrie was absolutely incredible. Kyrie, the little big man with all the handles and the ratchet. I mean, he's just putting guys on, Kyrie putting guys on his hip, on his shoulder, big body, man, throwing left hand jumpers. Yeah. Jump hooks. Like, those 3 guys for me so far has been insane. It'll be fun to watch. And I'd be remiss if I didn't mention Jalen Brunson with his 41-point performance to beat the Utah Jazz sans Luka Dončić. I mean, that's— That's next level, Jalen. That's next level. Gotta give you props. The way they put— Maxi Kleber on the wing and allow Rudy Gobert to keep funneling into the paint and just kicking a 3 and he goes 8 for 11 from 3. Kudos to Maxi. You did what they put you out there to do, brother. Y'all gotta win. Hey, I'm not mad at 1-1. Yes, they were at home, but I'm not mad at 1-1. With Luka possibly returning in game 3 or game 4, that's a totally different beast for Utah to have to deal with. So I'm not mad at that at all. I think Dallas should be thrilled with the position that they're in. Sitting in right now. And you gotta give a lot of credit to Klayber and Jalen Brunson was absolutely sensational. Yeah.
