Karalis: Random thoughts from a wild Game 4 Celtics win

CHICAGO -- Welcome to O’Hare International Airport, one of the busiest airports in the world and my home for a little while as I wait to fly back to beautiful Boston. 

Since I have a few minutes, here are a few additional thoughts from a stunning Game 4 in Milwaukee. 

- I wonder what Brett Brown was thinking watching that game last night. 

Brown and Ime Udoka were both there in Philadelphia for Horford’s year there. Udoka is here now in Boston and he seems to know how to use Horford. 

Horford was so good in Oklahoma City that they sat him down for half a season to prevent them from winning. But in Philly? 

Personally, I’m putting a lot of that blame on Joel Embiid. I don't think it’s a surprise that he’s had a few teammate relationships not work out. Either way, it must suck to be the only one of the four teams Horford has been on to not be able to figure out how to use him. 

He’s really good. He’s always been really good. 

Imagine if Philly beats Miami to get to the conference finals?

- Speaking of Horford, his sister said she knew that nodding “okay” face meant he was pissed off. Horford expanded on that on ESPN NBA Today.

That's right, Anna Horford remembered that Angry Al face from family board game night. 

Horford is too wholesome.

- This is a “Derrick White is very good” space. 

Zero baskets. Nothing. No soup for you. 

When we ask “how did the Celtics run away with Game 4 with Jaylen Brown in foul trouble, no Robert Williams, and Grant Williams essentially benched?” 

Yes, Horford’s heroics are part of the answer, but you have to include the 34 minutes from White where he also dropped 11 points on 4-6 shooting. 

“He was good. We needed that with Jaylen out,” Ime Udoka said. “As I've said all along, it's not only the scoring that stands out with what he does. It's him getting into the paint, making the right play and if he has a favorable matchup, he can get downhill and get to his floater and pull up. He took some of those easy shots tonight and it obviously helped us in the third and fourth quarter.”

- Jayson Tatum made this shot: 

(Jim Davis/The Boston Globe via Getty Images)

- Marcus Smart and Giannis Antetokounmpo got tangled up after a box out late in the game. They both crumpled to a heap as the play went down the other end. Here’s what you might not have seen. 

Here’s Smart’s explanation. 

“We go to the ground, we tangled up, I'm trying to help him up, he's doing a good job making sure I'm not getting back into the play by holding me down,” Smart said. “You can see he kicked me in my face with his foot and then when I try to help him up, like I said, he threw his hand down and then he would put his hand up to help and then he'd take it back when I would try to help. I said, 'You know what? I'm done. I'm not going to keep playing this game with you dude.’”

Giannis was so out of gas at that point that the only way he could play defense was to keep Smart in a figure four leg lock. 

- Speaking of Smart, watch him on this play: 

That's good stuff right there. That's the DPOY stuff. 

- Ime Udoka finished fourth in Coach of the Year voting, but he got more third-place votes than anyone. 

Let’s just ponder the improbability of this (even though I did make the case for him to win the award). 

Monty Williams winning was a foregone conclusion. His team was great from the beginning and I think some voters were correcting a mistake from last year. OK, fine. 

Taylor Jenkins in Memphis made sense for second place, especially when you look at their record without Ja Morant. 

Eric Spoelstra is kind of a perennial candidate, but him cobbling together a lineup of castoffs and still getting the top seed is impressive.

Then there's Udoka, whose team was 18-21 in January but still managed to find its way to the second seed. That he even worked his way into the conversation is pretty amazing, and I think it’s a precursor to him winning it next season if Boston is in the mix for a top seed. I think a start-to-finish good season will carry a lot of these votes at this time next year. It will be an acknowledgment of the job he’s done. 

And while the playoffs aren’t supposed to mean anything, you can’t tell me that a trip to the Finals, or a championship right away, won’t make some voters pick him next season, even if there are other candidates who are close. 

- Did you know a Chicago-style hot dog has a pickle spear and sliced tomatoes on it? 

Why? What led to this abomination? 

Gimme a Fenway Frank, please.