Picks 'n Pops: Showing off, immaturity, and a prime site for a new arena going away

Every week, I gather some thoughts about the Celtics, the NBA, and beyond and dump them here. Because it's more fun than wearing a diaper just be within a hundred feet of Ryan Seacrest. 

- The Celtics lost a first quarter for the fifth game in a row in Sacramento. The last time they won a first quarter was December 20 in Toronto. Their only loss in that stretch was in Portland, so while I’d love to yell about being better to start games, it’s hard for me to provide any evidence to support my point. 

Maybe that's what scares me most. They keep getting away with it, so maybe they’ll keep doing it until it truly burns them. 

- Neemias Queta was showing off against the Kings.

This is the best I’ve seen Queta move this season. I’m not exactly pushing for him to do more of this, but I think him taking advantage of opportunities like this is good. 

- I’ve said this before, but in-game jump balls are ridiculous. Why is it that teams can line up before a game and have a jump ball without an issue but when it happens in the middle of the game, we get pushing and shoving like the incident involving Queta and Precious Achiuwa?

That, by the way, was ridiculous. The double-tech was a cop out. Refs need to have some ability to go to the monitor to see who started the altercation. Queta didn’t deserve a tech. 

- Thank GOD for the late review to challenge Jaylen Brown’s sixth foul. Watching a game officiated by Bill Kennedy without any reviews is like going to a concert where they don’t play your favorite song.

After the game, Mazzulla deadpanned about the challenge: “I really just wanted to hear Billy Kennedy because he does a great challenge. We were going to do it anyway just to hear him deliver the challenge.” 

I’m begging all other media outlets to understand that Mazzulla was joking here. Any serious headline suggesting this quote to be serious should be mocked incessantly. 

- Anfernee Simons second quarter was almost as important as Derrick White’s fourth. Both scored 14 points and each of them came at critical times. Boston needed everything Simons was doing to hold off a hot-shooting Kings team. If Simons didn’t have that second quarter, White might not have even been in the game in the fourth. 

As I always say, clutch basketball doesn’t always happen in the fourth quarter.

- Mazzulla on White’s fourth quarter: “He had five assists in the first half, so he was doing a great job play-making out of (early struggles). He missed some easy ones, and the biggest thing about that is he doesn’t let the misses discourage him. He continues to play defense, he continues to shoot, continues to stay aggressive.”

- Payton Pritchard made two great plays to put that Kings game away. First, nailing what’s become a signature 12-foot jumper

And then using the step-through to get Queta a dunk. 

Pritchard’s dribbling and footwork make him truly slump-proof. Even if his 3-point shot has abandoned him for a while, he finds his way to other spots and he can still make plays from there. 

- Mazzulla calling the use-it-or-lose-it timeout partly to berate Hugo Gonzalez for not dunking it on the break is amazing.

- Jaylen Brown was sixth in the first round of All-Star fan voting 

Brown wasn’t happy about it. 

He’s going to be a starter. I have no doubt about that. in the meantime, my PR advice to him will be to let every round of the voting come out first before tweeting your disdain for the process. It might self-correct, and if it does, you just look silly. 

- For some reason, my search for Celtics postgame photos consistently captures Pritchard crouching. 

Maybe instead of throwing out the first pitch at a Sox game next season, he can catch one since he likes being in the crouch that much. 

- Brian Scalabrine’s “WHAT THE HELL?” call on Walter Clayton Jr’s dunk is an all-time hilarious call. 

No one in the building expected that dunk. 

- Anthony Edwards is 24 years old, but he’s still a child. 

Chris Finch pulled his starter when they were down 29 with about eight minutes to go in the fourth. Edwards wasn’t happy. 

This is crap. If you didn’t like it, then you shouldn’t have been down 29 to the freakin’ Hawks at that point. The immaturity Edwards constantly displays in Minnesota is part of why the Timberwolves can’t reach the next level. 

Edwards might be competitive and might want to win, but not at the expense of himself. He’s part of the Joel Embiid All-Stars … immensely talented future Hall of Famers who only care about looking good, and being the focal point of everything. He’s on a path of being close but not close enough, and then maybe winning a ring when he’s a 35-year-old “veteran presence” in an eighth-man role. 

- Nikola Jokić’s injury will mean he likely misses the 65-game threshold for postseason awards. I didn’t see anyone complaining about the 65-game limit during other injuries, but suddenly Jokic’s makes the rule a problem. 

I’m willing to discuss the merits of the 65-game rule, but we have to have some number that disqualifies players. Even if it’s not their fault, the amount of games a player plays has to matter for something. So if you want to set it at 60, then that's fine. That's 73% of the season. You can make it 58 games for 70% of the season. But it has to be set somewhere. 

If there isn’t a rule, then media members will make up their own, and we’re a bunch of creative people who can twist a lot of logic however we want to make an argument. Too many of us are too good with arguments to justify almost anything, so the last thing we need is someone with a vote to write the piece of how 50% of Jokic is still better than 100% of other players. 

This is also why I’m happy I don’t have a vote. I don’t want my opinion to be tied to anyone’s money or legacy. It’s not worth it to me. 

- Jokic started the week by getting a postgame haircut before he met the media. 

That's hilarious, but I hope it doesn’t start a trend. I already wait long enough for Jayson Tatum as it is. I don’t need an hour to turn into 90 minutes because he’s getting a line up. 

- Denver is in trouble, by the way. Jokic is out four weeks and now Jonas Valanciunus is out four weeks due to a calf strain. They might be a play-in team before these guys are healthy. 

- People being upset that they won’t be able to vote for Jokic this year should make the concept of “voter fatigue” embarrassing. Jokic should have been the MVP in 2023, but too many people were hellbent against giving him three in a row. So voters took one of his away already and now they're upset because they're ready to give him another one. 

It’s not a voter’s job to have fatigue when it comes to awards. It’s a reporter’s job to have amnesia about past awards and document who just had the best season. That's it, period, full stop. 

- No team in the NBA should trade for Anthony Davis. He’s due $58.4 million next season and $62.7 million (player option) the following season, when he’ll be 34. And he supposedly wants an extension? 

No way. Not in this economy. 

There is one hard rule in the second apron era: You can’t whiff on big contracts. Bringing Davis in is a giant whiff on a big contract. 

- All these years people called me a Trae Young hater. Now people are coming around to what I’ve been saying all along. The line for apologies will form to the right. 

- Can I pay Bill Kennedy to be my Waze voice?

- A proposed stadium for the New England Revolution just took a big step forward this week, meaning a new facility in Everett is moving forward. There are still hurdles to clear, but it’s a move in the right direction for the Kraft family. 

It also takes away a potential site for any new Celtics arena. 

I’ve never thought it was going to happen anyway. I think Bill Chisholm is going to want to stay right where he is. At this point, they’d have to get incredibly creative to put a new area in that area. 

Is the Tip O’Neill Federal Building for sale?  

 - What’s up with the Kawhi Leonard renaissance? Here are his last five scoring outputs: 45, 33, 55, 28, 41. If there's any good news here it’s that he might be on a “massive scoring every other night” pattern, which would mean he’s due for a normal night against Boston on Saturday. 

Either way, I think it’s pretty clear he’s having the Best Week Ever. 

- Here’s my latest podcast, if you’re bored.