Havlicek Stole the Pod NBA Basketball Podcast

The rivalry between the Boston Celtics and the Los Angeles Lakers is one of the oldest and most celebrated in all of sport, and for good reason. Somehow, nearly seven decades into the heated competition for dominance in greatness between the two storied franchise, the tally remains at a tie after the Lakers' most recent title, with each club now at 17 titles each.

This Friday, Nov. 19, the two teams will meet again on the Celtics' home court of TD Garden, but this time around the two teams will not exactly be arriving at the tilt in the best of shape in terms of records, with each club struggling a bit early in the 2021-22 NBA season.

On this episode of the CLNS Media podcast "Celtics Lab," your usual hosts of Cameron Tabatabaie, Alex Goldberg, and Justin Quinn are joined by special guest Anthony Irwin of Silver Screen and Roll and the "Locked on Lakers" podcast to talk about what's behind each club's slow start, and what we can expect to see Friday among several other topics. 

If you're of the ilk with tribalistic hatred for all things purple and gold, this might not be the pod for you, but if you want an honest look at both clubs as they are this season, hit play on the clip embedded above.

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When it comes to using analytics to get a fresh perspective on things, there are few in the game with a better angle on that than The Athletic's Seth Partnow. Former Head of Basketball Research for the Milwaukee Bucks and recent author of the new book "The Midrange Theory: Basketball's Evolution in the Age of Analytics" (pre-order it here!), Partnow joined your usual hosts Alex Goldberg, Cameron Tabatabaie, and Justin Quinn on the most recent edition of the CLNS Media podcast "Celtics Lab" to talk about his new book and all things analytics.

Get ready to have some of your assumptions about this team, its coaching, and even some especially contentious recently rumored trade proposals challenged on one of our favorite pods in recent memory.

If you are a regular listener to the Celtics Lab, it's clear you love the team, basketball, and quite possibly both, and we have met very few people who enjoy talking hoops more than Partnow.

Check out the clip embedded above to hear everything from what we expected out of Robert Williams III in the new Celtics offense to why some triple-doubles (we see you, Magic Johnson) are more meaningful than others.

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Against the Washington Wizards on October 30, the Boston Celtics flirted with a historically bad shooting night, hitting just 7.7% of their 3-pointers, making just 2 out of 26 attempts. One of their best marksmen from deep, Jayson Tatum, is shooting under 30% from 3-point range and veterans Marcus Smart and Al Horford are both having a rough shooting start as either have had in years -- if not ever.

At the same time, the team isn't playing two of their best young shooters under new head coach Ime Udoka and have only won two of their seven games. Could there be a connection? Or are the team's woes a product of more complicated issues?

To this end, on this episode of the "Celtics Lab" podcast, we brought on Roger Galo of the Galo Shot-Making Method (and former shooting coach for Celtics alum Brad Wanamaker) to see if one of the more glaring issues affecting the team this season might be a main or major factor. 

Your usual hosts Cameron Tabatabaie, Justin Quinn, and Alex Goldberg also explore what else might ail the Celtics, as well as getting caught up with some other news pertinent to the team.

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It isn't often that an NBA Finals MVP writes a book detailing a behind-the-scenes view of their career at the highest level of competition in the best basketball league in the world, but Celtics Hall of Fame forward Cedric Maxwell has done as much in his new book "If These Walls Could Talk: Boston Celtics: Stories from the Boston Celtics Sideline, Locker Room, and Press Box."

It's rarer still when said Hall of Famer sits down with you for a personal account into that slice of NBA and Celtics history. And on this most recent episode of the Celtics Lab, hosts Cameron Tabatabaie, Alex Goldberg, and Justin Quinn were thus graced for an episode you truly don't want to miss.

Cornbread -- as Maxwell is called -- was the bridge between two eras of title contention in the mid-1970s and 1980s, with scores of tales to tell about the franchise's life cycle while he helped raise Boston back to title town status with the arrival of Larry Bird, Kevin McHale, Robert Parish, and Danny Ainge in the first years of a new decade.

We also talk about some more contemporary issues ranging from the rising stars of the Jays to the confusing fit of the Los Angeles Lakers -- and how in a lot of these situations history is rhyming -- if not repeating itself, to perhaps paraphrase Samuel Clemens.

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Fans of the Boston Celtics hope their team avoids the COVID-19 travails of last season, and many might have been surprised to hear the two vice presidents in the NBA's Player's Association referring to the vaccine as a "personal choice" as controversy over local mandates churned around the league.

Why wouldn't a union whose job it is to act in the best interests of its players, their health, and their ability to play in games automatically support vaccine mandates? At the Celtics Lab, we decided to wrap up our offseason programming looking into the dynamics of how such a situation might have come to be by talking with friend of the podcast N. Jeremi Duru, professor and published expert on professional sports unions.

He joins your usual hosts Cam Tabatabaie, Alex Goldberg, and Justin Quinn as they try to understand how collective bargaining and public health work together in today's NBA.

We of course also cover the news of the week, say goodbye to some camp invitees, and try to make sense of Boston's waiving of Jabari Parker just hours before he was brought back and more.

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Much of the conversation ahead of the 2021-22 NBA season circulating in the NBA media has revolved around something that isn't necessarily a basketball conversation, though it has pervaded virtually all aspects of contemporary life. We are of course talking about COVID-19 vaccination in the league, and in particular some especially vaccine-resistant players who occupy positions of considerable influence.

But rather than making the story about those individuals, the hosts of the "Celtics Lab" podcast Justin Quinn, Cam Tabatabaie, and Alex Goldberg dug deep in the hopes of re-setting the narratives a bit surrounding how we should engage those persons and the issue of vaccine hesitancy (and more pernicious anti-vaccine sentiments) in society more generally.

It can be hard for some of us in the media to see Kyrie Irving, LeBron James, and others resistant to making choices for the common good, but a steady stream of fan and media ire is almost certainly going to do little to change their minds on how they can best use their platforms (and bodies) to make us all safer (and teams perhaps more successful) in the midst of a pandemic. 

To that end, we were incredibly lucky to have Andy Slavitt of the "In the Bubble with Andy Slavitt" podcast to talk on the intersection of public health in an era of COVID-19, the NBA and society at large. Andy has worked with the last three presidents on issues of public health, most recently serving as President Biden's COVID-19 advisor.

We hope you find this podcast as informative and helpful in coping with and making progress on this viral scourge affecting all of our lives as we did.

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The Boston Celtics have played their first game of their 2021-22 preseason slate, giving fans around the world their annual first taste of mostly meaningless games to over-react to. And far be it from us at the "Celtics Lab" podcast to miss out on such cherished annual festivities.

To that end, we brought on a special guest, Chris Forsberg of NBC Sports Boston, to try to predict what sort of a team we're going to see in the 2021-22 season based on lineups and rotations we may see little or even none of during the regular season. We also try our best to prognosticate the season from standings at the end of the season, hardware, and more.

In the podcast's 69th episode (nice!) as the Celtics Lab, we dive as deep as ever with Chris into everything Celtics basketball with a dash of Red Sox aversion and even some hair care tips.

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Along with most of the NBA on Monday, the Boston Celtics held their annual Media Day proceedings. And like most of the other teams, there was a lot of hope and good vibes inflected with a tinge of controversy as the league's vaccination status became a topic of conversation touching almost every franchise in some way.

The Celtics as a team were without head coach Ime Udoka -- absent to isolate after an asymptomatic case of the viral malady in question -- but had plenty to say about new expectations, new roles, new faces and new challenges to come along with the arrival of the 2021-22 NBA season.

On this episode of the "Celtics Lab" podcast, your usual hosts Alex Goldberg, Justin Quinn, and Cameron Tabatabaie have plenty to say about all of the above, balancing our excitement against our disappointment in areas you can probably already divine.

 Get your bearings on the season to come with our assessment of the annual season kick-off event, with Boston's preseason set to start in a little less than a week.

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Less than a week away from training camp, we find ourselves about as anxious for Boston Celtics basketball as we have been since the pandemic hiatus, chasing after whispers of potential star trade target disgruntlement and arguing over meaningless player rankings. But for many, visiting an NBA arena or even watching a game on television is a luxury beyond the usual reach.

A significant number of Celtics (and sports more generally) fans are disabled in ways that make enjoying and participating in sport a serious or even insuperable challenge without the help of teams and their arenas to accommodate those people. The Celtics are among a group of professional sports organizations who have made the choice to do something about this, working with the Beautiful Lives organization to make sports and sporting events as accessible as possible for their fans.

In this episode of the Celtics Lab podcast, we got together with that organization's co-founder, Bryce Weiler, to talk about what Boston and other teams are doing to such an end. 

Of course, we also quibble about player rankings and opposing general managers irking their star players as you might expect -- but for this episode, we are proud to help spread the word of the great work Bryce and company have been up to.

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With news that the Boston Celtics might target Zach LaVine of the Chicago Bulls should Washington Wizards star guard Bradley Beal prove out of reach of the Celtics, the hosts of the "Celtics Lab" podcast got to thinking on just how hard it is to create a true contender in the NBA right now.

With a fair amount of talent coagulated in just a handful of superteams, the pod's hosts Justin Quinn, Cameron Tabatabaie, and Alex Goldberg tried their hand at creating even vaguely plausible superteams, stretching the definition of that star-studded roster status to its limits in the process.

Join us in the depth of the NBA doldrums as we do our best to make the Celtics into a contender with imaginary trades while talking about the LaVine rumbles, some Celtics moves around the margins, the Hall of Fame, and more.

Listen to the pod embedded above to see how the Celtics might get to superteam status in every way imaginable, including trading for Zion Williamson to standing pat.

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