 Playoffs are here, Celtic still waiting to find out their first round opponent and here's the playing tournament scenario. You get Miami and Philly, they're playing Wednesday night, the winner gets the seventh seed and we'll play the next. The loser will then play the winner of the Bull's Hawks game and the winner of that gets to play the Celtics in round one. So it certainly seems like it's going to either be the sixers or the heating round, one of which concerns one sports illustrated, Chris Mannix. This first round series, it absolutely terrifies me because we both know neither Miami or Philadelphia is a typical seven-eight seed. Miami has been kind of going through the motions this year but the core of that team that went to the finals is there and they will be tough to beat. In Philadelphia, they would be a much higher seed if Joellen beat him healthy all season long. He's back, he's ready to play. That is, that has the potential to be a nightmare first round matchup for the Celtics. Tom Giles, Phil Perry, we got Cedric Maxwell joining us now. Max, how's it going? Oh great gentlemen. It is an absolute pleasure to be here tonight. Well it's a pleasure having you and as we look at the Celtics, how are you feeling because it seems like Chris Mannix was quite concerned. Get a dog big fella, get a dog if you're afraid. This team is a great team and the way they're playing right now constitutes who they are. This is a defensive team. They get things done on both ends of the floor. Yes, they had a huge lead and then they start coasting a little bit. I didn't really like that but I tell you what, when I look at this team in totality, this team really can run the table. They just have a lot of great pieces and veterans and younger players. I love that take. Get a dog if you're afraid. I'm not afraid of the heat. I know Chris Mannix is afraid of the heat. I'm sure there are plenty of people out there that are afraid of the heat on the Celtics behalf. They shouldn't be. Number one, I think the heat's time was last year. I think they're pretty much cooked this year. Pardon the pun. I also look at it, Giles, as an opportunity, if they do end up facing Miami and again, I hope they do, it's an opportunity to get over that bogeyman. Get over that hump that's in front of you. If there is anything mentally there in the Celtics' heads, face it head-on. Face your fears. Do away with them. If you lose to the heat, you weren't meant to win the finals anyway. That's fair. So see them early. Do away with them and then maybe get a little bit of momentum, a little bit of confidence that would come with the series win over a team like that. So it's interesting that the heat are keeping brought up in this situation. Philadelphia, they're 31-8 with Joel and Beatt. So they've legit had success with Joel and Beatt on the floor this year. So I can understand why that would be one where you say, you know, maybe you don't want to see Philadelphia. Now, if you end up seeing Philly, it means that they lost at home to Miami, then had to play again on Friday. And I guess the one thing you could say is that, well, Joel and Beatt, you know, he's trying to play his way back into shape right now. Exactly. Joel and Beatt is trying to get back into shape. And the thing about Joel and Beatt, if you look at him right now, those legs, knees, ankles, all these things right now, are they working together? The Celtics have played Philadelphia extremely well this year. Over the last couple of years, they've dominated Philadelphia. This team does not have any fear when I think about looking at them. And when I look at Chris Porzingus, what he brings to the table, he makes a guy like Joel and Beatt get out on the floor and have to guard people. So I like the Celtics chance to get again. Do you have a team that you prefer that they see in the first round? Well, probably Miami, because I could be down at the pool later. Selfish reasons are totally acceptable on these airwaves. Talking about the basketball team, Max. Yeah, but you know, I agree with you. I think get it over with. Get this over with when you think about playing Philadelphia. This is the team that you want to play. Get them over. Get it out the way. That boogie man that everybody's talking about, you know, meet them head on. Yeah, Gabe Vinson is not going to be like the second coming of Ray Allen again, right? He's not even on the team anymore. Caleb Martin. Caleb Martin's not going to be Jordan again. I mean, what a ridiculous series that guy had. I just don't see that happening again. I understand there's some trauma there for Celtics fans and maybe for some of the Celtics themselves. But I would welcome that matchup. Take it head on. All right. Obviously, you can join the conversation as well voting in the poll question here, which potential first round matchup concerns you the most Philly or Miami or you're not scared of either. Go to mbcsportsbossin.com slash early edition scan the QR code you see right there on the screen and scroll down to the poll. What I'm hearing is two and obviously this team finished 64 and 18. Maybe there are some fans out there that didn't like the way they finished the regular season. How did you feel about the way they finished the regular season considering they didn't have anything to play for the last couple of years? I mean, that was they did not. I mean, there was nobody to push them. They had played great all year. Were there some spots that really bothered me as rebound in the basketball? Too many second chance opportunities. But if I look at this team and what they have right now, are they built right now to win the championship? And are they building right now? I talked to Joe Missoula and one thing we were talking about, he said, I got to get this pressure off of Jason Tatum. I said, you can't do that. He said, why? I said, because there's thing called social media and he's in social media and social media is all over. My broadcast partner, Sean Grandy said, this is the greatest offensive team in the history of offensive teams. Well, during the regular season in Boston, we don't cherish regular seasons. What we do, we cherish what happens in the postseason. Is there anything that can alleviate that kind of pressure other than just winning? Nothing. Not this city. You know something? No, I don't. If you win it, then the pressure is off of you. But as long as Jason Tatum in this particular group does not win, there's more pressure because everybody right now is saying they're the front runners in this city all around the country. They will build early on as the team to be. And are they? Oh, yeah, they are. Of course they are. No, I guess maybe let me ask you this way. Are they head and shoulders that much better than everybody else? Even when you're looking at the Western Conference, you're looking at Denver. And well, you see, if you tell them I'm in the Western Conference, I'm in the finals. Yeah. And I still believe they're better than Denver because even the two games at Denver won, Denver was able to play well, but they didn't, the Celtics never really played their A game. If the Celtics played their A game against Denver, I think this is a very winnable series that they can get in. But you know the team that makes me more afraid than anybody else playing against the Celtics? The Celtics. Yeah. Getting in their own way. Getting in their own way. We had to lay out our top five biggest threats to the Celtics not winning a championship. But number one for me was the Boston Celtics. And for me, it does come back to how they handle the ends of these games. I know we both feel fine about the Celtics matching up whether it's Philly or Miami, whoever it is in the first round. But those kinds of teams are the kinds of teams that could create a close game and could create a final shot sort of opportunity. I'm wondering how you have viewed how they've handled those spots where you do get a lot of dribbling from somebody like Jason Tatum and forces a shot at the end and might not go down as opposed to running the offense that they run for. Let me let me ask you a question. 40 minutes. Like you asked them in to go, how many games have they lost? Oh, what was it? They was 18. 18. 18 is not a lot of dribbling situations that they were in. And I understand what you're talking about. Tatum had the ball and maybe moving it around. But for the most part, this team has been very diligent about making the proper reads. Derek White has had a great year. I mean, you look at down at Pritchard, stepping up the other game. Nobody said the Celtics had the bench. How's it comes off this year? This team right now from top to bottom has no weaknesses that I see other than rebounding the basketball. And that's all about part. Okay. Look at the poll question right now. 52% say that they're not losing any sleep either way. 29% say that they'd be a little concerned about the Miami Heat. Philadelphia getting 19%. Listen, as long as you listen, Peyton Pritchard had a great night the other night. I just don't want to see Peyton Pritchard guarding Jimmy Butler the way we saw last postseason. Max, I think there's a lot of, speaking of pressure and you talking to Joe Mazzulla, there's a lot of pressure on Joe Mazzulla to make sure that he's making the right call so that some of these matchups don't look the way that they did in the postseason last year. Everything about this team right now is there's pressure involved in it. And the only way you eliminate it is that you win a championship. Will Butler be involved in him? No, I don't think he'll be because you have white and right now you have holiday. So I don't think that that's the matchup that you're going to see. I'm going to tell you who's really been good. Jalen Brown has been really good stepping up guarding people defensively. What I want from Jalen though is to increase his rebound total. The other day some part in that game against the New York Knicks, he had zero rebounds. You can't be out rebounded by Josh Hart by 15 to 0. And there have been some times this year where they've been hit pretty hard on the glass. One last question is we look at this play in tournament and I mean you've got both the Lakers and the Warriors who are playing in the way. Get them out of here! But what I'm saying is the play in tournament isn't working because I love it. I think it's setting up a ton of drama this week and it's allowing two more spots to be open. Yesterday you had a ton of drama. I mean it's it's been a major hit. Yes as soon as you get the fakers out of here I'll be happy because they're at the bottom of this thing and but but I think it's good for the NBA because you have all these other teams who are involved who are going to be playing in it. The suspense is going to be good and this one and done for some of these teams right now that is going to be special.