Cedric Maxwell: Celtics will sweep Mavs Friday night
On Friday’s Toucher & Hardy program, former NBA Finals MVP Cedric Maxwell joined the show to talk Boston Celtics.
Cedric Maxwell Celtics Prediction
Parts of conversation abbreviated for clarity.
Toucher: As you call tonight’s game, if it is indeed a Celtics sweep, will Sean Grande still pretend that there is an “us against them” vibe?
Maxwell: I think Grande will be okay. You know, I do think that the Celtics will sweep the Mavericks tonight.
Human nature says that if you play a game like this and you’re down three games and you must go back to Boston, you’ll play a good first half. Have but if anything goes wrong in that second half, you’ll let go of the rope and you’ll forget about it, and you’ll think about why should we fly 3 1/2 hours back to Boston to take a beating in front of a crowd like the Celtic crowd?
Wallach: Does it matter if Porzingis plays tonight?
Maxwell: It would be nice if he did. But why are you going to do that if in fact, you’ve already won these games? I still believe the Celtics are good enough right now to beat this team without Porzingis. They just did it. And I think they’ll have another golden opportunity again tonight.
Wallach: The thing I really wanted to ask you about was Luka Doncic, who is obviously one of the best players in the league. But you played in a time when the league was much more physical. As a guy who comes from a certain generation of players, how do you feel about Luka complaining as much as he does?
Maxwell: And John, the word we use for that is called, “Bitchin’.”
I don’t like it but didn’t Magic do that all the time? You know, complain and argue. I just think there are generational players who do that stuff.
During my particular time, there would’ve been vigilante justice, and somebody would’ve taken care of that. But now this league is a lot different.
I mean, the referees have let Luka get away with plenty of stuff in this series. There were times in this series when they probably could’ve given him two or three technical fouls or thrown him out of the game. But they’ve given him a ton of leeway and it’s extraordinary.
Segment Audio
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