April 17, 2019 • 49 mins
Big Ben discusses the Spurs blowing it against the Nuggets, Russell Westbrook not being built for the playoffs, Maller to the Third Degree, Password: Word Game of the Stars, and more!
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Speaker 1 (00:00):
Thanks for listening to the best of the Ben Maller
Show podcast. Be sure to catch us live every weeknight
from two to six Eastern eleven pm to three am
Pacific on Fox Sports Radio and to find your local
station for the Ben Mallers Show at Fox Sports Radio
dot com. You can find it there or stream us
live every night on the iHeartRadio app by searching FSR.
(00:23):
This is the best of the Ben Maller Show on
Fox Sports Radio. What was going to be a case
of the Denver Nuggets playing the role of the pinata
and everyone who was going to get a swing at
the Denver Nuggets. But then they had they played the
rest of the game, and then and now let's remember
(00:44):
the Alamo. It's like, wait a minute, what's up with that?
That's that's like a major plot twist in all this.
We were preparing all our cheap shots at the Denver Nuggets,
and then they had to happen to win the game.
And it was a floorry, not not as impressive as
the Clippers. Don't get as many style points because a
the Nuggets were at home and b they were playing
San Antonio. It is ain't your your your old friend
(01:07):
San Antonio. It's a different san Antonio, and it was
a peptoli pepto bismal type of situation that you get
a little stomach ache there for the Spurs for thirty
six minutes. And I don't think I'm wrong in saying this.
For thirty six minutes, a san Antonio asserted their will.
They do what they wanted. But it's kind of like
(01:27):
when you you go and you park your car and
you leave the door open, you don't close the door.
There's a chance someone you might not know is going
to come into your car. And Jamal Murray the headliner
here along with Nicola Yoki who NICOLEA. Yokis came close
close to a triple doubles, a couple assists away from
a triple double. It wasn't an overwhelmingly dominating performance, but
(01:50):
Jamal Murray who was having a Kyle Lowry type of
night for the Nuggets. Like when I say Kyle, like
he first three quarters he was Kyle Lowry. He was
oh of eight from the floor, and then he ends
up scoring twenty one points on the fourth quarter. You
saw the game, you know what I'm talking about here,
(02:12):
And so getting off the Schneide which is an old term.
This guy used to work with who's now a dentist
on television, taught me that get off the schneide was
the term. But Mike Malone his first playoff win as
a coach, inspirational coach. And so now the Nuggets have
to try to win in San Antonio. Believe the last
(02:34):
time they won in San Antonio is like the nineteen
seventies or something like that. It's been a while. It's
been a while for them, and they will attempt to
regain home court advantage. These series now headed back to
Texas at one one. So let's discuss, Now, does this
game say more about the Denver Nuggets or more about
(02:56):
the San Antonio Spurs. Well, it's obviously more about this
or is the better story? Ninety nine percent of the
time unless it's the Clippers, Rams or Dodgers, is in
the losing locker room? Uh, ninety nine percent of the time.
So the answer is San Antonio. Now my thoughts here,
You've got the tsunami, intensive care and paradise, and we
will tie all these things into a nice package, and
(03:20):
we'll wrap the package, we'll put it in the in
the mailbox, and we'll send the package off. Now a uh.
The mainstream basketball media, and I consume a lot of
this mainstream basketball media. They had taught me that the
Spurs were the season team, right, that they were the
season team, that they had pop, They had the pop.
(03:41):
So you don't expect San Antonio when they get a
nineteen point lead, You don't expect them to jump on
the vomit comment. You don't expectance. But the Spurs guess what,
They jumped on the vomit comment in the in the
fourth quarter. Instead of nursing a nineteen point lead, they
went the other way. They turtled up and again, not
(04:03):
your daddy's San Antonio, Holy Tim Duncan, completely unacceptable. Again,
I got no skin in the game. And I've had
fun poking the San Antonio fan. I've enjoyed that over
the years. But Greg Popovitch unable to work his witchcraft
to stop. And when the tide turned, and the tide
(04:27):
did turn. I don't believe in momentum, but I do
believe in confidence. And then we started getting their confidence
going and the Spurs were swept out to sea in
the tsunami of Jamal Murray Baskets. Here's Greg Popovich who
used gamesmanship. I'll explain how Popovich used gamesmanship, but he
(04:49):
was very brief. Shall we say, here's here's Pop. Here's
how he sounded after the game. Were their breakdowns with
Murray defensively in the fourth or was it just a
matter of time with him? They just gotta break loose? Well,
we give up thirty eight points in the fourth quarter.
Kind of story. Tough to win a game on the
(05:11):
road in the playoffs if you're gonna give up thirty
eight points. And Paul and Jamal had a lot to
do with that. Obviously they both heard us badly. We
didn't have any answers for either one of them. You thought,
tell them going back to San Antonio with the split.
I mean, that's kind of what most road teams do
want to do in the first two correct, Sure, thank you,
(05:36):
good night, everybody. Now I'm gonna let you inside here
a little inside radio. What Pop did? All right, There's
about a ten to fifteen minute cooling off period in
an NBA game and in the playoffs and all that,
so players don't curse when they talk to the media,
and typically what happens is you get the full ten
(05:59):
fifteen there's nothing if you're a reporter covering a game.
And so what Popovich did was he circumvented the media,
who assumed they had ten fifteen minutes before they had
to go interview Popovich. He snuck in there. They were like,
you know, some intern for the Nuggets and some other
guy was in the room and that was it. And
so pop got in there. There was no media, so
(06:21):
he said, all right, any other questions, that's it. It
walked out. That's he closed the door, see you later,
I'm out of here, goodbye. All right, but wait, there's more.
So the fourth year, here's how I saw the game
San Antonio. They're not a great defensive team, but they
completely broke down in the fourth quarter, and it was
more about their incompetence then the Nuggets. Murray hit a
(06:46):
bunch of shots and it was great for him. But
Denver had been on the defensive and they became on
the offensive team and the Spurs were on their heels.
They did not finish what they had started. The closing
minutes of this game, the Denver Nuggets shot seventy three
percent in the fourth quarter. They didn't turn the ball
(07:09):
over one time. Now, if you shoot over seventy percent
and don't turn the ball over one time. That tells
you that you're playing against air. That the other team
is just it's Ola, it's bullfighter defense. It's Ola here,
you can run over there, That's what they're doing. The
Spurs came unglued in the fourth quarter. They shot the
(07:30):
ball well enough, they were able to make some baskets,
but they could not match the intensity on defense. And
one other point here, Now Popovitch got a technical foul
for disagreeing with the officials in the fourth quarter. And
I noticed when he kept saying in that little SoundBite
that we played, well, give up thirty eight points. Well, no,
the Nuggets scored thirty nine points. So he's discounting the
(07:53):
one point which he personally gave to the other team.
He's like, he kept saying thirty eight, but the Nuggets
scored thirty nine in the fourth quarter. The thirty ninth
point was compliments of Greg Popovich. All right, we know
what about the Martin Rosen. Now, I'd love to sit
here and kill the Marta Rosen because it's fun. I
remember when he was in Toronto, we did a lot
of that, had a lot of mount of monologues. It
(08:14):
was going back and forth with the Rosen and Kyle Lowry.
But De Rosen didn't suck in the fourth quarter. He didn't.
Offensively he was getting out. Defensively, he was a disaster,
But offensively he held his own. He held his own.
The problem is as far as offense is concerned. But
while he was out there, and he played most of
the quarter. While he was out there, the Spurs were
outscored by eighteen. So I guess if you do want
(08:35):
to kill him, you can kill the Marta Rosen. Here
is de Rosen who commenting on getting a win and
then a loss. So you get the old banana split
home court shifting our way. Now that's on us to
go home and do what we need to do. To understand,
if we take care of home like we've been doing
all year, we could come back here with opportunity. So
(08:57):
we feel great, Well we at we understand. You understood.
It wouldn't gonna be a cakewalk. Who's ever been to
a cake walk? Did they still have cakewalks? By the way,
I used the term too know, I'm guilty. Also, I've
never been to a cake walk. I don't even really
know what a cake walk is but I use the term.
It's like an outdated term right from the early days
of America cake walks and all that. How about a
(09:20):
bake sale? How about a bake sale? Could we change
that up to a bake sale pot luck. Let's get
different meanings to different people. But anyway, all right, but
now part me of this Jamal Murray, right, he was
insane to the membrane in the fourth quarter there, and
he was playing the first three quarters. Jamal I don't
know who he is either, Jamal Murray. Apparently he's a
basketball player. But Jamal Murray was playing like dishwater for
(09:43):
the first three quarter, you know, that disgusting dishwater with
all the food parts in there, just nasty stuff floating there.
You know, what the hell's going on? So but he
was oh of eight, that was I mentioned Kyle Lowry,
like Denver, was outscored by eighteen points with Murray on
the floor the first thirty six minutes. He didn't play
all thirty six, but then an out of body experience.
(10:04):
I don't have the star chart. That's that's our friend Andrea, right,
that's that's Virgo and service. But I don't have the
start chart, but out of body in the fourth quarter.
You talk about saving the Nuggets bacon. I didn't know
Nuggets had bacon, but that was that was ridunculous. There
a radical transformation with a very boring NBA broadcast. I
(10:25):
did not enjoy the commentators on that. I don't know,
it's dry to me. It seemed boring to me. But nonetheless,
so Murray had seven straight shots at one point, he
shot eight of nine. I believe that's eighty eight percent.
In the fourth quarter, had a couple of assists, and
Denver turned At one point they were down by seven
(10:47):
and in the fourth quarter and they flipped the script
ended up with a nine point win, a massive twelve minutes.
And to say that Denver was in the intensive care
unit when they fell behind by nineteen would be kind
of like saying Donald Trump just enjoys watching Tiger Woods
play golf a little bit and not wants to give him,
(11:09):
you know, the highest civilian honor you can give any
person in America. You know what I'm saying. It's that
kind of thing. Now, they were staring down the barrel
of a gigantic Bazuka looking back at them, you know,
not ready for Prime Time from on the ropes to
Alive and well in the span of twelve minutes and overall,
(11:31):
Denver outscored the Spurs fifty five to twenty seven the
final sixteen minutes, which would have been just mind blowing
if it hadn't been for the Clippers the night before.
But I will point out that Mike Malone or the
coach of the Spurs there, Michael Malone, he said the
inspiration was the Clippers, that they he told his team
(11:53):
when they were getting boat raised, Hey, remember the Clippers
instead of remember the Alamo. Remember the Clippers. Every team
in the NBA will use the Clippers as inspiration when
they get destroyed by thirty parts, every team. All right,
last word on this. Now, does this mean the Nuggets
are going to win this series? It does not? Now
they should? Right? Was this a fluke? Was this a
(12:15):
one off? Or has a sleeping giant awoke? And Denver
did finish with the number two seed in the West.
Now I am not all in on the Denver Nuggets.
I am not. I do not believe they have a
shot to win the Western Conference. Now. Nevertheless, they should
beat the Spurs and they're in the right part of
the bracket, right, They're in the right part of the
(12:37):
bracket because you look at the upper part. Assuming the
Warriors don't continue to allow the Clippers to assert their
will and the Warriors come back, you're looking at Houston
and Golden State and one half of the bracket in
the West. The other half will be the winner of
San Antonio and Denver and they will play Portland. So
(12:57):
whoever wins in this, you gotta you gotta a clear
path to the Western Conference finals. You do, so, you
know it's setting up pretty good there. But I'm not
all in on the Nuggets yet. They should win because
they have better basketball players in the Spurs and all
that stuff. And I guess we don't have to hear
about the pedigree of the San Antonio Spurs until the
(13:19):
next game. But the defensive malfunctions, low grade effort that
side of the ball in the fourth quarter, a lot
of inaccuracy, now mean one. This is an underdog better's paradise.
It is the zigzag theory. And if you're a degenerate
and you're a gambler over the years, you know that.
(13:40):
In most team sports, but in the NBA in particular,
in a series format which we have in North America.
You typically whoever wins the first game you go the
other way. It's called the zigzag theory, right, zig zag theory.
It's a betting philosophy and it's an underdog. Better's paradise.
So far, it's all sample size. But team covers game one,
(14:04):
game two, the same team that covered game one doesn't
cover game two. It's four opportunities. And it was four
and oh up until I Portland did cover, so it
was four and one now so four four and one,
which is still an eighty percent win. Thought, that's pretty good, right,
that's pretty good. All right, Ben Maller Show on Fox.
(14:26):
We say hello to Edmund Dallas, Team Boat, Willie, Judas,
Solid Gold Guarcia. We also have another boo controversy, a
boom yes controversy, Another boo controversy. What was the first
book controversy? Well, these things pop up, Eddie. But in
(14:47):
the NBA playoffs last night, the boo controversy, Eddie involves
the Denver Nugget fan who was sarenading Will Barton. He's
a basketball player, Eddie, thank you. They were Sarah nating
Will Barton with boo boo boo. Why why is that
a problem. Isn't that that happens at all? Spot Yeah,
(15:08):
well he went one for ten from the final. But
here's the Yeah, exactly so. But NICOLEE Yokich these athletes happy.
He was not happy. Yok said nugget fans should not boo.
Will Barton very upset. I I was raised boo his
(15:29):
non booing statement. You celebrate great performance athletically, and you
boo poor performance. I think it's very simple. This is
not brain surgery. We're a bunch of idiots that watch
sports for a living. It's not that hard. Okay, when
someone does well, we cheer when they don't do well.
It doesn't matter what kind of laundry they're wearing. You
boo boo. I remember booing that performances at school, and
(15:49):
that was a no no oh yeah, but teachers get offended.
But yeah, oh there's no boo. Only cheering those teachers
when you were a kid, even in your day. Yeah,
I know I could see these these days for it's
like talking about late eighties. Yeah wow, yeah, the whole
booth thing. This comes it's beyond me. But yeah, they
this younger generation was raised differently than I. I was
(16:11):
raised to enjoy the boo too if you get but no,
even if you're a player. I always thought like as
a problem enjoy well no, but if you But here's
the thing to turn it around. Like, I think there's
there's two types of athletes, right the kind that loves
to play on the road hostile environment. Everyone's out to
get him and they you know, saying nasty stuff to him.
And then there's the type that needs positive reinforcement. We
(16:33):
I feel like the pendulum has swung here and we
are in an era where it's a very small percentage
of athlete that feed off the negativity and the boo
and like to go into a hostile situation. It's much
more I like the positivity. I need to be celebrated
and patted on the back, and it's annoying. Kobe wasn't
(16:53):
like that. Well yeah, but he's not from this generation.
I'm saying like today, you know, it's the the guys today,
it's uh, do we have Yoki just to prove I'm
not lying, Eddie, And we have it. The editing department
did a find job. Cooper Loop dug it up. So
here's Nicole Kid standing by. I'm a very positive person.
That standing by you're the negative one. You remember that.
(17:14):
H Here is Yoki standing by Will Barton, his teammate. Yeah,
all right, that's something I didn't like. I traveled to
say something, Eddie, don't like that took crowds and fans
and boo, thrill, th distant disorganization. He was injured if
(17:38):
he's finding his dams, but if he come back. I
didn't understand one word, Eddie. The reason we played that
is because we had it and he said, I don't
like the boo, and he also started making excuses. He
said he was injured, he's finding his rhythm. Oh you
(17:59):
got we actually now you guys are you guys are
just not cultured? You know, don't you don't understand accent?
I understand the mumbling, okay for the foreign accent of Nicole. Now,
we actually had Tammy and Montana holding a boom mic
from Montana and that's how we recorded that. It actually
was recorded from the furthest reporter from him. Yeah. I
(18:22):
think it was just on the Colorado border. I believe
just on the Colorado border. And so they're the Magical
Magical Radio. Be sure to catch live editions of the
ben Maller Show weekdays at two am Eastern eleven pm
Pacific on Fox Sports Radio and the iHeartRadio app. So
the Oklahoma City Thunder with two all stars, two top
(18:45):
ten players or so they say, Paul George and Russell Westbrook,
and they are in need of some hydration. They are
in a bad spot. If you saw the Blazers and
the Thunder game, which was the Tale of Two Halves?
I think did Shakespeare right that back in the day
of the Tale of two Halves? Was that a Shakespearean line?
(19:07):
Because in the first half the Thunder had pretty good
control of the game, pretty good control. They led by
as many as ten. The Blazers came back, they were
able to tie the game at halftime. So the game
was tied up at fifty four. But in the first half,
Paul George sixteen points, he had five rebounds, couple of assists.
(19:29):
There pretty good numbers. Now Westbrook was bad, Russell Westbrook
was bad in the first half. But it's what happened
in the second half of a tie game of not
a must win because you're still you know, down two
games now, not the worst of the worst situation, but
a game where if you win the game as Oklahoma City,
you're in much better shape. The advantage of being the
(19:52):
road team is you you're playing with house money here.
You don't have to win, but it certainly helps your
cause when you do win. At some point, the Thunder,
if they intend to win this series, we're gonna have
to win in Portland. But in the second half, this
was a curb stomping by the Portland Trail Blazers, outscoring
the Thunder by twenty sixty to forty. Oklahoma City, with
(20:16):
two All Star ballplayers, scored forty points in the second
half of a game where they had playoff game. You
can't lose that down two games to know, they shot
thirty six percent in the second half and Russell Westbrook
a biblically bad shooting performance. And in the second half,
the Thunder, who were outscored by twenty when Westbrook was
(20:37):
on the court, were outscored by twenty one points with
him on the court. And it was a clinic by CJ.
McCullum and Damian Lillard the backcourt of the Blazers. In
the second half, those guys scored thirty points combined. Remember,
the Thunder as a team scored forty all the different
(20:57):
guys on the Thunder collectively ended up scoring a total
of forty points. So the dust has settled and the
Blazers get a one fourteen to ninety four when they
Thunder have yet to crack one hundred points in these
two games in this particular series against the Portland Trail Blazers,
and a dominating performance there out working out hustling the Thunder.
(21:23):
The Blazers certainly did that. And I understand, I don't
know if we have this sound here, but Russell Westbrook.
I'm reading some of these quotes here from Russell Westbrook,
and he attempted. He said, I take full responsibility for
the loss. He called his play unacceptable while wearing a
funny hat, which I always get a kick out of
(21:43):
it because he always addressed like clown and he has
he's the funny hat on and the glasses usually and
he addresses the media. But the reason I thought this
Russell Westbrook quote was the money quote was the fact
that he said similar things last year. This is right
out of Russell Westbrook's play. But buy the books. Say
(22:04):
when he's not saying next question, when he's not doing
that because he doesn't like one of the reporters. Westbrook
comes back and he says all the things you're supposed
to say, but he doesn't generally back them up. Doesn't
normally work that way. Uh, here's Billy Donovan. We don't
have Westbrook when we have Billy Donovan. Here, here's Donovan commenting.
I guess he's the coach, and really he's just like
(22:25):
a figurehead. Here's Billy Donovan commenting on what they'll happen
there in the second half. Yep. So, um, you know,
I thought it was a really really competitive first half.
We played well. I thought it was good that we
came out in the first quarter and got off to
a much much better start than we did in Game one.
I thought the third quarter for us. Um, you know,
(22:48):
I thought our bold movement was was pretty good in
the first half. Um. I didn't think we did as
good of a job there in that third quarter. Um.
And I think our our defense labored and and obviously
those guys putting the ball on the floor. I'm bored
with this, all right. Well, anyway, so let's get to
the let's get to the meat of this, which is
(23:08):
Russell Westbrook. All right, we'll play that. The blame pie.
I love the blame pie. The question how much of
the blame does Russell Westbrook get? Now, remember the final
numbers on this a blowout game, a game that was
closed for a half. Russell Westbrook while he was on
the court, Oklahoma City was outscored by twenty seven points.
And did he get his triple double? No, he was
(23:29):
one rebound away from his beloved triple double. Westbrook also
had six turnovers. And this continues a pattern for Russell
Westbrook in the playoffs. But if you're gonna assign the blame, pie,
I'm gonna give Russell. I hope he's hungry. I'm giving
him ninety percent, ninety percent of the blame here, all right,
(23:49):
ninety percent. Now, just to prove that I didn't make
up what I thought I saw, Russell Westbrook said. Here
is the SoundBite I'm referring to. This is Westbrook being
the good cops, saying all the right things about how
I even mistakes happened. Like listen to Westbrook here own it,
trying to own it. And they won their first two
home games. Um, obviously we wanted to try to stay
(24:10):
on we can, but UM's just stay with it. Um,
We're a great basketball team. M not a great guys
on the team that I trusting. Ability is to make shots,
to make plays on both sides of the other basketball
and we'll be all right. You know. I start with myself. Um,
I gotta play better, Um, and tonight the loss I'm
gonna take full responsibility of of tonight because the way
(24:35):
I played was unacceptable. And I'm gonna be better. So
I'm not worried one bit. My job is to make
sure I can see to come out and um, you know,
will and league our guys and make sure we have
a chance to win the game. All right. So he's
not worried. He should be worried. He should be very worried,
is what he should be. Now. My thoughts on the thunder.
You've got the Easter Bunny, the stripper, and the zebra,
(24:58):
all right, those three things. Knowing that has this all
right now? First of all, when I see Westbrook play
a game like this to meet this coroboration, it's verification
of what I have said about Westbrook for years. He
is the king of the empty stats. It's Easter Week
in America, and a tradition on Easter Week is the
(25:19):
chocolate Bunny which is the hollow chocolate bunny, all right.
Russell Westbrook is the chocolate bunny that you think is
solid milk chocolate and you get it and you realize
it's hollow, and you're like, wait a minute, what's up
with daddy? Looks so good, but it's it's hollow, right.
All that glitters is not gold and all that stuff.
(25:39):
But from a wins and losses standpoint, you look at
Westbrook and the way the thunder have put this together,
and yeah, they've got Paul George and you play the
yeah but yeah, but yeah, but what about this? What
about that? The team is so top heavy and Russell
Westbrook the devil's really in the details because Russell Westbrook
has carte blanche here and it doesn't get talked about
(26:00):
as much because he's in Oklahoma City. But the way
he plays is untenable in terms of winning playoff basketball.
And I think that's been proven out in the last
couple of years. And when I say he's got free
rein here, nobody, not Billy Donovan, not anybody can can say, hey,
maybe we should try something else. This is not really
(26:23):
working so well, you know. And he's the god of
the zombie statistics is what Russell Westbrook is. And to
the dumb fan, to the to the uneducated fan, they
look at westbrook stats and they say, I can't believe it.
He's just great. He's the greatest thing ever. But then
when you peel back the curtain, you're like, wait a minute.
In fact, I saw one of the statnards over the
(26:44):
Bleacher Report. They had the numbers. Russell Westbrook during the
last two postseasons has shot less than thirty nine percent.
He's attempted almost twenty five field goals per game and
turn the ball over by himself over five times per game.
(27:04):
And in the last eight playoff games, go back to
last year and this year, the last eight playoff games,
Oklahoma City while Russell Westbrook has been on the court
has been outscored by seventy three points with Russell Westbrook.
But what about the statistics? What about the triple doubles?
What about this? What about that? It's what about is? Right?
(27:26):
Keep in mind the number here and it's an amazing number.
It's a shocking number. Right, Oklahoma City outscored by seventy
three points in the three hundred ten playoff minutes in
the eight games Westbrook has played, and in the rest
it's plus twenty two, So plus twenty two without him.
But in the minutes he's played, they're outscored by seventy
(27:48):
three points. Now you can say, well, yeah, but he's
out of the game. It's a blowout, it's garbage time.
You can make that argument. Now. The second thing here,
back to Russell Westbrooks commentary. We played the sound bite
and he walked through all of the key things there.
You're supposed to say, buy the book, right, full responsibility,
unacceptable and all that. This is what's known as lip service.
(28:10):
All right, That's that's the term of his lip service.
And Westbrook when he's again not getting angry and saying
and our next question with reporters, he says a lot
of these kind of things. I remember last year against
the Utah Jazz when Ricky Rubio of all people, was
messing with the mojo, when Ricky Rubio was goofing with
Russell Westbrook, and he said, paraphrasing, he said, oh, I'm
(28:33):
not worried about Rubio. I'll be fine. He never was fine.
He was never fine. And you know, the words sound good,
but actions matter. And even though CJ. McCullum was the
rock star for the Blazers in the second half of
this game, and you know, the numbers were pretty similar
to Lillard. Lillard didn't shoot as well as CJ. McCullum,
(28:56):
but was better from three point range and all that stuff.
But if you had to choose between Damian Lillard and
Russell Westbrook, who would you rather have? I would rather
have Damian Lillard. I'm not being just reactionary based on
this game. To me, Damian Lillard played just as hard
as Westbrook. But in the offense. It is not that
(29:19):
the Blazers are gonna win a championship, because they're not.
But you have a better opportunity with the way Russell
Westbrook compared to Westbrook, the way that Damian Lillard plays
right and Westbrook, I get that he's stubborn, I'm stubborn.
I love the fact that he keeps taking egregious shots
and he won't stop. He doesn't make many of them,
(29:39):
but he keeps taking them. And from an XS and
O standpoint, you don't have to be an NBA head
coach to know if I'm going against a Westbrook team,
the way Oklahoma City plays right now, you know what
I do. I take a page years ago, about twenty
years ago. These strip clubs in Tampa they put a
(29:59):
rule then, the six foot rule, and it was it
was a famous story. My good friend Tony Bruno, he
used to work here. He had a field day with
that back in the day. But they put the six
foot rule in at the strip clubs in Tampa where
no adult performer could be within six feet of any
of the customers because they banned the lap dances and
(30:20):
all that. So if I'm coaching against Oklahoma City, I
would put the Tampa, the old school Tampa strip club
rule in six foot. I would say, don't get within
six feet of Russell Westbrook. Let him shoot, let him shoot, shoot, shoot, choot,
chhoot shoot. That's what I would tell him to do.
All right, last thing on this now, So where are
we at? All right? You say, well, the series doesn't
(30:41):
start until the road team wins a game or the
home team loses vice versa or whatever. Yeah, and certainly
Oklahoma City a figure. They're gonna come back, and they're
gonna have an opportunity in Game three to stick the
dagger to the to the Plazers, Blazzers to me, Portland
as to show that they can play like that on
the road. Now they could still win the series. They
have home court, they can win the series not playing
well on the road. They could certainly do that. And
(31:05):
for Oklahoma City they have the herculean task. And Billy
Donovan is instead of blaming Westbrook and his terrible play,
that the interweb and the reaction is like, blame Billy Donovan,
Blame Billy Dunn. And but then it's it's a poor
man's lebron where Westbrook does whatever he wants. He's got
free reign to do what he wants. And there's no
(31:27):
real vaccine here. And it's the old tale we learned
as kids about the zebra. Right as zebra can't change
its stripes, so do we expect the Oklahoma City Thunder
in game three of a playoff series to change the strategy,
to twist things around and say, hey, Westbrook, maybe you know,
(31:48):
instead of taking twenty shots, how about you take I
don't know, seven or eight, how about that? Just give
give a shot. I mean, some of these other guys
maybe they can score two. How about that? All right?
Spell As on Fox, we say a load to Edmund
Dallas Steam boat, Willie Judas solid gold guards see it.
(32:10):
They had a great night last night, I mean a
good night. More disappointed. I mean it's you have to
take a step back. I guess tonight. You know we
had no crazy, can't take no crazy and Callack probably
won't have any breaking news in the NFL tonight. It's
a big day. A schedule schedule talking about big day,
Eddie schedule, but not during our shift. Could happen. Maybe
(32:32):
somebody will link the schedule online overnight we'll get the schedule.
Could happen. Yeah, but the schedule is not going to
you know, tweet out, you know, laying in bed with
even the schedule, right, I mean, Eddie, though you and
your wife travel, you go on these pilgrimages with the charge. Yeah,
you know, it's funny you say that. I have a
I have a source at the NFL network that told
(32:55):
me that told me he would get me these Steelers
and Chargers schedule early. Yeah, so that we could hit
you know, get the hotel reservations before the jack up
the price. It's a good job he has not come through.
He still got time thoughs not till the evening time
on Wednesday. The clock is ticket, but you'd have to
(33:15):
jump on your favorite travel website, yeah and go quickly. Yeah,
so that is a competitive advantage. If you work at
state run NFL media, you have an advantage because he
took advantage of it last year. He's a Patriots vanity.
He went to a Patriots game. So the real boss
move would be to buy a bunch of hotel rooms
and then give them out to people at a you know,
(33:36):
not a higher rate than you paid for it, but
still lower than the hotel would would typically chart. Well,
that would that would be an interesting move. Yeah, it's
not quite the same as you know, like reselling a
ticket or something. Yeah, you can do it, though there's
ways you can put it off. Yeah, all right, it's
been out the show on Fox. If you want to
(33:57):
be part here, the number is eight seven seven eight
nine on Fox eight seven seven nine nine six six
three six nine. So had the Denver Nuggets come back
and win, and you also had in addition to that,
as we just talked about the Portland Trailblazers holding serve
and dominating more impressive, hell cares about the Denver Nuggets.
(34:21):
One guy in Denver, I want to point out I
did a nugget monologue last hour and not a single
call from Denver. Weren't a major sports talk radio station
in Denver, A well listened to sports talk radio station
in the Mile High City. I have had emails from idiots,
why don't you talk about the Denver Nuggets. I finally
talked about the Denver Nuggets, and I am greeted with
(34:42):
crickets is what I'm greeted with. All Right, to the
phones we go. Let's say hello to the clone. Who's
in Fresno? Hello? Clone? Well he said it said before
he came on, right, does it matter? You're in the
magic radio box? Does it matter? Really? Is my radio cool?
(35:06):
I'm too loud? The hell was that Fresno? Eddie? It's
your guy, Y, Come on five freds Noo in the
house in the hissy. That's the Fresno right there. It
was disappointing. It's sad, sad. Guy Trucker Tony is in Chicago.
(35:30):
Hello Trucker Tony. Yeah, let me go outside the washroom
again the last time I called that. You're going to
the washroom. Wait a minute, you're in a truck. You
gotta you gotta, you gotta washing machine. You got a
washing machine in your truck? What's up? It's baller right there?
(35:50):
What kind of what kind of truck is that like?
Is that like a mobile home type situation? It ain't
even out yet. I'm the only one. And then okay,
what the hell's going on? He is in the washroom, Eddie.
He's in the washroom, Eddie. I can hear the cansel?
I hope, I don't hear any other after? You can
hear the line in Canada. In Canada they called the
powder room? Is what they call it? There? All right?
(36:12):
What the hell's going on here? The hell is going on?
I had to call yesterday? Yeah, but how was at work?
And I'm at work again a day. But for the
sake of my comment becoming outdated and irrelevant, I must
call again a day. How dare you? How dare I?
How dare I? Yes? Why your eye? The great American
hero George Carlin yesterday with his golf reference. What it
(36:36):
was about an idiot using a stick to hit him
after you hit them with a ball a head and
not give proper clint work. Well, I am a huge
Carlin fan. I'm upset with George Carlin. He's dead. I'm
upset he died because we were denied so much great
comedy from George Carlin. But you know my George Carlin story, Tony,
(37:00):
you know my story? Right? You don't know my George
Carlin story. I just I just ran it to the
stations about eight. I'm glad you're hooked. It's a disease,
it's in your blood. But listen to me. All right,
this is a great story, Tony. So years ago, I'm
doing local radio in La. Right, local radio guy, and
this guy, George from Venice calls the couple of my shows,
(37:22):
calls some of the other shows at the station. Well,
it turns out that George from Venice was George Carlin,
the comedian. George Carlin was a sports talk radio listener
and called into a couple of different shows. And a
friend of mine, a colleague of mine, Lee Klein, became
friends with George Carlin. Right, So then I was a
huge Carlin fan, right, an old radio guy, and he
(37:43):
became this legendary stand up comedian. So then I wanted
to be friends with Carlin, but I'm friends with Lee.
So Lee, my buddy Lee kept saying we're gonna meet
where I'm gonna set up We're gonna have a dinner me,
you and Carlin. Right, I'm thinking, my god, this is
a dream come true. This is a comedy legend. And
I'm gonna have a meal with George Carlin. And and
Lee was afraid that Carlin would have liked me more
(38:04):
than him, so he kept pushing it back. And then
Carlin unfortunately died and I never met him, and I'm
still I'm still bitter about that. I paid money to
watch Carlin perform a couple of times back in the day.
And uh, yeah, so that's my Carlin used to call
sports radio. Is George from Venice. That's a true story. Yeah,
thanks for story. All right, get back to water. Make
(38:25):
sure you wash and dry properly, Tony. How I get
out of here? Tony? Yeah, Carlin, it's great. Be sure
to catch live editions of The Ben Maller Show weekdays
at two am Eastern eleven pm Pacific. It's Maller. How
about that? To the third degree? This is one big
(38:47):
band gets grilled Google. Charles Barkley has been clamoring for
Lebron James to join TNT as a guest analyst during
the playoffs for the last month or so. On Monday.
Lebron responded, saying that he does have a lot going on,
but he might take him up on his offer. Ben
the chances Lebron joins the TANT crew all right, So
this feels choreographed to me, like they've already got a deal,
(39:09):
but they're trying to play it out in the media.
I'll say the odds are minus three hundred. I think
there's a seventy five percent chance Lebron shows up in Atlanta,
and I'll tell you why. Hey, Lebron, he needs the spotlight.
He's all about it. He's an attention whore. He's in
some tropical outposts somewhere, and on his way back to
work on Space Jam, he can then stop by the
(39:29):
TNT campus there in Atlanta and have a good time
and be like Lebron. It would be very awkward. He
would be an odd foil for TNT. He takes himself
so seriously and Charles Barkley, they do the whole slapstick
vaudeville style comedy thing. It would be interesting, but it
would also likely be a train wreck. I could see
(39:52):
Shack cossing water balloons at Lebron. I don't think Lebron's
gonna handle that very well, all right. Next and when
asked about the reputation of Manny Machad late last week,
Adam Jones said that it would one hundred percent be
different if Machado were white. Ben, your thoughts, this is
more of the same. Listen Adam Jones, who's bouncing around now,
(40:12):
he's in Arizona. The first thing is he's created this
cottage industry. He believes there's this systemic racism prevalent in
baseball in twenty nineteen, has been this way for years
and years and years. That's how he sees things. And
number two, Manny Machado is the dirtiest player in baseball.
It's not my opinion, it's the opinion of his fellow
players who voted him the dirtiest player in baseball. My
(40:34):
bigger issue is his lack of hustle. And Machado is
a talented lightweight. It doesn't matter you know, a race
or anything like that. Maximum effort and hustle. It doesn't
need only athletic ability. It doesn't matter what race. Few
are right next. Now, it's worth noting that with Aaron
Rodgers and Russell Wilson getting new deals. Ben Roethlisberger is
(40:55):
on the last year of his deal and he hasn't
made a peep. You think this is a sign that
he plans to call it quits at the end of
his contracts. He's actually eating some peeps Coop. It's the
Eastern week, so he likes those bright orange, pink and
yellow and green peep steps are great. Another night, the
Steelers are They're still working on a contract extension Big Ben.
It's moving in a molasses like pace. But he's like
(41:17):
the last of the Mohicans. Everyone else has gone all
the name value guys. I say they get a deal done.
I wouldn't gi him a deal, but you don't listen
to me. Everyone's getting paid, so why wouldn't he get paid.
Everyone's getting extensions. They don't give any They give everyone
the money. There. It is Mallard to the third degree.
How did we do? Ben? You pass us a? Fox
(41:40):
Sports Radio has the best sports talk lineup in the nation.
Catch all of our shows at Fox Sports Radio dot
com and within the iHeartRadio app search f SR to
listen live. You stand out for most radio listeners. As
you can tell, we are not like those other generic
sports soccers. On The Ben Mallard Show. For better or worse,
(42:00):
we are unique. Help us stay that way by joining
our Facebook family. You can interact with other p one
friends of the show. It's harmless and it's free. You
go to Facebook dot com slash Ben Mallard Show and
I live from the Guico Fox Sports Radio Studios. It's
Ben Mallory pad password, you idiot password the word Game
(42:22):
of the Stars. Here's Ben maller hedy know where we
got it done? After passworthy Word Game the Stars. Each
every week at about this time, we played pass where.
It's welcome in our contestants for this week's matchup, it's
team competition. We say hello to kJ in Nashville. Hello,
kJ Um, actually on the live air. You're the live air.
(42:48):
It's amazing thing, kJ Man. What do you tell the
guy in Punk Satanni who knows the guy in Bieber name?
What you do for a living. I'm a truck job. Yeah,
you're like Russell Wilson. Your voice goes I like that,
your voice can go all over. I like that. All right, kJ, Well,
good luck to your hole on a sec. kJ the
big voice guy. And we've got Wendell who's in Los Angeles. Hello, Wendell,
(43:12):
Hey greeting, how's it going? What's going on? When you
can give it another? Go here? Huh yeah, well hey
one night man? Uh speaking freaking Russell Wilson. Uh. Maybe
to invest in some offensive lineman. Maybe kind of help
him out a little bit. Nah, line, he's making all
the money. Let him protect himself. He had a block
(43:34):
in addition to throw passes alight. Window is an old
bus driver. You got that bus driver voice window back
in day. All right, hold on a second window, kJ,
Who do you want to partner up with? kJ? Come on, Ben,
let's do a Let's do it me and you kJ.
We're gonna get this done. Wendell, I'm out. You can
(43:55):
play with Eddie, Cooper, Berto, anybody else. Oh, let's try Coop.
All right, don't sound excited, and I don't blame. I
don't not if you're not being not being excited? All right,
hold on window, kJ. All right, both on the air,
and now we list to words here one to ten.
If you can see the list, you're cheating and that's creepie.
(44:16):
So don't look at the list. And the way this
works here your team competition. You got to pick a
number kJ, you were on the air at first, so
please pick a number between one and ten, and that
will be there's a word next to every number, so
that's how we do number ten, number ten? All right?
Number number ten? All right, let's go with the clue
(44:42):
is number ten? How about problem? Ok, take as much
time as you want. Don't mind the live air difficulty.
(45:05):
Do you hear me? Yeah? You said difficulty. That's not terrible.
But that's not right. I'm gonna go a little bit
of a different direction, Wendel. Let's go with Dare deare challenge. Yeah,
(45:30):
job boom? Are you back up? It's pass worthy word
game of the Stars, all right, Wendel, One through ten,
not ten? So one through nine? Eight? Okay? Alright, uh,
let's go with um. There's a couple of ways I
could go here. I don't use my material. Let's go
(45:52):
with heterosexual. Wow straight, yeah, Wow, we're impressive. That was impressive, fool,
wasn't that impressive? All right? Let's keep going and kJ,
(46:14):
we're back up, kJ, picking number or not eight? Not ten?
We need this one, kJ. We gotta get back in
the game. All right. Let's get nine, number nine all right? Now,
this should be a layup line. It should be a
layup line. Let's go with uh bicker bicker b I
(46:35):
c K E R no no no, no, no no, no
no no. Yeah. B b as in ben, as in baseball,
as in yeah, bicker. Oh boy, oh, I'm this is
(46:57):
not going well. Yeah, yeah, I have no idea, Like
you've never heard the word bicker before. I have not.
That's a new one. That's a new one for me.
Lay up. Okay, that's a T ball and the ball
fell off the tea. All right, Wendell. We can we
can essentially go for the ball was on the T.
We can essentially go for the knockout here, Wendell, that happens.
(47:20):
I'm gonna give you the clue squabble, are you? Yeah?
All right? That's right. This is a roasting kJ. If
you're bicker with someone, you're arguing with them. You're bickering
with them. Oh my god, j and Ben Tampa Bay Lightning. Yeah,
(47:43):
go ahead, and just oh this is brutal, This is unbelievable, Bens.
She whould we try and pile on out? Wendell? You
want to pick another number? Oh, let's go with three? Yeah,
so yes, all right, let's go with he's got no souls.
(48:05):
I'm gonna I'm gonna have fun here. You know we're winning.
Let's go with yoked. Yeah, he's not gonna get through
yo yo um m m muscular the best. Your cheats,
(48:28):
your performance for cheating. You said time out. That's a cheat.
Come on, that's all You're cheated, Cooper, you said it.
I don't even know this guy. I don't send them
the words, text the words. One of the best performances
(48:50):
in the history of it doesn't the legend. It was
a mismatch. It was a miss. It wasn't smash. Yeah,
they were really good. You weren't even good clues Cooper
Loop Cheeta great clues. He got him a text him
the answers. He cheated, you lose, Cheeter, Cheeter,
Thanks for listening to the best of the Ben Maller
Show podcast. Be sure to catch us live every weeknight
from two to six Eastern eleven pm to three am
Pacific on Fox Sports Radio and to find your local
station for the Ben Mallers Show at Fox Sports Radio
dot com. You can find it there or stream us
live every night on the iHeartRadio app by searching FSR.
(00:23):
This is the best of the Ben Maller Show on
Fox Sports Radio. What was going to be a case
of the Denver Nuggets playing the role of the pinata
and everyone who was going to get a swing at
the Denver Nuggets. But then they had they played the
rest of the game, and then and now let's remember
(00:44):
the Alamo. It's like, wait a minute, what's up with that?
That's that's like a major plot twist in all this.
We were preparing all our cheap shots at the Denver Nuggets,
and then they had to happen to win the game.
And it was a floorry, not not as impressive as
the Clippers. Don't get as many style points because a
the Nuggets were at home and b they were playing
San Antonio. It is ain't your your your old friend
(01:07):
San Antonio. It's a different san Antonio, and it was
a peptoli pepto bismal type of situation that you get
a little stomach ache there for the Spurs for thirty
six minutes. And I don't think I'm wrong in saying this.
For thirty six minutes, a san Antonio asserted their will.
They do what they wanted. But it's kind of like
(01:27):
when you you go and you park your car and
you leave the door open, you don't close the door.
There's a chance someone you might not know is going
to come into your car. And Jamal Murray the headliner
here along with Nicola Yoki who NICOLEA. Yokis came close
close to a triple doubles, a couple assists away from
a triple double. It wasn't an overwhelmingly dominating performance, but
(01:50):
Jamal Murray who was having a Kyle Lowry type of
night for the Nuggets. Like when I say Kyle, like
he first three quarters he was Kyle Lowry. He was
oh of eight from the floor, and then he ends
up scoring twenty one points on the fourth quarter. You
saw the game, you know what I'm talking about here,
(02:12):
And so getting off the Schneide which is an old term.
This guy used to work with who's now a dentist
on television, taught me that get off the schneide was
the term. But Mike Malone his first playoff win as
a coach, inspirational coach. And so now the Nuggets have
to try to win in San Antonio. Believe the last
(02:34):
time they won in San Antonio is like the nineteen
seventies or something like that. It's been a while. It's
been a while for them, and they will attempt to
regain home court advantage. These series now headed back to
Texas at one one. So let's discuss, Now, does this
game say more about the Denver Nuggets or more about
(02:56):
the San Antonio Spurs. Well, it's obviously more about this
or is the better story? Ninety nine percent of the
time unless it's the Clippers, Rams or Dodgers, is in
the losing locker room? Uh, ninety nine percent of the time.
So the answer is San Antonio. Now my thoughts here,
You've got the tsunami, intensive care and paradise, and we
will tie all these things into a nice package, and
(03:20):
we'll wrap the package, we'll put it in the in
the mailbox, and we'll send the package off. Now a uh.
The mainstream basketball media, and I consume a lot of
this mainstream basketball media. They had taught me that the
Spurs were the season team, right, that they were the
season team, that they had pop, They had the pop.
(03:41):
So you don't expect San Antonio when they get a
nineteen point lead, You don't expect them to jump on
the vomit comment. You don't expectance. But the Spurs guess what,
They jumped on the vomit comment in the in the
fourth quarter. Instead of nursing a nineteen point lead, they
went the other way. They turtled up and again, not
(04:03):
your daddy's San Antonio, Holy Tim Duncan, completely unacceptable. Again,
I got no skin in the game. And I've had
fun poking the San Antonio fan. I've enjoyed that over
the years. But Greg Popovitch unable to work his witchcraft
to stop. And when the tide turned, and the tide
(04:27):
did turn. I don't believe in momentum, but I do
believe in confidence. And then we started getting their confidence
going and the Spurs were swept out to sea in
the tsunami of Jamal Murray Baskets. Here's Greg Popovich who
used gamesmanship. I'll explain how Popovich used gamesmanship, but he
(04:49):
was very brief. Shall we say, here's here's Pop. Here's
how he sounded after the game. Were their breakdowns with
Murray defensively in the fourth or was it just a
matter of time with him? They just gotta break loose? Well,
we give up thirty eight points in the fourth quarter.
Kind of story. Tough to win a game on the
(05:11):
road in the playoffs if you're gonna give up thirty
eight points. And Paul and Jamal had a lot to
do with that. Obviously they both heard us badly. We
didn't have any answers for either one of them. You thought,
tell them going back to San Antonio with the split.
I mean, that's kind of what most road teams do
want to do in the first two correct, Sure, thank you,
(05:36):
good night, everybody. Now I'm gonna let you inside here
a little inside radio. What Pop did? All right, There's
about a ten to fifteen minute cooling off period in
an NBA game and in the playoffs and all that,
so players don't curse when they talk to the media,
and typically what happens is you get the full ten
(05:59):
fifteen there's nothing if you're a reporter covering a game.
And so what Popovich did was he circumvented the media,
who assumed they had ten fifteen minutes before they had
to go interview Popovich. He snuck in there. They were like,
you know, some intern for the Nuggets and some other
guy was in the room and that was it. And
so pop got in there. There was no media, so
(06:21):
he said, all right, any other questions, that's it. It
walked out. That's he closed the door, see you later,
I'm out of here, goodbye. All right, but wait, there's more.
So the fourth year, here's how I saw the game
San Antonio. They're not a great defensive team, but they
completely broke down in the fourth quarter, and it was
more about their incompetence then the Nuggets. Murray hit a
(06:46):
bunch of shots and it was great for him. But
Denver had been on the defensive and they became on
the offensive team and the Spurs were on their heels.
They did not finish what they had started. The closing
minutes of this game, the Denver Nuggets shot seventy three
percent in the fourth quarter. They didn't turn the ball
(07:09):
over one time. Now, if you shoot over seventy percent
and don't turn the ball over one time. That tells
you that you're playing against air. That the other team
is just it's Ola, it's bullfighter defense. It's Ola here,
you can run over there, That's what they're doing. The
Spurs came unglued in the fourth quarter. They shot the
(07:30):
ball well enough, they were able to make some baskets,
but they could not match the intensity on defense. And
one other point here, Now Popovitch got a technical foul
for disagreeing with the officials in the fourth quarter. And
I noticed when he kept saying in that little SoundBite
that we played, well, give up thirty eight points. Well, no,
the Nuggets scored thirty nine points. So he's discounting the
(07:53):
one point which he personally gave to the other team.
He's like, he kept saying thirty eight, but the Nuggets
scored thirty nine in the fourth quarter. The thirty ninth
point was compliments of Greg Popovich. All right, we know
what about the Martin Rosen. Now, I'd love to sit
here and kill the Marta Rosen because it's fun. I
remember when he was in Toronto, we did a lot
of that, had a lot of mount of monologues. It
(08:14):
was going back and forth with the Rosen and Kyle Lowry.
But De Rosen didn't suck in the fourth quarter. He didn't.
Offensively he was getting out. Defensively, he was a disaster,
But offensively he held his own. He held his own.
The problem is as far as offense is concerned. But
while he was out there, and he played most of
the quarter. While he was out there, the Spurs were
outscored by eighteen. So I guess if you do want
(08:35):
to kill him, you can kill the Marta Rosen. Here
is de Rosen who commenting on getting a win and
then a loss. So you get the old banana split
home court shifting our way. Now that's on us to
go home and do what we need to do. To understand,
if we take care of home like we've been doing
all year, we could come back here with opportunity. So
(08:57):
we feel great, Well we at we understand. You understood.
It wouldn't gonna be a cakewalk. Who's ever been to
a cake walk? Did they still have cakewalks? By the way,
I used the term too know, I'm guilty. Also, I've
never been to a cake walk. I don't even really
know what a cake walk is but I use the term.
It's like an outdated term right from the early days
of America cake walks and all that. How about a
(09:20):
bake sale? How about a bake sale? Could we change
that up to a bake sale pot luck. Let's get
different meanings to different people. But anyway, all right, but
now part me of this Jamal Murray, right, he was
insane to the membrane in the fourth quarter there, and
he was playing the first three quarters. Jamal I don't
know who he is either, Jamal Murray. Apparently he's a
basketball player. But Jamal Murray was playing like dishwater for
(09:43):
the first three quarter, you know, that disgusting dishwater with
all the food parts in there, just nasty stuff floating there.
You know, what the hell's going on? So but he
was oh of eight, that was I mentioned Kyle Lowry,
like Denver, was outscored by eighteen points with Murray on
the floor the first thirty six minutes. He didn't play
all thirty six, but then an out of body experience.
(10:04):
I don't have the star chart. That's that's our friend Andrea, right,
that's that's Virgo and service. But I don't have the
start chart, but out of body in the fourth quarter.
You talk about saving the Nuggets bacon. I didn't know
Nuggets had bacon, but that was that was ridunculous. There
a radical transformation with a very boring NBA broadcast. I
(10:25):
did not enjoy the commentators on that. I don't know,
it's dry to me. It seemed boring to me. But nonetheless,
so Murray had seven straight shots at one point, he
shot eight of nine. I believe that's eighty eight percent.
In the fourth quarter, had a couple of assists, and
Denver turned At one point they were down by seven
(10:47):
and in the fourth quarter and they flipped the script
ended up with a nine point win, a massive twelve minutes.
And to say that Denver was in the intensive care
unit when they fell behind by nineteen would be kind
of like saying Donald Trump just enjoys watching Tiger Woods
play golf a little bit and not wants to give him,
(11:09):
you know, the highest civilian honor you can give any
person in America. You know what I'm saying. It's that
kind of thing. Now, they were staring down the barrel
of a gigantic Bazuka looking back at them, you know,
not ready for Prime Time from on the ropes to
Alive and well in the span of twelve minutes and overall,
(11:31):
Denver outscored the Spurs fifty five to twenty seven the
final sixteen minutes, which would have been just mind blowing
if it hadn't been for the Clippers the night before.
But I will point out that Mike Malone or the
coach of the Spurs there, Michael Malone, he said the
inspiration was the Clippers, that they he told his team
(11:53):
when they were getting boat raised, Hey, remember the Clippers
instead of remember the Alamo. Remember the Clippers. Every team
in the NBA will use the Clippers as inspiration when
they get destroyed by thirty parts, every team. All right,
last word on this. Now, does this mean the Nuggets
are going to win this series? It does not? Now
they should? Right? Was this a fluke? Was this a
(12:15):
one off? Or has a sleeping giant awoke? And Denver
did finish with the number two seed in the West.
Now I am not all in on the Denver Nuggets.
I am not. I do not believe they have a
shot to win the Western Conference. Now. Nevertheless, they should
beat the Spurs and they're in the right part of
the bracket, right, They're in the right part of the
(12:37):
bracket because you look at the upper part. Assuming the
Warriors don't continue to allow the Clippers to assert their
will and the Warriors come back, you're looking at Houston
and Golden State and one half of the bracket in
the West. The other half will be the winner of
San Antonio and Denver and they will play Portland. So
(12:57):
whoever wins in this, you gotta you gotta a clear
path to the Western Conference finals. You do, so, you
know it's setting up pretty good there. But I'm not
all in on the Nuggets yet. They should win because
they have better basketball players in the Spurs and all
that stuff. And I guess we don't have to hear
about the pedigree of the San Antonio Spurs until the
(13:19):
next game. But the defensive malfunctions, low grade effort that
side of the ball in the fourth quarter, a lot
of inaccuracy, now mean one. This is an underdog better's paradise.
It is the zigzag theory. And if you're a degenerate
and you're a gambler over the years, you know that.
(13:40):
In most team sports, but in the NBA in particular,
in a series format which we have in North America.
You typically whoever wins the first game you go the
other way. It's called the zigzag theory, right, zig zag theory.
It's a betting philosophy and it's an underdog. Better's paradise.
So far, it's all sample size. But team covers game one,
(14:04):
game two, the same team that covered game one doesn't
cover game two. It's four opportunities. And it was four
and oh up until I Portland did cover, so it
was four and one now so four four and one,
which is still an eighty percent win. Thought, that's pretty good, right,
that's pretty good. All right, Ben Maller Show on Fox.
(14:26):
We say hello to Edmund Dallas, Team Boat, Willie, Judas,
Solid Gold Guarcia. We also have another boo controversy, a
boom yes controversy, Another boo controversy. What was the first
book controversy? Well, these things pop up, Eddie. But in
(14:47):
the NBA playoffs last night, the boo controversy, Eddie involves
the Denver Nugget fan who was sarenading Will Barton. He's
a basketball player, Eddie, thank you. They were Sarah nating
Will Barton with boo boo boo. Why why is that
a problem. Isn't that that happens at all? Spot Yeah,
(15:08):
well he went one for ten from the final. But
here's the Yeah, exactly so. But NICOLEE Yokich these athletes happy.
He was not happy. Yok said nugget fans should not boo.
Will Barton very upset. I I was raised boo his
(15:29):
non booing statement. You celebrate great performance athletically, and you
boo poor performance. I think it's very simple. This is
not brain surgery. We're a bunch of idiots that watch
sports for a living. It's not that hard. Okay, when
someone does well, we cheer when they don't do well.
It doesn't matter what kind of laundry they're wearing. You
boo boo. I remember booing that performances at school, and
(15:49):
that was a no no oh yeah, but teachers get offended.
But yeah, oh there's no boo. Only cheering those teachers
when you were a kid, even in your day. Yeah,
I know I could see these these days for it's
like talking about late eighties. Yeah wow, yeah, the whole
booth thing. This comes it's beyond me. But yeah, they
this younger generation was raised differently than I. I was
(16:11):
raised to enjoy the boo too if you get but no,
even if you're a player. I always thought like as
a problem enjoy well no, but if you But here's
the thing to turn it around. Like, I think there's
there's two types of athletes, right the kind that loves
to play on the road hostile environment. Everyone's out to
get him and they you know, saying nasty stuff to him.
And then there's the type that needs positive reinforcement. We
(16:33):
I feel like the pendulum has swung here and we
are in an era where it's a very small percentage
of athlete that feed off the negativity and the boo
and like to go into a hostile situation. It's much
more I like the positivity. I need to be celebrated
and patted on the back, and it's annoying. Kobe wasn't
(16:53):
like that. Well yeah, but he's not from this generation.
I'm saying like today, you know, it's the the guys today,
it's uh, do we have Yoki just to prove I'm
not lying, Eddie, And we have it. The editing department
did a find job. Cooper Loop dug it up. So
here's Nicole Kid standing by. I'm a very positive person.
That standing by you're the negative one. You remember that.
(17:14):
H Here is Yoki standing by Will Barton, his teammate. Yeah,
all right, that's something I didn't like. I traveled to
say something, Eddie, don't like that took crowds and fans
and boo, thrill, th distant disorganization. He was injured if
(17:38):
he's finding his dams, but if he come back. I
didn't understand one word, Eddie. The reason we played that
is because we had it and he said, I don't
like the boo, and he also started making excuses. He
said he was injured, he's finding his rhythm. Oh you
(17:59):
got we actually now you guys are you guys are
just not cultured? You know, don't you don't understand accent?
I understand the mumbling, okay for the foreign accent of Nicole. Now,
we actually had Tammy and Montana holding a boom mic
from Montana and that's how we recorded that. It actually
was recorded from the furthest reporter from him. Yeah. I
(18:22):
think it was just on the Colorado border. I believe
just on the Colorado border. And so they're the Magical
Magical Radio. Be sure to catch live editions of the
ben Maller Show weekdays at two am Eastern eleven pm
Pacific on Fox Sports Radio and the iHeartRadio app. So
the Oklahoma City Thunder with two all stars, two top
(18:45):
ten players or so they say, Paul George and Russell Westbrook,
and they are in need of some hydration. They are
in a bad spot. If you saw the Blazers and
the Thunder game, which was the Tale of Two Halves?
I think did Shakespeare right that back in the day
of the Tale of two Halves? Was that a Shakespearean line?
(19:07):
Because in the first half the Thunder had pretty good
control of the game, pretty good control. They led by
as many as ten. The Blazers came back, they were
able to tie the game at halftime. So the game
was tied up at fifty four. But in the first half,
Paul George sixteen points, he had five rebounds, couple of assists.
(19:29):
There pretty good numbers. Now Westbrook was bad, Russell Westbrook
was bad in the first half. But it's what happened
in the second half of a tie game of not
a must win because you're still you know, down two
games now, not the worst of the worst situation, but
a game where if you win the game as Oklahoma City,
you're in much better shape. The advantage of being the
(19:52):
road team is you you're playing with house money here.
You don't have to win, but it certainly helps your
cause when you do win. At some point, the Thunder,
if they intend to win this series, we're gonna have
to win in Portland. But in the second half, this
was a curb stomping by the Portland Trail Blazers, outscoring
the Thunder by twenty sixty to forty. Oklahoma City, with
(20:16):
two All Star ballplayers, scored forty points in the second
half of a game where they had playoff game. You
can't lose that down two games to know, they shot
thirty six percent in the second half and Russell Westbrook
a biblically bad shooting performance. And in the second half,
the Thunder, who were outscored by twenty when Westbrook was
(20:37):
on the court, were outscored by twenty one points with
him on the court. And it was a clinic by CJ.
McCullum and Damian Lillard the backcourt of the Blazers. In
the second half, those guys scored thirty points combined. Remember,
the Thunder as a team scored forty all the different
(20:57):
guys on the Thunder collectively ended up scoring a total
of forty points. So the dust has settled and the
Blazers get a one fourteen to ninety four when they
Thunder have yet to crack one hundred points in these
two games in this particular series against the Portland Trail Blazers,
and a dominating performance there out working out hustling the Thunder.
(21:23):
The Blazers certainly did that. And I understand, I don't
know if we have this sound here, but Russell Westbrook.
I'm reading some of these quotes here from Russell Westbrook,
and he attempted. He said, I take full responsibility for
the loss. He called his play unacceptable while wearing a
funny hat, which I always get a kick out of
(21:43):
it because he always addressed like clown and he has
he's the funny hat on and the glasses usually and
he addresses the media. But the reason I thought this
Russell Westbrook quote was the money quote was the fact
that he said similar things last year. This is right
out of Russell Westbrook's play. But buy the books. Say
(22:04):
when he's not saying next question, when he's not doing
that because he doesn't like one of the reporters. Westbrook
comes back and he says all the things you're supposed
to say, but he doesn't generally back them up. Doesn't
normally work that way. Uh, here's Billy Donovan. We don't
have Westbrook when we have Billy Donovan. Here, here's Donovan commenting.
I guess he's the coach, and really he's just like
(22:25):
a figurehead. Here's Billy Donovan commenting on what they'll happen
there in the second half. Yep. So, um, you know,
I thought it was a really really competitive first half.
We played well. I thought it was good that we
came out in the first quarter and got off to
a much much better start than we did in Game one.
I thought the third quarter for us. Um, you know,
(22:48):
I thought our bold movement was was pretty good in
the first half. Um. I didn't think we did as
good of a job there in that third quarter. Um.
And I think our our defense labored and and obviously
those guys putting the ball on the floor. I'm bored
with this, all right. Well, anyway, so let's get to
the let's get to the meat of this, which is
(23:08):
Russell Westbrook. All right, we'll play that. The blame pie.
I love the blame pie. The question how much of
the blame does Russell Westbrook get? Now, remember the final
numbers on this a blowout game, a game that was
closed for a half. Russell Westbrook while he was on
the court, Oklahoma City was outscored by twenty seven points.
And did he get his triple double? No, he was
(23:29):
one rebound away from his beloved triple double. Westbrook also
had six turnovers. And this continues a pattern for Russell
Westbrook in the playoffs. But if you're gonna assign the blame, pie,
I'm gonna give Russell. I hope he's hungry. I'm giving
him ninety percent, ninety percent of the blame here, all right,
(23:49):
ninety percent. Now, just to prove that I didn't make
up what I thought I saw, Russell Westbrook said. Here
is the SoundBite I'm referring to. This is Westbrook being
the good cops, saying all the right things about how
I even mistakes happened. Like listen to Westbrook here own it,
trying to own it. And they won their first two
home games. Um, obviously we wanted to try to stay
(24:10):
on we can, but UM's just stay with it. Um,
We're a great basketball team. M not a great guys
on the team that I trusting. Ability is to make shots,
to make plays on both sides of the other basketball
and we'll be all right. You know. I start with myself. Um,
I gotta play better, Um, and tonight the loss I'm
gonna take full responsibility of of tonight because the way
(24:35):
I played was unacceptable. And I'm gonna be better. So
I'm not worried one bit. My job is to make
sure I can see to come out and um, you know,
will and league our guys and make sure we have
a chance to win the game. All right. So he's
not worried. He should be worried. He should be very worried,
is what he should be. Now. My thoughts on the thunder.
You've got the Easter Bunny, the stripper, and the zebra,
(24:58):
all right, those three things. Knowing that has this all
right now? First of all, when I see Westbrook play
a game like this to meet this coroboration, it's verification
of what I have said about Westbrook for years. He
is the king of the empty stats. It's Easter Week
in America, and a tradition on Easter Week is the
(25:19):
chocolate Bunny which is the hollow chocolate bunny, all right.
Russell Westbrook is the chocolate bunny that you think is
solid milk chocolate and you get it and you realize
it's hollow, and you're like, wait a minute, what's up
with daddy? Looks so good, but it's it's hollow, right.
All that glitters is not gold and all that stuff.
(25:39):
But from a wins and losses standpoint, you look at
Westbrook and the way the thunder have put this together,
and yeah, they've got Paul George and you play the
yeah but yeah, but yeah, but what about this? What
about that? The team is so top heavy and Russell
Westbrook the devil's really in the details because Russell Westbrook
has carte blanche here and it doesn't get talked about
(26:00):
as much because he's in Oklahoma City. But the way
he plays is untenable in terms of winning playoff basketball.
And I think that's been proven out in the last
couple of years. And when I say he's got free
rein here, nobody, not Billy Donovan, not anybody can can say, hey,
maybe we should try something else. This is not really
(26:23):
working so well, you know. And he's the god of
the zombie statistics is what Russell Westbrook is. And to
the dumb fan, to the to the uneducated fan, they
look at westbrook stats and they say, I can't believe it.
He's just great. He's the greatest thing ever. But then
when you peel back the curtain, you're like, wait a minute.
In fact, I saw one of the statnards over the
(26:44):
Bleacher Report. They had the numbers. Russell Westbrook during the
last two postseasons has shot less than thirty nine percent.
He's attempted almost twenty five field goals per game and
turn the ball over by himself over five times per game.
(27:04):
And in the last eight playoff games, go back to
last year and this year, the last eight playoff games,
Oklahoma City while Russell Westbrook has been on the court
has been outscored by seventy three points with Russell Westbrook.
But what about the statistics? What about the triple doubles?
What about this? What about that? It's what about is? Right?
(27:26):
Keep in mind the number here and it's an amazing number.
It's a shocking number. Right, Oklahoma City outscored by seventy
three points in the three hundred ten playoff minutes in
the eight games Westbrook has played, and in the rest
it's plus twenty two, So plus twenty two without him.
But in the minutes he's played, they're outscored by seventy
(27:48):
three points. Now you can say, well, yeah, but he's
out of the game. It's a blowout, it's garbage time.
You can make that argument. Now. The second thing here,
back to Russell Westbrooks commentary. We played the sound bite
and he walked through all of the key things there.
You're supposed to say, buy the book, right, full responsibility,
unacceptable and all that. This is what's known as lip service.
(28:10):
All right, That's that's the term of his lip service.
And Westbrook when he's again not getting angry and saying
and our next question with reporters, he says a lot
of these kind of things. I remember last year against
the Utah Jazz when Ricky Rubio of all people, was
messing with the mojo, when Ricky Rubio was goofing with
Russell Westbrook, and he said, paraphrasing, he said, oh, I'm
(28:33):
not worried about Rubio. I'll be fine. He never was fine.
He was never fine. And you know, the words sound good,
but actions matter. And even though CJ. McCullum was the
rock star for the Blazers in the second half of
this game, and you know, the numbers were pretty similar
to Lillard. Lillard didn't shoot as well as CJ. McCullum,
(28:56):
but was better from three point range and all that stuff.
But if you had to choose between Damian Lillard and
Russell Westbrook, who would you rather have? I would rather
have Damian Lillard. I'm not being just reactionary based on
this game. To me, Damian Lillard played just as hard
as Westbrook. But in the offense. It is not that
(29:19):
the Blazers are gonna win a championship, because they're not.
But you have a better opportunity with the way Russell
Westbrook compared to Westbrook, the way that Damian Lillard plays
right and Westbrook, I get that he's stubborn, I'm stubborn.
I love the fact that he keeps taking egregious shots
and he won't stop. He doesn't make many of them,
(29:39):
but he keeps taking them. And from an XS and
O standpoint, you don't have to be an NBA head
coach to know if I'm going against a Westbrook team,
the way Oklahoma City plays right now, you know what
I do. I take a page years ago, about twenty
years ago. These strip clubs in Tampa they put a
(29:59):
rule then, the six foot rule, and it was it
was a famous story. My good friend Tony Bruno, he
used to work here. He had a field day with
that back in the day. But they put the six
foot rule in at the strip clubs in Tampa where
no adult performer could be within six feet of any
of the customers because they banned the lap dances and
(30:20):
all that. So if I'm coaching against Oklahoma City, I
would put the Tampa, the old school Tampa strip club
rule in six foot. I would say, don't get within
six feet of Russell Westbrook. Let him shoot, let him shoot, shoot, shoot, choot,
chhoot shoot. That's what I would tell him to do.
All right, last thing on this now, So where are
we at? All right? You say, well, the series doesn't
(30:41):
start until the road team wins a game or the
home team loses vice versa or whatever. Yeah, and certainly
Oklahoma City a figure. They're gonna come back, and they're
gonna have an opportunity in Game three to stick the
dagger to the to the Plazers, Blazzers to me, Portland
as to show that they can play like that on
the road. Now they could still win the series. They
have home court, they can win the series not playing
well on the road. They could certainly do that. And
(31:05):
for Oklahoma City they have the herculean task. And Billy
Donovan is instead of blaming Westbrook and his terrible play,
that the interweb and the reaction is like, blame Billy Donovan,
Blame Billy Dunn. And but then it's it's a poor
man's lebron where Westbrook does whatever he wants. He's got
free reign to do what he wants. And there's no
(31:27):
real vaccine here. And it's the old tale we learned
as kids about the zebra. Right as zebra can't change
its stripes, so do we expect the Oklahoma City Thunder
in game three of a playoff series to change the strategy,
to twist things around and say, hey, Westbrook, maybe you know,
(31:48):
instead of taking twenty shots, how about you take I
don't know, seven or eight, how about that? Just give
give a shot. I mean, some of these other guys
maybe they can score two. How about that? All right?
Spell As on Fox, we say a load to Edmund
Dallas Steam boat, Willie Judas solid gold guards see it.
(32:10):
They had a great night last night, I mean a
good night. More disappointed. I mean it's you have to
take a step back. I guess tonight. You know we
had no crazy, can't take no crazy and Callack probably
won't have any breaking news in the NFL tonight. It's
a big day. A schedule schedule talking about big day,
Eddie schedule, but not during our shift. Could happen. Maybe
(32:32):
somebody will link the schedule online overnight we'll get the schedule.
Could happen. Yeah, but the schedule is not going to
you know, tweet out, you know, laying in bed with
even the schedule, right, I mean, Eddie, though you and
your wife travel, you go on these pilgrimages with the charge. Yeah,
you know, it's funny you say that. I have a
I have a source at the NFL network that told
(32:55):
me that told me he would get me these Steelers
and Chargers schedule early. Yeah, so that we could hit
you know, get the hotel reservations before the jack up
the price. It's a good job he has not come through.
He still got time thoughs not till the evening time
on Wednesday. The clock is ticket, but you'd have to
(33:15):
jump on your favorite travel website, yeah and go quickly. Yeah,
so that is a competitive advantage. If you work at
state run NFL media, you have an advantage because he
took advantage of it last year. He's a Patriots vanity.
He went to a Patriots game. So the real boss
move would be to buy a bunch of hotel rooms
and then give them out to people at a you know,
(33:36):
not a higher rate than you paid for it, but
still lower than the hotel would would typically chart. Well,
that would that would be an interesting move. Yeah, it's
not quite the same as you know, like reselling a
ticket or something. Yeah, you can do it, though there's
ways you can put it off. Yeah, all right, it's
been out the show on Fox. If you want to
(33:57):
be part here, the number is eight seven seven eight
nine on Fox eight seven seven nine nine six six
three six nine. So had the Denver Nuggets come back
and win, and you also had in addition to that,
as we just talked about the Portland Trailblazers holding serve
and dominating more impressive, hell cares about the Denver Nuggets.
(34:21):
One guy in Denver, I want to point out I
did a nugget monologue last hour and not a single
call from Denver. Weren't a major sports talk radio station
in Denver, A well listened to sports talk radio station
in the Mile High City. I have had emails from idiots,
why don't you talk about the Denver Nuggets. I finally
talked about the Denver Nuggets, and I am greeted with
(34:42):
crickets is what I'm greeted with. All Right, to the
phones we go. Let's say hello to the clone. Who's
in Fresno? Hello? Clone? Well he said it said before
he came on, right, does it matter? You're in the
magic radio box? Does it matter? Really? Is my radio cool?
(35:06):
I'm too loud? The hell was that Fresno? Eddie? It's
your guy, Y, Come on five freds Noo in the
house in the hissy. That's the Fresno right there. It
was disappointing. It's sad, sad. Guy Trucker Tony is in Chicago.
(35:30):
Hello Trucker Tony. Yeah, let me go outside the washroom
again the last time I called that. You're going to
the washroom. Wait a minute, you're in a truck. You
gotta you gotta, you gotta washing machine. You got a
washing machine in your truck? What's up? It's baller right there?
(35:50):
What kind of what kind of truck is that like?
Is that like a mobile home type situation? It ain't
even out yet. I'm the only one. And then okay,
what the hell's going on? He is in the washroom, Eddie.
He's in the washroom, Eddie. I can hear the cansel?
I hope, I don't hear any other after? You can
hear the line in Canada. In Canada they called the
powder room? Is what they call it? There? All right?
(36:12):
What the hell's going on here? The hell is going on?
I had to call yesterday? Yeah, but how was at work?
And I'm at work again a day. But for the
sake of my comment becoming outdated and irrelevant, I must
call again a day. How dare you? How dare I?
How dare I? Yes? Why your eye? The great American
hero George Carlin yesterday with his golf reference. What it
(36:36):
was about an idiot using a stick to hit him
after you hit them with a ball a head and
not give proper clint work. Well, I am a huge
Carlin fan. I'm upset with George Carlin. He's dead. I'm
upset he died because we were denied so much great
comedy from George Carlin. But you know my George Carlin story, Tony,
(37:00):
you know my story? Right? You don't know my George
Carlin story. I just I just ran it to the
stations about eight. I'm glad you're hooked. It's a disease,
it's in your blood. But listen to me. All right,
this is a great story, Tony. So years ago, I'm
doing local radio in La. Right, local radio guy, and
this guy, George from Venice calls the couple of my shows,
(37:22):
calls some of the other shows at the station. Well,
it turns out that George from Venice was George Carlin,
the comedian. George Carlin was a sports talk radio listener
and called into a couple of different shows. And a
friend of mine, a colleague of mine, Lee Klein, became
friends with George Carlin. Right, So then I was a
huge Carlin fan, right, an old radio guy, and he
(37:43):
became this legendary stand up comedian. So then I wanted
to be friends with Carlin, but I'm friends with Lee.
So Lee, my buddy Lee kept saying we're gonna meet
where I'm gonna set up We're gonna have a dinner me,
you and Carlin. Right, I'm thinking, my god, this is
a dream come true. This is a comedy legend. And
I'm gonna have a meal with George Carlin. And and
Lee was afraid that Carlin would have liked me more
(38:04):
than him, so he kept pushing it back. And then
Carlin unfortunately died and I never met him, and I'm
still I'm still bitter about that. I paid money to
watch Carlin perform a couple of times back in the day.
And uh, yeah, so that's my Carlin used to call
sports radio. Is George from Venice. That's a true story. Yeah,
thanks for story. All right, get back to water. Make
(38:25):
sure you wash and dry properly, Tony. How I get
out of here? Tony? Yeah, Carlin, it's great. Be sure
to catch live editions of The Ben Maller Show weekdays
at two am Eastern eleven pm Pacific. It's Maller. How
about that? To the third degree? This is one big
(38:47):
band gets grilled Google. Charles Barkley has been clamoring for
Lebron James to join TNT as a guest analyst during
the playoffs for the last month or so. On Monday.
Lebron responded, saying that he does have a lot going on,
but he might take him up on his offer. Ben
the chances Lebron joins the TANT crew all right, So
this feels choreographed to me, like they've already got a deal,
(39:09):
but they're trying to play it out in the media.
I'll say the odds are minus three hundred. I think
there's a seventy five percent chance Lebron shows up in Atlanta,
and I'll tell you why. Hey, Lebron, he needs the spotlight.
He's all about it. He's an attention whore. He's in
some tropical outposts somewhere, and on his way back to
work on Space Jam, he can then stop by the
(39:29):
TNT campus there in Atlanta and have a good time
and be like Lebron. It would be very awkward. He
would be an odd foil for TNT. He takes himself
so seriously and Charles Barkley, they do the whole slapstick
vaudeville style comedy thing. It would be interesting, but it
would also likely be a train wreck. I could see
(39:52):
Shack cossing water balloons at Lebron. I don't think Lebron's
gonna handle that very well, all right. Next and when
asked about the reputation of Manny Machad late last week,
Adam Jones said that it would one hundred percent be
different if Machado were white. Ben, your thoughts, this is
more of the same. Listen Adam Jones, who's bouncing around now,
(40:12):
he's in Arizona. The first thing is he's created this
cottage industry. He believes there's this systemic racism prevalent in
baseball in twenty nineteen, has been this way for years
and years and years. That's how he sees things. And
number two, Manny Machado is the dirtiest player in baseball.
It's not my opinion, it's the opinion of his fellow
players who voted him the dirtiest player in baseball. My
(40:34):
bigger issue is his lack of hustle. And Machado is
a talented lightweight. It doesn't matter you know, a race
or anything like that. Maximum effort and hustle. It doesn't
need only athletic ability. It doesn't matter what race. Few
are right next. Now, it's worth noting that with Aaron
Rodgers and Russell Wilson getting new deals. Ben Roethlisberger is
(40:55):
on the last year of his deal and he hasn't
made a peep. You think this is a sign that
he plans to call it quits at the end of
his contracts. He's actually eating some peeps Coop. It's the
Eastern week, so he likes those bright orange, pink and
yellow and green peep steps are great. Another night, the
Steelers are They're still working on a contract extension Big Ben.
It's moving in a molasses like pace. But he's like
(41:17):
the last of the Mohicans. Everyone else has gone all
the name value guys. I say they get a deal done.
I wouldn't gi him a deal, but you don't listen
to me. Everyone's getting paid, so why wouldn't he get paid.
Everyone's getting extensions. They don't give any They give everyone
the money. There. It is Mallard to the third degree.
How did we do? Ben? You pass us a? Fox
(41:40):
Sports Radio has the best sports talk lineup in the nation.
Catch all of our shows at Fox Sports Radio dot
com and within the iHeartRadio app search f SR to
listen live. You stand out for most radio listeners. As
you can tell, we are not like those other generic
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(42:00):
we are unique. Help us stay that way by joining
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go to Facebook dot com slash Ben Mallard Show and
I live from the Guico Fox Sports Radio Studios. It's
Ben Mallory pad password, you idiot password the word Game
(42:22):
of the Stars. Here's Ben maller hedy know where we
got it done? After passworthy Word Game the Stars. Each
every week at about this time, we played pass where.
It's welcome in our contestants for this week's matchup, it's
team competition. We say hello to kJ in Nashville. Hello,
kJ Um, actually on the live air. You're the live air.
(42:48):
It's amazing thing, kJ Man. What do you tell the
guy in Punk Satanni who knows the guy in Bieber name?
What you do for a living. I'm a truck job. Yeah,
you're like Russell Wilson. Your voice goes I like that,
your voice can go all over. I like that. All right, kJ, Well,
good luck to your hole on a sec. kJ the
big voice guy. And we've got Wendell who's in Los Angeles. Hello, Wendell,
(43:12):
Hey greeting, how's it going? What's going on? When you
can give it another? Go here? Huh yeah, well hey
one night man? Uh speaking freaking Russell Wilson. Uh. Maybe
to invest in some offensive lineman. Maybe kind of help
him out a little bit. Nah, line, he's making all
the money. Let him protect himself. He had a block
(43:34):
in addition to throw passes alight. Window is an old
bus driver. You got that bus driver voice window back
in day. All right, hold on a second window, kJ,
Who do you want to partner up with? kJ? Come on, Ben,
let's do a Let's do it me and you kJ.
We're gonna get this done. Wendell, I'm out. You can
(43:55):
play with Eddie, Cooper, Berto, anybody else. Oh, let's try Coop.
All right, don't sound excited, and I don't blame. I
don't not if you're not being not being excited? All right,
hold on window, kJ. All right, both on the air,
and now we list to words here one to ten.
If you can see the list, you're cheating and that's creepie.
(44:16):
So don't look at the list. And the way this
works here your team competition. You got to pick a
number kJ, you were on the air at first, so
please pick a number between one and ten, and that
will be there's a word next to every number, so
that's how we do number ten, number ten? All right?
Number number ten? All right, let's go with the clue
(44:42):
is number ten? How about problem? Ok, take as much
time as you want. Don't mind the live air difficulty.
(45:05):
Do you hear me? Yeah? You said difficulty. That's not terrible.
But that's not right. I'm gonna go a little bit
of a different direction, Wendel. Let's go with Dare deare challenge. Yeah,
(45:30):
job boom? Are you back up? It's pass worthy word
game of the Stars, all right, Wendel, One through ten,
not ten? So one through nine? Eight? Okay? Alright, uh,
let's go with um. There's a couple of ways I
could go here. I don't use my material. Let's go
(45:52):
with heterosexual. Wow straight, yeah, Wow, we're impressive. That was impressive, fool,
wasn't that impressive? All right? Let's keep going and kJ,
(46:14):
we're back up, kJ, picking number or not eight? Not ten?
We need this one, kJ. We gotta get back in
the game. All right. Let's get nine, number nine all right? Now,
this should be a layup line. It should be a
layup line. Let's go with uh bicker bicker b I
(46:35):
c K E R no no no, no, no no, no
no no. Yeah. B b as in ben, as in baseball,
as in yeah, bicker. Oh boy, oh, I'm this is
(46:57):
not going well. Yeah, yeah, I have no idea, Like
you've never heard the word bicker before. I have not.
That's a new one. That's a new one for me.
Lay up. Okay, that's a T ball and the ball
fell off the tea. All right, Wendell. We can we
can essentially go for the ball was on the T.
We can essentially go for the knockout here, Wendell, that happens.
(47:20):
I'm gonna give you the clue squabble, are you? Yeah?
All right? That's right. This is a roasting kJ. If
you're bicker with someone, you're arguing with them. You're bickering
with them. Oh my god, j and Ben Tampa Bay Lightning. Yeah,
(47:43):
go ahead, and just oh this is brutal, This is unbelievable, Bens.
She whould we try and pile on out? Wendell? You
want to pick another number? Oh, let's go with three? Yeah,
so yes, all right, let's go with he's got no souls.
(48:05):
I'm gonna I'm gonna have fun here. You know we're winning.
Let's go with yoked. Yeah, he's not gonna get through
yo yo um m m muscular the best. Your cheats,
(48:28):
your performance for cheating. You said time out. That's a cheat.
Come on, that's all You're cheated, Cooper, you said it.
I don't even know this guy. I don't send them
the words, text the words. One of the best performances
(48:50):
in the history of it doesn't the legend. It was
a mismatch. It was a miss. It wasn't smash. Yeah,
they were really good. You weren't even good clues Cooper
Loop Cheeta great clues. He got him a text him
the answers. He cheated, you lose, Cheeter, Cheeter,
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