September 23, 2020 • 39 mins
Doug puts the Lakers on notice for the game 3 loss to the Nuggets and what it means for their chances to win the NBA title. Doug tells you how Bill Belichick continues to prove his greatness without Tom Brady even after winning 6 Super Bowls as a head coach. NFL Network analyst Daniel Jeremiah joins the show to tell Doug if Drew Brees is still an elite quarterback.
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Speaker 1 (00:00):
Thanks for listening to the best of the Doug Gottlip
Show podcast. Be sure to catch us live every weekday
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Radio app by searching fs R. This is the best
(00:22):
of the Doug got Leave Show on Fox Sports Radio.
The Lakers trailed by as many as twenty points. That's
their biggest deficit in any game in this postseason. Jamal
Murray was spectacular, spectacular. Uh he made plays, he finished shots,
and then he finished off the Lakers with a couple
(00:42):
of just ridiculous dagger jump shots, one over Anthony Davis
with fifty five seconds ago. I mean a rainbow up nine,
That's just it was a Steph Couries shot, quick release,
high arch right in the eye of Anthony Davis. And
I know what many you're thinking, got leaved up two
games to one. They have Lebron James, they have Anthony Davis.
(01:06):
The Nuggets shouldn't even be there. You know, you got
Jamal Murray hitting shots that he's not normally going to hit,
but he was running a fever in a hot hand.
Their bench players played way better than they normally are.
The Lakers lose one four, one oh six. Murray has
twenty eight and twelve Yokis hits like a fade away
off one ft Dirk Navitski from nineteen feet. Those things
(01:28):
won't happen normally. There's no cause for concern. Okay, I'm
I'm okay with that. Look there, there's a bunch of
things that we talk about on this show that other
people do not talk about on their shows. It's it's
much easier to say one team wanted it more. Well,
(01:51):
the Nuggets just wanted more. That played harder than the Lakers,
and I do think they came out with better energy.
It's another thing to point out that we've said the
things that lead to victories in the NBA are matchups.
In the NBA playoffs, matchups, conditioning right and confidence. And
(02:14):
the Nuggets when they play well, when they get a lead,
that was their first lead, and like forever in the
playoffs and they had to lead at the half, they
had to be looking around like, wait, we don't have
to come from behind. What the hell is all. This
hadn't led at all at the half um, even in
the previous series against the Clippers. Pretty remarkable. But what
(02:37):
I find to be interesting is that until this very show,
I don't believe anyone's gonna point out the fact that
the Lakers have benefited from rest. Last night, Lebron James
put up a remarkable stat line of triple double, and
most people are gonna tell you he played great. But
I think if you asked Lebron and if you watch
the game, he didn't come out with the same energy
(02:59):
and he was doing what well Lebron sometimes has a
tendency to do, which is he played a little bit
too slow, a little bit too patient to start the game,
and they got down and by the time they woke up,
you extend so much more energy trying to come back
than you do try to protect the lead. Factor in
(03:23):
that the Lakers, obviously they've had gentlemen sweeps, they've taken
care of business in their two previous playoff rounds. Combined
with the fact that they benefited from missing not one
but two games because of the protests after what happened
in Kenosha, Wisconsin, you put those two things together and
(03:43):
you factor in that the last two teams that they've
played have both gone through seven game series. They've been
the rested team. The opposition has been the team that's
running on fumes. And when you factor in that, Lebron
James exudes confidence, and you have Lebron James and Anthony
(04:09):
Davis too, really hard matchups for the Denver Nuggets. You
have the entering the series, you had the triumvirant right,
you had the matchups, you had the confidence, you had
the conditioning. Those are the three things, which is why
Game four is so incredibly important because right now the
(04:29):
Nuggets rightfully believe, hey man, we should be up to
games to one, right like Anthony we screwed up on
a defensive Sigmon and Anthony Davis, who's a good shooter,
but he's not like he's not like you Steph Curry
from three hits a hits a three to win the game.
He misses that we're up two games to one. Right now.
(04:50):
We have figured them out. They haven't figured us out.
We have more youth, meaning the longer it goes, the
more our confidence will grow. And the more tired, more
fatigued they're older legs will be it doesn't mean that
if it goes you know, if it becomes too too
I think the Nuggets are gonna win. I don't. I
(05:12):
believe the Lakers will win this series. But in order
for the Lakers to win an NBA championship, and they'll
still be a prohibitive favorite over Boston who's younger, or
over the Heat who's younger, there's still a very strong
likelihood of them winning. But the the opportunity to beat
(05:33):
a team like the Lakers and Lebron is. The longer
the series goes, the more likelierrors to be injury or
just playing fatigue, and Lebron is He's not a spring
chicken anymore. So I'm fascinated by, um what happens heading forward.
(05:54):
I'm fascinated by Game four. I'm fascinating to see if
Lebron James can reinvigorate himself, because not only did he
not have great energy out of the blocks, but he
extended a ton of energy for that comeback. This is
not me being hyper critical of the best player of
this era. That That's not what I'm doing. I'm just
(06:15):
painting the reality of it. It's it's no different than
talking about Tom Brady at forty three, or talking about
Drew Brees at thirty nine, we're talking about Philip Rivers,
you know, at his age. None of that stuff changes
like age does change how much and how often you're
gonna have your a game. And Lebron was a little
(06:36):
bit slow defensively, a little bit slow offensively. He wasn't
the same dude he had been early in the game.
And that's reasonable, it's reasonable to believe. And his teammates
didn't play with didn't pick up his energy. I didn't
say he played poorly, And I'm I'm not being critical
in any way of of the final stat line and
(06:56):
the ability to make that game competitive. But what happens
is when you get down that big against a younger team,
that younger team's confidence grows and you have to extend
way more energy to come back than you're really comfortable.
And and we've told you this before all the other stuff.
Do they need Rondo to make a couple of shots? Sure?
(07:18):
Do they need a third score in a Kuzma? Absolutely?
Did they need Anthony Davis to try and be an
alpha not just in the first two third quarters, but
in the fourth quarter, And and and he needs that
more than to rebound. He just not didn't rebound well.
Like all of these things. I'm not but for the
Lakers to be the Lakers. The reason he in my
(07:39):
mind is the m v P is he is the
rising tide that lifts all ships, and he was unable
to do that early in the game. And I'm sure
part of it is my man's tired and a guy
who's gotten the breaks of protests and playing against teams
that are worn down in these past two series. The
(08:00):
longer this thing goes, the more likely you're gonna have
an un lebron like performance because he might not have
the gas in the tank. Makes sense, I think so. Alright,
coming up next, we would all agree that Carson Wentz
is not playing to the level of his contract, to
his reputation, or even how well he played at the
(08:22):
end of last season when he rescued rescued an injury
depleted roster and brought them to the playoffs. We that's
a reasonable things to agree on, right Whether or not
he stinks and this is who he is. Whether he's
just not playing well, we would agree he's not playing
good football or up to his capabilities right now? Is
that fair? Be sure to catch the live edition of
(08:42):
The Doug Gottlieb Show weekdays at three pm Easter noon
Pacific on Fox Sports Radio and the I Heart Radio
a app. The New England Patriots we were told didn't
have the personnel to compete with the elite of the
National Football League last year. That's why Tom Brady was
smart to get out of town. Right, look at he's
thrown too. You know my husband, can I catch the ball?
(09:05):
And thought the bike can I do it out of himself? Right?
That was Giselle after Wes Welker dropped what was when
we go back like? That? Was not an easy catching
super Bowl. He had to totally lay out and he
didn't catch it. Um. They had I believe eight guys
opt out, most notably Dante high Tower from their defense.
(09:27):
Due to COVID concerns, Rob Gronkowski did not consider coming
back to the Patriots. When he unretired, Tom Brady took
his talents to the other side of Florida. They had
several retirements in the off season. They lost Dante Scarnekia,
(09:48):
who's their legendary offensive line coach, and off the dumpster
heap they signed Cam Newton without o t a s
without a traditional season program kind of sight unseen to
a million dollar contract, and you know what, you don't
(10:10):
win their division again, you know, or be right there
with the Bills. He just he's a football coach, and
he's the best that there has ever been. Let's just
figure out how we can win this game. Like, well,
they didn't shut down Russell Wilson. No, you know why,
because Russell Wilson is awesome. But they did enough, just
(10:31):
enough to put themselves in position to have the football
be at the one yard line. And and and look,
I didn't like the play call because there should have
been a pass option little r p O. But what
have you often been frustrated by with coaches in football? Men?
I just wish they would get the ball to their
best player, right, same thing in basketball. I mean, you
(10:53):
just gotta get the ball to your best player. Okay,
play call, b Damn, it can be as bad as
you wanted to be. But the fact is that they
got their best player the football and everybody else was
blocking for their best player. Like that's football. One on one.
Let's get the ball our best player and let's give
him a chance to win the game. And Bobby Wagner
(11:16):
and a couple of Seahawks blew up to play. But
I'm looking at this bad scientist and I'm thinking to myself,
this is amazing salary cap era. They had this great dynasty.
Lest we forget that, coming off of the greatest regular
season we have seen since, not since the seventy two Dolphins,
(11:36):
and within a whisker of win the Super Bowl, they
lost their superstar quarterback in his prime, and they still
won ten games with Matt Castle, who never sniffed ten
games again, a guy who hadn't started a game in college.
How about that then, Like, look, their roster has been
crumbing the past couple of years, but last year really
wasn't a great roster, especially in the offensive side the ball,
(11:57):
not for lack of trying. They signed wide receiver, wide receiver,
They traded for a for a wide receiver. In the
middle of the year. They just couldn't get it going.
They drafted running backs, you know, they trying to fix
their offensive line. They still won ten twelve games, and
yeah they lost at home to the Tennessee Titans, but
it wasn't like they were blown out and Tennessee had
(12:19):
to do everything they could to sap the clock so
they couldn't give Brady the football with a chance to
win the game. Now you lose Brady, you lose Dante
Hi Tower and all these other guys to COVID, you
lose other guys in your offensive line, coach to retirement,
and you still find ways to win games with Cam Newton,
who Cam Newton hadn't really played meaningful football in two years.
(12:46):
Don't ever change Bill Belichick, and he's not going to.
He's the same guy every year, with the same sweatshirt
every Tuesday. He's is a football coach. He he does.
If the football coach was the UNI bomber, they would
have a similar sense. It does look like a bit
(13:08):
of a mug shot. It does. I've seen the other
tweets where people have said this is what happens when
you've beene succession. You know you've been this is what
I looked like binging on Bosch, whereas the TV shows
this is what netflix ing all day and all night
actually looks like. I love it as a football coach.
(13:30):
And oh yeah, by the way, did you did you
see the quote from Bruce Arians about Rob Gronkowski. Did
you guys see it? Uh? Yeah, this is what this
is what Bruce arians said. We haven't had that many
red zone opportunities, and I don't see him running forty
yards past people anymore. We brought him into play tight end.
(13:53):
If that means no catches, that means no catches. In
other words, Bill Belichick new when Rob Gronkowski retired he
was done. They were trying to trade Rob Gronkowski, but
they couldn't get him to commit to playing and he
was making too much money because he can't run anymore.
He's essentially, you know, a seven what is it? A
(14:16):
sixth offensive lineman? Thank Brady is not the same as
he used to be. Gronks not the same. Hell, Stephen
Gotskowski missed three field goals an extra point. Who had
him last year? The Patriots. It's pretty remarkable, pretty pretty remarkable.
(14:36):
Be sure to catch the live edition of The Doug
Gottlieb Show weekdays at three p m. Easter noon Pacific.
Daniel Jeremiah joins us in the Doug Golif Show on
Fox Sports Radio. Do you look closer to uh to
Bill Belichick suit and tie or Bill Belichick completely disheveled
during his press conference today? Right now? Right now, I'm
(14:57):
firmly in the middle. I've got jeans on and like
a lemon shirt, so definitely not the tattered look. But
there's no tie around my neck. I can promise you
that there's no there's there's no tie around your neck. DJ.
I mean, I know you cover the Chargers, and I
don't even want to get into the team doctor thing.
But why are they just gonna let why why not
(15:18):
just let Justin Herbert play? Why I go back to
Tyrod Taylor? You know, the only thing I can say,
Doug on that is that, um, you know, coach Lenz
always had an affinity for Tyrod, and he's very well
liked and respected inside the locker room. So, UM, I
think they wanted to give him a good long shot
at this thing. But you know, I understand when you
(15:40):
get to me, when you have a quarterback, a young quarterback,
he has to meet a certain threshold, you know, in
other words, he gets out on the field and it's
not too big for him, then man, all those reps
are priceless. If you can get him those reps, um are,
They're going to get him up to speed a lot quicker.
And I thought he more than met that threshold with
the way he handled himself. I mean, there was times
he did not open up the right way on play action.
(16:02):
There were times where literally he was he was consulting
his wristband as he had a receiver in motion, just
to double check to make sure he knew what the
call was. But even with all that being said, the
ball got snapped and he just found a way to
make plays. So I was I was really encouraged by
by what we saw. I mean, normally you get these
young guys, you've got, you know, a couple of months,
(16:23):
at least a couple of weeks or a week. This
guy found out after the coin flip he was going
out there, so might have been the best thing to himself.
Well it might have been the best thing for him though, right,
just like they're not ready for him. Although gush that
interception was awful. Just run for the first down, dude,
because that was that was a game changer for him. Yeah, exactly,
And I think that is another one of the reasons
why you see, um the coaches said he wants to
(16:44):
stick with Tyrod because he feels like, you know, the
Tyrod is not going to turn the ball over. Something
he has proven he will protect the football. And the
way they're playing defense right now, they feel like they've
got a shot. But um, you know, look with Herbert
on the whole, I thought it was great. That's one
play like to have back. And I think there's some
other times where you can be a little it more
aggressive with his legs. After the life of me, can't
remember the last time I've seen a quarterback who did
(17:05):
not lower his shoulder knock a linebacker out cold. But
that's how big and strong he is. A he is
a big old boy. Should we should we marvel at
at Cam Newton or the job that Josh McDaniels and
Belichick are doing considering they didn't have the O T
(17:26):
A S and offseason program, they don't have a ton
of weapons, and yet Cam Newton looks like it'll it'll
work in New England. I think you, I think you
got to spread the credit around. I mean, I haven't
seen Cam throw it like that in a long time,
and he threw it really well, and they found matchups
and and just uh and and stuck to it. I mean,
Jamal Adams was kind of their their bulls eye and
(17:49):
coverage and they went at him with Juliette when they
were able to get that matchup and they went out
of a bunch um. So I thought it was a
nice game plan. I think people kind of wondered, and
I'm sure we've had these conversations, is where, you know,
what does the offense look like? In the past, they've
been able to morph from one week to the next,
and is it gonna be more It's gonna be a
different offense with Cam, but is it going to be
a static offense where we see the same thing week
(18:11):
after week after week? And here we are two weeks
in and it's like the Patriots in the same old,
same old. I mean, one week one offense looks completely
different than what they're running out week two. And the
Cam's credit, he's been able to execute both the both times.
So it's gonna make them very difficult to defend. I
think going forward, let me go backwards to your game,
which I shouldn't, But look, I thought the Charge did
(18:33):
a great job of putting pressure on on pat Mahomes.
But I also thought that this Chief's offense was more
diverse than last year with Clyde Edwards Laire and yet
they really struggled for the most part to move the football.
Is there something that's that's missing with the Chief's offense.
It's not clicking like maybe it should be. I would
say that the I'd say it this way. There's good
(18:54):
news and bad news if you're a Chiefs fan. The
bad news is the Chargers have kind of shown a
formula of how to slow this offense down. They've done
it for the last couple of years. Um, they have
the formula. That's the badness. The good news is there
aren't many teams that have a defensive line like that.
They can get after you with four guys um and
be able to dedicate more bodies into coverage to really
(19:14):
only allow the one big play over the top of
Tyreek Kill. Outside of that, they kept everything in front
of him uh. And then I think with him adding
Kenneth Murray, you've got somebody that's UH with that speed
at the second level to be able to get to
the perimeter with all the perimeter run game they do,
and they try and get you out leveraged, and then
you know, one false step and then they they're they're
out the back door. With Kenneth Murray and his speed,
(19:36):
he sucked a lot of that stuff up. So, Um,
I think Gus Bradley's got a really good beat on
that on that offense. But there's just not many teams
that can line up with with Bosa and Ingram and
and lin Vault Joseph who's who is a fantasy a
good player, uh, and Jerry Tillery who has really come along.
There's not many teams that can line up with those
dudes and not have to put more bodies in the box.
They can. They can win with those guys. Can you
imagine if they had Drew and James. I mean that
(19:57):
like the best defense in football. And and by the way,
Drew Trankil an outstanding linebacker, you know, broke his ankle also.
I mean like, look, I think they might win the
game if Melvin Ingram doesn't jump off sides on on
third down on that overtime drive, which everybody has forgotten
because they make can't sit. But you know, Butker makes
three straight field goals from fifty plus. With the freezing
(20:19):
and the off sides and all that, say, it was
really interesting telling game. Uh, Daniel Jeremiah joining us Doug
gotlip show here on Fox Sports Radio. Um, I'm I'm
trying to think what your breakdown was when uh, the
you go back a couple of years and we were
(20:39):
getting ready for the draft and and there was a big,
strong arm quarterback named Josh Allen, and everybody said, well,
you know, Josh Allen inaccurate? And then where were you
on Josh Allen? And has he has he gotten better?
Is it something they're doing like what has happened where
some people are talking about him as an early season
MVP candidate. Well, he, first of all, no, but there
(21:01):
was no denying how big and how strong and how
athletic he was. You know, the Cam Newton comparisons were
made with him. I think people kind of scoffed, but
he is. He's he's not quite as athletic as Cam,
but he's a great athlete at that size with a
huge arm. Who was who was playing on a terrible
team at Wyoming? Um I think guy had him, Uh gosh,
he was. He was still my fourth quarterback and I
(21:23):
had him in the early twenties. So he went he
went higher than you know where I had him graded.
But the thing with him was, it's just with the
decision making and some of the inaccuracy. Now I think
you saw him clean up some of the decision making.
Last year, I thought you saw him take huge strides there,
and then this year we've seen the accuracy took way up.
(21:46):
So they've done a nice job, Brian day Ball and
company there with that offensive working with him, reigning in
some of his his recklessness, and then he's he's become
more accurate. And part of that is you go out
and get Stefon Diggs, and they've got John Brown, They've
got speed that can open things up. They've got a
really good young tight end and knocks um. So that
and I I give Buffalo and their you know, Brandon
(22:07):
Bean and their their general manager and then McDermott their
coaching staff. I don't know that there's a better run
team right now in terms of being all on the
same page and having a vision and executing it than
the Buffalo Bills. They have done a wonderful job and
I think he's benefited from all that structure and you're
seeing that talent really start to come out. So it
was a great fit for Josh Allen. It's really impressive
(22:29):
what they've been able to do. Um Tom Brady, now
we have two weeks in the bank. Let me start
with Rob Gronkowski no catches. His coach came out today
and said, hey, he's not running past guys like he
used to. I don't remember him running past guys, but
he's essentially alignment now. Is this just another case of
Bill Belichick knows when guys are done, they're done. Yeah,
(22:50):
I mean that's it's when you watch those I don't
have any you know. I feel a lot better about
Tom Brady watching that tape and seeing three drop touchdown passes.
He could have had a huge game and there, um,
they did not play great around him at the receiver positions.
Then he turned around. You watched Gronk. He cannot run.
He can't get out of a break, He can't get
away from anybody. And when he was younger, he really
(23:11):
could run. I mean he was. It looks kind of
clunky because he's just so big and he's like six
seven or you know whatever he is to earn seventy pounds,
and he's just kind of a it's kind of a
goofy look. But he was covering ground. He's not covering
any ground now, Doug, and he cannot get his foot
in the ground and get out of any type of
a break so um he yeah, he looks broken down.
I mean that's just what it looks like when you
(23:32):
watch him on tape. He looks old and broken down.
Is Drew Brees arm shot. My issue with Drew is
not the arm, because I think for a couple of
years now he's not been able to really really stress
the defense down the field. Uh. To me, it's when
he starts missing some of the underneath stuff that I've
never seen him miss. Um. You know a couple of
(23:52):
times where he had he had time, he had a
clean pocket, he's got a you know, ten yard crosser.
I mean that things on the upfield shoulder. You know,
I've never seen it not on the upfield shielder much
less than complete. And now you're you saw some bad
misses in that game. So that's that's what worried me.
It's not you know, the field's gonna shrink and he
can't push the ball down the field. He's been able
to win a lot of half court basketball games for
(24:13):
the last fifteen years. Uh, you start missing those though,
you've got a problem. Yeah, it's Chris Sims said the
exact same thing. It's it's kind of like when it
ended for Jason Kidd right, Like, you know, he wasn't
the same guy in the full court he used to be.
But now a sudden you can't make layups and drives
and you just can't buy a bucket. It just when
it goes, when it goes, it goes. Uh. It's it
(24:34):
feels like it's been a slow decline, but maybe it's
just been made more obvious because we're paying attention to it. Yeah,
I mean, I think he didn't play great last year.
Remember he had his Bucky brought up on our podcast
of the day. He had you know what a five
weeks at what five week refresher There was just thumb
I think that he had last year. Um that allowed
him trying freshen up towards the end of the year.
(24:56):
You know, this is week two, man, so it's a
managing the sea where it he looks like when we
get the week you know, nine, ten, eleven, twelve. Yeah, no,
I'm I'm I'm with you. That's last year might have
been like his Peyton Manning matter. Peyton Manning I got
injured and then suddenly came back for the playoffs and
found a way to ride that defense to his his
last Super Bowl win. Um, all right, now we're two
(25:19):
weeks into Aaron Rodgers playing elite football. Is the talent
around him better than we thought? Is Aaron Rodgers not
as washed up as some people thought? Like? What what
has changed in Green Bay? Man? I'll tell you what.
He looks clean, I mean just clean. Everything is crisp,
with his feet, with the way the ball is coming out,
They've got a run game going now, Um, I mean
(25:42):
they're they're averaging We looked this up to the day,
they're averaging six point one yards to carry when they're
under center. So when once you get to that point
in time, now you get under center, now you can
work Aaron off play action off that and he's again.
I just keep coming back to the fact he looks great,
He's in great shape, and everything is crisp, and the
ball is umping out of his hand. So, UM, I
(26:02):
don't think this has as much to do with what's
around him as just Aaron Rodgers is fully dialed in
right now, I would I tend to agree with you. Um,
I look at Jimmy Garoppolo. He's hurt, but it seems
like there has to be some growing frustration up there. Now. Well,
I think we've seen that in all the Shanahan press
conferences over the last couple of years that there's definitely
(26:24):
frustration that they've left plays and yards out of the field,
um due to some missus at the quarterback position. So
you know, they found a way to win a lot
of games and Darnia won a championship with it, but
I think there has been some underlying frustration there that
they haven't gotten more. He's man, they're they're so good
with you know, go back to be an under center. Obviously,
that's what they do a lot. And uh, their their
(26:45):
their play design and and game plan week to week
is it's fun to watch, man, because they just get
dudes wide open. What changed with Dak Prescott after they
got down so big? Oh man, he was he was
really good. Man. That what they did is they found matchups,
They found a way and you'll see it, Doug haven't
watched a ton of Charger games. In that same defense
(27:07):
that Gus runs, that Pete runs, um. You saw it
with Seattle. I talked about getting Jamal Adams isolated on
Julian Edelman. In that defense, you you're going to have
linebackers and safeties that when they get in some of
these three by one formations, you're gonna have to cover
the inside receiver. And what they did is they found
ways to get Seedee Lamb on linebackers. They got him
(27:29):
on on Dion Jones, and then they were able to
spread the field and and they were able to get
a Marii Cooper isolated on Kian O'Neil. I mean, they
just found matchups that worked in their favor. And Doc
was he was very aggressive and attacking those when he
had him. Russell Wilson the best guy playing right now.
I don't think anybody's playing better than him. And he's
(27:49):
he's so good man. And it's um, it's it's it's
fun to watch. I'm just glad. I know everybody says
what they always say, like let Russ Cooker, what have you,
kind of laugh, But that's that's what they're doing. They're
finally saying, used to be in case of emergency, Brake
Glass rus and now and now it's just go get them,
go get him from the first quarter on and and
it's explosive, it really is. DJ great stuff, great job
(28:12):
calling the game. Look forward to the next move the sticks,
and we appreciate you join us appreciate Fox 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 I Heart Radio app. Search f s
R to listen live. Rick Beeker joins us Doug Olive
show here on Fox Sports Radio. What are you shocked
(28:33):
by what you saw last night from the Lakers, Rick Puker,
Not really. I guess I was shocked to see them
come out so lackadaisically at the beginning of the game,
but when it came to the end, it really was
I thought that I thought the Nuggets demonstrated there's two things. One,
(28:53):
at the very beginning of Game one, when Yokis was
able to get wherever he wanted to against Anthony Davis,
actually could move past Anthony Davis and get the spots,
I tweeted out, Oh, this is gonna be a series
because I just felt, yeah, I just saw, like I thought,
some things that were gonna be difficult for Denver against
(29:15):
the Lakers were not. Now, when the Lakers get a
big lead there, they're They're one of the best front
running teams when they when they have when they can,
they got a little bit of room to maneuver. Suddenly
everybody's three point percentage goes up about ten percent on
that team, and they they play better loose. But when
it becomes a possession by possession game, to me, that's
(29:37):
where they're not as good as we make them out
to be, or whether they're at least vulnerable. And that's
what I saw at the end of Game two, and
so when even when they came back, when I had
the last three and a half minutes, I looked at
the way Denver was operating and the uncertainty with the Lakers,
(29:58):
and I was not shocked by the outcome. And that's
that's going to be the whole battle here. If Denver
can prevent the Lakers from getting out and playing fast
and opening up, you know, a fifteen, sixteen point lead,
I not only think they have a chance of making
this a long series, I think they have a chance
of winning it. And that was not my thought going in.
(30:21):
Um here, can I give you my I got a
hypotheses that I've shared earlier in the show, and I
want you to give me your thoughts on okay. Um, Look,
Lebron didn't have the same energy last night, and when
he doesn't, he has tensity to play kind of a
little slower and andy they struggle to get going. Um
and I I think that's because you're now at your
(30:42):
third game in this series. Whereas you know, in the
previous series they played the Rockets, they finished up their
first round series easily. The Rockets went seven and they
also had those couple extra days off because the protests.
He's been fresh and rested. Even the start of this series,
he was fresh and rested because the Nuggets had to
come from behind. He goes seven games. The longer this
(31:05):
thing goes, the more human he becomes, and the slower
starts you're gonna see. Yeah, and I certainly like his
numbers looked good, but they were all static. It wasn't
It wasn't his His quality shooting and scoring wasn't creating
for anybody else. There was a lot of mid range
(31:25):
kind of jab jab take the jumper. His mid range
was was falling. And then when they made to come back, uh,
you know, it was basically, we're not gonna put him
on the on the free throw line, will trade off
when it comes to that. I just in the last
but if you look at the last five minutes of
both games in Game two, Lebron James in the final
(31:47):
five minutes of the game had three turnovers, three miss
shots and one airball three and and last night it
was one for three, one assist in one turnover, and
Anthony Davis didn't take a single shot in the last
five minutes of that game. So I'm just and And conversely,
(32:08):
if you look at Yokitsen Murray, both of them have
been dynamic and contributed in in the final you know,
minutes of both games that were closed. So to me,
that's the most interesting aspect of this is the overall
numbers suggest that Lebron and and A d are contributing.
But I need them to work together to win games,
(32:32):
these close games, and I haven't seen it in two
games so far, and that's what makes me, that's what
gives me pause about the Lakers winning this series. Uh,
Doug gotlip show Here on Fox Sports Radio, Chris Brussard
says that game after Game seven, Um, you know, yeah,
Paul George stand up in front of the team and
(32:52):
there's a lot of eye rolling. Um, how do you
fix the Clippers? Well, honestly, there there have to be
some change is made. There have to be some significant
changes made the the idea that they just run it
back and that this was just a missed opportunity, and
now everybody's on the same page. There. There is a
dynamic there, I believe on the coaching staff and the
(33:16):
leadership of the team that simply does not uh equate
to winning a championship. There's I don't know who the
driving forces of that team. Pat dev I'm not even
sure that on a championship team he's your point guard. Uh.
(33:37):
Doc Rivers is more of a player's coach. He won
his one championship with Tom Thibodeaux, who we know as
a as a real Ramrod when it comes to being
an assistant coach. Tyler wasn't that. I mean I looked
down the Clippers bench and I think about that series
and all of the missteps and the lack of days
ago lazy defense that they play aid and that's really
(34:00):
where they lost lost the series. And I don't remember
one instance where there was a player or there was
a coach, assistant or otherwise who was reading the Riot
Act to everybody at any given point to say we
need to play tougher defensively or what like, just get
into this is what we need to do different defensively,
(34:24):
and that's a missing element. I don't know. I don't
even know who I would look to to do that
on that roster or that coaching staff at this point.
But if they have aspirations of winning something next year,
then they need to go find that element and add
it to the equation. Interesting, Billy Donovan, Chicago, Do you
(34:44):
like that? I actually do. I understand that. Uh. You know,
there's a lot of young, talented coaches out there that,
uh that we'd like to see get an opportunity. But
for where the Chicago Bulls are in terms of regaining
the respect of their young roster, uh, their young players,
(35:10):
and the league as a whole, Billy Donovan just makes
a lot of sense. I think he's he's good at
uh at connecting with quality players. I think he's I
think he's a He has a way of developing players
and at the same time holding the respect of guys
that you would consider your stars. I think he demonstrated
(35:32):
that in Oklahoma City. So, uh, you know, you want
you want Wendell Carter Jr. And Zach Lavine to believe
that you are you know, you're not just throwing something
against the wall and seeing if it sticks, like we
are legitimately going to get back to the days where
we are a playoff franchise and to bring in a
(35:54):
young guy in that circumstance, I just I understand and
why the Bulls did what they did, and when I
consider that they're still in a development stage with young stars,
and yet they want to give their team and their
players the sense that we are we are we consider
ourselves a playoff team. I just think Billy makes a
(36:18):
lot of sense when when trying to address all the
things that the Bulls are trying to address with their
head coach uh Rick Bucker joining us on the Doug
Gotlip Show on Fox Sports. Tread you talked about the
fight within a team and the motivation to play better.
We saw that with the Boston Celtics, but tonight kind
of rubber meets the road, right, Like I know, the
Nuggets came from down three one, this becomes the game. Um,
(36:41):
did the Celtics figure something out when they went crazy
after falling down two games and none? Yeah? Well, look
they matched the heat energy they really didn't in the
first two games. I felt like it was a bit
of a fifth fight and it wasn't um. It wasn't
so much execution as it was simply the Heat seemed
(37:04):
to be a step quicker on everything, and they would
get multiple rebounds and you know, you'd have that that
that that miss three, that should be a Boston fast
break the other way and instead uh Ei getting to
it and they're swinging it and they're getting another three
at the time it's going down. So honestly, I just
(37:25):
felt that they met that they met their energy and
match the Heat energy. I it'll be interesting. Look, I
picked the Celtics going in because I thought of the
collective experience that they had playoff wise, and I thought
that they had the more physical guys, but the Heat
(37:46):
didn't show that in in the in the first two games.
But I agree with you a thousand percent, Um, Boston
needs to play with the same level of desperation they
did in the last game because you just know that
the Heat are always going to play that way. I
feel as if there's just an edge in terms of
(38:07):
it's really Jason Tatum. I feel like Jason Tatum is
the edge, but everybody has to play hard or Boston
in order to in order for that edge to to
make its presence felt Boston win tonight. I am uh.
(38:28):
I want to say yes because otherwise my prediction doesn't
come true. And I'd like to say yes because because
I want to see a long series, because I like
watching these two teams play. But Miami has shown me
something through all three games, even in the way that
they lost Game three. That um I just bam out
(38:54):
of Bio makes is such a difference maker. I thought
it was the X factors were Jason Tatum or bam Um.
One of those two was going to force the other
team was going to create problems that the other team
was going to have to do too much to address,
and that was going to open things up for everybody else.
(39:17):
I feel a Miami win, even though I want everything
for every for every other reason, I would like to
keep Boston wins. Great stuff. You quit it really hedge
that one, yea, I mean really drew it out. Like
I knew you were coming around without Miami win. But
you're just gonna said, you know, like, I'd like to
see a series, but I think Miami wins night instead.
Now I'm late. I can't even ask you about the
Lakers tomorrow night. But in the meantime, thanks for joining us.
(39:39):
You're welcome, duly noted. I'll be more SIS because I
love you. Thanks so much. Rick Buker, Bleacher Report, Fox
Sports One awesome stuff
Thanks for listening to the best of the Doug Gottlip
Show podcast. Be sure to catch us live every weekday
from three to six pm Eastern Time, that's twelve to
three Pacific on Fox Sports Radio. Fire your local station
for the Doug Gottlip Show at Fox Sports Radio dot com,
or stream us live every day on the I Heart
Radio app by searching fs R. This is the best
(00:22):
of the Doug got Leave Show on Fox Sports Radio.
The Lakers trailed by as many as twenty points. That's
their biggest deficit in any game in this postseason. Jamal
Murray was spectacular, spectacular. Uh he made plays, he finished shots,
and then he finished off the Lakers with a couple
(00:42):
of just ridiculous dagger jump shots, one over Anthony Davis
with fifty five seconds ago. I mean a rainbow up nine,
That's just it was a Steph Couries shot, quick release,
high arch right in the eye of Anthony Davis. And
I know what many you're thinking, got leaved up two
games to one. They have Lebron James, they have Anthony Davis.
(01:06):
The Nuggets shouldn't even be there. You know, you got
Jamal Murray hitting shots that he's not normally going to hit,
but he was running a fever in a hot hand.
Their bench players played way better than they normally are.
The Lakers lose one four, one oh six. Murray has
twenty eight and twelve Yokis hits like a fade away
off one ft Dirk Navitski from nineteen feet. Those things
(01:28):
won't happen normally. There's no cause for concern. Okay, I'm
I'm okay with that. Look there, there's a bunch of
things that we talk about on this show that other
people do not talk about on their shows. It's it's
much easier to say one team wanted it more. Well,
(01:51):
the Nuggets just wanted more. That played harder than the Lakers,
and I do think they came out with better energy.
It's another thing to point out that we've said the
things that lead to victories in the NBA are matchups.
In the NBA playoffs, matchups, conditioning right and confidence. And
(02:14):
the Nuggets when they play well, when they get a lead,
that was their first lead, and like forever in the
playoffs and they had to lead at the half, they
had to be looking around like, wait, we don't have
to come from behind. What the hell is all. This
hadn't led at all at the half um, even in
the previous series against the Clippers. Pretty remarkable. But what
(02:37):
I find to be interesting is that until this very show,
I don't believe anyone's gonna point out the fact that
the Lakers have benefited from rest. Last night, Lebron James
put up a remarkable stat line of triple double, and
most people are gonna tell you he played great. But
I think if you asked Lebron and if you watch
the game, he didn't come out with the same energy
(02:59):
and he was doing what well Lebron sometimes has a
tendency to do, which is he played a little bit
too slow, a little bit too patient to start the game,
and they got down and by the time they woke up,
you extend so much more energy trying to come back
than you do try to protect the lead. Factor in
(03:23):
that the Lakers, obviously they've had gentlemen sweeps, they've taken
care of business in their two previous playoff rounds. Combined
with the fact that they benefited from missing not one
but two games because of the protests after what happened
in Kenosha, Wisconsin, you put those two things together and
(03:43):
you factor in that the last two teams that they've
played have both gone through seven game series. They've been
the rested team. The opposition has been the team that's
running on fumes. And when you factor in that, Lebron
James exudes confidence, and you have Lebron James and Anthony
(04:09):
Davis too, really hard matchups for the Denver Nuggets. You
have the entering the series, you had the triumvirant right,
you had the matchups, you had the confidence, you had
the conditioning. Those are the three things, which is why
Game four is so incredibly important because right now the
(04:29):
Nuggets rightfully believe, hey man, we should be up to
games to one, right like Anthony we screwed up on
a defensive Sigmon and Anthony Davis, who's a good shooter,
but he's not like he's not like you Steph Curry
from three hits a hits a three to win the game.
He misses that we're up two games to one. Right now.
(04:50):
We have figured them out. They haven't figured us out.
We have more youth, meaning the longer it goes, the
more our confidence will grow. And the more tired, more
fatigued they're older legs will be it doesn't mean that
if it goes you know, if it becomes too too
I think the Nuggets are gonna win. I don't. I
(05:12):
believe the Lakers will win this series. But in order
for the Lakers to win an NBA championship, and they'll
still be a prohibitive favorite over Boston who's younger, or
over the Heat who's younger, there's still a very strong
likelihood of them winning. But the the opportunity to beat
(05:33):
a team like the Lakers and Lebron is. The longer
the series goes, the more likelierrors to be injury or
just playing fatigue, and Lebron is He's not a spring
chicken anymore. So I'm fascinated by, um what happens heading forward.
(05:54):
I'm fascinated by Game four. I'm fascinating to see if
Lebron James can reinvigorate himself, because not only did he
not have great energy out of the blocks, but he
extended a ton of energy for that comeback. This is
not me being hyper critical of the best player of
this era. That That's not what I'm doing. I'm just
(06:15):
painting the reality of it. It's it's no different than
talking about Tom Brady at forty three, or talking about
Drew Brees at thirty nine, we're talking about Philip Rivers,
you know, at his age. None of that stuff changes
like age does change how much and how often you're
gonna have your a game. And Lebron was a little
(06:36):
bit slow defensively, a little bit slow offensively. He wasn't
the same dude he had been early in the game.
And that's reasonable, it's reasonable to believe. And his teammates
didn't play with didn't pick up his energy. I didn't
say he played poorly, And I'm I'm not being critical
in any way of of the final stat line and
(06:56):
the ability to make that game competitive. But what happens
is when you get down that big against a younger team,
that younger team's confidence grows and you have to extend
way more energy to come back than you're really comfortable.
And and we've told you this before all the other stuff.
Do they need Rondo to make a couple of shots? Sure?
(07:18):
Do they need a third score in a Kuzma? Absolutely?
Did they need Anthony Davis to try and be an
alpha not just in the first two third quarters, but
in the fourth quarter, And and and he needs that
more than to rebound. He just not didn't rebound well.
Like all of these things. I'm not but for the
Lakers to be the Lakers. The reason he in my
(07:39):
mind is the m v P is he is the
rising tide that lifts all ships, and he was unable
to do that early in the game. And I'm sure
part of it is my man's tired and a guy
who's gotten the breaks of protests and playing against teams
that are worn down in these past two series. The
(08:00):
longer this thing goes, the more likely you're gonna have
an un lebron like performance because he might not have
the gas in the tank. Makes sense, I think so. Alright,
coming up next, we would all agree that Carson Wentz
is not playing to the level of his contract, to
his reputation, or even how well he played at the
(08:22):
end of last season when he rescued rescued an injury
depleted roster and brought them to the playoffs. We that's
a reasonable things to agree on, right Whether or not
he stinks and this is who he is. Whether he's
just not playing well, we would agree he's not playing
good football or up to his capabilities right now? Is
that fair? Be sure to catch the live edition of
(08:42):
The Doug Gottlieb Show weekdays at three pm Easter noon
Pacific on Fox Sports Radio and the I Heart Radio
a app. The New England Patriots we were told didn't
have the personnel to compete with the elite of the
National Football League last year. That's why Tom Brady was
smart to get out of town. Right, look at he's
thrown too. You know my husband, can I catch the ball?
(09:05):
And thought the bike can I do it out of himself? Right?
That was Giselle after Wes Welker dropped what was when
we go back like? That? Was not an easy catching
super Bowl. He had to totally lay out and he
didn't catch it. Um. They had I believe eight guys
opt out, most notably Dante high Tower from their defense.
(09:27):
Due to COVID concerns, Rob Gronkowski did not consider coming
back to the Patriots. When he unretired, Tom Brady took
his talents to the other side of Florida. They had
several retirements in the off season. They lost Dante Scarnekia,
(09:48):
who's their legendary offensive line coach, and off the dumpster
heap they signed Cam Newton without o t a s
without a traditional season program kind of sight unseen to
a million dollar contract, and you know what, you don't
(10:10):
win their division again, you know, or be right there
with the Bills. He just he's a football coach, and
he's the best that there has ever been. Let's just
figure out how we can win this game. Like, well,
they didn't shut down Russell Wilson. No, you know why,
because Russell Wilson is awesome. But they did enough, just
(10:31):
enough to put themselves in position to have the football
be at the one yard line. And and and look,
I didn't like the play call because there should have
been a pass option little r p O. But what
have you often been frustrated by with coaches in football? Men?
I just wish they would get the ball to their
best player, right, same thing in basketball. I mean, you
(10:53):
just gotta get the ball to your best player. Okay,
play call, b Damn, it can be as bad as
you wanted to be. But the fact is that they
got their best player the football and everybody else was
blocking for their best player. Like that's football. One on one.
Let's get the ball our best player and let's give
him a chance to win the game. And Bobby Wagner
(11:16):
and a couple of Seahawks blew up to play. But
I'm looking at this bad scientist and I'm thinking to myself,
this is amazing salary cap era. They had this great dynasty.
Lest we forget that, coming off of the greatest regular
season we have seen since, not since the seventy two Dolphins,
(11:36):
and within a whisker of win the Super Bowl, they
lost their superstar quarterback in his prime, and they still
won ten games with Matt Castle, who never sniffed ten
games again, a guy who hadn't started a game in college.
How about that then, Like, look, their roster has been
crumbing the past couple of years, but last year really
wasn't a great roster, especially in the offensive side the ball,
(11:57):
not for lack of trying. They signed wide receiver, wide receiver,
They traded for a for a wide receiver. In the
middle of the year. They just couldn't get it going.
They drafted running backs, you know, they trying to fix
their offensive line. They still won ten twelve games, and
yeah they lost at home to the Tennessee Titans, but
it wasn't like they were blown out and Tennessee had
(12:19):
to do everything they could to sap the clock so
they couldn't give Brady the football with a chance to
win the game. Now you lose Brady, you lose Dante
Hi Tower and all these other guys to COVID, you
lose other guys in your offensive line, coach to retirement,
and you still find ways to win games with Cam Newton,
who Cam Newton hadn't really played meaningful football in two years.
(12:46):
Don't ever change Bill Belichick, and he's not going to.
He's the same guy every year, with the same sweatshirt
every Tuesday. He's is a football coach. He he does.
If the football coach was the UNI bomber, they would
have a similar sense. It does look like a bit
(13:08):
of a mug shot. It does. I've seen the other
tweets where people have said this is what happens when
you've beene succession. You know you've been this is what
I looked like binging on Bosch, whereas the TV shows
this is what netflix ing all day and all night
actually looks like. I love it as a football coach.
(13:30):
And oh yeah, by the way, did you did you
see the quote from Bruce Arians about Rob Gronkowski. Did
you guys see it? Uh? Yeah, this is what this
is what Bruce arians said. We haven't had that many
red zone opportunities, and I don't see him running forty
yards past people anymore. We brought him into play tight end.
(13:53):
If that means no catches, that means no catches. In
other words, Bill Belichick new when Rob Gronkowski retired he
was done. They were trying to trade Rob Gronkowski, but
they couldn't get him to commit to playing and he
was making too much money because he can't run anymore.
He's essentially, you know, a seven what is it? A
(14:16):
sixth offensive lineman? Thank Brady is not the same as
he used to be. Gronks not the same. Hell, Stephen
Gotskowski missed three field goals an extra point. Who had
him last year? The Patriots. It's pretty remarkable, pretty pretty remarkable.
(14:36):
Be sure to catch the live edition of The Doug
Gottlieb Show weekdays at three p m. Easter noon Pacific.
Daniel Jeremiah joins us in the Doug Golif Show on
Fox Sports Radio. Do you look closer to uh to
Bill Belichick suit and tie or Bill Belichick completely disheveled
during his press conference today? Right now? Right now, I'm
(14:57):
firmly in the middle. I've got jeans on and like
a lemon shirt, so definitely not the tattered look. But
there's no tie around my neck. I can promise you
that there's no there's there's no tie around your neck. DJ.
I mean, I know you cover the Chargers, and I
don't even want to get into the team doctor thing.
But why are they just gonna let why why not
(15:18):
just let Justin Herbert play? Why I go back to
Tyrod Taylor? You know, the only thing I can say,
Doug on that is that, um, you know, coach Lenz
always had an affinity for Tyrod, and he's very well
liked and respected inside the locker room. So, UM, I
think they wanted to give him a good long shot
at this thing. But you know, I understand when you
(15:40):
get to me, when you have a quarterback, a young quarterback,
he has to meet a certain threshold, you know, in
other words, he gets out on the field and it's
not too big for him, then man, all those reps
are priceless. If you can get him those reps, um are,
They're going to get him up to speed a lot quicker.
And I thought he more than met that threshold with
the way he handled himself. I mean, there was times
he did not open up the right way on play action.
(16:02):
There were times where literally he was he was consulting
his wristband as he had a receiver in motion, just
to double check to make sure he knew what the
call was. But even with all that being said, the
ball got snapped and he just found a way to
make plays. So I was I was really encouraged by
by what we saw. I mean, normally you get these
young guys, you've got, you know, a couple of months,
(16:23):
at least a couple of weeks or a week. This
guy found out after the coin flip he was going
out there, so might have been the best thing to himself.
Well it might have been the best thing for him though, right,
just like they're not ready for him. Although gush that
interception was awful. Just run for the first down, dude,
because that was that was a game changer for him. Yeah, exactly,
And I think that is another one of the reasons
why you see, um the coaches said he wants to
(16:44):
stick with Tyrod because he feels like, you know, the
Tyrod is not going to turn the ball over. Something
he has proven he will protect the football. And the
way they're playing defense right now, they feel like they've
got a shot. But um, you know, look with Herbert
on the whole, I thought it was great. That's one
play like to have back. And I think there's some
other times where you can be a little it more
aggressive with his legs. After the life of me, can't
remember the last time I've seen a quarterback who did
(17:05):
not lower his shoulder knock a linebacker out cold. But
that's how big and strong he is. A he is
a big old boy. Should we should we marvel at
at Cam Newton or the job that Josh McDaniels and
Belichick are doing considering they didn't have the O T
(17:26):
A S and offseason program, they don't have a ton
of weapons, and yet Cam Newton looks like it'll it'll
work in New England. I think you, I think you
got to spread the credit around. I mean, I haven't
seen Cam throw it like that in a long time,
and he threw it really well, and they found matchups
and and just uh and and stuck to it. I mean,
Jamal Adams was kind of their their bulls eye and
(17:49):
coverage and they went at him with Juliette when they
were able to get that matchup and they went out
of a bunch um. So I thought it was a
nice game plan. I think people kind of wondered, and
I'm sure we've had these conversations, is where, you know,
what does the offense look like? In the past, they've
been able to morph from one week to the next,
and is it gonna be more It's gonna be a
different offense with Cam, but is it going to be
a static offense where we see the same thing week
(18:11):
after week after week? And here we are two weeks
in and it's like the Patriots in the same old,
same old. I mean, one week one offense looks completely
different than what they're running out week two. And the
Cam's credit, he's been able to execute both the both times.
So it's gonna make them very difficult to defend. I
think going forward, let me go backwards to your game,
which I shouldn't, But look, I thought the Charge did
(18:33):
a great job of putting pressure on on pat Mahomes.
But I also thought that this Chief's offense was more
diverse than last year with Clyde Edwards Laire and yet
they really struggled for the most part to move the football.
Is there something that's that's missing with the Chief's offense.
It's not clicking like maybe it should be. I would
say that the I'd say it this way. There's good
(18:54):
news and bad news if you're a Chiefs fan. The
bad news is the Chargers have kind of shown a
formula of how to slow this offense down. They've done
it for the last couple of years. Um, they have
the formula. That's the badness. The good news is there
aren't many teams that have a defensive line like that.
They can get after you with four guys um and
be able to dedicate more bodies into coverage to really
(19:14):
only allow the one big play over the top of
Tyreek Kill. Outside of that, they kept everything in front
of him uh. And then I think with him adding
Kenneth Murray, you've got somebody that's UH with that speed
at the second level to be able to get to
the perimeter with all the perimeter run game they do,
and they try and get you out leveraged, and then
you know, one false step and then they they're they're
out the back door. With Kenneth Murray and his speed,
(19:36):
he sucked a lot of that stuff up. So, Um,
I think Gus Bradley's got a really good beat on
that on that offense. But there's just not many teams
that can line up with with Bosa and Ingram and
and lin Vault Joseph who's who is a fantasy a
good player, uh, and Jerry Tillery who has really come along.
There's not many teams that can line up with those
dudes and not have to put more bodies in the box.
They can. They can win with those guys. Can you
imagine if they had Drew and James. I mean that
(19:57):
like the best defense in football. And and by the way,
Drew Trankil an outstanding linebacker, you know, broke his ankle also.
I mean like, look, I think they might win the
game if Melvin Ingram doesn't jump off sides on on
third down on that overtime drive, which everybody has forgotten
because they make can't sit. But you know, Butker makes
three straight field goals from fifty plus. With the freezing
(20:19):
and the off sides and all that, say, it was
really interesting telling game. Uh, Daniel Jeremiah joining us Doug
gotlip show here on Fox Sports Radio. Um, I'm I'm
trying to think what your breakdown was when uh, the
you go back a couple of years and we were
(20:39):
getting ready for the draft and and there was a big,
strong arm quarterback named Josh Allen, and everybody said, well,
you know, Josh Allen inaccurate? And then where were you
on Josh Allen? And has he has he gotten better?
Is it something they're doing like what has happened where
some people are talking about him as an early season
MVP candidate. Well, he, first of all, no, but there
(21:01):
was no denying how big and how strong and how
athletic he was. You know, the Cam Newton comparisons were
made with him. I think people kind of scoffed, but
he is. He's he's not quite as athletic as Cam,
but he's a great athlete at that size with a
huge arm. Who was who was playing on a terrible
team at Wyoming? Um I think guy had him, Uh gosh,
he was. He was still my fourth quarterback and I
(21:23):
had him in the early twenties. So he went he
went higher than you know where I had him graded.
But the thing with him was, it's just with the
decision making and some of the inaccuracy. Now I think
you saw him clean up some of the decision making.
Last year, I thought you saw him take huge strides there,
and then this year we've seen the accuracy took way up.
(21:46):
So they've done a nice job, Brian day Ball and
company there with that offensive working with him, reigning in
some of his his recklessness, and then he's he's become
more accurate. And part of that is you go out
and get Stefon Diggs, and they've got John Brown, They've
got speed that can open things up. They've got a
really good young tight end and knocks um. So that
and I I give Buffalo and their you know, Brandon
(22:07):
Bean and their their general manager and then McDermott their
coaching staff. I don't know that there's a better run
team right now in terms of being all on the
same page and having a vision and executing it than
the Buffalo Bills. They have done a wonderful job and
I think he's benefited from all that structure and you're
seeing that talent really start to come out. So it
was a great fit for Josh Allen. It's really impressive
(22:29):
what they've been able to do. Um Tom Brady, now
we have two weeks in the bank. Let me start
with Rob Gronkowski no catches. His coach came out today
and said, hey, he's not running past guys like he
used to. I don't remember him running past guys, but
he's essentially alignment now. Is this just another case of
Bill Belichick knows when guys are done, they're done. Yeah,
(22:50):
I mean that's it's when you watch those I don't
have any you know. I feel a lot better about
Tom Brady watching that tape and seeing three drop touchdown passes.
He could have had a huge game and there, um,
they did not play great around him at the receiver positions.
Then he turned around. You watched Gronk. He cannot run.
He can't get out of a break, He can't get
away from anybody. And when he was younger, he really
(23:11):
could run. I mean he was. It looks kind of
clunky because he's just so big and he's like six
seven or you know whatever he is to earn seventy pounds,
and he's just kind of a it's kind of a
goofy look. But he was covering ground. He's not covering
any ground now, Doug, and he cannot get his foot
in the ground and get out of any type of
a break so um he yeah, he looks broken down.
I mean that's just what it looks like when you
(23:32):
watch him on tape. He looks old and broken down.
Is Drew Brees arm shot. My issue with Drew is
not the arm, because I think for a couple of
years now he's not been able to really really stress
the defense down the field. Uh. To me, it's when
he starts missing some of the underneath stuff that I've
never seen him miss. Um. You know a couple of
(23:52):
times where he had he had time, he had a
clean pocket, he's got a you know, ten yard crosser.
I mean that things on the upfield shoulder. You know,
I've never seen it not on the upfield shielder much
less than complete. And now you're you saw some bad
misses in that game. So that's that's what worried me.
It's not you know, the field's gonna shrink and he
can't push the ball down the field. He's been able
to win a lot of half court basketball games for
(24:13):
the last fifteen years. Uh, you start missing those though,
you've got a problem. Yeah, it's Chris Sims said the
exact same thing. It's it's kind of like when it
ended for Jason Kidd right, Like, you know, he wasn't
the same guy in the full court he used to be.
But now a sudden you can't make layups and drives
and you just can't buy a bucket. It just when
it goes, when it goes, it goes. Uh. It's it
(24:34):
feels like it's been a slow decline, but maybe it's
just been made more obvious because we're paying attention to it. Yeah,
I mean, I think he didn't play great last year.
Remember he had his Bucky brought up on our podcast
of the day. He had you know what a five
weeks at what five week refresher There was just thumb
I think that he had last year. Um that allowed
him trying freshen up towards the end of the year.
(24:56):
You know, this is week two, man, so it's a
managing the sea where it he looks like when we
get the week you know, nine, ten, eleven, twelve. Yeah, no,
I'm I'm I'm with you. That's last year might have
been like his Peyton Manning matter. Peyton Manning I got
injured and then suddenly came back for the playoffs and
found a way to ride that defense to his his
last Super Bowl win. Um, all right, now we're two
(25:19):
weeks into Aaron Rodgers playing elite football. Is the talent
around him better than we thought? Is Aaron Rodgers not
as washed up as some people thought? Like? What what
has changed in Green Bay? Man? I'll tell you what.
He looks clean, I mean just clean. Everything is crisp,
with his feet, with the way the ball is coming out,
They've got a run game going now, Um, I mean
(25:42):
they're they're averaging We looked this up to the day,
they're averaging six point one yards to carry when they're
under center. So when once you get to that point
in time, now you get under center, now you can
work Aaron off play action off that and he's again.
I just keep coming back to the fact he looks great,
He's in great shape, and everything is crisp, and the
ball is umping out of his hand. So, UM, I
(26:02):
don't think this has as much to do with what's
around him as just Aaron Rodgers is fully dialed in
right now, I would I tend to agree with you. Um,
I look at Jimmy Garoppolo. He's hurt, but it seems
like there has to be some growing frustration up there. Now. Well,
I think we've seen that in all the Shanahan press
conferences over the last couple of years that there's definitely
(26:24):
frustration that they've left plays and yards out of the field,
um due to some missus at the quarterback position. So
you know, they found a way to win a lot
of games and Darnia won a championship with it, but
I think there has been some underlying frustration there that
they haven't gotten more. He's man, they're they're so good
with you know, go back to be an under center. Obviously,
that's what they do a lot. And uh, their their
(26:45):
their play design and and game plan week to week
is it's fun to watch, man, because they just get
dudes wide open. What changed with Dak Prescott after they
got down so big? Oh man, he was he was
really good. Man. That what they did is they found matchups,
They found a way and you'll see it, Doug haven't
watched a ton of Charger games. In that same defense
(27:07):
that Gus runs, that Pete runs, um. You saw it
with Seattle. I talked about getting Jamal Adams isolated on
Julian Edelman. In that defense, you you're going to have
linebackers and safeties that when they get in some of
these three by one formations, you're gonna have to cover
the inside receiver. And what they did is they found
ways to get Seedee Lamb on linebackers. They got him
(27:29):
on on Dion Jones, and then they were able to
spread the field and and they were able to get
a Marii Cooper isolated on Kian O'Neil. I mean, they
just found matchups that worked in their favor. And Doc
was he was very aggressive and attacking those when he
had him. Russell Wilson the best guy playing right now.
I don't think anybody's playing better than him. And he's
(27:49):
he's so good man. And it's um, it's it's it's
fun to watch. I'm just glad. I know everybody says
what they always say, like let Russ Cooker, what have you,
kind of laugh, But that's that's what they're doing. They're
finally saying, used to be in case of emergency, Brake
Glass rus and now and now it's just go get them,
go get him from the first quarter on and and
it's explosive, it really is. DJ great stuff, great job
(28:12):
calling the game. Look forward to the next move the sticks,
and we appreciate you join us appreciate Fox 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 I Heart Radio app. Search f s
R to listen live. Rick Beeker joins us Doug Olive
show here on Fox Sports Radio. What are you shocked
(28:33):
by what you saw last night from the Lakers, Rick Puker,
Not really. I guess I was shocked to see them
come out so lackadaisically at the beginning of the game,
but when it came to the end, it really was
I thought that I thought the Nuggets demonstrated there's two things. One,
(28:53):
at the very beginning of Game one, when Yokis was
able to get wherever he wanted to against Anthony Davis,
actually could move past Anthony Davis and get the spots,
I tweeted out, Oh, this is gonna be a series
because I just felt, yeah, I just saw, like I thought,
some things that were gonna be difficult for Denver against
(29:15):
the Lakers were not. Now, when the Lakers get a
big lead there, they're They're one of the best front
running teams when they when they have when they can,
they got a little bit of room to maneuver. Suddenly
everybody's three point percentage goes up about ten percent on
that team, and they they play better loose. But when
it becomes a possession by possession game, to me, that's
(29:37):
where they're not as good as we make them out
to be, or whether they're at least vulnerable. And that's
what I saw at the end of Game two, and
so when even when they came back, when I had
the last three and a half minutes, I looked at
the way Denver was operating and the uncertainty with the Lakers,
(29:58):
and I was not shocked by the outcome. And that's
that's going to be the whole battle here. If Denver
can prevent the Lakers from getting out and playing fast
and opening up, you know, a fifteen, sixteen point lead,
I not only think they have a chance of making
this a long series, I think they have a chance
of winning it. And that was not my thought going in.
(30:21):
Um here, can I give you my I got a
hypotheses that I've shared earlier in the show, and I
want you to give me your thoughts on okay. Um, Look,
Lebron didn't have the same energy last night, and when
he doesn't, he has tensity to play kind of a
little slower and andy they struggle to get going. Um
and I I think that's because you're now at your
(30:42):
third game in this series. Whereas you know, in the
previous series they played the Rockets, they finished up their
first round series easily. The Rockets went seven and they
also had those couple extra days off because the protests.
He's been fresh and rested. Even the start of this series,
he was fresh and rested because the Nuggets had to
come from behind. He goes seven games. The longer this
(31:05):
thing goes, the more human he becomes, and the slower
starts you're gonna see. Yeah, and I certainly like his
numbers looked good, but they were all static. It wasn't
It wasn't his His quality shooting and scoring wasn't creating
for anybody else. There was a lot of mid range
(31:25):
kind of jab jab take the jumper. His mid range
was was falling. And then when they made to come back, uh,
you know, it was basically, we're not gonna put him
on the on the free throw line, will trade off
when it comes to that. I just in the last
but if you look at the last five minutes of
both games in Game two, Lebron James in the final
(31:47):
five minutes of the game had three turnovers, three miss
shots and one airball three and and last night it
was one for three, one assist in one turnover, and
Anthony Davis didn't take a single shot in the last
five minutes of that game. So I'm just and And conversely,
(32:08):
if you look at Yokitsen Murray, both of them have
been dynamic and contributed in in the final you know,
minutes of both games that were closed. So to me,
that's the most interesting aspect of this is the overall
numbers suggest that Lebron and and A d are contributing.
But I need them to work together to win games,
(32:32):
these close games, and I haven't seen it in two
games so far, and that's what makes me, that's what
gives me pause about the Lakers winning this series. Uh,
Doug gotlip show Here on Fox Sports Radio, Chris Brussard
says that game after Game seven, Um, you know, yeah,
Paul George stand up in front of the team and
(32:52):
there's a lot of eye rolling. Um, how do you
fix the Clippers? Well, honestly, there there have to be
some change is made. There have to be some significant
changes made the the idea that they just run it
back and that this was just a missed opportunity, and
now everybody's on the same page. There. There is a
dynamic there, I believe on the coaching staff and the
(33:16):
leadership of the team that simply does not uh equate
to winning a championship. There's I don't know who the
driving forces of that team. Pat dev I'm not even
sure that on a championship team he's your point guard. Uh.
(33:37):
Doc Rivers is more of a player's coach. He won
his one championship with Tom Thibodeaux, who we know as
a as a real Ramrod when it comes to being
an assistant coach. Tyler wasn't that. I mean I looked
down the Clippers bench and I think about that series
and all of the missteps and the lack of days
ago lazy defense that they play aid and that's really
(34:00):
where they lost lost the series. And I don't remember
one instance where there was a player or there was
a coach, assistant or otherwise who was reading the Riot
Act to everybody at any given point to say we
need to play tougher defensively or what like, just get
into this is what we need to do different defensively,
(34:24):
and that's a missing element. I don't know. I don't
even know who I would look to to do that
on that roster or that coaching staff at this point.
But if they have aspirations of winning something next year,
then they need to go find that element and add
it to the equation. Interesting, Billy Donovan, Chicago, Do you
(34:44):
like that? I actually do. I understand that. Uh. You know,
there's a lot of young, talented coaches out there that,
uh that we'd like to see get an opportunity. But
for where the Chicago Bulls are in terms of regaining
the respect of their young roster, uh, their young players,
(35:10):
and the league as a whole, Billy Donovan just makes
a lot of sense. I think he's he's good at
uh at connecting with quality players. I think he's I
think he's a He has a way of developing players
and at the same time holding the respect of guys
that you would consider your stars. I think he demonstrated
(35:32):
that in Oklahoma City. So, uh, you know, you want
you want Wendell Carter Jr. And Zach Lavine to believe
that you are you know, you're not just throwing something
against the wall and seeing if it sticks, like we
are legitimately going to get back to the days where
we are a playoff franchise and to bring in a
(35:54):
young guy in that circumstance, I just I understand and
why the Bulls did what they did, and when I
consider that they're still in a development stage with young stars,
and yet they want to give their team and their
players the sense that we are we are we consider
ourselves a playoff team. I just think Billy makes a
(36:18):
lot of sense when when trying to address all the
things that the Bulls are trying to address with their
head coach uh Rick Bucker joining us on the Doug
Gotlip Show on Fox Sports. Tread you talked about the
fight within a team and the motivation to play better.
We saw that with the Boston Celtics, but tonight kind
of rubber meets the road, right, Like I know, the
Nuggets came from down three one, this becomes the game. Um,
(36:41):
did the Celtics figure something out when they went crazy
after falling down two games and none? Yeah? Well, look
they matched the heat energy they really didn't in the
first two games. I felt like it was a bit
of a fifth fight and it wasn't um. It wasn't
so much execution as it was simply the Heat seemed
(37:04):
to be a step quicker on everything, and they would
get multiple rebounds and you know, you'd have that that
that that miss three, that should be a Boston fast
break the other way and instead uh Ei getting to
it and they're swinging it and they're getting another three
at the time it's going down. So honestly, I just
(37:25):
felt that they met that they met their energy and
match the Heat energy. I it'll be interesting. Look, I
picked the Celtics going in because I thought of the
collective experience that they had playoff wise, and I thought
that they had the more physical guys, but the Heat
(37:46):
didn't show that in in the in the first two games.
But I agree with you a thousand percent, Um, Boston
needs to play with the same level of desperation they
did in the last game because you just know that
the Heat are always going to play that way. I
feel as if there's just an edge in terms of
(38:07):
it's really Jason Tatum. I feel like Jason Tatum is
the edge, but everybody has to play hard or Boston
in order to in order for that edge to to
make its presence felt Boston win tonight. I am uh.
(38:28):
I want to say yes because otherwise my prediction doesn't
come true. And I'd like to say yes because because
I want to see a long series, because I like
watching these two teams play. But Miami has shown me
something through all three games, even in the way that
they lost Game three. That um I just bam out
(38:54):
of Bio makes is such a difference maker. I thought
it was the X factors were Jason Tatum or bam Um.
One of those two was going to force the other
team was going to create problems that the other team
was going to have to do too much to address,
and that was going to open things up for everybody else.
(39:17):
I feel a Miami win, even though I want everything
for every for every other reason, I would like to
keep Boston wins. Great stuff. You quit it really hedge
that one, yea, I mean really drew it out. Like
I knew you were coming around without Miami win. But
you're just gonna said, you know, like, I'd like to
see a series, but I think Miami wins night instead.
Now I'm late. I can't even ask you about the
Lakers tomorrow night. But in the meantime, thanks for joining us.
(39:39):
You're welcome, duly noted. I'll be more SIS because I
love you. Thanks so much. Rick Buker, Bleacher Report, Fox
Sports One awesome stuff
Host
Doug Gottlieb
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