Hour 1 - A 24 Team College Football Playoff Is Too Many

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Episode Transcript

Speaker 1 (00:00):
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Speaker 2 (00:23):
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Speaker 1 (00:30):
Hello, and welcome in side hour to the Jason Smith
Show with my bes friend Mike Harmon. Be sure to
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Speaker 3 (00:49):
Let us know what you think.

Speaker 1 (00:50):
Again, just search Jason Smith Show on YouTube and subscribe.
Twenty six seconds left to go in overtime, and it's
Cleveland with the one thirteen, one to eleven lead over
the Pistons. A Cade Cunningham three was just ruled a two,
so it's a two point lead for Cleveland. Neither team

(01:13):
is gonna look at this overtime and go, boy, what
great basketball is this? The Pistons can't hit a shot.
They had a really lazy turnover in the back court.
But the Cavaliers can't put this away. James Harden's missing
a couple of shots, missing them bad leads. No, this
is gonna be a game where Hey, someone's gonna have
more points than the other team.

Speaker 3 (01:31):
At the end.

Speaker 4 (01:31):
Now, the last possession before the Cunningham make to make
it a two point game, a three pointer that was
overturned on review and ruled a two pointer to make
it a two point game. It looked like he was
going for a lob, but it had to be let
go to the rim because it was too close and
it would have been offensive goaltending. Yeah man, Instead it
ends up being a misshote, like he did a floater

(01:54):
where it looked like, all right, he's going for the
the alley oop, and instead you see the big man
pull off the rim and it falls harmlessly back to
a Detroit possession.

Speaker 1 (02:05):
And I am twenty five seconds away from having to
give all kinds of flowers to James Harden.

Speaker 3 (02:11):
Yeah you will.

Speaker 1 (02:12):
Maybe maybe I could just take credit for inspiring him,
because what I tell you after Game two playoff, Harden,
this is what happens to the guy every I've seen
in his career. Now he's had three of the best
playoff games he's had in the past. I don't know
decade these three games in a row. Here free throw line.
I was able to get to the free throw line
in the last possession now shooting to give the Pistons
or give the Cavaliers what could be a four point

(02:33):
lead with twenty five seconds left to go. He's gonna
wind up with thirty points in the game. I'm gonna
have to say good things about James Harden man, I
don't say a lot of good things about James Harden.

Speaker 3 (02:40):
He's gotta be careful in our space.

Speaker 4 (02:42):
We got a lot of guys that take credit for
people's accomplishments.

Speaker 3 (02:46):
And successes along the way. So we looked that's traveled territory.

Speaker 1 (02:52):
He just made one out of two. He missed the
second free throw, but got his own rebecs.

Speaker 3 (02:57):
He's a wizard.

Speaker 1 (02:58):
And now he gets fouled again and he's going to
the free throw line like he missed it long and
you could tell hard New right away. Okay, this is
too long. Except the Pistons, they have been doing a
lot of standing around and they've been I mean this
entire the end of regulation, over time, they're out of gas.
Like this Pistons team looks like it's like we're done
playing right. They're not doing the little things needed. They're

(03:20):
lazy turnovers in the backcourt, like I said, after a
Donovan Mitchell three, a horrible inbounds pass that turns into
a Mitchell layup, and now not getting up there and
getting the rebound when it's still a one possession game
for you, Like, it's just so embarrassing for the Pistons,
and again for a team that you thought, with the
young legs they have, they're gonna be a team that

(03:40):
kind of rolls through the playoffs. No, they're showing you
that everything they've been doing that maybe they might be
out of gas here. And we are five seconds away
from getting ready to preview the Cavaliers and the Knicks
because they're gonna go back to Cleveland up three too.

Speaker 4 (03:54):
Look at you, all of a sudden, now you're on
board the Cavaliers, big possessions, miss shots and finally a
rebound and a file with three point four left. But
you know all of that, the the lack of effort
in the lane, you had two guys on the blocks
that made no effort. When James Harden got the rebound

(04:15):
on that free throw, miss, goes back to the line,
makes one of two, and we go back the other way.
But it's just those flat footed moments, the thinking that
James Harden, maybe they were listening to you. Pistons were
listening to you, and it's your fault, your pistons, that
you led him to that point and you predicted all
this greatness, and then they got rope and doped into thinking, hey,

(04:37):
Harden's got nothing left. He ain't getting off the free
throw line if he misses, and instead he snares his
own rebound that comes along, and it's your fault.

Speaker 1 (04:45):
I mean, well, look, maybe James Harden's gonna say after
the game, Hey, you know what, I really had to
take a take a really hard look at myself after
those two games because I heard Jason Smith just absolutely
killing me on this true it did well.

Speaker 3 (04:57):
Thank you to all the others that subscribe.

Speaker 4 (04:59):
How I just YouTube channel and check us out at
Fox Sports Radio at how about a Fresca at Swollen
Dome on all the socials and everything that our team
does to promote said content. And you're a visceration of
James Harden following Game two.

Speaker 1 (05:12):
Yeah, I mean, look, that's the thing about this is
why I talk about, Hey, maybe we're previewing and now
it's a final. The Pistons go down at home. The
Cavaliers are going to go home with a chance to
end this series. Like the Pistons, they just look done.
And it's a tough thing, right, it's a tough thing.
They just look done, and it's sometimes it happens very quickly.

(05:36):
But watching their playoff path they come in regular season
was awesome. And you know, I listen, I gotta give
all our guys credit. Like Rick Bucker would come on
the show and say, you know, the Pistons regular seasons,
one thing, are they gonna be able to do this
through the playoffs? And I'm like, you know, they're exactly
what they need. Everybody's young, they don't know what they
don't know. They come at you in waves. They go

(05:58):
nine deep coming off, and Kate Cunnam is playing like
a superstar man. The Pistons they're gonna be a tough out.
They're gonna be really, really tough, and then they nearly
get bounced in the first round. They don't really play
great basketball, but they play good enough, and then at
some point you would think that, hey, if you're that
good a team, you're gonna hit that level of excellence

(06:18):
that you had during the regular season. But they haven't,
and it's just it's stuff like the the effort that
we saw, right, the effort not getting up there for
the rebound on the on the free throw for James Harden, right,
the horrible turnover, the struss I mean, the lazy inbound
that that wound up getting them, getting them too, you know,
an extra bucket here, like all of these things, and
then down the stretch in the fourth quarter, they couldn't

(06:39):
get any anything going offensively. The last possession, Kay Cunningham
can't get a great look, he can't get by one
defender and has to settle for a fadeaway jumper like
he looked cooked. Even though they got the offensive possession,
there was a lot of standing around offensively, and then
it was a bad shot that turned it over to
the Cavaliers. They couldn't make a shot at the end,
so we wind up going to overtime. But you're talking

(07:01):
about a nine to zero run to end regulation and
then winning the game the way they did here in overtime,
where they just look like, we just have to outlast
the Pistons because they look done. And it's really hard
to think that in the middle of the second round
a team looks done, but they look done. Usually get
to the conference finals when a team looks like, hey,
we're out of gas. We had this big run, but
we're not doing But now the Pistons look done, and

(07:23):
I don't know, can they really go into Cleveland to
win Game six or should we just start previewing the
Cavaliers and the Knicks.

Speaker 4 (07:29):
Now, Well, I can tell you this as we get
into the post game, and certainly a lot of it
was fourth quarter and overtime damage at the foul line.
But I have absolutely no doubt that Bickerstaff will once
again go hard at the officials as Cleveland shot thirty
eight free throws Pistons twenty at home. Yeah, in a big,

(07:52):
big game that you're not getting to the fall line.

Speaker 1 (07:55):
But I will say, watching the game, how often did
the Cavaliers try to get to the hoop all the time?
How often did the Pistons try to get to They
settled because they were exhausted, Because I had to. They
settled for a lot of jumpers, and you're not getting
to the free throw line when you're hey, I'm gonna
give you a jab step and fade away and hope
that you you know, it's not SGA where they're gonna
blow the whistle on you just because you're you picked
up your dribble. Like, watching this game, I can see

(08:18):
where the free throw disparity is because watching what the
Pistons tried to do, they couldn't do anything like so
you settle for when that happens. You settle for bad jumpers.
You settle for fifteen footers and that that are contested
or you don't have the legs on them, you miss short.
All of these things.

Speaker 3 (08:33):
We watch them. The Pistols.

Speaker 4 (08:34):
Oh, they still won the battle of the points in
the paint, you know, the what is it the pyrrhic
victory ten point margin in that regard outpaced the Cavaliers
with a twenty three to seven fast break points margin,
but again, free throw line disparity. Eighteen more attempts thirteen
point makes four point win on a night where Donovan

(08:57):
Mitchell was for the most part terrible until he needed
a big steal and and the bucket off a bad
inbound play that ends up helping to seal this game
for the Cavaliers. Like this is one that you feel
you stole if you're the Cavaliers and you're feeling pretty
chesty going back home.

Speaker 1 (09:15):
You know when when I talked last round and I said, hey,
after this big win, I'll take the Pistons to win
this game. But I don't care how many points. Right
when they they're gonna close out the magic because the
magic had done. I'll give you whatever the point spread is.
Give me the Pistons in game seven. I feel that
way going into game six, Give me the Cavaliers and
lay the points, Like what, what are the Pistons really
gonna show up after this on the road where they

(09:37):
where they look like they're just like, hey, the end
of the season's here. We gave it our best shot.
Just not happening for us right right, We're ready to
go home. We are ready to pack it up. It's
it's two fifty five and everybody's looking at the clock
and in school and they know that the bell is coming,
and they got their books packed up and they got
one foot out and the chair start to slide. You
wait for that bell to hit three o'clock so they

(09:58):
can get to the get to the school yard. And yet,
oh like that's what the Pistons look like. We're ready
to go three two to one.

Speaker 4 (10:04):
Obviously, the absence of Duncan Robinson weighs big out with
the the back issue. Had had a terrible game four. Uh,
so that was also in the offing for him. A
guy that shot forty five point six for the year,
forty one percent from three point range. So one of
those spot up shooters and a guy that you'd come

(10:26):
to rely on who was unavailable to you. Will see
if his status changes. Obviously, now we're we're looking ahead
to the next game, going back to Cleveland. We'll keep
an eye on the the odds and ends of things
as they become available. And I'm gonna say this now,
and you foresid your Detroit Pistons picked them. I got

(10:47):
them as far as they got to do something for
themselves here right, Yeah, but you said finals, yes this
do I need them to do something for themselves. I
need them to be the number one seed to get
to the Eastern Conference finals. So I and say, hey,
look out close, I am to my Spurs Pistons prediction
from before the season that was one hundred to one.

Speaker 3 (11:06):
If you got the you don't even get a cash
out at this you get nothing. But but but I
want to be positive. There's some positivity I have to
give out here.

Speaker 1 (11:16):
And there's gonna be no qualifiers. Okay, no qualifiers. Okay, sure, No,
I think there'll be a qualifier.

Speaker 3 (11:24):
I can totally. I can read your mind as to
where you're there is there is no qualify.

Speaker 1 (11:28):
There is no qualifier if you can read his mind, Mike,
how many Hamburgers?

Speaker 3 (11:31):
No?

Speaker 4 (11:31):
No, no, no, no, well three and a half if someone
will want over.

Speaker 1 (11:34):
Hey, I'm saving my Hamburger for Tommy Burger's eightieth anniversary
on Friday eight Hamburgers are eighty cents chili. Yeah, let's
go Tommy Burger, the best big thing. Hey, Tommy Burger
original Tommy Burger here in Los Angeles. Eightieth anniversary is
coming up.

Speaker 3 (11:49):
Friday.

Speaker 1 (11:50):
Burgers are eighty cents apiece. It's the best chili in
the city. It's the best chili I've ever had in
my life. I can't is that right Friday? Oh yeah,
the chili is so good. It's so good, and I
just get it with onions and cheese. It's so oh
my god. I just want to dip my hand. I
could grab it out and just put it. It's like
dipping your hand in ice cream, except it's chili. Just
put it in your mouth. It's so good.

Speaker 3 (12:10):
But that was disgusting.

Speaker 1 (12:12):
I was actually and I was actually doing it with
my hand. How I would eat it, how you'd eat it?

Speaker 4 (12:16):
Because you're completely taking away because you had the beans
thing from Tommy with Anne Margaret, which was actually odd
and and whatever.

Speaker 3 (12:24):
But it's Ann Margaret.

Speaker 4 (12:25):
Now you have the image of you rolling around in chili.

Speaker 3 (12:29):
But I do have to set jackass. I feel paint me.
I'll do it.

Speaker 1 (12:32):
Uh, I'm sure there's an everybody's I'm sure there's an
only fans account where if I.

Speaker 3 (12:36):
Roll in chill, roll around in food and talk about
the Knicks. No sure doing an ode?

Speaker 4 (12:42):
Did Jalen Brunson while sliding around again raw onions.

Speaker 1 (12:47):
Chill money trouble tells me I could do anything on
only fans.

Speaker 3 (12:51):
Uh.

Speaker 1 (12:52):
Thirty points tonight for James Harden leading the way at
the end. They should have given them the ball in
the last playing regulation. Hits the big free throws, gets
the big rebounds. A thirty eight and six night for Harden.
James Harden was the difference. He has been great the
last three games for the capt I.

Speaker 4 (13:14):
Thought you were going to crush the fact that he
was only eight of twenty one from the field, especially
with that little running thing that I as I described it,
that I'm pretty sure was an LU. But it goes
down as a misshot and an opportunity that would that
would have been potentially a dagger if that had fallen.

Speaker 3 (13:29):
He had a big there's and there's no qualifiers.

Speaker 4 (13:31):
I'm talking no no qualifiers game, not even his six
turnovers he had that matched his six assists.

Speaker 1 (13:37):
He was the best player on the floor. And he
has been great the last three games. There are no qualifiers.
Let's say if he doesn't game six, there are no
qualifiers for James Harden.

Speaker 3 (13:50):
For this he is. He really didn't need to say
the quiet part out.

Speaker 1 (13:54):
Great, Let's see if he can do it again. But
let he's been absolutely fantas.

Speaker 4 (13:58):
That's where you look into that center camera and the
two shot and you just smile. And people that know
exactly what kind of devilish thoughts against James Harden and
his bit Magnificent Beard are going through your head.

Speaker 3 (14:09):
We got more NBA on the way.

Speaker 1 (14:11):
Why this result for the Cavaliers is bad news for
Lebron James who oh, by the way, found his way
to get into some crazy headlines today. That's next Jason
and Mike Fox Sports Radio. Hey, are you tired or
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Speaker 2 (15:25):
Be sure to catch live editions of The Jason Smith
Show with Mike harmon weekdays at ten pm Eastern seven
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Speaker 3 (16:00):
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Please subscribe, rate, and review Stu Gotson Company, and God
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Speaker 1 (16:56):
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(17:18):
Harmon wherever you get your podcast from. You'll find today's
full show and a best of version posted right after
we get off the air. So a big day for
Lebron and the Lakers. Crazy day, but a little bit
more on this Calves win over the Pistons now a
three to two lead for the Cavaliers going back to Cleveland,

(17:41):
getting ready for that Calves Nicks preview.

Speaker 3 (17:43):
Three and a half point line.

Speaker 1 (17:45):
You know, we talked about the Pistons gow up to four, right,
Piston's running out of gas and absolute one hundred percent.
But the other thing you are seeing with this Pistons
team is that, look, the playoffs always expose all your warts, right,
and if you lose in the first round, you don't
have any excuses. If you healthy, you lost, you're not
good enough. You need you need something else for next year.
You gotta you gotta figure out something big. Your warts

(18:06):
are exposed. For the Pistons, who looked like a team
in the regular season where Kate Cunningham was going to
lead you. You had all kinds of support players. You're
getting offense from different places. It's a different guy every
other night. Everything looks wonderful, Right, we have nine guys
we're gonna play, We have a really deep rotation. We're
gonna out athletic size a lot of other teams. We

(18:26):
feel great. You watch them run rough shot over the teams.
Now you get to the playoffs and what does it
look like? They have nobody else besides Kate Cunningham that
can score there's nobody else that can rely on. There's
no reliable number two that you can say, all right,
if it's not gonna be Kate, it's gonna be this guy. Right,
even teams went out that's been out in the playoffs already,
you're saying, well, if it's not our a player, we

(18:46):
have somebody else's good.

Speaker 3 (18:47):
The ball is gonna go to.

Speaker 1 (18:48):
Right if even even with Luca out, well, Lebron doesn't
take the shot, it's gonna be Austin Reeves or be
Hatchamora if he was in the game, but he wasn't.
But you know, you can see now where it's laid bare.
That boy the Pistons. They need somebody else else that
can score that that that just nobody needs anything else
other than hey, someone to take that scoring pressure off
of Kid Cunningham, because Tobias Harris is not that guy, right,

(19:10):
Tobias had I mean, you know, thirteen points from tonight, Okay,
that's great, you know.

Speaker 3 (19:15):
Season average. I mean Jenkins with nineteen, I get it.

Speaker 1 (19:18):
But you need you need somebody else that you can
rely on for buckets, even if it's somebody that can
hit threes now and again, whatever it is now you're
seeing the Pistons. Oh wow, if Kaid Cunningham's not scoring,
they have a lot of trouble you. They can't run
up and down the floor on you anymore. They have
a lot of difficulty finding that second score. And now
you're seeing that, Well, maybe the Pistons, maybe they're just

(19:40):
a great regular season team. Maybe maybe they they need
a little bit more than you expect. Maybe they need
that veteran guy. Because as much as you could say
it's great to everybody be young, hey, someone that's been
through it, someone that can lead you through it, someone
like a Kevin Durantix, someone you know who's gonna play
in the games. Someone is you know, someone you know,
someone like that. If you could count on KD for
the uh, you know, for the playoffs, I would say

(20:02):
he'd be perfect.

Speaker 4 (20:02):
Hey, he played seventy eight regular season games playoff games.

Speaker 3 (20:06):
Did you play?

Speaker 1 (20:06):
Ah too soon?

Speaker 3 (20:08):
No?

Speaker 4 (20:08):
I mean that's a question we asked you. Gotta go
For those those that miss it, go listen to the
whole show. He's the he's the guy, the one guy
in the in the wilderness saying, hey, regular season, I
should have taken more days off.

Speaker 1 (20:21):
I mean, look, that's what you're missing, right, You're missing
some of that veteran leadership that's gonna get you scoring.
Like you said, right, you could, you could do your
pejoratives on what Mitchell did today or what James Harden
may give you at different times. But you know they
a want the ball and they're gonna put up their volume.
They're gonna get theirs. It's just a matter of how
efficient and if you have that one possession late, does

(20:43):
it go awry? Yeah, like Hannigan and what like in Austin,
Reeves would be great for that. Not that they're gonna
get them, but sign that's what they need. Someone who
can come in that can let up the score. Or
in a perfect world, it's someone who is a veteran
scorer that can say, hey, get on my back a
little bit here and I.

Speaker 3 (21:03):
Can do that.

Speaker 1 (21:03):
I'll take you through them. I've been through the playoff wars, right,
we can do this. So in a perfect world, but
now you're seeing the boy the Pistons. I mean one
game and you're talking about five minutes of regulation and
five minutes of overtime, but all of a sudden, they
look like they have twice as many problems as they
had an hour ago.

Speaker 4 (21:19):
But we go back to you know, and I did
with a little bit of snark with you, but let's
take it to the serious side of things for a moment,
as to let's evaluate where the Eastern Conferences as a
grander philosophical debate, right in terms of navigating the regular season,
and where some teams take it absolutely seriously and home

(21:41):
court advantage matters and getting the extra minutes for young
players and everything is all finding good And how many teams,
particularly in this season, just said to hell with it
by Thanksgiving? They were done, right. We weren't even a
month into the year. It's like, hey, those guys are
playing pretty well over in those early season buckets game.

Speaker 3 (22:01):
He'll look really good in our uniform.

Speaker 4 (22:03):
We're going to try to win twelve games, and we
watched many teams do that and take nothing away from
the accomplishment, right because you Bidho's on the schedule, U
A mass wins. But you're trying to pull back the
curtain and evaluate where we are going forward. And that's
as every team goes into their exit interviews and you're
trying to assess it's the all right, we were good,

(22:24):
We were consistent, but were we great? And do we
measure up in crunch time? And really all of it
goes back to your measuring yourself ultimately against what the
thunder are where they play a C game and they
still win. Now right where Sga laughs and says, I
don't care how much I ate.

Speaker 3 (22:43):
All I need is ate more.

Speaker 4 (22:44):
Right, great line, great t shirt, great merch line to come.
But curious to see how Detroit you know, responds after
this and what changes come to the roster because even
missing Duncan Robinson, he was a twelve a game scorer.
Now does he stretch your defense and make you work
a little bit more to the premier? Sure, but he's
not that difference maker. So curious going forward what they

(23:06):
look like for twenty.

Speaker 1 (23:08):
It is so dire for the look we're talking about
going back to game six and you're done, You're cooked,
like you're going already moved back half like talking what
you're done? Half a point Now. This was also a
bad result tonight for Knicks. No, all results are great
for the Knicks. Uh, bad night tonight for Lebron James. Right,

(23:29):
why Lucas back? That's right, He's he's cleared, right, he's
pay for Game five.

Speaker 3 (23:34):
All right, are you gonna do the simulation? I mean, it's.

Speaker 1 (23:36):
Almost gonna look like Luca's unguarded on the court for
Game five. Really does he get to wear that sweat?

Speaker 3 (23:41):
Fantastic? Uh?

Speaker 1 (23:43):
Why was tonight a bad night for Lebron James? Now,
there was drama today with Lebron, which we'll get into
in a minute. But as he ponders his future, you
saw the Lakers say wonderful things about him right after
the season ending. We want Lebron back. He's gotta make
his decision. He has earned that. Then we get the
crazy story today that maybe Lebron was unhappy that he

(24:03):
didn't get the game ball from the night he set
the record for most wins by a player in NBA history. Now,
how upset he is with the team? Was he really pissed?

Speaker 3 (24:14):
Was he not?

Speaker 1 (24:14):
Like it doesn't matter. Lebron's got to for this part
of the conversation. Lebron's got a decision to make. Again,
there's only two choices for him. We've said this for
well over a year. It's stay with the Lakers or
go back to Cleveland. He wants to write the end
of his career the best way possible. He wants to
write it. Where if I don't win a championship, people
aren't gonna say at the end Lebron wasn't enough. He

(24:36):
tried to jump on another team, couldn't lead him to
a championship, couldn't lead Denver to a title, couldn't lead
the Celtics to title.

Speaker 3 (24:43):
Whatever.

Speaker 1 (24:44):
It is the only place he can go where he
can ensure the end of his legacy. Where at the
end it's waving goodbye to everybody, and it's a tearful goodbye.
Is Cleveland right going home? I started there just a
kid from Akron. I left, I went back to Akron,
I left again. I can go back again for another
year and a half. Right for Acron must have something

(25:04):
in the water to keep going back. The tires they
make in Akron, are you kidding? My goodness, man, you're
probably You're probably right driving your car on Akron made tires.
I might right back off Akron, Okay, back off.

Speaker 4 (25:16):
Nobody said anything pejorative or or dismissive of.

Speaker 3 (25:20):
Acron, all right, just saying he keeps.

Speaker 1 (25:23):
Uh So, if it's two choices for Lebron, what makes
Cleveland desirable for him? And desirable for the Cavalist. Well,
we told you what makes it desirable for him. For
the Cavaliers, it's you know, we've had this kind of
core for a couple of years now where Donovan Mitchell led. Okay,
we made a move to get hard, and we still
have to you know, it's still Mobley and Allen and

(25:45):
these are the guys. Well, we've not really gotten to
that next level. Maybe Lebron coming in, we saw how
comfortably he was being the number three guy with the Lakers,
and okay with that, and you know, coming home he
can be the elder guy and and and still be
the number two guy to Donovan Mitchell. Maybe he could
take the pressure off of our players and that will

(26:05):
be better for us. In the playoffs. We'll all want
to talk to Lebron and these guys can kind of
play their own game, take the pressure away. That makes
it attractive for the Cleveland Cavaliers. But now here there
are one win from the Eastern Conference Finals. They get
to the Eastern Conference Finals, are they really going to
go into the offseason and say we need Lebron to

(26:27):
get us to that next level or are they gonna say,
I don't know, if Lebron's gonna upset the apple cart
a little bit too much. They are now seeing we
are one step away from the NBA finals, right, or
even they get to the NB five. Then the more
they succeed, the worse it gets. But one game away
if they get to the NBA Eastern Conference Finals. Are
they really gonna get to the offseason and go, all right,

(26:49):
we need Lebron.

Speaker 3 (26:50):
They're not.

Speaker 1 (26:50):
They're gonna say we need something else, right, whatever it is,
Like I said, all your faults get laid bare in
the playoffs. Whatever it is with the playoffs, they lose
to the Knicks, it will be Carl Anthony Town is
able to run rough shot as facilitating. We need another
big We gotta spend the money here. We gotta go
get somebody else that can play. You know, is a
good two way big man. Whatever it is, it's not
gonna be Lebron James. So one more win by Cleveland

(27:14):
and that takes Cleveland completely off the table for Lebron,
and now it's you got the Lakers.

Speaker 3 (27:19):
Or good luck, it's the Lakers or the Old West.
It's like, hey, you can stay here, Orr, I can
open the door and you can manifest destiny all the way.
Whatever you want, you go anyway you want to.

Speaker 1 (27:29):
Good luck, make it happen, and try and win and
continue the end of your legacy. The Lakers gain more
of the cards with each passing day for next year.

Speaker 3 (27:36):
Yeah, it's kind of fun, right, the whole third man narrative.

Speaker 4 (27:39):
Again, I still don't don't buy it completely because he
didn't have to do it for very long. Let's see
that over an eighty two game season. As much as
he tried to pat himself on the back of look
at the new role I accepted, look.

Speaker 3 (27:51):
At what I did.

Speaker 4 (27:52):
They played seventeen games together. Even then Reeves and Doncheons
were at different points in those games ruled out or
limited in terms of minutes.

Speaker 6 (28:04):
Uh.

Speaker 4 (28:04):
So for Lebron it was congratulations on a on a run.
Uh And now you have the someone planting nefarious seeds,
some hot take nonsense that he and Luca don't get
along and trying to create that narrative there and we'll
just leave that where it sits.

Speaker 1 (28:21):
Uh.

Speaker 4 (28:21):
Current odds Lakers are the favorites, followed by the Cavaliers,
followed by the Warriors, Spurs, and Nicks, and then you
have retirement still looming out there, which I don't think
anybody buys based on the way he played. Paying but
going but going to Cleveland with Donovan Mitchell and James Harden,
you're kidding, right, Like, unless James Harden is getting shown

(28:43):
the door, there's no chance at hell they're playing in
the same on the same court together. No, Like, that's
one I'd grab my popcorn. You could do like the
NFL and sell off all the Cavalier games won by
one for that farewell to.

Speaker 3 (29:00):
Yeah, I mean, look, it would be.

Speaker 1 (29:01):
It would be and Lebron, Look, the thing's gonna come
down to money, obviously. But now, I mean you are
one game away from taking the Cavaliers completely off the
table for him, because if they blow this lead, right,
let's just say they blow the lead, they lose at home,
they lose Game seven. What are they thinking? We need leadership,
We need a little bit more offense, need a little
bit more creative scoring, whatever we need, We need something.

(29:24):
We need something, and maybe Lebron is because we need
something to get to that next level. They get to
that level and everything changes. Everything changes in the next
game or two for the Cavaliers, because then it's Okay,
we're here. We are better than that. We are one
of the top three teams of four teams in the NBA.
What's gonna get us there? And they're not gonna come
off of the series against the Knicks if they lose

(29:44):
and say, yeah, Lebron would get us there, It's not.
I'll tell you that the Knicks are gonna it's gonna
be a Karl Anthony town series if the Knicks play
the Cavaliers, because that's who's gonna be the most important
guy in the floor. And if they win, it's gonna
be through him, and they're gonna say, Okay, we gotta
get more athletic defensively, we gotta get a guy. We
have to create our team to beat the Knicks now
in the Eastern Conference. So that's what they're gonna wind

(30:04):
up here.

Speaker 4 (30:05):
And if he fails, then Lebron succeeds Karl Anthony Towns
at the garden.

Speaker 3 (30:12):
Okay, if the Knicks lose, what then everybody's out.

Speaker 4 (30:14):
Now it's all chaos, and you're back going around the
bend as you circle the block to say.

Speaker 3 (30:20):
Oh, I d all gone.

Speaker 1 (30:22):
Time to find out what's turnning right now in the
wide world of sports. I'm a guy who I want
to give him as props.

Speaker 3 (30:27):
One.

Speaker 1 (30:28):
He just gave me a piece of pizza too, because
I know it's tough watching the Pistons go down.

Speaker 3 (30:33):
It is Detroit native Martin Weiss and Mike, You're more
than welcome, like help you. I appreciate you, no problem.

Speaker 4 (30:39):
You might need that though, I mean you need a
little consolation food now, especially the way he just talked
about the death of your team.

Speaker 7 (30:46):
Man, I mean he's got to go home and deal
with that, you know.

Speaker 3 (30:49):
No, that's fair.

Speaker 4 (30:51):
You know his phone's been blowing up with all the
all those relatives that are now mad because he jumped
down the wagon.

Speaker 7 (30:57):
Evan Mobley of all people eight three to help Cleveland
force overtime in Game five on the road.

Speaker 1 (31:04):
You're still not over that, I could tell, especially he's
got the hood up now.

Speaker 3 (31:08):
It's the worst.

Speaker 7 (31:09):
As you're mid updating it's happening because I'm trying to
watch two things. I read that Angels scored twice, you know,
all messing up and all just to lose Game five
Eastern Conference Semifinals. The Cavaliers Steel won on the road
one seventeen to one thirteen in a game in which
James Harden had thirty points on twenty one shots. Donovan
Mitchell with twenty one points. Had a rough second half

(31:31):
for Mitchell. Evan Mobley with nineteen, including a three that
that really gave the Cavaliers a shot to tie this
thing back in regulation. Kay Cunningham had thirty nine points,
seven rebounds, nine assists, did have six turnovers, including some
down the stretch. There Dannis Jenkins, who started this game
because Duncan Robinson couldn't play. He had nineteen points in

(31:53):
his first career playoff start. It was a wild day
everywhere in Sports's Western Conference Second Round Game five. Colorado
took a three, had a three to one deficit in
the third period, scored two goals unanswered to force overtime,
then got the difference maker in ot Colorado advancing through

(32:15):
the Western Conference second on four to one series win.
They will go to the Western Conference Final for the
first time since twenty twenty two. Major League Baseball three
games oh two games in action right now, as the
Astros looked like the day just took care of the Mariners.
Dodgers have a four to nothing lead over the Giants,
and the fifth inning as yep, that'll be the end
of the fifth inning there, and the A's lead the

(32:36):
Cardinals four to one in the seventh. Earlier, we saw
Max Fried leave his start against the Orioles as the
Yankees lost seven and nothing freed. We'll get an MRI
for left elbow posterior soreness and extra innings wins for
the Nationals squeaking past the Reds eight to seven, and
the Mets beat the Tigers three to two, but Mets
catcher Francisco Alvarez will need surgery on his torn moniscus

(32:59):
in his right knee.

Speaker 3 (33:00):
Tough night in Detroit sports. Tough night in Detroit sports.

Speaker 1 (33:03):
Take that, Oh your catcher for a year?

Speaker 3 (33:07):
How about that?

Speaker 1 (33:08):
Well, I'm used to not having Francisco Alvarez. I'm used
to that now. That's why they just gave the backup
catcher five million.

Speaker 3 (33:14):
Dollars a year. I'm kind of used to that.

Speaker 7 (33:16):
I will say, though, if Evan Mobley plays plays Carlin,
any towns like, I'm not ready. He's been such a
no show all postseason, and it's like, you know, Jalen
Duran had at least a little bit of the cover
of Evan Mobley was supposed to be in an next
KG or something like that, and then just say that, Well,
I mean, what a waste of time?

Speaker 3 (33:34):
All right, Beck to you, Hey, go than sport. He
was any of today's show. Be sure to catch the podcast.

Speaker 1 (33:41):
Just search Jason Smith and Mike Harmon or now search
Evan Mobley wherever you get your podcasts from. Follow the
podcast rated five stars, provide a review.

Speaker 3 (33:49):
Again.

Speaker 1 (33:49):
Just search Jason Smith and Mike Harmon wherever you get
your podcasts, you'll find today's full show and a besta
version posted right after we get off the air.

Speaker 3 (33:57):
You know, I have a plunger right in front of you.

Speaker 4 (33:59):
As Bobly hit that shot, I was like, no wammy,
no whammy, no wammy, waiting for the magic word to
come from Mark Wise.

Speaker 1 (34:07):
Uh, we got more NBA in the way, But coming
up next are we on the cusp of not a twelve,
not sixteen, but a twenty four team college football playoff.

Speaker 3 (34:20):
That's next. Jason to Mike.

Speaker 1 (34:21):
Fox, guess what Q still ain't getting in.

Speaker 3 (34:25):
No, you're probably right.

Speaker 2 (34:26):
Be sure to catch live editions of The Jason Smith
Show with Mike Harmon weekdays at ten pm Eastern, seven
pm Pacific.

Speaker 1 (34:35):
Fox Sports Radio Jason Smith Show with my best friend
Mike Harmon.

Speaker 3 (34:39):
Well dressed. We got more NBA coming up in a minute.

Speaker 1 (34:43):
But big story out of college football today, the ACC
Atlantic Coast Conference would like a twenty four team college
football playoff.

Speaker 3 (34:56):
Now twenty four you so, Now.

Speaker 1 (34:57):
It's long been rumored thought that ESPN and the different conferences, Hey,
they'd like to keep it at twelve, no more than sixteen,
that's kind of where it's at. But the ACC says, no,
we want twenty four team.

Speaker 4 (35:12):
Have there been any reports of media members having scanners
like effects where their head's exploded by the headline being
proffered today?

Speaker 1 (35:22):
Now there's an easy headline and then there's a more
involved headline.

Speaker 3 (35:27):
The easy headline.

Speaker 1 (35:28):
First, why does the ACC want twenty four teams in?
Because they want to make sure they get two ten.

Speaker 3 (35:33):
At least two. That's right.

Speaker 1 (35:35):
They don't want it's an here go, you're just gonna
find a way to keep our other teams out. So
we're gonna get the good team that wins the conference
and that's it. No, No, we want at least two teams
in the players because we know it's sixteen. We're still
not guaranteed to get it.

Speaker 3 (35:48):
We want two teams in. We're the ACC that's it.
We gotta get to that second one. Got at least
keep that alive.

Speaker 1 (35:56):
This is why, again, why a commissioner would help something
like this, instead of the conferences trying to figure things
out on ESPN being involved, it will be Hey, this,
we're gonna have the playoffs. This is how many teams
it's gonna be. This is how we are going forward.
But again, college football is the wild West. They have
no leadership. There's no one making the calls on it.
So it's all the different conference administrators and people in

(36:16):
conference commissioners and and and broadcast partners. I mean, so
this is why we're here. But this is nothing new.
I'm gonna give you a little bit of a hot
take on this. You know me, I love playoffs. I
want more teams than I want I have a chance
to get my team, of course, I love this seventy
sixteen NCAA tournament. Maybe Syracuse could get it again at
some point.

Speaker 4 (36:32):
It's some more opportunities to sell things off like a
random holiday eve to him, Like the NFL.

Speaker 1 (36:40):
You get to eighty four teams, that ninety six teams,
Syracuse will get happy. Even I think twenty four teams
is too much for the NCAA playoff. Really, I'm a
because here's the thing. Understand Now, college basketball, you play
twice a week. It's a thirty to thirty five season, right,

(37:01):
So putting more teams in, all right, Yeah, you can
win your way in. You're playing, you're playing a good
amount of games, and you have a chance to win
your way in to do well. With college football, member
it's still a one day a week sport.

Speaker 3 (37:14):
And when you can lose three or four games.

Speaker 1 (37:18):
Now you're talking about teams that will lose three and
four games getting in, that really cheapens the regular season.
And I'm not somebody those others, but when you're at
the point now are twenty four teams, those last four
or five teams are going to be three or four
loss teams, and that really cheapens the regular season because
now how much are the big showdowns worth? They're not

(37:39):
worth a lot. Suddenly, Texas doesn't have to beat Ohio State.
We can lose ohios We can lose two more games.
Just be if we're nine and three, guess what we're
going to the College football playoffs, So it really does
cheapen the overall effect of the regular season where there's
not as many games, not as many big games a week,
where there's where hey, we gotta win this, Hey coming
down the end here, this is a gamut. Now this

(37:59):
is this is this is something where they got two
of their last three games against top twenty five teams.
They gotta win at least one of them to get
in the playoff. There's still a lot at stake when
you're talking about a twelve team playoff, but really a
sixteen team playoff is the sweet spot because what you
can do is you can get rid of the big problem,
which is how do you deal with a team from
the power for conference that makes the conference championship that

(38:21):
if they don't win, right, well, they've played the extra game,
so they get the extra loss. So wait, so now
they finish ten and three and they don't get in
because they have three losses, but the extra loss in
the conference championship game. This way, what you do is
with the sixteen team playoff is the teams that make
it to the conference championship automatically qualify and the winner
gets a buy and then the other team gets in,

(38:42):
but they could be seated anywhere. You get to sixteen teams,
then okay, so that's half the field and the other
half can come from however you want to do it
with at large teams. Notre Dame has no problem getting
in as long as they are not a five loss
Notre Dame team. It works for everybody else. You get
sixteen teams in, you can have playing game. You can
have teams with a buy that finish one through four

(39:03):
in the top four, that win their conferences. There's ways
to reward the teams in the playoff where the regular
season really means something, and you're letting teams in that
are still really good that Hey, you're talking about top sixteen. Okay,
these are two loss teams. Now, maybe one three loss
team sneaks in. I'm okay with that. But you gotta
three four loss teams all right Now you're saying, hey,
that really cheapens the regular season. Sixteen is the sweet spot.

(39:26):
Twenty four is too much.

Speaker 4 (39:28):
Yeah, when we talk about what Jim Phillips is proposing
and trying to figure out this new world order and
where you get to the proper balance and really keep
the regular season having meaning and that's where you get
into the devil of the details, right what about home
games for those top seeds that go maybe into the

(39:51):
second round of the playoffs? The other being how far
are you going to keep expanding the season because right now,
you know we end virtually all games around Thanksgiving weekend
and then you'll have Army Navy and a couple of
other games conference championships, et cetera. But everybody else is
sitting around for a month, like, what does it do
for the playoffs? And is there then a battle with

(40:14):
the NFL where you're starting to fight over time of
day and when those games are being played off Thursday
heights or something like that for the playoffs instead of
your weekend slots. So so some of that needs to
be figured out, but it always comes back to the
same thing. A company comes along, Oh we got shut

(40:34):
out of that NFL package. Guess what Now here's a
giant pile of cash.

Speaker 3 (40:40):
Well, you've been thinking, thing is just like the Joker
had before he burned half of it.

Speaker 1 (40:43):
You can figure out a way to work around the
issues of scheduling of the NFL, because what do you
do is hey, regular season ends the next week or
the playing games. Right, it ends the conference championship Saturday.
The next weekend's a playing games playing You don't need
to take all this, You don't need to take ten days,
twelve days in between games. What they do now, you
can make it a contintent. We can play Saturdays, we

(41:04):
can keep playing side, we can play games Saturday, we
can play Friday and Saturday.

Speaker 3 (41:08):
We can do things. We can still play once a week.

Speaker 1 (41:10):
Going that way, right, you still early enough in December
where the NFL is not going to their Saturday games
quite yet, so you can do what you need to
to get around that. There's ways around it that that
college football just doesn't want to go to for whatever reason.
But I mean, twenty four that's really it really is
way too much.

Speaker 4 (41:27):
Yeah, but did we ever have problems with NFL teams
going seven and nine and winning their division?

Speaker 3 (41:32):
No, not at all, No, no, not at all, not
at all.

Speaker 1 (41:34):
But then again, we're not voting as that team, what
your record is, you are, We're not we have to
vote team.

Speaker 3 (41:40):
It's in the computers. There's no voting.

Speaker 4 (41:42):
Take away the human elements, there's no voting in the NIA.
Take away those lobbyists.

Speaker 1 (41:45):
Don't have to worry about voting for a team to
make to the playoffs in the end.

Speaker 4 (41:49):
Take away those people that are awareing their college teams
underpants now and get them out of that room.

Speaker 1 (41:54):
If you wanted to let people vote as to who
should pick first overall with all the non playoff teams,
now that I'd be in for that that I could
go for.

Speaker 3 (42:01):
Hey, we have to vote the popular vote.

Speaker 1 (42:04):
The team with the most votes picks first.

Speaker 4 (42:06):
Surprise in our pop culture over the last twenty five years,
with so many reality shows that we never got there.

Speaker 1 (42:12):
Maybe that maybe that's how the NBA should deal with tanking. Oh,
we's had the team that gets the most votes gets
the number one overall pick.

Speaker 3 (42:17):
Here, Simon Cowell leads you through the choices.

Speaker 1 (42:20):
Exit out about a Fresca exit swollen dome. Jason Smith,
Mike Harmon coming up next, the most bizarre and big
NBA story of the day.

Speaker 3 (42:28):
This is Fox