June 12, 2025 • 41 mins
Jason and Mike welcome in longtime NBA Insider Ric Bucher to recap Game 3 of the Finals and all the latest news on the Knicks head coaching hire.
See omnystudio.com/listener for privacy information.
Mark as Played
Transcript
Episode Transcript
Available transcripts are automatically generated. Complete accuracy is not guaranteed.
Speaker 1 (00:00):
Thanks for listening to The Jason Smith Show with Mike
Harmon podcast. Be sure to catch us live every weeknight
ten pm to two am Eastern seven to eleven pm
Pacific on Fox Sports Radio. Find your local station for
The Jason Smith Show with Mike Harmon at Foxsports Radio
dot com, or stream us live every night on the
iHeartRadio app by searching FSR give this you're listening to.
Speaker 2 (00:24):
Fox Sports Radio.
Speaker 1 (00:30):
Greetings, welcome in side our three, The Jason Smith Show
with my best friend Mike Harmon. Much job up. You
can stream the show in all of our Fox Sports
Radio shows live twenty four to seven in the new
iHeartRadio app. Just search Fox Sports Radio in the app
to stream us live. And one of the newest features
in the app, you can select Fox Sports Radio is
one of your presets, just like the presets on a
(00:52):
radio dial, so be sure to preset Fox Sports Radio
in the iHeartRadio app. It'll always pop up at the
top of your screen, so lock it in head rip
the knob off. We got Rick Buker stopping by in
twenty minutes. All the latest on the NBA Finals. Pacers
beat the Thunder tonight one sixteen one oh seven. Game
(01:12):
four is Friday Night. Indiana leads the series two games
to one. Teams that go up to to one in
the NBA Finals win how many percent of the time?
Mike Harmon eighty one percent percent of the time.
Speaker 3 (01:23):
Because I'm a big nerd, I immediately started looking at
series odds and over at FanDuel right now plus one
ninety four for your Pacers, which implies a thirty four
percent probability, long ways away from what we were at
starting things when it was eleven or twelve percent.
Speaker 2 (01:41):
Uh.
Speaker 1 (01:41):
The Thunder had the lead early in this game, and
the Pacers methodically get back into it. And look, this
is one of those stolen games, right because the Pacer
because the Pacers didn't play to their they didn't play
their A level game, right, And in the NBA Finals,
if you can get when you don't play an A
(02:01):
level game and win, that's a huge thing, right, Not
like that the Thunder played an A level game, but
they had the lead for the most part, and then
the Pacers were able to fight their way back and
they took the lead at the end. Look, they are
just stronger than any team in the final six minutes
of a game like you get to the doesn't matter
what the situation is. The final six minutes of an
NBA playoff game with the Pacers, they could be up
(02:22):
by three, you could be tied, they could be down
by ten. They are better in the last six minutes
than every other team. Right. That's one big takeaway from
the finals and from this playoffs that we've seen is
that the freshness of this team because they play there,
they play the important bench guys who play important minutes.
Everybody is fresh at the end. Halliburton gets a rest,
he comes back in for the final eight minutes, and
(02:43):
they are able to withstand and really get an advantage
over other teams where their stars are kind of dragged
a little bit near the end because you're playing a
lot of minutes. These are big games that are more physical,
that are more draining mentally, and the fresher you can stay. Obviously,
it's a huge advantage. But it's not like I'm picking
and choosing this. It's tell me a game where the
(03:04):
Pacers got a close game, where the Pacers get completely
outplayed in the last six minutes by something they don't
They're the ones that do the out playing, right, They've
done this the entire playoff. You want to talk about
reasons why the Pacers are two wins from winning the
NBA Championship, that's right up at the top. Well, they're
clean in the final minutes. They play clean basketball, defensive
acumen and swarming to the edges. And we talk about
(03:28):
the turnover in issue they had going back to game one,
right highlighted it a lot.
Speaker 3 (03:34):
Is they still took care of business and when it
came to transition defense, So it was sloppy, but it
was somewhat fixable because you can cover that up. You
can also take more chances offensively, as we've seen them
do in the subsequent two games as well. And now
we go back and you've got Indiana with a two
to one lead. But all of that to say that
(03:56):
coming down the stretch, there's no sense of panic, there's
no reticens to go to the substitutions because you play
the team concept and roll it out and you can
go nine to ten deep and you've got players that
can come in and hit shots for you, but take
care of things defensively. And that's what you've seen from
Matherin and certainly your guy Obi Top and who's played
(04:18):
a lot bigger role than I think you would hope
to see him do as a former Nick Now good
and opportunity for what Rick Carlile preaches, and we talked
about it last hour. You can find it in the
podcast when it goes up later on tonight. Evangelize to
your friends and family about everything we're telling you here
is Rick Carlile maybe starts getting elevated in terms of
(04:42):
how he manages these end of game situations and has
these guys ready for bear.
Speaker 1 (04:47):
I mean, it's amazing that that a team can play
this consistently well in the final six minutes. A lot
of it is confidence, A lot of it is anybody
can hit a three, but it doesn't matter the final
six minutes. It gets in your head a little bit, Okay, here,
come to pay. No matter what the lead is, it's
not safe. Right. We watch that in game one of
the Eastern Conference Finals. You know, the chip on their
shoulder gets stronger, their desire gets even stronger than it
(05:09):
is throughout the game. But the final six minutes, the
way they navigate things, and it doesn't seem like it's
not any magical pill where all of a sudden, hey,
final six minutes they default to Halliburt or Siakam gets
the ball down low. It's they just the final six
minutes they execute. I mean, I'm trying to come up
with a team in the last few years in the
NBA playoffs that plays the final six minutes of the
(05:30):
fourth quarter to the level the Pacers having this playoffs
got a tough time coming up with one right now
that we don't have great teams, but we're saying consistently
playing the final six minutes better than everybody else like
the Pacers have. I mean, again, at the top of
the list, why are they winning? Yeah, you want to say, well,
you're you're executing the end of games that should seem elementary.
But over the course of a playoff, yeah, I guess what.
(05:51):
The other teams are great too, and they tend to
do that sometimes as well. The only times I see
this not happening to the Pacers and games where they
absolutely they can't do anything right, where they can't do
anything and they're down too much they can't I for
the Okay, once in a while that happens, but every
close game or every game where they're just where they're
down by five or six or even ten, it doesn't matter.
The Pacers find a way, it's incredibly impressive, or even
(06:13):
twenty like they're all against the Knicks, it's incredibly impressive
to see them do this.
Speaker 3 (06:17):
I think it all plays together, right, we talk about
and you're seeing more and more profiles retweeted out in
the evening here on the Wednesday night coming out of
this game. It's like, hey, remember this guy, ten year veteran.
Right for McConnell, like, look at all the look at
his road to this moment and being ready for it
and needing to fight. And then that's part of it, right.
(06:40):
You got guys looking for those next contracts. You got
guys looking to establish their name.
Speaker 4 (06:46):
Right.
Speaker 3 (06:47):
Halliburton's a two time third team All NBA guy. You
don't think he thinks he should have been a second teamer?
Speaker 1 (06:53):
Right? He feeds in off that hate. We've talked about
it a lot.
Speaker 3 (06:56):
You know, the most overrated comment, it's the stuff with
his dad. All of it plays into this great narrative
of motivation that you can't tell me Rick Carlisle and
his staff aren't feeding into at every turn, right, for
every one of these players.
Speaker 1 (07:15):
The other thing I'll tell you is this now as
great as it is for the Pacers. Okay, because here
care comes by big hot take in Big Bull prediction
for Game four. Right, We've said and look incredible things
about the Pacers, their desire, that the fact that they
are able to to coalesce, and and take that, Hey,
we've all been overlooked at some point in our career
and wear that as a badge because that's really Hey,
(07:35):
how are the Pacers playing this? Well? Most of their
team has been overlooked at some pointmat Right, Uh, well,
then the Titans mount in sunshine, and then he was
a better quarterback and they moved. But he was an unknown.
He was a great unknown when he was But I
gotta think, Okay, here's the thing. Okay, did they really
only run five offensive plays? I mean, I gotta think
at some point a really good team is gonna say
(07:56):
we only have to study five plays. We can stop
five plays. We can tell some team is gonna be
good enough to stop a team that runs five plays.
Speaker 3 (08:05):
You think, what kind of coaching are you doing when
you only have like I could say this my my
eighth grade year, and then like obviously high school take
it to the next level. And when you're talking about
state championship whatever. I do remember my eighth grade year,
we literally had the same run play that we ran
to our side probably sixty percent of the time, seventy
(08:25):
of the time. So all right, run behind harl and
this guy right and then the running back who would
just run through guys once he got to the second.
Speaker 1 (08:33):
We're gonna run behind the guy not wearing leg pads
in purple shorts. Yeah, trust me, it's fine. He's got
a low center of gravity. It's gonna be great.
Speaker 2 (08:40):
No, it worked really.
Speaker 3 (08:41):
Well until everybody else grew and suddenly I was diminutive.
Speaker 1 (08:45):
But here's here's my big bull prediction for game four. Okay,
because like I said, this series has seven games written
all over it, right, I said this going into Game three.
I'm not gonna be surprised Pacers win Game three. Their
bench is gonna play better because they're at home, tada.
But this is not a series where the Pacers gonna
be able to completely overwhelm the Thunder with their style
(09:11):
of play, where they can control it and rip off
three four wins in a row. Same said for the Thunder.
It's not gonna be a game where the Thunder canna
be able to control the pacers. We've seen this right
and to and todight, here's where we are. SGA got
to the free throw line six times tonight. Okay, six
times tonight. He had a decent game, right, twenty four points,
eight rebounds, four assists, but generally he missed a couple
(09:34):
of big shots late. He missed them badly. In Game four,
SGA goes for forty and a near triple double and
the thunder win Game four. The MVP knows I needed
to do more of this game, and I didn't. Right,
he knows it's very rare. He has a bad and
this is what passes for a bad game for He
(09:54):
was careless with the basketball a number of times.
Speaker 3 (09:56):
Yeah, some ola defense when he was dejected.
Speaker 1 (10:00):
Did not yet Oh yeah, the big one. He missed
that big jumper and then Siakam's able to get buy
him down court. Us, Hey, dude, come on, SGA. This
is what I say about Anthony Edwards and Halliburton. And
then they're not motivated all the time like you are.
You kind of making me.
Speaker 3 (10:12):
Look bad, right, and George down pass all the way
down to the baseline, and and he just stood and
watched a layup. It's like multiple times, just caught nappy.
Speaker 1 (10:23):
He knows this was a bad game, and again it
passes for a bad game. It's it's nice to be
to score twenty four points and shooting nearly fifty percent
from the floor and have it be a bad game.
But it's a bad game. But I'm good. But he's
he knows. Game four, he's getting a free throw line,
he's scoring forty points, near triple double, and the Thunder
win Game four and tie this thing up. SGA is
(10:44):
too good. He's too he's too well rounded a player.
He's too smart to not know that. Okay, I was
not enough this game. Watch the game he has in
Game four. Ben scoring this one again. We talked about it.
Speaker 3 (10:57):
Forty nine points for your pacers, let by twenty seven
for Mathron, just eighteen off the bench of the Thunder.
Playoff high six turnovers for SGA. We chronicled that quite
a bit. Also a wasted effort. Though you got twenty
points from Chet that's all he finished with twenty.
Speaker 1 (11:15):
Think about the first quarter.
Speaker 3 (11:16):
He had nonexistent as the game went on, finishes with
twenty and ten. But Williams also with twenty six points.
Shake Gildas Alexander twenty four points. I mean, you got
those kind of efforts out of your starting lineup, a
bunch of threes just for four to three pointers, so
twelve points for Dort. But you got efforts out of
(11:37):
your starting lineup, but when you needed them in the
fourth quarter, came up smallish. And this is where the tenacity,
the consistency of what the Pacers do in the fourth
quarter to grind your possessions really took over again.
Speaker 1 (11:53):
Forty deer triple double and the Thunder even the series
two games apiece. Okay, that's where they are six point
road favorites. This is in for game This is where
the MVP and it is it is a weird line.
Suddenly go wait a minute, the Thunder or up to
the Pacers are up to one and they're the they're
the dogs game. Let me jump on the on the faces.
(12:14):
Yeah good luck. Uh, this is where the MVP knows
I need to be the MVP. And this is what
happens in game four.
Speaker 3 (12:20):
Yeah, they were five and a half point home dogs.
Today Pacers rose up and got them. We'll see what
happens game four. You're going four near triple double and
the thunder tie the series too too.
Speaker 1 (12:32):
Give me this.
Speaker 3 (12:33):
I thought they'd get Game four the Pacers, so we
flip it the other way.
Speaker 1 (12:37):
So yeah, we're we're two to two going to the
best of three exit out about a Fresco exit, swollen Dome.
We have more in the finals and the really bad
Knicks coaching search going on? Coming up next. Rick Buker,
Fox Sports One, NBA Insider Extraordinaris, all the Inside Info one,
what's next in the finals, and potentially who could say
(12:57):
yes to the New York Knicks to take over for
Ton Tibodeaux. That's next right here. Jason of Mike, Fox
Sports Radio, Rod Beck, Jack Morris, Jesse Rosco. In his
twenty four years in Major League Baseball, he's still pitching
All War number forty seven. Why do we talk about
(13:18):
forty seven? That's how many pounds Mike and I have
each lost thanks to PhD weight loss. PhD weight loss
is made for your hectic schedule. Men lose an average
of three to five pounds a week, women two to
three pounds a week. Eighty percent of your daily food
provided at no extra cost. There's no cravings for junk food. Look,
I'm the original chocolate guy. I would us to walk
(13:39):
by a cabinet and go, oh, let me have some
chocolate while I decide what chocolate I want. Don't have
that happen anymore. It's terrific. It's virtual over the phone,
designed to be convenient and flexible to your schedule. How
do you take advantage of this right now? If you're
sick and tired of being sick and tired? Eight six
four five oh two one seven seven seven eight six
four five oh two one Trip seven mention Jason and
(14:01):
Mike Fox Sports Radio, get two free weeks added to
your weight loss program. And your program is backed by
PhD's get results guarantee my phdweight loss dot Com My
phdweight loss dot Com eight six four five oh two
one seven seven seven eight six four five oh two
one triple seven mention Jason and Mike Fox Sports Radio
(14:21):
get two free weeks added to your weight loss program.
Speaker 2 (14:24):
Be sure to catch live editions of The Jason Smith
Show with Mike Harmon weekdays at ten pm Eastern seven
pm Pacific on Fox Sports Radio and the iHeartRadio app.
Speaker 1 (14:35):
Fox Sports Radio. The Jason Smith Show is My best Friend.
Mike Harmon Well dress Cobo Pacers take Game three of
the Finals, one sixteen to one oh seven, halfway Vlari
O'Brien Trophy, the Knicks not nearly halfway to the coach.
Speaker 3 (14:53):
I may not be halfway, but that energy bar is
not filling up. It's like when your charger decides it's done.
Oh yeah, yeah, sure yeah. Did the power go out?
Did I you know, disconnected somehow? Yeah, that's where we're at,
Nick Show joining us now on the hotline. A man
and a man. I mean, I don't know if he's
(15:14):
ready for this news to be out there. Okay, he
was contacted. The Knicks called his wife for permission to
interview him to be their next head coach. His wife said.
Speaker 1 (15:24):
No, So Rick Buker will continue to be Fox Sports
one NBA insider, join us on the show, hosting on
the Ball podcast, unless he says he really wants to
be the head coach of the Nixon, which case, then
they'll work out some sort of compensation.
Speaker 5 (15:38):
Rick.
Speaker 1 (15:38):
I'm sorry, but I mean I can't ignore his business.
I can't ignore a news story. We have to talk
about it.
Speaker 5 (15:44):
I understand, and uh, you know, I'm a little upset
that you brought it up. But you know, I have
a job, so I already have a job, so I
clearly qualify it for if I can, if I can
do their job, and you know what I would, I
would I would consider taking it. But you know that
(16:08):
they have a strict policy about not talking to the
media about anything at any time, and I couldn't possibly
sacrifice my time here with you in exchange for being
head coach of the Knicks. So I'm going to have
to politely decline unless they change their Unless they change
their policy and Jim Dolan agrees to do a weekly
(16:32):
podcast with the three of us, Okay, all four of
us actually okay, I don't want to keep I don't
want to leave out Mike.
Speaker 1 (16:39):
Okay, No, that's good. So here's we need to do then,
is you need to make sure when they you know,
call them back and uh, you know, put that in there.
Then we'll be okay.
Speaker 5 (16:47):
Yeah, unless, of course, Mike doesn't want to participate, and
I would fully understand if he didn't want to be
with us three.
Speaker 1 (16:56):
You didn't, I didn't.
Speaker 5 (16:58):
Want to presume. I didn't want to presume that, but
you know, I felt like that might be coming, so
I can get it be easy out.
Speaker 3 (17:04):
I'd be a paying gig to talk about the Knicks.
Something I'm familiar with.
Speaker 1 (17:07):
Rick, this is. I can't tell you how embarrassing this is.
Thirty six hours ago, the Knicks head coaching job was Boy,
it's a destination. You're gonna come into a team locked
and loaded, ready to go. You got everything right, and
now all you've seen is teams and coaches basically saying Noaks.
If they wanted the job, they would tell their team, Hey,
I want to coach this team, and then we're figuring
(17:29):
out compensation. Now the Knicks are oh for six, oh
for seven, Billy Donovan, they told him no, Quinn Snyder.
It's so unbelievably embarrassing. I want to just call James
Dolan and say, stop, you're embarrassing yourself. Get this is
the worst possible thing the Knicks could have done.
Speaker 5 (17:46):
It absolutely is the worst thing. Because if you were
going to go down this road, like, if you're going
to do something like you know what, we're going to go,
try to hire somebody who already has a job. I
would start with Mark Holland. Rick Carlos, Right, I'm going
to be ridiculous about it. I might as well be
(18:08):
ridiculous to the nth degree rather than kind of middling. Now,
I will say this like it remains to be seen
whether while Dallas has said no, and most of the
teams are ganging ganging up, it's it's it's not just
a matter of the coach saying no, but the teams.
The team's saying hell no, because how dare you have
(18:29):
the audacity to think that you can just pilfer our coach,
or that you know you're so attractive that that our coach,
you know, being the opportunity would beg his way out
of here. I think with most of the coaches, maybe
all of them, except the one possible exception, and I
(18:50):
don't know this. I haven't talked to Jason or any
of his people to this point. The one exception would
be Jason because he's been there. Because of the uncertainty
in Dallas played there knows, you know, knows the lay
of the land, and with the future of Dallas being
(19:11):
a little bit uncertain, even with Cooper Flagg coming in,
I wouldn't completely close the door on the possibility of
of of Jason still having interest and this being maybe
some posturing for Dallas to get a little bit more
out of New York in exchange for allowing Jason to
interview for the job.
Speaker 1 (19:33):
See. I like the chaos potential of it all though, Rick.
I mean that.
Speaker 3 (19:37):
Look, if I was in that postgame pressure with Rick Carlisle,
that's the first question I'm asking, have you been Have
you turned down the Nicks yet?
Speaker 5 (19:43):
Oh? Yeah, no doubt about it. No congratulations on the wind.
But what I really want to know is, has Jim
Dolan called you recently? Is Leon Rose any of those
names ring a bell? What do we got going on here?
Speaker 1 (19:58):
Dada?
Speaker 5 (19:59):
That would known in Carlisle that that would really start
to that would begin and end the press press conference
right there? But what might be worth it?
Speaker 1 (20:07):
I really thought i'd see Leon Rose actually at the
at the press conference. We're like a mustache and fun
and glasses are going, Uh would you want to come
be the head coach of the Knicks?
Speaker 5 (20:15):
Hey?
Speaker 1 (20:15):
Who's that? Got?
Speaker 2 (20:17):
That guy?
Speaker 1 (20:17):
Funny mask and sunglasses off?
Speaker 5 (20:19):
I'll be shocked if I'll be shocked if Worldwide West
isn't somewhere in that building.
Speaker 1 (20:26):
All right, So if I said to you before we
get to the five, if I said to you, all right, Rick,
I want to go to Vegas. And my wife said,
it's okay for me to put money on whatever I
want to put on it. Oh, well, I'm going to
put this money on who that? Well, no, because if
it's if I'm gambling, like I gotta tell her. Uh
the I said, this is who I'm going to put
my money on to be the next head coach of
the Knicks. And I said, Rick, I need advice. Who
(20:46):
would you tell? Who would you tell me? It would
be if you had to say your gut what you're
feeling people are hearing from right now, the next head
coach of the Knicks is going to be who.
Speaker 5 (20:54):
No. I see how this lines up, because then when
it doesn't work, then you can go to your wife
and say, look it. Rick told me I wasn't I
wasn't even going to do it, but he was so confident.
I thought, money, I want to take us. I want
to take you to Paris for a vacation. And here
was the easy money, and and and Rick just steered
me wrong.
Speaker 1 (21:15):
Yeah, and house for a couple of weeks our vacation.
That's what we're gonna We're gonna have fun.
Speaker 5 (21:20):
Yet I'm not giving you a certainty, I will say,
like if we're if we're being reasonable here about potential
guys that they could get. I would look at a
Taylor Jenkins because I think that he did an admirable
job in uh in Memphis. He got sideways with the
(21:40):
front office. I don't think it was any fault of
his own, but they they changed up his his coaching
staff underneath him and brought in guys that were going
to teach a different offense, and that kind of undercut him.
Prior to that, he had a great relationship with the players.
He ran an offense that when Jah was healthy, a
(22:00):
scoring point guard offense that that was very effective. And
so I would I would look that direction. Or I
would look at the Minnesota assistant coach Mike and Nori,
just because we saw him coach the Timberwolves last year
in the playoffs while Chris Finch was dealing with the
(22:21):
petel A tendon injury. Knowing his personality, I think he
could handle the New York market. And he has a
standing relationship with Karl Anthony Talt. So those are the
kind of of choices where if the Knicks went in
that direction, I would say, Okay, you know what I
can see it. I don't have a problem with them
(22:42):
moving on from tips. I think they went as far
as they could with tips. But look like you have
a plan as opposed to you're just you're just scrolling
through the league media guide for every head coach and going, hey,
let's try that guy. Let's see if he'll we'll get
an interview with What are we doing there? Even the
(23:02):
coaches that they reached out to are so different, Like,
show me that you have a show me that when
you fired kids you had some sort of list. I
can tell you that every GM I've talked to, when
they may have just hired a coach and they have
a list in their pocket of guys that they would
(23:23):
hire next if they decided to make a change, they
always have a list of who would I who would
I want if I could get them? And maybe maybe
Leon Rose has that list and he's just ignoring the
fact that those guys have already been hired by other people.
Speaker 3 (23:45):
No, that's what I did, right when as soon as
you started saying go to Vegas, I started thinking about
a roulette table.
Speaker 1 (23:49):
You know, you don't have to give me specifics.
Speaker 3 (23:51):
Is it a guy with the job a guy who
doesn't have a job, or the green would be the
assistant coaches who haven't had that chance yet. So we
have that, but we do. I have a two to
one lead for the Indiana Pacers. They've led eleven percent
of game minutes here. It was the Benedict Mathering game.
Who's the specialist for game four? I mean coming out
(24:11):
of this, Rick, I mean, you just look at the
depth and now it matchs up. They just keep coming.
Speaker 2 (24:17):
Yeah.
Speaker 5 (24:17):
Well, and that's the danger of Indiana and that's why
it's been so hard to predict what they're going to do,
is because you don't know who is going to deliver.
It can be one of any number of guys, and
that's what makes them much more difficult. And Rick Carlisle
was just masterful with how he handled this game because
(24:40):
he was subbing in guys in the first quarter, and
he kept fresh bodies out there, and he pressed Sga
ninety four feet knowing that if we can keep this close,
the ball is going to be in SGA's hands. He's
going to have to try to win this. And meanwhile,
we got an array of guys who are capable of
(25:01):
going and getting a bucket and We're just going to
make it a battle of attrition and uh and and
I thought that's exactly what you saw at the end.
I mean Sga was exhausted, ched Holmgren was exhausted, and
those and and those were the two guys. And I
would say Jalen Williams probably was too. And those were
the you know, that's their core. But they had to
(25:21):
play so hard and they had so many bodies on them,
and the crowd was just you know, had had the
Indiana role players geeked up beyond measure. Uh. And then
you had Pascal Siakam and Tyrese Haliburton, you know, do
their part. But uh, this this really was to me,
this was a Rick Carlisle game. When I saw him
(25:43):
stubbing guys in like early I don't know, I can't
remember when the first subs were came in, but he
went to his bench and the bench just lit a fire.
And uh and I could I knew exactly what he
was doing, and it was just a matter of is
it going to work? And by the end you saw
it working to perfection.
Speaker 1 (26:02):
You know, Rick Bucker with us here Fox Sports Radio,
Jason Smith, Mike Carmen, What I come down to and
then because now the Pacers have gone from hey, they're
a great story, to hey, now they're two wins away
from winning it all. And you know, hey, teams that
go up to to one win eighty one percent of
the time. And when when you come back, I think,
when when you know, as we look at the Pacers,
why are they this good? The couple of things that
(26:22):
we talk about the rotation, But these are a bunch
of guys and it's a perfect moment in time for
them because it's a bunch of guys who have been
overlooked their entire or they feel they've been overlooked their
entire career, whether it's Halliburton or Toppin or McConnell or
Mathern who you know wants to start Siakam who is
terrific player but never really given the credit. In Toronto,
it was either Fred van Vlid or it was Kawhi Leonard.
(26:45):
And they play with that chip on their shoulder. And
whether it's the reserves in the game or the or
the stars in the game, they play at that pace
and they play that to an extent. No one is
as hungry to win as I see this pace and
It doesn't mean other teams are lazy. They all want
to win, they all want the basketball, but nobody is
(27:05):
as hungry as this Pacers team. This moment in time
for them is really something.
Speaker 5 (27:10):
Yeah, no, I agree, and it's I don't know that
this is the perfect model, but you're you see some
of the same thing with Okay. See, Indiana's just taking
it to another level where we're we're going to play
a deep rotation so that we can sustain an injury. Uh,
(27:32):
and it's going to be equal opportunity. You know what
I really love is, you know, Benefic Matherin comes in
off the bench and he's got as much of a
green light as Tyre's Haliburton does. And Tyre's Haliburton will
be on the floor, and Andrew Demhart will be initiating
the offense and handling it as much as anybody else.
And then the other thing is, you know, you look
(27:54):
at their you know, we've talked a lot about Okay's defense,
deservedly so, but I'm watching Nemhart and Nie Smith and
and even Halliburton tonight. These guys were getting after it.
I mean, it's easy to say we're going to press
ninety four feet and what that's going to take out
(28:15):
of STA. But you've also got to give that and
mathern Nemhart Niece Smith Halliburton Toppin. They were all they
were all in playing ninety four feet and and to
your point, like I could see them, I could see
them eating a championship out of this, it'll be they'll
(28:38):
they'll be the most improbable champion that we've seen probably
since I mean I would say probably since the Dallas
Mavericks in twenty eleven beating the Miami Heat. They had,
you know, they had a Dirk Noviski, but you look
at the rest of that team. Nobody, nobody was expecting
them to win a championship. Nobody was expecting these Pacers
(29:00):
to win a championship, and right now they're in the
driver's seat to do exactly that.
Speaker 1 (29:06):
Fox Sports Radio. You can follow Rick on Twitter at
Rick Buker, That is at Rick Buker the On the
Ball podcast where he breaks down all twenty seven teams
that have said no to the Knicks at this point, Rick,
don't you in the Knicks just put out a blanket
request to every NBA team and see who comes back
and says yes. Wouldn't that be a better use of
their time? Are you really well?
Speaker 5 (29:27):
I think we need to expand it to G League
team as well. Manhattan Condos, Yo, All thanks a bunch.
Speaker 1 (29:36):
Buddy has always enjoyed the games. We'll talk to you see, Rick.
Great stuff is always from Rick Buker right there, he's
the best. Tell you man, the most improbable NBA champion
since the Mavericks and twenty eleven, which was also.
Speaker 3 (29:50):
Coached by ta Rick Carlele Say comes back. I think
I've seen tickets as high as one hundred and twenty
five to one from in season betting for the Pacers
to win the title.
Speaker 1 (30:02):
Jason, Yeah, what do you got? Frost? Perkyl Lar keeps
this up. He might he might be able to turn
the next down. Uh yeah, well, I can't believe the
Nicks didn't. Really the should have asked him in the
post game, Prescott he knew where he was.
Speaker 3 (30:13):
That would have been the first question showed up, right, Yeah,
all of a sudden, there's a guitar. Instead of like
after a big Broadway performance, here's a bouquet of roses,
Like after a dance resad or whatever, a guitar shows up.
What Does this mean you gotta like the Joker's cards
or no?
Speaker 1 (30:27):
Yes or no? Just right now say it yes or no,
just out of my collection. It's a you know, a
strat for the sixties because if you say no, I'm
going across all Oklahoma City. All right, do that back.
I wanted to ask you first because you're leading two
games to one. I'll go talk to Mark. I don't
think I'm not gonna ask it, but I'm asking you first,
all right time now to find out what's trending in
the wide world of sports from Monty Belangos, who is
(30:48):
still having her finger hovering over the Puma button to
buy a Tyres Halliburton over eight that T shirt.
Speaker 6 (30:55):
Yea, So here here's my problem, guys.
Speaker 4 (30:58):
Do I buy something else I don't need need to
get free shipping, or do I just pay the shipping
and spend less money to just get the shirt.
Speaker 1 (31:04):
That's what I'm strue. Absolutely pay more money to get
free shipping. Yes, but on something I don't need, yes, yeah.
Speaker 3 (31:09):
Or something that you might way a little bit, because
that would.
Speaker 6 (31:12):
Mean that the I need the shirt.
Speaker 1 (31:15):
This is a need ray versus reader that no, I
need it.
Speaker 6 (31:18):
I need it at this point, I need it. I
need it.
Speaker 4 (31:20):
But you know, if OKC does lose, Jason Mark Dagnall
might be available for the Knicks.
Speaker 6 (31:26):
You know what I'm saying, You might be available in
one more game, That's right, Yeah, like he might. He
might be available for the Knicks.
Speaker 4 (31:31):
So keep your fingers crossed that you know that happens
for your knicks.
Speaker 1 (31:35):
Yeah.
Speaker 4 (31:35):
The Pacers taking two to one series lead over the
Thunder in the NBA Finals Game three, one sixteen to
one oh seven was the final score.
Speaker 6 (31:42):
Pacers were down in the fourth quarter, but it didn't matter.
Speaker 4 (31:45):
They end up out scoring Oka Seed thirty two to
eighteen and get the win. Benedict Mathern, like you guys
are talking about off the bench, only played twenty two
minutes but was the leading score of the game twenty
seven points. Tyrese Haliburn was just shy of a triple
double twenty two points, nine rebounds on eleven assists. Okase
made one shot in the final five minutes and fifty
(32:05):
eight seconds of the game. The rest of the points
were free throws, but they made one shot, Jalen Williams,
putting them up to one hundred. Those other seven points
were free throws. That's all they did in the final
six minutes of that fourth quarter. Another NBA news know
not about the Knicks, but Kevin Durant and the Suns.
They've been talking about moving Durround out of Phoenix this
offseason with his reps the Rocket Spurs, Timberwolves. He and
(32:28):
Nis were named as possible destinations. Celtics card Jalen Brown
had outhroscopic surgery on his knee, but he's expected to
be ready by the start of.
Speaker 6 (32:37):
Training camp when it comes to baseball.
Speaker 4 (32:39):
Earlier today, the Diamondbacks, while they defeated the Mariners five
to two, they swept the Mariners Lehane swatt Is with
this third Grand Slam of the season.
Speaker 6 (32:48):
The Orioles crushed the Tigers ten to one.
Speaker 4 (32:50):
Detroit starter Jackson Job was going to undergo Tommy John surgery,
ending his season. The Red Sox piled off the Rays
four to three. The Mets have won five in a row.
They shut out the Nations five zero. David Peterson tossed
a complete shutout game, Peter a Lonso had an RBI double,
Juan Soto a two run homer, five home runs in
the last eleven games, and Brandon Nimmo.
Speaker 6 (33:09):
Also homer for your Mets.
Speaker 5 (33:10):
There.
Speaker 4 (33:11):
Jason Aaron Judge hit home run number twenty five on
the season, his fourth home run in three games as
the Yankees top the Royals six to three. The Twins outscored.
I wrote, the Twins outscored the Twins.
Speaker 6 (33:20):
That's not right.
Speaker 4 (33:21):
The Twins outscored somebody, guys, but it wasn't the Twins.
The Astros rolled past the White Sox, tend to to
the final in that one, and I'll give you the
baseball score in just a second, since I did right
the wrong thing.
Speaker 1 (33:32):
Winders, Yes, outscore Twins.
Speaker 6 (33:35):
That's where I wrote, six to two. Six to two
was the final score. At least I got that right.
Speaker 4 (33:38):
And Byron Buxton did hit the three run homer that
put them up, so I got that right as well.
The Giants have won seven in a row. Ten to
seven was the final score over the Rockies.
Speaker 6 (33:46):
The Astros roll past the White Sox ten to two.
Speaker 4 (33:48):
The Angels edged the a six to five to complete
a three game sweep, while the Dodgers defeated the Padres
five to two, and in the WNBA, the Storm outscored
the Links ninety four eighty four.
Speaker 6 (33:59):
Handy Minnesota, the first loss.
Speaker 4 (34:00):
Of the season, and the Mercury top the Wings ninety
three eighty despite thirty five points from Paige Beckers.
Speaker 6 (34:07):
Back to you days.
Speaker 1 (34:07):
Thank you very much, mon Sie. Yeah, real quick. Best
thoughts a Tiger's rookie prospect, Jackson Jobe, one of the
best prospects in baseball. But I gotta think this, I
think good things. If your last name is job, I
think you're gonna come through surgery just fine. Actually do
I gotta feel played. I got a feeling his history
would say that JA will go great. All right, so
let's just go get it. Thank you much. Yes, coming
(34:29):
up next all we'll lot more in the NBA playoffs,
coming out a little bit. But straight ahead, boy do
we have a fun story out of the NFL today
to get to. That's next, Jason to Mike.
Speaker 2 (34:37):
Be sure to catch live editions of The Jason Smith
Show with Mike Harmon weekdays at ten pm Eastern, seven
pm Pacific.
Speaker 1 (34:45):
Fox Sports Radio The Jason Smith Show with My best
friend Mike Harmon. More NBA coming up in a few minutes.
But boy, do we have a great quote today and
it involved Aaron Rodgers. So Rogers met the meetia yesterday.
Oh by the way, I'm married. Okay, that's great. Today
Offensive coordinator Arthur Smith, and we've said this for a while,
(35:07):
that boy, you know going back. Yeah, I don't know
two months when when this whole dance first starting. Congratulations
Mike tann Abound for stealing our take. Look, Aaron Rodgers
and the Steelers sounds great on paper, but wow, you
talk about two completely different philosophies on offense, what the
Steelers like to do and what Rodgers likes to do. Yeah,
good luck making that work today. Arthur Smith was asked
(35:30):
about it. Hey, you brought in Aaron Rodgers. What does
it mean? You know, different you know, different quarterback, different era.
And he said, you know, listen, we didn't bring Aaron
in here and signed DK Metcalf for all that money
to go run the wishbone. So you know, you try
to play to the strengths of your team. Which is
a great quote. Right, No, it's good here and run
the wishbone.
Speaker 3 (35:49):
Right Well, I mean it's it's a nice blanket statement
to say. I mean we're not doing that. I mean
you're not squad.
Speaker 1 (35:55):
I mean Troy Aikman did run the Wishbone at Oklahoma
until he got hurt and went to UCLA and suddenly
became the best pocket passer we've ever seen. So there
was that. All that works out pretty well. Yeah, But
I mean, okay, and this is when I say this
is gonna be a disaster, right, This is gonna be
a disaster because you have again two completely different philosophies
(36:16):
on what you want to do offensively. Mike Tomlin the
last few years, I'm not gonna throw the football a million.
I'm done with the Roethlisberger era. I'm done with all
of that. What he has tried to do is turn
the Steelers into a team where it looks like it's
nineteen eighty four. We're gonna run the football a ton,
even though we can't run it really well. The Steelers
still ran the football at side three yards at a
(36:37):
cloud three times. It's seven three point three, it's a
first down. They had the fewest yards per carry off
any team in the NFL. You want to know why
they didn't win more because they still want to run
the football with Najie Harris, who is just a guy,
and Jalen Warren when they can't do it well, that's
why they didn't score. You're still gonna run the football
when you can't do why are you doing that? You're
suddenly gonna change and something now with Aaron, you're gonna
(36:59):
throw the football forty five times a game. Not happening. Right.
You can say all this, all this is great, but
it's clear that Mike Tom and Arthur Smith have one
sort of offensive philosophy. You really think suddenly Rodger's gonna
come in and slinging around. No, they're hoping, Hey, we
don't really have a plan at quarterback. We want to
continue to try to get by cheaply a quarterback for
some stupid reason. And Rogers's gonna come in. He's gonna
(37:19):
chafe because yes, they brought him Decae, but they really
they let go. A couple others said that the last
couple of years have been cycling through receivers. We're gonna
let you go and let you go there now we
bringing DK Metcalf. Okay, that's great, but they're not suddenly
gonna abandon who they are. They're not gonna change your
offensive system. They're not gonna suddenly stop running the football.
Not going to happen, and it's gonna be awful, and
you're gonna see after week two, Mike Tomlin at one
(37:42):
end of the of the locker room talking about offensive
play after a disappointing performance, and Aaron Rodgers all the
way at the other end, talking about offensive play and disappointment.
And he's gonna be throwing slight bars one way. Maybe
if we threw the football a little bit more, maybe
because he's not gonna be quietest. He doesn't want this
year to be absolutely terror Well, it's going to be.
And we told you that by the beginning of December.
(38:04):
The big question is going to be can Rodgers finish
the season as a starter or the Steelers going to
turn to Will Howard or Mason Rudolph. Right, we said that,
congratulates Mike Tannaboum. That's great. We said that a month ago.
This is not a match that's going to work. You
can see here and say again June is one thing. Oh,
we're gonna do this and this is gonna be great.
And then when the football's fly for real, what's gonna happen.
(38:26):
We're gonna try to run the football thirty five times
a game and win this game sixteen to ten. And
that's not what Aaron Rodgers in to do. He's not
in to go seventeen for twenty eight throwing the football
or twelve for twenty four throwing the football for one
hundred and twenty five yards an interception. That's not what
he's going to do. But that's exactly what they're going
to ask him to do, and it's going to go horribly.
Speaker 2 (38:47):
See.
Speaker 3 (38:47):
I think Aaron Rodgers learned a big lesson going back
to the twenty twenty NFC title game. Remember when he
came off the field when they said, all right, let's
send the field goal unit on, let's kick the ball
back and play defense, and they never saw the ball again.
Speaker 1 (39:01):
Yeah, and Phil saw it all. You could have stopped
that other guy from kicking a field goal and gone in,
but you didn't. And then we could have told him
him at the concert.
Speaker 3 (39:12):
You could have said, blank you, I'm staying on this
field and we're going for the tie.
Speaker 1 (39:16):
I think he learned lesson and that's.
Speaker 3 (39:17):
What he's gonna do to Arthur smithon by Tomlin, I'm
the captain.
Speaker 1 (39:21):
Now, you brought me in to throw the ball and
win games. Uh sixty five toss power trap. Okay, Yeah,
that's great uh red twenty seven Black fifty nine razor. Oh,
Aaron Rodgers going deep again? Oh seem like this would
be a time in the past when the Steelers would
run the ball. But hey, this shows the growth of
Mike Tomlin. Oh no way. Tomlin is screaming at Aaron
Rodgers from the sideline for changing the play.
Speaker 3 (39:43):
Roman Wilson, you're really fast, right, go, that's how I
see it. You're gonna look at some of those Roethlisberger numbers,
six seventy five, six oh eight, six oh five.
Speaker 1 (39:55):
That's what we're looking for.
Speaker 3 (39:56):
If Aaron Rodgers is the quarterback of this squad, he
got three yards and a clouded dust?
Speaker 1 (40:00):
You know, yes, yeah, how many plays you think he's
gonna change until suddenly it turns it? All right? Well,
let's I.
Speaker 3 (40:07):
Mean, because that's where it really could be fun. This
is good, This is gonna go hoard. These are not
two sides that are male like at this point when
when when you're Aaron Rodgers, like early in his career,
you could work in a lot of systems, right, he
had the army and everything else. But look, we know
he throws off his back foot. He doesn't want to
get hit, he throws the football away early. He needs
to be in a system that can take advantage of
(40:28):
what he does well. I don't know there's any quarterback
that could you can take advantage of what they do
well in the Steelers system.
Speaker 1 (40:33):
None. I don't think there is because they don't want
you to throw the football. They would love to run
the single wing offensive. We're just gonna maybe two or
three trick passes again. That's it. We're gonna run the
football all the time. I don't know anybody but specifically
Aaron Rodgers who loves to throw it and throw it
deep and make plays, and gambles and educated risks and
educated gambles. It's gonna be tart.
Speaker 3 (40:52):
Arthur Smith has a quarterback that might be able to
throw the ball. I don't know when he's gonna be
able to contain himself.
Speaker 1 (40:58):
Rogers was almost a ram, Yeah he was. He was
exit out about a Fresco exit swollen dome. Jason Smith,
Mike Harbon live from the Fox Sports Radio Studios. Coming
up next, how to go from being a destination to
an absolute laughing stock in a span of thirty six hours.
Jason and Mike Fox
Thanks for listening to The Jason Smith Show with Mike
Harmon podcast. Be sure to catch us live every weeknight
ten pm to two am Eastern seven to eleven pm
Pacific on Fox Sports Radio. Find your local station for
The Jason Smith Show with Mike Harmon at Foxsports Radio
dot com, or stream us live every night on the
iHeartRadio app by searching FSR give this you're listening to.
Speaker 2 (00:24):
Fox Sports Radio.
Speaker 1 (00:30):
Greetings, welcome in side our three, The Jason Smith Show
with my best friend Mike Harmon. Much job up. You
can stream the show in all of our Fox Sports
Radio shows live twenty four to seven in the new
iHeartRadio app. Just search Fox Sports Radio in the app
to stream us live. And one of the newest features
in the app, you can select Fox Sports Radio is
one of your presets, just like the presets on a
(00:52):
radio dial, so be sure to preset Fox Sports Radio
in the iHeartRadio app. It'll always pop up at the
top of your screen, so lock it in head rip
the knob off. We got Rick Buker stopping by in
twenty minutes. All the latest on the NBA Finals. Pacers
beat the Thunder tonight one sixteen one oh seven. Game
(01:12):
four is Friday Night. Indiana leads the series two games
to one. Teams that go up to to one in
the NBA Finals win how many percent of the time?
Mike Harmon eighty one percent percent of the time.
Speaker 3 (01:23):
Because I'm a big nerd, I immediately started looking at
series odds and over at FanDuel right now plus one
ninety four for your Pacers, which implies a thirty four
percent probability, long ways away from what we were at
starting things when it was eleven or twelve percent.
Speaker 2 (01:41):
Uh.
Speaker 1 (01:41):
The Thunder had the lead early in this game, and
the Pacers methodically get back into it. And look, this
is one of those stolen games, right because the Pacer
because the Pacers didn't play to their they didn't play
their A level game, right, And in the NBA Finals,
if you can get when you don't play an A
(02:01):
level game and win, that's a huge thing, right, Not
like that the Thunder played an A level game, but
they had the lead for the most part, and then
the Pacers were able to fight their way back and
they took the lead at the end. Look, they are
just stronger than any team in the final six minutes
of a game like you get to the doesn't matter
what the situation is. The final six minutes of an
NBA playoff game with the Pacers, they could be up
(02:22):
by three, you could be tied, they could be down
by ten. They are better in the last six minutes
than every other team. Right. That's one big takeaway from
the finals and from this playoffs that we've seen is
that the freshness of this team because they play there,
they play the important bench guys who play important minutes.
Everybody is fresh at the end. Halliburton gets a rest,
he comes back in for the final eight minutes, and
(02:43):
they are able to withstand and really get an advantage
over other teams where their stars are kind of dragged
a little bit near the end because you're playing a
lot of minutes. These are big games that are more physical,
that are more draining mentally, and the fresher you can stay. Obviously,
it's a huge advantage. But it's not like I'm picking
and choosing this. It's tell me a game where the
(03:04):
Pacers got a close game, where the Pacers get completely
outplayed in the last six minutes by something they don't
They're the ones that do the out playing, right, They've
done this the entire playoff. You want to talk about
reasons why the Pacers are two wins from winning the
NBA Championship, that's right up at the top. Well, they're
clean in the final minutes. They play clean basketball, defensive
acumen and swarming to the edges. And we talk about
(03:28):
the turnover in issue they had going back to game one,
right highlighted it a lot.
Speaker 3 (03:34):
Is they still took care of business and when it
came to transition defense, So it was sloppy, but it
was somewhat fixable because you can cover that up. You
can also take more chances offensively, as we've seen them
do in the subsequent two games as well. And now
we go back and you've got Indiana with a two
to one lead. But all of that to say that
(03:56):
coming down the stretch, there's no sense of panic, there's
no reticens to go to the substitutions because you play
the team concept and roll it out and you can
go nine to ten deep and you've got players that
can come in and hit shots for you, but take
care of things defensively. And that's what you've seen from
Matherin and certainly your guy Obi Top and who's played
(04:18):
a lot bigger role than I think you would hope
to see him do as a former Nick Now good
and opportunity for what Rick Carlile preaches, and we talked
about it last hour. You can find it in the
podcast when it goes up later on tonight. Evangelize to
your friends and family about everything we're telling you here
is Rick Carlile maybe starts getting elevated in terms of
(04:42):
how he manages these end of game situations and has
these guys ready for bear.
Speaker 1 (04:47):
I mean, it's amazing that that a team can play
this consistently well in the final six minutes. A lot
of it is confidence, A lot of it is anybody
can hit a three, but it doesn't matter the final
six minutes. It gets in your head a little bit, Okay, here,
come to pay. No matter what the lead is, it's
not safe. Right. We watch that in game one of
the Eastern Conference Finals. You know, the chip on their
shoulder gets stronger, their desire gets even stronger than it
(05:09):
is throughout the game. But the final six minutes, the
way they navigate things, and it doesn't seem like it's
not any magical pill where all of a sudden, hey,
final six minutes they default to Halliburt or Siakam gets
the ball down low. It's they just the final six
minutes they execute. I mean, I'm trying to come up
with a team in the last few years in the
NBA playoffs that plays the final six minutes of the
(05:30):
fourth quarter to the level the Pacers having this playoffs
got a tough time coming up with one right now
that we don't have great teams, but we're saying consistently
playing the final six minutes better than everybody else like
the Pacers have. I mean, again, at the top of
the list, why are they winning? Yeah, you want to say, well,
you're you're executing the end of games that should seem elementary.
But over the course of a playoff, yeah, I guess what.
(05:51):
The other teams are great too, and they tend to
do that sometimes as well. The only times I see
this not happening to the Pacers and games where they
absolutely they can't do anything right, where they can't do
anything and they're down too much they can't I for
the Okay, once in a while that happens, but every
close game or every game where they're just where they're
down by five or six or even ten, it doesn't matter.
The Pacers find a way, it's incredibly impressive, or even
(06:13):
twenty like they're all against the Knicks, it's incredibly impressive
to see them do this.
Speaker 3 (06:17):
I think it all plays together, right, we talk about
and you're seeing more and more profiles retweeted out in
the evening here on the Wednesday night coming out of
this game. It's like, hey, remember this guy, ten year veteran.
Right for McConnell, like, look at all the look at
his road to this moment and being ready for it
and needing to fight. And then that's part of it, right.
(06:40):
You got guys looking for those next contracts. You got
guys looking to establish their name.
Speaker 4 (06:46):
Right.
Speaker 3 (06:47):
Halliburton's a two time third team All NBA guy. You
don't think he thinks he should have been a second teamer?
Speaker 1 (06:53):
Right? He feeds in off that hate. We've talked about
it a lot.
Speaker 3 (06:56):
You know, the most overrated comment, it's the stuff with
his dad. All of it plays into this great narrative
of motivation that you can't tell me Rick Carlisle and
his staff aren't feeding into at every turn, right, for
every one of these players.
Speaker 1 (07:15):
The other thing I'll tell you is this now as
great as it is for the Pacers. Okay, because here
care comes by big hot take in Big Bull prediction
for Game four. Right, We've said and look incredible things
about the Pacers, their desire, that the fact that they
are able to to coalesce, and and take that, Hey,
we've all been overlooked at some point in our career
and wear that as a badge because that's really Hey,
(07:35):
how are the Pacers playing this? Well? Most of their
team has been overlooked at some pointmat Right, Uh, well,
then the Titans mount in sunshine, and then he was
a better quarterback and they moved. But he was an unknown.
He was a great unknown when he was But I
gotta think, Okay, here's the thing. Okay, did they really
only run five offensive plays? I mean, I gotta think
at some point a really good team is gonna say
(07:56):
we only have to study five plays. We can stop
five plays. We can tell some team is gonna be
good enough to stop a team that runs five plays.
Speaker 3 (08:05):
You think, what kind of coaching are you doing when
you only have like I could say this my my
eighth grade year, and then like obviously high school take
it to the next level. And when you're talking about
state championship whatever. I do remember my eighth grade year,
we literally had the same run play that we ran
to our side probably sixty percent of the time, seventy
(08:25):
of the time. So all right, run behind harl and
this guy right and then the running back who would
just run through guys once he got to the second.
Speaker 1 (08:33):
We're gonna run behind the guy not wearing leg pads
in purple shorts. Yeah, trust me, it's fine. He's got
a low center of gravity. It's gonna be great.
Speaker 2 (08:40):
No, it worked really.
Speaker 3 (08:41):
Well until everybody else grew and suddenly I was diminutive.
Speaker 1 (08:45):
But here's here's my big bull prediction for game four. Okay,
because like I said, this series has seven games written
all over it, right, I said this going into Game three.
I'm not gonna be surprised Pacers win Game three. Their
bench is gonna play better because they're at home, tada.
But this is not a series where the Pacers gonna
be able to completely overwhelm the Thunder with their style
(09:11):
of play, where they can control it and rip off
three four wins in a row. Same said for the Thunder.
It's not gonna be a game where the Thunder canna
be able to control the pacers. We've seen this right
and to and todight, here's where we are. SGA got
to the free throw line six times tonight. Okay, six
times tonight. He had a decent game, right, twenty four points,
eight rebounds, four assists, but generally he missed a couple
(09:34):
of big shots late. He missed them badly. In Game four,
SGA goes for forty and a near triple double and
the thunder win Game four. The MVP knows I needed
to do more of this game, and I didn't. Right,
he knows it's very rare. He has a bad and
this is what passes for a bad game for He
(09:54):
was careless with the basketball a number of times.
Speaker 3 (09:56):
Yeah, some ola defense when he was dejected.
Speaker 1 (10:00):
Did not yet Oh yeah, the big one. He missed
that big jumper and then Siakam's able to get buy
him down court. Us, Hey, dude, come on, SGA. This
is what I say about Anthony Edwards and Halliburton. And
then they're not motivated all the time like you are.
You kind of making me.
Speaker 3 (10:12):
Look bad, right, and George down pass all the way
down to the baseline, and and he just stood and
watched a layup. It's like multiple times, just caught nappy.
Speaker 1 (10:23):
He knows this was a bad game, and again it
passes for a bad game. It's it's nice to be
to score twenty four points and shooting nearly fifty percent
from the floor and have it be a bad game.
But it's a bad game. But I'm good. But he's
he knows. Game four, he's getting a free throw line,
he's scoring forty points, near triple double, and the Thunder
win Game four and tie this thing up. SGA is
(10:44):
too good. He's too he's too well rounded a player.
He's too smart to not know that. Okay, I was
not enough this game. Watch the game he has in
Game four. Ben scoring this one again. We talked about it.
Speaker 3 (10:57):
Forty nine points for your pacers, let by twenty seven
for Mathron, just eighteen off the bench of the Thunder.
Playoff high six turnovers for SGA. We chronicled that quite
a bit. Also a wasted effort. Though you got twenty
points from Chet that's all he finished with twenty.
Speaker 1 (11:15):
Think about the first quarter.
Speaker 3 (11:16):
He had nonexistent as the game went on, finishes with
twenty and ten. But Williams also with twenty six points.
Shake Gildas Alexander twenty four points. I mean, you got
those kind of efforts out of your starting lineup, a
bunch of threes just for four to three pointers, so
twelve points for Dort. But you got efforts out of
(11:37):
your starting lineup, but when you needed them in the
fourth quarter, came up smallish. And this is where the tenacity,
the consistency of what the Pacers do in the fourth
quarter to grind your possessions really took over again.
Speaker 1 (11:53):
Forty deer triple double and the Thunder even the series
two games apiece. Okay, that's where they are six point
road favorites. This is in for game This is where
the MVP and it is it is a weird line.
Suddenly go wait a minute, the Thunder or up to
the Pacers are up to one and they're the they're
the dogs game. Let me jump on the on the faces.
(12:14):
Yeah good luck. Uh, this is where the MVP knows
I need to be the MVP. And this is what
happens in game four.
Speaker 3 (12:20):
Yeah, they were five and a half point home dogs.
Today Pacers rose up and got them. We'll see what
happens game four. You're going four near triple double and
the thunder tie the series too too.
Speaker 1 (12:32):
Give me this.
Speaker 3 (12:33):
I thought they'd get Game four the Pacers, so we
flip it the other way.
Speaker 1 (12:37):
So yeah, we're we're two to two going to the
best of three exit out about a Fresco exit, swollen Dome.
We have more in the finals and the really bad
Knicks coaching search going on? Coming up next. Rick Buker,
Fox Sports One, NBA Insider Extraordinaris, all the Inside Info one,
what's next in the finals, and potentially who could say
(12:57):
yes to the New York Knicks to take over for
Ton Tibodeaux. That's next right here. Jason of Mike, Fox
Sports Radio, Rod Beck, Jack Morris, Jesse Rosco. In his
twenty four years in Major League Baseball, he's still pitching
All War number forty seven. Why do we talk about
(13:18):
forty seven? That's how many pounds Mike and I have
each lost thanks to PhD weight loss. PhD weight loss
is made for your hectic schedule. Men lose an average
of three to five pounds a week, women two to
three pounds a week. Eighty percent of your daily food
provided at no extra cost. There's no cravings for junk food. Look,
I'm the original chocolate guy. I would us to walk
(13:39):
by a cabinet and go, oh, let me have some
chocolate while I decide what chocolate I want. Don't have
that happen anymore. It's terrific. It's virtual over the phone,
designed to be convenient and flexible to your schedule. How
do you take advantage of this right now? If you're
sick and tired of being sick and tired? Eight six
four five oh two one seven seven seven eight six
four five oh two one Trip seven mention Jason and
(14:01):
Mike Fox Sports Radio, get two free weeks added to
your weight loss program. And your program is backed by
PhD's get results guarantee my phdweight loss dot Com My
phdweight loss dot Com eight six four five oh two
one seven seven seven eight six four five oh two
one triple seven mention Jason and Mike Fox Sports Radio
(14:21):
get two free weeks added to your weight loss program.
Speaker 2 (14:24):
Be sure to catch live editions of The Jason Smith
Show with Mike Harmon weekdays at ten pm Eastern seven
pm Pacific on Fox Sports Radio and the iHeartRadio app.
Speaker 1 (14:35):
Fox Sports Radio. The Jason Smith Show is My best Friend.
Mike Harmon Well dress Cobo Pacers take Game three of
the Finals, one sixteen to one oh seven, halfway Vlari
O'Brien Trophy, the Knicks not nearly halfway to the coach.
Speaker 3 (14:53):
I may not be halfway, but that energy bar is
not filling up. It's like when your charger decides it's done.
Oh yeah, yeah, sure yeah. Did the power go out?
Did I you know, disconnected somehow? Yeah, that's where we're at,
Nick Show joining us now on the hotline. A man
and a man. I mean, I don't know if he's
(15:14):
ready for this news to be out there. Okay, he
was contacted. The Knicks called his wife for permission to
interview him to be their next head coach. His wife said.
Speaker 1 (15:24):
No, So Rick Buker will continue to be Fox Sports
one NBA insider, join us on the show, hosting on
the Ball podcast, unless he says he really wants to
be the head coach of the Nixon, which case, then
they'll work out some sort of compensation.
Speaker 5 (15:38):
Rick.
Speaker 1 (15:38):
I'm sorry, but I mean I can't ignore his business.
I can't ignore a news story. We have to talk
about it.
Speaker 5 (15:44):
I understand, and uh, you know, I'm a little upset
that you brought it up. But you know, I have
a job, so I already have a job, so I
clearly qualify it for if I can, if I can
do their job, and you know what I would, I
would I would consider taking it. But you know that
(16:08):
they have a strict policy about not talking to the
media about anything at any time, and I couldn't possibly
sacrifice my time here with you in exchange for being
head coach of the Knicks. So I'm going to have
to politely decline unless they change their Unless they change
their policy and Jim Dolan agrees to do a weekly
(16:32):
podcast with the three of us, Okay, all four of
us actually okay, I don't want to keep I don't
want to leave out Mike.
Speaker 1 (16:39):
Okay, No, that's good. So here's we need to do then,
is you need to make sure when they you know,
call them back and uh, you know, put that in there.
Then we'll be okay.
Speaker 5 (16:47):
Yeah, unless, of course, Mike doesn't want to participate, and
I would fully understand if he didn't want to be
with us three.
Speaker 1 (16:56):
You didn't, I didn't.
Speaker 5 (16:58):
Want to presume. I didn't want to presume that, but
you know, I felt like that might be coming, so
I can get it be easy out.
Speaker 3 (17:04):
I'd be a paying gig to talk about the Knicks.
Something I'm familiar with.
Speaker 1 (17:07):
Rick, this is. I can't tell you how embarrassing this is.
Thirty six hours ago, the Knicks head coaching job was Boy,
it's a destination. You're gonna come into a team locked
and loaded, ready to go. You got everything right, and
now all you've seen is teams and coaches basically saying Noaks.
If they wanted the job, they would tell their team, Hey,
I want to coach this team, and then we're figuring
(17:29):
out compensation. Now the Knicks are oh for six, oh
for seven, Billy Donovan, they told him no, Quinn Snyder.
It's so unbelievably embarrassing. I want to just call James
Dolan and say, stop, you're embarrassing yourself. Get this is
the worst possible thing the Knicks could have done.
Speaker 5 (17:46):
It absolutely is the worst thing. Because if you were
going to go down this road, like, if you're going
to do something like you know what, we're going to go,
try to hire somebody who already has a job. I
would start with Mark Holland. Rick Carlos, Right, I'm going
to be ridiculous about it. I might as well be
(18:08):
ridiculous to the nth degree rather than kind of middling. Now,
I will say this like it remains to be seen
whether while Dallas has said no, and most of the
teams are ganging ganging up, it's it's it's not just
a matter of the coach saying no, but the teams.
The team's saying hell no, because how dare you have
(18:29):
the audacity to think that you can just pilfer our coach,
or that you know you're so attractive that that our coach,
you know, being the opportunity would beg his way out
of here. I think with most of the coaches, maybe
all of them, except the one possible exception, and I
(18:50):
don't know this. I haven't talked to Jason or any
of his people to this point. The one exception would
be Jason because he's been there. Because of the uncertainty
in Dallas played there knows, you know, knows the lay
of the land, and with the future of Dallas being
(19:11):
a little bit uncertain, even with Cooper Flagg coming in,
I wouldn't completely close the door on the possibility of
of of Jason still having interest and this being maybe
some posturing for Dallas to get a little bit more
out of New York in exchange for allowing Jason to
interview for the job.
Speaker 1 (19:33):
See. I like the chaos potential of it all though, Rick.
I mean that.
Speaker 3 (19:37):
Look, if I was in that postgame pressure with Rick Carlisle,
that's the first question I'm asking, have you been Have
you turned down the Nicks yet?
Speaker 5 (19:43):
Oh? Yeah, no doubt about it. No congratulations on the wind.
But what I really want to know is, has Jim
Dolan called you recently? Is Leon Rose any of those
names ring a bell? What do we got going on here?
Speaker 1 (19:58):
Dada?
Speaker 5 (19:59):
That would known in Carlisle that that would really start
to that would begin and end the press press conference
right there? But what might be worth it?
Speaker 1 (20:07):
I really thought i'd see Leon Rose actually at the
at the press conference. We're like a mustache and fun
and glasses are going, Uh would you want to come
be the head coach of the Knicks?
Speaker 5 (20:15):
Hey?
Speaker 1 (20:15):
Who's that? Got?
Speaker 2 (20:17):
That guy?
Speaker 1 (20:17):
Funny mask and sunglasses off?
Speaker 5 (20:19):
I'll be shocked if I'll be shocked if Worldwide West
isn't somewhere in that building.
Speaker 1 (20:26):
All right, So if I said to you before we
get to the five, if I said to you, all right, Rick,
I want to go to Vegas. And my wife said,
it's okay for me to put money on whatever I
want to put on it. Oh, well, I'm going to
put this money on who that? Well, no, because if
it's if I'm gambling, like I gotta tell her. Uh
the I said, this is who I'm going to put
my money on to be the next head coach of
the Knicks. And I said, Rick, I need advice. Who
(20:46):
would you tell? Who would you tell me? It would
be if you had to say your gut what you're
feeling people are hearing from right now, the next head
coach of the Knicks is going to be who.
Speaker 5 (20:54):
No. I see how this lines up, because then when
it doesn't work, then you can go to your wife
and say, look it. Rick told me I wasn't I
wasn't even going to do it, but he was so confident.
I thought, money, I want to take us. I want
to take you to Paris for a vacation. And here
was the easy money, and and and Rick just steered
me wrong.
Speaker 1 (21:15):
Yeah, and house for a couple of weeks our vacation.
That's what we're gonna We're gonna have fun.
Speaker 5 (21:20):
Yet I'm not giving you a certainty, I will say,
like if we're if we're being reasonable here about potential
guys that they could get. I would look at a
Taylor Jenkins because I think that he did an admirable
job in uh in Memphis. He got sideways with the
(21:40):
front office. I don't think it was any fault of
his own, but they they changed up his his coaching
staff underneath him and brought in guys that were going
to teach a different offense, and that kind of undercut him.
Prior to that, he had a great relationship with the players.
He ran an offense that when Jah was healthy, a
(22:00):
scoring point guard offense that that was very effective. And
so I would I would look that direction. Or I
would look at the Minnesota assistant coach Mike and Nori,
just because we saw him coach the Timberwolves last year
in the playoffs while Chris Finch was dealing with the
(22:21):
petel A tendon injury. Knowing his personality, I think he
could handle the New York market. And he has a
standing relationship with Karl Anthony Talt. So those are the
kind of of choices where if the Knicks went in
that direction, I would say, Okay, you know what I
can see it. I don't have a problem with them
(22:42):
moving on from tips. I think they went as far
as they could with tips. But look like you have
a plan as opposed to you're just you're just scrolling
through the league media guide for every head coach and going, hey,
let's try that guy. Let's see if he'll we'll get
an interview with What are we doing there? Even the
(23:02):
coaches that they reached out to are so different, Like,
show me that you have a show me that when
you fired kids you had some sort of list. I
can tell you that every GM I've talked to, when
they may have just hired a coach and they have
a list in their pocket of guys that they would
(23:23):
hire next if they decided to make a change, they
always have a list of who would I who would
I want if I could get them? And maybe maybe
Leon Rose has that list and he's just ignoring the
fact that those guys have already been hired by other people.
Speaker 3 (23:45):
No, that's what I did, right when as soon as
you started saying go to Vegas, I started thinking about
a roulette table.
Speaker 1 (23:49):
You know, you don't have to give me specifics.
Speaker 3 (23:51):
Is it a guy with the job a guy who
doesn't have a job, or the green would be the
assistant coaches who haven't had that chance yet. So we
have that, but we do. I have a two to
one lead for the Indiana Pacers. They've led eleven percent
of game minutes here. It was the Benedict Mathering game.
Who's the specialist for game four? I mean coming out
(24:11):
of this, Rick, I mean, you just look at the
depth and now it matchs up. They just keep coming.
Speaker 2 (24:17):
Yeah.
Speaker 5 (24:17):
Well, and that's the danger of Indiana and that's why
it's been so hard to predict what they're going to do,
is because you don't know who is going to deliver.
It can be one of any number of guys, and
that's what makes them much more difficult. And Rick Carlisle
was just masterful with how he handled this game because
(24:40):
he was subbing in guys in the first quarter, and
he kept fresh bodies out there, and he pressed Sga
ninety four feet knowing that if we can keep this close,
the ball is going to be in SGA's hands. He's
going to have to try to win this. And meanwhile,
we got an array of guys who are capable of
(25:01):
going and getting a bucket and We're just going to
make it a battle of attrition and uh and and
I thought that's exactly what you saw at the end.
I mean Sga was exhausted, ched Holmgren was exhausted, and
those and and those were the two guys. And I
would say Jalen Williams probably was too. And those were
the you know, that's their core. But they had to
(25:21):
play so hard and they had so many bodies on them,
and the crowd was just you know, had had the
Indiana role players geeked up beyond measure. Uh. And then
you had Pascal Siakam and Tyrese Haliburton, you know, do
their part. But uh, this this really was to me,
this was a Rick Carlisle game. When I saw him
(25:43):
stubbing guys in like early I don't know, I can't
remember when the first subs were came in, but he
went to his bench and the bench just lit a fire.
And uh and I could I knew exactly what he
was doing, and it was just a matter of is
it going to work? And by the end you saw
it working to perfection.
Speaker 1 (26:02):
You know, Rick Bucker with us here Fox Sports Radio,
Jason Smith, Mike Carmen, What I come down to and
then because now the Pacers have gone from hey, they're
a great story, to hey, now they're two wins away
from winning it all. And you know, hey, teams that
go up to to one win eighty one percent of
the time. And when when you come back, I think,
when when you know, as we look at the Pacers,
why are they this good? The couple of things that
(26:22):
we talk about the rotation, But these are a bunch
of guys and it's a perfect moment in time for
them because it's a bunch of guys who have been
overlooked their entire or they feel they've been overlooked their
entire career, whether it's Halliburton or Toppin or McConnell or
Mathern who you know wants to start Siakam who is
terrific player but never really given the credit. In Toronto,
it was either Fred van Vlid or it was Kawhi Leonard.
(26:45):
And they play with that chip on their shoulder. And
whether it's the reserves in the game or the or
the stars in the game, they play at that pace
and they play that to an extent. No one is
as hungry to win as I see this pace and
It doesn't mean other teams are lazy. They all want
to win, they all want the basketball, but nobody is
(27:05):
as hungry as this Pacers team. This moment in time
for them is really something.
Speaker 5 (27:10):
Yeah, no, I agree, and it's I don't know that
this is the perfect model, but you're you see some
of the same thing with Okay. See, Indiana's just taking
it to another level where we're we're going to play
a deep rotation so that we can sustain an injury. Uh,
(27:32):
and it's going to be equal opportunity. You know what
I really love is, you know, Benefic Matherin comes in
off the bench and he's got as much of a
green light as Tyre's Haliburton does. And Tyre's Haliburton will
be on the floor, and Andrew Demhart will be initiating
the offense and handling it as much as anybody else.
And then the other thing is, you know, you look
(27:54):
at their you know, we've talked a lot about Okay's defense,
deservedly so, but I'm watching Nemhart and Nie Smith and
and even Halliburton tonight. These guys were getting after it.
I mean, it's easy to say we're going to press
ninety four feet and what that's going to take out
(28:15):
of STA. But you've also got to give that and
mathern Nemhart Niece Smith Halliburton Toppin. They were all they
were all in playing ninety four feet and and to
your point, like I could see them, I could see
them eating a championship out of this, it'll be they'll
(28:38):
they'll be the most improbable champion that we've seen probably
since I mean I would say probably since the Dallas
Mavericks in twenty eleven beating the Miami Heat. They had,
you know, they had a Dirk Noviski, but you look
at the rest of that team. Nobody, nobody was expecting
them to win a championship. Nobody was expecting these Pacers
(29:00):
to win a championship, and right now they're in the
driver's seat to do exactly that.
Speaker 1 (29:06):
Fox Sports Radio. You can follow Rick on Twitter at
Rick Buker, That is at Rick Buker the On the
Ball podcast where he breaks down all twenty seven teams
that have said no to the Knicks at this point, Rick,
don't you in the Knicks just put out a blanket
request to every NBA team and see who comes back
and says yes. Wouldn't that be a better use of
their time? Are you really well?
Speaker 5 (29:27):
I think we need to expand it to G League
team as well. Manhattan Condos, Yo, All thanks a bunch.
Speaker 1 (29:36):
Buddy has always enjoyed the games. We'll talk to you see, Rick.
Great stuff is always from Rick Buker right there, he's
the best. Tell you man, the most improbable NBA champion
since the Mavericks and twenty eleven, which was also.
Speaker 3 (29:50):
Coached by ta Rick Carlele Say comes back. I think
I've seen tickets as high as one hundred and twenty
five to one from in season betting for the Pacers
to win the title.
Speaker 1 (30:02):
Jason, Yeah, what do you got? Frost? Perkyl Lar keeps
this up. He might he might be able to turn
the next down. Uh yeah, well, I can't believe the
Nicks didn't. Really the should have asked him in the
post game, Prescott he knew where he was.
Speaker 3 (30:13):
That would have been the first question showed up, right, Yeah,
all of a sudden, there's a guitar. Instead of like
after a big Broadway performance, here's a bouquet of roses,
Like after a dance resad or whatever, a guitar shows up.
What Does this mean you gotta like the Joker's cards
or no?
Speaker 1 (30:27):
Yes or no? Just right now say it yes or no,
just out of my collection. It's a you know, a
strat for the sixties because if you say no, I'm
going across all Oklahoma City. All right, do that back.
I wanted to ask you first because you're leading two
games to one. I'll go talk to Mark. I don't
think I'm not gonna ask it, but I'm asking you first,
all right time now to find out what's trending in
the wide world of sports from Monty Belangos, who is
(30:48):
still having her finger hovering over the Puma button to
buy a Tyres Halliburton over eight that T shirt.
Speaker 6 (30:55):
Yea, So here here's my problem, guys.
Speaker 4 (30:58):
Do I buy something else I don't need need to
get free shipping, or do I just pay the shipping
and spend less money to just get the shirt.
Speaker 1 (31:04):
That's what I'm strue. Absolutely pay more money to get
free shipping. Yes, but on something I don't need, yes, yeah.
Speaker 3 (31:09):
Or something that you might way a little bit, because
that would.
Speaker 6 (31:12):
Mean that the I need the shirt.
Speaker 1 (31:15):
This is a need ray versus reader that no, I
need it.
Speaker 6 (31:18):
I need it at this point, I need it. I
need it.
Speaker 4 (31:20):
But you know, if OKC does lose, Jason Mark Dagnall
might be available for the Knicks.
Speaker 6 (31:26):
You know what I'm saying, You might be available in
one more game, That's right, Yeah, like he might. He
might be available for the Knicks.
Speaker 4 (31:31):
So keep your fingers crossed that you know that happens
for your knicks.
Speaker 1 (31:35):
Yeah.
Speaker 4 (31:35):
The Pacers taking two to one series lead over the
Thunder in the NBA Finals Game three, one sixteen to
one oh seven was the final score.
Speaker 6 (31:42):
Pacers were down in the fourth quarter, but it didn't matter.
Speaker 4 (31:45):
They end up out scoring Oka Seed thirty two to
eighteen and get the win. Benedict Mathern, like you guys
are talking about off the bench, only played twenty two
minutes but was the leading score of the game twenty
seven points. Tyrese Haliburn was just shy of a triple
double twenty two points, nine rebounds on eleven assists. Okase
made one shot in the final five minutes and fifty
(32:05):
eight seconds of the game. The rest of the points
were free throws, but they made one shot, Jalen Williams,
putting them up to one hundred. Those other seven points
were free throws. That's all they did in the final
six minutes of that fourth quarter. Another NBA news know
not about the Knicks, but Kevin Durant and the Suns.
They've been talking about moving Durround out of Phoenix this
offseason with his reps the Rocket Spurs, Timberwolves. He and
(32:28):
Nis were named as possible destinations. Celtics card Jalen Brown
had outhroscopic surgery on his knee, but he's expected to
be ready by the start of.
Speaker 6 (32:37):
Training camp when it comes to baseball.
Speaker 4 (32:39):
Earlier today, the Diamondbacks, while they defeated the Mariners five
to two, they swept the Mariners Lehane swatt Is with
this third Grand Slam of the season.
Speaker 6 (32:48):
The Orioles crushed the Tigers ten to one.
Speaker 4 (32:50):
Detroit starter Jackson Job was going to undergo Tommy John surgery,
ending his season. The Red Sox piled off the Rays
four to three. The Mets have won five in a row.
They shut out the Nations five zero. David Peterson tossed
a complete shutout game, Peter a Lonso had an RBI double,
Juan Soto a two run homer, five home runs in
the last eleven games, and Brandon Nimmo.
Speaker 6 (33:09):
Also homer for your Mets.
Speaker 5 (33:10):
There.
Speaker 4 (33:11):
Jason Aaron Judge hit home run number twenty five on
the season, his fourth home run in three games as
the Yankees top the Royals six to three. The Twins outscored.
I wrote, the Twins outscored the Twins.
Speaker 6 (33:20):
That's not right.
Speaker 4 (33:21):
The Twins outscored somebody, guys, but it wasn't the Twins.
The Astros rolled past the White Sox, tend to to
the final in that one, and I'll give you the
baseball score in just a second, since I did right
the wrong thing.
Speaker 1 (33:32):
Winders, Yes, outscore Twins.
Speaker 6 (33:35):
That's where I wrote, six to two. Six to two
was the final score. At least I got that right.
Speaker 4 (33:38):
And Byron Buxton did hit the three run homer that
put them up, so I got that right as well.
The Giants have won seven in a row. Ten to
seven was the final score over the Rockies.
Speaker 6 (33:46):
The Astros roll past the White Sox ten to two.
Speaker 4 (33:48):
The Angels edged the a six to five to complete
a three game sweep, while the Dodgers defeated the Padres
five to two, and in the WNBA, the Storm outscored
the Links ninety four eighty four.
Speaker 6 (33:59):
Handy Minnesota, the first loss.
Speaker 4 (34:00):
Of the season, and the Mercury top the Wings ninety
three eighty despite thirty five points from Paige Beckers.
Speaker 6 (34:07):
Back to you days.
Speaker 1 (34:07):
Thank you very much, mon Sie. Yeah, real quick. Best
thoughts a Tiger's rookie prospect, Jackson Jobe, one of the
best prospects in baseball. But I gotta think this, I
think good things. If your last name is job, I
think you're gonna come through surgery just fine. Actually do
I gotta feel played. I got a feeling his history
would say that JA will go great. All right, so
let's just go get it. Thank you much. Yes, coming
(34:29):
up next all we'll lot more in the NBA playoffs,
coming out a little bit. But straight ahead, boy do
we have a fun story out of the NFL today
to get to. That's next, Jason to Mike.
Speaker 2 (34:37):
Be sure to catch live editions of The Jason Smith
Show with Mike Harmon weekdays at ten pm Eastern, seven
pm Pacific.
Speaker 1 (34:45):
Fox Sports Radio The Jason Smith Show with My best
friend Mike Harmon. More NBA coming up in a few minutes.
But boy, do we have a great quote today and
it involved Aaron Rodgers. So Rogers met the meetia yesterday.
Oh by the way, I'm married. Okay, that's great. Today
Offensive coordinator Arthur Smith, and we've said this for a while,
(35:07):
that boy, you know going back. Yeah, I don't know
two months when when this whole dance first starting. Congratulations
Mike tann Abound for stealing our take. Look, Aaron Rodgers
and the Steelers sounds great on paper, but wow, you
talk about two completely different philosophies on offense, what the
Steelers like to do and what Rodgers likes to do. Yeah,
good luck making that work today. Arthur Smith was asked
(35:30):
about it. Hey, you brought in Aaron Rodgers. What does
it mean? You know, different you know, different quarterback, different era.
And he said, you know, listen, we didn't bring Aaron
in here and signed DK Metcalf for all that money
to go run the wishbone. So you know, you try
to play to the strengths of your team. Which is
a great quote. Right, No, it's good here and run
the wishbone.
Speaker 3 (35:49):
Right Well, I mean it's it's a nice blanket statement
to say. I mean we're not doing that. I mean
you're not squad.
Speaker 1 (35:55):
I mean Troy Aikman did run the Wishbone at Oklahoma
until he got hurt and went to UCLA and suddenly
became the best pocket passer we've ever seen. So there
was that. All that works out pretty well. Yeah, But
I mean, okay, and this is when I say this
is gonna be a disaster, right, This is gonna be
a disaster because you have again two completely different philosophies
(36:16):
on what you want to do offensively. Mike Tomlin the
last few years, I'm not gonna throw the football a million.
I'm done with the Roethlisberger era. I'm done with all
of that. What he has tried to do is turn
the Steelers into a team where it looks like it's
nineteen eighty four. We're gonna run the football a ton,
even though we can't run it really well. The Steelers
still ran the football at side three yards at a
(36:37):
cloud three times. It's seven three point three, it's a
first down. They had the fewest yards per carry off
any team in the NFL. You want to know why
they didn't win more because they still want to run
the football with Najie Harris, who is just a guy,
and Jalen Warren when they can't do it well, that's
why they didn't score. You're still gonna run the football
when you can't do why are you doing that? You're
suddenly gonna change and something now with Aaron, you're gonna
(36:59):
throw the football forty five times a game. Not happening. Right.
You can say all this, all this is great, but
it's clear that Mike Tom and Arthur Smith have one
sort of offensive philosophy. You really think suddenly Rodger's gonna
come in and slinging around. No, they're hoping, Hey, we
don't really have a plan at quarterback. We want to
continue to try to get by cheaply a quarterback for
some stupid reason. And Rogers's gonna come in. He's gonna
(37:19):
chafe because yes, they brought him Decae, but they really
they let go. A couple others said that the last
couple of years have been cycling through receivers. We're gonna
let you go and let you go there now we
bringing DK Metcalf. Okay, that's great, but they're not suddenly
gonna abandon who they are. They're not gonna change your
offensive system. They're not gonna suddenly stop running the football.
Not going to happen, and it's gonna be awful, and
you're gonna see after week two, Mike Tomlin at one
(37:42):
end of the of the locker room talking about offensive
play after a disappointing performance, and Aaron Rodgers all the
way at the other end, talking about offensive play and disappointment.
And he's gonna be throwing slight bars one way. Maybe
if we threw the football a little bit more, maybe
because he's not gonna be quietest. He doesn't want this
year to be absolutely terror Well, it's going to be.
And we told you that by the beginning of December.
(38:04):
The big question is going to be can Rodgers finish
the season as a starter or the Steelers going to
turn to Will Howard or Mason Rudolph. Right, we said that,
congratulates Mike Tannaboum. That's great. We said that a month ago.
This is not a match that's going to work. You
can see here and say again June is one thing. Oh,
we're gonna do this and this is gonna be great.
And then when the football's fly for real, what's gonna happen.
(38:26):
We're gonna try to run the football thirty five times
a game and win this game sixteen to ten. And
that's not what Aaron Rodgers in to do. He's not
in to go seventeen for twenty eight throwing the football
or twelve for twenty four throwing the football for one
hundred and twenty five yards an interception. That's not what
he's going to do. But that's exactly what they're going
to ask him to do, and it's going to go horribly.
Speaker 2 (38:47):
See.
Speaker 3 (38:47):
I think Aaron Rodgers learned a big lesson going back
to the twenty twenty NFC title game. Remember when he
came off the field when they said, all right, let's
send the field goal unit on, let's kick the ball
back and play defense, and they never saw the ball again.
Speaker 1 (39:01):
Yeah, and Phil saw it all. You could have stopped
that other guy from kicking a field goal and gone in,
but you didn't. And then we could have told him
him at the concert.
Speaker 3 (39:12):
You could have said, blank you, I'm staying on this
field and we're going for the tie.
Speaker 1 (39:16):
I think he learned lesson and that's.
Speaker 3 (39:17):
What he's gonna do to Arthur smithon by Tomlin, I'm
the captain.
Speaker 1 (39:21):
Now, you brought me in to throw the ball and
win games. Uh sixty five toss power trap. Okay, Yeah,
that's great uh red twenty seven Black fifty nine razor. Oh,
Aaron Rodgers going deep again? Oh seem like this would
be a time in the past when the Steelers would
run the ball. But hey, this shows the growth of
Mike Tomlin. Oh no way. Tomlin is screaming at Aaron
Rodgers from the sideline for changing the play.
Speaker 3 (39:43):
Roman Wilson, you're really fast, right, go, that's how I
see it. You're gonna look at some of those Roethlisberger numbers,
six seventy five, six oh eight, six oh five.
Speaker 1 (39:55):
That's what we're looking for.
Speaker 3 (39:56):
If Aaron Rodgers is the quarterback of this squad, he
got three yards and a clouded dust?
Speaker 1 (40:00):
You know, yes, yeah, how many plays you think he's
gonna change until suddenly it turns it? All right? Well,
let's I.
Speaker 3 (40:07):
Mean, because that's where it really could be fun. This
is good, This is gonna go hoard. These are not
two sides that are male like at this point when
when when you're Aaron Rodgers, like early in his career,
you could work in a lot of systems, right, he
had the army and everything else. But look, we know
he throws off his back foot. He doesn't want to
get hit, he throws the football away early. He needs
to be in a system that can take advantage of
(40:28):
what he does well. I don't know there's any quarterback
that could you can take advantage of what they do
well in the Steelers system.
Speaker 1 (40:33):
None. I don't think there is because they don't want
you to throw the football. They would love to run
the single wing offensive. We're just gonna maybe two or
three trick passes again. That's it. We're gonna run the
football all the time. I don't know anybody but specifically
Aaron Rodgers who loves to throw it and throw it
deep and make plays, and gambles and educated risks and
educated gambles. It's gonna be tart.
Speaker 3 (40:52):
Arthur Smith has a quarterback that might be able to
throw the ball. I don't know when he's gonna be
able to contain himself.
Speaker 1 (40:58):
Rogers was almost a ram, Yeah he was. He was
exit out about a Fresco exit swollen dome. Jason Smith,
Mike Harbon live from the Fox Sports Radio Studios. Coming
up next, how to go from being a destination to
an absolute laughing stock in a span of thirty six hours.
Jason and Mike Fox
Hosts And Creators
Jason Smith
Mike Harmon
Popular Podcasts
24/7 News: The Latest
The latest news in 4 minutes updated every hour, every day.
Stuff You Should Know
If you've ever wanted to know about champagne, satanism, the Stonewall Uprising, chaos theory, LSD, El Nino, true crime and Rosa Parks, then look no further. Josh and Chuck have you covered.
Crime Junkie
Does hearing about a true crime case always leave you scouring the internet for the truth behind the story? Dive into your next mystery with Crime Junkie. Every Monday, join your host Ashley Flowers as she unravels all the details of infamous and underreported true crime cases with her best friend Brit Prawat. From cold cases to missing persons and heroes in our community who seek justice, Crime Junkie is your destination for theories and stories you won’t hear anywhere else. Whether you're a seasoned true crime enthusiast or new to the genre, you'll find yourself on the edge of your seat awaiting a new episode every Monday. If you can never get enough true crime... Congratulations, you’ve found your people. Follow to join a community of Crime Junkies! Crime Junkie is presented by audiochuck Media Company.