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May 11, 2024 36 mins

Jason and Mike are joined by NBA Insider Mark Medina for all things playoffs and the latest on the Lakers coaching search. Plus, Jason explains why he’s embarrassed for the Minnesota T-Wolves.  

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Speaker 1 (00:00):
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Speaker 2 (00:22):
Please give this part you're listening to Fox Sports Radio.

Speaker 3 (00:28):
Thank you.

Speaker 1 (00:32):
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Speaker 1 (00:52):
Well, maybe if the gabe was an extra quarter, we
would get a close game back. It isn't under six
minutes left to go. Denver Leeds Minnesota one oh seven
to seventy five. It has been all Nuggets from the jump.
It was Jamal Murray early and then everybody else later.

(01:15):
I mean Minnesota never made a run in this game.
They never made it close. The crowd is absolutely silent.
It is stunning to see a team play so incredibly
well the first two games on the road and then
come home and put up this absolute stinker.

Speaker 3 (01:31):
I mean, it's not like.

Speaker 1 (01:32):
They're you know, you look at the status, you go, Okay,
the stats aren't great, but this is a team that
you dominated, and you're coming back home to play this
first game. This should be at least a game where
you come out big, at least in the first quarter,
and you didn't. And now all of a sudden, it
looks like, well, this is kind of how we thought
this series would go. Denver would roll over Minnesota because
they're still young enough and.

Speaker 3 (01:53):
They're the champs.

Speaker 1 (01:53):
I mean, it's gonna be two on Minnesota after this still,
but I am just really surprised that this was the
result we were.

Speaker 3 (02:00):
Getting from Minnesota in this game.

Speaker 4 (02:01):
Let them off the mat right up, two games and nothing,
the opportunity to go for the kill shot today, down
eight after a quarter, down fifteen at halftime, never threatened,
and good balanced by Denver all around.

Speaker 3 (02:16):
You're getting out rebounded.

Speaker 4 (02:17):
Out worked, and then you know, still shot forty six
percent for the game, which is respectable, but you know,
you're just not finishing and not rotating. I mean, Jokich
has had whatever he wanted. Murray came out like a
house of fire, and then Michael Porter Junior is you're
always going to get twenty from him. So all of

(02:39):
those those best shots that you took in games one
and two and well, I mean a lot of.

Speaker 3 (02:44):
People declared it over the other way.

Speaker 2 (02:46):
Right.

Speaker 3 (02:46):
Oh, they're done Denver.

Speaker 1 (02:48):
Look, I am stunned that this is the effort we're
getting from Minnesota tonight. I mean, there's Denver starting five.
Has been incredible. They've gotten basically nothing from the bench.
Haven't needed it. You're doing everybody's in figures, whether it's
Murray or Yokich reporter or Gordon's got thirteen, he's got
three threes. It has been an absolute dominant performance by

(03:08):
Denver here in Game three, and they're getting back in
the series now again. I'm am I completely surprised Denver.

Speaker 5 (03:15):
One.

Speaker 1 (03:15):
No, because back to the wall champs, all the all
the cliches you want, but wow, it's been easy.

Speaker 3 (03:21):
It's just it's just.

Speaker 4 (03:21):
Fourteen turnovers for Minnesota and go back to Jamal Murray.
I mean, you know, for as much as we've had
to excoriate and you know, shake our fists and vitriol
over the stupidity of game two. This is the player
he is when he's right focused and gets back at it.
And he's struggled the first round against the Lakers and

(03:43):
through the first two games mostly invisible except for the
heat pack throw and the towel throw. Right, he'd been terrible,
and tonight he came out and quieted the crowd, like
they tried to boo every time he touched the ball,
realized how tired they were.

Speaker 3 (03:58):
Gonna get the ball. I'm going through the hands.

Speaker 4 (04:01):
But then he hit what eight of his first thirteen shots,
and that's it.

Speaker 3 (04:06):
So we'll have more on this game.

Speaker 1 (04:07):
We got Mark Medina coming up in a little bit
to join us and break this game down as well.
We'll talk about the Knicks and the Pacers as well.
But I want to ask you a question right here
here we are, we doing the show now two hours, right,
and I told you, hey, I'm not going to blame
the officiating for the Knicks loss. I'm not gonna the
Knicks had their chances. They blew the game at the end.
And you're like, okay, okay, okay, But now two hours?

(04:27):
Have I lied? Do you think I'm lying? Do you
think I'm being I'm kind of lying to you, or
I'm selling you a bill of goods? Or do you
believe me where I say, hey, the Knicks blew it. Yes,
there were a couple of calls anybody could complain about.
But I'm not gonna be Rick car Lyle and say,
look at his seventy eight calls. Do you take me

(04:47):
at face value as when I told you this is
the Knicks blowing this game? They should have won this
even without and who nob they should have been up
three days.

Speaker 4 (04:55):
I'm gonna do a dramatic reading and you tell me Frostburg,
tell me is Jason Smith or somebody else? Quote from
my vantage point, I thought those calls could have gone
our way.

Speaker 3 (05:06):
But I'm not gonna comment until I look at the
film that's either Smith or Tiberdhau.

Speaker 1 (05:12):
Well, considering I'm gonna I don't get to go back
and look at the next You do, I.

Speaker 3 (05:16):
Mean you do?

Speaker 1 (05:16):
I mean you've got a laptop. I do, but I
don't get to see his game film. You know I
can sit with him and watch and go, Okay, that's here, wouldn't.

Speaker 4 (05:22):
It be great, look for charity purposes. If we got
to sit and watch with Tom Thibodeau. Yeah, but there's
a difference sipping wine while he's getting after it.

Speaker 1 (05:30):
There's a difference with with with with Tim saying, hey,
yeah there's some stuff, but I want to go back
and look at it, and Rick Carlo going it's small
market teams and big market teams.

Speaker 3 (05:40):
And we have seventy eight wales. I got should have
gone on.

Speaker 4 (05:43):
We had another quote for you. I'm the officiating quote.
I like my money. I'm gonna keep my money. Josh Hart, Yeah,
you know, Look that's what I said. One of the
referees was unapproachable tonight. Hey can you God, won't you
even talk to me?

Speaker 1 (05:59):
Man? Again's okay, we're gonna turn around and say I
to me. Look, players are gonna say what they want
to say. And yes, now that the Pacers have to
play this official game, okay, yeah, the Knicks are gonna
play it a little bit too. But look, I'll be
look at I'm gonna outline what went wrong for the
Knicks and how you can blame them, and look, it's
all on the Knicks, all the whatever officiating you want
to say, let's go over the last minute of the game,

(06:21):
because look, these games, you really, every game with the
Knicks and the Pacers should just start with four minutes
left to go. Give me a tie game with four
minutes left to play, because that's where you have to right,
no matter what kind of runs you get up and
down through the game. Pacers were up twelve, Knicks were
up ten. It's a tie game with four minutes left
to go.

Speaker 4 (06:38):
Of course, this is the thing the NBA always fought
against for years because that was the over overall consensus
of games.

Speaker 1 (06:45):
And I just keep an eye on it until every
fourth and every NBA game can be an hour long.
We're gonna we're gonna go from it's gonna start at
eight o'clock eight to nine. We're gonna play five minutes,
and we're gonna start every game tied at one hundred.

Speaker 3 (06:57):
And that's how we're gonna go. Now, we're gonna advance
a reaction.

Speaker 1 (07:00):
Yeah and if and if we see double overtime, hey great,
If not, we just did a postgame early and that's
how we fill till the for the rest of the hour. Right,
it's an Accordion postgame show where oh hey, Hey, the
postgame show tonight was thirty minutes because the game ended
pretty up. The postgame show night was only ten minutes
because it was double overtime. But someone's talking about but
look here, here's why I'll tell you this is that

(07:20):
the Knicks were playing well. They were in control of
the game. They should have won. I've talked about the
fact that Brunson and Hart both missed big free throws
in the final minute. Brunson missed his horribly. And that's
the whole thing is that dude missed it where it
looked like were even focused on it.

Speaker 3 (07:37):
The top of.

Speaker 1 (07:37):
The ball hit the rim, and that's how short he
was on his first free throw.

Speaker 3 (07:42):
You got to make both of them in the last minute, right,
That was a big deal.

Speaker 1 (07:46):
Brunson's decision to when it was a three point after
Nemhard's miracle three gives them the lead with fifteen seconds left,
go in and get it two. They were allowing you
to go win and get it two, and instead Jalen
Brunson is, no, I'm gonna put up this crazy ass
three that has no chance of going because I'm gonna
try to draw a foul. That was That was a
bad play. That was a dumb play. If anybody's got

(08:08):
to wear the goat horns for whose fault? You know
it was the worst place. It was Jalen Brunson. That
was bad, right, So you have those things that were bad.
You had Dante DiVincenzo get called for a goaltend where
clearly the ball wasn't going in and he couldn't help himself.
But try to touch the ball at the rim when Myles
turn went when Pascal Siakam goes in, this is a miss.

(08:29):
This is a miss that the Knicks are going to
get the rebound.

Speaker 4 (08:32):
But he touches, but he doesn't have the terminator brain
where he can he can calculate the angle.

Speaker 1 (08:37):
Now, but you know, you go in for enough rebounds,
you know where the ball is, you know to play
the angles. And instead of the Knicks getting the ball
down one, it's there down three, Brunson hits the three
to tie the game. But that's a big mistake, right,
That's a huge mistake by by the Knicks. So I'm
counting these mistakes and a miracle shot by the Pacers
with fifteen seconds left to go. That's what lost the

(08:57):
game or won the game for Indiana. None of these calls,
none of these things that happened, the calls and went
one way or the other. Third quarter, they didn't call anything.
There were two foul calls in the third quarter. They
were both on the floor and didn't matter at all. Right,
they played throughout the entire third quarter, right, So, okay,
well what are you saying? And then the Knicks had
the advantage in the third quarter, they had the better
at edge of the play. They closed in a twenty

(09:19):
two to nine run. They started calling fouls more in
the fourth quarter. Okay, you are the Knicks. If you
want to point to a couple of calls it didn't.

Speaker 3 (09:27):
Go your way.

Speaker 1 (09:28):
I can point to a stack of things that you
screwed up that you had the power to change and
you didn't. And when it's that, when it's that much
of a discrepancy, how can you say anything about the officiating.
I mean, I get there trying to play the game.
But honestly, this was this was the Knicks. They had
the game and they blew it, you know, And the
Pacers were able to find a way and escape because

(09:48):
you had Andrew Nembard close his.

Speaker 3 (09:50):
Eyes and throw a ball up over his behind his back.

Speaker 1 (09:54):
Like he was doing a trick shot and it just
happens to go wa McDonald's commercial, the old Larry Bird.

Speaker 3 (10:00):
Off the beam and there why they lost.

Speaker 1 (10:03):
They didn't lose for OFFICI eight. It's up bright and
congratulations to Rick car Lyles. Oh I got calls I wanted.
He got a foul call overturned in the final ninety
seconds where Jalen Brunson was fouled.

Speaker 3 (10:13):
Was Oh no, he wasn't.

Speaker 1 (10:14):
We had to go to a jump ball at mid court,
which the Knicks wound up winning. Congratulations, Rick, you got
the calls you wanted. That's great. Okay, that's great. I
hope you feel great about yourself. Uh, but that's how
they look the Knicks loss.

Speaker 3 (10:26):
He got to win it.

Speaker 1 (10:27):
He feels great, feel safe, he feels great.

Speaker 3 (10:29):
What you mean I would be good?

Speaker 5 (10:32):
Oh?

Speaker 1 (10:33):
What I did was what I did was great. We
sent those seventy eight calls in the league and we
wound up winning a game. Congratulations.

Speaker 4 (10:38):
If if that's your process by which you get through
the game, to just really go overboard and say, hey,
here's all the instances, because again, just sending four or
five key plays, Nah no, no, no, you want it
to me.

Speaker 1 (10:52):
Nobody's making that front page or back page news if
it's four or five. But I'm gonna seventy eight.

Speaker 3 (10:58):
I'm gonna tell you that stupid.

Speaker 1 (11:00):
I'm gonna tell you why that stud why that makes
absolutely zero sense. And they should have laughed Rick Carlisle
out of the league. Okay, seventy nine calls, he said.

Speaker 3 (11:08):
Well, the league didn't find him. That's great. Here you
go here, but let me acknowledge me Carlisle.

Speaker 1 (11:15):
But even how is this shows you Rick Carlisle as
just being stupid because he knows better. Okay, seventy nine calls,
and there were a combination of calls that either should
have been called against the Knicks and weren't, or calls
that went against the Pacers.

Speaker 3 (11:30):
Seventy eight. You're a little sorry. Seventy eight, seventy eight.

Speaker 1 (11:33):
So you're talking about an average of forty per game,
almost thirty nine per game. Okay, Okay, let's let's just
say it's equal. There were thirty nine in game one,
thirty nine in game two. Let's just say that. Okay,
So combination of bad calls against the Pacers and calls
it should have happened against the Knicks.

Speaker 3 (11:50):
Here's why this is stupid.

Speaker 1 (11:51):
Let's say half of the calls were bad calls against
the Pacers and the other half should have been calls
against the Knicks. So what he's saying is you should
have blown them whistle and call twenty fouls on the Knicks.

Speaker 3 (12:02):
You know what happened.

Speaker 1 (12:03):
If that happened, they wouldn't have finished the game because
everybody on the Knicks, all six players, all foul out
by the time we get to the fats.

Speaker 4 (12:11):
Maybe part of the consideration, maybe you should have said that,
stupid man, Maybe maybe you.

Speaker 3 (12:15):
Should have just said that.

Speaker 4 (12:16):
It's like, well, they're obviously not got to call the
files because they know they don't have enough players to
run out.

Speaker 1 (12:20):
But they say everybody would foul out of the game.
You would foul seven to eight players. You're adding twenty
fouls to the Knicks. Their top seven guys would all
foul out.

Speaker 3 (12:29):
Of the game. That's just stupid.

Speaker 5 (12:30):
All right.

Speaker 1 (12:31):
Yes, there are calls that are missed over the course
of the game, and I'm sure some officials go, Okay, no,
that really didn't impact the play. I'm gonna let it go, right,
I'm gonna let it go. So we're not blowing the whistle.
You really want a whistle to be blown every five seconds.
That's where Carlo wants. He knows, he knows what he
was doing. He knows he was over the top. He
was desperate. I could feel this coaching and and it
won for him today.

Speaker 4 (12:50):
Congratulated, got people mad, be it rallied his guys. Maybe
it did influence officials. You got to decide in the end.
I'm showing you the shot charge for the fourth quarter.
Both teams sucked. Okay, yeah, not a lot of returnovers,
three miss field goals and five.

Speaker 1 (13:10):
Offensive Devincenzo's greatest game is he had stepping out of
bounds the unforced turnover. So look, the Knicks did this
to themselves down the stretch. He has lost to five.
Nobody's they had a lot, dude, literally five NOBODYI man,
hal Burton's the leading point No, but now everybody thinks
he's better than Jalen Brunch because he's the point guard
for Team USA.

Speaker 3 (13:30):
He's Captain America. Yeah, he's well, he is better than
brun Start America America.

Speaker 2 (13:35):
Yeah.

Speaker 4 (13:35):
I was reminded of the character. Remember the whole Cogan
thing where he wore the.

Speaker 1 (13:39):
Mask and he does what he was, Well, that was
when he had a suspensions right and that like he
tried to come back with. That's not We don't know
who this is. I don't know he's got the same mustache.

Speaker 3 (13:50):
Yeah, it's like the super Machine and everything else.

Speaker 1 (13:52):
I don't know who that is. Andre the Giant a
mask come on coming up next. What do we think now?
Are the Nuggets really back in this series? Are the
Pacers really back in that series? Aren't the Lakers back?
Are the Celtics in trouble? Are the Lakers going to
play again before the fault?

Speaker 2 (14:10):
No?

Speaker 3 (14:10):
That answer is no.

Speaker 1 (14:12):
All that and more coming up next with the NBA
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Speaker 2 (15:10):
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 6 (15:23):
Hey, I'm Doug Gottlieb. The podcast is called All Ball.
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We talked to coaches, we talked to players. We tell
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Speaker 1 (15:52):
Fox Sports Radio, The Jason Smith Show with my best
friend Mike Harmon live from the ti rack dot com studio.
Well it's over in Minnesota. Well it's been over for
a while. Uh, pretty much since the midway point of
the That's what I knew. Denver gets back into the
Western Conference semifinal with a huge one seventeen to ninety

(16:14):
victory over Minnesota. What went wrong for them? What went
right for the Pacers tonight? Besides Hey Andrew Demhard praying
and prayer and having a go in stop dismissing the
man's acumen. Come on, I mean, the guy had two points,
he didn't even want the ball, and he was smiling
like he was just like he just won a huge
prize in a raffle.

Speaker 3 (16:33):
He did lazer focus on that three kid.

Speaker 1 (16:36):
I bet you blacked out during the entire he doesn't
remember it happened.

Speaker 3 (16:40):
Joining us now in the hot line to break it
all down.

Speaker 1 (16:43):
Longtime NBA Inside front of the show, Mark Medina he's
on Twitter at Mark g underscore Madina. That's a Mark
underscore Medina. What's happening, man?

Speaker 5 (16:51):
How are you not much? I'm just waiting for you,
Jason to file that electronic report to the league by
Mike count on your Twitter. Kind of think you had
a thirty six foul calls he disagreed with in this game.

Speaker 1 (17:04):
Yes, there were forty six actual calls that weren't made
in the final minutes.

Speaker 3 (17:08):
Just in the final.

Speaker 1 (17:08):
Minute, I had eleven on one possession on Pascal Siakam alone.

Speaker 5 (17:14):
All I can say is finally a small market team
gain affair share.

Speaker 1 (17:20):
Look before we get to things. Look, here's where I
am tonight on this. I know you can be upset
if you're the Knicks at a couple of calls, But
I look at this and I say, okay. Two missed
free throws in the final minute by Brunson and Josh Hard.
A bad decision by Devincenzo to try to knock a
ball off the rim and make a goaltending, a bad turnover.

Speaker 3 (17:38):
By him when he steps out of bounds.

Speaker 1 (17:40):
A bad decision by Brunson to go for three with
fifteen seconds left, and he throws up a prayer and
when you put all that into the hopper and you
spin it around and you say, oh, and the cherry
on top of the Sunday was a great defensive possession.

Speaker 3 (17:52):
But Andrew Nembard making the shot of his life. Okay,
you're gonna walk away with a loss. That's how it goes.

Speaker 5 (17:57):
I mean, look, there are so many things that could
have gone against the Knicks. I mean, they haven't had
Julius Randall for a while, Noel Ojian Andobi. Jalen Brunson
shoots twenty has twenty six points ten to twenty six shooting.
Josh Hart has five fouls. I mean, the fact that
this was close to begin with seems pretty absurd. But
as you know, Jason, the Knicks are resilient now. I

(18:19):
do think moving forward, Jalen Brunson has an Aaron Natesmith
problem on his hand. He's going to have to address
that moving forward because he was just such a defensive
stopper on him. But I think the Knicks will be
just final on Sunday.

Speaker 1 (18:35):
Hey, no, we're just finally Johnnoby doesn't matter. We'll get
minutes from Starks and we'll get We'll get minutes from
Bernard King.

Speaker 3 (18:43):
It's going to be great on Sunday, right.

Speaker 5 (18:46):
I think that. I think Josh Hart won't get five fouls,
so he'll finally be able to play the full forty
eight minutes that Tim's expects him to play.

Speaker 4 (18:54):
I will say this, the one thing Jason and I
have long held this tenant on the show, Mark is
it doesn't have to be good basketball, it just has
to be close late. Because both teams couldn't find the
broad side of a barn in the fourth quarter.

Speaker 5 (19:07):
Well, look, I think that was the Pacers playbook. Let's
make let's make the game dirty. And I don't mean
dirty because of foul calls and officiated I just mean
as far as to grind it out of fair because
they knew if they went had to head, even with
a deminish next team, it wouldn't have been a winning proposition.
It did help, obviously Halliburton had to bounce that game,

(19:29):
but I think that even accounting for the injuries, the
next I think are a better team.

Speaker 1 (19:34):
I think the official Here's my thing, MARKU is the
officials allowed Halliburton to dribble the ball way too much again,
way too close to the rim to make baskets like,
I have a lot of complaints about that. I mean,
they allowed Siakam to get to hold the ball up
really high so guys.

Speaker 3 (19:48):
Couldn't take it from him when he was posting up
down low.

Speaker 5 (19:51):
Like.

Speaker 1 (19:51):
These are things that I mean, these are elementary calls
that the officials need to make.

Speaker 5 (19:54):
Hey, Tyris Halliburn is one of the fastest point cards
of the NBA. He is going to get to the
rim easily. He passed out Siakam last time I checked.
He's one of the best two way players in the league,
and he has a tremendous length. Like, you got to
give some credit here.

Speaker 3 (20:08):
Now to the officials, mail, I mean they made that all.

Speaker 5 (20:10):
Happen then of course, Well, I'm sure the league office
has plenty of your one hundred and thirty seven emails.

Speaker 4 (20:16):
But Mark, as we know, the league office really doesn't
want to do a whole lot about anything, as evidenced
by the twenty four points scored by Jamal Murray tonight.

Speaker 5 (20:25):
That is true. I mean, if the if the league
did its job, he would have had zero points because
he would have been playing in Game three to begin with.
But you know what I think that I was I
was expecting this kind of blowout from the Nuggets, but
I thought that, uh, you know, they would be playing
much sharper. I mean the fact that you're down, oh
to the fact that you know, if you lose, essentially

(20:48):
the series is over. And for all the faults that
the Nuggets have shown, you know this series, they are
a good team that plays a lot better when they
feel challenged. So yeah, even whether Jamal Murray deserved player
or not, I expect her from top to bottom that
there would be a bounce back for Foremance.

Speaker 3 (21:06):
Yeah, I'm not surprised they bounce back. I'm surprised how
easy it was for that.

Speaker 5 (21:10):
Yeah, I didn't know. I know it would be a
close game, especially with the home crowd for Minnesota. All
this howls. I mean, that was unbelievable, but you know,
that's what happens when you shoot like kind of thirty
three from three. I mean that in today's NBA you
can't win a game like that.

Speaker 4 (21:26):
Yeah, efficiency certainly went out the window and just getting
dominated on the board. But you know, to bring it
back to Murray for a second, and obviously we've all
talked about the heat pack and whatever else, but.

Speaker 3 (21:37):
He took that crowd out of the game. I mean
eight of.

Speaker 4 (21:39):
His first thirteen with some easy baskets down low off
the Jokic passes to really take them out of the
game altogether.

Speaker 5 (21:47):
Yeah, And I think one of the things about Jamal
Murray is he's shown that he can live for big moments.
I mean, you look at the playoff series against the Lakers,
for example, he didn't shoot the ball well at all
that hereies, but that all kind of went away because
he hit those dramatic game winners in Game two in
Game five. You know, I think that he was most
known for his value in that twenty twenty bubble breakout season,

(22:10):
and we saw how special a player he can be.
Now some of that took a step back because of
his ACL injury, but I think that there is definitely
a different motor that he revs himself up to when
it is a high stakes playoff game versus any normal
regular season game.

Speaker 1 (22:27):
All Right, so you think the Knicks will be fine
Sunday against the Pacers?

Speaker 3 (22:31):
What about the team walls? Are they going to be fine?

Speaker 1 (22:33):
Was this a hey, a get right kind of situation
or are they in trouble now?

Speaker 3 (22:38):
This series going back time to a piece.

Speaker 5 (22:40):
I don't think they're in trouble. I think they're you know,
not technically, they're obviously still in command, but I think
that they still have the tone. I think it's going
to be a competitive series. I never thought it was
going to be a sweep or even five games, But
if I had to predict, I still think that Minnesota
is going to win the series because you know, they're
a resilient team. I expect that they'll shoot the ball
a lot better, they'll rebound a lot better, and I

(23:02):
think the underrated thing about them. The Nuggets have this
as well, but I think to Minnesota, they're a lot
younger and they use that for their advantage. But because
the fact that they have some good veterans with Karl,
Anthony Towns and Rudy Gobert, Mike Conley, that guards themselves
from that quote unquote experience.

Speaker 4 (23:20):
Not often we get to talk about a series saying
that first team to win a game at home is
going to have the advantage. He's Mark Mark Medina with
Us here, Jason Smith Show with Me, Mike Carmon here,
Fox Sports Radio from the tire Rack dot Com Studios.
Find Mark on Twitter at Mark g underscore Madina. So
as we move into the other series, who's gonna have

(23:42):
the blowout win in Game three?

Speaker 3 (23:43):
Boston or Cleveland?

Speaker 5 (23:46):
I would think Boston only because that was such an
embarrassing show in Game two. I mean, all credit to
Donovan Mitchell for, you know, showing what makes them such
a great player, But I you know, I'm part way
to blame here. I mean, I've been talking talking about
how they're going to sail through the Eastern Conference because
they have so much talent. But I think a few
things have to happen. Chrisos Forzingiz has to finally play,

(24:10):
and two, the rest of the teams should show up.
They should stop messing around with the game and actually
live up to their potential. And I think, you know,
somewhat similar to the Nuggets, but it's a lot more egregious.
They play a lot better when they feel challenged, and
so now that the series is tied, they lost some
court advantage. I think that you'll see Boston flip the
scripting game through.

Speaker 3 (24:30):
Now.

Speaker 1 (24:30):
Most importantly, Mark, have you found out who was making
the noises during Luka Donc's West conference last night?

Speaker 3 (24:37):
There's no follow up on that story today.

Speaker 5 (24:41):
I've been wondering that myself. Apparently there was I think
some postgame podcasts about that whole situation that suggests that
it was a teammate of Lukadadjch that apparently has some
interesting postgame viewing interests to say the lead. But that reaction,

(25:02):
that reaction is unbelievable. I am very curious who is
the teammate or what if it's Luca himself and he
was trying to faint ignorance.

Speaker 1 (25:11):
I just got a little nervous, just like he was
fainting how injured he was during the game last night
where he couldn't walk going back on defense, but then
would get to the hoop for a big shot on offense.

Speaker 5 (25:21):
Hey, look, we see on the court he has a
he has a knack for the dramatic. He has a
knack for being able to play through pain. He also
has a knack for trying to sell calls. So I
want to put a pass of acting surprise when he
heard some uh you know, noises that you usually only
hear on X rated sides.

Speaker 3 (25:40):
Yeah, we we have kind of discussed that.

Speaker 4 (25:42):
A little bit mark in the number of uh long
expository pieces about well Look, how much of a warrior
this guy is playing through injuries? Like we stipulate that
guys are they're hurt to a degree, But if you're playing,
you don't get a pass.

Speaker 3 (25:58):
Yeah you didn't play well, Pero.

Speaker 5 (26:01):
Yeah, I mean. I remember talking to the former Lakers
longtime trainer Gary Vedi during his run, and he would
often say there's a difference between a player being hurt
and a player being injured. If he's injured, he shouldn't
be playing. If he is, he lends himself to a
lot of risk for long term damage. If you're hurt,

(26:23):
you might be limited. But it's just a pain tolerance issue.
So I think with Luca, these injuries aren't real, but
he has a good pain tolerance, so he's a warrior
and getting through it. Yeah.

Speaker 1 (26:35):
Look, Mark, I'm only going to believe a guy's hurt
if he's not playing, because even if you're hurt and
you have pain talents, you're you know, you're not good
enough to go thirty and fifteen. And you know Joellen
Beide's on one leg, he's scoring forty points. He can't
be that injured if he's scoring forty points in a game.
So either that or the Knicks really so No, I

(26:55):
think a lot of his two things. I think one's
it's gamesmanship, you know during and also I think a
lot of it for the Stars is well, if they
think I'm playing hurt, I'm not going to get a
lot of blame if we wind up losing. And I
think that's a big part of it too, is I
don't want to get blanks if we lose. I want
people to say, yeah, they lost, but wow, you know
guys playing on one leg, or of look how banged

(27:15):
up the guys.

Speaker 3 (27:16):
He's a warrior and they find a way to make
that happen.

Speaker 5 (27:18):
Yeah, I mean, we'll think about when they lost to
Oklahoma City in game one. The mL was about from
the Mavericks set, Hey, we got to make life easier
for Luca. Kyrie and the rest of his teammates need
to elevate their game. I'm with you here. But I
think we can say a player is hurt. If a
player is hurt, that means that they can still play.
They can play through the limitations, the pain, all that.

(27:42):
It's about. If you're injured, you're not available to play,
and if you are, you're seriously impacting your ability to
stay healthy as well as your ability to actually play well.

Speaker 1 (27:53):
Fox Sports Radio, the Jason Smith Show with Mike Carmon Live,
and the tireg dot Com cd as. You can follow
Mark on Twitter at Mark g unders gorm Medina. That
is at Mark g Underscore Medina and Mark. It's also
about time for my yearly promise to you that when
you interview for the Lakers head coaching job, I will
I will sign a letter for you and I'll write
you a letter of reference.

Speaker 5 (28:12):
Well, they still didn't like my last exit interview, so
I don't think I'm going to get a follow up.

Speaker 4 (28:16):
Now, Wait, last question, who's the better coach? Killer Lebron
or KD?

Speaker 5 (28:22):
You know what, No one's blameless here, But I point
to front offices that you got some.

Speaker 3 (28:27):
More TV stuff coming up in LA the next couple
of days.

Speaker 5 (28:30):
Yeah, CBSLO with Jim Hill on Saturday. All right, man,
have to tune in. I don't think we'll talk about
the next well, we'll talk about everything else.

Speaker 3 (28:39):
You have to get Jayalen Brunson in the conversation. You
gotta get it, man. Riley back to the Lake Houst.

Speaker 5 (28:45):
That's a non existing coaching search that we'll have to address.

Speaker 3 (28:51):
Take it easy, buddy, We'll have fun. Talk to you
next week.

Speaker 5 (28:53):
All right, you too, checkermar.

Speaker 3 (28:55):
There goes Mark Medina. Great stuff. Uh. The Jason Smith
Show with Mike Harmon.

Speaker 1 (28:59):
If you any of our show, our best of podcast
goes up right after the show is over. On iTunes,
go to the iHeartRadio app wherever you listen to your podcast,
it's there, The Jason Smith Show with Mike Harmon.

Speaker 3 (29:11):
Download rate us, subscribe. We'll love you forever and ever
and ever.

Speaker 1 (29:14):
Mike and I love putting out all the content we
do every single night. Again, our podcast gets posted about
ten minutes after the show is over. iTunes, iHeartRadio app
where you listen to your podcast, you get it. The
Jason Smith Show with my best friend Mike Harmon. Coming
up next, What NBA team should be the most embarrassed
after tonight and the answer is not the Knicks.

Speaker 3 (29:36):
It's next right here.

Speaker 2 (29:37):
Be sure to catch live editions of The Jason Smith
Show with Mike Harmon weekdays at ten pm Eastern, seven
pm Pacific Fox Sports Radio.

Speaker 1 (29:46):
It is The Jason Smith Show with my best friend
Mike Harmon. Homo Liveromthetirack dot Com studios where I'll tell
you what team should be embarrassed, absolutely embarrassed after tonight
say it?

Speaker 3 (30:01):
Why not?

Speaker 1 (30:01):
It's because it's not the Knicks, Because I thought the
Knicks were gonna lose by twenty and they should have
won the game, and they gave it away in the
final shows that the referees were not influenced by Rick Carlyle, that.

Speaker 3 (30:12):
It was the referees that gave this game. But they
gave up a shot to nobody. Yeah, I haven't heard
that one.

Speaker 2 (30:19):
Do we have it?

Speaker 1 (30:19):
They had the they had the worst guy on the
floor with the basketball and no time on the clock.

Speaker 3 (30:24):
Yes, that's exactly the shot they won.

Speaker 5 (30:26):
Smith.

Speaker 3 (30:28):
Stop listen.

Speaker 1 (30:29):
We'll get into the Knicks coming up in a few minutes,
or we'll get into the next in a few minutes.
But I'm talking about the team that should absolutely be
embarrassed is Minnesota, all right? You know we talked about
it with Mark Medena and and the Denver Nuggets. As
much of a front running team as they are, they
won last year. Everything went well when they got their
asses kicked the last two games.

Speaker 3 (30:49):
Of the series.

Speaker 1 (30:50):
Suddenly it was Jamal Murray is crying and throwing heat packs,
and to be fair, it was only dodging suspensions. Like
Michael Malone didn't do a bunch of gripe and no
joch is yokitch.

Speaker 4 (31:00):
Yes, he just flat out after Game one. It was like,
I got to clone myself. Man, what about that's noa no,
I gotta clone myself.

Speaker 1 (31:07):
I was mad, complaining, wouldn't talk to the wouldn't talk
after the games and stuff.

Speaker 3 (31:13):
It was it was, you know, look.

Speaker 4 (31:14):
And then dismiss people when they tried to ask you
want to ask me about basketball?

Speaker 3 (31:17):
I'm like, well, it's kind of important.

Speaker 1 (31:19):
This is a big deal. Uh, you know they were
front runners. But look, I knew they would come back.
They would give their best game in Game three because
they are the champs and they know that. Well, obviously
this is the whole series. We lost the first two one,
get what you know, we got to worry about this
game first.

Speaker 3 (31:33):
I knew they would play well.

Speaker 1 (31:34):
I am embarrassed at the effort the Timberwolves put out
there tonight because this was a series. This is a
game where they should have been out to a fifteen
point lead early. You are coming home and it's insane
and and and t Wolves fans, you can taste the
conference finals all of a sudden, you're like, hey, we'll
get the two thousand and four t Wolves team back
here with KG and Googs. They'll be sitting court side.

(31:55):
It's going to be awesome. And you don't even put
up a fight in this game.

Speaker 4 (31:59):
But this is exactly the result that every te Wolves fan,
every Minnesotan was worried was gonna show up on a Friday.
I mean, this is I'm so embarrassed for the te
Wolves to put forth this kind of effort in a
game where at least that should have been there. If
you lose the game, okay, you lose the game, but
this is where you gotta make the Nuggets take it
from you. Instead, it was the Nuggets who came out

(32:21):
with a much better sense of urgency in the beginning
of the game, and the t Wolves couldn't even make
a run. They couldn't figure anything out, and it was
like they were going through the motions most of the game.
All this great defense that was there the first two games,
like they decided, ah, not our night to We're not
gonna expend so much energy.

Speaker 3 (32:38):
We're already losing.

Speaker 1 (32:39):
It was absolutely embarrassing for the Timberwolves tonight. And I
know Anthony Edwards after the game was doing the right thing,
telling his teammates, hey, it's only one game, first of four,
only one game, only one game. Yeah, but you know
you showed me no sense of urgency tonight. Absolutely none.
There was no point where I said, hey, we're gonna
do everything we can to claw and scratch our way
back into this game. I did not get that from
this team. Team that did everything that they're supposed to

(33:02):
do the first two games. I'm embarrassed h with that effort.

Speaker 3 (33:05):
To me, but that's just it.

Speaker 4 (33:05):
You'd seen such swarming defense. Now from the operational efficiency
on the offense, more turnovers, less work on the offensive glass. Again,
that's one of those things where you're raising your hands
like you got.

Speaker 3 (33:19):
Go bear back.

Speaker 4 (33:20):
So where was that in the process. Look, the Denver
starting lineup did really well. They didn't get huge contributions
at least from a points output from their bench some
key minutes down the stretch at all. But you know,
by that point this game was done. I mean, Jokic
finishes just shy of a triple double, and Murray can't

(33:42):
understate it shouldn't have been playing, but comes out and
it was aggressive offensively, got himself into some open spots,
some good work from Jokic to find him with a
little bit of space, so they didn't get the closeouts
and the difficult shots. Go back to the series against
the Lakers. As we talk with Mark last, you know,
just a little while ago, and as you and I

(34:04):
have talked about quite a bit, shooting percentage has been
dismal aside the from the game winners. Why because he
got contested completely tonight, a lot of open floaters.

Speaker 3 (34:14):
That open space.

Speaker 1 (34:17):
I get that the Nuggets are going to adjust, but
this te Wolves defense, Hey, that's that's about effort and
desire and and and we know what we're doing. And
there was no adjustment. There was no where is where
are they trying to make like difficult for Jamal Murty?

Speaker 3 (34:32):
Where was that?

Speaker 4 (34:33):
But that's a big thing, right, is that we always
talk about young teams versus those that have been there,
blah blah blah.

Speaker 3 (34:40):
You know what it takes.

Speaker 4 (34:41):
You have to win four games, here's one in front
of your home crowd, and it just didn't seem like
the killer instinct was there to go and try to
take it. And even as you got into the second half.
I'm not advocating for guys to get dumped on their ass,
but every.

Speaker 1 (34:53):
Once in a while you got a dump a guy
his ass out.

Speaker 3 (34:55):
Of the loos. It didn't seem like you were ready
to fight.

Speaker 1 (35:00):
Denver was allowed to do whatever they wanted to tonight.
And again I get Denver winning because they are the chimps.
They're phenomenally not going down without it. I get that,
but it was just too easy for them, and it's
like Minnesota. It's almost it's almost as if Minnesota expected
Denver with all the drama going on. Jamal Murray probably
shouldn't play. He's mad, he's upset, like they expected to

(35:22):
show up and win. Like they expect, We're gonna walk
into this where it's gonna hit shots, we're gonna execute,
we're gonna win this game by twenty because that's who
did the first two games, and almost that was kind
of what they Eventually, it's gonna turn our way, right
because it's always turned this way, and they did not
show any sense of, oh, we got to get off
our rats and get this done. Never found that run,
No I'm you tried to speak it into existence time.

Speaker 3 (35:42):
I am.

Speaker 1 (35:42):
I'm sure our boss love that I'm embarrassed from Minnesota tonight.

Speaker 3 (35:46):
But right now they're nervous because they've seen this act before.

Speaker 1 (35:50):
Exit out about a Fresca exit Swollen Dome. The Jason
Smith Show with my best friend Mike Carmen Love the
tire rack dot Com Studios. We have a big, fat
NFL hot take coming your way as well as a
big hot take coming off Knicks pacers.

Speaker 3 (36:07):
Oh that's straight out right here, Jason and Mike, this
is Fox Sports Radio. Knicks are going home hot take
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