May 8, 2026 • 41 mins
Jason Smith and Mike Harmon break down the chances of the Lakers even stealing one game against the Thunder with the quiet whistles of the referees. Plus, what will happen moving forward!!!
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Speaker 1 (00:00):
Thanks for listening to The Jason Smith Show with Mike
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Speaker 2 (00:23):
You're listening to Fox Sports Radio.
Speaker 1 (00:29):
Hello, Welcome in side our three, The Jason Smith Show
with my bes friend Mike Harmon. Don't forget right after
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(00:52):
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It will be there. Six minutes to go in the
fourth quarter, Oklahoma City leads the Lakers one oh four
(01:15):
to ninety four. Lakers trying to desperately avoid a two
to zero hole. This game has been delayed the last
ten minutes by three video reviews, hey man, for different reasons. Uh,
the most popular thing I've seen on screen the last
few minutes has been different players on both teams shrugging
(01:37):
their shoulders, going what like, that's what it's been the
last ten minutes. Yeah, I don't even know what's getting
called here? Right?
Speaker 3 (01:42):
Is it over the back? Is that a flagrant fall?
Did he accidentally trip a guy? Did this guy get
pushed down? Did he get hooked? At the end of
the third quarter, we had a big scrum underneath the
basket with with Reeves and Sga and Lebron and everybody
looking around wondering what's going to be called and who's
the blame and whether a fight's gonna ensue like we
(02:03):
saw in the hockey game.
Speaker 1 (02:04):
Yeah, you know, the Flyers are gonna be mad. Everybody
throwing down the gloves at the end of the game there,
But yeah, Hurricanes up two zip over the fly three
zip over the Flyers, Nicks up two zip over the Sixers.
Jason Smith two City of Philadelphia zero Philadelphia wearing it
right now? They need Rocky they hate me right now,
they hate me my team. My team's too, your team's zero.
Speaker 3 (02:23):
Well, as soon as you tried to do that Philadelphia accent,
I think they turned against you.
Speaker 1 (02:28):
Then. No, we can't talk like all of us do.
And and now A teams are beating us. I don't
like it.
Speaker 3 (02:32):
No, No, disparaged was a sandwich destination. I mean all
of these at least the films are better than the Mets.
Speaker 1 (02:39):
Now that's all we have. Now, it's all we have. Everything.
You guys are cheese steaks, which just stuid. Yeah yeah, no,
you should never bean cheese stacks. Come on, So we'll
have more on this game again in the next few minutes.
Again one O four ninety four lead midway through the
fourth quarter. Today we got the official word the NCAA
Tournament Basketball will be expanded to seventy six teams, both
(03:01):
men's and women's expanding to seventy six teams. I want
to tell you something because if you follow social media
listen to certain people, you're getting a skewed view of
the seventy six team NCAA Tournament. Every fan loves seventy
(03:21):
six teams. College basketball loves seventy six teams. The only
people that hate seventy six teams are just certain members
of the media who want to hate everything and say, oh,
this isn't what the tournament should be. And you can
go anywhere and see that. Over the course of the
past few days, once we knew seventy six teams was
(03:43):
going to be the way the NCAA tournament is sanctity
of the sixty four i mean sixty eight team tournament.
Anybody who is mad, they just want to be mad
about stuff because there's no there's nothing to be mad about.
What are we getting, right? We're getting an NCAA tournament
where the play in games have been added, the playing
(04:04):
round is bigger, That's what it is. It's not that, hey,
now we're seeding one through seventy six. There's gonna be
buys and a five seed is gonna play a nineteen seed. No,
they're simply making Tuesday and Wednesday mini NCAA tournament days.
The first four is now gonna be the first fifty,
all right. The first four is now expanding. They're expanding
by eight more teams because why not, right, why not
(04:27):
when you can expand the play in to get to
the tournament right, And this is all because of Miami
of Ohio potentially could have missed the tournament this year.
But okay, Miami, Ohio gets in. Where do we cross
the line at who are the first four out? Who
are the next four out? Fans love it because there's
a better chance your team is going to get in.
It's more basketball for us to watch that week. Thursday Friday.
(04:50):
You hear people say all the time, two best days
of the year in sports. I can't argue with that. Now, Tuesday, Wednesday,
Thursday Friday for the best days in sports all week long.
It's like a holiday week. Everybody wins. Every fan loves this,
every fan does. College basketball loves it. Why because it's
an extra three hundred million dollars that's gonna be dispersed
(05:11):
out to teams college basketball. So the money is there,
So the interest is there for the fans, The money
is there for the sport. What is there to hate?
I don't understand. I want someone to give me a
real reason why they could say, oh I hate this,
Oh what is Well, it's not the sixty fourteen tournament. Okay,
let me just let you know. The sixty fourteen tournament
(05:32):
began in nineteen eighty five. This is not like we're
going back to nineteen twenty going oh man, what's been
best to seven forever? Now the World Series is best
to nine. The NCA Tournament was forty eight teams, then
it was fifty three teams. Fifty three teams. Then it
was sixty four, then it was sixty five, then it
was sixty eight. Now it's seventy two, now seventy six. Okay,
(05:52):
it's not like we have this whole, long career, a long, long,
fifty sixty year run of boy tournament was so good
and now they're really messing with stuff. Every sport rolls
with the times, even Major League Baseball. We're adding different divisions,
we're adding wildcards. We gotta add more teams. It's more money,
it's more fan interest, more teams in the playoffs. I
(06:13):
would understand it if it was where you made it
really crazy. Where Okay, now you're playing for buys and
a team can get in as an eighteen seed and
playing in a first round. Get No, the play in
round has gotten bigger, that's all it is. The playing
round the bottom of the tournament has gotten bigger. To
get to one through sixty four so that's what I
don't see. How we're making it the worst thing in
(06:35):
the world. Oh well, now teams are gonna get in
at five hundred their conference. Yeah, okay, it's the playing round.
They're not getting in his four seeds. They're getting in
the playing round. Like, but I mean, you see a
lot of hate. You see it on TV, you hear
it on the radio, people talk about it tomorrow, you
see it on social Oh I hate to hate it.
Just say, give me a reason. Why, give me a
really good reason why there's none other than I want
(06:56):
to be mad about it. And I judge. I just
I think it down the turn again, it's the playing
round that's gotten bigger. That's all it is. But that's it.
Speaker 3 (07:04):
Not everything is for everybody. And even with a lot
of the the love hate, there's a lot of folks
I think are kind of indifferent.
Speaker 1 (07:11):
All right.
Speaker 3 (07:11):
It's more because if you're not a huge college basketball fan,
it's like, all right, more teams whatever. Maybe there's something
I watch, Maybe there isn't. Maybe one of the local
teams gets in and there's a little more press and
I get enambered with it. I'm in, but everybody else
wins remember you you cited when they went to the
field of sixty four.
Speaker 1 (07:28):
It was only a few years before that that they
adopted the three point shots. Should we get rid of
that too, I mean we can.
Speaker 3 (07:35):
Let's just throw that out because well, we didn't like
that either, and we don't like what it's done to
the game.
Speaker 1 (07:41):
Right that all those lamentations. When you go from our
side of things, it's more broadcasting opportunities, more jobs, more slots,
more live television, which is where everybody wins, hence the
three hundred million dollars. Coaches have to love it, even
if publicly they say, well it's watering down. Behind the scenes,
they're all, you know, clamoring for the fact that they're
(08:04):
more likely to make said field than in your marketing,
merchandising and selling yourself to other programs. Hey, what did
we do? We made the tournament last year? While it's
seventy eight, it's like not nobody says that. Once it's
past year one, nobody cares that. The experiment, experimentation and
being mad about it becomes you just like shouting at clouds. Right,
(08:27):
you're gonna watch and let's face it, you're in a
sport where for the months that it's active, you're not
getting a lot of run. Sure in conference you do
college buckets specific shows, but you're buried by the NFL
for virtually your entire season, which is why we always
talk about getting to March and games that count, whether
(08:49):
it be the conference tournaments into the NCAA Tournament, or
those final couple of regular seasons games in the big
conferences where you're jockeying for position, or like Miami, Ohio,
trying to go for an undefeated season. Outside of that,
I don't want to call it a niche sport, but
let's call it what it is. You don't have the
(09:10):
same national appeal and thirst that you do maybe for
a couple of teams, maybe for a couple of players,
but when he comes down to March madness, everybody pushes
to the front of the table because they want a
good seat. And so anybody that's you know, shouting at
the windmills, I just get get the hug. Go find
the hug you need from someone that tells you they
(09:31):
love you, because it'll be okay and you'll have more
basketball to watch. I don't understand why that's a problem,
because because I would say Okay, why did you? Well,
I'm a college basketball fan, so here's more college basketball. No,
I don't want that. You don't want more college basketball? No? Why? Well,
because I don't think Oklahoma at seven and eleven in
the SEC should be in the playing round. Okay, but
Auburn at seventeen and sixteen they should be in. Oh? Okay,
(09:55):
you want it? You really, that's where you wanted? The
hell you want to die on? Because we're gonna split
hairs between the the teams that are the final four
or eight teams into the NCAA term, that's a hell
you want to die on. I don't You're not gonna watch.
I'm not gonna watch it.
Speaker 3 (10:08):
I don't like watching. I'm noting more teams involved, more
players that get seen on a national scale, so they
win in every way, shape and form. I just don't
understand the lamentation on this except what is standard in
our business of well, it makes sense, so I'm gonna
argue against it. There's certain stories that are polarizing that
(10:33):
half the people think one thing, half the people think another. Right,
there's absolute stories like that, right, Uh, how good you
think Sam Donald is a quarterback? Sam Donald very polarizer.
I think Sam Donald is great. No, I think Sam
Donald's overrated and he's but that you're about you about halfway.
There's not even close. You think that there's a lot
of people who are upset about this, but it's just
(10:55):
your timeline is flooded with it, and or you see
it on TV and you think that's the opinion of
half the country. Trust me if you did, if you
did a poll of fans, ninety percent of the fans said, yeah,
I love it, I love it, I love more college basketball.
Speaker 1 (11:08):
Yeah. Yet one out of ten would go, ah, it's
not the old NCAA attorney yet whatever. Uh nine out
of ten, ten out of ten people involved in college basketball.
You you, you talk about everybody in college basketball, every
single team, every single coach, every single conference, every single
person who's gonna make money off of this. They all
love it. But you're gonna see it on TV and
hear about it, and you're gonna think it's half the
people It is not. You know, it's remember when a
(11:30):
few years ago when Lebron got really upset and everybody
thought people were burning his jerseys when he left the
Cavaliers for the last time, right, and it was on
and he was so mad all burning jerseys. It was
one guy that burned one of Lebron's jerseys, but because
it was everywhere and people kept quoting it, it was like, oh,
now everybody's burning Lebron's jersey. No one person is burning
(11:51):
Lebron James jersey and everybody's going crazy about it. It's
one person, right, Let's we can talk about it because
it's a story. But don't make it seem like everybody.
But it seems like everywhere you go here. This happened
in Los Angeles, This happened in Dallas, This happened in Florida.
This happened in West Virginia, this happened in Michigan, this
happened in Canada. Ah, people are doing it in China
right now. Everybody in Scotland is doing it. No one
person did it, and it made the big rounds because
(12:13):
here's someone saying I'm burning a Lebron jersey, right, that's
what this is. Don't think that this is so many
people everybody hates it. It wouldn't have been. It wouldn't
have been. Okay if that was the case, everybody loves it.
You know, I'll equate it.
Speaker 3 (12:27):
And I'll use an old Simpsons reference here. Remember when
they went away to Krusty's camp my insulin, Yeah, yeah, sure,
And now here's your counselor. And then there's the voiceover
that says, mister black. Yeah, the same thing here. So
I'm gonna look into this camera. I'm gonna say, when
the eighteenth game is announced as part of the new
(12:48):
NFL schedule, just use this take again with me saying, yeah,
people that don't like the eighteenth game, And there you go,
it's the same thing. You're gonna have the same complaints.
Speaker 1 (13:01):
That's saying that he's got Well, it used to be
a twelve game season, that's and it was a fourteen game.
That's where you go. Okay, So who the fans all
love the idea of eighteen games. The teams and the
money makers and television all love the ideas of the
eighteen game. Players like money, right, some of the players
don't got to be a percentage some of them don't
like it. So that's not polarizing. That's not half the
(13:23):
people want to Actually, No, that is everybody wants eighteen games,
but some of the players are not gonna like And
when those players realize how much more money it means
for them privately, they'll whistle a different Dude, I don't
want to play the eighteenth game. What's that?
Speaker 4 (13:35):
What?
Speaker 1 (13:35):
What? What's that? Uh? What's that? A game? Oh? Oh
oh oh, well, I guess eighteen games is okay. Yeah,
it's all right. I guess it's fine. I think it's fine.
I think it'll be okay. You know. Yeah, I've come
around on that idea.
Speaker 3 (13:49):
A little probably means more jobs for the union is
because you'll expand ross whatever. But it's the same argument.
There's gonna be the vocals like, oh, this is just
too much. No, no, I've come around on that idea.
H exit out about a Fresca exit swollen dome. The
Jason Smith Show with Mike Carmon Live from the Fox
Sports Radio Studios. Trust me, everybody loves the seventy sixteen tournament.
Speaker 1 (14:09):
Coming up next. Are we gonna be talking about an
incredible Lakers comeback going back to the crypt one to one?
Or is it gonna be Oklahoma City and a two
nothing lead that looks like a sweep. That's next right here,
Jason and Mike Fox Sports Radio. Most likely the Rafts
are gonna keep calling atrocious atrocious, atrocious place atrocious.
Speaker 2 (14:35):
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.
Speaker 4 (14:44):
App sot gots here. I have a podcast empire. It
continues to grow, and I have brought it here to iHeart.
I'm also doing a live radio show from three to
five pm Eastern because.
Speaker 1 (14:59):
My wife wanted to kick me out of the house.
Speaker 4 (15:01):
It's called Stu Gotson Company Live, which is available in
podcast form right when the show finishes every single day.
Some of the biggest names in sports, a lot of phone.
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Calls, I love you got your show.
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It's one of my favorites.
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A lot of interact sit guys not taking themselves too seriously.
Those are just some of the things that you can
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So listen to Steve Gotson Company Live and our original podcast.
Please subscribe, rate and review Stu Gotson Company and God
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(15:37):
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Speaker 1 (15:48):
Hey Smith, let's play a game. Go what is the fine?
How much will Lebron James be lighter in the pocket?
Following the post game of this game two, Game two
of the Western Conference SEMIS is over. The thunder pull
away from the Lakers one twenty five one oh seven.
(16:13):
They cover uh twenty two from SGA twenty two from
checks to go along with nine rebounds and uh you
know the the scary part for the Lakers. There's a
couple of things here. Obviously, look at two zip. The
series is likely over because at the best best case scenario,
you get Luca back in game three. But what if
I say, if he doesn't come back for game two,
(16:33):
game three is gonna be his feeling out game. His
stamina is not going to be there. He hasn't played
in a long time. He needed one game to get
going before he would come back for Game three.
Speaker 3 (16:42):
Now I still he comes back for Game three, but
I still wonder the veracity. And this is the point
you brought up yesterday. Go back and least Michael Rappaport
chiming in. But I will condense it to just this statement.
How much do we believe any of the injury updates
that we get from anybody?
Speaker 1 (16:59):
An aymay Yeah.
Speaker 3 (17:00):
I mean I'm wishing and hoping because I want to
see the best on the court. But if I believe
fifty percent of what's been said about where Luca is
and his return to the court, and even you know,
we had Rick Buker pop by that I'm not anticipating
his return, that would be like a great wrestling or
(17:21):
boxing or whatever. Hey, this guy's been cleared for this event.
He really i'd shocker as they come back off a
long layoff. I mean, I'd like to be able to
tell you the Lakers can come back. I'd like to
be able to tell you that. But it's going to
be a sweep. The Lakers are going to get swept,
and we're probably not gonna see Luca because you look
at the night tonight that the Lakers got from Austin
(17:42):
Reeves Lebron James and they still lost by eighteen to
a thunder team that quite honestly still doesn't look like
they're firing cylinders right now, We'll get to the officiating
thing in a second, because now, boy, if you don't
like SGA getting foul calls well, but Reeves tonight was fantastic.
Thirty one points from Austins, ten out of sixteen from
the floor, six assists, he was phenomenal. From Lebron, you
(18:05):
got twenty three, six assists. Again at forty one, to
be still playing at this level, this deep into the playoffs,
and yes, because when you're forty one, when you get
out of the Firs, when you get out of the
first four games of the first round, it's like, I'm
really having a tough time. Joelam biaedsman back for three games.
I can't play in game two. Guys, I'm just exhausted.
Speaker 1 (18:23):
You bang up. Yeah, you got thirty one from Reeves,
you got twenty three from Lebron. Ruey Hachimura had sixteen,
he was four to seven from three point range, and
you still lost by eighteen. Right, Like, that's the night
you had where still the thunder were able to pull away.
Right now, Luca back, it would be a different story
because you saw what the Lakers were becoming with Luca
at the end of the season, you know, the last
(18:45):
eighteen to twenty games. Boy, now now you're saying you
saw where they were getting to be full powered then
Luca gets hurt, and now this is where the Lakers
are at this point. I don't know that you bring
Luca back because really it's too You're not gonna beat
the Thunder four out of five. Luca's not gonna come
back and suddenly be a guy playing incredible basketball right away.
That's why the whole thing was. If he comes back
(19:05):
in game two and works out all the kinks right,
and all of a sudden, you know, hey, my stamina here,
I got my win back game three at home. The
energy all right, I could see it. I could see
Luca coming back having a big day Lebron and Reeves.
I see it. But now, even if he does come
back for Game three, it's gonna be the Game two
game that I threw out there. It's gonna be stilted.
(19:27):
He's not gonna have the stamina. The Laker offense is
not gonna know quite the best way they're gonna want
to operate, because it's gonna be a brand new thing
of having Luca come in. Where if Luca comes in
in game two, okay, we can see or we can
adjust coming off of this. This is the best usage
of Luca in game three, right, just kind of how
the Timberwolves are saying, Hey, we want Ed Edwards, Hey
coming off the bench, play big minutes, but come off
(19:47):
the bench. Hey they got a one one split going
back home. They're incredibly happy. I appreciate it.
Speaker 3 (19:51):
His postgame comments, not to labor the point with him,
but just saying we came out soft and cool, yeah
after game one, I mean, and being disappointed.
Speaker 1 (20:00):
In that, which I like that ownership of it. I mean,
but but the way the Thunderer playing, and here's SGA
with twenty two, right, it's not like he's had a
superhuman series so far. It's all he's had a superhuman
first cars. They're they're just overwhelming teams now with their
talent top to bottom. Right when you when you had
(20:22):
McCain and Wallace coming off the bench for thirty each tonight, right,
I mean they're like, Wow, Okay, these guys are six
out of eight from three point range? Like what are
you gonna really do? Like what this? Sometimes you have
to just say, you know what, With Luca out, it's
not here for us. And at this point, quite honestly,
I would say I wouldn't bring him back if I
thought you could beat the Thunder four out of five.
(20:42):
I would say it, but it's not like you're in
a three six or a four to five matchup where
or a one to eight matchup where the eight seed
is leading. Go you know what, No, we can beat
this team four out of five. They're not great. This
is a forty two win team in the regular season.
It's gotten hot in the playoffs. We can beat them
three out of four games. Right the six are saying, hey,
with them beat coming back, we can beat the Celtics
three out of four games. Celtics aren't that great. This
(21:02):
is the Thunder, the one team in the NBA that
you would say, hey, four out of five against them,
probably not gonna happen. It sucks. The timing is terrible.
But if Luca is still, if he really has to
push it to come back. At this point, I think
you missed your window. Think your window was Game two
with a full Luca in Game three, and now I
think it's just, you know what, let's not ruin them,
(21:25):
Let's not ruin him for the offseason. We don't know
how he heals. We know Lucas had trouble staying healthy before. Yes,
the PRP injections may not have worked like we wanted to.
We'll get to Spain in a minute, but at this point,
I think you leave Luca out, you go best you can.
Game three, Game four, it's probably gonna be a sweep.
It would probably be a sweep with Luca anyway.
Speaker 3 (21:44):
Forty eight to twenty. The bench scoring in this game huge,
something we've talked about quite a bit with his Lakers squad.
Pick your individual, here's your assist to turnover ratio today.
Twenty four to twenty not good. And if you did
announce Luka Doncics was gonna come back, the Thunder could
(22:04):
very easily just say, hey, you know what, we've got
Jalen Williams who's still waiting to come back to.
Speaker 1 (22:09):
Action too, so let's match up there too.
Speaker 3 (22:13):
But they have the luxury of waiting as long as
they need to for him into the next round. If
you're gonna get that kind of bench contribution and that
hot shooting from what once upon a time, a guy
that was gonna be a star in McCain right, a
nice luxury to have off your bench.
Speaker 1 (22:29):
But yeah, for Luka donc it's just really hard for
me to envision testing at this point. Right If it's
going to potentially cost you into next year because say
he does come back and there's any hint that there's
an aggravation. Yeah, you got an off season, but you're
also looking to this next off season with money to
(22:49):
spend and options of how you're.
Speaker 3 (22:52):
Gonna rebuild this roster. And if he's compromised coming into
the next season, then then all bets are off. Right,
You're trying to restore your franchise to glory, and the
names are there, and the wow factor certainly shows up
when these guys are playing well. And Austin Reeves had
a good game tonight. Five turnovers, a lot of fighting
with officials and near run ins. But all of that
(23:14):
to say, this series is done. You're not beating them
four out of five. You're even with their best efforts.
And congratulations to Lebron still putting forth the great effort,
the great stats, whatever else. Can't wait for his postgame comments,
as I alluded to, both from the officiating and to
see what the next iteration is of talking about offensive
(23:34):
sets and stalling out, et cetera. Right, a lot was
made of his post game one comments, and I'm sure
he'll have some extra fire here in the belly as
they get ready for Game three back in La.
Speaker 1 (23:47):
Well, any other thing too, is this now is I
feel even more strongly about this than I did earlier.
I'm not going to Spain for any sort of medical
help injections, and I'm not going because Spain clearly it's
not gonna work. Man.
Speaker 3 (24:01):
It's funny because I was doing a little bit of
research on this earlier, because you know, I'm a nerd
like that, and they're actually a top five destination for
medical support now not after this lot of it has
to do with fertility, and.
Speaker 1 (24:14):
They're out of the top twelve. This is such a
loss of not being able to get Luca back with
his PRP injections. It's such a lot. It's such a bit.
This is like the college football team that at home
loses to a one double a team. You fall all
the way out of the top twenty five. You couldn't
get Luca back on the court when he specifically went
to Spain. No, man, that's an epic fail. Man, I'm
(24:35):
not going to Spain for anybody.
Speaker 3 (24:36):
He took multiple injections and multiple treatments, that's what he
said and his presser the other day, so yeah, it
certainly does call into question. And again we talked about
this going on several weeks from when it first went down,
the ability of players to travel to foreign countries for
medical treatments and then come back, and everybody just goes, yeah, no, okay, cool,
(24:59):
nothing to see here.
Speaker 1 (25:01):
We we can't do any of the treatments that they need. Here.
Is that in line with the the union and the
agreement and all of that stuff.
Speaker 3 (25:09):
Evidently it's okay. But as we know, Adam Silver also
usually looks the other way or in the spirit of
the triple Crown, which oh yeah, yeah, right. You saw
the trainer and jockey from the derby winner thrown out
the first pitch today.
Speaker 1 (25:22):
Yeah, but blinder's not a horse. Oh yeah, yeah, yeah.
That's Adam Silver on a lot of this stuff. I mean,
but just think about it for a second. Luca went
the injury is a four to eight week thing. It's
been five weeks. PRP injections every four days. It had
to be every four days. I would get an injection,
wait four days, get an injection, wait four days, because
I got to use your own blood in your plasma.
And again, I've seen thirty hours of the pit. So basically,
(25:44):
I'm a doctor and I can understand this. Just don't
scream things out. Yeah when you're if you're on Broadway,
don't yell to uh arts your charts, don't yell about charts.
Get your charting done. But I mean, just ian you
would go there now, I'm not. I think overall tourism
in Spain should be I don't think anybody from southern
(26:06):
California should go to Spain. Say, oh, you know what
you blank does blank you? I'm not going there for anything.
Speaker 3 (26:11):
But they say to top ten, not not experts oncology,
not ethology, traumatology, No, you never heard traumatology.
Speaker 1 (26:19):
That's is that the study of bad things? Bad things? Okay?
Fertility treatments, Yeah you said that like six times thirty. Well,
but I mean, okay, because this is clearly nowhere people
gonna think fertility treatments work. But that's what I'm wondering.
You couldn't help. But they say it's thirty to fifty
percent more affordable than Switzerland or the US. Really, okay,
(26:40):
you know what it's. It's it doesn't matter how effective,
it doesn't matter how affordable, if it doesn't work, if
it's zero percent effective. It's like the Hugh Grant line
from nine months. It should it should put three percent ineffective.
Put that on the bloody box. Uh, I mean really yeah,
I mean it doesn't work. Why would you go? I
mean really, Kobe went to Germany. Go to Germany. They
gotta figure it out in Germany. Kobe would come back
(27:01):
and drop sixty and then be wow, amazing. Yeah, he
went to Germany, and did you gotta go where the
results are Fountain of youth, Man, you gotta go. Okay,
you can't go to Florida. Maybe you'll find something down
I don't know. Well, okay, you know, yeah, there's certain
place you can go and get that uh batman face
regeneration mirror. I don't know that I would go there.
(27:23):
But uh, I'm not saying low cost end of the
but the tools, Jack, that's what I have to work.
Look at these tools that work with uh, go where
it works. And you know that Germany works. You know
what the place you know now, Spain does not. Spain
does not work in this particular the top twenty five.
Now you might be winning on the grand scale right
(27:43):
in Spain, but all you need is one high profile
case from a superstar in Los Angeles. Yeah, it would
have been the poster boy for travel. They to put
him up on billboards. So it never to Spain. But
we'd never heard that before. It might be a dish Paea,
there would be a syringe with blood in it, there
would be a centrifuge. They would be like, that would
(28:05):
be on the whole thing. Come to Spain.
Speaker 3 (28:06):
By the way, if you're in the greater Los Angeles
area and you know of a good piea place, please
let me know a swollen dome.
Speaker 1 (28:13):
Yeah. Yeah, not a great day for Spain. Not a
great night. No, not not good at all all. Reputationally
a huge hit. And again I I go from the
from their angle of Okay, here in the United States
we have the greatest hospitals in the world, Los Angeles,
especially New York, Chicago, Minnesota, Johns Hopkins like you, and
you can get any any sort of specially treatment you
(28:36):
need when you have to say, oh yeah, nothing in
this country can help you. But if you want to
go to Spain, maybe they can help you. And the
Lakers and Lucas said, yeah, go let's do it. Okay,
this is where we get into this is the reason
why it's not so super legal, and I'm doing air
quotes are not super legal, but super legal. And again
(28:59):
that goes back to the thing between the players' association
in the league and turning a blind eye of face
like his team.
Speaker 3 (29:07):
It's it's either the old Kawhi Leonard fighting with the
Spurs team doctors or Uncle Dennis injecting himself. See what
I did there into a conversation. It's it's literally, I'm leaving.
Speaker 1 (29:18):
The country Commissioner Silver your thoughts on Luka Doncic going
to Spain for p RP injections. I don't know anything
about that story. I'm here to talk about anti tanking measures,
what about the NBA better? Okay? Can can you talk
about why Draymond Green hates everybody hates basketball hates Charles Barklay.
I'm here to talk about the new draft lottery that
(29:39):
we're having on Sunday because I can't stand to have
any other time where people can make fun of it.
Sunday at three o'clock where nobody pays attention. Cor Yeah, chat,
Oh my goodness. Uh yeah, that's the thing. You know.
(30:00):
To bring it back to chet for a second swirl,
all the way back to let's talk about it. It's
one thing for SGA to get to the free throw
line on phantom calls that he sells it continue to
be embarrassing. It's quite another for Chet home Grin to
start getting these calls like he did in the last
five minutes of this game. I mean Chet is now
(30:21):
getting superstar calls. Chet he goes getting five of seven
from the line.
Speaker 3 (30:25):
He did have one overturned right that play with eight
and the he clearly was going for award season which
is already behind us, but an early entrance for twenty
six twenty seven in terms of flopping and Academy Awards.
But yeah, it's it made for a little bit of
a curious thing.
Speaker 1 (30:43):
Now.
Speaker 3 (30:44):
The thunder for the game did have more files called
against them. Free throw disparity was only five, despite what
it might have looked like. But some of it always
goes back to when did you get him?
Speaker 1 (30:56):
Let's find out what's trending right now in the wide
world of sports from I've bet bream euro who had
the over for SGA free throws tonight? Uh? Brie, I
don't think you got it? But how close were you?
Speaker 5 (31:12):
I was about three off?
Speaker 1 (31:14):
No, three off? So not terrible. Could have been.
Speaker 5 (31:16):
Worse, could have been worse, could have been worse. I
also had the under on the Lakers score because they
hadn't scored over one hundred points in four straight games.
Speaker 1 (31:26):
Wow, okay, so I had the under.
Speaker 5 (31:29):
So I also lost that too.
Speaker 1 (31:30):
Oh, what's a tough day. It is a tough day. Yeah,
it is.
Speaker 5 (31:32):
But the whatever the Hurricanes, I got that right, right.
Speaker 1 (31:36):
You got that right? Yeah? You did play that brass bonanza.
Speaker 5 (31:39):
Bree Hey, you guys.
Speaker 2 (31:42):
Yeah.
Speaker 5 (31:43):
The Thunder held on to take down the Lakers one
to one O seven and take a two to oh
series lead to continue their postseason seven game win streak.
They shot fifty one percent for the field. Just wasn't enough,
La did. Austin Reeves had a playoff career high thirty
one points. Lebron James had twenty three points. Shake Yill
Just Alexander on the OKC side had twenty two Chet
Holmgren also had twenty two points. The Pistons have won
(32:06):
five straight games after they took down the Cavaliers one
oh seven to ninety seven and take a two oh
series lead. On the Eastern Conference side, Donovan Mitchell had
thirty one points and six assists in the lost James
Harden strug gold. He was three of thirteen from the field,
had ten points and four turnovers. In the NHL playoffs,
Like I said, the Hurricanes top the Flyers. They have
taken a three oh series lead. In the NFL, the
(32:27):
Vikings are signing former forty nine ers wide receiver Juwan
Jennings to a one year deal, and Taylor Heineke is
retiring after eleven seasons in the league. I read that
and I thought it was Taylor Hicks, like the American
Idol guy.
Speaker 1 (32:40):
So you're retiring from six? Okaykay? So I read that.
Speaker 5 (32:43):
I have like a dyslexic, like, I don't know what
kind of moment I had, but that doesn't make any sense.
Speaker 1 (32:49):
But just a heads up.
Speaker 5 (32:50):
And in baseball, the Pirates outscore the Diamondbacks four to two,
Marlins edged Orioles four to three, and the Cubs have
won ninth straight. They took down the Reds eight to three.
Speaker 3 (32:59):
Back to you guys, you know it's been twenty years
since he won American Idol.
Speaker 1 (33:02):
He was, yeah, yeah, you want you don't remember he won? Controversial?
Speaker 5 (33:06):
Oh, I thought I thought Fantasia one.
Speaker 1 (33:10):
That different year. Uh oh, oh, it was Fantasia might
to come in third.
Speaker 3 (33:14):
Oh, come in if you're a high Fantasia really takes
out a hole Ji that one?
Speaker 1 (33:21):
Uh no, no, no, that was dream Girls.
Speaker 5 (33:27):
Hudson came from American Idol.
Speaker 1 (33:29):
She did okay, but a lot of people came from
American Idol where they didn't win, but they just became
big stars.
Speaker 5 (33:35):
Okay. So Taylor Hacks did one. Actually, Oh do I
make you proud? He sang that song?
Speaker 1 (33:39):
Okay, I feel a lot better, Thank you, guys. Jennifer
Hudson's an egot, like she's she's he goot man, he
talk shows. Yeah. Uh. Coming up next, we have more
on the Thunder and the Lakers, including the one player
who had the worst night tonight in the NBA. Is
it one of the Lakers? Is it somebody else? That's next?
(34:02):
Jason to Mike Fox Sports Radio.
Speaker 2 (34:04):
Be sure to catch live editions of The Jason Smith
Show with Mike Harmon weekdays at ten pm Eastern, seven
pm Pacific.
Speaker 5 (34:16):
You mother.
Speaker 1 (34:20):
Fox Sports Radio Jason Smith Show with My bes friend
Mike Harmon.
Speaker 2 (34:24):
Who they did it?
Speaker 1 (34:28):
Things starting to get really interesting with the Lakers following
their loss to the Thunder a few moments ago. Close
game through three quarters, the Thunder pull away late. We
talked a few minutes ago about hey Chet Holmgren getting
superstar calls. Lebron was so demonstratively upset with the officials
(34:52):
at the end of the game, like this is about
as upset that I've seen him on court, yelling at
the officials. After the game was over, the all gathered
around the officials to voice their displeasure about how things
were called in the fourth quarter. I can't wait to
hear from JJ Reddick and Lebron, like I got a
feeling we have to get something simply because they're down
(35:14):
to zip, they're coming home. We are gonna get absolute fire.
And I don't know because they haven't talked yet, but
we are gonna get absolute fire from Reddick and Lebron.
I guarantee a lot of videos of the post game
with Austin Reeves really kind of leading the charge because
he was involved in a number of little back and
forth with with SGA over the course of the game.
(35:34):
There's plenty of video from endgame of Lebron going after
former teammate Alex Caruso, and most of it is not
safe to be played. I think if we bleep it,
we get no content. So I'm just probably it would
just be one long bleep. Yeah, so that's it.
Speaker 3 (35:50):
So yeah, I don't think I've looked forward to postgame
commentary more than this at quite some time.
Speaker 1 (35:58):
Yeah, I mean, look, I mean you talk about bad
nights like who had last this, who had a worst night?
The Lakers in the fourth quarter as upset they were
at the officials, or James Harden, who had the worst night.
It's a tough one. That's a tough one, man. Yeah, well,
playoff Harden showed up again tonight. But with James Harden,
some of it comes to DJ Kelly another one. Three
(36:21):
made field goals, four turnovers twenty five percent of his
playoff games. He has had games where he's had more
fouls than field goals made. Like I mean, I feel
weird turnovers right, turnovers and field sorry, more turnovers and
field gos man. It might say turnovers like I feel
bad saying it, but I'm like, Okay, we've been telling
(36:41):
you for years. I don't know when teams are gonna
get to oh, when you get to the playoffs. James
Harden's not that guy. He's not that guy. Like when
the Cavaliers brought him in and you thought, Okay, he's
gonna be a big addition. He's gonna do a lot
of things now, no ball, dominant point guard and suddenly
sucking a lot of energy out and and and a
lot of at ten and what happened at the end
of the game, right they're down six and again he's
(37:04):
now just tripping and falling and turning the ball over
like that, dude, Like this is not just hey, I'm
in the open court. Someone makes a big player, they
jump in front of a passing lane. This is where
I'm just gonna dribble and I'm falling in front of me.
I mean, he turns the ball over when they need
a basket, down six with thirty seconds left to go.
This is James Harden. You're I don't know any why
(37:24):
teams still think we are a James Harden away from winning.
Speaker 3 (37:27):
I don't understand that he's a cog that can get
you from point A to point B. The problem is
that distance between B and C seems to get longer
by the years. And for James Harden, the video clips
are very damn you're watching it live and you're seeing
it and you cringe a little bit, and then you
get the iso. Whether it's the offensive sets you're talking
(37:49):
about dribbling off your foot and that, but other others,
like early in the first half, what looks to be
a wide open lane to the basket, he pulls the
ball back out because he can't beat the trailing defender
to the basket anymore. He doesn't have the explosiveness to
get to the hole, so he pulls it back out
and the possession goes awry. You talk about defensively, plenty
(38:12):
of clips. There's a super cut of him more or
less standing around and just kind of waving at the
ball handler as he drives past into the lane like that.
Speaker 1 (38:22):
Could have been from ten years ago as well, but tonight.
Speaker 3 (38:26):
Not that he's ever been known for his defensive acumen.
That's part of the larger discussion of it. But now
you're not even getting an effort on a lot of
these possessions and he's gassed. And then offensively, we've chronicled
it for years, going back to the number of minutes
and games played during the regular season, body breaking down.
(38:46):
I joked about it, and there were real injuries, but
certainly when Kevin Durant played seventy eight games in the
regular Season's like, if he's not there, this team doesn't
know what to do without him. In this case, James
Harden playing a lot of weary minutes during the regular season.
You know, come the postseason, he's got nothing left. Even
in his prime, when it got to the second round
(39:08):
of the playoffs, James Harden would play well, but he'd
get tired at the end of games. His shot wasn't there.
He turned the ball over and his team would lose
in this game he.
Speaker 1 (39:18):
Didn't even look for is when he's in his twenties.
This is what it's good. When he was the best
version of himself with the Rockets, this is how it
would happen. This is now eight years later. It's not
going to continue to go that way. In this series,
he's got eleven turnovers and made nine baskets. I mean, really,
if you could convince teams that, Okay, James Harden's gonna
just do a little bit of this for us, But
(39:40):
now suddenly not He's taken on such a huge role
that it's to the detriment of the Cavaliers. The Cavaliers
are getting swept. They're getting swept in this series. It's
it's going to happen because they have too many problems.
And again, I don't even feel like the Pistons are
playing at their highest level, yet they're finding a way.
Kate Cunningham has been terrific, even though he's not shooting well.
He has been the breakout star of the play this year.
(40:00):
As good as he was, everybody's now getting to see
him on a nightly basis and know who he is.
They still haven't reached their pinnacle yet and they still
won both games by double digits.
Speaker 3 (40:10):
Sweet, and we go back to the hardened part trying
to elevate Donovan Mitchell and the rest of that squad
is the fact that he didn't even attempt to shot
in the fourth quarter. He's non existent in that part
of the box score. And we gave him his flowers
years ago when he started to reinvent and become a
better distributor, right, and all of a sudden the assist
(40:32):
count was up and taking fewer shots in those tire
moments and making plays for others.
Speaker 1 (40:38):
Now you're not doing either. Exit a bu a Fresco exit,
swollen down the Jason Smith show with my best friend
Mike Carmon, so we await the Lakers to the podium
for their post game following their Game two loss to
the Thunder. I'm telling you, Reddick and Lebron are going
(40:59):
to bring fire. You get more on this next foc
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
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Speaker 2 (00:23):
You're listening to Fox Sports Radio.
Speaker 1 (00:29):
Hello, Welcome in side our three, The Jason Smith Show
with my bes friend Mike Harmon. Don't forget right after
our show is over, our Best of podcast goes up.
Just search our names wherever you get your podcasts from.
I'm just searched Jason Smith and Mike Harmon all the content,
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(00:52):
love you forever and ever and ever. Maybe you want
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you again. Wherever you get your podcasts, search our names.
It will be there. Six minutes to go in the
fourth quarter, Oklahoma City leads the Lakers one oh four
(01:15):
to ninety four. Lakers trying to desperately avoid a two
to zero hole. This game has been delayed the last
ten minutes by three video reviews, hey man, for different reasons. Uh,
the most popular thing I've seen on screen the last
few minutes has been different players on both teams shrugging
(01:37):
their shoulders, going what like, that's what it's been the
last ten minutes. Yeah, I don't even know what's getting
called here? Right?
Speaker 3 (01:42):
Is it over the back? Is that a flagrant fall?
Did he accidentally trip a guy? Did this guy get
pushed down? Did he get hooked? At the end of
the third quarter, we had a big scrum underneath the
basket with with Reeves and Sga and Lebron and everybody
looking around wondering what's going to be called and who's
the blame and whether a fight's gonna ensue like we
(02:03):
saw in the hockey game.
Speaker 1 (02:04):
Yeah, you know, the Flyers are gonna be mad. Everybody
throwing down the gloves at the end of the game there,
But yeah, Hurricanes up two zip over the fly three
zip over the Flyers, Nicks up two zip over the Sixers.
Jason Smith two City of Philadelphia zero Philadelphia wearing it
right now? They need Rocky they hate me right now,
they hate me my team. My team's too, your team's zero.
Speaker 3 (02:23):
Well, as soon as you tried to do that Philadelphia accent,
I think they turned against you.
Speaker 1 (02:28):
Then. No, we can't talk like all of us do.
And and now A teams are beating us. I don't
like it.
Speaker 3 (02:32):
No, No, disparaged was a sandwich destination. I mean all
of these at least the films are better than the Mets.
Speaker 1 (02:39):
Now that's all we have. Now, it's all we have. Everything.
You guys are cheese steaks, which just stuid. Yeah yeah, no,
you should never bean cheese stacks. Come on, So we'll
have more on this game again in the next few minutes.
Again one O four ninety four lead midway through the
fourth quarter. Today we got the official word the NCAA
Tournament Basketball will be expanded to seventy six teams, both
(03:01):
men's and women's expanding to seventy six teams. I want
to tell you something because if you follow social media
listen to certain people, you're getting a skewed view of
the seventy six team NCAA Tournament. Every fan loves seventy
(03:21):
six teams. College basketball loves seventy six teams. The only
people that hate seventy six teams are just certain members
of the media who want to hate everything and say, oh,
this isn't what the tournament should be. And you can
go anywhere and see that. Over the course of the
past few days, once we knew seventy six teams was
(03:43):
going to be the way the NCAA tournament is sanctity
of the sixty four i mean sixty eight team tournament.
Anybody who is mad, they just want to be mad
about stuff because there's no there's nothing to be mad about.
What are we getting, right? We're getting an NCAA tournament
where the play in games have been added, the playing
(04:04):
round is bigger, That's what it is. It's not that, hey,
now we're seeding one through seventy six. There's gonna be
buys and a five seed is gonna play a nineteen seed. No,
they're simply making Tuesday and Wednesday mini NCAA tournament days.
The first four is now gonna be the first fifty,
all right. The first four is now expanding. They're expanding
by eight more teams because why not, right, why not
(04:27):
when you can expand the play in to get to
the tournament right, And this is all because of Miami
of Ohio potentially could have missed the tournament this year.
But okay, Miami, Ohio gets in. Where do we cross
the line at who are the first four out? Who
are the next four out? Fans love it because there's
a better chance your team is going to get in.
It's more basketball for us to watch that week. Thursday Friday.
(04:50):
You hear people say all the time, two best days
of the year in sports. I can't argue with that. Now, Tuesday, Wednesday,
Thursday Friday for the best days in sports all week long.
It's like a holiday week. Everybody wins. Every fan loves this,
every fan does. College basketball loves it. Why because it's
an extra three hundred million dollars that's gonna be dispersed
(05:11):
out to teams college basketball. So the money is there,
So the interest is there for the fans, The money
is there for the sport. What is there to hate?
I don't understand. I want someone to give me a
real reason why they could say, oh I hate this,
Oh what is Well, it's not the sixty fourteen tournament. Okay,
let me just let you know. The sixty fourteen tournament
(05:32):
began in nineteen eighty five. This is not like we're
going back to nineteen twenty going oh man, what's been
best to seven forever? Now the World Series is best
to nine. The NCA Tournament was forty eight teams, then
it was fifty three teams. Fifty three teams. Then it
was sixty four, then it was sixty five, then it
was sixty eight. Now it's seventy two, now seventy six. Okay,
(05:52):
it's not like we have this whole, long career, a long, long,
fifty sixty year run of boy tournament was so good
and now they're really messing with stuff. Every sport rolls
with the times, even Major League Baseball. We're adding different divisions,
we're adding wildcards. We gotta add more teams. It's more money,
it's more fan interest, more teams in the playoffs. I
(06:13):
would understand it if it was where you made it
really crazy. Where Okay, now you're playing for buys and
a team can get in as an eighteen seed and
playing in a first round. Get No, the play in
round has gotten bigger, that's all it is. The playing
round the bottom of the tournament has gotten bigger. To
get to one through sixty four so that's what I
don't see. How we're making it the worst thing in
(06:35):
the world. Oh well, now teams are gonna get in
at five hundred their conference. Yeah, okay, it's the playing round.
They're not getting in his four seeds. They're getting in
the playing round. Like, but I mean, you see a
lot of hate. You see it on TV, you hear
it on the radio, people talk about it tomorrow, you
see it on social Oh I hate to hate it.
Just say, give me a reason. Why, give me a
really good reason why there's none other than I want
(06:56):
to be mad about it. And I judge. I just
I think it down the turn again, it's the playing
round that's gotten bigger. That's all it is. But that's it.
Speaker 3 (07:04):
Not everything is for everybody. And even with a lot
of the the love hate, there's a lot of folks
I think are kind of indifferent.
Speaker 1 (07:11):
All right.
Speaker 3 (07:11):
It's more because if you're not a huge college basketball fan,
it's like, all right, more teams whatever. Maybe there's something
I watch, Maybe there isn't. Maybe one of the local
teams gets in and there's a little more press and
I get enambered with it. I'm in, but everybody else
wins remember you you cited when they went to the
field of sixty four.
Speaker 1 (07:28):
It was only a few years before that that they
adopted the three point shots. Should we get rid of
that too, I mean we can.
Speaker 3 (07:35):
Let's just throw that out because well, we didn't like
that either, and we don't like what it's done to
the game.
Speaker 1 (07:41):
Right that all those lamentations. When you go from our
side of things, it's more broadcasting opportunities, more jobs, more slots,
more live television, which is where everybody wins, hence the
three hundred million dollars. Coaches have to love it, even
if publicly they say, well it's watering down. Behind the scenes,
they're all, you know, clamoring for the fact that they're
(08:04):
more likely to make said field than in your marketing,
merchandising and selling yourself to other programs. Hey, what did
we do? We made the tournament last year? While it's
seventy eight, it's like not nobody says that. Once it's
past year one, nobody cares that. The experiment, experimentation and
being mad about it becomes you just like shouting at clouds. Right,
(08:27):
you're gonna watch and let's face it, you're in a
sport where for the months that it's active, you're not
getting a lot of run. Sure in conference you do
college buckets specific shows, but you're buried by the NFL
for virtually your entire season, which is why we always
talk about getting to March and games that count, whether
(08:49):
it be the conference tournaments into the NCAA Tournament, or
those final couple of regular seasons games in the big
conferences where you're jockeying for position, or like Miami, Ohio,
trying to go for an undefeated season. Outside of that,
I don't want to call it a niche sport, but
let's call it what it is. You don't have the
(09:10):
same national appeal and thirst that you do maybe for
a couple of teams, maybe for a couple of players,
but when he comes down to March madness, everybody pushes
to the front of the table because they want a
good seat. And so anybody that's you know, shouting at
the windmills, I just get get the hug. Go find
the hug you need from someone that tells you they
(09:31):
love you, because it'll be okay and you'll have more
basketball to watch. I don't understand why that's a problem,
because because I would say Okay, why did you? Well,
I'm a college basketball fan, so here's more college basketball. No,
I don't want that. You don't want more college basketball? No? Why? Well,
because I don't think Oklahoma at seven and eleven in
the SEC should be in the playing round. Okay, but
Auburn at seventeen and sixteen they should be in. Oh? Okay,
(09:55):
you want it? You really, that's where you wanted? The
hell you want to die on? Because we're gonna split
hairs between the the teams that are the final four
or eight teams into the NCAA term, that's a hell
you want to die on. I don't You're not gonna watch.
I'm not gonna watch it.
Speaker 3 (10:08):
I don't like watching. I'm noting more teams involved, more
players that get seen on a national scale, so they
win in every way, shape and form. I just don't
understand the lamentation on this except what is standard in
our business of well, it makes sense, so I'm gonna
argue against it. There's certain stories that are polarizing that
(10:33):
half the people think one thing, half the people think another. Right,
there's absolute stories like that, right, Uh, how good you
think Sam Donald is a quarterback? Sam Donald very polarizer.
I think Sam Donald is great. No, I think Sam
Donald's overrated and he's but that you're about you about halfway.
There's not even close. You think that there's a lot
of people who are upset about this, but it's just
(10:55):
your timeline is flooded with it, and or you see
it on TV and you think that's the opinion of
half the country. Trust me if you did, if you
did a poll of fans, ninety percent of the fans said, yeah,
I love it, I love it, I love more college basketball.
Speaker 1 (11:08):
Yeah. Yet one out of ten would go, ah, it's
not the old NCAA attorney yet whatever. Uh nine out
of ten, ten out of ten people involved in college basketball.
You you, you talk about everybody in college basketball, every
single team, every single coach, every single conference, every single
person who's gonna make money off of this. They all
love it. But you're gonna see it on TV and
hear about it, and you're gonna think it's half the
people It is not. You know, it's remember when a
(11:30):
few years ago when Lebron got really upset and everybody
thought people were burning his jerseys when he left the
Cavaliers for the last time, right, and it was on
and he was so mad all burning jerseys. It was
one guy that burned one of Lebron's jerseys, but because
it was everywhere and people kept quoting it, it was like, oh,
now everybody's burning Lebron's jersey. No one person is burning
(11:51):
Lebron James jersey and everybody's going crazy about it. It's
one person, right, Let's we can talk about it because
it's a story. But don't make it seem like everybody.
But it seems like everywhere you go here. This happened
in Los Angeles, This happened in Dallas, This happened in Florida.
This happened in West Virginia, this happened in Michigan, this
happened in Canada. Ah, people are doing it in China
right now. Everybody in Scotland is doing it. No one
person did it, and it made the big rounds because
(12:13):
here's someone saying I'm burning a Lebron jersey, right, that's
what this is. Don't think that this is so many
people everybody hates it. It wouldn't have been. It wouldn't
have been. Okay if that was the case, everybody loves it.
You know, I'll equate it.
Speaker 3 (12:27):
And I'll use an old Simpsons reference here. Remember when
they went away to Krusty's camp my insulin, Yeah, yeah, sure,
And now here's your counselor. And then there's the voiceover
that says, mister black. Yeah, the same thing here. So
I'm gonna look into this camera. I'm gonna say, when
the eighteenth game is announced as part of the new
(12:48):
NFL schedule, just use this take again with me saying, yeah,
people that don't like the eighteenth game, And there you go,
it's the same thing. You're gonna have the same complaints.
Speaker 1 (13:01):
That's saying that he's got Well, it used to be
a twelve game season, that's and it was a fourteen game.
That's where you go. Okay, So who the fans all
love the idea of eighteen games. The teams and the
money makers and television all love the ideas of the
eighteen game. Players like money, right, some of the players
don't got to be a percentage some of them don't
like it. So that's not polarizing. That's not half the
(13:23):
people want to Actually, No, that is everybody wants eighteen games,
but some of the players are not gonna like And
when those players realize how much more money it means
for them privately, they'll whistle a different Dude, I don't
want to play the eighteenth game. What's that?
Speaker 4 (13:35):
What?
Speaker 1 (13:35):
What? What's that? Uh? What's that? A game? Oh? Oh
oh oh, well, I guess eighteen games is okay. Yeah,
it's all right. I guess it's fine. I think it's fine.
I think it'll be okay. You know. Yeah, I've come
around on that idea.
Speaker 3 (13:49):
A little probably means more jobs for the union is
because you'll expand ross whatever. But it's the same argument.
There's gonna be the vocals like, oh, this is just
too much. No, no, I've come around on that idea.
H exit out about a Fresca exit swollen dome. The
Jason Smith Show with Mike Carmon Live from the Fox
Sports Radio Studios. Trust me, everybody loves the seventy sixteen tournament.
Speaker 1 (14:09):
Coming up next. Are we gonna be talking about an
incredible Lakers comeback going back to the crypt one to one?
Or is it gonna be Oklahoma City and a two
nothing lead that looks like a sweep. That's next right here,
Jason and Mike Fox Sports Radio. Most likely the Rafts
are gonna keep calling atrocious atrocious, atrocious place atrocious.
Speaker 2 (14:35):
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.
Speaker 4 (14:44):
App sot gots here. I have a podcast empire. It
continues to grow, and I have brought it here to iHeart.
I'm also doing a live radio show from three to
five pm Eastern because.
Speaker 1 (14:59):
My wife wanted to kick me out of the house.
Speaker 4 (15:01):
It's called Stu Gotson Company Live, which is available in
podcast form right when the show finishes every single day.
Some of the biggest names in sports, a lot of phone.
Speaker 1 (15:12):
Calls, I love you got your show.
Speaker 2 (15:13):
It's one of my favorites.
Speaker 4 (15:14):
A lot of interact sit guys not taking themselves too seriously.
Those are just some of the things that you can
expect from Stu Gottson Company and Steve Gotson Company Live.
So listen to Steve Gotson Company Live and our original podcast.
Please subscribe, rate and review Stu Gotson Company and God
Bless Football. Taylor's livelihood depends on it. You do it today,
(15:37):
and you can check all of those out on the
iHeartRadio app, Apple podcast or wherever you get your podcasts.
Speaker 1 (15:48):
Hey Smith, let's play a game. Go what is the fine?
How much will Lebron James be lighter in the pocket?
Following the post game of this game two, Game two
of the Western Conference SEMIS is over. The thunder pull
away from the Lakers one twenty five one oh seven.
(16:13):
They cover uh twenty two from SGA twenty two from
checks to go along with nine rebounds and uh you
know the the scary part for the Lakers. There's a
couple of things here. Obviously, look at two zip. The
series is likely over because at the best best case scenario,
you get Luca back in game three. But what if
I say, if he doesn't come back for game two,
(16:33):
game three is gonna be his feeling out game. His
stamina is not going to be there. He hasn't played
in a long time. He needed one game to get
going before he would come back for Game three.
Speaker 3 (16:42):
Now I still he comes back for Game three, but
I still wonder the veracity. And this is the point
you brought up yesterday. Go back and least Michael Rappaport
chiming in. But I will condense it to just this statement.
How much do we believe any of the injury updates
that we get from anybody?
Speaker 1 (16:59):
An aymay Yeah.
Speaker 3 (17:00):
I mean I'm wishing and hoping because I want to
see the best on the court. But if I believe
fifty percent of what's been said about where Luca is
and his return to the court, and even you know,
we had Rick Buker pop by that I'm not anticipating
his return, that would be like a great wrestling or
(17:21):
boxing or whatever. Hey, this guy's been cleared for this event.
He really i'd shocker as they come back off a
long layoff. I mean, I'd like to be able to
tell you the Lakers can come back. I'd like to
be able to tell you that. But it's going to
be a sweep. The Lakers are going to get swept,
and we're probably not gonna see Luca because you look
at the night tonight that the Lakers got from Austin
(17:42):
Reeves Lebron James and they still lost by eighteen to
a thunder team that quite honestly still doesn't look like
they're firing cylinders right now, We'll get to the officiating
thing in a second, because now, boy, if you don't
like SGA getting foul calls well, but Reeves tonight was fantastic.
Thirty one points from Austins, ten out of sixteen from
the floor, six assists, he was phenomenal. From Lebron, you
(18:05):
got twenty three, six assists. Again at forty one, to
be still playing at this level, this deep into the playoffs,
and yes, because when you're forty one, when you get
out of the Firs, when you get out of the
first four games of the first round, it's like, I'm
really having a tough time. Joelam biaedsman back for three games.
I can't play in game two. Guys, I'm just exhausted.
Speaker 1 (18:23):
You bang up. Yeah, you got thirty one from Reeves,
you got twenty three from Lebron. Ruey Hachimura had sixteen,
he was four to seven from three point range, and
you still lost by eighteen. Right, Like, that's the night
you had where still the thunder were able to pull away.
Right now, Luca back, it would be a different story
because you saw what the Lakers were becoming with Luca
at the end of the season, you know, the last
(18:45):
eighteen to twenty games. Boy, now now you're saying you
saw where they were getting to be full powered then
Luca gets hurt, and now this is where the Lakers
are at this point. I don't know that you bring
Luca back because really it's too You're not gonna beat
the Thunder four out of five. Luca's not gonna come
back and suddenly be a guy playing incredible basketball right away.
That's why the whole thing was. If he comes back
(19:05):
in game two and works out all the kinks right,
and all of a sudden, you know, hey, my stamina here,
I got my win back game three at home. The
energy all right, I could see it. I could see
Luca coming back having a big day Lebron and Reeves.
I see it. But now, even if he does come
back for Game three, it's gonna be the Game two
game that I threw out there. It's gonna be stilted.
(19:27):
He's not gonna have the stamina. The Laker offense is
not gonna know quite the best way they're gonna want
to operate, because it's gonna be a brand new thing
of having Luca come in. Where if Luca comes in
in game two, okay, we can see or we can
adjust coming off of this. This is the best usage
of Luca in game three, right, just kind of how
the Timberwolves are saying, Hey, we want Ed Edwards, Hey
coming off the bench, play big minutes, but come off
(19:47):
the bench. Hey they got a one one split going
back home. They're incredibly happy. I appreciate it.
Speaker 3 (19:51):
His postgame comments, not to labor the point with him,
but just saying we came out soft and cool, yeah
after game one, I mean, and being disappointed.
Speaker 1 (20:00):
In that, which I like that ownership of it. I mean,
but but the way the Thunderer playing, and here's SGA
with twenty two, right, it's not like he's had a
superhuman series so far. It's all he's had a superhuman
first cars. They're they're just overwhelming teams now with their
talent top to bottom. Right when you when you had
(20:22):
McCain and Wallace coming off the bench for thirty each tonight, right,
I mean they're like, Wow, Okay, these guys are six
out of eight from three point range? Like what are
you gonna really do? Like what this? Sometimes you have
to just say, you know what, With Luca out, it's
not here for us. And at this point, quite honestly,
I would say I wouldn't bring him back if I
thought you could beat the Thunder four out of five.
(20:42):
I would say it, but it's not like you're in
a three six or a four to five matchup where
or a one to eight matchup where the eight seed
is leading. Go you know what, No, we can beat
this team four out of five. They're not great. This
is a forty two win team in the regular season.
It's gotten hot in the playoffs. We can beat them
three out of four games. Right the six are saying, hey,
with them beat coming back, we can beat the Celtics
three out of four games. Celtics aren't that great. This
(21:02):
is the Thunder, the one team in the NBA that
you would say, hey, four out of five against them,
probably not gonna happen. It sucks. The timing is terrible.
But if Luca is still, if he really has to
push it to come back. At this point, I think
you missed your window. Think your window was Game two
with a full Luca in Game three, and now I
think it's just, you know what, let's not ruin them,
(21:25):
Let's not ruin him for the offseason. We don't know
how he heals. We know Lucas had trouble staying healthy before. Yes,
the PRP injections may not have worked like we wanted to.
We'll get to Spain in a minute, but at this point,
I think you leave Luca out, you go best you can.
Game three, Game four, it's probably gonna be a sweep.
It would probably be a sweep with Luca anyway.
Speaker 3 (21:44):
Forty eight to twenty. The bench scoring in this game huge,
something we've talked about quite a bit with his Lakers squad.
Pick your individual, here's your assist to turnover ratio today.
Twenty four to twenty not good. And if you did
announce Luka Doncics was gonna come back, the Thunder could
(22:04):
very easily just say, hey, you know what, we've got
Jalen Williams who's still waiting to come back to.
Speaker 1 (22:09):
Action too, so let's match up there too.
Speaker 3 (22:13):
But they have the luxury of waiting as long as
they need to for him into the next round. If
you're gonna get that kind of bench contribution and that
hot shooting from what once upon a time, a guy
that was gonna be a star in McCain right, a
nice luxury to have off your bench.
Speaker 1 (22:29):
But yeah, for Luka donc it's just really hard for
me to envision testing at this point. Right If it's
going to potentially cost you into next year because say
he does come back and there's any hint that there's
an aggravation. Yeah, you got an off season, but you're
also looking to this next off season with money to
(22:49):
spend and options of how you're.
Speaker 3 (22:52):
Gonna rebuild this roster. And if he's compromised coming into
the next season, then then all bets are off. Right,
You're trying to restore your franchise to glory, and the
names are there, and the wow factor certainly shows up
when these guys are playing well. And Austin Reeves had
a good game tonight. Five turnovers, a lot of fighting
with officials and near run ins. But all of that
(23:14):
to say, this series is done. You're not beating them
four out of five. You're even with their best efforts.
And congratulations to Lebron still putting forth the great effort,
the great stats, whatever else. Can't wait for his postgame comments,
as I alluded to, both from the officiating and to
see what the next iteration is of talking about offensive
(23:34):
sets and stalling out, et cetera. Right, a lot was
made of his post game one comments, and I'm sure
he'll have some extra fire here in the belly as
they get ready for Game three back in La.
Speaker 1 (23:47):
Well, any other thing too, is this now is I
feel even more strongly about this than I did earlier.
I'm not going to Spain for any sort of medical
help injections, and I'm not going because Spain clearly it's
not gonna work. Man.
Speaker 3 (24:01):
It's funny because I was doing a little bit of
research on this earlier, because you know, I'm a nerd
like that, and they're actually a top five destination for
medical support now not after this lot of it has
to do with fertility, and.
Speaker 1 (24:14):
They're out of the top twelve. This is such a
loss of not being able to get Luca back with
his PRP injections. It's such a lot. It's such a bit.
This is like the college football team that at home
loses to a one double a team. You fall all
the way out of the top twenty five. You couldn't
get Luca back on the court when he specifically went
to Spain. No, man, that's an epic fail. Man, I'm
(24:35):
not going to Spain for anybody.
Speaker 3 (24:36):
He took multiple injections and multiple treatments, that's what he
said and his presser the other day, so yeah, it
certainly does call into question. And again we talked about
this going on several weeks from when it first went down,
the ability of players to travel to foreign countries for
medical treatments and then come back, and everybody just goes, yeah, no, okay, cool,
(24:59):
nothing to see here.
Speaker 1 (25:01):
We we can't do any of the treatments that they need. Here.
Is that in line with the the union and the
agreement and all of that stuff.
Speaker 3 (25:09):
Evidently it's okay. But as we know, Adam Silver also
usually looks the other way or in the spirit of
the triple Crown, which oh yeah, yeah, right. You saw
the trainer and jockey from the derby winner thrown out
the first pitch today.
Speaker 1 (25:22):
Yeah, but blinder's not a horse. Oh yeah, yeah, yeah.
That's Adam Silver on a lot of this stuff. I mean,
but just think about it for a second. Luca went
the injury is a four to eight week thing. It's
been five weeks. PRP injections every four days. It had
to be every four days. I would get an injection,
wait four days, get an injection, wait four days, because
I got to use your own blood in your plasma.
And again, I've seen thirty hours of the pit. So basically,
(25:44):
I'm a doctor and I can understand this. Just don't
scream things out. Yeah when you're if you're on Broadway,
don't yell to uh arts your charts, don't yell about charts.
Get your charting done. But I mean, just ian you
would go there now, I'm not. I think overall tourism
in Spain should be I don't think anybody from southern
(26:06):
California should go to Spain. Say, oh, you know what
you blank does blank you? I'm not going there for anything.
Speaker 3 (26:11):
But they say to top ten, not not experts oncology,
not ethology, traumatology, No, you never heard traumatology.
Speaker 1 (26:19):
That's is that the study of bad things? Bad things? Okay?
Fertility treatments, Yeah you said that like six times thirty. Well,
but I mean, okay, because this is clearly nowhere people
gonna think fertility treatments work. But that's what I'm wondering.
You couldn't help. But they say it's thirty to fifty
percent more affordable than Switzerland or the US. Really, okay,
(26:40):
you know what it's. It's it doesn't matter how effective,
it doesn't matter how affordable, if it doesn't work, if
it's zero percent effective. It's like the Hugh Grant line
from nine months. It should it should put three percent ineffective.
Put that on the bloody box. Uh, I mean really yeah,
I mean it doesn't work. Why would you go? I
mean really, Kobe went to Germany. Go to Germany. They
gotta figure it out in Germany. Kobe would come back
(27:01):
and drop sixty and then be wow, amazing. Yeah, he
went to Germany, and did you gotta go where the
results are Fountain of youth, Man, you gotta go. Okay,
you can't go to Florida. Maybe you'll find something down
I don't know. Well, okay, you know, yeah, there's certain
place you can go and get that uh batman face
regeneration mirror. I don't know that I would go there.
(27:23):
But uh, I'm not saying low cost end of the
but the tools, Jack, that's what I have to work.
Look at these tools that work with uh, go where
it works. And you know that Germany works. You know
what the place you know now, Spain does not. Spain
does not work in this particular the top twenty five.
Now you might be winning on the grand scale right
(27:43):
in Spain, but all you need is one high profile
case from a superstar in Los Angeles. Yeah, it would
have been the poster boy for travel. They to put
him up on billboards. So it never to Spain. But
we'd never heard that before. It might be a dish Paea,
there would be a syringe with blood in it, there
would be a centrifuge. They would be like, that would
(28:05):
be on the whole thing. Come to Spain.
Speaker 3 (28:06):
By the way, if you're in the greater Los Angeles
area and you know of a good piea place, please
let me know a swollen dome.
Speaker 1 (28:13):
Yeah. Yeah, not a great day for Spain. Not a
great night. No, not not good at all all. Reputationally
a huge hit. And again I I go from the
from their angle of Okay, here in the United States
we have the greatest hospitals in the world, Los Angeles,
especially New York, Chicago, Minnesota, Johns Hopkins like you, and
you can get any any sort of specially treatment you
(28:36):
need when you have to say, oh yeah, nothing in
this country can help you. But if you want to
go to Spain, maybe they can help you. And the
Lakers and Lucas said, yeah, go let's do it. Okay,
this is where we get into this is the reason
why it's not so super legal, and I'm doing air
quotes are not super legal, but super legal. And again
(28:59):
that goes back to the thing between the players' association
in the league and turning a blind eye of face
like his team.
Speaker 3 (29:07):
It's it's either the old Kawhi Leonard fighting with the
Spurs team doctors or Uncle Dennis injecting himself. See what
I did there into a conversation. It's it's literally, I'm leaving.
Speaker 1 (29:18):
The country Commissioner Silver your thoughts on Luka Doncic going
to Spain for p RP injections. I don't know anything
about that story. I'm here to talk about anti tanking measures,
what about the NBA better? Okay? Can can you talk
about why Draymond Green hates everybody hates basketball hates Charles Barklay.
I'm here to talk about the new draft lottery that
(29:39):
we're having on Sunday because I can't stand to have
any other time where people can make fun of it.
Sunday at three o'clock where nobody pays attention. Cor Yeah, chat,
Oh my goodness. Uh yeah, that's the thing. You know.
(30:00):
To bring it back to chet for a second swirl,
all the way back to let's talk about it. It's
one thing for SGA to get to the free throw
line on phantom calls that he sells it continue to
be embarrassing. It's quite another for Chet home Grin to
start getting these calls like he did in the last
five minutes of this game. I mean Chet is now
(30:21):
getting superstar calls. Chet he goes getting five of seven
from the line.
Speaker 3 (30:25):
He did have one overturned right that play with eight
and the he clearly was going for award season which
is already behind us, but an early entrance for twenty
six twenty seven in terms of flopping and Academy Awards.
But yeah, it's it made for a little bit of
a curious thing.
Speaker 1 (30:43):
Now.
Speaker 3 (30:44):
The thunder for the game did have more files called
against them. Free throw disparity was only five, despite what
it might have looked like. But some of it always
goes back to when did you get him?
Speaker 1 (30:56):
Let's find out what's trending right now in the wide
world of sports from I've bet bream euro who had
the over for SGA free throws tonight? Uh? Brie, I
don't think you got it? But how close were you?
Speaker 5 (31:12):
I was about three off?
Speaker 1 (31:14):
No, three off? So not terrible. Could have been.
Speaker 5 (31:16):
Worse, could have been worse, could have been worse. I
also had the under on the Lakers score because they
hadn't scored over one hundred points in four straight games.
Speaker 1 (31:26):
Wow, okay, so I had the under.
Speaker 5 (31:29):
So I also lost that too.
Speaker 1 (31:30):
Oh, what's a tough day. It is a tough day. Yeah,
it is.
Speaker 5 (31:32):
But the whatever the Hurricanes, I got that right, right.
Speaker 1 (31:36):
You got that right? Yeah? You did play that brass bonanza.
Speaker 5 (31:39):
Bree Hey, you guys.
Speaker 2 (31:42):
Yeah.
Speaker 5 (31:43):
The Thunder held on to take down the Lakers one
to one O seven and take a two to oh
series lead to continue their postseason seven game win streak.
They shot fifty one percent for the field. Just wasn't enough,
La did. Austin Reeves had a playoff career high thirty
one points. Lebron James had twenty three points. Shake Yill
Just Alexander on the OKC side had twenty two Chet
Holmgren also had twenty two points. The Pistons have won
(32:06):
five straight games after they took down the Cavaliers one
oh seven to ninety seven and take a two oh
series lead. On the Eastern Conference side, Donovan Mitchell had
thirty one points and six assists in the lost James
Harden strug gold. He was three of thirteen from the field,
had ten points and four turnovers. In the NHL playoffs,
Like I said, the Hurricanes top the Flyers. They have
taken a three oh series lead. In the NFL, the
(32:27):
Vikings are signing former forty nine ers wide receiver Juwan
Jennings to a one year deal, and Taylor Heineke is
retiring after eleven seasons in the league. I read that
and I thought it was Taylor Hicks, like the American
Idol guy.
Speaker 1 (32:40):
So you're retiring from six? Okaykay? So I read that.
Speaker 5 (32:43):
I have like a dyslexic, like, I don't know what
kind of moment I had, but that doesn't make any sense.
Speaker 1 (32:49):
But just a heads up.
Speaker 5 (32:50):
And in baseball, the Pirates outscore the Diamondbacks four to two,
Marlins edged Orioles four to three, and the Cubs have
won ninth straight. They took down the Reds eight to three.
Speaker 3 (32:59):
Back to you guys, you know it's been twenty years
since he won American Idol.
Speaker 1 (33:02):
He was, yeah, yeah, you want you don't remember he won? Controversial?
Speaker 5 (33:06):
Oh, I thought I thought Fantasia one.
Speaker 1 (33:10):
That different year. Uh oh, oh, it was Fantasia might
to come in third.
Speaker 3 (33:14):
Oh, come in if you're a high Fantasia really takes
out a hole Ji that one?
Speaker 1 (33:21):
Uh no, no, no, that was dream Girls.
Speaker 5 (33:27):
Hudson came from American Idol.
Speaker 1 (33:29):
She did okay, but a lot of people came from
American Idol where they didn't win, but they just became
big stars.
Speaker 5 (33:35):
Okay. So Taylor Hacks did one. Actually, Oh do I
make you proud? He sang that song?
Speaker 1 (33:39):
Okay, I feel a lot better, Thank you, guys. Jennifer
Hudson's an egot, like she's she's he goot man, he
talk shows. Yeah. Uh. Coming up next, we have more
on the Thunder and the Lakers, including the one player
who had the worst night tonight in the NBA. Is
it one of the Lakers? Is it somebody else? That's next?
(34:02):
Jason to Mike Fox Sports Radio.
Speaker 2 (34:04):
Be sure to catch live editions of The Jason Smith
Show with Mike Harmon weekdays at ten pm Eastern, seven
pm Pacific.
Speaker 5 (34:16):
You mother.
Speaker 1 (34:20):
Fox Sports Radio Jason Smith Show with My bes friend
Mike Harmon.
Speaker 2 (34:24):
Who they did it?
Speaker 1 (34:28):
Things starting to get really interesting with the Lakers following
their loss to the Thunder a few moments ago. Close
game through three quarters, the Thunder pull away late. We
talked a few minutes ago about hey Chet Holmgren getting
superstar calls. Lebron was so demonstratively upset with the officials
(34:52):
at the end of the game, like this is about
as upset that I've seen him on court, yelling at
the officials. After the game was over, the all gathered
around the officials to voice their displeasure about how things
were called in the fourth quarter. I can't wait to
hear from JJ Reddick and Lebron, like I got a
feeling we have to get something simply because they're down
(35:14):
to zip, they're coming home. We are gonna get absolute fire.
And I don't know because they haven't talked yet, but
we are gonna get absolute fire from Reddick and Lebron.
I guarantee a lot of videos of the post game
with Austin Reeves really kind of leading the charge because
he was involved in a number of little back and
forth with with SGA over the course of the game.
(35:34):
There's plenty of video from endgame of Lebron going after
former teammate Alex Caruso, and most of it is not
safe to be played. I think if we bleep it,
we get no content. So I'm just probably it would
just be one long bleep. Yeah, so that's it.
Speaker 3 (35:50):
So yeah, I don't think I've looked forward to postgame
commentary more than this at quite some time.
Speaker 1 (35:58):
Yeah, I mean, look, I mean you talk about bad
nights like who had last this, who had a worst night?
The Lakers in the fourth quarter as upset they were
at the officials, or James Harden, who had the worst night.
It's a tough one. That's a tough one, man. Yeah, well,
playoff Harden showed up again tonight. But with James Harden,
some of it comes to DJ Kelly another one. Three
(36:21):
made field goals, four turnovers twenty five percent of his
playoff games. He has had games where he's had more
fouls than field goals made. Like I mean, I feel
weird turnovers right, turnovers and field sorry, more turnovers and
field gos man. It might say turnovers like I feel
bad saying it, but I'm like, Okay, we've been telling
(36:41):
you for years. I don't know when teams are gonna
get to oh, when you get to the playoffs. James
Harden's not that guy. He's not that guy. Like when
the Cavaliers brought him in and you thought, Okay, he's
gonna be a big addition. He's gonna do a lot
of things now, no ball, dominant point guard and suddenly
sucking a lot of energy out and and and a
lot of at ten and what happened at the end
of the game, right they're down six and again he's
(37:04):
now just tripping and falling and turning the ball over
like that, dude, Like this is not just hey, I'm
in the open court. Someone makes a big player, they
jump in front of a passing lane. This is where
I'm just gonna dribble and I'm falling in front of me.
I mean, he turns the ball over when they need
a basket, down six with thirty seconds left to go.
This is James Harden. You're I don't know any why
(37:24):
teams still think we are a James Harden away from winning.
Speaker 3 (37:27):
I don't understand that he's a cog that can get
you from point A to point B. The problem is
that distance between B and C seems to get longer
by the years. And for James Harden, the video clips
are very damn you're watching it live and you're seeing
it and you cringe a little bit, and then you
get the iso. Whether it's the offensive sets you're talking
(37:49):
about dribbling off your foot and that, but other others,
like early in the first half, what looks to be
a wide open lane to the basket, he pulls the
ball back out because he can't beat the trailing defender
to the basket anymore. He doesn't have the explosiveness to
get to the hole, so he pulls it back out
and the possession goes awry. You talk about defensively, plenty
(38:12):
of clips. There's a super cut of him more or
less standing around and just kind of waving at the
ball handler as he drives past into the lane like that.
Speaker 1 (38:22):
Could have been from ten years ago as well, but tonight.
Speaker 3 (38:26):
Not that he's ever been known for his defensive acumen.
That's part of the larger discussion of it. But now
you're not even getting an effort on a lot of
these possessions and he's gassed. And then offensively, we've chronicled
it for years, going back to the number of minutes
and games played during the regular season, body breaking down.
(38:46):
I joked about it, and there were real injuries, but
certainly when Kevin Durant played seventy eight games in the
regular Season's like, if he's not there, this team doesn't
know what to do without him. In this case, James
Harden playing a lot of weary minutes during the regular season.
You know, come the postseason, he's got nothing left. Even
in his prime, when it got to the second round
(39:08):
of the playoffs, James Harden would play well, but he'd
get tired at the end of games. His shot wasn't there.
He turned the ball over and his team would lose
in this game he.
Speaker 1 (39:18):
Didn't even look for is when he's in his twenties.
This is what it's good. When he was the best
version of himself with the Rockets, this is how it
would happen. This is now eight years later. It's not
going to continue to go that way. In this series,
he's got eleven turnovers and made nine baskets. I mean, really,
if you could convince teams that, Okay, James Harden's gonna
just do a little bit of this for us, But
(39:40):
now suddenly not He's taken on such a huge role
that it's to the detriment of the Cavaliers. The Cavaliers
are getting swept. They're getting swept in this series. It's
it's going to happen because they have too many problems.
And again, I don't even feel like the Pistons are
playing at their highest level, yet they're finding a way.
Kate Cunningham has been terrific, even though he's not shooting well.
He has been the breakout star of the play this year.
(40:00):
As good as he was, everybody's now getting to see
him on a nightly basis and know who he is.
They still haven't reached their pinnacle yet and they still
won both games by double digits.
Speaker 3 (40:10):
Sweet, and we go back to the hardened part trying
to elevate Donovan Mitchell and the rest of that squad
is the fact that he didn't even attempt to shot
in the fourth quarter. He's non existent in that part
of the box score. And we gave him his flowers
years ago when he started to reinvent and become a
better distributor, right, and all of a sudden the assist
(40:32):
count was up and taking fewer shots in those tire
moments and making plays for others.
Speaker 1 (40:38):
Now you're not doing either. Exit a bu a Fresco exit,
swollen down the Jason Smith show with my best friend
Mike Carmon, so we await the Lakers to the podium
for their post game following their Game two loss to
the Thunder. I'm telling you, Reddick and Lebron are going
(40:59):
to bring fire. You get more on this next foc
Hosts And Creators
Jason Smith
Mike Harmon
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