June 14, 2019 • 28 mins
How dare you celebrate, Canada. Jason and Mike discuss the impacts of Game 6, and the Raptors capturing their first ever NBA Title. Was Fred VanVleet the real MVP despite Kawhi taking home the honor? The guys talk about Steph Curry and how this Finals impacts his legacy. Toronto won the championship, but were they the better team? Jason and Mike break down the moving pieces and the results.
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Speaker 1 (00:00):
Thanks for listening to the best of The Jason Smith
Show with Mike Carmen podcast. Be sure to catch us
live every weeknight from 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 Fox Sports Radio dot com, or stream us
live every night on the I Heart Radio app by
searching fs R. This is the best of The Jason
(00:23):
Smith Show with Mike Harmon on Fox Sports Radio. There's
many people who say I'm anti Warriors, many many people
who say there are millions I'm realistic Greater California area.
But let me just say this, how dare you celebrate
a championship Toronto Raptors? How scare you? You are class?
(00:45):
You are so disrespectful. You are supposed to be the
team minus Kevin Durant, minus Clay Thompson the fourth quarter.
It's not a bonus, it's not an achievement. You're supposed
to win that game. Yeah, Kauai ran up the score.
Kaua can't crying for free throws. But the United States
(01:06):
shouldn't have scored thirteen goals against you know what, play
Canada and What about the Mets. What did the Mets
blast earlier today for you to bring up the Mets, Well,
I thought that's just as bad as Canada. Class I
really thought he was gonna play Sarah McLaughlin Kevin Durant
getting hurt. Classless. Yeah, they did class less. You can't
(01:28):
celebrate is that the kid nurse just had the kid
that's on his hip. Didn't that kid just get born
like two weeks ago. It's already got a full head
of hair and stands about three feet tall. Fox Sports
Radio The Jason Smith Show with my best friend Mike Harmon.
The Raptors are your NBA Champions, one fourteen one ten.
They beat the Warriors, the Warriors playing without Clay Thompson
(01:52):
in the final fourth quarter because of a knee injury
suffered after a dunk late in the third. Clay was
running it up for the war Is. He had thirty
still be high man for the game for the Warriors,
and in the fourth quarter Fred van Vleet turned out
to just be a little bit too much and the
Raptors win the NBA title, and hopefully Fred van Vleet
(02:13):
is named NBA Finals m v P because clearly he deserved. No,
we're finding out right now. Kawuhi Leonard wins it really
should have been Lebron. Kawuahi Leonard wins it. Lebron James,
you left the Eastern Conference. You have opened up the
window raptors. Don't do this coming to the Lakers. No, well,
Lebron and all right, Lebron first, then Fred van Vleet,
(02:34):
then Kauai agree with that, then kaw So we'll go
in that order. I mean, if Kauai Leonard had any guy,
he would give the trophy and say, listen, Freddy's got
to have this. I mean, fred Freddy's gotta fourth quarter
Kawhi Leonard didn't score until the final point nine seconds.
I mean, really, Fred van Vleet is the one that
kept you in the game by hitting three after three
(02:54):
after three, drawing fouls, get to the free throw line,
and Kawhi Leonards your m v P looks as great
it as he is. Come on, man, I mean, really,
this is just Hey, let's show you that a guy
can go to a small market and he can succeed,
and you can make trades that take chances and you
can win, and hey, let's let's celebrate Kawhi letters. No,
it's gotta be Fred Vanner. Isn't that what you usually doing? Hollywood?
(03:16):
Isn't that pretty woman you know? Yes, dreet worker that
hangs out with Richard Gear, Edward Lewis. Everybody's looking for
their Edward Lewis. But hey, Hollywood, what's your dream? Everybody's
got a dream. That's Kawhi Leonard. I mean, that's the story.
Now you just rebuild it in Toronto. He he joins
Lebron and Kareem as the only player to win NBA
(03:39):
Finals MVPs with two different teams. Ah. Look, obviously he
had a terrific series, but in the fourth quarter of
of game the fourth quarter of games It's not like
Fred VanVleet was invisible. The rest of the series. He
had some huge, huge, huge moments. But in the fourth
quarter of of Game six, when you're winning the NBA title,
(04:02):
you're the m v P, you can't not score until
the game has already decided. You got to knock down
those free throws at the end, though, Buddy, I mean
really that that's what he did. He did not score
until the final point nine seconds when he made a
technical free throw, and he made two free throws that
when the game was already clinched, and and kauais the
m v P. I can't give it to him. I
(04:23):
gotta give it to Fred VanVleet. Well, who doesn't celebrate
all of Fred van vleet work, right, I mean, the
story has been written time and again about the arrival
of his child and and everything else. But the way
he stretched the field and the court. And I want
to say stretched the field because it's football season now,
uh eighty four days, yeah, eighty four days Frostberg counting
him down for us. But you look at Kyle Lowry
(04:45):
had a huge game tonight offensively nineteen points in that
first half. But for Fred Van and Van Leet, the
way he took advantage of those wide open opportunities. Yes,
it comes on the collapsing of Kawhi Leonard, but he's
a that came up time and time again with big shots.
And I'm with you. Give him it, give him the
(05:06):
m v P. Look look for for the series. All right,
let's go over for Kauai. Kawai had twenty two tonight,
but again, you kind of have to score in the
fourth quarter of the the deciding game if you're gonna
win the m v P. I know it's for the series.
I get it's for the series. And he had a
pretty good series. He had two games at three games
with over thirty points. Look, he played really well. I'm
(05:27):
not saying he didn't play really well, but boy, when
it comes down to winning a championship, you gotta give
me something more than that. In the fourth quell and
that's it was the funny thing as we watched it, though,
is you had the supporting cast, the secondary guys on
the marquee where the guys making the big plays for
the Warriors. We joked about Boogie Cousins, you know, as
a guy, Hey, you're gonna need a big contribution from him.
(05:49):
You didn't realize how a men's he would have to be.
When Klay Thompson goes down right, he leaves with thirty points.
Steph Curry was invisible and then he misses the big three.
Draymond Green does a good job off a terrible inbound play.
They try to go over the top, almost throw it away.
He gets to Steph and misses a shot. Steph. You
know it adds to a list of I think that's
(06:10):
oh for eight Inside final twenty seconds and you know
Jason waiting for k NB article now again. But you
saw everybody else on that squad come up with big
shots down the stretch to keep them at even or
with that slight lead that they enjoyed for even a
good chunk of time after the loss of Thompson. But
(06:33):
for the night Draymond Green almost with his quadruple double
eleven nineteen and thirteen, also eight turnovers, and then on
a big play Pascal siakam uneven series, but he came
up huge twenty six points tonight, ten boards in his
forty six minutes of play. I mean that's the other parties.
You look at the the huge numbers. Serjebaca with fifteen,
(06:54):
I'd vote for Sergebaka to celebrate me some Sergebaka from
common Van Vleet was when the game start going into
and well, of course we're gonna hear Greta van Fleet
the rest of the night because Fleet. But this was
a fourth quarter in which we were saying at the beginning,
(07:15):
oh my god, the Raptors are gonna somehow find a
way to not win this game. When the Warriors lineup
is Curry and Draymond and Iguadala and Cavan Looney, I
mean really and and and Quinn Cook and you're supposed
to win this How are you gonna blow this game?
But everything they could handedly he had a big three
(07:36):
to put the air back in the balloon. Then he
hit another three, Then he went to the free throw
line and drew a foulon at three free throws. Then
he hit the big three to put him up one
oh four, one on one. All he did was make
big shots. In the fourth quarter, all he did, and
and Kawhi Leonard made zero. Again, you were talking about
who was the most valuable and and But that's sometimes
(07:56):
when you do so much to win a series in
that fine game that overcomes what a guy did in
the other because you're getting the stats. The stats go
Kawhi let its way. But Fred van Fleet off the bench,
what he did. They don't win without him. They don't
win this game without him. But this is where we
need our analytics nerds to go full tilt on Van
Leet's efforts defensively, not the Kauai is a slouch by
(08:18):
any stretch. Obviously, that's his calling card. I'm the best
two way player going. But when you look at Van
Fleet and what he was able to do in terms
of constant harassment of Steph Curry. Yeah, I mean, but
that's a huge part that gave them the four two
series win. You had a couple of fourth quarters where
Steph Curry was very silent, all right, And in this
(08:39):
fourth quarter, Steph Curry was silently at one shot in
the fourth quarter. You know, he had four points. He
missed the three at the end. We'll get to Steph
Curry coming up in a few minutes because A K
and B. I'm ready if you want to call me
for that interview now one then Drew Brees would have
to hang up. I keep asking put in the second
line because we need Drew Brees Wan he's gonna have
(09:00):
his big moment. But Fred VanVleet right, twelve twenty two
points tonight twelve and the fourth go back sixteen wasn't drafted,
was a G League champion, and now he's the pivotal
cog next to Kawana Leonard to make this thing happen.
And Kyle Lowry, you know, gets you know, everybody off
his back. He had a tremendous a big game tonight,
(09:23):
huge off the four for four out of the start,
hit a number of three point shots and really rocketed
them out. And nothing in this series any of those
big spurts, any of those big runs were counterbalance pretty fast.
But Lowry finishes with twenty six, a fantastic night for him.
Good balance and the effort from Siakam as well. I mean,
(09:44):
you gotta everybody contributed, but the fourth quarter was about
Fred VanVleet making big shots. Twitter at how about a
Fresco Mike hats Swollen done. The Raptors are your NBA
champions winning one, fourteen, one, ten and one thing I
will say about Kawhi Leonard. He celebrated the NBA Championship
like I celebrate, like if I go to McDonald's and
(10:06):
I say three chocolate chip cookies and they accidentally throw
a fourth in. Oh hey, I got excellent. That was good.
Hey we want man, this is guy, I mean, he
typical Kauai Hey through here he was being the lynchpin
leading them to a title. Here he's a legend. Now
only we want of three people to to win NBA
Finals MVPs for two different teams, and yeah, man, this
(10:28):
is great. This is I mean, I like how he
just downplayed the moment. This is what I played basketball for. Unquote.
He's the Ben Stein of basketball. He's got two excitals,
m vps. Very excited, How excited, really really really excited.
I want to tell you that. But what's great is
(10:48):
it immediately jumps you into the odds for next year's title.
And now the dominoes begin to fall ahead of next
Thursday's NBA Draft of where free agents are going to
sign and how much my numbing trade talk, Thank you
to our buddies, Petros and money for that jingle that
sticks in your head. Trade talk, trade talk, my numbing
(11:09):
trade talk. That's what you got coming up for the
next week. So we do have crazy story involving that
the odds already for team to win the title next
year not looking good for your Knicks. But I'll just wait, Well,
it's because Durants, because you know Durant towards Killer actually
is looking good for the Knicks. But we do have
a woes bomb. Isn't this one great? Right after the
game was over, Adrian will Garowski, ESPN senior NBA insider
(11:33):
put this out just a minute after the Raptors won
the title. The Wizards are preparing to make a huge
offer to as much as ten million dollars annually to
run its basketball operations. He hadn't even gotten to the microphone,
(11:54):
because he talked a little bit, was very emotional. He
hadn't even gotten to the mic and WOA had the story. Yeah,
the Wizards want to give him ten million dollars a
year to come run it's basketball operations. Obviously, this team
that he put together, they took a chance, made the
trade for Kawhi Leonards, So yeah, hey, ten million, come
run my basketball operation. I had seen the Wizards as
a potential destination of hey, we're gonna roll out a
(12:18):
big bank roll to bring in a big, big time
producer in that position. But Messiah Jerry, who just like
everybody that sat on the fence the whole time, I'm
not gonna say that this worked until they won. You're
a bunch of dopes. Welcome to the other side. They
completed the job. You know, you went from being a
forty eight fifty nine win team to being in the
(12:39):
finals on a guy you bought as a one year rental.
You change the culture, You captivated a nation. Even if
they'd end up losing, Yeah, the loss would have been painful,
but you'd already won. Massiah Jerry takes it over the
top and might get himself a big novelty check. Be
sure to catch live editions of The Jason Smith Show
with Mike harmon weekdays at ten pm Eastern, seven pm
(13:01):
Pacific on Fox Sports Radio and the I Heart Radio app.
Cousins in Bounds the ball, Curry heaves it at the buzzer.
It's no good franchise history, league history. The Toronto Raptors
are NBA champions. A city, a province, a country celebrates
(13:22):
the NBA Championship is too north. The Toronto Raptors win one, fourteen,
one ten. How dare you celebrate? How dare you? How
just positively disrespected to have it across across a border
(13:45):
at an opponent's court. I mean it just ridiculous. All
the Canadian players, all players, Oh yeah, United States should
be a shame for beating Thailan Soil. How dare you?
How dare you? You should be the team with out kada.
You're supposed to win this game, but I'm not achievement.
You're supposed to win, but I wanted to hear the
(14:05):
postgame press conference if they failed to get it done. Hey, Nick,
how you feeling? But I don't get that. I've been
robbed of that. The bad band leads fault. The Raptors
are your NBA Champions. One fourteen, one ten the final.
Fred van Vleet should be the m v P, but
Kawai Leonard is a much better narrative, so he gets
(14:26):
the m v P. The only one who voted for
Fred van Vleet was Huby Brown. My god, I love
hub Brown. The rest was unanimous. I love hub Brown.
See that would have been Hughby Brown and me if
I got to vote. Let's give it to Kauai because
he's a better story. He's a bigger thing. Let's give
it to Kauai. Oh okay, by the way, you know
what you buried the lead? What's Jeremy Lynn is an
(14:49):
NBA champ. He is. If I squint, I can see
him handing the trophy to Mellow. I can see giving
the Larry O'Brian trophy to Mellow, who grabs his back
or his knee and holds it up and says, we
did in New York. We did. Jeremy Lynn Getting it
Done played a couple of minutes in this series. Yeah,
a couple of coffee, so you go through there. But yeah,
it's um, it's Fred van leet to night. I'm celebrating
(15:11):
him for the rest of the night. Now we need
to talk about Steph Curry. Oh, here we go. Steph Curry,
who scored four points in the fourth quarter of this game,
missed what could have been a game winning shot with
five seconds left. Steph Curry had a really good series,
that really really good series. But what we've learned from
(15:33):
Steph Curry is what I've said all along. If you
want to lionize Steph Curry and make him the greatest
player in the world, so many Warriors fans want to do,
they don't see reality when it comes to the production
of the playoffs of Steph Curry. Steph is a guy.
And I said this the beginning of the series, and
it's even more true now. Steph needs the help of
(15:55):
a player better than him to win the NBA title.
He needed Kevin Duran at the beginning of this series.
And we'll go over to a few minutes because I
had the NBA Finals picked right on top down everything
I said. But he needed Katie to win. They don't win.
They don't win whenever when people, well, how are how
(16:15):
are you making a pick without without making an allowance
for if the best player in the NBA plays or
doesn't play. I mean that was what if Kevin and
you can basically say Kevin Durant didn't play. He played
twelve minutes and got hurt and he missed the rest
of the series. So the Raptors were gonna win. Steph
Curry needed a player better than him to win the
NBA Finals right now, Here's what Steph Curry defenders are
(16:37):
gonna say, Jason, you're full of it. What do you
expect to do? Yeah, everybody needs help. Clay was hurt,
he missed the fourth quarter. K D was hurt. Okay,
who was better tonight? Claire? Steph Clay was better in
Game six. Steph Curry, if he's that good, should be
enough to do it by himself, right, if he's lebron
he should be able to do it. But Steph Curry
wasn't good enough to do it by himself, couldn't score
(16:58):
in the fourth quarter. Give the Warriors and get them
over the hump. Now you want to say, oh, yeah,
but he did it in which is what every Warriors
apologist wants to say, what about before they had Kevin Durant. Okay,
if you want to make that argument that everybody was hurt,
what did you expect Steph to do? They won their
first title when Kevin Love didn't play finals, didn't play,
(17:24):
Kyrie Irving got hurt in overtime of Game one and
missed the entire NBA Finals. But no, no, and still
it was four to Moscoff and Tristan Thompson were beasts,
and still the Cavaliers lead the series to one, and
it was a four to win for the rat for
the for the Warriors. So you can't tell me, oh,
(17:46):
we needed help when you want to celebrate how he
did it in the first time around, when the Cavaliers
were playing without two of their three best players, and
still Lebron James by himself made it a series. All right,
this is Steph Curry. And it's just not that Steph
Curry stinks. This is not I can't control the narrative
that that people want about Steph Curry. Steph Curry is
a terrific player. He's fantastic. He needed Kevin Durant to
(18:09):
win the NBA Finals. Second year they couldn't win, right,
Steph by himself wasn't enough to beat the Cavaliers. So
then here comes Kevin Durant. And they would not have
gone crazy after Kevin Durant if they thought their team
was good. They would not romance him all season if
they thought they were good enough. You saw the end
of that series against the Cavaliers. Steph Curry was not
(18:29):
gonna be enough. So they go get Kevin Durant. What
does he do? Back to back finals m v p
s and now here are an NBA finals. Kevin Durant
plays all of twelve minutes. Clay Thompson, who was great tonight,
misses the fourth quarter and the Warriors lose. You can't
keep moving the goal post just because you want Steph
Curry to be Lebron James. He's not Lebron James. He's
(18:52):
not Kawhi Leonard, He's not any of those guys. All right,
he's not. He's a great player. He's a great shooter.
He went from being an all star player to even
better because Steve Kirk came in with a system that
took advantage of everybody's talents. Right that that's the that's
who Steph Curry is Jason, He's likable and him, he's agreed.
He's got a great image and a great reputation. So
(19:14):
we say greater things about Steph Curry. I get that
part of it, But for a basketball perspective, there's no
argument you can have that tells me, yes, step is,
Steph is Lebron, Steph is that good. What changed the
way the NBA is is Steve Kirk bringing in his
system that was the Splash Brothers, not Splash brother Splash
Brothers U. And then Draymond Green, who we found up boy.
(19:34):
He was really the m v P those first couple
of years because without him was when they couldn't win.
All of these things are what went or went on
with the Warriors. So you can't keep moving the goalpost
just because well if I if I talk about Steph
Curry like this, it still seems like he's the best player,
and he's not. He's not. He's terrific, he's a great shooter,
he's someone that has helped the Warriors to a dynasty.
(19:56):
But the bottom line is he needed help from somebody
better than he was to win the NBA title. Lebron
doesn't need help from somebody better than him. Kauai doesn't
need help from somebody better than him, all right, didn't
need it, all right, But obviously Steph Curry does well.
But that's the other part is we we can appreciate
the shooter, we can appreciate the scorer. But one of
the most of those shot, he's not creating his own
shot with most most opportunities are coming on screens or
(20:21):
being set up for a wide open look. And even
that last one, as bad as that place, badly as
that place started, he got a good look to potentially
take missed and missed, and he missed two other big threes.
And the thing he was one out of one of
those floaters in the lane, the shot you and I
love so much. Yeah, he left that one short. And
so it doesn't discredit the level of shooter. But he's
(20:45):
not a six seven six eight guy creating his own space,
created his own shot, being able to take over a game.
I mean, they doubled on him and he couldn't get
the ball, or if he did, he gave it up
pretty quickly, or he rushed a shot or came up
short and just go on down the line. If nothing else,
he gives us the executive producer title on Holy Moley.
(21:07):
So you got that, maybe he can become a TV
mogul along the way. But to your argument, like folks
conveniently forget what happened to Cleveland in that series, it's Lebron.
James Lebron still played. Everybody needs help to win a championship.
You can't do it by yourself. Michael Jordan didn't win
until Scotti Pippen came up, and everybody that worked and
(21:27):
the veteran players that that helped run that system and
played good team defense. These are help of supporting cast.
And Steve Kerr and John Paxson and guys that could shoot,
These are help of supporting cast players. Kyrie Irving wasn't
the Cavaliers one. He was the two. Kevin Love was
the three. Did Lebron need those guys helped to win? Yeah?
(21:48):
Were any of those guys better than Lebron? No? Lebron
won a title when he was the best player with
the heat one of time is the best player with
the Cavaliers went to eight straight finals. He did all that.
Kawhi Leonard didn't need that. Fred Van Fleet is not
better than Kawhi Leonard. Fred Van Fleet was probably more
valuable this this series because of what he did in
the fourth quarter of tonight's game. But he's not better
than Kawhi Leonard. But Kawai needed Van Fleet needed Pascal Siakam.
(22:11):
These are all help of players who are not as
good as him. Steph Curry had the help of players
not as good as he was. He had Clay Thompson
and thirty points in the first three quarters. Right, he
had Looney coming back to play. Right, he had a
big night from Draymond Green almost had a quadruple double,
although that then was turnover. You know, he had helped
from these guys, And yes you did see claim it's
(22:32):
the fourth quarter. But this is a championship with Kevin Durant.
It's not a championship without him. You needed a guy
better than Steph Curry to win the championship. That's that's
that's just really, no matter how you want to cut
it up, you can't cut it up more than that.
Other great players have helped, but not help a player
who's better than they are. So where does he really rank?
Be sure to catch live editions of The Jason Smith
(22:55):
Show with Mike Harmon weekdays at ten pm Eastern seven
pm Pacific before the NBA Finals and with the dust
set will look. Not for a second did I believe
that the Raptors were a better team than the Warriors.
But the Warriors without Kevin Durant were not a better
team than the Raptors. So when you were picking the
(23:15):
NBA Finals, anybody who picked the NBA Finals without talking
about the non elephant in the room is kind of tough.
It's kind of tough to say, well, I think the
Warriors are gonna win, but you don't know if Kevin
Durant's gonna play without it. But you're telling you so,
You're you're telling me that the presence of Durant, the
best player in the NBA was they didn't need him.
There was a margin of victory. They would win by
(23:37):
this much. For they win by this I also did
not expect to be to see Looney broken, you know,
to see Claim missing. That's the thing like, as the
roster was constructed, I thought, and I picked the Warriors
to win in six I thought they'd take care of
a little bit of business at home. Instead they couldn't. Uh,
and then tiny injury after injury, and it's not excuses. Right,
(24:00):
they played Toronto, did what they needed to to win.
Go back to Game five where they did their best
to give away the farm uh as Kawhi Leonards started
going nuts and then Nick Nurse called time out. He
did everything he could to give that away, and then
in the final moments it was Stephen Clay taking over
and guys acting as if they'd been there before. Right,
(24:20):
the Barry Sanders just go hand the ball back to
the official kind of analogy, but in this game, just
not enough. It's it's hard to say okay to pick
the not knowing what Kevin Durant status was, would the
Raptors win? Well, when is Kevin Durant playing? So how
do we break it down? I told you if Kevin
Durant doesn't play, the Raptors win the title because the
(24:43):
Raptors are better and you're taking the best player in
the late in the game out. It's a tougher matchup
for the Raptors that the Warriors have a tougher time
with Siakam, tougher time with Kawai Leonard because Durant would
do those things. So you can say, okay, Kevin Durant
really didn't play because he played twelve minutes, got hurt,
and he tore as achilles. If Kevin Durant played the
whole series, would the Warriors win. Yeah. And if Kevin
(25:06):
Durant was healthy from the jump, the Warriors win the
NBA Championship again because they were a better team with him.
And the third caveat was if Kevin Durant comes back
mid series, it would be too late. And that's exactly
what happened. By the time Durant came back, the Warriors
trailed in the series, and yet he got hurt again
and it was too late for them. So all the
(25:27):
things we said about this NBA Finals going in check
check check, because I don't think there's any doubt. As
tough as the Warriors played the Raptors, the Raptors were
the better team this series. They won in six games,
not in seven. It wasn't a miracle shot where the
ball bounced off the rim, seven times, off the backboard
and in like Kawai Leonard had in the last round.
(25:49):
None of those things happen. They won in six. But clearly,
when you had the best player in the NBA, that
would be a series that the Warriors would have won.
And now, this is huge for the Kevin rant brand,
even though he's hurt AND's gonna miss the next year.
Because clearly what you can say is, well, the Warriors
needed him. Draymond Green's mid season blank you, we can
(26:10):
win without you in the heated locker room exchange clearly
is not true. They needed Kevin Durant to win the
NBA Championship. Everything we said about the NBA champion came true.
I should have gone to Vegas, and Bet should have
gone instead of put all my money on the Mets.
I don't know why I do this, but I should
have gone. If he did that, then you're dumber than
should have gone to Vegas. Any of the people that
are responding you on Twitter right now claimed you to
(26:32):
be at how about Afresca? By the way, in case
you haven't noticed, I'm over at Swollen Dome. But yeah,
you certainly needed that presence right in the earlier rounds.
You're still superior did those other squads in the Western Conference?
And you know you can always count on Houston to
throw up on themselves at some point in a series.
(26:54):
That's just the way it is. And Chris Paul looked
like he went from thirty four to fifty seven oh overnight.
In terms of how he played, he'd have three or
four good minutes and then it was like blown tires
and that was the end of the night for Kevin Durant.
Even for those twelve minutes, didn't do a lot of moving.
But having the seven footer that you could just say,
all right, you've got to at least account for him
(27:16):
in terms of how you're playing defense. And clearly a
shooting stroke was there changed the complexion of things. Clay
Thompson missing the time a killer, right because that flows
gone a score and a defender along the way. And
it's funny with him not being on the court that
Kauai still didn't take over in the fourth quarter. Just
raising my hand on that just as you go. But
(27:38):
Fred VanVleet, we hear a great of van Fleet all night.
Alex titshow know what you're doing? Yeah, people are absolutely sorry.
People are absolutely killing hughby Brown and I have a
couple of things to say about it. Number one, Fred
VanVleet was fantastic on both ends of the court. Sometimes
you want to raise your hand and say, hey, let's
not look at the obvious thing and look, look at
the other factors that go into this three. It's something
(28:00):
that's voted on by media members. So once again, once
you get into that world, all bets are off. You
might as well give him another All NBA appearance while
you're at it for the for the final vote, 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 I Heart Radio app.
Thanks for listening to the best of The Jason Smith
Show with Mike Carmen podcast. Be sure to catch us
live every weeknight from 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 Fox Sports Radio dot com, or stream us
live every night on the I Heart Radio app by
searching fs R. This is the best of The Jason
(00:23):
Smith Show with Mike Harmon on Fox Sports Radio. There's
many people who say I'm anti Warriors, many many people
who say there are millions I'm realistic Greater California area.
But let me just say this, how dare you celebrate
a championship Toronto Raptors? How scare you? You are class?
(00:45):
You are so disrespectful. You are supposed to be the
team minus Kevin Durant, minus Clay Thompson the fourth quarter.
It's not a bonus, it's not an achievement. You're supposed
to win that game. Yeah, Kauai ran up the score.
Kaua can't crying for free throws. But the United States
(01:06):
shouldn't have scored thirteen goals against you know what, play
Canada and What about the Mets. What did the Mets
blast earlier today for you to bring up the Mets, Well,
I thought that's just as bad as Canada. Class I
really thought he was gonna play Sarah McLaughlin Kevin Durant
getting hurt. Classless. Yeah, they did class less. You can't
(01:28):
celebrate is that the kid nurse just had the kid
that's on his hip. Didn't that kid just get born
like two weeks ago. It's already got a full head
of hair and stands about three feet tall. Fox Sports
Radio The Jason Smith Show with my best friend Mike Harmon.
The Raptors are your NBA Champions, one fourteen one ten.
They beat the Warriors, the Warriors playing without Clay Thompson
(01:52):
in the final fourth quarter because of a knee injury
suffered after a dunk late in the third. Clay was
running it up for the war Is. He had thirty
still be high man for the game for the Warriors,
and in the fourth quarter Fred van Vleet turned out
to just be a little bit too much and the
Raptors win the NBA title, and hopefully Fred van Vleet
(02:13):
is named NBA Finals m v P because clearly he deserved. No,
we're finding out right now. Kawuhi Leonard wins it really
should have been Lebron. Kawuahi Leonard wins it. Lebron James,
you left the Eastern Conference. You have opened up the
window raptors. Don't do this coming to the Lakers. No, well,
Lebron and all right, Lebron first, then Fred van Vleet,
(02:34):
then Kauai agree with that, then kaw So we'll go
in that order. I mean, if Kauai Leonard had any guy,
he would give the trophy and say, listen, Freddy's got
to have this. I mean, fred Freddy's gotta fourth quarter
Kawhi Leonard didn't score until the final point nine seconds.
I mean, really, Fred van Vleet is the one that
kept you in the game by hitting three after three
(02:54):
after three, drawing fouls, get to the free throw line,
and Kawhi Leonards your m v P looks as great
it as he is. Come on, man, I mean, really,
this is just Hey, let's show you that a guy
can go to a small market and he can succeed,
and you can make trades that take chances and you
can win, and hey, let's let's celebrate Kawhi letters. No,
it's gotta be Fred Vanner. Isn't that what you usually doing? Hollywood?
(03:16):
Isn't that pretty woman you know? Yes, dreet worker that
hangs out with Richard Gear, Edward Lewis. Everybody's looking for
their Edward Lewis. But hey, Hollywood, what's your dream? Everybody's
got a dream. That's Kawhi Leonard. I mean, that's the story.
Now you just rebuild it in Toronto. He he joins
Lebron and Kareem as the only player to win NBA
(03:39):
Finals MVPs with two different teams. Ah. Look, obviously he
had a terrific series, but in the fourth quarter of
of game the fourth quarter of games It's not like
Fred VanVleet was invisible. The rest of the series. He
had some huge, huge, huge moments. But in the fourth
quarter of of Game six, when you're winning the NBA title,
(04:02):
you're the m v P, you can't not score until
the game has already decided. You got to knock down
those free throws at the end, though, Buddy, I mean
really that that's what he did. He did not score
until the final point nine seconds when he made a
technical free throw, and he made two free throws that
when the game was already clinched, and and kauais the
m v P. I can't give it to him. I
(04:23):
gotta give it to Fred VanVleet. Well, who doesn't celebrate
all of Fred van vleet work, right, I mean, the
story has been written time and again about the arrival
of his child and and everything else. But the way
he stretched the field and the court. And I want
to say stretched the field because it's football season now,
uh eighty four days, yeah, eighty four days Frostberg counting
him down for us. But you look at Kyle Lowry
(04:45):
had a huge game tonight offensively nineteen points in that
first half. But for Fred Van and Van Leet, the
way he took advantage of those wide open opportunities. Yes,
it comes on the collapsing of Kawhi Leonard, but he's
a that came up time and time again with big shots.
And I'm with you. Give him it, give him the
(05:06):
m v P. Look look for for the series. All right,
let's go over for Kauai. Kawai had twenty two tonight,
but again, you kind of have to score in the
fourth quarter of the the deciding game if you're gonna
win the m v P. I know it's for the series.
I get it's for the series. And he had a
pretty good series. He had two games at three games
with over thirty points. Look, he played really well. I'm
(05:27):
not saying he didn't play really well, but boy, when
it comes down to winning a championship, you gotta give
me something more than that. In the fourth quell and
that's it was the funny thing as we watched it, though,
is you had the supporting cast, the secondary guys on
the marquee where the guys making the big plays for
the Warriors. We joked about Boogie Cousins, you know, as
a guy, Hey, you're gonna need a big contribution from him.
(05:49):
You didn't realize how a men's he would have to be.
When Klay Thompson goes down right, he leaves with thirty points.
Steph Curry was invisible and then he misses the big three.
Draymond Green does a good job off a terrible inbound play.
They try to go over the top, almost throw it away.
He gets to Steph and misses a shot. Steph. You
know it adds to a list of I think that's
(06:10):
oh for eight Inside final twenty seconds and you know
Jason waiting for k NB article now again. But you
saw everybody else on that squad come up with big
shots down the stretch to keep them at even or
with that slight lead that they enjoyed for even a
good chunk of time after the loss of Thompson. But
(06:33):
for the night Draymond Green almost with his quadruple double
eleven nineteen and thirteen, also eight turnovers, and then on
a big play Pascal siakam uneven series, but he came
up huge twenty six points tonight, ten boards in his
forty six minutes of play. I mean that's the other parties.
You look at the the huge numbers. Serjebaca with fifteen,
(06:54):
I'd vote for Sergebaka to celebrate me some Sergebaka from
common Van Vleet was when the game start going into
and well, of course we're gonna hear Greta van Fleet
the rest of the night because Fleet. But this was
a fourth quarter in which we were saying at the beginning,
(07:15):
oh my god, the Raptors are gonna somehow find a
way to not win this game. When the Warriors lineup
is Curry and Draymond and Iguadala and Cavan Looney, I
mean really and and and Quinn Cook and you're supposed
to win this How are you gonna blow this game?
But everything they could handedly he had a big three
(07:36):
to put the air back in the balloon. Then he
hit another three, Then he went to the free throw
line and drew a foulon at three free throws. Then
he hit the big three to put him up one
oh four, one on one. All he did was make
big shots. In the fourth quarter, all he did, and
and Kawhi Leonard made zero. Again, you were talking about
who was the most valuable and and But that's sometimes
(07:56):
when you do so much to win a series in
that fine game that overcomes what a guy did in
the other because you're getting the stats. The stats go
Kawhi let its way. But Fred van Fleet off the bench,
what he did. They don't win without him. They don't
win this game without him. But this is where we
need our analytics nerds to go full tilt on Van
Leet's efforts defensively, not the Kauai is a slouch by
(08:18):
any stretch. Obviously, that's his calling card. I'm the best
two way player going. But when you look at Van
Fleet and what he was able to do in terms
of constant harassment of Steph Curry. Yeah, I mean, but
that's a huge part that gave them the four two
series win. You had a couple of fourth quarters where
Steph Curry was very silent, all right, And in this
(08:39):
fourth quarter, Steph Curry was silently at one shot in
the fourth quarter. You know, he had four points. He
missed the three at the end. We'll get to Steph
Curry coming up in a few minutes because A K
and B. I'm ready if you want to call me
for that interview now one then Drew Brees would have
to hang up. I keep asking put in the second
line because we need Drew Brees Wan he's gonna have
(09:00):
his big moment. But Fred VanVleet right, twelve twenty two
points tonight twelve and the fourth go back sixteen wasn't drafted,
was a G League champion, and now he's the pivotal
cog next to Kawana Leonard to make this thing happen.
And Kyle Lowry, you know, gets you know, everybody off
his back. He had a tremendous a big game tonight,
(09:23):
huge off the four for four out of the start,
hit a number of three point shots and really rocketed
them out. And nothing in this series any of those
big spurts, any of those big runs were counterbalance pretty fast.
But Lowry finishes with twenty six, a fantastic night for him.
Good balance and the effort from Siakam as well. I mean,
(09:44):
you gotta everybody contributed, but the fourth quarter was about
Fred VanVleet making big shots. Twitter at how about a
Fresco Mike hats Swollen done. The Raptors are your NBA
champions winning one, fourteen, one, ten and one thing I
will say about Kawhi Leonard. He celebrated the NBA Championship
like I celebrate, like if I go to McDonald's and
(10:06):
I say three chocolate chip cookies and they accidentally throw
a fourth in. Oh hey, I got excellent. That was good.
Hey we want man, this is guy, I mean, he
typical Kauai Hey through here he was being the lynchpin
leading them to a title. Here he's a legend. Now
only we want of three people to to win NBA
Finals MVPs for two different teams, and yeah, man, this
(10:28):
is great. This is I mean, I like how he
just downplayed the moment. This is what I played basketball for. Unquote.
He's the Ben Stein of basketball. He's got two excitals,
m vps. Very excited, How excited, really really really excited.
I want to tell you that. But what's great is
(10:48):
it immediately jumps you into the odds for next year's title.
And now the dominoes begin to fall ahead of next
Thursday's NBA Draft of where free agents are going to
sign and how much my numbing trade talk, Thank you
to our buddies, Petros and money for that jingle that
sticks in your head. Trade talk, trade talk, my numbing
(11:09):
trade talk. That's what you got coming up for the
next week. So we do have crazy story involving that
the odds already for team to win the title next
year not looking good for your Knicks. But I'll just wait, Well,
it's because Durants, because you know Durant towards Killer actually
is looking good for the Knicks. But we do have
a woes bomb. Isn't this one great? Right after the
game was over, Adrian will Garowski, ESPN senior NBA insider
(11:33):
put this out just a minute after the Raptors won
the title. The Wizards are preparing to make a huge
offer to as much as ten million dollars annually to
run its basketball operations. He hadn't even gotten to the microphone,
(11:54):
because he talked a little bit, was very emotional. He
hadn't even gotten to the mic and WOA had the story. Yeah,
the Wizards want to give him ten million dollars a
year to come run it's basketball operations. Obviously, this team
that he put together, they took a chance, made the
trade for Kawhi Leonards, So yeah, hey, ten million, come
run my basketball operation. I had seen the Wizards as
a potential destination of hey, we're gonna roll out a
(12:18):
big bank roll to bring in a big, big time
producer in that position. But Messiah Jerry, who just like
everybody that sat on the fence the whole time, I'm
not gonna say that this worked until they won. You're
a bunch of dopes. Welcome to the other side. They
completed the job. You know, you went from being a
forty eight fifty nine win team to being in the
(12:39):
finals on a guy you bought as a one year rental.
You change the culture, You captivated a nation. Even if
they'd end up losing, Yeah, the loss would have been painful,
but you'd already won. Massiah Jerry takes it over the
top and might get himself a big novelty check. Be
sure to catch live editions of The Jason Smith Show
with Mike harmon weekdays at ten pm Eastern, seven pm
(13:01):
Pacific on Fox Sports Radio and the I Heart Radio app.
Cousins in Bounds the ball, Curry heaves it at the buzzer.
It's no good franchise history, league history. The Toronto Raptors
are NBA champions. A city, a province, a country celebrates
(13:22):
the NBA Championship is too north. The Toronto Raptors win one, fourteen,
one ten. How dare you celebrate? How dare you? How
just positively disrespected to have it across across a border
(13:45):
at an opponent's court. I mean it just ridiculous. All
the Canadian players, all players, Oh yeah, United States should
be a shame for beating Thailan Soil. How dare you?
How dare you? You should be the team with out kada.
You're supposed to win this game, but I'm not achievement.
You're supposed to win, but I wanted to hear the
(14:05):
postgame press conference if they failed to get it done. Hey, Nick,
how you feeling? But I don't get that. I've been
robbed of that. The bad band leads fault. The Raptors
are your NBA Champions. One fourteen, one ten the final.
Fred van Vleet should be the m v P, but
Kawai Leonard is a much better narrative, so he gets
(14:26):
the m v P. The only one who voted for
Fred van Vleet was Huby Brown. My god, I love
hub Brown. The rest was unanimous. I love hub Brown.
See that would have been Hughby Brown and me if
I got to vote. Let's give it to Kauai because
he's a better story. He's a bigger thing. Let's give
it to Kauai. Oh okay, by the way, you know
what you buried the lead? What's Jeremy Lynn is an
(14:49):
NBA champ. He is. If I squint, I can see
him handing the trophy to Mellow. I can see giving
the Larry O'Brian trophy to Mellow, who grabs his back
or his knee and holds it up and says, we
did in New York. We did. Jeremy Lynn Getting it
Done played a couple of minutes in this series. Yeah,
a couple of coffee, so you go through there. But yeah,
it's um, it's Fred van leet to night. I'm celebrating
(15:11):
him for the rest of the night. Now we need
to talk about Steph Curry. Oh, here we go. Steph Curry,
who scored four points in the fourth quarter of this game,
missed what could have been a game winning shot with
five seconds left. Steph Curry had a really good series,
that really really good series. But what we've learned from
(15:33):
Steph Curry is what I've said all along. If you
want to lionize Steph Curry and make him the greatest
player in the world, so many Warriors fans want to do,
they don't see reality when it comes to the production
of the playoffs of Steph Curry. Steph is a guy.
And I said this the beginning of the series, and
it's even more true now. Steph needs the help of
(15:55):
a player better than him to win the NBA title.
He needed Kevin Duran at the beginning of this series.
And we'll go over to a few minutes because I
had the NBA Finals picked right on top down everything
I said. But he needed Katie to win. They don't win.
They don't win whenever when people, well, how are how
(16:15):
are you making a pick without without making an allowance
for if the best player in the NBA plays or
doesn't play. I mean that was what if Kevin and
you can basically say Kevin Durant didn't play. He played
twelve minutes and got hurt and he missed the rest
of the series. So the Raptors were gonna win. Steph
Curry needed a player better than him to win the
NBA Finals right now, Here's what Steph Curry defenders are
(16:37):
gonna say, Jason, you're full of it. What do you
expect to do? Yeah, everybody needs help. Clay was hurt,
he missed the fourth quarter. K D was hurt. Okay,
who was better tonight? Claire? Steph Clay was better in
Game six. Steph Curry, if he's that good, should be
enough to do it by himself, right, if he's lebron
he should be able to do it. But Steph Curry
wasn't good enough to do it by himself, couldn't score
(16:58):
in the fourth quarter. Give the Warriors and get them
over the hump. Now you want to say, oh, yeah,
but he did it in which is what every Warriors
apologist wants to say, what about before they had Kevin Durant. Okay,
if you want to make that argument that everybody was hurt,
what did you expect Steph to do? They won their
first title when Kevin Love didn't play finals, didn't play,
(17:24):
Kyrie Irving got hurt in overtime of Game one and
missed the entire NBA Finals. But no, no, and still
it was four to Moscoff and Tristan Thompson were beasts,
and still the Cavaliers lead the series to one, and
it was a four to win for the rat for
the for the Warriors. So you can't tell me, oh,
(17:46):
we needed help when you want to celebrate how he
did it in the first time around, when the Cavaliers
were playing without two of their three best players, and
still Lebron James by himself made it a series. All right,
this is Steph Curry. And it's just not that Steph
Curry stinks. This is not I can't control the narrative
that that people want about Steph Curry. Steph Curry is
a terrific player. He's fantastic. He needed Kevin Durant to
(18:09):
win the NBA Finals. Second year they couldn't win, right,
Steph by himself wasn't enough to beat the Cavaliers. So
then here comes Kevin Durant. And they would not have
gone crazy after Kevin Durant if they thought their team
was good. They would not romance him all season if
they thought they were good enough. You saw the end
of that series against the Cavaliers. Steph Curry was not
(18:29):
gonna be enough. So they go get Kevin Durant. What
does he do? Back to back finals m v p
s and now here are an NBA finals. Kevin Durant
plays all of twelve minutes. Clay Thompson, who was great tonight,
misses the fourth quarter and the Warriors lose. You can't
keep moving the goal post just because you want Steph
Curry to be Lebron James. He's not Lebron James. He's
(18:52):
not Kawhi Leonard, He's not any of those guys. All right,
he's not. He's a great player. He's a great shooter.
He went from being an all star player to even
better because Steve Kirk came in with a system that
took advantage of everybody's talents. Right that that's the that's
who Steph Curry is Jason, He's likable and him, he's agreed.
He's got a great image and a great reputation. So
(19:14):
we say greater things about Steph Curry. I get that
part of it, But for a basketball perspective, there's no
argument you can have that tells me, yes, step is,
Steph is Lebron, Steph is that good. What changed the
way the NBA is is Steve Kirk bringing in his
system that was the Splash Brothers, not Splash brother Splash
Brothers U. And then Draymond Green, who we found up boy.
(19:34):
He was really the m v P those first couple
of years because without him was when they couldn't win.
All of these things are what went or went on
with the Warriors. So you can't keep moving the goalpost
just because well if I if I talk about Steph
Curry like this, it still seems like he's the best player,
and he's not. He's not. He's terrific, he's a great shooter,
he's someone that has helped the Warriors to a dynasty.
(19:56):
But the bottom line is he needed help from somebody
better than he was to win the NBA title. Lebron
doesn't need help from somebody better than him. Kauai doesn't
need help from somebody better than him, all right, didn't
need it, all right, But obviously Steph Curry does well.
But that's the other part is we we can appreciate
the shooter, we can appreciate the scorer. But one of
the most of those shot, he's not creating his own
shot with most most opportunities are coming on screens or
(20:21):
being set up for a wide open look. And even
that last one, as bad as that place, badly as
that place started, he got a good look to potentially
take missed and missed, and he missed two other big threes.
And the thing he was one out of one of
those floaters in the lane, the shot you and I
love so much. Yeah, he left that one short. And
so it doesn't discredit the level of shooter. But he's
(20:45):
not a six seven six eight guy creating his own space,
created his own shot, being able to take over a game.
I mean, they doubled on him and he couldn't get
the ball, or if he did, he gave it up
pretty quickly, or he rushed a shot or came up
short and just go on down the line. If nothing else,
he gives us the executive producer title on Holy Moley.
(21:07):
So you got that, maybe he can become a TV
mogul along the way. But to your argument, like folks
conveniently forget what happened to Cleveland in that series, it's Lebron.
James Lebron still played. Everybody needs help to win a championship.
You can't do it by yourself. Michael Jordan didn't win
until Scotti Pippen came up, and everybody that worked and
(21:27):
the veteran players that that helped run that system and
played good team defense. These are help of supporting cast.
And Steve Kerr and John Paxson and guys that could shoot,
These are help of supporting cast players. Kyrie Irving wasn't
the Cavaliers one. He was the two. Kevin Love was
the three. Did Lebron need those guys helped to win? Yeah?
(21:48):
Were any of those guys better than Lebron? No? Lebron
won a title when he was the best player with
the heat one of time is the best player with
the Cavaliers went to eight straight finals. He did all that.
Kawhi Leonard didn't need that. Fred Van Fleet is not
better than Kawhi Leonard. Fred Van Fleet was probably more
valuable this this series because of what he did in
the fourth quarter of tonight's game. But he's not better
than Kawhi Leonard. But Kawai needed Van Fleet needed Pascal Siakam.
(22:11):
These are all help of players who are not as
good as him. Steph Curry had the help of players
not as good as he was. He had Clay Thompson
and thirty points in the first three quarters. Right, he
had Looney coming back to play. Right, he had a
big night from Draymond Green almost had a quadruple double,
although that then was turnover. You know, he had helped
from these guys, And yes you did see claim it's
(22:32):
the fourth quarter. But this is a championship with Kevin Durant.
It's not a championship without him. You needed a guy
better than Steph Curry to win the championship. That's that's
that's just really, no matter how you want to cut
it up, you can't cut it up more than that.
Other great players have helped, but not help a player
who's better than they are. So where does he really rank?
Be sure to catch live editions of The Jason Smith
(22:55):
Show with Mike Harmon weekdays at ten pm Eastern seven
pm Pacific before the NBA Finals and with the dust
set will look. Not for a second did I believe
that the Raptors were a better team than the Warriors.
But the Warriors without Kevin Durant were not a better
team than the Raptors. So when you were picking the
(23:15):
NBA Finals, anybody who picked the NBA Finals without talking
about the non elephant in the room is kind of tough.
It's kind of tough to say, well, I think the
Warriors are gonna win, but you don't know if Kevin
Durant's gonna play without it. But you're telling you so,
You're you're telling me that the presence of Durant, the
best player in the NBA was they didn't need him.
There was a margin of victory. They would win by
(23:37):
this much. For they win by this I also did
not expect to be to see Looney broken, you know,
to see Claim missing. That's the thing like, as the
roster was constructed, I thought, and I picked the Warriors
to win in six I thought they'd take care of
a little bit of business at home. Instead they couldn't. Uh,
and then tiny injury after injury, and it's not excuses. Right,
(24:00):
they played Toronto, did what they needed to to win.
Go back to Game five where they did their best
to give away the farm uh as Kawhi Leonards started
going nuts and then Nick Nurse called time out. He
did everything he could to give that away, and then
in the final moments it was Stephen Clay taking over
and guys acting as if they'd been there before. Right,
(24:20):
the Barry Sanders just go hand the ball back to
the official kind of analogy, but in this game, just
not enough. It's it's hard to say okay to pick
the not knowing what Kevin Durant status was, would the
Raptors win? Well, when is Kevin Durant playing? So how
do we break it down? I told you if Kevin
Durant doesn't play, the Raptors win the title because the
(24:43):
Raptors are better and you're taking the best player in
the late in the game out. It's a tougher matchup
for the Raptors that the Warriors have a tougher time
with Siakam, tougher time with Kawai Leonard because Durant would
do those things. So you can say, okay, Kevin Durant
really didn't play because he played twelve minutes, got hurt,
and he tore as achilles. If Kevin Durant played the
whole series, would the Warriors win. Yeah. And if Kevin
(25:06):
Durant was healthy from the jump, the Warriors win the
NBA Championship again because they were a better team with him.
And the third caveat was if Kevin Durant comes back
mid series, it would be too late. And that's exactly
what happened. By the time Durant came back, the Warriors
trailed in the series, and yet he got hurt again
and it was too late for them. So all the
(25:27):
things we said about this NBA Finals going in check
check check, because I don't think there's any doubt. As
tough as the Warriors played the Raptors, the Raptors were
the better team this series. They won in six games,
not in seven. It wasn't a miracle shot where the
ball bounced off the rim, seven times, off the backboard
and in like Kawai Leonard had in the last round.
(25:49):
None of those things happen. They won in six. But clearly,
when you had the best player in the NBA, that
would be a series that the Warriors would have won.
And now, this is huge for the Kevin rant brand,
even though he's hurt AND's gonna miss the next year.
Because clearly what you can say is, well, the Warriors
needed him. Draymond Green's mid season blank you, we can
(26:10):
win without you in the heated locker room exchange clearly
is not true. They needed Kevin Durant to win the
NBA Championship. Everything we said about the NBA champion came true.
I should have gone to Vegas, and Bet should have
gone instead of put all my money on the Mets.
I don't know why I do this, but I should
have gone. If he did that, then you're dumber than
should have gone to Vegas. Any of the people that
are responding you on Twitter right now claimed you to
(26:32):
be at how about Afresca? By the way, in case
you haven't noticed, I'm over at Swollen Dome. But yeah,
you certainly needed that presence right in the earlier rounds.
You're still superior did those other squads in the Western Conference?
And you know you can always count on Houston to
throw up on themselves at some point in a series.
(26:54):
That's just the way it is. And Chris Paul looked
like he went from thirty four to fifty seven oh overnight.
In terms of how he played, he'd have three or
four good minutes and then it was like blown tires
and that was the end of the night for Kevin Durant.
Even for those twelve minutes, didn't do a lot of moving.
But having the seven footer that you could just say,
all right, you've got to at least account for him
(27:16):
in terms of how you're playing defense. And clearly a
shooting stroke was there changed the complexion of things. Clay
Thompson missing the time a killer, right because that flows
gone a score and a defender along the way. And
it's funny with him not being on the court that
Kauai still didn't take over in the fourth quarter. Just
raising my hand on that just as you go. But
(27:38):
Fred VanVleet, we hear a great of van Fleet all night.
Alex titshow know what you're doing? Yeah, people are absolutely sorry.
People are absolutely killing hughby Brown and I have a
couple of things to say about it. Number one, Fred
VanVleet was fantastic on both ends of the court. Sometimes
you want to raise your hand and say, hey, let's
not look at the obvious thing and look, look at
the other factors that go into this three. It's something
(28:00):
that's voted on by media members. So once again, once
you get into that world, all bets are off. You
might as well give him another All NBA appearance while
you're at it for the for the final vote, 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 I Heart Radio app.
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