On today’s episode, Jason discusses the backlash currently facing Boston Celtics superstar Jayson Tatum in the wake of their stunning three pointer-heavy loss to the New York Knicks, where Jalen Brunson ranks amongst the best point guards of this generation, whether or not it’s fair to call the Oklahoma City Thunder frauds after they blew Game 1 to Denver and why the Nikola Jokic vs Shai Gilgeous-Alexander MVP race is still up to debate.
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Episode Transcript
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Speaker 1 (00:05):
This is straight fire with Jason McIntyre.
Speaker 2 (00:11):
What is up?
Speaker 3 (00:11):
Straight Fire?
Speaker 4 (00:12):
Play up, It's me Jason McIntyre. Straight fight here for Tuesday,
May the sixth, and folks, last night, if you went
to bed early, holy hell, did you miss an unbelievable
night of basketball in the Association.
Speaker 3 (00:30):
It was I mean, two heart stopping thrillers.
Speaker 4 (00:34):
Nicks shock the Celtics, Yes, shock the Celtics in overtime
come back from down twenty and the Oklahoma City Thunder
aka cho Oklahoma City jagging up a lead, like give
up a nineteen to six run to close the game
and lose outright at home to Denver on an Aaron
Gordon three with like three seconds left. I mean, there's
(00:55):
so much to dive into here. However, it was the
first time two NBA underdogs of nine or more one
outright in the same day in the NBA playoffs in
the last twenty five years. We just saw historic stuff
last night. And I'm gonna start with the Knicks, so
obviously I'm watching early. I put the bet out there
that I'm doing first quarter bet on the next plus
(01:17):
three and that hits, and I'm feeling great, and I'm like, Okay, hey,
got some money in my pocket. The Knicks were probably
gonna get blown out second quarter. Comes what happens, Boston
just paces them. They're up sixteen and a half. I
have to go to a men's league game, and I'm like,
oh boy, but I'm talking to the guys at the
scorers table.
Speaker 3 (01:34):
I'm like, hey, you got this Knick score?
Speaker 4 (01:35):
Nick, oh, Nicks are getting buried it down twenty j Mac, Oh,
my gosh, it's over. Okay figure And then I don't
ask them for a while. You know, we're playing this
team and a bunch of bums. We crush them, and
all of a sudden, this guy goes j Mack it's
a three point game with two minutes left.
Speaker 3 (01:49):
I was like, in the Knicks game?
Speaker 1 (01:51):
What?
Speaker 3 (01:52):
And I was stunned.
Speaker 4 (01:53):
So I'm like, guys, I'm gonna sit out to start
the second half, just so I could try to watch
it on my phone. And of course the signals awful
and so I'm not able to watch it. I have
to follow it like on the box score and stuff
and the New York Knicks. Somehow, some way, McHale Bridges
strips Jalen Brown before he can get off a shot
in overtime and the Knicks survived by three epic comeback
(02:17):
Jalen Brunson mister clutch twenty nine points. Ojiannernobi had twenty
nine Bridges with the huge trip. Bridges did not have
a great game, three of thirteen shooting. But the big
story is the Boston Celtics. This team rolled New York
in the regular season four to zho. They had three
double digit wins, and they led by twenty midway.
Speaker 3 (02:38):
Through the third quarter last night.
Speaker 4 (02:39):
Okay, and listen, I'm sure some people are gonna blame
Porzingis not playing in the second half. He was zero
for four in thirteen minutes and he was ill, so
he did not play in the second half. I'm guessing
they were like, oh, we're up sixteen, we got this,
just got healthy Porzingis and Al Horford they had to
play him. He was barbecue chicken. Brunton just went at
him like you got no chance. And Al Horford's a pro,
(03:02):
maybe a Hall of Fame or I don't. A lot
of guys make the NBA Hall of Fame. But the
Knicks just patiently ran their offense, got to their spots
and hit shots. The Celtics in what you're gonna hear
is one of the craziest numbers in recent NBA playoff history.
They shot sixty three pointers sixty they missed forty.
Speaker 3 (03:22):
Five of them.
Speaker 4 (03:23):
They shot fifteen of sixty from three, a robust twenty
five percent. Now, listen, everybody was a culprit. Okay, Jalen
Brown won of ten, Derek Quite five of sixteen. But
a lot of enmity is being thrown hurled at my man.
Jason Tatum. Listen, Tatum at twenty three and sixteen and six.
(03:47):
He had a solid game, but he was four of
fifteen on threes. Now here's the crazy thing. Yeah, fifteen
threes for Jason Tatum is crazy. When the Knicks don't
have a rim protector at all. I mean, Mitchell Robinson played,
but come on, he's not. They three of ten on
free throws.
Speaker 3 (04:02):
They just hack a Robinson and he had to get
off the court again. But here's the thing.
Speaker 4 (04:07):
I'm gonna give you the two stat lines. Here's Jalen
Brunson nine of twenty three for twenty nine points. Brunson
was six of seven on free throws, Jason Tatum seven
of twenty three, so he basically just missed two more
shots than Brunson, and he was five of seven on
free throws twenty three points. The difference is Brunson five
(04:28):
of nine on threes, hit three big ones in a
row in the second half in the fourth quarter, sorry,
and Tatum was four of fifteen on threes. Folks, I mean,
I don't know like why this happened, but in the
second half Boston shot forty nine times second half and overtime,
thirty seven of those attempts were three pointers. Thirty seven
(04:51):
of forty nine shots were threes. And I guess the
only question is why the Knicks. They have good wing defenders, yes,
but they you don't have a rim protector. I'm not
saying you could have run a layup line, but Boston
had nothing to fear attacking the basket. And then compounding matters,
the Knicks couldn't even shoot free throw seventeen of thirty
(05:13):
one fifty four percent. That's like what they were doing
against the Pistons, where they mess around and nearly lost.
This was a crazy, bizarre game, and I know Tatum
is gonna get crushed today. And a guy play hoops
with he went to high school with Peyton Fritchard who
won like four state championship.
Speaker 3 (05:31):
This guy plays hoops.
Speaker 4 (05:32):
He's really really good, and he basically is like joining
the crowd where he's like, hey man, Jason Tatum just
isn't clutch.
Speaker 3 (05:41):
And I was like, you know, do you have any
stats to back that up?
Speaker 4 (05:43):
And then I decided to look at Tatum in the
fourth quarter and overtime, and you know, Tatum's my guy.
He's all NBA. I think he's top five player in
the league. Fourth quarter and overtime, one of nine, zero
for five on threes, and it's like, hey man, he
didn't have a great game, not his best effort.
Speaker 3 (06:01):
Clearly, that being said, it's just one game.
Speaker 4 (06:05):
And as I will talk about shortly, another superstar in
the league did not have his finest game.
Speaker 3 (06:14):
His name Shay Gilders. Alexander Oh Interesting, the MVP a
robust minus sixteen. But we'll get to that.
Speaker 4 (06:23):
I do want to welcome in back from five weeks off. Okay,
I don't know what I would do with five weeks off. Seriously,
I would lose my mind, like five weeks Like Rob
G is back in the building, rob G, are you
sick of your family?
Speaker 2 (06:39):
Yet? I will not answer that question.
Speaker 3 (06:43):
That's a smart man.
Speaker 2 (06:44):
I will not answer that. It's going to be back though.
Speaker 4 (06:47):
Yeah, so what were you watching sports the whole time
or just going to Disney every day and having fun?
Speaker 2 (06:51):
Well, first off, I don't make game Act money, so
I was not at Disney every day. But now I
was able to watch a lot of sports because you know,
one of the perks of having young children is they
didn't go to sleep earlier. So I was able to
watch all five games of the Lakers playoff. You know,
it's meant to get to be a lot longer than that.
But so it wasn't too bad.
Speaker 3 (07:10):
I didn't Lakers.
Speaker 2 (07:12):
I didn't realize how much I annoying my wife though,
Like me being at home for six weeks was just
rough for her. And apparently I'm a lot.
Speaker 3 (07:21):
They don't want us around guys, They don't. You know
that they don't.
Speaker 2 (07:24):
The idea of us is cool, but the actual people
of the husbands like, no, we can do without us.
Speaker 3 (07:32):
It's quite bad, all right.
Speaker 4 (07:34):
So I mean, listen, I get I'm not gonna kill
Jason Tatum. You can if you want to. I'm not
gonna go overboard with this. Nick Win like I don't
what does it mean. I mean, the Pacers beat the
Calves in Game one on the road, the Knicks beat
the Celtics Game one on the road, big underdogs, and
then you've got Denver shocking. Okay, see big underdog Game
(07:55):
one on the road. So the conference semifinals are off
to a crazy start. But overall, I don't think this
is like the end of the world for Boston. I mean,
for all we know, Boston could win this in five.
But I do for the first time, Rob. You know,
during the regular season, I didn't feel like Bridges and
Annoby were the great fits I thought they would be,
(08:16):
and Aneronoby was phenomenal six threes in this one. Bridges
again didn't do it offensively, but made the big defensive
stop the Knicks by the way ten steals.
Speaker 3 (08:26):
They did play pretty good d.
Speaker 4 (08:28):
But listen, man, it ain't hard to play d, Rob
when the other team is jacking sixty three pointers, you.
Speaker 2 (08:33):
Know, exactly, exactly, And that's why I'm one of the
people who is not going to kill future Laker Jason
Tatum here on Tuesday morning. I mean, he didn't play great.
You mentioned the stats. Anybody to go there again? But
outside of Drew Holliday, which Boston Celtic did play great.
I mean porzing Is throwing up at halftime, he didn't
play in the second half, Derek White couldn't hit the
red side of a barn and Jalen Brown up until
(08:54):
the end of the fourth quarter was a goose egg
from deep. He was started out zero for nine and
up finishing one for ten. So none of the Celtics
guys really got cooking. And to me, the bigger problem,
and this is something that we've talked about even last
year on their quest to the championship, they play, in
(09:14):
my opinion, a very unethical style of basketball. There is
no good and this is talking from a guy who
watched Jalen Brunson and his foul hunting and roots for
the Lakers who employ Luka Doncic, who also can be
said play as an unethical style of basketball. But Boston
missed forty five threes on Monday night, the most in
(09:35):
NBA playoff history, tied for the third most in any
game in NBA history, and it became pretty clear early
in the third quarter that it was just not their
night from deep. They just wasn't falling the shots. Weren't
going in the way they're accustomed to. It is what
it is. It happens NBA players have nights like this
(09:56):
from time to time. The problem was similar to the
famous Houston Rockets Game seven against Steph Katie and those Warriors.
They just kept shooting. They were not deterred in any
kind of way, and they kept shooting and kept shooting,
and this twenty point lead goes down to fifteen, goes
down to eleven, goes down to eight.
Speaker 3 (10:15):
Next you know, you're down by six. You're gonna lose
the game in overtime.
Speaker 2 (10:20):
My biggest problem with what they did though, because that
is their style of play is what it is. What
it is is. I don't know if you saw this.
Joe Missoula in the post game was asked about, you know,
their shooting. They went ice cold. You mentioned in the
second half they could not hit a three, and they
just kept shooting and shooting it, and he asked if
he was how he felt about the shot selection, and
(10:45):
he said, hey, we got good looks.
Speaker 1 (10:48):
Like.
Speaker 2 (10:50):
My brother in Christ. Sure you want to get good looks.
And then that's that's quote unquote good offense. Better offense
is finding ways to win, and it was clear early on,
even as they blew there to that big lead, the
Knicks were defending the three point line very well. They
were switching everything. They were not allowing these shots. They
(11:10):
weren't letting the penetrating pitch offense work against them. It
was either, hey, you're gonna go to the rim and
we think you're gonna try to score on Karl Anthony Towns,
or you're gonna pull up from three un contests to
jump in. And they just kept doing it and doing
it and doing it. And I know that in the
course of an eighty two game regular season, the math
eventually is gonna math, and it's gonna play out in
(11:32):
your favor. The law of averages say you're gonna hit
more threes in the opposition, you're gonna win a lot
of games in the playoffs where it's the first to
sixteen and all you really need is to get a bucket.
We saw that in the first round with all these series.
Houston Golden State was not a fun series to watch offensively.
Lakers Timberwls was not a fun series to watch offensively.
(11:54):
The moral of the story is score by any means necessary,
and Boston he does not subscribe to that line of thinking.
Speaker 1 (12:02):
Fox Sports Radio has the best sports talk lineup in
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listen live.
Speaker 3 (12:14):
I mean, Jalen Brunson is really unstoppable.
Speaker 4 (12:17):
They threw the kitchen sink at him, and he still
clutched up when it mattered most, and they came back
from down twenty like I'm just the Jalen Brunson legend
grows like he I'm just telling you he's the mid
range version of Steph Curry. That's how that's I think
the best way to sum up. You know, someone went
to uh went into outer space for the last like
eight years, and they come back and they're like, wait,
(12:37):
who's cooking for the next Jalen Brunson. Is that the
guy from Villanova? Yep, that's the one. Like I didn't
see that, Like nobody saw this. I mean, Jalen Brunson
just unbelievable. Now, I do have to say I'm more
stunned by Denver the comeback they had against Oklahoma City
because I'm not gonna lie I laid it with Oklahoma
(12:58):
City first time. I bet those frauds in the Posty's
a minus nine and a half, looking.
Speaker 3 (13:01):
Good, up ten, twelve, fifteen. They're playing great.
Speaker 4 (13:05):
And down the stretch. It was an epic melt rob.
This is a team that did not know look like
they were belonging to the playoffs. Meanwhile, Denver, oh, they
just got forty two to twenty two and six from
Yoki Choe. Big deal, you know, Aaron Gordon with his
second game winner in like a week. Remember this is
the same Nuggets team that was down two to one
to the paper Clips. A lot of people started to
(13:26):
write them off, myself included, and they needed an Aaron
Gordon tippin at the buzzer to prevent overtime and.
Speaker 3 (13:36):
Beat the Clippers in Game four.
Speaker 4 (13:37):
Now they did lead that game by twenty, but nevertheless,
like that's how close they were to being down three
to one, and now they go up one oh one.
OKC and folks, I I'm not gonna lie. I thought
this was gonna be thunder and five. A lot of
morons out there.
Speaker 3 (13:50):
Oh, well, the Knicks are tired from that Detroit series.
Boston's rested Celtics are gonna kill him.
Speaker 4 (13:57):
Well, Denver's probably exhausted series one seven. Okay, SE's been
They've been in the clubhouse with their feet up, just
sip it.
Speaker 3 (14:04):
On Jackson Cokes.
Speaker 4 (14:06):
It's like, oh, we're relaxed, and thunder come out, lead
to almost the whole game, and then blow it. I
saw a stat that they only lead Denver had in
quarters two, three or four, which when they let on
the Aaron Gordon three with three seconds left. Here's the
weirdest part, Bob. Watch Chet Holmgren at the free throw line.
He looks spooked. The dude looked absolutely nervous. He did
(14:28):
not have a good game. Oh for three from deep
minus fourteen, just not a great game from him. He
clangs the free throws, pauses on the line for a
second like, oh my gosh, did I just blow them?
Comes back down the court, Russell Westbrook drives, helps on Westbrook,
leaving Aaron Gordon open Aaron Gordon three wide open.
Speaker 3 (14:48):
Splash and watch Chet.
Speaker 4 (14:51):
After that he puts his hands on his head like,
oh my gosh, I cost this the game.
Speaker 3 (14:54):
We lost.
Speaker 4 (14:54):
The coach does get up the court. There's so three
seconds left. That looked like a t that was discombobulated.
Now I would have to go back Rob off the
top of my hat. I don't remember it, but Dallas
won one of the two games against Oklahoma.
Speaker 3 (15:07):
City last year. I called that Dallas series.
Speaker 4 (15:10):
You know, I love Luca. I was always going to
back him. I did not see this coming from Denver.
Now we know Joki is gonna eat against these guys.
Hartenstein was powerless. Everybody's gonna tell me how clutch. Alex
Caruso was hitting five threes and had twenty points. And
oh my, Alex Crusoe was amazing, folks. Was he even
on the bench down stretch? I would have to look, honestly,
because Jay Dubb kept hogging the ball. This guy, who
(15:33):
you guys think is a two, he's not a two.
Ja Dubb five of twenty. I mean, the guy's out
of control flying through the lane. I'm sorry, man, listen,
you don't want to go overboard and just call them
fraud that I did last night on social media, Rob,
But is there a whiff of fraudulence here with the thunder? Like,
come on, how do you blow that lead dowlas Stritch
(15:55):
and I haven't even gotten to the coach foolishly fouling
to put guys on the line like, I don't know
yet if that was a math play by him, but
you're up three. Instead of letting them shoot a three,
let's just fail. Well, when Yoki Chi Gordon go to
the line, they're still making their free throws. And of
course Chet goes and clangs too. So Denver in a
shocker up one. Nothing on okay, see their starters logged
(16:19):
heavy minutes. Michael Porter Junior did nothing, one for eight shooting.
It looked like he was benched the entire fourth quarter.
Westbrook had a solid game, but overall, this was a
absolute stunner. This to me was bigger than the Knicks
win and bigger than the Indiana Pacers upset of the Cavs.
Speaker 3 (16:41):
Oh.
Speaker 2 (16:42):
I mean, that's hard to rank them. And I will say,
as a basketball fan and is a non fan of
any of these teams, Monday night was one of the
great basketball nights of my recent lifetime. I can't recall
a better night of basketball than we got on Monday.
I'm actually one of those people and you might, you know,
(17:03):
disagree with me. I thought this game was more about
Denver than it was about Okay. See now you call
them frauds, and I totally understand that when you blow
a game the way you did like that, I'm not
really gonna argue too hard against it. But you mentioned
Jokic joined Giannis Shaq and Wilt Chamberlain as the only
player's name day history with forty twenty five in a
(17:26):
playoff game. Okay, in the fourth quarter, Nikola Jokic eighteen
points on four six stoot two eight of ten from
the free throw line. And my favorite thing that he
did on Monday night was I don't know if you
saw the clip. Not only is he scoring forty plus,
he's getting twenty plus rebounds, dishing out dimes, he's calling
(17:48):
out the defense. Did you see that he was also
coaching the team during a sideline timeout drawn up.
Speaker 3 (17:56):
Blaze the elbow to lou Georg's head.
Speaker 2 (17:59):
I mean, Nikola Jokic. I mean, if there was any
question on who's the MVP, give me the guy who's
actually coaching the team and playing. It's a player coach
in the NBA. But aside from that, because you could
go on Jokic basically every game, it's gotten to a
point now where we were talking about four started recording.
He finished with the forty twenty plus and We're like, oh,
I thought he had like twenty five and fifteen. It's like,
(18:19):
but he just these stat lines with him, I've become
so like normal that we were not impressed by them anymore.
It feels like like it's, oh yeah, Yokic did it again.
You know, ho hum, what it is? What it is.
But Aaron Gordon, everyone's going to talk about the mad
three pointer. And historically he's not a good shooter. He
(18:39):
was a career thirty two percent three point shooter, sixty
eight percent free throw shooter. Before this season, he's known
as a high flyer. He can dunk real hard, plays
good defense, and that's kind of about it. This season,
people don't realize this totally remakes his game. He's not
flushing on dudes like he used to. He's become more
(19:00):
of a spot up shooter. He still defends his ass
off when you know, when he's healthy and he's kind
of banged up right now. This season. Did you know
this j Mac forty three percent from three eighty one
percent from the free throw line.
Speaker 3 (19:13):
I did not know that.
Speaker 2 (19:14):
And if you want to be one of those people, hey,
that was a lucky shot. You know, he was nobody
on him. It is what it is. Before he hit
that game winning three, he also hit the free throws
that Chet Holmgren didn't. Yeah, like, Aaron Gordon is gonna
get a lot of pub because of the may the
last shot. But this is not a fluke. This is
not a one off. Aaron Gordon has been a very
good player, a different kind of player than what you're
(19:37):
used to, all season. And this Denver Nuggets team has
shown you over the last two weeks. Going back to
that Clippers here, I picked the Clippers to win that series.
I look stupid now, but they are showing you the
difference between a team like the Clippers, who have a
lot of talent and they just for whatever reason mentally
can't get over THEMP and a team like Oklahoma City
who's extremely talented that he's very young and inexperienced. They
(19:59):
have that chancechampionship medal that you only get from winning
a championship. It's why they pull out a game like this.
It's how the Golden State Warriors, despite only having like
five guys you come to playing, are able to beat
the young whippers Napple Houston Rocket on the road in
Game seven. They are going to be a problem. They
may not win this series, but I guarantee you it's
(20:20):
not going to be as easy as the stats would suggest.
With Oklahoma City being one of their storkeally great teams,
Denver is gonna give them all they can handle in
this series.
Speaker 3 (20:28):
Dang looks like he had fifteen in the fourth. Jokich,
My gosh, the guy is a machine. He's kind of
like a cyborg.
Speaker 4 (20:37):
It feels like he's a Terminator two class man forty two,
twenty two and six. I mean, you know, they they
went out and got Arten's team, They went out and
picked up Alex Crusio.
Speaker 3 (20:48):
Those were shrewd moves. I don't know, man Hartenstein five
foul six baskets.
Speaker 4 (20:55):
I just I did not anticipate Denver, which basically, you know,
the saying is place seven trust six. They after benching
Porter Junior. It was basically Russell, Westbrook and Company. In
the second half, Julian Strawther got a couple of minutes.
Peyton Watson got a few minutes. How does Peyton Watson
the kid from UCLA. He's athletic as hell, super talented.
(21:16):
He's twenty two years old. Remember Jalen Green, I'm men Thompson.
Those guys are twenty two. Peyton Watson in fifteen minutes
was a minus twenty two.
Speaker 2 (21:26):
Not great.
Speaker 3 (21:27):
I mean, I don't know, Rob. It's funny. Where was
free throw merchant? SGA down the stretch? Huh what happened
with that guy? Your boy, he's gonna win the MVP.
Is nice game, forty minutes, only one turnover.
Speaker 2 (21:40):
He was good.
Speaker 4 (21:41):
But I'm sorry they have to hammer out this endgame
lineup because this coach dagnalled. He just got body bagged
by an interim coach. Remember the Nuggets fired their coach?
Speaker 3 (21:52):
What a month ago?
Speaker 2 (21:53):
There was three games left in the season.
Speaker 3 (21:55):
I think when he got fired, maybe less than a month.
Speaker 2 (21:58):
Yeah, yeah, like that.
Speaker 3 (21:59):
It's in saying now it's right, got to coach the
team during the timeouts? Yeah exactly. I don't want to overreact,
but this that that was that result.
Speaker 1 (22:10):
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Speaker 4 (22:23):
I still think the Celtics and I still think the
thunder are winning their series. I I like the Pacers
a little bit. I don't know, Rob, do you think
we're gonna see uh In? I think there's only one
game tonight, the Warriors.
Speaker 3 (22:40):
There might be no.
Speaker 4 (22:40):
No Nuggets play to night, not Nuggets, sorry, Calves Pacers
play tonight. But do you think we see a fourth
road team, the Golden State Warriors come up big and
pull the upset over over Minnesota.
Speaker 2 (22:53):
No, because ultimately the postseason it's I don't care about
home core, you know, unless it's a Game seven, I
really don't care. It comes down in matchups. And if
you thought that Houston was a tough matchup for Golden State,
you haven't seen anything yet. Because Minnesota can defend just
(23:14):
as well as Houston can. The difference is they don't
have the same problem scoring, and so Anthony Edwards, Julius Randall, Nasried,
like all of those guys can score. And given what
we saw from Golden State in that last series, I
don't think there's any way that they keep this one
within single digits.
Speaker 4 (23:33):
Well, it's interesting because we know Curry cannot guard Anthony Edwards.
We know Buddy Heal cannot guard Anthony Edwards. Who Podzemsky,
you think he can guard Anthony Hell? No, so now
it's like, well, you can't.
Speaker 3 (23:46):
Put on Draymond, will be on Rudy Gobert. I don't
even know who the other.
Speaker 4 (23:51):
Stow Jimmy Butler on Edwards, I doubt it. You need
his offense, So I wonder. I think the Warriors are
gonna look a little different Rob. I think we're gonna
see a lot of Gary Payton. He's their best defender.
I said that on the Herd today and guys are like, bro.
He he didn't even play. It was a non factor
in some of that series. I think he was sick. Well,
in an ideal world, they would play Kaminga. But I
(24:12):
think Steve Kerr has totally just ruined any confidence that
he has right now. Yeah, if they could ship Kuminga
to the Shanghai Sharks right now for like a of whatever,
they would do it like they're out on coming.
Speaker 3 (24:24):
And I feel bad now. I don't know what's going
on behind the scenes.
Speaker 4 (24:26):
Maybe he he looks broken.
Speaker 2 (24:29):
He just looks mentally broken when you watch him out there.
He looks lost.
Speaker 4 (24:32):
Guy's been through so many iterations of this team, you know,
and there were moments that where they really liked him
this year and now they're just I don't know if
it's you know, it's weird you watch so I'm sure
the teams watch some film and after that you see
stuff that you didn't see during the game, and you're.
Speaker 3 (24:48):
Like, shit, man, how bad is this guy? And it's weird.
Somebody sent me a Luca video.
Speaker 4 (24:53):
I put it on IG where essentially, you know, the
Lakers took a bad shot by Lebron, but they got
the off to rebound and Ruey has it like, you know,
near mid court and Luca's like bah ball ball right
next to Rui, and Rui just passes it over to
Lebron and Luca like kind of not quite throws his
hands up, but it's just like, what the what the belief?
You know, he wasn't happy, And you know, when the
(25:16):
Lakers are breaking down film, they're seeing all that stuff.
They're seeing Luca not box out, not rotate, And I
just wonder if something happened on film with Kuminga that
they were disappointed in, because man, you're right, he's just
buried on the bench. Let me just throw something at you,
because this is the kind of fun that I miss.
Rob Who would you rather have as your point guard?
(25:38):
Going forward, salaries and roster. Forget the roster, just salaries. Okay,
would you rather have Kate Cunningham or Jah Moran? Oh?
Speaker 2 (25:47):
Kay Cunningham?
Speaker 3 (25:48):
Okay, would you rather have Tyrese Haliburton or Kate Cunningham.
That's tough. That's a tough one.
Speaker 2 (25:55):
Yeah, I think I know the answer. Kay. Cunningham's great.
He's he's a scoring guard more than he's a point
you know, Tyre's Halliburton can run the show as well
as anybody in basket. I will go with Haliburton. I
think it's easier to build around him.
Speaker 4 (26:13):
This isn't equal because they're not totally the same player.
Jalen Brunton or Devin Booker.
Speaker 2 (26:20):
Oh, I mean Jalen Brunson is the only one who's
shown he can win at that level.
Speaker 3 (26:24):
Wait a minute, book Deep book went to the finals.
Speaker 2 (26:26):
No, but I mean Booker. That was Chris Paul Like
running the team. We saw, we see what he looks
like without a point guard. Like when it's Devin Booker
leading the charge that it's a lottery team every year.
Speaker 4 (26:39):
Hold on, I gotta I gotta look up the tests
because I thought d book was was the alpha on
the team.
Speaker 3 (26:43):
I know they changed when Chris Paul got there. Oh
my gosh. I mean in the finals, Booker averaged twenty
eight book.
Speaker 2 (26:51):
The Booker was the best player. I mean, it's kind
of like Kevin Durant Booker. Booker was the best player,
but the leader of the team was Chris Paul.
Speaker 4 (26:57):
Chris Paul right right, whereas Brunson is the leader, yes,
of the Knicks. Okay, most likely upset of the three
teams that.
Speaker 3 (27:06):
Won Game one, like most likely in the series.
Speaker 2 (27:10):
Yeah, oh, Indiana, Wow, I mean, did you see the
injury report that it's gonna come on? Wordly?
Speaker 3 (27:16):
I don't know how that happened, dude, I can't believe this.
Speaker 4 (27:19):
So, you know, Ta is an Ohio guy, and he
put out this incredible stat about teams that are favored
at Game one at home and then losing outright, and
historically they bounced back at a ridiculous place.
Speaker 3 (27:31):
It's like thirty and four against the spread, unbelievable numbers.
And I look, oh my, buddy looks at the line.
Speaker 4 (27:38):
He's like, it's ten. I was like, damn, that's high.
Let me, let me get it down. I took nine
and a half minus one nineteen. Okay, and I'm thinking
I got a good number of casts are gonna bounce.
Within two hours they announced Evan Mobley's availability is in question.
Speaker 3 (27:52):
Who was the other guy?
Speaker 2 (27:54):
Hunter?
Speaker 3 (27:54):
Two of their top like five guys? Dari is the
Garland may or may not plays missed the last three games.
So what's the deal with Garland?
Speaker 2 (28:01):
By the way, I think it's his foot. I think
I have to look it up. And then, unrelated to
all that, Donovan Mitchell, if you watch game one, he
was clearly bothered with his knee and he was reaching
for it several times. He was not going full tilt
back on defense a couple of times because he was
hobbled with something.
Speaker 3 (28:21):
I don't know exactly what it is with it Is
that why he was one of eleven from there?
Speaker 2 (28:24):
I mean I could have been, But it's like they are.
They did such a good job of minimizing minutes all
season so that they could be fresh as possible for
the playoffs. And to see their whole team get hurt
at the same time against the team like Indiana that
is going to run you roughshot is just a cruel
joke by the basketball gods.
Speaker 4 (28:44):
I don't know if I can buy out of that,
but I mean, if mobile doesn't, it might work out
better to just have one big. By the way, Jared
Allen individually against Halliburton did not go well. I saw
Halliburton was six for eight shooting when defended by Jared Allen,
he had an insane step back, took him off the dribble,
like I'm just Halliburton's I don't know, this is the
(29:05):
toughest one, rob, you know, I think he's a little
older Brunson. But Brunston or Haliburton, who would you rather
have as your point guard? One of them was on
the Olympic team but barely played.
Speaker 2 (29:16):
Again Jalen. Brunston at least has shown he can do
it as the guy. What do you mean?
Speaker 3 (29:22):
But Haliburton hasn't, not to that level yet. I mean
took Yana.
Speaker 4 (29:27):
I know, listen, you were on fraternity in the deciding
game against Giannis.
Speaker 2 (29:33):
And four guys from your mind.
Speaker 4 (29:34):
I no, no, no, that's about that. Just the one
v one Halliburton's Like, I got this. And Halliburton cooked
Jannis off the dribble for the layup, and I was
like that, I didn't know he had that, Like Jianna
is a great defender.
Speaker 3 (29:45):
He's six eleven.
Speaker 2 (29:46):
That happened.
Speaker 3 (29:46):
I thought he was gonna.
Speaker 4 (29:47):
Swat it and it was like, oh shit, And that's
when Halliburton's dad came on the floor like a dope
and started person But like, I think that's tough, man.
Speaker 3 (29:57):
I would.
Speaker 2 (29:57):
They're totally different guards too. It really depends on how
your team is built.
Speaker 4 (30:02):
But I think, let me just check the ages, because
I think Haliburton's like twenty five and Brunson's twenty nine,
and that's a big difference. Halliburton is twenty five, just
turned twenty five, and so yeah, you always got a
air on the side of younger. But man, it's tough
not to love Jalen Brunson, who is turning twenty nine
in August, so four and a half years.
Speaker 3 (30:24):
It appears different. That's a tough one.
Speaker 2 (30:27):
And again, I don't even like watching Jalen Brunson play,
why because he plays that foul merchant style that I
just don't enjoy watching. He's great, he's great, I just
don't enjoy watching it.
Speaker 4 (30:40):
Yeah, all right, so two games tonight. Oh by the way,
there is a fun Instagram video going around Jalen Brunson
versus Jason Tatum in some like high school game or something.
Speaker 3 (30:51):
It was either AU or high school. I forget, but man,
I mean it's totally kidd like, how did everybody not think?
Speaker 2 (30:59):
How?
Speaker 4 (30:59):
I still don't get the maths screwed up? Jayalen Brunson,
Are you freaking kidding me? And I maintained rob and
I've been I've never wavered in this Brunton over Kyrie
and it's not close. Oh yeah, Like that's who I
would rather have better career, Probably not yet for Brunson,
He's got ways to go.
Speaker 2 (31:17):
But man, you know what cracks me about those kind
of those those pictures you talk about where say, hey,
these two Ice school guys going at it. I see
those pop up on Twitter from time to time or
ex whatever you want to call it, and it goes
to show you how young these kids are, the guys
who are making these accounts and are posting these pictures.
Because there was one that came up on my feet
about a week ago and it was Lebron in high
(31:38):
school with corn rows. This is how old the photo
is and the guys the defender looks like almost nervous,
like backing off of him, and I imagine, you know,
this kid going against Lebron James must be scared. Whoever
made that account had no idea. The guy that Lebron
was going against in that photo was Sebastian Telfair. If
(31:58):
you remember anything about bat, Sebastian Telfair believed to his
core that he was better than Lebron James. And that
was part of the reason why his NBA career didn't
work out so much, because he believed that he was
as good as everybody else. I'll promise you in that
particular game, whatever that photo is from, Bassie was not
scared of Lebron James. He just was not as good
(32:20):
as him.
Speaker 4 (32:20):
As a different conversation, Yeah, I remember Telfair, man, he
was supposed to be incredible.
Speaker 2 (32:24):
He was supposed to be yah.
Speaker 4 (32:26):
I don't even know what he didn't. I don't think
he did much. But anyways, all right, we're back tomorrow, man.
NBA is getting great. Just when we're like, oh no,
Lebron and Luke are out.
Speaker 3 (32:35):
Holy cal the game's got crazy. See tomorrow,
This is straight fire with Jason McIntyre.
Speaker 2 (00:11):
What is up?
Speaker 3 (00:11):
Straight Fire?
Speaker 4 (00:12):
Play up, It's me Jason McIntyre. Straight fight here for Tuesday,
May the sixth, and folks, last night, if you went
to bed early, holy hell, did you miss an unbelievable
night of basketball in the Association.
Speaker 3 (00:30):
It was I mean, two heart stopping thrillers.
Speaker 4 (00:34):
Nicks shock the Celtics, Yes, shock the Celtics in overtime
come back from down twenty and the Oklahoma City Thunder
aka cho Oklahoma City jagging up a lead, like give
up a nineteen to six run to close the game
and lose outright at home to Denver on an Aaron
Gordon three with like three seconds left. I mean, there's
(00:55):
so much to dive into here. However, it was the
first time two NBA underdogs of nine or more one
outright in the same day in the NBA playoffs in
the last twenty five years. We just saw historic stuff
last night. And I'm gonna start with the Knicks, so
obviously I'm watching early. I put the bet out there
that I'm doing first quarter bet on the next plus
(01:17):
three and that hits, and I'm feeling great, and I'm like, Okay, hey,
got some money in my pocket. The Knicks were probably
gonna get blown out second quarter. Comes what happens, Boston
just paces them. They're up sixteen and a half. I
have to go to a men's league game, and I'm like,
oh boy, but I'm talking to the guys at the
scorers table.
Speaker 3 (01:34):
I'm like, hey, you got this Knick score?
Speaker 4 (01:35):
Nick, oh, Nicks are getting buried it down twenty j Mac, Oh,
my gosh, it's over. Okay figure And then I don't
ask them for a while. You know, we're playing this
team and a bunch of bums. We crush them, and
all of a sudden, this guy goes j Mack it's
a three point game with two minutes left.
Speaker 3 (01:49):
I was like, in the Knicks game?
Speaker 1 (01:51):
What?
Speaker 3 (01:52):
And I was stunned.
Speaker 4 (01:53):
So I'm like, guys, I'm gonna sit out to start
the second half, just so I could try to watch
it on my phone. And of course the signals awful
and so I'm not able to watch it. I have
to follow it like on the box score and stuff
and the New York Knicks. Somehow, some way, McHale Bridges
strips Jalen Brown before he can get off a shot
in overtime and the Knicks survived by three epic comeback
(02:17):
Jalen Brunson mister clutch twenty nine points. Ojiannernobi had twenty
nine Bridges with the huge trip. Bridges did not have
a great game, three of thirteen shooting. But the big
story is the Boston Celtics. This team rolled New York
in the regular season four to zho. They had three
double digit wins, and they led by twenty midway.
Speaker 3 (02:38):
Through the third quarter last night.
Speaker 4 (02:39):
Okay, and listen, I'm sure some people are gonna blame
Porzingis not playing in the second half. He was zero
for four in thirteen minutes and he was ill, so
he did not play in the second half. I'm guessing
they were like, oh, we're up sixteen, we got this,
just got healthy Porzingis and Al Horford they had to
play him. He was barbecue chicken. Brunton just went at
him like you got no chance. And Al Horford's a pro,
(03:02):
maybe a Hall of Fame or I don't. A lot
of guys make the NBA Hall of Fame. But the
Knicks just patiently ran their offense, got to their spots
and hit shots. The Celtics in what you're gonna hear
is one of the craziest numbers in recent NBA playoff history.
They shot sixty three pointers sixty they missed forty.
Speaker 3 (03:22):
Five of them.
Speaker 4 (03:23):
They shot fifteen of sixty from three, a robust twenty
five percent. Now, listen, everybody was a culprit. Okay, Jalen
Brown won of ten, Derek Quite five of sixteen. But
a lot of enmity is being thrown hurled at my man.
Jason Tatum. Listen, Tatum at twenty three and sixteen and six.
(03:47):
He had a solid game, but he was four of
fifteen on threes. Now here's the crazy thing. Yeah, fifteen
threes for Jason Tatum is crazy. When the Knicks don't
have a rim protector at all. I mean, Mitchell Robinson played,
but come on, he's not. They three of ten on
free throws.
Speaker 3 (04:02):
They just hack a Robinson and he had to get
off the court again. But here's the thing.
Speaker 4 (04:07):
I'm gonna give you the two stat lines. Here's Jalen
Brunson nine of twenty three for twenty nine points. Brunson
was six of seven on free throws, Jason Tatum seven
of twenty three, so he basically just missed two more
shots than Brunson, and he was five of seven on
free throws twenty three points. The difference is Brunson five
(04:28):
of nine on threes, hit three big ones in a
row in the second half in the fourth quarter, sorry,
and Tatum was four of fifteen on threes. Folks, I mean,
I don't know like why this happened, but in the
second half Boston shot forty nine times second half and overtime,
thirty seven of those attempts were three pointers. Thirty seven
(04:51):
of forty nine shots were threes. And I guess the
only question is why the Knicks. They have good wing defenders, yes,
but they you don't have a rim protector. I'm not
saying you could have run a layup line, but Boston
had nothing to fear attacking the basket. And then compounding matters,
the Knicks couldn't even shoot free throw seventeen of thirty
(05:13):
one fifty four percent. That's like what they were doing
against the Pistons, where they mess around and nearly lost.
This was a crazy, bizarre game, and I know Tatum
is gonna get crushed today. And a guy play hoops
with he went to high school with Peyton Fritchard who
won like four state championship.
Speaker 3 (05:31):
This guy plays hoops.
Speaker 4 (05:32):
He's really really good, and he basically is like joining
the crowd where he's like, hey man, Jason Tatum just
isn't clutch.
Speaker 3 (05:41):
And I was like, you know, do you have any
stats to back that up?
Speaker 4 (05:43):
And then I decided to look at Tatum in the
fourth quarter and overtime, and you know, Tatum's my guy.
He's all NBA. I think he's top five player in
the league. Fourth quarter and overtime, one of nine, zero
for five on threes, and it's like, hey man, he
didn't have a great game, not his best effort.
Speaker 3 (06:01):
Clearly, that being said, it's just one game.
Speaker 4 (06:05):
And as I will talk about shortly, another superstar in
the league did not have his finest game.
Speaker 3 (06:14):
His name Shay Gilders. Alexander Oh Interesting, the MVP a
robust minus sixteen. But we'll get to that.
Speaker 4 (06:23):
I do want to welcome in back from five weeks off. Okay,
I don't know what I would do with five weeks off. Seriously,
I would lose my mind, like five weeks Like Rob
G is back in the building, rob G, are you
sick of your family?
Speaker 2 (06:39):
Yet? I will not answer that question.
Speaker 3 (06:43):
That's a smart man.
Speaker 2 (06:44):
I will not answer that. It's going to be back though.
Speaker 4 (06:47):
Yeah, so what were you watching sports the whole time
or just going to Disney every day and having fun?
Speaker 2 (06:51):
Well, first off, I don't make game Act money, so
I was not at Disney every day. But now I
was able to watch a lot of sports because you know,
one of the perks of having young children is they
didn't go to sleep earlier. So I was able to
watch all five games of the Lakers playoff. You know,
it's meant to get to be a lot longer than that.
But so it wasn't too bad.
Speaker 3 (07:10):
I didn't Lakers.
Speaker 2 (07:12):
I didn't realize how much I annoying my wife though,
Like me being at home for six weeks was just
rough for her. And apparently I'm a lot.
Speaker 3 (07:21):
They don't want us around guys, They don't. You know
that they don't.
Speaker 2 (07:24):
The idea of us is cool, but the actual people
of the husbands like, no, we can do without us.
Speaker 3 (07:32):
It's quite bad, all right.
Speaker 4 (07:34):
So I mean, listen, I get I'm not gonna kill
Jason Tatum. You can if you want to. I'm not
gonna go overboard with this. Nick Win like I don't
what does it mean. I mean, the Pacers beat the
Calves in Game one on the road, the Knicks beat
the Celtics Game one on the road, big underdogs, and
then you've got Denver shocking. Okay, see big underdog Game
(07:55):
one on the road. So the conference semifinals are off
to a crazy start. But overall, I don't think this
is like the end of the world for Boston. I mean,
for all we know, Boston could win this in five.
But I do for the first time, Rob. You know,
during the regular season, I didn't feel like Bridges and
Annoby were the great fits I thought they would be,
(08:16):
and Aneronoby was phenomenal six threes in this one. Bridges
again didn't do it offensively, but made the big defensive
stop the Knicks by the way ten steals.
Speaker 3 (08:26):
They did play pretty good d.
Speaker 4 (08:28):
But listen, man, it ain't hard to play d, Rob
when the other team is jacking sixty three pointers, you.
Speaker 2 (08:33):
Know, exactly, exactly, And that's why I'm one of the
people who is not going to kill future Laker Jason
Tatum here on Tuesday morning. I mean, he didn't play great.
You mentioned the stats. Anybody to go there again? But
outside of Drew Holliday, which Boston Celtic did play great.
I mean porzing Is throwing up at halftime, he didn't
play in the second half, Derek White couldn't hit the
red side of a barn and Jalen Brown up until
(08:54):
the end of the fourth quarter was a goose egg
from deep. He was started out zero for nine and
up finishing one for ten. So none of the Celtics
guys really got cooking. And to me, the bigger problem,
and this is something that we've talked about even last
year on their quest to the championship, they play, in
(09:14):
my opinion, a very unethical style of basketball. There is
no good and this is talking from a guy who
watched Jalen Brunson and his foul hunting and roots for
the Lakers who employ Luka Doncic, who also can be
said play as an unethical style of basketball. But Boston
missed forty five threes on Monday night, the most in
(09:35):
NBA playoff history, tied for the third most in any
game in NBA history, and it became pretty clear early
in the third quarter that it was just not their
night from deep. They just wasn't falling the shots. Weren't
going in the way they're accustomed to. It is what
it is. It happens NBA players have nights like this
(09:56):
from time to time. The problem was similar to the
famous Houston Rockets Game seven against Steph Katie and those Warriors.
They just kept shooting. They were not deterred in any
kind of way, and they kept shooting and kept shooting,
and this twenty point lead goes down to fifteen, goes
down to eleven, goes down to eight.
Speaker 3 (10:15):
Next you know, you're down by six. You're gonna lose
the game in overtime.
Speaker 2 (10:20):
My biggest problem with what they did though, because that
is their style of play is what it is. What
it is is. I don't know if you saw this.
Joe Missoula in the post game was asked about, you know,
their shooting. They went ice cold. You mentioned in the
second half they could not hit a three, and they
just kept shooting and shooting it, and he asked if
he was how he felt about the shot selection, and
(10:45):
he said, hey, we got good looks.
Speaker 1 (10:48):
Like.
Speaker 2 (10:50):
My brother in Christ. Sure you want to get good looks.
And then that's that's quote unquote good offense. Better offense
is finding ways to win, and it was clear early on,
even as they blew there to that big lead, the
Knicks were defending the three point line very well. They
were switching everything. They were not allowing these shots. They
(11:10):
weren't letting the penetrating pitch offense work against them. It
was either, hey, you're gonna go to the rim and
we think you're gonna try to score on Karl Anthony Towns,
or you're gonna pull up from three un contests to
jump in. And they just kept doing it and doing
it and doing it. And I know that in the
course of an eighty two game regular season, the math
eventually is gonna math, and it's gonna play out in
(11:32):
your favor. The law of averages say you're gonna hit
more threes in the opposition, you're gonna win a lot
of games in the playoffs where it's the first to
sixteen and all you really need is to get a bucket.
We saw that in the first round with all these series.
Houston Golden State was not a fun series to watch offensively.
Lakers Timberwls was not a fun series to watch offensively.
(11:54):
The moral of the story is score by any means necessary,
and Boston he does not subscribe to that line of thinking.
Speaker 1 (12:02):
Fox Sports Radio has the best sports talk lineup in
the nation. Catch all of our shows at foxsports Radio
dot com and within the iHeartRadio app. Search FSR to
listen live.
Speaker 3 (12:14):
I mean, Jalen Brunson is really unstoppable.
Speaker 4 (12:17):
They threw the kitchen sink at him, and he still
clutched up when it mattered most, and they came back
from down twenty like I'm just the Jalen Brunson legend
grows like he I'm just telling you he's the mid
range version of Steph Curry. That's how that's I think
the best way to sum up. You know, someone went
to uh went into outer space for the last like
eight years, and they come back and they're like, wait,
(12:37):
who's cooking for the next Jalen Brunson. Is that the
guy from Villanova? Yep, that's the one. Like I didn't
see that, Like nobody saw this. I mean, Jalen Brunson
just unbelievable. Now, I do have to say I'm more
stunned by Denver the comeback they had against Oklahoma City
because I'm not gonna lie I laid it with Oklahoma
(12:58):
City first time. I bet those frauds in the Posty's
a minus nine and a half, looking.
Speaker 3 (13:01):
Good, up ten, twelve, fifteen. They're playing great.
Speaker 4 (13:05):
And down the stretch. It was an epic melt rob.
This is a team that did not know look like
they were belonging to the playoffs. Meanwhile, Denver, oh, they
just got forty two to twenty two and six from
Yoki Choe. Big deal, you know, Aaron Gordon with his
second game winner in like a week. Remember this is
the same Nuggets team that was down two to one
to the paper Clips. A lot of people started to
(13:26):
write them off, myself included, and they needed an Aaron
Gordon tippin at the buzzer to prevent overtime and.
Speaker 3 (13:36):
Beat the Clippers in Game four.
Speaker 4 (13:37):
Now they did lead that game by twenty, but nevertheless,
like that's how close they were to being down three
to one, and now they go up one oh one.
OKC and folks, I I'm not gonna lie. I thought
this was gonna be thunder and five. A lot of
morons out there.
Speaker 3 (13:50):
Oh, well, the Knicks are tired from that Detroit series.
Boston's rested Celtics are gonna kill him.
Speaker 4 (13:57):
Well, Denver's probably exhausted series one seven. Okay, SE's been
They've been in the clubhouse with their feet up, just
sip it.
Speaker 3 (14:04):
On Jackson Cokes.
Speaker 4 (14:06):
It's like, oh, we're relaxed, and thunder come out, lead
to almost the whole game, and then blow it. I
saw a stat that they only lead Denver had in
quarters two, three or four, which when they let on
the Aaron Gordon three with three seconds left. Here's the
weirdest part, Bob. Watch Chet Holmgren at the free throw line.
He looks spooked. The dude looked absolutely nervous. He did
(14:28):
not have a good game. Oh for three from deep
minus fourteen, just not a great game from him. He
clangs the free throws, pauses on the line for a
second like, oh my gosh, did I just blow them?
Comes back down the court, Russell Westbrook drives, helps on Westbrook,
leaving Aaron Gordon open Aaron Gordon three wide open.
Speaker 3 (14:48):
Splash and watch Chet.
Speaker 4 (14:51):
After that he puts his hands on his head like,
oh my gosh, I cost this the game.
Speaker 3 (14:54):
We lost.
Speaker 4 (14:54):
The coach does get up the court. There's so three
seconds left. That looked like a t that was discombobulated.
Now I would have to go back Rob off the
top of my hat. I don't remember it, but Dallas
won one of the two games against Oklahoma.
Speaker 3 (15:07):
City last year. I called that Dallas series.
Speaker 4 (15:10):
You know, I love Luca. I was always going to
back him. I did not see this coming from Denver.
Now we know Joki is gonna eat against these guys.
Hartenstein was powerless. Everybody's gonna tell me how clutch. Alex
Caruso was hitting five threes and had twenty points. And
oh my, Alex Crusoe was amazing, folks. Was he even
on the bench down stretch? I would have to look, honestly,
because Jay Dubb kept hogging the ball. This guy, who
(15:33):
you guys think is a two, he's not a two.
Ja Dubb five of twenty. I mean, the guy's out
of control flying through the lane. I'm sorry, man, listen,
you don't want to go overboard and just call them
fraud that I did last night on social media, Rob,
But is there a whiff of fraudulence here with the thunder? Like,
come on, how do you blow that lead dowlas Stritch
(15:55):
and I haven't even gotten to the coach foolishly fouling
to put guys on the line like, I don't know
yet if that was a math play by him, but
you're up three. Instead of letting them shoot a three,
let's just fail. Well, when Yoki Chi Gordon go to
the line, they're still making their free throws. And of
course Chet goes and clangs too. So Denver in a
shocker up one. Nothing on okay, see their starters logged
(16:19):
heavy minutes. Michael Porter Junior did nothing, one for eight shooting.
It looked like he was benched the entire fourth quarter.
Westbrook had a solid game, but overall, this was a
absolute stunner. This to me was bigger than the Knicks
win and bigger than the Indiana Pacers upset of the Cavs.
Speaker 3 (16:41):
Oh.
Speaker 2 (16:42):
I mean, that's hard to rank them. And I will say,
as a basketball fan and is a non fan of
any of these teams, Monday night was one of the
great basketball nights of my recent lifetime. I can't recall
a better night of basketball than we got on Monday.
I'm actually one of those people and you might, you know,
(17:03):
disagree with me. I thought this game was more about
Denver than it was about Okay. See now you call
them frauds, and I totally understand that when you blow
a game the way you did like that, I'm not
really gonna argue too hard against it. But you mentioned
Jokic joined Giannis Shaq and Wilt Chamberlain as the only
player's name day history with forty twenty five in a
(17:26):
playoff game. Okay, in the fourth quarter, Nikola Jokic eighteen
points on four six stoot two eight of ten from
the free throw line. And my favorite thing that he
did on Monday night was I don't know if you
saw the clip. Not only is he scoring forty plus,
he's getting twenty plus rebounds, dishing out dimes, he's calling
(17:48):
out the defense. Did you see that he was also
coaching the team during a sideline timeout drawn up.
Speaker 3 (17:56):
Blaze the elbow to lou Georg's head.
Speaker 2 (17:59):
I mean, Nikola Jokic. I mean, if there was any
question on who's the MVP, give me the guy who's
actually coaching the team and playing. It's a player coach
in the NBA. But aside from that, because you could
go on Jokic basically every game, it's gotten to a
point now where we were talking about four started recording.
He finished with the forty twenty plus and We're like, oh,
I thought he had like twenty five and fifteen. It's like,
(18:19):
but he just these stat lines with him, I've become
so like normal that we were not impressed by them anymore.
It feels like like it's, oh yeah, Yokic did it again.
You know, ho hum, what it is? What it is.
But Aaron Gordon, everyone's going to talk about the mad
three pointer. And historically he's not a good shooter. He
(18:39):
was a career thirty two percent three point shooter, sixty
eight percent free throw shooter. Before this season, he's known
as a high flyer. He can dunk real hard, plays
good defense, and that's kind of about it. This season,
people don't realize this totally remakes his game. He's not
flushing on dudes like he used to. He's become more
(19:00):
of a spot up shooter. He still defends his ass
off when you know, when he's healthy and he's kind
of banged up right now. This season. Did you know
this j Mac forty three percent from three eighty one
percent from the free throw line.
Speaker 3 (19:13):
I did not know that.
Speaker 2 (19:14):
And if you want to be one of those people, hey,
that was a lucky shot. You know, he was nobody
on him. It is what it is. Before he hit
that game winning three, he also hit the free throws
that Chet Holmgren didn't. Yeah, like, Aaron Gordon is gonna
get a lot of pub because of the may the
last shot. But this is not a fluke. This is
not a one off. Aaron Gordon has been a very
good player, a different kind of player than what you're
(19:37):
used to, all season. And this Denver Nuggets team has
shown you over the last two weeks. Going back to
that Clippers here, I picked the Clippers to win that series.
I look stupid now, but they are showing you the
difference between a team like the Clippers, who have a
lot of talent and they just for whatever reason mentally
can't get over THEMP and a team like Oklahoma City
who's extremely talented that he's very young and inexperienced. They
(19:59):
have that chancechampionship medal that you only get from winning
a championship. It's why they pull out a game like this.
It's how the Golden State Warriors, despite only having like
five guys you come to playing, are able to beat
the young whippers Napple Houston Rocket on the road in
Game seven. They are going to be a problem. They
may not win this series, but I guarantee you it's
(20:20):
not going to be as easy as the stats would suggest.
With Oklahoma City being one of their storkeally great teams,
Denver is gonna give them all they can handle in
this series.
Speaker 3 (20:28):
Dang looks like he had fifteen in the fourth. Jokich,
My gosh, the guy is a machine. He's kind of
like a cyborg.
Speaker 4 (20:37):
It feels like he's a Terminator two class man forty two,
twenty two and six. I mean, you know, they they
went out and got Arten's team, They went out and
picked up Alex Crusio.
Speaker 3 (20:48):
Those were shrewd moves. I don't know, man Hartenstein five
foul six baskets.
Speaker 4 (20:55):
I just I did not anticipate Denver, which basically, you know,
the saying is place seven trust six. They after benching
Porter Junior. It was basically Russell, Westbrook and Company. In
the second half, Julian Strawther got a couple of minutes.
Peyton Watson got a few minutes. How does Peyton Watson
the kid from UCLA. He's athletic as hell, super talented.
(21:16):
He's twenty two years old. Remember Jalen Green, I'm men Thompson.
Those guys are twenty two. Peyton Watson in fifteen minutes
was a minus twenty two.
Speaker 2 (21:26):
Not great.
Speaker 3 (21:27):
I mean, I don't know, Rob. It's funny. Where was
free throw merchant? SGA down the stretch? Huh what happened
with that guy? Your boy, he's gonna win the MVP.
Is nice game, forty minutes, only one turnover.
Speaker 2 (21:40):
He was good.
Speaker 4 (21:41):
But I'm sorry they have to hammer out this endgame
lineup because this coach dagnalled. He just got body bagged
by an interim coach. Remember the Nuggets fired their coach?
Speaker 3 (21:52):
What a month ago?
Speaker 2 (21:53):
There was three games left in the season.
Speaker 3 (21:55):
I think when he got fired, maybe less than a month.
Speaker 2 (21:58):
Yeah, yeah, like that.
Speaker 3 (21:59):
It's in saying now it's right, got to coach the
team during the timeouts? Yeah exactly. I don't want to overreact,
but this that that was that result.
Speaker 1 (22:10):
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Speaker 4 (22:23):
I still think the Celtics and I still think the
thunder are winning their series. I I like the Pacers
a little bit. I don't know, Rob, do you think
we're gonna see uh In? I think there's only one
game tonight, the Warriors.
Speaker 3 (22:40):
There might be no.
Speaker 4 (22:40):
No Nuggets play to night, not Nuggets, sorry, Calves Pacers
play tonight. But do you think we see a fourth
road team, the Golden State Warriors come up big and
pull the upset over over Minnesota.
Speaker 2 (22:53):
No, because ultimately the postseason it's I don't care about
home core, you know, unless it's a Game seven, I
really don't care. It comes down in matchups. And if
you thought that Houston was a tough matchup for Golden State,
you haven't seen anything yet. Because Minnesota can defend just
(23:14):
as well as Houston can. The difference is they don't
have the same problem scoring, and so Anthony Edwards, Julius Randall, Nasried,
like all of those guys can score. And given what
we saw from Golden State in that last series, I
don't think there's any way that they keep this one
within single digits.
Speaker 4 (23:33):
Well, it's interesting because we know Curry cannot guard Anthony Edwards.
We know Buddy Heal cannot guard Anthony Edwards. Who Podzemsky,
you think he can guard Anthony Hell? No, so now
it's like, well, you can't.
Speaker 3 (23:46):
Put on Draymond, will be on Rudy Gobert. I don't
even know who the other.
Speaker 4 (23:51):
Stow Jimmy Butler on Edwards, I doubt it. You need
his offense, So I wonder. I think the Warriors are
gonna look a little different Rob. I think we're gonna
see a lot of Gary Payton. He's their best defender.
I said that on the Herd today and guys are like, bro.
He he didn't even play. It was a non factor
in some of that series. I think he was sick. Well,
in an ideal world, they would play Kaminga. But I
(24:12):
think Steve Kerr has totally just ruined any confidence that
he has right now. Yeah, if they could ship Kuminga
to the Shanghai Sharks right now for like a of whatever,
they would do it like they're out on coming.
Speaker 3 (24:24):
And I feel bad now. I don't know what's going
on behind the scenes.
Speaker 4 (24:26):
Maybe he he looks broken.
Speaker 2 (24:29):
He just looks mentally broken when you watch him out there.
He looks lost.
Speaker 4 (24:32):
Guy's been through so many iterations of this team, you know,
and there were moments that where they really liked him
this year and now they're just I don't know if
it's you know, it's weird you watch so I'm sure
the teams watch some film and after that you see
stuff that you didn't see during the game, and you're.
Speaker 3 (24:48):
Like, shit, man, how bad is this guy? And it's weird.
Somebody sent me a Luca video.
Speaker 4 (24:53):
I put it on IG where essentially, you know, the
Lakers took a bad shot by Lebron, but they got
the off to rebound and Ruey has it like, you know,
near mid court and Luca's like bah ball ball right
next to Rui, and Rui just passes it over to
Lebron and Luca like kind of not quite throws his
hands up, but it's just like, what the what the belief?
You know, he wasn't happy, And you know, when the
(25:16):
Lakers are breaking down film, they're seeing all that stuff.
They're seeing Luca not box out, not rotate, And I
just wonder if something happened on film with Kuminga that
they were disappointed in, because man, you're right, he's just
buried on the bench. Let me just throw something at you,
because this is the kind of fun that I miss.
Rob Who would you rather have as your point guard?
(25:38):
Going forward, salaries and roster. Forget the roster, just salaries. Okay,
would you rather have Kate Cunningham or Jah Moran? Oh?
Speaker 2 (25:47):
Kay Cunningham?
Speaker 3 (25:48):
Okay, would you rather have Tyrese Haliburton or Kate Cunningham.
That's tough. That's a tough one.
Speaker 2 (25:55):
Yeah, I think I know the answer. Kay. Cunningham's great.
He's he's a scoring guard more than he's a point
you know, Tyre's Halliburton can run the show as well
as anybody in basket. I will go with Haliburton. I
think it's easier to build around him.
Speaker 4 (26:13):
This isn't equal because they're not totally the same player.
Jalen Brunton or Devin Booker.
Speaker 2 (26:20):
Oh, I mean Jalen Brunson is the only one who's
shown he can win at that level.
Speaker 3 (26:24):
Wait a minute, book Deep book went to the finals.
Speaker 2 (26:26):
No, but I mean Booker. That was Chris Paul Like
running the team. We saw, we see what he looks
like without a point guard. Like when it's Devin Booker
leading the charge that it's a lottery team every year.
Speaker 4 (26:39):
Hold on, I gotta I gotta look up the tests
because I thought d book was was the alpha on
the team.
Speaker 3 (26:43):
I know they changed when Chris Paul got there. Oh
my gosh. I mean in the finals, Booker averaged twenty
eight book.
Speaker 2 (26:51):
The Booker was the best player. I mean, it's kind
of like Kevin Durant Booker. Booker was the best player,
but the leader of the team was Chris Paul.
Speaker 4 (26:57):
Chris Paul right right, whereas Brunson is the leader, yes,
of the Knicks. Okay, most likely upset of the three
teams that.
Speaker 3 (27:06):
Won Game one, like most likely in the series.
Speaker 2 (27:10):
Yeah, oh, Indiana, Wow, I mean, did you see the
injury report that it's gonna come on? Wordly?
Speaker 3 (27:16):
I don't know how that happened, dude, I can't believe this.
Speaker 4 (27:19):
So, you know, Ta is an Ohio guy, and he
put out this incredible stat about teams that are favored
at Game one at home and then losing outright, and
historically they bounced back at a ridiculous place.
Speaker 3 (27:31):
It's like thirty and four against the spread, unbelievable numbers.
And I look, oh my, buddy looks at the line.
Speaker 4 (27:38):
He's like, it's ten. I was like, damn, that's high.
Let me, let me get it down. I took nine
and a half minus one nineteen. Okay, and I'm thinking
I got a good number of casts are gonna bounce.
Within two hours they announced Evan Mobley's availability is in question.
Speaker 3 (27:52):
Who was the other guy?
Speaker 2 (27:54):
Hunter?
Speaker 3 (27:54):
Two of their top like five guys? Dari is the
Garland may or may not plays missed the last three games.
So what's the deal with Garland?
Speaker 2 (28:01):
By the way, I think it's his foot. I think
I have to look it up. And then, unrelated to
all that, Donovan Mitchell, if you watch game one, he
was clearly bothered with his knee and he was reaching
for it several times. He was not going full tilt
back on defense a couple of times because he was
hobbled with something.
Speaker 3 (28:21):
I don't know exactly what it is with it Is
that why he was one of eleven from there?
Speaker 2 (28:24):
I mean I could have been, But it's like they are.
They did such a good job of minimizing minutes all
season so that they could be fresh as possible for
the playoffs. And to see their whole team get hurt
at the same time against the team like Indiana that
is going to run you roughshot is just a cruel
joke by the basketball gods.
Speaker 4 (28:44):
I don't know if I can buy out of that,
but I mean, if mobile doesn't, it might work out
better to just have one big. By the way, Jared
Allen individually against Halliburton did not go well. I saw
Halliburton was six for eight shooting when defended by Jared Allen,
he had an insane step back, took him off the dribble,
like I'm just Halliburton's I don't know, this is the
(29:05):
toughest one, rob, you know, I think he's a little
older Brunson. But Brunston or Haliburton, who would you rather
have as your point guard? One of them was on
the Olympic team but barely played.
Speaker 2 (29:16):
Again Jalen. Brunston at least has shown he can do
it as the guy. What do you mean?
Speaker 3 (29:22):
But Haliburton hasn't, not to that level yet. I mean
took Yana.
Speaker 4 (29:27):
I know, listen, you were on fraternity in the deciding
game against Giannis.
Speaker 2 (29:33):
And four guys from your mind.
Speaker 4 (29:34):
I no, no, no, that's about that. Just the one
v one Halliburton's Like, I got this. And Halliburton cooked
Jannis off the dribble for the layup, and I was
like that, I didn't know he had that, Like Jianna
is a great defender.
Speaker 3 (29:45):
He's six eleven.
Speaker 2 (29:46):
That happened.
Speaker 3 (29:46):
I thought he was gonna.
Speaker 4 (29:47):
Swat it and it was like, oh shit, And that's
when Halliburton's dad came on the floor like a dope
and started person But like, I think that's tough, man.
Speaker 3 (29:57):
I would.
Speaker 2 (29:57):
They're totally different guards too. It really depends on how
your team is built.
Speaker 4 (30:02):
But I think, let me just check the ages, because
I think Haliburton's like twenty five and Brunson's twenty nine,
and that's a big difference. Halliburton is twenty five, just
turned twenty five, and so yeah, you always got a
air on the side of younger. But man, it's tough
not to love Jalen Brunson, who is turning twenty nine
in August, so four and a half years.
Speaker 3 (30:24):
It appears different. That's a tough one.
Speaker 2 (30:27):
And again, I don't even like watching Jalen Brunson play,
why because he plays that foul merchant style that I
just don't enjoy watching. He's great, he's great, I just
don't enjoy watching it.
Speaker 4 (30:40):
Yeah, all right, so two games tonight. Oh by the way,
there is a fun Instagram video going around Jalen Brunson
versus Jason Tatum in some like high school game or something.
Speaker 3 (30:51):
It was either AU or high school. I forget, but man,
I mean it's totally kidd like, how did everybody not think?
Speaker 2 (30:59):
How?
Speaker 4 (30:59):
I still don't get the maths screwed up? Jayalen Brunson,
Are you freaking kidding me? And I maintained rob and
I've been I've never wavered in this Brunton over Kyrie
and it's not close. Oh yeah, Like that's who I
would rather have better career, Probably not yet for Brunson,
He's got ways to go.
Speaker 2 (31:17):
But man, you know what cracks me about those kind
of those those pictures you talk about where say, hey,
these two Ice school guys going at it. I see
those pop up on Twitter from time to time or
ex whatever you want to call it, and it goes
to show you how young these kids are, the guys
who are making these accounts and are posting these pictures.
Because there was one that came up on my feet
about a week ago and it was Lebron in high
(31:38):
school with corn rows. This is how old the photo
is and the guys the defender looks like almost nervous,
like backing off of him, and I imagine, you know,
this kid going against Lebron James must be scared. Whoever
made that account had no idea. The guy that Lebron
was going against in that photo was Sebastian Telfair. If
(31:58):
you remember anything about bat, Sebastian Telfair believed to his
core that he was better than Lebron James. And that
was part of the reason why his NBA career didn't
work out so much, because he believed that he was
as good as everybody else. I'll promise you in that
particular game, whatever that photo is from, Bassie was not
scared of Lebron James. He just was not as good
(32:20):
as him.
Speaker 4 (32:20):
As a different conversation, Yeah, I remember Telfair, man, he
was supposed to be incredible.
Speaker 2 (32:24):
He was supposed to be yah.
Speaker 4 (32:26):
I don't even know what he didn't. I don't think
he did much. But anyways, all right, we're back tomorrow, man.
NBA is getting great. Just when we're like, oh no,
Lebron and Luke are out.
Speaker 3 (32:35):
Holy cal the game's got crazy. See tomorrow,
Hosts And Creators
kelvin washington
Rob Parker
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