On today’s episode, Jason discusses the Oklahoma City's thrilling victory over the Timberwolves in Game 4 of the Western Conference Finals, why it's becoming more and more apparent that the Thunder are destined to win the NBA championship this season and why he was disappointed in Minnesota's two stars - Anthony Edwards and Julius Randle - Game 4. Later, J-Mac tells us why he's picking the New York Knicks to beat the Indiana Pacers tonight and even the Eastern Conference Finals at two games apiece.
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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 e's up, Straight Fire, It's me Jason McIntire, Straight
Fire for Tuesday, May twenty seventh. Hope everybody had a
great Memorial Day weekend. Mine was extremely busy, hence the
no podcast on Monday. I hope you guys had a fun,
thrilling three day weekend. It's back to the grind as
(00:33):
summer is officially underway. It was a pretty spectacular Memorial
of the weekend for us. I will say, when your
kids are young, Themorial Day memori of the weekend is like, Oh,
let's have a cookout of barbecue. Who's having a pool party,
Let's go to the beach. You know, That's what it's
like when you're young. And then your kids get a
little bit older, and next thing you know, it's like, oh,
there's a travel tournament, there's a chess tournament, there's this,
(00:55):
there's that, and it's really no free time for the parents. However,
my daughter's a big fan of Siza and my son
is like kind of into a lot of Kendrick Lamar stuff,
and it's weird because I'm mostly Team Drake. That being said,
you know, Kendrick Lamar works out of my gym and
I personally have not seen him, but all the guys
I hoop with have and apparently he's a nice guy
(01:16):
and lives kind of near me, but obviously in a
much different setting. His house apparently is ridiculous. Anyways, it
was one of those like I don't really want to
go to the concert, but my kids are like, Dad,
we got to get tickets, So we get tickets to
so Far for Siza and Kendrick Lamar. And this was
(01:37):
like the you know, I was trying to think. I
don't know about you guys, but I was thinking about
my parents, and I'm like, did I go to concerts
with my parents when I was a kid, And the
answer obviously was no. I went with some friends. But
this will be the second concert I've gone to with
the kids. We went to Taylor Swift. Was it last
summer two summers ago. I've already forgotten. But this one
(01:59):
was a different experience. I will say I thought it
was a lot of fun. I did not know Kendrick
Lamar had this many good songs and it's more than
just the Drake Diss stuff, but he does have some
some decent stuff and it was a great vibe, great energy.
I did have a couple guys who were fans of
the Herd. You know, listen, I'm not gonna lie. This
(02:20):
was a large venue. Usually when I go to stadiums
sporting events, I wear a hat, so it's pretty clear
that I'm not looking to make eye contact with a
lot of people. Again, I'm not a huge deal, but
it is weird when you're with your family and you know,
people are coming up saying stuff. So a couple of
people were like, j mac oh, I see you with
(02:41):
your faan. Okay, hey, big fan, you know. And it's
a little bit awkward. Not gonna lie, but the kids
and laugh and stuff. Anyways, the show was pretty freaking awesome.
I gotta say, Justin Bieber came out for some random,
you know song, I don't know. Apparently he was drunker,
I don't know, he was on something whatever. That stuff
doesn't effect. But bottom line is the kids loved it
was a memorable experience, and then the rest of the
(03:03):
weekend was basically choffering them around. Although I did wake
up early twice and played dad volleyball Oh so much fun.
But at my daughter's volleyball tournament in Anaheim. One of
her friend's teams was playing Lebron's daughter's team, and I'm like, oh,
Laker's knocked out of the playoffs. It's a long weekend.
Lebron might be there, and lo and behold, Lebron showed
(03:26):
up and they were like two courts away from us,
and he didn't show up for the first match that
his daughter was playing. And his daughter's young, but plays up.
And then there's this big buzz and you could just
be like, oh what everybody's buzzing and listen. I've been
at tournaments where Kevin Garnett is nobody cares, nobody bats
an eye. I've been at tournament Vince Vaughan, who kind
(03:48):
of lives out this in this area, and I know
him a little bit. No buzz whatsoever. More parents, there
was a palpable buzz for Lebron, and once everybody realized,
oh my gosh, there he is sitting watching his daughter volleyball,
instantly it was a mob scene ten deep at the court.
And in my head, I'm like, oh, I'll just roll
up and be like, what's up, Bron? How you doing? Man?
(04:09):
So is Luca gonna get in shape? You know, make
crack jokes whatever. You couldn't even get near it. I mean,
it was insane. There were people just standing around the
court staring at him while the matter's going on with
his daughter, and he had a couple of bodyguards with him,
and it was certainly interesting, you know, in the kids.
Even my daughter was like, oh, dad, Lebron's right there.
And you know, it's one thing to see him at crypto.
(04:31):
It's another to see him like ten feet away from
you in a normal setting, although it's not really normal
when he has the bodyguards. Anyways, So that was mostly
the weekend, a lot of fun, and it kind of
came to a crashing end on Monday night when OKC
was able to extinguish Minnesota.
Speaker 1 (04:53):
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Speaker 2 (05:05):
Yeah, it's clear, guys, the Oklahoma City Thunder are headed
to the NBA Finals. They win Game four in Minnesota
to go up three to one, one eight one twenty six.
Good game. I mean, you never felt like Minnesota really
was the side there. They did cover the spread. Thanks
to a flurry of late threes. I did not bet it.
I have not bet either conference game since Game one.
(05:28):
I lost both game ones. I said, I like Minnesota
in the series, but it don't look good for them,
so I haven't touched it. I like the next It
has not looked good, but I do think that could
maybe turn tonight. Maybe we'll touch on that at the end.
I have no money on the game, but I not yet.
I may go well, we'll talk about it later. But okay,
see listen, they were on fire. I mean they when
(05:50):
you shoot fifty percent from the field forty three percent
from three, you're not gonna lose many games. And they
did the same big three that has emerged in big
spots for them. So in game two, you knew Minnesota
was gonna come out breathing fire in Game two and
they hung tough and in the third quarter zoom, okay,
(06:10):
see pulls away. And in game two it was the
Chet with twenty two, j Doub with twenty six, and
SGA with thirty eight. That trio carried. Okay, well what
happens in game four? Gotta have it. Don't want to
go home to two. I want to wrap it up
at home, get some rest. Who delivers chat with twenty one,
(06:31):
JDub with thirty four, SGA with forty. Okay, Caruso did
have ten off the bench. He was good as usual,
gets away with a million fouls. Listen, Caruso's my guy.
I liked him with the Lakers. I still like him.
But the Thunder Big Three are tearing through the West,
and I listen, I said, the two teams I think
that could beat the Thunder because of matchups were the Lakers.
(06:52):
And you can scoff all you want, Luka, Donca Jones,
those guys. You can go look at the season series.
Look what he did last year getting the role players
set up for threes. And I thought the Celtics obviously
went healthy. Well, Lakers get eliminated by the Wolves and
Jason Tatum goes down. Celtics are cooked. I don't know who'
stopping Okay, see at this point, and I'll have to
work on my miakopa. I was way wrong about the
(07:15):
Thunder and Sam Presty. I am gonna be hosting The
Herd on Friday and all of next week, so I
do plan on doing apologies left and right. I was
wrong on the thunder. And you know other people won't
say that they were wrong there above admitting it. I
don't mind admitting when I'm wrong. I mean, listen, you
know I'm gonna fuck my chest out when I'm right.
So of course, if I'm wrong, which is rare but
(07:37):
it happens, I will cop to it. And I did
not see j Dubb going for thirty four. I'm at
six of nine on threes. I actually thought Ja Dubb
had had an incredible game. SGA was very, very good.
He had ten assists, nine rebounds. This is the thing
about SGA. He had forty points, and everybody's gonna focus. Oh,
(07:57):
he had forty ten and nine. That's almost forty point
triple double. He took thirty shots, okay, And I can
guarantee you if Anthony Edwards has taken thirty shots in
a game of this magnitude, he's touching forty, probably more
because he's hitting threes. SGA only two to seven from deep.
So SGA did score forty. He took thirty shots. Usually,
(08:19):
when you're taking thirty shots and you're making less than
fifty percent of them thirteen of thirty for SGA, you
take it. Some hits but it's SGA. People love him.
He is the free throw merchant and he delivered once
again Minnesota. I gotta take a moment here. I thought
there was a big advantage at head coach Chris Finch,
a mastermind, has worked magic against the Lakers, was excellent
(08:43):
last year in the playoffs. Great coach. I don't I
don't get it. Julius Randall has turned into a pumpkin.
That was a fear that the pump the Randall we
saw against the Lakers and last round. I don't even
remember who they played last round. It'll come back to
me at some point, but a Warriors, the injured Warriors.
(09:03):
That that Randall was maybe fools goal. And he came
out in Game four and instantly was like attacking off
the dribble every single time, like, bro, that is not
your game, not against SGA, not against loud or just
don't do it. That's not your game. And he had
five turnovers and was benched to get in the fourth quarter.
(09:25):
He did come on for some meaningless rebounds and an
inbound pass, but I mean barely broke a sweat in
the fourth. They would not Nasrie de Vincenzo, Alexander Walker,
Anthony Edwards and Jad McDaniels and Julius Randal, like this
is the concern, Like really good regular season player. I
think he's got all NBA or two. Not this past year,
(09:47):
of course, but like good player, but like if the
three is not falling and he's not driving and creating,
it's kind of a black hole. And Julius Rendald one
of seven, five points, five turnovers. That's a horrific game.
If he's your number two and he's given you five points,
you're totally screwed. The only reason the Wolves are in
this was Devincezzo was cooking. He hit five of eight
(10:10):
from deep and Alexander Walker hit five of eight from deep.
They each had over twenty points. Nas Reid was solid,
but the big thing on this game, And I think
this is gonna be the big talking point all day today.
What the hell happened Anthony Edwards? Are we gonna hear
he was sick? You flew like symptoms, bro forty one
minutes and you took thirteen shots. Alexander Walker in twelve
(10:34):
fewer minutes coming off the bench attempted more shots than
Anthony Edwards, And I don't want to hear. Oh well,
he's got lou Dort draped on him and they're cutting
off the lane. Who cares, Chris Finch, you're a great coach.
Figure it the hell out. Anthony Edwards, you're a superstar.
You're maybe the face of the league. Figure it out, bro.
(10:56):
I was perplexed what Anthony Edwards was doing. Now we've
seen this before with some stars where they pulled what
I like to call the lebron Hey, man, I gotta
get my supporting cast involved, get them cooking. We know
I'm gonna get mine, so let me get them going first.
And I can kind of see that, I can understand it,
and then you're just waiting for the ant eruption and
just never came. I was absolutely stunned. Just put this
(11:19):
in perspective. SGA took thirty shots. J Dubb took twenty
four shots. Anthony Edwards took thirteen. What's happening? I just
just an utter disappointment from the Timberwolves who are gonna
get bounced again in the conference finals. Listen, aunt is young,
the team is young, but I just don't understand that
(11:39):
you're not gonna win the game when you have twenty
one turnovers as a team. Listen, I gotta give more
credit to Oklahoma City guys. Maybe I've been slow to
credit them. I mean, they got blasted in Game three
by forty two, but apparently that just didn't matter at all.
You could just see them come out in this one.
They go for thirty seven in the first quarter, they
(11:59):
had sixty five at half, only slowed down a little
bit in the third, and ultimately Oksee is going back
to the finals for the first time since they had
Kevin Durant, Russell Westbrook, and James Harden coming off the bench. Now,
I know some people will say, well start over Jay.
(12:19):
Oklahoma City is sixteen and two this year after a loss. Okay,
they're a juggernaut at home, the best college basketball team
in the NBA. An NBA player is said to have
told last week's guest Dave McManaman, and that's what they are.
They just come in waves, and I do like that.
I will say the one thing I love about their
(12:40):
strategy that I employed with my guys when I coach
my son and daughter's teams. Listen and get up in
folks and grab them and foul them. And the refs
are not gonna call everything if they don't call it.
You play that way. If they do call it, you
back off a little and that we'll hit them with
the double teams. But that's a U sports. But you
see Oklahoma City is basically doing the same damn thing
(13:01):
they are all over. I mean, Luke Dort, just what,
take your eyes off the ball and watch lou Dort
against Anthony Edwards. He literally has both ants around and
hugging for most of the way. Now, I do know
in my men's leagues when I play, I do employ
that strategy sometimes and they'll say hands off are the
(13:21):
rest in the NBA saying that I don't know, But
you could tell Anthony Edwards is a little frustrated. It
felt to me anytime he drove in the fourth quarter
he was getting molested on his way to the tin
and he's getting no calls. You gotta be disappointed if
you're a Minnesota fan. But I is Randal an upgrade
from Towns. That's the real question here, because Towns basically
(13:45):
save the Knicks Bacon on Saturday Night with an amazing
fourth quarter, And like I just I don't see any
world where Julius Rynold's doing that against Oklahoma City in
this series. I just don't against the Lakers and the Warriors, sure,
but Oklahoma City is a different animal and they really
(14:06):
have bottled up Julius Randall. I did see a funny,
funny article that was in the New York Times about well,
the NBA wanted parody, they got it. Are they ready
for it? And this was an interesting nugget. So do
you guys know who the number one seed in the
(14:26):
West was last year? Oklahoma City Thunder. They went to
the Conference Semi's lost to LUCA as a result, you know,
number one seed, and they're gonna be good again. I
think they have one of the best odds to win
the title. One would think that they would be on
maybe Opening Night. No one would think, oh, they'll get
(14:46):
a Christmas Day game. Nope, And they're going to the
finals now coming from the Eastern Conference Indiana Pacers or
the New York Knicks. Indiana Pacers went to the conferen
It's finals last year. Did they get a game on
Opening Night? Nope? Would the Indiana Pacers playing on Christmas Day?
Speaker 1 (15:09):
Nope. 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 2 (15:22):
So the league is telling you, here are our draws.
This is who we want to highlight on our big
moments Opening night, Christmas Day. Now they get those two
teams in the finals. Now, I am gonna just preface
this with nobody cares about the ratings. Okay, the ratings
are only used when they're down so that people can
bash the NBA. That's that's all that is. The NBA,
(15:45):
I can guarantee you does not care. They just signed
a seventy six a billion dollar deal that hasn't even
kicked in. They got their money. If you want to
ask anybody who should care, it's ESPN, TNT. They're the
ones carrying the game and maybe not getting the number
that they expected, but otherwise nobody should care. Adam Silver, Yes,
(16:07):
who cares? We got our money in our deal. What
can we do? And you could say, well, what about
the next one? Guys, that's so far down the road.
Adam Silver may not even be the commission then, so
let's not overreact to ratings. By the way, they're not
great for this series. And my guess is if it's
thunder Pacers, they're not gonna be good, But who cares?
(16:28):
It doesn't matter what either way, we're not getting Cavs Warriors.
Where there was like twenty I think Game seven twenty
sixteen was like thirty one million viewers. I think that's
the highest rated NBA game this century. It was Curry
Lebron Game seven. What can you ask for? And yeah,
if you gave Adam Silver truth, serum, who do you
(16:48):
want the Eastern Conference Finals? I mean instantly, Nick Celtics boom,
that's easy, Adam, who do you want? The Western Conference Finals?
Speaker 1 (16:57):
Oh?
Speaker 2 (16:57):
But yeah, Warriors, Lakers. I mean, you get Curry in Lebron.
That's the reality. But the games have seen a different result.
And you know, I say, the NBA asked for parody, folks.
They have new salary capitals. The NBA has increased the
(17:18):
incentives for teams that draft players. They're going to keep
them and why because they're giving them more money. And oh,
by the way, I'm sure you saw teams that spend
heavily are heavily taxed. And there's this new thing called
the second aprin they're doing. The NBA is doing everything
(17:38):
they can to institute parody. I personally don't think this
is a great business plan. I guess we'll see. Nobody knows,
but we'll see. Here's what we do know. A decade ago,
when Lebron was getting super teams and the Warriors had
super teams, the NBA interest was through the roof casuals
(18:01):
aka the Grandma the mom test. Ask somebody in your
family over seventy, Hey, do you know who SGA is? I?
Outside of Oklahoma City, I'm almost certain they have no
idea who that is. I think there's a tiny chance
they might know Anthony Edwards, but I would say zero
(18:21):
chance they know Sga. Do they know Tyrese Haliburton? No?
But they know the Knicks? And again, what does that matter?
I'm just saying when it comes to interest. There's a
guy who works at Fox. He's a huge He's like
a behind the scenes camera guy, the stage manager, really
good guy, heavily into the NBA, huge Knicks guy, always
(18:42):
talking to me about like I mean, this guy watches
like every single Laker game. And there's what I did
to talk about it. So I said to him, Johnny,
did you what'd you think of Game one of Thunder Timberwolves.
Speaker 1 (18:56):
Oh?
Speaker 2 (18:56):
I didn't see it. I couldn't make it my it
was my nephew's bird. I was like, what, you're the
one of the biggest NBA guys I know. He's like, yeah, well,
you know nephew's birthday. I was like, if the Lakers
were playing, He's like, of course I would have seen
the game.
Speaker 1 (19:09):
You know.
Speaker 2 (19:09):
It's that kind of thing, like if the wife asks
you to do something on Wednesday night and you're like, oh, well, hey,
Lebron Curry, I can't miss it. Playoff game game five,
No way I can miss that. But now it's like
Thunder Timberwolves, what do you need me to do hunt? Yeah, yeah,
I'm in sure, no problem. This is where you do
the makeups. And again, maybe I'm just speaking for me
(19:30):
and dudes I know and guys my age, but I
don't know. It's just a it's gonna be a tough
sell to watch Timberwolves Thunder game five, but Thunder Pacers
would be fun. Obviously. I'm all in on Nick's Knicks
Thunder if they make it. Let me just quickly, let's
quickly pivot to Knix Pacers. A quick word. Since we're
(19:52):
talking to Indiana, do you guys see Caitlin Clark out
for the next two weeks at least with a quad
stream horrible news. Oh my god. So if both these
series East and West and quickly, usually the NBA Finals
start like the first week in June, so it could
be a bit of a dry spell with no Caitlin
(20:15):
Clark and no games, assuming this is how things pan out. Anyways,
Nick Pacers Todight Pacers are favored by two interesting stats.
So the Pacers during the season were nothing special when
it came to three pointers, nothing special at all. They
were ninth out of thirty teams in three point shooting
at thirty six percent, but only twenty first in three
(20:37):
point field goal attempts, so they weren't jack in threes.
They do love pace, but they're not the greatest three
point shooting team in the league. Right ninth, that's good, right,
upper upper third. Okay, nothing special. They have been amazing
through thirteen playoff games, leading the NBA in three point
(20:59):
percentage at what's the exact number, thirty nine point six percent,
so above what they did during the regular season. Now
that's only it was higher. It was above forty percent
before the Game three debacle and what happened in Game three.
They were five of twenty five from three. You see
where I'm going. Obviously, in thirteen playoff games, the Pacers
(21:21):
outshot their opponent from deep eleven times. Both times they didn't,
they lost once to the Bucks and once obviously to
the Knicks of Gay. Three they were tied at I
think it was like forty percent in one game in
the last round against Cleveland. So the essentially they're making
their threes, and this was kind of lost given the Celtics,
(21:44):
But we forget usually the team that shoots better from
three wins. Now, Oklahoma City, let me see the exact
numbers here. So Minnesota shot forty three percent from DP. Oh,
what do you know? Oklahoma City shot forty three percent.
Minnesota made eighteen OKAC sixteen. So it was basically dead
(22:08):
even almost even percentage wise, and it was a two
point game. M Interesting. We forget sometimes how important the
three is. Now, I was at my daughter's volleyball tournament,
as I said, and I was not as locked in
on the game. I was following it, and then of
course fourth quarter I'm watching. We went to a bar
nearby for some of the third quarter, sorry, second quarter
(22:31):
before halftime. But this is where it gets interesting. Is
Water gonna find its level? I mean, Aaron Smith hit
eight of nine threes in game one. Guys like historic
once in a blue moon kind of thing that ain't
happening again. Pascal siakam three for five in Game two
(22:52):
at thirty nine points, three three threes ties his uh his'
playoff high this year. He had a great I mean
every when they're hitting their threes, yeah, they're gonna be
tough to beat. What if all of a sudden they
start regressing Water finds his level, they start regressing to
the mean, are we gonna see them come back down
to earth? Now? I again, I didn't watch the game
(23:15):
as closely, so I don't know if the Knicks unlock
something defensively. They were just they weren't getting attempts five
of twenty five. They didn't even shoot their their two's great.
I think that's something to watch now. The Knicks also, Now,
I don't know if this was Thibodeau grasping its straws
or whatever. But but folks, I mean delon right, Landry Shammitt,
(23:38):
That to me is Thibodeau saying, I, I you know,
I'm emptying the clip I've got nothing left, like this
is it and he was able to get the dub.
Those guys usually only play a blowout wins, and he's like,
we need something now. I am of the belief that
this three point regression starts to hit this This kidnock
(23:58):
eighty two games and they were a good three point
shooting team thirteen games and they're now great. Come on,
let's be real. If the threes aren't falling, I think
the Knicks are right back in this. I will go
ahead and take the Knicks plus two tonight. Obviously, I'll
be rooting Knicks, probably wearing my next shirt. Maybe I'll
break out the ewing jersey. I did tell Cowherd if
the Knicks go to the finals, I want to wear
(24:20):
the ewing jersey on air. Obviously, I'll have to hit
the gym heavily beforehand. I've been having a shoulder issue
due to the bench, so I had to lay off
weights for like five days. But I'll definitely be getting
in a pump or five, maybe two a days ahead
of wearing the ewing jersey on air, But hopeful for
my next really need it badly, definitely need this series
(24:41):
to go far. So I'm on the Knicks tonight, back
in the saddle.
Speaker 1 (24:45):
Talk to you tomorrow.
This is Straight Fire with Jason McIntyre.
Speaker 2 (00:11):
What e's up, Straight Fire, It's me Jason McIntire, Straight
Fire for Tuesday, May twenty seventh. Hope everybody had a
great Memorial Day weekend. Mine was extremely busy, hence the
no podcast on Monday. I hope you guys had a fun,
thrilling three day weekend. It's back to the grind as
(00:33):
summer is officially underway. It was a pretty spectacular Memorial
of the weekend for us. I will say, when your
kids are young, Themorial Day memori of the weekend is like, Oh,
let's have a cookout of barbecue. Who's having a pool party,
Let's go to the beach. You know, That's what it's
like when you're young. And then your kids get a
little bit older, and next thing you know, it's like, oh,
there's a travel tournament, there's a chess tournament, there's this,
(00:55):
there's that, and it's really no free time for the parents. However,
my daughter's a big fan of Siza and my son
is like kind of into a lot of Kendrick Lamar stuff,
and it's weird because I'm mostly Team Drake. That being said,
you know, Kendrick Lamar works out of my gym and
I personally have not seen him, but all the guys
I hoop with have and apparently he's a nice guy
(01:16):
and lives kind of near me, but obviously in a
much different setting. His house apparently is ridiculous. Anyways, it
was one of those like I don't really want to
go to the concert, but my kids are like, Dad,
we got to get tickets, So we get tickets to
so Far for Siza and Kendrick Lamar. And this was
(01:37):
like the you know, I was trying to think. I
don't know about you guys, but I was thinking about
my parents, and I'm like, did I go to concerts
with my parents when I was a kid, And the
answer obviously was no. I went with some friends. But
this will be the second concert I've gone to with
the kids. We went to Taylor Swift. Was it last
summer two summers ago. I've already forgotten. But this one
(01:59):
was a different experience. I will say I thought it
was a lot of fun. I did not know Kendrick
Lamar had this many good songs and it's more than
just the Drake Diss stuff, but he does have some
some decent stuff and it was a great vibe, great energy.
I did have a couple guys who were fans of
the Herd. You know, listen, I'm not gonna lie. This
(02:20):
was a large venue. Usually when I go to stadiums
sporting events, I wear a hat, so it's pretty clear
that I'm not looking to make eye contact with a
lot of people. Again, I'm not a huge deal, but
it is weird when you're with your family and you know,
people are coming up saying stuff. So a couple of
people were like, j mac oh, I see you with
(02:41):
your faan. Okay, hey, big fan, you know. And it's
a little bit awkward. Not gonna lie, but the kids
and laugh and stuff. Anyways, the show was pretty freaking awesome.
I gotta say, Justin Bieber came out for some random,
you know song, I don't know. Apparently he was drunker,
I don't know, he was on something whatever. That stuff
doesn't effect. But bottom line is the kids loved it
was a memorable experience, and then the rest of the
(03:03):
weekend was basically choffering them around. Although I did wake
up early twice and played dad volleyball Oh so much fun.
But at my daughter's volleyball tournament in Anaheim. One of
her friend's teams was playing Lebron's daughter's team, and I'm like, oh,
Laker's knocked out of the playoffs. It's a long weekend.
Lebron might be there, and lo and behold, Lebron showed
(03:26):
up and they were like two courts away from us,
and he didn't show up for the first match that
his daughter was playing. And his daughter's young, but plays up.
And then there's this big buzz and you could just
be like, oh what everybody's buzzing and listen. I've been
at tournaments where Kevin Garnett is nobody cares, nobody bats
an eye. I've been at tournament Vince Vaughan, who kind
(03:48):
of lives out this in this area, and I know
him a little bit. No buzz whatsoever. More parents, there
was a palpable buzz for Lebron, and once everybody realized,
oh my gosh, there he is sitting watching his daughter volleyball,
instantly it was a mob scene ten deep at the court.
And in my head, I'm like, oh, I'll just roll
up and be like, what's up, Bron? How you doing? Man?
(04:09):
So is Luca gonna get in shape? You know, make
crack jokes whatever. You couldn't even get near it. I mean,
it was insane. There were people just standing around the
court staring at him while the matter's going on with
his daughter, and he had a couple of bodyguards with him,
and it was certainly interesting, you know, in the kids.
Even my daughter was like, oh, dad, Lebron's right there.
And you know, it's one thing to see him at crypto.
(04:31):
It's another to see him like ten feet away from
you in a normal setting, although it's not really normal
when he has the bodyguards. Anyways, So that was mostly
the weekend, a lot of fun, and it kind of
came to a crashing end on Monday night when OKC
was able to extinguish Minnesota.
Speaker 1 (04:53):
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the nation. Catch all of our shows at Foxsports Radio
dot com and within the iHeartRadio app. Search FSR to
listen live.
Speaker 2 (05:05):
Yeah, it's clear, guys, the Oklahoma City Thunder are headed
to the NBA Finals. They win Game four in Minnesota
to go up three to one, one eight one twenty six.
Good game. I mean, you never felt like Minnesota really
was the side there. They did cover the spread. Thanks
to a flurry of late threes. I did not bet it.
I have not bet either conference game since Game one.
(05:28):
I lost both game ones. I said, I like Minnesota
in the series, but it don't look good for them,
so I haven't touched it. I like the next It
has not looked good, but I do think that could
maybe turn tonight. Maybe we'll touch on that at the end.
I have no money on the game, but I not yet.
I may go well, we'll talk about it later. But okay,
see listen, they were on fire. I mean they when
(05:50):
you shoot fifty percent from the field forty three percent
from three, you're not gonna lose many games. And they
did the same big three that has emerged in big
spots for them. So in game two, you knew Minnesota
was gonna come out breathing fire in Game two and
they hung tough and in the third quarter zoom, okay,
(06:10):
see pulls away. And in game two it was the
Chet with twenty two, j Doub with twenty six, and
SGA with thirty eight. That trio carried. Okay, well what
happens in game four? Gotta have it. Don't want to
go home to two. I want to wrap it up
at home, get some rest. Who delivers chat with twenty one,
(06:31):
JDub with thirty four, SGA with forty. Okay, Caruso did
have ten off the bench. He was good as usual,
gets away with a million fouls. Listen, Caruso's my guy.
I liked him with the Lakers. I still like him.
But the Thunder Big Three are tearing through the West,
and I listen, I said, the two teams I think
that could beat the Thunder because of matchups were the Lakers.
(06:52):
And you can scoff all you want, Luka, Donca Jones,
those guys. You can go look at the season series.
Look what he did last year getting the role players
set up for threes. And I thought the Celtics obviously
went healthy. Well, Lakers get eliminated by the Wolves and
Jason Tatum goes down. Celtics are cooked. I don't know who'
stopping Okay, see at this point, and I'll have to
work on my miakopa. I was way wrong about the
(07:15):
Thunder and Sam Presty. I am gonna be hosting The
Herd on Friday and all of next week, so I
do plan on doing apologies left and right. I was
wrong on the thunder. And you know other people won't
say that they were wrong there above admitting it. I
don't mind admitting when I'm wrong. I mean, listen, you
know I'm gonna fuck my chest out when I'm right.
So of course, if I'm wrong, which is rare but
(07:37):
it happens, I will cop to it. And I did
not see j Dubb going for thirty four. I'm at
six of nine on threes. I actually thought Ja Dubb
had had an incredible game. SGA was very, very good.
He had ten assists, nine rebounds. This is the thing
about SGA. He had forty points, and everybody's gonna focus. Oh,
(07:57):
he had forty ten and nine. That's almost forty point
triple double. He took thirty shots, okay, And I can
guarantee you if Anthony Edwards has taken thirty shots in
a game of this magnitude, he's touching forty, probably more
because he's hitting threes. SGA only two to seven from deep.
So SGA did score forty. He took thirty shots. Usually,
(08:19):
when you're taking thirty shots and you're making less than
fifty percent of them thirteen of thirty for SGA, you
take it. Some hits but it's SGA. People love him.
He is the free throw merchant and he delivered once
again Minnesota. I gotta take a moment here. I thought
there was a big advantage at head coach Chris Finch,
a mastermind, has worked magic against the Lakers, was excellent
(08:43):
last year in the playoffs. Great coach. I don't I
don't get it. Julius Randall has turned into a pumpkin.
That was a fear that the pump the Randall we
saw against the Lakers and last round. I don't even
remember who they played last round. It'll come back to
me at some point, but a Warriors, the injured Warriors.
(09:03):
That that Randall was maybe fools goal. And he came
out in Game four and instantly was like attacking off
the dribble every single time, like, bro, that is not
your game, not against SGA, not against loud or just
don't do it. That's not your game. And he had
five turnovers and was benched to get in the fourth quarter.
(09:25):
He did come on for some meaningless rebounds and an
inbound pass, but I mean barely broke a sweat in
the fourth. They would not Nasrie de Vincenzo, Alexander Walker,
Anthony Edwards and Jad McDaniels and Julius Randal, like this
is the concern, Like really good regular season player. I
think he's got all NBA or two. Not this past year,
(09:47):
of course, but like good player, but like if the
three is not falling and he's not driving and creating,
it's kind of a black hole. And Julius Rendald one
of seven, five points, five turnovers. That's a horrific game.
If he's your number two and he's given you five points,
you're totally screwed. The only reason the Wolves are in
this was Devincezzo was cooking. He hit five of eight
(10:10):
from deep and Alexander Walker hit five of eight from deep.
They each had over twenty points. Nas Reid was solid,
but the big thing on this game, And I think
this is gonna be the big talking point all day today.
What the hell happened Anthony Edwards? Are we gonna hear
he was sick? You flew like symptoms, bro forty one
minutes and you took thirteen shots. Alexander Walker in twelve
(10:34):
fewer minutes coming off the bench attempted more shots than
Anthony Edwards, And I don't want to hear. Oh well,
he's got lou Dort draped on him and they're cutting
off the lane. Who cares, Chris Finch, you're a great coach.
Figure it the hell out. Anthony Edwards, you're a superstar.
You're maybe the face of the league. Figure it out, bro.
(10:56):
I was perplexed what Anthony Edwards was doing. Now we've
seen this before with some stars where they pulled what
I like to call the lebron Hey, man, I gotta
get my supporting cast involved, get them cooking. We know
I'm gonna get mine, so let me get them going first.
And I can kind of see that, I can understand it,
and then you're just waiting for the ant eruption and
just never came. I was absolutely stunned. Just put this
(11:19):
in perspective. SGA took thirty shots. J Dubb took twenty
four shots. Anthony Edwards took thirteen. What's happening? I just
just an utter disappointment from the Timberwolves who are gonna
get bounced again in the conference finals. Listen, aunt is young,
the team is young, but I just don't understand that
(11:39):
you're not gonna win the game when you have twenty
one turnovers as a team. Listen, I gotta give more
credit to Oklahoma City guys. Maybe I've been slow to
credit them. I mean, they got blasted in Game three
by forty two, but apparently that just didn't matter at all.
You could just see them come out in this one.
They go for thirty seven in the first quarter, they
(11:59):
had sixty five at half, only slowed down a little
bit in the third, and ultimately Oksee is going back
to the finals for the first time since they had
Kevin Durant, Russell Westbrook, and James Harden coming off the bench. Now,
I know some people will say, well start over Jay.
(12:19):
Oklahoma City is sixteen and two this year after a loss. Okay,
they're a juggernaut at home, the best college basketball team
in the NBA. An NBA player is said to have
told last week's guest Dave McManaman, and that's what they are.
They just come in waves, and I do like that.
I will say the one thing I love about their
(12:40):
strategy that I employed with my guys when I coach
my son and daughter's teams. Listen and get up in
folks and grab them and foul them. And the refs
are not gonna call everything if they don't call it.
You play that way. If they do call it, you
back off a little and that we'll hit them with
the double teams. But that's a U sports. But you
see Oklahoma City is basically doing the same damn thing
(13:01):
they are all over. I mean, Luke Dort, just what,
take your eyes off the ball and watch lou Dort
against Anthony Edwards. He literally has both ants around and
hugging for most of the way. Now, I do know
in my men's leagues when I play, I do employ
that strategy sometimes and they'll say hands off are the
(13:21):
rest in the NBA saying that I don't know, But
you could tell Anthony Edwards is a little frustrated. It
felt to me anytime he drove in the fourth quarter
he was getting molested on his way to the tin
and he's getting no calls. You gotta be disappointed if
you're a Minnesota fan. But I is Randal an upgrade
from Towns. That's the real question here, because Towns basically
(13:45):
save the Knicks Bacon on Saturday Night with an amazing
fourth quarter, And like I just I don't see any
world where Julius Rynold's doing that against Oklahoma City in
this series. I just don't against the Lakers and the Warriors, sure,
but Oklahoma City is a different animal and they really
(14:06):
have bottled up Julius Randall. I did see a funny,
funny article that was in the New York Times about well,
the NBA wanted parody, they got it. Are they ready
for it? And this was an interesting nugget. So do
you guys know who the number one seed in the
(14:26):
West was last year? Oklahoma City Thunder. They went to
the Conference Semi's lost to LUCA as a result, you know,
number one seed, and they're gonna be good again. I
think they have one of the best odds to win
the title. One would think that they would be on
maybe Opening Night. No one would think, oh, they'll get
(14:46):
a Christmas Day game. Nope, And they're going to the
finals now coming from the Eastern Conference Indiana Pacers or
the New York Knicks. Indiana Pacers went to the conferen
It's finals last year. Did they get a game on
Opening Night? Nope? Would the Indiana Pacers playing on Christmas Day?
Speaker 1 (15:09):
Nope. 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 2 (15:22):
So the league is telling you, here are our draws.
This is who we want to highlight on our big
moments Opening night, Christmas Day. Now they get those two
teams in the finals. Now, I am gonna just preface
this with nobody cares about the ratings. Okay, the ratings
are only used when they're down so that people can
bash the NBA. That's that's all that is. The NBA,
(15:45):
I can guarantee you does not care. They just signed
a seventy six a billion dollar deal that hasn't even
kicked in. They got their money. If you want to
ask anybody who should care, it's ESPN, TNT. They're the
ones carrying the game and maybe not getting the number
that they expected, but otherwise nobody should care. Adam Silver, Yes,
(16:07):
who cares? We got our money in our deal. What
can we do? And you could say, well, what about
the next one? Guys, that's so far down the road.
Adam Silver may not even be the commission then, so
let's not overreact to ratings. By the way, they're not
great for this series. And my guess is if it's
thunder Pacers, they're not gonna be good, But who cares?
(16:28):
It doesn't matter what either way, we're not getting Cavs Warriors.
Where there was like twenty I think Game seven twenty
sixteen was like thirty one million viewers. I think that's
the highest rated NBA game this century. It was Curry
Lebron Game seven. What can you ask for? And yeah,
if you gave Adam Silver truth, serum, who do you
(16:48):
want the Eastern Conference Finals? I mean instantly, Nick Celtics boom,
that's easy, Adam, who do you want? The Western Conference Finals?
Speaker 1 (16:57):
Oh?
Speaker 2 (16:57):
But yeah, Warriors, Lakers. I mean, you get Curry in Lebron.
That's the reality. But the games have seen a different result.
And you know, I say, the NBA asked for parody, folks.
They have new salary capitals. The NBA has increased the
(17:18):
incentives for teams that draft players. They're going to keep
them and why because they're giving them more money. And oh,
by the way, I'm sure you saw teams that spend
heavily are heavily taxed. And there's this new thing called
the second aprin they're doing. The NBA is doing everything
(17:38):
they can to institute parody. I personally don't think this
is a great business plan. I guess we'll see. Nobody knows,
but we'll see. Here's what we do know. A decade ago,
when Lebron was getting super teams and the Warriors had
super teams, the NBA interest was through the roof casuals
(18:01):
aka the Grandma the mom test. Ask somebody in your
family over seventy, Hey, do you know who SGA is? I?
Outside of Oklahoma City, I'm almost certain they have no
idea who that is. I think there's a tiny chance
they might know Anthony Edwards, but I would say zero
(18:21):
chance they know Sga. Do they know Tyrese Haliburton? No?
But they know the Knicks? And again, what does that matter?
I'm just saying when it comes to interest. There's a
guy who works at Fox. He's a huge He's like
a behind the scenes camera guy, the stage manager, really
good guy, heavily into the NBA, huge Knicks guy, always
(18:42):
talking to me about like I mean, this guy watches
like every single Laker game. And there's what I did
to talk about it. So I said to him, Johnny,
did you what'd you think of Game one of Thunder Timberwolves.
Speaker 1 (18:56):
Oh?
Speaker 2 (18:56):
I didn't see it. I couldn't make it my it
was my nephew's bird. I was like, what, you're the
one of the biggest NBA guys I know. He's like, yeah, well,
you know nephew's birthday. I was like, if the Lakers
were playing, He's like, of course I would have seen
the game.
Speaker 1 (19:09):
You know.
Speaker 2 (19:09):
It's that kind of thing, like if the wife asks
you to do something on Wednesday night and you're like, oh, well, hey,
Lebron Curry, I can't miss it. Playoff game game five,
No way I can miss that. But now it's like
Thunder Timberwolves, what do you need me to do hunt? Yeah, yeah,
I'm in sure, no problem. This is where you do
the makeups. And again, maybe I'm just speaking for me
(19:30):
and dudes I know and guys my age, but I
don't know. It's just a it's gonna be a tough
sell to watch Timberwolves Thunder game five, but Thunder Pacers
would be fun. Obviously. I'm all in on Nick's Knicks
Thunder if they make it. Let me just quickly, let's
quickly pivot to Knix Pacers. A quick word. Since we're
(19:52):
talking to Indiana, do you guys see Caitlin Clark out
for the next two weeks at least with a quad
stream horrible news. Oh my god. So if both these
series East and West and quickly, usually the NBA Finals
start like the first week in June, so it could
be a bit of a dry spell with no Caitlin
(20:15):
Clark and no games, assuming this is how things pan out. Anyways,
Nick Pacers Todight Pacers are favored by two interesting stats.
So the Pacers during the season were nothing special when
it came to three pointers, nothing special at all. They
were ninth out of thirty teams in three point shooting
at thirty six percent, but only twenty first in three
(20:37):
point field goal attempts, so they weren't jack in threes.
They do love pace, but they're not the greatest three
point shooting team in the league. Right ninth, that's good, right,
upper upper third. Okay, nothing special. They have been amazing
through thirteen playoff games, leading the NBA in three point
(20:59):
percentage at what's the exact number, thirty nine point six percent,
so above what they did during the regular season. Now
that's only it was higher. It was above forty percent
before the Game three debacle and what happened in Game three.
They were five of twenty five from three. You see
where I'm going. Obviously, in thirteen playoff games, the Pacers
(21:21):
outshot their opponent from deep eleven times. Both times they didn't,
they lost once to the Bucks and once obviously to
the Knicks of Gay. Three they were tied at I
think it was like forty percent in one game in
the last round against Cleveland. So the essentially they're making
their threes, and this was kind of lost given the Celtics,
(21:44):
But we forget usually the team that shoots better from
three wins. Now, Oklahoma City, let me see the exact
numbers here. So Minnesota shot forty three percent from DP. Oh,
what do you know? Oklahoma City shot forty three percent.
Minnesota made eighteen OKAC sixteen. So it was basically dead
(22:08):
even almost even percentage wise, and it was a two
point game. M Interesting. We forget sometimes how important the
three is. Now, I was at my daughter's volleyball tournament,
as I said, and I was not as locked in
on the game. I was following it, and then of
course fourth quarter I'm watching. We went to a bar
nearby for some of the third quarter, sorry, second quarter
(22:31):
before halftime. But this is where it gets interesting. Is
Water gonna find its level? I mean, Aaron Smith hit
eight of nine threes in game one. Guys like historic
once in a blue moon kind of thing that ain't
happening again. Pascal siakam three for five in Game two
(22:52):
at thirty nine points, three three threes ties his uh his'
playoff high this year. He had a great I mean
every when they're hitting their threes, yeah, they're gonna be
tough to beat. What if all of a sudden they
start regressing Water finds his level, they start regressing to
the mean, are we gonna see them come back down
to earth? Now? I again, I didn't watch the game
(23:15):
as closely, so I don't know if the Knicks unlock
something defensively. They were just they weren't getting attempts five
of twenty five. They didn't even shoot their their two's great.
I think that's something to watch now. The Knicks also, Now,
I don't know if this was Thibodeau grasping its straws
or whatever. But but folks, I mean delon right, Landry Shammitt,
(23:38):
That to me is Thibodeau saying, I, I you know,
I'm emptying the clip I've got nothing left, like this
is it and he was able to get the dub.
Those guys usually only play a blowout wins, and he's like,
we need something now. I am of the belief that
this three point regression starts to hit this This kidnock
(23:58):
eighty two games and they were a good three point
shooting team thirteen games and they're now great. Come on,
let's be real. If the threes aren't falling, I think
the Knicks are right back in this. I will go
ahead and take the Knicks plus two tonight. Obviously, I'll
be rooting Knicks, probably wearing my next shirt. Maybe I'll
break out the ewing jersey. I did tell Cowherd if
the Knicks go to the finals, I want to wear
(24:20):
the ewing jersey on air. Obviously, I'll have to hit
the gym heavily beforehand. I've been having a shoulder issue
due to the bench, so I had to lay off
weights for like five days. But I'll definitely be getting
in a pump or five, maybe two a days ahead
of wearing the ewing jersey on air, But hopeful for
my next really need it badly, definitely need this series
(24:41):
to go far. So I'm on the Knicks tonight, back
in the saddle.
Speaker 1 (24:45):
Talk to you tomorrow.
Host
Jason McIntyre
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