On today’s episode, Jason and Super Producer Rob G (Robert Guerra) get the party stared by sharing their thoughts on the Philadelphia 76ers’ shocking blowout road victory over the Boston Celtics. After years of slander from our fearless leader, Joel Embiid and James Harden have their team one win away from an Eastern Conference Finals berth. The only question at this point is whether or not Doc Rivers is the man to lead them over the hump. On the flip side, the Jekyll-and-Hyde Celtics continue to confound us with their ability to look like the best team in basketball one night and also-ran the next. How much of that falls on the shoulders of rookie head coach Joe Mazzulla? Shifting over to the Western Conference, all eyes are on Nikola Jokic and the Denver Nuggets after they bludgeoned Kevin Durant and the Phoenix Suns to take a 3-2 series lead. Jokic is putting up historically great playoff numbers and the Nuggets look like the best team in the Western Conference. Finally, the guys close the show by making their Best Bets for Wednesday night’s NBA Playoffs action featuring the Los Angeles Lakers and Golden State Warriors.
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Episode Transcript
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Speaker 1 (00:01):
The volume. This is Straight Fire with Jason McIntire. What
is up Straight firefam, It's me Jason McIntyre, Straight Fire
(00:23):
for Wednesday, May tenth, and folks, you know, there's sometimes
there I come on the podcast and I've got to
take and take a W because I like to take
w's and I like to maybe pat myself on the
back sometimes say well, I did a good job. When
I do a good job, and when I call out
Lonnie Walker needs to play more than Lonnie Walker delivers,
I feel pretty damn good. And then there are days
(00:44):
like today where your boy gets on the mic, he's
got to hang his head a little bit. Because I
have been backing the Boston Celtics to win the title,
come out of the East, destroy the Sixers, and I
felt really good about Boston on Tuesday night and I
drive to take my daughter somewhere, oh basketball, And then
(01:06):
I come back and I call up the score on
my phone. I'm like, oh, Celtics are down early on
what's going on here? You have to go drive? You know,
we're chauffeur's parents at this age. I just go to
pick up my son from soccer practice and I'm watching
the game and I'm like, boy, this is weird. Boston
not looking good, and folks, it just never turned around.
(01:27):
Jason Tatum kind of struggled. I'm not gonna blame him.
You know, Tatum is my guy. He's a top five
player in the league. I will defend that. You guys
can come at me. That's fine. I've got tons of AMMO.
I'm Tori Montana backed into a corner and I've got
all the EMO in the world. Like Tatum. Let's not
bash him because he's he had another semi roughgat. Now listen,
(01:47):
he finished with thirty six and ten and he got
to the line thirteen times, like he's just not as
efficient as normal. And the seventy six ers put a
beat down on Boston, almost leading wired to wire in
a stunning, stunning twelve point win, putting the Celtics on
the brink. And if anybody in America tells you they
(02:08):
had Boston and Milwaukee getting bounced before the conference finals,
they are lying. Nobody had this, folks, nobody on planet Earth.
I did not like the Bucks coming into this postseason.
In the player points pool, I didn't take any Bucks.
I only got one Celtic Brogden and it was a
reach late because I just I thought they were going
to the finals, and you know, up to one in Philly.
(02:32):
If they go, okay, they got this and Philadelphia is
not going away. And I've got to give the man
some props. Joel Embiid, the guy who I've been lambasting
as not MVP worthy. He returned from the injury in
Game two and didn't play great since then, and he's
had moments of up and down. Joel and Bid trying
(02:53):
to kind of lay the groundwork for this was a
four to sixty six with Ky injury and then playing
like forty plus minutes. He's been pretty damn good. Now
he hasn't been Jokic good, but Joel Embiid has been
good in the last three games. And I know he
wasn't awesome in Game four when Harden carried them late. However,
Joel Embiid in the last three games, he went thirty
(03:15):
and thirteen. He went thirty four and thirteen, and then
last night thirty three and seven. And this is the
number that you need to look at the free throws, folks.
He's getting to the line double digits every game. Eleven
of twelve, twelve of fifteen ten of eleven. I mean,
Joel Embiad's a problem. I thought Boston had this figured out.
Horford and Robert Williams were supposed to be able to
(03:37):
handle him, and Robert Williams just looks out of his element.
He is just a disaster. And then every time he's
on the floor, it just feels like, ooh, what are
they called? Time? Lord? He's just he's not a factor.
Nineteen minutes, didn't block a shot? You know who blocked
a shot in what might be? I guess after Lebron
the chase down block of the playoffs, Embiid chasing down
Jalen Brown late. I think it was like a twelve
(03:59):
or four t point game, and Brown tried to do
the finger roll and Embid just swatted it into like
the front row, and I was, oh, no, actually was saved.
It was saved by someone on the baseline. And I
was like, oh my gosh, Joel Embiid is hustling. He's
getting to the free throw line. And listen, I've been
a major Tatum defender, and I said, Tatum is better
(04:20):
than Embid. I would build around Tatum over Embiid. The
way Embiad's playing in these last three games, and again
he wasn't great in Game four down the stretch, get
finished with good counting numbers, but his effort was pretty amazing.
And Tobias Harris is chipping in seven of ten efficient
Tyrese Maxey hit six threes every time Boston tried to
get it close. In the fourth, Tyrese Maxie's dropping a three,
(04:43):
and Harden was kind of quiet. And this is what's
real scary for Boston. Harden did play thirty nine minutes,
but his usage did not seem overly high. He did
attempt ten free throws, but only eight shots. They almost
it felt like at halftime we're like, listen, we're trying
to set up Harden for Game six in the close out,
and we're gonna give We're gonna give Maxie the green light, folks.
James Harden eight shots, Tyrese Masey twenty one, Tobias Harris ten,
(05:08):
Daniel House Junior seven. He actually played well off the bench.
I'm sunned. This is such a shocking development, and you
knew it was a problem for Boston when who the
new coach, not Ime Udoka, but Missoula decides, hey, let's
put Peyton Pritchard in for a spark and it's like
the crowd kind of goes wild. You know. Peyton Pritchard's
(05:30):
like like a me on the court, like hustling, really
really trying super hard to make up for you know,
lack of athleticism in my case, age and Peyton Pritchard
like kind of did something. They were it went from
down eighteen to like down twelve, and maybe I think
they might have cut into eleven, but the Sixers weren't
having it. And and this is we're at the point, folks,
(05:51):
where the Philadelphia seventy six Ers, according to one sports book,
were the favorites to win the title after winning Game five.
Now another one had den later in the night, Denver one.
We'll get into that Philadelphia seventy six ers. I didn't
even realize this because you know, nobody tries. In the
regular season, the best record in the league was a Bucks.
(06:12):
They're out. Second best record was the Celtics fifty seven wins.
If the Sixers beat them, the Philadelphia seventy six Ers
the third seed in the East. We'll have home court
advantage in the conference finals, likely against the Heat, and
then in the NBA Finals. Yes, they would have fifty
four wins, Nuggets had fifty three, Suns forty five, Lakers
(06:35):
forty three, so the seventy six Ers would have home
court advantage in the NBA Finals. Now, that to me
is staggering. I don't think anybody thought Sixers could get
to the finals. It's been a good year for Philadelphia
sports that has ended poorly for all of them. The
Phillies got to the World Series, lost to Houston, the
(06:55):
Eagles lost the Super Bowl to the Chiefs, and even
in the MLS, the Philadelphia Union a storybook ride to
the MLS Final, lose to LAFC in what was maybe
like a top three sporting event or top three American
sports event. I'm not going to give the World Cup.
That's just too good. That Philly Union LAFC match was amazing.
(07:17):
Gareth Bale was an incredible header. I was watching that
game live. Just one of the best MLS matches I've
ever seen. So three professional Philadelphia teams lose in the final.
Can the Sixers break that streak? And listen, I know
Rob g loves when I say, hey, I got it
back off d'angela Russell. I kept hammering him in the
Memphis series, and I said, if he delivers, I'm not
(07:40):
going to bash him anymore in this postseason. And Danzela
Russell delivered. So even when he goes one for ten
in Game four, and oh, I can't bash him because
said he wouldn't, I wouldn't because he delivered. Folks, I've said,
can Joel Embi get to a conference finals? Conference finals
before we trash him? I'm sorry, not before we tracked him.
(08:01):
Before we give the man his flowers and give him
the props and the MVP and all this. Joel embiid
is one win away from the conference finals and they
get Game six at home. Now, I will point out
Doc Rivers has blown three three to one leads in
NBA playoff history, the only coach to do that, and
(08:23):
the Celtics were down three to two to the Bucks
last year, Milwaukee going home in Game six to close
him out. And that was the game where Jalen Jason
Jason Tatum was just otherworldly. I don't remember the exact
stat line, but it was one of the best games
of the year. I remember watching it and I'm just like,
Tatum is amazing, He's incredible. And that was when I
(08:44):
was like, this is my guy. I like Tatum. He's
just unstoppable. And then they win Game seven. That was
the Grant Williams game where he just came in and
was just dropping bombs like a Lonnie Walker style. So
the Sixers, the Sixers are one win away from the
conference finals. They likely will take on the Miami Heat.
And it was pointed out to me yesterday and I
(09:06):
mentioned this on the Herd. In the Bubble title, a
lot of the Michael Jordan fans want a discount the
Bubble Championship for Lebron. Oh wow, it was a bubble.
Come on, no fans know this stuff. Okay, Well, here
we are a few years later and the Miami Heater
are up three to one, about to go to the
conference finals, and the Lakers are up three to one
(09:28):
about to go to the conference finals. So tell me
again how the Bubble title didn't matter. We're seeing steely
toughness for the Lakers and the Miami Heat and the
Heat now Heat Sixers. That was you. Remember Jimmy Butler
was on what I thought was the best embed team
when they lost to Kawhi Leonard on that fluky three
pointer from the corner when the Raptors ended up winning
(09:51):
probably the luckiest NBA championship ever, so sixers in a stunner,
I would say, Rob, I think the Bucks losing Game
five to me was probably the biggest shock or of
the postseason. At home, they led by double digits in
the fourth. I just didn't think the Bucks would lose.
(10:13):
I think I had zero, like zero Celtics got this
no chance, zero percent chance the Celtics We're gonna lose
this game, and they basically trail wire to wire and lose. Rob,
I'm stunned.
Speaker 2 (10:27):
I think the more that you deep dive into what's
going on with Boston, the less surprise we should all be.
Speaker 1 (10:34):
Like.
Speaker 2 (10:34):
This has been a trend with the Boston Solace going
back to last season. It's part of the reason why
yesterday when you said that you still think Boston is
easily the best team left in the Eastern Conference, I said,
I don't see why, because they they play with their
food in the same way that the Steph clay dre
of their heyday Golden State Warriors did, where it's like,
(10:56):
there's no good reason why you should be doing behind
the back passes in the finals in the corrench time
situation and doing turnovers. But that's just what they do. Like,
that's how Golden State plays. If you go back to
last season, they blew leads in Game five of the
Conference semi finals against the Bucks, which led to them
having to have those huge comebacks in six and seven
game six of the Eastern Conference Finals against the Heat,
which led to go into seven game four against the
(11:18):
NBA Finals against in the Warriors, which led to you know,
the Steph Curry moment. They like these these are games
that they should have rolled through and sealed the deal
the way that you would expect a championship to level
a team to do. And as it relates to last
night's game, I don't know if this is a hot
taker or not, but this squares This falls squarely to
(11:39):
me on the shoulders of Joe Missoula.
Speaker 1 (11:41):
Wow what he's got?
Speaker 2 (11:44):
Yes, Because I mean, that's not excuse anymore, Like you're,
what one hundred games into the season, Like there's there's
no more first time head coach excuse what he has
done to this team. He should be behind bars for it.
Speaker 1 (11:58):
Okay.
Speaker 2 (11:59):
The reason why Boston made that run last season in
the playoffs in the second half of the season was
they had easily the best defense in the NBA, Like
they could shut off your water faster than your local municipality,
Like they were incredible in the postseason. Across twenty four
games last year, they gave up one hundred and two
(12:20):
points per game on forty three to thirty three shooting
splits to the opposing team. This season, across just ten games,
they're giving up one hundred and twelve points per game
on forty five thirty seven shooting splits. And on the inverse,
what they're doing offensively is they're taking four more three
pointers a game. So they have gone from being a
(12:43):
defensive juggernaut who could shut down basically everyone outside of
Steph Curry, and even then they had him on the
ropes and they let him off the hook, to a
team that plays exactly like everybody else. All gas, no braakes.
We're going to shoot it of threes, and we're gonna
let the analytics work in our favor. The problem with that, though,
(13:05):
is when your threes are not falling, what happens. Yeah,
And that's what's been the case for them, and that's
why they've tricked away so many games already. We're not
even through the first two rounds. Yeah, and so I
just don't know. I still expect them to win this
series because, like as you mentioned, my confidence in Doc
Rivers is even less than what it is in a
(13:26):
rookie head coach and Joe Miszula. But this is not
sustainable and they really need to square these things away
if they're gonna be the team that we all think
that they can become.
Speaker 1 (13:37):
So in the regular season, when it's just you know,
jack and threes, the Celtics only did threes in layups.
Speaker 2 (13:44):
That's it, yep.
Speaker 1 (13:45):
And what you're seeing in the playoffs is a little more.
Oh well, if you're not going to play any defense
and the threes are off, you're susceptible. I just looked
at Jason Tatum's shot chart, and again I am bullish
on Jason Tatum. He took twenty seven shots shots. The
number of shots he took outside of the paint two
(14:07):
and he missed them both to mid range. That's it. Now,
I converse that with Joel Embiid, and I know he's
a big guy. Rob. Here's the outside shot, outside shots
of the paint. Miss miss make miss make make make
miss make miss make the guy's jacking mid range and
making them. Tatum is saying feast or famine. That's all
(14:28):
we're doing. The numbers say threes, and that's what the
Celtics do. And the problem is when you're off on
threes and uh oh, by the way, Al Horford oh
for seven, Like I mean they all he did was
just shoot threes and he missed them all. Like there
is a level to where it's like, oh boy, you
know we did we did get nine offensive boards, but
(14:50):
we're missing these threes. They only took prop they only
took seventy nine shots and thirty of the more threes
and they're not making the threes. It's is I unbelieve
thirty one percent from downtown were the Celtics. Sorry, twelve
of thirty eight thirty one percent. That's not gonna cut it.
Speaker 2 (15:08):
Now.
Speaker 1 (15:08):
I'm with you. I don't totally think the series is over. However,
I do start to feel a little more confident in
my I can call my Denver Nuggets, right. I told
you guys, I had futures on the Nuggets to win
the series. I liked them. I picked them to come
out of the West. Coming out of the West might
be a little bit of a challenge if they face
the Lakers next, but a pretty impressive second half from
(15:29):
Denver to put away Phoenix fcet Phoenix was fisty. They
were down sixteen I think in the second quarter. Michael
Porter Junior went off. It was a great start for
the Nugs, and then out of the blue, here comes
Devin Booker starting to get hot. And once Devin Booker
starts to get hot, you're like, oh boy. Then they
tie it up at forty five late first half. But
then the third quarter comes rob and you could see
the fatigue setting in. This is a big factor and
(15:52):
if this series goes seven, it might This is going
to be the reason the sun flews. Kevin Durant ran
out of gas. He'd over three from dep that was it.
Devin Booker was mortal. He actually missed more than half
his shots, eight of nineteen from the field. And the
bench that was so great forty two points. In Game
(16:13):
four they scored twenty six and on the surface, it's like, oh,
that's not bad, but a lot of it was garbage
time and one player on the Denver bench, Bruce Brown
at twenty five points. So role players at role players
play well at home, Bruce Brown twenty five, just like
Landry sham At four threes in the fourth quarter in
Game four. And here we have Jamal Murray kind of
(16:37):
struggling early, finished with nineteen, but it was Jokic once
again establishing himself best center in the league twenty nine,
thirteen and twelve, utterly dominant in the second half, seventeen
points in the third quarter. When Denver pulled away in
the fourth quarter was largely garbage time. It's I don't
(16:58):
know what the word is to describe vibe Denver getting
to the conference finals. I you know, the basketball purists,
the nerdy basketball Twitter guys, the geeks. They love the
Nuggets and I like watching them. I mean, listen, I'm
a little happy. I have Jamal Murray and Aaron Gordon
in the player points pool. Although Gordon starting to struggle
with his shot. I don't know if he's running out
of gas this season, but he's not scoring at the
(17:20):
clip that he used to. And Porter Junior is a sniper.
I think he had four threes in the first like
fourteen minutes. This team's got scoring. Remember KCP was the
one in Game two who hit a couple of big shots.
Late when Murray was on the Struggle Bus Porter Junior
in this one early. We know Jamal Murray can go
off anytime, and Joki is gonna do his thing. So
(17:44):
I still feel good about the Nuggets. Now the X
factor is will Chris Paul return for Game six? Now,
I don't know I've been kind of you guys. Know,
I don't want to be critical, but everybody has their favorites,
right you just like guys and give them an extra chance.
I'll give you some of the guys I like, you know,
I like Steph Curry, guys a legend. Come on, you know,
(18:06):
I like Rob don't laugh Cowherd gets on my case
about this guy, zach Lavine. That's my guy. I love
watching zach Lavine and as good as I was on
Lonnie Walker, Rob g will tell you I tried to
trade Ad for zach Lavine and Alex Carus show. I
don't know if Laker Nacuy would have that right.
Speaker 2 (18:25):
Now, we still have.
Speaker 1 (18:27):
Given the way that Ad has been playing. But you know, Rob,
when you look at this Nuggets team, like, I don't
think NBA executives are going to be thrilled, but I
think basketball purists will like it. They play an attractive
brand of basketball. That Denver crowd was very lubricated. Obviously,
if you can get k D and Booker, the wattage
(18:48):
is there. But I don't I don't hate the Nuggets
advancing here, obviously financial reasons, but I I think they're
the best team in the West. Rob. I don't think
you can really argue that.
Speaker 2 (19:00):
They've certainly appeared that way and shout out to you,
because I think you're the only national talking head that
I can think of. If there is someone can DM
me and tell me I'm wrong, but I believe you're
the only guy who has said repeatedly the Denver Nuggets
are going to the NBA Finals. Everybody was hot on
Golden State because they're the defending champions. Obviously Kevin Durant
(19:23):
and the Phoenix Suns. There was a very very very
small minority of people who said the Lakers. I can't
think of one other person besides you who had the
Denver Nuggets making the NBA Finals. They were viewed as
paper tigers, and they have been anything but that so far.
They have looked as advertised. They looked exactly like you
would expect a team that was leading their conference basically
(19:44):
wired to wire all season, and Nikola Jokic, for all
of the slander that he's taken over the last couple
of years for playoff flameouts, whether it was his father
or not, has just ratcheted things up to a level
that we haven't really seen ever. Like he is now
the second player in NBA history with three hundred plus points,
(20:04):
one hundred plus rebounds, seventy five plus assister the first
ten games of postseason since Oscar Robertson in nineteen sixty three.
Wo he has ten career postseason triple doubles. I believe
let me pull this up as I'm talking, because I
had it in front of me that I closed the
window in these playoffs. The joker, Nikola Jokic, who the
(20:28):
biggest headline we've had from him in the postseason is
that he got into it with the Doner like that.
That's We've become a numblest numb to how great he
is in this postseason, which hasn't even been updated yet
in the overnight hours, is averaging thirty one thirteen and
nine on fifty three, forty seven, seventy eight shooting splits.
Speaker 1 (20:49):
Jeez, Like he has.
Speaker 2 (20:51):
Been an absolute monster, and it's good to see that
he is kind of getting this monkey off his back
and he's playing well, and he's doing every thing that
all of the basketball purists has said that he could do.
And I got to say that if my Lakers get
through the Golden State Wars, which I expect that they will,
and if they end up facing these Denver Nuggets, I
(21:13):
don't know if they can beat Denver.
Speaker 1 (21:15):
Right now, I think Laker fans are going to be
extra confident. Hey, we just knocked off the champs and
Steph Curry, we could take down Jokic. I just you know,
Ad against Yo, Adal have his chances, But yeah, I
don't know how they'll match. I guess Aaron Gordon would
match up with Lebron. Yes, Austin Reeves on Jamal Murphy Murray, I.
Speaker 2 (21:36):
Think you'd have Vanderbilt on Jamal Murray and Austin Reeves
on Michael Porter Jr. Well, before we get ahead of ourselves,
let me ask you about the Phoenix Suns, because you
and I have been on this train from the beginning.
What did you make of Mani Williams, Because this is
all getting kind of lost in the headlines. Because Joki
is such a great game that no one's really talking
(21:57):
about the Phoenix Sun side of it. But Manti Williams
played Devin Booker and Kevin Durant, each of them, I believe,
forty two plus minutes, forty one book, forty one for Booker,
forty two for Gavin Rant in a game that they
were down by twenty around twenty for the last seventeen
(22:17):
minutes of action.
Speaker 1 (22:20):
Not good, Not good at all. Now, listen, that's gonna
be a big story here for the Lakers, and we'll
get to that Lakers Warriors previewing that shortly. But I mean, Rob,
here's my thing. It's tough, and we talked about this
a little yesterday. It's tough for coaches to say, let's
shut them down early, like they all think, Hey, this
(22:42):
is the NBA. We hit a couple threes, you know,
we could do a nine to nothing run in like
forty five seconds, like that can be done in the NBA.
And now we're in single digits. It looks like they
had it down to Yeah, it was a manageable seventeen
with nine to nine minutes left. He's still in their
jacket jocks. I mean Devin Booker down twenty four is
(23:04):
launching threes with seven minutes left, Like, I mean, maybe
Monty will take some heat tomorrow. But they are going home.
If they were going on the road, maybe a different store.
I think they'll be okay at home. But you're right,
ultimately for Game seven, this is not Game seven would
be on Oh my gosh, not Saturday, is it? Oh Rob,
(23:26):
it is Saturday. Oh no, we have a family event.
Let's just say on Saturday, and it's fun. I'm excited
for it, but holy hell, am I if I have
to miss Game seven? That would not be good? All right, well, briefly,
we will go to the series that I have been
more wrong about than I think anything. This playoffs. The
Lakers trying to put away Golden State. Also Miami can
try to put away the Knicks. Now, I do think
(23:47):
Miami goes for the juggular and then do'll take their
foot off the gas. And I wouldn't be surprised that
the Knicks rolled over like dogs and just lost. Would
not shock me. They just look beat. Julius Randall says
some wacky shit in the locker room. It's like, come on, dude,
the Lakers putting away the worst. Now I was confident
the Warriors would win Game four, I'm ultra confident they
(24:08):
win Game five, which means maybe the Lakers win Game
five in Golden State. Now we're gonna have, you know,
the second this gets to double digits in the third
time to shut down Ad. Time, just to shut down Lebron.
And here's how I would do it. I would actually
rest Ad and Lebron more than I normally do in
the first half and just see if my guys can
keep it afloat. That way, it's easier to sit him
(24:29):
in the fourth quarter if you have to. I'm not
gonna try to play eighty twenty one of twenty four
minutes in the first half because I think the reality
is he's more likely to break down than like, have
a breakthrough and go for thirty and fifteen tomorrow tonight.
I just don't see either him or Lebron doing that.
And I will remind everybody, just in case you missed
(24:50):
it late on Monday, eighty four shots in the second half.
That's it. Barely got the ball Lebron. Yes, he attacked
Curry a couple of times, calling for the screens hunting him,
but even Lebron looked pretty mortal now. He had zero
free throw attempts heading into the fourth quarter. Lebron did
attempt five free throws in the fourth, so he saved
some juice for attacking. But you got to you gotta
(25:13):
think their reserves are not very deep. If I don't
think Vegas has set an over under a minutes, but
over under thirty five minutes for Lebron and ad each
in game five under, you would take under. So using
Warriors just kind of rolled back at home.
Speaker 2 (25:31):
Yeah, I think any Laker fan who's expecting the Lakers to,
you know, step on their throats and it'd be over,
or are being disingenuous like the Golden State Warriors. As
much as they have looked a little shaky at certain
times in this series, they are the defining champions. Steph
Curry is not going to go down meekly. You know,
(25:51):
if he has to take forty five shots to get
sixty points, they'll do it. Thompson is due for at
least one more big game in this series. You know, Yeah,
I'm gonna have nine points again.
Speaker 1 (26:01):
I don't know if you saw it, but I spent
you know, probably twenty minutes on the Herd on Tuesday,
trying to trade Klay Thompson to the Orlando Magic for
Jalen Suggs, Jonathan Isaac and spare parts.
Speaker 2 (26:16):
Uh, that's not the worst trade ever heard.
Speaker 1 (26:19):
No, I'll take it now. I know people listening are
going to scoff, but the reality is there's a bunch
of teams that are not in the playoffs and have
not been for a while. The Orlando Magic have two
playoff victories in the last I think eleven years. At
some point, you need a veteran, a grown up in
that locker room, somebody who's been in the battles and
been in the wars to be your leader. And Like,
(26:40):
if you're Orlando and you can get someone with that
championship DNA of Klay Thompson, I think you kind of
have to go for it now. Jalen Suggs was highly
touted coming out of Gonzaga. He has not really lived
up the expectations. He's been injured. I mean, you're buying
low if possible. Ultimately, I don't know if they would
(27:01):
they would give him up, but I think there are
some of these bad teams. Now, Clay's not gonna want
to go to a bad team, and maybe the Warriors
would say, we're not gonna send you to Orlando Bro.
Maybe they would try to place him somewhere on a
contender in the East. But again, like I think, if
you start looking like Jordan Poole, is gonna be tough
to move Rob. Like Draymond Green, I don't know what
(27:24):
the market is for. Can you get much for him?
And for what he does for you, he can't really
do for anyone else, So I think there is a
lot of value in that. Like trading Clay Thompson, I
don't think Pool at thirty million a year is going
to be easy to take to unload. Now I'm looking
at player point totals for game five, Rob, take a
(27:44):
guess what money Walker's over under totalists?
Speaker 2 (27:51):
Oh geez, Louise, uh seven and a half?
Speaker 1 (27:56):
Good guess eight and a half. Okay, I wouldn't automatically
take the un but I would lean that way. But
if there is a blowout, he probably stays on right. Yeah,
they don't have that. That's the only reason I do
not see a listed one for Jordan Poole. This is
an interesting one. Clay Thompson, who shockingly is averaging nineteen
in the series. Klay Thompson over under twenty two and
(28:18):
a half.
Speaker 2 (28:21):
I would take the over.
Speaker 1 (28:22):
Yeah, same, he could probably easily hit six threes. Wiggins
seventeen and a half. I oh, Lebron is twenty five
and a half. I would definitely go under. Now the
under is juiced minus one twenty eight. So you got
a bet one hundred twenty eight dollars to win one
hundred on Lebron going under twenty two and a half.
Eighty is under twenty four and a half. You might
(28:43):
as well smash that too. That's just Lebron and Ade
are not playing that many minutes now. The fear rob
is that we all are saying the same thing's gonna happen.
Anybody out there is saying the words are gonna win
in a blowout. The line's been going up. Maybe everybody's
I don't know, Oh I three pointers made. Well, I'm
(29:06):
not getting that granula with the bets. I wonder why
there's no Jordan Poole stuff posted.
Speaker 2 (29:11):
Because he's gonna play.
Speaker 1 (29:12):
Because he's gonna he's gonna play. You need him to
win this series. Listen, you're not winning three straight up
Jordan Poole's not doing something in one of them. He
has to Rub, you can't have Curry go off for
three games in a row. That's not possible. I want
to close with this Warriors Lakers real quick, Rub. I
had several people send it to me because I am
such a big Curry guy that in the final is
(29:37):
it seven? No? No, there was one within the final
seven minutes. Steph Curry's missed a billion shots, But the
other one was in the final thirty seconds in playoff games.
Steph Curry is er for twelve Did you did you
happen to see this?
Speaker 2 (29:54):
I did?
Speaker 1 (29:55):
Was that? Did I get it correct? By the way?
Speaker 2 (29:56):
That is correct? I mean you forget who I work
with on the radio show. I work with one of
the biggest Steph Curry haters this side of the Mississippi.
Speaker 1 (30:03):
Soh, let me guess. Rob Parker was just bashing.
Speaker 2 (30:04):
Oh, it was catnip for him. As soon as we
saw that stack creep up on the on the Twitter.
He sent it to me in the group chats that
I'm using this, and of.
Speaker 1 (30:12):
Course he did. You know what? That reminds me of
when last year Rob was trying to tell me when
I saw him once. He's never won a finals m
VP to get there. He went to the finals and
got the VP. What can you say now? And there's
like nothing to say now, but yeah, anyways, all right,
we need more basketball, so we need Curry to win tonight.
(30:34):
I'm rooting Nicks. I'm not optimistic Rob. All Right, folks,
we are kicking off a big, brand new, cool thing
tomorrow that I think you're gonna love. I don't want
to tease it. Only the T one listeners who are
listening deep deep into their podcast. They're gonna hear about
it first, because I'm telling you right now, there will
be a big, cool, fun, exciting change to the podcast tomorrow.
(30:58):
It's fun, it's exciting. I'm we were gonna unleash you tonight.
But let's just say your boy had some technical issues
and I'll leave it at that. We will debut that
almost certainly tomorrow the technical issues will not exist. I'll
talk to you then
The volume. This is Straight Fire with Jason McIntire. What
is up Straight firefam, It's me Jason McIntyre, Straight Fire
(00:23):
for Wednesday, May tenth, and folks, you know, there's sometimes
there I come on the podcast and I've got to
take and take a W because I like to take
w's and I like to maybe pat myself on the
back sometimes say well, I did a good job. When
I do a good job, and when I call out
Lonnie Walker needs to play more than Lonnie Walker delivers,
I feel pretty damn good. And then there are days
(00:44):
like today where your boy gets on the mic, he's
got to hang his head a little bit. Because I
have been backing the Boston Celtics to win the title,
come out of the East, destroy the Sixers, and I
felt really good about Boston on Tuesday night and I
drive to take my daughter somewhere, oh basketball, And then
(01:06):
I come back and I call up the score on
my phone. I'm like, oh, Celtics are down early on
what's going on here? You have to go drive? You know,
we're chauffeur's parents at this age. I just go to
pick up my son from soccer practice and I'm watching
the game and I'm like, boy, this is weird. Boston
not looking good, and folks, it just never turned around.
(01:27):
Jason Tatum kind of struggled. I'm not gonna blame him.
You know, Tatum is my guy. He's a top five
player in the league. I will defend that. You guys
can come at me. That's fine. I've got tons of AMMO.
I'm Tori Montana backed into a corner and I've got
all the EMO in the world. Like Tatum. Let's not
bash him because he's he had another semi roughgat. Now listen,
(01:47):
he finished with thirty six and ten and he got
to the line thirteen times, like he's just not as
efficient as normal. And the seventy six ers put a
beat down on Boston, almost leading wired to wire in
a stunning, stunning twelve point win, putting the Celtics on
the brink. And if anybody in America tells you they
(02:08):
had Boston and Milwaukee getting bounced before the conference finals,
they are lying. Nobody had this, folks, nobody on planet Earth.
I did not like the Bucks coming into this postseason.
In the player points pool, I didn't take any Bucks.
I only got one Celtic Brogden and it was a
reach late because I just I thought they were going
to the finals, and you know, up to one in Philly.
(02:32):
If they go, okay, they got this and Philadelphia is
not going away. And I've got to give the man
some props. Joel Embiid, the guy who I've been lambasting
as not MVP worthy. He returned from the injury in
Game two and didn't play great since then, and he's
had moments of up and down. Joel and Bid trying
(02:53):
to kind of lay the groundwork for this was a
four to sixty six with Ky injury and then playing
like forty plus minutes. He's been pretty damn good. Now
he hasn't been Jokic good, but Joel Embiid has been
good in the last three games. And I know he
wasn't awesome in Game four when Harden carried them late. However,
Joel Embiid in the last three games, he went thirty
(03:15):
and thirteen. He went thirty four and thirteen, and then
last night thirty three and seven. And this is the
number that you need to look at the free throws, folks.
He's getting to the line double digits every game. Eleven
of twelve, twelve of fifteen ten of eleven. I mean,
Joel Embiad's a problem. I thought Boston had this figured out.
Horford and Robert Williams were supposed to be able to
(03:37):
handle him, and Robert Williams just looks out of his element.
He is just a disaster. And then every time he's
on the floor, it just feels like, ooh, what are
they called? Time? Lord? He's just he's not a factor.
Nineteen minutes, didn't block a shot? You know who blocked
a shot in what might be? I guess after Lebron
the chase down block of the playoffs, Embiid chasing down
Jalen Brown late. I think it was like a twelve
(03:59):
or four t point game, and Brown tried to do
the finger roll and Embid just swatted it into like
the front row, and I was, oh, no, actually was saved.
It was saved by someone on the baseline. And I
was like, oh my gosh, Joel Embiid is hustling. He's
getting to the free throw line. And listen, I've been
a major Tatum defender, and I said, Tatum is better
(04:20):
than Embid. I would build around Tatum over Embiid. The
way Embiad's playing in these last three games, and again
he wasn't great in Game four down the stretch, get
finished with good counting numbers, but his effort was pretty amazing.
And Tobias Harris is chipping in seven of ten efficient
Tyrese Maxey hit six threes every time Boston tried to
get it close. In the fourth, Tyrese Maxie's dropping a three,
(04:43):
and Harden was kind of quiet. And this is what's
real scary for Boston. Harden did play thirty nine minutes,
but his usage did not seem overly high. He did
attempt ten free throws, but only eight shots. They almost
it felt like at halftime we're like, listen, we're trying
to set up Harden for Game six in the close out,
and we're gonna give We're gonna give Maxie the green light, folks.
James Harden eight shots, Tyrese Masey twenty one, Tobias Harris ten,
(05:08):
Daniel House Junior seven. He actually played well off the bench.
I'm sunned. This is such a shocking development, and you
knew it was a problem for Boston when who the
new coach, not Ime Udoka, but Missoula decides, hey, let's
put Peyton Pritchard in for a spark and it's like
the crowd kind of goes wild. You know. Peyton Pritchard's
(05:30):
like like a me on the court, like hustling, really
really trying super hard to make up for you know,
lack of athleticism in my case, age and Peyton Pritchard
like kind of did something. They were it went from
down eighteen to like down twelve, and maybe I think
they might have cut into eleven, but the Sixers weren't
having it. And and this is we're at the point, folks,
(05:51):
where the Philadelphia seventy six Ers, according to one sports book,
were the favorites to win the title after winning Game five.
Now another one had den later in the night, Denver one.
We'll get into that Philadelphia seventy six ers. I didn't
even realize this because you know, nobody tries. In the
regular season, the best record in the league was a Bucks.
(06:12):
They're out. Second best record was the Celtics fifty seven wins.
If the Sixers beat them, the Philadelphia seventy six Ers
the third seed in the East. We'll have home court
advantage in the conference finals, likely against the Heat, and
then in the NBA Finals. Yes, they would have fifty
four wins, Nuggets had fifty three, Suns forty five, Lakers
(06:35):
forty three, so the seventy six Ers would have home
court advantage in the NBA Finals. Now, that to me
is staggering. I don't think anybody thought Sixers could get
to the finals. It's been a good year for Philadelphia
sports that has ended poorly for all of them. The
Phillies got to the World Series, lost to Houston, the
(06:55):
Eagles lost the Super Bowl to the Chiefs, and even
in the MLS, the Philadelphia Union a storybook ride to
the MLS Final, lose to LAFC in what was maybe
like a top three sporting event or top three American
sports event. I'm not going to give the World Cup.
That's just too good. That Philly Union LAFC match was amazing.
(07:17):
Gareth Bale was an incredible header. I was watching that
game live. Just one of the best MLS matches I've
ever seen. So three professional Philadelphia teams lose in the final.
Can the Sixers break that streak? And listen, I know
Rob g loves when I say, hey, I got it
back off d'angela Russell. I kept hammering him in the
Memphis series, and I said, if he delivers, I'm not
(07:40):
going to bash him anymore in this postseason. And Danzela
Russell delivered. So even when he goes one for ten
in Game four, and oh, I can't bash him because
said he wouldn't, I wouldn't because he delivered. Folks, I've said,
can Joel Embi get to a conference finals? Conference finals
before we trash him? I'm sorry, not before we tracked him.
(08:01):
Before we give the man his flowers and give him
the props and the MVP and all this. Joel embiid
is one win away from the conference finals and they
get Game six at home. Now, I will point out
Doc Rivers has blown three three to one leads in
NBA playoff history, the only coach to do that, and
(08:23):
the Celtics were down three to two to the Bucks
last year, Milwaukee going home in Game six to close
him out. And that was the game where Jalen Jason
Jason Tatum was just otherworldly. I don't remember the exact
stat line, but it was one of the best games
of the year. I remember watching it and I'm just like,
Tatum is amazing, He's incredible. And that was when I
(08:44):
was like, this is my guy. I like Tatum. He's
just unstoppable. And then they win Game seven. That was
the Grant Williams game where he just came in and
was just dropping bombs like a Lonnie Walker style. So
the Sixers, the Sixers are one win away from the
conference finals. They likely will take on the Miami Heat.
And it was pointed out to me yesterday and I
(09:06):
mentioned this on the Herd. In the Bubble title, a
lot of the Michael Jordan fans want a discount the
Bubble Championship for Lebron. Oh wow, it was a bubble.
Come on, no fans know this stuff. Okay, Well, here
we are a few years later and the Miami Heater
are up three to one, about to go to the
conference finals, and the Lakers are up three to one
(09:28):
about to go to the conference finals. So tell me
again how the Bubble title didn't matter. We're seeing steely
toughness for the Lakers and the Miami Heat and the
Heat now Heat Sixers. That was you. Remember Jimmy Butler
was on what I thought was the best embed team
when they lost to Kawhi Leonard on that fluky three
pointer from the corner when the Raptors ended up winning
(09:51):
probably the luckiest NBA championship ever, so sixers in a stunner,
I would say, Rob, I think the Bucks losing Game
five to me was probably the biggest shock or of
the postseason. At home, they led by double digits in
the fourth. I just didn't think the Bucks would lose.
(10:13):
I think I had zero, like zero Celtics got this
no chance, zero percent chance the Celtics We're gonna lose
this game, and they basically trail wire to wire and lose. Rob,
I'm stunned.
Speaker 2 (10:27):
I think the more that you deep dive into what's
going on with Boston, the less surprise we should all be.
Speaker 1 (10:34):
Like.
Speaker 2 (10:34):
This has been a trend with the Boston Solace going
back to last season. It's part of the reason why
yesterday when you said that you still think Boston is
easily the best team left in the Eastern Conference, I said,
I don't see why, because they they play with their
food in the same way that the Steph clay dre
of their heyday Golden State Warriors did, where it's like,
(10:56):
there's no good reason why you should be doing behind
the back passes in the finals in the corrench time
situation and doing turnovers. But that's just what they do. Like,
that's how Golden State plays. If you go back to
last season, they blew leads in Game five of the
Conference semi finals against the Bucks, which led to them
having to have those huge comebacks in six and seven
game six of the Eastern Conference Finals against the Heat,
which led to go into seven game four against the
(11:18):
NBA Finals against in the Warriors, which led to you know,
the Steph Curry moment. They like these these are games
that they should have rolled through and sealed the deal
the way that you would expect a championship to level
a team to do. And as it relates to last
night's game, I don't know if this is a hot
taker or not, but this squares This falls squarely to
(11:39):
me on the shoulders of Joe Missoula.
Speaker 1 (11:41):
Wow what he's got?
Speaker 2 (11:44):
Yes, Because I mean, that's not excuse anymore, Like you're,
what one hundred games into the season, Like there's there's
no more first time head coach excuse what he has
done to this team. He should be behind bars for it.
Speaker 1 (11:58):
Okay.
Speaker 2 (11:59):
The reason why Boston made that run last season in
the playoffs in the second half of the season was
they had easily the best defense in the NBA, Like
they could shut off your water faster than your local municipality,
Like they were incredible in the postseason. Across twenty four
games last year, they gave up one hundred and two
(12:20):
points per game on forty three to thirty three shooting
splits to the opposing team. This season, across just ten games,
they're giving up one hundred and twelve points per game
on forty five thirty seven shooting splits. And on the inverse,
what they're doing offensively is they're taking four more three
pointers a game. So they have gone from being a
(12:43):
defensive juggernaut who could shut down basically everyone outside of
Steph Curry, and even then they had him on the
ropes and they let him off the hook, to a
team that plays exactly like everybody else. All gas, no braakes.
We're going to shoot it of threes, and we're gonna
let the analytics work in our favor. The problem with that, though,
(13:05):
is when your threes are not falling, what happens. Yeah,
And that's what's been the case for them, and that's
why they've tricked away so many games already. We're not
even through the first two rounds. Yeah, and so I
just don't know. I still expect them to win this
series because, like as you mentioned, my confidence in Doc
Rivers is even less than what it is in a
(13:26):
rookie head coach and Joe Miszula. But this is not
sustainable and they really need to square these things away
if they're gonna be the team that we all think
that they can become.
Speaker 1 (13:37):
So in the regular season, when it's just you know,
jack and threes, the Celtics only did threes in layups.
Speaker 2 (13:44):
That's it, yep.
Speaker 1 (13:45):
And what you're seeing in the playoffs is a little more.
Oh well, if you're not going to play any defense
and the threes are off, you're susceptible. I just looked
at Jason Tatum's shot chart, and again I am bullish
on Jason Tatum. He took twenty seven shots shots. The
number of shots he took outside of the paint two
(14:07):
and he missed them both to mid range. That's it. Now,
I converse that with Joel Embiid, and I know he's
a big guy. Rob. Here's the outside shot, outside shots
of the paint. Miss miss make miss make make make
miss make miss make the guy's jacking mid range and
making them. Tatum is saying feast or famine. That's all
(14:28):
we're doing. The numbers say threes, and that's what the
Celtics do. And the problem is when you're off on
threes and uh oh, by the way, Al Horford oh
for seven, Like I mean they all he did was
just shoot threes and he missed them all. Like there
is a level to where it's like, oh boy, you
know we did we did get nine offensive boards, but
(14:50):
we're missing these threes. They only took prop they only
took seventy nine shots and thirty of the more threes
and they're not making the threes. It's is I unbelieve
thirty one percent from downtown were the Celtics. Sorry, twelve
of thirty eight thirty one percent. That's not gonna cut it.
Speaker 2 (15:08):
Now.
Speaker 1 (15:08):
I'm with you. I don't totally think the series is over. However,
I do start to feel a little more confident in
my I can call my Denver Nuggets, right. I told
you guys, I had futures on the Nuggets to win
the series. I liked them. I picked them to come
out of the West. Coming out of the West might
be a little bit of a challenge if they face
the Lakers next, but a pretty impressive second half from
(15:29):
Denver to put away Phoenix fcet Phoenix was fisty. They
were down sixteen I think in the second quarter. Michael
Porter Junior went off. It was a great start for
the Nugs, and then out of the blue, here comes
Devin Booker starting to get hot. And once Devin Booker
starts to get hot, you're like, oh boy. Then they
tie it up at forty five late first half. But
then the third quarter comes rob and you could see
the fatigue setting in. This is a big factor and
(15:52):
if this series goes seven, it might This is going
to be the reason the sun flews. Kevin Durant ran
out of gas. He'd over three from dep that was it.
Devin Booker was mortal. He actually missed more than half
his shots, eight of nineteen from the field. And the
bench that was so great forty two points. In Game
(16:13):
four they scored twenty six and on the surface, it's like, oh,
that's not bad, but a lot of it was garbage
time and one player on the Denver bench, Bruce Brown
at twenty five points. So role players at role players
play well at home, Bruce Brown twenty five, just like
Landry sham At four threes in the fourth quarter in
Game four. And here we have Jamal Murray kind of
(16:37):
struggling early, finished with nineteen, but it was Jokic once
again establishing himself best center in the league twenty nine,
thirteen and twelve, utterly dominant in the second half, seventeen
points in the third quarter. When Denver pulled away in
the fourth quarter was largely garbage time. It's I don't
(16:58):
know what the word is to describe vibe Denver getting
to the conference finals. I you know, the basketball purists,
the nerdy basketball Twitter guys, the geeks. They love the
Nuggets and I like watching them. I mean, listen, I'm
a little happy. I have Jamal Murray and Aaron Gordon
in the player points pool. Although Gordon starting to struggle
with his shot. I don't know if he's running out
of gas this season, but he's not scoring at the
(17:20):
clip that he used to. And Porter Junior is a sniper.
I think he had four threes in the first like
fourteen minutes. This team's got scoring. Remember KCP was the
one in Game two who hit a couple of big shots.
Late when Murray was on the Struggle Bus Porter Junior
in this one early. We know Jamal Murray can go
off anytime, and Joki is gonna do his thing. So
(17:44):
I still feel good about the Nuggets. Now the X
factor is will Chris Paul return for Game six? Now,
I don't know I've been kind of you guys. Know,
I don't want to be critical, but everybody has their favorites,
right you just like guys and give them an extra chance.
I'll give you some of the guys I like, you know,
I like Steph Curry, guys a legend. Come on, you know,
(18:06):
I like Rob don't laugh Cowherd gets on my case
about this guy, zach Lavine. That's my guy. I love
watching zach Lavine and as good as I was on
Lonnie Walker, Rob g will tell you I tried to
trade Ad for zach Lavine and Alex Carus show. I
don't know if Laker Nacuy would have that right.
Speaker 2 (18:25):
Now, we still have.
Speaker 1 (18:27):
Given the way that Ad has been playing. But you know, Rob,
when you look at this Nuggets team, like, I don't
think NBA executives are going to be thrilled, but I
think basketball purists will like it. They play an attractive
brand of basketball. That Denver crowd was very lubricated. Obviously,
if you can get k D and Booker, the wattage
(18:48):
is there. But I don't I don't hate the Nuggets
advancing here, obviously financial reasons, but I I think they're
the best team in the West. Rob. I don't think
you can really argue that.
Speaker 2 (19:00):
They've certainly appeared that way and shout out to you,
because I think you're the only national talking head that
I can think of. If there is someone can DM
me and tell me I'm wrong, but I believe you're
the only guy who has said repeatedly the Denver Nuggets
are going to the NBA Finals. Everybody was hot on
Golden State because they're the defending champions. Obviously Kevin Durant
(19:23):
and the Phoenix Suns. There was a very very very
small minority of people who said the Lakers. I can't
think of one other person besides you who had the
Denver Nuggets making the NBA Finals. They were viewed as
paper tigers, and they have been anything but that so far.
They have looked as advertised. They looked exactly like you
would expect a team that was leading their conference basically
(19:44):
wired to wire all season, and Nikola Jokic, for all
of the slander that he's taken over the last couple
of years for playoff flameouts, whether it was his father
or not, has just ratcheted things up to a level
that we haven't really seen ever. Like he is now
the second player in NBA history with three hundred plus points,
(20:04):
one hundred plus rebounds, seventy five plus assister the first
ten games of postseason since Oscar Robertson in nineteen sixty three.
Wo he has ten career postseason triple doubles. I believe
let me pull this up as I'm talking, because I
had it in front of me that I closed the
window in these playoffs. The joker, Nikola Jokic, who the
(20:28):
biggest headline we've had from him in the postseason is
that he got into it with the Doner like that.
That's We've become a numblest numb to how great he
is in this postseason, which hasn't even been updated yet
in the overnight hours, is averaging thirty one thirteen and
nine on fifty three, forty seven, seventy eight shooting splits.
Speaker 1 (20:49):
Jeez, Like he has.
Speaker 2 (20:51):
Been an absolute monster, and it's good to see that
he is kind of getting this monkey off his back
and he's playing well, and he's doing every thing that
all of the basketball purists has said that he could do.
And I got to say that if my Lakers get
through the Golden State Wars, which I expect that they will,
and if they end up facing these Denver Nuggets, I
(21:13):
don't know if they can beat Denver.
Speaker 1 (21:15):
Right now, I think Laker fans are going to be
extra confident. Hey, we just knocked off the champs and
Steph Curry, we could take down Jokic. I just you know,
Ad against Yo, Adal have his chances, But yeah, I
don't know how they'll match. I guess Aaron Gordon would
match up with Lebron. Yes, Austin Reeves on Jamal Murphy Murray, I.
Speaker 2 (21:36):
Think you'd have Vanderbilt on Jamal Murray and Austin Reeves
on Michael Porter Jr. Well, before we get ahead of ourselves,
let me ask you about the Phoenix Suns, because you
and I have been on this train from the beginning.
What did you make of Mani Williams, Because this is
all getting kind of lost in the headlines. Because Joki
is such a great game that no one's really talking
(21:57):
about the Phoenix Sun side of it. But Manti Williams
played Devin Booker and Kevin Durant, each of them, I believe,
forty two plus minutes, forty one book, forty one for Booker,
forty two for Gavin Rant in a game that they
were down by twenty around twenty for the last seventeen
(22:17):
minutes of action.
Speaker 1 (22:20):
Not good, Not good at all. Now, listen, that's gonna
be a big story here for the Lakers, and we'll
get to that Lakers Warriors previewing that shortly. But I mean, Rob,
here's my thing. It's tough, and we talked about this
a little yesterday. It's tough for coaches to say, let's
shut them down early, like they all think, Hey, this
(22:42):
is the NBA. We hit a couple threes, you know,
we could do a nine to nothing run in like
forty five seconds, like that can be done in the NBA.
And now we're in single digits. It looks like they
had it down to Yeah, it was a manageable seventeen
with nine to nine minutes left. He's still in their
jacket jocks. I mean Devin Booker down twenty four is
(23:04):
launching threes with seven minutes left, Like, I mean, maybe
Monty will take some heat tomorrow. But they are going home.
If they were going on the road, maybe a different store.
I think they'll be okay at home. But you're right,
ultimately for Game seven, this is not Game seven would
be on Oh my gosh, not Saturday, is it? Oh Rob,
(23:26):
it is Saturday. Oh no, we have a family event.
Let's just say on Saturday, and it's fun. I'm excited
for it, but holy hell, am I if I have
to miss Game seven? That would not be good? All right, well, briefly,
we will go to the series that I have been
more wrong about than I think anything. This playoffs. The
Lakers trying to put away Golden State. Also Miami can
try to put away the Knicks. Now, I do think
(23:47):
Miami goes for the juggular and then do'll take their
foot off the gas. And I wouldn't be surprised that
the Knicks rolled over like dogs and just lost. Would
not shock me. They just look beat. Julius Randall says
some wacky shit in the locker room. It's like, come on, dude,
the Lakers putting away the worst. Now I was confident
the Warriors would win Game four, I'm ultra confident they
(24:08):
win Game five, which means maybe the Lakers win Game
five in Golden State. Now we're gonna have, you know,
the second this gets to double digits in the third
time to shut down Ad. Time, just to shut down Lebron.
And here's how I would do it. I would actually
rest Ad and Lebron more than I normally do in
the first half and just see if my guys can
keep it afloat. That way, it's easier to sit him
(24:29):
in the fourth quarter if you have to. I'm not
gonna try to play eighty twenty one of twenty four
minutes in the first half because I think the reality
is he's more likely to break down than like, have
a breakthrough and go for thirty and fifteen tomorrow tonight.
I just don't see either him or Lebron doing that.
And I will remind everybody, just in case you missed
(24:50):
it late on Monday, eighty four shots in the second half.
That's it. Barely got the ball Lebron. Yes, he attacked
Curry a couple of times, calling for the screens hunting him,
but even Lebron looked pretty mortal now. He had zero
free throw attempts heading into the fourth quarter. Lebron did
attempt five free throws in the fourth, so he saved
some juice for attacking. But you got to you gotta
(25:13):
think their reserves are not very deep. If I don't
think Vegas has set an over under a minutes, but
over under thirty five minutes for Lebron and ad each
in game five under, you would take under. So using
Warriors just kind of rolled back at home.
Speaker 2 (25:31):
Yeah, I think any Laker fan who's expecting the Lakers to,
you know, step on their throats and it'd be over,
or are being disingenuous like the Golden State Warriors. As
much as they have looked a little shaky at certain
times in this series, they are the defining champions. Steph
Curry is not going to go down meekly. You know,
(25:51):
if he has to take forty five shots to get
sixty points, they'll do it. Thompson is due for at
least one more big game in this series. You know, Yeah,
I'm gonna have nine points again.
Speaker 1 (26:01):
I don't know if you saw it, but I spent
you know, probably twenty minutes on the Herd on Tuesday,
trying to trade Klay Thompson to the Orlando Magic for
Jalen Suggs, Jonathan Isaac and spare parts.
Speaker 2 (26:16):
Uh, that's not the worst trade ever heard.
Speaker 1 (26:19):
No, I'll take it now. I know people listening are
going to scoff, but the reality is there's a bunch
of teams that are not in the playoffs and have
not been for a while. The Orlando Magic have two
playoff victories in the last I think eleven years. At
some point, you need a veteran, a grown up in
that locker room, somebody who's been in the battles and
been in the wars to be your leader. And Like,
(26:40):
if you're Orlando and you can get someone with that
championship DNA of Klay Thompson, I think you kind of
have to go for it now. Jalen Suggs was highly
touted coming out of Gonzaga. He has not really lived
up the expectations. He's been injured. I mean, you're buying
low if possible. Ultimately, I don't know if they would
(27:01):
they would give him up, but I think there are
some of these bad teams. Now, Clay's not gonna want
to go to a bad team, and maybe the Warriors
would say, we're not gonna send you to Orlando Bro.
Maybe they would try to place him somewhere on a
contender in the East. But again, like I think, if
you start looking like Jordan Poole, is gonna be tough
to move Rob. Like Draymond Green, I don't know what
(27:24):
the market is for. Can you get much for him?
And for what he does for you, he can't really
do for anyone else, So I think there is a
lot of value in that. Like trading Clay Thompson, I
don't think Pool at thirty million a year is going
to be easy to take to unload. Now I'm looking
at player point totals for game five, Rob, take a
(27:44):
guess what money Walker's over under totalists?
Speaker 2 (27:51):
Oh geez, Louise, uh seven and a half?
Speaker 1 (27:56):
Good guess eight and a half. Okay, I wouldn't automatically
take the un but I would lean that way. But
if there is a blowout, he probably stays on right. Yeah,
they don't have that. That's the only reason I do
not see a listed one for Jordan Poole. This is
an interesting one. Clay Thompson, who shockingly is averaging nineteen
in the series. Klay Thompson over under twenty two and
(28:18):
a half.
Speaker 2 (28:21):
I would take the over.
Speaker 1 (28:22):
Yeah, same, he could probably easily hit six threes. Wiggins
seventeen and a half. I oh, Lebron is twenty five
and a half. I would definitely go under. Now the
under is juiced minus one twenty eight. So you got
a bet one hundred twenty eight dollars to win one
hundred on Lebron going under twenty two and a half.
Eighty is under twenty four and a half. You might
(28:43):
as well smash that too. That's just Lebron and Ade
are not playing that many minutes now. The fear rob
is that we all are saying the same thing's gonna happen.
Anybody out there is saying the words are gonna win
in a blowout. The line's been going up. Maybe everybody's
I don't know, Oh I three pointers made. Well, I'm
(29:06):
not getting that granula with the bets. I wonder why
there's no Jordan Poole stuff posted.
Speaker 2 (29:11):
Because he's gonna play.
Speaker 1 (29:12):
Because he's gonna he's gonna play. You need him to
win this series. Listen, you're not winning three straight up
Jordan Poole's not doing something in one of them. He
has to Rub, you can't have Curry go off for
three games in a row. That's not possible. I want
to close with this Warriors Lakers real quick, Rub. I
had several people send it to me because I am
such a big Curry guy that in the final is
(29:37):
it seven? No? No, there was one within the final
seven minutes. Steph Curry's missed a billion shots, But the
other one was in the final thirty seconds in playoff games.
Steph Curry is er for twelve Did you did you
happen to see this?
Speaker 2 (29:54):
I did?
Speaker 1 (29:55):
Was that? Did I get it correct? By the way?
Speaker 2 (29:56):
That is correct? I mean you forget who I work
with on the radio show. I work with one of
the biggest Steph Curry haters this side of the Mississippi.
Speaker 1 (30:03):
Soh, let me guess. Rob Parker was just bashing.
Speaker 2 (30:04):
Oh, it was catnip for him. As soon as we
saw that stack creep up on the on the Twitter.
He sent it to me in the group chats that
I'm using this, and of.
Speaker 1 (30:12):
Course he did. You know what? That reminds me of
when last year Rob was trying to tell me when
I saw him once. He's never won a finals m
VP to get there. He went to the finals and
got the VP. What can you say now? And there's
like nothing to say now, but yeah, anyways, all right,
we need more basketball, so we need Curry to win tonight.
(30:34):
I'm rooting Nicks. I'm not optimistic Rob. All Right, folks,
we are kicking off a big, brand new, cool thing
tomorrow that I think you're gonna love. I don't want
to tease it. Only the T one listeners who are
listening deep deep into their podcast. They're gonna hear about
it first, because I'm telling you right now, there will
be a big, cool, fun, exciting change to the podcast tomorrow.
(30:58):
It's fun, it's exciting. I'm we were gonna unleash you tonight.
But let's just say your boy had some technical issues
and I'll leave it at that. We will debut that
almost certainly tomorrow the technical issues will not exist. I'll
talk to you then
Host
Jason McIntyre
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