On today’s episode, Jason and Super Producer Rob G start things off by discussing what went wrong for the Boston Celtics in their Game 3 blowout loss to the Miami Heat. As impressive as Miami was, the bigger story here is how inept the defending Eastern Conference champion Celtics have looked in this series. If and when Boston gets eliminated, it's clear that big changes are coming to Beantown. Jayson Tatum, Jaylen Brown and Marcus Smart aren't going anywhere so all signs point to rookie head coach Joe Mazzulla getting the axe after just one year on the job. Later, J-Mac hits us with a deep dive into the state of the Los Angeles Lakers as they too find themselves on the brink of elimination. Tons of Lakers fans want to blame LeBron James for their team being down 0-3 but the truth is it's their role players (D'Angelo Russell and Jarred Vanderbilt) who have let them down in this series. All of this leads to only one logical question heading into the offseason: Would the Lakers sell off all their newfound 'depth' in an attempt to acquire the mercurial Kyrie Irving? Only time will tell.
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Episode Transcript
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Speaker 1 (00:01):
The volume.
Speaker 2 (00:09):
This is straight Fire with Jason McIntire. What is up
straight Fire Fame.
Speaker 1 (00:17):
It's me Jason McIntire, Straight Fire for Monday May twenty second,
and the NBA over the weekend, it was not great,
ladies and gentlemen, not great at all. Fortunately, I had
a tremendous weekend. I know you care about my men's
league basketball season. The new one started on Sunday, picked
(00:38):
up an easy twenty seven point w We played a
team that had never been in this league before. It
looked like they were kind of friends, but they didn't
play together a lot and that was evident early.
Speaker 2 (00:49):
Let's just say.
Speaker 1 (00:49):
And it was a bit of a blowout, similar to
the Boston Celtics Miami Heat game which ended whereas we
record this late Sunday night, ended about an hour ago.
And folks, if you know anybody who had the Miami
Heat going up three nothing over the Celtics with a
game three win by drum roll, please twenty six points,
(01:11):
Please ask them for lottery numbers, because clearly they know
something that nobody else does. Folks, Nuggets we'll talk about later.
Nuggets Lakers Nuggets is three to zero, and now the
Celtics are down three the Boston Celtics, the favored Celtics
number two seed. Everything was clear for them after the
Bucks got dispatched, and they have rolled over like gutless dogs.
(01:33):
And I have a text that I've got to read.
I'm on a text chain in this player points pool.
By the way, I'm in second place, but it's looking
good because the Nuggets are gonna go to the finals.
And I have Jamal Murray and Aaron Gordon. This is
from a diehard Celtics fan. He's from Boston, he says.
Now he's a former Celtics fan unless they fire everyone
and trade every single player not named Marcus Smart, I
(01:55):
am looking for a new home. Bring on the Knicks entire.
This is Celtics culture was ruined when they drafted a
dukie who wears Lakers boxers and thinks he's Kobe, despite
not even being remotely good enough to date a Kardashian.
They were closer to a title with Isaiah Thomas and
(02:16):
Jay Crowder. Let's just say the text were popping. My
other buddy, who is a Laker season ticket holder, actually said, hey, Jay,
I got an extra ticket.
Speaker 2 (02:24):
You know, do you? And my other buddy, Dan do
you guys want to go to the game.
Speaker 1 (02:27):
My family's bailing because they are out there really upset
with the Lakers and Lebron. I was like, I can't,
you know, I got a vacation coming up. We got
a lot of stuff to do. I was like, you
could probably sell the tickets and pay for you know,
half your season tickets. And He's like, tickets are going
for face value. LA loves a front running team and
rob dr Lakers.
Speaker 2 (02:47):
They're in trouble. But I don't know this Celtics game.
Speaker 1 (02:50):
I was stunned when I looked at the line and
I saw Celtics favor by three, three and a half four.
I'm like, in Miami, what has anyone seen from the
Celtics to have them favored against a Heat team that
is just oozing grit and resilience and toughness. I gotta say,
you guys know, I'm a Jimmy Butler fan. Last week
(03:10):
I angered Kawhi Leonard Nation. You know the eight fans
who love Kawhi Leonard and represent him. When I said,
Jimmy Butler's had a better career than Kawhi Leonard. Jimmy
Butler's carrying a team putting him on his back, took
down Giannis in the first round, then took down the Nixon.
By the way, it's looking more and more like the
Knicks are gonna be the toughest team that the Heat
(03:30):
played in the Eastern Conference.
Speaker 2 (03:32):
Who knew?
Speaker 1 (03:33):
I mean, Jalen Brunson unbelievable stuff. And now Jimmy Butler's
taking down Tatum and Brown. And I know Boston fans
all this consternation. Do you trade Brown? We'll get to
that shortly, But I think the key here when you
just look at this game Boston from Deep eleven of
forty two and a lot of it was garbage time.
Jaylen Brown will of seven, Jason Tatum one of seven,
(03:56):
two superstars going one for fourteen from three. Not gonna
cut it and not win across the way look at it.
I mean, these numbers are staggering. Duncan Robinson undrafted five
of seven from Deep, Caleb Martin undrafted four of seven
from Deep, Gabe Vincent six of nine from Deep, also undrafted.
And I'm sure you guys have seen the highlight now
if you have not, I put it on my Instagram stories.
(04:18):
In game one, there was a big moment where Al
Horford hit a big shot and then he looked to
the heat bench and signaled.
Speaker 2 (04:23):
Time out and was like the crowd was going wild.
Speaker 1 (04:26):
So in Game three last night, Miami is rolling up
twenty five and one of the guards from Miami did
it right back to the Celtics bench.
Speaker 2 (04:36):
Grant Williams had.
Speaker 1 (04:37):
A moment where he's just like Jimmy Butler's pointing at
him like it got It felt personal, and it felt
like the Celtics just don't have those dogs. And I
know my buddy was ranting about Marcus Smart, but like,
I don't know, guys, I'm nerdy enough that I'm looking
at these Celtics situation. Salary cap wise, Tata Man going anywhere.
Jalen Brown, you don't off, you don't get off a
(04:59):
all in a second team guy, you don't just dump
him when he's in his prime.
Speaker 2 (05:02):
Al Horford, I don't know.
Speaker 1 (05:05):
I mean, he hasn't looked great, but it's contracts manageable
ten million dollars year next year. Malcolm Brogden did not
look good last night. Zero for six, donut twenty two mil.
Marcus Smart and he's got several more years eighteen mil.
Derek White eighteen, mil Robert Williams eleven. Then you look
at Gallinari, who knows what's going to be going on
with Grant Williams, Peyton Pritchard.
Speaker 2 (05:25):
Like their core is good.
Speaker 1 (05:27):
And I look this up, guys, the Celtics core of
Smart Brown and Tatum has basically been to the conference
finals five of the last seven years. I've only broke
through once and got to the finals. However, two of
those I believe were against Lebron early on, when like
Brown was a pup and Tatum was young, and it
was like the Isaiah Thomas J. Crowder team and Lebron
(05:48):
dispatched them. But I just I don't see a massive overhaul.
And Rob g I gotta be honest with you, man,
I'm looking at the Celtics team. I think you've got
to run it back with maybe small tweaks around the edges.
And I think the big question is Joe Miszula, the
coach who you know, unless only college basketball diehards had
(06:10):
heard of Joe Miszula before this season, you know, he
played at West Virginia, was a good player for Huggins, tough,
gritty guard and like he was insert as the coach
when Udoka was kind of bounced because of his internal strife,
hooking up with the employees and all the shady stuff.
They get rid of him. And the one thing they
(06:31):
really missed with Udoka was defense, because he stressed it.
If you remember early last season, he challenged through the media.
He was up front like Brown and Tatum, like what's
going on.
Speaker 2 (06:41):
It was weird. It was like Jesus, he gonna lose
the locker room.
Speaker 1 (06:43):
But the opposite happened. They started to play tough. The
team was awesome defensively. I believe they were second in
the league defensively, and they rode that all the way
to the finals. Had a two to one lead on
the Warriors before Curry erupted.
Speaker 2 (06:55):
They were close. And then Udoka's out.
Speaker 1 (06:57):
He's now going to Houston and he's gonna help and
still a culture of toughness in that young team. And
what did Mossoula do. He's all offense all the time.
And so after the game, you know, the media is
kind of asked if he lost the locker room, which
is a legit question. When you're down oh two, it's like,
all right, backs against the wall, let's come out fighting.
Joe Mozzula said, yeah, it's why I need to be
(07:19):
better to figure out what this team needs. I'm not
sure what happened, Like, not good, Rob, I don't. I mean, listen,
Brad Stevens ended up going to the front office. Then
you had Udoka one year, now you have Missoula. Are
you gonna really go for a fourth coach in four
(07:39):
years with this core? Because I don't see them offloading Brown.
Maybe Marcus Smart's a trade chip.
Speaker 2 (07:47):
I don't know.
Speaker 1 (07:48):
He's your one tough, tough guy the other guys. I
don't want to call him soft. That's it's not right.
So Rob, I gotta ask you, like, are we really
gonna fire Missoula? This is what like the Cleveland Browns
in the New York Jets, you just cycle through coaches
in and out. The weird part is those teams are
usually dumpster fires. And the Celtics they made the conference finals,
(08:08):
but they got swept. So I would lean toward Missoula.
Doesn have to be major changes. If we're not gonna
fire you, we're gonna bring in a strong assistant coach
who's gonna be our coach in waiting should you screw up.
I know he's not gonna like that. It's a tough
spot for Missoula taking on a good team with a
good locker room. I know some people will say, wait, wait, Jason,
anytime tylu gets a job, you say, wow, Tyler's coaching
(08:30):
Kawhi Leonard, he coach Lebron. How tough is it that? Like,
you've got to win the locker room and that ain't easy.
And it doesn't feel like Missoula ever did that. So
I hate firing a guy after one year, Rob, but
I guess he got to bounce him.
Speaker 2 (08:44):
This is embarrassing.
Speaker 3 (08:45):
Yeah, I definitely think you got to go. And it's
unfortunate for Joe Missoula because this team has kind of
always been this way. They even though they had that
search to the finals last year, their playoff run, if
you recall, had blown leads in Game five against the
Bucks in the SEMIS, blown leading Game six of the
(09:06):
Eastern Finals against the Heat, and Game four in the
Finals against the Warriors would have put him free one
and they choked it away like that's what this team does.
And so even with a disciplinarian like emo Udoka at
the helm pulling the triggers, they still found ways to
trick games away, like that's just their mo. I don't
know if it's because maybe Tatum and Brown, you know,
(09:29):
maybe aren't the leaders that they need to be. Maybe
it's anytime Marcus Smart is your emotional guiding light, that's
maybe not a good thing because of how you can
run sometimes. Yeah, so you know, maybe that maybe that's
the issue. But Joe Missoula is going to be and
he has to be the one to take the fall
because had they known coming into this season that they
(09:52):
were going to move on from emay Udoka, they never
would have allowed Will Hardy to interview with the Utah Jazz.
He would have been the guy coming back. I know
a handful of Boston Celtics fans, which is weird to say. Rex,
I'm a big Laker fan there, you know, I get
along with the Boston Celtics fans, but a lot of
them have They had this nickname that they tell him
that they've told me, and none of these guys know
each other, but they say Boston Celtics fans refer to
(10:14):
Joe Mizula's second row Joe, because last year he wasn't
even one of the coaches on the bench with the
rest of the team like the main assistance. He was
the guy in the second row behind the rest of
the team. So his job, as somebody close to the
organization referred to me, he was more like a friend
(10:34):
than a coach. He's there to deal with like emotional
issues with guys and keeping making sure the locker room
is in a certain way that everybody's had a good
vibe kind of a thing. And the way that person
explained it to me was, you can't have your head
coach be your boy. That's just not gonna work. There's
got to be some kind of thing where it's like,
(10:55):
look you are, you are my guy. I'm gonna look
out for you, but if I need to, I'm going
to crack the whip. That's the relationship that your coach
and your player need to have. If your player does
not respect the disciplinary you know, repercussions for blown assignments,
you know, blown coverages, refusing to do certain play calls, whatever,
(11:17):
then it's never going to work. And if this team
already kind of had that issue with ima Udoka, where
they lacked focus, they lacked a certain execution in pivotal moments,
that's only going to get much worse. When you have
a coach with Joe Missoula who even said himself, yeah,
maybe I lost the team. So if a guy's saying
that publicly, you can only imagine how they feel privately.
Speaker 1 (11:39):
I stop watching in like the third quarters blowout City,
but I'm looking at the box score route.
Speaker 2 (11:45):
This is one of the craziest stats.
Speaker 1 (11:46):
If I had told you offensive rebounds for Game three,
you knew nothing else about this. It was just the
first time I told you offensive rebounds Miami won Boston
twenty one, you would have probably thought, damn Celtics got
after it. Oh man, they were crashing the offensive lass
second chance points. Rob I guarantee you that we've never
(12:06):
seen a game ever in the history of the NBA
where the offensive rebound difference was twenty and a team
lost by twenty five.
Speaker 2 (12:13):
Like that's staggering.
Speaker 1 (12:14):
They took seventeen more shots, but Miami, of course, just
couldn't miss fifty six percent shooting fifty four percent from three,
eighty one percent free throws. So now we're basically looking
at a heat Nuggets Finals and all the good vibes,
the good energy that the NBA had at the first
round of King's Warriors going seven, and then Stephan Lebron
and you had the Knicks and the garden was popping, and.
Speaker 2 (12:38):
Wasn't there another good series heat Nicks. I mean, who
did Celtics be in the second.
Speaker 3 (12:44):
Round the Celtics beat they went seven with the Philadelphia
seventy six ers.
Speaker 1 (12:49):
That's right, so Celtics six ers. That was a good series.
It was like the energy was great. And now it's
kind of come to a screeching halt in the Conference
finals where both are three zero barring some kind of miracle.
And I had been reluctant to say, you know, Lakers.
Speaker 2 (13:06):
Were in trouble.
Speaker 1 (13:06):
Down two, oh, I said, Boston still not out of it,
down oh two. These series are over barring, Like I mean,
the craziest thing that you've ever heard, Like I don't
know made Jimmy Butler goes down, like I think, still
think Miami probably could win one of four games. It's
gonna be Miami and Denver, and I guess the worst
(13:27):
part is there's probably gonna be about a week between
the Conference Finals and the NBA Finals. That's usually not
good for momentum. Now, the one interesting area, and we'll
talk about it shortly, is You've got guys like Kyrie.
Speaker 2 (13:40):
Irving who could end up with the Lakers.
Speaker 1 (13:44):
You've got the Jim's Harden, Jim Harden potential move to Houston.
You have what does what does Phoenix do? Do they make
a big splash? You've got the coaching carousel. I mean,
is Nick Nurse, Monty Williams of these guys waiting out
this Boston series before they make a decision, Like, I
don't know, You're coaching Tatum and one of the top
(14:05):
teams in the East over the last you know, three years.
That's a great job, Nick Nurse, Monni Williams, Botenholzer. Obviously,
let's see what happens with the Clippers and Balmer. If
there's a shake up, do they lose? Tylu So, my
guess is, even though we're gonna end early conference finals,
there's gonna be a ton of scuttle butt rumors. You know,
(14:25):
we're already hearing some trade stuff about not only is
the third pick up for trade, but is the second
pick in Charlotte? Would they move that simply to get
off because they don't want to have to decide between
Scoot and Brandon Miller. Is both are like really good prospects,
but not supreme awesome superstars the way when Minyama is,
can you pick up a haul for that?
Speaker 2 (14:47):
We'll see.
Speaker 1 (14:48):
I this is gonna be a tough go here for
the NBA. But fortunately we've still got the Lakers to
talk about, all right, So I'm gonna pivot to Lakers Nuggets.
Here's the big problem with this series. Obviously could end tonight,
Nuggets up three to nothing. Just a staggering disappointment for
the Lakers. Game three Saturday night. Game three Saturday Night
(15:08):
was just awful. I mean fun if you like Jamal
Murray or you have Jamal Murray and your player points pool,
as I do. But all I got from Lakers fans
text dms, what happened? Why does Lebron suck so bad?
And so many people want to blame Lebron James for
this collapse, and folks, I went on social media and
I pointed it out, and I.
Speaker 2 (15:26):
Need to point it out to you.
Speaker 1 (15:28):
Lebron James is not the reason the Lakers are down
three in the series. They're probably gonna lose this series.
No team has ever come back from down three to zero.
I believe the number is one hundred and forty nine
times that's happened and zero times a team has come
back to it. So it's not happening for the Lakers
unless they get like, you know, something crazy happens unforeseen circumstances.
(15:50):
But the bottom line is either way, this is not
Lebron's fault and you can't totally blame Ad. Yes, Ad
was awesome in game one. He also did not show
up in game two, four or fifteen games. He was good.
He played well, Lebron. He's putting up good numbers twenty
two ten, assists, nine boards.
Speaker 2 (16:06):
You get it.
Speaker 1 (16:06):
If you're getting that from Lebron, it's great. This is
not twenty twenty bubble Lebron. This is not twenty what
was it twenty eighteen Lebron when he's dropped fifty something
against the Warriors in Game one, nearly single handedly took
a really bad team to scaring the Warriors. Yeah, that's
not this Lebron. It's not not a thirty eight years old,
not a year twenty. Yes, he can still be the
goat and put up twenty two, ten and nine in
(16:29):
this series for fun, and I posted this on social
I looked at Larry Bird's career playoff average. Now, Larry
Bird never played till he was thirty eight. Didn't even
sniff thirty eight Bird with a back injury. That's one
of the other problems Lebron is going to year twenty
at thirty eight Bird, Magic and Michael three all time greats.
I barely played as long as Lebron. It's comical. Obviously
(16:52):
different era. People want to make excuses. Fine, I'm just
gonna point this out. Larry Bird's career playoff averages twenty
three points, ten rebounds, six assists. Lebron in these playoffs
versus Denver twenty three points, ten assists, nine rebounds. Now, yes,
we could get on Lebron's case about the shooting. He
can't make a three pointer to save his life. Oh
(17:14):
for nineteen streak in fourth quarter threes, that was devastating,
and oh for ten to start the.
Speaker 2 (17:21):
Series from deep against the Nuggets just abysmal.
Speaker 1 (17:24):
That being said, I do believe if you want to
play the blame.
Speaker 2 (17:27):
Game, and I'm not saying.
Speaker 1 (17:28):
You have to take a look at D'Angelo Russell. And
yes he was acquired at the deadline, and yes he's
never been like a superstar. I think he was an
All Star replacement one year maybe in Brooklyn. D'Angelo Russell
has been pivotal in this Lakers playoff run. In the
first two rounds Are you ready for this? When D'Angelo
Russell scored seventeen or more points, the Lakers are undefeated
(17:50):
seven to zero.
Speaker 2 (17:51):
He is a.
Speaker 1 (17:52):
Critical player against the Memphis Grizzlies, and I have the
notes here. So in the series against Memphis, they needed him.
In Game four, that overtime game, he had a couple
big three pointers in the third quarter. He had over
He had seventeen points in that game. In Game six,
the close out game against Memphis, Danzel Russell had thirty one.
It was a blowout, they won by a billion. He
(18:12):
still had a really good game go against Golden State.
In that first game he had nineteen in the open
and you're like, wow, the Israel Russell's giving you a nineteen.
Speaker 2 (18:20):
That's huge. You're gonna win the series.
Speaker 1 (18:23):
And then Game three blow out, the game I was
at Crypto for I think he scored the first nine
points of the game, ended up with twenty one. He
had a great game, five threes. Danzel Russell delivers Lakers win.
And then in Game six, the close out. Also against
the Warriors, Danel Russell nineteen points. Now people are gonna
want to say, well, Jay, who cares about Danzel Russell? No, no, no, no, no,
you guys know, followers of the Herd. No. I told
(18:45):
cow heard early that role players in the playoffs are massive.
Austin reeves emergence has been huge. DANZELO Russell seventeen to
more points seven and zero. You know what happens when
he's under seventeen points one and seven. And he has
been a train in this series against Denver, literally unplayable.
Would not surprise me tonight for Game four if he
(19:06):
comes off the bench and maybe doesn't play a lot. Folks,
they are in seventy nine Russell minutes against Denver, they
are minus fifty three. He's making thirty million dollars and
giving them nothing. So Lebron's delivering, maybe not the old
Lebron that reused to He's not giving you thirty five,
but that's not like you can't expect that from a
(19:27):
thirty eight year old. He's given you twenty two. Tennis
is against Denver and the boards are there like he's playing.
I know the defense is not amazing, but again like
he's thirty eight, What do he want.
Speaker 2 (19:37):
From the guy?
Speaker 1 (19:38):
Austin Reeves playing out of his mind, Anthony Davis up
and down, Ruey Hatchie Moore has kind of emerged. Den
a shooter by the way, nothing tough defense at times,
but offensively not a factor. Jared Vanderbilt, by the way,
Jared Vanderbilt had a couple of nice games earlier in
these playoffs, he's bordering unplayable like Russell in this series,
and you start to wonder, like, I don't want to
(19:59):
get too far ahead, but Lakers fans down three, you
can start playing like, Okay, how do we how do
we get back here next year? We probably don't need
to trade ad We've seen what he can do when healthy,
incredible playoff run at times, He's been the best defensive
player in the postseason. Yeah, sometimes the scoring is not
there on the back to backs, but again, Anthony Davis
(20:20):
is a veteran.
Speaker 2 (20:21):
Was he thirty one years old? Thirty two now?
Speaker 1 (20:23):
A lot of wear and tear on that body, a
lot of injuries. You bring back ad Lebron, Austin Reeves,
you want to keep Patshimura and I listen, I don't
personally like this guy.
Speaker 2 (20:36):
I know Lebron likes him.
Speaker 1 (20:37):
We all know that when he demanded a trade from
Brooklyn earlier this season, the Lakers were firmly in the mix. Hey,
for whatever reason, Lebron really likes Kyrie Irving. Is there
a way you get out with that D'Angelo Russell, who's
you know, free agent, and that cap space is then
used on a guy like Kyrie Irving, And now instead
of unreliable D'Angelo Russe all on the court, you get unreliable.
Speaker 2 (21:02):
Is he gonna play? Is he gonna show up? Kyrie Irving?
Speaker 1 (21:04):
But when he does show up, he can get you
buckets should be noted. Denver, I believe, was fourth or
fifth in the West when Kyrie Irving showed up, and
they end up tumbling out and missing the playoffs altogether.
But I'm sure Lakers fans will talk themselves into, hey, hey, Lebron,
he could work magic on Kyrie and we get him
(21:26):
in line and get him to show up all the time,
and Kyrie Irving will deliver.
Speaker 2 (21:30):
But first, the Denver series is not over.
Speaker 1 (21:32):
And I will say, I'm sure you guys saw the
quotes about Jokic where he said listen, there's still work
to do. They have Lebron James. He's one of the
great players of all time. He's incredible and true, it's
not totally over. There is a world where Denver's role
players who have been incredible. I mean Bruce Brown, by
the way, talking trash to D'Angelo Russell, Bruce Brown's been really,
really good, like an exceptional player coming off the bench. KCP,
(21:56):
who ran his mouth a little bit about the Lakers
prior to the series. In Game three, Jokic had foul trouble,
goes to the bench. Somebody needs to step up because
they had kind of locked down Murray at that point,
you know, after the thirty point first half eruption and
they were kind of doubling him. And who shows up
KCP ten points in that third quarter with Jokich chain
to the bench with foul trouble and then Michael Porter.
(22:18):
I mean, folks, you want to talk about role players.
I know everybody likes it's to Star League.
Speaker 2 (22:22):
Yeah it is.
Speaker 1 (22:23):
And guess what in the postseason, defenses are geared towards
stopping the Stars. And what happened when Jannis and Milwaukee
kind of got clogged and they you know, I know
they had the injury, but they were focusing on Giannis
where it was Middleton, where it was Holiday Brook Lopez, Like,
they didn't show up and Miami's got him out of there.
You look at Boston. I know everybody wants to bang
on Tatum for his struggles in the first two games
(22:45):
of the series. It's like, folks, where's Robert Williams, Where's
Marcus Smart? Where are the role players? Role players matter
so pivotally, and you need to look at Denver. I know,
Murray's put up thirty five a game in this series,
and Jokic has been outstanding, but Michael Porter Junior's been
there every step of the way.
Speaker 2 (23:02):
Very good.
Speaker 1 (23:03):
I mean, he's your number three, Aaron Gordon, who was
a lottery pick as your fourth guy, he's delivering rebounds, defense.
And then Bruce Brown KCP like this is the best
team in the league.
Speaker 2 (23:13):
They are now favorites to win the title.
Speaker 1 (23:15):
We're talking about a Denver team that I picked to
take down the Lakers.
Speaker 2 (23:18):
I said seven.
Speaker 1 (23:20):
Maybe I wasn't giving them enough credit, but again, this
is not like a blemish or the Lakers season. This
is a team that started the year two to ten.
They were a super long shot to make the playoffs.
I read a story that said they were thirteenth in
the West in February. I'd forgotten that now. I know
the West was jumbled, but we're talking about a Lakers
team that overachieved. The overarching theme here is not oh,
(23:42):
the Lakers stink Lebron how could he be the goat
when he lost to Denver?
Speaker 2 (23:46):
That stuff is nonsense.
Speaker 1 (23:48):
This is about the Lakers totally overachieving, taking down the
number two seed Memphis. Yes, Memphis had Steven Adams out
and then Job was briefly injured, and they had their
issues and Warriors of the defending champs, they had their
own internal issues. But the Lakers beat both of them,
and then they go up against this juggernaut in Denver.
The Lakers took them down in five in the Bubble
(24:11):
and that was a tough series, and of course, you know,
Jamal Murray gets hurt the next year.
Speaker 2 (24:14):
But this Denver team is very good.
Speaker 1 (24:16):
And I know it's easy to play the blame game,
and let's bash, let's bash the Lakers. But other than
D'angela Russell and you know, maybe Jared Vanderbilt struggled a bit,
but again, these are guys you picked up with the deadline.
You know, I don't know how much you can rely
on them. I mean, even Kevin Durant joining Phoenix, you
could see them against Denver. Kevin Duranta played like eight
(24:36):
or nine regular season games against Denver.
Speaker 2 (24:39):
You get to the playoffs.
Speaker 1 (24:40):
Yeah, they had two nice wins at home thanks to
Booker and Kad going off. But the reality is this
team got smashed by like seventy in the closeout game
at home, so it's tough to integrate these pieces late
and clearly d'angela Russell was working fine, but now Denver
their strategy here has been phenomenal and it's tough not
to pick the nugget whoever they face in the finals.
(25:02):
I will point out briefly Lakers are somehow favored, favored
by three to three and a half tonight at home.
I guess under the impression that they will show up
and give a good fight, and Denver isn't have any urgency,
they just needed to get one in La. They go
home to Denver and close it out in five. So
I think that's probably why you see the Lakers a
(25:24):
small favorites, but this is not a game I can
bet on. I mean, there's a scenario where the Lakers
when they lose that game, they've seen the numbers. We're
down three season over, and you could talk a good
game about, hey, we got to lock in and fight
hard and let's just get this one one game at
a time. You could play all those lines over in
your head, but the reality is it is a massive
mountain to climb and I don't see it happening. So
(25:47):
I'm not.
Speaker 2 (25:48):
Betting on this game.
Speaker 1 (25:49):
I would bet though, I'll say this, I would bet
on Lebron over. I'll have to look up his numbers,
but this is a game where Lebron is not going
to go out like one of these Hey we got swept.
This is not a guy who's used to getting swept
in his career. We're talking about it all time. I mean,
the great Warriors team swept him. But this is Lebron
James going down not He ain't going out like a
(26:12):
punk in this one. I could see Lebron maybe point
rebounds assist you look at the total in case he's
trying to integrate everyone. Get D'Angel Russell going under the
under the illusion.
Speaker 2 (26:21):
The series is not over.
Speaker 1 (26:22):
If Russell can just cook for a few games, we'll
get right back in it.
Speaker 2 (26:26):
I don't think that's possible.
Speaker 1 (26:28):
I'm looking now, and this is at fan duel where
they do player props. Let's see, it's obviously slow to load.
But yeah, I would not be betting any Nuggets in this game.
I have no vibe on where their players are going
to be at. The only guy that I would consider
on Denver is Jokic looking for the closeout. But again,
(26:53):
there's a world where this is just this is a
tough one. Oh look, Fando doesn't even have the point totals. Yeah,
because we're we're still like, you know, a day out,
so we don't have that. But so this is a
no bet for me. There's nothing wrong with this. Listen,
I'm gonna lose my Lakers' futures bets down the tubes.
Speaker 2 (27:08):
It stinks.
Speaker 1 (27:09):
But the player points pool run by a guy who
used to work at Fox. I'm closing in on that
because I have Aaron Gordon and Jamal Murray so very
excited for that. We have a big time guest coming
up later this week. It's golf geared, but not our
usual guest, let's just say that.
Speaker 2 (27:28):
So, talk to you guys tomorrow.
The volume.
Speaker 2 (00:09):
This is straight Fire with Jason McIntire. What is up
straight Fire Fame.
Speaker 1 (00:17):
It's me Jason McIntire, Straight Fire for Monday May twenty second,
and the NBA over the weekend, it was not great,
ladies and gentlemen, not great at all. Fortunately, I had
a tremendous weekend. I know you care about my men's
league basketball season. The new one started on Sunday, picked
(00:38):
up an easy twenty seven point w We played a
team that had never been in this league before. It
looked like they were kind of friends, but they didn't
play together a lot and that was evident early.
Speaker 2 (00:49):
Let's just say.
Speaker 1 (00:49):
And it was a bit of a blowout, similar to
the Boston Celtics Miami Heat game which ended whereas we
record this late Sunday night, ended about an hour ago.
And folks, if you know anybody who had the Miami
Heat going up three nothing over the Celtics with a
game three win by drum roll, please twenty six points,
(01:11):
Please ask them for lottery numbers, because clearly they know
something that nobody else does. Folks, Nuggets we'll talk about later.
Nuggets Lakers Nuggets is three to zero, and now the
Celtics are down three the Boston Celtics, the favored Celtics
number two seed. Everything was clear for them after the
Bucks got dispatched, and they have rolled over like gutless dogs.
(01:33):
And I have a text that I've got to read.
I'm on a text chain in this player points pool.
By the way, I'm in second place, but it's looking
good because the Nuggets are gonna go to the finals.
And I have Jamal Murray and Aaron Gordon. This is
from a diehard Celtics fan. He's from Boston, he says.
Now he's a former Celtics fan unless they fire everyone
and trade every single player not named Marcus Smart, I
(01:55):
am looking for a new home. Bring on the Knicks entire.
This is Celtics culture was ruined when they drafted a
dukie who wears Lakers boxers and thinks he's Kobe, despite
not even being remotely good enough to date a Kardashian.
They were closer to a title with Isaiah Thomas and
(02:16):
Jay Crowder. Let's just say the text were popping. My
other buddy, who is a Laker season ticket holder, actually said, hey, Jay,
I got an extra ticket.
Speaker 2 (02:24):
You know, do you? And my other buddy, Dan do
you guys want to go to the game.
Speaker 1 (02:27):
My family's bailing because they are out there really upset
with the Lakers and Lebron. I was like, I can't,
you know, I got a vacation coming up. We got
a lot of stuff to do. I was like, you
could probably sell the tickets and pay for you know,
half your season tickets. And He's like, tickets are going
for face value. LA loves a front running team and
rob dr Lakers.
Speaker 2 (02:47):
They're in trouble. But I don't know this Celtics game.
Speaker 1 (02:50):
I was stunned when I looked at the line and
I saw Celtics favor by three, three and a half four.
I'm like, in Miami, what has anyone seen from the
Celtics to have them favored against a Heat team that
is just oozing grit and resilience and toughness. I gotta say,
you guys know, I'm a Jimmy Butler fan. Last week
(03:10):
I angered Kawhi Leonard Nation. You know the eight fans
who love Kawhi Leonard and represent him. When I said,
Jimmy Butler's had a better career than Kawhi Leonard. Jimmy
Butler's carrying a team putting him on his back, took
down Giannis in the first round, then took down the Nixon.
By the way, it's looking more and more like the
Knicks are gonna be the toughest team that the Heat
(03:30):
played in the Eastern Conference.
Speaker 2 (03:32):
Who knew?
Speaker 1 (03:33):
I mean, Jalen Brunson unbelievable stuff. And now Jimmy Butler's
taking down Tatum and Brown. And I know Boston fans
all this consternation. Do you trade Brown? We'll get to
that shortly, But I think the key here when you
just look at this game Boston from Deep eleven of
forty two and a lot of it was garbage time.
Jaylen Brown will of seven, Jason Tatum one of seven,
(03:56):
two superstars going one for fourteen from three. Not gonna
cut it and not win across the way look at it.
I mean, these numbers are staggering. Duncan Robinson undrafted five
of seven from Deep, Caleb Martin undrafted four of seven
from Deep, Gabe Vincent six of nine from Deep, also undrafted.
And I'm sure you guys have seen the highlight now
if you have not, I put it on my Instagram stories.
(04:18):
In game one, there was a big moment where Al
Horford hit a big shot and then he looked to
the heat bench and signaled.
Speaker 2 (04:23):
Time out and was like the crowd was going wild.
Speaker 1 (04:26):
So in Game three last night, Miami is rolling up
twenty five and one of the guards from Miami did
it right back to the Celtics bench.
Speaker 2 (04:36):
Grant Williams had.
Speaker 1 (04:37):
A moment where he's just like Jimmy Butler's pointing at
him like it got It felt personal, and it felt
like the Celtics just don't have those dogs. And I
know my buddy was ranting about Marcus Smart, but like,
I don't know, guys, I'm nerdy enough that I'm looking
at these Celtics situation. Salary cap wise, Tata Man going anywhere.
Jalen Brown, you don't off, you don't get off a
(04:59):
all in a second team guy, you don't just dump
him when he's in his prime.
Speaker 2 (05:02):
Al Horford, I don't know.
Speaker 1 (05:05):
I mean, he hasn't looked great, but it's contracts manageable
ten million dollars year next year. Malcolm Brogden did not
look good last night. Zero for six, donut twenty two mil.
Marcus Smart and he's got several more years eighteen mil.
Derek White eighteen, mil Robert Williams eleven. Then you look
at Gallinari, who knows what's going to be going on
with Grant Williams, Peyton Pritchard.
Speaker 2 (05:25):
Like their core is good.
Speaker 1 (05:27):
And I look this up, guys, the Celtics core of
Smart Brown and Tatum has basically been to the conference
finals five of the last seven years. I've only broke
through once and got to the finals. However, two of
those I believe were against Lebron early on, when like
Brown was a pup and Tatum was young, and it
was like the Isaiah Thomas J. Crowder team and Lebron
(05:48):
dispatched them. But I just I don't see a massive overhaul.
And Rob g I gotta be honest with you, man,
I'm looking at the Celtics team. I think you've got
to run it back with maybe small tweaks around the edges.
And I think the big question is Joe Miszula, the
coach who you know, unless only college basketball diehards had
(06:10):
heard of Joe Miszula before this season, you know, he
played at West Virginia, was a good player for Huggins, tough,
gritty guard and like he was insert as the coach
when Udoka was kind of bounced because of his internal strife,
hooking up with the employees and all the shady stuff.
They get rid of him. And the one thing they
(06:31):
really missed with Udoka was defense, because he stressed it.
If you remember early last season, he challenged through the media.
He was up front like Brown and Tatum, like what's
going on.
Speaker 2 (06:41):
It was weird. It was like Jesus, he gonna lose
the locker room.
Speaker 1 (06:43):
But the opposite happened. They started to play tough. The
team was awesome defensively. I believe they were second in
the league defensively, and they rode that all the way
to the finals. Had a two to one lead on
the Warriors before Curry erupted.
Speaker 2 (06:55):
They were close. And then Udoka's out.
Speaker 1 (06:57):
He's now going to Houston and he's gonna help and
still a culture of toughness in that young team. And
what did Mossoula do. He's all offense all the time.
And so after the game, you know, the media is
kind of asked if he lost the locker room, which
is a legit question. When you're down oh two, it's like,
all right, backs against the wall, let's come out fighting.
Joe Mozzula said, yeah, it's why I need to be
(07:19):
better to figure out what this team needs. I'm not
sure what happened, Like, not good, Rob, I don't. I mean, listen,
Brad Stevens ended up going to the front office. Then
you had Udoka one year, now you have Missoula. Are
you gonna really go for a fourth coach in four
(07:39):
years with this core? Because I don't see them offloading Brown.
Maybe Marcus Smart's a trade chip.
Speaker 2 (07:47):
I don't know.
Speaker 1 (07:48):
He's your one tough, tough guy the other guys. I
don't want to call him soft. That's it's not right.
So Rob, I gotta ask you, like, are we really
gonna fire Missoula? This is what like the Cleveland Browns
in the New York Jets, you just cycle through coaches
in and out. The weird part is those teams are
usually dumpster fires. And the Celtics they made the conference finals,
(08:08):
but they got swept. So I would lean toward Missoula.
Doesn have to be major changes. If we're not gonna
fire you, we're gonna bring in a strong assistant coach
who's gonna be our coach in waiting should you screw up.
I know he's not gonna like that. It's a tough
spot for Missoula taking on a good team with a
good locker room. I know some people will say, wait, wait, Jason,
anytime tylu gets a job, you say, wow, Tyler's coaching
(08:30):
Kawhi Leonard, he coach Lebron. How tough is it that? Like,
you've got to win the locker room and that ain't easy.
And it doesn't feel like Missoula ever did that. So
I hate firing a guy after one year, Rob, but
I guess he got to bounce him.
Speaker 2 (08:44):
This is embarrassing.
Speaker 3 (08:45):
Yeah, I definitely think you got to go. And it's
unfortunate for Joe Missoula because this team has kind of
always been this way. They even though they had that
search to the finals last year, their playoff run, if
you recall, had blown leads in Game five against the
Bucks in the SEMIS, blown leading Game six of the
(09:06):
Eastern Finals against the Heat, and Game four in the
Finals against the Warriors would have put him free one
and they choked it away like that's what this team does.
And so even with a disciplinarian like emo Udoka at
the helm pulling the triggers, they still found ways to
trick games away, like that's just their mo. I don't
know if it's because maybe Tatum and Brown, you know,
(09:29):
maybe aren't the leaders that they need to be. Maybe
it's anytime Marcus Smart is your emotional guiding light, that's
maybe not a good thing because of how you can
run sometimes. Yeah, so you know, maybe that maybe that's
the issue. But Joe Missoula is going to be and
he has to be the one to take the fall
because had they known coming into this season that they
(09:52):
were going to move on from emay Udoka, they never
would have allowed Will Hardy to interview with the Utah Jazz.
He would have been the guy coming back. I know
a handful of Boston Celtics fans, which is weird to say. Rex,
I'm a big Laker fan there, you know, I get
along with the Boston Celtics fans, but a lot of
them have They had this nickname that they tell him
that they've told me, and none of these guys know
each other, but they say Boston Celtics fans refer to
(10:14):
Joe Mizula's second row Joe, because last year he wasn't
even one of the coaches on the bench with the
rest of the team like the main assistance. He was
the guy in the second row behind the rest of
the team. So his job, as somebody close to the
organization referred to me, he was more like a friend
(10:34):
than a coach. He's there to deal with like emotional
issues with guys and keeping making sure the locker room
is in a certain way that everybody's had a good
vibe kind of a thing. And the way that person
explained it to me was, you can't have your head
coach be your boy. That's just not gonna work. There's
got to be some kind of thing where it's like,
(10:55):
look you are, you are my guy. I'm gonna look
out for you, but if I need to, I'm going
to crack the whip. That's the relationship that your coach
and your player need to have. If your player does
not respect the disciplinary you know, repercussions for blown assignments,
you know, blown coverages, refusing to do certain play calls, whatever,
(11:17):
then it's never going to work. And if this team
already kind of had that issue with ima Udoka, where
they lacked focus, they lacked a certain execution in pivotal moments,
that's only going to get much worse. When you have
a coach with Joe Missoula who even said himself, yeah,
maybe I lost the team. So if a guy's saying
that publicly, you can only imagine how they feel privately.
Speaker 1 (11:39):
I stop watching in like the third quarters blowout City,
but I'm looking at the box score route.
Speaker 2 (11:45):
This is one of the craziest stats.
Speaker 1 (11:46):
If I had told you offensive rebounds for Game three,
you knew nothing else about this. It was just the
first time I told you offensive rebounds Miami won Boston
twenty one, you would have probably thought, damn Celtics got
after it. Oh man, they were crashing the offensive lass
second chance points. Rob I guarantee you that we've never
(12:06):
seen a game ever in the history of the NBA
where the offensive rebound difference was twenty and a team
lost by twenty five.
Speaker 2 (12:13):
Like that's staggering.
Speaker 1 (12:14):
They took seventeen more shots, but Miami, of course, just
couldn't miss fifty six percent shooting fifty four percent from three,
eighty one percent free throws. So now we're basically looking
at a heat Nuggets Finals and all the good vibes,
the good energy that the NBA had at the first
round of King's Warriors going seven, and then Stephan Lebron
and you had the Knicks and the garden was popping, and.
Speaker 2 (12:38):
Wasn't there another good series heat Nicks. I mean, who
did Celtics be in the second.
Speaker 3 (12:44):
Round the Celtics beat they went seven with the Philadelphia
seventy six ers.
Speaker 1 (12:49):
That's right, so Celtics six ers. That was a good series.
It was like the energy was great. And now it's
kind of come to a screeching halt in the Conference
finals where both are three zero barring some kind of miracle.
And I had been reluctant to say, you know, Lakers.
Speaker 2 (13:06):
Were in trouble.
Speaker 1 (13:06):
Down two, oh, I said, Boston still not out of it,
down oh two. These series are over barring, Like I mean,
the craziest thing that you've ever heard, Like I don't
know made Jimmy Butler goes down, like I think, still
think Miami probably could win one of four games. It's
gonna be Miami and Denver, and I guess the worst
(13:27):
part is there's probably gonna be about a week between
the Conference Finals and the NBA Finals. That's usually not
good for momentum. Now, the one interesting area, and we'll
talk about it shortly, is You've got guys like Kyrie.
Speaker 2 (13:40):
Irving who could end up with the Lakers.
Speaker 1 (13:44):
You've got the Jim's Harden, Jim Harden potential move to Houston.
You have what does what does Phoenix do? Do they make
a big splash? You've got the coaching carousel. I mean,
is Nick Nurse, Monty Williams of these guys waiting out
this Boston series before they make a decision, Like, I
don't know, You're coaching Tatum and one of the top
(14:05):
teams in the East over the last you know, three years.
That's a great job, Nick Nurse, Monni Williams, Botenholzer. Obviously,
let's see what happens with the Clippers and Balmer. If
there's a shake up, do they lose? Tylu So, my
guess is, even though we're gonna end early conference finals,
there's gonna be a ton of scuttle butt rumors. You know,
(14:25):
we're already hearing some trade stuff about not only is
the third pick up for trade, but is the second
pick in Charlotte? Would they move that simply to get
off because they don't want to have to decide between
Scoot and Brandon Miller. Is both are like really good prospects,
but not supreme awesome superstars the way when Minyama is,
can you pick up a haul for that?
Speaker 2 (14:47):
We'll see.
Speaker 1 (14:48):
I this is gonna be a tough go here for
the NBA. But fortunately we've still got the Lakers to
talk about, all right, So I'm gonna pivot to Lakers Nuggets.
Here's the big problem with this series. Obviously could end tonight,
Nuggets up three to nothing. Just a staggering disappointment for
the Lakers. Game three Saturday night. Game three Saturday Night
(15:08):
was just awful. I mean fun if you like Jamal
Murray or you have Jamal Murray and your player points pool,
as I do. But all I got from Lakers fans
text dms, what happened? Why does Lebron suck so bad?
And so many people want to blame Lebron James for
this collapse, and folks, I went on social media and
I pointed it out, and I.
Speaker 2 (15:26):
Need to point it out to you.
Speaker 1 (15:28):
Lebron James is not the reason the Lakers are down
three in the series. They're probably gonna lose this series.
No team has ever come back from down three to zero.
I believe the number is one hundred and forty nine
times that's happened and zero times a team has come
back to it. So it's not happening for the Lakers
unless they get like, you know, something crazy happens unforeseen circumstances.
(15:50):
But the bottom line is either way, this is not
Lebron's fault and you can't totally blame Ad. Yes, Ad
was awesome in game one. He also did not show
up in game two, four or fifteen games. He was good.
He played well, Lebron. He's putting up good numbers twenty
two ten, assists, nine boards.
Speaker 2 (16:06):
You get it.
Speaker 1 (16:06):
If you're getting that from Lebron, it's great. This is
not twenty twenty bubble Lebron. This is not twenty what
was it twenty eighteen Lebron when he's dropped fifty something
against the Warriors in Game one, nearly single handedly took
a really bad team to scaring the Warriors. Yeah, that's
not this Lebron. It's not not a thirty eight years old,
not a year twenty. Yes, he can still be the
goat and put up twenty two, ten and nine in
(16:29):
this series for fun, and I posted this on social
I looked at Larry Bird's career playoff average. Now, Larry
Bird never played till he was thirty eight. Didn't even
sniff thirty eight Bird with a back injury. That's one
of the other problems Lebron is going to year twenty
at thirty eight Bird, Magic and Michael three all time greats.
I barely played as long as Lebron. It's comical. Obviously
(16:52):
different era. People want to make excuses. Fine, I'm just
gonna point this out. Larry Bird's career playoff averages twenty
three points, ten rebounds, six assists. Lebron in these playoffs
versus Denver twenty three points, ten assists, nine rebounds. Now, yes,
we could get on Lebron's case about the shooting. He
can't make a three pointer to save his life. Oh
(17:14):
for nineteen streak in fourth quarter threes, that was devastating,
and oh for ten to start the.
Speaker 2 (17:21):
Series from deep against the Nuggets just abysmal.
Speaker 1 (17:24):
That being said, I do believe if you want to
play the blame.
Speaker 2 (17:27):
Game, and I'm not saying.
Speaker 1 (17:28):
You have to take a look at D'Angelo Russell. And
yes he was acquired at the deadline, and yes he's
never been like a superstar. I think he was an
All Star replacement one year maybe in Brooklyn. D'Angelo Russell
has been pivotal in this Lakers playoff run. In the
first two rounds Are you ready for this? When D'Angelo
Russell scored seventeen or more points, the Lakers are undefeated
(17:50):
seven to zero.
Speaker 2 (17:51):
He is a.
Speaker 1 (17:52):
Critical player against the Memphis Grizzlies, and I have the
notes here. So in the series against Memphis, they needed him.
In Game four, that overtime game, he had a couple
big three pointers in the third quarter. He had over
He had seventeen points in that game. In Game six,
the close out game against Memphis, Danzel Russell had thirty one.
It was a blowout, they won by a billion. He
(18:12):
still had a really good game go against Golden State.
In that first game he had nineteen in the open
and you're like, wow, the Israel Russell's giving you a nineteen.
Speaker 2 (18:20):
That's huge. You're gonna win the series.
Speaker 1 (18:23):
And then Game three blow out, the game I was
at Crypto for I think he scored the first nine
points of the game, ended up with twenty one. He
had a great game, five threes. Danzel Russell delivers Lakers win.
And then in Game six, the close out. Also against
the Warriors, Danel Russell nineteen points. Now people are gonna
want to say, well, Jay, who cares about Danzel Russell? No, no, no, no, no,
you guys know, followers of the Herd. No. I told
(18:45):
cow heard early that role players in the playoffs are massive.
Austin reeves emergence has been huge. DANZELO Russell seventeen to
more points seven and zero. You know what happens when
he's under seventeen points one and seven. And he has
been a train in this series against Denver, literally unplayable.
Would not surprise me tonight for Game four if he
(19:06):
comes off the bench and maybe doesn't play a lot. Folks,
they are in seventy nine Russell minutes against Denver, they
are minus fifty three. He's making thirty million dollars and
giving them nothing. So Lebron's delivering, maybe not the old
Lebron that reused to He's not giving you thirty five,
but that's not like you can't expect that from a
(19:27):
thirty eight year old. He's given you twenty two. Tennis
is against Denver and the boards are there like he's playing.
I know the defense is not amazing, but again like
he's thirty eight, What do he want.
Speaker 2 (19:37):
From the guy?
Speaker 1 (19:38):
Austin Reeves playing out of his mind, Anthony Davis up
and down, Ruey Hatchie Moore has kind of emerged. Den
a shooter by the way, nothing tough defense at times,
but offensively not a factor. Jared Vanderbilt, by the way,
Jared Vanderbilt had a couple of nice games earlier in
these playoffs, he's bordering unplayable like Russell in this series,
and you start to wonder, like, I don't want to
(19:59):
get too far ahead, but Lakers fans down three, you
can start playing like, Okay, how do we how do
we get back here next year? We probably don't need
to trade ad We've seen what he can do when healthy,
incredible playoff run at times, He's been the best defensive
player in the postseason. Yeah, sometimes the scoring is not
there on the back to backs, but again, Anthony Davis
(20:20):
is a veteran.
Speaker 2 (20:21):
Was he thirty one years old? Thirty two now?
Speaker 1 (20:23):
A lot of wear and tear on that body, a
lot of injuries. You bring back ad Lebron, Austin Reeves,
you want to keep Patshimura and I listen, I don't
personally like this guy.
Speaker 2 (20:36):
I know Lebron likes him.
Speaker 1 (20:37):
We all know that when he demanded a trade from
Brooklyn earlier this season, the Lakers were firmly in the mix. Hey,
for whatever reason, Lebron really likes Kyrie Irving. Is there
a way you get out with that D'Angelo Russell, who's
you know, free agent, and that cap space is then
used on a guy like Kyrie Irving, And now instead
of unreliable D'Angelo Russe all on the court, you get unreliable.
Speaker 2 (21:02):
Is he gonna play? Is he gonna show up? Kyrie Irving?
Speaker 1 (21:04):
But when he does show up, he can get you
buckets should be noted. Denver, I believe, was fourth or
fifth in the West when Kyrie Irving showed up, and
they end up tumbling out and missing the playoffs altogether.
But I'm sure Lakers fans will talk themselves into, hey, hey, Lebron,
he could work magic on Kyrie and we get him
(21:26):
in line and get him to show up all the time,
and Kyrie Irving will deliver.
Speaker 2 (21:30):
But first, the Denver series is not over.
Speaker 1 (21:32):
And I will say, I'm sure you guys saw the
quotes about Jokic where he said listen, there's still work
to do. They have Lebron James. He's one of the
great players of all time. He's incredible and true, it's
not totally over. There is a world where Denver's role
players who have been incredible. I mean Bruce Brown, by
the way, talking trash to D'Angelo Russell, Bruce Brown's been really,
really good, like an exceptional player coming off the bench. KCP,
(21:56):
who ran his mouth a little bit about the Lakers
prior to the series. In Game three, Jokic had foul trouble,
goes to the bench. Somebody needs to step up because
they had kind of locked down Murray at that point,
you know, after the thirty point first half eruption and
they were kind of doubling him. And who shows up
KCP ten points in that third quarter with Jokich chain
to the bench with foul trouble and then Michael Porter.
(22:18):
I mean, folks, you want to talk about role players.
I know everybody likes it's to Star League.
Speaker 2 (22:22):
Yeah it is.
Speaker 1 (22:23):
And guess what in the postseason, defenses are geared towards
stopping the Stars. And what happened when Jannis and Milwaukee
kind of got clogged and they you know, I know
they had the injury, but they were focusing on Giannis
where it was Middleton, where it was Holiday Brook Lopez, Like,
they didn't show up and Miami's got him out of there.
You look at Boston. I know everybody wants to bang
on Tatum for his struggles in the first two games
(22:45):
of the series. It's like, folks, where's Robert Williams, Where's
Marcus Smart? Where are the role players? Role players matter
so pivotally, and you need to look at Denver. I know,
Murray's put up thirty five a game in this series,
and Jokic has been outstanding, but Michael Porter Junior's been
there every step of the way.
Speaker 2 (23:02):
Very good.
Speaker 1 (23:03):
I mean, he's your number three, Aaron Gordon, who was
a lottery pick as your fourth guy, he's delivering rebounds, defense.
And then Bruce Brown KCP like this is the best
team in the league.
Speaker 2 (23:13):
They are now favorites to win the title.
Speaker 1 (23:15):
We're talking about a Denver team that I picked to
take down the Lakers.
Speaker 2 (23:18):
I said seven.
Speaker 1 (23:20):
Maybe I wasn't giving them enough credit, but again, this
is not like a blemish or the Lakers season. This
is a team that started the year two to ten.
They were a super long shot to make the playoffs.
I read a story that said they were thirteenth in
the West in February. I'd forgotten that now. I know
the West was jumbled, but we're talking about a Lakers
team that overachieved. The overarching theme here is not oh,
(23:42):
the Lakers stink Lebron how could he be the goat
when he lost to Denver?
Speaker 2 (23:46):
That stuff is nonsense.
Speaker 1 (23:48):
This is about the Lakers totally overachieving, taking down the
number two seed Memphis. Yes, Memphis had Steven Adams out
and then Job was briefly injured, and they had their
issues and Warriors of the defending champs, they had their
own internal issues. But the Lakers beat both of them,
and then they go up against this juggernaut in Denver.
The Lakers took them down in five in the Bubble
(24:11):
and that was a tough series, and of course, you know,
Jamal Murray gets hurt the next year.
Speaker 2 (24:14):
But this Denver team is very good.
Speaker 1 (24:16):
And I know it's easy to play the blame game,
and let's bash, let's bash the Lakers. But other than
D'angela Russell and you know, maybe Jared Vanderbilt struggled a bit,
but again, these are guys you picked up with the deadline.
You know, I don't know how much you can rely
on them. I mean, even Kevin Durant joining Phoenix, you
could see them against Denver. Kevin Duranta played like eight
(24:36):
or nine regular season games against Denver.
Speaker 2 (24:39):
You get to the playoffs.
Speaker 1 (24:40):
Yeah, they had two nice wins at home thanks to
Booker and Kad going off. But the reality is this
team got smashed by like seventy in the closeout game
at home, so it's tough to integrate these pieces late
and clearly d'angela Russell was working fine, but now Denver
their strategy here has been phenomenal and it's tough not
to pick the nugget whoever they face in the finals.
(25:02):
I will point out briefly Lakers are somehow favored, favored
by three to three and a half tonight at home.
I guess under the impression that they will show up
and give a good fight, and Denver isn't have any urgency,
they just needed to get one in La. They go
home to Denver and close it out in five. So
I think that's probably why you see the Lakers a
(25:24):
small favorites, but this is not a game I can
bet on. I mean, there's a scenario where the Lakers
when they lose that game, they've seen the numbers. We're
down three season over, and you could talk a good
game about, hey, we got to lock in and fight
hard and let's just get this one one game at
a time. You could play all those lines over in
your head, but the reality is it is a massive
mountain to climb and I don't see it happening. So
(25:47):
I'm not.
Speaker 2 (25:48):
Betting on this game.
Speaker 1 (25:49):
I would bet though, I'll say this, I would bet
on Lebron over. I'll have to look up his numbers,
but this is a game where Lebron is not going
to go out like one of these Hey we got swept.
This is not a guy who's used to getting swept
in his career. We're talking about it all time. I mean,
the great Warriors team swept him. But this is Lebron
James going down not He ain't going out like a
(26:12):
punk in this one. I could see Lebron maybe point
rebounds assist you look at the total in case he's
trying to integrate everyone. Get D'Angel Russell going under the
under the illusion.
Speaker 2 (26:21):
The series is not over.
Speaker 1 (26:22):
If Russell can just cook for a few games, we'll
get right back in it.
Speaker 2 (26:26):
I don't think that's possible.
Speaker 1 (26:28):
I'm looking now, and this is at fan duel where
they do player props. Let's see, it's obviously slow to load.
But yeah, I would not be betting any Nuggets in this game.
I have no vibe on where their players are going
to be at. The only guy that I would consider
on Denver is Jokic looking for the closeout. But again,
(26:53):
there's a world where this is just this is a
tough one. Oh look, Fando doesn't even have the point totals. Yeah,
because we're we're still like, you know, a day out,
so we don't have that. But so this is a
no bet for me. There's nothing wrong with this. Listen,
I'm gonna lose my Lakers' futures bets down the tubes.
Speaker 2 (27:08):
It stinks.
Speaker 1 (27:09):
But the player points pool run by a guy who
used to work at Fox. I'm closing in on that
because I have Aaron Gordon and Jamal Murray so very
excited for that. We have a big time guest coming
up later this week. It's golf geared, but not our
usual guest, let's just say that.
Speaker 2 (27:28):
So, talk to you guys tomorrow.
Host
Jason McIntyre
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