June 14, 2022 • 34 mins
On today's episode, Jason and Producer Rob G bring you wall-to-wall reaction to the Golden State Warriors' Game 5 victory over the Boston Celtics in the NBA Finals. Steph Curry was uncharacteristically bad, but thanks to Andrew Wiggins, the Dubs are now up 3-2 and on the cusp of another championship. Wiggins was miscast as a leading man in Minnesota for years, and now that he has the freedom of a third or fourth option in Golden State, we're seeing him realize his potential right before our eyes; just please don't get crazy and start calling him the Finals MVP. Speaking of Wiggins, he never would've ended up with the Warriors were it not for Kevin Durant's decision to agree to a sign-and-trade for D'Angelo Russell (who the Dubs then flipped for Wiggins). Can you imagine what's going through KD's mind right now as the Warriors sit on the precipice of another championship? Let's just say it's going to be a very unpleasant week in the Durant household. Finally, the guys close the show by discussing what's gone wrong for the Celtics in the two games. Five quarters ago, Boston seemed poised to take a commanding 3-1 series lead; instead, they're staring down the barrel of elimination. There's a lot of blame to go around but the biggest issue seems to be that both Jayson Tatum and Jaylen Brown can't stop turning the ball over. If Boston has any hope of extending the series to Game 7, they need to protect the basketball.
Click here to subscribe, rate and review all of the latest Straight Fire with Jason McIntyre podcasts!
See omnystudio.com/listener for privacy information.
Mark as Played
Transcript
Episode Transcript
Available transcripts are automatically generated. Complete accuracy is not guaranteed.
Speaker 1 (00:05):
This is straight Fire with Jason McIntyre. What's up, straight
Fire fan, It's me Jason McIntyre, Straight Fire for Tuesday, June,
and I gotta admit I'm a little excited this morning,
a little bit my Golden State Wars. I think I
(00:25):
could say that even as a fan of the Lakers
and the Knicks. Listen, I'm a Curry guy, you know that,
So obviously I'm very excited that the Warriors are now
one win away from another title for what I've called
the greatest dynasty. And y'all have hated me saying that
hated it. I didn't like it. Bulls fans upset, Lakers
fans upset, Spurs fans upset. And now I think you
(00:49):
guys can all agree that the Warriors one win away
from taking down the Celtics winning another title. And this
is what's so spicy about Game six on I believe
it is Thursday and night. If the Warriors captured the title,
they will have one before Kevin Durant, with Kevin Durant,
(01:13):
and after Kevin Durant, and folks, to me, that is
going to be the overriding storyline. When the Warriors captured
the title, However, they still have some work to do, right,
they got two wins to go. I just gotta be real,
Boston just looks like a tired, spent team. Seven game
series against the Bucks was exhausting. Seven game series against
(01:34):
the Heat was I mean, just pure fatigue at the
end of that. And now against a team pushing tempo,
a veteran team, the Celtics have just folded up like
like a like what a napkin? They folded like a napkin,
like a card table in the fourth quarter back to
back games at home and then in the Bay Area
(01:57):
last night. And I kind of feel bad for Jayson Tatum.
He's went through it. Guys. Listen, I'm a Tatum guy.
I'm going to defend him forever. He now has the
most turnovers in one NBA playoff postseason in the history
of basketball. Now, this is a little cheesy, since you
know the series in the eighties first round were uh,
you know, first to three, best of five, and you
(02:20):
know Tatum has eclipsed Dwyane Wade in two thousand, I
think six, when Dwyane Wade let him lead Miami to
that title over Dallas Dayne Wade, I think was like
years old, and then Lebron in ten when it was
Lebron against the world, and and and Kevin Durant and
Steph Curry. So Tatum's going through it. He had two
airballs in the fourth quarter. He's an eight free throw shooter.
(02:42):
He missed four free throws. You could just see the fatigue.
He did not come out in the second half until
garbage time, which was like, you know, ninety seconds left.
Jalen Brown also did not come out. They just, you know,
they just they didn't have it there. They ran out
of gas. And I feel a little bad for Boston,
but I'm excited for Steph Curry, who, by the way,
(03:03):
had a terrible game after he had forty three in
Game four. Yes I did call that game. Michael Jordan's like,
yes it was. And you know what, when you carry
your team and you put up that kind of performance
forty three points on twenty six shots, you know you're
gonna come back with a clunker because they're gonna hound
you and these Celtics, and this became like a little
meme on social media during the game last night, the
(03:25):
Celtics were basically picking up Curry face guarding him near
half court. While the offense was going on. So Curry,
who was hitting from three in the series averaging thirty
four game, goes oh for nine from deep, his first
playoff game ever without a three pointer and his first
did any game since. He has a bad game and
(03:47):
they still win by double figures. Folks that I'm sounned,
I am legitimately stunned that they could pull this off.
And it didn't feel complete really until a Clay dagger
was like two minutes left by the A bets were good.
Clay over and listen. I don't want to brag. This
is not some kind of flex. Of course it is.
When you say it's not a brag, it as a brag.
(04:08):
But I was on the podcast yesterday. I told you guys,
they're gonna change the way they guard Curry. That happened.
Curry gave the ball up. Eight assists is high in
the series. Who benefited well. Clay Thompson had twenty one.
Andrew Wiggins, the other guy we mentioned, had twenty six
and thirteen rebounds. And yes we'll get to Andrew Wiggins. No,
he's not winning the m v P. Stop with the silliness.
I do have a little Andrew Wiggins appreciation moment all
(04:30):
built up. I was like writing about it in the
fourth quarter because I'm a nerd like that. Gary Peyton
the mitten, gotta love his story. Former Lakers Rob g
will say shortly the Mitten with fifteen and then my guy,
Jordan's Pool, who's been a cash cow for me in
these playoffs, fourteen points. I was okay as the third
quarters happening, and you knew this was gonna happen because
(04:52):
before the game, one of these gambling guys, uh David
Perdam at ESPN tweeted out the most wagered bet of
anything prop side total in the game was Warriors third quarter.
Why because the Warriors have dominated the third quarter all series.
They've dominated at all postseason. Never ever, guys, jump on translate,
don't be late to the game. I just don't. The
(05:15):
Celtics blitz them in the third, took the lead, and
I'm screaming for Jordan Pool. I'm talking to my dog,
who who's like barking when I get too excited, and
I'm a buddy, we need Jordan Pool in there. You know.
My dad's like, not my dad. My son is like,
did you call me dad? I was like, No, I'm
just talking to the screen. You know, we need Jordan
Pull on the court. Jordan Pool comes in late third,
(05:36):
hits the three, bangs another three at the buzzer, and
then start the fourth quarter hot and they were able
to buy some minutes without Curry and they pull away
and Boston never really threatened them. Jordan Pool, Man, they
need him. This guy. I know people want to bag
on his defense. Listen, three threes perfect from the foul line.
Nobody can guard him. Okay, Jordan Pulls a money player.
(05:58):
I'm a fan, but I need to talk about Andrew
Wiggins for a second. And you know I've told you
guys this nerdy story that I have. When I was
in college. You know, the internet was still in its
infancy and there was like chat rooms and I met
some nerdy guys in like college basketball chat rooms and
we did this um they went to They were like
(06:21):
from all over the country. We did this college basketball
fantasy league where you would draft players and they would
stay with you as long as they stayed in college.
So if you grabbed a guy right and he left
after one year, that kind of hurt because now you
gotta you got a big void to fill. Of a star.
So you wanted those like four year guys like Christian
(06:41):
Lightner or Bobb Hurley. Not that I went to college
when they were playing, but those are great four year
examples at any rate. That got me super into recruiting.
So I knew when Andrew Wiggins was coming up. His
nickname was the Maple Jordan's, yes, the Maple Jordan, because
he was a high flying wing out of Canada who
was just a super sick talent. Everybody thought he was
gonna be awesome. Of course, he goes to Kansas and
(07:04):
I will never forget ever his final college game, very
much like James Harden. Okay, they place Stanford in the
second round of the n c A Tournament. And Andrew Wiggins.
I had to look up the box score last night.
Thirty four minutes. He had four points in four turnovers.
He was one of six shooting, and I was running
the big lead at the time. Everybody's bagging on too,
(07:26):
Andrew Wiggins. He can't go to the NBA. Come on,
get a clue. He can't. He's not ready for the NBA.
Can't beat Stanford. If you're wondering who Stanford had, it
could be a you know a good trivia question. Dwight Powell.
He's on the Mavericks currently. And this guy Chason Randall
who had a cup of coffee with the New Zealand
Breakers my team down under. Um, he's had a storied
international career, maybe not storied, but a good one. But
(07:48):
they were like an okay Stanford team, and Wiggins did
nothing four points of four turnovers. Goes number one and
what happens within like the next I don't know week,
Lebron goes back to Cleveland. Cleveland had taken Andrew Wiggins
number one, and this I I don't know if it
hurt Andrew Wiggins. I don't know if anybody's ever asked
(08:09):
him about this. I'm sure they have, but recently would
be nice. Hey, Andrew, how did you feel when you
read Lebron's letter to Cleveland in Sports Illustrated, You know,
the one where he named all these players he's excited
to play with, like Tristan Thompson, Dion Waiters. I'm not
kidding about this one. Anderson Verajo verso sorry Brazilian and
(08:34):
Kyrie Irving. Lebron named them in the letter, not named
number one pick a week before, maybe ten days whatever
Andrew Wiggins, and that was a sign that Andrew Wiggins
is getting dealt. Lebron doesn't like to play with young guys.
Andrew Wiggins gets banished to Siberia a k a. Minnesota,
where you know instantly he's a scoring machine. He plays
(08:54):
eighty two games. Uh, maybe he made an All Star team.
I don't know, but he was putting up to went
of a game of doing nothing in the playoffs. I
don't even let's see if he even made the playoffs
in Minnesota. He made them playoffs once with Karl Antony Towns.
They lost in five games. And Andrew Wiggins was like
a forgotten number one pick. He gets a lifeline when
(09:18):
Kevin Durant. It always comes back to Durant. Right when
Durant leaves Golden State, he said, I'll do a sign
and trade to Brooklyn. Brooklyn had D'Angelo Russell. The Warriors
are like, all right, we'll take D'Angelo Russell. We'll see
what we can do. That doesn't work out, they flip
Russell to Minnesota because guess what, Karl Anthony Towns just
(09:38):
had to have D'Angelo Russell. I'll chime in for Rob
g former Laker D'Angelo Russell, And I mean that was
a guy. Karl Antonia Towns wanted him, he got him,
and the Warriors get Andrew Wiggins. Bing bang boom. The
Warriors are now one game away from winning a title.
Before Kevin Durant, with Kevin Durant, and after Kevin Durant
(10:02):
and folks, Andrew Wiggins, He's not gonna win the MVP.
Just stop with this silliness. He has had two straight
tremendous games, but the only reason they're here because they
could have easily lost four game four if not for Curry.
Is Chef Curry, who I believe leads the entire series
in points per game. But I'm happy for Andrew Wiggins.
I love these rebirths, right, you know, guys go somewhere,
(10:24):
they kind of flame out. People want to call him
a bust quickly. Andrew Wiggins was never a bust. He
just was not a one a guy who could totally
carry a team. He's in a perfect role now. He's
actually been their second best player. Better than Clay, better
than Jordan Pool, definitely better than Draymond. And I'll give
Draymond a quick shout. Draymond Green kind of turned it around.
You know, he had a solid game. I know he
(10:45):
fouled out and he missed two threes, but other than
that eight eight and six, only two turnovers. He was
plus eleven. Like Draymond. The one thing I didn't like,
Rob was the moment with hate him in the fourth
quarter where they like, you know, the ref blue the whistle,
they were going to time out, and Draymond's like, give
me the ball, and TAM's like no, and Draymond followed
(11:06):
him all the way to the bench and then the
Celtics players are like, get the hell out of here.
And it was at that point, Rob, that I got
tweets from a bunch of people and Instagram d MS
I would be rooting for your Warriors if they did
not have Draymond, Like, nobody likes this guy. Fox Sports
Radio has the best sports talk lineup in the nation.
Catch all of our shows at Fox sports Radio dot
(11:27):
com and within the I Heart Radio app search f
s R to listen live. Were you on Draymond you
want him on the Lakers? Absolutely? Not that that's a
terrible question for you to ask me right now. Um,
I think I remember I told you earlier it might
have been last week where I said flow to the
idea that do you think that even you know Laker
(11:48):
fans are rooting for Boston because of how much everybody
hates Draymond Green. You're like, when all everyone likes Steph
curry to, that kind of offsets it. But Draymond Green
has earned himself zero fans in these finals. You know
what's funny is there were times throughout the game, I
think he had like eight points in the first half,
like it was like a new career high or something
for him. It felt like because he gets some wide
(12:09):
open dunks or a wide open layup off of a
misdirection play. And then he turned and looked back at
somebody like, yeah, that's what happened when you leave me alone.
It's like, no, that's not what happened. Like he kind
of was feeling himself a little too much. Um. But
to your point that the story here, of course is
Andrew Wiggins. I mean Andrew Wiggins. I remember saying on
(12:30):
this podcast, I think when we first started, that I'd
rather have Julius Randall than Andrew Wiggins. Wait a minute,
Wait a minute, let me let that marinate for a second.
You would rather have Julius Randall than Andrew Well, what
is Randall is here? Is heither in the Andrew Wiggins role?
Like it's the Warriors team Like I don't I don't know,
I don't know if it applies for this team. I mean,
(12:50):
he's a perfect fit for the Warriors because he doesn't
have They're not counting on him for anything like his shot.
I know that he's been scoring well and rebounding will
the last two games. Um I had the numbers share.
Let me bring it up for you again one more time.
Forty one and twenty nine the last two games. And
that's without his jumper falling like he he hasn't really
been knocking down the three ball at it and an
(13:11):
extraordinarily high clip considering he's gotten twenty points a game.
It's that he is getting into the paint. He is
living off of offensive rebounds and all the junk stuff.
And that's not, you know, necessarily Julie's Randalls's game. But
it's perfect for the Golden State Warriors because Steph Curry,
even when he's missing like he was last night, draws
(13:32):
a lot of defensive attention. Was all the defenders up
a few extra feet Clay Thompson has been not the
Clay Thompson of old, but he's been a hell of
a lot better the last three games. And Andrew Wiggins
is able to work the seams and become a very,
very impactful player. And it's just really funny that all
of this goes back to Kevin Durant, Like k D
(13:58):
had no incentive whatsoever to agree to that double sign
and trade that brought D'Angelo Russell from Brooklyn and Kevin Durant,
you know, leaving Golden State. He had no reason to
do it. It's been widely reported he didn't even want
to do it at first because he didn't like the
idea of him being traded for another player, because he's like,
(14:19):
I'm far superior as a player, why would I want
to do that? And it took his business partner and
you know, the front office is to talk him into
it as a kind of a sign of goodwill to
Golden State for everything they did for him, that he would,
you know, help them out on the way out the door.
And it's just wild that that trade which ultimately led
to Russell and Cominka for Wiggans or excuse be Russell
(14:43):
for cominga and Wiggins would end up being what I
think is going to be one of the worst finals
or week long news cycles in Kevin Durant's history. It's
it's it's gonna listen. I'm not saying you guys know,
I'm a Kevin Durant fan. I'm not taking anything away
(15:04):
from him. I'm just saying his life is going to
be unpleasant because of social media, because of the media,
TV shows, radio, for a probably a couple of weeks
here and again. I know people are gonna say, oh,
he deserves that. Screw that guy. That is fine. Um,
I don't think you guys totally grasp what life is
(15:25):
like for a I think he's a millennial, right Rob,
he's like thirty four. That's still a millennial. I think
to pick up your phone and you go anywhere on
it and you're just getting heat from everybody, like that's
just what. Oh, let's stay off social media. Okay. Sure,
tell someone who's been on social media for eighteen years
or whatever it is, um, fifteen years whatever to to
(15:48):
to just stop doing it. Yeah, good luck with that. Um,
it's tough. I'm not defending Durant. I'm just saying that's
how it is gonna be, and I don't think it
damages him. He could still bounce back. But I'll just
say this, this looks really really good for Steph Curry.
And I'm not ready to get into the where do
we rank Curry and all that stuff. We know he's
(16:10):
one of the grades. He had an off night, that's fine.
But when you can get a bunch of other guys,
how many guys they having double figures? There? One, two,
three for five guys in double figures, um, and the
Celtics are getting nothing from their bench. I mean, Peyton
and Pool came off the bench to score twenty nine
(16:30):
just those two. Boston's entire bench had ten points and
somebody named Cornette hit a three late. Nie Smith had
three point three three throws, Like, come on, we're not
even counting that. Like Derrick White is a turnstyle on
defensive this year's I know people were hyping him up
against Curry, and you even saw like late in the
in the fourth quarter when they were the last gasp
(16:51):
stuff from Boston, and they said, you know what, let's
let's go small. We haven't tried this yet. Let's go
no Horford, no Williams, Robert Williams. That is, we'll go
Grant Williams is sound, Curry lay up, Andrew Wiggins dunk,
and I was like, all right, well, that ain't gonna work.
That they're gonna get run out of the gym. So
I don't know what adjustments Boston can make and come back,
but I'll say this, when the Warriors are down to one,
(17:12):
it felt robbed, like the Warriors were in deep trouble.
I didn't really know what they could do. And you
know what they could do is get heroic performances from
Curry and then Andrew Wiggins. And now they're on the
cosp of another title. Um I I can Boston pull
this off? I mean, I know they're going home, but
guess what, They've been better on the road than they
(17:33):
have been at home in the playoffs and and the
you know that we haven't lost back to back playoff
games like that's punctured. Now that's over. Could they lose
three straight? They go from not losing back to back
to losing three straight. I don't know, man, It's just
that that game was a weird one. Rob last night.
They're still how about this? Five games in the series.
I would say it's been a really good series. Hasn't
(17:55):
been one game yet to decided by single digits as
good as that one was. As good as that one
was last night, Rob, it was still a ten point
game and it was not close the final like four
minutes um. But there was really a good game then.
And if that's there's a great like the Boston comeback.
So they start the game with twelve miss threes and
then they make seven in a row, and you're like,
(18:16):
oh gosh, should they go again? And I don't. Warriors
were able to counter everything. I mean, Looney has come
up big for them. And it's weird because I felt
like after Game three the narrative was Boston's just a
better team, Rob. The last two games have flipped that.
Do you think Boston's a better team right now? I
(18:36):
don't see it. Well, let let me say this. There
is no harm whatsoever if myself, you whoever thought that
this series looked like it was going to be Boston's
after Game three, not just because they had looked, I
am my opinion, looked better for most of those three games.
The the biggest reason, and we talked about it, was
(18:58):
we were led to believe that Steph Curry foot injury
may keep him out Game four or a minimum may
be severely limited. And that turned out to be the
biggest non story of the playoffs, because not only did
he play, he had his best game arguably of his
career in game four. Like he did not look limited
at all in game four. Last night, in game five,
(19:20):
I thought he looked spry. He was just missing shots.
It wasn't like he didn't it wasn't moving well or
he looked like he was laboring out there. And when
you see Boston the way that they play, it has
to be they have to be one of the most
frustrating teams to root for because when yeah, when they're
(19:43):
on like they are fantastic, like they're they're big, they're switchy,
they can rebound, they can defend, they can shoot. Everybody
can shoot it from there from the perimeter, and it
seems like, and I don't know if this is a
coaching thing or this is a star thing. Maybe he
goes back to Tatum and his now being the most
turnover prone player in NBA history. I guess that that's
(20:04):
how the way to describe it. I don't know, but
it seems like they don't value possessions. They don't value
the basketball the way you would expect the team to
at this point in the season. Well, rob let me
ask you who is their point guard? And this has
been a theme at times for them. Who is your
(20:25):
point guard? Marcus Smart? He's not. He doesn't even I
don't even think he sets the offense up, like I
feel like Tatum has to do so much. If you
often they're running the offense through Tatum as opposed to
the Warriors, who are running it through Curry and a
gauntlet of picks. Tatum is like setting everything up. He's
in the pick and roll every time, so not only
does he have to defend Andrew Wiggins or Clay or whomever,
(20:49):
but he's then running the offense. And he's not a
natural point guard. Jayleen Brown's handles are terrible. He's a
turnover machine. We knew that going back to the Buck series.
You have five turnovers. Marcus Smart, not a two point guard,
had four or a dumb technical foul. Tatum had four.
They had eighteen turnovers. I mean, it's weird because they
had more offensive rebounds, they shot sixteen more free throws,
(21:09):
they made two more threes. Why do they lose well
eighteen to six turnovers, and then the Warriors because of
the turnovers, the Warriors got thirteen more shots, thirteen more
field goal attempts. So if you're getting thirteen more bites
at the apple, of course you're gonna win. And again,
how does that change? Like, I can't, I can't control
the turnovers? Like God, I don't. I don't know what
(21:31):
that is. It's not like the Warriors are Steph Curry,
I'm I'm I've been been told for so long is
not a good defender? Right? Is he awful? I don't
think he is. I don't think Jordan Pool is that
badefit defender in this series? So, I mean Looney got
in foul trouble, Draymond Green got in foul trouble and
they still prevail. How's this? How's this? Rob Otto, Porter,
(21:52):
Andrew Wiggins, Steph Curry? Oh? For seventeen on threes? Wow?
And they won by ten. I mean that's what happens
when your two best players combined for was that nine
turnovers last night? If you're Boston, I mean it's it's
I know that. You know Tatum is the one getting
the headlines because he's the best player and because he
(22:13):
has the new record, and that's fine, but if you
just look at the game log, Jalen Brown is not
handled the ball nearly as much as Jayson Tatum and
both of these guys. You know, last night there's nine combined.
The game four, there was eight combined turnovers. The only
game that they kind of we're clean with it was
in game three, which surprised Surprize. They won by sixteen.
(22:34):
They got they had four turnovers combined. Game two they
had six, Game one they had six. And it's like
those two guys, I don't know if it's tatum shoulder,
if that's might be what's bothering him, But when he
goes into the paint, he's he's almost looked like he's
afraid to go into contact. So he's jumping away from
a lot of these baskets where he's going. So it
leads him to either throwing the ball away because he's
(22:56):
trying to kick it out, or to take a wild shot.
Now he was making some of them early last night.
I didn't really work out, but we're having problems. But
Jalen Brown, to your point, I don't know if he
can dribble like like and it's I mean, I thought
I'm being like kind of facetious, you know, but when
he drives to the basket, I don't know if he
(23:18):
has small hands. I don't know if he just doesn't
have a good grip on the ball when he's going,
you know, with his left hand or whatever it is.
But I see him lose the ball in traffic. I
want to say, like half the time, whether it's a
turnover or not, it gets slapped out of his hand
and he has to regroup or it's slapped out of
his hand and then it's a turnover. And I I
(23:42):
just don't understand how a team that can be arguably
or statistically at least the best team in NBA history
for three months of the season, who can mow through
Kevin Duran and Kyrie Irving in Round one the way
they did, and and have games like against Milwaukee, you know,
(24:04):
even in this Finals, where they look like there's nobody
who can touch them when they're all when they're clicking,
and then follow that up with performances like we had
last night where it's like you're lucky to be on
the same floor with these guys, because I don't think
goldst they played well at all. They didn't a bad game. Yeah,
and and and they just you never even even when
the game when Boston took the lead lay in the
(24:25):
third quarter, I never got the feeling that Boston was
actually gonna finish it off. Fox Sports Radio has the
best sports talk lineup in the nation. Catch all of
our shows at Fox sports Radio dot com and within
the I Heart Radio app search f s R to
listen live. It's weird you say that because back in
Game four, Marcus Smart makes a three with five eighteen
(24:47):
left Game four, Boston up. They were five minutes away
from being up three one, and the series has just
completely flipped since that moment. And I know some people
are gonna blame the refs, and there's gonna be a
lot of barking about the refs. I didn't think the
refs were great, but again, Boston shot sixteen more free throws.
(25:07):
And the one turnover stat that you'll see everywhere today
is in the playoffs, when Boston has sixteen or more turnovers,
they are one in seven under sixteen turnovers and two
So take care of the ball. They win because they
can play defense and they're not scrambling back otherwise it
gets kind of ugly. Um, I guess Robbi, I would
close with Wiggins. How did the When you look look
(25:32):
at the NBA landscape, you're like, man, how on earth
did the Warriors get a former number one pick who
is having a great postseason. He's a very very good, strong,
exceptional whatever you want to use. How on earth did
they get this guy? And I think that comes down
to the whole miss price asset idea. It's you know, listen,
(25:55):
there's a lot of talented players out there and they
may not look great in one situation. And I'm sure
a lot. I would love to do a deep dive.
Maybe somebody else will do it. Here's what people thought
when the Andrew Wiggins trade happened, and my guests rob Is,
a lot of people were like, what is he? He
he could never leave Minnesota anywhere? What is he? But
(26:18):
he's not having to lead Golden State? And that's I
think everybody kind of miss priced what Andrew Wiggins was.
And I think we'll see that with other guys this
summer again. Zach Lavine like he has had to be
the number one, number one, a number one B whatever
you want to say, if you can definitely make him
(26:38):
your second or third best player. I mean, I think
you've got a home, absolute home run Andrew Wiggins. Really
great player, he's just not a number one to lead
the player, not your number one franchise guy. But now
when there's no pressure and it's like, hey, cut to
the hoop, you know, here's open shots because everybody's hugged
up on Curry and Clay. He's having a great series. Man,
(27:01):
It's just just so good to see Robot. I'm just happy. Now.
The question is can the Lakers find one of those
to pair with Lebron and Anton Davis? Time's running out
here there. Uh, free agency is in less than three weeks. Look,
rad and we're not doing our jobs if we don't
bring it full circle with the Lakers at some point.
I mean that the Lakers. The big story to come
out this week you talked about it is, Uh, Athony
(27:22):
Davis hasn't touched the basketball in six weeks, not talking
about that, and everyone's everyone's freaking out about it. And
I'm like, did you guys do that on the radio show? Absolutely?
Absolutely not, No, neither one of them. We're really killing them.
But they were surprised at how you know, un upset
I was about that story. I'm like, look, man, Anthony Davis,
(27:45):
his problem has never been basketball, Like he's you know,
four time All NBA, eight time All Star, four time
All Defensive. His issue is he's always hurt. So if
it's gonna mean him being healthy for seventy plus games, bro,
like lift weights and do yoga until October, I don't care.
Like the basketball will will be fine. Don't worry about that.
(28:07):
What I care about is, you know, is your knee
and your ankle gonna make it through eighties two games? Man,
if that's the answer that, uh, and here I thought
you were gonna say the big news not was not
Anthony Davis? Was what that? The Atlanta Hawks have a
new GM. Did you see Did you see who it is?
Landry Fields? Bro? I saw that and I was like,
I thought he was still in the league. And then
(28:28):
I looked it up. Are you ready? Landry Fields is
thirty three years old and he's ad GM. What. First
of all, he can he went to Stanford, so we
know he's smart. But he was a second round pick.
Showed well with the Knicks that I think he had
a moment with the Raptors, maybe made some pretty good money.
I guess he had some injuries. He's now with NBA
(28:49):
GM at thirty three, turns thirty four later this month.
That's not bad. And you're in a good position because
guess what, Atlanta has some assets that are tradeable, like
John Collins. Uh. I think Clint Capella is still on
the roster. Like you chip those guys, you package them
and maybe you make something happen for for another star
to pair with. Trey Young shout out to Landry Fields.
(29:10):
I don't know if he's a listener of the podcast,
but um, I'll close with this Rob and I don't
know if my buddy's listening. Um, you guys don't. Since
I moved to l A, I would go to the gym,
which is the former Clippers facility, and I would always
see these trainers working out guys and they would seem,
you know, notice. I would walk into the gym like
looking for a pickup game, and I'd be like, oh, jeez,
(29:30):
that's a former NBA player shooting with the coach. And
then the guy noticed me, so we became friendly. And
I'm trying to get him on the podcast, and he's
been reluctant, but he tells me after the fun because
he heard the Drew Handlon when Rob and He's like, okay,
that was that was good. I'll do it. And I
did not tell him I'm gonna say this. He legitimately
texted me Rob, I'm gonna I'm wanna t you up first.
(29:54):
Who would you rather have leading your team? Jason Kidd
or Steph Curry? And I didn't see that. I didn't
see the text for a few hours and then I
saw it. I was like, oh, well that's obvious, and um,
let's just say there's some disagreeing there. Wow, Jason Kidd.
(30:15):
I like Jason Kid. I showed why point guard all
Time of Famer. I mean, but I mean, is that
really a debate? I think he's gonna make it one. Okay,
you might be a personal friend of Jason Kidd. And
and nothing against Jason Kidd. I think they jokingly called
him Ason Kid because he didn't have a jumper so
(30:36):
they didn't want the j and his name, you know. Um,
but he's a Hall of Famer three three point shoot
at the end of his career, he did shooting, yes, yes,
but at thirty nine with the MAVs, what's fine? I know,
but he does have a ring. He was good with
them Nicks for a minute. He was very good, but
(30:56):
then that's took him to the finals a couple of times.
Never could break through. Who just they lost to the
Lakers once or twice twice? No, No No, they lost once
of the Lakers, once of the Spurs. I believe that's right.
They had Kenyan Martin. Listen, Jason Kidd is I mean,
he's probably got a top five point guard all time
case right, his numbers are unparis. I mean, you just
resume he's he's you can, I think, But I think
(31:18):
a better debate. How's this Jason Kidd or Chris Paul? Oh?
And I think that now I would I have not
looked at the stuff. Um, but off the top of
my head, you know, I know Chris Paul is more recent,
but I would I think Jason Kidd probably has him.
I think I think this probably goes to like how
(31:41):
we talked about the Shock Duncan debate, where whose peak
versus longevity. Chris Paul's longevity is incredible. But if I
have like prime each guy, give me Jason Kidd. I mean,
you know he could do well. I think he Chris
Paul is still only thirty four. Jason Kidd played Let's see,
(32:02):
I think he played, like, yeah, he played, uh eighteen seasons.
Actually Chris Paul is in yeah, sixteen, so they're they're
pretty close on that. L thirty four? Oh is he
thirty seven? Yeah? Okay, my mistake, UM that I think
that's a better debate, um with what do we bring him? Sah,
come on next week? I was like, got, well, we'll
(32:23):
see what the schedule has um. But yeah, I'm sorry, guys,
I think it's point guards, it's Magic, it's Curry, and
that's it. You know, I don't I don't think there's
anyone in their Stratosphy Isaiah Thomas next year, John Stockton
next year. The real debate is it can Curry catch Magic?
I think that's just a very tall order any shot there. Rob.
(32:47):
You know it's gonna be great is when they lose
Game six on Thursday, and then you get real tight
thinking about game seven. Well, I mean, listen, you know
we're in the content business. Game seven is slated for Sunday,
should it happen? And so you know the Monday pottle
were popping, and then Game six is Thursday, we will
we I think we have two guests lined up for
(33:08):
this week, one NFL that you guys will like. I
gotta talk football obviously, and then we think at NBA. UM,
it should be a fun week. If you're wondering about
the concussion, it was not good on Monday, and then
Monday evening it seemed to clear up a little bit.
I don't know. I just didn't have motivation to really
do anything. No working out. I'm just like a lot
of laying around. I took a long nap, had the
(33:29):
Gambling Show with Calherd, and I just I don't know, guys,
I'm hoping it's just mild. I'm gonna try to play
basketball this morning, um half speed of course, and because
I can't, you know, I gotta play. I gotta play hoops.
I need it. Um. But anyways, congrats to the Warriors
on the game five, win Game six Thursday. They can
(33:53):
ice another type. Curry will get the m v P.
I mean, can Andrew Wiggins win the m v P
rob at all? No? If he hast in Game six? No? No, yeah,
I don't think so either. He was According to the
betting markets on Monday morning, he was minus or he
was I think plus ten thousand, plus ten thousand because
(34:14):
Curry was such a heavy favorite. Curry was bad, but
he's still going to win the MVP. Guys, all right,
we'll talk to you tomorrow
This is straight Fire with Jason McIntyre. What's up, straight
Fire fan, It's me Jason McIntyre, Straight Fire for Tuesday, June,
and I gotta admit I'm a little excited this morning,
a little bit my Golden State Wars. I think I
(00:25):
could say that even as a fan of the Lakers
and the Knicks. Listen, I'm a Curry guy, you know that,
So obviously I'm very excited that the Warriors are now
one win away from another title for what I've called
the greatest dynasty. And y'all have hated me saying that
hated it. I didn't like it. Bulls fans upset, Lakers
fans upset, Spurs fans upset. And now I think you
(00:49):
guys can all agree that the Warriors one win away
from taking down the Celtics winning another title. And this
is what's so spicy about Game six on I believe
it is Thursday and night. If the Warriors captured the title,
they will have one before Kevin Durant, with Kevin Durant,
(01:13):
and after Kevin Durant, and folks, to me, that is
going to be the overriding storyline. When the Warriors captured
the title, However, they still have some work to do, right,
they got two wins to go. I just gotta be real,
Boston just looks like a tired, spent team. Seven game
series against the Bucks was exhausting. Seven game series against
(01:34):
the Heat was I mean, just pure fatigue at the
end of that. And now against a team pushing tempo,
a veteran team, the Celtics have just folded up like
like a like what a napkin? They folded like a napkin,
like a card table in the fourth quarter back to
back games at home and then in the Bay Area
(01:57):
last night. And I kind of feel bad for Jayson Tatum.
He's went through it. Guys. Listen, I'm a Tatum guy.
I'm going to defend him forever. He now has the
most turnovers in one NBA playoff postseason in the history
of basketball. Now, this is a little cheesy, since you
know the series in the eighties first round were uh,
you know, first to three, best of five, and you
(02:20):
know Tatum has eclipsed Dwyane Wade in two thousand, I
think six, when Dwyane Wade let him lead Miami to
that title over Dallas Dayne Wade, I think was like
years old, and then Lebron in ten when it was
Lebron against the world, and and and Kevin Durant and
Steph Curry. So Tatum's going through it. He had two
airballs in the fourth quarter. He's an eight free throw shooter.
(02:42):
He missed four free throws. You could just see the fatigue.
He did not come out in the second half until
garbage time, which was like, you know, ninety seconds left.
Jalen Brown also did not come out. They just, you know,
they just they didn't have it there. They ran out
of gas. And I feel a little bad for Boston,
but I'm excited for Steph Curry, who, by the way,
(03:03):
had a terrible game after he had forty three in
Game four. Yes I did call that game. Michael Jordan's like,
yes it was. And you know what, when you carry
your team and you put up that kind of performance
forty three points on twenty six shots, you know you're
gonna come back with a clunker because they're gonna hound
you and these Celtics, and this became like a little
meme on social media during the game last night, the
(03:25):
Celtics were basically picking up Curry face guarding him near
half court. While the offense was going on. So Curry,
who was hitting from three in the series averaging thirty
four game, goes oh for nine from deep, his first
playoff game ever without a three pointer and his first
did any game since. He has a bad game and
(03:47):
they still win by double figures. Folks that I'm sounned,
I am legitimately stunned that they could pull this off.
And it didn't feel complete really until a Clay dagger
was like two minutes left by the A bets were good.
Clay over and listen. I don't want to brag. This
is not some kind of flex. Of course it is.
When you say it's not a brag, it as a brag.
(04:08):
But I was on the podcast yesterday. I told you guys,
they're gonna change the way they guard Curry. That happened.
Curry gave the ball up. Eight assists is high in
the series. Who benefited well. Clay Thompson had twenty one.
Andrew Wiggins, the other guy we mentioned, had twenty six
and thirteen rebounds. And yes we'll get to Andrew Wiggins. No,
he's not winning the m v P. Stop with the silliness.
I do have a little Andrew Wiggins appreciation moment all
(04:30):
built up. I was like writing about it in the
fourth quarter because I'm a nerd like that. Gary Peyton
the mitten, gotta love his story. Former Lakers Rob g
will say shortly the Mitten with fifteen and then my guy,
Jordan's Pool, who's been a cash cow for me in
these playoffs, fourteen points. I was okay as the third
quarters happening, and you knew this was gonna happen because
(04:52):
before the game, one of these gambling guys, uh David
Perdam at ESPN tweeted out the most wagered bet of
anything prop side total in the game was Warriors third quarter.
Why because the Warriors have dominated the third quarter all series.
They've dominated at all postseason. Never ever, guys, jump on translate,
don't be late to the game. I just don't. The
(05:15):
Celtics blitz them in the third, took the lead, and
I'm screaming for Jordan Pool. I'm talking to my dog,
who who's like barking when I get too excited, and
I'm a buddy, we need Jordan Pool in there. You know.
My dad's like, not my dad. My son is like,
did you call me dad? I was like, No, I'm
just talking to the screen. You know, we need Jordan
Pull on the court. Jordan Pool comes in late third,
(05:36):
hits the three, bangs another three at the buzzer, and
then start the fourth quarter hot and they were able
to buy some minutes without Curry and they pull away
and Boston never really threatened them. Jordan Pool, Man, they
need him. This guy. I know people want to bag
on his defense. Listen, three threes perfect from the foul line.
Nobody can guard him. Okay, Jordan Pulls a money player.
(05:58):
I'm a fan, but I need to talk about Andrew
Wiggins for a second. And you know I've told you
guys this nerdy story that I have. When I was
in college. You know, the internet was still in its
infancy and there was like chat rooms and I met
some nerdy guys in like college basketball chat rooms and
we did this um they went to They were like
(06:21):
from all over the country. We did this college basketball
fantasy league where you would draft players and they would
stay with you as long as they stayed in college.
So if you grabbed a guy right and he left
after one year, that kind of hurt because now you
gotta you got a big void to fill. Of a star.
So you wanted those like four year guys like Christian
(06:41):
Lightner or Bobb Hurley. Not that I went to college
when they were playing, but those are great four year
examples at any rate. That got me super into recruiting.
So I knew when Andrew Wiggins was coming up. His
nickname was the Maple Jordan's, yes, the Maple Jordan, because
he was a high flying wing out of Canada who
was just a super sick talent. Everybody thought he was
gonna be awesome. Of course, he goes to Kansas and
(07:04):
I will never forget ever his final college game, very
much like James Harden. Okay, they place Stanford in the
second round of the n c A Tournament. And Andrew Wiggins.
I had to look up the box score last night.
Thirty four minutes. He had four points in four turnovers.
He was one of six shooting, and I was running
the big lead at the time. Everybody's bagging on too,
(07:26):
Andrew Wiggins. He can't go to the NBA. Come on,
get a clue. He can't. He's not ready for the NBA.
Can't beat Stanford. If you're wondering who Stanford had, it
could be a you know a good trivia question. Dwight Powell.
He's on the Mavericks currently. And this guy Chason Randall
who had a cup of coffee with the New Zealand
Breakers my team down under. Um, he's had a storied
international career, maybe not storied, but a good one. But
(07:48):
they were like an okay Stanford team, and Wiggins did
nothing four points of four turnovers. Goes number one and
what happens within like the next I don't know week,
Lebron goes back to Cleveland. Cleveland had taken Andrew Wiggins
number one, and this I I don't know if it
hurt Andrew Wiggins. I don't know if anybody's ever asked
(08:09):
him about this. I'm sure they have, but recently would
be nice. Hey, Andrew, how did you feel when you
read Lebron's letter to Cleveland in Sports Illustrated, You know,
the one where he named all these players he's excited
to play with, like Tristan Thompson, Dion Waiters. I'm not
kidding about this one. Anderson Verajo verso sorry Brazilian and
(08:34):
Kyrie Irving. Lebron named them in the letter, not named
number one pick a week before, maybe ten days whatever
Andrew Wiggins, and that was a sign that Andrew Wiggins
is getting dealt. Lebron doesn't like to play with young guys.
Andrew Wiggins gets banished to Siberia a k a. Minnesota,
where you know instantly he's a scoring machine. He plays
(08:54):
eighty two games. Uh, maybe he made an All Star team.
I don't know, but he was putting up to went
of a game of doing nothing in the playoffs. I
don't even let's see if he even made the playoffs
in Minnesota. He made them playoffs once with Karl Antony Towns.
They lost in five games. And Andrew Wiggins was like
a forgotten number one pick. He gets a lifeline when
(09:18):
Kevin Durant. It always comes back to Durant. Right when
Durant leaves Golden State, he said, I'll do a sign
and trade to Brooklyn. Brooklyn had D'Angelo Russell. The Warriors
are like, all right, we'll take D'Angelo Russell. We'll see
what we can do. That doesn't work out, they flip
Russell to Minnesota because guess what, Karl Anthony Towns just
(09:38):
had to have D'Angelo Russell. I'll chime in for Rob
g former Laker D'Angelo Russell, And I mean that was
a guy. Karl Antonia Towns wanted him, he got him,
and the Warriors get Andrew Wiggins. Bing bang boom. The
Warriors are now one game away from winning a title.
Before Kevin Durant, with Kevin Durant, and after Kevin Durant
(10:02):
and folks, Andrew Wiggins, He's not gonna win the MVP.
Just stop with this silliness. He has had two straight
tremendous games, but the only reason they're here because they
could have easily lost four game four if not for Curry.
Is Chef Curry, who I believe leads the entire series
in points per game. But I'm happy for Andrew Wiggins.
I love these rebirths, right, you know, guys go somewhere,
(10:24):
they kind of flame out. People want to call him
a bust quickly. Andrew Wiggins was never a bust. He
just was not a one a guy who could totally
carry a team. He's in a perfect role now. He's
actually been their second best player. Better than Clay, better
than Jordan Pool, definitely better than Draymond. And I'll give
Draymond a quick shout. Draymond Green kind of turned it around.
You know, he had a solid game. I know he
(10:45):
fouled out and he missed two threes, but other than
that eight eight and six, only two turnovers. He was
plus eleven. Like Draymond. The one thing I didn't like,
Rob was the moment with hate him in the fourth
quarter where they like, you know, the ref blue the whistle,
they were going to time out, and Draymond's like, give
me the ball, and TAM's like no, and Draymond followed
(11:06):
him all the way to the bench and then the
Celtics players are like, get the hell out of here.
And it was at that point, Rob, that I got
tweets from a bunch of people and Instagram d MS
I would be rooting for your Warriors if they did
not have Draymond, Like, nobody likes this guy. Fox Sports
Radio has the best sports talk lineup in the nation.
Catch all of our shows at Fox sports Radio dot
(11:27):
com and within the I Heart Radio app search f
s R to listen live. Were you on Draymond you
want him on the Lakers? Absolutely? Not that that's a
terrible question for you to ask me right now. Um,
I think I remember I told you earlier it might
have been last week where I said flow to the
idea that do you think that even you know Laker
(11:48):
fans are rooting for Boston because of how much everybody
hates Draymond Green. You're like, when all everyone likes Steph
curry to, that kind of offsets it. But Draymond Green
has earned himself zero fans in these finals. You know
what's funny is there were times throughout the game, I
think he had like eight points in the first half,
like it was like a new career high or something
for him. It felt like because he gets some wide
(12:09):
open dunks or a wide open layup off of a
misdirection play. And then he turned and looked back at
somebody like, yeah, that's what happened when you leave me alone.
It's like, no, that's not what happened. Like he kind
of was feeling himself a little too much. Um. But
to your point that the story here, of course is
Andrew Wiggins. I mean Andrew Wiggins. I remember saying on
(12:30):
this podcast, I think when we first started, that I'd
rather have Julius Randall than Andrew Wiggins. Wait a minute,
Wait a minute, let me let that marinate for a second.
You would rather have Julius Randall than Andrew Well, what
is Randall is here? Is heither in the Andrew Wiggins role?
Like it's the Warriors team Like I don't I don't know,
I don't know if it applies for this team. I mean,
(12:50):
he's a perfect fit for the Warriors because he doesn't
have They're not counting on him for anything like his shot.
I know that he's been scoring well and rebounding will
the last two games. Um I had the numbers share.
Let me bring it up for you again one more time.
Forty one and twenty nine the last two games. And
that's without his jumper falling like he he hasn't really
been knocking down the three ball at it and an
(13:11):
extraordinarily high clip considering he's gotten twenty points a game.
It's that he is getting into the paint. He is
living off of offensive rebounds and all the junk stuff.
And that's not, you know, necessarily Julie's Randalls's game. But
it's perfect for the Golden State Warriors because Steph Curry,
even when he's missing like he was last night, draws
(13:32):
a lot of defensive attention. Was all the defenders up
a few extra feet Clay Thompson has been not the
Clay Thompson of old, but he's been a hell of
a lot better the last three games. And Andrew Wiggins
is able to work the seams and become a very,
very impactful player. And it's just really funny that all
of this goes back to Kevin Durant, Like k D
(13:58):
had no incentive whatsoever to agree to that double sign
and trade that brought D'Angelo Russell from Brooklyn and Kevin Durant,
you know, leaving Golden State. He had no reason to
do it. It's been widely reported he didn't even want
to do it at first because he didn't like the
idea of him being traded for another player, because he's like,
(14:19):
I'm far superior as a player, why would I want
to do that? And it took his business partner and
you know, the front office is to talk him into
it as a kind of a sign of goodwill to
Golden State for everything they did for him, that he would,
you know, help them out on the way out the door.
And it's just wild that that trade which ultimately led
to Russell and Cominka for Wiggans or excuse be Russell
(14:43):
for cominga and Wiggins would end up being what I
think is going to be one of the worst finals
or week long news cycles in Kevin Durant's history. It's
it's it's gonna listen. I'm not saying you guys know,
I'm a Kevin Durant fan. I'm not taking anything away
(15:04):
from him. I'm just saying his life is going to
be unpleasant because of social media, because of the media,
TV shows, radio, for a probably a couple of weeks
here and again. I know people are gonna say, oh,
he deserves that. Screw that guy. That is fine. Um,
I don't think you guys totally grasp what life is
(15:25):
like for a I think he's a millennial, right Rob,
he's like thirty four. That's still a millennial. I think
to pick up your phone and you go anywhere on
it and you're just getting heat from everybody, like that's
just what. Oh, let's stay off social media. Okay. Sure,
tell someone who's been on social media for eighteen years
or whatever it is, um, fifteen years whatever to to
(15:48):
to just stop doing it. Yeah, good luck with that. Um,
it's tough. I'm not defending Durant. I'm just saying that's
how it is gonna be, and I don't think it
damages him. He could still bounce back. But I'll just
say this, this looks really really good for Steph Curry.
And I'm not ready to get into the where do
we rank Curry and all that stuff. We know he's
(16:10):
one of the grades. He had an off night, that's fine.
But when you can get a bunch of other guys,
how many guys they having double figures? There? One, two,
three for five guys in double figures, um, and the
Celtics are getting nothing from their bench. I mean, Peyton
and Pool came off the bench to score twenty nine
(16:30):
just those two. Boston's entire bench had ten points and
somebody named Cornette hit a three late. Nie Smith had
three point three three throws, Like, come on, we're not
even counting that. Like Derrick White is a turnstyle on
defensive this year's I know people were hyping him up
against Curry, and you even saw like late in the
in the fourth quarter when they were the last gasp
(16:51):
stuff from Boston, and they said, you know what, let's
let's go small. We haven't tried this yet. Let's go
no Horford, no Williams, Robert Williams. That is, we'll go
Grant Williams is sound, Curry lay up, Andrew Wiggins dunk,
and I was like, all right, well, that ain't gonna work.
That they're gonna get run out of the gym. So
I don't know what adjustments Boston can make and come back,
but I'll say this, when the Warriors are down to one,
(17:12):
it felt robbed, like the Warriors were in deep trouble.
I didn't really know what they could do. And you
know what they could do is get heroic performances from
Curry and then Andrew Wiggins. And now they're on the
cosp of another title. Um I I can Boston pull
this off? I mean, I know they're going home, but
guess what, They've been better on the road than they
(17:33):
have been at home in the playoffs and and the
you know that we haven't lost back to back playoff
games like that's punctured. Now that's over. Could they lose
three straight? They go from not losing back to back
to losing three straight. I don't know, man, It's just
that that game was a weird one. Rob last night.
They're still how about this? Five games in the series.
I would say it's been a really good series. Hasn't
(17:55):
been one game yet to decided by single digits as
good as that one was. As good as that one
was last night, Rob, it was still a ten point
game and it was not close the final like four
minutes um. But there was really a good game then.
And if that's there's a great like the Boston comeback.
So they start the game with twelve miss threes and
then they make seven in a row, and you're like,
(18:16):
oh gosh, should they go again? And I don't. Warriors
were able to counter everything. I mean, Looney has come
up big for them. And it's weird because I felt
like after Game three the narrative was Boston's just a
better team, Rob. The last two games have flipped that.
Do you think Boston's a better team right now? I
(18:36):
don't see it. Well, let let me say this. There
is no harm whatsoever if myself, you whoever thought that
this series looked like it was going to be Boston's
after Game three, not just because they had looked, I
am my opinion, looked better for most of those three games.
The the biggest reason, and we talked about it, was
(18:58):
we were led to believe that Steph Curry foot injury
may keep him out Game four or a minimum may
be severely limited. And that turned out to be the
biggest non story of the playoffs, because not only did
he play, he had his best game arguably of his
career in game four. Like he did not look limited
at all in game four. Last night, in game five,
(19:20):
I thought he looked spry. He was just missing shots.
It wasn't like he didn't it wasn't moving well or
he looked like he was laboring out there. And when
you see Boston the way that they play, it has
to be they have to be one of the most
frustrating teams to root for because when yeah, when they're
(19:43):
on like they are fantastic, like they're they're big, they're switchy,
they can rebound, they can defend, they can shoot. Everybody
can shoot it from there from the perimeter, and it
seems like, and I don't know if this is a
coaching thing or this is a star thing. Maybe he
goes back to Tatum and his now being the most
turnover prone player in NBA history. I guess that that's
(20:04):
how the way to describe it. I don't know, but
it seems like they don't value possessions. They don't value
the basketball the way you would expect the team to
at this point in the season. Well, rob let me
ask you who is their point guard? And this has
been a theme at times for them. Who is your
(20:25):
point guard? Marcus Smart? He's not. He doesn't even I
don't even think he sets the offense up, like I
feel like Tatum has to do so much. If you
often they're running the offense through Tatum as opposed to
the Warriors, who are running it through Curry and a
gauntlet of picks. Tatum is like setting everything up. He's
in the pick and roll every time, so not only
does he have to defend Andrew Wiggins or Clay or whomever,
(20:49):
but he's then running the offense. And he's not a
natural point guard. Jayleen Brown's handles are terrible. He's a
turnover machine. We knew that going back to the Buck series.
You have five turnovers. Marcus Smart, not a two point guard,
had four or a dumb technical foul. Tatum had four.
They had eighteen turnovers. I mean, it's weird because they
had more offensive rebounds, they shot sixteen more free throws,
(21:09):
they made two more threes. Why do they lose well
eighteen to six turnovers, and then the Warriors because of
the turnovers, the Warriors got thirteen more shots, thirteen more
field goal attempts. So if you're getting thirteen more bites
at the apple, of course you're gonna win. And again,
how does that change? Like, I can't, I can't control
the turnovers? Like God, I don't. I don't know what
(21:31):
that is. It's not like the Warriors are Steph Curry,
I'm I'm I've been been told for so long is
not a good defender? Right? Is he awful? I don't
think he is. I don't think Jordan Pool is that
badefit defender in this series? So, I mean Looney got
in foul trouble, Draymond Green got in foul trouble and
they still prevail. How's this? How's this? Rob Otto, Porter,
(21:52):
Andrew Wiggins, Steph Curry? Oh? For seventeen on threes? Wow?
And they won by ten. I mean that's what happens
when your two best players combined for was that nine
turnovers last night? If you're Boston, I mean it's it's
I know that. You know Tatum is the one getting
the headlines because he's the best player and because he
(22:13):
has the new record, and that's fine, but if you
just look at the game log, Jalen Brown is not
handled the ball nearly as much as Jayson Tatum and
both of these guys. You know, last night there's nine combined.
The game four, there was eight combined turnovers. The only
game that they kind of we're clean with it was
in game three, which surprised Surprize. They won by sixteen.
(22:34):
They got they had four turnovers combined. Game two they
had six, Game one they had six. And it's like
those two guys, I don't know if it's tatum shoulder,
if that's might be what's bothering him, But when he
goes into the paint, he's he's almost looked like he's
afraid to go into contact. So he's jumping away from
a lot of these baskets where he's going. So it
leads him to either throwing the ball away because he's
(22:56):
trying to kick it out, or to take a wild shot.
Now he was making some of them early last night.
I didn't really work out, but we're having problems. But
Jalen Brown, to your point, I don't know if he
can dribble like like and it's I mean, I thought
I'm being like kind of facetious, you know, but when
he drives to the basket, I don't know if he
(23:18):
has small hands. I don't know if he just doesn't
have a good grip on the ball when he's going,
you know, with his left hand or whatever it is.
But I see him lose the ball in traffic. I
want to say, like half the time, whether it's a
turnover or not, it gets slapped out of his hand
and he has to regroup or it's slapped out of
his hand and then it's a turnover. And I I
(23:42):
just don't understand how a team that can be arguably
or statistically at least the best team in NBA history
for three months of the season, who can mow through
Kevin Duran and Kyrie Irving in Round one the way
they did, and and have games like against Milwaukee, you know,
(24:04):
even in this Finals, where they look like there's nobody
who can touch them when they're all when they're clicking,
and then follow that up with performances like we had
last night where it's like you're lucky to be on
the same floor with these guys, because I don't think
goldst they played well at all. They didn't a bad game. Yeah,
and and and they just you never even even when
the game when Boston took the lead lay in the
(24:25):
third quarter, I never got the feeling that Boston was
actually gonna finish it off. Fox Sports Radio has the
best sports talk lineup in the nation. Catch all of
our shows at Fox sports Radio dot com and within
the I Heart Radio app search f s R to
listen live. It's weird you say that because back in
Game four, Marcus Smart makes a three with five eighteen
(24:47):
left Game four, Boston up. They were five minutes away
from being up three one, and the series has just
completely flipped since that moment. And I know some people
are gonna blame the refs, and there's gonna be a
lot of barking about the refs. I didn't think the
refs were great, but again, Boston shot sixteen more free throws.
(25:07):
And the one turnover stat that you'll see everywhere today
is in the playoffs, when Boston has sixteen or more turnovers,
they are one in seven under sixteen turnovers and two
So take care of the ball. They win because they
can play defense and they're not scrambling back otherwise it
gets kind of ugly. Um, I guess Robbi, I would
close with Wiggins. How did the When you look look
(25:32):
at the NBA landscape, you're like, man, how on earth
did the Warriors get a former number one pick who
is having a great postseason. He's a very very good, strong,
exceptional whatever you want to use. How on earth did
they get this guy? And I think that comes down
to the whole miss price asset idea. It's you know, listen,
(25:55):
there's a lot of talented players out there and they
may not look great in one situation. And I'm sure
a lot. I would love to do a deep dive.
Maybe somebody else will do it. Here's what people thought
when the Andrew Wiggins trade happened, and my guests rob Is,
a lot of people were like, what is he? He
he could never leave Minnesota anywhere? What is he? But
(26:18):
he's not having to lead Golden State? And that's I
think everybody kind of miss priced what Andrew Wiggins was.
And I think we'll see that with other guys this
summer again. Zach Lavine like he has had to be
the number one, number one, a number one B whatever
you want to say, if you can definitely make him
(26:38):
your second or third best player. I mean, I think
you've got a home, absolute home run Andrew Wiggins. Really
great player, he's just not a number one to lead
the player, not your number one franchise guy. But now
when there's no pressure and it's like, hey, cut to
the hoop, you know, here's open shots because everybody's hugged
up on Curry and Clay. He's having a great series. Man,
(27:01):
It's just just so good to see Robot. I'm just happy. Now.
The question is can the Lakers find one of those
to pair with Lebron and Anton Davis? Time's running out
here there. Uh, free agency is in less than three weeks. Look,
rad and we're not doing our jobs if we don't
bring it full circle with the Lakers at some point.
I mean that the Lakers. The big story to come
out this week you talked about it is, Uh, Athony
(27:22):
Davis hasn't touched the basketball in six weeks, not talking
about that, and everyone's everyone's freaking out about it. And
I'm like, did you guys do that on the radio show? Absolutely?
Absolutely not, No, neither one of them. We're really killing them.
But they were surprised at how you know, un upset
I was about that story. I'm like, look, man, Anthony Davis,
(27:45):
his problem has never been basketball, Like he's you know,
four time All NBA, eight time All Star, four time
All Defensive. His issue is he's always hurt. So if
it's gonna mean him being healthy for seventy plus games, bro,
like lift weights and do yoga until October, I don't care.
Like the basketball will will be fine. Don't worry about that.
(28:07):
What I care about is, you know, is your knee
and your ankle gonna make it through eighties two games? Man,
if that's the answer that, uh, and here I thought
you were gonna say the big news not was not
Anthony Davis? Was what that? The Atlanta Hawks have a
new GM. Did you see Did you see who it is?
Landry Fields? Bro? I saw that and I was like,
I thought he was still in the league. And then
(28:28):
I looked it up. Are you ready? Landry Fields is
thirty three years old and he's ad GM. What. First
of all, he can he went to Stanford, so we
know he's smart. But he was a second round pick.
Showed well with the Knicks that I think he had
a moment with the Raptors, maybe made some pretty good money.
I guess he had some injuries. He's now with NBA
(28:49):
GM at thirty three, turns thirty four later this month.
That's not bad. And you're in a good position because
guess what, Atlanta has some assets that are tradeable, like
John Collins. Uh. I think Clint Capella is still on
the roster. Like you chip those guys, you package them
and maybe you make something happen for for another star
to pair with. Trey Young shout out to Landry Fields.
(29:10):
I don't know if he's a listener of the podcast,
but um, I'll close with this Rob and I don't
know if my buddy's listening. Um, you guys don't. Since
I moved to l A, I would go to the gym,
which is the former Clippers facility, and I would always
see these trainers working out guys and they would seem,
you know, notice. I would walk into the gym like
looking for a pickup game, and I'd be like, oh, jeez,
(29:30):
that's a former NBA player shooting with the coach. And
then the guy noticed me, so we became friendly. And
I'm trying to get him on the podcast, and he's
been reluctant, but he tells me after the fun because
he heard the Drew Handlon when Rob and He's like, okay,
that was that was good. I'll do it. And I
did not tell him I'm gonna say this. He legitimately
texted me Rob, I'm gonna I'm wanna t you up first.
(29:54):
Who would you rather have leading your team? Jason Kidd
or Steph Curry? And I didn't see that. I didn't
see the text for a few hours and then I
saw it. I was like, oh, well that's obvious, and um,
let's just say there's some disagreeing there. Wow, Jason Kidd.
(30:15):
I like Jason Kid. I showed why point guard all
Time of Famer. I mean, but I mean, is that
really a debate? I think he's gonna make it one. Okay,
you might be a personal friend of Jason Kidd. And
and nothing against Jason Kidd. I think they jokingly called
him Ason Kid because he didn't have a jumper so
(30:36):
they didn't want the j and his name, you know. Um,
but he's a Hall of Famer three three point shoot
at the end of his career, he did shooting, yes, yes,
but at thirty nine with the MAVs, what's fine? I know,
but he does have a ring. He was good with
them Nicks for a minute. He was very good, but
(30:56):
then that's took him to the finals a couple of times.
Never could break through. Who just they lost to the
Lakers once or twice twice? No, No No, they lost once
of the Lakers, once of the Spurs. I believe that's right.
They had Kenyan Martin. Listen, Jason Kidd is I mean,
he's probably got a top five point guard all time
case right, his numbers are unparis. I mean, you just
resume he's he's you can, I think, But I think
(31:18):
a better debate. How's this Jason Kidd or Chris Paul? Oh?
And I think that now I would I have not
looked at the stuff. Um, but off the top of
my head, you know, I know Chris Paul is more recent,
but I would I think Jason Kidd probably has him.
I think I think this probably goes to like how
(31:41):
we talked about the Shock Duncan debate, where whose peak
versus longevity. Chris Paul's longevity is incredible. But if I
have like prime each guy, give me Jason Kidd. I mean,
you know he could do well. I think he Chris
Paul is still only thirty four. Jason Kidd played Let's see,
(32:02):
I think he played, like, yeah, he played, uh eighteen seasons.
Actually Chris Paul is in yeah, sixteen, so they're they're
pretty close on that. L thirty four? Oh is he
thirty seven? Yeah? Okay, my mistake, UM that I think
that's a better debate, um with what do we bring him? Sah,
come on next week? I was like, got, well, we'll
(32:23):
see what the schedule has um. But yeah, I'm sorry, guys,
I think it's point guards, it's Magic, it's Curry, and
that's it. You know, I don't I don't think there's
anyone in their Stratosphy Isaiah Thomas next year, John Stockton
next year. The real debate is it can Curry catch Magic?
I think that's just a very tall order any shot there. Rob.
(32:47):
You know it's gonna be great is when they lose
Game six on Thursday, and then you get real tight
thinking about game seven. Well, I mean, listen, you know
we're in the content business. Game seven is slated for Sunday,
should it happen? And so you know the Monday pottle
were popping, and then Game six is Thursday, we will
we I think we have two guests lined up for
(33:08):
this week, one NFL that you guys will like. I
gotta talk football obviously, and then we think at NBA. UM,
it should be a fun week. If you're wondering about
the concussion, it was not good on Monday, and then
Monday evening it seemed to clear up a little bit.
I don't know. I just didn't have motivation to really
do anything. No working out. I'm just like a lot
of laying around. I took a long nap, had the
(33:29):
Gambling Show with Calherd, and I just I don't know, guys,
I'm hoping it's just mild. I'm gonna try to play
basketball this morning, um half speed of course, and because
I can't, you know, I gotta play. I gotta play hoops.
I need it. Um. But anyways, congrats to the Warriors
on the game five, win Game six Thursday. They can
(33:53):
ice another type. Curry will get the m v P.
I mean, can Andrew Wiggins win the m v P
rob at all? No? If he hast in Game six? No? No, yeah,
I don't think so either. He was According to the
betting markets on Monday morning, he was minus or he
was I think plus ten thousand, plus ten thousand because
(34:14):
Curry was such a heavy favorite. Curry was bad, but
he's still going to win the MVP. Guys, all right,
we'll talk to you tomorrow
Popular Podcasts
Dateline NBC
Current and classic episodes, featuring compelling true-crime mysteries, powerful documentaries and in-depth investigations.
Death, Sex & Money
Anna Sale explores the big questions and hard choices that are often left out of polite conversation.
Stuff You Should Know
If you've ever wanted to know about champagne, satanism, the Stonewall Uprising, chaos theory, LSD, El Nino, true crime and Rosa Parks, then look no further. Josh and Chuck have you covered.