042424 230 Julie's Sport Desk

 Didja catch the Mavs game last night? That was fun!! The Dallas Stars play Game 2 tonight! 

Episode Transcript

(00:10):
All right, getting things back underway. I was just distracted by something I
get distracted with quite frequently these days, and that is the amount and the
ability and the incredible creativity and inventivenessof all these drummers you see out on

(00:33):
the internet. Seems like every timeI turn around, I got one in
front of me that is doing thingsthat don't seem physically humanly possible. It's
incredible what you see out there.He's saying, your drummer's in trouble.
You've got to scoop one of thebuff Instagram. I'll stick with what I

(00:56):
got. What I got is reallyreally good. But these other guys,
man, they're otherworldly. I mean, it seems like they have physical attributes
that we didn't used to have backin the day. Third hand, Yeah,
yeah, almost. All right,that's for another time, because right

(01:17):
now we got something far for farweightier to get into than that, and
that would be this Julie Sports TeskGo team. Now. Okay, thank
you, everybody, You're welcome.So y'all watch that Mavericks game last night.
Got through it, man, God, what I can't believe I did
that. I know you didn't.No, I didn't punch directly. No,

(01:38):
no, no, yeah, yeah, see, don't ever let me
get away with that because I don'tsleep. Yeah, I am happy to
report. Do you guys remember afterthey lost Game one and I told you
they didn't try their hardest. Yeah? You know how I know because I
just watched them try their hardest.Looks a little different, doesn't It looks
a lot different. Yeah, itlooks a lot different. It was a

(02:00):
street fight. It was awesome,it was it was crazy. I think
I've seen the word slugfest used likeseventeen times to describe the game last night.
Donnybrook, Donnie Brook physical. Well, you had to know that.
You had to know that that wasgoing to be the Clippers ploy because they

(02:20):
kind of got away with it inGame one. So they were going to
get out there and try to doit again. And the anis was on
the Mavericks here to stand up toit, and they did. They did,
And that's what they were all talkingabout after game one. It's like,
we need to be more physical,we need to be more aggressive.
That's not how we wanted to play. Yeah, And so you can tell

(02:42):
that that was their whole game plangoing in. It's like, you be
the aggressor don't let them get youon your heels. If you will,
you get them on their heels.To go back to a hockey term,
but just to kind of bow upand get in the middle of everything and
make it happen. And they did. And I think obviously Kawhi Leonard was
a big storyline on there and gettingback into the game, getting back into

(03:07):
action. I don't think his injuryand yeah, I mean he had a
couples like, he had moments,but I don't think he helped them,
No, And when you kind ofhurt them, yeah, and when you're
used to playing without someone and allof a sudden they get thrown back in
in the middle of a high intensitygame like this, in the middle of
a series like that can be tough. I can kind of throw a wrench

(03:28):
in the rhythm and that kind ofthing, and he in the chemistry a
lot of the time. Yeah,yeah, for sure. But I think
it's it's been really fun. Iguess seeing a lot of Luka Doncic reaction
that's not Dallas based, you know, now that he's on the big stage
or whatever in the playoffs, andand kind of seeing people react to him

(03:50):
and like calling him crazy and he'spsycho and he's all these things. I'm
like, yeah, he kind ofis. And and I loved just how
intense he was in this game lastnight, and he was taking it upon
himself to be the number one defenderand he was. He kept their big
players pretty much silent in this one, and I think he was You could

(04:12):
almost see that he was taking alot of pride in that during the game
and it was coming out in himvia his emotions and like how intense he
was. And when he hit thatthree late in the game that the Mavericks
really needed at that point in time, I still don't know what he said,
something like, well he definitely saidthe MF and I believe he also
dropped an a hole in there.Yeah it was insane. I'm the a

(04:32):
hole. I don't know. Buthe was happy, Yeah, he was
happy. He was so happy,and it was so fun just kind of
seeing him in his element like thaton the big stage in a playoff game,
in a game that his team desperatelyneeded to win. Kawhi Leonard once
again was awesome in this one,and the two of them were playing very
well off of each other and reallyled the way for the team, but

(04:54):
they did get more support from theguys around them, which is one of
the things that we were talking aboutyesterday that you absolutely have to get if
you're gonna win in the postseason,and they did so. It was just
all around a really good game forthe Mavericks, Luca and Kyrie combining for
fifty five points. But you sawpeople like Maxi Kleba stepping up and he

(05:15):
hit that three corner he doesn't wantto shoot, and when it was the
most important shot of the night,pulled the trigger, no hesitation, money
in the bank. It was amazingit he did. Though he made a
real pest to himself, Oh yeahlast night. He's a hell of a
defensive player to deal with all sortsof different guys on the Clippers, and

(05:38):
they all were. Kyrie was afreaking demon on defense, and that is
not what we're used to from Lucaand Kyrie. And I think it's telling
that the fourth quarter was the highestscoring quarter a lot of games. It's
like in the fourth quarter, itkind of gets clamped down and it gets
tougher. Yeah, I think theyall were running out of gas because it

(06:00):
was the most intense, frenetic insanedefensive battle for three quarters and you just
can't do that all the time.And they all ran out, uh pen,
the Mavericks they pulled that out.Yeah, probably that fourth quarter.
I'll bet they just went out theregoing, Okay, we gotta let it
all hang out here. Whatever yougot left, whatever you got left,

(06:23):
bring it. If it's intensity,bring it, if it's you know,
skill, bring it. Just whateveryou got left in your bag. We
know we've already left a lot backon the road back to this point.
So whatever you got left, bringin. Let's see where we wind up.
Yeah, and in a lot ofways, they didn't play a great
game. There was a lot ofslop out there. Yeah, there was.

(06:46):
There's a lot of guys who aren'tgood at passing pretending that they were
and making real lazy turnovers. Butthis is not a bad thing, becausing
the other guys to play sloppy too. Yeah, I just I haven't I
don't remember watching a Maverick game everthat was that sort of This does not
feel like twenty twenty four. Ifelt like I was in a nineteen nineties

(07:09):
NBA playoff game. Yeah, itfelt very Eastern Conference y. Yeah,
they were just slugger in Detroit Chicago. Yes, yeah, they were just
fighting and it was awesome. Andit seems like that's how the playoffs are
going this season. You know,I saw this stat was in fourteen games

(07:30):
in the playoffs so far, thelosing team has scored in the nineties and
in two cases the eighties the losingteam. And then unlike Game one when
the Clippers scored one hundred and nineand they were the more physical team.
Obviously Dallas the aggressor in this one. But that's just the way things are
going. And I guess it's thatyou're not, you know, seeing as
many calls, and it's allowing peopleto be more physical, and those are

(07:51):
the teams that are finding success.And it goes back to the off season
and what the Mavericks were trying todo in the off season is get bigger,
get more physical, get more aggressive, because that's the way the league
is going, and you're seeing ithere in the playoffs. And thank goodness
the MAVs did those things and madethose moves because last year's team probably couldn't
hang in this situation. Oh yeah, And I do think also for the

(08:15):
Mavericks, if you're looking for reasonsfor optimism. First of all, splitting
on the road is great. He'sgot home court now, but the Maverick
bigs haven't done much yet. LikeDaniel Gafford got banged up, he was
in foul trouble in game one.Yeah, Lively wasn't bad, but there
hadn't been much of the Maverick bigsmaking a bunch of plays. Yeah,

(08:37):
they've been turning the ball over.But and they've been making plays, they
haven't had the impact. I'm stilllooking for it. Yeah, that's right,
they are. You can tell theyhaven't had the impact that we thought
they would have, and it'll showup. Yeah, it'll show up.
It was a step in the rightdirection for sure, for both of them,
I think, but especially Lively hadseven points nine rebounds, so he's
getting involved. Derek Jones Junior atten points, seven rebounds. He was

(09:01):
great for the Mavericks in this one. PJ. Washington was right place,
right time, kind of guy makingthe you know, big shots when needed
there from the corner a couple oftimes. And we did lose Tim Hardaway
Junior to a right ankle sprain inthis one, so I know you're probably
very disappointed. Jeff, I'm verydisappointed. Injury is never good. I

(09:24):
prefer the Maverick team without Tim HardawayJunior on the floor. But yeah,
obviously I don't want to see guysget hurt as the reason they don't play.
I would like them to choose otherpeople to play. Aximally played six
minutes. Yeah, it's interesting.He's been really good for them all year
and everybody won last night. Man, he was really he just never got
any kind of field for the gameout there. They got a lot of

(09:45):
Josh Green in there, and thatdude had some moments where you're like,
wow, the cocaine kangaroo does moveat a different speed than everyone else,
just flies around. He is awhack job. Yeah, you know,
defense was the big story here,Dallas limiting the Clippers to thirty six point
eight percent shooting. Kawhi Lynn orJames Harden Paul George combine for fifty nine.

(10:11):
The three of them combining for fiftynine on twenty of forty five shooting.
That's good. So that's good.That's good. Good take. Yeah,
because in game one it was like, you know, Kawhi wasn't there,
but you're looking at James Harden You'relike, what the heck, we
can't Why is he pretending? Likeyou know, he's this unstoppable of a
player at this point in his career, And it looked like it was going

(10:31):
to be tough just to try andtake down some of their star players.
But we limited them last night,and our star players did better than theirs.
The role players stepped up for ustoo. I really liked some of
the quotes after the game. SoLuca finished with thirty two points, six
rebounds, nine assists, and likeI said, he was one technical foul

(10:54):
that we thought my technical foul.Yeah, but at the end, you
know, he was just very casualabout everything. He said, it's basketball.
At the end of the day.I did this my whole life,
basically, like this is it.I just needed to kind of get into
my element and maybe not worry somuch and just play freely. And that's
what he did. He said,I tried to have fun out there.

(11:15):
This intensity was way higher. Ijust try to go out there and play
hard. And you could just tellhe was like totally thriving last night in
the spotlight. And I loved whatKyrie said about Luca too, because we've
had the Luca discussions you know hereon this show about him and his emotions
and are his emotions getting in theway. You know, obviously the back

(11:37):
and forth with the refs, hetakes a whole lot of heat for.
But what Kyrie said about Luke afterthe game, I thought it was brilliant
and I feel like that's kind ofwhat I don't know I've been trying to
say. But he said, you'vegot to trust him, let him be
him, and allow him to grow. He's very young, still very well
accomplished, but I know his overallgoal is to win a championship and it's
the same for me. And thenabout his emotions, he said, when

(11:58):
he's emotional, he's honest, andI appreciate that. I'd rather be out
there with someone that's emotional and wantsto do better for themselves and for the
team than someone that's quiet or justallowing things to happen. Once again,
here is Kyrie. Yeah, theguy that we heard was going to be
so much trouble while he was here, was always going to be getting into

(12:20):
something or saying something or talking aboutsomebody away from the game that was going
to get him in trouble. Andhe has done nothing except hit exactly the
right chord every time he speaks sincehe's been here. He did it again
there. I really thought he did. And I think this is the thing

(12:41):
that really stood out the first thingthat he said here. You've got to
trust him, let him be him, and allow him to grow. Yeah,
that's what we're seeing it. Andyou're gonna get some bad with that,
Like you just are. That's whohe is. That's who he is
as a person, and that's somethingthat you can't necessarily change once they go
out and compete on the basketball court. In fact, that intensity is what

(13:01):
makes him so good. So itYeah, so you just got to kind
of embrace him and all his glory. And it's annoying at times, and
it's tough at times, and it'smaybe embarrassing even at times that he's our
superstar player and he's arguing with therefs and sometimes pouting or acting childish or
whatever it is. But man,that intensity is something that you just you
have to embrace and it's hard tofind. And I don't know, when

(13:26):
I read that, I thought aboutKawhi Leonard a little bit. I don't
know, just somebody that's quiet andis just trying to kind of, like,
you know, do the best theycan and be a good teammate and
everything else. But he's just atotally different type of player, I guess
emotionally. And I think that's justan everybody's different thing, because I think
to me, Kauhi is one ofthe rare ones that you may never see
it on his face. Yeah,but that dude's a killer. Oh of

(13:48):
course he is. The way theypresent themselves, I guess, you know,
throughout the game and on and offthe court and everything else. But
yeah, you know, Kawhi isvery focused on basketball and basketball only any
of it. Yeah, you won'tshow you anything. And I do think
one of the good things about Lucaand Kyrie, and Kyrie's probably more on
the Cowi side where you're not gonnasee it in his expressions all that often.

(14:15):
But he's a psycho. Yeah,and last night you could just tell,
like anytime there was a loose ball, anytime that he had an opportunity
to do anything, like, hewas willing to put people on the ground.
And I think everybody's different. TheMaverick guys I think are good in
that environment, like Luca when challengedand when pissed can play that way.

(14:39):
A lot of guys lose theirs,like a lot of guys lose their s
and suck. Yeah, I thinkhe can do it. Yeah, when
his emotions become a problem is whenother guys are hurt and the team's not
doing well. Then it turns intooh god, if things aren't going well.
But if you're talking about in acompetitive situation and that dude's pissed,

(15:01):
he's gonna play. Yeah, Andit's hard when you're when you're pissed,
and when you are an emotional player, it's hard to mask, even if
that anger is towards your teammates atcertain times, which we've even seen in
these first two games. You triedto drop a ball from Max. Yeah,
lost his mind. Yeah, Ithink he got mad at PJ.
Washington one time. You know,But it's just like one of those things

(15:22):
you have to understand. He's he'she's a performer, and he's performing and
this is him and his element andyou just got to kind of roll with
it. But he was awesome lastnight, and how great to see him
kind of come through defensively for thisteam too, because that was one of
the biggest stories of the game lastnight in Game two. So yes,
it's gonna be a long series.It's gonna be a long series. It's

(15:45):
gonna be fun, it's gonna beexhausting. It's gonna be exhausting to even
watch. I bet this thing goesthe full seven. I don't want it
to, but it might. Yeah, it really might, because Kawhi is
gonna get better as the series goes. He was first half was bad outside
of the steels, like you can'ttake away his awareness and his gigantic hands.

(16:07):
Those things played, but he lookedkind of lost the first half on
offense, like he's gonna get better. The Mavericks bigs are gonna play better.
It's gonna be wild. Yeah itis. So now it's gonna get
even better for us because the seriescomes back to Dallas for the next two
games, Games three and four,at the American Airlines Center Friday night.
I believe I can't tell you therandom thing that entertained me the most.

(16:30):
Sure, so I guess it's aleague wide thing. If in the fourth
quarter the road team misses two straightfree throws, people get free chicken.
And it became a big story becausein a Clipper game, Boban missed two
free throws on the road on purposefor them to win free chicken. Yeah,
And last night in the fourth quarterI noticed it a lot because a
lot of mAbs missed their first freethrow in the fourth quarter and the crowd

(16:52):
started getting so much louder, andI'm like, oh my god, they're
excited about chicken. Yeah, Likeonce it was PJ, once it was
Kyrie. Once there was a bunchdifferent guys, and I was like,
don't you give them chicken? Giveus chicken, Give us chicken, Give
us chicken. Prior to report,we never gave them chicken. There were
a lot of missed first free throwsand then they made the second one.
That's like a pretty brilliant marketing.There's so much chicken cheering happening they have

(17:15):
going on. Yeah, I thinkeveryone should do that in their arenas.
We all want chicken. All right, let's take quick buzzer here, because
now we got a whole other playoffgame to get ready for tonight as we
shipped back to hockey time in Texasand the Dallas Stars getting ready for Game

(17:37):
two with Las Vegas, that istonight at home. They are down one
zero in this series, just likethe Mavericks were. And I feel like
everything I've kind of read about theteam, you know, and what they're
saying, they still feel very confidentthat they can beat this Las Vegas team,
but they know what they need todo and they know what they need

(18:00):
to not do in One of thebig things, like we talked about a
little bit after Game one, isthat you can't get down early to this
team, and it is it's verysimilar, and I don't know if it's
just something you see in both hockeyand basketball in a seven game series,
like you want to be the teamthat is the aggressor. You want to
be the one that comes out andmakes your presence felt, and you want

(18:21):
to hit hard, maybe do itwithout committing a penalty in the first minute.
And honestly, like that's where Iget a little bit worried, because
when you go into a game knowingthat you can't let the other team score
first, you can't commit a penaltybecause they're two for two on their power
play in Game one, and thatwas the difference in the game. You
don't want to grip your stick tootight, as they say, like,

(18:41):
you don't want to get in yourhead and all of a sudden, it's
like it's a fine line of comingout and trying to play aggressive but trying
not to commit a penalty. ButI feel like the first I don't know,
five seven, eight minutes of thisgame are going to be key for
Dallas just to come out there andset the tone and see if they can't
get the first goal of the gamefor once and not have to play from

(19:03):
behind. That'd be nice. That'dbe nice. Yeah, that's one of
the things that Pete de Boor wastalking about, and he said, you
know, last series, when youlook at the playoffs, they were down
in every series that they played inuntil they got to the Western Conference finals
when they met with Vegas and gotdown again by three games. And so
it's something that this team is usedto. He says, we're here again.

(19:23):
We have to deal with it.I'm not going to sugarcoat and say
that it's great, but I havegreat confidence in our group that we will
respond. He said, you can'tchase the game throughout this whole series.
That's just that's just the obvious facthere in every single game. You can't
come out chasing. Then all ofa sudden, you're chasing the series,
then all of a sudden the seriesgets away from you, and then all

(19:44):
of a sudden it's done and yourseason's over. And so that's going to
be key. I think for themtonight is not allowing that first game,
which we or that first goal inthe game, which we saw them do
in the regular season forty two timesforty two times. The other thing is
of viously just a bigger focus onspecial teams. And I don't know,

(20:04):
we'll see if Pete debor makes anychanges to any tweaks to the lineup to
donav Is coming back from injury,so somebody will have to come out to
make room for him, so you'llsee you might see that be reflected on
the power play. I think hekind of referenced like he likes where the

(20:25):
penalty kills out. He doesn't wanthim ass with it too much. But
the power play you might see sometweaks. So we'll see. We'll see
what's what he's got in store forthat tonight, but should be fun.
I feel like the Stars have aI think they're gonna win Game two.
I just think that this team,who was one of the best in the
league all season long, isn't goingto get down two games in their first

(20:47):
round playoff series, and they knowwhat they need to do. Jamie Ben
you can look to him to probablya big player in this one tonight,
and Jake Ottinger will have a bitof a bounce back game. Those are
my predictions, and that one isgoing down. It's another light star art
for them at how'd you get anew hat? That's a new hat that's
from like last year. I thinkit's very clean. Yeah, we've got

(21:07):
a lot of stars gear in ourhouse. Oh, I don't know,
some gear. Maybe I don't havemuch gear. I don't know, but
maybe maybe not much gear either.Yeah, hey, guys are fishing for
gear. Were fishing for gear.Let's check it a dark quick. Oh,
oh, guess what day it is? Today's National pigs in a Blanket

(21:30):
Day. Remember when we went onthe cell phone wireless to go get some
pigs in a blanket from some ladiesdesk down the hall. That was,
Oh, yeah, we do havepigs in the blanket story, don't we?
I wish we had some pigs ina blanket right now. We don't
go get some for you where you'llgo down the hall, But I don't
think there are any down there.That's kind of a one day thing.

(21:52):
I think shoop, yeah, butyou could try. Yeah, I would
love to give you a mic wirelessand just walk all around asking everybody looking
for pigs in a blanket. Oh, see what happens. You can do
that at Buffalo Wild Wings tomorrow.Don't they have some sort of a pigs
in a blanket type? I don'tknow the unit. Maybe today's Denham day.

(22:12):
Well, does you want pigs ina blanket? Might not want him
tomorrow? They want them right now? That's true, I want it right
now. Anybody wearing Denham denim inthe house? No, No Denham today
losers uh. Birthdays today include KellyClarkson What doesn't Kill You Makes You Stronger,

(22:33):
Doug Clifford of Credence is seventy eighttoday, Doug Cedric the Entertainer is
sixty, and Catherine Webb is thirtyfive. Oh yeah, Catherine Webb is
the girl that Brent Mussburger while callinga college game, was horn Yeah.
Yeah, yeah, he was horningout all over her. I believe at

(22:53):
the time it was Aj mccerrn's girlfriend, and now it's his wife. Yes,
and so there was a twenty yearsold girl on the just in the
stands, and Brent Musburger was like, oh, when you're a quarterback at
Alabama. You see that lovely ladythere because she does go to Auburn.
I love her to get that,but she also was just Alabama. And

(23:14):
that's Aj mccharin's girlfriend. Okay,And right there on the right is d
Deep Bonner. That's AJ's my Wow. I'm telling you quarterbacks, you get
all the good looking. So we'rea beautiful one. But wow, he's
AJ's doing some things right down.If you're a youngster in Alabama, start
getting froll out and throw it aroundthe back yard with pop geez o.

(23:38):
And I'd heard that last line.If you're a youngster in Alabama, start
working on your throwing same too,can have a really hot girlfriend. Catherine
Webb coming up next to Jeff's bucketof crap. Long live, Mark Followell
and also some Cowboys draft things draftstomorrow. Those things are next