June 20, 2025 • 22 mins
On today’s episode, Jason discusses the Indiana Pacers’ blowout win over Oklahoma City to force an upcoming Game 7 of the NBA Finals, how Tyrese Haliburton was able to overcome a calf injury and still be effective for Indiana, why it was so disheartening to see the Thunder no-show in a potentially series-clinching game, and whether or not Shai Gilgeous-Alexander’s latest underwhelming performance proves that he’s not a real NBA superstar. Plus, J-Mac shares his thoughts on the USMNT 1-0 win over Saudi Arabia.
Follow Jason on Twitter and Instagram. Click here to subscribe, rate and review all of the latest Straight Fire with Jason McIntyre podcasts!
#FSR
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 (00:00):
What is up, straight bark, I am, It's me Jason MacIntyre,
Straight Player for Friday, June the twentieth. Oh boy, oh boy,
do we have a night in sports? I mean, goodness, gracious,
you got the NBA Finals Game six, USA Saudi Arabia
soccer Caitlin Clark late night against the Golden State Valkyrie.
(00:24):
I mean, it was just a great night to be
a sports fan. And folks, I know that this is
gonna surprise you, but I actually found myself gravitated above
all three to USA, Saudi Arabia and the Gold Cup.
Now let me quickly defend myself. Okay, you guys know
I grew up as a soccer guy. That was my
number one sport. I also obviously massive basketball, but I
(00:50):
play soccer as an adult. You know, it's just fun,
it's great, and USA soccer is an experience. You know,
NBA Finals is a thing. WNBA game is a thing.
USA soccer games come on, they're few and far between,
and we're like a weird time where the stars aren't playing.
I counted too, maybe three guys on this Gold Cup
team that would are locks for the World Cup team
(01:14):
next summer. And so the reason I'm so into it.
And I know some of you gotta say, oh, you
just a company guy whose game was on FS one,
blah blah blah. Yeah, okay, sure you could say that,
But again, USA sock. There's not It's not like there's
a lot of soccer outside of Gold Cup and World Cups. Yes,
there's MLS and legam X. Those are clubs teams. But
I got into it and I didn't think USA played
(01:35):
terrible in the first half. Of course, you go on
social media and it's the opposite. Oh my gosh, we've
hit rock bottom. We can't score on Saudi Arabia. Guys.
USA was minus one eighty five to win. Okay, that's it.
There's a good Saudi Arabia team. Do you want to
take a guess who beat Messi and Argentina in the
first game of the World Cup? Uh in whatever year
(01:56):
was the last World Cup? Yeah, Saudi beat them to one.
Now I don't know if all the same Saudi guys
were playing, but Saudi Arabia is an up and coming
soccer not a juggernaut. But listen, when you got that out,
that Saudi ou oil money. Anyways, So the US scorer
is on a nice set piece. Chris Richards, who probably
I don't know if he's a starter for sure on
(02:17):
the US World Cup team next summer, but he's definitely
on the team. He's a good defender, nice goal and
kind of a sigh of relief. You know, you didn't
want to lose this game. A tie would have been
like eh. But if you'd lose it, then it's like, gosh,
Poachatino can't beat Saudi Arabia on our home turf. That's
an embarrassment. So I was locked in on the soccer,
and in between I would go to the NBA game.
(02:38):
So Rob I'm watching Pacers Thunder out of the gate
and it's like kind of middling, you know whatever, Pacers.
I was basically just watching Tyrese Haliburton the whole time,
just all eyes on Halliburton. He I think he started
one for five. And that's when I switch over to
soccer and I'm watching it, you know, when I'm eating
dinner and blah blah blah, and I'm trying to do
(02:58):
less phone this summer. Plus you know, the political climate,
all that crap. I just don't need to be innundated
with this nonsense. It's too much. Okay, so I'm not
check a text and then I pick up my phone
before switching back to NBA and they're like, oh, looks,
I guess Haliburton was faking his injury. Pacers are rolling,
you know. I get this text from somebody. I'm like, what,
(03:19):
I flip it over. They're up twenty four late first half.
I was like, wow, well that escalated quickly. And folks,
I mean listen, Rob, I'm sure you watch a game
much closer than I. I tried to tune in the
third quarter and it was just like, oh, okay, SE's
not trying. And that's a weird thing to say about
Game six of the NBA Finals, a close out game
and okay, see's not trying. Now. I did punch into
(03:41):
chat GPT. Can you give me examples of teams that
had an opportunity to close it out and get blown out?
And there's a ton So this is not out of character.
But Rob, all like heard I don't know for the
last month or so, is just how great this okayc
team is. Oh my gosh, net rating point differential, this
is an all time great. They got to go to
(04:02):
Game seven against the Pacers. They got blasted by I know,
this final score at seventeen, but that was because of
heavy garbage time where okay See actually made three pointers.
I think at one point they were four for seventeen
from deep and then they you know, they chuck in
a couple in the fourth quarter to make it look respectable.
This is this is embarrassing. I mean, Rob, the two
(04:24):
stats that jump out at me that I was absolutely
stunned by the mighty Jaylen Williams, who was comped to
Scottie frickin' Pippin after his forty piece of Game five.
He was a minus forty rob in twenty seven minutes.
I don't know how that's possible. The math is breaking
(04:44):
my brain this early in the morning, minus forty what
And Alex Caruso, who at times they were saying, oh
he's the second most important player. He was a minus
thirty three. Like I mean, I know, I don't want
to say they punted the game. They had four offensive rebounds. Rob,
Pascal siakab at five. You know, like this this wasn't closed,
(05:07):
It wasn't entertaining. There was an interesting twenty one turnovers
by ok Se eight by SGA.
Speaker 2 (05:14):
He had eight.
Speaker 1 (05:15):
Turnovers and seven field goals, Rob, is there any ex
like if you punting a game? I just don't know
that you can be an all time great in the
NBA Finals when the opposing star player is on a
bum calf in rough shit.
Speaker 3 (05:30):
Yeah, it's really hard to make that argument. You know,
that was one of the worst performances I've ever seen,
you know, in a playoff game. When you consider that
through the first three quarters before they pull, I've never
seen a team pull all their starters start the fourth quarter. Like,
that's how bad it was. And Okay, for Oklahoma City,
through three quarters of NBA action in the finals game
(05:53):
with the reigning MVP on their roster, they had six
assists as a team. And and I think it speaks
to because I would love to comment on the idea
of them punting a game, but the idea just seems
so foreign to me that that would actually happen, because
I actually remember last year game four Boston punts a
(06:15):
game in Dallas. They were already up three to zero.
It's not the same as being three to two, right,
It's a completely different conversation. So when you have a
team and you have a chance to close things out
and you come out. I'm not gonna say that gang besters,
but you start out like eight to two, ten to
two open the game, and then proceed to have your
doors blown off for the next twenty four minutes. Like,
(06:37):
I can't even fathom how that happens. So what I
can focus on, though, is the actual basketball. And as
great as SGA is, I personally said that he is
a superstar, and I have to stand by it because
I've already put it on Wax by Wax, I mean,
on Twitter and on this podcast. But we got to
have a serious conversation about Sga okay okay. In these
(07:00):
NBA Finals, in games that they've won comfortably, he has
eight assists. In Game two, they win by sixteen. He
has ten assists in Game five, they win by eleven.
In games that were close or games that they lost,
here are assist totals three four zero two. How on
(07:24):
earth could you be considered arguably the best point guard
in the NBA when you have four times as many
turnovers as assists. How could you be considered one of
the best Because he's considered a lead guard in the NBA.
(07:45):
When things get tight and you're no longer playing with
a comfortable lead. You're not turning the ball, turning them
over and getting transition baskets, and it's half court all
the time in that game. How do you end up
in situations consistently where your offense is Shay dribble into
the middle of a bunch of people, throw up some
(08:05):
wild ten footer, or turn the ball over. He has
tunnel vision. He's not even looking to pass the ball,
and I expected more from him. He is too good
of a player to be having games like this in
this series. I thought he got over it. In the
Denver series, I thought that we had seen the fully formed,
evolutionized version of SGA. But as it turns out, against Indiana,
(08:30):
a team that not saying anything way from Nemhard and
Nie Smith and McConnell and those guys like they're good defenders,
none of them are as good as the OKC guys.
But to watch SGA insist on isolation basketball over and
over and over and over is something I just cannot
get behind. It's rudimentary, It's not what I would expect
(08:53):
from an MVP.
Speaker 2 (08:55):
Fox Sports Radio has the best sports talk lineup in
the nation. Catch all of our shit at Foxsports Radio
Dot com and within the iHeartRadio app search FSR to
listen live.
Speaker 1 (09:07):
I'm reading a stat here. This doesn't seem true, but
again I wasn't watching that closely. Indiana did not suffer
a live ball turnover until well into the third quarter.
Is that real?
Speaker 3 (09:20):
Yeah, I believe.
Speaker 1 (09:21):
So that's staggering. So okay See not only punted the game,
they just decided we're not gonna even try. That's embarrassing. Like,
I know you're on the custom of greatness, but that
is really pathetic for the Thunder to essentially think maybe
they just think, oh, we got the series. Is to Locke,
it's a wrap they lost to in a row. Aliburton's
hurt like that is just it's kind of embarrassing for
(09:43):
the league. I mean, the game was really unwatchable for
I don't know, I guess two and a half quarters.
Would you say, is that fair?
Speaker 3 (09:50):
Yeah?
Speaker 1 (09:50):
I just I can't get behind this idea that okay
See is an all time great team and I know
everybody has a bad game now and then, by the way,
let me just give you some some numbers here on
Chet Holmgren, who had another he basically listen. I like
Chet a lot. I think he's got upside. Okay, twenty
four minutes, two for nine. So here is Chet shooting
the three ball in the series? Oh for three, one
(10:13):
for three, oh for one, oh for six, one for three,
oh for one. So that is Chet Holgred the deep
ball specialist. He's made two in the series. He has missed. Uh,
he's two for seventeen in the series from three, two
for seventeen from three for Chet Homeward. I don't know, man,
I like him a lot.
Speaker 2 (10:33):
You know.
Speaker 1 (10:33):
All I hear is is Miles Turner slander. Oh, Miles
Turner's trash. He's having such a bad series, and he
was the one guy who really did not play great.
If you're a box score surfing one of nine shooting
oh for three from deep like Miles Turner. I don't
know if the money on the line is in his
head because he's a free agent, But man, Chet Holmgren
(10:54):
is stinking up the joint. Rob. I don't know that
there's a world where the Thunder loose Game seven at home?
Do you do you think there's any chance they lose
at all?
Speaker 3 (11:03):
I didn't think it was gonna get this far, so
I guess, of course there is a chance. I mean,
I would still bet okay See to win. I don't
know if I covered the eight and a half which
was the early line Thursday and a Friday.
Speaker 1 (11:13):
Which is that's actually lower than the other games they
had ridden nine and a half and ten. Now yeah,
I'm seeing eight eighty.
Speaker 3 (11:19):
It just goes against conventional wisdom that this Oklahoma City
team could be so dominant for what one hundred games
of the season, including the regular season, and then just
at times in this series looks so unbelievably bad. Ye
like their offense is it looks junior varsity out there.
I don't want to hear running out of gas either.
This is a young team with a deep exactly exactly.
(11:40):
And while we're on this, I mean, I know that
the big stories that Okayse got blown out because they
were right there. Tyre's Halliburton, who is clearly hobbled, and
he started off really poorly in the game. These are
at one for five, one for four from three. What
he did do, though, is he showed a willingness to
(12:01):
take those shots early if they weren't going in. He
showed a willingness to try to attack off the dribble,
and I know, the final accounting stats don't look like
a lie. I mean, he made a couple of starts
to the airyther, but fourteen points five assistans it's not,
you know, crazy numbers. But he was able to be
effective during the time he was out. He had a
team high plus minus a plus twenty five. And here's
the biggest thing. He only had to play twenty three
(12:23):
minutes because they blew him out. So again, he's still
not going to be a hundred percent, but two days
off between Game six and Game seven, you didn't force
him to put any Even the twenty three minutes he played,
none of it were heavy minutes, right because they were
basically blowing them out through the middle of the second
quarter on, So it wasn't like he was really pressing.
(12:44):
He was kind of able to just float out there
and take the open shots when he had him. I
think he was un finished three of seven from deep
Tyrese Haliburton has been the breakout star of this postseason.
If he is able to seal the deal with the championship,
what does that do for him.
Speaker 1 (13:03):
Boy, that would be that's so shocking. It's tough for
me to even consider. Let me give you the scores
of the last two closeout games in Oklahoma City. Rob,
I'm sure you remember these. Oklahoma City dismembered Minnesota by thirty.
Now that was a game five, Game seven, Oklahoma City
dismembered Denver by thirty two. It's tough. I mean, if
(13:27):
Halliburton's able to pull this off on the road, I mean,
I'm trying to think Game seven on the road NBA Finals.
Obviously you had Lebron in Golden State. I'm pretty sure
the Magic Johnson game against the Sixers was in Philly,
but that might have been Game six. I don't know
(13:48):
if that was to close out this that was Game six, okay,
but yeah, so game seven on the road NBA Finals.
There's not a lot of history of road teams doing it.
It's just too much. And Halle, I don't know, Rob,
did you think you moving great?
Speaker 3 (14:01):
No?
Speaker 1 (14:01):
No.
Speaker 3 (14:01):
But the one thing that I did I appreciated he
was doing was in Game five. He was hobbled. That
we could tell that very early on, and it made
him almost passive, like he was no threat to attack
a closeout. He didn't want to take a quick trigger
three because it's not really not his game anyways, so
he was just moving the ball, moving the ball, doing
a lot of halliburtny stuff, but even more conservative. Right
(14:24):
at least in game six early on, like he wasn't
hitting the shots. He was one for five to start off.
But the fact that he was taking them made it
so that Oklahoma City had to respect him. They couldn't
just leave him out there, you know, gimping around. They
had to press up on him. They had to commit
a defender to him, and that allowed other guys to
get off. It allowed Pascal Siakam, who if they end
(14:46):
up winning this series, probably gonna win MVP. But it
allowed him to get off. It allowed Nemhard to hit
a couple of jumpers. Their bench was incredible, obi topping
your guy former Nick was doing stuff. So just even
if he's not one hundred percent, if he's a threat
out there, that's a huge thing for Indiana.
Speaker 1 (15:02):
Interesting you say Siaka might win MVP. I know it
was a blowout. He had sixteen and thirteen, but he
did have a massive dunk in transition that everybody's talking
about because the game was so bad. I don't know,
let me float this, it won't happen. But if Nemhard
is able to have a good game defensively on SGA,
(15:22):
does he have any case? I mean, he was amazing
in Game one. In this game he had seventeen trement,
three steals. Finals of It's probably a stretch, but I
mean you could argue Nemar has been their second best
player given the Halliburton injuries. I mean, hell, Obi Toppin
(15:44):
had a good game four of seven on threes. But
I just I don't see them going into ok See
and Obi top and hitting five threes on the road,
do you, I mean, can he do that again?
Speaker 3 (15:54):
I don't see that happening.
Speaker 1 (15:55):
It just it seems like a long shot. A quick
word on as the free throw merchantdise stuff. He got
to the line of bunch didn't really matter Rob. I
just every time I hear people just get so excited
for him, it's probably just me. I don't see it,
and I swear I'm not a hater, But I don't
(16:16):
think he's a better basketball player than Jason Tatum. I
don't think he's a better basketball player than Steph Curry.
I'm trying to think of like people in his ilk.
You know, Curry, point guard Tatum, you know an Olympian
and Alpha and the Celtics. I don't see do you
see killer instinct. Maybe it's just that he doesn't have
(16:37):
the swag and the dog in him. I mean, Jason
Tatum in a must have game in Milwaukee went for
like forty five points and then you know Grant Williams
closed it out at Hope. But like, I just I
didn't see that at all, Like I didn't see Shaye
like that fire. Now, maybe he goes for forty in
games seven in they roll, but it's just a it
(16:58):
was a little surprising how how passive he appeared, Like
you said, he'd go in the lane and then what
is he doing and just chucking up turnovers? It was bad.
Speaker 2 (17:06):
Fox Sports Radio has the best sports talk lineup in
the nation. Catch all of our shows at Foxsports Radio
dot com and within the iHeartRadio app search FSR to
listen live.
Speaker 3 (17:18):
It was a terrible game for him, and in this
series he's had several, I'm not gonna say terrible, but
subpar games, especially when you are the way that they
run their offense, especially in the half court. It's shay
up the middle, shade of the left, shade of the right,
like that's kind of how they do things, and it's
a lot of isolation pick and roll basketball, and if
it's working, it's great because he can hit the midrange
(17:39):
game and he gets to the free throw on a lot.
When it's not and they're hugged up on the shooters
and he's just chucking stuff up there, it looks really
really bad. Like I know, people diss you know, nineteen nineties,
two thousands basketball, But that's what you're seeing from Shay
in these games because he's just getting to the mid
range and and a crowd of people with no real
plan and he's not getting the whistle bolt to get
(18:02):
bailed out. So when it's great, it's awesome. But when
it's bad, it's it's like unwatchable.
Speaker 1 (18:07):
Yeah, all right, so real quick in the nightcap Indiana Fever,
I mean I tuned in third quarter after the finals
was done. They're up twelve, and I'm like, oh, this
is good, and Caitlin Clark was doing nothing. Clark had
her worst game of the season. Rob this is maybe
a stretch they ended up losing. Do you think all
(18:29):
that media attention and drama from the last game got
to her? She started one of ten finished three of fourteen,
missed all of her threes, eleven points nine A sists
seven boards. I don't want to make too much of
what happened last game, but it definitely felt like she
was defended differently by Golden State, and I wonder if
(18:50):
around the lead people are going to be like, hey,
we're just going to take away the three the way
they did that from Steph Curry.
Speaker 3 (18:57):
I mean, it's totally possible. I mean the other issue
that she ran into, I mean similar to Shaye, where
Shaye has a thing he likes to do, which gets
at mid range and pull up no matter what you know,
Caitlin Clark loves taking step back, ridiculous threes that you
should not take, that the average person should not take.
And she kind of gets into these modes where even
(19:18):
if she's not if she's hitting them, it's great. If
she's not hitting them, she's going to keep pulling right.
And that's how you end up nights like you know,
last night you was to do it, but she said
a two for eleven three this year, no for five.
She's had, you know, like it comes with the territory.
And the only thing that I really don't like about her,
and it's not even fully her fault is the turnovers
(19:39):
are always way too high. Yeah so, and that part
of that's just her teammates are not expecting the past
to get there as quickly as it does.
Speaker 1 (19:48):
Yeah, listen, I will say, I am interest. This was
on Amazon Prime. I had no problem finding a game.
I don't know if it'll be you know, how heavily
watched it will be, given the other stuff that was
going on soccer and NBA finals. But without question, to me,
the game is interesting and I'm Caitlin Park to me
is appointment viewing. And next week we will have an
amazing guest who wrote a book on Caitlin Clark, Christine Brennan,
(20:10):
veteran from USA. Today. We'll have that interview for you
next week. So quick programming. Note your boy. You know
it's a summer and it was booked in advance. I
don't know how the audio is going to be for
the post game seven podcast. In fact, we may not
(20:31):
even have one if the game ain't close, because I
it's tough to bring a podcast equipment with me. I'm
sure Rob is cringing at me talking about this, but
like frankly, guys, you know Rob's not there yet because
his kids are young. But when your kids are doing
like big things, you gotta be there, and that takes
priority over an NBA Finals game. I mean, it is
Game seven, but I'm just gonna be dead ass series, Rob.
(20:55):
Are you like telling the wife, Hey, Sunday night, no
dinner with the fam, none of that. I gotta watch
game Seve like I'm not even there. It's not like
the number one thing. And I love freaking basketball, but
the series has not. It's been pretty good basketball, but
it hasn't like captivated me. Frankly, I thought the last
two games were largely crap, but I so so we'll
see about a Monday podcast. I don't know. Obviously, the
(21:17):
draft is Wednesday, and we will definitely have a full
recap on the draft. I don't know Rob any any thoughts.
Speaker 3 (21:25):
Here's hoping that it's a blowout on Sunday so that
you don't feel bad vers giving the Monday.
Speaker 1 (21:30):
I know, you know again, I'm super excited for KD
and Giannis and we could talk about all that stuff.
I don't know, Rob, this series just has not grabbed
me by the throat. Last year, I was super into
a Boston, you know, go to go up through nothing.
That's a rap. But like I was like, okay, I
got to see my guy Luca. What was the year
(21:51):
before that, that was Denver, Miami, Miami. Yeah, yeah, I
will say I do plan on stealing if Cowherd ends up,
you know, really caping up for Okac, I do plan
on stealing. Well, you know, in the first round, job
Morn gets hurt and in the second round, oh, they
(22:12):
only faced Michael Porter Junior with one arm and Aaron
Gordon with one uhl. And oh, by the way, the
conference finals should have been the Warriors because they won
game one, but Steph Curry was hurt. And then they
get a half asked Tybee Halliburton, give me a break.
I don't want to hear this all time greatness at all.
I'm sorry, guys, they's just not an all time great
Thank you for that. Take Rob. This is why is
a good producer the best of the business. All right,
(22:34):
We're back sometime next week. Enjoy the weekend.
What is up, straight bark, I am, It's me Jason MacIntyre,
Straight Player for Friday, June the twentieth. Oh boy, oh boy,
do we have a night in sports? I mean, goodness, gracious,
you got the NBA Finals Game six, USA Saudi Arabia
soccer Caitlin Clark late night against the Golden State Valkyrie.
(00:24):
I mean, it was just a great night to be
a sports fan. And folks, I know that this is
gonna surprise you, but I actually found myself gravitated above
all three to USA, Saudi Arabia and the Gold Cup.
Now let me quickly defend myself. Okay, you guys know
I grew up as a soccer guy. That was my
number one sport. I also obviously massive basketball, but I
(00:50):
play soccer as an adult. You know, it's just fun,
it's great, and USA soccer is an experience. You know,
NBA Finals is a thing. WNBA game is a thing.
USA soccer games come on, they're few and far between,
and we're like a weird time where the stars aren't playing.
I counted too, maybe three guys on this Gold Cup
team that would are locks for the World Cup team
(01:14):
next summer. And so the reason I'm so into it.
And I know some of you gotta say, oh, you
just a company guy whose game was on FS one,
blah blah blah. Yeah, okay, sure you could say that,
But again, USA sock. There's not It's not like there's
a lot of soccer outside of Gold Cup and World Cups. Yes,
there's MLS and legam X. Those are clubs teams. But
I got into it and I didn't think USA played
(01:35):
terrible in the first half. Of course, you go on
social media and it's the opposite. Oh my gosh, we've
hit rock bottom. We can't score on Saudi Arabia. Guys.
USA was minus one eighty five to win. Okay, that's it.
There's a good Saudi Arabia team. Do you want to
take a guess who beat Messi and Argentina in the
first game of the World Cup? Uh in whatever year
(01:56):
was the last World Cup? Yeah, Saudi beat them to one.
Now I don't know if all the same Saudi guys
were playing, but Saudi Arabia is an up and coming
soccer not a juggernaut. But listen, when you got that out,
that Saudi ou oil money. Anyways, So the US scorer
is on a nice set piece. Chris Richards, who probably
I don't know if he's a starter for sure on
(02:17):
the US World Cup team next summer, but he's definitely
on the team. He's a good defender, nice goal and
kind of a sigh of relief. You know, you didn't
want to lose this game. A tie would have been
like eh. But if you'd lose it, then it's like, gosh,
Poachatino can't beat Saudi Arabia on our home turf. That's
an embarrassment. So I was locked in on the soccer,
and in between I would go to the NBA game.
(02:38):
So Rob I'm watching Pacers Thunder out of the gate
and it's like kind of middling, you know whatever, Pacers.
I was basically just watching Tyrese Haliburton the whole time,
just all eyes on Halliburton. He I think he started
one for five. And that's when I switch over to
soccer and I'm watching it, you know, when I'm eating
dinner and blah blah blah, and I'm trying to do
(02:58):
less phone this summer. Plus you know, the political climate,
all that crap. I just don't need to be innundated
with this nonsense. It's too much. Okay, so I'm not
check a text and then I pick up my phone
before switching back to NBA and they're like, oh, looks,
I guess Haliburton was faking his injury. Pacers are rolling,
you know. I get this text from somebody. I'm like, what,
(03:19):
I flip it over. They're up twenty four late first half.
I was like, wow, well that escalated quickly. And folks,
I mean listen, Rob, I'm sure you watch a game
much closer than I. I tried to tune in the
third quarter and it was just like, oh, okay, SE's
not trying. And that's a weird thing to say about
Game six of the NBA Finals, a close out game
and okay, see's not trying. Now. I did punch into
(03:41):
chat GPT. Can you give me examples of teams that
had an opportunity to close it out and get blown out?
And there's a ton So this is not out of character.
But Rob, all like heard I don't know for the
last month or so, is just how great this okayc
team is. Oh my gosh, net rating point differential, this
is an all time great. They got to go to
(04:02):
Game seven against the Pacers. They got blasted by I know,
this final score at seventeen, but that was because of
heavy garbage time where okay See actually made three pointers.
I think at one point they were four for seventeen
from deep and then they you know, they chuck in
a couple in the fourth quarter to make it look respectable.
This is this is embarrassing. I mean, Rob, the two
(04:24):
stats that jump out at me that I was absolutely
stunned by the mighty Jaylen Williams, who was comped to
Scottie frickin' Pippin after his forty piece of Game five.
He was a minus forty rob in twenty seven minutes.
I don't know how that's possible. The math is breaking
(04:44):
my brain this early in the morning, minus forty what
And Alex Caruso, who at times they were saying, oh
he's the second most important player. He was a minus
thirty three. Like I mean, I know, I don't want
to say they punted the game. They had four offensive rebounds. Rob,
Pascal siakab at five. You know, like this this wasn't closed,
(05:07):
It wasn't entertaining. There was an interesting twenty one turnovers
by ok Se eight by SGA.
Speaker 2 (05:14):
He had eight.
Speaker 1 (05:15):
Turnovers and seven field goals, Rob, is there any ex
like if you punting a game? I just don't know
that you can be an all time great in the
NBA Finals when the opposing star player is on a
bum calf in rough shit.
Speaker 3 (05:30):
Yeah, it's really hard to make that argument. You know,
that was one of the worst performances I've ever seen,
you know, in a playoff game. When you consider that
through the first three quarters before they pull, I've never
seen a team pull all their starters start the fourth quarter. Like,
that's how bad it was. And Okay, for Oklahoma City,
through three quarters of NBA action in the finals game
(05:53):
with the reigning MVP on their roster, they had six
assists as a team. And and I think it speaks
to because I would love to comment on the idea
of them punting a game, but the idea just seems
so foreign to me that that would actually happen, because
I actually remember last year game four Boston punts a
(06:15):
game in Dallas. They were already up three to zero.
It's not the same as being three to two, right,
It's a completely different conversation. So when you have a
team and you have a chance to close things out
and you come out. I'm not gonna say that gang besters,
but you start out like eight to two, ten to
two open the game, and then proceed to have your
doors blown off for the next twenty four minutes. Like,
(06:37):
I can't even fathom how that happens. So what I
can focus on, though, is the actual basketball. And as
great as SGA is, I personally said that he is
a superstar, and I have to stand by it because
I've already put it on Wax by Wax, I mean,
on Twitter and on this podcast. But we got to
have a serious conversation about Sga okay okay. In these
(07:00):
NBA Finals, in games that they've won comfortably, he has
eight assists. In Game two, they win by sixteen. He
has ten assists in Game five, they win by eleven.
In games that were close or games that they lost,
here are assist totals three four zero two. How on
(07:24):
earth could you be considered arguably the best point guard
in the NBA when you have four times as many
turnovers as assists. How could you be considered one of
the best Because he's considered a lead guard in the NBA.
(07:45):
When things get tight and you're no longer playing with
a comfortable lead. You're not turning the ball, turning them
over and getting transition baskets, and it's half court all
the time in that game. How do you end up
in situations consistently where your offense is Shay dribble into
the middle of a bunch of people, throw up some
(08:05):
wild ten footer, or turn the ball over. He has
tunnel vision. He's not even looking to pass the ball,
and I expected more from him. He is too good
of a player to be having games like this in
this series. I thought he got over it. In the
Denver series, I thought that we had seen the fully formed,
evolutionized version of SGA. But as it turns out, against Indiana,
(08:30):
a team that not saying anything way from Nemhard and
Nie Smith and McConnell and those guys like they're good defenders,
none of them are as good as the OKC guys.
But to watch SGA insist on isolation basketball over and
over and over and over is something I just cannot
get behind. It's rudimentary, It's not what I would expect
(08:53):
from an MVP.
Speaker 2 (08:55):
Fox Sports Radio has the best sports talk lineup in
the nation. Catch all of our shit at Foxsports Radio
Dot com and within the iHeartRadio app search FSR to
listen live.
Speaker 1 (09:07):
I'm reading a stat here. This doesn't seem true, but
again I wasn't watching that closely. Indiana did not suffer
a live ball turnover until well into the third quarter.
Is that real?
Speaker 3 (09:20):
Yeah, I believe.
Speaker 1 (09:21):
So that's staggering. So okay See not only punted the game,
they just decided we're not gonna even try. That's embarrassing. Like,
I know you're on the custom of greatness, but that
is really pathetic for the Thunder to essentially think maybe
they just think, oh, we got the series. Is to Locke,
it's a wrap they lost to in a row. Aliburton's
hurt like that is just it's kind of embarrassing for
(09:43):
the league. I mean, the game was really unwatchable for
I don't know, I guess two and a half quarters.
Would you say, is that fair?
Speaker 3 (09:50):
Yeah?
Speaker 1 (09:50):
I just I can't get behind this idea that okay
See is an all time great team and I know
everybody has a bad game now and then, by the way,
let me just give you some some numbers here on
Chet Holmgren, who had another he basically listen. I like
Chet a lot. I think he's got upside. Okay, twenty
four minutes, two for nine. So here is Chet shooting
the three ball in the series? Oh for three, one
(10:13):
for three, oh for one, oh for six, one for three,
oh for one. So that is Chet Holgred the deep
ball specialist. He's made two in the series. He has missed. Uh,
he's two for seventeen in the series from three, two
for seventeen from three for Chet Homeward. I don't know, man,
I like him a lot.
Speaker 2 (10:33):
You know.
Speaker 1 (10:33):
All I hear is is Miles Turner slander. Oh, Miles
Turner's trash. He's having such a bad series, and he
was the one guy who really did not play great.
If you're a box score surfing one of nine shooting
oh for three from deep like Miles Turner. I don't
know if the money on the line is in his
head because he's a free agent, But man, Chet Holmgren
(10:54):
is stinking up the joint. Rob. I don't know that
there's a world where the Thunder loose Game seven at home?
Do you do you think there's any chance they lose
at all?
Speaker 3 (11:03):
I didn't think it was gonna get this far, so
I guess, of course there is a chance. I mean,
I would still bet okay See to win. I don't
know if I covered the eight and a half which
was the early line Thursday and a Friday.
Speaker 1 (11:13):
Which is that's actually lower than the other games they
had ridden nine and a half and ten. Now yeah,
I'm seeing eight eighty.
Speaker 3 (11:19):
It just goes against conventional wisdom that this Oklahoma City
team could be so dominant for what one hundred games
of the season, including the regular season, and then just
at times in this series looks so unbelievably bad. Ye
like their offense is it looks junior varsity out there.
I don't want to hear running out of gas either.
This is a young team with a deep exactly exactly.
(11:40):
And while we're on this, I mean, I know that
the big stories that Okayse got blown out because they
were right there. Tyre's Halliburton, who is clearly hobbled, and
he started off really poorly in the game. These are
at one for five, one for four from three. What
he did do, though, is he showed a willingness to
(12:01):
take those shots early if they weren't going in. He
showed a willingness to try to attack off the dribble,
and I know, the final accounting stats don't look like
a lie. I mean, he made a couple of starts
to the airyther, but fourteen points five assistans it's not,
you know, crazy numbers. But he was able to be
effective during the time he was out. He had a
team high plus minus a plus twenty five. And here's
the biggest thing. He only had to play twenty three
(12:23):
minutes because they blew him out. So again, he's still
not going to be a hundred percent, but two days
off between Game six and Game seven, you didn't force
him to put any Even the twenty three minutes he played,
none of it were heavy minutes, right because they were
basically blowing them out through the middle of the second
quarter on, So it wasn't like he was really pressing.
(12:44):
He was kind of able to just float out there
and take the open shots when he had him. I
think he was un finished three of seven from deep
Tyrese Haliburton has been the breakout star of this postseason.
If he is able to seal the deal with the championship,
what does that do for him.
Speaker 1 (13:03):
Boy, that would be that's so shocking. It's tough for
me to even consider. Let me give you the scores
of the last two closeout games in Oklahoma City. Rob,
I'm sure you remember these. Oklahoma City dismembered Minnesota by thirty.
Now that was a game five, Game seven, Oklahoma City
dismembered Denver by thirty two. It's tough. I mean, if
(13:27):
Halliburton's able to pull this off on the road, I mean,
I'm trying to think Game seven on the road NBA Finals.
Obviously you had Lebron in Golden State. I'm pretty sure
the Magic Johnson game against the Sixers was in Philly,
but that might have been Game six. I don't know
(13:48):
if that was to close out this that was Game six, okay,
but yeah, so game seven on the road NBA Finals.
There's not a lot of history of road teams doing it.
It's just too much. And Halle, I don't know, Rob,
did you think you moving great?
Speaker 3 (14:01):
No?
Speaker 1 (14:01):
No.
Speaker 3 (14:01):
But the one thing that I did I appreciated he
was doing was in Game five. He was hobbled. That
we could tell that very early on, and it made
him almost passive, like he was no threat to attack
a closeout. He didn't want to take a quick trigger
three because it's not really not his game anyways, so
he was just moving the ball, moving the ball, doing
a lot of halliburtny stuff, but even more conservative. Right
(14:24):
at least in game six early on, like he wasn't
hitting the shots. He was one for five to start off.
But the fact that he was taking them made it
so that Oklahoma City had to respect him. They couldn't
just leave him out there, you know, gimping around. They
had to press up on him. They had to commit
a defender to him, and that allowed other guys to
get off. It allowed Pascal Siakam, who if they end
(14:46):
up winning this series, probably gonna win MVP. But it
allowed him to get off. It allowed Nemhard to hit
a couple of jumpers. Their bench was incredible, obi topping
your guy former Nick was doing stuff. So just even
if he's not one hundred percent, if he's a threat
out there, that's a huge thing for Indiana.
Speaker 1 (15:02):
Interesting you say Siaka might win MVP. I know it
was a blowout. He had sixteen and thirteen, but he
did have a massive dunk in transition that everybody's talking
about because the game was so bad. I don't know,
let me float this, it won't happen. But if Nemhard
is able to have a good game defensively on SGA,
(15:22):
does he have any case? I mean, he was amazing
in Game one. In this game he had seventeen trement,
three steals. Finals of It's probably a stretch, but I
mean you could argue Nemar has been their second best
player given the Halliburton injuries. I mean, hell, Obi Toppin
(15:44):
had a good game four of seven on threes. But
I just I don't see them going into ok See
and Obi top and hitting five threes on the road,
do you, I mean, can he do that again?
Speaker 3 (15:54):
I don't see that happening.
Speaker 1 (15:55):
It just it seems like a long shot. A quick
word on as the free throw merchantdise stuff. He got
to the line of bunch didn't really matter Rob. I
just every time I hear people just get so excited
for him, it's probably just me. I don't see it,
and I swear I'm not a hater, But I don't
(16:16):
think he's a better basketball player than Jason Tatum. I
don't think he's a better basketball player than Steph Curry.
I'm trying to think of like people in his ilk.
You know, Curry, point guard Tatum, you know an Olympian
and Alpha and the Celtics. I don't see do you
see killer instinct. Maybe it's just that he doesn't have
(16:37):
the swag and the dog in him. I mean, Jason
Tatum in a must have game in Milwaukee went for
like forty five points and then you know Grant Williams
closed it out at Hope. But like, I just I
didn't see that at all, Like I didn't see Shaye
like that fire. Now, maybe he goes for forty in
games seven in they roll, but it's just a it
(16:58):
was a little surprising how how passive he appeared, Like
you said, he'd go in the lane and then what
is he doing and just chucking up turnovers? It was bad.
Speaker 2 (17:06):
Fox Sports Radio has the best sports talk lineup in
the nation. Catch all of our shows at Foxsports Radio
dot com and within the iHeartRadio app search FSR to
listen live.
Speaker 3 (17:18):
It was a terrible game for him, and in this
series he's had several, I'm not gonna say terrible, but
subpar games, especially when you are the way that they
run their offense, especially in the half court. It's shay
up the middle, shade of the left, shade of the right,
like that's kind of how they do things, and it's
a lot of isolation pick and roll basketball, and if
it's working, it's great because he can hit the midrange
(17:39):
game and he gets to the free throw on a lot.
When it's not and they're hugged up on the shooters
and he's just chucking stuff up there, it looks really
really bad. Like I know, people diss you know, nineteen nineties,
two thousands basketball, But that's what you're seeing from Shay
in these games because he's just getting to the mid
range and and a crowd of people with no real
plan and he's not getting the whistle bolt to get
(18:02):
bailed out. So when it's great, it's awesome. But when
it's bad, it's it's like unwatchable.
Speaker 1 (18:07):
Yeah, all right, so real quick in the nightcap Indiana Fever,
I mean I tuned in third quarter after the finals
was done. They're up twelve, and I'm like, oh, this
is good, and Caitlin Clark was doing nothing. Clark had
her worst game of the season. Rob this is maybe
a stretch they ended up losing. Do you think all
(18:29):
that media attention and drama from the last game got
to her? She started one of ten finished three of fourteen,
missed all of her threes, eleven points nine A sists
seven boards. I don't want to make too much of
what happened last game, but it definitely felt like she
was defended differently by Golden State, and I wonder if
(18:50):
around the lead people are going to be like, hey,
we're just going to take away the three the way
they did that from Steph Curry.
Speaker 3 (18:57):
I mean, it's totally possible. I mean the other issue
that she ran into, I mean similar to Shaye, where
Shaye has a thing he likes to do, which gets
at mid range and pull up no matter what you know,
Caitlin Clark loves taking step back, ridiculous threes that you
should not take, that the average person should not take.
And she kind of gets into these modes where even
(19:18):
if she's not if she's hitting them, it's great. If
she's not hitting them, she's going to keep pulling right.
And that's how you end up nights like you know,
last night you was to do it, but she said
a two for eleven three this year, no for five.
She's had, you know, like it comes with the territory.
And the only thing that I really don't like about her,
and it's not even fully her fault is the turnovers
(19:39):
are always way too high. Yeah so, and that part
of that's just her teammates are not expecting the past
to get there as quickly as it does.
Speaker 1 (19:48):
Yeah, listen, I will say, I am interest. This was
on Amazon Prime. I had no problem finding a game.
I don't know if it'll be you know, how heavily
watched it will be, given the other stuff that was
going on soccer and NBA finals. But without question, to me,
the game is interesting and I'm Caitlin Park to me
is appointment viewing. And next week we will have an
amazing guest who wrote a book on Caitlin Clark, Christine Brennan,
(20:10):
veteran from USA. Today. We'll have that interview for you
next week. So quick programming. Note your boy. You know
it's a summer and it was booked in advance. I
don't know how the audio is going to be for
the post game seven podcast. In fact, we may not
(20:31):
even have one if the game ain't close, because I
it's tough to bring a podcast equipment with me. I'm
sure Rob is cringing at me talking about this, but
like frankly, guys, you know Rob's not there yet because
his kids are young. But when your kids are doing
like big things, you gotta be there, and that takes
priority over an NBA Finals game. I mean, it is
Game seven, but I'm just gonna be dead ass series, Rob.
(20:55):
Are you like telling the wife, Hey, Sunday night, no
dinner with the fam, none of that. I gotta watch
game Seve like I'm not even there. It's not like
the number one thing. And I love freaking basketball, but
the series has not. It's been pretty good basketball, but
it hasn't like captivated me. Frankly, I thought the last
two games were largely crap, but I so so we'll
see about a Monday podcast. I don't know. Obviously, the
(21:17):
draft is Wednesday, and we will definitely have a full
recap on the draft. I don't know Rob any any thoughts.
Speaker 3 (21:25):
Here's hoping that it's a blowout on Sunday so that
you don't feel bad vers giving the Monday.
Speaker 1 (21:30):
I know, you know again, I'm super excited for KD
and Giannis and we could talk about all that stuff.
I don't know, Rob, this series just has not grabbed
me by the throat. Last year, I was super into
a Boston, you know, go to go up through nothing.
That's a rap. But like I was like, okay, I
got to see my guy Luca. What was the year
(21:51):
before that, that was Denver, Miami, Miami. Yeah, yeah, I
will say I do plan on stealing if Cowherd ends up,
you know, really caping up for Okac, I do plan
on stealing. Well, you know, in the first round, job
Morn gets hurt and in the second round, oh, they
(22:12):
only faced Michael Porter Junior with one arm and Aaron
Gordon with one uhl. And oh, by the way, the
conference finals should have been the Warriors because they won
game one, but Steph Curry was hurt. And then they
get a half asked Tybee Halliburton, give me a break.
I don't want to hear this all time greatness at all.
I'm sorry, guys, they's just not an all time great
Thank you for that. Take Rob. This is why is
a good producer the best of the business. All right,
(22:34):
We're back sometime next week. Enjoy the weekend.
Fox Sports Radio News
Host
Jonas Knox
Popular Podcasts
On Purpose with Jay Shetty
I’m Jay Shetty host of On Purpose the worlds #1 Mental Health podcast and I’m so grateful you found us. I started this podcast 5 years ago to invite you into conversations and workshops that are designed to help make you happier, healthier and more healed. I believe that when you (yes you) feel seen, heard and understood you’re able to deal with relationship struggles, work challenges and life’s ups and downs with more ease and grace. I interview experts, celebrities, thought leaders and athletes so that we can grow our mindset, build better habits and uncover a side of them we’ve never seen before. New episodes every Monday and Friday. Your support means the world to me and I don’t take it for granted — click the follow button and leave a review to help us spread the love with On Purpose. I can’t wait for you to listen to your first or 500th episode!
The Breakfast Club
The World's Most Dangerous Morning Show, The Breakfast Club, With DJ Envy And Charlamagne Tha God!
The Joe Rogan Experience
The official podcast of comedian Joe Rogan.