April 22, 2025 • 38 mins
Big Ben talks about Kawhi Leonard putting up a vintage performance for the Clippers and stealing Game 2 against the Nuggets in Denver, Karl Anthony-Towns and the Knicks coming up short at home in Game 2 against the Pistons, Maller to the Third Degree, Maller's Mountain of Money: Jack Nicholson Edition, and more!
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Speaker 1 (00:00):
Thanks for listening to the best of the Ben Mahler
Show podcast. Be sure to catch us live every weeknight
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Speaker 2 (00:24):
This is the best of the Ben Maler Show on
Fox Sports Radio.
Speaker 1 (00:34):
Smooth Sailing for the good ship clip.
Speaker 3 (00:37):
Welcome in not beginning of another night of the Benmahlor Show.
We are in the air everywhere audio buddies, as we
make good things happen, unless we don't coast to coast,
border the border and beyond on the vast and pleasantly
(01:00):
powerful microphones of FSR and monading live from.
Speaker 1 (01:06):
The mere the quagmire of the sporting chatter. We're hanging
out here at the Fox Sports Radio studios as we
begin anew this hour, hanging out side by side and
this portion of the Ben Mallie Show brought to you
by Dollar Shave Club, your place to get everything you
(01:28):
need to stay smooth and smell grade. Visit Dollarshave Club
dot com slash Draft. Use promo code Draft for twenty
percent off your order of twenty dollars and more, plus
free shipping. So I lead this hour. You know what
the lead is. Don't bury the lead, dude, my man,
don't bury the lead. We're not gonna bury the lead now.
I don't expect anyone in. We're gonna putch a shutout
(01:49):
in Denver. We're on one of the big sports talk stations.
This show's on over the country, but we're on in Denver,
and I'm I'm predicting shutout city in Colorado, in the
city of Denver. Our lead this hour from the Mile
High City. And that was the playground where the Nuggets
and the Clippers wrangle Game number two, Game number two
(02:12):
playoffs match up there and Denver looking to hold serve
and take a two games to none lead on their
home court. And many of you have told me, oh,
it's impossible to win a road game in the playoffs
in Colorado. The altitude, Oh my god, the altitude. Oh
get them oxygen, get dem oxy jed. Okay, So don't
(02:34):
if you saw the game or not, maybe you miss it.
You bet job by you we watched it. You and
I have to. That's the mantra of the show. That
is the philosophy of the radio show. So if you
didn't see it, you missed. Poetry in motion is what
you missed. Kawhi Leonard a throwback to the ages there,
Kawhi Leonard thirty nine points on nineteen shots. Now you'll
(02:57):
see players score thirty five or forty point and they'll
take thirty or thirty five shots. Kawhi Leonard took nineteen
shots and put up thirty nine points. Fifteen of nineteen.
I think it was ten of eleven at one point,
but fifteen of nineteen. The Clippers clipped down Denver. They
clawed back and win after they gave a game away
(03:21):
in Game one. As we said the Clippers really really
Nuggets should be down two. They're lucky to be one
to one at this point. As the Clippers won one
oh five to one oh two. As Christian Brown went
to Brown Town at the end of the game, he
had the chance to be the hero, well kind of
the here he would have tied the game three point shot.
(03:42):
How'd that go that? No, it looked like Russell Westbrook
shooting the shot there west Brick, Christian Brawn bricking. The
three point shot was six seconds left, and then Nikola
Jokic had another opportunity, and he did have a triple double,
but he shot a flatliner, a clanker with one second remaining,
(04:07):
and that's all she wrote. That's all she wrote. Jokicic
despite having the Gatti stats, the twenty six points, the
twelve rebounds, the ten assists, and that was not enough.
So the series now one to one. They head back
to the hood in Inglewood. Clippers and Nuggets will play
Game three on Thursday. The better story is in the
(04:30):
losing locker room. That has always been the mantra. That
is where the story is. So we will go to
where the story is a Denver debacle. We're gonna call
this one a Denver debacle as we discuss, so who
gets to where? This? Is? This the question? Here's the question,
who gets to war the shame bell for the Nuggets,
(04:51):
the Nicola Jokic Nuggets losing at home that altitude. Nobody
goes to Denver and wins a playoff game. You canting,
oh my god, they lost it home? The Nuggets championship
PEDIGRAE Okay, So let's break this down. I've got bear, jamboree, terminator,
and creamery. And we will combine all of these things
(05:16):
together and we are going to make a big board.
Is what we're gonna make. Big Ben's big board. We're
not gonna do the big board right now. No, no, no, no,
Big Ben's big board right now. We'll save that. So
who gets to wear the shame bell for the Nicola
jokicch Denver Nuggets losing at home in the playoffs here
(05:37):
in game number two? So looking around the locker room,
we will start with this here. Obviously, plenty of blame,
plenty of blame to go around the room. Now. As
we explain in the previous episode of the show, I
know you listen, you document everything, and you take a
little notes. It's a tough day for the trolls. I
know you're gonna go into hiding, you know, hang in
their trolls. You'll have your day again, trolls, but not
(06:00):
right now. So in a previous episode, we pointed out,
with our immen's basketball knowledge, the Nuggets did not deserve
to win Game one. The Clippers gave that game away,
and that proved to be accurate analysis on these airwaves.
The powerful microphones of Fox Sports Radio. The self inflicted
wounds by the Clippers. You clean that up, you win
(06:22):
the game. They cleaned it up, they won the game.
It's not that difficult. This is not that hard, all right.
So the Nuggets who were gifted one game, they got
that fine that they didn't get gifted this game, and
they end up losing it. The Clippers played a relatively
clean game in terms of the turnovers, and so the
same old song and dance with all these playoff matchups.
(06:44):
You spent a lot of time analyzing things. You talk
about the matchups, you talked about the coaching, the film.
Film doesn't matter, the matchups don't matter, Home court advantage
doesn't matter, injuries don't matter, None of it matters. All
that matters is who does better in the moment, in
that moment in time, who does better? And Denver, despite
(07:06):
having championship pedigree, they crumbled at home. How embarrassing, How
embarrassing for the Nuggets. They lose at home? They blew it. Pathetic,
absolutely pathetic by the Nuggets. How about Michael Porter Junior
breaking a hammered dunk out of bounds late in the game.
(07:27):
Who goofed? I've got to know that was embarrassing. We
mentioned Christian Brown missing the three point shot that would
have tied the game, Jokic throwing up a terribly flat shot,
also in clutch time. However, I'm not going to give
them the shame bell. No no, no, no no, because
if you saw the game, you know exactly who gets
(07:47):
the shame bell, and that is Jamal Murray. Jamal Murray
gets to wear the shame beell. Now why does Jamal
Murray get to wear the shame He had good status, Ben,
I'm a box score reader. I read the statue had
good status. Okay, you're also an idiot. You're a moron.
You didn't watch the game, you didn't watch the end.
The reason Jamal Murray gets to wear the shame bell
(08:10):
because of the bear jamboree. In this case, he woke
up the hibernating bear. He did with five eighteen five
eighteen to go in the third quarter, just a random
moment which would have been forgotten in time if Jamal
Murray had not picked up Norman Powell picked him up.
(08:34):
Murray's playing defense picked up Powell in a playground move
while he was attempting to play some kind of defense.
Maybe that works the similar doesn't work in the NBA,
maybe works in the playground anyway, Murray by doing that,
which seemed rather benign at the time, there was a
little bit of finger pointing and shouting in fake machies
(08:55):
mo that took place on the court at that time.
But if you notice, and I noticed the nuance that
woke up the hibernating bear. You don't wake up the
hibernating bear. And that Jamal Murray did it. He did it.
Jamal Murray woke up the hibernating bear. And it wasn't
just Norman Powell, it's the whole Clipper team. Now to
(09:18):
back that up my supporting evidence on this, with that
point on the clock, five eighteen to go in the
third quarter. Up until that point, Norman Powell was shooting
twenty two point two percent from the floor. It was
an abomination situation. He was riding the vomit comet, Norman Powell.
(09:39):
He was bad to the bone, is what He was,
bad to the bone and only had six points at
that moment, but twenty two percent shooting. So after Jamal
Murray decided he was a professional wrestler and picked up
Norman Powell in a punk move. Norman Powell responded, like
you have to do the rest of the game poal
(09:59):
shots sixty. He had more points from that point forward
than he did up until that point. And the Clippers
as a team shot fifty percent from the floor the
rest of the game. So congratulations to Jamal Murray. You
get the shame bell for the Nuggets. You woke the Clipper,
(10:20):
Norman Powap woke him up, You woke several other players up.
Good job by you. All right, now let's get now
to the winning side of things. And oh what a
marvelous night it was for one player in particular, How
would you describe Kawhi Leonard and his performance for the Clippers.
(10:42):
So my word on Kawhi Leonard's performance, I'm gonna use
the R word retro. That was a retro Kawhi Leonard performance,
something that the people's team has not seen much of,
if at all, in big games. That has not been
the Kawhi Leonard that has made the appearances in the
Clipper laundry. Uh. It's also a tease. It is a
(11:05):
another R word, reminder, reminder of what should have been,
what could have been, but has it up until this point.
It's also a reminder that if Kawhi Leonard plays like
this and then he plays like that, no one's beating
the Clippers. They're winning the championship this year. Sorry, sorry haters.
And if that happens, ol Man, he erases everything. One
(11:25):
Clipper championship trumps every other Lakers championship, for example, and
every Celtic Championship hardest championship to win with the Clippers.
So if Kawhi can keep doing this, then watch out.
But it was for the moment is one night, and
it was a retro performance by Kawhi Leonar. It was great.
And instead of being a bad man, he was a
bad bad man. There's a difference between yeah, man, you're
(11:47):
a bad man to bad bad man. There's a much
bigger difference between man, he's a bad man to bad
bad man. He was a bad man, he was, and
that was the guy the Clippers thought they were gonna
get every every night or most nights from Toronto when
he came over. That was a version of what he
was at one point with the San Antonio Spurs back
(12:08):
in the day, and that showed up. Denver had no
chance to stop him. They were completely helpless. They were
running in circles. It's like Mike the headless Chicken trying
to stop Kawhi Leonard on defense. It was embarrassing. It
was like an older brother playing with a younger brother.
Was uncle versus nephew. No chance, absolute chance. And mostly
(12:33):
the Clippers have seen a rip off version of Kawhi
But that was a renaissance. That was a renaissance like
performance there, stylish old school Kawhi Leonard terminator like. He
was terminator like as not only was he half man,
he appeared robotic, half machine out there on the court
(12:54):
automatica for Kawhi Lennard did not take the volume of shots,
the efficiency was insane, cold blooded sniper like for Kawhi Leonnard.
Now the last word here as we move around, how
much trouble after two games are the Nuggets in at
this point as the series heads back to Southern California
(13:18):
for game number three. So it's not looking good. And
you know it, if you know ball, you know it's
not looking good for the team from Colorado at this
particular point is a creamery situation. They talk about the
Rocky Mountains in Denver, but this is a different rocky
rocky road at the creamery is what this is for
(13:40):
the Nuggets because you go to La actually Inglewood, and
we all know the story in the playoffs. Generally speaking,
as a rule of thumb, As a rule of thumb,
role players, the role players perform better at home. So
the Nuggets are running literally into the wall, which is
(14:00):
at the into It Dome where the Clippers play. The
Clippers have never lost a home playoff game in that building.
They have never lost a home playoff game at the
end to it Dome. Ever, good luck, good luck, lot
gonna happen, not gonna happen. And so that means, guys
that for the most part, no Norman Powell played well
at the end of this game, but he was mostly
(14:22):
a stiff beginning of the game and at the most
of Game one. Bogdanovich is terrible. Should play better at home,
and even that turd burger Ben Simmons will likely have
some moments on the home court. So all those cats,
all those cats go down the list there, and the
Nuggets without the gift. They got the gift in game one,
(14:45):
the Easter gift, and so then they got to go
back Easter weekend gift. And then they go back and
the Clippers set the record straight.
Speaker 2 (14:51):
Be sure to catch live editions of The Ben Maler
Show weekdays at two am Eastern eleven pm Pacific on
Fox Sports Radio and the iHeartRadio.
Speaker 1 (15:00):
So our lead this hour is from Midtown Manhattan, Penn
Station adjacent. You've been to Manhattan, you know, it's between
seventh and eighth Avenue there and it's a garden. From
the outside, it doesn't look like a garden, but it is.
You're gonna go into the bowels of the gymnasium there,
and that was the scene for Game two. Game two
(15:25):
of the opening round of the NBA Playoffs. There a
matchup between Detroit and New York and the Pistons coming
back a twenty one to nothing run in Game one.
As the Detroit basketball team had a reversal in fortune.
They puked at a time they could not puke, and
they lost that game. So I have a lot of
(15:48):
friends from New York, family from New York. And of
course there's nothing more annoying than Nick fans who haven't
won in fifty plus years but are convinced every year
that they're going to win. It's a fascinating dichotomy that
the Knickerbocker fan anyway, So the next one, Game one,
they came back, didn't really play all that well for
three quarters, but in the fourth quarter went gangbusters and
(16:10):
they won the game. So now of course they're gonna
win every game in this series. That was Detroit's chance.
Blah blah blah blah blah. So if you didn't see
this game, it was a it was a total domination situation.
But it was very similar to Game one, very similar
to Game one. Cad Cunningham thirty three points, twelve rebounds.
Dennis Schreuder is still alive. Did you know that Dennis
(16:30):
Shrewder is still alive and he's in the NBA playoffs.
Remember last we talked about him, he was being held hostage. No,
it was not hostage. He compared playing in the NBA
to slavery when he was traded at the deadline. Remember that. Yes, Well,
he's alive and well, and Dennis Shrewder Schrader or whatever.
He had a tie breaking three pointer with fifty five
(16:53):
seconds left on the clock, and the Pistons said bye
bye to the longest suck bag streak of playoff basketball.
A fifteen game postseason ride into the manure as they
end that losing streak, longest postseason losing streak in NBA history.
(17:15):
They beat the Knickerbockers one hundred and ninety four, and
so that series now goes back to Detroit and the
Pistons have home court advantage one one. It is a
best of five now and Detroit has home court advantage.
The Pistons terrible franchise. When I was a kid, they
were good, and then they had a little bit of
(17:35):
success as an adult, and since then they've been terrible.
But the Detroit Pistons, who had not even been to
a playoff situation since way back before the pandemic, in
twenty nineteen, they gave back pretty much all of the
lead they had built up. They had a fifteen point lead,
(17:56):
they gave almost all that back, and then they end
up winning, first time they've won a play playoff game
since eight. I was like, I was like in junior
high school in eight or maybe you know, possibly no,
I was working here. I guess I was working here anyway.
I was eight Eastern Conference Finals against Boston the last
time they Detroit Piston's team had won, which means, if
(18:18):
you are fifteen years old, actually older than that was
seventeen Holy crap, twenty twenty five, So seventeen seventeen years.
That means you're like in high school, you're almost out
of high school and your entire Wow, that's wild. How
does that happen? It happened anyway, The better story is
(18:41):
in the losing locker room. So that is where we
will go. Jalen Brunson thirty seven points for Jalen Brunson
and not enough as the number three seeded Knickerbockers lose
this game. So let us discuss. Let us discuss, So
which Knicks players get to grab the biggest chunk, biggest
(19:04):
chunk of the dirty water the dirty water dog of
shame and blame? So which Knicks player gets that big
portion of the sausage the dirty water dog of shame
and blame? So I've got thirty rock, Shakespearean and lobbying,
(19:25):
and we will combine all of these things together and
we are going to go whale watching. It looked like
a lot of the Knicks were in a boat watching.
They weren't doing a lot. They were not doing a lot.
Now numb burn? Did I get a numb burn? So
this was if you're a nick apologist, a painful night
(19:46):
all the way around, assigning the dirty water dog of
shame and blame, making that out there, putting that out there.
Let's start at the obvious one, which is the cat.
Hello Kitty. That would be the full, full, fully immersive
Carl Anthony Town's experience. Now he's known as Cat, and
(20:09):
I know our friends listening in Minnesota snickering and they're smiling,
and there's a Cheshire Cat kind of vibe, the big
smile there, and they're thinking, Hey, I told you so,
this is the guy. That's the guy we remember from
the Wolves. That's the guy. Yeah, Helpe, you enjoy him
New York. Yeah. And so it's not necessarily a case
(20:31):
where Karl Anthony Towns didn't do what was expected right.
This was living up to the scouting report. This performance
was the full, fully immersive Carl Anthony Towns experience. Playoff
Cat here, Kitty, Kitty, Kitty, here, kitty Cat. That's playoff Cat.
That's Karl Anthony Towns is what it was. Sporadic malfunction.
(20:54):
Sporadic malfunction. He is a big man, and he plays
a lot like j James Harden, who will disappear for
a random game in a playoff series. Well, Karl Anthony
Towns does the same thing, and so he's got this
glitch in the software. There's a problem, and he suffers
from shrinkage. It's like he's in cold water. In the
(21:17):
playoffs there in big spots, Towns had a pedestrian stat
line ten points, six rebounds, no assist for Carl Anthony Towns.
He played thirty three mostly uselessness. We mentioned whale watching
like he was just out there whale watching, right, they
might as well put fat Joe out there. He was
in the crowd. Fat Joe could have done the same thing.
I put him out there. Carl Anthony Towns was five
(21:40):
of eleven from the floor. But that again does not
do to do it justice right, does not do it
justice because the second half was a special kind of manure,
a special cond of maneuver. You see, Carl Anthony Towns
played the second half a game to thirty Rock. Remember
(22:01):
that that show thirty Rock, Tracy Morgan. Remember when he
was at the next game while back and he vomited
all over the court. He rode the vomit comet he
up chucked all over the court. There that was carl
Anthony Towns in the second half. The only difference between
Tracy Morgan and carl Anthony Towns is Tracy Morgan was
taken to the hospital. Carl Anthony Towns stayed on the court. Uh.
(22:22):
And you, you, who might not have even watched this game,
scored as many points and as as carl Antony Towns.
I scored as many points as carl Anthony Towns in
the second half. He pitched a shutout. He pitched a shutout,
did not score a single point in the second half.
Gooseag as the joker says, Carl Anthony Towns zero, a
(22:46):
zip and a zilch nada. He got, as my grandfather
would say, buppkis in the second half. And so there
you go. That is a two hundred twenty million dollar
ball player.
Speaker 4 (22:58):
That is, he.
Speaker 1 (23:00):
Gave him the two undred twenty million, He's got the
two undred twenty million dollars forty nine million a year.
Guy didn't even score in the second half of a
home playoff game, not a road game, not a road game,
home playoff game. And that that's Carl Anthony. It's hard
to take the nick seriously. As much as we enjoy
Jalen Brunson. Right, the way that Brunson plays, there's an
(23:20):
edge to Brunson game and all that. The antithesis of
that would be Karl Anthony Towns and so having them
together and that there are others right og was Oh no,
Annonobi was no good and he was bad, but he's
a supporting character. Karl Anthony Towns is supposed to be
more than that. The expectations are higher for him and
(23:41):
he did not do it. Now page two, One of
the big talking points from this Knicks Pistons game were
people up in arms. There was a lot of finger
pointing and blaming and shaming when it comes to a
Nick player who actually had a great stat line and
played well, not great, but well for the Knicks. What
(24:02):
do you make of the criticism of Jalen Brunson embellishing
contact throughout the game as the Knicks go down? So
what did you make of it? A lot of criticism
as Jalen Brunson was flopping around the old floppa flopp
of flopper is what he was doing. So the criticism
(24:24):
of Jalen Brunson, the word is the E word expected.
It was expected. Now Brunson I like watching him play.
I didn't think he would be able to do this.
I remember when he was with the Mavericks and he
had this really good playoff run when Luca Huka Luka
got hurt and he played well. I was like, well,
you know, not really sure whether or not this is sustainable.
And to his credit, he has consistently played at that
(24:47):
level as a nick and he is a nuisance if
he's not on your team, the kind of a guy
that you like when he's on your team, and when
he's not on your squad, you think he's a schmuck
and you don't like him, and he's a pest and
all that. So that's that's fair. That's not exactly the
most pleasing to the eye to watch Jalen Brunson try
(25:10):
to bait the officials into a call every single time
there is contact on pretty much every possession where you're
running an offensive set in the NBA. As far as
the wide angle lends on this, the way I look
at it, it is a watching Jalen Brunson plays a
Shakespearean situation like a Shakespearean play. William Shakespeare, not the
(25:32):
Merchant of Venice, the foul Merchant of the garden will
call him the foul Merchant of the garden. We will
call him. He has the ability the innata bildy. He
might as well be over on Madison Avenue trying to
sell fouls whatever it is, it's a foul. Oh my god,
I'm dying over here. I'm dying. It's like he's on
(25:53):
Broadway every single time, foul baiting, foul bit put rules
in to try to stop that, and he's able to
work himself around the rules, selling the fouls as we say,
and all that stuff. So Brunson has become a Rhodes
scholar at that all right, now, final point, speaking of
(26:14):
the foul situation, there was one person in particular who
was huffing and puffing following the game, very upset, and
that would be the head coach of the Knickerbockers, Tom Thibodeaux.
Tom Thibodeaux, that's right. He was very unhappy, very very unhappy.
(26:35):
There after the game. The head coach of the next
he argued against Caid Cuttingham getting so many foul shots
in this game, and he said there was marginal contact. Well,
rather than me give you the quote verbatim, here is
Tom Thibodeau, commenting on the officiating, tigoles.
Speaker 4 (26:53):
Huge discrepancy and free throws huge. So I got to
take a look at that. I don't understand, you know
how I'm one side. You know, you talk about the
direct line drives, the guys getting fouled as not being
called right. So and look, I really don't give a
crap how they call the game as long as it's
consistent on both sides. So if Cunningham's driving and there's
(27:14):
marginal contact and he's getting to the line, then Jalen
deserves to be getting to the line. It's really that simple.
Speaker 1 (27:20):
Okay. So it's that simple. Hey, we recorded that. Doesn't
that sound like old school audio from like the nineteens,
fifties or something like seventy seventy five years old audio
or something like that. Tom Thibodeau, We had a tin
can in a string. We recorded that, all right, So
what is you just heard the audio? What is the
Knicks coach Tom Thibodeau looking to accomplish with that rant
(27:46):
about the officials. What is Tom Thibodeau looking to accomplish?
So my word on this one is politicking. That is
my word is politicking. It is the time of the year.
Here we are in late April, and this will go
on through May and June. If you watch all of this,
Tom Thibodeau is politicking for calls. He's lobbying. He's lobbying
(28:10):
the referees in the league office, and they monitor all
the soundbites and all this nonsense by publicly condemning, by
pointing out the inaccuracy of the officials. Obviously, you know
what that means. There is inconsistent work here and my
entire life, the reason the Knicks haven't won championship in
(28:33):
my lifetime is because of the officials. Everyone's out to
get New York teams. Obviously, no one ever leans towards
the Knickerbockers anyway. So he's trying to influence we know
what this is, trying to influence future decisions by the
officials and have a cause. Which that's one of the
issues with all of sports, but in basketball in particular,
(28:54):
it's what you choose to enforce. Much like police work, right,
there are laws for everything. What do you choose to
enforce is not to enforce. And in the NBA, what
do you choose. They've actually let the players play a
lot more in the playoffs the first couple of games
than they had in the past. So anyway, this is
a common tactic what Tom Thibodeau is doing among coaches,
especially during the postseason here where any call could turn
(29:17):
the whole season and series around and all that stuff.
And I watched the Knicks and it's pretty much if
Jalen Brunson doesn't get to the line, there's a lot
of ISO with Jalen Brunson. And if that doesn't work,
you're just shooting jump shots and you don't usually get
foul calls on jump shots. But what do I know,
I just host the Overnight Show.
Speaker 2 (29:36):
Be sure to catch live editions of The Ben Meller
Show weekdays at two am Eastern eleven pm Pacific.
Speaker 4 (29:42):
Here we go?
Speaker 1 (29:43):
How about here we go? This is one big Ben
gets grill, go ahead.
Speaker 4 (29:50):
Cool.
Speaker 5 (29:50):
So we already know that Kirk Cousins doesn't want to
be traded until after the draft. The latest report from
Adam Schefter says that the Falcons are asking any team
trading for Cousins pay million of his remaining forty five
million in guarantees.
Speaker 1 (30:03):
So far, no team has been willing to do that.
Speaker 5 (30:05):
Ben, do you think after the draft, the team will
be willing to do that or will the Falclones have
to scale back their demands.
Speaker 1 (30:10):
Uh, well, the Falcons have to get rid of Kirk Cousins,
and they have to play ball with Kirk Cousins because
he's got a no trade cost. And if I'm not mistaken,
they just added Easton Stick, which I believe his code
for suck. But he's the former Charger. They added him,
so they've they've got their back up. They're clearing the deck.
They're they're adding a player to get rid of Cousins.
(30:31):
They will end up trading him. They'll work something out
and he's likely going to go to the Cleveland Browns.
If Aaron Rodgers were tires, then he can go to Pittsburgh.
But he'll go somewhere. He's not gonna stay in Atlanta.
Speaker 5 (30:40):
Next Chargers GM Joe Horitz said that they don't feel
pressure to address any position in the draft and therefore
they can just take whoever the best player is when
they're picks up, Ben, do you think.
Speaker 1 (30:50):
They should be addressing a specific position. It's full of crap.
That's that's the way. That's a non answer answer. But
we're we're just gonna draft the best player available. It's pulker.
What if the best players a quarterback? They're gonna draft
a quarterback.
Speaker 4 (31:02):
No, they're not.
Speaker 1 (31:03):
They're full of crap. I mean, it's shut up. They're liars.
Speaker 5 (31:07):
Next, the Bucks got blown out by the Pacers in
Game one of their series against Indiana, but Milwaukee was
without Damian Lillard. Reports are that he'll be back for
game two or three. Will that be enough time for
the Bucks to turn the series around?
Speaker 1 (31:19):
Two words? Cooper Loop, Doc Rivers. They are cooked? Okay,
Doc Rivers done. The Pacers should win that series anyway.
I love Leylard, I loved them in Portland, not as
much as Milwaukee. And he's a fine player and all that,
but that is a flawed team the box, and even
with Dame Lillard he's been out for a while, they're
(31:41):
not gonna win. How do we go as they win
the game? I won the game, I won the game.
I won.
Speaker 2 (31:52):
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 fs R
to listen live Now. Mailer's Mountain of Money.
Speaker 1 (32:07):
Hello, do you have what it?
Speaker 2 (32:10):
Takes to get to the top. Probably not.
Speaker 1 (32:14):
Let's do it.
Speaker 5 (32:15):
Here we go.
Speaker 1 (32:15):
Let's welcome in our combatants. Here we have see her
any Meani minimum. Jacob is in Delaware. Hello Jacob, welcome, Hi,
you doing buddy? Good to have you there, Jacob. But
welcome to the show. And who would you like the person?
Are you're driving? Are you working right now or just
cruising around? What are you doing?
Speaker 2 (32:34):
I'm working?
Speaker 1 (32:34):
Okay, all right? What kind of work do you do?
Run a bread route?
Speaker 4 (32:38):
Oh?
Speaker 1 (32:38):
Nice, the bread man? Look at that. We got a breadman.
All right? You want to play with me, ben Coop,
or if you really want some fun, play with Arena.
Speaker 2 (32:45):
I'm gonna play with akup.
Speaker 1 (32:47):
Okay, you're a loser, all right, are you? I don't
know why you have such a great lexicon of sports
and knowledge of sports. All right, hold on a sec, Jacob,
and we have Darryl in Florida is gonna play Hello
year old. Hey, this guy's full of energy. Look at
this guy full of life. Coop, You're screwed. This guy's
got more energy. He's got more Raised in Chicago, living
(33:10):
in Miami, now live, he's Look at you're living a
dream in Miami. Look at you? All right? What are
you doing in Miami there, Darryl, I'm not come out later?
Speaker 2 (33:18):
Work, work with home people.
Speaker 1 (33:19):
Oh, look at that home. Those guys Let me tell you.
Those guys at home people have all the answers. I'm
more of a loves girl. No, no, I go to
home people. I ask him, I say, what's U? What
do I get? The nails? But a certain kind of
they know exactly where it is. See look at that.
I'll seven all right, I like this guy. Let's play
the game coop. One of the categories quick rye, quick
(33:40):
ry all right, this is Malar's mountain of money.
Speaker 5 (33:42):
The Jack Nicholson addition, he turns eighty eight years old today,
so it's impossible for the Lakers to lose on Jack
Nicholson's birthday.
Speaker 6 (33:50):
Uh.
Speaker 1 (33:50):
The categories are what isn't he a recluse?
Speaker 4 (33:53):
Now?
Speaker 5 (33:53):
The categories are one flew Over, the Cuckoo's Nest, as
good as it gets, Anger, Management, and the Departed.
Speaker 1 (34:00):
Jacob, You're on first? Which category would you like? I
would departed? All right? And Darryl, how about you.
Speaker 5 (34:09):
Did?
Speaker 1 (34:10):
Okay?
Speaker 5 (34:10):
All right, there you go, so Jacob, you and I
are up first uh, you need the first and last
name of the athlete in order to get points. We're
gonna have forty five seconds. We picked the departed. These
athletes all passed away in twenty twenty four. Are you ready, Jacob?
Speaker 1 (34:25):
All right?
Speaker 5 (34:25):
Forty five seconds? Begin, all right, running back for the
Bills who killed two people. Yes, the all time hit
king for the Reds.
Speaker 1 (34:34):
Yes.
Speaker 5 (34:35):
Uh, the big Redhead. He was also a deadhead out
of UCLA NBA player his father father of Yes.
Speaker 1 (34:43):
Yes uh.
Speaker 5 (34:44):
This guy was a center who shook his finger after
blocking the shot. No, no, no, Yes, this guy was
the only player to win the cy Young and the
Rookie of the Year in.
Speaker 1 (34:55):
The same year.
Speaker 5 (34:56):
Pitch Dodgers pitcher. Yes, this guy was a guard long
time for the Cowboys.
Speaker 1 (35:02):
Yes. Uh, this guy was a quarterback for the Rams
in the sixties. His first name is the same as
an empire from Italy.
Speaker 6 (35:13):
Get it, Jacob, You gave him too many sore.
Speaker 1 (35:26):
You're talking about? That was Loy You got? Is your time?
God extra time? Better get going a show. Come on there,
that's show hot. Start here. We haven't even gone yet.
It's like a team scoring in the first inning and
you're bat in the bottom of the first It's the
bottom of the first inning. That's right, we got this, Daryl. Listen,
(35:47):
what a performance by Jacobs. That last one did knock out.
That last one did not count. We'll go to the
judges scorecard. Let's play. Here we go. These you said
one flew over the cuckoo's nest. These athletes are all
considered a little crazy. Are you ready? Daryl? From Chicago
but living in Miami, living that great life in Miami.
Al Right, here we go, forty five seconds on the clock.
(36:07):
We're on our way and go. A wide receiver for
the Steelers. He was with the Bucks. He quit in
the middle of a game. Yeah, yeah, I think he
said that right. Also the worm for the NBA had
funny hair for the Bulls in the nineties from Yeah, yeah, exactly,
a wide receiver. I signed autographs, I love my quarterback
(36:29):
in the nineties and the two thousands haul of Yes,
Red Sox star not big Poppy. But what's his last name? Yes,
Chocolate Thunder NBA player, Yes, running back for the Broncos
and the Redskins. He wore funny outfits to his news
(36:49):
conferences from Miami. Went to the universe in Miami. That's fine. Damn,
I'm sorry, that's all right. That's all right. Clinton Portis
was who you had in there.
Speaker 5 (37:00):
Yeah, and that's one hundred and fifty points, So you
guys will need to go again, Okay.
Speaker 1 (37:04):
Jod This actually will work out to advantage is what
Coop has done. Screwed me on, Daryl?
Speaker 4 (37:08):
Do you want?
Speaker 1 (37:08):
Is as good as it gets? Your anger management management?
Speaker 5 (37:12):
Anger management ris These athletes all had or have anger issues.
Speaker 1 (37:17):
Forty five seconds begin all right. Nineteen ninetys NBA player
for the Rockets. He was a guard. He went to
the crowd, attack the fan. He's got a podcast right now.
Played with the Elijah Wan Rockets shooting guard no a
second basement for the Texas Rangers. He punched Jose Bautista
of the Blue Jays in a famous incident in arlier
(37:40):
Cook in Arlington is this sing on wide receiver for
the Carolina Panthers and the Baltimore Ravens. He is currently retired.
He's on the NFL network. He slept with some guy's wife,
got in trouble for that. Hello are you on, Darryl?
They're app I don't know what dre Are you there, darny.
Speaker 5 (38:01):
Oh there you go.
Speaker 1 (38:02):
We got one, all right. Alright, boy, you.
Speaker 2 (38:08):
Go to say my bad you hitting you.
Speaker 4 (38:12):
God?
Speaker 6 (38:14):
Wait wait wait wait wait wait.
Speaker 1 (38:16):
Wait you you said did you know any of them?
So what's the name? What are the names? What are
theys sanateads? He doesn't know the name, You didn't, Jacob.
Good job, y'all need to blow around domination. Good job, Daryl.
We actually won. We're going we're going to a booth
(38:39):
review and we won the game. We won on booth review.
Good job,
Thanks for listening to the best of the Ben Mahler
Show podcast. Be sure to catch us live every weeknight
from two to six Eastern eleven pm to three am
Pacific on Fox Sports Radio and to find your local
station for the Benmatlers Show at Foxsports Radio dot com.
You can find it there or stream us live every
night on the iHeartRadio app by searching FSR.
Speaker 2 (00:24):
This is the best of the Ben Maler Show on
Fox Sports Radio.
Speaker 1 (00:34):
Smooth Sailing for the good ship clip.
Speaker 3 (00:37):
Welcome in not beginning of another night of the Benmahlor Show.
We are in the air everywhere audio buddies, as we
make good things happen, unless we don't coast to coast,
border the border and beyond on the vast and pleasantly
(01:00):
powerful microphones of FSR and monading live from.
Speaker 1 (01:06):
The mere the quagmire of the sporting chatter. We're hanging
out here at the Fox Sports Radio studios as we
begin anew this hour, hanging out side by side and
this portion of the Ben Mallie Show brought to you
by Dollar Shave Club, your place to get everything you
(01:28):
need to stay smooth and smell grade. Visit Dollarshave Club
dot com slash Draft. Use promo code Draft for twenty
percent off your order of twenty dollars and more, plus
free shipping. So I lead this hour. You know what
the lead is. Don't bury the lead, dude, my man,
don't bury the lead. We're not gonna bury the lead now.
I don't expect anyone in. We're gonna putch a shutout
(01:49):
in Denver. We're on one of the big sports talk stations.
This show's on over the country, but we're on in Denver,
and I'm I'm predicting shutout city in Colorado, in the
city of Denver. Our lead this hour from the Mile
High City. And that was the playground where the Nuggets
and the Clippers wrangle Game number two, Game number two
(02:12):
playoffs match up there and Denver looking to hold serve
and take a two games to none lead on their
home court. And many of you have told me, oh,
it's impossible to win a road game in the playoffs
in Colorado. The altitude, Oh my god, the altitude. Oh
get them oxygen, get dem oxy jed. Okay, So don't
(02:34):
if you saw the game or not, maybe you miss it.
You bet job by you we watched it. You and
I have to. That's the mantra of the show. That
is the philosophy of the radio show. So if you
didn't see it, you missed. Poetry in motion is what
you missed. Kawhi Leonard a throwback to the ages there,
Kawhi Leonard thirty nine points on nineteen shots. Now you'll
(02:57):
see players score thirty five or forty point and they'll
take thirty or thirty five shots. Kawhi Leonard took nineteen
shots and put up thirty nine points. Fifteen of nineteen.
I think it was ten of eleven at one point,
but fifteen of nineteen. The Clippers clipped down Denver. They
clawed back and win after they gave a game away
(03:21):
in Game one. As we said the Clippers really really
Nuggets should be down two. They're lucky to be one
to one at this point. As the Clippers won one
oh five to one oh two. As Christian Brown went
to Brown Town at the end of the game, he
had the chance to be the hero, well kind of
the here he would have tied the game three point shot.
(03:42):
How'd that go that? No, it looked like Russell Westbrook
shooting the shot there west Brick, Christian Brawn bricking. The
three point shot was six seconds left, and then Nikola
Jokic had another opportunity, and he did have a triple double,
but he shot a flatliner, a clanker with one second remaining,
(04:07):
and that's all she wrote. That's all she wrote. Jokicic
despite having the Gatti stats, the twenty six points, the
twelve rebounds, the ten assists, and that was not enough.
So the series now one to one. They head back
to the hood in Inglewood. Clippers and Nuggets will play
Game three on Thursday. The better story is in the
(04:30):
losing locker room. That has always been the mantra. That
is where the story is. So we will go to
where the story is a Denver debacle. We're gonna call
this one a Denver debacle as we discuss, so who
gets to where? This? Is? This the question? Here's the question,
who gets to war the shame bell for the Nuggets,
(04:51):
the Nicola Jokic Nuggets losing at home that altitude. Nobody
goes to Denver and wins a playoff game. You canting,
oh my god, they lost it home? The Nuggets championship
PEDIGRAE Okay, So let's break this down. I've got bear, jamboree, terminator,
and creamery. And we will combine all of these things
(05:16):
together and we are going to make a big board.
Is what we're gonna make. Big Ben's big board. We're
not gonna do the big board right now. No, no, no, no,
Big Ben's big board right now. We'll save that. So
who gets to wear the shame bell for the Nicola
jokicch Denver Nuggets losing at home in the playoffs here
(05:37):
in game number two? So looking around the locker room,
we will start with this here. Obviously, plenty of blame,
plenty of blame to go around the room. Now. As
we explain in the previous episode of the show, I
know you listen, you document everything, and you take a
little notes. It's a tough day for the trolls. I
know you're gonna go into hiding, you know, hang in
their trolls. You'll have your day again, trolls, but not
(06:00):
right now. So in a previous episode, we pointed out,
with our immen's basketball knowledge, the Nuggets did not deserve
to win Game one. The Clippers gave that game away,
and that proved to be accurate analysis on these airwaves.
The powerful microphones of Fox Sports Radio. The self inflicted
wounds by the Clippers. You clean that up, you win
(06:22):
the game. They cleaned it up, they won the game.
It's not that difficult. This is not that hard, all right.
So the Nuggets who were gifted one game, they got
that fine that they didn't get gifted this game, and
they end up losing it. The Clippers played a relatively
clean game in terms of the turnovers, and so the
same old song and dance with all these playoff matchups.
(06:44):
You spent a lot of time analyzing things. You talk
about the matchups, you talked about the coaching, the film.
Film doesn't matter, the matchups don't matter, Home court advantage
doesn't matter, injuries don't matter, None of it matters. All
that matters is who does better in the moment, in
that moment in time, who does better? And Denver, despite
(07:06):
having championship pedigree, they crumbled at home. How embarrassing, How
embarrassing for the Nuggets. They lose at home? They blew it. Pathetic,
absolutely pathetic by the Nuggets. How about Michael Porter Junior
breaking a hammered dunk out of bounds late in the game.
(07:27):
Who goofed? I've got to know that was embarrassing. We
mentioned Christian Brown missing the three point shot that would
have tied the game, Jokic throwing up a terribly flat shot,
also in clutch time. However, I'm not going to give
them the shame bell. No no, no, no no, because
if you saw the game, you know exactly who gets
(07:47):
the shame bell, and that is Jamal Murray. Jamal Murray
gets to wear the shame beell. Now why does Jamal
Murray get to wear the shame He had good status, Ben,
I'm a box score reader. I read the statue had
good status. Okay, you're also an idiot. You're a moron.
You didn't watch the game, you didn't watch the end.
The reason Jamal Murray gets to wear the shame bell
(08:10):
because of the bear jamboree. In this case, he woke
up the hibernating bear. He did with five eighteen five
eighteen to go in the third quarter, just a random
moment which would have been forgotten in time if Jamal
Murray had not picked up Norman Powell picked him up.
(08:34):
Murray's playing defense picked up Powell in a playground move
while he was attempting to play some kind of defense.
Maybe that works the similar doesn't work in the NBA,
maybe works in the playground anyway, Murray by doing that,
which seemed rather benign at the time, there was a
little bit of finger pointing and shouting in fake machies
(08:55):
mo that took place on the court at that time.
But if you notice, and I noticed the nuance that
woke up the hibernating bear. You don't wake up the
hibernating bear. And that Jamal Murray did it. He did it.
Jamal Murray woke up the hibernating bear. And it wasn't
just Norman Powell, it's the whole Clipper team. Now to
(09:18):
back that up my supporting evidence on this, with that
point on the clock, five eighteen to go in the
third quarter. Up until that point, Norman Powell was shooting
twenty two point two percent from the floor. It was
an abomination situation. He was riding the vomit comet, Norman Powell.
(09:39):
He was bad to the bone, is what He was,
bad to the bone and only had six points at
that moment, but twenty two percent shooting. So after Jamal
Murray decided he was a professional wrestler and picked up
Norman Powell in a punk move. Norman Powell responded, like
you have to do the rest of the game poal
(09:59):
shots sixty. He had more points from that point forward
than he did up until that point. And the Clippers
as a team shot fifty percent from the floor the
rest of the game. So congratulations to Jamal Murray. You
get the shame bell for the Nuggets. You woke the Clipper,
(10:20):
Norman Powap woke him up, You woke several other players up.
Good job by you. All right, now let's get now
to the winning side of things. And oh what a
marvelous night it was for one player in particular, How
would you describe Kawhi Leonard and his performance for the Clippers.
(10:42):
So my word on Kawhi Leonard's performance, I'm gonna use
the R word retro. That was a retro Kawhi Leonard performance,
something that the people's team has not seen much of,
if at all, in big games. That has not been
the Kawhi Leonard that has made the appearances in the
Clipper laundry. Uh. It's also a tease. It is a
(11:05):
another R word, reminder, reminder of what should have been,
what could have been, but has it up until this point.
It's also a reminder that if Kawhi Leonard plays like
this and then he plays like that, no one's beating
the Clippers. They're winning the championship this year. Sorry, sorry haters.
And if that happens, ol Man, he erases everything. One
(11:25):
Clipper championship trumps every other Lakers championship, for example, and
every Celtic Championship hardest championship to win with the Clippers.
So if Kawhi can keep doing this, then watch out.
But it was for the moment is one night, and
it was a retro performance by Kawhi Leonar. It was great.
And instead of being a bad man, he was a
bad bad man. There's a difference between yeah, man, you're
(11:47):
a bad man to bad bad man. There's a much
bigger difference between man, he's a bad man to bad
bad man. He was a bad man, he was, and
that was the guy the Clippers thought they were gonna
get every every night or most nights from Toronto when
he came over. That was a version of what he
was at one point with the San Antonio Spurs back
(12:08):
in the day, and that showed up. Denver had no
chance to stop him. They were completely helpless. They were
running in circles. It's like Mike the headless Chicken trying
to stop Kawhi Leonard on defense. It was embarrassing. It
was like an older brother playing with a younger brother.
Was uncle versus nephew. No chance, absolute chance. And mostly
(12:33):
the Clippers have seen a rip off version of Kawhi
But that was a renaissance. That was a renaissance like
performance there, stylish old school Kawhi Leonard terminator like. He
was terminator like as not only was he half man,
he appeared robotic, half machine out there on the court
(12:54):
automatica for Kawhi Lennard did not take the volume of shots,
the efficiency was insane, cold blooded sniper like for Kawhi Leonnard.
Now the last word here as we move around, how
much trouble after two games are the Nuggets in at
this point as the series heads back to Southern California
(13:18):
for game number three. So it's not looking good. And
you know it, if you know ball, you know it's
not looking good for the team from Colorado at this
particular point is a creamery situation. They talk about the
Rocky Mountains in Denver, but this is a different rocky
rocky road at the creamery is what this is for
(13:40):
the Nuggets because you go to La actually Inglewood, and
we all know the story in the playoffs. Generally speaking,
as a rule of thumb, As a rule of thumb,
role players, the role players perform better at home. So
the Nuggets are running literally into the wall, which is
(14:00):
at the into It Dome where the Clippers play. The
Clippers have never lost a home playoff game in that building.
They have never lost a home playoff game at the
end to it Dome. Ever, good luck, good luck, lot
gonna happen, not gonna happen. And so that means, guys
that for the most part, no Norman Powell played well
at the end of this game, but he was mostly
(14:22):
a stiff beginning of the game and at the most
of Game one. Bogdanovich is terrible. Should play better at home,
and even that turd burger Ben Simmons will likely have
some moments on the home court. So all those cats,
all those cats go down the list there, and the
Nuggets without the gift. They got the gift in game one,
(14:45):
the Easter gift, and so then they got to go
back Easter weekend gift. And then they go back and
the Clippers set the record straight.
Speaker 2 (14:51):
Be sure to catch live editions of The Ben Maler
Show weekdays at two am Eastern eleven pm Pacific on
Fox Sports Radio and the iHeartRadio.
Speaker 1 (15:00):
So our lead this hour is from Midtown Manhattan, Penn
Station adjacent. You've been to Manhattan, you know, it's between
seventh and eighth Avenue there and it's a garden. From
the outside, it doesn't look like a garden, but it is.
You're gonna go into the bowels of the gymnasium there,
and that was the scene for Game two. Game two
(15:25):
of the opening round of the NBA Playoffs. There a
matchup between Detroit and New York and the Pistons coming
back a twenty one to nothing run in Game one.
As the Detroit basketball team had a reversal in fortune.
They puked at a time they could not puke, and
they lost that game. So I have a lot of
(15:48):
friends from New York, family from New York. And of
course there's nothing more annoying than Nick fans who haven't
won in fifty plus years but are convinced every year
that they're going to win. It's a fascinating dichotomy that
the Knickerbocker fan anyway, So the next one, Game one,
they came back, didn't really play all that well for
three quarters, but in the fourth quarter went gangbusters and
(16:10):
they won the game. So now of course they're gonna
win every game in this series. That was Detroit's chance.
Blah blah blah blah blah. So if you didn't see
this game, it was a it was a total domination situation.
But it was very similar to Game one, very similar
to Game one. Cad Cunningham thirty three points, twelve rebounds.
Dennis Schreuder is still alive. Did you know that Dennis
(16:30):
Shrewder is still alive and he's in the NBA playoffs.
Remember last we talked about him, he was being held hostage. No,
it was not hostage. He compared playing in the NBA
to slavery when he was traded at the deadline. Remember that. Yes, Well,
he's alive and well, and Dennis Shrewder Schrader or whatever.
He had a tie breaking three pointer with fifty five
(16:53):
seconds left on the clock, and the Pistons said bye
bye to the longest suck bag streak of playoff basketball.
A fifteen game postseason ride into the manure as they
end that losing streak, longest postseason losing streak in NBA history.
(17:15):
They beat the Knickerbockers one hundred and ninety four, and
so that series now goes back to Detroit and the
Pistons have home court advantage one one. It is a
best of five now and Detroit has home court advantage.
The Pistons terrible franchise. When I was a kid, they
were good, and then they had a little bit of
(17:35):
success as an adult, and since then they've been terrible.
But the Detroit Pistons, who had not even been to
a playoff situation since way back before the pandemic, in
twenty nineteen, they gave back pretty much all of the
lead they had built up. They had a fifteen point lead,
(17:56):
they gave almost all that back, and then they end
up winning, first time they've won a play playoff game
since eight. I was like, I was like in junior
high school in eight or maybe you know, possibly no,
I was working here. I guess I was working here anyway.
I was eight Eastern Conference Finals against Boston the last
time they Detroit Piston's team had won, which means, if
(18:18):
you are fifteen years old, actually older than that was
seventeen Holy crap, twenty twenty five, So seventeen seventeen years.
That means you're like in high school, you're almost out
of high school and your entire Wow, that's wild. How
does that happen? It happened anyway, The better story is
(18:41):
in the losing locker room. So that is where we
will go. Jalen Brunson thirty seven points for Jalen Brunson
and not enough as the number three seeded Knickerbockers lose
this game. So let us discuss. Let us discuss, So
which Knicks players get to grab the biggest chunk, biggest
(19:04):
chunk of the dirty water the dirty water dog of
shame and blame? So which Knicks player gets that big
portion of the sausage the dirty water dog of shame
and blame? So I've got thirty rock, Shakespearean and lobbying,
(19:25):
and we will combine all of these things together and
we are going to go whale watching. It looked like
a lot of the Knicks were in a boat watching.
They weren't doing a lot. They were not doing a lot.
Now numb burn? Did I get a numb burn? So
this was if you're a nick apologist, a painful night
(19:46):
all the way around, assigning the dirty water dog of
shame and blame, making that out there, putting that out there.
Let's start at the obvious one, which is the cat.
Hello Kitty. That would be the full, full, fully immersive
Carl Anthony Town's experience. Now he's known as Cat, and
(20:09):
I know our friends listening in Minnesota snickering and they're smiling,
and there's a Cheshire Cat kind of vibe, the big
smile there, and they're thinking, Hey, I told you so,
this is the guy. That's the guy we remember from
the Wolves. That's the guy. Yeah, Helpe, you enjoy him
New York. Yeah. And so it's not necessarily a case
(20:31):
where Karl Anthony Towns didn't do what was expected right.
This was living up to the scouting report. This performance
was the full, fully immersive Carl Anthony Towns experience. Playoff
Cat here, Kitty, Kitty, Kitty, here, kitty Cat. That's playoff Cat.
That's Karl Anthony Towns is what it was. Sporadic malfunction.
(20:54):
Sporadic malfunction. He is a big man, and he plays
a lot like j James Harden, who will disappear for
a random game in a playoff series. Well, Karl Anthony
Towns does the same thing, and so he's got this
glitch in the software. There's a problem, and he suffers
from shrinkage. It's like he's in cold water. In the
(21:17):
playoffs there in big spots, Towns had a pedestrian stat
line ten points, six rebounds, no assist for Carl Anthony Towns.
He played thirty three mostly uselessness. We mentioned whale watching
like he was just out there whale watching, right, they
might as well put fat Joe out there. He was
in the crowd. Fat Joe could have done the same thing.
I put him out there. Carl Anthony Towns was five
(21:40):
of eleven from the floor. But that again does not
do to do it justice right, does not do it
justice because the second half was a special kind of manure,
a special cond of maneuver. You see, Carl Anthony Towns
played the second half a game to thirty Rock. Remember
(22:01):
that that show thirty Rock, Tracy Morgan. Remember when he
was at the next game while back and he vomited
all over the court. He rode the vomit comet he
up chucked all over the court. There that was carl
Anthony Towns in the second half. The only difference between
Tracy Morgan and carl Anthony Towns is Tracy Morgan was
taken to the hospital. Carl Anthony Towns stayed on the court. Uh.
(22:22):
And you, you, who might not have even watched this game,
scored as many points and as as carl Antony Towns.
I scored as many points as carl Anthony Towns in
the second half. He pitched a shutout. He pitched a shutout,
did not score a single point in the second half.
Gooseag as the joker says, Carl Anthony Towns zero, a
(22:46):
zip and a zilch nada. He got, as my grandfather
would say, buppkis in the second half. And so there
you go. That is a two hundred twenty million dollar
ball player.
Speaker 4 (22:58):
That is, he.
Speaker 1 (23:00):
Gave him the two undred twenty million, He's got the
two undred twenty million dollars forty nine million a year.
Guy didn't even score in the second half of a
home playoff game, not a road game, not a road game,
home playoff game. And that that's Carl Anthony. It's hard
to take the nick seriously. As much as we enjoy
Jalen Brunson. Right, the way that Brunson plays, there's an
(23:20):
edge to Brunson game and all that. The antithesis of
that would be Karl Anthony Towns and so having them
together and that there are others right og was Oh no,
Annonobi was no good and he was bad, but he's
a supporting character. Karl Anthony Towns is supposed to be
more than that. The expectations are higher for him and
(23:41):
he did not do it. Now page two, One of
the big talking points from this Knicks Pistons game were
people up in arms. There was a lot of finger
pointing and blaming and shaming when it comes to a
Nick player who actually had a great stat line and
played well, not great, but well for the Knicks. What
(24:02):
do you make of the criticism of Jalen Brunson embellishing
contact throughout the game as the Knicks go down? So
what did you make of it? A lot of criticism
as Jalen Brunson was flopping around the old floppa flopp
of flopper is what he was doing. So the criticism
(24:24):
of Jalen Brunson, the word is the E word expected.
It was expected. Now Brunson I like watching him play.
I didn't think he would be able to do this.
I remember when he was with the Mavericks and he
had this really good playoff run when Luca Huka Luka
got hurt and he played well. I was like, well,
you know, not really sure whether or not this is sustainable.
And to his credit, he has consistently played at that
(24:47):
level as a nick and he is a nuisance if
he's not on your team, the kind of a guy
that you like when he's on your team, and when
he's not on your squad, you think he's a schmuck
and you don't like him, and he's a pest and
all that. So that's that's fair. That's not exactly the
most pleasing to the eye to watch Jalen Brunson try
(25:10):
to bait the officials into a call every single time
there is contact on pretty much every possession where you're
running an offensive set in the NBA. As far as
the wide angle lends on this, the way I look
at it, it is a watching Jalen Brunson plays a
Shakespearean situation like a Shakespearean play. William Shakespeare, not the
(25:32):
Merchant of Venice, the foul Merchant of the garden will
call him the foul Merchant of the garden. We will
call him. He has the ability the innata bildy. He
might as well be over on Madison Avenue trying to
sell fouls whatever it is, it's a foul. Oh my god,
I'm dying over here. I'm dying. It's like he's on
(25:53):
Broadway every single time, foul baiting, foul bit put rules
in to try to stop that, and he's able to
work himself around the rules, selling the fouls as we say,
and all that stuff. So Brunson has become a Rhodes
scholar at that all right, now, final point, speaking of
(26:14):
the foul situation, there was one person in particular who
was huffing and puffing following the game, very upset, and
that would be the head coach of the Knickerbockers, Tom Thibodeaux.
Tom Thibodeaux, that's right. He was very unhappy, very very unhappy.
(26:35):
There after the game. The head coach of the next
he argued against Caid Cuttingham getting so many foul shots
in this game, and he said there was marginal contact. Well,
rather than me give you the quote verbatim, here is
Tom Thibodeau, commenting on the officiating, tigoles.
Speaker 4 (26:53):
Huge discrepancy and free throws huge. So I got to
take a look at that. I don't understand, you know
how I'm one side. You know, you talk about the
direct line drives, the guys getting fouled as not being
called right. So and look, I really don't give a
crap how they call the game as long as it's
consistent on both sides. So if Cunningham's driving and there's
(27:14):
marginal contact and he's getting to the line, then Jalen
deserves to be getting to the line. It's really that simple.
Speaker 1 (27:20):
Okay. So it's that simple. Hey, we recorded that. Doesn't
that sound like old school audio from like the nineteens,
fifties or something like seventy seventy five years old audio
or something like that. Tom Thibodeau, We had a tin
can in a string. We recorded that, all right, So
what is you just heard the audio? What is the
Knicks coach Tom Thibodeau looking to accomplish with that rant
(27:46):
about the officials. What is Tom Thibodeau looking to accomplish?
So my word on this one is politicking. That is
my word is politicking. It is the time of the year.
Here we are in late April, and this will go
on through May and June. If you watch all of this,
Tom Thibodeau is politicking for calls. He's lobbying. He's lobbying
(28:10):
the referees in the league office, and they monitor all
the soundbites and all this nonsense by publicly condemning, by
pointing out the inaccuracy of the officials. Obviously, you know
what that means. There is inconsistent work here and my
entire life, the reason the Knicks haven't won championship in
(28:33):
my lifetime is because of the officials. Everyone's out to
get New York teams. Obviously, no one ever leans towards
the Knickerbockers anyway. So he's trying to influence we know
what this is, trying to influence future decisions by the
officials and have a cause. Which that's one of the
issues with all of sports, but in basketball in particular,
(28:54):
it's what you choose to enforce. Much like police work, right,
there are laws for everything. What do you choose to
enforce is not to enforce. And in the NBA, what
do you choose. They've actually let the players play a
lot more in the playoffs the first couple of games
than they had in the past. So anyway, this is
a common tactic what Tom Thibodeau is doing among coaches,
especially during the postseason here where any call could turn
(29:17):
the whole season and series around and all that stuff.
And I watched the Knicks and it's pretty much if
Jalen Brunson doesn't get to the line, there's a lot
of ISO with Jalen Brunson. And if that doesn't work,
you're just shooting jump shots and you don't usually get
foul calls on jump shots. But what do I know,
I just host the Overnight Show.
Speaker 2 (29:36):
Be sure to catch live editions of The Ben Meller
Show weekdays at two am Eastern eleven pm Pacific.
Speaker 4 (29:42):
Here we go?
Speaker 1 (29:43):
How about here we go? This is one big Ben
gets grill, go ahead.
Speaker 4 (29:50):
Cool.
Speaker 5 (29:50):
So we already know that Kirk Cousins doesn't want to
be traded until after the draft. The latest report from
Adam Schefter says that the Falcons are asking any team
trading for Cousins pay million of his remaining forty five
million in guarantees.
Speaker 1 (30:03):
So far, no team has been willing to do that.
Speaker 5 (30:05):
Ben, do you think after the draft, the team will
be willing to do that or will the Falclones have
to scale back their demands.
Speaker 1 (30:10):
Uh, well, the Falcons have to get rid of Kirk Cousins,
and they have to play ball with Kirk Cousins because
he's got a no trade cost. And if I'm not mistaken,
they just added Easton Stick, which I believe his code
for suck. But he's the former Charger. They added him,
so they've they've got their back up. They're clearing the deck.
They're they're adding a player to get rid of Cousins.
(30:31):
They will end up trading him. They'll work something out
and he's likely going to go to the Cleveland Browns.
If Aaron Rodgers were tires, then he can go to Pittsburgh.
But he'll go somewhere. He's not gonna stay in Atlanta.
Speaker 5 (30:40):
Next Chargers GM Joe Horitz said that they don't feel
pressure to address any position in the draft and therefore
they can just take whoever the best player is when
they're picks up, Ben, do you think.
Speaker 1 (30:50):
They should be addressing a specific position. It's full of crap.
That's that's the way. That's a non answer answer. But
we're we're just gonna draft the best player available. It's pulker.
What if the best players a quarterback? They're gonna draft
a quarterback.
Speaker 4 (31:02):
No, they're not.
Speaker 1 (31:03):
They're full of crap. I mean, it's shut up. They're liars.
Speaker 5 (31:07):
Next, the Bucks got blown out by the Pacers in
Game one of their series against Indiana, but Milwaukee was
without Damian Lillard. Reports are that he'll be back for
game two or three. Will that be enough time for
the Bucks to turn the series around?
Speaker 1 (31:19):
Two words? Cooper Loop, Doc Rivers. They are cooked? Okay,
Doc Rivers done. The Pacers should win that series anyway.
I love Leylard, I loved them in Portland, not as
much as Milwaukee. And he's a fine player and all that,
but that is a flawed team the box, and even
with Dame Lillard he's been out for a while, they're
(31:41):
not gonna win. How do we go as they win
the game? I won the game, I won the game.
I won.
Speaker 2 (31:52):
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 fs R
to listen live Now. Mailer's Mountain of Money.
Speaker 1 (32:07):
Hello, do you have what it?
Speaker 2 (32:10):
Takes to get to the top. Probably not.
Speaker 1 (32:14):
Let's do it.
Speaker 5 (32:15):
Here we go.
Speaker 1 (32:15):
Let's welcome in our combatants. Here we have see her
any Meani minimum. Jacob is in Delaware. Hello Jacob, welcome, Hi,
you doing buddy? Good to have you there, Jacob. But
welcome to the show. And who would you like the person?
Are you're driving? Are you working right now or just
cruising around? What are you doing?
Speaker 2 (32:34):
I'm working?
Speaker 1 (32:34):
Okay, all right? What kind of work do you do?
Run a bread route?
Speaker 4 (32:38):
Oh?
Speaker 1 (32:38):
Nice, the bread man? Look at that. We got a breadman.
All right? You want to play with me, ben Coop,
or if you really want some fun, play with Arena.
Speaker 2 (32:45):
I'm gonna play with akup.
Speaker 1 (32:47):
Okay, you're a loser, all right, are you? I don't
know why you have such a great lexicon of sports
and knowledge of sports. All right, hold on a sec, Jacob,
and we have Darryl in Florida is gonna play Hello
year old. Hey, this guy's full of energy. Look at
this guy full of life. Coop, You're screwed. This guy's
got more energy. He's got more Raised in Chicago, living
(33:10):
in Miami, now live, he's Look at you're living a
dream in Miami. Look at you? All right? What are
you doing in Miami there, Darryl, I'm not come out later?
Speaker 2 (33:18):
Work, work with home people.
Speaker 1 (33:19):
Oh, look at that home. Those guys Let me tell you.
Those guys at home people have all the answers. I'm
more of a loves girl. No, no, I go to
home people. I ask him, I say, what's U? What
do I get? The nails? But a certain kind of
they know exactly where it is. See look at that.
I'll seven all right, I like this guy. Let's play
the game coop. One of the categories quick rye, quick
(33:40):
ry all right, this is Malar's mountain of money.
Speaker 5 (33:42):
The Jack Nicholson addition, he turns eighty eight years old today,
so it's impossible for the Lakers to lose on Jack
Nicholson's birthday.
Speaker 6 (33:50):
Uh.
Speaker 1 (33:50):
The categories are what isn't he a recluse?
Speaker 4 (33:53):
Now?
Speaker 5 (33:53):
The categories are one flew Over, the Cuckoo's Nest, as
good as it gets, Anger, Management, and the Departed.
Speaker 1 (34:00):
Jacob, You're on first? Which category would you like? I
would departed? All right? And Darryl, how about you.
Speaker 5 (34:09):
Did?
Speaker 1 (34:10):
Okay?
Speaker 5 (34:10):
All right, there you go, so Jacob, you and I
are up first uh, you need the first and last
name of the athlete in order to get points. We're
gonna have forty five seconds. We picked the departed. These
athletes all passed away in twenty twenty four. Are you ready, Jacob?
Speaker 1 (34:25):
All right?
Speaker 5 (34:25):
Forty five seconds? Begin, all right, running back for the
Bills who killed two people. Yes, the all time hit
king for the Reds.
Speaker 1 (34:34):
Yes.
Speaker 5 (34:35):
Uh, the big Redhead. He was also a deadhead out
of UCLA NBA player his father father of Yes.
Speaker 1 (34:43):
Yes uh.
Speaker 5 (34:44):
This guy was a center who shook his finger after
blocking the shot. No, no, no, Yes, this guy was
the only player to win the cy Young and the
Rookie of the Year in.
Speaker 1 (34:55):
The same year.
Speaker 5 (34:56):
Pitch Dodgers pitcher. Yes, this guy was a guard long
time for the Cowboys.
Speaker 1 (35:02):
Yes. Uh, this guy was a quarterback for the Rams
in the sixties. His first name is the same as
an empire from Italy.
Speaker 6 (35:13):
Get it, Jacob, You gave him too many sore.
Speaker 1 (35:26):
You're talking about? That was Loy You got? Is your time?
God extra time? Better get going a show. Come on there,
that's show hot. Start here. We haven't even gone yet.
It's like a team scoring in the first inning and
you're bat in the bottom of the first It's the
bottom of the first inning. That's right, we got this, Daryl. Listen,
(35:47):
what a performance by Jacobs. That last one did knock out.
That last one did not count. We'll go to the
judges scorecard. Let's play. Here we go. These you said
one flew over the cuckoo's nest. These athletes are all
considered a little crazy. Are you ready? Daryl? From Chicago
but living in Miami, living that great life in Miami.
Al Right, here we go, forty five seconds on the clock.
(36:07):
We're on our way and go. A wide receiver for
the Steelers. He was with the Bucks. He quit in
the middle of a game. Yeah, yeah, I think he
said that right. Also the worm for the NBA had
funny hair for the Bulls in the nineties from Yeah, yeah, exactly,
a wide receiver. I signed autographs, I love my quarterback
(36:29):
in the nineties and the two thousands haul of Yes,
Red Sox star not big Poppy. But what's his last name? Yes,
Chocolate Thunder NBA player, Yes, running back for the Broncos
and the Redskins. He wore funny outfits to his news
(36:49):
conferences from Miami. Went to the universe in Miami. That's fine. Damn,
I'm sorry, that's all right. That's all right. Clinton Portis
was who you had in there.
Speaker 5 (37:00):
Yeah, and that's one hundred and fifty points, So you
guys will need to go again, Okay.
Speaker 1 (37:04):
Jod This actually will work out to advantage is what
Coop has done. Screwed me on, Daryl?
Speaker 4 (37:08):
Do you want?
Speaker 1 (37:08):
Is as good as it gets? Your anger management management?
Speaker 5 (37:12):
Anger management ris These athletes all had or have anger issues.
Speaker 1 (37:17):
Forty five seconds begin all right. Nineteen ninetys NBA player
for the Rockets. He was a guard. He went to
the crowd, attack the fan. He's got a podcast right now.
Played with the Elijah Wan Rockets shooting guard no a
second basement for the Texas Rangers. He punched Jose Bautista
of the Blue Jays in a famous incident in arlier
(37:40):
Cook in Arlington is this sing on wide receiver for
the Carolina Panthers and the Baltimore Ravens. He is currently retired.
He's on the NFL network. He slept with some guy's wife,
got in trouble for that. Hello are you on, Darryl?
They're app I don't know what dre Are you there, darny.
Speaker 5 (38:01):
Oh there you go.
Speaker 1 (38:02):
We got one, all right. Alright, boy, you.
Speaker 2 (38:08):
Go to say my bad you hitting you.
Speaker 4 (38:12):
God?
Speaker 6 (38:14):
Wait wait wait wait wait wait.
Speaker 1 (38:16):
Wait you you said did you know any of them?
So what's the name? What are the names? What are
theys sanateads? He doesn't know the name, You didn't, Jacob.
Good job, y'all need to blow around domination. Good job, Daryl.
We actually won. We're going we're going to a booth
(38:39):
review and we won the game. We won on booth review.
Good job,
Host
Ben Maller
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