June 18, 2024 • 40 mins
Are Luka and Kyrie still the greatest backcourt to ever play in the NBA? Jason tells you why both Brown and Tatum could’ve won Finals MVP. And Luka Doncic has a little too much James Harden in him!
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Speaker 1 (00:00):
Thanks for listening to The Jason Smith Show with Mike
Harmon podcast. Be sure to catch us live every weeknight
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Speaker 2 (00:22):
Please give this you're listening to Fox Sports Radio.
Speaker 1 (00:29):
Hello, Welcome inside final hour tonight, the Jason Smith Show
with my best friend Mike Harmon YO live from the
tire rack dot Com studios. Tyreck dot Com. I'll hope
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Com is the way tire buying should be. So the
(00:51):
Boston Celtics, to no one's surprise, are your NBA champions.
Pretty consistent in the NBA Finals. They scored one hundred
and five one hundred and six hundred and seven points.
That's what they did. You knew where they were gonna be.
And the Mavericks pretty consistent in the low eighties.
Speaker 3 (01:06):
Not playing particularly well, great defense, right, that's what we say.
Great defense, not terrible shooting, spacing and everything else.
Speaker 1 (01:13):
Now we we we'll get into the Celtics and the
breakdown of the championship year and why this is one
of the easiest years to break down in all of
NBA history. But I do want to say this, Chris
tops Porzingis is an NBA champion legend. So is o'shae Brissette,
who yeah to play a minute tonight Syracuse in the
finals winning play first guy to playing forty four.
Speaker 3 (01:36):
They got to go ack and build a statue to
him on the Syracuse CAUs.
Speaker 1 (01:40):
They might, well, you can come back now and go
to that one NBA He've actually played first Syracuse guy
in forty four years to play and win a ring
because Dion Waiters won a ring with the Lakers, but
he wasn't on the active roster. So but but o'shae
Brissette played in the NBA Final minutes for Syracuse Guy
in forty four. I truly appreciate it.
Speaker 3 (02:01):
In the final minutes, as guys checked in that they
were bound and determined if the ball hit their hands
anywhere near a shooting position it was going up defensively,
they had an opportunity to go in for a block
shot or create contact to at least draw a fall.
They were going to do that too, making sure it
didn't have just a bunch of zeros going across the
(02:22):
bottom of the box score.
Speaker 1 (02:23):
So Porzingis played tonight, and it was his first game.
Didn't playing the last game. Sixteen minutes a night, five points,
a couple of fouls, not nearly what he was in
game one. But again he got hurt in the end
of game two. He's still plus that out. He's still
fine tonight. But he's an NBA champion. And I'm being
honest with you when I say, yes, x Nick Kristaps
porzingis NBA champion, I am fine with it. I am
(02:46):
fine for a couple of reasons.
Speaker 2 (02:48):
Now.
Speaker 1 (02:48):
I've been telling you the whole time that it is
three teams ago, and it is you were selling the
hells ago And it's fine, all right, and street to
we wouldn't have the team we had now without Porzingis
We're able to go They anything, but he did no.
But but again, not to the team we traded him to,
and not to the team that they traded him to
after that, but the team that team traded him too,
they sometimes it's a long gestation period. This is a
(03:09):
long way ago natural kingdom comes. It comes at you
at different times. That was okay, and the team that
they couldn't make it work with loss in the NBA finals,
So all right, I'm fine with it. But the other
reason that I'm okay with it, I mean, that's that's
that's at least half the reason right there. But the
other half of the reason is because I picked the
Celtics to win the title because I thought they were
going to win. That will I was ok If I
(03:30):
picked the Mavericks, it'd been no, you stak I catch that.
I don't want Porzingis to win. But because I thought
that Celtics were going to win, I picked the Celtics.
They won. I'm okay with it, right, I'm like, okay, Well,
I need Porzingis to play well because I like being
right and I wanted that.
Speaker 3 (03:42):
Does it make you feel better that he really was
only a factor for like one and a half games?
Speaker 4 (03:47):
Yeah?
Speaker 1 (03:47):
Oh yeah, yeah, it was only a little bit.
Speaker 3 (03:49):
Logically that helps you, yeah, like he really helped you
in one game and that night. It was tough to
watch you at times because I could see as much
as you were trying to sell thee this not bothering
me highlight, particularly the one of the Tatum rebound off
the Porzingis miss and then he filled the lane with
that thunderous dunk where he was hanging on the rim,
(04:09):
and all that bugged the.
Speaker 1 (04:11):
Hell out of you.
Speaker 3 (04:12):
You could sell it a week later, all right, I'm five.
At the moment, I wasn't buying what you were selling. No, No,
it wouldn't feel stung in your heart because now it was, Hey,
this guy could legitimately win the damn series MVP. Now
it's really gonna bug the hell out of me. And
then he's plays a good game, ends up getting hurt, missus, missus.
Game three, Game four is a blowout, doesn't really have
(04:35):
a fact, so I think the sting of it is
really lessened. Whereas if he put up four or five
efforts like he did that Game one, I don't think.
Speaker 1 (04:45):
He would win the finals.
Speaker 3 (04:46):
It would have been more difficult, been a lot more different,
even if you were right on your Celtics call. Porzingis
being the guy holding that trophy while Jason Tatum ran
away with the Larry O'Brien.
Speaker 1 (04:56):
I think that would have been a tougher pill for
you to swallow. Yeah, and it was making easier that
to see that. Okay, they could win without him, because yes,
they needed him for game one. That was it. Like
he he won game one for them. Porzingis won Game
one because the Mavericks had no idea what to do
because porzingis whatever he was doing offensively, and also he's
altering shots at the rim and that in game changing.
(05:18):
The Clark three is like from the logo where he's
just kind of falling forward like Caitlin Clark does it
all there, it goes and I made it, that's all.
It's fantastic. Only he didn't have angels taking on his
head off.
Speaker 2 (05:29):
He did not know.
Speaker 1 (05:29):
He did not well, because Porzingis is pretty tall. It's
kind of tough to jump ahead, jump up higher than
Porzingis and hit him in the head. It's very difficult
to do. That would be one hell of him. Move
very hard.
Speaker 3 (05:38):
That's literally you need the springiness off the turn buckles
in the top rope.
Speaker 4 (05:42):
Only took Willis his gig. Yes, I did had a
good run. He did, He's but he got to carry
that for fifty years.
Speaker 1 (05:50):
I mean, yeah, of course it was.
Speaker 2 (05:52):
It was.
Speaker 1 (05:52):
It was fun. Now here comes ports, look at Porzingis,
it's Porzingi. But if you're looking at the finals, and
every NBA Finals has something in common, there's always a
portion of the series where it forever tilts to the
other team. And it was and sometimes it's early in
the series, sometimes it's late in the series, but there's
always a point where you could say, when this happened,
(06:14):
this is when we all knew that it was over
for Team B and Team A was winning. And now
that you're looking back at this five game series that
the Celtics dominated. Game one was the game Porzingis off
the bench, winning the game when Tatum and Brown both
had okay games, didn't have great games, and Brown look
(06:35):
Brown winning the MVP, he had the better first three
games when the Celtics got up three ZIP which decided
the series. So I think a lot of people had
their votes taken or they hate Jason Tatum. But that
first game that was the flip game. Form wasn't Game three.
The first game was the flip game because that's when
it beat That's when we really learned and understood, oh man,
(06:55):
the Celtics really are much deeper than we expected them
to be. They're much deeper than than the Dallas Mavericks are.
Where here's a game that seemed like it was out
there for the Mavericks to take right. Tatum's having a
little bit of trouble, Jalen Brown's having a little bit
of trouble. The game is there, and then here comes
Porzingis off the bench, and he's hitting threes, and he's
altering shots at the rim, and he's pulling down big
(07:15):
rebounds in the third and fourth quarter. That was the
game where it went from Hey, the Celtics to all,
the Celtics should win this series. The Celtics have control
of this series, and the Mavericks had a shot to
maybe season in Game one, but they couldn't get past Porzingis.
So for that, I'll give you that was the key game.
That was the one performance that came out of nowhere
that nobody expected. Cause that's the other thing that always
(07:36):
comes out of the NBA Finals. There's always a player
that has a performance that none of us expected, whether
it's a guy that hits like six or seven threes
off the bench or comes in to do something in
a very short amount of time. Hey, this game the
Porzingis game. This game, this is what flipped the series
in that favor, and it's Porzingis Game one and that
decided it.
Speaker 3 (07:56):
Yeah, usually see that as the series goes on, right,
normally doesn't che in the face right up front. But
I guess it served as the fantastic reminder of how
deep this squad was in that Brown and Tatum didn't
need to be heroic in that game. The fact that
you'd gone what ten games at that point in nearly
(08:19):
forty days with Porzingi's sidelined, right, lots of time off
in between the conference finals, in the finals, and all
the off days that were built in in each round.
So some of that is the oh, here we go,
now he's a threat. And of course, yeah, he didn't
play for the vast majority of two of the games,
(08:41):
but it altered the defensive structure what Jason Kidd and
company had to do till the very end of Game
two when the injury occurred, right in the re injury
and then he's out. But certainly for the Celtics, the
recognition of how deep they were, and he gave Missoula,
(09:04):
you know, the extra toy and chess piece to knock
you over that fast because we watched the the brilliance
defensively and how they structured it. It's a lot of
what we talked about long before we even got to
the NBA Finals of how deep that roster was and defensively,
the fits and nightmare they were going to be able
(09:26):
to cause, you know, we we talked about it as
the trade deadline. We talked about it when Drew Holliday
showed up on their doorstep for basically a bucket of
balls on the grand scale. No, no disrespect to the
players involved, but they're not to the level that he plays.
And the fact that you've got an NBA structure where
(09:46):
you can play pinball, and all right, he gets dealt
and very quickly you can move it back out and
get out of you know, that deal because he doesn't
want to be here. Which is a whole other thing.
Because now we're officially in the offseason, we get to
watch those dominoes start to fall once again as guys
opt out or force their way out of disadvantageous situations.
(10:07):
But for the Celtics, we didn't have to wait till
Game three. There didn't have to be some randomness. Yeah,
you got a random three pointer from Pritchard or Houser
hit a couple of shots or whatever, but it ended
up being the stars ruling the day, right those big
three up front, and then Porzingis going back to Game
one of what are we gonna get? Don't know what
(10:28):
we're gonna get. Let's see, he's the X factor and
right off the way he punches you in the face
and changes the entire series.
Speaker 1 (10:35):
Something we're just getting in now. And Mike talked about
this earlier in the show about an hour ago. Hey,
we're gonna get the breakdown of MVP voting. Had Porzinga
state healthy, maybe he's the MVP boy. Drew Holliday what
a great pick I had? He was. He looked like
he could win and be sixty six to one.
Speaker 3 (10:53):
But Malely's surprised that Drew Holliday in the final count
does get more consideration. I heard the rumblings of the
number and the breakdown, and it came out exactly on point,
as we're starting to find out now. In the socials,
Frostburg has the breakdown of the eleven voters and how
they went for NBA Finals.
Speaker 1 (11:15):
MV you ready to tear all these people down? Sure?
Go ahead. How many of them voting? Jalen Brown okay,
Sammy Mcjalen Brown okay, Malika Andrews. Where do you think
she went?
Speaker 5 (11:26):
Uh?
Speaker 1 (11:27):
ESPN, Jason Tatum correct, okay, Tim Tim, Jalen Brown, Jalen
Brown okay. Two to one so far. Doris Burke, Oh,
Doris Burke is a purist. Maybe the going maybe the
(11:48):
no no no. Jalen Brown was more consistent. I'm gonna say,
Jalen Brown, You're wrong. She went Jason, she went Jason Tatum. Okay.
Speaker 3 (11:54):
I would have thought her rocatum for that. Okay, dominant PJ. Carlossimo.
He's a Tatum guy. Jason Tatum, Yeah. Mike Curtis Dallas
Morning News, Luka donzig. I'm gonna say, Dallas No, that's
where the that's where the Jason Tatum hate comes in.
(12:16):
Jaylen Brown correct, all right? Vince goodwill you who yah?
Speaker 1 (12:19):
Who's you? Who's sports? Let's say hang on. Yahoo is
owned by Mark Cuban, who owns the Dallas Mavericks. The
Mavericks hates Jason Tatum. I don't think he did.
Speaker 3 (12:34):
No Mark Cuban did oh yah something from him? Right,
But he didn't anything, okay, but gave him a lot
of money. They gave him a lot of money. And
then we didn't integrate his stuff fast enough to make
it useful for the market by wasting that first movie.
Speaker 1 (12:51):
And by point is the Michael Scott philosophy. Uh, Mark
Cuban Yahoo were together. Mark Cuban owns the Dallas Maverick.
The Mavericks hate Jalen Brown. Jalen Brown. He went, Jalen Brown,
are you doing? You're a ty shirt? There a guy
named Sean Powell NBA dot com. J J. Brown?
Speaker 4 (13:12):
Okay, Simone Sandry, who is that Italy? How about the
Dello Sport Gazette.
Speaker 1 (13:18):
Wait international wait wait wait wait international vote? So that
was that's that he had the internationals So he's the
international Jalen Brown guy, all right, Jalen Brown, Sure, Gary Washburn,
Boston Globe, Oh, Boston Globe. He wants to keep his job.
Jason Tatum correct?
Speaker 4 (13:35):
All right?
Speaker 1 (13:36):
Then Jeff zil get USA today. Uh, I'll say Jaylen
Brown correct? All right? So that was what what was that?
What was that? How many for Jalen Brown? Seven out
of eleven seven four seven four k?
Speaker 3 (13:46):
Because that's I'd heard rumblings okay, and seen it started
going on social media that the expectation was that it
was seven to four, but then it was a question
of where it tilted. I'm still surprised by that. I'm
surprised Holliday didn't get yeah, I mean hi, that he
wouldn't have shown up as someone for their thought piece.
Speaker 1 (14:05):
I voted for Holiday. I went, here's why I would
never have had to make a basketball prediction again if
I got Drew Holliday right from my NBA.
Speaker 4 (14:12):
No one should be illegal betting on an award that
is voted all.
Speaker 3 (14:17):
But that's the thing, right is, normally this would only
be available offshore because it is voted on and not
decided by the actual content.
Speaker 1 (14:27):
I mean, look to be quite honest. To put a
bow on the MVP discussion, Jalen Brown was the better
player overall the first three games. When the Celtics jumped
out to a three to nothing lead. I can't go
crazy for Jason Tatum because it's not like he was
unbelievably good. Because, yes, do I think there's a Jason
Tatum bias. Yes, a lot of people in media hate
him for reasons that you can't go with anymore because
(14:49):
he's an NBA champion and he played really well. But
for the first three games, Jalen Brown was the better
overall player, especially in the third game that really won
it for them. He was thirty eight and eight. Yes,
Tatum had the best closeout game, but you know what,
it was kind of over by now, so I can't
be that upset. Yeah, with Jason Tatum, could he have won, Yeah,
(15:10):
But can I really be mad that Jalen Brown won.
I can't because when the series was still up in
the air, he was the better overall player. So it's
hard for me to go crazy about that. I mean, look,
I wanted, I wanted Joliday to win, but you.
Speaker 3 (15:22):
Know, still, yeah, I think it comes down to when
we look at the points per game, Tatum had what
about a one point four advantage per game. There, he
averaged nearly two rebounds and over two assists per game,
more than Brown did. But then you look at the
closeout game and that there were two games where he
(15:43):
really stood out statistically otherwise just.
Speaker 1 (15:46):
Kind of there.
Speaker 3 (15:47):
So yeah, like you said, it was over so even
though he gave that big effort to get to thirty one. Tonight,
congratulations you closed it out, but it was the other
guy that put it on the tape. I guess is
how the voters came back to it?
Speaker 1 (16:03):
Exit? How about a Fresca exit swollen Dome. The Jason
Smith Show with Mike Carmon Lifthetireck dot Com Studios. Coming
up next, Boy, the easiest thing to say about the
NBA Finals and why you have to give credit whether
you want to or not to the Boston Celtics. We
explain why. Coming up next right here, Jason and Mike Fox.
Speaker 2 (16:23):
Be sure to catch live editions of The Jason Smith
Show with Mike Harmon weekdays at ten pm Eastern, seven
pm Pacific on Fox Sports Radio and the iHeartRadio app.
Hey it's me Rob Parker.
Speaker 5 (16:37):
Check out my weekly MLB podcast, Inside the Parker for
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(17:00):
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Speaker 1 (17:05):
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(17:26):
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Speaker 3 (17:40):
Tatum let Tandra a coming shong in the pay kick
out to the wing.
Speaker 1 (17:43):
Jalen waiting open pree got it. You can wait for
that pass he waited, and Tatum talk, but give it
another assist.
Speaker 2 (17:51):
Tatum has nine assists in the first half.
Speaker 1 (17:55):
Celtics Radio Network on the call, congrats to Jalen Brown
for being our Express pros Pro of the week. Great
assist by Jason Tatum. Look, we talked about this a
few minutes ago. You could have given the MVP to
either one. I mean, I know that this is gonna
be a huge topic tomorrow and it really is irrelevant.
There's gonna be a lot of shouting hatred. It's so
(18:17):
irrelevant who wins. Yeah, it's like it's not like a bad,
awful thing was done to somebody who was great. Now
Jason Tatum was great for five games and didn't win,
then you would know, Hey, that anti Jason Tatum movement
is a lot bigger than you expected. Just go back.
Speaker 3 (18:32):
Historically, Jayson, I mean, how many outside of the Jordan's
six for six don't we do this with pretty much
every other great Well you should have had another one,
or he only won one of the three or two
of the five or whatever in their careers. I mean,
that's that's the way it goes from Kobe to Shack
to go on back to Magic and Kareem and everybody else. Right,
(18:53):
I mean, you're you're parsing words, right, You're you're splitting
the proverbial baby in all this stuff, they're still holding
up a title.
Speaker 1 (19:02):
Look, and this gets into the two biggest things about
the NBA season. The first one is that now that
we've seen it from beginning to end, we birthed the
baby we had the end season turn which I guess
you'd be what the season starting to crawl, Jim. We
had the Lakers win the nd season turner, and now
the Celtics win in a playoff in which they really
(19:23):
weren't challenged. It's really easy to sum this up, this
whole season up and the Celtics up, because here's the
NBA season. The best team won and they weren't really
challenged because they were so much deeper than everybody else
and that was on display in the NBA Finals. It's
said that you can starts it down like you if
(19:43):
you were writing up the Wikipedia summary for the season.
The fact that you were able to do that in
two sentences, that's it is sad. That's it. They were
the best top to bottom.
Speaker 3 (19:54):
It's great for the Celtics, and it takes nothing away
from what they just accomplished, right, because we're everybody on
the t timeline at how about a fresca at swallowing
them at Fox Sports Radio. Uh, you know, Boston fans
are out in force, you know, celebrating the greatness and
it's you can't dispute it in any way, shape or
form of them because they ran rough shot over the
Eastern Conference. Nice run by your knicks to finish second
(20:17):
as Milwaukee collapsed under injuries and doc rivers, and we
watched Boston roll through the playoffs and roll through the
finals and it wasn't even close.
Speaker 1 (20:30):
It's it's it's easy because there's nothing to challenge them.
And yes, they did have an easier path because most
of the teams they played they had injured players, or
they didn't get to play a team because they lost
because they had too many injured players. But like I said,
if the Celtics don't win this year, they're never gonna
win it. Or I picked them, and if I they
didn't win, they'd be on my never again list for
(20:51):
not picking them. And they won.
Speaker 3 (20:52):
You all starting to write that up like Ronnie Wood
does the setlist for the Rolling Stones. You're pulling out
the different colored paint pens and adding to your list.
But but yeah, even the Indiana series, you know, we
had a lot of fun with the fact that the
win probability three different times was over ninety percent. Guess what,
the Boston Celtics came back and snatched those games from
(21:12):
them time and again. And we could talk about Rick Carlisle,
we could talk about injuries, haliburt and whatever else. Again,
Celtics went out and took it. They went in with
fewer than ten percent, less than ten percent probability, went
and won those games. And everything else is just re
you know, excuse making. We could do an excuse versus
(21:33):
reason you're hurt?
Speaker 4 (21:34):
You know what.
Speaker 3 (21:35):
Yeah, testament to their training staff, to their guys, and
their resiliency fighting through whatever ills they had to be
available for their squad. They were able to weather the
storm when Porzingis was unavailable, and they went and they
took care of business time and again.
Speaker 1 (21:51):
Look and everybody gets hurt. Now that's the way it's play.
Everybody gets for it.
Speaker 3 (21:54):
It's a long a half season, eighty two regular season
games plus a minimum of sick team for the playoffs.
Speaker 1 (22:01):
And that's if you go perfect. Yeah, look, this is
it's that simple. They were this good, They were this deep.
They were deeper than the Mavericks. Very Look, why why
did I tell you they were gonna win? Drew Holliday
was my MVP pick because he was going to have
a great series. He was going to help keep Kyrie
Irving down. Because here was the philosophy, and here's a strategy,
I said, and it's like the Celtics listen to me, Uh, look,
(22:23):
you're not going to shut them both down. Pick one.
Who are you going to shut down? Let let one
of them is going to wind up being a one
man team, and you're gonna have enough to beat them.
And they picked Kyrie as the guy we can shut down,
and four out of five games they shut him down.
He was terrible. Luca was still pretty good a couple
that we really cast him the end of Game three
with with his selfish play, but Luca was still able
(22:44):
to get his points to assist his rebounds, but it
wasn't nearly enough. So that's how the Celtics won. And
this goes into something that the second part of this,
which is what we've talked about in a phrase we've
used on the show a lot over the last few months.
When it comes to the Celtics. The Celtics gets so
much flack because they don't conform to what we think
(23:05):
an NBA title team looks like, well, are they coached
really strongly, It doesn't look like it. Do the players
play together in a system, It doesn't look like it.
You get to the point where some people talking about
the Celtics where it's like, hey man, they even practice,
they even did just show up there. When's the last
time they pray? Well, they had a couple of days
in March and then one day in April, but that
was the end of season party. Uh so they didn't
(23:26):
really practice a lot that day. But that's what you
would get. That's you think people would people are saying
about the Celtics, how bad it is are the Celtics
Look at the roster. The Celtics have the deepest roster
in the NBA, and you have a lot of players
who have been or were ones on their team. Right.
Tatum and Jalen Brown would each be ones on another team, right,
(23:46):
But they play together. Drew Holliday had his time, still
a terrific two way point guard. Porzingis was a one.
Derek White's a terrific player who can hit big shots.
You have so much talent one through eight coming off
the bench when Porzingis is help. What system are you
going to get the Celtics to play? Tell me? I mean, really,
you went from Eme Udoka to Joe Miszula, and you
(24:06):
went from NBA Finals, Conference Finals, NBA champion right Sometimes
out talenting the other team is a strategy, and just
because we don't like it, we want every team should
form into a system. And this is why they like
to do it, and this is why they like to
do this, and why they like to do this, and
why when you look at the Lakers out they're trying
to figure out a way to Lebron needs a shooter
(24:27):
that can do this. You need to know. The Celtics
put the most talented players on the floor and they
get them to play together enough. What do the Celtics do?
They play really good defense, they can all hit threes.
Outside of that, they all have skill sets that don't
really work well together. But it doesn't matter because when
you're that good, you can out talent the other team.
And that's what happened to the Mavericks. That's what happened
(24:48):
to every team that got in their way this year.
They got out talented by a Celtics team. Most of
the time it's Tatum and Brown, sometimes it's not either
of them. All Tatum has a bad couple of games.
What happened to Jason Tatman's one twenty six eighty four blow?
You know, it's one game, doesn't matter, but out. Talenting
a team when you have all these players in is
a thing, because tell me what system you're gonna come
(25:09):
in to get these guys to go play. It's not
the best creative roster. It's just we're gonna get the
most talented guys we can and put them out there
and figure out a way. It's kind of a controlled
chaos sort of situation and that can work.
Speaker 3 (25:22):
Now.
Speaker 1 (25:22):
Is that a team that you can build champion after champion. No,
but you can buy a lot of contention with it,
as we've seen what they've done the last three years.
But this is what the Celtics need credit for. It's
not something they ask something doesn't look like it makes sense. No,
it makes sense to a lot of basketball people because
of that controlled chaos theory. Hey, they all hit their threes,
they play really good defense. Their skill sets don't really
(25:43):
play off on one another. But it doesn't matter. When
the guys are all this good and they're all playing
to their capacity, you're gonna win. True, Holiday had a
phenomenal NBA Finals when Porzingis was healthy. He was terrific.
Right Brown and Tatum taking turns white at all? How
many big dead eye shots did he take when it
was Derrek Wall that three is such a killer that
puts the lead back up to thirteen. I mean, that's
(26:05):
how good the Celtics are. You're not going to get
them to all buy in and play a system. What
the Celtics did worked and you saw it right now.
Speaker 3 (26:12):
Oh seventeen years in the league. Al Horford hitting big shots?
Was it some he hits a couple of threes a game. No,
but that's just it. Some ridiculous number of playoff games
for his career. I had written down one hundred and
eighty six playoff games. He's now a champion as well.
For Joe Missoula, you know, a guy that people wanted
to run out of town. Along with splitting up and
(26:32):
making a forcing a decision between Brown and Tatum, here
we are right. You get guys to buy in on
defense and they all play great individual defense. You watched
it throughout this series to where you didn't have a
lot of doubles to get that open man, to where PJ.
Washington was standing in a corner by himself like he
(26:52):
did in the prior rounds, or you know, go on
down the line. Lively had some impact in a couple
of these games, but otherwise was fairly quiet and stunted.
You didn't have, you know, the the ability to space
and kick the ball around the horn to the open,
open man. So that part of the system worked for
Joe Missoula. A lot of the quotes about it from
(27:15):
his players and certainly even him at the podium. Like
I brought up with Rick Buker, he's a fascinating dude,
the only thirty five years old. But one of the
things that you had to was the assembly of a
good staff. Sam Cassell, our guy mark Stein has already
reported two of these that we've talked to him a
little bit about, but more as the weekend went on,
(27:37):
is Sam Cassell's gonna leave most likely to go become
a member of Doc Rivers staff in Milwaukee. And then
Jeff Van Gundy great story about, you know, becoming a
member of the Celtics squad as an advisor for both
Brad Stevens and for Joe Missoula. It looks like he's
(27:57):
going to become the top guy for the Clippers for
Tyler so and he talked about getting a lifeline and
being part of this squad, going through a lot of
personal loss, but those are two big things that are
gonna change even if you're able to keep this roster
mainly intact, that you're gonna lose some of the brain
trust because I gotta think Jeff Van Gundy played a
(28:18):
huge role from Missoula as well this year. So credit
to the organization, Brad Stevens and what they were able
to do. To your point, sometimes controlled chaos worked, and
when the Celtics were vulnerable is because you had the
two men game trying to take over instead of using
all those ancillary parts. Well, they put their egos aside,
(28:40):
got their title, and now they try to figure out
how to run it back because they're already heavy favorites
for twenty five.
Speaker 1 (28:45):
They could win the second championship of the Grimace era.
How about that they won the first professional championship of
the grim Sports other titles before that. Yeah, but they're
gonna be like a big trivia question, like you're gonna
be at bar one day and go who won the
first professional tie of the Grimace era in sports? Oh
my god, that was back in twenty twenty four, before
the Mets won like five World Series in a row.
(29:06):
Because Grimmace throughout the first ball they know. Oh, the Celtics, Celtics, Celtics, Celtics,
write it down South, which minor league team? Grimas day, grimmoat.
Everybody's gonna have a Grimace day. They're all gonna have
a Grimace day. The Savanna Bananas have to have some
kind of grimma.
Speaker 4 (29:18):
So much free advertising with the parent corporation of grim
Come on, Jason, nobody's gonna remember this championship.
Speaker 1 (29:24):
Of course, what the Mets with Grimace? Of course they are.
No the Celtics, No, dude, it says, I'm sorry, dude,
it's a Celtics. Well look listen to you. Sorry, you
and the Lakers. There should be a photo of Lebron
and Jalen Brown each clasping hands and holding it up
like like they're a team. Like when the president and
vice president win and they hold up and that's the
photo we see the next day after the election. They
(29:45):
should be together holding their hands together. Hey, the two
champions of this.
Speaker 4 (29:48):
Year in the end, Medel Johnson should have to take
his tweet down that they have more the Celtics have
more titles than the Lakers.
Speaker 1 (29:54):
I'm pretty sure it's even I think Magic just bought
the Celtics. I'm pretty sure that's eighty team each. He
says they have more. Well he's not counting the n season.
Yeah no, he said. Well, you know what, you reach
out to Magic Johnson. See what he says, The banner's
a banner time out to find out what's trending in
the wide world of sports. From a guy who actually
has a collection of Mayor mccheese glasses. Really, it's Steve Desager.
Speaker 6 (30:18):
Drinking glasses, not spectacles. No, I meant spectacles. Yeah, I met.
Speaker 1 (30:21):
Yeah that Mayor mccheese used to wear like these were
commercial worn Mayor mcchis talking.
Speaker 6 (30:27):
Doesn't he also have the ribbon on the chest.
Speaker 1 (30:29):
Or oh the sash? Yeah? Oh yeah, yea, yeah, well
he's mayor. I mean, come on, yeah, can you drink cheese?
Sure you can. Chason will find a way game get
a five minute Jason response on how you do that? Yeah,
he's preparing it. That's the whole next savment.
Speaker 6 (30:47):
Game five of the NBA Finals was at Boston tonight
and the Celtics eliminated Dallas. It ended the NBA season.
In fact, it was a twenty one point halftime lead.
Dallas wins one oh six eighty eight, Jason Tatum thirty
one points eleven and assists. Jalen Brown Finals MVP, and
by the way, Drew Holliday the only player in NBA
history to win a title in his first season with
(31:09):
two separate franchises, Milwaukee three years ago and now with
Boston this season. In fact, the Celtics liked the Nuggets
last year just about swept through the conference final. At
NBA Finals, each went eight and one. Luka Doncic in
the loss twenty eight points twelve rebounds, He had five assists,
seven turnovers from three point range. He was two and
(31:33):
two for nine. Celtics franchise earns its record eighteenth NBA title.
So when you take a two games to none lead
in the final, usually win the title. Thirty two of
the thirty seven teams in history that have done that
in the NBA Finals do win the championship, and the Celtics,
by the way this postseason, when taking a double digit
(31:53):
lead in a game undefeated fourteen to zero, including tonight
Stanley Cup Game five, It's tomorrow, Florida up three games
to one, hosts Edmonton, Florida has never won the Cup.
Franchise started in nineteen ninety three, the Columbus Blue Jackets
fired coach Pascal Vincent after one season. The team recently
hired a new general manager, so in the NHL, eleven
(32:15):
head coaches have now been fired this season. At the
Euro Soccer Tournament, France defeated Austria won nothing. France scored
on an own goal late first half, but Killian and
Bape left late in the game with a broken nose
after a collision on a header. No surgery will be needed.
Romania shut out Ukraine three nothing, and then Slovakia upset
Belgium won nothing on a goal in the seventh minute.
(32:38):
Belgium had two goals disallowed after video review. Both were
good calls. Tomorrow on Fox TV, Portugal against Chechia three
pm Eastern time. The Copa America Soccer tournament starts Thursday night.
Speaker 1 (32:50):
On FS SURE check your local listings for the game
and time in your area.
Speaker 6 (32:56):
Moving on, Rory McElroy says he'll take a few weeks
off after blowing a late lead at the US opened yesterday.
At the College World Series, Florida eliminated NC State five
to four. Texas A and m was a five to
one winner over Kentucky Tonight. Yankees pitcher Garrett Cole will
make his season debut on Wednesday after an elbow injury.
Yankee first baseman Anthony Rizzo could miss four to six
(33:16):
weeks with a broken arm. Tomorrow night, the Yanks will
host Baltimore. The first place Yankees lead the Orioles by
a game and a half in the AL East. Also
Tomorrow night, the White Sox at nineteen and fifty four
will be hosting Houston. The Mets won their six game
in a row, fourteen to two at Texas. Rangers have
lost four straight. Francisco Lindor went four for four. The
Dodgers were up nine to one in the ninth nine
(33:38):
to five the final at Colorado. Winning pitcher James Paxton
is seven and one. Pitcher Clayton Kershaw starts minor league
rehab Wednesday at a Ball. Dodger pitcher Yoshinobu Yamamoto went
on the IL yesterday with a strained rotator cuff and
officially on the injured list today. Shortstop Mookie bats of
La broke his hand yesterday on a hit by pitch.
He's out six to eight weeks. Shoe Heyotani was leading
(34:01):
off tonight and had three hits, Freddy Fraeman a single
and five walks at coors Field. Angels won the late
game five to three over Milwaukee. San Francisco with a
three run homer top of the ninth, beat the Cubs
seven six in Chicago. Saint Louis with a twelfth inning
home run, eventually won seven to six at Miami. Marlins
have lost sixth straight, and Philadelphia beat San Diego nine
(34:21):
to two Kyle Schwarber two to run homers.
Speaker 1 (34:24):
Back to you, Now, I don't know what it is
because I try to look up. Is there a record
for most walks in a game by a batter? I
mean five times in a nine and in game, there's
no way someone's been walking. Someone's walk certainly the Dodger record.
It's certainly the Dodger record for coors Field. But yeah,
in history, I am certain that Jimmy Fox or somebody
in that era had walked six in a game.
Speaker 2 (34:46):
Wow.
Speaker 1 (34:46):
Yeah, okay, all right, thank you Steve.
Speaker 3 (34:49):
Six walks first three Bryce Harper did in twenty sixteen,
Jem Bagwell nineteen ninety nine, and the great Andre Thornton
back in nineteen Wow.
Speaker 1 (34:57):
First basement of the Indians. Wow, nice, I couldn't find it.
You found in the second Very.
Speaker 6 (35:02):
Nineteen thirty eight Jimmy Fox The.
Speaker 3 (35:05):
Fox Free and then you get to Freddie Freeman in
Company with five.
Speaker 1 (35:09):
Uh coming up next? Well, the Celtics are the champions.
What about the big superstar? And what is next for
Luka Doncic, what he needs to do in the offseason
because the guy he kind of looks like right now
isn't somebody you want to pattern the rest of your
career after That's next rid here, Jason and Mike Fox.
Speaker 2 (35:29):
Be sure to catch live editions of The Jason Smith
Show with Mike Harmon weekdays at ten pm Eastern, seven
pm Pacific.
Speaker 1 (35:36):
Fox Sports Radio The Jason Smith Show with My best
friend Mike Harmon live Fromthetirerag dot Com Studios. So the
Celtics are the chance, but really, Luka Donsich is the
one player that the NBA Finals has been about. And
looking ahead, I'll tell you this, I didn't feel great
(36:00):
about Luca coming off Game three because all of the
worst traits that he has came to fruition and cost
them the game and cost them the series. His emotional play,
he gets very stubborn when he wants to play a
certain way and do certain things to the detriment of
the Mavericks. I want to try to get contact instead
of getting to the hoop. I want to complain about
(36:21):
calls will the ball is going the other way, and
I'm not going to be smart defensively. I'm going to
take risks and I foll out of a game they
need me in. And it was all of the Ills
come home to roost for Game three, and it was boy,
Luca's going to walk out of this finals with all
kinds of questions hanging over his head and it's going
to be a really rough offseason. Now you want to
(36:42):
think and hope that maybe he's figured it out a
little bit because he took responsibility for it the following
day after the day or two away. Maybe he talked
to some teammates, talk to his coaches. But he definitely
played a better game in Game four. He didn't complain
to the officials enough. And you want to think that, Okay,
maybe he's turned the corner for that. Maybe that's something
that all right. This was it was an expensive lesson
(37:05):
because it costs you the NBA Finals. But you're talking
about Luca twenty five to twenty six years old, you
expect to have him as a great one of the
top three four players in the league for the next
six or seven years. So while it was an expensive lesson,
at least you feel in theory a little bit better
going forward that he is going to be that guy.
Speaker 3 (37:22):
Well your hope, right, But I mean you walk out
of the season with a hope off your two best players, right,
He and Kyrie seemingly have a forged a strong bond,
and Kyrie taking those steps forward as well. A lot
of questions of him coming into the season seemed to
be asked and answered as we get into the offseason,
(37:42):
as he waited to greet each of his teammates as
they headed to the tunnel as the confetti fell, so
they kind of run in parallel. Here, still a lot
of wishing and hoping that this continues for another season,
that you're able to add more assets around them and
perhaps make another run through a very crowded Western conference.
Speaker 1 (38:01):
But that's just where we're at with Hope.
Speaker 3 (38:03):
He did it for two games, Was it enough to
make him realize sitting on the bench for those four
minutes and what maybe reading all the social media thereafter,
because there's one thing on social media about him running
wild right now. Someone did an edit of the famous
Michael Finley taking it.
Speaker 1 (38:20):
Yeah, it's a mini Larry O'Brien.
Speaker 3 (38:23):
Trophy that's in his hand as he talks to his
pop and then Michael Finley taking said trophy away from him.
Speaker 1 (38:32):
So that's the mental part of it. But this is
what Luca needs, the physical part of it. He's a
little too much James Harden in that he's very similar
superstar that can do everything. But what was the thing
with James Harden in his prime? You'd play all season,
get to the end of the playoff games, James Harden
would get tired and suddenly his shots don't fall. He
(38:54):
couldn't finish games, his team went home. It's the same
thing with Luka Doncics, right, the guys not chiseled. But
he needs to get stronger. He needs to get stronger
because teams are going to be more physical at him.
You saw physical the Celtics were because they knew they
could wear him down. He needs to be able to
have his better stamina so he's not tired at the
end of games because he does get tired, and when
(39:16):
you're the one guy that's got to carry the team,
if you're tired, guess what nobody else is doing it.
I mean you could see it from Luca, the physical
toll it's taken on him. He's got stamina and shape,
He's got to He's got to reform his body a
little bit. Look, we saw Nikola Jokis win MVP and
get skinny and then win the MVP again. So it
can happen now, whether it's it's him getting more ropey
(39:38):
or more muscular, but something where he needs to have
it be at the point where physically he can withstand
a pounding and not be tired at the end, because
right now it's a little bit too much James Harden
in him going forward.
Speaker 3 (39:49):
Well, I think as you go back to James Harden,
a lot of his creativity offensively was how how well
I can get to the free throw line? And then
they had meetings about that, and the officials had meetings
about that. But to the point of if you're gonna
be that ball dominant and where drawing contact is such
a big part of your game, which clearly it is,
(40:10):
where you're looking for fouls and and ones or whatever
over one hundred plus games, they're beating the hell out
of you, particularly in the playoffs, like there's no easy,
easy minutes to be had. So yeah, improving conditioning. Perhaps
Michael Finley taking the beer is actually a good thing.
Speaker 1 (40:30):
That I mean, not had that one beer.
Speaker 3 (40:32):
Oh we're gonna from a philosophical of where you're heading
in this.
Speaker 1 (40:36):
Exit out about a Fresca exit smallen dome coming up
in ten minutes. Wherever you get your uh your podcasts, iTunes,
iart radio app Our best of podcast is up, Go
get it download listen. We'll love you forever and ever
and ever. My buddy Ben Maller is no
Thanks for listening to The Jason Smith Show with Mike
Harmon podcast. Be sure to catch us live every weeknight
ten pm to two am Eastern seven to eleven pm
Pacific on Fox Sports Radio. Find your local station for
The Jason Smith Show with Mike Harmon at Foxsports Radio
dot com, or stream us live every night on the
iHeartRadio app by searching FSR.
Speaker 2 (00:22):
Please give this you're listening to Fox Sports Radio.
Speaker 1 (00:29):
Hello, Welcome inside final hour tonight, the Jason Smith Show
with my best friend Mike Harmon YO live from the
tire rack dot Com studios. Tyreck dot Com. I'll hope
you get there. An unmatched selection, fast, free shipping, free
roadhazard protection, and over ten thousand recommended installers. Tireck dot
Com is the way tire buying should be. So the
(00:51):
Boston Celtics, to no one's surprise, are your NBA champions.
Pretty consistent in the NBA Finals. They scored one hundred
and five one hundred and six hundred and seven points.
That's what they did. You knew where they were gonna be.
And the Mavericks pretty consistent in the low eighties.
Speaker 3 (01:06):
Not playing particularly well, great defense, right, that's what we say.
Great defense, not terrible shooting, spacing and everything else.
Speaker 1 (01:13):
Now we we we'll get into the Celtics and the
breakdown of the championship year and why this is one
of the easiest years to break down in all of
NBA history. But I do want to say this, Chris
tops Porzingis is an NBA champion legend. So is o'shae Brissette,
who yeah to play a minute tonight Syracuse in the
finals winning play first guy to playing forty four.
Speaker 3 (01:36):
They got to go ack and build a statue to
him on the Syracuse CAUs.
Speaker 1 (01:40):
They might, well, you can come back now and go
to that one NBA He've actually played first Syracuse guy
in forty four years to play and win a ring
because Dion Waiters won a ring with the Lakers, but
he wasn't on the active roster. So but but o'shae
Brissette played in the NBA Final minutes for Syracuse Guy
in forty four. I truly appreciate it.
Speaker 3 (02:01):
In the final minutes, as guys checked in that they
were bound and determined if the ball hit their hands
anywhere near a shooting position it was going up defensively,
they had an opportunity to go in for a block
shot or create contact to at least draw a fall.
They were going to do that too, making sure it
didn't have just a bunch of zeros going across the
(02:22):
bottom of the box score.
Speaker 1 (02:23):
So Porzingis played tonight, and it was his first game.
Didn't playing the last game. Sixteen minutes a night, five points,
a couple of fouls, not nearly what he was in
game one. But again he got hurt in the end
of game two. He's still plus that out. He's still
fine tonight. But he's an NBA champion. And I'm being
honest with you when I say, yes, x Nick Kristaps
porzingis NBA champion, I am fine with it. I am
(02:46):
fine for a couple of reasons.
Speaker 2 (02:48):
Now.
Speaker 1 (02:48):
I've been telling you the whole time that it is
three teams ago, and it is you were selling the
hells ago And it's fine, all right, and street to
we wouldn't have the team we had now without Porzingis
We're able to go They anything, but he did no.
But but again, not to the team we traded him to,
and not to the team that they traded him to
after that, but the team that team traded him too,
they sometimes it's a long gestation period. This is a
(03:09):
long way ago natural kingdom comes. It comes at you
at different times. That was okay, and the team that
they couldn't make it work with loss in the NBA finals,
So all right, I'm fine with it. But the other
reason that I'm okay with it, I mean, that's that's
that's at least half the reason right there. But the
other half of the reason is because I picked the
Celtics to win the title because I thought they were
going to win. That will I was ok If I
(03:30):
picked the Mavericks, it'd been no, you stak I catch that.
I don't want Porzingis to win. But because I thought
that Celtics were going to win, I picked the Celtics.
They won. I'm okay with it, right, I'm like, okay, Well,
I need Porzingis to play well because I like being
right and I wanted that.
Speaker 3 (03:42):
Does it make you feel better that he really was
only a factor for like one and a half games?
Speaker 4 (03:47):
Yeah?
Speaker 1 (03:47):
Oh yeah, yeah, it was only a little bit.
Speaker 3 (03:49):
Logically that helps you, yeah, like he really helped you
in one game and that night. It was tough to
watch you at times because I could see as much
as you were trying to sell thee this not bothering
me highlight, particularly the one of the Tatum rebound off
the Porzingis miss and then he filled the lane with
that thunderous dunk where he was hanging on the rim,
(04:09):
and all that bugged the.
Speaker 1 (04:11):
Hell out of you.
Speaker 3 (04:12):
You could sell it a week later, all right, I'm five.
At the moment, I wasn't buying what you were selling. No, No,
it wouldn't feel stung in your heart because now it was, Hey,
this guy could legitimately win the damn series MVP. Now
it's really gonna bug the hell out of me. And
then he's plays a good game, ends up getting hurt, missus, missus.
Game three, Game four is a blowout, doesn't really have
(04:35):
a fact, so I think the sting of it is
really lessened. Whereas if he put up four or five
efforts like he did that Game one, I don't think.
Speaker 1 (04:45):
He would win the finals.
Speaker 3 (04:46):
It would have been more difficult, been a lot more different,
even if you were right on your Celtics call. Porzingis
being the guy holding that trophy while Jason Tatum ran
away with the Larry O'Brien.
Speaker 1 (04:56):
I think that would have been a tougher pill for
you to swallow. Yeah, and it was making easier that
to see that. Okay, they could win without him, because yes,
they needed him for game one. That was it. Like
he he won game one for them. Porzingis won Game
one because the Mavericks had no idea what to do
because porzingis whatever he was doing offensively, and also he's
altering shots at the rim and that in game changing.
(05:18):
The Clark three is like from the logo where he's
just kind of falling forward like Caitlin Clark does it
all there, it goes and I made it, that's all.
It's fantastic. Only he didn't have angels taking on his
head off.
Speaker 2 (05:29):
He did not know.
Speaker 1 (05:29):
He did not well, because Porzingis is pretty tall. It's
kind of tough to jump ahead, jump up higher than
Porzingis and hit him in the head. It's very difficult
to do. That would be one hell of him. Move
very hard.
Speaker 3 (05:38):
That's literally you need the springiness off the turn buckles
in the top rope.
Speaker 4 (05:42):
Only took Willis his gig. Yes, I did had a
good run. He did, He's but he got to carry
that for fifty years.
Speaker 1 (05:50):
I mean, yeah, of course it was.
Speaker 2 (05:52):
It was.
Speaker 1 (05:52):
It was fun. Now here comes ports, look at Porzingis,
it's Porzingi. But if you're looking at the finals, and
every NBA Finals has something in common, there's always a
portion of the series where it forever tilts to the
other team. And it was and sometimes it's early in
the series, sometimes it's late in the series, but there's
always a point where you could say, when this happened,
(06:14):
this is when we all knew that it was over
for Team B and Team A was winning. And now
that you're looking back at this five game series that
the Celtics dominated. Game one was the game Porzingis off
the bench, winning the game when Tatum and Brown both
had okay games, didn't have great games, and Brown look
(06:35):
Brown winning the MVP, he had the better first three
games when the Celtics got up three ZIP which decided
the series. So I think a lot of people had
their votes taken or they hate Jason Tatum. But that
first game that was the flip game. Form wasn't Game three.
The first game was the flip game because that's when
it beat That's when we really learned and understood, oh man,
(06:55):
the Celtics really are much deeper than we expected them
to be. They're much deeper than than the Dallas Mavericks are.
Where here's a game that seemed like it was out
there for the Mavericks to take right. Tatum's having a
little bit of trouble, Jalen Brown's having a little bit
of trouble. The game is there, and then here comes
Porzingis off the bench, and he's hitting threes, and he's
altering shots at the rim, and he's pulling down big
(07:15):
rebounds in the third and fourth quarter. That was the
game where it went from Hey, the Celtics to all,
the Celtics should win this series. The Celtics have control
of this series, and the Mavericks had a shot to
maybe season in Game one, but they couldn't get past Porzingis.
So for that, I'll give you that was the key game.
That was the one performance that came out of nowhere
that nobody expected. Cause that's the other thing that always
(07:36):
comes out of the NBA Finals. There's always a player
that has a performance that none of us expected, whether
it's a guy that hits like six or seven threes
off the bench or comes in to do something in
a very short amount of time. Hey, this game the
Porzingis game. This game, this is what flipped the series
in that favor, and it's Porzingis Game one and that
decided it.
Speaker 3 (07:56):
Yeah, usually see that as the series goes on, right,
normally doesn't che in the face right up front. But
I guess it served as the fantastic reminder of how
deep this squad was in that Brown and Tatum didn't
need to be heroic in that game. The fact that
you'd gone what ten games at that point in nearly
(08:19):
forty days with Porzingi's sidelined, right, lots of time off
in between the conference finals, in the finals, and all
the off days that were built in in each round.
So some of that is the oh, here we go,
now he's a threat. And of course, yeah, he didn't
play for the vast majority of two of the games,
(08:41):
but it altered the defensive structure what Jason Kidd and
company had to do till the very end of Game
two when the injury occurred, right in the re injury
and then he's out. But certainly for the Celtics, the
recognition of how deep they were, and he gave Missoula,
(09:04):
you know, the extra toy and chess piece to knock
you over that fast because we watched the the brilliance
defensively and how they structured it. It's a lot of
what we talked about long before we even got to
the NBA Finals of how deep that roster was and defensively,
the fits and nightmare they were going to be able
(09:26):
to cause, you know, we we talked about it as
the trade deadline. We talked about it when Drew Holliday
showed up on their doorstep for basically a bucket of
balls on the grand scale. No, no disrespect to the
players involved, but they're not to the level that he plays.
And the fact that you've got an NBA structure where
(09:46):
you can play pinball, and all right, he gets dealt
and very quickly you can move it back out and
get out of you know, that deal because he doesn't
want to be here. Which is a whole other thing.
Because now we're officially in the offseason, we get to
watch those dominoes start to fall once again as guys
opt out or force their way out of disadvantageous situations.
(10:07):
But for the Celtics, we didn't have to wait till
Game three. There didn't have to be some randomness. Yeah,
you got a random three pointer from Pritchard or Houser
hit a couple of shots or whatever, but it ended
up being the stars ruling the day, right those big
three up front, and then Porzingis going back to Game
one of what are we gonna get? Don't know what
(10:28):
we're gonna get. Let's see, he's the X factor and
right off the way he punches you in the face
and changes the entire series.
Speaker 1 (10:35):
Something we're just getting in now. And Mike talked about
this earlier in the show about an hour ago. Hey,
we're gonna get the breakdown of MVP voting. Had Porzinga
state healthy, maybe he's the MVP boy. Drew Holliday what
a great pick I had? He was. He looked like
he could win and be sixty six to one.
Speaker 3 (10:53):
But Malely's surprised that Drew Holliday in the final count
does get more consideration. I heard the rumblings of the
number and the breakdown, and it came out exactly on point,
as we're starting to find out now. In the socials,
Frostburg has the breakdown of the eleven voters and how
they went for NBA Finals.
Speaker 1 (11:15):
MV you ready to tear all these people down? Sure?
Go ahead. How many of them voting? Jalen Brown okay,
Sammy Mcjalen Brown okay, Malika Andrews. Where do you think
she went?
Speaker 5 (11:26):
Uh?
Speaker 1 (11:27):
ESPN, Jason Tatum correct, okay, Tim Tim, Jalen Brown, Jalen
Brown okay. Two to one so far. Doris Burke, Oh,
Doris Burke is a purist. Maybe the going maybe the
(11:48):
no no no. Jalen Brown was more consistent. I'm gonna say,
Jalen Brown, You're wrong. She went Jason, she went Jason Tatum. Okay.
Speaker 3 (11:54):
I would have thought her rocatum for that. Okay, dominant PJ. Carlossimo.
He's a Tatum guy. Jason Tatum, Yeah. Mike Curtis Dallas
Morning News, Luka donzig. I'm gonna say, Dallas No, that's
where the that's where the Jason Tatum hate comes in.
(12:16):
Jaylen Brown correct, all right? Vince goodwill you who yah?
Speaker 1 (12:19):
Who's you? Who's sports? Let's say hang on. Yahoo is
owned by Mark Cuban, who owns the Dallas Mavericks. The
Mavericks hates Jason Tatum. I don't think he did.
Speaker 3 (12:34):
No Mark Cuban did oh yah something from him? Right,
But he didn't anything, okay, but gave him a lot
of money. They gave him a lot of money. And
then we didn't integrate his stuff fast enough to make
it useful for the market by wasting that first movie.
Speaker 1 (12:51):
And by point is the Michael Scott philosophy. Uh, Mark
Cuban Yahoo were together. Mark Cuban owns the Dallas Maverick.
The Mavericks hate Jalen Brown. Jalen Brown. He went, Jalen Brown,
are you doing? You're a ty shirt? There a guy
named Sean Powell NBA dot com. J J. Brown?
Speaker 4 (13:12):
Okay, Simone Sandry, who is that Italy? How about the
Dello Sport Gazette.
Speaker 1 (13:18):
Wait international wait wait wait wait international vote? So that
was that's that he had the internationals So he's the
international Jalen Brown guy, all right, Jalen Brown, Sure, Gary Washburn,
Boston Globe, Oh, Boston Globe. He wants to keep his job.
Jason Tatum correct?
Speaker 4 (13:35):
All right?
Speaker 1 (13:36):
Then Jeff zil get USA today. Uh, I'll say Jaylen
Brown correct? All right? So that was what what was that?
What was that? How many for Jalen Brown? Seven out
of eleven seven four seven four k?
Speaker 3 (13:46):
Because that's I'd heard rumblings okay, and seen it started
going on social media that the expectation was that it
was seven to four, but then it was a question
of where it tilted. I'm still surprised by that. I'm
surprised Holliday didn't get yeah, I mean hi, that he
wouldn't have shown up as someone for their thought piece.
Speaker 1 (14:05):
I voted for Holiday. I went, here's why I would
never have had to make a basketball prediction again if
I got Drew Holliday right from my NBA.
Speaker 4 (14:12):
No one should be illegal betting on an award that
is voted all.
Speaker 3 (14:17):
But that's the thing, right is, normally this would only
be available offshore because it is voted on and not
decided by the actual content.
Speaker 1 (14:27):
I mean, look to be quite honest. To put a
bow on the MVP discussion, Jalen Brown was the better
player overall the first three games. When the Celtics jumped
out to a three to nothing lead. I can't go
crazy for Jason Tatum because it's not like he was
unbelievably good. Because, yes, do I think there's a Jason
Tatum bias. Yes, a lot of people in media hate
him for reasons that you can't go with anymore because
(14:49):
he's an NBA champion and he played really well. But
for the first three games, Jalen Brown was the better
overall player, especially in the third game that really won
it for them. He was thirty eight and eight. Yes,
Tatum had the best closeout game, but you know what,
it was kind of over by now, so I can't
be that upset. Yeah, with Jason Tatum, could he have won, Yeah,
(15:10):
But can I really be mad that Jalen Brown won.
I can't because when the series was still up in
the air, he was the better overall player. So it's
hard for me to go crazy about that. I mean, look,
I wanted, I wanted Joliday to win, but you.
Speaker 3 (15:22):
Know, still, yeah, I think it comes down to when
we look at the points per game, Tatum had what
about a one point four advantage per game. There, he
averaged nearly two rebounds and over two assists per game,
more than Brown did. But then you look at the
closeout game and that there were two games where he
(15:43):
really stood out statistically otherwise just.
Speaker 1 (15:46):
Kind of there.
Speaker 3 (15:47):
So yeah, like you said, it was over so even
though he gave that big effort to get to thirty one. Tonight,
congratulations you closed it out, but it was the other
guy that put it on the tape. I guess is
how the voters came back to it?
Speaker 1 (16:03):
Exit? How about a Fresca exit swollen Dome. The Jason
Smith Show with Mike Carmon Lifthetireck dot Com Studios. Coming
up next, Boy, the easiest thing to say about the
NBA Finals and why you have to give credit whether
you want to or not to the Boston Celtics. We
explain why. Coming up next right here, Jason and Mike Fox.
Speaker 2 (16:23):
Be sure to catch live editions of The Jason Smith
Show with Mike Harmon weekdays at ten pm Eastern, seven
pm Pacific on Fox Sports Radio and the iHeartRadio app.
Hey it's me Rob Parker.
Speaker 5 (16:37):
Check out my weekly MLB podcast, Inside the Parker for
twenty two minutes of piping hot baseball talk, featuring the
biggest names of newsmakers in the sport. Whether you believe
in analytics or the I Test, We've got all the
bases covers. New episode drop every Thursday, So do your
sofa favor and listen to Inside the Parker with Rob
(17:00):
Partner on the iHeartRadio app or wherever you get your podcast.
Speaker 1 (17:05):
Fox Sports Radio The Jason Smith Show with Mike Harmon
live from the tirerac dot Com studios. Let Express Employment
Professionals help hire your next pro. Forget about posting jobs,
sifting through resumes, interviews with unqualified applicants. Move up to
the pros. Go to expresspros dot com to find the
location near you. That's Expresspros dot Com. Now it's time
(17:26):
for us to reveal the Express pros Pro of theeek.
I'd love to give it to Grimace, except well, when
you know talk u n MVP in the NBA Finals
and plus yes crematism talk, Uh, you get to be
the Express pros Pro of the week.
Speaker 3 (17:40):
Tatum let Tandra a coming shong in the pay kick
out to the wing.
Speaker 1 (17:43):
Jalen waiting open pree got it. You can wait for
that pass he waited, and Tatum talk, but give it
another assist.
Speaker 2 (17:51):
Tatum has nine assists in the first half.
Speaker 1 (17:55):
Celtics Radio Network on the call, congrats to Jalen Brown
for being our Express pros Pro of the week. Great
assist by Jason Tatum. Look, we talked about this a
few minutes ago. You could have given the MVP to
either one. I mean, I know that this is gonna
be a huge topic tomorrow and it really is irrelevant.
There's gonna be a lot of shouting hatred. It's so
(18:17):
irrelevant who wins. Yeah, it's like it's not like a bad,
awful thing was done to somebody who was great. Now
Jason Tatum was great for five games and didn't win,
then you would know, Hey, that anti Jason Tatum movement
is a lot bigger than you expected. Just go back.
Speaker 3 (18:32):
Historically, Jayson, I mean, how many outside of the Jordan's
six for six don't we do this with pretty much
every other great Well you should have had another one,
or he only won one of the three or two
of the five or whatever in their careers. I mean,
that's that's the way it goes from Kobe to Shack
to go on back to Magic and Kareem and everybody else. Right,
(18:53):
I mean, you're you're parsing words, right, You're you're splitting
the proverbial baby in all this stuff, they're still holding
up a title.
Speaker 1 (19:02):
Look, and this gets into the two biggest things about
the NBA season. The first one is that now that
we've seen it from beginning to end, we birthed the
baby we had the end season turn which I guess
you'd be what the season starting to crawl, Jim. We
had the Lakers win the nd season turner, and now
the Celtics win in a playoff in which they really
(19:23):
weren't challenged. It's really easy to sum this up, this
whole season up and the Celtics up, because here's the
NBA season. The best team won and they weren't really
challenged because they were so much deeper than everybody else
and that was on display in the NBA Finals. It's
said that you can starts it down like you if
(19:43):
you were writing up the Wikipedia summary for the season.
The fact that you were able to do that in
two sentences, that's it is sad. That's it. They were
the best top to bottom.
Speaker 3 (19:54):
It's great for the Celtics, and it takes nothing away
from what they just accomplished, right, because we're everybody on
the t timeline at how about a fresca at swallowing
them at Fox Sports Radio. Uh, you know, Boston fans
are out in force, you know, celebrating the greatness and
it's you can't dispute it in any way, shape or
form of them because they ran rough shot over the
Eastern Conference. Nice run by your knicks to finish second
(20:17):
as Milwaukee collapsed under injuries and doc rivers, and we
watched Boston roll through the playoffs and roll through the
finals and it wasn't even close.
Speaker 1 (20:30):
It's it's it's easy because there's nothing to challenge them.
And yes, they did have an easier path because most
of the teams they played they had injured players, or
they didn't get to play a team because they lost
because they had too many injured players. But like I said,
if the Celtics don't win this year, they're never gonna
win it. Or I picked them, and if I they
didn't win, they'd be on my never again list for
(20:51):
not picking them. And they won.
Speaker 3 (20:52):
You all starting to write that up like Ronnie Wood
does the setlist for the Rolling Stones. You're pulling out
the different colored paint pens and adding to your list.
But but yeah, even the Indiana series, you know, we
had a lot of fun with the fact that the
win probability three different times was over ninety percent. Guess what,
the Boston Celtics came back and snatched those games from
(21:12):
them time and again. And we could talk about Rick Carlisle,
we could talk about injuries, haliburt and whatever else. Again,
Celtics went out and took it. They went in with
fewer than ten percent, less than ten percent probability, went
and won those games. And everything else is just re
you know, excuse making. We could do an excuse versus
(21:33):
reason you're hurt?
Speaker 4 (21:34):
You know what.
Speaker 3 (21:35):
Yeah, testament to their training staff, to their guys, and
their resiliency fighting through whatever ills they had to be
available for their squad. They were able to weather the
storm when Porzingis was unavailable, and they went and they
took care of business time and again.
Speaker 1 (21:51):
Look and everybody gets hurt. Now that's the way it's play.
Everybody gets for it.
Speaker 3 (21:54):
It's a long a half season, eighty two regular season
games plus a minimum of sick team for the playoffs.
Speaker 1 (22:01):
And that's if you go perfect. Yeah, look, this is
it's that simple. They were this good, They were this deep.
They were deeper than the Mavericks. Very Look, why why
did I tell you they were gonna win? Drew Holliday
was my MVP pick because he was going to have
a great series. He was going to help keep Kyrie
Irving down. Because here was the philosophy, and here's a strategy,
I said, and it's like the Celtics listen to me, Uh, look,
(22:23):
you're not going to shut them both down. Pick one.
Who are you going to shut down? Let let one
of them is going to wind up being a one
man team, and you're gonna have enough to beat them.
And they picked Kyrie as the guy we can shut down,
and four out of five games they shut him down.
He was terrible. Luca was still pretty good a couple
that we really cast him the end of Game three
with with his selfish play, but Luca was still able
(22:44):
to get his points to assist his rebounds, but it
wasn't nearly enough. So that's how the Celtics won. And
this goes into something that the second part of this,
which is what we've talked about in a phrase we've
used on the show a lot over the last few months.
When it comes to the Celtics. The Celtics gets so
much flack because they don't conform to what we think
(23:05):
an NBA title team looks like, well, are they coached
really strongly, It doesn't look like it. Do the players
play together in a system, It doesn't look like it.
You get to the point where some people talking about
the Celtics where it's like, hey man, they even practice,
they even did just show up there. When's the last
time they pray? Well, they had a couple of days
in March and then one day in April, but that
was the end of season party. Uh so they didn't
(23:26):
really practice a lot that day. But that's what you
would get. That's you think people would people are saying
about the Celtics, how bad it is are the Celtics
Look at the roster. The Celtics have the deepest roster
in the NBA, and you have a lot of players
who have been or were ones on their team. Right.
Tatum and Jalen Brown would each be ones on another team, right,
(23:46):
But they play together. Drew Holliday had his time, still
a terrific two way point guard. Porzingis was a one.
Derek White's a terrific player who can hit big shots.
You have so much talent one through eight coming off
the bench when Porzingis is help. What system are you
going to get the Celtics to play? Tell me? I mean, really,
you went from Eme Udoka to Joe Miszula, and you
(24:06):
went from NBA Finals, Conference Finals, NBA champion right Sometimes
out talenting the other team is a strategy, and just
because we don't like it, we want every team should
form into a system. And this is why they like
to do it, and this is why they like to
do this, and why they like to do this, and
why when you look at the Lakers out they're trying
to figure out a way to Lebron needs a shooter
(24:27):
that can do this. You need to know. The Celtics
put the most talented players on the floor and they
get them to play together enough. What do the Celtics do?
They play really good defense, they can all hit threes.
Outside of that, they all have skill sets that don't
really work well together. But it doesn't matter because when
you're that good, you can out talent the other team.
And that's what happened to the Mavericks. That's what happened
(24:48):
to every team that got in their way this year.
They got out talented by a Celtics team. Most of
the time it's Tatum and Brown, sometimes it's not either
of them. All Tatum has a bad couple of games.
What happened to Jason Tatman's one twenty six eighty four blow?
You know, it's one game, doesn't matter, but out. Talenting
a team when you have all these players in is
a thing, because tell me what system you're gonna come
(25:09):
in to get these guys to go play. It's not
the best creative roster. It's just we're gonna get the
most talented guys we can and put them out there
and figure out a way. It's kind of a controlled
chaos sort of situation and that can work.
Speaker 3 (25:22):
Now.
Speaker 1 (25:22):
Is that a team that you can build champion after champion. No,
but you can buy a lot of contention with it,
as we've seen what they've done the last three years.
But this is what the Celtics need credit for. It's
not something they ask something doesn't look like it makes sense. No,
it makes sense to a lot of basketball people because
of that controlled chaos theory. Hey, they all hit their threes,
they play really good defense. Their skill sets don't really
(25:43):
play off on one another. But it doesn't matter. When
the guys are all this good and they're all playing
to their capacity, you're gonna win. True, Holiday had a
phenomenal NBA Finals when Porzingis was healthy. He was terrific.
Right Brown and Tatum taking turns white at all? How
many big dead eye shots did he take when it
was Derrek Wall that three is such a killer that
puts the lead back up to thirteen. I mean, that's
(26:05):
how good the Celtics are. You're not going to get
them to all buy in and play a system. What
the Celtics did worked and you saw it right now.
Speaker 3 (26:12):
Oh seventeen years in the league. Al Horford hitting big shots?
Was it some he hits a couple of threes a game. No,
but that's just it. Some ridiculous number of playoff games
for his career. I had written down one hundred and
eighty six playoff games. He's now a champion as well.
For Joe Missoula, you know, a guy that people wanted
to run out of town. Along with splitting up and
(26:32):
making a forcing a decision between Brown and Tatum, here
we are right. You get guys to buy in on
defense and they all play great individual defense. You watched
it throughout this series to where you didn't have a
lot of doubles to get that open man, to where PJ.
Washington was standing in a corner by himself like he
(26:52):
did in the prior rounds, or you know, go on
down the line. Lively had some impact in a couple
of these games, but otherwise was fairly quiet and stunted.
You didn't have, you know, the the ability to space
and kick the ball around the horn to the open,
open man. So that part of the system worked for
Joe Missoula. A lot of the quotes about it from
(27:15):
his players and certainly even him at the podium. Like
I brought up with Rick Buker, he's a fascinating dude,
the only thirty five years old. But one of the
things that you had to was the assembly of a
good staff. Sam Cassell, our guy mark Stein has already
reported two of these that we've talked to him a
little bit about, but more as the weekend went on,
(27:37):
is Sam Cassell's gonna leave most likely to go become
a member of Doc Rivers staff in Milwaukee. And then
Jeff Van Gundy great story about, you know, becoming a
member of the Celtics squad as an advisor for both
Brad Stevens and for Joe Missoula. It looks like he's
(27:57):
going to become the top guy for the Clippers for
Tyler so and he talked about getting a lifeline and
being part of this squad, going through a lot of
personal loss, but those are two big things that are
gonna change even if you're able to keep this roster
mainly intact, that you're gonna lose some of the brain
trust because I gotta think Jeff Van Gundy played a
(28:18):
huge role from Missoula as well this year. So credit
to the organization, Brad Stevens and what they were able
to do. To your point, sometimes controlled chaos worked, and
when the Celtics were vulnerable is because you had the
two men game trying to take over instead of using
all those ancillary parts. Well, they put their egos aside,
(28:40):
got their title, and now they try to figure out
how to run it back because they're already heavy favorites
for twenty five.
Speaker 1 (28:45):
They could win the second championship of the Grimace era.
How about that they won the first professional championship of
the grim Sports other titles before that. Yeah, but they're
gonna be like a big trivia question, like you're gonna
be at bar one day and go who won the
first professional tie of the Grimace era in sports? Oh
my god, that was back in twenty twenty four, before
the Mets won like five World Series in a row.
(29:06):
Because Grimmace throughout the first ball they know. Oh, the Celtics, Celtics, Celtics, Celtics,
write it down South, which minor league team? Grimas day, grimmoat.
Everybody's gonna have a Grimace day. They're all gonna have
a Grimace day. The Savanna Bananas have to have some
kind of grimma.
Speaker 4 (29:18):
So much free advertising with the parent corporation of grim
Come on, Jason, nobody's gonna remember this championship.
Speaker 1 (29:24):
Of course, what the Mets with Grimace? Of course they are.
No the Celtics, No, dude, it says, I'm sorry, dude,
it's a Celtics. Well look listen to you. Sorry, you
and the Lakers. There should be a photo of Lebron
and Jalen Brown each clasping hands and holding it up
like like they're a team. Like when the president and
vice president win and they hold up and that's the
photo we see the next day after the election. They
(29:45):
should be together holding their hands together. Hey, the two
champions of this.
Speaker 4 (29:48):
Year in the end, Medel Johnson should have to take
his tweet down that they have more the Celtics have
more titles than the Lakers.
Speaker 1 (29:54):
I'm pretty sure it's even I think Magic just bought
the Celtics. I'm pretty sure that's eighty team each. He
says they have more. Well he's not counting the n season.
Yeah no, he said. Well, you know what, you reach
out to Magic Johnson. See what he says, The banner's
a banner time out to find out what's trending in
the wide world of sports. From a guy who actually
has a collection of Mayor mccheese glasses. Really, it's Steve Desager.
Speaker 6 (30:18):
Drinking glasses, not spectacles. No, I meant spectacles. Yeah, I met.
Speaker 1 (30:21):
Yeah that Mayor mccheese used to wear like these were
commercial worn Mayor mcchis talking.
Speaker 6 (30:27):
Doesn't he also have the ribbon on the chest.
Speaker 1 (30:29):
Or oh the sash? Yeah? Oh yeah, yea, yeah, well
he's mayor. I mean, come on, yeah, can you drink cheese?
Sure you can. Chason will find a way game get
a five minute Jason response on how you do that? Yeah,
he's preparing it. That's the whole next savment.
Speaker 6 (30:47):
Game five of the NBA Finals was at Boston tonight
and the Celtics eliminated Dallas. It ended the NBA season.
In fact, it was a twenty one point halftime lead.
Dallas wins one oh six eighty eight, Jason Tatum thirty
one points eleven and assists. Jalen Brown Finals MVP, and
by the way, Drew Holliday the only player in NBA
history to win a title in his first season with
(31:09):
two separate franchises, Milwaukee three years ago and now with
Boston this season. In fact, the Celtics liked the Nuggets
last year just about swept through the conference final. At
NBA Finals, each went eight and one. Luka Doncic in
the loss twenty eight points twelve rebounds, He had five assists,
seven turnovers from three point range. He was two and
(31:33):
two for nine. Celtics franchise earns its record eighteenth NBA title.
So when you take a two games to none lead
in the final, usually win the title. Thirty two of
the thirty seven teams in history that have done that
in the NBA Finals do win the championship, and the Celtics,
by the way this postseason, when taking a double digit
(31:53):
lead in a game undefeated fourteen to zero, including tonight
Stanley Cup Game five, It's tomorrow, Florida up three games
to one, hosts Edmonton, Florida has never won the Cup.
Franchise started in nineteen ninety three, the Columbus Blue Jackets
fired coach Pascal Vincent after one season. The team recently
hired a new general manager, so in the NHL, eleven
(32:15):
head coaches have now been fired this season. At the
Euro Soccer Tournament, France defeated Austria won nothing. France scored
on an own goal late first half, but Killian and
Bape left late in the game with a broken nose
after a collision on a header. No surgery will be needed.
Romania shut out Ukraine three nothing, and then Slovakia upset
Belgium won nothing on a goal in the seventh minute.
(32:38):
Belgium had two goals disallowed after video review. Both were
good calls. Tomorrow on Fox TV, Portugal against Chechia three
pm Eastern time. The Copa America Soccer tournament starts Thursday night.
Speaker 1 (32:50):
On FS SURE check your local listings for the game
and time in your area.
Speaker 6 (32:56):
Moving on, Rory McElroy says he'll take a few weeks
off after blowing a late lead at the US opened yesterday.
At the College World Series, Florida eliminated NC State five
to four. Texas A and m was a five to
one winner over Kentucky Tonight. Yankees pitcher Garrett Cole will
make his season debut on Wednesday after an elbow injury.
Yankee first baseman Anthony Rizzo could miss four to six
(33:16):
weeks with a broken arm. Tomorrow night, the Yanks will
host Baltimore. The first place Yankees lead the Orioles by
a game and a half in the AL East. Also
Tomorrow night, the White Sox at nineteen and fifty four
will be hosting Houston. The Mets won their six game
in a row, fourteen to two at Texas. Rangers have
lost four straight. Francisco Lindor went four for four. The
Dodgers were up nine to one in the ninth nine
(33:38):
to five the final at Colorado. Winning pitcher James Paxton
is seven and one. Pitcher Clayton Kershaw starts minor league
rehab Wednesday at a Ball. Dodger pitcher Yoshinobu Yamamoto went
on the IL yesterday with a strained rotator cuff and
officially on the injured list today. Shortstop Mookie bats of
La broke his hand yesterday on a hit by pitch.
He's out six to eight weeks. Shoe Heyotani was leading
(34:01):
off tonight and had three hits, Freddy Fraeman a single
and five walks at coors Field. Angels won the late
game five to three over Milwaukee. San Francisco with a
three run homer top of the ninth, beat the Cubs
seven six in Chicago. Saint Louis with a twelfth inning
home run, eventually won seven to six at Miami. Marlins
have lost sixth straight, and Philadelphia beat San Diego nine
(34:21):
to two Kyle Schwarber two to run homers.
Speaker 1 (34:24):
Back to you, Now, I don't know what it is
because I try to look up. Is there a record
for most walks in a game by a batter? I
mean five times in a nine and in game, there's
no way someone's been walking. Someone's walk certainly the Dodger record.
It's certainly the Dodger record for coors Field. But yeah,
in history, I am certain that Jimmy Fox or somebody
in that era had walked six in a game.
Speaker 2 (34:46):
Wow.
Speaker 1 (34:46):
Yeah, okay, all right, thank you Steve.
Speaker 3 (34:49):
Six walks first three Bryce Harper did in twenty sixteen,
Jem Bagwell nineteen ninety nine, and the great Andre Thornton
back in nineteen Wow.
Speaker 1 (34:57):
First basement of the Indians. Wow, nice, I couldn't find it.
You found in the second Very.
Speaker 6 (35:02):
Nineteen thirty eight Jimmy Fox The.
Speaker 3 (35:05):
Fox Free and then you get to Freddie Freeman in
Company with five.
Speaker 1 (35:09):
Uh coming up next? Well, the Celtics are the champions.
What about the big superstar? And what is next for
Luka Doncic, what he needs to do in the offseason
because the guy he kind of looks like right now
isn't somebody you want to pattern the rest of your
career after That's next rid here, Jason and Mike Fox.
Speaker 2 (35:29):
Be sure to catch live editions of The Jason Smith
Show with Mike Harmon weekdays at ten pm Eastern, seven
pm Pacific.
Speaker 1 (35:36):
Fox Sports Radio The Jason Smith Show with My best
friend Mike Harmon live Fromthetirerag dot Com Studios. So the
Celtics are the chance, but really, Luka Donsich is the
one player that the NBA Finals has been about. And
looking ahead, I'll tell you this, I didn't feel great
(36:00):
about Luca coming off Game three because all of the
worst traits that he has came to fruition and cost
them the game and cost them the series. His emotional play,
he gets very stubborn when he wants to play a
certain way and do certain things to the detriment of
the Mavericks. I want to try to get contact instead
of getting to the hoop. I want to complain about
(36:21):
calls will the ball is going the other way, and
I'm not going to be smart defensively. I'm going to
take risks and I foll out of a game they
need me in. And it was all of the Ills
come home to roost for Game three, and it was boy,
Luca's going to walk out of this finals with all
kinds of questions hanging over his head and it's going
to be a really rough offseason. Now you want to
(36:42):
think and hope that maybe he's figured it out a
little bit because he took responsibility for it the following
day after the day or two away. Maybe he talked
to some teammates, talk to his coaches. But he definitely
played a better game in Game four. He didn't complain
to the officials enough. And you want to think that, Okay,
maybe he's turned the corner for that. Maybe that's something
that all right. This was it was an expensive lesson
(37:05):
because it costs you the NBA Finals. But you're talking
about Luca twenty five to twenty six years old, you
expect to have him as a great one of the
top three four players in the league for the next
six or seven years. So while it was an expensive lesson,
at least you feel in theory a little bit better
going forward that he is going to be that guy.
Speaker 3 (37:22):
Well your hope, right, But I mean you walk out
of the season with a hope off your two best players, right,
He and Kyrie seemingly have a forged a strong bond,
and Kyrie taking those steps forward as well. A lot
of questions of him coming into the season seemed to
be asked and answered as we get into the offseason,
(37:42):
as he waited to greet each of his teammates as
they headed to the tunnel as the confetti fell, so
they kind of run in parallel. Here, still a lot
of wishing and hoping that this continues for another season,
that you're able to add more assets around them and
perhaps make another run through a very crowded Western conference.
Speaker 1 (38:01):
But that's just where we're at with Hope.
Speaker 3 (38:03):
He did it for two games, Was it enough to
make him realize sitting on the bench for those four
minutes and what maybe reading all the social media thereafter,
because there's one thing on social media about him running
wild right now. Someone did an edit of the famous
Michael Finley taking it.
Speaker 1 (38:20):
Yeah, it's a mini Larry O'Brien.
Speaker 3 (38:23):
Trophy that's in his hand as he talks to his
pop and then Michael Finley taking said trophy away from him.
Speaker 1 (38:32):
So that's the mental part of it. But this is
what Luca needs, the physical part of it. He's a
little too much James Harden in that he's very similar
superstar that can do everything. But what was the thing
with James Harden in his prime? You'd play all season,
get to the end of the playoff games, James Harden
would get tired and suddenly his shots don't fall. He
(38:54):
couldn't finish games, his team went home. It's the same
thing with Luka Doncics, right, the guys not chiseled. But
he needs to get stronger. He needs to get stronger
because teams are going to be more physical at him.
You saw physical the Celtics were because they knew they
could wear him down. He needs to be able to
have his better stamina so he's not tired at the
end of games because he does get tired, and when
(39:16):
you're the one guy that's got to carry the team,
if you're tired, guess what nobody else is doing it.
I mean you could see it from Luca, the physical
toll it's taken on him. He's got stamina and shape,
He's got to He's got to reform his body a
little bit. Look, we saw Nikola Jokis win MVP and
get skinny and then win the MVP again. So it
can happen now, whether it's it's him getting more ropey
(39:38):
or more muscular, but something where he needs to have
it be at the point where physically he can withstand
a pounding and not be tired at the end, because
right now it's a little bit too much James Harden
in him going forward.
Speaker 3 (39:49):
Well, I think as you go back to James Harden,
a lot of his creativity offensively was how how well
I can get to the free throw line? And then
they had meetings about that, and the officials had meetings
about that. But to the point of if you're gonna
be that ball dominant and where drawing contact is such
a big part of your game, which clearly it is,
(40:10):
where you're looking for fouls and and ones or whatever
over one hundred plus games, they're beating the hell out
of you, particularly in the playoffs, like there's no easy,
easy minutes to be had. So yeah, improving conditioning. Perhaps
Michael Finley taking the beer is actually a good thing.
Speaker 1 (40:30):
That I mean, not had that one beer.
Speaker 3 (40:32):
Oh we're gonna from a philosophical of where you're heading
in this.
Speaker 1 (40:36):
Exit out about a Fresca exit smallen dome coming up
in ten minutes. Wherever you get your uh your podcasts, iTunes,
iart radio app Our best of podcast is up, Go
get it download listen. We'll love you forever and ever
and ever. My buddy Ben Maller is no
Hosts And Creators
Jason Smith
Mike Harmon
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