June 17, 2021 • 38 mins
Jason Smith and Mike Harmon react to another postseason collapse from a Doc Rivers-led team. Jason asks everyone to pray for Jacob deGrom after the ace suffers his fourth injury of the season. Plus, it's the latest edition of the Magic Johnson Twitter Game!
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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 week
night ten pm to two a m Eastern seven to
eleven pm Pacific on Fox Sports Radio. Find your local
station for The Jason Smith Show with Mike Harmon at
Fox Sports Radio dot com, or stream us live every
night on the I Heart Radio app by searching fs
(00:20):
R you're listening to Fox Sports Radio. I tell you,
Mike Carmen, I felt like Kevin Durant the last few minutes.
How's that I felt like Kevin Durant against the Bucks
last night because I just murdered a bowl of chili
in six minutes. It was so good and I just
(00:41):
killed it. I just got it. Was like there was
nothing I can do, nothing, nothing wrong I can do.
I got everything in every spoonful. I got cheese, I
got beans, I got me, I got everything. I just killed.
There was I was in the zone, man, I was
absolutely in the zone offensive operational efficiency. And later on, uh,
(01:01):
well you'll you'll have a barrage. Won't leave it at that.
I don't know. I think I could eat my wife's
chili every day. I'm not saying you couldn't. I'm just
saying for those around you, this is where the mobile
Fox Sports radio studios come in handy. That's all I
can say. No chili, I'm actually okay with as long
as long as I don't you know, have too much
(01:23):
cheese depending on that not that's that's a bad combination.
Now cheese, I'm no cheese on. It's not nice to
the rest of your community. Yeah, it's usually grease that
does it. Grease is you know, eating greasy food? Tight shirt.
I'll tell you listen, I know you can eat. You
can eat Chilian and be okay. You can do it.
Chili gets a bad rap. You know you hear chili anything, Oh,
(01:43):
that's what's gonna happen. I think chili gets a bad rap. Yeah,
but normally with chili you're also using I mean, for
most folks, they're using a lesser quality of meat. So yes,
that that grease and fat factor is certainly going to
be there. Well, you gotta trust the chef. You gotta
be able to trust the show. I'm not saying. I
mean you go to some nice lean innis in chili
or something. Now you've got something delicious and a little
(02:04):
off the beaten path and I'm all for it. Lean
venice and chili. There you go. Fox Sports Radio, that
Jason Smith Show with my best friend Mike Harmen. I
don't know what's weirder, uh story tonight. The fact that
the Sixers gave away the game to the Hawks and
an epic playoff collapse, or the fact that somehow the
(02:25):
Clippers are leading this game over the Jazz with three
minutes ago in the third quarter. Well, I'm gonna tell
you why the former is not the more surprising one.
How about that. I'm gonna say it's more surprising that
the Clippers have a lead late in the third because
I'm gonna go to our our boss, Scott Shapiro, uh,
(02:46):
doing some research because well that's what he does. Uh,
and maybe he doesn't like doc rivers. I don't know,
uh doc rivers in recent second round games tonight, it's
when the six point lead lost Monday, eighteen point lead
lost Game five, last year, sixteen point lead loss, Game six,
nineteen point lead loss Game seven, last year, twelve point
(03:06):
lead loss. Uh. So you could just kind of add on, right,
you gotta get a t o on that streak. I'm
not sure when it's coming in. But I was more
likely as you and Frostburg and I were going back
and forth with text and what do we well, I'll
say to each other's Yep, here it comes. Because nobody
else wants a shot, can take a shot. It's Joe
(03:29):
LM Bead and Seth Curry against the world. Seth Curry
greater than Steph Curry, hot take, hot take. Well, it
was his night for a while. It was the Seth
Curry game, and it was gonna be his game, you know.
And and that's the thing about Doc Rivers is that
I'm glad you brought him up because you know for
all the the the vitriol that Ben Simmons is going
(03:51):
to get in rightfully so, because he's not a player
that you can count on, right I mean, I just
saw this incredible stat that he has missed forty five
throws in the playoffs, more than the Hawks, the Sons
and the Nets as teams all right. Now, that that's
something where you know you're in your last days with
(04:11):
a team if you're underachieving like this and not being
that player he's he's missed more free throws than three
other teams in the playoffs. Right now. So yes, Ben Simmons,
clearly we talked about him and and it's it's last
days for him with the Sixers. He's gonna be with
somebody else next season. But Doc Rivers, and you can't
you can't just ignore this. Is that you can point
(04:33):
to different things in games and say, Okay, here's a
you know, here's a blown twenty six point lead. It's
different than this blown eighteen point lead, which is different
than this sixteen point lead that was blown. But the
bottom line is is that these losses follow Doc Rivers
around for his entire career. Okay, what about games go
(04:53):
back to Game seven of the Finals against the Lakers,
are thirteen points going to the fourth quarter, they somehow
found a way to lose, all right? I mean these
games have followed Doc Rivers around, and it's it's the
biggest stain on his resume, and it's it's it's what
they all have in common, big games at the end
that his teams can't figure out a way to navigate
(05:15):
the last few minutes of whether it's a big blown
lead or mistakes and turnovers the common denominator and a
lot of these losses has been Doc Rivers you just
went through games from the past, you know, this series,
this season, and just last season, keep going back to
everything else and went on with the Clippers and how
many leads the Clippers have blown and lost over the
course of his career with them. I look back and
(05:35):
I go, I want a deep rewind on how the
hell the Celtics won the NBA title? How did the
Celtics beat the Lakers? I mean, I want to go
play off Rondo. I mean, I remember James Posey just
hitting three after three in big moments, and you know,
but how did how did Doc Rivers? How did he
navigate those games? How did he not give away those
games at the end of the Lakers when when they
won their title, you know, and then they cars they
(05:55):
lost the next year. I mean, I really don't get it.
I mean I want a deep rewind on that to go, Okay,
show me again, how the how the Celtics wont show
me again what they did to be able to close
this series out? Because Doc Rivers teams all have this
in common. And when you continually have one type of
loss in common, Okay, it's not always the players, it's
(06:16):
not always You've got different players, different mixes, But when
the coach is the same, it's okay. Why can you
not figure out the ending of games when you're up big?
Why can you not figure out what to do with
the basketball? Why can you not figure out how to
play better defense to be able to stop them from
coming back? How do you not figure out a way
to say, okay, we got two guys scoring, let's figure
out something for somebody else to get a lay up
(06:36):
for some kind of hoop. How do we not do this?
Doc Rivers just has too many games like this and
and and to see it go on throughout his career.
It's why Doc Rivers and you know, as you like
to say, isn't a to B coach? Is he a
B two S coach? Now? Which is why I say,
how did he win the title with the with the
with the Celtics. I want to go back and see
just everything that went on for the Celtics to win. That'said.
(06:56):
Maybe it was Paul Piers coming out of the wheelchair
and that was everything. But I want to see how
they wanted, how Doctor was able to hold onto that.
Let's see, let's go back in time, shall we? Uh?
Game one final Bull teams under a hundred and a
number of these games. Uh, Kevin Garnett had thirteen boards whatever,
(07:17):
one oh eight, one oh two. Game two, Uh, you
had a big game for Kobe, but again Garnett cleaning
up the glass and then one win for the Lela
grinding and out man Noah explosive games until the clincher
when the Celtics won two. So I guess long protracted
(07:38):
defensive battles. Well, that's you know thirteen years ago. You
need more offense now, and you need more players that
can actually hit a shot. There you had a bunch
of veterans and a plucky rookie Rondo ready to get
after it. Here you had two guys that were willing
and able to take a shot. And you can't harp
on that. And that enough makes Harris disappeared and Ben
(08:02):
Simmons for a moment it was gonna be celebrated. Hey,
he went two for two at the foul line with
four three lefts like, look at that, and then they
sent it back and he missed another two. Uh, and
nobody else could score. It was like they put a
lid on the rim until Seth Curry's final shot with
point one second remaining, scoreless other than those two two
(08:22):
sequences in the final four three of the game. And
when you talk about all those misfree throws, right, you
lose a game by three. It doesn't take a genius
to do some of that basic math of having to
someone who's just adequate at the foul line doesn't necessarily
change the result, but it changes the game, right, It
changes the flow of things. If you could, you're actually
(08:44):
a threat. Hell, if you're a threat to divvy up
a twelve and put up a twelve point foot jump shot,
you're changing the game in which he won't do either.
And I don't know how many suitors there are, Uh,
you seem to think there's a lot of folks that
want this. I want a guy that actually wants to
be on offense. And I think he's gotten paid too
(09:06):
much to want to really change and develop his game
at this point. And that's not even getting into the
whole Kardashian world. Ben Simmons is still a guy who
is gonna score fifteen and seventeen points a game, give
you eight assists, eight rebounds. That's still really really great
in the regular season. But but I can't trust him.
But but but like I mean he can't. He can't
(09:29):
be your second best player if he's your third best player, Okay,
And that's where Ben Simmons needs to be, and someone
will get him. He will be their third best player
next year. And that's gonna be all right. And that's
he's still twenty four years old, right, he's not thirty
years old. It's still it's still a big thing. He's
the same guy he was when he came in the league.
So okay, everything is the same. His field goal percentage
(09:51):
is the shame same, his shots per game is the same,
his three pointers are the same, which is zero. Uh,
you know, everything is about the same. He needs to
be able to either a get to the next level
or be be able to be on a team where
his offensive accumated what he can do defensively, all of
these things can fit in better. And right now, when
you're asking him to be the number two guy with
(10:12):
em beaid, it's impossible. And then the Sixers fans gotta
sit back and go you told us trust to bleep
in process, man, and we're still sitting around with two guys,
all right, We're still sitting around with two guys and
then beating Simmons and we're lucky we're getting guys like
Seth Curry to be able to come out of nowhere
and score thirty points. So this whole trust the process
things still comes down to em beating Simmons. And Simmons
(10:33):
is not the guy they thought he was. So you
can trust the process all you want to and say,
we're loading up with all these picks, but if you
pick a guy he doesn't turn out, well, how can
I trust your process. I gotta trust that you know
you're picking things right. And and beat as good as
he was beginning with and Simmons as good as he
was beginning of his career. Uh, this is a lot
of years later now, man, I mean this is not
his second year in the league. This is this is
(10:54):
this is the end of year four for Ben Simmons
and he's still this guy. Now that's just and so
what's to to think that you're suddenly gonna get something
to change? Right? And and look, maybe i'm team news.
Systems work. Hey, look, Steph Curry was three point a
game scorer under Mark Jackson. Right, he was a borderline off,
but he's still liked shooting the ball. Okay, this guy
(11:16):
this guy is crazy to get rid of the ball.
He did, but when when he never met a shot
he didn't like. Actually, but Steve Kirk comes in with
his system and suddenly he's scoring thirty a game. So
it's not that suddenly Ben Simmons can't succeed. It's that
he's not going to succeed here. He's other teams have
already given him ample opportunity by taking five steps back
(11:37):
and saying, go ahead, shoot, You're not gonna get a
better system than that in the NBA. It's like, you're
never gonna be more open than he is. Now. When
you're playing a pickup game and you're tired and the
guy you're guarding steps back out behind three and stands
there with the ball, you just go go ahead, take it.
Just I'm not coming out there going dude, and the
guy gets a free shot. I mean, yeah, I get it.
(11:58):
But if he goes to a team where he doesn't
have to worry about that, okay, then well, I mean, look,
if you're gonna if you're gonna trade for him and
think we're gonna train you, you know, you know, like
you think you're gonna go to a team like Jon
Gruden likes to do a saying, give me all these guys,
I'm gonna be a mad scientist, turn him into something.
If you think you're gonna trade him to a team
and the coach is gonna say, I'm gonna get this,
he's gonna start hitting threes and doing all of this,
(12:19):
No that that, then that's stupid. But you want to
get him saying I'm gonna take advantage of what he
does and turn him into the best version of himself,
then that can work. Because if you have a team
where you can trust somebody else is gonna take the
big shots at the end that you know, and where
Simmons can be the ball control guy. We got a
guy down low, we got another guy that can make shots.
Maybe maybe the Lakers find a way to say, hey,
(12:40):
we we got all this money invested in Dennis Shrewder.
We don't have to worry about that. Now, Hey seventy
six is on. Does you take Dennis Shrewder and Taylor
Norton Tucker and we'll take Ben Simmons off your hands.
Something like that can work where Ben Simmons can still
be that guy, but being the best version of himself
is the best you can hope for, and that's being
the third best guy in the team. Now, the good
news room is as other teams that can have that.
(13:01):
But you know in the NBA now with the sixers
and no, we need more. Our team needs more than that.
We need somebody else to rely on. Where it's not
let's dump it to Joel Embiid, but in the where
in the last five minutes he's exhausted because he's a
big playing up and down the floor all night and
he's is absolutely tank and he's got no gas left.
You need somebody else you can actually make shots and
take that offensive onus off of him and not just
(13:22):
hope that one night. Hey, maybe Seth Curry goes for
thirty tonight. What kind of offense is that? That's our system.
We hope a guy goes for thirty. Okay, that's that'll
work out well in the playoffs. I got three things
for him. Number One, Shrewder's a free agent. Remember he
turned down the four million. Oh that's right, right, he
turned it down to he's going to be a free agent. Yeah,
I don't have to do anything with him. Uh, Horton
(13:44):
Tucker probably gets dealt Chicago. Actually, one of the rumored
destinations there. I don't know what they're giving up, but
everybody goes into their fantasy scenarios, so that's fun. Uh.
Number two, maybe Darryl Morey's tampering fine comes into play.
Remember he tried to recruit Stefph. Maybe Steph wants to
play with Seth and then he comes in, they figure
(14:08):
out the money, and then Ben Simmons is a guy.
And then I asked the the question that you and
I asked on this show. And I'd love to see
this catch on because a lot of our stuff does.
I'd like like for people to just ponder this for
a moment as it relates to Ben Simmons. What if
this is as good as it gets. Good defender, great defender, defense,
(14:34):
Defensive Player of the Year finalists, fantastic stuff, but a
guy who absolutely turtles and shrinks away in the second
half of games that are important, two straight games, one
shot attempt in the second half. I rest my case,
Twitter at how about a fresca Mike gets swelling down
the Jason Smith Show with my BIS friend Mike car
(14:54):
And so you just watch that big three team trade
that shows up, Mike, where guys are shedding salary. He
winds up going a place where hey, baby, now this works.
Just watch, just watch. It could be it could be
the Dallas Mavericks going, Hey, you know what, maybe we
can swing some back. We've got to get rid of Porzingis. Yeah,
but you don't want Ben Simmons with the ball because
Lucas got it at the position. Let's end me a
we'll figure it out. There's gonna be all. Asked Jason
(15:17):
Tatum about position thirty two million, yo, that I look
for for a guy that doesn't want to shoot. I'm
not paying thirty five million a year. That's that's the
going rate for Ben Simmons on this extension. Baby, Okay,
just wait, I'm telling you somebody's gonna want He's too young,
and he's still a really talented player. He's just not
what the Sixers need. Twitter At, how about a fresca?
(15:40):
Mike gets swollen? Do the Jason Smith Show with my
base friend Mike Harmon? Are you dealing with the dead battery?
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one battery destination. Right now, the Clippers lead the Jazz
early in the fourth quarter nine two eighty five. The
Jazz have gone cold from three, the Clippers trying to
(16:22):
hold on without Kauai Leonard. We got more on this,
plus one player who needs all your thoughts and prayers tonight.
I'm not gonna say who it is, but it rhymes
with makeups. Mom. We're gonna get into it next right here. Fox.
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 I Heart
(16:44):
Radio app Fox Sports Radio The Jason Smith Show with
my bist friend Mike Harmon, and they are at the
scorer's table right now waiting to see what kind of
foul call is going against Patrick Beverley, who just pushed
Donovan Mitchell over from behind and on an inbounds play. Uh,
Mitchell goes down. He is okay, he's gonna going to
(17:04):
the free throw line and shooting. Whether what kind of
foul it's going to be, is it's going to speak?
It was. It was a great It was a great
fall down by Dono Mitchell. I will say that it
was a great fall down, but still it should have
been a foul called Beverly, there's no question, but hostile
acting whatever, really, So Beverly stays in the game. Mitchell
(17:26):
hits the free throw. Uh, they hold onto the basketball.
So the Clippers lead over the Jazz. Right now is
ninety four to ninety eight minutes to go in the
fourth quarter. And for Donovan Mitchell, it's not been a
great night for him in the In the big barrage
of threes early on for the Jazz, he kind of,
you know, hung back a bit. Bogdanovich had all kinds
(17:48):
of threes in the first quarter. But at some point
Mitchell's got to take this game over. He has not
played well. He's got thirteen points. He has three out
of ten from the floor, clearly Beverly has given him
some kind of difficulty. But uh, this is where when
you have this game five at home and you're and
the other team is playing without the best player on
their team and maybe the best player in the playoffs,
you gotta find a way to rise up and win
(18:09):
this game. This is This would be just as embarrassing
for the Jazz to lose this game as it was
for the Sixers to blow their game against the Hawks
earlier tonight. Yeah, they were eight point favorites. Afterward got
out that Kauai wasn't playing eight point road favorites. Uh
for these Jazz, they do have six players in double figures.
That's all finding good. But Clippers have answered the bell
(18:32):
time and time again, and the monster effort from Paul George,
a guy who's rewriting his history with every possession. Remember
I did pick the Clippers to go to the NBA
Finals in our official Fox Sports Radio bracket term. I
picked the Clippers for the finals. Remember my Clippers had
them in Uh yeah, I had them in the conference
finals and losing to well, the Denver Nuggets. Who But
(18:57):
I gotta say though, then nicoleie Yokich photo to Day
I retweeted it. It's one of my favorite photos of
a player out of the realm of there. They're playing right,
you know, not at a practice field, not hanging out,
you know, in the waiting room. No, no, no, he
was sitting in the sulky getting ready to ride around
because he's a big horse racing fan. How you like
(19:21):
that getting in the sulky? It's what seven three I
think about, big effort by that horse. Let me tell you,
wait a minute, this guy not this guy, No, no, no, no,
no racing you getting a little buggy also called the sulky.
And there's a photo of him like wow, no, yeah,
that horse man. You want to talk about getting your workout?
(19:43):
And you know, it's like when you're swinging a bat
in the on deck circle with all the donuts and
then you take them off of the bat, feel so light.
Think about that horse run like the wind donuts. All right,
So we thought you were gonna say horse. I was going, whoa, whoa, whoa.
You haven't talked about horse meat sandwiches in a while. No,
I think tight shirts lost that drop. Oh no, there
(20:04):
it is, he's got it right there. He's tie shirt
the loser goes on the fire. Ah, wow, I haven't
heard that one of a couple of years, just sitting
on it. Uh. Clippers lead the Jazz right now again,
one hundred to nineties, seven minutes to go in the
fourth quarter, and yeah, Paul George is like, hey, and
(20:25):
six more minutes. Everybody's gonna love me. But a huge
story tonight. Now looks like it's going to end rather well,
and I want to thank you for all your thoughts
and prayers. As Jacob de Graham, who started tonight against
the Cubs as dominant as a picture could ever possibly
be stopped. Tight shirt stop first picture since one to
(20:49):
set down the side in order the first three innings
with eight strikeouts. Freaking whoa? You know? Tight shirt? What
is wrong with you? Man? The Graham we're talking about
a good life and he's fun. You know what. I'm
going to ignore it and just give you the story.
De Gram had to leave the game though, after three
and the Let's wind up winning, but de Gram had
(21:10):
to leave with shoulder sore nous. Now the good news is,
he said after the game he is confident it's nothing.
He is getting an m R I on his right
shoulder on Thursday. But the good news is, uh, tests
on his shoulders showed no decline and strength when compared
to his left one. So right now, all the initial
tests look that everything is okay. But here's the thing
(21:30):
about de Gram, right, there's there's two thoughts. This one
is the guy's gotta go on the injured list for
a little while. I'm okay with Nazie and de Gram
until the All Star break. All right. This is now
the fourth injury this year that he has had to
a different part of his body. It's like me when
I wake up in the morning one day, my knee hurts,
one day, my back is sore. One day, what did
I do to my neck? Did I sleep on it?
(21:52):
He has miss starts because of a back issue, he
has had to leave starts early because of an elbow
issue because of side tighten us, and now for a shoulder.
Right now, all of that, none of this has turned
out to be incredibly serious. It's been okay. Uh, you know,
you miss a little bit come back, but clearly something
is up and like you know, he needs one of
those Star Trek big body scans. They look at absolutely everything.
(22:14):
All right, what is what is going on here? Because
this is the fourth different part of his body that
has forced him to either miss a start or leave
a game early. So yeah, if if you need to
sit him down for a bit and get him on
some kind of program strengthened some muscles. I don't know
what it is. Maybe it could be it could be
strength training, it could be something more. I don't know,
but he needs to sit for a little bit where
you can figure out what this is because the guy
(22:36):
is too valuable. He's the best pitcher in baseball. It's
not close. He may be the best player in baseball
at this point, and it's not He's got six r
b I s now and he's only allowed four urn runs.
All right, that's what he's done this season. If I
don't see him till after the All Star break, I'm fine.
And if it's at the point where I just have
to hold my breath every time he pitches, then that's
(22:57):
where we're at. Because now I know exactly how Dodge
or fans feel with Clayton Kershaw in the past few years,
where every time he came out with his back issues,
the Dodgers held their breath. Is he gonna be okay?
He's gonna get past this. And sometimes he said, you know,
sometimes he has a big run, sometimes he misses a
bunch of starts. That's just how it is. If that's
how it's gonna be with de Graham, then that's kind
of how it's gonna be. He's not a big he's
(23:18):
not a big guy. He's kind of a slim reaper
like like Kevin Duran a bit. So can his body
hold up all these pitches? I'd like to think it ken,
But if not, and it's that's what it is, then
that's what it is. If he can't throw more than
eighty pitches in the game, he can't throw more than
eighty pitches in the game, you just have to deal
with it. When you're dealing with the best pitcher in baseball.
We'll figure out a way around it. I don't want
to have to worry about it that way. But if
(23:38):
that's what it is, and then that's what it is.
I'm kind of getting ready for that point now, for
it to be a case of de Graham's career is
gonna be. Hey, three steps forward, we take one step back.
Maybe he misses five or six starts in a year.
He's got a rest he's just he's just susceptible to
these little dings and injuries, whatever it's gonna be. I'm
kind of accepting that this is now the reality going forward.
(23:59):
I don't know that I will ever feel confident that
the Graham's out there for a win in a game
and and the next start is a given, and he's
gonna go out there, he's gonna pitch, and he's be
pitches well, he's gonna pitch seven innings and he doesn't pitch, well,
he'll come out. But then but the given of the
next game, I'm I'm I'm understanding, coming to peace with
and I'm never gonna feel that way for him going forward.
Well that's problem though. We start getting into the injury reports,
(24:20):
like an NFL weekend of all right, here's all the
stuff that the guy has got ailing him here in
week eleven, and it starts glowing red, you know, almost
like they'd injected the die India. Let's see what's going
on in their holy crap knee, uh, and shoulder and uh,
well what's that his big toe? Uh? And then he's
got a little bit of a sore neck. Uh. What
(24:43):
happens all these little injuries like we talked about with
the NBA, first injury start to favor, he gets second injury,
start laboring and trying to fight through, be gets third injury.
Is he gonna be Tim linds Um the freak? Well,
I'm killing the rec had bad the freak had bad mechanics,
that was the all thing, and then eventually a bad
(25:04):
hip whatever. But the problem is is as much as
you start um trying to pitch through the pain, you're
going to start tweaking stuff as well. Right, Your mechanics
are probably gonna alter. Even if it's just a little bit,
it may be enough to throw off your body. And
I hope that's not the case. I love watching the
guy pitch. I may be one of the only nerds,
(25:25):
uh that you know that will be like wait, which
which aces on? Yeah, let's let's get the MLB TV
up and running. And it doesn't have to be a
White Sox game. I know that madness, right, even though
all their starting pitchers dominate on a nightly basis. But
with Jacob de Graham, I think your assessments right. You
know you've got to have the conversation with him if
(25:46):
he's thinking, hey, I still want to be out there.
It's gonna be hard to shut him down, right unless
you can legitimately hold up something that says, dude, it's torn, dude,
it's it's not strained. It's not you know, let's let's
go get some flex al from on your or whatever
product you're you're going to, Uh, it's it's got to
(26:08):
be something that you can hold up and say, dude,
it's not it's not working. You're you're really doing long
term damage. He's a guy that's gonna want the ball
every fifth day. That's who he is. And it's hard
to stop guys. Right, even though we we talked about
it before it even happened with Anthony Davis right talking
about how he got bullied onto that court. Part of
its professional pride of you, you're supposed to be the
(26:29):
next guy, You're supposed to be taken over for lebron
So that works. Plus, you hear all the noise locally
and nationally in the media, and you're gonna want to
go on and with Jacob Degram, what's been the national story?
Look at this guy's doing stuff nobody's ever seen. Right,
we we do the Jason Stark line that you've quoted
for years of every night you see something in baseball
(26:52):
that you haven't seen before. Well, Jacob Degram has been
doing that and it feeds the ego. So if you
think you can give it the old college, try the
endorphin rush. You're gonna try to get through your six
innings or seven innings and your your own worst enemy.
So while while it's that you know level of competition
inside you, that competitive spirit that spurs you to greatness,
(27:14):
it also isn't going to allow you to say, hey,
you know what, I probably need two or three starts off.
So this is gonna be a difficult conversation between he,
his his representatives, the training staff, uh and the Reds,
the rest of the Mets organization. I'd love to hear
it like this is one if you can give me
a thirty for thirty behind the scenes, trying to convince
(27:35):
an ace he needs to stop for a minute when
he's doing historic things. This is a kind of a
big deal, man. Look, I think the way the Mets
are at this point, look there in first place, their
ten games over five hundred. Even if they give it
all away when he comes back, the Mets are still
in the thick of it, but you have to sit
him down now. I mean, it's just too many things.
And and I'm hopeful that as you mentioned, it's an
(27:57):
alignment thing because when you hurt different parts of your body,
generally in sports, like I'm not a doctor, but you
know covering sports, sure, but you've I've seen that so
many times with athletes where especially pictures where okay, this
is going on, So I gotta compensate for this in
my delivery, and when I do that, uh, something else
in my body gets a little bit out of whack.
(28:18):
And that could be what it is because when you
this is now the fourth thing, and none of these
things are are serious, have been serious so far because
m R. I of his elbow came back clean. Uh
you know it could be hey, because you're doing something
just slightly different with with your mechanics. That's what doesn't
Because this is the fourth time and it's four different
parts of his body. I could see that. I mean, look,
(28:38):
it happens for all of us, right, Like if if
you pull a muscle in your in your leg, right,
let's just say you pull you pull a muscle, you
pull one of your quads, all right, And and now
so for a while, you're gonna walk a little gingerly.
And when you try to do things, you're gonna do things.
You know, using your right foot, is your plant foot
doing different things? And what are you doing there? You're
putting more stress on your right foot, on your right
(28:59):
leg because you can't put it on your left leg.
So now your right leg winds up getting screwed up
because of that. I mean, that's just something that happens
to all of us. To to illustrate that, when you
get to baseball and you're talking about a picture and
and and his mechanics, the slightest thing can do that,
the slightest thing could strain an oblique muscle because you're
just a little bit off and and the Graham is
one of those pictures where he is insanely uh into
(29:22):
his mechanics and any level of deviation that he has
from it. You know, some guys like Rich Hill can
just throw and just hey, I'm gonna throw and pop
off the mound and it's like a different motion every time.
Some guys are I need to repeat this every single
time I throw the ball, And that's how it is.
And he is he is that kind of guy. So
even something is just the tiniest bid off that can
do it. And you know, look, I'm hopeful that that's
(29:44):
what it is and he figures it out. But really
I don't know. And when I say can I count
on de Gram? I don't think I ever will. I mean,
I really don't think I ever will, because I always
I Also, I know how it is for pictures who
get to a certain point and you only have a
certain number of throws in your arm, and and with
more stress going on year and you know, year and
year out, with stressful innings, it becomes a different thing
(30:04):
to try to navigate. But uh, you know, I I'm hopeful,
But will I ever get to the point where I think, hey,
de Gram's gonna be good and I can count them
every fifth day? No, I'm not. I I just don't know.
I know the Dodges fans have been that way with
Clayton Kershaw either, you know, because of the way it's been.
And hey, when Clayton is great when he's out there,
but boy, sometimes I don't know, And how long is
he gonna miss and what's he doing? He's gonna miss
(30:25):
a start here? I mean that that that's that's sort
of you know what the two of them have in common.
The two best pitchers in baseball the last ten years
both have that. Yeah, I'll say this. I may disagree
with a lot of things that are tweeted said, especially
well the barrage sometimes from Lebron James, I will agree
when he was he was one of many to comment
(30:47):
on Kevin Durance huge effort right at the forty seven
seventeen ten or forty nine seventeen ten. Um. You know,
appreciate greatness when when you can, right, because we talk
about it a lot, and certainly LaVar Arrington and I
on Sundays to find your wins of Hey, you know,
we shouldn't be throwing roses and doing all the great
(31:09):
speeches once only when people are gone. Let's celebrate the
greatness while you got it. So for Dodger Fanspin Kershaw
and certainly for you, it's every fifth day with Jacob
Degram because remember how quickly the experiment that was the
Dark Night came and went yeah, yeah, yeah, thanks, thanks, yeah,
oh yeah yeah, no, it's all David, right, I appreciate
(31:32):
you got four and Captain America in and I who
was Hawkeye Okay enough and Hawk. Hawkeye is Joey Lucazy. Okay,
that's who Hawkeye is. Be sure to catch live editions
of The Jason Smith Show with Mike Harmon weekdays at
ten pm Eastern, seven pm Pacific. Hey, this is Jason McIntyre.
(31:53):
Joined me every weekday morning on my podcast, Straight Fired
with Jason McIntyre. This isn't your typical words pod pushing
the same tired narratives down your throat every day. Straight
Fire gives you honest opinions on all the biggest sports headlines,
accurate stats to help you win big at the sports book,
and all the best guests. Do yourself a favor and
(32:13):
listen to Straight Fire with Jason McIntyre on the I
Heart Radio app, Apple Podcast, or wherever you get your podcasts,
Fox Sports Radio, The Jason Smith Show with my bast
friend Mike Harmon. I'm an ass man. Paul George attempting
to rewrite his entire playoff legacy in one game and
(32:36):
right now, the Clippers were the six point lead with
just under two minutes left to play. They lead the
Jazz one ten, one twelve to one oh six, and
oh boy, what to win this would be without Kauai.
Leonard will have more on this game coming up in
about ten minutes. But you know what, with such a
big night in the NBA, we had the big gag
(32:57):
fest by the Sixers and losing one of the all
time uh choke jobs in the NBA, we got a
lot of stuff happening. The best way we can celebrate
it is by playing. And now it's the Magic Johnson
Twitter game. Yeah, Magic Johnson has been a tweeting fool
(33:18):
the last few hours talking about the NBA. Magic Johnson
the most obvious and vanilla tweeter in the world. So
the Magic Johnson Twitter game goes like this, I give
you the tweet. You tell me if it is a
Magic Johnson tweet or made up by me playing tonight myself.
Mike Harmon, David Gascon, Are you guys ready? Let's go
all right? Here we go. The Milwaukee Bucks have no
(33:41):
one to blame but themselves in the loss to the Nets.
The Milwaukee Bucks have no one to blame but themselves
in the loss to the Nets. Yeah. I don't think. Sorry,
I think he would have gone out of his way
there to talk about Kevin Durant. It's too obvious. I
will say it is a magic Johnson tweet. That is suck.
(34:07):
An unbelievable comeback by the Atlanta Hawks to beat the Sixers,
led by Tray Young's thirty nine points. Is that a
magic Johnson tweet? And unbelievable comeback by the Atlanta Hawks
to beat the Sixers led by Tray Young's thirty nine points. Yes,
(34:28):
informational magic. That is a magic. Yes, that is informational
magic at his best. All the teams remaining in the
playoffs play an exciting brand of basketball? Is that a
magic Johnson tweet? All the teams remaining in the playoffs
play an exciting brand of basketball? It can't be. I'm
(34:51):
gonna go yes, that is not because I would I
would have asked him to explain the Sixers and the
Bucks to me. NICOLEA. Yokich. Maybe the m v P,
but Devin Booker and Chris Paul played like most Valuable
players as well. Maybe the m v P, but Devin
(35:13):
Booker and Chris Paul played like most valuable players as well.
I'm gonna go negative. I'll say yeah, that is not. Yeah,
Chicago STIGs, you're a Broncos fan, Get over yourself. Even
(35:34):
without Kauai, the Clippers are a dangerous team who will
rely more on Paul George, Reggie Jackson, and Marcus Morris.
Without Kauai, the Clippers are a dangerous team who will
rely more on Paul George, Reggie Jackson, and Marcus Morris.
I'm gonna say no. I'm gonna say yes, put on
(35:57):
the board. Yes, that is not john what's up, gas guy?
Eat some more way. I don't know. Kevin Durant put
on one of the greatest performances in NBA playoff history,
scoring forty nine points seventeen rebounds in tennisis and leading
(36:21):
his shorthanded nets to victory taking a three to lead.
Is that a magic Johnson tweet? Would he added the shorthanded?
But yeah, the rest of it just reeks of the
magic Johnson tweets? So sure that is a magic Johnson tweets.
(36:41):
Expanding the college football playoff from four teams to twelve
teams is a great idea that a magic Johnson tweet.
Expanding the college football playoff from four teams to twelve
teams is a great idea. Michigan State guy, I'm gonna
say no, because this team still wouldn't qualify. Wow, I'm
gonna say no, Okay, he's good at the economics of stuff,
(37:03):
so I'm gonna say, yeah, that is not man. I
was gonna ask why he was asking commenting on the
playoffs today. You never know, random outliar. The Phoenix Suns
were dominant in their four game sweep of the Nuggets. Yes,
the Phoenix Suns were dominant in their four game sweep
(37:25):
of the Nuggets. I think I just threw up in
my mouth a little bit, but yeah, sure, Oh that
is not Kevin Durant gave us a mount Rushmore performance?
Is that a Magic Johnson gave us a mount Rushmore performance?
(37:49):
That is magic blue? What do you want me to say,
tweeted that's reported or something. I don't know what that
had to do with anything exactly what David Gascon had
(38:12):
in mind. He wants to talk it over. Uh So
there it is. The Magic Johnson twitter game. Coming up next?
Are we on the cusp of one of the biggest
upsets in the playoffs? That's next. Fox
Thanks for listening to The Jason Smith Show with Mike
Harmon podcast. Be sure to catch us live every week
night ten pm to two a m Eastern seven to
eleven pm Pacific on Fox Sports Radio. Find your local
station for The Jason Smith Show with Mike Harmon at
Fox Sports Radio dot com, or stream us live every
night on the I Heart Radio app by searching fs
(00:20):
R you're listening to Fox Sports Radio. I tell you,
Mike Carmen, I felt like Kevin Durant the last few minutes.
How's that I felt like Kevin Durant against the Bucks
last night because I just murdered a bowl of chili
in six minutes. It was so good and I just
(00:41):
killed it. I just got it. Was like there was
nothing I can do, nothing, nothing wrong I can do.
I got everything in every spoonful. I got cheese, I
got beans, I got me, I got everything. I just killed.
There was I was in the zone, man, I was
absolutely in the zone offensive operational efficiency. And later on, uh,
(01:01):
well you'll you'll have a barrage. Won't leave it at that.
I don't know. I think I could eat my wife's
chili every day. I'm not saying you couldn't. I'm just
saying for those around you, this is where the mobile
Fox Sports radio studios come in handy. That's all I
can say. No chili, I'm actually okay with as long
as long as I don't you know, have too much
(01:23):
cheese depending on that not that's that's a bad combination.
Now cheese, I'm no cheese on. It's not nice to
the rest of your community. Yeah, it's usually grease that
does it. Grease is you know, eating greasy food? Tight shirt.
I'll tell you listen, I know you can eat. You
can eat Chilian and be okay. You can do it.
Chili gets a bad rap. You know you hear chili anything, Oh,
(01:43):
that's what's gonna happen. I think chili gets a bad rap. Yeah,
but normally with chili you're also using I mean, for
most folks, they're using a lesser quality of meat. So yes,
that that grease and fat factor is certainly going to
be there. Well, you gotta trust the chef. You gotta
be able to trust the show. I'm not saying. I
mean you go to some nice lean innis in chili
or something. Now you've got something delicious and a little
(02:04):
off the beaten path and I'm all for it. Lean
venice and chili. There you go. Fox Sports Radio, that
Jason Smith Show with my best friend Mike Harmen. I
don't know what's weirder, uh story tonight. The fact that
the Sixers gave away the game to the Hawks and
an epic playoff collapse, or the fact that somehow the
(02:25):
Clippers are leading this game over the Jazz with three
minutes ago in the third quarter. Well, I'm gonna tell
you why the former is not the more surprising one.
How about that. I'm gonna say it's more surprising that
the Clippers have a lead late in the third because
I'm gonna go to our our boss, Scott Shapiro, uh,
(02:46):
doing some research because well that's what he does. Uh,
and maybe he doesn't like doc rivers. I don't know,
uh doc rivers in recent second round games tonight, it's
when the six point lead lost Monday, eighteen point lead
lost Game five, last year, sixteen point lead loss, Game six,
nineteen point lead loss Game seven, last year, twelve point
(03:06):
lead loss. Uh. So you could just kind of add on, right,
you gotta get a t o on that streak. I'm
not sure when it's coming in. But I was more
likely as you and Frostburg and I were going back
and forth with text and what do we well, I'll
say to each other's Yep, here it comes. Because nobody
else wants a shot, can take a shot. It's Joe
(03:29):
LM Bead and Seth Curry against the world. Seth Curry
greater than Steph Curry, hot take, hot take. Well, it
was his night for a while. It was the Seth
Curry game, and it was gonna be his game, you know.
And and that's the thing about Doc Rivers is that
I'm glad you brought him up because you know for
all the the the vitriol that Ben Simmons is going
(03:51):
to get in rightfully so, because he's not a player
that you can count on, right I mean, I just
saw this incredible stat that he has missed forty five
throws in the playoffs, more than the Hawks, the Sons
and the Nets as teams all right. Now, that that's
something where you know you're in your last days with
(04:11):
a team if you're underachieving like this and not being
that player he's he's missed more free throws than three
other teams in the playoffs. Right now. So yes, Ben Simmons,
clearly we talked about him and and it's it's last
days for him with the Sixers. He's gonna be with
somebody else next season. But Doc Rivers, and you can't
you can't just ignore this. Is that you can point
(04:33):
to different things in games and say, Okay, here's a
you know, here's a blown twenty six point lead. It's
different than this blown eighteen point lead, which is different
than this sixteen point lead that was blown. But the
bottom line is is that these losses follow Doc Rivers
around for his entire career. Okay, what about games go
(04:53):
back to Game seven of the Finals against the Lakers,
are thirteen points going to the fourth quarter, they somehow
found a way to lose, all right? I mean these
games have followed Doc Rivers around, and it's it's the
biggest stain on his resume, and it's it's it's what
they all have in common, big games at the end
that his teams can't figure out a way to navigate
(05:15):
the last few minutes of whether it's a big blown
lead or mistakes and turnovers the common denominator and a
lot of these losses has been Doc Rivers you just
went through games from the past, you know, this series,
this season, and just last season, keep going back to
everything else and went on with the Clippers and how
many leads the Clippers have blown and lost over the
course of his career with them. I look back and
(05:35):
I go, I want a deep rewind on how the
hell the Celtics won the NBA title? How did the
Celtics beat the Lakers? I mean, I want to go
play off Rondo. I mean, I remember James Posey just
hitting three after three in big moments, and you know,
but how did how did Doc Rivers? How did he
navigate those games? How did he not give away those
games at the end of the Lakers when when they
won their title, you know, and then they cars they
(05:55):
lost the next year. I mean, I really don't get it.
I mean I want a deep rewind on that to go, Okay,
show me again, how the how the Celtics wont show
me again what they did to be able to close
this series out? Because Doc Rivers teams all have this
in common. And when you continually have one type of
loss in common, Okay, it's not always the players, it's
(06:16):
not always You've got different players, different mixes, But when
the coach is the same, it's okay. Why can you
not figure out the ending of games when you're up big?
Why can you not figure out what to do with
the basketball? Why can you not figure out how to
play better defense to be able to stop them from
coming back? How do you not figure out a way
to say, okay, we got two guys scoring, let's figure
out something for somebody else to get a lay up
(06:36):
for some kind of hoop. How do we not do this?
Doc Rivers just has too many games like this and
and and to see it go on throughout his career.
It's why Doc Rivers and you know, as you like
to say, isn't a to B coach? Is he a
B two S coach? Now? Which is why I say,
how did he win the title with the with the
with the Celtics. I want to go back and see
just everything that went on for the Celtics to win. That'said.
(06:56):
Maybe it was Paul Piers coming out of the wheelchair
and that was everything. But I want to see how
they wanted, how Doctor was able to hold onto that.
Let's see, let's go back in time, shall we? Uh?
Game one final Bull teams under a hundred and a
number of these games. Uh, Kevin Garnett had thirteen boards whatever,
(07:17):
one oh eight, one oh two. Game two, Uh, you
had a big game for Kobe, but again Garnett cleaning
up the glass and then one win for the Lela
grinding and out man Noah explosive games until the clincher
when the Celtics won two. So I guess long protracted
(07:38):
defensive battles. Well, that's you know thirteen years ago. You
need more offense now, and you need more players that
can actually hit a shot. There you had a bunch
of veterans and a plucky rookie Rondo ready to get
after it. Here you had two guys that were willing
and able to take a shot. And you can't harp
on that. And that enough makes Harris disappeared and Ben
(08:02):
Simmons for a moment it was gonna be celebrated. Hey,
he went two for two at the foul line with
four three lefts like, look at that, and then they
sent it back and he missed another two. Uh, and
nobody else could score. It was like they put a
lid on the rim until Seth Curry's final shot with
point one second remaining, scoreless other than those two two
(08:22):
sequences in the final four three of the game. And
when you talk about all those misfree throws, right, you
lose a game by three. It doesn't take a genius
to do some of that basic math of having to
someone who's just adequate at the foul line doesn't necessarily
change the result, but it changes the game, right, It
changes the flow of things. If you could, you're actually
(08:44):
a threat. Hell, if you're a threat to divvy up
a twelve and put up a twelve point foot jump shot,
you're changing the game in which he won't do either.
And I don't know how many suitors there are, Uh,
you seem to think there's a lot of folks that
want this. I want a guy that actually wants to
be on offense. And I think he's gotten paid too
(09:06):
much to want to really change and develop his game
at this point. And that's not even getting into the
whole Kardashian world. Ben Simmons is still a guy who
is gonna score fifteen and seventeen points a game, give
you eight assists, eight rebounds. That's still really really great
in the regular season. But but I can't trust him.
But but but like I mean he can't. He can't
(09:29):
be your second best player if he's your third best player, Okay,
And that's where Ben Simmons needs to be, and someone
will get him. He will be their third best player
next year. And that's gonna be all right. And that's
he's still twenty four years old, right, he's not thirty
years old. It's still it's still a big thing. He's
the same guy he was when he came in the league.
So okay, everything is the same. His field goal percentage
(09:51):
is the shame same, his shots per game is the same,
his three pointers are the same, which is zero. Uh,
you know, everything is about the same. He needs to
be able to either a get to the next level
or be be able to be on a team where
his offensive accumated what he can do defensively, all of
these things can fit in better. And right now, when
you're asking him to be the number two guy with
(10:12):
em beaid, it's impossible. And then the Sixers fans gotta
sit back and go you told us trust to bleep
in process, man, and we're still sitting around with two guys,
all right, We're still sitting around with two guys and
then beating Simmons and we're lucky we're getting guys like
Seth Curry to be able to come out of nowhere
and score thirty points. So this whole trust the process
things still comes down to em beating Simmons. And Simmons
(10:33):
is not the guy they thought he was. So you
can trust the process all you want to and say,
we're loading up with all these picks, but if you
pick a guy he doesn't turn out, well, how can
I trust your process. I gotta trust that you know
you're picking things right. And and beat as good as
he was beginning with and Simmons as good as he
was beginning of his career. Uh, this is a lot
of years later now, man, I mean this is not
his second year in the league. This is this is
(10:54):
this is the end of year four for Ben Simmons
and he's still this guy. Now that's just and so
what's to to think that you're suddenly gonna get something
to change? Right? And and look, maybe i'm team news.
Systems work. Hey, look, Steph Curry was three point a
game scorer under Mark Jackson. Right, he was a borderline off,
but he's still liked shooting the ball. Okay, this guy
(11:16):
this guy is crazy to get rid of the ball.
He did, but when when he never met a shot
he didn't like. Actually, but Steve Kirk comes in with
his system and suddenly he's scoring thirty a game. So
it's not that suddenly Ben Simmons can't succeed. It's that
he's not going to succeed here. He's other teams have
already given him ample opportunity by taking five steps back
(11:37):
and saying, go ahead, shoot, You're not gonna get a
better system than that in the NBA. It's like, you're
never gonna be more open than he is. Now. When
you're playing a pickup game and you're tired and the
guy you're guarding steps back out behind three and stands
there with the ball, you just go go ahead, take it.
Just I'm not coming out there going dude, and the
guy gets a free shot. I mean, yeah, I get it.
(11:58):
But if he goes to a team where he doesn't
have to worry about that, okay, then well, I mean, look,
if you're gonna if you're gonna trade for him and
think we're gonna train you, you know, you know, like
you think you're gonna go to a team like Jon
Gruden likes to do a saying, give me all these guys,
I'm gonna be a mad scientist, turn him into something.
If you think you're gonna trade him to a team
and the coach is gonna say, I'm gonna get this,
he's gonna start hitting threes and doing all of this,
(12:19):
No that that, then that's stupid. But you want to
get him saying I'm gonna take advantage of what he
does and turn him into the best version of himself,
then that can work. Because if you have a team
where you can trust somebody else is gonna take the
big shots at the end that you know, and where
Simmons can be the ball control guy. We got a
guy down low, we got another guy that can make shots.
Maybe maybe the Lakers find a way to say, hey,
(12:40):
we we got all this money invested in Dennis Shrewder.
We don't have to worry about that. Now, Hey seventy
six is on. Does you take Dennis Shrewder and Taylor
Norton Tucker and we'll take Ben Simmons off your hands.
Something like that can work where Ben Simmons can still
be that guy, but being the best version of himself
is the best you can hope for, and that's being
the third best guy in the team. Now, the good
news room is as other teams that can have that.
(13:01):
But you know in the NBA now with the sixers
and no, we need more. Our team needs more than that.
We need somebody else to rely on. Where it's not
let's dump it to Joel Embiid, but in the where
in the last five minutes he's exhausted because he's a
big playing up and down the floor all night and
he's is absolutely tank and he's got no gas left.
You need somebody else you can actually make shots and
take that offensive onus off of him and not just
(13:22):
hope that one night. Hey, maybe Seth Curry goes for
thirty tonight. What kind of offense is that? That's our system.
We hope a guy goes for thirty. Okay, that's that'll
work out well in the playoffs. I got three things
for him. Number One, Shrewder's a free agent. Remember he
turned down the four million. Oh that's right, right, he
turned it down to he's going to be a free agent. Yeah,
I don't have to do anything with him. Uh, Horton
(13:44):
Tucker probably gets dealt Chicago. Actually, one of the rumored
destinations there. I don't know what they're giving up, but
everybody goes into their fantasy scenarios, so that's fun. Uh.
Number two, maybe Darryl Morey's tampering fine comes into play.
Remember he tried to recruit Stefph. Maybe Steph wants to
play with Seth and then he comes in, they figure
(14:08):
out the money, and then Ben Simmons is a guy.
And then I asked the the question that you and
I asked on this show. And I'd love to see
this catch on because a lot of our stuff does.
I'd like like for people to just ponder this for
a moment as it relates to Ben Simmons. What if
this is as good as it gets. Good defender, great defender, defense,
(14:34):
Defensive Player of the Year finalists, fantastic stuff, but a
guy who absolutely turtles and shrinks away in the second
half of games that are important, two straight games, one
shot attempt in the second half. I rest my case,
Twitter at how about a fresca Mike gets swelling down
the Jason Smith Show with my BIS friend Mike car
(14:54):
And so you just watch that big three team trade
that shows up, Mike, where guys are shedding salary. He
winds up going a place where hey, baby, now this works.
Just watch, just watch. It could be it could be
the Dallas Mavericks going, Hey, you know what, maybe we
can swing some back. We've got to get rid of Porzingis. Yeah,
but you don't want Ben Simmons with the ball because
Lucas got it at the position. Let's end me a
we'll figure it out. There's gonna be all. Asked Jason
(15:17):
Tatum about position thirty two million, yo, that I look
for for a guy that doesn't want to shoot. I'm
not paying thirty five million a year. That's that's the
going rate for Ben Simmons on this extension. Baby, Okay,
just wait, I'm telling you somebody's gonna want He's too young,
and he's still a really talented player. He's just not
what the Sixers need. Twitter At, how about a fresca?
(15:40):
Mike gets swollen? Do the Jason Smith Show with my
base friend Mike Harmon? Are you dealing with the dead battery?
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head to auto zone your battery solution in America's number
one battery destination. Right now, the Clippers lead the Jazz
early in the fourth quarter nine two eighty five. The
Jazz have gone cold from three, the Clippers trying to
(16:22):
hold on without Kauai Leonard. We got more on this,
plus one player who needs all your thoughts and prayers tonight.
I'm not gonna say who it is, but it rhymes
with makeups. Mom. We're gonna get into it next right here. Fox.
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 I Heart
(16:44):
Radio app Fox Sports Radio The Jason Smith Show with
my bist friend Mike Harmon, and they are at the
scorer's table right now waiting to see what kind of
foul call is going against Patrick Beverley, who just pushed
Donovan Mitchell over from behind and on an inbounds play. Uh,
Mitchell goes down. He is okay, he's gonna going to
(17:04):
the free throw line and shooting. Whether what kind of
foul it's going to be, is it's going to speak?
It was. It was a great It was a great
fall down by Dono Mitchell. I will say that it
was a great fall down, but still it should have
been a foul called Beverly, there's no question, but hostile
acting whatever, really, So Beverly stays in the game. Mitchell
(17:26):
hits the free throw. Uh, they hold onto the basketball.
So the Clippers lead over the Jazz. Right now is
ninety four to ninety eight minutes to go in the
fourth quarter. And for Donovan Mitchell, it's not been a
great night for him in the In the big barrage
of threes early on for the Jazz, he kind of,
you know, hung back a bit. Bogdanovich had all kinds
(17:48):
of threes in the first quarter. But at some point
Mitchell's got to take this game over. He has not
played well. He's got thirteen points. He has three out
of ten from the floor, clearly Beverly has given him
some kind of difficulty. But uh, this is where when
you have this game five at home and you're and
the other team is playing without the best player on
their team and maybe the best player in the playoffs,
you gotta find a way to rise up and win
(18:09):
this game. This is This would be just as embarrassing
for the Jazz to lose this game as it was
for the Sixers to blow their game against the Hawks
earlier tonight. Yeah, they were eight point favorites. Afterward got
out that Kauai wasn't playing eight point road favorites. Uh
for these Jazz, they do have six players in double figures.
That's all finding good. But Clippers have answered the bell
(18:32):
time and time again, and the monster effort from Paul George,
a guy who's rewriting his history with every possession. Remember
I did pick the Clippers to go to the NBA
Finals in our official Fox Sports Radio bracket term. I
picked the Clippers for the finals. Remember my Clippers had
them in Uh yeah, I had them in the conference
finals and losing to well, the Denver Nuggets. Who But
(18:57):
I gotta say though, then nicoleie Yokich photo to Day
I retweeted it. It's one of my favorite photos of
a player out of the realm of there. They're playing right,
you know, not at a practice field, not hanging out,
you know, in the waiting room. No, no, no, he
was sitting in the sulky getting ready to ride around
because he's a big horse racing fan. How you like
(19:21):
that getting in the sulky? It's what seven three I
think about, big effort by that horse. Let me tell you,
wait a minute, this guy not this guy, No, no, no, no,
no racing you getting a little buggy also called the sulky.
And there's a photo of him like wow, no, yeah,
that horse man. You want to talk about getting your workout?
(19:43):
And you know, it's like when you're swinging a bat
in the on deck circle with all the donuts and
then you take them off of the bat, feel so light.
Think about that horse run like the wind donuts. All right,
So we thought you were gonna say horse. I was going, whoa, whoa, whoa.
You haven't talked about horse meat sandwiches in a while. No,
I think tight shirts lost that drop. Oh no, there
(20:04):
it is, he's got it right there. He's tie shirt
the loser goes on the fire. Ah, wow, I haven't
heard that one of a couple of years, just sitting
on it. Uh. Clippers lead the Jazz right now again,
one hundred to nineties, seven minutes to go in the
fourth quarter, and yeah, Paul George is like, hey, and
(20:25):
six more minutes. Everybody's gonna love me. But a huge
story tonight. Now looks like it's going to end rather well,
and I want to thank you for all your thoughts
and prayers. As Jacob de Graham, who started tonight against
the Cubs as dominant as a picture could ever possibly
be stopped. Tight shirt stop first picture since one to
(20:49):
set down the side in order the first three innings
with eight strikeouts. Freaking whoa? You know? Tight shirt? What
is wrong with you? Man? The Graham we're talking about
a good life and he's fun. You know what. I'm
going to ignore it and just give you the story.
De Gram had to leave the game though, after three
and the Let's wind up winning, but de Gram had
(21:10):
to leave with shoulder sore nous. Now the good news is,
he said after the game he is confident it's nothing.
He is getting an m R I on his right
shoulder on Thursday. But the good news is, uh, tests
on his shoulders showed no decline and strength when compared
to his left one. So right now, all the initial
tests look that everything is okay. But here's the thing
(21:30):
about de Gram, right, there's there's two thoughts. This one
is the guy's gotta go on the injured list for
a little while. I'm okay with Nazie and de Gram
until the All Star break. All right. This is now
the fourth injury this year that he has had to
a different part of his body. It's like me when
I wake up in the morning one day, my knee hurts,
one day, my back is sore. One day, what did
I do to my neck? Did I sleep on it?
(21:52):
He has miss starts because of a back issue, he
has had to leave starts early because of an elbow
issue because of side tighten us, and now for a shoulder.
Right now, all of that, none of this has turned
out to be incredibly serious. It's been okay. Uh, you know,
you miss a little bit come back, but clearly something
is up and like you know, he needs one of
those Star Trek big body scans. They look at absolutely everything.
(22:14):
All right, what is what is going on here? Because
this is the fourth different part of his body that
has forced him to either miss a start or leave
a game early. So yeah, if if you need to
sit him down for a bit and get him on
some kind of program strengthened some muscles. I don't know
what it is. Maybe it could be it could be
strength training, it could be something more. I don't know,
but he needs to sit for a little bit where
you can figure out what this is because the guy
(22:36):
is too valuable. He's the best pitcher in baseball. It's
not close. He may be the best player in baseball
at this point, and it's not He's got six r
b I s now and he's only allowed four urn runs.
All right, that's what he's done this season. If I
don't see him till after the All Star break, I'm fine.
And if it's at the point where I just have
to hold my breath every time he pitches, then that's
(22:57):
where we're at. Because now I know exactly how Dodge
or fans feel with Clayton Kershaw in the past few years,
where every time he came out with his back issues,
the Dodgers held their breath. Is he gonna be okay?
He's gonna get past this. And sometimes he said, you know,
sometimes he has a big run, sometimes he misses a
bunch of starts. That's just how it is. If that's
how it's gonna be with de Graham, then that's kind
of how it's gonna be. He's not a big he's
(23:18):
not a big guy. He's kind of a slim reaper
like like Kevin Duran a bit. So can his body
hold up all these pitches? I'd like to think it ken,
But if not, and it's that's what it is, then
that's what it is. If he can't throw more than
eighty pitches in the game, he can't throw more than
eighty pitches in the game, you just have to deal
with it. When you're dealing with the best pitcher in baseball.
We'll figure out a way around it. I don't want
to have to worry about it that way. But if
(23:38):
that's what it is, and then that's what it is.
I'm kind of getting ready for that point now, for
it to be a case of de Graham's career is
gonna be. Hey, three steps forward, we take one step back.
Maybe he misses five or six starts in a year.
He's got a rest he's just he's just susceptible to
these little dings and injuries, whatever it's gonna be. I'm
kind of accepting that this is now the reality going forward.
(23:59):
I don't know that I will ever feel confident that
the Graham's out there for a win in a game
and and the next start is a given, and he's
gonna go out there, he's gonna pitch, and he's be
pitches well, he's gonna pitch seven innings and he doesn't pitch, well,
he'll come out. But then but the given of the
next game, I'm I'm I'm understanding, coming to peace with
and I'm never gonna feel that way for him going forward.
Well that's problem though. We start getting into the injury reports,
(24:20):
like an NFL weekend of all right, here's all the
stuff that the guy has got ailing him here in
week eleven, and it starts glowing red, you know, almost
like they'd injected the die India. Let's see what's going
on in their holy crap knee, uh, and shoulder and uh,
well what's that his big toe? Uh? And then he's
got a little bit of a sore neck. Uh. What
(24:43):
happens all these little injuries like we talked about with
the NBA, first injury start to favor, he gets second injury,
start laboring and trying to fight through, be gets third injury.
Is he gonna be Tim linds Um the freak? Well,
I'm killing the rec had bad the freak had bad mechanics,
that was the all thing, and then eventually a bad
(25:04):
hip whatever. But the problem is is as much as
you start um trying to pitch through the pain, you're
going to start tweaking stuff as well. Right, Your mechanics
are probably gonna alter. Even if it's just a little bit,
it may be enough to throw off your body. And
I hope that's not the case. I love watching the
guy pitch. I may be one of the only nerds,
(25:25):
uh that you know that will be like wait, which
which aces on? Yeah, let's let's get the MLB TV
up and running. And it doesn't have to be a
White Sox game. I know that madness, right, even though
all their starting pitchers dominate on a nightly basis. But
with Jacob de Graham, I think your assessments right. You
know you've got to have the conversation with him if
(25:46):
he's thinking, hey, I still want to be out there.
It's gonna be hard to shut him down, right unless
you can legitimately hold up something that says, dude, it's torn, dude,
it's it's not strained. It's not you know, let's let's
go get some flex al from on your or whatever
product you're you're going to, Uh, it's it's got to
(26:08):
be something that you can hold up and say, dude,
it's not it's not working. You're you're really doing long
term damage. He's a guy that's gonna want the ball
every fifth day. That's who he is. And it's hard
to stop guys. Right, even though we we talked about
it before it even happened with Anthony Davis right talking
about how he got bullied onto that court. Part of
its professional pride of you, you're supposed to be the
(26:29):
next guy, You're supposed to be taken over for lebron
So that works. Plus, you hear all the noise locally
and nationally in the media, and you're gonna want to
go on and with Jacob Degram, what's been the national story?
Look at this guy's doing stuff nobody's ever seen. Right,
we we do the Jason Stark line that you've quoted
for years of every night you see something in baseball
(26:52):
that you haven't seen before. Well, Jacob Degram has been
doing that and it feeds the ego. So if you
think you can give it the old college, try the
endorphin rush. You're gonna try to get through your six
innings or seven innings and your your own worst enemy.
So while while it's that you know level of competition
inside you, that competitive spirit that spurs you to greatness,
(27:14):
it also isn't going to allow you to say, hey,
you know what, I probably need two or three starts off.
So this is gonna be a difficult conversation between he,
his his representatives, the training staff, uh and the Reds,
the rest of the Mets organization. I'd love to hear
it like this is one if you can give me
a thirty for thirty behind the scenes, trying to convince
(27:35):
an ace he needs to stop for a minute when
he's doing historic things. This is a kind of a
big deal, man. Look, I think the way the Mets
are at this point, look there in first place, their
ten games over five hundred. Even if they give it
all away when he comes back, the Mets are still
in the thick of it, but you have to sit
him down now. I mean, it's just too many things.
And and I'm hopeful that as you mentioned, it's an
(27:57):
alignment thing because when you hurt different parts of your body,
generally in sports, like I'm not a doctor, but you
know covering sports, sure, but you've I've seen that so
many times with athletes where especially pictures where okay, this
is going on, So I gotta compensate for this in
my delivery, and when I do that, uh, something else
in my body gets a little bit out of whack.
(28:18):
And that could be what it is because when you
this is now the fourth thing, and none of these
things are are serious, have been serious so far because
m R. I of his elbow came back clean. Uh
you know it could be hey, because you're doing something
just slightly different with with your mechanics. That's what doesn't
Because this is the fourth time and it's four different
parts of his body. I could see that. I mean, look,
(28:38):
it happens for all of us, right, Like if if
you pull a muscle in your in your leg, right,
let's just say you pull you pull a muscle, you
pull one of your quads, all right, And and now
so for a while, you're gonna walk a little gingerly.
And when you try to do things, you're gonna do things.
You know, using your right foot, is your plant foot
doing different things? And what are you doing there? You're
putting more stress on your right foot, on your right
(28:59):
leg because you can't put it on your left leg.
So now your right leg winds up getting screwed up
because of that. I mean, that's just something that happens
to all of us. To to illustrate that, when you
get to baseball and you're talking about a picture and
and and his mechanics, the slightest thing can do that,
the slightest thing could strain an oblique muscle because you're
just a little bit off and and the Graham is
one of those pictures where he is insanely uh into
(29:22):
his mechanics and any level of deviation that he has
from it. You know, some guys like Rich Hill can
just throw and just hey, I'm gonna throw and pop
off the mound and it's like a different motion every time.
Some guys are I need to repeat this every single
time I throw the ball, And that's how it is.
And he is he is that kind of guy. So
even something is just the tiniest bid off that can
do it. And you know, look, I'm hopeful that that's
(29:44):
what it is and he figures it out. But really
I don't know. And when I say can I count
on de Gram? I don't think I ever will. I mean,
I really don't think I ever will, because I always
I Also, I know how it is for pictures who
get to a certain point and you only have a
certain number of throws in your arm, and and with
more stress going on year and you know, year and
year out, with stressful innings, it becomes a different thing
(30:04):
to try to navigate. But uh, you know, I I'm hopeful,
But will I ever get to the point where I think, hey,
de Gram's gonna be good and I can count them
every fifth day? No, I'm not. I I just don't know.
I know the Dodges fans have been that way with
Clayton Kershaw either, you know, because of the way it's been.
And hey, when Clayton is great when he's out there,
but boy, sometimes I don't know, And how long is
he gonna miss and what's he doing? He's gonna miss
(30:25):
a start here? I mean that that that's that's sort
of you know what the two of them have in common.
The two best pitchers in baseball the last ten years
both have that. Yeah, I'll say this. I may disagree
with a lot of things that are tweeted said, especially
well the barrage sometimes from Lebron James, I will agree
when he was he was one of many to comment
(30:47):
on Kevin Durance huge effort right at the forty seven
seventeen ten or forty nine seventeen ten. Um. You know,
appreciate greatness when when you can, right, because we talk
about it a lot, and certainly LaVar Arrington and I
on Sundays to find your wins of Hey, you know,
we shouldn't be throwing roses and doing all the great
(31:09):
speeches once only when people are gone. Let's celebrate the
greatness while you got it. So for Dodger Fanspin Kershaw
and certainly for you, it's every fifth day with Jacob
Degram because remember how quickly the experiment that was the
Dark Night came and went yeah, yeah, yeah, thanks, thanks, yeah,
oh yeah yeah, no, it's all David, right, I appreciate
(31:32):
you got four and Captain America in and I who
was Hawkeye Okay enough and Hawk. Hawkeye is Joey Lucazy. Okay,
that's who Hawkeye is. Be sure to catch live editions
of The Jason Smith Show with Mike Harmon weekdays at
ten pm Eastern, seven pm Pacific. Hey, this is Jason McIntyre.
(31:53):
Joined me every weekday morning on my podcast, Straight Fired
with Jason McIntyre. This isn't your typical words pod pushing
the same tired narratives down your throat every day. Straight
Fire gives you honest opinions on all the biggest sports headlines,
accurate stats to help you win big at the sports book,
and all the best guests. Do yourself a favor and
(32:13):
listen to Straight Fire with Jason McIntyre on the I
Heart Radio app, Apple Podcast, or wherever you get your podcasts,
Fox Sports Radio, The Jason Smith Show with my bast
friend Mike Harmon. I'm an ass man. Paul George attempting
to rewrite his entire playoff legacy in one game and
(32:36):
right now, the Clippers were the six point lead with
just under two minutes left to play. They lead the
Jazz one ten, one twelve to one oh six, and
oh boy, what to win this would be without Kauai.
Leonard will have more on this game coming up in
about ten minutes. But you know what, with such a
big night in the NBA, we had the big gag
(32:57):
fest by the Sixers and losing one of the all
time uh choke jobs in the NBA, we got a
lot of stuff happening. The best way we can celebrate
it is by playing. And now it's the Magic Johnson
Twitter game. Yeah, Magic Johnson has been a tweeting fool
(33:18):
the last few hours talking about the NBA. Magic Johnson
the most obvious and vanilla tweeter in the world. So
the Magic Johnson Twitter game goes like this, I give
you the tweet. You tell me if it is a
Magic Johnson tweet or made up by me playing tonight myself.
Mike Harmon, David Gascon, Are you guys ready? Let's go
all right? Here we go. The Milwaukee Bucks have no
(33:41):
one to blame but themselves in the loss to the Nets.
The Milwaukee Bucks have no one to blame but themselves
in the loss to the Nets. Yeah. I don't think. Sorry,
I think he would have gone out of his way
there to talk about Kevin Durant. It's too obvious. I
will say it is a magic Johnson tweet. That is suck.
(34:07):
An unbelievable comeback by the Atlanta Hawks to beat the Sixers,
led by Tray Young's thirty nine points. Is that a
magic Johnson tweet? And unbelievable comeback by the Atlanta Hawks
to beat the Sixers led by Tray Young's thirty nine points. Yes,
(34:28):
informational magic. That is a magic. Yes, that is informational
magic at his best. All the teams remaining in the
playoffs play an exciting brand of basketball? Is that a
magic Johnson tweet? All the teams remaining in the playoffs
play an exciting brand of basketball? It can't be. I'm
(34:51):
gonna go yes, that is not because I would I
would have asked him to explain the Sixers and the
Bucks to me. NICOLEA. Yokich. Maybe the m v P,
but Devin Booker and Chris Paul played like most Valuable
players as well. Maybe the m v P, but Devin
(35:13):
Booker and Chris Paul played like most valuable players as well.
I'm gonna go negative. I'll say yeah, that is not. Yeah,
Chicago STIGs, you're a Broncos fan, Get over yourself. Even
(35:34):
without Kauai, the Clippers are a dangerous team who will
rely more on Paul George, Reggie Jackson, and Marcus Morris.
Without Kauai, the Clippers are a dangerous team who will
rely more on Paul George, Reggie Jackson, and Marcus Morris.
I'm gonna say no. I'm gonna say yes, put on
(35:57):
the board. Yes, that is not john what's up, gas guy?
Eat some more way. I don't know. Kevin Durant put
on one of the greatest performances in NBA playoff history,
scoring forty nine points seventeen rebounds in tennisis and leading
(36:21):
his shorthanded nets to victory taking a three to lead.
Is that a magic Johnson tweet? Would he added the shorthanded?
But yeah, the rest of it just reeks of the
magic Johnson tweets? So sure that is a magic Johnson tweets.
(36:41):
Expanding the college football playoff from four teams to twelve
teams is a great idea that a magic Johnson tweet.
Expanding the college football playoff from four teams to twelve
teams is a great idea. Michigan State guy, I'm gonna
say no, because this team still wouldn't qualify. Wow, I'm
gonna say no, Okay, he's good at the economics of stuff,
(37:03):
so I'm gonna say, yeah, that is not man. I
was gonna ask why he was asking commenting on the
playoffs today. You never know, random outliar. The Phoenix Suns
were dominant in their four game sweep of the Nuggets. Yes,
the Phoenix Suns were dominant in their four game sweep
(37:25):
of the Nuggets. I think I just threw up in
my mouth a little bit, but yeah, sure, Oh that
is not Kevin Durant gave us a mount Rushmore performance?
Is that a Magic Johnson gave us a mount Rushmore performance?
(37:49):
That is magic blue? What do you want me to say,
tweeted that's reported or something. I don't know what that
had to do with anything exactly what David Gascon had
(38:12):
in mind. He wants to talk it over. Uh So
there it is. The Magic Johnson twitter game. Coming up next?
Are we on the cusp of one of the biggest
upsets in the playoffs? That's next. Fox
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Jason Smith
Mike Harmon
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