May 19, 2025 • 46 mins
On a Monday edition of the Best Of The Doug Gottlieb Show: Doug talks about the Thunder's game seven mauling of the Denver Nuggets as he was there to experience it all.
Doug and the crew share what they loved most and what they hates most about the weekend in this week's installment of "Love AND Hate".
Doug gives his theory on why game six of the Knicks series and game seven of the Thunder series were blowouts. Doug welcomes NBA Insider Ric Bucher onto the show to talk about the two deciding games from the weekend in the NBA and to preview the conference finals.
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Episode Transcript
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Speaker 1 (00:01):
Thanks for listening to the best of the Doug Gottlieb
Show podcast. Be sure to catch us live every weekday
three to five Eastern twelve two Pacific on Fox Sports Radio.
Find your local station for The Doug Gottlieb Show at
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Doug Gottlieb Show, Fuck Sports Radio coming to you from
(00:27):
parts unknown. No, I'm kidding, I am kidding. To do
do Do Do Do doo? We have a lot. We
had a jam pack show. Uh. That was a good
sports weekend. I mean disappointing Game sevens, all right, super
(00:47):
disappointing Game sevens, but all in all, pretty good weekend.
Got a chance to take my son Hayes to Game
seven of the Thunder game. We'll get to that in
a second. Let me kind of give you the layout
of the hour. Rick Buker joined us at twenty five.
After the hour, we'll talk all things NBA. We got
(01:11):
love and hate for you. Come on top of next hour,
we'll talk about the Angel Reese discussion, which has multi
layered discussion and maybe even be able to sneak in
some baseball. Welcome into Dan Byer. Of course you hear
him on Sundays on Fox Sports Radio. You hear him.
He's actually all over the dial filling in for whomever.
(01:33):
And then you got Chase Do and Sam the crew
all back together. Let's start with Game seven. There's a
bunch to get to, a bunch to get to. I mean,
I'll give it to Kendrick Perkins. He didn't invent the phrase,
but he has said, hey, role players play better at home.
That was clearly the case with both the Nuggets, with
(01:55):
Julian Strather playing really well in Game six and playing
very poorly in Game seven, and you look at the
role players like Alex Caruso played incredibly well in Game seven.
The difference in that game for me was two things.
Caruso's defense, energy, ability to guard and front. They did
(02:17):
a great job of fronting. That's playing in between yourself
and the basketball of Nikola Jokicz. Just make everything hard
to get in the basketball. Every time I got the basketball,
and yeah, they're fouling him. They were fouling him. Based
upon how the game is officiated all season long, and
be playofficials a little bit different and then he had
help where you know, there's always a non shooter on
(02:38):
the court for the Nuggets, and they made those guys
beat him and they could not. But the real way
in which that game was won was the turnovers that
led to runouts and wide open dunks and lamps. And
whether it was because of injury with with Drew Holiday,
I mean Drew Holliday with with Aaron Gordon, or just
the fact that Yo Kicch can't get back that quickly
(03:03):
or other players not getting back when they should have,
I would venture to guess, especially the end of the
first half when that game was blown open and early
in the second half, there were probably ten uncontested layups
and dunks for the for the Thunder, that's twenty points,
and that's a big enough difference to win the game.
The rest doesn't really matter. What does matter is this.
(03:24):
I love going to games. I think it's one of
the things that separates our show from other shows and
other networks. You know, we have guys that go to
I went to seven Packer games last year and I
went to a Charger game. We go to college football games.
(03:45):
I obviously coach college basketball. I go to NBA games
go to NFL games, I go to Major League Baseball games.
One when you go to those places, you I have
friends in the Thunder organization. You get to see catch
up with they take about everybody else. And two it's
just different when you're there. But byer I had I
had an experienced yesterday where it's both good and bad. Okay,
(04:08):
here's the good. The good is that the Thunder the
fans are incredible. And for people who are like, they
don't get why why so many have so many glowing
things to say about Oklahoma State basketball because Okahoma State
basketball hasn't been really that good for twenty years? Is
(04:28):
that's what it was like at our arena only arena
was a quarter of the size of it, But that
level of intensity of fans, if that makes sense. Sure, Okay,
so same type of fans, only now there's eighteen thousand
night and you're talking about playing for an NBA championship
and they're loud, and I've determined I know the most
(04:50):
obnoxious fans outside of the obvious most obnoxious, Like, there's
some people that are just obnoxious. They're constantly trying to
be on TV. You know, they're standing there close to
the court, so they stand up and try and make
a scene with the players. Those are the most annoying.
But we were about I don't know what letter G is, right,
but we're in row.
Speaker 2 (05:09):
G, so.
Speaker 1 (05:11):
Maybe CDEFG. Okay, so we're seven rows back, but I
think there are also ten double let there's ten like
double letters down loads. We're like seventeen rows back. And
so you're generally in with a solid group of season
ticket holders, okay, and the constant booing, yelling, basketball sayings
(05:37):
or basketball fan things to point out that aren't I'll
give you two things. Every time Yokich went to the line,
there was one guy to my left that was calling
him a flopper, and the guy behind me was calling
him a free throw merchant. And I'm like, and I
turned the guy behind me and I was like, you know, maybe,
(05:58):
but you do not like shait is the biggest free
throw merchant in the league, right, Like that's a that's
a real thing. Like he's an unbelievable free throw merchant.
He has the ability in the regular season to go
and get fouled. They don't call it much in the postseason,
so pod calling kettle black is just a weird thing
to me, and then the other one is, hey, here's
(06:20):
a deal. Sometimes your team does, in fact foul right,
sometimes outside of take fouls. It was like anytime there
was a call on the thunder Water, are you looking at?
All they do is flop like it's not possible that
there are zero fouls committed by your team. So they're
using like common terminology in the NBA. So there are
(06:43):
some level of real NBA fan. They're not like, oh,
this is my first time to get go team in.
Are we in blue or and white?
Speaker 3 (06:50):
Right?
Speaker 1 (06:50):
It's not like they're not knowledgeable, it's they have a
little bit of knowledge, and yet it comes out as obnoxious. Obnoxious.
Speaker 4 (06:58):
A little bit of knowledge is a dangerous at times.
And that seems like the scenario where where it is
I can understand complaining about certain calls here and there,
the not the MVP stuff, the ever just to know
that stuff that doesn't bother me, because it's kind of
like an MVP chant, Like you will start an MVP
(07:20):
chant for your guy even if maybe he really isn't
even now SGA obviously is, but you're just trying to
support the guy. Does it really mean that it's that
the players an MVP when maybe he would finish sixth
in voting talking about other arenas. I don't mind that
sort of stuff. So you're trying to find something out
of Yokich I'm cool with that. But I could not
(07:40):
stand sitting there for two hours listening to someone complain
about fouls that are called, especially two if you think
of the outcome of it, Imagine if the Thunder were
never called for a foul. Imagine the blowback from the
media and everybody else around the country and saying, how
did the Thunder not get called for any fowls? Yeah,
that would annoy me.
Speaker 1 (08:01):
I'm with you. I would also tell you that I
I like Shay Gildas Alexander. I liked him. You go
back to look at his pre draft stuff. I've always
liked him. I thought when they made the trade with
the Clippers, it's a great trade. I think he's probably
gonna win the MVP. But I would also tell you
that he wasn't close to the best overall player on
(08:22):
the court yesterday, like a look, A good portion of
it is the Nuggets were in his zone, so he
couldn't be his usual self. And when when Jokicic went
out Jalen Williams attacked the rim, got it going, and
then the turnovers happened, and then it just kind of
snowballed on the nuggets. But it's I think I've nailed
it in the He's a better score than Jokich's no
(08:48):
question whether he scores more points or not. He need
to score more points, and he's efficient doing it. He's
an unbelievable scorer. But I mean, Jokich makes does He's
the whole team. He does everything, and I get that
we can pick out defensively when he does and doesn't
challenge shots. He is so smart with it and understands
(09:09):
angles and when to foul and when not to foul,
when to wall up, when not to wall up. A
remarkable passer. Yeah, he kind of is sloppy with his body,
throwing it around all the time, but that's kind of
part of the beauty to it. So I again, I
have no idea who's going to win the MVP. I
think it'll be Shay because you get they get fatigue
over the big guys. But Jokic is the best player
(09:33):
in the world, or the best player that I've seen
in the world. Here's Mark Dagno who's the head coach
of the Thunder talking about the difference in the game
for his team.
Speaker 5 (09:42):
Yeah, I thought our pressure today was a difference maker
in the game. And we access that at different times
in the series, but today we did it, you know,
most consistently for the forty eight minutes. And we didn't
even play a perfect game on offense, but you know,
it was just such a catalyst the pressure, the deflections,
the turnovers, and you know, even when they got shots,
(10:04):
I thought the pressure and help really disrupted the rhythm
of those shots. And the guys just did a great
job of, you know, sifting through all the noise of
a game seven and just focusing on what we need
to do to win, and we really executed it.
Speaker 1 (10:19):
It Stug gott Leap show here on Fox Sports Radio. Uh,
he's right, and look, of course he sees he's the coach.
But that game, that game was one based on their
pressure defense, pressuring them because if you're gonna front your kitch,
you have to pressure the basketball. You can't front and
then play soft because then they just lop it over the top.
They pressure, pressure, pressured, and the Nuggets had no answers.
(10:42):
Here's SGA talk about how games haven't played.
Speaker 3 (10:45):
Out the nerves was natural. We obviously didn't shoot, We
actually shot horrible to start the game, but I knew
like we were getting really good looks and if we
just stuck with it that like we would loosen up
in the ball and you know, find the basket. And
it did so well. I never, like, I never was
worried by the way we started. We had the right intentions.
We had tighten a little bit up on defensive on
the defensive end, but once I felt the flow of
(11:07):
the game and we had the right intentions and the
right energy, I knew it would turn around for us.
It means a lot, specifically for the city. They've been
so good all year, have been behind us through good
through bad, like it doesn't feel like it feels like
like no team in the league has home court advantags
like we do. And that's all due to them. With
the T shirts, the cheering, the screaming, the chance, they
(11:28):
really give us like energy out there and we've been
a better team because of them and having them behind us,
And to know that if we didn't bring it tonight
it could be over for them as well wasn't fair.
And we wanted to play for them as well.
Speaker 1 (11:40):
Here's David Adelman, who's the the intermat coach of the Nuggets,
talking about the loss.
Speaker 6 (11:44):
When you lose, it's crushing and it's the last time
you'll be in the room with those guys, and it's
beyond that you only get one of these, you know,
this is the one moment we had together to make
this run. And they're all individual to themselves, they're also special.
Anybody that's played sports understands that. So walking out of
that locker room is uh, it's crushing, and it's gonna
take a while leat over that one, like I thought.
Speaker 1 (12:08):
You know, it's obviously it's hard. And I fully confess
that I don't watch any many or maybe any full
Nuggets game in the regular season. If I was to
be coach to coach critical, it would be that you
couldn't you know, when the Thunder got back in the
game in the second quarter, it was when both of
(12:32):
his two stars were out of the game and he
left Aaron. I don't know if he left Aaron Gordon
out there, but I know he took Jok and Murray
out at the same time. And you just they just
don't have enough. They just don't have enough. And then
the other part would be if a team is pressuring you,
you have to have pressure counters. You have to whatever
you do, you and this this is the old AU
coach and me my dad is the old AU coach,
(12:54):
which is that's how AU basketball is generally played in California.
Which is pressure pressure, pressure pressure? Do you actually start
with how to break pressure before you learn about running offense?
And I felt like they just didn't have the predetermined
answers for how to attack that kind of defense. And
(13:15):
and look, I also disagree with Shay. I don't think
they took They took good shots for bad shooters in
the first quarter. You know they had the wrong guys
shooting the basketball. But you get that many steals, that
many lamps, that much momentum, of course the ball is
gonna start going in.
Speaker 7 (13:31):
This is the best of the Done dot Leap Show
on Fox Sports Radio.
Speaker 1 (13:38):
What with your Doug got Lap Show, Fox Sports Radio.
I hope you're having a great day The Doug gott
Leap Show broadcast live two places. The boys are in
Sherman Oaks, California, and your boys in Green Bay, Wisconsin.
Hope you had a great weekend. You're getting ready for
Memorial Day, which is the unofficial, unofficial first weekend of summer.
(13:59):
We don't go by soul this, no no, no, no no.
We go buy labored a Memorial Labor Day and Memorral Day.
Start right. Iowa Sam and Iowa Sean both in the house.
So too is Dan byer Am a man jay Stu.
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(14:20):
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the way tire buying should be. I don't think I'm
gonna it's there's no place for calls on it. But
I think we have time to have a great and
reasonable discussion about the Caitlin Clark angel rees plus the
(14:41):
accusations about Fever fans upcoming upcoming, But before we can
get to that, Every Monday we like to recap the
weekend in things that we enjoyed we didn't enjoy. We
call it love and hate.
Speaker 7 (14:58):
What did you love?
Speaker 1 (15:00):
God?
Speaker 7 (15:00):
I love you and what did you hate?
Speaker 1 (15:03):
Meetles Clare Hayes Love Love Love Love Love, Hey Hey, Hey, Hey,
what'd you love from the weekend? What'd you hate from
the weekend? Teaze? All right, I'm gonna start boys. I
(15:25):
was watching the New York Knicks demolished the Boston Celtics
Game six Eastern Conference semi Finals, and I watched them
pan the crowd and Pat Ewing's there, and Bernard King
is there, and every dignitary in New York is there,
(15:48):
stephen A Smith there And suddenly now stephen A is
back to being a Knicks fan after disowning the team
a couple of years ago. The fans are there. Remember,
the fans are wanting to sell the team, sell the team.
Jim Dolan's still the owner of the Knicks, Yes he is.
Nothing has changed there, you know it's changed. They're winning.
(16:10):
They're winning. And oh yeah, by the way, no one
has said, hey, Jim Dolan, great job handing over control
to Leon Rose. Nobody can't. That doesn't make him the
greatest dude, or a great owner, or not a dysfunctional
place to work. I don't know anything about that. I haven't.
My point is what I love is sometimes cliches, you
can prove it to somebody, and the cliche is winning
(16:34):
cures all Ills, right, zero things change with the ownership
of the New York Knicks, zero things change. And Tom
Tibodeau right, Uh, he couldn't. He wears out guys, they
don't have it left in the playoffs of this, he's
that or whatever. Timbs sort of vindicated as well. Right.
(16:56):
The only thing that's changed is they've got a little
bit better as a team, that they have team toughness,
team competitiveness and their best players a very as a
winning player. And they didn't get hurt and the Celtics
did winning cuz all Ills don't believe me. I give
you the New York knickerbockers. I love that it played
out at MSG on Friday night, Dan Byer, what'd you
(17:18):
love for the weekend? Doug.
Speaker 4 (17:19):
I'm going to take a unique twist on this because
we teased it earlier and I don't love one side
of it, but I do love the other side of it.
And the other side is I love that Bryson de
Shambo continues to speak with the media and understands on
how things can work and how things work to his
(17:40):
benefit and works for the fans benefit. Bryson shoots seventy
one under round one under par round yesterday, but doesn't
win the PGA Championship, ends up in a tie for
second place, five back a Scottie Scheffler. There was a
point on Saturday where Bryson was in it, but then
he ended up falling off a little bit and Scheffler
kind of ran away, not ran away from the pack,
(18:01):
but gained separation on Saturday. Bryson talked after the round
on Saturday, talked after the round on Sunday. Spoke with
the media after the master's loss a month ago when
Rory McElroy won, and that pales into comparison to what
Rory McElroy did this week in not speaking after the
rounds or any of the rounds at the PGA Championship.
(18:22):
And I'm a big Rory fan, but I did not
like his decisions this week in not speaking with the media,
especially when his driver ended up being pulled from competition
because it failed a conformity test. Now, he never used
it during any of the rounds, but he had a
new driver this week and obviously something wasn't right. Rory
made the cut but wasn't in contention at all. And
(18:45):
I think you just have to you have to talk
in those situations. Tiger Woods spoke all the time. Now,
he won a lot, but he didn't win every single time,
and Tiger Woods was always speaking with the media, and
so Rory, who was on top of the all world
a month ago, now kind of goes incognito. It was
a shame to see because he had always been outspoken
(19:07):
and kind of got burned by it throughout the early
Live days then kind of took a step back. And
I don't know if he's gun shy dug in speaking,
but to not speak after any of the rounds, I
think it's a disservice, especially for a guy who's won
that championship twice in his career.
Speaker 1 (19:21):
Yeah, yes, I couldn't agree more so. I love that
Bryson heartbreak, right, who's had a tough reputation with the media.
Speaker 2 (19:34):
Right.
Speaker 1 (19:34):
Yes, it's really interesting like Rory's kind of been protected class.
Bryce has been a guy that people have gone after,
and Bryson did the right thing. I think we both agree.
You promote your sport, it's part of what it's part
of how it all works together.
Speaker 4 (19:48):
Yeah, and Bryson's got other interests obviously, I mean he's
playing on Live, but also his YouTube channel and the
things that he does there, so he understands it. Amanda Balionis,
who did the interview with Bryson, was extremely like gracious
and like, thank you so much for talking to us.
I know it's probably not, you know, the best time,
but yeah, like she understands it and and Bryson gets
(20:09):
it as well. For some reason, Rory didn't this weekend.
Speaker 1 (20:12):
Uh, I was Sean and I was what's you left
for the weekend?
Speaker 8 (20:18):
I did love the Indiana Fevers romp over the Chicago sky.
What a difference a year makes this team with a
pretty much you know, a couple new faces. They look bigger,
they look faster, they just look even though it's kind
of a new ensemble with a new coach.
Speaker 9 (20:33):
They look more organized.
Speaker 8 (20:35):
And the first half against the guy was a little
clunky and Kaylyn Clark picked up a couple of fouls.
Speaker 9 (20:40):
She wasn't shooting great.
Speaker 8 (20:42):
The second half they just let it rip and they
won by thirty five. Was one of the biggest margins
of a victory they've had. And I think an opener
or any any WNBA game, I was, I sat down
for this game and I was hooting and hollering and
whooping and hollering, and you know, you had the moment
between Kayln Clark and Angel Reese. And I mean, I
just remember last year's opening game. I think it was
(21:02):
against the Sun. It was just a struggle. Kaitlyn Clark
looked like she just didn't, you know, belong out there.
Obviously she she would prove that wrong, but she proved
that otherwise. But this she just looks stronger. She was
throwing passes out there like a quarterback. That was fun.
That was fun, and the Fever are gonna be fun
to watch. I definitely think they're a contender. I loved it.
(21:25):
I loved it, and I listen. I called this a
rivalry on Friday or Thursday actually, and whether people want
to acknowledge it as such, I think it's definitely a
rivalry between these two, these two teams.
Speaker 10 (21:36):
And I'm gonna go ahead and I'm just going to
piggyback on on what he loves because just for the
sake of time, yes, I know this isn't Iowa Northwestern,
but yes, uh, just for the second time, I'm going
to piggyback on this. I don't care if the Fever win.
I don't care if they're better. I like watching Kaitlyn Clark.
I watched every minute of that game. If you would
(21:57):
have told me two years ago that you're gonna spend
us Saturday afternoon tuning into every minute of a w
NBA game, I would have asked which of the Avengers
chose to play in the WNB?
Speaker 1 (22:11):
So good? Yeah, so good?
Speaker 10 (22:13):
And to see Sam Sam touched on this. She left
assists on the court. There are still passes that her
teammates can't quite handle. She constantly pushes the tempo. I
love seeing what she does two opponents like there's a
lot of that magic on Saturday that we saw in college.
I like that about her and I'm gonna keep watching
(22:35):
until she becomes just kind of a pedestrian good player.
Speaker 8 (22:39):
Yeah, there are points that they could have gone over
one hundred, and there were several close shots they missed.
And they'll get that under ring and they'll get that
under control.
Speaker 1 (22:46):
But wow, that's what we loved. Let's get till we
hated from the weekend or with our resident hater, Jason Stewart.
Speaker 10 (22:54):
Jase, I couldn't stand that my nuggets got their asses
kicked and it's not necessarily that I had any prediction
or anything, But I really do believe that the best
content moving forward would have been would have been Jokic winning,
because people hate when he wins. It was frustrating. I
(23:17):
hated the fact that it wasn't even really a game
after the first quarter and that the Thunder just like
ran them over. Jokic couldn't do a single thing. He
was getting almost no help. Westbrook kind of showed us
what Doug has always said about him in this series.
I think the overall stats were like a minus thirty
(23:37):
three or something the whole series ninety five thirty three
maybe was just in the fourth quarter on on on Sunday.
So I hated that it was disappointing. I was gearing
up for a good game. That's all we hoped for
was a good game, and it just was miserable.
Speaker 3 (23:54):
So I hated that.
Speaker 1 (23:57):
I thought you would have hated by Angel sweeping your Dodgers.
But that's okay, damn byer Doug.
Speaker 4 (24:02):
It was a tough weekend for my hopes of a
Canadian team lifting Lord Stanley's Cup, as sixty six percent
of the Canadian teams went down in conference semi final
action and that includes the Winnipeg Jets on Saturday night
losing to the Dallas Stars. Now, the Leafs lost last
night in Game seven at home to the Florida Panthers,
(24:22):
which is very, very Toronto Maple leaf esque. But what
happened on Saturday is I think a moment, and it's
more than a moment of just absolute heartbreak when it
comes to Mark Shiffley of the Winnipeg Jets. For those
that maybe don't follow hockey or have followed the playoffs
of what has gone on, Shifley's dad passed away within
(24:44):
twenty four hours forty eight hours of them playing Game
six on Saturday night, and Shiffley decided to play in
the game and had a goal in the contest to
put them up one nothing in the second period. Dallas
ends up evening the score. They're nearing the end of
the third period, Hied up at one apiece and Dallas
is almost almost as a breakaway. Shiffy ends up committing
(25:07):
a penalty. They could have called the penalty shot they
did not, but in the end it gave Dallas a
two minute power play. They went overtime, but on that
power play, with Mark Schiffley in the penalty box, Dallas
scored an end of the series, and so we see
a lot of situations, I should say a lot of situations.
The Brett Favre situation is the most popular one, right
Farv's dad passes. He plays against the Raiders in Oakland
(25:30):
on Monday Night football and has the game of his
life and everybody is like, my goodness, But we never
think of the flip side and how Mark Shifley could
have felt and if you would have seen how his
teammates and how the Dallas Stars tried to console him
after Game six. Admirable by them, but just an awful
feeling for a guy who obviously feels responsible that it
(25:54):
was his penalty that may have cost them, despite him
having a goal earlier in the game, and now he's
got to go and bear his dad like just absolutely awful.
But that that handshake line was so long because everybody
was just stopping him and all the Dallas Stars were
you know, giving him words of you know, encouragement or sympathy. Yeah,
(26:14):
it was just quite the scene in Dallas on Saturn.
Speaker 1 (26:16):
Okay, okay, I'll just I hated Game six and Game seven.
I hated the under and sheer dominance of the Celtics
obviously above the Knicks against the Celtics and the thunder
against the Nuggets, Like, I mean, those tickets cost good money.
Yesterday I was fired up, and as much as it's fun,
(26:36):
you know, it's like such a blowout and everybody's celebrating
and having a great time, Like you really want to
know what's inside of a Shay Gildess, Alexander, what's inside
of a you know? The magic till the Jalen Brunson
is not the forty point blowout. It's the what happens
in a one point game when one of those guys
has the ball, a chance to win the game, and
(26:57):
we didn't. We were we didn't see it. Now again,
it's only a semi finals. We eventually will get that answer.
But it just I don't know, I hates a strong word,
but it's part of the segment. I just hated the
fact that those games that we all thought were gonna
build up to some crescendo and be some incredible finish
were over before the final quarter ever started over. Not
(27:22):
competitive for either of those two Like when you're I
feel for those guys at the end of both of
those benches who didn't play previously in the series, then
all of a sudden they're out there playing like ten minutes.
Do you know how sore those guys are. Jalen Pickett
who played at Sienna at Penn State, like he's playing
like the last eight minutes. That is, who has dust
enough the needs to go out there and play. But
(27:45):
I just hated how those guy games were non competitive. IOA.
Speaker 8 (27:48):
Sam Rick Heller has been i Iowa Baseball's skipper for
over a decade now. He's done a great job. He's
got in Iowa baseball to three NCAA tournaments. He's won
a tournament championship. But Iowa was in the closest position
it had been in a long long time to winning
a regular season Big Ten championship in baseball. They haven't
(28:08):
won one since nineteen ninety. They had a great march
in a great April. They were like, had a huge
lead on the rest of the Big Ten until they
started playing the West Coast teams that are now in
the Big Ten, and it was like a slow death,
like of a python squeezing you and just sucking the
life out of you. They just needed one win over
(28:29):
Oregon to at least share some of the Big Ten championship,
and they just have had the worst go of it
against these They played Oregon State, Oregon, Washington and there's
something like one win, one tie, was a weird tie,
and a bunch of losses, and over the weekend the
chances of winning that Big Ten championship were just slowly stripped.
Speaker 9 (28:51):
Away from them. It was very hard to watch.
Speaker 8 (28:53):
It shows you the talent level is so much different
West Coast Baseball. Now, what they bring to the Big Ten,
they're gonna up the quality of the conference overall. But man,
that was hard to watch because Io fattened up on
all the Midwest League, all the Midwest teams in the
Big Ten, and then when they got to the West Coast,
it was like a buzz saw.
Speaker 9 (29:07):
They just went down in flames.
Speaker 1 (29:09):
And that's love it. Hey.
Speaker 7 (29:10):
Fox Sports Radio had the best sports talk lineup in
the nation yet. Catch all of our shows at Fox
sports Radio dot com and within the iHeartRadio app.
Speaker 1 (29:21):
Doug Gotlieb Show, Fox Sports Radio. Rick Bucher will join
us about what six minutes, seven mins, eight minutes Rick
Buker eight minutes, eight minutes away from Rick Buker. Just
here's the discussion, point Buyer. I'd love your opinion, Sean
(29:44):
and Jay stew I have an opinion on this. I
have a couple and they're more hypotheses. They're more hypotheses
than they are theories.
Speaker 3 (29:56):
Right.
Speaker 1 (29:56):
A HYPOTHESI is a theory that's not yet proven. Right.
So Game six for the Celtics and Nicks was a
complete and utter blowout, and Game seven for Thunder versus
Nuggets became a complete and utter blowout after early on
(30:17):
Nuggets dominating and then kind of losing control into the
first half. But in trying to figure out why, right, Like,
the conversations about about game sevens usually are man, they
were decided by one play here, one play. There are
memories even of Game sevens are that they were all close.
The reality is they're not. There's been plenty of crummy
(30:39):
Game sevens, but having them in basically back to back fashion.
I know it wasn't back to back, but having a
Sunday one and a Friday one makes it seem like,
why are these so bad? So I'll give you a
couple of possible reasons behind it, and then we'll discuss.
(31:01):
So the first thing is quite obviously, the Celtics weren't healthy,
and after one game of playing without Jason Tatum, now
reality sets in, reality sets in, and there's a reason
that Jason Tatum was the Finals MVP. There's a reason
that he's gonna make three hundred million dollars next year.
And one day at home, you can pick up the slack,
(31:25):
you can have great energy, you can get over the hump,
but then you have to go do it again on
the road and suddenly they figure out who you are
and how you're different without Jason Tatum. And then obviously
the Nuggets haven't been healthy. Drew Gordon was the shell
of himself. They don't have a very good bench. And
remember the bench, or the lack of roster building, is
(31:45):
the reason that Calvin Booth is no longer their GM.
But I I don't know. I sit here and I
think to myself, is there something more? And here's what
I want to offer up the possibilit if I do
think the officiating, at least in the Oakohoma City game
was awful. It was awful. Now part of it was
(32:08):
Denver didn't react well to it, but part of it
was like, what are they supposed to do, they could
not get a call. It felt like out in the
prim when they're drive tripling the basketball, Oklahoma City's pressuring
and the use of the team that exerts the most
pressure physically dominates the game, and that that's what happened.
But usually game sevens are equally officiated. Usually the home
(32:31):
team has it's a great despirit and officiating for all
the home teams, and then you get to Game seven,
it's like they're like, Okay, hey guys, now, now let's
do it on the up and up. That's usually how
it works it or it feels like it works, and
I didn't think that was the case in the Thunder
Thunder game, And which allows me for my next hypothesis,
(32:51):
which is there's just not that many games of this
much energy in the NBA, and frankly I fewer and
few were in college as where previously. So players are
going to react differently and officials are going to react differently,
and the game feels very, very different. And I think
home court becomes more important and more useful in these
(33:13):
big games because many of those guys aren't used to
playing in real home court advantageous situations and getting simply
every call, dan By, are your thoughts.
Speaker 4 (33:24):
Well, I don't disagree with either thought. I like the
first one more like that's how I looked at the Celtics,
where then everything built up for that Game five, Like
if there was a game that they were gonna win
without Jason Tatum, it's that game. Unify, let's rally together,
(33:44):
we'll have twenty thousand Celtics fans having our back. We
can win that game five. Then in game six, you
lose twenty thousand fans, you don't have Jason Tatum, and
you like to chuck up threes and you're not really
gonna defensive stops, and then that's what you end up getting.
Like that, I almost felt like you could see that
(34:06):
one coming from a mile away. Yet people still wanted
to put their chips in on the Celtics to think
that for some reason, this team was because they were
champions last year, they were ready to go on a run,
and I just I didn't think they would have anything
left from what they had in Game five, and it
proved that in game six, the Game seven with the thunder.
(34:28):
I just think that that's what Oklahoma City does to you,
and also that maybe the Nuggets, aren't that that good?
And then you have those twenty thousand on your side,
and when it gets rolling, it gets rolling. Like Denver
used everything that they had, and it felt like Aaron
Gordon had everything he had in the first ten minutes
of the game. And then after that, once they got
(34:48):
blitz creaked by the thunder, I mean, it was it
was over like there's nothing that there's nothing that they
could do, and Oklahoma City just kept going and going,
kind of like how the Knicks did. But I just
I think the Celtics and the Nuggets were up to
par to win those games. How they were constructed entering
those games.
Speaker 1 (35:10):
Jay s dou what do you think?
Speaker 6 (35:11):
Oh?
Speaker 10 (35:12):
I don't think the listeners want to know my opinion,
but you should see Sam's Uh, he's had a little
bit of an episode in the last three minutes. He
just he's wondering why you called him Sean?
Speaker 1 (35:22):
And I love your opinion, Sean, And do we're so bad?
I was Sean who I don't know his name?
Speaker 10 (35:32):
Sean? Uh, maybe I don't even know.
Speaker 1 (35:36):
Did I have a Biden moment right there? Man? Did
I have a senior episode? Oh? Man, that's Sean And Jason,
Sean and Jay Stu. All right, well, well we'll work
our way back to Sean and to Sam uh. Let's
welcome in. He's Rick Buker, Fox Sports, Foxsports one, Foxsports
(35:58):
dot Com. He covers all things NBA for Fox Sports
Radio as well. The Denver Nuggets, who did not have
much of a bench, go down in Game seven. Let's
start with Aaron Gordon is like, you know, not enough
time in between games. I think he means really games
three and four, right, that's where the Nuggets feel like
the series was lost. What's the legitimacy to that argument
(36:22):
for you?
Speaker 2 (36:23):
Well, look, I get it, but it's a business and
a lot of this is determined by all sorts of
other factors. It's not as if the league and the
team have complete free will, free hand to put the
(36:44):
games where they want to. Some of it is how
do we capture the biggest TV audience. What are the
matchups that we want to feature, what's the availability of
the arenas, what's the travel There's there's so many factors
that go into it. I understand the the desire to
have an ideal set up, but the reality is is
(37:07):
that there's.
Speaker 11 (37:07):
All sorts of inconsistencies and and and and logistical issues
and challenges that that go on.
Speaker 2 (37:19):
It's just it's part and parcel of it. I just
I feel like sometimes we get into a little bit
of over analyzation after the fact about various things depending
on what happens. And uh and and I think that's
the case here. There have been scheduling challenges for teams
(37:39):
to overcome in in the playoffs for decades, and this
just happens to be another one.
Speaker 1 (37:49):
Uh. You know the thing about the Nuggets and I was,
I was there yesterday afternoon for the game in Oaklanoo City.
Was uh, obviously, Eric Gordon, was it right? Was it healthy?
They only really have five and a half. I thought
Oklahoma City was the first time that they decided, hey,
let's confront the post. Obviously Caruso was a gigantic factor.
(38:11):
But the other thing is like Jamal Murray, you know,
I I understand there's not the space to play because
he doesn't at times he has Russell Westbrook or uh
Peyton's out there or you know they have they have
too many non shooters out there. But what do the
Nuggets do moving forward? You're gonna have a new GM
who doesn't have a tie to endy of these guys.
(38:33):
He's got to try and build a championship roster. He's
got to move some piece to do so. Is Jamal
Murray the one they will move?
Speaker 2 (38:40):
I honestly, I would move just I love the the
chemistry that that Jokic and Jamal have, But at this
point with the nuggets, I would be open to moving
anyone and other than than Nikolae Jokicic, I would be
looking at this strictly from what do the assets that
(39:02):
I have and how do I develop better depth and
versatility on my roster so that I'm not having to
lean on your pitch as heavily as as they have
over the last couple of years. And some of that
is also you know, the disadvantage that they've had over
over the last few years is that you didn't have
(39:23):
your GM and your head coach on the same page.
You know that that infighting was very real and and
they were at odds to the point where they were
trying to sabotage each other to sabotage each other. So
the success that they've had is really in spite of that.
And but to your point, you know, bringing in a
new GM and having them them run the show, assuming
(39:46):
it's not the old GM and they don't try to
steal them back. I would everything would be on the
table for me and and and trying to re reorganize
this around the one piece. To me, there's only one
indispensable piece, and that's Nicola Jokic.
Speaker 1 (40:06):
Okay, let's let's get to a couple of the teams. Celtics.
What do they do now?
Speaker 2 (40:13):
I don't know that they have to do as much
as people suggest that they have to. Obviously, they have
some financial issues that they have to take care of.
I don't see Al Horford coming back. You have to
figure out what the health issue is with christasporzingis. But
they were, like, you know, one of the strengths was
they their depth, and I don't know that that necessarily changes.
(40:39):
I don't think that Jason Tatum's injury necessarily changes things
in a dramatic way, or that you're capable of changing
things in a dramatic way. They were the second best
team in the regular season during the in the Eastern Conference,
they had the third best record in the league. You know,
do I think that they have to make some changes
(41:01):
and some tweaks. Sure, but they are a very expensive
team that is going to have to give up some
pieces uh in order to uh to meet the specifications
of the new ownership. But that was going to happen anyway.
I just I look at I look at the Eastern Conference.
Who are they competing against it? But do they really
(41:23):
have to worry about as being that that team that
they're going after? I think very you know, even losing
an Al Hartford and let's say everything else is status quo.
I think they're I think they're right there. You know,
I've dug deep into the numbers, UH and whether they'd
have to move someone else. And really it comes down
(41:44):
to how willing are you to pay the tax that's
going to come along with it? And do you think
if you pay the tax, can you can you have
the team that you want with the limitations that that
the high pay roll put upon you. That's going to
be the question. But I don't like this complete makeover
(42:05):
because they lost in the second round. I think that's
a wild overreaction.
Speaker 1 (42:12):
Okay, the Knicks take on the Pacers. What are your expectations?
Speaker 2 (42:18):
Well, I can't wait to see that first game. I
have the I have the Knicks winning the series, largely
because I think that they're a little deeper and healthier
than they were the last time these two teams played,
and I believe the presence of Mitchell Robinson and Kat
(42:41):
the combination versus a team that essentially run by Miles
Turner in the front court. As much as I love
the Pacers Wings, as much as I think that they
are vastly underrated, I don't know what I'm going to
get from Tyrese Halliburton from game to game. I think
(43:01):
he's shown a lot, and I think at times that
he's demonstrated that the overrated label was inaccurate. But there's
also times where his passivity or his reluctance to shoot
or attempt to score really troubles me. And I just
I feel like the Knicks are a more known quantity.
(43:25):
The Jalen Brunson is a more known quantity. And while
I have my concerns about what Pat is and he isn't,
I'm going to lean. I'm going to lean mix in
that series, but I would not look Pacers win it
or they push it to seven. I would not be
(43:45):
the least that's surprised.
Speaker 1 (43:47):
Okay, let me circle back to this up and I was
going to ask you previously, which is both the game
sevens were blowouts. Can you find a reason why.
Speaker 2 (44:02):
I think it's I think it's largely I would say
it's largely coincidence in that you had themes that were
simply overwhelmed and and I mean I just I look
at the Nuggets. They were they were out of gas,
and they were down to at most five and a
(44:23):
half players. And with the Celtics, it was like I
thought the Knicks demonstrated that they were a physically and
maybe even mentally tougher team. That's that Boston. Boston was
a one trick pony in terms of how they play
(44:44):
and how they get back into games that they're not
shooting the three, well, then they're going to have have
issues with christophs frozingis only partially available. I don't they
don't feel to me like the team that has a
different way to play. And so it's feaster famine, and
when it's feaster famine, when it comes to threes, that
(45:05):
can result in a in a lopsided result, in a hurry.
With Denver, I think it was just a matter of
you're playing against a young athletic team and and you're
just you run out of body. You're asking your Michael
Porter Jr. Was was a disappointment. Jamal Murray had whatever
(45:27):
was going on with him was not one hundred percent.
Aaron Gordon clearly was not one hundred percent. I mean,
now you're you're asking Julian Strauther, who had like a
string of d MPs to finish the season, and Peyton Watson,
who has been wildly consistent his entire career. You're now
asking those guys to go into a road arena and
(45:49):
and and got out again seven. I just think it was,
you know it was. It was a combination of things
for the Nuggets and and for the Celtics, just a
different combination in both cases.
Speaker 1 (46:05):
Rick Buker, Fox Sports One and Fox Sports Radio's NBA
insider Bucher the best Man. Can't wait to talk with
you as the conference finals roll on. Thanks for being
our guest.
Speaker 2 (46:15):
I'm looking forward to it. Thanks
Thanks for listening to the best of the Doug Gottlieb
Show podcast. Be sure to catch us live every weekday
three to five Eastern twelve two Pacific on Fox Sports Radio.
Find your local station for The Doug Gottlieb Show at
boxsports Radio dot com, or stream us live every day
on the iHeartRadio app by searching f SR Booming Up America,
Doug Gottlieb Show, Fuck Sports Radio coming to you from
(00:27):
parts unknown. No, I'm kidding, I am kidding. To do
do Do Do Do doo? We have a lot. We
had a jam pack show. Uh. That was a good
sports weekend. I mean disappointing Game sevens, all right, super
(00:47):
disappointing Game sevens, but all in all, pretty good weekend.
Got a chance to take my son Hayes to Game
seven of the Thunder game. We'll get to that in
a second. Let me kind of give you the layout
of the hour. Rick Buker joined us at twenty five.
After the hour, we'll talk all things NBA. We got
(01:11):
love and hate for you. Come on top of next hour,
we'll talk about the Angel Reese discussion, which has multi
layered discussion and maybe even be able to sneak in
some baseball. Welcome into Dan Byer. Of course you hear
him on Sundays on Fox Sports Radio. You hear him.
He's actually all over the dial filling in for whomever.
(01:33):
And then you got Chase Do and Sam the crew
all back together. Let's start with Game seven. There's a
bunch to get to, a bunch to get to. I mean,
I'll give it to Kendrick Perkins. He didn't invent the phrase,
but he has said, hey, role players play better at home.
That was clearly the case with both the Nuggets, with
(01:55):
Julian Strather playing really well in Game six and playing
very poorly in Game seven, and you look at the
role players like Alex Caruso played incredibly well in Game seven.
The difference in that game for me was two things.
Caruso's defense, energy, ability to guard and front. They did
(02:17):
a great job of fronting. That's playing in between yourself
and the basketball of Nikola Jokicz. Just make everything hard
to get in the basketball. Every time I got the basketball,
and yeah, they're fouling him. They were fouling him. Based
upon how the game is officiated all season long, and
be playofficials a little bit different and then he had
help where you know, there's always a non shooter on
(02:38):
the court for the Nuggets, and they made those guys
beat him and they could not. But the real way
in which that game was won was the turnovers that
led to runouts and wide open dunks and lamps. And
whether it was because of injury with with Drew Holiday,
I mean Drew Holliday with with Aaron Gordon, or just
the fact that Yo Kicch can't get back that quickly
(03:03):
or other players not getting back when they should have,
I would venture to guess, especially the end of the
first half when that game was blown open and early
in the second half, there were probably ten uncontested layups
and dunks for the for the Thunder, that's twenty points,
and that's a big enough difference to win the game.
The rest doesn't really matter. What does matter is this.
(03:24):
I love going to games. I think it's one of
the things that separates our show from other shows and
other networks. You know, we have guys that go to
I went to seven Packer games last year and I
went to a Charger game. We go to college football games.
(03:45):
I obviously coach college basketball. I go to NBA games
go to NFL games, I go to Major League Baseball games.
One when you go to those places, you I have
friends in the Thunder organization. You get to see catch
up with they take about everybody else. And two it's
just different when you're there. But byer I had I
had an experienced yesterday where it's both good and bad. Okay,
(04:08):
here's the good. The good is that the Thunder the
fans are incredible. And for people who are like, they
don't get why why so many have so many glowing
things to say about Oklahoma State basketball because Okahoma State
basketball hasn't been really that good for twenty years? Is
(04:28):
that's what it was like at our arena only arena
was a quarter of the size of it, But that
level of intensity of fans, if that makes sense. Sure, Okay,
so same type of fans, only now there's eighteen thousand
night and you're talking about playing for an NBA championship
and they're loud, and I've determined I know the most
(04:50):
obnoxious fans outside of the obvious most obnoxious, Like, there's
some people that are just obnoxious. They're constantly trying to
be on TV. You know, they're standing there close to
the court, so they stand up and try and make
a scene with the players. Those are the most annoying.
But we were about I don't know what letter G is, right,
but we're in row.
Speaker 2 (05:09):
G, so.
Speaker 1 (05:11):
Maybe CDEFG. Okay, so we're seven rows back, but I
think there are also ten double let there's ten like
double letters down loads. We're like seventeen rows back. And
so you're generally in with a solid group of season
ticket holders, okay, and the constant booing, yelling, basketball sayings
(05:37):
or basketball fan things to point out that aren't I'll
give you two things. Every time Yokich went to the line,
there was one guy to my left that was calling
him a flopper, and the guy behind me was calling
him a free throw merchant. And I'm like, and I
turned the guy behind me and I was like, you know, maybe,
(05:58):
but you do not like shait is the biggest free
throw merchant in the league, right, Like that's a that's
a real thing. Like he's an unbelievable free throw merchant.
He has the ability in the regular season to go
and get fouled. They don't call it much in the postseason,
so pod calling kettle black is just a weird thing
to me, and then the other one is, hey, here's
(06:20):
a deal. Sometimes your team does, in fact foul right,
sometimes outside of take fouls. It was like anytime there
was a call on the thunder Water, are you looking at?
All they do is flop like it's not possible that
there are zero fouls committed by your team. So they're
using like common terminology in the NBA. So there are
(06:43):
some level of real NBA fan. They're not like, oh,
this is my first time to get go team in.
Are we in blue or and white?
Speaker 3 (06:50):
Right?
Speaker 1 (06:50):
It's not like they're not knowledgeable, it's they have a
little bit of knowledge, and yet it comes out as obnoxious. Obnoxious.
Speaker 4 (06:58):
A little bit of knowledge is a dangerous at times.
And that seems like the scenario where where it is
I can understand complaining about certain calls here and there,
the not the MVP stuff, the ever just to know
that stuff that doesn't bother me, because it's kind of
like an MVP chant, Like you will start an MVP
(07:20):
chant for your guy even if maybe he really isn't
even now SGA obviously is, but you're just trying to
support the guy. Does it really mean that it's that
the players an MVP when maybe he would finish sixth
in voting talking about other arenas. I don't mind that
sort of stuff. So you're trying to find something out
of Yokich I'm cool with that. But I could not
(07:40):
stand sitting there for two hours listening to someone complain
about fouls that are called, especially two if you think
of the outcome of it, Imagine if the Thunder were
never called for a foul. Imagine the blowback from the
media and everybody else around the country and saying, how
did the Thunder not get called for any fowls? Yeah,
that would annoy me.
Speaker 1 (08:01):
I'm with you. I would also tell you that I
I like Shay Gildas Alexander. I liked him. You go
back to look at his pre draft stuff. I've always
liked him. I thought when they made the trade with
the Clippers, it's a great trade. I think he's probably
gonna win the MVP. But I would also tell you
that he wasn't close to the best overall player on
(08:22):
the court yesterday, like a look, A good portion of
it is the Nuggets were in his zone, so he
couldn't be his usual self. And when when Jokicic went
out Jalen Williams attacked the rim, got it going, and
then the turnovers happened, and then it just kind of
snowballed on the nuggets. But it's I think I've nailed
it in the He's a better score than Jokich's no
(08:48):
question whether he scores more points or not. He need
to score more points, and he's efficient doing it. He's
an unbelievable scorer. But I mean, Jokich makes does He's
the whole team. He does everything, and I get that
we can pick out defensively when he does and doesn't
challenge shots. He is so smart with it and understands
(09:09):
angles and when to foul and when not to foul,
when to wall up, when not to wall up. A
remarkable passer. Yeah, he kind of is sloppy with his body,
throwing it around all the time, but that's kind of
part of the beauty to it. So I again, I
have no idea who's going to win the MVP. I
think it'll be Shay because you get they get fatigue
over the big guys. But Jokic is the best player
(09:33):
in the world, or the best player that I've seen
in the world. Here's Mark Dagno who's the head coach
of the Thunder talking about the difference in the game
for his team.
Speaker 5 (09:42):
Yeah, I thought our pressure today was a difference maker
in the game. And we access that at different times
in the series, but today we did it, you know,
most consistently for the forty eight minutes. And we didn't
even play a perfect game on offense, but you know,
it was just such a catalyst the pressure, the deflections,
the turnovers, and you know, even when they got shots,
(10:04):
I thought the pressure and help really disrupted the rhythm
of those shots. And the guys just did a great
job of, you know, sifting through all the noise of
a game seven and just focusing on what we need
to do to win, and we really executed it.
Speaker 1 (10:19):
It Stug gott Leap show here on Fox Sports Radio. Uh,
he's right, and look, of course he sees he's the coach.
But that game, that game was one based on their
pressure defense, pressuring them because if you're gonna front your kitch,
you have to pressure the basketball. You can't front and
then play soft because then they just lop it over the top.
They pressure, pressure, pressured, and the Nuggets had no answers.
(10:42):
Here's SGA talk about how games haven't played.
Speaker 3 (10:45):
Out the nerves was natural. We obviously didn't shoot, We
actually shot horrible to start the game, but I knew
like we were getting really good looks and if we
just stuck with it that like we would loosen up
in the ball and you know, find the basket. And
it did so well. I never, like, I never was
worried by the way we started. We had the right intentions.
We had tighten a little bit up on defensive on
the defensive end, but once I felt the flow of
(11:07):
the game and we had the right intentions and the
right energy, I knew it would turn around for us.
It means a lot, specifically for the city. They've been
so good all year, have been behind us through good
through bad, like it doesn't feel like it feels like
like no team in the league has home court advantags
like we do. And that's all due to them. With
the T shirts, the cheering, the screaming, the chance, they
(11:28):
really give us like energy out there and we've been
a better team because of them and having them behind us,
And to know that if we didn't bring it tonight
it could be over for them as well wasn't fair.
And we wanted to play for them as well.
Speaker 1 (11:40):
Here's David Adelman, who's the the intermat coach of the Nuggets,
talking about the loss.
Speaker 6 (11:44):
When you lose, it's crushing and it's the last time
you'll be in the room with those guys, and it's
beyond that you only get one of these, you know,
this is the one moment we had together to make
this run. And they're all individual to themselves, they're also special.
Anybody that's played sports understands that. So walking out of
that locker room is uh, it's crushing, and it's gonna
take a while leat over that one, like I thought.
Speaker 1 (12:08):
You know, it's obviously it's hard. And I fully confess
that I don't watch any many or maybe any full
Nuggets game in the regular season. If I was to
be coach to coach critical, it would be that you
couldn't you know, when the Thunder got back in the
game in the second quarter, it was when both of
(12:32):
his two stars were out of the game and he
left Aaron. I don't know if he left Aaron Gordon
out there, but I know he took Jok and Murray
out at the same time. And you just they just
don't have enough. They just don't have enough. And then
the other part would be if a team is pressuring you,
you have to have pressure counters. You have to whatever
you do, you and this this is the old AU
coach and me my dad is the old AU coach,
(12:54):
which is that's how AU basketball is generally played in California.
Which is pressure pressure, pressure pressure? Do you actually start
with how to break pressure before you learn about running offense?
And I felt like they just didn't have the predetermined
answers for how to attack that kind of defense. And
(13:15):
and look, I also disagree with Shay. I don't think
they took They took good shots for bad shooters in
the first quarter. You know they had the wrong guys
shooting the basketball. But you get that many steals, that
many lamps, that much momentum, of course the ball is
gonna start going in.
Speaker 7 (13:31):
This is the best of the Done dot Leap Show
on Fox Sports Radio.
Speaker 1 (13:38):
What with your Doug got Lap Show, Fox Sports Radio.
I hope you're having a great day The Doug gott
Leap Show broadcast live two places. The boys are in
Sherman Oaks, California, and your boys in Green Bay, Wisconsin.
Hope you had a great weekend. You're getting ready for
Memorial Day, which is the unofficial, unofficial first weekend of summer.
(13:59):
We don't go by soul this, no no, no, no no.
We go buy labored a Memorial Labor Day and Memorral Day.
Start right. Iowa Sam and Iowa Sean both in the house.
So too is Dan byer Am a man jay Stu.
For forty years, Tyrak has been helping customers find the
(14:20):
right tires for how, what and where they drive. Ship
Fast and free back by free Road has protection with
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the way tire buying should be. I don't think I'm
gonna it's there's no place for calls on it. But
I think we have time to have a great and
reasonable discussion about the Caitlin Clark angel rees plus the
(14:41):
accusations about Fever fans upcoming upcoming, But before we can
get to that, Every Monday we like to recap the
weekend in things that we enjoyed we didn't enjoy. We
call it love and hate.
Speaker 7 (14:58):
What did you love?
Speaker 1 (15:00):
God?
Speaker 7 (15:00):
I love you and what did you hate?
Speaker 1 (15:03):
Meetles Clare Hayes Love Love Love Love Love, Hey Hey, Hey, Hey,
what'd you love from the weekend? What'd you hate from
the weekend? Teaze? All right, I'm gonna start boys. I
(15:25):
was watching the New York Knicks demolished the Boston Celtics
Game six Eastern Conference semi Finals, and I watched them
pan the crowd and Pat Ewing's there, and Bernard King
is there, and every dignitary in New York is there,
(15:48):
stephen A Smith there And suddenly now stephen A is
back to being a Knicks fan after disowning the team
a couple of years ago. The fans are there. Remember,
the fans are wanting to sell the team, sell the team.
Jim Dolan's still the owner of the Knicks, Yes he is.
Nothing has changed there, you know it's changed. They're winning.
(16:10):
They're winning. And oh yeah, by the way, no one
has said, hey, Jim Dolan, great job handing over control
to Leon Rose. Nobody can't. That doesn't make him the
greatest dude, or a great owner, or not a dysfunctional
place to work. I don't know anything about that. I haven't.
My point is what I love is sometimes cliches, you
can prove it to somebody, and the cliche is winning
(16:34):
cures all Ills, right, zero things change with the ownership
of the New York Knicks, zero things change. And Tom
Tibodeau right, Uh, he couldn't. He wears out guys, they
don't have it left in the playoffs of this, he's
that or whatever. Timbs sort of vindicated as well. Right.
(16:56):
The only thing that's changed is they've got a little
bit better as a team, that they have team toughness,
team competitiveness and their best players a very as a
winning player. And they didn't get hurt and the Celtics
did winning cuz all Ills don't believe me. I give
you the New York knickerbockers. I love that it played
out at MSG on Friday night, Dan Byer, what'd you
(17:18):
love for the weekend? Doug.
Speaker 4 (17:19):
I'm going to take a unique twist on this because
we teased it earlier and I don't love one side
of it, but I do love the other side of it.
And the other side is I love that Bryson de
Shambo continues to speak with the media and understands on
how things can work and how things work to his
(17:40):
benefit and works for the fans benefit. Bryson shoots seventy
one under round one under par round yesterday, but doesn't
win the PGA Championship, ends up in a tie for
second place, five back a Scottie Scheffler. There was a
point on Saturday where Bryson was in it, but then
he ended up falling off a little bit and Scheffler
kind of ran away, not ran away from the pack,
(18:01):
but gained separation on Saturday. Bryson talked after the round
on Saturday, talked after the round on Sunday. Spoke with
the media after the master's loss a month ago when
Rory McElroy won, and that pales into comparison to what
Rory McElroy did this week in not speaking after the
rounds or any of the rounds at the PGA Championship.
(18:22):
And I'm a big Rory fan, but I did not
like his decisions this week in not speaking with the media,
especially when his driver ended up being pulled from competition
because it failed a conformity test. Now, he never used
it during any of the rounds, but he had a
new driver this week and obviously something wasn't right. Rory
made the cut but wasn't in contention at all. And
(18:45):
I think you just have to you have to talk
in those situations. Tiger Woods spoke all the time. Now,
he won a lot, but he didn't win every single time,
and Tiger Woods was always speaking with the media, and
so Rory, who was on top of the all world
a month ago, now kind of goes incognito. It was
a shame to see because he had always been outspoken
(19:07):
and kind of got burned by it throughout the early
Live days then kind of took a step back. And
I don't know if he's gun shy dug in speaking,
but to not speak after any of the rounds, I
think it's a disservice, especially for a guy who's won
that championship twice in his career.
Speaker 1 (19:21):
Yeah, yes, I couldn't agree more so. I love that
Bryson heartbreak, right, who's had a tough reputation with the media.
Speaker 2 (19:34):
Right.
Speaker 1 (19:34):
Yes, it's really interesting like Rory's kind of been protected class.
Bryce has been a guy that people have gone after,
and Bryson did the right thing. I think we both agree.
You promote your sport, it's part of what it's part
of how it all works together.
Speaker 4 (19:48):
Yeah, and Bryson's got other interests obviously, I mean he's
playing on Live, but also his YouTube channel and the
things that he does there, so he understands it. Amanda Balionis,
who did the interview with Bryson, was extremely like gracious
and like, thank you so much for talking to us.
I know it's probably not, you know, the best time,
but yeah, like she understands it and and Bryson gets
(20:09):
it as well. For some reason, Rory didn't this weekend.
Speaker 1 (20:12):
Uh, I was Sean and I was what's you left
for the weekend?
Speaker 8 (20:18):
I did love the Indiana Fevers romp over the Chicago sky.
What a difference a year makes this team with a
pretty much you know, a couple new faces. They look bigger,
they look faster, they just look even though it's kind
of a new ensemble with a new coach.
Speaker 9 (20:33):
They look more organized.
Speaker 8 (20:35):
And the first half against the guy was a little
clunky and Kaylyn Clark picked up a couple of fouls.
Speaker 9 (20:40):
She wasn't shooting great.
Speaker 8 (20:42):
The second half they just let it rip and they
won by thirty five. Was one of the biggest margins
of a victory they've had. And I think an opener
or any any WNBA game, I was, I sat down
for this game and I was hooting and hollering and
whooping and hollering, and you know, you had the moment
between Kayln Clark and Angel Reese. And I mean, I
just remember last year's opening game. I think it was
(21:02):
against the Sun. It was just a struggle. Kaitlyn Clark
looked like she just didn't, you know, belong out there.
Obviously she she would prove that wrong, but she proved
that otherwise. But this she just looks stronger. She was
throwing passes out there like a quarterback. That was fun.
That was fun, and the Fever are gonna be fun
to watch. I definitely think they're a contender. I loved it.
(21:25):
I loved it, and I listen. I called this a
rivalry on Friday or Thursday actually, and whether people want
to acknowledge it as such, I think it's definitely a
rivalry between these two, these two teams.
Speaker 10 (21:36):
And I'm gonna go ahead and I'm just going to
piggyback on on what he loves because just for the
sake of time, yes, I know this isn't Iowa Northwestern,
but yes, uh, just for the second time, I'm going
to piggyback on this. I don't care if the Fever win.
I don't care if they're better. I like watching Kaitlyn Clark.
I watched every minute of that game. If you would
(21:57):
have told me two years ago that you're gonna spend
us Saturday afternoon tuning into every minute of a w
NBA game, I would have asked which of the Avengers
chose to play in the WNB?
Speaker 1 (22:11):
So good? Yeah, so good?
Speaker 10 (22:13):
And to see Sam Sam touched on this. She left
assists on the court. There are still passes that her
teammates can't quite handle. She constantly pushes the tempo. I
love seeing what she does two opponents like there's a
lot of that magic on Saturday that we saw in college.
I like that about her and I'm gonna keep watching
(22:35):
until she becomes just kind of a pedestrian good player.
Speaker 8 (22:39):
Yeah, there are points that they could have gone over
one hundred, and there were several close shots they missed.
And they'll get that under ring and they'll get that
under control.
Speaker 1 (22:46):
But wow, that's what we loved. Let's get till we
hated from the weekend or with our resident hater, Jason Stewart.
Speaker 10 (22:54):
Jase, I couldn't stand that my nuggets got their asses
kicked and it's not necessarily that I had any prediction
or anything, But I really do believe that the best
content moving forward would have been would have been Jokic winning,
because people hate when he wins. It was frustrating. I
(23:17):
hated the fact that it wasn't even really a game
after the first quarter and that the Thunder just like
ran them over. Jokic couldn't do a single thing. He
was getting almost no help. Westbrook kind of showed us
what Doug has always said about him in this series.
I think the overall stats were like a minus thirty
(23:37):
three or something the whole series ninety five thirty three
maybe was just in the fourth quarter on on on Sunday.
So I hated that it was disappointing. I was gearing
up for a good game. That's all we hoped for
was a good game, and it just was miserable.
Speaker 3 (23:54):
So I hated that.
Speaker 1 (23:57):
I thought you would have hated by Angel sweeping your Dodgers.
But that's okay, damn byer Doug.
Speaker 4 (24:02):
It was a tough weekend for my hopes of a
Canadian team lifting Lord Stanley's Cup, as sixty six percent
of the Canadian teams went down in conference semi final
action and that includes the Winnipeg Jets on Saturday night
losing to the Dallas Stars. Now, the Leafs lost last
night in Game seven at home to the Florida Panthers,
(24:22):
which is very, very Toronto Maple leaf esque. But what
happened on Saturday is I think a moment, and it's
more than a moment of just absolute heartbreak when it
comes to Mark Shiffley of the Winnipeg Jets. For those
that maybe don't follow hockey or have followed the playoffs
of what has gone on, Shifley's dad passed away within
(24:44):
twenty four hours forty eight hours of them playing Game
six on Saturday night, and Shiffley decided to play in
the game and had a goal in the contest to
put them up one nothing in the second period. Dallas
ends up evening the score. They're nearing the end of
the third period, Hied up at one apiece and Dallas
is almost almost as a breakaway. Shiffy ends up committing
(25:07):
a penalty. They could have called the penalty shot they
did not, but in the end it gave Dallas a
two minute power play. They went overtime, but on that
power play, with Mark Schiffley in the penalty box, Dallas
scored an end of the series, and so we see
a lot of situations, I should say a lot of situations.
The Brett Favre situation is the most popular one, right
Farv's dad passes. He plays against the Raiders in Oakland
(25:30):
on Monday Night football and has the game of his
life and everybody is like, my goodness, But we never
think of the flip side and how Mark Shifley could
have felt and if you would have seen how his
teammates and how the Dallas Stars tried to console him
after Game six. Admirable by them, but just an awful
feeling for a guy who obviously feels responsible that it
(25:54):
was his penalty that may have cost them, despite him
having a goal earlier in the game, and now he's
got to go and bear his dad like just absolutely awful.
But that that handshake line was so long because everybody
was just stopping him and all the Dallas Stars were
you know, giving him words of you know, encouragement or sympathy. Yeah,
(26:14):
it was just quite the scene in Dallas on Saturn.
Speaker 1 (26:16):
Okay, okay, I'll just I hated Game six and Game seven.
I hated the under and sheer dominance of the Celtics
obviously above the Knicks against the Celtics and the thunder
against the Nuggets, Like, I mean, those tickets cost good money.
Yesterday I was fired up, and as much as it's fun,
(26:36):
you know, it's like such a blowout and everybody's celebrating
and having a great time, Like you really want to
know what's inside of a Shay Gildess, Alexander, what's inside
of a you know? The magic till the Jalen Brunson
is not the forty point blowout. It's the what happens
in a one point game when one of those guys
has the ball, a chance to win the game, and
(26:57):
we didn't. We were we didn't see it. Now again,
it's only a semi finals. We eventually will get that answer.
But it just I don't know, I hates a strong word,
but it's part of the segment. I just hated the
fact that those games that we all thought were gonna
build up to some crescendo and be some incredible finish
were over before the final quarter ever started over. Not
(27:22):
competitive for either of those two Like when you're I
feel for those guys at the end of both of
those benches who didn't play previously in the series, then
all of a sudden they're out there playing like ten minutes.
Do you know how sore those guys are. Jalen Pickett
who played at Sienna at Penn State, like he's playing
like the last eight minutes. That is, who has dust
enough the needs to go out there and play. But
(27:45):
I just hated how those guy games were non competitive. IOA.
Speaker 8 (27:48):
Sam Rick Heller has been i Iowa Baseball's skipper for
over a decade now. He's done a great job. He's
got in Iowa baseball to three NCAA tournaments. He's won
a tournament championship. But Iowa was in the closest position
it had been in a long long time to winning
a regular season Big Ten championship in baseball. They haven't
(28:08):
won one since nineteen ninety. They had a great march
in a great April. They were like, had a huge
lead on the rest of the Big Ten until they
started playing the West Coast teams that are now in
the Big Ten, and it was like a slow death,
like of a python squeezing you and just sucking the
life out of you. They just needed one win over
(28:29):
Oregon to at least share some of the Big Ten championship,
and they just have had the worst go of it
against these They played Oregon State, Oregon, Washington and there's
something like one win, one tie, was a weird tie,
and a bunch of losses, and over the weekend the
chances of winning that Big Ten championship were just slowly stripped.
Speaker 9 (28:51):
Away from them. It was very hard to watch.
Speaker 8 (28:53):
It shows you the talent level is so much different
West Coast Baseball. Now, what they bring to the Big Ten,
they're gonna up the quality of the conference overall. But man,
that was hard to watch because Io fattened up on
all the Midwest League, all the Midwest teams in the
Big Ten, and then when they got to the West Coast,
it was like a buzz saw.
Speaker 9 (29:07):
They just went down in flames.
Speaker 1 (29:09):
And that's love it. Hey.
Speaker 7 (29:10):
Fox Sports Radio had the best sports talk lineup in
the nation yet. Catch all of our shows at Fox
sports Radio dot com and within the iHeartRadio app.
Speaker 1 (29:21):
Doug Gotlieb Show, Fox Sports Radio. Rick Bucher will join
us about what six minutes, seven mins, eight minutes Rick
Buker eight minutes, eight minutes away from Rick Buker. Just
here's the discussion, point Buyer. I'd love your opinion, Sean
(29:44):
and Jay stew I have an opinion on this. I
have a couple and they're more hypotheses. They're more hypotheses
than they are theories.
Speaker 3 (29:56):
Right.
Speaker 1 (29:56):
A HYPOTHESI is a theory that's not yet proven. Right.
So Game six for the Celtics and Nicks was a
complete and utter blowout, and Game seven for Thunder versus
Nuggets became a complete and utter blowout after early on
(30:17):
Nuggets dominating and then kind of losing control into the
first half. But in trying to figure out why, right, Like,
the conversations about about game sevens usually are man, they
were decided by one play here, one play. There are
memories even of Game sevens are that they were all close.
The reality is they're not. There's been plenty of crummy
(30:39):
Game sevens, but having them in basically back to back fashion.
I know it wasn't back to back, but having a
Sunday one and a Friday one makes it seem like,
why are these so bad? So I'll give you a
couple of possible reasons behind it, and then we'll discuss.
(31:01):
So the first thing is quite obviously, the Celtics weren't healthy,
and after one game of playing without Jason Tatum, now
reality sets in, reality sets in, and there's a reason
that Jason Tatum was the Finals MVP. There's a reason
that he's gonna make three hundred million dollars next year.
And one day at home, you can pick up the slack,
(31:25):
you can have great energy, you can get over the hump,
but then you have to go do it again on
the road and suddenly they figure out who you are
and how you're different without Jason Tatum. And then obviously
the Nuggets haven't been healthy. Drew Gordon was the shell
of himself. They don't have a very good bench. And
remember the bench, or the lack of roster building, is
(31:45):
the reason that Calvin Booth is no longer their GM.
But I I don't know. I sit here and I
think to myself, is there something more? And here's what
I want to offer up the possibilit if I do
think the officiating, at least in the Oakohoma City game
was awful. It was awful. Now part of it was
(32:08):
Denver didn't react well to it, but part of it
was like, what are they supposed to do, they could
not get a call. It felt like out in the
prim when they're drive tripling the basketball, Oklahoma City's pressuring
and the use of the team that exerts the most
pressure physically dominates the game, and that that's what happened.
But usually game sevens are equally officiated. Usually the home
(32:31):
team has it's a great despirit and officiating for all
the home teams, and then you get to Game seven,
it's like they're like, Okay, hey guys, now, now let's
do it on the up and up. That's usually how
it works it or it feels like it works, and
I didn't think that was the case in the Thunder
Thunder game, And which allows me for my next hypothesis,
(32:51):
which is there's just not that many games of this
much energy in the NBA, and frankly I fewer and
few were in college as where previously. So players are
going to react differently and officials are going to react differently,
and the game feels very, very different. And I think
home court becomes more important and more useful in these
(33:13):
big games because many of those guys aren't used to
playing in real home court advantageous situations and getting simply
every call, dan By, are your thoughts.
Speaker 4 (33:24):
Well, I don't disagree with either thought. I like the
first one more like that's how I looked at the Celtics,
where then everything built up for that Game five, Like
if there was a game that they were gonna win
without Jason Tatum, it's that game. Unify, let's rally together,
(33:44):
we'll have twenty thousand Celtics fans having our back. We
can win that game five. Then in game six, you
lose twenty thousand fans, you don't have Jason Tatum, and
you like to chuck up threes and you're not really
gonna defensive stops, and then that's what you end up getting.
Like that, I almost felt like you could see that
(34:06):
one coming from a mile away. Yet people still wanted
to put their chips in on the Celtics to think
that for some reason, this team was because they were
champions last year, they were ready to go on a run,
and I just I didn't think they would have anything
left from what they had in Game five, and it
proved that in game six, the Game seven with the thunder.
(34:28):
I just think that that's what Oklahoma City does to you,
and also that maybe the Nuggets, aren't that that good?
And then you have those twenty thousand on your side,
and when it gets rolling, it gets rolling. Like Denver
used everything that they had, and it felt like Aaron
Gordon had everything he had in the first ten minutes
of the game. And then after that, once they got
(34:48):
blitz creaked by the thunder, I mean, it was it
was over like there's nothing that there's nothing that they
could do, and Oklahoma City just kept going and going,
kind of like how the Knicks did. But I just
I think the Celtics and the Nuggets were up to
par to win those games. How they were constructed entering
those games.
Speaker 1 (35:10):
Jay s dou what do you think?
Speaker 6 (35:11):
Oh?
Speaker 10 (35:12):
I don't think the listeners want to know my opinion,
but you should see Sam's Uh, he's had a little
bit of an episode in the last three minutes. He
just he's wondering why you called him Sean?
Speaker 1 (35:22):
And I love your opinion, Sean, And do we're so bad?
I was Sean who I don't know his name?
Speaker 10 (35:32):
Sean? Uh, maybe I don't even know.
Speaker 1 (35:36):
Did I have a Biden moment right there? Man? Did
I have a senior episode? Oh? Man, that's Sean And Jason,
Sean and Jay Stu. All right, well, well we'll work
our way back to Sean and to Sam uh. Let's
welcome in. He's Rick Buker, Fox Sports, Foxsports one, Foxsports
(35:58):
dot Com. He covers all things NBA for Fox Sports
Radio as well. The Denver Nuggets, who did not have
much of a bench, go down in Game seven. Let's
start with Aaron Gordon is like, you know, not enough
time in between games. I think he means really games
three and four, right, that's where the Nuggets feel like
the series was lost. What's the legitimacy to that argument
(36:22):
for you?
Speaker 2 (36:23):
Well, look, I get it, but it's a business and
a lot of this is determined by all sorts of
other factors. It's not as if the league and the
team have complete free will, free hand to put the
(36:44):
games where they want to. Some of it is how
do we capture the biggest TV audience. What are the
matchups that we want to feature, what's the availability of
the arenas, what's the travel There's there's so many factors
that go into it. I understand the the desire to
have an ideal set up, but the reality is is
(37:07):
that there's.
Speaker 11 (37:07):
All sorts of inconsistencies and and and and logistical issues
and challenges that that go on.
Speaker 2 (37:19):
It's just it's part and parcel of it. I just
I feel like sometimes we get into a little bit
of over analyzation after the fact about various things depending
on what happens. And uh and and I think that's
the case here. There have been scheduling challenges for teams
(37:39):
to overcome in in the playoffs for decades, and this
just happens to be another one.
Speaker 1 (37:49):
Uh. You know the thing about the Nuggets and I was,
I was there yesterday afternoon for the game in Oaklanoo City.
Was uh, obviously, Eric Gordon, was it right? Was it healthy?
They only really have five and a half. I thought
Oklahoma City was the first time that they decided, hey,
let's confront the post. Obviously Caruso was a gigantic factor.
(38:11):
But the other thing is like Jamal Murray, you know,
I I understand there's not the space to play because
he doesn't at times he has Russell Westbrook or uh
Peyton's out there or you know they have they have
too many non shooters out there. But what do the
Nuggets do moving forward? You're gonna have a new GM
who doesn't have a tie to endy of these guys.
(38:33):
He's got to try and build a championship roster. He's
got to move some piece to do so. Is Jamal
Murray the one they will move?
Speaker 2 (38:40):
I honestly, I would move just I love the the
chemistry that that Jokic and Jamal have, But at this
point with the nuggets, I would be open to moving
anyone and other than than Nikolae Jokicic, I would be
looking at this strictly from what do the assets that
(39:02):
I have and how do I develop better depth and
versatility on my roster so that I'm not having to
lean on your pitch as heavily as as they have
over the last couple of years. And some of that
is also you know, the disadvantage that they've had over
over the last few years is that you didn't have
(39:23):
your GM and your head coach on the same page.
You know that that infighting was very real and and
they were at odds to the point where they were
trying to sabotage each other to sabotage each other. So
the success that they've had is really in spite of that.
And but to your point, you know, bringing in a
new GM and having them them run the show, assuming
(39:46):
it's not the old GM and they don't try to
steal them back. I would everything would be on the
table for me and and and trying to re reorganize
this around the one piece. To me, there's only one
indispensable piece, and that's Nicola Jokic.
Speaker 1 (40:06):
Okay, let's let's get to a couple of the teams. Celtics.
What do they do now?
Speaker 2 (40:13):
I don't know that they have to do as much
as people suggest that they have to. Obviously, they have
some financial issues that they have to take care of.
I don't see Al Horford coming back. You have to
figure out what the health issue is with christasporzingis. But
they were, like, you know, one of the strengths was
they their depth, and I don't know that that necessarily changes.
(40:39):
I don't think that Jason Tatum's injury necessarily changes things
in a dramatic way, or that you're capable of changing
things in a dramatic way. They were the second best
team in the regular season during the in the Eastern Conference,
they had the third best record in the league. You know,
do I think that they have to make some changes
(41:01):
and some tweaks. Sure, but they are a very expensive
team that is going to have to give up some
pieces uh in order to uh to meet the specifications
of the new ownership. But that was going to happen anyway.
I just I look at I look at the Eastern Conference.
Who are they competing against it? But do they really
(41:23):
have to worry about as being that that team that
they're going after? I think very you know, even losing
an Al Hartford and let's say everything else is status quo.
I think they're I think they're right there. You know,
I've dug deep into the numbers, UH and whether they'd
have to move someone else. And really it comes down
(41:44):
to how willing are you to pay the tax that's
going to come along with it? And do you think
if you pay the tax, can you can you have
the team that you want with the limitations that that
the high pay roll put upon you. That's going to
be the question. But I don't like this complete makeover
(42:05):
because they lost in the second round. I think that's
a wild overreaction.
Speaker 1 (42:12):
Okay, the Knicks take on the Pacers. What are your expectations?
Speaker 2 (42:18):
Well, I can't wait to see that first game. I
have the I have the Knicks winning the series, largely
because I think that they're a little deeper and healthier
than they were the last time these two teams played,
and I believe the presence of Mitchell Robinson and Kat
(42:41):
the combination versus a team that essentially run by Miles
Turner in the front court. As much as I love
the Pacers Wings, as much as I think that they
are vastly underrated, I don't know what I'm going to
get from Tyrese Halliburton from game to game. I think
(43:01):
he's shown a lot, and I think at times that
he's demonstrated that the overrated label was inaccurate. But there's
also times where his passivity or his reluctance to shoot
or attempt to score really troubles me. And I just
I feel like the Knicks are a more known quantity.
(43:25):
The Jalen Brunson is a more known quantity. And while
I have my concerns about what Pat is and he isn't,
I'm going to lean. I'm going to lean mix in
that series, but I would not look Pacers win it
or they push it to seven. I would not be
(43:45):
the least that's surprised.
Speaker 1 (43:47):
Okay, let me circle back to this up and I was
going to ask you previously, which is both the game
sevens were blowouts. Can you find a reason why.
Speaker 2 (44:02):
I think it's I think it's largely I would say
it's largely coincidence in that you had themes that were
simply overwhelmed and and I mean I just I look
at the Nuggets. They were they were out of gas,
and they were down to at most five and a
(44:23):
half players. And with the Celtics, it was like I
thought the Knicks demonstrated that they were a physically and
maybe even mentally tougher team. That's that Boston. Boston was
a one trick pony in terms of how they play
(44:44):
and how they get back into games that they're not
shooting the three, well, then they're going to have have
issues with christophs frozingis only partially available. I don't they
don't feel to me like the team that has a
different way to play. And so it's feaster famine, and
when it's feaster famine, when it comes to threes, that
(45:05):
can result in a in a lopsided result, in a hurry.
With Denver, I think it was just a matter of
you're playing against a young athletic team and and you're
just you run out of body. You're asking your Michael
Porter Jr. Was was a disappointment. Jamal Murray had whatever
(45:27):
was going on with him was not one hundred percent.
Aaron Gordon clearly was not one hundred percent. I mean,
now you're you're asking Julian Strauther, who had like a
string of d MPs to finish the season, and Peyton Watson,
who has been wildly consistent his entire career. You're now
asking those guys to go into a road arena and
(45:49):
and and got out again seven. I just think it was,
you know it was. It was a combination of things
for the Nuggets and and for the Celtics, just a
different combination in both cases.
Speaker 1 (46:05):
Rick Buker, Fox Sports One and Fox Sports Radio's NBA
insider Bucher the best Man. Can't wait to talk with
you as the conference finals roll on. Thanks for being
our guest.
Speaker 2 (46:15):
I'm looking forward to it. Thanks
Host
Doug Gottlieb
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