May 29, 2018 • 39 mins
Doug thinks the Rockets missing 27 straight 3 pointers in their game 7 loss to the Warriors is really bad news for analytics in the NBA. He also tells you why the Cavaliers have a better chance to beat the Warriors in the NBA Finals than you might think. And he talks to long time NBA analyst Ric Bucher about the Rockets falling apart in the 2nd half of games and what LeBron James can do to win another title.
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Speaker 1 (00:00):
This is the best of the Doug gott Leap Show
on Fox Sports Radio. Boom one Up America. Doug gott
Leave Show, Fox Sports Radio, coming to you from the sunny,
wonderful city of Los Angeles, California. Hope, wherever you are
you enjoyed a RESTful, fruit field, sunny, warm Memorial Day weekend.
(00:27):
Thanks for making us part of your day. We really
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(00:49):
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and of course the ever expanding empire of the Doug
Gottlieb Show. That was a hell of a game and
as much as the end of the game, it it
(01:10):
felt like Golden State was just running out the clock,
which is what they did. Let's get into it. Look,
what we're left with is Warriors Calves Part four weird
right for four is a tough one. And as much
as you want to say, amen, think about the fourth
(01:33):
Star Wars that charge our banks right one and don't
give me that was actually the first one. That was
the fourth one O. But Rocky four was pretty good.
Police Academy four wasn't totally terrible, Fast and the Furious.
I haven't watched, but I'm guessing since it made it
to seven and now that I think they have eight coming,
(01:54):
probably pretty good. So you can tell me, hey, I
got franchise fatigue. I want to go see Solo and
I don't want to go see the Calves play without
Kyrie against the Warriors. You'll still watch because it's still
Lebron now with underdog type status going against the Warriors,
(02:14):
who seem to never never be shaken, would never be
shook by any first half deficit because they have this
magic Pixie desk where they decide, hey, you know what,
let's play defense in the third quarter, and why don't
we make some more shots then too, But there's a
genius to it. Sure they have more shot makers than
(02:39):
other teams. Right if we looked at the raw data,
it would tell us that the Boston Celtics just didn't
make enough shots, are up twelve and couldn't put away
Lebron James and the Calves. There's some accuracy to it,
there's some validity to that. If you looked at the
raw data, it would tell you that the Cleveland Cavaliers,
(02:59):
they just buy a shot. I mean, how can you
miss twenty seven threes in a row? I'll tell you how.
Um there's this expression, and um, I think it's I
(03:20):
think it's genius, and it's a Vince Lombardi expression. It
goes like this fatigue makes cowards of us all. And
from the time we are children to the time we're adults,
the thing we never want to admit to is being tired,
(03:40):
right somehow, being tired as being less of a kid,
or being less of a man or less of an athlete,
which my wife will tell you like, I'm just tired.
I told you, yes yesterday, I was just I was
a couple of days out there at in the desert
and then hosting Dan Patrick Show, and I was tired.
I did get a little midday thirty minute closed my eyes.
Even that we had people over siesta. Sorry, I'm a
(04:02):
little tired, but fatigue makes cowards of us all. And
here's the Yesterday was a loss for analytics, but not
in the way you think you could sit there and go, hey,
Rockets took too many threes, which in hindsight is completely accurate.
And we'll get to why it's accurate, and it's it's
(04:24):
more than just taking threes, but why it's accurate. Here's
a question for you. How many threes a game did
the Rockets take in the regular season, Because they took
forty four last night and made only seven. How many
threes forty two point three, it's only slightly above average.
(04:47):
And of course the Golden State Warriors and they took
thirty nine and they they average only threes a game.
Matter of fact, Golden State shot way more threes yesterday
than they normally take. If anything, Golden State played into
the hands of the Houston Rockets, especially in the first half,
chucking and duck in threes. But yesterday was a loss
(05:09):
for indliction. Like, wait, that doesn't make sense because the
numbers would eventually, those numbers will even out and those
threes would be worth it. They just it was just
bad luck. It was just a bad stretch, that's all.
It was. The problem with analytics and looking at a
game on us on a sheet of paper is it
(05:31):
doesn't give us the reality of life and basketball sports, fatigue, pressure, defense,
a pass and anybody who's ever played basketball know this.
A pass can be off by just six inches and
it screws up a shooters rhythm. We go back and
(05:53):
look at um Quinn Cook missing a three at the
end of game five. Remember he didn't catch that ball cleanly,
and even though he took a dribble to establish rhythm,
whatever your percentages of making that shot wide open shot
the end of game five, the numbers go down greatly
(06:13):
because Quinn Cook, who's a G League player at the
start of the year, has never played under that pressure,
was probably mentally and emotionally little fatigued. Didn't catch the
ball cleanly. And so even as a forty three point
shooter this season in the NBA, that becomes a low
percentage shot when you don't catch it cleanly and you're
(06:34):
under that kind of pressure. And so where it's a
loss for analytics is this. It's not the idea of
shooting forty four three's. It's the Hey, why not catch
your breath? The style that Houston plays, and obviously it
was hurt because they didn't have Chris Paul. Right, you
(06:55):
don't have Chris Paul. There's a second guy who can
initiate offense, create shots himself, create others. It was awful.
It was awful. I likened it on Twitter. Prince Harry
had a long time girlfriend who I guess. They had
a long talk on the phone and then she went
to the ceremony, and I guess the reason they broke
up was she struggled with the pressure of being the
(07:19):
girlfriend and potential princess married to assume the throne at
some point. It's a lot, but can you imagine her
sitting there going like all of this could have been mine? Right,
all of this could have been mine. Where's Chris Paul
sitting there? Going like we could have won this game?
(07:39):
I could have been there. But but this is the
problem with the style of the Rockets and this overuse
of the Hey, it's analytics. Hey it's three instead of two.
Take threes, don't take layups, don't worry about post ups.
You saw its flaw yesterday in the regular season, and
(08:00):
your best player James Harden can get away with taking breaks,
taking possessions, taking quarters off defensively in the post season,
you can't. So no matter how good to shape you're
in in the regular season, the conditioning it takes for
the second half, for the second half of a of
a seven game series is at a much more difficult level.
Then you take away Chris Paul and oh yeah, by
(08:22):
the way, you're playing a high possession game in that
sort of pressure, playing seven games, your ninety nine game
of the season. You can tell me about all these
stats about this is how Houston plays. But in that
particular game, you have to adjust to the game itself.
(08:43):
Once you missed ten or oh, you go like, hey, fellas,
what if I threw it into p J. Tucker in
a post up against Steph Curry. I don't know. We
do have Joe Johnson over there, we bring him in.
Why don't we talk it to him at the block
because he is I O Joe, he might be able
to not just even if he doesn't get you a bucket,
it gives you a chance to go. I don't even
(09:09):
think Houston knows what happened. I want you to listen.
This is James Harden after the loss at home, just
in a second half. Our pace wasn't there that third quarter.
I was trying to get the guy, you know, come on,
let's go, let's go. It's it's time. But we just
didn't have that extra juice that we needed. I don't
know if it was a big minutes, I don't I
don't know what it was. Whatever it was, Listen to
(09:32):
Kevin Durant, who knew what it was. That came out
with a lot of energy at home, that has some
shots early. We knew at some point that tire out
and then James Triple So much is possession. I know
at some point here here'll wear it down. You just
you can't do it every time. You wear down and
you're playing defense. Now. Whereas even though the Golden State
(09:53):
Warriors were nearly taking an equal number of threes, how
do they play offensively? They shoot it much quicker they should,
way too quick for most of us who fallow basketball. Man,
They shoot really quicken and not always and contested stuff.
They get it up quick. Additionally, the the though they're
not as good as they used to be at it
one because Durant holds it a little bit and two
(10:15):
because they only have three shooters and you don't have
to guard the other two players. It's not is easy
to move it, but they move the ball so it's
not one guy attacking over and over and over and
over and over. That doesn't work because it wears the
guy out, and it gives. When you move the ball
and you share the volume of shots, now of a sudden,
you have more energy for defense. Whereas with James Harden,
(10:40):
your best player ends up wearing himself out and he
has to play defense that he doesn't normally play, and
he's so he's doubly worn out. James Harden didn't even
know they were out on their feet. That's all it is.
That's a fighter that's out on their feet. That's Connor McGregor.
When Floyd Mayweather had him out on his feet. I
(11:02):
thought it was close though, and I thought it was
a little earlier of a stop bish. I get like
that when I'm tired. I get a little wobbly and flowey.
Get me into the corner and the cover and I'll
come back. I don't like if they hit the floor.
How don't look in the ref to you know what
I mean. There's a lot on the loine here. They
should have let they shouldn't let me keep going. I talk,
but fair play don't. That's exactly what it is. It's fatigued.
That's why I thought the ref could have just let
it keep going, Let let me go down, let the
(11:24):
mom put me down like wobbly and fatigue. That's energy
that's not damaged. I'm true headed, yeah, I'm I'm fine.
I scraw I'm fine. I was fine. Like dude, you
weren't fine, Floyd. Maybe whether who hadn't knocked anybody out
in over a decade was just teeing off on you,
and he might even have knocked you out. You were defenseless.
Why because fatigue makes cowards of us. All Um, there's
(11:49):
two reasons I don't run marathons, maybe three. One is
I just don't like running, right, I'll run if I'm chased,
but I don't enjoy it. I just don't enjoy it.
The second thing is, do you know the story of marathon?
You guys know the actual story of marathon. There was
a center. It was that there was a century. A
century is somebody who's like a guardian of the city
(12:09):
of athens Um and the city of the town of
marathon was twenty six point two miles from Marathon to Athens,
and they were going to be attacked, and so he
ran from Marathon to Athens to deliver the message that
the enemy was coming. He died after after giving that message.
(12:33):
The third reason is, and I'm sorry if you just
eating lunch and you're in the West coast listening to us,
people actually pooped themselves while they're running marathons. I'm not
like making this up. They cannot hold their bowels because
they are so tired. Now, obviously, that's an extreme example.
(12:54):
A less less extreme example is the Houston Rockets, who
are one of the greatest repoint shooting teams, one of
the greatest offensive teams we've seen in modern NBA history.
I mean, couldn't throw it in an ocean and they
were standing on the edge of a boat. Was it
the Warriors defense? Some of it was it the pressure
(13:16):
of Game seven? Some of it was it fatigue, Yeah,
a lot of it and doing the same thing over
and over again and saying, hey, analytics tell us to this, Yeah,
But the reality is throw a new a post up
every now and again, all right, move the ball around
(13:36):
every now and again, catch your breath, Catch your breath,
because if not, you're gonna miss shots you normally make.
That's what fatigue does. And just like we told you
in baseball, what happens with pictures when they reached that
hundred pitch mark or they reached their normal limit, right
happens in baseball, right in baseball. But we watched the
(13:59):
play us we always here, gotta keep it down, gotta
keep it down, keep the ball down, gotta keep the
ball down. And then all of a sudden, you're in
the playoffs. The hit a hunter pitches and they leave
one up in the ball. Oh my god, that no
one needs a stewardess. Well, he is tired. So you
struggle to locate start walking guys leaving balls up in
the zone. You miss, and if you missed by that
(14:19):
much in baseball, they deposited out into left center, the
same thing a basketball. Shots that normally went in suddenly
are just short or just long, or just off. Fatigue
makes cowards of us all. And I think a lot
of that is the style by which the Rockets play,
which is flawed in how you executed in the playoffs.
(14:43):
Be sure to catch live editions of the Doug gott
Leaps show weekdays at three pm Eastern noon Pacific on
Fox Sports Radio and the I Heart Radio app. He's
Rick Buker. He has his own radio show nationally on
Sirious x M. He also has eight Serious X Channel
eighty two NY three. UM. He also has uh a
(15:03):
great column that he writes for Bleach Report. He's great
on Twitter. He's pretty much awesome, and he's kind of
have to join us here as we're a couple of
days away from Calves Warriors Part three. But let's let's
look back. Let's part four. Sorry, Uh, let's look back
on on Rockets Warriors Game seven. Um. Boys a bunch
to get to, uh, but the first half for the
(15:26):
last two games could not have gone worse. And and
last night, look, the officials were allowing Houston to be
super physical, but they Golden State wasn't fighting back, they
weren't rotating defensively, and they were getting embarrassed and they're
pointing fingers and Steve Curse ticked and Al Swaggy comes in,
he's got one job. Don't let Eric Gordon get by you.
(15:49):
And Eric Bordon gets by any quits there down eleven
at half. Why did they keep doing this in the
first half because they can. I mean, if you paid
a price. Ultimately, on some level, there is the belief
that there is no lead too big, there's no first
(16:10):
half so bad that once once in the in the
Warriors minds that once they start to play, particularly against
a team like like Houston, that they can come back
and play. I also believe, quite honestly, it is a
matter of this is the attrition and this is the
(16:31):
beat down. When you're playing a short rotation and uh
and you're trying to go to the finals for the
fourth time, they're constantly measuring how much energy do we
have to expend to get the job done, and that
it's not a matt you know, it's that that's flipping
(16:51):
the switch. Yeah, they try to flip the switch, but
the energy is not there at the same level. And
it's why, you know, for everybody who's saying this is
gonna be a final suite, they've they've had at least
one clunker in every round. And I believe again this
is a matter of of the beat down that they're
(17:13):
going through. I don't expect that we keep thinking, Okay,
they're going to get back to being the Warriors. They're gonna,
they're gonna they're gonna run off, you know, a run
of suffocating games and precise offense. First of all, until
they get Andre Guadala back there, there's never going to
be a time where that offense is going to function
at the same level that it normally does, because you
(17:34):
need to have five guys who can defend and five
guys who can be threats at the at the offensive end,
and they simply do not have a roster right now
that allows them to be that. I completely that's it's
the most understated part. I mean, and and right now Draymond,
it's four on five with Draymond because he can't can't
make a shot and really doesn't even want to shoot
(17:55):
it when he when he when he does when he
when he looks at it. Uh, and then you got
you know, Jordan Bell made a couple of play but
he's just lost. He just lost. Cavon Looney just kind
of lost. Quinn Cook's a G League player, you know,
McCaw is a nice defender, but he hadn't played in
several months. Uh, you know, I mean, they just it's
it's honestly, Nick Young will knockdown and open three. But
(18:16):
he screws you up in a in a in a
multitude of other ways. Sean Sean Livingston gave them good minutes.
He and you know, fifteen feet in in he can
be a threat, and he's smart enough and long enough,
but he can only play you know, his body only
hand holds up for like twenty minutes a game. Yeah,
and he's not you know, it's it's funny because you
(18:36):
look at him, you think, oh, this is an up
and down player. He's really not an up and down player.
He's not a temper, he's not a he's not a
fast paced player. He's much much much much better in
in in a half court if you're going to get
the most minutes out of him. And that's ultimately where
the Warriors are is they have seven guys. They've truncated
this team to seven guys, and one of those is
(18:57):
Andre Gudala. If they have those seven, then they can
kind of sprinkle in the other guys. And I do
think that the match up with Cleveland, actually either either
Cleveland or Boston is going to benefit them because I
think that they can find a way to get a
couple more minutes out of out of David West in
this Yeah, he could, he couldn't play against the Rockets.
(19:17):
I felt bad for him, Yeah, exactly, and you know,
and it's it's uh and and he looked bad when
he did for the most part. So I I would
assume that they that he can have a bigger role.
I could see if Iguodala is out, you could probably
sprinkle in some some Javail McGhee as well, maybe even
a little zas opportunity, Like there are a ray of
(19:39):
centers that they could not possibly use against Houston. They
should be able to get some minutes out of them
in this in this next round. But ultimately even with
those guys, uh, it is it's it's you're getting getting
something solid on one yeah, and you're getting it on
one end of the floor. You you know what you
can count on on one end of the floor, and
you're hoping you can get something at the other end. Um. Okay,
(20:03):
So look, here's what I said before you joined us.
Rick Buker Bleacher Report and of course has his own
show on Serious X m Ad two joins us in
the Doug Gottlip Show here on Fox Sports Radio. What
I said before you join us is people are pointing
out that the threes are the problem, and I don't
actually think it's I mean, look look at how many
threes Golden State took. The issue is with the style
(20:26):
in that if you have one dominant ball him and
I know they didn't have Chris Paul, but I still
think some of this would have happened if Paul even
was there. It wears you out, it just does. And
over a seven game series, and the way in which
they had to play with seven guys playing that physically defensively,
they missed those shots that they normally make because they
(20:48):
were just tired, just tired. And that's that's what that
style becomes. And and D'Antoni will never post up to
get guys a breather. You know, they won't move the
ball side to side, so guys don't have the ball
and don't pound it and exhaust themselves. I feel like
one of the things not quantified with the use of
analytics is how fatiguing it can be in the playoffs
(21:11):
as opposed to in a bigger sample size of the
regular season. Yeah, no, I agree, I agree with thousand percent.
I don't. And and the other part is if you've
played a certain way all year and then everybody's stop
taking the threes. Drive what Trevor reason is gonna drive
for a layup? When we left on that hap, d J.
Tucker is a corner three shooter. The shots that they got,
(21:34):
for the most part, we're shots, and they weren't four shots.
This wasn't like the Boston three. The Boston. Boston's threes
were we're bad threes. They were desperation threes. They were
you know, Terry Rosier kind of dancing on the perimeter
and then giving it up and then getting it back
and we accomplished nothing in the first fourteen seconds of
the shot clock. Now what are we gonna do? Jason?
(21:56):
Can you go get us something? I mean, that was
a completely different and the more those were open shots.
And this is ultimately and this is where it is
compared comparable to Boston. There's also a matter of if
you've never been in this situation on a home floor,
having missed a multitude of threes, and you're on the
(22:18):
brink of going to the finals with a number of
these guys, every outside of Trevor Reasa, all of these guys,
do you you're telling me that wasn't in their head.
And now you don't you start measuring, or you start
you start tweeting. You just you're not letting it go
the same way, and it compounds the problem. But when
you've played a certain style all year, that's that's what
(22:40):
you've got. And that's why sometimes when you know, we've
seen teams that they struggle a little bit during the
year and we're like, well, why do they doing this?
Why don't they do this? Well, because they're thinking big picture.
They're thinking, at some point we might need to go
to this and but honestly, the Warriors, the Warriors do
that as much as anybody. Then from figuring out like, okay,
(23:01):
if this happens, what do we go to next? They
they have planned B, C, and D and and the
Rockets didn't. So the idea that they were supposed to
pull the ripcord and go to something else. It's like,
now you you gotta stay with what got you the
best record in the league and hope that somebody's gonna
come through. And if they don't, you learned a lesson
and now you think a long and hard about who
(23:22):
you're bringing back for the next run. Continue be joined
by Rick buker Um I got an interesting quote from
Kevin Durant last night, and you know, like, look some
quotes you could take his innocuus and you know, maybe
maybe we were looking too much into him. But he
said this, anything could happen over the summer for both sides.
What does he mean? I don't Honestly, I don't know
(23:48):
because I haven't had a talk with him about his plans.
I will tell you there's a lot of I don't know,
a lot. There is some chatter around the league that
at UH that that there's more uh discord inside the Warriors,
and we've seen glimpses of it, and a lot of
(24:09):
it we can just attribute to they have high expectations
for themselves. They're supposed to win the championship. They haven't
been playing like champions, so uh it is natural reaction
of guys looking at each other. I mean the Rockets
Rockets were chewing on each other as much in that
uh in in in Game seven last night and throughout
this series, as as the Warriors were. But the feeling
(24:29):
is is that, you know, maybe k D is tiring
of everybody getting on him, whether it's Steve Kerr, whether
it's Draymond Green that at some point he may decide,
you know what I can I can uh oversee all
of my Silicon Valley interests playing someplace else, and maybe
(24:53):
I want to get back to where, you know, people
are not putting as much pressure on me to do
all the things that I don't naturally do. A little
bit I would say, we saw Lebron go to Miami,
goes to Miami, he gets his championships, he figures out
what the formula is, he gets everybody's, everybody off his back,
and now I kind of want to go back to
(25:14):
playing where I'm I'm a little more king of the
castle than maybe I am. Right now, speaking of next
year in Lebron? What of what of Chris Chris Paul? Right, like,
all right now he's chased it and he got hurt.
It's not his fault that he got hurt, but it
is kind of his fault that he got hurt. I mean, like,
who else's fault is it? I guess right, you blame
(25:34):
the big fellow above. Uh, what happens that Chris Paul? Well,
everybody I've talked to, they've said, look, when when he
made the move to Houston, there was there was a
Gentleman's agreement, what was going to happen afterward? And I
talked to a GM last night who said that he's
he believes that there's already a deal in place, that
(25:55):
this is this is a fatal company. He's not suddenly
going to jump ship and go someplace else and joined Lebron.
He's certainly not. If there was ever any question about
anybody going to Cleveland to joining Lebron, I think Dwayne
Wage experience probably put it put it the put a
knicks on that, So uh uh. It really is a
matter of does Chris Paul have a conversation with Lebron
(26:19):
and there's Lebron consider going to Houston. Now it's I've
had people say it doesn't really fit Lebron's narrative. It
would be going to the West. There's a lot of
reasons for that not to happen, but they also go, hey,
you know what, it's Lebron, So who knows. I do
think that Chris Paul will be one of the first
people to know whether Lebron is interested in going to
(26:41):
Houston or not. But I would expect the likelier scenario
is that they hold serve that Chris Paul believes, Okay,
this time, I'll find a way to stay healthy. Maybe
even the medical people at in in Houston convinced Antonio that,
you know, when we have a game and we're up
(27:01):
by twenty with four minutes left, we really don't need
to play James, and and and Chris Paul, you know
until there's thirty seconds left. That maybe we find a
way to to to make sure that our guys are
healthy at the end of the year. And so I
I would think that the likelier scenario, the likeliest scenario
is that he re ups. At least this is what
(27:22):
I'm hearing. He he reups in Houston, and Houston finds
a way to go forward with this crew expecting that, hey,
you know, we were right there healthy. We could say
that we had as good a chance as anybody to
win the series. And let's see what attrition does to
the Golden State Warriors next season. Rick Buker Blitz Report
(27:43):
joining us Doug Gottlieb Show. We mentioned Lebron and the
fact that you question, do you go to the go
to the West? Any of us who have followed the league,
I mean even people don't follow like the East is
clearly inferior to the West, although you'd think the Celtics
if healthy and and the Sixers in coming years. So
how do we contellt how do we properly contextualize the
(28:05):
idea that, Look, Lebron is awesome. Okay, he's awesome, but
he had a loaded team in Miami against the weaker conference.
He had a loaded team in Cleveland against the weaker conference.
And this year, yes, he didn't have Kyrie Irving, but
he wasn't like he was going against the best. Even
when he played the Celtics, they didn't have their two
best players. How do we contextualize the eight years in
(28:27):
the finals in the row is great, but he's done
it against an inferior conference with with exception of this
year superior talent. Well, honestly, I think you just did it.
And I give you kudos because you fought the good
fight on Twitter over the weekend when everybody is clearly
prisoners of the moment. And I mean even saw my
(28:49):
colleagues in the media saying I saw Jordan play and
I never thought I'd say it, but Lebron James is
the best and I'm thinking, what are you doing? And
are we still I mean even in the moment a
guy who decides I'm not going to rotate on defense,
I'm I'm comparing him with Michael Jordan's. Am I really
(29:12):
it's it's it is it? You said, contextualize it that
it context is everything, And I just am not willing,
first of all, if you kind if you, if you
come up with trying to put what he's done in context,
you get the immediately, the immediate oh you're just a hater, etcetera, etcetera.
And I'm just so tired of that. It's not I'm not.
(29:35):
I just wasn't. I just wasn't up for the holiday
weekend to put myself through that. And I don't know
that we're ever going to have, uh, you know, a
settled argument on this. And the farther we get away,
the further we get away from Michael Jordan's and what
he played and we have more people joining the conversation
who did not see him play and did don't understand
(29:57):
what those series were like and what he did, the
more this is gonna tilt in Lebron's favor, and and
understanding that I'm gonna still make my case, I'm gonna
still provide for people look I I said after Game
five with the Boston Celtics, because I had the Celtics
before the series started. I had them winning in six
(30:20):
because they had the more talented team, they had the
deeper team. But after seeing the way they closed out
Game five, I said, I have no confidence that they
were going to win Game six or Game seven, because
this isn't just about talent. It's about experience, and it's
about the ability to operate under pressure the way you
(30:42):
would when there is no pressure. It's meeting it and
having it except and and push you to a greater height.
And here's the harsh reality for those who don't who
didn't even watch Lebron from beginning to end. Lebron has
acquired the ability everybody who wants to say, oh what
about those people who said he wouldn't take the big
(31:02):
shot and he would choke in the moment, He did.
He did, he wouldn't take the shot, and he did
choke in the moment, But he gained enough experience and
he looked around and he goes, all these dudes don't
know what I know. I've been through this, I've taken
the beat, I've I've missed the shot and you know what,
there's nobody else here that's bigger or better than me.
(31:24):
I minut will go ahead. And then he took a couple,
and he made a couple and that and that confidence
has fostered itself. It's still not something that he does inherently,
but there's just nobody out there. When when you're the
best player in the league year upon year, at some
point you're gonna say, what the hell a minest will
(31:44):
minest will take it, and nobody's gonna be mad at
me if I do. They're gonna be more mad at
me if I don't. So he got there, but he
was up against a Boston team where Terry Rosier showed
who he was and Jayson Tatum is I think he
has the guts to get there. But let's face it,
he's kind, he's a he's a nice mid range shooter,
(32:05):
doesn't really want to take the three. And this is
his first turn in the conference finals, essentially being the
go to guy. When when when Brad Stevens thought, okay,
let me go to let me go to al in
Game five and that just did not work. Then it
was okay, I gotta find Okay, I guess Jayson Tatum's
(32:27):
did and I don't even know if it was by choice.
I think it was by you know, desperation that they
wound up there. But that's who Lebron James beat, he beat,
and with Indiana he beat Victor Oladipo, taking his first
Star turn, where the next best player was what Miles
Turner or Lance Stevenson. I mean, I just and and meanwhile,
(32:48):
Michael was going up against guys who had that experience,
who had performed in the moment. He had to beat
them at their own game to get there. So look,
and and I hate getting into this argument because I
just want to appreciate what Lebron is doing and what
he's done with his body. And I said it elsewhere.
(33:09):
If he would just say, look, yeah, I take games
off because I've got the long view. I'm trying to
I've played fifteen seasons and I haven't had a major injury.
You're gonna give me flak for taking you know, games off,
or taking possessions off or whatever. Who's who's gone to
eight finals? I have who who else has done that
in the modern era? Nobody? But so I would say,
(33:31):
you know what, dude, congratulations, you're right. You cracked the code.
You're you're you are, you found a way to make
it happen, and you are winning by endurance. But don't
tell me that he plays the way Michael played every
night when I've seen both, I know it. We all
know it. We just don't want to admit it. In
(33:51):
the moment, Rick, you can beat your report his own
show on Serious Sex m Channel two. Great Stuff is
always Thanks so much for joining us. Box Sports Radio
has the best sports talk lineup in the nation. Catch
all of our shows at Fox sports Radio dot com
and within the I Heart Radio app. Before I get
to why I think the Cavaliers absolutely have a shot,
(34:13):
I'm gonna tell you that I don't. I don't expect
them to win. But I've also been watching sports long
enough to know that when everyone everyone it's over, it's
just hold on a second now. The three point shot
is the ultimate equalizer. And if we've seen one thing
(34:36):
from Golden State, well, while their explosiveness is unbelievable, there
are moments of stagnation, moments of dysfunction, frankly at both
ends of the floor, and they literally only have three
guys that can score. Those three guys can really score
but they only have three guys. Now, you might say
(34:56):
to yourself self, the Cavaliers only have one guy that
can score? Is that true? Is it? Because the truth
is the Cleveland Cavaliers have what you'd call to perennial
all stars. One is a superstar, Lebron James. The other
one is Kevin Love, who by my estimation, could have
(35:16):
played the other night, but of course was held out
because because we want to have a similar concussion protocol
to football from a from basketball when it's not really
nearly as necessary. I'm not saying somebody should play while
they're concussed, but the recovery time is far different when
you're going into a sport that isn't a collision based
sport like football. So what about what about the calves?
(35:46):
Because if you actually look, I wait, Jordan Clarkston actually
average twelve and a half points a game, Jeff Green
average eleven points a game, Roddy Hood average eleven points. Again,
Kevin Love was a seventeen point a game guy. J R.
Smith and ninth, the idea that the interesting part about
(36:09):
this team is the Golden State Warriors like to still
hold up that banner strength in numbers, right, they don't
have numbers. They got a three, they got a three
man offensive team, a four man team total. Right now,
they got nobody else they can help them. They are
top heavy like morgana You guys remember Morgan is that
(36:30):
two data to reference and and and Look the Calves
defense KEVI defensive rating in the regular season twenty nine
out of thirty. Their offensive rating is fifth out of thirty,
the middle of the pack in terms of space at pace.
So how could they possibly beat the Golden State Warriors. Well, look,
(36:51):
it's not easy to guard Kevin Durant, but this Cavaliers
team actually has better personnel, better personnel then previous teams
between Larry Ants and Rodney Hood Lebron James Heck even said,
a uh Austin who's six ft eight, all could spend
time guarding him, whereas in the past it was simply
(37:13):
Lebron and Lebron couldn't do both. Can't lead you in
scoring and guard Kevin Durant. And that's why in the
fourth quarter last year, all except for one game, he
got completely lit up by Kevin Rant and he himself
had nothing left in the tank. But you now have
other bodies that you can throw at k D and
(37:34):
the blueprint has been shown to you by Oklahoma City
that gave Golden State trouble in the regular season, and
by Houston and even a little bit by New Orleans.
You don't guard two other guys and you're super physical
with with the guys on the ball. I think, honestly,
their biggest problem is going to be they don't have
a good matchup for Steph Curry. George Hill can't really
(37:56):
guard anybody. Jordan Clarkson can't really guard anybody like those
feel like really, Whereas in the Rockets series. In the
Rockets series, Steph had to get a big guy on him,
you know, I mean he uh he lit up Ryan
Anderson a couple of times last night. Ryan Anderson's knee
buckled on him last night. In this series, he can
go right at who's guarding him. You know, you can
(38:18):
use j j R. Kin guard Good and guard Clay
Thompson and then offensively, it's no different from what the
Rockets were trying to do, which is spread everybody out
around their lead ball handler. If you help Lebron James
will find you and they'll shoot threes. The one difference
which is better than the rockets. Is that that one
(38:40):
Lebron can catch, everybody can catch their breath because Lebron
can score in the post and Kevin Love can score
a little bit in the post. Like, I actually think
that's gonna got a chance to be pretty good series.
I still think the Warriors are gonna win. But if
Andrew Goodala doesn't play, they're a really top heavy roster
and they really don't have anybody else I can score.
(39:04):
And the Cavaliers are in fact constructed better to guard
at Kevin Durant, and they actually have their strength in numbers,
in numbers of bodies that they can use. Whether you
use them or not, that's up to Tyler. My guest
would be, if he's smart, he'll use instead of so
many of these coaches they wait till like game five,
in games six, like oh yeah, I got a bench,
now I should play. Other players should use them in
(39:24):
game one and game two, hoping that three and four
when you go back home you're arrested. The Warriors aren't
as good. The Warriors have one of those bad halves.
Or two. You win a game, you win two games,
you win two games, you got a series.
This is the best of the Doug gott Leap Show
on Fox Sports Radio. Boom one Up America. Doug gott
Leave Show, Fox Sports Radio, coming to you from the sunny,
wonderful city of Los Angeles, California. Hope, wherever you are
you enjoyed a RESTful, fruit field, sunny, warm Memorial Day weekend.
(00:27):
Thanks for making us part of your day. We really
appreciate it. If you miss any of the show, or
you want to suggest this show, do any of your friends,
simply tell them to download the Doug gottlab Show. Of course,
we're on Sirius x M. The first two hours were
on the I Heart Radio app all three hours any
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(00:49):
some more big ams in places like Phoenix West West,
Phoenix West, Palm Beach, Tulsa, Oklahoma City. Welcome in, UH
and of course the ever expanding empire of the Doug
Gottlieb Show. That was a hell of a game and
as much as the end of the game, it it
(01:10):
felt like Golden State was just running out the clock,
which is what they did. Let's get into it. Look,
what we're left with is Warriors Calves Part four weird
right for four is a tough one. And as much
as you want to say, amen, think about the fourth
(01:33):
Star Wars that charge our banks right one and don't
give me that was actually the first one. That was
the fourth one O. But Rocky four was pretty good.
Police Academy four wasn't totally terrible, Fast and the Furious.
I haven't watched, but I'm guessing since it made it
to seven and now that I think they have eight coming,
(01:54):
probably pretty good. So you can tell me, hey, I
got franchise fatigue. I want to go see Solo and
I don't want to go see the Calves play without
Kyrie against the Warriors. You'll still watch because it's still
Lebron now with underdog type status going against the Warriors,
(02:14):
who seem to never never be shaken, would never be
shook by any first half deficit because they have this
magic Pixie desk where they decide, hey, you know what,
let's play defense in the third quarter, and why don't
we make some more shots then too, But there's a
genius to it. Sure they have more shot makers than
(02:39):
other teams. Right if we looked at the raw data,
it would tell us that the Boston Celtics just didn't
make enough shots, are up twelve and couldn't put away
Lebron James and the Calves. There's some accuracy to it,
there's some validity to that. If you looked at the
raw data, it would tell you that the Cleveland Cavaliers,
(02:59):
they just buy a shot. I mean, how can you
miss twenty seven threes in a row? I'll tell you how.
Um there's this expression, and um, I think it's I
(03:20):
think it's genius, and it's a Vince Lombardi expression. It
goes like this fatigue makes cowards of us all. And
from the time we are children to the time we're adults,
the thing we never want to admit to is being tired,
(03:40):
right somehow, being tired as being less of a kid,
or being less of a man or less of an athlete,
which my wife will tell you like, I'm just tired.
I told you, yes yesterday, I was just I was
a couple of days out there at in the desert
and then hosting Dan Patrick Show, and I was tired.
I did get a little midday thirty minute closed my eyes.
Even that we had people over siesta. Sorry, I'm a
(04:02):
little tired, but fatigue makes cowards of us all. And
here's the Yesterday was a loss for analytics, but not
in the way you think you could sit there and go, hey,
Rockets took too many threes, which in hindsight is completely accurate.
And we'll get to why it's accurate, and it's it's
(04:24):
more than just taking threes, but why it's accurate. Here's
a question for you. How many threes a game did
the Rockets take in the regular season, Because they took
forty four last night and made only seven. How many
threes forty two point three, it's only slightly above average.
(04:47):
And of course the Golden State Warriors and they took
thirty nine and they they average only threes a game.
Matter of fact, Golden State shot way more threes yesterday
than they normally take. If anything, Golden State played into
the hands of the Houston Rockets, especially in the first half,
chucking and duck in threes. But yesterday was a loss
(05:09):
for indliction. Like, wait, that doesn't make sense because the
numbers would eventually, those numbers will even out and those
threes would be worth it. They just it was just
bad luck. It was just a bad stretch, that's all.
It was. The problem with analytics and looking at a
game on us on a sheet of paper is it
(05:31):
doesn't give us the reality of life and basketball sports, fatigue, pressure, defense,
a pass and anybody who's ever played basketball know this.
A pass can be off by just six inches and
it screws up a shooters rhythm. We go back and
(05:53):
look at um Quinn Cook missing a three at the
end of game five. Remember he didn't catch that ball cleanly,
and even though he took a dribble to establish rhythm,
whatever your percentages of making that shot wide open shot
the end of game five, the numbers go down greatly
(06:13):
because Quinn Cook, who's a G League player at the
start of the year, has never played under that pressure,
was probably mentally and emotionally little fatigued. Didn't catch the
ball cleanly. And so even as a forty three point
shooter this season in the NBA, that becomes a low
percentage shot when you don't catch it cleanly and you're
(06:34):
under that kind of pressure. And so where it's a
loss for analytics is this. It's not the idea of
shooting forty four three's. It's the Hey, why not catch
your breath? The style that Houston plays, and obviously it
was hurt because they didn't have Chris Paul. Right, you
(06:55):
don't have Chris Paul. There's a second guy who can
initiate offense, create shots himself, create others. It was awful.
It was awful. I likened it on Twitter. Prince Harry
had a long time girlfriend who I guess. They had
a long talk on the phone and then she went
to the ceremony, and I guess the reason they broke
up was she struggled with the pressure of being the
(07:19):
girlfriend and potential princess married to assume the throne at
some point. It's a lot, but can you imagine her
sitting there going like all of this could have been mine? Right,
all of this could have been mine. Where's Chris Paul
sitting there? Going like we could have won this game?
(07:39):
I could have been there. But but this is the
problem with the style of the Rockets and this overuse
of the Hey, it's analytics. Hey it's three instead of two.
Take threes, don't take layups, don't worry about post ups.
You saw its flaw yesterday in the regular season, and
(08:00):
your best player James Harden can get away with taking breaks,
taking possessions, taking quarters off defensively in the post season,
you can't. So no matter how good to shape you're
in in the regular season, the conditioning it takes for
the second half, for the second half of a of
a seven game series is at a much more difficult level.
Then you take away Chris Paul and oh yeah, by
(08:22):
the way, you're playing a high possession game in that
sort of pressure, playing seven games, your ninety nine game
of the season. You can tell me about all these
stats about this is how Houston plays. But in that
particular game, you have to adjust to the game itself.
(08:43):
Once you missed ten or oh, you go like, hey, fellas,
what if I threw it into p J. Tucker in
a post up against Steph Curry. I don't know. We
do have Joe Johnson over there, we bring him in.
Why don't we talk it to him at the block
because he is I O Joe, he might be able
to not just even if he doesn't get you a bucket,
it gives you a chance to go. I don't even
(09:09):
think Houston knows what happened. I want you to listen.
This is James Harden after the loss at home, just
in a second half. Our pace wasn't there that third quarter.
I was trying to get the guy, you know, come on,
let's go, let's go. It's it's time. But we just
didn't have that extra juice that we needed. I don't
know if it was a big minutes, I don't I
don't know what it was. Whatever it was, Listen to
(09:32):
Kevin Durant, who knew what it was. That came out
with a lot of energy at home, that has some
shots early. We knew at some point that tire out
and then James Triple So much is possession. I know
at some point here here'll wear it down. You just
you can't do it every time. You wear down and
you're playing defense. Now. Whereas even though the Golden State
(09:53):
Warriors were nearly taking an equal number of threes, how
do they play offensively? They shoot it much quicker they should,
way too quick for most of us who fallow basketball. Man,
They shoot really quicken and not always and contested stuff.
They get it up quick. Additionally, the the though they're
not as good as they used to be at it
one because Durant holds it a little bit and two
(10:15):
because they only have three shooters and you don't have
to guard the other two players. It's not is easy
to move it, but they move the ball so it's
not one guy attacking over and over and over and
over and over. That doesn't work because it wears the
guy out, and it gives. When you move the ball
and you share the volume of shots, now of a sudden,
you have more energy for defense. Whereas with James Harden,
(10:40):
your best player ends up wearing himself out and he
has to play defense that he doesn't normally play, and
he's so he's doubly worn out. James Harden didn't even
know they were out on their feet. That's all it is.
That's a fighter that's out on their feet. That's Connor McGregor.
When Floyd Mayweather had him out on his feet. I
(11:02):
thought it was close though, and I thought it was
a little earlier of a stop bish. I get like
that when I'm tired. I get a little wobbly and flowey.
Get me into the corner and the cover and I'll
come back. I don't like if they hit the floor.
How don't look in the ref to you know what
I mean. There's a lot on the loine here. They
should have let they shouldn't let me keep going. I talk,
but fair play don't. That's exactly what it is. It's fatigued.
That's why I thought the ref could have just let
it keep going, Let let me go down, let the
(11:24):
mom put me down like wobbly and fatigue. That's energy
that's not damaged. I'm true headed, yeah, I'm I'm fine.
I scraw I'm fine. I was fine. Like dude, you
weren't fine, Floyd. Maybe whether who hadn't knocked anybody out
in over a decade was just teeing off on you,
and he might even have knocked you out. You were defenseless.
Why because fatigue makes cowards of us. All Um, there's
(11:49):
two reasons I don't run marathons, maybe three. One is
I just don't like running, right, I'll run if I'm chased,
but I don't enjoy it. I just don't enjoy it.
The second thing is, do you know the story of marathon?
You guys know the actual story of marathon. There was
a center. It was that there was a century. A
century is somebody who's like a guardian of the city
(12:09):
of athens Um and the city of the town of
marathon was twenty six point two miles from Marathon to Athens,
and they were going to be attacked, and so he
ran from Marathon to Athens to deliver the message that
the enemy was coming. He died after after giving that message.
(12:33):
The third reason is, and I'm sorry if you just
eating lunch and you're in the West coast listening to us,
people actually pooped themselves while they're running marathons. I'm not
like making this up. They cannot hold their bowels because
they are so tired. Now, obviously, that's an extreme example.
(12:54):
A less less extreme example is the Houston Rockets, who
are one of the greatest repoint shooting teams, one of
the greatest offensive teams we've seen in modern NBA history.
I mean, couldn't throw it in an ocean and they
were standing on the edge of a boat. Was it
the Warriors defense? Some of it was it the pressure
(13:16):
of Game seven? Some of it was it fatigue, Yeah,
a lot of it and doing the same thing over
and over again and saying, hey, analytics tell us to this, Yeah,
But the reality is throw a new a post up
every now and again, all right, move the ball around
(13:36):
every now and again, catch your breath, Catch your breath,
because if not, you're gonna miss shots you normally make.
That's what fatigue does. And just like we told you
in baseball, what happens with pictures when they reached that
hundred pitch mark or they reached their normal limit, right
happens in baseball, right in baseball. But we watched the
(13:59):
play us we always here, gotta keep it down, gotta
keep it down, keep the ball down, gotta keep the
ball down. And then all of a sudden, you're in
the playoffs. The hit a hunter pitches and they leave
one up in the ball. Oh my god, that no
one needs a stewardess. Well, he is tired. So you
struggle to locate start walking guys leaving balls up in
the zone. You miss, and if you missed by that
(14:19):
much in baseball, they deposited out into left center, the
same thing a basketball. Shots that normally went in suddenly
are just short or just long, or just off. Fatigue
makes cowards of us all. And I think a lot
of that is the style by which the Rockets play,
which is flawed in how you executed in the playoffs.
(14:43):
Be sure to catch live editions of the Doug gott
Leaps show weekdays at three pm Eastern noon Pacific on
Fox Sports Radio and the I Heart Radio app. He's
Rick Buker. He has his own radio show nationally on
Sirious x M. He also has eight Serious X Channel
eighty two NY three. UM. He also has uh a
(15:03):
great column that he writes for Bleach Report. He's great
on Twitter. He's pretty much awesome, and he's kind of
have to join us here as we're a couple of
days away from Calves Warriors Part three. But let's let's
look back. Let's part four. Sorry, Uh, let's look back
on on Rockets Warriors Game seven. Um. Boys a bunch
to get to, uh, but the first half for the
(15:26):
last two games could not have gone worse. And and
last night, look, the officials were allowing Houston to be
super physical, but they Golden State wasn't fighting back, they
weren't rotating defensively, and they were getting embarrassed and they're
pointing fingers and Steve Curse ticked and Al Swaggy comes in,
he's got one job. Don't let Eric Gordon get by you.
(15:49):
And Eric Bordon gets by any quits there down eleven
at half. Why did they keep doing this in the
first half because they can. I mean, if you paid
a price. Ultimately, on some level, there is the belief
that there is no lead too big, there's no first
(16:10):
half so bad that once once in the in the
Warriors minds that once they start to play, particularly against
a team like like Houston, that they can come back
and play. I also believe, quite honestly, it is a
matter of this is the attrition and this is the
(16:31):
beat down. When you're playing a short rotation and uh
and you're trying to go to the finals for the
fourth time, they're constantly measuring how much energy do we
have to expend to get the job done, and that
it's not a matt you know, it's that that's flipping
(16:51):
the switch. Yeah, they try to flip the switch, but
the energy is not there at the same level. And
it's why, you know, for everybody who's saying this is
gonna be a final suite, they've they've had at least
one clunker in every round. And I believe again this
is a matter of of the beat down that they're
(17:13):
going through. I don't expect that we keep thinking, Okay,
they're going to get back to being the Warriors. They're gonna,
they're gonna they're gonna run off, you know, a run
of suffocating games and precise offense. First of all, until
they get Andre Guadala back there, there's never going to
be a time where that offense is going to function
at the same level that it normally does, because you
(17:34):
need to have five guys who can defend and five
guys who can be threats at the at the offensive end,
and they simply do not have a roster right now
that allows them to be that. I completely that's it's
the most understated part. I mean, and and right now Draymond,
it's four on five with Draymond because he can't can't
make a shot and really doesn't even want to shoot
(17:55):
it when he when he when he does when he
when he looks at it. Uh, and then you got
you know, Jordan Bell made a couple of play but
he's just lost. He just lost. Cavon Looney just kind
of lost. Quinn Cook's a G League player, you know,
McCaw is a nice defender, but he hadn't played in
several months. Uh, you know, I mean, they just it's
it's honestly, Nick Young will knockdown and open three. But
(18:16):
he screws you up in a in a in a
multitude of other ways. Sean Sean Livingston gave them good minutes.
He and you know, fifteen feet in in he can
be a threat, and he's smart enough and long enough,
but he can only play you know, his body only
hand holds up for like twenty minutes a game. Yeah,
and he's not you know, it's it's funny because you
(18:36):
look at him, you think, oh, this is an up
and down player. He's really not an up and down player.
He's not a temper, he's not a he's not a
fast paced player. He's much much much much better in
in in a half court if you're going to get
the most minutes out of him. And that's ultimately where
the Warriors are is they have seven guys. They've truncated
this team to seven guys, and one of those is
(18:57):
Andre Gudala. If they have those seven, then they can
kind of sprinkle in the other guys. And I do
think that the match up with Cleveland, actually either either
Cleveland or Boston is going to benefit them because I
think that they can find a way to get a
couple more minutes out of out of David West in
this Yeah, he could, he couldn't play against the Rockets.
(19:17):
I felt bad for him, Yeah, exactly, and you know,
and it's it's uh and and he looked bad when
he did for the most part. So I I would
assume that they that he can have a bigger role.
I could see if Iguodala is out, you could probably
sprinkle in some some Javail McGhee as well, maybe even
a little zas opportunity, Like there are a ray of
(19:39):
centers that they could not possibly use against Houston. They
should be able to get some minutes out of them
in this in this next round. But ultimately even with
those guys, uh, it is it's it's you're getting getting
something solid on one yeah, and you're getting it on
one end of the floor. You you know what you
can count on on one end of the floor, and
you're hoping you can get something at the other end. Um. Okay,
(20:03):
So look, here's what I said before you joined us.
Rick Buker Bleacher Report and of course has his own
show on Serious X m Ad two joins us in
the Doug Gottlip Show here on Fox Sports Radio. What
I said before you join us is people are pointing
out that the threes are the problem, and I don't
actually think it's I mean, look look at how many
threes Golden State took. The issue is with the style
(20:26):
in that if you have one dominant ball him and
I know they didn't have Chris Paul, but I still
think some of this would have happened if Paul even
was there. It wears you out, it just does. And
over a seven game series, and the way in which
they had to play with seven guys playing that physically defensively,
they missed those shots that they normally make because they
(20:48):
were just tired, just tired. And that's that's what that
style becomes. And and D'Antoni will never post up to
get guys a breather. You know, they won't move the
ball side to side, so guys don't have the ball
and don't pound it and exhaust themselves. I feel like
one of the things not quantified with the use of
analytics is how fatiguing it can be in the playoffs
(21:11):
as opposed to in a bigger sample size of the
regular season. Yeah, no, I agree, I agree with thousand percent.
I don't. And and the other part is if you've
played a certain way all year and then everybody's stop
taking the threes. Drive what Trevor reason is gonna drive
for a layup? When we left on that hap, d J.
Tucker is a corner three shooter. The shots that they got,
(21:34):
for the most part, we're shots, and they weren't four shots.
This wasn't like the Boston three. The Boston. Boston's threes
were we're bad threes. They were desperation threes. They were
you know, Terry Rosier kind of dancing on the perimeter
and then giving it up and then getting it back
and we accomplished nothing in the first fourteen seconds of
the shot clock. Now what are we gonna do? Jason?
(21:56):
Can you go get us something? I mean, that was
a completely different and the more those were open shots.
And this is ultimately and this is where it is
compared comparable to Boston. There's also a matter of if
you've never been in this situation on a home floor,
having missed a multitude of threes, and you're on the
(22:18):
brink of going to the finals with a number of
these guys, every outside of Trevor Reasa, all of these guys,
do you you're telling me that wasn't in their head.
And now you don't you start measuring, or you start
you start tweeting. You just you're not letting it go
the same way, and it compounds the problem. But when
you've played a certain style all year, that's that's what
(22:40):
you've got. And that's why sometimes when you know, we've
seen teams that they struggle a little bit during the
year and we're like, well, why do they doing this?
Why don't they do this? Well, because they're thinking big picture.
They're thinking, at some point we might need to go
to this and but honestly, the Warriors, the Warriors do
that as much as anybody. Then from figuring out like, okay,
(23:01):
if this happens, what do we go to next? They
they have planned B, C, and D and and the
Rockets didn't. So the idea that they were supposed to
pull the ripcord and go to something else. It's like,
now you you gotta stay with what got you the
best record in the league and hope that somebody's gonna
come through. And if they don't, you learned a lesson
and now you think a long and hard about who
(23:22):
you're bringing back for the next run. Continue be joined
by Rick buker Um I got an interesting quote from
Kevin Durant last night, and you know, like, look some
quotes you could take his innocuus and you know, maybe
maybe we were looking too much into him. But he
said this, anything could happen over the summer for both sides.
What does he mean? I don't Honestly, I don't know
(23:48):
because I haven't had a talk with him about his plans.
I will tell you there's a lot of I don't know,
a lot. There is some chatter around the league that
at UH that that there's more uh discord inside the Warriors,
and we've seen glimpses of it, and a lot of
(24:09):
it we can just attribute to they have high expectations
for themselves. They're supposed to win the championship. They haven't
been playing like champions, so uh it is natural reaction
of guys looking at each other. I mean the Rockets
Rockets were chewing on each other as much in that
uh in in in Game seven last night and throughout
this series, as as the Warriors were. But the feeling
(24:29):
is is that, you know, maybe k D is tiring
of everybody getting on him, whether it's Steve Kerr, whether
it's Draymond Green that at some point he may decide,
you know what I can I can uh oversee all
of my Silicon Valley interests playing someplace else, and maybe
(24:53):
I want to get back to where, you know, people
are not putting as much pressure on me to do
all the things that I don't naturally do. A little
bit I would say, we saw Lebron go to Miami,
goes to Miami, he gets his championships, he figures out
what the formula is, he gets everybody's, everybody off his back,
and now I kind of want to go back to
(25:14):
playing where I'm I'm a little more king of the
castle than maybe I am. Right now, speaking of next
year in Lebron? What of what of Chris Chris Paul? Right, like,
all right now he's chased it and he got hurt.
It's not his fault that he got hurt, but it
is kind of his fault that he got hurt. I mean, like,
who else's fault is it? I guess right, you blame
(25:34):
the big fellow above. Uh, what happens that Chris Paul? Well,
everybody I've talked to, they've said, look, when when he
made the move to Houston, there was there was a
Gentleman's agreement, what was going to happen afterward? And I
talked to a GM last night who said that he's
he believes that there's already a deal in place, that
(25:55):
this is this is a fatal company. He's not suddenly
going to jump ship and go someplace else and joined Lebron.
He's certainly not. If there was ever any question about
anybody going to Cleveland to joining Lebron, I think Dwayne
Wage experience probably put it put it the put a
knicks on that, So uh uh. It really is a
matter of does Chris Paul have a conversation with Lebron
(26:19):
and there's Lebron consider going to Houston. Now it's I've
had people say it doesn't really fit Lebron's narrative. It
would be going to the West. There's a lot of
reasons for that not to happen, but they also go, hey,
you know what, it's Lebron, So who knows. I do
think that Chris Paul will be one of the first
people to know whether Lebron is interested in going to
(26:41):
Houston or not. But I would expect the likelier scenario
is that they hold serve that Chris Paul believes, Okay,
this time, I'll find a way to stay healthy. Maybe
even the medical people at in in Houston convinced Antonio that,
you know, when we have a game and we're up
(27:01):
by twenty with four minutes left, we really don't need
to play James, and and and Chris Paul, you know
until there's thirty seconds left. That maybe we find a
way to to to make sure that our guys are
healthy at the end of the year. And so I
I would think that the likelier scenario, the likeliest scenario
is that he re ups. At least this is what
(27:22):
I'm hearing. He he reups in Houston, and Houston finds
a way to go forward with this crew expecting that, hey,
you know, we were right there healthy. We could say
that we had as good a chance as anybody to
win the series. And let's see what attrition does to
the Golden State Warriors next season. Rick Buker Blitz Report
(27:43):
joining us Doug Gottlieb Show. We mentioned Lebron and the
fact that you question, do you go to the go
to the West? Any of us who have followed the league,
I mean even people don't follow like the East is
clearly inferior to the West, although you'd think the Celtics
if healthy and and the Sixers in coming years. So
how do we contellt how do we properly contextualize the
(28:05):
idea that, Look, Lebron is awesome. Okay, he's awesome, but
he had a loaded team in Miami against the weaker conference.
He had a loaded team in Cleveland against the weaker conference.
And this year, yes, he didn't have Kyrie Irving, but
he wasn't like he was going against the best. Even
when he played the Celtics, they didn't have their two
best players. How do we contextualize the eight years in
(28:27):
the finals in the row is great, but he's done
it against an inferior conference with with exception of this
year superior talent. Well, honestly, I think you just did it.
And I give you kudos because you fought the good
fight on Twitter over the weekend when everybody is clearly
prisoners of the moment. And I mean even saw my
(28:49):
colleagues in the media saying I saw Jordan play and
I never thought I'd say it, but Lebron James is
the best and I'm thinking, what are you doing? And
are we still I mean even in the moment a
guy who decides I'm not going to rotate on defense,
I'm I'm comparing him with Michael Jordan's. Am I really
(29:12):
it's it's it is it? You said, contextualize it that
it context is everything, And I just am not willing,
first of all, if you kind if you, if you
come up with trying to put what he's done in context,
you get the immediately, the immediate oh you're just a hater, etcetera, etcetera.
And I'm just so tired of that. It's not I'm not.
(29:35):
I just wasn't. I just wasn't up for the holiday
weekend to put myself through that. And I don't know
that we're ever going to have, uh, you know, a
settled argument on this. And the farther we get away,
the further we get away from Michael Jordan's and what
he played and we have more people joining the conversation
who did not see him play and did don't understand
(29:57):
what those series were like and what he did, the
more this is gonna tilt in Lebron's favor, and and
understanding that I'm gonna still make my case, I'm gonna
still provide for people look I I said after Game
five with the Boston Celtics, because I had the Celtics
before the series started. I had them winning in six
(30:20):
because they had the more talented team, they had the
deeper team. But after seeing the way they closed out
Game five, I said, I have no confidence that they
were going to win Game six or Game seven, because
this isn't just about talent. It's about experience, and it's
about the ability to operate under pressure the way you
(30:42):
would when there is no pressure. It's meeting it and
having it except and and push you to a greater height.
And here's the harsh reality for those who don't who
didn't even watch Lebron from beginning to end. Lebron has
acquired the ability everybody who wants to say, oh what
about those people who said he wouldn't take the big
(31:02):
shot and he would choke in the moment, He did.
He did, he wouldn't take the shot, and he did
choke in the moment, But he gained enough experience and
he looked around and he goes, all these dudes don't
know what I know. I've been through this, I've taken
the beat, I've I've missed the shot and you know what,
there's nobody else here that's bigger or better than me.
(31:24):
I minut will go ahead. And then he took a couple,
and he made a couple and that and that confidence
has fostered itself. It's still not something that he does inherently,
but there's just nobody out there. When when you're the
best player in the league year upon year, at some
point you're gonna say, what the hell a minest will
(31:44):
minest will take it, and nobody's gonna be mad at
me if I do. They're gonna be more mad at
me if I don't. So he got there, but he
was up against a Boston team where Terry Rosier showed
who he was and Jayson Tatum is I think he
has the guts to get there. But let's face it,
he's kind, he's a he's a nice mid range shooter,
(32:05):
doesn't really want to take the three. And this is
his first turn in the conference finals, essentially being the
go to guy. When when when Brad Stevens thought, okay,
let me go to let me go to al in
Game five and that just did not work. Then it
was okay, I gotta find Okay, I guess Jayson Tatum's
(32:27):
did and I don't even know if it was by choice.
I think it was by you know, desperation that they
wound up there. But that's who Lebron James beat, he beat,
and with Indiana he beat Victor Oladipo, taking his first
Star turn, where the next best player was what Miles
Turner or Lance Stevenson. I mean, I just and and meanwhile,
(32:48):
Michael was going up against guys who had that experience,
who had performed in the moment. He had to beat
them at their own game to get there. So look,
and and I hate getting into this argument because I
just want to appreciate what Lebron is doing and what
he's done with his body. And I said it elsewhere.
(33:09):
If he would just say, look, yeah, I take games
off because I've got the long view. I'm trying to
I've played fifteen seasons and I haven't had a major injury.
You're gonna give me flak for taking you know, games off,
or taking possessions off or whatever. Who's who's gone to
eight finals? I have who who else has done that
in the modern era? Nobody? But so I would say,
(33:31):
you know what, dude, congratulations, you're right. You cracked the code.
You're you're you are, you found a way to make
it happen, and you are winning by endurance. But don't
tell me that he plays the way Michael played every
night when I've seen both, I know it. We all
know it. We just don't want to admit it. In
(33:51):
the moment, Rick, you can beat your report his own
show on Serious Sex m Channel two. Great Stuff is
always Thanks so much for joining us. Box Sports Radio
has the best sports talk lineup in the nation. Catch
all of our shows at Fox sports Radio dot com
and within the I Heart Radio app. Before I get
to why I think the Cavaliers absolutely have a shot,
(34:13):
I'm gonna tell you that I don't. I don't expect
them to win. But I've also been watching sports long
enough to know that when everyone everyone it's over, it's
just hold on a second now. The three point shot
is the ultimate equalizer. And if we've seen one thing
(34:36):
from Golden State, well, while their explosiveness is unbelievable, there
are moments of stagnation, moments of dysfunction, frankly at both
ends of the floor, and they literally only have three
guys that can score. Those three guys can really score
but they only have three guys. Now, you might say
(34:56):
to yourself self, the Cavaliers only have one guy that
can score? Is that true? Is it? Because the truth
is the Cleveland Cavaliers have what you'd call to perennial
all stars. One is a superstar, Lebron James. The other
one is Kevin Love, who by my estimation, could have
(35:16):
played the other night, but of course was held out
because because we want to have a similar concussion protocol
to football from a from basketball when it's not really
nearly as necessary. I'm not saying somebody should play while
they're concussed, but the recovery time is far different when
you're going into a sport that isn't a collision based
sport like football. So what about what about the calves?
(35:46):
Because if you actually look, I wait, Jordan Clarkston actually
average twelve and a half points a game, Jeff Green
average eleven points a game, Roddy Hood average eleven points. Again,
Kevin Love was a seventeen point a game guy. J R.
Smith and ninth, the idea that the interesting part about
(36:09):
this team is the Golden State Warriors like to still
hold up that banner strength in numbers, right, they don't
have numbers. They got a three, they got a three
man offensive team, a four man team total. Right now,
they got nobody else they can help them. They are
top heavy like morgana You guys remember Morgan is that
(36:30):
two data to reference and and and Look the Calves
defense KEVI defensive rating in the regular season twenty nine
out of thirty. Their offensive rating is fifth out of thirty,
the middle of the pack in terms of space at pace.
So how could they possibly beat the Golden State Warriors. Well, look,
(36:51):
it's not easy to guard Kevin Durant, but this Cavaliers
team actually has better personnel, better personnel then previous teams
between Larry Ants and Rodney Hood Lebron James Heck even said,
a uh Austin who's six ft eight, all could spend
time guarding him, whereas in the past it was simply
(37:13):
Lebron and Lebron couldn't do both. Can't lead you in
scoring and guard Kevin Durant. And that's why in the
fourth quarter last year, all except for one game, he
got completely lit up by Kevin Rant and he himself
had nothing left in the tank. But you now have
other bodies that you can throw at k D and
(37:34):
the blueprint has been shown to you by Oklahoma City
that gave Golden State trouble in the regular season, and
by Houston and even a little bit by New Orleans.
You don't guard two other guys and you're super physical
with with the guys on the ball. I think, honestly,
their biggest problem is going to be they don't have
a good matchup for Steph Curry. George Hill can't really
(37:56):
guard anybody. Jordan Clarkson can't really guard anybody like those
feel like really, Whereas in the Rockets series. In the
Rockets series, Steph had to get a big guy on him,
you know, I mean he uh he lit up Ryan
Anderson a couple of times last night. Ryan Anderson's knee
buckled on him last night. In this series, he can
go right at who's guarding him. You know, you can
(38:18):
use j j R. Kin guard Good and guard Clay
Thompson and then offensively, it's no different from what the
Rockets were trying to do, which is spread everybody out
around their lead ball handler. If you help Lebron James
will find you and they'll shoot threes. The one difference
which is better than the rockets. Is that that one
(38:40):
Lebron can catch, everybody can catch their breath because Lebron
can score in the post and Kevin Love can score
a little bit in the post. Like, I actually think
that's gonna got a chance to be pretty good series.
I still think the Warriors are gonna win. But if
Andrew Goodala doesn't play, they're a really top heavy roster
and they really don't have anybody else I can score.
(39:04):
And the Cavaliers are in fact constructed better to guard
at Kevin Durant, and they actually have their strength in numbers,
in numbers of bodies that they can use. Whether you
use them or not, that's up to Tyler. My guest
would be, if he's smart, he'll use instead of so
many of these coaches they wait till like game five,
in games six, like oh yeah, I got a bench,
now I should play. Other players should use them in
(39:24):
game one and game two, hoping that three and four
when you go back home you're arrested. The Warriors aren't
as good. The Warriors have one of those bad halves.
Or two. You win a game, you win two games,
you win two games, you got a series.
Host
Doug Gottlieb
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