Lakers Chemistry, Anthony Davis's Disappearing Act and Zion Williamson's Minute Restriction

Episode Transcript
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Speaker 1 (00:04):
Thanks for listening to The Herd podcast. Be sure to
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(00:31):
saturated Friday, live in Los Angeles. This is a happy place.
This is the Herd. I'll speak for Joy Taylor today.
It is a happy place wherever you may be, and
however you may be listening on any device. We're on
Fox Sports Radio. We're right here on FS one. I

(00:53):
am speaking for Joy Taylor today, even though I have
not spoken yet to Joy Taylor. Today is a happy
day in the show. Wasn't that wonderfully? Oh my god,
I'm a little emotional. I ate like a mobster. Last
night it was yeah, you had a good night, steaks
and yelling and screaming. I had buddies texting me during

(01:13):
the game. They're like this is great, and I'm like,
now they're gonna come over to night. We're gonna watch
NBA mL Last it was just so great. You know
what I last night? What Lemon Pepper Wings. Oh it's
your favorite, not for Magic City though they're not the
Lue Will Yeah, well those are supposed to be good too.
So let's start with this. Lakers beat the Clippers. There's
two truths about the Lakers. One is really good and

(01:34):
one was fine last night, but it's troublesome. Let's start
with this. Their chemistry has been great all year. Lebron
and a d just work. It just works. Vogel Lebron.
Frank's done a great job. Dion Waiters doesn't fit anywhere.
He fits there. Dwight Howard's been odd for years. He's
kind of important. JaVale McGee's a fascinating player. He's crucial

(01:55):
for them on the defensive end. Alex Caruso and his
headband work really well with Lebron. Their chemistry is excellent.
It was right where they and it was great in
the first week. You know, listen, Lebron and d Wade
are best friends. It took a month and a half
for him to get it together, and by the end
of that first year they still didn't have it together.

(02:16):
This thing works okay, and it shouldn't on paper. It
is a reality show. It's the odd balls of the
NBA and j R. Smith and Waiters and Javail and
Dwight Howard, who's Alex Caruso and his ed bad but
it works. And when he had juxtaposed that against the
Clippers last night, their chemistry was not good. They had
more turnovers than assists. Lebroun really frustrated them defensively in

(02:38):
a couple of possessions. Paul George was great last night.
He was stupendous, but he kind of felt sometimes he
was doing it by himself. I didn't like kind of
their offensive situational basketball. I felt they were off last
night and none of it was pretty early. Lebron really
struggled for much of the game. But the Lakers chemistry

(03:01):
is it's really a credit to Vogel and Lebron. It
shouldn't be this good on paper. This roster has so
many parts that don't look like they fifth, and they do.
I mean, Dion Waiters drives me nuts. Last nine. He
was really important. And here's the second thing with the Lakers,
that's the truth. They got a pattern. They get carried

(03:21):
by Anthony Davis early and then he disappears and Lebron
carries him late, and that was good enough. Last night,
Lebron was very good late. Couple of big baskets, a
couple of great assists, too, great defensive stops. Anthony Davis
this year shoots fifty three percent from the field in
the first three quarters. He shoots forty percent in the fourth.

(03:42):
He just dries up. But he's a monster for the
first three quarters. He may be the best player in
the NBA quarters one, two, and three. And last night
he had thirty two in the first three quarters. You
know what he had in the fourth nutting. So here's
my two takeaways. Their chemistry is great and it matters.
And they got to figure out this Anthony Davis thing

(04:03):
because for years everybody said he's kind of soft. This
is what people complained about. Where is he? Where's the dog?
Playoffs are about dog It's about veteran players getting in
your face. Kevin Garnett, Dwayne Wade, tough guys, Lebron Kawhi
getting in your face. A lot of guys get they
just don't have dogging them. They're talented, they don't got

(04:25):
dogging them. This league peppinhead dog Michael Lett, Dog Bird
had it, Magic had it, the Lake, Kobe had it
that it matters four games against the Clippers this year.
Who listen to this Anthony Davis's fourth quarters, And remember
this is a top five offensive player in the league.
This is a great talent. I mean, you watched last night.

(04:46):
When he's in his game, it's lights out. You can't
stop him. Clippers fourth quarter, four games Anthony Davis zero four,
four and two points. The hell that is a problem.
This is why I don't consider him a championship team. Now.
It worked last night because Lou Williams didn't play best

(05:07):
six man in the league, Montrez Harrold's size nineteen a game.
He didn't play. The Lakers bench outscored the Clippers last night.
It's not the way it's gonna work if they keep playing.
But I will say this, wildly fun Lebron, who struggled early,
was tremendous late. He had that shoddy missed follow up shot.

(05:28):
He had a couple of huge assists. Lebron did something
last night that was really impressive. Seventeenth year in the NBA.
Two huge defensive stops. In fact, on it it's either
the last or the second and last possession. He stopped
Kawhi and Paul George seventeenth year in the NBA. Even
great players. After about year twelve in the NBA, they

(05:49):
stopped playing D like D somebody else's problem. Once you got,
like MVPs a lot of money, it's like I get
I gave you twelve years of defense. I'm done play
even the great guys. I mean, Kobe was a nine
time All Defense last four years. He was done with
the defense. He had his cash, he had his titles,
he had his legacy. I'm kind of done with the
defensive end. Lebron last night was huge late on the

(06:10):
defensive end. So and it was a great night of NBA.
Now now now I'm frustrated. Now this is getting out
of hand. Zion Williamson was on a minute's restriction. This
isn't like he's not a football player on concussion protocol.
He's not a baseball pitcher off Tommy John surgery. Zion

(06:34):
was on a minute restriction. This is bulldoze parenting by
the Pelicans. We talked about this yesterday. There's a term
called helicopter parenting, when parents hover over their kids to
make sure they're safe. The new term is bulldoz parenting,
where you just clear a path for your kids. Pelicans,
you need to win these games. You're not in the

(06:54):
playoffs yet you've got to win these games. You had
the game. Zion wasn't on the floor at the end.
Put him in for two minutes. He's not dealing with
concussion protocol. He's not a Tommy John surgery case. Put
him in the game. Alvin Gentry, his coach, protecting him, disgusted.
We wish we could have played him down in the stretch,

(07:15):
but you know, he had used the minutes that was
that was given to us. So you know, that's just,
you know, that's the way it is. I mean, we
weren't going to stick him back out there. You know
how medical people said that we played him in the
minutes that was allowed us to play him. Was his

(07:37):
conditioning that bad because he had he had let me
look this up real quick. Didn't he have like fifteen
points in thirteen minutes. Not that bad of shape. Maybe
it was thirteen points in fifteen minutes. Either way, not
that bad of shape. Here's the other thing, brandon Ingram
is the All Star for this team. Zion's the MVP
when he was on the floor. This year, they're plus eleven.

(07:58):
He's off their minus four. Pet is a monster swing.
He's the MVP. He has a physicality that Brandon Ingram
does not have. They're just certain people. Joy talked about
it yesterday. Walk into the room and kind of own it.
Zion walks into the Room's like them. Even in NBA circles.
It doesn't look like anybody else. There is a physical
presence with him that is so crucial. Put him back

(08:20):
in the game. They need the wins. Here's the other thing.
So Zion off a real injury. Now, it's just because
he's not in perfect shape. And for the record, I
don't think everybody's in anybody's in great shape yet. So
Zion in college he got hurt. Remember at Duke he
was out a month. He came back for the ACC tournament.
I looked this up this morning. You know how many

(08:41):
minutes he played in the first three games back thirty six,
thirty five and forty. MVP of the ACC Tourney. You
got him stopping at fifteen because he's got a little belly.
Is anybody in great shape now? I mean, seriously, this
isn't Tommy John. This isn't concuct and protocol. Just put

(09:01):
him in for the last ninety seconds you had that
game and gave it away to Utah. You know, Utah's
in the playoffs. They're gonna be fine. Pelicans need those ws.
And again this is this, this bulldozing, parenting, this protecting Zion. Listen,
NBA travel stinks. Oh wait, there is no NBA travel

(09:23):
Like I get the NBA travel. Veteran players don't want
to play back to backs. Totally get it. Eighty two
games Winter, I get it. Guy plays. You know, if
you're a star in the NBA, in play seventy two,
I'm good with it. People did that forever until they
gave it a nickname load management. But the worst part
of the NBA the travel. There is no travel. You play,

(09:46):
go on a StairMaster, go to your room, get a
catered meal. This is personal coaching, shooting coaches, personal training. Listen,
I'm not asking you to play Zion thirty nine, but fifteen.
How do you get in shape? You play your way
into shape. He's good. We can go up to twenty minutes.

(10:06):
We're good. And last night that was your game, Pelicans,
that was your game. This isn't Steven Strasburg. This isn't
picture limits. I get picture limits. I do. I get
young picture Strasburg. Let's watch his arm, let's not go
to two hundred innings. I get those. I get people
concussion protocol, like you know, one more week. I get
all that stuff. I get if he had an ACL tear,

(10:28):
I get it. This is because, yeah, I need a
few more days on the treadmill. Last night, Ida said,
what's the clock say? Two fifteen? Boom back in, Because
when he's on the floor, he may not be the
All Star yet on this team, he's the MVP coming
up next. Lebron said something after the game last night.
I thought it was really fitting and it's something me

(10:50):
and my friends thought about last night. I was on
Instagram last night with the Nick right. It was just
a circus. I figured out how to do Instagram live.
It was not easy. It was just a aircas We
couldn't figure out where to put the camera on the
fruit bowl on the table next to the candles, but
we got it done. But I noticed something that Lebron
talked about after the game. Both Nick and I did
be sure to catch live editions of the Herd weekdays

(11:12):
in noon Easter nine am Pacific on Fox Sports Radio
FS one and the iHeartRadio app. Last night, Nick Right
was over at my house for a cocktail Lakers Clippers
a lot of fun. By the way, Lows unexpected choice
for my outdoor cocktail bar. Do it yourself projects are fun.
Get into it at Lows. Go to lows dot com.
Show us your transformations hashtag Lows goals. So I thought

(11:35):
last night I watched the second half of the Utah
Jazz Pelican game, and then I watched the entire every
basket Lakers Clippers game. I thought it was fantastic. I
thought it was ninety percent of the real thing, ninety five.
I thought the intensity was through the roof. NBA had
a great night. I'm watching baseball kind of sputter around
with cancelations and you know, postponements and you know COVID stuff,

(11:56):
And I'm watching the NBA last night, and two games
lots of stars, both came down to the final shot.
The look of it is absolutely fantastic. I mean, I
am shocked how good it is. Every friend I have
that already likes the NBA, don't don't don't pretend you
like the NBA criticizing it. You were never into it.

(12:18):
Go to your last one hundred posts on the NBA.
It was fantastic. The intensity was I thought I was.
I had to remind myself more than once it was
not a playoff game. I mean, the games were intense.
Guys were into it. Lebron barking at the refs. I
keep forgetting we got eight of these warm up games
into the playoffs. I thought it was fantastic. It felt

(12:41):
like a playoff game. There's a couple two or three
things I have watched so far in the pandemic that
have felt like the real thing. I think the UFC
fights feel like the real thing. I thought last night
felt like the real thing. And let me just say
I think MLS has done a very good job. But
UFC and the NBA have an advantage. There both indoors,

(13:01):
and they're both loud. UFC is guys on the ground, fighting, pushing, pumping,
and announcers. There's constant action in UFC, so you have
to constantly describe it. Basketball is indoors. The octagon in
an NBA court, there's a spotlight on it. Not the crowd.
In the NBA, there's constant action. There's no pauses, so

(13:21):
the play by play guys never stopped. There's the sneakers,
there's the arguing. So this visceral connection, I have to it.
It's visual, it's audio UFC. In basketball, you're getting constant
play by play, constant noise, sneakers, punches, octacon banging around,
and I'm in. I'm just I am into it. There's
not a lot of pauses in UFC. If it is,

(13:43):
if you're pausing, you're getting hit. In basketball, there's not
a lot of pauses. I imagine, you know, hockey may
have some of this too. I haven't watched the hockey yet,
but I thought overall it was really really good. I'm
kind of blown away by the MLS. I'm kind of
blown away by UFC, blown away by Nascar. I've really
been blown away by all of it. I just sit
there and I'm like tip of the cap. I'm seeing

(14:07):
people struggling the airlines. I'm seeing all sorts of industries
not get it right. Sports and tech are flourishing. Here's
Lebron after We're two teams in the same city, um,
you know, and two teams that's fighting for a one
common goal and that's to uh win a championship and
bring it to the city of Los Angeles and in

(14:28):
respective fan base. So um, you know, you have just
so many competitors on the floor, you know, so you know,
going out there and represend the purple and goal representing
Laker Nation and those those guys doing the same thing
for their fan base. Um, no matter what the cause is,
no matter what the bubble is, no fans were fans.
Basketball is basketball and competitive spirits competitive spirits. So uh

(14:52):
we got right back to uh, you know, right back
to where we left off. And I don't say it again.
One of the advantages for the bubble. NBA travel is
a Lloyd. It is hard. There is no travel. I
thought the energy of the players last night was spectacular.
I mean, I'm watching I'm watching Utah and New Orleans

(15:16):
and I'm sitting there. I have to remind myself it
felt like a playoff game. I mean, New Orleans has
to get in. Utah has to save their spot because
they don't want to have to open up against you know,
like the Clipper or the Lakers. So listen, man, A
lot of people have impressed me. You can sit around
and complained during the pandemic, and the media has got
a lot of people that wake up looking for problems.

(15:38):
I like people who seek solutions, and I am blown
away by how many smart men and women in this
country are flourishing during this God. I couldn't believe how
good it was last night. I can't believe how good
the MLS is. I can't believe UFC went to an
island and how many fights I watched. You know, you

(16:00):
can you can wake up unhappy, or wake up and
marvel at the talent in this country. Join the news, No,
no turns. This is the herd Line News. Well, it
was a good night for the NBA last nights and
kind of ironically for Rudy Gobert. He was the first player.
It's a test positive. That's right back in March. That's

(16:22):
right when the which prompted the NBA shot down. Obviously
a really unfortunate scene of him, you know, rubbing the microphones.
A lot of heat for that. Well, yes, I mean,
if we can remember back to that time, we were
all very uninformed, mostly as a country is, about what
was going on. Well, last night he kicked things off

(16:42):
by scoring the first points of the NBA restart as
the Jazz took on the Pelicans and then so good defensively,
he continued to have a great game. He put up
fourteen points, twelve rebounds, and three blocks, including a massive
block on Simon Williamson, and he was clutched in the
final seconds. He sunk two free throws to clinch the
wind for Utah. Donovan Mitchell had twenty points, five rebounds,

(17:03):
and five assists. When I went to a Jazz game
this year in person, when you go to those games
in person, he is so fundamentally important, not just for
defense because he had great defensive players, the best rim
protector in the league. But offensively, he is so long
and intuitive that if you get down on the shot
clock to five, throw it up, he just has as
he has a really it's like Bill Russell. He's got

(17:23):
a sense of where everybody is on the floors, the
balls in the air. He is. He is such a
he's a very fluid player. He's like JaVale McGee, but
more gifted. Offensively, He's got a real offensive game. He
really at the end of the game won the game
for him. Yeah, he did, And then those three throws
were clinched the game. It was really. I mean the
Pelicans were leading most of the game. They're up at
sixteen points. I mean they had they blew that ull

(17:47):
put Zion in two. I didn't get it, of course,
I don't. Look, we're all dealing with a very a
new NBA when it comes to managing injuries, and you
know Kawhi Leonard and load management, and obviously we don't
know what's going on with Zion. But I mean this,
for while you're saying it's a playoff atmosphere, it is
the playoffs for the Pelicans. They're trying to get in,

(18:09):
so they need to win that game. It's a it's
such as a warm up game like it is for Utah,
for the Lakers and the Clippers, like they needed to
win that game. There's a must win game for them.
So I don't know why Zion wasn't out there. I don't, like,
I'm with you, I don't understand protecting him unless the
doctors are specifically saying he cannot do it, I guess
you have to. You have to follow that. But they

(18:30):
blew that game regardless. So Janna's has only one more
year in his deal with the Bucks, and he could
choose to make a big move next summer, but Charles
Barkley is hoping that they can win it all this
year in an attempt to keep him in Milwaukee. Yeah,
that concerns me, but we'll have another Kevin Durant situation
and we really don't want back. I think it'd be
great for basketball if the Bucks won, because Jannah is

(18:52):
such a great kid and Milwaukee is one of the
most underrated cities in the NBA. I think it was
great that Toronto wanted championship. It was grateful the NBA,
and I think it'd be great in Milwaukee wanted this year.
I don't disagree with that. By the way, I'm not
rooting for Yannis to leave. It is better if you had,
like listen the Packers being great in the NFL or

(19:13):
the Colts during Peyton manning the middle of the Kansas
City Chiefs. Is great for the league when you can
have this heart of the when the Big ten has
good football and the and the SEC hates him and
the West Coast can acknowledge them. Does that work the
same way in the NBA. I think it. I you
know what I think matters in the NBA. I think
there's a vibe of feel that everybody counts, and I

(19:34):
do think the NBA can be a little glamour coastal.
I think one of the reasons the NBA the NFL
is king New Orleans, is Great, Baltimore, Kansas City, Green Bay.
It doesn't feel like in the NFL there's a glamour
league and then everybody else. No, there are some glamour
teams like the Cowboys. Yes, yes, but they don't win
that much and a lot of free agents choose other places. Sure,

(19:56):
but yeah, I just don't know if I don't know
if I if I think it's the same in the NBA,
I think there's a I don't think it's like on
a daily but it hasn't really been that way if
you think about it, because we talk about people complaining
about dynasties all the time in the NBA, but if
you really look at who wins NBA championship, it's mostly
the same team. In a weird way. I think I'm
rooting for Milwaukee because I get so tired of this

(20:19):
the Midwest fans. Nobody talks about us. It's like all
victimhood of the Midwest Packers, MJ's Bulls, Peyton Manning's colts
like the Midwest. Ohio State football Lebron in Cleveland, like
the Midwest isn't represented. Kansas City just won a championship.
They'll probably win nine more. I have no problem with

(20:39):
Yannas staying with the Bucks even if they don't win
this year. Right a problem because I don't think I
think we're being too dramatic about him having to win
this year. Yannas is still very young. He's got plenty
of time to start winning championships. Like we're before we
start putting the real pressure on No, but he doesn't
win a championship this year, it's almost like of all

(21:00):
the teams, I think the Bucks have the most pressure
on them, like I think there's any pressure on the
Clippers of the Lakers. Either team that wins will be like, Okay,
they're a great run. A Clippers have a little fat,
don't make the finals. It's not great, it's not great,
but it's not like all of the pressure is on them.
I feel like all the pressure is on the Bucks
this year and if Milwaukee wins, though, I never want

(21:23):
to hear another Midwest fan say nobody talks about us.
I've said before, I love the Midwest. I fly over
it all the time. They faced the Celtics today at
six thirty pm Eastern. That'll be a good game. So
the Cowboys didn't get a long term extension done with
Zach in time for the season, as we know, but
Stephen Jones is still confident that Dallas will get their
quarterback locked in long term. Had a great visit with

(21:46):
him at the deadline. We pushed to try to have
a few more changes here and there to see if
we could get it done. But he's got such a
great outlook on the Dallas Cowboys. So we're fired up
about it and still have nothing but one hundred percent
belief and Dack in his future here with the Dallas
Cowboys and that we can ultimately get a deal done special.

(22:06):
As Jerry and I have said, we're one hundred and
ten percent behind him and ultimately feel like we'll get
this done. So I had to spend a year and
a half talking about it. Now I have to spend
another year talking about it. Can't we just have a
year of no DA contract? Never? Oh, I'm over Dak
money talk. But but they did admit that it was
the years that was the major Once four years. They

(22:30):
want five so he can hit free agency sooner, and
they admitted that COVID did play a role eventually in
the negotiations as well, because they don't know what's going
to happen with the cap next year. There could be
a lot of changes. Yeah, I mean, we know he's
gonna be playing under the franchise tag this year at
thirty one point four million, But apparently we will be
back to dot contract contract talking sooner than we know it. God,

(22:52):
I mean, you know, Mahomes. We didn't spend one day
in it. Not a day went at it in passing
like we eventually we'll start talking about Mahomes back has
been Seriously, I feel like it's a movie trailer they
run for a year and a half before the movie
comes out. It's day tedious. All right, I enjoy with

(23:12):
the news. Well that's the news, and thanks for stopping
the herdline news. Is Buker ready? All right? Rick Buker,
Senior Writer, Bleacher Report, Fox NBA Dude, brought to you
by Mercedes Bands, the best or Nothing. All right, Let's
start with Zion. Listen, he's not a pitcher. We don't

(23:34):
have a Tommy John surgery. He played fifteen minutes. You
couldn't have put him in for two minutes. This feels
like helicopter parenting. Am I wrong on that? You are
dead wrong? And by the way, you should listen to
joy More too when it comes to Milwaukee and the
balance of power in the NBA and Yannis. But I'm
not going to digress. It's your show. Are we not

(23:56):
gonna talk about the fact that zions plus minus I'm
not a total plus minus analytics guy. He was minus sixteen.
That was the worst on the team. Yes, he is
unbelievably electric when it comes to his offense and his
ability to kind of create something out of nothing. But

(24:17):
defensively he's not just mediocre, he's terrible. He has really
bad habits. And if I'm playing in a slowdown at
the end of the game situation as the Pelicans were,
I'm sorry, has nothing to do with hell. I'm not
putting him on the floor because I can't trust that

(24:37):
I'm okay to get a stop. Okay, but let's be honest. Offense,
this league's not about defense. If it was, then Caldwell
Jones of the Sixers would be Kareem. It's about scoring,
and I'm watching the video last night in the bubble,
he was fantastic. He was No, he's entertaining. I'm not

(24:58):
saying he's not. But you guys are saying you enjoy,
are saying why didn't they play him in the last
couple of minutes of the game, because what he was
going to have to score every time, because he was
going to give something up every time. I understand ultimately
why they didn't do it. They got off to a
terrible start when he was in there. Was he scoring yes?
Were the Utah Jazz scoring yes? And there was a

(25:20):
connection between those two. So I'm when it comes to
trying to execute and finish the game, scoring is most
important the vast majority of the game. Okay, the last
two minutes, you got to be able to get stops,
and Zion just isn't there yet. I know you like
you like positive. I wish I just heard your speech,

(25:42):
like I want to be one of those positive people. Yeah,
I'm giving you a solution. Don't put play Zion forty
six minutes. Just don't play him the last two Yeah,
that's you and I are not going to agree on that. Okay,
So Lakers Clippers, I can take two routes on this
here's one of them. Lou William didn't play, Montrese Harold
didn't play, and Kawhi got into foul trouble. This was

(26:05):
just not going to be a night. I mean, they
can't lose forty points and two guys and then Kawhi
has get two fast fouls. The Clippers should look at
this and think, hey, we came within a shot of
winning this thing. We didn't have forty normal point in Kauhi.
He couldn't play for most of the first quarter. Yeah,
that's the problem for me, Colin, is the fact that
I feel like the Clippers are thinking that way, they've

(26:28):
been thinking that way, and as a result, they're not
paying attention to the details. They could have should have
won that game. They did what we've seen them do
multiple times during the season and against the Lakers. We
can mess around for a while and then you know what,
we'll turn it on when we need to turn it on,
and we'll finish this. They did not execute at the

(26:52):
end of that game. They didn't really call a play
at the end of that game, and Lebron James came
through with what he needed to do to do. Lebron
getting the rebound of his own missed shot and putting
it back was egregious. Alex Caruso going coast to coast,
Nobody challenges that, Yeah, the game on the line was horrific.
That those but that attention to detail, that focus, like

(27:15):
that's a muscle. You build that and you build the
ability to do that for forty eight minutes from multiple games.
The Clippers, for all their talent, have not been doing that.
And are they better than the Lakers? Hell, yes they are.
What talent wise they there's it's not cloks, but they're focusing.

(27:36):
Their attention to detail leaves them vulnerable for things that
happened like last night. So about it was right before
Anthony Davis, last two weeks before Anthony Davis got traded
to the Lakers, And there was an executive in the
NBA I talked to and he said, the problem with
Anthony Davis is there's no dog in him, Like he
goes that playoff series they want in New Orleans. Felt

(27:57):
like it was about Rondo and Drew Holliday. It was.
And so here's an interesting four games against the Clippers.
Anthony Davis in the fourth quarter has scored two zero
four and four. I mean, I'm sorry, this is the
knock I have on him. Talent, abundant dog dog, not

(28:17):
a and last night he disappears again late. How can
it not be an issue? Well, this is what I
really don't understand at this point, and I keep hearing
it over and over the Lakers. If the Lakers are
going to win, a D has to be the driving force.
A D has to be the go to guy. By
the way we're seeing him shoot threes. Does that remind

(28:39):
you of anybody Kevin Love, Chris Bosh like that. It's
not by accident. When you play in the Lebron system
and you're a big you end up having to go
out to the perimeter, in part because you need to
leave things open for Lebron and in part because a
D is very good one on one on the block.
If you saw early on in that game, anytime the

(29:00):
Clippers muddied it up, and sometimes they'd send a double,
sometimes they wouldn't. AD's not a playmaker. He is a
phenomenal talent, but he's not a playmaker, which is why
you're not going to give the ball to him on
the block and expect him to make plays for himself.
For somebody else, it just doesn't happen. And when he
was in New Orleans, he was there for seven seasons.

(29:25):
They made the playoffs twice. Right once it was a
tiebreaker with an Oklahoma City team that was missing Kevin
Durant for all but twenty seven games, and I think
Russell played sixty plus. They were an injured an injured team,
and the Pelicans snuck in promptly swept out, didn't even

(29:45):
win a game the next The next time was twenty
and eighteen. They got in. They were the sixth seed.
They upset Portland, but as you said, that had a
lot more to do with Drew Holliday and Rajon Rondo
locking up. CJ McCollum and Damian Lillard and Anthony Davis
outplayed use of nurkitch. Why do we keep talking about

(30:05):
Anthony Davis like he's Kevin Garnett, or he's Derek Rose,
or he's one of these guys that is a superstar
that can carry a team. He had seven seasons to
do that in New Orleans, and they got there twice,
and I can't even say they got there twice all
on his back. So the idea that he's now going

(30:27):
to carry this team, this Lakers team to a championship,
having never been passed the second round in his eighth season.
Just I don't understand why we keep talking about that.
If the Lakers win, it's going to because of It's
going to be because of what Lebron James did last night,
which way two big defensive stops at the end of
the game and ended up hitting the winning basket. He's

(30:49):
gonna have to do that just about every time otherwise
I don't see them getting it done. And it's why
I still like the Clippers, because I'm just not sure
at thirty five the Lebron has the energy to be
able to do that. Yeah, I at this defensive stop
right here. It was really good. Okay, I join I.
I was shocked at the aesthetics, how good it was.

(31:12):
I thought. Honestly, I watched the end of the Jazz
Pelicans game. I had to remind myself I thought it
was a playoff game. I'm like, oh, it's not a
playoff game. And I was saying this to Joy is
that the NBA travel is a Schloyd. It's really hard.
It's winter, it's arriving at a snowy airport at two,
a van to the hotel. Some guys get to the hotel.
They can't sleep right, they slept on a plane. There's

(31:36):
no travel though. Now the guys, I think the energy
was amazing last night, they're not traveling. I get your point,
and I agree with you. But you're on a private
charter flight, you are staying at the Four Seasons. You
have a bus waiting for it. Like I just I
can't go so far as to say that their travel

(31:57):
is like anybody else's travel. It is. I've made those trips,
I've been with teams. It's pretty sweet. But to your
point about not having to go anywhere, I agree with you.
I think the energy that the players are going to
have is going to be a benefit. And I was
pleasantly surprised that the games were as fun and attractive

(32:20):
and competitive we weren't. My concern was is that we
were going to see so many miss shots, so many
miss threes, that it was going to be disappointed. But
I will say this, I think that the NBA did
a great job in terms of the teams that they
picked to play on opening night. Let me see the
rest of the teams before I passed judgment that everybody

(32:42):
has come back and is ready to go at the
level that we saw the four teams ultimately last night.
But yeah, look I get it. It's I think the
big thing for me was that I really thought that
the absence of the crowd was going to affect energy.
And I talk to a play your last night after
the games and he said, that is the one thing

(33:04):
that's going to be a challenge for teams is you
have to create your own energy. And that's actually where
the Lakers might have an advantage because I look at
their bench guys and I look at their chemistry, and
they have more of those raw, raw guys than the
Clippers do. The Pelicans have a lot of those guys.

(33:24):
I think that's going to you have to create your
own energy, and you have to have guys who get excited.
If you've got you know, the Kawhi Leonards who don't
say anything, don't do anything, don't emote, you don't have
your crowd to fill in for that, and so that's
going to be an interesting dynamic. The bench mobs and
the theatrics on the bench are actually going to be

(33:46):
a factor I think in this bubble. Yeah, that was fun.
I'm amazed by what technology does and all those fans
and all that. I just I'm blown away by it.
And I think it's can we get you? By the way,
can we get you? Enjoy on the monitors? Can we
get you? Side? Oh? I love it. You have no
idea for my former network to have me charing? It
would be so great. I would love that. If somebody

(34:08):
in America, if somebody in Silicon Valley can do that,
I'm all for it. Good Senior, Reck'll make it happen.
You gotta count. They kneeled and the ratings doubled. Thoughts
on that coming up. Be sure to catch live editions
of The Herd weekdays and noon Easter nine A and Pacific.
Great to have you back on a sports saturated Friday.

(34:29):
I don't say many clever things ever on this show,
but I have a saying I use all the time
at home. It's mine. I'm proud of it. So here goes.
I tell my kids this all the time, my daughter specifically.
Don't allow people with no life to ruin yours. Laugh
at their misery. They're miserable people. Not many in America,

(34:50):
but there's too many. If you want to complain about something.
You're a farmer and you don't feel the subsidies are fair.
Got your back. You're a renter and the landlord suddenly
doubles the cost, Damn right, you should be mad. You're
in your seventies. You go to the pharmacy one day,

(35:11):
they've jacked the prices forty five percent. Be pissed. I
would be be loud proud. I got your back. But
there are people in America that complain about things they
don't even care about, like the NBA players kneeled last
night and conservatives imploded. Let's be honest. Your last forty tweets,

(35:36):
you don't like the league, You're just miserable. The NBA
is the one league in America, just the one. You
have to tolerate, this one where the stars are powerful
black voices socially and culturally. It's the one and their

(35:56):
best player for fifteen years, much more than m Jay,
Magic or Bird is socially deft, socially skilled, and stuff
matters to him based on what he's seen and lived.
You don't have to watch it. I'm not telling you
to love the NBA. There's a lot of I don't
watch a lot of college basketball But if you go

(36:17):
to Spokane, Washington, or Lawrence, Kansas, or Syracuse or Raleigh,
North Carolina, people love college basketball. I'm not going to
talk you out of it. You watch what you want
to watch, you vote for who you want to vote for.
But I don't complain about college basketball because I have
no real passion for it other than four or five
programs where I have a buddy who coaches. But people

(36:41):
complaining about the kneeling last night, you don't even watch it.
You're just miserable. You just want to complain. I hear
this all the time, con on the hypocrisy of the
China situation. Really, you stay up at night thinking about that.
You're on a Friday night with your wife, having some
Mexican food and a couple of margarite is, hoping things
turn out good for you. You've been married twenty seven years,

(37:02):
you get very few special nights. You start talking about
NBA China bureaucracy with your wife. Let me just put
it this way, romance killer. They want to talk about
something else, like the next trip, another honeymoon, getting remarried,
buying her a nice bracelet or something. You don't talk

(37:23):
about this stuff. You don't care about this stuff. You've
never loved the NBA. It's not for you. I get it.
I found that out in college. I grew up on
the coast of Washington State next to a cannery. Okay,
there was a football team we played. It was in Oysterville.
That's how I grew up, clams oysters. I thought everybody
liked him. I didn't travel much as a kid, and

(37:43):
then I went to Eastern Washington University, which was cattle country.
And I went out to a nice dinner once with friends.
Eight guys at the table, all from Spokane. I ordered seafood.
They all went a god. I like, doesn't everybody like salmon?
The smell of it? And I'm like, oh wait, everybody
thinks like me. My life experience was different than their

(38:04):
life experience growing up around cattle farms. And that's okay.
Nobody's saying you have to love the NBA. But it's
a unique league culturally, it's stylistic, it's culturally relevant, and
it stars are black men who have voices in this country.
Many of you no other league. Do you rush to

(38:26):
wear what they wear? That doesn't happen in football. I've
never once said I gotta get Tom Brady's shoes. These
are people that matter, they have voices, they're culturally significant,
and the star Lebron James has decided much more than
previous stars, more than a Wilter and MJ or a bird.
There are things that matter to him and his community
based on what he lived and saw. If you don't

(38:49):
want to watch the league, I'm bro I got your back.
I'm not into college basketball's regular season now like the
Final four. But if you're complaining about a league you
don't really watch or care about, you fall into the
category which I've always told my daughter, don't let people
with no life ruin yours. Last night, the ratings doubled.

(39:13):
Studies continue to indicate an increasing number of Americans, I
believe it's now over fifty percent are comfortable with players
kneeling and are comfortable with Black lives matter. It's not
even about being on the right side of history. I
hear that all the time. You want to be on
the right side of history. I want to be on
the right side of now. That's what I want to

(39:36):
be on the right side. I won't be here for
the history. I want to be on the right side
of now. Right side of now is compassion and empathy
and enjoying life and being happy and celebrating people outside
our little cylinders. I saw the kneeling, all right, and
then I watched the game. But I love the NBA.
I get it. If you don't, I'm all good. But

(39:58):
stop guy that never watches it telling me how outrage
you are about China. All leagues have a blind eye,
NFL concussions, baseball steroids. One more Herd. The Herd streams
twenty four hours a day, seven days a week within
the iHeartRadio app. Search Herd to listen live or on
demand whenever you like. Here we go, our two live

(40:23):
in Los Angeles. This is the Herd to a fast pore,
stuck in fast, wherever you may be, and however you
may be listening whatever platform. Fox Sports Radio and FS
one A Joy and I have been named by many
publications as the best hair couple in American television. I
don't know what those publications are, but there's many of them.

(40:46):
Look at us. I'll tell you what we are bringing
it today. We're making it work with no hair and makeup.
Poun so I'm making it were making it work. I'm
figuring it out a fun night last night. Oh you know,
first of all, Nick Rife is it's just he's different
than anybody I've ever met. I've never met anybody like

(41:07):
him in my life. He's the most unique person in
broadcasting I've ever met. Hysterically, funny, maddening. He is what
you see on television is what you get. Yeah, now
he's he's on all the time. It's in I have.
We just sat and talked about our lives and our
wives and our fascinating he's he is fascinating. You give

(41:31):
into the tequila. He brought that over at five fifteen
and uh, they went right at it. He stuck with Blackett.
We had just we just had such a great that
I've never done Instagram live. So I'm gonna strike you guys.
You guys said, okay, yeah, I'm gonna I'm not gonna
do it after games I'm too tired, but halftime you
break it down, have some fun. I'm gonna do that
from now. You gotta get um, I'll get one for
you because you're not gonna order it. But they have

(41:53):
these sands or some tripods for for your fun. I mean,
it's like ten bucks on Amazon and I'll bring it
in all right. Let me start with this. Zion Williamson's
on a minute's restriction. Lord, he's not in perfect shape.
He's good, and he doesn't play good defense. By the
way the people bagging on him. Buker's like, he doesn't

(42:13):
play good defense. Find me the rookies that do. Lebron
was not a great defender early on. First of all,
you go from high school basketball, college basketball to the NBA.
Do you know how few guys in college basketball can
create their own shot. There's three hundred and seventy programs,
fifteen maybe two. You go to the NBA. Half the

(42:33):
league can rate their own shot. So to try to
defend NBA guys is no day at the beach. But
he's on a minute restrictions restriction because he's not in
good shape. What as he's fine. But here's what's funny
or interesting to me. I think Zion is gonna have
a lot more team success than Lebron in his first

(42:54):
seven years. Now, I do not think he's Lebron the player. No,
he's not. He's not that good. He doesn't see the
floor quite like Lebron didn't have the handles. I mean,
let's just you know, he's not Lebron. But there's a
lot there. There's a there's a lot of Blake Griffin,
a lot of Karl Malone, a lot of Charles Barkley,
there's a there's a fifteen year All Star if he

(43:14):
can stay healthy, No doubt I love Zion. But the
difference is is the Pelicans had Anthony Davis and they
traded him. Cleveland didn't have that. Cleveland just stunk. The
Anthony Davis trade has given them twenty two year old
Brandon Ingram All Star, twenty two year old Lonzo Ball

(43:34):
twelve points this year, and they also have Drew Holliday,
who's made an All Star team and is a veteran
twenty point guy. So Zion's got two young one of
them and all star players to grow with. Lebron didn't
have that early, and he's got a veteran grown up
and Drew Holliday who plays on both ends as a
real player. I mean Lebron, I mean, do you remember

(43:54):
what Lebron's for seven years were like? It was Mo
Williams and kind of a disappointing Drew Gooden and ancient
Shack Jamario Moon. It was a lot of Lebron had
one reliable guy, a big guy, Zadrunas Ilgauskas, good energy,
good body, smart guy. Ran Hard played both ends, limited offensively,

(44:14):
but a very nice player, no headcase stuff, like like
a real player. And he made one All Star team,
I think, and that was it. And then it was
an owner that was an ideal bad GMS, litany of coaches.
The Pelicans have a real GM that's respected. Alvin Gentry's
bounced around, but very respected. They have an owner that's

(44:35):
a football owner, but very supportive of the basketball. Brandon
Ingram's now an All Star at twenty two. Lonzo Ball's
a nice fit for Zion's game. He's not gonna hog
up shots. Zion's better than y'all thought, and Drew Holliday
can ball. I think this is a real team. I
think that. I think when I look at the Pelicans,

(44:55):
I don't think it's gonna be I think it's gonna
be much better than Anthony Davis Pelicans because I think
this kid is a physical dimension to him that elevates everybody.
It's almost like you always feel like if you go
out with guys and one of the guys you're with
is a tough guy, everybody has more confidence. You can
be like a smart alegant a bar. If one of
the guys is a big, tough guy. You go with
a football player and offensive line into a bar, you

(45:15):
talk a little more smack like. Zion is the guy
that walks in and when he's on the floor, everybody's
chest puffs out a little more. With the Pelicans, Brandon
Ingram's an All Star. You don't feel like that way,
but Zion gives you a certain confidence. Lebron did that,
and I think this roster is really good. I think
it's really interesting. They also have all their most of
their good players. With the Pelicans shoot well. Brandon Ingram

(45:38):
thirty eight percent on threes, JJ Reddick forty five percent,
Lonzo's gotten better thirty eight percent, Drew Holiday thirty six,
Josh Hart thirty five and Zion's a way better three
point shooter than anybody thought. And it is now a
shooters league, So I think I think Zion's gonna win
a lot of games. I think They're gonna win a
lot of games. That's why I wouldn't helicopter parent him

(45:58):
and not put him in the last two went into
the game last night. Put him in, let him play.
All right, this is a bigger deal than you think.
Do you see what Tom Brady got today? Oh, Shady
McCoy is that I'll play there. Shady McCoy was part
of the Kansas City Chiefs kind of Troika running back
group last year. Five hundred yards, four touchdowns average, four

(46:20):
point six yards of carry. Shady can play. You're not
gonna give him twenty five carries, but he can play
very good rotational running back. Historically, he can catch. He
may not be Zeke, but he can catch. He not
Christian McCaffrey, but he had twenty eight receptions last year.
I'm gonna say it right now. Tampa Bay to the
Super Bowl is not crazy. It's not crazy. And I'll

(46:43):
tell you why. Think about the teams that are supposed
to block him. Seattle bad old line, worst d line.
Seattle's become Russell Wilson as a life preserver. Philadelphia like him,
but Carson Wentz can he stay healthy? Green Bay got
out gained last year. Vegas and Fox bat have them

(47:04):
winning three less, three fewer games this year. Saints Drew
Brees is forty one. They don't throw the ball vertically.
Last year. I want you to think about this. You're
not gonna believe it when I say this. Do you
know only two teams scored more last year than Tampa,
Baltimore and San Francisco. That was it, And that was
with the interceptions that jamis how many points did they

(47:25):
give away? Just think about who do you think would
be in their way? San Francisco, that's reasonable, right, Like
we know Baltimore in Kansas City, they go play a
lot next ten years. San Francisco's fair. San Francisco plays
in the toughest division in football. There's a real chance
Super Bowl losing teams will hangover come down a smidge.

(47:47):
We think Arizona is going to be better, Seattle got
Jamal Adams could be a little better. Rams we think
will be better. And they were nine and seven. Tampa
Bay's got a team in their division, Carolina's total rebuild.
I mean, Atlanta, you can't trust San Francisco and Tampa
meet and Tampa's got home field advantage. Just say it

(48:09):
out loud, Tom Brady, Jimmy Garoppolo, Brady's got better weapons
and is at home? Really? Is that crazy? Am I
crazy on that? Because I just watched the Super Bowl
where there was a team with a great offense and
a pretty good defense play a great defense and a
pretty good offense, and the offense won. And more and

(48:31):
more and more and more. I'm watching football and I'm
seeing the great offense score a lot of points on
the great defense. Remember that great New England defense that
Philadelphia ate up as an offenses Now score New England
kept Kansas City and Mahomes down for about three quarters
a couple of years ago. San Francisco kept him down
for offenses score. They eventually score Tom Brady the weapons here.

(48:56):
Now they got three backs, three tight ends, two big
time wide receivers. They're gonna leave the NFL on offense. Hell,
they were third last year as a turnover machine with
Jamis Winston. So if you start looking at the roadblocks
for Seattle or for Tampa, all right, San Francisco in
a much tougher division could come in ten and six.

(49:18):
You know, Tampa goes eleven and five. I get Brady
at home with the weapons. You get Garoppolo on the road.
By the way, Tom's gonna have a lot of motivation
to beat the kid, who you know Belichick wanted to
bail on Tom earlier. For so I look at Shady
McCoy and I'm like, this is what the Miami Heat did.

(49:39):
Gronk's like, you know, it's funny. I don't know Gronk well,
but I know people who know Gronk. Gronk was retired,
he was not going to come back. Gronk was done.
This was not like a Gronk saw Brady sign and
Gronk being Gronk is like Tampa jet skis no state tax?
I miss playing Gronk kind of like went, I'll do it.

(50:00):
By the way, Shady's looking down there, thinking, no state
tax about done? Why don't Why don't I want to
play with Tom Brady? This is what Lebron and d
Wade Bosh did in Miami. Guys were like, it's Miami,
it's a Winter League, the waters Aqua. This would be fun.
Then your agent's like, yeah, of course I want you
to play. Go down there, get on television in May

(50:20):
and June, get your shoe deals and endorsements. You want
to be on television May and June for the NBA.
Believe me, agents want to put their players in places
where they're on TV for the shoe deals. You don't
think agents look at this and think in COVID year
Brady Tampa highest scoring offense, Gronk was done. I'll play shady,

(50:43):
other options I'll play. I'm just saying it's not the
craziest thing in the world. It's not. It's not it's
not crazy. I mean, you go, look at how much
success Far've had. I'll play from the Super Bowl, Joe
Montana had these Peyton Manning like this, these guys that
go remember Peyton Manning, Cherry picked where he wanted to go.
Tom Brady looked at all the weapons and said, I

(51:06):
like Tampa. We were all like Tampa, and then you
looked at it about a week later, we were all like,
oh yeah, Tampa. Yeah, drop back, tight ends backs. They
solve their problem on the right side of the offensive
line with Tristan Worse. I don't know. I don't think
it's crazy. I don't Nick Wright last night was crazy.
That's not crazy. Coming up next, Chris Weber're going to

(51:28):
join a c Web five time All Star TNT. Be
sure to catch live editions of The Herd weekdays in
noon eastern nine am Pacific on Fox Sports Radio FS
one and the iHeartRadio app. Tonight on FS one. The
MLS is Back tournament moves on to the quarter finals
as Orlando City takes on LAFC. Catch all the action

(51:50):
live beginning at seven thirty Eastern on FS one and
the Fox Sports App. I'll be watching that with my
buddy Dan Rodriguez tonight. We'll be watching LFS LAFC because
we go to the games. It's the only season ticket
I have in Los Angeles. I'm telling you these mL
LAST stadiums, they're tiny, they're intense, um, they're really good.
LAFC has a great it's an incredible If you have

(52:13):
you gone to a game yet, I haven't. You've not
given me. I will one of your season tickets. Okay,
well it's it's incredible. I'm definitely gonna go. When we
can go, you can bring one of your friends. You're
very social and very very social, very social. My wife
made fun of me last night. She's like, you know
you're because I told her I had a She goes,
you had a play date last night with Nick. That's

(52:33):
what you call kids when they get together. She goes,
you're having another play date tonight with Dan, And I said,
I don't see them as play dates. I have friends,
and when and she goes, you almost have more fun
when I'm gone. And I said, I have different fun
when you're gone when I When you're gone, honey, I
get to do what I want to do. Would you
not be able to hang out with Nick? If I
could hang out with him? But I have to make
more sacrifices, you know. That's the thing about marriage. There's

(52:56):
a lot of sacrifice. That's the thing about having a
girl period. We need a lot of time and attention.
That's how it goes. Gosh, you don't have to be
married to have that experience. A lot of time, a
lot of attention. Now not denying that it's all wonderful, guys,
you can now use the right tools. Revolutionary company called Manscape.

(53:18):
The lawnmower three point zero is geared with skin safe technology,
so the tremmor reduces cuts. That's Manscape dot com code
her for the record, the clippers, Rob Parker and Chris
Webber coming up. Oh, I want to touch on this.
Do I have like two minutes on this before see
web is ready to go? Okay, because I want to
talk about this for a second. Then do herdline, Then

(53:40):
do see weeb can I okay, I want to talk
about this. So the SEC is going to play a
ten game conference only football schedule. They decided this, So bamma,
USC done, LSU, Texas done, Florida Florida State done. And
you know I was thinking about this this morning. The
SEC is really its own animal. It's a little bit
like the English Premier League. If you eliminated every international

(54:03):
soccer league and you just had the EPL. It's so powerful,
it's so beloved, it's so intense, they'd be fine with it.
The SEC is so dominant, and it's such a revenue monster.
If the Big ten, ACC, Big twelve, and PAC twelve
just canceled, they just got rid of football. People in

(54:25):
the South wouldn't lose a second of sleep. They've won
ten of the last fourteen titles. Of the last let
me look at this. Make sure it's right. Of the
last twenty eight programs competing for the national title over
half of ben SEC teams. It's the English Premier League
of America. The SEC only truly respects Clemson. Outside of that,

(54:48):
they roll over Oklahoma, They've mostly beaten Ohio State. USC's
no longer relevant, Oregon's got cool uniforms, but it ends there.
The SEC doesn't need the approval of anybody else because
they've been so dominant. They don't really care about your conference.
They don't respect it, and frankly, they make so much money.

(55:10):
I've gone to about five ors, well, i've gone. I've
gone to four SEC games, like five. It's not like
the other leagues. It is not they are you got
Winnebago's parked at the stadium by Wednesday night. They are
drinking by seven am on Saturday. And they don't stop.
I'm not sure they do stop. And it is such
a revenue monster. They don't care about the rest of

(55:32):
the sport. The only program they look at and think
they can play with US is Clemson. That's it in
the whole country. And so you know, I look at
the SEC and no LSU Texas, they don't care. No
BAM in USC, they don't care. They would have rolled anyway.
So I think it's the one sport in America. I
mean the AFC and football needs the NFC, the Western

(55:53):
Conference needs the Eastern Conference. SEC doesn't need anybody else.
They don't need anybody else. So for them to say
they've announced yesterday they said We're gonna play ten conference games,
conference only, ten games conference only. They're deliriously happy. They're
not paying attention to the Russia. Paying attention to the Russia.
College football anyway, probably shouldn't join with the news. This

(56:19):
is the herd line news. So since joining the Rockets
in twenty twelve, the farthest James Harden has gotten in
the playoffs as the Western Conference Finals. But he still
has his sights that's on bringing a championship to Houston.
We're bringing it back to Ashtown. You know, we've we've
come up short the last few years, but this is
an opportunity for to fight for it and get after

(56:41):
it again. So you know, we got some grinding to do,
some work to do. But the gold isn't bringing back
to Ashtown. So they came out strong and then kind
of backed off of it a little bit there. But
they are the most unique team in the playoffs. No
size at all they are, so they're going small ball.
They faced the Mavericks to night at nine Eastern and
sixth specific. I'm they play Portland tonight. MAVs. Very interesting game,

(57:06):
very interesting. MAVs have some size, it's a different style.
Very interesting game. And by the way, the MAVs offensively
are really good, really good, great, great. So is Houston.
I can't without air Gordon for two weeks, so we'll
see how that goes. But look, the thing about Houston
is this is a specific year that even though everyone

(57:27):
doesn't necessarily love what Houston has done over the past
couple of years or necessarily loves their squad right now,
and there's a lot of things still up in the air,
this is a year that Houston, if you know, depending
on how things go, could take advantage of the situation.
The story on Houston two ball centric guards who sort
of are exhausted. Remember when Kobe Bryant told James he

(57:49):
told Westbrooker hard and he said, listen, man, you can't
play that way and be good in June. You'll you
just get it's too much energy off your body. Well,
they don't have that. They don't have the travel. I
thought the energy last night was jumped through the television. Yeah,
and the last night was great. It felt like it
felt like the playoffs. It really was the playoffs. No
travel and three months off. So Westbrook and Harden are
knocked and they can go full speed ahead for the

(58:10):
next three months. And I do think if there was
a shocker in the NBA playoffs, like one shocker and
you said Houston made the Western Conference Finals, I'd be like, no,
I get it. I can see that. I can. Yeah,
they have. You know, they're tied with the Celtics for
for the best odds to win the championship. They're the
team that could sneak in there. So Zion Willamson was

(58:31):
on a minute restriction last night. He didn't see the
court in the last seven minutes. In New Orleans ended
up losing a close one to the Jazz one oh six,
one oh four, a game that they led for most
of the game and at one point by sixteen points.
After the game, head coach Alvin Genti explained why Zion
was held out at the end. We wish we could
have played him down in the stretch, but you know,
he had used the minutes that was that was given

(58:53):
to us. So you know, that's just, you know, that's
the way it is. I mean, we weren't going to
stick him back out there. Uh you know, a medical
people said that the medically played him in the minutes
that was allowed. Letus deploy him. I'm people, he wasn't
going to be on a minutes restriction. Medical people make
a lot of mistakes too. I told you about my

(59:15):
I told you about my issue with the nose doctor
in Connecticut. Yeah, I'm gonna side on the on the
on the on the side of the doctors and stuff
at this particular moment. I'm not there's a there's a
lot of people out I think our doctors don't know everything,
but I do, so I'm going to consult with the
doctors on most things. I just I thought that they
said that he was good to go and that he
wasn't going to be on a minute restriction. I just

(59:37):
don't I don't love it if the doctors are saying
he absolutely can't play more than this, okay, and then
all of us half to shut up people. I think
we can't overrule that. Okay, he gets to play fifteen minutes.
I'm playing him six minutes at the end of the
half and nine in the fourth. Yeah, I mean I'm
getting I'm gonna have him on the floor at the
end of a close game. If this was a blowout, okay,
if it was with a little bit out of reach,

(59:59):
they needed this game. Game like this was a playoff
game for the Pelicans. They're trying to get into the playoffs.
This is what these seeding games are for. Utah obviously
didn't look good for most of the game, but they
showed what they do like, they showed why they're a
playoff team in that game last night. So it just
felt like a It felt like a bad loss for
the Pelicans. Finally, Carson Wentz has dealt with a lot
of injuries in his NFL career, and this offseason he

(01:00:22):
was happy to finally focus on something other than getting
through rehab. The last couple off seasons, I was, you know,
dealing with injuries and trying to bounce back from injuries.
So um, this offseason, I was really able to get
after it and work out a little harder in the
gym and all of those things. So um, you know,
I haven't gained anything, you know, insane for weight, but

(01:00:42):
I've definitely gained some weight and I feel really good
with where I'm at. Didn't make the NFL Top one hundred.
I mean, seriously, I need to be a GM in
the league. He tours ACL in the twenty seventeen season
and fractured a bone in his back during the twenty
eighteen season. So if it has been nice for him,
like he said, to just have a regular offseason to

(01:01:02):
work out and get in shape and not necessarily rehab,
which is exhausting obviously, not just physically but mentally and emotionally,
that to constantly come back from injuries. I kind of
lean towards the side with Wentz that he has had
a lot of injuries so far in his career, and
I think that part of the reason why he gets
what you deem as disrespect when it comes to these

(01:01:23):
rankings and how we look at him slander. It's because
of the Super Bowl. Now, well he didn't got them
for a position to get to the Super Bowl. He
wasn't the one that won it, and he's had a
lot of injuries. That's my magic city, Wentz throwing darts.
You go there for wings. That is my magic city,
Carson Wentz darts. Thank you. I don't have anything for that, Okay.

(01:01:45):
Kind of love watching him throw, I really do, all right,
that's that's joy with it. Well, that's the news. And
I love that term. I feel like it makes me hip.
I feel a little hipper. Speaking of hip. Chris Webber,
one of the top three college basketball players. I think
I've ever seen Rookie of the year a bunch of

(01:02:07):
NBA All Star teams fifteen years see web t NT analyst,
what are you doing? See web? How are things? Everything's great? Man?
How are you doing? Thanks for having me on you bet,
I was saying last night, the Lakers chemistry surprises me.
A D and Lebron work, Caruso works, Dan Waiters drives
me nuts, but it kind of works. Why do you
think Lebron and A D's chemistry is so good so fast?

(01:02:28):
What explain that to me? Well, you're a historian. You
know the game, and you talk about it in different ways.
And if you think about back to remember in Cleveland,
everybody thought, getting I'm not talking about JR. Smith today,
And everybody thought, you know, j R. Smith and those
guys wasn't going to help him and myself and other
people thought you needed a couple crazy guys around you,

(01:02:49):
because really all you want to do his manage. You
just want to manage the personality. But you want guys
to get a tech when you can't. You know, he's
the ambassador. You want guys to file. And so the
tick and roll game. The fact that they've been courting
each other, Lebron and eight for a year. The fact
that you know, if you really look at that game,
Lebron was sixteen points. I mean a d really held
them and Lebron could do his thing at the end,

(01:03:11):
especially on the defensive end. So one I think is
because you have two top five players in this league
and then two you know, when you have guys everybody
sleeps on where Shaq calls the others your teammates role
players and when you have guys like that, just think
about who the Lakers have had, I mean to the
band of my existence, whether it's Horri Fisher, Grant, guys

(01:03:31):
that come in and know their roles and they're experts
at it. And I think that when you come into
LA as a role player, you better have your focus
up because more is expected of you as a role
player there than any other franchise man. Are you worried,
Chris that Anthony Davison four games against the Clippers has
virtually disappeared in all four quarters. And you know this, Chris,

(01:03:52):
Some guys get tight late. Some guys are talented, they
don't have a lot of dog. He has just dried
up four times against the Clippers in the fourth quarter.
He did last night concerned at all about that. You know, well,
first I have to full disclosure. I think the Clippers
going to win the championship, So that's that's why I picked.
And the fact that they didn't have the number one

(01:04:15):
scoring tandem, maybe the first teammates to get six Man
of the Year together co six Man of the Year.
Really got to think about that. That's at least, you know,
at least low side seven boards. You know, that's at
least a couple of files there. So what I what
I think is that Lebron and Athy are going to
have to do everything to win. Everybody's going to criticize

(01:04:37):
the Bron every middle of the game because he can't
take any plays off, and the same with a d
And when you really think about it, when you have
Harold in and you have one more big body and
it's not Noah, a guy trying to get in shape
for the season, and then you caused problems on the
pick and roll on the other ends, and that's what
Noah didn't do. He wasn't, you know, causing any problems
on the other end. Defensively, when you have those two

(01:04:58):
guys it's going to be up so PRUSO. Those guys
are playing great, but I don't see how they're gonna
keep that up. A lot of that's gonna be on
Dwight Howard and JaVale McGee defensively because it's not I
don't know how they're going to be able to keep pace.
So Zion's on a minute restriction thing, and I was like, man,
it feels like a helicopter parent. It's not like he's
coming off Tommy John or concussion protocol. I mean even

(01:05:21):
in college after he got hurt, he came back and
played thirty seven minutes in three straight games and won
the MVP in the ACC tournament. What do you make
of the minute restrictions on Zion? I agree with the
expert on the show. I agree with Jodan when she
said earlier it feels kind of weird to me. And
I have some players. I had some X players call me,

(01:05:44):
and don't get me wrong, X players call all the
time for different reasons, to vent to relive just because
they're chicked off, but more than a few called me
last night, and two of the comments, two of the
main topics where you guys are letting them off the
hook if this was anyone else that wasn't so caught
in shape. And then the next one was, you know,

(01:06:08):
if I'm a player, you know, come hella high water,
I'm a player, especially in the last minutes when all
we're playing for, you know, is a playoff spots. Those
are the kind of two things that I kept, you know, defended,
because I'm like, he must be hurt because in my
in my point of view, it's no way like you
talked about dogs earlier. The ones like Ai, the ones

(01:06:31):
that that play and get criticized for going three for
twenty five, they're the only ones that will do it.
Curry's the only one that will go three for twenty
five because he thinks he's gonna make the next one.
So you need those personalities. And I think it must
be something serious because you're like, you're saying it's a
helicopter parent, but you know they want to make the playoffs.
I mean, it seems like that's why we have this good,
tight race right now. It's to see if the Pelicans

(01:06:53):
can make it. So in my heart, I know he
wants to play, but I don't understand that. So I
have this theory. I told Joy and Ricker, and Buker
thinks I'm nuts, but I said, the NBA travel is
a Schloyd. I mean Baseball you go into a city
for four days, NFL eight road games, NBA's winter cold turbulence,
late night van to the hotel, and now we don't

(01:07:16):
have that. I thought the energy last night from the
players was unbelievable. So everybody's gonna tell me they're not
going to be very good. They're gonna be rusty. I
don't know, Chris, if you would have never had to
travel only play home games in the NBA. I wonder
if some of these guys, some of these old guys
are like they're gonna start they're gonna like the bubble

(01:07:36):
that they're gonna not be like I don't have to
be in vans and road trips, and when your take
on the bubble experience, yeah, and at least the next year. Well,
to tell the truth, we were always when I play,
was a little jealous of the baseball schedule because the
baseball schedule you're in town for a week. Now, it's
no way you really can do that in basketball, But
we just meant the way that you could move about,
and so you're right. That's why I do think Lebron,

(01:07:58):
with his experience, how great he plays, all that, all
the things you can talk about, Lebron has an advantage.
And so I wouldn't be surprised even though I didn't
take them, if they won, because there is no travel
and everybody out there you know this, I mean to
travel and come back and do the show, and it
takes Travel takes more out of you than a tough
practice a lot of times, especially after a loss, especially
when think about it, you have any injuries, and so

(01:08:21):
if your leg is swollen, if you go on the plane,
that's more pain. That's an ice machine, just just the
inconvenience of it, getting into a hotel room, unpacking, ordering
your food at two in the morning. So I do
think the bubble is better for wild personalities, better for
the introvert, better for guys that really want to win,
better for guys that don't want to be there, because

(01:08:41):
if you're not focused, now when are you going to be?
So I gotta ask you a Yanna's question. And I've
said this, Jannas is great. But if Chris Middleton, who
I think is a good player, being paid great money,
I have no bitterness. I hope you guys all make
a fortune. But if Middleton struggles like he did last
you're against Toronto and Yannis can't get to the finals,

(01:09:03):
and you know how the media is like, come on, man,
where's hardware? You si sitting there in Milwaukee. It's not
even a free agent market. Do you think there's a
possibility that if that Chris Middleton holds the key for
Yannis and his free agency going forward. I think that's
a great point. But if I would like to say
Chris Middleton could be the key, but it's the GM's

(01:09:27):
fault if they let that happen in don't stay there,
you know, and don't make a move. So I agree,
that's why as great as Lebron has done, I feel
the Yannis is the MDP with the best record, maybe
defensive player of the year. AD's a leading score on
the Lakers, and so look at what he's done without,
you know. And I don't consider Middleton in my opinion,

(01:09:49):
the true number two. I just don't, and that's that's
not his fault. He could be a great number three somewhere,
but yeah, he's not a number two. I agree, and
I think the Bud does a great job coaching. There's
sis them and their team is one of the deepest,
and I think that's why them and members should have
an advantage. But yeah, I mean I would if Yanna's calls,
you know, would call me, I would just say, you're

(01:10:10):
gonna want to play today. You have to play with
the best teammates you can because at the end of
the day, they're gonna look back. They're not going to
care that it was a super team over here. They
aren't going to care that a guy traded a player
to his best friend there. They used to be teammates
and they want They're not gonna care about that. They're
gonna care that you win one. And so it's really
about does he trust the ownership and GM to make

(01:10:31):
that happen Because from my experience and not this documental,
but from my experience, the frustration with small market teams
the players there is that those teams don't have enough
balls to go get someone else big. And that's the
only reason why you stay small in a lot of players,
That's why okayc wasn't a small market even though it was,

(01:10:51):
they didn't play like that when they drafted those great players.
So I would be worried about that. If if I
was ownership, you gotta make a point. You can't act cool.
You can't and say, oh, we don't discuss it with
our players. Not when people are discussing with Lebron are
asking Kawhi who you want to play with? You see
what the Clippers did? Yeah, you know, so no, I
agree one hundred percent. But it wouldn't be on Middleton

(01:11:12):
to be on his play but it would be on
management because they're the ones that are in total control
of whom stays ago. Good stuff, Chris Webber today, so
you just so now you just what are you doing today?
You're just kind of hanging waiting for games, waiting for
the playoffs. I was just watching the Old Game the
other night. I'm trying to grow a beard since my
beard never connects. I'm looking crazy and just working out man,

(01:11:36):
trying to trying to stay busy in the meantime, trying
to keep a good schedule so so I don't go
crazy or lose anything. NBA and t N t Our. Friend, Chris,
I love talking to you, man. Thanks for coming by,
hey saving thanks having you back, coming out. Rob Parker,
Seewab Man have a crazy Beard. We got a crazy
guy next, Rob Parker. The Herd one more Herd. The
Herd streams twenty four hours a day, seven days a

(01:11:58):
week within the iHeart Radio app. Search her to listen
live or on demand whenever you'd like. Let's not waste
any time live from a hotel that he's spending one
hundred and four dollars a night at. Rob Parker FS
one instigator is joining me with a new sports coach
that probably costs him thirty eight cents. I'm doing great, Colin.

(01:12:25):
That cost forty eight dollars in Detroit. So look at you,
all right? So I watched the NBA last night. Esthetically, optically,
I thought it looked good, didn't it, Rob? It did.
It was like a TV show. That's what these sports
have turned into, right where you know, like they've overproduced

(01:12:45):
because you have to to make up for not having
the crowd. But I agree. I thought it was a
very good look by the NBA. Should Zion have played
at the end of the game. I think he should
have for this reason, Colin, I think last night's loss
cost them the playoffs. How are you gonna be four
and a half games out with eight to play and

(01:13:06):
you lose the first game. Seriously, it puts you in
a bad spot. You're trying to overtake two other teams
and now the margin for error slim to none. I
think they lost the spot in the playoffs last night.
I don't think that's a bad argument. You're probably right mathematically,
it's a tough spot. Now. You've been very critical of Lebron.

(01:13:28):
He was unbelievable last night the assists defense. Can you
acknowledge it was a huge Laker win last night? No,
I can't. And this I'm not going to be a
prisoner of the moment they won the game. But Colin,
I would be very, very worried if I was a
Laker fan hoping that they're going to get past the

(01:13:49):
Clippers to win a championship. The Clippers without Lou will right,
they didn't have Harold Harold as well, and the Lakers,
like by the skin of their teeth, are able to
win this game where they're missing two big pieces. I mean, seriously,
the Clippers had a chance to win the game, and

(01:14:11):
they have more turnovers in the bakery. Add it all up, Colin,
I mean they gave away to basketball. They didn't have
two big pieces and they fell into a big hole
to start the game and they still had a chance
to win. I think the Clippers have to feel good.
I know it's not about you know, some feeling good

(01:14:32):
about losses. But they were right where they needed to
be and they'll have more firepower. That team is so deep,
So I'm not going to buy into this idea that
the clip that the Lakers showed you that they're going
to win the NBA Championship last night. Well, yeah, Clippers
are not playing for home court advantage, so we know
that they basically they want two things. They want to
be healthy, they don't want any injuries, if that's really it,

(01:14:54):
and they want to have some chemistry rotational stuff solved.
Let me ask you about Anthony Davis. So this is
in my take on Anthony Davis forever, and it goes
against most NBA insiders. I think he's talented, but he's
not a leader. He's got no dog. Layton games this year,
he shot fifty three percent first three quarters and forty
percent in the fourth, and I think this is who

(01:15:15):
he is. I think he's talented, but I don't think
he's a true number one like Lebron, Michael Magic, Burt.
I don't. I just see him as a wildly talented guy.
Last night he disappears again in the fourth. Do you
trust him in a big spot in the playoffs? Absolutely not.
I think Colin, you had just about as many points

(01:15:36):
as he had in the fourth quarter and you weren't
even in the game. I mean, he had two points.
You can't play that well in the first three quarters
and then wilt and disappear when it matters. This year,
he has a total of ten, right, ten fourth quarter
points against the Clippers. Yeah. Ten. It makes no sense
that has something to do with him. I totally agree

(01:15:59):
he's a talent a guy, but there's something extra that
you have to have in order to win big games.
Maybe this is why the Pelicans were never able to
really set for that one time when they got out
of the first round. There weren't ever to make any
weren't able to make any runs. And he's going to
be the reason why the Lakers win or not not Lebron.

(01:16:19):
We know what to expect from Lebron. If a D
is AOL missing in action, m Ia put it that
way in the fourth quarter, then the Lakers aren't going
to win anything. So little Football News. Shady McCoy is like,
you know what, I want to play with Tom Brady.
Gronk was retired. I want to play with Tom Brady.

(01:16:41):
I think it's time to acknowledge the magic potion of
Tom Brady. People now, nice rotational players all play for
lesson Tampa tom Brady, Are you getting nervous they're gonna
be better than people? Project? No? What is this old
timer's day? Was Larry Zonka not available? Colin? I mean,

(01:17:02):
come on with this, Shady McCoy. I don't want to
say that the Tampa Bay Bucks are old, but I
heard they're moving their practice facility to the cemetery. I mean,
you keep digging up people and bringing them to come play.
I'm telling you you know what's gonna happen. Colin. You're
ready and I'm not wishing this on anybody. Injuries when
guys haven't played and then they try to get back Gronk,

(01:17:25):
Shady McCoy. Tom Brady is forty three going on ninety.
You got an old bunch of guys there, and watch
those guys will wind up getting hurt. I keep telling you,
Tampa Bay is going to be the Browns of last year.
Everybody was on the bandwagon everybody. The Browns went from
a million to one to fourteen to one to get

(01:17:48):
to the super Bowl when they traded for OBJ and
what happened. They didn't make the playoffs. Colin, I'll bet
you twenty wings and a diet Coke right now that
the Bucks will not and O team make the playoffs.
You want to take me up on it? Absolutely, Absolutely,
I feel strongly about I think they're offensively gifted, and
I think a lot of the teams at the top

(01:18:09):
of the NFC have holes. I think Green Bay is
gonna regress, Seattle's got banned lines, Carson went struggles to
stay healthy, and the Niners are in a great division.
I think they're gonna get home field advantage in the
playoffs potentially, I don't think so. I still have I'm
gonna take in that division. I'm gonna take New Orleans
and I'm gonna take Atlanta to bounce back and make
the playoffs. And it'll be thirteen years in the road

(01:18:31):
that the Bucks well not made the playoffs, even with
Tom Brady. So there's your Baker's dozen of not making it.
By the way, college football, the SEC said yesterday we're
gonna do conference games. They remind me of the English
Premier League in soccer, where they're so insulated. They're such
a revenue monster. They don't need anybody else and they
don't care about anybody else. It doesn't bother me at all.

(01:18:54):
I don't I wouldn't have a problem if college football
became conference only scheduling. Seriously, the games I look forward
to are Ohio State, Michigan, Wisconsin, Michigan, Penn State, Ohio State.
I don't care about these out of conference games. What
do you make of the SEC saying, hey, just us
don't care about any other games. No, I get that,

(01:19:15):
and this is all different. We're on uncharted waters and
people are trying to make to colin. My only issue
is asking these kids to play when the kids can't
come to campus the regular student body. That's my old argument.
If the kids aren't in classes and kid come to campus,
no way should you ask football college football players who

(01:19:37):
aren't getting paid to do that. I understand the pros.
These are guys, this is they're living, and this is
what they have to do, and but these college kids
don't have to do it. That's my old argument for this.
How much in a summer in New York. Rooms can
be very expensive. How much did you pay for your room?
So normally a room like this might be three fifty

(01:19:59):
three ninety nine and I paid one oh seven a night.
I'm staying on like twenty eighth and sixth Avenue. You know,
Times Square is a stone's throwaway. I've been doing a
little shopping. You know, there's no taxes on clothes in
New York, so it's a good it's a good trip.
Look at him. He is America's most frugal sportscaster. How

(01:20:20):
much your jacket cost? Forty eight dollars? This one? This
is Ralph Lauren. Can you see very nice? Very nice? Joey,
what do you think? You look great? You look very
You're very professional. Rob he's a columnist for the Shadow
League dot com. Odd couple with Rinspen. Yes, remember I
moved to dead Okay, sorry about that, all right. It's

(01:20:43):
hard to keep track of your career. You just got
so many gigs. Only had like thirty five jobs in
my thirty five years college. Good seeing, yeah, folks, I
got to NBA last night. Nick Wright had a couple
of cocktails with my new lows outdoor cocktail stand. It's
very nice. Go to lows dot com. By the way,
build yours, show us your transformation hashtag Lows goals. Low's

(01:21:09):
got good accessories, Our three good stuff, next one more Herd.
The Herd streams twenty four hours a day, seven days
a week within the iHeartRadio app, search Herd to listen
live or on demand whenever you like. Show is flying by.
We are already moving into our third hour. This is

(01:21:33):
the Herd, wherever you may be, however you may be
listening iHeartRadio, Fox Sports Radio FS one. I gotta tell you,
I got good news from it. Some salespeople or show
is doing very well. Joy people really seem to enjoy it.
That's that's good to hear. Very's going very well. I
had a man at the grocery store yesterday. It's very
pleased with our show. You said you had a good

(01:21:55):
show yesterday. So some way he said he paused it
was I was like, it wasn't good today before, or
he say he had a really good show yesterday. I
didn't know what to make of it. Maybe just on
fire yesterday. It was a pause that worried me a
little bit. That's happened yesterday, so it was the day
before he was talking about that's right. He was talking about,
we loved Wednesday's show, not too keen on Tuesday. I

(01:22:16):
think we've had a really strong week. I can't believe
we've made it. We made it. The bubble, folks to bubbles.
UFC's working bubble. Basically, MLS is working bubble, NBA is
working bubble. Nobody's testing NHL. This is sports is showing
you what happens wear a mask, socially distant. The sport

(01:22:37):
that's kind of scrapping right now is baseball. Because a
bunch of Marlins went out on the town in Atlanta
and had a good time. It's like, okay that you
can't can't can't do that. It's not what you can do.
You gotta be smart. Sports is telling us what works.
I'm I'm so thoroughly impressed with these leagues. I was
not sure how it was gonna look, how it was
gonna work. It looked great. It looks like you said,

(01:22:58):
ninety percent of what it normally. And tonight I'm having
friends over and then are play dates. The whole day
of basketball today be great. Fifteen minutes. That's joy. Taylor
of course, Sam Ammick will be joining us in fifteen minutes.
Longtime NBA writer senior writer at The Athletic Jason McIntire.
On Fridays he predicts headlines, so tomorrow's headlines today, But

(01:23:19):
today I woke up excited. The NBA officially returned last night.
Both games were great, but I really enjoyed the ending
of the Lakers Clippers. Kawai has got it. You see
the plot labn on Kauai down before. Here's Georgie's way
outside of lunching free. So that's it. Lakers of one.

(01:23:46):
There's two truths about the Lakers. One is really good
and one was fine last night, but it's troublesome. Let's
start with this. Their chemistry has been great all year.
Lebron and a d just work. It just works. Vogue Lebron,
Frank's done a great job. Dion Waiters doesn't fit anywhere.
He fits there. Dwight Howard has been odd for years.

(01:24:07):
He's kind of important. JaVale McGee's a fascinating player. He's
crucial for them on the defensive end. Alex Caruso and
his headband work really well with Lebron. Their chemistry is excellent.
It was right where they and it was great in
the first week. You know, listen, Lebron and d Waie
are best friends. It took a month and a half

(01:24:27):
for him to get it together, and by the end
of that first year they still didn't have it together.
This thing works okay, and it shouldn't on paper. It
is a reality show. It's the odd balls of the
NBA and Jr. Smith and Waiters and JaVale and Dwight Howard,
who's Alex Caruso and his ed bad? But it works.
And when you juxtaposed that against the Clippers last night,

(01:24:48):
their chemistry was not good. They had more turnovers than assists.
Lebron really frustrated them defensively in a couple of eight possessions.
Paul George was great last night. He was stupendous, but
he kind of felt sometimes he was doing it by himself.
I didn't like kind of their offensive situational basketball. I
felt they were off last night, and none of it

(01:25:11):
was pretty early. Lebron really struggled for much of the game.
But the Lakers chemistry is it's really a credit to
Vogel and Lebron. It shouldn't be this good. On paper,
this roster has so many parts that don't look like
they fit, and they do. I mean, Dion Waiters drives
me nuts. Last nine he was really important. And here's

(01:25:32):
the second thing with the Lakers that the truth. They
got a pattern. They get carried by Anthony Davis early
and then he disappears and Lebron carries him late and
that was good enough. Last night. Lebron was very good late.
Couple of big baskets, a couple of great assists, too,
great defensive stops. Anthony Davis this year shoots fifty three

(01:25:53):
percent from the field in the first three quarters. He
shoots forty percent in the fourth. He just dries up.
But he's a monster for the first three quarters. He
may be the best player in the NBA quarters one, two,
and three. And last night he had thirty two in
the first three quarters. You know what he had in
the fourth. Nothing. So here's my two takeaways. Their chemistry

(01:26:16):
is great and it matters. And they got to figure
out this Anthony Davis thing because for years everybody said
he's kind of soft. This is what people complained about.
Where is he Where's the dog? Playoffs are about dog,
It's about veteran players getting in your face, Kevin Garnett,
Dwayne Wade, tough guys, Lebron Kawhi getting in your face.

(01:26:38):
A lot of guys get they just don't have dogging him.
They're talented, they don't got dogging him. This league. Peppinhead Dog,
Michael let dog Bird had it, Magic had it the Lake,
Kobe had it that it matters. Four games against the
Clippers this year. Who listen to this Anthony Davis's fourth quarters,
and remember this is a top five offensive player in

(01:26:58):
the league, this great talent. I mean you watched last night.
When he's in his game, it's lights out. You can't
stop him. Clippers fourth quarter, four games Anthony Davis zero four,
four and two points. The hell that is a problem.
This is why I don't consider him a championship team. Now.

(01:27:19):
It worked last night because Lou Williams didn't play best
six man in the league, Montrez Harold's size nineteen a game.
He didn't play. The Lakers bench outscored the Clippers last night.
It's not the way it's gonna work if they keep playing.
But I will say this, wildly fun. Lebron, who struggled early,

(01:27:40):
was tremendous late, he had that shoddy missed follow up shot.
He had a couple of huge assists. Lebron did something
last night that was really impressive. Seventeenth year in the NBA.
Two huge defensive stops. In fact, on it it's either
the last or the second and last possession. He stopped
Kawai and Paul George seventeenth year in the NBA. Even

(01:28:02):
great players, after about year twelve in the NBA, they
stopped playing D like D somebody else's problem. Once you got,
like MVPs a lot of money, it's like I get
I gave you twelve years of defense. I'm done play
even the great guys. I mean, Kobe was a nine
time All Defense last four years. He was done with
the defense. He had his cash, he had his titles,
he had his legacy. I'm kind of done with a

(01:28:23):
defensive end. Lebron last night was huge late on the
defensive end. So and it was a great knight of NBA.
Now now now I'm frustrated. Now this is getting out
of hand. Zion Williamson was on a minute's restriction. This
isn't like he's not a football player on concussion protocol

(01:28:45):
he's not a baseball pitcher off Tommy John surgery. Zion
was on a minute restriction. This is bulldoze parenting by
the Pelicans. We talked about this yesterday. There's a term
called helicopter parenting, when parents hover over their kids to
make sure they're safe. The new term is bulldoze pairenting,
where you just clear a path for your kids. Pelicans,

(01:29:07):
you need to win these games. You're not in the
playoffs yet you've got to win these games. You had
the game. Zion wasn't on the floor at the end.
Put him in for two minutes. It's not dealing with
concussion protocol. He's not a Tommy John surgery case. Put
him in the game. Alvin Gentry, his coach, protecting him, disgusted.

(01:29:29):
We wish we could have played him down in the stretch,
but you know, he had used the minutes that was
that was given to us. So you know, that's just
you know, that's the way it is. I mean, we
weren't going to stick him back out there. Uh you
know how medical people said that we played him in
in the minutes that was allowed us to play him.

(01:29:53):
Was his conditioning that bad because he had he had
let me look this up real quick. Didn't he have
like fifteen points in thirt ten minutes? Not that bad
of shape. Maybe it was thirteen points in fifteen minutes.
Either way, not that bad of shape. Here's the other thing.
Brandon Ingram is the all star for this team. Zion's
the MVP. When he was on the floor. This year,

(01:30:13):
they're plus eleven. He's off their minus four. That is
a monster swing. He's the MVP. He has a physicality
that Brandon Ingram does not have. They're just certain people.
Joy talked about it yesterday, walk into the room and
kind of own it. Zion walks into the Room's like damn.
Even in NBA circles, it doesn't look like anybody else.
There is a physical presence with him that is so crucial.

(01:30:36):
Put him back in the game. They need the wins.
Here's the other thing. So Zion off a real injury.
Now it's just because he's not in perfect shape. And
for the record, I don't think everybody's anybody's in great
shape yet. So Zion in college he got hurt, remember
at Duke, he was out a month. He came back
for the ACC tournament. I looked this up this morning.

(01:30:56):
You know how many minutes he played in the first
three games back, thirty six, thirty five and forty MVP
of the ACC Tourney, you got him stopping at fifteen
because he's got a little belly. Is anybody in grade shape? Now?
I mean, seriously, this isn't Tommy John, This isn't concucion protocol.

(01:31:17):
Just put him in for the last ninety seconds. You
had that game and gave it away to Utah. You know,
Utah's in the playoffs. They're gonna be fine. Pelicans need
those ws and again this is this, this bulldozing parenting,
this protecting zion Listen, NBA travel stinks. Oh wait, there
is no NBA travel. Like I get the NBA travel.

(01:31:41):
Veteran players don't want to play back to backs. Totally
get it. Eighty two games Winter, I get it. Guy plays.
You know, if you're a star in the NBA in
play seventy two, I'm good with it. People did that
forever until they gave it a nickname load management. But
the worst part of the NBA the travel. There is
no travel. You play, go on a StairMaster, go to

(01:32:04):
your room, get a catered meal. This is personal coaching,
shooting coaches, personal training. Listen, I'm not asking you to
play Zion thirty nine, but fifteen. How do you get
in shape? You play your way into shape. He's good.
We can go up to twenty minutes. We're good. And
last night that was your game, Pelicans, that was your game.

(01:32:27):
This isn't Steven Strassburg, this isn't picture limits. I get
picture limits. I do. I get young pitcher Strasburg. Let's
watch his arm, let's not go to two hundred innings.
I get those. I get people concussion protocol like, let
you know, one more week. I get all that stuff.
I get if he had an ACL tear, I get it.
This is because, yeah, he needs a few more days

(01:32:48):
on the treadmill. Last night, Ida said, what's the clock?
Say two fifteen? Boom back in Because when he's on
the floor he may not be the All Star yet
on this team, he's the MVP. Longtime NBA guy, thoughts
on what he watched last night and what's going to
happen going forward. Going forward, a lot of games scheduled
starting about now, a lot of people playing NBA basketball.

(01:33:10):
It's back. It looked great. Be sure to catch live
editions of The Herd weekdays in noon Easter nine am
Pacific on Fox Sports Radio FS one and the iHeartRadio app.
Summer is here in full swing, perfect time for a
do it yourself project. Thanks to Lows. They're helping spruce
up my house with a cocktail bar outside lovel little

(01:33:31):
vodka Soda in the evenings. Check it out Lows dot com.
Show us your transformations hashtag Lows Gold. Sam Amick has
been covering the NBA for a long time senior NBA
writer for The Athletic, and he is now joining us
via the Coward Global Satellite Network. So overall last night

(01:33:51):
I joined I we're talking about this. You don't have
the NBA, the daunting NBA travel so players were not
players look fresh. I thought the energy was fantastic. The
television production was good. But I will say this, in
the NBA you often hear players like on back to
backs they're shot. They're I mean, I'm tired when I

(01:34:12):
fly across country once I'm shot for four days. I
thought the energy last night, I thought the energy was
really good. Sam, I agree, Colin, it was good energy.
I mean, listen, look at the logistics of their lifestyles
right now. And while I know the guys are certainly
certainly the family guys are missing kids and wives and
all those things, their daily life is pretty straightforward right now.

(01:34:35):
You hoop, you might fish, you play some golf, you relax,
you're getting your rest, You're not jumping on a plane.
And I think it is going to have a ripple
effect on the quality of play. And I'm with you.
It did not look like four months of rust in
the kind of way that we thought we might see. Yeah, yeah,
you know, the Clippers have been how can I say this,
less than urgent with their regular seasoned sensibilities. You worry

(01:35:00):
about them now having to flip a switch, for sure.
I mean now the compound of fact, I think of
that approach, and it's tough to draw a through line
between the way they handled things months ago and now.
But now there are things that are outside of their control.
Right So Lou Williams has his excused absence and then
his infamous Magic City trip that creates a setback when

(01:35:23):
it comes to his involvement. Mantres harold things of that nature,
and they've had, you know, zoobots, a lot of guys
on that squad not available. They still I don't think,
are planning on having Lou and Trez for Saturday's game
against the Pelicans. So now, whether it's the Clippers or
any of these other teams, we're going to start to
see how quickly these types of things can impact. You know,

(01:35:46):
what happens in the standings, what happens on the court,
because everything is coming at you so fast and furious.
If I Anthony Davis shoots something like fifty three percent
for the Lakers in the first three quarters, in the
fourth he disappeared again last night against the Clippers, and
the fourth he's had zero points, two points, four points,
four points. I think he's a huge talent. They're not

(01:36:08):
winning a championship. If you our whole lives watching the NBA,
the finals are about the fourth quarter. You can stink
for long stretches. If I'm the Lakers, how am I
not concern with that? I'm not seeing enough of a
trend here to worry. I hear you, for sure, he's
got to be strong in the fourth and with Lebron
in particular, I wonder you know where that chemistry is

(01:36:29):
going to go. We saw in the Miami chapter, right
how he had to go through that relationship stuff with
d Wade in terms of you know, who's going to
get the torch at what time? And Chris Bosh also
and these guys all in all, Colin I think had
melded incredibly well considering they haven't been together that long
and a D was dominant early. Lebron had an off night,

(01:36:52):
but he closed pretty damn strong, and he talked afterwards
with you know, our buddy Chris Haynes about about switching
his shoes and maybe that, but I think that stuff
gets worked out, and for them that was a big
w even though it comes with an undermanned clip squad,
they get the evening of the season series and now
you know certainly they're not going to lose that number

(01:37:12):
one spot. And all in all, I mean a D
man on both ends of the floor, he's dominant. You know,
I was saying, it's it's not I get baseball pitchers
on innings limits. I get it. I think everybody does. Strasburg.
That was a little contentious years ago, but I do
Zion got hurt in college, took a month off, came

(01:37:32):
back and played thirty six, thirty eight and forty minutes
and was the MVP of the ACC tourney. His body's
pretty darn durable. Fifteen minute limit, Man, that seems rigid.
Like last night, I thought I thought they outplayed Utah
for most of the game. I really thought they were
gonna win, and then they went dry offensively late. Were
you a shock that didn't put him back in for

(01:37:54):
ninety seconds to two minutes offensively? I was now full disclosure.
I was shocked. I then tried to do what we
do and pursue some of the intel the information. Ended
up writing about it today, and I wonder for you,
real quick if it changes your view at all, if
you take into account this is what I'm told as
the Pelicans reasoning for the choice that they made. This

(01:38:15):
was his first five on five action with contact since
he left for a family situation thirteen days off of work.
The thing that shocked me apparently he's only played five
on five four times since the March eleventh shut down.
On top of that, I think, big picture, Colin, I
am sensing the level of concern about his body, combined

(01:38:36):
with the torque and how athletic he is, and the
idea generally the Pelicans appear to be. You know, edgy
and skittish about just anything like the Menisca's tear happening
again and having too much too fast after that kind
of a layoff. That's what drove the decision. But on
the flip side, did I watch the game and think, man,
just give me two or three more minutes? Of course,

(01:38:57):
that is what I thought. The last final thought. Quick
he was a minus sixteen. So while he was super
efficient offensively, you know, some other folks who I talked
to were checking me on the defensive side and saying,
you know, he was getting a lot of blowboys that
weren't helping them. Yeah, he looked sad on the bench.
He didn't dead man, he was not. And then he
says the right things, and I do wonder you remember

(01:39:19):
back in the Last Dance Chronicled disc with Michael Jordan
in the early years, you know, when he wanted to go,
you know, just full tilt as a rookie. The dynamic
between Zion and the Pelicans, I think it's worth watching.
How patient is he going to be with this level
of prudence on behalf of the organization. Yeah, no, I
mean we saw the Strasburg situation. It's like I get it.

(01:39:39):
Big picture, macro stuff understandable. You know. I was saying
that as I watched it last night. It's fairly clear
between the MLASS, the UFC, NBA that bubbles work. You
know they do this is this is what is working.
Are you surprised? I was? I was. I don't know

(01:40:00):
if remarkable is the word. The quality of play, the esthetics.
I was kind of blown away by it. I really,
I really was blown away. Last night, Joy and I
both were like, that was way better than I thought
it would be. Your thoughts, right, I'm with you. I
wondered about the player's mentalities and competing after months of

(01:40:22):
being told to stay six feet away from other people,
does that change your level of intensity? I wondered about
the no fans component. Now, is it a little corny
to have the zoom fans up on the screen? You
know it is, but it's something and there is an energy.
And I also think the commentating crew I and Eagle
and Stampangundi in particular, did a nice job taking the
air out of that bubble. Because on television, when you

(01:40:45):
tell the audience, yeah, this is weird, but try to
rock with us, try to have fun. I think that
helped they all. In all, it was very well done
and Adam Silver and his crew do deserve praise. Now,
they'd be the first ones to tell you is a
long ways from doing a victory lap, got a very
long ways to go, but certainly, so far, so good. Yeah,
I'm just watching it now again. Really impressed all these

(01:41:07):
leagues by the way. I mean, you're living in it.
I'm living in it. Everybody's got the mass, the bubble,
the distancing to pull off a pro sports league like
the MLS, UFC goes to an island at the time.
I'm there's a you know, nobody likes presidents, prime ministers
anymore in America. You know, the social media would criticize everybody.
I think our commissioners are better than we think. I
think they're pretty good. Yeah, I hear you. I mean

(01:41:29):
baseball is in a tough spot that one. I don't
envy Manfred when it comes to the length of time
that they are trying to pull off with their season.
That makes it apples and oranges when you compare it
to basketball and hockey. You know, I hope the training
camp goes well in the NFL, And you know, I
hear you. You know, I know Adam Silver more than
the others certainly, and I think the thing to drill

(01:41:51):
down on with him that I will say every day
of the week is that his very genuine connection with
the player community and the fact that he does when
he goes to better I care about them as humans.
Sounds corny, but it's real. And I think that impacts
the way that he legislates within the league, and we're
seeing the product of that in a good way right now. Yeah.
And I think also that it's a two way street.
The players know he cares, they can feel he cares,

(01:42:15):
and so you you know, you don't want to let
down people that you think have your back. And I
think I think players, I think players will mostly stand
the bubble and be good, be good, you know, bubble
citizens for a while because I think they know how
hard it's been for Adam Silver, and there's a certain
responsibility for people that defend you to defend them and
make them make their life easier. So samam amit great stuff.

(01:42:36):
Good luck when you take off of the bubble here
in about two weeks. Thank you, Colin, be a good brother. Yeah,
it's uh yeah, I mean, Adam Silver cares about This
is why you got to care. When Roger Goodell came
out and said, you know what, I'm no longer going
to worry about what the president tweets. I care about you.
The value in that is, of course, the more I

(01:42:56):
care about my friends, or my bosses or my children.
They feel it and they wouldn't want to disappoint me.
And so Adam Silver's like, this has been really hard,
and I've got your back. And I think players are
policing other players, sam bro this is he's got our back.
He wants us to have a season because if the
NBA doesn't work, all the leverage goes back to the owners.

(01:43:19):
They can rip up the CBA and start over. You
do not want that. So Silver's got the players back.
I think it's I think it's very important for veteran
NBA players to be like guys, I've been in this
league a long time. Not every commissioner's like this. Not
every commissioner's got our back. When somebody has yours, you
don't want to disappoint him. And I think that's powerful.

(01:43:41):
Say hello to Casper the Sleep Company. Outrageously comfortable, not
outrageously prized. Casper dot com code heard one hundred dollars
off mattresses. Here's Joey Taylor the news. No, no, turn
on the news. This is the Herdline News. Well, it's
go time for Cam Newton and the Patriots. To a
picture this morning as he drove up to Gillette Stadium

(01:44:04):
to begin training camp with his new team, it's very
Uh is he in the passenger side? What is that? Well,
someone's taking a picture of him. I think it would
be kind of hard to get that self the angle.
So they don't practice inside the stadium. They've got facilities
right around the corner. Right. I've not been there, so
I'm not sure, but this is clearly where he was
headed with a caption what's popping? Now? What does that mean?

(01:44:27):
It's like, what's up? So? When when did that get
a trendy? What's popping? It's been around for a while.
So if I walked up to you on the street
now it was like, hey, I'm popping, you'd be You'd
totally get it. I mean I would get what you
were trying to say. But what would I'd be saying? Um,
you'd be saying that, You'd be saying what you want
to say, Like, well, actually, no, that's kind of different

(01:44:48):
because so if you say, like, what's popping, it's like,
what's up? Do you think my friends would respect me
more if I use that term. I don't know. We're
friends to know if they would know what that is.
I'd just like to say, if you were to walk
up to me and say I'm popping, that would mean
like things are good? Yes, all right, so you got it.
I'm gonna put that one away, store that one in
the need to be cool for him? What were you?

(01:45:09):
What did you you wore out? Oh? It's uh, something
was lit. You wore that out pretty quickly. I use LIT.
I mean breakfast, lunch, and dinner. I lit the place
up with LIT. And then my daughter finally said, dad
over lit. Yeah, Well, I mean like we have a
collective that I have moved on from LIT. Let's no
longer pop him good? Yeah, talk about right there. Three

(01:45:32):
days ago, Gronk tweeted its go time, and Brady responded, indeed,
it is Robert. So all the guys are getting ready
for training camp and are very excited. So Joe Burrow
officially signed his rookie contracts with the Bengals today. It's
reportedly a four year, thirty six million dollar deal, including
a twenty three point nine million dollars signing mode for
Joe Burrow. And now that Burrow has put pen to paper,

(01:45:54):
I love these pictures. By the way, I feel like
it's like those are the pictures, like your mom gets frames,
like you gotta put that up in the house. She's
gonna be proud. How proud would you be of your kid?
If that's it? Incredible accomplishment. Man. His father, Jimmy, had
a little joke and said, we finally got him out
of our basement, which is kind of funny because he
literally has been living in his parent's basement, not because

(01:46:14):
he had to, obviously, but like he had to because
we're in a pandemic. Okay, so from this point forward,
nice stuff about Joe Burrow. I'm rooting for him. I
want to see him do well. I don't want to
see him gat his butt kicked well well, I mean,
I always want to see these kids win. But what
happens is the media is ridiculous and starts comparing him
to Tom Brady and Lebron and I that's too. I
don't think you're rooting against you. You're just trying to

(01:46:37):
keep some perspective on his career. I think Joe Burrow
is much better than you think. I think he's a
B plus quarterback prospect. If I said, you know, Joyce Smart,
she was a B plus student, I'm not saying you're
a D student. B plus student get you into college. Well,
I mean, you know that was a really good student
actually in high school. So he's a B plus prospect.
Everybody's got him as Andrew Luck the second I'm like, no,

(01:46:59):
you have a particular affinity to Andrew Luck, so that's obviously.
I think he's better than you think he is. I
do think he's going to struggle this year, as I
think that most rookies in bad situations, which he is
in obviously because he went number one overall to the
worst team in the league, are going to come into
and then they're up against it from not being able
to be in the city where he's going to play.

(01:47:20):
They're just now reporting a training camp. I agree with
you that popping it's gonna make me regret this already.
The NBA returned last night with two exciting games. Virtual
fans cheered from the screen surrounding the courts. I wasn't
sure how I was going to feel about it. When
I first saw it, I was like, Uh, After watching
it last night, I think I love it. I think

(01:47:40):
it's cute. I think it's great. It's not distracting. How
do you do it? How would I get up there?
I do think you just I'm sure there's just a
way that you go sign up. I would do it.
I want to do this so badly. I'm pretty sure
he could probably make that happen. Can I get on there?
I mean, I don't know. I don't I don't make
those decisions, but I'm Charles Barker's a friend of mine.
You are calling Cowherd. I think we could probably. But
I used to work at a company and they get

(01:48:02):
very well that on t oh No, TNT likes me.
I promote them all the TNT does excellent work. So yeah,
I'm sure you can get on The TNC brought Charles
and I don't know Ernie very well. I think i've
met him. He's a gracious person. I don't know Shack,
but I know as agent Perry Rogers very well. Perry
call Shack. I want to be on TNT's up that.
I don't think Shack sets us up but I think

(01:48:23):
I'm pretty sure someone here listening can figure out how
to get you on. Kenny. Kenny, you're the You're the
grown up on that set. You make things happen. I
thought it was cool though, And Chris Bosh even doing
the virtual crowd where players game, he was, he was
in the virtual crowd. Yeah, Chris Bosh one, Yes, I
love How did you? Umazing? Is it? Do we show
it here? Yeah? You get hold on? It's so great.

(01:48:45):
How do you do that? It's so great? There were
other NBA stars in the bubble that we're able to
tend and get a front row seat to the action
as well. So if you're not playing, you can go
socially distanced watch the game. So it's something extra to
which I'm sure they like doing as well. I want
to be a very Jewel fan. We'll make that happen.
You were, well, you were a virtual fan with Nick
Wright last night. You guys went Instagram Instagram live and

(01:49:07):
uh you tweeted out a little picture. I mean that
those are just two guys having a great night. We
had so much fun last night. He is the most
unique broadcast d I've ever I watched your Instagram lives,
you guys did you guys did a good job. He
was smoking cigars, but I saw, I saw, and uh
we also had a well. Nick actually sent this to
me this morning and he said I should use this.
Um you know those face spots. Oh God. One of

(01:49:29):
our our fans, Jack shared this, uh, and it's nightmare fuel.
So I thought, I thought, since I had to see it,
you guys should have to see it too. Him. You
know what he looks like a little bit one of
our great presidents? Uh? Nick? Or you? Well? Okay? Yeah,
so Nick is actually the one of them. You think
he looks like Abraham Lincoln? Nick looks like Abraham Lincoln?

(01:49:50):
He does. I can't deal with this. Doesn't he look
like Abraham Lincoln? I don't know, but this this picture
is just sun it's shouldn't you know what I look like?
You know what I look like? Right there? Nick? Get
the in the gray shirt? Okay, do you know what
I look like? Right there? And Colin is called Okay,
so the hairs have stayed the same, So the faces
have swapped. The hair's the same. So Nick is on
the left in the gray shirt and Colin is on
the right with his hair that he has now and

(01:50:13):
in the black shirt, who do you look like a ventriloquist? Look,
I just looked like somebody who is a performer. That
is freaky how people do that. It's really the starving. Yeah,
but I thought we should tell me I'm wrong on
that he looks like Abe Lincoln. He does look like
Abe Lincoln. He's honest, honest and uh, and I don't

(01:50:34):
I'm not quite sure what I would place your your
profession as in that picture, but it's something. But you
guys had a good time last night, and it was
a great night for the NBA. It really was. Uh
joy ted over the news. Well that's the news, and
thanks for stopping by the herd line. Hey, I forgot,
I can't. I can't keep up with all these spots.
Did I read Man Escaped yet? I thought I already

(01:50:57):
read Man Escaped? Yeah, I read the sixty and I
read that one too. Listen this show. We got so
many ads because we're so unbelievable. We got Abe Lincoln
on the show. When you when you never bring Abe
Lincoln on the show, people want to be in your show,
all right? Coming up next Tomorrow's Headlines Today with j MC,

(01:51:18):
I Love that segment. All right, NBA last night at
my house cocktails have a bar made by Lows transforming
my house. They get all the accessories or glasses are
really nice. The barcart very nice. Go to lows dot com.
Check it out. Show us your transformations hashtag Low's Goals.
It's the Herd. Be sure to catch live editions of
The Herd weekdays and noon Easter ninety em Pacific. Great

(01:51:41):
to have you in. The show is flown by Rick Bucher,
Chris Webber, Rob Parker, Sam Amick of the Athletic and
my buddy Jason McIntyre joins us every Friday at this time.
He's a former newspaper guy who is in the headline
business and he has these bizarre predictions on headlines and
they are accurate on any reasonable prediction. And uh, look,

(01:52:05):
he's got a haircut. He looks very profut. I did. Yeah,
My wife gave me the haircut. She's very proud of
her work. I'm very thankful Colin, But I got a haircut.
How much fun was the NBA last night? Oh my god, amazing.
I watched so I watched the second game with a
former Division one basketball player socially distanced, of course, and
he was going on about how Anthony Davis should be

(01:52:28):
getting talked about more like Anthony Davis was incredible last night,
thirty two points, Colin, I don't see how people are
still picking the Clippers after watching that. We'll get into it,
but go ahead, all right, we call it tomorrow's headlines today.
What's the headline gonna be after the Celtics Bucks tonight?
A lot of great games this weekend, starting with Celtics Bucks.

(01:52:50):
Now you know I've picked the Celtics earlier this year
to get to the finals. The headline will be get
bucked up, Colin. I got some bad news for Boston fans.
Kemba Walker is gonna be on a minute's restriction. Dude, Colin.
The guy sat out for four months and he comes
back and his knees not healthy. That's a bad sign.

(01:53:11):
And I don't know if you followed the Gordon Hayward situation,
he and his wife are having a kid. He eventually
will be leaving the bubble. We don't know if that's
in the first round the second round of the playoffs.
So I'm off the Celtics bandwagon, and I don't feel
great about them tonight against the Bucks. Quick word on Milwaukee.
We've talked about the pressure on this Jannis squad. They
will be without Eric Bledsoe and Pat Connaughton, two of

(01:53:33):
their rotational guys who had COVID and they're still recuperating.
But there's a lot of pressure on this Bucks team,
and I think Jannis comes out to make a statement tonight.
Good stuff, all right. Tomorrow's headlines today, what's it gonna be?
Out of the Pelicans Clippers Saturday? Boy, I was shocked.
The Pelicans blew that game last night. Obviously a devastating

(01:53:54):
loss if they want to make the playoffs. But the
focus is the Clippers and the headline will be bubble trouble. Colin, Listen,
you cannot have watched that game last night and thought, oh,
everything's fine. They didn't have Lou Williams, they didn't have
Montrez Harold. The Clippers look so disjointed. Okay, they're playing
guys yo. Kim Noah had not played an NBA game

(01:54:15):
in fifteen months. They look lost on the court, and
guys like Landry Shammon are getting passes. Somebody joked to
me over text message, the third best Lakers player last
night was Landry Shammon. He was like negative nineteen. I mean,
he was so bad. And the Clippers Reggie Jackson, he
just got there like a couple of months before the

(01:54:36):
COVID hit. He played thirty four minutes. That the most
he'd ever played with the Clippers. Like, this is not
gonna work. Doc Rivers has a lot of work to
do with this team. All he can hope is that
Alvin Gentry bungles the Zion situation again. I mean, come on,
we could do ten minutes on what on earth Alvin
Gentry was doing sitting Zion. At the end, there just

(01:54:56):
a brutal loss for the Pelicans. They need it bad.
I think the Pelicans get the win over the Clippers.
By the way, Reggie Jackson was ninth on the Clippers
and minutes he led the Clippers last night. So that's
that was the difference of the game. Lou Williams is
a dead eye shooter. He didn't play tomorrow's headlines today.
What's the headline going to be after the Raptors Lakers Saturday?

(01:55:17):
Oh boys. So the last time the Lakers beat the Clippers,
they came out and lost. It was to the Brooklyn
Nets don't have a great feeling about this one. The
headline will be saved from extinction. Now, I've been public
enemy number one in Toronto because I bashed the Raptors
in the offseason. His video from the radio show went
viral and these guys have been killing me on my

(01:55:39):
Instagram account. I'm all in on the Raptors right now. Colin.
I'm telling you plus seven hundred Toronto to win the East.
It's worth a couple couple shekels if you want to
throw some pizza money Toronto, Colin's second best record in
the East. We know Boston has the Kemba situation in
Gordon Hayward seventy six ers. I like what they're doing,
but it remains to be seen if it'll work. And

(01:56:01):
Toronto did beat the Bucks last year. Now, they had
Kawhi Leonard obviously, but this is a frisky Raptors team.
Nick Nurse one of the best coaches in the league. Yeah,
and now you're gonna yell at me for talking about Toronto. No, No,
I think I think they haven't. First of all, they
have a ton of length. Second of all, they've got
a nice mix. They've got a couple of young players
Van Vleet and say Okam And to your point, I

(01:56:25):
think they play really hard and well together. Now they've
beaten up mostly they've been great against crappy Eastern teams.
They've been really average against better teams, and I think
that's because when you play the better teams to get
a bucket, Guy Kawhi is gone. It's just those are
close games you need to start. But I do think
they're a really well run franchise right now, and I
totally were started down. Yeah, And last word on the

(01:56:47):
Raptors real quick. This is a team that did a
box in one on Steph Curry in the finals, and
they went a full core press earlier this year and
came back from down thirty to win a game. I
just love that creativity. Shout out to the Raptors. Tomorrow's
headlines Today headline after the Bucks Rockets Sunday. I know
you love to bash the Houston Rockets, your buddy Russell Westbrook.

(01:57:11):
I can't wait till he visits us out in Manhattan Beach. However,
the headline will be dear Fear the Beard. I'm all
in shockingly on James Harden. Colin We've seen him wear
down the last three seasons. Right, this is a guy
who annually leads the NBA in dribbles right time of possession,
he just holds the ball, and then comes the playoffs,

(01:57:33):
he's tired and worn down and he can't do it.
He just had four months off. James harden colin amazing
stat leads the NBA in thirty point games, forty point games,
and fifty point games this season. He's really an awesome guy,
super talented, and with this rest, I think the Rockets
could be could be the most dangerous team in the bubble.

(01:57:53):
I like them to take down the Bucks this weekend. Yeah. No,
I do think the bubble has benefits for one or
two teams, and I think Houston's probably the single biggest
beneficiary of the bubble. That they're not gonna they have
ball centric guard play and they're just not gonna they
don't have to travel, they don't play back the backs
not gonna have to travel. And I think they're so

(01:58:14):
uniquely built. I was telling Nick Wright and I were
talking about this last night and Instagram. They're almost like
Georgia Tech football. You don't not that Georgia Tech has
the best players. But they play such an unconventional style
that if you have to play Georgia Tech in the
middle of your football schedule, you can't practice what they do.
You don't have anybody in your you don't have a
quarterback who runs their offense. So I do think they're

(01:58:34):
just so unconventional they can knock people off. It's like
teams facing Lamar Jackson for the first time. That's right, whoa.
You can't simulate this speed in practice, But once you've
seen him two and three times, as we saw with
the Cleveland Browns last year, you kind of get his number.
You can slow him down a little bit. Yeah. So
I gotta ask you this because the Jets and Jamal
Adams trade happens Saturday, and you are somebody that has

(01:58:57):
great affection and great emotional support. They're your emotional support underdog,
the New York Jets. So what did you make of
the Jamal Adams trade. Well, I went on Joy's podcast
and we talked about this at length. Listen, this is
a great move for the Jets. If I had told
you colin two weeks ago that the Jets are gonna
get two first round picks and a third round pick

(01:59:19):
for Jamal Adams and Bradley McDougall a pretty good player.
You'd have been like done deal, Like where do I
sign up for that? And then they do it and
all these people are like, oh the Jets, what are
you doing? Like it's just so weird the hate for
the Jets there is out there. But I will just
end with this. I just I can't be on board
with somebody who doesn't want to be there. If you're

(01:59:39):
gonna bash the coach and bash the team and say
you want to be traded, just get out of town.
We don't need you on the team. You're with us
or you're against us. And Jamal Adams clearly didn't want
to be there, and the Jets shipped him out of town,
and I think it's for the better. Yeah, McDougall's actually
a legitimate safety. He'll come in, he'll start it. Ane player. Yeah,
he's a nice player. He'll come in and start for
a year. They maybe they move off him, but they

(01:59:59):
got something in return. So the Jets are gonna have
a huge win. Yeah, they're gonna have two first next
year and two first the next two years. First quick note, listen,
I know Russell Wilson's your guy. He has two new
starting offensive linemen on the right side. If some reason
Russell Wilson gets hurt, I know he never does. That
pick that the Jets have that's gonna be twenty or whatever,

(02:00:20):
it could suddenly vault up into the top ten. We
don't know about quarterback injuries. Russell Wilson has avoided it,
but he's got two new offensive linemen starters. Just keep
an eye on the Seahawks. By the way, what do
you make of some of the NFL players left tackle
for the Tampa Bay Buccaneers may have opted out. What
do you make of all that stuff? That's huge for
Tom Brady. So my favorite NFL stat and I'm writing
this for Fox sports dot com. When you look at

(02:00:43):
forty three year old quarterbacks in the NFL, which Tom
Brady will be, none of them have ever played more
than six games. And now Brady could be having a
left tackle who's a rookie from Iowa who's played four
career games at left tackle. That's it. I mean, listen,
you're gonna have to have Gronk over there helping to
block on every possession. There are some concerns with Tampa

(02:01:03):
Bay for Short College. That's a big story. Yeah, so
far a handful of NFL players have opted out. I
do expect, you know, Oh yeah, well, I mean, let's
be honest. What if you have guaranteed money, you got
that guaranteed money, what do you what's the why would
you risk it? And if you're playing in the trenches column,
we know the offensive lineman three hundred and thirty pounds,

(02:01:24):
they're more at risk if they're you know, overweight and obese.
And I know they're in shape, but technically they are obese.
It can be a little risky for the offensive and
defensive lineman. But like you said, look at the players
that got guaranteed money this year. Yeah, it's something you
could see some opt outs. Yeah, Jason mcintar, good seeing anybody.
Have a nice weekend, all right, you too. Lives right

(02:01:45):
down the street from me. We just go jogging in
Manhattan Beach, just you know, popping, just looking just popping,
looking really cool. Hey, Manuel suit is popping. There you go.
I apologize, this is my I'm responsible for this. See,
I am better off not being cool and acknowledging that

(02:02:08):
and embracing it. The minute I try to be a
little cool. It's off putting for you, not for me,
but you like me better when I like anyone being
their authentic self. So you're not cool. You just have
your own I shouldn't version of cool. Yeah I should.
I'm not really that cool, way cooler than me, Yeah
I'm not. I say something. Not being cool is not

(02:02:32):
the worst thing in the world. Haven not bad. Hygiene
is worse, definitely way worse. Um yeah that's way worse. Yeah,
there's a lot of things way worse. It's way worse.
And not being cool summers in full swing. Perfect time.
Join me for a perfect do it yourself project. Go
to lows dot com the Barkhart really nice accessories, put

(02:02:54):
it together quickly, show us your transformations hashtag it lows Alls.
We'll see you Monday.

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Colin Cowherd

Jason McIntyre

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