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00:00Good job by the Cavaliers last night, thanks in part, and actually basically thanks only to Donovan Mitchell and James
00:08Harden,
00:08who basically did all the work in the fourth quarter for the Wine and Gold to get them an all
00:13-important win.
00:14As they inch closer to that number three seed, going to get into just how much things shift as far
00:25as the Eastern Conference.
00:26Kate Cunningham, of course, the collapsed lung for the Detroit Pistons.
00:30Awful news there, but the Boston Celtics with a chance to take over the Eastern Conference, number one seed there,
00:37and I don't know, maybe that flushes the strategy here down the drain for the Cavaliers of just locking themselves
00:43into that number four spot
00:45so they can potentially set up a second-round matchup with the Pistons.
00:50Worst-case scenario, Nick, they could end up with a second-round matchup against the Boston Celtics,
00:56and I don't think anyone wants that.
00:58Listen, you're going to have to play—I don't really care who you play.
01:02If it's the Toronto Raptors in round one, you're going to have to play a more sound 48 minutes than
01:08what they just played last night.
01:10Like, you can't bank on Harden and Mitchell, and you heard Atkinson there in the open saying that it's nice
01:16to have two superstars
01:18that can bail you out, talking about Harden and Mitchell.
01:21Right.
01:21Yeah, but I need a little bit more of a balance showing, especially against teams that you're supposed to beat.
01:27You're supposed to beat the Pelicans.
01:29If you get the Toronto Raptors in round one, that should be a little bit of a tune-up series
01:35for the Cavaliers,
01:36especially because they haven't been healthy, and that might be a little bit of working on the fly,
01:41adjusting on the fly, coaching on the fly for Kenny Atkinson as he tries to maneuver all of these pieces
01:47and parts together.
01:49So, you know, for me, like, to look at the playoff seating and brackets and trying to pick which side
01:55that I want the Cavs to come out on,
01:57it's like, man, I want to see them start playing better basketball night in and night out for an entire
02:0248-minute time frame
02:04because there was a time last night they were down 10, 12 points.
02:07I was like, are you really about to go down to the Pelicans like this?
02:10And thankfully, Mitchell and Harden saved the day at the end, but we've seen that in the NBA postseason too
02:17many times with these Cavaliers, Daryl,
02:19where they just expect to get bailed out by Donovan Mitchell.
02:22Donovan Mitchell could give you 40 in the playoffs, and you still lose those games,
02:27so you need a much more balanced effort from everybody.
02:30It kind of reminded me of the good old days there with LeBron James where you just give him the
02:35ball in the fourth quarter
02:36and everyone just gets out of the way, and LeBron does pretty much everything by himself.
02:43And I'm not saying that's what happened last night, but it sure felt like that.
02:48Kenny Atkinson had said, you know, after the game, hey, it's nice having two superstars,
02:52obviously referring to his backcourt of Mitchell and Harden.
02:58Yeah, I thought we had four superstars.
03:00Whatever happened to that?
03:02Yeah, I don't know.
03:03Are we still calling it the core four?
03:05I mean, you did swap one piece for a, you know, is it still the core four?
03:11Where is Evan Mobley factor into this?
03:14Now that Ramona Shelburne's reporting that the Milwaukee Bucks would like him in a Giannis,
03:19is that a fellow superstar?
03:21Well, I mean, that's really the only player I think that the Bucks would really want anyway
03:28in return for a potential Giannis trading.
03:31It's like either Mobley or Vijay Edgecombe, who's on the rookie that's playing pretty well for the 76ers.
03:37That's what the Milwaukee Bucks have on their wish list for Giannis this summer.
03:44So, Mobley, probably time to wake up.
03:47Well, the Giannis talk is starting to heat up again.
03:49Again, I would say even more so for the Cavs.
03:53It felt like going into the trade deadline, the Cavs were on the periphery of that particular conversation
03:59as maybe like a dark horse to sneak in and get him before they ultimately decided just to go the
04:06rest of the way standing pat.
04:08But, you know, he is 31 years old.
04:12We had, you know, filling in with Ken on the morning show Friday, we had Danny Cunningham on,
04:18and he made a very good point about Giannis being 31 years old, consistently dealing with those soft tissue injuries.
04:26Do you really want to give up Evan Mobley and shorten your window?
04:33Now, the argument, it is, hey, the window's the window, and when it's, you know, cracked open,
04:39you've got to be all in to try and cash in on that window.
04:43But, you know, again, Giannis will be 31 years old here and, you know, been dealing with all these injuries
04:50in recent years.
04:53Whereas, knock on wood, for the most part, you know, Mobley's been able to stay healthy,
04:59he hasn't had that, again, knock on wood, that major, major injury to keep him out massive amounts of seasons,
05:08like we unfortunately have seen with Giannis here in recent years.
05:12But Giannis knows what it takes to get it done in the playoffs.
05:16He has an NBA championship on the resume.
05:19But I think that depending on what happens in April and May, and I'm not going to say June,
05:26even though I still have the Cavs making the NBA Finals,
05:33I'm not as confident as I was, I don't know, like a week or two after the James Harden trade.
05:39You don't sound very enthusiastic about that pick today.
05:42Yeah, I'm not, well, I'm feeling about as good as, I'm feeling as good about that prediction as I am
05:47about my bracket right now.
05:48So, a little nervous when it comes to the Cavaliers.
05:53Joe Gabriel, Cavs.com, going to join us at 11.
05:56So, don't miss that and get an inside look at what's going on with the wine and gold.
06:00And, you know, can they get healthy?
06:03Like, that's another element to this whole thing.
06:06I was quick, I'll admit, to vote off the island there, the core four, Jared Allen.
06:12I thought he'd be the first player to go.
06:16And the longer he's out, man, the more you really understand his value to this team.
06:26And I will admit, maybe, you know, I love Jared Allen.
06:30I think he's a great player.
06:32I just, you know, it's not a big man's game these days.
06:35It's a run up and down the floor and chuck a bunch of threes.
06:38And hopefully you make more than the team you're playing that night.
06:42And that's really what the game is.
06:44But I think they miss him right now, do they not?
06:47Like, I think if you had Jared Allen against the Pelicans, you're probably not sweating out a fourth quarter in
06:53late March.
06:55Like, here we are again, you know, having Mitchell and Harden kind of overexert themselves in the usage department.
07:00Just because you're needing them to be Superman and Batman combined.
07:06Because that's all you got.
07:09You're not getting big time contributions from Mobley.
07:12And when Harden and Allen were healthy together, it at least looked like they found something.
07:19So I think they miss J.A. right now.
07:21But, dude, you look at this.
07:22You got 11 games to figure this out.
07:25Like, I would not want to be Kenny Atkinson this week.
07:28And we're about eight days away, nine days away.
07:32Wasn't it Donovan Mitchell last year that said we could go 82-0 and nobody would care?
07:37It's about how we play in April.
07:39We're eight days away from April.
07:42How are the Cavaliers playing?
07:44Well, they've won three in a row.
07:45That's the good news.
07:46The NBA is very much a wins and losses business.
07:49And they're finding ways to win these games.
07:51But when you're actually sitting down and watching them with your own two eyes, you see plenty of room for
07:57improvement.
07:57And you see plenty of those same effort concerns that we've had in the postseason with this group over the
08:04last few seasons.
08:05So I really hope they use this.
08:07You know, they've got one of those mini West Coast trips.
08:09And we hear all the time that teams will use that.
08:13You know, March 30th in Utah.
08:15March 31 in L.A.
08:16April 2nd in Golden State.
08:19Teams will use those stretches to get away and grow together as a collective.
08:23And it's really about team chemistry and team morale.
08:26Well, a great time for that as the playoffs are going to be starting the third week in April.
08:31And right now the Cavs are at least winning games.
08:33But I wouldn't really say they're playing great basketball.
08:36No, they're not.
08:37The other night they almost up chucked a 29-point lead, able to hang on down the stretch.
08:43James Harden had said after the game in his interview with Serena Winters that, hey, yeah, great to get out
08:48of here with a win.
08:49But it wasn't good enough.
08:51And he kind of called out Mobley, too.
08:52He's like, yeah, Mobley played great.
08:53He could add more.
08:55And I like that attitude from James.
08:57And maybe that's some of, you know, he had that ball hog label when he got traded.
09:01But maybe some of that could be a good thing for some of these younger players on the roster.
09:06Like, Mobley had it going.
09:08And then he just shies away.
09:10So don't shy away.
09:11No, be assertive.
09:13Assert yourself.
09:14Put the ball in the basket.
09:15Be the Evan Mobley that we want you to be.
09:18And it kind of felt like Harden just called him out with Serena on the floor where he's like, yeah,
09:22felt like he could have had more than the 29 points that he had.
09:26Yeah, I think that Evan's caught between a rock and a hard place at times as well because he's not
09:33the number one.
09:34And he probably would never be the number one on a team with Donovan Mitchell and James Harden.
09:40There's only number one.
09:42There's only one basketball.
09:43Right.
09:44And so I think that that might be something he continues to struggle with as far as, you know, trying
09:51to pick his spots when he needs to assert himself on the floor.
09:56Right.
09:56When he needs to take over the game.
09:59Because the nice thing is you have four players that are capable of taking over a game.
10:05Jared Allen can take over a game.
10:07Mobley can take over a game.
10:08We know Harden and Mitchell both can take over the game.
10:10Right.
10:10But it's finding that balance of, all right, it's my night.
10:16I got this.
10:17And I think that that's something that Mobley continues to struggle with.
10:22I know it's the game.
10:24I've talked about this quite a bit, how much I just hate watching Evan Mobley shoot three-pointers.
10:32I, again, admit I'm a little old school.
10:35I don't want my seven-footers on the perimeter shooting threes.
10:38I understand the philosophy behind it, but that doesn't mean that I have to like it.
10:43And I don't like it.
10:45I just, I am a believer.
10:47You let the big guys go do what they do, and that's dominate inside.
10:53And you can force, by doing that, you can force other teams to play your style of basketball.
11:00Instead of, you just get into these consistent, constant, three-point shootouts that we see every day.
11:06It feels like they're having Mobley do it.
11:08It's like the old thing, everybody else is doing it, so we got to do it.
11:12Right.
11:12Where you want them to say, no, we've got two seven-footers.
11:16That's our strength.
11:17You play our style.
11:19Right.
11:19Not we're conforming to what the other 29 NBA clubs are doing.
11:23And among my concerns with the Cavaliers is the fact that I don't want it to be a situation
11:33where it ends up being a hot or not type of night from beyond the three-point arc.
11:41You see that so many times.
11:43And we've seen that in a couple losses for the Cavaliers.
11:45The reason why they ultimately ended up losing the game was they got outshot behind the arc.
11:51It just wasn't falling from the perimeter.
11:54And that happens.
11:55But you don't want that just to be the end-all, be-all to how your offense runs.
12:02If the three is falling, you're in good shape.
12:04If not, because you've got to come off that at times.
12:06Like, if it's not falling, someone's got to step up and say, hey, guys, three-point ball's not falling right
12:11now.
12:12Let's go inside.
12:13You know, we've got the advantage.
12:15Let's use it instead of just running up and down the floor, chucking the threes the way you see them
12:21doing that.
12:21To that point, I want to give you one thing.
12:23And when the Harden trade – remember when the Harden trade went down, there was about 48 hours worth of
12:29speculation
12:30that it was close and that they were really talking to the Clippers and that a Harden for Garland trade
12:36could happen.
12:37When the name Harden Cavs started to come along and percolate and we were thinking about what that meant for
12:44the playoff picture
12:45and for the playoff race, one game popped into my mind, Daryl, and it was the 2018 Western Conference Finals
12:52Game 7
12:53when the Houston Rockets and James Harden missed 27 consecutive threes and they just kept shooting them.
13:01And it was like you haven't made – you've shot 26 threes in a row and you haven't made one.
13:06Don't shoot a 27th.
13:08They shot a 27th and the Warriors ultimately win that game to face our Cavs in what would become the
13:15last Cavs-Warriors NBA Finals
13:18in the four straight trips to the finals with LeBron here.
13:22That game played in my head – like you need somebody to be a leader in that moment and say,
13:28hey, the threes aren't falling.
13:29We have to try something different.
13:31And the Cavs are showing you that on nights that they're shooting a lot of threes and they're not going
13:35in,
13:36they let this happen.
13:37They would let 27 consecutive missed three-pointers happen, unfortunately.