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00:00SPN Tone!
00:02Oh, I did Goldwinner!
00:03Hey!
00:05Just like that.
00:07Four minutes left to go. I thought they were going to pack it in.
00:10I really thought they were going to pack it in.
00:12Yeah, down, down, what were they down?
00:14They were down by nine at one point.
00:16Right there, but just over three minutes left to go.
00:18I really thought they were going to pack it in.
00:20And I noticed, like, as you watch the game, I'm like, gosh,
00:24like I went back today and I'm like, boy, people left.
00:27People left the game.
00:28I think they thought that that game was going to be done.
00:30You saw some empty seats in the lower bowl you didn't see in the first three
00:33and a half quarters.
00:36I got to tell you, I'm trying not to be too hyperbolic here.
00:39It's one of the most inspiring wins I've ever seen, this team.
00:42It's certainly the most inspiring win I've seen this team as a group, as they are.
00:47And that includes through Sexton and Garland and everything.
00:52It really is.
00:53I was so – four minutes left to go,
00:57I thought today was going to be a horrible day.
00:58I thought today was going to be like a Browns Monday after like a blowout loss
01:02or a come from behind loss or something like that.
01:04I really thought today was going to be a really bad day.
01:09And today, how they came from behind, they refused to lose that game.
01:15I was following along with some things that you said
01:17and a lot of other Cavs people were saying I think was all right as rain.
01:21But there was a lot that happened yesterday that like if we're still –
01:25if anybody still has the pills to call them soft, they just haven't watched them.
01:30Yeah, didn't that feel like yesterday was the death of –
01:33That was it.
01:33The Cavs as they've gone against two of the best defenses in the NBA
01:37in absolute physical wars.
01:39And now you have the other team complaining that we're too physical.
01:41The death of the soft label happened last night.
01:46What they showed – the Jalen Tyson stuff that happened last night,
01:49I was like, I couldn't – I was like, man, we're about to have Malice in the pizza box here.
01:53Like this was – it got pretty wild there.
01:54And you need a dog like that.
01:55You need a guy that can be a little bit dangerous and isn't going to back down from people.
01:59So I was fine with that.
02:01I was fine.
02:02I understand.
02:02That dog got three minutes and Kenny said, that's enough.
02:05You did exactly what I need you to do and we will not see you again today.
02:09And that's okay.
02:10He's still a young player, obviously,
02:11and maybe we're not looking for a lot of points and a lot of output from him right now.
02:16Maybe we'll talk about that another time in his career.
02:18But I liked what I saw.
02:20You're right about that, what you just said about Kenny.
02:22But regardless, the soft label's dead and you said it before the show,
02:26so I'm going to let you say it about waking up the city.
02:28Yeah.
02:28Because I think it happened last night.
02:29I really think it happened.
02:30Well, we were going into these games, especially after they win two at home,
02:34and I'm like, I'm just not feeling that the city is buying in.
02:37And look, team has to earn that.
02:39Yeah.
02:39The team has to earn that.
02:40I can only do the pom-poms and say, hey, it's the playoffs.
02:43Let's go.
02:44Guys, wake up.
02:45It's the playoffs.
02:46You have the fourth or fifth best championship odds throughout the whole process.
02:49Like, come on, get excited.
02:50But in the end, that's not organic, right?
02:52The city has to feel it.
02:54And part of that is this team being able to show that they can do it.
02:59And what did everybody say yesterday?
03:00Prove it on the road.
03:01Prove it on the road.
03:02And what did they do yesterday?
03:04Was it the way any of us would have designed it?
03:07No.
03:08But be that as it may, the way it went down, I actually think might have the intended effect
03:14more so than that they have just won by 20.
03:17Because they showed that they can battle.
03:19I think you're right.
03:20All that's thrown at them, the adversity, everything.
03:23You are so right.
03:23Because they have been, and I've accused them of it before, and it's, they've been more
03:28of a front-running team.
03:29When things are good, they're really, really good.
03:30And when things are bad, it's like, man, are they ever going to win another basketball
03:33game again?
03:34And for them to battle in that game, again, down by 15 at one point, down by nine, late
03:40in that basketball game.
03:42Again, I thought, when they're down by 15, I'm like, okay, there can still be a run.
03:45When they're down by nine late, I'm going, man, this is not going well.
03:49This is not going well, and tomorrow's going to be a bad day, and for different guys to
03:54hit shots, to bring them back, to tie that game, to see J.B. Bickerstaff losing his mind
04:01at the end of it, where I thought, maybe, I'm like, well, I guess it's the end of regulation.
04:04He can do whatever he wants.
04:05He's out there at the logo, screaming at the refs.
04:08I'm telling you right now, we are going to be rolling on 97.1, the ticket, up in Detroit.
04:12They're going to be bitching up a storm about the refs.
04:15I guarantee that.
04:16You guarantee that.
04:17It'll be the whole show, yeah.
04:18Cunningham was getting, he's already listening to it.
04:21Oh, I'm listening right now.
04:22All right, I don't want to send anybody over there.
04:23We will play it for you later, I promise.
04:25We will play it for you guys later, because we're excited right now.
04:28I'm not going to do a radio guy dummy thing and say that the series is over and things
04:33like that, but you know what I said yesterday, and I stand by it.
04:35I do believe that this is the end.
04:37I do believe that they close them out tomorrow.
04:39I do believe those things.
04:41I just, I don't need to make any radio dummy grandiose statements about it.
04:44You guys just know where I stand about it, because they did exactly
04:47what they needed to do.
04:48It wasn't going to be easy.
04:50They continued to battle back.
04:51They fought through the adversity of it.
04:53They fought through a tough environment.
04:55They fought through a young team trying to pronounce their presence with authority here.
05:00It was a very, very, very big win.
05:03And again, as a Cavs fan, I think that everybody should look at it as maybe the most inspiring
05:07win that they've had in a very long time.
05:10I'm still trying to gauge when it was, because I don't want to say crazy, too many crazy
05:14things, but obviously you can tell I'm just, I'm so excited about it, watching him, and
05:20I'm emotionally excited about it, because it's like, man, you guys are getting it at the
05:24right time.
05:25You're getting it when you needed to get it.
05:27It's not like we're overblowing a win in March.
05:30We're not overblowing a win by the end of the season.
05:32This is getting ready to go to the Eastern Conference Finals.
05:36It's right there in front of you, and they tried to, I thought you were going to roll
05:40over and die, and you went out, and you took it.
05:43You played like men.
05:44You killed a nasty label about yourself all in one night.
05:47All in one night.
05:48It was a fantastic evening for Cavs fans.
05:50We'll have some of it later, but the inside of the NBA crew seemed like you won them over,
05:53which they were barely even watching your series up to this point.
05:57A lot of the national pods have totally ignored the Cavs, and they were like me.
06:01When it was two games to nothing, they thought, well, that's it.
06:03This series is over.
06:04In those first two games, I was sure to make sure to highlight who was playing well for
06:10the Cavs in the first two games of the series, and I couldn't find an answer.
06:14I literally couldn't find a player that was playing well, and that is what is so awesome
06:18about yesterday is it wasn't like Donovan finally in overtime finally was able to piece
06:25some things together, but it was not a great game for him, but so many guys, so many guys
06:31were giving all sorts of effort, whether it was the big James Harden, the monster James
06:37Harden game, playing 43 minutes and stuffing the box score, the stat sheet like he did.
06:43Max Strews just creating havoc and hitting the threes and then in overtime making that
06:50crazy swipe that somehow timed it up perfectly to get Kate Cunningham.
06:56It was wild, and that was a huge preserver of the game in OT.
07:00Evan Mobley, finally, finally, five years in.
07:04Did you not see a nasty streak out of Evan Mobley during moments of that game?
07:07Shut up.
07:08He got raked across the ice.
07:09I want to know, because I think you've tried to talk some people into it.
07:15You said like, hey, you admitted you tried to wave the pom-poms here.
07:18I mean, you did.
07:18You just did.
07:20I want to know if they got the trust back from the fans, because I think that there are
07:26ball-knowing fans, and we've had a lot of fun with that, guys who are basketball-first
07:29guys, guys like you, guys like BP and Pepper Pike, guys like the Mayor of Hoops, let's be
07:35honest here, they're Clevelanders, but they're basketball-first fans, and that's great.
07:38That's cool.
07:39But there's a lot of the general fans, and I think, you know, going from what Donovan
07:43said last year and the way that it was acted during the regular season, like nobody's going
07:48to care, it was a heartbreaking loss, it was a terrible way to lose a series, even though
07:53that, you know, I didn't think they played soft.
07:55I just think it was a surprising way when you went over 60 games to lose like that.
08:01I think they got a lot of people's trust back last night.
08:05I really, really do.
08:06I hope I'm right.
08:07I hope I'm right, because if they couldn't have got it back last night, like, this is
08:11a tough league.
08:12I think it's proven that this is not the same type of basketball that we saw when it was
08:17the super team era.
08:19It's going to be still tough on Friday.
08:21I don't think they're just going to roll them over and kill them.
08:23I think it's going to be a battle on Friday.
08:24I think it's going to be a fight.
08:26I think that when you take on the Knicks, I do think they're going to win on Friday, and
08:29I think when you take on the Knicks, it's going to be a hell of a battle.
08:32The Knicks are playing an unbelievable brand of basketball.
08:36It's going to be tough.
08:37But I think that what they did last night was they got that trust back.
08:42And they got to hold on to it, but I think that they got that trust back with the general
08:46fan.
08:46I hope I'm right, because when you saw it last night, I don't know how I could be wrong.
08:51I don't know how I could be wrong.
08:53Because you go back.
08:54Go back and watch it.
08:55Go back and see it.
08:56People leave the lower bowl.
08:58They think the Pistons have won.
09:00This game's late.
09:01They're Eastern time zone as well.
09:04They got work to go to in the morning and things like that.
09:06You got people sitting in the lower, lower bowls, the really expensive seats.
09:09They got businesses to run in the morning.
09:11Like, they left.
09:12And you came back, tied it up, nearly won it in regulation, and then in the overtime period,
09:19you just proved that you were the more experienced, better overall team.
09:24And I think that that should have bought a lot of trust last night with this fan base.
09:28That has been, and rightfully so, a lot of the year, has been turned off by this team.
09:35I fought it.
09:36I fought it in the second half.
09:38You know where we've stood with the season.
09:40There's been a lot of times where they haven't been able to go out and get that trust back
09:43with this fan base.
09:44I thought they did it last night.
09:45Might sound crazy.
09:46I wonder if the Toronto series, going seven, which nobody wanted, I didn't want, that was
09:51terrible, that was embarrassing, all those things.
09:53We could say, but them going seven in that series, did that prepare them to win a game
09:57like this?
09:59Because that defensive pressure, I mean, the Detroit, I think there's a razor-thin margin
10:06between these two teams.
10:07Like, I think we're more talented, but then they make up for it with their youth and athleticism.
10:12And they have the best player on the floor.
10:13They do have the best player on the floor.
10:14They do have the best player on the floor.
10:15And so, because of that, like, it's a narrow, thin margin.
10:20And I do wonder, if they just beat Toronto in five games, are they adequately prepared
10:26to handle what Detroit has thrown at them?
10:29Because I, listen, man, you can have good shooting.
10:32You can have good basketball players.
10:34I think that that's inspiring to the general fan last night.
10:37I really do.
10:372-1-6-4-7-4-0-92.
10:39I want to know from you guys.
10:40We want to know from you, did the trust return last night in that win?
10:44Did they wake up the city the way that Lima's wondering about this morning?
10:48And frankly, I have to wonder as well.
10:50And then defensively, like, Cade can get wherever he wants against almost anybody, and Max included.
10:55Like, he can get very easy shots against Max.
10:58The thing is, he has to get the shot off.
11:00And Max does bother him in a way that the other guys really don't.
11:05And I know there are guys with better stats against Cade in this series.
11:08Like, Wade, again, just really has been an animal.
11:11People keep wondering why Wade's playing.
11:13Well, it's because offensively, they've been terrible with Wade.
11:16But defensively, they've been on another level.
11:18And so they have to kind of figure out, possession by possession, whether or not it makes sense to have
11:24Wade in there.
11:24But Max also has a hand in bothering Cade Cunningham, which I think is a big part of why he's
11:31wearing down over the course of some of these games.
11:33Well, I'm starting to learn that.
11:35And I know that he only turned it over two times in Game 4.
11:37I'm starting to learn that I'm going to have to live with the turnovers with James Harden.
11:40I mean, some of that stuff's just going to have to happen.
11:42And I know that they didn't start off the game the way they wanted to.
11:44But I think that I'm going to have to learn from it.
11:46But you have Max Struess.
11:48There's very little room for error.
11:50You have to deal with it with James.
11:51You cannot live with it with a guy like Max Struess who's coming in off the bench.
11:55But, I mean, again, 30-plus minutes last night and being able to do what he did.
11:59And you had the guys from it, not just making the jokes about his personal looks,
12:03which he's a very good-looking man.
12:04And we'll play that later on in the show, later on in the show,
12:08just exactly how good he was and how good he's been for this basketball team.
12:12And he took a lot of hell last year.
12:14I mean, when you send that text and you go 0 for 9 or whatever it was from the floor
12:17after you send that text about going to work, I mean, there's going to be a lot of criticism there.
12:21And I think he's answering it in this series.
12:23And I think for a general Cavs fan, again, I don't know how you can't be anything but proud.
12:28I really don't.
12:30It's finally seeming to click together how we dream this to be.
12:35And I don't know how much further it's going to – I know I penciled him into the finals.
12:39I'm trying to hold myself back from saying some really silly things.
12:43So maybe I'm not fully there myself.
12:45Maybe I have to examine myself.
12:47But I don't know how you can watch that and be anything but proud as a Cavs fan,
12:51proud as a Cleveland fan to see them come from behind the way they did last night.
12:55How many times have you felt that way about this Cavs team and in this iteration,
12:59especially in the playoffs?
12:59I've got to admit, it's been rare.
13:01The Miami series, that was it.
13:03They've been fun.
13:05They've been likable.
13:06But you really haven't trusted them.
13:07You've trusted Donovan.
13:08You've trusted Donovan.
13:10But you really haven't trusted them the way that I think that we saw last night
13:13because there's just so many guys here that I didn't think was a sieve.
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