00:01Pistons post-mortem.
00:02Good morning, 97.1.
00:04Jim Costa, John Jansen, Heather Park.
00:07Got Gov and Greg behind the glass.
00:10Good morning!
00:11Good morning, John.
00:11How are you?
00:12Been better.
00:13Yeah?
00:13A little sleep-deprived.
00:14Heather?
00:15Oh, I'm great.
00:17Yeah.
00:17I got lots of sleep.
00:18Good for you.
00:19Mm-hmm.
00:20Not watching the game last night, did you?
00:22Oh, I watched some of it.
00:23Oh, yeah?
00:23I didn't watch all of it.
00:25Oh.
00:25Well, I have a question that we'll ask you as well at about 6.35.
00:30Yeah.
00:30But, yeah, it was not a great end to the weekend.
00:35The weekend started off magnificent.
00:38Yeah.
00:38Friday night, I happened to be in that state.
00:41I got a chance to, you know, troll the Cavs fans just a little bit.
00:47And then Sunday, oh, man.
00:50Hey, at least the Guardians are going to be in town.
00:54Hey, it's baseball season now.
00:55I'm sure that made people feel better.
00:59As awesome as Friday night was, because that felt like a culture win.
01:03Everybody's contributing to bench, season on the line, on the road.
01:08You see what you're made of, only to turn around in game seven and get run off the court.
01:15Mm-hmm.
01:16Biggest game in almost 20 years for the Pistons.
01:19And that place.
01:21No show.
01:22Ghost town by the end.
01:25It just was so disappointing.
01:27What happened?
01:30What did we just witness?
01:32Because here's the thing.
01:34Losing the game.
01:35Okay.
01:37Right?
01:37It goes game seven.
01:39Right.
01:40It's a coin toss.
01:41Yeah.
01:42Everyone's going to be bummed if you lose.
01:43But, okay.
01:45To a degree, you could handle losing.
01:48Losing that way?
01:49Yeah.
01:50No showing completely.
01:52John, it's also one thing to tell me, Pistons could have a cold shooting night.
01:55And we've watched them enough this year.
01:56We know that was, you know, some of the issues offensively.
01:59They didn't play defense from the jump.
02:03No.
02:03Cleveland's getting to the hoop.
02:04They're getting offensive boards.
02:06They're getting to the free throw line because they're going downhill.
02:09Because the Pistons aren't offering enough resistance.
02:11And that combination can't happen for this team.
02:15If you aren't playing high-level defense, you're not getting the freebies in transition.
02:19You're not staying in the game.
02:21You're not giving yourself a chance.
02:23For them to go down that way, for a team that built themselves on effort and defense, to
02:28go down with no effort and no defense, what the hell was that?
02:32I thought when Assar Thompson had the block in the first quarter, I thought, this is going
02:38to be the trigger, right?
02:40Because they had started off, they missed a bunch of easy bunnies.
02:43They missed some shots.
02:44Nothing was falling.
02:45But they were still within, you know, three or four.
02:48And Assar had the block, his only block of the game.
02:52I thought, this is good.
02:54Because you were there.
02:56What was the response in the stadium when he had that block?
03:00It's awesome.
03:01Yeah.
03:01You could feel everything coming across the TV.
03:05Like, I thought, this is the moment where, hey, it just launches them.
03:10And it took them four or five minutes to get going.
03:13But it just didn't.
03:14There was nothing that they ever put.
03:17It felt like there was never a back-to-back play.
03:20Yes.
03:20They couldn't go on any runs.
03:23And the defense has been the thing that creates runs.
03:27The crowd.
03:28Look, I've been to five playoff games in this postseason.
03:33Yeah.
03:34Clearly, the game sevens were the best atmosphere.
03:37And pregame introductions, this was the best one.
03:41The crowd was on their feet.
03:43They were ready to erupt.
03:45When you start the game cold, you don't get the crowd into the game.
03:50When you never really mount a true comeback, the crowd stays out of the game.
03:55Yeah.
03:56There's a moment, a play, a pop.
03:58You didn't get the crowd into it.
04:00You let your fans down.
04:03So, I mean, I'll ask you guys the question.
04:06I'll ask our listeners the question.
04:072-4-8-5-3-9-97-97.
04:10What the hell happened last night?
04:11Why?
04:12Why did that happen?
04:15I'm going to start with effort and defense.
04:17The things that this team was built on, they didn't have enough of last night.
04:21You want to go beyond that?
04:23I'd point to Tobias Harris.
04:25That secondary offense.
04:26At halftime, Cade was the only piston in double figures.
04:30Far from his finest hour, but he was the only piston in double figures.
04:33By comparison, Cleveland had four.
04:36Allen and Mobley in the front court.
04:39Mitchell and Merrill in the back court.
04:41They had four guys in double figures at half.
04:44It was Cade and looks over one shoulder, looks over other shoulder.
04:48I don't know.
04:50And for Unk, playoff tee, games 5, 6, and 7 shot 25% from the floor,
04:571 of 11 from 3, and averaged 8 points per game.
05:01I'm sorry.
05:02That's your number two score.
05:03That's your safety blanket.
05:04That's the get a tough bucket and keep me in the game guy.
05:06And he was a no-show.
05:08He didn't make a shot in game 7.
05:09That was what I said on Friday.
05:14He's not built for that.
05:15What we saw for, what, seven or eight games where he was stepping up,
05:20he was that number two scorer, like that was a hell of a run for him.
05:24And, hey, we applauded him.
05:26We appreciated it.
05:27It was great.
05:28That's not a fair expectation of him throughout the entirety of the playoffs.
05:35It's just not who he is.
05:37And so to rely on that, you couldn't, Jalen Durant,
05:41you couldn't rely on postseason Jalen Durant because even on Friday night,
05:46and I sent you guys this in my prep, I'm like, you know, on Friday night,
05:50you're looking at his numbers and you're looking at how he's making some moves,
05:5315 and 11.
05:54That was his best performance.
05:56But if we lowered the bar so far in the postseason that we're like,
06:01hey, that's our all-star.
06:04Great job.
06:06It kind of feels like we had lowered the bar and he cleared that low bar
06:11and we celebrated it.
06:12Right.
06:13It was his best game of the series and it still wasn't what he did in the regular season.
06:17And, look, I know today and probably this week we're going to spend time
06:21talking about this pivotal offseason for the Pistons.
06:24Ain't no way that guy deserves a max.
06:26Especially if they're trying to get some other things done around him.
06:28They have to be very careful about how much money they're willing to commit to him.
06:31Right, right.
06:32And so when you say the defense wasn't there and we talk about Tobias Harris
06:39and we talk about anybody else, even Cade, why I think it wasn't there for Cade last night
06:46and he was not last night.
06:49Now, he's a superstar.
06:51So when I say this, I'm not taking a shot at him.
06:54I'm not saying he doesn't have that dog in him.
06:56He certainly does.
06:58But that was your star player that in large part was a no-show.
07:03Why was that?
07:04I think there was, for 14 games in the postseason, there was so much expected of him.
07:11The entire team was tired.
07:14Weak legs.
07:15And you saw that by some of the bunnies that were missed coming up short.
07:18I think for Cade, he ran out of gas.
07:22His tank was empty last night.
07:24Look, Pistons talked a lot of talk about we're going to wear you down and grind you down
07:29and the way we play.
07:30And they were the team that had no juice.
07:32And for Cade specifically, look, if people call in and they want to offer up criticism,
07:38by all means, I've told you where I am on this.
07:41I'm giving him a total pass.
07:43I made my position very clear during this series.
07:46Right.
07:47You can't expect him every game in the postseason.
07:51At some point, he's going to have a game like that.
07:56And who do you have to step up in his stead?
07:59Right.
08:00And you were hoping it would be Tobias Harris.
08:04It wasn't him.
08:05You were hoping Jalen Dern.
08:06It wasn't him.
08:07You were hoping.
08:08And, you know, in a little bit, you know, you got a chance to see Duncan Robinson, but
08:13you can't count on that.
08:15You certainly can't count on Assar Thompson to score.
08:18Your lead scorer is Dennis Jenkins, a guy that started the season in the G League.
08:23I'm sorry.
08:24You just don't have enough.
08:26Look, as a team, they shot 35%.
08:28You go through individuals.
08:29Harris, 0 of 6.
08:31Cade, 5 of 16.
08:33Assar, 2 of 7.
08:34Dennis, 4 of 12.
08:36Like, those are guys in your starting lineup.
08:37Yeah.
08:38And offensive issues had been well documented.
08:41My point is, if they had played their brand of defense, Cleveland doesn't have, was it
08:4664 points at the half?
08:48You stay in striking distance, and you probably get another 5 to 10 off of turnovers.
08:54Yeah.
08:54And suddenly, it's manageable.
08:55You keep the crowd in the game.
08:57But when you don't defend, especially this team with their issues offensively, when you
09:01don't defend, you don't have a chance.
09:04That thing was a laugher.
09:05It was 26 points for the fourth quarter.
09:08Got text coming in.
09:10We'll take phone calls.
09:10248-539-9797.
09:14We failed to save America from flop-a-thon.
09:18Now, it's Harden Brunson in a totally unwatchable Eastern Conference Finals.
09:23The Finals start tonight.
09:26Right?
09:26The NBA Finals?
09:28The NBA Finals start tonight.
09:29It's San Antonio and OKC.
09:32Look, if you live in New York, if you live in Cleveland, enjoy the ECF.
09:36Everybody else in America is going to loathe to watch Harden and Brunson try to outflop
09:41one another for 48 minutes.
09:44Basketball fans lost last night.
09:46Mm-hmm.
09:47Can I ask you guys one question?
09:48I wanted to do it earlier.
09:50Couldn't get it in.
09:50You were talking about game six and then how it was so great and then it turned into this.
09:55Yeah.
09:55Are you guys glad you didn't do a show between game six and seven?
10:00Yes or no?
10:01Yes.
10:02No.
10:03I wish we would have had that opportunity.
10:05I'm not.
10:07Because it was just a total false read.
10:09I mean, I think he would have pushed the button.
10:10I think I would have made a fool of myself.
10:12Absolutely.
10:13Which is why I say, yeah, I wanted to do that.
10:16You imagine I come in and I'm talking about locks and we're coming home.
10:21Oh, man.
10:21I can feel it in my bones.
10:23I didn't look at social media.
10:25I just, you know, on the weekend especially, I'm not that in tune to social media.
10:30Was there any posts that you look back and you say, I probably shouldn't have posted that?
10:36You were...
10:36I feel good about my record.
10:38You can go back through and scroll and peruse.
10:39You didn't go back and delete anything?
10:41No, I don't do that.
10:42Like, people don't cut stuff.
10:43I mean, it's fine.
10:44It's all fair game.
10:44It's how I felt at the time.
10:45No regrettable posts.
10:47You said it was a culture win.
10:48On Friday night, yeah.
10:50I agree with you.
10:50And then you questioned where was the culture last night.
10:52No kidding.
10:53You give up 125 points.
10:56I think it was 99 through three quarters.
10:59Yeah.
11:00What?
11:01This team?
11:02With everything on the line?
11:06It was a tough one.
11:07That's for sure.
11:08We got phone calls to get to.
11:10Pistons for most of the show.
11:11It's 97.1.
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