00:00Daryl, how many words can I rattle off?
00:01Pathetic, inexcusable, ashamed.
00:05Honestly, these are the moments that I get excited for.
00:07I love to react to games.
00:08I don't even want to talk for the next hour.
00:10Well, how much alliteration can we do here?
00:12Cavs collapse.
00:14Cavs catastrophe.
00:17Cavs blow it.
00:19Kenny Atkinson asleep at the wheel.
00:22James Harden should be put out to pasture.
00:26Donovan Mitchell only plays three quarters.
00:30I just, I'm stunned.
00:32They were up 22 points with around eight minutes to go in the ballgame.
00:37And I'm sitting there going through this scenario.
00:39Okay, you split at the Garden.
00:41You're going to come home.
00:43I'm making plans for the NBA Finals because they were making it look so easy.
00:47And then I don't know what the hell Kenny Atkinson was doing down the stretch.
00:51Jalen Brunson absolutely took a blowtorch to James Harden.
00:56Made like seven straight shots over Harden.
01:00Who plays no defense whatsoever.
01:02Harden's offense basically vanished down the stretch.
01:06The Cavalier offense in its entirety vanished down the stretch.
01:10You're counting on Evan Mobley to chuck threes.
01:14And look, I know he's what?
01:16A 35, 38% three-point shooter.
01:19But I'm sorry.
01:20Your offense down the stretch can't be counting on Evan Mobley to be hitting.
01:24I don't care how wide open the three-pointers are.
01:26There's a reason that Evan Mobley is being left open.
01:30Okay?
01:30If he hits it, they'll tip their cap and that's that.
01:33But Brunson down the stretch.
01:35Like, that's a killer.
01:36That's a killer.
01:37And we saw no killer instinct once again from the Cavaliers.
01:41Quite frankly, I don't know how you recover from this.
01:43Because I don't think you're winning Thursday night.
01:45I think you're coming home 0-2.
01:46And then you really have to flip this series on its head both Saturday and Monday night on your home
01:52floor.
01:52The sunny side up to this whole thing is, okay, you did build a 22-point lead on the road.
01:59But part of the reason you built a 22-point lead, Jake, is because the Knicks kept chucking threes and
02:05kept bricking them.
02:06Well, that was until about eight minutes to go in the game.
02:09And then they started getting hot behind the arc.
02:11Just an absolute catastrophic collapse from the Cavaliers as they blow game one of the Eastern Conference Finals.
02:18Leading by 22 with just over eight minutes to play.
02:21And you lose in overtime.
02:22You basically sleptwalk the final six minutes of the game and overtime.
02:27No sense of urgency whatsoever.
02:29Once again, the ills of this Cavalier team, the things that drive us the craziest about this Cavalier team,
02:39reared their ugly heads once again down the stretch.
02:43I don't get it.
02:45I don't understand why they continue to be so consistently inconsistent as a basketball team.
02:53I mean, it's so infuriating from a point of, I actually watched this team play three quarters tonight where I
02:58went,
03:00everybody's pretty much like they came out with game seven intensity, Daryl.
03:03They were there like three quarters of this basketball game.
03:05Everything we have pounded the table for all postseason long, wake up, play the game.
03:10Don't start the series in game three.
03:11Don't wait for this thing to get to game seven to finally wake up.
03:14It was all right there.
03:15I mean, I could have walked around and patted each individual Cav who was on the floor,
03:19basically on the back for how well they had played up to that point.
03:22James Harden wasn't shooting well.
03:23Offense was still working around him.
03:25Donovan was on a scorcher.
03:26Evan Mobley was two sides of the basketball, a great player.
03:30Jared Allen was battling.
03:31They were hitting shots.
03:33And then in the fourth quarter, they turned into the exact same team that we've watched play
03:36multiple times throughout these playoffs.
03:38I mean, I have not seen it happen to them like this in a single night.
03:42I've watched them come out flat for a night.
03:44I've watched them be electric for a night.
03:46I have not watched a turnaround where you played 36 minutes of basketball,
03:49where you look like the most dominant team I've ever seen to then go play.
03:53I mean, you know, 17 minutes of basketball with overtime where it just looked like you had nothing.
03:58And I don't even know that tonight is a night I can look at it and go,
04:02it's your fault individually.
04:05The entire team collapses a hole.
04:08There was not a single player that was pulling you out of that.
04:10Donovan started the game 10 of 15 and ended up ending it 12 of 23.
04:15Like he shot two for eight down the stretch.
04:17Couldn't hit a shot.
04:18Evan Mobley couldn't hit shots down the stretch.
04:20Took eight threes tonight.
04:21That's not going to win you basketball games.
04:23Evan cannot shoot eight threes.
04:24If he shoots like four threes, you're in a good spot.
04:26If he's hitting them, sure, take a few more.
04:29But two for eight is not the number.
04:30Like the only cab I think I can actually give any positivity towards tonight is Dean Wade.
04:35For crying out loud, Dean Wade.
04:37Because he shot three of five for three and shut down Brunson for three quarters
04:40before he got yanked off the floor.
04:43And to the point on Kenny Atkinson, because Jalen Brunson,
04:47one, you tip your cap.
04:48Because he hit some really difficult shots down the stretch.
04:51But two, Kenny's also just sitting there watching James get abused over and over and over again on the switch.
04:59That is a time for a timeout.
05:00That is a time for a defensive adjustment.
05:02Or, and I know you don't want to do this down the stretch while the offense doesn't look good,
05:06but there might be a point like every other coach goes through in the NBA
05:09with Jalen Duren and Asar Thompson both in that series against Detroit,
05:14even JB making this change.
05:15That guy can't be out there.
05:16I got to get him off the floor.
05:18I have to throw them a different look.
05:20Like, that's a point where I look at it and go, I can't have James Harden out there.
05:23I might need Max Struess because I can at least trust him to defend.
05:25Who are you picking on then?
05:26Yeah, and I also trust Max Struess to shoot a three.
05:30And someone also needs to tell Kenny Atkinson,
05:32you are allowed to use timeouts with less than 30 seconds to go in a game
05:38to advance the ball over into the front court.
05:42Again, drives me crazy.
05:44The Cavaliers, by the way, outscored in the fourth quarter in overtime.
05:48Brunson, by the way, 17 of his points came down the stretch in the fourth quarter in overtime.
05:54Cavaliers outscored in the fourth quarter in overtime by a combined 46-21.
06:0346-21.
06:04Now, that's after they came out with a snail's pace.
06:08They only scored 16 points in that first quarter, but then they just took a blowtorch to the Knicks there
06:14in the second and the third quarter, erupting for 67 points.
06:21But again, down the stretch, absolutely obliterated.
06:2414-3 in overtime.
06:2632-18 in the fourth quarter.
06:28Brunson, again, going off for 17 down the stretch.
06:32He ended up with 38 on the night.
06:34Just absolute stone-cold killer.
06:37And here's the thing.
06:38Like, and this is even recognizing, okay, the Cavs got over the hump.
06:45They got to the conference finals, all that, right?
06:47They still don't have a stone-cold killer on this team.
06:50Donovan Mitchell's not a stone-cold killer.
06:52Never has been, never will be.
06:55Evan Mobley's not a stone-cold killer.
06:57Never has been, probably never will be.
07:00Jared Allen's not a stone-cold killer.
07:02Never has been, will never be.
07:05Okay?
07:05James Harden used to be a stone-cold killer.
07:07James Harden used to be, except for when you get to the playoffs.
07:10Okay?
07:11And he became a massive liability.
07:13And we're going to sit here this offseason and talk about him getting a two-year contract
07:17extension to keep him around?
07:19A defensive nobody?
07:22The Knicks were playing five-on-four basketball for the final 12 minutes of that game tonight.
07:29Five-on-four.
07:30Because James Harden couldn't stop you!
07:34It is so...
07:36I just can't even wrap my...
07:37Like, I'm honestly at a loss for words because I'm so angry about it.
07:41Oh, I'm not at a loss for words.
07:42I'm not.
07:43No, because here's the thing.
07:45These...
07:45Look at how hard it was just to get to this point.
07:49You were up 22.
07:51Eight minutes to go.
07:53I posted it.
07:54All they had to do was rebound the basketball and take care of it.
08:00Don't turn it over.
08:01Once again, what happened tonight?
08:02They turned the ball over 19 times again.
08:08And it killed them.
08:09Like, 28 Knick points off of 19 Cavalier turnovers.
08:12Like, you can't...
08:15You can't keep playing like this and expect that you're going to continue to have success.
08:21Because at some point, you keep playing with the fire.
08:24It's going to burn you.
08:25Well, tonight they played with fire.
08:27They got burned.
08:27And I think to the point you were making earlier, too.
08:30Like, this was the game to steal.
08:32Yes!
08:33We legitimately got it.
08:34The Knicks hadn't played in since Mother's Day.
08:36Okay?
08:37And they looked like it with the way they were shooting the ball.
08:40Especially from the perimeter.
08:41This was the game to steal.
08:43Because guess what now?
08:44They're going to recalibrate.
08:46They're on their home floor.
08:47They're coming to Cleveland up 2-0.
08:49I'm already...
08:50Thursday's a loss already for me.
08:52Okay?
08:52They're coming to Cleveland up 2-0.
08:54It should be 1-1.
08:56But again, your head coach was asleep at the switch again.
09:00Like, Kenny Atkinson falls into these patterns where he falls asleep at the switch.
09:05When it matters the most, he doesn't use his timeouts correctly.
09:09And he doesn't make substitutions correctly.
09:11Down the stretch.
09:12James Harden should have been brought off that floor multiple times in that fourth quarter.
09:17Or, I don't know, you should have blitzed Brunson.
09:21You should have put someone else on him.
09:23I mean, I...
09:25And look, Brunson made some tough shots.
09:27Yeah, of course.
09:28But that's what he does.
09:30I called him a star of the show today.
09:32I've been saying it all week.
09:33He is one of the most clutch players, if not the most clutch player that I see in the NBA.
09:37There are just shots that he makes at the end of the games that you don't understand it.
09:41And it feels like it always falls.
09:42Those are moments that throughout this series, if you are going to find a way to battle in it, you
09:46know you have to survive.
09:48Brunson's going to hit shots down the stretch, no matter what.
09:50So, you either have to build a lead or the offense has to be able to match it.
09:54Tonight, you built the lead.
09:56The offense didn't match it.
09:57The defense didn't match it.
09:58Like, there are so many opportunities.
10:00When you are getting picked on that badly, it is either get James Harden off the floor or you have
10:06to change the way you're playing defense.
10:08Like, it's blitz Brunson.
10:09It is, hey, I mean, hedge the screen and don't allow the switch.
10:13If Dean Wade's out there, Max Drew's out there, whoever is guarding him, you have to fight over the screen.
10:17You have to fight through the screen.
10:19You have to stay attached to him.
10:21And if they're going to hit a pick-and-pop three, well, Darryl, I mean, does it take a rocket
10:25scientist to look down the lineup tonight?
10:27Brunson dropped 38.
10:29McCall Bridges had 18 with a couple of big threes.
10:31Nobody else scored more than 13.
10:33Make somebody else beat you.
10:35Anybody else beat you that night.
10:37And down the stretch, props to him.
10:39Knicks hit shots.
10:39McCall Bridges hit shots.
10:41Landry Shamit hit shots.
10:42Everybody was hitting them.
10:43But you have to force that to happen.
10:44Jalen Brunson cannot kill you down the stretch.
10:47If he wants to drive into the paint and try to score, great.
10:49But I'm not letting you hit threes.
10:51I'm not letting you get mismatches and ISO with James Harden.
10:54It can't happen.
10:55Kenny Atkinson cannot allow it.
10:57And that was the killer tonight.
10:59Was they had every answer in the fourth quarter.
11:01And when all you needed to do, to your point, protect the basketball, rebound the basketball, play any semblance of
11:07offense at all.
11:10Where were they?
11:11The Cavs looked panicked.
11:11Yeah, and Donovan Mitchell's a three-and-a-half quarter player.
11:14You can't play him more than 40 minutes, okay?
11:18He vanishes down the stretch.
11:20He defers to everyone else down the stretch.
11:23Dude, you're the leader of the team.
11:25You got to take it over.
11:28Like, I mean, it's so frustrating.
11:34And again, it took so much to get here.
11:36And now you had the opportunity and you blew it.
11:39And so you have to recover.
11:41Now, a lot of us thought they were cooked after game six against the Pistons, right?
11:48After, you know, they came back and ran them off the floor in a game seven.
11:52I mean, I think for the Cavaliers to get through this series now, it's probably going seven.
11:57They're not doing it in six.
11:59But I am going to be fascinated to watch how Thursday night unfolds and how this team reacts to just
12:07the epic choke job tonight at the Garden.
12:12By the way, largest New York Knick come from behind win in their playoff history.
12:18So congratulations to the Cavs.
12:19Way to help the Knicks make some history there.
12:22Not surprising.
12:23Again, as far as they were down, as late as it was, just doesn't surprise me at all.
12:29I legitimately just cannot.
12:31I can believe it, but I can't believe it because of how big the lead was because of how little
12:35time there was.
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