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00:00Can I ask you something? Can I throw this by you guys?
00:02Because I don't want to name this thing. I hate that we name stuff.
00:06I hate that we try to name stuff. And I'll get to that here in a second.
00:11Had the Knicks played... Now this is definitely me trying to find ways to pick up the pieces.
00:16This is not sour grapes. They went out there, they embarrassed themselves,
00:19they lost a 22-point lead and ended up getting beaten in overtime.
00:24However, had the Knicks played a seven-game series themselves,
00:27and that was game one after both teams had a seven-game series.
00:31You're up 22 at one point with about eight minutes left.
00:36And I told Tone this during the break. I said,
00:39I just kept thinking of Christmas Day, and so the Cavs were hitting shots,
00:43things were going well. I wasn't... I just remember I was never comfortable.
00:48And I said, like, 8.03 left to go. I was like, all right, come on, pack it in.
00:52Pack it in. Come on. They should maybe focus...
00:55I was trying to talk the Knicks into sitting guys after that.
00:58And then it dawned on me, I go, if they had played a game seven...
01:01Like, I don't know if you'd do it with eight minutes left to go.
01:04Owen, I think you brought that up.
01:06You don't do it with eight minutes left to go.
01:07It's a little early.
01:08But is the... Because there was a time where you saw the Knicks looking at each other,
01:12and they're like, what the hell are we going to do?
01:14Like, they just kept hitting shots, and they were relentless on offense.
01:17The Cavs were.
01:18And I go, man, is the effort the same?
01:22Maybe it's not.
01:23And then do you get to a point where it's like, all right, you know what?
01:27Maybe you don't go on a run like that or start a run like that, and you just...
01:31We'll live to see on Thursday if they had both...
01:34Had they had not swept the Sixers.
01:37Can I just ask that question?
01:39Can I just ask it?
01:40Probably, yeah.
01:41I mean, I'm trying to think that if it would have been 20 by, like, the four and a half
01:46minute mark,
01:47maybe they start pulling guys.
01:49The problem was how quickly this thing eroded, you know, from about the seven-minute mark,
01:57the eight-minute mark, to the five-minute mark.
01:59Yeah, it was seven...
02:00At 7.39, Brunson drove the lane.
02:03He hit a little floating jumper.
02:05Mm-hmm.
02:06And that made it a 20-point game.
02:08And then I'm just looking at it now.
02:10They went on a spree here.
02:12They've got it down to 13 within two minutes of that.
02:15I'm just looking for...
02:17No, they wouldn't have done it then.
02:18You've already seen the tide turn there.
02:20It's just, man, this sucks.
02:24This just sucks.
02:26I feel the series isn't over, but this just...
02:30To be up by 22 like that, to see the feeling that we're getting from fans.
02:35You and I basically almost coming to blows at the beginning of the show.
02:38So what was the phrase people wanted to call this one?
02:41Oh, they wanted to call it the choke, which Charles Barkley didn't name it that,
02:46but he called it that, and he's right.
02:48Here's Charles Barkley inside the NBA in the postgame last night.
02:51I take my job very serious, and I don't like to get on TV and say people choked.
02:56But that was a damn choke job.
02:57Oh, what you're going to say?
02:58I'm going to say it now.
02:59I'm very selective when I said it.
03:01With the cap...
03:02I don't understand...
03:03What makes you choke, and what makes you lose the game?
03:06Okay, so they had a 20-point lead.
03:0822.
03:0922, okay.
03:10And they just started going milking the clock, like a prevent offense.
03:16Not only that, Chuck, I don't think the coaches from Cavaliers had great use of timeouts,
03:22because me and Chuck was in the screen.
03:23Scream timeout, yes.
03:24All timeouts, so they allowed...
03:26He let the league go from 20 to like 6, and it never called the timeout.
03:30But my problem was, if you go back and look,
03:32when you showed those highlights in the beginning, the ball was moving.
03:35Everybody was getting a wide open shot.
03:36You go back and look at the first six or eight minutes of that fourth quarter,
03:40they were just going one-on-one.
03:42The shot clock was on their back every single time.
03:46And Kenny should have called timeout sooner.
03:49Not this one.
03:49Not Kenny, no.
03:51But that...
03:52Listen, like I said...
03:53We knew you didn't mean to him.
03:54I give Brunson a lot of credit.
03:56He was fantastic, and the other guy shipped in.
03:58But that was a damn gag job right there.
04:00So, audio courtesy ESPN.
04:02Do you think Shaq knew the name of the head coach of the Cavs?
04:05No.
04:06Well, he probably did, but he probably just...
04:07I mean, he's got to cover every team,
04:09so he probably just had a brain fart and didn't remember.
04:11I'm sure he's heard the name of Kenny Atkinson before.
04:12That's fair.
04:14I thought, though...
04:16I started seeing it this morning, and I got really angry.
04:19That's why I think you kind of said what you said about the media guys,
04:22because I was like,
04:23I don't want to say that about that guy.
04:24I like that guy.
04:25Not the guy you really shared on the air.
04:28But I'm going, can we just stop naming things?
04:31No one's going to have a problem remembering this.
04:34This was a historic...
04:35Let's be clear.
04:35Somebody said that in playoff games,
04:37a team that leads with like seven minutes left to go by 20 is 645-1,
04:42and that was the one last night.
04:44No one's going to have problems remembering this.
04:46This is an all-time choke job terrible.
04:49I'm tired of naming these things.
04:50So is any massive lead...
04:52It's not therapeutic.
04:52It sucks.
04:53Like last year, the Knicks gave up like a 17-point lead
04:56against the Pacers in the fourth quarter.
04:58Yeah, they did.
04:58And that was part of that iconic run from Tyrese Halliburton
05:01and the Pacers that they rode almost all the way to the championship.
05:05Do we think every blown big, double-digit,
05:09and this was even more,
05:10like the fact that it got up over 20,
05:12is every blown lead, significant blown lead,
05:15in the fourth quarter of an NBA game in the playoffs,
05:17is that automatically a choke?
05:19No matter how it happened.
05:20Because it's never going to look good.
05:22There's no good way to lose 22.
05:24No, I think that there are...
05:25You're not trying to make an argument it wasn't a choke, are you?
05:28I'm asking, is it a choke?
05:31Like when I see guys that clearly were gassed,
05:35especially in my God, overtime,
05:36they couldn't even get up and down the floor.
05:38Adults, got to finish.
05:39But yeah, but does that count as part of the choke?
05:41Or does that lead to the choke?
05:43It might lead to the choke,
05:45but I mean, we're trying to split hairs here over something.
05:48Donovan Mitchell, the reason I ask,
05:49Donovan Mitchell had his best defensive game
05:51I've ever seen as a Cavalier.
05:53And, you know, was sitting on how many...
05:55He had three points in the fourth quarter.
05:57Yeah, he had one three-pointer.
05:57And I don't know what's worse,
05:58that he had three points or that he only took four shots.
06:01He took four shots.
06:02He only took four shots in the fourth quarter.
06:04So he was sitting on 26 points going into the fourth
06:07with the best defense I've ever seen him play.
06:10Was that him choking or was that him gassed?
06:13Or is it just both?
06:15I don't know if it's him specifically,
06:16but the game plan was a choke.
06:18When you go down and milk the 24-second clock,
06:20and that's fine,
06:21and then you just throw up a prayer and hope that, you know...
06:24Well, he kept throwing the ball.
06:26He threw the ball back out to Harden a few times.
06:29He threw the ball into the stands once or twice, too.
06:31Yeah.
06:32So then why don't you call a timeout and calm everybody down?
06:35We're all in the same game.
06:37I'm not mad at the players other than I'd like them to make the shots
06:41when they bring the clock down.
06:42And I guess in the moment, if I'm coaching, I'm going,
06:44well, at least we ran half of a minute off, right,
06:47when you go that route.
06:49But still, the coach has to take the timeout somewhere.
06:53Yeah, I'm just looking around because they're right.
06:55Like, it's more than just iso ball because, I mean, in a way,
06:59you know, you even call setting up.
07:01I mean, all Jalen Brunson did was iso ball down the stretch, right?
07:03And we have a guy in Donovan Mitchell that should be able to take
07:08everybody off dribble.
07:09And then James Harden has been one of the great iso players
07:11in the history of the game, but he's also 36.
07:14And you could tell, everybody could tell, he was completely gassed
07:17based on what he had to do on both ends of the floor.
07:20And so what I'm sitting here wondering is how much of that, like,
07:25they didn't move offensively.
07:27They weren't even coming up to set screens.
07:29Is it because they were just so physically gassed?
07:31I'm sure they were, but it wasn't one of these situations.
07:35Like, I didn't see oxygen tanks out there,
07:36but let's call it what it is here, Tone.
07:38I know you're trying to just examine it and dig deeper,
07:41but I know we've had this conversation.
07:45I don't know what defines a choke job.
07:47I think you just know it when you see it.
07:48You know it when you feel it and when you're part of it.
07:50And when Charles Barkley, a Hall of Famer,
07:52a guy who people take seriously, and he makes jokes,
07:54but people take him seriously, when he makes that declaration,
07:58people go, yeah, it's a choke job.
08:00Now, I'll say, to meet everybody halfway on this,
08:04one, I don't want to name it because I hate naming these things.
08:06I absolutely hate it.
08:08It's just one more way that we can revel in our own misery.
08:11Two, I don't know, what if they do come back and win the series?
08:13Can I call it the choke?
08:14Can I still call it the choke if they do win the series?
08:16Now, the odds are against you to win the series,
08:18and nobody believes that right now after what just happened last night.
08:22But what if they do come back and win the series?
08:24Do I still call it the choke?
08:25It doesn't go up there with the drive, the fumble, the decision, the what?
08:29No, it doesn't.
08:30So I can't just name it right now.
08:32Anybody that would cling to that when you win a series,
08:35just like, does anybody remember game six already of the last round?
08:39It just happened less than a week ago.
08:40The drive ended a season.
08:41The fumble, unfortunately, ended the season.
08:45The shot ended the season.
08:46Just didn't end the season.
08:48Now, it's up to them to not end the season,
08:50because if they come out there and they just do the woe is me crap,
08:53there will be even angrier people coming up on Friday.
08:55But I can't just name the thing just to name the thing
08:58because I want to make a headline here.
09:00Like, we got to be fair about it.
09:01You have three other opportunities here if you do get swept.
09:05I don't think they'll get swept.
09:06But you do have other opportunities here to get back in this series
09:09and tie it up.
09:10I just can't call it the shot and call it the choke.
09:13And the other thing is, it's just, I hate it.
09:16I just hate it.
09:17I hate it.
09:18I think we wallow in our misery at times.
09:20I almost think some of us enjoy the struggle of it at times.
09:22I hate it.
09:23I don't want to name the thing.
09:24Do you remember when blogs were in vogue?
09:27There were, like, 50 different Clevelands.
09:28I know a guy who had a blog, not a vogue, but he had a blog.
09:32Well, there were, like, 50 different Cleveland sports blogs,
09:35and they all were named based on misery, cursed.
09:40I think there was a guy I know very well who had something named after misery
09:43about Cleveland sports.
09:44That's what I'm saying.
09:45There was a wallowing in.
09:46I don't know who you're looking at.
09:47I have no idea who you're insinuating.
09:49But this was part of the consciousness of the Cleveland sports fan.
09:55But haven't we all lived through 2016 like we won a championship?
09:59And I know not everybody's an Ohio State fan,
10:02but if you're an Ohio State fan, and you're a Cavs fan,
10:04and you're a Cleveland fan, like, we've won four championships.
10:08And you've also, you know, been to the World Series how many times?
10:12Like, we've had unbelievable moments in this town.
10:15I don't think we need to wallow in misery anymore.
10:17I just, I feel like that, like, go talk to Buffalo fans.
10:20We said somebody from Buffalo that was in there.
10:24Go talk to them about misery.
10:27I'm not feeling any better, though.
10:29Usually I'm ready to turn the page at around 8 o'clock after a loss
10:32and start focusing on the future, and I'm still not feeling better.
10:35How could anybody?
10:35I mean, I'm certainly, I'm going to go dark when it comes to, you know,
10:40picking up the national conversation on this,
10:42because I know where it's going to go.
10:43So, like, they're just going to say, James Harden,
10:45and then Kenny Atkinson should have called timeouts.
10:47I'm like, well, a lot of stuff happened, though.
10:49Like, and a lot of things could have been diverted at some point.
10:53If you, look, I will just be honest.
10:55Like, if you're going to put James Harden in that position,
10:57they'll just lose every game.
10:59Like, Jalen Brunson, there's a reason he's been all NBA first team.
11:03There's a reason there have been years that he's gotten MVP votes.
11:06Like, he's really, really good.
11:07He had a hand in this.
11:09So, you know, choke, choke, choke.
11:10Yes, 100%.
11:11I agree, but they also had to take some of it, and holy cow.
11:16I mean, those shots that Brunson made were insane, some of them.
11:192-1-6-4-7-4-0-92.
11:20We got 40 minutes to play the blame game here if you want to,
11:23even though I think that, you know, some people are going to blame the players.
11:26You can blame the players that paid a lot of money.
11:27It's the highest salary on all the NBA, the most expensive team in all the NBA.
11:32But, man, when you sit there, I'm just, I'm so dispirited and angry.
11:37I'm getting angry just thinking about it.
11:39When you don't call a timeout, when you seem to freak out there,
11:42and then you basically joke about it after the game.
11:45It ain't a joke to us, man.
11:47You can't do that.
11:48You can stick by your players without trying to turn the damn thing into a gag.
11:53I've liked the guy.
11:54I haven't had to defend him very much, but that really pissed me off last night.
11:58And then I got even angrier about it this morning when I was driving in
12:01and I heard it with Jeff.
12:02Listen, James Harden has dealt with criticism.
12:04He's a player.
12:05I don't put as much on Harden as I do Kenny.
12:07You've got to take care of your players.
12:09And I don't think he did a good job of taking care of his players.
12:12It's the one thing you get to do in the actual gameplay as a head coach.
12:16Take the timeout.
12:17You know, I do.
12:18Like, there's so many times, if you listen to this show with any regularity,
12:22you know that Lyman and I, well, we nearly came to blows earlier today,
12:25closer than we ever have.
12:27But there was also, Lyman has an understanding with basketball coaches,
12:30and I think I have some sort of an understanding with football coaches.
12:33And if you've noticed, there's been a lot of times where I have said
12:36when people have called in on a Browns Monday,
12:39because today feels a lot like a Browns Monday, man.
12:40This is, I told John, John's new, and I told him,
12:43you better keep your ears open because today is going to be,
12:45today is good, you're going to get it.
12:47You're going to hear it.
12:47You're going to experience something.
12:49And then he, you know, brought up flag football in college
12:51and left out the part that it was women's flag football.
12:53Either way, we love John.
12:57Is, when it comes to, like, the Browns
12:59and a coach not showing enough emotion on the sidelines,
13:02I have always said, hey, there's a lot that a coach has to take into account.
13:07And he, if he's calling plays especially,
13:10there's a lot of things that he has to manage.
13:11He can't be like Mike Ditka.
13:14Mike Ditka had a legend calling his defense.
13:16He could trust that legend.
13:18They might have hated each other, but he could trust that legend.
13:21It ain't always like that.
13:22And so I can understand, I can empathize with it.
13:25When it comes to basketball, you know, I'm sure you hear a couple of things.
13:29It's like, well, Kenny, and you're nice to me sometimes
13:31because there's things I see and I ask you questions.
13:32You're like, well, you can't do this because of X, Y, and Z.
13:34And we do that with each other a lot.
13:36But here, I'm bothered because I'm not, you're not,
13:39you're not standing up for Kenny because I don't think you can.
13:42No.
13:42Because it was asinine.
13:44And then it almost feels like to a regular fan,
13:47and I'm trying to be careful here because I don't want guys to get fired.
13:51I want guys to be successful.
13:52And he's been a successful coach.
13:54But it almost felt like he doubled down on the silliness in the post-game press conference.
13:58Yeah, like he would do it again.
13:59Yes.
14:00Like if this happens in game two.
14:01The meme, I'll bleep and do it again.
14:03It's like, what are you doing, man?
14:04Yeah, he's going to go down with the ship.
14:06And the ship in this instance is 36-year-old James Harden trying to guard
14:10one of the best pick-and-roll players in the NBA.
14:13Which was a matchup.
14:14I told you yesterday on the air, I'm like, hey,
14:16I've been the biggest Harden guy in town after this trade
14:20and how I think he was going to help elevate their chances.
14:23This could be a series where it might not be a James Harden series.
14:26I literally said that yesterday.
14:28And where the paths cross.
14:29So how did I see that?
14:30And the Cavs and their organization and all their analytics.
14:34And their smart people and Kenny Atkinson.
14:36I think they did when the game's not going on.
14:39And that's part of the reason why I'm so pissed at Kenny right now.
14:42That's part of it.
14:43Because it is your job.
14:44Now, they intersect because I said, and I said it to Kevin's face,
14:48like, you've got to give the fans a little bit more.
14:50Like, you've got to be a little bit more open in these press conferences
14:53because if you just keep saying the same thing, they're going to turn.
14:55And we've said that off air.
14:56But Kenny has repeatedly in press conferences,
14:59and we brought it up the other day,
15:00that James Harden had to tell him to do practices in the ballroom,
15:03that Dan Gilbert had to tell him that Jared Allen was the catalyst for Game 7.
15:08And then we go, well, maybe he's just over-speaking.
15:10But then he does dumb stuff like this where he doesn't take the time out.
15:13And I think he's actually serious.
15:15I think he didn't know that Jared Allen should be getting the ball in Game 7.
15:18I think Owen's right.
15:20At least that's what he's presenting to me right now in his press conference.
15:23Well, you've got to give your fans something, man,
15:25because every fan I knew last night was angry.
15:28And then you go out in the postgame, and you're almost jovial.
15:32And you say that you're – this isn't CYO, brother.
15:36These are professionals.
15:38I'm not trying to sound crazy here, but these are –
15:42James Harden is two years younger than I am.
15:45He's a grown man, and I've got Kenny Atkinson saying he's proud of him.
15:50Yeah, Owen.
15:50Tough one.
15:50You know, I thought they hit some really tough shots in that fourth quarter.
15:55You know, those two threes, prayer threes, and the shot clock.
15:57And we got a little unlucky, quite honestly.
16:00You know, Brunson obviously took over at the end.
16:02And, you know, we started double-teaming them and try to do some different things.
16:06But, listen, I'm super proud of the way our group played.
16:09We played great basketball tonight for three quarters.
16:11You know, unfortunately, fourth quarter, they dominated us in the fourth quarter.
16:15And I'm only pointing out there's a way you can do this without throwing your legends under the bus,
16:21without throwing your two Hall of Famers under the bus,
16:23maybe three by the time it's all said and done.
16:25You could always say, I made a mistake.
16:27I didn't do this right.
16:29Those guys played their asses off.
16:31They played six games in eight days or nine days, whatever the hell it was.
16:35That was on me.
16:36I should have taken care of James.
16:38Instead, we're just talking about we're being proud of each other.
16:41This ain't the CYO.
16:42This isn't Piper Middle School.
16:44You saw Donovan Mitchell walk into the hallway, in the tunnel,
16:48and I don't think he was looking for anybody to be proud of him.
16:51No.
16:51I think he was like, oh, my God, we just blew this.
16:54Exactly.
16:54In historic fashion.
16:55And, you know, it reminds you of office space, the Bobs.
16:58Like, what is it you do here?
17:00I mean, Owen, you were going through the catalog of things,
17:02and it's like, where is your decision-making that is going to step up
17:06and actually put the team, elevate their chances?
17:09You know, what was he thinking as that lead went from 22 to 17 to 15 to 10
17:16to 8 to 10?
17:17Nothing.
17:17What was your goal in all of that?
17:21Would you really do it again?
17:22And, look, I don't know.
17:23If he calls timeout, they might have just come and run the same stuff,
17:26and they still would have won the game.
17:27Who knows?
17:28Or maybe we continue doubling like we did in the last minute,
17:31and they would have thrown the ball around the key and hit open threes.
17:33I would have at least liked to try.
17:34Yeah, when it sounds like the crowd is sitting on top of you,
17:37take the timeout and at least cool it down for a minute.
17:39I'm so – and that's part of it, man.
17:41That's why I'm so – I was angry,
17:44and then hearing him in the postgame makes me even angrier.
17:47Like, neither tact is great.
17:49Kevin, the way he did it ain't good,
17:50and Kenny, the way he's doing it ain't any better.
17:52And I've heard him hold the team accountable in the regular season before.
17:56Yeah, he got really angry during the regular season.
17:59There's no accountability for the team or for himself.
18:01And I know he needs them because it's a series.
18:04Right.
18:05He needs them.
18:05And you know that.
18:06You ain't no dummy.
18:07Right.
18:07We got to do seven.
18:08But, again, that's why you go, hey, that's on me.
18:12James Harden played his ass off today.
18:13It didn't go our way.
18:15Maybe some things didn't happen.
18:16If Sam Merrill hits that shot at the end, we're going, whoo, man,
18:20we were able to survive that, weren't we?
18:21We happened to be up 1-0 here.
18:23It didn't go that way.
18:24And it just sounds like you're kind of assing off from what the real
18:27responsibility is.
18:28And to me, I think that a lot of fans will take –
18:30I don't think he's trying to insult you,
18:32but I think a lot of fans take that as insulting.
18:34Because there's been a lot of people fighting over this team over the
18:36last year.
18:37And then you have the head coach of the team who was talking tough earlier
18:40this year kind of sloughing it off like it ain't no big thing.
18:43But do you think it has more to do with – we had a big question,
18:46a prevailing question about whether or not that you guys – this team
18:51earned your trust.
18:52I mean, it was a topic.
18:53And everybody was saying, you know what?
18:55I don't like this team.
18:56I didn't like the Harden move.
18:58But look at what they've been able to do.
19:00Two game sevens.
19:01It's like, when has a Cleveland team been able to come out on top?
19:04When they're up 22, I would have went to bed.
19:06They didn't have my trust.
19:07They don't have my trust.
19:08They don't.
19:08They don't.
19:09Here's what I'm saying.
19:10If he didn't have trust in them, you know, maybe that would have led to,
19:16you know, calling timeouts, doing everything you can, running gimmicks out there.
19:20I don't trust him, though.
19:21He's the problem right now.
19:23I'm not even putting it on the players right now.
19:25Three sevens didn't do anything for you in that regard.
19:27When you take this as – I'm going to boil this down to the cheapest I can.
19:32Don't slap me.
19:34When baby Izzy goes to ride a bike, baby Izzy's smart.
19:37His daughter's smart.
19:39I hear her on the phone.
19:40I hear her on the phone in the background.
19:41She's smart, okay?
19:44You trust your daughter to eventually ride the bike.
19:47But you still got to be around, okay?
19:50You still got to be around.
19:51Let me boil it to the cheapest I possibly can so everybody can understand it
19:55so we can all kind of share that experience.
19:59She'll go on to great things.
20:00She's really, really smart.
20:01You're still going to be – you know, he's still the head coach of the basketball team.
20:04And I know it's more of a shared relationship because we're all adults here in this case.
20:08But just because you sit there and tell everybody you trust your players
20:12doesn't mean you don't try to take care of them.
20:15You call a timeout.
20:16Yeah, obvious.
20:17I can't – it boggles my mind that that never got to that point.
20:21But one thing I have said as a testament to them – and maybe, Kenny,
20:26maybe this is just devil's advocate or me rationalizing, me coping, whatever.
20:30But one of the things I did say after both Game 7s, I'm like, man,
20:34as much as I hated Kenny in the first two games in Detroit
20:37and at the two road games in Toronto and I sat there and much like you guys said,
20:42what are you doing?
20:43What is it you do here?
20:44What are you doing to put these guys in position?
20:46And then they'd win the series and I'd go, well, part of their entire disposition,
20:53almost headlined by James, is they are even keel.
20:57Like this team does not get high.
20:58They don't – like we talked about Detroit hooting and hollering when they won Game 7
21:03and their pregame before Game 6 and the pregame before Game 7.
21:06Like they had acted like they had won the title, and I think that works against you.
21:10Is that maybe what Kenny is trying to do is keep them even keel and not over-emotional?
21:15I have to accuse you of something here.
21:17I think you're in your own head.
21:18I think you're trying to answer for things that you have said about this basketball team
21:22because I've done the same thing.
21:24Kenny, you said that they were penciled into the finals.
21:27Here you are.
21:27Kenny, you said that you trusted them.
21:29Kenny, you just said the other day that this was a series that they were going to take
21:33in six games against the Pistons.
21:35I said it was a successful season yesterday, and then they go out and blow a 22-point lead.
21:41And I think you're the one who did say the series was over against Detroit,
21:45and they came back and they won that series.
21:47And part of that had earned some trust.
21:49I'm not going to lie.
21:49I'm not going to say that didn't happen.
21:51Like that is part of the reason why I'm not sitting here today saying the season's over.
21:55And I still don't understand why there's people who are trying to zing you over saying
21:58that James Harden sucked out loud in the first two games of the series against Detroit,
22:01which he did, but regardless of that, you don't need to cope, man.
22:07You got game two.
22:08That's what it is.
22:09You don't need to cope over this because we're all saying, well, it's just one game.
22:12Okay, is it just one game?
22:14Because you got game two tomorrow.
22:15And if they come out and they play listless tomorrow night and they just walk around,
22:19maybe you'll say the same thing.
22:20Maybe we'll try to learn from that.
22:21I don't know, but this team has made this fan base bipolar with their own thoughts
22:26game after game after game all season long.
22:29That's the fan base.
22:29That's emotional.
22:30And what I'm wondering out loud is, is the way that they deal with these losses
22:35that infuriates you, infuriates everybody that is sitting there wanting that emotion.
22:40If they got emotional over that loss last night, then it's not just one game.
22:44Now it is bigger than that.
22:46And they can't go into that mode.
22:47They have to protect against that.
22:49Because the last thing you want to do when that crowd is going to be in a frenzy in game
22:53two is for you to be dwelling on what happened in game one and lose your mind.
22:57And I'm not even mad.
22:58I got to admit, I'm not mad at James Harden.
23:00I'm not mad at Donovan Mitchell for being held scoreless in the final eight minutes
23:03or whatever it was and only scoring three points in the fourth quarter.
23:06I'm not mad at those guys.
23:07I'm not mad.
23:08Somebody called in about Dean Wade.
23:09They were mad about him.
23:10I ain't mad about him.
23:11I'm mad at Kenny.
23:13I thought there was an opportunity there to keep everybody up.
23:15And again, an opportunity to win the game, to go over to New York where people are paying
23:20$50,000 courtside seats and steal that game.
23:23You don't think some of them left early?
23:24And I'm sure a lot of those folks would have said, hey, it's game one.
23:27It is a series.
23:28That's fair.
23:29But when you lose it like that, when I already have it fresh in my memory, why didn't I turn
23:34the game off and go to bed tone?
23:35Why didn't I fully trust him even though I wanted to trust him?
23:38Because I had Christmas Day stuck in my head.
23:40That's why.
23:40Because I've had the ghost of terrible team, terrible performances pass, which isn't even fair.
23:45Because they didn't play soft last night.
23:47I thought they played tough.
23:48I thought Mitchell Robinson took a couple of hard shots.
23:51I thought Jalen Brunson got put on his ass in the second quarter.
23:54I thought that they played hard as hell.
23:56I thought they were tough last night.
23:57Might have helped to do that in the fourth quarter during the meltdown.
24:00When you're not taken care of by your head coach, it bothers you.
24:04But you don't need to sit there and cope with anything.
24:06You don't need to tell yourself anything.
24:08You have to answer for what you've said.
24:10I have to answer for what I've said.
24:11No, we do every day.
24:12That's true.
24:12We do every minute of the day.
24:13But you don't got to cope with nothing or try to make yourself feel any better.
24:17Because if we're all saying, well, at the end of it, Kenny, hey, you're mad, but it's
24:20one game, right?
24:21It's one game.
24:22Right, Ken?
24:22Okay?
24:23Because I'm saying Kenny and Ken, and maybe I'm getting mixed up.
24:25I'm talking to myself here.
24:26If I'm saying it's one game by the end of the show, okay, you know, we're upset, and
24:30it's an historic loss, and everybody's making fun of us, but it's just one game.
24:34All right.
24:34Well, I guess it's just one game, and we're going to find out whether or not they answer the
24:37bell coming up in game two.
24:39The calling card, you'd have to say, the calling card of this team so far is they've been able
24:42to deal with terrible losses.
24:44This is just the latest.
24:45Yes, it's the worst also, but they have been able to overcome it.
24:48Now, this is a better team, but last night at no point was I like, man, this Knicks team
24:52is unbeatable.
24:52I never thought that.
24:53In fact, I thought there were certain matchups in this series that I thought we could exploit
24:57just like they have matchups they can exploit.
24:59But I'm going to tell you this, is that, again, that owner, he thinks like a fan.
25:03And I know he put out a nice tweet and told everybody to calm down.
25:06I think he's trying to calm everything down within himself there.
25:09And maybe he is coping as a fan, but I'm going to tell you right now, they go out there
25:13and
25:13give a half-assed effort tomorrow night.
25:15They come back down 2-0 in this series, and then you go to that game, and we see all
25:18that
25:18orange and blue over there, and then there's problems.
25:21You end up losing this series, and you don't look good doing it.
25:23Yeah, man, heads are going to roll.
25:25I said that it was a successful season.
25:26I guess I'm just going to have to get used to trying to put a label on a team that
25:31I can't
25:32put a label on because it's driving me bonkers and driving the rest of the fan base bonkers.
25:36Because we all want to say, now we trust him, can't trust him.
25:39Now we love him.
25:40Eh, he can't really do it.
25:41Now we trust Kenny.
25:42Now we can't do it.
25:43Like, it's, we constantly have to contradict ourselves, and the only ones who have been
25:47right, the only ones have been the naysayers and the cynics and the ones that haven't
25:52been any fun whatsoever, that have just had a burr up their ass for the entire season.
25:57And I know we got to go, and I want to get to the fans' reaction.
25:59I really do, next segment.
26:00I know we got Jason Lloyd coming up at 9-20.
26:02Yeah, I know.
26:03We got to get to him.
26:04To the point where none of the Knicks fans trusted Carl Anthony Towns last night.
26:07None of them trusted Mike Brown and what he was doing.
26:09So you had him, and that's the killer in this game, is that you had him.
26:13Everything had come into play perfectly, and they blew it.
26:17Calls have been a little bit crazy.
26:19They have been a bit measured.
26:20I want to hear from you folks when we come back.
26:212-1-6-4-7-4-0-92.
26:24I'm not going to say the series is over.
26:25Lyman's not saying the series, certainly not saying the series is over after what happened
26:28in the Detroit series.
26:29See, I'm throwing it in your face.
26:30I don't even mean to.
26:32The series isn't over, but this was a horrific loss, and all it did, if you're a lover of
26:40this team, what it did was make you twice as angry, because I guarantee, just like Tone
26:46did, just like I did, you got texts from your buddies last night who have never believed
26:51in this team all year long, and they're telling you, look at what they just did.
26:54They embarrassed themselves in front of God and everybody, and they embarrassed you, and
26:58you're the one who's got to deal with it.
27:00And when the coach goes out there and sounds like it ain't no big thing, it makes you even
27:04angrier.
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