- 4 hours ago
Category
🥇
SportsTranscript
00:01let's go to the hotline the wise heart right we make it right call cow right hotline jason
00:06lloyd he got his rims fixed he's from the athletic hello hi sorry about last week it's okay boy you're
00:17laughing as much as kenny atkinson was laughing last night after the loss oh oh boy
00:26you cry i'd like them to do more than smile i like them not smiling that'd be that'd be a
00:32nice
00:32start whatever i'm an emotional person kenny did say that he kind of owed it to the fans
00:37to you know kind of feel their pain a little which one that kenny or me you yeah okay because
00:42well here's what kenny said yeah i told the guys this is we play great basketball for the majority
00:46of the game just the ball ball stuck at the end there a little bit got to keep trusting passing
00:50but i'll also say we had a ton of great looks that didn't go in so we'll look at it
00:55i think
00:56decisions got to be better especially when we get fatigued sometimes we you know put our heads down
01:00too much just got to find the open guy i mean if a browns coach said that you mean you'd
01:04be bursting
01:05blood vessels in your face so i mean you got you got called how you call it now jason that
01:11didn't come off well what happened last night well i mean it was an absolute collapse there's no there's
01:18no other way to say it um you know a couple things obviously that stick out number one
01:25it's just odd to me how little donovan handles the ball at the end of the game
01:31and and like james hits the shot in the final minute so i don't want to be you know fraudulent
01:36about that because he did hit the the time bucket or he put his go ahead bucket next makes the
01:42three to
01:43tie and james hits the step back but don was so willing to get off the ball it was just
01:49weird
01:49because like in the third quarter donovan's usage rate was through the roof they were playing through
01:54donovan and and they were rolling and then in the fourth quarter they played through james i don't know
01:58if donovan was getting tired in the fourth quarter though they played heavily through james and it felt
02:05like a few possessions early it felt like they just started trying to bleed clock a little bit
02:11earlier than they should i don't i i say they quit playing but i don't mean it the way it
02:15sounds it
02:16just it just felt like they were trying to bleed clock a little bit too soon and and and you
02:21saw how
02:22it ended and the timeout thing was weird like i get it kenny's saying i'm trying to i want to
02:28hold
02:28timeouts for the end okay that's like there's coaches who believe that and that's fine but he
02:32doesn't call them at the end either you can go back to the detroit series in game five and he
02:36said
02:36he didn't want to let detroit get their defense set because they grab and they hold and you know
02:41it's tough to get the ball inbound it's tough to get a clean look when you're coming out of bounds
02:47so then and then last night and sam gets a great look at it at the end of the fourth
02:51like it's a
02:51great look from sam but again it's not don it's sam getting the look and it's a good look and
02:57it's
02:57halfway down it spits out and if that goes down then we're not talking about any of this stuff
03:02but it's just it's just curious that you take two timeouts home when you say you want to save
03:06them for the end but then you don't use them at the end either so that's where i just get
03:09a little
03:09confused on well what are you saving them for what's what's the exact precise moment when you want to
03:13use them because man it felt like you could have used one of the four and there's different coaches
03:18have different philosophies on that like tom timbitt will burn timeouts he'll use two or three in a
03:21row to stop around eating care and mark dagno and okay sees the same way like he'll if he sees
03:27a
03:27couple things he doesn't like early timeout like we're going to straighten this out
03:31and jb's the same way he uses timeouts early so it's not necessarily well there's one is better
03:36than the other i just get confused if you're trying to save them for the end and then you'll use
03:39them
03:39at the end i don't i don't know what you're i don't know what what the exact right time is
03:43then
03:43that you want to use them you know i've been one of the staunchest uh people in the corner of
03:49james harden in town i did say yesterday i'm worried about him in this series uh for the defensive
03:55stuff that i knew they were going to put him in and yet i thought and i'm sitting here i
04:00wrote in my notes after three quarters i'm like man harden is really held firm defensively against
04:06basically everybody and then the fourth quarter happened right and that's the only thing that's
04:11going to matter to anybody and yet on the other side donovan was unable and the calves were unable
04:17to create those matchups because one of the weaknesses of the knicks is indeed jalen brunson on the ball
04:23but they fought so much harder to avoid those switches yeah they did i looked it up now i don't
04:31remember i think it was 17 points that brunson had when harden was guarding them and the knicks were
04:37hunting that and they were you know the calves tried guarding with merrill and the knicks would
04:43immediately switch that to get it to get james on brunson there's no question and then the calves
04:47tried doubling them and now you're leaving shooters open the corner and you're rotating and they're just
04:51there is no great answer you're right for quite a bit of last night i thought james was fine
04:56defensively and then in the fourth quarter it all unraveled and again i'd go back i just go back and
05:02watch like late in the fourth quarter where donovan was almost like a decoy he's just standing on the
05:07wing and was he gassed was he gassed because he had six steals it was the best defense i've ever
05:12seen
05:12him play he looked like duane wade it could have been it could have been it could have been that
05:16he
05:16just didn't have his legs and he was exhausted that's why i'm saying like i i don't know it was
05:19just
05:19weird like you want the ball in your best player's hands at the end of the game and you've got
05:24harden
05:24and merrill taking the most important shots at the end of the fourth quarter and maybe don was just
05:31exhausted it that that could have been it i don't know but it was just it just seemed odd to
05:36watch
05:39are they allowed to they're not allowed to say they're tired are we allowed to say they're tired
05:45i mean listen they've been playing every other day for
05:47two weeks and into the toronto like the end of the toronto series i believe was every other day
05:52as well it just feels it just feels like man if they would have just been blown up by 30
05:56and we could go out ah you know they're tired they'll be ready to go on thursday night like
06:01it would have been much easier than up by 22 with eight minutes left to go and falling completely apart
06:06i i want to go back and watch the third quarter again i haven't done that yet um it felt
06:12like
06:13donovan was much more active in the third quarter than the fourth quarter was
06:16but i i need to go back and watch donovan took four shots in the fourth quarter james took six
06:23and i remember the big three he like he hit the big three to put him up 21 right like
06:28he like that
06:29was the dagger three he did the spider thing and i told my son i'm like well this is over
06:33gave that
06:33look to oh you said it was over oh yeah see i wouldn't i wouldn't bring myself to do it
06:39because
06:39i was so paranoid uh just because of the the year christmas day the whole thing and he looked he
06:44did
06:44that look i thought it was over did you see him do that look at spike lee no i missed
06:50that so he
06:51hit the shot and he kind of did that glare or whatever to spike lee and even then i'm like
06:57it's going our way man but i didn't see it was spike i saw him look but i didn't realize
07:01it was
07:02somebody said i saw it on the internet somebody said well the internet could be lying to me but i
07:06i thought it was at spike i apologize if it wasn't well whatever he hit the big shots put him
07:11up 2021
07:12yeah i thought it was over at that point i thought they won the game so obviously you don't have
07:18much
07:18time to turn around and try to salvage one of these nobody's going to be feeling good if they drop
07:22both of them but what do they do now about the hardened situation because the matchup hunting is only
07:29going to continue now the knicks can't do it from the get-go they'll that that could actually in a
07:33way wear out brunson it does take a lot of uh a lot to go iso ball for 48 but
07:39with that said i mean
07:41i look at the box score guess who played the most minutes yesterday for the calves james james harden
07:46again he played the entire fourth quarter and over town he came out of the game in the fourth quarter
07:51over time so this is this is my issue like i was a big proponent of the trade but it
07:56wasn't to
07:56send harden back to 2018 and let him be the focal point of the offense and then have to
08:02cover the other team's best player on defense what sense does that make
08:07i mean but again that's why i have to wonder where was donovan's fatigue level on that and i think
08:12mike brown said after the game he made reference to when james was in houston and the warriors
08:17wanted to just let him dribble he said he would dribble a thousand times a game and he's going to
08:22wear
08:22himself out and just just let him dribble and dribble and dribble and that's kind of i mean
08:27it wasn't a thousand dribbles but that's that's kind of where they got to by the fourth quarter
08:30time what do you do man i don't i mean part of that also is the knicks hit some tough
08:34shots
08:34like they hit some they had some wide open looks the the shaman corner and the three
08:40underneath the rim and somehow went in yeah that was he was wide open on that because they're trying
08:45to double and the knicks made the right passes but some of them also i mean jalen just hit some
08:51really tough shots and is he going to do that again well he might and sometimes you just have
08:56to live with some of the shots that they hit defensively you have to like you just have to
09:00say he hit a tough shot like they're they're really good players and sometimes they're going to make
09:05hard shots uh i liked going to strews all right i i thought they should go to strews to the
09:11starting
09:12lineup and and they stuck with dean obviously um i i don't i don't know i don't know what the
09:18what
09:18the right answer is in the in the fourth quarter um it may be that you have to get him
09:23out of the
09:23game and i know they don't like doing that and but like like i said i don't think hard came
09:29off the
09:29floor in the entire fourth quarter or overtime but there may come points where you you have to get
09:35them off the floor defensively and to get a stop um and i it sounds odd to say that when
09:42he's james
09:42hardened but i i i don't know i i kind of want to see how game two plays out i
09:47kind of want to see
09:48i mean he's jalen brunson he hits tough shots all the time but i just thought he had some really
09:52really really tough shots down the stretch where you just sort of take a cap to him and say man
09:55that's just a great shot over a good defense if the series jason lloyd with us from the athletic of
10:00the series doesn't go our way like dan gilbert had a nice tweet out there trying to kind of
10:04calm down everybody a little bit after that and it was a terrible loss and one of the worst ever
10:08but
10:09you know he's a big fan he is a big fan and he's a very powerful fan uh if the
10:14rest of the series
10:15doesn't go our way does this i thought everybody would be safe after going to the eastern conference
10:20finals do i have to open up that book again about moving on from people no i don't think so
10:24i think
10:25once they got to this point uh i mean let's see how the rest of it looks right like i
10:30don't want to
10:32project after one really bad loss when emotions are running high but i i think they move past that point
10:37once they got out of the second round once they advanced the conference finals uh i i think i
10:45think a lot of that got put to bed now if they get swept and they look terrible i don't
10:48know man let's
10:49let's talk after game four but as of right now i mean dan i i think dan is always back
10:54to kenny
10:55he likes kenny very very much um i don't think last night was kenny's finest hour but a lot of
11:03coaches have bad playoff games it happens and uh i think everybody's fine uh did you one of the
11:10things that's been a catch-all after every calves loss has been toughness and then when we feel like
11:15they've been tough physically we just say mentally did you were you thinking toughness yesterday at all
11:20because i was not no the toughness comes in game two that's where the resiliency shows up is if they
11:28can flush this if you can put this behind you certainly if you can come out and win two after
11:35having one in the bag basically uh before spilling the bag so i no i mean you're not sitting there
11:42talking about toughness last night the resiliency and the toughness now shows up today and tomorrow
11:47of being able to put this behind you walking into a hostile environment uh you know this is a
11:53different animal than detroit but to gag it away in game six you didn't just look absolutely awful
11:59in game six against the pistons and then come out in game seven play the way you did that's where
12:04the
12:04mark of the toughness is to me i thought our bigs outplayed their bigs i mean i i thought we
12:10were
12:10big bad mitchell robinson and they went to the hack of mitch but um and he had a few moments
12:15but i
12:16thought by and large mobley and allen held firm and maybe probably even had the edge can i piggyback off
12:21that i mean i kept thinking about 2023 i'm like man i really have overrated mitchell robinson ever
12:26since that series man i felt that i felt that confident about our bigs well they were able to
12:31get him off the floor last night with the fouling because he's not making foul shots so they were
12:35they were able to get him off the floor he doesn't play a massive role for them he's he's probably
12:41in
12:41the 15-ish minute range with them i last night was not cat's best game i agree with you i
12:47think i think
12:48cavs bigs outplayed him i thought evan was great again i thought he hit some monster threes it's
12:53some clutch moments he only had a couple but they just felt like especially the one in the fourth
12:57quarter i think it was it just it just was a huge three at the right time i don't know
13:01how many
13:01rebounds he finished with at least 14 i saw uh maybe more than that i i thought evan played really
13:07really well so a cat will be better going forward i would think for the knicks and and robinson
13:13he's he's sort of a big player for them right now you know when we're sitting here talking about
13:19like adjustments that can be made i agree with you like defensively you got to pick your poison
13:25against better teams you just do whether you're playing oklahoma city the spurs and the knicks i'd
13:29put right up there like you you have to make uncomfortable um decisions like you see what happens
13:35if you start doubling brunson right away teams have done that all year to the knicks and they carve
13:39them up they had one of the best offenses in the league so i i think that that does put
13:43them in a
13:43predicament how can we put the onus on the knicks to have to adjust to things we do offensively
13:53you got to make shots and it just like donovan had a good shooting game last night like it it
13:58felt
13:58like through three quarters it felt like a donovan game and he was marvelous and again it just sort of
14:05disappeared in the fourth but their shooting has been extremely erratic throughout this postseason
14:11and they've just had you know donovan's had more poor shooting nights than good shooting nights although
14:16he had a great game in game seven and he was great for the most part last night so you
14:21know maybe he's
14:22figuring something out and getting away from some of the long athletic defenders of the pistons will help
14:26him in this series but the cabs just have to make shots and it's it sounds so simple and it
14:33sounds so
14:34lame to say but you know how many times you heard it say it's a make or miss league and
14:38they had some
14:39really good looks last night that just didn't fall and if one more of them falls in the fourth quarter
14:45we're not having any of this conversation sam shot at the end again i don't want to bang on sam
14:50because it was a good look it was odd that he was the one taking it but it was a
14:53great look and it was
14:54halfway down and then it spits out and if that goes in this entire conversation is totally different
15:00one last thing uh jason is that i i've complimented it's been mad at times but i've complimented them
15:05and their disposition throughout the playoffs they've been so even keel that people have
15:11resorted to saying they don't care right like where where's the effort where's the attitude look
15:16at their body language but i also think that's helped them to weather the storm and battle adversity
15:21and then win two game sevens how many teams ever win two game sevens in a playoff run in any
15:27sport
15:28like they're hard to do that so do you think last night they'll be shell shocked by what happened
15:34or do you think that even keel attitude might actually help them you know i was thinking about
15:39that because honestly when the game ended last night the first thing i thought of was the 2018 finals
15:46when jr forgot to score and that to me that is that remains the most devastating loss i've ever been
15:52a
15:52part of and i'm home i'm not in new york i'll be out there for five and seven if there
15:57is
15:58but and i haven't been around this team enough this year to know but like that in 2018 when jr
16:05forgets the score in the calves who's game one of the finals it's like okay this series is over
16:09like and just lebron was despondent in the locker room and of course that's when he apparently went
16:14nuts on the whiteboard or whatever when we got in there i remember trying to talk to him and his
16:19mouth open and no words would come out like he was just beyond devastated and i remember thinking
16:24that was their shot to make this a series and it's over i don't get that sense with this
16:30first of all this is not the 2018 warriors that they're playing and so i i do get the sense
16:37like
16:38this is a low heartbeat team and they're the same and and they've talked about like hard and especially
16:43i think that's who he is he could go he could have the worst game of his life he could
16:48have the
16:48best game of his life he's the same guy afterwards and donovan by nature is upbeat and positive
16:53and so i don't think the series is over by any means like i don't think that okay like they're
16:59done
16:59now um but this is this is a this is a devastating one and that's what like that's what i
17:05said earlier
17:05today is the toughness and tomorrow being able to flush this that is where to me the the mental
17:12toughness shows up to be able to get back on the horse and do it again but no i don't
17:17think the
17:17series is over absolutely not jason thank you very much uh we appreciate it glad you're uh up and
17:24running again and your wheels are fixed and all that other crap you told me all right man oh was
17:29that a thing or are you mad at me was that a fake laugh no sounded fake to me it
17:34sounded like a fake
17:35laugh whatever you're just looking for a fight today because you're in a bad mood oh i already had a
17:39fight today go back and listen to the six o'clock oh that's a new one no that was the
17:48old one yeah
17:49that was the old one yeah all right jason thank you i'll see you guys jason lloyd athletic columnist
17:56yeah that was the old one he just got but he did get giddy he's like oh i did something
18:00to do on the
18:00toilet boy it's if they include all that most of it oh boy you're going to get some weird texts
18:08later on today from our media brethren
Comments