00:00Hard to believe, folks, 7 minutes, 40 seconds to play.
00:04Cavs with a 22-point lead in Game 1 of the New York Knicks.
00:09And it went away.
00:11And it went away quickly, decisively,
00:15and they still had a chance to win the game in overtime,
00:19and then got smoked in the overtime.
00:21Welcome to Baskin and Phelps.
00:23I'm Jeff Phelps.
00:24My buddy over there is Andy Baskin.
00:26Stunning, Andy.
00:28Stunning.
00:29Is it, though?
00:30Well, let me throw this out.
00:33Yes, it's stunning.
00:33The Cavaliers played phenomenal basketball in the second and third quarters.
00:39Yeah, they did.
00:40They were phenomenal.
00:41They did a great job.
00:43Yes.
00:43And through a good chunk of the fourth quarter, played phenomenal basketball.
00:48Yes.
00:49And then so many things.
00:53So many things went wrong.
00:55So many people you can point the finger at.
00:59And we will.
01:01And so will everybody else.
01:02216-474-0092.
01:04Number to join us.
01:05I'm Jeff Phelps.
01:06This is Andy Baskin.
01:07Good morning.
01:08I sit here, and I think we all saw it coming.
01:11We all know this team has played, what, like 14 games in 28 days.
01:16Are you going there?
01:16We knew they were exhausted.
01:18Yeah, I'm going right there, right out of the gate.
01:19They were, look, I don't, I get it.
01:23You get it.
01:24But for some reason, Kenny Atkinson didn't get it yesterday.
01:27I have no idea why he didn't call a timeout down the stretch.
01:31He could have stopped the bleeding a couple times.
01:33I have no idea why they felt the need to start jacking up threes when they were up 22.
01:38I mean, I'll even question why they decided that they wanted to start hacking Mitchell.
01:42Like, why were they doing that?
01:44Like, how about just play the game and you win?
01:48If they would have just had a normal fourth quarter, they would have won.
01:53I'm still like, oh, wait, let me stop.
01:56Oh, wait, I just burned a timeout.
01:58Oh, at least I knew how to do that.
02:00You got to be kidding me.
02:02Like, what was Kenny thinking in the fourth quarter?
02:05That was like, I don't even, that was Saturday morning in college,
02:09and you couldn't leave the bathroom.
02:10It was so bad.
02:11Was Charles Barkley right that they choked last night?
02:14Absolutely, he was right.
02:16They choked last night.
02:18Do I feel bad for him?
02:20A little bit.
02:21Do I know it's just one game?
02:22And if they come back with a split, it's okay.
02:24But you're still going to sit and wonder.
02:26You're going to be like, damn, they should have had game one.
02:30I don't get it.
02:31I don't understand it.
02:33Man, I just, and even if, I would have been okay,
02:35even if the three from Merrill goes in late, I'd be like, okay, all right.
02:38I get it, man.
02:39That was a tough series.
02:40Like, part of the game I'm thinking like, wow,
02:42I'm really glad we had this series against Detroit
02:44because the Knicks look horrible,
02:45and Detroit really got us ready for this series.
02:48And then what do they do?
02:51Right down the toilet.
02:54Entering yesterday's game, and they had this stat on the telecast,
02:58Chris Fedor had it in his real good recap written in the Plain Dealer.
03:04Entering the game, teams that were down by 22 points or more
03:08in the fourth quarter of a playoff game.
03:11Just once, right?
03:12A record of 1-594.
03:181-594.
03:20So it's now 2-594.
03:23And when the Cavs had a 22-point lead, Chris had this step.
03:27At that point, when the Cavs were up by 22 and the clock had ticked down to about 740
03:32before the Knicks cut it down to 20,
03:35the Cavs had a win probability of 99.9%.
03:4499.9%.
03:48Timeouts, Andy?
03:49Yep.
03:49Kenny had two left, and he didn't take them.
03:52I'll even throw in the seven missed free throws.
03:54That was huge.
03:54We saw that coming.
03:55We saw that coming from Game 7 against Detroit.
03:58Saw it.
04:00And people are going to call and scream about James Harden today.
04:03Okay, fine.
04:04Go ahead.
04:05If James Harden, first of all, you're probably not where you are right now
04:10in the Eastern Conference Finals without James Harden.
04:12Yesterday, he was not at his best.
04:15If he didn't play well in certain games against Detroit, you probably aren't here.
04:20Maybe Detroit wins that series.
04:21Regardless, you didn't bring in James Harden to be your defensive stopper.
04:27No.
04:28And if you're the coach and you immediately see what Mike Brown is doing,
04:33which, by the way, Cav fans, did that look familiar?
04:372007, LeBron James, Pistons, 25 straight points.
04:41Give the ball to LeBron and everybody else flatten out.
04:45Guys go to the baseline corner.
04:47Guys go out of the corner out top.
04:48LeBron, go.
04:49So, that's exactly what he did last night with Jalen Brunson.
04:52Yeah, 100%.
04:53He ran to get him open.
04:55I showed him on James Harden and Brunson went nuts.
04:59Same thing LeBron did.
05:01Same thing.
05:02Except Brunson, 6'2", and LeBron, 6'8".
05:05And the minute Kenny sees that, how about this, Andy?
05:12You traded for James Harden, right?
05:14You also traded for Keon Ellis.
05:16Yeah, I know.
05:17And Keon, when you traded for him, he's a defensive stopper.
05:22He's a guy who can help us off the bench.
05:25He played 5 minutes and 27 seconds.
05:27How about in that situation?
05:29Because you had plenty of points.
05:31You had a 22-point lead.
05:33The minute that you see they're ISO-ing him, one time, fine, no problem, okay?
05:39Brunson scores, great, fine, that's once.
05:42Then twice.
05:43Oh, wait a minute.
05:44Let's adjust here.
05:47And Chris Fedor counted them up.
05:49It was eight straight possessions where they ran the same thing and Kenny didn't adjust.
05:53How about this?
05:54Use one of those timeouts.
05:57Or just, you know, when you can sub, sub.
06:01Bring in Keon Ellis and tell Keon, who you acquired because of his defensive abilities.
06:08Tell Keon, you and, let's say it's Dean Wade on the floor.
06:12You and Dean Wade get on Jalen Brunson as he crosses half court.
06:18And if he doesn't have the ball, good, don't let him get it.
06:21And if he does have the ball, good, trap him and make him give it up.
06:25All you needed was like two or three stops, Andy, and you win the game.
06:28If you made one stop, Jeff, they wouldn't.
06:30You'd have won the game.
06:31If you would have made one more free throw.
06:33If James is out of the game and you wanted him out there because he's running the offense,
06:38well, the offense went away late.
06:40So give the ball to Donovan Mitchell, who was nonexistent in the fourth quarter and in overtime
06:45and was tremendous earlier on in the game.
06:48Give the ball to Donovan.
06:49Let him run the offense.
06:50You've got Keon Ellis on the floor, who's there because of his defense and three-point
06:55shooting ability.
06:56And Dean Wade hit three-pointers in the game.
06:58Dean was three of five on threes.
07:01All you need is a basket or two.
07:04But you acquired Keon.
07:07Keon's not the answer to everything.
07:09But James was getting abused.
07:11Jeff, here's the problem.
07:12Here's the ultimate problem.
07:13You laid out everything that's 100% right.
07:15I'm laying out little things.
07:17And this isn't Monday morning quarterback.
07:18This is basketball.
07:21Blatantly obvious.
07:21Take a freaking time out when the bleeding is all over the place.
07:27Put a tourniquet on that thing.
07:29And you had two of them.
07:30You had two.
07:31You could have used one and saved one for the final minute.
07:33You just sat there.
07:34You, oh, what are we going to do?
07:37Oh, just keep playing.
07:39Hang on.
07:39Maybe it'll go away.
07:40Maybe it'll go.
07:41What are you doing?
07:43I'm not saying that.
07:44Look, they may have done exactly.
07:46But at least give these guys that have played 14 games in 28 days or whatever it is.
07:52I don't even care at this point.
07:54You know they're gassed.
07:55You just came out of a blistering series against Detroit.
08:00Everybody was worried about the fourth quarter.
08:03Like anyone I talked to, I'm like, oh, man, this is going to be a tough game.
08:05I'm worried that they're going to lose it in the fourth quarter.
08:07Like that was my thought the whole time.
08:09And it's just common sense.
08:11There was no common sense to that game last night.
08:15Andy, the Knicks were fresh, right?
08:17Well, they looked in the fourth and in overtime.
08:19Well, they looked rusty early, but that's okay.
08:21They looked rusty in the second and third.
08:23But they were fresh.
08:24And Mike Brown played 10 guys.
08:28Mike played.
08:28Barely.
08:29Mike played nine guys at least 14 minutes.
08:32And the Cavaliers played eight guys, basically.
08:36Yeah, eight guys.
08:36Keon Ellis played five minutes and 27 seconds.
08:38If you put Ellis out there, I was like, okay, Kenny, good job, man.
08:41We're getting some guys out there that do have fresh legs.
08:44The guys that have, I mean, even Tyson or anybody.
08:47Just get anybody that might be.
08:49I guarantee our second group probably could have held them for at least a minute on fresh legs.
08:56I'm just asking.
08:57All you needed was 30 seconds.
09:0030 seconds.
09:01That's all you needed from that bench.
09:03That's it.
09:04Instead, he plays three guys.
09:08Everyone's gassed.
09:09Who said?
09:10You felt it.
09:12You knew it.
09:13It was in your stomach.
09:14It's the DNA of the drive, the fumble, and the shot.
09:17It's living right inside of you.
09:20And it reared its ugly head yesterday.
09:23Cavs are up by 22.
09:24Right?
09:25740 to go.
09:27Andy, the Knicks hadn't scored more than, they scored 23 points in each of the first three quarters.
09:34They're down 22 with 740 to go.
09:38The Cavs had done a great job defensively against them most of the game.
09:41I mention that as what I thought was the most important thing the Cavs had to do.
09:46Their defense had to be good.
09:48Their defense really had to be good.
09:50And it was.
09:52Until it mattered most.
09:54And I'm not going to blame James Harden.
09:57Kenny said something after the game that I thought, boy, if people weren't watching,
10:02they're going to just think Kenny's just throwing some BS out there and it's an excuse.
10:07He said Brunson hit some tough shots.
10:09You know what he did?
10:10Oh, he did.
10:11Yeah.
10:11There were times when Harden got abused by Brunson.
10:15There were a couple of other times where James was in an adequate position.
10:18I'm not going to say great.
10:19He was adequate.
10:21And Brunson made some tough shots.
10:24Well, I got to be honest.
10:25If I'm James Harden today, I'm not real happy with my head coach.
10:30It's like, dude, how about a little help?
10:33Can you come up with something other than me getting screened?
10:37And we run the, we just switch it.
10:40They get exactly what they want.
10:42Mike Brown afterwards.
10:43We're going to hear it, Mike, coming up.
10:44Mike Brown afterwards said, oh yeah, we were hunting James Harden.
10:48We were going right after.
10:48Oh, for sure.
10:49Why wouldn't he?
10:50But you know what else Mike said?
10:51Just like they go after Jalen Brunson.
10:53Absolutely.
10:54You know, they're hunting Jalen Brunson.
10:56Yeah.
10:56Because Jalen's 6'2 and not the best defender.
11:01So they turned the tables.
11:03And it worked.
11:05You know, I used to get depressed after these losses.
11:07Now I just get mad.
11:08Now you're just kind of steamed.
11:09No, I just get PO'd.
11:11Man, I just, it's ridiculous.
11:13They never should have lost that game last night.
11:15You know, it's the NBA and things have a way of working out.
11:17And Dan Gilbert put something out on social media.
11:20He's like, you know, at the end of the day, it's one game.
11:22He's right.
11:23He's right.
11:24Except this is the kind of game that leaves a mark.
11:26Well, it depends.
11:27If you come back and you win, you can be like, oh, remember when they choked in game one and
11:32came back?
11:32All right.
11:33I can live with that.
11:34You're never, ever, ever going to walk away from that saying you didn't choke this game.
11:37You did.
11:38You did.
11:39That's all there is to it.
11:40Eat it, own it, and move forward.
11:45Yeah, it's not that easy.
11:462-1-6-4-7-4-0-0-9-2.
11:49We want your thoughts.
11:49There are a lot of fingers to be pointing.
11:54Parts of this game, the Cavs were phenomenal.
11:58Can they capture that and move ahead in the series?
12:03Or is that fourth quarter in the overtime just going to scar them?
12:07I'm afraid it's the latter.
12:08You coughed up a 22-point lead with 7 minutes and 40 seconds to go.
12:14In a Madison Square Garden that was dead.
12:17It was dead.
12:19Completely dead.
12:19Dead.
12:20And you gave the Knicks life.
12:22I don't know.
12:23I asked you guys this as we were talking throughout the game last night.
12:25Do you ever see Celebrity Row when the Knicks are losing?
12:28Never.
12:29Never.
12:29Like, Ben Stiller doesn't exist.
12:32Well, Ben didn't play defense.
12:34Then again, neither did the Cavs down the stretch.
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