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00:01All right, audio courtesy of ESPN. I'm not trying to slough it off. I'm just way more angry about
00:08game one than I am about game two. I'm disappointed in game two tone, but I understand the logic
00:15behind it. Like the game one was illogical. You should have won that game and that should have
00:19been it. Game two, okay, you didn't hit your shots. They kind of did the game plan you were
00:23talking about. You know, I kind of wanted to throw the ball to the block. Both games kind
00:28of play tough, do that sort of thing. You said you wanted to hit one of them to shoot
00:33a bunch of threes. I'm not blaming you. Obviously, I'm not trying to start a fight with you on
00:36this. This is not what I'm trying to do here. They shot a bunch of threes. They missed a
00:39bunch of threes. Sam Merrill was terrible last night. If they hit those shots, I think it's
00:44different. I think if they hit those shots in the second half, I think that Evan Mobley
00:47actually has an attempt in the second half because I think it pulls the defense out.
00:52So, obviously, we're disappointed and agitated that we're down 0-2, but for me, I'm not mad.
01:01I'm more mad. I was mad on Wednesday morning. I'm disappointed and know that there is a distinct
01:11need to win this game more than we ever have with this group ever, and that considers we
01:16are coming off a two-game seven, so I'm not trying to be hyperbolic here, but this is the
01:19truth because I think if you lose on Saturday, tomorrow, I think you're going to lose on
01:23Monday, and this show could be completely different Tuesday morning. I'm a little mad
01:27at Kenny. I can't lie. All right, let's get into it. Now, look, they shot 35 threes, and
01:32I think a lot of Cavs fans, especially the older Cavs fans from a different era, they'll
01:36say you shot 50 in the first game and lost, and you shot 35 in the second game. You couldn't
01:43hit. You couldn't buy a basket. Where was the changeup? Where was the off-speed pitch?
01:47Where was something else to go to the basket? He didn't call timeouts this time. He'll call
01:53timeouts when they're down by a bunch. It'll really be, where was Evan Mobley when he looked
01:59like a unicorn superstar in the first seven minutes of the game? Where was that as part
02:05of your game plan? Where was your adjustment, and why was it that you were just going to go
02:11down on both ends, really, not making the significant adjustments? The other adjustment
02:16I'm talking about defensively is, and they're in big trouble with the Jalen Brunson pick
02:21and roll. They just are. I was worried about that coming into the series, and I haven't
02:25seen anything to dispel that. I know the box score-wise, at least shooting-wise, it wasn't
02:30as crazy for Jalen Brunson as when he scored like 30 straight possessions at the end of the
02:35fourth quarter. But their adjustment to slow down Jalen Brunson was this really, really
02:41half-hearted, non-committal, kind of zoned. Are we trapping? Are we not? We're going to
02:47send another guy to put his hands up in the air to get the ball out of his hands. The
02:52problem is, now you're not defending Jalen Brunson, nor are you defending on the rotation.
02:59So it just led to the most wide-open shots. And yeah, Josh Hart, like, it was insane, the
03:05threes he was hitting, but they look like warm-up threes. When you watch NBA guys warm up before
03:10a game, I don't care who it is. I don't care how bad that player is. Like, if you go
03:15to
03:15a game, if you're ever privileged enough to just kind of watch from the sideline and you
03:19see, like, the worst player you've ever seen in the NBA will go 9 out of 10 on threes,
03:24open threes. Like, you'll see it. Like, centers. Like, you'll watch Andre Drummond just fire
03:28away when he was here in Cleveland. I'm like, he can do that? And just boom, boom, boom, boom,
03:33boom. So Josh Hart is capable of doing that. I know he shot so poorly in game one that they
03:38played him off the floor. But he came back in game two, and they just said, hey, we'll
03:43go down two games to nothing and put ourselves in a perilous situation by allowing him to just
03:50have open three after open three while, you know, our stars are battling, are fighting
03:54so hard, and he just gets to do that and walk into wide-open threes with no repercussions.
03:59Like, that is not a defensive adjustment.
04:01No.
04:02Well, so I am mad at Kenny.
04:05Do you think there needs to be a flavor change after the season? Let's call it what it is.
04:09Let's call it what it is.
04:11Because his bedside manner, you know, I thought he was kind of, he's obviously, he's a different
04:19guy. I mean, when you hear Kenny, and I don't know if people were up early enough to, if you're
04:24just waking up, maybe you heard the warm-up show. Like, Jeff played him at length. And I
04:30will tell you, the first reaction I had was agitation, because I went right to bed right
04:33after. I wasn't in the mood. I just went, well, you know, we're down 0-2, and tomorrow's
04:38going to be another one. Tomorrow's just going to be another one. And I knew I wasn't mad,
04:42but I go, okay, I got things I got to get off my chest, and I got them off my
04:45chest right
04:46then and there. I got, obviously, other things we have to do. But my thought was, when I heard
04:51Kenny on the way in, I'm going, man, when they lose, and they lose big games, and I had to
04:57remember, I'm like, I said I wasn't mad after the game. So I can't come in here and start
05:02screaming and yelling at Kenny because of his post-game demeanor. Now, you're talking
05:07about on-floor stuff, which is obviously much bigger than post-game demeanor stuff. Post-game
05:13demeanor, that's me just getting emotional and getting upset, because I'm like, man, where's
05:18any of the stuff that, again, you don't need to go out and rip your own players, because
05:22you still are in a series, and it's an 0-2 series. So that's probably going to go against
05:26you. But some of the stuff that's being said, it's just like, man, I know you care, but it
05:30comes off like you don't. And it bothers me. That bothers me. And obviously, I think
05:36that you're right with some of the lack of the defensive adjustments and things like
05:39that. It was frustrating to see Josh Hart, a guy that you knew can be dangerous at
05:45times, go from game one where he was, as I hate to overuse the term, unplayable in the
05:52second half, which literally led to him not playing in overtime, basically, to being a
05:58guy who killed you. I came away with this game with more respect for Jalen Brunson, where
06:03he didn't just feel he had to put everything on his shoulders and just go fight everybody
06:08off, knowing that the defense, I felt, collapsed in on Jalen Brunson. He had, what, 14, 15 assists
06:13last night?
06:13He made the right decision.
06:14He was just going to make the right decision.
06:16And he has. I mean, ever since the fourth quarter of the last game, because remember,
06:19he was struggling before that. Cavs had really bottled him up. He was, he was turning the
06:22ball over. He was not making good decisions. He was taking bad shots. And then the fourth
06:26quarter happened. And it's like, it reminded him, oh yeah, I'm a superstar. I have owned
06:31this matchup with Donovan Mitchell. People have compared us in every ranking. They're always
06:36like neck and neck and people don't know how to differentiate them. And now this is the
06:40third playoff series where he is, you know, in a big way, completely outplaying Donovan and
06:47Donovan's gotten it out. Like I, I, we're going to have a big discussion about Donovan,
06:51how healthy he is. And I know there'll be people that watch him score the basketball
06:55and they'll, they'll go, he's not injured. This is just an excuse. And I'm here to tell
06:58you he's injured. Like he's, he's not moving the same way. And you need, you need Donovan
07:03Mitchell, especially a team like this built the way they are with Evan Mobley's probably
07:07a few years away from being what he looks capable of.
07:10Honestly, he watching him every single night for the last four years or almost every single
07:15night over the last four years. Like there is a difference, but in this, in the heat
07:20of this moment, it's going to sound like a great big fat excuse. Like we have to have
07:23a discussion about it. We have to have a segment about it at least, at least one here. I think
07:28people waking up and hearing us today at 6am tone, I really do think they're going to think
07:33we're making excuses for him. And I don't think you're trying to, and I don't think I'm trying
07:36to. I just think you're looking at a guy who definitely is, is banged up there.
07:39Like he can't elevate around the rim. Everything's a floater now. And look, it's been trending
07:43in his career. Let's be fair. You know, as, as he's getting closer to 30 and this is what
07:48it's going to look like moving forward. Like he's not going to be able to attack the rim
07:51with reckless abandon. Now we saw moments of that in game one and we saw balls to the wall
07:56defense in game one. And it had me thinking like, Oh, is, is he going to be able to do
08:02this for an
08:02extended period of time? And the quick answer was no, because I told you, this was our disagreement
08:06yesterday about, about the level of, was he gassed? Was he not? Legler agreed with you. He's like,
08:10well, it can't be that he's gassed. I mean, look at what the calves were able to do. And
08:14you know, the second round of this, these playoffs, look at what they were able to do
08:18conditioning and injury. I really do. That's nitpicky, but I think there's a big difference
08:22to it, Anthony, between conditioning and a guy who's banged up. Like you can't tell me they're
08:28not conditioned and they're not ready to go. I understand that there might be some soreness
08:31and there might be some tiredness there, but you're, you're just going to have to get over
08:35that as a professional athlete. I know I'm saying that and I know what I look like
08:38on YouTube right now, but the truth is the truth, right? For him, if you're injured,
08:42well, that's different because you're not six foot eight where you could kind of get away
08:46with it more. Now, if I'm, if I'm New York, I'll come out and I'll defend you and I'll,
08:50I'll body you. I'll get physical with you and try to take you out of it and see whether
08:54or not I can pressure you in the moment where, okay, let's see if you can just throw off
08:59and adjust to James Harden. And if James Harden can answer that call, I will try to come
09:04out and be aggressive with you and get physical with you and value even if I have to
09:07with some other people to see if you can whip the ball into Evan Mobley or if you're finding
09:12Sam Merrill and Sam Merrill can hit shots. Like that's kind of what I'm thinking. That
09:16might be wrong, but that that's kind of what I would do. So this is all explainable and
09:21we're in a tight spot right now. I'm not, I don't think the series is over. I think that
09:25if you woke up on the right side of the bed light yesterday, you hit those shots. It's not
09:29an 18-0 run because you just weren't hitting shots. There was plenty of open looks. I agreed
09:33with every guy playing for the Cavs saying, we got a bunch of open looks. We just didn't
09:37hit him. I agreed wholeheartedly with him. And sometimes I get annoyed with that analysis
09:41after a lot of games.
09:42Oh, well, fine. I guess I'm annoying you.
09:43No, no, no, no. The first half, that was the best offensive half in terms of looks that
09:50they produced that I had seen in the playoffs up to that point. So the fact they were down
09:54four, you know, you could take that one of two ways. You could say, well, that's very
09:58good because they're going to hit shots in the second half. But what I was worried about
10:01was when you're playing every other day, the mental component is in, you're on the road,
10:05you realize you coughed up that game in historic fashion down, you know, up 22 and you lose
10:11that game at game one. I wondered mentally how they were going to respond. And then the
10:16mental turns into the physical. And I think we saw in the third quarter that the mental
10:21turned into the physical and they can't get back on defense. Like most teams, James Harden
10:26are going to have trouble with that, but it was a team effort of not being able to get back
10:29on defense. So every time they didn't turn the ball over as much, but every time you do
10:33turn the ball over, it's a layup. Like you're not, you're not blessed with the athleticism
10:37that the other three remaining teams do have. Like even the Knicks, Knicks aren't a crazy
10:41athletic team, but they're still more athletic than you. Like that is, that is one of the
10:46downsides to going and get James Harden. Like you didn't get more athletic from Darius Garland.
10:50Like you already were in a little bit of a rut there and you were just hoping that, that
10:55his, his, when you trade for James Harden, that his creation and his ability to fill it up,
11:01well, what has kind of gone away as we get further and deeper into the playoffs? Like
11:06James is looking like the most unathletic player still playing on any of these teams right now.
11:12And your other guys aren't able to make up for it. Like you're hoping, Oh, James is setting up
11:16the assist or the hockey assist. But when they're not, they're not hitting those shots, when they're
11:21not converting those shots, now you become really one noted. They don't have another, another
11:28changeup. They just don't have another thing to go to. Especially if Evan Mobley is not going to
11:33touch the ball in the second half or call for the ball in the second half. That's coaching. And
11:36that's Evan Mobley. I mean, that's both like, that's, that's the adjustment that I think everybody
11:41like, who do the Knicks have that can guard Evan Mobley? Like you feel like Evan should be able
11:45to attack those guys. Well, here's Kenny last night on Evan and his shot attempts in the second half.
11:51I mean, we, we got to look at it because that's obviously as well as Evan played in the first
11:56half. He should have more shots. Again, I could just say that they are, they were really tagging
12:00our rollers. They are in there. And you know, my big preaching to them these past day or two is,
12:05is hit the open man. And I felt like they did that. So we'll have to look at it. Of
12:09course,
12:10you've got to always got the offensive boards. Can we get an out and transition more? You know,
12:13that would be another way. We've got to find a way to get them, get them involved more,
12:17even with the defensive. Kenny, we've sorry to interrupt. Which Kenny? Me or him?
12:21Both of you. Okay. Kenny, Kenny's, we got to look at it. Like this, this is not like we,
12:27we watch the NFL quarterbacks the minute they have to, they throw the interception. They are
12:31looking at it on the tablet. Yeah, they are. These guys have all of that stuff available to
12:35them. You just, you normally don't, like I saw Jalen Brunson in game one. He was looking at a tablet
12:39when he was on the bench in the second quarter, trying to figure things out. You have the ability
12:43to look at this stuff the minute it happens. Like, what are we talking about? We've got to look at
12:48it.
12:48Like it didn't feel to the head coach. Like what kind of pulse does he have on the team
12:51that they're there in the second half that what did he need to be told that there were
12:56no shot attempts from Evan Mobley? I'm going to repeat the stat line guys, zero field goal
13:00attempts, zero makes zero, three point attempts, zero makes. He did get to the foul line twice.
13:07He had two rebounds. He had three assists, zero steals, one block, one turnover.
13:11This all second half. This is all available in real time to Kenny Atkinson.
13:15The rest of those stats were all second half. That was all second half.
13:17Because I know he was, what, five for eight in the first half?
13:19Yeah, all in the first quarter.
13:21Okay, 14 points in the first half. And to lose track of him.
13:26Why did he say he needs to look at it?
13:28I understand I've got to put a little bit on it.
13:29What is he looking at on the sidelines?
13:31Because you know what? Because it's welcome to a Browns Monday, man.
13:34That's what Browns coaches do. They say we've got to look at it.
13:37He has no feel.
13:39I understand what you're saying. He's just trying to get through there.
13:41This is a Browns game. This is a Browns. He's trying to get through the press conference.
13:45We've got to look at it.
13:46No.
13:46You don't think he's not looking at it?
13:48I mean, come on. You hear this?
13:50Get it to him in the pocket more. In the pick and roll.
13:52But, you know, it's a little bit like they're sucking in.
13:55They're in the paint.
13:56And I thought we did a great job hitting the perimeter guys.
13:59Bunch of swing swings. Bunch of wide open threes.
14:02You know, you've got to kind of take what the defense gives you.
14:05Obviously, they're trying to take away the defense.
14:07That part is true. I thought they did have wide open threes.
14:09That part is true.
14:10The taking a look at it thing, though, I go, you might as well put orange and brown on that
14:15guy.
14:15Because that's a Browns answer.
14:16I know we've got to go. The first half, I agree with them.
14:19Oh, no, we don't. You want to hear some more, Kenny?
14:20Yeah, might as well.
14:21We didn't shoot the ball well.
14:22I thought we had a lot of good looks.
14:24Good looks from three.
14:25Good looks at the rim.
14:26I thought our process was right.
14:27Took care of the ball.
14:28You hear that phrase?
14:29Offensive rebounded.
14:30The process was right?
14:30It wasn't a great shooting night.
14:31Get ready.
14:32You've got to put the ball in the hole.
14:33Buckle up.
14:34You're going to hear it a lot.
14:35The process was right in the first half.
14:38You, as a head coach, have to adjust.
14:40The guys aren't hitting.
14:41Are you just going to go down with the ship no matter what in the second half?
14:46Because, by the way, the process wasn't as good in the second half.
14:48Because they got down.
14:49They got a little dead-legged, whatever.
14:52I'm not going to take the answer of, well, they were tagging the rollers.
14:57So, therefore, they took Evan Mobley out of the game.
15:00The whole point of Evan Mobley is he can handle the ball a little bit.
15:03He can come out to the three-point line.
15:05You can't just tell me that they defended the role,
15:09and, therefore, Evan Mobley is a non-entity the rest of the game.
15:12When Carl Anthony Towns can't guard him, Mitchell Robinson can't guard him,
15:16Josh Hart can cause problems because he's physical,
15:19but he still has given up five inches to him.
15:21You can't tell me they tagged the rollers,
15:23and, therefore, that's the end of Evan Mobley's series.
15:26Well, the Cavs are going to disagree with you in the postgame last night,
15:29and you're going to hear it all day.
15:30They thought the process was right.
15:31They kept reiterating it.
15:32I thought our process was right.
15:34You're going to hear it over and over again.
15:35The process was right.
15:36Our process was right tonight.
15:37Throughout the entire game, our process was right.
15:39Could easily stole game one.
15:41I thought our process was right tonight.
15:43I think getting away from the process is, it happened.
15:46Our process was right.
15:47It was definitely the right process.
15:49That part of the process is on us.
15:51The process was right.
15:52That's all from last night?
15:54Yes.
15:54Yeah, then your process is going to lead you getting swept.
15:57That's what it's going to do.
15:59This is the NBA playoffs.
16:01Teams are going to take away the stuff you do well.
16:04What's your next pitch?
16:06It would have really made me feel a lot better had you been with me on this.
16:10Now I am actually nervous.
16:12Because I was going to ask, like, oh, is the series over?
16:14Which is a typical thing you ask when you're down 0-2.
16:17I know you guys did that when they were down 0-2 against the Pistons.
16:21And I thought you were going to agree with me.
16:23And you don't agree with me.
16:25And I'm not fighting you on it.
16:26And I'm nervous now.
16:27I was not nervous 15 minutes ago.
16:29And now I am.
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