00:00Kenny Atkinson, Cavaliers head coach, taking a fair amount of flack, if you were.
00:07Not great for the Cavs' latest playoff loss there.
00:12And again, I don't know I would say he was great, but he did try different things.
00:16Whether it was intentional or not, they did go away from the bigs.
00:20Jared Allen sat on the bench for a big swath of a part of the game.
00:24Like, Tyson got some run in this game.
00:26I think you did some good things.
00:29That's at least a counter for Kenny Atkinson to game one, where it was like,
00:33Bub, if you did one thing right in that fourth quarter, we would have gotten the win.
00:38I didn't necessarily feel that way, even though I didn't necessarily have a glow-up Kenny Atkinson game.
00:42It definitely was not a glow-up Kenny Atkinson game.
00:44I think the thing that's getting a lot of ridicule is what I mentioned in the first segment.
00:4711-0 run, and then you take Donovan out.
00:50Little things like that that just seem unforgivable.
00:52You're just not giving your team a chance to escape basically the onslaught of offense the Knicks offer up.
00:57And so that's one thing I'm interested in.
00:59Like, he clearly, and he's done this in this postseason, Nick, where he's tried to err on the side of,
01:04I'm going to put the best defense I can consistently out there.
01:06Against the Knicks, I just think you have to just say, I'm just going to score a bunch of points.
01:10Yeah.
01:11But even the rebuttal to that, I think, is fair, which is, well, they had good looks, so if the
01:15shots go in, they would have had the offense.
01:17Well, but even within that conversation, too, it's like, all right, you had a plan at least.
01:22I'll give him credit for that.
01:23Like, the plan was make Josh Hart beat us.
01:27That's at least a plan.
01:28And you know what?
01:28Seeing how bad Josh Hart was in not only game one, but in the previous series, that's not really the
01:34worst plan I've ever heard.
01:35Like, all right, Brunson's going to do basically nothing.
01:37We're going to limit Brunson.
01:38And part of that idea is that Josh Hart's going to get a bunch of really good looks, and we're
01:43just going to make Josh Hart pay, or make us pay for it, and Josh Hart was able to deliver.
01:48I want to get to Luke here in Lorraine in just one second, but 216-474-0092.
01:53How much did that game bother you last night?
01:55Because I just, I'm really okay on the other side of this.
01:58I just think when you're saying, all right, you were not good from three-point, and your bench really, really
02:04shot your way out of that game.
02:06You missed free throws, which they've oddly dealt with all season long, and for half that game, we were wondering
02:13if Donovan is healthy.
02:14Yeah, yeah.
02:15And that was about the quietest, what did he finish with, 26?
02:1926, yeah.
02:20And he had seven in the first half?
02:22Yeah.
02:22That's probably the quietest 19 I think I've ever seen in my life in a half of basketball.
02:26I mean, there was, you know, we had a caller after game one that was trying to put it on
02:31Donovan's injury, because Donovan slipped at some part in the game.
02:34And if you go back and watch, like, yeah, Donovan had some minutes where he moved to the other side
02:38of the court.
02:39He also had some minutes where he just took the ball and made things happen.
02:42He just lost the game.
02:44Last night, he looked like he was laboring.
02:46But then it would be weird.
02:47Because then he had some explosive moments.
02:49He put, like, three minutes of just, oh, Donovan's back kind of thing.
02:53And it's funny.
02:54I know people get frustrated about this.
02:55Guys, in the midst of trying to win the NBA Finals, the Cavs aren't going, unless it's a very serious
03:01injury that's going to keep him out games, Cavs aren't going to come out and telegraph an injury.
03:05Well, they've already said that it's something that internally they're trying to really focus on not doing, because in years
03:10past, they felt like they used that as too much of an excuse.
03:13Which I think they did.
03:14I think that anytime anybody got any sort of injury, they were going to the podium and talking about it,
03:18doing that LeBron move where he shows up and is just like, all right, hey, guys.
03:22He's like, oh, yeah, no, what's this?
03:24What's this on my hand?
03:25Oh, okay, obvious.
03:25Donovan shows up for a pregame shoot-around tomorrow.
03:29And then, like, a full body cast.
03:30Yeah, and he's like, no, I'm good, guys.
03:32I'm good.
03:33What are you even noticing?
03:34That's what's weird about that answer he had back in return, Nick.
03:36Where he's like, no, I'm great.
03:37I'm great.
03:38I'm great.
03:38But he's smiling.
03:39He's smiling as if to be like, thank you for catching that.
03:42And then he, like, does a wink.
03:43I was worried that people wouldn't.
03:45Thank you for noticing.
03:46Hey, I'm totally healthy.
03:49That is odd, though, how often the broadcast.
03:52Really highlighted and focused in on that.
03:54I thought they did a miserable job of highlighting that in game one at all.
03:57Or even trying to make that any part of the storyline or any part of any of that.
04:00And then game two, instantly, they were just like, all right, this is what we're going with
04:03because he looks off.
04:04It's like, all right, that's what you want to do.
04:06But second half, he scored a lot.
04:08He did a lot.
04:08I'm not putting that on the injury.
04:10The thing about the game four, I agree about the Donovan thing, which is if you've got,
04:17like, a 10-point-plus lead and you're trying to stave off an onslaught from the Knicks,
04:22give it to Donovan and be okay with iso ball, totally questionable.
04:26That's not about the lights being too bright.
04:28It's not.
04:29I mean, again, do I think they felt the pressure of their impending collapse?
04:32Yes.
04:33But I don't think there was anything specific beyond, hey, we're up big and now we're not
04:38up big.
04:39I think that's called playoff basketball.
04:41I mean, yeah, to me, it's pretty easy.
04:42The bench didn't shoot particularly well.
04:44I thought the actual, like, the core four side of it, nobody played a great game.
04:48Everyone was somewhere probably right below average, all things considered.
04:52And then go to the Knicks side of things.
04:53Cat was awesome last night.
04:55Mikael Bridges, he was phenomenal last night.
04:58And obviously, you got the contribution from Hart.
05:01And then Brunson in the second half was the Jalen Brunson that everybody knows.
05:05Like, there's not too much that you need to dissect here.
05:08Their best players played great.
05:10Ours played, I would say, slightly below average.
05:12I, there's not any one of our players I thought played an above average game, but they also
05:16didn't play miles below average either.
05:18It was just kind of there.
05:19Now, I thought it was interesting.
05:21Uh, the word unlikable has been, uh, ascribed to the Cavs and by Cavs fans.
05:26I have said that previously in previous, uh, a series as well.
05:30Well, Kendrick Perkins was on first take and, uh, he did Kendrick Perkins things talking
05:35about this Cavs team.
05:35It's an embarrassment to the NBA.
05:38And if I'm Adam Silver, I would think about finding them for the performance and the effort
05:43that they're displaying on the floor.
05:46It is horrible.
05:47I know the game plan is to say, hey, we're going to leave Josh Hart.
05:51We're going to double team big body Brunson.
05:54We're going to make others beat us.
05:56It's a difference of making someone miss with a contest or hoping that they miss.
06:01When I think about the Cavs and I'm watching the Cavs, I look at a team that said, you
06:06know what?
06:07We've reached our goal.
06:09Our goal was to reach the conference finals.
06:12That's their goal because that's not a goal that's trying.
06:14They're not a team that's trying to go get it and win a championship.
06:18I like Perk a lot.
06:20What an idiot.
06:22Everything that guy just said is horse bleep.
06:24Is he suggesting?
06:24I almost said the real deal right there.
06:26Just, that was just the dumbest thing.
06:27Is he suggesting they're just not even trying?
06:29Is that the idea?
06:30Yeah.
06:30I don't know.
06:31We're happy.
06:31I don't get how you watch these first two games and say the Cavs aren't trying.
06:35I really don't.
06:36And I, again, I understand there've been times in that Piston series where it felt like they
06:41were in a malaise.
06:42There were certainly times in the Raptors series where it's like, are you guys interested in
06:46this series?
06:46I get the narrative that is out there, but I don't understand this segment.
06:51And I, our boy, I'm not trying to throw our guy out there, but like Radu has kind of
06:55mentioned this yesterday after the game one loss.
06:57And I've heard that word unlikable, embarrassing.
07:00And it's like, I don't think any of that's fair.
07:03Like they have made the Eastern conference finals and they've played better in these first
07:08two games than they did the first two games in Detroit.
07:10And I like, I, the difference between how Detroit played in those first two games and how the
07:15Cavs played and the difference between how the Knicks have played and the Cavs have played.
07:19Don't give me the, don't give me the final score.
07:21Like, like look at how the game actually went.
07:24And I think it's, yes, New York's probably winning.
07:27If we did the percentages, they're probably 53% to your 47%.
07:32That's not that that's, that's not an incredible golf to kind of get over.
07:36Yeah.
07:36They're playing hard.
07:37I get what I would take offense to is the idea that, uh, like, like daring Josh Hart to
07:41beat you is a game plan.
07:43Is it the greatest game plan ever?
07:45No, probably not.
07:46Is it when Atkinson really wishes he didn't make, it didn't make him game two.
07:50Yeah.
07:50In hindsight, sure.
07:51But like to act as if that is an affront to basketball and a findable offense, like, no,
07:55that's a real game plan.
07:56Like they, how they basically did the same thing to us on the other end.
07:59They were, they were basically saying Sam Merrill after you've missed the first couple, go
08:02ahead and try, see what you can do.
08:03And Sam Merrill didn't cash.
08:05Josh Hart did cash.
08:06That's the difference.
08:06Yeah.
08:07But I think at some point we got to let the old narratives about the, the, the Cavs die.
08:11Like the, the lack of toughness type thing, or what is that?
08:14Well, the lack of toughness and the lack of effort.
08:16I just, if, listen, if it pops its head, you're going to hear it here.
08:19We're not going to be the show that just goes, well, it was an effort.
08:23The sun was in their eyes.
08:24The lights were too bright.
08:25No, no, we're going to tell you if we think that's what it is.
08:27That's not why they lost the last two games.
08:29And I, and I do think at some point, and I, and I don't, it's okay to like the Cavs.
08:37It's okay to like a team that is, that we've had a confusing relationship with this year.
08:43Like did, did game one chap my ass?
08:46Yeah, it did.
08:47But like, okay.
08:48It was embarrassing because it's against New York.
08:50It's embarrassing because it's the NBA playoffs.
08:52They still were in control for 42 minutes of that game last night.
08:55They played some really good basketball.
08:57All the shots just didn't fall.
08:59Yeah.
08:59Like this is not, they're getting run out of the gym or that the Cavs are disrespecting
09:04the game.
09:05Kendrick Perkins.
09:06If I was Adam Silver, that's why you'll never be Adam Silver.
09:08You goon.
09:09Like I'm talking, by the way, talk about a guy who just was a goon in the NBA and just
09:14gets on TV and just acts as if he was Michael Jordan.
09:18Just says whatever he wants.
09:19Like I just, I don't know that Perk actually watches the game.
09:22I really don't.
09:23Like if, if, no, if he says they weren't trying last night, I'm sorry, Perk.
09:27Did a producer tell you they weren't trying?
09:29And so you just went on air with that.
09:31Again, I'd like Kendrick Perkins.
09:33I, but I have to take, when you say things like this, it is, it is, it's disrespectful to
09:38the Cavs.
09:38And I don't have, I think they deserve respect after the first two rounds.
09:42They weren't lollygagging.
09:43They were definitely playing hard.
09:44Uh, I, I, again, I, the idea that they would just call it a win at the conference championship
09:49and then not show up.
09:50What team in the history of the NBA would ever have that mentality?
09:53Oh, we, we just reached as far as we can.
09:55And now we're going to pack it in.
09:56Like, that's not a thing you do ever, especially not for the first two games of the series.
09:59And you have to have evidence of that.
10:01I just don't understand it.
10:02You can't just say it because they're, yes, they're down 0-2.
10:05Plenty of teams.
10:06By the way, they've been down 0-2 before.
10:09Like in, in that Detroit series.
10:10Should we be embarrassed?
10:11I didn't feel any slight of embarrassment last night.
10:14Should we feel embarrassed?
10:15No.
10:15After the first two games.
10:16Am I missing something here?
10:17After the first two games of Detroit, we should have been.
10:19Because those were embarrassing performances.
10:21Yes, yes, that, I agree with that 100%.
10:22Not here.
10:23And I think a lot of people did feel embarrassed after the Detroit series.
10:25But I believe I espoused that I was embarrassed.
10:27I don't, I don't get the sense of that for this series at all and for the first two games.
10:30I really, I really, truthfully don't.
10:31How Daryl, this morning, Daryl said he thinks they're going to go to the Rocket Arena
10:35and leave tied up at two games apiece by the time we go back to New York.
10:39Give him, give him, give him, he wouldn't be saying that if he thought he was embarrassed.
10:41He will flip-flop on that thing.
10:43By the time we get to Saturday, I can't wait for his Sunday show.
10:45What happens Saturday night?
10:47Guys, I told you they were going to be down 3-0.
10:50I told you guys, the series was over.
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