00:00This is what I had said at the beginning of the show today.
00:03Before the season started, if you told me the Heat were full strength
00:06and coming off two nights rest,
00:08and they were going to play a Lakers team that was on the second night
00:11of a back-to-back, I would have told you,
00:13because I thought the roster was indicative of this,
00:16I would have told you the Heat win that game no problem.
00:18That's how talented I think Giannis is
00:21and how much he makes everyone around him that much better.
00:25And that wasn't the case.
00:27And so I was asking Solana and Crowder,
00:29like I'm wondering, is this an above-average team?
00:34Their two wins are against Atlanta.
00:36I think Atlanta is the definition of an average team.
00:40And Indiana without Tyrese Halliburton is not Indiana with Tyrese Halliburton.
00:46Without Zubats and McConnell, that was a G League team they beat that night.
00:50It kind of bothered me, the Heber talking off those two wins.
00:53We've turned it around.
00:54Yes, they moved to second place in the G League
00:57is basically what those two games meant.
00:59They still haven't had a signature win.
01:01And the problem is, Hawk, on this trip, when you have next,
01:03you have the Clippers on Wednesday, then the Warriors,
01:06then the Kings, then the Jazz.
01:07They're not going to have a signature win.
01:09You don't make your statement until you have that type of signature win.
01:13Right now, the Heat are absolutely in the oasis,
01:16and I don't know what they are.
01:18And Ira, the offense, you know, 117 is not bad.
01:22It's the defense that's getting to me this season.
01:24We've talked about it.
01:25So, a word you used.
01:26Why are they so flaccid on defense?
01:29And who the hell is their best defender on the outside?
01:32We got trees.
01:32I know we got trees.
01:33We got trees.
01:34We got trees.
01:34Who can defend on the outside?
01:36Donovan Mitchell, isn't his name like night off or lights out or something?
01:40He didn't look lights out when that damn European had the ball.
01:44It's Davion Mitchell, and it's off night that he got a bailer
01:48because he could stop anyone anytime, supposedly.
01:51You know what, Channing?
01:51Other than that, you almost nailed it, Crowder.
01:53Just between the name and the nickname.
01:55You almost had it.
01:56Besides the 0 for 2, you know, so, yeah.
01:59You almost had the actual name and almost had the actual nickname.
02:03But other than that, you nailed it.
02:05But Cleveland's Donovan Mitchell appreciates the word,
02:08so we'll leave it at that.
02:09I've done that.
02:09I've done that also.
02:10Believe me.
02:11My nightmare was two years ago when you had D.
02:13D. Mitchell against D. Mitchell and each team going at each other
02:15so I could totally understand.
02:17The problem with the Heat is, and I think you see this in a lot of sports,
02:20everyone thinks the other guy can get it done
02:22because Davion Mitchell is a good defender.
02:25Andrew Wiggins is a good defender.
02:27Bam Adebayo is a great defender.
02:29Giannis is a great defender.
02:30But I think the thing is they keep thinking that it's the other guy
02:35that's going to take care of it.
02:36So it's almost like the safety not coming over
02:38because you've got to kill a cornerback.
02:40So, of course, he's going to take care of the receiver.
02:42Sometimes you need help.
02:44The NBA, if a great scorer wants to score, he's going to beat his man.
02:49Giannis, we see it all the time, right?
02:50He drives one on three down the middle of the lane.
02:53He beats his man.
02:54Luke is going to beat his man or step back and be unstoppable.
02:57So it has to be team defense.
02:59This team defense right now, and you can aggregate this right now, is garbage.
03:04It's as if the guys are saying, well, you take care of it.
03:06I can't be bothered.
03:07The one guy I give a degree of a pass is Giannis because if he's giving you 30 points a
03:13game
03:13on the offensive end, unlike Bam with his eight points until very late in that game
03:17against the Lakers, that didn't matter.
03:19He's working his butt off.
03:20The other guys have to step up, have to become better teammates.
03:24Shocking.
03:24Such a good training camp.
03:25So much culture.
03:26So much all of that.
03:27And now everyone is leaving literally the other guy hung out to dry.
03:33Coach both sounded as annoyed.
03:35I think that's the best word to use yesterday, Ira, as I've maybe heard him sound after a
03:40game in a long time.
03:42But does he just flat out not like Andrew Wiggins?
03:46And that's why he keeps making him try to guard Luka Doncic one-on-one.
03:48Like I was telling Hocken Crowder, at least try to put Bam or Giannis on him.
03:53I understand there's a foul concern there.
03:54I get it.
03:55But it just wasn't working.
03:56He dropped 60 on Wiggins last year.
03:58And yesterday, Luka's putting up absurd numbers again.
04:02It wasn't working.
04:03Why not try something different?
04:05Well, they did trap and they did double.
04:07They just didn't do anything very well is the problem.
04:10You know, we always hear in sports, you know, you take away what you can and then you give
04:14up what you can.
04:15But Luka scored and also had 13 assists.
04:17So he got his and he got his teammates theirs also.
04:20Then he could say, well, we'll take away the threes.
04:22But if you take away the threes, the blow-bys were unfathomable.
04:26In that game, there was turnstiles last night against the Lakers.
04:30They were just having guys spinning like tops.
04:32So get this.
04:33They were too slow to get out to the threes, but not quick enough to guard the lanes and
04:39keep the guys from driving in the seams there.
04:42It was awful.
04:43So I think Eric Spolscher's postgame was not as angry as it was just a frustration.
04:48It was like, wait a minute.
04:49We went to training camp for a month.
04:51We played a full preseason.
04:52We got a couple of wins.
04:53What the hell are we doing here?
04:55And right now it looks like, which is crazy, seven games in, a fatigued team because guys,
05:02there's 75 still to go.
05:04Ira, I was going to ask that too, because it doesn't seem like the scheme is wrong.
05:08It seems like almost the effort.
05:10You say fatigue, but how can you be fatigued with less than 10 games?
05:13You know, is it effort?
05:15Because that would be very frustrating to a coach.
05:17You know, to a man, we spoke to Davion, we spoke to Giannis, we spoke to Bam in the locker
05:20room yesterday, and they were all saying the same thing, that they're almost saying, well,
05:24since each guy is such a good defender, they can handle it on his own.
05:28We don't have to help.
05:29They've got to become a team.
05:30We've seen this in so many sports.
05:32They might have four great independent defensive contractors, but in the NBA, it's five men
05:38on the string.
05:38That's the question I asked all the guys yesterday.
05:40You always hear that expression.
05:41We've got to play defense like five men on a string.
05:44It's like the rope is frayed or the rope is broken or the combination doesn't work.
05:49So again, maybe it's because Luca, as much as Wiggs started on him, he loved getting those
05:54switches onto Klay Thompson.
05:56I mean, you talk about, you know, the old cartoons and you see the red meat before they turned it
06:00into a hamburger sandwich and you see what they can do to a guy like that.
06:04But when he got Klay Thompson on him, it was absolute open season.
06:08And the crazy thing is two games from now, they were the best of teammates.
06:12You bet that Steph Curry is going to try to get Klay Thompson on him all the time so that
06:17he better figure out their schemes.
06:18They have to win defensively as a team right now.
06:22Their team, their team defense is awful and their metrics 27th in the league and defense
06:2829th in the league and giving up three point percentage 30th in the league and giving up
06:32the most three pointers.
06:33Yeah.
06:34You get those numbers.
06:35You're going to be a two and five team.
06:36Is that a Spoh problem though?
06:38Because when you look at it, you look at the roster.
06:40Remember we had the conversation before the season started.
06:42You're like, they have the best player in the East.
06:44They have the best player in the East on their team.
06:47So if we know they have all these pieces or contractors, we know they have good defenders
06:54and it's not working.
06:56They're very mediocre.
06:57So it's not working.
06:59Is that a Spoh problem?
07:01It's a system problem.
07:03And then it's a stubbornness problem.
07:05And Spoh is going to have to change something.
07:08And we see the great coaches in all sports, including Eric Spolstra, who's done it.
07:12We've seen him change course.
07:13He changed course of the big three.
07:14My question is this, is this just a case of you have four new players of your top eight
07:20in your rotation?
07:21Does it simply take time?
07:23My concern is the East is so competitive that each incremental loss could be huge at
07:28the end of the season.
07:29We talked about this in our first shows, number two to number 10 in the East could be decided
07:34by three or four games.
07:35They've got to get it together.
07:37They got to stop this whole new thing.
07:38They've got to get it together.
07:40Do they have to win their next four?
07:42I know that sounds ridiculous, but their next four, three of their next four, Ira.
07:45How many times have we done this?
07:46How many times have we done must win?
07:48They've got to be Dallas.
07:49They're coming home.
07:50They've got to be Dallas.
07:50Well, they're going on the road.
07:51They got the Lakers on the second night of a back-to-back or for two days off.
07:54They got to beat the Lakers.
07:56They've got to take care of business.
07:58Solana, I'm going to put it the other way.
07:59Do they need to win their next four?
08:01No.
08:01Do they need to be their best selves?
08:03Yes.
08:04For so many reasons.
08:06They have to find out who the heck they are.
08:08So if there are to be trades, if there are to be rotation changes or lineup changes,
08:13they need to know what they are.
08:14It's like the wheel of problems.
08:17Today, it's defense.
08:18Eric Spolscher mentioned it's been rebounding.
08:20Remember those offensive rebounds?
08:21They've given up and they lead to second chance points.
08:24It's been so many different problems.
08:26It's been they can't make a three-pointer.
08:28We went through that phase in the first couple of games.
08:30They need to find out who the heck they are, whether it's Bam as captain.
08:34And here's my question.
08:35You know this.
08:37How many soda machines would Udonis Haslam have broken by now with this record, right?
08:43I mean, you'd have stuff and glass all over the place.
08:45Bam is a very nice person who takes care of his mother and God bless him.
08:50But, Channing, you know this in the locker room.
08:52You need that crazy SOB.
08:54Every team needs a guy like that.
08:56They need one guy.
08:57And Giannis is so soft-spoken.
08:59Who's it going to be?
09:00Bobby Portis hasn't been here long enough to be that.
09:03But they need some guy to step up.
09:06Maybe Eric Spolster is trying to do that and be the guy to shake the life into them.
09:10Because, man, you can't get Giannis Antetokounmpo in the blockbuster trade of the season, of the offseason,
09:16and then come out with a crazy word of listless?
09:20That's crazy.
09:22Crazy talk, I tell you.
09:23But we know that answer.
09:25It's Bam.
09:26Bam could be a great dude, but he had to turn that switch.
09:28Because he talked about when he broke the rebound record, him and UD, and UD brought him in,
09:33taught him how to make three rebounds a minute, and he'll have a 10-a-game and all that stuff.
09:37It should just be inside of him.
09:39To your point, you can't create that.
09:42You have to have that.
09:43UD had that since he was a baby.
09:46It's absolutely innate, and they have to find someone who has an innate rage in them.
09:51I think it might be Giannis after all, because he didn't sign up for this.
09:55I'd love him to say that.
09:56I'd love him to say, after a game, I did not sign up for this, because that does a few
10:01things.
10:01It shakes up the locker room.
10:03It scares the living bejesus out of Pat Riley and Andy Ellisberg.
10:07And maybe it gets bolstered to change a little bit also.
10:09So, on one hand, you don't want to have the angry new guy.
10:12On the other hand, I need an angry someone.
10:15Man, what a weird start to the season.
10:18I was saying to Solana, though, at the beginning of the show,
10:21they're going to beat up on the Clippers tomorrow.
10:23Like, we already know who this team is.
10:24They should.
10:25But they're going to, right?
10:27Because we saw it against Atlanta and Indiana,
10:29and then we're going to feel good again for a night.
10:32Like, I think we know who they are already.
10:35But like I said, I need the signature win when if they come home,
10:38they play Cleveland, they play Oklahoma City.
10:40Until you do that, you know, it's just – it's all up in the ether.
10:44It just doesn't matter because we know the NBA has a lot of crap along the way.
10:48Again, there are 75 games remaining.
10:51There's more than enough time.
10:52Channing, this isn't the NFL team when they start 0-4,
10:55and we see the statistics.
10:56Teams that start 0-4 or 0-3 never make the playoffs.
10:59They've got 75 games left.
11:01Put the seven games aside.
11:02Pretend they didn't happen.
11:03They could still win, you know, 77 games.
11:06They could be fine, but they've got to decide who the hell they are,
11:10and they've got to realize what Eric Spolstra told them last night.
11:13It's hard in this league.
11:15And against great individual talents, it's hard.
11:17Let's look back.
11:18Anthony Edwards, 45 points on opening night.
11:22Then you had Brandon Miller.
11:24You had Miller from the Hornets had the big game against them.
11:27Cooper Flagg had a breakout game.
11:30Unlike any other sport, the NBA is, you know, it's so cliche.
11:33But if you cut off the head of the snake, you beat the team,
11:36they've got to learn to stop great players.
11:39The good thing is you look at the Clippers.
11:41I know basketball.
11:42I really can't tell you who their best player is.
11:43I was just going to ask you.
11:45I was just going to ask you.
11:46Who's the head of the snake on the Clippers?
11:48And I'm going to tell you Max Struess,
11:50which tells you all you need to know right now.
11:53He's on the Clippers?
11:54Yeah, he's not playing, but he's hurt.
11:57In that big trade, he played his first game of the season yesterday.
11:59He made a three-pointer to get him within one late.
12:02But, I mean, yeah.
12:03But, again, the next time you play a great player,
12:06can you stop a great player?
12:07That's what I can't stand.
12:08Don't tell me about you've got four great perimeter defenders.
12:11Shut someone out.
12:13Do to other teams what teams can have to do to Giannis.
12:16That's how you win in the NBA these days.
12:19All right.
12:19Well, I'm expecting a big, big win tomorrow night.
12:22I'm expecting Max Struess to be shut down.
12:25Shut him down.
12:28And I will celebrate with a big calzone sandwich if they do.
12:32Somebody put on the text line, look at the BK drive-thru menu.
12:36It says meal or sandwich only.
12:40Hockman is right.
12:42There you go.
12:43Hamburger is a sandwich.
12:45Because if you add the fries and the drink at BK,
12:50BK kind of knows a little something about burgers,
12:52add the fries and the soda, it's a meal.
12:57Just the burger alone, it's a sandwich.
13:01All right, Ira.
13:01I leave you on that note.
13:04I'm so glad I get to leave on that note.
13:06Talk to you guys next week.
13:07Thanks, guys.
