On today's episode, Jason recaps the Lakers Game 2 win over the Rockets, which he got to be in attendance for, and explains how the Lakers can be unstoppable when Luka Doncic is firing on all cylinders. Jason believes Austin Reaves can bounce back from his rough start in the playoffs. Jason sees the Pacers as the real deal after they take Game 2 from the Bucks despite Damian Lillard returning to the court. Jason reacts to rumors that both the Browns and Giants could be looking to trade down and breaks down what it means for Shedeur Sanders. Plus, Jason gives his picks for Wednesday!
Click here to subscribe, rate and review all of the latest Straight Fire with Jason McIntyre podcasts!
See omnystudio.com/listener for privacy information.
Mark as Played
Transcript
Episode Transcript
Available transcripts are automatically generated. Complete accuracy is not guaranteed.
Speaker 1 (00:05):
This is straight fire with Jason McIntyre.
Speaker 2 (00:10):
What is up straight far fight? It's I mean, Jason
McIntyre straight fire for Wednesday, April twenty third. It was
a great night in the NBA unless you're a Memphis
Grizzlies fan. My gosh, those guys are dogs. They are terrible.
I cannot believe I bet them first quarter. Memphis gets
smoked again by okay see, and we will not be
(00:31):
talking about Memphis for the rest of the NBA season.
So they either hire a coach or trade Joum Moranth
this summer. But I can't believe I opened the podcast
mentioning the Memphis Grizzlies when I had the good fortune
of going to Lakers Timberwolves on Tuesday. It was a
Lakers runaway for most of the game. They took their
foot off the gas late Memphis not Memphis. Minnesota cut
(00:52):
it to I believe maybe eight nine, and Lakers able
to on for the nine point win, did cover the spread,
got the win well, Lakers, Pacers money line parlay, easy
dub back on the winning track. This was a great
vintage playoff performance from Luka Doncics, the kind of performance
(01:13):
where as I'm watching Luca just absolutely roast Gobert Randall,
Jade McDaniels, whoever they put on him. Luca just kept
going to school, and I know the step step backs
weren't falling in the second half. But I came away
from this game feeling really good about the Lakers bouncing back.
As expected, Minnesota regressed to the mean on threes, as expected,
(01:35):
Luca only finished nine for twenty. I feel like most
of those misses were in the fourth quarters of the
legs were down. But the Lakers twenty of twenty from
the free throw line perfection. That's not gonna happen all
the time, but they are a good free throw shooting team.
Luca eleven for eleven. Austin Reeves still can't find the
three pointer, Lebron. If I told you Lebron, Luca and
Austin Reeves combined from three were three for nineteen, you'd
(01:58):
be like, oh shit, to the Lakes lose Game two.
But it didn't matter because Minnesota looked extremely mortal, just
nothing special. It was the Anthony Edwards show. In the
second half. Julius Randall actually played really well. Lakers struggled
to stop him. I know that sounds wacky. I'll say
a weird note on Randall in a second, but ultimately
(02:20):
Minnesota had no offense. They show thirty eight percent five
of twenty five from three. So just how streaky this
three point stuff is unless you're the Warriors of the Celtics.
Wolves twenty one of forty two from three in Game one,
that's fifty percent, but they made twenty one of forty two.
That's crazy. Game two, Minnesota five of twenty five from three.
(02:41):
As I said, the Lakers had that long layoff, I
believe it was eight days. They didn't come in focused
and they read all their clippings. Hey we got the
third seed, that's what we needed. They were focused on themselves.
They came out, they didn't play a lick of defense.
They give him twenty five fast break points. They got
their butts kicked. Oh we got to actually play. This
is the postseason. Nothing's going And as jj Reddick said,
(03:04):
the Lakers had their best practice of this season this
week and they came out locked in. Defensively, Minnesota could
not do anything. It was I think twenty five to
ten and then thirty four fifteen, just an unbelievable, relentless
defensive effort from the Lakers. Lebron was leading to charge
by the way, his defense was tremendous. A side note,
(03:24):
I don't know who this Kevin Gates guy is. I've
literally never heard of his damment my life. Apparently some
rapper I randomly saw as I was scrolling through my timeline, Oh,
is Lebron going to run up on Kevin Gates like
he did Steven A. Smith? And I'm like, A, who's
Kevin Gates? And b why would Lebron run up on him?
(03:45):
So then I wasted like three minutes going down a
rabbit hole about nonsense. Some nobody rapper I'd never heard
of took a shot at Lebron's wife, like I don't
like the way she looks at Lebron. I'm like, why
do would you even care? And he then brought this
(04:08):
this girl who's moderately famous on Instagram, but I think
she's been passed around by like a half a dozen
NBA players, and he brought her and sat in the
front row, and I guess that was a thing. I'll
be honest, guys, I have never heard of this dude.
He was sitting next to Jack black So from premo
seats so he dropped some coin and he was like
trying to make a statement of some kind. I just
(04:30):
I don't know how that's a story or anything. Lebron
went out played a hell of a game twenty one
eleven and seven. Had the pivotal steal of Anthony Edwards
in the open court. It was sick, the Lakers had
missed a shot and Anthony Edwards is kind of not
a runout. But it's like Anthony Edwards is like maybe
the fourth guy down the floor of all the Lakers
had two guys back, and he goes behind his back
(04:52):
and Lebron just stole it from him, goes in for
a powerful too in the lane. It was impressive and
that was essentially the game. But Lebron was outstanding regarding Minnesota,
so I know, Julius Randall played like an all NBA player. Honestly.
He went at Austin Reeves, he went at Lebron, he
went at everybody, and he looked pretty good doing it.
(05:14):
Here's the thing. When Julius Randall gets the ball, he's
largely a ball stopper. Now I know that contrast with
the six assist that he had. But let me give
you the other stat that backs up my ball stopping
when he gets it, he's going right to the tin.
And it felt like he was super effective. But then
you look and you're like, oh, nine for seventeen, only
(05:34):
one turnover. Not bad. However, he was minus fourteen when
he was on the floor, So like the Julius Randall Show,
ain't winning basketball. Okay Now, nobody on Minnesota was very
good from the plus minus except the rookie Tarrett Shannon,
who came off the bench and was you know, flashed
okay in while hustling and defended Luca pretty well, but
(05:56):
then bit for a fake and fouled him. And Nikhil
Alexander Walker, who was plus eight. Two guys off the
bench is starting unit got embarrassed. And I'll be honest,
I don't know how playable Rudy Gobert is going to
be down the stretch. Final four minutes he was on
the bench, the Lakers just put him in action every
time Luca wasn't hitting his step backs. He had won
over Gobert, I believe, but when he got matched up
(06:17):
with Austin Reeves, he can't keep up with Reeves's quickness,
and Reeves beat him for two layups, and so Gobert
they were picking on. Listen, you can't pick on Jaye
and McDaniels. He's pretty good defender. Julius Randall, you can,
and he nearly fouled out with five. Nas Reed was
a foul machine.
Speaker 1 (06:33):
He had four.
Speaker 2 (06:34):
So like you get Gobert off the floor and the
Lakers were going to dominate around the ten. It's good
because they missed their three six of twenty nine. But overall,
my takeaway is when Luca plays like this, the Lakers
ain't losing. And when I say play like gu I
mean thirty one, nine assists, twelve boards. Now, weirdly, Luca
had nine assists with like one minute left in the
(06:55):
third quarter, so I don't know that he took the
fourth quarter off, But like I said, they took their
foot off the gap. I know Anthony Edwards is coming
out and saying in interviews, I'm so happy with how
we finished. There something to build on. I totally disagree.
I thought the Lakers lacked interest. They were going for
flashy kill shots. Whether it was Luca, whether it was
an Ali up attempt to Lebron. It was a mess,
(07:18):
and I think they were kind of messing around up
twenty and that made it look closer than it should
have been. But I thought it was an impressive performance
by the Lakers because this is how they will play,
going forward, lockdown on defense. Obviously, Minnesota won't shoot this
poorly from three, but they won't shoot as great as
they did in Game one either, And I guess, I guess.
(07:39):
The last note on this series is Luca's got to
be careful man. He was talking to the refs all
game long, not as normal, but there were at least
two occasions where he was so pissed about a non
call he lit into one referee, then went into the
time out, going at a second referee, and coming out
(08:00):
of the time out, he went to the third referee
as if he was planting seeds with all of them.
I love Luca. I enjoy the complaining. I know not
everybody does. And that's why I said the Lakers are
the biggest villains in these NBA playoffs. Everybody's ruining against
him because of Winey Luca and because of Lebron. I
kind of enjoy it. Would I want to be going
against them? Hell No, I thought the Lakers looked great.
(08:25):
I think they win the series and six. My guess
is Anthony Edwards is gonna have to be a little
bit like, hey guys, a little less Randall, little more me.
I mean, you watch Anthony Anthony Edwards and I know
he led the league in three pointers made, but how
was he not attacking the rim every time? He got
to be the best finishing garden league. The way he
(08:45):
handles his body and contorts it around the rim, finishing
with a left and right at a filthy dunk on Jackson.
Hayes should have dunked on Luca and then told him
about it in his face. You could see his man like, yo,
I should have dunked on you. Anthony Edwards is something
else man, he really is. He just needn't He hasn't
had his takeover game. Now. I will leave with this
(09:07):
note on the Lakers. So they had eight days off
four game one. They had three days off, three days
between game one and game two. That's huge. They have
three days between Game two and Game three. Lakers need
to win game three. Why the rest of the way
only two games between every game or two days between
(09:29):
every game. So after Game three they play whip out
the old calendar because I yeah, Okay, So the Lakers
play next on Friday, and then it's Sunday because they
need that on TV. Right on the twenty seventh, it's Tuesday,
the twenty ninth, then it's Thursday, and then Game three
(09:54):
would be on Saturday. So and I do think that
matters when you have forty year old Lebron. Can he
keep this up up with just one day off between games?
I don't know, Guys. I know he's in great shape.
He just played forty hard minutes. The Lakers were picking
up full court, so it was Minnesota. I kind of
like that. I think the Lakers need Game three badly. Now.
(10:15):
Obviously Game three is gonna be tough. I think this
is probably gonna have to be a Luca game. But
we haven't We haven't seen Austin Reeves shoot it well
yet from three. I gotta just confirm. I thought I
saw this earlier, but I didn't think it could be
Right through two games, Austin Reeves is averaging sixteen points,
well below his twenty average, but he's shooting three for
(10:37):
fourteen on threes. He's not even shooting good on twos. Now,
I know Jason defense is better in playoffs. I get
that Austin Reeves will not continue to play this poorly
and when he has, if he has a twenty five
point game, I mean, Lakers are definitely winning that. Like
last year, he did kind of struggle against Denver in
the series they lost. Two years ago he had a
(10:58):
phenomenal series against Denver. It really of age. He did
have a good, good series against Memphis and then the War.
Like everybody likes Austin Reeeds, but he's got he's got
to make some shots here and these are all good
open looks, and I think Lakers win Game three.
Speaker 1 (11:12):
Fox Sports Radio has the best sports talk lineup in
the nation. Catch all of our shows at Foxsports Radio
dot com and within the iHeartRadio app. Search FSR to
listen live. Let me quickly buzz.
Speaker 2 (11:26):
Through Indiana one twenty three, Milwaukee one fifteen. Dame Lillard
did return to action fourteen and seven, but he only
shot four thirteen from the field. Jannis once again was
amazing thirty four eighteen and seven. That being said, he
doesn't get a lot of help. However, this was the
Bobby Portis game. Yes, Bobby Portis twenty eight and twelve.
(11:49):
I mean he basically was their offense after Joannis, and
I just I don't want to say this is over
I like Indiana a lot guys, and I think they're
gonna be a bigger problem than you think. For the
Cleveland Cavaliers, this is I believe, the best defense, best
bench in the league. You know, I love TJ McConnell.
(12:14):
They got Ben Mather and the young kid from Arizona,
Jerrace Walker, who didn't play much as a rookie, is
playing this year. Obi Toppin is solid, and their starting
lineup like, they don't have a ton of holes. They
could shoot, they could play inside, they can make free throws,
they didn't miss one nineteen or nineteen. Like I'm just saying.
I know people are down on Haliburt and I saw
that silly athletic poll that said he's the most overrated
(12:35):
player in the league. Like how the guy was picked
to be on the US Olympic team. He led the
Pacers to the conference finals last year. There's nothing about
Tyrese Haliburton. It's overrated. Honestly, if you're looking for an
overrated guy, I don't want to call him out, but
it's got to be Trey Young right Like early in
his career, beats the Knicks at MSG member takes a
(12:58):
bow and that was like his Oh, Trey Young is
a player. And then they went to the conference finals
and lost to I'm sorry they beat Philly. The second
round conference finals, they lost to somebody, and Trey Young
hasn't done jack squat since. But he's still Trey Young
and he's a big name and All Star and all
that fun. I don't know Man Halliburton or Trey Young.
(13:21):
I think it's obviously Halliburton, right, I mean, Darren Fox
or Trey Young. Gotta be Daron Fox. And I know
Jason what does dearon Fox want? Well, he was in
Sacramento where nobody wins anything, So I don't know. I
think Halliburton's good. Obviously the Bucks will put up a fight,
probably win one or two at home, but ultimately I
(13:44):
like the Paces and I'm just telling you they're going
to give Cleveland a major, major problems. I'm not even
gonna mention. Okay, see Memphis. But one final, like gambling
stat if you're interested, so Unders right through the first
one and a half game of the series is there's
three tonight that'll round. Everybody will have played two games.
(14:08):
Unders are ten and three so far, and if you
watch any of that Minnesota Lakers game, the defense is
it's almost like early two thousands defense, where everybody's getting
grabbed and held. You cannot go set a clean screen
without getting jost old pushed around. I mean, it's just
it's almost annoying. And if you look at the Unders
(14:29):
cashing at a ridiculous rate, you're like, oh, that tracks
ugly basketball. Nothing like the regular season. It's basically combat
warfare in the paint and some of these playoff hard
fouls like they're getting delivered to send messages. That's what
time it is. It's like intensity picks up like the
NBA regular season's fun, but it's largely like pickup games
(14:52):
men's league games in terms of intensity as opposed to
what you're seeing in the playoffs. And I think that
kind of bolsters the whole Lakers thing, because remember they
kind of got punked in the first game against Minnesota,
and they came back and were like, oh, we can
just match your intensity and physicality, and then what are
you going to do? I mean, the Lakers gave up
twenty five fast break points in game one, twenty five
(15:14):
to this team and they had six Minnesota did and
I think four of them were in the fourth quarter.
I mean, they just they did not look good at all.
But I think it's more about the Lakers looking good.
So you got Pacers two oh. Lakers won one thunder
two oh. Before I pivot to the NFL, let me
quickly go through. It's a tough one to bet because Boston,
(15:35):
I think, is minus eleven. Jason Tatum is doubtful with
an injury. I would not be surprised if this game
got chippy because Al Horford went and publicly called out
some Orlando players by name, including KCP for the dirty
foul on Tatum, and Orlando was playing like prison rules
right aka no rules, and it still didn't work. I
(15:56):
would expect this to be a extremely physical game. I
want to bet Boston, but not Tatum. I don't want
to risk it. I would like to bet a money line,
but it's laughably large, so that you're left with Miami
Cleveland similar situation. Cleveland's like a twelve point favorite. I mean,
what do you do with that? Can you actually bank
(16:17):
bet Miami? Here in the zigzag theory, I don't see it,
So that leads you with Golden State in Houston, and
this is the pickle that I'm in. Part of me thinks, Okay,
Golden State has the two best players in the series.
They go be fine, They're gonna win this game. They're
gonna win every game, and they're all gonna be close.
(16:39):
So the Worriors probably could sweep, but it's a close
sweep where it'll be like one oh four one hundred
tonight or something. That's half of my logic. The other
half is non zigzag theory of play. The old Warriors
got one, they largely dominated, they have the two best
players in the series. They got this locked up. They're
(17:01):
gonna go home. They're gonna take their foot off the gas.
They know they're not losing a series. And then Houston
steals it. Remember Van Vliet and Jalen Green working by
like four of twenty three shooting or some ridiculous number
that's not gonna happen again, similar to Minnesota. I wouldn't
sleep on Houston in game two. Now it looks like
the three and a half point favorites. I think it
(17:22):
was one or one and a half in Game one,
So it feels like option B. There is the right
one and Houston wins. But I mean, are you gonna
be angry and frustrated if you bet against Steph Curry
and lose money? I mean, Steph Currey, Jimmy Butler. That's
a tough way to go down when you're backing Sngoon
(17:44):
Jabbari Smith in company. Like again, I like Houston laying
three and a half. I don't know, But then what
do you pair them with Celtics. Maybe you could get
Celtics first half, but what if they're slow without Tatum?
Cleveland parlayed with Houston. I don't know. It's a really
tough night for gamble. And remember the beauty is you
don't have to force anything powder keep your powder dry
(18:07):
if you want to. But yeah, I would say I
feel best. Strangely, well, I mean it's I like Cleveland
upset Boston up Cleveland, destruction of Miami, Boston destruction of Orlando.
I like those. If you ask me which one probably
is closer, I would say Orlando because Tatum is doubtful,
and that might mean that, oh gosh, there's a hot take.
(18:29):
Orlando has the best player on the court in pallabag
Caro Ben Carrol's possible so I would say I feel
a little bit better about Orlando's chairs of an upset
than Miami, and then I'll go with Houston in the nightcap.
I don't know if I'm willing to lay the three
and a half. I don't know how to get around
that yet. We'll see what we can figure out on
on social media.
Speaker 1 (18:48):
Fox Sports Radio has the best sports talk lineup in
the nation. Catch all of our shows at Foxsports Radio
dot com and within the iHeartRadio app search FSR to
listen live.
Speaker 2 (19:01):
All right, let me quickly end with a little NFL
Draft stuff. So it obviously is smoke screen season. Everybody
knows that this is the time where people plant stuff
and reporters hoping for likes and retweets and comments and
all that and engagement will just push it out there. Right,
So a lot of the stuff you hear right now
feels a little fake in Fugazi. That being said, the
(19:23):
one thing that I think is one hundred thousand percent true, Well,
two things. So we if we take away Tennessee and
camoord at one, the Cleveland Browns are two. And for
the longest time I thought Shador's got to be their guy.
Here's the thing. It appears, and I say appears because
we know these billionaire owners change their mind at the
drop of a hat and they do crazy things. Kevin Stefanski,
(19:43):
it seems and Andrew Berry have enough goodwill in Cleveland
that it's all good no matter what happens with them.
If they win four games, if they win seven, like
they're safe. Okay, it seems like that Stefanski's They've been
coaching the year twice already, so they've done enough so
that they're like, oh, we're.
Speaker 1 (20:03):
Safe, we're good.
Speaker 2 (20:03):
We're gonna keep them no matter what, even if we
stink he's our guy. We don't need to take shador.
So you lean on Travis Hunter. Now, I again, I've
seen all the Travis Hunters up. Maybe he's incredibly special
and I get it, but I mean, is he gonna
be Julio Jones? Like Julio Jones had an amazing career,
hall of him. I don't know if he's gonna be
(20:24):
Julio Jones. Is he gonna be Justin Jefferson Maybe? I
don't know. If he's that twitched up. Is he gonna
be Jamar Jace. I don't know. I'm just always reluctant
of taking a player like that at two. It doesn't
totally make sense to me to take Abdua carter Itt
to there simply because they have Miles Garrett. What's the
point of getting two defensive ends? And I get obviously
(20:49):
you want to rush the pastor that's an important position,
But what's the point that would you don't have a quarterback, Like,
what's the point of Travis Hunter, who's gonna throw to him?
And this idea that oh, we'll get someone either an
extra in free agency or at the top of the draft. Okay,
you're banking on maybe what if? Again, you would have
to really dislike Shador to not take him at two.
But the one thing that really jumps out is the
(21:10):
Giants at three. And now you've got stories which are
predictable and maybe fake, maybe real that there's a schism
in the New York Giants front office and half of
the folks want Shadoor Sanders, and Brian Dabole says, no,
I don't want to take Sanders. I kind of prefer
Jackson Dart. Now, again, a lot of this is speculative. Obviously,
(21:31):
the Giants aren't taking Jackson Dart at three. But where
it does make sense is Joe Shane is technically the
one as the GM who gave Daniel Jones that insanely
dumb contract that led to Saque Barkley not being paid.
Barkley ends up with the Eagles and wins a Super Bowl. Meanwhile,
Daniel Jones stinks, gets hurt, and now he's not even
with the team. Okay, Ultimately you could say, well, the
(21:53):
owner wanted to keep Daniel Jones. I don't know, man,
The owner runs a show, he's a billionaire. You can
do whatever the hell he wants. Ultimately, Joe Shane is
on the hook for the Daniel Jones contract. Brian Dabele
can pound the table all he wants, you know, I
don't think there's any world where he was like, I
want to pay Daniel Jones. I want to keep Danie Jones,
and that's why they kept him. That has not been
(22:14):
reported anywhere. So Joe Shane is the one who has
to fix his Daniel Jones mistake, which makes sense for
this schism in the front office. To fix the Daniel
Jones mistake, you draft Shador Sanders at three. However, can
you fix it if shaduur is not the quarterback that
fits your coach Brian Daboles system. Dabele has historically like big, strapping,
(22:36):
durable quarterbacks. Josh Allen, Okay, he worked with Daniel Jones
and got him to the playoffs. Shadoor Sanders ain't that guy.
Here's the thing, Jackson Dart really isn't either. Are they thinking, hey,
you give me Riley Leonard in the fifth round or
Will Howard in the fifth round and I can make
more with him? Like, I don't know, but ultimately this
(22:57):
looks like this could be the end of that Daboll's
Shane pairing. Pretty soon. We're gonna see these two if
they're not on the same page now, blame game finger
pointing to keep their job. Maybe the owner dumps both
of them if this goes sideways next season, or Dable
can be like, hey, man, I didn't want sha Door.
That's not my guy. That's Joe Shane's guy, right, And
(23:20):
then you fire Shane and you've got Dable, but you're
still stuck with the quarterback. So the New York Giants
situation is very ugly. And I will wrap up by
saying I am very happy that Aaron Glenn has essentially
shut down all communication coming out of Jets HQ. There's
no speculation on who they might draft. There really is
zero chatter about the Jets, and I love that because
(23:41):
it's historically been a drama filled disaster. My favorite line
from The Departed the Jets have more leaks than the
Iraqi Navy. I mean, for the last five years, it's
just negative story after negative story, and essentially they become
a laughingstock. And it's been that way for she's over
a decade. Back to the Rex Ryan days. I want
(24:02):
less drama, more wins. That's what I want for my Jets,
and right now there's nothing which is great. Just get
me Tyler Warren, the Penn State tight end and we'll
be very happy. All Right, that's it for today. Back tomorrow,
and definitely we'll have a draft guest tomorrow. We had
one cancel on us kind of at the last minute.
No big deal. It's fine. We got a lot of content,
I got a lot of takes. We're back tomorrow.
This is straight fire with Jason McIntyre.
Speaker 2 (00:10):
What is up straight far fight? It's I mean, Jason
McIntyre straight fire for Wednesday, April twenty third. It was
a great night in the NBA unless you're a Memphis
Grizzlies fan. My gosh, those guys are dogs. They are terrible.
I cannot believe I bet them first quarter. Memphis gets
smoked again by okay see, and we will not be
(00:31):
talking about Memphis for the rest of the NBA season.
So they either hire a coach or trade Joum Moranth
this summer. But I can't believe I opened the podcast
mentioning the Memphis Grizzlies when I had the good fortune
of going to Lakers Timberwolves on Tuesday. It was a
Lakers runaway for most of the game. They took their
foot off the gas late Memphis not Memphis. Minnesota cut
(00:52):
it to I believe maybe eight nine, and Lakers able
to on for the nine point win, did cover the spread,
got the win well, Lakers, Pacers money line parlay, easy
dub back on the winning track. This was a great
vintage playoff performance from Luka Doncics, the kind of performance
(01:13):
where as I'm watching Luca just absolutely roast Gobert Randall,
Jade McDaniels, whoever they put on him. Luca just kept
going to school, and I know the step step backs
weren't falling in the second half. But I came away
from this game feeling really good about the Lakers bouncing back.
As expected, Minnesota regressed to the mean on threes, as expected,
(01:35):
Luca only finished nine for twenty. I feel like most
of those misses were in the fourth quarters of the
legs were down. But the Lakers twenty of twenty from
the free throw line perfection. That's not gonna happen all
the time, but they are a good free throw shooting team.
Luca eleven for eleven. Austin Reeves still can't find the
three pointer, Lebron. If I told you Lebron, Luca and
Austin Reeves combined from three were three for nineteen, you'd
(01:58):
be like, oh shit, to the Lakes lose Game two.
But it didn't matter because Minnesota looked extremely mortal, just
nothing special. It was the Anthony Edwards show. In the
second half. Julius Randall actually played really well. Lakers struggled
to stop him. I know that sounds wacky. I'll say
a weird note on Randall in a second, but ultimately
(02:20):
Minnesota had no offense. They show thirty eight percent five
of twenty five from three. So just how streaky this
three point stuff is unless you're the Warriors of the Celtics.
Wolves twenty one of forty two from three in Game one,
that's fifty percent, but they made twenty one of forty two.
That's crazy. Game two, Minnesota five of twenty five from three.
(02:41):
As I said, the Lakers had that long layoff, I
believe it was eight days. They didn't come in focused
and they read all their clippings. Hey we got the
third seed, that's what we needed. They were focused on themselves.
They came out, they didn't play a lick of defense.
They give him twenty five fast break points. They got
their butts kicked. Oh we got to actually play. This
is the postseason. Nothing's going And as jj Reddick said,
(03:04):
the Lakers had their best practice of this season this
week and they came out locked in. Defensively, Minnesota could
not do anything. It was I think twenty five to
ten and then thirty four fifteen, just an unbelievable, relentless
defensive effort from the Lakers. Lebron was leading to charge
by the way, his defense was tremendous. A side note,
(03:24):
I don't know who this Kevin Gates guy is. I've
literally never heard of his damment my life. Apparently some
rapper I randomly saw as I was scrolling through my timeline, Oh,
is Lebron going to run up on Kevin Gates like
he did Steven A. Smith? And I'm like, A, who's
Kevin Gates? And b why would Lebron run up on him?
(03:45):
So then I wasted like three minutes going down a
rabbit hole about nonsense. Some nobody rapper I'd never heard
of took a shot at Lebron's wife, like I don't
like the way she looks at Lebron. I'm like, why
do would you even care? And he then brought this
(04:08):
this girl who's moderately famous on Instagram, but I think
she's been passed around by like a half a dozen
NBA players, and he brought her and sat in the
front row, and I guess that was a thing. I'll
be honest, guys, I have never heard of this dude.
He was sitting next to Jack black So from premo
seats so he dropped some coin and he was like
trying to make a statement of some kind. I just
(04:30):
I don't know how that's a story or anything. Lebron
went out played a hell of a game twenty one
eleven and seven. Had the pivotal steal of Anthony Edwards
in the open court. It was sick, the Lakers had
missed a shot and Anthony Edwards is kind of not
a runout. But it's like Anthony Edwards is like maybe
the fourth guy down the floor of all the Lakers
had two guys back, and he goes behind his back
(04:52):
and Lebron just stole it from him, goes in for
a powerful too in the lane. It was impressive and
that was essentially the game. But Lebron was outstanding regarding Minnesota,
so I know, Julius Randall played like an all NBA player. Honestly.
He went at Austin Reeves, he went at Lebron, he
went at everybody, and he looked pretty good doing it.
(05:14):
Here's the thing. When Julius Randall gets the ball, he's
largely a ball stopper. Now I know that contrast with
the six assist that he had. But let me give
you the other stat that backs up my ball stopping
when he gets it, he's going right to the tin.
And it felt like he was super effective. But then
you look and you're like, oh, nine for seventeen, only
(05:34):
one turnover. Not bad. However, he was minus fourteen when
he was on the floor, So like the Julius Randall Show,
ain't winning basketball. Okay Now, nobody on Minnesota was very
good from the plus minus except the rookie Tarrett Shannon,
who came off the bench and was you know, flashed
okay in while hustling and defended Luca pretty well, but
(05:56):
then bit for a fake and fouled him. And Nikhil
Alexander Walker, who was plus eight. Two guys off the
bench is starting unit got embarrassed. And I'll be honest,
I don't know how playable Rudy Gobert is going to
be down the stretch. Final four minutes he was on
the bench, the Lakers just put him in action every
time Luca wasn't hitting his step backs. He had won
over Gobert, I believe, but when he got matched up
(06:17):
with Austin Reeves, he can't keep up with Reeves's quickness,
and Reeves beat him for two layups, and so Gobert
they were picking on. Listen, you can't pick on Jaye
and McDaniels. He's pretty good defender. Julius Randall, you can,
and he nearly fouled out with five. Nas Reed was
a foul machine.
Speaker 1 (06:33):
He had four.
Speaker 2 (06:34):
So like you get Gobert off the floor and the
Lakers were going to dominate around the ten. It's good
because they missed their three six of twenty nine. But overall,
my takeaway is when Luca plays like this, the Lakers
ain't losing. And when I say play like gu I
mean thirty one, nine assists, twelve boards. Now, weirdly, Luca
had nine assists with like one minute left in the
(06:55):
third quarter, so I don't know that he took the
fourth quarter off, But like I said, they took their
foot off the gap. I know Anthony Edwards is coming
out and saying in interviews, I'm so happy with how
we finished. There something to build on. I totally disagree.
I thought the Lakers lacked interest. They were going for
flashy kill shots. Whether it was Luca, whether it was
an Ali up attempt to Lebron. It was a mess,
(07:18):
and I think they were kind of messing around up
twenty and that made it look closer than it should
have been. But I thought it was an impressive performance
by the Lakers because this is how they will play,
going forward, lockdown on defense. Obviously, Minnesota won't shoot this
poorly from three, but they won't shoot as great as
they did in Game one either, And I guess, I guess.
(07:39):
The last note on this series is Luca's got to
be careful man. He was talking to the refs all
game long, not as normal, but there were at least
two occasions where he was so pissed about a non
call he lit into one referee, then went into the
time out, going at a second referee, and coming out
(08:00):
of the time out, he went to the third referee
as if he was planting seeds with all of them.
I love Luca. I enjoy the complaining. I know not
everybody does. And that's why I said the Lakers are
the biggest villains in these NBA playoffs. Everybody's ruining against
him because of Winey Luca and because of Lebron. I
kind of enjoy it. Would I want to be going
against them? Hell No, I thought the Lakers looked great.
(08:25):
I think they win the series and six. My guess
is Anthony Edwards is gonna have to be a little
bit like, hey guys, a little less Randall, little more me.
I mean, you watch Anthony Anthony Edwards and I know
he led the league in three pointers made, but how
was he not attacking the rim every time? He got
to be the best finishing garden league. The way he
(08:45):
handles his body and contorts it around the rim, finishing
with a left and right at a filthy dunk on Jackson.
Hayes should have dunked on Luca and then told him
about it in his face. You could see his man like, yo,
I should have dunked on you. Anthony Edwards is something
else man, he really is. He just needn't He hasn't
had his takeover game. Now. I will leave with this
(09:07):
note on the Lakers. So they had eight days off
four game one. They had three days off, three days
between game one and game two. That's huge. They have
three days between Game two and Game three. Lakers need
to win game three. Why the rest of the way
only two games between every game or two days between
(09:29):
every game. So after Game three they play whip out
the old calendar because I yeah, Okay, So the Lakers
play next on Friday, and then it's Sunday because they
need that on TV. Right on the twenty seventh, it's Tuesday,
the twenty ninth, then it's Thursday, and then Game three
(09:54):
would be on Saturday. So and I do think that
matters when you have forty year old Lebron. Can he
keep this up up with just one day off between games?
I don't know, Guys. I know he's in great shape.
He just played forty hard minutes. The Lakers were picking
up full court, so it was Minnesota. I kind of
like that. I think the Lakers need Game three badly. Now.
(10:15):
Obviously Game three is gonna be tough. I think this
is probably gonna have to be a Luca game. But
we haven't We haven't seen Austin Reeves shoot it well
yet from three. I gotta just confirm. I thought I
saw this earlier, but I didn't think it could be
Right through two games, Austin Reeves is averaging sixteen points,
well below his twenty average, but he's shooting three for
(10:37):
fourteen on threes. He's not even shooting good on twos. Now,
I know Jason defense is better in playoffs. I get
that Austin Reeves will not continue to play this poorly
and when he has, if he has a twenty five
point game, I mean, Lakers are definitely winning that. Like
last year, he did kind of struggle against Denver in
the series they lost. Two years ago he had a
(10:58):
phenomenal series against Denver. It really of age. He did
have a good, good series against Memphis and then the War.
Like everybody likes Austin Reeeds, but he's got he's got
to make some shots here and these are all good
open looks, and I think Lakers win Game three.
Speaker 1 (11:12):
Fox Sports Radio has the best sports talk lineup in
the nation. Catch all of our shows at Foxsports Radio
dot com and within the iHeartRadio app. Search FSR to
listen live. Let me quickly buzz.
Speaker 2 (11:26):
Through Indiana one twenty three, Milwaukee one fifteen. Dame Lillard
did return to action fourteen and seven, but he only
shot four thirteen from the field. Jannis once again was
amazing thirty four eighteen and seven. That being said, he
doesn't get a lot of help. However, this was the
Bobby Portis game. Yes, Bobby Portis twenty eight and twelve.
(11:49):
I mean he basically was their offense after Joannis, and
I just I don't want to say this is over
I like Indiana a lot guys, and I think they're
gonna be a bigger problem than you think. For the
Cleveland Cavaliers, this is I believe, the best defense, best
bench in the league. You know, I love TJ McConnell.
(12:14):
They got Ben Mather and the young kid from Arizona,
Jerrace Walker, who didn't play much as a rookie, is
playing this year. Obi Toppin is solid, and their starting
lineup like, they don't have a ton of holes. They
could shoot, they could play inside, they can make free throws,
they didn't miss one nineteen or nineteen. Like I'm just saying.
I know people are down on Haliburt and I saw
that silly athletic poll that said he's the most overrated
(12:35):
player in the league. Like how the guy was picked
to be on the US Olympic team. He led the
Pacers to the conference finals last year. There's nothing about
Tyrese Haliburton. It's overrated. Honestly, if you're looking for an
overrated guy, I don't want to call him out, but
it's got to be Trey Young right Like early in
his career, beats the Knicks at MSG member takes a
(12:58):
bow and that was like his Oh, Trey Young is
a player. And then they went to the conference finals
and lost to I'm sorry they beat Philly. The second
round conference finals, they lost to somebody, and Trey Young
hasn't done jack squat since. But he's still Trey Young
and he's a big name and All Star and all
that fun. I don't know Man Halliburton or Trey Young.
(13:21):
I think it's obviously Halliburton, right, I mean, Darren Fox
or Trey Young. Gotta be Daron Fox. And I know
Jason what does dearon Fox want? Well, he was in
Sacramento where nobody wins anything, So I don't know. I
think Halliburton's good. Obviously the Bucks will put up a fight,
probably win one or two at home, but ultimately I
(13:44):
like the Paces and I'm just telling you they're going
to give Cleveland a major, major problems. I'm not even
gonna mention. Okay, see Memphis. But one final, like gambling
stat if you're interested, so Unders right through the first
one and a half game of the series is there's
three tonight that'll round. Everybody will have played two games.
(14:08):
Unders are ten and three so far, and if you
watch any of that Minnesota Lakers game, the defense is
it's almost like early two thousands defense, where everybody's getting
grabbed and held. You cannot go set a clean screen
without getting jost old pushed around. I mean, it's just
it's almost annoying. And if you look at the Unders
(14:29):
cashing at a ridiculous rate, you're like, oh, that tracks
ugly basketball. Nothing like the regular season. It's basically combat
warfare in the paint and some of these playoff hard
fouls like they're getting delivered to send messages. That's what
time it is. It's like intensity picks up like the
NBA regular season's fun, but it's largely like pickup games
(14:52):
men's league games in terms of intensity as opposed to
what you're seeing in the playoffs. And I think that
kind of bolsters the whole Lakers thing, because remember they
kind of got punked in the first game against Minnesota,
and they came back and were like, oh, we can
just match your intensity and physicality, and then what are
you going to do? I mean, the Lakers gave up
twenty five fast break points in game one, twenty five
(15:14):
to this team and they had six Minnesota did and
I think four of them were in the fourth quarter.
I mean, they just they did not look good at all.
But I think it's more about the Lakers looking good.
So you got Pacers two oh. Lakers won one thunder
two oh. Before I pivot to the NFL, let me
quickly go through. It's a tough one to bet because Boston,
(15:35):
I think, is minus eleven. Jason Tatum is doubtful with
an injury. I would not be surprised if this game
got chippy because Al Horford went and publicly called out
some Orlando players by name, including KCP for the dirty
foul on Tatum, and Orlando was playing like prison rules
right aka no rules, and it still didn't work. I
(15:56):
would expect this to be a extremely physical game. I
want to bet Boston, but not Tatum. I don't want
to risk it. I would like to bet a money line,
but it's laughably large, so that you're left with Miami
Cleveland similar situation. Cleveland's like a twelve point favorite. I mean,
what do you do with that? Can you actually bank
(16:17):
bet Miami? Here in the zigzag theory, I don't see it,
So that leads you with Golden State in Houston, and
this is the pickle that I'm in. Part of me thinks, Okay,
Golden State has the two best players in the series.
They go be fine, They're gonna win this game. They're
gonna win every game, and they're all gonna be close.
(16:39):
So the Worriors probably could sweep, but it's a close
sweep where it'll be like one oh four one hundred
tonight or something. That's half of my logic. The other
half is non zigzag theory of play. The old Warriors
got one, they largely dominated, they have the two best
players in the series. They got this locked up. They're
(17:01):
gonna go home. They're gonna take their foot off the gas.
They know they're not losing a series. And then Houston
steals it. Remember Van Vliet and Jalen Green working by
like four of twenty three shooting or some ridiculous number
that's not gonna happen again, similar to Minnesota. I wouldn't
sleep on Houston in game two. Now it looks like
the three and a half point favorites. I think it
(17:22):
was one or one and a half in Game one,
So it feels like option B. There is the right
one and Houston wins. But I mean, are you gonna
be angry and frustrated if you bet against Steph Curry
and lose money? I mean, Steph Currey, Jimmy Butler. That's
a tough way to go down when you're backing Sngoon
(17:44):
Jabbari Smith in company. Like again, I like Houston laying
three and a half. I don't know, But then what
do you pair them with Celtics. Maybe you could get
Celtics first half, but what if they're slow without Tatum?
Cleveland parlayed with Houston. I don't know. It's a really
tough night for gamble. And remember the beauty is you
don't have to force anything powder keep your powder dry
(18:07):
if you want to. But yeah, I would say I
feel best. Strangely, well, I mean it's I like Cleveland
upset Boston up Cleveland, destruction of Miami, Boston destruction of Orlando.
I like those. If you ask me which one probably
is closer, I would say Orlando because Tatum is doubtful,
and that might mean that, oh gosh, there's a hot take.
(18:29):
Orlando has the best player on the court in pallabag
Caro Ben Carrol's possible so I would say I feel
a little bit better about Orlando's chairs of an upset
than Miami, and then I'll go with Houston in the nightcap.
I don't know if I'm willing to lay the three
and a half. I don't know how to get around
that yet. We'll see what we can figure out on
on social media.
Speaker 1 (18:48):
Fox Sports Radio has the best sports talk lineup in
the nation. Catch all of our shows at Foxsports Radio
dot com and within the iHeartRadio app search FSR to
listen live.
Speaker 2 (19:01):
All right, let me quickly end with a little NFL
Draft stuff. So it obviously is smoke screen season. Everybody
knows that this is the time where people plant stuff
and reporters hoping for likes and retweets and comments and
all that and engagement will just push it out there. Right,
So a lot of the stuff you hear right now
feels a little fake in Fugazi. That being said, the
(19:23):
one thing that I think is one hundred thousand percent true, Well,
two things. So we if we take away Tennessee and
camoord at one, the Cleveland Browns are two. And for
the longest time I thought Shador's got to be their guy.
Here's the thing. It appears, and I say appears because
we know these billionaire owners change their mind at the
drop of a hat and they do crazy things. Kevin Stefanski,
(19:43):
it seems and Andrew Berry have enough goodwill in Cleveland
that it's all good no matter what happens with them.
If they win four games, if they win seven, like
they're safe. Okay, it seems like that Stefanski's They've been
coaching the year twice already, so they've done enough so
that they're like, oh, we're.
Speaker 1 (20:03):
Safe, we're good.
Speaker 2 (20:03):
We're gonna keep them no matter what, even if we
stink he's our guy. We don't need to take shador.
So you lean on Travis Hunter. Now, I again, I've
seen all the Travis Hunters up. Maybe he's incredibly special
and I get it, but I mean, is he gonna
be Julio Jones? Like Julio Jones had an amazing career,
hall of him. I don't know if he's gonna be
(20:24):
Julio Jones. Is he gonna be Justin Jefferson Maybe? I
don't know. If he's that twitched up. Is he gonna
be Jamar Jace. I don't know. I'm just always reluctant
of taking a player like that at two. It doesn't
totally make sense to me to take Abdua carter Itt
to there simply because they have Miles Garrett. What's the
point of getting two defensive ends? And I get obviously
(20:49):
you want to rush the pastor that's an important position,
But what's the point that would you don't have a quarterback, Like,
what's the point of Travis Hunter, who's gonna throw to him?
And this idea that oh, we'll get someone either an
extra in free agency or at the top of the draft. Okay,
you're banking on maybe what if? Again, you would have
to really dislike Shador to not take him at two.
But the one thing that really jumps out is the
(21:10):
Giants at three. And now you've got stories which are
predictable and maybe fake, maybe real that there's a schism
in the New York Giants front office and half of
the folks want Shadoor Sanders, and Brian Dabole says, no,
I don't want to take Sanders. I kind of prefer
Jackson Dart. Now, again, a lot of this is speculative. Obviously,
(21:31):
the Giants aren't taking Jackson Dart at three. But where
it does make sense is Joe Shane is technically the
one as the GM who gave Daniel Jones that insanely
dumb contract that led to Saque Barkley not being paid.
Barkley ends up with the Eagles and wins a Super Bowl. Meanwhile,
Daniel Jones stinks, gets hurt, and now he's not even
with the team. Okay, Ultimately you could say, well, the
(21:53):
owner wanted to keep Daniel Jones. I don't know, man,
The owner runs a show, he's a billionaire. You can
do whatever the hell he wants. Ultimately, Joe Shane is
on the hook for the Daniel Jones contract. Brian Dabele
can pound the table all he wants, you know, I
don't think there's any world where he was like, I
want to pay Daniel Jones. I want to keep Danie Jones,
and that's why they kept him. That has not been
(22:14):
reported anywhere. So Joe Shane is the one who has
to fix his Daniel Jones mistake, which makes sense for
this schism in the front office. To fix the Daniel
Jones mistake, you draft Shador Sanders at three. However, can
you fix it if shaduur is not the quarterback that
fits your coach Brian Daboles system. Dabele has historically like big, strapping,
(22:36):
durable quarterbacks. Josh Allen, Okay, he worked with Daniel Jones
and got him to the playoffs. Shadoor Sanders ain't that guy.
Here's the thing, Jackson Dart really isn't either. Are they thinking, hey,
you give me Riley Leonard in the fifth round or
Will Howard in the fifth round and I can make
more with him? Like, I don't know, but ultimately this
(22:57):
looks like this could be the end of that Daboll's
Shane pairing. Pretty soon. We're gonna see these two if
they're not on the same page now, blame game finger
pointing to keep their job. Maybe the owner dumps both
of them if this goes sideways next season, or Dable
can be like, hey, man, I didn't want sha Door.
That's not my guy. That's Joe Shane's guy, right, And
(23:20):
then you fire Shane and you've got Dable, but you're
still stuck with the quarterback. So the New York Giants
situation is very ugly. And I will wrap up by
saying I am very happy that Aaron Glenn has essentially
shut down all communication coming out of Jets HQ. There's
no speculation on who they might draft. There really is
zero chatter about the Jets, and I love that because
(23:41):
it's historically been a drama filled disaster. My favorite line
from The Departed the Jets have more leaks than the
Iraqi Navy. I mean, for the last five years, it's
just negative story after negative story, and essentially they become
a laughingstock. And it's been that way for she's over
a decade. Back to the Rex Ryan days. I want
(24:02):
less drama, more wins. That's what I want for my Jets,
and right now there's nothing which is great. Just get
me Tyler Warren, the Penn State tight end and we'll
be very happy. All Right, that's it for today. Back tomorrow,
and definitely we'll have a draft guest tomorrow. We had
one cancel on us kind of at the last minute.
No big deal. It's fine. We got a lot of content,
I got a lot of takes. We're back tomorrow.
Host
Jason McIntyre
Popular Podcasts
Stuff You Should Know
If you've ever wanted to know about champagne, satanism, the Stonewall Uprising, chaos theory, LSD, El Nino, true crime and Rosa Parks, then look no further. Josh and Chuck have you covered.
Dateline NBC
Current and classic episodes, featuring compelling true-crime mysteries, powerful documentaries and in-depth investigations. Follow now to get the latest episodes of Dateline NBC completely free, or subscribe to Dateline Premium for ad-free listening and exclusive bonus content: DatelinePremium.com
Las Culturistas with Matt Rogers and Bowen Yang
Ding dong! Join your culture consultants, Matt Rogers and Bowen Yang, on an unforgettable journey into the beating heart of CULTURE. Alongside sizzling special guests, they GET INTO the hottest pop-culture moments of the day and the formative cultural experiences that turned them into Culturistas. Produced by the Big Money Players Network and iHeartRadio.