Speaker 1: Welcome to this League Uncut in new world of twenty
Speaker 1: four hour NBA news.
Speaker 2: This you, Chris Hans. It's time, work's time. It's so time.
Speaker 2: This League Uncut is underway. It on fire. It should
Speaker 2: be a good one.
Speaker 1: Friends, Hello, thanks for joining us for the latest edition
Speaker 1: of this League Uncut. Had to get on the mic
Speaker 1: this Monday night after what we just witnessed late on
Speaker 1: this Memorial Day. Gotta put a bow on the wildest
Speaker 1: Eastern Conference Finals roller coaster. Anyone can remember my pal
Speaker 1: Chris Haynes. He's in transit tonight as I record this,
Speaker 1: So this is going to be a rare solo mission.
Speaker 2: And just man, when it was over.
Speaker 1: When it was finally over, Miami's Jimmy Butler handed the
Speaker 1: Larry Bird MVP trophy in Larry Bird's City on the
Speaker 1: Celtics floor, And it just as easily.
Speaker 2: Could have been Caleb Martin.
Speaker 1: That turned out to be the close call in this
Speaker 1: improbable game seven Jimmy Buckets winning ECF MVP in a
Speaker 1: narrow five to four vote over his undrafted teammate Caleb Martin.
Speaker 1: Twenty six clutch points for Martin in this clincher, The
Speaker 1: game itself not close. Jason Tatum tweaked his left ankle
Speaker 1: on Boston's first possession, The Heat took control early, never
Speaker 1: relinquished it, and Miami ends up winning by nineteen that
Speaker 1: fourth quarter.
Speaker 2: Let me humbly say, didn't feel that close.
Speaker 1: Just a Game seven masterclass from Miami clinching a sixth
Speaker 1: trip to the Finals under Eric Spolster as coach. Six
Speaker 1: trips to the finals for Spoe have to give infinite
Speaker 1: credit to the heater. Seriously, I picked them to win
Speaker 1: this series in six and I remember a lot of
Speaker 1: readers at the time telling me I was crazy, but
Speaker 1: I ain't gonna act smart now.
Speaker 2: No way.
Speaker 1: I was going out on a limb and predicting them
Speaker 1: to take Game seven in Boston. After the way the
Speaker 1: guys from South Beach, the way they lost that absolutely
Speaker 1: soul crushing Game six. What is it about number eight
Speaker 1: seeds from South Florida?
Speaker 2: This spring? The Boston Bruins.
Speaker 1: I'm a Buffalo Sabers fan, so even saying those words
Speaker 1: hurt me. The Boston Bruins, they were the best regular
Speaker 1: season team in NHL history. They go out in Round
Speaker 1: one to the Florida Panthers the same Florida Panthers now
Speaker 1: in the Stanley Cup Finals and then in the NBA
Speaker 1: seated Miami Heat. They take out Mighty Milwaukee in five
Speaker 1: games in Round one, and they follow that up by
Speaker 1: winning three of four in Boston for the East Crown.
Speaker 1: The Heat they summon this steal. They glued themselves back
Speaker 1: together after losing three games in a row, and they
Speaker 1: looked in serious danger. It looked like Miami was going
Speaker 1: to become the first team in NBA history in one
Speaker 1: hundred and fifty one tries to fail to advance in
Speaker 1: a best of seven NBA series after taking a three
Speaker 1: to zero lead. Remember, and this was only the fourth
Speaker 1: time that we got to a Game seven from three
Speaker 1: to zero after a three to zero start in a
Speaker 1: best of seven series, and this was the first time
Speaker 1: that the team coming back from three to zero down
Speaker 1: had the home court.
Speaker 2: Advantage in Game seven. Not enough for Boston.
Speaker 1: I have to say, though, and I really want to
Speaker 1: be careful here. I do not want to diminish Miami's
Speaker 1: night after a pomplishment like this, because you can't overstate
Speaker 1: how huge of a win this was. But let's face it, people,
Speaker 1: Monday Nights co winners, maybe the winners of the evening
Speaker 1: are still the Denver Nuggets. Yes, the Nuggets are going
Speaker 1: to have to chip away nine full days off without
Speaker 1: a basketball game of rust when they play host to
Speaker 1: Game one of the NBA Finals on Thursday night.
Speaker 2: You're going to read a zillion.
Speaker 1: Rest versus Rust stories on Tuesday and Wednesday into Thursday.
Speaker 1: But the Nuggets now have home court advantage in the
Speaker 1: championship round because it's the Heat in the finals, not
Speaker 1: the Celtics. The Heat the lowest scoring team in the
Speaker 1: league during the regular season, a forty four and thirty
Speaker 1: eight team with a negative nightly point differential during the
Speaker 1: regular season. Miami made it this far inspite of all that,
Speaker 1: but the Heat al so squandered multiple chances to end
Speaker 1: this season earlier. I mean, at three to zero with
Speaker 1: a Game four at home, I was sitting there. I
Speaker 1: couldn't stop thinking about Miami and Spoe and pat Riley
Speaker 1: and plotting how soon would they get to Denver to
Speaker 1: get an early jump on getting used to the famed
Speaker 1: Rocky Mountain altitude.
Speaker 2: Incredible opportunity. If they win in four or even finish.
Speaker 1: Us off in five, the Heat, I fear they will
Speaker 1: lament dearly lament missing out on that prep time. However,
Speaker 1: if we are going to talk about regret, that focus
Speaker 1: has to stay squarely on Boston. This is two straight
Speaker 1: springs now where the Celtics were not just deep and
Speaker 1: versatile and dangerous, but they looked like they had such
Speaker 1: an inviting pathway to a championship.
Speaker 2: And now after.
Speaker 1: Failing to beat Golden State in last season's finals and
Speaker 1: fumbling this golden opportunity with the Bucks out of the way, early.
Speaker 2: Chances are in this new NBA world.
Speaker 1: That's coming, the Celtics are not going to be this deep,
Speaker 1: this versatile as we've seen these last two seasons. All
Speaker 1: the questions about rookie coach Joe Missoula and Joe Maz's
Speaker 1: future when the Celtics went down three to zero, it's
Speaker 1: all shifted. Now it's all on the pairing of Jason
Speaker 1: Tatum and Jalen Brown. Does Boston elect to keep this
Speaker 1: duo together?
Speaker 2: Tatum and Brown they've gotten.
Speaker 1: As far as the conference finals four times in their
Speaker 1: six seasons together, one trip to the NBA Finals, but
Speaker 1: no championships. And now, as we've talked about on this pod,
Speaker 1: as I've written about on my substack numerous times. It's
Speaker 1: going to cost the Celtics six hundred million or in
Speaker 1: that neighborhood to keep these guys together. Jalen Brown eligible
Speaker 1: for five years and nearly three hundred million this summer.
Speaker 1: The following off season, it's Tatum six hundred mili to
Speaker 1: retain this tag team.
Speaker 2: In the new NBA, We've.
Speaker 1: Got a much more onerous labor agreement coming in. It's
Speaker 1: going to be tough, much harder on the league's biggest
Speaker 1: spenders to put depth around him. It's going to be
Speaker 1: more important than ever once this new labor deal takes
Speaker 1: hold on June thirtieth, and the most onerous restrictions will
Speaker 1: be phased in over two seasons. But it's going to
Speaker 1: be more important than ever for teams to get their
Speaker 1: two star tandems right. Three star constructions are going to
Speaker 1: be really hard to afford. Teams are going to be
Speaker 1: focused on getting that twosome right and building around it smartly,
Speaker 1: and the questions about the Tatum and Brown ceiling now
Speaker 1: are going to be louder than ever. On one hand,
Speaker 1: we're talking about two way wings, all NBA ers who
Speaker 1: play at both ends, and we are in an era
Speaker 1: in the NBA two way wings have never been more valued.
Speaker 1: But there is just no escaping that Tatum, Yes, bad
Speaker 1: ankle cannot overlook that the man was hurt on the
Speaker 1: game's very first possession.
Speaker 2: We can't overlook that.
Speaker 1: But fourteen points in this game seven, well shy of
Speaker 1: the fifty one that he put up against Philly in
Speaker 1: Game seven in the last round. And you know, Brown,
Speaker 1: I'm a huge Jalen Brown fan, but I mean, he
Speaker 1: shot a miserable sixteen point three percent from deep in
Speaker 1: this series, and I do have to respect him for
Speaker 1: saying after when it was over, I mean, Jalen Brown
Speaker 1: took a lot of the onus, a lot of the
Speaker 1: blame onto himself.
Speaker 2: Quote we failed. I failed. We let the whole city
Speaker 2: down end quote.
Speaker 1: The Celtics as a group, they were I'm just so
Speaker 1: three happy in Game six, in Game seven, sixteen for
Speaker 1: seventy seven from deep in the last two games. They
Speaker 1: miraculously win Game six on Saturday night because of the
Speaker 1: Derek White follow basket at the buzzer.
Speaker 2: That is still hard to fathom now. I was actually
Speaker 2: in San.
Speaker 1: Antonio on press row in nineteen ninety nine, long time ago,
Speaker 1: many years and pounds ago when Shawn Elliott found a
Speaker 1: way to stay in bounds sink the shot known in
Speaker 1: South Texas. That's the NBA's original Memorial Day Miracle, Elliott
Speaker 1: shot beating Portland, keeping the Spurs on course for the
Speaker 1: first championship in franchise history. I was not in Boston
Speaker 1: in person on Monday night. I was nowhere near the
Speaker 1: very despondent looking Bill Simmons in the stands. I'm guessing
Speaker 1: you've seen the photo by now of Bill that's already
Speaker 1: all over Twitter with the Memorial Day miracle. This time
Speaker 1: it belonged to Jimmy Spoe and Co.
Speaker 2: And the aforementioned pat Riley Ryan.
Speaker 1: I was going to the finals for a nineteenth time
Speaker 1: as an executive coacher player, and doing it at the
Speaker 1: Celtics expense. I'm sure Riley can hardly contain his glee
Speaker 1: this league, as those of us on this podcast have
Speaker 1: been known to say, I mean tonight again, we're recording
Speaker 1: this right after the game. Derek White getting repeated MVP
Speaker 1: chants in this Game seven as he tried to keep
Speaker 1: Boston in it. Caleb Martin again, Caleb Martin almost beating
Speaker 1: out Jimmy Butler, for that Larry Bird Eastern Conference MVP Trophy,
Speaker 1: this league, this series, this season, this postseason.
Speaker 2: I guess when you really think.
Speaker 1: About it, Miami winning a Game seven on the road
Speaker 1: after squandering three chances to close this thing out, it's
Speaker 1: actually a fitting outcome to slam home yet again, how
Speaker 1: form my seat. I can't speak for Chris, but for me,
Speaker 1: this has been the strangest season of my thirty seasons
Speaker 1: covering this league, the strangest results wise. If we have
Speaker 1: to throw out the unprecedented COVID imposed logistics of the
Speaker 1: twenty nineteen twenty twenty season that had to be completed
Speaker 1: in a Walt Disney World bubble in Orlando, where Chris
Speaker 1: and I were both residents of the bubble, if you
Speaker 1: allow me to throw that out and the conditions, this
Speaker 1: really has just been a circus of a season unlike
Speaker 1: any other. All Right, everyone that will do it for
Speaker 1: this solo audio dispatch, Chris and I promise we're going
Speaker 1: to be back together soon, back for more later this week,
Speaker 1: and I should pass along how mister Haynes reported on
Speaker 1: Twitter tonight after Miami clinches its place in the NBA Finals.
Speaker 1: Chris is reporting the Tyler Hero remember the broken hand
Speaker 1: he sustained very early in Miami's Round one against Milwaukee.
Speaker 1: Chris reports that Hero is ramping up his workouts and
Speaker 1: targeting a Game three return in the finals when that
Speaker 1: series with Denver shifts.
Speaker 2: To South Beach.
Speaker 1: Chris and I will get into all of that in
Speaker 1: our next episode of This League Uncut, and I promise
Speaker 1: we will also get into all the latest from the
Speaker 1: coach in carousel. Since we last potted, Milwaukee has hired
Speaker 1: Adrian Griffin as its new coach. Philadelphia has hired Nick
Speaker 1: Nurse as its new coach. Detroit, Phoenix, and Toronto all
Speaker 1: still with openings to phil On Tuesday, Warriors president of
Speaker 1: basketball operations Bob Myers is meeting the media at three
Speaker 1: pm Eastern noon Pacific. I wrote Monday that my prediction
Speaker 1: the vibes I'm getting, I think this is it. I
Speaker 1: expect Bob Myers to walk away and take a break
Speaker 1: from the front office world. We'll see if I'm proven
Speaker 1: correct with that prediction. In the meantime, everyone please remember
Speaker 1: to rate, review, and subscribe to This League Uncut via
Speaker 1: Apple Podcasts or wherever you get your pods. We'll be
Speaker 1: back in short short order NBA Finals Thursday night in Denver,
Speaker 1: Game one, Jimmy Butler Nikola Jokic. Which of these guys
Speaker 1: wins their first NBA Championship rank?
Speaker 2: Let's hop and that'll do it for us. See you
Speaker 2: next time this league. Uncut it and iHeartRadio production. Christine
Speaker 2: Good march tyme