Speaker 1: This crowd rises to speaking what Carl slammed it out
Speaker 1: car left wing, free ball, perfect pop, then he left
Speaker 1: lock the shot at the rim, pow with the left hand.
Speaker 2: And of foul.
Speaker 3: Welcome to Chase Doown Podcast, part of the Caves media family.
Speaker 3: I'm your host Justin Rohan. The Chase Doown is presented
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Speaker 3: Slash Calves. The Cleveland Cavaliers have completed the most dominant
Speaker 3: light lopsided series in NBA history, beating the Miami Heat
Speaker 3: by a combined one hundred and twenty two points through
Speaker 3: four games. My prediction was correct. The Calves wanted to
Speaker 3: come out and make a statement. They did it, and
Speaker 3: they swept the Miami Heat. Joining me today is my
Speaker 3: co host, Carter Rodriguez. Carter, how you doing, buddy?
Speaker 1: Oh, it's a cavalis It was like a forty eight
Speaker 1: minute cavalanche. These boys went up sixty in Game four
Speaker 1: on the road. I mean, what an unbelievable stretch of
Speaker 1: games in Miami. A dominance, I'm not sure. I mean,
Speaker 1: we've literally, I guess never seen you know, with them
Speaker 1: setting the record for the most dominant sweep in the
Speaker 1: history of the sport. And it just kind of goes
Speaker 1: to show you how ready this team was to answer
Speaker 1: questions to knock down the dominoes put in front of them.
Speaker 1: No one's gonna mistake this Heat team for a juggernaut.
Speaker 1: But like, this was the ninth best defense in the NBA,
Speaker 1: and I believe they were seventh best after the All
Speaker 1: Star break, and I mean hot knife feugh butter one
Speaker 1: hundred and thirty, one hundred and thirty seven offensive rating
Speaker 1: for the series, like.
Speaker 3: Come on, which is an NBA record for best offensive
Speaker 3: rating in a series.
Speaker 1: Right when.
Speaker 3: One of the things that we asked coming into the
Speaker 3: series that we wanted to learn is can the Cavs
Speaker 3: offense finally translate to the postseason? Can they have you know,
Speaker 3: a strong offensive series. I believe you wanted to see
Speaker 3: one eighteen, am I correct?
Speaker 1: Yeah, I was hoping. I was like, I'll settle for
Speaker 1: one sixteen. You know know what you did, Carter?
Speaker 3: You sold them a little short, you sold short the hardest, working,
Speaker 3: best condition, most professional, unselfish, toughest, meanest, nastiest team in
Speaker 3: the playoffs?
Speaker 1: How dare you do that? It couldn't possibly be me.
Speaker 1: You must be thinking to someone else justin I want
Speaker 1: to open by asking you this because we were going
Speaker 1: into our serious preview and I asked you if anything
Speaker 1: in the first round could change your opinion about this team,
Speaker 1: like not like out of Series two series, because I
Speaker 1: think both of us felt like they could win the
Speaker 1: title coming into that series. But I kind of asked, like,
Speaker 1: can they do anything to kind of make you feel
Speaker 1: differently about them after that that ridiculousness.
Speaker 3: Do you remember what my answer was at the time.
Speaker 1: I don't remind me.
Speaker 3: My answer was, no, they can't do anything to change
Speaker 3: what my opinion is, my level of confidence going moving forward,
Speaker 3: because I was going to give them the benefit of
Speaker 3: the doubt, right, Like I said, going into this series,
Speaker 3: my brain says five because Miami always finds a way
Speaker 3: to get a game in a series. But my heart
Speaker 3: is telling me four because what we've seen this season
Speaker 3: from the Cleveland Cavaliers is when they have something to
Speaker 3: play for, when they have an edge to them, they
Speaker 3: go out and accomplish it, whether it is the historic
Speaker 3: regular season they had, whether it was getting three of
Speaker 3: them to the All Star Game, that seemed to be,
Speaker 3: you know, a real thing that they wanted to accomplish.
Speaker 3: Evan Mobley winning Defensive Player of the Year, donnod Mitchell
Speaker 3: is going to be All NBA. I think Evan's definitely
Speaker 3: going to make All NBA as well. These guys, when
Speaker 3: they have a chip on their shoulder, we've seen another
Speaker 3: gear from them. And I think after the All Star break,
Speaker 3: with the one seed already locked up with a brutal
Speaker 3: travel schedule, we just didn't see the same kind of
Speaker 3: focus calves and I really felt with a week off
Speaker 3: with something to prove, with guys like Darius Garland saying, hey,
Speaker 3: we know what the perception is, we know what we
Speaker 3: have to do to change it. We want to go
Speaker 3: out and change it, I just felt like they were
Speaker 3: going to, you know, come out and make a statement.
Speaker 3: And you look at this series. Man Game one, twenty
Speaker 3: one point, League Game two, nineteen point, League Game three,
Speaker 3: forty point, League Game four, sixty point lead. We said
Speaker 3: after Game two that that was probably Miami's best shot.
Speaker 3: We felt that the shot making from Miami was unsustainable.
Speaker 3: They were not getting good looks. I think coming off
Speaker 3: to elimination games that they won, they were playing with
Speaker 3: a lot of confidence. Their best was not enough, and
Speaker 3: I think after they had that, starting Game three, the
Speaker 3: Cavs came out without Donovan Mitchell and had an eighteen
Speaker 3: oh run to basically, you know, start to put that
Speaker 3: game away and put it out of reach where once
Speaker 3: again they were going to need to attempt another large comeback.
Speaker 3: You know, I don't want to say it about professionals,
Speaker 3: but it really it felt like, you know, their confidence
Speaker 3: kind of fell apart at that point, and you know,
Speaker 3: it just felt like they were out of the series,
Speaker 3: like they did not believe that they could compete. And
Speaker 3: once you reach that point where you no longer believe
Speaker 3: that you can actually contend and compete within a series,
Speaker 3: you're going to let go of the rope and things
Speaker 3: are going to unravel fast.
Speaker 1: Yeah. And I don't think it's always about effort. It's
Speaker 1: about like how hard your brain is working to solve
Speaker 1: the problem. You know. I just think, like to your point,
Speaker 1: Miami kind of very quickly came to the same conclusion
Speaker 1: that much of the viewing public game two, which is
Speaker 1: that we can't solve this problem. We don't have the juice,
Speaker 1: we don't have the ball handlers, we don't have the shooting,
Speaker 1: we don't have the physicality, you know, and like, you know,
Speaker 1: a couple of those things are such Miami heat staples that, yeah,
Speaker 1: it's jarring like but like I do think as bad
Speaker 1: as the Heat were in these last two games, like
Speaker 1: you have to give the credit to the Cavs for
Speaker 1: taking it the way.
Speaker 3: They did, I've never seen a Spo team give up.
Speaker 3: And it really felt that way. And Spo had this
Speaker 3: comment after Game three, and no, I've never heard him
Speaker 3: sound as dejected. He said, clearly a very disappointing day. Look,
Speaker 3: our guys really want this. It probably looks like our
Speaker 3: guys don't. But I know what our last six weeks
Speaker 3: have been and like to fight and scratch and claw
Speaker 3: to get this. We laid an egg today. Big part
Speaker 3: of it was Cleveland became an avalanche going in the
Speaker 3: other direction. Sometimes when you care, there's a level of
Speaker 3: discouragement that fed into that avalanche. That's what we all
Speaker 3: feel the spirited about. I think that's I don't want
Speaker 3: to laugh at that man like, that's that's vulnerable, that's real.
Speaker 3: And I think one of the things we've seen in
Speaker 3: these playoffs is a bit of a shift in the NBA,
Speaker 3: where in the past, I think teams when we saw
Speaker 3: the best player in a series, we almost always gave
Speaker 3: that team an edge. I think from just the way
Speaker 3: rosters were constructed, that player always would come out on top,
Speaker 3: or very frequently would come out on top. And now
Speaker 3: with modern team building, with the level of talent that
Speaker 3: is around the league, that isn't the differentiating factor anymore.
Speaker 3: Man Like Giannis is out there having a phenomenal series
Speaker 3: against Indiana and he's fighting like to the death to
Speaker 3: get a game off these guys Lebron and Luca, you know,
Speaker 3: a perfect example of top end tallent not necessarily being enough.
Speaker 3: And then you come to this Miami heats where the
Speaker 3: Cows not only have the top end talent, we have
Speaker 3: the five through eight, you know, five through ten level
Speaker 3: of talent to just relentlessly come after you minute after minute.
Speaker 3: After the starters got pulled in the third quarter, Miami
Speaker 3: kept their starters out there. A lot of key players
Speaker 3: were still playing. Our bench extended that lead. It's incredibly impressive.
Speaker 1: Yeah, it's you know, I've been saying it for a
Speaker 1: couple of years, kind of starting to see the narrative
Speaker 1: kind of kind of flip nationally in analyzing the league.
Speaker 1: You know, I forget who wrote the article that you know,
Speaker 1: is this a week link league now? Where you're just
Speaker 1: as good as your worst piece that you play, and
Speaker 1: you're looking up and down the playoffs. You're seeing Lakers
Speaker 1: not make a sub yesterday in the second half literally
Speaker 1: played the same five guys twenty four straight minutes. You're
Speaker 1: watching the Knicks get five bench points against Detroit, even
Speaker 1: in a game they won. You know, it just feels
Speaker 1: so precarious for those teams in a way that it
Speaker 1: doesn't for the Cavs. Yeah. And that's not to say
Speaker 1: the Cabs bench won't struggle at different points over the playoffs, Like.
Speaker 3: It might be different guys that we rely on, right, Yeah.
Speaker 1: But like the holistic reliance and the difference between these
Speaker 1: top heavy teams and the teams you can play nine
Speaker 1: or ten guys and feel really good about that, it
Speaker 1: does feel like it matters. You know, Minnesota has a
Speaker 1: bunch of dudes they really really trust, and it doesn't
Speaker 1: have to be ten. But like it's like having a
Speaker 1: really strong upper middle class of your roster where it's
Speaker 1: not just guys who can survive out there for four
Speaker 1: minutes where you're just kind of crossing your fingers, but
Speaker 1: guys who, when they're on, can really help. I mean,
Speaker 1: this is I've said it before, but this is where
Speaker 1: I was so wrong about Boston last year was I
Speaker 1: thought they had six good players and you know, eight
Speaker 1: or nine guys that they really couldn't count on. It
Speaker 1: turned out Sam Houser hits in a major way, Prichard
Speaker 1: hits in a major way, Cornett hits in a major way,
Speaker 1: and all of a sudden, they're, you know, not only
Speaker 1: as they're starting five unbelievable, they're an eight or nine
Speaker 1: deep team with guys that can kill you. And like,
Speaker 1: I don't know, you look at that Indiana Milwaukee series
Speaker 1: and like his proofs in the pudding in terms of
Speaker 1: who you can rely on to consistently carry you through
Speaker 1: a series, I feel like the teams with depth are
Speaker 1: the ones that are really showing out in this playoffs.
Speaker 3: Here is the best way that I can summarize that depth.
Speaker 3: There are two teams that have a double digit net
Speaker 3: rating in the playoffs Cavs and the Thunder. The Thunders
Speaker 3: was nineteen for their series win against the Grizzlies. Not
Speaker 3: a single Cleveland Cavalier had a net rating below twelve
Speaker 3: when they were on court, so dominant every single guy
Speaker 3: up and down the rotation. But it gets more wild
Speaker 3: than that. The Cav's net rating with Donovan off the
Speaker 3: floor was thirty points better. They're net rating with Darius
Speaker 3: off the court was thirty one points better. Their net
Speaker 3: rating with Evan off the court was thirty eight points better.
Speaker 3: So keep that in mind. Those guys, like you know,
Speaker 3: sometimes you see negative on off splits. Every single one
Speaker 3: of these guys had an on court net rating of
Speaker 3: over twelve. That means you are smoking them when you
Speaker 3: are out there on the court. The Cavs three best players,
Speaker 3: they managed to dominate this series when they were not
Speaker 3: in the game. That is something, man like. That is something,
Speaker 3: And it's not like they didn't do their part. Darius Garland,
Speaker 3: I'll play Tyler hero in his minutes, Evan Mobley, I'll
Speaker 3: play bam Adebayo. Donovan Mitchell one cold shooting game, but
Speaker 3: you saw him close out Game two. He was phenomenal
Speaker 3: in this series. I thought he played with a lot
Speaker 3: of composure. He said after the game, you know, he
Speaker 3: doesn't worry about rest versus rust kind of thing, because
Speaker 3: he feels great. He said, it's the best he's felt
Speaker 3: in the playoffs, and he will take all the rest
Speaker 3: he can get. This Cavs team earned the rest that
Speaker 3: they got, but what we have seen throughout the season
Speaker 3: is they have put themselves in a position to capitalize
Speaker 3: on this rest because throughout eighty two games they knew
Speaker 3: they could trust guys five through ten on this roster
Speaker 3: and even if he need be, Hey, we can throw
Speaker 3: in a Jalen Tyson, we don't care Craig Porter Junior
Speaker 3: can play. We know that these guys can give us
Speaker 3: good minutes. We can play these guys at Madison Square
Speaker 3: Garden in a game where where Donovan Mitchell is out
Speaker 3: and go out and win. There is just such a
Speaker 3: high level of trust and confidence, and I think that
Speaker 3: translates to how they play, how connected they play on
Speaker 3: both ends of the court.
Speaker 1: It's also just such a testament to the front office
Speaker 1: that you know, I still think is you know, one
Speaker 1: of the occupational hazards of Kenny getting all this love
Speaker 1: is that I feel like the front office isn't maybe
Speaker 1: getting as many flowers as they deserve this season because
Speaker 1: three years ago they traded for Donovan and the consensus
Speaker 1: agreement is that was their all in move, no more
Speaker 1: chips to cash, and and we kind of figured that,
Speaker 1: you know, just logically, that this was a team that
Speaker 1: was going to have to be really really really good
Speaker 1: at the top four. And if those four guys were
Speaker 1: great and meshed well together, they would be great. If
Speaker 1: those guys weren't great, they it was going to be
Speaker 1: uphill sludding, you know. And the fact that they've just like,
Speaker 1: not only are they great and great together and able
Speaker 1: to kind of raise, you know, raise the ceiling of
Speaker 1: the team, it also just hasn't mattered if they have
Speaker 1: been good, Like, like, they have so much depth, so
Speaker 1: much insulation. You know, you trade two bench players and
Speaker 1: Keris and Niang and a couple swaps of swaps, and
Speaker 1: go get DeAndre Hunter, who was phenomenal in games three
Speaker 1: and four. You pick up Ty Jerome off the scrap heap,
Speaker 1: he loses an entire season, comes in third and six
Speaker 1: Manut of the Year voting. You you've Dean Wade an
Speaker 1: undrafted free agent, you know, just so Sam merrill A,
Speaker 1: you know, a twenty six, twenty seven year old guy
Speaker 1: you signed to your G League team, and then he
Speaker 1: earned his way to the main roster like every even
Speaker 1: Isaac o Kora, who was you know, the most traditional
Speaker 1: path in you know, being a high pedigree pick, like
Speaker 1: the roster is just padded out with every possible way
Speaker 1: to add talent, you know, max in free agency. They
Speaker 1: have such phenomenal depth, and all of it was earned
Speaker 1: and and really worked for by this front office. And
Speaker 1: they just deserve so much credit for that. Yeah, they
Speaker 1: really do.
Speaker 2: You know.
Speaker 3: Even hey, Ricky Rubio, you know, unfortunately gets hurt. Were
Speaker 3: what we believe in this team. We're going to flip
Speaker 3: him with a first round pick to get Kris Lavert right,
Speaker 3: and Carris gave them a lot of really good minutes.
Speaker 3: You sign him to an extension. But then, hey, you know,
Speaker 3: we we invested in Tidrome. This is someone that we've
Speaker 3: wanted to bring into the locker room for a very
Speaker 3: long time. It has been a perfect fit, and that
Speaker 3: has afforded us the flexibility to go out and flip
Speaker 3: you know, Karris Lavert and George Niang who was having
Speaker 3: a great season for DeAndre Hunter right, developing Jeddi Osmond
Speaker 3: and Lamar Stevens, both of them playing real minutes on
Speaker 3: a fifty win team, which I think people forget and
Speaker 3: using that as you know, sign and trade bait to
Speaker 3: get Maxters right, Like, I think it goes beyond just
Speaker 3: who they brought in, but the little kind of you know,
Speaker 3: turning a paper clip into a house through you know,
Speaker 3: seven thousand trades that Kobe Altman had to do to
Speaker 3: really build a deep roster that can have sustained success
Speaker 3: after really emptying the cupboard to give an honest effort
Speaker 3: with Lebron James right and trying to contend as much
Speaker 3: as possible in that four your windows. So I think
Speaker 3: they deserve a ton of credit. I think we have
Speaker 3: seen this team, whether the storm be in a position
Speaker 3: where they could rest guys, and obviously that seems to
Speaker 3: be the case with Darius Garland will knock on wood
Speaker 3: and hope that it isn't something that lingers into the
Speaker 3: Indiana series. But they've really really put themselves in a
Speaker 3: great position and to be in a spot where you know,
Speaker 3: you lose Darius, who's averaging twenty four points per game
Speaker 3: in this series. I'm terrific two way basketball, and oh
Speaker 3: now we can just kind of cycle in DeAndre Hunter,
Speaker 3: who is a twenty point per game scorer in Atlanta.
Speaker 3: He's gonna, you know, play alongside Ty Jerome, Evan Mobley,
Speaker 3: Jared Allen, Donod Mitchell. We still have, you know, so
Speaker 3: much top end scoring talent that unbelievable. I can't believe
Speaker 3: we are in this good of a position because I
Speaker 3: we always talk about the compromises you have to make
Speaker 3: in roster building and team building. The Calves are in
Speaker 3: a hell of a position and all of these guys
Speaker 3: are at least locked up for the short term here.
Speaker 1: Yeah, they are so so good again, I said after
Speaker 1: Game three, now that the sweep is complete, I mean,
Speaker 1: you know, and one thing I kind of chickened out
Speaker 1: at the beginning of the SPoD because I kind of asked, you,
Speaker 1: you know, could anything the way they play change the
Speaker 1: way you feel about them? Yeah? I mean I feel different.
Speaker 1: I do feel different. I feel stronger about this team.
Speaker 1: I feel stronger than if they had done what okay
Speaker 1: see did, which was start off dominant, which, by the way,
Speaker 1: the Cavs did too, but you know, start off o
Speaker 1: mega dominant and then kind of tail off with a
Speaker 1: couple close ones in Miami. If that's what they had done,
Speaker 1: I'd be like, Okay, proud of them, but like you know,
Speaker 1: and sweeps are hard. You don't you never, you know,
Speaker 1: turn your nose up at any playoff win, But like, okay,
Speaker 1: we'll see how the next series goes. I do feel
Speaker 1: like the offense was so forceful, it was so dominant,
Speaker 1: it was so frankly unbothered by anything Spolstra did. Zone
Speaker 1: didn't work, down shift didn't work, switch more didn't work,
Speaker 1: Trap in and blitz the ball handler didn't work. Fight
Speaker 1: over and keep Davion Mitchell connected, so you couldn't get
Speaker 1: advantageous switches didn't work. I don't think Miami did one
Speaker 1: thing that late that worked for more than three minutes
Speaker 1: at a time. In this series, not a single tactic
Speaker 1: worked because of the offensive flexibility, the scheme versatility of
Speaker 1: this team, the talent level of this team, the shot making,
Speaker 1: the creativeness of their of the way that they attack
Speaker 1: the passing. Just an absolute dominant offensive performance in every
Speaker 1: single game.
Speaker 3: Man, That's that's a lot of good points, and I'm
Speaker 3: just so grateful that I have a tool like Zoomei
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Speaker 1: Oh my god, six in the first half is that
Speaker 1: TJ McConnell.
Speaker 3: That is a Calves franchise playoff record. Six steals in
Speaker 3: the first half. It's a record for a game. And
Speaker 3: Jared did it in the first half. I thought he
Speaker 3: really set the tone honestly when he got that steal
Speaker 3: at the start of the game, when when full course
Speaker 3: I did too, I was like, oh, yeah, they're focused.
Speaker 3: Jared's locked in again. You know here, we're in a
Speaker 3: very very good position.
Speaker 1: And and conversely, the degree to which Miami was like
Speaker 1: told me it was over.
Speaker 3: It's one thing when you know Donovan goes coast to
Speaker 3: coast for dunk, but when Jared Allen's just picking your
Speaker 3: pocket and you know, bringing out the Statue of Liberty, which, hey,
Speaker 3: it looked a lot cooler than when he tried to
Speaker 3: do the Lebron dunk, So so points to him, big,
Speaker 3: big shout out to him. I thought he had a
Speaker 3: phenomenal series. This is two years in a row that
Speaker 3: I thought he's been fantastic in the playoffs. You know,
Speaker 3: people will linger on that Nix and forget this man
Speaker 3: who was averaging you know, seventeen and fourteen. I believe
Speaker 3: against Orlando before the broken rip. He is someone that
Speaker 3: has come out and really made an impact in these
Speaker 3: series and the one that we're going to need to
Speaker 3: continue to rely on. I understand that Jared is more
Speaker 3: than happy fighting for offensive rebounds, doing the dirty work,
Speaker 3: hustle plays, getting the steals. I still think back to
Speaker 3: that steal he had in Game two, which pretty much
Speaker 3: sealed the game, like that was one of the biggest
Speaker 3: plays of this entire series and has put them once
Speaker 3: again in a position to capitalize on the rest that
Speaker 3: they've afforded themselves here. So Jared, I know he's content with,
Speaker 3: you know, getting the scraps and cleaning up on that,
Speaker 3: but I just feel like he is such a talented finisher.
Speaker 3: He is such a skilled offensive player that we're going
Speaker 3: to need to continue to make sure that we are
Speaker 3: keeping him involved offensively, because I think the most dynamic
Speaker 3: version of this Cavs team is never relying too heavily
Speaker 3: on you know, one or two players to you know,
Speaker 3: do the heavy lifting here. When we have you know, three,
Speaker 3: four five guys all cooking, that's when we really played
Speaker 3: the best Cats basketball.
Speaker 1: Jared Allen against the Miami Heat in four games, scores
Speaker 1: fifty seven points, twenty one of twenty seven from the field,
Speaker 1: fifteen of fifteen from the free throw line, forty one rebounds,
Speaker 1: thirteen of them on the offensive end, uh so average
Speaker 1: about three offensive rebounds a game a little bit more,
Speaker 1: had ten steals like and was a plus seventy six.
Speaker 1: I believe he led the team in plus minus. Nope,
Speaker 1: I did it plus eighty eight, which is hilarious. You know,
Speaker 1: just the consummate professional to your point, Like, I just
Speaker 1: think he has been one of their most reliable players
Speaker 1: so far and over these last two years in the
Speaker 1: in the postseason, he really has settled into what he
Speaker 1: needs to do for this team. I think his defensive
Speaker 1: rebounding is super laudable, you know, because that is not
Speaker 1: a strength of this team. And you know, Evan didn't
Speaker 1: board great in this series. You know, he was doing
Speaker 1: a lot of wrestling with Bam or getting switched on
Speaker 1: the perimeter, and like, especially if Evan isn't having a
Speaker 1: dominant rebounding series, the impetus on Jarrett to do that
Speaker 1: goes way way way up. And he was just tough
Speaker 1: as nails. Yeah, it's.
Speaker 3: He really like heilloutware. I feel for him, but he
Speaker 3: at the.
Speaker 1: Beginning of the series, I said, this is going to
Speaker 1: be a welcome to the NBA, buddy, Like you think
Speaker 1: you are a big, springy, rim protecting, dunking big man,
Speaker 1: Like there's levels of this game, young blood, and like
Speaker 1: that's exactly what Jarrett showed.
Speaker 3: I just think he has matured so much of a player.
Speaker 3: He has rounded out his game in so many ways,
Speaker 3: and it really really shows, like the touch he has,
Speaker 3: like sometimes when he's taking off far from the basket
Speaker 3: and he just puts that little spin on it where
Speaker 3: you know it's basically hitting the backboard below the rim
Speaker 3: but still popping up and going perfectly in. Like that's
Speaker 3: not an easy thing to do when you are playing
Speaker 3: against rangey, lengthy defenders, and you know, I think we're
Speaker 3: going to kind of make the assumption here that next
Speaker 3: round is going to be against the Indiana Pacers. I
Speaker 3: think they have played much better basketball than the Milwaukee
Speaker 3: Bucks for the majority of the season. Honestly, it's ever since,
Speaker 3: you know, they turned things around. I think that's been
Speaker 3: the better team. And then, of course, unfortunately there was
Speaker 3: the Damian Lillard injury, which was just absolutely heartbreaking. You know,
Speaker 3: that's somebody that we've measured CALVS guards against for basically
Speaker 3: my entire time watching basketball. And while I've always been
Speaker 3: on the other side of a lot of game arguments,
Speaker 3: that's someone that have a lot of respect for, and
Speaker 3: you know, that was just terrible to see. But you know,
Speaker 3: there's been a lot of talk about how Indiana, you know,
Speaker 3: turn their defense around and post All Star Break kind
Speaker 3: of what they've done. Indiana's defense post All Star Break
Speaker 3: was one eleven point five, Miami's post All Star Break
Speaker 3: one eleven point six. You're talking about equivalent defenses there.
Speaker 3: Even in net rating, I think people forget like Miami
Speaker 3: was seventh and net rating after the All Star Break
Speaker 3: they were a plus three Indy plus five point six,
Speaker 3: So it's not like you're talking about a massive gap
Speaker 3: in terms of level of play. I will say the
Speaker 3: ceiling is a million times higher for Indiana.
Speaker 1: Yeah, they haven't done. I have a couple of things
Speaker 1: I want to hit on from this series before we
Speaker 1: pivot in. Okay, is that cool?
Speaker 2: Yeah? Go for it.
Speaker 1: Ty Jerome at nineteen assists to two turnovers in his
Speaker 1: four games.
Speaker 3: Oh my goodness.
Speaker 1: Like he goes ten of twenty from three to forty
Speaker 1: two from the field, eleven of thirteen from the line.
Speaker 1: What an like. I think both of us felt like
Speaker 1: this was gonna be a fine thing for Tie. Like,
Speaker 1: I don't think we went into this being like Ty
Speaker 1: might have a hard time with playoff pressure. But I
Speaker 1: feel like he exceeded even my expectations in the sense
Speaker 1: that he completely dominated some of these games, even without
Speaker 1: Darius on the floor.
Speaker 3: Yeah, he was big and doing what he did all season.
Speaker 3: Right when when Donno miss's time, Ty has stepped up,
Speaker 3: when Darius missus time, Ty has stepped up, and they've
Speaker 3: done a terrific job all season long managing his minutes.
Speaker 3: You know, it's one of the things that Kenny talked about,
Speaker 3: which is basically, hey, a lot of these guys coming
Speaker 3: in off the bench are almost on a minute restriction
Speaker 3: because we want them to be healthy. We want to
Speaker 3: see them being able to contribute and be at their
Speaker 3: best in the playoffs. And Tye is absolutely built for
Speaker 3: these moments. I mean, obviously, the shooting in this series
Speaker 3: is going to regress. That was nuts. We shot forty
Speaker 3: four percent for a series like next.
Speaker 1: From the line and by the way, remember how frustrated
Speaker 1: we were getting post All Star Break with this team's
Speaker 1: free throw shooting not a problem in this series.
Speaker 3: Man seventy seven of one to seventy five from three
Speaker 3: in a four game series, Like, that's a lot of
Speaker 3: threes to get up in four games, and that's a
Speaker 3: lot of makes to have, you know, ty Jerome hitting
Speaker 3: that half court shot like at that point, Like, you know,
Speaker 3: there are bad shooting elect games, and Miami had a
Speaker 3: bad shooting lex series. But I think even with all
Speaker 3: of that, when you're talking about a one twenty two
Speaker 3: point margin and the fact that they probably shot a
Speaker 3: little over their skis, particularly in those first two games,
Speaker 3: like this just wasn't particularly close, and you know, the
Speaker 3: the Indiana Ranta was going on was actually a little
Speaker 3: more about Hey, Like I understand that Miami was the
Speaker 3: ten seed, but if you're talking about posts All Star
Speaker 3: break Indiana and you know the challenge that they are
Speaker 3: going to bring, you also have to give credit to
Speaker 3: what Miami had done down the stretch of this season
Speaker 3: after you know, resolving that Jimmy Butler situation. So I
Speaker 3: think the Cavs acquitted themselves incredibly well. DeAndre Hunter, I
Speaker 3: think deserves a ton of credit, going all four in
Speaker 3: game one, the rest of the series, sixteen of twenty
Speaker 3: nine and eight of thirteen from three.
Speaker 1: Like, yeah, felt you felt him, You felt his impact,
Speaker 1: you felt you know, I felt like when he got
Speaker 1: to the team and they were on that crazy run,
Speaker 1: he so often was the straw that broke the camel's back,
Speaker 1: him and Tie, and like that is the fun of
Speaker 1: having this two of those guys off the bench, you
Speaker 1: know the fact that they can change the rhythm of
Speaker 1: the game and also be part of the pylon. Mm hmm,
Speaker 1: because like it's happened both ways where he's come in
Speaker 1: kept them that second quarter or that first shift in
Speaker 1: Game two, sorry, where he hit a couple threes, just
Speaker 1: to kind of get them in motion after a pretty
Speaker 1: sloggy first six to seven minutes of that game. So
Speaker 1: he can kind of get you out of the rup,
Speaker 1: but he can also take you over the top and
Speaker 1: take a game from like semi competitive to over in
Speaker 1: very very short order. I thought this was one of
Speaker 1: his I think this was one of his very best
Speaker 1: games as a cavalier. Dominant on both ends of the floor. Man,
Speaker 1: they're so good. So what would you guess?
Speaker 3: I'm going to tell you what the on court net
Speaker 3: ratings were for Donovan in these games in Miami in particular,
Speaker 3: So Evan was plus thirty when he was on court
Speaker 3: in terms of net rating. Donovan was plus thirty six
Speaker 3: for on court net rating. What would you guess? Ti
Speaker 3: Jerome and DeAndre Hunters were at for the two games
Speaker 3: in Miami plus forty. So Ti Jerome had a plus
Speaker 3: seventy three net rating for the games in Miami and
Speaker 3: DeAndre Hunter had a plus sixty net rating.
Speaker 1: Oh my god, that's absurd. A blood bath.
Speaker 3: Yeah, Jared was up there too. Jared was a plus
Speaker 3: sixty his minutes and you know, one of the big
Speaker 3: kind of tactical shifts as this series went to Miami.
Speaker 3: You know, Kenny did a really good job changing up
Speaker 3: the defensive coverages. We talked about how they applied full
Speaker 3: court pressure, and you know, one of the reasons why
Speaker 3: I just never agreed with the whole Hey, the Caves
Speaker 3: are peaking too soon conversations of the regular season is
Speaker 3: you can't say that a team is peaking when the
Speaker 3: stars are playing the lowest minutes of their career and
Speaker 3: you know you're basically playing a base rotation every single game. No,
Speaker 3: the Cavs had another gear to go to. They had
Speaker 3: defensive wrinkles that we didn't see in the regular season.
Speaker 3: We still have the option to shorten up the road,
Speaker 3: you know. It just it didn't make any damn sense
Speaker 3: to me. And I'm losing my train of thought. I'll
Speaker 3: be honest, I'm losing my train of thought. I was
Speaker 3: going to bring that home to pick it right back,
Speaker 3: all right, thank you?
Speaker 1: Now, there there's so many fun stats coming out of
Speaker 1: these two games in Miami. Donovan Mitchell and Evan Mobley
Speaker 1: led the Cavaliers in minutes per game in these last
Speaker 1: two games at twenty seven point three. Good lord, Like,
Speaker 1: that's the thing, bro. Not only are they gonna get
Speaker 1: like a week of rest, like from just not playing
Speaker 1: basketball for the last you know. They played Game two
Speaker 1: in Cleveland on Wednesday, the twenty third, and Donovan has
Speaker 1: played fifty four minutes and probably won't play another minute
Speaker 1: till Saturday or sun Well, we know, won't play another
Speaker 1: minute until Saturday the third or Sunday the fourth. Like
Speaker 1: you cannot buy better rest than that.
Speaker 3: Yeah, yeah, it's you know, they're in a really really
Speaker 3: good position obviously. I think that's gonna be a big
Speaker 3: benefit for Darius, who didn't you know, play in either
Speaker 3: game in Miami.
Speaker 1: He's really that's really the only thing that you leave
Speaker 1: this series being like, man, uh, you just hope it
Speaker 1: gets better. You know, tos are messy. It's hard to
Speaker 1: get off of them, uh you know, because you kind
Speaker 1: of use them for just standing and existing, so it's
Speaker 1: really hard to rest them. But and you just kind
Speaker 1: of especially a guy who starts and stops and is
Speaker 1: a balance based player like and on the left foot,
Speaker 1: like that's kind of your your set foot for for
Speaker 1: you know, jump shots and things like that. So I'm
Speaker 1: not me, I'm a lefty, but you know, but yeah,
Speaker 1: I mean you need it. You need that tell you
Speaker 1: need it to be working like and I will say
Speaker 1: and if you're can we move into some pacers talk
Speaker 1: real quick?
Speaker 3: And I remembered, I remembered my train of thought. I
Speaker 3: was going to I was going to land the plane.
Speaker 3: So the one of the adjustments that Kenny did make
Speaker 3: was Dean passed Isaac in the rotation. And you know,
Speaker 3: in tonight's game, Isaac didn't play, and nobody really played
Speaker 3: outside the top eight until about the five minute mark
Speaker 3: in the third quarter. It really seemed like Kenny tightened
Speaker 3: up the rotation even though they were up by so much.
Speaker 3: He was out for blood in this game. And I
Speaker 3: thought it was really interesting because one of the kind
Speaker 3: of the trickle down effects of not playing Isaac and
Speaker 3: Dean moving up in the rotation is you're a whole
Speaker 3: lot bigger. This is one of the things that we
Speaker 3: had talked about a lot. And when I'm looking at,
Speaker 3: you know, those net ratings, I don't think it's a
Speaker 3: coincidence that right at the top, are you know, TI,
Speaker 3: DeAndre and Jared, Because that lineup of DeAndre Hunter, Dean Wade,
Speaker 3: and Jared Allen or Evan Mobley really with either of
Speaker 3: those guys, and that is so much size, that is
Speaker 3: so much length. Defensively, I really like that. I think
Speaker 3: that might be an adjustment that's here to stay. Ind
Speaker 3: he plays with a lot of athleticism. They have a
Speaker 3: lot of length, and when you are able to combat
Speaker 3: that with a lot of length yourself, I think that
Speaker 3: that's the way I lean.
Speaker 2: Now.
Speaker 3: The interesting thing here is with Darius not in the lineup,
Speaker 3: that meant that Sam Marrol wasn't playing any small forward
Speaker 3: right like he was primarily playing as a shooting guard.
Speaker 3: He was playing alongside Ty Jerome. That allowed the Calves
Speaker 3: to go a whole lot bigger. So it's not just
Speaker 3: a question about you know, moving Isaac down the rotation
Speaker 3: to you know, the ninth or tenth man spot. Is
Speaker 3: Kenny going to go with that larger look and what
Speaker 3: implications does it have for everyone else in the rotation
Speaker 3: because you know, Darius, Donovan and Tie are going to
Speaker 3: be playing.
Speaker 1: Well, especially I remember we talked about it a little
Speaker 1: bit in like the weeks leading into the playoffs, talking
Speaker 1: through the rotation, talking through some of our concerns with
Speaker 1: Sam having to play minutes at the three and because
Speaker 1: of you know, Tie and Tie's emergence, and we kind
Speaker 1: of said, like you might have to pick between one
Speaker 1: or the other when things get tough, you know, and
Speaker 1: the teams start beating you up and you know, exposing
Speaker 1: that that size disadvantage. And like I gotta say, like
Speaker 1: I thought Sam was great and this now, and I
Speaker 1: think he can play verse Indy.
Speaker 3: I I think you can play him at small Ford
Speaker 3: versus Indy. I'm not shortening the rotation. I'm not going
Speaker 3: down to eight guys. Like I'm not suggesting, Hey, the
Speaker 3: eight we played tonight, We're just going to swap Darius
Speaker 3: in for Sam kind of thing. I would still like
Speaker 3: to be.
Speaker 1: Playing nine and ten against Indiana, and I think we will.
Speaker 1: But what I was going to say is that I
Speaker 1: don't think that we can't. Like there's no world in
Speaker 1: which I see Tie not being a member of this
Speaker 1: rotation until they lose, like literally till they're out of
Speaker 1: the playoffs. No, because I just feel like he's earned it,
Speaker 1: you know, you earn these kind of like he's at
Speaker 1: a point where it would have to be like a
Speaker 1: total disaster of a series for me to even consider
Speaker 1: cutting his minutes, because he's earned that equity.
Speaker 3: Yeah, Honestly, when we talk about the I guess the
Speaker 3: top seven. Like if you're talking about the core for
Speaker 3: Max Strus, Tijerome and DeAndre Hunter, those guys have equity
Speaker 3: for me unavailable. If they go out and they shoot
Speaker 3: for twenty, I don't care, man, Like I one, I
Speaker 3: trust these guys to be doing other things out there,
Speaker 3: and hey, like maybe maybe it just wasn't off shooting
Speaker 3: game like like Donovan had in Game three. That stuff happens.
Speaker 3: I trust those top seven, and I'm riding with those guys.
Speaker 3: To me, the question goes beyond that, right, Like if
Speaker 3: Kenny is going to pare down in any game in
Speaker 3: you know, the semifinals or the Eastern Conference finals, if
Speaker 3: the Gays are able to make it there, I'm interested
Speaker 3: to see who the eight or nine are. I think
Speaker 3: that's kind of more my de note here and just
Speaker 3: kind of the circumstances that allowed them to do that.
Speaker 3: But I still keep coming back to I really like
Speaker 3: when the Cavs play big. I think they have the
Speaker 3: option to do so in the staggered lineups. I think
Speaker 3: it helps them on the both ends of the glass.
Speaker 3: I think it helps them play physically. You saw DeAndre
Speaker 3: playing at small forward, capitalizing on mismatches man like, he's
Speaker 3: able to put his back to the basket and score
Speaker 3: on guys. He's able to take advantage of his size.
Speaker 3: He gets to the free throw line because they can't
Speaker 3: handle him at that size at the small forward position.
Speaker 3: Those are advantages he doesn't necessarily have when he's playing
Speaker 3: at power forward. So that's one of those things that
Speaker 3: I want to keep an eye on because if you're
Speaker 3: asking me, what is the optimized version of this team
Speaker 3: when we're putting our absolute best foot forward because we're
Speaker 3: trying to beat a Boston, we're trying to be in
Speaker 3: an OKC, we're trying to win a championship here. The
Speaker 3: larger lineups when we are staggered are are what sticks
Speaker 3: in my head as the best foot forward for the
Speaker 3: Cleveland Cavaliers.
Speaker 1: Yeah, what's the only time we will through this series? Mean,
Speaker 1: you turn to each other and went, I don't know
Speaker 1: about this lineup. It was, you know, when they were
Speaker 1: playing Samo the three and I was I got the
Speaker 1: four in Game two. I just think you're kind of
Speaker 1: giving away what makes you so special is being big
Speaker 1: and skilled and athletic and switchable. And you know, so
Speaker 1: much has been made of this team's You know, so
Speaker 1: much conversation has been made about this team's identity and
Speaker 1: whether it works, whether it is too much of a
Speaker 1: zag from the standard, which again talk about feeling validated.
Speaker 1: You know, you got Houston running a double big, You've.
Speaker 3: Got Miami drafted kill ware to okay see.
Speaker 1: Ye okay see is playing too big Like so many
Speaker 1: teams are now playing two bigs, which goes to show
Speaker 1: you that maybe old Justin and Carter had some good ideas.
Speaker 1: But you know, I just think that at the end
Speaker 1: of the day, I'm always gonna like when this team
Speaker 1: leans into what makes them special and what makes them unique,
Speaker 1: because I think that's their superpower. You know, you never
Speaker 1: want to run away from your superpower. So I'm excited
Speaker 1: to see how they match up in the next series.
Speaker 1: I do think it could be a little bit assuming
Speaker 1: it's going to be Indy. That series isn't over yet,
Speaker 1: but assuming it is, I do think it could be
Speaker 1: a bit of a shock to the system. I think
Speaker 1: it can go sick is going to be a huge jump.
Speaker 3: Yes, I think it can go six. I think, you know,
Speaker 3: the same way that going into the series, I thought
Speaker 3: four or five based on how serious the Cavs are,
Speaker 3: how they're able to execute, do they have a cold
Speaker 3: shooting night. Those kind of factors, to me, are the
Speaker 3: difference between five and six. Obviously, you know, if Darius
Speaker 3: misses extended time in that series and then has to
Speaker 3: come in midway through, you know, not really able to
Speaker 3: do conditioning with a toe injury, I think that could
Speaker 3: put them in a really difficult spot. So we'll wait
Speaker 3: for updates on that. But I think, you know, if
Speaker 3: once again having a week off benefits this team a lot.
Speaker 3: They're able to get practices and they're able to prep,
Speaker 3: and they come out with a necessary seriousness, I think
Speaker 3: it would be a five or six game series. I
Speaker 3: have a lot of respect for Indiana. They got some
Speaker 3: good wins. They pushed teams, they don't quit. But I
Speaker 3: think what you said about the Cavs leaning into what
Speaker 3: makes them special is kind of like the final takeaway
Speaker 3: that I want to have from this Miami series, which
Speaker 3: is we wanted to see the offense translate to the postseason.
Speaker 3: We saw that it was the greatest offensive rating in
Speaker 3: a series in NBA history. We wanted to see Evan
Speaker 3: Mobley rise to the occasion against maam Adebayo. He had
Speaker 3: a quiet first game. I thought he outplayed him the
Speaker 3: rest of the series. I thought he was the most
Speaker 3: impactful defensive. I thought he was terrific offensively. He had
Speaker 3: that drive in poster dunk in this game that moved me.
Speaker 3: I'm still rattled by it. I thought Evan was absolutely terrific.
Speaker 3: But the other thing that we said going into the
Speaker 3: series is will they impose their style of play on Miami.
Speaker 3: Eric Spolster is one of the best at adjustments, getting
Speaker 3: you out of your comfort zone, getting you to play
Speaker 3: Miami Heat basketball. That's how they beat Boston and Boston
Speaker 3: last year, even without Jimmy Butler. They dragged Boston into
Speaker 3: their style of game. They took them out of their
Speaker 3: comfort zone. They got them no longer playing Celtics basketball.
Speaker 3: The Cavs played Cleveland Cavalier basketball for four straight games,
Speaker 3: and they crushed the spirit of the Miami Heat because
Speaker 3: they couldn't do anything to change the way that they
Speaker 3: were playing. Now, you have to build upon that. You
Speaker 3: have laid a foundation here in the first round. You
Speaker 3: are making the semifinals for the second consecutive year. That's
Speaker 3: a hell of an accomplishment, but you have bigger goals.
Speaker 3: Can you build up on that foundation and continue to
Speaker 3: reach higher levels and continue to have more success against
Speaker 3: tougher competition. I'm so damn excited to see what this
Speaker 3: team's going to do next round.
Speaker 1: Yeah, me too. And I really do think they showed
Speaker 1: exactly who we thought they were, or maybe even who
Speaker 1: we wanted them to be.
Speaker 3: I think, like who I believe they could be. That's
Speaker 3: that's the way I will frame.
Speaker 1: That, and it is as encouraging as a first round
Speaker 1: series against you know, a ten seed can be. All
Speaker 1: that stuff matters. I do think there's going to be
Speaker 1: a bit of a shock to the system when they
Speaker 1: go play a team with more options, more levers to pull,
Speaker 1: mismatched killers, you know.
Speaker 3: Frankly a higher IQ ball handler. Miami doesn't really have
Speaker 3: a true point guard Tyler Hero, you know, he did
Speaker 3: his best, but Harry's Halliburn's a basketball savant, Like he's
Speaker 3: going to find open shooters and they have a lot,
Speaker 3: a lot of very willing shooters out there, right.
Speaker 1: They have multiple on seventy two percent of their field
Speaker 1: goals in this series against Milwaukee, and like I and
Speaker 1: but you know, as much as I'll say the Calves
Speaker 1: are going to have a wake up, I think Indiana
Speaker 1: is going to have a wake up because you're not
Speaker 1: attacking Brook Lopez and Kevin Porter Junior in Bobby Portis,
Speaker 1: guys who cannot move with you, cannot understand the game
Speaker 1: at the level of you, like Calves can match that
Speaker 1: kind of stuff. And I do think for both teams.
Speaker 1: I wouldn't and we're going to dive into this. We're
Speaker 1: gonna do a more thorough preview once that series wrap.
Speaker 1: But like I think for both teams we're going to
Speaker 1: see a healthy offensive drop off because of the ways
Speaker 1: that the other team is capable of challenging them in
Speaker 1: ways their first round opponent was not. And of course,
Speaker 1: of course the Calves eventually there's gonna have a drop off.
Speaker 1: You're not gonna put up one thirty six for all
Speaker 1: the way to the finals. But like, I just think
Speaker 1: both teams have a lot of interesting levers to pull.
Speaker 1: I'm actually really geeked if it's Indiana. I think they
Speaker 1: are the best test of any of the second round
Speaker 1: teams Andy, Milwaukee, Detroit, New York. Like you know of
Speaker 1: anyone that other than Boston that could have been played
Speaker 1: by the Calves. I think Indy is the toughest matchup
Speaker 1: for them, and I think, like you know, if I
Speaker 1: felt like my ceiling raised after this first round dominant
Speaker 1: series against Miami, if they go out and dominate Indy,
Speaker 1: then I'm going off the rails with this hype because
Speaker 1: I you know, you said you think Indy can take
Speaker 1: it six. I think they can take it seven. I
Speaker 1: will not be picking that. But like I have so
Speaker 1: much respect for Brick Carlisle, I have so much respect
Speaker 1: for their point of his hack defenders. I have so
Speaker 1: much respect for Pascal Siakam, who is the guy who
Speaker 1: our guys have trouble with, and it is a real
Speaker 1: blender in the post that can really muck up a
Speaker 1: switch heavy scheme because you cannot switch your guards onto him.
Speaker 1: You know, I was hanging in a playback room with
Speaker 1: the Dunker Spot boys and Steve was getting really frustrated
Speaker 1: with Bam for not asserting in the post demanding the
Speaker 1: ball against mismatches not gonna happen with Pascal Siakam. Ye like,
Speaker 1: he will make sure he gets the ball. He will
Speaker 1: spin mote, move you into hell and he will get
Speaker 1: a bucket or a foul and you know, the machine
Speaker 1: gets going from there. So, like, I think they present
Speaker 1: a ton of really good challenges for us. I'm really
Speaker 1: really excited about how they confront those. I think if
Speaker 1: they win a hard fought series, I won't think any
Speaker 1: less of them. But if they dominate Indy, well, I'm honestly, dude,
Speaker 1: I'll probably pick them against Boston.
Speaker 3: I mean, I'm going to pick them against Boston because
Speaker 3: I'm me. I'm just going to do that. But I
Speaker 3: think you know, your point about it's going to be
Speaker 3: a wake up call for them really rings true for me.
Speaker 3: Like you look at post All Star Break where Indiana
Speaker 3: made their run, like their neck and neck in terms
Speaker 3: of net rating with the Milwaukee Bucks in the Miami Heat.
Speaker 3: The gap between the Indiana Pacers net rating on the
Speaker 3: season and the Miami Heat, the gap between India and
Speaker 3: Cleveland's is four and a half times larger than the
Speaker 3: gap between Indiana and Miami. When you're talking about level
Speaker 3: of competition, and of course you know Milwaukee was right
Speaker 3: there along those guys. The Cavs are going to have
Speaker 3: to play like it though, Like they are going to
Speaker 3: have to play at their absolute best. We saw Indiana
Speaker 3: RaSE a large lead with tyres Helbern out of the
Speaker 3: game and ultimately win. Right Like, no lead is going
Speaker 3: to be safe against Indiana going to take forty eight
Speaker 3: minutes of focus. And what I hope is that the
Speaker 3: lesson we learned in game two and applied to games
Speaker 3: three and four, where we kept our foot on the
Speaker 3: gas and said, hey, if we just play hard, if
Speaker 3: we don't take the last twelve minutes off and we
Speaker 3: play hard, we are going to have more time off
Speaker 3: as a result of that. If they take that lesson
Speaker 3: and apply it to the Pacers series and execute the
Speaker 3: way that we know that they're capable of, like you said,
Speaker 3: it's going to turn a lot of skeptics into believers
Speaker 3: because that is an indie team that has been playing
Speaker 3: at a high, high level. Any closing thoughts before we
Speaker 3: wrap this one up, Buddy, just.
Speaker 1: Again, just really grateful for this team. I just think
Speaker 1: they're it's a really special group, a group that is
Speaker 1: deserving of our affection, you know, at the end of
Speaker 1: the day, like they're just you don't get to see
Speaker 1: this that often, and and the fact that they're dis likable,
Speaker 1: you know, the fact that that after a thump your
Speaker 1: chest dominant two games, the first thing Donovan Mitchell does
Speaker 1: in his postgame interview with Dennis Scott is sending love
Speaker 1: to Kevin love after after you know, I lost the family.
Speaker 1: Like that is such a likable, root for able team. Yeah,
Speaker 1: and they're all like that and like, you know sometimes
Speaker 1: that kind of stuff is press clipping stuff. Yeah, but
Speaker 1: like when we go to the office and we go
Speaker 1: talk to the people who work with this team. You know,
Speaker 1: we're not there every day, but when we do go there,
Speaker 1: everyone is like, these dudes are awesome, Like like up
Speaker 1: and down the roster, you know, these dudes are awesome.
Speaker 1: I asked Sam Merrill, like, hey, you know a lot
Speaker 1: of teams that have a weird season, they come back,
Speaker 1: the whole team gets brought back. It's and it becomes
Speaker 1: immediately clear Nope, that team was done.
Speaker 3: You know.
Speaker 1: You think of those Lob City Clippers teams that were
Speaker 1: like hung around a year too long and you could
Speaker 1: tell it was just miserable wedding. And I was like, Sam,
Speaker 1: why didn't that happen to you? And he goes, because
Speaker 1: we're all really good dudes, like and like you just can't.
Speaker 1: You can't understate how important it is both to the
Speaker 1: team's structural success and what it is to root for them.
Speaker 3: You know, I'm not taking any of this for granted,
Speaker 3: because when twenty eighteen came to a close, we never
Speaker 3: knew if we were going to get a team this
Speaker 3: good again. We never we were hoping, you know, for
Speaker 3: a team that could make a conference finals like that.
Speaker 3: That was kind of the goal, like, hey, can we
Speaker 3: be the grind and grind Grizzlies, And we got a
Speaker 3: team that can legitimately, you know, contend for a championship.
Speaker 3: And windows are never as large as you think they are.
Speaker 3: You know, good times never lasts as long as you
Speaker 3: think they're going to. You have to live in the
Speaker 3: moment and you have to appreciate every single thing for
Speaker 3: what it is. And you know, when you're coming off
Speaker 3: a historic season, you get a historic playoff series. You
Speaker 3: have so much fun in the playoffs, which is usually
Speaker 3: the time where you know, I'm I'm losing my mind
Speaker 3: and adding to this wonderful collection of gray hairs that
Speaker 3: I have. You know, it's it's a really, really special thing,
Speaker 3: and I truly appreciate it. I truly appreciate everyone that's
Speaker 3: you know, been along on the ride with us. Big
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Speaker 2: Until next time, kaya
Speaker 1: Sta