The Jason Smith Show with Mike HarmonJason Smith celebrates the heck out of his Knicks stealing Game 1 against the Celtics. And Jason La Canfora joins the show for the latest on the Ravens releasing star kicker Justin Tucker. And we’ll take all your James Harden apologies!
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Go New, your go, Go New, your go, your voice, go new. You'r hurdo. No kidding, man, I man, I've only watched the last hour with you. How about that?
But I mean that's that's something you're gonna start sounding like you're Brian Johnson of ac DC if you keep that kind of cramp up.
We stole the ball from Jalon Brown with a Second to Go Fox Sports Radio. Welcome inside the Jason Smith Show with my best friend Mike Harmon. Yeah. For over forty years, tire Rack's been helping customers find the right tires for how, what and where they drive. Shipped fast and free backed by free Road, has protection with convenient installation options like mobile tire installation tirerac dot com. He is the way tire buying should be. Well Denver, Oklahoma City. It is a four point lead for the Nuggets right now, three and a half to go in the first quarter. However, however, let's put a hold on the Cavs Celtics Eastern Conference Finals and let's get a Knicks Pacers rematch from the second round last year because of the heroics of the Knicks. And welcome to the Knicks. After a year of trying to fit in, missing a lot of shots of being generally disappointing, Welcome to the Nix mcal Bridges, Welcome to the team. Welcome, welcome, We thank you. Let's just celebrate. You're at the party and not you know, focus on the fact you got here really really late. But you're at the party. You are at the party.
Yeah.
But he showed up fashionably late, yeah, and with the best entrance. Yes, yeah, I mean this is dark Knight.
Yeah, Heath Ledger tormenting all of the rich guests, and then Bail shows up. He's like, oh, there you go, gott to enter with style, So I mean or Dumbledore.
Showing leading Oh yeah. When he does his little hand clap hanging out with the Phoenix King Kshaka Bull says, you have to admit the man has style.
But that's where we're at. I mean, this is a guy you wanted x excommunicating.
I said, you guy, he's the guy that's going to get traded in the offseason so they can retool the roster, right because obviously the having five great starters and no bets is not helping. Fifty one minutes played tonight for mcal Bridge. Yes, he scored eight points, Yeah he was three and thirteen. However, he hits a three in the final minute to give the Knicks a three point lead, and then with the Knicks up three and three seconds left to go, the Celtics have the ball. Oh my goodness, they're fourteen for fifty seven from three point range. They need the three. They get the ball to a guy they like taking the shot, except mcal Bridges did a big Mutumbo finger Wagon said not on my watch.
White has the ball, holes it high, throws it to brown left wing strip five.
Bridges hangs onto it, took it away, throws it down court and the New.
York Knicks stun the Celtics. One wait, one oh five the final, Linix saved their biggest comeback of the season for the biggest win of the year.
Knicks Radio Network on the call, this ain't your zero to ten against Thunder, Celtics, Cavaliers, Knicks, this is your new Knicks. And you were right. You said this before the show, and I wanted to give you credit. I don't think we can call anything else a steel in the NBA anymore because what mccal bridges did to Jalen Brown just walked up to him and took the ball from his hands before he could get a shot off. This wasn't, Hey, the inbat of the pass across the court and Brown's trying to get it and Bridges snatches it. He catches the ball, Bridges won't even let him go up and he rips the ball out of his arms. He bullied him and he punked him and said, this is my ball. Give me that. How I mean? I said that?
Was?
I mean? Oh, that that's a New York play right that you talk about, Hey, Nick's identity to that is a New York play right there. I'm just gonna take the ball from you, not bat it away, not grab it, not making a good smart defensive plane. I'm gonna take the ball from you. I'm gonna rip it from your arms like the Truton Meston line. You canna have my gum and you rip it from my cold dead hands. You can have that ball. You just ripped it from my hands. Oh, you ripped it from my hands. Oh what can I do? Can I do? They do the cross court pass.
Brown comes down with it, but as he tries to collect, he's got to bring it down to his waist before he's gonna try to go up to a shout where bridges. The timing is he's just on him like a magnet and able to absolutely just rip the ball from his hands. And yeah, so now it steals in interceptions. So you tip a pass that's intercepting, Now that's a.
This was a stand, that's a turnover. We'll say you got a turnover. Youah plus one plus Yeah, you still get the turnover. But we're not calling like, not all steals are created equal. This is a snatching a man's soul. Yeah. Oh, at the end of the game, I'm gonna get the shot off. Nope, not gonna let.
In a game that was at times, I mean it's one o eight, one, O five and overtime. Great, we got two in the hundreds. It was very difficult to watch at times, right between the well incessant three point chucking by the Boston Celtics and your team's inability to hit a damn free throw. Like, on principle, you should lose when you miss fourteen free throws.
Well, here's the thing. The Celtics were fifteen for sixty from three point rne for sixty. The Knicks were also fifteen for sixty from the free throw line. I bet you didn't know. That's about right another the exactly. That's why this game was so close. Yeah, no, they were terrible. Oh man, But look the story of this game. We'll get into the threes in a second. There's two big takeaways from this right Number one, I swear to you when Brunson missed the shot at the end of regular the Knicks had a great play drawn up. The Knicks had the ball with four seconds left in regulation, game was tied at one hundred, and they have a nice give and goal play where Brunton in bounced to Karl Anthony Towns and Brunton's got one of those little two step runners and that left handed layup and he banks it off the backboard and I'm as soon as he puts it up, I'm like, I called guys a game gain and then rim rim and out and I said, oh my goodness. And I had this, I had this thought and his vision went through my head like that's gonna be that's the series. How why do I have this horrible foreboding and suspicion that that's the series and it's gonna go down? And Nick's lore as here, look at this missed shot. What did this cost us? Because the Celtics went on to sweep us? And if maybe the series is different, but Brunson's who's made that shot a million times before. I had this horrible feeling in the pitomi stomach. I said, that's gonna be the series because the Celtic's gonna hit a bunch of threes in overtime and they're gonna win this game. I had such a horrible feeling in the penal mind. Well, you vocalized it.
You pounded the table that we were at, right the the counter in the kitchen, which I thought might have been taken off its foundation, So we might have to look and whether that structurally sound. Also, you have whole Hans then, even though there are little tiny mitts that that should have caused some sort of irreparable damage the.
Force after that miss, that's the series. I really thought it was. I really did. I said, that's the series. That's the series. How do I I just know. I just know because I know it. I know that. I'm like, that's the series. To watch that replay a million times.
Especially once they added the extra half a second back on the clock, right because the clock had gone down to point one seconds, Like, all right, it's going over to the point six. Yeah, you dirty, you put point six back on it.
I really should have recorded the last hour, like we had forty five sound bites of you riding the lightning with you. I didn't know, but apparently I was. I didn't know. I was that loud yell like we're in a soundproof door, Like we're we're in a studio with a soundproof door, and Rob Parker and Kelvin Washington do the show before they said we could hear you yelling exactly what you were saying through the door.
Minutes of the no I have no doubt living and dying nationwide and globally with you on the iHeartRadio app. With each possession and you know, down the stretch, the inability of the Celtics to get the ball out of Brunson's hands. Yeah, I mean that Bridge's three pointer was one of the most insane lack of arc, Like, I want to see the trajectory.
Welcome to the mcal Bridges Front's like, no arc whatsoever. Wow, that's a line drive. It actually went in under the hoop and came out there look that way. Yeah.
But you know, for the Celtics, question of Porzingi's place thirteen minutes leaves illness and the fact that they now have to they're back.
To putting the non COVID to it.
I'm like, wait, we're putting that back on this instead of just I think.
Yeah, just just to Yeah, but I think still because if that comes up suddenly, what's the what's the protocol for the playoffs? Now it's all that, But here's the here's the bigger part of this game is that this is where and look, the Knicks an incredible game. They were getting boat raced at halftime. They're able to withstand the hack of Mitchell Robinson in the first half and the Celtics can't make any threes. But this is where the Celtics and Joe Missoula like they blew this game. And it's not just because they missed threes. It's not just because they missed threes. But at some point you have to realize, even if it's just for a little bit, Hey, the threes aren't going for us tonight, okay, And the Knicks are still defending out at the art because they didn't want to take three. That's the thing. They did a good job. But even Karl Anthony Towns was moving his feet. Yes, they were all yes, Well, he had no choice the game he had tonight. He had to move on. But I'm just saying, defensively, that's been something we've talked about all year Long's he's a bit slow and get into the rotation. Tonight he gave you max effort. But this is where is This is Joe Mizzula's fault and it's the Celtics fault because they just continued to do the same thing. It's like they got they got hooked into a well, we're just gonna we love taking threes anyway, We're just gonna keep taking them. They're not going you're getting to the hoop. The Celtics were shooting fifty five percent from everything inside the arc. And I'm not saying you have to go away from taking threes, but at least for a few minutes. This is where Joe Mizzoula calls the time out, dials up some stuff, saying, let's get to the hoop, right, let's get some confidence back, and let's get to the hoop. Because the Celtics were completely discombobulated the end of regulation. Over time, they couldn't hit anything. They were settling for threes, they didn't try to get the ball underneath, and they it was it's one of those games where you want to say, snap out of it right where you're yelling at the television step what are you guys doing? But it's like they can't. They have no will of their own. It's just we're gonna keep taking threes. We're gonna keep doing this. And they kept settling for threes. And when they were down three with sixteen seconds left, I said, okay, they're gonna go and get a quick two. Force the Knicks to make free throws. Come back, they're gonna extend the game. And instead they decide we're gonna take it all the way down and take a three. What do you okay? I was like, hey, that's great. The best thing you can do is possibly do is tie the game. And they'd wind up taking a bad three with a couple of seconds left that luckily the foul was on the floor, because that's how the Celtics got to inbound the ball with three seconds left. Is that Karl Anthony Towns call for foul on the floor inbound of the Jalen Brown. But I'm like, at that point the Celtics were panicked. Let that shot go. That's a thirty foot that he's pump faking up with with coast because there's no time left on the clock. Let him take that shot. The Celtics just killed themselves this game with the refusal to do anything there. And that's on where Missoula's got to say, hey guys, okay, let Jason, let's get you to the hoop. Let's do this. Let's do this. And I know no porzingis and that, but you know what, this is how it goes. But they had the Celtics are a terrific team, right they need they needed some time to get back, get some confidence because they lost it instead of just going through the motions at the end of regulation overtime, and that's what cost them the game. I mean, the Knicks didn't move the ball that great either, but they had a guy making shots and Jalalen Brunson and Bridges hits that nobody was hitting that for the Celtics. But yet they still decided, we're stubborn and we're gonna keep taking these threes, and we played right into the Knicks hand. Yes, the Knicks won this game, but it's more the Celtic and up as a Knicks fan, I'm telling you, the Celtics lost it for those this not just because they couldn't make threes, but because they couldn't decide to not take as many threes and do something else with the ball. Get someone. Cut the lead to four, cut the lead to two, cut the lead to one. Get you're inside Karl Anthony Towns is having a horrendous game. You're getting to the hoop, they're putting you on the free throw line all the time, and the Celtics still didn't do it. They lost this way more than the next one. We're up sixteen and a half. You now have another thing in common with the Lakers, not just hey, you're fighting for who's got the most banners hung. You also can't score in the fourth quarter, just like the Lakes.
Just like the Lakers did sixteen points in the fourth quarter, and again you've got nineteen offensive rebounds. Yeah right, you're controlling the you're getting second chances. But instead of going back up with the ball, what are you doing, You're kicking it back down. Like you said, Nicks are rotating and contesting the threes, and it's not falling space the floor. Man, Sixteen points goes away in a heartbeat. We've watched this time and again these playoffs and certainly throughout the regular season. Right, it's a different stage with the three point play in three point shot being as problem as it is, and I know that's been their hallmark all season long. Right, We've talked about the Celtics and the ridiculous number of threes over the.
Course of the season.
When they work, sure you're gonna blow teams out, but otherwise you've got to adjust. You've got struggling offensive players for the Knicks, You've got guys that aren't hitting file shots, so you've got that in your back pocket for foul takes and other things and different sequences. As we're watching, We're not gonna be labor it going through the play by play, but it just becomes the how do you not adjust the fourth now? Recognizing that SHOT's not suddenly gonna start falling. It's like, well, the law of averages said, like, no, you're shooting terribly. Recognize you you have this game that you can still steal and come back and take it instead, the Knicks escape with it with a win, and this series completely changes woo.
The Eastern Conference playoffs has completely changed.
Look well between yesterday and today, Yeah, we've got some chaos.
That will completely conclude our coverage of the Knicks postgame.
It was brought to you buy Hey. We talked a lot about the Celtics. McDonald's I'm loving It, Capitol One, What's in your wall? Kentucky Fried Chicken, Finger Licking Good Chicken. None of those are real spots. None of those are real sponsors. No, no, none of those spots. The Jason Smith Show with Mike Carmon live from the Fox Sports Radio Studios. Be sure to check out the Fox Sports Radio YouTube channel. Just search Fox Sports Radio on YouTube. You'll see a whole bunch of video highlights from our shows. Be sure to subscribe so you never miss our very best Fox Sports Radio videos on YouTube. We'll have more from the NBA playoffs. Thunder have come back to take the lead over the Nuggets twenty eight to twenty six. Will preview the Knicks Pacers Eastern Conference Finals. But coming up next, big deal out of the NFL today, a big shocking headline. We break it down next right here, Jason and Mike Fox Sports Radio. Well, last week the big number was forty four zero. Now the number is over forty two. Forty two what's that the amount of weight Mike and I have each loss now on PhD weight loss over forty two pounds. Men, you'll lose an average of three to five pounds a week, women two or more pounds a week. It has been a terrific experience for us. It is continuing to go and hopefully we continue to keep going on this all the way down to our goal weights. This has been something that you can take advantage of very easily. It's accountability that you probably need. It's discipline and willpower. They give you everything you need to succeed. PhD clients will lose fat, not muscle. It is a weight loss that will have no negative side effects. Eighty percent of your daily foods provided at no extra cost, no cravings or junk food. You'll meet one on one with a nutritionist every week over the phone, and they are gonna put you on a position to succeed and to lose weight and feel great about yourself. It is made for you and convenience that you need in your life. Here's the best part. Special for listeners of the show. Phone number is eight six four five oh two one seven seven seven. That's eight six four five oh two one triple seven. When you call Mention Jason and Mike Fox Sports Radio, get two free weeks added to your weight loss program. And when you fully commit, you'll get fifteen percent off your weight loss program, fifteen percent off your energy supplement bundle, and your program is backed by PhDs. Get results guarantee. Eight six four five oh two one seven seven seven Mention Jason and Mike Fox Sports Radio. Two free weeks get added to your weight loss program. Eight six four five two one triple seven. That's eight six four five oh two one seven seven Harmon. What's that last November?
Fox Be sure to catch live editions of The Jason Smith Show with Mike Harmon weekdays at ten pm Eastern, seven pm Pacific on Fox Sports Radio and the iHeartRadio app Celti's Camp.
Trying to shoot those threes, kept missing, bouncing off the rim man. The Knicks take game one by three. Do do Doo Doo doo? Dude, I don't even playing the guitar. Dude, do do do Do do? Fox Sports Radio The Jason Smith Show with my best friend Mike Harmon. If you're ready to lose weight, get the expert help a PhD weight loss No injections or prescriptions, fast weight loss results. They work for me and Mike, they'll work for you. Call and schedule a consult today. Visit myphdweight loss dot com. That's ny phdweightloss dot Com. So we'll have more on the NBA playoffs coming up in a few minutes. Heave to say you'll give you all the latest on the thunders big comeback tonight against the Denver Nuggets in the first half, but time not a breakdown all the big news from the NFL joining us now Hotland and Boy do we have a big headline today? Longtime friend of the show insider see him on check him out on Odyssey one oh five seven, The Van in Baltimore, also Washington Post on Twitter at Jason lock and for Jay, what's happening about? How are you?
Hey? What's going on?
Gentlemen? Come on? The Knicks just won a huge game. Very exciting here right now, very exciting.
Yeah, she had Celtics minus eight and a half in still quite as good about forty five miss threes or whatever the hell that was.
But yeah, so I'm going out on a limb here. You had the Celtics minus eight. I'm just saying you had the Celtics minus.
Eight and a half tho direct charge.
All right, Well, hey, let's get to so to get past a bad memory for you, we'll talk some football here for the next little bit, and we'll stay away from the Orioles because I know that's a thing too. But uh yeah, but look, we finally get the decision we thought was coming for a while. The Rave part ways with Justin Tucker. Now he's under allegations and investigation for misbehavior with sixteen massage parlor massage therapists and it's been hanging over him in the team for a long time. They draft a kicker in the sixth round. Okay, yesterday John Harbaugh said, I hate any decision we make as far as Justin goes, it's football relay, football related. They put out a big statement today thanking him saying it's football related, which honestly, it was really tone deaf. Jay like that was that was so tone deaf.
Yeah, look, they're clearly worried about their billionaire's money here right, this is all about bib Bushati and you know, making sure that they get out of this contract clean lee and they you know, post tune first, save themselves, the Caps, save themselves the cash. So they're going out of their way to say, oh, there's other stuff going on, pay that no mind, This was just a football decision. And football players get cut for football decisions. And we're going to we're gonna cut it. We're going to designate it for you know, lack of production and you know tap and we're going to go in a different direction, which they could have done at any point this offseason. But yeah, it was pretty repugnant statement by Tacosta. It really sort of defies credulity, and it flies in the face of good I guess anything related to the Mall compass. It's clear they're in the business of winning and that's what they care about above all else. But they've had a very checkered past with issues of you know, violence and ontoward behavior to women and general sort of misconduct, and they're at a really interesting point right now in regards to all of that. And look, they were okay with Justin Fuckton not being that good anymore, and they didn't bring in anybody to compete with him while he was apart the last two seasons, and they let him kick through the playoffs and he finished on an up swing. And if the Baltimore Banner doesn't do their reporting on him, you know, maybe Justin Tucker at the worst case scenario for him, they asked to take a little bit of a pay cut or something like that, but I don't even think that was in the cards, and they didn't do any of that after the twenty twenty three season when he started falling apart. So this is completely one thousand percent related to everything going on off field, though, although they're trying to pretend that they're not even aware of that much of that stuff. It's a bad look. It's pretty shameful. But I am I surprised by it. No, because this whole situation is shameful. I mean, you're to tell me sixteen different women independently, not coming together as a group, not all with one lawyer. They were being contacted individually by the Baltimore bannerd investigating this, and so many of them were telling the exact same stories that it was mind boggling. No lawyers were fine with it, and Justin Tucker huffed and puffed and said a lot of crap. But he hadn't seen anybody, He hasn't done. It's no defamations in lawsuit. He's never going to be anything. So yeah, it's a sordid chapter here, and it ends what had been one of the more remarkable careers in franchise history.
Jason Lockerbore our guest Jason Smith Show with Me, Mike Armin Here Fox Sports Radio at Jason Lockerbore, where you find him on Twitter, Readam Washington Post here on one O five seven of the fan in Baltimore. Out Here in Los Angeles, they're celebrating the early fixing. I guess of Matthew Stafford's contract final year for him, despite what Sean McVay says, should be a long, fruitful agreement in partnership or we start looking at draft choices in twenty twenty six.
I think internally there they think they could probably get two more years out of them when this is all said and done. At least that's what I've heard. And because of that, they weren't going to invest heavy draft capital in a quarterback this year. But next year. Do I think they explore that with Vigor? I do absolutely, you know, and how many more years of staff would really want to play and obviously, you know, what is his injury situation like to the course of this year. But yeah, I think they believe he's got at least two more years, you know, or probably two years at the top of his craft. And that's the wind that they're operating under right now. And I like the chances to be a factor in the NFC again this year.
It's hard, honestly, if I look back at last year, Jay, they were the second but when we got to the playoffs, they were the second best team in the NFL.
Well, if it doesn't snow in Philadelphia, if it's not freezing rain and snow where they're obviously a West Coast basically dome team that doesn't get in that stuff. Much like if they're not fumbling the ball, there's not ball security, not balls to the issues when the balls being stripped, but just handling routine things that they're not accustomed to. I think they win that football game, and I think they go to the Super Bowl. Like if that's a not as much of a weather situation in Philadelphia, it's just a super cold day, but it's not dealing with the elements. I think they win that football game, and I think they probably win the Super Bowl. So yeah, I take them very seriously. I mean, you can still get them plus one seventy right now to win the division. Like I mean, Seattle solid to me. San Francisco is still in decline. Arizona I love their draft, but that's going to take away more than that to close the gap. And their wee little quarterback runs out of gas every year at Halloween, so I just it is what it is. Like, Yeah, I think they've got the best coach in the division. I think they got the best quarterback in the division. I think they have the best defense in the division, and they make a pretty compelling argument to me to be a team that might be able to hold serve with Philadelphia, that might be able to serve with I think green Bay is gonna you know, I think Green Bay is a team to keep a real eye on this year because Detroit's will rain drain, and they're going to play a brutal schedule and things got a little different fan them and they became the hunted and I don't know about their quarterback in the postseason, and Chicago's on the comm Yeah, yeah, yeah, I'm sure you guys are all fired up in YadA, YadA, YadA. But that's a rookie head coach in the first year, and so we'll see. I think they're improving, but I don't think they are more talented than Green Bay. I don't think they have a better coach than Green Bay. And you know, Minnesota will see what they do with the second year quarterback is really a rookie. I don't think they're winning fourteen games. So yeah, I look at the Rams, I look at Green Bay, I look at Philadelphia. Those are the teams that's end up to me in that conference.
So he's just deflated Jason because he's been trying to put everything on me, mister lock for with the with the is Bear's love and ben jaons and love and all of that stuff.
San Francisco.
Do they sort Rock parties contract out now or does that linger? Obviously you got Kittle signed and taken care of, yeah, and now you move forward here.
I look, the initial offer was really low. How that process on folds and how far they're willing to oftenately go. I think there'll be a pretty decent expectation on the team side that he does something that's decidedly team finally, and that fits in the kind of contract structures that they've always been basically a slave too, basically like they have not been willing to budget a much in terms of how they're going to pay their guarantees out and the way they want those contracts written. Is brock pretty guy that they throw it all asunder for I tend to think not. I suppose they work something out before the start of the season, but I think he's, you know, it's going to probably require him the budget off of what a more sort of militant or hard line stance might be just given. I mean that a guy like that. Prescott's picking sixty million dollars a year.
He's on Twitter at Jason Locke and four that is at Jason Locke and four Odyssey one oh five seven the fan in Baltimore, Washington Post. Jay is always buddy, appreciated, my friend. We'll talk to you next week. Have a great one.
Always my pleasure, gentlemen, Thank you, thanks jah.
There he goes, you know. And the thing the thing about Justin Tucker, right, like, I get that the Ravens wanted to wait and because there was no reason not to write it's in the off season. It's the same thing with Deshaun Watson offseason. Wait, get the inform and nothing needs to happen. Everybody wants the immediate justice. But wait, I just said, because then there's plenty of time for it. But the fact that the statement they put out today, that they went over the top with saying it's a football decision when it's not a football decision, and they put out a written statement thanking him for all the I'm like, ooh that really you need to do that. You cut the guy, you just say you cut the guy. We've cut Justin Tucker. You have to move on that way because this this tells me that, hey, we really don't want to address what's going on and why this is a big deal. Instead we want to just give him flowers on the way out. When everybody knows you're not I'm like, okay, you're not fooling anybody.
Anybody fans the local media, mister Locke and for included, they're not dumb, right, Like they recognize what's swirling in the background. And yes, he had a bad year, right, he missed five from fifty plaus missed another three from forty to forty nine, so he had a rough year. So you, yeah, you can hide behind the football reason. But that's not the only reason.
No, of course, and right deeph to not say you have to say, hey, we you have to put out You just have to say, we're moving on where where where we made a movie? Kicker, we cut justin tucker, this is what's going on. We'll answer quite, that's all you have to songline.
You say it best when you say nothing at all, justin tucker cut that's it.
You look, it looks so bad, it looks so tone deaf to what's going on, And we're gonna ignore and and again, Jay said, that's just a franchise. It can't the one franchise. It can't be afford to look at things. Oh hey, how are you handling this?
But they've done that time and again, right, go all the way back I don't know to one of their all time greats and the way that all got to hit Y.
Lewis and Lewis into Ray Rice and I mean it's really there's are run exit. How about a Fresco exit swollen dome. Jason Smith Mike Harmon live from the Fox Sports Radio studios, Time now to find out what's trending in the wide world of sports. From special delivery Steve the Sager, who has five facts that you didn't know about the life of mcal Bridges. Do it go ahead, go ahead now.
Really until that final possession, did you expect we would be discussing mcal Bridges at all tonight in any positive manner?
Oh wait, you said positive manner exactly, yeah, no, no, no, no no.
And yet you look at the stats, you could make it quite positive. Not only the steal at the end of an overtime playoff comeback when it had Boston, but seven assists, one turnover. Next took the second round opener over the Celtics in OT one O eight one oh five. The Knicks had trailed by twenty mid third quarter twenty nine points each for Jalen Brunson and og On Andobi. Brunson has done a really rare thing in this playoff run so far in the last twenty five years plus of NBA postseason. To do this in your first seven games of the playoff run, to have at least seventy five points in the fourth quarters of those first seven games, He's done that. Steph Curry a couple of years ago did that. Kobe Bryant did that once. Brunson and company up one game to none in their second round best of seven.
Meanwhile, at number one.
Oklahoma City, it is the Thunder with two and a half minutes left second quarter leading Denver fifty five forty three, fifteen points for Shay Giljis Alexander, fourteen for Denver's Jamal Murray, but the Nuggets from three point range two for fourteen. But if you want bad three point shooting, boy, you had to see the Celtics game tonight. Boston finished fifteen of sixty from long distance. That is the most attempts and certainly the most missed threes ever in a playoff game. The NBA Coach of the Year is Cleveland's Kenny Atkinson, questionable for Tuesday for the Cavs. Darius Garland still with the Sprain tow Also on the list Evan Mobley and DeAndre Hunter. Utah gave coach Will Hardy an extension through twenty thirty one.
In the NHL.
Four minutes left at Toronto, it's Maple least five to three over the Florida Panthers. This is the second round opener. It was a four to one advantage for the home team to start this final period. Got within four to three, now five to three, Toronto in the lead late. A couple other game ones are on Tuesday. The NHL's draft law was won by the New York Islanders despite just a three and a half percent chance to do so.
San Jose.
We'll select second. LA Kings GM Rob Blake will not return. The Baltimore Ravens are releasing kicker Justin Tucker. The Rams finalized their contract with quarterback Matthew Stafford. In Major League Baseball, Cleveland at Washington was rained out at Yankee Stadium. There have been a couple of rain delays, but the Padres have just taken the lead with four runs in the top of the eighth. It's four to three at New York Yankees batting, and in the bottom of the eighth inning, the Mets are leading two to one at Arizona, top of the fourth a long home run to left for Pete Alonso two run shot, and the late game in Northern California, the A's won nothing over the Mariners. In the bottom of the second, Dodgers won seven to four at Miami, two run homers for Shoe Otani and Freddie Freeman. Te Oscar Hernandez with his thirty fourth RBI to lead the league, but he left with hamstring tightness. Atlanta shut out Cincinnati four to nothing. The winning brave starter aj Smith Shauver had a no hitter through seven innings. I allowed a lead off single in the eighth. He wound up allowing just that one hit in eight innings of work.
Wasn't it the first time he's ever pitched in the eighth inning in his career as a pro, including my in minor leagues, Like he'd never gotten there even on his way up. He's never gone into the for him.
Ninety nine pitches total in the eighth innings Cubs in Milwaukee, each one at home, Saint Louis and Kansas City as well. The Royals have won twelve of fourteen. They shut out the White Sox three nothing. White Sox record ten and twenty five. Back to you, thanks a bunch.
I think those that's what the knicks were from the free throw line tonight sounds about right, ten twenty eighty. I could see those White Sox against the Marlins on Friday. Yay, Steve, you might have missed a big one though. Oh Steve, miss, what do you miss? Lebron James out for the met Gal? Oh yes, Steve, where was your met Gala injury report?
That's right, it's on the injured list, at least according to the player. I don't think that was a team press release, No, I think I saw it from the met Gal actually had that out today. They actually had a meeting and they talked about Sham's had it. I think, well, I.
Think Rihanna wasn't feeling well. She showed up. How can you Lebron is pregnant? Mary on the Board's okay, you gotta Steve. You gotta I mean, you gotta get the met Galla injury, you got the reports, you have a Rihanna okay, pregnancy question. All thinks she's there. Lebron out, Lebron, that's a note, Yeah, Lebron Savannah. Yes today the gorgeous by the way, Lebron out. Yeah, they go, okay, yeah, see there we go. Meta Mary, You're gonna you're the new Met Gala correspondent here on the show. Okay, so when it's time for for injuries and stuff and fashion, we go to you once a year, we're gonna go to her. I just gave her promotion. I mean, it doesn't mean any more any more money or anything specifically said. You're a met galliperson. Yeah, yeah, you're a metcall of person. Well, I mean my phone's in there, so I can't really do any like you know, we got a computer in front of you, right, oh, yeah, you're right, But then I have to go on Twitter. Well okay, all right, well I think you're okay to do that. What is that PC load letter? So what does that mean? Now I dial up? What do you gott dot matrix.
Printer in the back?
Yeah, I thought I heard the entire screeching on that last minute and a half.
We have our play of the day and a large group of NBA fans at Homeian apology. That's next, Jason and Mike Fox Sports Radio.
Be sure to catch live editions of The Jason Smith Show with Mike Harmon weekdays at ten pm Eastern, seven pm Pacific.
Fox Sports Radio. The Jason Smith Show with My best friend Mike Harmon halftime now and it's Oklahoma City by ten over Denver walfmore in this game coming up in about ten minutes, But time now for the play of the day. For over forty years, tire Rack's been helping customers find the right tires for how, what and where they drive. Shipped fast and free back by free Road, has protection with convenient installation options like mobile tire installation. Tire Act dot Com is the way tire buying should be. And well, when you show up for the first time all year after a very high profile trade and you make a couple of big plays, including the game winner mcal Bridges, you get to be the play of the day. Bitch off to Brown Bridges. There they hold up. You want to come back? You're in a game one win for New York. Kevin Harlan on TNT with a call mcal Bridges ripping the ball out of Jalen Brown's arms. That's emasculating. Not that he didn't get a shot off, not that he tied you up. He ripped the ball out of your arms like that. There's just something so special about that being the outcome, more than just here's a defensive play and the Celtics were desperate. They didn't get no. I'm ripping the ball out of your arms, and that's how we're gonna win the game.
He brings it down to Ords' waist after Look, it's a difficult catch, right because it's like you're a wide receiver and going deep and catching it over your shoulder. You want to go baseball, go back to Willie Mays and the catch going back to the wall in fifty four. But all that to say, as he tries to collect it, Bridges does a good job of not getting up into him too quickly, because I mean, he could have been easily a foul situation. Instead recognizes what Brown does to try to corral and and control the ball and goes down and just steals his steals his wallet.
Man, he just.
Goes and he grabs it. And look, we were redefining things. We're no longer calling the stolen pass. You know that's tipped away, a steal, that's now an interception or just a turnover. You've truly got to go and take the guy's soul as he did here. So mcel bridges, a guy that averages almost eighteen points a game, by the way, for you, for all your hatred of him, shot what fi.
Yeah, I mean, look, he did play. He played fifty one minutes tonight, and he scored eight points and three of them were in the okay, all right line drive three points. Defense was terrific. His defense was terrific tonight. The next defense was over all was terrific tonight. Like I felt like I'm watching I felt like I'm watching back the team that that up until this year had been the hallmark of Hey Brunton's heroics. We hit enough shots, we played great defense, and I saw that tonight. So like maybe the Knicks have been waiting. Hey, guess what, we're gonna think. Everybody's gonna think we stink. We're not gonna We're not gonna guard anybody during the season. But when the playoffs come, that's when we're gonna start garding people. Oh okay, all right, then, really you were down by twenty, Yeah, but all of a sudden, saying we started on time, we started the lake.
But what we're saying, he suddenly he's got his rose colored glasses on, always right with the world. They were down twenty with five forty seven left in the in the third quarter, and then the Celtics failed.
And now I'm ready for the Knicks and the Pacers Eastern Conference Finals. What a great rematch last year. That's gonna be watching hard. Just take care of business. No, at least at least he hit some few more threes now than that miracle when he hit last year that I still keep seeing with my eyes closed, which he shot with his eyes closed as well. But I'm ready. I'm ready for the big you know, Rick Carlisle. I hope the small market teams get calls again. I hope that, you know, maybe the Nicks hopefully to stay healthy this time and it becomes a thing. I'm not ready. I'm ready to learn and not hold a grudge. I'll hold that grudge until we can pay that back. I'm John Wick I'm the John Wick of grudges. I will hold this until as long as possible, until I can pay that back. I mean, near didn't hit the shot over you, I'll do you know what, coming up and over him in his face. No, he didn't, he didn't, he was He closed his eyes. He closed his eyes and he threw it up underhanded and it went in. Okay, that was That was the beginning of the end.
For then this entire man's career. He's an Olympic hero. No, he's not coming.
He is not even even Tyrese Halliburton. When that shot went in, he started crying on the court. Oh my god, like like it was like it was later in his shot at the end. He didn't think he was celebration. He thought it was iltation.
I mean, it's all of those things, all those emotions that were bottled.
He got let out. Now he thought we're down three zip. Oh but look we snatched that one away and here and that was the beginning of the cut. Then the Knicks couldn't say hell. Everybody started getting hurt. Everybody was missing games, and they lost in seven.
Well, I mean, maybe one of your guys had gone down to the Crossroads and that was the beginning of Paws.
So about that, well, uh, I would like to see Ralph Macchio make some shots. Stevie VI come in, I'm gonna start playing. That's how we went, That's how the game goes. Forget it.
We're tied with a minute left and instead of playing this out, it's now going to be represented as playing its Jalen.
Brunson pick set by Stevie vaie oh and to pass out to Daniel LaRusso. Yes from deep time out Cobra Kai. They want to talk it over. You have to think Johnny's gonna take this final shot here, Maybe Dutch, I don't know, but probably Johnny Dutch. Yeah, there you go, go, New York, Go, New York, got insane Nick Pacers ready for the Eastern cop respiring game. Ready to go, doesn't not ready to go? Ready to go. We'll have more on this game, plus a big update and a big apology next here. Desperation three. Let's face they weren't at it anyway because they could hit a three all night tonight and the Knicks wind up snatching game one up, one game to none, now over the Celtics.
Yeah, I did like the fact, and I'm not gonna play it up too much because it'll feed whatever high you're still riding off of. But it was good to see them commit to defense. Look, first half was a disaster, right, they're down sixteen. It gets up to twenty midway through the third. But then something switched and the feed started moving and those shots that were already not falling are now being contested at a different level now. They gave up nineteen offensive rebounds. That's one that Tom Thibodeau in his heart of hearts, that's the stat that stands out that and free throws. Well, if you guys can't hit free throws, that's not gonna change, right, that's not gonna suddenly change. But I guarantee you you can get more effort on the glass because you saw a lot of back week side rebounds. And that's the thing, you know, watching with some of these erratic, really frantic possessions by the Celtics, like you're not getting to really set up your rebounding at all because you've got some weird angles that the ball's coming off. You have thirty foot fading shots and whatever long rebounds, bricks, you name it, we saw it all from the Celtics over their sixty three point attempts. So just trying to you know, set up and get your normal base was a bit odd. But when it's all comes through it the fact that Jalen Bronson is still a guy that is unflappable and your guy bridges for as much as you've tried to cast him off the last two months, I think I could probably find about eight to ten minutes of game tape i e.
Radio show of you lamenting his exhistens and lots of lots of it. And if we took the stuff in the back, I mean you offered did you move him? Oh yeah, yeah, Jo Brianna, who's a big Suns man, like, we'll give him back, him back to you. I'll get back to you, give us Devin Booker, I'll give you back mckelviny.
Well, I mean the Booker think you tried to slide in under cover of night. You had all the other parameters of well, you know, we'll take a draft pick, we'll do this and whatever.
But all of that to say, you stole a game.
Yeah, and now you get to play a little bit and we'll see if porzingis is healthy. Game too left with an illness, but sixty three point shots. Man Love averages said they can't be quite so terrible next time.
Well, but we'll see. Maybe the Nicks will make free throws, right, maybe there's a little bit of balance in the force. But we'll ask a big question. We'll ask a big NBA question coming off of tonight, coming up in about twenty minutes. But other big news today in the NBA. First of all, we told you the Oklahoma City Thunder and the Denver Nuggets. The Denver Nuggets led this one early, but it has been all Thunder since late in the first quarter. Yes, Jokich has twenty and fourteen, he's having a big night, but Gil justs Alexander has seventeen and eight. The bench is coming through for the Thunder. They now lead this by thirteen with ten minutes to go in the third quarter. And obviously this is a series. It's game one and we're still going. But let me just say this about the Nuggets.
What but well, you heard what you just said, right, Yeah, obviously this is a series.
Game one one over here is the Knicks. I gotta need to score because I got to talk about the team that's losing, which is the Nuggets, the Knicks one, Nicks one. I'm ready for the Eastern Conference Finals, Knicks Pacers East Finals. Let's go, let's go. No, because I'm going to talk about the Nuggets here for a minute, because you know, look, they have the big game seven against the Clippers and they roll through them. And now everybody's starting to come around. And it's funny hearing today all the takes on the Nuggets of oh, you know, when you fire your head coach, look at what it can do for you. No, no, no, no, no, no, no, no, no, all no, all everybody who after the Nuggets fired Michael Below with three days left in the regular season, when everybody's at a bike again, this is a horrible move. How dare you do this? This is all how you're gonna win? What's going on? What are wet? The night that firing happened, we said, if the guys gotta go, the guys gotta go. You remember, because that's what we said, If the guys gotta go. It doesn't matter if it's three days before the regular season or if it's three days into the regular season. If a change has to be made, if things are going poorly and you know that we get to the playoffs, we're gonna go through the motions and then we're gonna fire our head coach. I don't want to give a playoff away. When a coach has to go, a coach has to go. And clearly it was no longer a tenable situation, right, he had been insulting the players were on whoever's fault it was. The players are wanting to have to take the court. You don't have to keep the head coach right.
When it's filled over into all his press conferences, yeah, everything, review and everything else.
Not happy with his guys not watching. It turned a point where he was mad at his play. It seemed like he didn't like his players. When a coach doesn't like his players, unless you are Steve Kerr or unless you're someone who has a big cachet, well guess what, You're not gonna win that. And clearly Malone's not gonna win that against Yo Kitchen Murray. So he had to go. And it's not like David Adelman has come in and reinvented the wheel, but you knew a new coach coming in, it's gonna be the same type of things. They're gonna feel freer. They're gonna play better basketball. And what do we tell you all through this first year, it's tailor made for the Nuggets. And seven they're gonna win the series in seven because the Clippers are gonna do their thing and give it away. Right, That's what happened. And here are the Nuggets. They going to have a big game in Game seven. And here they are now in the second round. No one is saying, Oh, you can't FIREKRT. Now they're all trying to backtrack. Oh, this is what happens when you fire this way. No, no, no, no, own it own. I own when I'm wrong, and I'll get into the Warriors. I was wrong about the Warriors. They won this series. Own when you're wrong. And nobody, nobody said that the Nuggets made the right move when right away, when a coach has to go, he's gotta go. Tada. Here are the Nuggets in the second round. Yeah, it's very rare in our business that you get full on maya kulpus. In this case you could have had.
I'm curious to see how it stands out. Like Mike Malone, even with all of the preponderance of evidence that we had in terms of whatever animus beyond Hey, film review, I couldn't get guys to watch.
I couldn't get guys to buy.
You're telling on yourself at every turn, and so when you had the ownership started making their opinion of it all hurt because everyone's like, you had this same game win streak after the All Star break, you had this, You had these streaks. It's like, well, they're all mirages because they're all against bad teams, or luck came their way in the final minute of a game, right one or two possessions that you know, the ball bounced their way. So, yeah, you get to the point where you make that decision. It's like anything, your job, your relationships, you know what you're doing in terms of ring.
At a restaurant.
At some point you got to cut bait and just do it right. If you're having it on every day of like do I still want to do this? Do I still want to go there? You know, I've got this appointment and I don't really want to see those people. Why are they coming over for dinner? Although then it probably is, you know, a situation you need to have a conversation about. Yeah, and with this in the coaching search, they had already decided they were getting rid of him in the off season. That was already don't don't, don't postpone the future, and they and because you were going to give away a playoff. You can't give away any years of yokicen the playoffs. You were going to give away a playoff and what just to make that decision.
But the other thing did it now?
But Jokis is also the guy that is the biggest wild card in the NBA, perhaps in sports, because he is the one guy that I could legitimately say I would not be shocked at all if he suddenly just walked away whatever their last game was of a season, if he was really ticked off and he just went and wrote gotten the sulky and rode his horses around his track and was never seen on another basketball court everybody else.
It comes to a natural conclusion. See, but I don't know, but Jokic seems to be enjoying coaching the Nuggets as much as he is. But that's the thing. He's enjoying that, and every time out he's really it's almost like Adam and I got this, Okay, I got that. Look, here's what we're gonna do. Like you see every time out, he is much more involved instand this is what we should do, Let's do this, let's do this, let's do this.
But it seems but that's the thing, right, and that I think is kind of telling of whatever that relationship deterioration was with Malone, is that you do have this type of vocal leadership. Like I haven't gone back and watched this brutal film of him and Michael Malone, but I sure as hell don't remember a lot of demonstrative give me the whiteboard, no moment in.
The short term. And that's him standing up saying I'm ready to take on a bigger role because now I can. It's the whole team. Just you feel looser and and and happier and you're happy to come to work. And that shows itself in the game. Not that the Nuggets are suddenly turning into a team boy, not now they're realizing their full potential. But it gets easy. It's easier to win. It's eve when you're not fighting yourself and you're happy to come to work every day. Everything is anybody's ever had a situation where hey, I'm much happier coming to work today than I was last week or last year. You're gonna do better at your job and things are gonna go better. And you know you don't have to give one hundred and in a game seven against the Clippers. We can. We're gonna run midway through the third quarter. We're just gonna rest. They're gonna quit.
We're gonna, we're gonna We're gonna make them We're gonna, we're gonna rest.
We beat themselves. Judge where they give up. Just gonna rest. Now, speaking of the Clippers, everybody, and I mean, and there are a lot of people, you know who you are. I will take your James Harden apologies. Now about how no one's a James Harden away from winning anything. He shows up with true James Harden in the playoffs, right, all this ready to look to James Harden. Yes, look what he's done. You're taking on a bigger role with Kawhi being injured. But when has James Harden ever gotten it done in the playoffs? It's always the same thing, except now he's getting tired. Earlier he plays really well, and at the end of big games in the playoffs, he gets tired. And what did he have yesterday seven points. Okay, games or two days ago game says seven points. You can't win that way. You can't win when a guy you're building your team around, he and Kawhi Leonard, when you come up that small repeatedly in the playoffs, and now today Lawrence Frank said, Oh, we're building around Kawhi and James Harden for next year. Well, scratch the Clippers from contention. I know they're not gonna do anything because they're building around two guys or in their mid thirties and they can't stay healthy. Scratch them off. This is who James Harden is. He's a terrific player. He's going to the Hall of Fame. Reinvented his career halfway through, became an unbelievable point guard. But tell me the last time in a playoff game when you can say, wow, Harden was great, Harden was the difference. I read you that stat earlier today and I still can't believe it's but a bunch of people in my timeline have quoted it that in their history, the number of times these stars have made four field goals or less in a playoff game. Right, it was two from Durant, three from Steph Curry, five from Lebron and thirty five from James Harden. I was like, there's no way that's true, even me telling you James Harden isn't what you think he is. And trust me, we all saw that. I can't believe that. But but look at that four or less field goals in a playoff game thirty five for James Harden, Like, come on, man, come on, but that's what Harden was in Game seven needs you the most. Yes, he did have thirteen assists, that's awesome, but you got this is when you score twenty five or thirty James, this is this But that was easing to.
Do, right, even in the broadcast they were putting up the graphic the lower third as it were, with all of his statistics, and he had taken eight shots. Like you got a game seven situation. You're a guy who has been a volume shooter for the bulk of your career. Now you've been a better distributor and certainly number of years where he got into double digit assists per game averages and all of that fun stuff. But in a game seven, you're invisible and you're not looking for the shot you had Kawhi Leonard, who got very thoughtful and contemplative and everything he was saying in the post, and they asked him about, you know, working with Oar.
Well, we didn't win.
It was good to be out there and we had some moments, but in the end we didn't win.
Obviously, I'm going and condensing.
It, but a lot of it to say, you're healthy in the playoffs and you got to the point where it was there for the taking. Zubach had a fantastic series, Right, you want to talk about a guy who on a national scene and we've certainly watched him here with the Clippers the last couple of years, but on a national scene, he gave Jokic all he could handled.
Right. He did a hell of a job defensively. Offensively, had some big thing. That's a third most improved player in the NBA. Hang that back, but that's sort. But you can't bank on him. He's not gonna suddenly score thirty five. That's Hard's job to suddenly be the explosive playmaker and take shots. And if he's not gonna take shots, he's he's a detriment. I told certainly he ain't winning defensively with him, I told you who Harden was. No, no, no, but look how good? Yes, and the regular that's great in these regular season games. James Harden's fact out. Yeah, look at look at where he was. But that's the other thing, right, this guy in what year is he in? Fifteen? You know what he is at this point? Told you told you? Hey, say I told you so, James fru I'll take all your apology that while all your apologies, all apologies, all apology, too far exit hot about a Fresca exit swollen dome. Jason Smith Mike Harmon live from the Fox Sports Radio Studios, Denver has cut the lead. Maybe because they're they're enjoying the good things we were saying about. Yeah, maybe seventy three sixty four now six and a half to go on the third quarter, still Thunder with a nine point lead, but it was just a little bit more a few minutes ago. Coming up next, we got more from the NBA. I will ask a huge question about the playoffs. That's next, Jason and Mike, Fox Sports Radio,
