Jason and Mike recap Finals Game 5. Caitlin Clark was phenomenal last year. This year will be even better. By game 30-ish, the Fever will be viewed as the best team in the WNBA. And Kevin Durant is in for a rude awakening!
Thanks for listening to The Jason Smith Show with Mike Harmon podcast. Be sure to catch us live every weeknight ten pm to two am Eastern seven to eleven pm Pacific on Fox Sports Radio. Find your local station for The Jason Smith Show with Mike Harmon at Foxsports Radio dot com, or stream us live every night on the iHeartRadio app by searching FSR give this you're.
Listening to Fox Sports Radio.
Hello, Welcome inside final hour tonight The Jason Smith Show with my bas friend Mike Harmon. Poors up showing how Tony's return to the mound is a triumphant one yeah, one inning pitch, two hits, one urn run aloud, twenty eight pitches. As I told you the beginning of the night, take the under for the strikeouts, take the under for the walks. TODA, no strikeouts, no walks. You're welcome Tonight's parlay for you right there, did knock in two runs. Dodgers beat the Padres by the final of six three. We'll have more on this story coming up in about twenty minutes, but look Game five of the NBA Finals tonight, thunderbeat the Pacers won twenty one oh nine, and look you know, the game for a little while was the TJ McConnell game, eighteen off the bench, and then it turned into the Jalen Williams game pretty quick. Forty points for Jalen Williams tonight, a two point game middle of the fourth quarter that got a little weird for the Thunder Despite the fact Halliburton was having a horrendous game, Williams and SGA bail them out and now they are one win away from the NBA title. Now, before we get into this a little bit more, I just want to say this tonight because clearly Halliburton was not playing well. Was he dinged up a little bit? Yeah, But again it couldn't have been that bad because he got He played thirty four minutes, second most on the team. Why not play McConnell more if you're winning and you're coming back. TJ. McConnell was terrific, and he was getting into the lane, he was making threes. He was feeling it tonight. But you saw McConnell about the eight minute mark of the fourth quarter. He plays high motor minutes. There's no hey, I'm gonna get my rest at some point. He plays high motor minutes every time he is out there. He played twenty two high motor minutes tonight where he was creating and doing it all. There's times where hey, it's a McConnell possession. He sees something towards the rim, he gets there, he attacks. Sometimes, Hey, I see this play is not is not for me. This is what we're gonna do. But he played twenty two high leverage minutes night. They needed him to score. He scored. He was shooting free throws at about the eight minute mark and he was breathing, like me after I've run ten feet. Yeah, it was like okay, okay, okay, Like I said to myself, how long until he's out of They got to take him out of the game. He can't play anymore. And when they took him out and the Pacers the lead is getting now, the lead is getting back up and it's getting away from them, and they show him on the bench and McConnell is just sitting there with a towel over his head, and I'm like, he's cooked. You can't bring him back in the game. He's done, man, is absolutely done. He's not coming back. In eight and fourteen from the field four rebounds, four assists, a couple of steals, three turnovers plus four and eighteen points. He was even jump started to get him back into the game. And we were just talking about it the end of last hour, just talking about how the Pacers were making a run, even with Halliburton on the court or off the court, basically a spectator. But he was breathing hard. He was done. He was. So it was like, you know what, I feel this because yesterday for Father's Day, well I didn't know this, but my daughter and two of her best friends said planned out a father daughter softball game where it was going to be her and few of her friends against the dads. So I was like, oh, okay, cool. We was like, you know, we don't have a whole It's like we had nine on nine. We had that screams hamstrt. She what was it? Was it? Sean Casey over the weld? Oh yeah, yeah, the bananas rounds first and down he goes. You guys losing like the match we lost in a walk off. We lost twelve eleven years a walk But the rule was the dad's had to bat opposite handed. So I was like, okay, that's fine. Oh, by the way five for six, four doubles. That was me. But like every time I hit and I had to run, I'm like, oh, every time I said, I'm just gonna cruise into second base. This could be a triple or I can't, but I'm gonna cruise into second base. And I'm like I and I and after like the because you know, we hit like there was like five of us. I need to you know, so you hit like every few batters and I was just after, like I said, how much long do you want to play? Go? Let's go one more inning?
One?
One more inning? In that? How early did this thra gun come out? Last night? Oh? Second inning? Oh last night? No? Actually during the game, I'm sure second right gave you away? Where's that matter?
That first at bat?
Where's that even? Where's that deck? I see hot? I need some of that? Uh there was you know, there was one play where there was a pop up and I'm going after it. I'm going, okay, because I don't run like I used to. Not that I haven't ranger, but I don't run telling them why am I doing this? Because I'm not going to get there? And I got there and I was so super I'm like oh my god, I got here. I didn't think I was gonna get here. And then I was done. And then okay, then the next play was a ground ball, was like like seven feet to my left. I'm just like, that's a basic. That's a base. Yeah, that's a base, that's a BA said all right, throwing it. We exposed the soft underbelly, hit it near him again, didn't even go after it. Come on, just throw it back in, just throw it back in. It suck because we're all over fifty, so it's not like all of a sudden playing with a bunch of TJ mcconal's. Let's go, let's call energy guys slapping the floor. No, no, no, no, all right, I'm finished. I'm finished. Okay, we've done, we've done. Hey, is anyone to pinchern? I gotta go to the bathroom. And then he wouldn't have to go to the bedroom. The next on Zoe's team go up to bat and then just point at you. I'm hitting it right there. Put to five for six, four doubles, man, five for six. This is all part of what you thought left as your rounding. First. No, I'm glad they're there's no video of it because I sound in my head it sounded great like run it. But I gotta say, oh man, that's me running. Yeah, that's me running up. Yeah, I'm just gonna run him a cruise I'm a cruise in. I'm like with, hey, so go running out. I am running. I'm running as fast as I want to get me. I'm gliding. Look at me, glide second stop right here, it's an effortless glide into second. That was you don't you got video gad I typed tortoise into Okay, dude, is just wait and listen. Just waittoise and listen, wait and listen. So anyway, that was I get what TJ. Mccott. But you couldn't put him back in the game. He was done. He couldn't even move. And again, that's a high when you don't play that many minutes, right because the patients have a big bench and they have they have a big rotation. But tonight where Halliburton wasn't feeling it and you're trying to give him rest, trying to get out there. McConnell kept you in the game, but then he was cooked. So I mean, yeah, we gotta put him back in. No, he could not get back in there. It was and you want to live and die with your with your star players, and it was just here's a game where Halliburton could never get into it, and Eddie was and he was tentative and unaggressive. And it happens when you can do that to him early in the game, he shuts down. And if you're going to be a star, we talked about a few minutes ago, you can't have games like this. Him and Anthony Edwards the same way they have games like this where you say, dude, you're supposed to be the best way. You love being a star, You love talking about stuff, and now you love and this is how you show up. Come on, man, Well but that's a filmore, right, And for both Edwards and now for Halliburton, as we've watched these playoffs, we're trying to figure out who the next batch of guys are because all of the guys that we've been been riding high with all these years, in the playoffs and into the finals and the offseason storylines about they're all near their end game, right, whether Lebron like all the commercials and everything else, he's teeing up that he's essentially recognizing that it's time to walk into whatever the future holds in his entertainment ventures. You've got Steph Curry, who may have another what two year whatever his contract is left. He'll play and he's effective at times and comes up with big efforts. But you know we're in the final years of him and Draymond and Guy and your guy, Kevin Durant. I'm trying to will him to the Knicks, by the way, all of the Oh, Doc, yeah, yeah, okay, I'll make sure he's on the same same busy. I'm just gonna I'm just gonna ignore that now because last week telling you not to put it out there didn't work. That you're saying about KD and Doc, I'm gonna ignore it. But all that have to say, we're trying to find our next stars. Edwards was the guy. Well, his game looks like Jordans so and again it's the thing I hate most what we do in the sports. It's never a let's find the guys six through ten that they might actually get towards their careers. Nope, that guy's like Jordan, that guy's the next Tom Brady. Nope, that guy over there, he's seven feet tall, he's got to be Kareem or Wilt. No, come on, let's not do this. But for Edwards, even if we set more reasonable goals, it was still the push of he's gonna be one of your faces. For Haliburt, not only is he a two time third team All NBA guy, so you push off of that. But in these playoffs with the big last second shots, the big moments, the here's the ridiculous numbers on shot attempts and field goal makes in the final two minutes of a game, and the choke sign and everything else. Here's a guy that could be the villain. And then you have an effort here two to two best of three NBA Finals and he's a no show again, played thirty four minutes, so we have to count it. Right, he didn't tap out, So yes, you get a point for the effort. But if you're gonna give me that effort, I need a little bit more, and I need you to impact the game more than just being a guy that adds an extra minute played in that column in the in the box. Core need more. Now, the other part of it is this, right, So we talked about Halliburton and what what he needs to do and he's not doing and another part of it, because you know, I always go back and and and and think about what turns a series. Sometimes it's something big in game one. Sometimes it's game five. We might look back and go the Jalen Williams game tonight with forty points and and him doing it, he and SGA doing it. It could be wind up being that that that moment where the series tips in the Thunder's favorite. It never gets back towards the Pacers. But one thing that's been been sticking at me now, especially after tonight and seeing Halliburton's performance, Now the Pacers really perform his performance? Would the guy scored four points tonight? Waitit time his performance? You know, and seeing things like how the Pacers seem tentative against the overall against the Thunder defense. And you know conversation we had with Rick Buker where at last hour I said, you know, I feel like that, you know, they were they were feeling great and feeling confident because they played the Knicks, who were terrible defensively, and now they're getting a better team defentially. Like, wait, this is not going at all how we thought it was gonna go. Yeah, of course is not going the way because the Thunder a good defensively. But I keep going back to after game three. Right, So the Pacers win Game three, and this is when you think they're gonna win the title, right because the winner of game two or with a win team that goes up two ones when right, Yeah, but how self satisfied did the Pacers seem after game three? Right? Halliburton went on a whole big diatribe against the media and people saying things about him, and we don't listen to what said about us out there. Even Rick Carlisle, as as he likes to get chesty in a in a very humble bragg kind of way, even he seemed to be a little overly caught up in the Hey, we kind of have the series going how we wanted to go now. They seemed really satisfied after game three, like, hey, we just did the most important thing in the biggest thing. Right. We came back after split, we won game three. We got it. Now, we know the stats, we know the winner of game three wins eighty percent of the time. We got one more game at home. We're gonna win this game. We're gonna And since then they've not won, they lose Game four, they lose Game five, and now suddenly they're staring at well, we could we could be watching the Thunder celebrate on our floor on Thursday night, and I keep going back to that moment of boy, it just seemed a little bit like the Pacers felt like they had it made after Game three, when it is really just beginning. At that point, we're Okay, now we have to make because we're gonna get the most desperate game from the Thunder and we know it's gonna be Sga is gonna put them on his shoulders. And we kind of had a game where a lot of it was like tonight, right like for most of the game the Thunder, I felt like, Hey, they feel like they're just hey, we're out do we have a ten to twelve point lead most of the night. We don't need to extend ourselves. We just got to keep playing like this at this level and we're gonna win. And the Pacers have a furious comeback and suddenly Williams and Sga lamp up their level of play they win this game. That was kind of Pacers in game four was Hey, the Pacers have the lead. Pacers have the lead, but the Thunder hanging around, hanging around, hanging out, and then the Thunder threw the hammer down at the end, and SGA played terrific in the s They did get a great number of calls in the final couple of minutes, but they played better and they they clearly wanted it more and were the more desperate team. And I didn't see that from the Pacers when they needed that point. And so for both teams to come in both separate ways, but the Thunder to find a way to win, I really wonder if that was that was Indiana. They whatever, however obliquely in their heads or however you think about, hey, we got it. Now we're up to one. We just have to come out do our thing. We go up three to one, we have three chances to win the title, and you're thinking all this. But they definitely spoke and they talked like they seem, hey, we got we were at the top of the mountain. Now we've done the hardest thing, when really it hadn't even started yet. Yeah, you go back to the regular season and the approach, right with the Pacers. You win fifty games, you're playing from the middle of the pack and you know, a lot of hyperbole about the great underdog start. It's like, well, no, I mean, if you're doing it based on what you did in the regular season, you kind of shrug because that's kind of how the Thunder got categorized coming out of a sixty eight win regular season of well, all they can do is blow teams teams out, they can't play well, you can't have great defenders, suddenly forget how to play basketball. You may have a bad game, you might get over, but we're talking about series, and best team wins series most of the time. You unless you have that catastrophic injury that pops up, but you're gonna make adjustments. And for Carlisle and others, they saw some things they thought they liked, and certainly for most of Game four that worked. Guess what, though, you had a full reversal of fortune. Right, normally it's the Thunder leading and just you're never gonna close out that gap. But kind of like they played tonight, but Game four, the Acers had one put over on them, which you would have thought would have had you coming into Game five realizing okay, they could win that way too. Oh no, it's not just us that can come back and play a big six to seven minutes of basketball to close out a game, and SGA is that guy that'll put it on his shoulders and just say, hey, a ride with me. So for Game five, the fact that we didn't get a better effort out of the gate from Indiana was a bit surprising to me, seeing as they still were stunned or should have been, coming out of the way they lost Game four. You know the cruise control. Hey, we're we're gonna roll through this series, and we've got these guys where we want, well, not so fast, and then you're down double digits at the end of one. Overly satisfied, satisfied do I do? Yeah, very satisfied exit out about a Fresco exit swollen dome. Jason Smith Mike Harmon Live from the Fox Sports Radio studios. Coming up next, big hot take about NBA Finals and the return that we told you were looking forward to and you got it this weekend. The word Fox Well, drum roll, it's getting close. Mike and I can see the big five zero in our size. No, we've already turned fifty. It's fifty pounds. Mike and I have nearly lost fifty pounds apiece thanks to PhD Weight Loss. The program has been great for us, it can be great for you. Guys. You'll lose an average of three to five pounds a week, women two to three pounds. You'll sleep better, your joints will feel better. Say goodbye to those cravings that have hounded you and say hello to a healthy body. Best way to take advantage of this look you've heard me and Mike talk about phdeweight loss the last couple of months called eight six four five oh two one triple seven. That's eight six four five oh two one triple seven. It's phdweight Loss. Mention Jason and Mike Fox Sports Radio. Get two free weeks added to your weight loss program, and your program will be backed by PhD's get results guarantee. That's my phdweight loss dot Com. My phdweight loss dot Com. Eight six four five two one triple seven. Again mention Jason and Mike Fox Sports Radio, get two free weeks added to your weight loss program.
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.
Fox Sports Radio The Jason Smith Show with my best friend Mike Harmon. This is alien Ant Farm right, Yeah, you know that music video came out like twenty five years I know, right, I feel I think that's the original sawcount when I was in college. Well, don't outdate yourself. Yeah, I what was I'm just saying smooth. This is the one where he did the lean right, smooth criminal that was that was a lean oh yeah, very stylish video. That sets classic stylish stylish. Yeah, and apparently he loved the do you make here? I don't even think he charged them. Well, but that's the funny thing, right because he said no to blake everybody, right, yet this got made. He's cleared only like maybe three samples. Wow, this is one of them like that, this one free Willie and then s WV. Yeah, I do go. There's your three right there? Oh me like the river Jordan Okay, uh So, Game five of the NBA Finals in the books, thunderbeat the Pacers one twenty one oh nine, big story, you see it a The rating so far for the NBA Finals not great, Bob Okay, Yeah, just under ten million. Uh, not quite what the NBA would want However, two things to say, and one is and one should stop all of the NBA Finals ratings. Conversation Number one is, yeah, the numbers are lower. Would the numbers be higher if it was the Knicks and the Lakers? Of course it would be. But this is how it goes. Some Super Bowls are higher rated than others. It happened. Some World series are higher rated, some Stanley Cup Final or higher rated. It all depends, right, you get smaller team, it's not, but that's just the way it goes. And yeah, how much can you really measure ratings? People are watching things different now, they're watching it streaming, they're watching it on their phone. So yeah, I'm sure it's not as much as it would be if it was two higher, higher market teams. It was brunts in and it was Lebron. I understand. Not to mention all the boat legs streaming services out there, all the bootleg guys that are out there. I got some you got some moonshine coming up here, you go bootleg. Yeah, but that moonshine is now gone. Mainstream shot is mainstream now. Oh yeah, oh I didn't know that. Okay, I don't know, Okay, I don't know that. I thought it was still like you got to get on a riverboat and you gotta know that's where the good stuff. Very quietly, you have to go through like where alligators are, and you pull up on a you know, someone's property and they come out and you say something and you give a password and they give you and they bring the still out and they give you moonshot. We're gonna do that next year. Okay, all right, very I'm trying to plan a group group outing. Okay, survives, it's a group I got a group on for this. It's okay. But the ratings, so you can't really you can't really count. I'm sure it would be more way, you know, way more than number is now, but no, you can't figure it out. But more so, more important than this. I want to say, NBA Finals ratings get focused on more than any other and I want to say, okay, it's a useless conversation. You know why because there's no effect for it. Okay, so yeah, less less people are watching it. If it was bigger, Mark, tell me the effect that's gonna have on anybody? And you can't tell me one. You would be well, is it? No? Because the NBA is not going anywhere. They're not gonna They're not gonna have less games played. They're not gonna sell out less arenas. They're not gonna have their next television contract be worth less money. If anything, it's gonna be worth more more money. Because this is what happens. The rights fees for the NBA keep going up. More people keep watching the games, more people keep going to the games. Yes, oh the NBA Finals ran down, Yeah, okay, I get it, But there's no effect. There's no effect on the NBA except for as time goes on, the TV ratings, what you pay for the packages are gonna go up and up and up and up. More NBA is gonna be out there, more NBA products out there. There's zero effect on this. So to say that the ratings are low, it's just a conversation. You can say, oh, look, not as high as it is not. I don't like the NBA. Okay, like Kevin Durant says, if you don't like it, don't watch. But the NBA is fine, is not going anywhere. They're not gonna suddenly have to have meetings going. Hey, you know we've done some things. We shouldn't have done, and we got to. I don't know what's gonna happen. Now, we're all going out of business. We all have to take less money. None of that is happening. No teams are getting contracted. If anything, they're gonna have expansion. Like there's no effect of the low finals ratings in the NBA none, zero. It is some more poison pad negative writing that Adam Silver gets to do counterpoint with in terms of views and and throughput off of social media apps goes back to the globalization of the game. To your point, they've already signed the seventy six billion dollar deal. Nobody's saying I want some of my money back now, because Live Sports is still the last bastion of salvation for the advertising world in terms of rates. Right, Super Bowl for February has already sold out. Maybe they held a couple back to rate, but the base of hey you want in price spoker goes up every year for the NBA Finals. Sure you can, you can complain, and it makes for good headlines that you have people that cover the league as part of the official coverage that made bemoan different aspects of the game, or you know, try to figure out what the fix is. The Hey, we need these stories. You need to know who these players are. It's like, no, you don't. People will come or they won't. Their friends will come along for the rod or they won't. And if a star does break through, say shake Gildess, Alexander and the Oklahoma City Thunder roll through and they win. Here, Yeah, they've got to navigate some contractual things. Jalen Williams forty tonight, he's in the third year of his rookie deal. He's got to get paid eventually. Chat's gonna have to get paid eventually. All of those things you're gonna have to figure out. That's fine. But if they've suddenly become a team that are one of the last standing every year, guess what, hate watching becomes a real thing. So even those that are preperally checking in now and again, they start to come on board a little bit more because now we start talking about those legacy plays, second titles, third titles, comparing them to the people that you love. So maybe you're on the fringes and you check in now and again, No, you come back a little bit more. But television ratings aren't the be all to end all, we watch it for every network program. It's a new normal right of trying to decide what's the success, what is it? How many streaming minutes becomes a much bigger metric than how many people watched it live. What's the throughput the following twenty four hours right live today, but on insert streaming service the twenty four hours later, what's that carried through binge? Watching all of those things. We're in a different world even with sports, that we consume things in a much different way, and the metrics will eventually reflect that. But in the interim, if you want to do complaining theater about television ratings, have at it. Those that care already in the room, and they're just gonna kind of point their fingers and laugh back at you like they're Nelson Mounts exit about a Fresca exit. Swellendme. These NV eight ratings, they're just irrelevant conversations. Another big basketball story coming up in ninety seconds, but first special delivery. Steve Desager has what's trending in the wide world of sports, where the battle to be the second best team with the second best record in the National League. He took off tonight with the Dodgers and the Padres. Steve, how did that go? There are other teams doing very well, thank you, including.
The Philadelphia Phillies, who are up to forty three wins five straight victories. They won five two at Miami. The idle Mets have lost three in a row. First in the NLS, just two games over the Pills. Trey Turner three hits, including a leadoff homer.
So the Phillies have the best record of the National League. Oh oh no, wait they don't. Who does Steve? My Internet's down?
Okay, I'm gonna start taking bets from everybody here of how long this conversation is actually gonna last. In the twenty twenty five season, the Detroit Tigers have forty six wins, by the way, the Mets with forty five, the Cubs with forty four, and the Dodgers.
Now with forty four wins.
After beating San Diego six to three in the NS, the Dodgers are first two and a half games over the idle Giants. The Padres are four back. Dylan Cees took the loss in LA tonight five innings of work. He'll out five runs in the bottom of the fourth, nine strikeouts for his start.
But a loss.
This was the beginning of a four game series, and a man who hadn't pitched in a game in nearly two years was on the mound as the opener for the Dodgers, sho Heyotani and is won inning, allowed to run on a sack fly. Twenty eight pitches did average ninety nine miles an hour on his fastball, and he said afterwards he anticipates pitching once per week now adding some innings so he doesn't tax the bullpen as much. It's an all bullpen game today and tomorrow with this injured Dodgers rotation. By the way, Otani is still the dh still leading off, and in fact in the thirty had an RBI double and in the fourth inning and RBI single. And today Otani's former interpreter reported to prison. Ibe mis O'Hara was sentenced to fifty seven months for stealing nearly seventeen million dollars from Otani.
Otani's an I'll pitch again, what hebe goes to prison? Hey, here we go pitch tonight. The leading vote getters.
For the All Star Game are Otani in the National League, Aaron Judge in the American League. At first base in the Al Paul go go Old Schmid is just ahead of Vladimir Guerrero Junior. The Yankees for runners in scoring position in New York tonight one for eighteen. They lost one nothing in eleven innings to the Angels as the Yanks left bases loaded in the bottom of the eleventh. DH gen Carlos Stanton of New York was activated went two for four after the elbow injuries. Tampa Bay seven to one over Baltimore, which had just four hits. The Rays with fourteen hits. The Tampa Bay Rays, their last twenty five games, have a record of nineteen and six. Boston won its six straight game two nothing at Seattle. The win to Lucas Gilito rookie Roman Anthony with a home run, and the A's ended Houston's five game winning streak three to one on a walkoff homer by Nick Kurtz. Colorado hit two homers in the ninth to win at Washington's sixty four nine straight losses for the Nationals Now NBA Finals. Game five was this evening. Oklahoma City up three games to two after beating Indiana one twenty to one, oh nine forty points for Jalen Williams, Shay Gilgis Alexander scored thirty one with ten. The Pacers did get within ninety five ninety three with about eight minutes left. They had been trailing by eighteen late first half, but Indiana committed twenty two turnovers in this game and Tyrese Halliburton was held to four points oh of six shooting. Indiana, facing elimination, will be the home team on Thursday in game six. The WNBA was off tonight. Stanley Cup Game six is Tuesday. US men's soccer plays again on Thursday. The next IndyCar Race on Fox TV Sunday, and college baseball at a World Series game tonight LSU versus UCLA that will resume at eleven am Eastern Time. They waited four hours until calling it for the night due to a weather delay in Omaha. After three innings, LSU is up five to three. Today, Arkansas pitched a no hitter to eliminate Murray State three to zein gage Wood struck out nineteen, a record for a nine inning game there. The only other no hitters at the College World Series incurred in nineteen fifty at nineteen sixty and this guy today had a perfect game until he hit a back in the eighth. He had thrown a career high six innings in a regional a couple of weeks ago. In this one, he threw one hundred and nineteen pitches back to you.
Thank you, Steve. A great day, great great day. Now things didn't turn up great for the Pacers tonight, but things are still kind of turning up Indiana. Right, we told you last week. But the big bull prediction I had right this weekend was Caitlin Clark returns twenty and ten and they give the Liberty their first loss to the WNBA season. Under promised, over delivered, big high profile game. Sat what happened I meant, I clearly meant you. I clearly meant to say twenty and ten in the first half. It's not my fault. You didn't hear me say that, but I could check the tape. Incredible night for Caitlyn Clark on Saturday, at incredibly great moments after being out for a couple of weeks. They do give the Liberty their first loss. And again, we told you last week she's gonna return and you're gonna say, wow. I didn't know how much I missed you. Congratulations to everybody who took that from us and rent it out there. Send us okay, that's what I care. I'll buy food for everybody here every single night. Send us checks. If you're gonna take that specific stuff from me. I said, you're not gonna You're not gonna realize how much you missed her. And boy, nobody means more to her sport than Caitlyn Clark. She had an incredible year last year. This year is gonna be even bigger and better. And I'll tell you what by game thirty right, because it's gonna take a little it's gonna take a little bit of time because the fever went out and they really went all in, Hey, we want to maximize the Caitlin Clark window and win championships. They brought in a new slew of players who had You need some time to play together, new head coach, send you a little bit time for stuff to gel, right, You need that. And it was gonna be a little bit longer because Caitlyn Clark's been out the last couple of weeks, So it's gonna be a little bit. But by game thirty right, we're out game ten right now, by game thirty, the pay the Fever, the Pacers, the Fever gonna be viewed as being the best team in the W. They might not have the best record because they're five and five now and the Liberty just lost their first game and they're still fantastic, but they'll be viewed as the best team in the W. And it's all gonna be about now. If Caitlyn Clark doesn't win a title, it's a disappointing season. People want to move the goalpost for Kitlyn Clark, but it's now. By game thirty, we're gonna realize this is a championship or bust year for the Fever. That's the level they'll be playing at because they brought in too much talent. They're loaded. You just got to give them a little bit of time together to get things going. Another twenty games by game thirty, remember you know you got the extra four games this year, so you you get a little bit more. You got fifteen, right, we've down to time. It's about fifteen games left in the regular season. We'll say the Fever is the best team. Caitlyn Clark will be an overwhelming favorite for MVP, and it's gonna be Okay, Now she's got to win or the season is a disappointment. That's how this is gonna play out. Yeah, right now, Collier still the favorite at minus four to twenty five. Clark all the way up to plus two point fifty during the injury time hadn't drifted out to six to one or thereabouts. So you have that Saturday during the day you sent me, look at the odds of MVP falling for her as this game is going got to plus three eighty by half, come by halftime with that performance. Now get that, Pettan. So yeah, that was before me bound was trendingh we did have memes now filed uh the trademark for that me bound recognizing the opportunity to go make some money. Angel read But isn't that but doesn't Okay, it's again a terrible connotation because it makes you feel like I'm just rebounding my own shots. That's me bound. I'm rebounding by all she's trying to extend it to you. I get everything, but no me bound very much. As see, it's kind of like the albatross thing we talked about the other night. Yeah, depending on context, they are really positive thingk golf me but also subpar is the same thing. They were miserable in the regular world, but in golf it's great. Yeah, who knew? It's the opposite world. It's the bizarro world. But for Caitlin Clark and the Fever. Fever are the third favorite towards the title at about five to one. Right now, exit about a fresca, exits. Get ready for what this series? If you thought last year's all about Caitlin Clark, get ready. Nobody more important to her sport than she is except Kelsey Plumb. Kelsey Plum is big and o tawny to the Dodgers. Hey, Kelsey Plumb was taking some time to heal. But coming up next, boyd, do we have a crazy story out of the NBA where maybe the most sought after player this offseason has picked his team already? WHOA, that's next? Jason Mike Fox.
Be sure to catch live editions of The Jason Smith Show with Mike harmon weekdays at ten pm Eastern, seven pm Pacific.
Punk Rock Girl thirty seven years ago today thirty seven years seven in a row in a Hot Rock Girl by the Dead Milkman Row. This is uh sure? This is my roommate in college's favorite song in the world. This came out. He played it all the time. This again, Like I'm playing Poison and Guns n' Roses and he's playing this song over and over and over again. I'm like, dude, come on, man, yeah. One of my cousins beat me over the head with this for I stayed in Iowa a couple of summers, right de tassling Corn and hung out with her and her family, and this was on the playlist repeatedly. I never wanted to smash Cassette more than that. So Happy anniversary, Dead Milkman, Jason Smith and Mike Carmon just live for the Fox Sports Radio studios. So outside of the NBA Finals, big headline today, The Athletic reports that Kevin Durant has his next destination in mind. Okay, the team he wants to play for more than any other is Nick. No, don't say no. You know what I wanted to play for, Doc. I heard. I heard that, you know, I heard that his overtures would be rebuffed and the Knicks don't want to like good Blank you We could have you could have come here like six years ago when you were really, really good, but no, No, you wanted to go play for bleeping Brooklyn instead. No, beat it, beat it, go play someplace else. You dobs Mary, Mary, Mary, stop that. Now, let's keep it, Hey, b C. I'll called Doc Rivers Frostburg. She's doing this. It's like showing the dimples and smiling. I's like, you can't be mad at me. Doc River Frostburg does have Doc? Does I know? I know, I know, but no sort of repeat it. K you didn't want to come and we needed just six years ago.
Now we don't need you. No good.
Look, can we go back to you and play someplace else? Is that your normal sports talk radio? Because they're on to be like no, they said no. In fact no, His overtures were rebuffed, rebuff rebuffet, rebuffet. But supposedly, Kaby according to Athletic, he wants to play for the Spurs over all the other teams, okay, favorite teams right now are the Spurs or at the top of that are that are at the top of his list the Spurs, the Heat and the Rockets. Okay, fine, Now there are two states with no state income tax to take him from that two point five percent. Like we joked with Rick Baker because he needs He hasn't made any money in his career. He's got to worry about that well, and he's made a lot, like when he went to the Bay Area. One of the things we lauded on the show, which made me look like a true nerd, was all the investments he'd been making. Me meeting all the titans of Silicon Valley. It was as much about playing basketball and winning titles as it was building empire. But uh, I'll tell you that now. Beat it. We didn't he didn't want to be there six years ago. We don't need you now. But the Spears, according to these different reports about what's being batted back and forth between the Spurs and the Suns, they're not on the same page. Like the Sons potentially want Steph Castle, which I'm like, beat it. The guy I told you I would take number one overall was gonna win Rookie of the Year. What happen? He won Rookie of the Year. Beat it. You're not getting Steph Castle right? If we can, if you can do a package around somebody else. Okay, Now, I told you I'm not a big fan of KD because he's a guy that gets his points. That's what he does. He gets his stats, though he doesn't lead you anywhere. Isn't let anybody anywhere in six years, right, Yeah, didn't lead the Nets anywhere, he didn't lead the Suns anywhere. He simply gets his points. If the Spurs were more of a title contending team in a year, I would say maybe they would, they would make that move. But they know, okay, still with Wemby and Steph Castle, or we still need a little bit of the way. He's coming off of a massive health scare. So yeah, uh, this is gonna be a bit of a root awakening for Kevin Durant. When sudden it's like, wait, I can't just pick the team I want to go to, Nope, because for six years we've watched you not do anything but score points, right, which is right? Name of the game is score points. But he's been on teams with great players. Couldn't lead the Nets all their stars. He couldn't lead anywhere with Kyrie and Ben Simmons when we thought he was a star, and James harden right went to the Suns with Devin Booker and Bradley Built Nope, still can't win games. So suddenly we're gonna put on another team that's gonna work. No, beat it. I'm gonna call it what it is. Oh, everybody, everybody beat it, k beat it, beat it. No. I was far more interested in him as a an addition when we were talking about it at the trade deadline. Well, we then would get word that well, he didn't feel like moving in the middle of the season. He wanted to ride it out to what end?
To what end?
You either gonna want to win at this point or you don't. And I'm a big KD fan. I love watching the guy play. But if I'm the Spurs or the Rockets, with what I have to give up to make that that exchange, there's no chance. Like with Houston, it's moderately interesting. I'd love to see what the package is, whether it's draft picks day, how much you have to lose. That's the one place where I could say he would. I'm still not thrilled about it, but it's where he fits because clearly what the Rockets need is a guy that can take those shots. At the end of game, we talked about the one thing they were missing. So we talked about it with Rick and he brought up Denver, which is interesting. Go listen to the podcast after the show for that fall and he said, I trade Jamal Murray to get KD to den from Like whoa, well all of that stuff. LA fan Justin Roster says, yes, get rid of that guy. But like the heat are interesting because we talked playing a mile high here forget it, good luck, but we've talked about what kind of way. But what we've talked about, Wow, I don't even know how to stop off that. But what we talked about with the Eastern Conference and having the opportunity like we're talking about with your knicks, and you look at the Pacers and you look at what the top of the conference is. But Boston's in flux with the injury to Tatum. Milwaukee, whether Giannis is there or not, Damian Lillard will not be and they're old and there's cash strapped and everything else. So from Miami there there's a bit of intrigued. As much as you make fun of bucket hat. That was said buckethead bucket hat over there. Yeah, Well, I mean, look he's he's the lead guitar player right now for him play you sure? Sure? But I met Shine a new three year deal. Kad would fit the best with with Houston because that's they're looking forth. They have really good young players and they you know, and they're pretty good leadership in Fred van Vliet, but they're missing that one guy who you could PLoP in again. I'm not thrilled with it, but that's the best fit. It's the best fit. Not happening. Beat it. You didn't want to be here six years ago. We didn't watch your six later. No, No, that's done. Duc. That's like the girl from six years ago. She's still hot. They always got your way. Fox Sports Radio The Jason Smith Show with my best friend Mike Harmon. Coming up next my buddy Ben maller on show. Hey o Tani's return. This is Fox Sports