The Downbeat on ninety seven one The Freaky. It is seven oh five on
a beautiful Wednesday morning in Dallas, Ford word, you're listening to the Morning
Downbeat, heard regularly weekdays from six to ten am, right here on your
home of the Dallas Mavericks ninety seven point one The Freak. Stream us online
via the iHeartRadio app. Interact with us, be a text message or hell
call us. The number is the same either way. Two one four seven
eight seven one nine seven one. Mikey and myself and sweet JJ will be
here until ten o'clock and talking all good things, Little Mavericks. Maybe we'll
sneak in a little Stars playoff action. Lots of news stories, exciting fun
news stories, a couple of songs. Yeah, what a day? What
a day? A review of the spear at nine. Dude with a special
guest, A very special guest. Dude. We're loaded today. M h.
Mikey fighting threw a little bit of a you went to the doctor yesterday,
even even a little sick since you got back from Las Vegas. Yeah,
just I mean just congested. I didn't feel too bad. Pornography for
the win, But you could not have broadcast yesterday. No, there's no
way your voice was gone. I couldn't have. I was stuffed. My
whole head was just stuffed. It's one of those where I sound like hell.
I do feel like hell, but it's not like torture, like like
strap throat or something that is completely debilitating. But it was not a good
idea yesterday. I'm not itself sound like crap. I'm glad you're here.
I feel believe me. I know because when you get back from Vegas.
Yeah, and then ask for an extra day off because your quote unquote sick
feel good. So we're gonna be full strike tomorrow. Kevin's gonna be back
and Downbeat returns and it's gonna be great. Do you think bosses heads would
turn if Kevin tried to call in sick tomorrow? Man, there's something about
big travel day. I mean it might be. And if he is good,
we'll take tomorrow off too and get punking kell solidarity back in here.
All right. Uh. The one thing that will be a thread throughout this
show is the excitement and the victory of last night in Los Angeles time for
Sports at seven and now Sports at seven. It was a late night,
but it was a great night and uh life, I guess for your Dallas,
Maverick's looking pretty damn good as they went on the road, got to
win in Game two over the LA Clippers ninety six ninety three. Clippers got
Kawhi Leonard back, and after the Game one defeat where the Mass just sucked,
I mean, we'll talk a lot about defense, I think on both
sides, you know, as we discussed last night, but Clippers are tough
on d you still got to hit shots, and the Mass just shot incredibly
poorly, specifically in the first half in Game one, and they looked as
bad as we've seen them in months since the New year, just about.
So, you know, there's no shame in losing game one on the road
to a you know, a good basketball especially when they had all that time
off and Luca and Kai didn't even play in the final two games of the
season. You know, not having those guys on the court, there was
gonna be a little bit of rust. I think that needed to get knocked
off. You've got dudes that are not used to being in this, you
know, under the in the spotlight, playoff basketball is a different animal,
and you guys, you got guys you look, you got a freaking rookie,
a twenty year old rookie that is an important, massively important piece of
this puzzle and lively, and then you've got the new acquisitions. These guys
don't uh, they're not used to this. Yeah, it takes a little
time to kind of get your feet wet. And I think that's that was
a little bit of trial by fire in game one, for sure, But
what a hell of a response last night. Let me ask you this,
And I think it's very normal if you just watch the MAVs and you don't
watch the NBA, or maybe you watch see a few games through the year,
and then you focus in on the playoffs and you're looking at the MAVs
going they don't look the same as I'm used to seeing them. Things aren't
the office, Vince doesn't look as as fluid as I'm used as I'm accustomed
to seeing them. That not everything's as smooth, you know, as as
I've grown accustomed to watching how they figured this thing out and did what they
did as far as winning like what sixteen out of twenty games to end the
season, with two of those games being the games that LUKEA and Kyrie did
not play in. Yeah, it looks different because that's what happens in the
playoffs. The refs they don't call anything. Defense is ratcheted up, the
scoring goes down, and everything that you try to achieve comes with some form
or forms of obstacles. Yeah, it's not easy, I think, And
what do you think? I think basketball is the sport where you most crank
it up for the playoffs, and I don't. I'm not taking away from
any other sport and hockey you could. The reason I say it's higher than
hockey's because I think hockey players are full pretty much full crank every shift they
step on the ice. I think basketball you can all, within reason,
go through the motions regular season, but man, every like it's like,
you crank it up to NHL levels in the NBA playoffs And it looked different.
Man. That deep, Okay, And we don't watch the Clippers that
much, and I was maybe a little too reliant on that interview. I
heard with a blogger for the Clippers who basically was like, look, we
can't hang with the MAVs. Like they're like, do you think the Clippers
are gonna, you know, compete or beat the MAVs and like I was
like, no, we can't stop Kyrie, we can't stop Luca. And
to hear that reinforces what I thought, which is the MAVs are white hot.
I'm like, all right, Maps are gonna be fine. They're gonna
win the series. I still think they're gonna win the series. And I
did, I mean, I tweeted it before the game. Yes, I
think they're winning Game two. I think they're winning last night. I think
the MAVs are a better team. But all that said, the Clippers are
a really, really good team with some dudes with a lot of experience,
and Harden's better than I. You know, I hadn't watched them all that
much, and it's still a tough dude who maybe doesn't have the hops or
the exact speed that used to have, but that dude can still fill it
up. Paul George can too. They're a very good team, but they're
very tough defensively, and they clamped down on the MAVs in both those games,
specifically the first half of Game one, but both teams clamped down last
night. Yeah, that was you know, it's almost cliche at this point
nineties basketball. You know it looked like it. It didn't feel like almost
any game I've seen all season that involved the Mavericks. But the one.
The best part is the MAVs were doing it as much as the Clippers were.
I've never seen the mass defense look that good this year. I mean
they've they've been really really good on defense, but we haven't seen anything like
that where it is. You know, it probably sounds, even not even
twenty four hours, like a cliche, but that was a heavyweight fight and
it was it was a slug fest. You know. Listen to Kevin Gray's
podcast this morning on the Way in his big recap of the of the game
that he did last night, and he used that term a couple of two
or three different times, that it was a slug fest. And the Mavericks
in Game one, they didn't play at full crank. I think they they
were at sixty. They were at sixty. They may have been a little
bit under sixty two percent, but I think that because of their inexperience in
the playoffs, or a lot of the components on their team, the fact
that they had so much time off, I think they went into that game
thinking they're going to play regular season basketball. And the ball rotation, the
perimeter passing, the open lanes that those that that group has become accustomed to.
In the back half of their season, those things were not there,
and I think they got frustrated when those things weren't there. And the only
answer to that is to match the intensity and play full crank just like the
other team. And they did that last night. And if that stuff as
a wash, then yeah, the Mavericks are the better I think the overall,
the Mavericks are the better basketball team. I think the deeper basketball team.
Injuries notwithstanding, you know, you're dealing with a couple of who knows
how long the lower back is gonna nag Danny Gafford, who knows what Tim
Hardaway's future looks like in this playoff run. But you know, pound for
pound, I think the Mavericks are a better team. And you gotta absolutely
love that they stole that game last night, because, make no mistake,
the way I was watching that game last night, I wasn't sure that the
Mavericks were gonna win until it was mathematically secure. I agree. Well,
the one thing I'll say is for a defensive battle like that, when it's
so low scoring relative like a six or seven point lead a month ago is
like a fifteen point lead. You know, Like the defense is so tough
on both sides. It is at least multiple possessions, and as good as
the defense of the Mass are playing, it's it's hard to chip way.
But this is the NBA can still knock down three three, and it's you
know, there was a moment where the Mass did that in the third quarter
where the Clippers fought all the way back to tie it right and then bam,
it was Kyrie as Kyrie and that had back to back threes, and
I'm like, oh, that is so exactly what we needed. But generally
speaking, getting six points real quick in a game like that is hard.
So having a seven point lead feels like something. But I'm totally with you.
No point until the end, I was like, Okay, they got
this, But man, that it was I thought it was fun. I
thought I don't know if it was fun. It was just different because of
the defense in that game, and the rest were letting him play. They
were hounding Zubach on the inside because he tore them up in Game one and
they made his life hard. Yeah, today, how about the blocks they
had five first quarter blocks. Don't know if that's like a record on the
year, maybe not, but it felt like a lot. Luca got one,
Gaff and PJ both got one in the in the first first quarter.
Five blocks in the first quarter was great. They were just so tough on
the interior defense and they were great on the xterior defense too. They were
a garden three point line. I mean, the Clippers are not gonna shoot,
just like the MAVs aren't gonna shoot what they shot in Game one.
You know, the Clippers are probably not gonna shoot twenty six percent or whatever
it was from behind the arc in game two. Like numbers regulate, but
I knew the MAVs numbers would regulate and they'd make more shots, and they
did so in Game two, and that leads to victory when they shoot closer
to their average. Yeah, that was the frustrating thing about Game one,
because you know in the playoffs that offense is harder to come by, especially
the offense that we've been used to. Seeing the style of offense that the
Mavericks played in the back part of the regular season, you knew that that
stuff wasn't just gonna come so easy and be there because it is the playoffs.
But the one thing that you can look at if you're getting frustrated that
the threes aren't as open as they normally are, if little bunnies are getting
aren't going in right around the basket that you're used to seeing, if the
freaking alleyu the wild above the rim stuff, you don't see any of that
right now. If you get frustrated with that, don't worry about that so
much. Watch how your team is playing, in what intensity level that they're
playing when they're on defense. And the Mavericks did not play an intensely defensive
game in Game one last night. They absolutely showed up full crank and sold
out. Man. Yeah, and it still was a Look, it was
a three point game. And this is going this. I think a long
series benefits the MAVs. If this goes six or seven, I think that
I think that benefits the MAVs in the long run because I think that they
are more youthful and and I don't know, I just I like the idea
that if this goes to a game seven, I like the MAVs winning a
Game seven out there just because I think that the I think the Clippers are
are probably not going to be able to sustain that type of intensity for as
long as I think the MAVs can do it well. And the reason why,
I'm sorry real quick. There's a reason why they were the best defensive
team throughout the latter part of their of their regular season in the NBA,
and I think that's going to carry over. They just needed a wake up
call, and they got it in Game one exactly, and to immediately go
and win Game two and steal home field or home court advantage back, because
I know it's like seventy seven percent or something if you go down two.
But even had they lost last night, I wouldn't have been in complete panic
mode, not at all, you know what I mean? Not at all.
Maybe that's just because we've seen them play so well over multiple months,
but I feel like there's no shame in going two on the road now.
I'm real glad it didn't happened, especially in the way it played out last
night, Like when the Clippers did take whatever, they got their lead up
to five or six, yeah, I think they got it up to six
at one point, yeah, and then the Mavericks I think went on like
a what a fourteen oh run. Yeah, to draw the thing close.
One thing I wanted to talk about, and look, the only thing that
we have to compare the deepest playoff run is twenty eleven and how unique and
interesting that team was, and how role players stepped up in certain moments or
in certain games where you have the Paygia game against LA, where you have
the Brian Cardinals scrappy game with the baseline defensive play that he made, and
I can't remember what series it was, but those flashes stand out to you.
If the Mavericks do end up taking this thing all the way, one
of the moments that I will remember from last night, and it won't be
the fact that PJ was excellent in the fourth quarter. It won't be that
Kyrie did what Kyrie does in the fourth quarter, because Kyrie, Luke and
PJ were ostensibly the reason that they won that game last night. But the
moments that will stand out to me are the contributions of a guy that is
so maligned and so frustrating to watch. But Maxy maxed out last night,
and he was frustrating early in the game, but he was in there for
a reason, and that guy played defense like he's supposed to he was excellent
last night, and he drives me bananas offensively, But yeah, you have
to remember what he does defensively when offense, and it's it doesn't help him
that Luca is very frustrated with him offensively. It seems, you know,
well, he trusted him with an open look three and Maxie absolutely drained it
at an incredibly important moment in that game. It was the it may have
been the most timely three pointer that the Mavericks made last night, but the
offensive rebound after I believe it was a Kyrie miss and he got the offensive
rebound and got it back to Kai. Kai got fouled, put him at
the line. That to me was maybe the most important part of the game.
Yeah, well, especially because kleebers only getting those minutes because Gafford was
hurt. Yeah, definitely, in a nine minutes we had twenty eight.
Well, keep in mind, keep in mind Jason did go to that smaller
rotation in game one, and it seemed like the Mavericks had a good stretch
of success playing small with Maxi in there where you I don't believe at that
point you had either Gafford or Lively in the game. In game one,
they did that last night, and it was pretty effective in stretches. I
think Jason Kidd. You know, we had a lot of criticism of Jason
Kidd, maybe not us, not as much as the noise that's out there
calling for his firing. I mean, remember that he's making really really smart
decisions right now in the playoffs. And another thing, real quick, Mikey,
I don't want to know what you think about this, the Luca technical.
I know Jason Kidd referred to that in his postgame press conference as being
a key moment in the game because it got him fired up. I wonder,
I wonder how important that was for Luca to get that technical at that
point in the game, because it seemed like I felt like he got a
call later on in the game and by the way that the refs were calling
that game that he might not have gotten otherwise. And the reason I say
that is, you ever question this is do do referees give technicals based on
the content of what the player does? Or is it more of an emotional
response of I'm sick of you, I'm tired of this. I can't take
any more, so I'm going to punish you because I can't manage my emotions
anymore without yelling and screaming at you. So I'm going to shut you up
by giving you the tea. Yeah, I think in Luca's casystem was always
cumulative of his not just that one moment. I think it's the culmination of
an evening of you yelling at me, and I'm sick of it. But
it shouldn't be sick of it personally like I feel, you know, like
I'm sick of your attitude. I mean, it's as his position as a
referee, he has to take a stand. I guess for the other referees,
I think in their head that's what they think, because I don't think
what Luca did specifically on that one play is just is the only reason he
called the tech, you know, I think it's You've been in my face,
yep a lot of times, and now I need to back you off.
I mean, but it's a cat and mouse game, it is.
But no, remember this and anyone gets frustrated with Luca at least in his
head, and what he is doing is building toward changing what the ref gives
him. He is from the minute he got in the league, he thought
he should be treated like a superstar, not a rookie and get superstar calls,
which in his first few years didn't you know, you worn't it again,
he didn't deserve. Now he is, he should get superstar calls.
Now. He shouldn't bitch every single play, but that one he was hacked
twice? Yeah, too tight, you got hit twice? Yes, yeah,
so he was right, yes, and and and and I think,
in the dude, it's such a it's such a chess game of emotions the
way he rides these refs, I really do. I don't. Sometimes we
we see him as just a petulant baby that can't that that's immature. But
maybe there's more strategy to what he's doing than even we realize. And I
think by him being demonstrab demonstrative enough in that moment to get that technical I
think after the referees have a chance to let their emotions settle and realize that
they missed that call, subconsciously, you cannot help but but issue a makeup.
Yeah, and I think they did that, or not even a makeup,
but based on the way that they were calling that game, by letting
a lot of stuff go something that I think they normally would have let go
earlier in the game. They decided to call it later in the game,
and you saw Luca got a foul called on him where the Clippers were kind
of flipping out over it. But those things make a difference. He's a
smart kid man, especially when you talk about basketball like you. I think
you have to factor that into it as well. I wonder if you,
just like in the NFL, you can't go holding on every play. I
mean, as ball dominant as Luca is, like he might by the finest
letter of the NBA rule book, get fouled on just about every time he
enters the paint, you know what I mean. And he reacts like that's
how it should be called, even though he knows it's not gonna get called
like that. You're only going to get so many of them. They cannot
call a foul every single time you approach the basket, even though maybe if
someone does it, if you got if you graze him with a fingernail,
he's gonna spaz out on it. But by the letter of the law,
I think he's right more often than he's wrong. So whatever, I don't
know. I don't know how that affected the rest of the game. It
doesn't matter because Luca was great. Kyrie was great in the not the very
beginning, because they were I saw something from Kyrie there was interesting Him and
hard and were like kind of going at it Yea and their former teammates.
But there was no love lost, it seemed, and I almost saw Kyrie
getting a little angry. But he's the management of his emotions is so good.
Art form too, so whatever, but he's just such a pleasure to
watch the hand of the game. With three steals and he's so like crafty
defensively, you can have that one steal it led to a breakaway, was
great, but he just waits and then he explodes his arm into a lane
or to break up a pass, or to steal a dribble, and he
just does it seemingly better than anyone. It's so fun to watch him defensively.
And you could see him, I mean was he looked different defensively than
he did for most of the season. Cranked it up, had room and
maxed it out, and Luca did the exact same. Man. They've been
playing good defense for a while, but they were on a different level.
When those two superstars are, you know they're going to get theirs offensively when
they back that up on the defensive side. Man, tough, tough team
to be. It's a good thing they have two days off too. Yeah.
Yeah, no, do not not just to uh give the the injured
dudes, the guys that may be a little banged up, Gafford and and
and Hardaway Junior. But dude, just to get a couple of days of
rest. Yeah, you know, when you consider the travel aspect of it,
and then the fact that you know, you saw Luca in the postgame
interview last night. He was gassed, even said as much. Yeah,
he's kind of sorry, man, I'm tired. Yeah, I bet.
I will say I liked at the very end that that I was surprised that
challenge on that inbound pass to Kyrie, which it was. Was it six
and that cut it to essentially three? If it's an an one, right,
yes, it was a three point game. If they uh, if
he gets the free throw the and one and he makes it, it's a
two point game. Changes everything changes. The changes the dynamic to the way
the Mavericks defend, and it changes the attack mode that and it expands the
options that LA has on what they can do. But when it's a they
keeping it three smart challenge, Yeah, really smart. And from the one
angle, I thought he'd raked the hell out of his arm, but then
I saw him like, no, I think he just ticked the ball ball
And then you know, I mean, it's whatever. You can't take your
challenge with you, so fine to try it. But the fact that it
worked was huge. And another thing, even though he missed one, which
I was writing this note on my phone while he missed that second free throw,
the Kyrie free throw. Yes, yeah, the Kyrie free throws.
Let's hope over the next month, you know, not just over the next
ten days, are going to play such a such a role man that the
fact that dude is ninety percent and in the fourth quarter he almost never misses,
which again he did miss the second one. Then MAXI keeps it alive.
I think that's what we're talking about, and Kyrie gets it back,
and that essentially ice of the game. But to have someone who basically doesn't
miss free throws when you need him most, and the dude who's internal temperature
is probably the lowest in the NBA, Kyrie someone that cool, that will
matter in what will still be close games. The Groopers are a good team.
But god, it's a pleasure watching that dude walk to the free throw
line knowing, all right, well these are good. Did you look at
I don't you know you can't just percentage wise or him running hot like I
don't, I don't count him as in yeah, when Luca goes the line,
what Kyrie does? Man, I'm like, dude, these are real
quick. Before we go, the Luca pass to get it up the court,
which by the camera angle that we had, which was side the side
court camera angle, looked incredibly dangerous and when you looked at it from the
baseline angle, it was just a great effing pass and that thing was never
going to be stolen. And it was beautiful how Luca kind of gave up
his dribble and as he he went through three options on where to put that
ball. Yes, you saw him. Look here, Look here, there's
Kyrie. There's my lane wing bounce pass right to him, bout pass through
traffic, through traffic. But he saw that. I can't remember who the
player, what man maybe whose momentum was going in one direction. He's able
to calculate that stuff faster than a computer. It's incredible. His IQ.
I love him, I love them all. Huge win for the maps.
They steal home field and uh, we're looking good man, We're gonna do
more maps. I think at eight thirty yep, I think, my buddy
the machine, let's see, Yeah, the machine at eight forty five is
gonna zoom in. We're gonna oil up the machine. Machine's always just fun.
Anyway, Hopefully we talk maps, we don't just screw around. Because
the dude's funny as hell. But he works for the Mavericks and he's one
of the biggest basketball brains in town. We'll have him on an eight forty
five. Uh, come up next, though, it is what the scut
the study. I have kind of a hypothetical that I thought of. I
tweeted about it last night during the game and involved Steve Balmer will do that.
Plus I read this study that it's sort of interesting. You want to
be happy when I have less stress. There's just one day, a fifty
year study, just one thing, an easy thing that you should be doing.
I'll tell you what it is. Next to ninety seven on the Freak