Speaker 1: Are you superstitious at all? I don't know that I know.
Speaker 2: This about you. Are you superstitious? Are you a little
Speaker 2: stitious on a scale of one to ten? I might
Speaker 2: be a little stitious, but I'm not superstitious.
Speaker 1: I don't know what the scale is and I've never
Speaker 1: been tested. Okay, fair enough.
Speaker 2: Well, we played Orange Crush last week for Howard in
Speaker 2: honor of our next and it did not work, so
Speaker 2: we switched it up. But I figured we'd stick with
Speaker 2: the rim to get our guy in the right mindset
Speaker 2: before his Friday hit, Howard, Happy Friday, sir?
Speaker 1: How are you doing all right?
Speaker 3: Guys? How are you love? The choice of drive an
Speaker 3: all time favorite?
Speaker 1: So, sir?
Speaker 3: And you're a drive time show, right, so that fits.
Speaker 3: I'm not sure that the thematic tie into the Nixon
Speaker 3: Pacers other than driving the balls.
Speaker 1: Yeah, I guess. I don't know. I just you know.
Speaker 2: I didn't want to do Orange Crush again because it
Speaker 2: didn't work last time, so I figured.
Speaker 1: We'd switch it up.
Speaker 2: You are in the great City of New York, correct,
Speaker 2: I am.
Speaker 3: I will be heading to the garden as soon as
Speaker 3: we hang up.
Speaker 2: So does it feel like a funeral? What is it
Speaker 2: what's the what's the buzz? What's the buzz in the
Speaker 2: city today, Howard?
Speaker 3: I mean, might be completely unrelated, but it's May twenty third,
Speaker 3: and it is like gray and cold and rainy, and
Speaker 3: it feels like Portland frankly, So I don't know if
Speaker 3: I can blame the Knicks for that, or if the
Speaker 3: if like it's vice versa, or if it's just reflecting
Speaker 3: the mood of the city. I don't. I don't know
Speaker 3: what to tell you there. There's definitely some shock and
Speaker 3: some hangover for the fans for sure from the other night.
Speaker 3: Whether the Knicks have that will we'll see in a
Speaker 3: few hours. You know, it's a I suspect everything we
Speaker 3: know about this team, about Tibbs, about Brunson, about Josh Hart,
Speaker 3: about the way this team has been. I don't think
Speaker 3: the dent in their psyche from the other night is
Speaker 3: going to carry over, Like this is a This is
Speaker 3: the kind of team that you know, they've they've kind
Speaker 3: of seen it all already. They're kind of a tough
Speaker 3: minded group. That's that that is their hallmark anyway. So
Speaker 3: you know, like with every playoff series or most play series,
Speaker 3: every night's a new game and you know, younger teams
Speaker 3: may feel that differently because they're not used to just
Speaker 3: shaking it off and hit the next one. But these
Speaker 3: things have a way of changing very quickly. So I
Speaker 3: don't know what we're going to see tonight, but I
Speaker 3: don't think the other night is going to have anything
Speaker 3: to do with it.
Speaker 1: I tend to agree with that.
Speaker 2: But before we dig into tonight a little bit further,
Speaker 2: since I've not been able to visit with you since
Speaker 2: Game one, it's wild man, Like I was watching and
Speaker 2: taking notes, you know, to get ready for the show
Speaker 2: the next day, like, Okay, here's this story. Okay, wait,
Speaker 2: wait a second, No, here's the story. Okay, wait, that's
Speaker 2: not the story you like. I could give you ten
Speaker 2: different targets to aim at, and probably more about game one,
Speaker 2: but your biggest takeaways from both what the Pacers were
Speaker 2: able to do and what the Knicks were unable to
Speaker 2: do to close it out.
Speaker 3: You know, as you say that about how many different
Speaker 3: stories there were, the first thing I'm always going to
Speaker 3: remember about that game other than Halliburton's crazy shot at
Speaker 3: the buzzer that we thought was a game winner and
Speaker 3: that he thought was a game winner. But wasn't a
Speaker 3: game winner, but it was only a game tier that
Speaker 3: forced over. The thing that was also staying with me
Speaker 3: was Jalen Brunson went to the bench with five fouls
Speaker 3: and you know whatever, eight nine minutes left and a
Speaker 3: two point lead for the Knicks, and I thought, wow,
Speaker 3: this is the golden opportunity for the pay Like if
Speaker 3: the Pacers were going to win it, I thought it
Speaker 3: was then. And because the Pacers instead lost ground while
Speaker 3: Brunson was on the bench, I'm like, well they're cooked,
Speaker 3: And I think years from now, I'm still going to
Speaker 3: be thinking about how much I thought this thing was
Speaker 3: just over and how impressive it was that the Knicks
Speaker 3: were able to extend their lead by a lot without
Speaker 3: their best player. I don't know what to make of
Speaker 3: any of that spence, Like, I don't know, like do
Speaker 3: we go into game two thinking, well, you know, the
Speaker 3: Knicks played their butts off and still lost and you know,
Speaker 3: so now it's it's in the pacers favor, not just
Speaker 3: to court advantage, but just the overall vibe of it all.
Speaker 3: Is it? The Pacers were lucky just to be able
Speaker 3: to come back, and Nie Smith hit some some I
Speaker 3: mean he's a great shooter, but he hit some some
Speaker 3: crazy shots, and you know there's gonna be some you know,
Speaker 3: return to baseline here, some you know, regression to the mean.
Speaker 3: I don't know which way to try to spin this,
Speaker 3: which is why I will just still rest on. We'll
Speaker 3: see what happens in a few hours.
Speaker 2: Little Birdie tells me that somebody may have left press
Speaker 2: roll a little early. Can you confirm or deny?
Speaker 3: I mean, you don't need a birdie. I spoke about
Speaker 3: it for like ten minutes on Rosillo's podcast yesterday, and
Speaker 3: I spoke about it again on the Real Ones pod today.
Speaker 3: When they're down fourteen fifteen, the Pacers are down, it
Speaker 3: didn't matter which who's down. But then when the score
Speaker 3: is that big of a gap and there's five minutes
Speaker 3: left in a game at the Garden, if you're sitting
Speaker 3: on the Chase Bridge, which is where the media auxiliary
Speaker 3: go right like the press area for like the Beat
Speaker 3: writer and some of the local columnists, it's not that big,
Speaker 3: So most of us are up on this Chase Bridge,
Speaker 3: which is level nine at the Garden. For anyone who's
Speaker 3: never been there, that is about as high up as
Speaker 3: you can go. It's also where inside the NBA's studio
Speaker 3: set was right, that's floor nine. Eve level is five,
Speaker 3: So the locker rooms are on five, the press conferences
Speaker 3: are on five, the press workroom is on six, So
Speaker 3: it's a hike. And if you want to be downstairs
Speaker 3: where you need to be in time for the coaches
Speaker 3: and the players and everything else, sometimes it's like, well,
Speaker 3: if the game's out of hand, I might as well
Speaker 3: go now, because the stairwells are just an absolute like
Speaker 3: just madhouse, especially if the next of one, which looked
Speaker 3: like they were going to do because it's just this
Speaker 3: moving party. It's really raucous, and it's fine if you're
Speaker 3: a fan, but if you're a reporter trying to get
Speaker 3: down to the press room or the locker rooms to
Speaker 3: get your job done, it's kind of hard to navigate.
Speaker 3: So yeah, I was not the only one who left.
Speaker 3: I got to the press room. Rachel Nichols was there,
Speaker 3: Chris Mannix was there, some of my Ringer colleagues were,
Speaker 3: like a lot of us were in the press room
Speaker 3: watching those final minutes of regulation thinking Dinicks are going
Speaker 3: to finish this off, and we were to all just
Speaker 3: of course flabbergasted and then some people actually rushed back
Speaker 3: up to the Chase Bridge. I did not. I waited
Speaker 3: it out. So yeah, that happened. That was a thing.
Speaker 2: I did not realize that it struck such a chord.
Speaker 2: I was mostly just giving you guff. I mean, I
Speaker 2: think I went to ten jazz games this year, and
Speaker 2: I think I left at halftime of every single one.
Speaker 1: So I'm not one to talk, and I'm.
Speaker 3: Very it was a different.
Speaker 2: For sure, and I'm also very aware of the complicated
Speaker 2: space you have to traverse to the garden. But Zach
Speaker 2: Low couldn't run you guys over enough fast enough with
Speaker 2: Mannix and Nichols, like that was the first thing he
Speaker 2: talked about. He took the victory lap that he was
Speaker 2: the only one left on press row and called all
Speaker 2: y'all out by name.
Speaker 3: I mean, you know, I think Zach probably figured whether
Speaker 3: he gets down there in time or not doesn't matter.
Speaker 3: He was going to wait it out, and he's got
Speaker 3: a life leisurely drive back up to suburban Connecticut to
Speaker 3: his estate. You know. So the rest of us spelt
Speaker 3: like we needed to get downstairs.
Speaker 2: One more thing on game one, Howard, because I'm wondering
Speaker 2: if at any point now, as somebody who has been
Speaker 2: cheering for this franchise since I was ten years old,
Speaker 2: it has ingrained in me not to believe the game
Speaker 2: is ever over, and it's ingrained in me to believe
Speaker 2: that if something could go wrong, it probably will.
Speaker 1: So at no point was I like, all right, that's it.
Speaker 2: But when Jalen hit his step back three and it's
Speaker 2: one nineteen one oh five with two point fifty one,
Speaker 2: I just said there's not enough time.
Speaker 1: Like no part of me was like.
Speaker 2: All right, that's it, because I figured something, if something's
Speaker 2: any could happen, it might.
Speaker 1: But I just thought, like the Pacers simply.
Speaker 2: Will run out of time because I didn't think aaron
Speaker 2: Ne Smith was going to go ray Allen circa nineteen
Speaker 2: ninety eight. Was there any point in the game where
Speaker 2: you're like, Yep, that's it, Nicks one, it's over.
Speaker 1: Yeah.
Speaker 3: Multiple times, including when I left my seat to go
Speaker 3: down to the press room. I did not see this happening.
Speaker 3: But who could have predicted, you know, Nie Smith just
Speaker 3: you know, turning into a flame thrower and you know
Speaker 3: the knicks, you know, gagging it at the worst moments too.
Speaker 3: I mean, you know, anenob and Towns each missing a
Speaker 3: free throw. Like a lot of things had to happen,
Speaker 3: as is often the case in a in a dramatic
Speaker 3: NBA comeback, right, So it's it's it's all of it.
Speaker 3: I have not rewatched all that sequence, but I mean
Speaker 3: there's so many just I think unlikely twists and turns
Speaker 3: in there. And especially given how much of a clutch
Speaker 3: team the Knicks are, you absolutely do not expect this.
Speaker 3: But one of the things I said before the series
Speaker 3: started was, you know, given what the Knicks have done
Speaker 3: and what Jalen Brunson has done, he is the clutch
Speaker 3: player of the year and all that. If this is,
Speaker 3: if it's ever close in this series, the Pacers could
Speaker 3: be cooked because the Brunson's going to always bring it home.
Speaker 3: But I as soon as I thought that in the week,
Speaker 3: as I was getting all my thoughts down, I thought, wait,
Speaker 3: Tyre's Haliburton has hit a buch huge clutch shots in
Speaker 3: his career already. The Pacers have wiped out massive leads
Speaker 3: to win on the road. You don't want it close
Speaker 3: against them either, Like this is like they're truly both
Speaker 3: of these teams are built to weather this, and so
Speaker 3: it sort of becomes a coin flip as to who
Speaker 3: can prevail in the end. But even all that said,
Speaker 3: like I mean, all this comes down to Tyree's Haliburton
Speaker 3: driving into the lane, turning around, making a U turn,
Speaker 3: going back out to the ark, hitting a shot with
Speaker 3: his toe on the line, giving the choke sign, going
Speaker 3: into overtime, and then having to still like go oh, whoops,
Speaker 3: chokes signed too early, Guess we better finish this off
Speaker 3: and overtime now, and still having to then execute then,
Speaker 3: Like it's it's just so many different things that's what
Speaker 3: makes this Like that game. Apologies to you and all
Speaker 3: the rest of the Knicks fans, but that game is
Speaker 3: going to go down as an all time incredible game.
Speaker 3: We're going to be talking about this years and decades
Speaker 3: from now, just like we talk about Sorry again, Reggie
Speaker 3: Miller's eight points and nine seconds or Derek Fisher's point
Speaker 3: four that I was there for all the years ago,
Speaker 3: Like this is a playoff classic instantly, and wherever the
Speaker 3: series ends, like the Knicks could win the series, we
Speaker 3: will still be talking about Tyree Haliburton.
Speaker 1: In that moment.
Speaker 2: I'll be honest, I couldn't sleep, like I kept going
Speaker 2: over the final few possessions, and I did go back
Speaker 2: and watch Howard and ultimately as much credit as the
Speaker 2: Pacers deserve, and Niece Smith and Halliburton and Rick Carlisle's
Speaker 2: a hell of a coach. Og Annobe stopped closing out.
Speaker 2: Josh Hart slipped twice. Josh Hart was caught on a
Speaker 2: back door cut with his feet firmly planted on the floor.
Speaker 2: Jalen with a couple of bad turnovers down the stretch.
Speaker 2: Kat misses a free throw. Og misses a free throw.
Speaker 2: Credit the Pacers. The Knicks were gassed. So as we
Speaker 2: move over to tonight, here's my first question. Can Tom
Speaker 2: Thibodeau get ten minutes out.
Speaker 1: Of Precious Atchua? Can he get eight minutes out of
Speaker 1: Landry Shamitt? I know his deal right, but they were gassed.
Speaker 2: Kat was limping up and down the floor at the end,
Speaker 2: and again Og never fails to close out, and he
Speaker 2: did on multiple occasions. So I get like, this is
Speaker 2: who Tom is. It's who he's always been. I understand that,
Speaker 2: Precious that you is not a bad player. He's got
Speaker 2: some pieces on his bench that he can throw in
Speaker 2: there for four or five minutes. He also has to
Speaker 2: be better with his challenges, and I think he has
Speaker 2: to be better with his timeouts.
Speaker 1: I thought he was out coach game one.
Speaker 2: Is there any chance he extends the bench a little
Speaker 2: bit so they're not so gassed at the end.
Speaker 3: You know, Tibbs is fairly stubborn about these things. He
Speaker 3: trusts who he trusts in that rotation, and yeah, I
Speaker 3: mean we've seen the pattern over and over again. I
Speaker 3: do think so a couple of quick things. What is
Speaker 3: a concern for the Nicks in general coming into the
Speaker 3: series would be and certainly after Game one, the Pacers
Speaker 3: play at this just frantic pace and they're gonna get
Speaker 3: up and down the court, and the Knickers are used
Speaker 3: to playing much more deliberately than as much as the
Speaker 3: Knicks are certainly conditioned for long minutes because Timms plays
Speaker 3: them all, you know, among the highest minutes in the league.
Speaker 3: It's it's it's ad their pace. It's not running up
Speaker 3: and down at the PACER's pace, which is which again
Speaker 3: it's frantic, and I do think and also the Pacers
Speaker 3: move the ball quite a bit, right, like you have
Speaker 3: to defend multiple actions in every possession, unlike what they
Speaker 3: faced with Boston or Detroit. So there's there is a
Speaker 3: potential fatigue factor here on in every other day series
Speaker 3: for the Knicks. On top of that, yeah, the shorter rotation.
Speaker 3: So to the question of Precious at Cheua in particular,
Speaker 3: you know, Town's had a pretty big game. He had
Speaker 3: some some missteps of key moments late, but Town's had
Speaker 3: a pretty big game against them, and Miles Turner was
Speaker 3: not you know, or or Siakam many their bigs were
Speaker 3: not really the answer. So I do wonder if they
Speaker 3: might just dust off Precious a Chua anyway, And you know,
Speaker 3: he's he's closer to like Tobias Harris size really and
Speaker 3: you know, Tobias Harris had had some good, you know,
Speaker 3: stretches again, and you do need to give Towns different looks.
Speaker 3: And sometimes when you get a guy who's just strong
Speaker 3: with the lower center of gravity, that can have an impact.
Speaker 3: So we'll see. I think your instinct is right, given
Speaker 3: everything we just talked about, like they probably should extend
Speaker 3: the rotation at least by one more player.
Speaker 2: Okay, so you make some good points regarding the pace,
Speaker 2: because ultimately early on in that game, I think what
Speaker 2: people forget is Indiana could not miss they just made
Speaker 2: I think they made their first ten shots, but the
Speaker 2: Knicks were able to keep up. But they were playing
Speaker 2: up and down and it was and it was working
Speaker 2: for the next they were actually playing well offensively. And
Speaker 2: New York can run, They've got fast wings, Jalen can
Speaker 2: get up and down kats not necessarily flee to foot.
Speaker 2: But if Tom isn't going to extend his bench by
Speaker 2: a player or two, what do they have to do
Speaker 2: to be careful that even if the pace is working.
Speaker 2: Understanding that going up and down with a bench that
Speaker 2: goes eleven deep fifteen plus minutes a night with eleven
Speaker 2: players eventually will catch up to you, how do they
Speaker 2: stop themselves from getting in this up and down game
Speaker 2: back and forth, even though at times it works to
Speaker 2: make sure that they have enough gas.
Speaker 1: At the end.
Speaker 3: I don't know. I think you can be as deliberate
Speaker 3: as you want, But if the other team is pulling
Speaker 3: the ball out of the basket and immediately sprinting up
Speaker 3: court and you know, basically going seven seconds or less
Speaker 3: Mike dan Toni style, which so many times the other
Speaker 3: night I've flashed in my head. And it's funny, because
Speaker 3: of course, the sun's paced back then, which we thought
Speaker 3: of as so frantic and they're gonna shoot as soon
Speaker 3: as they get their first open shot. Their pace would
Speaker 3: be slow by today's NBA standards, but that's what it
Speaker 3: looked like to me watching the Pacers go like they're
Speaker 3: just gonna get up court and the first good shot
Speaker 3: they got, boom, it's going. And it's easy to get
Speaker 3: caught up in that. But I do think, yeah, the
Speaker 3: Knicks have to try to do things their way. They
Speaker 3: need just to slow it down. They need to make
Speaker 3: the Pacers work as much on defense as possible to
Speaker 3: maybe hopefully put a dent in their stamina at the
Speaker 3: other end. But yeah, the Pacers, they're gonna say, fine,
Speaker 3: we're you know, we're gonna run nine ten or eleven
Speaker 3: deep or whatever. We'll have fresh bodies out there. So
Speaker 3: I'm not sure what the exact answer is there.
Speaker 2: All right, last thing on tonight, what's your gut say?
Speaker 2: I completely agree with and I think a lot of
Speaker 2: this does come from Jalen Brunson specifically, and Tom Thibodeau
Speaker 2: as well. But Jalen has this like stoicism about him
Speaker 2: where he doesn't get high, he doesn't get low.
Speaker 1: After they beat the Celtics.
Speaker 2: He's the one that was yelling at his teammates to
Speaker 2: get into the locker room like nothing has gone down yet.
Speaker 2: So I agree that I think this group can compartmentalize
Speaker 2: and put Game one out of their minds. And I'm
Speaker 2: not asking you to pick, because I know you don't
Speaker 2: do that, But what's your gut tell you?
Speaker 1: Well, do you have a lean for tonight?
Speaker 3: Yeah? I mean I reflexively, you know, go with the
Speaker 3: home team, especially if they just lost a game, right
Speaker 3: like you know, the Knicks losing, the Knicks going down
Speaker 3: oh two, which would stun me. But that said, when
Speaker 3: the Knicks stole Game won from Boston, I thought, oh yeah,
Speaker 3: of course Boston's gonna win Game two.
Speaker 1: Oops.
Speaker 3: And it's same same thing with the Pacers and Calves.
Speaker 3: But it's been that kind of postseason where the Pacers
Speaker 3: beat the Calves in Game one in Cleveland, and I thought,
Speaker 3: of course Cleveland's gonna win Game two again. Oops. For
Speaker 3: your sake, I hope I'm I'm right this time. But yeah,
Speaker 3: I absolutely expect the Knicks to win. It wouldn't even
Speaker 3: surprise me if it were, you know, a pretty big gap,
Speaker 3: not a blowout. But just like win and win handily,
Speaker 3: Like I don't think we'll see the same kind of
Speaker 3: drama in the final minutes, but you just you just
Speaker 3: never know. I mean, I had a piece earlier this
Speaker 3: week basically saying like, welcome to the NBA's age of chaos,
Speaker 3: and it referenced all the things I just mentioned and
Speaker 3: many more. You know, whether it's Dallas jumping up in
Speaker 3: the lottery, whether it's just the volatility in the standings
Speaker 3: in the playoffs and two sixty win teams going down
Speaker 3: in the second round, and just across the board, like,
Speaker 3: there is so much unpredictability about the NBA right now,
Speaker 3: and it cuts both ways, right There's aspects of it
Speaker 3: that make it really fun. There's a lot more suspense,
Speaker 3: and there really is this sense of you just never
Speaker 3: known a given night what may happen. The flip side
Speaker 3: of it is being sixty win team guarantees or nothing,
Speaker 3: and that could be pretty frustrating for those teams and
Speaker 3: their fans. And it does just feel like it's harder
Speaker 3: to get to wrap our heads around, you know, any
Speaker 3: of it. So but this is where we are. This
Speaker 3: is this is you know, like I say, not just
Speaker 3: the age of parody. But it's the age of chaos.
Speaker 1: It is.
Speaker 2: It is all right, moving out this way before we
Speaker 2: get to the nuts and bolts of the Western Conference Finals.
Speaker 2: Your reaction to Shay be An awarded MVP and any
Speaker 2: inside information as to why we all had to wait
Speaker 2: for so long for that announcement.
Speaker 3: It's weird how everybody latched onto that. I don't think
Speaker 3: this is all that much later than usual. I haven't
Speaker 3: looked up the dates. Maybe you have. The MVP always
Speaker 3: comes after all the other major awards. You know, the
Speaker 3: only thing that's still left right now is you know
Speaker 3: I think so we have the all defensive teams yesterday,
Speaker 3: we'll have all MBA tonight and then we'll be done.
Speaker 3: But MVP always comes after all the other big awards,
Speaker 3: aside from the two I just mentioned, and could they
Speaker 3: have done it during Denver OKC. So, like, all I
Speaker 3: can tell you is this, there's a bunch of different factors,
Speaker 3: right they announced The way things go these days, they
Speaker 3: announce all the awards, the major awards on T and T.
Speaker 3: So it's got to be on a Turner night in
Speaker 3: the playoffs, and Turner and ESPN divide up all these games,
Speaker 3: So that's one consideration. Another consideration is, as I understand
Speaker 3: that the league does not like doing awards major awards
Speaker 3: in the second week of a series. I think because
Speaker 3: it could become awkward, like you're not going to be
Speaker 3: to give shade like the MVP before games against the Nuggets.
Speaker 3: That would have been, you know, a little uncomfortable. And
Speaker 3: I don't know they had a window the first week
Speaker 3: of that series. So it's just they're weighing a bunch
Speaker 3: of stuff and trying to figure out when to thread
Speaker 3: the needle. It's it's difficult. I don't think there was
Speaker 3: any plan to do it this way. It's just kind
Speaker 3: of the way it unfolded.
Speaker 2: So I'm starting to feel about okay S the way
Speaker 2: I felt about Boston a year ago.
Speaker 1: I just think to have a level that nobody else does.
Speaker 2: I was hesitant to just anoint them, even though the
Speaker 2: numbers and data probably says we should have been maybe
Speaker 2: quicker to do that. I just if you have not
Speaker 2: had a deep playoff run as a group together, I'm
Speaker 2: always a little bit skeptical. I don't know that it's
Speaker 2: as sweet, but I don't think Minnesota really has much
Speaker 2: of a prayer here, and I think if you're okayc,
Speaker 2: you got to feel pretty good about your chances of
Speaker 2: not just going to the finals, but winning the whole thing.
Speaker 1: I mean, I feel like they're ready. Howard, what are
Speaker 1: your thoughts?
Speaker 3: They definitely look ready, There's no question. The last night's
Speaker 3: game was pretty pretty darn convincing, and you know, I
Speaker 3: thought this was going to be a much closer series.
Speaker 3: It still could. You know, it's just a Minnesota. We'll
Speaker 3: see what happens. But you know, teams that are up
Speaker 3: two zero and the best of seven series in the
Speaker 3: NBA win the series ninety two percent of the time,
Speaker 3: so including six and oh in this postseason, So the
Speaker 3: chances are this thing is over, but we'll see how
Speaker 3: it plays out. The fact is, yeah, Oklahoma is everything
Speaker 3: that we've been praising them for since last summer when
Speaker 3: we were talking about them as being favorites, which is
Speaker 3: they're young, they're deep, they're super talented, and you know,
Speaker 3: they play incredible defense like the Timberwolves. It looks like
Speaker 3: there's just no time or space for them to get
Speaker 3: anything done offensively. You dribble one time too many, it's
Speaker 3: being poked away. You know, you turn your back on
Speaker 3: your defender for two seconds and there's there's a hand
Speaker 3: there and it's you know you want to then you know,
Speaker 3: rely on more more passing and ball movement, right, But
Speaker 3: like the second you throw one slightly off target past,
Speaker 3: someone's leaping into the passing lane and steeling it and
Speaker 3: running off for a fast break. So I don't know
Speaker 3: what you do about that. And the fact is, you know,
Speaker 3: Anthony Edwards does not have He's got good help around
Speaker 3: him in the sense of like he's got shooters and
Speaker 3: Julius Randall can do a lot with the ball in
Speaker 3: his hands. But you know as a Nick fan that
Speaker 3: you know Julius Randall kind of comes and goes, and
Speaker 3: he has suddenly disappeared again, and there's just not a
Speaker 3: second threat to keep the thunder, you know, honest for
Speaker 3: for Anthony Edwards benefit. So I'm not expecting some great
Speaker 3: comeback at this stage by the Timberwolves. And yeah, I
Speaker 3: guess we'll all be setting up camp in Oklahoma soon.
Speaker 2: Oh, looks at the excitement in Howard's voice. Maybe you
Speaker 2: can get a Oklahoma City Indianapolis finals.
Speaker 1: I'm sure you'd love that.
Speaker 3: Yeah, I made the Cracker earlier today on the Real
Speaker 3: Ones with with apologies to Oklahoma, but because we were
Speaker 3: the Logan Murdoch my coast was saying something about you know,
Speaker 3: parade and you all Oklahoma. I'm like, yeah, it's gonna
Speaker 3: last like two minutes and noverybody's got to turn around
Speaker 3: and go back again, or that it'll be out in
Speaker 3: the field. But yeah, it's bad, right, It's yeah. I
Speaker 3: think that's where we're going. Not my favorite place on
Speaker 3: the NBA map, but they're an amazing team. They've done
Speaker 3: a fantastic job and I do not expect that anybody
Speaker 3: who comes out of the East is going to beat
Speaker 3: them either, so and then we can all start having
Speaker 3: premature discussions about whether or not they'll be a dynasty.
Speaker 2: Well, when the Jazz are in the finals in twenty
Speaker 2: forty seven, I can't wait to have you out here
Speaker 2: in Salle a coward. So we'll set you loose. I
Speaker 2: know you got some traffic to fight. Enjoy the game
Speaker 2: tonight and stay to the.
Speaker 1: End, will you.
Speaker 3: I will try.
Speaker 2: Thank you appreciated such Howard back from the Ringer, one
Speaker 2: of our favorites. He's really not on Twitter much anymore,
Speaker 2: but you can find The link to his work on
Speaker 2: his Twitter page at Howard Beck is where you find him,
Speaker 2: and he's also on Blue Sky as well.