April 21, 2025 • 36 mins
Doug addresses concerns about the city of Green Bay being ready for all of the people that will pour in for the NFL draft this week. Doug gives his thoughts on the first weekend of the NBA playoffs. Doug reacts to Nico Harrison's most recent answer about the Luka deal. Doug welcomes FSR NBA Insider Ric Bucher to talk about the weekend of NBA playoff action. Plus, Dan takes Doug through a game of "Big Deal, Little Deal or No Deal?".
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Episode Transcript
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Speaker 1 (00:01):
Thanks for listening to The Doug Gotlieb Show podcast. Be
sure to catch us live every weekday three to five,
twelve two Pacific on Fox Sports Radio. Find your local
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Fox Sports Radio Coming to you from beautiful Green Bay, Wisconsin,
(00:25):
site of the upcoming NFL Draft and my adopted hometown.
Now getting closer and closer to years and years in
the making of hosting this event should be really really cool,
and we're broadcasting live from It's the Legacy Hotel. It's
(00:45):
a it's a block from Lambeau It's a block. How
do I know? There's actually one street which I can
see and it's the same street that little kids give
their bikes to for packers to ride their bike to practice.
The Don Hudson Center, which is in between here and
Lambeau Field, is where they ride their bikes to or
(01:07):
the outdoor fields that are right there across from that. Hey,
if you're left to right, if you're watching on the
doll is the resh Center. That's where we play our
home games, or portion of our home games. And you know,
I can clearly see the g which is on the
back of one of the jumbo trons at lambeau Field.
And to the I guess that's the north east corner
(01:29):
of the parking lot. And on the street that on
Lombardy Street or Lombardy Avenue, I don't know. The street
avenue I don't know is the stage where Thursday night,
Friday night, Saturday, all day the NFL Draft will be
taking place. So pretty cool stuff. And to be a
part of it and to live here, it's kind of interesting.
(01:53):
You know. Mark Murphy is the outgoing president of the
Green Bay Packers. He's also a good friend and a
guy who when he leaves his position is actually going
to take over an emeritis role as athletic director for
our school for for green Bay. But it's really interesting,
right he had this quote, I'm disappointing. I was hoping
(02:14):
we'd get train service from Milwaukee. It's kind of ridiculous
that the National Railroad Museum is in green Bay and
we don't have train service. Yeah, so this is a town. Truthfully,
green Bay is the town of one hundred thousand people.
The surrounding area is bumping up to a couple hundred thousand.
If you count the Fox Valley, you're getting to a
million people. But it's just like a college town. But
(02:37):
instead of having Division I college football, got the Green
Bay Packers, and you're going to bring in somewhere between
two hundred and fifty and four hundred thousand people reportedly
for the weekend, and there's five to six thousand hotel
rooms plus people running out their houses. And he's like, yeah,
we could use train service from Milwaukee. Seems like a
(02:58):
bit of an oversight from the folks at Amtrak, right,
You couldn't. Couldn't just make sure you arrange it. Nonetheless,
my guess is that at the end of the day,
it'll go off without a hitch. NFL things have a
tendency to do, so they just do. And it's a
weird NFL draft. It's weird. There's no other way to
(03:20):
describe it. When you have two maybe three quarterbacks that
are first round draft picks and the second two people
are like and even cam Ward if you compare cam
Ward to last year's class, I'm not sure he's the
top five guy and then you factor in that there's
fewer and fewer early entries into the NFL draft. Why
(03:42):
would you go in the NFL draft early if you
can stay in college and make as much, if not
more money as you're going to make in the NFL.
So you have a smaller field of people to choose from.
We have a depletion of the quarterback position, and you
still have some of these players who have are a
(04:03):
little bit older because they've had COVID year, either senior
years in high school or freshman years in college, which
is allowed to play more and more college football. So
you have this weird sh Morgasborg of potential guys who
are anyone anywhere from twenty years old, twenty one years
old to twenty four to twenty five years old. It's
(04:23):
really interesting. Give me interesting draft. All right, let's get
to the NBA this weekend, which NBA playoffs in full swing.
The Warriors, it felt like they stole Game one. It
doesn't mean that I don't think the Warriors will win
the series. I do, but part of the Warrior's success
was you have all those guys that have played in
the NBA finals. A couple guys have won NBA championships
(04:45):
multiple before, whereas the Houston Rockets at collectively as a
not just counting all their years of experience, but counting
their years of experience together no playoff appearances. And I
don't know if the Rockets looked tight or the Rockets
struggle with the physicality of the playoffs, but they you
(05:07):
score in the thirties in the first half, your lowest
point total four a half overall, and you're quite obviously
not ready to play. Meanwhile, the Lakers, well, they look
like they couldn't guard the Timberwolves, which was the problem
that everyone saw when you eliminated Anthony Davis, the best
defender on the Lakers, and you replaced him with Luka Doncik.
(05:31):
Here's JJ Reddick talking about what went wrong in their
first matchup against the Timberwolves.
Speaker 2 (05:37):
They're great opponent, They're one of the best teams in basketball.
There's I think it's not to say our guys weren't
like ready to withstand like a playoff level basketball game.
We were mentally ready. I thought our spirit was right.
I thought even when they made runs, our huddles were great.
You know, the communication was great. I'm not sure physically
(06:00):
we were ready and if that makes sense, And really
when they started playing with a lot of thrust and physicality,
like we just didn't respond immediately to that. And then
that stretch to start of the second through you know,
five four or five minutes to go in the third,
I mean we lost that stretch by thirty four. So
you know that's a blowout.
Speaker 1 (06:21):
Yeah, I mean he's talking about the thrust and the
strength and whatever, Like, I just tell me where the
Lakers are definitively better. I understand. Name Wise, you're sitting
there going, hey, Lebron James, all time great, Luka Doncik
arguably best player offensive player in the league, Austin Reeves,
(06:43):
top twenty five offensive player in the league. And then well,
what else do you have out there? Remember, there's nothing
special about their bench and the Timberwolves. Whatever you think
of Gobert, he's an elite level defensive player. But then
they built roster. I don't know if Jade McDaniels is
ever eleven of thirteen from the floor and three of
(07:06):
three from three point range, but Jade McDaniels will always
be on that floor because he's six foot nine with
long arms, great great intelligence, defensively, you know, and Julius
Randall is the guy who's just too physical, too strong
for any of their players, not name Jackson Hayes to guard.
And then Anthony Edwards, frankly is was the best athlete
(07:27):
on the court. You're throwing nas Reed off the bench,
you hit six threes, and I think it's a little
bit of both. Do I think war the Lakers can
win a couple of games? I do do. I think
generally the Timberwolves are a bad matchup for the Lakers
and are just better.
Speaker 3 (07:43):
I do.
Speaker 1 (07:45):
Whereas the Warriors, I don't think we're truly gonna know
until we get through Game two what that series looks like.
I think the Warriors win the series. I think the
Timberwlves will win the series. But that one feels a
little bit more like, Hey, the Rockets weren't sleeping, but
(08:08):
the Rockets hadn't really played playoff basketball, and it's just different.
And the Warriors were ahead of the curve because they
had played their playing game. But they're playing game all right.
Got a metric ton to get to, including getting you
ready for this upcoming draft. Rick Buker is going to
join us at what twenty five after the hour. Yeah,
(08:30):
Buke's gonna join us twenty five after the hour. We'll
get his thoughts on this firing in Atlanta which just
took place, and on the playoffs that we've seen so
far and some of the ones we're going to see
tonight live from Green Bays Doug Gottlieb Show here on
Fox Sports Radio. Fox Sports Radio's Draft Night Live throughout
the first round of the Draft on Thursday night is
(08:52):
brought to you by Dollar Shave Club, your place to
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Visit dollarshaveclub dot com slash Draft use the promo code
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(09:12):
eight pm Eastern. Throughout the first round of the draft.
Insider Jay Glazer, former general Jets Centeral manager Joe Douglas,
college football hall of famer LeVar Arrington. Foxsports Lead college
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(09:33):
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Speaker 4 (09:38):
Be sure to catch the live edition of The Doug
Gottlieb Show weekdays at three pm Eastern noon Pacific.
Speaker 1 (09:46):
It's The Doug Gottlieb Show here on Fox Sports Radio.
We'll get to Rick Buker upcoming after we get an
update from Dan Byer. You know, Nicol Harrison had that
behind closed doors meeting, and though when you listen to it,
(10:06):
none of his comments were that outlandish. Some of it
you just kind of needed some context too, and they're
just kind of standalone quotes. But the fact that it
was behind closed doors and there were no recording devices
in it just seemed weird, like what what are you
exactly hiding from? So what he did was he's spoke
(10:30):
in front of a live camera and recording devices. Earlier today,
here's what Nico Harrison said about the Luca deal.
Speaker 5 (10:37):
I did know that Luca was important to the to
the fan base. I didn't quite know it to what level.
But really the way we looked at it is you know,
if you're putting on the if you're putting a team
on the floor, that's Kyrie, Clay PJ, Anthony Davis and Lively.
We filled that's a championship caliber team and we would
(10:58):
have been winning and high level and that would acquieted
some of the outrage. And so unfortunately we weren't able
to do that, so it just continued to, you know,
go on and on.
Speaker 1 (11:09):
You can find fault with his logic behind the trade,
you can find fault with a lot of the commentary.
I don't think you can find fault with the idea
that we never saw his true team. Now the naysayer
and honestly, if you want to even be down the
middle and be fair, would say like, okay, well you
were if your issue was with Luka Doncik being hurt.
(11:33):
Anthony Davis has been hurt seemingly more than he's been
healthy as an NBA player. He's always hurt up up
up until the last year and a half. Then of
course when you get him he had the groin injury
that he had had with the Lakers. That sets him back.
But his point is, hey, if we're fully healthy, we're
actually pretty arn't good and though there still would have
been complaining, it would have been the same. I actually
(11:54):
agree with that. I actually agree with that. The problem
is we'll never know, And the issue is that Luca
was so popular that all the equity Nico Harrison should
have because he built a team to go to the
(12:17):
NBA Finals last year, doesn't seem to be cashing in
and have any sort of value in the DFW. Right now,
it's the Doug Gottlieb Show here on Fox Sports Radio.
Let's welcome in Rick Buker all things NBA from Fox
Sports dot Com and Fox Sports One. Buke let let's
(12:39):
start with the Timberwolves. I mean, obviously they made a
ton of shots. You're making fifty percent of your threes.
But there was this sense from some, especially Laker fans,
that this is a good matchup for the Lakers. Were
they wrong or was it just a one off in
your opinion?
Speaker 3 (12:56):
No, I'm not feeling that this is a good matchup
for the Lakers. I understand that ceiling going in, and
I thought along the same lines.
Speaker 1 (13:04):
I was.
Speaker 3 (13:05):
I favored the Lakers to win the series, but that
was based on the Timberwolves team that I've seen in
the past in general, and the Anthony Edwards that I've
seen in the past in particular, which is just a
high wire act, whether it's Jade McDaniels, you know, punching
a wall and breaking his hand or uh Ant just
(13:26):
getting uh too caught up in the emotion and uh
one on one battle And and I didn't see any
of that in this in in the first game, and
I and what impressed me most is the fact that
they kind of looked like that.
Speaker 1 (13:42):
Out of the gate.
Speaker 3 (13:42):
They looked like they looked they were they were validating
every reason I had to doubt the Timberwolves in the
first five or six minutes of the game. But then
they settled down and and I look at their depth,
and I look at their athleticism and uh in the
matchups and and it's hard for me not to say this,
(14:05):
this version of the Timberwolves, if they keep their heads
about them, uh. They exposed a lot of things about
the Lakers that we've always known that we're there. We
just I wasn't certain that the Timberwolves were capable of
exposing them. But you know, the matchup sidewise, the ability
to dribble penetrate, having multiple dribble penetrators. That's really what's
(14:28):
set up the three. So it puts guys like Lebron
James in particular, in a difficult position. Can you can
you help and then recover to the to the three
point shooters when those three point shooters are your size,
can defend you one on one and uh and at
the same time be able to knock down a three.
(14:48):
That that creates a puzzle for the Lakers that I'm
not sure they have the personnel to solve.
Speaker 1 (14:54):
Yeah, yeah, I'm I'm with you. I didn't get it
to begin with. Uh. And obviously, well, here's what I
think the ministate people make is you look at the
raw numbers and you're like, well, you know if they
shoot that, well, those were wide open shots. And they're
wide open shots because because they're putting them in position.
(15:16):
You know, Lakers three best players are poor defenders, and
so if when they get by a man, if you
put a guy in help, Nasried is going to be
wide open. Now, well he make as many in a
row as he made in a row. Maybe not right,
but the idea you're those those open shots were created
because of mismatches elsewhere and the other thing is I
don't like the Lakers offense. You know, I think you know,
(15:39):
Greg Saint Geane is calling most of the offense, and
he's a mismatch hunter, and I just again, I don't
think that that works as well for this team as
maybe it maybe it would in the past, because, as
you pointed out, the Timberwolves actually have guys that match
up size wise with Luca, with Lebron, with Austin Reeves,
(16:02):
so that it's not as dramatic of a mismatch. Right.
So yeah, but again, it's one game, and we've seen
NBA series look like one thing and become the other.
But it's also we haven't had a game yet when
Anthony Edwards decides I'm just gonna win no matter what.
So this thing goes too. Oh it looks bad. Okay,
(16:24):
let's discuss the Warriors. The defense was outstanding in the
first half, and they keep the Rockets at arms distance,
but a good portion of it is Hey, most of
those Warriors have been in playoff series before, not all
of the Rockets have. How much of that is just
a one off? How much of that is matchups? Moving forward?
Speaker 3 (16:42):
I still feel like it's going to be an interesting series.
That the Rockets are certainly capable of it. I thought
that they showed their playoff naivete or nerves or whatever
however you want to look at it. And but Jalen
Rowe to Jalen Rose, Jalen Green, I would expect that
(17:06):
he will be better than three for fifteen and seven points.
I don't know that that was the Warriors stopping him
as much as he just looked like he was kind
of out of sorts, you know, going too fast to
the rim, a little bit like I've seen Anthony Edwards
in the past, those too fast to the rim, little
(17:27):
too unsure about when he's pulling up and taking a
jumper like this. Didn't look very composed. And I would
not expect Fred van Vliet, a thirty six shooter from
three in the postseason, to have another two for thirteen game.
The Warriors let the Rockets back in, and that's what
(17:47):
the Warriors do. Their defense isn't so good that they
can keep a team at Bay almost. I don't know
if there's a team out there that they could keep
at Bay. It's what they do. And so you had
Steph Curry hitting some magical shots and the Warriors essentially
(18:08):
beating the Rockets at their own game in terms of
it was really just out hustling them in the second half,
winning the fifty to fifty balls. But Houston had twenty
two offensive rebounds. If they make good on that, then
I think it's a different game. So I have the
Warriors winning, but I think it's going to be a
long series, and the longer it goes, the more it favors,
(18:32):
it favors Houston.
Speaker 1 (18:34):
Stuck Ott Leep Show here on Fox Sports Radio. Rick
Bucker is our guest case. Of course, he's synonymous with
the NBA. The Oklahoma City Thunder have been waiting all
year patiently to show us that they're different in the playoffs. Yep,
(18:56):
noted right, like it's the old Like damn, I don't know.
I don't know how much of it was was the
Grizzlies fault, but that was that was impressive.
Speaker 3 (19:07):
Well some, I mean, some of it is just coming
you come off of the play in yep and uh
and and it's it's tough to make that that turnaround
for a team. You know, if they could have caught
a team sleeping, it might have been different. But the Thunder,
to your point, were not they were ready to prove
something out of the gate, even though they had uh
(19:29):
the best record in the league this year. The question
that I have with the Thunder and the big picture
is not you know what they're going to do against
the Grizzlies, But they had the fewest games this season
by far decided by three points or less. Sure, and
in those games they played a total of five games
(19:50):
that were decided by three points or less. They were
one and four in those games, and UH and went
too and two against Denver, who they could see in
the next round and lost the game exactly like that,
one twenty four one two UH to to the Nuggets.
And so that's my question, that's the one. That's the
question I need answered as far as what their capabilities are,
(20:14):
which is if you get into if they get into
a possession by possession game in the last two minutes, which.
Speaker 1 (20:20):
Is going to which is going to happen in the playoffs? Right,
what's that which is going to happen? It might not
happen in this series, but it's going to happen.
Speaker 3 (20:28):
It's yeah, they're going to face that situation, and how
are they going to respond? How good are they going
to be? Because that's kind of the you know, that's
the that's the downside of being as dominant as they
were during the during the regular season is that you
didn't get a whole lot of experience in what are
(20:48):
we doing in these in these make or break situations.
They haven't had a whole lot of practice at that.
I do think we've become a little gun shy with
teams that had the best record in the league and
and really trusting them because honestly, outside of the Celtics
last year, how.
Speaker 1 (21:05):
Many how many of those teams have actually performed?
Speaker 6 (21:07):
Yeah?
Speaker 1 (21:08):
Yeah, so I'm with you, and we still don't know,
but that was that was impressive.
Speaker 3 (21:15):
Oh no, I mean no question, And you know that
that that they did it with Shay not really being
a significant factor, gives you just an indication of how
of how strong and deep they are and and committed
to letting everybody know, hey, we're as real as our
regular season records and just do we were.
Speaker 1 (21:33):
Landryfield's just fired as GM of the UH of the
Atlanta Hawks. Yeah, and you know, when you're watching.
Speaker 3 (21:41):
Trade traded DeAndre Hunter to the Cleveland Cavaliers. That's a
that's an interesting that is an interesting firing though, because
it wasn't as if he was the one that They've
been committed to Trey Young well before or Landry took over,
(22:01):
and they've traded away everybody who kind of gets tired
of playing with Tray Young. So my big question is
not necessarily who comes in next, but are they still
committed to the Trey Young experience experience?
Speaker 1 (22:13):
Yeah? I talked about this last weekend when in watching
them play there for their final game, I thought the
same thing, which is, I love Trey Young. There's a
lot of great things he does, but I'm just not
convinced you can win the playoffs. Trey Young is your best,
even your second best player. He just the defense and
a little bit of the overball dominance just doesn't seem
to work there. He's a fantastic player, but it just
(22:35):
he just doesn't unless it's constructed completely differently around him
or his mentality changes, I don't I don't see that
working go ahead.
Speaker 3 (22:43):
Very much Touch twenty two with him, no doubt.
Speaker 1 (22:46):
Yeah. Can the Clippers even and up?
Speaker 3 (22:51):
They certainly can. I mean, look they have they have
the talent and the roster and the defense, and the
Nuggets are you know, I mean, they had four of
their five starters play forty five plus minutes. Obviously it
went into overtime, so that was a factor, But I
don't know if that is sustainable. I have Denver winning
(23:12):
the series. But the great advantage they have is that
if it's a close game, Jamal Murray and Jokic know
how to playoff of each other and they're going to
with their chemistry, they're going to create the best shot
and it doesn't matter which one of them is taking it.
(23:32):
With the Clippers for having two accomplished finishing players or
closers in Kawhi Leonard and James Harden, the problem is
that those two don't have a symbiotic relationship. At the
end of games, it's one or the other, and that
(23:53):
makes them fairly predictable in terms of where the shot
is going to come from or what you know what
James is trying to do, you know what Kawhi is
trying to do. And for playoff teams, that predictability makes
it a little easier to defend. And then there's just
this weird, this weird thing that the Clips have that
(24:15):
their execution when the game gets tight, it's they just
they shoot themselves in the foot so consistently, and I've
seen that all year long, so I think that's where
Denver has the edge. I think, again, this could be
a long series, but I just believe Denver's familiarity with
each other and ability to execute down the stretch is
(24:36):
going to be the difference.
Speaker 1 (24:38):
Awesome stuff. As always, Rick Buker Fox Sportswe Foxsports dot
Com playoffs roll on and he joins us every week.
Buker the best, Thanks for joining us. You got it,
Doug Pleasure, It's Doug Gottlieb Show here on Fox Sports Radio. Buyer.
The NBA playoffs are really hard. I know Jay Stu,
doesn't he Jay? What's what's your expression with things you hate?
(25:01):
Like you hate the predictions? Right? Like predictions are dumb? Right?
But I would also is that is that an accurate
way of saying it? Or like, not predictions but picks,
like you hate people's picks. That's just dumb dumb radio.
Speaker 4 (25:12):
I just think it's lazy.
Speaker 2 (25:14):
I think it doesn't serve the listener.
Speaker 4 (25:16):
I think it serves the ego of the host.
Speaker 6 (25:19):
I second, by the way, I agree with that.
Speaker 1 (25:21):
I totally agree with it. I think that I also
don't like the halftime analysis of guys that don't tell
me anything like they got to step up, this team's
ready to play like that does that's not really analysis,
like tell me why something is happening specifically. But I
also think that you got to be really careful with
(25:43):
the NBA Playoffs of going too crazy over one game,
because we've been doing this a long time and you
can watch game one of the NBA Playoffs and watch
Game two of the NBA Playoffs and it's almost like
there's two completely different teams from one game to the next.
Is that buyer? Is that fair?
Speaker 6 (26:02):
I think that's fair. I feel you have more to
say otherwise I'll jump in.
Speaker 1 (26:08):
No, you can jump in. Might just again, So when
I see when I see the Lakers really struggle with
the Timberwolves, I don't want to go crazy and go like, hey,
it's a terrible matchup. This series is a rap, because
that's frankly dumb, dumb talk when you consider how many
series have looked this way. Game one and then game
two looks opposite. But I do think that there's a
(26:31):
portion of it's like are we really kidding ourselves? Do
we really think that the Lakers can win four of
the next six games against the Timberwolves, who look so
much more athletic and connected defensively than the Lakers do.
Speaker 6 (26:46):
Yeah, I thought that that game and that outcome and
how it played out was by far the biggest statement
of the weekend. And there weren't statements made in every game.
Certain stuff played out, like sure we didn't think the
Thunder we're gonna win by fifty, but they swept the
Grizzlies in their season series. Thunder made it through the
first round last year, so they have bigger fish to fry.
(27:09):
As you were just talking with Rick Buker, however, Doug,
like there is something that stands out about what happens
Saturday night with the Timberwolves, And yeah, to your point,
like I got the sense of, like, wow, I don't
know if the Lakers can do this, especially because I
still think Minnesota will be able to get some of
the shots that that they got. And it's not like
(27:30):
they shot sixty five percent from three. Yeah, they made
twenty twenty one threes, shot fifty percent from three point range.
They could do that. Again, that's it's not unheard of,
you know, to do that. And if the Lakers aren't
gonna make any changes to stop Naz Reed from getting
his looks, then I think that there could be continued problems.
(27:51):
But what I also think of when we talk about
these playoff series, you have to take something from them,
because otherwise, if we just pushed the cart down the road,
next thing you know, the series is over and we're like, oh,
well that was that. And then because the next series starts,
we're not even talking about happened previously because now we're
onto the next series. So I do think that there
is this happy medium in finding out, you know, like
(28:14):
of what happened. And I think each game this weekend
had a little something like, for some reason, the Bucks
and I'll just use them because nobody's talking about them,
and this could be, you know what, I'm gonna save
it for love and hate because I actually actually I
hate this about the Milwaukee Bucks. I'll save it. But
Piston's next perfect example. We thought that the Pistons, new
(28:34):
to the playoffs, everything is going to be new, right this,
how are they going to adjust? And for three and
a half quarters they were magnificent and then all of
a sudden it completely falls apart. And I would love
to just chalk it up to be like, yeah, that's
the first time in the playoffs, like they got that
one out of the way. But did they get that
out of the way or not? Or is this the
(28:55):
Knicks showing their metal that maybe they thought they were
going to be able to cospass the Pistons and then
they didn't do it. And guess what, Doug Garden magic
is back. The magic of Madison Square Garden is back. Like,
I think there's something to take from that Saturday night.
So using that example of I don't want to overreact
to game one, but I definitely want to grab something
(29:15):
from it because otherwise we're just gonna ignore the series.
Speaker 1 (29:18):
That's the way to do it. That's the way to
do it, right, Because the point that she made is
is and I'm using more of the Lakers series analogy,
which is I don't think it's as much about shutting
down nas Red because naz Reid was opened because other
Lakers couldn't guard their guy, so somebody has to help.
(29:41):
And then by design, he's opening the corner and he
hit three after three after three, right, the breakdown occurred elsewhere,
and it's like with with diseases, right, you're cutting down
the symptom, not the actual cause. If you say, hey,
we're going to take away Nasri, well that's like the
(30:02):
symptom of the bigger issue at play. So to use
your way of doing it, which I do think is
the right way is and I'm not going to sit
here and go the Lakers are done, right, The Lakers
are done. They're cooked. What I would say is, boy,
they got. The takeaway is that the Timbolves were really ready,
(30:23):
that Anthony Edwards did not have to score fifty, and
that they were in complete and total control against the
Lakers and their bench, mostly because Nasri, but others appear
to be far better than the Lakers. One game, one game.
Speaker 4 (30:38):
Be sure to catch the live edition of The Doug
Gottlieb Show weekdays at three pm Eastern noon Pacific on
Fox Sports Radio and the iHeartRadio app.
Speaker 1 (30:49):
Doug Gottlieb Show, Fox Sports Radio, Calm the Chaos, use
the shipping software that delivers use the code sports for
a free trial at shipstation dot com at shipstation dot
com What is Sports be shooted. Tune into Fox Sports
Radios Draft Night Draft Night Live, which is Thursday night,
eight Eastern for the first round of the NFL Draft,
(31:09):
insider j Glazer, former Jets gentleal manager Doe Douglas, College
football Hall of Famer LeVar Arrington, Fox Sports Lead College
football border Jenny Taff We'll cover We'll have you all
covered for thirty two picks with predictions and reactions. That's Thursday,
eight Eastern throughout the first round of the draft, right
here on Fox Sports Radio and with live video podcast
(31:30):
from Fox Sports Radios YouTube channel, brought to you by
ship Station. Let's get to a game with Dan Buyer.
Speaker 4 (31:38):
This is game time on the Doug Gottlieb Show.
Speaker 1 (31:45):
Hey there, Dan Buyer, what do you got?
Speaker 6 (31:46):
All right?
Speaker 1 (31:46):
Doug?
Speaker 4 (31:47):
The game today is big deal, little deal, no deal?
Speaker 6 (31:51):
Big deal, little deal or no deal. That the nixt
end of twenty one nothing run over the Pistons in
the fourth quarter of their game one win on Saturday.
Speaker 1 (32:00):
That's a big deal. That's a that's a big deal.
Have you been in the other end of one of
those runs. It's a huge deal. Just stop the blading.
Somebody make a basket for God's sake. And I get
what you're saying about how lazy it is to just
go h garden magic, right, garden magic. But there is
(32:22):
something really cool about the garden. Sure, you know there's
some some something cool about.
Speaker 6 (32:26):
The garden, and I think that that is actually legit
like something. To to just like pass that off as nothing,
I think is the improper way to do it, to
say that there is garden magic. There is. I will
also say this, and I'm not sure how you guys
feel about it as a group, but I feel the
celebrities at MSG actually hit harder than they do at
(32:51):
Lakers games.
Speaker 1 (32:53):
Yeah.
Speaker 6 (32:54):
I mean, like I know, like with Jack Nicholson and
Denzel Washing, like there's top of the top names, but
when they even do it at the next when they
do it at the next games, I don't know, it
just resonates more with me for some reason. I don't
know why. When it saw Tracy Morgan and John McEnroe
(33:14):
sitting there chopping it up, Yeah, that that hit home.
I don't know. Maybe it's just me.
Speaker 1 (33:21):
Well, Tracy Morgan remember he had that that medical.
Speaker 6 (33:24):
Oh yeah, yeah, that's right.
Speaker 1 (33:25):
That was just a couple weeks ago.
Speaker 6 (33:28):
Now back courtside of the NBA Playoffs. All right, Bigdale,
little deal or no deal, Doug, that Russell Westbrook's defense
sounding overtime inbounds helped the Nuggets seal the deal in
Game one against the Clippers.
Speaker 1 (33:40):
I think it's a little deal. I mean, look, he
made He's one of those that times can be zero
some guys, right, he's the good Lord. He give it
and he'd take it away in that case, he took
it away from the other team. But there's some decisions
he makes offensively, they're just bizarre. That was good. I mean, look,
guy who's played and at the highest level of the
(34:02):
NBA in an NBA Finals before and has been an MVP,
makes you a big game winning played That's awesome. There's
lots of other stuff. You're like, dude, has he ever
played a big game before? So for the moment, we'll
take the awesome.
Speaker 6 (34:15):
Big deal, little deal or no deal. That Lebron is
reportedly coming to Green Bay, Lebron Thomas, I'm talking about.
Speaker 1 (34:23):
Yeah, Well the teas was written Lebron James, and I
was like, Lebron James, it's a big deal. So yeah,
yesterday morning we got a signature on the paper that
matters for Lebron Thomas, and it is. It is a
big deal. It's a big deal for us. Because the
first team junior college All American. It's also a big
(34:43):
deal because we got out of Lebron and what's amazing.
You'll love this Dand was first time I met his dad, Derek.
Derek's like, we talked for a couple hours and then
he pulls me aside and he's like, what did you
do to Lebron? And I was like nothing, I just
came up talking and he was like, no Lebron James.
But it is crazy that we're old enough now to
(35:06):
have star college players named after Lebron James.
Speaker 6 (35:09):
Yes, right, yep.
Speaker 1 (35:10):
Like we've already been through Kobe. There's lots of Kobe's.
There's also a ton of Jalen's, right, I think Jalens
were all started with Jalen Rose. Now we're entering the
era of Lebrons. Soon to have some Lucas and maybe
a couple others.
Speaker 6 (35:26):
Maybe a Cooper big deal, little deal of nod deal
that duke star Cooper Flag is entering the twenty twenty
five NBA Draft.
Speaker 1 (35:32):
I'm gonna say no deal just because, I mean, did
anybody think there's any other option there for him? But
it's awesome. I mean, Cooper Flag's big time player. He'll
be a number one back.
Speaker 6 (35:43):
Finally, dug big deal, A little deal of old deal that.
In his final prospect ranking of the draft season, Daniel
Jeremiah has placed Travis Hunter in his number one overall spot.
Speaker 1 (35:53):
Well, I saw DJ, I know, he was on the
Herd earlier today and he went for like a twenty
minute walk. Uh so I didn't ask him about the
change his race. I think I think it's a big
deal because I think what we're doing is we're he's
obviously super talented defensive back. The question is does he
(36:13):
play both ways in the NFL? And that's game time.
What we Love? What do we hate? From the weekend,
Little Love and Hates. Next The Doug Outlab Show.
Thanks for listening to The Doug Gotlieb Show podcast. Be
sure to catch us live every weekday three to five,
twelve two Pacific on Fox Sports Radio. Find your local
station for The Doug Gottlieb Show at Foxsports Radio dot com,
or stream us live every day on the iHeartRadio app
by searching app as car Booming Up America. Doug Gottlieb Show,
Fox Sports Radio Coming to you from beautiful Green Bay, Wisconsin,
(00:25):
site of the upcoming NFL Draft and my adopted hometown.
Now getting closer and closer to years and years in
the making of hosting this event should be really really cool,
and we're broadcasting live from It's the Legacy Hotel. It's
(00:45):
a it's a block from Lambeau It's a block. How
do I know? There's actually one street which I can
see and it's the same street that little kids give
their bikes to for packers to ride their bike to practice.
The Don Hudson Center, which is in between here and
Lambeau Field, is where they ride their bikes to or
(01:07):
the outdoor fields that are right there across from that. Hey,
if you're left to right, if you're watching on the
doll is the resh Center. That's where we play our
home games, or portion of our home games. And you know,
I can clearly see the g which is on the
back of one of the jumbo trons at lambeau Field.
And to the I guess that's the north east corner
(01:29):
of the parking lot. And on the street that on
Lombardy Street or Lombardy Avenue, I don't know. The street
avenue I don't know is the stage where Thursday night,
Friday night, Saturday, all day the NFL Draft will be
taking place. So pretty cool stuff. And to be a
part of it and to live here, it's kind of interesting.
(01:53):
You know. Mark Murphy is the outgoing president of the
Green Bay Packers. He's also a good friend and a
guy who when he leaves his position is actually going
to take over an emeritis role as athletic director for
our school for for green Bay. But it's really interesting,
right he had this quote, I'm disappointing. I was hoping
(02:14):
we'd get train service from Milwaukee. It's kind of ridiculous
that the National Railroad Museum is in green Bay and
we don't have train service. Yeah, so this is a town. Truthfully,
green Bay is the town of one hundred thousand people.
The surrounding area is bumping up to a couple hundred thousand.
If you count the Fox Valley, you're getting to a
million people. But it's just like a college town. But
(02:37):
instead of having Division I college football, got the Green
Bay Packers, and you're going to bring in somewhere between
two hundred and fifty and four hundred thousand people reportedly
for the weekend, and there's five to six thousand hotel
rooms plus people running out their houses. And he's like, yeah,
we could use train service from Milwaukee. Seems like a
(02:58):
bit of an oversight from the folks at Amtrak, right,
You couldn't. Couldn't just make sure you arrange it. Nonetheless,
my guess is that at the end of the day,
it'll go off without a hitch. NFL things have a
tendency to do, so they just do. And it's a
weird NFL draft. It's weird. There's no other way to
(03:20):
describe it. When you have two maybe three quarterbacks that
are first round draft picks and the second two people
are like and even cam Ward if you compare cam
Ward to last year's class, I'm not sure he's the
top five guy and then you factor in that there's
fewer and fewer early entries into the NFL draft. Why
(03:42):
would you go in the NFL draft early if you
can stay in college and make as much, if not
more money as you're going to make in the NFL.
So you have a smaller field of people to choose from.
We have a depletion of the quarterback position, and you
still have some of these players who have are a
(04:03):
little bit older because they've had COVID year, either senior
years in high school or freshman years in college, which
is allowed to play more and more college football. So
you have this weird sh Morgasborg of potential guys who
are anyone anywhere from twenty years old, twenty one years
old to twenty four to twenty five years old. It's
(04:23):
really interesting. Give me interesting draft. All right, let's get
to the NBA this weekend, which NBA playoffs in full swing.
The Warriors, it felt like they stole Game one. It
doesn't mean that I don't think the Warriors will win
the series. I do, but part of the Warrior's success
was you have all those guys that have played in
the NBA finals. A couple guys have won NBA championships
(04:45):
multiple before, whereas the Houston Rockets at collectively as a
not just counting all their years of experience, but counting
their years of experience together no playoff appearances. And I
don't know if the Rockets looked tight or the Rockets
struggle with the physicality of the playoffs, but they you
(05:07):
score in the thirties in the first half, your lowest
point total four a half overall, and you're quite obviously
not ready to play. Meanwhile, the Lakers, well, they look
like they couldn't guard the Timberwolves, which was the problem
that everyone saw when you eliminated Anthony Davis, the best
defender on the Lakers, and you replaced him with Luka Doncik.
(05:31):
Here's JJ Reddick talking about what went wrong in their
first matchup against the Timberwolves.
Speaker 2 (05:37):
They're great opponent, They're one of the best teams in basketball.
There's I think it's not to say our guys weren't
like ready to withstand like a playoff level basketball game.
We were mentally ready. I thought our spirit was right.
I thought even when they made runs, our huddles were great.
You know, the communication was great. I'm not sure physically
(06:00):
we were ready and if that makes sense, And really
when they started playing with a lot of thrust and physicality,
like we just didn't respond immediately to that. And then
that stretch to start of the second through you know,
five four or five minutes to go in the third,
I mean we lost that stretch by thirty four. So
you know that's a blowout.
Speaker 1 (06:21):
Yeah, I mean he's talking about the thrust and the
strength and whatever, Like, I just tell me where the
Lakers are definitively better. I understand. Name Wise, you're sitting
there going, hey, Lebron James, all time great, Luka Doncik
arguably best player offensive player in the league, Austin Reeves,
(06:43):
top twenty five offensive player in the league. And then well,
what else do you have out there? Remember, there's nothing
special about their bench and the Timberwolves. Whatever you think
of Gobert, he's an elite level defensive player. But then
they built roster. I don't know if Jade McDaniels is
ever eleven of thirteen from the floor and three of
(07:06):
three from three point range, but Jade McDaniels will always
be on that floor because he's six foot nine with
long arms, great great intelligence, defensively, you know, and Julius
Randall is the guy who's just too physical, too strong
for any of their players, not name Jackson Hayes to guard.
And then Anthony Edwards, frankly is was the best athlete
(07:27):
on the court. You're throwing nas Reed off the bench,
you hit six threes, and I think it's a little
bit of both. Do I think war the Lakers can
win a couple of games? I do do. I think
generally the Timberwolves are a bad matchup for the Lakers
and are just better.
Speaker 3 (07:43):
I do.
Speaker 1 (07:45):
Whereas the Warriors, I don't think we're truly gonna know
until we get through Game two what that series looks like.
I think the Warriors win the series. I think the
Timberwlves will win the series. But that one feels a
little bit more like, Hey, the Rockets weren't sleeping, but
(08:08):
the Rockets hadn't really played playoff basketball, and it's just different.
And the Warriors were ahead of the curve because they
had played their playing game. But they're playing game all right.
Got a metric ton to get to, including getting you
ready for this upcoming draft. Rick Buker is going to
join us at what twenty five after the hour. Yeah,
(08:30):
Buke's gonna join us twenty five after the hour. We'll
get his thoughts on this firing in Atlanta which just
took place, and on the playoffs that we've seen so
far and some of the ones we're going to see
tonight live from Green Bays Doug Gottlieb Show here on
Fox Sports Radio. Fox Sports Radio's Draft Night Live throughout
the first round of the Draft on Thursday night is
(08:52):
brought to you by Dollar Shave Club, your place to
get everything you need to stay smooth and smell great.
Visit dollarshaveclub dot com slash Draft use the promo code
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dollars and more, plus free shipping. That's dollarshaf club dot
com slash Draft. Be sure to tune in to Fox
Sports Radios Draft Night Live, which is Thursday night at
(09:12):
eight pm Eastern. Throughout the first round of the draft.
Insider Jay Glazer, former general Jets Centeral manager Joe Douglas,
college football hall of famer LeVar Arrington. Foxsports Lead college
football reporter Jenny Taff will have covered all thirty two
picks and predictions and reactions. That's Thursday, eight Eastern throughout
the first round right here on Fox Sports Radio, with
(09:33):
live video simulcast on Fox Sports Radios YouTube channel, brought
to you by Dollars Shave Club.
Speaker 4 (09:38):
Be sure to catch the live edition of The Doug
Gottlieb Show weekdays at three pm Eastern noon Pacific.
Speaker 1 (09:46):
It's The Doug Gottlieb Show here on Fox Sports Radio.
We'll get to Rick Buker upcoming after we get an
update from Dan Byer. You know, Nicol Harrison had that
behind closed doors meeting, and though when you listen to it,
(10:06):
none of his comments were that outlandish. Some of it
you just kind of needed some context too, and they're
just kind of standalone quotes. But the fact that it
was behind closed doors and there were no recording devices
in it just seemed weird, like what what are you
exactly hiding from? So what he did was he's spoke
(10:30):
in front of a live camera and recording devices. Earlier today,
here's what Nico Harrison said about the Luca deal.
Speaker 5 (10:37):
I did know that Luca was important to the to
the fan base. I didn't quite know it to what level.
But really the way we looked at it is you know,
if you're putting on the if you're putting a team
on the floor, that's Kyrie, Clay PJ, Anthony Davis and Lively.
We filled that's a championship caliber team and we would
(10:58):
have been winning and high level and that would acquieted
some of the outrage. And so unfortunately we weren't able
to do that, so it just continued to, you know,
go on and on.
Speaker 1 (11:09):
You can find fault with his logic behind the trade,
you can find fault with a lot of the commentary.
I don't think you can find fault with the idea
that we never saw his true team. Now the naysayer
and honestly, if you want to even be down the
middle and be fair, would say like, okay, well you
were if your issue was with Luka Doncik being hurt.
(11:33):
Anthony Davis has been hurt seemingly more than he's been
healthy as an NBA player. He's always hurt up up
up until the last year and a half. Then of
course when you get him he had the groin injury
that he had had with the Lakers. That sets him back.
But his point is, hey, if we're fully healthy, we're
actually pretty arn't good and though there still would have
been complaining, it would have been the same. I actually
(11:54):
agree with that. I actually agree with that. The problem
is we'll never know, And the issue is that Luca
was so popular that all the equity Nico Harrison should
have because he built a team to go to the
(12:17):
NBA Finals last year, doesn't seem to be cashing in
and have any sort of value in the DFW. Right now,
it's the Doug Gottlieb Show here on Fox Sports Radio.
Let's welcome in Rick Buker all things NBA from Fox
Sports dot Com and Fox Sports One. Buke let let's
(12:39):
start with the Timberwolves. I mean, obviously they made a
ton of shots. You're making fifty percent of your threes.
But there was this sense from some, especially Laker fans,
that this is a good matchup for the Lakers. Were
they wrong or was it just a one off in
your opinion?
Speaker 3 (12:56):
No, I'm not feeling that this is a good matchup
for the Lakers. I understand that ceiling going in, and
I thought along the same lines.
Speaker 1 (13:04):
I was.
Speaker 3 (13:05):
I favored the Lakers to win the series, but that
was based on the Timberwolves team that I've seen in
the past in general, and the Anthony Edwards that I've
seen in the past in particular, which is just a
high wire act, whether it's Jade McDaniels, you know, punching
a wall and breaking his hand or uh Ant just
(13:26):
getting uh too caught up in the emotion and uh
one on one battle And and I didn't see any
of that in this in in the first game, and
I and what impressed me most is the fact that
they kind of looked like that.
Speaker 1 (13:42):
Out of the gate.
Speaker 3 (13:42):
They looked like they looked they were they were validating
every reason I had to doubt the Timberwolves in the
first five or six minutes of the game. But then
they settled down and and I look at their depth,
and I look at their athleticism and uh in the
matchups and and it's hard for me not to say this,
(14:05):
this version of the Timberwolves, if they keep their heads
about them, uh. They exposed a lot of things about
the Lakers that we've always known that we're there. We
just I wasn't certain that the Timberwolves were capable of
exposing them. But you know, the matchup sidewise, the ability
to dribble penetrate, having multiple dribble penetrators. That's really what's
(14:28):
set up the three. So it puts guys like Lebron
James in particular, in a difficult position. Can you can
you help and then recover to the to the three
point shooters when those three point shooters are your size,
can defend you one on one and uh and at
the same time be able to knock down a three.
(14:48):
That that creates a puzzle for the Lakers that I'm
not sure they have the personnel to solve.
Speaker 1 (14:54):
Yeah, yeah, I'm I'm with you. I didn't get it
to begin with. Uh. And obviously, well, here's what I
think the ministate people make is you look at the
raw numbers and you're like, well, you know if they
shoot that, well, those were wide open shots. And they're
wide open shots because because they're putting them in position.
(15:16):
You know, Lakers three best players are poor defenders, and
so if when they get by a man, if you
put a guy in help, Nasried is going to be
wide open. Now, well he make as many in a
row as he made in a row. Maybe not right,
but the idea you're those those open shots were created
because of mismatches elsewhere and the other thing is I
don't like the Lakers offense. You know, I think you know,
(15:39):
Greg Saint Geane is calling most of the offense, and
he's a mismatch hunter, and I just again, I don't
think that that works as well for this team as
maybe it maybe it would in the past, because, as
you pointed out, the Timberwolves actually have guys that match
up size wise with Luca, with Lebron, with Austin Reeves,
(16:02):
so that it's not as dramatic of a mismatch. Right.
So yeah, but again, it's one game, and we've seen
NBA series look like one thing and become the other.
But it's also we haven't had a game yet when
Anthony Edwards decides I'm just gonna win no matter what.
So this thing goes too. Oh it looks bad. Okay,
(16:24):
let's discuss the Warriors. The defense was outstanding in the
first half, and they keep the Rockets at arms distance,
but a good portion of it is Hey, most of
those Warriors have been in playoff series before, not all
of the Rockets have. How much of that is just
a one off? How much of that is matchups? Moving forward?
Speaker 3 (16:42):
I still feel like it's going to be an interesting series.
That the Rockets are certainly capable of it. I thought
that they showed their playoff naivete or nerves or whatever
however you want to look at it. And but Jalen
Rowe to Jalen Rose, Jalen Green, I would expect that
(17:06):
he will be better than three for fifteen and seven points.
I don't know that that was the Warriors stopping him
as much as he just looked like he was kind
of out of sorts, you know, going too fast to
the rim, a little bit like I've seen Anthony Edwards
in the past, those too fast to the rim, little
(17:27):
too unsure about when he's pulling up and taking a
jumper like this. Didn't look very composed. And I would
not expect Fred van Vliet, a thirty six shooter from
three in the postseason, to have another two for thirteen game.
The Warriors let the Rockets back in, and that's what
(17:47):
the Warriors do. Their defense isn't so good that they
can keep a team at Bay almost. I don't know
if there's a team out there that they could keep
at Bay. It's what they do. And so you had
Steph Curry hitting some magical shots and the Warriors essentially
(18:08):
beating the Rockets at their own game in terms of
it was really just out hustling them in the second half,
winning the fifty to fifty balls. But Houston had twenty
two offensive rebounds. If they make good on that, then
I think it's a different game. So I have the
Warriors winning, but I think it's going to be a
long series, and the longer it goes, the more it favors,
(18:32):
it favors Houston.
Speaker 1 (18:34):
Stuck Ott Leep Show here on Fox Sports Radio. Rick
Bucker is our guest case. Of course, he's synonymous with
the NBA. The Oklahoma City Thunder have been waiting all
year patiently to show us that they're different in the playoffs. Yep,
(18:56):
noted right, like it's the old Like damn, I don't know.
I don't know how much of it was was the
Grizzlies fault, but that was that was impressive.
Speaker 3 (19:07):
Well some, I mean, some of it is just coming
you come off of the play in yep and uh
and and it's it's tough to make that that turnaround
for a team. You know, if they could have caught
a team sleeping, it might have been different. But the Thunder,
to your point, were not they were ready to prove
something out of the gate, even though they had uh
(19:29):
the best record in the league this year. The question
that I have with the Thunder and the big picture
is not you know what they're going to do against
the Grizzlies, But they had the fewest games this season
by far decided by three points or less. Sure, and
in those games they played a total of five games
(19:50):
that were decided by three points or less. They were
one and four in those games, and UH and went
too and two against Denver, who they could see in
the next round and lost the game exactly like that,
one twenty four one two UH to to the Nuggets.
And so that's my question, that's the one. That's the
question I need answered as far as what their capabilities are,
(20:14):
which is if you get into if they get into
a possession by possession game in the last two minutes, which.
Speaker 1 (20:20):
Is going to which is going to happen in the playoffs? Right,
what's that which is going to happen? It might not
happen in this series, but it's going to happen.
Speaker 3 (20:28):
It's yeah, they're going to face that situation, and how
are they going to respond? How good are they going
to be? Because that's kind of the you know, that's
the that's the downside of being as dominant as they
were during the during the regular season is that you
didn't get a whole lot of experience in what are
(20:48):
we doing in these in these make or break situations.
They haven't had a whole lot of practice at that.
I do think we've become a little gun shy with
teams that had the best record in the league and
and really trusting them because honestly, outside of the Celtics
last year, how.
Speaker 1 (21:05):
Many how many of those teams have actually performed?
Speaker 6 (21:07):
Yeah?
Speaker 1 (21:08):
Yeah, so I'm with you, and we still don't know,
but that was that was impressive.
Speaker 3 (21:15):
Oh no, I mean no question, And you know that
that that they did it with Shay not really being
a significant factor, gives you just an indication of how
of how strong and deep they are and and committed
to letting everybody know, hey, we're as real as our
regular season records and just do we were.
Speaker 1 (21:33):
Landryfield's just fired as GM of the UH of the
Atlanta Hawks. Yeah, and you know, when you're watching.
Speaker 3 (21:41):
Trade traded DeAndre Hunter to the Cleveland Cavaliers. That's a
that's an interesting that is an interesting firing though, because
it wasn't as if he was the one that They've
been committed to Trey Young well before or Landry took over,
(22:01):
and they've traded away everybody who kind of gets tired
of playing with Tray Young. So my big question is
not necessarily who comes in next, but are they still
committed to the Trey Young experience experience?
Speaker 1 (22:13):
Yeah? I talked about this last weekend when in watching
them play there for their final game, I thought the
same thing, which is, I love Trey Young. There's a
lot of great things he does, but I'm just not
convinced you can win the playoffs. Trey Young is your best,
even your second best player. He just the defense and
a little bit of the overball dominance just doesn't seem
to work there. He's a fantastic player, but it just
(22:35):
he just doesn't unless it's constructed completely differently around him
or his mentality changes, I don't I don't see that
working go ahead.
Speaker 3 (22:43):
Very much Touch twenty two with him, no doubt.
Speaker 1 (22:46):
Yeah. Can the Clippers even and up?
Speaker 3 (22:51):
They certainly can. I mean, look they have they have
the talent and the roster and the defense, and the
Nuggets are you know, I mean, they had four of
their five starters play forty five plus minutes. Obviously it
went into overtime, so that was a factor, But I
don't know if that is sustainable. I have Denver winning
(23:12):
the series. But the great advantage they have is that
if it's a close game, Jamal Murray and Jokic know
how to playoff of each other and they're going to
with their chemistry, they're going to create the best shot
and it doesn't matter which one of them is taking it.
(23:32):
With the Clippers for having two accomplished finishing players or
closers in Kawhi Leonard and James Harden, the problem is
that those two don't have a symbiotic relationship. At the
end of games, it's one or the other, and that
(23:53):
makes them fairly predictable in terms of where the shot
is going to come from or what you know what
James is trying to do, you know what Kawhi is
trying to do. And for playoff teams, that predictability makes
it a little easier to defend. And then there's just
this weird, this weird thing that the Clips have that
(24:15):
their execution when the game gets tight, it's they just
they shoot themselves in the foot so consistently, and I've
seen that all year long, so I think that's where
Denver has the edge. I think, again, this could be
a long series, but I just believe Denver's familiarity with
each other and ability to execute down the stretch is
(24:36):
going to be the difference.
Speaker 1 (24:38):
Awesome stuff. As always, Rick Buker Fox Sportswe Foxsports dot
Com playoffs roll on and he joins us every week.
Buker the best, Thanks for joining us. You got it,
Doug Pleasure, It's Doug Gottlieb Show here on Fox Sports Radio. Buyer.
The NBA playoffs are really hard. I know Jay Stu,
doesn't he Jay? What's what's your expression with things you hate?
(25:01):
Like you hate the predictions? Right? Like predictions are dumb? Right?
But I would also is that is that an accurate
way of saying it? Or like, not predictions but picks,
like you hate people's picks. That's just dumb dumb radio.
Speaker 4 (25:12):
I just think it's lazy.
Speaker 2 (25:14):
I think it doesn't serve the listener.
Speaker 4 (25:16):
I think it serves the ego of the host.
Speaker 6 (25:19):
I second, by the way, I agree with that.
Speaker 1 (25:21):
I totally agree with it. I think that I also
don't like the halftime analysis of guys that don't tell
me anything like they got to step up, this team's
ready to play like that does that's not really analysis,
like tell me why something is happening specifically. But I
also think that you got to be really careful with
(25:43):
the NBA Playoffs of going too crazy over one game,
because we've been doing this a long time and you
can watch game one of the NBA Playoffs and watch
Game two of the NBA Playoffs and it's almost like
there's two completely different teams from one game to the next.
Is that buyer? Is that fair?
Speaker 6 (26:02):
I think that's fair. I feel you have more to
say otherwise I'll jump in.
Speaker 1 (26:08):
No, you can jump in. Might just again, So when
I see when I see the Lakers really struggle with
the Timberwolves, I don't want to go crazy and go like, hey,
it's a terrible matchup. This series is a rap, because
that's frankly dumb, dumb talk when you consider how many
series have looked this way. Game one and then game
two looks opposite. But I do think that there's a
(26:31):
portion of it's like are we really kidding ourselves? Do
we really think that the Lakers can win four of
the next six games against the Timberwolves, who look so
much more athletic and connected defensively than the Lakers do.
Speaker 6 (26:46):
Yeah, I thought that that game and that outcome and
how it played out was by far the biggest statement
of the weekend. And there weren't statements made in every game.
Certain stuff played out, like sure we didn't think the
Thunder we're gonna win by fifty, but they swept the
Grizzlies in their season series. Thunder made it through the
first round last year, so they have bigger fish to fry.
(27:09):
As you were just talking with Rick Buker, however, Doug,
like there is something that stands out about what happens
Saturday night with the Timberwolves, And yeah, to your point,
like I got the sense of, like, wow, I don't
know if the Lakers can do this, especially because I
still think Minnesota will be able to get some of
the shots that that they got. And it's not like
(27:30):
they shot sixty five percent from three. Yeah, they made
twenty twenty one threes, shot fifty percent from three point range.
They could do that. Again, that's it's not unheard of,
you know, to do that. And if the Lakers aren't
gonna make any changes to stop Naz Reed from getting
his looks, then I think that there could be continued problems.
(27:51):
But what I also think of when we talk about
these playoff series, you have to take something from them,
because otherwise, if we just pushed the cart down the road,
next thing you know, the series is over and we're like, oh,
well that was that. And then because the next series starts,
we're not even talking about happened previously because now we're
onto the next series. So I do think that there
is this happy medium in finding out, you know, like
(28:14):
of what happened. And I think each game this weekend
had a little something like, for some reason, the Bucks
and I'll just use them because nobody's talking about them,
and this could be, you know what, I'm gonna save
it for love and hate because I actually actually I
hate this about the Milwaukee Bucks. I'll save it. But
Piston's next perfect example. We thought that the Pistons, new
(28:34):
to the playoffs, everything is going to be new, right this,
how are they going to adjust? And for three and
a half quarters they were magnificent and then all of
a sudden it completely falls apart. And I would love
to just chalk it up to be like, yeah, that's
the first time in the playoffs, like they got that
one out of the way. But did they get that
out of the way or not? Or is this the
(28:55):
Knicks showing their metal that maybe they thought they were
going to be able to cospass the Pistons and then
they didn't do it. And guess what, Doug Garden magic
is back. The magic of Madison Square Garden is back. Like,
I think there's something to take from that Saturday night.
So using that example of I don't want to overreact
to game one, but I definitely want to grab something
(29:15):
from it because otherwise we're just gonna ignore the series.
Speaker 1 (29:18):
That's the way to do it. That's the way to
do it, right, Because the point that she made is
is and I'm using more of the Lakers series analogy,
which is I don't think it's as much about shutting
down nas Red because naz Reid was opened because other
Lakers couldn't guard their guy, so somebody has to help.
(29:41):
And then by design, he's opening the corner and he
hit three after three after three, right, the breakdown occurred elsewhere,
and it's like with with diseases, right, you're cutting down
the symptom, not the actual cause. If you say, hey,
we're going to take away Nasri, well that's like the
(30:02):
symptom of the bigger issue at play. So to use
your way of doing it, which I do think is
the right way is and I'm not going to sit
here and go the Lakers are done, right, The Lakers
are done. They're cooked. What I would say is, boy,
they got. The takeaway is that the Timbolves were really ready,
(30:23):
that Anthony Edwards did not have to score fifty, and
that they were in complete and total control against the
Lakers and their bench, mostly because Nasri, but others appear
to be far better than the Lakers. One game, one game.
Speaker 4 (30:38):
Be sure to catch the live edition of The Doug
Gottlieb Show weekdays at three pm Eastern noon Pacific on
Fox Sports Radio and the iHeartRadio app.
Speaker 1 (30:49):
Doug Gottlieb Show, Fox Sports Radio, Calm the Chaos, use
the shipping software that delivers use the code sports for
a free trial at shipstation dot com at shipstation dot
com What is Sports be shooted. Tune into Fox Sports
Radios Draft Night Draft Night Live, which is Thursday night,
eight Eastern for the first round of the NFL Draft,
(31:09):
insider j Glazer, former Jets gentleal manager Doe Douglas, College
football Hall of Famer LeVar Arrington, Fox Sports Lead College
football border Jenny Taff We'll cover We'll have you all
covered for thirty two picks with predictions and reactions. That's Thursday,
eight Eastern throughout the first round of the draft, right
here on Fox Sports Radio and with live video podcast
(31:30):
from Fox Sports Radios YouTube channel, brought to you by
ship Station. Let's get to a game with Dan Buyer.
Speaker 4 (31:38):
This is game time on the Doug Gottlieb Show.
Speaker 1 (31:45):
Hey there, Dan Buyer, what do you got?
Speaker 6 (31:46):
All right?
Speaker 1 (31:46):
Doug?
Speaker 4 (31:47):
The game today is big deal, little deal, no deal?
Speaker 6 (31:51):
Big deal, little deal or no deal. That the nixt
end of twenty one nothing run over the Pistons in
the fourth quarter of their game one win on Saturday.
Speaker 1 (32:00):
That's a big deal. That's a that's a big deal.
Have you been in the other end of one of
those runs. It's a huge deal. Just stop the blading.
Somebody make a basket for God's sake. And I get
what you're saying about how lazy it is to just
go h garden magic, right, garden magic. But there is
(32:22):
something really cool about the garden. Sure, you know there's
some some something cool about.
Speaker 6 (32:26):
The garden, and I think that that is actually legit
like something. To to just like pass that off as nothing,
I think is the improper way to do it, to
say that there is garden magic. There is. I will
also say this, and I'm not sure how you guys
feel about it as a group, but I feel the
celebrities at MSG actually hit harder than they do at
(32:51):
Lakers games.
Speaker 1 (32:53):
Yeah.
Speaker 6 (32:54):
I mean, like I know, like with Jack Nicholson and
Denzel Washing, like there's top of the top names, but
when they even do it at the next when they
do it at the next games, I don't know, it
just resonates more with me for some reason. I don't
know why. When it saw Tracy Morgan and John McEnroe
(33:14):
sitting there chopping it up, Yeah, that that hit home.
I don't know. Maybe it's just me.
Speaker 1 (33:21):
Well, Tracy Morgan remember he had that that medical.
Speaker 6 (33:24):
Oh yeah, yeah, that's right.
Speaker 1 (33:25):
That was just a couple weeks ago.
Speaker 6 (33:28):
Now back courtside of the NBA Playoffs. All right, Bigdale,
little deal or no deal, Doug, that Russell Westbrook's defense
sounding overtime inbounds helped the Nuggets seal the deal in
Game one against the Clippers.
Speaker 1 (33:40):
I think it's a little deal. I mean, look, he
made He's one of those that times can be zero
some guys, right, he's the good Lord. He give it
and he'd take it away in that case, he took
it away from the other team. But there's some decisions
he makes offensively, they're just bizarre. That was good. I mean, look,
guy who's played and at the highest level of the
(34:02):
NBA in an NBA Finals before and has been an MVP,
makes you a big game winning played That's awesome. There's
lots of other stuff. You're like, dude, has he ever
played a big game before? So for the moment, we'll
take the awesome.
Speaker 6 (34:15):
Big deal, little deal or no deal. That Lebron is
reportedly coming to Green Bay, Lebron Thomas, I'm talking about.
Speaker 1 (34:23):
Yeah, Well the teas was written Lebron James, and I
was like, Lebron James, it's a big deal. So yeah,
yesterday morning we got a signature on the paper that
matters for Lebron Thomas, and it is. It is a
big deal. It's a big deal for us. Because the
first team junior college All American. It's also a big
(34:43):
deal because we got out of Lebron and what's amazing.
You'll love this Dand was first time I met his dad, Derek.
Derek's like, we talked for a couple hours and then
he pulls me aside and he's like, what did you
do to Lebron? And I was like nothing, I just
came up talking and he was like, no Lebron James.
But it is crazy that we're old enough now to
(35:06):
have star college players named after Lebron James.
Speaker 6 (35:09):
Yes, right, yep.
Speaker 1 (35:10):
Like we've already been through Kobe. There's lots of Kobe's.
There's also a ton of Jalen's, right, I think Jalens
were all started with Jalen Rose. Now we're entering the
era of Lebrons. Soon to have some Lucas and maybe
a couple others.
Speaker 6 (35:26):
Maybe a Cooper big deal, little deal of nod deal
that duke star Cooper Flag is entering the twenty twenty
five NBA Draft.
Speaker 1 (35:32):
I'm gonna say no deal just because, I mean, did
anybody think there's any other option there for him? But
it's awesome. I mean, Cooper Flag's big time player. He'll
be a number one back.
Speaker 6 (35:43):
Finally, dug big deal, A little deal of old deal that.
In his final prospect ranking of the draft season, Daniel
Jeremiah has placed Travis Hunter in his number one overall spot.
Speaker 1 (35:53):
Well, I saw DJ, I know, he was on the
Herd earlier today and he went for like a twenty
minute walk. Uh so I didn't ask him about the
change his race. I think I think it's a big
deal because I think what we're doing is we're he's
obviously super talented defensive back. The question is does he
(36:13):
play both ways in the NFL? And that's game time.
What we Love? What do we hate? From the weekend,
Little Love and Hates. Next The Doug Outlab Show.
Host
Doug Gottlieb
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