The Josh Innes Show - Amazing NBA Playoff Action

Episode Date: May 6, 2025

I get that many of you aren't fans of the NBA. I respect that. However, the two games last night were outstanding. The Celtics really screwed me in a major way. The OKC/Denver game was as fun a basketball game as you're going to find. I heard an absurd stat about James Harden... Learn more about your ad choices. Visit megaphone.fm/adchoices

Alright everybody, great night of basketball last night. Outstanding night of basketball unless you're somebody like me who looked like it was going to be a great night because what I took in my plays last night, I took a two-leg parlay of the Boston Celtics over 109.5 points and the Thunder over 114.5. I took both of their totals down just a little bit. The Celtics total I think was over 111 and I think the Oklahoma City total was over 118 maybe. I took them down a little bit because you could parlay them and then boom you know you get plus money for those two things which you felt were very likely to happen. You would

think Boston would come out there gunning and make a bunch of shots and score a bunch of points against a bad New York defense. And then you thought that Oklahoma City would go out and score some points because they've been rested for a month it seems like and they're catching Denver after a seven game series. So you're thinking points looking pretty good here right? So here's how it went down for me and then we'll get into the actual games. These were great games by the way. Like I'm telling you it's wild to say but the NBA playoffs are really freaking good. The game sevens were let downs. We talked about that. The Clippers game seven was a let down. There have been

let downs in game sevens. That's fine. I get it. The Rockets game seven was just dog shit. I get it. They were not good. However, and I'm not doing this to tell you that you need to be watching the NBA. I'm not shilling for the NBA. I'm not sitting here telling you that if you don't watch, then you don't love sports. Watch whatever the fuck you want to watch. That's the beauty of the world. If you want to watch what was a good first game of the series with the Panthers in Toronto, hey, have at it. Watch some hockey. If you want to watch what was a good first game of the series with the Panthers in Toronto, hey, have at it.

Watch some hockey. If you want to watch the bizarre NHL draft that I don't fully understand, the draft lottery, have at it. You want to watch the new season of you, I don't give a shit. Watch whatever you want to watch. I will never sit here and judge you as a sports fan for watching. Once you watch, maybe you're watching baseball. Don't care.

Watch whatever you want to watch. All I'm going to tell you is that you are missing some really good shit by not watching the playoffs. Now on one hand you could argue that Josh, a team missing 45 three-pointers is not entertaining. And I would agree with that. However, the game itself, a 20 point lead for Boston, they're kicking ass, they're coasting, right? And then they fall off a cliff and the Knicks rally and they end up winning that in overtime. Let me tell you about that game, okay? So I

needed the 109.5, so I needed 110 points for Boston and that would have set up the parlay to go into the next game and I was very confident in Oklahoma City. They're at home. They just score a fuck ton. Boston I'm usually confident in. I love the fact that they shoot a bunch of 3s. And by the way, they still hit 15 3-pointers in the game. It's hard not to when you shoot 60 3-pointers. And let me tell you, if those 3s were going in, it would have been the most amazing fun thing to watch ever. If they went like, you know, 25 of 60, it would have been super

compelling. Hell, if they went 20 of 60, it would have been fun to watch. Instead, I will say this, it got to a point where what they were doing offensively was unwatchable. It was one of those games where if you're one of these people that says, I don't watch the NBA because all they do is shoot threes, you would have been right there. Because these weren't even good threes. Like it wasn't like moving the ball, pass, pass, pass, wide open shot, you got to take it because it's wide open and you just missed it. There were a lot of hero ball, one-on-one,

guy in your face, heat check type of threes and it got to a point that it was awful to watch. You would be 100% accurate about that, difficult to watch. That said, it was still a very compelling game. So I needed 110 points. Celtics had 61 at halftime. So we take Ross for a walk. I don't have my phone with me. Take Ross for a walk. Come back with about three minutes to go, two and a half minutes to go in the third quarter. At this point they have scored 13 points in the second

half and I'm like what the actual fuck is happening here. Then they drill a couple threes and then Tatum hits back to back threes. They get to I think 23 points in that quarter and even then I'm thinking all right, I'm not in terrible shape. It's Boston. New York's defense sucks. Boston can fill it up. We'll be fine. And then I watch the worst fourth quarter ever. But then a miracle happens. It's 97-91. They rally. It's tied. Game is tied at 100. And they've got the best closer in the playoffs so far. The Knicks have the best closer with five seconds. Jalen Brunson, I'm

thinking he's going to hit a shot. No overtime. But if I get overtime, I feel good about getting to 110 points for Boston. It's fucking overtime. It's five minutes. They're at home. They would have escaped the Reaper. They go out, put their foot on the gas, hit a couple buckets, boom, maybe some free throws at the end, boom, I've got 110. Jalen Brunson gets the best look you're ever going to get for a game winner. Bank twirls around the rim two times, falls out, great, we're going to overtime. I'm thinking, fuck right, I'm in. So I'm like, listen, I'm going to go run and take a shower. I'm not going to watch overtime. I'm going to take a shower, so I'll be back to watch the second game. Cool. I'm kind of following the game on my phone because I'm

a degenerate that's always on my phone in the shower. Fuck, I'm weird. Okay, I'm always on my phone. Like I use shower time as phone time, and if not, I'll listen to a podcast in the shower. I'm fucked. I get it. I'm watching as it goes. I open it up. There's two and a half minutes to go in overtime and these sons of bitches haven't even scored and I'm like shit. Just not my night for this. But it ended up being a great game although Boston didn't get a shot at the end of the game to tie. They turned the ball over so that part of it sucked. But at least it was a compelling basketball game. But if you're one of these people that despises the way the NBA is a game of shooting threes, then that game was

not for you and that would have made your case for why the NBA sucks and you could have made that case because any shots that are being missed make it difficult to watch, but at least if there's good ball movement, geyser, you know, penetrate, dish, extra pass, wide open look. There were a lot of just god awful looks at three in that game from Boston. Now they missed a lot of open ones too. Like they could not, as Jim Hawthorne, the voice of the Tigers used to say, the voice of the LSU Tigers, they cannot throw it in the ocean. Like that's what it was like.

Like it was dreadful. I lose that by five points, it kills the parlay, whatever. But compelling to watch. It was dreadful. I lose that by five points. It kills the parlay. Whatever. But compelling to watch. It was just compelling that a team's down 20, rallies, then they're up six, then the team that's blew the 20-point lead rallies to tie it. Like at least it was a compelling overtime basketball game. Let's play a couple commercials and we will continue. All right. It's the playoffs, basketball playoffs right now and there is no better way to try to make a couple of bucks by putting your knowledge of hoops to the test than using pick six from DraftKings.

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City would kind of put them away and then Denver would rally. That would, I'll give Jilly credit. I wish Jilly believed in herself more as a gambler because Jilly is truly a brilliant gambler when it comes to certain things. She saw the point spreads in these games and I think the Oklahoma City spread was like nine and a half. I think the Boston spread was ten and a half and she goes neither one of these teams should be this big of a

favorite, right? Like we watched Oklahoma City in two of the games against the Memphis Grizzlies struggle. They were down 29 points to the Memphis Grizzlies at one point. And if John Morant didn't get hurt, the Grizzlies would have won a game in that series. Oklahoma City hasn't been there before. Who knows if they can close. Now at least after one game, we kind of feel like we know they can't close. But Jilly is watching this and she goes, you know that I'd said when we were making these bets

today that I don't believe that either one of these teams should be 10 point favorites. I mean on one hand you've got three time MVP, Nikola Jokic on one side who's basically the fucking coach of this team now like the doofus they have coaching looks like Lloyd Christmas. You want to see an all-time goofy looking white dude coaching matchup watch the Denver and Oklahoma City series like the the interim coach for Denver who is I mean Yoko just essentially coach. I've never seen Yoko be so

demonstrative. It's fucking wild, but you look at Yoko. He's working the bench. You don't even see the coach. I see the coach after the game at the podium. He's got like a weird split in the front of his hair and like this weird receding hairline and a giant gap in the front. Like he looks like Lloyd Christmas. It's wild.

Then the coach on the other side has a horrible hairline. Like it's just dreadful. Two doofus looking white jabronis that are the coaches in this series. But the game itself, I mean Oklahoma City, you never got the vibe that they were going to lose, but Denver kept hanging around and hanging around. And even with about two minutes to go, it's a six point game and you're thinking, okay, that's not going to happen. Then Jokic hits a shot. I think then Jokic may have hit

a three at one point. When I was kind of walking around, I thought the game was over. I hear Jokic hits a three, it becomes a one point game. Then they're kind of going back and forth in the foul game. And you get to the free throw line like 10 seconds to go and Chet Holmgren, this giant stick of a gentleman, misses back to back free throws. Denver, no timeouts, off the rim they go. Penetrate, dish to Aaron Gordon, bang, hits a three, three-quarter shot, link shot doesn't go. Denver ends up winning this thing by one. Outstanding entertainment. Again, I'm not telling you this to make you watch it. I don't want to, like I just hate when people

do that. I hate when dipshit sports radio people tell you that if you're not watching this, then you just don't like blank sport. I think that's stupid. I think that's just bullshit things to say to people. Like watch what you dig. If you don't like basketball, you don't like basketball. If you don't like whatever, don't watch whatever. Totally get it. But those two games last night, which were separated I guess by four total points, really really compelling game ones for different reasons. Like it is sort of beautifully tragic

to watch a team miss 45 three pointers. Like I would imagine you could have found weeks in the early days of the three point shot that teams didn't combine for 45 threes in a game. This is one night in the playoffs, team misses 45 and shoots 60. Granted, that's what they do. And if they would have hit 20 of them, we would have gone, well, they were 20 of 60.

They hit 33% of their threes, and they would have won the game, but they missed a fuck ton of threes. And then Joker out here in a battle of the two guys that are gonna be battling for MVP, and I think this year they're just not going to give it to Joker. They're going to give it to Shay Gildes Alexander for a multitude of reasons. Like they just can't keep giving the

giant white, allegedly unskilled white guy the MVP. They just can't do that. Like they won't do that this year. They'll give it to Shay who's been great and he's on the best team in the league. So they're going to give him the MVP but Joker last night has like 40 and 20 like the dude's stupid and they were great down the stretch and it was compelling like it was compelling television tonight may not be tonight might be two duds, but

that's what's going to happen in any sport. Some of these hockey games are duds too. So but I enjoyed watching it. I was thoroughly entertained. Speaking of playoffs, we were talking yesterday about Jim Harden and there's a great show that I watch out of Memphis called the Chris Vernon show and I think he's an employee of the Grizzlies but like this isn't like a 790 employee type of deal where like you have to blow the teams and if not the teams yell at you. These guys

are actually employed by the Grizzlies but they'll they'll shit on them and they'll take shots at them like they're honest and I appreciate it but they were talking about James Harden and a number that was astounding. James Harden in 55 of his career playoff games. I believe he's played 172 career playoff games. James Harden has only made four or fewer shots in 55 of his 172 career playoff games. That's bananas for a superstar player. Like to put it into comparison, like I use LeBron, he was one I looked up. And granted LeBron is arguably GOAT.

He's certainly the GOAT of this generation. Like, OK, so it's not fair. He's played in a billion playoff games. James Harden's teams have been in 172 playoff games. LeBron has been in nearly 200, 300 playoff games. I think it's like 195 or something. So LeBron is sitting somewhere in the neighborhood of 300 career playoff games. The number of times LeBron has made four or fewer shots in a playoff game is nine. Nine out of damn near 300. James Harden 55 out of like a

hundred seventy two. Now I don't know how they came up with that number why four was the number maybe four was just the number that they found that's usually how these things work people find a stat that really you know like a particular number that makes their stat look better and then they can sell that stat in their broadcast whatever but it is pretty remarkable that a dude who is arguably one of the great players of this generation arguably i mean dudes one an mvp many feel like he could have generation, arguably, I mean, he's won an MVP. Many feel like he could have won others. He's a foul hunter. He's a free throw king.

We get all that. He gets a lot of his points from the free throw line. But for a guy that is considered in the same class as the Durants, as, you know, he's not a LeBron or a Durant, but like he's in that, like, if you look back 25 years from now and you go, hey, who were the 10 best players of the 2010s? You'd go, well, LeBron and you'd go Steph Curry and you might throw in Klay Thompson and you would certainly throw in Durant

and you would certainly, you know, there's a bunch of guys, you'd yoke it, you'd throw a bunch of these dudes in there, Russ Westbrook, all these dudes, and Harden would be one of them. And that's one of the biggest knocks on Harden, is that most dudes, even when they don't have it on a given night, they're going to shoot until their arms fall off and that's never been James Harden and that's why people shit on Harden. He avoided the media after the game, didn't speak with anybody. Like, Harden is never going to be held to that same level. Like even LeBron who gets shit on a lot, like he is never going to be held to that same level.

Like even LeBron who gets shit on a lot, like he's never going to be treated like that. When we look back, people are going to have better things. 25 years from now, people are going to have much better things to say about like LeBron than they do now. When LeBron's, you know, 60 years old, chilling, 60 years old, coming to like the greatest players of all time, banquets, and people are watching highlight videos, just like it always is. People are

going to look back fondly and go, wow, that LeBron was something. I think Durant will get that same treatment, although he'll be kind of viewed as a guy that hopped from team to team, chasing championships. A lot of these guys will. You know, Joker will get that treatment. I think people will circle hard and go, whether it's fair or unfair. I'll say playoff choker. And they will say that he's foul hunter like they're going to view and defense. They always talk about shitty as

defense was and that's what he's going to be known as and he's done nothing to fix that like I get to the team got their ass is kicked in game seven and I get that he shot 20 shots in game six like somebody a Houston person who's got James Harden in their banner on Twitter. So like, you know how I feel about these. If you've got a team logo or a player as your avatar or the banner on your Twitter, I don't take your opinion seriously just because I know that you're some weird homer, particularly when it's a particular player team like fans, like you're

going to have opinions and that's one thing. If you've got a particular player as your avatar or your banner on Twitter, you're probably someone who's a meatball and you're probably someone who will never listen to any sort of logic about that particular player so you're not worth arguing with. But the argument was, well he was gassed after game six where he shot 20 and they won the game. Do you know how many other dudes play game sixes and play their balls off and still don't go out and go two of 10 and disappear in game seven? Look at the minutes that Jokic is playing. Jokic two days before this game. Okay, you want to eliminate that? I understand that Jokic isn't in his mid-30s like Hardin is, but mid-30s is not 80, okay? I get that he's got

some wear, but like give me a fucking break. It's basketball, right? So and how old is Jokic? Jokic has to be in his now mid to late like 20s, right? But like Jokic goes out there. Jokic plays like the entire, well he didn't have to play the entire game seven but he plays the game seven, comes back two days later against the best team in the NBA and goes 40 and 20. Give me a fucking break. How old is Russ Westbrook? That dude never fucking stops. Like we can make fun of Russ Westbrook and talk about how he's kind of a doofus and whatever.

High energy dude, he's 36. He's the same fucking age as James Harden. Let me look at the minutes that Russell Westbrook plays. Now granted he's not playing the same minutes as someone playing 45, but like you look at Westbrook. Westbrook, game seven against the Clippers, played 27, comes back last night 30 minutes. Is he playing 42 minutes? No. But still, when he's out there it's high energy. Also, how many shots is Russ Westbrook getting up? Oh, let's see here. Let's take a look at Russ Westbrook's field goal attempts. Westbrook, 5 of 9 in game

7. Then yesterday, 7 of 13. 5 of 10, 8 of 15. That's a dude coming off the bench and playing fewer minutes than James Harden. And James Harden's out there shooting 10 fucking shots. That's the problem people have with Harden. He doesn't feel like a guy that's gonna die trying. The reason why people loved Kobe and people kind of view Kobe as someone they can resonate with is Kobe may not have it that night but homeboy is gonna do it old-school style and shoot it 35 times. That ain't the new style of shit because James Harden goes out, team's dying, he shoots at eight. You want to tell me that a dude coming off

the bench, dudes that are coming off the bench shoot 10 shots. Non-starters for these teams are shooting 10 shots. And that's the issue that people have with guys like Harden. And like you say, I don't know that his reputation is warranted. It is. Dude, Russell Westbrook last night comes off the bench, shoots 13 shots. Other guys that serious, Alex Caruso comes off the bench for Oklahoma City, shoots 12 shots, hits five fucking threes.

That's Alex Caruso, who by the way, hideous to look at, just a dreadful look. Like I hate the look of him. Dude hits five threes. Dude locks you up defensively. I mean, it's just like you look at the dudes on these squads and you're like, how? Like look at Oklahoma City. Chet Holmgren 11 shots. Jalen Williams 20 shots. Hartenstein 12 shots. Shea 26

shots. Dort 9 shots. James Harden 8. In a closeout game. That's why people shit on James Harden. Then you throw in the strip club shit and you kind of throw in the blase attitude and you throw in the no fucking defense. The criticisms of James Harden are warranted and justified. Go down the list of people that are going to be looked at as the all-time greats in this generation. All of them, I'm talking like the GOATs, the LeBrons, the Dwayne Wade's, the Yocaches, you know, these kind of guys. They're title

winners. Russ did, Russ win last year with Denver, was he elsewhere last year? I don't remember. I don't think Russ has won a title. I don't believe he has. Dude, like Christian Braun shoots eight shots. Like Christian Braun is a more productive playoff player than James Harden. So the criticisms are fair and warranted. 100%. And then he disappears and doesn't talk to the media after the game. So probably went to the Titty Bar. Where were they for that game? Was that game in LA or Denver? Trying to think. I guess it would have been in Denver. Yeah, it was

in Denver. How are the titty bars in Denver? There was that stat before that said that Harden played worse in cities with good strip bars. So like if he was playing on like Memphis, he'd go out and score like 50. But if you were playing in like Miami, you'd have a shitty game. I think it's either that or reversed. I don't remember. Someone really put forth the effort. Think I talked about that on the air at 790 and got in trouble. Anyway, more to come.