The Ringer NBA Show - LeBron’s Teammates Throw Game 1 Away | Group Chat (Ep. 280)

Episode Date: June 1, 2018

The Ringer’s Chris Ryan is joined by Haley O’Shaughnessy, Justin Verrier, Jason Concepcion, and Paolo Uggetti to discuss the Cleveland Cavaliers' loss to the Golden State Warriors in Game 1 of the NBA Finals (00:35). Then Jonathan Tjarks calls in to give his takeaway from the game (10:45) before they close it out with a game of Finals Flashback (32:50). Learn more about your ad choices. Visit podcastchoices.com/adchoices

Hello and welcome to the Ringer NBA show group chat. My name is Chris Ryan. I was joined tonight by Jason Concepcio and Haley O'Shaughnessy. Justin Vary and Paolo Getty. We talked about game one of the NBA finals. Cavs lost in a heartbreaking J.R. Smithian fashion. We will talk about game one. On Sunday night, we will have NBA show Heat Check,

John Gonzalez, Kevin O'Connor from Oakland, recording at some hotel room or dingy tunnel in Oracle. If Kevin can get out at Oracle this time, Make sure you subscribe to the Ringer NBA show. We have great stuff all week long. Without further ado, here's group chat. Basketball is very good. The Raptors are the best team in the East.

Phil Jackson actually saved the Knicks. Mark L. Fultz will be an all-star next year. Basketball is very good. Welcome again to the Ringer NBA show Group Chat. My name is Chris Ryan. This is Jason Giacutio and Haleo Shahnesty, Justin Barrier, the Borg boys, the Bitcoin. Boyin, boys. We are here. We just had an ejection of Tristan Thompson. We also had the ejection of J.R. Smith from the Milky Way galaxy.

What a microcosm for this Cavalier season. LeBron James, career high, one of the great scoring nights in playoff or finals history. And he is let down by a George Hill missed free throw to win and a J.R. Smith brain fart to lose. Jason as a I think, did you, at Santa Cruz, was it a minor in J-Rology or was it an independent study? And I majored in the effects of Seteva on game days.

I think, you know, George Hill is like, oh, you guys remember that I missed that free throw? He's hoping we don't. That's one of those things where it's like the calves are so close, it's right there, and this is how serieses get broken in half, right? I mean, emotionally, you can't play the Warriors that much closer.

and then lose it at that last second on those dunderheaded plays and still be like, let's just bring it back on Sunday. On the other hand, the Cavs had every opportunity in this overtime. I know we all...

We predicted that this was going to happen that it was all going to fall apart after that. But at the same time, they probably could have done a little bit better than what they did, now down eight points. So is that a wrap for the cabs? No, they're in Golden State.

They are in Golden State, but you don't get two chances to kill them like that. Yeah, honestly, I've been, like, looking at the box court, usually it's not this evenly distributed, like, points from the Cavs help. Yeah. Yeah. Kevin Love had 21. I'm sure we'll see something comparable, like, another game above 20.

But, like, George Hill had seven, Jarrison had 10, Larry Nance had 9, Jeff Green had 7. You rarely see it. What did Kyrieve? Hashtagreeor NBA, if you want to hit us up with questions, comments, or concerns about the NBA finals. We're going to start with a little segment called pluses and minuses. It's essentially winners and losers, just under a different name. Let's start with J.R. Smith. Jason, what was J.R. Smith plus minus minus tonight?

J.R. plus minus 18. Okay. It's pretty indicative. I just, you know, the thing about J.R. is I feel bad from, I just wish that... Do you feel bad from? I wish there was a place in NBA arenas where they put the score, where you could see it. Because I feel like that's an issue that they don't talk about a lot. Where is the score?

How do you even know what it is? I'm shocked they didn't bring it up in the silver press on the room. I wish there was a way you could look up and see it or even look like to the sideline and see what this and know what it is and therefore know what to do in those precious situations. It's one of those like, it's like irrespective of level of competitive sports. It's like the thing they teach the kid who doesn't even know how to run is to know like how many outs there are.

You don't even have to teach them. How much time is left? What the score is. That's just known like automatically. Situational awareness, right? Having said this though, this is kind of the job. JR experience. It is.

Like you pay the ticket for us. You're like the Jacob Burami for J.R. Smith today. No, but Paul and I were talking about this today. JR has had more O-Fer three-point games this postseason than in the past three with the cabs. He's had seven this postseason. And in the past, he's only had one or two every other postseason. So, like, take that was once boiling and the pot has been sitting on the stove for about 40 minutes and not hot anymore. But do you blame, like, I blame LeBron for this.

Like, J.R. is LeBron's safety blanket. He's like, of all the people that have had, we've had all this turnover on the calves, LeBron seems to want J.R. around, right? He's got to know what the consequences are for that. J.R., I think Tristan is worse than a guy that he's, like, kept around and paid. Oh, I thought that's what you meant. You mean he keeps him on the court.

Yeah, he keeps him on the calves. Of all the people... Well, it sounds like Tyrone Loo really likes his veteran presence out there, too. I mean, J.R., the reason that J.R., as wild a guy as he is, and as erratic as he has been with various issues over the course of his career. The reason he's stuck in the league for all these years is he's been a good shooter for his entire career. He's been a good shooter. Right. He's not a good shooter now lately.

Well, okay, he shot 50% from three last postings. He's shooting 37 going into this game. He's still doing what you need him to do. It's just the swings back and forth wildly. Yes. And if you're building a team around LeBron. They make medication for that. Yeah. I mean, defensively, he's a non-factor. He was at one point probably the worst defender on the court when they started the game.

But at the same time, if you want to build a team around LeBron, you want guys like him to stretch the floor. That's what they haven't had at times in this postseason, and they played the price for it. I don't want to do two minuses back-to-back, but I'm going to do two minuses back-to-back. You know who is really psyched about this J.R. Smith performance? Jordan Clarkson? Jordan Clarkson? I'm going to tell you what. He's not a minus. Okay.

Jordan Clarkson plus eight. It's not literally plus a test. It's right, right. Look at the net rating, though. Jordan Clarkson, net rating, negative 60. Whoa! FYI, net rating is per 100 processions. Oh, is that how it works?

Yeah, it's just FYI. Okay, okay. Jordan Clarkson has a stunning ability to, like, do 85% of a good move and then mess the 15% of up. Hey, you know what? I'm just gonna say this. If Jordan Clarkson was J.R. Smith in that last play, he would take that shot. That's true.

That is true. I love this take. But the Cavs would have had the lead already. Jordan Clarkson would have unnecessarily shot it. The Warriors would have gotten the rebound, called timeout, and got a three. That's like saying if a shark was in your bathtub, it would have bit you. It was like Jordan Clarkson take shots all the time. Hey, J.R. Smith didn't.

Jordan Clarkson's like, I mean, I actually thought that Ty was trying to match Kerr. Because Kerr went surprisingly deep today. You played 10 guys. And you felt like Tyloo was like, okay, let's try these eight. And Clarkson, man, just looked like really out of his depth there. I mean, you set it off the top. There's no Kyrie Irving. And so this is who you're turning to when LeBron is off the floor to create offense for them.

LeBron rested a little bit more than he had been in the past two games. He played all 48 in that game seven against the East, against the Celtics, the Eastern Finals. He was at like 42 going into overtime. And if you want peak LeBron like they got, you need a guy like Jordan Clarkson to step up in those minutes. I have a fun stat for us. Hit me off. Okay. Jordan Clarkson, 17 minutes.

Kyle Corver, only on the court to shoot three-pointers. 17 minutes. Jordan Clarkson took nine shots. Corver took three. This has been the weird thing ever since that really good Corver game. I think it was game five of the Celtic series. I think everybody was just like, could Corver be this X-factor? And I feel like Ty has not played him that much since then.

Well, I think he's such a defensive liability. He's like a statue out there. And the thing about Clarkson... Does he know what the score of the game is? doesn't know what the story we gave is. I think the thing about Clarkson, and it's a bad thing, is that he ostensibly can create his own shot.

So he does try to do that. You know who else created their own shot, JVG? The Lord. Mark, let me ask you something. Why the three days after the resurrection? Why don't come back for one day? Why wait for three? Why not come back?

Was there a line? Rest. Can I just for a little bit of solace? in the wound here? Yeah. Do you think it would have been a little bit better for the Cavs if they had Isaiah Thomas?

Oh my God. Instead of Jordan Clarkson? You know who agrees with you? Isaiah Thomas. Isaiah Thomas definitely remembers where he played earlier this year. Isaiah Thomas is watching the stream and it's going to comment on it

and be like, you're right, James. I know. Today he Instagrammed, let's get it, L-O-O, with a picture of him and LeBron. Sarcastically? Well, he wants a ring. Let's get it. Oh, my God.

Did he get a ring if this happens? You know what? I looked it up and the team decides. Okay. So, guess what? I think it's not getting right. Not getting a ring. All right.

Speaking of pluses and minus, as we've alluded to this, we are running out of ways to describe LeBron James. I even feel silly saying we were running out of ways to describe LeBron James because I feel like I've said that before. But tonight was one of those nights where it was so amazingly efficient. I think at one point, Fantasy mentioned that he had 36 points and 18 shots. He didn't seem like, he also seemed like he was playing within a, kind of a system. Like there wasn't a lot, the bully ball wasn't as like primitive as it's been in the past. I think it looked like they actually were like, we'll have everybody collapse on LeBron, Tristan will be there for boards, but we have shooters out there to make things happen otherwise. Can you, can you, do you have any more words for him? I mean, they were looking for, I just feel terrible for the guys been to eight street finals, whatever. I just feel bad. They wasted an all-time game from the king because J.R. Smith didn't know what the score was. Yeah, but also because, because,

Because George Hill missed a shot. An 81% free-throw shooter missed over. He missed a shot. And you could see it on his face. We were talking about this. He looked so like he didn't want to take that. And it was a great game overall from the Cavs, at least in regulation. But you would never know by watching overtime.

Withstood that third quarter, the trademark Warriors' third quarter charged. Yeah, they were only outscored by six in the third. They worked hard to get those mismatches and post people up when they got them. Oh, no, excuse me. They scored more, they had 39 in the, or 29 in the third. Golden State at 23. So they beat them in third. Good, you go ahead.

I think this is probably the best team performance from the Cavs all year. Yeah. I think you said it off the top. I think they took some of the elements that they had success with in 2015 when they were able to muck up the game. They were physical down low.

They played those bigs that had a little bit of success in the Celtics game. Larry Nance had, what, 11 rebounds? It's really fun out of it. Kevin Love, 14 rebounds. But the ball was moving. Kevin Love got involved later in the game. Yeah.

And LeBron's shot making and creation was at another level. All right, we actually have a special guest calling into the Ringer NBA show. Hashtag Ringer MBA, if you want it, with questions, comments or concerns. Jonathan Charks, I believe, is on the line. He's got one big observation from this game to share with us, Charks. What's up, guys?

What's up, John? How you doing, man? What did you think of the game? Great. Hey, I think if LeBron gets 50 a night, we'd have a good theory. Like, that's all that has to happen. If LeBron gets 50 a night, what do you say? We'll have a good theory.

If he's crazy a game. If LeBron gets 50 a night, we'll have a good series according to Charks. It's incredible stuff from Jonathan Charks. Charks, seriously, though, did you see anything out there? That's hashtag analysis. That's hashtag analysis from Charks. But did you see anything out there that the Cavs can take into the next game?

Yeah, I think so. I mean, I think Golden State has five good basketball players right now. Like, basically when Livingston's not out there with their four all-stars, the rest of the guys are pretty bad. Yeah, they played 12 guys, and seven of them were terrible. So that's a bonus. That's an interesting. I'll share that with the group here.

That's an interesting kind of like judgment on the state of the warriors right now. We're going to get into the warriors now. John, thanks so much for calling in, man. Yeah, no problem. Take care. John said that there's only five good warriors. Who's the fifth, Sean Livingston? Well, that's the thing.

Active, good warriors. So if we're looking for silver linings here, and we could talk about the warriors a little bit. We just spent 10 minutes talking about the calves. Hashtag ringer and me if you want to jump in. Like, should the warriors have it all, like, be given, any pause. They thought that they came through the fire with the rockets and this was going to be a little bit of a cakewalk.

Cavs tested them. Are the Warriors deep enough for this? Yes. I mean, this is how we got here aside. This is what we thought would happen, right? You know, game one, a win for the Warriors. I just feel like that was the best punch that the Cavs probably could give this. 50 from LeBron. 50 from LeBron and balanced scoring from the best.

bench guys, everybody pitching in just a little bit, withstood an all-time bad Jordan Clarkson, what are you doing, performance? And it took over time to beat him, and I just feel like, is that going to happen again? It's unlikely. Are we going to get 50 from LeBron every night? Unlikely.

Even if their top three gets super tired, like LeBron's going to get tired. Yeah, I look at two things on the warrior's side. Yeah, they didn't play as well as they could have. Kevin Durant eight from 22. Not going to happen again. Are we sure that's going to happen five more times in the series? And then what about Andre Godala?

Are we sure he's going to miss another game? If they have those two things going, I think this is a wrap in four or five. One last plus or minus. I mean, like we had a couple of, you know, the Warriors were the Warriors. I thought they played well in the third quarter with Draymond with the ball in his hands, but they did not get that crazy 20 net rating that they sometimes get at home in the third quarter. Palad, are you seeing anything about this game that we should talk about? Well, I think as Sean you told us here, you know, the key call that probably they got it right.

Oh, yeah, the LeBron charge. The LeBron charge. I mean, he was moving. It was clear that he was moving a little bit, but they went back and reversed it because at first they called it a charge, then they changed it to a block. So that definitely swung the game a bit. You know, obviously you can pinpoint back to all these little moments. There were so many from Jordan Clarkson in the first half, then from J.R. Smith, it's obviously the last home. But also, George Hill, not making the free throw.

Yeah. So that call, I mean, I guess I don't know why I, when it was happening, I guess I didn't feel like it was that monumental of a moment, but apparently is the internet blowing up about this? Like, I guess reversing a call on LeBron James in the closing seconds of a game is a pretty significant deal. It definitely feels like a thing that would not have happened in years, previous decades, whereas now the NBA is just very concerned about getting calls right in a systematic fashion, whereas previously, like, okay, that was a bad call and they would just. Tough year for reps. Tough year for refs. Tough year for us. Tough year for us.

Is it a tough night for Kevin Love's new barber? Justin has a good defense of Kevin Love. It just feels like this entire season has been Kevin Love's race against time. He's clearly graying. We saw signs of it in preseason. What?

Do you remember on Media Day where it seems like there were hints of gray? And now we're at the point where the gray has taken over entirely. And so he has a fade going on. Yes. And it has just uncovered the part, but he is only starting to gray here and not in the crown region. It's the Reed Richards Fantastic Four kind of luck.

He's touched, he got bitten by like a nuclear spider. I just think the issue is that he needs to go, he needs to, the fade needs to start higher. And he needs to go at like a one and a half and not start it so low directly in the area where it's gray. That's all. Yeah. That's all we're saying. Jason, I got a hot take here. Tell me.

I think he looks distinguished. It was great. What are you? What's this bit? Where are you doing? Is that a different guy? Is this like the E-R-Dermin-Corporate guy? Get my Crest on.

I think that probably what happened was like, you have to describe how you want your haircut when you go to your barber and stuff. And if you have a new person, you're like, yeah. Look, I maintain he might have gone to a lady. Okay. Or just a haircut or a guy or girl. Okay. Not necessarily a barber.

Okay. I meant I mean barber in the, like, I meant Barbara as a person who cuts hair in general. And it wasn't his usual person. And so he doesn't know what to say when they're like, what do you want? Because I go in and I'm just like, well, you can't do much, but just do the regular. And they know what I'm saying. If he goes in and he doesn't if there's a regular person, he's probably out of luck.

Yeah. But on the other hand, I go to someone new every time. I like to get a different take on my head from other people. You do? Yeah. What's going on over there? I know, you've got a body trick. I think this is a lot of sense.

I've used 50 different people in the last year. I don't know. All right. All right. You have something for us right now. Somebody in our ring of slack on earth one of your one of your takes from a while ago that says LeBron James will never win another title. I don't know if you want to, if you want to. Oh, that's it on January 29th.

Which I want to say is three months after you told me we should put money on the calves winning it all. I didn't a lot of bets. You are head-shopping like crazy. intellectual hedger. If I come out one time, I'll be like, LeBron's ever winning. Like, I may have money on it on the opposite. Right.

Shorting it over here. Last week, I told you that you said that. I'm like, Dr. Mike Barry in the big short, you never know where I'm going with this stuff. Last week I told you you said that and you were like, did I say that? I say a lot of stuff. I don't think LeBron's ever going to win another finals.

Probably before you saw Isaiah Thomas. Unless he goes to the Rockets next season. I don't think he's ever going to win other finals. We don't know. And I think he might be moving into, obviously, like a human body cannot do this for that much long. He's not a human. He's not a human.

Like the 40 minute, I have to do everything stuff. Like I think he needs to be in the point forward. I play 30 minutes a game, surrounded by bouncy young guys. Well, even this game, like he rested more, like I was surprised at how long he was out. They really had to like, it had to be like edging on dire for him to come back in, but he ended up playing 48 minutes because of overtime. Well, here's a tangential question of that one. If they did have Kyrie in this series, do we think they'd be up right now?

Because I do think going forward if LeBron has the proper teammates, His title window is still very much open. But do you get the proper team, like the proper teammates in Cleveland? Is there anything that they can do to manufacture, like, a solid third person to go with him in love? And his love a number two or a three? No, I think he's a four going forward. Yeah. Well, he could be a three. But they've messed up their contracts way too much.

But the Lakers. They need like two years. For instance, you get Paul George in there who may or may not go to the Lakers. Maybe he stays in OKC. LeBron. Brandon Ingram seems like he could be a future All-Star in this league. you get some other guys in there on minimum deals, all of a sudden,

two years now when the Warriors may be dealing with these contract issues with Draymond on his decline, it doesn't look all that like impossible. Yeah, but here's what I guess my counter to that is that I think that people are looking at the Warriors rightly as a paradigm. Okay, so like you have these three superstars, then you have,

and well, you have three, two superstars are really like big star in Clay and somebody who does everything in Draymond. But the issue is, is that they were able to build this team with, with Clay, Steph, and Draymond on team-friendly contracts, which allowed them to get Kevin Durant.

Nobody else is going to get that, and nobody else is going to get that with Anthony Davis, with Kauai Leonard, with Bron James, with Chris Paul, all of whom are going to take advantage for the CBA that those guys negotiated. That is a good point because, I mean, people decry the Warriors

in terms of their effect on the league parody, but it took a number of lucky breaks for them to put this team together. Bad ankles. Bad ankles, second round draft pick with Draymond. Just a lot of stuff needed to break the right way. So, I mean, like, I think more that I think about it, the more that I'm looking at the box score tonight, and I don't think he did not check in this evening,

is I think that the dude who they were hoping to get something out of is Rodney Hood. In all these trades that they made at the trade deadline, and he has now fallen out of the rotation, he's had really like a probably cost himself upwards of $20 million. Didn't wear the shorts today on the walk-in. We're going to get to the shorts. Not a great teammate.

No wonder Jordan felt like he could take so many shots. But everything that you guys are saying about what the Cavs need is Rodney Hood. It is best. What's supposed to be Rodney Hood, yeah. I mean, he could, in a perfect world, give you like 12 to 15 points a game. Not a lot of defense, but still be that dynamic scoring guy. All the guys that they traded for were supposed to be like high upside role player guys. And instead of like middle.

Athletic, right? I mean, Clarkson is the guy he was. Right. That's right. Nance, you would have, is essentially the guy he was, maybe a shade better. But it's like, there's not a lot of edge there. Zach Lowe brought this up today. And his preview piece, they traded Jay Crowder essentially for Hood.

I think they could have made the deal for Hill regardless, but they decided to do that as well. Would you not want Jay Crowder to defend some of the kind of stretchier Kevin Durrant types? Part of the beat with that was that Crowder and Thomas. were like a click under themselves, right? And that they needed to get the chemistry, right? Sure. But I guess the-

But they brought in a guy who doesn't actually want to play. Exactly. Would you rather someone who actually contributed, even though he wasn't contributed all that well, for a scenario like this, which is perfectly suited to his skill set? Powell, did you have something for us? Yeah, so there's some Twitter updates from here.

So, Kurt's at the podium. He said, he was very self-aware, obviously. He said, we got lucky, and he said it reminded him of Derek Harper running out the clock from abs. He said, I'm a basketball junk. So I remember that. I have no idea what he said, talking about as it shows my age.

Millennial. But then Patrick Beverly came out of the woodwork and tweeted out, now everyone in the league know how Tristan Thompson is not tough. When did he become Mayweather? So I don't know where this stemmed from, but...

Here's my read on this. By the way, happy Father's Day in a week. You already have a child. Here's my read on this. I think Tristan Thompson's getting a lot trash talk right now. I get the feeling like people are saying some pretty intense stuff to Tristan Thompson on the floor. There's a lot of ammo just laying around. Yeah. For my guy, Tristan Thompson.

It's not a good look when Draymond is the cooler head that prevails in that sort of situation. Right. And like we said before. Was he or G just used to seeing that from him? I mean, he didn't throw the shove punch. Yeah. And that's really all the comes down to. So Tristan got straight tossed there. Is that a suspension for the next game? If you get, right, it's not Like yellow card, red card kind of thing. It's like, no, no, I think he'll be available. But you do have to wonder, like, the lingering effects of this complete meltdown in the overtime. Yeah, I mean, hopefully you take it, like you guys have been saying, we were so close,

and we can take a lot from this game. And it's just like next time, JR fall much harder on Clay Thompson's knee. That was almost like the defining play of the playoffs. Is J.R. Smith, like, Sergio Ramosing there on Clay Thomas. That wasn't on purpose. Yeah, do you think LeBron got the idea watching his Liverpool? I know. Fall on the Sunday.

It was like, hmm, this is awful, but it gives me a thought. All right, so let's keep talking about some of these takeaways that we have here. I think that I wanted to ask whether or not watching this first game, I think we've been working together for all of these finals in some capacity. Watching this first game where you like, the flame for basketball has been relit and rekindled, and I'm not sad that this is the fourth time I'm watching. them or are you like, I still have like my nerve endings are dead because I've seen these matchups. I mean, I'm hyped for it regardless. Like, this is some of the, this is a collection

of some of the greatest talent in the league over the last, like in my lifetime. Yeah. Like, it's just, in that sense, it's fun. And listen, after the three one down, come back, anything really can happen. So like, I'm excited for it, but I do understand with people are like, yeah, I mean, this is, when the season started, what did we think would happen? And here it is. Well, that's my point, though, is that it's exciting for me

just for LeBron to have the chance. Even though it's so slim, like slimmer than it's ever been, he has a chance to do something like otherworldly. And not even trying to put you on the spot, but, like, LeBron has literally been in the finals for half of your, like, for, not half of your life, but, like, he's been in that finals

for, like, the majority of your adult life. Yeah, he has. And the other thing I want to say, though is that we say, oh, we're getting like Warriors Cavs again, which is true, but these are, it's not the same Cavs team. Like it's, it's changed, like, especially this season, almost completely. What about you? I mean, you've been writing about stuff for for years now. Like, do you get to this part and does a game like this, like, reignite some passion for this rivalry, or do you, was it hard for you to get excited for this?

I think it's way better than Aaron Baines trying to go up against the Warriors. I think the Celtics had a really good run, but I think they were so limited offensively that they weren't going to be able to do as much against a defense. What are you saying about Terry Ruggier? Well, you know, no. I was excited for the prospect of Houston, Cleveland, because it was a bigger opportunity for LeBron to win a title,

and then you had the Chris Paul, James Hardin, in the finals thing. This is like a great place to collapse. LeBron against the world is still a really fun scenario. Look at what he did tonight. I mean, this is exactly what you were hoping for. Yeah. Okay.

Powell, you do a tweet for us? So this quote from J.R. Smith, that's bad basketball IQ on me. Except this quote is from 2014. When J.R. got the ball against the Rockets. When he was playing with the Knicks, the game was 100 to 100. He said that he thought they were down two, and he took a three. And they ended up losing. I have often j.R. Smith has never known the score of any game he's played in.

I mean, that's the way he plays. It's just like he does what he does. Yeah. And it either works out or it. It doesn't. And it's, it is true. He's so locked in.

Is that what it is? Sometimes coaches switch off, oh, sometimes coaches switch off offense defense. Maybe they should switch off smart guy, dumb guy. Like maybe it should just be, J.R. Smith shouldn't be on the court at this time.

So you need a handcuff for him or like a buddy system. Who else is going to go out there? This is what I was talking about last year. He, with 10 seconds remaining in the Pacers, playoff game first Cleveland. Cleveland was up three. J.R. Smith stole a pass

and then he threw a behind the back pass instead of just throwing a bounce pass and almost lost it. I mean, part of the issue with the cabs is just like there's who you got. You know, it's like Ty. Yeah. Lou is like, it's like when you go to the fridge

five times in an hour and think that something else is going to be in there, but there's nothing else is going to be in there. And the last time you're like, hot sauce and Danish. You know, I'll put some hot sauce on a piece of cheese and I'll eat that. One guy always goes off. One guy's always there for LeBron.

Like, it's always one random person. Like, Corver had a good game and LeBron had a good game. Or like J.R. Smith had a good game. And LeBron had a good game. That's like hot sauce on cheese. It's never, it's just like one night, that piece of, you're looking for the hot sauce. Or whatever is just popping off.

You're looking for the hot sauce on cheese. What's it going to be tonight? All right, we're talking cheese now. Hashtag, Ritter, NBA. If you have any late night, empty fridge, cuisine you'd like to share with us or NBA finals thoughts I feel like we've touched on some of this stuff

but let's talk game two. Let's talk about Sunday night you know it'll be going up against Westworld so it's got that going for it but what could the Cavs possibly doing game two differently or do they just play the same game but not as dumb? They play the same game right? Yeah but Iggy

will be back. Well we'll see I mean I do like the blueprint that they've kind of laid out here. It does feel like going a little bit bigger in the front court gives them a little bit more of an advantage against the Warrior Centers, which are basically hit or miss in the same way that all of LeBron's roster is. At this point, you do need a little bit more from the ancillary guys. Love gave you 21, but Jara Smith is your third leading scorer, and as we've seen, maybe not the most reliable character.

I mean, Kirk coming with Javel to start the second half was kind of a tacit acknowledgement that this game plan has some traction. Yeah. So roll it out again. He needs some counter for that Nance Thompson. Right. For the rebounding. Yeah.

Yeah. I mean, Nancy and Thompson split the minutes at 19 each. Thompson was fine, but Nancy seemed to have more of a nose for the basket. He finished with nine. So I don't know. I wouldn't mind seeing him get like 23, 24 at Thompson's expense, maybe. Yeah, and I guess if you're looking at a glass half full, Love had a pretty poor first half. You really turned it on late in the game. He only finished one for eight from three. LeBron was their top three-point shooter at three-for-seven. So maybe some of those shots, that didn't go in the first time from JR, from Corver, and from love in particular, we're going to start going in.

Yeah, like a little bit of tightness from behind the arc, 25% for the Cavs, 32% for the Warriors. You'd expect those numbers a little bit to jump up. I'm trying to think if there's anything that the Warriors need to do differently because they won, so they should feel fine. But it was actually a weird thing where I was, it wasn't like a night where I was like, oh, the Warriors are off. I thought they were actually getting played straight up.

I mean, I agree, but there's, you know, extenuating circumstances, obviously, Iggy out. Clay off the floor for a period of time that kind of mucked with their rotations a little bit. Katie just didn't shoot great. Yeah. They were, they're still great. I mean, they weathered all that stuff and beat the calves. I'm looking at the numbers now, 58.3% effective field goal percentage for the Warriors. It's a really good offensive night, 124.1 offensive rating.

I don't think the issue is going to be on the offense with them. I think it's going to be guarding LeBron. You can only do so much. But if Iguidal is not there, you're really smoking mirrorsing it with Durant doing a little bit of the damage. Draymond doing a little bit of the damage. And I think you need a little bit more

of a comfort zone than they got from those guys today. How about Kevin Love on KD? I liked it. How about Kevin Love on Steph at the end of the game? All right, so imagine this is like the noise meter here. So like this is the LeBron leave meter. This over here, bags are packed. You're not super flexing.

flexible on this end. I'm not gonna lie. I think I this is like an old like baseball injury or something. I don't know You should see someone about that Is that the arm you have the patch on? No, this is the arm I have the patch on. I have wild flexibility on that one I have nicotine forcing through my arm So this is the meter like where are we on the like the leave stay like after tonight? After all that visual it doesn't matter. This is if this is the meter pinned I have it like this And LeBron is leaving. Yeah, Ron's gonna go if he's He's not leaving. I'm like, dude.

He's too smart not to leave. I'd be shocked obediently. There really has to be some crazy thing happens with some of the suitors that he can go to. Maybe Houston can't make the cap room with Chris Paul wanting them max. Maybe the Lakers don't get Paul George so they don't have a second star. Maybe Ben Simmons is too much of a deterrent third the way those skill sets were overlap. Yeah, but nothing's worse than what he's dealing with now. I mean, you know.

I don't know. The Lakers team with like the one thing LeBron hates more than people that can't play well is people who can't play well in a Russell Young. Yes. He doesn't like that. That's true. He always goes back to his bets, yeah. But here's something else I want to say is that there's some guys where you have this

kind of feeling that they're always going to be homers. They're always going to stay like super loyal. Like Russell Westbrook, you can just tell in his attitude. I don't think he'll ever leave. Maybe some people will, I don't think he'll ever leave. He's just kind of like fiercely loyal. Now that he makes like $38 million a year. Even before that.

I never thought he was going to leave. But LeBron's already left. You know what I mean? He's like, I don't owe you guys anything. To me, the issue is, like, does LeBron ever come down off of I want a max? No. No. Does that ever happen?

Kings don't take pickets. I mean, do you think he might? I don't know. I just honestly don't know. Like, when you get down to this stage of your career and it's like, if someone makes the pitch in a compelling way where it's like, listen, this is how we get the players, do you at least, does he at least take the call? I think they're like, he's still in his prime. Like, he's 33, he's still in his prime. The adenotominer is what, like, if you do the Carfax on it.

He's not the kind of guy who takes the pay cut. Chris Paul is the kind of guy who takes the pay cut. But Chris Paul literally just negotiated for a collective bargaining agreement so that guys like him can get paid $40 million a year. No, I totally understand, but it's the weird paradox of this whole office. Yeah, but Chris Paul, like, okay, get paid or like win a championship. I think he thinks he should deserve both. For an Uber competitive guy, he definitely wants the latter more than the former.

Haven't said that, he opted. into his final year of his current deal, which would have been less, I think, than what he would have gotten on the open market. So clearly he did want to win more this year, long term, we'll see. Okay, all right, we have, we're going to wrap up here.

Because this is the fourth time, we're going to play a little game called finals flashback. Powell, you're hosting HQ tonight. Let's do it. All right, so, Powell, you've got the answer. You're going to test us. Let's go.

So. Okay, not cheat. You're out. Did you cheat? No, I didn't look. Over the past three finals, who has scored more points? Steph Curry in games he's won

Or LeBron James in games he's lost Over the past three? Over the past three finals Superbally? Lebron. I go LeBron. Lebron. Steph.

Chris, go, Steph. Justin? LeBron, for sure. LeBron. You're just doing that. The answer is LeBron James. Curry scored 297 and 11 wins. James scored 340 and 11 losses.

Which I guess sums up tonight also as well. That's a way to put a bow on it. That's what I do. All right. We're going to be back next week. I'm sure whichever game is, I think it's on Wednesday next week. So we'll be back next Wednesday night. Check out, he checks Sunday night with Gons and Kevin for Jason Haley.

Justin, desktop tomorrow. Make sure you check it out. Basketball is very good. Basketball is very good.