Is Donovan Mitchell's Legacy on the Line After Playoff Dud?

0:00The Ken Carman show with F3 Lyma. Hard and Shucks it in, knocked away, streuses he, that will do it, this series is all tied up at two games apiece. A thousand percent we were making shots and our defense held true. That takes a lot for a group to be like open look, have to open look, and I have in your head down like that's that's what you want out of a group, but you feel like you could have got one, but we didn't. We just got to find a way right and we didn't and they protected home courts and now it's our job to kind of do the same thing. Just getting the stops man we had two three opportunities you know up eight points you know couple stops in the road get it up to double digits and go from there but we just couldn't get him. Stop so we had an opportunity leading the third quarter to close the quarter we didn't do a great job of closing the halftime you know we didn't close the game so that's the resting game right there. We had trouble squaring all game but so today so it was one of those type of games where it was tough to score the ball typical playoff game. This seems like a typical playoff series to me four five two two there's no big surprises

1:02here no big mysteries. This is Cleveland sports radio ninety two three the fans not going to freak out no no I'm going to stay calm today can I freak out you can if you want to freak out I just want everybody to know that you are freaking out I am massively disappointed. I have felt a level of frustration yesterday and this morning that I've only really reserved for Sundays and Monday mornings in the fall so I don't necessarily know how to handle myself really other than just hey remind myself it's a two two series it's a four five match have been stay calm. If you want to lose your mind the floor is all yours I'm not going to lose my mind I'm staying calm today. So if that meant ends up me getting ridiculed find so be it ridiculed not by the fans I'm talking about down the hallway I'm staying calm today. It was very frustrating last night I don't know what the hell you didn't enjoy your playoff

2:05experience yesterday. No I did not enjoy it maybe it's maybe it's Sundays at one o'clock for every team in this city I have no idea if you enjoy your experience. No and I'm a little upset with you Anthony me because you've made me believe that it's time to get going so I set my young sundown and I said it's time to be a basketball fan yesterday and then halfway through the game he goes what am I watching. Why do I have to watch this? He's a wrestler so he should know we spend our time in gyms in a much different way. He should have recognized that it was an all out wrestling match for 48 minutes yesterday it was pitiful shooting by both teams. It was I mean now I would say part of our only wrestling match that happened was when we couldn't get the ball over that divider line in eight seconds. It's not a lot of time okay I mean there's a lot a lot of real estate to traverse there a lot of bodies to kind of have to do a whatever you can to matriculate the ball down the court. Oh no that's football. This is a very small space and it should only take two two one dribble and two glides

3:08to get past half court and Donovan is still trapped over there by the free throw line. Here's the thing. You get mad. I'm staying cold. You compared it to a a brown Sunday and I'm sure for a lot of you it did feel that way. The difference here is I actually have expectations for my football team. I don't really for the browns so I I've grown accustomed to the browns Sundays being that and I try to have fun with it. Regardless I try to I do it in good humor and ribbing and and busting stones with buddies about the browns when it came to the calves game yesterday and I could tell a lot of people this was maybe the first time the calves were front and center. The draft. I told you that on Friday morning I go they know how to fill the high line on Sunday. There was nothing else. People were watching that come heller high water and the calves did what they have done. What all of you told me that the calves were going to do. They laid down. They did it. Eight point lead in a in a in a game where they were four minutes away from leading three

4:12one and I was ready to tweet whole home up three one and then what happened. The floodgates open and they blew an eight point lead and couple two of the baskets were just embarrassing where they allowed in a playoff context in a game where it was so tough to dribble move pass. We'll talk about the turnovers and we're 30 of them combined between the two teams. The three point shooting calves were 25% the raptors were 13% and somehow you coughed up an eight point lead when you you I don't know if anybody disagrees this you have the clear talent advantage. How does that happen? And Kenny Atkinson last year after the Indiana series talked about toughness and I don't know if he just meant physical because I thought mentally they were a little fried last year. I am worried about their mental abilities with three games left in this year, hopefully

5:13three games. Yeah, I mean that would that would presume that the calves actually win a game at home which they they will have Wednesday. They will be favorites. They're still favorite in the series. But yeah, Kenny, I'm I am I am shaken. If you asked me do I think we'll win the series? I'd say well, I think we should Toronto you say yes. Toronto don't I think we know no, no, be a man. Okay. I think I think I'm actually going to get mad. I'm mad at you. That's not on me. This is I saw everybody was coming after me yesterday. Yeah. Go and check. Yeah. Go after right and great big checks like your wife one watching ran the right and we'll get to that. It shows out that the check might be worth the actual money that it costs to give it to you. The check might have been more and you're writing checks. You need to stay up for yourself. And be a man, you at least you wrote yours in pencil. Yeah. Okay. Okay. Guys, I'll take my let's see. This is the difference. I'll take it. I'll take it right on the chin. You're not going to do that. You're not going to wheeze a lot of this.

6:14Don't sit there and say, well, you know, I'm no, no, no, no, no, no, you do almost cost at you. You go after it. You sat there. You gave Nick a bunch of hell. All right. You got a lot of people mad at Nick. And I got me mad at Nick, to be honest with you now Nick, I'll give him credit. He, I thought for sure, he would, oh, I'm sorry, no, he has gone headlong into it, man. He has gone headlong challenging this team to a clock today is going to be Raptor's pep rally. Hopefully he brings his gifts. I'm going to have to, I'm going to, I can't help but listen, he's going to be wearing the satanic Wilson. You own those socks. You better be wearing those Raptor's socks. I mean, I'm not going to, I'm going to, I'm going to have to like choke him out. I'm going to want to choke him out. I'm not going to have to. I'm going to want to. But he, he, he went headlong into it and he earned it and you're not going to sit there and push you foot around the situation. You're going to stay in there and you're going to be a man. That's what you're going to do. You said a lot of things. You called a lot of people stupid. You said they weren't ball-knowers. Now you have to go back at them. It's a two-two series. I don't need you laying down just like they did yesterday when they're up by eight with

7:16three and a half minutes left to go. I do. That game was over. I didn't have that game. It should have done. It should have done over. And that was it. And I watched it. And I said is that, all right, you're in a tough atmosphere. See now, I'm, I'm going to, this is still called me. You've heard me get mad. So don't even say I'm freaking out. At the end of the first half, you're up, I, it's a tough atmosphere. I mean, a one point. We scored 36 points in the first half, by the way. I'll just tell you guys this. So there was a time where I was going over, I was going over, I was going over a quarter. Oh no, no, we scored 17 in the first quarter and we're leading. Well, I was going over the cheat sheet for my, for my draft picks, right? I knew what to say during the, during the off season and things like that, just real quick things, blurbs that I had written. Some of it like, Fano and conception and, and, and, and, and Boston and, and, and manual McNeill wore. Honestly, all the way down to really, actually, except for Carson Ryan, I had it right up on all of them. So it, I had it there. So there were a couple of times I was like, take my eyes off it. And I'm listening.

8:16Was it Ruko? Who was the point? Yeah. All right. I had nothing good to say about your basketball team, the entirety of the game. Even when they were up eight, when they were up eight, you would have thought we were down 30. So, so I thought, I'm glad you brought this up. I'm listening for a second. I go, oh my God. I looked up and they're going to, they're going to break and the calves are still up like six. I don't know. Well, as bad as things are, we're still up like six. And then the flurry at the first half where we lost, we were, we were down at the end of the first half and like, Chuck calling out the calves and the, I don't know, do you watch halftime show? I did not. Okay. So he was, he was calling out the calves. Like that's the one pre half post I will watch are those guys there. That's about it anymore. I'll watch a little bit. I'll watch big noon kickoff if I have time, but usually we got things to go on. So I'm watching that. Didn't feel much better. I'm like, all right. Let's just figure it out in the second half. I thought they did. They're up like eight. And I'm like, all right. Y'all win sloppy. I texted you in Tony fabric.

9:17I was like, I win sloppy. That's fine. No big deal. And then they lost. And they lost in just the most uninspiring soft fashion, slack-ass fashion. And I'm just going, how do I react to this? And I just sat there and I stared at the wall and I go, oh my God, this brown Sunday. This brown Sunday, I'm just staring off into the abyss. I start texting you, told you not to call me. I was going to proceed to drink and I don't like to drink over sad things. So I was like, well, you know what, not over bad things. Not over bad things. I don't like to drink out of sadness. Don't drink when you're sad. And I decided, you know what, Sunday, weather's nice. And I haven't, we're feeling very good yesterday morning. But you know what the hell with it? I'm just going to, we're going to have a few cocktails and we're going to power through this. I'm pretty upset. So, and then I thought better about, I go, you know what, it's a two-two series. Let's not go losing our minds over here. All right. Let me try to process this. So I'm going to remain calm, but that, that's me. You have people you need to answer to right now and you, you can go wheeze a lot of it.

10:17Well, let's start out of the reason I was optimistic about this team is the talent advantage. And I do think that I still think the calves have more talent than Toronto. I think they have put you, yeah, that's why people are ready to fist fight each other over this. Well, and this, you know, they're better. And, you know, the next part of this is, you know, I would come into the series saying, well, we have Donovan Mitchell, they don't have anything like Donovan Mitchell. And the thing is Donovan Mitchell, who has had a very interesting playoff resume that now has been put under the microscope because he's had these all-time playoff performances, the 50 point games, the 40 point games, the huge fourth quarters, putting teams on his back in two different cities and yet has never been out of the second round. But part of what I've, what I've said about this team all year is, hey, you can question Donovan Mitchell once we get further in the playoffs, what you can't question him is early in a playoff setting and early in the, the playoff stretch, right?

11:21First round, second round, he's had these monstrous games. He just threw back to back duds. He was six to 24 in that game yesterday. And I, I can't even think like he's been a three level score his entire career. He looks like he can't get into the paint. And when he does get into the pain, he's trying to draw files. I don't know what that was with 45 seconds left. He had a pretty clean look and he got off balance because he was trying to draw a file. It was very bizarre. The heat check threes in a game where no heat checks should be permitted. Like the amount of possessions where he just came down and shot a three while Toronto had all five guys underneath the basket. Like it is a bizarre Donovan Mitchell. And so for anybody that question the calves, the one thing I thought you couldn't question mm hmm. Was Donovan Mitchell was going to be able to bring it. And he has it and that that's, I just talked about his offense. He's played zero defense in the series. And so Donovan Mitchell, giving you playoff duds in the first quarter, I did not have that

12:23as a possibility. I didn't. So, you know, come after me, whatever. I thought the one given was that Donovan Mitchell was going to be able to show. And he just totally goose agged out in Toronto. And that is what I'm worried about. What is going on with that? I mean, take your pick. Donovan struggled. I know that. I mean, you mentioned the pregame. I didn't appreciate a pregame. I didn't see Nick's tweet, writes tweet about James. Yeah. More turnovers than field goals because I actually, I hardened was on a lower list of problems that I had with the team yesterday because I thought, I thought at least James hardened was unafraid. I saw a bunch of guys that were afraid. I saw, I saw Donovan passed up some open threes. I saw Max Truce. You're never allowed to pass it open three because what else are you giving the team? Like there was only one guy that didn't look afraid yesterday. That's Sam Merrill. And Sam Merrill came in and played well. And that's a problem when Sam Merrill's your tough guy, right? Your guy would like. Yeah, he got call for that flagrant. Well, I called that a wine. I wonder, I got to tell you what happens to Toronto shop 36 free throws in that game.

13:28I'm starting to wonder in that game. And this might be the, I'm hoping it's not true by by the time they play game five. Eat. You're coming back home. You better figure life out. Damn it. Okay. Because when you start, when you start losing in a series, then I start to wonder. And when you're losing to a team that a lot of us thought that they were better than Indiana last year. Now, Indiana was certainly not a lousy team. They were a good team and they were better than you last year. But going into the series, we thought we were better than Indiana, going into the series correct. They are being better. So we were wrong. But I'm going back to this because I'll say this like you, I'm wondering if they're, if they're playing ghosts of the past, I wonder if they're playing ghosts of the Nick series. I wonder, you know, the Celtic series was a Celtic series. I kind of put that, you know, the Celtics were supposed to be a splendid team. But man, that Indiana series, even though Indiana came about a half away from winning a championship of Tyrese Halliburton, Wernigott Hut, Wernigott Hurt, but, you know, this and the other, you still were favored.

14:28You lost your favorite in this series. It's 2-2. You've been favored before and it hadn't gone your way. And I'm just, you start to wonder because you're trying to find reasons for it why they're so pensive, then they're so hesitant. And then it's like, many, when you're going to play sloppy basketball and every, both teams are sloppy last night. It's like, or yesterday afternoon, it's like, who's going to I hate to be so cliche, who wants to more? It's like, you're going to have to sell out and you're going to have to do it. Because the difference, you can hear it. The difference is 3-1. We're talking draft today. Hey, 3-1. You're supposed to beat this team. Supposed to be that series. That's it. 3-1. We're all, I'm, I'm arguing with you about Taylor and Green, how to use him in an offense. How much I want to see him in the preseason. And here I am going. I can't, I can't believe you said here and lost this. This is dumb. This is a dumb loss. This is a dumb way to lose a game. Slopping it up. You could have been, you could have slapped your way to a win. We would have talked about it, but I would have been fine. And I hear you aren't too tuned. People are freaking out.

15:28You're absolutely freaking out. And the reason that they're freaking out is because I'm looking at the call screen right now. They don't believe you're mentally tough. So I'm going to try to remain calm because it's the most expensive roster in the NBA. Yes, it is. It's one of the most experienced rosters in the NBA. And I'm going to tell you right now, guys, if they can't do it, if they somehow lose this series, then what about, what have I been boiling my guts for and angry for? Because clearly this is just not the right mix. I'll stand by it and say they did what they had to do at the times they had to do it. But clearly, this would not be the right mix if they go and they lose. But I'm not going to say that yet, it's a two two series for the love of God. I'm not going to freak out on everybody here. Well, I'm going to try to remain calm. I'm not happy. Pretty big two or three games left in this season for Donovan Mitchell for his legacy. His playoff for resume has been under examination over the last 12 hours. And John sent us a tweet, young John sent us a text yesterday and said, uh, this be the last home game on Wednesday for Donovan Mitchell last time.

16:30He plays Cleveland. I was asked and I and then you said, well, actually, I said, yeah, it's on the table. It 100% is on the table. So if for those that are wondering, like what the stakes are and why I love the NBA playoffs and why this stuff actually means something and why I all weekend, I watched so much playoff basketball while there was an NFL draft going on in the background for me. And I've said my, uh, my life has been defined Kenny by the playoffs. Like the stakes are pretty high. And I would look at Donovan Mitchell front and center. You better bring it Wednesday because your legacy is 100% at stake to one six four seven four to below 92. There's some people here want to call you out. I hope they stay. They want all the calves out. No, they want to call you out. They want to call you out for calling people out about the calves. I, I should have got a defensive rebound in the last six minutes. They didn't get one 20. They didn't get one 720. Danny Cunningham 822. The dangerous one, Darryl Ryder, not one. Well, I've never heard of that. Should you be, should you be signing off on these checks now by the Cleveland Cavaliers.

17:32Two one six four seven four to below 92. Ken Carmen Anthony Lime alive in the fan.