No Time to Panic? Ken and Lima Debate Cavs' Playoff Woes

0:00Did the bronze record change at 9.22 this morning after a great draft that they had over the weekend, which it was a nice thing and all in remount of me to this Logan Fano got picked up by the bronze with the unsigned free agent, so he'll be coming into camp that is the brother of Spencer Fano. He plays defense though. Older brother. Yes, older brother. I say younger. I didn't say older brother. Older brother of Spencer. He is now going to be joining the bronze for Ricky Minnickamp, hopefully we'll bring him back to training camp. We'll see where it goes. Shepter just tweeted out their celebrations and jumping in the pool and I was like, huh, a nice set up over there. Meanwhile, 9-2-3, the fan looking for a winner, enter the code word tour to T-O-U-R at 9-2-3, the fan.com before 10 a.m. Your chance to win a pair of tickets to the R&B tour, starting Usher, Raymond and Chris Brown July 7th at Huntington Bayfield, maybe you will see my wife and I there, me and my wife, I should say. Maybe you'll see us there. Tickets on sale today at noon at ticketmaster.com.

1:01And then that marathon earnings already. Well, that is spent and then some. It's all from live nation and sports radio, 9-2-3, the fan. Can you endorse a giant check? Can you endorse the three by five? You just locked up to the box office ago, two tickets for Chris Brown and Usher, please. You just ran in the full thing. And then they'll say, where's the other thousand dollars? All right, who are we blaming for the calves lost last night? And this is no time to panic. And let me tell you, this isn't going to be some raw raw thing. I told you I'd tell you this, I'm going to tell you this right now before we get to the phones. I want to know who you guys are blaming. 216474 to below 92 and I'm going to tell you right now why it's no time to panic. And the reason is simple, guys, they are who they are. If they go and they lose on Wednesday and they happen to end up losing the series, I don't think they're going to lose the series. Your nine point favorites coming up on Wednesday for crying out loud. That helps. I will tell you that helps. But I came to this thought last night while I was, as I told Lyma, didn't plan on booze and didn't feel good yesterday morning. I don't know if it was something I ate on the way home or whatever it was on Saturday.

2:02Both me and the ax man didn't feel great. And then they lost to the calves. I felt even worse and I went, well, no time like the president, let's go get into the Canadian club. And as I was sitting there having another pool, contemplating what was going on and thinking, gosh, what, I'm not mad. How am I not mad? And I go, it hit me. They are who they are. And if this doesn't work out, they're going to trade them. And if they, if they do trade people, if this doesn't work out, if they lose this series and they do trade people, you ain't going to be mad. You ain't going to be defensive. You will be mad when they lose because we're calves fans. Of course, I'll be mad that they lost. I'll be mad that I agreed with the guy to my right about what this team was doing and that I look like a fool. You're the one who asked to answer for it. I think I feel foolish just because I think I will feel foolish just because of being close to you and agreeing with you, but you're the one who's got to back up what you said. I mean, good God. You went right after Nick over it, but for all this, one, I don't think they're going to lose this series to the Atlanta or to the Toronto Raptors.

3:03I don't think it's going to happen. All right. I know we kind of wanted to play the Atlanta Hawks. It seemed like a better matchup Toronto can be tough, but I don't think they're going to lose this matchup to the Toronto Raptors. And if they do, there's no point in me being completely crestfallen by losing this series. It's going, okay, they're going to make changes. Donovan's going to want out. We're going to be on our way back to a 19-win land. And it ain't going to bother a day and one of you because you're going to go, we spent all this money on the most expensive roster in the NBA. We have all this on the biggest roster in the NBA and they ain't done nothing with it. So what the hell is the point? Because of that, I got to tell you, if I'm blaming somebody, if we're playing blame game, I got to blame Evan regrettably because there's only so much that Donovan Mitchell can do. And there's only so much that James Harden can do. At the end of every game, they're both guards. And when we have these games where it's like, man, did he get it? Did he finally, is he finally going to be that guy that they drafted him to be where he

4:04looks so much better earlier in the series against Scotty Barnes? Did he look like Scotty Barnes wouldn't even the same category as him and that there was ever a comparison between the two was one of the most laughable things ever. You go from that to yesterday and sometimes the meekness that comes with it, it's that part is disheartening. But if they end up losing the series, man, you know what? It's on them. It's on them. They on you guys. I'll have fun blaming you, but you didn't play the basketball for them. It's going to be upsetting, but it's not going to be the most depressing thing in the world. Isn't it amazing? They're not them. So obviously, we've heard all the, and rightfully so all the criticism, they're up eight with four minutes to go, right? On the road and getting ready to go up three. And I look today NBA championship odds. I've been posting these around. I'm going to have to throw it up again. Yep. Do you know how many teams are ahead of the Cavalier three? There's still only three teams. I thought they still have the fourth best championship odds.

5:04And again, part of my premise for them making a deep run. And this is David. Not just the afternoon show. What I've been saying all along, part of the premise was, have you seen the rest of the Eastern Conference? Have you seen the next? Have you seen that still does an inspire a lot of confidence with the fans out there? Well, all I was saying was just saying that other teams are too bad to does not inspire my confidence. I look a big part of it was I don't think some of our audience, I don't think they were watching. I don't think some of the hosts at the station. I don't think they were watching the other teams. They only talk about this team. And so when they would say this team had these inadequacies, I'm like, yeah, but so do these other teams that I watch. I watch some nicks and pistons and Celtics pistons even lower than the other two, but I watch some nicks and Celtics, but I'm not going to sit there and act like I watched Raptors basketball all throughout this year. I did not. So if you want to call me out on a phone, go run on a phone, but I'm not asking people to have to watch the other teams. I just wanted to express that part of the reason I thought they could make a run. It's because I didn't have any faith in Detroit.

6:05I didn't have any faith in the nicks. And this Celtics team is way worse than the Celtics teams in previous years. Now it's up to the calves to hold up their end of the bargain because they should be able to get by the Raptors and you got three games, two of which are at home. If you're able to get to that third game, hopefully you don't even need to. Hopefully you just win the next two, but they still have it in them to win this series. They're still big favorites to win the series. I had a cleave TA mentioning that to us. Hey, you guys know they are still massive favorites in the series. Anthony, can I ask you as a not ball noir? Is it better or worse that the Raptors were so horrible at basketball yesterday because they were not good and then they lost to them. It's bad. I mean, their best three point shooter went over eight. So is that going to happen again? No, who's the better team? What? I think the calves are the better team when they're both playing sloppy. It's better or less worse team. Well, if they're both, but if one team's better and they're both sloppy than one team should, the better team should win the game. So the calves should have won the game. Look, I thought the calves are better team in the Pacers last year.

7:07When you're up by eight with just under three left, with just under four left to go, I'm sorry, you should be able to close that out. Just like I thought they should have been able to close it out in the first half. I thought, I really, I did it. I go, man, we're going to stay above double digits here. We'll get it figured out at half time. I go, there's a three one series. It's the way it ought to go. And to sit there and it have to be shocked at the end of that and then at the end of the game to be even more shocked, obviously, because they lost. It was upsetting. It was a frustrating day yesterday, but I had to come to a realization while the world seemed to be coming in. One, you're still the better basketball team. You are favored by so much more in game five, but there's also, if they're not able to get it done, we just know who they are and that this ain't going to work and that people need to go. And that we're going to have to go back to the drawing board and start this whole thing up over again. And when it comes to competitive basketball, seeing four years, that's how this is going to be. Sorry to slam my hand on the table. But when it comes to competitive basketball, I'll just see in 20, 30. And we're just going to have to do this. So it is, I want this thing to get to the Eastern Conference Finals because one, I want

8:10to be right and I want the calves to do well. And the other thing is, I want to put off having to tear this thing down. But if they end up losing to the Toronto Raptors, I don't have to sit there and scare everybody. There's nothing to be afraid of. Let's break the team up. Don have a little one out and you'll say, fine, buy, you'll hold on to. Fine player, fine guy, buy, what can we get back? James Harlan, a one out, good, buy Evan Motley, he may want out, but there might be some people want to drive him to the airport by the end of all this, like that's, that's what it is. And that's not being overblown or crazy, you guys know what this is. So I watched the point of me lose on my mind this morning and screaming and yelling and saying that you're a fool and then Nick's going to end up being right and then I hate it when Nick's right. I need to say, hey, that's stuff. If Nick ends up being right, fine. I would hate it because I, I think I have watched a lot more of the calves and he has this year. I got to tell you, but so be it, so be it 216, 474 to below 92.

9:10But if I'm blaming anybody, quote, unquote, Donovan's always like, Donovan, I find it hard to blame Donovan when he's the reason you're here in the first place. I find it hard to blame James Harden because he just got here. I've been begging Evan to maybe be somebody he's not for the last five years. And I don't want to overdo it on criticism because he was so damn good in the first two games of the series, especially game two. Man, it's, it is really upsetting when he goes in and he turns in a turd like that during the post season when you needed to finish that series off. If you would have, if you're up three, one, I mean, we're, we're having a coronation on Wednesday night. Now it's a, now it's a ball game. Yes. So you're putting it on Evan because he's not living up to the expectations you set for him. And you're going to say, why am I not blaming Donovan? Yeah. Donovan, I think is maximizing everything he's capable of. I don't think that Evan is. I think physically we've gotten everything we possibly can out of Donovan, Micheal and he's older. And I think that he's a guy that probably wants to be a number one. And you set the bar so high and he has never come close to hitting that bar.

10:12Which was Evan, well, Kenny, at some point that bar is going to change, but that's my problem is that I'm not the one who set the bar originally, like that, that was the draft that set the bar, the conversation around him that, that set the bar for him. That's what I want him to be able to achieve. Donovan, I think is maximizing everything he can. I, I think in the grand scheme of things, if we don't get to where we need to go, Donovan's going to have to realize that he's not a number one, that he is a passenger, not a driver. James Harden had to realize he was a passenger, not a driver. Evan, I thought to be a driver and a lot of cabs fans and myself included banked on Evan being a driver. Well, I just one more note is that I know we got to go. We got a lot of stuff to do. I want to get to these calls to the fact that James Harden has come here and had the ball in his hands this much. And it looks like guys are deferring to him this much. That's a problem. I made a lot of, I thought going and getting James Harden made sense on a lot of levels, but going and getting him and making him your number one, that made sense on no levels.

11:14That was not supposed to be the role James Harden was here for. Why are guys passing up shots and throwing the ball to James Harden with five seconds left on the shot clock, 30 feet from the basket? That is not the point of James Harden. That's not what he's here for. If you're trying to act like James Harden is like MVP Harden from six to eight years ago, then this thing's dead on arrival anyway. But I'm not, but when you're saying that other guys aren't stepping up, it's the same problem. It's just a different guy. He's the better player between him and Darius Garland, but you're just giving me the same issues that we've had over the past handful of years. You know, I'm trying to stave off some of those conversations, but again, if they lose this series, then the truth's right there for everybody. So there's no reason for me to start screaming and yelling. You're obviously not anywhere who we thought you were going to be and heads are going to roll. Kenny would be gone. Prop maybe even Kobe would be gone. A lot of these guys are getting traded. We're getting ready to do some serious things. I'm just letting everybody know what the alternative is to not winning this series. So there's no reason for me to start screaming and yelling.

12:15If they lose the next two games, it might be a different story for me. I might be mad because I have to face the consequences of what this could very well be. I don't think it's going to get there yet either. I'm still confident they're going to win this series 216474 to below 92. I want a lot of people they're getting in. I'm going to get to you guys. Who are you blaming for the Cavs loss? Are you feeling worse about the series? Is it an overreaction to overreact to what happened yesterday? They are better. Those Cleveland Browns, but by how much can Carmen Anthony Lyme live?