The Cavs Must Stop Beating Themselves to Win a Wide-Open Eastern Conference

0:00I think that we need a little time off from the NBA playoffs so I'm just been getting drunk and watching basketball every night. It's an every night thing now. Come in hot every morning now. As you sit in there, how much, how much bourbon have you been ripping? Well, I got to stop with the bourbon, it's got to turn into vodka. But then the problem with vodka is I've built up a natural immunity to it like I became power out of over the years so I could just go and go and go and go and go and go and go and go and you know, you can you can try to you can try to torture me. You can do whatever I just the vodka just goes in goes out. That's problem. Okay. I don't know where to take that after that by God. So you got to drink bourbon. You can't drink vodka. But the bourbon is just so bad for you if you drink a ton of it. It's just so bad. Well, how much is a ton that you're having there either in the basketball games? Well, how many fingers do I have? Oh my God. Did you teach Mason on to make you one yet?

1:00Not yet. I told you, man. I call Axel the hammer because every now and then I'm like, good God, dude, it's Sunday. What are you doing to me? Roger Goodell. Gonna join us at it. Oh, boy, we talked to Roger Goodell yesterday, we played that for you at seven o'clock. No, but Todd Muckins coming in, I can't get you Roger Goodell in studio, but maybe I can do you one better. Todd Muckins is going to be in here. Folks, this is going to be live in studio and he has a hot microphone. Willie has got a sweet haircut. Now, he looks good anyway. I mean, hell, I didn't think you needed a haircut. You know, what the hell? So I wanted to ask you this. Lime has been watching every single basketball game. I think you're focused on the wrong things. You came walking in here today and you go, boy, sure hate to be the nuggets. Boy, man, everybody, free to the Celtics. I go, buddy, we got game six. We got to finish out tonight before we go puffing out our chest. I think you're worried maybe about the wrong things and I heard some yesterday from some of the other shows, not just one, but some of the other shows and hearing how, well, the caps just can't beat themselves. They can't beat themselves. They can't beat themselves. Look, can we, can we admit some of us, not you, this is why I'm surprised that you've

2:03said it. Hey, man, I'm open to admitting. I watched the Celtics this year. I'm surprised. This is a six. This is a three, three series and going to seven games. I'm pretty stunned. I got to tell you, I didn't take Philadelphia very seriously whatsoever. I haven't watched Philadelphia barely at all this year. Okay. Like, I will, I've told you guys before I got no reason to lie. I will turn on games in the background, just to leave them on in the background, especially like in January, late December, January, that time of year, like the browns are kind of out of it. I'm doing draft work. Here we are. If the calves aren't playing on a Friday night, I'll put on Eastern Conference basketball. I just like the Eastern Conference. You know how I am. So I've, I've, I've had a lot of nicks games told you before if I died and came back, I could have seen myself as a nicks fan. Like Detroit, nah, a little bit and I'm just surprised. I am really surprised that I thought Boston was going to run through Philadelphia. I thought Detroit was honestly going to run through Orlando and maybe I should have known

3:04a lot better than that. And this is all kind of, if you thought that the Cavaliers or if we were already sitting here after a four game sweep, kind of just twiddling on our thumbs, this would be great. Guys, we're in a dogfight here. This is a three, two series. And to hear some of the stuff going on, oh well, you know, all the calves got to do is they just got to not beat themselves. Where do we get this from? Where do we get this from? Like you're playing a tough team and they're going to try to, as Doraemon Green said, they're going to try to go through your chest like, I'm not trying to scare everybody, I'm not trying to scare fans. I think fans respect Toronto. I'm kind of talking to us on the stage like, oh, wait a minute, wait a minute, wait a minute. I'll be critical of the calves for not beating Toronto. If they can't win tonight and God forbid, they wouldn't be able to win Sunday. If there's a game seven, they're obviously there should be some criticism. You are the better team, but I got to, I got to give Toronto their respect. Like I did. I didn't guarantee it, but I was saying the whole time and Owen was killing me for not guaranteeing it even though it sounded like a guarantee, I said, there are no way they're losing on Wednesday night and they did, okay?

4:06There are the better team. They should be able to finish this off, especially with Brandon Ingramhurt and with maybe Scott Barnes Bay. Yeah. But man, you got to have some respect for this opponent here because you're looking across the east, but you're sitting here telling me, oh boy, the Celtics, everybody afraid of the Celtics. I just, I, I worry, I don't want you to be focused on the wrong thing. I don't want us to be focused on the wrong part of and this is, this is definitely my fault. I brought this on myself. Can I just say this real quick and I'll let you go here with this. I think this playoffs has exposed how little basketball, some of us in this city have watched, not talking about the fans, talking about the media, okay? I've, I openly admit the games I'll watch, the games I have watched. Well, I document them in the book because I'm nuts. But dammit, like there's a lot of things being said and I'm going, that ain't right. No, that ain't right about that team. No, no, no, no, no. And I just want to make sure the basketball maven who sits up and, and, and Hammer's bourbon all night watching these games is the basketball maven that we make you out to be the ball.

5:07This is the ball. No, we make you out to be. Yeah, this is the one thing. So I've, I've gotten a lot wrong already about these playoffs, but I got, I got a lot right. Right. Is it East? And I've said this, you know, it's day one, the season started. Once the Tatum injury happened that this East is wide open. And yes, that fueled a lot of my optimism about the calves. Now the calves in the playoffs have also given me pause because they have definitely harkened back to some of the problems we've had about the calves for the last four years. But then I watched the Celtics last night with a bunch of guys in their rotation who have never proven anything in the playoffs. It's a brand new team this year, because they thought this was going to be a gap year. Once the Tatum injury happened, Detroit, a bunch of guys that have never done anything in the playoffs. The Knicks have had battle wounds, the scars they've been there, but they've also never pierced through. They've also not been to the NBA finals and they have a lot of issues.

6:07But boy, did they respond yesterday and said, uh, bye bye to the Atlanta Hawks and that was an impressive performance. And now, um, the Knicks, their odds have gone up. I keep referencing the playoff odds, you know, after each night, uh, but the calves are still in the thick of this and as badly as they have played as badly as we have talked about them and the things people have said about their physical and mental toughness. They win tonight in Toronto and Orlando wins tonight, like you have home court of anage or if Detroit belongs that series. Now we might get a little more rest like there's still are a lot of reasons to feel good, but the calves have to handle their business clearly and their three and a half point favorites tonight on the road, uh, the road team is not going to game in this series yet. They say that's when the series starts. Well, that's when the series ends, uh, if they can win tonight and I think with those injuries for Toronto and maybe Evan Mobley hitting those shots, those were dagger shots and were, they were so needed, maybe that starts something because I have seen in the NBA

7:12playoffs, sometimes it just takes getting through one series or a couple of big moments for a team to rally around each other. It does happen and is lackadaisical as we've seen this team at times and some of the halacious turnovers and some of the effort issues, sometimes it just takes something to rattle the cage a little bit and the Cavaliers, I, you don't want to look ahead, but man, seeing Boston, seeing Detroit, the next having problems in their series earlier against Atlanta. You know, in this goes back, I love to make the comparisons. Can I make another comparison? You got to finish out this series and you know why you got to finish out this series because you're seeing what's possible. I go back 2020 playoffs, the dirty Dan, what was Dan's name from the chiefs, Dirty Dan Sorenson and how, hey, if you're able to close that out fourth and long and then a bear third and long, then became fourth and a half a yard and they threw that ball, if you're able to close that out, who knows what's what's possible. If you're able to win that game, who knows what you're capable of with the Cleveland

8:14Realms? Okay, well, if you're not able to finish off this series with Toronto, I mean, you're seeing a wide open lane here, Denver's having problems or land, that would be a formidable opponent. You're going to have to take either team seriously, Boston or I said, Denver does that problem. Detroit has problems. Boston is having problems trying to put away Philadelphia team that we all left for dead three weeks ago. You have an opportunity here and if you're not able to close out this series, like say you do go to a game seven and you falter and you lose, you think it hurts now. I can't imagine what it will be because it's, they're showing you this is an opportunity and maybe Boston's going to get their act together. Maybe I'll end up being wrong, but this shows you an opportunity and a path to possibly not just get to the Eastern Conference finals, get to the NBA finals, but if you can't beat Toronto, forget about it. 216474, 0092, like that's what's at stake. So you got to go, it's, and I know I just talked about other teams. I know I got to keep the focus here, but I'm just a little bit concerned or just baffled

9:15that I'm here. Well, the Cavs just got to not beat themselves. Well, the Cavs is, is it the Cavs versus the Cavs? I would like to turn the ball over less. I would like to do that. I would like to win the possession games. All Cavs conversations brought to you by the fine folks at Surfside Hard IST that ask you to please enjoy that Surfside Hard IST responsibly, 635 and 50 seconds for those scoring at home. I'd love to do all those things because I do think they help you make sure and I do feel, I don't like to celebrate injury. I feel a lot more confident. The Brandon Ingram's out. Let's be honest. I feel a lot more confident that there's something tweaked with Scotty Barnes. Let's be honest. Now I, will he be able to go tonight? Can I go? I imagine he'll tape it up and go. He looked a little bit banged up, little hamper in the second half. And John had set it up there. Now John's an outsider. He's in a loafer, but he's a good kid saying, well, they lose tonight and I don't know if they're going to win a game seven and you and me like, whoa, that's been kind of the feeling with the Cavs this year with a lot of their fans. So for us to just sit here and go, oh, well, you know, the Cavs can only beat themselves. Where are we getting off on that? Shows we haven't been watching a lot of Cavs basketball then if we're saying these sort of things. 216, 474 to below 92.

10:15Roger Goodell. Gonna join us at seven o'clock. I want to get some of you guys on this. Do the Cavs only have to not beat themselves. Am I being too much of a worry ward? And should we respect Toronto a little bit more and coming up in five minutes, he's been only here a couple of months, but James Harden is the reason this team is up three two in this series. Ken Carman, tone master general, fattened them in the morning with Roger Goodell at seven o'clock on the f***.