5-9-23 After Hours with Amy Lawrence PODCAST: Hour 4

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Find out more at tmobile.com slash cy. That's S-E-E-W-H-Y. I wonder if the New York Knicks feel like the Miami Heat are turning them into a punching bag.

Actually, that wouldn't be far off. They are battered and bruised both physically and mentally, and the toughness, the tenacity, the grit, the determination, the desire, the commitment, the stubbornness, that's what stands out about these Miami Heat. They are, they're a tough out. They are at first blush not a championship team, but because of everything they've been through to this point and because of the wisdom, the experience, the chemistry, because of the culture, you have to consider them. Here we are on the cusp of seeing the Miami Heat return to the Eastern Conference Finals for the third time in four years, and it's not an accident.

It's not because of the path that's opened up in front of them. No, they are earning it, and they're doing it the hard way, but they also, the way that they play with their commitment to defense and their commitment to rebounding, the aggressiveness, the fact that they wear opponents down, all that's part of the formula, and they're executing to near perfection against the New York Knicks, who seem like they just don't have the energy, but I feel like it's partly because they're getting beat down. They're the punching bag of the Miami Heat right now.

It's a bad matchup for them. Even with Julius Randle back, fouls out with an offensive foul, six turnovers last night, they got his number, and as much as the Knicks were able to hang around by hitting a few shots, Jalen Brunson having another big game, 32 points, but they forced the Knicks to work so hard for everything. So on the east, the eastern seaboard, you have Miami one win away from an unlikely Eastern Conference Finals return, and on the western seaboard, you have the Lakers one win away from the west finals. Whoa, it is funny because a listener sent me a tweet earlier, is how cool would it be to see the Lakers and the Heat in the finals? Well, we just saw that a couple years ago, actually. It's after hours with Amy Lawrence on CBS Forge Radio.

Yes, unlikely, improbable, but both these teams have gone through various iterations and a lot of training and testing, and all of the season to this point has been really preparation for where they are right now, and with a veteran team that's got leaders who've been around the block a time or two, that's invaluable. You can find me on Twitter, A Law Radio. I just want to say thank you again so much for all of your comments, your support, your encouragement the last 48 hours, and also your tweets and your Facebook messages about my pre-marathon story. I don't care if you laugh at me, it is 100% acceptable, and I'm glad that I make you laugh, even if it is at my various adventures that, as one listener said, only you Amy, only you. I just stumble into these things. I don't know how it happens.

Anyway, it's not perfect. It's not pretty sometimes, usually, but it is us. It is me.

Thank you. It is me. It's imperfect, and amusing, and comical, and sometimes stressful. It's controlled chaos, and then I lose control, and it's just flat out chaos.

Usually. And yet, as Bob says, it's my beautiful messy life. That's what he calls it.

Your beautiful messy life. But it is us. It is.

Yeah, it's gonna be him too, I suppose. Sometimes. Usually. Goodness. All right, so back to the heat in the next before I get completely derailed, and derail the show, and derail you, and derail all of that. Good morning to you. Happy Tuesday. Hope that you kicked your Monday in the rear end. Monday kicked me in the rear end.

I am far more sore, and there are far more grimaces coming from me when I stand up and sit down. Oh, the stairs. The stairs are just unfair. It's unfair to be forcing me to walk up or down stairs these days. Anyway, a lot of pain post half marathon, but it's okay. It's a good sore. I have given myself until Wednesday with zero exercise. I'm gonna walk on Wednesday with a friend, and then Thursday yard work, I think.

Right now I couldn't do yard work if I tried, but I am proud, and I do appreciate that so many of you sent your messages, so thank you for that. Maybe the Knicks feel the same way. All these battered and bruised analogies with the New York Knicks. Yeah, they were taken to school on the glass, and the Miami Heat, they were able to not only hit the rebounds hard, but demoralize the Knicks with not only the volume of rebounds, but when they got the rebounds, the offensive rebounds specifically in the fourth quarter. I mean, the Knicks would work so hard on defense, and the Heat would grab the rebound. They'd have to start all over again.

They were already tired and feeling like they were, well, running uphill. That's all. And Martin chases that one down.

Put it up and in. I mean, there's just New York traffic everywhere, and Jimmy doesn't care. He has 22. Martin pumping. Oh, he just rocked the soul out of this house.

This elevation without hesitation had been a prayer. Bam dribbles out, faces Mitchell. A three from Bam. Oh, Lord. Offensive rebound again, this time by Lowry. How good would that have been? Bam out of pile.

Knocked down that three. Somebody would have to call Miami-Dade County for a civil engineer. Check the morgue.

Check the roof. Jason Jackson has a good time with his play-by-play to be sure. Keep in mind that the Heat have already lost a couple of really key pieces. No Tyler Herro in this series. No Victor, well, even going back to last series, no Victor Oladipo. They've got Kevin Love in the starting lineup. Max Drewce has made some big shots. He's also in the starting lineup. Kyle Lowry's coming off the bench, and while he's not the same Kyle Lowry in terms of his physical prowess and abilities that he was when the Toronto Raptors won the NBA championship, he's very clever. He's crafty. That's what I call him.

Clever and crafty. He's smart, and he knows how to set up Jimmy Butler. He knows how to make sure his teammates are all pulling in the same direction, and that is the job of a veteran point guard. We got great, great guys who work on their craft at a high level, and you know, with our best player with Jimmy creating so much disarray out there and getting guys to open looks, it makes our jobs easier.

Our job is to make shots for him and try to make the game even easier for him and Bam, and that's what we're trying to do. For us, you know, the shooters that we have is unbelievable. We've had to find different solutions to win tough regular season games, and some of those have been offensive rebounding games, you know, where you got extra possessions. Sometimes they were games that we've just had to win in the mud with different guys stepping up. I think that that beauty and the struggle has given our our group, you know, they just love to compete, you know, and they have an awareness that, you know, against a team like this you're just going to have to do a bunch of different things.

Each game has been a different story, and that was probably 82 games for us. I do like the perspective that Eric Spolstra puts on it. He uses the word beautiful and struggle and how they've had to come up with ways to win.

It has not been an easy path, and yet it results in this team that is so tenacious and such a tough out. It's after hours with Amy Lawrence on CBS Sports Radio, so Kyle Lowry using that leadership and using that perspective, and Jimmy Butler returns the favor. So Lowry is coming off the bench, but listen to this stat sheet. He has to play 26 minutes. They need the bodies off the bench, and the Heat have a massive advantage over the Knicks in this series, which is completely the opposite of what we saw during the regular season. This came from our guest, which was great. We're going to bring back part of the conversation with Wes Goldberg following the break, and I want you to hear our exchange about Eric Spolstra.

Big fan of Spol. I think he's one of the most underrated coaches and underappreciated coaches in the NBA, but one of the things that he said about the balance of power in this series and how the Heat are gaining an advantage is they're relying on their bench, and they're getting great production off their bench, which was not a factor for them as much during the regular season, but it was a huge part of the Knicks success. So now the roles are reversed, not to mention the rebounding. Also not a huge strength of the Miami Heat during the regular season. It was more of a strength of the Knicks, but not now. Those inspiring offensive rebounds. I do think offensive rebounds are sexy.

I say that as many times as I get. So here's Lowry coming off the bench. He plays 26 minutes. 15 points, five rebounds, four assists, and this is critical.

No turnovers. So point guard. A lot of the times the ball in his hands, not always. Jimmy Butler does handle the ball a lot too. But Jimmy can't rave enough about what Kyle brings to the table as a leader. I think the world knows by now that I love that dude today. He fits everything that we're about here. He's so unselfish. And you know, whatever you ask him to do, whether it's start or come off the bench is going to be really, really effective because he's a champion and he's done it before and he knows what it takes to win. So we want him to keep being that, keep smiling and helping us win.

Yeah, it's that mentality. The Warriors have it. The Warriors have it. The Lakers have it. I know the Heat haven't won a championship with this group, but they've got guys on their roster who are champions. Kevin Love, of course Kyle Lowry. Jimmy Butler's desperate to win a title and he'll do anything it takes. Spoelstra obviously is a champion from his days back when it was the big three.

So you bring this group of guys together. Butler's the superstar. Bam Adebayo, well, he's so athletic. He's so explosive. He also does not mind playing second fiddle to Jimmy Butler.

He doesn't care. These guys are on the same page because they care most about winning. Caleb Martin with the monster dunk and the big, he had 10 points off the bench, the big performance off the bench as well. It's a tried and true formula for the Heat. It's rebounding and it's defense. It's defense and it's rebounding.

It's essentially pounding your opponents into submission. It's not always pretty. It's not flashy.

It's not dazzling. It's the opposite of the Warriors and yet it works for them because they're committed to it. Also because Jimmy Butler is is a star and once again goes over 25 points. This time it was 27 and 10 assists. I actually loved being double teamed because and that just means one of my teammates is open.

If I don't find them, somebody's going to find them and I get to see if I can score over a double team. I asked our guest when he joined us earlier. He's got the Locked on Heat podcast and there at the game asked him about covering Jimmy Butler and what it's like. Great stuff from him. So again, we'll bring back part of that conversation.

Huge fan of the Backstreet Boys. Oh yeah. See, that's what we share.

Plus coffee. He's a known coffee connoisseur. I too am a big fan of Jimmy Butler. Julius Randle, curious comment following the game. Now I am going to assume, though you know what happens when you assume that Jimmy Butler is a big fan of Jimmy Butler.

I'm going to assume and give Julius the benefit of the doubt. Not necessarily that he's earned it, but he was asked about the Heat with this sizable advantage on the glass and how it is that the Heat are able to out rebound the Knicks the way that they are. Maybe they want it more.

I don't know. You know, that's been who we are all year and we got to get it. It's been who we are all year and we got to find a way to, you know, step up and make those plays if we want to keep the season alive. He doesn't actually mean that.

I know he doesn't mean that. It seems like an odd time to be a troll, but he's frustrated. No doubt the way that this series has swung has been tough to handle. He fouls out in this game on an offensive charge, which I didn't agree with, but whatever.

He can't be getting all crazy when you're dealing with five fouls. And so it's been a postseason, well it's been a season of frustration for him, kind of on and off, but definitely the postseason. But yeah, to work your tails off on defense, only to give up a long rebound and the Heat put your feet to the fire once again, they're aggressive, they just keep coming.

Big fan of the formula, big fan of Eric Spolstra, and it's stunning because they were Dr. Jekyll and Mr. Hyde during the regular season, but here they are. Now they're not done yet and Jalen Brunson, this is why he signed in New York, the big stage, the bright lights, the big city, also the chance to get to, well they are competing in the second round, but get to an Eastern Conference Final, get to an NBA Finals and be relevant. They're playing really physical, they've been getting to this offensive rebalancing, second chance points, I think at least.

At least it felt like it, but yeah, you just got to give them a lot of credit. They're a good team, well coached over there. We're on the brink of elimination, so everything you've got, and so that should be the mindset of just everybody, no matter what you do, no matter what you have to do, you just got to go out there and give it your all and keep your confidence. I know it's kind of easy to say, but it's a big thing to keep your confidence. Yeah, it's definitely an advantage the Heat have over the next, while we're making up the list, is the confidence.

The Heat, they exude it, they find it if it has escaped them. The Knicks, maybe because it's a younger group, younger, less experienced on the stage to be sure. You'll hear part of my convo with Wes Goldberg coming up, also the Warriors on the brink of elimination, the defending champions. So there's another unlikely story, the Lakers, one win away from the West Finals. We're glad to have you with us Tuesday morning, oh it's Tuesday morning.

We got this though, it's after... This is Flea for This Little Light, the podcast about falling in love with music. I started a non-profit music school about 20 years ago called the Silver Lake Conservatory of Music. The reason that I started doing this podcast was music education. I'll be speaking with Rick Rubin, Thundercat, Stewart Copeland, Margo Price, Corey Henry, Cynthia Erivo, Sheila E, and Patti Smith. Please listen and follow This Little Light, a presentation of Cadence 13 on the Odyssey app or wherever you get your podcasts. They lead this series three games to one.

This is After Hours with Amy Lawrence. On Miami Heat Radio, Jason Jackson, one win away from their third Eastern Conference Finals appearance in four years. 2020 in the bubble, they faced the Lakers in the NBA Finals and thinking back to last year, they lost to the Celtics in seven games and so that has stuck with them as well. We had a chance to catch up with Wes Goldberg in Miami. He's got the Locked on Heat podcast and also writes for a variety of different outlets covering the Heat and the NBA and I wanted to ask him about Jimmy Butler because I love Jimmy. We have a lot in common outside of basketball but he's, I mean, he's just an interesting case study. The places that he's left behind him but he's found a home. He's found a perfect fit with the Miami Heat so I asked Wes what it's like to cover Jimmy Butler.

What a great question. It's a mixed bag, you know, when things aren't going great. Jimmy Butler, he's never unfriendly with the media, right, but you could tell like sometimes if things aren't going great the way that they're in the regular season, you're like, oh, I can kind of see how this guy would wear on teams like Minnesota and Philadelphia.

I get it. I could see it but when they're winning, he's so much of a part of that and he really does have such a presence in that locker room and Eric Folsa says this all the time, right, like we are him and he is us, right, in terms of the Jimmy Butler and the Miami Heat and that relationship and I don't know that Jimmy's ever had that kind of relationship with the team, not even like the Chicago Bulls who basically decided that they didn't want to pay him because they didn't think he was that superstar so they traded him to Minnesota and then obviously didn't work out there and it didn't work out in Philly and he ends up in Miami and it just has been sort of a perfect fit. No matter some of the things that go on, whether he's trying to fight Eric Folsa and he's on the sideline last year or some of the low moments of even this season and the frustrations that came with that, they are willing to deal with that because they know the kind of player Jimmy Butler becomes in the playoffs and what it is that he can do in terms of leading this team to what it is that they want to do and I think a lot of teams and a lot of players say that they're all about winning and that's all they care about and I don't know that that's true for a lot of teams that say that or players that say that for that matter but I think it's true for the Miami Heat and I think it's true for Jimmy Butler. It's an experience covering him. He's always good for a funny quote at the end of a game.

He's very honest even if he kind of will shake some questions with jokes. You will get honesty out of him and refreshing doesn't sound like the right word to describe Jimmy Butler but it is a little bit from a media perspective. Wes Goldberg is with us from Miami. The Heat one win away from getting back to the Eastern Conference Finals.

It's after hours with Amy Lawrence here on CBS Sports Radio. Also, I think about Eric Spolstra, one of the longest tenured coaches in the NBA and I'm constantly calling him underappreciated. He's been there forever. The Heat are always a factor no matter how many times they change their roster or the roster is changed for him and the teams can be respected for their defense, for their intensity, and for the fact that they push their opponents to the limit.

I'm just a big fan of what he's done over the course of his career there. And Amy has never won a coach of the year award. Isn't that crazy? It's insane. I've said this for a very long time. I think he's the best coach in the NBA.

I don't think it's close. I think that so much of coaching we don't see. In the media we don't see it. Even if you're covering the team and you're there after practice, you're not in the practice, you're not in the locker room, you're not really there when most of this stuff is happening. Coaching is like an iceberg, right?

You don't see like 90 percent of it. And I think a lot of coaches in the NBA get a lot of praise for drawing up an awesome out of time outs play or a sideline play or whatever it is. And that stuff's important, no doubt about it.

And Eric Fulcher has his fair share of great sideline out of bounds play. But really what I think head coaching in the NBA comes down to is setting a tone, setting a culture for your organization. Just like a great CEO or boss sets the tone for his or her sales team, for instance.

This stuff really matters. And getting buy-in and relating to players in a way that makes them feel valued, even if they're not playing and when they're not playing, right? And I think that's a big part of it. And then just like the coaching part of it too. And what I mean by that is not just getting star players and figuring out how to make them fit together, but taking players who might be undrafted, like the seven undrafted players at the Miami Heat have, and just coaching them up into being better players than they were when they got into the NBA.

Finding roles that fit for them, looking at what it is that they do positively, not necessarily negatively, and trying to find places where you could use those positive attributes. And Eric Fulcher is as good as it is at doing that. I think it's really impressive. I don't know that there's anybody doing it quite like the Miami Heat and the NBA. I don't know that that means they're going to win a championship. Who knows what ultimately happens at the end of this playoff run, but I know nobody else is doing it like them. And in a league that has been criticized of being sort of more and more kind of vanilla, more and more the same copy and paste, all right, everybody's taking threes and doing it this way. The Heat aren't doing it that way.

They're doing it their way. And that's pretty cool to watch. Now, 15 seasons with the Heat and more than 700 wins. So just out of curiosity, Wes, why do you think he doesn't get more attention for what he's accomplished and what the Heat have accomplished since he's been there? I think he has the attention and the respect from his peers. I think that there is a little bit of a lack of national media attention on the Miami Heat in general.

And so I don't know that that's specific because of Eric Fulcher. I don't know that any coach is going to be the reason why the NBA schedules national games for a team, right? Nobody's really watching for the head coach on the sideline, right? And there's been a lot of years after the big three where that big three shine wears off. And so obviously you're onto the next thing, whether it's the Warriors, the Cavs, whatever.

So there's part of that. And then there was a long period where he did not have a star before Jimmy Butler arrived. I think he does get the respect from his peers, from other coaches in the NBA. You talk to other coaches all the time, whether they're visiting Miami or whatever it is, and you go into those press conferences. To a coach, all of them have nothing but praise for what it is that Eric Fulcher does. And it's not fake praise, like I respect my opponent, but not really kind of way.

Like it is real legitimate praise. They view him, his peers, other coaches in the NBA and other players, by the way, they look at Eric Fulcher and they say, yeah, that's the top of the class right there. That's the guy. I don't know that Eric Fulcher cares about the lack of national respect or the fact that he is on a coach here.

Maybe he does. I don't know, but I know for sure he feels the respect from his peers. It's also unique too, that he's never coached anywhere else. An assistant coach in the late 90s and has remained there his entire tenure in the NBA, which is pretty incredible.

Wes Goldberg is with us from Miami and he's got the Locked on Heat podcast. We're not going to assume too much, but if they were to face a team in the finals, what's the better matchup for the Heat? Is it the Sixers or is it the Celtics? James Harden and Joel Embiid versus Jimmy Butler and Bam Adebayo. Bam Adebayo is going to run a lot more interference on Joel Embiid than Embiid's seen in these playoffs so far. I thought Nick Laxton did a pretty good job and now Horford obviously does a good job historically on him, but Bam's a different cat.

That's a different kind of assignment. We saw it last year in the playoffs. He was a little banged up. I think Bam could limit Embiid as much as anybody can limit the MVP of the league. And then Jimmy Butler will take this matchup very personally. Obviously, we know his history with the Philadelphia 76ers.

It's hard to imagine him not leaving everything out there to make sure that he doesn't lose against Philadelphia. When you get to those next layers of a team like the Celtics who are so deep, that's where I think you start to worry if you're the Heat. How does your depth match up with the Celtics' depth? I would say probably Philadelphia, but then again, Embiid and Harden, they were clicking on Sunday. That's something to monitor, I think, if I'm a Heat fan. What's that really look like and who's the better team looking like in the second part of the Celtics' 6er series? I'd have to say the 6ers for right now, but we'll see. Wes Goldberg of the Locked on Heat podcast joined us from South Beach following his third win by Miami over New York, and it seems lopsided now. Of course, that can change.

That's all about the playoffs. You can find the full interview as part of the After Hours podcast, always ready and available for you minutes after the show is done each weekday morning. We post the link on our show. Weddings are the celebration of all the details that make a couple perfect for each other, and you can find your perfect fit too at Indochino. Choose every detail of a custom tailored suit from lapels to linings and more starting at just $4.99. My bad. Shh, sorry.

Find the suit that's perfect for you. Go to Indochino.com and use code podcast for 10% off any purchase of $3.99 or more. That's 10% off $3.99 or more at Indochino.com. Code podcast. Good hands by Moses Moody. Here's Draymond Green out of the back court. Draymond went all the way to the rim. Throws it backwards. Stolen by Lonnie Walker. He got loose.

Lays it up and in. Lonnie Walker dribbling. Walker to Anthony Davis. Now backwards to LeBron. Two minutes to go in the game. Walker driving. Two pointer by Lonnie.

Good again. Lonnie Walker has taken over for the Lakers. He's got 13 points all in the fourth quarter.

This is After Hours with Amy Lawrence. John Ireland on Lakers radio. Once again the Warriors had a double figure lead. This time it was late in the third quarter and could not hold it, and it wasn't so much because of LeBron James or Anthony Davis, though they did play some tough defense down the stretch.

No, it was because of Lonnie Walker. So on back-to-back nights we've had Landry Shammet take over in the fourth quarter for the Suns and now Lonnie Walker take over for the Lakers. He goes six for nine in this game. All 15 points coming in the fourth quarter and get this, he didn't even play in the opener. He wasn't part of the first game of this series, but when he was called on he made big shot after big shot, and not only did the Lakers dig out of a hole, they were able to get their nose in front, back and forth there. Some missed opportunities, and I don't just mean in the form of missed shots, but yes some big-time missed shots, the kind that you expect Steph Curry and Klay Thompson to make, and also some turnovers, some late mistakes.

It's After Hours with Amy Lawrence on CBS sports radio. This was a good back and forth. It wasn't a blowout. It just had to feel like yet another missed opportunity for Golden State. Curry gets James. Ball to Thompson. Thompson forced up a three. No good. Not a good shot. Rebound Schroeder, and Steve Kerr can't believe it.

Yeah, that was quick. Curry gets Davis as his defender. 13 to shoot.

35 seconds to go. Curry lost the ball. Spins away. Gets it back.

Dribbles on Davis. Takes him. Stops. Fade away.

Two is seven. Rattle didn't go. Ball tipped. Draymond's got it. Out to Curry. Curry with 20 seconds to go. Guarded by Davis. Takes a deep three. It's up and front rim.

No good. Rebound. Goes to Walker. Warriors have to foul. They foul Walker with 15 seconds left.

Not sure if that was exactly the shot Steve Kerr wanted. Curry throwing it in. Thompson will screen across for Draymond. Draymond gets the ball. Takes a handoff. Dribbles hard on Schroeder.

Goes and throws it away. He threw it right to Davis. And Davis will be fouled with, no, it's a jump ball with five seconds to go. See if Wiggins can steal this.

It's going to be hard with Davis there. Ball tipped out. Curry's got it. Curry lost it. It goes out of bounds. It's going to be Laker ball.

He tried to flip it to Moody and couldn't do it. Butterfingers fumbling the ball away. Missing on point blank shots. Yeah, the Warriors in the second consecutive game against the Lakers, both of those coming in LA, had double figure leads that they could not protect. Now in game number three, it didn't matter because the Lakers were like a locomotive that were barreling, that was barreling down the tracks. In this game number four, they lost their footing and then they couldn't hit shots. And when they did have chances, they didn't take good care of the basketball, which is fairly typical of the Golden State Warriors. Though Steve Kerr is not pointing the finger at any particular player. And Klay Thompson is a big reason for their success, even though he missed two big time threes in the last two minutes.

I trust Klay. I mean, think of everything that he's done for this team. So part of who he is, is he's going to fire away. And there were a couple late that he probably would like to have back. But that's part of who we are as a team. We're going to fire. If Steph or Klay gets an opening, they're going to let it go.

And they've had a ton of success over the years, obviously. They both had some looks down the stretch, but give the Lakers credit, they played good defense and we couldn't get anything to go. Steph Curry did have a triple double in this one, but he had 30 points on, wait, 31 points, excuse me, on 30 shots. So he didn't shoot well. And he was only three of 14 from beyond the arc. But yeah, 31 points, 10 rebounds, 14 assists, throw in three steals, just a couple of turnovers. He played a lot of minutes.

He led the team in minutes. But now that they're facing a 3-1 deficit, not insurmountable by the way, the championship Warriors going back a few years. Remember, they climbed out of that hole against the Oklahoma City Thunder.

That was before Kevin Durant joined the team. So it goes back away, but they're going to have to draw on all the wisdom experience they have as a championship group. You definitely use it as a confidence that we can figure this out. Obviously, just focus on what we're going to do. Focus on winning game five and take it from there. You can't fast forward to the end, but we have a lot of confidence in our ability to take the good things from tonight and protect our home court.

So that's all you can do right now. Got to maintain positivity, how tough this was tonight, but long way to go. Well, long way to go if they can extend it in game number five. And speaking of the good things for that, for the Warriors, there certainly were some positive moments. Yes, they didn't turn the ball over quite as much.

Just seemed like they came at the worst possible times. And they did have a stretch in the second and third quarters where they were able to build that lead. But Lonnie Walker, we were talking about this earlier with Marco Boletti. Lonnie actually is 24 years old. And before he got to the Lakers, he was part of the San Antonio Spurs.

But for a while has been operating in relative anonymity, but the 15 points of the fourth quarter saved the Lakers. Honestly, I've been shooting a lot of shots my entire life. So I got a lot of confidence in myself. I know my value.

I know what I'm capable of doing. And by the grace of God and a lot of hard work and sacrifices and time in the gym, the fruition kind of came to think my confidence was for sure at an all-time high. When you have your coaches instilling you to give them the ball and LeBron being able to give me the ball and multiple people allowing me to just play my game has given me the utmost confidence to just do what I have to do.

So it's probably a difficult shot for others, but it really isn't a difficult shot for me. It's obviously how special he was in the fourth quarter. You know, he had 15 of our 27 points. But just more importantly, just like, you know, my career, my 20-year career is I've seen a lot of young guys kind of lose confidence in themselves or lose themselves if they, you know, been in a rotation or started or had big minutes on the team and then they get taken out of the lineup, you know, because of certain situations or circumstances, whatever the case may be, and they just completely lose themselves, you know. And, you know, for him to be a young guy in this league and just consistently every single day showed up, been a professional, great energy, you know, high character. They showed why he was able to, you know, throw everything to the side and just be him tonight in that moment. And, you know, game ball definitely goes to him.

We don't win without him. First season with the Lakers after the first four in San Antonio. And just to put it in perspective, he has 15 points in the fourth quarter. The Warriors as a team have just 17.

So the tide really turned in that fourth. And I kind of feel like since this may be the biggest performance of Lonnie's career, especially considering the stage, we should give you the whole stat line. It's impressive. He ends up with 15 points in 27 minutes. Also has three rebounds, two assists, two steals, and only one turnover in his time handling the ball. So good stuff. Dennis Schroeder was off the bench too with 35 minutes.

He also had double figures. So good balance for the Lakers in this one. It's after hours with Amy Lawrence, CBS Sports Radio. We get back to Celtic Sixers tonight and then Suns and Nuggets.

And both those series are tied at two games each. We are nearly to the release of the NFL schedule. I have no idea why this year I'm actually looking forward to it.

I normally am on vacation. I normally don't care even a little bit, but for some reason this year. Now I don't know if I'm going to watch the prime time reveal of it on the NFL network, but we'll get the schedules for the international games and and then we'll find out about the number of national games that the net, sorry, the Jets will play. 14 playoff rematches from 2022.

So that part we know. 14 playoff rematches from 22. And we also know that when it comes to the Amazon Prime component, teams can appear there twice and not every team is guaranteed to play prime time. So remember the Lions last year who says we can't get flexed and and they actually did the very last week of the regular season when they were at Lambeau and knocked the Packers out of the playoffs. And on the way up we're going to buy the kneecap off and then we're going to get flexed. See if it could happen to Dan Campbell and the Lions it can happen to anybody.

I'm still going double figure prime time games, or no not prime time, double figure nationally televised games for the Jets. That's where I'm going. I set the line at nine. I'm going over.

You can find me on Twitter, ALawRadio, also on our Facebook page. We're wrapping up with two things that are completely unrelated, but since I teased them earlier in the show, this is something I'm working on paying off of my teases. A first for me on Monday. In my whole life, I've never done this before. I posted grades for the first time as an adjunct professor. I was so nervous about making a mistake that I double and triple checked my work. Not only did I re-add, so essentially there was percentages.

Your homework is worth this percentage of the class. Your attendance and participation this percentage of your grade. And so I had given them all percentages on the various elements of the course and then had to go through and add them. I mean I'm pretty good at math. Mom's a math teacher, but I was nervous about not only getting the wrong percentages for them, but also accidentally inputting the wrong grade. I can't tell you what they got because the show is national and also podcasted. I don't want the students to find out what grades they got before they get the indication from the school.

So I can't tell you, but I was pleased with their work and I do already love teaching after one course. So yay, that was a first for me on Monday. And I mentioned this earlier, the moral of the story on this Tuesday morning, don't date Tiger Woods. That's the moral of the story. OMG, first of all, why the hell would you ever sign a non-disclosure agreement? Okay, I get that his former girlfriends and I are not the same. This is not a relationship where I could be in where you're being controlled, but also a non-disclosure agreement.

Why would you set yourself up that way? A little bit of a red flag. Oh my goodness. And this is only Erica Herman's side of the story, but this is crazy. She's filed a couple of different lawsuits, one against the non-disclosure and one against Tiger. And she says that he told her they were going on a trip to the Bahamas for the weekend and that she packed a bag, she left the house, the residence that they shared, and she got in the car and they drove to an airport where he had a private plane waiting. I'm assuming they travel by private jet most of the time. So they get to the airport. This is according to Erica. This is her version of the story.

I don't know Tiger's. They get to the airport, they park near a private plane. He tells her to get out and talk to his lawyer and then leaves her there. And then they tells her to get out and talk to his lawyer and then leaves her there. So then the lawyer tells her that the relationship's over, she's being evicted. Again, this is Erica Herman's story. And she says at that point that the lawyer tried to force another non-disclosure agreement on her, but she refused to sign it. So they returned her personal belongings. They kept a bunch of money. Oh my gosh.

Yeah, I have no idea. It reads like something that you would see on Jerry Springer. We need the man to return. I need him to come back so he can tell the story of Tiger Woods and Erica Herman. Yikes. It's after our CBS Sports Radio. Boom.