After Hours with Amy Lawrence PODCAST: Hour 1

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Find out more at tmobile.com slash cy. That's S-E-E-W-H-Y. All right, we need a new house rule for this edition of the show. No one can make me laugh. It hurts so bad to laugh.

It hurts bad, it hurts badly to breathe, actually. I have a love-hate relationship with my yoga instructor. I've been working with her now for, oh gosh, eight years probably, seven, eight years, and I love her dearly. I'm in awe of her. I respect her so much, but I'm sure she's trying to kill me.

I am sure of it now. She's a dark Jedi. She's subtle, but I'm telling you what, going to classes in her studio, which I do once or twice a month, otherwise I do the classes on Zoom. She assists you. That's what she calls it.

She assists you, going deeper into the poses. No, I seriously think she broke something in me tonight. Oh, ow, stop. What did I tell you about not making me laugh? It hurts to laugh. It hurts to move. Stand up, sit down. Oh, it all hurts.

So this show will be subdued. Ow. No, it won't because I don't do shows like that, which is why I'm just resigned to the fact that it's going to hurt to do this show. It's going to hurt, but I will hurt for you. I will hurt for you, and I will take one for the team, and I will suffer for you because that's how much I care and because the show must go on. Must go on.

I don't fear sudden death. Oh, ow. No more, Mike Tomlin. No more.

You know that makes me laugh out loud, and it requires the belly laughs, and ow. No. Here's what you need to know. It's going to be fine.

Don't, Jay, don't do it. Everything's going to be totally fine, but you're not going to play any drops that make me laugh. Any of them. None? None. What's so ever.

Here's what you need to know. Matthew could Chuck unassisted with no joke. Looks like 13 seconds left in the fourth overtime. I, I believe that I saw this correctly. 13 seconds left in the fourth overtime, and we finally have a winner in Raleigh. And now that flat will take over the neutral zone as the hurricanes couldn't advance it. That flat dumps it in down to our right.

Here's Brent first keeps it to the outside. Sam Bennett keeps it in out front. Can Chuckie shot? He scores. He scores. Matthew can shut the overtime winner.

The Panthers take game one, three, two, the final Matthew can Chuck ends the marathon and the Panthers go home happy tonight here in Raleigh. Oh my goodness. That was absolutely a marathon, not even a sprint. It was about 3000 sprints put together. Even as I'm looking at the box score and I had looked at it before they went into the fourth overtime, but checking it again, 125 total shots in this game, 125 shots on goal in this game.

My goodness. The, the way that this, this marathon changed from change from start to finish. Unbelievable because these two teams Panthers and hurricanes were killing each other in the first two periods. It was physical.

It was tough. There was extracurricular activity, but then the deeper they went and the deeper they went, especially once they got into the second overtime and then the third, they weren't touching each other. They weren't anywhere near each other. It became a completely different game because they had to conserve all their energy just to get up and down the ice.

And for that reason, they didn't have the energy to check the four checking. It just went away. It went away.

It went away. I was listening to the hurricanes radio network on the right the way in, and they were talking about the fact that this likely was going to have to be a breakaway because of the way the game had changed so drastically, specifically with the four checking. But yeah, really physical to start. There was blood drawn in the first two periods. Carolina with a couple of power play goals and they had goals in the first and the third and then on into not one, not two, not three, but four overtimes. And the Florida Panthers, they have turned into one of the toughest outs in hoops in hockey this spring. Man, the way that they dig down deep, number one. Number two, the way that they respond to the way that they respond to every challenge, it blows me away. We were talking about teams with chemistry, the type of chemistry that gives them an advantage on the field, the court, the ice.

Doesn't matter what surface. The Panthers have it. And a lot of it comes from their their veteran experience. A lot of it comes from the fact that they're chasing ghosts of Stanley Cup playoffs past. But here they are now up in the Eastern Conference Finals, four overtimes. We're going to see all kinds of history that's written about this game, which I love.

I love being a witness to history. They were slow-er at the end. They're exhausted.

I was waiting for players to start dropping like flies. Sergei Babrovsky at one time out drank an entire bottle of water. Now he's a guy, and this probably applies to a lot of them, he's the guy who's talked about in the past that he will sweat seven to eight pounds of water over the course of a game. Imagine how much he sweats in a four overtime game.

I don't really want to imagine, but just because it's important. Also, do you know how many saves he had in this game? Sergei Babrovsky, 63 saves in this game.

That's insane. 63 games. 63 saves, excuse me. And so there's a lot of numbers I can throw at you, but Matthew Kuchuk ends it for the Panthers late, late, late in the fourth overtime. A game that featured 125 shots on goal. A game that featured 143 face-offs. Wait, no, I'm not supposed to be laughing. Ouch.

And here's the major question. How do they recover in under 48 hours for game number two? Their wagons are going to be dragging. At least they don't have to travel, but they're going to be exhausted. There's no way that you can physically recover, not fully, I know these are world-class athletes, there is no way that you can physically recover from this kind of ice time in the span of under 48 hours. And the kind of ice time I'm talking about, my goodness, you had guys who were nearly an hour of ice time. A couple of them were really close, 56 minutes, 57 minutes.

This took everything they had physically and mentally and now they have to dig down even deeper. So can the Canes answer as they lose the opener on their own ice? Because it's the cup, baby.

Hashtag because it's the cup. It's After Hours with Amy Lawrence on CBS Sports Radio. Again, new house rule, no one made me laugh, it hurts really to talk, but I'm willing to take one for the team. You can find me on Twitter, ALawRadio, also on our Facebook page After Hours with Amy Lawrence. Great to connect with you, lots of you finding us on the show, on the show pages, all that's good stuff.

And we will get to Western Conference Finals Game 2 here momentarily. I want to let you know that coming up at the top of next hour, we're excited about this, our friend Armando Sarguero from Outkick, he's senior NFL writer and insider. He's been on the show before but not in a while. We were intrigued by some of the different stories that he was writing about and talking about over the past week or so, including Dalvin Cook. This is brewing now for the Minnesota Vikings. I thought this maybe was a report, a rumor. I didn't put much stock in it when I first heard that the Vikings and Cook may not be able to come to an agreement and that they were headed for divorce. But according to Armando and what he's written this week, it is likely.

So I want to ask him about that. The commander sale will not be voted on in the May league meetings, but it is coming. What does it mean for the NFL? We had our big question earlier in the week about the wildcard game on Peacock, so I'll get his opinion on that too. Never a dull moment, even in mid-May in the NFL. So that's coming up at the top of next hour.

Our phone number 855-212-4227-855-212 for CBS. And we will have the reaction from this four overtime winner for the Florida Panthers as soon as we can flip it. It's not often, but it is always fun, a nice change of pace when we have a playoff game or any type of an event. But on American soil, it's great when we have a playoff game that extends until right before the end of the season. That extends until right before we take air.

Or in some cases, it's happened with the World Series, it's happened with NBA playoff games until we're already on the air and it's still going. As I look up Wayne Gretzky on TNT, he survived okay. The great one is still in studio at the desk and he survived all right. He's hanging in there. He looks good. He does.

He looks good for 2-11 Eastern time, 11-11 Pacific time. I actually do not know where the TNT studios are located for hockey. Now they're in Atlanta for basketball, but I don't know if they also base their operations in Atlanta for hockey. So that I am unsure of.

I suppose we can look it up. But if, let's just say for the sake of argument, they are in Atlanta, Jay gives me a thumbs up. They're in Atlanta. It is 2-11, almost 2-12 a.m. in Atlanta. And they are all sitting at the desk.

No one is virtual. If someone starts to nod off and fall over, it'll be okay. We'll just ignore it.

We'll nod and smile. It looks like he's falling asleep. You think? I don't know. I think he still looks hot.

Not sure. He always looks good. So the hockey game is in the books. East finals underway. West finals to start tomorrow. We will see how a four overtime game casts a shadow, how it impacts the rest of this series as we move forward.

No such challenges for the Western conference finals in the NBA except, except if you listened a couple nights ago, well, and if you didn't, where were you? But if you listened a couple nights ago, I was looking at the minutes played, the heavy minutes played for the Lakers, specifically Anthony Davis and LeBron James. I know the Lakers had a double figure lead first in the second quarter, and then they were able to keep it maintain it into the third quarter a little bit before the Nuggets found a rhythm. But now in back-to-back games, the Lakers stars, their championship duo, has played more than 80 minutes combined.

That's two games in a row, more than 80 minutes. Maybe you don't agree with me, but I think it was pretty evident as this game stretched into the fourth quarter, when they needed, the Lakers needed LeBron to make a shot, when they needed Anthony Davis, he had a big three in the fourth quarter, but when they needed those two guys to have fresh legs, to be able to attack, be aggressive, LeBron specifically, but I would say AD as well, they look tired to me. You know what a dead giveaway is? It's not just missing shots. A dead giveaway is when your shots are short. How many of AD's shots were front rim? How many of Anthony Davis's shots didn't quite have enough leg, didn't have enough oomph? As this series stretches on, those two guys are going to have to dig down deep, like we talked about with Panthers Hurricanes.

But you can't change age, and you can't change mileage, and you can't change the fact that you're flat out tired, but that's what they were. LeBron goes 0 for 6 from beyond the arc. Is LeBron in amazing shape?

Of course he is. He might be in better shape now than he was earlier in his career because of the training regimen that he's adopted the last several seasons, but that doesn't mean you don't get tired. It doesn't mean that a season's worth of minutes and now a playoff run in which you're routinely logging 40 minutes on the court doesn't mean that that won't catch up with him. 0 for 6 from beyond the arc. He was tired in the fourth quarter. Anthony Davis, a lot of his shots coming up short.

Those are dead giveaways. When guys are, it's not just about sucking wind, though certainly you had guys that looked tired late, but it's about the fatigue. It's about heavy legs. It's hard enough to get up and down the court, and when the Denver Nuggets want to, they can push the tempo. They don't always push the tempo, but they can catch a defense off guard.

They can catch a defense sleeping, especially if you've got guys who are trying to catch a breather here and there and everywhere. But just as a side note, none of the Lakers shot well from deep. Not even 27% from three-point land in this. 8 of 30 in this game from beyond the arc. So again, while we're talking about fatigue for the Panthers and the Hurricanes, and they certainly have good reason to be fatigued coming up on Saturday night, the Lakers looked tired to me.

The Lakers looked like they had some fatigue as well, especially the two stars. So we're going to dive into that game coming up. Panthers win in quadruple overtime, and we'll continue to drop in the gaudy numbers as we head through this edition of the show. But on Twitter, A-LOL Radio, also on our Facebook page, happy almost Friday. Remember what I said, no one sent me jokes or memes or gifs. Can't do it because I cannot laugh on this show without feeling pangs, pangs of pain, shooting pain. What did I say? Jay, he's doing it on purpose. You all think that Jay's the nicer one?

It's not even remotely true. It's After Hours with Amy Lawrence on CBS Sports Radio. There's a pick by Jokic broken up by the Lakers. Russell on a breakaway, Russell to LeBron, slam dunk LeBron, and the Lakers back up double digits. 68-57, 11-point lead for LA. Greaves dribbling on the right wing, throws the ball into Hotchamora. Hotchamora to the rim, lays it up and in. Hotchamora is now 8 for 8, and the Laker lead Back to 10, 74-64, 3.40 to go in the third.

This is After Hours with Amy Lawrence. This game felt like a tug of war for me. I really enjoyed seeing one team pull and pull and pull and pull, and the other team is off balance and starting to give and give and give, only to then find some footing, dig in, and pull back.

And the momentum then would slide the other way. It's After Hours with Amy Lawrence on CBS Sports Radio, John Ireland on Lakers Radio. So yeah, the Lakers held the Nuggets to only 21 points in the second quarter, and then were able to keep that edge early in the third. 11 points was their largest lead, though.

They could never quite get it to the point where it was 15 or it was 20. The Nuggets were always pescally hanging around, and I would say that's due in large part to the way the crowd would spur them on, and also the fact that they've got some pretty impressive shot makers. And it seemed like they were throwing up a bunch of bricks in the first half, and they would go long stretches without getting a critical shot. Nicola Jokic missed a couple easier ones, and Jamal Murray, he really struggled in the first half.

He missed 12 of his first 17 shots. So they took a longer time finding that rhythm. And the Lakers, meanwhile, they were playing well. They liked their defense.

There wasn't a whole lot of resistance early on, right? So you just grabbed, they were out rebounding the Nuggets. So you grab the basketball and a missed shot, and you head up the court.

And if you can slow down the pace, well, then it saves you some energy for a little bit later on. But they're in Denver. This is the Nuggets' home.

They have the best home court advantage in the NBA this season, and they still have not lost at ball arena in the playoffs. Jokic has it on the right elbow, guarded by Hachi Murrow. He puts his backside into him, gets double teamed, kick out three, Casey.

Yes! Nuggets within seven, 74 to 67. Joker, cross court pass, caught by Casey for three.

That was good! I'm sorry, that wasn't Casey. That was Bruce Brown. Nuggets who within four. Bustle hounded by Casey P. He gets a pick from Davis, goes to the right hand for three.

That one's no good. Long rebound down to Casey P. Quickly the other way comes Denver, Brown to the rack, layup, good! Should have been a foul.

He got buffed. Wow, Casey P. lost this win more than any human I've ever seen want to win a basketball game. Jason Kosmicy and company on Denver Nuggets radio. So yes, they were able to answer back. I liked the fight in them. The narrative around the Nuggets in the past, and I believe it's fair, maybe a little overblown, but it's part of the learning process, part of finding that experience in the post season to which I always say there's no shortcut.

You just have to go through it. And a lot of times that does include some painful losses, some early exits or getting real close, but not quite getting over the hump. So in the past, what have we heard about the Nuggets? They don't play defense and they're soft, right? They're not battle tested.

They're not tough. But I saw them not only continue to fight through, even when the shots weren't dropping the way they wanted, even when it wasn't coming easily, even when the Lakers were able to build a big lead on their court. What I saw is that they didn't give up.

They fought through. You could no longer look at the Denver Nuggets and call them soft. That's not who they are. They may not be the most physical team in the NBA, but not every team is. Not every team can be the Miami Heat. Their MO though is now one in which they face some adversity, they've been pushed, they push back.

And I like that. We haven't always seen the push back on the Denver Nuggets, but wait until you hear them post game. Trust me when I say they're done being pushed around. It's after hours with Amy Lawrence, CBS Sports Radio. Also trust me when I tell you that you can only watch Jamal Murray miss so many shots before he settles in and it clicks. Back over to Murray, five on the clock. Murray against Anthony Davis. He got to shoot it for three.

Yeah! Timeout Lakers, Denver up by four. Murray goes to the right hand. He gets jumped by LeBron, takes a three.

That was good! Nuggets up by nine. Jamal Murray left for the dead in the first half.

Has come alive. Bruce Brown has it, bottom part of the mid-court circle. Throws it left side over to Natoly Jokic. Jokic hands it off to Murray, another three.

Got it again! Start slow and you finish strong. Denver back in the lead by 12. I love watching Jamal Murray play basketball. It is a lot like how I feel when I watch the Splash Brothers play basketball. Jamal has a great joy for it now, right? He'll never take it for granted again because he was essentially out of it for two years.

Not quite two years, but he wasn't himself. Now here he is himself again, healthy, energetic, and boy can he dominate when he finds that groove. 23 points for Jamal Murray in the fourth quarter. Not 23 in the game, 23 in the fourth quarter alone. He goes six for seven every single time the Nuggets needed a bucket.

Jamal was the answer. Four triples in the fourth quarter. If I remember correctly, the Nuggets as a team hit seven from beyond the arc in the fourth quarter. So that three point shooting locked in just in time.

The Nuggets win by a handful. It wasn't a blowout, but as I say, the fight, the scratch, the claw, all that had to happen for them to get back to this point. And early on, they were fighting without a Jamal Murray who was scoring. But man, once he found the stroke, he finished with 37, 10 rebounds, five assists and four steals. And he did get a little bit of a pep talk from Mike Malone heading into the fourth quarter.

He was frustrated because he wasn't making shots that he's accustomed to making. And I said, don't allow your offense to dictate your game. Find a way to get your defense into the game and then build off of that. And obviously for him to go out there and get 37, 10 and five and score 23 in the fourth quarter was just a tremendous boost for us. For those who have seen me play before, I normally like to, you know, off a shooting half like that, I normally like to reset, you know, just kind of come back down, you know, reset my mind, quick little meditation in my head and just come back out focused. You know, I missed my first couple coming out. They were just really good looks. And you know, the game would have been a lot easier if I made them in the first half, you know, so just come out focused and knock them down and don't lose any confidence or anything like that.

Just play my game and then know that they're going to fall if I keep shooting them. He was special and he won us the game. He scored 20-something in the fourth quarter. He get us the lead, his energy. He played 40-something in 42 minutes.

So, you know, I think he was amazing. Yes, maybe in the first half he struggled to make shots, but it didn't matter the most. He made shots and he won us the game basically.

Nicole Jokic says it twice. He won us the game. He's the reason that we won. Yeah, after Jamal missed 12 of his first 17 shots, he was locked in fourth quarter. Now, there's a narrative around the Nuggets. Whether you've heard it, whether you buy into it, whether you think it's puffed up for the purposes of kind of this false motivation, whether you think it's bulletin board material, they've clearly been adding to the weight of the chip on their shoulder over the last couple of days.

But also even going back to the bubble, when it was Lakers and it was Nuggets and the Western Conference Finals in the bubble. Now, a little, and Marco Balletti's here in studio, a little background, and I will just say, I think that Lisa Salters is phenomenal at what she does. I do.

There is not a snowball's chance in hell. I would ever, and I've been doing this a long time, as long as she has. I would never go on radio or TV and admit that I had not seen a particular athlete play. That I don't remember seeing him, he didn't impress me before.

No, I would fake that. If, and I would say if, I'm kind of surprised that she hasn't seen Nicola Jokic plays and she was in the bubble and they were in the bubble. But she said she couldn't recall seeing him play.

She did a radio interview of some sort and said that she couldn't recall ever having seen him play. And that she is so impressed by him because she had no idea how good he is. Are you kidding?

I mean, come on, this is your job? At least watch some tape for heaven's sakes. So that was a bit of a faux pas by her, but all that to say, the Nuggets have taken that as well as something that, I think it was Mark Jackson said on the broadcast too, just kind of feeling like they're not getting the respect that they deserve.

And that has now become their banner. Everything they said post-game, we'll just use one cut and then we'll play some later. But yeah, they're all ticked off about the fact that a reporter has indicated she never saw him play, had no idea how good he was, couldn't recall that he was all that impressive. But also Mike Malone is stirring the pot with this whole, hey, the Lakers made adjustments after game one. The Lakers found something in their defense.

A lot of our guys, to be honest, they may not admit this or not. You know, you win game one of the playoffs and all everybody talked about was the Lakers. Let's be honest, that was a national narrative was, hey, the Lakers are fine. They're down 1-0, but they figured something out. No one talked about Nicola just had a historic performance.

He's got 13 triple doubles now, third all time. What he's doing is just incredible, but the narrative wasn't about the Nuggets. The narrative wasn't about Nicola. The narrative is about the Lakers and their adjustments. So, you know, you put that in your pipe, you smoke it and you come back and you know, we're going to go up 2-0. We know that we're not done. We haven't done anything yet. All right, you got to win a game on the other team's home court if you really want to do something in a series. And we know how great that team is, especially on their home court. So we're not celebrating.

You know, this is not cause for celebration. This is a cause to continue to dig deep and find ways to be better. Not only are the Denver Nuggets done being pushed around, but they are all business now.

And you're going to hear that narrative from other guys too, which I think is interesting because how often can that extra edge, extra motivation be something that really pushes them? So yeah, they're listening apparently. Don't ever believe a Nugget when he tells you he's not paying attention to what's out there.

You put that in your pipe, you smoke it. They're right though. And Mike Malone's gotten so salty.

I absolutely love it. Yes, they are right. However, I would like to point out that on this show, I talked about the Nuggets fast break. I talked about the Nuggets taking their foot off the gas. We talked about Nicola Jokic. We did absolutely talk about the Nuggets part of this too. The fact that they went into the third quarter with the big lead and kind of changed their game plan. So I'm just going to say, we did not only talk about the Lakers adjustments here.

That's fine. But I mean, if you look at the grand scheme, I get it. Why the Nuggets feel like they've been disrespected because they're right, they have been.

And you know what, I'll raise my hand. Going into the playoffs, it was the idea that, can the Nuggets finally put it together? Are they good enough?

Even though they're the one seed, can they get over the hump? Can they finally figure it out? I was the first one to say, everybody said it and everybody thought it.

And you know what? It was all valid. It was all true because they hadn't done it.

So if you want to take that and use that for a chip, so be it, but then you got to back it up. Now they're backing it up. They are. But they're right in the fact that even after game one and the Lakers were as much as the Nuggets are the one seed, the Lakers are the seven seed, they're the Lakers. And they got LeBron James, they got Anthony Davis. They're looked at as the team that's supposed to go back to the finals now at this point. We didn't kind of, everybody, the general matter. You think they're supposed to beat the Nuggets?

Ooh, I don't think so. I think most people thought they would find a way to win the series. I think they looked at it as the Lakers and the Warriors, whoever wins that series, they'll get by the Nuggets and they'll be back in the finals.

I actually never thought that, nor have I said that. I kind of feel like the Lakers at this point are running out of gas. If they can get through this series, well, it'll be impressive, but they are playing on, like right now they're running on fumes. I understand all that, but I think the general narrative, and again, it doesn't mean you or one show or one, the general narrative was the Nuggets are overlooked simply because they've never done it. They've never been able to get over the top. And I do think that there is definitely something too. If you don't watch Nicole Jokic play on, I don't want to say a nightly basis, but if you do not stop to actually watch and you see the numbers, but you see highlights and you look at it and he's in slow motion, nothing he does looks impressive because nothing looks athletic.

But if you watch him play, you will understand how good he is. And unfortunately, they're in Denver. They've never won.

Unfortunately. They're in Denver that they're late at night. Not everyone gets to see it.

They've never won. They've come up short a lot in the playoffs and Jokic is not a household player that we watch. We hear about his name. We know he's good, but how many times did we hear? How many times did we hear after two MVPs? Yeah, but I mean, you're talking about a guy. Yeah, he's won two MVPs, but it's more like the Steve Nash two MVPs.

How many times did we hear it? It's not the same. He's not LeBron James. He's not Giannis. He's not Joel Embiid. He's not, it's stat mongering.

Okay. Watch him play and you'll see it. But if you just catch highlights, I can understand the thought process because if you look at highlights, the last thing he looks is impressive.

Watch the game and you'll understand everything that he does for that team. We'll hear from Jamal Murray and LeBron James about Jamal Murray. The series is far from over. Of course, the Nuggets hold serve on their own court, but I'll tell you what, over these first two games and really over the course of these playoffs, I'm telling you the Nuggets are done being pushed around.

They are tougher than they look and they're done being pushed around. You are listening to the After Hours Podcast. ["The After Hours Podcast Theme Song"] Murray working against Hachi Murrow. Five on the clock to Jokic. Back to Murray. Murray goes to the right hand. He gets jumped by LeBron, takes a three.

That was good! Nuggets up by nine. Jamal Murray left for the dead in the first half, has come alive. Bruce Brown has it, bottom part of the mid-court circle. Throws it left side over to Natole Jokic. Jokic hands it off to Murray. Another three. Got it again! Starts slow and you finish strong!

This is After Hours with Amy Lawrence. Jason Kosmicki referring to the escalation of Jamal Murray during game two of the Western Conference Finals. Yeah, he missed 12 of his first 17 shots. So through three quarters, he had only made five buckets.

And then fire. Mile high basketball kind of fire. And with him powering their offense, and it wasn't just him, they also had a couple of other guys chipping in threes. But it was contagious.

It caught fire. And the fans there, they did themselves proud. Yet again, the Nuggets have not lost in the playoffs at Ball Arena, and they have the best record in the NBA at home this season. After Hours with Amy Lawrence on CBS Sports Radio. It's one of those types of performances where even if you're a teammate, you can catch yourself standing around watching. And so it's fun to hear Jamal's teammates talk about how incredible he was in that fourth quarter and also to give him credit for their W. That's amazing.

That's amazing. Cold killer. We need him. You know, we need him to continue to shoot and continue to find his shot. Man, he was huge for us tonight. He pretty much won us a game. I mean, it was collective.

You know what I mean? Everybody contributed, but he really stepped up when we needed him. I love Jamal Murray. This is not just like I'm coaching him. We've been together for seven years and been through a lot of ups and downs. And to see him back playing at the level he's playing at, the first thought for me is just tremendous pride and just so happy for him because I saw the dark days coming back from the ACL.

So for him to be here playing at the level that he's playing at is just, I'm just so happy for the man, the young man. I wonder if Klay Thompson is rooting for Jamal Murray. As much as Klay wishes that he could be where the Nuggets and Jamal are right now, I can imagine that he empathizes and he feels what Jamal is feeling now because as Klay was coming back from his two years away, the Warriors made an improbable run to the NBA Championship last fall. People have feelings. People have feelings. Like Klay, we know he has feelings. Last summer. I'm human.

You are human and amazing at that. And now here is Jamal who is working on this whole comeback player of the postseason, if you will. So Aaron Gordon on Nuggets radio about Jamal's huge fourth quarter. And then there was this current, if you will, weaving in and out of all of the Nuggets post-game comments. So you heard Mike Malone before Marco's update. Everyone's talking about the Lakers, not them.

Well, he wasn't the only one. Jamal Murray was asked about why the Nuggets aren't getting their respect as a team or why they feel they aren't getting respected as a team. They also noticed where the Denver Nuggets were used to that. We used to, even when we win, they talk about the other team.

We beat the Clippers in the bubble. They talk about the other team. You know, same old, same old. It just fuels us a little more and it'll be sweeter when we win the chip. Since we make playoffs, it's like that. So it's nothing new for us.

I mean, to be honest, I like it. We don't care, whatever, you know. Even if you remember, even in the bubble, when we beat Utah, they were talking how they blow out the lead. We didn't beat Clippers, how they blow out the lead. Nobody talk about how we won the game.

So it's normal for us. We don't win. I don't, to be honest, be attached to Jamal. I love how Nicole Jokic finishes that whole long thought with, I don't really pay attention. After he tells us that the Clippers got more attention than they did in the bubble, even though the Clippers collapsed, it was about the Clippers failure more than it was the Nuggets success.

So yeah, he doesn't really pay attention. I don't, to be honest, be attached to Jamal. If it's not the Clippers and the Nuggets in 2020, and oh, then them getting disrespected now. And Jamal says we're the Nuggets, we're used to it. Now I would agree with Marco in that, and actually Mike Malone has said this too, until you win a championship, until you can capitalize on this opportunity, until you can bust through, they've never even been to an NBA finals.

Did you know that? Do you remember when Carmelo Anthony played there? They actually got better when they traded him, but they've never even been to an NBA finals. They understand, Mike Malone has told us, in order for anyone to give us respect, in order for this to matter, we have got to capitalize on this opportunity.

But they're a different team than they were in 2020, when they were just starting to figure it out as a group. It's after hours here on CBS Sports Radio. LeBron James, well he's had a fair number of game winning performances in his career. This time it was Jamal Murray taking over in the fourth quarter. He made shots at the end of the clock, when we guarded for 24 seconds, he made two big time shots, one over A.D., one over myself. Had some rearranged game going on, but he had a three point shot going in the fourth.

It's not, I mean, it's no surprise to anybody he's done it before. Hate to be on the other side of it, but like I said, I don't feel like we had many breakdowns when he was doing what he was doing. He made shots and sometimes it's just a make or miss league. I feel like defensively, we were really good. I mean, they shot 43% for the number one office in the league, you know, and, you know, so it just sucks that, you know, them five threes in the fourth definitely killed us. Proud of our guys, they bounced back. We addressed a lot of things that we said we were going to try to do better. Still got to be better in transition D, but overall, the energy was there, the effort was there, the urgency was there. We just caught a bad stretch.

Respected them, they did what they were supposed to do, take care of their home floor, hell served. You know, and now it's on us to fill our cups back up and go do what we need to do on our home floor, starting with game three. That's all we need to be concerned about is game three.

Now see, Darvin Ham says we just caught a bad stretch. I saw them get tired. In the fourth quarter, they looked tired to me. LeBron missed all of his three attempts in the fourth quarter. Anthony Davis, he had a bunch of shots come up short and yet they had to play at least 40 minutes each like they did in the opener. LeBron rolled his ankle on AD's foot.

I'm not sure if you saw that. I think it was second quarter or so. The Lakers, they have to have. Those two guys combined for at least 40 points or very rarely do they win. And if you're looking for an NBA playoffs nerd alert, when teams are trailing a conference finals O-2, NBA teams are six and 56 in those series coming back. All right, so when you're down O-2, the odds are slim. But here's the thing, two of those series wins, the six of the 62, I suppose, were with LeBron James going back to O-7 and 2018. So you're telling me there's a chance. It's After Hours with Amy Lawrence on CBS Sports Radio. You're telling me there's a chance. Donate today at your local CSL Plasma Center and be rewarded for your generosity.