After Hours with Amy Lawrence PODCAST: Hour 4

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Still mesmerizing. Can't wait. It's After Hours with Amy Lawrence on CBS Sports Radio. Happy Friday to you. Good morning. Hope that you're waking up feeling good, feeling energetic, ready to go. If you're on a Monday through Friday schedule, this is your last day.

Or maybe you're like us. You're working your last overnight and you are almost done with the workweek. Of course, that does mean we start our next workweek a little earlier than those of you who have to work through Friday, but we'll take it. We like it.

In fact, it's why I've stayed here for, this is year number nine because I like being off early on Friday and I do actually enjoy working Sundays. It's After Hours with Amy Lawrence on our Facebook page, also on Twitter, ALawRadio. If you missed any of our show, you want to go back and listen again, I know I still tell people all the time when they ask, do you have a podcast?

Yes, yes we do. For all 11 years that I've been here at CBS Sports Radio. Our podcast is posted, as long as the technology is working correctly, and when it's not, people tell us. Our podcast is posted every weekday morning within 30 minutes of us getting off the air. Within 30 minutes of the boom, it's posted because Producer J does that right away as soon as we are finished in this main studio. And you can find it on both Twitter and Facebook. Later in the day, I often retweet the link to it. So tell your friends and family because everyone should be able to hear the show, regardless of the hours.

You should have the access. I tell people all the time too, it's on your own time, it's on demand. You don't have to listen when we're actually on the air. But don't blame me that if I spoil something. Speaking of spoiling it, well, here's a spoiler alert. Even though it's understandable that you might not have stayed awake for Panthers, Hurricanes, the climactic finish, I would understand if you tell me I had to get to sleep because I had to wake up early.

All right, that's fine. I mean, we don't play by those rules, but okay. This game went into overtime, and then double overtime, and then triple overtime, and they are headed through the fourth overtime, getting into the very late stages. I think they're going to head for a fifth overtime, and they're going to be playing as we start the show. But it was literally minutes before a ton of fireworks in the final 90 seconds of the fourth overtime in Raleigh.

First the defense, then the offense. But man, it was all the energy that the Canes and the Panthers had left in those final 90 seconds. Brady Shea has it for the Carolina Hurricanes.

Up for an H has dropped off Tarabon and left circle, Tarabon and to Shea. A shot, a save, Bobrovsky rebound. Oh, what a save! Sergei Bobrovsky as Aho was knocking on the door for that rebound as Sergei Bobrovsky makes a right pad save and covers. And with 1.10 to play in the fourth overtime, we continue on here in Raleigh. And now Ekblad will take over the neutral zone as the Hurricanes couldn't advance it. Ekblad dumps it in down to our right. Here's Brent Burns keeps it to the outside. Sam Bennett keeps it in out front. Matthew Kachucki shot, he scores!

He scores! Matthew Kachuck, the overtime winner, the Panthers take game one, three, two, the final. Matthew Kachuck ends the marathon and the Panthers go home happy tonight here in Raleigh. I don't think they had the energy to be happy. These guys were running on fumes. And if you watch the game and I did watch the majority of it, I had to listen to a bunch of it on the radio while I was making my commute. But if you watch it and it was noted as well on the radio, these guys are starting out physical and tough and they're hitting each other. There's a ton of checking. First two periods, they're beating each other up.

There's guys that are bloody, bruised, battered. As the game continues on into the first OT and the second OT, there's almost no more contact. The checking stops. Really, it becomes a very clean game with hardly any checking. And because of that, it was really one of those, hey, can you get a turnover in front of the net? Can you get a breakaway?

Can you somehow find some open space? But as the time wore on, well, Freddie Anderson and Sergei Bobrovsky were brilliant almost the entire time. Actually, both the Hurricanes goals were scored on power plays. The Panthers, I think theirs were even strength. But the fact that these two goalies were still upright and were still making incredible saves like what you hear with Doug Plagans on Panthers radio until the very end of the fourth overtime speaks to how mentally tough they were. I heard one of the reports on, I think it was Panthers radio that I was listening to.

And yeah, it was. And the on ice reporter, Jaffe was his last name. He was saying that Bobrovsky during a timeout drank an entire bottle of water and that during a typical game, so without the OTs, he loses seven to eight pounds of water weight. That's how much he sweats over the course of a regular game with just the three periods. Could you imagine how much water weight, not just the goalies, but these guys? I mean, they were even talking about IVs in the locker room in between periods and overtime because there's no way that you can replace all these fluids effectively. And so, yeah, this took everything they had.

And here's the crazy part. They have to turn around and play game two tomorrow. Tomorrow is the worst feeling in the world. They don't even have 48 hours to recover by the time they left the arena.

We'll just say, well, we'll go conservative. It's three o'clock in the morning. Wayne Gretzky was on TV live at 2 15 a.m. Eastern because we're watching him here in studio and they're in Atlanta.

So these teams maybe, maybe got to their beds, their homes, their hotel, whatever. Three o'clock in the morning. That's conservative.

But can you imagine trying to sleep after that? Exactly. So it's maybe four o'clock in the morning, maybe five o'clock in the morning Eastern time.

And why does it matter that it's ET? Well, because they're going to play in Eastern time again on Saturday night. I would imagine that the two coaches just allow them Friday to recover.

Maybe they go for a skate around or something, but oh my goodness. So yeah, some of the numbers are insane. Babrowski, 63 saves. Anderson, 57 saves.

But the numbers get even gaudier than that. A combined 143 face offs. 125 shots on goal.

And are you ready for this? 81 hits, but very few in the overtimes. You just didn't see them anymore. So congratulations to the Panthers who are an eight seed in the Eastern Conference. They're an eight seed and they, they're unflappable, but they're also a team like the Miami Heat that always has an answer. They don't always win, but they always have an answer. They always come back.

They always respond. The Bruins know it, of course. The Carolina Hurricanes are getting a taste of it now. They're an eight seed, even though they were the President's Trophy winners in 2022. But yeah, Matthew Kuchuk, what a moment for him.

Probably my favorite one so far in my life. Yeah, big, you know, big did not let it go to five overtimes there. You know, but so many great contributions from everybody.

Like just looking at this, this sheet quickly. I mean, Monte played 16 minutes almost. Barkie took like a thousand draws.

I mean, I don't know. Like it was like, we're not even in overtime if Bob doesn't make that, that save on the break away in the third. So Bob played great.

Everybody followed. Total team effort for two games, basically. It kind of becomes the game of attrition. You're just trying to be patient and wait for the moment and for the shot, one shot at a time.

You don't think too much ahead. You're just staying with the moment and trying to do your, to do the best to give, to keep the puck out of the net. 63 saves for Bob.

Sergei Bobrovsky, man, an iron man in every sense of the word. It's after hours here on CBS Sports Radio. Now, we asked the question earlier, what impact physically and mentally? They're going to be exhausted for game number two. There's no way they can't. But how often do you hear teams say, and it doesn't necessarily have to be the Stanley Cup playoffs, but how often do you hear teams say that? Well, if we're going to play that long, if we're going to go into overtime and put up all that energy and just give it everything we got, well, at least we got the win.

But I'm not even sure. Well, yes, the win matters to the Panthers, but I'm not sure it gives them lighter legs or extra energy in game number two. So, you heard Kuchuk say he's looking down at the stat sheet. There's some guys that were close to an hour of ice time in this game, but could you imagine how much worse it feels for the Canes, who've lost the home ice advantage.

Rod Brindamore, I mean, he didn't really have much to say afterwards. It's a tough way to lose a game, that's for sure, to go that long. A lot of ups and downs in that game. So, it's one game. You know, at the end of the day, it's one game.

Well, I was actually more like two and a half, but okay, I get what you're saying, Kuch. Game two is going to be fascinating on Saturday night to see what these guys have left or what they can do to refill the tank. Just a, you know, piece of advice. Don't allow the gas station attendant to hand you your new gas tank or your new gas can through your car window because if the top's not on correctly, it's going to spill all over you and your seat. Speaking from recent personal experience. Although, thankfully, Princess Leia no longer smells like gas on the inside.

What did you use? Nothing, actually. It's not smelling anymore, thankfully. I did use the carpet cleaner to get the stain off of my seat, but she stopped smelling. Maybe because, you know, there's also a penny smell in the car and I don't know, whatever. The car, she's a disaster. Someone, did you tell me this earlier in the week, Producer J, that someone outside threw up on your car or you feel like someone threw something at your car? I think it came from the inside of somebody, but yeah, something was on there I didn't like. Yeah, disgusting. So, that has happened to my car as well and we know here in New York City, there's all manner of vehicles driving up and down the streets.

We park on the street. But after J told me that earlier in the week, I go out to my car to Princess Leia yesterday morning and I swear someone threw up on her. Really? It looks like pieces of food or, unless someone threw something out their window and it banged off my car because, sadly, people do throw things out their window here. So, I'm not really sure what happened, but it's gross. And she's yellow because it's yellow season. Mine was yellow.

In New Jersey. Oh, your car. No, don't say anything else. And then also something sticky all over her. So, again, I feel like a truck maybe was driving down the street and was spraying something or, yeah, she's gross right now. So, this afternoon, taking her to get a full body wash inside, outside.

Oh, really? I only do it three or four times a year, but it makes me so happy. I could just do it myself, but I'd rather pay someone to make her spiffy and happy again. I did it, I cleaned my outside after the incident because it was, like, freaking me out.

The incident. So, I had to just clean the whole thing. Well, you never let your dog in your car, so you don't have to worry about hair. Penny does, in fact, get into the car. She needs a ramp to do it, but she gets into the car, so. Yeah, cleaning, I have a, actually, my inside's pretty clean. Like, the dog doesn't get in there, but... Jay doesn't allow anyone else to ride in his car.

Well, his hair just gets all over the place. No, not just the dog. When was the last time someone else actually rode in your car? When was the last time we went anywhere? Exactly. It would have been, oh, I'm pretty sure it was last year, Jay.

I think it was 2022, the last time we went anywhere. Maybe. In my car, if possible. Yes. Yes.

Okay, great. Well, see, this is why Jay's car stays clean on the inside. It's very nice. Although, it's not in my possession at the moment.

Oh, yes, well, in addition to someone throwing up on it, someone hit it, so now he's got to put it away. Jazzy is her name. She's away at the shop to get fixed, and you're driving a what? A Corolla. A Corolla. You don't seem like a Corolla guy to me.

I don't feel like a Corolla guy when I'm driving it, so it's not great. Oh, my gosh. Although, this guy's got some good pick-up, I will say. Okay. Jay, you're gonna fall in love with his Corolla.

It's after hours, CBS Forge Radio. Coming up, we're gonna get to Game 2 of the Western Conference Finals. But before we do, you should know the nuggets are salty. Oh, actually, it sounds like I'm talking about food. The chicken nuggets, they're salty.

No, no. This is the Denver Nuggets. Can I tell you something? They're done getting pushed around. Do you remember the narrative about the nuggets? And it's earned.

It's well earned. They didn't play defense. They worked on that. And they're soft. They're not tough enough to win the West or get to their first ever conference finals. And I don't necessarily mean this season, though that's been kind of a hangover from their more recent regular seasons.

And obviously, they were in the Western Conference Finals in the bubble and lost to these Lakers or the Lakers. They're done being soft. They have toughened up.

And they're done getting pushed around. And a good portion of their narrative on Thursday was about the chip on their shoulder. And how they get overlooked and how all anyone wants to talk about is LeBron and Anthony Davis. And the adjustments the Lakers made and how they're in such a good position, those Lakers.

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. You got to win a game on the other team's home court if you really want to do something in the 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. The outside noise is elsewhere tonight. It's where the Denver Nuggets were used to. We're used to that. 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. According to Jamal Murray, this chip on their shoulder goes back to the bubble where they beat the Clippers. But the narrative around the Clippers, this was Doc Rivers, right? Was that they collapsed and that they lost in a game seven and how badly the Clippers played.

Not that the Nuggets won. Well, it's time. It's time for them to let the world know they're done being pushed around. They are done being disrespected. They're a tougher team than you might give them credit for. Game two, a great example. Oh, Jamal Murray.

Better late than never. Jamal and Jason Tatum's pulled a page out of Jason Tatum's book. It's After Hours with Amy Lawrence.

Good morning to you. We'll get you coming up here on CBS Sports Radio. You are listening to the After Hours podcast. 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 are 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 are within four. Russell hounded by Casey B. He gets a pick from Davis, goes to the right hand for three. That one's no good. Long rebound down to Casey B.

Quickly the other way comes Denver. Brown to the rack, layup, good. Should have been a foul. He got bumped. Wow. KCP lost this win more than any human I've ever seen want to win a basketball game.

This is After Hours with Amy Lawrence. Jason Kazmicki and company on Denver Nuggets radio. The Nuggets had to fight back. They were trailing by 11 points against the Lakers and actually only had 21 points in the second quarter and had to dig themselves out of a hole, but they did. They were able to find some momentum in the late stages of the third quarter and part of it was their shooting woes. So they didn't have a whole lot going from beyond the three-point arc and Jamal Murray really struggled. In the first three quarters, he was five of 17, so he missed 12 of his first 17 shots. Very atypical of what we've seen from Murray so far in these playoffs, but he kept shooting, of course, and actually he told himself, well, he'll tell you what he told himself. For those who have seen me play before, I normally like to, you know, after shooting half like that, I normally like to reset, you know, just kind of come back down, you know, reset my mind, a quick little meditation in my head and just come back out of focus.

You know, I missed my first couple coming out. 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. 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. 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 looks 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 midcourt circle. Throws it left side over to Natoli 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. The microphone paid the price there when he was gesturing or just because he got really excited. Jason Kosmicki on Nuggets radio. Jamal Murray on fire in the fourth quarter. He comes alive as we talked about or made the comparison to Jason Tatum. Remember game six of the semifinals against the Sixers, right? He has the worst shooting day and then boom. In the fourth quarter has three triples and 16 points.

He goes to Philadelphia by himself. Well, it wasn't quite that drastic for Jamal Murray, though he did nearly outscore the Lakers himself in the fourth quarter. Jamal has 23 points in the fourth. He goes six for seven, complete opposite of what he was in the first three quarters of the game. He hits four shots from beyond the arc. Lakers have 24 points in the final quarter.

Jamal Murray has 23. So, Mike Malone, what did you say to Jamal going into that 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 5 and score 23 in the fourth quarter was just a tremendous boost for us. He was special and he won us the game. He scored 20-something in the fourth quarter. He got 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 when it mattered the most, he made shots and he won us the game basically. High praise from Nikola Jokic as well as Mike Malone on the frustration of Jamal Murray turning into a free-for-all in the fourth quarter.

It's after hours here on CBS Sports Radio. And, yes, in case you're wondering, Jokic did have another triple-double, his seventh of these playoffs, which ties the record for a single postseason run, 23 points, 17 rebounds and a dozen assists. But what Mike Malone has indicated is that this was one of those games in which they stuck to the game plan, right? They were able to defend the way they wanted to. And while the Lakers did make some shots early and their offense was scuffling because they stayed with the defense, and let's be fair, because the Lakers have two stars that they need to score at least 40 points, the Lakers do not win, very rarely win, if AD and LeBron don't combine for at least 40.

That's their MO. These two guys are carrying the load even now after they've retooled their lineup. Second consecutive game for the Lakers, and the Nuggets, but for the Lakers specifically, in which these two guys have had to play over 40 minutes. And it was evident last night that they were worn out, maybe not as exhausted or as empty as the Panthers and the Canes, but LeBron was 0 for 6 from beyond the arc. He couldn't make one in the fourth quarter when they desperately needed it.

He was sucking wind. Anthony Davis had a lot of shots that hit the front of the rim. They were coming up short. That's a near surefire indicator that they're tired legs. When you miss shots short, it's because you're not getting enough lift or enough power in your legs. And it sure looked to me as though they were worn out, maybe feeling the effects of the first game 48 hours before, in which they'd had to play the same number of heavy minutes.

What did Darvin Ham tell us? This is why you do the load management all during the year. This is what load management is about. Except the Lakers didn't do enough of it clearly during the season because these two guys are sucking wind at the end. It was actually Rui Achemora who kept them in the game and kept them ahead for quite a while. He ended up with 21 points off the bench, another huge game for Austin Reeves.

He has 22 and hit five triples. Otherwise, it was a tough go for both LeBron and Anthony Davis. Meanwhile though, Jamal Murray was fantastic.

And the way that the Nuggets fought back to me displays their toughness and the fact that they're not the same team as they were last year, the year before, even in 2020. And boy, have you noticed the toot from Bruce Brown? He kind of sets the tone for this group. They may feel relatively mild-mannered, though I do believe that they're far more battle-tested.

Brown, he brings a scowl and he takes everything personally. And he and D'Angelo Russell, they might go to blows. We defend, we win every game. That's our big key. We got to defend every night at a high level and we'll win.

And that's what Bruce Brown takes pride in on Altitude TV. So as for the Lakers, they've now dropped their second, of course, both in Denver, which isn't the death knoll, the death knell, the death knoll, the death... No, there's a word. I'm going to have to look it up because, you know, sometimes I say these things without confirming them first.

Wait, hold on. Death knoll. Death knell. It might be death knell. Death knell. Yep.

You ready? It's the death knell. Can you spell that, Producer J? Oh, I'm looking at it. Oh, you cheater. Well, I hadn't heard of that, so I was curious. Oh, no. Well, that was my first instinct and then I was like, wait a minute. Then I was thinking death toll, but that's not what I was calling for.

The death knell is when a bell rings to indicate that someone is dying. Huh. Little Hunger Games-ish, you know? You know, a little bit. Anyway, it's not the death knell for the Los Angeles Lakers. It sounds kind of awkward.

I'm going to have to practice that. Not the death knell. See what I mean?

Want to try it, Producer J? It's not the death knell, but it was close. No, maybe not.

Maybe not even close. I don't think we can bury them yet because the Nuggets protected their home court. However, I did see this stat that was posted by Mark Spears, the NBA insider, after the game.

And he, he gets it from, I don't know, Elias or something. NBA teams that fall into an 0-2 hole in the conference finals are 6 and 56 all time. Meaning only six times in history has a team ever rallied from being in an 0-2 hole. However, two of the six were LeBron's teams. So if a team can do it, it's one who's got the experience and the pedigree of LeBron James. But it's not easy. And he and Anthony Davis are both kind of tired.

They're a little tired, though he does still talk a big game. Until the team beats you four times, then you always have an opportunity to come out of it. Good point, good point. That's the confidence that we should have. And I know it's going to be a tough hill to climb up, but we still have an opportunity to play good basketball and play the best basketball of the series in Game 3.

And like I said, if we can get better from Game 2, like we did tonight to Game 3, then we'll put ourselves in a position to do that. So he finishes with 22. Actually, just one assist. I know he had 10 assists. One rebound shy of a triple-double. But it's the volume of shots. And it's the number of minutes that he and Davis were out there on the court without having the same production that they got in the opener.

But bury the Lakers at your own risk is essentially what he's saying. This is not the NCAA tournament. It's the first team to four wins, and we have an opportunity to go home and play great basketball and home serve.

So until the team beats you four times, then you always have an opportunity to come out of it. So that's the confidence that we should have. And I know it's going to be a tough hill to climb up, but we still have an opportunity to play good basketball and play the best basketball of the series in Game 3. And like I said, if we can get better from Game 2 like we did tonight to Game 3, then we'll put ourselves in a position to do that. I think we improved from Game 1 to Game 2. And if we can do the same thing from Game 2 to Game 3, we'll put ourselves in a position to win. They've lost both games by a total of 11 points. Just don't tell Mike Malone about all the Lakers' improvements because he's going to tell you to put it in your pipe and smoke it.

That's... it's kind of old school of Mike Malone, no? Okay, here's another stat, which I don't love, but I don't want you to have to go anywhere else for the information that people will be chewing on this Friday. This number is making the rounds.

You're going to hear it. I don't necessarily think it's indicative of anything. It's still LeBron James. But LeBron has missed 19 straight fourth quarter three-pointers. That's a lot of numbers. Okay, let's try that again.

So we don't confuse you because I'm getting confused too. 19 straight triples attempted in the fourth quarter in these playoffs. But it goes back to Game 2 of the first round.

I don't know. I don't love those kind of stats because it's hard to measure that type of productivity or lack of when you're talking multiple teams. Some guys guard differently, right? He's had some really incredible games against the Golden State Warriors in Game 6 of their closeout. Did he need to make three-pointers?

Nah. So I don't love that it's not situational. It's just a streak and it goes across multiple series. But it's a number you're going to hear.

Just take it in context, okay? He missed all six three-pointers from last night. Clearly he and AD, they're feeling the weight of the minutes.

You put that in your pipe, you smoke it. And that's what Mike Malone thinks. I'm telling you, the Nuggets, they're done getting pushed around.

They've had enough. It's After Hours with Amy Lawrence. You are listening to the After Hours Podcast. One, three, two, the final Matthew Kuchuk is the marathon. And the Panthers go home happy tonight here in Raleigh.

This is After Hours with Amy Laurent. Understandable if you did not stay up for all four overtimes. And it literally was four complete overtime periods because the Matthew Kuchuk game winner for the Carolina, no, for the Florida Panthers. I almost said Carolina Panthers.

That's just wrong. Why are they doing that to us? For the Florida Panthers, it happened with 13 seconds left in the fourth overtime. Kuchuk himself said he thought they were headed for a fifth overtime. And they were dying. And they were getting IVs. And they were trying to refuel.

But heavy legs. No checking in the last three overtimes. There might have been no contact. Hockey turned into a no contact sport in the second, third, and fourth overtimes. It's After Hours with Amy Laurent, CBS Sports Radio. Certainly that's what a lot of people will be talking about this morning. Doug Plagans with the call on Panthers Radio. Sixth longest game in NHL history.

Nerd alert. Tonight we get back to the Eastern Conference Finals in basketball. And we get the opener of the West Finals in hockey. So that's what's happening on this Friday. Jay and I were just talking about the fact that in Las Vegas, where the Golden Knights are hosting the opener of the Western Conference Finals, the start time, the puck drop, is 5.30 in the afternoon between the Dallas Stars and the Golden Knights. Man, that's got to be weird for them, too, just to be out of their regular routines like that.

That's weird. That's an awkward time. It is an awkward time. On a Friday night. Forget just the fans trying to get to the arena in Vegas at 5.30 in the afternoon.

But how about the players themselves? Instead of showing up, you know, let's just say for what would be a 7 o'clock start time, right, they get to the arena two, two and a half hours ahead of time, depending on if they need treatment or wrapped or whatever. And then instead it's like middle of the day.

You have to get there. And how do you eat? I was just going to say that. Do you eat a lunch? Do you eat an early dinner? Right. Get them out of the routine.

It could be something challenging. So those two games are tonight's start of the West Finals. And by tonight, I mean this afternoon Pacific Time. Same thing with the East Finals Game 2, Celtics Heat. That one also tips at 5.30 Pacific Time, but it is 8.30 for both those teams and their fan bases. Let's see.

Oh, from there. OK, so while we're talking about what happens this weekend, it's every other day for the playoffs now in the NBA and the NHL. But tonight the WNBA tips off with four games. So Brittany Greiner will be back on the court and the Phoenix Mercury will take on the Los Angeles Sparks.

The Aces are not scheduled to play until Saturday. So in Vegas, actually, they'll be on the road at Seattle, but they will be without their head coach, Becky Hammon. You may have heard this story throughout the week. She ended up getting suspended two games and also the team lost a future first round draft pick. For what the WNBA has indicated was, I guess, unethical was the word that they used when it came to D'Erika Hamby. She got traded after it was revealed that she was pregnant. Hamby complained about the way the Aces and Becky Hammon treated her when they found out that she was pregnant, saying that they were unethical in the way that they treated her and that essentially they traded her. Not only did they treat her differently, but they traded her because she got pregnant.

The investigation just wrapped up. And here, as we get set to start the season, it's what a lot of people are talking about. Now, Hamby is with Los Angeles. Hammon is missing the first two games of the season, but she actually recorded a video this week in which she defended herself and doesn't believe that she mishandled the situation in any way.

I handled D'Erika with care from day one when she told me, and she knows that. And like I said, once I make the phone call that the decision has been made to move her, you know, that's when everything kind of fell apart. We made the decision to move Hamby because we could get three bodies in for her one contract and we wanted to get three more people in. I think it's very evident who we signed on why we made the move. It was never an issue and it was never the reason she was traded. It just wasn't.

It came down to math and business. Instead of facing questions about repeating as champs, the Las Vegas Aces won last year, the WNBA title. They've got Candace Parker on the roster.

They've got Kelsey Plum. Becky Hammon is an incredible coach on a meteoric rise, even going back to her days as a player in the WNBA. And she was already being targeted as future coach. Of course, was on Greg Popovich's staff for quite a while before she took this job in Vegas. And now the defending champions. And instead of talking about that and how to repeat, it's this investigation that dragged on to this point.

So it's right before the season tips off. And Hammon goes on to say, I'm the head coach. I'm the one who asked to be the bearer of bad news. I understand that no one wants to be traded. I get that it's hard to hear, but her personal situation had nothing to do with it. I had a great relationship with with Hamby the whole the whole time, which is why she probably felt the way she did. You know, it feels like a betrayal.

But like I said, it's a crappy part of my job. But somebody's got to be the bearer of bad news. Yeah, so there's a lot of back and forth right now. The WNBA hands down the suspension also takes away the draft pick. The players associations pushing back that the investigation is kind of strange. The WNBA has admitted they didn't find any evidence that the Aces were paying players, meaning circumventing the salary cap to pay players under the table. But they still lose a draft pick. So there's just a I don't know, there's this kind of a strange investigation that is still somewhat murky. I wonder if they were following the NFL practices. Anyway, they could face a lawsuit. There's a chance that the Aces will push back or the WNBA players association will push back and will force this into court.

We'll see what happens. But under that umbrella or under that shadow, I should say, the WNBA season tips off tonight with four games. It's after hours with Amy Lawrence here on CBS Sports Radio. The PGA Championship has to conclude its first round. So they didn't finish up right now. They've got a handful of players that because there was frost on the course yesterday morning, they weren't able to start on time. They had to push back. Bryson DeChambeau.

This is fascinating because I go back to the pandemic in 2020 when golf returned earlier than the team sports. And what do we instantly see of Bryson? He had packed on 50 pounds. But as it turns out, he decided that wasn't the best way for him to play golf. And now Bryson's telling a story of how he has lost a ton of weight.

And honestly, he looks like half of the guy he was in 2020. I took a Zoomer peptide test, which essentially tells you what inflames your blood when you eat it. So like I was allergic to corn, wheat, gluten, dairy, pretty much everything I liked.

I couldn't eat. Right. So I took that out. I started taking it out in August and over the course of time, I've just lost all this inflammation, lost a lot of fat and just slimmed down like crazy.

Get this. He says that when he started this diet in August, he dropped, was it 18 pounds in 24 days? I have to go back and look just to be sure. He dropped 18 pounds in 24 days. That's insane. And he was consuming 5000 calories to feed Beefy Bryson.

But now that he's half of Beefy Bryson, now he's only consuming 3000 calories. Anyway, he right now has the clubhouse lead, a stroke ahead of Scottie Scheffler and Dustin Johnson and others. And then there's this 34 year old PGA Tour rookie. What a cool story. He's an American, Eric Cole, so not a young guy, but only has a handful of starts under his belt.

And he has to return this morning and finish his opening round, but he's sitting at minus five. So a lot of fun stuff that's taking place. If you missed my conversation with Armando Salguero of Outkick, we actually talked football. So it's kind of a one off because we didn't do a ton of football elsewhere, but it was fun to ask him. Well, I did ask him somewhat tongue in cheek, but it was a fun response.

Who he thinks will be the better broadcaster, Matt Ryan or Tom Brady. So make sure you check that out. That's where we started. And then we went into some of the new quarterback fits and also bombshell about Dalvin Cook. The Vikings and Dalvin Cook are right now headed for divorce.

Can it be avoided? Will Dalvin be in a different uniform in 2023, even though he still averaged four and a half yards per carry last season? So a lot that's still out there. I invite you to check it out, as well as the entire show on podcast on both Twitter and Facebook posted right after the show. Have a great weekend. We'll talk to you Sunday night here after hours.

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