After Hours with Amy Lawrence PODCAST: Hour 4

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Find out more at T-Mobile.com slash C-Y. That's S-E-E-W-H-Y. This is appropriate. It's a new age. It's a new age in Denver. It's a new age for the Nuggets. It's a new age for the NBA.

First time in the 47-year franchise history of the Denver Nuggets that they are into the NBA Finals. Appropriate. For a long time, the Nuggets have been an afterthought. Irrelevant. Overlooked. The gum on the bottom of the NBA's collective shoe. And for good reason. They languished in mediocrity or worse for decades. They've had superstars go through, but never quite able to put it together.

Superstars like Carmelo Anthony, who announced his retirement on Monday. We'll get to that coming up this hour. It's After Hours with Amy Lawrence on CBS Sports Radio. Glad to have you with us.

You can find me on Twitter, ALawRadio, also on our Facebook page. Lots of you weighing in about these Nuggets versus the Lakers. The Lakers gave it everything they had. Last night's game separated by just two points. They had a 15-point advantage at halftime.

Couldn't maintain it. We had some weird moments in last night's game. But also history for LeBron James, in addition to being history for the Nuggets franchise.

Excited to break it all down with you, plus the reaction from the Nuggets. As they've gotten close to their goal, though, they would tell you just getting there is not enough. After all this time, it's not enough to just be nominated.

They actually want to win the Oscar, the Emmy, the Grammy. Our phone number 855-212-4227. Good morning to you. Happy Tuesday.

If you need some pink peony power and perfection to perk you up on this Tuesday, you got to check out the flowers on my Twitter or on Facebook because they will bring you instant joy. Also, it could be a taco Tuesday. No, I did a taco Saturday.

Jay did a taco Saturday, but why not? Oh, I finished the leftovers with my eggs, though. Have you ever had taco meat, so cooked taco meat as a topping for your eggs? It's delicious.

Sounds very good. Oh, delicious. I had some leftover and I thought about potentially doing leftover tacos on Monday for dinner instead. Oh, it was a garnish for my eggs and I had put peppers and onions in there as well. It's a little more like a fajita style. You enjoyed it. It was great. That's like a nice little omelet. Oh, yeah. So good on top of my eggs and then some shredded mozzarella cheese and a little bit of salsa as a topping. I like your style. I stopped short of the sour cream, but those eggs were delicious. Penny was sniffing.

She was trying to get me to to let her have some, but that's a negative ghost rider. So all that to say, Taco Tuesday could also be a taco Saturday. And why do you care? Well, because LeBron loves Taco Tuesday.

See, boom! It's after hours on CBS Sports Radio. Maybe he was hoping that to really enjoy Taco Tuesday, the Western Conference Finals would have to be extended. So it was a vintage LeBron performance in the first half against Denver last night. One on one against Jokic. Jab steps at him. Backing him in now.

Picks up his scribble. Goes to LeBron. Three pointer.

Good again. LeBron has 18 points and we still have two minutes to go in the first quarter. Lakers lead by 10. And there's a steal by the Lakers.

Their defense has been excellent. Atremora flying to the rim. Got there. Puts it up.

No good. Followed in by LeBron. 27 for LeBron.

Timeout Denver. This is the best game I've seen LeBron play as a Laker. LeBron top of the key. LeBron dribbling right. LeBron down the middle.

360. Spin to the rim and in. This is a clinic by LeBron. He has 29 first half points. He finished with 31 most ever in a playoff half for LeBron James. So 21 in the first quarter. 31 in the half and the Lakers are sitting pretty in their own arena. Up 15 at the break.

John Ireland and Michael Thompson on the Lakers radio network. Now you know the stat or if you don't know the stat, I'll tell you the stat. No NBA team has ever rallied after being down 0-3 in a playoff series. No NBA team has ever come back to win that series. But you can't win the series if you don't win a game. The Lakers were just trying to force this series back to Denver.

But ultimately it was a tale of two halves for a couple of reasons. Number one, the Nuggets adjusted on defense. Remember after the opener all the talk was, Mike Malone got so salty over this, the talk was about how the Lakers made the adjustment on defense. Remember they ended up trying to think who they oh did they put Ruihachi Mora on Nikola Jokic right and pulled Anthony Davis kind of back to the back line so he could be the last line of defense. Well in this second half it was about the Nuggets adjustments on defense.

I suppose that will be all the rage on this Tuesday. They essentially got as close to LeBron James as they could without violating any laws. They were in his jock. Two, three defenders to make life extremely difficult for him. Forcing the Lakers to move the ball to someone else. Forcing LeBron to count on his teammates.

Except there wasn't a whole lot from his teammates. And in the third quarter that moment had shifted so drastically to the Denver Nuggets. Left side quarter, another three. That one's short. Tipped by Gordon, won't go. Second one won't go. Rebound Jokic and a foul as well. Murray goes to the right hand. He's at the nail. Jump shot.

Good. Denver's within one. 79 to 78. Bounce pass Jokic back over to Casey. Layup.

Got it. The foul as well. Boy Denver comes storming back in the third quarter. They have a one point lead.

That's Jason Kosmicke on Nuggets radio. Man that lead disappeared in a flash. Steady Eddie were the Nuggets and they outscored the Lakers by 20 in the third quarter. Now the game wasn't over and because of the intensity of the crowd and the fact that it is LeBron James and Anthony Davis and it's always the toughest to get that fourth win.

This was a fight to the finish. These two teams were relatively even for a good portion of the series. First game was a six point win for the Nuggets. I think the second game was only a five point win for the Nuggets. Only game three was a double figure advantage for Denver when the dust settled. But you remember it was in the fourth quarter where they put together a 13-0 run.

So again that's game number three which was Saturday. This game it was their third quarter in which they were able to erase that entire deficit. But what becomes evident over and over as you watch these four games is that the Nuggets had more gas in the tank. They had more energy. They had more explosiveness deep in these games.

They had not necessarily more bodies but younger bodies with less mileage on them. Even as Darvin Hamm makes a change in the starting lineup, he puts Ruihachi Mora into the starting lineup. He benches D'Angelo Russell. Oh my goodness, Russell had a miserable series. Last night didn't even bother to shoot.

Only took one three. It was so awful that he didn't shoot again. But really he's he's gun shy now. He's a terrible series. I guess that's what happens when Jamal Murray's running your butt all over the court. The Nuggets adjusted on defense.

They made life difficult for LeBron James. They waited for someone else to step up and nobody did. I mean there were a couple of big shots for Ruih.

A couple of big shots for Dennis Schroeder. But Anthony Davis was exhausted. It was evident. All that talk about load management from Darvin Hamm. How this is what load management is all about. This is what load management is about. See what I mean? Quoting directly. This is why you rest your stars during the regular season.

So that they can give you everything they got. I mean LeBron played 48 minutes. But he was cramping. He was tired. You could hear it in his post-game press conference.

Which we'll we'll bring back some of that audio coming up after hours on CBS Sports Radio. As I say, this one went down to the wire. But the tale of the series is that it was too much of the Denver Nuggets. They're they're too balanced. They had too many options for the Lakers to match to match wits. To go toe to toe. They couldn't. Because ultimately the Lakers had two scoring options.

That was it. But back and forth down the stretch with everything hanging in the balance. Rebound grabbed by Hotramora. Gets it ahead of D'Angelo Russell. Lakers can tie or take the lead here.

Crowd comes to its feet. Russell 15 footer good. We're tied at 94. Time out Denver. Here's LeBron into the front court. Don't they have to attack Jokic Michael?

That's right. There goes LeBron right at Jokic. Lay it up and in. Yeah that's what he's going to do. He's going to get out of the way and concede a layup with five pounds.

He needs to do that every time. Denver 107. Lakers 104. 310. Go in the fourth.

Jokic picked up by Davis. Takes a tough three. Got it right at the hard. Oh man.

Here he is. Schroeder to Reeves. Three pointer.

Good. So the Lakers get it right back. 110.

107. That is the first three-pointer by the Lakers in the second half. Yeah the offense was hard to come by. The Lakers scrapped and they clawed and they fought. But once Denver clamped down on LeBron there just wasn't enough. And whereas Denver picked up the defensive intensity in the second half, the Lakers weren't able to match that. So yeah give all the credit to LeBron. 20 seasons, a record number of playoff games, his first ever half with 31 points.

He did everything he could. But it was too much nuggets. No one's ever said that before. No one's ever said the nuggets were too much. Food or the team. But I like oh I don't know a 10-piece nuggets isn't that too much? 10-piece?

No that's easy. A 50-piece that's that's aggressive. 50? No one sells a 50-piece nuggets. They do it. McDonald's sells a 50.

A 50-piece? That's got to be family style. It's got to be for sharing. It's on the share menu. They have a share menu?

They do yeah. Shows you how long since I've been to McDonald's. My mom gives me Wendy's gift cards for Christmas for when I travel and so I do love Wendy's but I haven't been to McDonald's in a really long time. Wendy's works. That's good too. Wendy's has good coffee.

Oh I'm sorry. McDonald's has good coffee. Wendy's has the Frosty's. You can't beat a Frosty. Wendy's actually has really good breakfast. Underrated.

I think it's the best one. No you told me that and a couple times I've driven by Wendy's on my way home because there is one on my way home maybe five miles from my house but they're never open at 6 30 a.m eastern time. They're not open so when do they open? How am I supposed to get breakfast if they're not open when I need breakfast?

I guess they all don't do it yet maybe. I know the one by me doesn't open until 7 a.m eastern which is doesn't really work for my way home. It's not open yet when I'm on the way. But what about all those people that start their commutes earlier? Yeah they really should open around like five. Could you imagine if Dunkin Donuts or Starbucks or let's say Krispy Kreme didn't open until seven o'clock? No they missed half of their morning rush. People are already helping out by then. Seriously it's an untapped potential untapped opportunity there for Wendy's. I forgot which one we were talking about for a second.

If you ever do find it open though definitely try it. It's good. Okay we went from Denver Nuggets and being overwhelming to a 50-piece Nuggets to Wendy's breakfast to missed opportunity.

I mean this is what happens in my spaghetti plate brain. I'm blaming Jay for that one though it's after hours here on CBS Sports Radio. All right back to the moment the moment for the Denver Nuggets. Not that they wouldn't have had other opportunities but they never led by more than seven in this game. They worked really hard to erase that big deficit and with under a minute to go it was yokage or bust. Here we go KCP gets it into Nicole Yokich. Started by Davis.

He puts it on the floor. Gets the elbow down the lane layup good and one should have been. Nuggets lead at 113 to 111 less than a minute to go in game number four. This is going to go fast people pay attention. Austin Reeves looking. Four seconds left. Two points ties it up. LeBron in the paint layup no good.

Got his own board. There's the hard and the Denver Nuggets for the first time in franchise history will go to the NBA Finals. I think it starts with a belief you know in themselves but probably more importantly in the collective you know the man next to them and to beat this team in the western conference finals and to get the first sweep in franchise history to get the first western conference championship in franchise history. It means a lot but I speak for 17 players in the locker room and the entire organization.

We are not satisfied. I think it's just like you happy to put it you won a game you will you you'll be you beat really really good team you will think about except the first game every game was so close and every every team could want it and we we just find a way to win the game especially we were down 15 and okay to come back and and win the game you know it was just probably happiness you know I think that's that's the emotions. We know that they're going to come out aggressive though it's less about that and more about us weathering the storm and staying with each other you know we're down 15 and a half and then we came in the third quarter ready to play and ready to take the lead I think so um it's just a great team effort all around everybody came in and stepped up. Michael Malone, Nikola Jokic with another triple double. This guy now has eight triple doubles in a single playoff run which is more than any other NBA player in history. He deserves the credit even if he looks like a giraffe running up and down the court and he does it to be honest he doesn't look super athletic we're not talking about oh gosh name someone I mean Lebron James right although they're not the same size. Kevin Durant looks more athletic than does Nikola Jokic and they're roughly the same size there are times when he looks gangly and awkward and his shoulders are are broad and it it almost looks like it hurts when he's out there running up and down the court but you cannot take away from his productivity and the fact that he's dangerous and the fact that last night he sunk two threes that looked like they were going to be overhead passes even Lebron James couldn't believe it one was over Lebron the other one was over Anthony Davis so late in the first half and then late in the game. Nikola has got the ball between his two big palms his paws right so he's he's got the ball between his paws he pulls the ball back behind his head like he's going to chuck an overhead pass that's the proper technique that I taught kiddos when I coached when I coached basketball private and game private lessons you pull the ball back behind your head and you throw it and then downward trajectory to your intended target but you're trying to pull it back so you can go cross-court to skip pass something like that it's called an overhead pass or as Jay noted earlier what you might do to inbound the ball on a soccer pitch so it looks like a throw-in except twice they went in the hoop they were three pointers are you kidding me and so even as Nikola Jokic is taking these unconventional shots he's also playing defense he's clogging the lane he's setting up his teammates you may not believe he was the MVP but you cannot deny that for the top-seeded nuggets he has come through every single time they've needed him and now has eight triple doubles in these playoffs I think he's shown other people nationally that oh he's really like what he's doing is real the MVPs are real the triple doubles are real all the narratives the silly narratives this year are just that silly and somewhat ignorant and I think Nikola has gone through three rounds now where he's averaging a triple double in the playoffs have you seen any stat padding out there I'm serious like like enough of the silliness like the guy is a great player give him his damn respect stop chopping them down at the knees man he's a great player and give him the respect he deserves Nikola played the final 33 minutes of this game I mean so there's a lot being made of Lebron playing 48 but he wasn't as effective down the stretch as Nikola Jokic was a couple of huge buckets for Jokic with the game hanging in the balance so we'll deliver the eulogy on the Lakers and wait until you hear what Lebron had to say about his future it's a danger zone never make decisions when you're emotional and exhausted not even if you're one of the best basketball players that's ever walked the face of the earth thanks for joining us on Twitter A-LOL radio on our Facebook page too it's always good to connect with you after hours with Amy Lawrence on CBS portrait so what are you thinking for lunch I can't I'm getting new window treatments so I gotta go home and wait around all afternoon for a design consultation just to get a quote it's gonna totally mess up my workday why don't you just go to blinds.com because I need you blinds.com because I need custom products blinds.com products are made to order and totally customizable and you get upfront pricing right on their website to easily get your quote online but I want to see the products in person blinds.com ships samples to you fast and free they can even verify your measurements and handle the installation wow how convenient tell me more blinds.com also has a huge selection of stylish shutters shades curtains and options for motorization even for your patio plus their 100 satisfaction guarantee well you've convinced me let's go eat I've got time now shop blinds.com and save 40% on selected products get 40% off selected products right now at blinds.com rules and restrictions may apply the health one health care system is proud to have been named one of the top places to work for women in the nation by newsweek health one is the only health care provider in colorado and one of only six organizations in the state to be recognized with this award thank you to all our colleagues physicians and volunteers for making health one a great place to give and receive care learn more about our services physicians and locations by visiting healthonecares.com that's healthonecares.com attention listeners i'm pleased to announce that radio rental is returning for another installment of terrifying tales if you happen to be new here i'm terry carnation current proprietor of the radio rental video store where i possess a collection of the scariest true stories you've ever heard all told by real people mark your calendars for oh apparently it's available right now i'm a little late with this promo listen for free on the odyssey app or wherever you get your podcasts surgeons keep our hearts beating they do the amazing help save lives and so can you your csl plasma donation can help create 24 critical life-saving medicines that can give grandpa the chance for his heart to swell when he meets his new grandson or give a bride the chance for her heart to skip a beat on her wedding day every plasma donation helps more than you know do the amazing help save lives donate today at your local csl plasma center and be rewarded for your generosity you are listening to the after hours podcast so lakers trail by two season on the line austin reeves gets it into labrond labrond attacks the rim drives puts it up no good game over nuggets win and denver is going to the nba finals final score nuggets 1 13 lakers 1 11 and that's it michael i thought labrond got fouled there was no whistle the nuggets win the series four games to none probably was trying to get downhill man and again i i mean not to use any excuses and making any excuses but there's contact on just about every play in the nba now when you drive the ball and what's considered uh a violation and what's not what's called and what's not it's like i'm oblivious like i don't know and so um all you want is fairness and consistency it's something that i've always said so just trying to get the ball in the hands of our best player this is after hours with amy lawrence no darvin ham no absolutely not i'll give labrond credit because he did not say anything about the officials there were calls in this game that were questionable there were tiki tacks there were calls that were missed of course because it's humans who are making the calls the calls have nothing to do with the nuggets rallying from 15 points down and half nothing to do with the fact that they outlasted the the los angeles lakers in every single one of these games and think about it in multiple games in this series they had to rally from double figures down the lakers ran out of gas pure and simple labrond was double teamed on that final possession they only had four seconds anyway because they'd wasted so much time before how about don't run 20 something seconds off the clock and they take seconds off the clock and then leave yourself four for an inbounds play labrond was tired i get it he's the best option nobody else was really stepping up if possible ad was even more exhausted than labrond who was cramping late in this game but the nuggets played it perfectly they rotated they helped when labrond swung the ball and was trying to get an angle around aaron gordon jamal murray got two hands on it and so even though labrond was strong enough to kind of muscle it up as best he could he didn't get a clean look at it and he didn't get high enough on the glass with four seconds left it's after hours with amy lawrence here on cbs sports radio labrond had 31 in the first half he did everything he could but only nine in the second half again you can only ask one human to do so much he came out with a mindset to keep this thing going he came in the building as he's been all year all throughout the playoffs with a focus a determination to get it done by any means necessary and uh you know i just thank them all i mean it's great the competitive spirit you know it's uh it was phenomenal you know from day one getting to this point from which we came you know digging ourselves out of a deep deep hole and then being able to be a part of this 2023 nba postseason and then become one of the final four teams you know um it's a hell of a hell of a year hell of an experience and hell of a turnaround did a complete 180 and um you know he was a big part of that in terms of his communication his leadership he and ad both um he just came out ready ready to go for me it's just you know just a mindset you know and training the mind you know you train the mind body forward may and you know take care of the rest so you know knowing coming into a game where i may have to play a full game that's just my mindset he did play nearly 48 minutes left the arena with a couple of seconds left in the first half so not quite 48 minutes however while i appreciate what he says about the mindset and there may be no one who's more mentally tough than lebron i mean he's seen it all on the basketball court but your body will only do what your body will do and his body gets tired too he took a lot of pounding in this series so didn't jokic there was a there was a i think a good physical back and forth between these two teams ultimately in the second half they made lebron work so hard and he was cramping and there were times when he was down on the court there were times when he was sucking wind it's just life especially when you're 38 is he 38 it's after hours with amy lawrence on cbs sports radio anthony davis he was a shrinking violet he was a remember how he had a huge game in the opener and the nuggets ended up winning anyway because again they rallied from a deficit but then we were talking about the fact that likely there would be games where he wasn't able to take as many shots where he wasn't able to be quite so dominant both the lakers and the nuggets had very short benches in this series and they did make a change in the starting lineup last night but for the lakers anthony davis lebron james they were playing more than 40 minutes you can only ask these guys to do so much ad did have 21 points and 14 rebounds and did have a couple of big shots late but he just didn't have enough in terms of defense right like the nikole jokic was able to move around at will and there were times he's backing him down backing him down the nuggets made him work and ultimately lakers ran out of gas and so yeah at this point who cares about the turnaround ad says we didn't get where we wanted to be obviously it hurts right now especially the way you know we lost not only tonight but you know i think we gave away two games three games i mean we had tonight um it was just tough i mean you know credit to denver obviously they're a great ball club number one team for a reason um you know their players played well um you know throughout the entire series um but it's tough hurts stinks and uh you know we got to carry it into the next season you know you know keep this feeling remember this feeling and use it as use it as fuel me and ad was just talking in the locker room for a little bit i think we came to the consensus this um you know if not one of the best probably the best team that we've played since we've been together for our four years um they're just well orchestrated well put together um they have scoring they have shooting they have play making they have smarts they have length they have depth um and uh one thing about their team when you have a guy like joker who as big as he is but also a cerebral he is you can't really make many mistakes um versus a guy like that um and even when you guard him for one of the best possessions that you think you've guarded him he puts the ball behind his head larry bird style and shoots it 50 feet in the air and it goes in i think he did like four or five times this series well to be fair lebron actually had a pass that went in as a three-pointer last night too was this line drive pass that was intended for i think it was ruined he was under the hoop and he was out in the three-point arc so lebron kind of chucks it and it's a strange it's a high line drive and it goes through the hoop so he had one too if you know we're gonna be equitable it's after hours here on cbs sports radio he finishes one assist shy of a triple double and he does have 40 points in this game 31 coming in the first half as for yogic 30 points 14 rebounds 13 assists three steals and foul trouble he played a good chunk of the second half in foul trouble including the final stages with five so he was out there having to be really careful too uh which means when you walk the type rope it's even more impressive so lebron and ad agreeing this was the toughest opponent they faced and that's saying something because remember they faced the nuggets in the bubble in 2020 in the western conference finals it's been an arc for the nuggets it's been an incredible journey for them one that goes back to the seeds that were planted in the bubble and the leadership of a salty mike malone and the indy fatigueable nikola yogic who will do anything that he needs to on the court jamal murray healthy and now explosive again running d'angelo russell ragged michael porter jr and aaron gordon who won't back down bruce brown who wants to get in your face and yap but also plays tough defense it was a team that can beat you a variety of ways and while it wasn't a massive margin of victory meaning not overwhelming the nuggets didn't overwhelm the lakers four wins in a row is four wins in a row and teams that fall into an 0-3 hole in an nba playoff series are now oh and 150. so celtics what do you think are you going to be number one well you got to start with one we'll hear from malcolm brogdon coming up as the celtics prepared to stave off elimination if possible in miami on tuesday night but one more i promise this lebron james asked about his future multiple times in his post-game press conference but not until the very end i don't know if he's trolling us does he get a little more reflective about what happens next we'll see what happens going forward um and i don't know i don't know i got a lot to think about to be honest i had a lot to think about to be honest and um just for me personally going going forward with the game of basketball a lot to think about that was how lebron ended his post-game press conference if you missed our conversation with michael duarte who was there in la for nbc la he gave us his perspective on lebron and what happens next and why he believes lebron will continue to play there are a couple of very specific reasons but here's the deal even lebron he's human he's exhausted he's emotional as human beings we should never make important decisions when we're exhausted and emotional when we've given everything we've got and we've come up short we see it in sports all the time but it's human nature i know better than to make decisions when i'm real emotional as well because it changes how we feel sometimes our emotions can lead us in the wrong direction how many times do we hear tom brady talk about taking some time even payton manning when he's 40 years old took some time before he announced his retirement because he wanted to think about it make sure he was doing the right thing for himself and his family but again speaking as an emotional girl don't make decisions when you're exhausted and your emotions are running wild surgeons keep our hearts beating they do the amazing help save lives and so can you your csl plasma donation can help create 24 critical life-saving medicines that can give grandpa the chance for his heart to swell when he meets his new grandson or give a bride the chance for her heart to skip a beat on her wedding day every plasma donation helps more than you know do the amazing help save lives donate today at your local csl plasma center and be rewarded for your generosity or when you're hungry it's after hours with amy lawrence you are hours with amy lawrence you are listening to the after hours podcast game three of the 2023 eastern conference final belongs to the heap largest margin of victory of this postseason for miami as they win by 26 and improve just like their counterparts over in the west to three nil in this eastern conference final this is after hours with amy lawrence no longer jason jackson on the miami heat radio network course that was sunday evening when the heat embarrassed the celtics in game three and did it without really needing the second half in fact none of the starters well marcus smart may have played the the first stages of the fourth quarter for boston but otherwise the starters were resting in the fourth quarter uh heat enjoying their rest far more than the celtics in that game it was a stunner not because the heat won that's not the deal it's because the celtics lacked energy and intensity and focus and discipline and a sense of urgency and somehow this became joe mazzola's fault somehow this became the coach's fault because he didn't know what to say to them stop it these are professionals they're grown men who play basketball for a living and have been to the nba finals it's almost the exact same group not exactly but almost malcolm brogdon in addition who does have a championship they should know better they do know better and i appreciated that al horford and jaylen brown were taking accountability among others following game number three so now what where do they go from here are they about to be swept out of town like the lakers it's after hours with amy lawrence on cbs sports radio pointed comments from brogdon on monday in fact he even said that the celtics maybe lost their identity a little bit and this is not like them i think in these playoffs overall i think it's it's showing because we're playing a very disciplined consistent well-coached team um but i think in the atlanta series i think in the philly series i think we got away with with things that um now are biting us so um you know that that's definitely uh troubling what are those things yeah um i think it's i think it's mainly on the defensive end um you know we haven't been consistently great defensively all year long and that was the team's identity last year and i think that slipped away from us we've had spurts where we've been great defensively but not consistently and uh honestly we've struggled in every series we've played um so you know now we're playing a team that's uh playing you know as if they're the best team in the league and um they're just incredibly disciplined incredibly consistent and i think we've struggled with teams that um you know are consistent on a you know you know possession by possession basis every night i just want to correct myself didn't brogdon go through indiana he wasn't part of the bucks team that won the championship i i don't think so i just as i'm sitting here thinking about it i'm pretty sure he went through the pacers he went from bucks to pacers and then went to boston so definitely his first year in boston but i i don't think he was part of the bucks championship uh in 2021 just to make sure i correct that as i'm listening to him talk about the celtics identity crisis and i had said going back to the atlanta series that the lack of a defensive intensity and the lack of discipline on defense made me nervous for these celtics because this is not the the same defense that they're capable of number one number two not the same defense that emay udoka got them to play last year on their run to the nba finals it's after hours with amy lawrence on cbs sports radio even more pointed by brogdon he kind of says the team doesn't have the mental toughness they they tend to they tend to get punched in the mouth and and not punch back when it doesn't work out according to their initial plan they need to be more mentally tough i think we're a team that you know all year long has relied on making shots when we don't make shots um you know our defense wanes it slips um and it's something we've talked about it's something we've tried to work on um it's something we've been extremely aware to but um it's you know continued to be an issue for us how about that malcolm brogdon just putting it out there when we don't make shots it affects our mental toughness it affects our our minds and it also affects our defense we're too worried about missing shots we're not worried about getting back on defense and playing with that same intensity and focus so this is monday afternoon they're in miami and brogdon is talking about teams with a strong identity miami being one of those teams but not us they're super committed to their identity and i've said that to miami he know who they are they don't try to be something they're not still though the series is not over and if you're gonna get back into it well you gotta start tonight we still believe we're the better team um we have not played like it in the other three games um but there's you know there is always a first well they'd be the first in 151 teams first of 151 teams to be down oh three to come back but yeah it starts with the first we still believe we're the better team but we just haven't played like it i wonder if anybody else believes that too outside of the celtics locker room are the celtics the better team i say no do they have better individual players across the board okay yeah seven seven undrafted players on the heat postseason roster but are they the better team heck no the chemistry the cohesion the mental toughness the discipline the professionalism all of those intangibles give the heat an edge and their defense and their defense so i disagree with malcolm again are they better on paper because of who their superstars are sure do they have more experience in these situations well collectively maybe but the heat have a chemistry that gives them an edge they trust each other they play for each other they're battle tested they've been through a ton of adversity all of these elements that we talk about with teams that had to fight scratch and claw just to get to the postseason it's working for the miami heat game four coming up tonight in south florida it's after hours here on cbs sports radio can we hear from carmelo before we get out of here as he announces his retirement on monday i remember the days when i had nothing just a ball on the court and the dream was something more but basketball was my outlet my purpose was strong my communities the cities i represented with pride and the fans that supported me along the way i am forever grateful for those people and places because they made me carmelo anthony but now the time has come for me to say goodbye to the court where i made my name to the game that gave me purpose and pride but this bittersweet goodbye to the nba i'm excited about what the future holds for me carmelo anthony six different franchises including denver including new york including portland why cannot remember the other ones lakers oh that's right he was with the lakers briefly houston was he in houston oh he was actually for a second he was in houston i know he was with the hawks for a minute but i don't think he dressed i think they trolled him by they tweeted out like thank you carmelo with his jersey that's just mean nearly two decades though so we made a lot of money as an nba player not in the league this year so retires as get this the number nine scorer in nba history there's something to be said for that longevity 28 289 points also as a syracuse alum he and the orange won the national championship on my birthday in 2003 that was pretty sweet he played for team usa in the olympics he's got three gold medals there's also something to be said for that so congratulations to carmelo anthony we'll hear about lebron's assessment of mellow one of his bffs and we'll talk miami boston coming up tonight have a great tuesday it's after hours with amy lawrence cbs sports radio boom surgeons keep our hearts beating they do the amazing help save lives and so can you your csl plasma donation can help create 24 critical life-saving medicines that can give grandpa the chance for his heart to swell when he meets his new grandson or give a bride the chance for her heart to skip a break on her wedding day every plasma donation helps more than you know do the amazing help save lives donate 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