6-8-23 After Hours with Amy Lawrence PODCAST: Hour 1

Tell the truth. Did you feel like maybe, just maybe, the Miami Heat had the Denver Nuggets exactly where they wanted them? Even if the Nuggets weren't nervous, and I wouldn't say they were nervous, but we heard from Michael Malone after Game 1 and after Game 2 of the NBA Finals that they'd lost the fourth quarter. You win the fourth quarter, you win the game. That was echoing in my brain as they go into the fourth quarter and Miami is only trailing by 14.

It got down to 9 in the final two minutes, however, at that point it was out of reach. Miami tried, they really did, but you gotta give the Nuggets credit because every time the Heat made a run, every time there were a couple of turnovers in a row, and Jamal Murray had some big ones, fumbling, bumbling, stumbling. I know he had a triple-double and he was amazing. He had some huge threes, huge answers, but he also had a few turnovers that gave the Heat some momentum, but every time the Heat would score five points in a row or make a couple big shots or get a stop on D, grab a turnover or steal, Denver would have an answer. So this time, the Nuggets slammed the door, and I was impressed. I feel as though they learned from what happened, not just in Game 2, but how about Game 1 when they let the Heat back into it and then going back to the Western Conference Finals, allowing the Lakers to rally, though they did not win, allowing the Lakers some life, not stepping on their necks, not slamming the door in their noses, not making sure to snuff out any hope. That's not what we've seen from the Nuggets. In these playoffs, they've been a little soft there late in games, and the Miami Heat will eat you alive if you give them an opening. But on this night, the Nuggets were a little bit like AI.

They gathered new intelligence and they spit out a different result. It's after hours with Amy Lawrence on CBS Sports Radio, a real competitive game for the first two and a half quarters. Wait until you hear what Eric Spolstra and Jimmy Butler had to say about Game 3 and their downfall, eerily similar to what Michael Malone had to say after Game 2 when the Nuggets lost. But Denver has regained the home court advantage, and it was short-lived for Miami. Do the Heat still have another opportunity?

Yes. But they are back on serve, to use a tennis term, even as I got French Open tennis up in front of me. They're back on serve. Because even if Miami wins Game 4, Denver still has the home court.

Denver has regained that. It's after hours with Amy Lawrence on CBS Sports Radio, really excited to welcome a brand new guest from South Florida tonight in the wake of Game 3. I bet there are a lot of you listening in South Florida who are familiar with Jose Pineda. He is the long time, as in long, long time Spanish play-by-play voice of the Miami Heat. In fact, we found out he's been working for the organization 35 years and doing the play-by-play on Spanish radio 34 years. And we'd never have him on the show.

Actually, it was kind of fun. Last year, during baseball season, we talked to Ricky Ricardo on the show for the first time, and now we'll have Jose Pineda. He listens to the show himself when he gets done with road trips and has to hop in the car after flying home from here or there and everywhere.

Jose Pineda coming up at the top of the hour here on CBS Sports Radio. Lots and lots of traffic on our social this week and last week. I tell you, sometimes I'm not quite sure what will spark a reaction.

But generally when Amy Trask gets involved in the conversation, there's more traffic. So before I went to bed, this is me sometimes, I'm mindless in the mornings. And I really do need to get away from sports. I need to settle my brain.

I need to read a little bit. Or this is what I was doing on Wednesday morning. I was watching animal videos on social media. Seriously, I spend way too much time watching animal videos on social media.

But speaking of AI, you know what happens. The more you watch animal videos, the more animal videos they send you to watch. The more show up in your newsfeed.

But I found that not only do they make me giggle, not only do I really love watching them, but they actually help me settle down. So I will give social media credit for that. I will give social media credit for sending me every baby animal video known to man on my newsfeed.

It's that and here's what else has happened. I don't know if this is a mistake or not, but I followed a Star Wars account, not the actual Star Wars, but I followed some Star Wars fan account on Facebook. Not with your account, Jay, don't worry with my account. That would have been okay with my actual account.

Fine, I'll do it on yours too. Now every other post on my Facebook newsfeed is some random Star Wars account. Do you know how many Star Wars accounts there are out there? A lot. So I followed one on Instagram not too long ago and now I'm inundated.

Yeah, exactly. Great word. Innundated. Besieged. Oh, besieged. No, sieged.

Under siege. I'm under siege from Star Wars. But there are dozens and dozens of accounts. And because I actually am Facebook friends with a bunch of Cubans from my trips to Havana, a bunch of them are in Spanish because I also have a bunch of friends who only post in Espanol. And so a lot of the Star Wars fans accounts are in Spanish. So I have English and Spanish Star Wars accounts and I have baby animal videos. And then do you know the Dodo? You know that Facebook account, the Dodo?

That one is constantly sending me. On Wednesday morning, I got wrapped up in this video with a man saving a baby shark. And the baby shark wouldn't leave until he got his head pats. I mean, come on. And the man is speaking in his British or probably Australian accent. Sometimes I have a hard time telling the difference. Don't yell at me. He's speaking in an accent and he's talking to the shark and he's calling him Doggie.

So I would assume it was Australian. Anyway, really funny stuff. And I can't stop watching them. But whether it's reading and right now I'm in the middle of a Star Wars book, whether it's reading a Star Wars book on my Kindle or watching animal videos on social media, it seems to help my brain to settle and calm down. I'm going to retweet it just so you can see the timestamp on it.

839 a.m. Eastern, Wednesday, June 7th. Confession is good for the soul. I spend way too much time watching animal videos on social media. But the more you watch, the more they send you. That's what I mean about A.I. It's everywhere these days.

It's spying and it's learning how to suck you in. Those videos are dangerous. But I do love them.

I love them. I love the baby animal videos. I love all the elephants every single day. Now there's a new baby elephant video. Boy, are they uncoordinated when they're little and they're so funny. Anyway, so it's animal videos and it's Star Wars. And Amy saw that post of mine, Amy Trask, on Twitter and she writes, it's not a waste of time, a good use of time. Yes.

It's dogs, it's bears, it's elephants, it's any baby animals. I love them. They make me happy.

So yes, once Amy gets involved and there's far more traffic. This was kind of a funny tweet in response. Scott says, otters. I swear they occupy most of my day and my feed. Another one from M. M. Moore says, especially those yellow labs. And then Michelle writes, ditto.

So a lot of you are in the same boat as me. The more baby animal videos you watch, the more baby animal videos you get. Speaking of baby animals, I still have not told you my story about how I got ambushed by a baby bunny. I swear I will on this edition of the show.

I promise. But yeah, if you want to find me on Twitter, A Law Radio, on our Facebook page too, we really got a lot of reaction on both of our social media accounts to our conversation with Matt Adams, fairways of life golf channel. He joined us from Ireland about 23 hours ago in the wake of golf's bombshell news, the merger between the PGA and the live tour, as well as the DP world tour.

Yeah, yeah. And so we asked him, why is the PGA merging with live? We also got a lot of reaction from him about golfers that that his, his source golf channel had reached out to. And he was very passionate about the move, the implications for the golf world, about why he was not at all confused about why this merger is taking place.

And he teed off on one key central figure in this drama going back to last year. You do not want to miss it. We did put an excerpt up on Twitter specifically when Matt answered the question of why we were able to condense his answer into a neat little soundbite and put it up on Twitter. If you haven't seen it, it's on my Twitter. It's also on our show Twitter. And then the entire conversation with Matt, that one's up there as well.

I'm telling you, it's really good stuff. He was called in to work. He's on a golf trip in Ireland. The heat was too much for them to golf, this group that he was with. And so instead he was available when his producer called him in a panic and said, you have to get on the air right now. And so he was working all day Tuesday, like many in the golf industry, many in the golf media, and was probably had been up for a fair amount of the night before we got him to join us, which was mid-morning there. And so yeah, we appreciate Matt Adams. As I say, many of you have commented and responded to that interview on both Twitter and Facebook. And on this edition of the show, Rory McIlroy weighs in.

The guy we've been all waiting to hear from. He, and I would say Tiger Woods as well, but Rory is at the RBC Canadian Open. I don't know how the wildfires are going to affect that golf tournament, because I tell you what, there are at least 17 states in the US that are under air quality alerts or air quality warnings. And I know where I live in New Jersey, Northern New Jersey, the smoke is thick. It's hazy. I took Penny out for three minutes on Wednesday afternoon and my eyes were stinging and I could feel the smoke in my vocal cords.

I'm pretty sensitive to that, as you can imagine. Penny herself was coughing. Now she has chronic bronchitis, so I cannot keep her outside for very long. We just went around the quick block. I did not run the way that I was hoping to outside. And I've got all my doors and windows closed, even though the temps were in the mid sixties and it would have been beautiful without the smoke to open up my doors and windows. I know if you were watching the news, because I was watching the Weather Channel, you may have seen it was actually a time-elapse video that showed, I might retweet it from the Weather Channel, a time-elapse video that showed the deterioration of the air quality in Lower Manhattan. It got really bad at two o'clock in the afternoon, Eastern time. It was orange in Lower Manhattan.

And Jay sent me a text not long after that saying, what? My room is orange. I woke up and I was no idea where I was. Your room is orange, partly because you do not have curtains on your windows, but you had that same air quality in Long Island. It was, it was crazy. But literally the entire atmosphere, it was orange. Like the sky, just looking out, all you could see was just this orange haze. Right.

Yeah. It's made worse in Manhattan and in parts of New York because of the smog. And so you combine the smog and the air quality anyway with the smoke and the haze that's descending from Eastern Canada, courtesy of these wildfires. I did hear it's now up to 200, the count is up to 200 different wildfires that are raging in both Quebec and Nova Scotia, Eastern Canada. And because of the jet stream and because we have not had any rain, at least in the New York City area in two weeks, two plus weeks now, the smoke is not dissipated and it's, it's real tough. So I will retweet this video.

You have to watch it. The orange skies over Lower Manhattan, pretty crazy. And there's a lot of still photos out there as well. And I know that New York is not alone in this respect.

And so you can share your stories with us if you want. But yeah, I spent most of the day inside on Thursday, just trying to be careful not to breathe in a lot of the smoke and haze because according to different scientists who track this type of thing, I actually have heard multiple interviews with scientists who specialize in air quality, and also the impacts on human beings and and pets as well. But humans specifically, if you go out in the type of conditions that New York and New Jersey and other places in the Northeast and the Upper Midwest had over the last couple days, it's akin to smoking half a pack of cigarettes yourself. That's how toxic the air. Had you spent an hour outside in New York City on Wednesday afternoon, it was like smoking a half a pack of cigarettes.

Even three minutes outside and my eyes were already stinging and I was wearing contacts too. So generally that doesn't happen. But for those of you who are in high risk places, all of our outdoor activities were canceled in my county, New Jersey and New York City, canceling pretty much everything outside. Kids did not go to school, or are not going to school on Thursday, excuse me, they canceled classes on Thursday in New York City schools.

And so there's a real danger. They don't want kids out walking, they don't want kids playing sports. I know I checked on my friend Margaret, who's 88 years old and is down on the Jersey Shore, but just wanted to make sure she loves to walk and I just wanted to make sure she was not outside.

A friend of mine asked me if I wanted to walk and I said, not in this air. So yeah, hoping that it'll be cleared out by Friday. We're supposed to get some rain storm, some rain, some storms and hoping that it will clear out on Friday, but they keep extending it. And so I can only imagine what the air quality is like in the midst of these wildfires. For those of you who listen north of the border in eastern Canada, definitely thinking of you. Please be safe.

I'm starting to see more masks than I have in quite a while. All right, coming up, we'll pick apart. That's what we love to do. We'll pick apart and dissect and analyze and give our opinions on game three of the NBA Finals. And in addition to that, you will hear from Coach Malone, Jamal Murray, Nicola Jokic, both those guys with triple doubles tonight, first time that two teammates have ever had triple doubles in the same NBA Finals game. And then what does Christian Brown have to do with it? It's After Hours with Amy Lawrence on CBS Sports Radio.

You are listening to the After Hours podcast. Thanks pick from Gordon. Head fake on the jumper. Puts it on the floor instead. Fade away.

Good boy! Is that a tough shot? Nuggets back in the lead by 9. 63 to 54. Denver's lead is at 10. Jamal Murray has it. He throws top of the key to Jokic for a triple.

Money! 73 to 60 Denver. A little bit more than four minutes left to go for the third. Casey has it at the point. Gets a pick from Nikola Jokic.

Takes a long two. Jumpers up and in. 16-point lead for the Denver Nuggets. Their big lead of the night with less than two minutes to go. Timeout Miami!

This is After Hours with Amy Lawrence. Jason Kosmicki on Denver Nuggets radio. This was only a five-point lead for the Nuggets at halftime but they had also missed a bunch of bunnies in the paint. It felt like they missed some layups. They missed some point blank shots and there were a couple of turnovers in there.

A bit mindless. So Miami would kind of keep them within striking distance even when Denver threatened to pull away. In the third quarter though seemed like they made all the big shots when they had to and would get just a little farther away.

Just a little farther away. Won the third quarter by nine points in large part because of Christian Brown. Now he was getting early minutes as was Reggie Jackson which was interesting. It felt like Michael Malone used a lot of different combinations. More guys than we typically see from the Nuggets head coach.

But yeah sometimes you throw a guy out there even if he's a rookie and he has got exactly what you what you need. 19 seconds on the shot clock. Extended minutes here for Christian Brown the rookie out of Kansas. Inbound goes to Christian. Christian brings it back out over the point. Goes to the left hand. Hands it off to Joker.

Little floater's good. 86 to 70. Jamal Murray has it up the left sideline. He's guarded by Caleb Martin. He gets a pick from Mikola Jokic. They switch the pick and roll. They jump Murray. Down low to Christian. Layup is up and in and a foul as well.

The rookie coming to play in the fourth quarter tonight for Denver. Here comes Christian. Christian runs into Butler. Shoots over but he got it to go. That was a foul too. He went right into Jimmy buckets.

Bam Bam buckets. I have to give Christian a lot of love. I felt his play.

What a bad press room by the way. I felt Christian Brown's play was fantastic. Did not look like a rookie. Aggressive, strong, physical, confident and his 15 and 4 off the bench in 19 minutes were very very impactful.

So good win for us but we did not come down here to get one win. He knows what to do to stay on the floor. You know he's solid on defense. Shoots the gaps. Plays hard.

In the right spot he crashes. Plays solid defense you know so he knows the offense will come when he's doing those things and he's playing with a lot of confidence. We're finding him like he's a five-year vet you know he's just playing the game the right way.

Every game even if he makes mistakes he knows how to bounce back and I think that's huge for a rookie especially getting these kind of minutes and you know he's got a lot more game to come you know not just in these finals but you know for his career we're excited to see what he can do. Those guys trust me so I can't really fail if I go out there and play hard. They don't expect much from me as far as the offensive end. They just you know expect me to go out there and you know give effort on defense, rebound, whatever it is. Try to get extra possession for those guys to score. So they trust me. They put me in the right spots and all I got to do is you know lay a ball in and get a steal.

So my job's pretty easy and those guys made me look pretty good. That's all I got to do is lay the ball in, get a steal. He also had a breakaway dunk too which was kind of fun for the rookie. Christian Brown has arrived. He has 15 points in the 19 minutes as you hear with Mike Malone and then Jamal Murray and he only misses one of his shots from the floor.

It's after hours with Amy Lawrence on CBS Sports Radio. Ultimately though the byline for this particular NBA Finals game would be Jamal Murray, Nikola Jokic. Not only did they show the effort that Mike Malone wanted after game number two, not only did they spearhead the Nuggets being able to stay in front in the fourth quarter and not allow the Heat to get close enough to rally and steal this one, but they were the first teammates ever to record triple doubles in an NBA Finals game. Over halfway home now in the fourth quarter, Jokic hands it off over to Jamal Murray, takes a long two, jumpers up and in.

95 to 79 Denver. Murray, another pick from Nikola Jokic. Murray gets down the lane, leans in, high lofting layup, out the window and down. Oh man, he threw that thing so high it almost went over the backboard.

It hit the very tip of the glass. Bounce pass top of the key over to Nikola Jokic. Jokic back over to Murray. Murray goes to the right hand, gets a pick from Nikola, stops, throws it back to Joker, head fake on the jumper, drives it on Alabi who shoots over him.

Jumper's good. Denver leads it by 16 with three and a half to go in game number three. I've been with Nikola for eight and Jamal for seven years now and we've been, you know, we've had some pretty good moments but not in the NBA Finals and for those guys to make history the way they did tonight, no one's ever done that.

I mean that's what's really neat about it. You get the win. I thought our defense was fantastic tonight. You hold that team to 94 points, 37 from the field, only 11 threes. You know that really helped us out tonight, the defending and rebounding at a high level but by far their greatest performance as a duo in their seven years together. He's playing phenomenal. I think the whole playoff and we're just following him like I said and he's really good leader. His energy is amazing and we are just following. What he does make, he makes it look so easy. You know, he grabbed 21 boards and everybody talking about he can't jump and he's, you know, he's out there battling everybody. He's physically strong. 30 points, people say he doesn't want to score.

He gives you 32. I mean in tennis, you know, so it's just, he just makes the game look easy throughout the game and like I said, it's just free throwing. His touch, his creativity, his no-look passes, his IQ.

I could go down the line. He's a special player. I love it.

It's the mutual admiration society. Mike Malone says that Jamal and Joker are as good as he's ever seen and of course because of the stage, the NBA Finals. That makes sense and then you hear Jokic raving about Jamal because he's our energy.

He keeps us going. Well, Jamal had 34 points, 10 rebounds, 10 assists. If I remember correctly, he got his last rebound in the final 30 seconds of the game so he was still out there on the court, is able to get that triple-double. For Joker, it's his 10th triple-double in these playoffs. His 10th. Do you know he leads all NBA players in this postseason in points, rebounds, and assists.

The man is seven-foot something. He looks as gangly as a giraffe. He shoots like, it's just, it's ugly. Well, it's a lot like a Larry Bird. He pulls the ball back behind his head for heaven's sakes and it's so pronounced on three-point shots.

Oh my goodness. Anyway, he leads all NBA players this postseason in those three categories. Another 32, 21 rebounds, and 10 assists for Joker. Not to mention a couple of block shots and so what these two are doing, they've got to be the most productive duo in the NBA right now.

Of course, we've seen others. I mean, think about Draymond Green and Steph Curry, the defending champions last year and how long they've played together. So that's obviously a very productive duo. As I'm watching Jokic and Jamal, I keep thinking about Donovan Mitchell and Rudy Gobert and how those two could have been so dominant and they were great. I'm not telling you they weren't, but the two never really, it's not that they didn't get along. They were brothers, but they weren't BFFs, right? They didn't have great chemistry and it's not required to be productive on a court, the field, the ice.

It's not. But you can see how much Jokic and Jamal love playing together. Number one, how much they respect each other's games, how well they know each other, and how they delight in the other's success. Okay, so there's an extra advantage there because they've worked together and they love working together. I've worked with partners on the radio. There are some that I get along with, away from the microphones, some that I don't.

I will be honest, there are some partners I've worked with that I could not stand. For the sake of radio, we made it work. But it's always, always so much easier to go to work, to give it your best effort. It's always so much easier to go through the fire with blood, sweat, and tears alongside someone that you like and that you care about because you want them to succeed too. Obviously, these two guys both want to win a title. They both want to see the Denver Nuggets finally break through and grab their first ever Larry O'Brien trophy. They do. But you can tell they also really like each other and they like playing together and they appreciate one another's games and the talents, the skills, and abilities that have gotten them to this point. They actually want the other one to succeed.

And that's huge. I think the Miami Heat have that same quality. But for now, the Nuggets have got the nose in front, the 2-1 lead.

It's just really neat to see these two guys. If there's no drama, there's no drama. If there's no drama, when was the last time you could say that about an NBA team? There's no drama. They're not trying to bring in their BFFs so they can surround themselves with people who validate them.

Nope. They just really appreciate one another. And the number of times that Jamal Murray gets on Media's case or claps back about Jokic not getting his respect, it's impressive. They're brothers, but they also really care about the other one's success. And that helps.

It's not necessary, but it helps. On Twitter, A Law Radio, also on our Facebook page. Coming up, waiting to hear what Eric Spolstra said about his team after game three, eerily similar to what Mike Malone complained about following game number two. What a bad press room, by the way. And what is that about? Jay, why did you leave that in the cut? I heard it and I thought, well, okay, if he's gonna leave it in there, we'll giggle about it. But I don't know what he was referring to because I didn't see the video. He was just unsatisfied with where they were holding the press conference.

Was it Rinky Dink? I guess. Did they put him in a closet? Hard to tell from the video of just seeing the back screen and him, but he started to answer the question. He's looking around and I guess he just didn't like where he was and decided to throw that in. He is so salty these days.

Put that in your pipe and smoke it. We heard that from him last round. He was all ticked off that the Lakers got more attention than the Nuggets did after the opener of the West Finals. He's not having it when people don't give Jokic his respect.

You put that in your pipe, you smoke it. I mean, he is, he's, yeah, he is feeling himself. But it makes me laugh because he's just as hard on his guys as he is on everyone else. And I say this a lot. High expectations when it comes to sports a lot of times are teachers. We know they care about us. Relationships, high expectations equate to huge beliefs. I believe in you. That's why I set my expectations too high. Well, not too high, sorry.

That's why I set my expectations sky high. Mike Malone, maybe he's just cranky because he's tired. No, no, no time to sleep these days, jetting back and forth across the country. And he's like, I better get a trophy to this or this is not freaking worth it. This press room sucks, by the way.

Why is he being such a jerk? Yeah, I think he's, I think he needs a nap. It's After Hours with Amy Lawrence.

You are listening to the After Hours Podcast. Over halfway home now in the fourth quarter, Jokic hands it off over to Jamal Murray, takes a long two, jumpers up and in. 95 to 79 Denver. Murray goes to the right hand, gets a pick from Mikola, stops, throws it back to Joker, head fake on the jumper, drives in on Alabi who shoots over him, jumper's good. Denver leads it by 16 with three and a half to go in game number three. Jokic back over to Yurksev, that one's on the way, that one misses. Rebound down to Jamal Murray and that is a triple double for Jamal Murray and Nicole Jokic in the same game and there's the horn.

Denver takes game three in Miami. This is After Hours with Amy Lawrence. Oh, I like the piano. That's awesome. Fits perfectly. After Hours with Amy Lawrence on CBS Forge Radio is what the voice God said. On a recent edition of Ask Amy Anything, someone wanted to know the name of the voice God. His name is Paul. Inquiring minds want to know.

Nicole Jokic, Jamal Murray, both with triple doubles. You hear that little ditty? Well, ditty would be more music. You hear that little nugget?

Haha. From Jason Kosmiggi on Nuggets Radio. He still insists on calling bam out of bio, bam out of bayou and I do not understand it. It's not a problem, I suppose, if Miami fans aren't listening. But if Miami fans weren't listening or the Miami Heat caught wind of it, I would think it would be disrespectful.

Yeah, yeah. The Heat led early by five points and they were hanging around. They were trying.

They were thinking about it. They were flirting with a comeback multiple times. They had maybe five points in a row, few takeaways and then buckets at the other end. Even pull within single digits briefly in the fourth quarter. But the comeback, the comeback ultimately snuffed out by the Denver Nuggets, which is exactly what Michael Malone wanted. He said, you win the fourth quarter, you win the game. They had not won the fourth quarters in the first two in Denver.

And so this was one that he felt like they redeemed themselves a little bit. And part of it was their advantage in the paint, right? So not only did they outscore, and this is after missing a bunch of layups and Aaron Gordon seemingly missed three or four times at the rim.

60 to 34. That's the advantage for Denver with points in the paint and also a rebounding edge of 25. That's important. You know, when we rebound like that, it's usually direct correlation to a dub. So we got to keep eating the glass, you know, continue to rebound on both sides of the floor. Now, obviously there are more rebounds when there are more missed shots. And Miami missed a lot of shots.

But 25? That's a huge advantage. And did you notice how the length and the reach and the size of Denver was really a key for them in game number three? That's Aaron Gordon.

He had a double-double. Gabe Vincent was asked about the size advantage for the heat. And he says, it's not like we're getting pushed around out there.

Every team we've played this playoff run has had the quote-unquote size on us, so we're not going to start making that excuse now. Respectfully. Respectfully.

I like that. He didn't say, respectfully, that is the worst team. Draymond said that. It's after hours, CBS Sports Radio. Remember how Michael Malone took his team to task for not having enough energy and effort in game two?

Well, Eric's bolster. Not all that different after game three. We lost a lot of physical, 50-50 or ball in the air, ball on the floor battles throughout the course of the game. At key moments, when the moments could have been swing moments, they were coming up with those plays.

We feel great. We didn't play our best tonight. I feel like we just got to come out with more energy and effort, and that's correctable. That's on us as a group.

No X's and O's can fix that. So, you know, come out, dive on the floor, get loose balls, get defensive rebounds, and maybe just maybe it would have been a different game. Our guys are built to compete, built to get out there.

That cadence of playing every 48 hours. Yeah, we'll get to work tomorrow for sure, but our guys, you know, they want to get out there and compete and have a better showing, you know, for sure. Game four is Saturday night, if I remember correctly.

It's very weird. It's like the NBA is trying to take a page out of the NFL's book in which they legit play every single game of the week. Friday, excuse me, it's Friday. So, we started on a Thursday, correct? Then we went to Sunday.

Then we went to Wednesday. Next, we go to Friday. So, there, right there are four different days of the week. Then they go to Monday. Okay, there's five different days of the week. We got to keep going now and see if I can figure out where they... Then a Thursday! Oh no, they started on a Thursday. Okay, so five different days of the week and they would ultimately end on June 18th. Just as a side note, when Bob and I were planning our hiking trip in June, he wanted to go earlier in the month and I said, oh, I can't because if the NBA Finals go seven games, I have to be available on Sunday, June 18th to work. So, I can't take that night off. So, he pushed his hiking trip back. Oh, he's already understanding how this is going to work.

Poor guy. Eric Spolstra, Jimmy Butler, Bam Adebayo, who actually started out real quick. Remember, he's had two great games to begin the Finals. A big reason why the Heat rallied in game number two. Well, he had a front row seat for what Nikola Jokic and Jamal Murray were doing out there. So, difficult to guard. One, you know, Jokic can pass and, you know, Jamal is looking to score. I feel like that's what makes it so dynamic. You have to expect there to be elite talent in the Finals and both those guys are elite level talent.

At our best version, we find ways to overcome that, make it tough on them and then certainly not lose the overwhelming majority of those physical battles. It's a great duo. You know, their games really complement each other. You have one guy that's, you know, really can score in a lot of different ways. Another guy who's setting great screens or handoffs and then if a ball gets back to him, he can get a bunch of people involved. Yeah, definitely and we've seen every aspect of Nikola Jokic's game.

That's awkward. We've seen every aspect of Nikola's game, the Joker's game. Remember, early in the opener of the NBA Finals, he didn't even take a shot until he already had seven or eight assists.

He was up high. He was at the high post or he was even beyond the arc and he was setting his teammates up and he was drawing the defense out. Well, then he scored 41 points in game two and it wasn't enough for them to preserve the lead but for he and Jamal to both have triple-doubles means they were out there doing work. That's what it means.

Ultimately, regardless of the numbers, that's what it means. They were out there working their arses off, their tails off and I will say, early in the second half, it was in the third quarter. I thought Jamal looked tired. His jersey was hanging out of his shorts. He wasn't tucked in. He wasn't put together. He looked like he was sucking wind a little bit in between plays or taking his time bringing the ball up the court.

Not necessarily a bad thing. I mean, they played deep into June now and played a lot of games but you could tell he looked tired. You preserve energy when you can. I remember watching, actually I've seen it with Aaron Rodgers too, but watching Tom Brady, some of the older quarterbacks, Peyton Manning, toward the end of their careers, you know what they do? They walk. They plod to the line of scrimmage. They do not run to the line of scrimmage.

If they've got time left on the clock, they let all the time elapse on the play clock and Jamal Murray was doing that. But now they've got to win and they've got to win. They've got to win. They've got to win. They've got the home court advantage secured yet again and they can take a little extra time. But I thought it was really interesting that both Mike Malone and Eric Spolster indicated that effort and energy was an issue. But again, think about how deep they've played now into June. It's a lot of games. The Spanish radio voice of the Miami Heat, Jose Pineda, will join us next. It's After Hours on CBS Sports Radio.