JR SportBrief Hour 1

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Get a Serta. You're listening to the JR Sport Brief on CBS Sports Radio. You're listening to the JR Sport Brief on CBS Sports Radio. It's the JR Sport Brief show here with you on CBS Sports Radio. I hope you had a tremendous Tuesday.

If you did not, too damn bad. I'm going to be here with you for the next four hours and I'm here to have a good time. So if you're looking for a good time, then stay tuned. I'm coming to you live from Atlanta, Georgia. I'm being joined by super producer and host Dave Shepherd.

He is coming to you live from New York City. The NBA playoffs continue on. And here's a little bit of a spoiler. The Cleveland Cavaliers just tied the New York Knicks in their series one all. The Boston Celtics, they go up 2-0 against the Atlanta Hawks.

And then I'm hoping that this game is better than the two that I just mentioned. The Los Angeles Clippers are going to take on the Phoenix Suns. After two blowouts tonight.

Third time's got to be a charm, right? So we'll keep you up to date on that game as it gets ready to tip off. I'm referring to Phoenix and the Clippers. And then we'll talk about a couple of the games that ended not too long ago. Atlanta losing to Boston 119 to 106. And then the New York Knicks literally seconds ago, the New York Knicks going down to the Cleveland Cavaliers in Cleveland.

The final score there, 107 to 90. Plenty of basketball to discuss tonight. We know last night a lot of people were up in arms with Draymond Green and his actions stepping the living hell out of DeMontez Sabonis. I was a little shocked at some of the commentary that I saw throughout the course of the day. Who was at fault?

Who was not at fault? People trying to play mind reader for what someone was thinking or not thinking. And so we'll get into that next hour. It was pretty cool this morning to wake up just in totally outside the realm of basketball. But to see that DeMar Hamlin is going to be back, he's going to attempt to come back here with the Buffalo Bills in the NFL. It tells you how fast time flies. We are here right now on April 18th. DeMar Hamlin went down January 2nd. That is so crazy to think about. It feels like months ago, which it was. It didn't feel like four months ago.

That shows you how fast time will fly. We're going to sit. We're going to blink here. We're going to be in May.

And then even to think about it, by the time the Larry O'Brien trophy is given out and the Stanley Cup trophy is given out, we're going to blink and we're going to be in June. And so we're going to talk about the NBA playoffs, the games tonight. We're going to get into Draymond Green.

We'll do that next hour. Talk about DeMar Hamlin. Speaking of coming back from an injury, I don't think anybody knew that Jalen Hurts wasn't necessarily playing with an injury throughout his MVP caliber season. But Jalen Hurts just had a surgery on his ankle to repair an issue or to remove a piece of quote unquote hardware in his ankle that has been there since his time in Alabama. We'll talk about DeAndre Hopkins. We mentioned it last night about his potential free agent destinations. And then, of course, I told you the Suns and the Clippers, they are getting ready to tip off any minute from now. And so we'll get into all of that.

If you want to talk to me here. It's real simple. We paid our chef. We paid our bills. Always, Jr. Somebody paid him, right?

Yes. I pay him. Did you pay him? Oh, you pay him with your value. Oh, well, thank you, sir.

They need to send some of that value over here to us. Anyway, Shep, you doing good? Doing well. Thank you for asking, Jr. I'm hoping for a great third game. But like you said, I think the news with DeMar Hamlin, I think Trump's everything, man. What a story.

It's beautiful. We'll get to that later on the show. Since we paid our bills, the phone number works. Not that I checked, but I'm sure it works. And we got 100 million lines connected to it. Unless a few of them are full and you can call us up. That's 855-212-4CBS.

That's 855-212-4CBS. You can find me online. I'm on Twitter, Facebook, Instagram, whatever you use in your spare time to yell at strangers. I am there at JR Sport Brief. That's at JR Sport Brief everywhere. And knock yourselves out.

Find me there. Let's get this crap out the way first. Because this, I mean, after a hot weekend of NBA playoff action, these are the games that I kind of go, OK, yeah, I can expect this. First of all, the Atlanta Hawks. They lost tonight. To the shock and surprise of me and nobody else, they lost.

119-106 was the final score. The Atlanta Hawks were able to start this game off on a little bit of a run. And when I say little bit, it didn't really extend seemingly past, I want to say the first quarter.

It was close. Boston was leading 28-24. The Boston Celtics were able to, I don't want to say they were able to, they felt flat a little bit. The Hawks went on a run and then the Celtics just kept pouring it on.

I mean, at halftime, the Celtics led 61-49. Today, this evening here in Atlanta, I was walking around. I had a Hawks T-shirt on. Not because I'm jumping for joy for the Hawks. I got a lot of Hawks gear.

What you want from me? Every person that asked me looked at me and said, how you think we're going to do? And I said, oh, it's just a matter of time before the elimination comes. And everybody goes, yeah, we know.

Nobody expects anything. And so tonight, the final score, 119-106. Hawks don't play no damn defense. They've never had an answer for Jason Tatum. They let Derek White get in on the action. Derek White had 26 points tonight. Tatum had 29. Jalen Brown had a mere 18. Marcus Smart had 14. And the Hawks, man, they just, it's just a slow death year, a slow burn.

A matter of fact, I'll entertain you. This is Jason Tatum in the second quarter, helping to extend that lead before halftime, 61-45. This is before the damn half.

Listen. Two dribble drive, exposes the ball because Smart was coming at him. Brogdon rips it away, running with Tatum. Brogdon going to hand to Tatum at the last second. He steps back and scores off the glass. Man, what kind of defense is this?

I fooled you once, fooled you twice. Celtics have 50 points in the last quarter and a half, from down 11 to up 15. Fifty points in the last quarter. The Hawks don't play no defense, man.

I've seen it with my own eyes. I want to get out there and throw a shoulder shrug or something. It's the Celtics radio network here. That's Jason Tatum flying to the basket. That's what he does, right?

Well, how about this? Listen to Jason Tatum in the fourth quarter. The Boston Celtics did give the Hawks a little bit of life. The Hawks were able to cut it to nine points. And then Jason Tatum was like, I don't got time for this. And then he started knocking down a three.

Derek White returns to Tatum. Pretty good look. Right side three. Got it.

Those are two easy looks there. Set the pick and no bounce off. He's been so good you don't even talk about it.

Oh, come on. Tatum is so good because the Hawks don't do anything. You would think the Hawks are out there trying to help him look good. Yeah, listen to the final call. That's going to give us our final margin. The Celtics do have to get across half court. Tatum Brown dribbles past DeAndre Hunter.

Black will hit triple zeros. And the Boston Celtics hold serve in grand fashion. Building a 22 point fourth quarter lead and surviving what in many ways was the best punch the Hawks could deliver.

Final score in game two, Boston 119 Atlanta 106. The best punch the Hawks could deliver. If you're a boxing fan, you know, Gervonta Davis takes on Garcia this weekend. Gervonta Davis hits you, then you're going to hurt. Ryan Garcia hits you, you're going to hurt. But if Tank Davis hits you, you're going to hurt a whole lot more. And I think the Atlanta Hawks here, they're like Ryan Garcia. We don't have to pepper you with punches. But one hit from Gervonta is going to knock you out. And the Hawks don't have the punching power.

Sorry, they don't. So this is my favorite part here. When the head coaches speak right. Because there's always a hidden message in the coaches or they sound hilarious, so they give you absolutely nothing. Quinn Snyder just took over as head coach. For the Atlanta Hawks. And he was asked, man, what the hell went wrong with your team tonight and where do you all need to improve? This is what Quinn Snyder said. Now we're playing from behind for the majority of the game. But again, you know, I think it was a nine point game of like seven minutes to go.

So, you know, the similar situation, you know, we're right there. And obviously they're they're really, really good team. Our focus is kind of take the shots we get. And the way that they're shifted, if those shots are open, we want to take them.

I still feel like when we've turned them down and, you know, we get into to traffic, you know, the result isn't as good. So, yeah, you know, obviously Tatum started to guard, you know. Quinn Snyder knows they're cooked.

Everybody knows they're cooked. Quinn Snyder is like, can we get through the next two or maybe three games and just go on vacation? Can we figure out who's going to be on my damn team next year? Trae Young finished tonight with twenty four points and six assists. De'Jaunte Murray had twenty nine points. De'Andre Hunter had eighteen. The Hawks took forty eight threes, forty eight of them.

They only made sixteen. So, yeah, Quinn Snyder, I don't know what shots they were, you know, passing up on, but the ones that they did take ain't hit the bottom of the net. What a slow death.

I feel like this has been for three quarters of the Hawks season, a slow death here. Hey, let's talk to a winner. Joe Mazzola. He ended up as head coach of the Boston Celtics because the old coach wanted to sleep with an associate. Be careful who you sleep with at work.

Matter of fact, try not to do it. Joe Mazzola anyway. He says, yeah, I feel good about my team, as he should. You have smart and you have two guys that are toggling between handling setting. You have Jason and Jalen handling setting and you're able to navigate your offense. It's just who's going to make the right play?

And they started doubling. And then we were able to get some open looks and generate some confusion there. So when you do that, you know, he does a great job of just making the right play and he took advantage of it. Confident about the lineups and the different lineups we can play. And I think, you know, we're doing a good job of just getting those different lineups where we have different ball handlers. And sometimes we're double big and sometimes we're not. And when we're not, we have this.

And so I think when I mentioned depth, I mentioned number of players, but I also mentioned the different ways that we can play with the same guys. And so we're trying to, you know, just figure that out. Oh, my God. Is he that board? Is he that board coaching the Atlanta Hawks? I don't know what the hell he just said.

He just sound like he's bored, like he needs a nap. Congratulations to the Atlanta Hawks. They play games three and four here in Atlanta this coming Friday and this coming Sunday. Maybe I'll show up to both games, probably just to wave goodbye to more of my friends before the summertime kicks in. Because God knows I don't got no faith in these Hawks and a lot of people don't either. The Hawks don't have faith in themselves. And me, I'm just really looking forward to hitting the fast forward button here.

I'm really looking forward to moving on to the next round. Does anybody think the Brooklyn Nets got a chance in hell against the 76ers? No, nobody. Right. OK. The only way that they win that series is if Joel Embiid decides to move back to Cameroon.

OK. Unless James Harden, as bad as he is right now, decides to set up camp back in Houston in a strip club. Let's just hit the fast forward button. I'm hoping by the time I'm sitting my ass here next Wednesday that these series are done. Get the Atlanta Hawks out of here. OK, get them out. Let's move on. Let's get the Brooklyn Nets out of here.

Let's get to a legitimate series between the Boston Celtics and the 76ers. My apologies to all of my friends in Brooklyn who like the Nets, of which I think only like one or two exist. And my apologies to all my friends who absolutely love the Hawks, of which there are many, but they fall in a deep second place to the Falcons and the Braves. My apologies.

It's the JR Sport Brief Show here with you on CBS Sports Radio. I'm just trying to move on past the losers. I'm trying to save us time here on the blowouts. Hawks, lay down. Go home. Brooklyn Nets, lay down. Go home. Let's get to some real basketball.

The Clippers and the Phoenix Suns, they just got underway in Phoenix, and we'll keep you up to date on that game as well. The phone lines open if you want to talk to me. That's 855-212-4CBS.

That's 855-212-4CBS. We'll come back from break. I'll leave the phone lines open. I want to give you an update on the other New York City team. You know, there are two New York City teams. There's the New York Knicks and another one, the guys in Brooklyn.

We'll talk about the Knicks because they lost as well. We're just getting started. We're just getting warmed up. It's the JR Sport Brief Show, CBS Sports Radio. You're listening to the JR Sport Brief on CBS Sports Radio. JR wants to hear from you. Call him now at 855-212-4CBS.

That's 855-212-4227. It's the JR Sport Brief Show on CBS Sports Radio. I told you right before the break, the Atlanta Hawks, they lost to the Boston Celtics tonight, 119-106. Boston now has a 2-0 series lead. Simultaneously going down in Cleveland, Ohio, the New York Knicks, they lost to the Cleveland Cavaliers, 107-90. And so, this game continues to move on and the series is now tied at 1-all. Going back to New York City, I'll give you some of the details momentarily on that game, on that matchup.

And then you'll also hear from Donovan Mitchell who spoke after the game about what took place for them to tie this series up. 855-212-4CBS. Let's quickly go to Chris. He is calling from Virginia. You're on CBS Sports Radio, the JR Sport Brief Show.

What's going on, Chris? Hey JR, good to talk to you again. I think last time I spoke to you about Basils back in February when you were on the fan. So I love picking your brain. Heard your opening monologue about the Celtics, how they just controlled the game with Atlanta tonight, being a Celtics fan. And then with the Nets and Sixers series.

I'm in agreement with you. I just want the series to now get over with. Now the Celtics have the 2-0 lead because I think that's the series most people are waiting for to take place already, the Celtics and Sixers. I know there are some people who are taking the Sixers to get to the NBA Finals should that happen. And I personally think that's ludicrous because I think the Celtics team is just way better than Philadelphia, even with Joel Embiid. And I do expect a good 5-6 game series with the Celtics coming out on top because they continue to own Philadelphia. That's just my personal take. I just want to hear what you think.

About what? A potential series between Philadelphia and the Celtics? Yeah, I think it goes 6, maybe 7, but Boston comes out on top again. I just think they, even as great as NBA, they just continue to own the Sixers. And I just think Boston just gets more depth and there's more, what's the word I want to use, they're more experienced. Yeah, I think all in all, and yes, it's very, very early. We haven't even gotten there yet. But for right now, for where it stands today, I would give the Celtics the edge over the 76ers.

I would. Yeah. Let's see how long it takes for us to get there, okay? Hopefully we don't have any surprises between now and the next couple of games. In my life, I'm kind of jumping the gun because I want to get the series over with because they're just better than Atlanta and Philly. Yeah, I mean, these series right now are just, like, let's get it over with. But let me talk to you about one that is pretty close.

I still think the Cavs will take it. And Chris, I'm going to talk about the New York Knicks and the Cavaliers, okay? Thank you so much for calling. Yeah, appreciate you taking my call.

Thanks, J.R. No problem. Talk to you soon. I'll be on the fan this Saturday, okay, Chris? Sounds good. I'm going to chime in then. Yes, sir. All right. Take care. Thank you, Chris, for calling from Virginia, who also listens to me on New York City on Saturdays.

Thank you very much. Now, let's get to the New York Knicks. They lost to the Cleveland Cavaliers, 107 to 90. And I would say at least this is a more competitive series. Not tonight, though. Tonight, despite the score, the Cleveland Cavaliers whooped that ass. Darius Garland had 32 points. He had 26 of these points in the first half. In the first half, Darius Garland knocked down four threes. He didn't have to go out there and do ridiculous amounts of work, or I should say Donovan Mitchell didn't.

But in return, Donovan Mitchell had a career high in the postseason, 13 assists. All he had to do was go out there and dish the ball. I mean, Darius Garland was lighting it up early in the second quarter. He had one layup that made the score 54 to 37.

Take a listen to this. A minute to go here in the half. Garland into the lane. Garland up with the left hand. Good as he spun it home.

How about D.G. with 26 in the first half? He was lighting it up. The Cleveland Cavaliers forced nine turnovers. Count them nine turnovers in the second quarter. I mean, by the time we got to the fourth quarter, I know the Knicks were able to bring it a little closer. But at one point, the Cleveland Cavaliers led by 29. I want you to take a listen to another clip from the Cavaliers radio network.

This time it was gigantic. Evan Mobley coming through with a slam. This is in the fourth.

Listen to the score, too. Donovan Mitchell around an Allen screen. Donovan, three ball, too strong. Mitchell got his own miss. Jumps it to Mobley. Pow!

With two hands. Donovan Mitchell with another assist. 101-76. Cavs by 25.

Now the series is tied. And I want you to hear from two different versions of the final call. Because the New York Knicks announced it. Man, they tell it how it is. You know, Mike Breen covers the New York Knicks. You might hear him nationally on ABC. He covers it.

He tells it straight how it is. I want you to listen to the Cavs final call. Listen to the excitement here. Now the Cavs can dribble out the clock.

4, 3, 2, 1. Cavaliers win. Cavs win 107-90. And this best of seven series between the Cavaliers and the New York Knicks is now dead even.

And one game apiece. Yeah, that's Cavs radio network. Listen to that man with his, he has a very radio voice, right?

How about him? Now listen to Mike Breen from Madison Square Garden Television Network. Yeah, the New York Knicks, James Dolan, he owns that.

It's amazing he lets his people speak. Listen to Mike Breen. This is what he had to say at the end of the game. Knicks threw the first punch in Game 1. Cavs come right back with a roundhouse in Game 2. And this series is tied. The expectation before the series, it was going to be a long, hard-fought series. Right now it's even.

Yeah, right now it's even. Game 3 is going to take place on Friday night in Madison Square Garden. The Knicks fans are going to be ready to drink and act like a bunch of, I don't know, let me pick the right word. They're going to act like they've never won anything in their lives, which many Knicks fans don't remember winning anything in their lives.

And so that's going to be a madhouse in and outside of Madison Square Garden this coming Friday night. But tonight the Cleveland Cavaliers had their number. This was just bad all the way around. Julius Randle hobbling around on that busted ankle.

Same thing for Josh Hart. He's running around on a busted ankle. He only had five points. Randle had 22. And after the game, I told you, Donovan Mitchell, he didn't have to do too much work for points tonight.

Darius Garland finished with 32. Mitchell had 13 assists. And Mitchell spoke to Bally Sports after the game.

And he talked about what happened between Game 1 and 2 for them to walk away with a victory. The biggest thing that came out there, competed, we matched the physicality. Our two bigs were phenomenal on the boards. Darius Garland, man, like, man, give it up for Darius, dawg. Like, that's a hell of a performance, man. That's a big-time performance. We all did whatever was needed to win this game.

At the end of the day, it's one win. We got to go out to New York and take our home corner advantage back. You mentioned Darius. I know you guys had talks about him being aggressive and assertive. What did he show you out there tonight?

That's the all-star we all know at the end of the day. Continuing to find ways to implement different shot selections, different things in this game. I told him, don't worry about it. If you miss, you miss. Go out there and take those shots. And he did it tonight. Play within himself. Play within the group. And it was great to see. Be aggressive.

B-E, aggressive. 32 points for Darius Garland. 6 of 10 from downtown. He was aggressive going to the free throw line as well.

10 of 11. And you heard Donovan Mitchell talk about those gigantic bigs that they had. Barrett Allen, he hit Julius Randle with a flagrant late in the game after a dunk.

And then Evan Mobley is just big as hell himself. Between the two of these dudes, they combined for 23 rebounds. 5 blocks and 22 points.

Must be nice to be 7 foot tall and athletic and run around abusing everybody any chance that you could get. It's the JR Sport Brief Show here with you on CBS Sports Radio. We're going to take a break. And when we come back, I'm not going to block any shots. We're going to get into Draymond Green at the top of the hour. We're going to talk about the injury to Jalen Hurts.

We're going to get into DeMar Hamlin. But let's get some of these loser teams out the way. Right?

Okay? Let's get the Hawks out the way. The Knicks got smacked around tonight. But Trae Young, there was news surrounding Trae Young today that didn't have anything to do with this game. We heard about the trade rumors from last week. Hawks are pretty much open for business to move him.

But this news, it's not all that encouraging from his peers as well. I'm going to fill you in on the other side of the break. The phone lines are open if you want to give me a holler.

It's 855-212-4CBS. You're listening to the J.R. Sport Brief on CBS Sports Radio. You're listening to the J.R. Sport Brief on CBS Sports Radio. I just want to say thank you for being on this show and giving me some good content every time I leave my girlfriend's house. Giving me some time to chill, relax, and listen to some good sports news.

Call in now at 855-212-4CBS. It's the J.R. Sport Brief show on CBS Sports Radio. Cavs tie up the Knicks tonight. The Atlanta Hawks, they get smashed in Boston 119-106. Trae Young finishing up the night with 24 points. Six assists. De'Jaunte Murray finishing the night with 29 points. Trae Young trending earlier today for different reasons.

We know about the request, or let me not say request. Before last week, it was conveniently leaked right before the playoffs that the Atlanta Hawks and their front office, that they were open to potentially moving Trae Young this offseason. And not necessarily the best of timing, but you can assume that it was put out at the right time to put some pressure on Trae Young before the playoffs would start. And to the shock of no one, they're down 2-0 to the Celtics because they don't play defense, they're not consistent enough, they don't have enough depth or consistent firepower.

And so at some point sooner than later, I would presume over the next week that the Atlanta Hawks season is going to end. And outside of that news coming out last week about the team being open for a trade, today, I guess why not pile on to Trae Young? The Athletic, they put out an anonymous poll, or they shared results from an anonymous poll. They polled 54 players, not necessarily the largest of sample size, but they polled 54 players anonymously.

And they asked, who's the most overrated player in the NBA today? Trae Young was tops on that list. Trae Young received 15% of the vote.

31% said other, that was pretty much spread out amongst 17 different players. But Trae Young was the first individual player to gather a whole lot of votes there. And so Trae Young had 15% of the vote, and then behind him, Julius Randle, 7%, Pascal Siakam at 7%, Jimmy Butler at about 5%, Gobert at about 5%, and Jaron Jackson Jr. at about 5% as well. And so Trae Young, 15% of the vote of players looking at him and saying, he's overrated. And even with that small sample size, you would have to think that that attitude probably permeates throughout the league.

And you can't really fight too much of it. Trae Young puts up stats, he puts up numbers, 26 points, about 10 assists per game, led the NBA in assists again by a wide margin, more than 700, and he keeps the Atlanta Hawks alive. Does he have the help? Probably not. Is he the leader that he can be?

Probably not. And so he's getting a lot of flack from the coaching changes, from McMillan to Snyder. It's not looking good for him right now. 855-212-4CBS, that's 855-212-4CBS. Let's go to JB calling from right here in Atlanta. You're on the JR Sport Brief Show. What's up, JB? Hey, JR. How you doing? Longtime listener.

And I love the show. You're doing a great job. Thanks.

No problem. Listen, I wanted to make a quick comment about, I guess, Trae's trade rumors. I think that Trae is the best thing that's happened to the Hawks in quite some time. And I am, as an Atlanta Hawks fan, upset to hear these trade rumors, because I think that they can still build a team around him. You know, the team is still young.

They got a new coach. It's looking hopeful, but these rumors are very saddening. So besides that, I want your opinion on if these trade rumors are true, where could you see Trae going in the future? OK. Well, thank you, JB, for calling from here in Atlanta.

I think the rumors are true. I mean, if you take a look at at the Atlanta Hawks, they have a new they have a new management structure. And from Landry Fields, who has come in to now Kyle Korver, Travis Schlenk, who drafted Trae Young, is now in a consulting role.

John Collins was asked about this a few months ago, and he used consulting with a little bit of the air quotes at the same time when he said it. De'Jaunte Murray being traded in for multiple first round picks like Trae Young is the last domino to fall here for the Hawks. And Quinn Snyder has a five year contract. So it's highly unlikely after you have gone through about three different coaches with Trae Young that you have now gone through two general managers that you have brought in an additional superstar. Although De'Jaunte Murray isn't the most consistent and you had to give up three picks to bring him in. And De'Jaunte Murray, this upcoming season is going to be the last year on his contract. And you think about Trae Young and his attitude just in the team and around.

He ain't number one on a lot of people's lists right now. And so there's a whole lot of validity and kind of realizing, hey, we might want to cut our losses and move on. And I think even even moving towards that, there might be some teams that take on Trae Young. I mean, do I want to think about the heat as a possibility there? A couple of teams I think would bring on a guard. Have they done the best job building around him?

No, I can't tell you that. But I think they're so far gone. There's only but one scapegoat left and it's him and he hasn't carried himself well enough to to even justify just kind of sticking around. He's just kind of gone with the flow.

855-212-4CBS, 855-212-4CBS. Let's go to Houston, Texas, and talk to another JR. You're CBS Sports Radio. What's up, JR? I kind of disagree on what you're saying about the Knicks. I pick I'm picking the Knicks in five.

Should have been a bring brew. The ref pretty much took it away from the Knicks. When the Knicks started taking it away, the refs all of a sudden started making all crazy calls against the Knicks. Of course, the Knicks just like they collapsed after that. And the other aspect is the Lakers will be will be in the finals this year. And I'm picking them to go all the way.

So do you have a reason why that you believe the New York Knicks will take a 3-1 lead against the Cavs? Yeah, they have dominated Cleveland the majority of the season when they played over the last two games of the season. And then they played when they played them recently. In the playoffs, the first game they won. Well, they've played they played two games which were ridiculously close. And tonight they got smashed.

Correct. The refs took them out the game. I don't think the refs took them out the game. I don't think the refs had anything to do with the New York Knicks shooting seven of twenty nine from downtown. Was that a referee? That wasn't. But the calls that were made in the early in the first. Oh, but what about?

No, but what about? Look, everybody steps into a game and can control what they can control. If you wanted to make that argument at the end of a game, or if you wanted to make that argument for a pivotal call and even make the argument that, oh my God, they got screwed. They got screwed. That would be valid.

I would entertain that. But not when you are getting smashed by 30 points in the fourth quarter. That has nothing to do with the refs. Nobody made R.J. Barrett shoot four of 13. Nobody made Jalen Brunson go one of eight and get slapped by his own teammate and Julius Randall. The referees did not break or sprain Josh Hart's ankle. They didn't take out Julius Randall about a month ago and they didn't make Evan Mobley and Jared Allen stretch out to seven foot one and seven foot two. But if you look at the last three games that they played Cleveland, they JR JR, that doesn't that don't matter, man. That what happens in the regular season is is moot. Things are totally different here in the postseason.

The physicality is different. Quentin Grimes was running around bleeding from the mouth. Julius Randall, who's been playing on a bum ankle. Man, he's out there flying around barely.

And I just told you he was on that overrated list. Well, we're going to blame it. Blame everything on the refs. Like at what point do you look at a team and go, hey, they did it themselves. And if I want to look at if we want to talk about the refs and calls the New York Knickerbockers, they attempted 30 free throws to the Cavaliers.

Twenty one. If you want to tell me, oh, man, the referees, the referees. And I'm telling you, look at the stats. Look at the numbers. Look at the shots.

Oh, the referees changed it up. No, the Cleveland Cavaliers shot 14 of 33 from deep. That's 42 percent. The New York Knicks shot seven of twenty nine. That's 24 percent.

That's crap. If a singular NBA player shot 24 percent from three, they wouldn't even let him play. He wouldn't even get a chance to shoot 24 percent the next game because they would tell him to stop shooting. Please stop shooting.

Give credit where credit is due. The Cavaliers played their asses off tonight. Even Castle Avert coming off the bench.

Twenty four points. New York Knicks didn't really get none off the bench. Emmanuel quickly had 12. Josh Hart couldn't play. His ankle busted up with five OB topping. Everybody's favorite had seven points in 15 minutes.

You would think he'd be able to help relieve Julius Randall just a little bit. The Cavs. This is flattened. Period. Have more explosive and athletic talent. Period.

Without a shadow of a doubt. And it's led by that guy, Donovan Mitchell. And all he had to do tonight was pass the ball. 17 points, 13 assists.

Easy night. Darius Garland had 32. He had listened to Donovan Mitchell preach the gospel again about telling Darius Garland to be more aggressive.

It had nothing to do it. No stinking refs. The biggest thing that came out there, competed, we matched the physicality. Our two bigs were phenomenal on the boards. Darius Garland, man, like, man, give it up for Darius, dog. Like, that's a hell of a performance, man. That's a big time performance. We all did whatever was needed to win this game. And, you know, at the end of day, it's one win.

We got to go out to New York and take our home corner advantage back. You mentioned Darius. I know you guys had talks about him being aggressive and assertive. What did he show you out there tonight? That, you know, that's the all-star we all know. You know, at the end of the day, you know, continuing to find ways to implement, you know, different shot selections, different things in this game.

And, you know, I told him, don't worry about it. Like, if you miss, you miss. We'll go out there and take those shots. And he did it tonight.

Play within himself, play within the group. And it was great to see. Congratulations to the Cleveland Cavaliers. They won a basketball game.

The refs didn't go out there and win it for them. And I didn't even mention this guy's name because he only played 21 minutes. Mitchell Robinson played 21 minutes tonight for the Knicks. Five rebounds, had four blocks, three fouls.

Hartenstein went out there and had a better game. I mean, what are we saying? Cleveland Cavaliers are walking around with two Twin Towers. I expect this series to still be competitive. But to make an assertion that the New York Knicks are going to just go up 3-1 against Cleveland? Good luck with that one. Okay, R.J. Barrett's going to have to have more than 14.

Quinton Grimes can't go and give you four. They got some work to do. It's always easy to blame the refs. Like, sometimes I think folks believe referees sit around with voodoo dolls. It's torturing the other teams.

Looking out for their own interests. Like, let's come to earth just a little bit. Cavs and the Knicks, two good teams. Cavaliers, slightly better. I think that'll give them the edge to ultimately win the series. Not no stinking zebras. Even though I don't believe they wear stripes anymore.

They don't. It's the JR Sport Brief Show here with you on CBS Sports Radio. 855-212-4CBS.

It's 855-212-4CBS. When we come back on the other side of the break, this guy actually needs a referee. He needs somebody watching over him all the damn time. It's Draymond Green.

Mr. I'll step on you. I'll come up with an excuse for stepping on you.

And then I will create an entire podcast about it. We're going to talk about that stomp that went viral last night. And whether or not Draymond Green even deserves to play in the next game. It's the JR Sport Brief Show on CBS Sports Radio.

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