It is the JR Sportbrief Show here with you on the Infinity Sports Network.
I'm coming to you live from Atlanta, Georgia. Thank you to everybody tuned in locked in all over North America. I hope you had a tremendous weekend. Hope you had a good Monday. Hope you're having a good now. I'm going to be here now for the next four hours.
Congratulations. This is when the show gets started. Every single weekday is 6 p.m. Eastern, 3 Pacific.
I'm in Atlanta, Georgia. Thank you to our producer helping to hold things down today and tomorrow, Nico Scarlatos. And thank you to you. Yeah, you, you person listening right now, this minute, this second in your car, at home, at school, at work, whatever the heck you might be doing, wherever you might be.
Thank you for being here. We got a lot to get into, okay? Of course, we got all the NBA playoff action that's been going on now for weeks. We've had an elimination. We got the Rockets looking young. The Oklahoma City Thunder. They haven't played basketball in like nine days. They're getting ready to against the Nuggets. So we got the Knicks and the Celtics. We're going to get into the basketball. Of course, a matter of fact, we have some great guests who are going to join us.
How about this? In about two and a half hours from now, we'll be joined by Steve Ashburner, NBA.com senior writer. We'll get his take on everything going on in the playoffs. Next hour with these Golden State Warriors advancing, knocking off these Rockets, soon to take on the Minnesota Timberwolves. Bonta Hill is going to join us from NBC Sports out in the Bay Area.
You can catch up on the radio out there as well. Shout outs to Bonta. And then this is, this is terrible, terrible news. Well, maybe for Justin Tucker. Justin Tucker has been given the boot by the Baltimore Ravens. Yep. It's it's over.
They gave the kicker the boots. We'll get into that in a second. You can always listen to this show on the free Odyssey app, your local infinity sports network affiliate. You got Sirius XM. It's channel 375. And if you got a smart speaker, ask the speaker to play the infinity sports network. If you want to be a part of the show, you can do that as well. 888-710-4-ISN.
That's 888-710-4-ISN. You can find me online as well. I am all over the place.
Very simply at JR Sport Brief. Before we do anything, before I even utter another word, a hello to Nico Scarlato's here with us, who's worked with us on the show before. Nico, how are you, man? Did you have a good weekend? Yes, sir. Excited to be here on this rainy Monday here in New York.
Oh, that stinks. I mean, well, are you sunshine? You feel good, though, right? You feel good. I'm ready to go. Yeah. Feeling ready to go for this Knicks series. I'll tell you that.
Well, good luck. We're going to get into the Knicks and the Celtics. They get going in about an hour from now. There's just so much basketball going on all over the place. We're going to get into some hoops action. Nico, as I just mentioned, this is crazy.
Like about an hour on my way into the studio to sit down. And this is not a shock. This is not a surprise really for anybody. The Baltimore Ravens have given Justin Tucker the boot. They released him. And this is not a surprise.
I mean, based on, well, unless you've been living underneath a rock. You know what? Let's take a listen to the news report from CBS Sports HQ, and then I'll get a little bit more in depth as to what happened.
Listen to this. We have breaking news out of the NFL where the Ravens have released kicker Justin Tucker. The news comes just a few months after he was accused of sexual misconduct at multiple Baltimore area spas, prompting the NFL to start an investigation. That remains ongoing. Now, Tucker is the NFL's all time leader in field goal percentage and holds a record for the longest kick in NFL history at 66 yards.
He's also the Ravens all time leading scorer. Let me tell you, let me tell you something, folks. That's the fancy news lady who came through and gave you that information. Let me give you, uh, basically what, what happened here. Okay.
You ready for this? Justin Tucker. It was one of the best kickers that we've seen in the NFL 13 seasons.
Okay. A Superbowl champ, five time all pro heading into last season. Most accurate kicker ever.
This guy shows up to work. He's knocking down like 90% of his field goals. And then last year he started to suck. Missed 18 to 27 field goals to start the year. He finished 2024 with the worst field goal percentage of his career. 73. Now that's a steep drop.
He's 35 years old. And then once the season concluded, we started to hear stories. I mean, we, we started to get the news reports that, you know, Justin Tucker was, I don't want to say halfway doing a Deshaun Watson. That's not company that you want to be in by the way. But Justin Tucker has these, these allegations of, of sexually inappropriate behavior at massage spas.
You know, massage therapists, you know, his body parts, he's doing things he has no business doing when he's there when he's there to get his body worked on. And of course he has said that all of this is not true. And everything that I just detailed, as well as what you just heard in the news, these are all allegations. Okay. I don't know. I wasn't there. These are allegations. 18 different spas. 16 different massage therapists. And Justin Tucker, he's been replaced.
Okay. We had the NFL draft a little more than a week ago. Tyler Loop from Arizona is the new kicker for the Baltimore Ravens. They drafted this man in the sixth round. This is the first time the Baltimore Ravens have ever selected a kicker in the draft.
Let's be real. Who wants to draft a kicker? You just, just sign a guy. You go undrafted. You sign the best of the best, unless you are one of the best and you keep it moving.
And so the writing was on the wall and let's be honest, let's be clear. It's not just when they decided the Ravens wanted to draft Tyler Loop. The writing was on the wall based on Justin Tucker's performance last season. And then these allegations, why in the hell would the Baltimore Ravens want any distraction? Why would the Baltimore Ravens, this is a team, the last time I checked, they're trying to go out here and compete for a Super Bowl championship. Why would they keep Justin Tucker on the roster for what?
Like what, in hopes that the NFL is going to conclude its investigation between now and I don't know, July, when training camp starts, that the NFL is going to conclude its investigation by September, when the regular season is underway? This is the part that sucks for Justin Tucker. He's not a quarterback. He's not important.
I'm sorry. He's just quote unquote, a kicker. And yeah, he might be one of the best kickers ever, but Justin Tucker is not valuable enough where anybody is going to say, hey, let's roll you out there. You know, for the past several weeks, done a lot of talking about Chidor Sanders, right?
And everybody has an opinion. Why didn't he get drafted in the first round, the second round, the third round, the fourth round on and on? Why didn't he get drafted so damn early?
And then we started to figure out, well, hey, maybe the guy just isn't that good. If he was the clear cut choice to be selected, if he was the best quarterback, then people would say, screw his dad, screw the interview. Man, this guy was in college and he threw for 5,000 yards and 60 touchdowns and won an interception. Who cares what his dad says? Who cares what he says? Let's just draft him.
You got to make yourself undeniable. Chidor Sanders did not do that. He fell in the draft. Teams realized, or they drew the conclusion, that regardless of what he might turn into as an NFL quarterback, the juice is not worth the squeeze. And in the case of Justin Tucker, who's already established himself as an NFL player, is an NFL vet.
I don't know about future Hall of Famer. You might be able to throw that completely out the window right now, depending on how these these allegations go. But ultimately, the Baltimore Ravens, they two plus two does equal four. Sometimes most cases for the Ravens, they figured it out.
The juice is not worth the squeeze. You think Harbaugh wants to show up to work and have to answer more questions about Justin Tucker? He's already had to do that here in the offseason.
You think he wants more of this? He stunk last year. Let me tell you something, by the way, if he kicked and completed 100 percent of his field goals, if he was out there, oh, iron leg, somehow, some way he was knocking down 70 yarders, he still might be on the Baltimore Ravens. The Baltimore Ravens realized, hey, he's not that good. He's not what he used to be.
We think we could get this from this new guy, from this rookie, Tyler Luke. And we don't have to deal with the distractions, because if there's anything we've all learned over the past, I don't know, forever, maybe the past five, six, seven, eight, nine, 10 years of Colin Kaepernick, nobody wants a distraction. People just want to show up and do their jobs without having to be been asked the uncomfortable questions. And so as of about an hour ago, the Baltimore Ravens pretty much admitted such. Well, they kind of lied.
But what else is new? This is an organization, right? This is big business. Do big businesses tell the truth? Do they sit around in a room with five highly paid people and say, what's going to sound good to protect our you-know-whats? You know, publicist, one, two, three, four, communications person, head coach, owner. Yeah, they all sit in a room and somebody drafts up a statement. A couple of people read over it and they go, oh, yeah, this is good.
Let the public go out just so we can legally protect our backsides, OK? And the Ravens decided to share this. Sometimes decisions are incredibly difficult.
And this is one of those instances. Considering our current roster, we've made the tough decision to release Justin Tucker. Justin created many significant and unforgettable moments in Ravens history. His reliability, focus, drive and resilience and extraordinary talent made him one of the league's best kickers for over a decade. We are grateful for Justin's many contributions while playing for the Ravens. We sincerely wish him and his family the very best.
In this next chapter of their lives, this is a statement from executive vice president and general manager of the Baltimore Ravens, Eric DaCosta. Of course, there's no mention about his legal issues, right? I mean, the first sentence says that this is a football decision. Well, we know it's a combination of the two. It's a football decision.
And it's a we need to get this guy to help one out of here. OK, like he ain't the quarterback. The Cleveland Browns did not give a damn when they brought in Deshaun Watson.
A matter of fact, Jim Haslam, he sat down with his wife and did interviews and talked about how we spoke with Deshaun. It is twenty five. How many is it?
Twenty five, two dozen active cases and accusations of sexual assault. Well, we think he's a good guy and we think he's learned from what's going on. And how we need a quarterback. So who gives a damn?
It's two hundred and thirty million dollars guaranteed. Yeah. Justin Tucker doesn't throw the ball.
Justin Tucker kicks the ball. And I guess, you know, there's always there's always one dummy right somewhere, you know what? There's always one sucker.
There's always somebody somewhere that's willing to fall for the Okie Doke. It was the Browns and they paid for it. And Justin Tucker, the Ravens said, man, you ain't worth it. OK, we got Lamar Jackson throwing the ball and running the ball. We don't need you. We don't need your distractions. And so for 35 year old Justin Tucker, if the Baltimore Ravens don't want him.
You want to know something? You'd be hard pressed to find another team that wants Justin Tucker. I mean, there may be another team that they were in a pinch. Kicker might blow out both legs. They got to find somebody. And Justin Tucker will be sitting right at home on his couch.
He will likely not get a phone call. Why? I'll say it again. You didn't get it.
The juice is not worth the squeeze. It's not going to be another NFL team unless these allegations are all thrown out. And I highly doubt that Justin Tucker may have to write a check.
I don't know. There's not another NFL team that says, oh, yeah, we're going to bring in the kicker with let me count them again. It's 16 different massage therapists that said he behaved inappropriately at the sessions.
The sessions. Who wants to bring this guy in? You want this guy working at your job? You want to explain, you know, to the ladies in the office and other guys who have wives and daughters? You want to explain this?
These allegations? You're the GM. You're the coach. Oh, yeah, well, he's a great kicker. He was a great kicker. And he sucked last year. And, yeah, it's 16 allegations of sexual inappropriate behavior. Yeah, but we're just going to bring him in because we need a kicker.
Yeah, I don't think that's going to go over well with anybody. Look, if you're the Baltimore Ravens, you know what you want to discuss more than this? Mark Andrews dropping a football in the rain, OK?
Or the snow. You want to talk about Lamar? You want to think about Derrick Henry and his contract?
You want to look at Malachi Starks? Shout outs to the Bulldog. You want to look at the big guy, the safety you just drafted?
You don't want to talk about Justin Tucker. And so they gave him the boot. Not a surprise, fully expected. The Baltimore Ravens will move on. Justin Tucker will be in the news and for everybody in the Ravens organization.
Oh, yeah, they'll get a question every now and then. But it's real simple. We've heard this. Tell me you've heard this out of press conference before. We're not going to discuss people and things that have nothing to do with this locker room or this organization.
As simple as that. Justin Tucker gone, probably gone from the NFL for good. Let's see what these allegations look like, because these allegations might keep this guy in the investigation.
It might keep him out of the NFL unless he is completely cleared. And with 16 allegations, I think that might be hard to do. And I am not Matlock. I'm not Inspector Gadget. I'm not Judge Judy. I'm not Johnny Cochran.
I'm none of them. But I am JR. It's the JR Sportbreeze show here with you coast to coast on the Infinity Sports Network. Yeah, that's some crazy news. Not surprising.
Justin Tucker dropped by the Ravens. We have so much to get into. I told you, I'm not going to lie. We have so much to get into. I told you, it's basketball news, right? Hey, Bronte Hill is going to join us to talk about the Golden State Warriors next hour. In a few hours, we're going to be joined by Steve Ashburner, NBA.com's senior writer. Hey, we got a basketball game getting ready to start in about an hour. The New York Knicks and the Celtics.
Didn't they build the Knicks to try to beat the Celtics? We'll get into that. We got more basketball. The NFL draft is going to Washington, DC. There's a lot going on.
We'll talk about it all. It's the JR Sportbreeze show on the Infinity Sports Network. It is the JR Sportbreeze show on the Infinity Sports Network. Yeah, Justin Tucker, he got released today. We've got some basketball games also coming up today, about an hour from now.
I know Nico's excited for this one. We got the Knicks and the Celtics in about 40-ish minutes. And then later on tonight, yeah, the Nuggets handled business against the Clippers. We'll talk about that.
James Harden crapping the bet again. The Nuggets will be in action against the Thunder, who have now been off for nine days. And so we'll get into that.
How about we do this? We'll get into the Knicks and Celtics and one of our next segments before they get started at seven Eastern time. And we'll definitely talk about the Nuggets and the Thunder as well.
And I'll take some time to tell you something that you already know. No, not that water is wet and the sky is blue, but that James Harden sucks in game sevens. Like, how can you be one of these great players in basketball history, one of these great scorers and MVP, and then completely have, what, a mental block when the going really gets tough?
We'll get into that. But let's talk about the Golden State Warriors because last night, I can't say it was surprising. We got a young team in the Houston Rockets running up against one of the legitimate, legitimate, one of the greatest players ever.
Definitely the greatest shooter ever. And Steph Curry, the Warriors got rid of the Rockets last night, 103 to 89. Took them seven games. Steph Curry had 22 points, 14 of them in the third. Steph Curry was hot late. Buddy Heald was hot early. 33 points on nine threes. He had six threes in the first half. Buddy Heald didn't even score in game six. Jimmy Butler had 20 points. And now the Warriors, they got Minnesota tomorrow.
And Steph Curry, even running around with that old busted up hand, hand is all wrapped up. Steph Curry was asked by the media, hey, man, you keep coming in here, whooping on the Rockets in the postseason. The people in Houston, how do you think they feel about you, Steph Curry? Well, what the hell should they call you? This is what Steph Curry had to say in response. You've won five series now in Houston. What do you think your reputation is in the city? I'm a winner.
As simple as that. You could have said a lot of things. I'm a winner. Well, I'm a winner. Well, that much we know, Steph Curry.
Yes, you are a winner. Jimmy Butler, brand new to the team, huh? Jimmy Butler just got here in what, January, February, lighting it up, actually playing basketball.
Oh my God, what a shock. Jimmy Butler is all of a sudden happy now. Jimmy Butler talked about how resilient this Golden State Warriors team is, getting beat around, smacked around, losing Friday, winning yesterday.
Listen to Jimmy. I'm going to take how resilient we are as a group, coming from where they were, you know, post trade before I got here and the way that everybody locked in and made me feel welcome. And we took off this way and we never wavered. The confidence never went anywhere. Really good group of hoopers, really good group of people.
So that's what I'm going to take into this next round is we got some guys that can play at an extremely high level and on any given night, it could be anybody's night. Oh man, come on. All of a sudden, Jimmy Butler is like, he's like a Saint now.
I don't know. Maybe we'll, we'll wake up, see some smoke and Jimmy Butler will be the next Pope. Everything he says all of a sudden, oh, he's so happy now that he's gotten paid and I'm playing with Steph Curry. Oh, this is, this is amazing.
This is great. Even Steve Kerr, Steve Kerr knows a thing or two or three or four or five or six or seven or eight. This guy got a lot of championships coaching and playing.
Steve Kerr, he says, yeah, since we got Jimmy Butler, things have been good. Yeah, we're excited. We're just, we're thrilled. I mean, when I think back to the trade deadline where we were as a team, I'm so proud of these guys for, for what they've accomplished to put us in a position, you know, as Steph says, to play meaningful basketball and, and to give ourselves a chance.
And this is all you want every year. You know, do you have a chance? And we've got a chance with this group and they're an amazing group of men to coach and to be with and collaborate with and couldn't be more proud. Yeah, it's going to be tough against the Minnesota Timberwolves though.
The Golden State Warriors take on the Timberwolves tomorrow. We're going to have this conversation with Bonta Hill next hour. Okay.
He'll be here with us about an hour from now from NBC Sports Bay Area. And I'm going to get his thoughts on, on what we should expect from the Golden State Warriors as they play game one against Minnesota tomorrow. Okay. You think about the Los Angeles Lakers, their season ended at the hand of the Minnesota Timberwolves last week. Golden State Warriors were playing last night.
Okay. Played last night. Now they got this quick turnaround and they got to take on the Minnesota Timberwolves team that just, they just beat up on a smaller Los Angeles Lakers squad. Now the Golden State Warriors are even smaller than the Los Angeles Lakers. And as much as I love Steph Curry, I want to see him succeed. Jimmy Butler's a pain in the ass. He's easy to root against. Draymond Green is a pain in the ass.
He's easy to root against. And unless Draymond Green is going to wake up and put Rudy Gobert on another headlock. We got technical fouls and flagrant fouls going on all over the place. I think the Wolves are going to win this series. Is it going to go another six or seven?
I believe so. I don't think the Warriors are going to get swept. I think at minimum, if it's real bad, they only pick up two games, but they can push it. But Steph Curry, depending on what's going on with that hand, he can't have another, what, 17 point game?
That's not going to cut it. The Timberwolves are big. Rudy Gobert had, what, 27 and 24? We know Draymond Green isn't going to allow that. He punched the guy in the groin or chop him down at the kneecaps before he lets him grab 20 something rebounds.
That's not happening. I don't think the Golden State Warriors will go out here and be punked. But how many rebounds they can grab?
How many shots are altered? I think the Wolves, I think they have them in that category. And Steph Curry was just with Anthony Edwards at the Olympics in Paris.
They're making jokes about playing ping pong and all this other stuff. This playoff series is not going to be a joke. Steph Curry and the Wolves, well, he has some tough competition with the Wolves. This is what Steph Curry had to say about Anthony Edwards.
I mean, he watched a little bit of their first round series. He's playing with all the supreme confidence. We know, you know, they had their run last year and they're a new look with Randall, but same man who's trying to take strides with every opportunity he gets. It's going to be a tough challenge, we know.
Got to send multiple bodies at him and figure out a game plan to go at him. But yeah, they're hot right now. They've been playing some great basketball the last couple of months and we're excited that we have an opportunity to have some more basketball to play too. Man, Steph, this guy's going to have to light it up. Him and Jimmy Butler. Jimmy Butler keeps talking about Batman and Robin, Batman and Robin, Batman and Robin.
Man, there ain't no days off. Every now and then Batman gets his ass kicked. You've seen somebody, the Joker gets on his nerves, Two-Face, I don't know, the Riddler wearing his stupid outfits and his stupid hat and bodysuit. They get on Batman's... Nico, you've seen Batman get his ass kicked before, right?
Yeah, definitely. Did I miss anybody that beats up Batman? Did I miss anybody? No, I mean, I'm actually not the biggest Batman guy, so I haven't seen all of the movies, but you got the main ones that I know. Movies? Comic books, man, and movies, it's everything. See, I forgot Catwoman. You know Catwoman, right? I've heard of her, yeah. You've heard of Catwoman? You've heard of Catwoman? Okay. Okay, all right. There's been many accounts.
You know Eartha Kitt? No. Well, you don't know who the hell I'm talking about, huh?
Not really. It's okay. Well, Batman, he's gotten his share of whoopings. Anyway, it's Steph Curry. He can't afford to have no off night. He can't be locked up in Arkham Asylum. He can't be put down in an alley.
He can't be locked up for a day until Alfred comes saves him or Robin or whatever. No, they have to be on their A game. The Golden State Warriors are actually, they're an underdog, which is a rarity. Heading into this series, they're underdogs and it's because of their size. If they can overcome the Timberwolves, I will give them all the credit in the world.
And I'll also enjoy this series because I think it's going to take that big of an effort to go ahead and get things done. Minnesota, Golden State Warriors, they start tomorrow. We'll have that chat with Bonta Hill from NBC Sports Bay Area.
He'll be here with us next hour. There's a lot more basketball, okay? The Pacers went out there and beat the Cavs yesterday. Now the Cavs look like they're really in trouble, which is kind of crazy. I'll explain why on the other side of the break. We'll talk about the Houston Rockets. They're the losers.
What the hell are they going to do? And you got Jalen Green. I thought he was supposed to be, you know, a growing star. Looks like James Harden. We'll talk about James Harden.
That guy can't show up to work when it matters to save his life. So we have so much more to get into. We got two basketball games tonight. Nick Celtic's Nuggets Thunder. We got more football to get into. We got Michigan coaches who are still getting suspended.
We heard about Justin Tucker. As a matter of fact, it is the JR sport re-show on the Infinity Sports Network. I need you to think O'Reilly Auto Parts for all of your car care needs. Get guaranteed low prices and excellent customer service from the professional parts people at O'Reilly Auto Parts. 888-710-4ISN. That's 888-710-4ISN.
You could also find me online at JR Sport Brief. We're going to talk about the Knicks and Celtics at the top of the hour. They're getting ready to get underway game one of this series here in the second round.
And then right before we went to break, we talked about what was a, I don't want to say a good game. Definitely a good showing by the Golden State Warriors as they eliminate the young Houston Rockets. So we had the young Rockets eliminated over the weekend or last night. Also same thing Saturday night with a more veteran team in the Los Angeles Clippers.
At least Kawhi Leonard hopefully this year, this offseason, he can focus in on getting his body together. I do want to make a point of this. Thank you so much to Undercover Jeff. He sent me a tweet or an X. Nico, I don't even, what do you call that in past tense now? It didn't change so much of the verbiage with his ex Elon Musk. So what do you, is it, it's not a tweet anymore. What is it? If I'm being honest, I still call it Twitter. So I don't even know what you would say the actual, I guess now would you would say a post?
He sent me an ex post, an ex post? I don't know. Anyway, shout outs to Jeff for reaching out. I said that both Jimmy Butler and Steph Curry have to be Batman and Robin. They can't have no off days.
They can't be abducted for an hour or two overnight if they're going to knock off the Minnesota Timberwolves. And I said, Batman and Robin, they got to be all the way there. He can't have Two-Face, the Joker, Poison Ivy.
He can't have none of these clowns, you know, stopping them. Undercover Jeff says, can't forget Bane. He damn near killed Batman.
He broke his spine. Well, thank you Undercover Jeff. I appreciate that. Yeah. Let's put Bane in there as well. Anyway, let's talk about the team quickly. Let's, let's get these losers out of here.
We'll talk about the losers. Let's talk about the Rockets. And then we'll get into James Harden, who just is doing his Harry Houdini act in the post season. Okay. The Rockets, great ascension under head coach Ime Udonka. Good. And Ime Udonka, he got the boot from the Boston Celtics because he didn't know how to, you know, not contact women who didn't happen to be his wife, a famous actress, Nia Long.
But I digress. Ime Udonka has found success here with the Houston Rockets, but the biggest fear for the Rockets is youth and experience, inexperience. And it came back to get him. I mean, last night, just thinking about Jalen Green, who came out of the G League. He's supposed to grow into the next big thing. This guy's been around for what, going on three years? Now he's going into year four? He's been around long enough where you, you expect some things, but we don't have that consistency from Jalen Green.
It doesn't exist yet. He had eight points last night in an elimination game. He's uber athletic. He can shoot. He makes dumb decisions, turning the ball over. He had 12 games before that. Then 11, then eight, nine. He blew out and had 38 points one game and had seven in another.
This is a series. He sucked. If the Rockets were going to have any chance to go out there and beat the Golden State Warriors, they needed Jalen Green to step up.
And I say this, if you can find a sucker somewhere to take him on where you could bring on a vet, do it. Like if you can get Kevin Durant onto this team and you think you can, you know, hit the fast forward button to a potential championship, you got Fred Van Vliet. You have Ahmet Thompson. He had 24 points. That guy is more advanced and more consistent, all things considered, than what we've seen out of Jalen Green.
I'd move on. But then Fred Van Vliet, he's just like, man, he's young. Give him a damn break. Listen to that. Jalen's going to be all right.
I don't, and I don't, I'm not really online right now. So I'm not, I keep hearing like the narratives that are going on. I haven't really seen much of it, but we're not, we're not going to make this about Jalen.
You know what I mean? He's, he had an incredible season this year, carried us a lot, made big strides, played unbelievable basketball. And obviously, you know, in the playoffs, it's tough.
You got to find ways to be effective. And I believe in him. And I know that he's going to use this this summer to get even better and come back next year a better player. Yeah, that's his teammate. That's what his teammates supposed to say, right? His teammate's not going to be like, yeah, he's stonk. He didn't do as much. If he played better, he has his teammate. He's not going to say that. If I were to use the Rockets, I'd try to move on from, get a veteran in.
Try to help me win now. Eme Udoka himself getting a second lease at coaching life. We'll get into Greg Popovich as well, by the way.
He spoke today to kind of pass the torch. Eme Udoka talked about what his young Rockets team, what they can learn from this. You know, we can't waste opportunities. You know, you have that week of preparation while teams are in the plan and doing those things.
And we have to come out a little bit sharper, for sure. Feel like we had wasted opportunities in the early games. You know, you can kind of throw away game one with a poor offensive performance. Another game, we didn't shoot it well. And then you went two and then three and four.
It's right there. And you have those one possession games where, like I said, it's a free throws or miss shots or small things, letting some guys get loose and hurt us. And so felt we had chances there to not even be in this position.
And so the urgency to adjust on the fly and then improve from game to game. Took us a little bit of time and felt like obviously we got rolling in game five, but a little bit too late to be in this position right now. Yeah, look, Houston Rockets got a lot of talent. They got Sangoon, I mean, Thompson, they got Jalen Green. You would think Jalen Green would eventually grow to be the tip of the spear there.
It doesn't appear that he's on the same time frame and timeline as everybody else. You know, this isn't exactly the Boston Celtics is like, hey, we got to break up Brown and Tatum if we want to have a chance to win. And then ultimately they won a championship. Like we saw what Tatum did in college. We saw what Brown could do in college.
We saw what they did when they got to the league. I mean, the inconsistencies in Jalen Green served me enough to go, hey, let's just send him elsewhere. I'd get Kevin Durant in as soon as possible because I don't think that stunts the growth of like an Amen Thompson or Sangoon. I think you put yourself in a good spot with Durant and then post Durant to compete for a championship, to compete for a title. Let Jalen Green go ahead and grow somewhere else if he even is going to do that. He's in a great space and he's still not capable.
Now, forget that. That's a young guy. Now I got to take a dump on James Harden because he sucks. MVP this, scoring titles and all of this stuff. This man has seven points on two of eight shooting in game seven against the Nuggets.
The Nuggets will be in action tonight because they beat the Clippers 120 to 101. James Harden is sitting down on a bench like somebody stole or kicked his dog. James Harden was playing basketball like he got his talent sucked away by the Monstars.
I don't know what this guy's thinking. All time in game seven. One of the league's best scorers, only averaging 19 points, eight assists, shooting 35% from the field. And we know James Harden loves to jack up them threes, especially when he was in his prime.
23% from downtown. James Harden sucks. Like there's no more pass. And if you're the Los Angeles Clippers, you look at this opportunity and go, man, we got a healthy Kawhi Leonard here. We got Zubac who ended up being one of the most improved players in the league. We got Norman Powell who was able to ball out. We got, I'll say it again, a healthy Kawhi and James Harden laid an egg again. It's all in between his ears.
It has to be. We've seen him have some good performances in the playoffs. Look, he played on one leg for the Brooklyn Nets and was just amazing. But when it gets tough, James Harden disappears.
Kawhi Leonard never wanted to string together more than two words to create a sentence. Kawhi Leonard had a little bit more to say as to why they did not win game seven against the Nuggets. I think we could have gave a better effort for sure. At the time, I don't think this team was 30 points better than this. I mean, we've seen it throughout the first six games of the series, but you've got to give them credit.
They came out and fought, ran hard in transition, got easy points and they made shots. Listen, it's going to be an interesting off season for the Clippers. What do you do? Kawhi, thank God he's healthy, right? And James Harden is entering into the last year of his contract. What the hell do you do?
I have no idea. Even Kawhi Leonard, he was asked about being able to stay healthy. I guess good for him. This off season, he doesn't need a surgery or rehab.
Well, he probably rehabbed the rest of his life. Listen to Kawhi. I'll be able to start a training camp and be able to start the season, which would be great. But right now, the loss is still on my mind. But like you said, I am happy that I am healthy coming out the game. But I wish we had a better outcome. Yeah, Kawhi is just like, listen, folks, I might get hurt between now and September.
So just hold off just a little bit. This is the Clippers' third straight first round exit. The last playoff series win 2021. And Ty Lewstill, known as one of the best coaches in the game, one of the most respected, he's trying to cobble something together here. That's what Ty Lew had to say after the loss. You know, a tough loss and like I said, not playing our best game in a situation like this and, you know, a lot of emotions. And so just told the guys, bring it in, you know, one last hug.
And, you know, we'll talk tomorrow. But, you know, they came out, I thought we came out with a, with a decent mindset. They went to that zone and kind of made us stagnant offensively because the way we were attacking them. And then I thought, you know, when they went to that zone, it's kind of slowed us down offensively. And then defensively, we didn't really, you know, get into them, get closer to the guys and have that pressure.
And so they was able to pick us apart. Yeah, listen, the two losers, Houston Rockets, Los Angeles Clippers. Maybe James Harden can give some advice to Jalen Green, or maybe not. You can tell him, you know what? Yeah, don't talk to that guy because it doesn't appear that James Harden knows what to do in the big games either.
So talking to him is not going to help in any way or shape or form. Good luck to the Houston Rockets. I would love to see Kevin Durant down in Houston, Texas. And for the Clippers, I gotta be honest, y'all are screwed.
Like if you really, it was looking good. The Clippers finished the season on a hot streak. What did they win, like 18 of their last 21 games?
But they playing Russian roulette every single day, every single game. Is Kawhi going to stay healthy or when is he getting hurt next? And James Harden, what you going to count on that guy for?
I mean, to get a strip club recommendation, you could ask James Harden. But in a game seven, a big game, you can't count on James Harden for anything. Hey, good luck to him in the off-season.
I know where he is dabbing away his tears. And then good luck to the Rockets. They actually have a chance to get better.
It's the JR Sportbreeze show here with you coast to coast on the Infinity Sports Network. Yeah, the Rockets and Clippers, there's some losers. We'll talk about some winners.
How about this? We are minutes away from the New York Knicks getting ready to start their series against the Boston Celtics. If you recall, New York Knicks had some trouble beating anybody worth a damn this past regular season.
Does that matter in the playoffs? We'll get into that. We got the Nuggets and Thunder later on. We got Bonta Hill coming through next hour to have a chat with us about the Golden State Warriors. I told you about Greg Popovich passing the torch today.
Hey, there was a press conference at the White House. NFL Draft is going to DC. Steve Ashburn is going to join us from NBA.com. We talked about Justin Tucker getting cut by the Ravens. We got so much more to do. You're locked into the JR Sportbreeze show on the Infinity Sports Network. Nick Seltz is next.
