It is the JR Sport Brief Show here with you coast to coast on the Infinity Sports Network.
I'm coming to you live from Atlanta, Georgia. Much love and many thanks to everybody tuned in and locked in all over North America. I hope you've had a tremendous Thursday. I hope you had a great day. I hope you're having a good afternoon. I'll be getting ready to start having a great evening.
I'll be hanging out with you for the next four hours. This is when the show gets started every single weekday at 6 p.m. Eastern, 3 Pacific. Thank you to our producer holding things down in New York City, Ray Jarvis. And thank you to you for listening wherever you might be. On the free Odyssey app, your local Infinity Sports Network affiliate, Sirius XM Channel 375.
And if you got a smart speaker, ask the speaker to play the Infinity Sports Network. Man, we got a lot to get into. Last night, Boston Celtics stay alive. The Golden State Warriors are done. So I mean, Steph Curry was certainly done. We're not going to see him again until next year.
And then, well, Denver Nuggets. They might be done as well. We've got some issues that came out of the NFL schedule release. Speaking of releases, we found out that Dion is well, he has a series as a documentary that's going to be released on Netflix. We got NFL flag football. The owners are sitting around trying to figure out the rules. Of course, at the end of the show, we'll talk about a few things that took place this day in sports history.
Today has been May 15th all day long. And we also have some guests that are going to come through and join us. How about Shaquille Taylor? She covers all things NBA. She will be joining us courtesy of the athletic. She'll be here with us next hour in the PGA Championship underway. And let's just say that our Rory McIlroy.
Not out here doing the best. We're going to be joined by Jim Plotkin to talk about some golf. And he also has some some interesting news, some great news, some information that may be able to help you out when it comes down to your life. So we'll be joined by Jim Plotkin. That'll be later on in the show.
So we got a lot to get into. If you want to holler at me, you can do so. 888-710-4ISN.
And that number again is 888-710-4ISN. And you can find me online. I exist everywhere at JR Sport Brief. Happy Thursday to you. Ray, how are you? I can't complain at all. I'm happy to be here as a good commute in on a Thursday evening.
I'm ready to lock in and talk some sports. I appreciate that. Right. That's a good thing. Well, before we get into anything, we'll get into the golf and we'll get into Caleb Williams, who apparently did not want to go to Chicago. What a shock.
What a surprise to absolutely nobody. We'll even get into the New York Knicks, who are just messing around here, I guess, with the Boston Celtics or the Celtics are messing around with them without Jason Tatum. But before I do any of that, we got to talk about what took place after the Knicks blew their chance and opportunity to advance to the Eastern Conference finals. We got to talk about a team that just advanced for the second year in a row to the Western Conference finals. That happens to be the Minnesota Timberwolves last night, knocking off the Golden State Warriors with no Steph Curry.
One twenty one to one ten. At one point in time, it looked like maybe just maybe Golden State would get back into it. And the walls just kept them at bay and a team with this is hard, a little difficult to believe. Not Anthony Edwards, but the way this season started off for the Minnesota Timberwolves with Julius Randall and Anthony Edwards was just like, how the hell are they going to get along? They had no idea how they wanted to go out there and space the basketball court. And then Julius Randall went down and then he came back.
And the next thing you know, the ball is moving all over the place. I mean, Julius Randall, who looked like a black hole at times with the New York Knicks, he's moving and shaking and scoring. Last night, Julius Randall, twenty nine points, eight rebounds, five assists. And Anthony Edwards, who can go off any single night.
Twenty two points and 12 assists. He is not afraid to spread the rock around. And so afterwards, at this point in time, it's nothing but a love affair between Anthony Edwards and Julius Randall. I mean, after the game, of course, everybody's talking to Anthony Edwards. He put in his two cents about Julius Randall and he talked about what he is most impressed about when it comes to the power forward.
How he create for others, you know, his impact on the game, the way he controlled the tempo, the way he pushed the pace, the way he bring us along with him when he pushes the pace and just even his defense, his defense has gone to another level. Yeah, listen, ain't nobody necessarily looking at Mr. Julius Randall and thinking about defense, not by any stretch of the imagination. But this man, over the course of his career, let's think about this, ends up with the Lakers, ends up down in New Orleans and Louisiana, goes to the New York Knicks. The Knicks say, no, thank you.
We're not giving you a contract. It's shipped in exchange for Karl Anthony Towns. Julius Randall has every thought in the world to just be disgruntled. I mean, in the first place, he didn't want to leave. He didn't want to go to Minnesota. And now here he is, a key piece on a team that has an opportunity, a legitimate opportunity to go to the NBA finals. Julius Randall is one step away. I mean, this guy was balling out at Kentucky.
Man was a bully downloader. Dude was a beast. Now he's playing the perimeter. He's knocking down threes. He's a force to be reckoned with. Julius Randall, having to soak all of this in, talked about what it means to get to the Western Conference finals.
It's great. You know, we've had a season full of adversity. And I mean, coach said at the end of the regular season, we didn't do anything as far as trades or fire coaches. We just stuck together and we got through it together. So I'm super proud of our team. Everybody has stepped up in some type of way this year. And we got win number eight.
Got to keep going. I like how he said we didn't have to fire anybody. We didn't have to make any trades.
We didn't have to fire any coaches to go ahead and get the job done. Well, it looks like the Golden State Warriors, they certainly made a trade. It didn't work out for them with Jimmy Butler. Unfortunately, Jimmy Butler kind of fell flat. 17.6 rebounds, six assists.
This is what this guy was complaining about. Like the Miami Heat are not dumb. The hell am I give Jimmy Butler, who's aging like spoiled milk on the sidewalk?
What am I give this guy a three year contract extension for? Anyway, we'll get into the Golden State Warriors and what their future might look like, especially as Steph Curry. He's not aging like milk, but he ain't getting any younger. The guy's 37 years old and the years are ticking away for us to see what may take place with the Golden State Wars. But we'll dive a little deeper into the Golden State Warriors later on in the show. It's about the wolves right now and actually have a decent timeline. I mean, if you think about their short history, man, well, part of it stinks.
I'm sorry. Nothing all that impressive about Tom Gugliotta. Shout out to Terry Porter. Minnesota Timberwolves have found their success alongside their franchise star, the biggest guy in their franchise, Kevin Garnett. Unfortunately for Kevin Garnett, or at least the Timberwolves fans, they had to go and find success or he had to find success elsewhere while they rotted away. That's a big gap. They got another star that they can rely on.
And unless Nico Harrison is going to end up as the general manager of the Minnesota Timberwolves, I don't think you have to worry about Anthony Edwards going anywhere. The dude is still 23 years old. He doesn't turn 24 for a few months, like he hasn't even reached his peak. Look at all the memes, look at all the content online, everybody posting about how he's just knocking off legends.
Well, damn it. The next thing he's going to do and eventually it may not be this year, but it will be soon. Is go to a championship. This man went through the LeBron James of the world this year, goes through the Kevin Durant of the world last year. Like the NBA is in a brand new place.
LeBron James had a busted up knee even during elimination, may not have even played. Think about Kevin Durant not even making a postseason. Russell Westbrook is basically a dude off the bench. He's hit or miss right now for the Denver Nuggets. James Harden, even throughout the course of his career, MVP this scoring title that the guys still can't get the job done in the postseason. Think about the active stars in the league right now.
Think about the players who've already advanced to their respective conference finals. We got Mr. Overrated. Yeah, he should sell T-shirts with that on. He'd make a fortune. Tyrese Halliburton.
You think about the West. We got Anthony Edwards. You think about who may await him. If things move along tonight, if the Oklahoma City Thunder can knock off the Denver Nuggets, man, we're going to have Shea Gilgus Alexander.
Welcome to a new time, a new era. Steph Curry at home. Kevin Durant at home. LeBron James soon to be 41 at the end of the year at home. James Harden at home. We got a lot of dudes that have been stalwarts in the NBA that have basically hit a point right now where it's called pass the baton. It's a new time, a new era. The New York Knicks led by Jalen Brunson.
I told you about Halliburton. We got Jokic. He's surprisingly somehow, someway still looking for respect given what he's done. Maybe some of his teammates could help him out. Apparently, Jamal Murray tonight is also questionable with an illness.
Man, you better get a couple of IVs and go out there and try. It's good to be in a new era of basketball. And Anthony Edwards, once he maybe, I don't know, cleans up some of his language, doesn't decide to take some of the ridiculous fines for saying wild things.
Anthony Edwards, he could be that dude balling out. He may be that next star that ends up with a championship. I don't think it's going to happen this year. I'd be surprised if the Minnesota Timberwolves win the title.
I'm not favoring them to do so. But I didn't favor them to go this damn far at the beginning of the season, especially trying to figure out how you fit in Julius Randall versus Karl Anthony Towns. If you're the Minnesota Timberwolves with new ownership, Mark, Laurie, Alex Rodriguez. It's a hell of a deal. Karl Anthony Towns, Julius Randall.
Julius Randall calls less than this dude. It's a good move. Western Conference Finals, I would have thought that would have been the highest ceiling that they would have had. And that's exactly what they did last year as the Dallas Mavericks beat them four to one on their way to the NBA Finals. Let's see what Anthony Edwards can what he has learned between last year and this year. Ray, did you have any thought at the beginning of this season that the Minnesota Timberwolves would get this far one step away from the finals?
Absolutely not. In fact, I thought when they traded Kat for Randall that they shot themselves in the foot and would take a massive step back. I thought they would be first round food. In fact, they would, you know, get some clicks, get some comments, losing six to some Western Conference power.
And we'd move on with our lives. Did not expect them to be in the conference finals two years in a row. I don't I don't think anybody did. They certainly didn't look like it at the beginning of the season. So the Minnesota Timberwolves, they advance in tonight. They wait for this game gets started in a little more than two hours from now.
The Oklahoma City Thunder and the Denver Nuggets realistically. The Minnesota Timberwolves could have five days off if if Denver keeps this rolling, if Denver wins tonight, if they push it to seven, the Minnesota, which is a relatively veteran but young team, go bears, old, older. He ain't decrepit. A little rest.
He never hurt nobody. Yeah. Let let Oklahoma City and Denver beat the living hell out of each other while Minnesota kind of puts his feet up and relax.
Hopefully not too much space. And speaking of relaxing. Yeah. Golden State Warriors. They gonna have a lot of relaxing to do. Steph Curry probably never stood a chance and coming back. Who just who just pulls a hamstring like that and just pops right up? Oh, he's not playing for another week. I not playing tonight.
I not playing in game six. Oh, he's not. He has months off now. You stay at home with his. I don't know how many kids he has now. Remember, you stab one little girl and he had another little girl. Now you have a big boy.
I don't know. He could sit at home with his kids and eat his wife's cooking. Good for Steph Curry. Great guy, by the way.
Nice family, too. Draymond Green can spend a whole hell of a lot more time podcasting. I'm surprised he didn't drop an episode last night. And if he did shrug, who cares? And Jimmy Butler, you can go back to Miami or whatever the hell he spends his off season.
He's just globe tracking. He's thinking about plans on selling his coffee, thinking about this new money that he's going to get for the next three years, the 121 million dollars that Pat Riley said he did not want to give him. Because, hey, Jimmy, how about you just show up in the playoffs and play?
And that's something that, well, when Steph Curry went down, Jimmy Butler failed to do. Man, you're going to do all that talking, that complaining, that wanting. I need to find my joy. You got joy in 121 million dollars. Now go run your coffee shop in the off season.
Come back next year and maybe do something, OK? Kind of hard on Jimmy there, man. Not at all. You do the talking, you got to come through and you got to show up. Jimmy Butler's sitting around dropping 17, 6 and 6. All this Batman talk with him and Buddy Hill. Be Batman. Matter of fact, don't talk about Batman. Don't talk about Robin. Don't talk. And if you are going to talk, just go out there and back it up. Don't complain and then not show up.
You can't have it both ways. We're going to get more into the Golden State Warriors later on in the show and talk about what's in store for the Golden State Warriors. What can they do to change their current fortunes? Because time is ticking.
35, 36, 37 turns into 38, 39, 40 and poof. Steph Curry's not going to be around forever. The Golden State Warriors.
They certainly have to think about how they can get the most out of him while he can still run around the screens and knock down the threes. It's the J.R. Sportbreeze Show here with you coast to coast on the Infinity Sports Network. 888-710-4ISN.
That's 888-710-4ISN. We have so much to get into. I told you, next hour, we're going to talk some NBA hoops with Shaquia Taylor. She's going to come by.
She's from the Midwest. We're going to talk about the Pacers. We're going to talk about everything going on in the NBA.
She's courtesy of the athletic. We got some golf that got started today. The PGA Championship. We're going to have a chat with golfer Jim Plotkin.
I'm going to ask him what the hell is going on. We got some of the top golfers in the world. They've already started off today and they suck. I told you about Oklahoma City and Denver.
They're getting at it later on. And we got the NFL flag football starting at the Olympics in 2028. We're trying to get NFL guys involved in that. And speaking of being involved, when we come back on the other side of the break, I want to talk to you about an NFL quarterback entering into the second year of his deal, the second year of his contract.
He did not want to be involved with the team that drafted him. Damn it. There's already it's in a book already. I'll tell you who on the other side of the break. Congratulations.
Happy Thursday. You're locked into the J.R. sport brief show coast to coast on the Infinity Sports Network. It is the J.R. sport brief show on the Infinity Sports Network. Hey, we talked about one young great player in the world of sports.
We talked about Anthony Edwards. This guy's running. He's jumping. He's flying. He's dunking on people. He's knocking down threes. He's amazing.
He's 23 years old. The sky is the limit. Place in Minnesota. The Twin Cities. The land of a thousand lakes. The place that the mosquitoes will tear your ass up in. If you think you just going up there in the summertime for a cool breeze.
Hell no. The lakes make for a lot of humidity. Shout outs to everybody up in the Twin Cities. That's the home of Anthony Edwards, even though he's from right here in Atlanta, Georgia, and he's making his home and a lot of other places. But that's his own personal business.
OK. Anyway, there's another big time athlete, another young athlete. He's not in Minnesota. He's not playing at TD Bank Stadium or whatever the heck they call that thing that the birds fly into and die because it looks like a giant window, whatever that is.
He's not there. His name is Caleb Williams. Caleb Williams, moving into his second year with the Chicago Bears.
Caleb Williams made it clear before he was drafted that he wanted to be a Minnesota Viking. We are now just finding this out. Interesting timing, huh? Pretty interesting. There's a new book that's coming out in a few months. OK. The name of the book is called American Kings, a biography of the quarterback. And it's just about a whole bunch of quarterbacks. Just fill in the blank.
OK. I mean, Steve Young, the Mannings, Kirk Cousins, Drake May and even Caleb Williams. So this book is about a bunch of quarterbacks. A shout out to Seth Wickersham, who wrote the book. And as a part of putting the book together and talking to all these QBs, well, it's pretty recent, huh? He spoke to the father of Caleb Williams. His name is Carl, his dad.
And apparently to the shock of absolutely nobody. They did not want to go. They did not want to get drafted by the Chicago Bears. Carl Williams, the father of Caleb, is quoted as saying in the book. Chicago is the place quarterbacks go to die.
And simple as that. He pretty much said that the NFL structure of how a guy gets drafted and how the quarterback has to be committed to the team and the franchise tag, he says it's almost almost illegal how the collective bargaining agreement is currently put together. Carl Williams continued on. I don't want my son playing for the Bears. He even spoke to Archie Manning, who you might recall, basically told the San Diego Chargers at the time, I want my son playing for y'all. If you draft them, he ain't going. We know that they did draft them and he was ultimately traded to the New York Giants.
Caleb Williams is also quoted in the book as saying, I need to go to the Vikings. Apparently, he had a great meeting with Kevin O'Connell, who played quarterback in the NFL. We saw what Kevin O'Connell did last year with Sam Donald. So I guess Kevin O'Connell is a miracle worker. Another nice guy, by the way. Shout outs to Kevin O'Connell. All the great work he's done with Special Olympics. That's how I met the damn guy.
Real nice dude. I don't blame him for wanting to go out there. And if you think about some of the quarterbacks that have passed through Chicago. It's pretty sad. OK, I'm thinking about recently.
All right. It's not like they even had a premier quarterback when they won the championship in 86. OK, Mike Glennon, that miserable looking Jake Cutler. I don't think I ever saw Jake Cutler look happier day in his life. Every time I saw him on the sidelines, it was like he needed a cigarette. Rex Grossman. They went to the Super Bowl with his miserable behind. OK, Kyle Orton.
We can go on and on. I don't want to torment fans of the Chicago Bears. And then right before he got there, he being Caleb Williams. They had Justin Fields.
Caleb Williams said that there were times last year. Nobody even studied tape with him. He had to do it himself. What a shock.
You think about Ibra Flus. This man was over here blowing games on national holidays. What a genius he was. That's why he doesn't have a job. That's why Ben Johnson is in the building. And Caleb Williams, he's happy that things have moved on. He's happy that he has a brand new coach. He's happy as a new offensive line.
He's happy he has new weapons. And a matter of fact, after Ben Johnson was hired, Caleb Williams was asked about his new head coach, Ben Johnson. And he said, I want to work with this guy the same way that he worked miracles with Jared Goff. Let's listen to this. So building that bond, you know, him pushing me and us growing together for years to come is it's going to be fun.
I can't wait. And, you know, to be able to to help me, you know, learn more about ball because he's super smart, super sharp and, you know, grow and progress in those ways so that, you know, year four, you know, I'm out there. And it's it's, you know, Ben's obviously still calling Ben's on his thing. But, you know, it's a it's a Jared thing where Jared's out there now.
He's just, you know, he's calling the whole game in the sense of when he's out there on the field and he's been the coach. Yeah, listen, I hope Caleb Williams goes a little bit further than Jared Goff, who unfortunately seems to melt in the big occasions despite the Super Bowl appearance. Now, having said that, Caleb Williams has accepted his fate. They thought it was a bad idea, both him and his dad, to try to beat up the Chicago Bears publicly, because Ryan Paul's basically said it's not going to work. We're going to draft you anyway. Suck it up. And good for him.
They got Hebrew flutes the hell up on out of there. Now he has this this miracle worker, this offensive miracle worker. No, it's not Kevin O'Connor with the Vikings, but it's Ben Johnson who came over from the Detroit Lions, a divisional rival, and they hope to make some magic together. Well, all of this news, all of this information was shared with Ben Johnson, and he was actually on Colin Cowherd. And he was asked about a lying and putting down any fears that Caleb Williams still might have of the Chicago Bears in the air quarterback curse.
Listen, you talk about fears and I don't see it quite the same way. I see this is is what a great opportunity we have to do something that really has never been done. There hasn't been a 4000 yard passer here in this franchise. And and I think Caleb is going to be the first one. I see a chance for greatness here for him. And he feels the same way. I don't know what's going on prior to him joining the organization, but he he is very proud to be a Chicago Bear. That's what our conversations have included. And he's really excited to get to work right now and be the best version of himself for 2025.
Yeah, what happened before me doesn't have anything to do with me. And credit to Ryan polls. Caleb boy. Oh, he got sacked almost 70 times last year.
Damn, I'm not a guy's head stayed on. He almost got Derek Carr. I think he got crack more than not Derek David. He got crack more than than David did.
Damn. At least he's still playing. This man had 20 touchdowns. Went out there and threw only six interceptions. But was sacked almost 70 times.
That's a lot. So they retooled the offensive line. They got Luther Burden in from Mizzou. They decided to also say, hey, why not get a tight end for him? Let's get Colston Loveland in.
And there's going to be some high expectations, especially given what we saw from Jayden Daniels last year. So that's in the rear view. Come on. We just got this in public. And why his dad decided to speak out on this now or why?
I have no idea. He's going to be asked about this. And Caleb Williams can just go ahead and and shut it all down. All things considered, nobody in Chicago will care. If they've had success by the time December comes around, potentially January, there was high expectations for the Chicago Bears last year, given their team.
And I think they strengthen it. I mentioned a whole bunch of guys on offense. I mean, they got Grady Jarrett now. He's not completely cooked as a defender.
The Chicago Bears are looking good in this book that comes out in September. Of course, Caleb Williams will be asked about it the same way his dad was for years. We've seen players try to manipulate the draft and where they go and their families. And, well, we just saw the situation.
We'll play out with Chador Sanders. It didn't work for him. But we got plenty of players who make it clear. I don't want to go here. I'm not going to work out here. There's plenty of manipulation, not just from the teams with some of the crap stories that we get.
But also from the the players and agents themselves, the ones who got a little bit of stroke, the ones who got a little bit of power. I'm not working out for you. I'm not going to show up here.
I'm not going to go to this meeting. Hey, when you got the most talent. You got more power, got a little bit more influence as to where you can go. And the Chicago Bears, they said, hey, we got number one. We made this trade with Carolina and we need a quarterback.
Justin Fields can walk. We're going to take Caleb and that's what they did. And I think it's going to I think it's going to work out a very competitive division. Minnesota Vikings will probably most certainly take a step back with JJ McCarthy from from Sam Donald. You got the Packers. Packers should be, I think, pretty much the same as they were last year. Hopefully a love is healthy and their wide receivers are healthy throughout the course of the season. And then we got the Lions. Well, we got Aaron Glenn with the New York Jets. We got Ben Johnson who left this is Dan Campbell going to keep on gambling.
Chicago Bears got to be better than the five wins that they put up last year, especially as some of those teams in their division take a step back. Hey, Ray, what are your thoughts on on Caleb Williams moving into his second year? I think the jury is out on Caleb Williams.
He has all the talent in the world. To me, he was the rightful number one pick. I know revisionists will say that maybe he shouldn't have gone number one. I think he suffered from having a coach in Hebrew flues who's a bit over his head as an NFL head coach and a play caller. So I look at this as a clean slate, but he has to prove himself year two, especially in this expedited format of NFL quarterback development. He has to get it right this season or Chicago might be looking at looking at another quarterback yet again. Yeah, I think based on his year one numbers, I think he's on a good space. They've added to the roster around him.
And you never know. Year after year, CJ Stroud had arguably what he did have one of the best rookie years ever by a quarterback in the NFL. And then it looked like he went a little backwards. And then we have Jayden Daniels, who then supplanted and surpassed him as probably having the best rookie year of a quarterback ever as he almost almost went to the Super Bowl. Is he going to go that far again? Is he going to look that good? This is the good, good part about things we get to watch. And I think he suffers from Jayden Daniels success. In fact, say again, I think I think Caleb suffers from Jayden Daniels success because everyone is looking at if he's doing that in Washington.
What are you doing in Chicago? Yeah, well, let's see after a first year. Easy to say.
Let's see how how the meter goes as one ascends as the other one come down. I mean, Jayden Daniels, those numbers he put up last year were just otherworldly for a rookie QB. Let's see if the league has figured him out at all. One thing for sure, this story, unless this book is going to get people kind of riled up a whole hell of a lot more. I think it's a story for now. Caleb Williams, everybody's going to judge him, not by what his dad said in the book, what he said in the book.
People are going to go ahead and judge him by what Ray just said. What are you going to do on that football field? Are you going to get the job done? It's the J.R. sport re-show here with you coast to coast on the Infinity Sports Network, 888-710-4ISN.
That's 888-710-4ISN. Caleb Williams, he's going to be judged by whether or not he gets the job done. Last night, I might as well get to these guys. The New York Knicks, they didn't get the job done. They had an opportunity to close things out, get ready and set for the Indiana Pacers.
But no, they have to go back to New York and they got to take on the Boston Celtics again with no Tatum. We'll get into how they screwed up last night on the other side of the break. We're going to talk more NFL.
Apparently, the Indianapolis Colts are very, very sorry about something they did during their scheduled release. We have a lot to get into. But right now, this minute, this second, we're going to get into a news flash. Here he is. It's Rich Ackerman. It is the J.R. Sportbreeze show here with you on the Infinity Sports Network.
We talked about a lot. It's still the first out of the show. You got Anthony Edwards. This man has advanced to another Western Conference Finals. You got Caleb Williams. You have the Chicago Bears quarterback. And there's a book coming out. And he's a part of the book.
He's not the whole book. It's about quarterbacks. Apparently, he also wanted to be playing in Minnesota for the Vikings. He did not want to go to the Bears. His dad said the Chicago Bears are where quarterbacks will go to die. Ben Johnson, he spoke about this earlier today, the new head coach of the Chicago Bears. He's just like, man, all that stuff before me doesn't have anything to do with me.
And I know Caleb is proud to be a part of the Bears. So nothing to see here. Let's go ahead and keep it moving. Let's keep it moving here as well.
Let's let's get this the hell up on out the way. As I sat here in the studio yesterday watching the New York Knicks take on the Celtics, I'm like, oh boy, here we go again. The New York Knicks are down to the Celtics, except for this go round, there was no comeback. The Knicks can't close out the Celtics in Boston.
The final score last night, 127 to 102. Everybody always talks about the New York Knicks being ran into the ground by Tom Thibodeau. Well, they got to do some running again tomorrow. If they want to advance to the Eastern Conference Finals, something that they haven't done in a quarter century, when they also took on the Indiana Pacers who are sitting around waiting and probably thrilled right now that the New York Knicks are playing some extra basketball.
Or maybe they're hoping for the Boston Celtics to advance. I have no idea. I know Tyrese Halliburton is probably icing up his wrist. I don't know.
Maybe he's having a chat with his dad. I don't know what those guys are doing. I know the Knicks, they're getting ready for this basketball game tomorrow. Pretty bad results yesterday. Bridges only had nine. OGN and OBE had six. Karl-Anthony Towns, 19. Brunson, 22. He fouled out. Josh Hart was balling out despite getting an elbow to his eye. They had to close his cut up. Luke Cornette with no Jason Tatum out there. He went out and had 10 points, nine rebounds, and he had a cut eye.
Cut somebody's eye. That's not on the stat sheet. They held on.
They did it at home. Derek White started off hot. 5 of 5 to start the game.
4-4 from deep. Ended up with 34 points on another team. Derek White, he'd be an all-star. Brown had 26. And Joel Missoula, he was still miserable.
What else is new in that regard? And so the Celtics lived to fight another day while Jason Tatum was laid up in a hospital bed. He had a surgery apparently early yesterday morning. Derek White missed the 34 points. He talked about how they bounced back even though Tatum got cut open. I think seeing him go down was tough, but we got a lot of guys out here that are highly competitive. We didn't want our season to end tonight.
Just going out there, competing. We said after game 4 we just got to win game 5. Now we're going to move on and try to find a way to win game 6. Now listen, this is going to be a complete mess if the Boston Celtics go into Madison Square Garden and beat the Knicks. Oh my God.
People are going to start breaking out in hives and sweating. And the fact that it was Luke Cornette last night out of all people. This is a role player. I mean there was a point in time where even he played on the New York Knicks. That's where he started his career. He just bounces around. What is his job?
Stand around, be tall, put an elbow in somebody's face, get a rebound, block a shot every now and then, take a 3, sit down. Luke Cornette. Almost a double-double last night, 10-9.
Joe Mazzulla, Mr. Excitement himself, was excited as he talked about his big man. Yeah, he was great. Just both ends of the floor. Did a great job protecting the rim. Did a great job defending without falling. Did a great job on both ends of the floor.
So I just thought his presence was good. Especially on the rebounding head. Nine rebounds, two offensive ones.
He made some big time plays for us. Man, I don't know what makes that guy happy. I don't know. Ray, does he like his job? Does he like it? I don't know.
I feel like he may kind of put him in a spot where he left him holding the bag and he never got over it. He won a championship. Be happy, right?
I don't know about that. I think he's happy when they take 85 three-pointers in the game. Yeah, and miss 60 of them? Yeah, and essentially cost themselves a series shooting themselves out of their own gym the first two games of this series. Before Tatum blew out his leg, there was a possibility if they didn't blow 20-point leads that they wouldn't even be in this position.
You talk about enthusiasm and personality. Jalen Brown doesn't always have it. He was asked about them staying alive and forcing another game in Madison Square Garden.
He says it wasn't Cornette, it wasn't me, it wasn't Derek White, it wasn't that sick Kristaps Porzingis who couldn't play more than 12 points and give you a minute. Jalen Brown said it was all of us. It was fantastic. It was a lot of fun tonight. We came out and played team basketball. We got contributions from everybody and it was fun.
It was fun. It ain't going to be fun tomorrow. I think the Knicks are finishing tomorrow. They have to. They got no choice. Either that or it's the same old Knicks. Ray, they're finishing them tomorrow in the Garden, right?
Nope. I think it's going to be seven because there's nothing about the New York Knicks that says they do things properly. They have to stress out their fan base. They have to lose winnable games.
They have to create tense moments for the entire city of New York. Ouch. Even this version of the team with Brunson?
Absolutely. You remember game five in the first round? They up 3-1. They won two games in Detroit.
What did they do? They handed Detroit a game and had to go close out in Detroit. Well, yeah, he went out there and got the job, so what are they going to win in seven? You got the Celtics winning the whole thing here? I think the Knicks are going to win in seven. I think they're going to stress their fans out and then close them out in game seven. What is the New York Post going to say on, what is that, Saturday morning?
What is it going to say Saturday morning? Knicks beans are baked. Knicks beans are baked. That's a good one. Somebody might steal that.
Be careful. Knicks beans are baked. Knicks without the knack.
There's a million ways you could go. Tom Thibodeau, you want to talk about miserable? I guess maybe Joe Mazzola learned from him. Maybe he learned from Bill Belichick. Tom Thibodeau was actually asked, was it the ref's fault?
Listen to this guy. It was one of those games. We have 40. They had a lot as well, so it was a choppy game, but I think that was also reflective of the aggression. You know, I think that you saw Josh's layup that I knew it was going to be that type of game. Yeah, he's talking about the layups and he's talking about Josh Hart getting hit in the head by Luke Cornette's elbow that basically split him open above his eye. And then he went out there and said, don't worry about it. I'm going to stay in the game.
Just glue me up. He dropped 24 points. He was the best player on the Knicks last night and they cut the guy open and they still couldn't help him out.
Josh Hart, no dummy. He made it very clear. We got a win tomorrow night in the garden. It doesn't matter where, if it's at home or away, that question is stupidity to me. Every game you go out there, you want to win.
You want to compete at the highest level. And obviously we didn't do that. And next game is our next game.
And that's how we're focused on getting a win. It's also odd that Jalen Brown grabbed his nether regions. It was very odd. I thought they did that in football at the offensive line. I didn't know that they were doing this in basketball. Now, a little odd.
J.R., by any means necessary. That's where we are in the series now. You got to grab crotches in a basketball game?
If they didn't call it, it didn't happen. You played basketball? You play? Yeah. I mean, trust me, it's wrong. You know, you're not supposed to touch those areas, but you lose your play to a tour in the Achilles. You're down 3-1 in the series. You do what you got to do to get a win. Now you're grabbing crotches. Okay.
Like you're at the bottom of the pile at a Jets game. Now you got to grab crotches? Listen, you got to recover that fumble, man.
Okay. I don't know if Jalen Brunson believes in that. He was asked if, you know, no Tatum, is it okay to grab crotches?
And he says, listen, we don't grab crotches, but we're not taking them lightly. Yes, they're missing a big piece. But like I said before, I mean, they're a team, a well-oiled machine that has been in situations where they play without them. And so, and they played well, and we need to understand that. And we need to, I mean, trust the game plan and play accordingly.
It's that simple. Yes, the well-oiled machine. They won the championship last year, but they did it with Tatum.
I absolutely, by the way, still love it. Al Horford, a couple of nights ago, when Tatum went down, he says, yeah, we're missing our leader and our best player. Ouch. Yeah, we know that. I don't know if Brown knows that. I don't know if he wants to hear that.
I don't care how many finals MVPs he got his hands on. It's the JR Sport Bree Show here with you coast to coast on the Infinity Sports Network. Only one basketball game tonight. The Denver Nuggets are trying to avoid elimination in a little more than 90 minutes against the Oklahoma City Thunder. We'll talk about that game later on in the show.
It is the JR Sport Bree Show. When we come back on the other side of the break, the NFL released a schedule last night. Everybody is up in arms. People are thinking about Christmas. They're thinking about Ireland and the Colts. The Colts had to apologize for their creativity. And I guess their lack of class? Maybe. I'll explain this to JR Sport Bree Show. Don't move.
