The Rich Eisen Show Basketball Podcast S2 E17. Nuggets- Heat and Jokic vs. Embiid/Butler

All right, what's up everybody?

We're back. It's the Rich Eisen Show Basketball Podcast and we are in it. NBA Finals game one went down last night in Denver. What city? I mean, it was closer, I think, than the score was closer than the game was, I think.

Adam, TJ, what's up? Denver takes game one, 104-93. He'd had a chance for a backdoor cover there at the end, which was interesting. But like I said, I think the score wasn't indicative of how that game was. Joker, triple-double is kind of what we kind of expected. He was minus money for a triple-double, which is insane. Jamal Murray was awesome last night. MPJ had 10 boards, his eighth game in the playoffs with 10 rebounds.

He only had three in the regular season. Adam, is this series over? No, it's far from over.

Far from over? Yeah. Do I think the Denver Nuggets will win the series?

Yes. But listen, the Miami Heat role players who were stars throughout the last few series were terrible last night. Max Stroust didn't hit one shot. Max Stroust was terrible last night.

Duncan Robinson, awful also. This team has good players. They just were shooting bad last night. So those guys, I don't think will ever shoot as bad as they did last night. So I think the Heat do have a chance if they just shoot the way they have been shooting the last few series. Well, that's not going to keep up either, TJ. I mean, the Heat aren't going to shoot 50 percent from three.

You know, what? Caleb Martin's not going to be Dwayne Wade this whole series like he was against Boston. Do you think this series is over?

Maybe gentlemen sweep again? I wouldn't say it's over, but I just look at two numbers here, 20 to two. That is the amount of foul shots that the Nuggets and the Heat shot last night. Twenty for the Nuggets, two foul shots, two, one, two on the crazy, you know, uno dos. That's it. Like, I ain't survive the two foul shots for the Miami Heat.

That's crazy. I don't know why that's not a bigger story because that's a, you know, that's a big gap in foul shots right there. But other than that, you know, these Miami role players or as Jimmy calls them, he doesn't call them role players. He calls them teammates.

None of them really did step up. And I have to assume that that won't be the case for the rest of this series. Do I think Denver is going to win? Yes. Do I think it's going to be a sweep?

I really don't. I feel like this Heat team has got, you know, too much fight in them to just lay down and get steamrolled. Tyler Harrow could be a big factor if he is able to come back because a lot of those wide open corner threes that they were missing yesterday, I'd have to assume that Tyler would knock down.

So, you know, also it's going to depend on on his tank, right? He's been out for basically a month, two months. So I don't know if game two is maybe the right time to put him back in with the altitude that's going on there.

He might gas out early. But Aaron Gordon, let's give a shout out to him. He just basically game dominated the first quarter of that game yesterday, and he really put them on his back and it made it so the kids didn't have to do a whole lot other than distribute. And Jamal Murray just played great KCP overall. He only had seven, but I swear it seemed like KCP had about 16 yesterday, to be honest with you. He played well.

What's what his team is good, man. Denver essentially did it with a six man rotation. You know, Bruce Brown played 21 minutes, Jeff, Uncle Jeff Green and Brown combined for 19 minutes. But Murray played 44. Joker played 40.

MPJ played 43. And you know, not a deep bench, but they were just kind of dominant. It was, you know, a high teens, 20 point game, seemingly the whole the whole contest after the first quarter there. You mentioned Aaron Gordon, 12 in the first.

Joker took one shot, got to the line a little bit at six assists in the first quarter. You kind of saw them. You know, they didn't put up the crazy point numbers that they have been. I think their point total was like one or nine or something for Vegas. And they were under that. But they were just mad efficient. And you mentioned the shooting. Caleb Martin, Struce and Duncan Robinson combined two for twenty three.

Not going to get it done. It's just not against this team. Not against this team. Jimmy Butler to Adam only at six of 14, but only got to the line zero times, zero times. Jimmy Butler lives at the foul line. Yeah. He needs to be more aggressive and make it a point in game two, because you know that a lot of people online were complaining about the lack of free throws for the heat.

They were being aggressive, though. And so, you know, the rest will be aware for that of that for game two. So I think that if you're Jimmy Butler, you make it a point and you're very aggressive early in game two to get those calls and it gets the line as many as possible as much as possible.

Yeah. I'm curious to see if Spode does the old Pat Riley trick of like really complaining today and tomorrow in the media about the lack of the free throw disparity. What's going on there?

What do we have to do? But also, I just don't think Miami is being very aggressive. I mean, Bam out of bio took twenty five shots. How many of those were free throw jumpers or, you know, 12 foot jump shots? He was in the mid range. He wasn't being that aggressive. And so, you know, they kind of didn't earn those earned the free throws.

Twenty to two, though, that is. Yeah. I mean, at some point, like, you know, there's one play where Joker was setting a pick, I think, on Duncan.

They ran away each other. You could see Joker wraps his hand around Duncan Robinson and pulls him down. And yet Duncan got called for that. So I obviously that's not a foul shooting play, but it's just like, come on. Like, you mean to tell me the defense was so pristine that you couldn't even look how many fouls we see called. Like, come on. Those are fouls.

And he couldn't get any of those. Like, man, they've got to do better. They've got to like work or maybe they got to bring in some Miami acting coaches and teaching them the art of the flop or something that they got to do something to get to that foul line and get some fouls on these on these nuggets, guys, because the starting lineup yesterday for the nuggets, you know, many fouls they had called on them.

Let's take a look. Five, five. They only had eight foul calls for the game for the game. Yeah.

Unreal and Braun. Man, that's efficiency. It's two fouls. It's two fouls.

He was like, I'll get my name. That is incredible. OK, Adam, a silver lining it for Miami.

Like what positives did you see? Are they you take away from game one? That gives you hope that they can they can get it back in the series. Well, you have to like what Bam Adebayo did. He's been pretty inconsistent in terms of his offense throughout the playoffs, but he stepped up yesterday. So there's something going on with him with that mid-range shot.

Yeah. He didn't get any foul calls because he wasn't being super aggressive. But if he can score 20 to 25 points a game in the series, just doing that medium range jump shot, that's that's a huge positive for the heat. And I think another positive for the heat. Is how bad the role players were in a weird way, because I just don't see them playing that bad. That was literally the worst that they could play when you talk about Caleb Martin, who is arguably the MVP of the Eastern Conference Finals.

There's a huge argument for that. Yeah. And then you have Duncan Robinson and Struce. Struce is over 10.

Struce is not going to go over 10. So that was crazy. If you're the if you're like the head coach of your Spolstra, if you're anybody with the heat, you have to tell the guys, listen, there's probably no other way we could play as bad as we did in game one. And we still were relatively close. They still made the run at the end of the game. You know, he got it down to 10, nine points. So they were in it. It wasn't like a 30 point blowout.

And they could say it's only up from here. We're getting Tyler Herro back in game three. And so that's, you know, a high tower also played well for them.

That's kind of a guy that nobody really knows about. And he he scored, I believe, 18 points. So. Yeah, it's just I don't think that they'll play as bad in the next few games. Interesting of you just looking at the box score. Kevin Love didn't play. Kevin Love couldn't get in there, TJ.

Yeah. And I was kind of surprised. You know, I saw Zeller get some run.

What was Zeller in high school? And maybe it's because, you know, Joker wasn't, you know, scoring at a high rate until like the end of the game. So maybe if he had come out more aggressive and been scoring, maybe they would have thrown Love out there a little bit more just to put another body on him.

I mean, I don't know, but I was a little surprised that he didn't see any any run whatsoever. But, you know, hey, that game's in the books now and they just got to regroup and go, look, we probably won't play this bad again and just, you know, move on. But like you guys said, they got to get more aggressive. They got to make it a point to try to get to the foul line or just not even to get to the following just to draw some fouls on this. Yeah, draw some fouls, get to the line. You got to get easy points when the clock's not moving, because, you know, kind of as we mentioned yesterday on the big show, Miami's only chance is to keep this in this scoring range under 200 points, around 200 points. Play this game in the high 90s, low hundreds. And they were they were able to do that.

It was kind of a grind. You know, we didn't see Denver really running up and down, getting their fast break going when they did. They got easy shots, obviously. But one of four ninety three, that's this is where Miami wants to be.

They want to be in this range. You made up the point about Kevin Love. And that's that's a good point, because if you look at Denver's front line, they have a really tall front line. When you have Aaron Gordon, who's six, 10 MPJ is about six, 10 and then Yochit.

So those guys are all three guys that are in their starting line. I'm surprised that Kevin Love wasn't out there. And you would think, Kevin Love, he just gives them a little more size. He has that experience playing in the NBA finals before. So you can shoot them, shoot the three. Yeah. Just so I don't understand at least 10 to 15 minutes a game and see what he does, at least mix it up down in the paint, make it a little tougher for Gordon and MPJ.

So I'd like to see love in game two if I'm a heat fan. Yeah, I would think so, too. I called I called I called Highsmith Hightower, by the way, that was a high tower. I made that mistake with Hightower, like Beverly Hills Cop Police Academy. Heywood Highsmith, what a name, by the way. Yeah.

It's like a 1970s ABA player's name, you know. Yeah. One hundred percent. Man, Aaron Gordon was awesome.

Super efficient. Seven of 10, two free throws, man. Sixteen point twelve that obviously in the first quarter. Predictions for game two. Are we coming back on Monday and it's two oh or does Miami still one?

Man, I was shocked that they still had. I mean, they're also not going to play this poorly. I mean, I think this is kind of the I mean, Miami has been playing kind of above their weight the whole playoffs. Absolutely. I think we can agree with that. Like I said, they shouldn't even be here, really.

Yeah, no, they shouldn't. But now that they're here, they're not going to play this unless this is who they've always been. And they were just punching up. But Caleb Martin, who was Dwayne Wade, was one of seven. Gabe Vincent, seven of fourteen. That's a lot of shots for him.

But it's true. So for ten, Robinson won for six. I can't see that continuing. Calvary had a pretty good game. Eleven, five and five for twenty six minutes. Yeah. And you know, he he was kind of like at the forefront of that charge they met Monday. They made when they went, I think, on like an early fourth run. Yeah. And they kind of cut the lead down. That was Lowry who was in there. So, you know, I I think it's too.

I think it's two oh two, Adam. But if Miami can cover the spread, like keep it close, single digits, that would have to give them some confidence going back home. Yeah.

Oh, absolutely. I believe in Game three that will be a huge boost of Taylor here coming back. Just in terms of a guy who scored twenty points a game during the year, you're back home in Miami. So even if it is O2, I expect the heat to put up an effort in for the series to possibly be after four games, the two two series. I believe Miami can win both games in Miami, but Butler needs to play like a superstar. He's been playing outrageous, arguably the best player of the entire playoffs.

But what he did in Game one is just not going to cut it. If he really wants to get that ring. We all want Jimmy Butler to get a ring agreed like he's to me.

I think so. Yeah, I really like him, aside from the fact that he plays for Miami. I mean, I think he put on any other team. He'd be one of my favorite players.

Yeah. If you if you know about his story, he came from a really rough childhood and his mom abandoned him when he was like 13 years old. He was bouncing from house to house.

He was a late first round pick for the Bulls. So he's kind of been the underdog the whole time of his career. And I just love watching this guy play. But what he did in Game one, that's just not going to he needs to score thirty thirty five points a game. Yeah, he really needs to step it up. Yeah, he for sure needs to be in that like 20.

Like you said, twenty seven thirty every single night. Double double rebounds. He used to get to the free throw line multiple times. I think if you're Miami and you're looking at Denver, you know, we've been singing Denver's praises like so so much, which deservedly so. They've been awesome all year. They were under five hundred on the road on the road this season, 19 and 22 on the road. TJ, obviously, they were awesome at home. They were the second best home team in the NBA.

Thirty four and seven. But sub five hundred on the road. So if you're Miami. Positives from Game one, you didn't get blown out of the gym.

And I think that's where it ends. I don't think there's any of you could take you fought and you and your role players who have been awesome shot as bad as it could be. Keep it close in game two. And even if you don't win and then carry any momentum into going back home, the energy of the home crowd and the Denver is just a different team on the road.

And those role players, they'll play way better at home. Yeah, absolutely. Absolutely.

I agree. I think it's two. Oh, and I think I think Miami gets one at home, but they really need to get both at home. Miami really needs to win both home games. Yeah.

Also, it's over for this to have any shot. TJ, I'm going to ask you this because I saw it on first take this week. I think it's really interesting. OK. You love Joel Embiid. I do. Which of these guys winning a championship this year is worse for Embiid?

Joe Kitch or Jimmy Butler, his former teammate? I don't. Yeah, I saw that as well. And I had to laugh. It's a really good topic.

I really good sports radio. I mean, what joke in Embiid? Like I don't think that. Joker winning a title really would have any effect on Joe. Why not?

What do you mean? Why would it would it be so would Anthony Anthony Davis won? Would that have an effect on like why Anthony Davis hasn't won an MVP?

OK. Hasn't been great. Had to head with him. I guess my my point being there's only one right answer for this and this is Jimmy Butler because you had Jimmy, you play with Jimmy. The mind you only got half a year with Jimmy and then he left. But I feel like, yeah, Joe would have to look like if we were able to have kept Jimmy. Then that could have been him in the finals and that probably would have been him at some point in the finals.

And I feel like that would be the answer to the question just because him and Joker were they? Yeah, I mean, look, they had a head to head. They were MVP, whatever. I don't think that that's affecting him, but a guy who you had in house, you played with the guy you ever you still have a friendship with the guy. The guy came out on national TV and said he believes that you're the MVP of the league like that guy leading this team to a championship when you had him. And then you look at who we kept and let Jimmy walk.

I feel like that would probably be the biggest kind of like, oh, for for for MB just in my personal opinion. Adam, what do you think? I think I think it's Joe Kitch, but so do I. I think it's joke. It's just because there is that controversy who should be the MVP this year. Who's the real MVP? Last two years.

Yeah. And then finally, Embiid gets his MVP. And then you get to a lot of people think deserves it all along and is the better player if he goes and wins the championship.

Then everybody in their heads like, yeah, and beat one that year. But we all know who the real MVP was. And it's not I know it's not a it's not fair.

It's not fair. I was going to say it's not a playoff award. It's really a regular season award. But in a weird way, when people think of the MVP, they think of who is the best player also with the playoffs. And that's that's at least how I how I think about it. Yeah, it's unfair that the playoffs get attached to it as well.

But in people's minds, I think it does. Well, that's why people discount Barkley's MVP and Carmel on its acts like what what did they do? Oh, Jordan beat them in the finals. Exactly.

And it would be a similar situation with this in terms of if you could won the championship. Everybody's like, yeah, he's the best player. He should be the MVP. Yeah. Speaking of Jokic, I wanted to bring up the stat I thought was was really interesting. So Jokic and Murray are the second pair of teammates to each have twenty five points in ten assists in the NBA finals game. You want to guess the other duo? Well, I think we mentioned it. Is it Jordan and Pippen?

No, no, it's I saw this last night. Oh, it's Magic and James Worthy. Magic and James Worthy in nineteen eighty seven. So that's the only other pair of teammates to do that, which is pretty incredible. Twenty five plus and ten assists in the same game together.

Yeah. People forget, you know, this guy doesn't get mentioned a lot for whatever weird reason. But you don't get a nickname like big game James if you don't show up, you can't just show up big in like one game or maybe three games. No, you have to have a resume of showing up big when the when the games mattered most. And that's what James Worthy did. And so just randomly not even thinking about it, we need to give James Worthy his flowers because that man, when when the championships were on the line, when the games mattered most, James Worthy stepped his game up, you know, and I feel like he's just a very underrated player in the history of the NBA. James Worthy was that dude. And like I said, you don't get you don't get a name like big game James. You don't get a nickname like Big Shot Rob unless you've hit some big shots and you don't get a big game James unless you perform when it counts. So, you know, props and shout out to the legend James Worthy, man.

You did your thing, sir. Yeah, absolutely. But, you know, getting back to that Joker Butler thing, I understand what you guys are saying.

Yeah. You made the point to play the same position, but they place it. But it's still it's still a team game, right? And that that team could have been better than your team because we saw what happened. They there's only one thing you can rest this on their head to head matchup and in that head to head matchup and be thoroughly dominated. Joker thoroughly dominated, right? So I just I keep looking back to the fact that Jimmy Butler, who's led a team to the finals twice now since he left Philly, that's got to Joe has to look at that sometimes and go, man, this guy was right here.

Look what we could have done. They only played, I think, 30 games together. So I said, I understand your arguments, but I feel like the guy it's always like, you know, the girl that got away, they are the guy that got away, whatever, you know, you're dating Jimmy Butler. I feel is always going to be the one that got away from Philly. And because of that, this team is not going to get as far as they probably should have because they let the wrong guy stay and they let the wrong one walk. Yeah.

OK, that's going to do it. We're doing some quickies after the finals game. We're going to react to each NBA finals game. It should be fun.

Hopefully we get a nice long series. So you see more of us. Who doesn't want to see more of us? All right, guys, great couple guys in the in the comments that I want to see.

That's what you're watching, right? Thank you. Thanks for watching. Enjoy your weekend, everybody. Enjoy game two on Sunday. We'll see you back here Monday night later.