Kawhi & Embiid Out (Hour 3)

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Additional terms apply. That's what I'm talking about on a Friday. This is the Zach Gelb show, coast to coast on CBS Sports Radio. Let's chat a little NBA postseason right now and we do so with Justin Termini.

He does a great job, Sirius XM, NBA radio. Justin, how you been? I'm hanging in there.

Well let me start you off with the Sixers. So I don't get how Embiid stayed in the game last night, but then James Harden got ejected. They got that reversed in my opinion.

How about yours? Yeah, I agree. It should have been Embiid that was out and it should have been Harden that was staying in. Harden, you can at least explain, as it was like a basketball move, it looked like he was trying to shove off and create some space. And then you got Embiid, who there's nothing going on there in regards to basketball.

He just got frustrated after a play was already over that somebody walked over him and he made a non-basketball move. So yeah, I agree with you that Embiid should have been ejected and Harden should have stayed in the game. And it almost appeared as if it was a make-up call. I actually think they got all three calls that they made incorrect. I thought Harden should have stayed in the game.

I thought Embiid should have been ejected. And I don't think that you can call a technical on Nick Claxton there and eject him from the game down the stretch. So I thought they went 0-3 the officials with their calls last night. I don't have a lot of confidence in the Sixers. We know their playoffs really don't start until the next round. But in games 2 and 3, I just have not been impressed by them. And I didn't have a lot of thought that they were going to be great in this postseason. But these last two games, it's alarming that Embiid got frustrated and the team just hasn't played well in games 2 and 3.

Yeah, I said the same exact thing. I went through NBA history. Has there ever been a team that's been up 3-0 where you felt worse about where they sat? And I think that's the case here with Philadelphia. Because I'll be honest, if they played this way against Boston or they played this way against Milwaukee, they'll get the floor wiped with them. So they don't stand a chance against Boston. Who's losing right now, but Atlanta's a little bit better than the Nets. And I still think Boston's playing a good game here offensively tonight. But Boston's playing at a really high level, even if it takes them five games to get by Atlanta. I still feel more confident in the way they're playing right now and the gap as opposed to Philadelphia.

It looks like an absolute mess. And Embiid looks like he's fatigued for some reason. And we're at the outset of the postseason at the end of it. Where is James Harden going to be playing next year, Justin?

I don't know. You keep hearing all these rumors about Houston, but I don't see how you can leave a team where you're playing with the MVP and you kind of ride his coattails for the next several years. But it depends on what's important to Harden. Is it living a lifestyle that he was able to live in Houston and running the entire organization as it's playing second fiddle here to Embiid? I don't see why Houston would want him back. Nick Nurse, apparently, is going to go down there and be their next head coach. Why would Nick Nurse want to go there where you're getting Harden back who's at a different point in his career than Jabari Smith and Jalen Green and Shin Goon and some of these younger players? To me, that organization right now is really messy and I don't really think it helps if you bring back James Harden. I do agree it's up to Harden, but the thing that I'll ask is should Darrel Moore even want James Harden back? We know he loves him and they're best friends, but I would say you kind of move on this offseason, right?

He did average 20-10 and he did lead the NBA in assists, so it's not like Harden's been horrific this year. But the other question is how do you replace him? You just can't let him go and not replace him. Because then it's just Embiid and it's Tyrese Maxey, and if you don't replace that salary spot with another star player who, again, Harden gave you 20-10, what's Embiid going to think of that? And most likely that's going to cause a situation where Embiid's thinking about maybe leaving. Do you think they could get Damian Lillard?

I don't know what they would have to give up. I guess it would start with Tyrese Maxey, who's about 10 years younger than him. It looks like he's going to be a stud. If Lillard's going to play the way that he played this year, you team him up with Embiid, it's pretty hard to say no to that. But you better be sure that Lillard, an undersized guard, is going to be able to play at a high level for at least the next three years because it looks like Tyrese Maxey's going to be able to play at a really high level for the next 10.

Do you think Embiid, Justin Termini, for the rest of his prime will stay in Philly? Because I always have that thought, like you just kind of mentioned, with the Ben Simmons being a disaster, Harden not being known for his postseason heroics, that eventually he's going to look at this organization and say, we tried so many things, it's just time for me to go. No organization's done a worse job, and I don't mean to throw Daryl Morey into this, because I do think Morey has actually done a good job since he's gone there, turning Ben Simmons into Harden.

Whatever you think Harden is still an upgrade on Ben Simmons. And then you go out there and you draft Tyrese Maxey, which he did in the 20s, so I don't say this is a part of the Daryl Morey story, but prior to that, like all the mistakes you look at, like New Orleans Noel and Okafor and Michael Carter Williams, and giving up assets to get Jimmy Butler and then not resigning him. Even the Ben Simmons has turned into mistake, Mikel Bridges, who they drafted and then traded on draft night. It's just been one mistake after another surrounding Joe Embiid. When you get to the Suns, we talk about the Sixers being up 3-0, and it's been underwhelming. The Suns are up 2-1, and I just have not been impressed with them through any of their three games. Yeah, well they have no depth, so they're relying on four players. And then the other thing, if you're going to rely on four players, those four players better be really, really good. And right now, Chris Paul does not look like the Chris Paul basically that we've seen his entire career.

They're leaving him open and pick your poison. Paul's the guy we're going to allow to try and beat us, and Paul's just not knocking down shots. Would you still pick the Suns to go to the Finals, or do you lean more Denver or somebody else right now? Yeah, that's the issue in the Western Conference. Every single team has holes. Denver is one of many teams that have holes. If Jamal Murray's going to play like Jamal Murray's played the first two games, that's a drastic step up from what he did in the regular season. You feel good about Denver, but again, they gave up 40 points to Minnesota in the third quarter the other day. If that's a consistent thing, they're in trouble. The Lakers might actually have the most consistency across the board in regards to depth, which is amazing because they clearly didn't have that at the outset of the season.

Rob Palenka did a good job at the deadline. They've got a really solid defense. If Anthony Davis stays healthy, he might be the best player in the Western Conference, so I think you've got to throw Denver in there as well.

But as of right now, I'm sticking with Phoenix, but I don't feel good after the first couple of games. Based off their lack of depth and the fact that Chris Paul's playing 40 minutes, Devin Booker's averaging over 45 minutes a game in the series. Same thing with Kevin Durant, right around 45 minutes, and if it's taken them all this work to just get by an injured Clippers team, they're going to be fatigued by the conference finals and the NBA finals.

Justin Termini here with us. You've been watching, talking, and covering the NBA for a long time. I've never seen anyone like Kawhi Leonard. When it is great, we've seen the dragons that he's been able to slay, but when it's bad, there's always a mystery with it and there's never an in-between.

It's frustrating. That's why I say you can't be an all-time great player, because part of being an all-time great player is being available, and if you're not going to be available, you can't be an all-time great. I see this statistic that he's got the third best individual winning percentage of all-time behind Magic at one, Bird at two, and then it's Kawhi, and people tweet that out and people talk about that stat. Can you imagine if Magic or Bird only played when they were 100% healthy? Those guys went out there injured all the time, banged up Bird after back traction with a broken face. It's really hard to judge where he sits in the hierarchy of the history of the league, because he's really, really, really talented, but again, he's never out there and you can't rely on him. Were you surprised he didn't play last night, even with that being said? You probably thought he could have played, right? I don't know enough about where his health stands, but I can't say I was shocked that he didn't play based off the fact that it seems like he's missing games all the time. I'm more shocked if he does play.

Justin Termini here with us. Let's get to the nonsense of Dylan Brooks. What do we see from LeBron tomorrow night? You know if it was Kobe or Jordan, they'd go out there and try and score 80 points instead of 40 points on you twice, because that's what he's challenging him to do.

Score 40. I don't think LeBron gets caught up in that, and I think LeBron's conserving his energy for a deeper run. He's trying to get Biden Memphis without putting too much out there, because LeBron will, I think, start to pick it up once you get to the conference finals, NBA finals, if they get that far, but he can't afford to have his foot on the gas through four playoff rounds if they're going to try and win an NBA championship. Golden State gets on the board last night. Sacramento still up 2-1 in the series. How alive is Golden State in your opinion? I'm still picking him to win the series. I think the pressure is almost a little bit more on Sacramento, because at the beginning of the series, they didn't really have the pressure on him, because everybody was anticipating Golden State was going to win. Then they get the first two games, then Draymond's suspended, then Gary Payton is out, and everybody's now saying, like, all right, well, they're the favorites to win, and it kind of swung the pressure back on them, and then last night they didn't handle it well, and I'm never going to bet against an all-time great with his back against the wall, and that's what Steph Curry is right now. If we do see Draymond Green, Justin Termini, opt out this summer, do you think he'll still be back with Golden State?

I do not think so. If he opts out, I don't know why he would opt out. I'm not sure any other team would be giving him anywhere close to that amount of money, but I think if he opts out, they're going to take the opportunity to go a separate way. I know he's won four championships, but they always defend Draymond Green. Like, even the Jordan Pool situation, like, nothing really happened.

Do you get that sense? It seems like the Warriors are almost, like, afraid to ever criticize or hold Draymond Green accountable. The Warriors are massive hypocrites because you listen to, like, Steve Kerr. Steve Kerr wants to tell you, oh, well, the fans in Boston are really, really classy, what they did, and they're, you know, they're chanting, bleep you, Draymond, and then you got Draymond who's flipping the bird to the fans in Memphis. You got Draymond who's swearing at a parade right after they win the NBA championship. You got Draymond who's going on Comedy Central swearing up a storm left and right, so he's using inappropriate language, and he's doing it the other day to the crowd in Sacramento, but they don't have anything to say about him. It's the same thing with, like, Dylan Brooks. He says Dylan Brooks, oh, he broke the code. Marcus Smart last year, if you remember when Steve Kerr lectured him because Marcus Smart dove for a loose ball that ended up injuring Steph Curry. So, you know, he gets on his high horse when it comes to everybody else, then when it's his player, they don't do anything.

They don't make one, you know, sound. So I just think there's a lot of hypocrisy coming out of there, especially from Steve Kerr. We got Cavs and Knicks coming your way in about 20 minutes. 1-1, Game 1, Knicks pull it out. Game 2 was an absolute blowout.

How do you look at the rest of this series between Cleveland and New York? Yeah, I mean, to me it all surrounds, like, Donovan Mitchell, and is he going to be the Donovan Mitchell we saw in Game 1 who put up good numbers, didn't involve his teammates? Are we going to see the Donovan Mitchell in Game 2 where he only took 11 shots and he allowed everybody else to kind of get into a little bit of a groove? I think you need that version of Donovan Mitchell, and I'm not sure, like, what version we're going to get because maybe it's something where, you know, he's an MSG, he wants to put on a show, and he looks for his game a little bit more.

I think if you get that out of Donovan Mitchell, that bodes really well here for the Knicks. So, we've seen also Justin Termini, the Raiders go to Las Vegas, same with the Knights be formed and they have a hockey team in Las Vegas, looks like the Oakland Athletics are going to Las Vegas as well. How far away are we from either an NBA team moving to Las Vegas or them expanding and putting an NBA team there and then also maybe in Seattle? You keep hearing about expansion and the two names that you hear of Seattle and Las Vegas, and the other thing that you hear is that it's going to be headed by LeBron James, so maybe after he retires and I know the television deal is coming up in a couple of years, and everybody sort of says once that is signed, then they'll start thinking about expansion.

So I think it's in the near future, and yeah, I think Las Vegas is going to be a place where you're going to have an NBA team within the next, I would say, like five to seven years. Were you surprised by Nick Nurse being let go today? I wasn't surprised just because everything you heard leading up to it, but in regards to like him being a really good head coach, I mean I think he's the best head coach in the sport, you could throw him up there with like Popovich, who may have lost a little bit off his fastball, and Eric Spolstra, but he's one of the two or three best head coaches in the sport. It seemed like his voice getting worn out a little bit there, so you could read the writing on the wall, and he'll have another job very quickly, and it looks like Houston is probably it. If I was Nick Nurse, I would wait until after the lottery to see if Houston gets Wembanyama, if Detroit gets Wembanyama, because I think really he should be able to have his pick of the job. I think he's a lead head coach. It's fascinating what he will do, because right away you see the Rockets be thrown out there, Noah Dokken and Vogel have already are on their second round of interviews there, but a guy like Quinn Snyder, I would have never thought he would have wound up in Atlanta, especially in the middle of the season.

That caught me by surprise too. Yeah, no, I agree with that, just because again, you wait until you see all the jobs that are going to be opened up, and Quinn Snyder is one of the better thought of head coaches. He would have got another job, and then maybe he could have picked a better destination, because I think Atlanta is a little bit of a mess. Now I know they're beating Boston right now at the half, but again, long term, Trae Young, I'm not sure that that's the kind of star that you can build around, and I'd be hesitant to go there just because Trae Young has an issue with every other head coach that he's had.

He's already got two cans in about the first five years of his career. I know there's been speculation, Justin Termini, do you think they'll deal him this offseason, Trae Young? I think they probably would look to deal him. That's different than do they deal him, because I don't think he can get much in return for him. I'm not sure who would want him. He's an undersized point guard who doesn't shoot the three efficiently, despite the fact that he jacks up a lot of threes. He doesn't play any defense. He hasn't gotten along with head coaches. You saw that players poll that was done by the Athletic the other day. He was by far and away rated by those players, the most overrated player in the league, so I'm not sure that a lot of his colleagues around the league, fellow players, like him or would like the idea of playing with him.

So they might want to deal him, but with his contract and with his reputation, I'm not sure there's many teams out there that would want him. I guess we won't see Kawhi Leonard again. I just saw that Shams put out there that he's out for Game 4 against the Suns.

I feel so bad. I was amped up. I can't think of many first round series that I was more pumped up to see in regards to a game than this one last night's series tied it on Durant's Devin Booker, the repercussions if they lose first round after trading for Durant. And then you get the letdown of him not playing last night.

Same thing here. So I'm ticked off from the NBA fan perspective, and I feel bad for the Clippers fan who all season long has got to deal with this load management crap for the last four years and the payoff is supposed to be. Alright, well we're dealing with it during the regular season, but once we get to the postseason, at least we'll be healthy, at least we'll have Kawhi out there at 100%. Now you don't have Kawhi or Paul George after you arrested them all season just so you would have them at this point. And to be honest with you, I'm not happy that these guys are out from an entertainment perspective and I never want to see somebody hurt, but I am glad that this load management experiment has failed because if it succeeded, you would see copycats around the rest of the league. And that would be bad for the sport because then people would be going, look, the Clippers rested all regular season, they won a championship, so we should do the same thing. Well guess what?

Now they're not even getting out of the first round, so the load management was pointless. Justin Termini from Sirius XM MBA Radio, we appreciate the time as always my man. Alright, appreciate that. There you go, Justin Termini, JT joining us, we will take a time out, we will come on back and let's circle back to what has been the biggest story this offseason, the future of Aaron Rodgers. We're having the draft next week, we still don't know when a deal is going to get done, there's a thought out there, we'll discuss it next. It's dream come true time as Gervonta Tank-Davis and King Ryan Garcia go toe-to-toe in a battle for undefeated supremacy this Saturday, April 22nd on Showtime pay-per-view, go to sho.com slash ppv.

and snag a front row seat. Two things in the NBA world, we just told you it when Justin Termini was on with us a few moments ago, Kawhi Leonard, knee, out for game four. So Hickey, the expectation is, I know last night, right, no Kawhi, no Paul George, they kept it close and they lost. I would be surprised if the Suns do not get a victory coming up in game number four, and quite frankly, I don't think we see Kawhi again. If they go down 3-1, I don't think Kawhi, even if he's healthy, is coming back for a game five. I think we've seen the last of Kawhi Leonard for this NBA season. I would agree, especially considering we are still 24 hours away from game four starting.

And it's already out. Game three was the day of, I believe it was a few hours before the game started, he's out. Now you're already doing it well a day in advance, that shows he's nowhere near or even close to having a chance to play.

A few years ago, and I know you brought this up yesterday, and it was a great point. We remember the surprise when you found out, oh, Kawhi tore his ACL, because it was originally reported, what was the term that was used again? Same one now, knee sprain. And they're saying this injury is not related to the ACL.

And that's the tricky part with the whole load management stuff. And I think we're past the point of this being load management, because now he's missing two games. But you never know what it is with Kawhi. And a few years ago, it was like, OK, went from a knee sprain to a torn ACL.

How the heck did we get there? And now I'm just expecting the worst, unfortunately, on this one. Where I don't know what the injury is, I'm not going to sit here and tell you that I know what I'm talking about on this one.

But with what we just saw a few years ago, it's almost impossible to not go down that road of just expecting this to be a horrible outcome at the end. The reason why I guess I won't jump to that conclusion is he did play in Game 2. And if you go back to a few years ago, as soon as that knee kind of buckled against the jazz, he left the game right away and did not return and did not play again. So it wasn't like one of those knee buckles, he plays the next game, plays well, and then all of a sudden, oh wow, he tore his ACL.

It was kind of right there in the moment, hurt himself, took himself out, did not return. So at least in terms of for Clippers fans, having deja vu, again, with Kawhi you never know. But at least in terms of a season or an injury that would affect next season if we want to go that far. I'm not at least ready to go there yet with what the injury or the severity is right now. And I'm not saying to be clear that this is a torn ACL again.

I'm just saying I just expected at this point to end poorly and for this to go to a level where it's like, okay, we didn't see it taking that turn. Because every time we're talking about Kawhi Leonard and it's not a great moment, there's no 50-50, there's no gray area, there's no in between. It's either you win a championship and this dude is just a killer in the postseason or there's always something mysterious when it comes to him not being able to play in a game. Now the other thing, this is breaking from Adrian Wojnarowski. Woj and Ramona Shelburne are reporting an MRI revealed Sixers star Joel Embiid suffered a sprained right knee and will miss Game 4 versus Brooklyn on Saturday. There is optimism he could be ready to return as soon as early next week. So Joel Embiid, this series is over.

We know that. There's no way the Nets are coming back from down 3-0. There's no way going into this series that the Nets had any shot. But you do have coming up tomorrow Game 4 and Embiid won't be there. Now they said early next week, Game 5 and how long the layoff is here. Well actually it's only Saturday then they're off Sunday then they do play Monday. Monday it would be Game 5.

I know they said early next week. When you say early next week, Hickey, I know Monday is the first day of the week. But that does come off to me as more like Tuesday or Wednesday that Joel Embiid would be able to come back. Especially when you consider the opponent and where the series is. I'm sure again the Sixers are not racing to bring him back on that Monday.

And let's be real, there's a 0% chance that this gets to Thursday. So even if he's good to go on Monday and the Nets win tomorrow on Saturday and it's 3-1, I don't think they would even bring him back at 3-1. You then get to Game 6 and you're sitting there at 3-2.

That's a little bit of a different story. But you look at the Sixers, two things happen in the Sixers postseason run. There's either a Joel Embiid injury or a scare of a Joel Embiid injury. Or whoever is the complimentary piece to Joel Embiid just does not show up in the postseason. And you look at the Sixers team, now you're dealing with an Embiid injury. You know James Harden isn't a finisher.

I like Tyrese Maxey. But you look at the competition in a year where it's not deep in either conference. Like I don't think there's two teams in the East, two teams in the West that go win a championship. The Nuggets, the Suns, and I don't love what I'm seeing out of the Suns, the Bucks and the Celtics.

But at least you would want the feeling, Hickey, of being able to go into next round with at least, even if you don't think it's going to be a series, hoping it's going to be a series. Now you know all the Sixers are working behind anyway just to begin with because of the simple fact we don't think they're built to go win a championship. But now you're maybe not even going to have 100% Joel Embiid whenever that second round does start. It's just like a massive mess where I just say for the Eastern Conference, it really doesn't start the playoffs in the Eastern Conference until you get to the final. And you know that it's inevitable that it's going to be Milwaukee and it's also going to be the Boston Celtics.

That's what it's going to be. And if you're a Sixers fan or even in the Sixers organization too, you've got to just throw your hands up at this point. Every single postseason, Embiid finds a way to either go into the postseason hurt or get injured in the postseason. Whether it's someone running into his face, his thumb getting caught on a jersey, having a knee injury against the Wizards. Now in this situation, a knee sprain, it's like every single year you look back at the postseason and Embiid is dealing with some sort of ailment. Whether he injured in the playoffs or heading into the playoffs late in the year, it always hurts your chances of being successful.

I just couldn't imagine the level of frustration that, again, here you are. Not that they had a great chance, again, to beat the Celtics anyway. But at least if it beats health, you can say this is the first time we're going to have a fully healthy Joel Embiid. Let's see what we got. And now, even if you return to the knee sprain, you've still got to imagine next week he'll be dealing with that.

And it's just another injury to add onto the pile that's just been, so far, postseason and injuries with Joel Embiid going hand in hand. By the way, we have a new development in Woj vs. Shams. We have a new development. Oh, different timelines? Different injuries?

What do we got here? Nope. Woj is still verified. Shams is not. And the reason why that played a role and why I'm bringing this up is you're so used to seeing someone verified. And then when you see the Shams news, I had to do a double and triple take and just rely on how many followers Shams has. Like, you look at the account. Shams has two million followers. Okay. If there's a fake Shams with two million followers, congratulations.

I got got. But knowing that Shams has two million followers, then you look at the Clippers news. He had those stuff on Kawhi. Me being out for Game 4, writing the thing twice about double checking it with Adrian Wojnarowski because Adrian Wojnarowski is verified. Now, let me just see if Woj is actually verified. And this isn't someone trying to be Adrian Wojnarowski and it's not because Woj has 5.8 million Twitter followers. So this is the Woj account. So the Woj news on Embiid is right and the Shams news on Kawhi Leonard is right.

But that does change your thinking as a consumer. When you look at the Shams tweet, it's like, oh, where's that blue checkmark? It's stupid, but that's what just registered through your mind because you're so accustomed to seeing something. When I first saw the Shams thing, I just considered that all was fake and that it wasn't real because you didn't see the blue checkmark in this adjustment period.

But there you go, Hickey. Shams just is not, I guess, paying for Twitter blue or athletic and stadium not playing Twitter blue. Good for them. Stand up to the man. Is that really a take? Yeah, I wouldn't pay for Twitter blue. I don't.

But I would never. Do you think you're really proving a point to Elon Musk? It's not going to affect his life, by the way. Well, if no one buys it, then yeah, that's part of his business plan.

It blows up in his face, just like the rocket. But it doesn't impact his life whatsoever. Well, I mean, impacting his life, no. The guy's worth $185 billion. I think he's OK. You know what? He's going to go to bed at night and he's going to be like, oh, that hot take kick, he didn't pay for Twitter blue. Oh, Shams Sharani, it didn't pay for that Twitter blue. Well, he seems to care enough that he's paying for other people, so, you know, he cares. You know what?

Measuring contests. That's what it is. Exactly, which is why he's going to care. He's going to care when no one pays for Twitter blue. But this won't actually impact him.

He'll go on to something else and this will be a pimple on his you-know-what. Is that why you're not going to do Twitter blue? Well, you weren't verified anyway, right?

No. Yeah, I'm not paying for Twitter. But you would be like, like, for example, I'm not going to pay for Twitter blue.

I was verified. I'm not sitting here and saying, oh, I'm not paying for Twitter blue because, oh, I'm going to prove a point, Elon Musk. I'm just not paying it because I don't want to pay the $8 or $9 what it is a month. And we know our company won't expense it, too. So there you go on that one.

This is that Gelb show on CBS Sports Radio. And let's be real, I'd be low in the totem pole if the company was going to to expense blue checkmarks. I think there would be a lot more yeses to other people before you get to me. All right. Well, come on back a little on sides offside. We'll also get into later on in the show when Aaron Rodgers could actually get traded.

You can think of parts where your car care needs get guaranteed low prices and excellent customer service from the professional parts people at O'Reilly Auto Parts O'Reilly Auto Parts. All right. Five questions. Five answers. Let's go shoot.

All right. So you have to go back a few days because after game two, Dylan Brooks called LeBron James old and said he only respects players that dropped 40 on him clown. Now, game three does head to L.A. on Saturday night.

Go Lakers! And in that game, as you were just alluded to, all eyes would be on the Dylan Brooks LeBron James matchup. When asked about the matchup earlier today, LeBron had a very simple message saying he's ready to play and is done with the BS on sides or off sides. LeBron James will score at least 40 points on Saturday night. So Justin Termini is kind of right that LeBron plays such a well-rounded game. Like, is he capable of scoring 40?

Absolutely. But there's so many other areas where he shines, where he doesn't necessarily just need to go score 40 to go have an impressive performance. But in this case, with the LeBron that you heard earlier today, I don't have time for this nonsense.

I truthfully don't think he cares about Dylan Brooks, but with the great ones, basically irrelevant, unnecessary comments do fuel you some way. I do think that LeBron is going to score 40 tomorrow. I think he's going to go 48 points. I think he's going to have 10 assists and 14 rebounds.

And I think the Lakers are going to whoop that trick and open up a can of whoop ass on the Memphis Grizzlies. Lakers win. LeBron wins. LeBron goes for over 40.

He gets you 48. Give me onsides. If you can't tell, I do not want to see the Grizzlies win. You thought Dylan Brooks didn't suffer off the game two.

He puts the clamps somehow on LeBron and they win game three. Oh, oh, boy. Oh, boy. That would be as disgusting as you burped on the air a few weeks ago. It would be repulsive. He would be feeling himself.

That is for sure. You didn't like that one. What is what do you want to say? No comment, no mention, no smile, no laugh, nothing.

Just he'll be feeling it for sure. What do you want to say? Keep it moving. We'll keep it moving. It's a two-way talk show. I thought it was going to be a little response from you.

Outside of you just saying, oh, yeah, I'm big time there. I'm not even going to respond to Gelb's statement. It's all right.

It's fine. I got nothing to say. That's all.

That's all. We stay in L.A. The other team that plays there, the Clippers, they were or tried to go up 2-1.

Unfortunately did not. They lost to the Suns. And it was not pretty in Phoenix's effort whatsoever. And despite the Clippers not having quite landed all poor George in game number three, the Clippers did play tough, losing by just five points and pushed Phoenix the entire way, having a chance late to possibly tie up the game, which they could not.

Now, Devin Booker did drop 45 points, but Chris Paul in last night's game, 5-18, three turnovers. Onsides or offsides, the Suns are no longer your pick to win the West. Go Nuggets. I think the Nuggets are going to get the job done.

I love what I saw from Jamal Murray in game two up against the Minnesota Timberwolves. And you look at the Suns team. They are in deep in the entirety of the roster. We know how great their starters are, but Chris Paul is not playing well. He's playing horrible right now. And you look how many minutes guys like Durant and then also Booker are playing right now.

You wonder as this goes on, if it's going to impact them. I really do believe that the winner of the Nuggets and Suns series is going to the NBA Finals in the Western Conference, and that will happen in the next round. And when I look at this right now, if you ask me today, who do you favor? I go Denver over Phoenix. So give me the Nuggets to go to the NBA Finals. You said the Suns are no longer your pick to win the West.

You were right on that one, onsides. The Warriors bounced back in a big way last night, smoking the Kings by 17 points in their game three win. Now, Golden State did clean up their game big time, committing just 12 turnovers, and did grab 19 offensive rebounds while holding Sacramento to a season low 38% shooting from the field. This was, remind you, all without Draymond Green, who does return for game number four. Boo!

Your boy. So onsides or offsides, the Warriors will win this series. The Hickey Hex, it's back. The Hickey Hex is back. If you're a Sacramento Kings fan, you blame one person and one person only for the loss last night. And that is Hot Take Hickey, because last night he picked the Sacramento Kings to win.

And then all the sudden they lost. So now this series is 2-1. Now, yours truly told you that the Kings are going to win game two and they were to lose game three. So I'm going to trust my odds here.

And by the way, since I got this right three times in a row, you should probably fade what I'm about to say. But I do believe the Kings win game four and then up 3-1. The Warriors aren't coming back from that. Go Kings go. The Sacramento Kings, or as Steve Summers used to say, the Sacra Tomato Kings are going to win the series. You ask me the Warriors win the series. Hit it offside. Offside. I guess we'll just ignore the Tuesday open.

Which was? Series is over. Warriors are cooked. Kings are winning. They're winning the series, I said.

Who's saying? You're saying the Hickey Hex, you know, on the reason why they lost game three, you declared the series over after game two. But who told you they were going to win game three? I said the Warriors were going to win game three.

Did I not? You said they were going to win the series. My whole thing on that buildup in terms of the Kings winning the series is that I trusted the Kings, who have the most road wins in the Western Conference this year, to split games three and four. That's all I said, because then they'd have three wins and they'd go back to their home.

Even if they have to play there two times, they'll get one of those games at home. So nothing I said so far has been wrong. Now, next week, if the Warriors come back and win the series, you could feel free to throw it right back in my face and send all the zingers there.

And 100% drag me through the mud if that's the case. I'm still taking the Kings, baby. Let's go, Kings.

Come on. Not the LA Kings who beat my Rangers in the Stanley Cup, but they had that chant, go, Kings, go. Ring the cowbell, baby, and scream, go, Kings, go.

And you know what? Something I did not check last night. Did you see any cowbells in the stadium? I didn't hear any of that, right?

I know you have to check them in, like, in baggage claim or whatever it is. Well, the tough part, too, is the Kings gave you no reason to ring them, so... Yeah, that's a good point. They may have snuck them in, but when you're down, you know, double digits the entire game. You didn't hear it in the beginning of the game, right? Uh, no. Okay. So... Why did you get kicked out of the game?

Oh, I had a cowbell. Losers. Come on, Golden State.

Ridiculous. You're a championship program. You're a dynasty, and you're afraid about Kings fans ringing their cowbell? Give me a break.

But you know what? Draymond Green, go punch a teammate in the face, but how dare you bring a cowbell into a stadium? You gonna defend that?

As Justin Termini said, the hypocrisy. You gonna defend Golden State here? No, I mean, all I was gonna say is it's your house. Like, you have rules of don't bring that. I can't say I really blame them. Like, I'm not gonna allow, you know, yeah, come into my house, ring your cowbell in my face.

I wouldn't do it. You're just a proponent of your team pumping in proud noise. Allegedly.

Uh, they did it. Tom Brie has been retired for all of two months and is already teasing a return to the NFL. At a conference in Miami yesterday, the seven-time Super Bowl winner was asked if he would consider playing for the Dolphins coming out of retirement, into which he said this response. Now that I'm not affiliated with any team anymore, and even though I have strong ties with a couple teams, I do have some friends on the Dolphins that I really like. So I wouldn't say I necessarily root for them all the time, but I root for my friends to do well and several of them play for Miami. So the one word that you did not hear, no.

Onsides or offsides. Tom Brady will play for the Dolphins in 2023. Did you hear what Florio said today?

I did not. Florio was on one of our affiliates, WQAM in Miami, the Joe Rose show. And Florio said, I would really want Tua Tunga Vailoa through back channels to kind of have people communicate to Tom, maybe you should shut the bleep up about the Dolphins because he doesn't think it's fair to Tua.

And Florio brings up a fair point, and I'll say this. You know me. I am the biggest Brady fan in the world. I'm sick of this nonsense. I'm sick of the nonsense of I'm retired. And then, oh, are you going to play for the Dolphins and you couldn't even say no.

It's just ridiculous. You're allowed to retire and come back once. But now you retired again.

I don't think you should be able to come back from that. I really don't. And he can do whatever he wants. He's the greatest quarterback of all time. I love Tom Brady. I'm the biggest Brady fan there is. But this annoys me.

This drama and this dancing and this just, to be fair, jackassery and hogwash. If you're still contemplating maybe coming back, you shouldn't have retired. I don't think the team is right here. I don't think Brady is coming back.

I will say that. But if he were to come back, I don't think it's to the Dolphins, even with all that past history, and we know the Dolphins got suspended for basically flirting, AKA tampering with Tom Brady. I think the 49ers would be in play. I know he lives in Miami right now. He lives in that Florida area.

That's where his kids live as well. But I think too he's going to be starting quarterback in the beginning of the season. Now mid-season, that's a different story potentially. But right now I think if Brady's coming back and playing, it's for the 49ers.

I will go offside on this one. Brady will play for the Dolphins in 2023. You think we'll see Brady, I'll give you an onside offside real quickly. Will Brady play football in 2023?

I still will say no. But would you agree that if it does happen, it would be like middle of the season kind of? Like an injury happens during the year and he views that team as a team that go win a Super Bowl? I still think it would be the beginning of the year. I think he's still one of those guys that's all in or nothing.

Okay, go ahead. Finally, yesterday on the show, CBS Sports NFL draft analyst Chris Topasso joined, and you two did a mock draft of the top 10. In that mock draft, you had three quarterbacks going to top 10, Bryce Young going to the Panthers at number one, Anthony Richardson getting taken by the Raiders and they trade up to the number three spot, and the Colts taking CJ Stroud at number four. The one name you did not hear, Will Leviss, who at least in this top 10 mock draft you did yesterday, slipped out of that. Onsides or offsides, Will Leviss won't be drafted in the top 10 of next week's draft.

Now, I only had five picks, and clearly, Trapasso had five picks. So for my fit, Leviss wasn't there. I do think there's a chance Leviss falls out of the top 10, but you keep on hearing that love with the Indianapolis Colts, and I'm still not 100% sold that CJ Stroud is going to fall out of the top two or the top three. And if you see a situation where he's still there at four and there's maybe only one other quarterback available, depends on who it is, that maybe, maybe, maybe Leviss stays in the top 10. Just with how much the conversation has been for the last few months that Leviss will be in the top 10, even though I personally would not draft him in the top 10, I do think I'm going to stick with what's been said the majority of the time instead of what's feel like it's starting to change this past week. So you said, Will Leviss won't be drafted in the top 10 of the draft next week.

I will go offside. Zach Gelb's show, CBS Sports Radio. The steamroller, Matt Fravola is going to join us in studio on the other side as he has a big fight coming up in two weeks.

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