NBA Playoff Preview (Hour 4)

Yo, yo, hour number four of our radio program. That's right, it is the Zach Gilb Show, Coast to Coast on CBS Sports Radio. We're coming to you live today from Philadelphia.

It's all our great local CBS Sports Radio affiliate series, XM Channel 158, and that free Odyssey app. Last show of the week for me this week because I got a wedding to attend and a bunch of responsibilities as a groomsman in this wedding party that I'm in for one of my closest friends starting tomorrow. So I figured I would get my trip to Philly, start a little bit earlier and come do the show out of here so I could be ready to roll tomorrow morning on a Friday morning to kick off the big wedding weekend for a friend of mine. So really fired up for that. It's gonna be an interesting dynamic here for this wedding hickey, and I'm actually really looking forward to it because my buddy is marrying a girl that is from the South and she actually went to Ole Miss. So I'm hoping that we get some hotty toddy chants at this wedding as well.

I'm really looking forward to that. Wow, a true southern belle. Look at that.

Now let me ask you this. Do I be a pain in the ass and kind of do like a rival chant and do the pig suey? Because I love the pig suey chant. And when all her friends are probably doing, and I've been out with them before when they do the hotty toddy chant, and it's a great chant, but do I try to just be a pain in the rear end and go wooooop, wooooop, pig suey.

Do I try that? I think if you want to get a FICO and you say roll tide. Oh good point. And ask the band to play Sweet Home Alabama. I think that could cause a little bit of a riot.

I actually may need you for this wedding because you're just so well versed in all the college football stuff and you love the inner fighting of those rivalries in college football that you're absolutely right. Screw pig suey. I just did pig suey probably because when I'm drunk and a skunk at this wedding, the pig suey chant would be fun. But if I just screamed roll tide, I think I would get punched in the face within about 10 seconds. Probably less than 10 seconds.

Probably like a half a second I would get punched in the face. Do any stores sell cowbells around you? Scream hail state and ring a cowbell for Mississippi State and actually might incite even a bigger riot than saying roll tide.

So you are, I think right now, loaded with information, loaded with options. It's almost like do what you will. Well I actually thought I was going to the Bay Area for this wedding because we actually got an email saying all cowbells are banned from this wedding. Wow, Ole Miss fans not messing around huh? They don't want any bulldogs sneaking in. I should just start all the college chants at this wedding.

I would have a bunch of black eyes. So very excited to be in Philadelphia. I'll be back on Monday where we'll have a full week of the Zach Gelb show Monday through Friday, 6-10pm Eastern, 3-7pm Pacific. But let's update you on some of the biggest stories in the world of sports with some audio. Let's get to the News Brief. Lamar Jackson I guess was reintroduced to the Baltimore media today as the press conference did occur for the new contract. Lamar Jackson has very high goals for 2023. I think I told someone I want to throw for like 6,000 yards with the weapons we have. I'm not an individual or a war type of guy or a stat watcher. I just want to do that because no one ever done it and I feel like we have the weapons to do it.

You know we got explosive guys. So at first maybe it was just like in the moment Hickey. Maybe you're right.

Maybe I was put in and making too much of a big deal of this than it actually needed to be. Because I think that just came to him naturally in the moment. But if he's going to actually be serious about trying to go for 6,000 yards which it's not going to happen. Like if you tell me my home sure but it's not going to happen with Lamar Jackson because what makes him so great is that dual threat ability. And if you're going to take away a lot of the run game to try to just load up on the passing yards that doesn't really make sense to me.

So the more and more I hear about that Hickey it does seem like that was a little bit in the moment even though it was such an outrageous number. I think if you were Lamar Jax right if you were here at CBS Sports Radio and there's some contract negotiations that were public and it was you know up in the air whether you'd be back and you get that big teal big deal. You're already giving me the boot? They say boom Zach you're locked in.

You're our guy. Here's the contract to prove it. I like this. They get you a new microphone. They get you a new studio and we're at a press conference talking about your brand new deal with CBS Sports Radio. I'm sure you'd be like you know what I'm going to have the best rated show in history.

150 rating whatever if that's even possible. That's what we're going for. Like that would be the equivalent. We're going to do a 45 share in every market. Alright. We'll be the biggest things ever.

Ever. I think that's kind of the confidence and the excitement you would have when you get a new contract and all of a sudden you see the team around you start investing in you. Hickey I didn't know you had that dog in you. I didn't know you had that way of thinking in you honestly.

Some would say the dogs have Hickey in them. I don't know about that. Like don't get carried away. I just gave you a compliment.

Just say thank you sir might have another. Lamar Jackson said he never wanted to leave the Ravens. I really didn't care for other teams really. I just really wanted to get something done here. I wanted to be here like man okay other teams cool but I want to be a Raven like I said I said some 2018 you know I think it was April 26th if I'm not mistaken.

And I meant that you know I'm standing on that so I get it done so I really wanted to get this done before anything before I even want to before my time up and branch off somewhere else you know I really want to finish my career here and win the Super Bowl here. I always love when a player tries to get out of their situation. And then they take the deal with the team and then they have to backpedal a little bit.

And like you look at DeAndre Hopkins now it's different. He was sitting there and he was basically saying yes or no to teams based off facial expressions and then no one ended up trading for him they couldn't get a deal done and now he's like I don't know why everyone's making a big deal while I was trying to get traded. Lamar wanted a certain amount of money, but there were times where Lamar was annoyed at the organization that gave off the appearance, like he wanted out of the organization. And when no one gave him a contract offer that we know of when anyone in the league could offer him a contract and if he would have accepted it, the Ravens could have matched it or said no, we'll just take two first round picks for him. It's really like at the end of the day he didn't have any other options. It was either get the deal done with the Ravens, or you play this year out on the franchise tag, or you just wait for someone to enter to the party and come to the party. But when you're waiting and waiting and waiting and no one was coming to your party, you got to go make different plans and that was to get this deal done with the Baltimore Ravens. I'm not saying he 100% wanted out, but part of him, Hickey, had to have wanted out with the way that this was playing on out.

Absolutely, otherwise he wouldn't have made the contract request, wouldn't have showed his frustration on social media, and wouldn't have had a lot of people speculating and believing his time in Baltimore was close to ending. Even though there was times where he probably should have just hired an agent, I do think this was neat that him and his mom got the deal done. Lamar Jackson gives credit to his mom for everything she's done to help him in his life. Just seeing how she grind and work without complaining, just seeing that and was like, you know, if she can do that, I can do anything. You know, she's raising four kids on her own, not asking for a handout, not reaching out to people like she, oh, I need this right here to pay my bills. I never heard her complain about anything like that.

I just see her go to work, wake up early in the morning, go to work, come back late at night from working, or I'm dropping her off to work, stuff like that. It was like, man, this woman's a superhero to me. You know, that was part of the influence right there. Let's go to Eric DaCosta, the general manager of the Baltimore Ravens. He says the Ravens planned on matching most offers that were made to Lamar. Pro Football Talk PM. We felt like we were in a position to, not that we could match every single deal, but we felt like we would be able to match most deals and that if a team were willing to do a deal that we couldn't match, it would be very hard for that team to do that type of deal.

That's a little bit bizarre. I wonder why he went there. Now, he was asked the question. But what did you just say at this point since the deal got done? It didn't matter what a team offered him. We were just going to match the contract, even though everyone knows you're probably lying. But no one was going to offer him a fully guaranteed deal, and that's the premise of the question.

But I find that a bizarre response there, Hickey. Yeah, look, I welcome the honesty and I welcome the fact that he just kind of said there are some deals he wouldn't match, but you're right. There's no way you could tell the truth in that situation.

You got the deal done. The hypotheticals don't matter anymore. So yeah, we would have matched any and every deal out there no matter what, even if, like you said, people won't believe you for your word.

But at least you're trying to sell it compared to just saying, yeah, there's some offers we probably would have said no to. Or like you go Belichick in there where you give an answer, but you don't really answer the question and you just say, like, Lamar's our quarterback. We're happy. Lamar's our quarterback. And we would have done whatever it took as we did to make sure that Lamar's our quarterback, like something along those lines, not. Yeah, we were pretty confident we would match any deal, but pretty much what he said at the back end, we weren't going to give you a fully guaranteed deal. We weren't going to match that, but really that offer wasn't out there. Like if you listen to that tail end to that answer, he basically admits that Lamar, there's no way anyone was ever going to give him a fully guaranteed deal. No, you're right.

And I wish he kind of went, you know, do what some coaches do. I don't live in the world of hypotheticals. Next question. Oh, that's always the best one, too. You just go, great question.

Unfortunately, I don't live in the world of hypotheticals. Let's go to Rand Carthon, the new general manager of the Tennessee Titans, on if he purposely drafted all offensive players. It honestly just dawned on me about 30 minutes ago that it was all offense. We were just playing the board and everyone that we took off the board at wherever we took them, we felt convicted. It just so happened to be all offense, but it wasn't a design plan or anything. Do you think he genuinely did not know that until like five minutes before that?

I do believe him. I do think you just kind of play the board as it goes and, okay, we're up pick 50. These guys are up, okay, they're a highest board, let's take this guy and it just happens to be a receiver this time and a lineman next time and Will Levis this time. I genuinely do not know the answer to the question, but I'm pretty sure when Matt rules first year in Carolina, he went all defensive players. I think it was the first time ever that a team drafted all defensive players in a draft. Is this the first time that a team drafted all offensive players in a draft?

I would have to look it up, but if it's not, it's definitely in rare company. And they ended up going with the guard, a quarterback, Skoronski, and then Levis. They took Tyjay Spears, the running back out of Tulane, Josh Wiley, the tight end out of Cincinnati, Jaylen Duncan, the offense tackle to Maryland, and then Colton Dowell, the wide receiver out of Tennessee Martin. It's only six picks that they ended up making, so it's not like crazy, you know?

It's not 12 picks, all offensive players just overloading and overhauling your entire offense. They could use the help on the offensive side of the ball because they really gutted that offense the last few years. Tannehill is no longer the guy, even though he's still there, trading away AJ Brown. You still have Derrick Henry.

I don't even know why Derrick Henry still wants to be there, but hey, that's his problem that he's got to deal with. Matt Myoko, who covers the 49ers on the Murph and Mack show on KNBR, says Sam Darnold is the most talented QB the 49ers have ever had? Sam Darnold might be the most talented thrower of the football that the 49ers have ever had.

If you talk just Jim Druckenmiller, well, he can't pull a car like the most talented thrower of the football. Well, I mean, I was a tough one. Can I just start? Can I go Brody?

Yeah, I mean, OK, I mean, you know, we can. But let's just put him in the in the very high echelon of those guys who can just drop back in the pocket and throw the football. I think that he hasn't had really any chance to succeed since his college days are over.

He's a talented guy. And, you know, I think I was just talking to Frank Gore. Frank Gore popped his head in at the at the 49ers local pro day. And he was like, you will be shocked at what you see from Sam Darnold. Frank Gore is a Sam Darnold guy.

Hickey, that's so stupid. We have lived through this before. And I'll ask anyone that tells me, oh, Sam Darnold hasn't been put in the best situation. OK, you could still be in a bad situation and give me some tangible moments. And he has failed to at least give you some tangible plays. You're like, wow, that's the guy.

This is so stupid. You have an organ. Just for starters, you have an organization that's had Joe Montana and Steve Young. And you're going to tell me that Sam Darnold, the most talented QB the 49ers have ever had. What are we doing here, Hickey? Like, you love Sam Darnold. Even you, Mr. Hot Take, Hickey, think this is ridiculous.

If Matt Mayoko covered the Bears, if he covered the Jets, if he covered maybe the commanders, if you want to get out, like, OK, maybe we can show Theismann. Come on. OK, you know, I apologize, Joe.

Maybe we can have a show. What are you doing there, Hickey? But I mean, oh, this is the dumbest thing I've ever heard. Like, I know people will say Brady isn't the like the greatest doesn't have the greatest arm in the world. And he's not mobile and things like that. But when you're able to overcome all those things and still be greatness and be one of the be the greatest quarterback of all time, it's like, I don't care if a guy has a good makeup and you think he has a strong arm and he could be mobile. Can he put it together? And he can't put it together.

So it's like, what are we doing here? You're talking about Joe Montana. You're talking about Steve Young and Mayoko. He's not a hot take artist. Like he doesn't come off to me whenever we had him on as a guy that's looking for attention and says crazy things just to to rile people up. Like there's people that do that unless I'm just totally wrong.

I'm Matt Mayoko and maybe I am. That's one of the dumbest things I've ever heard. That's so stupid. Let me ask you this with to your point. To your point, yes. Mayoko only really reporting and saying what he believes. Does the source change your opinion at all of what he's saying? No. Like you don't for a second say, you know what?

Hmm. Even if Frank Gore gave him this endorsement. No, we've seen Sam Darnold. We've seen Sam Darnold in multiple spots. He stinks. Now, he could have success with the 49ers, but it's not going to be because he's going to be playing like an MVP and he's so talented.

Look at the situation they're in. They they put Brock Purdy in there. People are talking about Bill Romanowski comes on this show after seeing three games of Brock Purdy and is like, that guy looks like he can play with Joe Montana. He could be Joe Montana.

Give me their franchise quarterback for the next 15 to 20 years. And I'm not knocking Brock Purdy, but we're saying that stuff after like a few games. You put anyone in that situation and they could be decent. But it's not that does not mean they're a great quarterback.

That's ridiculous. If you're Joe Montana this last week, you got compared to or you had people comparing Anthony Richardson to you and now Sam Darnold. What people are comparing Anthony Richardson to Joe Montana to mercy when he goes, Oh, let's just draft.

Oh, yeah. But you can't turn a young to point out here and you can't take Jim or say anything seriously that Jim Mercy says I would agree, but he put it out there. And now we have Matt Myoko saying that, you know, this is the most gifted pass we've ever had. If you're Joe Montana, you go on a smear campaign here.

Do you go, you know, buy an hour of public television and remind everyone, hey, look how good I was. So Joe doesn't care. And as much as Joe's a legend, he is very boring. Like, geez, maybe that's forgettable.

No, it's just true. Like, he's just he's just boring. Like, I'm not talking about what he did on the field. You listen to him in an interview. He's just boring. As great as he is, like every year when he walks around the Super Bowl and he and he's promoting things left and right.

Like, don't get me wrong. It's a name that people are always going to talk to because he's one of the greatest quarterbacks of all time. He's a top two, three, four, five quarterback of all time, wherever you want to put him in your in your rankings. But it's not like he's saying these great things in interviews. If you listen to him throughout the years, maybe Joe's got to change, become a hot take artist himself, get his name back in the news.

Now have ever remember who he is. But that's just so stupid. That's a hot take.

That's a hot take right there. He said Sam Darnold is the most talented. And even see, you know, I hate that because he stopped like he knew he was about to say something stupid. Oh, that's horrible. That's that's honestly one of the worst things I've ever heard in the world of sports. Oh, yeah. Joe, I'm beat on how his knee is feeling after game two. OK, so pretty good to go up and down a little bit.

And, you know, it's pretty good. And let's hear Joel Embiid on why he wanted to play in game two instead of waiting until game three with six already up one out the way we saw it. You know, with what I have, there's really I'm not going to be, you know, what I have, you know, is, you know, supposed to be out for four to six weeks or something like that. So so I'm not going to be 100 percent, you know, for the whole time.

I'm not going to be fully here for the whole time. And I got to rest him a little bit because the game was was not competitive as the Celtics that blow him out. But the stuff that I saw from Embiid last night, Hickey, he was moving well for a guy that is playing on an injury that is supposed to require him to be out for four to six weeks. He looks smooth. No, you know, limp. That was very noticeable.

Pronounced. He was able to get up and down. He had five blocks in the game. He had a nice block at the rim, too. So he's yeah, he looked like I said, if you're a Sixers fan and then you just lost by basically 40 points. So it's hard to feel great. But outside of just the loss that you got to feel pretty good looking and seeing how Embiid played, considering his health. Yeah, but the facts are he's not 100 percent. And even though you've seen the good and the bad of James Harden, you're probably expecting more of the bad of James Harden.

I don't know about you. I would be shocked if the Sixers end up winning this series like it wouldn't shock me if they win game three. And then I don't think they'll go up three one. I think they'll lose game four even if they win game three and it will go to two back to Boston.

You know, maybe this goes seven. But I went into the series saying Celtics in six and I still think it's going to be six. I just don't see how the Sixers are going to get to four wins with Embiid not at 100 percent, even though he's moving well last night. And then, oh, yeah, by the way, James Harden showing you the real James Harden in the postseason in game two and how he's just not going to be. It's not even consistently do what he did in game one, but just not have the falloff be as dreadful as it was from game one to game two. I'm with you.

We talked about after game one, it's still hard to believe in the Sixers, and I don't think that really changes after game two. That's your news brief. It is The Zach Gelb Show on CBS Sports Radio. You're listening to The Zach Gelb Show.

Zach Gelb Show, CBS Sports Radio. I'm surprised it took me this long, Hickey, but I finally caved. I think the best part about doing a show as I'm on location today in Philadelphia from our Philly offices is that they have the Tasty Cake Studio here. That is what they call their studios at 94 WIP, the Tasty Cake Studios, and then they have a wall filled of Tasty Cakes that are just free for the taking that they have to restock probably, I would imagine, once a week. But I'm talking about there's got to be 11, 12, 13 shelves just filled of Tasty Cakes, Hickey.

Wow, I am very jealous. What do you mention on? I ended up going with the Coffee Cake Tasty Cake. Oh, that's what it was. So it's the cream-filled coffee cake cupcakes, crumbled top, a crumb top with cream filling.

That's what I ended up going with. Now they had everything there, but I saw the Coffee Cake Tasty Cake, and I was like, okay, that's the one that we're going to do damage with tonight. And, you know, I don't know how I don't take a few for the road, if I'm being honest.

Like, this is crazy. There are, I just tweeted a photo out of it. 1, 2, 3, 4, 5, 6, 7, 8, 9, 10, 11, 12, 13, 14, 15, 16 shelves here. And they are, it's like you're at a supermarket where you have one item after another after another after another just stocked up, and that's what they have here at their Tasty Cake studios. You should have came for this trip, by the way, Hickey. Yeah, man, I missed out.

This one, look at the picture right now. It looks good. There's a lot of options there. I would get very fat. I think you could use the few extra pounds. Like, I eat this stuff, and it doesn't, it's not going to look good on me. You'll eat that stuff, and I think it will get you to be a little bit heftier, and you could use that probably. I don't know.

I mean, I don't think I'd use a heft, but I definitely could use, like, a Ring Ding. The coffee cake is delicious. Oh, the coffee cake was, there's three of these in one packaging, and I devoured all three in about, like, five seconds.

So, absolutely delicious. You do have game number two underway between the Lakers and the Warriors. The Lakers did take a 1-0 series lead. As you had Anthony Davis just go off in the game, the Warriors still went on a run at the end of the game, where they went on a 14-0 run to tie that baby up, and then eventually, after the Lakers took a three-point lead, they did the ABC play, which I love that by Stan Van Gundy, anybody but Curry, and they passed it off to Draymond.

Draymond then passed it off to Jordan Poole, who basically did the Carlton and Fresh Prince of Bel-Air. That's been the big gift that's been going around, but it was the right shot. It was the right shot. He should have been closer to the three-point line, but when a guy is six of ten from three in the game, I can live with that shot, even though you wanted it closer, and I keep on just going back to the people that have a problem with it. And we had Jason Thompson on earlier, the former NBA player, and he agreed, like, what else did you want him to do? He was six of ten, he was shooting 60% from three, the Warriors jacked up a ridiculous amount of long-range three-point shots to begin with, and Hickey was at a point where, sure, you want him closer, but there was no other play to be made, and if he passed the ball, even though there was ten seconds left, I don't know if he would have got a clean pass off, and how long it would have taken him to get the basketball to someone, because Steph wasn't moving. Steph, like, started to move the moment when he started to square up slightly, but he was still at the half-court line, so who knows if Steph even breaks free and gets a good shot off? I don't know why, as a society as a whole, and I'm including myself in this, that we sometimes struggle to just give out praise, but that was just a great defensive play by the Lakers.

They executed it to perfection, they didn't need a timeout to draw it up, they knew as soon as Steph touches the ball, we're going to double him, we're going to make sure he is not going to be the one to take what would be a game-tying three, and it was just a perfect defensive play by the Lakers. By the way, Anthony Gallo just tweeted me. He saw the Tasty Cake photos, and Gallo works behind the scenes, he goes, WTF, bring a care package back to New York City for us. You think I should bring Gallo back at Tasty Cake? Only if he does well on the show tonight he's hosting. Oh, he's hosting a show tonight? Bad show, no. Good show, yes. He's hosting on CBS Sports Radio? No, on WFAN. Oh, is he really? Is that with Big Zu?

Yes, sir. So he's making his radio hosting debut. I'm sure he doesn't need any extra pressure, I'm sure he's very nervous right now, but up the ante a little bit, so hey, no Tasty Cakes if you've got a bad show. I don't know, that's not nice to do to a fellow big man. That's a lot of pressure. That's a lot of pressure to put on a big man, saying I'm going to deprive you of a Tasty Cake if you don't find a way to host a good show, but then I've got to carry that back to New York in my backpack. Isn't that just going to get smushed and disgusting? Especially after, yes, like a long weekend with a wedding and you're racing around, yes. You know what, Gallo?

You'll thank me later for not giving you the Tasty Cake, probably. Bullet dodge there by Anthony. Anyway, getting back to this Lakers-Warriors game tonight, it's 21-19, early for the Lakers. Here's the two things I need to see, one from each team. I'm really curious for the Lakers what version of AD you're going to get tonight, because we talk about Harden, where he was great in Game 1 and then he was just so flat in Game 2.

For Anthony Davis' hickey, and so far he only has two points, but it's so early and it's only three minutes left in the first quarter, but he just won a five from the field. Anthony Davis is like a better version of James Harden, where we've seen Anthony Davis at least win a ring and be so important in winning that championship with LeBron, but there are a lot of moments for Anthony Davis where when he's great, it's like, wow, this guy is so awesome to watch, but then when it's bad, it's pretty putrid. There's no just, okay, he'll play an okay game. It's so noticeable when he's not at that great form because of how much that team relies on him.

You just talked about the teams remaining. If he's truly dialed in and he's playing at his absolute best, I would argue Anthony Davis right now is the best player left in the playoffs. The best player left in the playoffs? He's at his peak offensively and defensively.

I think there's absolutely an argument to make. That just shows how much talent he has, but also shows the frustration because you don't see that, or you don't see it on a consistent enough basis as you should. He checks out. He gets hurt. He sometimes gets in his own head. He's not aggressive enough, and sometimes he's way too passive.

It doesn't allow the game to come to him. He just kind of sits back and tries to let guys make plays instead of just taking over control. That's what leads to the frustration of just the lack of consistency from Anthony Davis when you know deep down he has the talent to dominate every single game. Isn't that disrespectful though, just for starters, to Nikola Jokic who always consistently shows up? And then also, even if you're going to argue that he's the best player remaining, couldn't you then say it's Joel Embiid over Anthony Davis because they both have the same problem?

They both have problems staying healthy? And I would argue defensively is what kind of separates Anthony Davis in this conversation. Again, when he puts it together and locked in, we just saw him go for 30 and 23 in a playoff game. Anthony Davis. The guy has it in him.

I understand that. He is a great player, but I can't say he's the best player remaining in the playoffs when you have Nikola Jokic just for starters in the playoffs. He's better defensively than Jokic, so again, you talk about the full package, and I'm not saying he is. I'm saying he has the chance to be. If he's locked in and is playing truly to his capabilities, I would make that argument. Now, I'm not making the argument that he is. I'm just saying he can be.

The frustration is he's not more times than he is, and that's the problem. And there's a bunch of other players that I'd throw on there as well. Here's what I would say about Anthony Davis. If you want to tell me, because you will admit this is now a league of dynamic duos, he's the best, second best player when we go to all those duos.

You could make the case that the Lakers need him to be their best player for them to win the championship, but when you go through these teams remaining, like the Celtics, Jason Tatum is their best player. Their second best player is Jalen Brown. Anthony Davis is better than Jalen Brown.

The Miami Heat. Bam Adebayo is their second best player. Jimmy Butler is their best player. You would say Anthony Davis is better than Bam Adebayo. You go to the Knicks.

It doesn't even matter. Brunson is their best player. Julius Randle is their second best. Anthony Davis is better than Julius Randle.

You go through the Sixers. You have Joel Embiid, their best player. Their second best player, James Harden. Anthony Davis is better than James Harden. The Nuggets. As much as I love Jamal Murray, he's their second best player.

Anthony Davis is a better player than Jamal Murray. Their best player is Nicole Jokic. The Lakers. Oh, we're doing this conversation with the Lakers. So the Warriors. Steph Curry and then their second best player is Klay Thompson. Anthony Davis is better than Klay Thompson.

So you want to go to the Suns. KD is their best player. Is he better than Devin Booker?

Yes. Yeah, I'd probably say you're right just because of the all-around game. So that's the way that I would say it. He's their, out of all the second best players, he is the preeminent second best player, as that is a mouthful to say. But I got to see him play consistently well because he was, like Harden was great in game one and he was a dud in game two. All I ask for Anthony Davis tonight, you don't have to be as great as you were in game one. That's not realistic to do that night in and night out.

Just don't be a dud. And I can't sit here confidently saying Anthony Davis won't be a dud right now. For tonight.

I'm with you there. That's the problem and why still, despite the loss in game one, I'm still picking the Warriors to win the series just because I can't trust Anthony Davis to be at that level he was in game one three more times in the series. And then the problem for the Warriors, to talk about it from a Warriors angle, it's their depth. Like, I need either Pool or Wiggins. They don't have to be on the same night.

But I just need one of them every night to show up. Because you know Steph is going to get his. Yeah, Klay Thompson can be a little bit erratic off the injuries, but you still feel pretty good about Klay. Draymond's going to do what Draymond's going to do.

And he'll be a pain in the butt at times of the series in both to the other team and then annoying his own team. But I need a guy like Pool or Wiggins to hit that 20 point mark threshold and maybe even go beyond it. Because for Pool and Wiggins, Pool has not been that third splash brother like he was at times last year in the playoffs. And I know Wiggins has been dealing with things off the court. But for Wiggins, he was like one of the big talking points of the NBA playoffs last year. And so far this year, I got to see that Wiggins again if the Warriors are going to win this series and also going to find a way to get back to the NBA finals and win another round after this. I think Wiggins and Pool, even though we'll spend so many segments talking about Steph and Klay and Draymond. That duo of Wiggins and Pool, one of those guys showing up night in and night out is the biggest key for the Golden State Warriors.

They need help, absolutely. It can't just be the Steph Curry show we saw in Game 7. I don't think that's a reliable strategy to win an entire series.

Half Steph dropped 50 and half Kavon Looney grabbed 20 rebounds. Alrighty, I won't need another tasty cake during the break. Ooh, that rhymed. I liked that. But we will have to come on back with the closing bell. We'll tell you whose stock is booming, whose stock is dooming.

You're listening to the Zach Gelb Show. Another day is in the books and we're taking stock of the sports world. It's time to find out who's up and who's down. Let's end the day right and hit the closing bell.

Only on the Zach Gelb Show. Alright, let's start things off on the ice. Last night you had two games. Schmid for the Devils was awesome up against the Rangers. Not so much against the Hurricanes as he was pulled in this one. Hurricanes win 5-1 to take the 1-0 series lead. Let's listen up to Brady Shea who did score to make it 4-1 in the third period. Here is the Hurricanes radio network. Into the Devils zone.

Jarvis to Nason to Aho trying to find Jarvis. Now comes back to Shea. Scores! Brady Shea's first of the postseason and that could be a dagger with 9.43 left in the third. Hurricanes take game one.

Give them a stock up. Last night, that hockey game between the Oilers and the Golden Knights had major Battle of Alberta vibes from last year between the Oilers and the Calgary Flames. So Leon Dreicitl had four goals. And we had, who was it, Palveski the other day who had four goals as well?

Yes sir, Joe Pavelski. Which was just crazy as well. His team lost and the Oilers ended up losing. So this was right out of the gate just in the first period. Dreicitl scored, then Barbezhev scored to make it 1-1. Knights then scored back to back goals to make it 3-1 before Dreicitl netted his second goal of the game to make it 3-2.

No goals were scored in the second. And then in the third, Dreicitl tied it up in the power play to start the period to make it 3-3. Barbezhev got another goal to make it 4-3. Then Chandler Stevenson had this goal to make it 5-3. And that was a minute apart from goals 4 and 5 for the Golden Knights.

That made it 5-3. But it didn't end there because Leon Dreicitl, who has his 11th goal in the postseason so far, got his fourth goal last night to make it 5-4. And then it took forever for the Oilers to pull their goalie.

It was just wild. And they ended up getting too many men on the ice when doing so and then the game was over from there. And you had Jack Eichel. You had McDavid goal one in that draft. Eichel too. He ends up getting the goal to put him back up by two to make it 6-4.

So the Knights take 6-4. Just a terrible goaltending situation at Edmonton. And there was even some optimism heading to the playoffs about the goalie. But Hickey, it's like you have McDavid and Dreicitl. And unfortunately, you're probably not going to win the cup this year just because you can't even get decent goaltending play. To steal a phrase from Robert Salah, the Oilers are all gas, no breaks.

All offense, no defense whatsoever. So I'm giving a stock up to the Golden Knights. But then a stock down to the Oilers goalie and coaching decisions because that was some stupid stuff at the end of that game. Alrighty, let's go to the NBA. Last night the Celtics just opened up a can of whoop ass to tie up that series against the Philadelphia 76ers.

They won $1.21 to 87. Let's give a stock up to Malcolm Brogdon. Off the bench at 23 points, 6-10 from 3, 7-15 from the field.

Give Malcolm Brogdon a stock up in his 24 minutes of play. Wanda Franco. I loved what he did. Hickey, he caught the ball, he fielded a grounder, and then just spun the ball up in the air, caught it, and then threw it over to first to get the final out of the game. That was awesome. I know the baseball purist, the baseball star would be like, oh that's not good for the game, blah blah blah blah blah.

Zip it, give him a stock up. Dexter Lawrence, big fat contract. Joe Shane, when he joined us last year, or actually at the trade deadline, he made it clear that Dexter Lawrence wasn't going anywhere. And there was some mysterious phone call that he said in his press conference that a team made about one of his players. And he said it wasn't Dexter Lawrence, but he went out of his way to say that Dexter Lawrence could be a giant for a long time.

But he wasn't lying, Dexter Lawrence, who's a beast, signed a four-year deal, $60 million guaranteed, it's a $90 million contract, give Sexy Dexi a stock up. And finally, I gotta give a stock down to James Harden. James Harden was great in Game 1, but then the real playoff James Harden stood up in Game 2.

And I know he's not the biggest reason why the Sixers lost because that game was never competitive, but he was an abysmal. 2 of 14 from the field. Oh, an 0 from 3, 0 for 6, and he only had 12 points. 8 of those 12 points came from the charity stripe. What a bad game from James Harden, and that's the real James Harden in the postseason, not the James Harden that we got to see in Game 1 where he went off with 45 points in the game.

It was 7 of 14 from 3, so give a stock down to James Harden. And that's the Zach Gelb show on CBS Sports Radio. Big thanks to Johnny Marks joining us in studio from Sports Radio 94 WIP. Mike Budenholzer did get fired today, so we'd like to thank Bart Winkler from impromptuly joining us on the show. We also had Scott Hastings stopping by, as well as Jason Thompson, the former NBA player, now an assistant at Ryder.

He was on the Warriors for a little bit. He came on and did talk a bunch of hoops with us. So good show today, big thanks to everyone in Philadelphia for having me. And Bart Winkler will be in tomorrow as I have some wedding duties to be at. No, I'm not getting married, I'm just in a wedding party. And then the big shindig does happen on Saturday, so I'll be back on Monday at 6 p.m. Eastern, 3 Pacific. Thank you so much. We out. Bye-bye. Peace!