Draymond Green Admits Guilt? (Hour 3)

Our number three of our radio program, that's right, it is the Zach Gilb Show coast to coast on CBS Sports Radio. Denver survives game one last night between the Nuggets and Lakers by a final score of $1.32 to $1.26. You have game one of the Eastern Conference Finals coming up in a few moments between the Miami Heat and the Boston Celtics in Boston at TD Garden. And we know last night, Victor Wabinyama is going to have a new home and that's going to be with the San Antonio Spurs as they did get the number one overall pick in the draft lottery. Let's head out to the hotline right now. Welcome in Avery Johnson who did win an NBA championship as a player with the Spurs in 1999, was a coach of the year with the Dallas Mavericks in 2006 and now does a phenomenal job with CBS Sports and CBS Sports HQ.

Avery, appreciate the time. Let me start you off with the game last night. Denver in the first half really took it to Los Angeles. The Lakers played as bad of a first half as you could but then they were right there at the end and Denver did survive. How do you walk away last night feeling about Los Angeles after what you got to witness? I still feel really good about the Lakers. You know I picked the Lakers to win this series four two and we'll see if they can get a split here in this next game but I think they found a couple of things in game one that they can lean on a little bit more. First of all, I really didn't like the starting lineup.

I thought it was too small. It'll be interesting if Darvin Ham inserts Hachimura into the lineup. I just think Schroeder, Russell and Reeves, it's just too small and it would give Anthony Davis a chance to rotate to help with Jokic and maybe not be the primary defender on him. Aaron Gordon is a guy that Anthony Davis can guard because he's not a prolific three-point shooter.

He's 0 for 3 from the three-point line and actually struggled from the free throw line. So I think Darvin Ham, this is a series for maybe Hachimura to start. I don't know if this is a series for a guy like Jared Vanderbilt.

I think this is a seven-man rotation type of a series. If you need to go deeper into the bench, you probably got to lean more towards a guy like Malik Beasley or if you want to throw Tristan Thompson in there and try to use up a couple of fouls for about eight minutes. So you'll see some adjustment from the Lakers defensively.

They weren't very good to start that game. They defended a little bit better as the game went on, but when you give up 132 points in a playoff game, you're probably going to lose. What was your reasoning, just wondering, heading into this series, why you like the Lakers in six games? I just think overall this will be a series where Anthony Davis is really going to put his imprint on this series as time moves on. I just think defensively Jokic is not going to be able to hide.

Jamal Murray's not going to be able to hide. Obviously those guys had big games last night combining for 65 points, but I think the Lakers wear them now as the series wears on. I believe other guys like DeAngelo Russell, he's been a hot and cold guy. When he's hot, the Lakers win. When he's not hot, they don't play as well. Lonnie Walker obviously had his moments, but I just think the combination of Anthony Davis and LeBron being two-way players, they'll figure it out, especially on the defensive end, to try to slow down this Denver Nuggets team.

Avery Johnson here with us. You talked about Murray defensively. Now I know it's tough to question LeBron James, but with under a minute to go you're down three. You have Murray on you, 15 seconds left on the shot clock, and you pull up from three. I didn't like that selection by the king, LeBron James.

How about yourself? He didn't like that shot at all, especially had made his two free throws on the previous possession. I thought he was going to get downhill, try to get a traditional three-point play. At that time I believe Murray had five fouls, so he could have easily fouled out in the game. But I'm sure LeBron James in that situation, again, that's a put your head down, drive, think right, go left, and just bulldoze your way into the paint.

Make yoke is trying to come over and help play a two-man game with Anthony Davis at the rim, and something great is going to happen. You've seen a lot of great players. You've coached them.

You played along with them. You watched a lot of great players as well growing up as a student of the game. When you see Nikola Jokic coach Avery Johnson and what he's been able to do the last few years, just what goes through your mind?

Man, this guy's just sensational. I mean, one of the best big men to ever play the game, just his creativity, his passing ability, you know, the three-point range. He was three for three from three last night. I mean, you see you're dropping 34, 21, and 14 assists. And it's not your two-guard or your small forward.

It's your center. And the way he can run the break and lead the break, man, this guy is very unique. He's got a diversified skill set. He's maybe not the most athletic guy, but arguably, you know, two-time MVP.

He's just phenomenal to watch. Avery Johnson here with us. When we take a look at the Easter Conference Finals, Game 1 coming up in a bit, Heat and the Celtics. I think the Celtics are a better team. I think the Celtics should win this series. It's just going to be how much of a fight are they going to allow for Miami, who we know is such a tough team led by Jimmy Butler. I'm really curious tonight, Avery Johnson, what type of effort you see from Boston? Because just in this last series, we saw them let Philadelphia hang around, hang around, hang around until there was no more margin of error for the Celtics. Yeah, I think they're going to put forward a strong effort. I think what the Heat is a 15-point underdog in this whole series, basically.

I know they're a big underdog, whatever the numbers are. But this Heat team, man, this is a very dangerous team. And with all the peaks and valleys that Jason Tatum have, I know everybody wants to talk about the 50-plus points in the closeout game against Philly. But he was really struggling going into Game 6, into the fourth quarter in Game 6, before he made those 33s. And the peaks and valleys of Jason Tatum, the turnovers, you can't do that against Jimmy Butler. He doesn't have as many peaks and valleys.

He's got more peaks. So I'm just not under the mindset that this is going to be a clear domination series by the Boston Celtics. I'm not going to be surprised if this goes seven games.

I'm still picking Boston to win. But man, that Jimmy Butler, he's a problem. And he really puts his team on his back. If he doesn't have any ankle issues in this series, this could be a scary series for the Celtics. And this is a different type of team than what they played against with Philadelphia. I can't see Jimmy Butler playing the way James Harden and Jordan beat Ben if it's a Game 7 in Boston. I can't see him having that type of performance.

No doubt. We know that Butler has that killer instinct, something that the Sixers have been lacking. And he'll just take over a big game as we've seen before with Jimmy Butler. You also look at the coaching advantage too. Spolstra could be the best coach in the game right now. When you look at Missoula of the Celtics, what do you have to see from him from a coaching perspective this series? You know what, I think there's been some struggles there, to be brutally honest. And you've seen some of the lack of adjustments.

And Joe's going to have to be on top of his game. They've lost a lot of key assistance. Damon Stoudemire, nobody wants to talk about them. Obviously, Will Hardy, he ended up leaving. But they lost some key guys. And obviously, Umea Yudoka was the coach last year. And Joe wasn't even the head assistant. So he's going up against a guy that's going to go down there as a Hall of Fame coach in every Spolstra. Two-time NBA champion. He's coached in the finals multiple times. This guy, I believe, has done the best coaching job this year from start to finish. And they have a real serious infrastructure and culture there in Miami that helps them from an accountability standpoint. So obviously, the coaching edge goes to the heat.

We'll see how much of a factor that's going to be in the series. Avery Johnson, last night, when you're seeing the cards get unveiled and everyone figure out who's going to get the number one pick for Victor Wimbunyama, and it goes to the San Antonio Spurs, an organization you clearly know very well. Just how'd you react to that one? Well, I was texting a lot of my CBS HQ colleagues about that.

The fourth HQ colleagues. It was just funny because I was remembering. And I was on CBS Sports HQ last night doing the draft lottery. And I was just remembering the time in 97 when the ping pong ball came up first.

And I was basically running around my neighborhood, running around my house because I was so excited that we got Kim Duncan. And I knew how that would forever change the series. And I know the excitement of the Spurs fans.

Last night, I saw all the different replays on social media. And this is a generation of talent. It'll be very interesting to see how he helped change the direction and unfortunately, this franchise is still not a playoff team today with this current roster as constructed. But boy, he brings a lot of hope and excitement to a franchise that he used to, you know, having foreign players like Tony Parker, who's else is from France and Manu Ginobili and Boris Diao and Pavlovic and his staff, knowing how to handle the likes of the David Robinsons and the Tim Duncans. And now they got another. You can't call them a Greek freak.

That name's already taken. But the French freak is exciting. And look at the praise right now throughout the last year, Avery Johnson. You had Steph Curry say that Victor Mbunyama is a cheat code. You had LeBron James call the kid an alien. And Giannis says he's never seen anyone like Victor Mbunyama. I just wonder what the impact individually and also for a team could be your one with the hype just being through the roof for this kid. Well, we know basketball is a team sport, so you've got to have the other pieces around him. Fortunately, he has a Hall of Fame coach.

Yeah, well, I'm going to be attending his Hall of Fame ceremony in August, along with my former teammate and the player that I coach, Dirk Novitski. So it's pretty exciting. You can see it. You're going to see it from ticket sales, the increase in, you know, regular season tickets and game day tickets.

He's disguised box office. The Spurs, I know there's maybe been some talk about a new arena. So who knows? He could be at the forefront of the Spurs getting a new arena.

You never know. I know they have a $500 million practice facility that's almost complete. So he's going to affect ticket sales, jersey sales, restaurants.

Oh, man, this guy won't be able to go anywhere. San Antonio is like a four, what, seven million people. It's like a seven million populated college town. The Spurs is the home team. There's no disloyalty for those fans down there in San Antonio.

So they have some another superstar to cheer for. I know your pal, Coach Pop, Greg Popovich is 74 years old. I guess now he's never going to retire. Maybe when he's 90. I'm still surprised he's coaching right now. I thought he would have walked away one of these last few years when everyone departed. But now it's like you get this potentially generational player. I don't think we'll ever see him retire. No, he knew what you thought he's going to retire two years ago.

He looked in that crystal ball and saw this seven foot four phenom playing ball in Spain. He said, maybe I'll stick around and see what happens with that. So I'm excited for him. I got a text last night from the managing partner, Peter John Holt, who was very excited on TV. And so just was happy for he and RC. The one thing I will say is I'm going to ask Victor to not have demands to bring my number six jersey that's retired in the rafters down. But if he asks for it, he can have it. But hopefully my number six jersey can stay retired.

How about that? Before we let you run Avery Johnson, you know what it's like to be looking for a job as a coach. You have three jobs that are open.

The Suns, the Bucks and the Sixers. If you were one of these top coaches on the market, which job out of those three do you think is the most attractive? Wow, I think, you know, anytime you have a job when you can coach Kevin Durant and Devin Booker, especially with the way Devin Booker performed in the playoffs. Oh, my goodness.

Unbelievable. Anytime you can have that opportunity to coach those two guys and figure out what you're going to do with Chris Paul and DeAndre Aiden obviously is a huge question mark. That team is not very far off, especially with a healthy Kevin Durant.

So that would be attractive. You know, Milwaukee, Giannis, you know, and Middleton and Holliday, those guys have won a championship. They know how to get it done. Brook Lopez, who I coached in Brooklyn, New Jersey, he's improved his game. So I think those two jobs right there are at the forefront with some of these coaching job vacancies. Yeah, Philly's a tough one right now because as good as Embiid is, he probably has a window of a few more years to win a championship. And if they bring back James Harden, which, you know, Darryl Moore is going to want to do. For that team, I just don't think James Harden is the right fit because Philly needs a finisher. And you see too much of James Harden, even though he was really good last year, he's just disappearing in the postseason.

Yeah, Philly's a little tougher, I think. Whether James Harden's resigned or not, that's obviously going to be a huge topic of conversation. But a lot of times when we're talking about replacing these guys like a James Harden, who are you going to replace him with?

So you got to the Eastern Conference semi finals game seven, you know, those guys didn't have their best game. Obviously, you know, it led to Doc Rivers losing his job. But if you're not going to be able to replace him with equal talent or two or three other role players that can help fill in the gaps, then you're going to take a step back. So but if you do resign him, then you got to continue to build that rock surrounding and talk about guys like Tobias Harris, which you got to do with him.

That's a pretty big number. But Tyrese Maxey, I think that's the way to go in terms of giving him more responsibility. Do you think this is it for Damon in Portland? Because a lot of people look at the draft lottery last night. They get a big asset, the third overall pick. Clearly, it wasn't the number one overall pick to go get Victor Wambunyama. But do you feel like a split should be coming with Damon or is he just going to keep on staying loyal and sticking there in Portland?

Well, I'll finish with this. I've been the one over the last two years that have been saying, Dain is gone. He's going to request a trade. And I've been wrong for the last few years. I've been shockingly wrong, because the team is not going anywhere.

They're absolutely not going anywhere. So with Scoot Henderson, if he lands in that third spot, and you'll give them a chance to get back and hit the reset button and do similar to what the Spurs have done. They've lost for a couple of years, and they've landed on a really great player.

But this team currently constructed, Portland, if the season were to start today, even with Scoot Henderson on the roster, they're not even a playing team. So I'm going to say it again for the third year in the row. I'm going to expect Dain Lillard to maybe request the trade so that he can try to end his legendary career with playing deeper in the playoffs, and maybe getting on a team that can play for a championship to try to submit his career. Third time's a charm for your case. Last one Avery Johnson, I'm gonna let you run.

I really do appreciate you doing this. From a coaching perspective, I know you know Steve Kerr very well, getting Draymond Green and Jordan Poole back on the same page if they're on the same team next year is enormous. How would you try to kind of mend that relationship this summer? Because even Draymond admitted last night that he was in the wrong, and it probably did derail their season this year. I believe if I was the general manager, and I know about my years just taking some time off, you got to move Jordan Poole.

I just think in the back of his mind, you're never going to get that video back of his mind. I don't know if they can survive with those guys being on the same team. Draymond couldn't really be himself.

I've heard him on interviews. He couldn't really lead the way he wanted to lead because he always felt like he needed to apologize for that punch. So I think the best case moving forward, find Jordan Poole a new home, bring in another shooter that has a clean slate with the Warriors and specifically Draymond Green, and then see if you can try to move forward with the team that's currently constructed. You still have the Splash Brothers. They still can splash. They still can. They're still one of the top back courts in the country. James Wiseman was a big miss, so you'll have to continue to figure out how to build your support staff and role players.

But I think finding Poole a new home, I think it's going to be better for him, and it's going to be better for the Warriors. Avery Johnson, make sure you check him out. CBS Sports, CBS Sports HQ. We always appreciate the time, Avery. Okay, thanks a lot.

Appreciate it. You're listening to the Zach Gelb Show. It is Zach Gelb Show on CBS Sports Radio. So we just had Avery Johnson on, and he's coached in this league, won a Coach of the Year award with Dallas Mavericks, and clearly was a part of the Nets coaching staff too, and then spent many years as a player and won an NBA championship with the San Antonio Spurs back in 1999. So he's seen the game from a bunch of different angles and a bunch of different perspectives, whether it was a player, whether it was a coach, or as an analyst as well. And I asked him, is there any way to rectify this situation between Draymond Green and Jordan Poole? And he thinks that it's the best course of action this summer for the Warriors to actually trade Jordan Poole. So let's work backwards here, and then we'll get to more of what Avery Johnson had to say. Let's go to Draymond Green last night.

This was on Stephen A's world. This was the Manning cast that Stephen A was pretty much trying to do last night. I watched that hickey, and it's the same critique that I'll give of the Manning cast. There's moments where it's really good, it's engaging, it's fun early in the game, but when you get later into that game and the game actually matters, it almost feels as if the game is on in the background. And I was watching a little bit of the Stephen A broadcast, thought it was enjoyable, and then when the game got good, I said, okay, let me flip on over to Mike Breen and Mr. I don't vote Nicole Jokic for the MVP, Mark Jackson, and Jeff Van Gundy last night.

So that's what I did. But here's Draymond Green last night, and he was asked by Stephen A if the Warriors were eliminated in the second round because of this whole situation and how much it lingered with Draymond punching Jordan Poole before the season started. We're not playing right now because when you speak about the following, when you speak about all of the slippage that we had as a team on the road, not being able to come together, none of those things happen if that doesn't happen because the voice that I am and the departments that I lead this team in, there was a ton of slippage due to me sitting back, me not saying anything, me trying to allow that situation to play itself out and giving it time to heal. When you think about time to heal, well, while you're giving it all at that time, guess what? And I would say probably by February, I started to feel like myself again at speed more, but guess what? There was five months of a season where slippage has just been occurring. And by February, if that slippage has been going on that long, you are who you are at that point. You've built those habits. You've built bad habits. That is who you are now.

So to try to correct them then, it's like, okay, you may get a little better. We did. We ended up in the second round of the playoffs, but not at a championship level. So I guess that is Draymond Green last night starting to try and fix this relationship with Jordan Poole and kind of in a bizarre way, make him look like he's doing the right thing or being the good guy in this situation, even though this whole scenario that played out this year is at the fault of really like two people, three people that you could blame. Draymond number one, and then also Bob Meyers and Steve Kerr for practically doing nothing and letting this thing linger and never really putting any punitive action on Draymond Green.

But I guess that failure to do anything, Hickey, it shows you two things. One, either they're just afraid of Draymond or two, the way that we even think you may need to start to move on from Draymond, we always know about the impact that Draymond has made on those teams. They clearly still believe, and you heard Steve Kerr say it the other day, that if they're going to be a championship team and a championship contender, they're going to need Draymond Green. So it's almost at the point, I know we had a big conversation on this yesterday, that if you're going to, and I think we'd all agree, having Bob Meyers still on that team next year is the best thing for the Golden State Warriors. Well, if you have Bob Meyers there, I don't think Bob Meyers, if he's still running the show, is getting rid of Draymond Green.

I don't think he has the heart to do it. With the relationships he's formed with Steph, Draymond, and also Klay Thompson. So if you have to operate under that, if you want Bob Meyers back, that means you're going to need Draymond Green back. It's up to Bob and Draymond to mend that relationship with Jordan Poole. And if Jordan Poole doesn't think that relationship can be fixed and salvaged, then yeah, you may have to trade Jordan Poole, even though I would argue that Jordan Poole, if the Warriors are going to win another championship, is more important to the Warriors than Draymond Green is in the year of 2023. This is a tough situation, Hickey, because so much time has lingered where you got to, I feel like very little can be done to save this relationship.

And it's almost as if you have to pick one or the other. And with everything I've seen with the Warriors, I can't give them the benefit of the doubt that they're going to side with Jordan Poole. They're going to try to either make this work or they're going to trade Jordan Poole inevitably. Yeah, I don't really get at this point how you can mend fences or make things better, just because it's basically a year too late.

Steve Kerr talked about it, Draymond talking about it. Like the opportunity to actually close that wound and heal the divisiveness between him and Jordan Poole was days after the punch happened. It's not now when it happened in October and we're talking here in May and he's talking to Stephen A. and trying to put out there that, oh, yeah, the team was never the same after that. And I wasn't able to leave because no one could really listen to my voice because everyone, anytime I talked would always think about the punch first.

It's like your opportunity to fix that, I think it's already come and gone. So if you're Jordan Poole, I don't personally think he's even receptive at this point to hearing an apology or truly, truly willing to put it behind him. The only thing I will say, we've seen many times before in life where people get into fights and then you end up becoming friendly with the person. And there was already a previous relationship there where it was talked about in that article, in the ringer I'm pretty sure, that Jordan Poole, if I remember if it was from the ringer, Jordan Poole kind of looked up to Draymond as if he was a big brother, especially before this incident the year prior when they were dealing with all these injuries and you saw the emergence of Jordan Poole and Draymond was big in that locker room of helping out Jordan Poole. So there was a relationship to some point and that's probably what makes it stings even more for Jordan Poole because this is the guy that he really liked and really respected. But I'll just tell you this, and I'm not comparing necessarily this situation to Draymond and Jordan Poole making apples to apples, but in this situation, my dad actually, I'll tell you a funny story here Hickey, my dad's best friend, you want to know how they became best friends? You want to know their first meeting?

They got into a fight. They're at sleepaway camp, my dad's best friend who I call Uncle Neil, he's a few years older, he was a counselor, my dad was a camper and they were playing dodgeball and my dad had a cannon for an arm and he would just be pelting kids and picking kids off and he was new to the camp in I think ninth to tenth grade or something like that because his old camp shut down and my dad kind of had a target on his back being the new guy and I guess someone like barely hit my father with the dodgeball on his foot and my dad didn't even feel it or he was just cheating which would not surprise me either and he kept on like throwing the dodgeballs and my dad's best friend Neil now grabbed him from like the back of his shirt and said, you're out, you lost and they ended up getting into a fight, like an actual fight, like a fist fight and throughout the years they became really good friends and I call this guy my uncle, Uncle Neil and my dad and him are like attached at the hip now so maybe Bob Gelbin and Neil Orbin need to go out to the Bay Area here hot take Kiki and maybe they need to talk to Draymond Green and Jordan Poole on how you you save this relationship because those are two lifelong friends that started a friendship with the fight and they were cursing each other out so I think I just solved the problem of the Golden State Warriors Bob Myers give Bob Gelb a call give us some money too and we'll fix this thing in a second I was just gonna say make sure you charge a high hourly rate to make sure that you know those fences are mended and make sure there's extra time that you really need to talk to each other to make sure though you know the relationship is truly better now I will say this though all kidding aside I do think you could fix this but I don't think the Warriors will go about it the right way in order to ensure to assure that this gets fixed because they are intimidated of Draymond Green that they are so unless if Draymond puts it upon himself to fix this and I don't know if I could I can't trust Draymond here Avery Jones is probably right that you're going to have to trade one or another and it will probably be Jordan Poole over Draymond Green even though I think if you're going to get rid of one over the other it should be Draymond that you're getting rid of instead of Jordan Poole and the problem with trading Jordan Poole right now is that you are not getting anywhere near the value you probably should get it'd be to shed the salary no it right but also to get like a few like a return for a team that's trying to win a championship next year right this is not a t-nuts oh we'll take the picks and five years from now hope it helps like you're trading Jordan Poole at his absolute lowest value point what I mean what I mean by that is you're probably trading Jordan Poole you'll get a little bit back and then whatever you use to get back you'll use that to go make another move but probably what's going to happen whether it's a draft cap let you get or you'll get some whatever role players there so we'll see what happens it is Zach Gelb show on CBS Sports Radio we will update you the biggest stories of the world of sports with some audio next with the news brief you're listening to the Zach Gelb show time for your daily news brief we get you caught up on the rumors reports and reconnaissance from the day in sports you can think of parts for your car care needs get guaranteed low prices and excellent customer service from the professional parts people at O'Reilly Auto Parts let's listen up to Nikola Jokic as the Joker's Nuggets are up 1-0 against the Lakers after game one of the Western Conference Finals last night and the Joker says it was very important to start the game fast playoff I mean we need to be aggressive we need to win a game so uh especially in front of pro home crowd especially because they won two game ones so it was written I think it's a being aggressive it's a normal uh right now Hickey I know I probably shouldn't be shocked by this because of just the way that it feels like every NBA game unless it's the Sixers and Celtics in a game seven or anytime the Suns are an elimination game but even with no matter how bad it looks through the first half it does seem as if every NBA game does come down to the final five minutes or so but last night when this goes into halftime and it's 72 to 54 and you know Denver's a better team than Los Angeles and how Denver and Jokic was just having a great game I was shocked that when we got into the fourth quarter and you had a few like eight minutes to go that okay there was a an actual chance that Denver was going to lose that game last night even like with like you always think okay maybe the team like the Lakers will come out strong and start the second half and you go in a little 5-0 run just give yourself a little belief and so the Nuggets credit they came out like they came out answered any sort of punch that the Lakers gave actually increased that lead up to 20 I think it was it was 106 to 92 enter in the fourth and I think with three minutes left I believe it was 21 three or four minutes left in the third quarter is 21 points so you're at that point you think okay we survived we weathered the storm that the Lakers are going to throw at us we'll cruise in and also next to the Lakers a lot of credit fought back pretty late in the game and you look at the numbers last night for the joker he had 31 points or it should be 34 points 21 rebounds and 14 assists and then for Anthony Davis he had 40 points with 10 rebounds and two blocks in the game here is the joker saying that Anthony Davis was just tremendous he's really really really first of all talented he's a role threat he is he can play in a pocket he can play ice so he can play on the post so he's really really talented probably the most skilled guy if you think about the size and what uh what he can do with the ball and how good mid-range or shooter here shooter he is and how he is attacking the glass so I think probably one of the most talented player in the league it's so crazy because you watched that game last night and you just saw the pathetic performance by the Lakers in the first half and then how they made it a game late and part of me walks away from that game hickey where I go all right the Lakers next game you would think aren't going to be that bad in the in the first half so I'm intrigued to see even though I believe Denver is going to win the series that how game two plays out and if this is 1-1 or is it 2-0 going back to crypto.com arena center whatever that building is named but then in the other sentence it's like man you got 40 points from Anthony Davis and you still needed to come on back to put yourself in a position where you had a shot of going out there and just getting that victory last night he ended up losing so so kind of mixed feelings in terms of the game. And you got a big performance from Rui Hashimura you had Austin Reeves hitting some big-time shots late LeBron was solid like it's just like yeah you look at that and you got some really solid contributions from a lot of players that again you kind of feel like it was a wasted even though at one point you're down 21 you get to a three-point game like wow here we go it's you know this is this is at least you get some good feelings going to game two but you look back it's like that may have been the game that if you kind of look back in this series and the Nuggets win in six or seven maybe that was the one that they kind of let get away because of a very lethargic first half. And also they got the magic number because we've been talking about this all throughout the year heading into last night and Anthony Davis's career with the with the Lakers in games where he scored at least 29 points the Lakers as a team are 56 and 19 and they got at least 29 last night and now that record does fall by one game and goes to 56 and 20. And it was a great performance by Anthony Davis but that first half killed him and LeBron James says the Lakers lost that game in the first half.

Yeah I mean it took us a half the end of the game and uh that was pretty much the ball game right there we got to understand that um you know we got to start from from the tip off you know and uh they punched us in the mouth to start. And let's get to LeBron on the key to winning game two. They're a 1-0 and we have to come back with desperation um going in the game too you have to play better you have to rebound better I thought we did a good job of not turning the ball over and that's one thing we've been very conscious about in the postseason but we've been better in transition tonight we wasn't that great in the first half we cleaned up in the second half so we need to be better at all facets of the game. I know we've seen teams come back from being down 2-0 in this postseason so far Hickey uh Golden State in the first round up against the Sacramento Kings but with how much better in my opinion Denver is than Los Angeles on paper with the entirety of the roster I really think this series is going to get decided coming up tomorrow night because if if Denver goes up 2-0 I have a very a less than five percent chance and that may be benevolent of seeing how the Lakers find a way to win this series. Especially with how good Denver's been at home they're undefeated so far in the postseason now the Lakers are as well but again you know that we have seen the Lakers part of their road to getting here has been winning games on the road it's really tough to do and you drop game two and now you have to win all your home games plus at least one on the road at least one on the road yeah it's rough. Anthony Davis says Nicole Jokic was as good as advertised. He's a two-time MVP he very skilled um obviously that's his number show uh made some tough shots you know just try to make it tough for him you know switching up matchups and schemes on him but you know he he's been playing well through the entire season and you know especially in this playoffs. It's kind of crazy even though Anthony Davis is really trying to be positive there like oh yeah he's been playing well through the entire season in the playoffs this dude's been playing more than well and I know he talked about the MVPs that he's won but I keep on feeling hickey and this I think works out great for the Nuggets that even with all that Nicole Jokic has accomplished he still has something to prove because it does feel as if there are a decent amount of people that keep on questioning this guy when you watch him play he's just flat out ridiculous he's a unicorn on a basketball court. Andrew Perloff said something today on the Maggie Perloff show that I thought at first was ridiculous but the more you think about him I'm like wait now he's actually right you and Perloff are back on on talking terms why wouldn't we be well you were very mad at him yesterday when he came after you for that horrible peanut butter well that was a terrible take by him that was a great take by him awful by him this is the problem with you when everyone's telling you something sucks and you think and you're the only one that thinks it's good that's when you know that it's problematic but anyway tell me what Perloff said he said today that the playoffs are a coming out party for Nicole Jokic and it makes no sense he's right though again a two-time MVP and a guy who's been in the playoffs four or five years he's 100 right but I'm with him I said I can't really argue that now especially really in this series because not a lot of people pay attention to and rightfully so Timberwolves they think okay gentlemen sweep Suns even that was a series where there's not a lot of intrigue now it's LeBron and ad of the Warriors and now people are finally recognizing wow Jokic actually is when you watch him a really damn good player it's not that people are finally realizing it it's till it's to the minority of people who are just idiots that go he doesn't have a championship so he can't win one like that's what it is and they try to take away from him winning two MVPs just because he doesn't have a championship we saw the same thing with Giannis but I can't say Perloff's wrong because that's not going to go away and there's still going to be these idiots out there that question him until he wins that championship and I think it's happening this year I don't know the number off hand but just from a field perspective I does not feel like the Nuggets were on national TV a lot this year I don't know what the number is even last year so it's another thing where it's like a coming out party it's also like I do think this is now people's first real chance to sit down lock in and say wow this guy's actually really good because he's not on TNT or ESPN you can find those games though 30 you can find those games really not feeling people are paying for a league pass okay there's other ways to find to find those games if you want to watch the kola jokic you can there's just a lot of people that comment that don't have any clue what they're talking about and they don't watch the games and therefore since they haven't if they haven't seen it with their own eyes they just make these ridiculous claims dow mori confirms that joel and bead was upset that doc rivers was fired they had a strong relationship I mean they're you know I have to make tough calls all the time with trades um you know joel was disappointed and you know you know some of it was he didn't know the player we were getting in the trade who ended up helping us but he was disappointed in the players that went out I think it's natural to be very close with the people in the locker room um he was very close with coach rivers and yeah he was shocked about the change and um you know and it's my job to uh help convince him that the new coach is someone that he'll have a great relationship with as well so I watched that entire press conference and I didn't watch it live but I kept on seeing reaction on social media what a bad press conference by dow mori so when I keep on seeing those tweets and those uh social media posts over and over again I go okay let me sit down and watch the entire thing that dude is lost dow mori how don't you talk to joel and bead before you make the decision to fire doc rivers that's just a bad job and he is he wouldn't say it 110 but they're 1000 interested in bringing back james hard and he's like that's the plan but then he kept on using negotiations and not allowed to talk to things as reasons why he didn't expand much further but I heard dow moore throughout that entire press conference and I go wow it just confirmed every thought I had of him of being one of the most overrated executives in sports