 The Raptors should have the edge, they have the home court advantage, they are the healthier team and they have the guy that I think most people believe is the best player in the series in Kauai. This has gone from bad to worse and again to save LeBron it needs to be Tyloo because it seems like that's the only way LeBron's going to be able to function as LeBron. This is Bruce Ard here and welcome to the brand new Hoops on Fox podcast. This podcast will give you your daily dose of all things NBA from Fox Sports including the best content from Skip and Shannon, Nick Wright plus special guest, fresh NBA content from myself, post game interviews from NBA stars around the league and much, much more. Up first, Rick Buker joins Skip and Shannon to break down the rumor of Jason Kidd to the Lakers. Rick, ultimately who will have the final say on the Lakers coaching decision? Ultimately it will be Jeannie Buss, she's at the top of the hierarchy. Now the people that have dogs in this race for the next coach tell me it's not exactly clear who is making the ultimate basketball decisions. The hierarchy right now as I understand it and had confirmed this morning is Rob, Kurt and Linda Rambus and then Jeannie Buss. So that's the hierarchy, ultimately who makes the decision, we'll see. So is it possible that very quietly and unofficially that Kurt Rambus has effectively replaced Magic Johnson as the sort of president, whatever that capacity is of the Lakers? By his association with Linda, I mean I've told Linda really is, holds the keys to the kingdom now. She has been afforded that by Jeannie Buss. And for the record she's very close to Jeannie Buss and she already has an executive status with the franchise. I don't know exactly what her title or role is, but she's Jeannie's number one gatekeeper. She's number one confidant. Obviously Kurt is still very close to Phil Jackson who came back for a practice and sat with Kurt watching from above. So is it possible that somehow Phil is back in the loop here as far as input, like some telephone input? Well Jeannie has always counted on his counsel. So that's never changed. But in terms of him coming in and having some sort of formal effect on things, I would say no and that goes for the same with Jerry West and Pat Riley and all the other names that we've heard. If you're looking for one of those previous knights in shining armor to come right to the rescue, that is not going to happen. What you are seeing now is most likely going to be what the hierarchy is going to be. So quick point on Kurt Rammus. I know him pretty well from days at ESPN. You've been around him a lot over the many years. I respect his basketball IQ and vision. He's not magic and charisma or, you know, he's the unmagic actually. So would you trust his perspective, his input? Would it be capable of having that sort of Jerry West effect? He's not Jerry West obviously, but does he have some of that in him? Yeah. His basketball acumen I'm not concerned about. Where the Lakers are is it's about the relationships they have around the league and being able to dig out the talent that they need to upgrade this roster. That's ultimately what it comes down to. And Kurt, for as long as he's been in the league, hasn't been in one of those places where he's had to make those decisions and he's had to make those connections. So it's a matter of who ultimately is going to do the work. There's a lot of work to be done. We keep looking at the names and all of that. Even if you brought a Jerry West or a Pat Riley in, they would bring the panache that you need, right? But ultimately it's going to be the worker bees that are going to turn this and that's the bigger question. I see you shaking your head over there. LeBron James said, this is what I signed up for. Oh, by the way, by the way, your man is not happy right now. I know! I know! He said, I left this function in Cleveland when all of a sudden, a week before free agency, a couple of days before free agency, you're fried David Griffin. He said, I thought I left that. He said, I thought I was coming to LA for stability, a pillar, a bedrock foundation in the NBA. And this is what I get. I get chaos? Yeah. By the way, when it comes to Jason Kidd and Monty Williams and Tyloo, my understanding is Monty Williams has a very good shot. Somebody even told me pole position in this because it would be an appeasement to clutch agency. The concern is with Tyloo coming in. You still have a lot of young players on that roster. The LeBron effect of LeBron gets everything he wants and we're just here and we've got to go along with it. Bringing Tyloo would only double down on that feeling. Monty Williams is a clutch guy, but at the same time, he's a young new coach where they could look at that and go, oh, okay, maybe we have an opportunity to earn his respect and trust. And if another clutch guy, we try to recruit too. That is true. You know that clutch guy, Rick. Then would AD prefer Monty? He wouldn't be opposed to that, but I mean, let's not talk about AD right now because that ship is so far on the horizon that... This is ridiculous. Look, Jeannie, this is not a mom and pops convenience store. You don't get your first cousin and your brother's girlfriend and all this. To run this, Dr. Buskep, there is a reason. If you notice, Dr. Buskep didn't have any of his kids when he was running the organization making any decisions. Jeannie was in charge of marketing. Well, they were just kids. No, they weren't kids. Well, they were. No, they weren't kids. I mean, when he first... When he passed away then for no kids. No, no, not when he passed away. The flip side of this is when Jim came in, Jim didn't do it like his dad. He went out. He got a Mike Brown. He got a Mike Danton. He got people outside of the Lakers family and that didn't work. So Jeannie is saying, that didn't work. I'm going to go back to the way my dad did it, which was more inclusive. Now happened to be inclusive with people that were in their prime and had championship pedigrees. Now you're dealing with how do we make it inclusive? People that I trust, people that I know, but they don't have a proven track record. So do you realize that Rick Buker just told us that Linda Rambas has become a primary decision maker for the Los Angeles Lakers featuring LeBron James? I'm out. I'm out. Yeah. Until this thing is resolved, until they can give me something concrete that I can hang my head on. That might be the most disappointing thing because I just signed on with you guys and I was expecting more of this. I can't have you. I can't have you. We got to bring you back. We got to find a way. Now you know this is unacceptable. I don't know much if anything about Linda, do you know much at all? I don't. Okay. Well, there we go. So Rick Buker, an authority, knows very little about the newest authority of the Lakers. Really? Look, I know Linda Carter. She was Wonder Woman. I know Linda Ronstadt. I don't know Linda Rambas, but if she's going to be making, look, I'm going to love Linda Rambas. If she can deliver us K.D., A.D., Kyrie, or something about you. Wonderful. LeBron knows Linda at all. No. Like, would he have any feel for her or? Yeah. Because that's not what he signed up for. But to be fair, Linda is not in the meetings. Linda has ceded that to Kurt. So I will trust, I will at least, I will at least trust somebody who at least knows what they don't know. Can I do that? You don't know what to do. In morning meetings, I'm going to send somebody in there for me, I'm going to stay in my dressing room. I'm going to stay in my dressing room and then you know, I'm going to send them to the meeting and then they're going to come back and give me the information that you got. Well, that would give you more time to post on IG, right? Post your breakfast. Rick, you know this is not a good sign, Rick. You up here laughing, but it's not funny. This was a proud franchise. It hadn't been to the playoffs in six years and it seems like more gloom and doom is only horizon. LeBron didn't sign up for this. We go into year 17, we came to stack trophies and I don't know if we're going to be able to stack anything. Stack them? Yes. Two. More than one. Hey, this has gone from bad to worse. Yes. And again, to save LeBron, it needs to be tylu because it seems like that's the only way LeBron's going to be able to function as LeBron. Get us a superstar. We're going to get us a trophy. Get us a superstar. We'll get us a trophy. Well, like that? Like that. Okay. And? I get us a... Because if Katie comes here, that's a no-brainer. But if Katie leaves Golden State and you get us a superstar to go with LeBron? Oh yeah, we go and we get us a chip. Last time you were here, you said the eye on the prize is the number two you got up in Toronto. And you saw him last night. Did you see him last night? Against Orlando? That, did you see him? Yeah. I saw Siakam last night, too. Wow. Clown. You imagine Clown and LeBron together? It's still not enough. For a championship team... If Katie leaves Golden State, that's more than enough. It does crack the door open. This is what I appreciate. You're back in! You're back in! We got you back in. We get Kawhi. I think you're going to get Kimba. Oh, oh. We must try to get Kawhi and Kimba. If Kawhi wants to go to the other LA team, though. What if Kawhi wants to go to that other... You don't want that. Are you sure? Look, you look... The clip... Wait a second. What if Linda Rambus wants Jimmy Butler? I don't know. Linda, don't do that. Don't do that, Linda. Linda doesn't know what she's in for from this table. No. Hey, Linda, you know... I'm sorry that I just want you to know what comes with the territory. I don't have a problem with promoting and women's rights, but you're going to get criticized up in here. Mm-hmm. So don't think because you're a woman getting a man's role, no, no, that ain't how we do business up here. Mm-hmm. Because I'm going to criticize you. Come with some bunk. Mm-hmm. So go and get me Kawhi and Kimba, and Linda, I'm going to love you for the rest of your life. The life will be good? Yeah. Mm-hmm. It'll be championships. What you going to say then, Skipper? Woo. Kimba and Kawhi and LeBron? I'm sorry about that. Next, Vincent Goodwill joins Nick and Cece to dissect the Raptors' 76ers' second round matchup. Both teams don't strike you with a whole lot of confidence that they can seize opportunities in front of them. Toronto gave up a game, the opening game where Kawhi and LeBron went scoreless. You can't have your third best player, your franchise mainstay perform that way. Philly dropped their first game, but basically dominated the rest of the series. What I will say is, Cece, I think this is a Jimmy Butler series. If you're in Philadelphia... Right. Jimmy Butler is going to go head up against Kawhi Leonard. He measured himself. I covered Jimmy Butler for years in Chicago. When he was starting to come up and get notoriety as a star, Kawhi Leonard and Paul George were the two guys that he was... That was the mark on his board. Okay, yes. So this is one of those series. And those two guys worked out together in San Diego. They were Jordan Brand guys, all that type of stuff. So I'm very curious to see if he's going to emerge from the shadows. He allowed Simmons and Embiid and Tobias Harris to take more of a front-facing role in this previous series. But going up against the counterpart, that's going to be hard for him to stay in the background. And I'm very curious to see if he's going to be the difference. If they win, he's going to be the difference more so than Simmons and Embiid. Well, I do like the point as far as that knowing the history there, because that is right. Jimmy Butler, from when he started to emerge in Eastern Conference with the Bulls, he was always compared to Paul George and Kawhi Leonard. All three of them, then he started to improve his jump shot. Then you can start to say, wow, Jimmy Butler is one of the elite players that we have. I believe he'll play an important role. I don't believe that he matches up with Kawhi. I believe Kawhi will be able to get him into foul trouble, so I believe they'll have a rotation as far as the Sixers on Kawhi compared to just predominantly it being Jimmy Butler. Tobias Harris, he plays a key role because he provides some more limb. I believe the edge goes to Toronto, not only having the home court. Joel Embiid is not a hundred percent, and I believe that they can wear him down more and more because the second round in the pressure of the playoffs for Joel to be able to perform the way he did. I believe that gets him out of sync and that offense because when he's dominating the ball, he's a great player, their offense. It's hard for Jimmy Butler. It's harder for Ben Simmons. So how do they work that out in probably the most pressure situation they'll be in in the second round matchup with the Raptors, Nick? The Raptors should have the edge. They have the home court advantage. They are the healthier team, and they have the guy that I think most people believe is the best player in the series in Kawhi. Embiid's great, but even Embiid at a hundred percent is not yet what Kawhi Leonard is and what Kawhi Leonard has been every year of his career, except for last year when he was hurt and didn't play. So they should have the edge. If Philly is going to be able to not only make this a series, but win the series, the point you made, I'm in a hundred percent lockstep on, which is Jimmy Butler, he can't play Kawhi to a push, but have it be close. Have Jimmy Butler give you 75 to 80% of what Kawhi is giving Toronto. The other element though, I'm going to put on the shoulders of Brett Brown. You want Joel Embiid to play every game in this series. How can you get the Ben Simmons that has shown up when Joel has not played in games with Joel Embiid? When you have a short bench as well, does that mean you bring either Joel or Ben off the court earlier than usual? So one of those guys is on the court with a second unit, so you don't, because they could go to die in these series at the end of the first quarter into the third quarter. They could play, Philly could play Toronto even for 42 minutes of the game. But the last three minutes of the first, last three minutes of the third, when the subs come in, Toronto could beat them by 18 in those stretches. And when the series based on that, can Brett Brown, does he have a plan? Has he been planning for this series since the brackets been set? Because he should have been. Because we knew Toronto was going to be to Orlando, and if Philly couldn't get past Brooklyn despite how game one went, it would have been a travesty. So does Brett Brown have a new wrinkle, a new rotation ready for this series? I don't even know if it comes down to that. I think coaching, especially in the NBA, is more about people management than exes and those. And I think for years during that process, there was less people management than anything else. And do you have the heart? Do you have the gumption to tell Joel and B, you're going against Mark Gasol? Don't make this a Damian Lillard, Russell Westbrook situation where you want to outplay him. This may not be his series for him to score 25, 30 points a night. This may be a series for him to be rim protector, rebounder, defender, screener, opportunist to score because you have enough of that in Ben Simmons when he's aggressive, in Jimmy Butler, in Tobias Harris when you feature him. But will Joel and B listen to that? Will he be amenable to that? Or will he say, look, I want to get us to the conference finals. I want to be the guy to take us there. And not as an ego thing, but as a, I'm first team NBA center. I'm 26, 13, and three. Let me live up to that. But this may not be his series. Cici, how much does the second round of the playoffs come down to Joel and B and Kauai Leonard going out there and leading their team and going out there and playing basketball the way that you know how to play with the units and how much is it going to come down to what we see from Nick Nurse and what he does with the depth for Toronto and what we see from Brett Brown and what he does with the rotation of maybe Ben Simmons and Joel and B. How much does coaching factor into a game like this? I believe the coaches getting the other players and their roles and what they're going to do. The player that I believe could be the biggest story is Pasco Siaco. Man, he is a nightmare. I mean, shooting the three, taking it off the dribble, him defending, him and Kauai on the defensive end. So I believe the rotations play a key. Who's going to get the shots? How the offenses are run? And Brett Brown's got to make a decision because they have said all year. The offense goes through Joel and B for three quarters. And then Jimmy Butler is going to take over at the end. This playoffs has been nothing like that. What do they do in this series? So I believe that the coaching in playoffs, it becomes more than just managing people because role players are role players for a reason. But if you put me in a role that I'm not comfortable with, I believe that coach that can find that comfort spot in those other players has a huge advantage. And we talked about Philly being, having a short rotation. I think in this series it's going to get even shorter. I don't think Bobon can play in this series. Not against the big men Toronto has. Because Mark Gasol can hit 18 footers. Serge Ibaka can hit 18 footers. And when Bobon's out there, I mean, he is good within, like you would say about Ben Simmons, within three feet of the basket. But that's on both ends of the court. Offensive and defensive. So I think now all of a sudden your backup center is probably unplayable Kendrick Perkins Allah in the NBA Finals years ago. The one other thing we haven't, I don't think, focused on enough is how good can Ben Simmons be in this series on both sides of the ball? Kyle Lowry cannot guard him. And I think it would be a misappropriation of resources. Now, hey, I saw Jared Dudley guard Ben Simmons. Right. So here's the difference though, in my eyes. Ben Simmons, if Kyle Lowry's on him, he can go down, go to work in the post. He can just use his eight inch height advantage on Kyle Lowry and his strength advantage in a way he doesn't have on Jared Dudley. So if Ben Simmons, the guy I think he should be, you can't have Kyle Lowry on him. Conversely, Ben Simmons should have some. Kyle Lowry, I believe he's going to guard. He's a pit and Kyle Lowry is a pit ball. And going back home, Philadelphia, where he played his college ball. That's going to be interesting that. Right, so if Philly's going to have a real shot at pulling off the upset, Ben Simmons has to win that battle. And on the other end, Ben Simmons needs some minutes on Kawhi. Ben Simmons needs to be guarding Kawhi Leonard in critical stretches of this series. Now, I understand it ticks down. The question always is, so where do you put JJ Reddick? I get it. Like, at some point, JJ Reddick's got to guard somebody. But Ben Simmons is one of the best at times perimeter defensive players in the league. And as long as Kawhi is, Ben Simmons is longer. If you can put Ben Simmons on Kawhi, use Jimmy Butler on Pascal Siakam, use Jimmy Butler elsewhere, then all of a sudden, I think you have an edge for Philadelphia if Ben Simmons can have it. They're going to put, they're going to put Kawhi Leonard on Ben Simmons. That's going to be the matchup that this through this series, because when they did that, he could barely dribble the ball up for it. He wanted no part of it. Now, Chris Reissard is on with the locket in crew to discuss the 2019 NBA playoffs. Welcome back to Locket Hand. I'm Rachel Banana joined by Jason McIntyre, who is in for Todd Furman, Clay Travis, and Cousins Out. I want to welcome in our resident basketball professor, FS1 Pro basketball analyst, Chris Broussard. Chris, always good to have you on the show. So much basketball, so little time. We definitely have to dedicate like five minutes to Damien Lillard. So let's jump right into some round ball talk. Let's start with tonight's NBA action. The Golden State Warriors look to wrap up their first round series with the clip show. The dubs are favored by 14 and a half at home. Chris, do you think Golden State wins in a blowout tonight? Without question, this is going to be a route. You saw last night how when teams are down 3-1, Orlando, Brooklyn, try as they might. You just cannot muster up the energy to play your best basketball because you know the series is over. That's what's gonna happen tonight. And let's just face it. Through the first four games, but for a quarter and a half, this series has been all Golden State. They're just much better than the Clippers and you're gonna see it tonight. Sally, Sal, do you agree? I do agree. And you know what? A couple of months ago, I told Chris that the Clippers are gonna make the playoffs and he scoffed at me. Give us your best scoff, Chris. He was like, ha, ha, ha. But here we are. I don't remember that. They are gonna get beat. Hey, how about we have some fun? Minus 21 and a half is plus 265, Chris. Big blowout tonight, right? Yeah, it's gonna be huge. All right. It's gonna be huge. The other game, the Utah Jazz are trying to stay alive in Houston tonight. Down three to one in that series. The Rockets are favored by eight and a half points. Chris, do you think Donovan Mitchell and the Jazz can do enough to keep this one close? No, Donovan Mitchell has not solved his problems. I know he's averaged two points a game in the last two games, but he still shot about 38%. And in Houston, he was much worse, averaged 15 points a game. The Rockets will shoot the ball much better at home and they will close out the Jazz by a big number tonight. Clay of House Travis, can you talk, keep this one close tonight? What do you think? I don't think they can. I think what you got is a situation where two big prize fighters have got a big fight set up. And before that, they got to take down the final tomato can. And so this is about the Rockets not wanting to give any advantage at all to the Warriors. It's also about the Warriors not gonna wanna give any advantage to the Rockets. Both these teams I think at home are gonna come out, take care of business, wipe out their opponent on the same night and get ready for what I think may well be the best series in the NBA playoffs. It just happens to be occurring in the semifinals of the Western Conference. All right, Chris. I don't know if you saw this last night, but that one guy, Damien Lillard, made a really nice basket at the end of the OK Seavers Portland game. Chris, Damien Lillard has been playing out of his GD mind in these playoffs. Do you think Portland is worth betting to win the Western Conference at 14 to one? With all due respect to the great Damien Lillard they have absolutely no chance of reaching the NBA finals. None, don't bet, don't waste your money. They have no chance. Look, Oklahoma City, despite their dominance of Portland in the regular season was really a good matchup with them because number one outside of Westbrook and Paul George no one else really stepped up to, you know, play well when their duo was outplayed by Portland's duo of CJ McCollum and Damien Lillard. If that happens in Golden State, say their backcourt outplayed Steph and Clay, well, what are you going to do with Kevin Durant? And beyond that, Portland doesn't defend the three-point ball that well. No problem against OK Sea, which doesn't shoot it well, but against Golden State, you're in trouble when you don't defend the arc very well. I got to agree, Rachel. First of all, I don't know that Portland's getting by Denver for sure. Assuming Denver puts away the Spurs, this Denver team has really shown a lot despite being a very young team, but I would agree with Chris. I'm not even sure they get a game off the Warriors the way this Golden State team is. They have no matchup for Kevin Durant, not that anybody does. So I think it's a waste of money plus 1,400. Don't do it. Y'all are haters. Let's keep it moving. Last night, the 76ers trounced the nets to move on to the Eastern Conference semifinals where they will take on the greatest and most beloved team in the history of organized sports, my Toronto Raptors. Chris, what's the most likely outcome in this series? Toronto in a sweep or Toronto in a sweep? As much as I hate to boost up Rachel's prediction and to swell up her head, I am going with the Raptors in six. All right, Philadelphia does not play smart basketball down the stretch. They got away with it against Brooklyn because they have such a talent discrepancy. They won't have that much of an advantage against Toronto as far as talent. And then you look at Joel Embiid had his way with Brooklyn. Margot Saul will offer more resistance. Pascal Siakam or Kawai Leonard, whichever one ends up at times on Jimmy Butler or Ben Simmons will be able to make it tough on them. Toronto will win this series in six, possibly five. Take that, McIntyre. Sally, Sally, your thoughts on my Toronto Raptors. What do you think? No, Chris did a good job. That was a nice present. I give him a C plus. Lights out. All right, because I say Toronto, I'll remember that next time I got it in my hand. Well, we pretty much have the same pick. I have Toronto in five. As you said, it could be six or five. Yeah, Kawai averages 31 against this team. This team is dominant at home. They're 32 and nine at home. They're going to be, it's going to be demoralizing for Philly to be down to. And then they drop one in Philly and then lose in five. That's how it works. I don't know how I feel to have everybody on my side. It's quite nice. I don't know how long I'm going to last for. All right, the other Eastern Conference semi-finals, Kyrie Irving and the Celtic Stake on Yanis on Tena Kupo and the Box Milwaukee is minus 305. To win the series, Chris, what do you think is going to happen? Well, Rachel, rumor has it that a lot of people on this show are wearing leprechaun-colored glasses. You better take them off, all right? Because Milwaukee is winning this series in six games. They got the best player on the floor, and Yanis at Tena Kupo. They're perfectly built for the analytics era. They got one guy in Yanis that you can't stop from getting out of the paint. It's impossible. And if you wall it off double triple teaming at the rim, he kicks it out because he's surrounded by three point shooters. They protect the rim with Brooke Lopez and Yanis. There is no way that they will be stopped. They will win this series in six, even though I like the Celtics a little bit. All right, Clay, what's your prediction? It's almost like last year didn't even happen. The Celtics in seven is going to happen here. We've seen the Bucks have trouble winning on the road. I don't count winning on the road against the Pistons as legitimately winning on the road. When push comes to shove and they get punched in the mouth a little bit, I think it might happen in game one. And they lose one they're not expected. I think this young team could start to crumble. Ultimately, the Celtics are more veteran. They got the better coach. And they have the better overall roster top to bottom. I think the Celtics get it done in seven. All right, and finally, the Spurs lost game five to the Nuggets by 18 last night. The series shifts back to San Antonio tomorrow night for game six. Chris, do the Spurs have any shot at coming back and winning their series with them? If there was a team I had to bet on to come back from down three to without home court advantage, it would be a Greg Popovich coach team. I don't put anything past him as a coach. I don't think these guys are dead. I think they win game six for sure. And then go to Denver and have a great chance to win game seven. All right, thanks buddy. Coming up next, the guys will tell you the exact order of the top three picks in the NFL draft. Stay tuned. Following Skip and Shannon break down the Warriors lackluster game five that resulted in a loss to the Clippers. What happened last night? Skip, they sent them dogs to the podium. Pat Beverly, Trez, and Sweetloo to the rescue. Skip, what happened last night? The Warriors did look past them. They did not believe, they have a three one lead. There's no way they can come back and beat us. And they came out Skip like, you know what? We're not gonna play any defense. We're just gonna get into a scoring match with these guys. And they jump out first quarter 41 and then something happened. They stopped making shots. And because they didn't play any defense, the Clippers kept making shots. So now what I thought, I was like, man, the Clippers, because remember Skip, I said it's gonna be 107 to 90. Well, they got 71 points at the half. And who had 71 points? The Clippers. Thank you. Not Golden State. They allowed the Clippers to get into a rhythm. And once they got into that rhythm, they couldn't get them out of it. They got 57 points. They had 59 total bench points, but they got 57 from Montrez, Harold, and Sweetloo Williams. Skip, once he got it going, and Trez was unbelievable rolling to the rim. And when he rolls to the rim, he's dunking on your head, or he's playing through you. He played through Draymond. He played through KD. He played through Bogut. And the problem they're probably gonna run in, Skip, now that Boogie's out, Boogie could take Trez away from the basket. He can make him work on the defensive end. None of their other bigs can make him work. So he's a bundle of energy to begin with that he has to expend none of that on the defensive side of the basketball. So now we go back to the Closer. Sweetloo. Skip, he can get any shot he want. He shoots the three really well. And his head, that up fake skip, he dribbling the basketball. And he gets everybody with the same move. He's dribbling. And he gives him the up fake like he's about to rise for the jumper. And guess what? Ask KD about it. Ask Iggy. Ask everybody about it. Ask me about it on Sunday afternoon. What happened last Sunday? What happened? What did I come in here and pound the desk about on Monday morning? What did I pound? You wanted Sweetloo. Well, what did he do in the fourth quarter? It's a one point game and Sweetloo went completely south on me. He made up for it. After I talked about him being a potential Hall of Famer, he just let me down. He went over five in the fourth quarter on Sunday. This series should be three to two clippers. It should be. It was on a silver platter for Sweetloo to do sweet things, right? Am I right about that? You're right. Yes. But I think your hostility, and you being up there. I lost the case. That's what it's about. I had it. I had it. I called it. I said, they're going to win game four. They won't be able to win game three, but they would win game four. And if they had closed the deal that was right there to be closed, we'd be having a very different conversation. But you know we wouldn't because the Golden State Warriors would have taken this game more serious. I disagree with that, but go ahead. But they're gonna close. I believe they're closing out Skip. They underestimated. They underestimated the clippers. And as you mentioned, Doc said this is the most resilient group. He's ever coached. Ever. They are bad. That's a big statement. They got contributions from everybody. Patrick Beverly was unbelievable. Jamaico Green gave them quality minutes. Skip, I don't know what's going on with the Warriors, but did you know that Clay Thompson has taken more shots than Steph? Steph is down to about 15 shots a game where he was at 19 during the regular season. Now I can understand a little bit because Katie had it going. When Katie has it going, you don't want to interrupt that to kind of like what we saw the other night with Dame Lillard. He had it going. The other guys got out of his way, but they better take the clippers serious. The clippers believe because they've already gone to Oracle, beaten them one time. They believe they can do it again. Sure. You don't be wanting to go back and skip for a game. No, you do not want any part of that. You're an injury away or a ball falls in from going home. But I believe they'll take care of business on when they play Friday night. Yeah, I'm not so sure about that. Really? I'm feeling a game seven in this series, and I'll tell you why. I saw a little different game than you saw last night. I saw a strange and amazing thing happen at Oracle Arena. You can write off what happened in game two as a fluke, as an aberration. They were 31 points down and they came back because Golden State took their foot off the gas and they couldn't quite push the accelerator back down until it was too late. I'll give you fluke in game two. Last night was anything but a fluke because the Clippers beat Golden State playing a good game at home. Golden State played a good basketball game last night. Golden State made 15 three-point shots. Isn't that usually the recipe for disaster for the visiting team at Oracle 15? By the way, Golden State hit eight of 10 threes in the first quarter. What usually happens to the poor road foe if you give up eight threes to that team in that building, it's over. That's when the Clippers should have said, we give up, we're home for the holidays. You know, we're on vacation, right? They should have just said, we're not worthy. We're done. Thank you very much. But Golden State let them get six. Okay. They just kept right on keeping on and matching shot for shot. So they beat them head to head with the Warriors playing a pretty good, if not very good game at their house, right? Right. So again, I'm going to reiterate that quote. Doc said, most resilient team I have ever coached. And to his point, Golden State roared all the way back in the fourth quarter and got all the way at the 240 mark, Kevin Durant dunked and put them ahead by one point, 118 to 117. Wouldn't that be a no-moss moment? Wouldn't that be game over? I thought it was game over at that point. Okay, and what happened? My man, Sweetloo came right down and bombed a three, but not only that, Kevin hit him on the hand and fouled him and it became a four point play to put them back up three points. Then what happened on the other end? We're seeing that shot right now. Boom, plus and one. Oh, wow, Kevin Durant. Interesting. Seven foot monster. So here they come right down here and your man, Steph Curry, dribbled right into a turnover. What do I always say about Steph? Bigger the moment, the smaller he plays. He dribbled right it. That's a huge turnover because they come right back to the other end. And this is Steph, here we come back to the other end. Watch this shot by Lou Williams. Right in the face of Kevin Durant, a runner up off the glass. That's in the face of a seven foot monster. Look at this, he bumped for a little. That's how he creates the space. But again, that was the dagger to me. That's where you say, wait a second, they got us. They just shot us right in the stomach, right? And then he comes back on the, he hits the 20 foot on the left perimeter. When he made that, the runner shot up off the glass. I said, that's just too good. So I'm gonna say what I said again, should be three to two clippers because they should have won that game on Sunday. That's Lou's house, that sweet Lou. That is the greatest score off the bench in the history of this league. And again, on Sunday, he went 0 for 5 in the fourth quarter. And I told you at the end of the show yesterday, he owes his team and he paid them back last night. Cause that's 33 points on 12 and 19. Do you realize he had 10 assists last night? Lou Williams had 10 assists in this game. Zevedom was at the Trezz. Yeah. Don't get down the lane. Do you realize Patrick Beverly, who played his tail off again last night, do you realize he had 14 rebounds? That's Westbrook-esque, right? Yes. And do you realize they finally got Gallinari going a little bit? He was only three for 11 from three, but at least he scored some points. He scored 26 and started making some shots. And Skip, the thing was is that normally when they go eight of 10 in the first quarter from three, that means they're gonna end up somewhere in the 40s. But the opposing team's gonna be somewhere in the 20s. Well, because they weren't playing any D and Patrick Beverly and those guys was kind of matching them because they were six of what? I think six of 15. Six of 15 from the three in the first quarter. So now, you only what, plus six from the three-point range where normally you make eight threes in the first quarter. You're normally more than plus six. Yep. So Doc Rivers said after the game, that's the first time in this series we have been us. It's the first clipper game in this series where they actually played a good game from start to finish. Obviously when you get behind by 31, that's not a good game. So he's making the point that maybe we sort of found ourselves that they've been nothing but confident. They're not afraid of this team at all. None at all, none at all. Because this team again, you brought it up earlier and I brought it up all year long. This team lost a total of eight games by 20 plus points and six of those games were at home. And two of those home games were by 35 to Dallas and 33 to Boston. That's such, I told you that's like not red flags. That's like neon, blinking red, danger, danger, danger. Something's wrong with that. Golden State plummeted this year in defense. They were 10th in defense of efficiency. They were 16th in points allowed. Defense still wins championships in this league. And when they've won the last two, they were one of the best defensive teams in the league. They are not anymore. They're not playing the same style of basketball but Skip, I believe the Warriors do not believe that the Clippers can actually beat them. Yeah, you won a game. Yeah, you won a game or two. But can you beat us four times in two weeks? Now, it's the best of two. Now, we're about to find out. But Skip, let's talk about the elephant in the room. Dreymon's playing terrible. He's shooting, what? I don't think it's an elephant because I don't think he's been very good all year. No, and he could have easily gotten tossed last night. He got the one tech skip and he wouldn't let it go. That was actually the signature moment of this game because Patrick Beverly lost his shoe and held it in his hand and drew a charge from Dreymon who tried to step over him. Again! He got another technical foul if we can see this. Unnecessary. Here we go. Here we go, lost shoe. Ooh, boom. I mean, what? Oh, now you're gonna step over him? Really? Okay. Okay, good luck with that. And you're teed up against. Free. Unnecessary. I'm gonna take the motion out the game, bro. And I mean, they're like basically on offense skip, they're playing four and five. They just leave Dreymon open. They're like, you can't make a three. We just gonna leave you open as long as you don't get a put back or anything like that. That's it. It's bad. He's playing really bad and maybe he's lost his confidence because skip, you remember game seven that he played against the Cavs. He was 32, 15 and nine. He would have been, I believe he would have been MVP had they won the series because he was that special in the series. Now, maybe the voters would have taken it away from him skip because he did get suspended for the act what he did against LeBron because it was totally unnecessary, you know. But it didn't cost him anyway. As I was saying, I believe the Warriors do not fear the Clippers. Like you said. Nor do the Clippers fear the Warriors. No question about that. You know what? I don't see any reason why the Clippers shouldn't win game six at home. I don't see any reason why not that they should win. And for the Clippers to win a game on the road when Kevin Durant gives you that virtuoso, how do you, how do you over, because skip, he was spec, he was spectacular. I was like, oh, we're gonna, we about to get another day in performance because he had it going. And when he gets it going, it's a thing of beauty. So true. But there's like, nah, we're not going anywhere. In the fourth quarter, he missed seven shots, four of 11. I'm not sure that was a thing of beauty. Whoa, whoa, whoa, whoa, whoa. Really? Yeah. The best player on the planet did not miss. Wait, you just changed your tune. No, just, no, you said that's you, that's what you said. I was trying to correct you because I'm objective about my people. First of all. And you're not at all objective. And so you're making the case it was a virtuoso performance and he shot four of 11. So hold on, hold on. But he was 14 or 26, 12 or 12 for the free throw line. You say you like that. Money time. And he had only one turnover. Oh, come on, skip. He's the best player on the planet. We know that. No, we don't know that. But he's on a troubled basketball team because that Draymond versus KD, the B word situation that's still simmering under the surface, you know that. This team's running out of psychological gas. This team is not playing defense. This team is in jeopardy of facing a game seven against the Clippers while the Rockets are resting. And a game seven at Oracle is dicey to me because the Clippers would go in there with nothing to lose. And the statement we just saw Clay make, I thought that was a dangerous thing for him to say about game six. He said we should go win it by 30. That's who we are. That's what we do. Well, Doc's going to replay that in the Clippers locker room. Finally, Vincent Goodwill is back with Nick and Cece to discuss Dame Lillard's big time shot and what's next for OKC. So the Portland Trail Blazers now one step closer to taking this baby home right here. Vinnie, how incredible was the moment and the game for Damien Lillard? I think I saw a list last night at 3 AM because I couldn't go to sleep afterwards. And there's like six walk-off series game winners in NBA history. And Lillard has like two of them. He has two of them. Michael Jordan has one. Ralph Sampson has one. There's a couple others. Michael Jordan has two. Lillard has two. Ralph Sampson has one. John Stockton has one. That's the full list. In all the years of the NBA, and we're like a couple of years from 75 to have that short of a list and for you to have two of those in a five-year span, like to me, being in that market, being in the age of Superteam, saying, I'm not going to go to a Superteam, I'm going to have whatever it is that's here, stay here with me, being an Oakland kid, being a guy who had to deal with Russell Westbrook, say, I've been lighting you up for years and him to come out in this series and put Russ out. Mano Imano, like there's nothing better than that because as point guards, it's just you and that other guy on the island. And he took it to Russ all series. And in a year that in college basketball, Virginia redeems what happened to the year before. Losing to a 16 seed to come back to win the whole thing. Damian Lillard last year, up to the moment the playoffs started, that was the pinnacle of his basketball career. First team all NBA. His team gets home court advantage in the first round, post LaMarcus Aldridge, something they had not been able to do and they get swept out of the playoffs by a boogie cousin's less New Orleans Pelicans team. Ray John Rondo, old man Rondo outplays him. He shoots 35% from the field in that series, can't take advantage of his back courtmate CJ, playing great, they get swept. To come back the next series, outplay Russell Westbrook in four of the five games and to finish with this, score 50 in a playoff game, Kareem never did it. Your guy Isaiah Thomas never did it. That Isaiah, little Isaiah Thomas actually amazingly did it. Shaq never did it. LeBron hadn't done it ever until last year in the finals, like 50 in a playoff game is special. A game winner, series winner, you said it. Happened six times ever, only four people ever have done it. He's now done it twice. It is, it was a spectacular game with an unbelievable finish from the guy who just keeps elevating himself in the NBA hierarchy. I mean, it was a remarkable shot. Even look at this photo right here. As far as Paul George with his limb, he's got his hand right over his eyes and Dame still knocks it down from 37. So I think that you have to think about Damian Lillard and the time for which he's playing basketball. He's got two of these iconic shots already and he's playing in the era in the Western Conference where Steph, a point guard, has been MVP. Chris Paul has been dominant for a decade. Russ has been MVP. Harden has emerged now playing point guard as an MVP. I mean, look at the point guards just in the Western Conference and to say that Damian's career has been underrated where he's playing at in that smaller market in Portland. Them not having success in the playoffs. Man, I'm glad that if there was a guy to be able to hit a shot or go through something like this, I'm glad it's him because he has really deserved it. Unfortunate bad luck late in the season. They lose their starting center. So this playoff, they already had a built in excuse. As Bill Parcell says, man, you already got the back door already open. You got an injury. Man, you can go on out the back door. People won't even care. But man, in this series and in that head to head with Russ, a guy who's been a nemesis of his build, knocked down that shot. This will not be forgotten in NBA lore for a long time. You know what I think about? Think about two things and I'll give your boy LeBron some credit here. That moment almost struck me. Remember LeBron, his first playoff appearance against the Wizards. He walked up to Gilbert Arenas, patting them on the chest and said, if you miss this free throw, you're going home. And that's exactly what he did. The audacity to take a 37 footer with the time expiring. Don't get me wrong. It's not a win or go home situation like Jordan against the Cavs. But 37 feet. If you miss, you don't lose. You go to overtime. Yeah, yeah. Just the audacity to take that shot against maybe the defensive player of the year and Paul George and send them home. If there's one guy that you want defending a 37 footer, it's Paul. And Damien, he analyzed it. That was going to be his best shot. Because once he drove into the lane because Paul has such a limp and the time and what's on the line, he's going to build the bumping. Listen, I thought they executed the final two possessions brilliantly. They got the two for one perfectly. Which without getting the two for one, OKC's holding for the last shot, right? So without getting the, or OKC has the opportunity if you don't make the previous shot. So they get the two for one and then Dam, I think, was evaluating this. I don't mind if we go to overtime. We are playing better. We are on a run. I've been the best player of this whole series. So what I'm not going to allow for is I get in the lane, somebody comes to flex the ball, they get the last shot. There's an offensive foul on a pick. I get swallowed up when they don't call a foul late in the game. I'm just going to take this 37 footer and Rachel Nichols tweeted this out. It's crazy. In the playoffs, Dame is eight of 12 on 30 footers. The rest of the NBA is six of 38. So like he's been, he hit the first shot of this series. Yep. Was a 30 footer and the last shot of this series was a 37 footer. And to think about this guys, the teams often take on a personality of their best player, right? Yes. When they went down double digits late in that fourth quarter, there was no panic. There was no scare. That's true. There was some calm. Yes. They methodically came back while Oklahoma City unraveled. And if you're going to say that one is an indictment of Russell Westbrook, you got to say that Portland, even you take the shot out of it, just there poise down the stretch. I think Portland's going to the Western Conference finals and I don't think it's going to be easy for Golden State of Houston to get out. Thank you for listening to the Hoops on Fox podcast. Don't forget to subscribe and leave a five star review, letting us know what you think of the show.