North Florida Sports Network Podcast
North Florida Sports Network Podcast
Inside the NBA Playoff Drama
Everybody, just do your job. You understand that there's a very low percentage of this, that is, smiles and glory holes.
Speaker 2:The North Florida Sports Network all right, welcome back.
Speaker 1:It's your favorite podcast in the world.
Speaker 2:It's the the north florida sports network and we got a great show for you today. We have nba playoffs, we got college baseball. Who knows what we'll get to? Maybe shoulder injuries, maybe summer vacation plans, maybe weather talk, who knows man, the kentucky derby, the winner, is sitting out the preakness.
Speaker 1:I mean what get out of here. Yeah, load management for these thoroughbred horses load management man.
Speaker 2:Well, a big show managing loads. Download, subscribe the podcast. Wherever you get your podcasts anywhere on the internet that has podcasts, it's there. Let's get started, all right.
Speaker 3:All right.
Speaker 2:It's heating up outside, god damn it, it's getting hot.
Speaker 3:Yeah, it's hot.
Speaker 2:It's hotter and hotter every day. Ball soup and playoffs are getting hot too, and college baseball is heating up coming to the end of the season. Speaking of ball soup Miami Hurricanes we got Justin on the line before we get into hoops. Miami baseball Justin is on a tear.
Speaker 1:I know, and I've paid no attention to it because they were so bad at the beginning of the season I thought the season was over like a month ago I was like, well, no reason to pay attention Complete 180.
Speaker 2:Nobody's hotter. And they have put themselves in a lock for a tournament seed.
Speaker 3:Right, they went from 11th, I think, in the ACC, to 5th in two weekends.
Speaker 2:ACC is probably the second best conference in baseball, so Miami will be around for the tournament. The ACC baseball tournament actually is going to be in the format of basketball, which makes it, I think, more fun. You know, you just have.
Speaker 3:I mean, it really shouldn't matter anyway so the best games, yeah, if you're going to get into it, they're pointless in baseball.
Speaker 2:If you you're gonna do it, just do it like that, so you give the lower season you know, yeah, hero shot at making a dance right use as little pitching as possible so you get ready for well, fsu baseball was ready for clemson coming in town and they needed a big series win coming off a series loss to Louisville. They were able to do that, taking two or three from Clemson, winning the first and winning the last.
Speaker 3:Yeah, it was a big series, win man Good stuff.
Speaker 2:What was the key to taking home the series? Win the bats, the bats.
Speaker 3:You know, when you play against the Jimmy Bellinger staff, you're always going to be able to hit home runs. That's Clipson pitching coach, former FSU pitching coach. So it was good to see him take advantage of that. That's really what decided it. Game three was all about hitting, so yeah, we'll see what's up.
Speaker 2:Man Jamie Arnold's looked good Ever since I said he should be the closer. He's really shut everyone down and he made me look stupid, which I'm glad is.
Speaker 3:The starters looked pretty good this weekend. Valini kind of ran into a collapse in the eighth inning.
Speaker 2:Yeah.
Speaker 3:But whatever you won the series, they should be able to wrap up a national seed. They go on the road to Cal this weekend, then North Carolina to wrap up the season.
Speaker 1:That's a big one yeah.
Speaker 2:Yeah, carolina's good man, but that's not one where, in terms of their they're definitely hosting a regional, they can lose all their games.
Speaker 3:Right yeah, what they're trying to get now is a national seed and I think they're on their way.
Speaker 2:I think you win this series and Cal you would. You almost get it there If you can just win one game against UNC, but probably man we'll see Um venue has a lot to do with that type of stuff as well. Postseason baseball is pretty fun. It's unique. It's hot as shit. Well, yeah, it's obviously really hot, but it's hard to do if you ask an FSU fan for being there so many times and not coming up with that ultimate prize.
Speaker 3:Florida State baseball has invented ways to step on its own and it looks like link jared's on the same path. Well he's from mike martin's school of baseball.
Speaker 2:Man just consistent winning trip to omaha, but nothing too great yeah so whatever, like last year.
Speaker 3:It's the story of the program man. It's always something.
Speaker 2:All right, well, we'll keep an eye out for that, but man, it's heating up in the NBA playoffs. Man, it's yeah.
Speaker 3:You got the Knicks beating the Celtics.
Speaker 1:Even without the heat in it.
Speaker 2:I know no heat. I know Jimmy Butler's still in it. He's out with the Warriors. Steph Curry's getting injured. Let's start there. The Warriors take game one but lose their number one guy in Steph Curry.
Speaker 1:What's got him down the ankle? Yeah, what they're saying now it's a sprained ankle. They said for sure he's out for at least the next three games, which I mean you want to think that it's over for golden state, but they already got game one and they have your boy.
Speaker 1:And exactly they got playoff Jimmy man and you can just slide buddy healed into the Steph Curry role. You know, give me five, three pointers this game. Buddy healed can do that, as we saw what was it in game seven, the other a couple of days ago. But he'll can get hot, we can hit the threes and it's just got to be Jimmy Butler's team. They got to run an offense like we saw the past five years with the Heat where it's just. Jimmy Butler-centric.
Speaker 2:I'm looking right at one guy now with this news and that's Ant-Man. And if you don't take advantage, I mean I would hate to say take advantage of it, but if you don't step up and be that dude and be the best player on the floor, then you're not going to be you need to win this series. No excuses now. This will be everything that you. You beat LeBron and the Lakers, but you couldn't take down a Steph.
Speaker 1:Curry-less yeah, Steph Curry-less Warriors with a Jimmy Butler who just joined the team.
Speaker 2:Yeah, minnesota, they should be in the Western Conference Finals now. We'll see if that happens. I mean, the Warriors have championship pedigree. We'll see if you know, you got guys like Draymond and Jimmy Butler, so I mean we'll see.
Speaker 1:We got the old man squad. They're going to fight you. They're going to fight you. You don't want to play certain guys at the YMCA dude, but I think Minnesota they need to.
Speaker 2:I wouldn't be surprised. I mean I would take every dollar I had on Minnesota in game two. I mean I would take every dollar I had on Minnesota in game two. I mean Kerr's probably not even going to play certain guys, that's going to be interesting.
Speaker 1:I mean, it doesn't look like he's going to be around until like game five.
Speaker 2:Yeah, so I'd see him trying to maybe steal game three or four one of them, so he'll probably rest some guys maybe. How that works is very interesting because coaches, you know, you saw JJ Redick in the first round play his starters the whole second half and that was odd, because the guys like Luca shouldn't be playing the whole second half, but especially when he was out from the other guys.
Speaker 2:I mean LeBron's 40. I mean, I know he's the best, he's the best, well, most well-conditioned athlete of all time, though, so he's a unicorn. Whoa, whoa, whoa, whoa, whoa, whoa. I didn't notice. I didn't say best.
Speaker 3:Hey, are we forgetting that Jerry Rice played until he was like 38 years old.
Speaker 2:That's a good comparison.
Speaker 3:Yeah, but Jerry Rice wasn't taking teams to the Super Bowl when he was in CA Nine straight finals.
Speaker 2:That's also true, but he's out. You got the T-Wolves against the Warriors. Then you got the Nuggets. You got the OKC Thunder. The Nuggets were able to go Alpha 7 game series and go into Oklahoma city and and beat them. You know, and you saw the young guys Chet Holmgren missed the free throws and you know questionable foul, you know by the I think they found too early. But the nuggets with the big win, they have guys that are there. You know they have championship pedigree. And you got the Joker, who's probably the best player in the game right now.
Speaker 1:Yeah, I heard on the radio today I can't remember who it was, but somebody from Denver was talking about how Joker basically coaches them on the bench when he's not in the game. Like they call timeout and Joker's coaching them and he's like we all listen, he's the smartest guy out there, da-da-da-da jokers coaching them. Yeah, and he's like we all listen, he's the smartest guy out there and it's like, yeah, maybe they didn't need a coach.
Speaker 2:Going back to like bill russell there we go, dude, I would love to see that.
Speaker 1:Just go ahead and make him the player coach you know, I mean lebron's a player gm, so why not have a player coach too?
Speaker 2:um, in the east you have, uh, the calves the number one seed best record in the east. You have the Cavs the number one seed best record in the east and they're down 0-2. Now the Pacers yeah, they're in trouble, man. Yeah, halliburton and the Pacers, rick Carlisle championship, jj Barrera's coach, there's a lot of.
Speaker 1:I heard a crazy stat about he says all his stats.
Speaker 2:It's a bullet point JJ.
Speaker 3:Barrera's coach. It's the first bullet point Coach DJJ Barrera Coach.
Speaker 2:JJ Barrera in the finals against him, and then after that it says the actual championship also got JJ Barrera his rank. After that it says like the actual championship, Kind of like all the actual championships.
Speaker 1:Also got JJ Barea his rank.
Speaker 2:Yeah, but man, they went into Cleveland and took two.
Speaker 1:And the way they did it last night was crazy man Coming back from down 20, and then they tried to blow the game again at the end and then Halliburton hits the step back three to win by a point. Dude, I heard a crazy stat. Dude, this season tyree's tyler burton is 10 for 11 in game tying or game. Uh, go ahead. Shot in the last two minutes 10 for 11 this season.
Speaker 2:Wow, that's pretty impressive and you.
Speaker 1:That's beyond pretty impressive. That's like if I was playing that on a video game I'd be like dude. This video game is broken. This is a big series. This is a big series, yeah.
Speaker 2:They did it last year. But he got hurt and they got swept by the Celtics and you forgot they made it. But if they can get by a favored team like this, you know number one seed. You think it's over, I do.
Speaker 3:You think it's over, jimmy, I think it's over.
Speaker 2:Yeah, Jimmy does.
Speaker 3:I mean they got Donovan Mitchell, but that's not.
Speaker 2:Well, yeah, I mean, your season's on the line, game three's a must win, and you're on the road. Well, yeah, I mean, your season's on the line, game three's a must-win and you're on the road.
Speaker 1:Good luck in Indiana, which is not an easy place to play the Fieldhouse.
Speaker 2:No, that crowd's going to be going ballistic. Yeah, they really will be. And speaking of 20-point leads, the Knicks came back from a 20-point deficit to beat the Celtics, who I still think probably will win the championship in that series. I think that series is going seven. Yeah, I'm starting not to be so confident in that pick. You think that's going seven, huh.
Speaker 1:I think it's going seven man. The Celtics are two three-point dependent dude and I mean they shot 63 pointers and they shot like 20% from three. I mean they left like 100 points on the board by chucking up threes when the lane is always open. Like Jason Tatum can take anybody damn near off the dribble and get to the lane and draw a foul, and he never does. He'll, he'll, he'll take them off the dribble, have the open lane, step back and pop a three, almost like it's like robotic, to where he's like oh wait, no, got to take three, you got to take the three. And you're not going to shoot 50% from three all the time like you do.
Speaker 1:In the regular season the defense is way up, especially when you're going against the Tom Thibodeau team. They're not just going to be like, oh well, go ahead and take that step-back 30-footer. They're not going to allow it. And if you don't diversify the offense, I mean if you don't start taking it to the hole and getting fouls, I mean both Tatum and Brown can do it, derek White can take it to the hole. These guys need to start driving the ball and play like it's the 90s a little bit.
Speaker 2:All right, well, all right, so let's go ahead. We're in the second round. You think the Pacers are making it. You think the celtics win in seven now. So you think it's indiana boston. We mentioned the east. In the west, what do you think denver can is gonna get past oklahoma city? Or do you think the boys will come back?
Speaker 1:I do. I I think denver is gonna beat them. I think, okay, he's too young.
Speaker 2:I mean, I've been saying it yeah, like I said coming into the playoffs.
Speaker 1:I think they're too young and I mean nobody can stop Joker. I mean, if Joker's going to go for 35, 15, and 10 every single game, all you need is one other guy to contribute, like Aaron Gordon, you know, dropping 20 and 10. All of a sudden, denver wins in a blowout.
Speaker 2:Wow know, dropping 20 and 10, all of a sudden, the denver wins in a blowout.
Speaker 1:Wow, you know I mean that's gonna be a fun series, though, because I I think all of them are going to be fun from here on out. I mean, I barely watched the first round and I've been all over the second round. The second round of the playoffs is when the nba playoffs get really fun. Man. The intensity of the game comes up.
Speaker 2:Yeah, about the injury to steph but I I still think that'll be interesting to watch. I think you'll see kind of like some pressure will fall in the in minnesota's lap and I think takes a lot of pressure off some of those guys for golden state and just let it rip I mean, if anybody can do it, it's way off.
Speaker 1:Jimmy, yeah, no, and then uh you have.
Speaker 2:So I think I think OKC can come back, I think they can get them, I think they can run them out of the gym, hopefully if they can get it to seven games, you know, and just try to outlast Denver.
Speaker 1:Yeah, I think game seven. I think they need to get it in six.
Speaker 2:Yeah, we'll see.
Speaker 1:If they go game seven, the experience takes over and the nerves of OKC take over. Dude, they don't want a game seven, Even though they got it at home. They don't want that smoke All right.
Speaker 2:Well, they'll have a must win at home for game two. We'll see what happens. We got an all-interesting playoff series, so you have Denver versus you still think the warriors get past the teewoops I did. I I don't as bad as I want them to show to denver again I'm gonna draw a rating yeah, this is Indiana.
Speaker 1:It'll be a fun series.
Speaker 2:Yeah, I know, I mean, I like that's the thing yeah, it's going to be good basketball.
Speaker 1:Right, it's not any big names that well, especially market-wise it's not any big markets. But I mean, unless you're like a big-time basketball fan, you're going to put that on like expect them to see a team you know, like the Lakers or something, and if you do that, this is the finals, the conference finals.
Speaker 2:Yeah, you have, I guess, the Warriors, the only major market team left in the West.
Speaker 1:If Steph doesn't go down after that game on win, I'm probably taking the Warriors but no Steph Curry for three more games after this.
Speaker 3:As much as.
Speaker 2:I love Jimmy Buckets man. Three games, I don't know. Yeah, that's going to be tough. They don't have enough depth, they don't have like a Klay Thompson. You know, if they had a guy like that maybe.
Speaker 1:I'll go even further back. They don't have a Sean Livingston coming off the bat. There you go, all right.
Speaker 2:Well, what else we got going on? Nothing, no more draft, no more draft.
Speaker 3:Take it out Portal's closed.
Speaker 1:Yeah, got Randy Orton versus John Cena coming up in Backlash Saturday.
Speaker 2:Well, we got to get on out of here, all right here. Well, yeah, wrestling that on out of here. Our ride's here. But yeah, wrestling that should take over once it's over. But NBA playoffs are far from over. It's every night.
Speaker 1:We put on like six weeks of NBA playoffs. Man, the NBA playoffs are almost as long as the damn season.
Speaker 3:Yeah, then you've got baseball postseason you start rolling into Omaha for the two and a half weeks.
Speaker 2:Yeah, that's going to be interesting. I mean talk about you know pressure Postseason baseball man. Can we get your nerves going?
Speaker 3:That's why you want the dumbest players possible on your team. What?
Speaker 2:Let's play baseball, man, let's do it. Yeah Well, we'll find out. You know the seeds and the matchups. Who's going to go where? That'll be interesting when will Miami go?
Speaker 1:I'll actually have a rooting interest. Yeah, that'll be fun.
Speaker 2:You know they could probably get all the way up, maybe to a two seed. If they keep playing this, good, that'd be crazy. Yeah, florida, where are they going to go?
Speaker 1:Yeah, to hell.
Speaker 3:They can go straight to. Hell is where they can go.
Speaker 2:Looks like the only team in Florida hosting will be Florida State.
Speaker 3:I wouldn't rule out Miami hosts in a region. Really, I mean, dude, they've won I don't know how many straight.
Speaker 1:Who else do they have 15-1,? I thought Wow.
Speaker 2:Make some noise in the ACC tournament. If they won the ACC tournament Because?
Speaker 3:remember, it's about venue man. It's about wanting to have a place set up to host something like that. Miami's as good as anybody in the South, I doubt it. Well, you know.
Speaker 1:I doubt it, you're out. I'm with Jimmy, even though I have watched zero baseball. I agree with him.
Speaker 2:Oh man, the horse racing. I saw that all of the horses were descendants of Secretariat, and then the horse that won it is not going to be the Preakness A little bit close, you know, just because the race was too close to the next race so they sent him out. So no chance for a Triple Crown.
Speaker 1:I'll still watch the Preakness, because we ain't got no sports on in the summer there you go well.
Speaker 2:Nba playoffs continue. We'll watch them, we'll keep an eye on all of it and we'll react to it. And we'll talk to you next time, right here On the North Florida Sports Network. We'll be right back.
