This crowd rises to speak.
What Carlos slammed it out? Left wing free ball perfect? Then he left block the shot at the rim?
How with the left hand and of fowl. Welcome to the Chase Doown Podcast, part of the Caves Media family. I'm your host, Justin Browan. The Chase Doown is presented by Fubo, the official streaming partner of the Calves. Watch over three hundred and fifty channels of live sports and TV, including FanDuel Sports Network without cable. There's no cost and no commitment. Try for free at FuboTV dot com Slash Calves.
The Cleveland Cavaliers take a commanding three to zero win over the Miami Heat, handing Miami their largest playoff loss in franchise history. A lot of fun to see the Calves step up and get that win on the road. And joining me today is my co host Carter Rodriguez. Carter, how you doing, buddy brother?
Uh? That was fun.
It was a game that I felt really good about going into. Then you find out Darius is out. See you have kind of a layer of angst. Maybe not about the series, certainly not. I didn't have angst about the series, but you know, angst about oh Man good buying me steel one and then prolong things and things get harder and you know, you open up your risk and like they just killed them, dude, Like they absolutely just destroyed their will h to play basketball over the course of the game.
It was just phenomenal.
They It feels like to me that instead of sitting and resting on their laurels knowing that we're up to oh and just having the game plan of well, let's just keep doing what we're doing, it felt like they did exactly what you asked them to do in the last podcast, which is anything they weren't doing, start doing it, start fixing everything. You know, do you not get enough rim pressure. How's how's six Jared Allen like first half dunks?
Basically you know, you're maybe not letting the you're letting.
The the shaky ball handlers on Miami, you know, off the hook. How's like eight first quarter turnovers? Just felt like they kind of had everything solved. Yeah, it's you know, getting Jared Allen involved. Obviously part of that is going to be Darius Garland was in the lineup. I think Darius is averaging like twenty four points per game. You're going to need to generate those points somewhere else, right,
And I had wanted to see that more. I thought that, you know, Miami didn't have the personnel to really take away both Evan Mobley and Jared.
Allen attack in the basket. Carter, how many how many attempts do you think the Cavs averaged at home versus Miami in the restricted area per game?
Oh gosh, let's see here. They took eighty six attempts tonight. I want to say twenty.
Okay, So at home, the Calves averaged ten attempts per game. In the restricted area tonight against Miami they took thirty seven. They shot seventy eight percent on those looks, and obviously Jared Allen was a big part of that. But the Calves were getting to the rim and not kicking it out to open shooters. They got plenty of threes, don't get me wrong, but they were very focused in their attack of getting to the basket. Obviously, you know Tyer Rome,
Don Mitchell got to the basket. A whole bunch of guys were doing a great job attacking, and I thought the aggressiveness of the Bigs was a major story here. How the Cavs attacked was a little different than in games one and two. In games one and two you saw a lot of kind of those double drag actions, and there were still some of that in game three, but I actually thought there was less of that. There's a little more two man game, a little more all right.
We already have an advantage in terms of who Tyler heroes guarding. We can score on him in isolation. He's on DeAndre Hunter. We're gonna let Dre go to you know, go to work on him.
A lot of good post ups for Dray good good, good Amo for the post up agenda for DeAndre Hunter.
Sorry to interrupt, No, no, it's okay.
You know, Miami is so focused on the Cavs stars, they forgot about Dre and he had a terrific game here.
It was.
It was really really fun. And I think, you know, anytime throughout this season where the Calves get a signature win or they have one of these moments where you know they've struggled in the past playing in Miami, they struggled on the road. We saw them after two dominant performances against Orlando in Games one and two, really fall apart and open that series right back up in Game three.
Anytime the Calves do something that deviates from expectations or their history, I just reflect back on would we have expected this last year? Could we have won in this way? And to have a game where Donovan Mitchell scores thirteen points on four to fourteen shooting, only has one assists, and the Calves blow out Miami in the way that they did without Darius Garland even in the lineup. That is one of the most encouraging things I've seen from
this offense all season. Because this Miami team, they're flawed, but that is a very good defensive roster.
Bro.
There's no disrespect here. But I was sitting there. I had to watch a lot of this game in the car we had. We had a little road trip to a kid's birthday party we had to take, So I just had the air pods in phone this far from my face, you know, just mainlining Calves basketball, and I was sitting there with them up, you know, thirty points, just thinking, Really, wasn't that long ago where I was like,
can Colin Darius get us to forty plus wins? It's not that long ago where you're really wondering whether they can even be a decent team.
And this this your.
You know, your your third best player on the season is unavailable and not you know, it's not like a you know, two uber stars and then the third is just a guy like Darius has been instrumental, especially offensively for what this team has done all year. Yeah, he goes out and everyone is just there to step up. The roster depth is unbelievable. They didn't even have that
bananas of a shooting game. You know, they made fifteen threes and forty attempts, like that's about an average shooting night for them, and yet they continue to just put up these mondo offensive performances. And it's just it's so rewarding to see it come to fruition like this.
I know it's only the first round, but it does feel great.
It does feel good, right because you're just gives you another level of confidence. Right, we said, coming in, can the Cavs have a dominant series? Can you know they prove some of the doubters wrong?
Right?
We assume that Miami was going to go out and they were going to get a game in this series, or felt that they had a good chance to and the Cavs would actually have to go out and earn it. You know, you look at a lot of the serious predictions. Usually everyone had the Cavs, but it was five six games for them to be as dominant as they've been offensively throughout this series. I think is incredibly encouraging because
they've done it in a variety of ways. And I think that this game in particular was a true kind of litmus test for is this offense different than it's been in the past, Because you know, I think you saw from Donovan Mitchell his shots didn't fall. I don't feel like he ever got overly passive as a result of it, but he was making the right play out there. Like I thought, he kept the ball moving. I thought, you know, he was contributing on defense. He hit some
big shots and wasn't afraid to take the shots. But he trusted everybody around him to do their part, even without Darius.
Being in the lineup.
You know, the the secondary playmaking that we've talked about all year and in the past when when the cast would have playoff failings, we'd say, man, there really isn't There's not that secondary playmaking here, like Darius and Donovan are facing a ton of pressure up front, and Mobile doesn't seem ready to break it. Well, now you got Max Strus who's able to run, you know, beautiful pick
and roll games. That two man game with Jared Allen felt almost disrespectful where they were passing cl tropics type of stuff that was truly something and and Max had some disrespectful moments in that game. But Ty Jerome is able to run that stuff. I think, you know, Merrill keeps the ball moving. Everybody from up and down the roster knows what they are supposed to be doing offensively, and they really do have four or five guys that
can initiate at any time. And I just think it is such a healthy offense that really, you know, as good as Miami is defensively, and not only were they a top ten defense in the regular season, they were very good defense in the half court. That hasn't bothered the Calves. The game has slown down in the playoffs. We're not getting those easy transition buckets, but we are able to generate quality looks throughout it.
And even when the.
Calves have gone down early in these last two games, I feel like the shot quality has been very good, and that's probably why those games have normalized very quickly within the first quarter.
Yeah, I mean they're better and they're showing it, and like Miami can put up the facade of competition in these games, but they have not been able to make any sustained efforts towards being in the Calves Ballpark. In our discord, someone did like an analysis of like the the biggest sweeps of all time, like in terms of point differential, and if the Calves held this pace, they'd have the fifth most dominant sweep by point differential in the history of the sport.
And it just does feel that way.
You know, they have a plus twenty more than a plus twenty net rating through these three games, and you know, the offense is really I think the story here, and like I understand why the national media isn't paying a lot of attention to the series. Frankly, it's almost a compliment to the Calves that everyone is just like, yeah, they're killing them. It's fine, you know, and moving on to other series that have more like wider implications than this.
But like, I do think it's important to note the Calves had the best offense in the NBA with a one and twenty one offensive rating in the regular season. Game one, they put up a one thirty seven point five. Game two they put up a one to twenty eight point seven. Game three a one thirty six point three. And to your point, what's so cool about that is they did it three different ways. You know, this wasn't they have a thing that they just spam that Miami
is uniquely unsuited to deal with. You know, It's not like a yokicch against the Lakers thing where it's like, yeah, they're gonna run two man with Murray and get a good look. Every time the Cavs won Game one, they mustered that offensive rating. Game one through elite guard play, pull up shooting and finishing, Game two the barrage of three point shot making, you know again eleven and a
quarter a playoff record. And then Game three it was through uh, through pick and roll play, through through really really smart semi transition attacks, it was through post ups. It was through you know, and super democratized. I mean, they put up one hundred and twenty four points. Jared Allen led them in scoring with twenty two. Yeah, so I just think not only has the offense held up.
All I really wanted was to see a good offensive rating at the end of the series, and I feel like they've exceeded even what I asked for here, which is I was hoping that it would drop a couple points but still be really, really good while everyone else has dropped a commensurate amount of points. I was expecting a lot better in five different ways over the course of three games. I mean, how could you not feel encouraged, right and you know they're shooting forty three percent from
three so far in the playoffs. That's going to come down. Like, I still think that there's some room for regression here, but when you have an offensive rating of over one thirty, a lot of room for regression while still being elite, right like that, that's not something I'm too concerned about and talked about on the last podcast how I felt our offense was due for regression and their offense was due for regression. I felt like the defense has been terrific.
Honestly through three games. The only time that there was really that lapse was the Game two fourth quarter where the Cavs kind of felt like they had put the game away. But if you look through the first two games, Mimy was actually shooting sixty percent on tightly contested two point field goals, like that was a number that was going to come down. And you look at this game overall,
they shot thirty eight percent on twos period. Forget just the tightly contested ones, like there was that regression that was due to happen at some point to them. Offensively, I felt like Tyler Herro was hitting a lot of tough shots. They were circulating, you know, the matchup data in terms of who's kind of had their way with who throughout the series, and Max Struce defending Tyler Hero was one of those kind of aberrations that was out there that I think he was shooting about sixty percent
on strus. Strews did a terrific job on him defensively. I thought, you know, every time Tyler was coming off the pick and roll, Struce was either fighting through it and showing body. I thought that the help was there in a timely manner really disrupted his rhythm and if those first couple contested shots don't go down, the confidence is going to start to shift a little bit.
And I thought Max did a really really good job on him defensively. It really held his own and then obviously had you know, a pretty dominant game by role player standards.
The other way, Yeah, Max has been phenomenal in this series. He played thirty one minutes tonight, by far the most he's played, and he's kind of ramped up. Game one, I think Tye stole a bunch of his minutes and he lands at twenty one. Game two he gets up to twenty six, and the game three, obvious gets up to thirty one. And man, I mean the shooting has just been phenomenal. He's eleven of twenty two from three so far. Like that's exactly the kind of volume you
want to see in his minutes. And obviously the accuracy doesn't hurt either. The defense has been great. He's averaging four assists and four rebounds, so he's giving a lot of toughness, a lot of smarts, a lot of supplementary playmaking. When Miami does over index, he's hitting the tough threes. You know, he had a couple when things were still a little choppy early in that game where he just was like perfectly guarded and hit it anyway, and like that is exactly what you wanted out of the box
with the Max Streets experience. I thought he was perfectly fine in the playoffs last year, even though his numbers weren't great. You know, I thought it was one of those things where his impact to the game against Orlando and Boston exceeded his you know, his point production. But boys at nice to have both, like where he is like just giving you everything, you know, I mean, what a sequence for him where Wiggins blows by, Jerome is getting ready to yam at and Struce gets there, goes
straight up completely stemies him at the rim. And poor Wiggins has had a few of those this series where he thought he had a runway and did not, but you know, completely stemies him at the rim, comes down, just fills the exact perfect gap, gets a wide open three and hits it, and basically, I mean the game
was over. It was real over after that one. And like, as two card carrying Max Struce fans, I feel like it's been a very satisfying series against Miami, especially with how many people in Miami we're in our year saying now he's not a playoff riser, Be careful, be careful, right, not a playoff player. It's like, well, sure, it looks like this time, huh, guys.
And not only that, you know, the playoff trash talk started before game one where Bam was basically saying, we don't give an f about Max Struce right, like there was disrespect me and thrown that way. And you know, I agree with you. I think Max played better than he shot in last year's playoffs. But it's nice to see,
you know that overall game be there. And not only was he great, the UVA Cavaliers were terrific coming in off the bench, but the Cavs to go on in eighteen oh run you know in the first quarter where where Donovan doesn't even score a point within it, that's that's special stuff. Like they really really played terrific tonight. And I thought it was interesting too, because with no Darius Garland in the lineup, Kenny had a few options right that he could go to. I was interested to
see where he'd go. Is he going to go defense first? Is he going to play size opted for shooting and spacing, We're putting Sam Maryly in there that lineup.
And then quickly decided not to opt for that. The rest of the game.
Yeah, yeah, the starting lineup was outscore thirteen to nineteen. In the game, they had a fifty nine offensive rating, which you know, the shooting didn't really work out, was missed. Yeah, I agree with that. It's but you know, I found it interesting that after starting with Sam, Kenny did go larger kind of throughout the afternoon. He opted to kind of move Dean Wade up above Isaco Korro in the rotation of this one, and we really saw quite a
few large lineups. The best lineup that we had in terms of production only played two minutes and thirty seconds, but it was that ty Max, Hunter, Wade and Allen lineup that outscored Miami ten nothing in those two and
a half minutes. So the Cavs had a lot of size out there, and I think that's what made it easier for them to exploit some of those individual matchups one on one defensively without you know, really doing some of the probing and as much work as they had in the past to hunt out guys like Tyler hero Duncan Robinson and some of the other guys that have struggled really to keep up defensively when they are trying on the defensive end.
Yeah, I mean, it is hard I will say this, Miami played an awful game. They were not sharp, They played relatively listless. You know, I'm not sure I've seen a team throw away so many passes as I did in that first quarter for Miami as the game was getting away from them. You know, Bam out of Bio had six turnovers. It's very rare a guy a sinner even gets the ball enough to have six turnovers.
Yeah.
A lot of weird miscommunication ones too, where he was throwing to where he thought a guy was going to be and they just weren't there anymore.
Yeah.
So, like I'm trying to like figure out exactly how much to like weigh some of the rotation stuff. I guess is why I'm saying that, Because like, they did play so bad, and in the first quarter, the Cavs started out getting great wide open looks at Donnie and Sam. I think got three wide open like no one within ten feet of them threes and clanked all three of them,
you know. So, but I do think it's interesting that in and it goes to show for anyone who's worried about Kenny being overly orthodox or like overly locked in on any individual player that the game where Kenny rewards Sam for playing really well in games one and two with a starting spot, is the ends up being the game he plays the least minutes in of the series.
He played twenty one to twenty and then in this game nineteen, so like, it just goes to show like, and of course with one less you know, healthy player in the rotation, but Terry's missing, So even you know you're going to apply a modifier on that nineteen, it just goes to show like he's just going to play the guys who make the most sense for what's working against them. And I do think that size was really valuable. I think the biggest rotational change was Dean Wade got
a lot of run in this game. Yeah he didn't score at all, but boy was he locking up. Yeah, absolutely shut off heroes water a couple of times, moved the ball pretty well, rebounded pretty well.
What do you think of his minutes? I agree with you.
I thought he played really well defensively, and it's a little bit it reminded me of Game one with Sam Merrill, where Miami just like looks at him and goes, well, we can attack him. Felt like they were trying to attack Dean, you know, we don't do that. I would definitely not recommend doing so. You know, he is a really really solid defensive player and I like going bigger, right like that.
That's kind of been one.
Of the things that we've discussed since the DeAndre Hunter trade of Hey, we actually had this option to play a little bit bigger, and it just always feels better when you're the team that's kind of bullying.
Right.
The Cavs once again, you know, won the hustle battle, they won the offensive rebound battle. It really felt like they were taking it to Miami. I love how they attacked the rim mobile, you know, hanging on the rim over top of bam at a bio like all of that felt so good. But you know, I think what Kenny's done has been merit based to your point, right, like what lineups are working, which guys have it going, Which combinations on any given night are giving me my
best look? Right, Like, he's really letting guys go out there play with comfort, and if they perform, he's going to give them the space to work. He's going to give them that ability to do their best work, just like zoom Ai Companion helps us. Because only you can do your best work carder. Zoom Ai Companion can help you do the rest, like automatically taking notes, answering meeting questions, and helping you respond to your coworker. Available at no
additional costs with eligible paid plans. Were happy with Zumii Companion. Yeah, I thought Wade was very good.
I will say the only I haven't had a lot of rotational quibbles with Kenny. Only Tom I was like, I don't love this is when he and Ocoro were sharing the floor. I just think in a playoff setting, there's just not enough like quick trigger on the floor if you do that, especially because you're going to be playing him next to you know. I want to say it was Jarrett at the five, so not a guy who's gonna do a lot of self creation himself or frankly shoot for more than four or five feet away
from the hoop. Like I thought that was the only time. I was like, Okay, they need just a little more juice. And I think Donovan in those minutes actually kind of bailed them out with a couple of tough buckets, kind of kept them at bay. Plus, I mean they were just guarding so well. I mean the data is not available yet, but the number I'm actually the stat I'm most interested to check was how many attempts Miami got off with zero.
To four seconds left on the shot clock.
Because it felt like two out of every three possessions, like they were just trying to kick the bam in the corner for a contested three with like three seconds left.
It was nuts, really really impressive performance. And you know, you talk about the rotations, little things that Kenny Atkinson has done throughout the series. It's such an odd series to evaluate because I don't feel like, you know, Eric Spolstve is having a bad coaching series, Like I think he's made adjustments that make sense. I think the guys that have been, you know, out there makes sense. Duncan Robinson was really good in Game one, Games two and three.
He can't really get on the court, but the Calves have attacked him far too my he doesn't do enough to justify being out there.
He's pulled Alex Berks from the rotation.
Like Jared Weiss by the Way of the Athletic brought up a really good point that one of the things Mobley has done so well. You know, he's talking about how you know, Mobley really has been cementing his defensive Player of the Year in these last couple of games, and he mentioned that so much of what Mobley does is prevent the shot from happening, so he doesn't even need to contest them. And like the Duncan Robinson dribble handoff game, he is just all over that, you know,
he without giving up too much ground. And I know it sounds a little silly to be like, oh, look at how well the Calves are doing holding off a bench player on the Heat, but like Robinson's whole job is to turn games, yep, by hitting three threes in you know, two minutes, and the fact he just isn't even getting the show. He got one attempt up in eighteen minutes. Like you want to talk about a thing
that's like very damning for their offensive health. One attempt for the guy who like on this heat team, where like with this kind of offensive output just shows you he can't get free, he can't get the kind of looks that he you know, it's not like he's a shy shooter.
Yeah, he's he's a fire drill player, right like when he's coming off screens, bam, Anebio sets terrific screens. He's one of the best dribble handoff guys in the league. Usually you get a scramble. In Game one, there was actually a scramble every time Duncan was getting the ball. He wasn't always able to get a shot off, but he was at least able to generate an advantage, get the Cavs defense into rotation, and create opportunities for other guys.
That wasn't happening in games two and three. And you know, I I don't think we're going to see a better movement shooter in the playoffs. Like no disrespect to Sam Hauser and some of the guys that Austin runs similar actions too, but they don't run those actions as quickly as Duncan Robinson does. They don't get the shots off as quickly as Duncan Robinson does. I think that it is important data to have of how the Calves are
defending those types of actions. I think Boston is going to be a very different type of test, right, Like we see what they do. They try to generate screens, then they attack the Calves in isolation. They're going to try to attack Darius. They're going to try to attack Donovan, right, not because they're poor shooters, but because they're shorter, Like that's what it is. But you know with Miami, when the Calves attack, it's not, Hey, we're getting a shorter
Tyler Hero here and we're shooting over them. They're getting by Hero, they're getting by Robinson. Those guys look confused out there, they are out of position. They're able to generate these quality looks at the rim. And you know, I was beginning to say before, I don't feel like supposed being out coached, and I don't feel like Kenny is doing anything revolutionary from an adjustment and standpoint. The initial game plan is just so good for the Calves.
They've cleaned up little things, right, Like, I think the defensive communications got better. I think the way that they're attacking the rim, they're finding some of that low hanging fruit and working to improve on what they're already doing. But there just hasn't been that need to really adjust because what they are doing is so damn good. We have a team here that even without Darius in the lineup, probably six guys that were playing today would start on Miami.
That that disadvantage really ends up showing up here.
Yeah, I think that number might be low. I think there might be more guys. I mean this this Miami.
Let's run through it.
Let's let's run through it here mobile us, I said without Darius, I.
Said without Darius.
So certainly four of the five starters tonight would start for them. I think it is very very possible Ty Jerome would start for them. I mean they're starting Davion Mitchell right now. I think it is certain that DeAndre Hunter would start for them. Yes, and uh, that's six. Yeah, there you go, that's six. I was I was, well,
I didn't realize you weren't counting. There is so but but even yeah, even a guy like Dean Wade could be getting minutes if they wanted to like bench their rookie center, who is having a really hard time in this series. Like, I don't know if there's a I'm sure I wonder at if at the end of the series, Evan is going to turn to kalel where and be like, been there, bro, I remember what it's like to be a kid in a in a playoff series. It's hard because he's just he can't you know. They just tortured
that poor kid. With empty side pick and rolls over and over and over again, and Jarrett's spacing on the role was just always perfect in a way that allowed, you know, allowed a clean pocket pass and too much ground for where to have to cover. It felt mean spirited often over the course of this one.
I like it, man, That's that's what I want, right like it. I want to be relentless with how we attack teams. I want this team to continue to show how great they were in the regular season. This is exactly what I wanted to see in the series. This is exactly what I was hoping when we were doing the series preview. I wanted Miami because I thought it was the toughest test outside of Orlando. But you know, the Orlando test doesn't have to do with basketball, it's
can you survive without you know, losing limbs. I thought Miami schematically was going to test them the most. I thought that was the best defense available, you know, out of the three teams. Once Orlando was out of the mix, I thought it was the best coach. I thought that was the best defensive player. Like Bamane Bios, You're the best defensive.
Player you will see in the playoff. At least in.
Terms of big men. I think BAM's the best big men there. I wanted to see the Calves come out, want to make a statement in the series and make one. That's when I picked the sweep at the start. I felt like this team was capable of doing it and that they were going to go out and try to make that statement, and for them to do it in
the way that they have. For them to do it tonight without Darius, I think we are seeing more data that is going to filter through my confirmation bias and tell me that this team is ready to contend for a championship.
Yeah.
I think the only thing that you know, leaving this game that you go the only thing you can really not feel good about is that Darius didn't play right. The rosy glasses kind of mentality is they felt like they had the series in control, and you know, I didn't think it was worth you know, being a little rich ski with a with only one day off, you know,
on Monday game coming up. But I think he would have played if he felt good enough to play, and especially after some extracurriculars in the press room heading into this one.
So I just let's.
Actually, let's let's go there, angsty boy, what were your thoughts on on Darius, you know, kind of pointing out the obvious in terms of how the Cabs had been attacking Miami.
I thought it was like a little out of pocket. Okay, it's not done. You don't normally hear that, Like, you don't normally hear it, So like it's at least it's a it's a story for our reason, right, I mean, people are normally you don't put a player's name, you know,
in that conversation. You know, However, practice the day before had basically been like you know, obviously there's certain players were targeting, like certain certain guys we want to go, like he was cracking a smile, But you're right, you normally don't put a player's name on it there. Yeah, So like, but like I don't know, this is where I'm not going to adjudicate it because I don't know what these guys are saying to each other out there.
Like maybe Hero told Darius he was trash at the end of the game too, And you know, Hero said.
They did have some words at the end of game two. Then they were annoyed with each other. And do I like it? Yes. Do I think it's fun? Yes? Do? I like the hero shot back at Darius.
And was like, you know, he doesn't play any defense either, which you know not true, But you know, do I like that?
Yes? Do?
I like that the Cavs are talking with their chest out a little bit and not just the nice young men we know them to be.
I think it's all good.
I think it's all fine, And like, if this game showed us anything, it's that like the Miami Heat are not motivation away from competing in this series, Like they're not bulletin board material away from competing in the series. They're not on the re the same level. So that's why, Like I didn't leave it worried.
I didn't feel like.
Well, why would you try to make them mad? Just win quietly like whatever. You know, I'm not on the court. I don't know what these dudes are saying to each other. I do know that Darius I've never heard him do that before. Yeah, so I'm going to assume it was earned, because Darius doesn't have a track record of talking like that.
Yeah, it's you know, my initial response had some angst to it. I was like, oh no, Like I like, let's not poke the bear I've send there. I'm like, you know, if Miami wins Game three, you're going to have that back and forth.
But you know, I.
Don't mind it, man Like. Here's the thing, whether you're talking about being a contender, whether you're talking about, you know, putting a spotlight on yourself, you're going to get proportional praise and you're going to get proportional criticism. Right Like you're you are welcoming that all. And I don't want this team to fly under the damn radar, man Like, I want this team to be a contender. I want
this team to be a contender with their chest. That means that when you have a poor game, you're going If you have a poor game and you lose, you're going to face criticism. Donovan, you know he didn't shoot well in this game, He'll that'll go under the radar because the Caves had a great game and they got the win. I am okay with Darius putting a spotlight on himself. Obviously, you know he wasn't able to play in this game. That's going to lead to jokes. People are going to get their comments off.
It's all part of it.
Man.
If you feel like you want to put some extra expectations on yourself, go ahead, because you know what, Like I feel like this is a year that this the Caves can go out and win a championship. I don't want to fly under the radar and do that. I want the smoke. I wanted the you know, the toughest matchup in the first round. I want Boston to be fully healthy in the conference finals. I want the toughest matchup in the second round. I want this team to
be tested. If this team goes out and they pass all of those tests and they win a championship, guess what I want. I want another championship. I want to keep contending. I want this window to stay open. I want the pressure. I want the highs and the lows. So if they want to do that, go right ahead. It's just part of the game. Like people are going to get their jokes off, you know. With Darius not playing today, that's I don't I think the joke stopped at thirty seven points.
I think they did too.
I guess to take it to put a button on the Darius stuff, you know, I guess my question is like if if he's still a little sore. Do you play him game four or do you in and try to just close out the series knowing that, knowing for a fact that Indiana Milwaukee is at least going five.
Yeah, I'd be tempted to just thinking to the end of the regular season. When he first had this toe issue pop up, he missed one game with it, came back after and I believe that's when he went nuts against either Chicago or New York when one of those two games, it was the New York one that he went nuts after missing a game with the toe. So I'm sure if he's healthy enough to play, he'll want to play. Who knows, maybe he even wanted to play tonight.
I would err on the side of caution, just because toes are something that can linger for so long and you want to get that right. And one of the benefits of winning a series in four US you get some time off. So if you're able to give him that extended time off, maybe you do it. But if the medical staff feels like, hey, like this isn't in a point where we're concerned, we feel like it's good to go go.
Right on ahead.
If I had to guess his reaction after game two probably had something to do with what was said on the court, and it probably had to do with frustration that, you know, he reinjured the toe and was limping so hard to end the game, right, Like, that's that's a frustrating thing. This is the first time he's missed a playoff game with with the Cavs, so I'd err on the side of caution. It's the one of the benefits
of being up three to zero. But I'm perfectly comfortable with trusting the medical staff because they've been very trustworthy all season long.
Yeah, I'll tell you what we are many things. We are not doctors. But with that said, like I am if they if there is a preference to letting him just sit and trying to close out this series with everyone else, Like if you don't, if you didn't think they could do it without Darius going into today, you should definitely change your mind, because they absolutely can beat this Heat team down a key player or even two.
Yeah, And I think.
This team has been so consistent in what they're prioritizing through this run, you know, through this season, and uh, I gotta say I'll be surprised to see him to go in Game four but I'll be very pleasantly surprised because that means because to me, if we see him play, then he feels pretty darn good.
Yeah.
Yeah, and you know, hopefully if he does play, he looks very good, right, Like he's been terrific so far in the series. So I guess we'll see there. I just want to put them away in four, no matter who's out there.
A sleep would be satisfying.
But I think I'm at the point now where I'm not going to get worked up if they lose Game four because they've they've you know, because I my definition of the gentleman's sweep is when the first three lose the fourth and then win the fifth.
And I'm glad you brought that up.
I was going to mention that we we talked about that a little bit in Cleveland. It's you go go ahead, go with you Ranta about Boston being called that last year.
Yeah, just anyone, any series winning in five is not an automatic gentleman's sweep. A gentleman's sweep is you've swept them a cave one three in a row, and then you allow them to have one for posterity because you are a gentleman. And then you then you take care of business in game five at home, you know, get get yourself one more game of home revenue at the gate, you know, but that is a gentleman's sweep, is not
just any series in five. But I guess my point is, as long I don't actually care, what happens in Game four will not affect the way I feel about the team heading into round two, round three, round four, whatever it is, unless someone gets hurt or something.
Yeah.
Yeah, so I want to see a wrap up. You know, anytime you're out there on the court, something can happen. So let's take care of business. I expect Donovan to bounce back from what happened in Game three. The Cavs, you know, they slayed a lot of demons here. We saw them not play well in Game three against Orlando after having a lead. They haven't played well in afternoon games all season. They've struggled in Miami historically over the years. All of those things were checked off and they found
a way to win in dominant fashion here. So that was an incredibly encouraging game. You know that Miami's going to play with a lot of pride and they're going to try to prevent a sweep in game four. But I feel pretty good about the cast chances of going out there and taking care of business, ending their season and giving themselves some time off. And as you mentioned, we know that Milwaukee, Indiana's already going five. Boston lost to Orlando. You look around the NBA, okay, see very well.
Could have lost the last two games. You know, they were down twenty nine before Dork took out Jaw. They almost lost even without Jaw tonight. It's you can't take any of these matchups for granted. You know, any team can beat anyone in any given game, and playoff tensity is a different animal. So with the Cavs to be so dominant through three games, I think is a really really great sign. But big thanks to everyone tuning in live on YouTube. We really appreciate you guys. Make sure
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