You're listening to the down beat on ninety seven one the Freak. Hey Danny, what's coming up in Dingo's Morning News at seven thirty. We're gonna answer so many questions like this one. Is Sharon Osbourne tired of boning Ozzy? You would have to think that she is, But I can't wait to find out the real answer. I have to know now. I demand that you really right now, please just don't go anywhere. In thirty minutes, I
will answer that in so many more questions. You're violating the common radio trick, you know, as the tea's there. Mike, Yeah, normally I'm be fine with tea's. I sit back and I wait, I'm excited for the Sopranos thing at nine o'clock this morning, or we take a look back here on the twenty fifth anniversary of its release. You're not real excited about
Aaron Rodgers Jimmy Kimmel Part three, No, but less so. But I think I think it'll cash in for you, based off me cutting the audio last night in my living room and my fiance goes, I'm gonna go in there and pointed at the other side of the side. I don't want to hear him talk anymore. She hates Daron Rodgers. So yeah, did Aaron Rodgers apologize? Please? That what's their sports at seventh? Let's god dead? Now sports at seven? All right? MAVs lose last night one,
one three. It was a bad loss because they were coming off beating the one seed the Minnesota Timberwolves on Sunday, and the Grizzlies walked into that game with like, no Job Morant, who's now yesterday, he's out for the year. Kind of ended up looking like it could be a tank year for the Grizzlies. Is they're so bad and the MAVs went out and went full dud And I don't even know what to say. I was watching it and
never felt like they even had a chance to come back. There's a couple flashes in the beginning of the fourth quarter when Memphis had I think, I think eight turnovers in the first five minutes of the fourth quarter, like they tried, they tried to silver platter it for the maths where they were just down too far because they give up eighty points in the second and third quarters. I think there's a couple things. So Number one, Derek g Lively
is the most important player not named Luca or Kyrie on this team. Okay, And I don't know if that's a hot opinion or not. It's probably not. But they need him because they get exposed when he's not there. I mean, they just got demolished in the inside. The kids said it himself, they were too physical for us. I mean, I don't shoot. I mean Luke Kyrie thirty three, Luca thirty one. Okay, that ones are nice point totals. Basically, they didn't shoot well from three fine
nine to twenty seven. Like that's sort of you can almost always just check and check the three point percentage, like, oh, they're a good team or not a good team. Oh, they shot good today, they won big. They have the biggest discrepancy between like point differential in wins and then point differential in losses. They're both about fifteen their average. And honestly, I don't we're supposed to have Jason Kidd on today. It got pushed to
Friday. Cool. I look forward to talking to Jason Kidd. I like Jason Kidd, Sum's up. Something's wrong with the inconsistency of this team. They didn't care last night and for a team that's been like one of the best defensive teams in the NBA since Christmas. They can play good defense, but some nights they just don't care. I think there are other bad loss that jumps out at me is New Year's Day, which I kind of chalk up to might have had a night, you know, I don't know,
I know, might have had a night. They were on the road for that long stretch and they had a really bad loss at Utah where they lost by thirty something points, and going teams go to Utah all the time and lose, but Utah is not a great team, and they had smoked there, and I went, oh, that's bad. They had that bad Cleveland loss where they gave up a lead, you know late, they had that
game in hand and lost it. And you have this. I mean, you're twenty two and sixteen, you're in good shape overall, You're you're fine, But that losses like last night can't happen. But it's happened in the West. It always it's happened from And I don't Jason Kidd might be a great coach. All those previous two stops, I don't know, And I'm not putting it all on him. But there's something about the consistent inconsistency of this team. It's been a damn roller coaster for the last like three years.
And part of me say it being that I don't know how good of a head coach Jason Kidd really is because you do have Kyrie and you have Luca. I mean, you have like the best two guards in the not in the sport, but the best combo of two guards in the sport. There's other coaches where I'm like, would they tilt that consistency to a level where you don't get blown out out by the worst offensive team in basketball, which is what the Grizzlies are. And that was before they lose John Morant
and before Marcus mart gets hurt and they didn't have Jaron Jackson yesterday. I mean, that's the worst offensive team in the NBA, gutted by injury, and you give up one twenty and you can't stop anything because it looks like you don't care. And that's shortly after some games where you did get hyped
and play good defense. I mean, isn't that Does the buck not stop with a coach to get that performance level tilted a little toward the yes, side, they take nights off, and since he's been here, it's been this wild roller coasters. They're up huge, and then they end up losing, and then they're down huge, and then they because offensively they can do anything. Then they come back and storm back and win, and we're like
yay. Part of me thinks, if you had a really tight head coach, you might see a lot more of those consistent performance nights and less of the take a night off like they defensively did last night. I don't know. I think you make it a good point. I think, okay, the nights off that jump out to me is getting the New Year's Eve game, okay, or the New Year's Day game. That did strike me as a dath. I see parts of the game where they're taking series at a
time off on both offense and defense. Last night, for the half, Luca was gassed and Luca, I'm not doing the Luca conditioning bit. I'm not doing that whole thing. Booz I was like, you take it, Kyrie, Luca's hurting. His squad is hurt. Yes, you see him grimace every freaking game. And I don't know. I'm not a doctor, so I'm not gonna come in and acthlete. I'm Aaron Rodgers here, know what the hell I'm talking about. But the over usage and wear and tear
on him has to be real because he doesn't stop playing. And I know I mentioned his offseason playing for Team Slovenia, which he loves. I mentioned that almost every time we talk about this crap. But dude, I don't know. If it's five games, I don't know if we're just wait till the All Star break, I don't know what happens. I don't think odd strain or whatever we're dealing with in the quad just gets better by every other
night, going and playing forty minutes. I think Mikey's onto something. I think there's a psychological maze to this team that takes a very steady, mindful person to orchestrate it. Because think of it like this, Luca's not probably not even really close to one hundred percent. You come off of a huge win against the top seed in the West. You've got basically a patsy that
you should be able to run through in your sleep. And I think that's kind of what their mindset was going into that game, is like, all right, we got an easy one. And what you have is when you have Luca and Kyrie on the floor at the same time and you've got a terrible opponent, the rest of the guys are probably taking the night off too, thinking, these guys get their thirty two each, we're out of here. It's almost like, if you're gonna give Luca a night off, maybe
last night would have been the night to do it. It's kind of like addition by subtraction, because when you take away one of those dudes, I think it makes the rest of the team look at themselves and go, WHOA, Okay, all right, we got to step up. You might have had a different outcome last night if you would have just saw exactly that because John Morant's out and Desmond Bane is unstoppable. Yeah, because he had to
be, and they were the Grizzlies were they knew they had him. They knew they had him be and in the NBA more than anywhere else, the wounded animal theory is so true that anytime you see a team, oh my god, they have no Lebron tonight or Luca's out, I mean, teams step up, they can do it. They were dancing on the bench and it's especially teams that have a superstar. We have two of them. And
if you just sat Luca, I think the benefits are twofold. You give him a night of rest, which he desperately needs, and it's kind of like a wake up call to the rest of the team. It's like, hey, it ain't just the Luca Kyrie show tonight. Kyrie's gonna need a lot of help. He ain't playing all forty eight. So the rest of
you clowns, pull it together and let's beat these knuckleheads. Yes, there might be something to us sitting in chairs and you know, bitching about effort levels, because in the NBA, maybe you can't just pin the throttle down and leave it there for an entire season. You can't. You can't.
That's why load management's discussed. Load management is important, and even within a game, taking breaks, taking possessions where you rest a little bit and walk up the fle I mean, it does happen when Luca wants to, and he's proven it this year. He can be a good defender. Maybe not all NBA, but he's proud of it this year. And maybe his injuries are hampering his ability to even crank it up on both ends of the floor. He was grabbing his handy the whole night. Last night, he got
bashing the knee last night. He got hit in the head at least twice last night. He's on the floor ten times last night. I mean, the dam is a train wreck and it's not his fault. He was settling to on offense and and I think he was two of eight for three, but he was not trying to get to the bucket, especially early in the game. He was settling for threes, which you know, it's fine when you're making them right and it's easy to get didn't do if you made the
buckets, well, we wouldn't be talking about it. But you can tell when Luca knows, I gotta go earn it, I gotta go get to the paint, and I gotta go get it. And that takes a little more effort, and that takes a little more strain on your quad and everything that he's dealing with. He is not right, and he's still all world and amazing. I worry about that ended up getting not getting better though the playoffs. He was a missed opportunity last night. I don't think he should
have played in that game at all. Yeah, maybe so. But also you look at the numbers and go when he is bashed up and on one leg, he'll go thirty one, six and six. He's ridiculous. He's ridiculous. Here's Kyrie. Kyrie admits what you're saying there, Mike Ray, Here Kyrie after the game last night. You know, when you're aspiring to be at the top of the league and be respected as well one of the best teams in the league, nights like this matter, and you know you
don't want to hang your head for too long. But obviously, playing against number one team in the West and then playing against Memphis Grizzlies, no disrespect to who they are. We took our foot off the gas pedal and they took advantage. I mean they hit us in the mouth in the first quarter. Twenty nine points and then thirty nine in a second. It's pretty much the game right there, and then the rest of it was playing pick catch up and doing what we could to cut into the lead. But there he
is. I mean, yeah, he's right. One of your guys just said it. Look, Kyrie is a enigma, shrouded in mystery, but he's an amazing player. I think he's smart as hell. He is smart as hell, and I was thinking too, It's something I didn't know if I could ask, kid, But do you do you have the most guard IQ of any team ever assembled when you have Luca, Kyrie and Jason Kidd. Yeah, I mean just that alone, right, Sure, that has to be the smartest guards ever working together on a nightly basis. But whatever
Kyrie got mad, I don't know whose to. There was a play where he tried to put someone in a blender and he kind of got blocked, but he got fouled, I think in the late third quarter. And he's still smiling, but I could tell Kyrie was mad, and our little pardon me was like, I kind of want to see pissed Kyrie. Yeah, you know, he's so level headed and yeah, fine, you are who you are. And he's smart enough to know that he is employed very handsomely
to perform in front of an audience. I mean, he has all those thoughts, you know, and you know this is his job is to show up and play the best basketball I can. He doesn't get mad too often. Well, when he first got here, it was understandable that he was kind of like on a He's kind of a reclamation project for himself to kind of mind his p's and q's because of all the negative stuff that had kind of gone at him in a lot of it, you know, self imposed.
Sure, but that being said, Okay, dude, you got the gig, you're here, take the gloves off. You know you don't have you don't have to be on this restoring your reputation tour of the NBA. Yeah, we love you, we like you, We like you a lot, dude. I watched the game on NBA TV last night, and it was a different perspective than our local guys, given I much prefer our local
guys. But they had Brendan Haywood and Dennis Scott and they talked about Kid preaching consistency, but they also talked about Kyrie and how Kid has had to tell him like you don't need to in any way be deferential to Luca, like Luca's getting his like you be you, and he has, especially since he's come back from the December injuries. I mean, the guy looks great and he, much like Luca, can play pretty good. I don't know. Plus defense when they want to, they didn't want to last night,
and Lively being out as your primary rim protector. Fine, I mean maybe that's it. Maybe that's why you get out rebounded by fifty four to thirty three. I was looking at MAV's Moneyball, which is one of the sites I always checking. They just have a great, terrible quote, but I was talking about the rebounding and it said it was to be generous. A putrid performance, bereft of all hustler heart. Yeah, and that's very damning. But watching it last night, I don't disagree. Again, the worst
offensive team in basketball. I don't know how much NBA teams are allowed to do this. I mean I don't I watch the MAVs, all right, I don't watch closely any other team or any other teams taking nights off here and there. I'm sure, yes, but how I mean, how many times are you allowed to do it? But like I started with this, the inconsistency is shocking. They have it's nearly thirty point differential between what their average win is by fifteen some odd points and I think about fifteen points now
fourteen or fifteen what their average loss is by. It's just two different teams. No, and that's form Batsy stops with the coach on you being two different teams, and I think the real MAVs could be somewhere on the good side of that zero of the number between those two fifteens. I think if they're playing hard, playing well, and you look at a team like that and you're like, okay, fine, but in the playoff series they could rip somebody up. Yes, if their offense is cooking and they all go,
you know, hell on fire on defense. But what if you don't make the playoffs like last year? Very much in the equation, you know, yeah, like yeah, you'd be, you'd be, you'd be tough in a seven game series. But I don't want to spend the whole regular season not knowing who's gonna show up and then just hope that, oh yeah, once they get the regular season, watch this, we're gonna hang it on everybody. Usually a conference where you know, two three losses in a
row does yeh knock you out? Two three wins get you up in the top three in the conference. So and maybe a later date and some conversation with kid. But Grant Williams, what the hell he was minus twenty last night? He scored zero points. Granted he played seven minutes, but that might be a result of previous performance, but that's true. How are you minus twenty in seven minutes? Right exactly? Like Tim Hardaway was minus twenty six, but he played. That's a good question. How are you minus
twenty and seven minutes? I mean I did that in middle school, like night in and night out. But honestly, if you did that right now in the NBA, I don't know how much worse in seven minutes, you'd be the minus twenty. God, dude, they would have had Roddy posting up Danny that Roddy's a thick boy. Well they at the Knicks tomorrow night. Jalen Brunson back in town. I'm a couple of quick Cowboys things right here. We'll call this a mini Super Wildcard pump session tomorrow. Get some
funny audio. So I went back in the day out to the Packers Cowboys playoff history and it's amazing, uh, walking all through it. And so the most fun I got some audio Michael Irvin cursing on National TV in nineteen ninety five. I mean, it is great, fun, cool, and that'll be tomorrow. Cowboys. The number two seed in the playoffs is the first time they've been the number two seed since nineteen ninety four. Now we've talked about a little bout how these games are gonna play out. Are you
serious? Yeah? Wow, first time they've been the two since ninety four. They were the one. In twenty sixteen they were the three, and twenty fourteen when the that was the descot at year, they were the five. Last year they beat Tampa Bay in Tampa Bay beat Tom Brady, tom
Brady's final game. Yeah, and then you know, lost to San Francisco in San fran In twenty twenty one, they were the three, and they lost to San Francisco the wild card round and got upset there and then lost the divisional round in twenty eighteen as they were the four seed that year. So there's a stat I found that, you know, whatever history didn't mattered to the next game is really what matters. But there's a couple of demons. I thought about this, and one of these guys may not play.
One of the demons that the Cowboys have is Christian Watson, who had four touchdowns if you remember in their game last year, if I remember that, that was Christian Watson, the breaking out party, Yes, and then he was good for like the rest of the year. Good for this year and then this year again. He has never He is not taking over games like he did last year because he's blown out his hammy and he is questionable. He did not playing a must win game in a week eighteen. He's questionable,
doesn't know if he's gonna be there. Aaron Jones is a guy who has also torched the Cowboys over the years. And I found the stat and blew my my nuts off. The minimum's three games. Okay, that's all three games. Most rushing yards per game against the Cowboys all time? Who are the three game minimal? Three game minimum of three games to qualify for this stat, the most rushing yards against the Cowboys franchise all time per game?
Your average rushing yards per game? Team are back running back Barry Sanders number two, Barry Sanders one nineteen against the Cowboys. Oh, I love this game and I'm blanking, but I don't want to stop playing just yet. Okay, so have a zip of your drink and let us think, Yeah, Barkley, uh No, They've They've done enough to shut him down to get that average. We're still playing, but I can't. I'm trying
to think of the Giants running back back in the day. Rodney Hampton, you know, no, Rob Carpenter, Eagles, Eagles, No, it's actually gonna be a Bear NFC. Yeah. Walter Walter Payton, Yeah yeah. Number three Walter Paytone hundred and fifteen yards per game. Number two, Barry Sanders hundred nineteen yards per game. Number one Aaron Jones one hundred and twenty three yards per game? Is that right? And been thinking about a lot about how the how these teams are going to structure this. You know,
the Cowboys get ahead great. Packers are going to try to turn this into a game where each team gets the ball five times. They're going to be balanced. They're playing very well on offense, despite the fact that they only scored seventeen against the Bears. They had two possessions that ended with three possessions that ended prematurely that they should have put thirty on the Bears. They didn't. One thing I think about this is the Packers are able to run
the ball. And what's the one thing we've talked about with the Cowboys a lot, Well, I do fear them getting dashed a little bit now. Hankins back, you know, helps all that stuff. I still think we're gonna look at the end of this game and we're gonna be going, did dan Quinn's defense do enough because the offense could score. I have no qualms about that at all. And that's where we're gonna end up going. I hope dan Quinn, who's getting interviews and all this stuff, you know,
we're getting an interview request. Is he going to get enough or are there going to be questions about that? Again? I told you Jordan Love's never seeing a pass rush like the Cowboys, but the Packers offensive line has protected Jordan Love better than any other quarterback in the league in terms of time to pass. So there's some things there that kind of make me think this game is a it's gonna be a little closer than maybe what the books have it.
At seven and a half, I'm still picking the Cowboys the Cowboys at home or a different team too, And it's kind of hard explained. How are they different on the road and they'mber four and five on the road and yeah eight, no at home or whatever. So third down defense for Dallas is the key man, gonna be huge man, and the Packers are getting a lot of third downs because they are gonna try to run the ball. They're gonna try to get you know, be a team that never has a
third down. How's the Packers sackability? A couple of guys no, I mean, oh sack and Jordan Love Like, how's their protection number one in the league? Really? Yeah? Pass protection? Yes? Wow? So now he's taking sacks because, you know, like rookie taking like it's time to throw the ball. They've had a weirdly good off of a sudden They're not a great run blocking offensive line, but they don't always. You know, it's like how much are you trying to run? And things like that.
Coway's got. This could be tough to keep them, you know, under twenty five twenty six points, So go score a ton of them. I don't know, Mike variable got fired. Looks like our buddy killer gun them yet sting this Morning News. Yep, we're gonna answer all of these questions. Number one, is Sharon Osbourne tired of boning Ozzy? Was Pete Davidson on ketamine at Aretha Franklin's funeral? And is Jeremy Renner a dick? Find out? Next? On ninety seven one, The Free