Pardon the Interruption | “Nikola Jokić is the clear MVP!” – Wilbon on Nuggets stun Thunder in GM 1

Pardon the Interruption | “Nikola Jokić is the clear MVP!” – Wilbon on Nuggets stun Thunder in GM 1

Pardon the interruption, but I’m Mike Wilbond. It’s National Teacher Day. Tony, if you were a teacher, what would be your subject? I’m Tony Cornheiser, geography with an intense focus on I95. No. Yes. And I can’t imagine. I would explain to the people that the Midwest is unimportant, completely unimportant, but that I95 is the cradle of civilization. That’s pretty much what I would cradle of something. Yeah. I’m going straight up I95 the next 3 days. New York and Boston, right? New York and Boston. Yeah. Happy to be there. Enjoy that side of the country. Enjoy it. Welcome to PTI, boys and girls. In today’s episode, the Knicks upset the Celtics. Sam Bennett sends Anthony Stolars out of the game. And PK Suban joins us for five good minutes. But we begin today with the Denver Nuggets going to Oklahoma City and beating the Thunder on a last second three by Aaron Gordon. Oklahoma City had 18 more wins than Denver in the regular season. Nicole Joic had 42 points and 22 rebounds last night for Denver. Wilbon, should this result rattle the thunder? Like an earthquake rattling the dishes in your china cabinet. Yes, because they just blew it. Yeah. And they blew it in so many different ways. There was strategical mistakes made. There was straight up choking on free throws. The worst thing of all to me, and look, the Oklahoma City coach, Mark Dagnald, he he’s he’s been in like the top three coaches the last couple of years. This guy’s a terrific coach. But when you see the best player in the world standing on the sideline at the scorers table and he can’t get back in, don’t tell me what you always do. Do something different. Do something different. Even though he didn’t figure into either the pass or the shot, the fact that he’s not out there may rattle his own team into some mistake, you can’t put him back in the game cuz you’ve got to foul in a back court two seconds after the No, no, no, no, no, no. I don’t want to hear that. And coaches only double down now on whatever they think and they say, “Oh, we had to do it this way.” No, you didn’t. They just They were unimpressive. Thoroughly unimpressive. And you know how much I love Oklahoma City. uh you have picked them to win the National Basketball Association Championship since the beginning of the year. Look, this is game one of a potential sevengame series and you know that I feel that is usually the least important game of a series. But in this case, Denver came in tired. They had just gone seven against the Clippers. Oklahoma City was rested. They were playing at home. So yeah, I think they should be rattled. You know what else? I think Boston should be rattled. I think Cleveland should be rattled. All three lost game ones at home. The most intriguing part of this series to me as we discussed the other day is Jokic. Yes, Joic may be having real personal stake in this series. I know that you don’t guard Gilg Alexander, but you’re out there when he’s out there. It’s sort of a matchup situation and and and Gilgus Alexander is going to beat Joic for MVP. You voted for him, for example. Okay. So, by the end of that game last night, I looked at this and I thought that Jokic at the end, he pulls out and turns over his two hole cards and they’re both aces, right? Because the other guy has 33 points and 10 rebounds and eight assists and that’s a lovely game, but it ain’t 42 and 22 and it ain’t 18 in the fourth quarter and you didn’t win. So, if you voted today, would you change your vote? And I think that may be motivation. You know what, Tony? Also, how about the way he is engaging his teammates now during the timeouts? Yeah. Snatching the clipboard and really getting at it. Well, because they don’t have the old coach. No, they don’t. There’s a used to be a collaboration, doesn’t there? Yes. Wow. The Nuggets beating the Thunder wasn’t the only upset of the night in the early game along I 95. People tell me the Nickelbackers came from 20 down in the third just as Tony was going night night. Yeah. to beat the Celtics in OT. The Celtics missed 45 of 63 point attempts. So Tony, was this about what the Knicks did or what the Celtics failed to do? So as you correctly predicted, I I turned the game off. It’s 20. No, millions of Americans turn the game off because it’s 20 points in the third and Boston is at home and they’ve beaten the Knicks four out of four this year. So, I assumed the game was over and I wanted to get on and do something in my life that was more productive. And I may have made a mistake. In hindsight, I may have made a mistake. And I I don’t I don’t want to denigrate the Knicks on any level because they play hard and they come at you all the time. But the story of this game is not about the Knicks. It’s about Boston. It’s about what Boston couldn’t do and that is hit shots. 60 threes. Count them kids. 60 threes and they made 15. So that’s 25%. I got numbers here that are fascinating. 19 of the 20 shots they took in the third quarter were threes. 34 of the 41 shots in the second half were threes. And they weren’t making them. Their best two players, Jaylen Brown, Jason Tatum, were five out of 25 from three. Doesn’t anyone on the bench, Mike, stand up and say, “How about we go to the basket? How about we do something in the post game where Jaylen Brown talked very eloquently and practically about what we’re saying. Is there a plan B? I I saw the Houston Rockets lose a championship chance this way when they were like one for 30 something on threes and they just kept taking them. What are you doing? And you would say later, what what are you doing? Where’s the Tony? The Celtics are defiant. They won a championship like this last year even though it seemed unlikely. And they come back at you and they’re say here’s what we’re going to do and we’re going to do it no matter what. And they think they’re better than the Knicks. Arrogance will get you in trouble. Well, then you lose that game. Yes. Now, they lost games last year doing this, but they did 16 and three in the playoffs. 16 and three. So, I’m not get I’m not getting off the Celtics road now. Well, thank you for mentioning the word road cuz they’re 33 and eight on the road. So, they can beat New York in New York. But if you were saying to me that the key phrase is plan B, absolutely. There was no plan B. No. Or if it was, they nobody went to it. But I I’m just looking at you. You know, I told you at the beginning of the year, the two things I said, not I’m still alive on both of them, unlike like my bracket and the NCAA’s. I’m terrible. I told you I think the league is too good for Boston to repeat. I understand. And I know they want to do something that Larry Joe Bird, but you don’t have them going out and I’m sorry going out to the Knicks. No. Okay. But you got to go through a lot of stuff. And if you give away games and you have energy and people get sick, your boy or you turn an ankle, you cannot afford to give away games, even one. Let’s get out of the NBA and move to hockey in last night’s Florida Toronto game. Toronto won the game five to four, but lost their starting goalie Anthony Starlars in the second period after Sam Bennett elbowed Stars in the head. Stlars began to vomit and was taken to a hospital. Bennett was not penalized in the game and reports today say he will not face further discipline. Wilon, what did you see, Tony? When I see it and now I I didn’t see it live last night because I was so into into basketball, but I I’ve seen it now a dozen times and it looks fairly innocent. The result was not. When a guy’s vomiting, that sounds like all the classic concussion symptoms, does it not? But but in live time, when you look at it, there’s contact. just contact on every single movement in hockey, particularly playoff hockey. Aren’t goalies supposed to be a little bit more protected, but it wasn’t like he was coming at him. He was elbow. Okay. I mean, his elbow sticks out. You you get a piece of him and maybe it’s a penalty, but did I see this as something egregious given the contact in playoff hockey? I I didn’t. Yeah. So, to me, the irony irony in this is so obvious. Last year, Stolars was a member of the Florida Panther. They’re teammates. He and Bennett were teammates. Bennett said today, “We’re good friends.” Yeah. And do you remember last year when Bennett punched Brad Marshall in the face and he let and he couldn’t play for two games? You know where he is now? He’s in Florida with Sam Bennett and they’re probably really good players. This is also This is Florida. This is their thing. That’s the Panthers. This is what I want to get to. They are a terrific team. They won the Stanley Cup and the year before they got to the Stanley Cup finals. Whatever whenever we talk about him, we talk about how tough they are. We talk about them putting people out of the game. Sam Bennett, all the clips I saw of him today, he was a little bit sneaky in what he did. And I’m thinking to myself, maybe they’re like the NHL equivalent of the Detroit Pistons bad boys from some years back. But maybe also, Mike, maybe the referees ought to look a little more closely at them. Well, you have to. You have to put in the referee’s hands because teams usually almost none of them have enforcers anymore. So, it’s not like you can send a guy onto the ice and say, “You know what? You line Bennett up.” Let me just that doesn’t exist to the in the main. I was gonna give you a statistic today that in the last 14 games that Stolard started for Toronto, they won 12 of them, which would make him sort of essential. Make him maybe targeted maybe. I’m just saying maybe. Let’s take a break. Coming up, let’s get back into the Stanley Cup playoffs with our great friend ESPN hockey analyst PK Suban. PK, let’s start with this. How did Sam Bennett’s hit on Leaf’s goalie Anthony Stolar sit with you? And why does Bennett get off the hook so frequently? Well, first of all, I I thought it was just kind of a an everyday hockey play. He’s driving the net. He happens to catch a part of Anthony Stallars. Uh do I believe that he went in there knowing that he wasn’t going to touch him? Probably not. But this playoff hockey, you got to drive the net. And I believe Sam Bennett when he says that Stoiey’s my buddy and I don’t want to see him in the hospital. You know, I I didn’t think that that was anything egregious at all. I thought it was just fine. It was intriguing. It was certainly that we’re going to move to the Panthers. Of course, head coach Paul Maurice said that this Leafs team is more patient and more mature than past versions, which I’m sure people in Toronto would like to hear. Is that how you see it? I definitely feel that there’s a different feeling around this team and I think it starts with Craig Barub. I think they’ve taken on that identity of him. You know, Craig played with a lot of truckculence and, you know, he answered the bell every time he was asked. So, I wouldn’t expect any of his players to step out on the ice and do anything differently. But, I will say this when I when I talk about patient, we’ll go back to the first question you guys asked me about Anthony Stolars. I saw something about him playing his seventh consecutive game, which was maybe the most he’s played in his career. One thing to know about all three goalenders for Toronto. They’re all inexperienced. None of these guys have have this huge body of work. But Bravki has been down this road before. He’s been pulled in the playoffs. He’s used to handling all this workload in this game. So, that’s something to pay attention to. And I want to see if the Leafs are still patient now that Joseph Wall’s in there and Stler as their number one goalie is not. You know, we’ll see how they respond to that. PK2 series start tonight. Canes take on the Capitals. Tony’s in a frenzy already. And the Oilers face the Golden Knights. Do you like these matchups for the Caps and the Oilers? For the Oilers, I think it’s a challenge. Uh, you know, Conor McDavid is used to playing in the West and seeing uh the Vegas Golden Knights, but I don’t think there’s a team in this Stanley Cup playoffs that’s built better than the Vegas Golden Knights are for playoff hockey. They got those trees back there, and I’m telling you guys, they’re like the oak trees that you see when you go across the border to Canada. You know those big maple trees that you get that got the big maple syrup? That’s what their de are like. They’re huge back there. They eat up so much time and space. Um, and Conor McDavid’s going to have to fight for that real estate. He’s gonna have to fight for time and space through the neutral zone. You know, he wants to play with the puck. But Jack Eel, he’s gonna see a lot of Jack Eichel’s line and Barbashev the whole playoff. So, he’s got his work cut out for him. But you guys know this guy’s box office. He elevates his game. He’s going to have to elevate it in a big way. You know, they’re not they don’t have LA that’s an inexperienced team. Vegas is an experienced team that’s won before that knows that they got to attend to defense first against Edmonton. So, that’s what he’s up against. As far as the other series go, I got Washington winning that series for this and for this only. Number one, Vegas picked the the Hurricanes. I I can’t believe it. I don’t understand what’s going on at ESPN bet with the with the things. I would not have done I would not do that because I think the Washington Capitals are better in net. I think that maybe a lot of that stuff is happening because of Washington’s defense. They’re missing Farravari, which is a big piece, but it’s been how they play as a fiveman unit is why they’ve been great so defensively and why Alex Ovuchkin doesn’t look out of place there. You know, with the game being at its fastest that it’s ever been, Alex Ovuchkin still looks like father like father time hasn’t touched him. There’s a reason for that. That’s coaching. So, for me, I’m relying on the coaching of Spencer Carberry for the Washington Capitals to get that done and their goalending. We know they can score goals. We know they got skill, but for that reason reason alone, I went with Washington. We will get you out of here on this, and it’s something that has really resonated on on this show, even though it happened a couple of days ago. The St. Louis Winnipeg ending. The Blues would have been in this round if they hadn’t given up two goals to the Jets in the last two minutes of regulation, game seven, then they lost in double overtime. If you were on the St. Louis Blues, if you were an active player there, how would you deal with this collapse? I it’s got to be devastating for them. And you know, when I look at the St. Louis Blues and what they did to their defense, right? They bring in Ryan Sudter, who’s at the end of his career, who’s a journeyman, a veteran player, who literally has been a shutdown defenseman, one of the best of our time in my generation. Cam Fowler, who’s a veteran defenseman. They got Justin Faulk back there. So, it’s not like they’re D. They don’t have any veterans back there. They pick up Broberg, who any team would have in their top four. So, their defense looked great. I don’t know what happened. They went up two nothing and this team has played every minute of that series like it was their last. But something happened in game seven as that series went on. The Winnipeg Jets and Scott O’Neal, you got to give him credit. How he coached that team to be composed, missing Mark Shley for those last two games. For them to be that composed after their number one goalender, MVP candidate, Vzna trophy nominee gets pulled three times in this series. For them to have that composure and see Perfetti step up, this is a young player. This is a guy with not a whole lot of uh Stanley Cup experience or playoff experience doing that against St. Louis’s defense. It’s got to be devastating. A lot of guys losing sleep this summer. But, you know, I I think for a team that added a lot of players this this off seasonason and during the season, getting a new coach, uh, it was a positive season for them, but a devastating way to end. And I’m not sure how you reflect on a first round loss like that. It’s brutal. It’s absolut I mean, as a as a fan, as just somebody watching who didn’t play it, it’s brutal. PK, thank you so much as always. Appreciate us. Thank you. Thank you. All right, Tony. I might see you on that podcast tomorrow. All right. Fantastic for coming on. I think I’m going to come on. Fantastic. Tonight’s playoff double header is on ESPN starting at 7 p.m. Happy 36th birthday Cameron Hayward. The Steelers defensive tackle is a son of Craig Ironhead Hayward. Drafted near the end of the first round in 2011 out of Ohio State. Hayward has been with the Steelers his entire career. He has made the Pro Bowl seven times. Wow. He has 88 and a half career sacks, which is second all time among Steelers to TJ Watt, who has 108. So Cameron Haywood has more sacks than Hall of Famers Mean Joe Green, Jack Lambert and Jack Ham. More sacks than LC Greenwood and Andy Russell and Dwight White, James Harrison, Joey Porter. I admit, Mike, this surprised me. Does it surprise you? Absolutely. Yes. But then you got to think of one thing. Quarterbacks for most of those guys, all the Steel Curtain guys, they threw like 14 passes a game, not 50. Okay. So there’s so many more chances now to get sacks, right? Seems fair. Seems fair. trying to justify it. Happy anniversary, Kerry Wood. On this day 27 years ago, the Cubs 20-year-old rookie pitcher in only his fifth career start through a one hit, no walk, 20 strikeout shutout of the Astros at Wrigley. You may remember this, Mike. I’m sure you do. People looked at Wood and they thought, “Here’s the next Ferguson Jenkins.” Wood was rookie of the year with a 13-6 record and a 340 RA. But Wood was never that good again. He pitched 14 seasons. He made two all-star teams, but at the end, his record was 86 and 75. Wood is one of only four pitchers ever to get 20 strikeouts in one game, and the others are Max Scherzer, Randy Johnson, and Roger Clemens twice. Hall of Famers all Wood and Prior were supposed to deliver us. They came oh so close in 2003. Oh, so close. And then it just fell apart. It just went away. I cannot tell you the disappointment of that. Happy trails to runs for the Mets and the Cardinals. We had a pair of impressive throws to the plate last night. Corbin Carroll of the Diamondbacks fielded a fly ball off the bat of Francisco Lindor and threw out Tyrone Taylor trying to score from third, but the Mets won anyway. In St. Louis, former shortstop O’Neal Cruz picked up his first career outfield assist ever, gathering a fly ball in center and then throwing a 100m hour one hopper to nab Victor Scott II of the Cardinals at the plate. Pirates alas also lost. That is the most exciting play in baseball. Play at the plate. And when it’s coming from an outfield throw, not a bang bang play from the hot corner home. No, no, no. Outfield throw. You want to see who reminds you a little bit of Roberto Clemeni if you’re of a certain age. Roberto Clemeni, right fielder. One of the great guns of all time, Roberto Clemente. But this kid was a shortstop. Yeah. And they moved him at 100 miles an hour. Really? People like that’s pretty fast, isn’t it? Let’s go to the big finishes. Let’s do it. Kenny Atinson of the Cavs, NBA coach of the year. I assume you agree. Terrific year, but JB Bickerstaff inherited a cadaavver. Kenny Aterson inherited a playoff team that was in the second round last year. That fired JB Bicker Staff if I he did a great job, but he didn’t. Not my vote. All right. Derby winner sovereignty will not run the prness. Explain this load management to me. I can’t because the triple crown is based on the derby. Two weeks later the pness, three weeks later. How can you not want to run the triple crown? You’re the only horse that can win it. How can you not want to go for that? I’m very down. I’m not watching a pnness. The Islanders won the NHL draft lottery despite odds of just 3.5%. Your reaction? It’s fine. But the Sharks, you know, deserve and the Blackhawks deserve. They were worse. They deserve to say I got a bias. The A’s are just one game back of the Mariners in the AL West. You got to be surprised by that. I am surprised. They are playing in a minor league stadium and I assume that they were a minor league team as they have been and they’re not. They are much better than they’ve been. They’re in touch baby. Last one. Warriors Wolves game one. Pacers Cavs game two tonight. Who you got? The Cavaliers flat out have to win this game. They do. They’re at home. They lost game one. The T-Wolves have been rested waiting on this. The Ant-Man’s waiting on the Warriors. I’m going to give them game one. I’m not talking about the series, just game one. We’re out of time. We will try to do better the next time. I’m Tony Cornheiser in the studio and I’m Mike Wil. [Music] [Music] [Music] [Music] [Music] Now do Let me go ahead. [Applause]

Pardon the Interruption | “Nikola Jokić is the clear MVP!” – Wilbon on Nuggets stun Thunder in GM 1
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