Episode Transcript
[00:00:05] Speaker A: Welcome back to Sources from the Sofa.
We got everybody today, me and myself, Roman, we got Aaron, we got Jason.
We are recording literally minutes after Game 3 of the NBA Finals, which was a lot of fun, but I particularly didn't like the final frame. But if you're Aaron, you loved it because the Pacers came to play and they took that, they, they ripped that game away from OKC. Now they are up 212 games away from possibly winning their first chip in the history and they're in their very storied history of the Indiana Pacers. Pretty great game. We'll talk about a little bit about game two as well since we were right on the money about that being a blowout. Oklahoma City answered back respectively and dominated that game.
But games three is fresh in our mind. It was on abc and I would say OKC looked like they were kind of commanding the whole game, at least in the first half. And then the Pacers kind of made like a little run, made a little tight and then. Okay, so you could kind of see, you know, it was like kind of like a yo, yo game. In the third quarter they barely out outscored the Pacers, but not enough to kind of separate themselves. The same issue from game one.
And then in the fourth quarter, Pacers went on a couple little runs, chipped away, got the lead and went back and forth. It was tied up and then they finally just took off with it. Got some stops, some turnovers, got some stuffs and they won 116 to 107.
Aaron, what'd you think, man?
[00:01:42] Speaker B: Yeah, big win for Indiana there, Rome. I mean first quarter, you mentioned it. Thunder got out to I believe and closed the quarter up by eight. Yeah, early, early second quarter, I think they're up nine. And then it just, you know, SGA goes to the bench and then that's when the Pacers make their move. We've seen it. You know they talked about the, the non SGA minutes. Pacers have got to dominate really outside of game two that we talked about was going to be a blowout. Games one and now games three.
They are, they've, they've been able to get back in the game right there. I mean they erased a nine point lead pretty quick went into the half up third quarter, Thunder looked refreshed, came out strong. I think they scored 29 points in that quarter. J Dub had a good third quarter there. SGH was balling. They got a five point lead going in the fourth quarter. And then the Pacers, we didn't talk, we've Talked about these teams both being deep, but their bench, that depth that they have really, really showed in this game and starting, you know, it took over in the second half, that fourth quarter especially, they just wore them down. I mean, I think they showed a sequence there. Late fourth quarter where Halliburton missed a three pointer. Sga just sitting there watching on the baseline. Indiana gets a rebound, gets a bucket, goes up seven. It's hustle plays like that that can't determine who's going to be the NBA Finals champion. And I mean sga, he's been great in the series, he's been good here, but you know, seven different bodies being thrown at him. We saw against the Knicks in the Eastern Conference, you know, Brunson wore down. He's a smaller version of sga. I don't, you know, I don't care how good of condition you are, you start throwing all these bodies, physical play, it's going to take its toll. And like you mentioned Rome, the Thunder just haven't been able to push to like a 12, 13, 14 point lead.
They didn't. Game one, Indiana still came back and got them. Game two, Indiana didn't have the juices. Game three, the crowd, the motivation crowd got going. Yeah, the bench, I mean, I mean Indiana's bench was huge. So that, that was the key there. I mean they want some statistical categories as well, we'll go over. But the bench, the crowd, all that played a big role in getting the Pacers through and getting them up to one.
[00:03:56] Speaker A: Yeah, I don't know if one of you guys can pull up bench points, but I know it's heavily favor the Pacers, but I'm looking at the stats here, pretty even up and down the board. Three pointers, you know, they made basically the same amount free throws pretty close by, but when you look at assists, Pacers just spread the ball so much more.
Their defense stepped up 24 to 16.
Big difference. 11 blocks to OKC is four. And then steals. 13 steals for the Pacers to only six from the OKC. And OKC, we're talking about this legendary defense.
They were not there today. Turnovers, 17 today from OKC, very rare to see them have more than 10 in any game.
Pacers kept it around 13. I think they average around, you know, 12 to 14. Anyway, so points in the paint, even, fouls even. But assists, blocks and steals, it was a defensive side, the hustle plays, that was a big difference.
[00:04:58] Speaker C: Yeah, to answer your question, Roman was 49 points off the bench for the Pacers in that game. Versus what do we have? Only 18 points off the bench versus the Thunder.
[00:05:07] Speaker A: So that's a lot.
[00:05:09] Speaker C: So, yeah, pretty huge disparity. Awares you that. I mean you had, what was it? Yeah, Benedict had 27 points alone off the bench. TJ McConnell had 10, Opie Toppin had eight. He had a big moment there, I think down the stretch. But you mentioned the turnovers. And I know we weren't, we predicted the game two blowout, but going back to game one, the biggest thing we saw to game one was that like, hey, there was these massive, you know, turnover favors, but then there's also this big three point thing that happened. It's like, what's Indiana gonna do if they don't turn the ball over? Well, Oklahoma City, you know, had more turnovers in this game. Indiana was a little bit better, game was closer. The bench came to play. And then like you said, the crowd, I mean there, there's, there's some juice I think in that building and everything. These guys go with what's happening in Indiana right now. I'm, I want to switch sports right now, but when I was at the Indy 500, like this is, this is a, this is a town that was alive, man. Indiana was feeling themselves that week, man. We had, you know, you had the Pacers going, you had Indy 500, all this stuff like this was a community coming together, really rallying around everything that Indiana had to offer. And I think you saw that in the crowd tonight.
[00:06:16] Speaker A: By chance, do you have the points off turnovers?
[00:06:19] Speaker B: 2114, 2114.
Yeah. I mean Rome, we looked at the stats you mentioned, everything's even and then all the other categories. Basically Indiana won, they won the rebound battle we talked about. You know, Jason mentioned that in game one, Indiana dominated the boards, dominated the three point line. Today they dominate the boards. Plus 11, assist, plus 8, they win the turnover battle.
Fast break points 17 to 10. All these things just add up to the short, you know, all these not big differences, but they add up to a victory.
And going back on the crowd, it was like the alum there from Indiana, old school guys, Mark Jackson, Del Davis, everybody, everybody, Reggie Miller. I mean it was, everybody's in the house. I mean the Indiana's, they're looking for that first title ever in franchise history. We've mentioned it's been 25 years since they've been in the finals.
They're hungry, man. And the crowd is showing out. They're balling out for sure.
[00:07:14] Speaker A: Yeah, a couple things I thought Alex Carisso had a pretty Good overall game, but he didn't really show up on the.
On the stat sheet as far as points. I thought at times Williams might have held the ball a little bit too much, especially in the fourth quarter. They really had no game plan and they looked a little too dysfunctional when. Especially when they were starting to pull away in the third quarter when they got the lead again, they were dishing the ball. I think Caruso poked the ball out at one point, was driving it.
He passed it off to Williams or someone else, and they dished it back out to him and he shot a three and made it in. They moved the ball really brilliantly and. And today it just did not exist.
[00:07:55] Speaker B: Yeah, I mean, they don't have a backup point guard, really, the Thunder. I mean, I know Williams can play backup point guard, but when you're getting constant ball pressure like they are, you need like a true natural ball handler. Outside of sga, they don't have that. They got guys that can relieve pressure.
But Williams had a decent game. I mean, he's 9 of 8, 26 points.
But like you mentioned, Rome, it wasn't clean. It felt like he was rushed at times, making mistakes, especially there in the fourth quarter.
You know, that frustration adds up over time. Chet, Great in the first half, 15 points, only five points in the second half. He looked tired. Miles Turner, bad first half, second half. Defensively, he was huge. Double dunks and everything.
And yeah, I mean, we talked about it. You know, Caruso, solid game, but he made a couple bad Turnovers. I mean, TJ McConnell, Jason mentioned off the bench, 10 points, couple big stills.
[00:08:49] Speaker A: Dude, McConnell's game or like little buzzer beater or like right before the half just ignited that. That arena way too much. I was like, that's not good.
[00:08:57] Speaker C: I do want to challenge you guys a little bit out the Caruso game though, because while, you know, he put in 32 minutes and got eight points off the bench, he was minus 15 in the plus minus.
[00:09:06] Speaker A: I saw that. Yeah.
[00:09:07] Speaker C: And so, like, if we're talking about him coming out of the bench, I mean, that is. That's the difference between the two bench.
Obi Toppin and McConnell. And you know, Maruthien were already a plus 12 or more on the bench. Caruso alone was the. He was the biggest minus overall for the, the. The Thunders lineup.
[00:09:26] Speaker B: Well, I mean, yeah, I mean, you mentioned it was 49, 18 on the bench. So he got eight of the 18.
So you know, Benedict McNarin going for 29.
[00:09:36] Speaker C: I'm just talking about being out There for the, from the defensive standpoint as like, you know, I don't know if he's the defensive liability or he's trying to do too much out there. But we were talking like, you know, him versus Carson Wallace minus 10, minus 15 on the floor, like the Oklahoma City, you know, starters, you know, really closer to the mean. But like, that seems like a, a pretty glaring stat. I'm just not saying you had a bad game for you, but you guys saying, hey, it was a good game. Hey, this, this could have been the liability.
[00:10:02] Speaker B: I don't think it was. I don't think it was a good game for Caruso.
[00:10:05] Speaker A: It wasn't great, but he was pretty consistent.
[00:10:07] Speaker B: I'm not pinning it on Caruso. I mean, I think plus or minus can be kind of deceiving. I mean, it was just like the New York series. They always were talking about, oh, Brunson and Cat are, you know, minus 19 and 20. I mean, look it, I, I said coming into the series, why I thought it would go seven. I liked Indiana's better than Oklahoma City.
Thus far they've been better. And these numbers, like Jason just pointed out, Caruso's a one man out of five off the bench. Indiana's bench has been better. I mean, I don't expect Benedict to go for another 29 points, but he, he has been good in the series. He's playing confident.
McConnell, he's good for 8 to 12.
[00:10:43] Speaker C: And this is what I give you. And we had this conversation about the way Tibbs was handling the Knicks bench in the Eastern Conference finals and throughout the playoffs. Right now, looking at the minutes that you're getting from the Oklahoma City bets, they're just, I mean, they're basically running, maybe it's just a seven man rotation because they're only bringing Hartenstein and Caruso off the bench. Where you look at how many minutes four of the guys are playing off the bench for Indiana. I know they had the hot night, but like, you know, you go into a longer series right now, are they able to throw eight, nine guys, keep fresh and keep a lot of these starters, you know, a little bit in better position. Like, does that come into play? You know, because it came back to bite the Knicks.
[00:11:19] Speaker A: The irony is a lot of people were saying Indiana should probably keep Siakam and Halliburton out there a little longer because every time they went out on the bench, that's when they got dominated because they didn't go as deep. But it's pretty evenly well distributed. They went a little Bit deeper.
Mather had 27 points. Dude, he had a really big game.
McConnell, he had a pretty good game.
What was interesting, Harlestein, you know, didn't have a lot of points. Wiggins didn't really show up like the last game. Even Jay Williams, both the Williams, they just didn't really have much of opportunity.
The irony is that, or at least for me, OKC kept a little tighter and went lot more starter heavy than Indiana. When the criticism was on Indiana of not doing that.
[00:12:08] Speaker B: I think Indiana is going to keep doing the rotations. I mean, they've got a kind of a set plan. 6 minute mark of the first quarter. They pull Siakam. They go to their bench. They're always pulling Halliburton about two minutes ago, you know, they kind of have a pretty set rotation. I mean they don't burn their guys out. You know, we talked about it, seven different guys guarding sga. I mean that's, that's crazy to think of. Usually you only have maybe two or three defenders because teams just don't have enough defenders and bodies that they rely on.
You know, I thought the Thunder, I'd like to see him maybe go to their big lineup a little bit more. I know they used it a lot in game two and it seemed to work and I don't know why they.
[00:12:48] Speaker A: Kind of went the playoffs and, and.
[00:12:50] Speaker B: Then game one, they pulled it out and out of basically about 20 minutes before tip, they pulled Hartenstein out of the starting lineup.
[00:12:57] Speaker A: And we've seen this before, man, when like you have a veteran coach against another good coach, but maybe not as experienced. And right now it looks like Indiana's coach is out coaching okcs.
[00:13:13] Speaker B: Well, I mean, Jason said, you know, Rick Carlisle is. Got the coaching advantage coming in. I agree with him.
[00:13:19] Speaker A: It's starting to come through.
[00:13:21] Speaker B: You know, you talk about relying on bench. I mean Thunder game two. You know, Wiggins had a huge game, but he gave him zero points tonight. I think he had 19 points in game two. I'd have to go back and check. He was like he made five or six three pointers. Yeah, but you know, we know going on the road, playing in hostile environment, usually your bench doesn't travel as well. That's always been the thing, right? Role players, bench guys play better at home. Everybody knows that in the NBA.
That's why, you know, the home teams are always favored. They get the three points, four points and it can, it can, it can light a fire under you.
[00:13:56] Speaker A: Right.
[00:13:56] Speaker B: I mean, who would have thought that the Pacers bench would have gotten 49 points. I mean 49 to 18.
[00:14:04] Speaker A: That was not wipingo card right there.
[00:14:06] Speaker B: No, I mean we don't expect, you know, 2710 those guys getting that many points topping eight.
Caruso got eight. I mean we're looking at plus or minus. I mean Caruso was minus 15. But then I look at Halliburton, he was only plus one.
[00:14:21] Speaker A: Yeah.
[00:14:22] Speaker B: So you know that goes back to again you guys mentioned depth on the bench. Carlisle's coaching continuing go of his bench and just wearing down, man, they're wearing down the Thunder and now you don't get a three day rest. Now you got the next game's Friday. It's even worse for the Thunder because you know, you basically had two days in between. Now you only get a day off.
This was a big game for the Thunder to get. They didn't.
We'll see how they bounce back. We'll see if Indiana can keep it going, but we'll see.
[00:14:52] Speaker A: It's a must win game for, for OKC for sure. You do not want to play with this Pacers team.
Amazing. I did not see them being up to 2 to 1 for sure. I, I could see them tying it up, you know, being 22 but, but, but not in this fashion. This is pretty amazing.
Game three, man, Indiana's up two to one. Who would have thought, who would have thought?
[00:15:21] Speaker B: I, I did Rome.
[00:15:23] Speaker A: You, you, you thought they would be up 2:1.
[00:15:26] Speaker B: I said the game, I said I was gonna go seven games. Yeah. But I, I, whoever I thought of Indiana, they wouldn't have won another game in the series. They would have got beat four one.
[00:15:36] Speaker A: I, I, I, I disagree.
[00:15:38] Speaker B: I think Indiana really needed, I think they needed to win this game.
I, I believe, I believe the Thunder can win three in a row more than I believe Indiana can win three in a row.
[00:15:52] Speaker A: Right.
[00:15:52] Speaker B: And for the Thunder we've seen him in this position against the Nuggets. They were down two one. Remember they lost overtime. Game three against Denver, bounce back one. Game four eventually won that series in seven. It looks like it could play out in similar fashion. But yeah, game four is a big game.
Indiana's got to be feeling good about themselves. And like I said, it's short rest where the legs gonna be for SGA and those guys, they don't want to go down three one. That's for sure.
[00:16:19] Speaker A: They don't. You want to talk about game two real quick or. We already kind of talked about it. Right.
It was good. Pretty good start to blow out.
[00:16:29] Speaker C: We called it, got the Series side. At the end of the day, we go to game four for the Thunder. You know they gotta split the, they gotta split the road. You know they got the home court, they take one here from Indiana, it's not over for them. Like I said, it's a must win. But you know their goal out of this is just take one out of Indiana, get back home, then you go up 3, 2.
[00:16:50] Speaker A: Awesome.
I guess we'll see if we can get back on for game four. Reactions. Let's switch it up to the NHL Stanley cup playoffs. We came on after a pretty crazy game too. Over time this series is like pretty tied up and then all of a sudden we get a blowout. It's, it's a goal whipping from the Florida Panthers. They went six to one in game three down in Florida.
I didn't get to catch too much live, mainly just little highlights. So I'll kind of lean to yours guys. But basically Oiler said it, we're just gonna you up right and get physical, try to put some damage before he had a game four. So Jason, why don't you give us a little feedback on what happened at Game 3, like how did it end up being 6 1?
[00:17:43] Speaker C: Well, that was the Oilers mentality in the third period. Once it pretty much got out of hand and they were down five to one. I think at that point is when it really started to take its turn towards was going on. But yeah, just early on in this game just felt like it was Florida. I, I don't think they got the Indiana crowd, but I mean this team, this team's got a nice little fan base down in Florida that gets pretty routed. They were coming ready to play defending Stanley cup champions at home after them doing their job, you know, taking, taking a goal or taking, taking the first one of those wins out of the first two in Edmonton.
Overall, I think that the best players that we've seen for Florida throughout the playoffs, which has been Sam Reinhardt in a contract year. I think most of the broadcast is basically just talking about, you know, this guy and what he's going to be able to get in free agency coming up. And probably not back in Florida, but he was one of the big, you know, big stars of this game, has been one of the, the biggest pieces for Florida in this series. And then Carter Verheagge, great two way player I think just he had a goal and assist himself, was big time in there. And then Sergey Bobrovsky, when you're talking from the goalie advantage, we were waiting for the Kind of, we call it the Skinner blow up game or something like that. Aaron, you know, he could have. He's going to shut you out one game, but then next game he's going to give up four or five goals. Did exactly that.
But you know, overall, the amount of penalty minutes in this game, I guess it's a little bit skewed because of the third period. Roman's kind of alluding to there from a team stats perspective.
When we looked at, what was it, 85 puddling minutes for the Oilers, 55 for Florida, Aaron said it was a WWE match. Maybe they were watching Money in the bank and UFC on Saturday Night with the rest of us after the game and they decided that they were gonna replicate that. But the power play, 11 power plays for Florida, they really get three power play goals. Tough to beat when you're given that many opportunities, even though the shots were pretty even.
But Florida really came to play and, and this was. It was very surprising from a blowout perspective. But when you look at last year's series, when Florida went up, Edmonton came back. When it went up into Edmonton and blew out Florida in one of the, you know, games, five or six cameras, what it was. But surprising result. But I think at the same time for Edmonton as you look, they're down 2 to 1 in Florida, just like the Thunder down 21 in Indiana right now, the Oilers seem to just take one or two, these first two in Florida to really tie this thing up. So I think you're gonna get a different team from Edmonton coming out. And this is a team that's been really good away during throughout the season.
So I, I think overall we're gonna get a much more competitive game, obviously, but the Oilers are definitely trying to make a statement in that third period.
[00:20:31] Speaker A: Yeah, you mentioned about the penalty minutes, I guess the 140 combined minutes for the fourth most in the Stanley Cup Final.
And I just. A lot of criticism that I was hearing was just that oils kind of got sucked up into the Panthers game plan. Just doing like a track meet and they didn't really play as disciplined as they did, you know, throughout the year of what they became known for.
[00:20:53] Speaker B: Yeah, I mean, Edmonton, I mean, this game was over pretty quick. I mean, Brad Rashon got a goal, 56 seconds in.
[00:20:59] Speaker A: That's fast.
[00:21:00] Speaker B: It was fast. They hit him quick. Like Jason mentioned Skinner. We were wondering when he was going to have one of these games again. He did.
I don't think we're going to see him in the goalie again. Pickard came in he'll start game four, I imagine. I think that's a big change that Edmonton needs. Kind of give them a little spark. And I think for Edmonton, they got to start quick. I mean they've been down early in these games.
You know, they got to get a lead, get a two goal lead, put some pressure on Florida and stop trying to basically get physical and play stupid and get mental games in Florida, it's not going to work.
Get back, get in the open ice skate fast. They got a team, they got good depth. Get Connor McDor, McDavid Dry Seidle, get those guys going.
Corey Perry got another goal.
But yeah, I mean Evander Kane, I mean they got four penalties in the first period. I think even Florida had three periods. I mean the first period was really, really sloppy.
Corey Perry got a goal early in the second, made it 2:1 and from there, like Florida, like Sam Bennett, he's been great. I, I believe he's in the contract year to year two, right Jason?
[00:22:04] Speaker C: Yeah, actually I had the wrong Sam. I was gonna make that correction. I was talking about Sam Bennett instead of Sam Reinhardt. So. But yeah, Sam Bennett's the contract here that really he's, I guess his, his playoff resume right now he's making money for himself in free agency. I think they're even joking with the coach during one of the intermissions. As far as what he's like in a player, he's like, yeah, he's terrible. Doesn't listen to direction, everything like that. Trying to see terrible.
[00:22:25] Speaker A: Pretty funny. That's pretty funny.
[00:22:27] Speaker B: Yeah. So I mean he's got 14 goals in these playoffs. I believe 12 of those are on the road, if I'm not mistaken, in these playoffs with six assists. So he's, he's been, he scored a goal in every game. I think Brad Marshard scored a goal in every game.
But yeah, Edmonton stay out of the penalty box. We said that that would be a big key for them. If you can get four on four, open eyes go from there. Calvin Pickard, he'll be in behind net. I'd be surprised if we see Skinner again in this series. And like you guys have said, if Edmonton can win game two, you go back home.
Got a chance there. But I'm not worried if Edmonton loses this game. They were down 30 last year, able to force a Game 7.
They're going to win Game 5 at home if they lose here in Game 4. They just got to find a way to get at least one in Florida and get their confidence back.
[00:23:17] Speaker C: Yeah, I Think overall, as this series kind of goes, the one advantage that, that Florida was going to get was just really their depth overall versus Edmonton. So it was going to be kind of like if you're looking at the top 10 players in this series, maybe eight of the 10 of them are going to be Florida's players. But except Edmonton has the two best players in this series. And so really what is, what is McDavid and dry seidel going to be able to do to generate, you know, the type of offense that they get and you know, just be the stars that they are versus, hey, you got Barkov and Bennett and you know, Martians having just a tremendous thing. Reinhardt, there's like, there's a ton of guys on the Florida side just from an overall depth perspective thing. And then we talked about the power play, how successful Florida was. One of Edmonton's key strength is the power play. And I think they just like when we look at some of the conversions that they're going to need to get throughout the game, you know, their only goal in the game was the Corey Perry power play goal. So they got to make sure they're capitalizing those opportunities. It could be the difference in the series is like he based on penalty minutes, you know, which teams are capitalizing on power plays and which ones aren't because first period, you know, Cardiffer Hay or Carter Hagee got a power play goal late in the game. I know that's when the gloves were kind of off at that point. But Ekblad and Evan Rodriguez got power play goals. So Florida taking advantage of it so far. Edmonton is kind of where the bread and butter is because they got those, those high level skill guys are going to put things out. But that, that, that could be some of the differences we're looking at from a penalty minutes in the. And how you're capitalizing in those.
[00:24:55] Speaker B: I mean, Edmonton had, they won the shots on goal, 33 to 31. So they were getting pucks to the net. They just weren't getting anything in the net.
I, I agree. I think, I think Connor McDavid dry saddle need to be more aggressive, get more pucks. I mean, I know McDavid's gonna get in there, kind of make that perfect pass. I, I think he's gonna be more aggressive and kind of fake pass, go more shots now because right now they're kind of Florida's kind of, you know, laying off of them, keeping them out of the middle and then waiting for him to pass to, you know, Perry Dry Saddle, one of Those guys. Richard, I think McDavid is going to have a big game in game four. He's going to score a goal, I believe. He's got to get aggressive, fake the pass, go up high, go glove side. Whatever they got to do, keep, keep getting shots on net.
And like Jason said, stay out of the penalty box. If they can get the power play, stay out of the penalty box. Don't get caught up and trying to be physical. Just do your game. Skate, skate, play fast. They got a chance. If they play like they did in game three, then they're not gonna win another game in the series.
[00:25:55] Speaker A: So you guys got Oilers winning a game for evening it up.
[00:26:01] Speaker C: I'd given my prediction was Oilers in six. Oilers have to do a little run right now and they gotta win three straight. So I'm full series. I'm both series right now. I'm down two one versus my predictions are almost.
We're gonna need three straight from the Thunder and three straight from the Oilers.
[00:26:17] Speaker A: Yeah, I just reheard.
[00:26:18] Speaker B: Who do you feel more confident in getting those three straight?
[00:26:23] Speaker C: I'm actually more confident in Edmonton.
[00:26:29] Speaker B: I like Edmonton in game four. I do. I. I think they were so. They put up such a stinker. I mean every team. Team that we've seen really put up stinkers in these playoffs have come back. Edmonton's been down 2:1 against the Kings.
They know. I think. I think they're going to look at that tape and just look at and come together as a team and say, look, we can't play like that. They're going to play a lot better. I expect game four to be a lot like game one and two. It's gonna be tough. It's gonna be tight.
[00:26:54] Speaker C: Yeah. When you look at.
Yeah, just I think overall in, in the regular season, Florida was one of the most penalized teams. And so if that's going to translate. Edmonton obviously flipped the switch because they were trying to prove something this there. But if. Is there some of those defi decisive penalties in game Game four, Game five, that's going to allow Edmonton to take advantage of it. But yeah, I agree with you, Aaron. I like Edmonton in game four and I think that really sets them up. If they do win that game, which we both think they do, sets them great for a Game 5 in Edmonton, which the place would go crazy.
[00:27:30] Speaker B: Yeah.
[00:27:32] Speaker A: Awesome. I guess we'll have more recap later in the series.
Fun stuff, dude. Final Stanley Cup. Really good. Really good.
All right. We'll talk a little French Open. Since that happened this past weekend, I'M a big tennis guy, so I try to catch every, every major at least and try to keep track. The women's was pretty phenomenal. Sabalinka, she's been on a tear for the last few years, winning a few majors. And Coco Gauff finally broke through seven. Link was favored to win, I believe would have been her third or fourth title. And she won the first set, 7, 6. But then Coco just dominated right after that. Sablinka, she kind of got to the finals by not making a lot of mistakes. She, she was just on fire and the tables turned.
I think it just came to a point where like kind of overthinking it over game, planning it. And she kind of defeated herself because no way Coco Golf should have beat her that badly. But congrats to Coco Golf 21.
Everyone's touted her as like the new young Serena then that has been going on for a few years, but finally catches a major on clay. So I was pretty epic. And then the men's on Sunday woke up and started watching that. That was, I believe it was the longest match in French Open history.
5 hours 30 minutes or something like that. And it was like the second or third longest in, in, in men's history overall. But this is an instant classic from the get go. Alcaraz, I'm a big Alcaraz guy, just being from Spain. He's going against Sinner Italian.
Pretty evenly matched.
Santa takes the first one, six, four, the second one.
Alcaraz made it pretty difficult, came back from a few games down to make it competitive. And I thought that's when Alcaraz was going to take one away. But Senators outlasted him taking that 7, 6.
And then Alcarez response close first 4 games, 6, 4. And then they go to, to tiebreaker again in the fourth set. What was really interesting though, watching this match.
You got Sinner in the fourth set, on the verge of winning.
It would have been his fourth major in a row. Both these guys have not lost. These are the two budding stars. Sinners, I think. 23. You got Alcaraz at 21.
They have, they have gone undefeated in every major that they've been in.
And he's just one point away from capturing the title. And Alcaraz responds and ends up coming back a couple points down to take the fourth set. It was fucking amazing. I was at the restaurant and I had to set up my phone right by the, right by one of the pos screens and like the wines because I, I could not, you know, set it down. I. I had to tell the management, like, look, dude, this is an epic game, dude. I'm not changing this. I'm not gonna stop watching it.
This is epic. And then to go to the fifth and deciding set, man, and to go the extra length again, it was.
It was beautiful. Alcaraz just, like, willed that out of nowhere, even when he was about to lose again in the fifth, just coming back and.
And finally taken away.
These are like the next two giants in the sport. Really, really exciting. We had Federer, Nadal battling it out, a little Joker, Rafa, and then we're kind of curious, like, who's gonna take it. We've had a few people win a major here and there, but these two young guys, now, they've won, what, eight of, like, the last 10, I think, majors, and it doesn't look like no one's going to get much of a chance. We're in the middle of the beginning, I think, of like, the next great big battle in tennis. So it was pretty exciting.
[00:31:57] Speaker C: Yeah, I was going to ask about that Rome, because as we looked at it, we basically had this golden era of tennis that many people that aren't big tennis people probably realize, and maybe you. You don't cherish it in the moment where you had Federer and the doll and Joker and these guys for the better part of what, 15, 20 years, basically won, you know, three quarters or more of all the majors that were kind of put out there and just dominated overall tennis. Yet a little Andy Murray probably in there, I guess, for a little for coffee for a couple, but just incredible, like, kind of legacy. And from. From a tennis perspective, as you had some of the greatest of all time in this one generation, as you see, owned it. And then, you know, Federer kind of, you know, weeded out a couple years ago, and the doll, obviously just. Injuries were taking the most of him, and he kind of weeded out Djokovic now really at the tail end. But now these. These two stars, like you're talking about, and to have as many as they want. I think you said eight of the last 10, but they definitely won the last six. I think, like, combined, it's just been all of them, but now have a kind of a, I guess one for the ages type battle that you'll talk about when they do the. They do the 33rd, 30 for 30, or the HBO doc on this, their rivalry 20 years from now is we're gonna do like 10 minutes on this epic match that was, you know, it was a turning point one or the other Maybe it was for Alcaraz or maybe it's like, you know, sinners thing. He's holding on to that, you know, just, I should have had this and didn't.
But, yeah, I mean, I think awesome for the sport, knowing that, like, this is. It's an individual sport, and you're looking for stars and you're looking for these battles and rivalries and what's going to come down to. So I think this is kind of the. The ultimate stuff where now you're. And then the clay is always interesting. I think that's the best thing about tennis where, you know, you get into this French Open, though, and all of a sudden it's a different circuitry, you know, surface, where you had someone like Nadal who just dominated and, you know, people couldn't get past him, where he's at. And now it was really.
Yeah. So awesome stuff. Yeah. Great, great, great Sunday for tennis.
[00:33:58] Speaker A: Aaron.
[00:34:00] Speaker B: Yeah. I mean, like you guys said, these look like the new two stars you won the last six majors and tennis. They're young, like you said. 23. What? 23 and 21.
[00:34:13] Speaker A: Some like that.
[00:34:14] Speaker B: So, I mean, they're not even really at their prime peak yet. I mean, Federer and all those guys were kind of, you know, in their late 20s, 30s, dominating the golden age of 10 is, like Jason mentioned. But now these two.
Who's a third person, Is there anybody that can challenge them? I mean, is there anybody coming up Rome, you watch it. That can maybe get themselves in the mix or give these guys a chance to knock them off?
[00:34:40] Speaker A: Well, you know, there's a few guys. You know, Djokovic is still there. It's just he doesn't have, like, as much zip, so, you know, he still might be good for, like, one or two. You got Musetti. He's pretty solid. There's a couple other American guys that have a chance. They're pretty young, in their early days.
[00:34:59] Speaker C: Fritz and Paul, right. They're kind of towards the top of the ring.
[00:35:03] Speaker A: Yeah.
But I don't know, man. I. I think.
I think that's it. I. I think they're gonna be dominating for a while. I think the women's gonna be a little tighter, though, because you got, like, quite a few.
[00:35:19] Speaker C: I would say, why you're not. Your number three is probably not the joke if you're looking for this next generation, Aaron. But, you know, we're gonna get this tournament where Joker's just, like, putting one last run together, and he's gotta go through. He's got to go through. Skinner he's got to go against Alcaraz. Like, it's gonna be. It's gonna be a whole thing, you know, that's gonna happen. There's gonna be this one, you know, like, Tigers, Last Masters in 2019 or whatever. Like, that guy comes through the thing and, like, pulls it off, and everyone's going for him. Whichever tournament is going to be like, there's going to be that moment at some point here in the next couple years for Djokovic.
[00:35:51] Speaker B: Yeah, I mean, he's not. He's not going to go out without a fight. So, yeah, I mean, there's going to be.
Whether or not it's, you know, Wimbledon or something like that, he's. I know I can't think off the top of my head, but I know there's one course he's really, really good at, you know, where he just dominates. I don't know. He won, like, eight or nine straight majors there. I don't remember which one it was. But, yeah, he's. He's not gonna go out quietly. Like you said, he's got that kind of attitude where, like, all right, like, you guys are doubting me. Like, let me show up for one last run and show you that, you know, even though I'm getting close to 40, I could still beat you guys in your early to mid-20s.
[00:36:29] Speaker A: Yeah, the women's is pretty exciting. I. I do watch a lot of women's, but you got Sablinka, Coco Golf, Pegola, a lot of Americans. It's like a nice little age where we're going to for women's tennis.
[00:36:44] Speaker B: You got, like, what age did Coco Golf start professionally? Because, I mean, I didn't realize she was 21. It seems like I've been hearing her name forever now.
[00:36:52] Speaker C: I think she was 16 or 15 or something like that when she was some of those early tournaments versus.
[00:36:57] Speaker B: I've been hearing her name for a long time. When you said 21, I'm like, man, I thought she was at least like, 25, because I've been hearing her name for a while.
[00:37:05] Speaker A: Yeah, she's won a couple majors, gotten close to a handful of others. Everyone's kind of waiting for her to do the breakout star. But there's just so many good women players right now.
Everyone's like, oh, this is where Coco Golf kind of finally catapults and, like, goes on this tear. But honestly, Sablinka is really good. Piccolo is really good. Paulini. There's just a. Like, probably a good eight women that can win it at any given moment.
Assuming Sabine and Goff don't and Pegula don't dominate for the next five years or so. But fun stuff. I have not been to a tennis tournament before, but I. But that's on my, on my bucket list.
[00:37:42] Speaker B: I want to go for a while. Rome.
[00:37:44] Speaker A: It's been on my bucket list for a while.
[00:37:46] Speaker B: You were wanting to go to the U.S. open. U.S. open in New York and then the. The Jets Rogers opener that like two years ago in Buffalo on that Monday night when he tore his Achilles. I think it's probably good he didn't.
[00:37:58] Speaker C: It could have been an all timer.
[00:38:02] Speaker B: That that was on the agenda, the calendar along with starting the podcast at that time that year too. Jason. So there was a lot, a lot of lives. A lot of priorities got in place before that.
[00:38:13] Speaker A: Yeah.
Yeah.
When is the US Open?
[00:38:18] Speaker C: It's Labor Day weekend, right?
[00:38:19] Speaker A: Yeah, I'm looking.
[00:38:21] Speaker B: Basically the weekend. It's basically the weekend after we're in Vegas for circa because that's what we were talking about, starting the pod. We've had notes together. That's when everything was like coming together.
[00:38:30] Speaker A: We should go to circa, do a pod out there and all fly out to New York, catch the game of the US Open, do a pot out there.
That'll be a hell of a weekend. It's right before football starts. It'll be a lot of fun.
I'm gonna have to do that.
I'm gonna look into that.
[00:38:49] Speaker B: Just make sure you don't have your daughter that weekend.
[00:38:52] Speaker A: I'll reschedule. I'll just have to reschedule. Sorry, baby. This is.
[00:38:57] Speaker C: Or take her with. Maybe you need to make her a tennis prodigy. You know, you need. She needs that. She needs that one experience. It's like I love tennis and then, you know.
[00:39:04] Speaker B: Does she like tennis?
[00:39:06] Speaker A: I'm trying to get into it. She's down to play it. But right now we're on golf. She has golf clubs already and she's down to go putt and like hit it. She has a pretty decent putt. Kind of. It's kind of crazy how good else.
[00:39:17] Speaker B: What else is she into? Soccer, softball, any of that stuff yet or. I mean, because you just have the Women's Worlds, you know, softball, World Series.
[00:39:25] Speaker A: Yeah, no, I.
It's just because her mom, you know, she's not gonna get that from her mom's house.
[00:39:33] Speaker B: Was there a mom, athlete, track or anything?
[00:39:38] Speaker A: I'm pretty sure there's a lot of moms out there.
Yeah.
I don't want to talk at her mom. Her mom sucks. But you know, all that stuff will come out the light later in the future.
Any other comments before we end the pod?
[00:39:55] Speaker C: Well, room, we're right here and we haven't talked about the biggest story in the world really today. I mean, the biggest story in the world.
My guy, Pope Leo steps to Vatican City rocking the White Sox hat.
Come on, man. I mean, the White Sox, the world's.
[00:40:15] Speaker B: Team right now, is he rocking that now that they've got new ownership coming in the next decade or what?
[00:40:20] Speaker A: You know what? Ever since, ever since he got voted as Pope, dude, a lot, a lot of good things are happening for Chicago and I'm a little worried.
[00:40:27] Speaker C: I'm just saying, I'm just saying God might be on our side right now. We got the Pope.
You know, Caleb Williams is about to go on a 10 year Super bowl run right now. Now that we got Ben Johnson.
You should be worried Rome. I mean, I'm gonna be insufferable. I'm just letting you know. Just gonna be insufferable.
But biggest news in the world right now, Rocket. When's the last time any pope was rocking like a sports team's hat in the back and sea. But no, we got the White Sox hand the iconic black and white.
[00:41:03] Speaker A: Yeah, I, I, you know, I don't keep track of Popes and what teams they go for, but I'm pretty sure the last one was like a big Argentina Messi guy.
[00:41:10] Speaker B: Right?
[00:41:10] Speaker A: Please. From there.
[00:41:11] Speaker C: Yeah, yeah. Well, there was a faint. There was a movie called the Two Popes. Oh, I believe was when where we had, we had two living Popes at the time. He had the, the former Pope that had, I guess retired, which generally never happens with the Pope. But they, they're watching the, I think Argentina vs Germany World cup final, I think together. So it was an. Anthony Hopkins was in the movie, but I guess that was a thing. So yeah, they were, I think they were big soccer fans, you know, or football, you know, the world's game. But now the first American Pope, the Chicago Pope, we're bringing the White Sox, we're bringing the south side to the global audience and letting everybody know the White Sox, at least, at least the Catholics favorite team now are the White Sox. But really it's the world's team.
[00:41:56] Speaker A: They're going to start serving the body of Christ and mass and start serving Chicago hot dogs or deep dish pizzas.
[00:42:04] Speaker C: 100% with a, with all those tips.
[00:42:08] Speaker B: They'Ve gotten over the years, they can afford to hand out a few hot dogs and pizzas with all the what? All the tips at Mass.
[00:42:16] Speaker C: I think he's talking about donations.
You talk about the donation? Played around, yes.
[00:42:24] Speaker A: Have you ever been in church?
[00:42:26] Speaker B: No. Wouldn't waste my time there, dude. Come on.
[00:42:29] Speaker C: He just called donations tips, bro.
[00:42:31] Speaker A: I was like, what tips?
I thought it was gonna be like some weird priest joke or something.
[00:42:36] Speaker C: No, no, he pro. He pretty much thinks they put. They. They give you the little handheld, you know, credit card machine. You put your credit card in and they're asking for a tip, and you're putting plus 15 in the service.
[00:42:48] Speaker A: That'd be really funny, actually.
Don't give them any ideas.
[00:42:53] Speaker C: Yeah, I'm sure it's gonna happen.
[00:42:54] Speaker A: Oh, dude, I gotta quote that one. That's great.
[00:42:57] Speaker B: There you go, bro. Tips, donations. At the end of the day, it's all. It's all cash, man.
[00:43:02] Speaker A: It's all cash.
[00:43:03] Speaker C: Well, regardless, we'll get to it in the baseball. The 2025 Baseball Preview at a certain point here. But you know the biggest news in sports right now, the Chicago White Sox.
[00:43:12] Speaker A: Daughter'S got beat the other day pretty badly. And Petco, well, they took two out of three.
[00:43:19] Speaker C: Yeah, Padres are pretty good team, man.
[00:43:22] Speaker A: Padres, yeah.
[00:43:24] Speaker B: That division's pretty good.
[00:43:25] Speaker A: That the Roman Empire begins with my Boston Red Sox.
Look for the rise.
I'll be having two teams winning World Series soon.
[00:43:36] Speaker C: Rome's just got so many teams. I can't keep up. I didn't know he was a Red Sox fan until right now. Okay.
[00:43:41] Speaker B: Yeah. I mean, beginning Rome were Red Sox back in the 2000s, early. Back when Manning all those guys before they even won. We. We went. Got a couple jerseys.
[00:43:50] Speaker A: Yeah, I don't know where my jerseys are at. I don't know where my jerseys are at.
[00:43:52] Speaker B: My hat. I know where mine. I got. I got that jersey. I got the Bulls jersey. I got the Tomlinson TCU jersey that Jason. We got from him. Yeah, I've got it all right there, man.
[00:44:03] Speaker C: I. I still got my Tomlinson TCU jersey, man. Aaron and I were distinguished charger season ticket holders.
[00:44:09] Speaker B: Yeah.
[00:44:10] Speaker A: By the way, real quick before we go. Hung out with Andrew, he wants to jump back on for an F1 segment, but he had the Gran Turismo race simulator game. I haven't played video games in years, and I end up getting stuck playing for two hours. Hey, I had nothing else to do anyways. I had. Well, I. I had stuff to do, but I was on call anyways.
[00:44:33] Speaker C: So when you say simulated, like he's got a whole unit or something.
[00:44:37] Speaker A: Just a Game. Just a game. Yeah.
[00:44:38] Speaker C: Okay.
[00:44:39] Speaker A: But then he, he. And then he got the F1 game. So I got the race that shows exciting. And now I'm like, ah, I, I, I didn't get it. I didn't get it.
[00:44:47] Speaker C: You let. I'm pretty sure you laughed at me like six months ago when we were about to record a pod and I was getting on the F1. I have my steering wheel and ready to go. F120. F125 just came out. Rob.
[00:44:57] Speaker A: Yeah. Yeah, that's what he just got.
Do you have Gran Turismo as well?
[00:45:02] Speaker C: I do.
[00:45:03] Speaker A: Which one do you like more?
[00:45:05] Speaker C: I like F1 more.
[00:45:06] Speaker A: Really?
[00:45:07] Speaker C: Yeah.
[00:45:08] Speaker A: The graphics don't look as real as Gran Turismo.
Or am I tripping out?
[00:45:14] Speaker C: I feel like you're tripping, but I don't know. I like the handling of the car a little more in F1 Gran Turismo. It's a lot of different cars in Gran Turismo and the different stuff, but it's a little more simpler for me. For F1 Gran Turismo, you got to go these different tracks and there's coins. You gotta buy crap and all. Like, it's, it's a whole thing. Yeah. You can stuck in for two, two and a half hours because you're trying to do these races to get more money, to get more cars and get all this stuff. F1. I just want to play the seasons. I want to do the different career modes. I want to build my own team.
[00:45:41] Speaker A: You know, I want to do my own storyline. I didn't really cast a storyline. When I saw the intro for F1.
[00:45:46] Speaker C: For, for the storyline mode.
[00:45:48] Speaker A: Yeah, it was like some woman driver and brothers beefing. I'm like, what the hell is this? I'm like, it's a real story. He's like, oh, no, it's just a, it's just this, a fun storyline. It's continuing from last season.
[00:46:00] Speaker C: Yeah, it's been the last. Every other year they do the storyline mode. And yeah, so it's like a, it's a, it's a, it's a expansion made up F1 team and they got like this drama with like, you know, yeah, dad, brother, sister, type, all this stuff. It's just to do a storyline. It's cool. You just play as them. But I, I, you knock that out really quick. If you're, if you're like a storyline game guy, you knock that out probably like in a day, it's not that big a deal, but for me, yeah, it's not that hard. I think it's like 15 levels or maybe even less than that. Like I'm probably. I think I'm three quarters of the way through it. I just. You can plug through. So. Yeah, you don't play for that though. You play for. You play to do your career mode. You make yourself as a driver and then you, you start your skills really crappy at like 63 and you sign with like one of the lower tier teams. So like this year I chose the Visa cast app Racing bulls, you know, for me. So I, I took Liam Lawson's spot because he sucks.
So I took Liam Lawson's spot and so, you know, I'm on the racing bulls and I'm beginning my rookie season.
[00:46:58] Speaker A: So Andrew was telling me all about like these different steering wheels and. And torque and. And pedals. I'm really curious what kind of stuff do you have?
[00:47:08] Speaker C: I got the basic logitech. I think it's like the G29 steering wheel. It's nothing crazy you know, there. But yeah, you can get like these ones.
Couple grand like got a whole. Got a whole thing. They basically got the F1.
[00:47:25] Speaker B: F1. You basically have the F1 right there.
[00:47:27] Speaker C: You're getting an F1 steering wheel. If you, if you ever watch these guys, like I'm never, I'm never gonna be the biggest guy gamer the way these guys are. But they will have, they will have racing gloves, the whole simulator and they.
[00:47:38] Speaker B: Helmet on too or what I mean.
[00:47:40] Speaker C: And they might as well. Most of them got the headset. They're doing their live gaming stuff but they're doing the pet. They're doing the pedal shifting and all this like that like, like, like it's real driving. So there's some serious guys out there that can do that stuff there. I'm not that I, you know, I'm not playing online. I'm just making my career just winning world championship after World Championship.
[00:48:00] Speaker B: F1 movie. Jason, do you get tickets to the world premiere?
[00:48:03] Speaker C: I will 100 be there for the world premiere.
[00:48:08] Speaker A: I'm gonna try to get tickets as well. Watch it in IMAX over here.
That for stapping crash Andrew was telling me that's like, that's like such a move that someone who races online would do.
And I guess Verstappen spends a lot of his time and is considering just doing online racing because he gets oh famous just as much.
[00:48:28] Speaker C: Yeah. Famously. He's like one of them. Not there like we.
[00:48:31] Speaker A: We did racing west. Is that what it's called?
[00:48:33] Speaker C: Ah yeah. So I mean, famously. We did a pod last year where he. I think, yeah, we think we did a pod last year where he stayed up, like, all night before a race because he was doing, like a. He was doing like a 24 hour race. And then he was all like, over the radio. And basically you said, because he was tired or whatever, because he was online doing. Doing the race. So. Yeah, I mean, there's. There's money in it. No danger. I mean, he's probably really good at this, but. Yeah, that's. That's like something like a video game stuff.
[00:49:02] Speaker A: It's getting weird.
It's getting weird. All right, I'll do it. Source from the sofa. Thanks, Jason. Thanks, Aaron. We'll catch you all later.
