FIRST TAKE | Stephen A. Smith reacts to Cleveland Cavaliers dismissed head coach J.B. Bickerstaff

FIRST TAKE | Stephen A. Smith reacts to Cleveland Cavaliers dismissed head coach J.B. Bickerstaff

for you this morning from the NBA the Cleveland Cavaliers have fired head coach JB bicker staff sources told ESPN bicker staff ushered the Cavaliers through a rebuild winning 99 regular season games in the past two seasons including the franchise’s first birth in the Eastern Conference semis in six seasons Stephen A what’s your thoughts on this I’m not happy about it um I don’t think he deserved to be fired um I think that when you look at him and listen um I love me some Donovan Mitchell everybody knows that I wish he was a New York Nick um if Donovan Mitchell wanted him there I think he’d still be there that’s just my my belief I I haven’t spoken to anybody as of yet about it but that’s just my belief um clearly Cleveland wants to keep Donovan Mitchell For the Long Haul and I doubt that they would make a move that they think he would be averse to or completely objectionable to so I got to take that into consideration as well um but I just think that you know know what I if you had decided to let him go after he loses in the playoffs because Donovan Mitchell doesn’t miss the last two games and Jared Allen isn’t hurt and can’t play in the series if they played and they lost um I I would be able to stomach this a little bit better the fact that both of them were out Jared Allen for the series Donovan Mitchell for the last couple of games especially after they had Beat Boston in Boston uh kind of rubs me the wrong way but again I’m not surprised um this what happen this is what happens in the coaching profession and it’s not just the black coaches uh even though we see that qu far more often than I would like it’s to White coaches as well we see coaches getting fired left and right who we perceive is doing a relatively good job and and clearly um you know whether the players want to admit it or not how they play for a guy um and how they act towards a guy have a very big big role in deciding their tenure at these respective franchises absolutely but the did finish fourth in the East which is pretty impressive okay we’ll leave it there uh Stephen Kyrie started it off putting up 35 and four and then Luca finished it leading the Mavs past the Timberwolves in a game one Thriller donic had 15 of his 33 points in the fourth to lift Dallas to a 108 105 win at Minnesota in the west finals Anthony Edwards on his take on why the Wolves lost take a listen we came out flat today I mean and then we found our energy then we went back to and flat so I think it was just on us everything was on us today um I didn’t get downhill as much um yeah just stuff like that we was just a little tired probably all right hey guys Wendy’s back here with us Tim legler sa switch and gears here tell me this what do you feel like the Wolves you know I’m not going to kick it to him let’s start with you Wendy what do you think the Wolves need to do to win game two yeah so the Mavericks really have had a very simple but effective game plan and it’s something that you know teams that have more experience in the playoffs will learn how to deal with they just sat back and they just said shoot the three just go ahead and shoot it and this is not really the Wolves game they obviously can make threes uh but they never shot as many threes in the whole season as they did last night ant Edwards who is obviously one of the most dynamic drivers of the basketball in the league he takes four shots inside the paint this is not the type of game Molly that you want have in November much less in game one of the Western Conference Finals so Dallas did a great job having a game plan and Minnesota fell into it and I also think Minnesota not having been here before underestimated the energy level that they were going to need for this game ant Edwards was exhausted by the end of this because he’s never done this before he didn’t understand that you know what it was going to take to get from one series to another so obviously it was disappointing for Minnesota but it was a huge learning experience and Dallas had a great game plan and this series is absolutely on and I expect it to go back and forth for the next two weeks yeah look I want to First address some of the things Anthony Edward said in his sound because I don’t agree with some of the things he said there’s one thing he said I absolutely agree with number one I don’t agree with the fact they weren’t flat at the start of the game they hit that team with 33 points in the first quarter all the energy was directed at the Minnesota timberl at the start of that game they had the crowd into the game you know the game I called game three of the Denver Minnesota series when they were up 2 the first game at home that game they came out flat the building never got into it that was not the case last night so I don’t agree with that I don’t know why they would be tired they had two days off Anthony ever’s 22 years old if you want to say some of your vets were but he wasn’t talking about Mike Conley Rudy goar Carl Anthony towns he seemed like he was talking about himself I don’t know why fatigue would be a factor he also said it was all about us it wasn’t all about you the Dallas Mavericks are a very good team so I don’t agree with those three things the one thing he did say I do agree with he didn’t get downhill enough Wendy just pointed it out 75% % of his shots were taken beyond the three-point Arc that’s not Anthony Edwards strength sometimes when you a guy this talented athletically and you’ve got a Turbocharger you’ve got to just kick it into turbo gear and go and trust your athletic ability once you get down there to make plays they were giving him what I would call Giannis treatment and I diagrammed this last night on SVP after the game when you have one guy on the ball at the top of the key where he was operating two guys standing at the elbows two guys standing at the Block you basically have the pain sealed off that is what Anthony Edwards was looking at he’s got to get into his actions earlier before Dallas has a chance to lock in on how they want to focus on playing him they dared this team to take threes they took 49 of them the most they taken in a playoff game prior to last night was 40 and that’s a high number for them they took nine more than that that’s exactly what Dallas was counting on regardless of the early surge that they had they knew that they were going to cool off they were 11 for 25 at halftime 7 for 24 in the second half the game plan worked to Perfection on the part of the Dallas Mavericks defensively let’s see what Minnesota’s answer is let’s see what Anthony Edwards answer is in terms of attacking this team trust your athletic ability get into the paint and and get to the foul line I guarantee you you’re going to see that kind of response out of Anthony Edwards in game two yeah but you got to be careful about them Dallas drawing offensive fouls because they’re not they’re not too shabby at that so you got to be careful about that as well you also got to look at a lot of times they looked like they were zoning up Tim like you know you Anthony Edward you got one guy on you but you knew they were ready to collapse the minute you tried to get into the lane and then you kicking it out to cats that you may not have all the confidence in the world no matter what you articulate to the public you might not have that level of confidence that they’re going to really drain those threes like you need them to whether it’s a Nas Reed or Jen McDaniels or even a Carl Anthony towns thirdly you don’t want Carl Anthony towns shooting as many threes as he shot a few of them sure but in the end you’re damn near seven feet tall take advantage of those matches having said all of that that’s just offense I think Minnesota’s strength is really about their defense when they can lock you down it creates opportunities for them in the open court to finish at the basket and it really really gets them going and you know how the young you know how the younger dudes are you get up in a you get up and down the court you get in the Fast Break mode you finishing game you finishing baskets with dunks and all of this other stuff you know you getting more and more hyped that adrenaline is elevating so I look at it from that standpoint I pay attention to that and I say listen get somehow someway you’ve got to get your defense formidable enough where Kyrie and Luca and those boys are they’re worried about that now that’s a tall task that’s a tall ass because it’s Luca and Kyrie that we’re talking about but if you’re Minnesota the number one defense in the NBA you’ve got to be able to do that and looking at Rudy go did you see him just holding off gaff went on now Gaffin ain’t no weak dude and plus he’s a Skywalk himself but you saw Rudy just shoving him around along with Lively of course who’s really athletic and good but also thin the fact is is that Rudy can handle a lot of stuff in the post defensively what’s the rest of y’all going to do what’s the rest of y’all going to do out on the perimeter and guarding those other guys to neutralize Dallas’s offense to some degree something’s got to give in that regard and that is my concern okay yeah I thought it was a really interesting game plan that Dallas had you guys pointed that out the other thing what they did with Luca they Jason kid felt that Luca was getting worn down a little bit in that last series and so this is something to watch going forward they specifically went to Kyrie Irving early they specifically wanted to give Luca a little bit of extra rest in the first half so that he would have more energy in the fourth quarter and when we got to the fourth quarter you could just see Luca hit the gas has 15 points in the fourth quarter that is the basis of this team which is to let Kyrie Irving remove some of the load from Luca so that he can do the heavy lifting this is exactly the blueprint of the way this Dallas Mavericks team is designed and it doesn’t just tell us about game one of the Western Conference Finals it tells us potentially what could happen in an NBA Finals over the next couple of years that was a game that Dallas wants to replicate over and over whether they will or not will be the basis of who advances from this series yeah Stephen A one other you are on the red team sometimes words cut deeper than swords [Music] you’re asking the wrong our Middle Lane Tower is under [Music] attack our Dragon Lane Tower is under attack Mercy is overrated our Middle Lane Tower is under attack First Blood for Blood our Middle Lane Tower is under attack dragon and Slayer have appeared let cut deeper my an ally has been defeated our Middle Lane Tower is under attack has been defeated Slayer has been defeated you our Slayer Lane Tower is under attack an enemy has been defeated our Slayer Lane Tower is under attack those greedy bastards are never Lane Tower is under attack our Middle Lane Tower is under attack you have defeated an enemy an ally has been defeated fre you have been defeated an enemy has our SL Lan Tower is under attack toast an enemy has been defeated failure is an option surrender is not the iron defense line has disappeared send the ballista onlly our Middle Lane Tower is under attack your tower has been destroyed your team has destroyed a tower you asking the wrong person for kindness yes your team has destroyed a tower your tower has been dest destroyed don’t hold back an enemy has been defeated I never win you have defeated an enemy for something don’t hold back those greedant bastards are nervous our Middle Lane Tower is under attack First Blood Mercy is overrated our Slayer Lane Tower is under attack you asking the wrong

FIRST TAKE | Stephen A. Smith reacts to Cleveland Cavaliers have dismissed head coach J.B. Bickerstaff