ESPN's halftime show of Game 2 of the 2024 NBA Finals Photo Credit: ABC
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Viewers tuning into the ESPN halftime show of Thursday’s NBA Finals matchup between the Boston Celtics and the Dallas Mavericks were left leaving a lot to be desired. And unfortunately, the halftime show of Sunday’s Game 2 NBA Finals matchup was much of the same in the eyes of most fans.

All in all, the studio crew consisting of Malika Andrews, Michael Wilbon, Josh Hart, Bob Myers, and Stephen A. Smith received roughly a minute and 20 seconds of air time on Thursday to discuss the first half. This amount of time split five ways obviously gives each individual next to no time to be able to really add much of substance.

They received a bit more time on Sunday to break down what was a close and competitive first half. But not by much.

The halftime show started by showing a highlight of a sweet behind-the-back pass from Luka Dončić. While discussing it, Malika Andrews made a mistake, calling it a “behind-the-pass” from Dončić instead of a behind-the-back pass.

The rest of the studio crew then got into their analysis. Stephen A. Smith praised Jrue Holiday after a double-digit scoring effort, said “Luka is going to be Luka” and that the Mavericks need more out of Kyrie Irving. Bob Myers reaffirmed that Dallas “needs” to win this game. Michael Wilson called out the Mavericks’ lack of ball movement. And Josh Hart said that the Celtics should feel great after taking a three-point lead into the half after “playing terrible”.

That was it in terms of analysis from the studio crew for the halftime show. Following this, a highlight of a Luka Dončić three was shown, before it was sent back to the broadcast team of Doris Burke, JJ Redick, and Mike Breen.

A mic’d-up clip slight over 30 seconds of Jaylen Brown talking to teammates kicked off the return to the broadcast crew. Following that, Mike Breen read off some first-half stats, which was followed by some brief analysis from Doris Burke and JJ Redick that carried into the start of the third quarter.

When you really look at what was said during the halftime show, specifically from the studio crew, it certainly lacked a bit of substance overall. Particularly when it came to actual on-court adjustments that either team could do to potentially take control of the game in the second half.

Much like Thursday, viewers were left asking for a bit more when it came to the halftime show.

Everyone understands that commercials are necessary for any network to have.

But the lack of time that the studio crew is receiving is making their halftime show feel not only incredibly rushed, but also lacking some serious substance.

[Awful Announcing on X]

About Reice Shipley

Reice Shipley is a staff writer for Comeback Media that graduated from Ithaca College with a degree in Sports Media. He previously worked at Barrett Sports Media and is a fan of all things Syracuse sports.

View all posts by Reice Shipley