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00:00Those big-time games and the action that you need to know tonight, and it starts in the association, Joe.
00:05Minnesota Timberwolves taking on the Detroit Pistons.
00:08That's not overnight.
00:09At some outlets, Joe, open up at minus one and a half.
00:11That's not what we're seeing right now.
00:12It's minus three and a half at just about every outlet I'm looking at right now.
00:16If you take a look at the total, 225 and a half overnight.
00:19That hasn't moved into staying at 225 and a half.
00:22The Timberwolves on the road to take on the Pistons, and the line is increasing in Detroit's favor.
00:27What's your spread line tonight on T-Wolves Pistons, Joe?
00:30Well, listen, I mean, Minnesota really, as far as the seeding goes, really only needs to hold off Phoenix to
00:38get that berth in the first round of the Western Conference playoffs.
00:41And they lead the Suns by four and a half games.
00:44So the Timberwolves, I think, have won five of their last seven here.
00:49They did get Anthony Edwards back, which is important.
00:53But, you know, the big question is, what is Detroit going to look like without Cade Cunningham?
00:56And the answer is they're six and two without him since he's gone down.
01:00So I don't it doesn't shock me Detroit at home.
01:03Both teams had off last night coming in here with the injury report looks pretty good for both.
01:09I don't think we're going to be expecting a ton of guys sitting in this one here tonight.
01:13So it doesn't shock me because Detroit has actually done a pretty good job here against Minnesota.
01:19I think the money is going that way for a reason here tonight.
01:24And I kind of like I like Detroit barring nobody gets, you know, all of a sudden last second.
01:29Oh, sorry.
01:30Duren sitting.
01:31Austin Thompson said, you know, everyone is sitting.
01:34I do think here Detroit holds serve at home tonight.
01:38Let's go on the West Coast here and talk about the Golden State Warriors taking on the Cleveland Cavaliers.
01:42Two things we know.
01:43Cleveland's still trying to jockey for playoff positioning, but looks like the Golden State Warriors, Joe,
01:47they're probably going to settle in as that 10 seed in the play.
01:49And so they asked Steve Kerr just a few days ago, hey, when's Steph coming back?
01:53I was going to start screaming.
01:54There is no rush at this point.
01:55They just went in healthy for the playoff run.
01:57And then you see the line here, Joe, minus 10 and a half as a favorite for Cleveland on the
02:01road,
02:02taking on the Warriors and a total of 227 and a half.
02:05It's a spread line for you here, Joe.
02:07Yeah, well, unfortunately for the Warriors last night, they ran into the San Antonio Spurs.
02:13I think that had a 70 to 48 lead at the half.
02:16And that was pretty much all she wrote.
02:19But Porzingis didn't play with that in that game last night.
02:22Melton did.
02:23It's always important.
02:24I mean, they're shorthanded as it is Golden State.
02:26So it's kind of important to know who exactly is playing for Golden State and who won't be.
02:32But listen, the Cleveland Cavaliers, they're in the midst of a pretty long road trip here to end the season
02:38right now.
02:39They got caught last game.
02:41Are we expecting a bounce back?
02:43I mean, the Lakers beat them up pretty good there a couple of nights ago.
02:47I tend to think this is a good bounce back spot for the Cleveland Cavaliers here.
02:52Where Golden State is just, at this point, against decent teams, kind of unbettable.
02:58By the way, who's going to want to take on the Spurs in the playoffs here?
03:01Did they even lose anymore at this point?
03:02Could they chase down OKC for that number one overall seed?
03:05Crazy times.
03:06Joe Mazzulla, all he does is win, win, win, no matter what.
03:10And after 200 games, the highest winning percentage in NBA history?
03:15Joe Mazzulla, Joe Ranieri, 723 is that winning percentage.
03:19He probably doesn't want to talk about it, but we will.
03:36At the right time in the right situation there, you know, once you, everyone thought Dodoka
03:41was going to be the future for the Celtics as the, you know, that next head coach that
03:45was going to be Red Arbott, going to be there 100 years.
03:48Yeah, that didn't work out all that well.
03:50And then this guy gets thrown into the fire afterwards.
03:53And what does he do, Donnie?
03:54He just wins games.
03:55And with the same superstars, by the way.
03:58And not a whole lot of controversy surrounding him.
04:00So talk about a calming effect.
04:03Right guy at the right time at the right place.
04:05That's for sure.
04:06Right time, right place.
04:08That's how you get down to business.
04:09Right time, right place in Portland here.
04:11How about this new story?
04:12I'm going to read this because I had to do a double take.
04:14The Portland Trailblazers have been fined $100,000 for impermissible contact.
04:20With a draft ineligible prospect in connection with Yang Hanson during the 2023-2024 NBA season.
04:28Let me ask you a question, Joe.
04:29Just getting through that.
04:30We'll get to the player in itself.
04:32Is one guy working on a stack of papers up to a ceiling that would be in the Empire State
04:38building here where he can't get to anything before 2023?
04:42Yeah.
04:44Exactly.
04:44I don't know.
04:45This whole thing was very confusing.
04:48And then you come to find out that, I guess, Portland ratted on itself.
04:53And that's the reason why this all came down.
04:55So, it's very strange with what was going on there because this kid was, as we said, pretty –
05:03I mean, he was pretty coveted around the league here for a lot of spots.
05:07But I don't know.
05:08Is Portland trying to do this, trying to do the right thing?
05:11I mean, I give him credit.
05:12I mean, at this point, you already lost your head coach to a gambling situation there, a controversy.
05:17So, I think the Blazers at this point are looking at everything and being like, uh-uh, like, send it
05:23over.
05:23We're good to go.
05:24Anything – any line we might have crossed, let's go ahead and self-report it.
05:29And by the way, it cost you $100,000.
05:31He drafted the guy.
05:32He averages 2.3 points per game, 1.6 rebounds per game.
05:36There are, mind you, he's 7'1", 270.
05:39But here's my favorite statistic, Joe.
05:41He shoots 31% from the floor.
05:43Aren't you as a 7'1 center stand under the rim they throw it to you and you just lay
05:47it in?
05:48Can the guy – like, we talked about a 7'9 center from Florida who can't get on the court.
05:51And now a 7'1 center who shoots 31% from the floor.
05:55That can't happen, Joe.
05:56It's got to be at least 80%.
05:58Come on.
05:59Well, usually, you know, guys that – at 19, Donnie, when they were looking at him, right?
06:037'1", 7'2", and you're like, oh, boy, they're going to have to feed this kid.
06:07I mean, it's not like he's – he's not Chet Holmgren.
06:11I mean, like, this is a dude, he's 270 pounds.
06:14Like, he's – you ain't pushing him around all that easy, and he still can't get it going there in
06:19Portland,
06:19which is kind of crazy when you think about it.
06:22Help me out with this.
06:23The Celtics last night, Joe, came down to South Beach.
06:25They wanted to put on a show.
06:26They scored 53 points in the first quarter and hit 11 triples, a 20-point lead.
06:33Imagine being the Heat.
06:34You scored 33 in the first quarter, and you're down 20, Joe.
06:39This was not a tough read last night of what was going to happen,
06:42which makes the Sixers' loss even worse for them,
06:47watching what Boston did when they came down and just absolutely dismantled the Heat last night.
06:53Listen, the Heat, you want to play fast, that's great.
06:56The problem is, yeah, you play fast, and you give up 150 points a game,
07:01and they've done this now on a couple of occasions, Donnie, where this game was never in doubt.
07:07I mean, yes, the Heat, I think the closest they got was nine points at the end of the third
07:12quarter,
07:13but that was all she wrote.
07:14You already dug yourself the hole.
07:16There was no coming out of that.
07:18And Boston, listen, they are revving up here, getting ready for another title run.
07:25Reven up is right.
07:26Having 147 points, they scored in regulation against the Heat, a 147, 129 victory down on South Beach.
07:33You saw Brown, 43 points.
07:34Didn't we talk about it yesterday on the Predictive Markets, where Joe says,
07:37hey, maybe if Brown can stay hot, it's his team.
07:40You heard the comments here, and then I told you, well, if he gets 30-plus points,
07:43that's a big ticket in your back pocket.
07:4643-7 for the man.
07:48We said, I mean, he was making such a big deal after that loss the other day that he was
07:55to Atlanta,
07:56that he was like, it was the worst game I played.
07:58He still dropped 20, what, 24, 20?
08:00It wasn't a terrible game for Brown, but in his mind it was, which you just kind of knew.
08:06Yeah, Boston has owned Miami for a while now, and they're going to continue to own Miami
08:12because they can't get out of their own way.
08:15I'm going to get to the awards market here in just a few moments.
08:18I'm going to bring that up.
08:18And by the way, last night we had the Spurs and the Warriors, as Joe pointed out,
08:21and the Warriors are going to play again on a back-to-back tonight,
08:24still a double-digit underdog.
08:25The Spurs came to town, dropped 127 on the Warriors to beat them by double digits.
08:30But did you see Victor Wemanyama's stat line right there, Joe?
08:3341 points, 18 rebounds.
08:38And we're waiting for this kid to actually understand, you know,
08:41and his body to fill out at this point.
08:43What's on the horizon?
08:44It's scary.
08:46It's very scary.
08:47But, I mean, the match-up, I mean, once poor Zingas was ruled out,
08:50what, was Draymond going to keep him off the boards?
08:53Like, there was nobody there on the Golden State Warriors that was going to be able
08:58to limit him in anything.
09:00And this has been the M.O., Donnie, by the way, of the Spurs all year long.
09:05They will absolutely destroy you out of the gates, and then by the fourth quarter, Donnie,
09:10then it's just really they can rotate in five, six other guys because you're already down
09:1520 and you're not coming back no matter what the final score says.
09:18So the Spurs, they are a very interesting team.
09:23If I'm OKC, I'm not thinking I'm cakewalking right back to the NBA Finals again.
09:29So if we go to the awards market and a chance for an MVP, it was a runaway with SGA.
09:34If I'm looking right now at the FanDuel Sportsbook here, SGA down to a minus 360 favorite, which
09:39is still a favorite here.
09:40But Webinyama at a plus 300 now.
09:42Now, quickly on those heels of SGA, and we know one thing, who won the MVP last year
09:48was SGA.
09:49Voters love to say, eh, you won it last year.
09:52Somebody's close.
09:53I'll give it to the new young gun at this point.
09:55This will be a close race throughout the end of the year.
09:56And again, if we're going to get efforts like we saw last night from Webinyama and also,
10:00Joe, from Wemby and his team, who could catch OKC in the standings as well.
10:06Yeah, two games separate them, right?
10:0858 wins, 58 and 18 for the Spurs, 60 and 16 for OKC.
10:15Listen, Donnie, you show me anybody that if they wanted to start a franchise tomorrow in
10:21the NBA, right?
10:22Hey, you're Vegas, you're Seattle.
10:24You get to pick anybody from any team.
10:27Are you picking SGA over Webinyama to start a franchise?
10:32I mean, it's not even close to me.
10:34I'm taking Webinyama anytime without him, the Spurs, they're a decent team, but they
10:41are nowhere near what they are right now.
10:45People are just starting to hate OKC as they're revving up here, certainly for a playoff and
10:49maybe a back-to-back championship run.
10:51They're going to take on the Los Angeles Lakers tonight from OKC.
10:54A 9.30 start, Joe.
10:55And if we take a look at this line, how about this?
10:57Eight and a half in the marketplace overnight.
10:59You see the graphic.
11:00They're up to nine.
11:01Only about 25% of the tickets coming in on OKC.
11:05Hint, hint!
11:06Maybe a buy, buy, buy.
11:08But how about this?
11:08Could this be a playoff preview for the Western Conference, Joe?
11:12Oh, very much so here.
11:14You know, and keep in mind, the Lakers early on in the season, for about half the season,
11:19Donnie, they could not beat quality teams like OKC.
11:23Like, they were not beating the—they'd beat all the bottom feeders, but they wouldn't
11:27beat the bottom feeder teams.
11:29That was until over the last month or so when they started playing some defense, and now
11:34they're beating all the good teams.
11:35They just did it to Cleveland, who is, again, a 600-winning percentage team.
11:41I think this is far too many points to consider that they're just going to boat race a Lakers
11:46team that's finally healthy.
11:48Let's go to another L.A. team late night here, Spurs and the Clippers.
11:51The reason I want to bring this up is we just saw the Spurs play last night.
11:53Webb and Yama went nuts.
11:55Does he play tonight, Joe?
11:56And the Spurs are still the favorite at minus four and a half.
11:59Oh, he absolutely plays tonight, because don't think that for one minute, they don't know
12:03that he is right there in the MVP market.
12:06So, yes, I think he absolutely plays tonight.
12:09May not play the whole game, but he's playing here tonight.
12:13Look at that.
12:14MVP chances.
12:15Chance to take the number one seed here.
12:16And by the way, they do own OKC at this point right now.
12:19Fun times in the association, more hot topics on the way next, only right here on the Sports
12:24Grid Network.
12:25It's a Thursday, getting down to the business here on the early line.
12:28It's Donnie Wright's side, and it's Joe Ranieri.
12:30We're going to welcome in Kevin Walsh.
12:31I wanted to bring him up right away, because, you know, history around the Sports Grid Network,
12:35we have a lot of fun times.
12:37And a lot of clips go around, they'll be like, man, just show me that clip, and you get a
12:40good laugh out of it.
12:41Well, I brought one of these clips up to Joe Ranieri, Kevin, just a few moments ago.
12:45And you were live on the air with me when this happened.
12:49Do you know what I'm about to bring up here at all, Kevin?
12:53No.
12:53I mean, that's—Donnie, you and I have done a lot of shows together.
12:57The amount of information you have given me is simply not enough to make any type of
13:01guest.
13:02And no, it's not looking at the return monitor of somebody trying to check in there that
13:06drives us nuts during Super Bowl shows or NFL shows.
13:09It's not that, Kevin.
13:10I was in this office space and let out a, ow!
13:15You know what I'm about.
13:16Oh, when you got stung by a bee?
13:18See that?
13:18I'm not lying.
13:19See that, people?
13:20I'm not lying.
13:20Well, I mean, it did happen.
13:22If you're—yeah, Donnie also, I think, once had a stroke during radio and took like a
13:29segment and a half off and came right back and just started ripping Celtics' Knicks
13:35breakdown.
13:35So, yeah, no, I mean, yeah, it was a good time, that show.
13:40Donnie did get stung by a bee, though, on air.
13:44That really happened.
13:45I saved the bee for a while, Joe.
13:46And by the way, the stroke incident was we opened up the show and I—look, I couldn't
13:52read the computer screen out of my left eye, so I just threw it to Kevin.
13:56Hung on for a segment and said, Kevin, I don't feel all that well.
13:59Now, this is how you know I'm sort of a maniac here.
14:01I don't like to call out and I don't care how sick I am.
14:03Joe, I went up in this two segments to lay down and try to take a nap, then came back
14:08and Kevin's like, you can't do this.
14:10Why don't we just take the rest of the day off?
14:11I'm for the people, though, Joe.
14:13How about that?
14:14Almost had a stroke on the air and came back to finish the segment.
14:17I'm just trying to think.
14:19Did you keep the bee as a pet?
14:21Like, you said you held on to the bee?
14:23Like, what—what happened to that bee after I started it?
14:26Yeah, he was already dead at that point, but I found him, like, set him aside as like
14:30a reminder.
14:30But then the question always comes up, like, I'm in my finished basement in a corner.
14:35Like, how did a bee even get down there?
14:37And only one bee?
14:38And it found me and stung me on the hand in the middle of a segment.
14:41That's how we get down, Joe.
14:42But we do got to get down to the business.
14:44I would like to reminisce the entire segment of the entire show.
14:47We got big business to get to tonight, and that includes the Lakers and the Thunder
14:51tonight.
14:52Now, you might see OKC run away, number one overall seed.
14:56Here come the San Antonio Spurs.
14:57You might think SGA, Kevin, is going to be the MVP.
15:00Here comes Victor Webinyama, but we might have a playoff preview here tonight.
15:04Lakers, Thunder, nine-point spread.
15:05How about that?
15:07Yeah, this should be a lot of fun to follow here tonight.
15:09I do think that it's kind of impossible to look at this game through, not through this
15:17MVP race lens that we have going on.
15:21It's interesting, though, right?
15:23Because Luka is somewhat a part of the conversation, and yet the odds would tell you it's really
15:29just Shea versus Wemby right now, 30-1 for Luka.
15:34Jokic also having maybe somehow the best statistical career of his season.
15:39And having no chance to win league MVP is incredible, as he's priced now at 100-1.
15:48I think the trick is, again, if just, what's the Luka number that anyone feels comfortable
15:56betting under?
15:57Where you go, OK, they've adjusted it too much for the moment.
16:00Like 32-1 against the Thunder defense isn't easy to come by.
16:04Like 30-1 for SGA, I mean, he usually gets there.
16:09So, I mean, is it just kind of a superstar special in a game like this?
16:15I guess maybe the question I would almost put back to you guys, and maybe it's rhetorical
16:20because there is no legitimate answer.
16:22Is there anything Luka and the Lakers can do to actually have Donchich in this MVP race
16:30where we start to ask ourselves, maybe Luka's going to win this award?
16:36Joe?
16:38Not as long as Wemby Yama finishes it out.
16:41I just don't see him overtaking, you know, that kid.
16:45That's the problem here.
16:47I mean, all things being equal, you know, L.A. market certainly is going to garner the
16:53kind of consideration there, top of mind.
16:55Those were all popularity contests anyway.
16:57But what Wemby Yama is doing, unless he sits out the rest of the way to the postseason,
17:04it's kind of hard for me to fathom anybody takes it.
17:07Even SGA, it just feels like Wemby Yama is on a different level right now.
17:11I think the big thing that works for SGA versus Wemby, Joe, is just the record right now.
17:18And it's not a lot, but it's enough, I think.
17:24But if the Spurs were to catch OKC, then we have a completely different, I think, race on our hands
17:33here, right?
17:33And I know there are some people who the Thunder's schedule is harder than San Antonio's rest of season.
17:43But again, this is one of the toughest games OKC is supposed to play.
17:47They're still nearly double-digit favorites because, you know, this team is just priced in a completely different stratosphere,
17:53really, than everybody else.
17:55I guess maybe just them and San Antonio, you know, maybe full-strength Boston, what they did yesterday.
18:01I still somewhat kind of 53 points in the first quarter is just outrageous from that Celtics team there.
18:08So I'm looking at Thunder Lakers right now.
18:11And it's tough, though, because for the Lakers, we've talked about this, man, I think I want to say it
18:17was Knicks-Thunder about a month ago, us three.
18:21And we're like, the Knicks don't have to win, but they can't get embarrassed.
18:25They can't get punked.
18:26And that's what happened.
18:27They lost a close one.
18:29If you're the Lakers, you don't have to win this game.
18:32You can't get embarrassed, though.
18:34How about Spurs-Clippers tonight, too?
18:36And I asked Joe the same question.
18:37He had a pretty good response to this, saying, you know what?
18:39Wemby played last night, 41-18.
18:41He's going to play again.
18:42And Joe's like, yeah, they are two games back from OKC.
18:44He's in the MVP race.
18:46He will play, which brings us up here.
18:48Clippers and the Spurs tonight.
18:49What do we get out of Wemby?
18:50Just watching Wemby play.
18:53Kevin, if we're just looking like two or three years into the future, when he adds like 10 or 15
18:56more pounds and really understands the game, as if he doesn't at 41-18 last night, the sky is the
19:01limit.
19:01What do you think about the Spurs tonight?
19:02And also, in the playoffs, where they own OKC this year, don't they?
19:07Yeah, they've had a lot of regular season success.
19:09We'll, one, see if we get to that series, but, you know, and how it translates.
19:14It's for those, Victor Webb and Yama, I believe, was now 25-1 in his last 26 games.
19:21The Spurs are 25-2.
19:23It's just Wemby missed one of the losses.
19:25So, it feels important to acknowledge.
19:30Three and a half, though, some number, huh?
19:33This Clipper team, all of a sudden, is booked like one of the, you know, six best, it looks like,
19:41in basketball.
19:43The basketball god, Kevin Walsh.
19:45Do we call him that now?
19:46I guess we call him that now.
19:47We'll be right back after the break.
19:48Catch him on GTD.
19:55You got NHL, NBA, NIT action tonight.
20:00Association is where I'm going, Joe, but where are you going tonight with your best bet?
20:05I'm going to go to the association, too, Donnie.
20:08And I love the value in this spot here.
20:12This line was as much as six, six and a half last night.
20:16It's already starting to come down.
20:17And I agree with it, because I don't see a lot separating the Phoenix Suns and the Charlotte Hornets right
20:24now.
20:25And to get nearly two buckets of value, when, by the way, Mark Williams looks like he might make his
20:32return tonight for Phoenix, the big man.
20:35I mean, Booker is playing at a ridiculous level right now here.
20:40And Dylan Brooks is back.
20:42And the Suns have been a fantastic story, just like Charlotte.
20:46There's enough firepower here.
20:48The difference is that Phoenix actually plays defense.
20:51They've lost five of six on the road, Donnie.
20:55And I think that's why this number is a little bit high here.
20:58I like the point.
20:59I'll take the points, and I will sprinkle a little something on the Suns' money line tonight.
21:03I also, going back to the association, took the stinky Utah Jazz.
21:07Of course they covered, because everybody bet the other side yesterday.
21:10I'm going to do this a little bit different today.
21:12Lakers-Thunder game.
21:13Nobody's bad in this game.
21:14OKC, Joe, is favored currently by nine points right now.
21:18Only about 25% of the tickets are coming in on the Oklahoma City Thunder, which means, Lakers, that's too
21:25many points.
21:25I'll take it.
21:26You know what I'm telling you right now?
21:27We're not taking it.
21:28We're laying the OKC.
21:31Smarten up, people.
21:32We're fading the public here with another W.
21:34Take those Thunder tonight to cover by double digits.
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