00:00So, Rohit, let's take a look at the odds.
00:02The Hornets are three-and-a-half-point favorites with a total of 218-and-a-half,
00:06and I know, you know, certainly it's almost impossible to look at this game
00:09and back the Magic in any way, but with the talent that they have,
00:13I mean, it would not surprise anyone to see this game.
00:15I think it would surprise anybody to see the Magic do anything in the playoffs this season,
00:19but do you think that it is curtains for them tonight if you include the odds here as well?
00:24Yeah, I really do.
00:25I mean, I understand that it's tempting to take the points with the home side
00:28between two teams that, at least on paper, don't look very far apart,
00:32but like I said, I have not been impressed with how the Magic have played down the stretch,
00:36don't love their body language, don't love how they play from behind,
00:39and then you look at this Hornets team, and they have been red hot.
00:42I mean, since the All-Star break, you know, this team is second in the league in offensive rating,
00:46second in the league in net rating, and when they win, they tend to win big.
00:50In their last 25 games, they have 18 wins, 16 of those wins coming by double digits.
00:56It's last three meetings against the Magic, including two in Orlando.
00:59They won those by at least 15 points.
01:01I know Suggs, I don't think, played in two of them,
01:03and I think Wagner didn't play in two of them either,
01:06but at the same time, I do think that the Hornets, you know, have a significantly better team.
01:10If you're going to look at the Magic, I would say just take them on the money line.
01:13I think if they keep this close, they have a pretty good chance of winning,
01:16but I honestly don't think it'll be that close.
01:18So, you know, another way to play it, you know, I'm laying the points with the Hornets,
01:23but another way to play it is alternate spreads because the Hornets have been just destroying teams
01:28over the last couple of months.
01:30Makes sense here.
01:30So the tougher game to call will be Warriors-Suns for sure
01:33because Phoenix has been pretty consistent all season long.
01:36They took a tough loss the other day.
01:38They're going to be slight favorites against Golden State.
01:41I mean, do they have a win in them here?
01:43I mean, I'm not asking them to win a lot of playoff games,
01:45but this would be a disappointing season overall if they couldn't just win one of these two tournament games, Rohit.
01:51Yeah, I think so, but I think it would be a little bit disappointing for both of these teams to,
01:55you know, miss the playoffs when they have guys like Booker and Curry on the team,
01:59veteran teams there at the same time.
02:01But, yeah, I do think the Suns managed to pull this one off.
02:04Big thing, of course, is that the Suns do defend the arc extremely well.
02:08You know, it's kind of a good defensive team against a team that has just been kind of awful defensively.
02:12Since the All-Star break, Warriors are 22nd in the league in defensive rating.
02:16When you take into account all the brutal teams this season that have been tanking since midseason,
02:21that means the Warriors pretty much have the worst defense out of any competitive team in the league.
02:26So that's not great in this matchup.
02:28And, you know, the Suns do play pretty good defense of their own,
02:32and they've got Booker and a few guys that can score.
02:34So I do think the Suns managed to take this one,
02:36but it would be disappointing, I think, for either of these teams to miss out on the postseason.
02:40All right, Rohit, stick around.
02:42We're going to get his best plays tonight in the National Basketball Association
02:45for the final two play-in games,
02:47and then we'll start previewing some of the upcoming series in the NBA,
02:51including the matchup between Minnesota and Denver,
02:53and also Atlanta and New York.
02:55You're watching Newswire here on SportsGrid.
02:57We'll take a quick timeout, more NBA discussion when we return next.
03:01All right, Rohit Panay is back with us.
03:03He's sticking around to preview some more NBA games coming up in the playoffs in 2026.
03:09But, Rohit, before we do that, let's go back real quick.
03:11Your best plays for the NBA's play-in games as we wrap this up on Friday.
03:17Yeah, like I said, I'm going to lay the points with the Hornets here.
03:20I just love how they've played over the last couple of months.
03:22They've arguably been one of the top teams in the league,
03:24and now they're playing a Magic team that's just been on a downward spiral for a little while now.
03:29You know, this is a Hornets offense that, you know,
03:32their offensive output is extremely difficult to match up with
03:35when they're even close to their average three-point efficiency and volume,
03:38and the Magic just don't have the firepower to keep up.
03:41So, yeah, I'm laying the points there.
03:43When I'm looking at the Suns-Warriors game, it's a little bit different
03:46because, like you said, close spread.
03:48You can see this going either way, so I'm looking at some player props instead.
03:51My favorite one is Devin Booker, over 27.5 points.
03:55Like I said, this Warriors defense has been pretty terrible over the last couple of months,
03:59one of the worst in the league among all competitive teams,
04:02all teams looking to get into the playoffs.
04:04Booker, of course, go-to scorer for the Suns, really high volume.
04:07So he's always going to take those shots, whether or not they're going down.
04:10You know, he's coming off a 22-point performance against Portland,
04:13but before that, he had scored at least 30 in five of his last six.
04:17All right, so, Rohit, let's get to one series coming up in the West,
04:20and then let's do another one in the East before we get you out of here.
04:22Appreciate that.
04:24Nuggets-Timberwolves, let's start off here.
04:25Should be a competitive, fun series, I would think.
04:28Looks like Denver is pretty heavily favored bond to the second round.
04:32Is there anything in particular that has caught your eye with this series?
04:36Yeah, I mean, like you said, I mean, I think for a lot of people,
04:38this looks like the most intriguing series.
04:40We've seen these guys clash in the playoffs before.
04:43Both of these teams are very similar to kind of the itinerations we've seen
04:46over the last few years.
04:48I think the big one, of course, is I do think the Timberwolves have a chance here.
04:51You know, they've got a lot of guys who can shoot threes now.
04:54So if they get hot from deep, and, you know,
04:56we've seen that the Nuggets have struggled defensively at times.
04:58So I certainly think the T-Wolves can pull off the upset here.
05:02But I'm leaning a little bit towards the Nuggets.
05:04So I'm looking at more of the series spread numbers.
05:07I think you can get the Timberwolves at plus one and a half.
05:10So even if they keep this series, you know, they go to a game seven,
05:13that's plus 125, plus two and a half.
05:16So even if they go to, you know, game six, that's minus 170.
05:21So I think those have a little bit of value there if you're looking to take this,
05:25because I do think this will be a competitive series between two teams
05:28that have a lot of familiarity with each other.
05:30All right, so let's go to the other series that I see the odds closing in
05:34on almost even here, interestingly enough, with the Knicks and Hawks.
05:38Look, the Knicks have to be favored.
05:40But I thought they'd be a much bigger favorite opening.
05:45Yes, but yes, minus 235.
05:48This is the series, correct?
05:49I got that right?
05:50Okay.
05:50Yeah.
05:50The Hawks are plus 194.
05:53But to me, I thought this would be larger,
05:55very similar to the Nuggets-Timberwolves.
05:57I noticed earlier in the week it was closer to 300.
06:00What's going on here?
06:01Yeah, I mean, I think this is actually the closest series of the first round.
06:05And, you know, it makes a lot of sense because the Hawks are that kind of up-and-coming young
06:09team.
06:10We see them play, you know, really well.
06:12You know, getting rid of Trae Young, getting rid of Porzingis.
06:14This team has, like, actually played like a team for once.
06:17So I think there's a lot of excitement around them.
06:19But at the same time, you know, I'm on the Knicks side in this.
06:21I think they're a little bit more experienced, especially when it comes to the playoffs.
06:25They have home court advantage, of course.
06:27And I do think that they are, you know, ready to go at least, you know, make a deep run,
06:31if not actually challenge for the title.
06:33But, you know, I think we get a little bit of value on the Knicks
06:35because people seem to be coming in pretty hard on this young Hawks team.
06:39So some value on the Knicks here to take them either in the series
06:42or take them on some shorter spreads we're looking at.
06:44I think we're looking at a pretty short spread for game one.
06:47So that's something that I'm definitely going to look to play.
06:49Let's take a look at the East real quick.
06:51We've got the Celtics as favorites, but it's basically the big four, I think, in the East.
06:57Boston, Cleveland, Detroit, New York.
06:59Hard to make a case for anyone else.
07:01Yeah, I think so.
07:02But like I said, Detroit is one team that I'd be vulnerable or sorry,
07:06I'd be wary of backing because playoff experience matters so much in the NBA.
07:10Teams are never ready to run after, you know, missing the playoffs for a bunch of years.
07:13Usually takes some time to get acclimated.
07:15So I'm not sure how they're going to play in, you know, some of these seven-game series
07:19against some of these more experienced teams like the Clevelands, the Bostons, etc.
07:24And my last question for you, Rohit, is that the news that the NBA just released
07:28that they made an exemption for Luka Doncic and Cade Cunningham
07:32to potentially win the MVP in All-NBA.
07:35What am I missing here?
07:36I thought that the votes had to be in for the MVP.
07:39Or do they not happen until like Friday night or Saturday or something?
07:44Yeah, I mean, I'm not 100% sure there.
07:46From what I can gather, I think that, you know, they never,
07:49they didn't actually take them off the ballot is what I'm going to assume.
07:51And that they would have just kind of eliminated them from the ballot afterwards.
07:56Because, yeah, it doesn't make a whole lot of sense to me either.
07:58And both of these guys are definitely going to get MVP votes.
08:00Certainly going to get All-NBA votes.
08:02But unfortunately, Anthony Edwards, I think, missed the cutoff by four games.
08:07He is not getting an exemption.
08:09Roy, great stuff.
08:10Thanks for coming on the show.
08:11Really appreciate it.
08:13Thanks, Craig.
08:13Best of luck.
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