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00:00What an epic week it has been for the NBA playoffs. Expect the unexpected. That's definitely
00:04been the case. We'll start off with the first of three upsets. The Blazers beat the Spurs last
00:10night outright as 11 and a half point road dogs to tie the series up at one. Victor Wembayama left
00:18in the second quarter with a concussion. He's going to try and play Friday, but we don't know
00:22what his status will be. But the story of the game was Portland and Scoot Henderson scoot with 31
00:28points. They pick up a road win before they head back to Portland. Here's Scoot on getting
00:34the road victory. You were pretty locked in from the opening jump there. Was there a moment
00:39that you felt it pregame, locker room, warm up during the game? When did you realize you
00:45had it tonight? When I woke up. Elaborate. What went through your mind? What you woke up
00:51and did what? I woke up, brushed my teeth, went downstairs, got dressed for shoot around.
01:03I say right after I brushed my teeth, gone downstairs. So why then? I don't know. It's just a feeling.
01:10I kind of just telling myself the night before, like attack, like they can't mess with you. So yeah,
01:18that was my goal to come here and attack, get downhill, play hard and whatever happens, happens.
01:24Mitch, Victor's in concussion protocol, but is he being examined for anything beyond that?
01:31No.
01:32Um, is he, did he have to go to the hospital or was he x-rayed here or?
01:38Uh, I don't believe any of that. I just know he has a concussion and he's in the protocol and
01:44will obviously take the proper and appropriate steps.
01:49Very questionable for the next game for the Spurs as they have to win now in Portland to
01:54get this series back on track for them. Meanwhile, maybe even a bigger surprise yesterday came
01:59when the Philadelphia 76ers beat the Boston Celtics as 13 and a half point road dogs,
02:06111 and 97. Actually not all that unusual for Boston. They do tend to have a letdown or two
02:12when they make a big playoff run, but maybe the biggest surprise in the entire playoffs is this
02:17young guy, VJ Edgecombe, 30 points, 10 rebounds, youngest player to put up 30 and 10 rebounds in a
02:25playoff game passing Tim Duncan as they get ready for game three in Philadelphia on Friday. Here's
02:30Nick nurse on the team defense. We just played much better team defense tonight. You know, like,
02:36like when any, when any action, let's just say a pick and roll actions happening, you know, a lot
02:41of, a lot of times you're focused on the two people in it, but it's still a kind of a
02:45five man job to
02:46defend it. Right. And we just were, we just weren't in the right, we weren't moving. We weren't in the
02:53stances, right stances. We just weren't in and out the other night. And tonight we were, I thought we
02:58just made more just kind of basketball reads really of, of when, when it looked like something
03:04was about to happen. We had somebody closing down the gap a little bit. I mean, it wasn't near the
03:10amount of straight line drives tonight, everything, everything, they did get some drives, but every one
03:15of them were kind of slow and through a couple people and contested at the rim, even though
03:20they did make a few. You lose a quarter by 11, you know, that's tough to come back from in
03:25a playoff
03:26game, you know, and then you take a look, a lot of those points were stuff that we can get
03:29better
03:29at. I think they had six or seven offensive rebounds in the second quarter, you know, that they
03:35converted for, for either layups or three point shots. Thought we got some good looks, didn't, and you
03:41know, then puts more pressure on your D. I thought some of the, you know, the other
03:45stuff, like I said, the, the Grimes threes were important. You know, those, uh, we did a good
03:49job on him in game one. Uh, you know, he made us in game two. So, uh, just that stuff
03:53that we can
03:53control, we get better at. Meanwhile, if the Boston Celtics want to get back on track, they'll have to
04:00win in Philadelphia. The Los Angeles Lakers can close out their series. How about this? By winning
04:08against the Rockets, 101 and 94. They've now won both games at home. They've been underdogs in both
04:15and they're two and O against Houston. LeBron James, 28 points, eight rebounds, seven assists.
04:21Kevin Durant came back, but it didn't look like Houston stood a chance in this one. Maybe
04:26Lakers could even get Luca back at some point. Here's LeBron on picking up the win.
04:30There's nothing. Um, series is not one until you win four. It's the first of four, but our only
04:36mindset is game three. Um, the game is always played in between the lines and that's all the
04:41matter. Um, we have an opportunity, um, to play the next one. And that's, that's all you can ask
04:47for. We're in the post season and, uh, to have an opportunity to play another playoff game. Um,
04:52we should be excited about that, but we also should make sure we take care of our bodies too. That
04:57was a hard fought game and we got tomorrow and we got to fly down to Houston on Thursday and
05:02get
05:02ready to play on Friday. So. And obviously you weren't there for game one. What are you just
05:06seeing overall with the offensive execution and how y'all need to improve that on that end?
05:12We're just not making shots to be honest. We're not shooting the ball well. Um,
05:17we're getting good looks. We're missing a lot of layups. Um, but yeah, I just think that's the
05:22difference in the game. They making shots, you know, smart was the guy that knocked down shots for
05:26them today and Kennard too, but last game Kennard got it going too. Um, and they shooting the ball
05:33well, you know what I'm saying? So we got to cut their water off, but we also got to be
05:37aggressive
05:37to knock down our shots too. A couple of more days before Houston takes on LA. Meanwhile, Oklahoma
05:44City will be back in action tonight. Shea Gilgis Alexander won the clutch player of the year. Never
05:50knew that award existed until today. Two games tonight in the NBA, including Oklahoma City playing
05:56and also Detroit plays Orlando feels like it's been forever since played Orlando strange schedule
06:01as always in the NBA. All right. It's official. The Mets are officially in big trouble. They lost last
06:06night 12th straight time. They blew a three to nothing lead. The twins win as road dogs. Devin
06:13Williams melted down in the ninth inning in this one, giving up a couple of runs. And so now the
06:19Mets
06:19become, uh, possibly a team if they make the playoffs, the first team ever, because no team has ever in
06:25major league baseball, lost 12 in a row and made the postseason. So have they hit rock bottom?
06:31Here's Francisco Lindor answering that question. There's a big spec change for the offense with
06:35watching. He's going to help us a lot. Um, I said it from the beginning. He's a guy that, um,
06:42every lineup, which they had, and we have opportunity to have them here. So, uh, we can't wait for him
06:47to come back and do his thing. I do a day. Um, I just don't hope, I hope everybody doesn't
06:56put all
06:57the pressure on him because it's, it would be a little unfair, but I know he's going to help us
07:01tons. You know, he's, it's top three hitters in the league. If Soto can help the Mets win a game
07:07this weekend. Meanwhile, nobody paying attention to the Phillies losing all these games because the
07:11Mets have lost so many in a row. The Cubs beat him seven to four, winning his home favorite,
07:15Shoto Imanaga. Seven innings pitched. He gets the win. Nico Horner, two for five with a home run.
07:19And also Kyle, uh, Schwarber homered and so did Bryce Harper, but it didn't mean anything because they
07:25ended up losing. So the Royals losing streak, by the way, is finally over. They snap an eight game,
07:31losing streak and a Royals win and they beat the Baltimore Orioles. The Giants beat the Dodgers
07:38three to one as home dogs. So Giants win over LA landed group had a nice start there. The Yankees
07:45shut out the Red Sox and their rivalry opener four to nothing as they continue to play that series
07:51again today. All right. In hockey last night, boy, the Tampa Bay lightning really needed a win
07:55against the Montreal Canadians heavily favored in the series. And they do, and they needed overtime.
08:00In fact, double overtime. The series is now tied at one. The Bruins, even their series with the
08:05Sabres with a four to two win. How about the Mammoth? They pick up a playoff win first ever three
08:09to two over the Vegas Golden Knights and the Colorado Avalanche should take care of business
08:14against the LA Kings and they're on their way. They win two to nothing and the series in the NHL
08:18Stanley Cup begin again tonight at 7 p.m. Eastern. All right. Welcome back to News Y here on
08:24Sports Grid. Always fun to catch up with Sam McQuillan from Legal Sports Report. Gonna really break
08:29down everything happening in the NBA. And Sam, I know, follows this very closely. He'll be locked
08:34onto his couch tomorrow watching the Knicks and Hawks. We know that. But Sam, some intriguing
08:41NBA awards and such this year. We had the play-in games and the opportunity to vote on awards while
08:48games were going on, which sort of goes against what the NBA was saying is that these play-in games
08:53were kind of playoff games. But if that's the case, how did they allow this to happen? And we
08:58had the rookie of the year potentially involved in this. What do you make of this whole scenario? And
09:03you know, I got to tell you, I kind of feel like this is the last time we're going to
09:06go through
09:06this. I feel like the NBA has got to change this going into next season.
09:11Yeah, I think that's a spot-on observation, Craig, because it really stems from the fact that you have
09:16this new rule in the NBA. And the NBA in general has been trying to basically year by year create
09:23new rules to combat a few issues where the regular season doesn't matter as much. So then, okay,
09:29they go ahead and add play-in games to make the end of the season more important. Okay, that doesn't
09:34work. They go in and add an in-season tournament to make the season even more compelling. And then
09:40they add a 65-game rule requirement for players to meet. So to basically incentivize them to play
09:46more games or they won't be eligible for awards. It's because we've had that patchwork of new rules
09:53and corrections and changes that we're now in the scenario we had last week where the voting
09:59typically for regular season awards is due before the playing games start. Those playing games
10:04aren't supposed to be taken into account, whether it's consciously or subconsciously by voters. But
10:11because of that 65-game rule this year, and you had two players, Luka Doncic and Kate Cunningham,
10:17appeal the fact that they weren't going to be eligible. They had extemporaneous circumstances
10:21where they wanted to be eligible for the awards. The NBA had to give itself time to figure out whether
10:26or not they would be eligible. That created this 48-hour window where those playing games
10:31actually overlapped with the voting deadline for awards. The deadline was pushed back.
10:36Voters were told not to take it into account. But you have a lot very vocal about how they actually
10:42couldn't help themselves because it's only human nature to take it into account. I think
10:45Kendrick Perkins talked about how it was going to influence his vote. Rachel Nichols talked about it,
10:51Bill Simmons, other people with awards votes out there. And what we saw was it really did
10:56impact voting. I took a look at the prediction market data, which tracks the voting on awards.
11:01And Rookie of the Year was really the most interesting one, where all season it's been
11:05Cooper Flagg or Khan Kanepo, kind of a 50-50 race, so close that the favorite actually flipped
11:12four times in the last week of the regular season. So it's really the biggest market where no one knew
11:17what actually voters were going to decide. Then you fast forward to the day before the play-in,
11:22Khan Kanepo was playing in a game against the Miami Heat, and that game wasn't supposed to count.
11:30His performance wasn't supposed to be taken into account. The odds for Khan Kanepo actually shot up
11:34a little bit before the game, with some people thinking, maybe voters will take it into account
11:38that he has a really good performance tonight. What people didn't anticipate was that he would
11:42have a terrible, terrible postseason debut, again, in a game that wasn't supposed to count.
11:46By halftime, I think he was about two for 10 from the field, and his odds plummeted all the way
11:51down
11:51to 32%. So in the morning, he was 50%, and then half of a game later that wasn't supposed to
11:58count,
11:5830%. By the end of the game, Khan was benched. He went two of 12 from the field, and Cooper
12:03Flagg by
12:04that time was a 70% favorite to win the award. Again, a guy who hadn't played a game in
12:09over a week
12:10is now shooting up in the odds. So it's really interesting to see how the betting market activity
12:15actually changed on these games when they weren't supposed to count. Now you've got another guy who
12:20was up for an award in Denny Abia, also played in a play-in game that night. He actually had
12:26a really
12:26good game. He had 40 points. He had over 12 rebounds, 7 assists, just a great performance.
12:31That wasn't enough to directly influence the voting. His odds only shot up a little bit.
12:36So what we're seeing is kind of a mixed bag with how much things actually impacted it. In some award
12:43markets where it was really a tight race, voting probably did get impacted by these playing games.
12:50And again, that was something the NBA told voters not to do. But like you mentioned, Craig, because
12:55this is kind of a weird year where they had this new rule, where they had this thing they had
12:59to
12:59allow for, that created this opportunity and won again that they'd be able to definitely try not to
13:05repeat next year. So whether that's them changing the 65 game rule, whether that's them changing the voting
13:10timeline, it just seems like something they didn't take into account, but definitely is impacting
13:15decisions. And we'll know who won Rookie of the Year, maybe in about a week or two. The NBA hasn't
13:20announced it when, but when they do announce it, it looks like it'll probably be Cooper Flagg. When
13:26the season ended, it was probably a coin flip, maybe going to be con canipple. So it'll be really
13:31interesting to see how those results play out.
13:33Yeah, really good insight there from Sam. By the way, go to legalsportsreport.com to read about
13:38that story, the story we're going to discuss next, and everything else, which includes the amount of
13:44men who have sports betting accounts between the ages of 18 and 49. I think it should come to no
13:52surprise that over 50%, Sam, according to this report that you can read online on your website,
13:58says that most or at least the majority of individuals have sports betting websites. And
14:03I wonder that if we did this same poll next year, and included prediction markets, it could even be
14:09a little bit higher, I would imagine. Yeah, it definitely seems like prediction markets along
14:16with just the trend in betting, are adding to this environment where you have more young men betting on
14:22sports. Siena researched this poll that came out this week, saying that about 53% of men 18 to 49
14:30have at least one betting account. So that's pretty telling you, if you walk down the street and grab a
14:36guy who looks like he's under 50, they'll probably have a sports betting account, which is just quite a
14:41different landscape than we had, you know, even just a few years ago. And certainly, you know, before 2020,
14:47before, you know, sports betting legalization really took off. So this poll tracked, you know,
14:53a lot of statistics that show that sports betting in general is more popular among young men, and it's
14:59just growing in popularity overall. Some of the really interesting numbers, I thought, were the
15:03behavioral numbers they looked at. They said about 60% of bettors reported chasing losses over the past
15:10year, which is up from 52% last year. So that's definitely something that gets thrown around a lot when
15:15you
15:16talk about the rise of sports betting also potentially being a public harm, public health
15:21risk, something that companies are obviously trying to take into account, or at least people are
15:25pressuring them to. It said 63% of respondents reported betting over $100 at least in one day,
15:32which is also up from last year. And then 31% said that someone had expressed concern about their
15:38gambling habits, which is up 23% from last year. So we're seeing as sports betting is continuing to
15:43rise that some of the potential issues around it are rising too. And these companies are having to
15:48deal with that. You have several lawmakers have introduced bills across states in Congress to
15:54potentially curb some of the problematic activity. In some cases, like in Ohio, we talked about last
15:59week to potentially end online sports betting. And then obviously the prediction market stuff is really
16:05interesting as well. About 65% of respondents said that they think prediction markets should be
16:11regulated the same way as sports books. So we're seeing that while that activity is growing,
16:15the people on it think that perhaps it should have the same gambling protections, same structure,
16:21same overall oversight, which has definitely been a big centerpiece of the lawsuits between the states
16:26and the prediction markets and the CFTC and everything else. So it's really interesting to see,
16:30you know, the sports betting on the rise. But again, some of the more problematic activities around it
16:35and the public perception also changing as well as, you know, the industry continues to develop and
16:40will continue to over the next couple of years. Speaking of which, we'll end with prediction
16:45markets, Sam. And, you know, certainly it does appear that the CFTC is going to push forward with
16:50some sort of regulations. But at this point, a lot of talk, not a lot of action. We'll find out
16:54what
16:54that means over the coming year. Yeah, it's been more talk, more talk, not a lot of action from the
17:01CFTC in
17:02terms of regulating prediction markets. The chair of the CFTC, which again is the federal agency that
17:09is tasked with the oversight of financial derivatives markets, which are companies like
17:14Kaoshi and Polymarket. More specifically, their sports event contracts, which there's a large group
17:20saying that that is sports betting and the CFTC should not be able to regulate it. The CFTC is now
17:25suing three states saying it should. So more talk about how it's going to increase its defense
17:32over regulating them. And let's talk about actually what it's going to do to regulate it and
17:35prevent some of the problematic issues. All right, Sam, thanks again. Have a good weekend.
17:40Appreciate you coming on. We'll see you Friday.
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