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00:00Whoa! Right back at it, people. Come on now. No time to dilly-dally.
00:04We got to get you the information that you need to know tonight, which includes, Joe Ranieri,
00:08the spread lines in your life, which deals in the NBA. Doubleheader tonight, 7 o'clock and 930.
00:14Game number one, Joe, that's in Madison Square Garden, the world's most famous arena,
00:18the Philadelphia 76ers, who treated it as like a house of horrors in game number one as they got
00:23punished. Maybe some more punishment tonight. We'll find out. But we see a similar line, Joe,
00:28to game number one, which is at 7.5. Most outlets between 6.5 and 7.5 today, and a
00:33total of 215.5.
00:35Only 25% of the tickets coming in on the Philadelphia 76ers for this game.
00:40Watching game number one, it was bad as a Sixer fan, but game number two,
00:44and if we're looking at a zigzag theory, Joe, will you participate that in tonight?
00:49What's the spread line tonight for those Sixers and Knicks?
00:52Well, I'm fascinated, Donnie, that the line kind of opened up right around this number,
00:57and it has not moved one bit here. So it's interesting. We saw six and a half sevens in
01:04game one. That game obviously wasn't even close. We're seeing the same thing here. Now,
01:09we all know, obviously, series aren't won or lost in one game, especially game one of a series. But
01:17we've already seen the Sixers regroup before and bounce back in a big way. And listen,
01:23the Knicks know that's coming here tonight. Interestingly enough, the total, Donnie,
01:27also starting to creep up here a little bit from 214, now 215 and a half in the marketplace. And
01:35listen, the Knicks offensively, if you keep dropping 120 plus points a game,
01:40they're not going to have to play a whole lot of defense. The question is, can the Sixers match them
01:46offensively? I think they'll have a much better offensive game here tonight. Would not shock me
01:52if we get more points again in game two. Yeah, I think you're right about that, too. And understand
01:57what happened in game number one there. The Philadelphia 76ers played Saturday night in
02:01Boston. Joe, they didn't even go to New York City. They actually went home and got home by around 2
02:05.30
02:05in the morning, rested up for a bit, had a shoot around, got then on a train again and went
02:10back up to
02:11New York City. And you have to play a game on a Monday here. At least now you're in New
02:14York City for a
02:15couple days to get your bearings. Not saying they win, but a better experience is certainly
02:19expected for the Sixers here. Game number two, another road team here that was getting double
02:24digits. That was the Timberwolves in game number one. Ant-Man played, Ant-Man conquered. 1-0 series
02:29lead for the Minnesota Timberwolves. And now we see those spreads, Joe, that were 13 and 14 and a half.
02:34They're down to nine and a half across the board. The total of 215 and a half. Game number two
02:39in San
02:39Antonio, probably a must win for the Spurs. What's the spread line for you here?
02:44Well, I gotta tell you, right? I mean, that one was, Donnie, 13 and a half, as much as 14
02:50prior to
02:52the tip there. And then, of course, Anthony Edwards was ruled in and the market went crazy. But they
02:57still closed right around nine and a half, 10-point favorite in that first game the Spurs did. And
03:02they lost outright. And that's where Minnesota comes into play. Obviously, this is, we're in round
03:09two of the postseason. Minnesota has been there and done this now for three straight years. They've
03:15made it to the Western Conference Finals, right? Round two is no big deal for them, no matter who's
03:20on the court. The Spurs had to learn that lesson the hard way in game one. It is going to
03:26take a
03:26collective team effort because Minnesota will outwill them. The interesting part is that we were expecting
03:32a lot of points in that first game. And we didn't get them, Donnie. We barely got over 200 total
03:38points in the game. We've seen the total start to creep back down in this one. And I think that's
03:44right because in no way does Minnesota want to speed up and go, you know, running back and forth here
03:51and get into a firefight with San Antonio. They're going to make it ugly. They're going to slow the
03:55tempo down. I think this total could be dropping even more throughout this series. 76ers head coach
04:01Nick Nurse. Boy, these guys are dedicated to the game, Joe, as we know it. Brother passed away, flew
04:07out, went to the funeral, now coming back and still expected to coach in game number two. When you talk
04:13about guys that, you know, hey, it's end all be all. It's the professional game. I got to be there
04:17for my
04:17guys. This says it all, man. Funeral of your brother who passed away and still being able to coach
04:22with a heavy heart. That's pretty incredible stuff.
04:25It is. Then you got guys like, oh, don't know if I'm going to be able to play golf today.
04:32Yeah, maybe, maybe not. No, that is lay it all out on a line, right, Donnie? That's what a
04:37dedication. That's what it's all about. From coach to coach to coach, Jason Kidd down there for the
04:42Mavericks. Masai Ujiri, the new general manager, head basketball of operations there for the Mavericks.
04:47Let's hear what he has to say about it. I had a conversation with Jason Kidd yesterday. I'm going to
04:53meet with Jason Kidd, hear his thoughts, you know, on everything. Another Hall of Fame player.
05:01He's done a great job, you know, but we're going to look at this thing from head to toe. You
05:07know,
05:07that's the right way to look at an organization, evaluate in every single way that we can. But,
05:15yeah, I talked to him and, and I'm going to hear his thoughts on, on where he sees this.
05:22Underdog NBA also tweeted, Joe here, Masai Ujiri on the Mavs with Cooper flag, following the Luka
05:27Doncic trade quote, when Kings go Kings come a King went and we have a little Prince here who
05:32we're going to turn into a King. Always interesting where the NBA is like, Ooh, bad trade, big market.
05:38We got to help you out. Thanks for giving Luka to LA. You get Cooper flag.
05:44Thank Donnie. And by this point, let's say two years, within two years, we're going to be having
05:51conversations with him there and Cooper flag and Jason Kidd will still be there and there'll be
05:56some con. I think Dallas is going to be one of those teams that's going to, that will overtake and
06:02be right there with the Spurs and OKC for the next decade in the NBA.
06:06How about the next decade of the NBA? How good are those Pistons going to be? Because they were bad
06:10for decades after the battle was here. But last night, Joe, 1-0 series lead. Now why? They won by
06:16double digits, which were buoyed by a first quarter that saw them take the lead 37 to 21 and cruise
06:22to
06:22a victory here. This was just so ugly on so many levels for the Cavaliers. Why is James Harden
06:30continuing to bring the ball up court? And we watch him turn it over time and time. 20 more turnovers,
06:3719, 20 turnovers again last night for the Cavs. And a lot of it centers around while James Harden
06:45makes no sense, Donnie. They got to figure some things out there and they better do it
06:49in a hurry because they can't win on the road and they don't have home court advantage.
06:53Game number two last night, Joe, was the Thunder and the Lakers here. Close game early on, but in that
06:59fourth quarter here, pulling away in the second half as well. 108 to 90, Joe. Minus 15 and a half.
07:06Cha-ching. Cash that ticket in.
07:09Okay. Somebody explain to me why all the headlines this morning are,
07:13oh, OKC pulls away, but Lakers. Lakers were feisty. You lost by almost 20 points.
07:20What is feisty about getting blown out by 18 points here? What are we talking? What is the
07:25bar we're setting here for being competitive in the NBA? Because 18 points in round two of the
07:31playoffs doesn't do it for me, Donnie.
07:34Anybody seen Luka Doncic lately, by the way? Is he hustling up and down the court? Can we get him
07:38back out there? Or is this going to be a complete 4-0 sweep at this point here? Now, when
07:42we are talking
07:43about injuries, Anthony Edwards came back extremely fast. We were led to believe he might be out
07:48months or just be done with the playoffs. Well, it turns out he played game number one
07:52and they won the Minnesota Timberwolves. But now, Joe, questionable for Wednesday. I have a feeling
07:58you're going to see this questionable tag throughout the rest of the playoffs for Anthony Edwards as he
08:02is basically gutting it out, Joe, on a night-to-night basis.
08:07Yeah, absolutely. And you know what? Kudos. Got a new found respect here for him. He's not
08:12mailing it in. He's not pulling a Jason Tatum where, oops, can't play in a game seven. Like,
08:18he is going to go out there until he can't do it anymore. And listen, if the rest of the
08:25team seems
08:25to be that level of toughness they're bringing to the court every time with him. So, if that's the
08:31case, all of a sudden, they become very scary, don't they?
08:35Minnesota Timberwolves, San Antonio Spurs. Tonight, as we stated on our earlier part here,
08:40nine-and-a-half point spread, Joe, was double digits. Ant-Man questionable on this game.
08:45Must win for the Spurs. But everybody, Joe, almost eight out of every ten tickets still
08:50coming in on the Timberwolves. They liked what they saw. But also, let me ask you this question,
08:54Joe, because we're oddsmen as well. What do you think if we get that late afternoon announcement
08:58like, hey, the Timberwolves did their job. They already stole one in San Antonio. Let's rest the
09:02Ant-Man. Does that spread go back up to 13-and-a-half, 14-and-a-half?
09:06Well, it could, because DeSomo is also questionable here. So, once again, where's the
09:11backcourt coming? You can't just go all bigs against San Antonio. That's not going to work
09:16with Rudy Gobert and company. So, they're going to need somebody to play here tonight. But I'm with
09:22you. If they don't, but honestly, I'm playing if I'm in. Because if you can go up 2-0 on
09:29a young
09:30team like this, series could be over. The early line. It's Wednesday. It's hump day. Getting you
09:35to the weekend is our job, but also understanding how many good action games we got today in Major
09:41League Baseball, in the NHL, and in the NBA itself. We'll get to those in just a few moments.
09:45Donnie Wright's side, Joe Ranieri. And now, we welcome in Kevin Walsh for a nice little Wednesday
09:49morning. He's ready to go. Looks energized. Probably stayed up late watching some NBA action,
09:54because you know those Lakers. They were on last night, Kev. How do we feel today?
09:59Yeah, I mean, annoyed, to say the least, after watching that basketball game. LeBron shows up
10:07like he always does. 27 points, leads all scorers. The soon-to-be back-to-back league MVP,
10:14whose whole thing is scoring, doesn't get to 20. LeBron gets to 27, 12 in the first quarter.
10:22Kind of setting the tone, right? Like, hey, guys, we need this one. Like, if there was one to get,
10:28it's this one. And Austin Reeves is like, hey, you'd be better off with Jared McCain.
10:37Eight points, 3-16 shooting, four turnovers, atrocious. They might have been better if Austin
10:45Reeves sat the basketball game out and Luke Kennard went into the starting lineup. So,
10:51here we are, once again, where LeBron can't count on the other stars, quote-unquote stars,
11:02on this team. Luka Doncic, by the way, for all the slander that Anthony Davis was given
11:08over his time with the Lakers for not being healthy, and obviously Anthony Davis isn't a
11:13very healthy basketball player. I'm not pretending he is. But out of a possible 48 playoff games,
11:19he played 47 of them with the Los Angeles Lakers. Luka Doncic has now missed his seventh game
11:29out of 12 possible playoff games since becoming a Los Angeles Laker. It's just brutal, fellas.
11:39It is. But you know what else is brutal? Watching James Harden bring the ball off the court only to
11:44turn it over every time. You're not going to win a lot of games. If you can't win on the
11:51road,
11:52it's not going to go good here for Cleveland. I would tell you, kudos, Paul. I thought Detroit
11:57came out swinging and the Cavs wanted nothing to do with it. I agree. I, and listen, this might be
12:06because I kind of like this Detroit group. I feel like it was a great win and it was almost
12:13set up
12:13like it was going to be a great win regardless. Like if they would have blown them out, that's a
12:17great win. It sets the tempo to be up all that, you know, double digits the way they were at
12:23maybe
12:24almost 20 at one point in the basketball game, 16 at the end of the first and have to battle
12:28back
12:29trail late in that fourth quarter and win the way that they did. I thought it was really, really
12:33impressive. My take on the Cavs and I am not pretending that James Harden was great in this
12:42basketball game. That's nonsense. He had seven turnovers, one of seven from three. I just think
12:48it's really embarrassing for Donovan Mitchell and Evan Mobley, how frequently this postseason,
12:54the lead story is James Harden, because we can't even pretend that we should be holding these two
12:59guys to like top 15 standard. Donovan Mitchell's whole gimmick is supposed to be postseason comes
13:06around. I'm giving you 30 a game. Like that's his whole thing. Donovan Mitchell hasn't scored 30
13:12since game two of last round. I, at what point? And I, and I, I get he was nine of
13:1819. I understand
13:20that, but like you have to have the basketball more make Harden go stand in the corner. Like,
13:25like it's just, it's crazy to watch this Cavs team sometimes. All right, Kevin, let's get down
13:30to the nitty gritty tonight in the association, two games tonight, Sixers, Knicks, T-Wolves and the Spurs
13:35bounce backs looking, but also big ticket splits tonight. Who do you like tonight? Who do you think has
13:40some edges? You know, the, the one interesting thing is the way this number's moved with New
13:44York and Philadelphia. So, you know, we got to talk about this the other day, how the, the rest
13:48advantage was likely being baked into that game one number and, you know, game two could be this
13:55Philly spot, but boy, do the books kind of make that well-known by opening at six and a half
14:01after
14:02the 30 point blood. I thought, Hey, do we see an eight? It's worked back now. I'm seeing seven and
14:08a
14:08half here. So as someone who's a bit tempted by Philly tonight here, I'm going to maybe take the
14:15patient approach. Could one of those eight or so's pop, which would be nice. Game time decision,
14:216.00 PM, right in the 7.00 PM, the start of that Knicks Sixers game. Catch Kevin and Gabe
14:25a little
14:26bit later. We'll be right back. Take it away, Joe. You had OKC last night. Cha-ching. You won Monday.
14:37Cha-ching. Now it's a Wednesday. What do we got? Well, I'm going to go back with another big favorite
14:42here tonight, Donnie. And I like the Spurs to bounce back in a big way. Listen, Minnesota,
14:48you mentioned it earlier, did their thing. They stole one in game one. I don't see that happening
14:55again here. I mean, Dylan Harper was great, but Stephen Castle got into foul trouble early and that
15:02kind of changed the momentum. I think adjustments will be made. I think Wemby will have a much better
15:08scoring night. I am expecting when push comes to shove, Donnie, I expect maybe Minnesota will just be
15:15happy with the 1-1 heading back home. I think San Antonio sticks it to Minnesota tonight.
15:23Stick to Market's Edge right here on the early line for a Wednesday hump day. Wednesday half
15:27through your work week here, halfway to the weekend. That's the way we like it. In this show,
15:31you know the drill. A different way to invest your funds, a stock market-like approach.
15:36Donnie Wrightside and Joe Ranieri, good topics today. Major League Baseball, NHL action, NBA action,
15:42and so much more. Joe, leading the way in the prediction markets. That's us on the Sports Grid
15:47Network. What we do, Donnie, looking very forward to game twos here tonight. Some great NHL action,
15:55Major League Baseball action, a lot going on here this week. Oh, we like to dig in the stories that
16:01we like with prediction markets here. Before we jump into the games tonight, Joe, how about this tweet
16:05from Bobby Allen? We looked into Polymarket's presence in Panama, obtained its government
16:11paperwork, and visited its headquarters in Panama City. There was no sign of Polymarket. Nobody had
16:16heard of Polymarket there. After more digging, we found that more than a dozen other crypto companies
16:22were not just incorporated there, but also claimed the address as their headquarters. Turns out,
16:26SBF even did business with the office listed as Polymarket's headquarters, which is a law firm that
16:33ignored all of our requests for comment. Ooh, ambiguity here, Joe. Yeah, look at this, huh?
16:39Cloak and dagger. That's a little shock there, Donnie, that people hiding behind. Yeah, that could
16:46very well be. Listen, follow the money, right, Donnie? That's ultimately what it is. Follow the money.
16:51And by the way, Panama the country, Joe, not Panama City, where, you know, people like to go to spring
16:55break at this point. A little bit difference geographically there as we go, but let's start
17:00it up in the NBA tonight. Nia is a Sixers fan. Didn't have to watch too much of game number
17:04one
17:04in Madison Square Garden on Monday night. Sixers got absolutely blown out, but tonight is a new
17:08night. It's game number two. Nick Nurse will be coaching the Philadelphia 76ers, but if you look
17:13at the Kelsey marketplace, Joe, just to win this game, the New York Knicks currently with a 71% chance.
17:18That yes contract for them to win at 72 cents, which means a $100 investment would pay back only
17:25$139. You can look at the Sixers and take the seven and a half points. You can bet the Knicks,
17:29with the seven and a half as the favorite here, but the Knicks one way or another big favorite
17:33tonight, Joe, no doubt about that. Yeah, they are. And you have to ask yourself, you know,
17:39are you really buying here that the Knicks are going to shoot 63% from the floor again?
17:46True. Are they going to shoot 51% from three again? I mean, the Sixers, obviously it was a throwaway
17:54game. The scheduling was just a terrible spot. They looked disinterested. They looked gassed.
17:59But now they know what's at stake here. I mean, they're a good defensive team. They should be able
18:04to at least prevent, oh, I don't know, wide open threes and the Knicks from shooting 51%. I think
18:11those percentages and the points will come down in this one tonight. I think Philadelphia should
18:18be able to improve a lot of their game here now that they've had some rest. Yeah, I think the
18:24points
18:25right now might be the best way to go here with Philadelphia. And if there's more points, that means
18:30more people should be scoring. Brunson went for over 30 in game number one. If you think, again,
18:34he can go for 30 plus points in game number two. Calci marketplace, $100 investment to do that, Joe,
18:39pays back $264. Game two, which was a surprising game number one out in the West, the Timberwolves and
18:46the Spurs. The Spurs don't have a 1-0 series lead. It's the Timberwolves and Anthony Edwards. You take a
18:51look at San Antonio tonight. No surprise, Joe. They are the heavy favorites. Just to win this
18:55game outright, a 77% chance to do that here. If you think Minnesota can pull that upset one again
19:02and you want to say, I'll invest my money there, a $100 investment on the Timberwolves to win game
19:07number two, that pays back $400, Joe, and $35. Amazing. Yeah, it's actually, it's pretty good here.
19:15But I don't think, listen, I think San Antonio bounces back here. I think all the usual suspects
19:22will have better games, including Stephen Castle. I believe that he'll, let's not get into foul trouble
19:28early, so you're on the bench a lot. I like him. I think Wemby's going to get more than the
19:3311 points
19:34he had and the awful night shooting from three. I'm looking for a better effort offensively from the
19:42San Antonio Spurs on this one. And by the way, big night is expected from Wemby as well. 25 plus
19:48points here. You're still getting juiced on that, Joe. $100 investment pays back $159. And here's
19:54Chris Finch talking about Wemby action. How about this one? But when we looked at them, at least four
20:00of them were goaltending, maybe even a fifth. You know, it's kind of, to me, it's a little alarming
20:11that none of them were called. And, you know, here's a generational shot blocker who's seven
20:21foot six who goes after everything. And there's like no heightened awareness that these blocks
20:26could, could be, you know, goaltends. I mean, the third possession of the game was a goaltending.
20:32And it was a clean, obvious want. So let's just say there were four. That's eight points. You
20:42know, the value of eight points in an NBA game is massive, right? That's also, you know, 33% of
20:51his blocks for goaltending uncalled. And, you know, if I were to give you a 33% raise, you'd
20:59like that, right? I mean, that's a, that's a huge number. How about that? People have booked
21:04a even one game one, Joe, and they're upset about the missed calls. They're on possible
21:08goaltending from Wemby. It seems like every shot would be goaltending just because he's
21:11like, you know what? I'm tall. I'll knock it shot down and you'll deal with it, ref.
21:16Yeah. I mean, listen, he, he's got a point and he's trying to set a precedent, uh, you
21:20know, for the rest of the series that keep an eye on it, but listen, it's what they got
21:25challenges for. If it's that big a deal, right? Challenges. It's what it is. It's what
21:31it is. People. Hey, they won game one, two. We'll see what happens in game number two.
21:34I expect a big effort out of Wem and Yam at least make one or two, three point shots. If
21:38you're going to shoot eight or nine of those reunions, people don't we love reunions?
21:42Not necessarily. I've never been to a high school reunion. And quite frankly, I
21:45don't want to go to a high school reunion, but on ESPN, Joe Ranieri, we got a reunion
21:50coming up. Yahoo sports with the tweet. Skip Bayless will join Stephen A. Smith on
21:54ESPN's first take this coming Friday, making it the marking the first time that
21:59you have appeared on the show together since June of 16 for front office sports.
22:04How about that one, Joe?
22:09Did somebody answer that? I don't like you. No, no.
22:12No, no, no. I thought that was, I thought we'd never have to hear that again, but apparently
22:17we do for some reason. And it's just a one-off, right, Donnie? This is not a, we're not putting
22:24the band back together, right?
22:26Band might have to come back together, throw a little Shannon in there, maybe even go back
22:29and may change the name from first take to cold pizza way back in the day as well.
22:33But Joe, as you know, say, well, why would Joe and Donnie bring up this topic anyway?
22:37Because the county marketplace, Joe, you can invest on what Stephen A. might say during
22:42ESPN's first take. And I got to tell you, if you want a free 10 bucks, nothing's free
22:48in life as we know. A hundred dollar investment would pay back $110. If Stephen A. Smith mentions
22:56the name LeBron on that telecast. Joe, come on. That's halfway to a good pizza right there.
23:03Well, that is good. You know, what's also probably got it up? Well, he's got to mention
23:08the Cowboys too, right, Donnie? There's got to be, I mean, this is just going to be classics
23:13upon classics upon classics. Yeah. I go with all of them, Donnie. I go with all the mentioned
23:19markets there with what we figure both of these guys are likely going to talk about here.
23:25Cowboys, Joe, trading at 72%, which means you could pick up $137 on $100 investment here.
23:31If he mentions Bronnie, that's currently trading at 80 cents right now. MJ or Michael Jordan in any
23:37combo, 78 cents. A hundred dollar investment pays back $129. Joe, I figure like you could just go
23:43down. Yes. We like to talk about the no. No. Yes. Contracts all the way up and down the board
23:49for this game on a Friday. Huh? Every one of them, Donnie, just because we
23:54that's the beauty of it. We already know what is going to be said and we got it. We know
23:58it better
23:59than they know it. We know exactly what's coming out. We've seen these two more than enough in a
24:04lifetime here, Donnie. All pro basketball, first team selections, Joe, a lot of people upset that
24:10the guy's like, Hey, let me put in a waiver here to get me in that first team because I
24:15didn't play
24:15the whole season and meet up with it. Nikola Jokic, 99%. SGA, 99%. Victor Webinyama, 99%.
24:23Luka Doncic, 98%. We shouldn't even be in there without that waiver. Then it falls back. You got
24:28some interesting things. Cade Cunningham, 73%. Jalen Brown had a great regular season, 22%.
24:34Any of those guys creeping in there? Because you got four guys up top, 98% and higher, Joe.
24:41Yeah. I mean, the market is pretty much telling you with those prices, Donnie, that it's, yeah,
24:46it's likely closed because it's going to be one of, one of those three, right? But I, do we have,
24:53is Jalen Brown, should Cade Cunningham be in? Absolutely. I guess the only place to look,
24:58Donnie, is really in the 20 cent range. But I, yeah, I think the, the top three names there tell
25:05you everything you need to know about this market. I don't know if there's any value in it at this
25:09point.
25:10Maybe you're hoping, Joe, that was it, was it Maria Taylor a couple of years ago was like,
25:13yeah, I just forgot to vote for somebody I wanted to vote for here. And it costs that person all
25:17NBA selection. Maybe that's, we have to go after somebody just forgetting to vote for somebody
25:21and they don't get to be on the NBA's first team here.
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