00:00Welcome back to Newswire here on SportsGrid.
00:02Carlin Gay continues with us as we get ready for the big weekend in the NBA.
00:07And, you know, Carlin, this is one of those where I feel like we have to be very careful with
00:13a point spread in the NBA.
00:15Because tonight the Knicks will play the 76ers.
00:18And I think when you look at the odds here, it feels a little fishy to me.
00:24Which is why I think the Sixers win tonight.
00:27Because, I mean, everyone is going to load up on New York here.
00:31I mean, that's the, oh my gosh, how can the Sixers be favored?
00:34The Knicks are a lot better.
00:36It doesn't make any sense.
00:38I mean, I know OG Ananobi is out.
00:39And maybe, Carlin, he's worth a point at most.
00:41Maybe half a point in this game.
00:43But to me, that would be my concern for the Knicks.
00:46Is that if you told me he'll go ahead and make the line in this game, I would have said,
00:50ah, you know, Knicks, pick them.
00:52Knicks by one.
00:53The Sixers being favored tells me, got to be careful on this one tonight.
00:57I think Philadelphia absolutely has a shot.
01:00Yeah, they do.
01:01And this is a must-win situation, right?
01:03Their season's on the line in this one.
01:05What's going to be interesting for me is whether or not Joel Embiid actually plays in this game.
01:10And, you know, I actually think that the, for this matchup specifically, I'm not talking about overall.
01:15And I'm talking about championship, you know, potential.
01:17But for this matchup specifically, the less Joel Embiid, the better for the Sixers.
01:23Because they played well in Game 2 and gave the Knicks different problems to kind of solve when Joel Embiid
01:30wasn't in the lineup in Game 2.
01:32Now, can the Knicks make adjustments?
01:34Absolutely.
01:34But if they don't have OG and and OB, those adjustments are going to be very limited.
01:38And OG and and OB should not play in this game.
01:40If I'm advising the New York Knicks, sit OG down.
01:44Because the hamstring injury is one of those things that always get re-aggravated.
01:47You don't want to put OG in that situation.
01:49Because if he gets his hamstring injury and misses the rest of the playoffs, kiss your championship hopes goodbye if
01:54you're the Knicks.
01:55So he's not playing in this game, in my opinion.
01:57The flip side, you know, if Embiid does play, it makes the Sixers a little bit more predictable.
02:03If he doesn't play, then you have a little bit more fluidity in that offense.
02:07The ball is going to move a lot better.
02:08And that's going to cause some problems for the Knicks to have to guard all five positions.
02:11So, you know, for the line itself, I think that, you know, the Sixers will have a better chance of
02:16blowing the Knicks out.
02:17So, you know, winning by 10 or more, if Embiid doesn't play, I think it's a closer game if he
02:21does play.
02:22Because it makes their offense a little bit more predictable.
02:24And something for them to kind of set up against and mitigate.
02:28And that's, again, if Mitchell Robinson also plays in this one, too, which he should after missing game two.
02:33Do you like anyone in particular in this game?
02:36I like the Sixers because I think that, and this is a complete chip on their shoulder kind of moment.
02:41Not only do they have to win the game, but there's going to be a lot of Knicks fans in
02:44that building.
02:45And whenever you have a lot of, you know, opposing team fans in your building, you kind of want to
02:49shut them up in your own building.
02:50So, you know, it's going to feel like a road game for the Sixers for some parts of that game.
02:55I think the Sixers use that fuel and go out and kind of say it's us against the world.
02:59And they get game three.
03:01Okay, fair enough.
03:02All right.
03:03Now, out west, the Spurs are four and a half point favorites against the Timberwolves, probably off the strength of
03:07the last game that we saw.
03:10Minnesota stole the first game.
03:11We know that Anthony Edwards very clearly is not 100% healthy.
03:14He didn't start even the last game as well.
03:16Maybe he starts tonight.
03:17We'll see.
03:18Total of 216 and a half.
03:21The odds are sort of telling us, Carlin, maybe a close game.
03:26Spurs win.
03:27Timberwolves cover.
03:28I don't know.
03:29It kind of feels like it can go either way.
03:31But, you know, oddsmakers are certainly telling us that Spurs not only are going to win tonight, but they're going
03:35to win the series.
03:37Yeah, I think the Spurs will win the series.
03:39And I've been really impressed with San Antonio all season long because whenever they face any adversity, they've kind of
03:44bounced back pretty easily and made a point to make it a dominant sort of win on the other end
03:51of that.
03:51We saw that, you know, when they lost game two in the first round.
03:54They went on the road.
03:55We knew that Wemby wasn't going to play because of the concussion.
03:57And without him, they actually just destroyed the Blazers.
04:01And that was the end of the series.
04:03You know, game one, they dropped.
04:04It was an emotional loss for them.
04:05They come right back in game two.
04:07And the Timberwolves didn't really have anything for the Spurs in that game.
04:10So going on the road now, you have a healthy one with Yama.
04:13You know that Anthony Edwards is kind of compromised.
04:16He's going to be coming off the bench.
04:17Once you weather that initial wave, that's going to happen.
04:20The offense, they're going to hit some shots.
04:22The Timberwolves are the crowd's going to be up for once you weather that and you get back into just
04:27straight up basketball.
04:28I think Wemby takes over.
04:29He's so tough inside and just changes the geometry of the court.
04:34I think the Spurs do win this one comfortably on the road.
04:37Okay, so let's go to the east real quick.
04:39And then the west sounds to me, Carlin, like you like Detroit in the east.
04:43I don't know.
04:44That's what it sounds like to me.
04:45You'll tell me if I'm wrong.
04:46Knicks are minus 110 accurate or inaccurate.
04:49I think the Knicks healthy are still my pick, but Detroit are right now better suited to make that push
04:56for the playoffs.
04:57And then, you know, quickly, if we're talking about out west, I still have the thunder.
05:01I think just the experience that they're going to have, the advantage over the Spurs, gives that to me.
05:06By the way, one thing to look over for the weekend, the draft lottery is on Sunday.
05:12Maybe that gives us a little bit of clues as where Giannis Antetokounmpo will end up, because everybody will have
05:17their draft pick at that point.
05:19Good point.
05:20Miami Heat, first pick.
05:23Thanks, Carlin.
Comments