00:00Cleveland Cavaliers fans are going to be very excited, too.
00:037, 10 p.m. Eastern, and the Cavs can close this series out.
00:07I did not see this coming like this, but here we are.
00:09Total of 2, 10 and a half.
00:12Cleveland finally did the job getting the win on the road in Detroit.
00:16Is this the end of the Pistons here tonight?
00:20I think so.
00:22And I know when we spoke last week, it was all doom and gloom
00:24because it was 2-0.
00:25Cavs were down.
00:26They were going back home.
00:27I think we came off of a game where Evan Mobley had one rebound,
00:32and I was lamenting that.
00:33He's played much better, not to the level that I think he should be at,
00:36but he's played much better over the last three games.
00:38James Harden gave you the game that he would give you in a series
00:42where he kind of took over.
00:43I thought that was in Game 5.
00:44He played great.
00:45Now I think it's up to Donovan Mitchell.
00:47And I know if you just look at the stats for this second round,
00:50he's actually leading the league in scoring, 30 points per game.
00:53He's played well on paper.
00:55But those stats have been kind of quiet.
00:57There hasn't been like a Donovan Mitchell-type game yet in this series.
01:02Going back home, an opportunity to close it out,
01:04where I believe they really – it's a must-win situation for Cleveland.
01:07They don't want to go back to Detroit for a Game 7.
01:09I think Donovan Mitchell has to have that Donovan Mitchell-esque type game
01:14where he scores 40 points.
01:15He controls every aspect of this game for the Cleveland Cavaliers
01:18to be able to move on,
01:20and for him to get to his first-ever conference finals in his career.
01:25James Harden's been there before.
01:27James Harden's already known what that pressure's like.
01:29Donovan Mitchell has not.
01:31And this is his chance to do that.
01:32Close it out tonight in Cleveland.
01:34Yeah, it could be the case.
01:36And oddsmakers are telling us Cleveland's going to win the series.
01:39They're minus 355 right now on FanDuel.
01:41So obviously not a lot of faith that Detroit can win one of the next two.
01:44This is surprising.
01:46I mean, Detroit was the number one seed.
01:47They were playing like the best team in the NBA,
01:49but Boston learned fast, and maybe Detroit is about to learn as well.
01:53So the odds to win the Eastern Conference have the Knicks currently,
01:57Carlin, as the favorite because they've been playing the best basketball,
02:00really, of anyone, maybe even including Oklahoma City.
02:03So they're minus 240 to win the East,
02:06and oddsmakers tell us that Cleveland essentially wins.
02:09And then naturally, once, if Cleveland does win tonight or in the next game,
02:13we know that their odds will be plus 200, something like that.
02:16Knicks will go down a little bit more to minus 180.
02:18But at this point, is it the Knicks' conference to lose
02:22based on the way that they've played?
02:24Yeah, it is.
02:25And it really comes down to this.
02:27Like, they're going to have home court advantage in the series
02:29if it is Cleveland, and it should be.
02:33And, you know, you have that rest factor,
02:35and that helps OG and Anobi, basically,
02:38because OG and Anobi did not play the last two games in the Sixers series.
02:41Up until that point, I thought he was playing the best basketball
02:44of any New York Knick, not named Jalen Brunson.
02:46So, you know, you have OG and Anobi healthy.
02:49You get him back where he can guard a Donovan Mitchell
02:51or guard a James Harden and kind of take them out of the picture
02:54and just allow the other four players to focus on on one guy.
02:58OG and Anobi is that good.
03:00And with the Knicks' length defensively, they're able to –
03:03Mikel Bridges, let's not forget, he's a pretty good defender.
03:05Josh Hart could also switch up and make some defensive plays.
03:08And protecting the rim, you do have Mitchell Robinson
03:10when he's healthy and ready to go.
03:12So that is a pretty good lineup.
03:13And they're shooting the cover off the ball right now.
03:16You know, maybe the rest kind of hurts them
03:19in terms of the jump shooting
03:20because they didn't miss against the Sixers.
03:22But I do believe that they found something offensively
03:24to kind of unlock things.
03:25And it's a completely different offense
03:27than what the Cavaliers are having to deal with
03:29with the Pistons who don't have that much offense.
03:31So I do favor the Knicks in this one.
03:33And they'll finally get back to the finals.
03:35It's like 1999 all over again.
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