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00:00Did you know actually the NBA is moving forward in the Western Conference Finals are getting
00:04started tonight? Absolutely. And by the way, how long have the Knicks been off at this point now?
00:09Resting, relaxation, waiting on a seven-game series. Let's get to the storylines here, Joe,
00:13in 8.30 p.m. tonight. The MVP of the NBA is going to take the court against Victor Webanyama
00:19and the
00:19San Antonio Spurs. We take a look at the line show, opening around six and a half. You see the
00:24graphic
00:24still sitting at six and a half across the board, depending on where you're shopping at the total,
00:28220.5 to 219.5. This game tips off tonight. Game number one, ticket count, Joe. Only about 30%
00:35to
00:3535% of the tickets coming in on the OKC Thunder. They're the favorite by roughly a touchdown.
00:40What's the spread line for you tonight here? Yeah, I mean, listen, the Thunder on paper,
00:47certainly pretty much running it back. I believe Jalen Williams now the hamstring looks to be healed
00:52since he's had, I don't know, a month, two months off here now in order to be able to get
00:56ready
00:57for the Spurs. But yeah, it's, this was, Donnie, the series we're all hoping that we would get
01:03because it's going to be better than likely anything we're going to see in the NBA finals.
01:09I think the NBA knows it. I think we all know that the champion likely coming from this series,
01:15but boy, oh boy, I mean, look at what this line has done, Donnie. Five and a half is an
01:20open
01:21in the look ahead spot. It is sitting six and a half and to every place I'd look, the ticket
01:26count
01:27and the money is all on San Antonio, but yet I'm still seeing six and a half. So somebody
01:33is really liking the Oklahoma City Thunder to repeat. They have been phenomenal at home, Donnie.
01:41The question is you haven't played in a month. So what are we really going to get here? Well,
01:47likely what we're going to get is more defense than offense here tonight, Donnie. I would forget
01:51about the side and I would look way, I'd look really close at this total right now in the two
01:57twenties. I see that number as my dad would say, Joe, that seems like too many points. Hmm. Does it
02:03maybe have a best bet coming out of this game a little bit later in the show, right back out
02:07of
02:07here on the early on, on a Monday, like we get to the information that you need to know, but
02:11also
02:12have our pulse, Joe, right. And what social media is talking about. Cause we're talking about
02:16the same type of things and we continue to do this. It used to be a novelty. It's like, okay,
02:21we want to make a little bit more money. We're going to send a game over to YouTube TV. That's
02:24where you're going to watch. Let's just call it major league baseball. Hey, head on over to Apple
02:28TV for a Friday night game or a Facebook game. And every once in a while, you just had to
02:32deal with
02:32it. I don't have Facebook or I don't have Apple. I'm just going to watch this game. Okay. I got
02:36161
02:37other games, but now it's coming into your life where I consider myself, Joe, the common fan in most
02:44cases. Do I love major league baseball? I do. Do I love the NFL? Yes, I do. Will I watch
02:48college
02:48basketball in the NBA and the NHL? I will do that, but I'm not going to jump hoops to do
02:52it. And you
02:53might say, Donnie, you don't have to jump through hoops. You already have these services. Hear me
02:56out on this and let's start the conversation going, Joe. A Bob Greenberg tweet yesterday,
03:01not only is game seven of the Cavaliers and Pistons on Amazon prime today, but they don't tip
03:05off to eight o'clock. Just ridiculous of how the end dumb the NBA is. I miss the days of
03:10the
03:10Sunday afternoon playoffs on CBS. He's right about that, but let's get to the crux of the
03:14argument, Joe, because I'm going to bring up another tweet that sort of counters it. And
03:17then we'll have a good conversation because I probably know where you stand. And most people
03:20definitely know where I stand. Fun fact for the NBA whiners, CBS reaches an estimated 120 million
03:27homes, TNT 70 to 80. Amazon prime is 180 million us subscribers and 200 million globally for watching
03:35the seven game series at a bar, blah, blah, blah. Let's get to the point here. I have every streaming
03:41service you could possibly have. Netflix, Amazon prime, ESPN plus regular cable television. Heck in
03:47my house, I have Xfinity cable and I also have Verizon cable to watch television on. I'm going to
03:52tell you one thing to start this conversation off, Joe. I love Amazon prime. If I didn't have Amazon
03:58prime, I'd have to go to the store every five minutes. That's why people have Amazon prime. I have
04:03Netflix as well. Do you know what I do? When I get home, Joe, I turn the TV on and
04:07I scroll through
04:08my next option is going Netflix. And I watch and go through there. You know where I never go,
04:13even though I have a subscription to Amazon prime, it's supposed to blow it down. You can watch it
04:17by just go. I get it. But if you want the casuals to tune into your actual environment and your
04:23television, you know what they want to do, Joe flip from channels on their cable to, Oh, I stumbled on
04:29the NBA game. I'll watch it a little bit. Or you know what? The commercial comes on.
04:33Let me go check out another thing. I'll get back to that game. Here's the reason we hate
04:37it on Amazon prime or anything, Joe, you can't flip back without getting back to it. It's ludicrous,
04:43Joe. I'll start there.
04:45Donnie. I mean, no argument. You know, the days of, you know, Sunday being about football and being
04:53about, you know, golf being done by four or five, six o'clock, you know, the games going early,
05:00you know, whether it was a game six, game seven, didn't make it. It was family day. And then you
05:06were good to be on and, and good to go easy access flipped or if you need to, even if
05:12you're not a
05:12fan, Donnie, the ability to go as nothing else. So, Oh, look at that. The games on here we go.
05:17Let me watch the game. All gone, Donnie. It's all gone.
05:22Like how many times have you even like take it on movies, Joe, you scroll through, you stumble
05:27on a movie you want, you watch that movie. If that was on Amazon prime and you weren't just
05:31stumbling through, you're never going to watch it and understand this as well. If people again,
05:35get back to, well, Amazon prime is 180 million subscribers because 179 million of them use
05:42Amazon prime to order stuff. It's almost like, Hey, we'll throw in the TV. If you want it.
05:47I never go to Amazon and surf through it to watch anything on television whatsoever at
05:54this point. So the fact that you tell me that way more subscribers than CBS, I go to CBS to
05:58watch television. I don't go to my Amazon account where I'm going to get deodorant and toothpaste
06:03and a microphone. I don't go there to watch. So the simple fact you put that up and also
06:09understand this in the years coming, if it gets farther and farther away, more people that
06:13don't watch is bad for business, horse racing and boxing used to be Kings. Why are they not
06:20anymore? It's not easily accessible here. The whole pay-per-view 1980s. You got to watch
06:25the big fight on pay-per-view. Where's boxing now overtaking by stupid YouTube fights at this
06:31point right now, Joe.
06:32And that's what they are. That's all different conversation, but yes, Donnie, you're absolutely
06:38100% correct here. It used to be, hey, listen, you could flip around and accidentally get on a
06:45game and watch it. And that's how you built a fan base here. But the idea that now, instead of
06:51getting, and for even the diehards, Donnie, like us, right, the ability to be able to split the screen
06:57and watch multiple things at once, everybody can't do that when you got to, all right, I got to shut
07:03all
07:04of this down. I got to go to this app. Now, wait a minute. Where's the hockey game? Is that
07:08on
07:08Peacock? Where am I going to, what is going on here? Now I got to have 19 teller. No, just
07:14make
07:15it easy for the consumer and you will build a bigger fan base, Donnie. It's not that hard to figure
07:21out.
07:21And I don't like, I want to talk about older heads, right? Like I'm almost 50 years old. Like,
07:25you know, we're middle-aged at this point. The old heads, they have no idea how to get the Amazon
07:29prime or what channel, like you're just cutting it off and saying, okay, digital. And understand
07:34this too about ratings, Joe. You know what counts probably as ratings for Amazon? If I go and say,
07:39ah, hon, ran out of dog food. Let me go to Amazon. You just turned on Amazon. So on their
07:45opening
07:45screen, it shows NBA. You're an official watcher of that. Ratings are through the roof. It's all
07:51phony as a sham at this point right now. I guarantee you, Joe, you put a game on CBS in
07:57the middle of the
07:57afternoon or Amazon prime in the middle of the afternoon to competing games. I guarantee you the true
08:03knowledge would come from CBS blowing the doors off Amazon prime. It's the same thing on Twitter
08:09or X. You scroll through, Hey, I got 60,000 views on this. Why? Because somebody scrolled through,
08:15it appeared on your screen and left within a half of the second. Hey, that guy watched your entire show.
08:21Nonsense. Knock it off. I can't stand it right now, Joe. I'm going to lose my mind. It's here. Go
08:25ahead.
08:26Yep. I'll tell you what, case in point, I'm out last night grabbing something to eat, right? And
08:31everything is ending and I'm in a restaurant. I'm at the bar. I'm looking at the TV and I'm like,
08:37why is the game not on? What, where is that? Why are we not watching the pregame? And then it
08:43wasn't
08:43until I got home that I realized, Oh, because you mean the restaurants and the bars are not switching to
08:48Amazon prime. So everyone can watch it. Oh, so how many people are you leaving out in those spots
08:55where, Hey, you got the game on? Yeah. No, we got like, like, no, we don't have Amazon prime here
09:01in the, like, what are we doing, Donnie? What are we doing?
09:05No, it's, and again, it, it might not hurt now because the money is there and these places are
09:10just doubling down. But what happens when they take your product for five to six years,
09:14gain those people that actually want to watch the NBA and hook them into Amazon prime and then
09:19drop the NBA, drop the NFL. I'm like, it's not worth paying us three, paying the NFL $3 billion for
09:23this product. We'll just go away. And they go, Oh, let's just go back to TV at this point.
09:28Just put it on where the most people can watch charge the ad fees and you'll be just fine.
09:31Because sometimes Joe taking all the money doesn't make the sense here. You'd play the long game,
09:36more people that can watch more fans for life, buy more merchandise. And again, it's all a joke.
09:42Joe, it's the casual, put this this way in Las Vegas, right? Go buy a casino and you look in
09:46the doors and be like, it doesn't look like it's too happening in there at this point. There's not
09:50a lot of music being played. I don't see very many people. I will just keep going down. Next casino
09:53you get to, whoa, looks like people are drinking, having a good time over there. Let me go in there.
09:58You know what just happened, Joe? That guy made a conscious decision because all he's doing is
10:03channel surfing to find what he wants and goes to take it. But you know, who's not going to get
10:07it?
10:07Go to the next casino. Well, it's closed. Oh, I'll just keep walking at this point. That's
10:11what we're talking about. The casual is going to flip through and stumble on your game because
10:16contrary, Joe, to popular belief, not everybody knows there's a game seven on. Not everybody knows
10:22baseball's here and NFL is here and NBA is here. But you know what I guarantee? Boy, tired after a
10:27long day, turn the TV on. I don't want to watch that. You know what? That's right. Game six of
10:31the
10:31World Series is on tonight. Let me just sit back and watch this game. If that was on Amazon Prime,
10:35that guy's never doing that and probably just settling on something else at this point. Joe,
10:39great topics here in this. Look, Joe, bringing the heat on what the people need to know. We're
10:44opinionated, Joe. We let them know. Yeah, well, I mean, listen, and the funny part is, and it's
10:49ironic and serves them all right, Johnny, is anybody that even had to go through the aggravation of
10:54finding it on Amazon Prime last night? Yeah, you got what a game seven you got. Likely that was off
11:02by the
11:03time, I don't know, 45 minutes into the game. You were like, yeah, no, I'm going back to,
11:08yeah, no, this is, no, I'm not doing it. And by the way, if Amazon Prime just saved the SGA
11:14announcement for being a back-to-back MVP, nobody would have found out. Thank goodness for Shams.
11:19That's correct. We did it out. Now we knew, and we didn't have to tune into a subscription service
11:23to find out. Oh, boy, it's Monday. We're just getting started. Oh, we got topics to get to here.
11:30I always want to be commissioned of all sports because I think I have the common theme of the
11:34common fan in place. We just want to sit back and watch it. Games we can always watch. Now,
11:39where am I going with this here? Find out. It's Danny Wright said it's Joe O'Neary,
11:42and it's Kevin Walsh on a Monday rising and grind. He looks puzzled here by that question.
11:47He doesn't know what I'm going to ask, or does he? I know, and I once again, it's like, hey,
11:54guys,
11:55there was a game seven. Don is like, what if I lead with the 114th most interesting element of that
12:02game? Yes, correct. And you ready for that? It was on Amazon Prime, which everybody has Amazon Prime,
12:08which is just fine. But my question, Kevin, is bigger at, why do we start this at eight o'clock?
12:13Oh, that's right. The NBA has got three more games to play before it. There's no other windows you can
12:16use it in. Put that game in the middle of the afternoon and watch the ratings go up and watch
12:23everybody make more money. But you put it on Prime. Nobody watched it. And what happened? It was a
12:28blowout victory, which is perfect. Cavaliers move on. Pistons go down. One seat is out. Cavs move on to
12:35the Knicks. And I'm hoping, which, by the way, was that the last, let me ask you this question,
12:39Kevin. I think it was the last Amazon Prime game. Wonder why they want people to watch the Eastern
12:44Conference Finals and the NBA Championship. No? Well, I don't know. Shams was out there spoiling
12:49their big MVP announcement on Amazon. So I, listen again, everyone has Amazon Prime. If the game's on,
12:57you watch the game. It's, we don't have to pretend that that matters. As far as the game goes,
13:02though, the interesting thing, when you look at the four conference finalists, three of them are
13:09like all supposed to be here. And then it's the Spurs from the preseason element. It's, I mean,
13:17it's super supposed to be here. If you think back to how last season ended, when the Eastern
13:23conference, when the, when the dust settled on last year's postseason, the Knicks and Cavs were in a
13:32deadlock for, if you don't win the East next year, it's a disgrace. Because the Celtics and Pacers
13:38had their number one star out with a torn Achilles. The Bucs weren't a real basketball team.
13:44Sixers kind of fit that description as well. So it's funny. It was a long road to get to New
13:51York
13:51versus Cleveland. But I can't say, despite the fact it's a three versus four, it doesn't feel like
13:58that. At least to me, when I line these teams up, it's going to be, I think probably better than
14:07what
14:07we're going to get in the finals, no matter who wins this series. But, you know, we got to take
14:12into consideration. I don't care if you remember the last time we watched Oklahoma City play a
14:17basketball game. And, and even then it wasn't like, it didn't feel like they broke a sweat.
14:22What do you do in game ones in situations like this? Because the Knicks are going to be the same
14:27thing here. Are you expecting more uptempo? Are they going to try and, and just go as fast as they
14:33go? Are they going to slow this thing down? Is there rust? How do you approach this game?
14:38So I think once again, we talked about this when the Knicks played the Sixers,
14:44it feels as if there's a real tax being put on anybody who wants to bet New York. I know
14:50that
14:50that game's Tuesday, but like seven and a half, that, that is more than obviously Oklahoma City
14:57is laying into San Antonio. It feels like a full two points potentially for the spot of having played
15:04a game seven, where I think that might even be more relevant for Knicks Cavs is just Cleveland's
15:11played 14 games this postseason. Like to play seven and then seven again feels like they've almost
15:20automatically lost this series. I don't know how you could have the legs to get through
15:25the conference finals here. If you're Cleveland, I guess you'd have to steal,
15:29steal game one. But again, the books obviously don't think that's possible. The other thing
15:34that's just very interesting to me, and you look at both of these game ones, the NBA playoffs
15:39are right now, we are seeing the books post totals that are like, nope, it's the playoffs. And that's,
15:47and usually, right, you're like, ah, let me be smart about this, man. This is an under spot.
15:54These games keep going over. Like they keep over adjusting them and it doesn't pay to be the
16:01sharp eyed underbacker. I mean, look at the game seven, 205 and a half crashing down, 204 and a half,
16:08203 and a half. The game flew through the number. Knicks Cavs looks 10 points light on the total as
16:16somebody who fought under could be a good way to start this series. Yeah. And here's the tough
16:21part about it too. It's almost like you have the MO already built into the New York Knicks.
16:25Philadelphia 76ers on the road, game number seven. Woo! Finally got through it. Less than 48 hours
16:30later, you're in a different building trying to take on another team and the Sixers got absolutely
16:34annihilated. Same thing could be happening with the Cavaliers where it's like, okay, on the road,
16:38game number seven, made it through here. And as you talk about back-to-back seven game series,
16:42the Knicks are waiting. You might get ambushed at this point here, or it might be one of those,
16:46hey, we're still running on adrenaline and the adrenaline dump happens in game number two
16:50and you get blown out as opposed to game number one. But let me ask you a question about the
16:53MVP,
16:54which is SGA. Rightfully so at this point, you watching all the markets, sports books,
16:57predictive markets. We knew it was going to happen. Shams absolutely annihilates it with a 950 AM tweet,
17:03which I thought was interesting. My question to you is, why is SGA looked at like the back-to-back
17:08MVP is hard to do in any sport, especially in the end? Like you are on a level that not
17:14a lot of
17:14people get to achieve, but I feel like he doesn't get the respect. Is there a reason why in your
17:19eyes,
17:19Kevin, where it's like, oh, back-to-back SGA? That's ridiculous.
17:23I guess it's relative to which circle you're speaking about. Donnie doesn't give him that
17:28respect. I think it's a really interesting question because on one hand, he had, he got
17:34enough respect to win back-to-back MVPs. Yeah. Right. But I don't think the best players in the
17:42league, the best do become a bit of its own fraternity, right? Like a lot of the old guys
17:48talk about how the league itself is a fraternity, but like you can tell when LeBron daps up Durant,
17:54it means a lot more than when LeBron daps up Alper and Shengu type of thing. Right. Um,
18:01I sometimes get the sense that they don't view Shay, that he doesn't have that same respect from his
18:09peers. You would think a back-to-back MVP does. I think a lot of these guys respect a Jokic
18:13a little
18:14bit more Donnie to, to, to, I, I, and I don't know if it's the, the flailing. I mean, truly
18:20every SGA
18:21it's hard. Listen, SGA is successful Harden for the most part. That's what it is, right?
18:29Harden could never break through with the championships SGA already has, and it's supposed
18:34to again, but it's every mid range jumper. He's fallen. Like he's intentionally Harden falls on every
18:42three, every three kick the legs out. People catch Kevin Walsh night, 6 to 7 PM with Gabriel
18:48Maranci tonight. Game time decisions. We'll be right back eight and two last week's best bets and
18:53bye-bye-bye right now. Where do we go, Joe? Best bet on a Monday. Take it away. Well, we'll
19:05go to the
19:05NBA here tonight, Donnie. We saw this, uh, San Antonio and OKC, uh, total open up right around
19:13217, 217 and a half. It was bet up to about 220. Now we're hovering right around 219 and a
19:20half in
19:21spots and 220 and a half. And the reality is, listen, what are we going to get from these two
19:26teams? Well, can you really count what you got in the regular season? I don't know, but I think what
19:32we're going to get is two teams that want to get downhill, Donnie. I think they want to get out
19:37in
19:37transition and I think they will. And I think, uh, it's going to be flying from the perimeter here.
19:44Going to be some free throws. We're getting points in this game one, make no mistake about it. It's
19:49not going to be a first one to a hundred. It's going to be the first one to 115, 120.
19:54I think Donnie
19:55in this game tonight, NBA for me has been nothing short, but a piggy bank and a cash cow. We're
20:00going to
20:00keep it right there. It's not even about a handicap at this point, or even watching the game all the
20:05way through. It's just saying to yourself, read the line, boy, it looks high tonight, six and a half.
20:10The Spurs are a really good basketball team, which is why 67% of the public are betting the Spurs
20:15because it's just too many points. They can keep it close and maybe they can, but you know what?
20:20Nobody's really betting. Okay. See tonight. They're at home. These are smashed teams at home. I'm going to
20:25lay the six and a half points tonight with the Oklahoma city thunder. They're good. The Spurs are good,
20:29but that line's telling me something right now, boy, that's high for a reason. And we're going to
20:33ride the high. Okay. See gets the cover and we go to it out to open it up. Hey, just
20:39like game one
20:40of the Spurs thunder is going to take place tonight. Western conference finals tip time,
20:448 30 PM Eastern on the Kowski marketplace. The favorite at 67% as a chance to win this basketball
20:50game. It's okay. See contract price. Yes. Is 69 cents, which means Oklahoma city wins outright tonight.
20:58Joe a hundred dollar investment pays back $145. Yeah. But the problem here, Donnie is the trends
21:06are telling us, wait a minute. What are we talking about here? Defending champions. Uh, we're talking
21:11about Oklahoma city being 39 and 26 against the spread as a home favorite, uh, of more in this
21:17price range of six and a half or more. They're also five and three against the number in game ones.
21:23Uh, they exactly haven't exactly been running away from teams here. Having said that they have not
21:30played in a little while. And I think the energy of that building, Donnie, and I think, uh, now that
21:36they're healthy, Williams is going to be back on the court for them. Both of these teams have depth.
21:42Both of them have guards that like to get out in transition. I see points coming here tonight. I think
21:49do not sleep on this being a higher scoring game. Yes. They can both play defense, Donnie,
21:54but I think the value lies in the points here tonight. I think, yeah, uh, I wouldn't mind
22:00doing a little laddering up here, uh, on the total up and over to let's say, I don't know,
22:05two 24 and a half, maybe you want to ladder up on SGA from 30 points to 35. You can
22:11do it on the
22:11marketplace, 35 plus points tonight from the MVP SGA, a hundred dollar investment pays back $323.
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