00:00All right, updated odds here.
00:01It looks like I'm wrong.
00:02It looks like the line is going to stick here going into tonight.
00:04The Spurs are still minus four and a half.
00:06I see the total has gone up a half a point from 218 to 218 and a half.
00:12All right, SPJ.
00:13So now, listen, you can change and move the goalpost anytime you want
00:16throughout the series.
00:17But truly, you get the opportunity to pick the NBA champion right here.
00:21So let's go with game one and then who it's going to be.
00:24I love an opportunity to move a goalpost, Greg.
00:27Absolutely love it.
00:28Glad to be back with you, man.
00:29And as you said, game one, we got the NBA finals here ready to rock and roll.
00:32Yeah, it's going to be really interesting to see what happens in this first game
00:35of this series.
00:35Two teams that have not been to the NBA finals in quite a long time.
00:39The Knicks, obviously, in 27 years.
00:40And it was a rematch of this particular matchup.
00:43So lots of narrative on the line tonight.
00:45We're going to see a game one get started here this evening in San Antonio.
00:49I actually do have a play on a side or a total.
00:51But before I get to that, just from the line perspective, like you said,
00:55five and a half points was the opener.
00:56It's dropped to four and a half.
00:57So a little bit of money maybe people are buying into this Knicks team
01:01and how good they've been over the last six weeks of the postseason
01:04in the Eastern Conference.
01:05But I really lean heavily with the Spurs to get the job done.
01:08I know that their youth has been well-documented and talked about all playoffs long
01:12and something that might hinder them from lifting a championship.
01:15And this is, you know, they're ahead of schedule and all the different things
01:18about people saying that this, you know, Victor Wimbanyama at 22,
01:21Stephon Castle at 22, Dylan Harper at 21 years old.
01:24Like, these guys are not yet ready to lift Larry O'Brien.
01:28But I think that they're there, man.
01:29We saw them take down the big bad Oklahoma City Thunder in the last round
01:33in the Western Conference Finals.
01:34We were seeing this team ascend right before our eyes.
01:37I had a bet before the start of the Thunder Series.
01:39I think I actually told you about this when we talked about this a few weeks ago.
01:42For the Spurs to lift the cup at that point, or lift Larry O'Brien at that point
01:46for 3-1 value.
01:47I thought it was going to get good value if they did get out of the Oklahoma City Series
01:50and they would be favorited.
01:51And they are indeed favorited to win this series right now.
01:55So I've got a good 3-1 price in my pocket right now.
01:58As for Game 1, though, it's going to be really interesting just to kind of see
02:03what is the temperature of both of these teams right now.
02:07You're getting the rest-versus-rust conversation with the Knicks,
02:09obviously not having played basketball in 10 days or so.
02:13The Spurs coming off that grueling series with the Thunder
02:15but playing great basketball themselves.
02:16So do the Knicks look a little bit rusty?
02:19Do the Spurs come out maybe look a little bit tired in comparison
02:21with how hard of a series they just had to play?
02:23These teams played each other three times in the regular season.
02:26Obviously, the NBA Cup Championship as well was something that they played
02:29against each other with the Knicks coming out on top in that game.
02:32But interestingly enough, the New York Knicks have 123 offensive rating
02:37in the playoffs in the Eastern Conference, which is an NBA record
02:40since the new conference formatting was done in 2003.
02:44Alternatively, the Spurs, when they played the Spurs in the three matchups
02:48this season, they had 120 offensive rating.
02:50The Spurs were third in the regular season in defensive rating.
02:54The only team that scored the most points per game against the Spurs team
02:57and kind of had their number was the New York Knicks.
03:00So from a matchup perspective, if you look into how they match up
03:03player by player and also offensively versus defensively,
03:06the Knicks actually do have a little bit of an advantage there.
03:08So I'm kind of fascinated to see what these coaches are going to do
03:10in these matchups, obviously with everything on the line
03:13in this particular environment.
03:14But from a game perspective in this one, I like the over.
03:17I took 218.5.
03:19I got, you can maybe buy it down to 217.5 or a bit of juice
03:22if you would like, but I think we see 220 plus points in this game.
03:27Both of these teams have been scoring the basketball with ease,
03:29even in the Thunder series with the Spurs.
03:31I went against one of the best defensive teams in the NBA.
03:33They were still able to score six of the last eight times.
03:36The Spurs have been favored.
03:37The over has hit in those games.
03:39And the last point on this as well is San Antonio.
03:44I just do not think that at home,
03:45they're going to not put the ball in the bucket.
03:47Victor Wimbanyama is going to have to be aggressive
03:49like he was in the Oklahoma City, Oklahoma City series.
03:52Four times he took 20 plus shots in that series.
03:54And oh, by the way, he got the job done in those games.
03:57So I think that we get a nice game to start off here with scoring.
04:00Four of the last six game ones in the NBA finals have gone over the total.
04:05If you want to look back at some historical data on some game ones there as well.
04:08So I think we see some points tonight.
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