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00:00OK, the NBA getting ready for another game tomorrow can't have a better finish than the other day.
00:05And so the Knicks decided to say that OG Ananobi, who ended up hitting the game winning shot, is now
00:11officially have his own day.
00:13It's June 11th, 2026. Indeed, forever.
00:18I think that this is a great idea, Joe, with the exception of what happens if they lose the next
00:23few games of the series?
00:24You're always going to remember this great shot, this great win.
00:27And then they and then San Antonio came back.
00:30I'm not saying that they will, but isn't this a little early?
00:33Shouldn't you wait a few days?
00:35Everything they have done in this series revolving around the Knicks has been as if they had already won the
00:43championship.
00:44The game three, the celebrations, it's like, can we just wait until they win the fourth game?
00:51Because you and I both know, Greg, what is the hardest game in a best of seven series to win?
00:57It's the last one. It's the closeout game.
01:00So can we wait until that happens before we start naming bridges and libraries and streets and everything else?
01:08That would be great.
01:09And he is maybe the antithesis of everything that represents New York.
01:14He doesn't say two words.
01:16He's the quietest dude.
01:18Nicest guy.
01:18Doesn't say anything.
01:20And yet, here you are.
01:22You're already naming a day for him.
01:24Like, come on.
01:25Can we just win?
01:26Win the Larry O'Brien first.
01:28Then we can celebrate afterwards.
01:29Mike Greenberg of ESPN says that fans are a disgrace for throwing eggs at Victor Wimbayama and basically going after
01:41the Spurs in New York.
01:42We've seen this now a couple of different times, Joe.
01:45The team busts getting attacked as well.
01:48I mean, there's really nothing to disagree with here, is there?
01:52No, you can't fix stupid, Craig.
01:55And that's the problem.
01:56The level, the mentality of these idiots is beyond me.
02:00Because you do realize this team that you so much love has to get on a plane and has to
02:06now fly to San Antonio.
02:09And now you're setting them up for their fans to retain.
02:13Like, do they not understand how this works, Craig?
02:16Apparently not.
02:17So you got to be better than this.
02:19It's ridiculous.
02:20The line for tomorrow night's game, by the way, Spurs favored by five and a half points with a total
02:26of 216 and a half.
02:29I mean, this series has been so unpredictable, as you can see from last game, with Spurs being up 30
02:35points, basically, and coming back to blow it.
02:37I don't know, Joe.
02:38I tend to think that this series isn't over yet, but I don't know if they're going to cover this
02:42big number.
02:46It's history tells us, right?
02:48There's a pretty good chance this will come back to New York for game six, that, you know, teams that
02:54win, cover.
02:55Whether it's the dog or it's the favorite, they win.
02:59So let's see exactly how this goes.
03:02But I do.
03:03The big question is, does New York have anything left in the tank after that win in game four?
03:08Good, good point.
03:09All right.
03:09We'll take a quick break on the early line.
03:11We'll be back with more on this Friday next.
03:13Welcome back to the early line here on Sports Grid.
03:15Always great to catch up with Kevin Walsh.
03:17He's getting ready for World Cup Day 2.
03:20And Joe Ranieri, of course, is always with us.
03:23Kevin, thanks for coming on the show.
03:24I mean, hard to keep up with everything going on right now with the NBA, the World Cup, Stanley Cup,
03:29baseball.
03:30I even did a WNBA preview of a game that I had never heard of happening, to be honest with
03:36you.
03:36But, Kevin, great to have you here.
03:38And, you know, certainly I think that we're heading into a pretty big game five.
03:43I don't know.
03:43It's, like, funny.
03:44Like, the assumption seems to be that the Spurs are going to win this one and we're just simply going
03:49to have a game six.
03:50Do you feel that way?
03:51Or do you think that there's a chance this goes the other way?
03:54No, I think this certainly could go the other way.
03:56I'm, you know, you always try and just see where people are at and kind of what their expectations are.
04:01See, you know, if there's a public leaning, consensus on a game here.
04:06And the Spurs are booked as five and a half point favorites.
04:10I feel like there's a lot of Knicks confidence in this game specifically.
04:15Like, of course, there's a lot of confidence in the series.
04:17The only time we had a 3-1 comeback was the LeBron James Cavs.
04:22So, you know, NBA history suggests this series is over for the second time because it was also suggested to
04:29be over when the Knicks took the 2-0 series lead.
04:33And obviously at halftime of game four, it probably felt over in a different direction than, you know, it actually
04:39now feels.
04:40I think the Knicks still do feel due for a really good full game.
04:50And I can't shake that they've been able to absolutely massacre their opponent with closeout opportunities on the table.
05:02But we're talking about 40-point victories, you know, with Atlanta, Philly, and Cleveland.
05:07And I wonder if some of that is where the traveling New York crowd comes into play.
05:13And I don't think it's Spurs fans' fault.
05:15I don't even know if it's necessarily that, oh, Knicks fans are the best fans in basketball.
05:21It's that it costs half the price to fly to San Antonio, get in the building to potentially watch your
05:30team clinch a championship,
05:31than it does to, like, sniff Madison Square Garden.
05:35And I think that's, like, part of it is there's, like, I think a shock for everybody involved when you're
05:40five minutes into the game.
05:42And it does sound closer to Madison Square Garden than it does, you know, a home game for these teams
05:48here.
05:48So, I haven't bet anything yet, but I find myself, once again, kind of expecting the Knicks to roll here
05:55a little bit.
05:56Now, I thought the Knicks were going to roll in game four, and I managed to be wrong.
06:01I lost, I laid two and a half.
06:03I was like, listen, if they only win by one or two, I'm wrong about this game.
06:08I was wrong about the game, despite the fact that they won.
06:12So, to me, Kev, we're at the point where it was such an anomaly, that game four, right?
06:20The whole trip to New York was just absolutely crazy.
06:24To me, it comes down to, did the Knicks leave it all out on the court in that comeback, historic
06:31comeback?
06:31Or, did the Spurs, because of their youth and experience, are they throwing in the towel now because three games
06:40to one, the chances of them coming back are old?
06:42To me, that's the only question.
06:44Do the Knicks have enough left in the tank?
06:46Or, would they be willing to say, you know what, we got mad at, we're up 3-1, we can
06:52exhale a little bit.
06:53But, I don't know, are the Spurs laying down here?
06:56Because that's the big question to me.
06:58I think the Knicks are very fortunate this wasn't a one-day rest situation because the Jose Alvarado cat press
07:11conference, I was looking for a champagne bottle on the table.
07:16Like, it felt like they won the championship.
07:19Like, it certainly did not feel like, oh, we'll see everybody Saturday.
07:25Um, so I think they definitely needed the extra 24 hours to kind of decompress and collect themselves.
07:36The Spurs is a hard one to get a grasp on.
07:38Because I've been saying this, obviously, you know Joe and Craig, we've talked a little bit about this series.
07:44I really don't think the Spurs have respected the Knicks.
07:47I think a part of that huge comeback was a lack of respect.
07:52And top down.
07:54It doesn't always, usually it's a player's thing.
07:56I remember, though, the Platoon Squad Kentucky team with John Calipari as their head coach.
08:01The reason that team didn't close out an unbeaten season is John Calipari was 100% positive they were going
08:07to go unbeaten.
08:08And never thought anybody could beat them.
08:10And I don't think Mitch Johnson at any point thought they were going to lose to the Knicks as they
08:15were blowing that lead until it was too late.
08:18Um, so I say all of that to say, I, it doesn't feel like the Spurs are going to have
08:24a defeatist attitude when they are constantly, I think, portraying that they're playing a JV team.
08:32But they're also down 3-1 in the series with the worst blown lead in the history of the NBA
08:38Finals.
08:40Kevin, I think, as we put a bow real quick on the series, is that most of us, as we've
08:47talked about, feel like we want a seven-game series.
08:51But it's really hard to look past what happened in the last game and think that we're going to get
08:56a better game than that.
08:58Do you think that the Spurs, who trailed by almost 30 in a game, can do one of two things?
09:04Either use that and say, let's never let that happen again, or fall victim to, if they do trail at
09:13any point in this game, think to ourselves, well, you know what?
09:17You know, our series is over.
09:19Our best shot that we had was to win the next one.
09:21I guess it could go either way with this one.
09:23I'm just not sure which one it is.
09:24No, you're absolutely right, Craig.
09:27I think what's so tough for San Antonio, though, is they've won every first quarter in this series.
09:35They win every first quarter they play.
09:39And so you asked, understand, like, if the Knicks are up 10, what happens?
09:44I, like, early in the game.
09:46I don't know.
09:47But I know that if the Spurs are up 10, it doesn't matter, like, which is a crazy thing for
09:54San Antonio, that they're, like, they were able to establish these early leads on OKC, and I do think OKC
10:02felt it.
10:03They were going to lean on the thunder a little bit.
10:05The Knicks are down 10.
10:07Cats in foul trouble.
10:09Brunson can't hit a shot.
10:10And it's all good.
10:11Jose Alvarado's running around, keeping things afloat.
10:14Like, it's just, it's what this team has been able to do.
10:18Not just this.
10:19They did it last year.
10:20It's not even just a Mike Brown thing.
10:21They did it with Tibbs.
10:23Welcome back to Prediction Markets Edge.
10:25As we get ready to wrap things up here on this Friday, let's get started with Fade the Market.
10:35Our poll question of the day, Joe.
10:37Vote now.
10:38What market do you want tomorrow on Prediction Markets Edge?
10:42And, of course, an overwhelming choice.
10:46It is the NBA Finals, followed by nothing.
10:50Everybody is going to be watching this game tomorrow, Joe.
10:53You know what's funny is that I don't care what the ratings were, streaming and video-wise, for that game
11:00between San Antonio and New York.
11:02It's the residual from that.
11:04Everybody is going to tune in to see what happens next.
11:07They absolutely are.
11:09And, listen, it's, depending on what you think is going to happen in game five, there are still a couple
11:16of available markets that you should be looking at.
11:20Because if you think San Antonio can bounce back, well, not only in the game five markets, Craig, but game
11:28six, maybe now could be a time if they can get it to a game seven.
11:32Listen, they won 60-plus games this year.
11:35The idea of them winning two games in a row is not impossible to think of here at this point.
11:42Speaking of which, investing in the NBA Finals for upcoming game five, it seems like on Cal Sheen, most of
11:49the tickets are on the Spurs.
11:5164 percent, 36 percent on the Knicks after doing the show with you, Joe, here for almost two hours.
11:57I don't know, man.
11:58It feels like you are riding the Spurs here for the next game.
12:01I don't know how you feel about game seven.
12:03Am I wrong about that?
12:04Yeah, it seems like you like San Antonio.
12:07Yeah, listen, I just don't know what the Knicks have left in the tank here.
12:11Plus, they can exhale here a little bit.
12:15And the only thing you've got to fear is that San Antonio just throws the talent.
12:21But, you know, don't forget, I am sure Popovich is going to show up in that locker room at some
12:27point here.
12:28And, you know, he has the ear of all of these young guys here.
12:32You know, Mitch Johnson made a lot of mistakes.
12:35I mean, awful decisions in that game for San Antonio.
12:39Redemption's a funny thing.
12:41At home, it matters here.
12:43So, and really, I mean, Craig, outside of a handful of quarters, San Antonio has played the majority of these
12:50games.
12:51They have outplayed the Knicks in most of these games.
12:54So, you know, I do think they've got another win in them.
12:58And I also think the Knicks, you know, heading back home with an opportunity to win the NBA Finals just
13:06makes for a better story and for a better finals altogether.
13:10The NBA Finals MVP market is a fascinating one here because it could be really any three players on the
13:17Knicks at this point.
13:18I understand that 49% are on Jalen Brunson.
13:21But with the tip-in for OG Ananobi, he's up to 32%.
13:25I know Carl Anthony Towns hasn't had a great Finals, but he is still in the mix as well.
13:31Obviously, if the Spurs win, it's Wemby.
13:33But, Joe, you really get to a Game 5 where you—look, I think it's low-lying fruit to say, yes,
13:39Brunson wins the MVP.
13:40But I don't think that this is a certainty.
13:43I think this could go a number of different directions.
13:46Nobody has been more consistent than Ananobi.
13:50And, Craig, all week long I have been saying this, that forget the Brunsons.
13:56If you like the Knicks, that Ananobi has been—he's not the most vocal guy.
14:02He's never going to be in the spotlight, right?
14:05But I can tell you this.
14:07He's the only guy on the Knicks that has not struggled to get his shot.
14:11Everybody else, because of Wemby, has had to modify what they do when they get into the paint.
14:17But he has not.
14:18He is the only guy that has been able to get his shots.
14:21And it is—without him, the Knicks would be in a lot of trouble here.
14:26So, I think him more so than anybody else right now is the reason why the Knicks are up three
14:31games to one.
14:32And do you want to take your final shot here at the series here, Joe?
14:3580% on the Knicks, 20% on the San Antonio Spurs.
14:40I mean, this is it.
14:41I mean, really, the Knicks have a chance to close it out.
14:44But if they don't, I think they're probably in some trouble.
14:48The only way to go is—and now, again, I'm not betting that San Antonio actually wins it.
14:56I'm betting the repricing, Craig.
14:58If I think they win game five, I'm buying them at 20 cents.
15:02We're going to wake up on Sunday, and they're going to—that's going to be a 10 to 12, 15 cent
15:07difference.
15:07And then if they win game six, gets it to a game seven, yeah, you're going to give them at
15:13a much better price than the 20 cents you're investing in now.
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