[Munaf Manji] (0:10 - 0:44)

Welcome everyone to the NBA podcast on RJ Bell's Dream Preview. Back here with another episode for the NBA playoffs and we'll go through the next three days in the NBA playoffs. The Wednesday games, the Thursday games, the Friday games.

 

We'll discuss what we've seen over the past couple days here as we're on to the conference semifinals in the NBA playoffs. But joining me here to help me break everything down happening on the hardwood, I got my guy here with me. It's Sleepy J.

 

Sleepy, what's going on my man? How are you doing this Wednesday?

 

[Sleepy J.] (0:45 - 0:58)

I'm doing quite well today. Can't complain. Getting an early start for our Wednesday here.

 

Gonna go ahead and look at the Wednesday night game and then, you know, go ahead and knock out the rest of them. But I can't help it, you sound like you're a little under the weather, my man.

 

[Munaf Manji] (0:58 - 4:27)

A little bit. A little horse in my voice. I've got a little bug going through the household here.

 

So I'm gonna power through it. You know, you asked me last time how I was feeling and I said I'm questionable, but since it's the playoffs, there are no restrictions. So I'm gonna give it a full go, not only for you, but also for our listeners.

 

Got a huge support from our listeners, man. All the tweets and the DMs that we do get. Whether they are good or bad, 99% are great because we have been having a lot of success, not only during the regular season, but also in the playoffs here at Sleepy.

 

And let's get right to our picks here that we gave out on the last pod. And we went 2-2 overall, but we were, I don't want to say a little bit daring, but I think that we had the right reads, especially on our player prop best bets. I'll get to those here in a second.

 

I had game seven to go under between the Magic and the Cleveland Cavaliers at 195 and a half. And if you watch the game, a little bit too many free throws, you could probably say in those final couple of minutes. I know there maybe were some questionable calls.

 

That game ended up with 200 points going over the number of obviously 195 and a half. You had Hallie to go over 17 and a half points for Sleepy. And I think number one, this was, I think the right side to be on because going into this series in game one, I know we'll talk about more when we get to that game here for tonight, that you had to expect Hallie to come out and play well going up against his New York Knicks team.

 

Now, fortunately for the Pacers, they got balanced scoring from the other guys. It just didn't come from Halliburton. And I just feel like that it's either that back injury that's really bothering him or that this is his first time in the playoffs playing a lot of minutes.

 

And it's, I don't want to say it's getting to him, but he's still trying to find his way, if that kind of makes sense. But again, if the Pacers are going to have any success in this series, they're going to need Tyrese Halliburton as a step up. But he did go under his points prop there of 17 and a half.

 

And I know we'll talk about how we hear more for the game here tonight on Wednesday between the Knicks and the Pacers getting to our player prop best bets. We gave out two players on the same team to go over their points prop. And some of us might have, or some of us would have thought we were crazy, especially for two guys in the playoffs, but we had the absolute right read on both these players sleepy.

 

So we had Anthony Edwards over 26 and a half points, and we gave it out. I know I said 27 and a half, but it didn't matter. He finished the game with 41 points.

 

And then we also gave out Carl Anthony towns over 18 and a half points and something similar to a Jalen Brunton, right? Like we know Anthony Edwards is going to get his and he has, or the first couple of games here, but we said that somebody else was going to have to step up. And we said that it was going to have to be Carl Anthony towns.

 

And it has been him in the first two games of the series against the Denver Nuggets. He had 20 points in game one. He followed that up with 27 in game two, but we swept our first ever double player prop best bets now 18 and three over our last 21 player prop best bets dating back to the regular season.

 

So glad we got to the windows with those. They're sleepy, but overall pretty good night for us as far as our picks went.

 

[Sleepy J.] (4:28 - 5:56)

Yeah, it wasn't too bad. I think your Matt's a little bit screwed up. I think we're better than 18 and three.

 

You might want to double check that. Let me double check the Halliburton play. I felt really, really good about that one, but it was it was a play moon off where if you listen to the podcast, I was a little bit iffy on if I wanted to give out a best bet for that podcast.

 

And I felt like I forced one, but again, it was a pick that I like, so it didn't come through as far as our player prop best bets. It was a situation where I felt like we couldn't go. Oh, and two.

 

So at worst, you know, maybe we eat a little bit of juice, but there was a good probability that we went to one. Oh, just based on the usage, we thought we were going to get out of Kat and Edward. So both of those came in, came in rather easily.

 

You know, Kat kind of slowed down there really in the fourth quarter, but he came out in the third quarter and it was like, bang, bang, bang, bang, bang over and over and over again. Like, holy smokes, like this dude's going to go ahead and cash this one pretty quick for sure enough. You know, he went ahead and did that.

 

So it was cool. I wish we would have went ahead and hit, hit our best bets as well, but you know, the player props have been really what's driving this podcast. So in a, in light of going to, you know, when often I have decided we're going to go ahead, we're going to give out two more player props and, but as long as this two and O train can continue, we'll go ahead and we'll keep giving out two props until we lose at least one or maybe two of them.

 

So that's, what's on tap for today. Hopefully you guys will enjoy that. We got two good ones for you.

 

[Munaf Manji] (5:56 - 8:04)

20 and three over our last 23 player prop, best bets are sleepy. So hopefully we can, so hopefully we can continue that into the card for the next couple of days here. Let's get right into it here, man.

 

We'll start here with the Wednesday night game between the New York Knicks hosting the Indiana Pacers, a really fun game one in Madison square garden, some questionable calls down the stretch here that went against the Indiana Pacers. Again, as a Knicks ticket holder for the series price and also the series spread here. I found myself very fortunate because that was a game that Pacers could have easily won, but game one, the Knicks went at one 21, one 17 swords over the total.

 

The Pacers do cover the number of six and a half in this game. And again, led by Jalen Brunson, who finished the game with 43 points and 44 minutes, 14 of 26 of the floor. He was 14 of 14 from the free throw line.

 

I also got great contributions from his other Villanova buddies, Josh Hart and Dante DiVincenzo. Josh Hart finished up the game with 24 points, 13 rebounds, eight assists. Dante DiVincenzo did a huge clutch three in that late minutes of that game.

 

He finished the game with 25 points, five or nine from three point land. And for the Indiana Pacers, we talked about how he just, I don't know, just doesn't look right. He only got up six shot attempts to that game in 36 minutes, finished the game with six points, eight assists and four steals, but I got some scoring contributions from five other players on the team that were in double figures led by Myles Turner, 23 points in that game in 35 minutes, TJ McConnell coming off of the bench in 18 minutes, sorry, in 22 minutes at 18 points.

 

And then Pascal Siakam had 19 points as well. Aaron Neesman chipped in with 12 and also Andrew Nimhard had 11 for the Indiana Pacers here. So if you have any thoughts from game one, and then we can talk about game two here for tonight between these two teams.

 

[Sleepy J.] (8:04 - 9:52)

I thought it was a pretty good collective effort overall from the Pacers. You got a lot of scoring. You got some bench scoring.

 

McConnell had a pretty good game there. I do not expect that to happen in tonight's game. I think the Knicks played with fire in game one, going out there and running and gunning with this Pacers team.

 

That is not the identity of this Knicks team. They want to play slow. They want to grind you down.

 

They want to punch you in the mouth. And fortunately for them, they went ahead, they snuck out a win. I thought that they had some favorable calls going in their direction, especially late.

 

So I think the Knicks are going to take a completely different approach tonight. Slow, grind you down, punch you in the mouth and really make the Pacers work on both sides of the court. I like the under and I like the Knicks.

 

You know, I was kind of on the fence if I liked the Knicks, but the fact that I'm very, very strong on the game plan and the approach that they're going to take tonight, I think you have to take the Knicks because it's going to be their style of game. So I think the Pacers got away with one in game one, getting, being able to play at such a fast pace, but I do not think that will be the case tonight. Tibbs will have the Knicks locked in and it's going to be a slow grinding game.

 

That's what I see. I think the first team to hit a hundred tonight actually wins this game. So I like the under, I like the Knicks.

 

That's what I'm doing for that game. As far as player props right now, I'm going to go ahead and probably just, I'll either stay away or maybe, maybe I'll go ahead, I'll play Brunson to go ahead and score 40 again, just because we know like historically he's going for a particular like record. He's in there with like guys like Jordan and stuff like that.

 

So you got to figure he's got to at least try tonight and you know, he's their main weapon. So maybe that's something that I'll go ahead and maybe throw a little pizza bed on or something like that. But as far as props, maybe that's about it.

 

Yeah. So Knicks under, that's where I'm at.

 

[Munaf Manji] (9:53 - 12:02)

Yeah. I think that game one great, like you mentioned a great collective effort from the Indiana Pacers. So they, when I got a little bit more from Tyrese Halliburton, they definitely could have pulled out that game, but give credit to the Knicks.

 

They got stops. Jalen Brunson was incredible. Like I mentioned, D Vincenzo hit that clutch three-pointer down the stretch for them.

 

Josh Hart. I told you he had 24 points in game one. You would have thought a lot of those came from three point land, but he was one of one from beyond the arc nine of 13 from the floor.

 

You finished the game with playing all 48 minutes for the New York Knicks also chipped in with 13 rebounds and eight assists here. Yeah. I liked the next year tonight.

 

I think that you nailed it, that I think that the, the game plan here will be really the clamp down on the defensive side of the basketball for the New York Knicks and play their identity of, of, and their brand of basketball, which is half court offense, playing that tough nose defense, diving for those loose balls. And I think that they're really going to limit what we saw from this Indiana Pacers team, right? Because like I mentioned, outside of Halliburton, they had 18 from McConnell in 22 minutes coming off of the bench.

 

Not sure if I see that happening again. I think Pascal Siakam will continue to get his, but I do expect the paint defense to be a whole heck of a lot better for this New York Knicks team as well, because the Pacers did shoot 52.3% from the field. And if you take a look at the points inside the paint here, sleepy in game one, the Pacers scored 64 points inside the paint.

 

They are plus six from inside the paint against the Knicks in game one. So I like the next year minus four and a half at home. I think they do take care of business here.

 

I think the only look as well to the total for me would be the under in this game. I think when we did the last part, I think mentioned that I think the Pacers would have to play at their pace to win this game or even when the series, I should say, but I think the New York Knicks will come back that here tonight. So yeah, next for me here, minus four and a half, I do think they take a two Oh lead heading into a games three and four in Indiana over the weekend.

 

[Sleepy J.] (12:02 - 12:11)

So quick question for you there, Manoff injury update with the Knicks, Mitchell Robinson, supposedly out six to eight weeks. How much of a, of a hurt is that for New York?

 

[Munaf Manji] (12:11 - 13:41)

I think because of the depth that they do have in the front court, I'm not sure. I mean, we saw a precious that you would get some type of minutes for them in game one. I mean, I know it was only four minutes.

 

I don't think it hurts, hurts him a whole heck of a lot because I think this team was already used to him not being on the floor in Mitchell Robinson, right? Because during the regular season sleep, I think he had, he had missed the same timeframe. So it's not like his new territory for this New York Knicks team without being, being without Mitchell Robinson.

 

I've done would probably just expect Isaiah Hartenstein to get, you know, a couple more minutes. He played 36 minutes in game one. Maybe he bumps up to 40.

 

Maybe you see prejudice that you would get 10, you know, a couple more minutes just to give the other guys the rest, you know, maybe OGN and OB despite him playing 42 minutes, he may get a bump up to about 44 to 45 minutes here as well. So I don't think it hurts them a whole heck of a lot. I mean, Mitchell Robinson was a minus eight.

 

If you are a guy that looks at those plus minus numbers, um, you know, from the stat box, but yeah, I don't think it really hurts him a whole heck of a lot here. So you didn't get to go back and look at the minutes that he did play against the Sixers. Um, the most that he did play was 30 minutes in game one, but after that 18 minutes, 12 minutes, 25, that game that went to overtime and then 18 minutes.

 

So I don't think they'll miss them a whole heck of a lot here. I just think that Isaiah Hartenstein now has the opportunity to really step up.

 

[Sleepy J.] (13:41 - 14:20)

Okay. Yeah. I wasn't sure what you, what you thought about that.

 

If, if it's true, we can go ahead and pick up the slack or maybe, you know, do we look to go ahead and attack maybe some Hartenstein, maybe even attack some more like Josh Hart props or something like that. Cause I think Mitchell Robinson being out it, I don't want to say it's going to be a help to New York, but it's certainly going to go ahead and keep him off the free throw line. And I don't know if you watched the last game and listened to the broadcast, but they were talking about why not just go ahead and just foul this guy or why not just foul him and put him on the free throw line?

 

Cause he's just so bad. So maybe they make up for, you know, maybe they make up for, for some there, but yeah, I was just curious what your thoughts were on that.

 

[Munaf Manji] (14:20 - 15:56)

Yeah. It would be interesting. Now I'm really curious to see what the minutes will look like, uh, come the end of the game for that, the front court rotation.

 

I would just think that Isaiah Hartenstein does get a bump up in minutes, uh, for this New York Knicks team. All right, let's turn the page here. We'll go over to the Wednesday night card sleepy.

 

We got two games on the schedule. First one, it's going to be game two between the Cleveland Cavaliers and the Boston Celtics Celtics one game one and comfortable fashion, one 20 to 95. They really pulled away in that second half.

 

And again, it's a really tough spot for the Cleveland Cavaliers coming off of the seven game series, a quick turnaround, having a travel on the road. Um, they were in it within that first quarter, but then the Boston Celtics won every single quarter by at least four points. And they really pulled away in that second half where they outscored the calves 61 to 46.

 

They're sleepy. They get the 25 point victory and take a one Oh lead at home. Um, we'll see if Jared Allen plays in this series at all.

 

If, um, if, if at all for this Cleveland Cavaliers team, because I think it was really telling that he didn't play in that game seven where it was a winner go home situation for the Cleveland Cavaliers. So that rib injury that he's dealing with is probably something that is significant for Jared Allen, but game two takes place on Boston's home floor as it stands right now here. Sleepy.

 

Uh, the line for this game is minus 13 and a half in favor of the Celtics total is at two 12. Uh, if you have any thoughts for game one, and then we can get into game two for this series.

 

[Sleepy J.] (15:56 - 18:07)

Game one, wasn't a surprise to me. I thought Cleveland would come out, uh, a little bit quick and probably try to keep pace with Boston. And eventually Boston would just wear them down and the gas would probably run out of the calves.

 

I honestly don't think the calves have much of a chance in this series at all to go ahead and probably win one more than Jared Allen is, is super important. And you would think, all right, poor Zingas is out. And if Jared Allen was in there, what could this series look like?

 

Maybe they can go ahead and take advantage in the paint, you know, and turn this into a real series. So I don't think without him on the floor, the Cavaliers have a real chance here. Um, I don't believe that Boston will overlook Cleveland though, being that they won the game in the fashion that they won game one.

 

I think they're going to come in here and be completely focused and, you know, just go ahead and close these games out and try to get them, you know, over and done with as quick as possible, you know, to go ahead and, uh, you know, preserve their gas tank as much as possible, because there's a good chance they're going to end up, you know, probably more than likely meeting up with the Knicks, which is going to be a pretty physical series for this game. Um, I don't know if Cleveland has an answer here.

 

I, I just, I really don't, I hate to sit here and say that, that it would lay the points with Boston. I mean, I know that you did in game one. Good for you.

 

Uh, you and I had talked about, you know, for a couple of minutes, I go, hopefully, you know, they're up 20 that they don't just, you know, rest on their laurels and just, you know, let Cleveland come back and put up a bunch of points late and screw you. That wasn't the case. Boston went out and they closed the game out correctly.

 

So I think you'll probably get that similar of an effort. So I won't play Cleveland here. It would either be Boston or nothing for me.

 

I'm going to go ahead and probably just pass this game all around more than likely, maybe take a look at a player prop or something like that. Maybe, maybe rewatch game one and see if there was anything that I saw that, that had some, uh, some success that maybe Boston or Cleveland, you know, won't look to make any real serious adjustment. So I'm probably just do that and, um, and just, and just wait and see.

 

I mean, you still have another day before this game goes off, but right now I'm not super comfortable with this game all around.

 

[Munaf Manji] (18:08 - 21:25)

Yeah. I think I'm right there with you that I think that cat is probably get one game at home in this series. I think it's something similar to what we saw in round one.

 

I know that Miami won game two in Boston, but there's always going to be that one game where Boston may not be as focused. Um, their shots may not be falling and that's where Miami took advantage in game two, where they had to set a franchise record of three pointers made, uh, to beat the Boston Celtics. I'm not saying the calves are gonna have to do that, but, um, there's always one game you can rely on the, the, the Boston Celtics not to be, uh, focused.

 

So yeah, I think I'm with you there that I don't think Cleveland went to more than one game in this series. And I think the odds were really reflecting that because even a minus one and a half price on the Boston Celtics series spread was around minus, I want to say it was like minus two 55. Um, and that just kind of tells you where these two teams are right now, even without Porzingis for the Boston Celtics sleepy, uh, we saw Jalen Brown come out in game one and just look like an absolute stud in that game.

 

And if I told you in game one that Jason Tatum didn't have the greatest shooting night and he was only seven of 19 from the floor or five from three point, I only scored 18 points where I thought this game was a hell a whole heck of a lot closer, but, um, Derek white, I think is so underrated. Hasn't been talked about enough. He had an absolute phenomenal game, 25 points in 33 minutes.

 

He was seven of 12 from three point land. Jalen Brown, like I mentioned, fish again with 32 points every starting, I want to say five of five from the floor at 15 points. You got some contributions off the bench from Peyton Pritchard who chipped in with 16, um, as well.

 

Drew holiday had 14 as well, but right now for the Cleveland Cavaliers, it's, it's a, it's a one trick pony in Donovan Mitchell. He had 33 points again in game one, but it just wasn't enough. I mean, there were three other starters that had double digit scoring, um, points, but again, when you're going up against a offensive machine, like the Boston Celtics, you need a minimum of two to three guys to step up.

 

But I think I'm with you in this camp here. It's Boston first half for me again, because they come out and play so good in the first half. And up a whole heck of a lot of units.

 

We started throughout the season that that third quarter for them hasn't really been the greatest and that they just don't come out focused. So I'll trim this down. I'll just take Boston in the first half, come out again, take care of business.

 

I think Jason Tatum plays a, a whole heck of a lot better. I think Jalen Brown, um, you know, can continue what he did in game one, Derek white as well. Uh, and young, and you're still getting contributions off of the bench for this Boston Celtics team.

 

So right now, as it stands at game one, um, sorry, game two first half spread right now has been adjusted a little bit by the books is now up to eight and a half. I wouldn't be surprised if they're up by again, a double digits in game two. And again, I couldn't talk you off of also a Boston Celtics first half team total to go over a 58 and a half in this game here, sleepy.

 

So that's where I'm going to look at it here for game two at this whole thing. Do a Boston takes care of black. I don't want to get in and get out with my money with the Boston Celtics in the first half.

 

Any thoughts on that?

 

[Sleepy J.] (21:25 - 23:28)

I don't think that that's a bad wager. I think that Boston's probably, I don't want to say like on high alert, but they're going to look at the way that Cleveland started out at least the first quarter last game and say, you know what? We can take these guys out as early as possible.

 

Let's go ahead and do that. Boston's just so hard to, they're so hard to go ahead and kind of hold down because I got so many guys out there, even though Porzingis isn't out there, it's just a lot of speed, a lot of talent. And I honestly don't think that Cleveland has that particular type of talent.

 

Like they need another, you know, big time number two score in order to go ahead and hang with these guys. So, you know, if Boston's going to go ahead and, and let Mitchell just go out there and do whatever he wants, then yeah, I think this could be close. But if Boston says, you know what, let's go ahead, let's go play a little bit more of a better defensive game here and really locked down on Mitchell.

 

I don't trust any of the other players on Cleveland right now to go ahead and knock down big shots or more than anything, probably find a rhythm because that team really hasn't had much of a rhythm all playoffs long. I mean, if you look at what they did early against Orlando and I know it's Orlando, you know, pretty good defensive team. The Cavaliers got lucky to get through that series.

 

I mean, their offense was, was absolutely brutal, pretty much that entire series. Unfortunately for Orlando, you know, it was a little bit, a little too little too late. Their offense wasn't great either.

 

So I think Boston's going to go ahead and maybe, I don't want to say high alert, but I think they're going to go ahead and say, you know, let's not let these guys go ahead and run a gun on us. Let's go and try to lock down on Mitchell. It wouldn't surprise me.

 

You know, if we see, I don't want to say guys sit in like early third quarter, but don't be shocked if this game's an absolute blowout. And if it does start to get away from Cleveland, they're going to be like, let's just look at going ahead and getting back home. So we saw that in the first round against the heat where I think you and I had talked about it, where Boston could end up, you know, blowing Miami out and then end up resting a bunch of their guys.

 

And sure enough, they were up like 30 at one point and you know, there's Tatum and Brown sitting on the bench. So I kind of feel like there's, there's a possibility of that, you know, to go ahead and happen here. So in order for that to happen, they have to have a good first half.

 

So I'd be with you before I'd be against you for sure.

 

[Munaf Manji] (23:29 - 26:27)

Yeah. I mean, I go, it's a playoffs. I know it's a very, very small sample, but in the four games that the Cleveland Cavaliers have played on the road, three that were against the Orlando magic and the first game here against the Boston Celtics, their defensive ratings at one 22.3, which is the second worst only behind the Milwaukee bucks, but they have a net rating of minus 25.7 in those four road games, which is the absolute worst of the 16 teams that did play or to play in round one. And that can, that percentage got just even worse in game one against the Boston Celtics.

 

So I do expect the Boston Celtics to roll here in game two as well, getting over to the second game of the night on Wednesday. I'm sorry, on Thursday night, I'm sorry. In the Western conference semifinals, it's going to be game two between the Dallas Mavericks and the Oklahoma city thunder game.

 

One Oklahoma city thunder took care of business on their home floor in a convincing win against the Dallas Mavericks coming off that series against the LA Clippers one 17 to 95. Um, this game, uh, kind of got away from the Dallas Mavericks in the second quarter where they were outscored 39 to 30. And then in the fourth quarter, the, uh, Oklahoma city thunder also created that separation out scoring the Mavericks 28 to 16.

 

It was led by Shea Gilchrist, Alexander for the Oklahoma city thunder finished the game with a near triple double in 37 minutes. He had 29 points, sleeping nine rebounds and nine assists. One fell one, a rebound and one assist short of getting that triple double.

 

Yes. We've got 19 points from Chet Holmgren in 31 minutes. Um, seven rebounds, three blocks, two steals for chat.

 

Jalen Williams also contributed 18 points for the Oklahoma city thunder. And then you had two guys up off the bench that were in double digit scoring as well. Uh, Aaron Wiggins, 16 points in 23 minutes, three or four from three point line.

 

And then the other Jalen Williams in 17 minutes at 11 points and nine rebounds as well for the Oklahoma city thunder. So a very collective team effort from the OKC thunder and Dallas traditionally, I mean, go back to the 2020 season, um, or playoffs, I should say in game ones, they just have not been very good. And that was also came into fruition in round one against LA Clippers where the Clippers, um, beat them by double digits.

 

But since 2020 in game ones, I know this isn't a relative information anymore because we're talking about game two, but the Dallas Mavericks were one in five straight up and one in five against the spread in those games here. So now they look to bounce back in game two here, sleepy the thoughts from game one. And then we can talk about game two, where right now the Dallas Mavericks are catching five points with a total of two 18 and a half was not surprised with the result from game one.

 

[Sleepy J.] (26:27 - 28:46)

I thought, okay, C's crowd was going to be a kind of ruckus and okay. So he was going to be ready to, you know, rock and roll on that game. And like you said, Dallas game ones, not a, not a spot.

 

You probably want to go ahead and look at them. I would actually look at Dallas here in game two, because I think, I don't want to say like, it's a must win type of game, but I think that this series, um, you're not going to be able to go down, uh, you know, two games and come back here, especially if you're the road team here in Dallas, Luca was surprising that he played, that he played. I don't want to say played bad, but, uh, that he kind of gave the keys to everybody else.

 

I that's not going to happen this game. I'll tell you right now, Lucas shooting 25, maybe 30 times in this game. And Kyrie's just going to wait for his moment, um, to go ahead and do what he does.

 

I would look at a lot of role players. I would look at them under, especially like PRA. Uh, I think that that's probably a good look here.

 

They'll also, they'll, they'll certainly be better in this game. Um, I mean, their defense looked, their defense looked pretty bad from, from what I saw offense look pretty bad. Um, I mean, they made a couple of little runs there, but it, it just wasn't enough.

 

It was like they bend and then they broke pretty much. It seemed like that all game long. And I do worry, maybe the Oklahoma city comes into this one, maybe a little bit too cocky, maybe a little bit too confident.

 

And don't forget that there's still a young team, still a lot to learn. And, uh, I think Luke is not going to go out like that, at least not going to, not going to go out like that for this particular game. So I would actually look maybe at Luca points over because I think if, if Dallas loses a series, it's going to be because, you know, he doesn't put up a lot of 40 point games and I would expect 40 out of him here.

 

I think Luca has a monster. I'm not sure if Dallas will win, but I'm pretty sure this game is going to be, be really, really close. So it would be the Mavericks for me, maybe just a little bit of a fat and happy thunder team for this particular game.

 

But I planned on this going into even before game one, that this was a series I was going to look to go ahead and zigzag in. And a lot of it's just due to the trends, you know, with Dallas. So, and I like it even more now because Kyrie and Luca didn't have great games.

 

So I think they're both going to come out here and play really aggressive, have big, big games. So give me the Mavericks. Uh, I like this one quite a bit.

 

[Munaf Manji] (28:47 - 32:09)

Yeah. And like I mentioned, right. Game one's where the Mavericks have not been very good game two, uh, since 2020, they do bounce back.

 

Uh, and I'm trying to pull up the exact numbers here as far as their, uh, when percentage. So they're three and two straight up three and two against the spread that 60% four and one towards the over. So, which makes a lot of sense because what you mentioned, they're sleepy that Luca really has stepped up in those games, uh, in game twos after suffering a loss in the previous game.

 

And I'm just going to quickly read off. Um, and he missed, uh, going back to the last season, I'm sorry, the season prior that 2022 season where Luca had missed game two against the Utah jazz and Jalen Brunson was still on team. That was a one game that Luca had missed because of the injury, but the other prior for our four other games in game two, after, uh, those game one losses, he's put up 39, 35, 42 and 32 sleeping.

 

So, um, looking at his points prop right now for this game, that number sitting at 31 and a half. I think that's a great call there, uh, for him to have another, or have a big game here in game two against the, uh, Oklahoma city thunder this game. I love the, uh, Mavericks in this game to bounce back plus five.

 

Like you mentioned, I'm not sure if they win the game. I think that it will be a huge effort from Luca and Kyrie in this game. And I think again, when we talk about the head coaches that earn their money right now is a time, because I think Jason kid does a great job of making those adjustments.

 

And, um, he just recently signed a two-year extension, I believe, uh, with the Dallas Mavericks as well. So congrats to him on that extension. But I do think that the Dallas Mavericks keep this game close.

 

I want to be shocked if they do, um, get the victory here in this game and the series, I should say, goes back to Dallas tied up one-to-one. I do believe this is going to be a series that we do expect probably to go at least six minimum, if not the full seven games between these two teams, because I think this is going to be just so much fun to watch. So I'm on Dallas here plus the five.

 

In fact, I'm gonna make them my best bet. Sleepy, uh, Dallas plus the five. You mentioned that zigzag theory.

 

I think this really applies here, especially in this series, where I think there, I think these two teams are more evenly matched and what the spread is indicating. I think it'll be led by what you mentioned with Luca. And again, like I just spread off those, his points, uh, prop or his points, uh, that he's put up in game twos after those game one losses, he really does rise to the occasion and you don't want to go down.

 

Oh, two in a series. And then you have to beat this team for the next five games for you to advance to the conference finals. But I believe that Jason kid will make those adjustments.

 

I expect Luke and I have a big game. I expect Kyrie to have a big game. Uh, we did see the return of Tim Hardaway jr.

 

He was out for the first series, maybe shaking a little bit of rust off. Um, and I think that he can be also a contributor from the three point line, obviously for this Dallas Mavericks team. So I do expect Dallas to bounce back here.

 

So best bet for me is going to be on Thursday night card Dallas Mavericks plus the five against the Oklahoma city thunder. Any other thoughts for this game? You're sleeping between Dallas and OKC.

 

[Sleepy J.] (32:10 - 34:49)

Yeah. You know, I came into the playoffs kind of wondering what Dallas was going to be because we saw them make, you know, a big run there last year. And you know, with Luke, I mean, pretty damn good team.

 

But after watching the Clippers series, I'm like, all right, you know, like Hardaway's out, they, they bring in all these other new players and you're, you're like, you're wondering how they're going to mix in there. And sure. Yeah.

 

We saw them at the end of the regular season there and they had a couple of games, you know, where they look good. And I just like, I'm asking myself, like, who is this Dallas Mavericks team? And then they play the Clippers in the playoffs.

 

And you would agree with me, probably everybody else with that. The playoffs are just a different animal. It's a different type of basketball, a different effort level, different motivations, you know, throughout the entire season, you know, when, until you get to the playoffs and there's no Kawhi Leonard and you have a Paul George that's aging and a James Harden that's aging.

 

And I look at Dallas, like, yeah, you, you know, you got through that, that round, but how good were the Clippers? Because Dallas didn't even look great in that series. We expected Dallas to look so much better.

 

So I do have my flags up, you know, with Dallas overall thinking that, that they were going to be better and look, maybe they're just worn out. I don't know. I don't know what necessarily, I don't like the body language.

 

I would probably go ahead and play the Oklahoma City Thunder now to go ahead and win the series at minus 230, because I think that, you know, if they win this game and they win it convincingly, that there's a really good chance that they could steal one in Dallas. And then this series is, it's going to be over, you know, when they get back to Oklahoma City, more than likely. So I'm just, I'm kind of just like weighing it all out.

 

Like, I feel really comfortable with Oklahoma City and I know who they are, but I'm not, I'm not convinced on what, what Dallas did against the Clippers. I'm not convinced in what I saw with game one, you know, is Luka hurt? Is he, is he tired?

 

You know, they wear him down, you know, with all these games and, you know, him being, you know, one of the only guys on the floor, you know, aside from Kyrie. So just a lot of little question marks, a lot of little red flags here circling around the Dallas Mavericks right now. So, you know, I went ahead and gave out a chalky one.

 

I said, let's go ahead and play the Knicks at minus, what was it? Minus 225 for the series. I would play OKC right now, minus like 230 minus 215 to go in and win this series.

 

I wouldn't make that bet now. I think if the Mavericks look ugly in the next game, that this line goes up to like 360, 370, somewhere in that area, and then you're not going to want to play it. So let me give that out.

 

I'll go ahead and go, I'll give the Oklahoma City now. I think they are just the much better, more well-rounded team. So I'll give you that.

 

[Munaf Manji] (34:50 - 35:04)

Yeah. I think it's interesting because you mentioned that if you think this gets up to minus 360, well, after game one, the Knicks shot up to minus 360, where they were around that one minus 225 minus 250 range there up to minus three.

 

[Sleepy J.] (35:04 - 35:07)

It's surprising that it went to that because the Knicks didn't even look good.

 

[Munaf Manji] (35:07 - 37:35)

Right. And Oklahoma City Thunder right now, after game one, I think this series was a more evenly matched. They're at minus 230 right now.

 

I think I want to say that closing number was around one minus 120 for the Oklahoma City Thunder to win the series. Now it's up to minus 230. And if you, if you think that the, you know, let's just think that if the Mavericks can win this series, that's at plus one 80 right now.

 

So I think game two obviously will be a whole heck of a lot telling between these two teams. All right. So it'd be the getting over to the Friday card.

 

It's going to be, I think the most interesting result thus far in the round two, uh, that is going to be the Minnesota Timberwolves who have a commanding two old lead over the defending NBA champions at Denver nuggets. They head back to Minnesota for game three and four holding that to a lead. Uh, they will square off on Friday evening.

 

Currently as it stands right now, sleepy, the game, uh, line for game three is four and a half in favor of the Minnesota Timberwolves, a total of two Oh four and a half. And, um, very, I don't want to say, I think very surprising, but maybe not at the same time, because if a lot of people did watch the Minnesota Timberwolves during the regular season and in round one against the Phoenix suns, maybe you're not shocked by this result because this team defensively has looked absolutely outstanding. And I think I've mentioned this on the last, the last episode that we did that in round one, there were some chinks in the armor for the Denver nuggets because there were games in round one where the Lakers had double digit leads.

 

They just weren't able to close up, uh, close out the Denver nuggets where the Minnesota Timberwolves they've had double digit leads in both of the first two games. And they've been able to play defense and they've been able to close those two games out to take a two Oh lead heading back home against the Denver nuggets. Now game three.

 

I don't know if you have any thoughts from games one and two, we can, uh, you know, discuss that and then we'll get into game three here. As I mentioned the lines right now, four and a half in favor of the Timberwolves are sleepy.

 

[Sleepy J.] (37:36 - 43:01)

Yeah. This series is over. This series won't go any further than five games.

 

I think Denver might get one. If you saw the same thing that I did, Denver looks old, they look slow. And that wasn't only in game one that also looked even worse in game two.

 

And that shouldn't be because Denver is the team that plays at elevation and the Timberwolves should have been the team that looks slow, not necessarily old, but they should have looked much slower in game two. They looked even faster in game two. So these two teams, for some reason, are just going in opposite directions right now.

 

Uh, Denver doesn't have an answer for the Timberwolves defense. And if you think it's going to get any easier in Minnesota, that's not going to be the case because Minnesota realizes we can stop these guys and absolutely dominate them just on the defensive end. I could tell you right now, being at home with this crazy crowd, this Timberwolves defense is going to be, I mean, it's going to be like a straitjacket.

 

It's going to be absolutely insane. So Denver has to have some type of a game plan to go ahead and get all their guys involved. I have a best bet with our player prop that I think just makes a lot of sense here, but I don't like anything I see from Denver right now.

 

I think one of the things that maybe people weren't thinking about with this particular series is that there aren't any other Nikola Jokic's out there in the league, and it's very hard to go through your practices and kind of mimic, you know, what this Denver Nuggets team does. But no, I was kind of just, you know, sitting around thinking, I'm like, is there another team that's kind of built similar to Nuggets? And believe it or not, I think the Timberwolves are a team that kind of fits there because, you know, yeah, they have a big man in Gobert, but they also have another big man in town who, you know, can play, I wouldn't say he could play all five spots like Jokic can, but I mean, he could play four out of five, and I think that that's probably helped them go ahead and defend Jokic a little bit better because it wasn't like they were double teaming him. They were still, you know, going ahead and just putting one guy on him at times, but they were picking up the rotations right there. I think they were dealing with the size as good as they could.

 

I just think, I don't want to say this is a bad matchup, but I think it's kind of an even keel matchup when, you know, you look at the preparation and stuff like that. Like, it's like, I think that that's one of the problems for a lot of these teams in the NBA is that Denver could beat you at all five spots, and it's like all five wheels are going at the same time. You don't feel like that with the team, let's just say like Dallas, like we were talking about.

 

They got two wheels. They got Kyrie. They got Luka.

 

It's easy to develop a game plan to go ahead and stop, you know, two guys, maybe three, but when you're looking at a team like Denver, it's tough because the center is the best player in the league. He's on the floor, and it's like, you got four other guys that he gets going all game long. It just becomes very, very difficult, but I don't want to say that Minnesota has five guys that can kind of, you know, spin the wheel too, but it feels like that to me that they can put the ball anywhere that they want and feel confident that they can win, you know, whatever matchup that they're on, so I don't like the optics right now from Denver.

 

I thought they were overrated last year. That's just the way that I thought, you know, they shut me right up. Still, I mean, they're a very good basketball team, but I just feel like they got stuck with a crummy matchup here facing the Timberwolves, so yeah, I don't think this series goes any further than five, and I know it could be no recency bias being that, you know, that they haven't looked good, but you didn't look good at home.

 

What are you going to look like on the road? So I'll take the Timberwolves here. I'll lay the points here.

 

I know a lot of people didn't like the Timberwolves in game two, but it was a position that I took because I felt like everybody was going to be on the side of Denver thinking they were going to bounce back, and I was looking at it more from, it just seemed to me like Minnesota was just so hungry that they matched up well, and I think that we're seeing a star is being born in Anthony Edwards. Like this dude now at home, don't be shocked if he goes for like 45 or some crazy amount in this game. It just absolutely takes over because I don't think it matters, Manoff.

 

I don't think anybody can stop him. Doesn't matter who you put on him. He's shooting jumpers right in everybody's faces and swishing them and trying to poster you.

 

When you're doing things like that, that just means that you have supreme confidence. You believe in your game. You believe in your skill, your athleticism, and that there's nobody out there that can stop you.

 

He's got to be loving this right now. You remember when we were talking about this on one of our last podcasts, I said, does he become the best player in the NBA if he goes out there and beats up Jokic rather convincingly? It's happening right now.

 

So what's his confidence level going to be here at home? It's going to be through the roof. So I would be looking at points prop for, for Edwards, even though it might be juiced up.

 

I know what do we play it over the last time? 27 and a half. I don't know what it is right now.

 

I'm guessing it's probably up to like 28 and a half. I would play it over. I think he goes for like 40 plus in this game has a monster game.

 

And yeah, everybody's, everybody's worried about Minnesota, you know, after this game, that's what I think.

 

[Munaf Manji] (43:02 - 46:12)

Yeah. He's still at 27 and a half for his points prop here. And I think that he's not getting properly adjusted because I think, I don't want to say similar to Jalen Brunson that he doesn't have the supporting cast.

 

I know he had Carl, he has Carl Anthony towns, but he's still getting the minutes played. He's still getting the shot volume. Maybe I'll be obviously not as much as Jalen Brunson, but we know that the offense runs through Anthony Edwards.

 

And like you mentioned, he's risen to the occasion, not only in round one, but especially here in round two against a defending NBA champions. And, um, no, give a lot of credit to Chris Finch, a lot of credit to this team entirely, uh, for the way they've been able to play the first two games here. And I just do think that it's going to be a very, very tough hill to climb right now for this Denver Nuggets team, uh, to win anything, uh, in this series, uh, let alone advance to the, uh, Western conference final.

 

I would honestly be shocked if we do see the Denver Nuggets come back and when this series, because again, I think the frustration has been mounting and we saw with Jamal Murray, you know, he threw whatever oil was it like a heating pad and a towel on the court got fined a hundred thousand dollars. Some Mike Malone get in the face of Mark Davis, the referee there. I mean, they're just absolutely frustrated right now for this with this Minnesota Tim will seem.

 

And if you watch that post-game conference after game two, Anthony Edwards, he's met, he said, look, Hey, we played a great game, but they just had a bad shooting night. We fully expect them to come out hungry in game three, but we're going to match that intensity. And I'm, and I'm, you know, paraphrasing here on what he said.

 

And he's almost like saying that, Hey, right now we're, we're thinking like this series is still zero, zero that it's, you know, we're they've won the first two games, but you can't take your foot off the gas right now for the Minnesota Tim was, but she gets a Denver Nuggets team. And like you mentioned, right there, this team is especially Jamal Murray. He's dealing with that injury with the calf.

 

I don't know how effective he is or whether it's just a defense that's frustrating him or sleepy, but, um, I mean, give a, uh, I give it the whole world credit, to the Minnesota tribunals about how they played on both sides of basketball, especially on the defensive side. If I had told you that Rudy Gobert was not playing in game two, um, for personal reasons and, and, and the birth of his son, and they were going to hold this Denver Nuggets team to 80 points, sleepy, you would have probably thought I was crazy, but they went out and did that. They won the game in convincing fashion in 26 points.

 

Now this year shifts over to Minnesota here. Um, I know you and I were talking offline and I think that maybe this total is a little bit over adjusted. Um, because I do think that Denver may come out here and play a little bit faster.

 

Uh, and I think that you were mentioning that coach Mike Malone came out and said that, um, I'm still not sure if I can get there because of how great this defense has been for Minnesota, uh, on the road, sorry, uh, overall, uh, it is at four and a half. This number was around two Oh nine and a half in game one. I think it came down to no, sorry.

 

It was two Oh, uh, six and a half in game one, got up to around two Oh, nine and a half to 10 with the news of Rudy Gobert being out, but still flew under the total here. Did you have any thoughts on this total?

 

[Sleepy J.] (46:12 - 48:55)

Yeah. I liked the over in this game. I think that in order for you to disrupt this defense, that the wolves are playing, then therefore you have to change something.

 

Well, what can you change? You have to change the pace in which you play. And I think it's going to be one of those one pass shoot type of game plans here from Denver.

 

I worry about that type of game plan. And, um, because I think that there's a chance that they can get blown out playing that way, but I think the total can get there. You know, if they go out there and have some success, I do want to bring up what you were just mentioned though, because I think that this is really important is that Denver's not playing well right now.

 

They do look old, but you got to wonder how will they be reffed in this game? Because when you have star players throwing stuff at the referees, that's, that's completely disrespectful. And you have coaches.

 

If there wasn't somebody separate and Mike Malone, he would have probably gotten ejected because I felt like he came out there so hot and so furious that he would have made contact with the referee. I wonder if, if Denver is going to get any favorable calls in this game. I honestly don't believe so.

 

And a lot of that is probably just due to, you know, what Jamal Dirt, Jamal Murray did when you're throwing stuff at the referees, that's just a completely disrespectful. So I wouldn't be shocked if the game plan kind of implodes, this team implodes all around and the referees do nothing to help them out. So I am also considering maybe playing the Timberwolves on an alternate line too, but I don't like anything that I see right now from Denver.

 

Like what could you like? Can you pull out anything positive? You now have Rudy Goldberg coming back.

 

So you gotta, you gotta think like this dude's going to be super excited, you know, and he got rest. He didn't have to worry about playing that other game. So, you know, his, his fuel tank is going to be at an all-time high and, you know, the team bailed him out on the road.

 

I mean, he's going to play probably at a super elite level here. So I don't be shocked if the Nuggets get absolutely run right out of this game. And, and we see some crazy line for like game four, where we're seeing like maybe like Minnesota minus eight, one of those situations.

 

It wouldn't surprise me if the Nuggets got beat by 20 or 30 points in this one. Give me one positive thing that you've seen from the Nuggets so far through two games. And not only that, give me something else that's positive that you think could happen here in game three, because I don't see it.

 

I don't, I don't. And I'm thinking about it. I'm like, well, what makes a counter argument here?

 

Is it because they're the champs? Is it because they're down O2? Like I'm, I'm not buying that.

 

[Munaf Manji] (48:55 - 51:35)

I think the only, I don't know if there's any positive that can really take away because again, in, in either of the first two games, the Denver Nuggets have not scored a hundred points. And I think that's, again, really just telling how great this Minnesota Timberwolves defense is. That's also the fact that in game one, the Denver Nuggets were 16 of 20 from the free throw line.

 

So 16 of their 99 points in game one came from the free throw line. And you take a look at game two, they just had a really bad shooting night. Did the Denver Nuggets.

 

I think the only hope, I don't want to say, yeah, I guess the only hope or the improvement that I would want to see is them shooting from beyond the arc, but it's all the same fact, like how hurt is Jamal Murray, right? We're dealing with that calf injury because in game two, three of 18 from the floor, did have 13 rebounds. He only had eight points.

 

Nicole Yokich without Rudy Gilbert on the floor, five, 13, your best player in, in an MVP cannot only be putting up 13 shots in a game where you're down one game to nothing. I, that cannot happen. But again, in game two, there's had a really bad shooting at it.

 

I, to answer your question, I don't have an answer for you. I didn't see anything positive from Denver in, in games one and two here. So we'll see what their mentality is coming out in game three here.

 

Because again, we saw the frustration really boil over in game two, where they just weren't able to make any shots. Jamal Murray, we talked about that situation. We talked about Mike Malone there as well.

 

We'll see how the defending champs respond to this game. But again, right now, all the momentum and all the great play is with the Minnesota Timberwolves right now in this series. So I don't think either any of us would be shocked that they go up three games to nothing, um, in this series.

 

And they, they maybe, I don't want to say sweep them, but close it out. And I think maximum five games for sleepy. So I'm very curious to see how the Denver Nuggets do respond on the road in game three down, um, uh, Oh two against the Minnesota Timberwolves.

 

Uh, all right, sleepy. So that is the four games that we'll talk about here, uh, and handicap over the next three days between tonight on Wednesday night, Thursday night, and then Friday night, I already gave out my best bet here. Sleepy on the Dallas Mavericks plus the five, where are you taking us for your best bet?

 

[Sleepy J.] (51:35 - 52:20)

I think it's only fair that I probably just go ahead and give out the Oklahoma city thunder. That's what I wanted to do on the last podcast and give out the Knicks as my best bet. And I felt forced to go ahead and give out a pick.

 

And, um, that's not, that's not the way to make money. So that's a complete booking mistake there. Uh, still obviously really liked the Knicks in that series.

 

And I think the best bet for me is go ahead and lay the minus two 30 with Oklahoma city thunder. If there's anything wrong here with the Mavericks, I think it's going to show up here again tonight. And if they even look somewhat, uh, you know, bad, then this line, like I said, it's going to go up like minus three.

 

I wouldn't be surprised if it's like minus three 75. So let me just go ahead and give that, um, out as a best bet.

 

[Munaf Manji] (52:20 - 53:17)

All right, there you go. Oklahoma city thunder right now on the series price against the Dallas Mavericks. Get this in before game two, because again, like CB mentions, if there's any chinks in the armor for the Dallas Mavericks, it'll probably show up here in game two against the Oklahoma city thunder.

 

So, uh, there you go. Thunder on the series price right now, uh, against the Dallas Mavericks in the Western conference semifinals. All right.

 

Sleepy. A lot of great things happening right now at pregame.com. Uh, we'll see the NFL schedule dropping maybe today, maybe next week.

 

Sometime, obviously MLB is in full swing here as well. NHL playoffs. Uh, we also have the, obviously the NBA playoffs going off right now.

 

So spring football here as well. We've got a golf going on as well. So a lot of things happen right now in the sports world.

 

A lot of handicappers that are hot right now on pregame.com, but let our listeners know what can they take advantage of right now on pregame.com.

 

[Sleepy J.] (53:17 - 54:15)

All right. Well, take advantage of this one early best bet NFL, since the schedule is going to be coming out. Uh, I was actually digging in this morning there, Manoff and I like the LA Rams over, uh, eight and a half wins.

 

That's minus one 15. That is on draft Kings. Uh, I think their schedule is going to be favorable.

 

And, uh, you know, I kind of want to take some small bites right now. I don't want to make a big bet on them, but you know, if the schedule comes out where it's extremely favorable, whether, you know, how it sets up with their road and, you know, road and home games, you know, particular prime time games and because of that nature, then maybe a bigger bet. So give you guys that one quick there, NFL team, total LA Rams over the eight and a half wins.

 

As far as pregame.com right now, you guys can go ahead. You can get the rest of may for only $99, but listeners of this podcast, you can save 10 bucks on that and get the rest of may for $89. Simply enter code bench 10.

 

That's bench 10 B E N C H 10 save 10 bucks. That'll go ahead and get you guys all the way through the month of may.

 

[Munaf Manji] (54:15 - 54:55)

There we go. Make sure you guys get over there to pregame.com. Take care, uh, or take advantage of the promo that we just gave out over there on pregame.com sleepy one order of my friend, that is going to be our player prop best bets. That is going to be multiple. Again, we're, uh, going in, uh, we're feeling a little bit generous here. Um, but we want to ride the hot streak here.

 

We've been doing really, really well. Uh, I think everybody already knows that it's just us, you know, staying focused, continuing on the grind here. And we were going back and forth on some of the ones that we did throw out.

 

Uh, so we'll get out one each year, uh, from us. You want to leave us off here, uh, with a player prop best bet. Number one.

 

[Sleepy J.] (54:56 - 56:35)

Yeah. So this is the one that I like most. Um, even though I'm considering, you know, maybe looking at Edwards, maybe looking at Luke, I think that those guys will have to have big point games, uh, to go and get wins for those teams.

 

But I actually like Nikola Jokic. I like him over eight and a half assists. And it goes back to watching the post game for game two and coach Malone said that we cannot play this way.

 

We cannot play slow against this Wolves team, or we were not only, we are not going to win a quarter. I believe that's what he said. And it looked like they got wiped out in two games.

 

I mean, they might've won one quarter, but, uh, he, he had talked about how the Denver Nuggets need to play fast. And if they're playing fast, then they're, they're going to need their best player to have the ball in his hand, uh, pretty much the entire time. But I think you're going to get more possessions, more focus on the MVP, uh, going ahead and taking shots and handling the basketball.

 

And I think the assists will have to go up. I I'm really excited that, that they went out and had that bad of a game. Cause I believe that, that, that, that kind of hurts the totals, you know, across the board for, for this entire game, but it'll hurt them for, for Jokic for sure.

 

But, uh, it's going to need to be the MVP in this game. So I think is, you know, points probably look good rebounds, but, uh, the assist is the one that I like most because when a coach comes out and says that we can't play that way, you can guarantee they're going to change the game plan. So look for Denver to be running and gun and look for Jokic to go ahead and gobble up a bunch of assists in this game.

 

So that's where I'm at here. My best bet, Nicola Jokic game three over assist eight and a half. That's where I'm at.

 

[Munaf Manji] (56:35 - 1:01:06)

Yeah. I couldn't talk it off. And I think that's where I was really asking about, you know, with the total now down to a two or four and a half in this, uh, uh, in, sorry, in game three here that do we expect the Denver Nuggets to play with the whole heck of a lot more pace?

 

Because number one, the Minnesota Timberwolves defense, especially the half court has an absolutely outstanding. Um, and I think, how do you, how do you change that? How do you combat that you play with more pace?

 

And I think that that's what the Denver Nuggets are going to have to do if they want any chance, uh, to not only cover this number, but try to win this game. And I think that has to start with your best player in Nicola Jokic. Um, so again, we know what Nicole Jokic can do.

 

Um, I think of a lot of it right now is on his shoulders. Talked about this ball Murray injury. I'm not sure how much I can trust him right now.

 

Um, you know, to distribute the basketball or even do any, uh, much of the scoring. Uh, but I do think that it will be with Nicola Jokic here tonight. Um, in game three, I should say, I'm sorry on Friday night, uh, for a player prop, best bet.

 

Number one, Nicola Jokic over eight and a half, uh, assist. All right. So for our second player prop, uh, best bet, I'm going to go to that game here tonight between the New York Knicks and the Indiana Pacers.

 

And I'm gonna go with, uh, our Josh Hart, his rebounds and assist to go over the number of 19 and a half right now. And number one, right off the bat sleepy. I'll tell you that Josh Hart is going to play the entire game.

 

There's no question about it. Um, and if you could get, just kind of take a look at the number of minutes that he's been playing for this New York Knicks team, barring a blowout in game two here, I expect him to be out there a minimum of 46 minutes. Game one, he played all 48 minutes.

 

He had 13 rebounds in eight assists in that game. Let's go back to game six against the Philadelphia 76ers, 46 minutes, game five, 53 minutes. I went into overtime 46, 43.

 

So over the last five games in the playoffs, he's averaging 47.3 minutes per game, which is the entirety of, uh, the, uh, a, an NBA game. Now you take a look at what he did in game one. He did have 13 rebounds in that game along with eight assists.

 

And I think that number one for Josh Hart, the effort level on this guy is at 100. He's diving for those loose balls. He's getting those offensive rebounds.

 

He's getting the defensive rebounds. He's had at least four, sorry, at least 13 rebounds in three of the last four NBA playoff games. And if you also take a look at his assists over the last five games, averaging six assists per game.

 

But if you take a look at this game in particular, that I, I think for the New York Knicks, we talked about it, that if they want to slow this game, they want to win this game. They're probably want to slow the pace down because I think they were fortunate in game one, but let's just say the fact that dirt turned into a track meet again, uh, between these two teams, Indiana's coming out here and pushing the pace. That's only going to get me getting up more shots.

 

That's going to be more opportunities. And I think that Josh Hart is going to be no pun intended at the heart of it for this, uh, New York Knicks team. So I know that he's going to play the minutes because he is a Tom Thibodeau guy, Tom Thibodeau, dive a player, and he's going to play all those minutes.

 

And that's just going to only help me. And for him, obviously for our player prop best bed here, sleepy that he's going to fill up the box where like he has been not only since he joined the New York Knicks, but also in the NBA playoffs here as well in game one, like he did against Indiana in the games that he did against the Philadelphia 76ers. He's had a lot of success as well against the Indiana Pacers.

 

We go back to the regular season, uh, in the two matchups, he did have 12 rebounds and 10 rebounds in 38 and 36 minutes. Now he's going to be playing 10 more minutes. Um, at minimum, he also had three assists and five assists in the regular season.

 

But I think again, like I mentioned with the minutes that he's going to be playing for Josh Hart, I would expect him to fill up the box score again. So Josh Hart rebounds and assists right now. That's at 19 and a half year, this game against the, uh, Indiana Pacers for game two.

 

So I will take Josh Hart rebounds and assists over 19 and a half year sleeping.

 

[Sleepy J.] (1:01:06 - 1:02:58)

Yeah. I'm not against that pick at all. I think that, uh, it's kind of funny when you think about a player like Josh Hart is that the bench players probably don't like them a whole lot because they don't get to play to play 48 minutes in the last game.

 

And it's not like Thibodeau, you know, has been shy with players in the past. Like if you can go, he's gonna, he'll let you play. And as long as your production doesn't drop off.

 

And that's one of the things, you know, with Josh Hart is that his production never drops off. It seems like this dude gets stronger and stronger as the game goes on. I wouldn't be surprised if he went well over this, just based on the minutes alone, because I don't think that you can kind of cap where he can go.

 

I think, I think it's a lot easier to figure out what his floor is going to be versus what the ceiling is because of the one, the role that he plays with this team too. He's going to be here at home, but you know, when you play that amount of minutes, you know, this dude can go out there. We've seen it before.

 

He has 40 points, you know, close to 20 rebounds. But I think that, you know, one of the things I think that Josh Hart probably realizes is that this could be where he's at for the rest of his career, because he just feels like he's a New York Knicks type of guy. All the other teams that he's been on, you know, went out there and did your thing with the Pelicans and other teams, but he's a New York Knicks.

 

That's just, it just is what it is. You ask any New York Knicks fan, they'll tell you that Josh Hart is just a New York Knicks. So you assume that he probably is going to really take this game, you know, to heart tonight and play, play really, really good at home here.

 

So, um, and the reason why I was saying like, he's a New York Nick is that there's a chance that he gets rewarded for all this at the end of the year, you know, whether it be a new contract, contract extension, you know, maybe some type of a raise or something like that. Um, but there's a lot of in the line for a guy like this. So 48 minutes, he's going to be a monster.

 

So yeah, I would certainly be, be in favor of this one with you.

 

[Munaf Manji] (1:02:58 - 1:03:39)

There we go. So two player prop, best bets again, coming off of the two and Oh, uh, that we had in the last episode, just to recap, Nicola Yochage over eight and a half assists. And then we're going to go with Josh Hart in game two against the Pacers rebounds and assists to go over the number of 19 and a half.

 

All right, sleepy, that is going to wrap it up my friend for this episode of the NBA podcast on RJ Bell's dream preview. Uh, we previewed the next three days of NBA playoff games. Uh, look back at what we saw in the first couple of games of the series as well, but anything else you want to mention to our listeners before we go our separate ways?

 

[Sleepy J.] (1:03:39 - 1:04:25)

Yeah. Use that coupon code bench 10 over there at pregame.com. One of the things that, uh, you know, I have to sit through some meetings every now and again, and we talk about the coupon codes that we give out on all our podcasts and believe it or not, I think the NBA podcast is one of the winningest podcasts, but for some reason or another, our code gets used the least.

 

So we've got to do something. We got to change that. So coming to you guys, uh, you know, if you, if you haven't signed up for pregame.com or become a member, I've ever purchased anything. If you're thinking about doing it, do it for us for this particular podcast. Again, use that code bench 10, save 10 bucks on anything there at pregame.com. Make sure you guys follow them enough.

 

And I on X at sleepy January score, pregame at sports nerd eight to four.

 

[Munaf Manji] (1:04:25 - 1:04:59)

Yes, sir. And we'll be back later in this week. Uh, hopefully you've to preview the games for the weekend.

 

Um, and hopefully I don't sound as bad as I do, but I wanted to get definitely something out to you guys for the next couple of days here in the NBA playoffs. I know we get a lot of tweets and DMS from our fans and listeners. So I definitely appreciate everybody does that does tap in with us on this episode and on the podcast for the NBA.

 

I will talk to you guys later this week till then. Good luck with your bets. Let's break these books off and we'll talk to you guys down the road.