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May 8, 2024
A Numbers Game | May 8, 2024 | Hour 1
A Numbers Game | May 8, 2024 | Hour 1
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44:33
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Transcript
0:00
The numbers tell the story. They always do. He's one of those idiots who believe in analytics. This is a Numbers Game with Gil Alexander on VN. Wednesday edition of a Numbers Game here on VN.
0:12
Matt Brown in for Gil Alexander. Kelly Bidlin on the desk with me as always. We'll have Jonathan Von Tobel a little bit later to talk the NBA. We'll have Will Hill join us. He'll talk some NBA.
0:22
He'll talk some Major League Baseball and maybe some other sports somewhere along the way as well. With Will Hill, we will recap everything we saw last night and give you our thoughts as we move forward with everything.
0:32
Gonna hit some NFL topics today as well, specifically NFL MVP. Long tease. If it pa- paid off, if you were here yesterday, long tease paid off. We're gonna talk N- NFL MVP market.
0:42
A ticket in my account that I love a ton, price still available, so we'll talk about that as well.
0:49
As I'm watching these games last night, and you see the Celtics go at it, and I, I get it, the shiny new toy, Anthony Edwards, and, and I get that we're watching this Timberwolves team that's going in and has really put it to the defending champions in the Nuggets.
1:01
But you're sitting there watching the Celtics, and you start to realize, yeah, I get it. They don't have the shiny new toy. It seems like they almost old hat, old news at this point.
1:10
And then they start hitting threes, and you realize this team is unbeatable if they hit threes.
1:14
And you watch this Celtics team as they, as they start to prove to everyone yet again, they show everyone yet again, "Oh, by the way, don't forget about us.
1:23
Don't forget that we are very, very good and very, very talented." And they go out, and they hit 18 threes last night.
1:31
They win the offensive rebounding game two to one, and what that allows them to do is hoist up more threes. Yes, if you look at just the percentages, you're gonna say, "Oh, well, that didn't blow me away."
1:42
They, yeah, I mean, they, they put up over 40 threes. They made 18 of them.
1:45
But the fact of the matter is, is if you make 18 threes over the course of a game, it is going to be really tough for another team to compete with you, and that is what we saw last night in this Celtics squad.
1:57
I think we forgot. I think we slept just a little bit on how good that this Celtics team actually is because of what the Wolves have done so far. And Kelly, you go in and you look. 18 threes for the Celtics.
2:08
You get 32 from Brown. You get 25 from White. Pritchard chips in 16 off the bench. Tatum doesn't even have to be not only the primary scorer, he didn't even have to be the secondary scorer in this game.
2:21
And not only do they win, they win convincingly very, very easy over the Cavaliers. And I'm not taking away anything that the Wolves have done so far.
2:29
They've been incredibly impressive in what they've been able to do against Jamal Murray and Jokic and the defending champions. That being said, it seems like we almost forgot how good this Celtics team is.
2:40
Yeah, they're just rolling. They're just rolling right now, and that, that, uh, could maybe be applied to, uh, both of [chuckles] both teams who won last night. They are just rolling. Um, and, uh, yeah, I...
2:51
This is- 25-point victory, by the way. Yeah, the- Just to... If you didn't catch, 25-point victory last night for the Celtics. Yeah, and you talked about the rebounding. I mean, they out-rebounded them 55 to 38.
2:58
Like, it was- Yeah... gross. You have guards running around grabbing offensive boards, no problem, on the Boston side of things. Uh, a- and, and it is where it, it...
3:07
Look, the, Cleveland's missing Jarrett Allen for sure. Like, there, that is definitely a, a aspect of the game that he would help with.
3:14
Um, does that mean that his, [chuckles] his insertion into the lineup is gonna lead to wins in this series? I don't really know about that. Um, I think it's a lot of...
3:22
Uh, if you've been high on this Boston team all year, this... You saw last night a lot of what you've been seeing, uh, all year round. Like you said, you're getting contributions from elsewhere.
3:31
Uh, Tatum doesn't even have to g- have to have a big game, and, and usually it's him or Brown- Yeah... that kind of go back and forth. Only get to the line 14 times- Mm-hmm... but it doesn't matter.
3:38
They make 12 of the 14, but they put up 46 threes in the game. And this is what the Celtics do. They put up a ton of threes.
3:45
And when they offensive rebound like they did last night, again, two to one offensive rebounds comparatively to what the Cavs were able to do, it allows them to put up even more threes, Kelly.
3:54
And so, yeah, I mean, 39%, still nice, but, like, you're not blown away by that percentage. But the fact of the matter is it's a volume thing with the Celtics.
4:01
They are gonna put up a ton of threes, and so long as they are not just ice cold- Yep... if they're making it at a 39% clip, it's going to be very hard to compete with this team. As we mentioned, Brown goes for 32.
4:13
He was four of six from deep. White goes for 25. He was seven of 12 from deep. Tatum missed every single one of his threes. It didn't matter because the other guys and the contributions that they put in here.
4:25
One of the bets that we did get on, in on yesterday, Kelly, that, that kinda cruised home despite the fact [chuckles] that he did hit the bench early 'cause it was a blowout, Donovan Mitchell, as we said, 280, Kelly.
4:35
We said, "He's gonna put up 25 shots." [laughs] Yep. How many shots he have? He put up 25 shots. Yeah. He put up 25 shots. I mean, like, it's, it's gonna... The volume of Donovan Mitchell's going to be there.
4:44
That point prop at 27 and a half, we were just blown away that it was so incredibly low. He goes for 33.
4:49
But the fact of the matter is, we said this heading into this, Drew said this heading into this, everybody we've talked to said they are just outgunned in this series, and they are outgunned a ton.
4:59
There's only Donovan Mitchell on the Cavs side of things that can do anything. In 37 minutes, he produced 33 points, and they still lose by 25, if that tells you anything of how outmatched they are in this series. Yeah.
5:10
Yeah, it's exactly... I, yeah, it, it's exactly what it, what it's probably [chuckles] gonna look like the whole series. Um, he's gonna get up his shots, though. I think that was... I, I liked that bet.
5:19
Loved that you brought that up yesterday. That number seemed low. Just got, uh, just looking at the, the numbers now, got posted again. 29 and a half- Yeah... is what we're up to.
5:27
They weren't letting people get, uh, get away with that again, that's for sure. I te- I texted you, though, man. I think I'm betting this over till they pr- they post in the 30s.
5:33
Until it's 30 and a half or 31 and a half, I'll be going back to it 'cause it, it's just the volume of shots, man. It's gonna be there every single night. He's the only one that can consistently score. Yep.
5:42
And so he has to do it. Yep. Like, I mean, and, and this, again, this was, this was 25 shots up in 37 minutes. Like, he's h- he hit the bench. Like, he w- Yeah...
5:50
if this game is even somewhat competitive, he's into the 40s in the minutes. It's just, you know, there was no reason to run him out there for, for any longer than it was.
5:57
And so I think that's something we can kinda target moving forward here. They double up the point spread, obviously. Goes off 12, 12 and a half.
6:02
They win by 25 Kelly, I, I, I mean, we knew this wasn't going to be a series. We were trying to say you, you could talk yourself around in circles as how the Cavs might pull this off.
6:12
I think this proves what kind of what we were saying. This is not going to happen. Mm. Do you take anything...
6:17
I guess the, the biggest question for us now as bettors, though, do we take anything away from this series with the Celtics moving forward? Because again, it's just not very much competition for them.
6:26
Yeah, no, I, I don't really think that you can. I, I, I really don't. I, and, you know, it's gonna be interesting to see what kind of condition the Knicks [laughs] kind of r- you know, if it's the Knicks.
6:36
If it's the Knicks, right. God, I shouldn't be saying things like that. Right, right, right. If it's the Knicks. Yeah. Um, but you know, if it's the Pacers, I think it's gonna be another cruise job anyways. Yeah.
6:43
But I... But, you know, the Knicks might be in a situation where, you know, Mitchell Robinson's gonna miss a game tonight. Like, they're depleted.
6:49
Bojan Bogdanovic is out for them, uh, for the rest of the postseason here. They're kind of losing guys. And if you... The...
6:54
You know, we, we keep, uh, you know, we, we, we keep gushing about the, the, the, the, the Nova three and everything like that.
7:01
But if these guys can't keep playing those number of minutes at that high level of basketball, I who- the Eastern Conference finals might not even be all that exciting. Yeah.
7:10
Their first test might be when they get into the NBA finals, where there are some very good teams in the Western Conference. Yes. No, a- absolutely. I, I, I look at the Celtic team last night and I...
7:19
Listen, I was as guilty of as anyone else. You get wrapped up in what you see with the athleticism o- of Anthony Edwards. You get wrapped up in the fact that that defense smothered the defending champions.
7:28
Can't get anything going. And like, we just get wrapped up in the Wolves, and then you s- you see the Celtics last night and you go, "Oh yeah, they're s- [laughs] they're really good." Yeah, they're, they're really good.
7:34
They're, they're really- They are... they're really, really, really good. I mean, it's absurd.
7:37
L- look, when you just, when you just see the f- the starting five that are on the court, and then you think about, okay, Kristap Por- uh, Porzingis is not there. Yeah. Like, Derrick White is so good. Mm-hmm.
7:46
Does anybody understand how good Derrick White is? I don't think people do. And he's, like, getting better. On both sides of the ball. And he's getting better- Yeah... somehow every year. Yeah, I don't even get it.
7:53
Like, he's somehow still getting better. Yeah, it's just- L- like- Yeah, it's, it's, it's- I'm not gonna say he's the best player on the team, Matt, 'cause I think I might catch a lot of incoming for that. Yes.
8:02
He's the most consistent- Yeah... this consistent good player on the team. Night in night out. Oh, yeah. Yeah, yeah. Night in, night out, no doubt about that.
8:07
And then unfortunately, if you were hoping that you would get a better game in the night cap, you didn't. Uh, 117-95, Thunder over the Mavericks. And you get 20 from Kyrie. He shoots 50% from the field.
8:21
He's three or four from three, but, you know, that wasn't good enough. You sit there and you look at Luka, only goes for 19. He was six of 19 from the field. He struggled from three, one of eight from three for Luka.
8:32
Had five turnovers as well in this one. And Kelly, I'll admit, i- this one did sho- like the f- game one, I'm kind of like, "Yeah, this is going to plan." This one kind of did shock me.
8:42
And it's not that I didn't think the Thunder could win the game. Certainly, that was in the realm of possibilities as we're talking through all this. I just didn't think we would be looking at a complete one-way traffic.
8:52
And it seemed like every time the Mavs would put together a tiny little run- Yeah, yep... they'd get within five, six. It's right back out to nine, 10. Mm-hmm. Get within five, six, right back out to nine, 10.
9:02
This Thunders team never, ever, ever relented, kept the pressure on the entire time. You get 29 from SGA. A- and with all that, you get, you know, chip in for 18 from Holmgren, 18 from Williams. The bench comes in.
9:14
Wiggins gives you 16. I mean, there, there's just... Th- this, this team, I, I'm, I'm not writing this series off.
9:20
I think the Mavs can still, can still hang, but boy, you see a Thunder team play like that, as complete as they did last night, and you're like, "Wow, that, that is, uh, that is also a pretty good f- pretty good basketball team."
9:29
I think wha- I think the most impressive part about that game last night is, is you're, you keep watching some of these teams, especially these teams that go deeper during the regular season, like the Thunder do, into their bench.
9:41
And it's, okay, postseason, you're gonna short- you're gonna tighten up rotations, shorten the bench. How are these guys gonna handle it? Uh, this is how the Thunder have won all season long- Mm-hmm...
9:49
is by relying on, on more than five guys. So it's... To see those contributions, Jalen Williams, Wiggins, both of them were huge off the bench last night, that's not... it's not something that's weird for the Thunder.
10:00
Yeah. And that's gonna keep being their go-to. I think the s- I mean, the scary part- Nine guys, Kelly, that played 15 minutes or more. Yeah. Nine guys- Yeah... played 15 minutes or more.
10:07
And that's how they're gonna play. Yeah. I mean, I think the scary part is, Shai, you listed the numbers. I thought Shai looked a little rusty in the first half. Mm-hmm.
10:14
He, I mean, he w- he was missing mid-range shots that I've seen him hit, like, are basically automatic- Yeah... for him at this point. So the fact that he could even had a better game is a little scary to me.
10:24
Um, and then look, Luka's, I mean, Luka's battling, man. He's battling through the knee, through, I don't e- I don't know if he aggravated something else last night. He looks slow, doesn't he?
10:32
I mean, he looks like me out there running up and down the basketball court. Yeah, and he looks slow. That's not a good thing. [laughs] And, like, you can tell, like, the, uh, the one of eight tells it in the three too.
10:39
Like, there's no lift to the shot. Yeah. There's no what... It's just he... Yeah. His front rim and everything. Yeah. It's just- Just slow... it's leaving it short. Yeah.
10:45
And then, like, Kyrie picked things up a bit, but he started off really slow too, 'cause so, so the beginning of the game, it was kind of, where are the Mavericks going? It was good to see...
10:53
Now, if you're a Mavericks backer like me, it was good to see Tim Hardaway Jr. get back out there and play 17 minutes. 'Cause I think that, uh, for someone holding futures tickets, it's been okay.
11:03
If Kyrie, if Kyrie and Luka aren't both having a great game, some of these games are gonna be tough to win later on in the playoffs when you don't really have another scorer to look at.
11:12
So Tim Hardaway, good to see him back on the court. Need to get him back in, back in the flow a little bit more. It didn't change the outcome of the game. The Mavs were also 68% from the free throw line. Yeah.
11:21
Gotta do better than that as well. Lots of free hockey last night. The Rangers four to three, winners in double overtime. They take a 2-0 lead over the Hurricanes.
11:29
Avalanche win four to three in overtime, take a 1-0 series lead on the Stars as well. You got all the free hockey last night as well for all of the fans.
11:38
We'll get into some news a little bit later in the show, but next JBT joins us. We'll see what he thinks. Are these series over, Kelly?
11:44
[upbeat music] A numbers game on VSiN, the sports betting network.
12:01
Wednesday edition of a numbers game here on VSiN. Matt Brown in for Gil Alexander. Spent the entire first segment there recapping the NBA.
12:10
But Kelly- It is the playoffs, and we have to continue talking the NBA with our senior NBA analyst, also host every single weeknight here of VSAN Primetime, Jonathan Von Tobel. JBT, how you doing, buddy?
12:24
I'm very excited about the way these playoffs are shaping up. Are you now? I mean, let's, let's be honest. Are you, are you, are you really excited about how this is going?
12:32
Well, as, as somebody who's holding a Timberwolves sort of the one Western Conference ticket, uh, very much so. Uh, multiple series- [laughs]... bets off, very good start. So yes.
12:40
No, I, I do enjoy the way that we have started out this, uh, the second round of the post-season.
12:43
Well, I'm glad that you were able to join us here on the Progressive guest line this morning to talk some NBA as we try to break down...
12:50
Let's, you know, let's, let's talk, let's start with what we saw last night, and then we can talk about stuff moving forward.
12:55
But I, I was making the point to Kelly, you listen, y- you kind of listen to all the hype and, and rightfully so.
13:01
The Timberwolves have really, really exceeded, I think, even the highest of expectations for everybody so far through these first couple of games.
13:07
We see all the, you know, shiny new toys that are out there on the, on the court.
13:11
It's easy to get wrapped up in all of that hype, and then you watch the Celtics last night just go out and absolutely trounce the Cavs, which we, which was expected.
13:18
I mean, it was 12, 12-and-a-half-point spread, but they made it look easy. And I think we...
13:23
Do you think at all we've kind of slept a little bit on just exactly how good this Celtics team, especially when the, when they're, when they're dropping threes, and they made 18 of them last night?
13:31
Yeah, I mean, I think we are to a certain extent because as you kind of mentioned, right, this is the expectation. Mm-hmm.
13:36
I mean, they're over three-dollar favorites to win the Eastern Conference at this point right now. Um, you know, they're getting these lesser opponents in these first two rounds.
13:43
And, and frankly, the Eastern Conference is falling perfectly for them, right? The, the Knicks lose Mitchell Robinson yesterday for six to eight weeks.
13:49
They should still win that series against Indiana, but you're gonna get a team that's probably gonna have a six-man rotation by the time you get to the Eastern Conference finals.
13:56
Um, you know, so the expectation's there, and it's kinda ho-hum. A- and I think we... I do. I was just talking about this with somebody.
14:02
What I'm gonna be interested in is if they make it to the NBA finals and we finally get to see this team k- play competitive basketball, Matt, is that gonna be a negative for that team, right? Yeah.
14:09
That they've just kind of trounced through an Eastern Conference, haven't been tested. Remember the last two years when they have failed, they have failed in crunch time.
14:16
Like, they have not been a good crunch time offense. Uh, it has been very poor in terms of their clutch time net rating.
14:21
If you're not playing any clutch games for, like, two months, how is that gonna look when the time you get to the NBA finals? But I think overall, I think you are right. Like, we've expected this of Boston.
14:29
The point spread, the market expects this of them.
14:31
And we've kind of forgotten how good it is, and especially because you're watching Minnesota not only do what they're doing, but doing it in a deeper conference against opponents, Phoenix and Denver, that the market generally had better expectations for.
14:42
So then we get into the, the late game last night and everyone expecting, "Okay, well, at least we might get a good one here." That ends up not being the case.
14:49
The 117-95 victory for the Thunder and, and, you know, you look at Luka, six of 19, one of eight from deep.
14:56
He's, you know, misses four free throws, six of 10 from the line, all this stuff like that with him, five turnovers. We knew he was banged up a little bit here, JBT.
15:04
But man, watching that last night, it was almost tough to watch 'cause you could just tell, like, he's slow. He's lumbering out there.
15:10
It's, uh, it's like, I don't wanna say he looks like a Joe Schmo, an average guy, 'cause he's still Luka Dončić, but he doesn't look anything s- he doesn't look like the special dude, [laughs] you know, that we, that we know Luka is.
15:21
And if that's the case, the Mavs just have no shot in this, right? Yeah, I mean, th- th- you're absolutely right. And he doesn't r- like, he had one kind of really fluid step back, uh, throughout the game.
15:31
But, like, even his step back doesn't look as quick and as, as fluid and pristine as he usually does. Uh, I think everything you've talked about, right?
15:37
There was a point where he takes the knee brace off, and they're just kinda, like, looking at it, "What's going on?" [laughs] Like, there's just so much going on here with that knee.
15:42
And, and I would say, too, and I wrote about this yesterday, and we've talked about it a couple of times. Man, I think the underrated aspect of that series is that Maxi Kleber's not available. Mm-hmm.
15:50
You know, he was their small ball center. When he was on the floor against the Clippers, they had an offensive rating when he was at center of 150.9.
15:57
You know, he was awesome for what they wanted to do, and he gives you some versatility because you could play him at power forward. You could play your two bigs. You could still have shooting and spacing.
16:05
It's so much that he can do for that team. And yet now, not only is he not out there, but your best player is now injured and beleaguered with injury.
16:12
And now all of a sudden you're looking around and going, "Well, we're not killing this team on the glass like we should.
16:16
And then our best guy, who, by the way, already has to fight through Lou Dort, Jaylen Williams, Shai Gilgeous-Alexander, all three of those guys being very good on-ball defenders."
16:24
I- it seems like a really big ask for this Dallas team right now. So I don't think they're gonna get swept. I, I think they still have plenty of competitive nature. Daniel Gafford's very good.
16:31
Kyrie Irving looks incredible. I think they're good enough to, to make this a series in general.
16:35
But I think overall, when you're talking about over the course of a best of seven, if this is the way that Luka Dončić is gonna look, you know, I, I bet the Thunder before the series started.
16:43
I, I feel somewhat confident in my position here that they're gonna be able to win this series. Yeah, so let's, uh, let's go ahead and look at tonight.
16:49
Pacers and Knicks currently sitting four and a half in favor of the Knicks at home, 220 the total. If you think the Pacers win this thing outright, plus 154.
16:59
Can the Pacers win this series or, I mean, even this game against the Knicks with Halliburton no-showing? I mean, I understand that, that he had the injury.
17:09
He hasn't looked the same since, but we're talking, like, almost a complete no-show in game one, JBT.
17:15
And you know, it's, it's like you get as, as much as you can from everybody else on the court, and it still wasn't good enough. And so i- if, if Halliburton can't step it up, then what more can the Pacers offer?
17:26
No, I, I would agree with that, and that's the part that sucks, right? Because the other part is they don't play well defensively. Mm-hmm.
17:32
The Knicks had an offensive rating of over 120 in that game one win, so even though it was tight, you again as a team just cannot get stops.
17:40
So when we're talking about, again, crunch time, if you get into those minutes, are you going to be able to get stops consistently? No, you're, you're not. And so I think that's part of the big problem. You mentioned it.
17:49
Since he suffered that injury, Tyrese Haliburton's a 30% three-point shooter. He hasn't been effective in terms of scoring at all, well under 20 points a game. We saw that again.
17:56
You know, if he's not gonna show up, are you gonna get some of these, we'll call them, you know, sh- like, we'll call...
18:01
not outlier, but strong shooting performances from everybody else like they did in game one to make that a tight contest? And I think that's a little bit of a problem.
18:08
And the other part too, going back to the defense, is outside of maybe trying Pascal Siakam, Matt, they got nobody for Jalen Brunson. Mm-hmm. They got nobody. Like, he's gonna eat them alive.
18:14
So I think it's gonna be kinda hard here. And what I think the strategy would be, though, is without Mitchell Robinson, you better go after Isaiah Hartenstein like every pick roll.
18:22
You gotta try to get him into foul trouble. You gotta try to get Jericho Sims on the floor or a, or a shorter, uh, precious Achiuwa.
18:28
That's the way to victory, but I just don't know if you're gonna do that consistently enough and if you're gonna be able to defend enough So let's talk a little...
18:35
Let's do a little sports talk radio here early morning on a Wednesday, JBT, and Jamal Murray does not get suspended, just a 100K fine for him for what we thought at the time was only throwing one, that he tried to throw two things onto the court.
18:49
The one just didn't make it. The towel, the wind catches the towel, the towel doesn't make it onto the court, but the heat pad does. I gotta admit, and this has nothing to do with, with anything.
18:59
I don't have any, any bets in that series as far as, like, series bets. I don't have any futures. So I- I'm, I'm not saying this from a biased standpoint. Like, I was actually fairly disappointed.
19:08
I feel like the NBA is doing some kind of special treatment stuff here, because if this happens in the regular season, he is for sure suspended.
19:16
It's like just because this is the playoffs and just because we want to try and give the Nuggets a chance to be competitive in this, that this guy can do something they can't in any other, in any other form.
19:26
And honestly, I'm gonna, gonna go as far as to say if, if this was, like, the ninth guy on the bench that did this, he would be suspended. But since it's Jamal Murray, he doesn't get suspended.
19:35
W- w- I think I was expecting it. I think maybe you were expecting it. W- what, what went on here? Yeah, full disclosure, again, like, I've got this Timberwolves ticket- Yeah... so maybe I am a little bit biased.
19:45
Um, I, I, I'm completely shocked. I think he should've been suspended. I don't think there's any question about it. Like, this isn't a matter...
19:50
Like, even just, like, remo- Like, okay, he threw something harmless onto the floor. No. Like, when you watch that video, that heating pad slides into live action. Mm-hmm. It hit his own teammate's foot.
20:00
What if, what if Jokic plants his foot on that and slips out? Right? What if Karl-Anthony Towns plants his foot on that and slips out and gets seriously injured? Like, that's a dangerous thing that he did.
20:10
We see these guys tweak ankles all the time just by softly stepping on people's feet. What happens if you step on that slip? We, we were just talking about Tyrese Haliburton.
20:17
Guys, Tyrese Haliburton got injured because he slipped on a wet spot on the floor, right? Mm-hmm. Yep. Like, that was a serious injury. What if that happens again here?
20:24
I am amazed that the NBA did not suspend him, especially after watching... Look, say what you want about Draymond Green. Yeah, he stomped on Domantas Sabonis' chest, okay?
20:32
Y- if you're gonna suspend him, you suspend Jamal Murray. He could have injured any one of the guys that was out there during live action.
20:39
And to me, the fact that, Matt, and I'll use your phrase, right, that you wanted to keep your defending champions competitive and not suspend him for a game three on the road is absolutely ridiculous, and you've set a dangerous precedent.
20:49
J- Jamal Murray shouldn't be playing on Friday. I don't think there's any question about it. Yeah, I, I, I am shocked. I am shocked- Me too... w- w- that, that, that came down yesterday. It was...
20:58
I understand it's playoffs. We, we maybe thought it was gonna be a little... I mean, w- I think during the regular season this is multiple games. The fact after the matter, the fact that we've...
21:05
After the fact, after the matter, we see that he tried to do it twice. Right? I mean, that's the, that's the mo- Yeah. That's the biggest thing, right? It's the towel throw.
21:13
So okay, you could maybe justify somebody losing their cool for a minute, but when you go to throw something a second time- [laughs]... you are very clearly intentionally trying to throw- Yeah...
21:23
something at a ref- Oh... onto the court. And as JBT said, like, if we're... If someone got hurt, w- you cannot tell me that this is, would be the same kind of punishment- Yeah, exactly... uh, that would've come down.
21:35
We would've s- not seen Jamal Murray for- We're being results oriented. We're being results oriented. Exactly. We're being results oriented. No one got hurt, so everything's okay. It's... No. No. It's not that...
21:40
This should not be that. How about this, guys? You think if it's me in the third row, you think if I'm throwing something out there on the floor, they're letting me watch the rest of that game?
21:48
You're never coming back to the stadium. Yeah. [laughs] Right? You're- You're never allowed back in... you're banned for life. Like, that'd be it. Yep. It'd be... You'd be the guy.
21:55
I, I- You'd be the h- you'd be the heat pad guy. By the way, to put it in perspective, if anybody's wondering, "Well, well, $100,000, though, still sounds like, uh, sounds like, uh, a lot."
22:02
I was trying to run these numbers, and then ESPN did it for me, so I'm gonna, uh, use theirs. [laughs] Uh, how about that is 24.2% of his game check in the playoffs?
22:11
[laughs] Not even a quarter of basketball is what he's gotta pay for that. Oh, boy. Well, even- And I mean, and I don't wanna be too... Like, I'll just say this, too. Hmm. Like, the officials let a lot get...
22:20
Like, like, the fact that Michael Malone can run out there and get in the face of an official during a game, it was absolutely ridiculous what they let go on. It really is.
22:26
John, g- uh, really rooting for you on these futures tickets, buddy, and hopefully, uh, hopefully they get home, and hopefully we get some better basketball games moving forward. Yeah, let's go T-Wolves. I need it.
22:36
When we come back, let's talk a little baseball. Yeah, Kelly, we're gonna talk baseball here on this program- Yeah... whenever we come back. I got a couple futures tickets. Let's do it.
22:43
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23:22
Nicotine is an addictive chemical. Nobody had any idea that I could sound like that whenever... See, it's, it's- [laughs]... it's just, it's when it's prerecorded, you know, I can, I can, I can channel that in my voice.
23:33
But, like, it's just when it's live, I can't do it. Yeah, yeah. You know, I gotta concentrate. And so- That's what Matt came in here yesterday morning. He's like, "Let's just bang these all out now." Yeah.
23:40
"I'm just gonna record them. We'll run them back." It's weird. And, like, it sounds better when I record them- [laughs]... you know, than it does whenever you're doing live. So did that.
23:46
Ugh, just channeled that, that nice base there for- That's the voice of the legend Ryan Hunter. It is. Ryan Hunter in Alaska, right? In Alaska. [laughs] In Alaska. In Alaska. We're talking about you in Alaska.
23:55
Hey, well done. It is Matt Brown in for Gil Alexander here on a numbers game on a Wednesday. Spent the first couple segments talking about the NBA, but rightfully so.
24:02
I mean, this is, uh, you know, as a betting, uh, kind of as a betting event, Kelly, it's been a little bit underwhelming so far. Mm-hmm. So hopefully we can turn things around.
24:11
Again, the game tonight is, is only a four-and-a-half point spread, so there is that. But we've had some... You know, it's- All the way up to 13 and a half now for the Celtics for this next one.
24:21
Probably rightfully so yet again. So I'm, I'm just, I'm hoping we can get some more competitive stuff going on. Yeah. Yeah. Real quick, and we'll talk about- Yeah... more about that game later, uh, that is tonight.
24:30
It is, it's interesting, man. I, I've got my big Knicks, uh, Knicks series bet, so I'll just be stepping back. Yeah. I'm not doing anything with the game tonight.
24:36
Um, and there's been some sharp Pacers money coming in, I know. Mm. I, I know there's some guys that like Pacers' side. I think if you're watching that, watch game one, it's, it's a little bit understandable. Mm.
24:45
Now, Mitchell Robinson out of the game, too, uh, for the Knicks. JVT talked about a little bit how the- how New York will handle that.
24:51
I think Hartenstein will be text-, uh, tested, and you're gonna see, you're gonna see a lot of pressure, too. Yeah. I think you are gonna see that tonight. So could be an interesting game. And Tips runs his guy...
24:58
I mean, Tips plays his guys. Yep. He plays his dudes. Like, I mean, like, it's short bench. You play 40 plus, whatever. I mean, like, so maybe there's some leg stuff that could be going on here, too.
25:07
So I, I, I can understand it. I can understand it for sure. I'm not gonna venture into that, though. Yeah, no, no. I'm not gonna venture it. I, I mean, this Knicks team is, is...
25:15
I mean, it's got heat vibes of last year for sure. Yeah. It is... I... They, they keep firing, they keep hitting everything [laughs] when they need to hit it, so I, I'm not getting in front of them right now.
25:25
So let's talk some Major League Baseball. By the way, uh, do have some early games today, so first pitch in a couple hours actually in the Angels and Pirates if you wanna get involved in that one.
25:34
Pirates are a minus 142 favorite at home over the Angels. And, and several 1:00 Eastern first pitches as well. Jays and Phillies, Tigers and Guardians, Mets and Cardinals all coming to you 1:00 Eastern today as well.
25:49
Aaron Nola on the hill for the Phillies, who have been very good so far. You look at this Phillies squad, and I am, uh, I'm pretty impressed with what they're able to do.
25:57
Now that, that being said, Trea Turner has been a, has been a, at least a run score base stealer for them. He's gonna miss six weeks for them. Is that going to really affect what we've seen so far for this Phillies team?
26:07
I don't know if it really will when it all comes down to it, but certainly is not good when Trea Turner's not out there. They are a big minus 170 favorite over the Toronto Blue Jays.
26:17
Talked a little bit about them yesterday with Paul Spohr, and it's... The fact... They just can't hit right now.
26:21
I mean, the Blue Jays, uh, despite the fact they have names and they've got dudes, they, they just can't hit. And so we'll see if they can start to turn things around. The Tigers and the Guardians.
26:29
This is Reese Olson versus Tanner Bibee. Minus 135 for the Guardians at home with Bibee, and Olson is a plus 114 underdog on the road with the Tigers.
26:40
If you kinda look at just the surface stats on this, Olson looks much better than Bibee, and then you go into the advanced statistics on this one and you see if you kinda look at the expected stuff, like what should be coming forward with all this, Bibee's numbers aren't necessarily as bad as we have seen so far, and Olson's numbers are actually a little bit better than what we think we will see kinda moving forward with that.
27:01
So maybe a little bit of value there on the Guardians at home as short favorites. And then we have the Mets and the- We all know Gil will be rooting for the Guardians. [laughs] Another, uh, best record in May.
27:10
I'm, I'm trying to figure out right now where they're at in their May standings. It's, it's weird.
27:14
It's like normal, uh, you know, ESPN just doesn't wanna put specific betting, uh, market standings like that up, you know?
27:20
So it's, it's, it's one of those things where I think as this becomes maybe something people bet more often, that we will be able to easier find all of this. But yes, it is, it's a dig, I'll put it that way.
27:29
[laughs] Like, like it's a dig. They did lose yesterday 11 to 7 to the Tigers. Um, and, and then we have the Mets and the Cardinals. José Quintana going for the Mets, Sonny Gray going for the Cardinals.
27:40
Mets are plus 140 dogs on the road. Uh, Cardinals minus 166 favorites with Sonny Gray on the hill. Mets at least a little bit interesting as dogs on the road there. Quintana's actually been pretty good so far this year.
27:51
Cardinals can't hit currently. They're... They had a player, you know, the dugout players only meeting. You know, the players only meeting- Oh, who did?... this year. The Cardinals already. Already.
28:00
Cardinals had a players only meeting, and I don't know what you're doing- Wasn't it, wasn't it the Cubs like day two? Yeah.
28:05
The, the Bu- uh, th- it's, it's one of my favorite things in sports right now, because the Bulls had one after the first... I think it was after the first game which cracked me up this season, and then the Cubs, right?
28:14
Yeah. I think they were like after game two. The, now the Cardinals have had their own little players only meeting, and I don't... What, what do you say, what, what do you say in a players only meeting in, in baseball?
28:22
'Cause it's kinda like- Oh, it's such a good call... because like- Yeah... everyone's trying to hit the ball. I mean, like, like it- Well, and you know what your job is. Yeah...
28:28
yeah, it's like, it's not like anyone's dogging it or effort or anything or something like that. It's, it's like, it's just hard to hit a baseball.
28:33
Like, it's, it's just very hard to hit a baseball, and you can get in a slump trying to hit a baseball. So what- I know. It's so true... what do you... Y- you get in there and you're like, "All right, guys.
28:40
Quit swinging at the sliders outside of the..." It's like, "I, um, I, uh, I didn't think it was a b- I didn't think it was a, gonna be a ball. It looked like it was gonna be a strike. What do you want me to say?"
28:47
You know? I mean... Yeah, how do the pitchers work with that? [laughs] Are they, are they even involved? Like, you know- The pitchers are pr-... they sit in their bullpen going- "Throw it harder.
28:53
Why is your velocity down?" [laughs] You know? It's like- Why isn't your arm in order?... "My arm is broken. Yeah, I have an UCL tear. What do you, what do you mean?"
28:59
So yeah, I don't know how the players only meeting's going in baseball. We did have one of those with the Cardinals.
29:03
So one of the games that is at least a little bit interesting, this one's coming to you in the 2:00 Eastern hour, is the Padres and the Cubs. This is Dylan Cease versus Hayden Wesneski.
29:13
This is minus 125 Padres on the road over the Cubs. Cubs plus 105 at home as dogs. Dylan Cease since, uh, since ending up in San Diego has actually tried to revitalize his career.
29:27
His, his velocity is actually up to kinda where it has been over the course of his career after a really, really rough go at it last year. I'm not willing to say that this is going to...
29:41
Th- th- this is a great bet, Kelly, but what I am gonna say is I did speculate and put a little bit of a Dylan Cease Cy Young ticket into the account, and the reason I did this is because... So
29:54
I think if we see, and we're, we're literally in, only in a few hours, but if we see a really good performance again out of Dylan Cease today, I think that the number that was currently available right now is gonna be gone, and so I just wanted to put that in there before we see.
30:07
Now, the, he could get shelled today and then the number evaporates. So it is what it is.
30:10
It's kind of a bet on talent here, but Dylan Cease is a dude that has always had an incredible amount of talent, and then you go and you kind of break down the numbers that he's got going on, and he's got the 13% swinging strike rate right now, which is equal to this really high K rate that he's got going on.
30:25
He's not walking dudes as much as he did last year when he was really, really struggling.
30:29
Padres playing a little bit better than I think most people thought with all that, not that wins matter, because we've at least At least in baseball we have gotten past the whole pitcher wins thing, and we're not worried about that anymore.
30:39
We at least are looking at, at the stats with all of that. But Dylan Cease's always a guy that's had a super, super high upside, never really lived up to it. Did he figure something out? Does... Was the chain of...
30:49
change of scenery all he needed, all that? W- Who, who really knows? But did put the Dylan Cease ticket into, uh, into the account there, in what I think is still a pretty wide open NL Cy Young race. Yeah.
31:00
That's, uh, I was just looking that up. 13, 13 to 1. Yeah. Um, yeah, yeah. I mean, geez, the odds tell you it's wide open, right? I mean, how many guys are you talking short of 20 to 1? 10. Yeah, yeah.
31:10
Yeah, 10 guys shorter than 20 to 1 right now, so pretty wide open. Yeah, it's... A- and so for, for me, it's kind of like I said, I think that that number might go away if he has a really great start today. You know?
31:24
So we, we've had this discussion a couple times on the sh- on the show. Uh, with, with so, so many of these pitchers going down, do you have any hesitation of, of firing away? Even we...
31:33
You know, we were talking about a few weeks ago, and it was kinda like, "Hey, this early in the season, maybe it's something you need to be a little bit more mindful of now going forward when we're seeing all these injuries all the time."
31:43
Something you're concerned about, or no, you would still just fire away? But I ha- You know, injuries are just, you know, like I, I, I- You can't control. Yeah. Yeah. It's just... It's kind of the we're gamblers, right?
31:54
Yeah. I mean, we're gambling. We're gambling. I mean, you know, we're gamblers, we're gambling. It's kind of how I look at that as well.
31:59
I mean, one of the other bets that I put in a couple of days ago, Bryce Harper for MVP. Over in the NL, what we're g- I think Ronald Acuña will straighten everything out from a power perspective.
32:11
It's kind of a weird deal going on with him right now, where, uh, he hadn't been hitting for a, a ton of power. That said, this Philadelphia Phillies team is already kind of exceeding expectations.
32:21
If there's any th- if they're, if they're somehow able to hold onto this, what if they could overtake the Braves and actually win that division?
32:27
A lot of that would have to do with what Bryce Harper has done so far, and will do moving forward if that were to play out.
32:33
And you look at Bryce Harper, one of the things that you, that you start to see with him that might even lead to more, I mean, he's got nine homers already.
32:41
A- and, and you start to look, I mean, he's not gonna steal bases anymore, but he's got 28 RBI already. He scored 20 runs for this Phillies team. And then you go in and you see that there is...
32:51
H- his batting average on balls in play currently is only 282, for reference for Bryce Harper, 'cause he does hit the balls, uh, so hard and all that. Last year his, his BABI, b- batting average balls in play, was 352.
33:04
The year before that, 324. The year before that, 359. He's doing this right now, kind of getting unlucky. And so he's still doing all of this, lots of hard contact, 46% hard contact for him right now as well.
33:17
Kelly, I think that batting average in balls in play increases a little bit more, and we start seeing even some more hits and some more things going on with Bryce Harper. So did stick that in the account. I like it.
33:26
I, I don't know about you. I'm still, I'm still beli-... I know Shohei's playing, playing, been playing incredible right now, but man, I think this is...
33:31
I still think this is the year they'll look to try to give it to someone else. They might try. That's all I'm going with here. Yeah. They might actually try. Let's talk some golf when we come back here, Wells Fargo.
33:39
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34:15
and we're gonna give you 150 in bonus bets instantly. DraftKings sportsbook, the crown is yours. Matt Brown in for Gil Alexander, numbers game here on a Wednesday.
34:25
Kelly Biblin with me, and we're gonna have two of the hosts of the award-winning, internationally famous Long Shots podcast here to talk about the Wells Fargo... Oh, that's us, Kelly.
34:36
[laughs] I was like, "Where are those two at?" That's us. Where are those guys at? And what awards?
34:40
[laughs] And we have won no awards, and it's probably not internationally famous, but, you know, it's, uh, it is what it... We, we have people in Canada listen. That's international. Yeah.
34:47
You know, I mean, well, the international I think is accurate. Yes. Fa- famous might be a bit of a stretch. Yeah, yeah. We don't, we don't have any of that. It is- International, there's at least a couple.
34:55
[laughs] It is the Wells Fargo Championship. This is an elevated event. There are 69 runners instead of 70. We had a withdrawal.
35:03
Ludvig Åberg is not going to play in this one, dealing with a little bit of a knee issue, so he's going to sit this one out. So 69 instead of 70 players.
35:12
Remember that when you go in and you look at the odds that are attached to people's names as we, you know, talk this through, and even as you're going in to make your bets today, this is a limited field.
35:23
It is a no cut event, and we are also missing Scottie Scheffler and Ludvig, who by the way, have been two of the very most consistent players on the tour for the past couple of months. So Kelly, you see,
35:36
w- w- we've seen, we've seen Rory at 78 to 1, so that's, that one's not crazy. Yeah. But you go down a little bit further and it's like, okay, now Wyndham's down to 14.
35:44
Cantlay, who has not been playing all that great, is at 18. Homa, who again has had form up and down, is sitting at 20. So you see these numbers, you're like, "Man, this is so low on these dudes."
35:54
Well, there's only 69 guys. It's a no cut event. They're missing, we're missing two superstars, so you're just not gonna get the numbers in this tournament that you've gotten in the past.
36:02
Yeah, we talked about it a little bit on the podcast.
36:04
Encourage everybody to go listen to that for a little bit deeper conversation on the full tournament, and stats, and the odds that, uh, that we talked about, everything. I r- This really is fascinating.
36:13
I- it's fascinating 'cause you remove Scottie Scheffler, right? It is a smaller field.
36:16
So j- just as far as what a g- a golf odds board looks like, it i- it's, it's one of the more fascinating ones we've seen in a while because, because of some of that stuff.
36:25
And I think it's also a good example of what we've talked about, and what we've, what we've talked about a lot this year was struggling, y- you know, with golf a little bit this year.
36:33
It's not just the Scheffler factor, right? Mm-hmm.
36:35
It is, it's the inconsistencies of some of the other guys that we expect to be very good throughout the year, and that has been, you know, Patrick Cantlay, Max Homa- Mm-hmm... uh, Justin Thomas. You know, up- Yeah...
36:47
kind of up and down seasons throughout Victor Hovland Victor Hovland. So, you know, big name guys that even a year ago we would've talked about contending with Scottie Scheffler. Mm. They haven't really been around.
36:58
So you do have some guys, you know, JT, Max Homa with some great history at this tournament, at this course, that that's definitely, uh, baked into the odds a bit, and I think that makes sense.
37:08
But just as a, I think this is just a better look at what the landscape of golf, uh, is like, is like right now- Mm... on the PGA tour. So we're heading over to North Carolina. This is happening at the Quail Hollow Club.
37:18
You've seen this course in majors before. It will not play like that. They're going to just be running out two, two-inch-ish rough in this one.
37:27
So Kelly, we take a look at it, and, you, you know, we have, we have come to the conclusion, and, you know, this is how we kind of went about building our models, how we went about, us, uh, sharpening our player pool here, is the fact that we're going to, we're gonna look at bombers.
37:41
Yeah. We're gonna look at guys that can poke it out there. There's not a ton, again, of, of penalty area unless you just are way, way, way wide.
37:49
And so if we're not, if, if we're not worried about dudes hitting it out of two-inch rough, which I'm not and you're not, then hey, let's get close, let's, let's get as close to the hole as we can, right? Mm-hmm.
37:57
Let's have a shorter club in. Let's try and do that. And so that's kind of where I started my process. I know there were some other guys out there that started their process on the approach side of things.
38:05
And, you know, I don't know if there's a right or wrong answer, uh, to that. These are really hard greens to hit, so having a, a good approach game certainly is a benefit. I'm just going to lean towards in a course where
38:16
we're not getting penalized for bombing it out there.
38:19
With so many dudes that can poke it really long these days, that that is gonna be a, a major, major, major advantage for them whenever they're playing, you know, s- when they're, when they're playing eight iron in and other guys are playing six and sevens.
38:33
Yeah. I, I, I just to me, that's where I'm gonna be looking. Yeah.
38:36
And there's other, you know, there's guys like, uh, you know, Collin Morikawa is probably a good example of a great long iron pl- player who's not exactly far off the tee. Yeah. Right?
38:43
And th- this is one of those tracks, I think, where it does, you do wanna look at the distance because, I mean, it's long.
38:48
You're gonna be hit- you're gonna be hitting driver off the tee, and you're still hit- gonna be hitting long approach shots, uh, for the most part.
38:54
So I, yeah, those are definitely the guys that, that I look to target a little bit, uh, this week as, as much as, yeah, if you are someone who's out there dealing with golf stats like you and I are, I- almost as much as you're gonna see throughout an entire season as far as me weighting stuff off the tee, uh, you know, as he- yeah, as heavier, heavier than approach, approach numbers, even though approach always important and still very important at this course.
39:15
So for me, like I said, heavily weighted driving distance, uh, off the tee, then kind of approach third. Um, looking at par five scoring, you really gotta go after- Yeah... the par fives here.
39:27
We looked at that long iron play as kinda like 175 to 200. I know some people put in 200 plus.
39:32
I didn't go that route because I'm trying to simplify my model building these days, as opposed to adding all of these variables. I'm trying to kind of go in and, and, and tone it down a little bit.
39:43
I'm wondering if maybe that has been my bugaboo this, this year so far. So again, just, we're al- always experimenting, right, with, with all of this. I did it on long courses, you know, strokes gained on long courses.
39:54
This is a very long course- Yeah... for these dudes. And then we said these greens are hard to hit, so I did factor in around the green and scrambling to see. A- as, it was, it's, it's a, it's a factor, right?
40:05
I mean- It's a factor... it's a factor. Yeah, for sure. It's like 5% each in the model. So I mean, it's, it's 10%. It's a 10th of the model for me.
40:11
But it wasn't super heavily weighted because at the end of the day, if, if you're hitting the greens, then you're not worried about scrambling. Yeah. You know, whatever.
40:17
So it's like I, I, I do wanna see certainly who's bad at it and who maybe who's really good at it.
40:24
But with that said, Kelly, I'm, I'm focusing more on like guys that are gonna get it out there, and guys that are, are more than likely to, to hit the green with it.
40:31
And, and if it goes off, sure, I'll use the tiebreaker of scrambling around the green. But I'm just hoping they don't have to use that part of it. Yeah, that, that would be nice. Yeah.
40:38
And especially if, what, what did Wyndham shoot last year, 19 under? I mean, if that's what the winning score's gonna be, you can't be missing too many greens. Mm. Right?
40:44
So that's, I, I factored all that stuff in as well. Three putt avoidance too. Mm.
40:48
A little bit bigger greens, but you don't want guys, uh, three putting around here a- and making bogeys and r- or making pars on some of these par fives that they need to be birdieing.
40:56
So yeah, definitely, uh, something to look at, uh, uh, if, when you're l- if, when you're breaking down stats for this course.
41:02
So the interesting thing for me, uh, I went out to 36 rounds because, again, like I do wanna see, I do wanna see what these guys have kinda looked like over the course of now what we've had is, is a, you know, a pretty diverse.
41:16
See, there, there's been some easy courses, been some super hard courses, been some courses in between. Who's kind of coming in, like, with that 36 rounds?
41:23
I told you th- guys this on the podcast, and it, it really did, it was, it was, it was pretty shocking to me that Tony Finau over the last 36 rounds was the guy that was number one in, in my model, which I would not have guessed that that was going to be the case, but it is the case.
41:37
And, and Tony Finau comes in number one, and so Tony Finau ends up being an outright for me. I like it. Yeah, I got him in a matchup.
41:42
He was, uh, I was a little surprised by the, some of the results I got back for him as well. I didn't go with an outright p- uh, play on him, but a matchup for me, I do like Finau this week. Yeah.
41:50
And so, uh, you mentioned Wyndham Clark. Tons of success here, um, a- and started off, uh, I can't believe it was only a year ago. The most epic golf betting year ever last year.
42:01
[laughs] And it's just, ugh, has not gone that way with us so far this year. The dude, man. The dude. Yeah. And it's, uh, 72 to 1 last year. Got that one home.
42:08
But, uh, but, but this year, what, as we mentioned, far, far shorter, but rightfully so. That's the other thing that we said about this. Yeah.
42:14
He's playing, he's playing like the second-best golfer on the planet right now. I mean, I think he's been one of the, the, one of the most mispriced golfers probably over the past six months. Mm.
42:23
Just because, I mean, the dude's been winning, and he's still, you... It's amazing how much longer and longer odds you'd find him than, than some of the premier golfers that are out there.
42:32
I think this week is a good example. Okay, this is really where he belongs. I thought the odds were pretty accurate for this one. Yeah. So Wyndham Clark- I really like him though. Yeah.
42:38
Actually, I got him in there as well. I got in there with, I got in there. A couple of guys that I'm just playing on feel, Kelly, i- is Sam Burns and Max Homa. Mm.
42:44
These are dudes, Homa obviously has played tough courses very well, had some success here.
42:48
Sam Burns is a dude that on courses where you're not getting penalized all that much for, for being wayward with the driver, we know Sam Burns sometimes can't hit it straight for anything. Yeah.
42:57
And like, hey, i- if he's not gonna get penalized with this one, the guy's a birdie maker, and honestly, it's just the number drifted out all the way out to 50 to 1.
43:02
In this tournament real q- I mean, there has been- Yeah... there has been guys that have come, that have won this thing, that have come in with very poor form- Mm... and some of the premier guys.
43:09
So I think no shocker if either one of those guys wins it this week. Uh, last couple outright, Sai Thavala and Akshay Bhatia, both guys.
43:16
Now, the Bhatia one, I'm, went into detail on this on the podcast, so if you wanna listen to that. Yeah, we're both on both those guys, yeah.
43:22
The, the, the, the Bhatia play, I talked about how f- I factored driving distance in there a ton. I did kind of back that off in a version of a model, which then shot him up the deal.
43:31
Uh, y- anyway, you can listen to the podcast if you want the full details of that. What, what ended up on your card? Yeah, that was, well, s- Thavala and Bhatia- Mm... I'm, I'm b- I'm both of them as well. Mm-hmm.
43:39
Um, a little bit, you know, I think still a little bit of shorter of an outright price on, uh, on, uh, uh, Sahithan I was expecting. Mm. But did play it. Um, I love Hideki again this week.
43:48
I mean, people listening to this show and podcast probably heard that enough this year, but I lo- I love Hideki. I thought that number compared to some of the guys that were in the mid-20s, uh, was a little long on him.
43:56
So outrights on Hideki, Sai Thavala, Matt Fitzpatrick, another number I just thought he drifted a little bit- Yeah... too far. Akshay Bhatia. Top 10 on Xander, that's my favorite bet of the week.
44:05
I hit that kind of immediately. Seems like automatic. Yeah, it's automatic. Yeah. I mean, seven of 10 tournaments he's teed it up in, his top 10 is cash. Yeah. Uh, top 20 on Hideki's.
44:13
Uh, that, those are my two biggest bets. Uh, Sai Thavala and Bhatia both top 20 plays. Finau over JT, and Bhatia over Russell Henley in tournament matchups.
44:21
We'll circle back around towards the end of the show and recap on everything that's in our accounts for the golf tournament. When we come back, we'll talk to Will Hill about NBA, Major League Baseball, and whatever else.
44:31
[upbeat music]
A Numbers Game
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