Category
🥇
SportsTranscript
00:00It's the day before the day of the 2024 NBA Finals beginning with game number
00:06one tomorrow night on opening night in Boston between the Celtics and the
00:12Mavericks. We will preview continuously the NBA Finals throughout this second
00:16hour into our third and we'll talk storylines around the championship
00:21series here moving forward. Donnie we have almost made it just one day to go
00:27before the NBA Finals finally begins. Maybe we'll take a look at the game
00:32again. Maybe we'll see where the line moved here. Maybe we'll see who the MVPs
00:35are. We got you covered don't worry and sooner than later Thursday night we're
00:38gonna have a tip-off and you're gonna be well informed as people that watch the
00:42Sports Grid Network but I can't wait for it to happen because it seems like we've
00:45been taught like a football season ended with the Super Bowl. We're still months
00:49so it feels like that's when the end like hey when's the last NBA game I
00:51think it's back in February. That's the way it feels right now but eventually
00:55tomorrow we will have our salvation. We will have our salvation. It will be game
01:01number one of the NBA Finals in Boston with the line actually moving on this
01:07Wednesday morning. Now six and a half once again in favor of Boston. Total back
01:12up by a hook. The over-under currently stands at 214 and a half but let's talk
01:17narrative. Let's talk storyline. Let's have some debate here on this Wednesday
01:22morning on the early line on Sports Grid. We're going to play a game of rate
01:27the 2024 NBA storylines on a scale of 1 to 10 based on intrigue. 10 being the
01:34most interesting, 1 being like ah shucks who cares. First storyline coming your
01:39way DRS Kyrie Irving and his return to Beantown to take on his former team the
01:45Boston Celtics. Scale of 1 to 10 how intrigued are you by this
01:50storyline? Now number one I'm glad you told me we had a rating scale of 1 to 10
01:55because I never used a 1 to 10 scale during this and would have probably been
01:58fun to play it out but if we are rating the storyline I'm gonna give this like a
02:023 at this point. You might say like wait a second this is supposed to be a big
02:05rivalry. Here's the issue in the past if this was two or three years ago Kyrie
02:09Irving coming to Boston burning sage as he went around the court. Kyrie Irving
02:13coming to Boston when the game is over stomping on the Celtic logo. This is
02:17supposed to be one of those environments that should be extremely hostile towards
02:21Kyrie Irving but he's diffusing the situation way ahead of time. Like this is
02:25a new Kyrie Irving. In the past it was always like boy what's Kyrie Irving
02:28saying? How's he acting? What's he doing today? Putting him in the highlights but
02:31now all of a sudden it's I'm playing great basketball and I'm getting the
02:34mic with nothing but smiles and saying like you know what I handled that entire
02:37situation wrong with the Celtics. Like I wish it would have went better and maybe
02:40I can make amends with that because this would be an unbelievable villain coming
02:44back and saying you know what I hated it here. I hated you guys and the thing
02:49I want most in my life is to win a championship and hopefully we can clinch
02:53that in like game number five or game number seven and I can burn sage and
02:56stomp on your logo again. This should be a 10 out of 10 but since this is the new
03:01Kyrie it's like a 3 out of 10 now for me Ben. Yeah I agree I would give it a 5
03:06just because I do believe the Boston crowd will boo him ruthlessly and
03:10relentlessly on game number one's opening night tomorrow inside TD Garden.
03:16It is not going to be a oh you know what Kyrie you were right thanks for maturing
03:20and growing up just a little bit. Welcome back to TD Garden. In fact it
03:24might be the complete opposite of that. Some gnarly things are probably going to
03:28be said on a Thursday night in Beantown but from Kyrie's perspective he doesn't
03:34want to play the villain. We are not going to get the great viral clip of him
03:38burning sage on Dallas's sideline getting ready for game number one
03:43walking the hallowed halls of TD Garden. It's not going to be the case. Kyrie has
03:48owned his moments in Boston. He was there for two years from 2017 through 2019 and
03:54said at that stage of his life he wasn't mentally prepared to be in that
03:58situation in Beantown. He did not handle it properly. Now I think you can give
04:03Kyrie a little bit of credit for that. Kyrie Irving's done a lot of other
04:06things in a time since he left Boston that I don't really cut him any slack
04:10for. With that being said it's not exactly the most intriguing storyline
04:15now as it might have been just a few years ago. But it's not the only reunion
04:22in the 2024 NBA Finals. Kristaps Porzingis say hello once again to the
04:28Dallas Mavericks CLL 1 to 10 or whatever scale you would like to use DRS. How
04:33intrigued are you by KP facing off against the Mavs? Now I look at the
04:38graphic right there and here's why I say it's a one. We don't have a picture of
04:42Kristaps Porzingis in a Mavericks. He didn't even play for the Mavericks. Does anybody
04:45even remember the time remotely that he played for the Mavericks at this point?
04:49So just to say Kyrie was in his Dallas jersey as well. We had the
04:54Boston jersey on the other side. But that's pretty good. Yeah just so you know.
04:58I just wanted to pay attention rip that. But no there is no
05:02storyline for Porzingis saying you know what I'm gonna get the Dallas fan base
05:05back at this point. That's got to be kind of low at this point. And maybe we
05:09should be rating the storyline like Kyrie as a general manager of a shoe
05:13brand signing his father to a shoe deal before himself there. So maybe there's
05:17some other things we can rate. But Porzingis way down the list here. That is
05:21a one for me Ben. So Donnie he did play in Dallas just so you know from 2019
05:26halfway through the 2021 or 2022 campaign as well about two and a half
05:31years before he was traded to the Washington Wizards. He was really good
05:37friends and I think probably still remains with Luka Doncic. I think if
05:40anything it will be more heartwarming for those two back on the court at the
05:45same time. I guess I'll give it a two just because we can make some jokes.
05:49It's like ooh Kyrie versus Boston. I'm about to give this segment a two. How about that?
05:53Yeah I mean yeah. Oh ho ho. Whoa what was that? What was that? Yeah this segment rating is a two
06:02right now. I mean look let me tell the people behind the scenes here. You want to
06:06talk about rate the storylines. I'll come up with some real good storylines
06:10that we can rate that will have nothing to do with these ones that we're talking
06:13about. I can't give you because I want to work here longer. So I can't. Maybe I
06:16gotta go through a filter process before it actually makes to the air here. But so
06:21far we got Kyrie versus Celtics which again should be a great one but Kyrie
06:24defused it. Porzingis versus it. I got you know what I should get the upgrade
06:28to a ten because nobody's talking about Porzingis versus Dallas. That's gotta be our
06:38storyline before game three in Dallas. We gotta start putting some things out
06:43there. Maybe we can get it micro influenced by all those Mavericks
06:47followers that follow the sports grid network as of late. That we can build it
06:51boo him relentlessly. Make it a terrible homecoming as he returns to the Lone
06:56Star State. Maybe that will be our storyline and thus we give it a ten. You
07:02almost saw the unfiltered mind of Donnie Rightside live on national television.
07:07I'm not sure I would have been able to show up for work tomorrow just in
07:11correlation had we let that just go off the rails. All right can't wait for your
07:16thoughts on this one our third and final rate the storyline the Celtics
07:20going for championship number 18 scale of 1 to 10. I mean like what what is it
07:31Matt impact in my life or anybody's life if Celtics get number 18 at this point. I mean come on now. What are we writing here at this point?
07:39Like is this monumental information? Yes I mean it sounds really good that
07:44they're going to get win number 18. Is that the story? Hey it's got number 18
07:50like yeah number one came like 70 years ago at this point. It's not as if it's 18
07:55in a row or 18 out of 20. So I'm gonna go ahead and give this storyline a 1. We
07:59gotta get back to the drawing board. Where's the excitement? Where is it?
08:04Listen it's been a long time. Okay it's been a long time. Thursday last week was
08:11the final game of the Western Conference Finals. The Celtics haven't played since
08:16last Monday. We're trying to get creative. Joe Friso is doing yeoman's work back
08:21there and Donnie's out here slandering it and taking deep breaths before he gives it a 1.
08:27Oh I'll give it like a 3 I guess just because it is the pressure of how
08:33Boston is evaluated and judged. If they can't win a championship the last one
08:39coming in 08 as we shared yesterday a ton of them I think 11 coming from 1957
08:46to 1969. Boston needs to win a championship and this young core will be
08:52judged by that. Led by Jason Tatum. Led by Jalen Brown. What's more likely in the
08:59NBA Finals a new game next? The age-old question not what's more likely to
09:04happen in the 2024 NBA Finals but will my co-host Donnie Rightside like this
09:09segment and what we are trying to do here creatively ahead of game number one
09:14of the 2024 NBA Finals. None of this would have happened by the way DRS if we
09:18just had longer series in the Conference Finals round and didn't have seven days
09:22to kill before we got to game number one tomorrow night in Beantown. We wouldn't be
09:27rating nonsense stories here but it is almost time to get down to business so
09:31the rating on us waiting for the game that's a 10 yeah because we've been
09:35waiting for a long time for that game to tip off on Thursday. We don't think it's
09:38going to disappoint. It's got superstars on both sides. It's what we want to see
09:41and also hopefully can get an extended series so we don't have to start rating
09:45NFL teams because the NBA Finals ended in four games at that point. Right and
09:50these are going to be questions of what is more likely to occur that will
09:54actually be based on game flow and how the series evolves night after night
09:59game after game not just storylines and narratives entering the NBA Finals. So we
10:05go to the second fiddle and fiddles probably not the right word but the
10:09second superstar of the two on both teams. I guess if I said that about Jalen
10:14Brown you might say well he won the Eastern Conference Finals MVP award but
10:18I digress. To be the series leading scorer Luka Doncic is a heavy odds-on
10:23favorite and Jason Tatum has the second best price but tied for the third best
10:28number at 12 to 1 is Kyrie Irving for Dallas and Jalen Brown for Boston. So
10:34what is more likely as we show you those odds to be the series leading scorer 12
10:40to 1 on Kyrie 12 to 1 on Jalen Brown what is more likely Kyrie leads the
10:46series in scoring or Jalen Brown leads the series in scoring for Boston. That's
10:51an interesting scenario because you take a look at you know 12 to 1 and 12 to 1
10:55but I don't think it's equal on both sides. Now you might take a look and say
10:58well there's more scorers on the Celtics so it might be a little bit harder where
11:02you are only looking at the Dallas Mavericks as it's either going to be
11:05Doncic and or Kyrie Irving on that side. So sort of that equator was okay do you
11:09think that Kyrie Irving's gonna score more than Luka Doncic? I don't think that's
11:12the case but when we take a look at the Celtics I do believe that Jalen Brown has
11:16a legitimate chance to overtake Jason Tatum as the point-scoring leader. Now
11:19granted the question isn't asking like either side of that because you could
11:22have like hey look at this leading scorer is gonna be Jalen Brown then the
11:26opposite side you know Tatum plays a little bit better but he beats out Kyrie
11:29Irving. You see the point I'm trying to make here but if I'm being optimistic
11:33here Jalen Brown to me does the better overall score and I do think that he has
11:37a chance to average in the high 20s which is probably what it's going to
11:40take to be the top scorer in the series where when I look at Kyrie Irving like
11:44yes he has the ability to score 30 points and you might even use it as
11:47extra motivation even though Kyrie publicly is not saying like well I would
11:51really love to go in there and you know crush that squad and crush the hearts
11:54and dreams of all those fans here so when I look at it and say from a
11:57scoring standpoint Jalen Brown has a legitimate chance to be the top scorer
12:01that's the way I would side it. So as we look at what happened in the
12:06conference finals round of course Jalen Brown scored 24 in all four games at
12:10least against Indiana a 40 point dazzling performance in game number 229
12:17in the finale to wrap up the Eastern Conference Finals MVP award. That's 119
12:22total points in only four games averaging better than 29 points per game
12:27throughout the Eastern Conference Finals. Kyrie played an additional game and
12:31ended up scoring more than Jalen Brown but not by much Kyrie Irving scoring 30
12:36plus in three of the five against Minnesota. I'll say it like this I think
12:42it's more likely that Kyrie Irving could be the series leading scorer but if Kyrie
12:46Irving is the series leading scorer the Dallas Mavericks are not winning the NBA
12:49championship and the Dallas Mavericks more than likely are getting bounced I
12:53think in five or six games. If Jalen Brown is the series leading scorer I do
12:58think there is a really good chance the Boston Celtics win the NBA championship
13:03and it could be where Boston is winning this rather comfortably but it might be
13:08more competitive because Luka Doncic could be the second leading scorer in
13:12this series so I think it is more likely that Kyrie Irving could be the NBA
13:17Finals leading scorer but I don't think necessarily Donnie that's a good thing
13:21for the Mavericks. Yeah and also it's not really the MO with the Mavericks like it
13:25typically is Luka Doncic it's gonna get his number around 30 points and Kyrie's
13:28gonna play that point of I'm wide open I get hot from three-point range I'm an
13:32unbelievable point guard here I can distribute the basketball but I could
13:35certainly get to the rim if I need to but keep everybody involved because we've
13:38seen if this was one of those playoff runs it's like hey man Kyrie's 25 plus
13:41points every single night because we've seen where it's or you know combining
13:45for 65 plus points between those two and going toe-to-toe with Luka Doncic
13:49trying to take down that scoring championship since a scoring
13:51championship scoring number here from him but if we're being honest with
13:55ourselves that's not like your game plan coming into the series if you're the
13:58Celtics like hey Tatum and Brown go off if you want to either guy gets 30 points
14:02that's the way we play basketball I don't think coming into it's like hey
14:05Kyrie make sure you get your shots first and then we'll play off of you Luka
14:09Doncic runs the show here PJ Washington has a chance to hit triples out there you
14:12have other you know outside scores that you can use so I don't think the focal
14:17point is Kyrie saying I need to get mine Kyrie sort of like I'll get in where I
14:21get in and trust me I'm real talented he can drive it up to 25 30 points 35
14:26points but I don't think that's the MO like in game number one right let's just
14:29play it out Brown scores 31 points it makes some sense game number one Irving
14:34scores 31 or 33 points Wow Dallas was it you see what I mean it's sort of more of
14:39a surprise if you see him being the leading scorer that's all again Luka
14:43Doncic is a minus 180 favorite to lead the NBA Finals in scoring he had 28 plus
14:50and all five against the T Wolves 30 plus of course in four of those five
14:54games and then you could just compare points props on a night-to-night basis
14:58Luka Doncic 31 and a half for game number one tomorrow night in Boston
15:02Jason Tatum second highest points prop at 27 and a hook both Jalen Brown and
15:07Kyrie Irving see their number right now at 23 and a hook of course we still have
15:13at least four more games of this 2023-24 NBA season but the NBA Championship odds
15:19are out already for next year in the Association where Boston already Donnie
15:24is a very short favorite to win the NBA Championship next season at plus 350
15:30followed by the Nuggets Timberwolves Mavs and OKC Boston rolling through the
15:35East in an easy way like was the case this year kind of expected to be the
15:40case entering next season so what is more likely the Celtics make the next
15:45two NBA Finals or Dallas makes one of the next two NBA Finals probably Dallas
15:52like Dallas is a really good to retool their ownership has money if they had
15:55that need to add a piece or make a trade will do that it's just hard to say
15:59you're going to get back to another two NBA Finals for the Boston Celtics
16:02because they did a little bit of a break this year I don't know if you're going
16:05to get that a retooled Dixers team Milwaukee's gonna be much better maybe
16:09the Knicks don't get hurt Miami retool see where I'm going here to go to back
16:12to back to back is basically what it would be that's hard to do what's more
16:16likely continues on the other side of the break on the other line the 2024
16:21NBA Finals finally start tomorrow night it is game number one in Boston as we
16:27lead up and build into the start of the NBA Finals we continue to look at this
16:32series from each and every angle and after this series is done the NBA season
16:37this year comes to a close and we will already forecast next year we have the
16:42odds out for next year's NBA championship and Boston is a very short
16:46favorite at plus 350 five dollars in front of everybody else in the
16:52association the Denver Nuggets the Minnesota Timberwolves these Dallas
16:56Mavericks the Oklahoma City Thunder in fact it's the Celtics for next short
17:01prices from the Western Conference and then Milwaukee is the next up team from
17:06the Eastern Conference at ten to one meaning the Celtics are the only team in
17:11the Eastern Conference that has a three-digit price to win an NBA
17:14championship so we asked what is more likely Boston makes the next two NBA
17:20Finals following this one or Dallas is back into the NBA championship series at
17:24least once in the next two NBA seasons you said Dallas I actually think it is
17:30Boston now I don't think it's going to be as easy for the Celtics as this year
17:34to get into the NBA Finals but Boston has been in the NBA Finals now two of
17:38the last three years I think the Western Conference is so much more stout up and
17:43down the board than the Eastern Conference is and maybe there is a team
17:47to contend and keep Boston out of the NBA Finals but I would probably already
17:52slot in obviously barring any injuries the Celtics into the Eastern Conference
17:57Finals once again against whoever that next best contender is Joel Embiid and
18:02the Sixers the New York Knicks if they can emerge with somebody to pair up with
18:07Jalen Brunson and we'll see what the offseason holds in Milwaukee but I still
18:12would think Boston is back in the Eastern Conference Finals at least and
18:16thus I would consider it more likely for the Celtics to be in the next two NBA
18:20Finals than Dallas in either of the either one of the next two that we have
18:24beyond yeah if we're taking a look though this question probably a lot
18:28easier if we asked it after the NBA Finals ended because the reason I say
18:32that let's just say the Dallas Mavericks do win this championship there's no
18:35guarantee that they're gonna be back one of the next two years but I still think
18:38there's a better chance for the Celtics the reason I brought that point up is if
18:41the Celtics lose this year in the NBA Finals like we've been having these
18:44conversations right or wrong these two guys can't play with each other and
18:48those two guys obviously Jalen Brown and Jason Tatum what's gonna happen they're
18:52the favorite this year they got all the breaks in the East and now you're gonna
18:55tell me we're gonna get to the biggest stage and our superstars aren't going to
18:58perform but we're gonna tell our fans we're gonna run this back and
19:01everything's gonna be fine over the next one to two seasons at this point but if
19:04you do see the Celtics let's just say winning five or six games then you're
19:08taking like wow like they have it here so even if they let's just say falter in
19:12the NBA Finals next year nobody's gonna go like ah you know what this team's a
19:16bunch of chokers I know we wanted the year before we got back let's see if we
19:19can run it back again for a third time so if you see the Celtics lose this
19:22series I don't know because from that fan base that goes well we enjoyed
19:26basketball we're the best team all season long but it's apparent this group
19:29can't get over the hump maybe there's a valid argument to that that's a really
19:33great point if the Boston Celtics come up short in this NBA Finals against a
19:38team in Dallas that has a dynamic duo and one of the great superstars in this
19:43league but it's not the reigning Western Conference champs and the NBA champs in
19:47the Denver Nuggets it's not a team that we really expected to be here at the end
19:51of the road if this year's Boston core led by Jason Tatum and Jalen Brown
19:56cannot get past Dallas I would think there has to be some sweeping changes in
20:01Beantown because if they can't win this time around when exactly will they be
20:05expected to once again now we focus on maybe the third most important piece for
20:11Boston his name is Kristaps Porzingis he has completed multiple scrimmages in
20:16recent days and is expected to return to action for game number one of the NBA
20:21Finals that report yesterday from Sham Sharania of FanDuel TV it was expected
20:27Donnie it hasn't really moved the line it did it yesterday we've just seen some
20:31pieces here and there based on what things have gone we have not seen KP
20:36since early in game number four of Boston's opening round against Miami
20:40Kristaps Porzingis this season has played 61 games he has missed 35 he has
20:45not been in action now in over a month of real time so what's more likely
20:50Kristaps Porzingis plays every game in the series or Kristaps Porzingis plays
20:55less than half the games in the NBA Finals easily playing every game in the
21:00series and the answer I use in that is because they've actually been given
21:04extra time if they needed Porzingis to come back he probably could have hobbled
21:08up and down the court like OG and Anobi as we saw for the Knicks who had no
21:11business being back in the game it's like hey we're on the ropes at this
21:14point if I can give you anything I'm gonna try to help my team out so I do
21:17think he's gonna play limited minutes when I say limited minutes that doesn't
21:20mean five minutes a game he's not gonna get 30 minutes right off the bat here
21:23he'll play good basketball but I think he plays in every game I do Kristaps
21:27Porzingis is playing every game of the NBA Finals Dr. Donnie has been on it
21:32hamstring calf injury something you need to take a while the nurse he's had over
21:37a month to do just that