Category
🥇
SportsTranscript
00:00But last night, let's recap what happened in the National Basketball Association.
00:04It's the first weekend of playoff action and perhaps one of the bigger upsets of the weekend,
00:09although most people thought the Warriors would win.
00:12They did.
00:12They go on the road and beat the Houston Rockets, a very dangerous team right now,
00:16going into this first round of the NBA playoffs.
00:18Steph Curry had 31 points.
00:19He also knocked down five three-pointers.
00:22Jimmy Butler had 25 points, seven rebounds, six assists, and five steals.
00:28It's the 100th career playoff coaching victory for Steve Kerr,
00:33who moves into a tie with Larry Brown for the sixth most playoff wins.
00:39And again, this game was in Houston, so already the Warriors go on the road and steal a game.
00:46It was all about the defensive performance and all about Jimmy Butler,
00:50who is the big addition to the Warriors in this one.
00:55We could see just from watching, they'll look pretty physical.
00:58How really physical was this game, and what do you think you guys showed to stand up to it
01:02and dish out some physicality of you?
01:04They're an incredible team, definitely a physical one.
01:08But I would like to think that we don't back down from any challenge anyways.
01:12And we met brute force with brute force, maybe a little bit of finesse in there as well.
01:17But I think we handled their pressure incredibly well,
01:20knowing that coming out the next game is probably going to be two to three times even more physical.
01:24Not our best, obviously.
01:27You can only score 85.
01:29It's not a great offensive night, and the numbers show that.
01:32But I think it was 6 for 29 from 3, 11 for 20 from pre-go line,
01:36and 17 turnovers that gave him 25 points.
01:38So not our best offensive night by any means, like I said.
01:43Hold somebody at 95, you'd expect to win if you have a decent offensive night.
01:46And not only his shots, but, like I said, turnovers playing in the crowd.
01:50The misses in the crowd are the same as turnovers, basically.
01:53So had our chances.
01:55Got it to the four-point game, 234, I think, and gave up a three there.
01:58But, you know, guarded well enough to win.
02:01The number one seed Cleveland Cavaliers set to go in a seven-game series with the Miami Heat,
02:06who snuck into the playoffs via the play-in tournament.
02:09Game one goes in favor of Cleveland.
02:11The final score, 121-100.
02:13Donovan Mitchell had 30 points in this game.
02:16Miami kept it close throughout.
02:18Cleveland pulls away late in the fourth quarter.
02:21Mitchell was 11 of 19 from the field.
02:25In fact, this was a seven-point game as late as the fourth quarter.
02:29So could we be in line for a competitive series?
02:33Head coach of the Cavs, Kenny Atkinson, says the Heat will throw everything out there
02:38to try and get a win.
02:40One thing about the Heat, they make you play for 48.
02:44I know that's a cliche, but a lot of teams don't.
02:48You cannot relax.
02:50I think this series, whatever happens, we're going to get so much better playing these guys.
02:57Even tonight, I know the score was 20 or whatever, but it was about a six, seven-point game there.
03:03You know, we just tight hit some shots, but it's going to be a battle this series.
03:10You get to the playoffs, you know, there's going to be dynamic offensive teams.
03:13And, yeah, they have guys that can, you know, drive and break it down off the dribble.
03:20And they can also just shoot pull-up threes.
03:22And then they're very good spot shooters as well.
03:26So that's the task.
03:27And it's up to us to figure out, you know, how to beat that.
03:31The Boston Celtics, of course, a huge favorite over the Orlando Magic in game one of their seven-game series.
03:39And the Celtics cover the spread.
03:41They win 103-86.
03:43The big surprise in this one was the performance of Derek White.
03:47He had 30 points.
03:48That led the Celtics.
03:50He knocked down seven three-pointers.
03:53The game was close after the second period, but they ended up pulling away, did Boston,
03:58which just goes to show you that regardless of who you think is going to be scoring for Boston,
04:03as Derek White says, you just never know.
04:07It just means we've got many different ways we can win.
04:11A lot of different things we could throw at teams.
04:13And just a lot of faith and trust in every person that checks in the game.
04:18So, I mean, we've got a lot of different weapons and a lot of different people that do a lot of different things.
04:23So, whatever the game calls for, I feel like we can make that adjustment.
04:29I think we just had some stagnant possessions and led to their runouts,
04:36which led to some threes to open the lead up.
04:39On that point, whether it's the stagnant offense and playing quicker or anything along those lines,
04:46how do you guys get more production outside of you and Franz in the scoring column?
04:52I'm not sure.
04:53I really got to go back and watch the game, see what went wrong.
04:56But it's game one.
04:58You know, there's nerves.
05:01Lit crowd.
05:02Really loud.
05:03So, you know, not a total surprise that, you know, we struggled a little bit on offense, honestly.
05:10Meanwhile, the Oklahoma City Thunder won by 51 points, which is the largest margin in playoff history for a game one.
05:20The Thunder beat the Grizzlies 131-80.
05:24You talk about a blowout.
05:26Let me put an exclamation after that one.
05:28Naturally, Memphis Grizzlies had to play in those play-in games.
05:33Maybe that had something to do with the outcome here.
05:35But needless to say, the MVP of the NBA, which will be named in a couple of weeks here,
05:40it'll be Shea Gilgis-Alexander.
05:42He talked about picking up a very easy win in game one.
05:46Yeah, it all starts with getting stops.
05:49We get stops and we're able to play fast, play to our strengths, play in open space.
05:53That's the key to it all.
05:57If you look at any of those runs, we stack multiple possessions of great defensive possessions.
06:05Then it allows us to be who we are offensively.
06:08It's no secret.
06:10That's what it takes to have those stints in the game, and we know that.
06:14And that's our intention when we go out there.
06:16Not just to have, like, one good possession, two bad, one good.
06:19It's, like, stack them up.
06:21I mean, it's the playoffs.
06:22I just felt like, you know, after that, you know, the energy, you know, kind of wasn't there.
06:28We was kind of, you know, trying to talk to ourselves.
06:31And so, you know, getting back into the game, obviously, at halftime, you know, you have 24 minutes left,
06:37which is a lot of basketball.
06:40You know, just trying to spark a run, but they came out and, you know,
06:43pretty much did what they did us in the second quarter, in the third, you know, early on.
06:47Coach burned them, you know, early time up.
06:49In case you missed Saturday's action, a lot of blowouts.
06:53The biggest surprise were the Minnesota Timberwolves going to Los Angeles and winning game one of their seven-game series.
07:00Luka had 37 points, but Minnesota hit 21 of 42 from three-point range.
07:05This is what Minnesota's been doing all season long.
07:07We'll see if they can do it again.
07:09The Knicks go on a 21-0 run in the fourth quarter.
07:11They beat the Pistons 123-112 in game one.
07:15The Nuggets ended up going to overtime with the Los Angeles Clippers on Saturday.
07:19Denver was down.
07:20They come back to win by a bucket, 112-110.
07:23Also, Pascal Siakam helped the Pacers to their game one win against the Milwaukee Bucks.
07:29Giannis had 36 points in defeat.
07:31In golf, a week after the Masters, they played the RBC Heritage,
07:36and it went to a playoff, and Justin Thomas ends up winning.
07:39He was 20-1 entering the tournament, so congrats to him being a very big underdog.
07:44Also, a scary collision in Major League Baseball.
07:46Yesterday, Luis Arias ended up being transported to a hospital to be evaluated
07:52after running into Mauricio Dubon on the field.
07:55We'll see when Arias can get back on the field, but it looks like all will be okay there.
07:59It is Patriots Day in Major League Baseball, so that means the first game of the day already has gone off.
08:04The Boston White Sox playing against the Chicago White Sox.
08:07Boston minus 2.90 before they threw out that first pitch a couple of minutes ago.
08:11Yesterday, the Cincinnati Reds put a 24 spot up against the Baltimore Orioles.
08:18Most runs scored since 1999.
08:21The New York Mets complete a sweep of the St. Louis Cardinals.
08:257-4 was the final yesterday.
08:26Juan Soto had three RBIs, and Fernando Tatis Jr. hit a home run to beat the Astros.
08:323-2 the final.
08:32Welcome back to Newswire here on Sports Grid.
08:36Great to have Pat Evans from Legal Sports Report back with us here on this Monday.
08:40Pat, great to have you back on Newswire.
08:43All right.
08:43So the hot topic lately over the last couple of weeks, tax rates, as we believe it or not,
08:48getting at a quarter number one here of the new year and then headed toward November and some voting again.
08:52Tax rates, for the most part, I would say, based on the content that we've covered here, a lot of proposals to increase tax rates.
09:01I think we saw one potential pullback.
09:03But for the most part, every state that has legal sports betting wants to get more money from taxes.
09:09Which state wants more right now?
09:11Yeah, I would say it is a hot topic right now in terms of sports betting legislation.
09:16And North Carolina, yeah, the Senate came in last week.
09:20On Monday, they introduced their budget proposal, a two-year budget.
09:25They included doubling the sports betting tax from 18% to 36%.
09:30And they quickly, last week, went ahead and passed that budget, complete with that provision.
09:36And so now it goes to the House and kind of we'll see what the House does.
09:41You know, they, of course, can amend that budget to their heart's desire.
09:44And it may or may not include that tax rate hike.
09:48And then whatever that then comes out of the House, we'll have to see the House and Senate kind of iron out those differences and what happens.
09:55So does that include this tax rate?
09:57We'll just have to wait and see.
09:59But so far, big, fast start in North Carolina, which it's kind of interesting.
10:03It would obviously double the tax rate.
10:06So you'd get almost an extra $135 million.
10:10A lot of that money, it's kind of dispersed through a bunch of different uses.
10:14But some of it is to go to the UNC system, but not NC State and North Carolina.
10:21Now, what this provision does, it would eventually, after all those initial distributions goes out,
10:26would send 10% of the remaining amount to North Carolina and NC State,
10:32given that they play, I think it's four in-state games against those other 13 UNC system schools in basketball.
10:42So just kind of a unique little provision to make sure those schools are playing each other and kind of nice little ecosystem.
10:48But yeah, to your broader point of taxes, the talk of the session, I mean, we've had a ton of proposals.
10:56We had Governor Mike DeWine in Ohio want to double his tax rate from 20% to 40%.
11:03And that's just two years after he already doubled it from 10% to 20%.
11:09That was stripped out by lawmakers.
11:12And they said, no, this was too much, too quick.
11:14They had already said that the doubling of from 10% to 20% was premature.
11:18So that was that one's off the clock right now in Maryland, Westmore, in his gubernatorial budget proposal went 15 to 30%.
11:27Lawmakers kind of negotiated that down to 5% jump.
11:31So just a 20%.
11:32We'll see if that gets any traction from there.
11:35A couple other states, Michigan, Indiana, Louisiana, a couple other ones have also proposed tax hikes.
11:43Those haven't gone anywhere in New Jersey has also done so with Governor Phil Berger, but that hasn't gone anywhere to your point on one suggesting a decrease.
11:53That's New York, which is kind of, you know, in a way why we're getting so many proposal hikes because they're at that astronomical 51% and other states are like, wait, why did we go with 10% or 15% when you can get that high?
12:06They're talking about potentially adding more licenses for operators and then for every operator coming in, reducing the tax rate.
12:14That hasn't seen a lot of movement yet either.
12:17So we'll see what happens there.
12:18But yeah, taxes, huge talk of the town.
12:22So far, North Carolina is the only one to really make any progress.
12:24And we'll see if it goes any further this session.
12:27Yeah, we will see about North Carolina.
12:29And meanwhile, the state of Arizona, like a lot of other states, have decided that these prediction market games and, you know, previously some of the DFS operators need to have some of the same legalities, restrictions, taxes as the sports betting operators.
12:44And so no surprise here.
12:46Over the weekend, Pat, we learned that Arizona is sending out some cease and desist as well.
12:52Yeah, so Arizona's been kind of active in this realm.
12:55I mean, I've come on here regularly the past couple of months talking about Michigan sending who knows how many seasoned assists at this point or Maryland or Louisiana, a lot of seasoned assists going out to yet sweepstakes operators, offshore sports books, the like Arizona has been until this week or last week, relatively active.
13:14They've been sending out kind of public service announcements to say, hey, make sure you're using legal licensed sports books or make sure you're gambling at the right casino or legal casinos, which, of course, are only land based in Arizona.
13:27And so they, you know, have different pages that consumers can go to to see who's licensed, what's OK to use, the things like that.
13:35They even sent one out last month that was about misbranded or like fake casino, online casino brands that are mimicking those land based casinos and saying they're an online extension, which, of course, unless you have legal online casinos is not allowed and they don't in Arizona.
13:52So this is the first time we've seen this season to assist after all these PSA's come out.
13:57They sent six, a couple to the sweepstakes providers, a couple to offshore sports books, including my bookie, I believe they sent out one to profit X, a peer to peer exchange.
14:08So it's just kind of them being more active. Again, they've sent out lots of PSA's to say, hey, make sure you're doing what you're doing legally to the consumers.
14:17And now as they're kind of ratcheting down that, they're saying, OK, let's get rid of those in our market if we can.
14:24And again, it's just following more and more of those states that have been sending out those seasoned assists regularly to to any number of different types of entries into this online gambling space.
14:37Now, I mean, to your point, we've got those sweepstakes operators. We've always had those offshore sports books.
14:42We've got the DFS 2.0 industry that we saw huge in this area about two years ago and now has kind of gone to the side of all these other operators coming in.
14:53And now, of course, prediction markets, which I'm sure we'll be talking about plenty in the coming weeks as the CFTC gets ready on their roundtable on that industry.
15:02Yeah, I would agree. It's the big story of the year. This would be the biggest story of the year, though, if this passes in New York.
15:08Pat, we discussed this with Sam on Friday. New York trying to maybe pass a legalization on max bets and maximum deposits over the course of a single day.
15:19I mean, this certainly would be groundbreaking. I know that the sports betting operators are not going to love seeing this.
15:25But in the end, is this going too far with protection, telling people the most you can bet on a game is $5,000 and also basically the idea that you can't just keep reloading your account?
15:36I mean, I mean, the broad view of it is it seems like a good idea to curb people with problem gambling.
15:41But the flip side of that is that somebody says, hey, look, I can bet $10,000 a game if I want. Why can't I?
15:47Well, yeah. So, yeah, this this bill would institute, along with the $5,000 bet max in a day, five deposits a day, some strict advertising restrictions.
16:00And, yeah, I think the big pushback there is, yeah, if you're going to limit me and I am going to be betting that much or willing to bet that much anyway, I can just go offshore.
16:10Or in the case of a lot of New Yorkers, it wasn't that long ago that all they had to do was go across the bridge to New Jersey to bet.
16:16And I think that's kind of an argument now against this bill as well as, well, I'll just go to New Jersey or I'll go to Connecticut.
16:23So I think, you know, we've seen a lot of bills like this across the country this year, kind of in the similar vein as the tax rate, as we're seeing these headwinds of, hey, the online gambling industry is creating these issues.
16:37There's some things we could do to maybe tighten it.
16:39But there's a lot of things to iron out, I think, in terms of the way the industry is pushing back on it, the way the people or the governments and lawmakers are pushing back on the industry and how it all works out in the end and what is best for everybody.
16:54Because I don't think this industry is going away.
16:56I think lawmakers recognize that, but they got to figure out the right way to kind of mitigate all these concerns that are coming from various parties across the country to make it the safest, best industry it can be.
17:08Well, Pat, we'll see, because, again, you know, we just had Responsible Gaming Month in March, and here we are in April with maybe some major legislation.
17:17And if it does happen in New York, who's to say that other states don't incorporate the same thing?
17:22I think this is going to be a big battle, though, Pat.
17:23I don't think that the operators are going to, you know, want to bend down and basically say, hey, look, we'll just do whatever you want.
17:30Maybe some sort of compromises in store.
17:32But we'll read about that and a whole lot over at LegalSportsReport.com.
17:35Pat, thanks for coming on the show.
17:36We'll catch up with you later in the week.
17:38Awesome.
17:38Thanks, as always, Craig.
17:39Talk to you soon.