Jayson Tatum's Return, Nick Thinks the Spurs Can Win the Title

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1:03That's commuterconnections.org. This is Attorney Amida Zari from Zari Law. If you've been injured in an accident and feel like no one is fighting for you, it's time to fight back. Call Zari Law at 888-828-3rd. That's what one call you can put a proven legal team on your side. Zari Law has been serving the DMV for over 15 years, proudly fighting for our local community. I was born and raised right here in the DMV, and my team is made up of experienced, reputable local attorneys dedicated to fighting for injury victims just like you. Follow us on all social platforms at azari.law. That's a-z-a-r-i-dot-l-a-w. Don't wait. Don't settle. Fight back with Zari Law. With offices in Maryland, DC, and Virginia, my team and I are ready to stand up for you. Call 888-828-3rd. That's 888-828-HU-R-T. And let us fight back for you.

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3:09The Magnificent Sports Monday edition of You Better You Bet rolls on. Nick Costos, Eric Rue, and you here on Westwood One Sports. Oh, baby. Happy legal tampering day in the National Football League to you and yours. We are two hours away from being what I would anticipate starting to get flooded with NFL free agent signings. I don't think we're going to see any of these signings break in the next two hours. I think the insiders want to keep this underneath their hats, kind of uphold the, this is a ridiculous sentence, uphold the sanctity of the legal tampering period. So I don't think we're going to see anything reported over the next two hours. But man, when we come on the air tomorrow morning at 9 a.m. Terrific Sports Tuesday edition of You Better You Bet. Man, we're going to have a lot to get to from the NFL and when you absolutely love it. But that hasn't stopped us just because we don't know the signings. That hasn't stopped us this morning from talking about a bunch of trades that have happened

4:12in the NFL. Now we led the show talking about Friday night, the Ravens trading for Raiders, Star Pass Varsher, Max Crosby, why I love the trade for both teams for both Baltimore and the Las Vegas Raiders to other trades this past hour. The Dallas Cowboys acquiring defensive lineman, Rashon Gary from the Green Bay Packers for a fourth round pick in the 2027 drafts. So next year's NFL draft, now Gary kind of like two down years by by his standards, seven and a half sacks in each of the last two years. Now this is not like Rashon Gary at the height of his powers anymore at this point in his career. But as someone now who can be a rotational pass rusher for Dallas on a remade defensive line, I love this for the Dallas Cowboys. Now as I told you last hour, I think Dallas needs to supplement that by now also signing Trey Hendrickson or figuring something else out on the defensive line. But I really, really like this trade for the Cowboys bringing in Rashon Gary from the Green Bay Packers. And we also saw the New York Jets acquire defensive back. Make up its Patrick from the Miami Dolphins

5:17for a conditional seventh round pick as Miami Shed Salary, Miami Releasing to a tongue of Iloa, 99 million dollar deadcapit. But Miami is going to be brutal this season. And I think the Jets are trying to be good. And I would much rather be, much rather be a Miami Dolphins fan than a New York Jets fan right now. Now you can make your jokes. Of course, no one wants to be a Jets fan. Even Jets fans and I live in New York don't really want to be Jets fans. Aren't happy about it. I just, I think Miami's M.O. here and their viewpoint is way better than the Jets. Miami's going to try to be bad. I've really no choice but to be bad. And I think the Jets are going to try and be good, which I think is a gigantic, gigantic mistake. We'll bring you any other NFL news as it breaks here on this Monday. Already got a bunch of trades. You absolutely, absolutely love it. But we have to talk some NBA because this was a very,

6:23very, very newsworthy weekend in the association. And again, if you're here for NFL takes as soon as something happens, if it happens, we'll break into the show. We'll stop talking NBA to bring you the NFL. But until then, as I think we've covered all the NFL topics, didn't get into Koleal Mac. We'll do that at some point during the show. But we got it again into Jason Tatum and the Boston Celtics. If you missed it over the weekend, shame on you because what we saw on Friday night in Boston. And then yesterday on the road in Cleveland against the Cavaliers, this is one of the great sports stories of this decade. 10 months after popping his Achilles against my Knicks in the postseason, when it was assumed, Jason Tatum won't play this entire year for Boston. Will Jason Tatum be the same again, which was not to intimate that will he suck just like will he be able to achieve and reach those dizzying heights when he helped along with Jalen Brown lead the Celtics to an NBA championship

7:25a couple years ago. A lot of us, myself included, ag on our face. I thought the Celtics not going to be good this year. I thought this was going to be a down year, a gap year where the Celtics kind of send out the punt unit and prepare for Jason Tatum's return this coming season. And maybe Boston would try and get into the lottery for one of these absolute scode freshmen in college basketball. It's been exactly the opposite. The Celtics have kicked ass. The Celtics have taken names. And by virtue of this weekend's results in the Eastern Conference, Boston is now two and a half games back of the Detroit Pistons for the one seed in the East. And now it's not just that the on play like the play on the court is at this level for Boston. The vibes are immaculate because Jason Tatum returns on Friday night and the Celtics beat the Mavericks by 20. Tatum doesn't come in and give you a here's 12 minutes and let me kind of

8:25ease my way back into action. No, no, no, no, no, no, no, no. How about 27 minutes? How about 1512 and seven? How about some athletic bursts that had the Celtics crowd in ecstasy? And look like you know this. I'm a New York sports fan. I'm a Nick's fan. I have no love in my fan life for teams from Boston. But that doesn't mean that I can't keep a real with you here on this show. Like that crowd on Friday night. If you have a pulse, if you're a big sports fan, even if you hate Boston, does it not get your juices flowing? Does it not move you a little bit? And I think one of the reasons why is how likable Jason Tatum is. And we know Tatum's idol, right? Because he's talked about it a ton. The late great Kobe Bryant

9:27is the guy who Tatum kind of models his career after, right? Now I don't think he's as good as Kobe, not an insult, right? Kobe's one of the greatest players ever. It's like when people say, oh, LeBron's not as good as Jordan. It's an insult. No, it's not to say you're not as good as MJ. Not an insult to say Tatum is not as good as Kobe Bryant. And Tatum, you know, much like Kobe and like the mamba mentality decides tears as a kill is and next morning's surgery because he's immediately focused on getting back out there on the court. Now say what you want about Kobe Bryant, the late great Kobe Bryant. And this is not me like trying to disparage a man who was no longer with us. And I thought Kobe was the best. But Kobe Bryant was an athlete, a star athlete who inspired very strong emotions, both positive and negative from sports fans. If you loved him, you loved him. And if you hated him, you hated him. He had that mean streak in him, right? And it's part of what

10:33made him great. I don't mean any of this is an insult. It's all just the truth. Does Jason Tatum have that mean streak? And this is not meant to be like, oh, well, Tatum can't like can't win all these championships like that's not what I'm trying to say. Just that Tatum comes across as way more likable of a person than Kobe. And I don't say that to disparage Kobe. You can say the same thing about Tatum and lots of other people in sports and in life. Tatum is one of these guys with a perpetual smile on his face. And I think it makes him very, very, very easy to root for. And Jason Tatum is now bucking science and reason with his return to the court. Because you saw the flashes on Friday night of Jason Tatum. What happened yesterday as the Celtics go into Cleveland, by the way, the cabs thought to be by many, by many smart people, like the favorite to win the Eastern Conference. The people think that now. Now Jared Allen doesn't play

11:36in the game and he matters. Let's not say otherwise. Jared Allen absolutely matters for the calves. But Boston goes in there and wins by 11 and Tatum is really good in the game. And Tatum being out for so long, and this is not like a galaxy brain, like, is it actually better for the Celtics that Tatum missed all this time? Of course not. But I think it's fair to say that Tatum missing all this time for the Celtics has led to guys like Baylor Shireman, who Shaquille O'Neal doesn't know. You know, by just, I find this stuff to be funny. All good. Shaq's the best. Yo, Shireman and other players for the Celtics Hugo. Tatum is awesome. Where you have guys that would not normally have played this many minutes, playing a ton of minutes for a really good team. And now you can look at the Celtics and say they go like 10 deep. They're awesome. It's like, I thought apples to apples, but if Tom had come back at the end of the 2008 season for the Patriots after tearing his ACL in a week, what? Obviously not the same thing, but you get it,

12:39right? How incredible and how like historic this is for Tatum to not only be back, but playing 25 minutes and looking good. I'd less than a calendar year after popping his Achilles, unbelievable stuff from Missoula, from Tatum, from Brad Stevens, Jalen Brown, and this Boston Celtics team. You better even on a Monday, Nick Costos here with you on Westwood One Sports. So as it stands right now at our show sponsor, Ben MGM, the Celtics are the second choice on the board to win the NBA championship and plus 660. The Oklahoma City Thunder, obviously the favorite. The Celtics are the favorite to win the East, plus 200, followed by the cabs and plus 325, the pistons at plus 400, and my New York Knicks at plus 450.

13:43So while the vibes for the Celtics right now are through the roof, the rest of the Eastern Conference elites, you cannot say that. Unless you consider the Miami Heats and I'll be back in the Eastern Conference elite because they are annihilating teams and just annihilated the pistons this weekend. Think about the rest of the teams in the East, right? At the top of the East, like out of the four teams that we've talked about for months now is the four most likely teams to win the East and go to the NBA finals. One of those teams is the Celtics. Jason Haynes back, they look amazing. Of course they're the team, the hot team right now. No question. Cleveland, just lost the albeit without Jared Allen, but they did just lose to the Celtics. The Detroit pistons don't look now have now lost four consecutive games that just got blown out by the heat. And I'm not going to bang on them for losing to the nets without paid cunning him, although you don't want to lose to the nets ever. And then you have my New York Knicks who continue to be if you look up inconsistency in the dictionary Oxford Webster or otherwise urban. I don't know. Here's a picture of the New York Knicks. Here's Jalen Brunson. Yo, what better yet? Here's

14:46Mattel Bridges who scored as many points yesterday in a loss in LA against the Lakers as you and I did zero. It's amazing. Zero points for Mattel Bridges, national game on Sunday, Knicks at Lakers. As the Knicks follow up, this is just classic Knicks, classic Knicks this season. Friday night, go into Denver and beat the nuggets and Jamal Murray, sir, you can make excuses for Denver. Also, the Knicks won the game by almost 40 points. They blow out the nuggets beat them by 39 on Friday night and then follow that up with an absolute stinker at the Los Angeles Lakers yesterday in a game where LeBron James doesn't even play. And yes, I will throw my name into the ring as people who do believe and this is this it sounds like a lame like debate show topic on TV, but it's actually true. Like the Lakers are better with Luca and Austin Reeves than they are with LeBron on the team.

15:47They are. They're nine and two the Lakers are when Luca and Reeves play together and LeBron doesn't play. And you know my take on the Lakers. I think this team is a gigantic waste of time. And the fact that LeBron is going to waste away on this team, I think is a miserable failure. And I think it's like it's a sin, a basketball sin that this is what's happening. And he'll finish his career elsewhere next season. Let's just fast forward to next year. Let the Lakers get their lunch handed to them in the first rounds of the playoffs by whoever they play. Get LeBron off the team. Get LeBron elsewhere. And Luca and Austin Reeves can try cooking next year. But that that's a story about the Los Angeles Lakers. I need it to throw that in. Back to the Eastern Conference. My thought on Cleveland and the Cads is not going to change. When it comes down to it, I don't care that he's not the first option. And Donovan Mitchell is, I don't care. I love it. I don't trust James Hardin. At all. One Iota in a big spot in the

16:49postseason. And if a lot of smart people think the Cads are going to the NBA finals, you don't think they're going to have a big game where James Hardin's going to have to play well? Has he done that? I have big time questions about the Cleveland Cavaliers. I'm not saying they can't get there. I'm just saying I am skeptical of the Cleveland Cavaliers. The Detroit Pistons, just like no, not no to being the one seed, not know to potentially winning the championship next year, like no this year winning the Eastern Conference and getting to the NBA finals. Just no. And as far as my Knicks go, you know, they are in LA again tonight against the Clippers. I think the Knicks might win by double digits tonight. I don't have to save that bet. I'll give that out right now. I'm not going to save it for the end of the show. I think the next win and cover tonight in LA against the Clippers. This is their Dr. Jekyll, Mr. Hyde

17:51routine. Lose to the Lakers yesterday. They'll beat the Clippers tonight. This is going to be a deeply unpopular thing that I'm about to say. I have to be honest. Like it's true. What I'm about to say is true. Like you can't debate the fact that it's factual. The fact that it's factual. You can't debate it. Even as I'm about to say it, I'm having difficulty at the moment believing it in terms of this year and this postseason. Okay. Jason Tatum is back for the Celtics. He is. And the Celtics are the favorite in the East. They were the favorites last year. And they played the Knicks last year in the playoffs. And Jason Tatum, like even before he got hurt, the Knicks were on their way to winning that series. We're going to go up three one. And I think the next we're going to win that series no matter what. And a lot of people agree, right? Is that a crazy thing that I'm saying?

18:523108404910 YouTube.com backslash at the Costos. I think the Knicks still have the most top end talent. Now they got to get hot and it may not happen. But I am not counting out my Knicks still not to win the NBA championship to get out of the East. Last note for now on the NBA. When the Spurs recently for the first time out of two, the Spurs have played the Pistons twice recently. The first time they played and the Spurs beat was a couple of weeks ago. I came on the show and said the next day, I don't think either team can win the NBA championship this season. My thought is the Pistons are both too early in their timeline and also can't score outside of Cade. And the Spurs are way too early in their timeline. And we haven't seen this in like the history of the league where a team like San Antonio wins the NBA championship. The Spurs are now on another win streak, four straight in which they

19:57beaten the Sixers by 40. That was in the retro NBA on NBC broadcast last week. They beat the Pistons again. Had the 25 point come back where Victor Wemba Yama is crying after the game. And honestly, I saw people criticize him. How do you not love that? That Wembae cares enough about a random regular season game in March that he's crying after the game. Every team should want a player like this, 22 years old, freak, 25 point come back against the Clippers, and then a 25 point blowout win against the Rockets yesterday in which Wembae goes for 29 and 8. The Spurs are now 47 and 17. Second best record in the NBA, two and a half games back of the Thunder for the one seed in the Western Conference. And I want to amends my comment from a couple weeks ago about the Spurs and the Pistons. If my life were on the line, and it's not thankfully, but where? And if I had to put some money down on it, which I will, I think the Thunder are going to win the NBA championship. I think the Oklahoma City Thunder will win

21:03the Western Conference. But the San Antonio Spurs feel a little bit to me like Danny Almonte, if Danny Almonte were legit. Like if you ever go to a sixth grade basketball game, and here's this like 11 year old with like a full beard, like six foot two looking like he could bench press an adult and just absolutely dominates all like the former like the future insurance salesman on the other team. That's kind of what the Spurs feel like. They are way ahead of their timeline and it actually feels like given how good Wembae is already. If there were ever going to be a team to buck this trend and to like hop to the front of the line, which never happens in the NBA, it would be this team. Now again, I'll still take the Thunder. But what I'm acknowledging right

22:08now is that the Spurs could get there and could win. I won't walk back what I said on the Pistons. I will walk back a little bit what I have said about the San Antonio Spurs, such as the upside for that team. 3108404910, 3108404910, youtube.com, backslash at the Costco's THE, TOS, TOS. On the other side, we'll get back to the National Football League, return of the Mac in Los Angeles, and what it means for the AFC West next season here on a Monday on Westwood One Sports. We are in the heart of free agency. This is the week that will shape your team's NFL season. Who will they end? Who will they lose? Follow every signing, surprise cut, and blockbuster trade as it happens. On Westwood One Sports. My perfect day as sand saltwater and friends. But my moderate to severe plaques rises can take

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