This Weekends NBA Recap- Nuggets/Wolves, Knicks/Spurs

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1:00Now back to you better you bet with Nick Costos on Westwood 1sports. Ryan Ruko with the call yesterday from Madison Square Garden, Victor Wimbledon Yama playing well for the San Antonio Spurs, but they get absolutely shellac. By my New York Knicks, 114-89. This segment you better you bet on Westwood 1sports with Nick Costos is sponsored by progressive commercial insurance, protecting your business vehicles 24-7. See if you can save that progressive commercial dot com, that website again, progressivecommercial.com. We'll talk about the Knicks and the Spurs coming up in a moment. But there was another game yesterday in the NBA and look Nick Spurs is definitely the headliner. But there was another game yesterday in the NBA that really really peaked my interest. And it's not just Cata and the Boston Celtics beating the Philadelphia 76ers last night on NBC. Not just that. How about the Minnesota Timberwolves going into Denver and beating the nuggets 117-108?

2:09That loss for Denver yesterday at the hands of Minnesota, one of their big rivals over the past couple of years and who can forget a couple of years ago, Denver trying to go back to back and losing a game seven at home to the Minnesota Timberwolves. So Minnesota been a thorn in their side for a number of seasons now. So the Timberwolves beat the nuggets on Sunday and on Friday night, the nuggets go to Oklahoma City and lose to SGA, Lew Dort and the Thunder in overtime 127-121. And in that game, Lew Dort in honestly like this, it was Friday night. So it feels like it was like 10 years ago, but we haven't talked about it on the show obviously since we haven't had a show since then, like very, very dirty play by Lew Dort. And the fact that that Oklahoma City of Mark Dagnall trying to defend this like is crazy, like let's just, let's be honest, like you can't do that. And for people that didn't see it, Dort like throws his ass out, like he's like, I got drunk 25-year-old at a club, like throws his ass out and like basically trips Yokech and

3:11like Yokech like gets up and he's not hurt, but what if he had been hurt? And I'm not trying to be like a baby here, like I put someone say a snowflake, but let's be honest, like what happens if Yokech gets hurt there? It's an unnecessary basketball play and Yokech absolutely loses it, right? And gets up and there's that close-up of insanity in his eyes. I wouldn't want to mess with Yokech. I wouldn't see him in a dark alley. No, no, no, no, no, no, no. And then Yokech's lose that game. No shame obviously it's losing to Oklahoma City on the road, especially with SGA back and he's amazing in the game. And not a ton of shame I guess, although they should win that game, losing at home, standing in the end words and the Minnesota Timberwolves. But what we have now for the Denver Nuggets, and we've talked about this for a couple of weeks here on You Better You Bet, both with guests and we'll talk to JT about this in a little bit. And just me, opining about the NBA, Denver has not been good. The Nuggets are now, since Nicole Yokech returns to the lineup, five and eight since he

4:13returned from injury. And I'm not going to give you like a Galaxy Brains, like the Bay Show topic here, where are they better without him? Like no, he's obviously great, but they're really struggling. Their defense absolutely stinks, stinks. And if the season ended today, to be clear, it doesn't. But if it did end today, the Nuggets are currently the five seed in the West and would have to go on the road and round number one. And like would have to play Minnesota's up to the four now. If it went to a game seven and I'm projecting here, like it very well may not happen like this, the Nuggets could be the three seed when it's all said and done. Then I have to go, if it went to a game seven on the road, in round number one. And it feels like a lot of people are crossing the Nuggets off their list of teams that could win the NBA title. Even though we all believe they have the best player, I guess some people may think SGA's better like Yokech is the best player. No insult to SGA in saying that, Yokech is the best player.

5:17Now you all know my opinion on who's going to win this year's NBA finals. And I've been consistent since the start of the season on this. Lots of parlays that I hope will catch as a result. I think Oklahoma City's going back to back, like I think the thunder or the best team. And I've said it all season long, and I haven't wavered from it. I think Oklahoma City's going to win the championship. Even that I have OKC, I will admit, I am still, despite the recent run of form, despite Friday night's loss, despite Sunday's loss, I'm still worried about the Denver Nuggets. And I am not willing to throw dirt on the Denver Nuggets. It's like you're in the stock market, right? And you have this blue chip company and for whatever reason, the stock price is going down. And like you may see them, I think, oh my God, I need to sell. A little bit of investigation under the hood might reveal maybe something's up the company. Maybe it's like a software company, and they release something that has a bug in it.

6:19And they're going to release a patch, and it's all going to be good moving forward. For the Denver Nuggets, that patch is going to be whatever, and that might be sooner rather than later, Aaron Gordon comes back and Peyton Watson comes back. I don't want to say it will change everything for the Nuggets, just because again, I still think OKC is the best team, but it's going to change a lot. So yes, people are down on the Nuggets right now, and yes, it's not been great since Yokech returned. I still think Denver very, very, very, very much in the mix in the Western Conference. Do not count out the Denver Nuggets. You better, you bet on this Monday. So Denver Minnesota was the middle national game yesterday. Boston Philly was the late game, the early game. My Nix slam the spurs at MSG, 114.89. And if you watched the first couple of minutes of this game, you might have thought this was going to go the way Cavs Nix did last week, or Pistons Nix did in the first game coming

7:22out of the All-Star break, because the spurs very quickly built a 12-point lead. And Victor Wempinyama is doing Wembee things, like I know, showcasing his deep range, three pointers driving to the basket, you heard the don coming back from break. And I wouldn't have blamed anyone if you felt like the Nix are going to get run off the floor in this game. And something kind of clicked with the Nix. And yes, they scored 114 points, and yes, Jalen Brunson was great and had a stretch Roy scored 11 points in two minutes, who's a microwave, right? But really, it was the defense that did it for the Nix. They held the spurs to 89 points. And Wembee in his Wembee-ish way after the game, kind of like halfheartedly insults the Nix by saying they're not one of the nastiest teams, and I'll translate Wembee speak for everybody. What he's saying is that the Nix are a great defensive team when he said, are not a great defensive team. But then he complimented them and saying like they were physical with the spurs yesterday.

8:23And the Nix have kind of been spurs killers this year. Remember, the Nix beat the spurs in the NBA Cup Final as well, after the spurs beat the Thunder in the semifinals in Las Vegas. So now we, as sports fans, sports betters, sports prognosticators, we have to think about the Nix, right, and the balance of power in the Eastern Conference. And does that win, kind of give you some confidence that the Nix are past what happened against Detroit and what happened against Cleveland? Now I'm a Nix fan, as you might know. I mentioned that ever on the show that I grew up on my lifelong Nix fan. I really want to be super confident. I want to be. But Josh Hart said after the game yesterday, like they need to be consistent. They need to keep doing that on defense. Like that needs to be their identity moving forward. And forgive me if I'm not fully bought in just yet.

9:24The New York Nix are about to embark on a West Coast road trip, which we'll see them against Oklahoma City this week on Wednesday against the Denver Nuggets against the Los Angeles Lakers. We're going to find out in short order if the Nix can really remain consistent. And I'm not saying they need to win all these games, they're probably not going to competition is really fierce. Can the defense be up to stuff? Can we, whether you're a Nix fan or whether you're someone who likes just watches basketball, bets on basketball, can we collectively feel good about the Nix potentially winning these turn conference? I think we'll be able to have at least a pretty strong answer to that question over the course of this week watching the NBA. I can't wait to talk to Justin Termini about all of these topics and more. Justin Termini, one of the stars of serious XMMBA radio, joins Nick Kostos next on Westwood

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