Speaker 1: No, no, come home, Come home, Come home, come home.
Speaker 2: On this episode of the Heat Check, guess who's back
Speaker 2: back again.
Speaker 3: Kyrie's back, still not vaccinated. He's out here trying to
Speaker 3: save the net season. How did he do? What does
Speaker 3: it mean for the.
Speaker 2: Nets and how will it affect Brooklyn's chances going forward?
Speaker 2: Let's talk about it from the betting side, and let's
Speaker 2: have on a special guest, Matt Mhewan of the Sports
Speaker 2: Betting Dime.
Speaker 3: So do me a favorite brock and drop that.
Speaker 4: Motherfa I love the fielding crimson me cern me is
Speaker 4: exactly a upon and bucking.
Speaker 2: Kyrie is back after the world and all of the
Speaker 2: Nets said that there was no possibility that they would
Speaker 2: have Kyrie back as a.
Speaker 3: Part time player. Turns out that was a lie. That
Speaker 3: was a lie.
Speaker 2: So he made his twenty twenty one, twenty twenty two
Speaker 2: debut on January fifth, twenty twenty two. And the man
Speaker 2: who has become, I guess an icon of the unvaccinated
Speaker 2: had a pretty good stat line just coming off the
Speaker 2: street twenty two points nine to seventeen shooting in Brooklyn's.
Speaker 3: Win over Indiana one twenty nine one twenty one.
Speaker 2: And of course this was on the road, which is
Speaker 2: the only place that Kyrie can play, and although he
Speaker 2: was I think he said he was.
Speaker 3: Like very nervous, very rusty.
Speaker 2: He missed his first shot, which was apparently scripted by
Speaker 2: Steve Nash as a gift to Kyrie Irving and later said.
Speaker 3: Like, I was so nervous, That's why I missed. Dude's
Speaker 3: a bucket.
Speaker 2: And the only real stat that matters is that in
Speaker 2: thirty two minutes Kyrie was plus sixteen.
Speaker 3: On the floor. And that is what the Nets have
Speaker 3: been missing this year. They've been missing the death.
Speaker 2: Now they have Patty Mills coming off the bench, and
Speaker 2: now they have another scorer who can get his own shot,
Speaker 2: where all the burden doesn't have to just be on
Speaker 2: Kevin Durant and a hamper James Harden and Katie of
Speaker 2: course was happy he had thirty nine points on sixty
Speaker 2: three percent shooting. That's what happens when you don't have
Speaker 2: to shoulder the entire burden offensively for your franchise.
Speaker 3: And for once this year, all was well in Nets world.
Speaker 2: Currently Brooklyn twenty four and twelve, just one and a
Speaker 2: half games behind the Bulls for the one seed, so
Speaker 2: was now the right time to bring Kai back.
Speaker 3: I guess it depends on how.
Speaker 2: You look at things, right, Like, it's not ideal having
Speaker 2: a part time player, it's just not. But the Nets
Speaker 2: are They are better. They are undeniably better with Kyrie
Speaker 2: on the floor. And even if that's only on the
Speaker 2: road and I didn't realize it to the full extent,
Speaker 2: I mean, I've seen it, but the only he's really
Speaker 2: the only key to unlocking what's best about James Harden
Speaker 2: Harden eighteen five and six and the Pacers win. But
Speaker 2: that was really actually great because he wasn't asked to
Speaker 2: be superhuman at a time when.
Speaker 3: He's just Stella trying to get his groove back.
Speaker 2: So what does Kyrie Irving returning as the Road Warrior
Speaker 2: actually even mean? What can we expect going forward? Has
Speaker 2: there ever been a team more different at home on
Speaker 2: the road than these Nets?
Speaker 3: Probably not.
Speaker 2: So to get to the bottom of this, we're interviewing
Speaker 2: Matt McEwan, national sportsbook expert and editor in chief at.
Speaker 3: The Sports Betting Dime.
Speaker 2: We had a great conversation with Matt at the start
Speaker 2: of the NBA season where he explained how COVID affects
Speaker 2: the way that the Vegas looks at NBA lines, what
Speaker 2: it means for players like Kyrie Irving and Bradley Beal,
Speaker 2: Bradley Beal recently getting vaccinated, and whether the league had
Speaker 2: prepared for the eventuality of another wave or another lockdown.
Speaker 3: Spoiler alert, they did not, so without form or a doom.
Speaker 3: Let's get into it.
Speaker 2: All right, Welcome back to the heat check, matt Man.
Speaker 2: We got a lot of news to break into two parts. First,
Speaker 2: big news Kyrie Irving's return, what do you think it
Speaker 2: means to the net so? And then let's after that,
Speaker 2: let's return to a conversation that we had on the
Speaker 2: season eve of COVID.
Speaker 3: First, do you think that at that point, like throughout.
Speaker 2: The course of the season, half the almost half the
Speaker 2: season is up, did you think that Kyrie would play
Speaker 2: this year?
Speaker 3: Or did you believe.
Speaker 2: That Josie was being truthful when he said we're not
Speaker 2: going to have any part time players.
Speaker 5: I personally thought Kyrie was going to play this season.
Speaker 5: You know, as much as we all loved the idea
Speaker 5: of you know, just just a Kevin Durant, James Harden
Speaker 5: led that team with you know, some decent role players
Speaker 5: there and Aldridge, Patty Mills. I mean, unless they were
Speaker 5: running the table here, how do you not fight for
Speaker 5: someone like Kyrie Irving coming back?
Speaker 6: Right?
Speaker 5: I mean it makes sense, so I figured he would play,
Speaker 5: you know, I think this is a small step towards
Speaker 5: him becoming a more full time player. You know, that's
Speaker 5: not any I don't have any insider info on New
Speaker 5: York politics, just for the record, but I did expect
Speaker 5: to see this, and obviously sportsbooks did too, based off
Speaker 5: of you know, the nets very short championship futures.
Speaker 3: Right right, and COVID.
Speaker 2: This holdout, I think has made a lot of news
Speaker 2: because Kyrie his history and it's tie into this larger story,
Speaker 2: right Like, ever since being in Brooklyn, he's played twenty
Speaker 2: games the first season. He's played fifty four regular season
Speaker 2: games last year and nine games in the playoffs before
Speaker 2: he hurt his ankle. You know, do you think we
Speaker 2: should feel safe or better, should feel safe that because
Speaker 2: he missed the early part of the season, that he'll
Speaker 2: be good to go for the remainder.
Speaker 3: Of this season.
Speaker 6: Yeah, that's really tough.
Speaker 5: I mean, injuries just strike whenever, right, I mean, you
Speaker 5: always hear of you know, the pitch counts and things
Speaker 5: like that, you know, trying to keep somebody, you know,
Speaker 5: less strain on the body. Right, So, I think there's
Speaker 5: definitely a case to be made here with Kyrie being
Speaker 5: a part time player, maybe right up until the playoffs.
Speaker 5: I mean maybe full time sorry, full time part time
Speaker 5: player funny there, Like, maybe he does continue sitting out
Speaker 5: home games in the playoffs. Like it's all possible now.
Speaker 5: I think there's a strong case to be made that
Speaker 5: that could keep Kyrie healthy and we could see him
Speaker 5: in every single road game outside of you know, Toronto
Speaker 5: and Golden State there.
Speaker 6: But I think that's definitely.
Speaker 5: Something to you know, you could lean on a little
Speaker 5: more than you could in previous years with Kyrie.
Speaker 2: There's a lot of people who consider this team to
Speaker 2: be a super team, right, Like two to four all
Speaker 2: star MVP level players just means it's.
Speaker 3: A super team.
Speaker 2: But to me, that like, there are real super teams
Speaker 2: that not only have all stars, but they also have
Speaker 2: deep benches, they also have role players. There's a chemistry
Speaker 2: to them outside of just the stars playing on it.
Speaker 3: And to me, the only teams that really.
Speaker 2: Match the star power between outside of the nets are
Speaker 2: Warriors and the Lakers, right, I guess you could maybe
Speaker 2: say the Bucks sort of, and one of those teams
Speaker 2: is terrible this year, like the Lakers have been awful,
Speaker 2: and then you have the Suns and the Bucks who
Speaker 2: have stars and they have depth and they have chemistry. Like,
Speaker 2: do you think even with Kyrie there, even if he
Speaker 2: comes back full time, would you consider the Nets in
Speaker 2: that same class Because Jeff Green's gone, Blake is dropped off,
Speaker 2: and the two leading scorers after Harden and Katie are
Speaker 2: Paddy Mills and LaMarcus Audridge.
Speaker 5: Now, you know, I don't get me wrong, I'm not
Speaker 5: a Patty Mills super fan over here, but I think
Speaker 5: Patty Mills getting moved to the bench, you know, for
Speaker 5: road games essentially, I think that gives them like that,
Speaker 5: that's a big shot of depth to me. I think
Speaker 5: Patty Mills was doing just fine, you know, in that
Speaker 5: starting lineup. You know, it'll be interesting to see what
Speaker 5: Steve Nash does with lineups there. But I do I
Speaker 5: think this is the super team, you know, I think
Speaker 5: without Kyrie Irving they are a super team. And you
Speaker 5: throw him back into the mix, I it's gonna be really,
Speaker 5: really difficult to make an argument that that this team
Speaker 5: gets stopped in the East and you know, further in
Speaker 5: the NBA Finals as well.
Speaker 3: Other than the Bucks, this Eastern Conference is full of parody,
Speaker 3: I guess is a gentle way of saying it. Do
Speaker 3: you think that there.
Speaker 2: Are any good teams good enough in the East to
Speaker 2: throw a future bed on that can contend with like
Speaker 2: a healthy Brooklyn or maybe even push into six or
Speaker 2: seven games?
Speaker 5: Yeah, I mean, you know, the Bulls right now obviously
Speaker 5: are the team that has to come to mind, right
Speaker 5: with just just looking at their record round twenty five
Speaker 5: and ten at the time that that we're talking here.
Speaker 6: But I'm looking you know, you can get.
Speaker 5: Twenty five to one there not a bad price for
Speaker 5: you know, the top team in the East right now. However,
Speaker 5: you know, like we've seen with a lot of DeMar
Speaker 5: To to Rosen lead teams, they tend to be very good
Speaker 5: in the regular season, you know, and and all of
Speaker 5: a sudden, the whistles go into the rest pockets a
Speaker 5: little more and they're they're you know, play gets a
Speaker 5: little more physical in the playoffs tomorrow hasn't been able
Speaker 5: to keep up, right. I'm a big Raptors fan, so
Speaker 5: you know, I lived through that far too many years,
Speaker 5: so I don't personally believe that the Bulls have what
Speaker 5: it takes to keep up with the nets right now,
Speaker 5: even at twenty five to one, I don't feel great
Speaker 5: about that bet. I think Miami is the one team
Speaker 5: that comes to mind that I think, you know, even
Speaker 5: though we haven't, they haven't been outstanding yet, I think
Speaker 5: they have the pieces in place where if they can
Speaker 5: just continue, you know, with building that chemistry, kind of
Speaker 5: learning each person's role on that team. Here, they're about
Speaker 5: fourteen to one right now, I would love like if
Speaker 5: they got to twenty to one, I would be very
Speaker 5: comfortable putting a bet on the heat.
Speaker 3: I took them early preseason twenty five to one heats.
Speaker 5: There you go, that's a great price there. Yeah, you
Speaker 5: must be feeling pretty good.
Speaker 3: Plus nine hundred as well. Both those feel good. That's
Speaker 3: the time to place those futures bets. It's hard to
Speaker 3: do that.
Speaker 2: Last time we talked, you talked a lot about how
Speaker 2: Vegas was going to deal with COVID this year, and
Speaker 2: I don't know if any of us, UH including Vegas,
Speaker 2: was prepared for omicron right like it didn't even I
Speaker 2: don't think exist when you and I spoke, no, considering
Speaker 2: that the last two years have been COVID plagued, either
Speaker 2: partially or fully. You know, why do you think this
Speaker 2: surge caught not only just the NBA, but but Vegas
Speaker 2: by by surprise?
Speaker 6: Why? You know what?
Speaker 5: I think everyone was just starting to look forward and
Speaker 5: into you know, better times, a non COVID world. And
Speaker 5: you know, even though they had this you know a
Speaker 5: bit of a playbook on how to deal with this, right,
Speaker 5: because they had to do it, you know that, I
Speaker 5: think they kind of threw it out a little too
Speaker 5: quick obviously, right, and and forgot some of these lessons
Speaker 5: they learned.
Speaker 6: It's it's been absolutely nuts, you know.
Speaker 5: I I hope that at the worst, you know, is
Speaker 5: behind us here, but you know, it's it's going to
Speaker 5: continue being a struggle here as long as you know,
Speaker 5: these these new variants keep coming along. And you know
Speaker 5: how you know how how bad are are.
Speaker 6: Each one of these variants?
Speaker 2: Right?
Speaker 6: I mean, we we know what we've heard of omicron
Speaker 6: is it's.
Speaker 5: Not as deadly, but who knows the next one that
Speaker 5: comes along what that one's.
Speaker 2: Going to be?
Speaker 5: And and the other part here is all all these
Speaker 5: all this talk about boosters right now, right if if
Speaker 5: you know, if the government decides, if all these states
Speaker 5: start deciding two isn't enough now you have to have
Speaker 5: all three shots? You know, does that all of a
Speaker 5: sudden rule out how many players is that potentially you know,
Speaker 5: put on this same list as as Kyrie Irving is
Speaker 5: now being seen as unvaccinated? Right and and do other
Speaker 5: states start trying to step up and impose these same
Speaker 5: types of rules that we've seen at in New York,
Speaker 5: California up here in Canada. It's it's going to be
Speaker 5: very interesting to see how Vegas continues dealing with them.
Speaker 2: Last time we talked this is this was your quote
Speaker 2: about Vegas. Vegas prize themselves on having inside information and
Speaker 2: being one step ahead of the public, but a lot
Speaker 2: of this stuff they're going at the same speed as
Speaker 2: the public, and there was such a lot of uncertainty
Speaker 2: from the sportsbooks.
Speaker 3: Do you think what it's like a couple of.
Speaker 2: Months into the season now thirty plus games, almost forty
Speaker 2: many like different variations with guys coming into these ten
Speaker 2: day hardships and like lines swinging huge amounts last minute scratches.
Speaker 2: Do you think that Vegas has gotten better at dealing
Speaker 2: with NBA lines this year.
Speaker 5: I personally believe they have from what I have experienced
Speaker 5: here just watching you know, the last couple of months there.
Speaker 5: You know, it seems like they've just got people with
Speaker 5: their finger on the trigger ready to just pull games
Speaker 5: off the board, right that like the moment there's any
Speaker 5: sort of doubt over anything, instead of trying to quickly
Speaker 5: you know, adjust a line, you know, move a total
Speaker 5: anything like that, it's just gone off the board. Let's
Speaker 5: sit down, let's talk about it before we reopen this
Speaker 5: line and potentially, you know, expose themselves with a bad
Speaker 5: line to you know, any sort of yeah, potential money exposures.
Speaker 6: Right.
Speaker 2: We also talked about how Vegas doesn't need to break
Speaker 2: COVID news, but they just need to read the public.
Speaker 2: How well do you think they've done at reading the
Speaker 2: public this year as it concerns the NBA.
Speaker 5: So, you know what, there was a great example last
Speaker 5: night actually in this Nets game where I.
Speaker 6: Can't believe they weren't more prepared for this.
Speaker 5: You know, the line in this Nets Pacers game, the
Speaker 5: total opened up at about two eighteen or so to
Speaker 5: eighteen and a half, depending where you looked, and I
Speaker 5: mean it seemed like it was, you know, a pretty
Speaker 5: popular opinion that Kyrie's back, We're gonna get more points.
Speaker 6: Everybody just bet the hell.
Speaker 5: Out of the over, you know, And they did, and
Speaker 5: the line went all the way up to two twenty
Speaker 5: five at one point before it kind of settled back
Speaker 5: down to.
Speaker 6: Two twenty four.
Speaker 5: But they just exposed themselves to a pretty big window
Speaker 5: for people to middle them right.
Speaker 6: And I was amazed to see that.
Speaker 5: I suspected last night that we would be facing a
Speaker 5: bit of a sharp versus square game where you'd see,
Speaker 5: you know, the majority of the public money all on
Speaker 5: Brooklyn and you'd have these sharps just kind of come
Speaker 5: in late pick off the plus eight and a half
Speaker 5: plus nine lines, which admittedly I was, you know, I'm
Speaker 5: no sharp myself, but I found myself on that side
Speaker 5: last you know, last night, I picked off them at
Speaker 5: at eight and a half. Thank you for that layup
Speaker 5: with three seconds left to go. Appreciate that one. But
Speaker 5: they you know what I've been I've been surprised by
Speaker 5: some of the risks this year that they have, you know,
Speaker 5: created these liabilities for themselves. Now, you know, don't get
Speaker 5: me wrong when when they're pulling in the handles they
Speaker 5: are and the you know, the whole, the whole percentage
Speaker 5: that they have. I mean, you've got some room to
Speaker 5: play with. So I don't think any of these sports
Speaker 5: books are by any means going broke. They're they're doing
Speaker 5: just fine. So, you know, little losses here and there.
Speaker 5: I guess they're willing to just put up with.
Speaker 2: Yeah, that's interesting, especially I guess if it drives engagement
Speaker 2: on a really heavily like marketed game too, right, like
Speaker 2: people jumping all over a line. Yeah, that was a
Speaker 2: shaky line, like that felt fishy.
Speaker 3: It started at what it opened at seven seven and
Speaker 3: a half.
Speaker 5: I saw six and a half, actually as low as
Speaker 5: six and a half, which I felt like that was Honestly,
Speaker 5: I felt that was probably a decent line based off
Speaker 5: of my own.
Speaker 6: This is just my opinion that.
Speaker 5: I figured Kyrie would you know, kind of harm the
Speaker 5: chemistry a little bit?
Speaker 6: Might might not? You know, have his legs underneath them
Speaker 6: right away?
Speaker 5: First game back in a while, but I it was, yeah,
Speaker 5: so you know, every dog has its day, right, that
Speaker 5: was mine last night?
Speaker 6: I yeah, wild.
Speaker 2: Do you think omicron has changed your opinion about the
Speaker 2: value of watching NBA opening lines, like with all the
Speaker 2: uncertainty about how these things change, like you'll see lines
Speaker 2: from the night before.
Speaker 3: To the to tip off ten.
Speaker 2: Point swing sometimes like do you feel like it's more
Speaker 2: important now than ever to kind of assess what games?
Speaker 3: And like I now have the NBA.
Speaker 2: Injury report list bookmarked on my laptop every thirty minutes
Speaker 2: i'm watching. So is there now like more importance than
Speaker 2: ever to kind of like not only look at the
Speaker 2: opening lines, but maybe punt all the way until tip off?
Speaker 5: I I yeah, absolutely, Now, I'm I am someone who's
Speaker 5: always been a you know, very big on opening lines.
Speaker 5: I I do believe that, you know, before the public
Speaker 5: touches them. You know, books have bad.
Speaker 6: Lines sometimes, right, and and there are some some.
Speaker 5: Very good betters out there that you know, expose those
Speaker 5: lines and and informed the public of them, and then
Speaker 5: you know that's it's no longer a bad line, you know,
Speaker 5: speaking to to NFL just really quickly here, I know
Speaker 5: we're we're talking NBA, but I mean it's been the
Speaker 5: same thing in NFL where I've I've picked off what
Speaker 5: I thought were terrible lines. Uh, you know, first thing
Speaker 5: Sunday night when they open, only for Wednesday to roll around,
Speaker 5: and all of a sudden, this player, this player, and
Speaker 5: this player have been ruled out with COVID. Okay, well,
Speaker 5: you know I'm not sitting on a good line anymore,
Speaker 5: right So, it's it's been the same with NBA. It's
Speaker 5: it's you know, everyone, you kind of have to change
Speaker 5: some of your betting habits right now, right where, you know,
Speaker 5: not permanently, but at least temporarily during this this time
Speaker 5: of uncertainty where I would have a really hard time
Speaker 5: placing it significant wager on an opening line right now.
Speaker 3: Yeah, it's interesting.
Speaker 2: I think early on in the day yesterday, the Milwaukee
Speaker 2: Bucks were ten point favorites over the.
Speaker 3: Goodness gracious Detroit Pistons.
Speaker 2: I want to say, somebody trash and I forget who
Speaker 2: it was. And I took Milwaukee minus four and a
Speaker 2: half first half, and I'm thinking to myself, this is great,
Speaker 2: like I'll take this, and then all of a sudden,
Speaker 2: Yannis gets called out for a non COVID related injury
Speaker 2: and our illness, and now not only has the line changed,
Speaker 2: it's flipped. Like now I have to just kind of
Speaker 2: sit there and wait in those situations first and foremost,
Speaker 2: they then became dogs, and then they they were like
Speaker 2: three and a half point favorites for the full game,
Speaker 2: and then they became full dogs in those situations. What's
Speaker 2: your best advice? I sat there and ate it. I
Speaker 2: still ended up winning the full that first half spread,
Speaker 2: but it didn't feel good, didn't feel comfortable, and I
Speaker 2: kind of like my initial instinct was like to just
Speaker 2: go and try to hedge.
Speaker 6: Yeah.
Speaker 5: Now, first of all, I think this trash team that
Speaker 5: you mentioned was my Toronto rapt That's what it was.
Speaker 3: It was the Raptors. Ye. Actually, you guys are playing
Speaker 3: a lot better right now. You guys are.
Speaker 6: Playing a lot thank you.
Speaker 5: That's that's very nice of you to say, we're finally healthy. Now,
Speaker 5: finally got all all of our players on the floor.
Speaker 6: That's okay. So it was my wrap.
Speaker 5: Now, I mean this is very situationally based, right, but
Speaker 5: it is.
Speaker 6: It is tough, and it's it can.
Speaker 5: Be extremely difficult to try to find that hedge on it, right,
Speaker 5: It's it's so situational. I don't want to give any
Speaker 5: advice to say this is what you always do. I
Speaker 5: think a lot of the time you just you have
Speaker 5: to eat it. And and and this is kind of
Speaker 5: what I was just saying, where I I haven't been
Speaker 5: making any significant bets on the NBA, on any early
Speaker 5: lines in the NBA this year for for this exact reason.
Speaker 5: You know, I still haven't necessarily learned my lesson with NFL.
Speaker 5: I'm still trying to pick off some of those early lines.
Speaker 5: But if there's a hedge opportunity, you take it. Otherwise,
Speaker 5: if it's not obvious, you know, I think you do
Speaker 5: just have to eat it.
Speaker 3: Do you think, Matt.
Speaker 2: Finally, you know, we've talked about a lot of scenarios
Speaker 2: and eventualities, and I spoke with Jake Fisher from the
Speaker 2: Bleacher Report today and he says that the NBA is
Speaker 2: in contact with immunal virologists every day and they believe
Speaker 2: that the.
Speaker 3: Worst of all of this is over.
Speaker 2: I think that's a little optimistic, given what you said
Speaker 2: about all the new variants that may come and probably
Speaker 2: will come, and then how that ends up affecting Okay, well,
Speaker 2: you allow non vaccinated players or even vaccinated players to
Speaker 2: not be tested for COVID, so they could end up
Speaker 2: playing with COVID spreading, said COVID and infecting possibly the
Speaker 2: fans right there in the stands. Is Vegas prepared for
Speaker 2: the eventuality, including maybe a surge in places that make
Speaker 2: fans in attendance impossible kind of like Toronto is right
Speaker 2: now due to lockdown.
Speaker 5: So are they prepared as in like their lines, like,
Speaker 5: are they ready to kind of alter lines based off
Speaker 5: of yeah? So you know, we we I think they've
Speaker 5: they've experienced enough games now with and without fans. You
Speaker 5: know that that entire NBA Playoffs that was played in
Speaker 5: the bubble there, right, I mean that was that was
Speaker 5: really something else. So they've they've at least, you know,
Speaker 5: got a bit of a playbook. Here should understand at
Speaker 5: this point, which home crowds are really giving, you know,
Speaker 5: that boost to the team. What are they worth? Is
Speaker 5: it somewhere between one too? You know, I mean zero
Speaker 5: to you know three points ish?
Speaker 6: Right? Where's where's that range?
Speaker 5: So I do believe they are ready to deal with that.
Speaker 6: They have the data anyways.
Speaker 5: But again, you know, as I kind of said last time,
Speaker 5: and you quote me again here, just read the public, right,
Speaker 5: and and that's that's really all they have to do.
Speaker 5: So it's opening a line and having somebody there ready
Speaker 5: to to you know, respond with either whether that's a
Speaker 5: line you know, quick line shift or you know, pull
Speaker 5: the game off the board for a minute and and
Speaker 5: you know, think about what what has just happened here? Right,
Speaker 5: So I think they should be prepared.
Speaker 3: For that quick add on.
Speaker 2: I didn't think about until just now when you were
Speaker 2: talking about how they adjust for home court advantage or
Speaker 2: the absence of if you know, I don't know if
Speaker 2: you do. Like Toronto's famous for their home court advantage,
Speaker 2: like that is one of the most electric places to
Speaker 2: watch a game.
Speaker 3: I watched the finals there.
Speaker 2: The home crowds crazy, the fans outside the stadium crazy,
Speaker 2: adds like a level of atmosphere that I think really
Speaker 2: is meaningful. So like without fans for the Raptors, it's
Speaker 2: it's a meaningful difference, Like what who's the I guess
Speaker 2: can you give kind of like a somewhat of a
Speaker 2: ranking between like the zero in terms of home court
Speaker 2: advantage and like the three.
Speaker 5: So you know, sadly, I do believe for the for
Speaker 5: the most part, this comes down to star teams, right,
Speaker 5: which that teams that have star players that are putting
Speaker 5: fans in the stands, right that's those are the teams
Speaker 5: that you're gonna find near the top here. Then you
Speaker 5: do have your other teams, you know, like Toronto, like
Speaker 5: you've said where I mean it's a very passionate fan base,
Speaker 5: don't have necessarily that that one superstar on the team.
Speaker 5: Fingers crossed for Scottie Barnes here. I really think he's
Speaker 5: gonna be a player. But you know, it's it's it's Toronto,
Speaker 5: It's Golden State. You know, they were they've always kind
Speaker 5: of been known down the Oracle days right where where
Speaker 5: that was a very loud, rowdy stadium. But it's you know,
Speaker 5: on top of that, it's gonna be it's gonna be
Speaker 5: the Lakers, it's gonna be the Nets, it's gonna be
Speaker 5: everyone that has these star players.
Speaker 6: The zeros are.
Speaker 5: Gonna be the teams that don't and and just struggle
Speaker 5: to fill that that stadium.
Speaker 6: Right.
Speaker 5: So that's you know that that's going to be essentially
Speaker 5: you're your ranking look for the star players. Thanks Toronto
Speaker 5: being I think the one.
Speaker 3: Exception in that circumstance.
Speaker 2: Now you in from Sports Betting Dime, thank you for
Speaker 2: joining us. You can find him on Twitter at s
Speaker 2: b d underscore Matt, editor in chief of The Sports
Speaker 2: Betting Dime, thank you so much for joining us.
Speaker 3: I'm sure we'll do it again soon. I'm sure there'll
Speaker 3: be more to come.
Speaker 6: Thanks for having Trista. I always appreciate it. Look forward
Speaker 6: to the next time.
Speaker 2: Ey