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00:00Welcome back to the other line here on Sports Grid. Sports Grid TV Series 6M
00:04Channel 159. Mark Zito closing it out here with Coach James Young as we turn
00:07our attention to the NBA tonight. Winding down the regular season here, I've said
00:13repeatedly that the seeding in the Western Conference will absolutely
00:17matter as far as the path and who ends up getting there. Look, we know Oklahoma
00:21City is going to be there, but who else gets there against them? It's gonna matter
00:24for everybody else and we'll start with Golden State and Memphis tonight. The
00:28Grizzlies who fired their coach, they've lost seven of their last ten. They got
00:31beat up last night against the Boston Celtics and now they got to turn around
00:36and face the Golden State Warriors who need to win themselves to continue
00:41to keep pace and avoid the play-in tournament here, Coach. So if you're
00:45Memphis right now and you got a brand new coach in this spot, I mean they're in
00:49danger of losing their grip on being out of the play-in tournament at this point
00:53in time. Yeah, it's still shocking, Mark, that you would fire a coach so close to
01:00the end of the regular season. You can just do it right after the
01:04playoffs, but obviously desperate times come through desperate measures. For a
01:08team in Memphis that is, let's be honest, Mark, they're one game out of being an eighth.
01:14So to me, that is a big, this is a big storyline here. To me, Golden State's
01:19playing really good basketball, winners of seven out of the last ten games, winners of
01:22two games in a row. You know, rest advantage probably was in Memphis, you
01:27know, at least from yesterday morning after a game two nights ago. Memphis has
01:31to travel from Boston to Memphis. You figure they're gonna get home, I don't
01:34know, two, three o'clock in the morning. This favors Golden State, so I do like
01:38Golden State minus a point tonight on the road with Memphis on the second leg
01:42of a back-to-back. Yeah, and you just kind of wonder what the motivation level is
01:45for Memphis. I mean, again, you know, it has not gone well since they fired the
01:50coach. Speaking of motivation level, the Minnesota Timberwolves are taking on the
01:56Denver Nuggets. Look, you know, if I'm Denver, I really would like to grab the
02:02two-seat. Not that I think Houston necessarily is a huge challenge to them,
02:07but them having home-court advantage all the way through up until the Western
02:12Conference Finals matters here. I think that this is a motivated team. Now, again,
02:16Minnesota probably wants to equally win as well to get out of the playing
02:20tournament and have a chance to secure a sixth seed, so they get motivation on
02:24each sides here. I'll always have a tough time betting against Denver
02:28when they're laying this short of a number at home. Yeah, me too, and then the
02:32other part of it is, Mark, is Minnesota had to fight a couple of nights ago with
02:37Detroit, so there could be suspensions coming down the pipe at some point today.
02:41So, if you like Denver, I would go and grab Denver now before it possibly,
02:46Dante DiVincenzo, two guys that were ejected from the fight over the weekend,
02:51may have to sit. So, to me, you're right. Mile high.
02:55Denver trying to get that two seed. You know, if there's a spot here that you'd
03:00like Denver, it's at home, tight spread, minus three and a half. I would lay, I
03:05would lay the points with Denver, minus the points because I do expect possibly a
03:09shorthanded team in Minnesota tonight. All right, final game we'll get into here
03:15in the NBA slate tonight. The Phoenix Suns, who continue to be an absolute
03:19disaster, are hosting the Milwaukee Bucs. Like the NA, the NA, I'm sorry, the, the
03:25A, the Eastern Conference. I'm still stuck on NFL here. The Eastern Conference
03:29is pretty much set. I mean, Atlanta, Orlando, Miami, and Chicago are going to
03:32be the playing teams, unless Milwaukee does something and falters terribly, and
03:36Atlanta goes on a little bit of a win streak here. There's no reason to
03:40believe that any, you know, the Eastern Conference numbers are all set with the
03:44exception, maybe three, four, five kind of deal here. So I don't know that the
03:47Bucs have a whole bunch of motivation necessarily to have to continue to keep
03:50winning, to keep their, their six seed. I think it's pretty firmly planned for
03:53them. Phoenix is a game out of the 10th spot. Talk so much about Kevin Durant
03:57and everything. Now he's got the injury. I don't know what Phoenix motivation
04:00level is to try even getting to play in tournament at this point in time. Feels
04:04like a stay away game here, but I don't, I don't know if you can bet, uh, Phoenix
04:09at this point in time. No, you can't put pieces on opposite with Kevin Durant
04:13being out the next three games. So you can't bet them. Milwaukee is interesting
04:18because they got to start playing better, right? They've lost four games
04:20in a row and they're one game behind Detroit for the five seat. Let's be
04:24honest, folks. Milwaukee has played in the Knicks a couple of times. I've
04:27watched it. Knicks have blown them out. They don't want it that succeed. They
04:32need five. They need five in the worst way except that they match up crazy as
04:36it sounds better with Indiana, even though Indiana bounced him out last
04:39year, but they were hurt to look for them to try and make a move here. Wait
04:42for the game to start. Maybe the line drops a little bit. Then jump on
04:46Milwaukee live in the game. They should be able to get the win in the cover.
04:50Yeah. Milwaukee's path again. Not great. As you mentioned, because the
04:53Knicks have taken care of them, but also this is a patient's team that's
04:55probably playing some of the best basketball in the NBA since they finally
04:59got back to 500 on January 4th at 18 and 18, 26 and 13. That's 67% since,
05:05uh, since they finally get back to 500. So, all right, coach, appreciate you
05:09spending some time with us this morning. We'll probably do it again
05:11our morning. Appreciate you joining us. Thanks for everybody. Tune into the
05:14early line. We got plenty or it's great coming up next. Keep it right here on
05:18the grid.