Big Mac Refuses to Trade Aaron Judge for a Knicks Championship

**Craig Carton** (0:00)
You know what I think it's time for?
I think it's time for a little playoff preview. And it's brought to you by Thrivewell Infusion, thrivewellinfusion.com, saving lives drip by drip.

**Chris McMonigle** (0:10)
Nice.

**Craig Carton** (0:10)
So, playoff preview time.

**Chris McMonigle** (0:14)
Playoff preview time. This is the first season tonight.

**Craig Carton** (0:18)
Yes, it is the first season tonight.

**Chris McMonigle** (0:19)
And this is not about Wembay. Wembay is going to give you his year 26, 10, and 5
And I think that's the expectation. The question now becomes, do you see more Dylan Harper in the second half, especially the fourth quarter? And one of the member of the Spurs shows up big and makes big shots in big spots. From a Nick perspective, this is about finding their outside shot and making sure, again, Carl Lee Towns does a good job staying out of foul trouble. He picked up his fourth in the second half, but he was at no point were you concerned about, oh no, we got to put him on the bench. From a Nick standpoint, I feed him, and I hope that they play one-on-one defense with Wembay guarding him 25 feet from the goal. He proved in game one that as good as Wembay is defensively, he can beat him off the dribble, which a lot of big men can't. So that's one aspect of it. The other one is the Knicks have to find one of their starter strokes from downtown. It was great what Shammet did, great obviously what Alvarado did, but whether it's Bridges, whether it's OG, they're going to have to find the outside stroke. My gut is that tonight, you're going to see the Spurs play more up tempo, maybe they've got their legs under them because they certainly didn't in game one, and I think they're going to do what the Cavs did, and they're going to challenge Josh Hart to take outside jump shots. And if he makes them, the Knicks win. If he doesn't, then the Spurs will have a better shot.

**Craig Carton** (1:43)
I also think, I think a lot of people were getting on him, and he's talked about playing his game. I think playing defense on Wemby's going to be big tonight because I think he's going to try to get to the basket a lot. He took nine threes, he went, was it two for nine from three-point land? I think he's not, I don't think he's going to shoot that many threes.

**Chris McMonigle** (1:58)
Well, he shouldn't. That plays into the next hands.

**Craig Carton** (2:00)
Absolutely. I think he's going to try to get to the basket. So we'll see. And when he tries to get to the basket, now you're talking, obviously, Towns got to play defense on him. And if he gets into foul trouble, you mentioned, that's what made me think of it. Like, if he attacks Carl Anthony Towns and gets Carl Anthony Towns in the foul trouble, I think Mitch could play a big role tonight.

**Chris McMonigle** (2:17)
For sure.

**Craig Carton** (2:17)
I think you might.

**Chris McMonigle** (2:17)
He only played 13 minutes, by the way, Game 1

**Craig Carton** (2:19)
I think he's going to play more minutes tonight. I think defending Wembay going to the basket tonight, making sure you don't foul him, making sure you stop him, because Marv said it.
I think the gambling line explains it to you. I think Wembay's going to try and put this team on his back tonight.

**Chris McMonigle** (2:34)
The gambling line would tell you to take the Spurs tonight. Because from a pure gambling education standpoint, they're favored by too many points tonight.

**Craig Carton** (2:43)
They're begging you to take the Knicks.

**Chris McMonigle** (2:45)
Yes, that's exactly what they're doing. So the spread does indicate that the Spurs are the play tonight, just from an educational standpoint, for those of you that don't gamble or are considering gambling. But my problem with that is this Knicks team is just different. They've won every game but one that they were underdogged in. One of those losses was the one point loss, one of the two one point losses to Atlanta way back a month and a half ago. So the reality is that while the spread tells you the Spurs are the play tonight, I can't for the life of me make my brain make that make sense.
This Knicks team is just playing differently right now. And I don't know how you bet against the Knicks number one, but give the Knicks seven and a half points, which I think is where the line is at right now.