This is B-SIN, the SportsBetting Network.

You always do follow the money.

That's what I always say.

You always follow the money.

This is Follow the Money with Mitch Moss and Polly Howard on V-SIN.

Welcome aboard.

Busy hour on tap. A lot of NBA. We have playoff games starting in about an hour.

Derek Stevens in studio coming up in 30 minutes. Our best pets coming up at the back end of the show.

We begin the hour by going out to the progressive guest line. Matt Moore joins the program now,

senior writer with Action Network, and he's on X at HP Basketball. He lives and breathes the association. It's great to talk to you, Matt. Thanks for the time today. How are you? I'm doing well, man. How are you guys doing? Doing really well. We're going to get to why you're super high on the nuggets this year in the playoffs, but we have to begin with what happened over the weekend. Can you wrap your head around what was going on there between San Antonio and Denver and why San Antonio elected, I guess, quote, lose the game? Yeah, I mean, I just think that they're all kind of in the same position of like, look, the West is going to be difficult no matter what. It's going to be brutal, no matter what. You face great teams every night, no matter what. We've done all all we can we've locked the two C we can't get the one there's nothing for us to gain except

risking health in order to knock Denver down i do believe that if you you know kind of play hard

to knock Denver out yeah you might give yourself an easier route but like what if houston

catches you you know i think there's there's like the whole carmic basketball god side of this. I understand from a game theory standpoint, how important that is. But when you've locked your seed, whoever plays you is like, that's their problem. And so I don't really mind San Antonio and how they kind of approached it. I think it was better for them to not risk it. I'm actually surprised they played Castle as much as they did.

They played Dylan Harper, who suffered an injury as much as they did. So I don't have a problem with San Antonio avoiding knocking Denver out. Would the path have been easier? Yeah, but I think they recognize, look, Houston's really good. If the Lakers somehow get through and Luca gets back, they're really good. The Western Conference is tough. Let's make sure that we're in the best position and let

everybody else deal with whatever they're going to deal with.

I liked what, yeah, I understood it from the Denver perspective.

Let's be healthy.

And maybe we can make the case.

It'd be more beneficial to take on OKC in the second round as opposed to the conference

final.

Yeah, I mean, from Denver's perspective, they really were, like, everyone I talked to was health is number one priority. And I asked, is it the only priority? And they're like, well, no. And I was like, okay. And I think they did think that Houston was an easier route. But they're not upset with the route that they got i think they're confident and that i think they i think they are just like houston's tough the wolves are tough the playoffs are tough you never know they have in

their opinion they lost 24 because they were gassed and jamaul murray was hurt they feel like they lost 25 because Michael Porter Jr. and Aaron Gordon were hurt.

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