05-10-23 Line Change Open

Jon Jansen opens the show talking #Sixers, #NBA, #MLB, and more.

Episode Transcript

(00:03):
Sports talk that has never been donebefore in Philadelphia is we're breaking down the
live action and helping you make yourlive wagers at the right moment. Follow
all the action right now on theline Change with John Janson and the biggest

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win of the Joel Embiid era.He of course looks like the MVP that
he is this season, but healso has gotten help that has never been
there before for the Philadelphia seventy sixErs and the growth of this team.
The connectiveness of this team does haveme thinking, now up three to two

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against the Celtics, now crossing ahurdle they haven't crossed before, that this
team might actually be one of thebest in the NBA. They should have
their sites set on not only justwinning this series, which of course they're
in a good position too. Nowthey got to look ahead the Eastern Conference
Finals. Winning Eastern Conference Finals,this team actually has what it takes to

(01:15):
win an NBA Finals. You're tunedinto the line, Change Fox Sports to
Gambler. You can follow me atj Janson thirty four. My name is
John Jansen, to have you forthe next couple of hours, and of
course they're gonna be talking some Sixersgo over the games tonight, and of
course some bets for tonight and lookingahead to tomorrow as well, have to

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start off with that Sixers win.Though. That's one of the best Sixers
wins in almost two decades, andit's the way that it happened that was
surprising to me, because I thoughtfor the Sixers to win this series,
they were gonna need to harden andembeed to continue having these otherworldly absurd performances,
and I Beat wasn't even having absurdperformances, but he was still hitting

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his averages of about thirty to thirtythree thirty four point points. But they
felt like they needed more at somepoint, and it was going to need
to happen in Game five because ifthey go down three to two, the
Sixers are in a bad spot anda matchup that they just haven't been favored
in and taken advantage of very well. They have been porus against Boston,

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and they needed Game five. AndI think the most impressive thing about that
Game five win wasn't embed in hisMVP performance, wasn't even Doc Rivers.
I think Doc Rivers at times andI have definitely felt that he could be
a problem as a coach in theplayoffs. But I never felt like Doc.

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I always felt like the criticism wenttoo far. Doc had some rotation
issues. Now he doesn't because maybethe faults is leading to maybe a positive.
There's not much on the bench forthe Sixers, so he has kept
the rotations. He has to keptthem short. He has left and beat
out there and bead at the secondmost minutes in a game. In game

(03:06):
number four in his career, youhave forty six minutes. He's never only
once had more than forty six minutesbefore James Harden at forty seven minutes I
think in that game. So therotation is getting shorter, and beads out
on the floor more and looks healthy, and James Harden's healthy out on the
floor, and so the rotations havegotten shorter. So really, that was

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the one thing that I didn't likewith Doc. Other than that, I
thought he's fine. Maybe some lategame play drops in bound plays aren't very
good, and his sets maybe notgreat at times, but I always felt
like adjustments were there, and itnever was Doc's issue. It was always
a personnel issue. To me.That was the biggest thing for the Sixers.

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It was always personnel. So whileDoc Rivers could have been looked at
as somebody who was at fault andneeded to get better, I think he
has always been good enough, couldhave been better, could be out coached
at times, But really I thinkhe gets trapped into personnel not being good
enough. And I thought this serieswas another example of that. And then

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here comes Tyres Maxie, here comesto Bias Harris, to Anthony Melton defensively
again putting in absurdly good minutes againsta very good backcourt. And then Daniel
House Junior, the Daniel House Juniorgame. Who saw that coming? Absolutely
nobody except for Doc Rivers. Butthe personnel finally has caught up and the

(04:42):
personnel that I thought was still flawed, and I think they still do need
another addition into that rotation all ofa sudden looked more than good enough when
they haven't. That's been the biggestproblem. You can point to A and
Beads mishaps in the playoffs, someof his bad performances, and I get

(05:03):
it, I get it, Iget it, but it was never to
me about him, Bead and lastnight, even when he puts in an
MVP type performance, that's not abouthim bead. That's about the Sixers actually
looking like a damn good basketball teamfor once. I think what gets pointed

(05:24):
out of the time is twenty nineteenhad Jimmy Butler, Tobias Arris, JJ
Reddick. That was the best Sixersteam at no point that I ever feel
like that was actually a very good, synergized, connected team. I never
felt that way about the Sixers.Then. It's just that Joel Embiid was
getting better and looking like at thattime like he was going to start becoming

(05:46):
an MVP player, and Jimmy Butlercould close, and Ben Simmons was at
the time still a good NBA player, and JJ Reddick was still good.
It was guys that were good,But I never thought it it ever fit
that well. At least we didn'tsee it in that year because they didn't
maybe have the ample time too.But it never felt like they actually were

(06:10):
playing connected basketball the entire season.They were just getting by off of being
really talented. This team has alwaysfelt different in that way that Tobias Harris
is good at his role Maxie asa catch and shoot shooter playing off of
Harden's passing, using his athleticism,that his offensive game has gotten good enough

(06:33):
that he fits the type of playeryou needed in an offense with Harden and
embeed hard and embed worked on thatpick and roll. From year one to
year two, it's been unstoppable.And PJ Tucker, look, I don't
think he's any good. I don'teven know if he really helps this offense.
But if Maxie and Harris are gonnaplay that way, who bleeping needs

(06:56):
him. This Sixers team, forthe first time I can remember in the
Joe l. Embid Air actually lookslike a legit basketball team. They don't
look lost, they don't look badin half court sets. They played good

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defense. And those are the ratings, and those are the numbers that we've
been seeing over and over again aboutthe Sixers. Why everybody's saying, hey,
this might be different, And I'llgive credit Mark Henry Jr. Has
been saying this all year long,that hey, this might actually be different
and be better. Their offensive ratingwas through the roof, their defensive rating

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was through the roof. They weregetting great production out of Tyree's Maxie More
in the second half of the season, Joel Embid was getting better, James
Harden was probably having his best seasonin a probably a long time. I
would say probably since he was inHouston. He had a good year in
Glinn. I would say it's onpart of that, probably better that first

(08:03):
year I think he was in Brooklyn. He became more of that assist guy,
facilitator, took a backseat as ascore and was very good offensively.
But it just changed. But Ithink everybody noticed. A change is a
good one, and Harden has shownthe ability to switch into both, which
is amazing. I just can't remembera team looking that good with that much

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synergy that smooth. It never happenedthat way. Usually it's brute force offensively
for the Sixers, using again yourtalent. James Harden's really talented, Tyrese
Maxie's really talented offensively, obviously,Joel Embiad is very talented offensively. It

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was brute force and now it doesn'tlook that hard. At times, it
can and at times you do realizethat James Harden is it his young self
anymore, and he's not going toput up what he did in Houston all
the time. And sometimes Maxie,especially against Boston, isn't going to look

(09:20):
like that player. But I thinknow we've seen enough of it that I
think we can say this is thebest team that the Sixers have had with
Joe l embiide. This is thesmoothest they have looked in a very long
time. Maxie and his growth,I was concerned about that, So Brooklyn

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Game three was a sign I thinkof something, maybe a foreshadowing that I
was just looking at is maybe heis getting better. I don't know if
it's still good enough, and forthe most part of the series it hasn't
been good enough. But credit toMaxie, credit to Doc Rivers forgetting himselves

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into better spots, Maxie getting morecatch and shoot opportunities, and Maxie letting
it rip from three in Game five. That was a big difference in that
game that ultimately I think won themthe game. Maxi's three point shooting and
his production the thirty points that hehad won them game five. Not at

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any point I thought in this seriesI would be able to say that about
Maxie, and I even I saidyesterday I'm the Daily Ticket that if you
thought the Sixers are gonna win ingame five, bet Maxie over at his
problem and it was eighteen and ahalf. If you thought the Sixers are
going to win bet Maxie over hiseighteen and a half point prop because they
needed him to have a game likethis. But what this shows me as

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well, and this is where Ican look further because Sixers need to get
the job done, and I don'twant to look too far. Okay,
I'm riding this high right now.They won a pivotal game, a game
that they haven't won previously with thiscurrent structure and current era of Sixers basketball.

(11:16):
They haven't won that game, andthey finally did, and they're in
a better position than they ever havebeen. So I think I can at
least look ahead more. And myexpectations now aren't maybe they can get past
Boston. It's they should get pastBoston. This team is good enough to
do that, not only good enough, they might be better than Boston with

(11:41):
Boston's current issues that they have,which could be coach related, which could
be Jason Tatum and Jaitlyn Brown related. Either way, six Ers look like
the better team than Boston, whichis a crazy thing to say. But
with that looking ahead, this wasalways going to be the toughest challenge and

(12:07):
it wasn't because Joel Embiid was goingto be tasked with such a tough battle.
It was al Horford. Al Horford'sgotten the better of him at times,
fourth quarter in game number four.I understand that, but we saw
in Game five Horford doesn't stand achance and bad. As the series has

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gone on, he's gotten better andbetter, and once it beat us one
hundred percent, which by the way, he looked one hundred percent in game
five. Now al Horford's not stoppinghim. So Joel Embiid wasn't challenged in
this series. James Harden has donewell against Boston. Maybe he was gonna
have a tough defensive assignment, butoffensively, James Harden is so good that

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he is going to be productive againstany offense, any defense, and he's
been that way against Boston, wherethe challenge lied was role players. But
I hate to put it solely onMaxie, but Maxie's not just a it's
a nice player to have. He'sa necessity. The Sixers need him to

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play well, and he has overcomethe biggest obstacle of his entire career in
game five. Game five was TyreseMaxie pushing himself past the ceiling that I
thought he would never push himself past. And now that that's happened. The
glass ceiling is shattered and there's nowmore heights to reach. I think Maxie

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now is a reason why the Sixersare going to the NBA Finals, that
they will finish this series against Boston, that they will go on and likely
take on Miami, and Maxi's goingto perform just as well. I know
Miami has a better coach. Theycan make better adjustments, they can make

(14:09):
things uncomfortable, but the talent leveldiscrepancy is too big, and Doc Rivers
is too good of a head coachto be that out coached in that series.
I don't buy that Eric Spoilster isa better coach in Doc Rivers.
And I don't think Doc Rivers isthis amazing top fifteen head coach in NBA
history, But I do think he'sgood enough. And I keep saying that

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a lot. But that's the kindof level that Joel Embeat and James Harden
are playing at. That they're takingcare of business and Beat out a bad
game quote unquote in game four andstill had thirty four and thirteen. He
took care of business. James Hardenin games one and four took care of
business. The other guys around themjust need to be good enough, and

(14:58):
for the most part, at timesthey haven't been. But now, through
five games a full body of work, I think we're starting to see that
they might actually be, and thatincludes Doc Rivers. So no is Doc
Rivers a better coach than Eric Spoelstra. Heck, no, Eric Spoelstra is
the best coach in the league,and I don't think it's really that close.

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Doc Rivers is still a pretty darngood one. Well. I thought
was always unfairly criticized. I didn'tthink he was great, I didn't think
he was the best, but unfairlycriticized for a lot of the Sixers issues.
But all those issues seem to beexpelled now, at least for this
season. They are, and soMaxie, with his growth moving forward,

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I think makes that Heat series eveneasier. I'm not saying it's a slam
dunk a lot of people are.I would still be kind of concerned about
it because that Miami team is justshooting the three ball well, and maybe
if they continue that, which itseems like there's no signs of stopping,
that they could steal a few gamesin the Sixers. I could see that
happening. But for the most part, they're gonna be a heavy favorite,

(16:08):
rightfully so, and I don't thinkthat it should be any other way.
Sixers should be a heavy favorite.So I think the Sixers now have a
team that is even easier to goup against Miami and beat Miami. We

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are looking at one of the better, more well rounded starting lineups. I'm
not gonna say team overall, becauseagain depth issues. I'm still concerned about.
If Daniel House Junior can give themminutes like that, great, If
Paul Reid can have a game andgive them some minutes in a big series,
that would be awesome. If theAnthony Melton could fantastic, but I

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don't know if I can rely onthat too much. But the Sixers starting
lineup may actually be one of thebest lineups remaining. The Phoenix Suns have
Devin Booker and Kevin Durant and itinjured Chris Paul. That's not better than

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the Sixers. The Warriors have StephCurry, a Clay Thompson that doesn't look
he looks good, doesn't look nearlylike himself from even last year and a
few years ago, not the samedefensive player, and offensively is a little
bit more limited than he used tobe. The Lakers, they have depth,

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you can consider them better. Butif I look at the total starting
lineup, I'm taking Tyrese Maxie overAustin Reeves. I'm taking Tobias Harris over
Jared Vanderbilt. It's better and theLakers I think remaining maybe the best team
in the Western Conference. I knowwe can look at the Nuggets, and
the Nuggets would provide a challenge,but I don't know if Jamal Murray and

(18:07):
Aaron Gordon are up to part.It's been a lot of Nikla Yokich,
but the Sixers do have a goodadvantage there. I think with being the
best defensive center, I think inthe NBA, even though he's not gonna
get all MBA, he matches upI think well against Yokich. Then we've
seen that before as well. Imean he put a beating on Yokis when

(18:32):
they played in the regular season.So I think the one team that was
always mismatch the team that I didn'tknow if the Sixers could ever get by.
I didn't think the roster was betterthan it was always Boston, and
in beating Boston, I think theypushed through barriers and glass ceilings that they've

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never pushed through before, and nowthat they seem like they're doing so,
sky's the limit. I truly believethat if this lineup is good enough to
beat that Boston team and doing itin the way that they did in Game
five and hopefully can do in Gamesix or seven, Sixers are ready for

(19:19):
an NBA Finals run. This isn'tglad to be out of the second round.
This isn't well. They can winthe Eastern Conference Finals and beat Miami,
and if they get to the NBAFinals, it's good enough. This
is I think the best chance theSixers have of winning of Finals. With
Joe ollmpide, this team has shownthat much synergy, that much improvement.

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Their two star players are healthy andplaying their best basketball. Tyres Maxie's in
his third year and seems to bemaking that leap forward to Bias Harris is
playing his best in his role thathe's in. I can't remember a Sixers
line up being this good and comparingit to the rest of the team's remaining

(20:04):
they again might be the best.That's why you'll see them at the top
over at bet Parks by the wayyou're tuning into the line Change Fox Sports
the Gambler. You can follow usat Fox PHL Gambler Fox PHL Gambler dot
com, where you could check outthe website and check out all the podcasts
as well, especially the Stealing theBag podcast which with myself and Jeremy Horwath.

(20:29):
But as always Fox PHL Gambler dotcom. But if you were to
go to bet Parks Line Change presentedby bet Parks look at the futures NBA
Championship odds. Rightfully so, Denverplus two seventy five is the favorite because
they add a big win against thePhoenix and they look like they might take
that series. Phoenix has been putPhoenix has been putting up a great fight.

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But it's a two horse race withDevin Booker and Kevin Durant, and
they're going up an entire stable thatI don't think they'll be able to beat.
It's too much for them. SoDenver rightfully so at the top.
But Denverse plus two seventy five theSixers are tied with the Lakers over at
bet Parks for future's odds for championshipwinner, not Eastern Conference Championship winner tied

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with the Lakers right behind Denver atthree to one. This is the best
chance the Sixers will have. ThisSixers team is that good. And again
I think I could make the caseand I believe the Sixers might have the
best starting lineup remaining. I've neverseen a lineup the Sixers look this good.

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Maybe there's been a more talented lineup, and I think the twenty nineteen
one we look at all the timewith Jimmy Butler, and we look back
all we wish we had Jimmy Butler. We wish we had this. This
is better, full stop. Thisis better. And I think what we
saw with Boston in Game five,and hopefully again that the disappointment comes,

(22:17):
it is going to be really disappointingbecause again I think Game five broke through
a barrier that they have not beenable to break through before. And if
they take five step backwards, that'sgoing to be a huge, huge concern.
Finish it, and if they do, they might be the best team
remaining in the entire NBA Playoffs.You're tuned into the line change Fox Sports.

(22:41):
The Gambler coming up next on theline change will continue with some basketball
as the NBA playoffs continue tonight alsointo tomorrow, and of course we have
Major League Baseball. We'll go overthe latest with the Phillies. They do
have some injury update that we cango over and more coming up next year

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on the line Change Fox Sports.The Gambler