UNDISPUTED | Who wins Game 3 of NBA Finals: Butler & Heat or Jokic & Nuggets? - Skip and Shannon

Game three of the NBA finals tomorrow night. Heat two and a half point underdogs according to Fox Fed Sportsbook. This despite one, the games in Miami and two, they're coming off that huge road win in Denver. Shannon, before we get to Skip, do you think odds makers are underestimating Jimmy Butler in Miami? No, I don't think they're underestimating him. I mean, for the most part, Skip, with the last series and this series, they've both been, even though they've won the game on the road, they've always come home and been a what one to two, sometimes three-point underdog. And here they find themselves again as a three-point underdog. I think they just a lot of value in the Denver Nuggets considering they've been basically the number one seed in the Western Conference for an extended period of time. They have the best player in the series. So they have two of the three best players are in the series and they just have a lot of confidence in the Denver Nuggets. I don't think the Heat are being undervalued. I just think they think the Nuggets have the better team. And when you think so, and look, Vegas is not, they don't really care about, you know, this or that. They're trying to win money. And right now it seems to be that everybody is still betting their money on the Denver Nuggets. Now we could see this line between now and when, tip-off Skip, it might come down. I don't see it going up, but it might come down. But I think the proper value is where it is, considering that the Heat has what, you know, did steal a game on the road. They played very, very well at home. But I don't think they're being undervalued. I think they just a lot of value with the Denver Nuggets and what they represent. So I'm not surprised that the Heat are an underdog. I'm going to ask the odds makers what I keep asking you. When will you ever learn about this Miami Heat team? I have never in my career seen anything like this Miami Heat team. Do you need to bring this in? You can bring it in. Go ahead. There you go. You can get you some TV time. Yeah, there you go. You can't be without your ammunition. Go ahead, go ahead. So here's the point. Over this playoff run. Right. Think about this. Ten times the Heat have been underdogs and outright won the game. Ten times. That is an all-time NBA playoff record. And we still got at least three games to go, right? Well, if you bet with the Heat, you won a lot of money thus far in the playoffs. Okay. So then here's the other side of this. Okay. They have seven postseason wins after trailing by at least 10 points, 10 or more points. That's impossibly great. Right. Because it just doesn't happen that frequently in the NBA playoffs. It's just hard, especially when during the season you rank 25th in offensive efficiency and during the season you rank 27th in three-point shooting. Right. What's most impressive about the stat that you just gave? Think about how many of those games have come on the road. You understand teams come from behind at home skill because the crowd get into it. You make a couple of threes, the crowd get into it. You're right back in the ballgame. But for them to do it twice against Boston, they had the Boston had 13 point lead. And to do it again against the number one seed. What they just achieved in game two was all-time extraordinary. And it's not getting the credit it deserves because it's starting to be ho-hum for the Miami Heat to do this to superior teams. I've given you all along. Bucks are better than the Heat, at least on paper. The Celtics are way better than the Heat, at least on paper. Oh, Denver is way better than the Miami Heat, at least on paper, but not on the floor. Not when the ball gets tipped because this team has become a force of basketball nature, the likes of which I've never seen because Cinderella's don't win NBA championships. It's too many seven-game series to fight through, and you're going to get exposed as an eight-seed fraud. At some point, somebody will expose you. It's too many games. Well, Skip, they're only the second seed to make it this far. The Knicks made it, but they were swept by San Antonio in 99. Now, think about it. Okay, remember that was a strike choice? Strike choice, yeah. They played only 50 games. Yeah. Okay. But— Patrick Ewing was hurt, so go ahead. But, so you have to give the Heat some credit, Skip, because they've already won more games than that Knicks team, so we know they're not going to get swept. And now they come home having stolen home court away from the Denver Nuggets. So, Skip, when you look at it, you're like, this is an eight-seed. It's hard. How do you get that out of your mind? Even though Mike Malone says, this is not your typical eight-seed. But they are. They're an eight-seed. I don't care what you try to make them out to be. They came into these playoffs as the eighth seed. Okay, and then what happened? They lost at home to the Hawks, the Atlanta Hawks that I never loved all year. And guess what the rebound advantage was for the Hawks that night? This is at Miami. 63-39, Hawks battered them, bullied them on the backboards. 63-39. Offensive rebounds. It was absurd what happened to this team. No rebounds, no rings, said the godfather of the Miami Heat, Pat Riley, once upon a time. And then you jumped on the Bulls bandwagon. And I did not blame you. I'm not ridiculing you for this because everybody did. Right. And I wrote it down. With 3.47 left in the game, the Bulls were up three points. 3.47. They are three minutes and 47 seconds at home from being eliminated from the play-in. Not the playoffs, from the play-in. And Jimmy Butler with 2.17 left hit a driving layup that put him up one and they hung on and survived. That's all they did was survive. And before you knew it, they had eliminated the Milwaukee Bucks, the best defensive team in basketball. I don't care what you say. Between Drew Holiday and Brooke Lopez and Giannis, that's the best defensive team in basketball. That's the best that I saw all year. I know the Lakers came on late, but consistently throughout, this is the best. Heat in five. Huh? And Drew Holiday said after that series, I don't care. You could have Michael Jordan in his prime, LeBron in his prime sitting in the chair, as you say. None of those guys, neither of those guys could have stopped Jimmy Butler, who was making shot after shot after shot on Drew Holiday. That game four, he had 56. This is ridiculous. Okay. Too good. Okay. Heat in five. Right. And then here come the Knicks and the Heat were a slight underdog to the Knicks because the Knicks had arrived. They were on the rise, but they had arrived in most people's eyes. Yeah. Because they had beaten Cleveland. Yeah. And looked pretty good doing it. And I thought they were legit. And what happened? It took six games, but the Heat prevailed and nobody really noticed until, wait a second, here comes Boston. And then everybody said, prohibitive favorite, Boston. Games one and two, they were eight point and then nine point favorites at home. And you know, the rest of the story, the Heat go up 3-0, then lose three straight. And everybody presumes they are going to be the victims of NBA history because Boston's going to be the first ever to come back from 0-3 down to win it in seven games because they got game seven at home. It's not on the road. It's at home. They got blown off the floor in game seven. It was a complete and utter annihilation and embarrassment for Celtic pride and Celtic nation. And you say, wait a second, is this legit or not? Game one, it looked like a mismatch at Denver. For the most part, they rallied back in the fourth quarter and they hit six out of 12 threes. And I said, well, maybe they'll take some of that momentum into game two. They did. And they did. Max Strews goes 0-10 in the first game and 0-9 from three, and he comes out in the first quarter and says, no, I got this. He made four out of seven threes and kept them afloat. Yeah, he did. And then yet late second quarter, they go up by 13, 13, 15. They went by 15. And I'm saying, that's it. On to game three. Maybe they can win a couple of games at home. And they fought back. It's only a six-point game at halftime. Then Jimmy Butler goes 0-5 in the third quarter while Jokic scores 18 in the third quarter. In the second half, he looked invincible. Scored 28 of his 41. Well, the thing was, Skip, he scored 18 in the third. And even though he was doing his thing, he had to feel good that, yeah, he went crazy. But we're only down six. OK. They're down eight going into the fourth quarter. And all of a sudden, Eric Spoltstrup pushes the Duncan Robinson button. Duncan Robinson. What? And it wasn't 10 straight, but he scores 10 quick points in just under two minutes. Well, he outscored him 10-2 by himself. 10-2. He goes three, driving layup. Three, driving layup. And the second three was just a flat-out, in-your-face bomb. And you look up, and an eight-point lead is evaporated into a three-point heat lead. And they never look back. Right. And they were up 12 with three and a half minutes left. And it got tight, and Jamal had a last-second shot. So you can say, well, but still, the odds makers are still saying, no, no, no, no, no, no, no. They're saying exactly what they said in the Milwaukee series and in the Boston series. When they go back to Miami, these teams are still superior to that team. And so this game coming up tomorrow night, it's a three-point game in favor of the visiting team. And I keep saying, OK, it's about to be shame on you, because you're going to swing and miss again, because this team is legit. Even though over the last seven games, Jimmy Butler has not been playoff Jimmy. Right. He's been way off Jimmy. He's averaging 21-7-7, which sounds OK, but you would think they're solo stars. But 21-7-7 doesn't make you playoff Jimmy. No, it does not. It's the Herculean numbers. Well, you just said 56 does. Yes. Or the 35-35. The game five in the finals against the Lakers. That makes you playoff Jimmy. Game one against Boston at Boston, 35. I'll go with that. Right. 21. And guess what he's shooting from the floor over those seven games? 39%. That's way off Jimmy, right? Yes. And he was seven of 19 in game two. And you would think, well, that's not good enough to get you through. It was good enough. I still don't quite get how they do it. But this is the classic. Look, LeBron doesn't live here anymore, right? Like these are the non-LeBron. So we keep looking back at what LeBron and D-Wade and Bosh did. They won two championships. They lost a couple, but they still got to four finals and won two of them. Right. This looks nothing like that because Jimmy is not seen as that big. He's a star, but not a superstar. Bam is looked at as a six foot nine inch five, as in center, as in overachiever. He's the hardest working man in show business. I've never seen anybody sweat like he sweats. And he will scratch and claw you to death. But is he a gifted dominant? Is he a joker? No, he's not a joker. Okay. So now we're talking about four undrafted players who contribute heavily. We're talking about a Tyler Hero who broke his hand in game one against Milwaukee and was a 20 point a game score. Yeah, this is a vastly different team because you look at LeBron at that time was the best player in basketball. D-Wade was a top 10 player. Chris Bosh was a perennial all-star. And even the role players. Mike Miller was a top five pick. Ray Allen was what he was. Rio was the first round draft skipper.