02-05-21 NBA Blog Train Friday
TGIF!
Nine games on the Friday night menu.
Let’s get it!
Pelicans +1.5 at Pacers Under 228
In the first meeting between the Pelicans and Pacers on January 4th, the Pelicans led by 10 points with 2 minutes left and by 6 points with 30 seconds left before the Pacers hit two 3’s to send the game to OT where they would eventually win.
Tonight, the Pelicans were up by as many as 18 points, but the Pesky Pacers hung around and made a run in the 4th quarter that felt eerily similar, down to a Myles Turner 3 to pull the Pacers within one point with 39 seconds left.
The next Pelicans possession, Brandon Ingram was guarded by… Aaron Holiday. For those that don’t know, Ingram is 6 ft. 8 inches tall while Holiday is 6 ft. flat — that’s what we call a mismatch. But Holiday held down the fort and Ingram air balled his jumper, resulting in a shot clock violation. Pacers ball with 13.7 seconds left. SVG subbed in Josh Hart for Zion for defensive purposes like he’s been doing.
Myles Turner had a chance to be the hero, driving to the hoop for the potential game-winning layup, but he was met at the basket by… Lonzo! It was Lonzo who made the game-winning defensive stand, causing Turner’s shot to miss without fouling.
The Pelicans actually hung on to win a close game!
Pelicans 114, Pacers 113.
This Over/Under 228 came down to that last shot. The Under was in the driver’s seat for most of the game until both teams shot the lights out in the 4th, so the Under would have been a super Squeaky Lock. Over 228.5 would have been a bad beat, thinking that you had a Comeback Lock only to be denied by Lonzo Ball.
Goga Bitadze had the best game that we have ever seen him play, 10 points and 2 blocks in 19 minutes off the bench with a +13 net rating. Goga!
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Bulls at Magic +2.5 OVER 224.5
The Magic held a lead throughout the majority of this game and carried an 11-point lead going into the 4th quarter behind an incredible game by Vooch. The Bulls came charging in late, so much so that we actually jumped on a Bulls live MoneyLine when Zach LaVine drilled a deep 3 to make it a 4-point game with 5 minutes left. We love the odds in these types of scenarios. Bulls MoneyLine at +222 only down by 4 points with all of the momentum? Yes, please!
You know what you don’t want to see when you have your money on the game? Missed bunnies. As in Pat Williams missing an easy uncontested layup off the glass.
Seriously, he missed this lay up! Pat Williams was having a great game, too: 20 points on 7-of-11 shooting for the rook.
A few possessions later, Coby White left Cole Anthony in the dust on a give-and-go with Thad Young, and Coby blew a WIDE open layup of his own.
Seriously, he missed this bunny! Talk about a kick right in the pants.
Coby did thankfully make up for it a couple of possessions later, draining a 3-pointer that tied the game at 112 with 2 minutes left.
Down the stretch, however, Evan Fournier made a tough baseline jumper, and the Magic made their free throws to seal the deal and snap their 4-game losing streak.
Magic 123, Bulls 119.
Our Bulls live MoneyLine didn’t hit, but Over 224.5 sure would have been a Pure Lock.
Vooch finished with a career-high 43 points and snagged 19 rebounds, putting the Magic on his stretch-5 back.
The rematch is tomorrow (Saturday) night.
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Raptors +5.5 at Nets Push 240
Soo this is the part where we have to tell you that earlier this week, we took the Under on the Clippers-Nets on Tuesday night. As in Under 242 despite knowing that 15 of the last 16 Nets Overs had hit. We had cashed several of those Nets Overs in, but we were feeling Under 242, thinking that between the Clippers slow Pace (29th in the NBA) and a national TV game on a Tuesday night, the Nets were due for an Under. That Under looked soo good basically the entire game. It still looked great at the end even though the scoring had picked up dramatically, but then Steve Nash started fouling while up 3 with freaking 7 seconds left.
And so, we lost on free throws.
That Nets Under was a Bad Beat. So tonight, we were ready jump back on this Nets Over. 240 actually seemed kinda low considering how much the Raptors like to heave 3’s. This was on ESPN, yes, but the national TV games going Under theory seems to be off this season, like most things.
1st quarter: Raptors 34, Nets 23. 57 combined points, on pace for 228. Not a great start.
2nd quarter: Nets 40, Raptors 33. 73 combined points! 130 points in the 1st half, now on pace for 260!
Now in case you somehow missed it, there was some cooky shit going on with this game tonight. KD was a late scratch due to the protocols, except… there he was with 4 minutes left in the 1st quarter, coming off the bench for the first time in his career. KD being in the game is what you want to see when you have the Over.
HOWEVER, KD was then PULLED FROM THE GAME in the 3rd quarter because of the protocols / contact tracing which, as you can imagine, completely derailed all of the momentum and energy in this game.
Fast forward to late in the 4th quarter, and we still had a chance at this Nets Over anyway with late free throws on our side this time.
Siakam free throws with 12 seconds left brought the scoreboard to Raptors 123, Nets 117. That’s 240 points! All we needed was the Nets to make a shot!!!
Kyrie sent up a 3… Alas, she did not fall. The Raptors grabbed the rebound. We were screaming for them to foul! It even looked like they were trying to foul! But no foul was called and the final buzzer sounded.
Raptors 123, Nets 117.
A motherfucking Push.
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Bucks -11 at Cavaliers Under 228.5
Coach Bud here looks exactly how we did when we saw KD get pulled from the game.
Bucks 123, Cavs 105.
This Over/Under 228.5 came down to the very end as well. Garland and Dean Wade both missed shots in the final minute that would have bumped it Over but nope. The Over was on pace to hit the entire time, too. So yeah, this Over 228.5 would have been a Baaaaaad Beat. The Under, on the other hand, would have been a Miracle Comeback Lock.
Points in the paint: Bucks 74, Cavs 58.
The rematch is tomorrow (Saturday) night.
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Jazz -8.5 at Hornets OVER 224.5
Ah yes, a clash of two titans: Jazz Under vs. Hornets Over.
Previously our two favorite bets that we have actually been staying away from. Funny enough, Hornets Overs have been hitting like crazy, 5 out of the last 6 and 8 out of the last 10! Jazz Unders have hit some, but you can’t feel comfortable taking them with the nightly barrage of 3’s they rain down.
We were torn, so we stayed away. But then the Hornets jumped out to an early 12-point lead. That’s when we saw that we could still get the Hornets MoneyLine with good odds. Our beloved Hornets were up by 12 and looking sharp with Rozier back in the lineup and LaMelo starting again. We pulled the trigger on it, and right on cue, the Jazz went on a monumental 55-25 run. The Hornets 12-point lead did a complete 180. We were now staring at an 18-point deficit which became 25 at it’s worst.
The Hornets were left for dead… but they didn’t give up! In fact, they even buzzed back to pull within 9 points in the 4th quarter after LaMelo sniped a step-back 3. LaMelo was superb all night. We love his level of confidence and awareness for a 19-year-old prodigy. He scored a career-high 34 points!
After the Hornets made it a 9-point game, the Jazz woke all the way up, remembering, “Oh yeah, we can just shoot and make a bunch of 3’s!”
The Jazz made SIX 3’s over the final 7 minutes, good for 26-of-50 on the night, setting the new franchise-record for made 3’s in a game.
Jazz 138, Hornets 121.
We should have just taken this Hornets Over!!!
Your nightly fun nugget from Eric Collins on #81 for the Jazz, Miye Oni — if you are thinking WHO HE!? upon seeing that name then we guess you missed our episode of WHO HE!? on March 2nd, 2020. Oni wears #81 to honor Kobe, 81 being the amount of points Kobe scored in one game on the Raptors back in 2006. EC also let us know that there is only one other player in NBA history to wear the number 81… Jose Calderon, the pig farmer!
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Wizards at Heat -7 Under 230
The Heat -7 would have been one of the most Pure Locks.
Heat 122, Wizards 95.
Brad Beal with a rare off game: 7 points on 1-of-14 shooting. The fewest amount of points Blue Panda had scored this season previous to tonight was 26.
Perhaps this win can get the Heat going in the right direction. Next up? A home-and-home vs. the Knicks.
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Timberwolves -2.5 at Thunder Under 220.5
An Al Horford 3 tied this game at 103 with 25 seconds left.
If only D-Lo had actually broken out the “Ice in my Veins!” celebration.
Diallo had a pretty good look at a potential game-tying 3 at the buzzer. Alas, she did not fall.
T-Wolves 106, Thunder 103.
Something you don’t see in the box score every day: Jaden McDaniels did not score, 0 points in 29 minutes but still finished with a +20 net rating! How? That was made possible by Jaylen Nowell scoring 14 points in 16 minutes off the bench which were mostly lined up with McDaniels. If you just read Jaylen Nowell’s name and you’re thinking WHO HE?! then we guess you also missed our episode of WHO HE!? on March 6th, 2020. (Yeah, bruh, we been out here.)
The rematch is tomorrow (Saturday) night.
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Pistons at Suns -8 Under 212
Suns 109, Pistons 92.
The Pistons struggled mightily from 3: 7-of-36 for 19.4 percent.
The Suns avenged their loss to the Pistons from exactly four weeks ago.
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Celtics +5.5 at Clippers OVER 219
When we got the notification that Paul George was out tonight, we checked the MoneyLine for this one and still saw the Celtics +215. We jumped right on it, although we must admit to not realizing at the time that Jaylen Brown was also not playing. But we felt a lot better when we saw that Payton Pritchard would make his grand return!
The Clippers led from the jump, very much in control and up by as many as 16 points. It never got too out of hand, though, the Celtics stayed within reach and were down by 11 at halftime.
Everything changed in the third quarter when the Celtics started making a bunch of three-pointers. Like, a BUNCH: 8-of-11 from 3, their most made 3’s in a quarter this season. All of a sudden, the Celtics were up by 10!
We knew that the Clippers would make a run, which they sure did.
Daniel Theis left the game and did not return. Zubac was a problem, 7-of-7 from the field including:
A Zubac power dunk! We stan Brian Sieman’s power dunk reactions.
It was a Sweet Lou corner 3 from a nice dime from Kawhi that made it a 1-point game with 46 seconds left.
Kemba then swished a slick mid-range step-back jumper after a chaotic sequence where Tatum threw the ball away but then forced a turnover to get the ball right back, almost giving us a heart attack. Kawhi missed a couple of shots late and the C’s made their free throws for our MoneyLine hit!!
Celtics 119, Clippers 115.
Gotta love it when the last bet of the night pulls through!
Tatum scored 34 points. He seems to always bring his A-game against the Clippers.
We have long clamored for Brad Stevens to play Carsen Edwards more. Tonight, Stevens had to play him out of necessity, but Carsen scored 16 points in 30 minutes (3-of-5 from 3) and finished with a game-high +9 net rating!
Guess the Clippers aren’t done blowing double-digit leads just yet… (Sorry, had to.)
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Check back on late Sunday night / Monday morning for our weekly Power Dunk City post with the best power dunks from this week and our ratings.
We love this game!
