02-12-21 NBA Blog Train Friday
Eleven games on the Friday night menu. And what a glorious Friday night it was.
Timberwolves at Hornets -2.5 Over 230
The Over/Under for this game started out at 228.5, and when it moved all the way to 230, we still took it. KAT was in the lineup and these are our beloved Hornets after all.
This Over 230 got off to a sluggish start, but it picked up and was on pace to hit at halftime with the Hornets leading 60-59, on pace for 238.
Tonight was very much a Terry Rozier Game. Rozier looked like he did on Opening Night Round II, racking up the T-Wolves for 41 points and 6-of-10 on 3’s.
LaMelo had another superb game with 20 points, 11 rebounds and 4 assists, and he was constantly pushing the pace, setting up the Hornets in homemade transition opportunities, something you LOVE to see when you have the Over.
We were still on pace to hit after the 3rd quarter, but the 4th quarter got going and the points hit a serious dry spell. Both teams couldn’t buy a bucket.
What looked like a Solid Lock turned into a Mirage Lock / Slippery Rock that slipped away. With less than 30 seconds left, we were at 220 points, 10 short.
BUT WAIT.
The T-Wolves started fouling! The Hornets hit their free throws and the T-Wolves were still gunning, trying their damndest to get back in the game. A quick Jaden McDaniels layup that Eric Collins referred to as “window dressing” was followed by two Rozier free throws, followed by a Malik Beasley bucket that took only 4 seconds. And then a botched Hornets inbounds pass was grabbed by Beasley and dunked!
The Hornets and T-Wolves combined to scored 14 points in the final 25 seconds! The Over pulled through!!
The mirage really was there after all!!!
Hornets 120, T-Wolves 114.
Ant-Man had some nice moments in this one where you can really see something there. 21 points on 9-of-21 shooting with 6 rebounds and 3 assists (2-of-6 from 3, even!) was a solid performance from the 19-year-old.
Our beloved Hornets are in 1st place of the Southeast Division!
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Knicks -3.5 at Wizards UNDER 218.5
The Knicks -3.5 and this Under would have been a Double Pure Lock.
The 3-point shooting was shit-in-your-pants-in-public awful: Knicks 6-of-34, 25%. Wiz 9-of-34, 26.5%.
Is Julius Randle an East All-Star? He’s on the cusp, but ultimately probably one of the first few left off. Tonight, Randle scored 24 points and snagged 18 boards.
Knicks 109, Wizards 91.
Brad Beal didn’t play. Westbrook did, and was decent, but it didn’t matter.
Mitchell Robinson fractured his hand. :/
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Spurs +2.5 Hawks Over 224.5
Honestly, we thought the Hawks -2.5 here was the move, but that would have been an Anti-Lock.
The Spurs led wire-to-wire and dominated the 2nd quarter 41-19 — yeah, DOMINATED. The Spurs were up by as many as 42 points. The final score is NO indication of this game.
Spurs 125, Hawks 114.
4th quarter: Hawks 42, Spurs 15. (Opposite of the 2nd quarter.)
If there is anybody built to stop Trae Young, it’s Dejounte Murray.
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Pelicans at Mavericks -3 OVER 233.5
Over 233.5 seemed high, but Zion + Luka on a Friday night = basketballin . net is taking the Over!
This was one of the most Pure Locks. The points were scored in droves and they never stopped. The never let up one bit! The 61 combined points in the first quarter were the fewest of any frame.
Luka scored a career-high 46 points. KP scored 36 of his own while sniping 3’s from the logo. Porzingis made eight 3’s!
Stop us if you’ve heard this before: Zion was an absolute B E A S T, unstoppable in the paint, easy bucket after easy bucket, layup after layup, 23 points in the first half on perfect 10-for-10 shooting. We STAN how SVG is using Zion now as the lead ball-handler in the pick-and-roll. We are HERE for Point Zion! Big Z finished with 36 points and 14-of-15 on the night. Ingram had 30.
Mavs 143, Pellies 130.
This Over really was SO Pure.
The Pelicans defense is still a problem. #analysis
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Clippers -7.5 at Bulls Over 225.5
Clippers -7.5 would have been a pretty Solid Lock and you could probably even argue it as Pure.
This Over was steady throughout before taking off in the 4th. It would have been another Solid Lock.
Benny the Bull is fantastic.
Clippers 125, Bulls 106.
The big damage was handled by Kawhi in the 3rd quarter and Sweet Lou and Marcus Morris in the 4th.
Pat Williams had a forgettable game: 3 points in 35 minutes. His fourth game this season of scoring 5 or less points.
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Pistons +7 at Celtics Under 211
The Pistons +7 would have been a Pure Lock.
Oh, this was a… SADDIQ BEY game!
Count that baby and a foul! Bey scored 30 points with perfect 7-of-7 from 3 shooting (!!?) and snagged 12 rebounds… We see you, rook!
Pistons 108, Celtics 102.
This Under 211 would have a Squeaky Lock, they almost went Over because of late free throws like our Hornets game earlier.
The J-Team combined for 60 points, but the Celtics bench unit got worked.
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Thunder +11.5 at Nuggets UNDER 221.5
Player Prop alert! We rolled with Jokic: Over 8 assists. We saw The Joker slangin’ dimes all over the place on Wednesday night, and we were ready to see more of the same.
Jokic had 8 assists with 4 minutes left in the 3rd quarter. It was sure feeling like a Pure Lock.
We ran into a problem: Jokic was still sitting on 8 assists with less than 2 minutes left in the game. Time was running out. The good news was that the Nuggets still needed to score, down by 1, so they had to get the ball to Big Honey.
Millsap fired in a pass to Jokic curling off a screen from Murray, and the Joker, with FLAILING arms, sent up a free throw moonshot that dropped in. Next Nuggets possession, Jokic got the ball at the free throw line again, and all five Thunder defenders surrounded him. Big Honey pushed it over to Barton and casually walked away, knowing Barton would drill it.
Nuggets 97, Thunder 95.
OKC was up early and by as many as 19. Just like the Lakers on Wednesday night, the Nuggets felt inevitable. Denver trailed by 8 points with nine minutes left, and we almosttt locked in the Nuggs live MoneyLine at +228. But we didn’t get it in in time, and right on cue, the Nuggets scored 5 points in a real hurry, swinging the odds all the way down to Nuggs +110. Gotta have a quick trigger on those live ones!
This Under 221 would have been one of the most Pure Locks.
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Bucks at Jazz -2.5 Over 233
Gobert power dunk THROUGH Giannis! You might not know this unless you’ve been to the OG Power Dunk City: Giannis gets dunked on a lot. He goes for it, which is great. But sometimes he gets conquered.
Yooo in case you didn’t know… the Jazz are like THAT! But we are still taking the Lakers and Clippers, right? Right. But holy shit, THE JAZZ.
Jazz 129, Bucks 115.
No Mike Conley tonight and Royce O’Neale didn’t score in 35 minutes. It was Jinglin’ Joe, Gobert, Don Mitch and Jordan Clarkson that all scored 25 or more points, first time in franchise history.
Giannis had a Player Prop line of 30 points. He finished with 29.
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Cavaliers at Blazers -3.5 OVER 221.5
The Blazers -3.5 would have been a Pure Lock. The Over started slow but was also a Pure Lock by halftime.
Portland had four players with 20 or more: Gary Trent, Mel00, Kanter and Dame.
Blazers 129, Cavs 110.
No C.J. No Nurk. No Zach Collins. The Blazers are still finding a way. Currently 5th in the loaded Western Conference!
The Cavs have lost 6 in a row and now have the worst point-differential in the NBA. The early season magic has worn off. Speaking of magic…
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Magic +6.5 at Kings OVER 222.5
Fox and Bagley didn’t play, so if you took the Kings before the news broke, you didn’t enjoy watching this game. The same goes if you took the Under, thinking that surely the Kings without Fox and the Magic on the second night of a back-to-back would go Under. This Under 222.5 would have been an Anti-Lock.
After scoring 43 against the Bulls last week, Vooch lit up the Kings for 42 tonight on stellar 17-of-22 shooting, including 6-of-8 from 3.
Magic 123, Kings 112.
MCW is back! This was his first game played since January 4th. MCW even had a lite power dunk in quasi garbage time.
If you slid in an early Magic live MoneyLine at +200-something odds, then you did enjoy watching this game.
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Grizzlies at Lakers -8.5 Over 218.5
Up 3-0 on the night, there was NO chance in hell that we could stay away from the action on the Lakers in the late game. The Overs tonight had treated us right, so we ripped another.
The Lakers came out flat as fuck, and the Grizz were GRIZZIN’, up 22-2!
We weren’t worried, not in the slightest. AD started cold, but The Brow got into a rhythm. The Lakers made sure to keep feeding AD the ball. He looked pretty good after a while, save for hitting the deck seemingly every play.
At halftime, the Grizzlies still led by 13 points, up 59-46, on pace for 212 total, we needed them to pick it up.
Right on cue, the Lakers OWNED the 3rd quarter, outscoring the Grizzlies by 18 points and the 64 combined points had the Over sitting at a 65% chance to hit.
But the Lakers were up by so much that the possessions started to slow down, they were taking their sweet time.
With less than a minute to go, we needed two more buckets, sitting at 216 points.
Marc Gasol, lord bless his soul, was called for a tech in a 10-point game with 30 seconds left. Grayson Allen knocked down the technical free throw. (Grayson Allen was our Saving Grace(on) all night, 6-of-10 on 3’s!)
But then Gorgui Dieng missed his first free throw! (Dieng was fouled by Gasol which is why Gasol go the tech.)
Dieng made the second freebie, but at 113-105, a total of 218 points, we still needed one more made basket.
GOTTA SCORE!!!!
Quinn Cook was dribbling around, scrambling, and then he lobbed it up to Alfonzo McKinnie who flushed home the alley-oop! 220 total points for Over 218.5 — we got the Comeback Lock!!!
Lakers 115, Grizzlies 105.
If you are wondering what LeBron was up to, we got you:
A slick dime to Kuz.
An unguardable fadeaway.
Year 18. King James still flying high and dropping vicious Akron hammers.
MEET US AT THE FUCKIN’ CLEANERS!!!!!!
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Sunday night / Monday morning: Feb 1-7, Power Dunk City 2021.
We love this game!
