03-06-20 NBA Blog Train Friday
Ten games on the first Friday night of March.
We would like to address some housekeeping before we get to tonight’s game capsules.
If you have been following this here blog, then you might have noticed that we have an affinity for Pure Locks. (If you had not noticed, you might need to see a doctor.) However, we actually have not been in on the actual Action ourselves for quite some time now. Instead, we have just been observing the lines and Locks from afar (read: as closely as possible).
What happened was that we found the actual constant action of betting every night to be a little too much. There is only so much time in the day. We also wanted this site to be enjoyed by more than just degenerate gamblers. So we altered our approach to hopefully have a little something for everybody.
But guess who has roped us back in? Coach! We are now in a full-time advising role, and it does feel good to be back.
Now let’s get to the basketballin’!
Hawks at Wizards -5.5 Under 239.5
No Trae Young tonight. As soon as we heard the news, we advised Coach that we liked this Under. Unfortunately, Coach did not get it in. Under 239.5 would have been a Solid Lock — it teetered around 50% in the first half, but looked great once things slowed down in the third quarter.
John Collins power dunk! We think we might have a Level 4 here!
Tony Brothers was enjoying a smile in the first quarter. Scott Brooks did not seem pleased by it.
Another John Collins power dunk! This one not quite as powerful. Level 3.4?
Late in the 3rd, Lloyd Pierce was looking rather sullen. However, the Hawks showed a lot of fight in the 4th quarter, outscoring the Wizards by 37 to 25, led by Cam Reddish. Alas, it was too little, too late.
Wizards 118, Hawks 112.
Blue Panda has now scored 25+ points in 21 consecutive games. We have said it before and we’ll say it again: Brad Beal is the real deal. Brad Beal should have been an All-Star!
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Thunder -6 at Knicks Over 217
Thunder -6 was a Pure Lock and Coach was in on this one!
This lob to Mitch Rob looked like it was going to go out of bounds.. NOPE!
Diallo lite power dunk. Level 1.6?
Thunder 126, Knicks 103.
OKC has now won 12 of their last 13 road games.
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Spurs at Nets -2.5 OVER 226
Pop back! Although we cannot help but think he might have wished he wasn’t.
DJ reverse oop on top of Lonnie Walker’s hair.
Nets 139, Spurs 121.
Folks, time is really running out. Is it really The Year That Winter Never Came?
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Pacers -2 at Bulls Over 208
Scroll to the right for more of Jimbo in despair.
Pacers 108, Bulls 102.
Coach called us after this game. Unbeknownst to us, Coach apparently had a three-game Parlay going with two college games that hit and the third game was this one at Over 211. But the final total here was only 210! Coach said he thought for sure that Boylen would have them foul in the last 10 seconds. The Bulls did try, but not hard enough. A bad beat for Coach.
The Pacers were depleted without T.J. Warren, Brogdon, Lamb or McDermott. Did not matter — the Pacers were still pesky, the Pacers still prevailed.
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Magic -2.5 at Timberwolves OVER 234
Naz Reid power dunk! Level 2.4?
It is time yet again for another installment of our favorite segment. WHO HE?! #4 for the T-Wolves, Jaylen Nowell is a 6-4 rookie from Washington, selected in the 2nd round, pick 43, in last year’s draft. Tonight was Nowell’s 13th game of the season, but we are not going to pretend like we knew who he was. J-Now has the nickname “Big Tymah” listed on his Basketball-Reference page. Welcome to The Blog Train, Big Tymah!
Magic 132, T-Wolves 118.
OVER 234 was a Pure Lock that we advised Coach to take. The Magic have now hit the Over in 10 straight games! We are back on the mountaintops to shout: the Magic get into some high scoring affairs!
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Heat at Pelicans -1.5 UNDER 232
Zion zips to the baseline, boiii.
Pelicans 110, Heat 104.
Shoutout to the Pellies D who really stepped up in this crucial win.
Shoutout to Dunc Rob who is not only the Heat’s single-season record holder for made three-pointers but has now also made the most threes in a season for an undrafted player in NBA history.
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Jazz +1.5 at Celtics UNDER 219
This Jazz Under was a Pure Lock. The Junder is back!!!
Soo for some reason this game was not on League Pass??
Luckily we were able to pull it up on the ole XBOX.
Jazz 99, Celtics 94.
The Jazz avenged their loss to the Celtics in Utah last week.
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Grizzlies at Mavericks -8 Under 225
Luka’s smile is so damn infectious.
Taylor Jenkins was ready to get the fuck out of Dallas.
Mavs 121, Grizz 96.
The Mavs were without THJ tonight, but still had tremendous balance. We thought 8 was a lot of points for a hot Grizzlies team that needs every win they can get for the 8 seed, but we always have the caveat that we DO NOT like to bet against Luka.
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Blazers at Suns +3.5 Over 233
Big shoutout to whoever created the intro video - and more specifically, this glorious rip city graphic - shown at the beginning of the Blazers telecast on NBC Sports Northwest. We love it.
Also, big props to Kevin Calabro for continuing without a hitch after this ball careened toward him in the pre-game.
Yep, this was us.
We would most definitely cop.
Suns 127, Blazers 117.
A solid wire-to-wire win for our Suns. Tough loss for the Blazers who fly home to Portland tonight to play the Kings tomorrow night at Moda.
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Bucks at Lakers -1.5 UNDER 228.5
Coach asked about taking the Over here, but we advised against it. We told him that the Bucks had gone Under in 5 straight and that we could see tonight being a slugfest with a playoff-like atmosphere in Staples. UNDER 228.5 was a Pure Lock.
LeBron poster power dunk! Year 17 and still power dunking on fools and at the top of his game.
LeBron went head-to-head vs. Giannis on offense and defense.
Lakers 113, Bucks 103.
LeBron is still the King. (We keep it simple around here.)
The Lakers are officially in the playoffs for the first time in 6 years. We knew that the Lake Show would be back!
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Counting down the hours until Lakers-Clippers on Sunday afternoon.
We love this game!