03-19-21 NBA Blog Train Friday
How do you follow up a 5-game Pie Day Parlay?
By laying low and not stopping there.
The very next night, we hit a live MoneyLine with our beloved Hornets in another comeback win over the Kings, +261 when the Hornets trailed by 7 in the 4th, and we hit the Over on the Knicks at Nets, a Solid Lock. (If anybody was going to hit the Over with the Knicks, it was going to be the Nets.)
On Tuesday night, we missed on the Celtics +4 vs. the Jazz. The Celtics were up for a large portion of that game, but the Jazz outscored the C’s 40 to 30 in the 4th quarter, led by D. Mitch down the comeback trail. That would be the only game that did not go our way that night. The Lakers -7.5 vs. the T-Wolves was a Pure Lock, as was Ant-Man Over 27.5 combined points, rebounds and assists. (Edwards scored 29 points.)
Also on Tuesday night, we hit the Blazers live MoneyLine +292 before they stormed back by way of Dame Time in yet another Pelicans epic collapse. The Pellies were up by 17! Dame had 50 and we loved every last one of them. (The Blazers won by one point.)
Wednesday night was a warsh. The Celtics burned us again when we tried them on a live MoneyLine against the Cavs. Okoro power dunked the exclamation point on us and Tatum at the end. But we did hit the Under on the Grizzlies-Heat, Under 219.5 and the final was 89-85, combining for 174. (They went UNDER by 46 points!)
Thursday night we took completely off to get geared up for Friday, but hopefully you cashed in on the Magic-Knicks Under for the third time this season. (We planned on taking it, life got in the way.)
That bring us to tonight, the first Friday of March Madness where we had several live MoneyLines back in the mix.
Did they comeback and hit? Or did we lose the magic touch and get burned?
Well, you’ll just have to join us on this here 10-game Friday night journey through the NBA to find out.
Kings +7 at Celtics UNDER 232
We gave some serious thought to rolling with the Celtics again tonight. They owed us from both Tuesday night vs. the Jazz and Wednesday night in Cleveland as mentioned above. But they were playing the Kings, and we have learned it’s best to stay away and just enjoy Kings games for what they are. And boy is that the move!
Kings 107, Celtics 96.
This Over 232 did not stand a chance.
Fox was the catalyst per usual, a game-high 29 points followed by 25 big ones from friend of the blog, Richuan Holmes. Buddy Hield was the third King over 20 points tonight, including six made 3’s.
Weren’t the Celtics just humming? They were! The C’s rode a 4-game winning streak into the All-Star Break. Then Marcus Smart returned, which we all thought would be a good thing, and now the Celtics have lost 4 out of the last 5 and three in a row. The Celtics are SLIDING.
You know who is not sliding? The Kings! Sacramento has won back-to-back on the East Coast.
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Spurs -5 at Cavaliers Over 213.5
The Cavs appeared determined to cover, outscoring the Spurs 44 to 35 in the 4th quarter (sending this one Over) and with a remarkable 13 points scored in the final minute of the game.
Two free throws by Dejounte Murray gave the Spurs a 6-point lead with 6.4 seconds left.
Larry Nance Jr. dribbled all the way down the court for a lay up at the buzzer………
And he missed the lay up!!!
Spurs 116, Cavs 110.
Cavs +5 would have been a BAD beat. Spurs -5 was a very Squeaky Lock.
Keldon Johnson, who we have written about on many an occasion in this space, scored 23 points and snagged 21 rebounds. Yep, a 20-20 game. We’ve been trying to tell you! The kid has game.
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Pacers +4 at Heat OVER 216.5
If you thought the Heat would keep rolling in their patented grind-it-out low scoring affairs, then boy were you surprised to see the Pacers RUN IT UP in this Pacers For T.J. Warren Revenge Game.
Pacers 137, Heat 110.
This Over 216.5 would have been one of the most Pure Locks.
Three-pointers: Pacers 20-of-36 for 55.6 percent. Heat 9-of-34 for 26.5 percent.
Brogdon was 7-of-9 from deep (!!) and Justin Holiday was 5-of-8. There’s 12 threes right there!
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Warriors +6.5 at Grizzlies Under 220.5
Ah yes, this brings us to our first live MoneyLine of the night.
The Warriors jumped out to an early lead that we did not anticipate being sustainable with Steph, Wiseman and Paschall all OUT, so we locked in the Grizz at +300 when they trailed by 14 in the third.
Welp, the Warriors never let off the gas, and they continued to be the team with more pep in their step. As the game went on, the Dubs looked peppier and peppier. We call this version of the Warriors the Pepper Dubs.
This final score is not a good indicator. The Warriors led by as many as 25 points!
You know it’s bad when Bob and Kelenna are talking about fishing and saying that Jordan Poole is out there hooping like Michael Jordan. Poole was everywhere. Floaters aplenty and cherry picking like hell.
Oh, and Wiggins dropped a 40-piece on us!
Grizzlies 116, Warriors 103.
The end of this game was flat out nutty as far as the Over/Under is concerned.
A Desmond Bane step-back 3 with 1:18 left was the final bucket scored. Wanamaker (of course) absolutely BRICKED a 3 and a couple of possessions later, Wanamaker had the ball knocked away by our guy Killian Tillie (featured in a recent episode of WHO HE!? on March 2nd, his NBA debut). Then Alen Smailagic had the ball knocked off his leg by Xavier Tillman for a turnover, followed by bad pass from Tyus Jones that resulted in another turnover.
Nico Mannion got the steal and pushed the pace with 20 seconds left, dishing it over to Juan Toscano-Anderson for the lay up that would have sent this Over, but Killian Tillie was there for another BLOCK. (Killian Tillie had this Under, yo.)
Then for no reason at all as the game’s final seconds could have ticked off the clock, Tyus Jones fired up a 3. Bob even said, “There is no need to shoot right now, but they will anyway.”
Jones 3 didn’t connect and neither did this potential garbage time backdoor Over.
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Nets at Magic +10.5 Over 225
This was another live MoneyLine that we took, jumping on the Nets +230 as they trailed by 9 with nine minutes left.
Right on cue, here came the Nets! A Kyrie mid-ranger cut the lead to 4 not even a minute and a half later.
We were feeling good, but the Magic weathered the storm.
It was Vooch (22) and Fournier, (31) and also Aaron Gordon who scored a season-high 38 points. The trio combined for 91!
Magic 121, Nets 113.
If anybody could get the Magic to hit an Over, it would be the Nets.
Two streaks snapped: the Nets 6-game winning steak and the Magic 9-game losing streak.
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Jazz at Raptors +5 Under 231.5
The look you make after your potential game-tying overtime-forcing 3 goes halfway down and out.
Jazz 115, Raptors 112.
Siakam has missed like four shots at the buzzer now with the game on the line.
D-Mitch drained the smooth mid-range go-ahead jumper with FVV in his grill.
This Under was on pace to hit all night until the scoring picked up dramatically in the 4th. OT would have sent it Over, but the Junder prevailed!
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Pistons +2 at Rockets Under 216
We laughed when we saw that the Rockets, losers of 18 straight games, were favored tonight. We stayed away, seeing a potential Christian Wood Revenge Game in the works, because C-Wood is back!
Turns out that this was NOT a Christian Wood Revenge Game.
Pistons 113, Rockets 100.
This Under 216 squeaked it out. A Danuel House garbage-time 3 with two seconds left would have caused a Push. No Push up in here!
The Pistons won by 13 and held a 12-point advantage on free throws: 25-of-28 to 13-of-16.
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Bulls +7 at Nuggets Over 225
In the third quarter with the Bulls up by 9 points, we locked in the Nuggets live MoneyLine at +220. Third time is the charm on the live MoneyLine’s tonight, right?
Well, it wasn’t looking like that was going to be the case as the Nuggets were down by 14 with eight minutes left in the fourth quarter after a Coby White 3.
An 8-0 run by the Nuggs over the next two minutes cut the lead to just 6, that’s when the Porter Jr’s started passing the hot sauce back and forth. That’s right, this was the battle of the Porter Jr’s — Otto Porter Jr. and Michael Porter Jr. — who were trading 4th quarter buckets. Yet it was the two-man game of Jokic and Murray that would settle OPJ vs. MPJ.
What an absolutely beauty of an outlet pass. Classic Joker for sure.
Fast forward to the end, LaVine free throws made the score Bulls 116, Nuggets 113 with exactly 16 seconds left.
Here is that two-man game we were talking about.
Having the Nuggets MoneyLine on the line here, this was one of our favorite plays of the season, jumping up off the couch and holding that “3” so high.
As you can imagine, the Nuggets had all of the momentum in OT.
Third time was the charm as our Nuggets live MoneyLine pulled through!
Nuggets 131, Bulls 127. OT
This Over would have hit even without overtime.
The Nuggets have won 8 out of their last 9 games.
The Bulls have not won in Denver in 15 years!
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Timberwolves at Suns -11 UNDER 233
This was totally a Suns Revenge Game from last night.
The final score is no indicator. The Suns led by 21 points with 2:19 left. The T-Wolves tried like hell to cover!
Suns 113, T-Wolves 101.
This Under 233 would have been a Pure Lock.
Ant-Man was off tonight (4-of-18 shooting), but he has sure been ON lately, scoring a career-high sensational 42 points last night. The list of youngest players at 19 years old to score 40+ points is insanely impressive: LeBron, Carmelo, Ant-Man and KD. *whistles*
In basketball, the moves make the man, and we like the way Anthony Edwards moves.
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Mavericks at Blazers +3 OVER 228
C.J. McCollum is back and so is his newfound mentality this season to let it RIP from 3. Formerly called C.J. McMidrange on this here blog, McCollum has cranked up the 3-point volume, 7-of-13 threes tonight and you know Dame is loving having him back.
Speaking of Dame, he went full on LeBron Pseudo Injury Mode tonight where we thought after Josh Richardson landed on Dame’s knee in a loose ball scramble that Dame was really, really hurt. Like, we had the same OH NO feeling as when we saw Embiid go down. But Dame hobbled off under his own power. He didn’t go to the locker room. He didn’t even come out of the game!!!
Luka (38/9/9) did what he could, but the Blazers outscored the Mavs by 11 in the 4th. Dame and C.J. combined for 63 points and it was RoCo in the corner who hit the dagger 3.
Blazers 125, Mavs 119.
This Over would have been a Pure Lock.
The Blazers have won three games in a row and 7 of their last 9.
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Check back late Sunday night / Monday morning for this week’s round of power dunks.
We love this game!
