10-27-21 NBA Blog Train Wednesday

Ten games on the Wednesday night menu.

We were in on a good bit of action tonight.

Full steam ahead!



Hornets -5.5 at Magic Over 221

Ahhhh yes. Our first bet of the season riding with our beloved Hornets. (We’ve been easing into things around here.)

Hornets -5.5 on a Wednesday night in Orlando just felt right, but it was the Magic who jumped out to an early 12-point lead.

The Hornets settled in and led at the half 64-61. It was Charlotte’s first halftime lead of the season.

The Magic then went back up by 8 in the third quarter thanks to a surge off the bench from Gary Harris. There was a Mo Bamba 3 in there as well.

That’s when Miles Bridges dialed it up a notch, scoring 8 straight points for the Hornets.

Soon enough Eric Collins was screaming: “The Hornets are coming back stronger than a 90’s trend!”

Hornets 120, Magic 111.

Hornets -5.5 pulled through, but it got a little hairy late. T-Ross and Cole Anthony did their darnedest to pull off the cover. It was an Ish Smith curling lay-in that clinched it for us.

This Over 221 would have been a Pure Lock. (It’s only a matter of time until we start jumping on Hornets Overs.)

  • Miles Bridges balled out yet again, scoring 31 points for his third 30-point game of the young five-game season. Most Improved Player might already be wrapped up, y’all.

  • Every Hornets bench player had a +/- in double-digits while every starter posted a negative…

  • Mo Bamba and Mason Plumlee almost had identical stat lines:

    • Mo Bamba: 14 points, 10 rebounds, 3 assists, 1 steal and 1 block in 32 mins.

    • Mason Plumlee: 14 points, 10 rebounds, 4 assists, 1 steal and 1 block in 32 mins.

The Hornets move to 4-1 as the Magic fall to 1-4.

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Heat +3.5 at Nets Under 218

The Heat MoneyLine at +140 was the move.

We took that one on the basis that the Heat have been playing quite well while the Nets have not. (Sometimes it can be as simple as that.)

An above the break 3 from KD brought the Nets to within 3 with six minutes left in the game.

That’s when the Heat put the clamps on and never looked back. A 14-2 run was capped off by a P.J. Tucker 3 from an across court Jimmy Beans dime.

Heat 106, Nets 93.

This Under 218 would have been a Pure Lock. (Thought real hard about taking it, too. Saw it in the numbers, but stayed away because of our hearts.)

Points in the paint: Heat 48, Nets 34.

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Wizards +4.5 at Celtics Under 224.5

Beal only scored 17 points, but Dinwiddie chipped in 22, and it was Trez Harrell who led the way with a game-high 25 points in addition to 11 rebounds.

Tatum, Brown and Smart combined to shoot 3-of-17 from 3.

Wizards 116, Celtics 107.

This Over/Under was back and forth all night, coming down to a missed Jaylen Brown 3 in the final seconds to seal the Under and break the hearts of Overs backers.

Rebounds: Wiz 47, C’s 37.

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Pacers at Raptors -1.5 Over 214

Our first Scottie Barnes power dunk! Helllllloooooooo!!!

Raptors 118, Pacers 100.

This Over 214 wasn’t looking too good for most of the game, but a combined 14 points were scored in the final 2 minutes.

  • The Raptors had 6 players in double-digits including all five of the starters.

  • Somebody who we really like that you might not know is Dalano Banton. We are familiar with him from the preseason. The dude can play, scoring 10 points in 16 minutes, including knocking down two 3s and a +11.

  • Sabonis somehow only attempted 4 shots in 34 minutes. That ain’t gonna cut it.

Points in the paint: Raptors 58, Pacers 40.

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Hawks at Pelicans +5 UNDER 220.5

We doubled up on this one — rolling with the Hawks -5 and Under 220.5.

Hawks -5 was a Pseudo Lock. The Pelicans were winning for the vast majority of this game and by as many as 16.

John Collins continued to do what he does best. He also had a big put-back slam to give the Hawks the lead with a minute left.

Makes you wonder, though.

Hawks 102, Pelicans 99.

This Under 220.5 was a Solid Lock hovering near 50 percent for most of the game until breaking loose. (Glad that we split at least.)

  • Back-to-back 30-point games for Ice Trae. 31 tonight.

  • Devonte’ Graham scored 21 points for the third time this season. He shot 5-of-10 from 3.

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Timberwolves +5.5 at Bucks Under 231.5

The T-Wolves pounced on the Bucks from the jump.

That’s a KAT power dunk!

Milwaukee never led but did make it interesting late.

Ant-Man closed them out, taking it straight at Middleton.

T-Wolves 113, Bucks 108.

A first quarter score of 44-34, thoughts and prayers if you had this Over.

  • D-Lo, KAT and Ant-Man all scored 20+ points for the Wolves.

  • Giannis scored 40 to go along with 16 boards, 7 assists and 3 blocks, but nobody else on the Bucks did much.

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Lakers at Thunder +5.5 Over 217.5

The Lakers were up by 26 in the first half, but they fell asleep at the wheel.

So much so that with 8:39 left in the 4th, the Thunder led by 8 points.

It was at that moment that we jumped on a Lakers live MoneyLine at +345.

Before that, however, there was a nice Malik Monk transition dunk on Josh Giddey.

TBD on if that will make this week’s Power Dunk City.

Fast forward to the Lakers trailing by 3 points with 31 seconds left.

  • Westbrook missed a 3 (shocker).

  • The Lakers forced an 8-second turnover!

  • Last night’s hero in San An, Monk air-balled a 3 this time.

It felt like this Josh Giddey inbounds pass right to Melo was meant to be.

It was not.

Darius Bazley stole Rondo’s inbounds pass with 3 seconds left and zipped in for a quick open dunk.

Russ wasn’t happy about it. Not happy at all.

He had something to say.

~ the unwritten rules ~

Westbrook was ejected from the place he used to call home.

Thunder 123, Lakers 115.

This Over 217.5 would have been a Pure Lock.

  • Westbrook had an infamous 10-turnover triple-double. He’s averaging 6 turnovers per game.

  • SGA was phenomenal all night: 27/9/5 and 5-of-11 from 3.

  • Giddey (aside from that errant inbounds pass to Melo) plays with a helluva lot of control for a rookie.

  • Ty Jerome was a +28 in 14 minutes off the bench. Plus-28!

For the record, LeBron did not play.

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Kings +8 at Suns Under 224.5

We took the Kings +8.

At the half, the Kings trailed by… 8 points.

Sacramento started the 2nd half on an… 8-0 run!

After another 8-0 run in the third quarter, the Kings led by 7!!

That lead would grow to 13 points with 6 minutes left in the fourth quarter.

The Suns were still fighting back, but a Tyrese Haliburton corner 3 pushed the lead back to 10 with 2:52 remaining.

A 12-2 run by the Suns later — sparked by Devin Booker and a couple of Jae Crowder 3s — and all of a sudden we had a tie ballgame.

The Kings called a timeout still tied at 107 with 3.7 seconds left after Richaun Holmes hauled in a big rebound from a missed Book impossible Kobe fadaway.

Suns foul to give. 1.4 seconds left.

The Black Falcon strikes again!

Kings 110, Suns 107.

This Over/Under took a nose dive toward the Under in the third quarter that only saw 44 combined points.

  • Buddy Hield (off the bench) hit seven 3s en route to 26 points.

  • Chris Paul had a most forgettable game: 6 points on 1-of-11 shooting and game-worst -10.

The Year 10 leap continues for Harrison Barnes who is currently fourth in made 3s and top-10 in scoring!

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Grizzlies at Blazers -2.5 UNDER 233

The Blazers needed this one more. Dame and C.J. came out firing in the third quarter.

The Grizzlies have been on the West Coast for a while now. (And they play the Warriors tomorrow night in SF.)

Blazers 116, Grizzlies 96.

We took this Over 233. It turned out to be a good ole Anti-Lock.

There was a Cody Zeller power dunk!?

It’s true… but there is no evidence of it on the ole twitter dot com.

Imagine getting dunked on by a guy who looks like this.

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Cavaliers +8.5 at Clippers UNDER 219.5

On a gorgeous night in LA, the Cavs bullied the Clippers from the jump, using their size and length to their grand advantage.

The Clippers never led and scored less than 15 points in the 1st and 4th quarter.

Reminiscent of the lefty hammer Sexton threw down on Wendell Carter Jr. on Halloween Eve two years ago.

Cavs 92, Clippers 79.

This Under 219.5 went UNDER by 48 points.

But hey, at least Clippers fans get their free Chick-fil-A! Jarrett Allen missed two free throws in the fourth quarter. (Did they ever get that chicken sandwich launcher?)

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Six games ahead on the Thursday night slate.

We love this game!