11-18-19 NBA Blog Train Monday: 9 Games
It’s Monday. We back!
But before we can get to tonight’s games, we have to give a big shoutout to Markelle Fultz who had the best game of his NBA career on Sunday and delivered this fabuloso power dunk.
Fultz also had a very clutch steal and fast break And-1 dunk to secure the game against the Wizards. Fultz even hit two 3s!
For the record, we didn’t mention any of this fabulous Fultzness yesterday, not because we were salty from the Magic’s Slippery Lock, but just because we were tired. We’ve been in the lab cookin’ up some thangs, putting in the WORK. (Losing bets.)
Back to your regularly scheduled programming:
Cavs at Knicks -5.5 OVER 210
Knicks -5.5 was the Lock of the night! And we didn’t get it in because yesterday gave us the heebie jeebies.
You know how it is.
Knicks 125, Cavs 105.
You know what’s IN this year? Reverse Revenge Games and Revenge Games. You might recall that it was after the Cavs beat the Knicks in MSG on Sunday, November 10th that James Dolan forced Steve Mills and Scott Perry to address the media. The Knicks getting revenge on the Cavs tonight was a Lock.
Julius Randle 30-burger!
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Pacers +2.5 at Nets UNDER 214
No Kyrie meant that Pacers +2.5 was a Pure Lock, but we didn’t see it at the time. The Pacers are hard to read with all of their injuries, but we know we can always count on them to be pesky.
Pacers 115, Nets 86.
The Holiday Bros. got the start and crushed the Nets. Both the Brooklyn Nets and the real basketball nets. 20 points for Justin and 24 points for Aaron, and both made 4 threes!
Things you don’t see every day: Doug McDermott’s +35 net rating in 27 minutes off the bench while scoring just 7 points.
Should the Nets start tanking? We’re joking. (Or are we?)
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Hornets at Raptors -8.5 OVER 214
The Hornets were due for a come back down to earth game against the very good and fundamentally sound Raptors.
Raptors 132, Hornets 96.
Looking at Toronto’s score, you already know Spicy P was doing his thing. OG Anunoby also had a big night: 24 points on 10 of 13 shooting, 4 of 7 from downtown, also with 5 rebounds, assists and 2 steals.
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Blazers at Rockets -7.5 OVER 230.5
Russell Westbrook Revenge Game. Dame dismantled the Thunder with his walk-off wave goodbye in last year’s playoffs. Have you seen this version of it?
Ain’t no way that Russ and the Rockets, who very much have his back, were going to let the Blazers walk out of Houston with a dub (or cover 7.5 points).
Rockets 132, Blazers 108.
Revenge Games are IN.
Capela and Danuel House were both back tonight and got the start. The Rockets were better for it.
Sent a double team? Yeah, OKAY.
We’ve said it before, and we’ll say it again: The Beard is unfuckinguardable.
Blazers have the 2nd night of a back-to-back tomorrow night. By gawd, that’s Melo’s Music!!!
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Bucks -8.5 at Bulls UNDER 231
We are experimenting with a new segment: Coach’s Picks. Bucks -8.5 was a Coach’s Pick that woulda hit! Coach’s picks are currently at 40 percent overall, which is in the RED, and we are looking into fading them. More to come, for sure.
Bucks 115, Bulls 101.
Bucks -8.5 as the road favorite was a Squeaky Lock, but it pulled through as the Squeaky Locks do.
The Bulls best player tonight: Daniel Gafford. 21 points on 10 of 12 shooting in 20 minutes off the bench. Noted.
Markkanen still hasn’t gotten going yet. :/ And Otto Porter Jr. hasn’t played since November 6th, killing us in fantasy, just sitting there taking up a bench spot, doing nothin’.
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Spurs at Mavs -4 OVER 224
Soo we took the Spurs +4.5 because the Spurs had lost 5 straight games and were DUE. This was a Pop Pick. We picked it cause of Pop. Where there is a Pop, there is a way. The Spurs would have to keep it within at least 4 points against the Mavs in Dallas, right? The Spurs had won five straight games against the Mavs!
To be completely honest, we knew that we were doomed the second we laid eyes on Luka’s neon highlighter kicks.
We knew right away what was coming.
We expected the Spurs 26th ranked defense to be shaky at best, but it was the Spurs offense that was moribund frightful from the start. The Mavs size was giving them fits. They had a very hard time navigating.
Luka, on the other hand, looked more in control than ever, navigating with ease, flowing gracefully throughout the entire night.
The Mavs jumped out to a 30 to 12 lead. Not exactly the start we were looking for.
Fast forward to the beginning of the 4th quarter and the Mavs led by 14. But the Spurs did not roll over as we knew they would not. Not for Pop.
DeRozan was going down swinging no matter what. He became the Spurs offense, getting to the rack for easy bank shots, flashing some mid-range (of course) and dishin’ some dimes. DeMarre Carroll played 8 minutes total but got some big run in the 4th. Carroll did well in those 8 minutes, hitting a big three-pointer off a DeRozan dime to pull the Spurs within three points with 5 minutes to go. We were RIGHT back in it! We were covering!
We were covering and we were right back in the electric chair yet again. *Bzzzzzz bzzzzzz*
We know you are pressed for time (aren’t we all), so let’s fast forward again, this time to 53.7 seconds left:
Spurs down 5 points with the ball after Bryn Forbes forced Luka into a turnover.
Rudy Gay, without much notice, stepped into a three-pointer! Spurs down 2!!
“Now just don’t give up a 3!”
But there was Luka with the ball at the top of the key, still with the lime Stephs on his feet. Fuck. With Bryn Forbes switched onto him, Luka dribbled the ball between his legs twice, took one look at Bryn Forbes, and stepped back to his left, giving him all of the space he needed to drill a dagger 3 into the Spurs and into our hearts.
It was magnificent. Couldn’t even be mad at it. At all. We just sat there with a big, dumb smile on our faces and laughed knowing that one day, and perhaps again one day soon, real soon, Luka will be drilling daggers for us… but before all that, there was still 26 seconds left!
That’s when the unfathomable happened. 5 seconds. That’s how long you have to pass the ball in bounds.
“LET’S GET AN IN BOUNDS!!!”
But they never did. Rudy Gay never passed the ball in. 5 seconds ticked away and the whistle blew. Turnover. Mavs ball.
“LET’S GET A STOP AND A BUCKET!!!”
DeRozan was guarding Luka this time, hounding him. And when Luka tried to drive passed DeRozan, Luka lost his footing and fell down, diving into DeRozan after the ball he just lost. Rudy Gay and Aldridge both went in for it, too, but it was Luka who was able to tap the ball over to Seth Curry who was left wide open in the scramble to get the easiest lay up all night.
Mavs 117, Spurs 110 with 4.5 seconds left.
We figured it was over, but this is where we have seen bad beats happen on us. How about a garbage time three-pointer for us to get the comeback Lock backdoor cover!?
Nope. The Spurs let the clock run out.
Mavs 117, Spurs 110.
Another Slippery Lock that slipped away. *Big sigh.*
Luka Magic: A career-high 42 points to go along with 12 assists and 11 rebounds. A 40-point triple double. Luka and LeBron are the only players in NBA history to record a 40-point triple-double before the age of 21.
Luka is 20 years old, y’all. We have plenty of time to bet on him yet. And you can bet your sweet ass that we will. (And it’s not like we haven’t already, we just picked a particularly bad night to be on the other side. We are definitely Luka stans.)
The Spurs have now lost 6 straight, but… Winter is coming.
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Celtics +2.5 at Suns UNDER 226.5
Alright, so this was a Coach’s Pick. Coach wanted OVER 226.5 on this one… but with the Celtics on the 2nd night of a back-to-back, we advised against that. Thankfully, Coach did not put the bet in.
Celtics 99, Suns 85.
184 total points. 42.5 points UNDER. THAT was a Pure Lock! We are seriously going to have to commence fading Coach’s Picks when we advise against them. The numbers are too stark.
Coach’s Picks when we advise against them: 2 Wins and 8 Losses. (The 2 Wins were a Lakers Over and a Jazz Over, so you know exactly why we advised against them.) So if we had bet the opposite of Coach’s Picks that we have advised against, we’d have 80 percent winners. Cue the Grinch smile!
No Rick Rubio in this one (back).
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Timberwolves +9.5 at Jazz UNDER 219
Another new experimental segment that is brand spankin’ new: Nate Dogg’s Picks.
Nate Dogg wanted T-Wolves +9.5 but we were uneasy because of no Wiggins. The T-Wolves got stomped the last two games without Andrew. Nate Dogg wasn’t worried about that. And we shouldn’t have been either!
T-Wolves 112, Jazz 102.
Welcome to the game, NB! Starting out hot with a Pure Lock. We like Pure Locks.
When we first glanced at the box score and saw that a K. Martin had 14 points for Minnesota… we thought it was Kevin Martin! It was Kelan Martin, a rookie from Butler. We don’t watch any college ball these days (for obvious reasons), so sometimes rando G-Leaguer rooks take us by surprise. “Who in the hell is THAT!?” — WHO HE?!” Oh man, that should be another new segment!
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Thunder +7.5 at Clippers UNDER 222
On a Streak of Slippery Locks, we absolutely had to get in on the late game. And what had we been saying all night? Reverse Revenge Games are IN this year like they usually are.
THUNDER REVERSE REVENGE GAME VS. PAUL GEORGE. #LOCK
Clippers 90, Thunder 88.
This was a Solid Lock. Not quite a Pure Lock, but a Solid Lock. (Still working out the Lock system. It’s on da way.)
We are also BEAMING to report that we finally bet on one of our fantasy guys! Shoutout CP3: 22 points, 4 assists, 4 rebounds and 4 steals. We are learning. We are growing!
Doc actually won a Coach’s Challenge in a pivotal moment of the game with 7 seconds left, so it turned his frown upside down. Doc said after the game that he’s changing his opinion, he thinks the challenge is good for the game.
All jokes aside, this was an instance where the Coach’s Challenge seriously worked. With the game on the line, they were able to change a bad call to the right call — and that is important! Now if we could just speed up the process (by using technology???), that’s be greattt.
BTW, Kawhi did not play for the third straight game, so we are still waiting to see Kawhi and PG together.
We never could have seen a situation like this coming!
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Only 4 games on the Tuesday night slate. Melo’s time to shine. Last chance, bud. Let the record show that we’re rooting for ya! We love this game!