11-29-19 NBA Blog Train Black Friday: 13 Games
We hope you had a wonderful Thanksgiving!
Celtics at Nets +4.5 OVER 213.5
In the Black Friday matinee, the Nets got their revenge from Wednesday night’s loss in Boston. To our surprise, the Noon game the day after Thanksgiving did not go Under. Celtics-Nets went Over on Thanksgiving Eve as well.
Nets 112, Celtics 107.
Dinwiddie continues to ball: 32 points on 10 of 19 shooting (6 of 8 from three!), 11 assists and 5 boards.
When Kemba was at the free throw line, there were “Kyrie’s better!!” chants!
Twitter saw it first.
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Raptors -3 at Magic UNDER 209
Seeing Orlando’s city edition uniforms and court in action kinda tripped us out for a little bit.
KHEM BIRCH!!!
Siakam struggled (10 points on 4 of 22 shooting) with the Lanky Jonathan Isaac on him again. Norm Powell was the game’s high man with 33 points.
Raptors 87, Magic 83.
The Magic get into some low scoring affairs! Orlando is currently ranked dead last in the league in pace.
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Hornets +8 at Pistons OVER 213
The first quarter was not like the others. In the 1st, the Hornets and Pistons combined to make 15 three-pointers! The pace of the game came to a screeching halt in the 2nd quarter that maintained, but they still went Over.
P.J. Washington continues to impress: 26 points on 9 of 12 shooting, 3 of 3 from three, with 5 rebounds, 4 steals and 3 assists. Look at our rook!
Hornets 110, Pistons 107.
Drummond got his 15 boards (19) and exactly 15 points. We found out that Drummond changes his jersey every quarter, going through four jerseys in every game. Apparently Big Penguin thinks that the sweat makes him play bad.
Local boy Miles Bridges from Flint, Michigan had 50 family members in the house at Little Caesar’s Arena.
The Hornets have now won 9 straight games against the Pistons, including all 3 this season by a combined 7 points.
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76ers at Knicks +6.5 UNDER 209
Listen, they did win the game and Horford and Richardson both didn’t play, but Philly’s first half was SO dreadful. The Knicks led 51-39 at halftime. Those 39 points were the fewest points the Knicks had given up in a half all season.
The Sixers looked so discombobulated that we were pondering how this team would look if the Sixers traded for RoCo, Saric, Belinelli, Illysova and even Fultz. Makes you wonder.
Julius Randle power dunk!
76ers 101, Knicks 95.
The Knicks are in games, but they don’t hit their free throws or have a closer and crunch time scoring — so they lose.
David Fizdale had the quickest coach’s challenge yet, just 1:10 into the 1st quarter. And the call was overturned!
James Ennis was the Sixers savior off the bench with 20 points on just 5 shots. You read that correctly. Ennis made 3 threes and 9 free throws.
From Mike Breen, we learned that Matisse Thybulle is named after the French artist, Henri Matisse. Apparently Thybulle’s parents were backpacking in Europe and saw a lot of his paintings.
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Bucks at Cavs +11.5 UNDER 229.5
The final score was not as indicative of how close this game really was towards the end. Despite the Bucks leading at one point by 22, it was a 113-110 game with 2:20 left in the 4th.
Vegas was pretty fucking spot on with both the spread and total. There could have been two Bad Beats or two Squeaky Locks, or even a combo of both!
Giannis was only 2 of 8 on threes, but he’s out here working on it. Look OUT.
Bucks 119, Cavs 110.
That’s 10 straight wins for Milwaukee who has the second night of a back-to-back tomorrow night at home against Charlotte. The Bucks are currently 14-1 this month, the best November in franchise history.
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Warriors at Heat -11.5 OVER 208.5
The Heat -11.5 would have been mostly a Pure Lock with a 41-21 lead after the first quarter. The Warriors held their own the rest of the way, but the big damage was already done.
Heat 122, Warriors 105.
It sure seems like the Heat have the most Pure Locks in the league.
The Vice jerseys and court are irrevocably our favorite.
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Hawks +11 at Pacers UNDER 224
Eleven was too many points, even for the Pesky Pacers.
This one went way UNDER even though it went into OT!
Pacers 105, Hawks 104. OT
Khris Middleton is back!? Khris Middleton is back! Middleton’s first game back was actually on Wednesday. Amidst the 14 games on Thanksgiving Eve, we did not realize. That also speaks to what kind of All-Star Middleton really is.
Ice Trae’s 9th game this season with 30+ points. Trae dropped 49 in the loss, 8 of 15 from three. Only one other Hawk hit a three-pointer. That’s a problem.
Three-pointers: Hawks 9 of 32 — 28.1 percent. Pacers 6 of 26 — 23.1 percent.
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Pelicans at Thunder -4.5 UNDER 229
Abdel Nader has had two games in a row now where he was the main spark off the bench for OKC. Nader tonight: 19 points on 7 of 11 shooting, 4 of 5 from three in 22 minutes.
Thunder 109, Pelicans 104.
Steven Adams brought some Thunder on this dagger dunk that sealed the game with 15 seconds left.
Classic.
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Jazz -7.5 at Grizzlies UNDER 223
This Jazz-Grizz city edition combination really was a sight to behold.
Memphis took a 55-40 lead into the half, but Utah outscored the Grizz 35 to 18 in the 3rd quarter.
Jazz 103, Grizz 94.
Gobert was a different player in the 2nd half. Bogdanovic dropped 33 points on 12 of 20 shooting and 4 of 8 from distance.
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Clippers at Spurs +5 UNDER 224.5
Both the UNDER and Spurs +5 would have been Pure Locks. A double Pure Lock opportunity.
Spurs 107, Clippers 97.
The Clips first loss with both Kawhi and PG in the lineup.
WHO HE!? Drew Eubanks. #14 Spurs. 6-9 rookie white dude from Oregon State.
Winter is coming. :-)
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Mavericks -2 at Suns OVER 230
Baynes first game in 11 days meant the return of our Suns! Our Suns city edition jerseys are so LIT!
We wanted to take the Over, because that’s what we were rooting for and because we have Book in fantasy. That would have been fun, but we have been enjoying staying away from the action lately, focusing our attention in some other areas of the game.
Mavs 120, Suns 113.
Luka had a somehow quiet 42 points to go along with 11 assists and 9 boards. This is what we expected. From a kid who is 20 years old!
Book isn’t an actual unicorn, but this is a Devin Booker power dunk!!! We tried to tell y’all!
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Bulls +7 at Blazers UNDER 227
Hassan Whiteside had 10 blocks. TEN. A new Portland Trail Blazers franchise record.
Blazers 107, Bulls 103.
We bet that Melo (23 points, 11 rebounds and 4 assists) wishes he could play the Bulls every night.
The guys on the bench after that Melo dime are SO happy.
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Wizards at Lakers -11.5 UNDER 235.5
The Wiz jumped out to a quick 9-0 lead, but then the Lakers got going and didn’t look back. The Lake Show finished atop the first quarter 37-23 and led by as many as 39.
Did you know that the Wizards are #1 in the NBA in assists and have the 2nd highest scoring bench in the league? Now you do.
#Showtime
Lakers 125, Wizards 103.
Don’t look now, but the Lakers are 17-2 — the best start to a LeBron team in his 17-year career.
The next three games for LAL will be a test: 12/01 Mavs, 12/03 at Denver and 12/04 at Utah.
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Only 4 games tomorrow on the Saturday slate, but 9 games await on Sunday. We might catch ya on the Weekend Fast Break — not sure if she’ll be running yet or not. But you can count on the Blog Train to be back up and running full steam soon. We love this game!