12-15-21 NBA Blog Train Wednesday
What a Wednesday night of hoops as the Blog Trains rolls on full steam ahead!
11 games on the menu means 11 game capsules.
Let’s get it!
Rockets at Cavaliers -9.5 Under 217.5
If you’ve been following along, then you know that we’ve been hitting lately with the rollin’ Rockets who had covered in 10 straight games coming into tonight. But you also might know that we LOVE this Cavs team, seriously one of the most fun teams to watch in the league — an absolute League Pass darling.
So we were torn on what to do, but not when we saw that both Eric Gordon and Christian Wood were out for Houston tonight. We locked in Cavs -9 immediately.
Evan Mobley didn’t play, which was a bummer, but it didn’t matter in the least.
The Cavs blew the roof off the Rockets doors in a 35-point r-o-u-t-e.
Isaac Okoro with a power dunk that will without a doubt make into the next edition of Power Dunk
City!
Cavs 124, Rockets 89.
The Cavs led wire-to-wire and by as many as 45 points.
The best free throw shooter in the NBA? Kevin Love! 54-of-56 this season.
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Hawks -8.5 at Magic
Atlanta won this one in the 2nd quarter, outscoring the Magic 37-25 and never looking back.
Hawks 111, Magic 99.
Ice Trae and John Collins combined for 49 points even though Trae was 1-of-8 from 3.
The Magic have now lost 6 in a row.
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Heat +8 at 76ers Under 203
The Heat were without their top-3 scorers tonight. No Jimmy. No Bam. No Herro.
Who needs those bums when you have… Gabe Vincent! Vincent went off for 26 points, including 7-of-12 from 3. We actually mentioned him in our Season Preview: Not only did a lot of people overlook Gabe Vincent’s big performance for Nigeria against Team USA in that Olympics exhibition game, but a lot of people probably don’t even know who Gabe Vincent is.
Tobias Harris tied the game at 96 with a corner 3. That’s when Gabe Vincent hit the go-ahead 3.
Heat 101, 76ers 96.
Three-pointers: Heat 18-of-44. 76ers: 12-of-37.
Philly is fighting an uphill battle every game with the three-point disparity.
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Lakers at Mavericks +3.5 Under 212.5
A new development here at HQ: Locking in picks early. We usually like to wait until very close to game-time to get ALL of the information, however, you can lose a lot of value that way. This game being a perfect example: we got the Lakers at a Pick ‘Em, and would have been toast if we waited.
The Mavs were actually up by 7 with 7 minutes to play. Here came the Lakers! Bulldozing down the lane and getting to the rack.
But Wayne Ellington missed two late crucial 3s that were wide open off LeBron generated kick-outs, and a Porzinigis mid-range pull-up gave the Mavs a lead of 3 points with less than a minute left.
Still down 3 in the final seconds, Wayne Ellington got a loose-ball rebound in the corner and it was the third time is the charm for him to hit the game-tying 3 to send this puppy to OT.
Overtime had a WILD sequence that saw THJ tie the game with a deep 3. Then Westbrook hit a corner 3, and Kleber promptly tied it again with an above-the-break banked home 3 with 15 seconds left.
That’s when Hillbilly Kobe lived up to his name.
Gotta love the late-game ball-movement. Westbrook with the game-winning assist.
Lakers 107, Mavs 104. OT
The rare goes to OT but still goes Under game.
LeBron (24), Wesbrook (23) and AD (20) combined for 67 points. Austin Reaves was 5-of-6 from 3!
It should be noted that the Mavs were without Luka (the Lakers were down several players in the protocols as well), but Jalen Brunson (25), Porzingis (23) and Tim Hardaway Jr. (20) combined for 68 points.
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Pacers at Bucks +3.5 Under 215
No Giannis. No Middleton. Pacers seemed like the move here, right?
It looked good for a little bit. We were smiling like Lloyd Piece above, thinking we were going to hit with the Pesky Pacers twice in a row. A Justin Holiday 3 gave Indiana a one-point lead early in the 4th quarter.
And then we looked exactly like Coach Lloyd here when the Bucks went on a massive 21-0 run.
Bucks 114, Pacers 99.
This Over was on pace to hit the entire game until dying a slow, quick death in the final minutes of the 4th. Ya know, cause of the Pesky Pacers managing just 12 fourth quarter points. The Pesky Pacers are BACK.
Jrue Holiday stepped up as the only member of the Bucks Big 3 in the lineup tonight: 26 points and 14 assists. Pat Connaughton and Bobby Portis both chipped in 20 points apiece.
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Pelicans at Thunder +4.5 Over 212.5
Tre Mann with his second power dunk in a week!
Brandon Ingram has been on ONE lately. Not only scoring boatloads of points, but this is also his second power dunk of the week!
Would have loved to see Sam Presti’s live reaction to this. Bet you he smiled. For the TANK!
Pelicans 113, Thunder 110.
The Thunder still covered +4.5! SGA rang up 33 points but on 25 shots.
Brandon Ingram is averaging 27.9 points over the last 8 games, and it was awesome to see how genuinely happy the Pels were.
Let it fly!
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Hornets +2.5 at Spurs OVER 224.5
Gordon Hayward brought his A-game to San Antonio: a 40-piece wing-stop dinner!
Hornets 131, Spurs 115.
The final score is really no indicator. The Hornets led wire-to-wire and by as many as 30.
James Borrego is now 4-3 against the Spurs which makes him the only Pop disciple to have a winning record against the big boss.
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Timberwolves +4.5 at Nuggets Over 223
The T-Wolves hit a franchise-record 16 three-pointers in the 1st half.
Ant had himself a fucking night.
That is absurd, wicked and so gahdamn beautiful.
Look at this range on the 10th! And look at that smileeeee :)
T-Wolves 124, Nuggets 107.
Ant-Man racked up 38 points in all and is now the youngest player in NBA history to hit 10+ three-pointers in a game. He is the only Ant!
Did Jokic get a triple-double? YUP. His sixth of the season: 27-11-10.
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Wizards at Kings +2.5 Under 227.5
Bradley Beal scored 30 points for just the fifth time this season (he had 34 such games last season), but the Wiz got their asses handed to them in the 4th quarter, outscored 35-16 by the Kings who went bananas.
Kings 119, Wizards 105.
The Wizards are in a tailspin: 3 losses in a row and now 5-11 since their 10-3 start. Things have changed.
Kings interim coach Alvin Gentry was out tonight in the protocols, so it was Doug Christie calling the shots and securing this dub for Sac-Town.
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Clippers at Jazz -13 Over 217.5
Everybody knows we will always have a fondness in our hearts for the Junder, but everybody hopefully also knows that Junders have been cancelled with the Jazz torching the league night in and night out with the best offense by a country mile.
So when our guy @CampbellDJosh said his best bet of the late-slate was this Clippers-Jazz Over, we decided to ride with him, and ride we did indeed.
The pace was glorious from the jump, filled with 3s, layups and dunks. The Jazz led 35-31 after the 1st, and we already knew we had a Pure Lock on our hands.
Jazz 124, Clippers 103.
This was a Rudy Gobert Revenge Game, 20 and 17 and 2 blocks from the Stifle Tower. Gobert’s 20, along with Mitchell’s game-high 27, Bogey’s 20 and Clarkson’s 21 off the bench totaled 88 points between four dudes. That’s a little something we call firepower.
The shorthanded Clippers didn’t stand much of a chance, but we sure appreciate them for at least getting over 100 points.
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Grizzlies -1 at Blazers Under 218
The Blazers had a 10-point lead late in the 3rd quarter, but the 4th was all about the GRIZZ who opened up the final frame with a 14-0 run.
Grizzlies 113, Blazers 103.
The Grizzlies have won 9 out of the last 10 games — all without Ja Morant — and they have the best net rating and defensive rating in the NBA during that span, per StatMuse.
Meanwhile the Blazers have now lost 7 straight and 9 out of the last 10. We would like to take this opportunity to say: Terry Stotts was not the problem! Thank you for attending our TED Talk.
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Sometimes it’s hard not to feel sorry for people who miss out on these types of nights watching the NBA.
Four games ahead tomorrow night on Thursday, but we’ll probably catch you on Friday night with the 8-game slate.
We love this game!
