One of the biggest reasons that we love the NBA so much is because of it’s night to night unpredictability.

That’s also what makes it so much fun to try to predict it.

Our 1st Pick: Wizards -4 at Magic

The first stop for us tonight was down at the House of Mouse.

Honestly, we didn’t even know that Bradley Beal wasn’t playing in this one, and that definitely explains why the spread was just 4 points.

The Wiz didn’t need Blue Panda tonight. That’s because the fighting Wiz play sound team-ball. They are indeed a well-rounded and deep team who took care of a lesser opponent tonight.

Spencer Dinwiddie led the way with 23 points, 11 rebounds and 6 assists while Trez poured in 20 points in 21 minutes of work off the bench, along with 7 assists (!!) and 6 rebounds.

Kuzma hit three 3s and had a massive power block that was so severe that Justin Kutcher thought it was Daniel Gafford at first.

Wizards -4 was a Pure Lock!

Wizards 104, Magic 92.

The Wizards currently have the 4th ranked defense in the NBA. Last year, they were 20th. (Meanwhile the Lakers defense is 18th this season and was 1st last season. Coincidence? Nope!)

The Magic starters played decent enough tonight, but it was the bench guys (save for R.J. Hampton) who had large negative net ratings in this one.

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Our 2nd Pick: Grizzlies -4 at Pelicans

The second stop of the night was down in NOLA, the land of crawfish, oysters and beignets.

This was absolutely the trap game that we suspected it might be. The forever Questionable Brandon Ingram did play, and he didn’t look too rusty. Like, at all. Ingram had his elbow jumper falling, scoring 19 points in 29 minutes. (He’s on a slight minutes restriction.)

It’s safe to say that Nickeil Alexander-Walker is playing some good basketball right now. Over the last 4 games, NAW is now averaging 22 points per game after scoring 21 points tonight, the leading scorer for the Pellies.

This was, in fact, a Valanciunas Revenge Game which we said we were aware of in our preview. (Perhaps we should start heeding our own warnings? Hmmm. Maybe.)

The Pelicans led wire-to-wire and by as many as 22.

This was as much of an Anti-Lock as it gets.

Pelicans 112, Grizzlies 101.

Soo it appears as though the Grizzlies miss the stability they used to have but traded away in the offseason. Ironically, we stated in our Grizzlies 2020-21 Season Review that Valanciunas was as important as ever, the backbone of the Memphis defense and the enforcer down low. It simply hasn’t worked out with Steven Adams as the “anchor” of the defense. The Grizz were 7th in defense last season and so far this season they are dead last.

Everybody has already written off the Pelicans, but there are 68 games left. It is November 13th. The regular season ends on April 10th. Also: Zion last season averaged 27 points on 61% shooting. Yes, he was/is fat and out of shape. But it’s not like he hasn’t come back from injury before and eventually dominated…

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Our 3rd Pick: Pistons at Raptors Under 201.5

If you had told us that there would be a game tonight that was more of an Anti-Lock than the Grizz -4, we wouldn’t have believed you. And if you would have told us that it would be this Under 201.5, we would have laughed right in your face — just the same as we were laughing when the Pistons and Raptors both made five 3s in the first quarter.

We had a bad feeling when not even 2 minutes into the game Killian Hayes ripped a 3, an ominous dark-looking cloud that showed up suddenly and never left. The 3s kept falling, the points never stopped.

Less than 3 minutes into the 2nd quarter, the scoreboard read: Raptors 44, Pistons 43. We were already down to a 10% chance to hit according to our handy dandy Action Network app.

It honestly felt even worse than that. This Under 201.5 didn’t even get off the bus.

This might be the worst Anti-Lock yet. They went Over by 47 points!

Pistons 127, Raptors 121.

Detroit’s worst offense in the league by a country mile scored 32 more points than their season average of 94.9 points per game. It was a little bit of everybody as 7 Pistons scored in double figures. A great win for the Pistons who just finished a 3-game mini roadie 2-1.

It should be noted that Fred VanVleet didn’t play for Toronto, but when we heard that news, we thought it would help the Under. (FVV is averaging 20 points per game.)

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1-2 tonight brings our once-upon-a-time good-looking weekly record to .500 at 9-9.

And so, 7 games ahead on the Sunday menu will decide if this week ends up in the green or red. (The pressure is on! — Pressure is a privilege.)

We love this game!