Chasing Pure Locks Review: Saturday, November 6th, 2021
We tried to warn you from the jump: Since we officially started this segment of 3 picks a day on Monday, we are 5-10. Proceed with caution.
In retrospect, we probably should have added an exclamation point in there.
Proceed with caution!
Our Pick: Nikola Jokic Over 6.5 Assists
The Result: This was NOT a Pure Lock. Far from it. This was an Anti-Lock, through and through.
At halftime, Jokic had zero assists. He finished the game with only 2.
The Joker was busy doing plenty of other things. Like scoring 28 points, hauling in 14 rebounds, and making the game-winning defensive play when the Nuggets needed him most.
Nuggets 95, Rockets 94.
We couldn’t have just picked the Rockets +11.5 or this Under 215 as one of our officially published Chasing Pure Locks picks. Nope, we had to go and pick the one Anti-Lock that we had in this game.
Rockets +11.5 and this Under 215 would have been a Double Pure Lock. Never in doubt.
Starting to think that maybe we should publish more than just 3 picks per day so that we can get some more winners up in here lol
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Our Pick: 76ers at Bulls -4
The Result: This was not a Pure Lock. This was mostly another Anti-Lock, however, the Bulls did come back to make it interesting and exciting. Chicago was not covering at any point in the 2nd half, but it sure felt like they were going to come ALL the way back. Put it this way, if we had been on the other side and had Philly +4, we would have been nervous. We’ll call this one a Pseudo Lock.
One of the reasons that we picked the Bulls -4 tonight was because Joel Embiid had been struggling to begin the season, and as noted in our preview, Philly’s had mostly an easy schedule and has a long history of being worse for the wear on the road.
But tonight in Chicago, Embiid looked like last year’s first half of the season MVP Embiid. A completely dominant force both inside and out (who accidentally almost punched Lonzo’s lights out).
Things actually started out looking pretty good for Chicago.
The Bulls were up 6 in the second quarter. That’s when Philly went on a 15-0 run. The Bulls offense went cold while Embiid found his rhythm. Korkmaz was also dialed in, and it was at that moment that we realized that we didn’t mention Korkmaz in our write-up of our Philly win on Thursday night in Detroit when we had the Sixers -4 and they pulled through. Korkmaz was sticking us to it for that. Georges Niang, too.
Philly led by as many as 14 points. The scene for the Bulls was described as “dark n stormy.”
Things cleared up when DeRozan took over.
When the Bulls offense gets in a lull — a.k.a. when Chicago’s defense doesn’t get stops that result in transition opportunities where the Bulls are at their best — DeRozan bails them out. And the Bulls defense did get some stops on D which led to Lonzo running the fast break and lobbing to Airplane Mode. DJJ cleaned up a miss with a put-back dunk as well.
The Bulls charged right back into the game. United Center was going bull-istic after a LaVine 3 gave the Bulls the lead with 6 minutes left in the 4th.
But ultimately, there was too much Embiid. And Korkmaz again. Niang as well.
Philly pulled away, leading by 5 in the final minute. And with 15 seconds left, Embiid drove a one-legged step-back dagger 3 in and waved goodbye.
76ers 114, Bulls 105.
Three-pointers: 76ers 13-for-26. Bulls 7-for-29.
Seven Sixers scored in double-figures.
Embiid: 30 points (4-for-5 from 3) and 15 rebounds.
Korkmaz: 25 points (7-for-9 from 3!).
The Sixers giveth. The Sixers taketh away.
Shoutout LaVine and DeRozan who combined for 57 points. And Stacey King is right: Chicago needs Vooch to step up and be that legit #3 guy for the Bulls. Vooch was 5-for-16 tonight, 1-for-7 from 3, missing a couple of big ones late in the game that would have changed everything.
Either way, seeing this really had us smiling!
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Our Pick: Hawks +4 at Suns
The Result: Welp, this was definitely looking like a Pure Lock up until the final minutes… that’s when the Suns went on a fury of a run.
Before that, the Hawks soared to a 15-4 run to end the 3rd quarter, leading by 12 going into the 4th. It’s hard not to feel good when you have a 16-point cushion on your hands…
Trae Young was having a great game, drilling 3s and dishing dimes. But he sure went cold at the wrong time. (And not the good kind of cold.) Trae and the Hawks settled for difficult shots that weren’t falling late.
A deep-as-it-gets Devin Booker step-back jumper with his toe on the line tied the game at 113 with 2 minutes left.
This was originally called a 3 but was reviewed and changed correctly to a 2. But that didn’t stop Suns fans from booing. (LOVE Book’s purple Kobe’s. Wouldn’t have bet on the Hawks if we knew he was gonna be wearing those.)
Jae Crowder blocked a Trae floater from behind, but Frank Kaminsky traveled after getting the rebound. (No Ayton tonight and lots of Kaminsky was a big reason why we took the Hawks.)
Then Bogey hit a tough fadeaway jumper over Jae Crowder who didn’t block this time. Hawks by 2 with 1:29 left.
Next possession, Book was fouled by Hunter twice, the first being a foul to give, the second one sending him to the line. Book made the 1st, but he missed the second free throw!
Bogey was the guy with the ball in his hands for Atlanta again (Mikal Bridges was swarming Trae), except this time Bogey missed a driving lefty layup that Kaminksy actually defended pretty well. John Collins tipped it up and Bogey grabbed a hot potato board that he was somehow able to kick out to an open De’Andre Hunter. Hunter missed the 3, and here came the Suns.
This wide open Kaminksy (!!) dunk thanks to Trae’s Westbrookian error put the Suns up by 1 with 45 seconds left.
We were still looking plenty good with Hawks +4, right? Well, you never know how late-game free throws will affect things…
The Hawks next possession was Trae hoisting a step-back 3 with Crowder contesting. It caught the front of the rim. CP3 grabbed the rebound and the Suns were off and running the break again, resulting in an easy Jae Crowder layup.
Suns up 3 with 19.7 seconds left. Gulp. It felt like the roof was going to pop off the top of Footprint Center.
And all of a sudden we were back in the electric chair. This was going to be close.
The Hawks inbounded to Bogdanovic who… jacked up a 3 from way out IMMEDIATELY.
The Hawks late-game offense needs a lot of work. Like, what the hell? This was after a time out, and it was an air ball!
Here come the late-game free throws to fuck us up, we thought.
On cue, Chris Paul was fouled and he made both. Suns up 5 with 13.7 seconds left. Our Hawks +4 had melted right before our eyes.
But with 8 seconds left, Trae Young was fouled by Bridges, and he made both free throws to cut the lead to 3!
Chris Paul was fouled again. This time he made the first, but he missed the second free throw!
Trae got the ball from John Collins and tried throwing ahead to Bogey. It was a bad pass that Booker grabbed and time ran out.
Suns 121, Hawks 117.
This is where we get to very thankfully tell you that we actually had Hawks +5 this whole time.
WHEW — we put this one in as soon as the Ayton news broke, before it dropped to +4 when we published our preview and ultimately to +3.5 at game-time.
Just look at what Hawks +3.5 would have been like. (Also, we have said it before and we’ll say it again: If you don’t have the handy dandy Action Network app, you are seriously really missing out. That’s where these awesome graphs are from.)
Yeah, Hawks +3.5 would have been a horrendously Bad Beat.
Hawks +4 would have been a silly motherfuckin’ Push.
But our Hawks +5 turned out to be a Squeaky Lock.
Thanks for missing that free throw, CP!
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A third straight night of going 1-2 leaves our overall Chasing Pure Locks record at 6-12. Proceed with caution!
Back at it tomorrow with 8 games ahead on Sunday, starting with a Nets at Raptors matinee at 3:30pm. Don’t forget to set your clocks back!
We love this game!
