Chasing Pure Locks Review: Thursday, November 4th, 2021
Thursday night is in the books!
Let’s get right to the action:
Our Pick: 76ers -4 at Pistons
The Result: This was not quite a Pure Lock. But it was a Solid Lock!
Our journey tonight began in the 313 at Little Caesars Arena. We enjoyed Detroit’s court tonight quite a bit:
But we have to agree with Zach Lowe (as always) — it would be even better if the “painted” area actually had some color in it.
The thought on our pick was Embiid playing tonight + a Drummond Revenge Game = we locked in the Sixers despite being on the second night of a back-to-back. It did take Philly a while to get their sea legs under them after a hard fought win against the Bulls last night.
Seth Curry had it going again tonight with 16 first quarter points, but Jerami Grant was smoking-hot as well with 22 first half points of his own. It was the Pistons who took a 3-point lead into halftime.
The 2nd half definitely belonged to Philly as the Sixers battened down the hatches on defense which lead to some easy transition buckets.
The Sixers outscored the Pistons 46 to 32 in the 2nd half.
Solid Locks are good.
76ers 109, Pistons 98.
The Philadelphia 76ers are currently in 1st place in the Eastern Conference. Just like we ALL suspected.
The Detroit Pistons are 1-7 and play the Brooklyn Nets tomorrow night back in the 313. (It’s Nets -10 in case you were wondering.)
Cade’s shot wasn’t falling again (4-of-17), but we are going to give the kid some time. It was only his third game and he plays for the fucking Pistons.
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Our Pick: Celtics at Heat -6.5
The Result: This was NOT a Pure Lock. Nope, no way. This was an Anti-Lock.
Our next stop this evening was down in the 305 on a “mild” night in South Beach. (It was 79 degrees.)
We miss the vice jerseys, but this center court is pretty sick.
If you had the Under in this one, you were feeling pretty good, because the first points were not scored until three minutes into the game.
The Heat actually led by six at the end of the 1st quarter, but that’s when things took a turn.
Things you do not want to hear about the Heat on a night when you have backed the Heat:
“The Heat are really out of sync right now.”
“This is the worst quarter for Miami all season BY FAR.”
“What a disjointed effort by the Heat.”
The Heat scored 9 points in the 2nd quarter. NINE. The Celtics scored 33 in that frame and never looked back.
A bad night for the Heat somehow got even worse when Duncan Robinson fell into Kyle Lowry who hopped on one leg to the locker room and did not return.
Anti-Lock, for sure.
Celtics 95, Heat 78.
Last night the Celtics held the Magic to 79 points, so it’s pretty safe to say that Marcus Smart’s little chat with the media worked.
Interestingly enough, Jayson Tatum had 0 points heading into the 4th quarter. He finished with 10 points and some suggested he was stat-padding.
It was the Celtics bench who were rockstars tonight! Shoutout Aaron Nesmith who finally got to play real minutes and played really well with them: 13 points, 3-of-5 from downtown and good defensive energy.
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Our Pick: Thunder-Lakers Over 214.5
The Result: This was not a Pure Lock. This was mostly an Anti-Lock that almost turned into a Comeback Lock. Given those stipulations, we’ll chalk it up as a Pseudo Lock.
Our last stop of the night was out in LA.
AD was on his A-game tonight! The Brow went crazy in the 1st quarter, scoring 14 points on 7-of-8 shooting with 8 rebounds to boot. He was hitting his jumpers and cleaning up down low.
The problem, however, was the Thunder and their second-worst offense in the league that really struggled to get good looks and put the ball in the hoop.
Just like last week, the Lakers opened up another big lead. And then they squandered it to the Thunder again!
Last week it was 26 points and tonight it was a 19-point deficit that OKC was able to overcome.
But because OKC had climbed back in it, there was a chance at Overtime that would send us Over after all!
It was tied at 95 with 2 minutes left.
Austin Reaves drove down the lane and fired a lefty pass out to an open Melo who let the 3 fly. It caught iron. (But it’s gotten to the point with Laker-Melo who was having another solid game shooting that we expected it to go in.)
SGA brought the ball up, got the double from AD and Avery Bradley, so he passed it over to Giddey who swung it to Kenrich Williams who was wide open in the corner because Russ was charging at Giddey and trying to jump the pass lane. Kenny Hustle knocked it down. 98-95 Thunder.
Next Lakers possession, Melo tried and missed a scoop layup in between three Thunder defenders.
SGA brought the ball up and DRAINED IT FROM THE LOGO.
SGA was fired up.
Lakers down 6 now with a little over a minute left.
Austin Reaves hit a quick 3 to cut the lead in half!
Lu Dort got the ball inside and was fouled. Surprisingly, he knocked down both of his free throws.
Then Russ dished it out to Melo who this time drilled the 3 to the dome!
Thunder 103-101 with 30 seconds left. We just needed a stop and a bucket to send it to OT!
The Lakers got the stop! Dort drove in and didn’t get the layup to go.
AD corralled the miss and passed it up to Westbrook who drove downhill and… lost the ball out of bounds. Turnover.
Melo was open!
Timeout OKC. 21 seconds left. Lakers still down 2.
This wide open Lu Dort dunk gave the Thunder a 4-point lead, but then Melo curled around a screen from Russ and hit another 3!
The Lakers fouled Dort who knocked down both free throws again.
Without any timeouts left, the ball was inbounded to Westbrook who dribbled up the court and took what would be the game-tying 3 to send it to OT…
Alas, she did not fall.
Ballgame.
No OT. No Over.
Mostly an Anti-Lock that was almost a Comeback Lock.
Thunder 107, Lakers 104.
The Russell Westbrook Experience continues.
The Lakers next game is Saturday night in Portland to face the Blazers who will be on the second night of a back-to-back.
OKC is 2-0 vs. the Lakers but 0-6 against everyone else.
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Nine games ahead on the Friday night menu.
We might have to dust off the old Blog Train. It’s been too long! But we’ve been busy this week with our Western and Eastern Conference Power Rankings (both of which would look a lot different if we put them together today), and this new Chasing Pure Locks segment.
Speaking of, 1-2 tonight puts our overall record since opening Monday at 4-8.
Will we turn it around, or should you keep fading our picks? You’ll have to stick around to find out.
We love this game!
