Our 2nd night of Chasing Pure Locks went better than the first!

A review of our 3 picks:

Our Pick: Bucks at Pistons Under 212

The Result: This wasn’t quite a Pure Lock. It was a Solid Lock! (A Solid Lock is a step down from a Pure Lock, where the pick was somewhat in question.)

A flurry of 3s by the Bucks who were still gunning with 5 minutes left in the 4th quarter gave us a little scare here, sending the Under probability to 50% according to our handy dandy Action Network app.

But as you can see, we were sitting pretty for most of the game, right in the 60-70% chance to hit range.

They ended up only going Under by 6 points in the end.

Bucks 117, Pistons 89.

The Pistons shot 32.3 percent from the field and 17.0 percent from 3.

Giannis cruised to an easy breezy 28p/9a/8r/4b in only 27 minutes. He also hit three 3s.

We were debating back and forth all day on whether or not to pick this Under 212 or just take the Bucks -4.5.

Bucks -4.5 was the true Pure Lock in this one.

Can you see the difference between the Solid Lock and the Pure Lock?

Okay cool.

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Our Pick: Heat -2.5 at Mavs

The Result: If this wasn’t a Pure Lock, then it was another Solid Lock!

We would like to call it a Pure Lock for the sake of the segment, but we also feel it’s important to stay true to our Locks System.

The Mavs jumped out to an early 11-point lead in the 1st quarter, and Dallas still led by 6 at the end of the 1st.

As he often has been to start this season, Tyler Herro was sensational off the bench. Just two minutes into the 2nd quarter, an 8-0 Heat run by Herro alone gave Miami the first lead since 2-0.

The Heat were covering shortly thereafter when Herro drained another 3.

Miami carried a 70-62 lead into halftime, never looking back.

See, pretty dang Pure! Definitely Solid.

Heat 125, Mavs 110.

Tyler Herro: 25 points.
Jimmy Beans: 23 points.
Bam: 22 points.
Lowry: 22 points.

That’s a lot of points for just four guys. (92 if you don’t want to do the math.)

According to Kevin Harlan at the end of the broadcast, the Heat are +81 with Kyle Lowry on the court.

Whew.

You know, we almost felt bad for Luka but then we remembered that hopefully this will just lead to Jason Kidd getting fired.

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Our Pick: Rockets at Lakers -10

The Result: This was NOT a Pure Lock. Nope, sure wasn’t. This was an Anti-Lock.

This was a completely different Rockets team and tempo from Sunday night. It was a wildly entertaining game.

The Rockets scored 70 points in the first half! (They scored 85 total on Sunday night.)

The Rockets led 70-64 at halftime and 89-87 at the end of the 3rd.

LeBron and the Lakers started rolling in the 4th. LeBron was getting to the rim with ease. Nobody could stop him.

There was a glimmer of hope that this would be a Comeback Lock, but the Rockets fought until the very end.

The spread was out the window after two Kent Bazemore free throws were rescinded because apparently the Lakers actually weren’t in the bonus at the time.

Then Jalen Green hit two awesome 3s late late to give the Lakers a serious scare.

Kevin Porter Jr. had a great look at a game-winning 3 at the buzzer that looked like it was going in.

Alas, she did not fall.

Lakers 119, Rockets 117.

360 combined for 84 points. (Melo chipped in 15 off the bench with three 3s to the dome.)
- LeBron: 30p/10a/4r/2s.
- AD: 27p/9r/3a/3b/2s.
- Westbrook: 27p/9r/7a. (And only 3 turnovers!)
The Big 3 for the Rockets combined for 70 points.
- Christian Wood: 26p/16r.
- Jalen Green: 24p/5a. (5-of-10 from 3.)
- Jae’Sean Tate: 20p/5r.

So the Lakers burned us on Friday night when we took the Cavs +8, burned us on Sunday night with a Bad Beat when we took the Lakers -10.5 and they won by 10, and then they burned us yet again tonight.

This is a little too reminiscent of two years ago when we had trouble betting on our favorite team.

We went on to lose 10 Lakers bets in a row that year, so it might be time to get ahead of it and take a little Lakers gambling hiatus.

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Wanna see a Bad Beat?

Thoughts and prayers if you had the Pelicans +9.5.

The Pels were covering for the ENTIRE game until the final minute.

YIKES.

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A 2-1 record tonight for the good guys plus 1-2 last night pulls us even steven at 3-3 after our first two official days of Chasing Pure Locks.

11 games on the menu tomorrow night for an action-packed Wednesday night of hoops! We’ll try to post our picks earlier in the day if possible… but that can be tricky with injury news and such.

Our Eastern Conference Power Rankings are dropping tomorrow afternoon as well, so keep a look out for those.

We love this game!