Our 1st Pick: Nets at Magic — 3rd quarter Nets -2.5

In today’s preview, we mentioned, “Hopefully the Magic hang tough in the 1st half and won’t be trying to make up for too much lost ground.”

Thankfully a little Magic run at the end of the 2nd quarter cut the Nets halftime lead to 12 — they had been up by 19.

The Nets got the lead back up to 16 pretty quickly into the 3rd, but with two and half minutes left in the quarter, the Nets lead was back to 12 where we started. The Magic were hanging tough thanks to the Human Torch, Terrance Ross. T-Ross had it going in the 3rd, swishing several mid-range jumpers, and when he was fouled shooting a 3, things were looking grim.

But T-Ross missed the first 2 free throws! He made the third freebie to cut the lead to 11. We needed the Nets to be up by 15 in order to cash this ticket. We needed a Nets end of the quarter run.

Right on cue, Jevon Carter knocked down a jumper, Moe Wagner missed a 3, and then DeAndre’ Bembry knocked down a corner 3 to put the Nets up by 16 with less than a minute to go. We just needed a stop!

Things were looking good when T-Ross missed a floater on the next Magic possession, and they were looking even better after Patty Mills made two free throws to pretty much seal it.

The 3rd quarter closed with a Harden to KD oop.

3rd Quarter: Nets 29, Magic 22.

The rare bet that could have a case made for a Solid Lock, Squeaky Lock or Comeback Lock.

Let’s chalk it up as a Squeaky Lock — it looked solid, needed a little bit of a comeback and ended up being pretty close.

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Our 2nd Pick: Raptors +3 at Celtics

This was a good ole fashioned Anti-Lock.

The Celtics exacted complete and dominant revenge from the second game of the season when the Raptors beat them by 32 in the Garden.

The Raptors were given a taste of their own medicine as the Celtics used their defense to generate offense, scoring 26 points off turnovers. Didn’t expect that, but Boston’s defense has improved drastically since Marcus Smart’s little chat with the media.

Also, did not expect a 16-point, 13-rebound (with 8 offensive) explosion from TIME LORD.

Toronto also struggled mightily from 3 again, only 6-of-25 from beyond the arc. They missed soo many wide open 3s.

Celtics 104, Raptors 88.

Yep, Anti-Lock for sure.

That’s two misses in a row on Raptors’ games. Third time is the charm tomorrow night in Philly? We do love to fade the shorthanded Sixers!

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Our 3rd Pick: Hornets at Grizzlies Over 229

This Over started out just how we hoped and dreamed it would.

Ja was EVERYWHERE in the 1st quarter, scoring 19 points (a career-high for a quarter) while the Hornets were also scoring in droves.

Things you want to hear Dell Curry say when you have the Over: “If you tuned in to watch offense, you turned to the right place!”

Not even five minutes into the game, we were already at a 75% chance to hit according to our handy dandy Action Network app which, as always, we can’t recommend enough.

But the 2nd quarter was not like the 1st. With Ja on the bench, the Grizzlies offense went shivering cold (and not the Trae Young good kind). The Hornets had scored 14 points in the 2nd quarter before the Grizz got their first bucket.

1st quarter: Grizzlies 36, Hornets 34.
2nd quarter: Hornets 26, Grizzlies 16.

Things had changed. Our 75% chance to hit dropped down to 45% at halftime, on pace for 224 total points.

The Hornets and Grizzlies 2nd quarter roles were completely reversed in the 3rd quarter as it was the Hornets who then couldn’t buy a basket.

Things you do not want to hear Dell Curry say when you have the Over: “Need to get a wrench to loosen up these tight rims!”

The Hornets finally woke back up thanks to Kelly Oubre who was their savior all night. Tsunami Papi went the fuck off for 37 points! It was the most points by a Hornets bench player ever. Oubre drilled 7-of-9 threes!

The Hornets led 81-78 going into the 4th, and we were down to a mere 26%.

But late in the game, there was a scoring surge! And the Grizzlies started fouling with 38 seconds left!

All of a sudden, a JJJ 3 with 24 seconds left pushed the current Total to 224. All we needed was the Grizzlies to foul, a couple of made free throws and then a garbage-time end-of-the-game 3 by the Grizz for the backdoor Push!

Gordon Hayward made a pair of free throws with 11 seconds left, and here came Ja Morant!

Except he lost the ball. Turnover.

Ballgame.

Hornets 118, Grizzlies 108.

This was a Mirage Lock that almost turned into a Comeback Push.

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1-2 tonight, so we have cooled off from our hot 5-1 start to the week.

Next up: a lite little 3-game Thursday night slate. (But Tuesday’s lite 3-game slate went well!)

We love this game!