The NBA returned last night in perfect fashion with two down to the wire games. I missed watching games that count and I know the MLB returned earlier, but let’s be honest who wants to sit down and watch baseball for 4 hours. Not me. Pelicans and Jazz took the court to head the return of basketball, with every player taking a knee during the anthem and custom names on the back of jerseys to do their part in ending systematic racism. The game itself was back and forth the whole game with each team taking a lead and then the other finding a way back. Brandon Ingram balled out and caught the attention of a guy he's compared to a lot, KD. The snake tweeted out, “#14 is a different breed…” and while I’m sure he was impressed by Ingram, this was some elite trolling by Mr. Burner Account. A few days ago Andre Iguadola tried to compliment WNBA player Aerial Powers on twitter saying, “Number 23 from the mystics is nice!!!”. I would happily take a public comment from a former Finals MVP, but in typical female fashion number 23 was offended. She responded, “Put some respect on my name or keep this tweet to yourself” and plenty of WNBA players and fans backed her. Do people not realize the purpose of numbers on jerseys is to identify them? Anyways, people that caught the subtle troll by KD were amused. Ingram wasn’t enough to handle the Jazz though and ironically the man who shut down the NBA, Rudy Gobert, scored the winning points in the first restart game. The only thing I have to say about this game is what are the Pelicans hiding from us? Zion played 15 minutes shooting 6/7 from the field yet did not play at all down the stretch. What is the point of using the number one pick on a guy like that, say he’s healthy, and not even play him. It was especially frustrating for us Pelicans -2 bettors, put the man in the damn game.
The second game back was the Battle of LA, PG/Kawhi vs Lebron/AD, and it lived up to the hype. AD led both teams in scoring at 34 knocking down some clutch threes. With early foul trouble at the beginning of the game for both, Kawhi and George spent a lot of the night on the bench but lit it up when on the floor. With Paul George knocking down a clutch game tying three with 10 seconds left. Lebron was a little rusty but delivered when it mattered scoring the game winning basket, how fitting to have the GOAT hit the game winner in one of the most hyped up games in recent memory. If only they could cover the -4.5 spread, I went 0-2 last night but I’m putting that past me and I’m ready to win some tonight.
The Clips held their own even while missing Montrezl Harrell and Lou Williams, who decided that some strip club wings (to be fair they looked gas asf) were more important than playing in the first couple games. Reports came out early last week that NBA commissioner Adam Silver visited the Atlanta strip joint to get to the bottom of this situation, even spending around 4 hours inside a private room interviewing multiple dancers to see what the real story was. Once again, a stellar move by the best commissioner in sports.
Tonight we have some good ones including Celtics vs Bucks and Rockets vs Mavs. Celtics are one of the best value picks to win the NBA championship, sitting at +1500. Tonight will be a good sign to see if they have what it takes to get it done. Even though I had a rough night last night, I’ll give my picks for tonight, give me:
Blazers -3.5
Wizards +7.5
Bucks -4.5
Spurs +2.5
Rockets +2
*Also, stay tuned in the near future for a brand new podcast from the founders of Mancave coming soon