RADIO
Nights where there are only two NBA games usually means the following day’s slate is going to be massive. With 11 games scheduled, MonkeyKnifeFight only has five games up so far, but that doesn’t mean there aren’t areas to attack this early. Unbelievably, even though only four teams played yesterday, two of those teams, the Lakers and Timberwolves, are still somehow playing on the second night of a back-to-back.
How you create a schedule that features just two games and still have teams playing multiple games on consecutive days is baffling, but unsurprising at this point. Anthony Davis was a star against Philadelphia’s frontcourt yesterday and couldn’t miss, but whether he plays on the second night of a back-to-back this quickly since returning is doubtful.
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DET @ ORL
Cade Cunningham (DET) MORE 17.5 Points – Cole Anthony (ORL) MORE 17.5 Points
Candace Parker illuminated a persistent problem in the NBA, especially the media aspect surrounding the league. The Pistons have been one of the most under-manned, under-equipped, and least-supported teams this season, yet they are well-coached and keeps games competitive and most importantly, entertaining…and yet, the media chooses to focus on players who get enough attention as it is. It’s all love towards Nikola Jokic, but it’s hard to believe he is going to care that a post-game highlight-reel features a rookie breaking a record rather than him getting another triple-double in a win over one of the more beatable teams in the league. Ranting aside, Cade Cunningham is coming off a career-game and will be able to attack Orlando’s guards rather than their physically intimidating frontcourt tandem.
When Cole Anthony plays, he does everything he can to lift the offense, usually by creating shots himself. His overall stats benefit when he has options, but those options are used more to pull help defense away, allowing Anthony to thrive in isolation. In the two games that Orlando has faced Detroit, Anthony scored 15-points the first meeting, 19-point in the second, and is coming off a 19-point, 11-assist game against the Clippers. The consistency might not be there in the game log, but any game the Magic keep competitive is going to feature Cole Anthony for at least 20% usage.
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BOS @ ATL
Trae Young (ATL) UNDER 26.5 Points – Jayson Tatum (BOS) OVER 26.5 Points
What makes the NBA fascinating is the players. They can go from suffering a horrendous shooting slump, failing to generate production for weeks, and then suddenly, they can’t miss and it lasts for months. Jayson Tatum seems to be on that latter half, because very, very, very few players will score 80+ points across two games. For reference, over his last three games, he’s scored 114 points on 70 shots, including 20 assists. Tatum is on a streak we have seen before and have missed all too much.
Now even if both of these players were in the dead-middle of a shooting slump, it’s doubtful you’d be able to tell with how either plays. We know Tatum won’t stop trying to impact the game, but Trae Young is much more limited in what he can do. Not that his impact isn’t equal to Tatum’s, but Young is forced to do nearly all of his work on the offensive end, mainly creating space with his outside shooting. It’s been somewhat inconsistent as of late, but the effort is still there and just two games ago he hit eight threes’ against Charlotte, so it seems extraordinarily dumb to say someone is “struggling” after; 1. Scoring 30 points on any occasion. 2. Hitting that many three-pointers.
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POR @ HOU
C.J. McCollum (POR) MORE 20.5 Points – Christian Wood (HOU) MORE 19.5 Points
Since his return, C.J. McCollum has hit the ground running and his stat lines are looking as C.J. McCollum-y as ever. He’s due for an outing where he dominates the points McColumn, and if there’s a team prone to night’s like that, it’s the Rockets. The offense runs through C.J. because of his consistency in terms of playmaking, and the fact that the shot attempts are there is reassuring, but this Trail Blazers team still isn’t going to keep every game competitive with their lack of depth and overall scoring.
These teams met earlier this season and aside from Damian Lillard leading the scoring that game with 20-points, the teams playing tonight are significantly different from the teams that played in November. Lillard, Larry Nance Jr., Cody Zeller, Nassir Little, Daniel Theis, and Garrison Matthews are just a few names that either played over 20 minutes the first meeting and won’t play this game, or they didn’t play the first meeting and are guaranteed at least 20 minutes this time around. All in all, this matchup allows for two bottom-of-the-barrel teams to finally get something going. Any under in this game is in jeopardy.
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CHI @ SAS
DeMar DeRozan (CHI) MORE 25.5 Points – Dejounte Murray (SAS) MORE 20.5 Points
There are some players that regardless of who is on the court with them, will always play the same style and won’t falter from what has gotten them to that point. DeMar DeRozan is the perfect example of someone who won’t change for anyone, and even when they play with other stars, always manage to either contribute to a well-supported, collective, team-effort, or set a foundation as one of the few players able to get something going that night. Every player has bad shooting nights, but recently, DeRozan just shown that weakness and his inefficient nights have been masked by forcing the issue around the rim, ultimately DeRozan still scoring in some aspect, so there’s no reason to overthink what he might/will do to this Spurs defense.
For the Spurs, their offense comes from Dejounte Murray initiating from the top, or Dejounte Murray running his matchup around to free up the few players on San Antonio that have been able to score this season. It always resorts back to Murray in this offense, and even though it’s safer to bet on him having all around stats, it’s a given that if the Spurs want to keep any game close, Murray needs to either score 20-points himself, or at the very least help contribute to that through assists and conducting the offense. Doug McDermott has helped ease the load, but it’s looking more and more like Murray is the go-to-guy in nearly every aspect until someone like Derrick White is finally able to find some consistency shooting.
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