BOLD PREDICTIONS: Welcome to Splitsville

First of all, about last night. Congrats to the Clips. I watched that whole game & it was one of the best successful comeback performances I’ve ever seen in my decades of watching the NBA. Montrezl Harrell also convinced me he’s worth picking so I’ll put him in my back pocket.

Now onto the first entry in my BOLD PREDICTIONS column. 

In Game 1 of the SAS/DEN series, Gary Harris led both teams with 20 points. BOTH TEAMS. That’s a ridiculous stat that’s made even more ridiculous because it's GARY HARRIS. My BOLD prediction is that BOTH Aldridge (15) & Jokic (10) will have 25 or more points in Game 2 & for good measure Derozan (18) will have at least 20. While I still wouldn’t pick from this series, if you’re confident in your series winner here, the opposite star should go big. 

The Raptors will win this game by a double-digit margin while Nikola Vucevic will have at least 20/10 in the losing effort. If you’re the most confident in the winner of this series out of all of today’s games,  then you may want to pick Mr. Nik. Alternately, if you think the Magic are going to win the series… then you’re just crazy. Augustin outscoring Lowry 25 to 0 is enough of an anomaly for me to understand that Game 1 was simply the Raptors’ Curse.

On to the Thunder vs. Blazers. Although this will be a close series, I’ve still got OKC with the edge unless they fall down by 2 games. That said, I predict Paul George will score at least 35 points & the Thunder will win Game 2 by a single digit margin in a somewhat dramatic fashion down the stretch. Maybe you want to pick Westbrook or George for this game, but in my opinion it’s too soon. They can easily win the series & you definitely want those guys for the later multiplier rounds (if you’re playing that format) if you can help it.

Be sure to come back to this post after tomorrow's games to see the RESULTS summary that I'll add here to the bottom.

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RESULTS:
Gary Harris almost led the Nuggets in scoring again if you can believe it, but the Jamal Murray show edged him out by a point. Murray absolutely took over & won the game for the Nuggets. In the process, Jokic came up 4 points short of my prediction (21) while Aldridge came up a point short (24). However, Derozan did have well over 20 points ending the night with 31, but alas; close but no cigar. (Wrong)

Vucevic was a disaster. Honestly, he gave zero effort & completely reaffirmed they've probably won the only came they're going to win in this series. He had far from a 20/10 game with a mere 6/6, while Aaron Gordon was the only real bright spot in the starting unit. Vucevic has been a regular season pick-one nemesis of mine ever since I picked him the one game he decided to get injured in the 1st quarter. Now he's on my official shit list for good. (Wrong)

And keeping with the tradition of exactly how I started with this column last year, this 3rd prediction was also a giant bust. Are you kidding me that the Thunder are the only team currently down 2-0? They were 4-0 against the Blazers in the regular season. Give me a break. I still have faith & will not yet pick a Thunder. Please Westy, don't force my hand; get 2 wins in a row & even this up please. Paul George did not reach 35 & ended with only 27 in a 20 pt BLOW-OUT loss, which was a far cry from a single-digit dramatic win. (Wrong)

Current Bold Predictions Record: (0-3)