BOLD PREDICTIONS: Overcoming The Odds!

Just as I hope to overcome 2 seasons in a row with ZERO Bold Predictions being correct, 4 more teams will attempt to overcome their playoff seed today. 3 of these series are pretty easy to predict & then we have BOS vs BKN which I'm staying completely away from for now when it comes to picking.

Starting back at 0-0 for this new playoff run and as always I'll edit the bottom of this blog post with the results of my predictions at the end of the night. So without further ado, it's time to GO BOLD!

Heat/Hawks: Trae Young will score under 25 points. This is bold because the dude is a ticking time-bomb just waiting to go off & it's incredibly difficult to hold him down from scoring for an entire game. He had 6 at halftime on Friday and then finished with 38. Sure, the Heat are a quality defensive team, but somebody has to score for the Hawks. I believe John Collins is coming back today and I expect a big game from both he & Bogdonavic. But either way, Trae will actually be Iced today.

Nets/Celtics: Jason Tatum will record a triple-double. This is bold because he only has 1 in his career, yes 1. So this prediction speaks for itself. But still, this sorta feels like his time & he's going to have to be special in order to lead the Celtics past the Nets who have multiple all time greats healthy along with a solid enough supporting roster and the likely appearance of Ben Simmons looming. Celtics really need to start out with a win and big game from Tatum where he'll def play enough minutes to get a trip-dub.

Bull/Bucks: DeRozan will score 40+ & the Bulls will lose. This is bold because the Bucks are coming off an NBA title & know how to play shutdown defense. Lavine & Vucevic are also guys that put up big numbers & even if DeRozan does hit 40, there's a decent chance the Bulls secure an upset Game 1 win.

*Perhaps this is also wishful thinking since I have him picked for today :)

Sun/Pelicans: This game will have the narrowest margin of victory of all 4 games today. This is bold because the Suns are the most dominant team in the league (love to be able to type that) and everyone expects them to make relatively easy work of the Pelicans. The Pelicans have also won 2 play-in games in a row coming in and are due for a butt-kicking, but for some reason I think this Game 1 is actually going to be very close. We shall see!

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RESULTS:

MIA/ATL: Amazing! Bold Predictions are starting strong with a WIN! Trae Young shot 1-12. One basket & completely ICED as I predicted. Granted I could have made this one tougher; was originally going to post that he'll get under 20 points, but even that I would have won by a landslide. Definitely happy to have called this correctly.

BOS/BKN: Tatum went 31/4/8 so no triple-double. However I was correct that it does indeed look like it's his time as he made a game-winning basket at the buzzer off a sweet spin move to give Boston a 1-0 lead in the series.

CHI/MIL: DeRozan was mostly DeFrozen as he went a frigid 6-25 for only 18 points. I was correct about the Bulls loss, but DeRozan who historically stinks it up in Game 1s didn't change his fortune in this one. It'll be a pretty quick series if this keeps up. 

PHX/NOR: After the Nets/Celtics was decided by 1 pt, this prediction was essentially done for. Oh well, Suns won pretty handily by 11 to the surprise of no one. It's their time baby!

Current Bold Predictions Record: (1-3)