NBA Betting News, Match-Ups and Trends For Saturday 11/2/24

Quote of the Day
“I’m at a loss for words. I didn’t have anything to do with this championship, but it feels like I have the best feeling in the world……..I think there’s just a lot more happiness, honestly. Just so happy to be able to celebrate finally. That parade was for this season, and I feel that this season was unique in its own, and we’re going to celebrate accordingly. But 2020, too — it’s a long time coming. We had a long time coming for this parade.”
Clayton Kershaw

Saturday’s quiz
In the TV show The West Wing, when President Bartlet’s daughter is kidnapped, the president steps aside until she is found. What well-known actor took over as president in those two episodes?

Friday’s quiz
In the movie Heaven Can Wait, where Warren Beatty plays a QB who wins the Super Bowl for the Rams, Beatty’s character wears number 16. Ron Jaworski was the Rams’ QB in real life when the movie was made.

Thursday’s quiz
Mike Shula was the football coach at Alabama before Nick Saban.

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Saturday’s Den: Clearing out a cluttered mind……..​

— $3,458,211,026
Almost $3,5 BILLION dollars; seems like a lot of money.
Since 2010, thats how much money the Bronx Bombers have spent on players’ salaries; 15 seasons, a total of $3,458,211,026, works out to a little more than $230,547,400 a year.
For their $3,458,211,026, Bronx has been in the World Series once, lost 4-1, so they’ve won one World Series game in 15 years. Overall, since 2010, they’re 39-43 in playoff games. They won the AL East six times in those 15 years, made playoffs 11 times.

— World Series titles the last 15 years:
3- Giants
2- Red Sox, Astros, Dodgers
1- Braves, Cubs, Royals, Cardinals, Rangers, Nationals
10 teams have won a championship since 2010.

— I root for the Oakland/Sacramento/Las Vegas A’s, a team that is famous because the cheap bastards who’ve owned the team for the last 25 years don’t try to win.
They made a movie with Brad Pitt because the A’s made the playoffs every year from 2000-03, despite their small payroll, but the A’s haven’t won a World Series since 1989, and it is doubtful they ever will again.
That said, I’m pretty sure if they gave Billy Beane $230,547,400 a year for 15 years, he’d win a World Series. Maybe two.

— UConn 34, Georgia State 27
Huskies ran ball 43 times for 271 yards (6.3/carry)
UConn led 13-10 at half.
Jim Mora Jr’s Huskies are 6-3, bowl eligible.

— South Florida 44, Florida Atlantic 21
FAU led 14-7 at halftime.
South Florida scored the last 30 points of the game.
USF was only 4-14 on third down, 3-3 on 4th down.

— Boise State 56, San Diego State 24
Broncos led 35-10 at halftime.
Boise State outgained the Aztecs, 541-256
Broncos have won six in a row since a 37-34 loss at Oregon.

— Minnesota 119, Denver 116
Minnesota scored the last ten points of the game.
Edwards scored 29 points for the Timberwolves.
Jokic had 26 points, 13 assists, 9 assists for Denver.

— Famous birthdays, November 2nd
Ron Reed, 82
Stefanie Powers, 82
Tom Paciorek, 78
Mark May, 65
Willie McGee, 65
David Schwimmer, 58
Danny Amendola, 39
Jimmy Garoppolo, 33
Jordan Love, 26
Parker Meadows, 25

— Jacoby Brissett has had an interesting NFL career, playing QB for five teams in nine years. Someday he can write a very interesting book.
His last five seasons:
2020- Threw 8 passes as a backup for the Colts.
2021- was 2-3 as a starter for Miami; he threw 225 passes.
2022- 4-7 as a starter for Cleveland; he threw 369 passes.
2023- threw 23 passes in three games as a backup for Washington
2024- 1-4 as a starter for New England; he’s thrown 159 passes.

— Teams playing the Chicago Bears this season have gone under their team total in all seven games.

— Grand Canyon Antelopes are moving from the WAC to the Mountain West; they don’t have football, so this move strengthens the Mountain West’s basketball profile. Grand Canyon is 94-32 in four years under Bryce Drew, making the NCAA’s in three of those four years.

— Baseball stuff
Free agency starts officially next week, but couple things happened Friday:
P Blake Snell opted out of his contract with the Giants, walking away from the $47M he would have banked had he opted in. Snell was 5-3 with a 3.12 ERA in 20 starts LY, throwing a no-hitter, but 20 starts isn’t enough when you’re making $31M/year.
1B Rhys Hoskins exercised his $18M option for 2025 in Milwaukee; he could’ve taken $4M to take a hike, but he’s smart. Hoskins hit .214 last year, but had 26 HRs, 82 RBI.

— Miami Heat-Washington Wizards are playing a game in Mexico Saturday.

— Florida 6, Dallas 4- Teams are playing in Finland this weekend, long way from home.

— I’m looking forward to next week; lot of stuff going on. College basketball starts, the NFL has its trade deadline and we’ll find out if our country is still a democracy. Not sure I got those three things in the proper order of importance, but next week will be interesting.
I like going to vote, seriously, I do. Mentioned the other day that Germany didn’t have any elections from 1933-49, because they became a dictatorship. I’m hoping that this year isn’t the last time I vote.