Play-in and playoff picks

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On today’s episode, David Thorpe and Jarod Hector discuss:

David Thorpe likes to do a ton of homework—phone calls, film study, analytical deep dives—before doing things like publishing predictions.

So this is not that. We’ll publish that to subscribers later this week.

But instead, we talked him into shooting from the hip like the rest of us. So here are unofficial picks from David, and official picks from Jarod and Henry on who will win the play-in games:

• Lakers vs. Pelicans

• Warriors vs. Kings

• Heat vs. 76ers

• Hawks vs. Bulls

As well as who will win the first-round series that are already set:

• Magic vs. Cavaliers

• Suns vs. Wolves

• Pacers vs. Bucks

• Mavericks vs. Clippers

In addition, there’s something Jarod loves about the Knicks, and David’s amazed that MVP voters, in talking up Nikola Jokic and Luka Doncic over Shai Gilgeous-Alexander, seem never to mention defense at all.

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Thank you for listening!