EST delivered a perfect 2–0 performance on Thursday night, correctly predicting victories for the Philadelphia 76ers and Oklahoma City Thunder.
That brings our overall NBA predictions record to 10–6, with an accuracy of 62.5% to start the season.
Let’s see how our predictions played out!
Philadelphia 76ers vs. Cleveland Cavaliers
EST Pick: Philadelphia 76ers — CORRECT
Final Score: 76ers 114, Cavaliers 106
Well, that was certainly one way to win a basketball game!
Philadelphia found itself trailing by an astonishing 29 points before mounting a historic comeback against Cleveland.
Tyrese Maxey led the 76ers with 32 points, while Joel Embiid contributed 24. LeBron James added 17 points and 10 rebounds, and Jaylen Brown finished with 21.
Donovan Mitchell scored 32 points for Cleveland, but even his strong performance couldn’t prevent the collapse.
The comeback was Philadelphia’s largest since the NBA began tracking play-by-play data in the 1997–98 season.
We predicted Philadelphia would start its season 2–0, and that’s exactly what happened. Although we certainly didn’t expect them to need a 29-point comeback to get there!
Denver Nuggets vs. Oklahoma City Thunder
EST Pick: Oklahoma City Thunder — CORRECT
Final Score: Thunder 96, Nuggets 84
Our second prediction of the night was another winner.
We expected Oklahoma City’s defense and depth to cause problems for Denver, and that’s precisely what happened.
The Nuggets actually led 48–44 at halftime, with Aaron Gordon delivering an excellent offensive performance. He finished with 20 points on 6-of-9 shooting, including 3-of-4 from beyond the arc.
However, the Thunder completely took over after halftime.
Oklahoma City held Denver to just 36 second-half points, while Nikola Jokic and Jamal Murray combined for only 19 points on 7-of-30 shooting.
Jalen Williams led the Thunder with 21 points, and Chet Holmgren recorded 12 points, 17 rebounds and four blocks.
Shai Gilgeous-Alexander finished with 17 points, ending his historic streak of 141 consecutive games scoring at least 20.
We predicted Denver would struggle against Oklahoma City’s defensive depth, and the Thunder proved us right.
Updated EST NBA Predictions Record
Category
Record
October 22
2–0
Previous record
8–6
Overall record
10–6
Prediction accuracy
62.5%
Final Thoughts
A perfect Thursday night!
Philadelphia needed a historic comeback, while Oklahoma City relied on its outstanding defense to secure the victory.
Not every prediction is going to unfold exactly how we expect, but the important thing is getting the winner right.
After a 7–4 Wednesday and a 2–0 Thursday, EST has now correctly predicted nine of its last 13 games.
We’ll look to keep that momentum going with Friday’s much larger NBA schedule.
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