NBA Basketball Experts Picks Challenge: Week 2 Picks

It’s Week 2 of our NBA basketball experts picks challenge, as we’ve polled people from all over the NBA landscape to compete, all for a good cause.

The first week of the NBA season had a bit of everything. You had Anthony Davis, James Harden and Russell Westbrook putting up ridiculous numbers, the San Antonio Spurs are 4-0 behind Kawhi Leonard’s hot start and the Chicago Bulls are making 3-pointers — they’re third in the league at 43.5 percent!

Our experts struggled in Week 1, with only one (Seerat Sohi) beating the .500 mark, thanks in large part to her calling the Spurs upset of the Golden State Warriors on opening night. Week 2 is a chance to right the ship, so let’s take a look at the matchups for FanSided’s Basketball Experts Picks Challenge!

Week 2 Matchups (total votes in quotes)

10/31 : Chicago Bulls (12) at Brooklyn Nets (1)

Frankly, I’m shocked that more of our panel didn’t take the Nets here, as only Sean Deveney (Sporting News) took the risk. Home dogs always seem to play well in the NBA, and the combination of Jeremy Lin and Brook Lopez has the Nets competitive. Will Dwyane Wade and Jimmy Butler keep hitting from the outside?

11/1: Golden State Warriors (11) at Portland Trail Blazers (2)

Here we are again, except the Blazers have Damian Lillard and are a quality club, while the Kevin Durant/Steph Curry tandem is still trying to figure things out for Golden State. A close win in Phoenix didn’t shake our experts confidence, as only Matt Moore (Hardwood Paroxysm) and Jason Patt (Today’s Fastbreak) went with the home squad.

11/2: Oklahoma City Thunder (0) at Los Angeles Clippers (13)

Our first sweep vote of the competition goes to Chris Paul, Blake Griffin and the Clippers, but would anyone be that surprised to see Russell Westbrook go for 50 in a shocking win? The tandem of Westbrook and Victor Oladipo might be the most athletic in all of basketball, now if they can get the bigs going…

11/3: Indiana Pacers (9) at Milwaukee Bucks (4)

On paper, the Pacers currently have the best player in Paul George and the better lineup, with Myles Turner, Monta Ellis and Jeff Teague. Then again, games aren’t played on paper. The Pacers got beat by Brooklyn and Chicago, with Teague shooting 2-for-20 in his last two games — and a zero-point performance vs. Chicago.

11/4: San Antonio Spurs (10) at Utah Jazz (3)

Like death and taxes, you can count on the Spurs to continue their winning ways. Leonard has assumed the lead role in the offense, and he’s leading his team with 28 points, 4.3 assists and 3.3 steals per game. He’s gone to the foul line 40 times in four games, shooting 95 percent. For the Jazz, they’ve had to rely on George Hill and Joe Johnson to carry the offensive load with Gordon Hayward out…Utah scored 75 as a team in a loss on Sunday.

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