11/12/25
October 20, 2025
Enter the SportsFilter NBA Pickem: The new NBA season begins Tuesday night. There are national games on NBC, ESPN, Amazon Prime and Peacock but not TNT, with 75 more than last season. Join us this season by picking the winners and margins, making any game a slam dunk to sharpen the contradictions.
posted by rcade to basketball at 09:16 AM - 12 comments
I'm debating whether to include Peacock games all season or exclude them like we do NBA TV. Increasing by 75 games is a lot -- nearly two per week.
posted by rcade at 09:45 AM on October 20, 2025
My picks:
Thunder by 6
Warriors by 3
Knicks by 8
Mavericks by 4
Pacers by 10 (slam dunk)
Nuggets by 8
Celtics by 3
Lakers by 7
Cavaliers by 10 (slam dunk)
Timberwolves by 3
I'm picking the Lukas to lose the season opener at home with LeBron out. ESPN has Kyrie Irving with an estimated return date of January 1, which is three months sooner than I expected. Seems risky to cut months off the normal recovery period for a torn knee ACL with a 33-year-old star. The reason he got hurt was the Mavs risked his health by having him lead the league in minutes after the Luka robbery.
posted by rcade at 09:46 AM on October 20, 2025
I vote against including the Peacock games
posted by NoMich at 10:06 AM on October 20, 2025
I think skipping them the same as the NBATV games makes sense.
posted by Ufez Jones at 01:00 PM on October 20, 2025
My picks:
Thunder by 8
Lakers by 4
Cavaliers by 9 (slam dunk)
Spurs by 11 (slam dunk)
Thunder by 11 (slam dunk)
Warriors by 5
Knicks by 4
Lakers by 6
Cavaliers by 8
Timberwolves by 8
posted by Howard_T at 11:37 PM on October 20, 2025
Don't include Peacock. That number of additional games will make things unwieldy. My bold prediction for the season is that about half of the league winds up within 2 or 3 games of .500. Something around 6 or 8 teams will finish with more than 50 wins, while about that many don't make it to 30 wins. Picking the winners early in the season will be dicey.
posted by Howard_T at 11:44 PM on October 20, 2025
My picks:
Thunder by 7
Lakers by 5
Knicks by 5
Mavericks by 6
Thunder by 5
Warriors by 6
Knicks by 5
Lakers by 5
Cavaliers by 8
Timberwolves by 6
posted by NoMich at 06:53 AM on October 21, 2025
My picks:
Thunder by 9
Warriors by 7
Cavaliers by 6
Mavericks by 7
Thunder by 16 (slam dunk)
Nuggets by 6
Knicks by 11 (slam dunk)
Timberwolves by 9
Pistons by 8
Timberwolves by 6
I'M VERY GLAD THE NBA IS BACK!!!
posted by Ufez Jones at 03:41 PM on October 21, 2025
My picks:
Thunder by 7 (slam dunk)
Warriors by 2
Knicks by 3 (slam dunk)
Mavericks by 3
Thunder by 11 (slam dunk)
Nuggets by 3
posted by scooby10672 at 06:07 PM on October 21, 2025
Revised picks:
Knicks by 4 (slam dunk)
Timberwolves by 7
Cavaliers by 10 (slam dunk)
Nuggets by 4
posted by scooby10672 at 07:06 PM on October 24, 2025
Past Champions
2015-16: Howard_T
2016-17: Ufez Jones
2018-19: rcade
2019-20: NoMich
2020-21: Goyoucolts
2021-22: rcade
2022-23: rcade
2023-24: rcade
2024-25: rcade
Make your picks