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The Emirates Cup begins on Tuesday, so it's time to start thinking about our first picks.
For a refresher on the tournament, see the first post. Note, though, that there are actually going to be seven group play days with each team playing four total group play games.

Games

Here is the first slate of games (plus the home spread):
  • Hawks @ Celtics (-12.5)
  • Heat @ Pistons (+3)
  • Hornets @ Magic (-8)
  • Knicks @ 76ers (-1)
  • Raptors @ Bucks (-8)
  • Suns @ Jazz (+4.5)
  • Mavs @ Warriors (+2.5)
Just pick one of the teams above to win their game on Tuesday.
Remember, you can only take each team once and the options will dwindle once we get to the Knock Out round. There are at most 10 choices to make during the tournament, but you don't know which ones will be available towards the end.
I'm going to wait a couple of days, to get more clarity on the injury situations for the Heat, Magic, 76ers, and Bucks. At first glance, I'm leaning towards taking either the Heat, but with Jimmy hurt and the Pistons looking a little frisky, I don't love it.

Prize

27133 sats! plus whatever else comes in from here on out

Participants

There's still time to join. The initial buy-in is only 3k sats.
Magic
IM NOT GOING OUT IN FIRST ROUND
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This was the pick!!
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YOU LIKE THAT?!
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For you yes! For me I’m jelly
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And yet, you pick a team that recently lost their star player.
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THE STARS WILL ALIGN
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Celtics
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Burning them early
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AAAND of course they lose!!! I have the worst luck!!!
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On Spoelstra pulling a Webber, no less. At least you didn't take the Celtics, like @siggy47.
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True I can’t believe they lost
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It's in the books
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Knicks
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Going with an underdog right out of the gate, interesting.
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I may end up using the rebuy early, hahaha!
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Ugh. This is tough. I think I need to wait until Monday.
@remindme in 2 days.
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Yeah, it's a tough starting slate.
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Lock me in for the Magic and @supercyclone wants the Heat.
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Your Magic pick looking good so far, your son's Heat pick seems to be a 50/50 so far. Pistons really have picked up their game lately compared to last season.
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Heat hanging in. I think he will be ok.
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Not looking good. Also, the safe-bet Celtics are tied with the Hawks at 104.
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Missed out on all of the action tonight. Had to go to the AP program info session tonight, as my son is going into highschool next year and he wants to get into the AP program at our catchment school. Head home now to catch the remainder of the Warriors Mavs game.
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Close game, both teams playing hard, fun to watch. A bit over 5mins left to play, Klay just hit a huge 3. Let's see how the Warriors respond.
We can tag team it then, because I'm going to bed.
Raps didn’t look good but Dick played really well.
Definitely surprising the Hawks are hanging with the Celts. Did @gnilma weigh in on our power rankings?
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Wow Celtics lost! Even when @siggy47 tries to take the lock he loses.
Siggy someone put the evil eye on you when it comes to sports.
I can only assume he ran into the SN character limit trying to correct everything wrong with our rankings.
I saw Embiid heading back to the locker room earlier, but he's back out there.
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Watching the Raps and Bucks.
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It'll be harder to skip KAT corner this week.
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I was shocked to see this episode doing fairly well considering we excluded our most popular segment.
It's in the books.
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I pick the Magic for this round.
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Smart pick. Canucks stick together.
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You saw that I missed the T-Wolves vs Blazers, right?
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Yes I did, I even zapped the post, but I'm not burning the Wolves this early. Magic is my pick. Thank you.
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It's in the books
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Leaning towards the Magic, but will wait until Monday to make my pick. Want to watch Sunday's games and also wait until last minute for injury updates.
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I haven't watched them since Paolo got hurt. How have they looked?
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They are not particularly shooting the 3 ball well. Franz Wagner took over ever since Banchero got hurt, and the other young guys are contributing too. They are rebounding well and passing well, I'm thinking they should be able to beat the Hornets even without Banchero. The other option is the Heat, but the Pistons seem to be playing pretty well lately, so it's hard for me to decide.
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I'll hop on the Magic bandwagon.
Hopefully, Suggs can lock down LaMelo.
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