Squirrel’s Nuts & Bolts NBA - October 22nd, 2025

Oct 22, 2025

Raymond Carlin III-Imagn Images

Our first full slate of the NBA season tips off Wednesday night with twelve games, putting 24 teams into action. None of the teams from last night are playing on a back-to-back, so after tonight, everyone except Denver and Indiana will have made their season debut.

We have a wide range of game totals, with MIA/ORL on the low end at 215.5, and NOR/MEM (235.5), TOR/ATL (236.5), and DET/CHI (237.5) on the high end. Every spread is within ten points; however, Washington (at Milwaukee) and Utah (home vs. the Clippers) are both 9.5-point underdogs – and are likely to see double-digit spreads soon enough.

Thankfully, most of the major injury news is concentrated in the first window of games at 7 PM ET, so we should get some clarity before lock. In true NBA fashion, Karl-Anthony Towns was downgraded to Doubtful, upgraded to Probable, and then downgraded back to Questionable, all within a thirty-minute window this afternoon (according to different league sources). Welcome back to NBA injury reporting season. With Josh Hart already Out, if Towns misses, then Mikal Bridges, Guerschon Yabusele, and Jalen Brunson would all get major boosts.

Elsewhere, Anthony Edwards (10 PM ET game) and Kel’el Ware (7 PM ET) are both Questionable but made shootaround, while Jaylen Brown (7:30 PM ET) is Questionable with a hamstring strain.

One important note – DraftKings mispriced P.J. Washington, and he is the flat-minimum at $3,000. That makes him an elite value play, who could see massive ownership. I’ll likely play Washington in 80% or more of my lineups on DraftKings.