What are you getting me for Hanukkah, Amar’e?
Monday: Atlanta Hawks at Miami Heat (4:30 PM PST on League Pass)
You’ve heard about the Heat. You’ve taken the Knicks into consideration. You’ve even given the Celtics the benefit of the doubt. But now, it’s time to ponder the Hawks. This team seems to be legit. They have somehow pulled off one of the great “rebuilding” jobs of all time, managing to shed almost $75 million in salary, successfully set themselves up to be major players in free agency, while at the same time, staying competitive. And I mean competitive: the Hawks are 12-5, 3rd in the East, and second to Miami in the Southeast. Danny Ferry has assembled a team of playoff-tested veterans who just show up to work everyday, and just go about winning in the ways they know how. It’s always enlightening to see teams where everyone understands their roles go up against another good team. And I really like (watching) all of the players on both of these teams. This should be a fun one.
Tuesday: Brooklyn Nets at New York Knicks (4:00 PM PST on ESPN)
Simply put, the best game of the evening. I am also a sucker for overhyped drama, but this isn’t that overhyped. I’m particularly interested in the Tyson Chandler-Andray Blatche battle. Andray Blatche is averaging 19 and 10 as the starter in Brooklyn (Brook Lopez is recovering slowly from a foot sprain), and Tyson Chandler is still Tyson Chandler on D. But don’t overlook the fact that Chandler’s shooting 72% (!) from the field this season. Unreal, truly unreal.
Wednesday: Denver Nuggets at Minnesota Timberwolves (5:00 PM PST on League Pass)
A litmus test game for both teams. Nuggets are playing slightly better — 6-4 in their last 10 — but still are playing poor defense, and not with any sort of consistency on a nightly basis. The Wolves still don’t look like the polished unit we predicted they’d be during the first week of the season, but that has to do with the fact that they’re constantly integrating new pieces into the lineup (especially K-Love, who has been playing like a guy who’s just had a major hand injury that may not be fully healed). My guess is that both teams are entering this game with the mindset that “this is a team we should beat”, so I’m expecting a dogfight. Look for the struggling Ty Lawson to have a big game against Luke Ridnour, aka, the worst starting point guard in the NBA.
Thursday: LA Lakers at New York Knicks (5:00 PM PST on TNT)
Rumor has it that Steve Nash may be back on this road trip, which would be great for everyone. The Lakers would get their point guard back, Mike D’Antoni would get his famous enabler back (sometimes SSOL doesn’t work, and you should learn to coach other stuff, guy), and we’d all get some sort of hint about whether the “when Nash comes back, all will be well” assertion holds any water or not. Obviously there’s a lot of story lines to this matchup — D’Antoni’s return to MSG, Kobe jacking up shots, Dwight’s struggles, the Knicks success under Woodson — so we’ll be watching. I just hope that it’ll be a good game, and not the typical dump-in-the-bed stuff we’ve been getting from the Lakers as of late.
Friday: Golden State Warriors at Orlando Magic (4:00 PM PST on League Pass)
I swear I’m not being a homer: watch the Warriors. No really, watch the Warriors. I know they’ve been a League Pass darling for a few years now due to their high-scoring ways, but times have changed. The W’s have been winning games with their defense and rebounding. They’re 5th in the league in boards, and hold opponents to the fourth lowest FG% in the league, even without the efforts of the Big Outback (think Big Country, in terms of skillset and seeming career path) Andrew Bogut. And they’re still scoring about 100 a game (99.5, close enough). And I’m not mentioning anything that rhymes with “splay-coughs” or “Depth Flurry’s Spankles” because I am too superstitious for my own good, and the season is very, very long. The Magic, meanwhile, have established themselves as a solid all-purpose watch. They play a nice tempo, work hard, allow themselves to be coached, and keep things pretty close, most of the time. Jameer Nelson is always a fun watch, and I think Nic Vucevic is going to be a player.
Saturday: Boston Celtics at San Antonio Spurs (5:30 PM PST on League Pass)
Starting to come around to the Celtics, whom I haven’t watched much of this season. For all the doomsayers who are ready to give #2 in the East to the Bockers, let me remind you that the Celtics go through an extended “blah” streak at some point during the season (or at least, they have since 2010). At that point, everyone assumes they’re done, yet they still manage to qualify for the Eastern Conference finals each year. Let me also remind you that the Bockers haven’t won anything of note since the 1999 Finals. So cool your jets on the Celtic-hate, folks. I still like this team a lot, and think they’ll be just fine come playoff time, barring major injury. This will be a spirited battle; a clash between the two original Senior Citizen Sensations.
Sunday: Houston Rockets at Toronto Raptors (11:00 AM PST on League Pass)
The Hangover Game this week. The Raps need to realize that this is really the only time anyone watches their games during the week, so they should show up and play, not burn the brownies (they lost by 20 today in this week’s Hangover Game), and get some new fans while we’re a captive audience. If you had an awesome previous night, the Raps make you feel awesome the next day. If you made some mistakes, the Raps make you feel queasy and regretful. Be my greasy breakfast and gatorade, Raptors. Don’t be my whole milk and drunken text mistakes.