Last Games of the Week of the 2013 season. It’s been real, folks.
Monday: San Antonio Spurs at Golden State Warriors (7:30 PM PST on NBA TV)
In the final Homer Game of the year, the Warriors fight for their potential first round upset lives in a home dogfight against the San Antonio Spurs. The Warriors slipped to the seventh seed this weekend (both Houston and Golden State are 45-35, but Houston won the season series 3-1, and thus hold the tiebreaker). If the playoffs started today, the Dubs would be playing (and losing to) these Spurs. Needless to say, they’d much rather face the currently third-seeded Nuggets, who will potentially be entering the playoffs without Gallo (torn ACL) or Manimal (badly sprained ankle). If you care about the Warriors performance in the playoffs (which I’m saying I don’t, but that’s clearly a boldfaced lie), this is perhaps the biggest game of the season. And of course, Andrew Bogut isn’t playing. Stupendous.
Tuesday: Portland Trailblazers at Los Angeles Clippers (7:30 PM PST on TNT)
One of my bigger regrets from the last third of the season was completely tuning out the Portland Trailblazers, who largely fell out of playoff contention in February. This might not have done them in observation-wise in previous years, but given the changed times, it didn’t bode well for them this season. That’s a shame, because Damian Lillard really had a season for the ages. He’s basically been the best Blazers rookie ever — not bad considering they had the rookie versions of Brandon Roy, Clyde Drexler, LaMarcus Aldridge and Bill Walton, among others — and I haven’t watched a minute of it, thanks to the general unwatchability of the rest of his team. If you, like me, missed out on a chance to really take in Dame Lillard because of personal hangups, don’t miss out your chance on Tuesday. Next season he’s gonna be something else.
Wednesday: Los Angeles Clippers at Sacramento Kings (7:00 PM PST on League Pass)
You know why we’re watching, and I know why we’re watching, so I’ll spare the gruesome details. We know what’s at stake here, and we know why this game has some potentially grave ramifications in the history of professional basketball in Sacramento and Seattle. It is unlikely that we’ll have any firm understanding of the future of the Kings until the playoffs begin, and even if the sale to Seattle-based ownership group is approved, the city of Sacramento will unleash a new round of lawsuits to prevent the team’s move to the Pacific Northwest. So nothing is settled yet. But this is certain: the Kings will conclude a season that was both forgettable and unforgettable on Wednesday night, and we’ll all be watching what happens immediately after the final buzzer sounds, as well as the months to come.