Let's talk briefly about the schedule announcements the NBA made on Tuesday.
- I love the idea of the NBA scheduling afternoon games. Give me so many more of them throughout the season. (This probably won't happen.) I'll watch them all, if they're there. HOWEVER. I don't really love the idea of an afternoon game on opening day, giving two teams the stage before the defending champion kicks off its season later that night. Am I still gonna watch Celtics-Pistons at 3 PM? Obviously. I'm a sicko, I would watch Kings-Nets at 3 PM if that were all that was available to me. But it feels weird.
- The actual opening night slate is the best in recent memory.
- Knicks-Sixers is going to be incredible. The energy in The Garden is obviously going to be insane for ring night, and Philly has assembled one of the best collections of starting-five talent that we've seen in a while. It'll be the debut for both LeBron James and Jaylen Brown. It's got one of New York's most-hated villains in Joel Embiid playing on the biggest stage in the NBA. (Even though the Knicks have beaten the Sixers in both playoff series they've played in recent years and so it's not really a "rivalry," per se, Knick fans still hate Embiid.) We get two of the best offensive engines in the game in Jalen Brunson and Tyrese Maxey, who accomplish the same goal in vastly different ways. (They won't guard each other, obviously.) We get Mikal Bridges and OG Anunoby and Josh Hart guarding Maxey and LeBron and Brown. It should be fantastic.
- The late game might be even better, with a Western Conference Finals rematch between the two best teams in the NBA. I like how the league is sending the Thunder to San Antonio for this one, too. The Spurs deserve the home game after winning the conference last season. Let's get an early look at how improved Victor Wembanyama is, how Shai Gilgeous-Alexander has changed his game, how healthy Jalen Williams is, how the Spurs dole out the minutes between their three guards, whether OKC's depleted wing depth matters, and more. I can't wait.
- The ESPN games on Wednesday night should also be fun.
- LaMelo Ball and Giannis Antetokounmpo making their respective debuts against each other? Yes, please. Obviously we're going to get looks at everybody early in the year because every team has to play its 82 games eventually and they all start in the first few days of the season, but it's also just nice to knock out two birds with one stone and get to watch "new" teams play against each other right away rather than having to go watch two separate games. (That's a complaint that really only matters to people who are doing this professionally and thus have to watch everything, but still.)
- I'm less into the late game because the Warriors are (sadly) kind of a non-entity right now given that they're just running back a 37-win team and won't have Jimmy Butler for opening night, but at least they're playing the Snowtime Lakers, and it should be pretty fun to watch Steph and Luka going head to head in the nightcap.
- It's a similar dynamic on Thursday, albeit reversed. I'm a little bit tired of this version of the Cavs, but at least they're playing LeBron and the Sixers. I just wish that game were in Cleveland instead of Philly, even though that would mean that the Sixers opened with two straight road games. (There's gonna be a team that opens on the road twice anyway. Who cares if it's one of the most high-profile teams in the league?) But the late game sending Nikola Jokic and the Nuggets to Oklahoma City? Sign me up. Yes, even if this version of the Nuggets may also have run its course and may also not even have Peyton Watson, in addition to the rest of its best from last season. Jokic vs. the Thunder defense is appointment television no matter what else is happening.
- Knicks-Celtics and Rockets-Spurs on Friday? Pretty, pretty good!
- Ranking the Christmas games from 1-5:
- Knicks-Spurs. Duh. Finals rematch. Wemby back in The Garden. Start the day off with a bang.
- Thunder-Wolves. I am wildly intrigued to see how these two teams match up with each other, and whether Minnesota can hang with OKC with its reconstructed roster. I want to see OKC's defense against Anthony Edwards and LaMelo Ball, with the Wolves having seemingly built an outside-in team to try to compete with the Thunder's (and Spurs') inside-out defense. There's also always the theater of watching Rudy Gobert try to shut off the paint while SGA doesn't really need to get all the way to the paint to kill you. How that balance works itself out is always key.
- Sixers-Lakers. I am very surprised that the NBA chose to send the Sixers to L.A. on Christmas, rather than Boston. I understand that it's LeBron's return to play his former team, but Jaylen Brown's return to the scene of the trade is something I'm anticipating much more and that would feature a much more acrimonious and heightened atmosphere. Still, the sheer star power the Sixers have on their team headed to Hollywood to take on Luka Doncic and Co. is a worthwhile show to spotlight in the 5 p.m. time slot.
- Nuggets-Warriors. Steph vs. Jokic is always worth watching. That's why these teams are playing on Christmas Day despite the fact that the Warriors likely won't be all that good and that we don't even know what the Nuggets will look like yet and that they could again take a step back given that they have even less of a bench than they've had in recent years. Just let us watch two of the most entertaining players of all time do their thing in the late-night window and enjoy it.
- Heat-Celtics. Giannis playing against the team to which he was almost traded is interesting enough, I suppose. I don't know why, but this matchup just doesn't have as much juice to me as it probably should based on the star players headlining the matchup.
