Bryant and the Lakers travel to Denver in what promises to be an entertaining matchup of young players plus a legend in his swan song.
Monday, December 21
Minnesota-Boston
Celebrate basketball day with Wolves-Celtics. Minny has gone back to its super-tall starting five with Tayshaun Prince and Kevin Garnett joining Ricky Rubio, Andrew Wiggins, and Karl-Anthony Towns. That means we’ll have two intriguing backcourt matchups in Wiggins versus Avery Bradley and Rubio versus Isaiah Thomas. Wiggins obviously has the size advantage over Bradley, but Bradley is more experienced and playing at an All-Star level. Meanwhile, Thomas is seemingly as unstoppable as a man can be at his height, and Rubio is one of the top defensive point guards in the league. Oh, and K.G. kind of won a title while he was in Boston. No big deal or anything.
Orlando-New York
The last time these two teams played, the Magic were just beginning to play with their new starting lineup absent of Victor Oladipo. Kristaps Porzingis has simmered some of late, but assuming Orlando sticks with Channing Frye at the four, Porzingis will have a prime opportunity to exploit an individual mismatch from the opening tip. There’s no guarantee that Scott Skiles will stick with Frye for long if he isn’t doing a decent job defensively, but sometimes a hot start is all a guy needs, and if Porzingis and Carmelo Anthony both find a way to go off, Orlando can kiss this game goodbye.
Orlando has been highly competitive on a near-nightly basis—a team that’s truly been greater than the sum of its young parts. They enter the week at 15-12, a half-game back of Detroit for the eighth seed in the East and only one game behind Chicago, who sits in fourth. How close will these playoff races remain when March and April rolls around?
Tuesday, December 22
Los Angeles-Denver
The Kobe Farewell Tour moves on to Denver, but the real hoops junkies are tuning in for D’Angelo Russell, Jordan Clarkson, Julius Randle, Will “the thrill” Barton, and the Nuggets’ trio of international centers. Hopefully Danilo Gallinari has the gall to talk trash to Bryant in Italian. Unfortunately, it is unlikely Emmanuel Mudiay is able to play, robbing us of a compelling rookie point guard matchup, but this game should have enough oohs and ahhs to keep the east-side up late.
Wednesday, December 23
Portland-New Orleans
The Trail Blazers have beaten the Pelicans twice thus far, and at this point, every game feels like a must-win for them if they’re going to get back into the playoff race. New Orleans has been among the most disappointing teams in the league while there’s nothing but good vibrations in Portland despite the fact that they’re unlikely to reach the postseason. C.J. McCollum and Damian Lillard have dominated NOLA thus far, but Jrue Holiday is starting to find his form over the month of December. In fact, he’s been superb these past few weeks. Occasionally he over-helps on defense, but he is an absolute terror for opposing playmakers. The Pelicans possess few apt defenders who aren’t liabilities offensively. As a result, Lillard and McCollum will probably get theirs unless they have an off night from the field thanks to the separation they’ll get from screeners and the inability of the majority of the Pels’ players to effectively switch assignments. They badly need glue-guy Quincy Pondexter back, and Al-Faruq Aminu returning to NOLA after sinking four threes twice last week will be tough to watch for the Pelicans’—who drafted but gave up on Aminu—faithful.
Sixer Watch
Philly-Milwaukee: Wed, Dec. 23
Philly-Phoenix: Sat., Dec. 26
The Sixers are still losing—a lot. Can they earn a second victory before 2016? Kendall Marshall was drafted by Phoenix, where Sixers’ recent additions Jerry Colangelo and Mike D’Antoni have some history as well. The Suns also shipped the Sixers the Lakers’ first-round pick (top-three protected this year) in the deadline mega-deal that sent Michael Carter-Williams to the Bucks. Marshall played for Milwaukee last season and was highly productive off the bench as Brandon Knight’s primary backup, and K-Butter has been playing under a 20-minute limit through his first four games with Philadelphia.
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