I’m changing it up this week, for two reasons: first, it’s Christmas and I should be allowed to take a backseat, second about 35% of the league either has COVID or are in isolation from exposure. After two years of the pandemic, it’s hard to find new ways to say ‘this sucks and I hate it’, but this sucks and I hate it. With players out across the league right now there’s a cigarette papers difference between the NBA right now and your Wednesday night local league.
The highlight of the early NBA season is Christmas day, our Boxing Day, and any dribbler knows, Boxing Day is the best part of Christmas. Inserting some trans-Atlantic flavour into your Boxing Day schedule can get you comfortably through to mid-afternoon without leaving the couch. The midday NBA game is particularly good for keeping yourself awake during the lunch break of the test – which is important because if there’s prawns going, Mum’s bringing them out at lunch. So commandeer your TV, get your second screen ready to switch between the basketball and the cricket and strap in for the greatest sporting holiday of the year.
All of these times are in the superior Queensland time-zone, so do the maths if you live somewhere that didn’t birth NBA champion and owner of the biggest hand I’ve ever shaken, Aron Baynes.
Knicks v Hawks – 3:00am
Don’t kid yourself, no one in Australia is watching this game. Even the most dedicated fan is not capable of getting up at 3:00am on the day after Christmas to watch this game. That or you’re still awake and you’re not going to remember it anyway.
It’s probably best this game is on so early as Hawks superstar Trae Young will be sitting out this game after being placed in health and safety protocols. Because of covid and injury, the Hawks will be missing all but John Collins from their starting lineup. This sucks and I hate it.
The Knicks and Hawks are forming a nice rivalry centred on Knicks fans hating Trae Young for destroying the Knicks in the first round of last year’s playoffs and Trae Young holding ill will for anyone that participated in a “TRAE IS BALDING” chant. Emotions will run hot in this game and you’ll be able to hear Knicks coach Tom Thibodeau screaming for his players to do something, anything, competent.
The middling Knicks are nowhere near as fun as they were last year. Julius Randle made his living last year hitting really tough shots over and over and the Knicks boasted one of the league’s best defences, because guys like Reggie Bullock and Elfrid Payton, who left in the off-season, had career best years on the defensive end. Lift the sheet on this year’s Knicks and it’s not pretty. Randle isn’t hitting those same tough shots that he did consistently last year (which, to be fair, you’re not supposed to hit consistently). What’s worse is that no one on this team can competently defend, especially not Evan Fournier, who basically becomes his man’s valet driver, giving him a direct route to a lay-up.
Catch the highlights of this game when you wake up. Don’t even watch the Kayo mini, just watch the 2 minute YouTube version, you’ll see enough.
Bucks v Celtics – 5:30am
Another early game which will be tough to catch. For those like me with young children, this might be the start of your day. For those who have made better life choices, you might catch the end of this game if you’ve crashed into bed after playing whatever stupid card game your nephew got you late into the night while drinking a bottle of Baileys and forgot to close the blinds.
This game rests on whether Giannis plays or not, and if he plays it likely determines the winner. Giannis entered the 10-day health and safety protocols on the 14th, making him potentially eligible to play by Christmas. If he is eligible, Giannis will play; by all reports, Giannis has the psychopathic competitive edge that once forced the Bucks to lock him out of the practice facility so that he’d actually go home.
Giannis loves a statement game and he’ll definitely want to prove he’s healthy on one of the NBA’s most visible days. Giannis doesn’t seem to hate anyone in the league or have any particular rivals, but the most positive moment of the Celtics last month was a 117-103 against the Bucks at home, where Tatum scored 42 and Giannis only 20. That should be motivation enough for Giannis to prove that game was an anomaly.
For the Celtics, Jayson Tatum has been on a hot streak the last ten games, averaging just under 30 points and establishing himself as Boston’s lead actor on offense. The Celtics are sitting 9th in the East and playing like it, beating the teams they’re supposed to and battling with the rest. If you’re looking for some gold, frankincense and myrrh (ha-ha Christmas) in the NBA this season then all 3 of those are just roster continuity. Knowing you have the same line-up as last game is becoming the most valuable asset and Boston have that going for them.
Part of me thinks Boston are going to really turn up for this game and take it. They’ve got a rabid fan base who is at once prepared to back this team to the hilt in a close one or boo them relentlessly if they go down 20. Tatum will need another 40 point game but he’s one of those guys who can suddenly be on 20 halfway through the first quarter. The 4th quarter of this game will be worth watching over breakfast.
Suns v Warriors – 8:00am
This is the marquee matchup of the day, the top of the west clashing once again after splitting the first two games one a piece. CP3 v Steph is an underrated rivalry, probably because they’re close friends off the court, but on-court they’ve been battling the last decade. It’s Steph, the guy who broke the game, who changed what a point guard is supposed to do vs CP3, the perfect traditional point guard, the facilitator of some of the greatest offences in league history.
The Suns take a player advantage into this game, with Devin Booker returning to the lineup after suffering a hamstring injury in the teams first matchup at the end of November. Meanwhile the Warriors are likely to miss Wiggins and Poole to covid protocols, both of whom are handy secondary sources of offense when Steph sits or gets stuck in Mikal Bridges extendo arms.
I’m going to set my bias to one side and say that the Suns have exposed the greatest weakness this Warriors team has: their lack of a centre. In their first game, DeAndre Ayton was basically unstoppable, especially when defended by the undersized Kevon Looney. The Dubs haven’t done anything to fix this hole and number 2 pick James Wiseman, who isn’t guaranteed to fix this either, isn’t expected back until at least the end of January. When they faced each other a second time the Warriors went into full beautiful game mode, keeping the ball moving so quickly that Ayton was either constantly faced with a matchup or made to run so much he didn’t have any energy on offense. We’ll see if Steve Kerr and his coaching staff has a response to Ayton again this game, which might be the biggest swing factor in this game.
Picking my bias back up, is MVP favourite Steph Curry playing? If yes then chalk another win to the good guys.
For me, this is the only game where the cricket gets relegated to the second screen. This is a fight between two of the leagues heavyweights looking for an edge over each other. This is the closest we’ll get to a playoff game before April.
Lakers v Nets – 11:00am
But for covid, this is another marquee matchup, another chapter in the LeBron KD rivalry which has already produced some of the biggest moments of the last decade, a-la Kevin Durant’s two series ending 3’s over LeBron in the 2017 and 2018 Finals.
As of 23 December, the Nets have 10 players unavailable due to covid and their last game against the Washington Wizards was postponed indefinitely. Whilst the NBA has been gripping tightly to the Christmas schedule but this one might have to slip away. If it goes ahead then Patty Mills will need to go into Olympic mode and carry guys like David Duke Jr and Kessler Edwards, who in all honesty would be welcome additions to the Boomers.
On the other side of the matchup, we have 37 year old LeBron carrying an entire team once again. This Lakers team has been horrible to watch so far; they just have no sense of organisation on either side of the floor, it’s like they’ve all just met each other two hours before the game. Add the fact that, apart from a couple games here and there that Russ has been a complete stinker that they are already trying to trade away!
I hate watching this team, it’s just a bunch of old guys who’ve been in the league for a million years and complain to the refs about every call. As soon as anything happens all of LeBron, Westbrook and Melo swarm on the referee to tell them why they were wrong.
I’m sick of it but I know the Lakers are going to find a way to drag themselves to the playoffs, scrape through the first round and suddenly the narrative will change and everyone will be talking about how you never write off LeBron James.
Jazz v Mavericks – 1:30pm
I had written a few paragraphs about what kind of matchup Luka presents the Jazz. His constant change of pace style of play can really present problems to a team that likes to move as a unit. But as I’m about to send this off I get a notification that he’s in covid protocols. This fucking sucks and I fucking hate it.
Dallas are sitting right at .500 with a record of 15-15. They’ve looked at times like a revitalised version of their former selves, the electric offense of last year bolstered by some genuine low post work by Kristaps Porzingis, an area of the court the Zinger was banished from by former coach Rick Carlisle. Other times they look like they’re going through the motions and moving around doing as little as possible to still get paid.
Doncic has missed 9 games so far this season and Dallas have done pretty well without him. I’m not going to criticise Luka but the ball tends to move around a lot better and guys get a whole lot more open shots when the same guy doesn’t hold the ball for the first 20 seconds of the shot clock.
Not that anyone cares, myself included, but the Jazz have been the same regular season juggernaut they have been the last two years. Their offense is beautiful and their defence is stifling, it’s the same old story.
Rudy Gobert looks different this year, in a good way. Gobert was widely panned for his performance in last years playoffs and the finger was pointed squarely at him for the teams failure to make it past a Clippers team without Kawhi. Gobert has responded to that criticism by grabbing every rebound under the sun and leading the league in field goal percentage. Bucking the trend of big guys shooting 3s, Gobert is only taking dunks and layups, and he’s making them.
So let Donovan Mitchell side step through the lane and into your heart as you finally summon the strength to get up off the coach, grab a fistful of leftover ham and slide into the pool. Regardless of what’s happened to you this year, everyone will accept that 2021 has been tough and you deserve to treat yourself, even if you personally haven’t done anything different from your normal routine of beers and footy.
Enjoy the official sporting holiday of the dribbler, you’ve done nothing to earn it, but you’ve earned it.