This Week in the NBA

Cracker just helps me; it helps me think, calms me down and, at times, helps me make sense of it all. Everyone probably has tunes that do that to them, but not like this…

I say this because I refuse to hide in the vagaries of some ambiguous jargon. No—someone like me is here to do his own thing. So, in the words of Monty Python, “Get on with it!”

“I’m not sure what the world may need, but I’m sure as hell it starts with me—and that’s wisdom I have laughed at.”—Cracker.

The Lakers playing to the Competition. LAL played their last three games well, yet they only won one of them. They’re better than all three teams, but the Lake Show only seemed interested in playing to the level of the competition.

This was good to see versus the Mavericks, a sure-fire playoff team; however, when witnessing the Lakers apparently just playing to keep things close against the Jazz and Rockets, teams on the edge of getting into the second season, it makes one shake his head.

What does the future hold? Fortune? Maybe.

Portland on Friday and Memphis on Sunday at home looks good if the Lakers come to play to win, and not to keep it entertaining; then, on the road again, to Golden State, for more of the same. But wait, there’s more: OKC at home next Thursday. Sounds pretty good to me.

“What the world needs now is a new kind of tension, because the old one just bores me to death.”—Cracker.

Televised Games that Matter. ESPN has a doubleheader tonight that has a very different feel to it. The first contest could be for the Atlantic Division, and the second is about the battle in the Western Conference to get into the Playoffs.

Boston goes to Philadelphia to play the Sixers in a game that is for the top seed in their division (at least temporarily). The matchups here really don’t matter as much as you’d think; this one’s about fatigue.

The Celtics finish an 8-game road trip tonight that nearly spanned the entire country. They played all four teams in Cali, and then they went to Denver, Atlanta, Milwaukee and finish in Philly tonight. The schedule makers must have put the second half of the road trip on shuffle or something.

The team in green has done okay on their little trip, currently at 4-3, but the fact that this is a ballgame that could decide the division—if the 76ers win, they win the season series, and therefore hold a tiebreaker, ouch—so I think the Celtics will come to play: Something like 96-88 Boston sounds about right.

The second half of televised basketball—more important than that silly college stuff by far—is the Jazz hosting the Nuggets. This battle to potentially get into the Playoffs has two storylines: One being that of momentum, and two being the actual on-court matchups.

The Jazz are on the outside looking in, but they’re riding the big one—a 5-game winning streak that is. But the more important part of this is…

Matchups, matchups, matchups. And these guys are pretty close—or closer than you’d think.

Al Jefferson and Paul Millsap cause problems for everyone, and at best, you can only stop one of them. But the scoring advantage goes to Denver.

Aaron Afflalo has emerged this year as a go-to scorer and Ty Lawson keeps getting more and more deadly; then add Andre Miller and Al Harrigton coming off the bench and that sounds like game, set and match.

And don’t say I forgot about defense either. Neither team is even remotely stellar defensively, so expect a game in the hundreds: Like 110-105 with Denver ending Utah’s streak to begin a streak of their own.

The End…

“I’m not sure what the world may want, but some words of wisdom could comfort us, so I’ll leave that up to someone wiser.”—Cracker.

And as Cracker says, “La, La, La, La, La, La, La, La, La.”

Au revoir

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