The best games in the NBA are games where both teams expect to win.
Narratives dominate the league, and more often than not, the narrative wins the day. Favorites are favorites for a reason, after all. There’s something that mentally places one team as the underdog and the other as the favorite.
So when both teams think they’re the favorite, that’s when the magic happens.
The Houston Rockets have lost 11 of their last 12 games. The San Antonio Spurs have lost seven of their last eight. If ever there was a game where two (current) lottery teams played each other and both expected to win, it’s this one.