Thursday NBAction open thread

Is it just me, or have the TNT Thursday doubleheaders been pretty weak lately? Two weeks ago we were offered Chicago versus Philadelphia, two teams that struggle just to score, followed by the Lakers and Minnesota, a team that will definitely miss the playoffs and one that might.

Again tonight we've got a doubleheader that has almost no interest to the casual fan.

Dallas at San Antonio, 5:00 PM

New York at Portland, 7:30 PM

The Mavericks are essentially out of the playoff race -- most playoff odds sites give them about a 1 in 10 chance of sneaking into the post-season -- and San Antonio is playing without Tony Parker/

Meanwhile, the Blazers are even less likely to make the playoffs, and the Knicks have been just terrible lately. Oh, and the Knicks will be without Carmelo Anthony and Amare Stoudemire, though they should have Tyson Chandler despite the fact that Chandler banged his knee last night.

If the Mavericks can manage to beat the Spurs, it will make the battle for the first overall seed in the west that much more interesting. But honestly, these don't promise to be very good games.

It's not entirely TNT's fault of course -- though they should have at least had an inkling that neither Dallas nor Portland would be particularly good. First Gregg Popovich held out four starters in a game in Miami earlier in the season. Then they've had a slew of injuries that have impacted the quality of their games. But it's a shame that the only games to watch on these nights have been so uninteresting.