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Last night I didn't put a different thread up for the late games and you bastards hi-jacked my game recap to talk about other games. That was a really good recap and I put a lot of work into it. I slave and slave, and this is the thanks I get?
Sorry, I got a little carried away there.
At any rate, there are some interesting games tonight. I mean, we don't know if they'll be quite as compelling as Pacers-Kings (that was NOT a foul on George's four-point play) or Wolves-Warriors (the Iggy-Rubio charge-block could have gone either way, but I certainly liked the way it went), but they look interesting on paper.
Chicago at Charlotte 4:00 PM
LA Clippers at Toronto 4:00 PM
Oklahoma City at Philadelphia 4:30 PM
Houston at Memphis 5:00 PM
Atlanta at Milwaukee 5:30 PM
Indiana at Denver 6:00 PM
Washington at Utah 6:00 PM
Minnesota at Portland 7:00 PM, NBATV
The Clippers play early and by the time they finish the rematch between Memphis and Houston will be well underway. From a Clipper-centric perspective, I suppose you have to pull for the Grizz again since the Rockets are a threat for the four seed as of now. But holy crap, can Memphis really be a scary team again this year? They seem to do this more than any other team -- they look totally irrelevant for awhile, and then BAM! they get hot and get really frightening. Courtney freakin' Lee man. We were right about him all along!
The Pacers are beginning to miss all those Eastern Conference patsies that couldn't score on their Ataris after losing to the Suns and almost losing to the Kings playing without DeMarcus Cousins and Rudy Gay. When they visit Denver tonight, it will be more of the same, only this time at altitude. The Pacers vaunted DRtg is taking a beating lately.
In the late game, which happens to be on NBATV at 7 PM, the Wolves take on the Blazers. The Blazers have the third best winning percentage in the West and the Wolves have the tenth best. But the Blazers have the fifth best net rating, and the Wolves aren't that much worse at eighth. The difference is that Portland wins close games, and Minnesota loses close games. The Wolves FINALLY won a close one last night against the Warriors and got back to .500. But they have gotten above .500 since November. This is their eighth chance to get back above .500 since then -- but it's probably not happening.