Oh NBA season, it’s been far too long. While opening night of the NBA is my favorite night in sports, nothing can compare to the first NBA weekend. This is especially true if you’re a fan of the NBA as a whole and want to be able to watch a bit of every single team. But realistically, it’s hard to watch two games at once, alternating between games during commercials or free-throws.
This is why, dear reader, I present the first installment of “Your NBA Weekend”, an NBA blog that will be posted by Friday each week with my picks of the most important NBA games for you to watch. When compiling this list, I kept a few things in mind:
A balance of watching both East and West teams. There is no doubt there will be weekends where the Eastern conference match-ups look far more intriguing than Western ones, and vice versa, but it’s great to have a balance so you can get a nice overall portrait of each side of the NBA
You have a way to stream these games. Whether you’re watching on League Pass or a stream of varying levels of legality, ideally you can find a way to catch these games. Bonus points if there is minimal lag so you can overreact to plays on your favorite message board.
Minimal overlap. There will be games that will drag into other selections, no doubt. My goal is to allow you to watch at least a chunk of one game before switching to another.
You’ll be checking scores from around the league. I’m not a soothsayer. Maybe Ricky Rubio will replicate his insane performance against the Lakers again and you’ll be inclined to switch away from my pick (spoilers: I’m picking Timberwolves at some point in this, don’t worry). There are PLENTY of apps to keep you in the know of what’s going on around the league, so it should be easy to get mobile alerts throughout.
Again, there is so much NBA to choose from on weekends that you really can’t go wrong in any scenario. This is just my personal picks of what I imagine will be the most fun to watch.
With that all cleared up, let’s get started.
FRIDAY 10/30/15
Miami Heat at Cleveland Cavaliers, 7:00 EST
This is going to be one hell of a game to watch with an incredibly healthy Heat roster that impressed everyone in their last 104-94 victory against the Hornets, and let’s face it: it’s still fun to watch LeBron compete against former teams. Yes, the atmosphere might be a bit more interesting had this one been played in Miami, but nonetheless it’ll be really fun to see Wade and Bosh duke it out with LeBron and Love. It’s rough that Kyrie is out, as it’d be ideal to see these teams battle at full strength. In addition, this game is a safe pick to be a consistently exciting game.
Golden State Warriors at Houston Rockets, 9:30 EST
A Western Conference Finals rematch and a (potentially) stronger Rockets team make this an exciting game to come back to. Let’s not forget also that we’re in store for a duel between MVP Steph Curry and MVP runner-up James Harden. The Rockets are still in hunt for their first win of the season after suffering a surprising loss to the Denver Nuggets on Wednesday.
SATURDAY 10/31/15 (A Night of Rematches)
Golden State Warriors at New Orleans Pelicans, 7:30 EST
After dropping two games early in the season to the Golden State Warriors and C.J. McCollum, these Pelicans are going to be out for blood on Saturday night (which really makes for a great horror film. If only Hitchcock were still alive…), and what better team to beat than the reigning NBA champions? The Pelicans were missing starting point guard Jrue Holiday in the season opener, so realistically they should have a better shot at winning this duel between the two teams.
Sacramento Kings at Los Angeles Clippers, 10:30 EST
As you’re recovering from eating all the Halloween candy that you weren’t able to hand out to trick-or-treaters (hence the nice extra few minutes of no NBA action so you can just lay down, throw on some classical music, and massage your temples), you can look forward to yet another rematch. The Kings, led by 3-point specialist (apparently) DeMarcus Cousins, are out for revenge after losing a close game to the Clippers on Wednesday night. This is due to be yet another exciting game. What I’m wondering is if it’s beneficial to start Collison over Rondo, perhaps.
SUNDAY 11/1/15
Atlanta Hawks at Charlotte Hornets, 2:00 EST
The Atlanta Hawks should be able to take this one from the Charlotte Hornets, as they do have a significantly better roster but in the early weeks of the NBA, anything can happen and the Hornets could very well steal this game. Not an ideal game to watch in my opinion, but it’s worth sticking around for at least the first half to see if the Hawks are able to completely cut apart the Hornets defense with their signature unselfish and efficient offensive game.
San Antonio Spurs at Boston Celtics, 3:30 EST
At this point, I’m assuming you’ve switched over from the Hawks and Hornets game due to potential boredom and maybe frustration. The Spurs and Celtics are due to have a fun match-up, albeit the game should be won by the Spurs. Two of the best coaches in the NBA right now will square off in this one, and it’ll be exciting to see a young Celtics team that is looking to be recognized as a threat in the East take on a Western Conference Semi-Finals staple Spurs squad.
Milwaukee Bucks at Toronto Raptors, 6:00 EST
Hopefully you’re enjoying dinner at this point, as the Raptors and the Bucks battle it out. This game should be incredibly entertaining as I feel these teams match-up incredibly well against one another. It’ll be a blast to see DeMar DeRozan battle Khris Middleton, Giannis and DeMarre as well. The Milwaukee Bucks were flat-out embarrassed in the season opener against the New York Knicks, so they’ll look to either continue playing well, or make some improvements, depending on how their game against the Washington Wizards goes on Saturday.
Dallas Mavericks at Los Angeles Lakers, 9:30 EST
…look, I’m actually not that excited for this one, but I feel like you might as well close out your night watching some basketball and there is some enjoyment to be found in this match-up. As Kobe Bryant and Dirk Nowitzki look towards the end of their NBA Careers, we as NBA fans need to embrace these sort of games when we have a chance to watch them.