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Monday, January 6, 2014

NBA: Where having kids without your fiancée happens

 

Dwyane Wade is engaged to be married to Gabrielle Union. Wade’s son was just born a month ago. Wade is not having a kid with Gabrielle Union. According to Wade, he had a break in his relationship with Union. (Trying hard to avoid the “union with Union” pun), and out of that the child was born. People were outraged, calling Wade a hypocrite and all types of other things.

On the other hand, because of my background, (I’ve spent the better part of my last 5 years working at public defender’s offices) my position is not to judge. (And cheating on your fiancée ranks lower on my list of things to judge than let’s say kidnapping and murder). If Gabrielle Union isn’t leaving (and if she does I’ll happily lend her a shoulder to lean on) than it probably shouldn’t matter to the rest of us. Most of us have done something we’re not proud of in our adult lives. He’s just more famous.

No Nationally televised games on Monday

Tuesday
New Orleans at Miami NBATV 730
New Orleans was finally healthy for a while. And it's gone. Ryan Anderson has an injury and the Pelicans, who have played admirably are back to scrambling for players. Alexis Ajinca played well in Saturday's game and New Orleans is going to need their backups to play well.

Miami on the other hand has struggled (by Miami's standards). They looked lost against Golden State and barely got past the Raptors. Now admittedly, both of these squads are playoff teams, but it is one thing to lose when you're a championship contender and it's one thing to struggle in the way that Miami did. I expect Lebron James and Co to really come out for this game.

Wednesday
Dallas at San Antonio ESPN 7PM
Texas. I haven't shown a ton of attention to the Mavericks this year. Carlisle and Co. continue to show that they are going to contend in the West. He should be a coach of the year candidate for the work he has done with that lineup. He can be forgiven for that loss against an increasingly desperate Knicks team.
San Antonio is San Antonio. They win a lot of games. They beat good teams. They play really well. They pick off middling players from other teams and turn them into players that other teams wish they had. Ever since Gregg Popovich touched him, Marco Belinelli looks like Reggie Miller, Ray Allen and Robert Horry with 5 seconds left in a playoff game all rolled into one.  

Phoenix at Minnesota ESPN 930PM
What's going on with Minnesota? I have no feel for whether they are a good team or a terrible one. They look really good one night against one team and terrible against the next. It's maddening. Meanwhile, Phoenix continues to cement its playoff spot and Hornacek continues to cement his Coach of the Year win. Bledsoe is out so Gerald Green is his spot, doing what Gerald Green does.

Thursday
Miami at New York TNT 8PM
New York has a Melo trade looming over its head. Carmelo Anthony has an early termination option on his contract for next year. This means that Anthony can try to escape New York after this year. Popular sentiment states that he will do this and try to get his next big money contract. The old way that teams would try to keep players like this would be to dangle the carrot of more money and a longer contract (The rule for superstar talent is that the team that already has the player can offer a bigger longer contract than other teams can in free agency). But recently, teams have tried to trade players like this once it became clear that some players have priorities other than money (See James, Lebron and Howard, Dwight). If Carmelo does't sign an extension he will likely be traded again.

OKC at Denver TNT 1030PM
Kevin Durant (who I should just call Atlas for the remainder of this season) is doing all that he can. Reggie Jackson is showing that he’s the 4th best player on the team and that the distance between he and Serge Ibaka is as much as I originally thought.

Friday
Miami at Brooklyn ESPN 8PM
They are just the Lyn Nets, now. Brook Lopez had an osteotomy and will definitely not return this year. Meanwhile what should have been a great rivalry (Kevin Garnett and Paul Pierce hate Lebron and Co. ) has been ruined by Nets injuries and general lacklusterness


LA Lakers at LA Clippers ESPN 1030PM
Do you remember when this was also supposed to be a rivalry? Remember when Kendal Marshall was out of the league? Remember when Xavier Henry was terrible? Remember when Chris Paul played for the Clippers? He’s going to miss the next 6 weeks (approximately) with a shoulder injury

No Nationally Televised Games on Saturday


Sunday
Cleveland at Sacramento NBATV 6PM

Meanwhile in the discussion of teams that may get rid of a player by the time I publish this, we have the Andrew Bynum saga. Bynum has a contract where he doesn’t get his full 12 million if he’s waived. He might get traded to LA or Utah. He also may just be waived by Cleveland within the next couple of days. Bynum is an immensely talented player, when healthy, who hasn’t put together a lot of good seasons in a row, despite being in the league since 2005.

Meanwhile, Rudy Gay isn’t the savior that the Kings were looking for. Just kidding, we knew that already and the Kings are just a horribly run franchise with poorly matched talent.

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