Hardwood Paroxysm Presents: The NBA Season’s Most Anticipated Games
It’s so close you can almost taste it. A season full to the brim of 1,230 basketball games is about to kick off tonight. There’s so much to look forward, but the Hardwood Paroxysm crew picked out a couple matchups to keep an eye on, either because of revenge, potential epic awesomeness or completely ludicrously terrible basketball.
I’m looking forward to Blazers vs. Rockets on Monday, December 22
By Evans Clinchy (@evansclinchy)
The thing about hyping up “revenge games” is that the “revenge” element is really only relevant for the first couple of minutes. Once the players take the floor and get the awkward initial handshakes out of the way, and maybe — just maybe — exchange a few menacing glances, it soon becomes time to forget about all the emotional baggage and just play basketball. This is why many of these matchups tend to fizzle out — a lot of times, the play just isn’t very good.
For example, I’m sure everyone’s excited to see LeBron James take on Dwyane Wade for the first time, but their excitement will surely fizzle once they realize that Wade is 32 with the gimpy old knees of a 42 year old and James owns him. Likewise, Kevin Love against the Timberwolves will be fun for a minute, but it won’t take long to realize that the Wolves are just plain bad.
Blazers-Rockets, though? Now, Blazers-Rockets, I could watch.
When I look back on that playoff series from last spring, I remember Damian Lillard’s spectacular shot that eviscerated Houston in the final 0.9 seconds, but I also remember a whole lot more. That series was six games of non-stop, high-flying, back-and-forth, emotionally charged action. Yeah, the defense at times was kinda lousy, but who cares? It was an incredibly fun brand of basketball to watch, easily the most enjoyable of the eight first-round playoff series. Take all that exciting play, and throw in the added intrigue of the Rockets’ quest for vengeance against Lillard for his iconic shot? Yes. Yes, absolutely — that is a game I would like to see. Thank you for asking.