Friday's Game of the Night: Washington at Utah, wobbly legs forever
The 2016-17 NBA regular season, thankfully, is nearing an end. Though the tops and bottoms of the standings have all been straightened out since January or so, little has been made certain yet beyond the Golden State Warriors’ move to ensure home-court advantage through the Finals. Even with just a short run left, there is still plenty to figure out as the NBA takes to April.
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Since we all need the reminders as to who is set to start the playoffs where, who needs a bump during awards season or with a statistical accomplishment, and who is doing their best work in losing in order to grab improved lottery ball odds, Ball Don’t Lie is set to look at what should be your game of that particular day between now and the end of the term on April 12.
Friday’s Game of the Night: Washington at Utah, 9 p.m. ET
If it were Charles Barkley’s 76ers against Karl Malone and John Stockton’s Utah Jazz in 1990, retroactively, you’d hate yourself for not watching. To help ease that, here’s a video of the two from 1987:
The modern iterations of the Wizards and Jazz (the incomparable Sixers lost their nerve years before the Process even started) take shape tonight in the form of the East’s and West’s great also-rans. The Wizards are riding a mid-to-late season streak as one of the NBA’s better, if not one of the best, teams. The Jazz, meanwhile, have stayed consistently impressive throughout, without having steamed all the cinches that the team hoped to have sussed out by now after a year of mostly healthy play from the team’s rotation.
The Wizards aren’t winding up a hellacious road trip, they’re in one, one of the rare occurrences of a good-to-great team (Washington was at least considered to be a home-court contender, if not division champion, when the schedule-makers got to work last summer) spending its final regular season days jetting across North America.
Between March 25 and the end of the season on April 12, the Wizards will have played road games in Cleveland, Los Angeles (twice), Salt Lake City, the Bay Area, New York City, Detroit and Miami. Tough home contests against Charlotte (the Tuesday after Sunday night’s contest in Oakland) and against Miami (following the trip to New York) are stuck in there just to mess with a team that will move from Los Angeles to Salt Lake City to Oakland to Washington to New York City in a course of nine days (six games).
All before a Washington-to-Detroit-to-Miami jaunt that will take over its final few days to end 2016-17.
Good thing Washington is ensconced in the third seed, a game up on the Toronto Raptors and 1 1/2 games behind the badly struggling Cavaliers for the No. 2 spot in the East.
The Jazz are similarly situated, No. 4 in the West and a game up on the Clippers with seven to play. The team had a day off on Thursday following Wednesday’s 30-point win in Sacramento, and the Jazz will have Saturday off before traveling to San Antonio for Sunday’s ABC game. The schedule, even in the West, will be far easier for Quin Snyder’s still-emerging crew.
Also worth watching
Remember to read our daily NBA Playoff Picture recap, as lovingly penned today by Eric Freeman.
The Raptors and Pacers will not only be fighting for their playoff livelihood on Friday, but the Raptors (following Indiana’s stern showing against them in the 2016 postseason) are probably hoping to reduce the chances for a first-round playoff matchup. The pair, currently seeded No. 4 and No. 8 respectively, could end up with a No. 2 vs. No. 7 or even No. 3 vs. No. 6 matchup depending on how the season, and this game, shakes out.
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The Nuggets (1 1/2 games out) and Hornets (three games) haven’t completely been eliminated from the playoff picture just yet, but the teams probably truly do wish they weren’t playing each other on Friday … Boston should make easy work of the tanking (or otherwise) Orlando Magic … The Cavaliers have the best and worst opponent in line, at the same time, in the defending champions’ hopes of extinguishing its recent streak of flameouts … You’ve already been warned about what should be a rather lame meeting between DeMarcus Cousins and his old Kings teammates (such as they are) … If this were the fin de siècle, we’d still tell you to tune away from the Heat/Knicks game so as not to upset your already annoyed college girlfriend. Modern rules still apply … The Pistons’ 2016-17 season, at 2 1/2 games out of the playoffs and all the way down to the fringes in a post about games to watch on a particular night, could peter out against the Bucks on Friday.
Should both sides show up, Russell Westbrook vs. San Antonio should be fun enough, as should a Memphis/Dallas game that will feature an over/under in the 170s while still giving us expertly coached, terrible defensive basketball … Houston and Golden State will, hopefully, provide us with two classics between the clubs to end the season, as there is a sound chance neither team will meet in the postseason this year. The Warriors, we remind, could be upset.
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Kelly Dwyer is an editor for Ball Don’t Lie on Yahoo Sports. Have a tip? Email him at KDonhoops@yahoo.com or follow him on Twitter!