Christmas Games

First off, a very Merry Christmas to everyone reading this (likely just me and a few of my closest friends). So today's the day where you get to watch five basketball games in a row. I don't know what excites me most about Christmas, probably the games actually (yeah, I'm a huge basketball dork).

So we started off with the Magic crushing the Hornets. I still can't figure out what they did, but the Hornets and even Chris Paul looked pretty bad in that game. The Magic are a team that's for real here guys. I actually shudder to think about how tough they could wind up being in a 7 game series.

Next up was the Spurs and Suns. I gotta say that this game was probably one of the more exciting games I've seen involving the Spurs in quite some time. However, I still love to watch the Spurs play and see how fundamental they really are while not being overly mechanical. The Suns are a given that you're going to get a fun game to watch, although that's started to diminish lately with the new system that Steve Kerr seems to be trying to put in there. Anyway, great game, and going down to the last second shot by Roger Mason of all people, that was a great game to watch and a great win for the Spurs. A tough loss for the Suns as well.

The game of the night, the centerpiece of the day, the Celtics and Lakers, and that game really was fun to watch. The atmosphere in LA was electric, the Lakers did get their usual home calls (everyone knows that when you play the Lakers in LA you play the referees as well, but you should be prepared for that), but the Celtics didn't seem prepared for everything the Lakers were going to throw at them. The Lakers simply outplayed the Celtics, although they did play a great game. I had my Bird jersey on hoping for a Celtics victory, but the winning streak ends here.

Right now we have the Cavaliers and Wizards going at it. The Wizards jumped out to a quick lead, but the Cavs fought back and have been comfortably in front for quite some time now. Well, I guess the lead is down to 2 right now, but if I'm a Cavs fan I feel fairly confident in this game right now. Only worry would be that LeBron only has five points up to this point, but that guy can turn it on whenever he feels like it and likely will.

The last game of the night is the Mavericks and Trailblazers. Look, I know that Greg Oden hasn't quite lived up to the hype just yet, but then again, the guy's a big man. Big men typically take a little longer to develop as players, and I have a feeling that's just the case here with Oden. I love taking every chance I can to watch the guy play, because I want to watch him develop as much as I can. He's a very good big man who has a bright future ahead of him. His only problem is the normal growing pains that he's going through. As for the Mavericks, they're still a tough team that's an awful lot of fun to watch. Dirk is looking better than he did last year, and the Mavericks have suddenly broken out of that early season funk they were in. I have a feeling this will be a great game to watch, and going against Erick Dampier, I don't expect to see Oden get into too much foul trouble tonight.

Well, that's kinda my mid/late analysis of the games that have been played and the games that are to be played today. I'm really liking the lineup of games they've had for the day so far, even if some didn't go as expected.