NBA/NFL Daily Preview: Christmas Eve
News—Cleveland:
J.R. Smith is out for at least a few months after thumb surgery. Out of all the injuries to key players this season, this one might mean the least in terms of overall importance. Cleveland may lose a few more games without Smith (tomorrow’s showdown with Golden State seems like a good example of this), but they probably won’t drop far enough to matter. As long as Smith is back by the playoffs, which seems likely at this point, the Cavaliers will be fine.
Los Angeles:
The Clippers lost to the Mavericks last night, on the strength of Chris Paul’s absence and Dirk Nowitzki’s presence. Like I wrote yesterday, Paul’s injury is ultimately most important for playoff seeding, and these are the types of games that come back to matter in April. The Mavericks are going to finish solidly in the lottery this season, and losing games to them could be crippling to the Clippers’ hopes of finishing in the top three. This team needs to hope that Paul can return in time for their Christmas day matchup with the Lakers.
Predictions:
I missed both games last night, falling to 5–6 for the week so far. Unfortunately, there are no NBA games of any kind today, so I’ll make some NFL predictions for a full slate of action. I made some similar picks on Thanksgiving. I’ll have a nice preview piece up tomorrow for the Christmas games, though.
Minnesota at Green Bay: Green Bay
Two teams that are going in dramatically different directions after the first few weeks of the season. While I’m still not completely sold that the Packers will win the division and make the playoffs, they should easily have enough in the tank to beat this collapsing Vikings team. I’m making this pick based on confidence in Green Bay and a lack of confidence in Minnesota. Green Bay wins.
Indianapolis at Oakland: Oakland
This pick seemed closer to me than it probably should be. For all the Colts’ problems this year, they’re somehow still hanging around the edges of the playoff picture and should be easily motivated to compete with the Raiders. Indy’s entire game-revolves around hoping that Andrew Luck puts up insane numbers. It’s not a terribly sustainable strategy, but it can turn up a win in any given week. However, Oakland has too much talent, and is a vastly superior team. Raiders win.
Tampa Bay at New Orleans: New Orleans
It’s been a disappointing year for the Saints. Drew Brees has been solid, but the team lacks much offensive talent around him (or even a pretense of a defense). These late-season divisional games are always interesting, though, since teams that hate each other can still ruin their opponents’ season. So, even though New Orleans has been done for a while, they could still potentially knock the Buccaneers out of a playoff spot. And today, I think they will.
