10 Must-See NBA Games for Opening Month of 2014-15 Season
'Tis the season: Time to somehow sneak that League Pass charge past your spouse and clear enough space on your DVR for a Library of Congress worth of NBA games.
With so many faces in new places and sensational storylines aplenty, it’s hard to know how exactly to split your basketball-viewing time. Like choosing your favorite ice cream flavor or child.
Worry not, intrepid hoops fanatic, for your friends at Bleacher Report are here to help.
Today, we’ll unfurl the 10 must-watch games for the first month of the NBA season—the two-and-a-half-hour chunks of hardwood heroics you’d ditch surgery before missing.
Lest we make this entirely about a certain team on the banks of Lake Erie, a crucial caveat: Teams on this list can only be featured twice.
Also, feel free to use the comments section to offer up any games you feel we egregiously overlooked. Just don't, you know, get me fired.
Where will the universe-shattering showdown between the Utah Jazz and Indiana Pacers wind up? Click through until the end of time to (never) find out!
Dallas Mavericks at San Antonio Spurs
1 of 10
Date: October 28
Time: 8:00 p.m.
TV: TNT
Defending champs on center stage: check. Longstanding rivalry between two Texas titans: check. A rematch of a shockingly close first-round series: oh, you bet your buns. One of the last showdowns between two of the game’s greatest-ever power forwards: It might well be.
Talk about starting off with a bang.
The San Antonio Spurs you already know. All the usual suspects will be there, looking to launch a repeat bid with their splendid display of basketball poetry.
The Dallas Mavericks, on the other hand, are as revamped as it gets. Gone are Jose Calderon and Samuel Dalembert. In are Chandler Parsons, Tyson Chandler and Jameer Nelson (and Raymond Felton—he’ll be allowed out of parentheses when he starts behaving himself).
Both teams bring hyper-potent offenses and top-notch coaching to the fore. The stakes might not be postseason high. But that doesn’t mean the years-old tension won’t be.
Chicago Bulls at New York Knicks
2 of 10
Date: October 29
Time: 8:00 p.m.
TV: ESPN
In one corner you have the Chicago Bulls, locked and (re)loaded and ready to give the fully-healthy Derrick Rose his first real spin. In the other, the New York Knicks, the long-suffering franchise fans hope can ride Phil Jackson’s Zen tricks and triangle genius to championship glory.
One is playing for a championship. The other is playing for next year. Or maybe two years from now. We’re still not sure. Here’s what we do know: These teams don’t like each other—never have, never will. So what if Carmelo Anthony was, like, six seconds from signing with Chicago?
Disparate fortunes aside, the teams’ bitter history—coupled with the requisite flipping out over the first game of the season—makes this opening-night tilt mandatory viewing. Just make sure you stock up on club soda and salt to get the blood specks out of your carpet.
Oklahoma City Thunder at Portland Trail Blazers
3 of 10
Date: October 29
Time: 9:30 p.m.
TV: ESPN
After watching the much-ballyhooed return of one NBA superstar, stick around to watch another team take its first gingerly step sans the services of theirs.
Kevin Durant’s right foot fracture—expected to keep the reigning MVP out of action for four to six weeks—is certain to shake up the Western Conference power structure. That is, unless Scott Brooks and Co. can somehow forge a coherent game plan for the 15 to 20 games they’ll be without their All-Star forward.
Meanwhile, the Portland Trail Blazers, still smarting after a five-game shellacking at the hands of the Spurs, will be looking to author an early signature win over a conference elite.
Things we expect from the always-raucous Portland crowd: spectators in the upper deck duct-taping an X to the railing every time Russell Westbrook misses a shot; various other Russell Westbrook-related chants and barbs.
New York Knicks at Cleveland Cavaliers
4 of 10
Date: October 30
Time: 8:00 p.m.
TV: TNT
It’ll take two nights to get there, but come the payoff will: The regular-season debut of the new-look (and certifiably terrifying) Cleveland Cavaliers.
Already sending fan heads a-spinning with their pinball preseason passing, the Cavs—led by the three-headed hardwood monster of LeBron James, Kyrie Irving and Kevin Love—will look to kick off their championship bid with a win over a Knicks team less than 24 hours removed from the Bulls meat-grinder.
It’s been 50 years since a team from Cleveland has won a professional championship. Needless to say, it probably won’t get a better chance than this: a team so imbued with basketball brains it’s practically a cheat code.
Yes, we realize the Knicks make this list twice by virtue of their enormous fanbase and resulting media clout. No, you can’t do anything about it.
Golden State Warriors at L.A. Clippers
5 of 10
Date: November 5
Time: 7:30 p.m.
TV: ESPN
Hey, have you heard the Los Angeles Clippers and Golden State Warriors don’t like each other? Because they really don’t like each other. Like, if one had to chose between saving the other or a sack full of wasps from falling off a cliff, they’d probably save the wasps.
These two West powerhouses slugged it out to the tune of seven incendiary games in last year’s playoffs, with the Clippers eventually prevailing. Expect the bad blood to turn even more sour this season, with both teams having their sights set squarely on the Larry O’Brien Trophy.
The Warriors look particularly ascendant, with new head coach Steve Kerr’s triangle-inspired offense installed to make the most of Golden State’s explosive talent.
Which is something the Clippers know a little something about, imbued as they are with one of the game’s most transcendent duos in Chris Paul and Blake Griffin.
Something’s gotta give in the Pacific Division. Just don’t expect either of these teams to be the ones doing the giving.
Golden State Warriors at Phoenix Suns
6 of 10
Date: November 9
Time: 6:00 p.m.
TV: Local
What would a fun list like this be without the good old Phoenix Suns, who embody fun so thoroughly they make me want to turn my living room into a ball pit?
There’s been a lot of talk lately on the Internet-o-spheres about whether Phoenix can truly duplicate last season’s Cinderella chemistry—an insurgent brand of basketball gestalt that very nearly vaulted the Suns into the playoffs.
Albeit at home, this early slog against the Warriors should be a good bellwether for just how much these Suns have grown.
Can Goran Dragic pick up where he left off in winning last season’s Most Improved Player award? Will Eric Bledsoe be able to put the bitter taste of this summer’s contract dispute behind him? How will the loss of Channing Frye impact an offense so precise in its spacing?
As for the Warriors? They’ll just be looking to mop the floor with a division upstart—putting them in their place to maintain the status quo. It’ll be fun. Trust us.
Houston Rockets at Oklahoma City Thunder
7 of 10
Date: November 16
Time: 6:00 p.m.
TV: NBATV
By the time this tilt rolls around, the Thunder could still be as much as a month away from the return of Kevin Durant. Playing in a loaded Western Conference, that makes every game a gauntlet in its own right.
It’s been two years since OKC pulled the trigger on the deal that sent James Harden to the Houston Rockets. And if ever there was a game where Harden’s departure would be cast in high relief for all to see, it’s this one.
To be sure, Reggie Jackson has emerged to fill the Harden role more than admirably for the Thunder. His production will be more important than ever in Durant’s absence—a second playmaker whose passing instincts are, how shall we say, a bit more reliable than those of Mr. Westbrook.
Then there’s the possibility, however remote, that KD might actually be back. Should that be the case, we will have all the makings of a legitimate Western Conference Finals preview.
Chicago Bulls at L.A. Clippers
8 of 10
Date: November 17
Time: 10:30 p.m.
TV: NBATV
An early-season seven-game road trip for Chicago begins with a Tinseltown showdown with the Clippers. To call it a contrast of styles would be an understatement. To call it a potential NBA Finals matchup? I’m so giddy I’m giggling, you guys.
Derek Rose and Chris Paul. Blake Griffin and Pau Gasol. Joakim Noah and DeAndre Jordan. Kirk Hinrich and Spencer Hawes (work with me, people). The game has heavyweight bout written all over it. I mean, you know, without the punches and the swollen eye sockets and stuff.
If both these teams can stay at full health, there’s nothing stopping them from blazing their own blistering basketball paths straight into June. What this game provides, then, is the perfect litmus test—a way for each to gauge their ability to combat the best of what a philosophical opposite has to offer.
For the Bulls, the test lies in stopping the Clippers’ high-flying offensive machine, deep and devastating and determined to run their foes clean off the floor.
For the Clippers, it’s about weathering a withering defensive scheme, the likes of which they shan’t see again.
Get your Gallagher ponchos on, folks. This one is gonna get messy.
San Antonio Spurs at Cleveland Cavaliers
9 of 10
Date: November 19
Time: 7:00 p.m.
TV: ESPN
Look, I don’t care if the president of the United States is addressing the nation on an imminent meteor strike. You’re watching this game.
He might not tell it as such, but LeBron James’ decision to return to the Cleveland Cavaliers was as much about basketball strategy as it was narrative redemption. In newly tapped head coach David Blatt, the Cavs boast a basketball tactician of international renown. If anyone has the chops to forge a facsimile of the Spurs’ pass-happy, puppies-and-rainbows offense, it’s this guy.
As for the Spurs, well, suffice it to say they won’t get too up for this one. But that doesn’t mean they won’t recognize the stakes for what they are: a chance to send an early message about the difference between merely installing a system and mastering one.
Here’s a bit more from Bleacher Report’s Bryan Toporek on the game’s scintillating stakes:
"The LeBron vs. the Spurs narrative will drive much of the interest in this game, but frankly, this could be a 2015 Finals preview. It will serve as one of the new-look Cavs' best litmus tests before the start of the postseason, as the Spurs should be cruising their way to yet another 50-win season and top-three seed in the Western Conference playoff bracket by this point in the year.
This will be the fifth of a six-game homestand for San Antonio, which should reduce the incentive for San Antonio coach Gregg Popovich to rest his older starters. Depend on both teams' records at the time, it could also have major implications for home-court advantage in the NBA Finals, should the two teams cross paths there.
"
Here’s to hoping Gregg Popovich doesn’t rest everyone and somehow figure out a way to start Matt Bonner at all five positions.
Dallas Mavericks at Houston Rockets
10 of 10
Date: November 22
Time: 8:00 p.m.
TV: Local
Never thought you’d see two people fighting over Chandler Parsons who weren’t gorgeous women in an exclusive nightclub? Not convinced Daryl Morey and Mark Cuban aren’t gorgeous women? Well, this game’s for you.
Seldom have all three Texas teams been this good for this long. In fact, the Spurs, Mavs and Rockets have all made the playoffs in the same year in six of the past 11 seasons.
And while all three are offensive juggernauts in their own right, Rockets-Mavs may be the most explosive matchup of them all—a collision of sides that can both fill it up with flair.
Why this game isn’t being aired nationally is beyond me. What’s that? It’s on a Saturday? Stupid Saturdays.
It’ll be fascinating to see how Chandler Parsons—a hardwood Swiss Army knife if ever there was one—fits on his new team. Or whether and to what extent Trevor Ariza can duplicate his across-the-board production, for that matter.
What’s that, Mr. Parsons? You have some thoughts on the Rockets not matching the Mavs’ three-year, $45 million offer sheet? The floor is yours, sir, via Yahoo’s Marc J. Spears:
"Honestly, I was offended by the whole process. [The Rockets] publicly said that they were going out looking for a third star when I thought they had one right in front of them. I guess that's just how they viewed me as a player. I don't think I've scratched the surface of where I can be as a player and I think I'm ready for that role.
"
Color us intrigued!
Throw in your typical Dirk Nowitzki one-foot fadeaways and James Harden performance-art drive-flails, and you have the absolute best in basketball ballet.
