A Good Friday for Basketball?

The attenuated first round playoffs make sense, to accountants. The more games that are set around the weekend, the more people attend, the more people watch. I want the NBA to do well, but sometimes the first round feels like a slow motion execution. It would be kinder to end it quickly, maybe in five games (as of old).

Speaking of which, it’s interesting to me that Easter Weekend, despite often falling during the NBA playoffs isn’t The Thing that NBA Christmas Day has become in terms of hyped matchups, and publicity.

I suspect it is to do partly with the ongoing etiolation of Easter as a major holiday in the USA. The core of Easter, and its meaning, remains largely indigestible by the American Merch Machine.

Sure, some candy, some eggs, and if you grew up in my family, your clothes for the oncoming summer (spring being something that doesn’t truly happen in Houston). But small potatoes in the Old National P&L. While Easter may be eventually joyous, it’s mostly not, and it certainly isn’t jolly. Nobody gets matched Lexuses with pink and green ribbons for Easter. If you’re not going to buy much of anything, why take days off?

Anyhow, you can keep the feast of basketball all the same tonight with three quality games. First off we have Raptors at Magic. It’s nice that Orlando gets a playoff game at home. They once were a very fine NBA crowd, back when Dwight Howard was the Young Russell Westbrook of centers and could dominate nearly all facets of a game.

The thing to remember about Magic vs Raptors is that Orlando did the job already. They won in Toronto. They have the advantage, before tonight’s game. Same with San Antonio, the lower road seed really just wants one of the first two to be in good position.

Next we have Pacers at Celtics. The Pacers have an excuse, their engine, their real All Star, is out. What’s Boston’s excuse for looking mostly like a tire fire? The Pacers just don’t have the horses, but I suspect, if they had Victor Oladipo they’d go up 2-1 tonight.

Finally, the game of hate watching. Some here don’t like Portland. I do, and I live there, but I think most will agree that OKC should be swept out of the playoffs like rubbish.