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The NBA in-season has turned out to be more fun and interesting than I had expected which means change can be a good thing after all. My misreading led to me missing out on writing about the quarterfinal games that happened Monday and Tuesday so here are my predictions for the Knockout game that will take place Thursday to set up the championship game this weekend.
Milwaukee Bucks vs. Indiana Pacers: On the east side we have a very interesting matchup between preseason title favorites the Bucks and the young upstart and exciting Pacers who won an exciting game against the Celtics while the Bucks had little trouble against the Knicks. This game will provide the first champion of the NBA cup (Don’t know if that’s the official name or not) and I am calling for an upset where the Pacers win beating a top-heavy Bucks team where the Bucks struggle defending the perimeter and transition will cost them the game against the NBA’s highest scoring and faster paced team with Indiana.
Expect the continue breakout national performance of all-star guard Tyrese Haliburton to continue where this weekend will finally put Haliburton in the national yet slightly early MVP discussion at the expense of the Bucks who will be forced to address a glaring weakness that can ruin their title hopes.
Los Angeles Lakers vs. New Orleans Pelicans: The other side of the bracket could provide us the more exciting of the 2 games, Lakers vs. Pelicans certainly will give people the star power they want to make this tournament mean something for the skeptics. As deeply talented as the Pelicans are on paper, I am not betting against LeBron James and his motivation to potentially provide his teammates with that 500k bonus along with his certainty of showing up for competitive big games like this is the safer bet.
Even if he is clocking some big minutes to start the season, James should take over this match up regardless of who New Orleans attempt to throw at him will not matter as the Lakers will win the game but give this promising Pelicans team a much-needed lesson of maturity in big game situations setting up the championship game between the Lakers and the Pacers.
Tomorrow night will certainly provide some good basketball to be played with the competitive, high pressure, playoff edge that several fans believe do not occur this early in the season normally. I can admit when I am wrong and I was wrong about this in-season tournament because this has been incredibly successful and with a few tweaks going forward can certainly make the start of a normal NBA season more interesting than it ever was before, where normally the bigger national audience tunes into the NBA on Christmas day may now have to tune in earlier with this tournament which is great for the NBA product looking ahead.
