MVN: Most Valuable Network

Okay.  We all need to stick together on this.  Christmas comes with a lot of pressure, commitments, and responsibilities through the holiday.  For those of you who do not celebrate the holiday due to philosophical or religious beliefs, consider yourself lucky this year.  For those of you who do celebrate it, consider yourself screwed.  The NBA has provided us with four potentially fantastic games and one match-up that looks like it will be over by the time Grandpa passes out. 

Here are the games with times and stations:

New Orleans at Orlando, 9am PST on ESPN
San Antonio at Phoenix, 12:30pm PST on ABC
Boston at LA Lakers, 2pm PST on ABC
Washington at Cleveland, 5pm PST on TNT
Dallas at Portland, 7:30pm PST on TNT

Other than the Wizards-Cavs snoozer, that is a loaded day of basketball. Unfortunately for someone like myself, I will be bouncing around from home to home on Christmas Day trying to hit up as many people in my first and second family as possible. Between my family and my girlfriend's family, we'll be fitting three different houses (her parents, her grandparents, and my parents) into 12 jam-packed, egg nog soaked, tinsel laden, gift-wrapped hours of holiday and magical bliss.  It would be much easier if I knocked up my girlfriend in a Shawn Kemp-on-the-road role-play kind of way and made everyone convene at our house but much like Calvin Murphy, I just can't support kids at this point in my life. 

So with the hand that has been dealt to me, between the great basketball and traveling around the city of Sacramento, it appears that I will miss out on a great day of basketball. 

Or will I? 

Check Out the Guide to Watching Christmas Day Basketball


Cleveland Cavaliers 99, Houston Rockets 90
By Zach Harper

There seems to be running theme the Houston Rockets that hasn't passed up this current version of the team from Clutch City. Tracy McGrady is ineffective in big games, Yao Ming can't stay on the court and the reserves get overmatched by a good team during a key stretch in the ball game. And that happened to a degree last night in Cleveland as the Rockets failed to give the Cavs their first home loss of the season.

Yao Ming battled foul trouble throughout the game and only managed 23 minutes as he scored 19 points and made it to the free throw line 13 times (making all 13 attempts). Tracy McGrady scored just four points against this vaunted Cleveland defense as he was bothered by crisp rotations and the defensive stylings of Delonte West throughout the ball game. Ron Artest who was supposed to give the Rockets that big third weapon came off the bench to score 14 points on just 5-14 shooting. Rafer Alston was back in the starting lineup and led the Rockets with 20 but if he is leading your team in scoring, you probably aren't winning that game.

For Cleveland, when they went into halftime tied at 47, it felt like they were one nice run from busting this game wide open. The Rockets were flat offensively, Yao was in foul trouble early, and the Rockets were running the offense through Luis Scola. LeBron James sparked a 16-6 run to close out the final six minutes of the third quarter with nine points of his own as the Cavs took a comfortable seven point lead into the fourth quarter that jumped as high as 12 before settling in at nine when regulation ended. LeBron finished with 27 points, nine rebounds, five assists, and three steals. Mo Williams scored 23 points and Daniel Gibson finished with three threes off the bench.

The Cavs are still perfect at home in 14 games and are 20 games over .500 on the year.


Let's See What I Can Find For You on TV
By Zach Harper
 
Since there are no games scheduled for the NBA tonight, I've made it my Christmas duty to find you something to throw on the TV while you wrap presents, drink heavily, and argue whether Rajon Rondo deserves to be an All-Star or not this season. There are a bevy of sappy Christmas movies on and I'm sure you can't go wrong with It's a Wonderful Life or Miracle on 34th Street. But here are some things that should peak your interest regardless of what mood you're in.

Greatest Game Ever Played - ESPN2, 6pm PST
You seriously should watch this game from 1958 between the Baltimore Colts and the New York Giants. It's a great presentation done by ESPN and it's well worth a couple of hours of your time tonight. ESPN takes a lot of crap and deservedly so, but they really did the viewer a great service by putting this together. If you have HD capabilities, you'll really want to catch this.

Corporate Sponsor College Bowl Game in Hawaii - ESPN, 6pm PST
The game is Hawaii and Notre Dame. It probably won't be a good game but it's nice to see Notre Dame and Charlie Weis get it taken to them whenever possible. There's a rumor that college football is better when ND is good. I'm getting by just fine without it. (Sorry, EddieMac!)

A Christmas Story - TBS, It's on for 24 hours today
This is THE quintessential Christmas movie that you should watch at least once a year.

Costas NOW - HBO, Sometime
I know it's on sometime today but I'm not sure when. But it's a good look back at the year in sports and well worth killing an hour.

Bad Santa - Comedy Central, 8pm PST
You probably should watch the unedited version on DVD but this is instantly a Christmas classic. Yay, Lauren Graham.



How about you get caught up in some other game quick-hitters?
By Zach Harper

Atlanta Hawks 99, Oklahoma City Thunder 88- Joe Johnson had a triple-double with 20 points, 11 rebounds, and 11 assists to give the Thunder their 26th loss in 29 games. OKC was ineffective on both ends of the floor by shooting just 37.4% from the field and forcing only nine turnovers.

New Jersey Nets 108, Indiana Pacers 107- Danny Granger made a jumper with 19 seconds remaining to put the Pacers up by one and it looked like the Pacers would get a tough home victory. But Devin Harris nailed a 21-footer as time expired to give the Nets their 14th victory of the season. Vince Carter and Devin Harris combined to score 67 points.

Charlotte Bobcats 80, Washington Wizards 72- Caron Butler scored 31 points for the Wizards but only received 41 points from the rest of his team as Washington fell to the Bobcats. Emeka Okafor poured in 29 points and grabbed 18 rebounds to give the Bobs their 10th win.

Boston Celtics 110, Philadelphia 76ers 91- 19 straight wins. Franchise record. Ties the fourth longest streak in NBA history. And now there's a showdown Christmas Day against the Lakers to see if they can push it to 20.

Miami Heat 96, Golden State Warriors 88- The Warriors already were going to have their hands full with Dwyane Wade at full strength but with Jamal Crawford sitting out the game due to a calf injury, the Miami star was able to overpower the Warriors and send them to their 22nd loss in 30 games. Wade nearly had a triple-double and the Heat shot 51% from the field while holding the second highest offense in the league to just 88 points.

Los Angeles Lakers 100, New Orleans Hornets 87- The Lakers took advantage of nearly every Hornets' turnover by scoring 28 points off of their 16 turnovers. The Lakers dominated the first half and weathered the runs by the Hornets in the second half thanks to Kobe Bryant's 26 points. The Lakers finally came together this week and put together a good game heading into the showdown with the Celtics.

Detroit Pistons 104, Chicago Bulls 98- The Pistons only received five points from Allen Iverson who didn't make a single field goal in eight attempts. But Rodney Stuckey made up for that with a career-high 40 points. Tayshaun Prince also chipped in with 14 points, 11 rebounds, and seven assists as the Pistons improved to 15-11.

Milwaukee Bucks 94, Utah 86- Thanks to seven turnovers by Andrei Kirilenko and Deron Williams (each), the Jazz committed 24 turnovers as they fell to the Milwaukee Bucks. The Jazz starters scored just 36 points compared to the 27 points from Michael Redd. Luke Ridnour of all people had 11 points, 11 assists, and six steals (I swear, this was real life and not me getting drunk and playing NBA 2K9).

Dallas Mavericks 100, Memphis Grizzlies 82- The Grizzlies came out completely flat on the second night of a back to back and 38.3% shooting from the field. The Grizzlies only scored 12 first quarter points and Erick Dampier (yes, THAT Erick Dampier) scored eight himself to bury Memphis early. Dirk Nowitzki finished with 21 points and Jason Terry had 17 points off the bench.

San Antonio Spurs 99, Minnesota Timberwolves 93- Tony Parker torched the Wolves once again, this time for 36 points as Minnesota lost their 13th consecutive game. Randy Foye had 26 points and 16 rebounds but Tim Duncan chipped in 19 points, 12 rebounds, five assists, and four blocks. The Wolves completely mis-managed the final two minutes with Telfair "guarding" Parker and Minny waiting too long to foul when the game wasn't decided.

Portland Trailblazers 101, Denver Nuggets 92- Joel Pryzbilla was incredible off the bench with 10 points and 19 rebounds as Greg Oden battled foul trouble once again and the Nuggets simply couldn't muster up the consistent play on the second night of a back to back. Steve Blake made five threes and LaMarcus Aldridge scored 20 points to take back a share in the division lead with Denver.