East-NBA Games this week to give you hope as 76ers enter 12 days of hell

I wouldn’t wish this Sixers’ fortnight of hoops on anyone.

Hope is needed. The Philadelphia 76ers struggled against the league-worst Wizards and lost to the West-worst Pelicans. It’s dire. That’s without looking at the team’s next two weeks of games, which I’ll run through below. Currently in the 11th seed with a 15-22 record, if this team wants to get in the play-in race, they’ll need help. And by help I mean they need the teams above them in the standings to falter as they have.

So, for this week’s Games To Watch column, I’m focusing on those teams cozied in the Eastern play-in spots. Each of those teams has some tough matchups this week. I’ll highlight those and give a reason or two why they should lose, and thus give you a reason to believe. A dangerous thing but this team isn’t tanking so it’s all we’ve got right now.

Help is needed because, over the next 12 days, Philly plays Orlando, New York and OKC on a back-to-back, Indiana and Milwaukee on a back-to-back, Denver, and Cleveland and Chicago on a back-to-back. That’s four of the top five seeds in the East, two of the top four seeds in the West, the two best teams in the league, and Chicago. Yikes.

Joel Embiid might be back for some of these games, but with three back-to-backs, and the team’s plan to only play him in one leg of back-to-backs, this is a stretch of schedule assembled by Satan.

Jan. 13: Detroit Pistons @ New York Knicks
Victors in eight of their last 10, and 10 of their last 14, the Detroit Pistons are a formidable NBA team. They’re sat at the eighth seed in the East, four and a half games above the Sixers. Over the last 10 matches, they’re ninth in offensive rating, eighth in defensive rating, and seventh in net rating. They’re a tough beat these days.

The Knicks, amid a 6-4 stretch with a few losses to teams they should beat, will have their hands full in Madison Square Garden on Monday night. Despite Karl-Anthony Towns playing the best he ever has, the team has looked dysfunctional at times and the offense has halted recently. They’ve struggled to get threes up and convert on them, and they’re second-to-last in the percentage of field goals that end in assists over the last 10 games.

But, they are great at converting opponent turnovers into points. They scored 19.2 such points per game, the eighth-highest mark in the league. This is relevant because Detroit turns the ball over 15.9 times a game, the eighth-most in the league. Pistons’ lead guard Cade Cunningham has had a phenomenal season, set to make his first All-Star game, but is second in the league in turnovers (4.4 per game).

If New York throws either of their All-Defensive wings on Cade, expect a lot of turnovers and fastbreak points for the MSG crowd to get raucous over. That’s the Knicks’ best path to victory outside of bouncing back from their offensive slump and scoring 140 points (which is exactly what they did on Sunday night against the Milwaukee Bucks after this was written).

Jan. 14: Atlanta Hawks @ Phoenix Suns
Atlanta is the ninth seed, three and a half games ahead of Philadelphia. In true Hawks fashion, they’re .500 with a 19-19 record. Banking on them to win or lose any game is futile. They’ve accounted for two of Washington’s six wins and two of Cleveland’s four losses. So, Phoenix, like any other team, has a genuine chance to help out Philly by winning here.

The Suns have gone 3-1 since their much-publicized decision to move Bradley Beal to the bench. In those four games, Beal is averaging 18 points on 55.6% shooting and one less turnover than he was as a starter. It proved especially fruitful against the Hawks two games ago. The former Wizards’ star dropped 25 points on 11 of 16 shooting as Phoenix won by eight. So, if he does that again, the Suns should win! Right?

Change! For the better!? It’s still too early and the Suns have had too easy of a schedule to call it a master move, but bench Beal hasn’t been horri-beal.

Jan. 15: Miami Heat @ Los Angeles Lakers
Miami, the seventh seed and five games ahead of Philly, has won three straight despite their star player and POBO Pat Riley having a dick-swinging contest that is enthralling the whole NBA community. The squad is talking like it’s a big turnaround but, and I hate to poor manure on a party, they’ve come against a stumbling Warriors team, a horrible Portland team, and an actively tanking Utah team.

Against the Lakers, they’ll be going against a team genuinely trying to win. You must when you are LeBron James’ final franchise. JJ Redick’s squad has shown instances of brilliance, especially at the start of the season and a decent stretch to end 2024. But it dissipates. Their most recent game was a drubbing at the hands of a Luka-and-Kyrie-less Dallas Mavericks squad (their last two scheduled games were postponed due to the devastating Los Angeles fires).

One particular embarrassing loss came at the hands of this Miami team. It was a 41-point embarrassment. In that game, AD had just eight points and Jimmy Butler dropped an efficient 17 points. But, six days later, a Sham-bomb dropped saying that the Heat were “are open to listening to offers” for the star, bringing in the drama to this new season.

So, why will the Lakers win this time? Jimmy won’t play in this Lakers’ game due to a team suspension. LeBron will always want revenge on Riley, especially on a Heat team that embarrassed him in the manner they did. AD shouldn’t finish with less than 10 points again. And Max Christie has it in him to defend Tyler Herro.

Jan. 16: Cleveland Cavaliers @ Oklahoma City Thunder
This game has nothing to do with the 76ers seeding but the matchup last week was the game of the season. Go back and watch how quick and crisp Cleveland’s cutting and passing are, how relentless OKC’s pokes and prods are, and the smoothness of Shai Gilgeous-Alexander.

One big factor in the Cavs’ victory was Jarrett Allen dominating Hartenstein on rebounds all night (Allen had seven offensive boards). How OKC coach Mark Deignaut combats that with the same undersized roster will be intriguing.

Jan. 17: Charlotte Hornets @ Chicago Bulls
Chicago is the 10 seed, 18-21, and two games ahead of the Sixers. They have to start tanking soon, right? That’s the only way I can see them losing to this Hornets team, who are 2-18 in their last 20 games. Unfortunately for Philly (and Bulls fans), all signs point to the Bulls backing themselves for another journey to the play-in. They play paced up and firing away like an old Western cowboy who has given his horse and himself a heroic dose of a former version of crack.

Over the last five games, they have the third-highest offensive rating (120), are playing at the fastest pace in the league, and have the best three-point percentage (43.7). It can be a lot of fun when they get into close games (see the ending to Spurs vs Chicago on Jan. 6). But relying on your threes to fall is a dangerous game, like a coked-up cowboy riding a… you get the metaphor.

Jan. 18: Atlanta Hawks @ Boston Celtics
Boston is in the hangover stages but will want to beat Atlanta after losing to them in an electric NBA Cup game in November. It was a truly valiant performance by the Hawks. Without their star Trae Young, they forced 20 Boston turnovers and moved the ball to the tune of 35 assists.

However, there were a few outlier performances on that Hawks team that indicate a repeat victory is unlikely.

First, the now-injured Larry Nance Jr. not only played but made five threes. He had only done that one other time in his last five seasons (albeit, it happened this season against the Spurs in November).

Second, Dyson Daniels had a season-best in points (28) and field goals made (12) in what was his eighth-most-efficient game from the field of his campaign (57%). Thirdly, largely to from Daniels’ defense, and made even more outrageous considering Daniels’ offensive explosion, Jayson Tatum shot just five of 16 from the field. That’s tied for the fewest buckets he’s made in a game all season, and the 31% field goal percentage is the second-worst he’s shot all season.

And the last outlier was Boston’s 75 field goal attempts, the fewest they’ve had all season. Now, a lot of that has to do with the turnovers Atlanta forced, but Boston averages 91 attempts per game.

If the Hawks hold them nearly 20 attempts below their average again, all credit to them. I just don’t think it’s likely, even with Daniels playing like the best perimeter defender in the league at the moment.

Jan. 19: San Antonio Spurs @ Miami Heat
In Miami’s 2025 ‘new year, new me, who’s Jimmy?’ run since suspending Butler five games ago, they’ve been the third-best defensive team in basketball (107.3 defensive rating). However, they’ve also been the seventh-worst offensive team (108.1 offensive rating). That shocking offense is partially Bam Adebayo’s fault. The US Olympian center and three-time All-Star is shooting just 45.6% from the field, the worst mark of his career. That’s attributed to his lowest points average since the 2019-20 season (16.1). It hasn’t necessarily been detrimental to the team — the Heat are 14-12 when Bam has less than 20 points and 6-5 when has 20 or more — but it is weird. And it likely won’t get any easier against Victor Wembanyama and the Spurs.

According to Cleaning The Glass, teams score 10.3 fewer points per 100 possessions when Wemby is on the court. That’s the fourth biggest difference among players with 1000 minutes logged and the biggest difference among such bigs. The Heat’s offense is already sucky as is and they’ll have to play the game-breaking sophomore who will render their center useless.

Another reason I see the Spurs winning is Wemby seeking revenge over Bam and Eric Spoelstra for the US team defeating his French in the Olympic Basketball Final. Every interview Wemby’s done has shown me he despises losing and anyone who does it to him (his name is VICTOR for goodness’ sake!). It’s awesome as a basketball fan to think how that will motivate him. But it’s terrifying if you’re any opponent who has wronged him.