The NBA schedule is now into 2014 and with half the month of January already gone, the trading deadline is around the corner and the top teams in the league have established themselves in the standings, with the Miami Heat, Houston Rockets, Los Angeles Clippers, Portland Trail Blazers, Indiana Pacers and San Antonio Spurs being part of the top crop.
The Spurs, Portland Trail Blazers and Oklahoma City Thunder have been battling back and forth at the top of the western conference standings and the Los Angeles Clippers have been leading the Pacific division. Two division leaders and a possible finals matchup meet on Saturday on the schedule with the Los Angeles Clippers visiting the Indiana Pacers and that is going to air on NBATV at 7 pm to start the night off. The rest of the early schedule has the Detroit Pistons taking on the Washington Wizards at 7 pm, while the Miami Heat play against the Charlotte Bobcats and that game starts up at 7:30 pm ET.
LeBron James and company have been chasing the Indiana Pacers in the eastern conference since the start of the season and now are within reach by just a couple games. The Pacers are motivated to finish first in the east after losing in the conference finals last season to Miami and with Game 7 coming in South Florida many felt that the series easily could have gone the other way if it was in Indiana and now the Pacers are hoping to get home court advantage. Right now it looks as if the Miami Heat and the Pacers are the only teams in the east with a true shot at making it to the finals and apart from those two teams, only ones over .500 are the Toronto Raptors and Atlanta Hawks and that makes the back stretch of the season very interesting to see who gets the number one seed.
The Philadelphia 76ers will face off against the Chicago Bulls at the United Center starting up at 8:00 pm on Saturday, while the Houston Rockets will host the Milwaukee Bucks at the Toyota Center and that game will be on CSN Houston. The next two games are also at 8 pm and has the Utah Jazz visiting the Minnesota Timberwolves and the Golden State Warriors playing the New Orleans Pelicans. The late game on the schedule has one of the most surprising teams in the league in the Dallas Mavericks and that game is on at 8:30 pm before the Sunday schedule picks up with The Los Angeles Lakers and the Toronto Raptors playing at the Air Canada Centre at 1 pm.
