MINNESOTA vs UTAH
When: 12/26/2020 9:00 PM
Where:

TV: 9:00 PM
LINE: -7.5
PREDICTION: UTAH , MINNESOTA

Oddsmakers currently have the UTAH listed as -7.5 point favorites versus the MINNESOTA, while the game’s total is sitting at 225.5.

After season-opening victories and a two-day Christmas break, the visiting Minnesota Timberwolves and Utah Jazz will square off against each other Saturday night.

This will be the first away test for the Timberwolves, who begin a three-game road trip against the Jazz after defeating Detroit at home on Wednesday.

Karl-Anthony Towns led Minnesota to the 111-101 win with 22 points, 11 rebounds and seven assists. The inspired effort was his first game since his mother, Jacqueline Cruz-Towns, died of complications from COVID-19 in April. The Timberwolves held a moment of silence and played a tribute video in her honor prior to tipoff.

Towns said his mother’s passing has changed him forever. He’s still taking his new reality “moment by moment.”

“You may see me smiling and stuff, but that Karl died on April 13th,” Towns said after the win. “He’s never coming back. I don’t remember that man. I don’t know that man. You’re talking to the physical me, but my soul has been killed off a long time ago.”

Minnesota didn’t hold a lead until Towns put the team ahead 98-97 with 3:38 remaining. The Timberwolves had trailed by 12 points in the third quarter.

Malik Beasley complemented Towns’ performance with a team-high 23 points. Rookie Anthony Edwards, the No. 1 pick in the 2020 draft, made his NBA debut with 15 points. D’Angelo Russell contributed 18 points while Jarrett Culver tallied 10 points and 10 rebounds.

Utah began the season with an impressive 120-100 blowout victory at Portland that same night.

Days after signing a $205 million contract extension, Rudy Gobert had an excellent season premiere with 20 points and 17 rebounds to lead the visitors.

“It’s fun when we play the way we played (Wednesday night),” Gobert said. “That’s the way we’ve been practicing every single day. It’s being unselfish.”

The Jazz spent much of the game shooting far from the center and the basket, amassing 50 3-point attempts. Five players drained at least three of Utah’s 19 3-pointers, with Bojan Bogdanovic, Mike Conley and Donovan Mitchell each hitting four 3-pointers. Mitchell finished with 20 points, Conley scored 18 and Bogdanovic added 15 in his first outing since suffering a surgery-requiring wrist injury on March 9.

Jordan Clarkson resumed his strong bench role, leading Jazz reserves with 15 points and seven rebounds. Joe Ingles chipped in 14 points, seven assists and five rebounds. Derrick Favors totaled 10 points and seven boards after re-signing with Utah following one season away with New Orleans.

Utah’s defense stymied Damian Lillard, who finished with nine points after a scoreless first half. The Jazz led by as many as 23 in the first half and took a 65-44 lead into the break.

“I’m not saying we’re going to go out there and keep guys like Dame and Steph (Curry) and (Devin Booker) and all those guys to nine points in the game or whatever,” Mitchell said. “It’s about making it tough and being able to stay solid, and then also trusting that you have each other’s backs.”

Minnesota earned a victory in its only trip to Utah last season, a 112-102 win that snapped a four-game losing streak in Vivint Arena.

T-Wolves guards Jordan McLaughlin and Jaylen Nowell are listed as day-to-day. Utah doesn’t have a player on the injury report.

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TORONTO vs SAN ANTONIO
When: 12/26/2020 8:30 PM
Where:

TV: 8:30 PM
LINE: 1.5
PREDICTION: SAN ANTONIO , TORONTO

Oddsmakers currently have the SAN ANTONIO listed as 1.5 point favorites versus the TORONTO, while the game’s total is sitting at 226.

The San Antonio Spurs were super sharp in their first action of the year and look to carry the momentum from a solid season-opening road win when they host the Toronto Raptors on Saturday in the Alamo City.

The Spurs are coming off a dominating 131-119 win at Memphis on Wednesday. All five of the Spurs’ starters tallied at least 16 points and seven players in all were in double-figure scoring in the victory, the 20th in the past 22 season-openers for San Antonio.

DeMar DeRozan scored 28 points to lead a balanced offensive attack as San Antonio (1-0) used a 14-0 run in the middle of the second quarter to take charge of the game. The Spurs led by as many as 15 in the period, and Memphis never got closer than seven points over the final 30 minutes.

“Our young guys competed hard, really showed themselves well for the first game we played together,” Spurs coach Gregg Popovich said. “I don’t think we got back really well the last six, seven minutes of the game. But, fortunately, we were able to continue scoring.”

Dejounte Murray added 21, LaMarcus Aldridge poured in 20 points, Keldon Johnson and Lonnie Walker IV each scored 16, Patty Mills 13, and Rudy Gay 10 points for San Antonio.

“We got a little sloppy toward the end,” Murray said. “But we fought, we played together, and we made it happen, and we came out with a win.”

San Antonio went 25-for-29 from the free throw line, with DeRozan 14-for-15.

The Raptors will try to get on track after a 113-99 loss to New Orleans in Tampa in their season opener. Toronto will play at least 17 games of the campaign with Tampa as its home base because of COVID-19 and the travel restrictions between the United States and Canada.

Pascal Siakam had 20 points for the Raptors (0-1) while Kyle Lowry finished with 18, Norman Powell and Chris Boucher 12 each off the bench, and Aron Baynes 11 points in the loss.

“I thought that there was a long stretch of the game, take the turnovers out of it, where the offense was really cooking good,” Toronto coach Nick Nurse said. “The shots were there and the execution was there, there were some really good ball movement plays and things like that, but we just had too many unforced errors.”

Toronto was outscored 38-22 in the third quarter and 63-42 in the second half, relying too much on the 3-point shot to try to get back in the game. The Raptors missed all 10 long-distance shots they took in the third quarter and were just 14 of 46 from beyond the arc in the game.

“Obviously, we have to knock them down as a team and then we just can’t go through times like that when we don’t make shots and we don’t stop them either,” Siakam said. “So that’s the problem. I think, at the end of the day, those shots are going to be there and we need to take them.”

The two teams split their series last year. The Spurs own a 34-14 all-time edge over Toronto, including a 19-5 mark in games played in San Antonio.

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INDIANA vs CHICAGO
When: 12/26/2020 8:00 PM
Where:

TV: 8:00 PM
LINE: 3.5
PREDICTION: CHICAGO , INDIANA

Oddsmakers currently have the CHICAGO listed as 3.5 point favorites versus the INDIANA, while the game’s total is sitting at 223.

An Indiana Pacers team finally looking like it did two seasons ago is set to hit the road for the first time Wednesday to meet a Chicago Bulls team working on an entirely new identity.

Pacers guard Victor Oladipo appeared to turn the clock back to 2018 after a trying two seasons when he was left to recover from a ruptured quad tendon in his right knee.

After playing just 36 games in the 2018-19 season and 19 last season, Oladipo scored 22 points with four rebounds and four assists in a 121-107 home victory over the New York Knicks on Wednesday.

Oladipo’s first half was rusty, much like his return from injury that started in January and continued when the Pacers’ 2019-20 season resumed in August. He made only two shots from the field in the opening two quarters Wednesday before leading the charge in the second half with 16 points on 7 of 9 shooting.

“I’m still getting stronger, getting my power back and things like that, but I’m healed,” Oladipo said. “At the end of the day, I just go out there and play aggressive, play my game, be myself and be assertive. And when I do that, everything else is just free flowing.”

The Pacers won their first game under new head coach Nate Bjorkgren after Nate McMillan got the Pacers into the playoffs in each of his four seasons but couldn’t get the team out of the first round. He was fired after the Pacers fell to the Miami Heat in last season’s opening round.

The Bulls also have a new head coach in Billy Donovan, but unlike Bjorkgren’s quest of getting his team further into the playoffs, Donovan just wants to get his squad there. The Bulls have not been to the playoffs since 2017 when they were eliminated in the first round.

One game into the Donovan era, the Bulls showed that exorcising their demons will take some time. Chicago fell 124-104 in their opener at home against the Atlanta Hawks, getting off to a brutal start when they gave up 42 points in the first quarter and 83 in the first half.

“We’ve got to get physically tougher in terms of just on the ball and having some resistance, preventing the ball from getting to the rim, then being able to close back out,” Donovan said.

“In that 40-point (first quarter), Atlanta played really well offensively. They made shots even though I didn’t think our defense was great. I don’t want to take away from what they did.”

Bulls rookie forward Patrick Williams, the No. 4 overall selection in the NBA draft, did have 16 points and four rebounds to provide a bright spot. At 19, Williams became the youngest player in Bulls history to start a season opener.

Zach LaVine scored 22 points for Chicago, while Lauri Markkanen had 21 points and seven rebounds. But after the disastrous first half, the Bulls are mostly looking to move past anything that happened in Game 1.

“The main thing is winning,” said LaVine, who had a career-best 25.5 points per game last season. “Individual things come after winning. I think over the last couple of years, you know, individually I’ve been one of the better players in the NBA when you look at it. But we didn’t get the wins, so you’re not going to get the recognition for that.”

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PHILADELPHIA vs NEW YORK
When: 12/26/2020 7:30 PM
Where:

TV: 7:30 PM
LINE: 7.5
PREDICTION: NEW YORK , PHILADELPHIA

Oddsmakers currently have the NEW YORK listed as 7.5 point favorites versus the PHILADELPHIA, while the game’s total is sitting at 219.

The New York Knicks spent two-plus quarters exceeding expectations Wednesday night before looking like a team in the beginning of yet another long rebuild.

The Philadelphia 76ers waited until the fourth quarter Wednesday to fully perform like a perennial contender with its rebuild in the rearview mirror.

Both the Knicks and 76ers will be looking to establish more consistency Saturday night when they face off in New York in the second game of the season for both teams.

Each squad was off Christmas Eve and Christmas Day after opening the season at home Wednesday night. The Knicks faded in the second half of a 121-107 loss to the Indiana Pacers and the 76ers stormed back from a double-digit, second-half deficit to edge the Washington Wizards, 113-107.

The Knicks, whose seven-season playoff drought is the longest among Eastern Conference teams and the third-longest in the NBA, offered some signs of progress Wednesday night.

Fueled by RJ Barrett, who drained his first eight shots, and Julius Randle, who flirted with a triple-double before finishing with 17 points, nine assists, and nine rebounds, New York led the Pacers for much of the game’s middle stretch before being outscored 47-30 over the final 18-plus minutes.

The decent start wasn’t enough to satisfy first-year head coach Tom Thibodeau, who arrived in New York with the reputation as a defensively-minded taskmaster. He directed the Chicago Bulls and Minnesota Timberwolves to six playoff berths in his previous seven full seasons as a head coach.

“Our schedule tells us we have to be ready to be better every day,” Thibodeau said. “We played about 24 minutes of good basketball. To win on the road, you have to do a lot better than that.”

The 76ers are no stranger to long processes — they’ve made the playoffs in each of the last three seasons following a well-documented five-year bottoming out — and are now at the point where they can get away with 24 or fewer good minutes.

Philadelphia led by 13 with five minutes left in the first half before the Wizards went on a 22-8 run to take a 59-58 lead at halftime. The 76ers were down by as many as 12 points in the third quarter and trailed 83-73 entering the fourth quarter before they outscored the Wizards 40-24 over the final 12 minutes.

“You know what I loved about the game is we didn’t play well,” 76ers head coach Doc Rivers said after winning his debut with Philadelphia.

“We had stretches that we played well. You can see in that little third quarter — body language is struggling, (they) caught themselves and they just find a way to win. The execution down the stretch of the fourth quarter for a team that hasn’t been together was unbelievable on both ends. So we love that part.”

The 76ers didn’t play on Christmas for the first time since 2016. The Knicks, who have played on Christmas Day an NBA-record 53 times, we’re off on the holiday for the second straight season.

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OKLAHOMA CITY vs CHARLOTTE
When: 12/26/2020 7:00 PM
Where:

TV: 7:00 PM
LINE: -3.5
PREDICTION: CHARLOTTE , OKLAHOMA CITY

Oddsmakers currently have the CHARLOTTE listed as -3.5 point favorites versus the OKLAHOMA CITY, while the game’s total is sitting at 218.

After a forgettable debut, rookie guard LaMelo Ball is hoping for a better performance on Saturday when the Charlotte Hornets host the Oklahoma City Thunder.

Ball, the No. 3 overall pick in 2020 NBA Draft, went scoreless in Wednesday’s 121-114 loss to Cleveland. He missed all five of his shots from the floor and had three turnovers in 16 minutes.

“I told him just to forget this one,” veteran Gordon Hayward said of Ball’s debut. “Some days are diamonds, some days are stones.”

Ball was the first top-three pick to be held scoreless in his NBA debut since Otto Porter Jr. in 2013, and just the fourth in the last 15 seasons, joining Porter, Hasheem Thabeet and Greg Oden.

Porter has bounced back to a solid career, while Oden and Thabeet combined for just 329 career games.

Ball and Hayward are key to Charlotte’s hopes of making the playoffs — and posting a winning record — for the first time since 2016.

Hayward signed a four-year $120-million contract in the offseason as part of a sign-and-trade with Boston.

Hayward had 28 points and seven assists in the opener after missing the final two preseason games with a broken finger.

The Thunder are one of two NBA teams who enter Saturday without having played a game.

Oklahoma City’s scheduled season opener in Houston on Wednesday was postponed after the Rockets were left without the league-required eight players available due to COVID-19 testing and contact tracing protocol.

“We were expecting to get out there and get it going,” Oklahoma City’s Al Horford said. “But at the same time, I think the NBA is really trying to put our health first. It’s something that’s tough, but it felt like it was the right decision.”

Horford is one of the few veterans on the rebuilt Thunder.

Oklahoma City overhauled its roster in the offseason, going into full rebuild mode after last season’s surprise fifth-place finish in the Western Conference.

The Thunder traded Chris Paul, Steven Adams, Danilo Gallinari, Dennis Schroder, Terrance Ferguson and Abdel Nader in the offseason, mostly stockpiling draft picks and young players.

Only five players remain from last year’s roster, and only 22-year-old Hamidou Diallo is from the 2018-19 roster.

The Thunder have won four consecutive meetings, with Charlotte’s last victory since coming in December 2017. Malik Monk is the only player remaining on either roster from the Hornets’ last win against Oklahoma City.

The Hornets will be without starting center Cody Zeller, who fractured his left hand in the loss to Cleveland.

Zeller is expected to miss four to six weeks, according to a report from ESPN.

Zeller missed just two games last season after injuries the previous two seasons limited him to just 82 games the previous two seasons combined.

Bismack Biyombo is likely to replace Zeller in the lineup. Rookies Vernon Carey Jr. and Nick Richards, neither of whom played in the opener, are possibilities for reserve minutes.

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ORLANDO vs WASHINGTON
When: 12/26/2020 7:00 PM
Where:

TV: 7:00 PM
LINE: -2
PREDICTION: WASHINGTON , ORLANDO

Oddsmakers currently have the WASHINGTON listed as -2 point favorites versus the ORLANDO, while the game’s total is sitting at 229.

The Orlando Magic kept the scoreboard operator busy en route to recording a four-game season sweep of the Washington Wizards last season.

After scoring at least 120 points in each matchup last season, the Magic aim to continue their mastery of the Wizards on Saturday when they play the first of two straight games in Washington.

Evan Fournier and Aaron Gordon enjoyed sterling shooting performances in the season opener on Wednesday. The duo combined for 45 points on 17-of-24 shooting from the floor in Orlando’s 113-107 win over Miami.

Nikola Vucevic, who collected 15 points and 11 rebounds versus the Heat, turned up the temperature against Washington last season. He scored a season-high 30 points and had 17 rebounds in Orlando’s 125-121 win on Nov. 17 and added 29 points in a 123-89 victory on Jan. 8.

Terrence Ross chipped in 19 points off the bench on Wednesday for the Magic, who relied heavily on those four players last year to secure their second straight playoff appearance.

“I don’t think there is much difference (from last season), and that’s to our benefit,” said Gordon, who made 8 of 11 attempts from the field and finished with 20 points against Miami.

“We have another year of playing together. Another year wiser and another year smarter. … We understand each other’s games.”

Coach Steve Clifford praised the team’s performance in the season opener, but he was quick to note the ability of a Wizards team that he’ll see on consecutive days this weekend.

“Their guards, the Russell Westbrook-Bradley Beal duo, is a tough cover,” Clifford said on Thursday. “They are explosive with (Davis) Bertans being an X-factor with his range. He puts a lot of pressure on your defense.”

Beal erupted for 31 points and Westbrook became the first player in franchise history to record a triple-double in his debut for the Wizards, who dropped a 113-107 decision in Philadelphia on Wednesday.

“The guy is a winning basketball player. He’s a winning teammate,” Washington coach Scott Brooks said of Westbrook, who had 21 points, 15 assists and 11 rebounds.

“We have a long history together. Seeing him, what he does — the intensity level is high. Every possession matters. He plays through exhaustion. Our young players, it’s going to be priceless what they’re going to learn from him and how he treats everybody. It’s remarkable. He plays the right way.”

Westbrook didn’t see his performance on Wednesday in the same light, however.

“Not good enough. Honestly, I’m kind of disappointed in myself,” Westbrook said. “I had some mishaps and plays where I could have been better and had a better game to try to win. I don’t like moral victories at any point in my career. I always like to go out and try to win the game. I’ve gotta be better and I’ll be better next game.”

Beal averaged a robust 34.3 points in three games last season versus Orlando, including a 42-point performance in a 127-120 loss on Dec. 3.

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CLEVELAND vs DETROIT
When: 12/26/2020 7:00 PM
Where:

TV: 7:00 PM
LINE: -2.5
PREDICTION: DETROIT , CLEVELAND

Oddsmakers currently have the DETROIT listed as -2.5 point favorites versus the CLEVELAND, while the game’s total is sitting at 218.5.

Lottery picks Collin Sexton and Darius Garland led the Cleveland Cavaliers to a season-opening victory.

With Kevin Love nursing a calf injury, the young backcourt may need to replicate that production when Cleveland visits Detroit on Saturday.

Sexton, the eighth pick of the 2018 draft, had 27 points and Garland, the fifth pick of the 2019 draft, added 22 as the Cavaliers defeated Charlotte 121-114 on Wednesday.

“You look at the combination and how they can play with one another and the pressure they can put on the defenses,” Cavaliers coach J.B. Bickerstaff said. “But not only did they have 49 points, they had 11 assists between them and they took care of the basketball. They’re both extremely gifted but they also competed on the defensive end of the floor.”

Cleveland’s offense was humming against the Hornets, as it shot 52.9 percent from the field and assisted on 34 of 46 made field goals.

“We’re trying to play to each other’s strengths,” Bickerstaff said. “We’re still learning one another chemistry-wise. But we’re passing the ball to the open man as much as we possibly can.”

Bickerstaff wasn’t thrilled with his team’s second-half performance. Charlotte scored 70 points after halftime and shot 50 percent for the game.

“I think we were unselfish the majority of the night,” Bickerstaff said. “Defensively, I think we were really good in spots. The second half, I felt it got away from us a little bit. We played into their hands and allowed them to take uncontested threes.”

Love’s status for Saturday’s game is in doubt, but Larry Nance Jr. filled in very well at power forward. Nance had 13 points, 13 rebounds, eight assists, three steals and two blocks against Charlotte.

The Pistons, who will be playing their home opener on Saturday, lost their opener to Minnesota 111-101 on Wednesday after leading most of the way. The Timberwolves scored the last 11 points and outscored visiting Detroit 31-16 in the fourth quarter.

“We had a lot of bad turnovers in that last portion of it and then defensively, we had some huge breakdowns,” coach Dwane Casey said.

Killian Hayes, the No. 7 pick of this year’s draft, was thrown into the fire. He committed four turnovers in 21 minutes, including back-to-back giveaways in the final quarter that led to a momentum shift.

“That’s also the mark of a young point guard. How do you close an NBA game?” Casey said. “The intensity level goes up, the ‘want-to’ goes up. Everything gets a little bit harder in those situations. It was a great learning experience for us as a group.”

Detroit had the biggest roster turnover of any team in the league and it showed in the late going. A pair of free agent acquisitions, Josh Jackson (team-high 19 points, six rebounds) and Mason Plumlee (14 points, eight rebounds, six assists) made auspicious debuts with the club.

“We’ve been together two weeks, 11 new faces,” Casey said. “There’s a lot of nuances we’re going to miss until we get to know each other.”

The teams split their four meetings last season. Cleveland big man Andre Drummond will be playing against his former team for the first time. The Pistons dealt him to the Cavaliers just prior to last February’s trade deadline.

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ATLANTA vs MEMPHIS
When: 12/26/2020 5:00 PM
Where:

TV: 5:00 PM
LINE: 1.5
PREDICTION: MEMPHIS , ATLANTA

Oddsmakers currently have the MEMPHIS listed as 1.5 point favorites versus the ATLANTA, while the game’s total is sitting at 238.

The Atlanta Hawks and Memphis Grizzlies saw a lot of each other during the preseason.

Now they meet Saturday in Memphis in a game that counts.

Both teams opened the season Wednesday. The Hawks hammered the Chicago Bulls 124-104 on the road, while the Grizzlies were whipped 131-119 at home by the San Antonio Spurs.

The teams split two games during the preseason with the Grizzlies winning the first game 128-106, but the Hawks winning the return match 117-116.

The Grizzlies easily defeated the Hawks in both meetings last year and have won the last three head-to-head contests at home. Last season, Memphis won by 39 in Atlanta to set a franchise record for its largest road victory. Five days later the Grizzlies won by 17 in Memphis.

In the season-opener Wednesday, the Grizzlies wasted a career-high 44 points from Ja Morant, one shy of matching the franchise record. Last year’s NBA Rookie of the Year scored 34 points in the second half, but was disappointed with the loss.

“I’m not happy at all,” said Morant, who also had nine assists in the opener. “We came up short. So, learning from this game and prepare for the next.”

Morant totaled 37 points and 11 assists in two games against Atlanta last season.

Jonas Valanciunas scored 15 points and had 13 rebounds in the opener. He has been a matchup problem for the Hawks for years and last season had 27 points and 17 rebounds in their second meeting. He averages 12.8 points and 9.2 rebounds in 24 career games against Atlanta.

“We have this group we think is genuinely special,” Memphis GM Zach Kleiman said. “It’s on me, it’s on us to continue to grow this group, to continue to build.”

Atlanta had a great shooting night in the opener, scored 42 points in the first quarter, 41 in the second quarter and led 83-59 at halftime. The Hawks shot 53.8 percent from the floor and had seven players in double figures.

Trae Young scored 37 with seven assists and six rebounds in 26 minutes. Young was 10-for-12 from the field and 5-for-6 on 3-pointers.

“Just being able to go out there and put on a show in the first game was really good,” Young said. “Not every night obviously is going to be like this, but it’s really good to have an opening game like this.”

Free-agent signees Bogdan Bogdanovic (15 points, seven rebounds) and Danilo Gallinari (13 points) had successful Atlanta debuts. Holdovers Cam Reddish (15 points) and John Collins (14 points) were equally dependable.

“All of our guys played well,” Atlanta coach Lloyd Pierce said.

Atlanta held out Kris Dunn (right knee), Clint Capela (sore left Achilles), Rajon Rondo (COVID-19 protocols), Tony Snell (foot) and rookie Onyeka Okongwu (foot).

Memphis was without Killian Tillie (hamstring), Xavier Tillman (knee) and Jontay Porter (knee), but all are day-to-day. Jaren Jackson Jr. (left knee meniscus surgery) and Justise Winslow (left hip displacement) are out.

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HOUSTON vs PORTLAND
When: 12/26/2020 10:00 PM
Where:

TV: 10:00 PM
LINE:
PREDICTION: PORTLAND , HOUSTON

Oddsmakers currently have the PORTLAND listed as point favorites versus the HOUSTON, while the game’s total is sitting at .

A short-handed version of the Houston Rockets, including star James Harden but without six other players, will try again Saturday to open the season.

The Rockets, with just nine available players, one above the NBA minimum, are prepared to play a Saturday road game against the Portland Trail Blazers. Houston had to postpone its scheduled Wednesday home game against the Oklahoma City Thunder when it had fewer than eight players available due to positive COVID-19 tests and contact tracing.

Before the Thunder game was scrapped, new Rockets guard John Wall delivered straightforward words on hopes and expectations for the 2020-21 season.

“The only expectations I have are staying healthy,” Wall said. “That’s how I feel for any of us, just all stay healthy and go out there and play basketball. That’s all I can focus on because I haven’t played in so long.”

Good health could be translated to “virus-free” in the current lexicon, and by that measure, the Rockets are not. Kenyon Martin Jr. and Ben McLemore are sidelined following positive COVID-19 tests.

The Rockets listed six players as unavailable for Saturday: McLemore and Martin, who are self-isolating away from the team, plus Wall, DeMarcus Cousins, Eric Gordon and Mason Jones, who are quarantined due to contact tracing.

Interestingly, Harden was absent from the daily injury report after reportedly testing negative a fourth time in as many days Friday. Harden was fined $50,000 for violating the league’s health and safety protocols after he attended a private indoor party Monday. He was listed as unavailable for the Thunder game that didn’t happen but is expected to start against Portland.

The Rockets’ thin bench will include two undrafted rookie free agents, Jae’Sean Tate and Brodric Thomas.

The Trail Blazers’ early-season issues are more traditional.

Having entered this season seemingly reinforced defensively, Portland surrendered 120 points to the visiting Utah Jazz on Wednesday, allowing 19 3-pointers (on 50 attempts). Portland, which trailed by as many as 23 points while surrendering 65 first-half points, also was hammered on the boards. Utah posted a 59-40 rebounding edge and finished with a 17-8 edge in second-chance points.

Add to those woes subpar efforts from Blazers star guards Damian Lillard and CJ McCollum, and Portland barely resembled a team poised to make a leap in the Western Conference. Lillard posted a scoreless first half en route to a quiet nine-point, seven-assist effort as he shot 4-for-12 from the floor. McCollum, who earned a late-game technical foul, managed 23 points, but he hit only 7 of 19 field-goal attempts.

“It was a tough night offensively and defensively for our team,” Lillard said, “but it’s a long season like we always say, and we can’t let losing one game cause us to lose two and three.

“It’s one game. We didn’t play great in the preseason, and this isn’t how we wanted to start our season. I think we’ve got to be a little more assertive in correcting ourselves and demanding more of each other.”

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PHOENIX vs SACRAMENTO
When: 12/26/2020 10:00 PM
Where:

TV: 10:00 PM
LINE: 3.5
PREDICTION: SACRAMENTO , PHOENIX

Oddsmakers currently have the SACRAMENTO listed as 3.5 point favorites versus the PHOENIX, while the game’s total is sitting at 228.5.

The Sacramento Kings haven’t made the playoffs over the past 14 seasons, and the Phoenix Suns have gone 10 seasons without qualifying for the postseason.

But one long-suffering franchise will get off to a 2-0 start in the 2020-21 season, as the Suns and host Kings square off Saturday night in the first of back-to-back matchups in the California capital.

The Kings posted a dramatic 124-122 overtime win over the host Denver Nuggets on Wednesday, while Phoenix held off the Dallas Mavericks for a 106-102 home win on the same night.

Sacramento was trying to prevent losing in overtime when Harrison Barnes stole the ball from Nuggets star Nikola Jokic in the final seconds. Barnes drove and missed a contested shot, but Buddy Hield tipped the ball in at the buzzer for the victory.

Hield then raced down the court and into the tunnel leading to the locker room with his teammates in pursuit.

It capped a strong effort from Hield, who made five 3-pointers while scoring a team-best 22 points. Barnes and DeAaron Fox each added 21 points for the Kings.

Overall, Sacramento had seven players score in double digits. One of them was first-round draft pick Tyrese Haliburton, who had 12 points and four assists in 30 minutes off the bench to help fuel the win.

“I hope it says we’re hungry,” Haliburton said after the triumph. “Hungry to get Sacramento back where they belong and just win games. Guys that have been here are tired of not winning as much as they expect to and us young guys are just trying to bring young blood, new blood here and get Sacramento back to their winning ways.”

Fox was among the players highly impressed with the 20-year-old Haliburton, who was the 12th overall choice from Iowa State.

“He didn’t get rattled,” Fox said of Haliburton. “He makes big shots, we know he can shoot the ball. For me, if someone steps in defensively, my first instinct is to kick it out. We all have the utmost confidence in him to make big plays.”

Phoenix also played well down the stretch of its win over Dallas. The score was tied at 100 before the Suns scored five straight points, capped by Devin Booker’s jumper with 40.2 seconds left en route to the victory.

Booker scored 22 points in his initial backcourt pairing with 10-time All-Star Chris Paul, who was acquired from the Oklahoma City Thunder in the offseason.

Paul, who has been nursing an ankle injury, was quiet for most of the contest. He had just eight points on 3-of-9 shooting in 27 minutes. He also had five assists and committed three turnovers.

However, Paul knocked down a big shot with 1:20 to play to push Phoenix ahead by three prior to Booker’s basket.

“I like guys who are willing to take the shots,” Suns coach Monty Williams said afterward. “And we’ve got a few guys who will take those shots. Booker and CP have been in those situations before.”

Mikal Bridges added 18 points and was among the Phoenix players — as well as Williams — who cited the team’s 19 turnovers as something that needs to be reduced. Booker committed eight.

“It’s confidence,” Bridges said. “We know what we can do on the other end offensively. We have the guys for it. Once we know we get stops, and we’re just like, ‘Alright, we’re missing shots that we work on, some turnovers that we gotta clean up’ but as long as we’re out there guarding and helping each other out, that’s going to be the key for our success: just keep defending as a team.”

The teams split four meetings last season.

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