NBA Week 16 Weekend Preview

There will be a few teams with quite different looks after this Thursday’s NBA trading deadline. In 2007 it was the West that was involved in an arms race, as Shaq, Jason Kidd and Pau Gasol all went westward, this time around the big names are heading east with Amar’e Stoudemire, Tracy McGrady and Nate Robinson likely switching teams at the deadline.

The arms race didn’t work well for the west in 2007 as the Boston Celtics walked away with the NBA Championship, will we see a reversal of fortune this year as the East loads up but possibly the Lakers win for the second year in a row?

This weekend is the beginning of the official sprint to the playoffs as the top half of the league fights for playoff seeding while the bottom half does their best to tank without making it obvious they are tanking.

On Saturday we the prime tank-a-palooza team the Washington Wizards play host to one of the hottest team in the league, the Toronto Raptors. The Wizards have lost

Gilbert Arenas and Jarvis Crittenden to season long suspensions, traded Caron Butler and Brandon Haywood and by the time you read this Antawn Jamison will be in Cleveland or Miami

President Ernie Grunfeld is gutting his team and taking direct aim at the number one pick in the lottery draft. This is great news for Raptors fans, I don’t think it will matter what the NBA betting line is for this game, the Wizards won’t keep it close and the Raptors should have an easy cover.

Speaking of tanking teams, anther Saturday matchup features the New York Knicks playing host to MVP candidate Kevin Durant and the Oklahoma City Thunder. The Thunder have been on a roll winning seven straight and hold a 33-19 record against the spread. This will be the only time we see Durant on the Madison Square Garden court this season, expect something huge from the young phenom.

Thankfully, Sunday’s NBA schedule features some exciting marquee matchups with teams still playing to lock up home court advantage for the playoffs.

In the 1:00 PM ABC game, the LeBron James and the NBA leading Cavaliers travel to Orlando to face Dwight Howard and the Magic. The Magic will try to avenge a 115-106 loss to the Cavaliers earlier this month. The game is a replay of the 2009 Eastern Conference finals and could very well be a preview of this year’s Eastern Conference finals.

The 3:30 ABC game features the Boston Celtics, who are trying to hold on to their quickly evaporating Atlantic Division lead over the Toronto Raptors, as they continue their western road trip in Denver. The Nuggets are trying to hold their own Northwest Division lead as both the Utah Jazz and the Oklahoma City Thunder are closing in. The Celtics have been abysmal against the spread this year sporting a 19-31-1 record ATS. The Nuggets have been a little better but still sit under .500 ATS at 24-26-1.

The best of the rest on Sunday features the Portland Trailblazers hosting the Utah Jazz in a tough Northwest division rivalry game and the Atlanta Hawks are in Oakland to play the Golden State Warriors in a game that has OVER written all over it.