I was rather tardy on tonights games so I’ve missed a great many (they’ve started… oops), but still on the slate for tonight is Bulls @ Warriors, Suns @ Grizz, Mavs @ Celts and Magic @ Lakers. Let’s take a look.

Bulls @ Warriors

Derrick Rose is back to his old self and has picked up his passing game a bit, and to be quite honest, with Anthony Randolph out for Bay City, there isn’t anyone on their roster I really like anymore. My heart and head both say Bulls by 10.

Suns @ Grizz

Well here are two teams no one expected to be playing even .500 ball at the start of the season but Memphis are 21-18 and the Suns currently are the third seed in the West at 24-17! This really is a game of offensive firepower and I’d usually pick the Suns in any shootout but I think Memphis will get up tonight by 8 points with Steve Nash having a monster game shooting the ball, but no so much passing. Zach Randolph will be the high scorer for the Grizz with a total in the thirties.

Mavs @ Celtics

The Celtics at home makes this a pretty easy pick for mine, even with Garnett still out. Sheed should be back for this game and he is a pretty good Dirk antidote. The real issue will be who will stop Rondo for the Mavs? Kidd might trip him with his walking frame a time or two down the court, but that’s hardly a defensive game plan. Celtics by 20 as Ray Allen busts loose with 5 triples.

Magic @ Lakers

Orlando will be plenty motivated for this game and the Lakers are pretty banged up. The key man for this is J.J. Redick (just kidding, but I hope he does well for my upcoming Doubting Thomas piece on nbamate.com). Dwight Howard needs to establish himself inside and keep Andrew Bynum quiet and someone needs to keep a resurgent Lamar Odom off the boards. I think Kobe will throw up way too many shots and shoot a horrid percentage (although how impressive has all his left handed shooting been? Wow!) and really hurt his team in tonights match-up.

Orlando win this one by 15 (and talk afterwards about how important it was to “send a message”… haha… fools… there are no messages in January.)