NBA celebrates MLK Day, Pistons and Bulls head to Paris, Warriors visit White House and more.
1. NBA celebrates MLK Day
Week 14 begins on Martin Luther King Jr. Day as the NBA honors the civil rights icon with both on-court action and off-court activities and discussions focused on Dr. King’s pursuit of racial, social and economic justice.
Monday features a full day of hoops with nine games on the schedule, including four nationally televised games on NBA TV and TNT:
- Boston at Charlotte: 1 p.m. ET, NBA TV
- Miami at Atlanta, 3:30 p.m. ET, TNT
- Phoenix at Memphis, 6 p.m. ET, TNT
- Houston at Los Angeles, 10:30 p.m. ET, NBA TV
You can read more on each of those matchups, as well as the five games on NBA League Pass in our MLK Day Viewer’s Guide. This will be the 37th year that the NBA plays games on the MLK Day holiday. We have dug into each of the 358 games played so far to showcase the top performances and records from MLK Day lore.
2. National TV Spotlight: Four must-see games
In addition to the MLK Day games, here are four more games you should not miss this week, including the latest NBA Global Game in Paris.
Wednesday: Atlanta at Dallas (7:30 p.m. ET, ESPN)
Luka Doncic and Trae Young will meet for the seventh time since they entered the league together in 2018 after being traded for one another on Draft night. Luka holds a 4-2 advantage in head-to-head games with Young. In those first six games, Doncic has averaged 22.7 points, 9.7 rebounds and 8.3 assists for the Mavericks, while Young has averaged 20.5 points, 10.7 assists and 3.2 rebounds for the Hawks.
3. League Pass Games to Watch: Four games to circle
Wednesday: Sacramento at Los Angeles Lakers (10:30 p.m. ET)
The Kings will enter this matchup with the Lakers looking to extend two streaks:
- Going for a fifth straight win
- Shooting for a sixth straight game scoring 130+ points
Sacramento enters Week 14 as the highest-scoring team in the league, averaging 120.0 points per game. That number has climbed over the past week as the Kings became only the eighth team to ever score at least 130 points in five straight games. The only two teams with longer streaks are the 1966-67 Philadelphia 76ers (six games) and the 1988-89 Denver Nuggets (seven games).
4. All-Star voting ends Saturday, Jan. 21
It’s the final call for All-Star ballots as fan voting for the starters ends at 11:59 p.m. ET on Jan. 21. Below is the latest set of fan vote returns released by the NBA on Jan. 12.
5. Warriors to visit White House
For the first time in nearly seven years, the Golden State Warriors will visit the White House to celebrate winning the NBA championship.
The Warriors last visited the White House on Feb. 4, 2016 when they met with then-President Barack Obama to celebrate the first championship of their four-title run over the past eight years. Only Curry, Thompson, Draymond Green and Andre Iguodala remain from that first title team.
