NBA Games to watch this week that will affect Philadelphia’s ‘tank or compete’ choice

With tanking warfare commencing around the association, the Sixers must quickly decide on their philosophy. Or just wait until it’s decided for them.

Hopes of the Philadelphia 76ers making the postseason lean on Chicago. The Bulls hold the tenth seed, two-and-a-half games ahead of the Sixers. The next closest team – the ninth-seeded Pistons – are six games ahead. With the Sixers’ current form and injury report, that’s insurmountable. So, Chicago must falter for Philadelphia to prosper to the postseason.

As each game of the Sixers’ brutal January schedule ends as a loss, the case for a tanked season grows stronger. It grows urgent, too. If Philadelphia’s first-round draft pick lands at #7 or lower, it will convey to the Oklahoma City Thunder. Currently, the pick is likely to land at #8 and therefore in the Thunder’s already brimming warchest of assets. So, if Philadelphia wishes to add a cheap and talented young player through the draft, they must falter.

And quick. Many of the league’s bottom feeders have manned their tanks and disgraced themselves for a chance at a top pick. The Brooklyn Nets recently scored 67 points in an NBA game. The Utah Jazz sat Colin Sexton for “rest purposes” after he did not play a game for three days. And the Washington Wizards still employ Kyle Kuzma.

Philadelphia won’t compete with those teams’ tanking tactics. But they don’t have to, they just need that glorious #6 pick. To do that, they will need to be worse than two more teams. The New Orleans Pelicans and Portland Trailblazers should be those teams.

The Pelicans were the worst team in the West at the dawn of 2025. But now they’re healthy and have won four straight. Far more talented than their record suggests, they are too good to keep their current fourth-best lottery odds.

Portland has just one fewer win than Philadelphia. They’re a young team with no generational (as of yet) star and veterans to trade, so I’d expect them to tank. But they can be a pretty tough beat on their night. It seems they will compete until around the Feb. 6 trade deadline. So, Philly should tank now if they want to get a leg up (down?) on Portland.

In this week’s games to watch article, I will focus on the play-in or tanking tug-of-war Philadelphia’s fanbase and brass (hopefully) are playing in their minds. So, it will be heavily focused on Chicago, New Orleans, and Portland. If you’re team play-in, you want all three teams to lose. If you’re team tank, you want them to win.

Jan. 21: Portland Trailblazers @ Miami Heat
Two weeks ago, Miami comfortably defeated Portland. But, that was while Jimmy Butler was serving a suspension amidst his trade request. The Heat players talked of being rejuvenated and connected during that stretch.

Now, not so much. Butler is back. It’s weird. He’s in the middle of an alpha male competition with team President Pat Riley while suiting up, barely cheering for his team, and acting uninterested during player introductions. They’ve split the two games since he’s returned, both being blowouts. It’s hard to get a grasp on what the Heat are right now and why they are putting up with Butler’s antics.

Portland has won one of their last six games, but their 2024 #3 pick Scoot Henderson is finally looking like everyone thought he would. For a brief period, there was a real debate about whether he or Victor Wembanyama should go #1. Scoot was touted as an uber-competitive, hyper-athletic, down-hill force of a playmaking point guard, a la Russell Westbrook. But he had been very disappointing – turnover-prone and inefficient. Lacking the spark of stardom that shone out of him before he was drafted.

But now, there is a glimmer. In his last five games, Scoot is averaging 20.8 points on 53% field-goal shootin with 6.8 assists, 4.2 rebounds, and 1.4 steals. Portland should give him every key they have and find out if this is real. Whether that will translate to immediate wins is up for debate. It likely won’t but Scoot was a generational prospect. The NBA will be better if he is better.

Jan. 22: Milwaukee Bucks @ New Orleans Pelicans
After winning just one game in December, the Pelicans are 7-4 in January. Zion Williamson returned from injury and threw down a 360-windmill one game and a massive poster dunk in another. Trey Murphy III has improved yet again and looks like a burgeoning All-Star. And CJ McCollum is having his best season in years, including a 50-point game a few weeks back and a 45-point effort last night.

Despite being ten games back from the play-in, the Pels are competing. They have enough talent to beat any team on any night and might let chaos fuel them, defeating playoff hopefuls in crucial games and losing to tanking teams because why not?

The Milwaukee Bucks have also turned their season around. Though they were never in as dire a situation as the Pelicans, they started the season 1-6. Giannis Antetokounmpo trade rumors circulated and the era of hooping prosperity in Milwaukee seemed set to end. But it didn’t. Giannis has never been better and the team is benefitting from young players and new signings. They’re 4-1 in their last five, including a comfy win over Philly in their last game, and sit at the fourth seed.

They’ll be fierce every game because their star is. In many ways, they are having the season Philly wished they could have.

Jan. 23: Chicago Bulls @ Golden State Warriors
After losing five straight games, Chicago defeated a surging Los Angeles Clippers team. Bulls guard Zach LaVine dropped an efficient 35 points as he continued his fantastic season. He’s been so fantastic that a team might actually trade for his monstrous 5 year, $215-million contract. It’s hefty, but not as bad when the guy is averaging 24.5 points on 51.4% fg while shooting 45% from three. A LaVine trade is the path for a Bulls tank and therefore a process of elimination play-in spot for Philadelphia. LaVine is so good right now in the Bulls’ new juiced-up, high-pace, ball-moving offense that they too could beat any team any night he’s playing.

They can definitely beat this iteration of the Golden State Warriors. Steph Curry’s franchise just lost by 40 points to the Boston Celtics. Another horrific result in a season with a few. This month alone they’ve lost to the lowly Toronto Raptors, the Butler-less Heat, and they got their bridges blown off in a 30-point defeat to Sacramento.

Seeing Steph in such a sorry state is sad, but the Warriors can still salvage the season. They have young players, contracts, and draft picks – everything one needs to acquire a superstar via trade. Reportedly they are not interested in Butler, but nothing garners interest like desperation. And nothing garners desperation like losing.

Jan. 24: New Orleans Pelicans @ Memphis Grizzlies
Memphis has the NBA’s weirdest offense. Maybe ‘weird’ isn’t the right word, but they’re doing it their own way. They run the fewest pick-and-rolls and handoffs in the league while playing at the highest pace with the most drives. It’s working. They have the fifth-best offense and are 28-15, half a game back from the two-seeded Houston Rockets.

But the headlines for this matchup will be the two troubled-but-talented top picks of the 2019 NBA Draft. Zion Williamson and Ja Morant. Athletic outliers with off-the-court issues. Game breakers who miss far too many games. Well, they’re both healthy now, and basketball fans should be happy about that. No players build anticipation on a fastbreak or clear drive to the rim like these two.

Memphis is in a far better spot than New Orleans is, but, as I said, this Pelicans team can cause some upsets. They’re division rivals with a bubbling animosity. It’s likely fireworks come from dunks, but don’t be surprised if a bit of brouhaha infiltrates this matchup.

Jan. 25: Philadelphia 76ers @ Chicago Bulls
The result of this matchup will cause a huge pull, and possibly some bodies in the mud, in the tank-or-compete mental tug-of-war Philadelphia faces. The result will likely decide their philosophy going forward.

The Sixers face the Denver Nuggets and Cleveland Cavaliers before this Bulls matchup. The Bulls face only the Warriors. It’s likely that Philly loses both and the Bulls beat the Warriors. That would put Chicago about four games ahead before the two teams play. So, a Philly loss to Chicago means they’d face a five game deficit just to make the play-in (if Chicago loses to the Warriors, it’d be a four-game deficit). Not great.

Of course, if they win, they have a real chance at that play-in spot. Their only chance, really.

Photo by Michael Reaves/Getty Images

Jan. 26: Oklahoma City Thunder @ Portland Trailblazers
It’s NFL Conference Championship Sunday, so the NBA only put this game on their slate. It tips off just as the Eagles game will be wrapping up. If you watch it, you are truly a hoophead.

Oklahoma should stomp all over this Portland team, but watching how Scoot deals with the pestering and decade-best OKC defense should be fun.

Go Birds!