Two National Televised Games, and one that should have been......

Starting Wednesday Feb. 23, 2011 the Portland Trail Blazers will be facing conference foe the Los Angeles Lakers.  This will be Portland's first game after the much needed All-Star Game, and the Lakers second game.  The game was originally scheduled to be broadcast on ESPN, but was later pulled to show instead the Clippers and Hornets.

Friday Feb 25, 2011, Portland will be facing another conference foe in the Denver Nuggets.  This game should be interesting in the fact, that this will be the first game after the NBA trade deadline has passed.  Denver is looking a lot different with the trading of their superstar player Carmelo Anthony to the New York Knicks.  Portland is hoping to have the same team, they had before the trade deadline.  Before the All-Star game, Portland was without a doubt the hottest team in the NBA, and their loyal fans are hoping that the team will stay in tact once the deadline passes.  The Denver game will be broadcast on ESPN.  Then on Sunday Feb. 27, once again on ESPN, Portland will host the Atlanta Hawks.

Working nationally televised games have their ups and downs.  One of the best parts is playing to a national audience and showcasing the talent Portland possesses, on the other hand, nationally televised games take longer to play.  You have all the commercial breaks, longer timeouts, and a much longer half time.  Even though the games is slated to start at 7:30pm eastern time, rarely does it start on time.  Arena employees still arrive at the same time as they would for a regular game on local television.  With the late start time, it does in some cases gives guests a head start on the consumption of alcohol, and with two of the weeks three games against conference rivals, things could get interesting.

But I am thankful the two games are on ESPN, and not on TNT.  TNT games seem to take a lifetime to play and the timeouts are more frequent and longer then when played on ESPN.