10 Games we’ll miss the most this season

Kobe Bryant and the Mike Brown-led Lakers won't head to Golden State in the first week of the season now. (Kyle Terada/US PRESSWIRE)

The NBA has canceled the first two weeks of the regular season, and though hope remains in some circles that the league could get those games back through some scheduling gymnastics, commissioner David Stern was clear late Monday that he thought these games are gone. Ditto for the chances of a full 82-game season. Given that reality, here are 10 games The Point Forward will be sad to miss (in chronological order):

Lakers @ Warriors (Nov. 2)

There were more glamorous first- and second-day affairs, to be sure. Fake opening night, set for Nov. 1, would have given us the Mavericks’ banner-raising against the Bulls and a dream old vs. new matchup of the Thunder and Lakers. And on this packed 13-game Wednesday night, the Heat-Knicks clash in New York would have been the headliner.

But I’ll take this gem any day, even if the aging Lake Show would have been on the second end of a back-to-back. New coach Mark Jackson talked tough about turning the Warriors into a capable defensive team, and they’d have gotten a wonderful early season test at home against the Lakers. How would Ekpe Udoh, a plus/minus stud last season, have fared against perhaps the best front line in the game? Would we have noticed any differences in the Warriors’ basic defensive principles?

Pau Gasol and Andrew Bynum would have had a nice advantage over David Lee and Andris Biedrins, providing the Lakers a chance to test Mike Brown’s commitment to running more of the offense through the low block in the post-triangle world. The Lakers’ changed their pick-and-roll defense dramatically in the middle of last season, and Brown will surely want to make his own adjustments; the Stephen Curry/David Lee pick-and-roll combination is as potent as they come. Oh well.

FAN SURVEY: Give us your take on the NBA lockout

Bulls @ Hornets (Nov. 2)

Derrick Rose against Chris Paul, in a building where the Hornets, who were so good on defense last year, always seem to push allegedly superior teams. Gone.

Magic @ Heat (Nov. 3)

You really can’t lose when these two smart, well-coached and star-studded teams face each other. The teams split the season series 2-2 last season, and the final two meetings featured an insane 51-point gem from LeBron James in a Miami win in early February and a stirring second-half rally by the Magic a month later. Depending on how the Magic fill out the wing whenever free agency starts, this has the potential to be a strength vs. weakness matchup. The Magic don’t appear to have anyone remotely capable of guarding James or Dwyane Wade, and the Heat, while they can bother Dwight Howard with swiping quickness, lack a true center to defend him one-on-one. Good times, spoiled.

Pacers @ Thunder (Nov. 4)

The adorable Pacers, those under-.500 darlings of the first round, created a fair bit of buzz by pushing Chicago in a tight five-game series and then acquiring George Hill from the Spurs in the offseason. Then Roy Hibbert killed it on “Parks and Recreation”! Fans are excited in Indiana, and there is a lot of room here for internal development among the young guys — Hibbert, Darren Collison, Tyler Hansbrough, Paul George and Hill.

Want to be taken seriously right away? Hang tight with the Thunder on the road. Let’s see Hibbert bang with Kendrick Perkins and Serge Ibaka down low. Let’s watch Danny Granger, Hill and George – the latter so tough on Derrick Rose in the postseason – take turns dealing with Kevin Durant. Let’s see if Collison is up for it against Russell Westbrook, his fellow UCLA guy. Fun stuff, gone.

Knicks @ Bucks (Nov. 5)

Everyone is dying to see New York’s potential offensive juggernaut in full bloom, and here we would have gotten to see Carmelo Anthony and Amar’e Stoudemire go up against one of the league’s nastiest defensive outfits, anchored by one of the world’s nastiest big man defenders — Andrew Bogut, reportedly healthier now than he was at any time last season. Plus, we need to see if Brandon Jennings is ready to make a much-needed jump, how Stephen Jackson might fit in Milwaukee and whether Anthony and Stoudemire have learned to maximize each other’s gifts. Oh, and can the Knicks guard anyone?

Magic @ Wizards (Nov. 5)

The Wizards have to be on here, and this is one of a few appealing early season Wiz contests that is now out the door. John Wall is healthy and destroying everyone in the summer league fun time circuit, and this game would have given us a chance to see him up against perhaps the league’s best-organized and most well-disciplined defense. Wall vs. Howard, in the paint? Wow. Toss in the huge entertainment potential of the Howard-JaVale McGee matchup and the excitement surrounding Wiz rookies Chris Singleton and dunker extraordinaire Jan Vesely – who joked on draft night that Blake Griffin is merely the “American Jan Vesely” — and this game is pretty much irresistible.

Clippers @ Celtics (Nov. 11)

The league’s second-best nucleus of young talent, trailing only the youngsters in Oklahoma City, travels to face one of the league’s oldest and meanest teams. The Griffin-Kevin Garnett matchup is almost guaranteed to produce at least one series of nasty glares and/or post-whistle shoves, and the back-court matchups are almost as tantalizing — Eric Gordon, primed to continue the breakout that began last season, facing the great Ray Allen, and Mo Williams staging a little Cleveland-Boston playoffs reunion against Rajon Rondo.

If Los Angeles is ready to score efficiently against defenses like this one, the league is in trouble.

Grizzlies @ Mavericks (Nov. 11)

It seems like the Western Conference playoffs gave us every desirable matchup last season, but here’s one we missed: Memphis’ crushing, bulky front line of Zach Randolph and Marc Gasol — the guys who destroyed San Antonio — against (depending on free agency) one of the league’s top five or six big man defenders (Tyson Chandler) and Dirk Nowitzki, a wily sort with quick hands and smart feet who nonetheless is going to struggle to take on one of these guys in the post.

The Mavs, of course, are full of tricks, and you know they will break out some zone-style stuff against a team with a shaky perimeter shooting record. Are the Grizz up for the challenge? A related question: How healthy is Rudy Gay, and is he ready to continue the incremental, all-around improvement he showed last season before suffering a brutal shoulder injury?

Nets @ Heat (Nov. 11)

This could be a blowout, sure. But here come the Nets, presumably flush with a new free agent acquisition and All-Star types at point guard (Deron Williams) and center (Brook Lopez) — the two positions at which Miami is weakest. We have been curious to see how Williams and the Nets mesh, and whether Lopez looks ready to rebound the ball again after putting up pitiful numbers on the glass last season — a season that started with Lopez’ recovery from mononucleosis.

This just feels like one of those random Wednesday night games that could get really fun in the fourth quarter, doesn’t it?

Kings @ Timberwolves (Nov. 11)

Holy cow, would this have been fun. It’s unclear whether the teams could have kept their combined turnovers under 40, or whether any defense would have been played, but you know this would have been fun. We would have gotten an early look at Ricky Rubio, Kevin Love and Derrick Williams going up against a shaky defense, while the Kings could have thrown various back-court combinations of Tyreke Evans, Marcus Thornton and Jimmer Fredette at a defense that was even shakier last season.

Think about the big men involved here: Love, DeMarcus Cousins, Darko Milicic, Anthony Randolph, Michael Beasley (still sort of a ”big,” right?), J.J. Hickson, Jason Thompson. The entertainment potential is off the charts. Curses!