Weekend Preview

Tonight the Los Angeles Lakers face a tough road test against the team they beat in the Western Conference Finals last year: The Denver Nuggets. The Lakers are 7-1, and have won six in a row, including an impressive victory over the Phoenix Suns last night, while the Nuggets are 6-3, and are coming off of a loss to the lowly Milwaukee Bucks.

The Lakers have played every game thus far without Pau Gasol, but that may not be a bad thing. Andrew Bynum looked like a All-Star in last night's victory over the Suns, in which he had 26 points, 15 rebounds, and 3 blocks. The absence of Gasol has also allowed newcomer Ron Artest to settle in with the Lakers, but more importantly the absence of Gasol has allowed Artest stay under the spotlight since everyone is wondering when Gasol will return.

It's only the 9th game of the season, but tonight's game is huge for the Lakers. It would be nice to see the defending champions win on the road in the second game of a back-to-back without Gasol, seeing as though Denver is arguably the biggest challenger to the Lakers in the Western Conference. The Lakers can flex their muscles early on and send a message to the rest of the NBA with a nice win tonight, in a game that happens to be on ESPN.

The Arizona State Sun Devils are in Eugene to take on the # 13 Oregon Ducks. Brock Osweiler will start at quarterback for ASU, but at this point it doesn't matter who is behind center for the Devils, because this game will be ugly. Oregon is coming off of a humiliating loss to Stanford, which ruined any chance the Ducks had at a BCS National Championship Game, and the Devils have shown all season long that they cannot put up points unless they play Idaho State or Louisiana-Monroe. As good as the ASU defense has been all year, Oregon's offense simply will be too much for them to handle, and ASU's offense will not be able to keep up. I expect Oregon to win by at least three touchdowns, but it will probably end up being uglier than that.

The Arizona State Men's Basketball team tips off their 2009-2010 regular season tonight, as the Sun Devils play host to Western Illinois. Unfortunately ASU Basketball won't be anywhere near as good as it was last year, when the Sun Devils had James Harden and Jeff Pendergraph, and advanced to the 2nd round of the NCAA Tournament. Nonetheless it's basketball season, so let the fun begin.