The undefeated Cavs take on the Bucks again Monday night after facing each other on Saturday.
If Election Day is nirvana for political junkies, then the day before is heaven for hoop heads.
When the NBA decided to go dark on the first Tuesday in November, it created a rare backlog on the schedule. Suddenly, the entire league opens for business for one swollen and manic Monday — all 30 teams in action, 15 games total, a new tipoff every 15 minutes starting at 7 p.m. ET.
The gluttony is glorious for those who need a fix, and at the same time, the variety and volume can overwhelm even the most eager. There are so many choices, players, plots, matchups and potential for drama. Wait — LeBron James and Luka Dončić and Giannis Antetokounmpo and Ja Morant all on the same night? This is a basketball buffet ready for consumption and everyone’s prepared to go over the calorie cap.
It’s made for NBA League Pass, the all-inclusive ticket to the all-nighter.
Or perhaps NBA CrunchTime, the highlight-hopping show on the NBA App.
You can either channel surf yourself on regular TV or cable, or let Jared Greenberg do everything for you on the App. He’s the regular CrunchTime host who pushes the games and moments that matter at a particular time — giving viewers a steady and frenetic stream of meaningful live games, all commercial-free.
“I want to provide the viewer with some context to what they’re watching, like, here’s why this is important, here’s what’s at stake in this game, a statistical milestone, or maybe it’s rivalry game,” Greenberg said. “Those type of nights are great because of the preparation aspect of it. When you have 15 games and 30 teams, it’s non-stop action.”
30 teams.
15 games.
15 minutes apart. 🍿Can a Monday in November get any better?
Catch ALL the action on NBA TV and NBA League Pass!
📲 https://t.co/j7XaSJWBOj pic.twitter.com/8HJnFavkV4
— NBA (@NBA) November 4, 2024
A typical night in the NBA is more toned-down, obviously, but even then, CrunchTime presents a different way to watch each team’s TV feed and is especially useful in a developing era of viewership habits.
The convergence of technology and the increasingly low attention span of fans makes CrunchTime not only viable, but in some ways necessary. This wasn’t a topic back in the pre-cable TV days when games were shown on network TV almost exclusively, or even when cable was at its peak. The marketing and broadcasting of the product was limited.
Well, the game has changed, so to speak. The viewing options are vast and a segment of today’s fans aren’t willing to lock in from tip to buzzer with one particular contest. It’s now a highlight-driven world and CrunchTime essentially caters to that, stringing those highlights together kebab-like.
Greenberg’s enthusiasm blasts through the screen — or tablet or phone. He’s high-energy and looks for chances to drop knowledge on a player or team or situation as a way to enhance the show or a moment. And nights like Monday — he has done a few of these pre-Elections in the past — bring a chaotic atmosphere because of the volume. Whenever GameTime is at its busiest, Greenberg is a traffic cop in Times Square at rush hour.
“Last season we had three games simultaneously come down to the wire and there wasn’t enough time for me to throw it out to the team announcers, so I was doing play-by-play for three games,” Greenberg said. “There were turning points in all three that happened bang-bang-bang. I felt that I blacked out.”
The voice in his earpiece belongs to senior producer Bert Bondi, who helped develop the format with VP and executive producer John O’Connor. Bondi works to keep the flow moving with few hiccups — not an easy feat when it’s live.
“We want to make the show almost like a social media feed,” Bondi said. “We’ll do the scrolling for you. The one line I love using is, ‘when the game slows down, we speed up.’ If you’re watching a game and there’s a timeout or a free throw or a ref review, we’re either gone from that game or we’re showing highlights of another game.
“Then we’re working our way toward the basketball definition of crunch time. A game under 10 points in the last few minutes is good, because a couple of 3s will bring you right back in it. That’s what we’re hoping for.”
With 15 games on the night before the Election, here’s what GameTime can expect from a handful of them:
• Bucks vs. Cavaliers (7 p.m. ET, NBA TV): The league’s hottest team against the league’s … most perplexing? With an aging core and without a young phenom in the making, the Bucks are searching for traction. The teams played two nights ago and the Cavs stayed unbeaten despite a combined 75 points from Giannis Antetokounmpo and Damian Lillard, thanks to a Donovan Mitchell game-winner.
• Warriors vs. Wizards (7:15 ET, NBA League Pass): Jordan Poole looks refreshed and is playing his best ball since breaking out and helping the Warriors to the title in 2022. Of course, he’s now with the Wizards. As for Golden State, it’s an unexpectedly good start so far both for the team and Buddy Hield, and without Stephen Curry for a chunk of it. The day after this game, all eyes will be on Washington for other reasons.
• Magic vs. Thunder (9:15 ET, NBA League Pass): A torn oblique somewhat spoils what would’ve been a matchup between the league’s best home-grown teams. Paolo Banchero, therefore, will miss it and others over the next month while he heals. No matter; there’s still enough to see here, especially from Chet Holmgren, Shai Gilgeous-Alexander and Franz Wagner.
• 76ers vs. Suns (10:15 ET, NBA TV): Life without Joel Embiid and Paul George has been exactly what you thought it would be for Philly, which at the moment is merely a write-in candidate for contention on the Eastern Conference ballot. George is expected to make his Sixers debut in Phoenix. Meanwhile, the Suns are surging with Kevin Durant and Devin Booker. And how about Ryan Dunn, the league’s best-looking rookie so far?
There’s also the chance that none of the above games will feature the moment of the night, because this is the NBA and there’s never a warning about when and where such will happen. It could be L.A. one night or perhaps Chicago and not necessarily in actual crunch time.
“If you don’t want to watch one game at a time, we’re going to bounce around and surf,” Greenberg said. “If you want to watch one game on the mainstream (media) and others on your tablet, we’re for you. We’re going to give you the betting lines, the over-under, the spreads.
“We’re going to be able to show those moments no matter what time it happens in the game. The best play of the year could happen in the first quarter. We are doing the heavy lifting for you, keeping our eye on the events so you don’t have to find it.”
That’s what the show is designed to do — unearth a play or event no matter what. Of the 53 GameTime shows last year, Bondi said, only one featured a true buzzer-beater.
“The Cleveland-Laker game the other night was a 20-point game with five minutes left,” Bondi said. “But you know what happened? Bronny James came into the game. And he scored a basket. So as Jared likes to say, you’re always following the biggest moments of the night. Bronny scoring his first basket was the biggest moment of that night.
“Ideally you’d like to have buzzer beaters and clutch plays all the time, but how realistic is that? That’s why we’ve got to keep it moving. When it stops, we can’t stop. We gotta find something else that’s interesting.”
November 4th is one of those days on the NBA calendar that’s not to be missed, and you couldn’t even if you tried. All 30 teams, 15 games, plenty of options and also increased chances of finding something interesting.
It’s must-watch TV or cell phone or tablet or computer, or else wait another four years for a Monday like this.
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Shaun Powell has covered the NBA for more than 25 years. You can e-mail him here, find his archive here and follow him on X.
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