The undefeated Cavs face the Bucks again on Monday night after facing off against each other on Saturday.

If election day is nirvana for political junkies, then the day before is a fool’s paradise.

When the NBA decided to stop playing on the first Tuesday in November, a rare backlog in the schedule occurred. Suddenly, the entire league is gearing up for an exuberant and manic Monday – all 30 teams in action, 15 games total, a new tip-off every 15 minutes starting at 7:00 p.m. ET.

Gluttony is delightful for those in need of a fix, and at the same time the variety and quantity can overwhelm even the most eager. There are so many options, players, storylines, 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 ready-to-eat basketball buffet, and everyone is ready to go over the calorie cap.

It’s made for NBA League Pass, the all-inclusive ticket for the all-nighter.

Or maybe NBA CrunchTime, the highlight-hopping show on the NBA app.

You can either surf regular TV or cable channels yourself, or let Jared Greenberg do everything for you in the app. He’s the regular CrunchTime host, highlighting the games and moments that matter at any given time – giving viewers a steady and frenetic stream of meaningful live games, all commercial-free.

“I want to give the viewer some context about what they’re watching, like why this is important, what’s at stake in this game, a statistical milestone, or maybe a rivalry game,” Greenberg said. “Evenings like this are great because of the preparation aspect. With 15 games and 30 teams, the action is non-stop.”

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

“We do the scrolling for you”

A typical NBA night is obviously a little quieter, but even then, CrunchTime offers a different way to watch each team’s TV feed, and is particularly useful in an evolving era of viewing habits.

The convergence of technology and fans’ ever-shrinking attention spans make CrunchTime not only viable, but in some ways necessary. This wasn’t an issue in the days before cable television, when games were shown almost exclusively on network television, or even when cable was at its peak. Marketing and distribution of the product was limited.

Well, the game has changed, so to speak. The viewing options are huge and a portion of today’s fans are not ready to commit to a particular competition from tip to buzzer. It’s now a world driven by highlights, and CrunchTime essentially contributes to that by stringing those highlights together like a kebab.

Greenberg’s enthusiasm resonates through the screen – or the tablet or the phone. He is full of energy and looks for ways to reveal knowledge about a player, team or situation to enhance the show or a moment. And nights like Monday – he’s done some of these primaries in the past – create a chaotic atmosphere because of the volume. Whenever GameTime is at its busiest, Greenberg is a traffic cop in Times Square during rush hour.

“Last season there were three games on the line at the same time and I didn’t have enough time to pitch it to the team announcers, so I did play-by-play for three games,” Greenberg said. “In all three events there were turning points that happened with a bang-bang-bang. I felt like I was going to pass out.”

The voice in his earpiece belongs to executive producer Bert Bondi, who co-developed the format along with vice president and executive producer John O’Connor. Bondi is working to keep the river flowing without major problems – not an easy task when it’s live.

“We want to make the show almost like a social media feed,” Bondi said. “We do the scrolling for you. The one phrase I like to use is, “When the game slows down, we speed up.” If you watch a game and there’s a timeout, a free throw, or a referee review, we’re either out of that game or out show highlights of another game.

“Then we work our way into the basketball definition of crunch time. A game with less than 10 points in the final minutes is good because a few 3s get you right back into the game. That’s what we hope for.”

Four decisive encounters

With 15 games the night before the election, GameTime can expect the following from a handful of them:

• Bucks vs. Cavaliers (7 p.m. ET, NBA TV): The hottest team in the league versus the…most confusing? With an aging core and no young phenom in the making, the Bucks are looking for traction. The teams played two nights ago and the Cavs remained undefeated thanks to a game-winner from Donovan Mitchell despite a combined 75 points from Giannis Antetokounmpo and Damian Lillard.

• 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 win the title in 2022. Of course, he’s with the Wizards now. As for Golden State, it’s an unexpectedly good start so far for both the team and Buddy Hield, and without Stephen Curry for part of it. The day after this game, all eyes will be on Washington for different reasons.

• Magic vs. Thunder (9:15 a.m. ET, NBA League Pass): A cracked slant spoils what would have been a matchup between the best homegrown teams in the league. Therefore, Paolo Banchero will miss him and others over the next month while he recovers. Doesn’t matter; There’s still plenty to see here, especially from Chet Holmgren, Shai Gilgeous-Alexander and Franz Wagner.

• 76ers vs. Suns (10:15 a.m. ET, NBA TV): Life without Joel Embiid and Paul George has been exactly how you imagined it would be for Philly, which at the moment is merely a written contender to enter the Eastern Conference ballot. George is expected to make his Sixers debut in Phoenix. Meanwhile, the Suns are on the rise with Kevin Durant and Devin Booker. And how about Ryan Dunn, the best-looking rookie in the league to date?

Epic moments can await you

There’s also a chance that there won’t be a moment of the night in any of the above games, since this is the NBA and there’s never any warning about when and where something like that will happen. It could be LA one night or maybe Chicago and not necessarily in the actual time of crisis.

“If you don’t want to watch one game at a time, we’ll bounce around and surf,” Greenberg said. “If you want to watch a game in the mainstream (media) and others on your tablet, we’ve got you covered. We give you the betting lines, the over-under and the spreads.

“We will be able to show these moments no matter what time they happen in the game. The best play of the year might come in the first quarter. We’ll do the heavy lifting for you and keep an eye on events so you don’t have to find them.”

That’s what the show is designed for: to bring a play or an event to light, no matter what. Of the 53 GameTime shows last year, Bondi said, only one featured an actual buzzer-beater.

“The Cleveland-Laker game the other night was a 20-point game with five minutes left,” Bondi said. “But do you know what happened? Bronny James came into play. And he scored a basket. As Jared likes to say, you always pursue the biggest moments of the evening. Bronny’s first basket was the biggest moment of the night.

“Ideally you would have constant buzzer-beaters and clutch plays, but how realistic is that? That’s why we have to keep it moving. If it stops, we can’t stop. We need to find something else that’s interesting.”

November 4th is one of those days on the NBA calendar that you can’t miss, and you couldn’t miss it even if you tried. All 30 teams, 15 games, many options and also increased chances of finding something interesting.

It’s a must to watch TV, on your phone, on your tablet or on your computer, otherwise we’ll wait another four years for a Monday like this.

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Shaun Powell has been covering the NBA for more than 25 years. You can email him here, his archive can be found here and Follow him on X.

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