How to watch, what to watch for on January 9th NBA slate

We take a look at the schedule for Saturday and initial lines on the 8-game slate.

By Benjamin Zweiman@BenZweimanDKN Jan 9, 2021, 4:00am PST

We enter the weekend in basketball with most of the focus on the Wild Card round of the NFL playoffs. If you’re kicking it here, you’re trying to find out who is playing hoops before, in between or during the football madness. We’ve got eight NBA games on tap for the schedule on Saturday and a few lineup notes to go over. The biggest news could be the return of Minnesota Timberwolves C Karl-Anthony Towns, who has missed the past 6 games due to a wrist injury. He’s questionable to play agains the San Antonio Spurs. The T-Wolves haven’t won since KAT got hurt. Tough times.

The other big news is who will be able to go for the Philadelphia 76ers, who are dealing with Covid-19 contact tracing and quarantines. Seth Curry tested positive on Thursday during their game vs. the Brooklyn Nets. Almost all of the starting lineup is questionable due to contact tracing. Joel Embiid, Danny Green, Tobias Harris, Shake Milton and Matisse Thybulle are the notables. We’ll see if that game gets moved from the afternoon slot or to another date. Here’s the schedule for Saturday, January 9th.