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Even after stunningly losing two of their last three games at home, the Golden State Warriors still have a chance to break the 1995-96 Chicago Bulls' record for wins in a season and that makes every game an event.
As such, ESPN has added the Warriors' game against the Memphis Grizzlies to their Saturday primetime schedule, according to Paulsen of Sports Media Watch.
The network’s primary NBA broadcast team of Mike Breen, Jeff Van Gundy and Mark Jackson will call the game.
The addition does not affect ABC's Cavaliers/Bulls NBA Saturday Primetime telecast, which will go on as scheduled. Mike Tirico and Hubie Brown will fill in for Breen, Van Gundy and Jackson on the call. One telecast that will be affected is Saturday's NCAA Men's Frozen Four final, which will move down to ESPN2.
ESPN has already gone over the limit on Warriors telecasts this season, having added games against the Nuggets and Suns during the team's 24-0 start to the season. Any time a team goes over the maximum number of national television appearances, national coverage is blacked out in the home market — meaning that viewers in the Bay Area will only be able to watch on the local Comcast SportsNet RSN.
The great news: no Warriors fan watching ESPN will have to hear Mark Jackson opining about the Warriors' rise from tanking lottery team to potential 70-win team, should they win.
The good news: out-of-market Warriors fans will be able to watch this game more easily.
The bad news: this game will be blacked out on ESPN locally so we can't see Hubie Brown's commentary on the Warriors, which is always a treat.
And if you, like me, were just going to watch Jim Barnett and the CSN broadcast anyway, it shouldn't be much of a big deal at all (unless the ESPN broadcast causes some sort of conflict with your cable provider's broadcast on CSN, which some fans complained of during last night's game against the Minnesota Timberwolves).
The game will air at 5 p.m. PST on Saturday with the Warriors having a shot at either 70 or 71 wins depending on the outcome of tomorrow night's game against the San Antonio Spurs.