By Some 15,000 French basketball fans will be served up a treat as the NBA returns to Paris with the Cleveland Cavaliers taking on the Brooklyn Nets in a regular season game on Thursday 11 January.
The occasion will not only mark the third regular season NBA game to take place in France’s capital but will also provide something of a dress rehearsal with the venue, the Bercy Arena, set to stage the Paris 2024 Olympic basketball finals later this year.
With the NBA comes star power and it won’t be lacking come Thursday with headline players including four-time NBA All-Star Donovan Mitchell and 2023 USA Basketball Team members Mikal Bridges and Cam Johnson expected to hit the court.
And the match-up itself looks poised to be a close one.
Brooklyn and Cleveland last played each other at the season opener on 25 October where the Cavs managed to squeak out a 114-113 victory over the Nets.
Given the Cavs now sit fifth in the Eastern Conference standings (21-15) on a three-game winning streak, and the Nets ninth (16-21) arriving on a surprise overtime loss to the Portland Trail Blazers, Cleveland will arrive in France the more fancied of the two sides.
Expected to be missing from the action will be Cleveland pair Darius Garland and Evan Mobley meanwhile Brooklyn will miss Australia’s Ben Simmons whose return to play is not yet known.
