A month or so has gone by since the Spurs hoisted the NBA Trophy, so that must mean only one thing: Time to start the 9-month season over again.

Tonight opens up with one decent game (Utah and Golden State), one game that will be a romp (Spurs and Blazers; this may have been fun to watch if Oden were healthy), and one game that really won’t matter until we know what’s going to happen with Kobe Bryant (Lakers and the Rockets — though I must admit the T-Mac vs. Kobe matchup is always fun to watch).

Anyway, should be an entertaining night, sort of, and if anything else, it provides for a little bit of gambling between Sundays. I like the Spurs at -13, the Warriors at -1.5, and the Lakers at +5.5; the last one is scary now that Houston has a coach who is capable of producing offense, but I feel all this Kobe bashing on L.A.’s part is going to lead to an “Eff-You” kind of night from Kobe Bryant, which normally means 50 points or more.

I normally don’t bet on basketball, but it’s the first game of the season, and it’s Tuesday, and Saturday isn’t tomorrow.