The NBA season hasn’t officially begun for those of us on the West coast until you wake up on a Sunday morning, turn on the TV and get down with a Raptors game at 10am. It’s just one of those great things in case you’re not that into football, your favorite gridiron team is either the 49ers or Raiders, or because you’re not into football because your favorite gridiron team is either the 49ers or the Raiders.
And with that little bit of “Easy Like a Sunday Morning” goodness, on to the game recaps from Sunday:
Orlando Magic 125, Toronto Raptors 116 in Toronto - This Orlando Magic team is fairly scary. Are they the best team in basketball? That’s debatable. They’re certainly entrenched in the discussion of deepest team in the league. And they’ve looked that way without Rashard Lewis Canseco and now without Vince Carter for a short time as he deals with a sprained ankle. They showed Sunday that you can basically insert any good shooter into the system, let Dwight draw all of the attention inside, and have the long ball cocked and ready to fire when the ball finds you.
The Orlando Magic shot 17-32 from three with J.J. Redick, Ryan Anderson, and Jameer Nelson all hitting five three-pointers apiece. How’d they do it? A lot of it was helped by the Raptors defensive lapses. It seemed when the Raps went under screens instead of anticipating and fighting over them, Orlando would knock down a triple. When the Raptors didn’t retreat properly in transition and find the shooters, the Magic playmakers would find the open man and get him a three-ball. Whenever the defense concentrated on dribble penetration or Dwight Howard in the post, the rotation out to the shooters was too slow and someone would end up with a wide-open three. It wasn’t quite the shooting display Orlando put on Sacramento last year when they made an NBA record 23 threes but it wasn’t far from it either.
But that wasn’t the highlight of this game. This was a really well executed and played game by both teams. The Raptors found themselves down by 20+ points fairly early in the contest and still clawed their way back into it. Fueled by Andrea Bargnani’s four threes and the huge effort from Chris Bosh, Toronto would eventually cut the lead to four with nearly half of the fourth quarter left. Bargnani had the task of keeping the pressure away from wherever Bosh was and Bosh had the role of using his quickness and skill against Dwight Howard. Bosh attacked the basket, stepped back and hit a couple of threes, and fired away from mid-range in order to make Dwight as uncomfortable and meaningless as possible on defense. And it worked for the most part. Bosh (35 points, 16 rebounds) and Dwight Howard (24 points, 11 rebounds) dealt with a lot of attention the entire time, stepped up when they needed to, and delegated to their teammates when it seemed prudent.
The keys to this game (outside of the hot three-point shooting) for Orlando were definitely the ball control they showed, getting to the line often (and hitting), and Jameer Nelson’s incredible play. Nelson finished with 30 points, five assists, and made nine of his ten free throw attempts. The Magic overall made 36 of their 41 attempts from the line with Dwight Howard making 14 of 16. And the turnover rate for both teams was very impressive but Orlando took the cake with just a 9.8 to Toronto’s 15.2.
Orlando is now 3-0 – waiting for Vince’s ankle to get better and for the remaining seven games of this ten-game suspension of Rashard Lewis to pass. Then they’ll be back at full strength and looking to pillage your village for everything valuable.
Boston Celtics 97, New Orleans Hornets 87 in Boston - The more I watch this Boston team with a healthy Kevin Garnett, the more I think they could make a run at 40 home wins and march through the playoffs. And as always, they do it with defense, efficient offense, and a veteran leadership that no other team has in this league.
Let’s just go through the defensive stats of this game for the Celtics. They kept the Hornets to 10 fastbreak points, thanks to the fact that they made their shots, play really good transition defense, and had Rajon Rondo trying to slow Chris Paul down from getting a head of steam. They only gave up 26 points in the paint to ‘NOLA. They kept them off the offensive glass with just five offensive rebounds. The Celtics held the Hornets to 42% shooting from the field. Green held Teal to just eight free throw attempts for the entire game and forced 16 turnovers. The fact that New Orleans even scored as much as they did was thanks to their 13 made threes off of 28 attempts.
And how do they do it? A big part of it is their length in the frontcourt. Kevin Garnett is healthy so far and playing pick and roll defense like the former DPOY-winner he is. Kendrick Perkins does a fantastic and smart job of keeping the post players out of position when they’re trying to establish themselves on the low block. The result is usually a bad, forced shot inside, a turnover from the quick double down low, or an “I give up on this possession because I really don’t want to try a move outside of my zone because my coach might bench me and I really need to prove my worth by making obvious smart decisions throughout the game” pass. Then you throw in Rasheed Wallace who can shut down anybody in the post and it’s easy to see why the guards are able to play so tight on their opponents. There is always help. The offensive player is always funneled to an area the defense wants him to go. It’s like watching the Spurs on PCP.
What did New Orleans do correctly and incorrectly in this game? What they did correctly was they got Peja Stojakovic the ball and let him fire away. Peja was able to find holes in the defense a few times around the three-point line and free himself up for a long ball. He made six of his 10 three-point attempts. But other than that and Chris Paul’s usual Chris Paul-edness, the Hornets just didn’t seem properly prepared for this game. There was a matchup problem in the paint. David West is not strong or long enough to handle Kevin Garnett in the post. And Emeka Okafor is the best post defender they’ve had since Alonzo Mourning. So why would you have Okafor guarding Perkins and KG free to abuse West whichever way he wanted? They may have been able to take away the inside by switching those assignments. Instead, the paint was often freed up by good post moves or good ball movement, which resulted in 56 of the Celtics 97 points coming in the paint.
Finally, when you throw in the fact that Paul Pierce was either guarded by Peja (there’s just no chance of him guarding PP and it’s actually kind of insulting to the former Finals MVP) or James Posey (who clearly doesn’t care any more whether he’s a good role player or bad role player), it’s easy to see how Pierce ended up with 27 points on 10 of 14 shooting.
Celtics are now 4-0 and 4/70 of the way towards Rasheed’s goal of 70 wins.
Oh yeah, and things got chippy between Paul and Rondo:
Miami Heat 95, Chicago Bulls 87 in Miami - You wouldn’t know it by looking at the two of them side-by-side but Kirk Hinrich defends Dwyane Wade better than just about anybody in the NBA. Captain Kirk always makes Wade work extremely hard for everything he gets on the court and finds a way to make everything D-Wade does very measured, calculated, and cautious. And perhaps that’s what Mario Chalmers will end up being for Derrick Rose.
Clearly, Rose is the much better player and athlete. But Mario Chalmers did a fine and admirable job of making him work for what he got on the court when he was guarding him. And Rose struggled mightily. Normally, you’d like Rose to be able to attack the basket, dribble his man off of screens sharply, and knock down that mid-range jumper. But the defense keyed in on him Sunday and held him to just eight points, five assists, two free throw attempts, and 4/15 shooting.
The Bulls did receive fine efforts from Rose’s supporting teammates. Luol Deng appears to be healthy and back to his old form. He scored 26 points on 11/21 shooting from the field and basically mid-ranged the Heat to death for much of this game. John Salmons struggled to find his three-point stroke (1/5) but still made half of his 14 shots and ended up with 17 points. And Joakim Noah was able to score 10 points inside. Anytime you can receive double-digit scoring from Noah, your team will probably be in a good position to win the game.
For Miami, they may have found the perfect way to use Udonis Haslem – as a bench player. Haslem has long been the undersized power forward, who uses his grit and determination to hang with players that are far bigger than and, at worst, equally as skilled as him. Now, with him coming off the bench so Michael Beasley can start and play with the first unit, Haslem is finding himself outplaying the power forwards of opposing team’s second units. He scored 19 points and grabbed 11 rebounds off the bench on Sunday. He can absolutely abuse the big men of just about everybody’s second unit and keep the Heat’s energy and production up as they try to give the starters a break.
Oh, and by the way, Dwyane Wade is still really good. Even though Hinrich defends him well, he still ended up with 25 points, made eight out of 10 from the line and scored on this ridiculous drive to the basket.
When five NBA players can’t guard you on any given drive to the hole, you’re a special, special player.
Portland Trailblazers 83, Oklahoma City Thunder 74 in OKC - The Oklahoma City Thunder are coming off of a 23-win season and are everybody’s sexy, predictable pick to be the team that surprises everybody and makes the playoffs. Here’s the problem with that – it’s almost totally unrealistic. The Thunder was a bad team last year and assuming they can just double their win total by not adding a really significant free agent or draftee (James Harden is a nice role player but he isn’t winning you 23 more games) is insane to me.
So how do you measure the mark of an improved team and realize whether they’re ready or not to double their win total from a year ago? There are three things. First, they have to be able to win (and hopefully convincingly) against the mediocre to bad teams in this league. OKC did that with opening wins against the Sacramento Kings and the Detroit Pistons (sorry, Pistons fans, but this is not a good team). Second, the team has to be able to win really ugly games. And third, they have to be able to beat the good teams in the conference that are clearly better than them. The Thunder had a chance to accomplish two and three with one stone in this game against the Blazers and failed to do so on both counts.
This was an UGLY game. I mean REALLY ugly. They combined to make 52 shots and score 157 points on the same night in which Kobe Bryant, O.J. Mayo and Carmelo Anthony combined for 47 made field goals and 123 points. Like I said, this was Sandra Bullock after that bad nose job ugly. Kevin Durant made only three of his 21 attempts and the Thunder shot 34.3% from the field and 21.4% from three. On the other side of the floor, Brandon Roy made only five of his 17 shots (WARNING: Roy is shooting under 40% from the field through four games) and the Blazers shot a combined 40% from the field.
Ultimately, the Blazers pulled it out against OKC by “imposing their will” with five more made threes than what the Thunder was able to spew onto the court. The leading score for Portland was Steve Blake with 18 (thanks to four threes) and the Thunder had Russell Westbrook with 23 points but nine turnovers. Again, this game was ugly.
Overall, the Thunder still have to prove they can win ugly or win against the good teams in this league. It’s only three games into the season so there is plenty of time to do so. And they were able to stay in a game in which Kevin Durant shot worse than he’ll ever shoot again. But Portland had a similar performance from their star Brandon Roy and they were able to gut it out. Baby steps, my Thunder hopeful. Baby steps.
Denver Nuggets 133, Memphis Grizzlies 123 in Denver - This was the opposite of the Thunder-Blazers game. This was the most entertaining game of the day.
Ready for some ridiculous stats?
- Both teams had an eFG percentage of over 60. The Grizz had 62.7% and the Nuggs shot an efficient percentage of 60.6. Memphis shot 57.8% from the field and Denver made 55.3% from the floor. - Denver’s offensive efficiency was 129.4. Memphis had an offensive efficiency of 119.4. - Memphis had a very respectable and an impressive 27 team assists with four starters recording four assists or more. Denver had an absurd 36 team assists with 29 of them coming from the starters. Chauncey Billups lead the game with 12. - O.J. Mayo and Carmelo Anthony combined for 82 points on 32-51 shooting. In fact, let’s get into that real quick.
O.J. Mayo has a really intriguing skill set. Actually, intriguing isn’t the right choice of words. It’s downright dangerous. He’s pretty much unstoppable when he wants to drive to the basket. He never gets his dribble too high or too wide and moves in very succinct and direct motions to get where he wants to go. His hips tell the complete story because they’re always pointed and moving towards the hoop. Once he gets to the basket, he’s too quick for big men to really challenge his shot and he’s too strong for guards to recover and attempt to defend it. The scary thing is that he has no real clue he can do this whenever he wants.
So he settles for the jump shot far too often. On nights like Sunday, it’s okay because he’s able to knock them down. He took his man off of screens beautifully, got ahead of the defensive pressure and was able to drop in the jumpers. He’s almost flawlessly fundamental in every move that he makes from dribble to jumper. And yet, it’s completely unnecessary because he can get to the basket at will. When he figures out that the jumper should be a second option, he’ll be atop the leader board for points per game every season.
As for Carmelo, he has every weapon you could ever imagine. His pump fake is the best in basketball. His step back jumper is the best in basketball. Actually, I don’t want to get too far into his game because I’ll have something later this week about him. Just know he has 113 points on 37/69 from the field and a True Shooting Percentage of 64.9 through three games. I’m sure you guessed these were all wins.
Phoenix Suns 120, Minnesota T’Wolves 112 in Phoenix - Here’s why I think the Suns will make the playoffs this year: they still have a style that is difficult to deal with on a nightly basis during the regular season. If they had the same talent on this team they have now but were still coached by someone like Terry Porter, who limited their running style, they would be susceptible to losing games like this one against the Wolves. But they don’t. They have a running style in which they’re trying to see just how fast they can get the ball in the hoop after you’ve either made or missed a shot. The result of your game never dictates what they want to do and that’s really hard for bad teams like Minnesota to deal with.
In Sunday’s contest with the Wolves, the Suns were able to shoot 50% from the field, make over half their three-point attempts and knock down 80% of their free throws in a fast-paced contest that nearly saw 100 possessions for each side. Because of this frantic and speedy way of playing, it may have seemed to the untrained eye that the Wolves had a real shot at winning this game and upsetting Phoenix on their home floor. But that’s just never the case with this Suns team against bad teams. They were in complete control of this game and never really allowed Minnesota to feel like they had this game.
The Suns are just too relentless against the bad teams and you can tell by the numbers their starters put up. Phoenix’s first five combined for 104 of the 120 points they put up in this game. They were led by Channing Frye’s six threes and 25 points on 8/12 shooting. They got 23 points apiece from Grant Hill and Jason Richardson. They also had a very efficient 19 points from Stoudemire and a 14-14 night with points and assists from Steve Nash. By the end of the night, the Wolves were gassed and the Suns were 3-0 in this new season. And good news for the Suns is they have plenty of more games against the basement of the NBA.
Long live SSOL.
Los Angeles Lakers 118, Atlanta Hawks 110 in Los Angeles - This started out as a very intriguing match-up between two of the best shooting guards in the NBA and two of the most versatile small forwards in the NBA. It ended up being a game the Lakers controlled from almost start to finish and proved they were closer to the team we saw beat the Clippers on opening night, rather than the team we saw get blown out at home against the Mavericks.
Joe Johnson started out scorching hot and looking to be on a mission to steal a road game at Staples. He made seven of his first eight shots, grabbed five rebounds and looked poised and positioned to keep wearing out Kobe Bryant all night long. But there was one little problem – okay, there were two problems: 1) Mike Woodson was still coaching the Hawks and 2) the Lakers picked up Ron Artest in the off-season.
With the season still young and the legs still spry, Ron Artest had enough quickness to body up Joe Johnson on defense and take away his ability to get wherever he wanted on the court. After Ron was switched with Kobe to guard Joe, JJ shot just one of eight from the field the rest of the game and finished with only 27 points. 27 points shouldn’t be looked at as a bad night but when your team loses, you finish with 27 and you started with 18 points in the first nine minutes of the game, you can consider that to be a disappointing performance.
With his defensive worries freed up, Kobe was able to concentrate on some scoring of his own and he did so in spectacular fashion. The Lakers really pushed the tempo and put the Hawks on their heels (talons?) with a lot of run outs and breakouts that totaled 16 fast break points for the game. Kobe made jump shot after jump shot and finished the game strong with 22 second half points. He finished with 41 points (97th 40-point game of his career), eight rebounds, three assists, and five steals. He shot 15/29 from the field and 10/11 from the line.
The Lakers shot the ball well, shared the ball well, and forced a bunch of turnovers from the Hawks in Staples Center. That’s usually a recipe for success for the Lake Show and it proved to be once again tonight.
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Bloguin is the revolutionary blog network specifically focused on helping bloggers get the most out of their websites. We're currently working on building a large network of online communities and hope to expand our blogging coverage to include a wide range of topics. 
The Bloguin Network allows advertisers to promote their products and services to our ever-growing number of visitors. We offer both site-specific ad placements as well as the ability to run a network-wide campaign. If you're interested in working with Bloguin to meet your advertising needs, please contact us.
The Bloguin Network is always looking to expand. We're specifically looking for blogs in the sports, entertainment, and video games field, but are open to adding any type of quality site.. If you're a blogger and interested in joining our network, please fill out our application form.
The Bloguin Login gives you full access to everything our network has to offer. Your name and password will work for each and every one of our sites. Signing up is simple, and will allow you to post in all our forums, create member blogs, and access other cool features! What are you waiting for? Create an Account! 