The East Is Beating Up On The West
The East holds a 31-18 advantage in interconference play thus far. Oklahoma City — the worst team in the NBA — has been an Eastern Conference punching bag. The Thunder has played 7 of their 11 games against Eastern Conference teams, going 0-7 in the process.
Cleveland’s Offense Is Efficient
The Cavaliers were 19th in points scored per 100 possessions last season. We’re 11 games into the 2008-2009 campaign, and the Cavs are 1st in points scored per 100 possessions. Some of Cleveland’s offensive improvement can be attributed to the arrival of Mo Williams. Most of it should be attributed to Mike Brown making a conscientious decision to get LeBron James the ball on the move and on the block.
The Nuggets Are Playing Defense
Denver is 7th in points allowed per 100 possessions, while holding their opponents to 43 percent shooting (8th best in the league). The arrival of Chauncey Billups has solidified Denver’s defensive backcourt, shoring up their first line of defense. Even more important to Denver’s defensive turnaround has been Carmelo Anthony’s maturation. Anthony is putting forth the effort on both ends, and his teammates have followed his lead.
The Atlanta Hawks Are Slipping
The Hawks were 4th in points allowed per 100 possessions less than a week ago. Since then, they’ve dropped 4 straight games and slid to 23rd in defensive efficiency. Maybe I spoke too soon.
Rudy Fernandez
I was a Rudy Fernandez skeptic. His talent was obvious, but I questioned his slight build and dependence upon the international three-point line. Both of my concerns have been put to rest. Fernandez is a gamer. Rudy is averaging 13.5 points per game, while shooting 44 percent from the NBA arc in only 29 minutes of action. He’s also emerged as Portland’s closer, coming up big in clutch wins against the Miami Heat and Orlando Magic.
November 20th, 2008 at 5:57 am
The East is much improved, even without the Thunder skewing the count.
Other surprises include the Hornets’ slow start, and the Suns’ fast one. (Even Ricko was surprised by that one)! Billup’s singlehanded transformation of the Nuggets might be the biggest surprise…
Love the Blazers, they look like a force on the rise.
Less of a surprise is the continued crappy officiating. Celtics wins over the Raptors and Hawks were assisted, Warriors over Blazers was classic, Nuggets beat Bucks with 48 fts to 24 for the visitors – Kleiza shoots 15 (was he wearing Paul Pierce’s jersey?)!
Hey, we’re missing you over at FS, stop by sometime!
November 20th, 2008 at 9:13 am
nba:
Ya’ know I meant to include New Orleans’ offensive struggles when I thought about writing this a few days ago. Unfortunately I neglected to mention it within the blog. But you’re right, that’s been very surprising. And the Hornets lost to a short-handed Kings team last night, who saw that coming?
I swing through the FOXSports blogosphere every once and awhile, but there doesn’t seem to be a lot of NBA activity there lately.
It’s good to see you though. I hope you stick around, I always enjoy talking hoops with you.
November 20th, 2008 at 1:10 pm
Rudy is the darkhorse for rookie of the year. He probably wont win it because there are too many big names this year in the running(Rose, Mayo, Oden, Beasley) but he will help lead Portland into the playoffs.