NBA – Round Up – 11/03/19 – 17/03/19

Teams of the week

The Spurs streak continues

Aldridge, DeRozan, Aldridge, DeRozan. These two are just phenomenal. alternating between them on who is going to score the most points in each of there 4 victories this week. Granted the Knicks and Mavericks should always be winnable games but to come away with wins against the Trailblazers and the Bucks in the same week is rather impressive. They have now clinched a spot in the playoffs and although I don’t think they will be able to win it there is no reason why they cant put the pressure on and make a team slip up – as they clearly have the talent to do so.

Ba Da Ba Ba Bah, I’m Lovin’ it

The Nuggets finally make it into my team of the week. Although they may have not had the hardest of opponents in the Timberwolves, Mavericks and the Pacers, they have still managed to get the 3 wins this week. With solid performances all round by Millsap and Jokic they have comfortably walked through this week and have already guaranteed themselves a spot in the playoffs. I don’t feel like the Nuggets have any world class kind of players, but the team cohesion that is present is the reason while they’ll be a tricky team to beat when it comes to the playoffs.

Jokic in action (Manning, 2017)

It’s always sunny in Philadelphia

What a team the 76ers have. Embiid, Simmons, Butler and more. An absolute quality team that have been pulling off some quality results. Last year Ben Simmons was rookie of the year and he doesn’t seem to be letting up this year and his partnership with Embiid seems to be going from strength to strength. They are my longshot favourites to go far in the playoffs and put some pressure on the favourites.

Room for improvement…

Pelicans hungry for a win

With a disgruntled Anthony Davis playing for the Pelicans it was always going to be a difficult season for the Pelicans and this was also a difficult week for them. Losing to the Suns especially will hurt as that is a game in which they should be winning. Anthony Davis exclaiming that he wants to leave near the start of the season didn’t put the Pelicans in the best frame of mind for the future and with how poor they have been this season, there is no wonder why he wants to leave for somewhere where he can push for championships.

‘The Brow’ not looking in the best of spirits (Sports, 2016)

Toro! Toro! Bulls miss out for a win again.

Loses against the Lakers, Clippers and the Kings shows a second bad week for the Bulls. Missing out on a win again shows a difficult time for the Bulls and drastic changes will be needed if they are to challenge for anything again. LaVine cant just carry the team completely on his own and it is difficult to say whether the Bulls are able to put a team behind him that can support his ability. It is a question that he may need to ask himself over his future and what the Bulls have planned in the future.

The Grizzlies aren’t so scary

Although they only lost 2 games this week they were embarrassing to say the least. The Memphis Grizzlies are pout of playoff contention but will still want to give there fans something to cheer about for the end of the season. However, this week they will have been disappointed. Losing to the Wizards and the Hawks will always be difficult to accept for the Grizzlies and their fans. They have been inconsistent most of this season and hopefully next season they will try and find some consistent runs of form.

Player of the week – IMO

Beal and Gobert picked up the player of the week for there respected conferences, however I want to highlight the efforts of the Phoenix Suns Devon Booker. Although they may have only managed 1 win against the Pelicans this week, Devon Booker can easily be seen as the highlight player in all the games this week. He dropped 40 points against the Pelicans and even managed over 20 in the other games. He has consistently been the Suns best player this season and his efforts shouldn’t go unnoticed even though the team may be one of the weakest in the NBA.

References

Basketball-Reference.com.(2019). NBA Players of the Week | Basketball-Reference.com. [online] Available at:https://www.basketball-reference.com/awards/pow.html [Accessed 21 Mar. 2019].

ESPN.com. (2019). NBA – National Basketball Association Teams, Scores, Stats, News, Standings, Rumors – ESPN. [online] Available at: http://www.espn.com/nba/ [Accessed 21 Mar. 2019]. – This reference for all statistics

Manning, C. (2017). Nikola Jokic taught his teammates Serbo-Croatian swear words. [online] FanSided. Available at: https://fansided.com/2017/01/05/nikola-jokic-nuggets-swear-words/ [Accessed 21 Mar. 2019].

Sports, U. (2016). Davis’ dominant performance highlights NBA Fast Break. [online] HoopsHype. Available at: https://hoopshype.com/2016/02/22/davis-dominant-performance-highlights-nba-fast-break/ [Accessed 21 Mar. 2019].