Week 13 recap and Roze's 5 Things

Standings - Games through January 18th 

Eastern Conference

1. Cleveland Cavaliers 35-6
2. Boston Celtics 29-13
3. New York Knicks 27-16
4. Milwaukee Bucks 23-17
5. Indiana Pacers 24-19
6. Atlanta Hawks 22-19
7. Orlando Magic 23-20
8. Detroit Pistons 21-21
9. Miami Heat 20-20
10. Chicago Bulls 18-24
11. Philadelphia 76ers 15-25
12. Brooklyn Nets 14-28
13. Charlotte Hornets 10-28
14. Toronto Raptors 10-32
15. Washington Wizards 6-34

Western Conference 

1. Oklahoma City Thunder 34-7
2. Houston Rockets 28-13
3. Memphis Grizzlies 27-15
4. Denver Nuggets 25-16
5. LA Clippers 23-17
6. Los Angeles Lakers 22-17
7. Dallas Mavericks 23-19
8. Minnesota Timberwolves 22-20
9. Sacramento Kings 21-20
10. Golden State Warriors 21-20
11. Phoenix Suns 21-20
12. San Antonio Spurs 19-21
13. Portland Trail Blazers 13-28
14. New Orleans Pelicans 11-32
15. Utah Jazz 10-30

Reaction 

In the Eastern Conference the Cavaliers suffered their worst loss of the season to the Thunder on Thursday however it did not affect thee lead in the top spot much. The Celtics are now 29-13 after going 8-8 in their last 16 games with some questionable 4th quarter offense. The Knicks stay in the 3rd seed with the Bucks, Pacers, and Hawks all leap frogging the struggling Magic, who are now in the play-in. However they just got Paolo Banchero back and Franz Wagner should be returning within the next 2 weeks. The Heat also slide to the 9th seed after the Jimmy Butler saga crossed another road block. Butler returned from his 7 game suspension. The Pistons stay in the 8th seed after getting to their point at 21-19 for the last 5 years. The Bulls hang in to the 10th seed as the 76ers keep trying to pull into the play-in spot. They are still 2 games back. The Nets, Raptors, Hornets, and Wizards still remain in the basement of the East. 

In the Western Conference there's been some separation from the top 4 versus the others. The Thunder were tied with the Cavs for best record in the league before losing to the Mavericks their following game. The Rockets have jumped to the 2nd seed after going 7-3 in their last 10 games with the Grizzlies and Nuggets close behind. Both Los Angeles teams returned to play after having some games postponed due to the wildfires in Los Angeles. The Clippers have moved into the 5th seed while the Lakers are out of the play-in at 22-17. The Mavericks have fallen all the way to the play-in after going 3-7 in their last 10 games. The Timberwolves, Kings, and Warriors round out the play-in teams, while the Suns are still in 11th. The Spurs have fallen to the 12th seed after being in the play-in a week ago. The Pelicans have moved out from the basement of the West after going 6-4 in their last 10 games and winning their last 3. The Jazz rounds out the conference at 15th and with a record of 10-30. 

News Recap 

Wednesday, January 15th 

The Hornets traded Nick Richards and a second-round pick to the Suns for Josh Okogie and 3 second-round picks. Denver owns the second-round picks for the Hornets in 2025, and 2026, and a Suns 2028 second-round pick. 

Isaiah Hartenstein will be out for a week with a left soleus strain in his calf. 

Friday, January 17th 

Joel Embiid will be out for at least a week because his knee swelled after a workout. He had been ramping up his conditioning after suffering a foot strain about one to two weeks ago. 

Chet Holmgren is out another 3-5 weeks recovering from the hip injury he suffered about 10 weeks ago. The original timeline was 8-10 weeks, but the Thunder are in no rush to get him back. 

Brandon Miller suffered a torn ligament in his wrist and is out indefinitely. 

Roze’s 5 Things

1. The Pacers' defense is picking up. 

Not too long ago, the Indiana Pacers were 10-16 and 23rd in defense in the NBA. They were without Andrew Nembhard, Ben Sheppard, and Aaron Nesmith. Tyrese Haliburton was struggling to carry the offense, and the Pacers looked a little dead in the water. Since this point, the Pacers now have a record of 24-19 and are 14-3 in their last. The major reason for this was the defense. In the last 15 games, the Pacers’ opponents are shooting 45% from the field and 32.8% from 3. A major improvement from the 48% and 37% opponents were shooting in those same categories. The addition of Andrew Nembhard and Ben Sheppard back into the lineup has also helped. In the last 15 games, Nembhard has a +100 plus/minus, good for third on the team, and has a team-best 104 defensive rating. Aaron Nesmith also had a 102.1 defensive rating in limited minutes since his return. Much of the success comes from Nembhard being the point-of-attack defender. He’s constantly taking on opponents' best offensive players and handling them very well. He and Sheppard made some very impressive plays against the Cavaliers in their Tuesday night matchup. In 336 minutes of Haliburton, Nembhard, Siakam, Mathurin, and Turner they have a league-best 98.1 defensive rating for a 5-man lineup, yes you read that right. 

2. Amen Thompson in the starting lineup could be the Rocket's key to success. 

Amen Thompson is in the 6th man of the year running, but he’s been seeing even more success as of late. He’s entered the starting lineup with Jabari Smith out with a broken hand and the Rockets are reaping the dividends. The Rocket's offense has seen an uptick in its scoring and efficiency since Thompson entered the starting 5. In the last 10 games, the Rockets have an offensive rating of 119.3, which would be 2nd in the NBA. Thompson’s ability to push the ball in transition and his high basketball IQ see him making some timely cuts when Sengun is in post-up situations. Houston is averaging 4 more points in transition with Thompson in the starting lineup and is playing at a pace of 101 vs 98 when he is in the game. The defense hasn’t been as great, 113.4 defensive rating in the last 10 games, but it hasn’t hurt them too much in the grand scheme of things. I think Thompson should be permanently in the lineup and Jalen Green playing more on the ball whereas Fred VanVleet has seen the offense click. Houston needs to score points for them to see success in the postseason. Oftentimes, a good defense doesn’t matter if the other teams is making tough shots and the offense will have to be able to keep up. 

3. Jordan Poole’s 3-point shooting this year. 

The Wizards overall have accomplished lots of things. You may not believe that with the record they have at 6-34, but this season is doing exactly what they want it to do. The rookies and sophomores are getting valuable game reps, but the thing I have loved the most is Jordan Poole getting his confidence back after a very rough season last year. Poole at times seemed checked out and had an overall feeling of not wanting to be there. Fast forward one year later Poole is having one of the best scoring and shooting season of his young career. He’s up to 40.7% on 9.1 attempts per game from 3 this year. Poole’s last 10 games also look very similar to his overall season as he is shooting 40.5% on 10.6 attempts from 3. Not let’s dive a little deeper into the 3-point numbers. 40.7% from 3 is very good, but what’s even more impressive is he is shooting 45.2% on pull-up threes on very high volume at almost 5 a game. He has the highest shooting percentage among players who average 5 pull-up 3s a game. I would like to see the catch-and-shoot numbers be a little bit better at 36.4%, but ideally, if 2-3 more 3s go in vs missing he’s right at the 37% line and that is a good number to be at. He’s also having a career season in terms of shot creation. Of his 9.1 attempts from 3 this year 40.2% of them are unassisted. This shows he has one of the one-shot creations in the league Part of this is due to his slightly lower catch-and-shoot percentage, but if he gets bigs on an island he’s making them pay from behind the arc. It’s really nice to see Poole have success this year after having a rough last 2 years. 

4. The Heat experimenting with Jovic and Jaquez's creation 

With the Jimmy Butler saga going on in Miami it’s been a tough spot for Eric Spoelstra to coach his team. Losing Butler means the Heat are down one less creator and one-ball player, however, there may be a fix to this. Losing Butler means there are more minutes to go around and when Tyler Herro goes to the bench it’s been tough for the Heat to find some solid guard play. Spoelstra has instead experimented by putting Jaime Jaquez and Nikola Jovic on at the point forward positions and they are going better than expected. Jovic has seen an uptick in minutes overall with Butler out but has also handled the ball some for the Heat. At his size, 6’ 10, he’s able to see over the defense and make some passes others can't make. At times it does get a little squirrelly with his handling as he does have a turnover percentage of 14.9% however the assists percentage is the highest of his career at 17.1% this year. For Jaquez, he’s also seen a jump in his assist numbers as he went from an assists percentage of 13.2% to 18%. Jaquez doesn’t look for his shot very much, however, the inverted pick and rolls with guards and the lingering fear of Tyler Herro’s shooting ability as seen Jaquez have some success in this role. I still think the shooting for both needs to improve if the Heat wants to fully dive into this, but the early stages of this experiment have shown some success and could give them confidence to do more with it in the future. 

5. Memphis’s unique offense 

If anyone has not seen the Memphis Grizzlies play basketball I would highly recommend it. They play some of the most unique brands of basketball on the offensive end of the floor. They attack the basket relentlessly on drives, cutting, and offensive rebounding. They are top in the league in those categories. They lead the NBA in points per game with 123.4 per game and pace at 105. Memphis flies up and down the floor and does it by shooting the ball very early in the shot clock. They take the most field goal attempts between 22-15 seconds left on the shot clock and are 2nd in transition points while being top 10 in efficiency. It’s not just it best player in Ja Morant either. Morant has missed 18 games so far this season and other guys on the team have stepped up very nicely. Scotty Pippen Jr., Jake LaRavia, and others off the bench have contributed very much to the success of the Grizzlies offense. I think the coolest stat though their offense is how few pick-and-rolls they run. They run a frequency of 8.1% pick-and-rolls during their possession this year, which is dead last in the NBA. This has highlighted their ball and player movement while on the offensive end. They are also 2nd in the NBA in assists per game at 29.7 per game. The overall feel and flow of the offense allow them to bury teams with quick runs and allow them to turn some games in their favor very quickly. It is a very fun style to watch and I’ll be interested in seeing if it remains effective in the postseason.