Week 15 recap and Roze's 5 Things

Standings - Games played through February 1st

Eastern Conference

1. Cleveland Cavaliers 39-9
2. Boston Celtics 34-15
3. New York Knicks 32-17
4. Indiana Pacers 27-20
5. Milwaukee Bucks 26-20
6. Miami Heat 24-23
7. Detroit Pistons 24-24
8. Orlando Magic 24-26
9. Atlanta Hawks 22-27
10. Chicago Bulls 21-28
11. Philadelphia 76ers 19-28
12. Brooklyn Nets 16-33
13. Toronto Raptors 15-33
14. Charlotte Hornets 12-34
15. Washington Wizards 7-41

Western Conference

1. Oklahoma City Thunder 38-9
2. Houston Rockets 32-16
3. Memphis Grizzlies 32-16
4. Denver Nuggets 30-19
5. Los Angeles Lakers 28-19
6. LA Clippers 28-20
7. Minnesota Timberwolves 27-22
8. Dallas Mavericks 26-23
9. Phoenix Suns 25-23
10. Sacramento Kings 24-24
11. Golden State Warriors 24-24
12. San Antonio Spurs 21-25
13. Portland Trail Blazers 20-29
14. New Orleans Pelicans 12-37
15. Utah Jazz 11-36

Reaction 

In the Eastern Conference, The Cavaliers take back the league's best record in the NBA from the Thunder. The Celtics remain in 2nd place and the Knicks after losing in the Lakers last night. The Pacers have played some of the best basketball in the NBA over the last month and a half have moved into the 4th seed over the Bucks. The Heat round out the top 6 after a Bam Adebayo game-winner against the Spurs last night. The Pistons, Magic, Hawks, and Bulls round out the play-in with the Magic playing the worse of those teams. They've lost 8 of their last 9 games and the offense is horrible. The 76ers after winning 4 of their last 5 games are only 1 game behind the Bulls. The raptors after a recently going on a 5 game win streak have closed in on the Nets and the Hornets and Wizards bring up the bottom of the East. Shoutout to the Wizards for ending their 16 -game losing streak. 

In the Western Conference, the Thunder are still atop the Conference with the top 4 remaining unchanged. The Lakers, after making an insane trade are in 5th place after beating the Knicks, while the Clippers round-out the non-play-in teams. The Timberwolves, Mavericks, Suns, and Kings are in the play-in while the Warriors drop outside of the play-in. The Spurs are falling off while the Blazers are playing their best basketball of the season. The Pelicans suffered another injury putting dampening on their already dreadful season, and the Utah Jazz get some wins recently.  

News Recap 

Monday, January 27th 

The Miami Heat suspended Jimmy Butler indefinitely for withholding services. The Heat informed him he would be removed from the starting lineup. 

Tuesday, January 28th 

The Warriors will retire Andre Iguodala’s number on February 23rd. Iguodala won 4 championships with the Warriors. 

Wednesday, January 29th 

Jalen Johnson will miss the remainder of the season with a torn labrum in his left shoulder. The Hawks were 4-10 without him in January. 

Anthony Davis will be out for at least 1 week with an abdominal muscle strain. 

LaMelo Ball will be out for at least a week with an ankle sprain. 

Friday, January 31st

Isaiah Stewart will be suspended for 1 game after picking up his 6th flagrant foul of the season. 

Dejounte Murray will miss the remainder of the season after tearing his Achilles tendon in the Pelican loss against the Celtics on Friday night. 

Saturday, February 1st

The Clippers traded PJ Tucker, Mo Bamba, a future second-round pick, and cash to the Utah Jazz for Drew Eubanks and Patty Mills. The move resulted in the Clipper saving 5 million in tax for this upcoming season. 

Sunday, February 2nd 

Lakers trade away Anthony Davis, Max Christie, and a 2029 first-round pick to the Mavericks for Luka Doncic, Maxi Kleber, and Markieff Morris. The Jazz acquire Jalen Hood-Schifino, the 2025 Clippers 2nd round pick, and the Mavericks' 2025 second-round. 

Roze’s 5 Things

1. Laker's recent defensive surge. 

The Lakers have been in the top 6 in the Western Conference for quite some time. They’ve been up-and-down at times this season, but have recently found their footing. Particularly on the defensive end of the ball. The Lakers in the last 8 games are 6-2 and have the league’s second-best defensive rating at 106.8 in that timespan as well. Notably, Max Christie has been fabulous on this side of the ball. Since he’s entering the starting lineup he’s often been the point-of-attack defender for Los Angeles. The Lakers have also gotten a nice contribution from Dorian Finney-Smith. The Lakers acquired him a little over a month ago in a trade that sent D’Angelo Russell to Brooklyn. The start how been slow on both ends of the floor for Finney-Smith. However, in the same 8-game span, he has the Lakers best defensive rating at 98.1. He’s been excellent at switching and ultimately helping the Lakers shrink the floor with his size. Overall, the shooting will come, but the Lakers have been very successful at defending teams. Granted, it hasn't been against the best competition as they've played the 76ers, Wizards, and Hornets in recent games, but you still have to play well. The Lakers right sit in the 6th spot in the Western Conference a place where I don’t think a lot of people anticipated earlier in the season. Of course, I wrote this piece before the news of Luka and AD being traded for each other. 

2. What is the Jazz’s Future

If you haven’t watched the Utah Jazz play basketball this season you aren’t missing much, however, the lack of talent development and young prospects is concerning to me. To start with Cody Williams, this draft selection this past year, he’s been concerningly bad in both the NBA and G-league. He’s yet to find his footing and develop any type of feel for what the Jazz want to do. His overall ceiling to me is extremely low and I’m not sure how the Jazz will approach him fitting into this roster going forward. A little unfair to judge him this harshly just 45 games into his career, but it’s worth noting. Keyonte George has also been a bit of a disappointment to me as well. He continues to struggle shooting the ball and his passing is still subpar to me as a point guard of the future for them. He’s wildly inefficient with a usage rate of 23.1%. Next in the point guard duties is Isaiah Collier who hasn’t good either. He has the highest turnover percentage on the team with 35.3% and he is struggling with his shooting too. I think Colin Sexton has been solid, but it’s noted he’s on the trade block. Lauri Markkanen has been bad so far, Jordan Clarkson looks disengaged all the time, and the rookies seem to develop bad habits this happens with a team’s veteran. The Jazz have a ton of draft ammo over the next several years which is good, but it’s hard to say they have a player on the roster who will help them when the new rookies and players are selected in future drafts. 

3. Scoot Henderson is figuring it out.

The Portland Trailblazers have been very competitive recently and have won some impressive games as well. They scored 125 points against the Bucks in Damian Lillard’s second time returning to Portland, and they demolished the Orlando Magic in the following game. The biggest development for me though has been Scoot Henderson as of late. He looks much more comfortable in pick-and-roll situations and has shown some nice space on drives to keep shot blockers off-balance when trying to time his shot. I think the initial shock of how athletic the NBA is was a surprise to him given he was an all-world athlete in the year before being drafted. However, the last 10 games look much better for Henderson overall. He’s averaging 16.3 points per game on 49.6% shooting from the field and 45.8% from the three-point line on 5.4 attempts a game. His turnover percentage is down compared to last year and the jump-shot looks much more comfortable to him. I think this is more than just a hot streak for Henderson ultimately, he’s under control and taking shots within the flow of the offense. When he does break off plays he’s sound on when and who to attack. He’s also been much more willing to shoot catch-and-shoot threes as well. He’s getting much easier shots as his 3-points make assisted on are up almost 20% compared to last year. I think this is the Scoot Henderson the Trailblazers believed they were taking last year in the draft and he’s had a very impressive 

4. Kawhi Leonard is returning to form.

The Clippers looked like a team that was primed to drop in the Western Conference standings after losing Paul George in free agency and having its star player Kawhi Leonard injure his knee again in the postseason, however, that’s been far from the case so far. The Clippers are in 6th in the Western Conference behind some great team defense and great team play from James Harden and Norman Powell. Now that Leonard has returned it took some time for him to get back into form. This past week has shown he is close to the dominant defensive player and mid-range assassin he’s known to be. The his match-ups against the Spurs and Hornets Kawhi looked like he was starting to get more comfortable shooting the overall flow of the game. I think he’s a little hesitant going to the basket and taking contact, but the jump shot has looked automatic of late. He’s averaging 19.2 points per game on 49.4% shooting from the floor and 35.4% from 3. Honestly, if this is the Kawhi Leonard the Clippers will have for an extended amount of time they could give a team some trouble in the postseason. The synergy between him and Harden on some pick-and-roll plays along with Harden making some clever skip passes and post entries to him has given the Clippers an added level of offense they were missing early in the year. 

5. The Magic’s offensive struggles

The Magic have been very bad on offense of late and it’s pretty concerning. Since the return of Paolo Banchero and Franz Wagner, the Magic have an offensive rating of 102.7, which is the worst in the NBA in that span. The lack of shooting surrounding both Wagner and Banchero has not helped, which has allowed teams to clog the paint and load up drives from either of the team’s star players. The Magic are now in the play-in after holding strong without Banchero for 35 games, but what else can the Magic do? Well, they need to figure out ways to make up the shooting in the margins. Whether it’s through offensive rebounding, forcing more turnovers on defense, or playing faster in transition. It doesn’t help that both Kentavious Caldwell-Pope, who they signed in free agency have seen a dip of almost 9% on his 3-point shooting, and Jalen Suggs is shooting 31.4% from 3 on the year after shooting 39% last year. Ultimately, I do think the shooting will return just based on averages, but this has been the concern and obvious weak point of the Magic for a couple of years now. If Orlando continues like this it’ll be hard for them to make the playoffs let alone win a playoff series.