Week 19 recap and Roze's 5 things

Eastern Conference 

1. Cleveland Cavaliers 50-10
2. Boston Celtics 43-18
3. New York Knicks 40-20
4. Milwaukee Bucks 34-25
5. Indiana Pacers 34-25
6. Detroit Pistons 34-27
7. Miami Heat 28-31
8. Orlando Magic 29-33
9. Atlanta Hawks 27-33
10. Chicago Bulls 24-37
11. Philadelphia 76ers 21-38
12. Brooklyn Nets 21-39
13. Toronto Raptors 19-42
14. Charlotte Hornets 14-45
15. Washington Wizards 11-48

Western Conference 

1. Oklahoma City Thunder 49-11
2. Los Angeles Lakers 38-21
3. Denver Nuggets 39-22
4. Memphis Grizzlies 38-22
5. Houston Rockets 37-23
6. LA Clippers 32-28
7. Golden State Warriors 32-28
8. Minnesota Timberwolves 33-29
9. Sacramento Kings 31-28
10. Dallas Mavericks 32-29
11. Phoenix Suns 28-33
12. Portland Trail Blazers 27-34
13. San Antonio Spurs 25-34
14. New Orleans Pelicans 17-44
15. Utah Jazz 15-45

Reaction 

In the Eastern Conference the Cavaliers won a very impressive game on Friday at Boston against the Celtics.  The Celtics and Knicks stay in 2nd and 3rd seed in the Eastern Conference. Bucks, Pacers, and Pistons stay in place at the 4, 5, and 6 spots in the East after similar records on the week. The Heat are in 7th seed of the brutal play-in with the Magic,  Hawks, and Bulls rounding it out. The 76ers, Nets, Raptors, Hornets, and Wizards round out the bottom of the horrible 7-15 seeded records in the East. 

In the Western Conference the Thunder stay atop of the conference while the Lakers move into the 2 seed. The Nuggets, Grizzlies, and Rockets round out the 3-5 seeds, while the Clippers have stumbled a little after dropping back-to-back games to the Lakers. The Warriors, Wolves, Kings, and Mavericks are all tightly bunched into the play-in, while the Suns, look like they will miss the postseason all together. The Blazers overtake the Spurs for the 12th seed in the West and the Pelicans and Jazz round out the bottom of the West. 

News Recap 

Tuesday February 25th 

Eric Gordon will miss the rest of the season with a wrist injury requiring surgery. 

Nikola Jovic will be out for at least 4 weeks with a broken hand. 

Friday February 28th 

Joel Embiid will miss the rest of the season after the 76ers decided to shut him down due to knee issues. 

Jalen Suggs will miss an indefinite amount of time with a trochlea injury in his knee. 

Roze’s 5 Things 

• Don’t love the Paolo Banchero shot selection sometimes.

Paolo Banchero has missed a ton of time so far this season, so I do understand why this is the slightest criticism of him, but it is something I do not understand right now. To start, Banchero is 6’10, 250 pounds and has incredible athleticism and fluidness at his size. It makes him very challenging to guard, but I do not love what he is shooting right now. He’s only shooting 62% at the basket, which feels low for a guy like him, but he’s spread out his shooting amongst the mid range areas. He’s taken 142 shots at 5 feet or less, but has taken 72, 68, and 75 shots from 5-9, 10-14, and 15-19 feet. I don’t like that from him overall, and a lot of shots he’s taken feel like settling. A good example of the selection I would like to see is what he did against the Warriors. Banchero attacked a lot of the smaller guards they tried to put on him and he had 41 points on efficient shooting. 

• Zion looks back. 

Not this sounds crazy but Zion looks like he’s back to his normal self. In his last 10 games he’s averaging 26.3 points per game on 65.2% shooting from the floor and 50% from 3 (0.3 attempts per game). He also averaging 5.6 assists per game, including 11 assists against the Suns this past week. He’s started to attack downhill more and more, and it feels like, similar to Giannis this year, he has just ditched trying to shoot 3. I have enjoyed watching this after him having a very rough start to the season both on and off the court. 

• Reaves is thriving in his role on Offense. 

Austin Reaves is awesome and I am fully committed to saying that because he is fantastic in pick and roll situations along with playing alongside Luka and Lebron. Even before both guys were playing with him, Reaves had 45-7-7 against the Pacers on a Saturday a couple of weeks ago and it feels like that has been the moment to pinpoint where he is awesome. In Reaves' 272 possessions of pick and roll this season, he is averaging 1.00 points per possession, good for 80th percentile in the NBA, he’s also only had a 14% turnover in those possessions as well. It is clear Reaves is really good, but being a third option on the Lakers and being able to have this type of production will be crucial to their title aspirations. 

• Curry Flurry’s are back. 

It’s always magical watching a Steph Curry game happen right before your eyes, it’s even better when it happens against the team he doesn’t play often because you get to see the reaction of the other fans. The Magic and Warriors only play 2 times a year, one home and away. Seeing Curry hit his 9th three with 5:28 to go in the third quarter felt crazy when it happened. Overall, I’d love to see the Curry flamethrower games come back. He’s one of the most skilled scorers in the NBA today and showed why when he exploded for 56 points last Thursday against the Magic. 

• Giannis is the mid-range is awesome.

Giannis might not be known for his shooting prowess behind the arc, but inside of it he is awesome, especially in the mid-range. He shoots 72% at the rim, which is unbelievable, however, the most surprising stat of his shooting numbers has to be the mid-range efficiency. He is shooting 47% on shots 15-19 feet and he’s 71/150 on those shots this season so far. He’s been incredibly impressive so far this season. He has a ton of nice half-spins, fadeaways, and easy one dribble pulls ups. At a point where Giannis was trying to develop his 3-point shots, he’s abandoned it by creating an efficient scoring output from this area of the floor.