Week 20 recap and Roze's 5 Things

Standings - Games played through March 8th 

Eastern Conference

1. Cleveland Cavaliers 53-10
2. Boston Celtics 46-18
3. New York Knicks 40-23
4. Milwaukee Bucks 36-26
5. Indiana Pacers 35-27
6. Detroit Pistons 35-29
7. Atlanta Hawks 30-34
8. Orlando Magic 30-35
9. Miami Heat 29-34
10. Chicago Bulls 26-38
11. Philadelphia 76ers 21-41
12. Brooklyn Nets 21-42
13. Toronto Raptors 21-43
14. Charlotte Hornets 15-48
15. Washington Wizards 13-49

Western Conference 

1. Oklahoma City Thunder 52-11
2. Denver Nuggets 41-22
3. Los Angeles Lakers 40-22
4. Memphis Grizzlies 39-24
5. Houston Rockets 39-25
6. Golden State Warriors 36-28
7. Minnesota Timberwolves 36-29
8. LA Clippers 34-29
9. Sacramento Kings 33-29
10. Dallas Mavericks 32-32
11. Phoenix Suns 29-34
12. Portland Trail Blazers 28-36
13. San Antonio Spurs 26-35
14. New Orleans Pelicans 17-47
15. Utah Jazz 15-48

Reaction 

As we move closer and closer in the playoffs the Eastern Conference has seen its first team clinch a postseason berth with the Cavaliers, who are a stunning 53-10 now after ripping off 12 straight wins. The Celtics continue their winning ways after beating the Lakers last night and the Knicks will look to weather the storm without Jalen Brunson for the next two weeks. The Bucks and Pacer continue to battle it out for the 4th and 5th seeds while the Piston have built a nice comfortable cushion for the 6th seed. The Hawks, Magic, Heat, and Bulls continue to be in the play-in, while the 76ers have gone full tank mode. The Nets and Raptors sit only a 1 and 0.5 behind the 76ers. he Wizards gain ground on the Hornets after taking the season sweep 4-0 over Charlotte. 

In the Western Conference the Thunder's magic number to clinch is just 4, while the Nuggets move into the 2nd seed after the monster 31-22-21 performance from Nikola Jokic against the Suns on Friday night. The Lakers drop to the 3rd seed after losing to the Celtics last night and snapping their 8-game win streak while the Grizzlies and Rockets remain in the 4th and 5th spots. The Warriors also move out of the play and are 11-1 in games that Jimmy Butlers plays in with the team. The Timberwolves, Clippers, Kings, and Mavericks remain in the play-in. However, with the recent Mavericks injury news they'll be a team to already look at the offseason. The Suns and Blazer sit outside of the play-in right now with the Spurs close behind and the Pelicans over take the Jazz to get out of the basement of the Western Conference. 

News Recap 

Tuesday, March 4th 

Kyrie Irving will miss the rest of the season with a torn ACL. He suffered the injury in a game on Monday night versus the Kings. 

Friday, March 7th 

Jalen Brunson will miss two weeks with a sprained ankle. 

Olivier-Maxence Prosper will miss the rest of the season with a torn ligament in his wrist.

Saturday, March 8th 

Reed Sheppard will miss the next 4 weeks with a fractured thumb.

Roze’s 5 Things 

1 Reed Sheppard in the mid range is fun.

It has been a very up and down year for Sheppard shooting the ball. He’s seen inconsistent minutes due to his lack of defensive capabilities, but that’s life as a rookie in the NBA. Getting drafted 3rd overall is nice, but when it’s to a team as good as the Rockets it can be hard to crack the lineup. However, with the Rockets having many guys like Amen Thompson, Dillon Brookes, Fred VanVleet out against the Thunder Monday, Sheppard stepped in to make his first start. He played very well finishing with 25 points on 10/17 shooting from the floor. He was imposing in pick and roll shots. The Thunder mostly played drop coverage when Jaylin Williams and Isaiah Hartenstein and Sheppard used a nice combination of pace and handle to snake pick and rolls and find pockets to get his shot off. Most rookies take time to discover the mid-range shot, but Sheppard has looked very comfortable getting to that spot on the floor. He’s shooting 37% from that spot on the floor, but he’s taken a majority of his shots from the 10-19 foot range. It’s a nice step in his progression for becoming a good scorer in the NBA. His defense will need to improve though. 

2 Tyrese Haliburton back to being elite? What does that mean for the Pacers?

It has been close to a whole year since it feels like we’ve seen the best version of Tyrese Haliburton, but it seems he’s found it as of late, in particular his drives. Haliburton has been averaging 23 points on 57/54 shooting splits along with dishing out 11 assists a game in his last 10 games played. He’s incredible next to Siakam and seems like he’s found a nice rhythm next to his fellow All-Star. Another contributing factor to his drives is the fact that he’s finishing around the basket very well now. He’s shooting 12/17 from 5 feet and in in the last 10 games. While that’s the same number as he’s had throughout the entire season, the 5-14 feet range has drastically improved for himself. He’s shooting close to 50% for the season, but as of late he’s been shooting 70%, a big step up. He’s also started to set up teammates more as the assists numbers have crept up as of late. Overall, what does this mean for the Pacers? It means they can replicate a run they made last year in getting to the Conference finals from their viewpoint.

3 Blazers/Nets making late play-in pushes.

While the Blazers and Nets have struggled the last couple of seasons, it seems the tides are turning for the team in their respective conferences. They both sit in the 12th spot of the Western and Eastern conferences and have shown constant improvement throughout the season. For the Nets, Jordi Fernandez has his squad playing super hard all the time, he is great at getting most of whoever has been available throughout the season. Sure, there’s some nights the lack of talent shows up but Cam Johnson is shooting the cover off of the ball and Jalen Wilson looks like a fun player for the Nets, I’m sure if they want to make the play-in from a future draft pick stance, but overall they’re in the mix. For the Blazers it seems the young guys Shaedon Sharpe and Scoot Henderson have began to figure out the keys and tricks of playing the NBA, both are playing their best basketball of their young careers to this point and it has helped the Blazers out a ton, they also find themselves in the race for the play-in when I’m sure they didn’t predict that to start the season. 

4 Do the Celtics need to be a full strength to win the title this year?

I know this is a pretty crazy question to ask when they have the third best record in the NBA, but it is fair to ask. They aren’t as potent an offense as last year and the defense at times lacks intensity needed to get stops, but the Celtics I think are still a really good team and should still be considered the favorites to win the title, besides they are the defending champs. However, last season in the playoffs they never had a fully healthy squad. Kristaps Porzingis dealt with a slew of injuries and has missed time in the regular season with these injuries. Jrue Holiday has also been in and out of the lineup the entire season as well. It hasn’t hurt the Celtics as they boast a 45-18 record, but this season is different. I believe they have to be fully healthy throughout the entire postseason run, and if they aren’t, they’ll be tested way more than they were last year on their run to a championship. Porzingis brings an element of scoring and rim protection they don’t have when he’s not on the floor, plus the Luka Kornet minutes at times can be a little shaky if he gets stretched out too long. I think it’s very simple for the Celtics if everyone is healthy, they all. 

5 What is wrong with the Heat’s offense?

This season has been filled with tons of drama for the Miami Heat, mainly because of the Jimmy Butler situation, but even after his departure, the team still has struggled. The Heat in the last 10 games have an offensive rating of 113, good for 17th in that time frame. Now it’s been very up and down for the Heat this entire season. Tyler Herro has emerged as a player to potentially build around and Bam Adebayo is locked down for the next 4 seasons after this one. They have two guys that look solid, but who of the younger guys are going to step up? The Kel’el Ware and Bam Adebayo front court started great, but quickly has seen the obvious error take place in spacing for others to operate. The lack of shooting with both bigs clogs up the paint and doesn’t allow for the offense to flow as crisply as it should at times. The defense with those two on the floor is still good with a 108.3 rating in 318 minutes together, but the 111 offensive rating is not great. Overall, the experience with Bam taking more threes hasn’t been good as far as this season has been, as he is shooting 30.7% from three on 2.7 attempts a game. I also think the Heat need to look at playing faster as well, they’ve one of the slowest teams in the NBA with a pace of 97.1 for the season, which is 28th. Multiple things need to happen for the Heat to improve their offense overall.