NBA Week in Review
To be completely honest, it’s been a busy week, so outside of the Bulls I didn’t get to watch much basketball. The Bulls are sitting pretty at a league best 6-1 though. After a heartbreaking one point loss to the Knicks, we battled back and handed Utah their first loss of the season, and then put together a heroic fourth quarter comeback against the Celtics.
This Bulls team is, I think, out performing a lot of people’s expectations. The Bulls are back and I think they are one of those teams that other teams aren’t necessarily looking forward to on their schedule. The wins haven’t all been pretty, but they are finding a way to win early while still learning to work together. This team is exciting, and when the 3 ball is dropping, we are very dangerous. DeMar, who gets knocked for his 3pt shooting, has been actually pretty productive from 3, shooting 41.2% from deep so far this year, and his last 2 games have resulted in 30+ point performances. He is a leader on the court, and it sounds like off the court as well. Whenever things start slipping away, the ball seems to find him, and he calms the waters with a mid-range pullup. He has been well worth his contract, the one that the media beat up so bad this off-season. Where are those reporters now?
Ayo has been showing out too. I have to admit, I didn’t expect to see much from him this year, but he is showing out and provides a good spark for the second unit when he does come in. He plays without hesitation, something that I wish Patrick Williams had in him, who is now sidelined for what sounds like the rest of the year. If we could combine Patrick Williams natural ability and Ayo Dosunmu's confidence, we would really have something.
As I said, I haven’t watched much basketball outside the Bulls but from a 5000 ft view, the LA teams stink. The Lakers blew a huge lead to the Thunder after squeaking a win by the Spurs. The Clippers were 1-4 heading into last nights game, where they got an unimpressive win over the Thunder. *Edit* I typed the previous part yesterday, the Lakers played the Rockets last night and individually looked good AD, Lebron, and Russ all went for 25+ but they still almost gave up the game at the end. They are winning, and that’s what matters, but they still don’t look cohesive.
The Nets are missing Kyrie, but I still think they will find their stride. The 76ers are still a force, I haven’t heard much Simmons drama lately, but he is still a 76er.
I think my 2 biggest surprise teams are the Hornets and the Wizards. Both teams I thought would be middle of the pack teams, but they are finding success. The Hornets, assuming they can keep it up, matured quite a bit from last season, and the Wizards don’t seem to miss Russ very much.
The Hawks, I think, could be a strong finals sleeper. That team has the make-up to really make a push as we saw last year. If Young, Collins, and Capela can get hot at the right time again, I think they could be serious contenders coming out of the East. The East is so packed full of potential it’s ridiculous.
The Jazz are currently running the West which is no surprise. One of the best regular season teams maybe ever, but I am more focused on the Warriors, Mavs, and Grizzlies. Steph and the Warriors are on the hunt for another finals run, and once they get Klay back, sheesh. The Mavs still need help but they began finding their way, they remain undefeated at home. *edit* until last night when Miami came to town, another Eastern conference contender. Ja has the Grizzlies humming, they are just 4-3 but have been in the games they lost and are definitely making a case as a playoff contender early.
I want to start adding a basketball history piece to all or at least one article per week, assuming I can get to multiple. I’ll save that for now as this has already spanned a couple of days and I am having to make edits.
Next look for November power rankings, a dive into why the Raptors seem to be so good at drafting talent (A reader request), and like I said some basketball history knowledge bombs.
Things should be slowing down a bit, which will allow me to get out hopefully 2 newsletters a week. As always, thanks for reading, have a kick ass week & GO BULLS, this is All Net.