NBA Week 1 rewind: Stephen Curry, Thunder put on a show
By Tom West
Who’s Heating Up?
From superstars to some names you might not pay close attention to, here’s a selection of some top performers from week 1 in the NBA.
Stephen Curry went off against the New Orleans Pelicans. He’s simply burned them beyond belief in the first week of this season. After he dropped 24 points in his first quarter of the season against them to finish the night with 40 points, he got even better in their second game. With a career high 28 points for a single quarter in the third period, Curry ended their second game with 53 points on 63 percent shooting with 8 threes.
In fact, Curry’s been so good that his player efficiency rating is astronomically high: 52.3. He’s averaged 39.3 points, 7.3 assists and 5.3 rebounds per game while maintaining extraordinary efficiency. He’s shot 58.8 percent from the floor while going 48.6 percent from beyond the arc (and that’s with 11.7 three point attempts a night).
He’s too hot for anyone to handle right now. And even though he won’t obviously won’t be able to keep up this ridiculous play for an entire season, it will be exciting to see how much longer he can maintain it.
Blake Griffin has improved his game over the last few seasons as much as (if not more than) anyone else in the NBA. He’s expanded his range, improved his passing to an elite level, refined his ball handling, and has become one of the most complete big men in the NBA. Now, to start his 2015-16 campaign, he’s playing with emphasis.
After dropping 33 points on 70 percent shooting in his first game, to scoring 37 points with 9 rebounds and 6 assists in his latest game against the Sacramento Kings, Griffin isn’t slowing down. More importantly, he’s led the Los Angeles Clippers to a 3-0 start with ease.
Russell Westbrook and Kevin Durant simply can’t go without a mention, despite the fact we’ve already looked at their remarkable night against the Magic. With their 91 point performance in Orlando, Durant is now averaging 30 points while Westbrook sits at 32 points per game. What makes the latter’s early performance even more impressive, though, is that he’s maintained excellent efficiency despite racking up 96 points already; he’s shot 50 percent from the floor. As a result of their excellence and the overall performance of their team, the Thunder sit at 3-0 and lead the NBA in points per game with 122.7.
Bradley Beal could be poised for a breakout year, and he’s done nothing wrong so far to show otherwise. Even though he’s not on Curry’s level of shooting, Beal’s first three games have easily made him worthy of a mention in this segment. He’s been perfectly consistent, scoring 24 in his first game and 26 in the second and third, and now has an average of 25 points per game on 46.6 percent shooting with a 50 percent mark from beyond the arc (while scoring in quantity too, with 3.3 threes a night).
The Washington Wizards are going to be making their offense more fluid and fast paced than ever, which should set up Beal to find great success as he plays on the perimeter off his All-Star point guard John Wall.
Andre Drummond is one of the most dominant interior centers in the NBA already, and he’s just 22 years old. At 6’11” and 279 lbs, he’s always powered through opponents to corral countless rebounds and hold them away from the rim on defense. This season is no different. After three games, he’s averaging 18.7 points, 16.3 rebounds and 2 blocks per game. He’s off to an impressive start after his 20 point, 20 rebound (9 of which were offensive) night on Friday as he led the Detroit Pistons to a 98-94 win over the Bulls, and he’s doing everything his team could ask for right now.
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