NBA Week 2 Rewind: Pistons, Rockets rise, Warriors dominate

The Key Games and Results of Week 2

The Warriors just won’t slow down. From Stephen Curry’s lights-out shooting to the constant flow of the ball on offense, their pace is relentless. It’s not only their reigning MVP and team play that’s been remarkable during the early stages of the new NBA season, though. Their defense has become increasingly resilient, and even though the Grizzlies are renowned for their interior play and gritty defense, the fact they only managed to scrape together 69 points on a measly 27.1 percent shooting speaks volumes about what this Warriors team can do.

They didn’t even have their starting center Andrew Bogut, but that didn’t matter. Festus Ezeli made his playing time count by flooding the court with energy and breaking out in transition. He finished with 10 points, 11 rebounds and three blocks in just 20 minutes, and was one of many Warriors who helped destroy the Grizzlies beyond recognition.

As for that man called Curry, he didn’t slow down at all after a scorching first week. With 30 points on 10-of-16 shooting and four threes, not to mention adding three steals on the defensive end, he led the Warriors to what will most likely be their most impressive win of 2015-16. They nearly doubled the Grizzlies’ field goal percentage after going 51.2 percent from the field, and proved they already have momentum as a championship team at both ends of the floor.

Don’t worry, this series won’t be turning into a weekly Warriors/Stephen Curry watch. The media gives them enough praise without someone else overdoing it. However, these two games from the NBA’s second week simply need to be discussed. Primarily for what they say about the Warriors, and secondly because of the level of the contending teams they went up against.

The Clippers looked lost at times in the first half behind the struggling play of their bench, and even went down by 17 early on before fighting back in the third quarter. Then, their second unit somehow managed to take a 10 point lead at the start of the fourth quarter, before the Warriors retaliated behind 10 straight points from Harrison Barnes and dagger after dagger from Curry.

Doc Rivers’ group tested the Warriors more than any other team in the early goings of the season, yet their ability to defend and smother opponents with a regular or small ball lineup proved to be too much. Their ability to score is close to the Clippers, but it’s championship calibee defense that set the Warriors apart against L.A.’s darling on Wednesday night.

The Thunder got off to a perfect start with a 3-0 record in week 1, yet they somewhat slowed down this week by losing three straight. Obviously they are still top contenders, and there’s no need for crazy hot takes after a fortnight’s worth of games. However, the Thunder’s loss to the Toronto Raptors on Wednesday night does say something about their opponent so far.

They have fight and talent, even if those attributes appear inconsistently at times.

Despite only shooting 41.8 percent from the floor, the Raptors were able to take down the Thunder by constantly getting to the free throw line and making 32 of their 39 attempts. That carried their offense much of the night, while their defense stepped up behind their new versatile defensive stud DeMarre Carroll. He recorded 4 steals, and he gives them an option to guard multiple positions and at least challenge the likes of Kevin Durant at times.

Since their win over the Thunder, though, the Raptors lost two straight including a 20 point loss to the Miami Heat. It’s likely they’ll finish within the top five teams in the Eastern conference again, but come playoff time their star duo of Kyle Lowry and DeMar DeRozan will need to step up beyond belief to take them past the likes of the Atlanta Hawks, Cleveland Cavaliers, Chicago Bulls and even the Heat.

The Rockets finally did something right this season.

Despite the painfully disappointing and inconsistent play of Austin Rivers, the Clippers did well to stay close to such a talented squad while their superstar point guard Chris Paul was on the sideline due to a tweaked groin. In his absence, even a mighty effort of 35 points, 11 rebounds and 5 assists from Blake Griffin wasn’t enough to overcome the play of James Harden and Dwight Howard.

To earn the Rockets their fourth straight win, Harden put together his best performance of the season so far (although, that wasn’t hard after such a terrible start) with 46 points on 14-of-26 shooting while going 5-of-10 from three point range. Which, after shooting 29.4 percent over his first five games, was desperately needed.

The return of Howard after dealing with some back issues made an even greater impact, though. He’s missed three games this year, but he came out at full force against the Clippers with 20 points on 8-of-10 shooting to go along with 20 rebounds. Such 20-20 games aren’t something we see too often from Howard now, and they’ll be needed if the Rockets want to continue taking off in week 3.

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