NBA Week 3 Rewind: Stephen Curry, Warriors can’t be stopped

The Key Games and Results of Week 3

The NBA is always full of surprises, so here are a few big results from the last week.

The wins are coming inconsistently for this young Timberwolves team, but the important thing is that they’re actually coming. Furthermore, they’re coming early on in the season. In 2014-15 they recorded a league-worst 16 wins to move themselves to the very lowest point of the NBA. Even having all the top five draft picks wouldn’t have saved them enough to carry them close to the playoffs this season. However, with Karl-Anthony Towns looking like an established NBA player already, Minnesota have earned a respectable four wins.

Well, what did they prove in this game on the road against the Hawks? That their young talent has serious potential.

Towns had 17 points, 3 blocks and showed off his mid-range game, while Wiggins exploded for 33 points on 15-of-22 shooting. Combine the rebounding efforts from everyone across the team and Towns’ 12 boards, and the Timberwolves controlled the glass by a margin of +13 over the Hawks.

They won’t be able to maintain 68 percent shooting until the third quarter on most nights, though. Yet the spacing of their bigs, a good start to the season by Ricky Rubio so far, the energy off the bench of Zach LaVine, and the exciting young duo of Towns and Wiggins gives the Timberwolves a great deal of potential.

This game was just a small taste of what’s in store for them.

In a rivalry that the media have been encouraging more than any other, with the addition hostile Dallas fans toward their long lost DeAndre Jordan, the Clippers-Mavericks matchup on Wednesday, November 11 did not disappoint. The arena was filled with signs joking about Jordan’s heartbreaking ‘betrayal’, and the hate of the fans towards him and the Clippers wasn’t held back all night.

It was obvious that would be the case from the minute that smack talk from Marc Cuban started this summer and everyone in Dallas wanted to make Jordan pay for his change of heart. But despite all the hostility, Cuban’s confidence and even some DeAndre devil masks from Dallas newspapers, the Clippers should have been able to earn a win with their All-NBA calibre Big 3 and revamped roster. When it came to the game, though, and J.J. Redick also left after 13 minutes with back spasms, that wasn’t the case.

The Clippers simply got out-shot by the Mavericks all night. The former went 43 percent from the floor, while behind a 31 point night on 11-of-14 shooting from Dirk Nowitzki and 25 points from Wesley Matthews, Dallas made 55.3 percent of their shots which proved to be too much to handle. And with Chris Paul shooting just 2-of-11 and usual bench struggles as the Clippers’ new players try to figure things out, Doc Rivers and Co. failed to silence the beyond rowdy Cuban and the feisty fans in Dallas.

The Celtics beat the Thunder? By 15 points? In Oklahoma? Even with no Kevin Durant around, this is one result from week 3 that no one, besides the most optimistic Celtics fans, could have predicted. Although, under the wisdom of young head coach Brad Stevens, it’s surprising how good this team can look at times.

On Sunday night, the Celtics had all their key strengths on display. They had 25 assists and 12 steals, and using their fluid offense and pesky perimeter defense to rally over the superior talent of their opponents. And as the Celtics have shown throughout this season, that’s what they do best. In fact, they rank 6th in the NBA in assists and 1st in steals. Add on the Thunders’ poor bench play (who combined for 12-of-32 shooting) and Russell Westbrook going 5-of-20 from the field, and a 36.4 percent shooting night from OKC was probably never going to result in a win. Especially with no Durant to help them out when others go cold.

As the Celtics have shown so far with their solid 5-4 record and wins like this, they don’t need star players to cause upsets.

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