Who’s Heating Up?
From teams what are finding their stride to some stars who elevated their game last week, here’s a selection of the top performers from week 6.
The Golden State Warriors are dominating and they’re 22-0. Stephen Curry is amazing and they’re heading towards a historic season with the potential to top the 72-10 record of the 1995-96 Chicago Bulls. They’re just above everyone else right now and their perfect balance of depth, offense and defense is taking everyone down. What more is there to say? With three games next week against the Pacers, Celtics and Bucks, it looks like they could quite easily advance to 25-0. The next most challenging contest they face is the Cavaliers on Christmas Day. What a present that will be.
The Miami Heat have claimed the top spot in the Eastern Conference. So, after going 2-1 last week and maintaining the 2nd best defense in the NBA, the Heat are aptly headlining this segment. After falling 105-95 to the surprisingly competitive Boston Celtics on Monday night, they proceeded to defeat the Thunder (95-97) and Cavaliers (84-99). Even if the latter were depleted with a resting LeBron James and obviously no Kyrie Irving or Iman Shumpert, it’s still a solid win against a top conference rival.
What’s really impressive, though, is that they were able to continue their defensive prowess and slow down two of the most uncontainable superstars in Russell Westbrook and Kevin Durant. They combined for a moderate 17-of-39 shooting with 12 turnovers (more than the entire total of Miami) and the Heat earned one of their best wins of the season. Now, with the 2nd best defensive rating in the NBA, they have a new identity behind the emergence of Hassan Whiteside at center.
Dwayne Wade was a key for the Heat last week, and averaged 25.7 points over their three games on 52.5 percent shooting. He started with 30 points in a surprising loss to the Brooklyn Nets, before tallying 28 points with some clutch fourth quarter buckets and two free throws with a second left to defeat the Thunder. Finally, to end the week, Wade had 19 points on 8-of-14 shooting against the Cavaliers. He may not be The Flash of a few years ago, but he can still drive to the rim and create shots off the dribble to be the Heat’s offensive leader.
Paul George has become a regular feature on this segment now, and deservedly so. He’s looked just as explosive as ever, and even with his move to playing as a combo-forward he’s been lighting up opponents while shutting them down on defense. His 27.6 points per game ranks in 3rd in the NBA in scoring, and he has more career-highs across the board in rebounds (8.2), assists (4.2), three point percentage (45.4) and player efficiency rating (26.1).
As if that wasn’t already more than enough, he capped off his week (already including two 30-point games) with a career-high 48 points with 8-of-11 three point shooting against the Utah Jazz. He’s simply having one of the best comeback seasons you could hope to see, and he recorded those 48 points against one of the league’s best defenses, too. PG13 is just that good. Behind Stephen Curry, there can’t be much arguing that George is 2nd in the early running for league MVP.
Anthony Davis is doing all he can as his Pelicans continue to struggle. Last week featured three more performances that we’ve become so accustomed to from Davis. To start the week, he had a 17 point night on 4-of-15 shooting against the Memphis Grizzlies. That sounds poor for his standards, but if you add on his 14 rebounds and 9 blocks, it sounds a lot more like The Brow at his defensive best. Next was a 29 point, 13 rebound performance in another loss to the Houston Rockets before he came up clutch in overtime with three jumpers and tallied 31 points, 12 rebounds and 4 steals to defeat the Cavaliers in overtime. It was only a one win week for the Pelicans, and the rest of their team and collective effort defensively has been terrible. At least during this time Davis continues to show what the plethora of things he can do on the court.
Marc Gasol recorded a new career-high this week and the Grizzlies have now won seven of their last 10 games to move to 4th place in the Western Conference. An offensive explosion isn’t what you see too often from Gasol, yet, with a career-best 38 points and 16-of-16 free throw shooting in a win over the Pelicans on Tuesday, that’s what Grizzlies fans got to enjoy. His scoring has dipped ever so slightly from last season to 16.3 points per game, but Gasol is still the Grizzlies’ integral player at both ends of the floor. His 54.4 percent 16 foot jumper is deadly as always, and his post game and passing ability makes him one of the most talented centers in the NBA. Not to mention, the ex Defensive Player of the Year isn’t too bad at the other end of the floor either.
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