The tanking marathon continue for teams like the Mavericks and Grizzlies, while the Pelicans and Rockets are going streaking. Can Anthony Davis keep up his scorching hot play in February? Will the new-look Cavs figure out how to play defense?
There are six weeks remaining in the season, and after 60 games, it seems like James Harden has the MVP award locked up. The Rockets have the top record in the league, Harden is likely going to finish the season as the leading scorer in the league, and he had a season-defining moment when he crossed over Wesley Johnson, stared him down, and knocked in a 3-pointer in one of the best plays of the season.
While the Rockets and Warriors battle for the top seed in the Western Conference, the race for the 3-8 seed is one of the most exciting stories to follow in the league. The Trail Blazers finished the week as the 3-seed, and the Jazz are still a few games back as the 10-seed, but the final order is anyone’s guess. Could this be the season where the Spurs miss the playoffs? If Kawhi Leonard and LaMarcus Aldridge continue to miss time, things could get dicey for San Antonio.
Credit needs to be given to the Los Angeles Lakers as well, who have been playing some of the best basketball in the league over the past couple weeks. They’re getting positive contributions from Lonzo Ball, Julius Randle, and Brandon Ingram, and taking advantage of teams that are slacking at the end of the season.
Things are as bleak as ever for the Grizzlies. A week with losses to the Celtics, Suns, Nuggets, and Magic extended their losing streak to 13 games, and they’ve claimed the bottom spot in the power rankings as a result. The losses to the Suns and Magic help provide insurance that they’ll have a top-3 spot in the draft lottery – in terms of tanking, those were games they couldn’t afford to lose. But while other tanking teams are at least able to give their younger players rotation minutes, like the Orlando Magic did with Jonathan Isaac, who had a key block to help the Magic defeat the Grizzlies on Saturday, the Grizzlies are left closing games with a lineup of Kobi Simmons, Ben McLemore, Dillon Brooks, Jarell Martin and JaMychal Green.
Tyreke Evans continues to miss games with an injury, and it seems unlikely that he will return this season, which makes the decision to not trade him at deadline even worse than it originally was. They’ve been so bad, their franchise center, Marc Gasol, spoke out about the effect losing has had on him this season to Ronald Tillery of The Commercial Appeal.