The Season is Here

Your weekly NBA Pacific Division Update

By Tara Sadat-Tehrani

Frederic J. Brown / Getty Images

The time has come, and the NBA season has started.  Rankings and predictions were made all of preseason and during training camp, but how have teams done keeping these projections of their performance in mind.  For the NBA Pacific Division, the predictions and guesses have been quite on point with a little surprise for some teams, but I believe that there is always rust when it comes to the beginning of an 82-game season.  Let’s see which teams are on the road to success in the West, and which others may have no hope even though there has only been up to four games.

First place goes to the Los Angeles Clippers.

The Clippers did lose to the Lakers opening night, but since then, they have put the Warriors to shame and “Lob City” has yet to leave its game plan like originally wanted by Doc Rivers.  Chris Paul and Blake Griffin have had chemistry from anywhere on the court, and the Clippers should come out as No. 1 in the Pacific Division and the Western Conference based on their talent and other analyst opinions.

Golden State Warriors take second.

 This is a whole new team this year.  People doubted the trade of Monta Ellis two years ago, but the team has only improved.  Andre Iguodala has brought tenacity, and Stephen Curry and Klay Thompson have already showed that they are going to play their best this year.  With the Warriors’ fan base and young exciting team, there is a huge chance that they will make it far in the West this year. 

The Phoenix Suns have been the most shocking so far this season after three games coming in at third.

 No one has paid attention to the Suns for the past years after Steve Nash, Amare Stoudemire and Shawn Marion left the team.  The team’s struggles just kept going, and nobody noticed them like they used to.  But with players like Goran Dragic, Eric Bledsoe and Archie Goodwin, anything can change.  Give them a couple of seasons for this roster to spark and change people’s views of the Suns.  Hopefully they can keep this streak going, but it’s likely that their chemistry won’t outlast the rest of this competitive West.

Lastly, the Los Angeles Lakers (2-2) and the Sacramento Kings (1-2) place last, but that should not be a shock for most NBA fans. 

The Lakers had an impressive performance against the Clippers without Kobe Bryant, but without their franchise player, clutch moments will probably not come in clutch times.  The Lakers need Kobe Bryant even if he does not fully come back with his star power.  They need his support on the floor either way.  The Sacramento Kings, on the other hand, need to make more changes and mature before the team have any chance of having a new appearance in the West, let alone the Pacific Division.

Overall, the West once again is looking like a dominant conference that will have close calls when it comes to entering the playoffs.  Forgetting about predictions and analysts, it is time for these teams play their hardest and win games if they want to live up to what people think of them. 

Crazy Statistics Make Up Epic New York vs. Golden State Game

Curry Scores 54, but the Warriors Fall to the Knicks with 28 Rebounds From Chandler and 35 Points from Anthony

By Ali Koskoris

AP Photo/ Frank Franklin II

Tyson Chandler and Stephen Curry lit up Wednesday’s neck-at-neck game in the Garden with their fantastic play.  Chandler pulled down a career-high number of rebounds and Curry scored over half of the Warriors’ points.

Chandler grabbed 17 rebounds and scored 12 points and Carmelo Anthony scored 18 in the first half of the game to keep a three point lead on the Golden State Warriors and counter Curry’s 27 first half points.

Anthony and Curry continued to battle it out offensively in the second half, and Chandler pulled down another 11 rebounds. 

With the game knotted at 105 with about two minutes left in the game, Raymond Felton blocked a shot attempt by Curry, and the Knicks pulled away, scoring on a J.R. Smith (who scored 26) field goal and an Anthony jumper.  The Warriors had no reply, and New York left the building with a win.

Curry’s 54 points is a career high and an NBA high for points in a game by a player this season.  He went 11-13 from downtown and was one 3 away from the NBA record for most 3-pointers in a game.  He has hit 177 this season.  Curry played the whole game.

“We closed out,” Knicks’ coach Mike Woodson said, “We made the defensive stops that we had to make coming down the stretch run… but boy, you gotta tip your hat, Curry’s pretty good tonight.”

20,000 Leagues Under the Heat

With LeBron James reaching 20,000 points scored this past week, we take a look at why the Heat are head and shoulders above the rest of the NBA Southeast

By Kyle Basedow

AP Photo/ Marcio Jose Sanchez

Dribble, dribble, dribble, dribble. Squeak! Swish.

That’s how it happened. It didn’t dance around the rim, debating whether or not to fall in. The ball didn’t go in and then some how bounce out. It just fell right through, hitting nothing but net.

LeBron James’ 20,000^th career point against the Golden State Warriors was nothing special. It was just an off-balance pull up jumper over a defender or two. He didn’t hit the milestone and explode like some people do when they make history (see Derek Jeter going 5 for 5 when he gets his 3,000^th hit).

James’ 20,000^th point was all in stride on a night in which he scored a game high of 25 points. Oh, and he also got his 5,000^th career assist. He dominated the Warriors while leading the Heat the 92-75 win to make them 25-12 on the season.

Everyone around the NBA knew when he entered the league that he would score upwards of 20,000 points but what he does for the Heat is more than just scoring.

AP Photo/ Marcio Jose Sanchez

James has become the focal point of the Heat, doing a little bit of everything. He can score, he can assist, and he can rebound, all in the clutch.

LeBron James has the skill set to easily transition between multiple positions while being a fantastic two-way player, as evident by his numerous awards.

One reason that the Heat dominates the NBA Southeast the way they do is because of the arrival of James. None of the other teams in the Southeast have a player who can do what James does, not even on a much smaller scale.

The other teams lack a player who has the ability to take hold of the team and lead them through the tough times, with the Washington Wizards John Wall probably being the closest.

Between the Wizards, the Orlando Magic, the Atlanta Hawks, and the Charlotte Bobcats, very few of them have elite players like the Heat have in James, Dwayne Wade, and Chris Bosh.

Does the Big Three help the Heat control the Southeast? Yes, but LeBron does about 50% of the work. Will the other teams in the Southeast catch Miami? No, at least not for a long time and while the Big Three is still able to run up and down the court.

The team that has the best shot of one day beating the Heat out for the Southeast crown is probably the Wizards even though they’re stuck near the bottom now. Once they figure things out I believe they should be able to surpass the dysfunctional Hawks who can’t seem to figure out how to win when it counts.

So, what does LeBron scoring 20,000 points really mean? It means that the rest of the Southeast is going to have nightmares of Heat for a long, long time.

Health a Key For Warriors in 2012-2013 Season

By Ryan Raigrodski

When Mark Jackson took over as head coach of the Golden State Warriors, something that had been apparent to fans for a while became apparent to Jackson and the Warriors organization as well. It finally became clear that Monta Ellis and Stephen Curry did not work well together on the same team. This realization resulted in a major move at the trade deadline, shipping Ellis to the Milwaukee Bucks for big man Andrew Bogut.

AP Photo/ Ben Margot

When Bogut is on the court, he has been a consistently strong player, averaging 12.7 points, 9.3 rebounds, and 1.6 blocks a game. The issue with him throughout his career, though, has been his health.

Even in his best season, when he made All-NBA third team, he suffered an injury at the end of the season. He is not the only injury question on the team too. Their starting point guard and one of their best players, Stephen Curry dealt with an ankle injury that caused him to miss a significant amount of time last year.

If the Warriors can stay healthy, they have a huge shot at surprising many NBA followers this season. They have a point guard and a shooting guard (Curry and Klay Thompson) who both can shoot lights out from three. They drafted Harrison Barnes, a man who was one of the best players at University of North Carolina, with the seventh overall pick. Additionally, they have two powerful big men inside with Bogut and David Lee, who averaged a monster 20.1 points and 9.6 rebounds a game last season.

Another key for the Warriors this season will be how they can play on defense. While Curry and Klay Thompson have nice shots, they both have struggled on the defensive end of the court. Center David Lee is a force offensively, but he also has struggled on defense throughout his career.

This is where the trade for Bogut could pay off, as the man has been a force at blocking shots on the defensive end. Of course, if he cannot stay healthy, his blocking ability will be useless. If he can stay on the court for an entire season, something rarely seen in his career, the Golden State Warriors could be one of the more surprising teams in the league this season.