Well, everyone’s played at least once, and it seems as good a time as any to kick this blog off. Quick and dirty thoughts on the 30 NBA teams from what I’ve seen/heard/read so far. Starting with the East, West to follow tomorrow.
Eastern Conference
Orlando Magic (1-0, 112-83 vs WAS) – Well, that was a dominant way to start the season. John Wall’s debut turned into a night to forget as the Magic reminded everyone that actually, there IS more than one team in Florida. 19,000 or so people saw a massively impressive start to life at the Amway Center for the Magic, with the eye-opening stat of the night being the way they grabbed 93.3% of available defensive rebounds. With the game clearly over with by the end of the third, Orlando got through the entire fourth quarter without using a starter at all – and that has to leave them in good stead for the big clash with Miami tonight.
Biggest impact: Dwight Howard, 23 points and 10 rebounds to get off to a superb start to the season.
Biggest question: Is this the season it comes together for the Magic? Howard, Nelson, and Rashard Lewis have been together for four seasons now and have to think it’s about time they got their hands on the Larry O’Brien Trophy.
Cleveland Cavaliers (1-0, 95-87 vs BOS) – Lebron who? A win over the Celtics would have been sweet under any circumstances, but coming after the Celtics had beaten the ex-Cleveland star’s new team it was extra special. The one person who didn’t seem quite as thrilled as his team-mates was Antawn Jamison, with the team’s highest paid player reduced to coming off the bench after a pre-season in which he shot just 19 per cent and averaged 3.8 points.
Biggest impact: JJ Hickson – The main reason for Jamison being stuck on the bench, and shooting 8-11 on field goals and 5-6 on free throws he completely justified the faith shown in him. Also grabbed 6 rebounds.
Biggest question: How big a part did Anderson Varejao play? His 8 points and 10 rebounds, along with 4 assists, helped big-time in that win, but he’ll likely miss the Toronto Raptors game as he’s stayed in Cleveland to be with his father who’s having heart surgery. Best wishes to the older Mr Varejao, of course.
New York Knicks (1-0, 98-93 @ TOR) – While they’re getting their fair share of attention over claims that East Coast scout Rodney Heard staged improper workouts which led to Brandon Rush getting injured and allegedly helped them sign Wilson Chandler, that shouldn’t distract us from a good opening win.
Biggest impact: Wilson Chandler – Despite starting from the bench, Chandler outperformed all of the starters, even Stoudemire, with 22 points and 8 rebounds plus a couple of blocks.
Biggest question: Is Chandler okay with being sixth man? After 64 starts last year you could be forgiven for asking whether he’s happy after being dropped for rookie Landry Fields – although he’s certainly putting a more positive spin on it than Jamison is, and if he carries on making an impact like he did against the Raptors I’m sure he’ll be pleased enough.
New Jersey Nets (1-0, 101-98 vs DET) – Well, 11 to go to match last season’s record, and Nets fans will just be glad to get a win under their belts after 18 straight losses to finish that season. New coach Avery Johnson will be hoping for more gritty performances like the one against the Pistons, which saw them 7 points behind with 1:40 to go but come back to win by three. Big shout out to Joe Crawford, officiating, who showed one of the few uses of common sense concerning the new technical foul rule when he DIDN’T penalise Williams for raising his hands.
Biggest impact: Brook Lopez – Not even close, with the centre playing 37 minutes, scoring 25 points, getting 9 boards and 3 blocks.
Biggest question: Has Derrick Favors been overlooked in the rookie of the year speculation? John Wall and Blake Griffin are getting all the attention but the number 3 draft pick got off to a great start, coming off the bench for 10 rebounds and 8 points in 20 minutes.
Atlanta Hawks (1-0, 119-104 @ MEM) – After 18 years as an assistant, Larry Drew was pumped for his debut as an NBA head coach – and did rather well, as his team blasted through the sorry Grizzlies.
Biggest impact: Zaza Pachilia – Came off the bench to score 17 points and take 11 rebounds in a great performance.
Biggest question: How good will this team be when Al Horford’s firing on all cylinders? The All-Star had a bad night scoring just 2 points shooting 1 from 5 field goals, and ended up playing less than 18 minutes. You have to believe that’s not going to last.
Boston Celtics (1-1, 88-80 vs MIA, 87-95 @ CLE) – It was a great start, beating the much-hyped Heat by 8, but they stumbled badly against Cleveland who made them look pretty ordinary.
Biggest impact: Rajon Rondo – Played nearly 40 minutes against Cleveland, scoring 18 and getting 9 assists, following his incredible 17 assists against the Heat.
Biggest question: Were we too excited by that victory over the Heat? I was as guilty as anyone, getting caught up in the moment of the much hyped Miami Thrice losing their first game together, but looking back you have to wonder whether the Celtics would have gotten that win if not for terrible nights from Wade AND Bosh.
Miami Heat (1-1, 80-88 @ BOS, 97-87 @ PHI) – After looking decidedly poor in their season opener against the Celtics, with Wade, Bosh and James showing no chemistry whatsoever, there was an improvement for the Heat two nights ago when they beat the Sixers by 10 points. Next up, though, is the home debut vs the Magic, which should be a sterner test.
Biggest impact: Lebron James – All eyes on him after The Decision and THAT commercial, and he hasn’t disappointed. With 31 points against the Celtics I honestly thought towards the end of that game that he was going to win it pretty much single-handedly. Quieter last night with just 16 points, but did pick up 6 boards and 7 assists.
Biggest question: Where’s the love for Chris Bosh? Yeah, he looked terrible vs Celtics, but so did Wade. While Wade got the plaudits for the Sixers win, scoring 30, Bosh contributed 15 himself – and interestingly, the Heat were +25 with him on the court compared to +6 with Lebron and +9 with Dwayne.
Detroit Pistons (0-1, 98-101 vs NJN) At 95-88 with 1:40 to go, the Pistons had to have been expecting to start this season with a win. Sadly, they then got outscored 3-13 as they collapsed here. Let’s hope morale wasn’t too badly affected, because with the Oklahoma City Thunder up next, they really need to be firing on all cylinders to stand a chance of getting something.
Biggest impact: Rodney Stuckey – While the scoring was shared rather evenly with 7 players getting between 10 and 14 points for the Pistons, Stuckey also picked up 7 assists and 3 boards.
Biggest question: How badly will they react to that 3-13 end to the first game? Durant and Westbrook are likely to go to town on them if they’re not fully focused.
Toronto Raptors (0-1, 93-98 vs NYK) - Stoudemire, Chandler and Fields proved to be too much to handle for the Raptors, but at least Toronto came close. Next up, Cavaliers.
Biggest impact: Jarrett Jack, mighty impressive as he picked up 16 points, 4 rebounds, 6 assists and 3 steals.
Biggest question: When will we get to see Solomon Alabi? The Nigerian rookie is on the inactive list for the moment but those who’ve seen him practising are raving about the shooting from the guy best known for his defense.
Philadelphia 76’ers (0-1, 87-97 vs MIA) – There was always huge potential for the Heat to come out pumped up for this one after the ridicule they took for the opening day loss and that’s exactly what happened. The Sixers weren’t helped by some terrible play from the starters, with Holiday, Hawes and Kapono linking up for eight points. Having said that, this was always a likely loss and hopefully won’t affect them too much prior to their game against the Hawks tonight.
Biggest impact: Evan Turner – The number 2 draft pick came off the bench and played 31 minutes, getting 16 points, 7 boards and 4 assists. While Blake Griffin was the rookie most people were talking about after the first two nights, Turner was still seriously impressive.
Biggest question: Will we see a career resurgence from Elton Brand? The two time All-Star has struggled for much of the past 4 years, partly due to injuries, and last seasons statistics of 1.0 BPG, 6.1 RPG and 13.1 PPG were a long way from stats he was putting up in his prime. Many Sixers fans would rather see Marreese Speights starting, but he managed 12 points and 9 boards going up against an impressive Heat team. Brand could still play a major part for the Sixers if he’s completely fit.
Washington Wizards (0-1, 83-112 vs ORL) – Would Arenas have made a difference? Probably not. The Magic were on a whole other level to the Wizards here and there was never much chance of them staying in there with Orlando. Next up, Atlanta Hawks, which should be more winnable.
Biggest impact: John Wall – Sure, everyone’s talking about Wall being poor as the team got blown out. However, he grabbed 14 points, 9 assists, and 1 rebound. It may have been disappointing, but let’s keep this in context.
Biggest question: How quickly can John Wall bounce back? The case for the defense is above but there’s no argument that he WAS expected to do better than that. Still, as Wall said on his twitter page after the game, 81 to go. I’d bet that he’ll find his form sooner rather than later.
Milwaukee Bucks (0-1, 91-95 @ NOH) – Tough loss for the Bucks, who had three players getting double-doubles but couldn’t cope with Chris Paul and David West.
Biggest impact: Andrew Bogut – 15 points and 15 rebounds in an excellent performance.
Biggest question: How good will Brandon Jennings be this year? After an impressive rookie season which saw him score 55 points in a game against the Warriors, pick up the first 3 Eastern Conference rookie of the month awards, and be unanimously selected for the All-Rookie team, Jennings has a lot to live up to – but started off well vs New Orleans with 15 points and 10 assists.
Chicago Bulls (0-1, 95-106 @ OKC) – The Bulls hung on right in there with the hotly rated Thunder for most of the game but got beaten by an 11-0 surge from Oklahoma City to end the game. Still, they’ll take heart from a good performance for most of the night.
Biggest impact: Joakim Noah – 18 points and 19 rebounds for Noah made him the clear star for the Bulls here.
Biggest question: Can they stop giving away so many fouls? Despite the refereeing looking reasonably good, they gave away a massive 47 free throws compared to the Thunder only giving away 22.
Indiana Pacers (0-1, 109-122 @ SAN) – 23 turnovers told its own story as the Pacers stuttered here, although there were some good individual performances.
Biggest impact: Roy Hibbert – 28 points and 9 rebounds, one point short of his all-time best points total. Especially impressive when you consider how hard he went at All-Star Tim Duncan.
Biggest question: Where was Jeff Foster? Playing in his hometown with his gran flying in from Iowa to see him, Foster didn’t even get off the bench. For shame, coach!
Charlotte Bobcats (0-1, 86-101 @ DAL) – 13 meetings between this pair of teams without the Bobcats ever getting a victory, and that never really looked like changing. Mavs were 13 ahead at the end of the third and won this one fairly easily.
Biggest impact: Tyrus Thomas – Came off the bench to grab 6 boards and 22 points.
