The first week of the NBA is over and fans are buzzing with excitement at the prospect of the 2015-2016 season. Detroit, Toronto, Golden State, Oklahoma City, and the Los Angeles Clippers are all still undefeated. How long will that last? Meanwhile, Indiana, Philadelphia, Charlotte, Milwaukee, Brooklyn, Orlando, New Orleans and Houston have yet to win a game. Is it a shocker that six out of those eight are in the East? We already have conference imbalance… great. Stephen Curry is looking like he is ready to defend his MVP title while the young Bucks, who some (including me) predicted to take that next step into the Eastern Conference, are struggling. Below is my NBA Week One Recap.
But first, there were plenty of awesome plays throughout the past week.
My top three:
Steph Curry’s crazy no-look pass to Harrison Barnes for the and-one:
Swaggy P’s half-court buzzer beater (who else!!):
Russell Westbrook’s clutch deep three to force OT in Orlando:
NBA Week One Recap
The NBA season is here, and below are my take-aways from the first week.
Biggest surprise: The Detroit Pistons have to be biggest surprise of the year so far. No, the Pistons have not taken advantage of the disgustingly bad East to get to 3-0 . Instead, the team has beaten three teams many had in the playoffs. Detroit followed up a convincing opening night road win in Atlanta with a five point victory against Utah at home. However, the biggest win was on Friday night against Chicago in overtime. Detroit was overlooked in the offseason and it is clear that they took it to heart. Andre Drummond is simply dominating and looks like an All-Star starter through three games. Drummond is averaging 18.7 points, 16.3 rebounds and two blocks per game. However, the surrounding cast has also stepped up. Recently re-signed Reggie Jackson is averaging 18.7 points, 5.7 rebounds and 5.3 assists per game while newcomer Marcus Morris is averaging 19.3 points and 7.7 rebounds. Is he still complaining about being away from his brother?
Biggest disappointment: When Houston lost to Denver by 20 points on Wednesday night, heads were turned. James Harden had 22 points but nobody else seemed to be on the court. What about the depth that had people believing this was Houston’s year? Sure, Dwight Howard was out, but the team won plenty of games without him last year. Then came Friday night where Harden finally got his rematch against Steph Curry to show the league why he believed he was the MVP. Instead, it became Curry’s show. Harden finishes with 16 points on 4-18 shooting while Curry had 25 points in 27 minutes to give Houston their second straight 20 point loss. Sunday night finally looked like the Rockets were back, but then they blew a 21 point lead to Miami and lost by 20 points for the third straight game. The Rockets aren’t getting unlucky. Instead, they are getting blown out. The team needs to refocus if they plan on contending with the best in the West.
Best performance: Steph Curry had a great opening night when he scored 40 points, but this wasn’t even his best game of the week. Curry dropped 28 points in the third quarter Saturday night against New Orleans and continued to show the league that he is on a mission to quiet the doubters. Curry finished with 53 points, nine assists, four steals and four rebounds in 36 minutes. He looked like he was his video game version on easy difficulty as he shot 8-14 from three-point range and left the crowd in awe at the Smoothie King Center.
Best rookie: Karl-Anthony Towns has Rookie of the Year written all over him two games into the season. After a solid opening night performance against the Lakers, Towns looked fantastic against Denver last Friday. While Towns had 14 points, 12 rebounds and an assist in the opener, the rookie filled up the box score on Friday night with 28 points, 14 rebounds, four blocks, two assists and only one turnover. Towns has looked extremely poised and comfortable on the court. He is 17-29 from the field so far and has shown a good stroke from the line, hitting eight of nine free throws, an undervalued skill for big men. Towns is in line for a big year in Minnesota.
