Game Preview Article: Golden State Warriors @ Utah Jazz
The Warriors looked good in early February. They were in the fight with Memphis for homecourt edge in the first round of the playoffs and they had a tough stretch of games against teams that were fighting with them for the playoffs. They were looking confident, but suddenly they lost five games in a row and so, they are coming from this game on a 5-games losing streak. In four of those games, the Warriors were completely outgunned by their opponents by allowing 140, 119, 116 and 116 points! They allowed 20 fast break points per game during this span, while their opponents shot an average of 70% FG at the rim! If Golden State wants to be more competitive, I suggest that they start defending better once again, as their last five games were a complete disaster! It seems that this will be their motto for tonight's game at Utah: "Offense will come and go, but if we can't get stops - can't hold opponents to near 100 or under 100 - we're not going to have a shot," Stephen Curry said. "That's what we've relied on to get to this position."
Utah's coach Tyrone Corbin has finally decided to trust on his younger players and this decision was the correct one, as they won their last two games of the first half of the NBA season, with a great home win against Oklahoma City and then a road win at Minnesota. Utah was the underdog in both games, they were won these two contests on a very impressive way. The key for that was quite simple: avoid giving heavy minutes to the starters, especially on the backcourt, and trust more on the young guys coming off the bench like Alec Burks, DeMarre Carroll, Derrick Favors and Enes Kanter. It seems that Gordon Hayward will be back tonight, so Utah will have their best playmaker available for tonight's game. The key for Utah will be once again to know how much will coach Corbin trust on his young guns in tonight's contest. The matchup between Jamaal Tinsley and Randy Foye versus Stephen Curry and Klay Thompson will clearly favor Golden State, but if Alec Burks and DeMarre Carroll are inserted on the court, then the Warriors will have more offensive problems on this matchup than expected. In the first game between these two teams, Golden State won at Utah by 94-83. If the Warriors are able to limit Utah's offense once again and leave them in the 80's, then this will definitely be one hell of a defensive bounce back from the Warriors, as they have been terrible on defense lately.
Chicago was needing a mini-vacation urgently. They played some games at the start of February where they were super shorthanded, with some players being forced to play for over 45 minutes. However, they remained competitive with wins at Milwaukee or at Atlanta for example, but they paid the price of such effort later by losing three of their last four games. For today's game, Kirk Hinrich is probable and suddenly, we have the Bulls being healthy again (with just Derrick Rose out, but with also good news about him, as he went through a full practice with the team)! Chicago got crushed at Denver and then also lost heavily at home against the Spurs, two explosive offensive teams, but they will now be facing the slow paced Hornets. Chicago has a favorable matchup for this game, as it will be played on halfcourt, on a kind of game that the healthy Bulls are very good at. However, in the first game between these two teams this season, the Hornets won at Chicago while holding the Bulls to just 33% FG! They "out-Bulled" the Bulls!
Just like the Wizards in the Eastern Conference, the Hornets were a losing team with a great ATS record during the 1st half of the season. They are feeling good right now with 4-1 on their last 5 games, especially with two complete blowout wins on their last two games at Detroit and against Portland at home. Greivis Vasquez has been their key player on this good stretch and on the team's last five games, he averaged 10.2 assists per game and even had a triple-double at Atlanta! He is finding the Hornets's frontcourt players quite well and the Hornets's offense has been looking really decent lately by averaging a 113.4 offensive rating during this span! Rookie Anthony Davis showed on the team's last game that he has a lot of character and that we can count on him for the future, as he had a horrible game at Detroit with just 1 point and 0-7 FG, but he bounced back in the following game against the Blazers with 10-17 FG, 21 points and 11 rebounds on just 28 minutes of action!
Game Preview Article: Memphis Grizzlies @ Detroit Pistons
It looks like Memphis is making progress with their new look roster in comparison to the "Rudy Gay Era". With Tayshaun Prince in Memphis instead of Rudy Gay, there aren't a lot of doubts that Memphis will continue being an elite defensive team, so the main question was related to their offense. Gay is very talented, but he takes too many bad shots, something that Prince doesn't do. So far, Prince is averaging "just" 10.3 points per game at Memphis, but he is shooting 49.2% FG and committing just 1 turnover per game, in another proof of Prince's great IQ. Memphis's offense was in a groove coming out to the All Star Break. They had four consecutive games with an offensive rating higher than 105 - something that had only happened once earlier on this season! If Memphis is able to be more consistent on offense during the second half of the season, then they can be a really tough team to beat due to their toughness, defense and now with an improved offense as well.
With Jose Calderon running the shows, Detroit is clearly a better team. Not only Calderon is having great shooting numbers since he joined the Pistons (9-17 FG and 24 points on the team's last game against Washington), as he knows how to control the flow of the game and give the ball to Greg Monroe on the right spots, who is having the best month of the season because of that with 18.4 ppg, 52.6% FG and 13.3 rpg! I remember that not so long ago, Monroe shot 44.9% FG during December! Detroit is now playing in a more uptempo style, while creating more transition chances, but they need to control their turnover numbers in order to be efficient on this style, as they committed 20 and 17 turnovers in two of their last three games! Detroit ended the first half of the season by winning three of their last four games and they have expectations in having a good second half of the season and who knows if they have a shot at the 8th seed, if Milwaukee struggles during the second half of the season?
Game Preview Article: Milwaukee Bucks @ Brooklyn Nets
Milwaukee was one of the teams that was needing the All Star Break the most. They had lost 4 of their last 5 games and their only win was at home against a shorthanded Sixers team by just two points! Not good! The key for this bad run has been Larry Sanders's absence, who is their only decent frontcourt player. The good news is that Sanders is likely to play tonight, as even though he will be a game-time decision against the Nets tonight, he said that he has "70-30" odds to play! Besides that, there are some trade rumors involving some Bucks's players. It is being reported that the Bucks are interested in J.J. Redick, while Brandon Jennings has been also involved in trade rumors. Also there are rumors about a trade involving Monta Ellis going to Atlanta for Josh Smith. So, Milwaukee is also having to deal with off-court distractions. They need Larry Sanders to comeback at a good level to boost their defensive efficiency, while Monta Ellis and Brandon Jennings need to be consistent! The good news is that the Bucks's starting backcourt has a good matchup tonight against Brooklyn. We know that Deron Williams and Joe Johnson are big slow footed guards, so Ellis's and Jennings's quickness is the main reason why Milwaukee is 2-0 against Brooklyn this season: they shot 8-13 FG and 8-19 FG on the first game against the Nets, while in the second game they shot 7-14 FG and 9-15 FG. By the way, the Nets's loss on their second game against the Bucks was the last straw that caused Avery Johnson to get fired.
Brooklyn was humiliated at home against San Antonio by getting scored 29-60 in the second half. But then, even without Deron Williams, they managed to make a nice bounce back and beat Indiana on the road and then defeat Denver at home on their last game before the All Star Break. Deron Williams is probable for tonight and he told reporters yesterday that he is playing tonight. However, he doesn't know how many minutes. The week off has helped him, but not a lot. As Rod Boone tweeted, "Deron hasn't been able to jump off his left leg with any explosion this season. Said he can't dunk off it. Needs to jump off both to dunk." Moreover, Boone reported, "Deron said he feels a little bit better today than he did this time last week. Not a big change, though." Mike Mazzeo added that "D-Will says he really needs more rest, but there's no time. Said he feels a little better after prp." This will be a home-home back to back series, as these two teams will face each other once again tomorrow, but this time at Milwaukee. It's important to check Brooklyn's mental toughness levels for tonight, as they clearly lost their first two games against Milwaukee this season. The Bucks play at a completely different style from the Nets, as while Brooklyn operates mainly in the halfcourt, the Bucks are a fast paced team. We will have in here the Bucks's speed versus the Nets's height/power/slowness. In the first two games, the Nets couldn't adapt to this matchup. Have they learnt the lesson and will they be more competitive tonight?
Game Preview Article: Charlotte Bobcats @ Orlando Magic
It's very hard for a team to be competitive on the NBA when they lack a decent low post players. This is exactly the case of the Bobcats this season. Their last game at Indiana was a good example of that. Charlotte played hard on defense, they held the Pacers to just 43.2% FG, but when a team shoots 3-13 FG at the rim, 3-10 FG from 3-9 feet and 4-17 FG from 10-15 feet, they won't win games and this was the case of the Bobcats on their last contest. Bismack Biyombo and Brandan Haywood shot a combined of 1-13 FG and we are talking about two players that play near the basket! Byron Mullens returned to the court and he had a nice 9-19 FG game, but when a center plays 35 minutes and grabs just 3 rebounds, while not taking a single shot at the rim, something is very wrong. Charlotte is involved in some trade rumors and they need some interior help badly, if they want to be "more" competitive in the second half of the season.
Orlando laid an egg in their last game against Atlanta! They got completely crushed by Atlanta's frontcourt. At the end of the third quarter, both Josh Smith and Al Horford had combined for 56 points, equaling the Magic's team total. At the same time, Orlando was owned on the rebounds by grabbing just 40% of the boards (41-54), while allowing 17 offensive rebounds to the Hawks. The lack of effort from Orlando was evident, with them just attempted 9 free throws during the whole game. Trade rumors have been a distraction for Orlando lately and it seems that will continue being the case until next Thursday, the final day of the trade deadline. Trying to guess if they will be focused or not on their games right now is something close to impossible, but I would say that most key players don't have their heads in Orlando anymore.
Game Preview Article: Toronto Raptors @ Washington Wizards
The Raptors entered the All Star Break in a very nice mood, as they won their last four games. They are playing hard and winning grind out games, something that wasn't expected for a team that blew so many leads down the stretch earlier on the season. The most impressive is that Toronto is winning games without playing particularly well, something that makes me think that they have good perspective for the second half of the season, when the team gets more adapted to the trade and starts playing better. On their last game at NY against the Knicks, they were on a terrible spot, as it was a back to back game on the road for them, after coming from a track meat game against Denver at home the night before. Toronto was completely outrebounded by the Knicks, who had a 20-8 edge on offensivwe rebounds, they saw their best player Rudy Gay having a 4-21 FG shooting night, they saw their starting center Jonas Valanciunas playing just 13 minutes due to foul trouble, they saw their starting PG being ejected in the third quarter, but they still beat the Knicks by 92-88! Toronto will need to fix their "problem" called Andrea Bargnani, as since he returned from injury, he has been showing completely disinterested on the team, with a total of 6 rebounds in 4 games!
Just like the Raptors, Washington has been in a good moment lately, mostly thanks to their great defense that is #7 in the league! Washington has been progressively improving on their rotations, but coach Randy Wittman is still making some weird decisions like inserted Garrett Temple as the starting SG, as with John Wall on the floor, they need a spot up shooting and Temple is mainly a defensive player. Maybe that's why they have been a great defensive team, while their offensive is being very inconsistent. Over their last four games, the Wizards have been alternating great offensive outcomes with poor ones: 106 points and 123.8 offensive rating against the Knicks; 89 points and 99.9 offensive rating against Brooklyn; 102 points and 113.7 offensive rating against Milwaukee; 85 points and 96.6 offensive rating against Detroit on their last game. If the Wizards were able to be more consistent on offense, they would have a much better records than they have right now, as they have the most underrated defense in the league.
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