Game Preview Article: Los Angeles Lakers @ Charlotte Bobcats
It is easy to say it now, but I really should have taken Boston yesterday, even with Dwight Howard playing. Boston's offense had all the edges that we could expect against the Lakers. It may seem even weird to think that, but Boston crushed the Lakers on transitions with 22 fast break points, while at the same time their pick and roll ball handler game was excellent with 9-20 FG and 1.00 PPP! I believe this may be worrying for the Lakers in today's game against the lowly Bobcats. Charlotte's offense isn't good plain and simple, but they do two things pretty well: they score well in transition (#4 in the league with 16.8 fast break points per game) and they are a very good pick and roll ball handler team (#2 in the league with 0.87 PPP), mostly thanks to Kemba Walker and Ramon Sessions. The Lakers struggled exactly on these two areas last night in Boston, so this might happen tonight as well in Charlotte.
So, no wonder the Lakers almost lost at home against the Bobcats earlier on this season. They won by just 1 point and it was no surprise to see both Kemba Walker and Ramon Sessions having monster games. Walker had 12-25 FG, 28 points, 7 assists and 5 rebounds, while Ramon Sessions had 7-13 FG, 20 points and 6 assists! Charlotte scored 18 fast break points and despite being 12/13 points underdogs in that contest, they had the chance to win the game outright down the stretch! The Lakers will be playing their third game in four nights, while the Bobcats are rested. So, if Charlotte manages to do a better defensive job on the perimeter, then they have some chances tonight, but the Lakers have been showing good ball movement and Steve Nash, Kobe Bryant and Metta World Peace have a good spot to have a nice offensive game tonight against the Bobcats.
The Knicks went to their last game at Washington completely red hot on offense and defense. They were on a winning streak, where they were attempting 32.5 treys per game, but as they were shooting over 40% 3pts, everything looked good and the Knicks were crushing their opponents. As the old saying tells us: "you live by the three, you die by the three" and the Knicks had a subpar performance at Washington with 9-28 3pts and so, of course they lost the game. Even though they faced an aggressive up and down team in the Wizards, the game was still a super slow paced game. I projected this game to have a pace range of about 88-91, but the pace was just 86.5, which means that the Knicks clearly set the tempo of this game. Now coming from a loss, the Knicks will be trying to bounce back tonight on the road against another losing record team, the Minnesota Timberwolves.
Minnesota is coming from another game where they managed to be competitive for a while, but they just couldn't sustain that level for the whole 48 minutes and so, they lost once again, this time against San Antonio. The good news is that Ricky Rubio is much better physically and he has been aggressive in both ends of the floor. He shot 3-13 FG, but I honestly don't remember the last time he had attempted double digits in Field Goals! Minnesota outhustled San Antonio by grabbing 55% of the rebounds, something normal as the Spurs are playing without Tim Duncan, but their poor shooting night (40.7% FG) prevented the Wolves from winning the game. Curiously, Minnesota had a nice outside shooting game, a rarity for them, with 8-18 (44.4%) 3pts, but they just couldn't shoot well down low with just 36 points in the paint and 15-34 (44.2%) FG at the rim! For today, they have no changes on their injuries and Andrei Kirilenko will miss another tonight's game as well. Minnesota was capable of being competitive at New York earlier on the season by losing by just 3 points. This is their final game of a home span, so we can expect good effort from them again, even though this hasn't been a guarantee of positive results for them this season.
Game Preview Article: Toronto Raptors @ Indiana Pacers
The 76ers never had great depth on their roster for this season, as they expected to build their team around Andrew Bynum. On this game against Indiana, they discovered that Jason Richardson will be out for the season and that Thaddeus Young will be out for at least three weeks and so, their offensive talent is close to non-existent especially against a top defensive team like Indiana. The Pacers were on a terrible back-to-back-to-back spot and that was visible on offense, as they shot just 39% FG, but defensively, their gameplan was quite easy for them: stop Jrue Holiday and that was pretty much it. When the Sixers's only decent post player Spencer Hawes shoots 3-13 FG, Philadelphia's offensive is obviously in deep trouble. Indiana edged Holiday hard by pressuring him. He had 5 turnovers and ended the game with 7-22 FG! To realize how good the Pacers's defense was in this game, Philadelphia shot 4-18 FG in pick and roll ball handler plays! Indiana is now 5-0 on their last 5 games and they are winning in multiple ways! This back-to-back-to-back was a good example of that, as they scored 111 and 114 points in their first two games, while in the third game of this pace, they completely shutdown their opponents's offense! They will now return home to face the Raptors, where they have been invincible as of late.
As expected, the Raptors are still adjusting to the changes their roster had in their recent trade. Now that Jose Calderon is gone and Kyle Lowry is their primary PG, with Rudy Gay on the wing, the Raptors will be looking to push more the pace of their games. They scored 18 fast break points in their last game against Boston and this was their third highest mark of the season. Their problem against Boston was their offensive inconsistency, especially in the constant way that they attempt contested shots! Welcome home, Rudy Gay! The Raptors shot 5-21 FG from 16-23 feet and 4-18 3pts and this isn't a good recipe to win a ballgame and the Raptors went cold on their offense at the wrong time, something that just keeps happening with them this season. The biggest surprise from the Raptors on their last game was the fact that Coach Casey used a small lineup against Boston during the third quarter, with Andrea Bargnani, Rudy Gay, Alan Anderson, DeMar DeRozan and Kyle Lowry! The Raptors simply killed the Celtics with their small ball unit, something that Casey will need to think twice in doing it tonight against the Pacers, as Indiana's frontcourt has nothing to do with Boston's undersized frontcourt.
Game Recap 02/07: Chicago Bulls at Denver Nuggets
According to my numbers, the two fastest teams in the league this season are Houston (#1) and Denver (#2). I'm certain that it isn't just a coincidence that the two biggest losses of the Coach Thibodeau era in Chicago have been this season and against these two teams. On Christmas Day, Chicago lost at home against Houston by 97-120 and yesterday, they got crushed at Denver by 96-128! I have graded Denver's offensive performance yesterday as the best offensive performance of the season by any team so far with an offensive rate of 147.9! It's super weird that it came against a good defensive team like Chicago, however, just like I've pointed in the writeup, I referred the two main areas where Chicago's defense would struggle: transition defense and the PG position matchup with Nate Robinson having to guard Ty Lawson. The truth is that Denver ended the game with 23 fast break points, for an incredible 14-17 FG 1.59 PPP in transitions, while making a ridiculous 29 FG shots between layups and dunks! Ty Lawson also took advantage of the nice matchup he had to end the game with 12 assists in just 31 minutes of action.
The Bulls were able to hang around with the Nuggets during the first half because they were hitting their outside shots: 7-11 3pts in the first half! By hitting those outside shots, the Bulls were preventing the Nuggets to go out in transition, but they just couldn't stop them down low. When the second half started, Chicago started to miss those shots that they had made in the first half and this was pretty much the end for the Bulls. The Nuggets simply demolished them in the third quarter, also with the help of a red hot second unit led by Wilson Chandler, who ended the game with 8-9 FG, 5-5 3pts and 24 points!
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