LaMarcus: "I thought you said we were cool, man"
One month and change into the NBA season, and the Blazers stand at 10-8. It's been an up-and-down campaign so far for Portland, who opened the season by giving up 144 points to the Warriors. They rebounded with a 107-101 win over the dreadful Miami Heat, but were then blown out by the Cavs two nights later. They wouldn't get above .500 until mid-November, with a win over the still winless Brooklyn Nets (more on them later) to make them 5-4. Portland has suffered a handful of blowout losses, but are now 10-8, with key wins over the San Antonio Spurs and the surging Sacramento Kings giving fans reasons to be optimistic.
Still, this was a 44 win team a season ago, and swapping out Gerald Henderson and Mason Plumlee for Evan Turner and Festus Ezeli might not move the needle as much as some think. Defensively, the team is simply dreadful, giving up the second most points per game in the league. Ezeli helps, but Aminu can't handle the league's bigger 4's and Dame and CJ are... yeah. Offensively, things are fine. Lillard is having his best season yet, and McCollum has a shot at making the all-star team. The Blazers like to go small and wreak havoc from beyond the arc. They are the off-brand Warriors.
Coming into Phoenix off two straight wins, the Blazers will hope to string together three straight victories for the first time all season and carry some momentum into December. With a negative point differential and more deserving players than they have minutes for (Mo Harkless, Noah Vonleh and Shabazz Napier have barely cracked the rotation), a trade might be coming if things don't improve soon...
Record: 10-8 (9-6) | T-6th in Conference, T-1st in Division
PPG: 104.9 (8th), PAPG: 106.8 (31st), DIFF: -1.9 (18th)
Key Player Stats:
Lillard: 26.7 PPG, 8.7 APG, 3.5 RPG, 42.4% 3pt
McCollum: 21.9 PPG, 5.1 APG, 3.5 RPG, 43.6% 3pt
Turner: 11.9 PPG, 4.6 APG, 4.2 RPG
Aminu: 9.3 PPG, 5.8 RPG
Ezeli: 6.7 PPG, 8.7 RPG, 1.8 BPG
Crabbe: 11.3 PPG
Leonard: 6,7 PPG, 4.4 RPG
Davis: 5.1 PPG, 7.6 RPG
Around The League
Rudy Gay and the Kings are actually... good?
Led by DeMarcus Cousins, Rudy Gay and free agency pickup Mario Chalmers, the Sacramento Kings shocked the league by jumping out to an 11-1 start (!). Then Boogie got hurt and they lost six straight. Still, with Cousins soon to return, this is a promising start for a team that's become a punchline in recent years. The real story in the West is the OKC Thunder, who, despite losing Kevin Durant, lead the conference standings with a 13-4 record. Westbrook has to be the MVP favorite, averaging nearly 30 points and a triple double for the young team. The Lakers (who have Lance now I guess) and the expansion Sonics are also off to surprising starts, each posting winning records in the early going.
Of course, for every winner there is a loser, and 17 times that loser has been the Brooklyn Nets. At 0-17, the Nets are just one defeat away from tying their own record for most consecutive losses to start a season. First year coach Kenny Atkinson lost his job after just 15 games, that's how bad they are. In other news, the Cavs look poised to repeat with the league's best record, Toronto is right on their heels, and the Rondo-Wade experiment is working out so far for the 14-4 Bulls.
Could you have gotten all this information on your own just by reading the standings? Well, pretty much... Here they are.
WEST (PotM: Russell Westbrook | RotM: Brandon Ingram)
1 Oklahoma City 13-4*
2 Golden State 14-5*
3 Houston 11-6
4 Sacramento 11-7
5 LA Lakers 11-8
6 Portland 10-8*
7 Seattle 10-8
8 Memphis 10-10
San Antonio 10-10
Denver 9-9
LA Clippers 8-9
Kansas City 8-11
Phoenix 6-9
Dallas 7-11
Minnesota 6-12
Utah 6-13
EAST (PotM: LeBron James | RotM: Ben Simmons)
1 Cleveland 17-2*
2 Toronto 15-3*
3 Chicago 14-4
4 New York 12-7
5 Detroit 11-7
6 New Orleans 11-8*
7 Atlanta 9-8
8 Boston 11-10
Indiana 8-8
Philadelphia 7-9
Milwaukee 8-11
Washington 6-12
Charlotte 6-14
Orlando 4-16
Miami 4-17
Brooklyn 0-17