Bibbz Basketball Debut Post: Early Leaders part 2
November 3rd 2008 14:03
This is the continuation of my earlier post about the current leaders in the NBA standings 5 days into the '08-'09 season.
Let's move on to the Utah Jazz
Despite missing Deron Williams at the start of the season, the Jazz guaranteed that there is no problem as far as ball distribution and minimizing turnovers are concerned and business is still running just as smooth. In their last win against the Clippers, Utah allowed themselves to have only 5 turnovers! The fewest since the John Stockton era.
Aside from that amazing fact, Utah also proved that they could lock down the opposition by limiting the Clippers production in the second half en route to a blowout win. Head coach Jerry Sloan, who was at home watching as he is recuperating from a flu, had his worries about team defense vanish after that splendid performance.
The Jazz is still a lock to win the Midwest division this season but it still remains to be seen if their current core can dislodge the title favorites in the West. This 2-0 start hopefully will be a good launch pad for them to build momentum as the season plods along. Of course they will be needing Williams' services in the long run so he needs to return sooner than later.
Carlos Boozer is leading the way for Utah with 25ppg and 12rpg. Mehmet Okur, Ronnie Brewer, and Andrei Kirilenko (off the bench) are all averaging in double figures and they give great support offensively. But the most notable contributors are back-up point guards Ronnie Price and veteran Brevin Knight for keeping the Jazz offense stable despite the sidelining of Williams.
_____________________________ _________
The Toronto Raptors currently leads the East as the lone 3-0 team out there as of this writing. But compared to the 3-0 teams in the West, they weren't as dominant. Chris Bosh and company has been dragged to hardfought contests that they won in the end. After a convincing win against Philadelphia in their season opener, the Raptors needed to go extra time to beat Golden State and needed Jose Calderon's timely outside sniping in dispatching the Bucks at Milwaukee.
It's going to be quite a challenge for Toronto to keep the Atlantic division lead if they don't get better because they sure appear shaky against average opposition so far. Defending champs Boston is just waiting in ambush so they'd better be ready.
On the other hand, its really nice to see this team get a start such as this considering they are now working with a point guard who is new to the team's starters role (Calderon) and a center who is looking for a new lease on life (Jermaine O'Neal).
Calderon is averaging 18ppg and 9.7apg and splendidly took over the spot left by T.J. Ford who got traded to Indiana for O'Neal who is responding very well to his new team by being a solid contributor especially in the low blocks thus relieving Chris Bosh (26ppg, 10rpg) of much pressure in frontline production.
_____________________________ __________
Joe Dumars stuck with his players and fired the coach. He sure believes in what his veterans can do than what direction Flip Saunders is leading the Detroit Pistons into.
After 3 straight losses in the Eastern Conference Finals. Dumars must make a move to get his team out of stagnation. He responded by hiring the relatively new and inexperienced Michael Curry to be the Pistons' new bench boss.
In Curry's disposal are the key veterans that won themselves an NBA championship in '04 and a bunch of young players who look to take over in the very near future. The Pistons starts this season 2-0 and they are doing it with a well balanced attack which only shows their cohesion that was formed as they stayed longer together.
So far, it's still hard to figure out if Detroit will be a lock for the Central division title. They still have to go through games with tougher teams to really measure what can they do or to know if the rest of the East has caught up with them.
Dumars has placed his bet. Soon the cards will be placed on the table.
_____________________________ _________
Of all the teams that remained unbeaten to this point, the Atlanta Hawks are the biggest surprise. First off, they outclassed the defending Southeast division champions in the Orlando Magic on the road and then stunned the Philadelphia 76ers in come-from-behind fashion.
The Hawks are best remembered for dragging the eventual NBA champions Boston Celtics to seven games in their first round playoff series winning all of their home games. Just imagine what kind of anticipation the Atlanta faithful has this season for their Hawks.
And they weren't disappointed.
With the way the Hawks have been playing, they will surely rack up a lot of following. That is as long as they keep it up.
Amazing as they may be right now, there still exists doubts among observers. Judging from their slow start against the Sixers where they found themselves behind by more than 20 points, the Hawks are still prone to cold spells and being outrebounded. They sure are fortunate that Joe Johnson is with them to pull the chestnuts out of the fire.
Johnson is the early scoring leader averaging 30ppg but it won't be long before that number dips a little. Mike Bibby and Josh Smith are the only other players in double-figures with 15.5ppg each. In order for Atlanta to keep this pace, the bench must exert more effort to make the team much more imposing in the games to come.
It's still very early to conclude that the Hawks will be going over .500 this season but the Hawks reside in the East so they have a good percentage to return to the playoffs.
Photo courtesy of Yahoo! Sports Getty images
Let's move on to the Utah Jazz
Despite missing Deron Williams at the start of the season, the Jazz guaranteed that there is no problem as far as ball distribution and minimizing turnovers are concerned and business is still running just as smooth. In their last win against the Clippers, Utah allowed themselves to have only 5 turnovers! The fewest since the John Stockton era.
Aside from that amazing fact, Utah also proved that they could lock down the opposition by limiting the Clippers production in the second half en route to a blowout win. Head coach Jerry Sloan, who was at home watching as he is recuperating from a flu, had his worries about team defense vanish after that splendid performance.
The Jazz is still a lock to win the Midwest division this season but it still remains to be seen if their current core can dislodge the title favorites in the West. This 2-0 start hopefully will be a good launch pad for them to build momentum as the season plods along. Of course they will be needing Williams' services in the long run so he needs to return sooner than later.
Carlos Boozer is leading the way for Utah with 25ppg and 12rpg. Mehmet Okur, Ronnie Brewer, and Andrei Kirilenko (off the bench) are all averaging in double figures and they give great support offensively. But the most notable contributors are back-up point guards Ronnie Price and veteran Brevin Knight for keeping the Jazz offense stable despite the sidelining of Williams.
_____________________________ _________
Chris Bosh looking to pass
The Toronto Raptors currently leads the East as the lone 3-0 team out there as of this writing. But compared to the 3-0 teams in the West, they weren't as dominant. Chris Bosh and company has been dragged to hardfought contests that they won in the end. After a convincing win against Philadelphia in their season opener, the Raptors needed to go extra time to beat Golden State and needed Jose Calderon's timely outside sniping in dispatching the Bucks at Milwaukee.
It's going to be quite a challenge for Toronto to keep the Atlantic division lead if they don't get better because they sure appear shaky against average opposition so far. Defending champs Boston is just waiting in ambush so they'd better be ready.
On the other hand, its really nice to see this team get a start such as this considering they are now working with a point guard who is new to the team's starters role (Calderon) and a center who is looking for a new lease on life (Jermaine O'Neal).
Calderon is averaging 18ppg and 9.7apg and splendidly took over the spot left by T.J. Ford who got traded to Indiana for O'Neal who is responding very well to his new team by being a solid contributor especially in the low blocks thus relieving Chris Bosh (26ppg, 10rpg) of much pressure in frontline production.
_____________________________ __________
Joe Dumars stuck with his players and fired the coach. He sure believes in what his veterans can do than what direction Flip Saunders is leading the Detroit Pistons into.
After 3 straight losses in the Eastern Conference Finals. Dumars must make a move to get his team out of stagnation. He responded by hiring the relatively new and inexperienced Michael Curry to be the Pistons' new bench boss.
In Curry's disposal are the key veterans that won themselves an NBA championship in '04 and a bunch of young players who look to take over in the very near future. The Pistons starts this season 2-0 and they are doing it with a well balanced attack which only shows their cohesion that was formed as they stayed longer together.
So far, it's still hard to figure out if Detroit will be a lock for the Central division title. They still have to go through games with tougher teams to really measure what can they do or to know if the rest of the East has caught up with them.
Dumars has placed his bet. Soon the cards will be placed on the table.
_____________________________ _________
Of all the teams that remained unbeaten to this point, the Atlanta Hawks are the biggest surprise. First off, they outclassed the defending Southeast division champions in the Orlando Magic on the road and then stunned the Philadelphia 76ers in come-from-behind fashion.
The Hawks are best remembered for dragging the eventual NBA champions Boston Celtics to seven games in their first round playoff series winning all of their home games. Just imagine what kind of anticipation the Atlanta faithful has this season for their Hawks.
And they weren't disappointed.
With the way the Hawks have been playing, they will surely rack up a lot of following. That is as long as they keep it up.
Amazing as they may be right now, there still exists doubts among observers. Judging from their slow start against the Sixers where they found themselves behind by more than 20 points, the Hawks are still prone to cold spells and being outrebounded. They sure are fortunate that Joe Johnson is with them to pull the chestnuts out of the fire.
Johnson is the early scoring leader averaging 30ppg but it won't be long before that number dips a little. Mike Bibby and Josh Smith are the only other players in double-figures with 15.5ppg each. In order for Atlanta to keep this pace, the bench must exert more effort to make the team much more imposing in the games to come.
It's still very early to conclude that the Hawks will be going over .500 this season but the Hawks reside in the East so they have a good percentage to return to the playoffs.
Photo courtesy of Yahoo! Sports Getty images
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