Welcome to the Basketball Hangover. I write about what’s happening in the NBA daily, even when COVID has ravaged the league.
The Utah Jazz are currently the hottest team in the league.
(PHOTO CREDIT: Rick Egan/The Salt Lake Tribune.)
The L.A. teams in the NBA are neck-and-neck for the best record in the league. But there’s also another Western Conference team that is trying to keep up with them as well. It’s the Utah Jazz, who are 12-4, and good for technically the second best-record in the West (the league, too). They have the same record as the Clippers but they currently have the tiebreaker as Utah won their match-up on New Year’s Day.
They’ve won 8 straight games, which is the current longest winning streak in the league. But it’s the way they’ve been winning that makes me take notice. It started out with a huge win at Milwaukee, which was by 13 points. Overall, 7 out of their 8 wins were by double digits and it was capped off by their massive win against the somewhat-surging Golden State Warriors. They led them at the half by 30 and won by 19 in a beatdown that was worse than what the final score indicated. And they made yet another 20 shots from deep.
This team seems to have the ingredients. With all the hubbub about Donovan Mitchell, I don’t really see why he CAN’T be the #1 option for Utah. Let me remind people that he is the third player in NBA history to score 50 points twice in the same playoff series. He currently averages 24-4-5, which is quite good. He can score on all spots on the floor. And he’s a willing playmaker and defender.
Mike Conley is having quite the bounceback year; he’s averaging 16.4 points, 5.9 assists, and 1.6 steals. He’s also shooting .422 from three. Conley has become that steady veteran point guard that he was in Memphis.
Jordan Clarkson has been a boon for Utah. He gave the bench some much-needed offensive punch and he seems to be better at picking his spots. He could win the Sixth Man of the Year award at 17.4 points per.
Of course, there’s still Rudy Gobert, who doesn’t need a lot of shots to affect the game. He is, after all, a two-time Defensive Player of the Year winner and he continues to protect the rim like few other people can in the league.
Joe Ingles, who has been transferred to the bench, provides craftiness and shooting. Bojan Bogdanovic‘s offense will come soon enough but he’s still a threat from deep (.374 from three is STILL not bad at all!) Royce O’Neale has much improved shooting to go along with his perimeter defensive prowess. And Derrick Favors provides additional paint defense. And you can never have enough defense on a team (currently 6th in defensive rating).
So they might seem to have it all right now. And it’s materializing this season. I’ll stop short of saying they’ll win it all. But I do expect a bit of a deep run in the postseason they’re going.
But would I be surprised if they’re crowned champs this coming summer? Absolutely not.
Bullet Passes
In that loss against Utah, Stephen Curry did move into second place in the list of most career three-pointers made.
Congrats to @StephenCurry30 of the @warriors for moving up to 2nd on the all-time THREES MADE list! pic.twitter.com/OuduIRyoqz
— NBA (@NBA) January 24, 2021
Assuming Curry goes for, say, five more seasons? And maybe he makes 200 per year (this season is far from over, obviously)? Maybe he’ll get 3,700 or even 3,800? That is a TON of threes and seems unbreakable.
Of course, not far behind is James Harden. I expect him to also overtake Ray Allen. So it’ll probably be Curry/Harden as 1 and 2 in five years.
Jamal Murray made a buzzer-beating three to send the game to overtime. Then Jae Crowder made a clutch three to send the game to a second overtime.
But it’s all about Nikola Jokic, who went for 29 points, 22 rebounds, and 6 assists in an eventual Nuggets win.
Not only did Utah bully Golden State to a 30-point halftime lead but the Los Angeles Lakers did, too, against the Chicago Bulls. Anthony Davis scored 37 points in three quarters after confiding to the media that he hadn’t been playing well the last few games.
DeMarcus Cousins had a monster half against Dallas with 17 points and 15 rebounds. He would eventually end with 28 and 17. That seems encouraging but I honestly don’t expect that to happen very often with Cousins. But it would be great if it did!
Bam Adebayo did what he could by trying to bring the Heat back against the Nets. He went for 41 points and 9 boards. But Kyrie Irving scored 18 of his 28 points in the fourth to keep the Nets from losing.
I saw people saying that Bam is approaching Top 10 status. But good grief, I didn’t realize he’s STILL only 23 years old.
Like I said, we’re seeing the Joel Embiid of two seasons ago. 33 points and 14 boards against Detroit. In fact, he’s actually averaging a career-high in scoring this season with 27.7 points.
Sometimes, I really don’t want to give this man attention. But LaVar Ball, loudmouth dad by NBA players, is opining that LaMelo Ball shouldn’t come off the bench. Of course, parents would say that. But I think coaches know better on how their teams do?
James Borrego had a good response, too. He had been turning the ball over a lot. However, with the Hornets at a 4-game skid, maybe a change could do something. MAYBE.
NBA Scoreboard
Jan. 23, 2021
Watch This Play
Nice pass by Brow. Nice dunk by Bron.
Wait for it… pic.twitter.com/5CVE0bU7wV
— Los Angeles Lakers (@Lakers) January 24, 2021
That’s much better than getting hung at the rim.
Everyone, please take care of yourselves during this pandemic. And that goes for everyone involved with the NBA as well.
You can find Rey-Rey on Twitter at @TheNoLookPass.
You can also check out Rey-Rey’s podcast, Rey-Rey Is Fundamental, for more basketball content and, really, whatever else.