By: Brian Suk
The NBA Preseason has begun, and whether you care about this meaningless time before the regular season or not, here’s what’s going down.
The Clippers beat the Nuggets 103 to 96 on Friday. Deandre Jordan led the way for the Clippers, scoring 15 points and grabbing 12 rebounds. He surprisingly also hit more than half of his free throws, going 3-5. Chris Paul also had 12 points and 9 assists.
On Saturday, the Pacers faced off against the Pelicans, with the Pelicans coming out victorious 110 to 105. The Pacers’ new implementation of small ball offense failed miserably, as they got absolutely hammered on the defensive end of the floor and were dominated on the boards. Paul George at Power Forward just simply didn’t work out, as he could not guard Anthony Davis. However, Paul George also had a great night with 18 points. The Pacers also had far too many turnovers with 19. Anthony Davis scored 18 for the Pelicans, along with Eric Gordon and Luke Babbitt scoring 16 a piece. Paul George had many complaints about the new offense and clearly wants no part of the 4 spot. He has said “I’ll talk to Frank and Larry about it. Maybe we can lean away from it.” The Hornets also played the Magic on Saturday, coming out victorious 106 to 100. Jeremy Lin stepped up, scoring a team high 17 points and 7 assists.
On Sunday, the Hornets beat the Heat 90-77, the Raptors beat the Clippers 94-73, and the Jazz beat the Lakers 90-71, in a game that featured the return of Kobe Bryant. He was obviously rusty, scoring just 5 points in 12 min, shooting 1-5 from the floor. His recovery will be slow, but it is yet to be seen whether he can stay on the court or not.
Although it is just preseason, we can already tell what teams need to improve on. The Pacers must sack their small ball offense, and go back to putting Paul George at the 3 with my recommendation of Jordan Hill at the 4 and Myles Turner at the 5 to start. Also, the Lakers need to stop relying on Kobe and get better.
The preseason gives us viewers a glimpse into what could be and it sure looks like one heck of a season is fast approaching.
