By Brian Suk
The second week of the NBA season has just wrapped up, and the season looks promising for several teams, while for others, not so much. Memphis and Golden State were still undefeated at the end of week 2, and surprisingly enough, teams like the Cavs, OKC, and the Spurs are not doing so hot.
Another injury-riddled season starts off with a bang. Many key players, for multiple teams, are limping off the court, leading to the team’s downfall or a much worse record than one thought they would have. Bradley Beal is out for the Wizards. Chicago never seems to have its key players all healthy for one game let alone its full roster. Indiana has absolutely been massacred by the Paul George injury, leading to a grimacing, pain inducing 1-6 record. San Antonio is growing old, and Manu Ginobili as well as Tim Duncan are not able to play every game. Ricky Rubio has just been ruled out indefinitely for the Timberwolves, and OKC’s record is 1-5 without Kevin Durant or Russell Westbrook. The Lakers have also been unsteady with injuries with Jeremy Lin having some back problems as well as Nick Young being out.
There are some teams who are doing bad because of injuries to their key players. Then there are teams who are just surprisingly doing bad. These are teams like Cleveland and Portland. All that hype about Lebron and Kevin Love coming to join Kyrie Irving, and they start 1-3. They just can’t seem to get their rhythm going. They are 21st in points allowed, and 17th in points per game. Not a winning formula. Additionally they are 29th in rebounds. They are taking bad shots, and most of it is just Lebron James yelling and complaining, then making excuses off the court.
Enough with the disappointments, let’s talk about some pleasant surprises. In the East, the Raptors are the surprise number 1 seed having lost only one game so far. The Wizards are close behind and a rising team in the East. Just imagine how good they will be when Bradley Beal comes back. Chicago is off to a pretty nice start at 6-2 as well, but they have not reached their full potential yet, as they are still yet to be completely healthy. Derrick Rose is missing several games again with hurt ankles, which is not reassuring Bulls fans at all. Hopefully, he will be good to go soon. It’s difficult to tell if he will ever be fully healthy again. The Miami Heat are also doing surprisingly well with Chris Bosh leading the way with a nice 24.2 ppg and 11.0 rebounds per game. I recently heard Avery Johnson on ESPN predicting the Cavs and Heat in the East Finals (to which I laughed hysterically to for 30 min.), but still, this team seems better than everyone thought. I thought, they would just be the remnants of a broken team without Lebron, but they are holding their own. Memphis and Golden State are still undefeated for the West. The Grizzlies are showing their classic tough gritty style of play being first in the league for points allowed per game at 86.7. The Warriors are buying into Steve Kerr’s new system of “team first” gameplay and it’s working. The Rockets are a very surprising team to me. They are absolutely cruising so far, which is the exact opposite of what I predicted. James Harden and Trevor Ariza are knocking down shots. The James Harden and Dwight Howard pick and roll is deadly. Something that is mind-blowing to me, so far, is that they are 2nd in the league in defense. I didn’t know that would be possible with a team that has James Harden on their roster. The Kings are also doing very well at 5-1.
Overall, it is too early to actually judge these teams just yet. They haven’t even played 10 out of their 82 games yet. But if several teams don’t start stepping up soon, it might be too late for them.
