WEEK OF
1/30/11 – 2/5/11
1-San Antonio Spurs (42-8); The San Antonio Spurs are the team no one gave a chance to this season. They are too old, they can’t contend with the big dawgs in the West anymore; don’t have the stars or weapons to challenge. They are obviously proving everyone dead wrong, winning in many ways. Scoring the ball, 104 ppg, playing defense, 97/gm, and how about the unknown prize in George Hill (11 ppg, 37% from three)?
2- Boston Celtics (38-12);Consistency throughout every night in and night out. Kendrick Perkins has come back a bit ahead of time, and is playing reasonable, in only a few games.
3- Miami Heat (37-14);Just thumping teams all the time, including wins over the Lakers, Hornets and Utah, all by 10 or more points. Scoring is easy for the Heat.
4- Chicago Bulls (34-15);Not many teams playing better right now than the Bulls. And I expect it only to get better, when the reserves for the All-Star Game were announced, the Bulls only representation was Derrick Rose, even though, Carlos Boozer and Luol Deng deserved some consideration. Now the team can play angry as well.
5- Los Angeles Lakers (35-16);Does he want out, yes or no…you never know with Ron Artest. Kobe has been great as usual, but needs to keep his teammates involved in the game, or this can turn into the Lakers of the 05-07 years again.
6- Orlando Magic (32-20);Losing Marcin Gortat has absolutely damaged the middle reserve for the Magic. He’s scoring 18/gm and grabbing 11 boards over the last 5 games. Their 3 ball shooting has been admirable, for the season, they are shooting 37% percent from long distance
7- Dallas Mavericks (35-15);With big wins over Boston, Atlanta, Lakers and Miami. Playing very excellent vs good quality teams is imperative, and they do it.
8- New Orleans Hornets (32-20); Injuries can hurt the Hornets, who have been holding on, as a surprise contender in the West. But for how long? Trevor Ariza could be out two weeks (11 ppg) and losing Emeka Okafor (11 ppg and 10 rpg) as well now. New Orleans Hornets Coach Monty Williams did not want to see this happen, when they finally seemed to have gotten their objectives together.
9- Denver Nuggets (30-21);Is the Carmelo Anthony stuff going to end anytime soon? His agent is notifying teams that the 7 year forward is looking at signing with the Knicks. Billups keeps rolling.
10- Oklahoma City Thunder (33-17);They prove their worth by winning the close games. Durant is holding them together putting up dynamite numbers, 29 ppg and shooting 47% from the field. They are well on their way to yet another improvement this year.
Big Baller of the Week (BBW)
Kobe Bryant (SG, Los Angeles Lakers) 30 points per game, 7 rebounds per game, 6 assists per game, 47% FG shooting for the week. His 35-16 Lakers, went 2-2, the Los Angeles superstar had a great week. The best win coming from beating the 32-20 New Orleans Hornets 101-95, including his best game of the week vs the Houston Rockets, dropping 32 pts on them while also snatching 6 boards and 11 assists, & shooting 52%
Top performers of the week:
Scoring; LeBron James (SF, Miami Heat); 51 points in a 104-100 win vs Orlando.
Rebounding; Dwight Howard, Lamar Odom; 20 rebounds in their respective games during the week.
Assists; Jose Calderon (PG, PG Toronto Raptors); 19 assists in a 111-100 victory vs the Minnesota Timberwolves.
Steals; Nate Robinson. Carlos Delfino; 5 steals in each of their respective games.
Blocks; Serge Ibaka, Trevor Booker; 6 blocks in each of their games during the week.
X-factor- tri bomber of the week
Chauncey Billups; (PG, Denver Nuggets) Billups knocked down a smooth 46% of his threes he put up in the week. Knocking ‘em down from deep with utter reliability, including going 4-7 vs the Sixers, as he netted 27 in the game.
Get all of Tony Karpinski’s FREE NBA Power rankings right here on www.aasiwins.com.