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Lillard is a top 75 player all time and a lock future Hall of Fame who has not spent his career looking for a way out of town like so many stars doo, but rather looked for reasons to stay committed. New York got a good laugh on Wednesday out of the NBA’s “punishment” of taking away their 2025 second-round pick for tampering with Jalen Brunson (who has played like an All-Star this season and is well worth that pick). New York has won eight in a row and the biggest key is their defense, which is surrendering less than a point per possession in that stretch. It will be a little tougher to keep the red-hot 76ers under that number on Christmas Day, but if Brunson can spark the offense this will be one of the better games of the day. The Nets need a continued focus on basketball — just basketball, not the sideshow around this team. The drama has died down and Brooklyn has gone 12-3 since Kyrie Irving returned from his 8-game suspension, and over those 15 games it has a top-10 offense and defense.
Minnesota would like to get Karl-Anthony Towns back as its Christmas present, but the team is now 6-4 with a +1.4 net rating since he went out. They’ve picked up a couple of wins this past week without KAT or Rudy Gobert, but the real question is what happens when both of them are back? Minnesota has just not looked comfortable with them playing in a two-big lineup, but the front office has gone all-in on that so it will be up to Chris Finch and the players to find a way to make it work. What the Heat need for Christmas is some depth, ideally a playmaker at the four but they will take either part of that equation at this point.
Per Game
After a grueling stretch of games in the opening weeks of the regular season, the Nets (19-12) are clicking on all cylinders and have become one of the hottest teams in the league. If you want to watch the Nets in February, get comfy on the couch. Between a season-high eight road games for the month, plus the week-long All-Star break, the Nets will play just four home games in February, against Phoenix, Golden State, Toronto and Orlando. The second of Brooklyn’s four-plus game road trips also begins at the end of the month, taking them to Washington, Atlanta, Miami and Boston, and into March. Brooklyn’s longest stint away from Barclays Center will come in November, when the Nets will embark on a nine-day, five-game road trip, beginning on Friday, Nov. 8, at Portland and concluding on Saturday, Nov. 16, at Chicago. The Nets will play a season-high nine road games in the month of November.
He looked rusty and now his minutes and movement are limited, but his shooting and ball movement will give Mike Budenholzer more options during the playoffs. That will change on Christmas, expect a heavy dose of them against the Celtics. It’s the second leg of a back-to-back and there was no travel involved for the Warriors. At the same time, this is the last night of a season long six game road trip, injuries have piled up during this trip, and the team is already pretty lousy away from home. Steve Kerr used his entire rotation last night, and he’ll have to do it again to nurse his guys through this contest. For the Nets, they can’t afford to let their guard down and assume the Warriors will roll over.
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Over his last 11 games, he’s been in a groove that rivals some of his best work, averaging 32 points on 63% shooting, 43% from 3-point range and adding 6.5 rebounds and five assists per game. But Irving has been efficient since returning from his suspension following the promotion of an antisemitic film and subsequent comments, and Durant has been playing at an MVP-level all season. The preseason schedule was announced on July 10, 2019.
This run is not going to last forever. Trail Blazers (17-14, LW 14). We don’t celebrate Damian Lillard‘s greatness enough — and his commitment and loyalty to the city. That did change a little this past week when, with a couple of free throws Monday night, Lillard passed Clyde Drexler to become the all-time leading scorer in Trail Blazer history.
BrooklynNets
The Golden State Warriors are trying to repeat as NBA champions , but the road is a lot tougher this time around. The champs currently sit at after getting knocked around by the New York Knicks last night at MSG. They’re heading home after tonight to play the Memphis Grizzlies on Christmas night. On Sunday evening, the Detroit Pistons jumped out to an 18-point lead against the Brooklyn Nets and had Brooklyn all out of sorts.
As noted before, teams in the western conference are projected to have tougher schedules. Although Brooklyn ranked 25th overall, they ranked 10th among the 15 Eastern Conference teams. Although this is still slightly favorable, it’s unlikely to swing things in the East. For reference, the Oklahoma City Thunder and Phoenix Suns are tied with the toughest schedules (.519 winning percentage, 42.56-win equivalent). The Milwaukee Bucks have the easiest (.490 winning percentage, 40.18-win equivalent). Whether or not an opponent is played at home or on the road definitely impacts the difficulty of a team’s schedule and this could increase strength of schedule disparities a bit.
Since Jarrett Allen returned to the lineup eight games ago the Cavs are 6-2 with a +7 net rating with the fourth-best defense in the NBA over that stretch. The Cavaliers want a fifth starter who can play the three, stretch the floor on offense and play strong defense for Christmas. Of course, 29 other teams are looking for a guy like that and it’s likely more of an off-season pick-up for Cleveland, but if Santa has one of those players in their bag the Cavs will take it. The season was suspended by league officials following the games of March 11 after it was reported that Rudy Gobert tested positive for COVID-19. On March 17, the Nets announced that four of its players tested positive for COVID-19, including Kevin Durant. On April 1, general manager Sean Marks announced that all four players recovered and were cleared by local health officials.
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He’s one of the big red flags in what’s so far been an underwhelming 2020 Draft class. His future will determine a lot of what the Warriors try to do going forward. The Brooklyn Nets finished the regular season with a point differential of -41.
Before getting too far into the findings, it’s worth noting that there isn’t too much disparity between teams’ strength of schedule in the NBA. Over 82 games, all the teams play each other and things tend to even out. Orlando should be stockpiling picks, even if it is second-rounders — the Lakers have the Bulls’ second-rounder this year, which suddenly looks a lot more promising.
The Warriors have to figure out what they have in James Wiseman. Through a combination of injuries, NCAA ineligibility and poor play, Wiseman has barely played any professional basketball in the past three years. Since turning pro in 2020, Wiseman has only played 1300 minutes combined in the NBA and the G-League.
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