Jason Concepcion: Here are some of the similarities between the 2014-15 iterations of the Lakers and the Knicks: Both teams are talent-poor, single-star squads, located in the nation’s dueling media capitals, in the midst of transition years, and both are employing offensive schemes from the Saved by the Bell era.
Some random stats from the land of throwback basketball:
The Knicks and the Lakers are nos. 1 and 2 (as of Monday) in percentage of field goal attempts taken from 16 feet to inside the 3-point line — i.e., the much-maligned long 2 — 29.5 percent for the Knicks, 25.6 percent for the Lakers.
Both teams are in the bottom third of the league in percentage of attempts that are 3-pointers, an especially weird stat for the Knicks, who are shooting a league-leading 40 percent from beyond the arc.
The triangle preaches passing. No surprise, then, that the Knicks pass the ball 359 times per game, second-most in the NBA, per NBA.com. Sharing is great, until you realize that it means sharing with the likes of Quincy Acy, who already has 54 FGAs on 4.5 attempts per game, almost double his career average.
Of the 50 players with the most touches at the elbows (Melo is tied for no. 6 on this list, no surprise in the pinch-post-centric triangle), only two are guards: Joe Johnson and Kobe Bryant. The three players directly below Kobe are Kevin Garnett, Zach Randolph, and Nick Collison.
Kobe is, of course, the league leader in misses with 208. That is a full 69 more bricks than the second-most-bricking player, Carmelo Anthony. Four hundred and one NBA players so far have fewer field goal attempts than Kobe has misses.
Kirk Goldsberry: The Western Conference is the stronger half of the league, and the Southwest Division is the NBA’s crown jewel. All five of its teams are above .500, and all five are tremendous to watch (unless you hate watching the Rockets, like many of my coworkers). Toss in the fascinating Oklahoma City Thunder, and six of the league’s most intriguing stories are all clustered within an F-150 drive of Texarkana. These League Pass cowboys are all must-see TV.
1. Memphis Grizzlies (277 miles from Texarkana)
Memphis has the best record in the NBA since January 14, when Marc Gasol returned from injury. Since then, the Grizzlies are 45-15 (as of Monday morning). As Andrew Sharp and Danny Chau are wont to point out, they are legitimate title contenders and Gasol could be the NBA’s MVP.
2. Houston Rockets (291 miles from Texarkana)
The Rockets suddenly have a ferocious defense to go with their graphing-calculator offense.
3. Dallas Mavericks (179 miles from Texarkana)
The Mavericks have the best offense on earth and are torching opponents on a nightly basis. They are averaging a mind-boggling 115.2 points per 100 possessions in part because they are leading the league in both points and efficiency close to the basket. (See graphic below.)
4. San Antonio Spurs (452 miles from Texarkana)
The defending champs don’t seem to wake up until springtime, but they still play pretty ball and find ways to win regardless of who is resting.
5. New Orleans Pelicans (398 miles from Texarkana)
The Brow’s PER is 34.6. Your resistance to his looming reign is futile.
6. Oklahoma City Thunder (311 miles from Texarkana)
The most compelling “bad” team in NBA history. Can they get to 49 wins?
Everyone Forgot About the Grizzlies
Andrew Sharp: Before the season started, I was wondering which team to pick for the Finals. Cleveland felt like the obvious choice in the East,1 but then in the West it got tricky. San Antonio was too old, and it’s never fun to pick the Spurs. OKC had the Durant injury looming over it, and that was before Westbrook went down three days into the season. The Clippers were too popular. The Mavs and Blazers were too bad on defense. The Rockets … too Rockets. But what about the Grizzlies?
Everyone. Forgot. The Grizzlies.
Where should we start? Memphis has an 8-0 record at home, winning those games by an average of 11 points. The Grizz just destroyed the Clippers on Sunday. Their two losses were by a combined five points to the Bucks and Raptors. Since Marc Gasol came back in January last year, they’re 45-15, on pace for a .750 win percentage across an entire season. They took the Thunder to seven games in last year’s playoffs, and lost Game 7 without a suspended Zach Randolph.
They’re even better this year. Mike Conley has Courtney Lee and a healthy Quincy Pondexter on the wings, and Lee has been especially ruthless through November. It’s why the Grizz now have a top-10 defense (no. 4) AND a top-10 offense (no. 7). Tony Allen and Z-Bo haven’t even been that great thus far, but they’re around for the playoffs when it’s time to wreak havoc. One thing that everyone’s been saying since October is that every team in the West has a flaw, but are we sure that Memphis does?
It’s still early, a lot can happen in five months, everyone has to stay healthy, etc. But after one month of NBA, there’s only one certainty: If you’re looking for a dark-horse title contender, don’t bother with Memphis, because the Grizzlies aren’t a secret anymore.
Danny Chau: The Raptors are tied for the best record in the league, but if you really want to make a case against Toronto being the best team out East, you can. Going by strength of schedule, the Raps have had the fifth-easiest schedule thus far, and of the 14 games they’ve played, only four have been away from the Air Canada Centre. The Raptors have played four games against the West, two against teams with win percentages in the .300s and .200s (Jazz, Thunder); a third against the Memphis Grizzlies, which had five players sit out the game because of a stomach bug; and a fourth against the Suns, in which the Raps almost blew a 15-point lead heading into the fourth quarter. Toronto has the best margin of victory in the league, but it’s buoyed by a 42-point victory against the Milwaukee Bucks last week.2
Look, the numbers are there for you. But it seems weird to throw so many caveats at a team doing exactly what it should be doing. The Raptors are winning a lot of games, and winning them by a lot. There’s a simple explanation for all of it: They’re really good, with a style and identity that even a curmudgeon might appreciate.
During what I considered a perfect first-round matchup between Toronto and Brooklyn last season, I called the Raptors “the NBA equivalent of a ’50s American nuclear family.”3 The heady point guard willing to sacrifice his body, the Kobe Bryant acolyte, the workhorse frontline, the sparkplug, the idiosyncratic defender — for whatever it’s worth, the Raptors have that look. The names may be different, but there’s an unmistakable warmth of familiarity in watching a team with so many recognizable parts.