NBA Weekly Grades for Week Ending February 8th

A weekly wrap up of who did what this week and how good or bad they did it.

Russell Westbrook against the Pelicans

Grade Bird Killer

Russ only put up 40 points twice this season, but in two games against the New Orleans Pelicans he put up 45 and 48 points. The first game, on Wednesday, Westbrook shot 58%, had 6 rebounds, and 6 assists in a 102-91 win. Two nights later, the Thunder hosted the Pels and Westbrook shot 53%, with 9 rebounds and 11 assists, but OKC lost 116-113, in part because Anthony Davis scored 41 points. Russell should just open up shop in New Orleans if he loves the Pelicans so much.

Giannis Antetokounmpo

Grade A Tweet filled with Fire Emoji’s

The Greek Freak is Twitter’s Favorite Player, but his season has been all over the place. His scoring is a schizophrenic diagram of consistency, but this week he had his two best scoring nights. In a 113-105 victory over the Lakers, Giannis had 25 points, 6 rebounds, 2 blocks on 71.4% shooting.  It was his highest scoring game of the season, until two nights later.

In the 117-111 loss to the Rockets, Giannis scored 27 points, 15 rebounds, 4 assists, a block and shot 68.8%. This was also the first week where his scoring held up in double digits for a whole week. The Bucks continue their surprising run in the east, and although they probably won’t break the bank in the playoffs, a series appearance without Jabari Parker and The Greak Freek getting up there will lockdown that franchise for cool things in the future.

Washington Wizards

Grade Witt-meh

Things are not going well in Wizards land. The Wizards lost three straight to start the week, coupling with the two straight losses to end the week previously. The Wiz lost twice to the Charlotte Hornets in four days, sandwiching a loss from the Atlanta Hawks. The Wizards offense has stalled, their lineups are head scratching and fans are starting to panic. With a dip in their performance and Cleveland’s big turn upwards, they line between them becomes blurred. The Wizards got a boost from beating the Nets on Saturday night, but their holes are now out in the open for teams to see.

Los Angeles Clippers

Grade NBA Asshole Association Named Them Player of the Week

Put aside the fact that they dropped three straight games, dropping them to the 6th seed in the competitive western division, but the string of technicals called during the loss to the Cavs, Chris Paul dropped some nonsense. Complaining about the call, CP3 said “If that’s the case, this might not be for her.” Crappy divisive comment, no one complained about techs delivered by male refs by demeaning their performance. Couple this with Blake Griffin’s weird forced blowjob “joke” against a team trainer, and this team has turned in a giant pile of human turds.

 

Boogie-nomics: Sacramento Kings vs Oklahoma City Thunder

26%

The Thunder went after Boogie hard and kept his shooting to a pitiful 26%. He earned an early technical foul after a non-call when he went to the hoop but still wound up shooting 6 for 23 from the field. He did get to the line 13 times and made 11 of them, finishing with 23 points, 15 rebounds, 4 assists, 1 steal and 3 blocks.

The Kings had some help with Rudy Gay chipping in 28 points and Darren Collison contributing 24 points while the Sactown D held Russell Westbrook to 10 points.

Last Nights Number: Phoenix Suns vs Oklahoma City Thunder

44

Russell Westbrook had New Years Eve plans and got ejected early in the game, but Kevin Durant was able to start after his ankle injury sidelined him.

Easy Money Sniper ended with 44 points, 10 rebounds and 7 assists and that was just to brush the dust off. The Thunder needed an extra period to finish off the Suns, but won 137-134.

Eric Bledsoe and Goran Dragic took advantage of the Westbrook absence and combined for 50 points. And Markieff Morris added in another 25.

Last Nights Number: Oklahoma City Thunder vs Dallas Mavericks

60

OKC’s Serge Ibaka had it down last night as he got 26 points and 10 rebounds and contributed to the Thunder’s 60 points in the paint against the Mavericks. Steven Adams had 11 and Perry Jones chipped in 10, but the Mavs had a small ball lineup.

Starting JJ Barea, Rajon Rondo and Monta Ellis, who combined for 42 points, Dirk Nowitzki was at Center for Tyson Chandler. Monta sprained his left ankle and didn’t return to the game, so Nowtizki had to take over and ended the game with 30 points, 5 rebounds, 2 assists, 2 blocks and a steal.

Russell Westbrook had a bad shooting night going 6 for 23 from the field in the 112-107 loss.

Last Nights Number: Portland Trail Blazers vs Oklahoma City Thunder

40

Damian Lillard went off for 40 points, 11 assists and 6 rebounds to leads the Blazers 115-111 over OKC in Overtime. Lillard also sealed the game into overtime with this game tying deep three

Russell Westbrook ALSO had 40 points making it a Two for Tuesday.

Lillard went 11 for 21 in the field and 8 for 12 from three, while Russ went 16 for 34 from the field.

Russ Never Sleeps

Guess who’s back? Russell Westbrook has been affected by injuries for three years and with the future of the Oklahoma City Thunder holding in limbo to Kevin Durant’s decision in 2016, the team could be headed directly to  a trash fire.

But then Russ showed up and started scorching the earth. Granted it’s only 10 games into it, but he has a PER of 33.15, shooting 48.9% , three point percentage of 35.7%, 6.8 assists, 5.8 rebounds with an average of 25.8 ppg.

And he’s doing it with total slashing.  A look at his Heat Map-

Almost entirely right at the basket. Compared to his previous shot chart, where Russell was still slashing but also more diverse. So what’s opening up the paint for him? Thabo Sefolosha is gone to join the Hawks and Kendrick Perkins is now coming off the bench. Steven Adams isn’t crazy athletic in the center spot, but he does move better than Perk. He also draws more defenders because he has something resembling an offensive game. Whereas previous defenders could leave Perkins on the regular, because his threat just wasn’t going to happen. Adams now demands at least some coverage, so the doubling has to go down.
So it’s possible that the new squad on the floor is just more tuned in to floor chemistry and letting Russell have his way. Given his stats about his shot range, they should keep letting him do it.

73 attempts at the rim shooting 61% with only 26% of those being assisted. Russell should be getting the nickname Nash the Slash if it wasn’t one of the more obscure and obnoxious reference I could make.

With Durant’s decision always looming and Scott Brooks coaching out of his mind so far, the day before Hanukkah the Thunder are one game out of the number eight spot of the playoffs. They have won six in a row, won seven of their last nine and beat the Cavaliers by nine points and put up 114 against the tough defense of the Milwaukee Bucks.

Keep your fingers crossed for health, but the Thunder might have crossed over into sneaky contender if they can keep the paint open for Westbrook.

Last Nights Number: Oklahoma City Thunder vs Cleveland Cavaliers

45-13

The combined points and assists of Kevin Durant and Russell Westbrook as the Thunder took advantage of a LeBron-less Cavs in a 103-94 win.
Kyrie Irving collided knees and was out for about a quarter but returned to play the second half and looked fine. James sat with a sore knee. The Cavs 8 game win streak was stopped while the Thunder grabbed their 4th straight win.

Bonus Number

44

Speaking of former first round picks of the Thunder, James Harden scored 44 points in a 113-109 overtime win over the Sacramento Kings.  Rudy Gay was limited to only 13 points on 4 for 18 shooting in the field. Ben McLemore had 21, Darren Collison had 24, but the Kings are still hurting without Boogie Cousins.

Last Nights Number: Oklahoma City Thunder vs New York Knicks

24

RUSS IS BACK. In 24 minutes, Westbrook scored 32 points with 7 rebounds, 8 assist and 1 steal. He went 3 for 4 in three pointers in a highlight reel 105-78 victory over the hapless Knicks.

Check the full highlights via DawkinsMTA

Andy Livingston

NBA Comparison Tool: John Wall & Marcin Gortat

Photo credit: Atlanta Black Star

Previously I looked at the NCAA Comparison tool and looked at the prospects of Otto Porter and Bradley Beal. Now, Nylon Calculus has updated that work flow to include a NBA comparison.

I took a look at the two Wizards who stepped up the most from 2013 to 2014: John Wall and Marcin Gortat.

John Wall’s 2013

Hot Rod Strickland averaged 12.6 ppg and 7.5 assists in 2000 (While he was playing for Washington!). Andre Miller was a rookie in Cleveland in 2000 and he averaged 11.1 ppg with 5.8 assists. JWall in 2013 was rocking 18.5 ppg and 7.6 assists. Hence the bump in the positive SD on Strickland and the Professor.

John Wall’s 2014

These stats for Wall are much more favorable. Isiah Thomas in 1989 lead the Pistons to the Championship. 2013 Russell Westbrook rocked 23.2 ppg and 7.4 assists and was leading the Thunder to a bonkers run before Patrick Beverly took him out in the playoffs. 2003 Jason Kidd had 18.7 ppgs and 8.9 assists while he lead the Nets to a finals appearance.

2014 JWall averaged 19.3 ppg and 8.8 assists per game. So it’s fair to say Wall had a Finals caliber year, even though they didn’t get past the second round of the playoffs.

Marcin Gortat 2013

Gortat’s last year in Phoenix was comparable to Chiefs last season in Boston. Parish got 11.7 ppgs and 7.3 rpg. Those were the dark years of the Celtics, on a lineup with Rick Fox, Kevin Gamble and Xavier McDaniel. So, yikes.

Rick Mahorn 1989 matched with Isiah Thomas winning a championship with 7.3 ppgs and 6.9 rpg. The 84 Mahorn (as a Bullet) bumped up to 9ppg but a wild 9 rpg.

Marcin 2013 pulled 8.5 rpg but bumped up the scoring to 11.1 ppg.

Marcin Gortat 2014

Those Al Horford comparisons are pretty nice to look at. Especially in his role with the Hawks, 09 Horford had 11.9 ppg and 9.3 rpg while ’10 Hoford upped the points 14.2 a game and rebounds up to 9.9.

Mike Gminski, no Wizards/Bullet connection but he does have the nickname G-Man, and knocked down 17.2 ppg and 9.4 rpg.

2014 Marcin shot 13.2 ppg with 9.5 rpg. A solid comparison all around, Marcin has stayed an over 50% FG shooter since his rookie year and spends a lot of energy on the defensive end of the floor, of his 9.5 rebounds a game, seven of them come of the defensive end.

The comparisons are a nice and accurate way to look at who else put up these kind of numbers. Gortat’s comparisons don’t have the championship pedigree the way John Wall’s has, but if he keeps up with the Horford comps WS/48 09 – .145, WS/48 10 – .183 while Gortat’s WS/48 last year was .146.

It’s become vital for the Wizards to him on the floor.