Highlights are awesome on their own. But they’re even better with a little context. Here’s a look back at the best of week seven.
“Oh my goodness!”
Yes, it was called an offensive foul. Dirk squeaked just outside of the restricted area and DeMarcus Cousins planted his off-arm squarely in the big German’s kisser. Still, though. Damn.
Cousins brutalized the Mavericks on Monday, posting 32 points and 19 rebounds in the 112-97 victory. It was a standout performance, but Cousins has made some underrated progress on the court this season.
Offensive efficiency has been a knock against Boogie since he entered the league in 2010-11. For a six-foot-11, 270-lb. centre who takes more than 60 percent of his shots within eight feet of the basket, Cousins’ career field-goal percentage of 45.2 isn’t great. This year, though, he’s upped that number to 49.2 percent.
On the surface, that’s still less-than-ideal efficiency, but the improvement has come despite a massive jump in Cousins’ usage rate. Boogie is the most used player in the league this season, gobbling 35.3 percent of Sacramento’s possessions while he’s on the floor (up from 28.1 percent last year).
He’s also managed to maintain his rebounding numbers. That’s impressive given that he’s working in the low post with his back to the basket twice as often as last season (he posts up an average of nine times a game, up from 4.5). Posting up and taking more shots himself limits Cousins’ ability to fight for position under the basket. Nevertheless he’s tied for seventh in the league with 10.5 boards a game.
“‘Which way did he go?’ says Prigioni”
Kyrie Irving had 37 points and 11 assists in Cleveland’s 109-94 win over the Knicks on Tuesday. On Sunday, the Knicks played the Celtics. In that game, Boston took 72 field-goal attempts to New York’s 73. The Knicks lost by 41 points. They didn’t need to be Uncle Drew’d on top of everything else.
“He came outta nowhere!”
Pistons rookie Kentavious Caldwell-Pope has two blocks this season. This chase down on Minnesota’s Kevin Love is the nicer of the two (the other was on an O.J. Mayo jumper).
The eighth pick in this summer’s draft, Caldwell-Pope had shown flashes of an outside stroke in college and, in an ideal world, was supposed to help the Pistons get a sliver of spacing. As a team, Detroit is shooting 31.4 percent from behind the arc on the season—the second-lowest mark in the league. Caldwell-Pope is shooting 29 percent from downtown. Thank God for Andre Drummond.
“Molly, we thank you so much”
This throwdown came at the tail end of a career night for Charlotte’s Jeff Taylor last Friday against the 76ers. The second-year swingman tied his personal best, dropping 20 on 8-for-16 shooting in a 105-88 win.
The story of the season in Charlotte has been the team’s improved defence under new head coach Steve Clifford. The Bobcats are currently sporting a 10-12 record—good for the East’s fifth seed because why wouldn’t it be?—and it certainly isn’t their offence earning them wins.
Charlotte shoots the league’s lowest field-goal and three-point percentages—41.2 and a mind-numbing 29.2, respectively—scores the second-fewest points per game (90.5) and racks up the third-fewest assists (18.7). They’ve only cracked triple digits three times this year, winning all three of those contests.
So, the defence must be awesome, right?
Charlotte is holding opponents to 97.7 points per 100 possessions, making them the league’s fourth-stingiest defence through the first quarter of the season. Suffice to say, that’s a pretty dramatic improvement over 2012-13, when they were literally the league’s worst defensive team (allowing 108.9 points per 100 possessions).
That leap suggests that Clifford has orchestrated a flat-out miraculous turnaround. But the Bobcats have also benefitted from the league’s weakest schedule thus far. Of their 10 wins, only one has come against a winning team (a 115-111 victory against Golden State on Monday).
Things won’t be getting much harder any time soon: After tonight’s matchup against the Pacers, Charlotte won’t face another winning team until Dec. 27th.
“Saw an open avenue”
Take a quick look at the NBA’s top-five players in fast-break points and it’s safe to say one name kind of sticks out:
1) LeBron James, 6.2
2) Corey Brewer, 6.0
3) Kevin Durant, 6.0
4) John Wall, 5.9
5) James Harden, 5.6
Gotta hand it to Brewer: whether it’s a quick cut off an inbounds pass or a reward for getting out in transition, the guy knows how to get easy buckets.