Highlights are awesome on their own. But they’re better with a little context. Here’s a look back at the best of week two.
Iggy’s behind-the-back
First, take a moment to appreciate the ridiculousness of this behind-the-back save from Andre Iguodala to David Lee. Nice, huh? You know what’s even nicer? Iggy’s all-around play through the first five games of the season.
Brought in this summer in large part to shore up GSW’s D—which he’s done—Iguodala’s been incredibly efficient on the offensive end as well. His 15.6 points per game have come on 56.9 percent shooting from the floor and 47.8 percent from deep, and Golden State scores 30.3 more points per 100 possessions with him on the court, which is flat-out obscene. It’s not just his shooting, either. His 5.8 assists per game land him second on the team, behind Steph Curry, and second league-wide among non-guards, behind LeBron James. And on top of all that, he throws the occasional logic-defying behind-the-back pass. Excellent.
Green takes flight
Gerald Green started the pre-season fighting for minutes at the three alongside Marcus Morris and P.J. Tucker, but was bumped to the backup two spot by Suns head coach Jeff Hornacek around the time the team dealt Shannon Brown to Washington. If that weren’t enough to take in, he then got the starting spot when Goran Dragic was sidelined with an ankle sprain in last Sunday’s loss to OKC.
Green has made pretty good use of the extra playing time. He’s averaging 18 points a night since Dragic went down, and has made 50 percent of the team-high 28 threes he’s tossed up over his last three games. The 2007 dunk champion also made this significant contribution to the highlight reel in transition against San Antonio on Wednesday. Despite the fine performance, the Suns (Green included) are looking forward to Dragic’s return to the starting lineup, expected Friday night.
Blake for three
The highlight is exciting—Steve Blake rising and hitting the game winner over Dwight Howard in the dying seconds. The build-up? Not so much.
The Lakers were only in this game thanks to more than three minutes of mind-numbing hack-a-Dwight, in which Howard went five-for-12 from the line, and some lights-out three-point shooting—going 11-of-14 from downtown in the first half. And down two with just 10.9 seconds left, they botched what should have been their final possession after Jodie Meeks threw an inbound pass to no one.
Still, they got one more try, the ball ended up in Blake’s hands (four-for-six on threes for the game) and the rest is history.
Wade’s step-back J
This public shaming of J.J. Redick may be the prettiest example, but Dwyane Wade has been lighting it up from the left side with regularity so far this season. Wade is shooting 58.3 percent on mid-range jumpers to the left of the key. He’s also taken 41.9 percent of his attempts within eight feet of the basket, suggesting his knees are fine—and so is his first step.
JV dunks on LeBron
Rightfully pegged as the future of the franchise heading into the season, Jonas Valanciunas played just 21.7 minutes a night through the Raptors’ first three games and shot a miserable 40.9 percent from the floor during that span, almost exclusively on shots in the paint.
Tuesday’s loss to the Heat may have helped the second-year centre turn things around. He carried the team through the first three quarters, lowering the boom on LeBron James in the third, and finished the game with 18 points (a season high), nine boards and a block. Wednesday in Charlotte he went five-for-eight from the field and earned himself 28 minutes of run.
Westbrook goes coast-to-coast
As recently as last month, Russell Westbrook was expected to miss the first four to six weeks of the season. Instead, he’s going coast-to-coast and throwing down from a step inside the foul line. The man is a freak. A freak in mid-season form.