FINALLY!!! The NBA has come back to us basketball junkies. We are going to take a look at the 2 games that were played last night and give a quick thought on what the rest of the regular season might give us.
Pelicans vs Jazz
Let’s just get this out of the way right now. The Pelicans let one get away and it may cost them a chance at the playoffs. I think it is simple to just say “if they play Zion more minutes, then they win.” I think it is more to the point to say that the bottom line is the Jazz have more dudes than the Pelicans do.
Bottom line: You are not an upper echelon NBA team playing E’twaun Moore the amount of minutes the Pelicans routinely play E’twaun Moore. Don’t get me wrong, Moore is a solid NBA player. He is just more of an end of the bench guy.
It being said the Pelicans don’t have enough, they do have a couple of STUDS. We will get to Zion in just a second, but let’s talk for a moment about J’rue Holiday. He is one of those guys that I think we forget how good he is. Then, you watch him and you think “My gosh this guy is unbelievable”. He is bigger than you think, quicker than you remember, defends, gets to the bucket, you can’t leave him open.This man deserves to be on a great team, even if it ends up being as an old guy barely getting minutes 5 years from now.
Ok, lets talk about Zion. He has played in 20 games in the NBA and it is pretty clear that he is one of the “special” guys in the NBA. His fast twitch is like a Sega Genesis glitch where he is 10 feet away within milliseconds. He will only become a better shooter and he is already a capable shooter. The behind the back pass just shows how skilled he is and of course the athleticism is un-worldly. There are times you just watch and he looks like a young Barkley on the court. Here is the deal though, as great as Barkley was I think Zion has more upside than Barkley did in 85.
I am not going to touch on the Jazz to much just because we will get to them in the future. I will say this Conley, Mitchell, Clarkson will be a tough 3 guard line up for teams to stop in the playoffs. I am not sure they necessarily swing a series, but they will be a tough cover.
For all the hell Gobert got for the whole Corona thing, we may have forgot what a problem he is on both ends of the floor for teams to stop.
Clippers vs Lakers
Look, we are not going to spend as much time on this game. I have a feeling we may get 7 opportunities to talk about them later. I will say that these are 2 Championship contenders who have flaws, but they are so good.
I am just going to say it and I am sure people will disagree. The Clippers are not that deep. Yes, they have a lot of talent. The issue is that this is basketball and its great to have talent, but they have to fit together.They will get better and gel, but after their starters it is just 5 dudes out there trying to get theirs. Plus, I understand once you add Lou Wings and Harrell that the bench woes will be fixed. My point still stands that they are not nearly as deep as what they are said to have.
Leonard and George are the best duo between the 2 teams. I am not arguing about that and Anthony Davis isn’t the issue with the Lakers side. (Don’t worry LeBron worshipers we are going to heap praise on him, just wait.)
When Anthony Davis is playing like he did last night, he is just unstoppable. Like as in no one can stop him in the NBA, NO BODY! I still don’t know if he knows how to “WIN” in the NBA, but I think he may be able to “talent” his way to a good playoff run.
LeBron is on the backside of his career and it is showing not only in his beard, but in his game. That sounds like a knock on him, but I think it shows his maturity. There are times in a game where he still thinks he has the un-worldly athleticism and does something and then realizes “oh ain’t got that anymore”. It seems like he is starting to realize what he has to do to win at this stage. He is trying to feel out the game and trying to assert himself in the spots he needs to.
I absolutely loved the fact that he took the ball in the crunch and wasn’t going to give it up. I loved it for 2 reasons. 1. Anthony Davis doesn’t have that in his game with those high stakes. 2. If you are going to be considered a great, you can’t always have big games won by your teammates.
LeBron has hit plenty of game winners, but at the end of his career how many great wins are going to be won by his teammates? Ray Allen in the 13 Finals, Kyrie in the 16 Finals are the 2 biggest wins of his career and he really had nothing to do with either play.
A few takes moving forward:
- Watch for the Thunder to make a run from here on out. Chris Paul has tapped into his leadership skills and is at his peak Leadership skills. Shai Gilgeous- Alexander looks like he made a jump from March till now. Obviously, in a regular year we wouldn’t see that in a season. It would happen in the 20-21 year, instead of the same year (19-20).
- A team that looks to be trending the opposite way is the Rockets. To be plain and clear James Harden and Russell Westbrook are not built for this kind of living. They both need to have a rigid schedule to be at their best. They need to know “I have to be at my best October to June and then I have July through September to decompress and do other stuff”. The Corona stoppage put a wrench in that schedule and I would look for them to implode. Plus, the Eric Gordon injury is going to kill them.
- I am convinced that the East is going to come down to 2 teams, the Bucks and the Celtics. Don’t ask me why, because I can not pinpoint it. If I am wrong I will admit that, but in my gut and from what I have observed watching the scrimmages I feel like it is a 2 horse race.
