Week 3 News and Notes

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Published: November 19, 2008

– First and foremost, did everyone see what Anthony Morrow put up in his first real run as an NBA player? 37 points, 11 Reb. on 15-20 shooting. He followed that up with 25 points the next night. He was an undrafted free agent, Warriors have to be happy with that.

– Staying on the rookie trend, Greg Oden looks special when he is on the floor. Since returning he is averaging 15.3/9.6 with 3 blocks a game. He still looks a little uncoordinated, but David Thorpe of ESPN says that is normal for a big guy his age and experience level.

– Cleveland leading the league in Offensive efficiency is not a sentence I thought I would write in the Mike Brown era, but at 110.5 points per 100 possessions they are 3 points clear of the field. L.A. Lakers still lap the field by 3 points in defensive efficiency at 91.6

-Hornets watch: 5-4 is not where they would like to be. But the positives are that the overall difference is still positive at +2.8 and they have played the toughest schedule in the NBA thus far. Still not up to par on either side of the ball from these eyes though.

Bradford Doolittle of Basketball Prospectus has this to say of the team. “The Hornets have been playing well, but their most deficient categories are the ones in which Tyson Chandler excels. Chandler is back in the lineup and when he works his way back into form, New Orleans will be even better.”

– Chris Bosh last night. 40 pts, 18 Reb. (7 offensive), 2 steals, 1 block, and 4 assists. He did this against Dwight Howard, and somehow the Raptors lost the game.

-Players of the week: No change in the East as LeBron James got it again. Chauncey Billups was awarded the honor in the West.

-Speaking of Chauncey Billups he has them playing a little slower. They are still 4th in pace  but down from over 100 possessions per game to 98.1. Now the only team over the 100 possessions per game mark is the Flying Dantonis in New York.

-In one week the Spurs went from dead last in defensive efficiency to 19th. John Hollinger believes that Popovich has had to get onto them a little earlier this season because of the injuries, and I think that’s probably pretty true.

– Some pretty long streaks going on right now. Cavaliers have won 8 straight, Minnesota and Oklahoma City are on the opposite end having dropped 8 in a row.

– Running through everything I noticed that there are a lot of mediocre teams right now. Only 14 teams have a record above .500 with 7 in each conference which would leave one team with a losing record getting into the playoffs from each side as of now.

-LeBron James, Chris Paul, and Dwayne Wade look to have a serious shot at playing at a clip of 30.00 PER or higher. That is twice the league average, and is considered especially elite. Only Paul and James finished there last year, but Wade has been fantastic and healthy. Those of you who wonder why I left Tony Parker off (currently 32.78) is because he has PERs of 19, 21, 21, and 18 the last four years and has established his expected level of play. I think that since they may need him a little more this year he may be able to get up into the 23-24 range, but sorry if I’m not buying him into the elite class.

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