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Brooklyn Nets – Lucky That NBA Referees Suck
Regardless of the clear foul Mason Plumlee should have been called for as he “blocked” LeBron James on the final play of the game, the Brookly Nets are a very big problem for the Miami Heat, proving it once more by sweeping the season series with a 88-87 win.
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Joe Dumars – The Rise & Fall of a General Manager
The NBA is a general manager’s (or other titles that all do the same thing) league. More stats, more money, more decisions on team building come from upstairs, while most head coaches simply make the pieces work. Joe Dumars seemed to be on the path to greatness through the early years of his tenure with the Detroit Pistons, but the failures and bad choices he’s made since building that championship team have finally caught up with him, costing him his job.
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Los Angeles Clippers – Have Bigger Fish to Fry
How quickly things change. A win for the Los Angeles Clippers over the Los Angeles Lakers used to be huge. Now? It’s expected of them, and it’s surprising when the game is actually close. This time it ended in a 120-97 victory with the usual big nights from Blake Griffin and Chris Paul.
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San Antonio Spurs – A Machine That Doesn’t Break Down
The San Antonio Spurs make it to 60 wins this season, beating the Memphis Grizzlies 112-92 thanks to Kawhi Leonard and Manu Ginobili stepping up after an early exit from Tony Parker, that didn’t really bother the usual rhythm of the team with the best record in the NBA.
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Houston Rockets – James Harden Gets Plenty of Jeremy Lin Help
The Houston Rockets needed some late fourth quarter heroics from James Harden and Jeremy Lin in order to overcome the Denver Nuggets in a 130-125 overtime with as Chandler Parsons and Omer Asik also lent in a big hand during different stages of the game, once again starting some sort of winning streak while getting closer to securing home court advantage for at least one round in the playoffs.
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Oklahoma City Thunder – Offense Needs to be Coached too
The Oklahoma City Thunder have a head coach who seems to be unwilling to make any sort of offensive adjustment while relying on Russell Westbrook and Kevin Durant trying to win games with pull up jumpers from beyond the arc. If it works, he looks like a genius, but in the 122-116 loss to the Phoenix Suns, it once again pointed towards a glaring problem with the team.
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New York Knicks – Playoffs Slipping Further Away
It’s not over yet, but combined with other results the 102-91 loss to the Miami Heat makes making the playoffs a very difficult goal to reach for the New York Knicks, having to withstand another huge night from LeBron James that made J.R. Smith catching fire from beyond the arc almost redundant.
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Indiana Pacers – A New Low
It’s funny that a team with a 53-25 can be considered to be in a crisis, but the Indiana Pacers aren’t playing anything like championship contenders, and their loss, at home, 107-88 to the Atlanta Hawks has to be one of those rock bottom moments they’ve been heading towards for quite some time.
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NBA Rumors – Chicago Bulls & Others Will Go After Pau Gasol
When this season is over, Pau Gasol is probably going to look for a new team and championship contender to play with. There’s still time, but teams are already showing interest, with the Chicago Bulls leading a list of contenders for his services which also includes the Charlotte Bobcats, Memphis Grizzlies and the Cleveland Cavaliers.
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Chicago Bulls – Championship Contenders in the Making
The Eastern conference is a lot more open than people gave it credit for earlier on in the season, and the Chicago Bulls should be taken seriously as a team that can make noise in the playoffs, looking very impressive of late and throughout most of their 96-78 win against the Washington Wizards which included an excellent bench performance from D.J. Augustin and some more All-Around greatness from Joakim Noah.