Goeiedag, enchantée and welcome to this week's episode of Eight 2 Four presents: All-NBA Team of the Week. We are exactly 2 weeks away from the end of the regular season. Usually, these would be the most boring weeks of the season. Everybody would be pining for the Playoffs. But this year is different. Teams are ramping up for a final push to secure their spots on the ladder. There are still plenty of teams with a chance to make the Playoffs or the Play-in Games. We have seen some amazing performances this week around the NBA courts. Not in the least, Steph Curry who’s had a record-breaking month of April. He scored 13 30-point games in a month, breaking Kobe’s 9-year old record of 12 30-point games in a single month. Of those 13 games, he had 11 in a row. He finished the month of April with 96 made 3s, not only the record for most 3s in a month but that’s more 3-pointers made in one month than Larry Bird in a whole season when he led the league with 90 made 3s back in ‘86-’87. Unbelievable! Other special performances included Kevin Durant, who averaged more than 30 points per game over 3 games this week, proving he is ready for the Playoffs. Julius Randle pushed his Knicks to the 4th spot in the East with a fantastic run in the month of April. DeRozan and Butler are keeping Playoff dreams for San Antonio and Miami alive. And Michael Porter Jr has stepped up in Denver, almost making people forget the Nuggets have to play without Jamal Murray. All of these guys have been exceptional and yet, they have not made this week’s selection. Get ready for your All-NBA Team of the Week.
PICK #1
Our first pick of the week is Russell Westbrook from the Washington Wizards. Westbrook is a walking triple-double. In 3 games so far this week he averaged 18 points, 13 assists and 14 rebounds. At the time of recording, the Wizards were still playing against Dallas and he was well on track to add another triple double to his list. That list is impressive. He has now 177 triple doubles for his career, only 4 less than Oscar Robertson. With 9 games left in the regular season, he can quite easily make it to the top of that list by the end of this season. He already recorded more than 30 triple doubles this season, it is the third time in his career that he did this. Only Oscar Robertson and Wilt Chamberlain were able to make over 30 triple doubles in a season but they only did it once. Russell’s form is back and just in time for the Wizards.
After a rough season, the Wizards are chasing a spot in the Play-in Game. They currently sit in tenth and hold a respectable lead on the Bulls, who have dropped to 11th. They are chasing the Pacers and Charlotte for the 8th spot, which would give them a second chance to get into the Playoffs. With a 9-1 record in the last 10 games, the Wizards have the best run in the league alongside the Knicks recently, and are on the heels of their faltering competitors.
Besides Westbrook, Washington can rely on their superstar Bradley Beal. Beal is still in the running to be the league’s leading scoring, less than half a point per game behind Curry. Both players are finally starting to find each other and have turned around all the negative news around them earlier in the season. Rui Hachimura is slowly gaining more confidence and new recruit Dan Gafford is playing much better in Washington than in Chicago. They will need everyone on their best game in the final stretch, to get to the Playoffs. But at least they have a chance, that was different a few weeks ago.
PICK #2
Our second pick of the week is Chris Paul from the Phoenix Suns. The Phoenix Suns are the best team in the league. Nobody, not even Suns supporters would have said dared to make that claim before the bubble, last season. It was there, in the bubble, that the Suns showed a first time to the world that they are a force to be reckoned with. They won 8 games in a row, and only just missed out on the Play-In game. The team of young talents, led by Booker, was ready to take the next step.
The front office brought in veterans Chris Paul and Jae Crowder to support the young cast in taking the next step. And it proved to be successful. At 35 years old, Chris Paul is playing better than ever. Maybe not statistically, but he has never been more important for a team on and off the court. He is allowing Devin Booker, Mikal Bridges and Deandre Ayton to play, score and most importantly improve, all while winning games. These last few games he has really stepped it up, deciding games at the stretch with some winning plays, against the Knicks and the Clippers. Paul has never won a championship in his career, I wouldn’t be surprised if he sees these Phoenix Suns as his opportunity to finally get some silverware in his cupboard.
In the final years of his career, Chris Paul has made it his mission to improve every team he plays on. In Houston, he dragged Harden’s butt to the Western Conference Finals and they would have won those if he didn’t end up injuring his achilles in game 5. In OKC, he took a team destined for the bottom of the league, all the way to the Playoffs and nearly caused an upset in the first round against his former team the Rockets. Now he is in Phoenix, a team that finished 10th in the Western Conference last season, and has led them to the number 1 seed in the most difficult conference in the league. Devin Booker is the best player on this team, but Paul is the engine that makes everything tick.
PICK #3
Our third pick of the week is Kevin Porter Jr from the Houston Rockets. Coming out of the same draft class as Zion Williamson and Ja Morant, Kevin Porter Junior is not far behind these two when it comes to talent. Yet, he dropped to the 30th pick when the Cleveland Cavaliers took him off the board. He didn’t get many opportunities to prove himself and had a fairly invisible rookie season. He didn’t play at all at the start of this season, due to personal reasons. When he was finally ready to return, he kicked up a stick in the Cleveland locker room and was immediately traded away to Houston, for next to nothing. In Houston, he was sent down to the G-League where he led the league in points per game. He was rewarded with a spot in the starting 5 when he returned.
KPJ making it to the NBA wasn’t a given, in fact, him making it to the draft alone, was half a miracle. He’s had a troubled childhood, to say the least. I don’t have enough time to explain everything in detail but Paolo Uggetti from The Ringer wrote a great article about him back in 2019. Long story short, KPJ lost his dad when he was only 4 years old, making it very difficult for his mum to look after him. KPJ grew up on the bad streets of Seattle, quite literally and, if it wasn’t for Jamal Crawford and his basketball coaches, he would have never made it out. His background is making it hard for KPJ to adjust to life in the spotlight, and he has already made plenty of mistakes in his short career. The latest one being fined $50 grand for breaking Covid protocols when visiting a strip club in Houston.
But KPJ is finally finding himself on the court. In 23 games so far for the Rockets he is averaging 16.7 points and 6.4 assists per game. The big point guard has a very similar playing style to James Harden, something they like to see in Houston, and he knows how to score. He proved that against Milwaukee this week when he became the youngest player ever with a 50 point, 10 assist double double. KPJ can turn himself into the next big star in Houston, he just needs to concentrate on his craft now and leave everything else at the door.
PICK #4
Our fourth pick of the week is Jayson Tatum from the Boston Celtics. Without Tatum, the Celtics would be a lottery team. It is as simple as that. The Celtics need Tatum to play out of his skin this season and they are still not sure of a Playoff spot. Even though he has barely missed a game since his return from getting Covid back in January, he regularly complained about not feeling 100%. But since the All-Star break, Tatum has been unleashed. In the month of April, he broke his career high of 41 3 times. He scored 44 against the Warriors, 53 against the Timberwolves and on Friday he scored 60 against the Spurs in an incredible comeback for the Celtics.
Of course, we can’t credit everything to Tatum on his own. His teammate Jaylen Brown is probably the only player in the NBA that can challenge Julius Randle for the Most Improved Player award. And Kemba Walker seems to have found his Charlotte form again, although he hasn’t played in the last 3 games. The Celtics are looking for a strong, closing run that will seal their Playoff spot. They are currently in the 6th spot, tied with Miami but only half a game behind the Hawks. They can still make it to the 4th spot, but they can also drop back into the Play-In game. Boston can’t afford to lose.
This is Tatum’s fourth year in the league and in the last 3, he made it to the Eastern Conference Finals twice. He has been the man on this team since he was drafted. In 2018, LeBron and the Cavaliers were too strong for Tatum and the Celtics and in 2020, Butler and the Heat send Boston home in 6 games. Tatum is only 22 years old, but he is ready to win. He will be deeply disappointed if Boston doesn’t make it past the Conference Finals this season, but they will have to be able to lean on more players than Tatum alone.
PICK #5
Our fifth pick of the week is Nikola Jokic from the Denver Nuggets. When Jamal Murray went down with a season-ending ACL injury in the middle of April, I believed it was game over for the Nuggets. Up to that point, they were the most likely outsider to trump the LA teams to make it to the Finals, but they would need their whole squad, at full strength. On top of that, they lost his replacement Monte Morris only a week later with a hamstring injury. It was obvious that the Nuggets were going to struggle to even keep their Playoff spot. And the teams below Denver in the standings, especially the ones in the 7 to 10th spot, were getting excited.
The whole league saw it happening, except for the Denver Nuggets themselves. Head Coach, Mike Malone, looked at Michael Porter Junior to step up and contribute more to the scoring for the Nuggets. He didn’t even flinch. MPJ has been waiting impatiently for the call to be more involved in the scoring. In his last 10 games, he only had one game where he scored less than 20 points. Aaron Gordon has really settled in nicely, and is very happy to contribute where necessary and rookie Campazzo is getting more confident every game. But the main man on this team has been and always will be Nikola Jokic.
Jokic has played on MVP level all season, and is showing no signs of slowing down. The big man is in control of the ball in offence and dominates the paint in defence. He denied Zion with a game-winning block in the final second of the game against the Pelicans. He has improved so much that he should be the first player to win both Most Improved and Most Valuable Player trophies. Denver looks to hold onto home court advantage, and even without Jamal Murray, they might be the biggest surprise of the year, if they can come out of the West this year.
This is our All-NBA team of the Week. Please share our podcast and give us 5 stars. If you have any questions, you can contact the show on eight2fouroffice@gmail.com. Thank you for listening, ballers out!
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