Goeiedag, enchantée and welcome to this week's episode of Eight 2 Four presents: All-NBA Team of the Week. Today’s show is written on the back of the game of the season, the Nets at Philly. I’ve been looking forward to this game since the trade, much like the rest of the league and I was not disappointed. I mean, I did expect Philly to put up a bigger fight but my expectations were met. KD and Kyrie are deadly together and I can’t bet against them if they are both playing. Adding Ben Simmons to this team will only improve it. Philly on the other hand has taken a massive gamble taking on James “small game” Harden. If they don’t win anything this season or the next, this will have been a horrible trade and a total waste of Embiid’s window. Hopefully these teams will meet in the Playoffs and continue this rivalry between them. Elsewhere in the league we have seen the King, LeBron James, teaching everyone a lesson in chasing stats. I think we can all agree that the Lakers are over and out for the season. I assume they’ll still make the Play-In but I believe they have given up on making the Playoffs. THE sign for LeBron to start chasing some of his personal goals, or at least one of them: All-Time scoring leader. He’s about 1500 points away from Kareem and if he keeps averaging 30 points per game, as he is this season AND leading the league in scoring with it, he’s only 50 games away. Obviously, while he is chasing this massive feat, he is breaking records left, right and center. One interesting one is that he is closing in on becoming the ONLY player in NBA history to achieve 30,000 points, 10,000 rebounds and 10,000 assists in a career. In his 19th year in the league, at 37, this is incredible. But that’s enough adoration, this week we’re focusing on difference-makers on winning teams. Get ready for your All-NBA Team of the Week!
PICK #1
Our first pick of the week is Luka Doncic of the Dallas Mavericks. The Mavericks are 8 and 2 in their last 10 games and looking like possibly the strongest team in the West right now. I mean, to put it in perspective, the Suns have struggled a bit playing without Chris Paul because of his thumb and Devin Booker for a few games, the Warriors are really suffering without Draymond and the Grizzlies are not as hot as earlier in the season. And because the NBA never slows down, there’s always another hot team in town and right now, that’s the Dallas Mavericks.
After trading away Kristaps Porzingis to Washington for Spencer Dinwiddie and David Bertans, the Mavs play like they have been freed. Obviously, it wasn’t like KP was holding them back but something has clicked within the roster. It could just be as simple as Luka playing like a true MVP the last few weeks. This week alone he averaged over 30 points and 12 rebounds per game. Yes, they did lose massively against the Knicks but considering they’re 8 and 2 or even 12 and 3 in their last 15 games, that’s only a little blip on their current form. The Mavs are looking for a top 4 finish and home court advantage in the Playoffs, and they’re almost there, sitting only half a game behind the Jazz.
Luka had a very difficult start to the season, mainly because he wasn’t really in shape. But can you blame him? After crashing out of the Playoffs last season, where he was carrying Dallas on his own, he traveled to the Olympics to carry Slovenia on his own. This guy has played basketball non-stop basically since the bubble, now 2 seasons ago. I don’t believe that Luka has James Harden’s lack of motivation problem, I think he just needed a break. This season he records a triple double once every 5 games, he has 9 in total and 7 of those he has recorded since January. Luka has played himself in shape, and the front office has surrounded him with players that better suit his playing style. Dallas is not quite there with their current roster, they’re still missing something but they’ll be a difficult customer for anyone who meets them in these Playoffs. And it seems unlikely they’ll meet the Clippers this season, who eliminated them the last 2 years.
PICK #2
Our second pick of the week is Jimmy Butler of the Miami Heat. The Miami Heat are leading the Eastern Conference and are 8 and 2 in their last 10 games, or 12 and 3 in their last 15, like the Mavericks. And this includes a game against Milwaukee they lost by a single point even though they were up by 4 with only 13 seconds left. With a bit of luck, they could’ve held onto that one and they would’ve been 9 and 1. But even so, they have a nice gap between the number 2 in the East, those same Bucks, who are 2.5 games behind the Heat. At the start of the season, I tipped the Heat to be good, but I never anticipated them to be THIS good.
What makes this even scarier, or at least it should for other teams in the East, is that the Heat don’t have anyone sticking out. Yes, Jimmy Butler is still their main guy, but everyone is contributing. Kyle Lowry, at 35, is averaging 12 points a game and about 8 assists a game but that doesn’t even start to describe his influence on this team. Bam Adebayo is averaging a double double this season with just under 20 points and 10 rebounds a game. Duncan Robinson is finally finding his shooting form again after a very rough start, he averaged 50% from deep on 24 shots in the last 3 games. And, of course, Tyler Herro is the main contender to take out Sixth Man, adding 20 points per game to this team from the bench.
But, like I said, Jimmy is still the main man this season. He’s not a high-volume scorer, never was in his career, he’s only averaging 21 points per game. But his influence on and off the court is massive for this team. Butler lives and breathes Heat Culture: discipline, accountability, work ethic and enjoying somebody else’s success. That is exactly what Butler does. He sets the pace on the court and pushes everyone else to perform to the best of their abilities. It truly seems like this Miami team only wants 1 thing: revenge for the lost Finals in the bubble season. And the way they are playing right now, they could well get it this season. And wouldn’t that be a massive middle finger from Jimmy to everyone in the league who doubted him over the years?
PICK #3
Our third pick of the week is Jayson Tatum of the Boston Celtics. If there’s one team right now that has completely changed their narrative, it’s the Boston Celtics. Halfway through the season there was nobody that expected this team to turn things around. There were massive calls to trade Jaylen Brown away, that he can’t play with Jayson Tatum, Coach Ime Udoka was a total miscast and freshly promoted GM Brad Stevens had done a terrible job building the roster. And look where we are now, 14 games off the end of the season. Boston sits in fifth, only half a game away from third. Jayson Tatum is playing like an absolute superstar and this roster has the best defensive rating in the league. A-MA-ZING!
Tatum, only just turned 24 but already in his fifth year in the league, is averaging 26 points and 8 rebounds per game for the season, but in his last 3 games he averaged 43 points per game, going off against Brooklyn for 54. Brooklyn seems unbeatable when KD and Kyrie are playing but Tatum had no trouble keeping them off. Kyrie did struggle in the TD Garden against his former team but it does not take away any glory of Tatum’s performance. The Celtics have now won 5 games in a row and are 8 and 2 in their last 10 and 17 and 3 in their 20. They’ve put on a fantastic stretch of games and are another outsider we have to consider to take out the East this season.
The way the Celtics play right now, they don’t have to fear anyone. They are already playing Playoff basketball, so when they come around, these guys will be ready. We also have to remember that Tatum has already played 3 Conference Finals in his young career, so he knows what it is like to lose when it counts. The East is loaded, so it will be tough for any team to make it all the way through, but the Celtics are ready. And if they don’t quite get there this season, there’s always next year, because time is on their side.
PICK #4
Our fourth pick of the week is Giannis Antetokounmpo of the Milwaukee Bucks. The reigning champions are fighting for seeding in the last stretch of the season. After cruising through the majority of the regular season, you can tell they have now turned it up a notch and they have their minds set on top spot in the East. They are 7 and 3 in their last 10 games and have won 6 games in a row so far. Giannis is playing better than in his MVP seasons, and if it wasn’t for Jokic and Embiid, he would comfortably take home a third MVP title. But those 2 are having exceptional seasons as well and only 1 can win. Nevertheless, Giannis leads the league in scoring, alongside Embiid and LeBron, and he is carrying his team to the finish line.
But he is not doing it alone. Middleton, who played a huge game in the win against Phoenix and Jrue Holiday have stepped it up too, but maybe the biggest surprise so far this season has been Bobby Portis. With Brook Lopez out for pretty much the whole season, the team has been leaning a lot on Bobby Buckets and he has shown up. In 30 minutes per game, Bobby has averaged nearly 16 points and 10 rebounds per game, those are career highs in both categories. And defensively he is making more steals and blocking more shots. We still have to wait and see what he will be capable of in the Playoffs but right now, Portis is helping out his team in a major way.
But Milwaukee is Giannis and Giannis is Milwaukee. The Greek Freak is averaging a double double for the season and has been dragging this team along from the start of the season, when Jrue and Middleton were out. His shooting has improved, especially from deep and from the free throw line, and he seems to read the game better AGAIN. He will have a lot more competition coming out of his own Conference than in previous years, but Giannis and the Bucks have the biggest chance to win the NBA title this season, in my opinion, and become back to back NBA Champions.
PICK #5
Our fifth pick of the week is Nikola Jokic of the Denver Nuggets. This is getting ridiculous. Jokic is a glitch in the NBA Matrix. What he is doing is supposed to be impossible. I think it really doesn’t matter who is playing alongside him, he lifts everyone up. I think I, a 5 foot 5 35 year old in terrible shape, could be an NBA player when playing next to him. Now, no disrespect to the other players on the Nuggets team, they are absolutely reliable role players but with Murray, MPJ out and now Gordon, Barton and Bones Hyland missing games as well, the Nuggets injury list is becoming larger than their actual roster.
And yet, the Nuggets are sitting in 6th in the West, well ahead of the Play-In positions for now. They have won 8 of their last 10 games. Granted, most of these were against lower ranked Western Conference teams, they played Sacramento 3 times, but they did beat Golden State twice too in that stretch. And even though the Warriors are missing Draymond Green, compared to the Nuggets, that’s nothing. For me personally, Jokic is this season’s MVP, there shouldn’t even be a debate about it. Carrying this roster for so long and so far, I don’t see Embiid doing the same thing. In fact, Embiid couldn’t even carry his team when Harden checked out against the Nets.
Anyway, Jokic improves himself every season, over and over again. This season he's averaging almost a triple double, sitting at 26 points 14 rebounds and 8 assists per game. You can almost count on him recording a double double in every game he plays, only missing in 6 games he played out of 60 so far. The flipside is that he will likely be tired when the Playoffs come around but if the Nuggets can recuperate his running mate Murray and MPJ, he might find that little bit of extra energy to push through. After all, being only 27, he should still have that young man energy. Just as a side note, Steph Curry and LeBron were both 27 when they won their first championships. Do with that bit of information what you will.
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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