We kick off each week in the NBA by letting you know what’s been going well around the NBA—and what’s been falling apart:
RISING
1. Kobe-less Lakers. On Sunday, the Los Angeles Lakers played their fifth straight game without Kobe Bryant, who is sitting with swelling in his shin. And for the fourth time in those five games, the Lakers managed a win, albeit a sloppy one that went to overtime against Dallas.
Without Bryant in the lineup, a few things have happened over the last five games. Most notably, Matt Barnes has been outstanding off the bench, and was just two assists shy of a triple-double on Sunday (11 points, 11 rebounds). With Bryant out, Barnes has averaged 11.8 points and 8.4 rebounds, shooting 57.9 percent from the field. The team’s other small forward, Metta World Peace, has excelled as well, averaging 17.0 points on 51.6 percent shooting in the five-game stretch. Throw in 13.4 points per game from Ramon Sessions, Pau Gasol’s consistency and Andrew Bynum getting himself refocused, and the Lakers are handling themselves nicely without their star.
“Metta, Andrew, myself, we all feel we have to step up in Kobe’s absence,” Gasol said after Sunday’s win. “A different guy can do it every game.”
2. Carmelo Anthony. It has been a bizarre season for Anthony, the New York Knicks star, who was playing injured to start the year and underperformed as he played through the pain. Eventually he sat out, came back in the midst of the Lin-sanity phenomenon, and seemed to ruin the team’s fun with his presence. He was even booed, and coach Mike D’Antoni reportedly asked ownership to trade him.
But go back to March 26—that’s when Anthony’s season turned. At the time, the Knicks’ playoff hopes were in a very precarious spot. They had lost forward Amare Stoudemire to a back injury, and point guard Jeremy Lin went out with a knee injury. Anthony had to take over in order to rescue the season.
He has done just that, helping the Knicks to a 7-4 record since Lin and Stoudemire went down. Anthony is averaging 33.0 points in that span, with 7.4 rebounds, shooting 50 percent.
3. Agent Zero 2.0. This might have been an odd statement as recently as a month ago, but it is now fair to wonder what sort of value guard Gilbert Arenas will have this offseason. Arenas is 30 and, playing on his thrice-operated-on knee, obviously won’t ever be the player he was five years ago. But in 13 games with the Grizzlies he is showing that he can be a useful bench player. His first few outings were rough, but in his last nine, he is averaging 7.0 points on 22-for-39 shooting from the field.
FALLING
1. Derrick Rose’s patience. Rose has been falling a lot lately—literally. As a driving point guard, he is a natural target of big men looking to get the most of their six fouls. In fact, go back to the first round of last year’s playoffs and find Rose repeatedly annoyed with Pacers center Jeff Foster, to the point that Rose had to be separated from Foster twice. On Sunday, Rose took another hard foul in the Bulls’ win over the Pistons, this time from forward Charlie Villanueva, who drew blood on Rose’s nose when he hacked Rose going to the basket in the fourth quarter.
After the game, Rose said, “I’m sick and tired of people trying to take cheap shots. ... He didn't even aim for the ball. At least go for the ball. I felt like he didn't and that's the reason why I got mad a little bit.” The problem for Rose and the Bulls, as they saw last year, is that once the playoffs start, the physicality is only going to get more intense.
2. The Maloofs. No matter what happens from here, there is no removing the egg from the faces of the Kings’ owners, who backed out of a plan that would have yielded the Kings a new arena in downtown Sacramento. The Maloofs carefully picked apart the new arena plan, saying it included aspects they’d never agreed to, and that it would leave the Kings and the city in tough financial shape.
But, in listening to the public comments of commissioner David Stern (“We asked the city of Sacramento to step up, and the city stepped up in an extraordinary way”) and mayor Kevin Johnson (“They are now saying they don't want to do the deal, which essentially means they don't want to be in Sacramento”), it’s clear that the league and the city went above and beyond to accommodate the Maloofs, and they still pulled the rug out at the very last minute.
The karmic lesson out of this whole thing is that, in the end, the Maloofs are stuck with what might be the league’s worst franchise.
3. Nick Young. Remember the notion of Young coming back to his hometown and solidifying the Clippers’ shooting guard position, their weak spot in the absence of the injured Chauncey Billups? Well, that hasn’t worked out so well. Young is still behind Randy Foye on the depth chart and, in the month of April, after this weekend’s games, he’s averaged just 7.6 points on 33.8 percent shooting and 21.9 percent on 3-pointers.
RANK ‘EM
(last week’s rankings in parentheses)
1. San Antonio Spurs (1).
2. Oklahoma City Thunder (2).
3. Chicago Bulls (4).
4. Miami Heat (3).
5. L.A. Lakers (6).
6. L.A. Clippers (5).
7. Indiana Pacers (8).
8. Memphis Grizzlies (9).
9. Boston Celtics (10).
10. Atlanta Hawks (7).
11. Orlando Magic (11).
12. Denver Nuggets (17).
13. Houston Rockets (12).
14. Dallas Mavericks (13).
15. New York Knicks (14).
16. Philadelphia 76ers (15).
17. Phoenix Suns (18).
18. Milwaukee Bucks (16).
19. Utah Jazz (19).
20. Portland Trail Blazers (15).
21. Toronto Raptors (23).
22. New Jersey Nets (21).
23. Golden State Warriors (22).
24. Minnesota Timberwolves (24).
25. Detroit Pistons (25).
26. New Orleans Hornets (27).
27. Sacramento Kings (26).
28. Cleveland Cavaliers (28).
29. Washington Wizards (29).
30. Charlotte Bobcats (30).
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