[ESPN Insider] Five teams on mean streaks

senter · Jan 23, 2012

http://insider.espn.go.com/nba/stor...em-120123&_slug_=nba-streaking-teams-good-bad

can someone please post this article? I'm guessing the rockets are one of the teams, but even if they aren't it would be an interesting read. Thanks in advance!

Commodore · Jan 23, 2012

here you go

Remember when losing Zach Randolph was supposed to condemn the Memphis Grizzlies to two months of muddling in the nether regions of the Western Conference before trying to make a late playoff push once he came back?

Well, they aren't following the script. Unbelievably, the Griz enter Monday's games in first place in the Southwest Division thanks to a six-game winning streak that includes five double-digit wins. Memphis is up to No. 6 in the Power Rankings while posing its record against the league's sixth-most difficult schedule. Believe it or not, only two Western Conference teams have better scoring margins than the Grizzlies' plus-3.7 -- and that's even with Memphis losing its fourth game of the season by 40 to Chicago.

Things likely will get harder before they get easier. Memphis embarks on a four-game West Coast swing starting today, goes home for tough games against Denver and San Antonio, then hits the road for games in Atlanta, Oklahoma City and Boston.

Nonetheless, Memphis' ability to not only survive but thrive in Randolph's absence has been one of the surprises of the early season. And we're talking about the Grizzlies today because they're one of five teams entering Monday night's packed schedule on a streak of at least six wins or losses.

Looking closer, the amazing part is Memphis' ability to play consistently good offense even without its go-to scorer. The defensive part was a given: The Grizzlies rank ninth in defensive efficiency. That shouldn't surprise anyone since Memphis was a fantastic defensive club in the second half of last season thanks to the torrents of turnovers it forced; Randolph wasn't a major factor in that effort. Through Sunday's games, the Grizzlies were a close second behind Milwaukee in opponent turnover rate, offsetting lackluster rebounding (no surprise without Z-Bo) and a propensity for fouling.

But the offense? Memphis was average even with Randolph; the expectation without him was that it'd be well south of that. Maybe the Grizzlies will slip to that point eventually; it's been only 11 games without Randolph and in that time they've glided along with no other significant injuries.

As long as Marc Gasol and Mike Conley stay healthy, the Griz's recent winning ways should have some staying power. Both have played All-Star-caliber basketball since Randolph went out (side note: this is different from saying they'll actually make the All-Star team), a factor that's doubly important because each is backed up by replacement-level talent. The combination of Randolph's absence and the brutal schedule may take a toll on Gasol in particular; he's not in great shape and averages 37.7 minutes a game. Dwight Howard is the only other center averaging more than 35, and Gasol is a bit more pear-shaped than Dwight.

But I digress. Right now Gasol is playing wonderfully, taking advantage of the increased availability of low-post touches to average a career-best 15.2 points per game. He's also cut his foul rate -- a significant factor in his career-high minutes -- and dishing out more than three assists a game. In a league where virtually everybody's numbers are down, his are up fairly sharply from a year ago.

Conley has been a revelation as well, getting more pick-and-roll calls without Randolph and slicing and dicing his way to the basket. He is shooting a career-best 48.9 percent and has sharply upped his assist rate. Combined with the league's deepest wing rotation -- Rudy Gay, Tony Allen and O.J. Mayo are playing so well that a still-productive Sam Young can hardly get on the court -- Memphis might be able to remain in the West's top five until Randolph returns around the All-Star break.

Here's a look at four other streaking teams, for better or worse:

Houston Rockets

Quietly the Rockets have ripped off a six-game win streak of their own heading into Monday night's Adelman-McHale Reunion Game in Minnesota. In Houston's case a kind schedule has been a major factor -- the Rockets beat four bad teams and nipped San Antonio partly because the Spurs sat Tim Duncan. That's why respect in the Power Rankings has been harder to come by -- Houston stands 16th. But it still has reasons for encouragement.

Most notable among them is Sam Dalembert. In the Rockets' first 10 games he never had more than 10 points or 10 rebounds; for the stretch as a whole he averaged 5.6 points and 5.5 rebounds and generally looked like a bust as a free-agent pickup.

Apparently he just needed to play his way into shape. In the six-game win streak, Dalembert exploded for 14.7 points, 11.3 rebounds and 3.2 blocks while helping one of the league's most permissive defenses become a bit more resistant.

Houston is also getting huge production from Kyle Lowry, and the interesting part is that the Rockets' go-to guys still haven't played their best basketball. (Well, one hopes.) The duo of Kevin Martin and Luis Scola led the team in PER by a wide margin a year ago and combined to average over 40 points a game. This season each is scoring less and doing so with dramatically less efficiency. But should they rebound to their historic norms, the Rockets will have a top-five offense.

New York Knicks

The Knicks have played the league's easiest schedule so far -- it's second in lowest winning percentage, slightly behind Indiana. But the Pacers have played 10 of their 15 games on the road while New York had nine of its 16 at home.

Despite the soft slate, the Knicks have dropped six straight -- they've already lost home games to Toronto, Phoenix, Charlotte and Milwaukee.

Shockingly, the problem is the offense. New York is 24th in offensive efficiency despite the league's third-highest free throw rate; it's bad at every other aspect of offense. The lack of a quality point guard has obviously been a problem, particularly given Toney Douglas' unexpectedly horrifying start to the season, but so has the decline of Amare Stoudemire. He has lost more than seven points off his scoring average and is shooting just 41.3 percent; he's a career 53.4 percent marksman.

Obviously the lack of a point guard to get him the ball in good spots hurts, but one worries there are more serious issues as well -- ones related to his two surgically repaired knees. We'll know more once Baron Davis returns, which could be soon, but this losing skid has already put New York in a hole relative to the playoffs. The Knicks' schedule turns harsh from early March to the end of the season; now is when they need to be banking wins to get them through that stretch.

Toronto Raptors

Toronto has lost eight straight, and two reasons stand out: (1) lack of talent, and (2) Andrea Bargnani's injury. Here's a fun stat that I cribbed from Toronto's TV guys on Sunday while the rest of you were watching football: The Raps are 3-17 over the past two seasons when Bargnani doesn't play. He's been out the past six games with a calf strain, and the Raptors' offense has been a mess in his absence. Yesterday's 91 points against the Clippers were the most Toronto's scored without him; the Raptors are averaging just 83.2 in the six games.

Bargnani will likely return soon, perhaps as early as Tuesday in Phoenix, but with the Raps on a five-game road swing this streak may hit double digits before the bleeding stops.

Nonetheless, it shouldn't offset one piece of good news from Dwane Casey's project in Toronto: The Raps are now playing somewhat competent defense, standing 19th in Defensive Efficiency despite a copious lack of frontcourt muscle. If Bargnani can come back and revive the 29th-ranked offense, Toronto can avoid further skids.
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Noob Cake · Jan 23, 2012

senter said: ↑

http://insider.espn.go.com/nba/stor...em-120123&_slug_=nba-streaking-teams-good-bad

can someone please post this article? I'm guessing the rockets are one of the teams, but even if they aren't it would be an interesting read. Thanks in advance!
Click to expand...

http://bbs.hoopchina.com/3175741.html

Usually just search the article title in Google. A Chinese site usually has the articles mentioning Rockets.

ItsMyFault · Jan 23, 2012

Remember when losing Zach Randolph was supposed to condemn the Memphis Grizzlies to two months of muddling in the nether regions of the Western Conference before trying to make a late playoff push once he came back?

Well, they aren't following the script. Unbelievably, the Griz enter Monday's games in first place in the Southwest Division thanks to a six-game winning streak that includes five double-digit wins. Memphis is up to No. 6 in the Power Rankings while posing its record against the league's sixth-most difficult schedule. Believe it or not, only two Western Conference teams have better scoring margins than the Grizzlies' plus-3.7 -- and that's even with Memphis losing its fourth game of the season by 40 to Chicago.

Things likely will get harder before they get easier. Memphis embarks on a four-game West Coast swing starting today, goes home for tough games against Denver and San Antonio, then hits the road for games in Atlanta, Oklahoma City and Boston.

Nonetheless, Memphis' ability to not only survive but thrive in Randolph's absence has been one of the surprises of the early season. And we're talking about the Grizzlies today because they're one of five teams entering Monday night's packed schedule on a streak of at least six wins or losses.

Looking closer, the amazing part is Memphis' ability to play consistently good offense even without its go-to scorer. The defensive part was a given: The Grizzlies rank ninth in defensive efficiency. That shouldn't surprise anyone since Memphis was a fantastic defensive club in the second half of last season thanks to the torrents of turnovers it forced; Randolph wasn't a major factor in that effort. Through Sunday's games, the Grizzlies were a close second behind Milwaukee in opponent turnover rate, offsetting lackluster rebounding (no surprise without Z-Bo) and a propensity for fouling.

But the offense? Memphis was average even with Randolph; the expectation without him was that it'd be well south of that. Maybe the Grizzlies will slip to that point eventually; it's been only 11 games without Randolph and in that time they've glided along with no other significant injuries.

As long as Marc Gasol and Mike Conley stay healthy, the Griz's recent winning ways should have some staying power. Both have played All-Star-caliber basketball since Randolph went out (side note: this is different from saying they'll actually make the All-Star team), a factor that's doubly important because each is backed up by replacement-level talent. The combination of Randolph's absence and the brutal schedule may take a toll on Gasol in particular; he's not in great shape and averages 37.7 minutes a game. Dwight Howard is the only other center averaging more than 35, and Gasol is a bit more pear-shaped than Dwight.

But I digress. Right now Gasol is playing wonderfully, taking advantage of the increased availability of low-post touches to average a career-best 15.2 points per game. He's also cut his foul rate -- a significant factor in his career-high minutes -- and dishing out more than three assists a game. In a league where virtually everybody's numbers are down, his are up fairly sharply from a year ago.

Conley has been a revelation as well, getting more pick-and-roll calls without Randolph and slicing and dicing his way to the basket. He is shooting a career-best 48.9 percent and has sharply upped his assist rate. Combined with the league's deepest wing rotation -- Rudy Gay, Tony Allen and O.J. Mayo are playing so well that a still-productive Sam Young can hardly get on the court -- Memphis might be able to remain in the West's top five until Randolph returns around the All-Star break.

Here's a look at four other streaking teams, for better or worse:

Houston Rockets
Quietly the Rockets have ripped off a six-game win streak of their own heading into Monday night's Adelman-McHale Reunion Game in Minnesota. In Houston's case a kind schedule has been a major factor -- the Rockets beat four bad teams and nipped San Antonio partly because the Spurs sat Tim Duncan. That's why respect in the Power Rankings has been harder to come by -- Houston stands 16th. But it still has reasons for encouragement.

Most notable among them is Sam Dalembert. In the Rockets' first 10 games he never had more than 10 points or 10 rebounds; for the stretch as a whole he averaged 5.6 points and 5.5 rebounds and generally looked like a bust as a free-agent pickup.

Apparently he just needed to play his way into shape. In the six-game win streak, Dalembert exploded for 14.7 points, 11.3 rebounds and 3.2 blocks while helping one of the league's most permissive defenses become a bit more resistant.

Houston is also getting huge production from Kyle Lowry, and the interesting part is that the Rockets' go-to guys still haven't played their best basketball. (Well, one hopes.) The duo of Kevin Martin and Luis Scola led the team in PER by a wide margin a year ago and combined to average over 40 points a game. This season each is scoring less and doing so with dramatically less efficiency. But should they rebound to their historic norms, the Rockets will have a top-five offense.

New York Knicks
The Knicks have played the league's easiest schedule so far -- it's second in lowest winning percentage, slightly behind Indiana. But the Pacers have played 10 of their 15 games on the road while New York had nine of its 16 at home.

Despite the soft slate, the Knicks have dropped six straight -- they've already lost home games to Toronto, Phoenix, Charlotte and Milwaukee.

Shockingly, the problem is the offense. New York is 24th in offensive efficiency despite the league's third-highest free throw rate; it's bad at every other aspect of offense. The lack of a quality point guard has obviously been a problem, particularly given Toney Douglas' unexpectedly horrifying start to the season, but so has the decline of Amare Stoudemire. He has lost more than seven points off his scoring average and is shooting just 41.3 percent; he's a career 53.4 percent marksman.

Obviously the lack of a point guard to get him the ball in good spots hurts, but one worries there are more serious issues as well -- ones related to his two surgically repaired knees. We'll know more once Baron Davis returns, which could be soon, but this losing skid has already put New York in a hole relative to the playoffs. The Knicks' schedule turns harsh from early March to the end of the season; now is when they need to be banking wins to get them through that stretch.

Toronto Raptors
Toronto has lost eight straight, and two reasons stand out: (1) lack of talent, and (2) Andrea Bargnani's injury. Here's a fun stat that I cribbed from Toronto's TV guys on Sunday while the rest of you were watching football: The Raps are 3-17 over the past two seasons when Bargnani doesn't play. He's been out the past six games with a calf strain, and the Raptors' offense has been a mess in his absence. Yesterday's 91 points against the Clippers were the most Toronto's scored without him; the Raptors are averaging just 83.2 in the six games.

Bargnani will likely return soon, perhaps as early as Tuesday in Phoenix, but with the Raps on a five-game road swing this streak may hit double digits before the bleeding stops.

Nonetheless, it shouldn't offset one piece of good news from Dwane Casey's project in Toronto: The Raps are now playing somewhat competent defense, standing 19th in Defensive Efficiency despite a copious lack of frontcourt muscle. If Bargnani can come back and revive the 29th-ranked offense, Toronto can avoid further skids.

New Orleans Hornets
The Hornets have lost seven straight since arguably the league's biggest upset win of the season (beating Denver on the road by 13) and have dropped 13 of their past 14 games. Adding insult to injury, the Chris Paul trade haul has been a disappointment. Al-Farouq Aminu has played his way out of the rotation; the Timberwolves appear rather competent, so the Hornets' draft pick from Minnesota will likely only be in the teens; and Chris Kaman has been inconsistent.

And finally, there's the obvious: New Orleans is 1-1 when Eric Gordon plays and 2-12 when he doesn't. Losing him to a knee bruise sent the offense into a tailspin from which it has not recovered, and it's not clear when he'll be back. Making matters worse, Marco Belinelli has been horrendous in Gordon's absence, offsetting decent production from a deep frontcourt and a career year from point guard Jarrett Jack.

Despite the losing, New Orleans is an almost-respectable 22nd in the Power Rankings, as the Hornets have played a difficult schedule and lost several close games. Defensively they've remained fairly solid; they just can't score without Gordon. While the playoffs are likely too far gone now, they can stay competitive once their go-to scoring threat returns.
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Enjoy.

J.R. · Jan 23, 2012

Ha nevermind.

BleedRocketsRed · Jan 23, 2012

Noob Cake, I urge you to take down that hyperlink.

tmoney1101 · Jan 23, 2012

deja vu ^

martin isn't as efficient because he's not getting his usual touch fouls. bad news if that trend continues.

senter · Jan 23, 2012

thanks guys

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[ESPN Insider] Five teams on mean streaks

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