Posted 11/10/2003 3:25 AM Updated 11/10/2003 3:39 AM Court coverage By David DuPree, USA TODAY Team of the week Houston Rockets: Coach Jeff Van Gundy has them playing defense with tenacity and offense with an unselfish hand. They lead the league in defense, giving up 78.2 points a game. They yielded only 74.8 in wins last week against Chicago, New Jersey and Orlando. Steve Francis averaged 22.3 points, 8.0 rebounds and 5.0 assists for the week, and guard mate Cuttino Mobley, in the last two games, has averaged 20.5 points. Stepping up Ron Artest, Indiana: The Pacers' defensive specialist also provided plenty of offense, averaging 20.5 points, 6.5 rebounds and 3.0 steals as Indiana went 3-0. Andrei Kirilenko, Utah: Led the Jazz to three wins in four games, averaging 15.3 points, 7.5 rebounds and 3.0 blocks. He also made 52.3% of his shots and was 28-for-28 from the free throw line. Thrills, chills and spills No Magic: Tracy McGrady, in his last two games, has shot only 22.5% (7-for-31) and averaged 9.0 points in Orlando losses to Minnesota and Houston. Seeing Redd: Milwaukee's Michael Redd averaged 25.8 points, 6.0 rebounds and was 12-for-19 from three-point range last week. Here comes Iverson: Allen Iverson averaged 31.0 points, 7.3 assists, 5.3 steals and was 28-for-33 from the free throw line in a 2-1 week for Philadelphia. Not over the Hill yet: Miami signed veteran Tyrone Hill as the NBA's only winless team tries to get more inside strength. The commish says: NBA Commissioner David Stern, reacting to the league's record low scoring and poor shooting two weeks into the season — "It's what it is. We've still had great games." One-liner With Tim Duncan and Tony Parker sidelined with sprained ankles, San Antonio's Manu Ginobili was the primary offensive weapon Thursday against the Los Angeles Lakers. His line in the 120-117 double overtime loss: Min. FG M-A 3FG M-A FT M-A Reb Ast Stl TO Pts 45 9-21 4-7 11-13 12 7 2 1 33 This week's big game San Antonio vs. New Jersey: A rematch of last season's NBA championship series between teams that have struggled a bit so far. The Spurs are hoping to have injured stars Duncan and Parker back for the game (7 p.m. ET, Wednesday, ESPN). This week's best matchup Michael Redd vs. Ronald Murray: Milwaukee and Seattle are two of the surprises of the young NBA season, and the scoring of these two is a major reason why. The shooting guards will go at each other Wednesday in Milwaukee. USA TODAY Top 10 (Through Saturday; last week ranking in parentheses) 1. L.A. Lakers (1): Kobe and Shaq have taken hatchet out of their backs and buried it. 2. Houston (-): The most improved team in the NBA. 3. New Orleans (2): The Hornets constantly are forcing the tempo. 4. Indiana (-): Jeff Foster's energy is a big factor. 5. Detroit (6): Pistons aren't flashy, but they are effective. 6. Seattle (8): The big boys in the West better not sleep on Seattle. 7. Minnesota (7): Still waiting for Hudson and Szczerbiak. 8. New Jersey (5): Nets just haven't gotten into comfortable groove yet. 9. Sacramento (9): Peja Stojakovic is carrying the offensive load. 10. Utah (-): How can you not root for the Jazz? http://www.usatoday.com/sports/basketball/nba/2003-11-10-court-coverage_x.htm
I love the feeling...but suspect the guys tooks the same thing MoT thrives on as they put this article together.
ESPN still has us at 13th on their power rankings list behind the Nuggets! That should be changing pretty soon...
#2, awesome! However, I am not ready to say they are the second best team in the NBA! Nice to see someone thinks they are that good though.
Great props! It is great to see the team doing so well considering we have a lot of our role players injured. Hopefully this week we can take care of Miami and Phoenix at minimal.
Well for those who cannot stomach too much good news about the rocket, stop reading now. A very under reported stat to date is that the team is the best rebounding team in the league. This as reported on the ESPN rebounding stat page. We are getting 53.8% of the rebounds tied with Portland for 1st; but in rebound differential, possibly another indicator of our margin for error, we lead the league with +6.4 rebounds.
Man I'm terrified by the Miami game. This feels like the first Act of a three-act play. And we all know what happens in Act III.
I think the power rankings change every Monday, our 13th ranking was right after the Memphis loss when we were 1-1, now we're 4-1, gonna be 6-1 by the end of the week.
Brace yourself because the power ranking traffic will be hot and heavy this week. Insidehopps have us at #4 this week behind LA, IND, and DET.
"If I'm curt with you, it's because time is a factor. I think fast, I talk fast, and I need you guys to act fast if you want to get out of this. So pretty please, with sugar on top, clean the ****in' car." but the one I think you are referring to unfortunately is: "Well, let's not start suckin' each other's dicks quite yet."
Not sure about the 2nd best team (yet), but it's hard to argue against being the most improved. Go JVG!
The stat is misleading for who is the best rebounding team. I say the Rockets are second best right now based on purely rebounding stats. Portland, by ESPN's stats, is the better offensive rebounding team and also is the better defensive rebounding team. The Rockets are only tied with Portland because they are a great rebounding team and make a higher percentage of shots. The Rockets high OFF FG% and Low DEF FG% gives the rockets a significantly higher DEF reb opportunity/ OFF REB opportunity. This causes the Rockets overall rebounding ability to be more predominantly weighted on defensive rebounding ability than Portland's. Since defensive rebounds are easier than offensive, this skews the data. If you're talking rebounding ability, FG% should not be a factor in the stat even if it is indirectly.
