NBA report card: Grading the recent performances of five high-achieving and struggling teams
Boston Celtics, Golden State Warriors, Chicago Bulls and more have their week eight efforts assessed
Tuesday 11 December 2018 17:02, UK
Every Tuesday, we'll look back over the last seven days of NBA action and put five teams under the microscope as we grade their recent performances. Who will be hailed as high-achievers and who needs to do better?
Boston Celtics (16-10, Wk8 record 2-0) - Grade A-
A light week featuring two games against a pair of the league's weakest teams, but the manner in which the Boston Celtics dispatched the New York Knicks and the Chicago Bulls really caught the eye.
'Gang Green' avenged an embarrassing November loss by blowing out the Knicks 128-100 before handing out a record-breaking 56-point shellacking to the Chicago Bulls to extend their winning streak to five games (they made this six with a Monday night victory over the New Orleans Pelicans).
Brad Stevens' insertion of Marcus Smart and Marcus Morris into the starting line-up has eased the offensive and defensive burdens on franchise star Kyrie Irving, seen Gordon Hayward move successfully into a sixth man role and led to an uptick in three-point shooting percentage.
In fact, in the five games in which Stevens has deployed the Irving/Smart/Morris/Jayson Tatum/Al Horford starting line-up, they have posted a 126.2 offensive rating (average points scored per 100 possessions) and a 93.0 defensive rating (average points conceded per 100 possessions), per nba.com/stats.
After a stuttering start to the campaign, the Celtics are now looking like the force many predicted they would be this year.
Golden State Warriors (19-9, Wk8 record 3-0) - Grade A
Normal service has resumed in Golden State. Stephen Curry returned after an 11-game absence, immediately rediscovered his early-season MVP form and the Warriors reeled off three week-eight wins over at Atlanta, Cleveland and, most impressively, at Milwaukee before opening their week nine account by dispatching the Minnesota Timberwolves on Monday night.
That four-game winning streak has taken Golden State back to the top of the Western Conference standings and, if that wasn't enough to worry their rivals, Draymond Green has now returned from an 11-game injury absence too. Don't forget, the Warriors were 10-1 before Curry and Green went down.
Curry has been phenomenal since returning to the court on December 1, averaging 31.4 points, 5.8 three-pointers and 5.2 assists across five games.
The two-time MVP makes his team-mates better too. As a team, the Warriors three-point accuracy has jumped from 36.0 per cent in November to 43.4 in games since Curry's return. They are sharing the ball better too, averaging 28.4 assists per game compared to 26.0 last month during Curry's absence.
Chicago Bulls (6-22, Wk8 record 1-2) - Grade E
The Bulls sank to the foot of the Eastern Conference in a week in which, after firing coach Fred Hoiberg, they suffered the heaviest defeat in their 52-year history, a humiliating 133-77 defeat to the Boston Celtics (it was Boston's largest winning margin in their history too).
The Bulls have lost nine of their last 10 games and their players have not reacted well to the appointment of Jim Boylen as Hoiberg's replacement.
Reports of a player revolt, later denied by Boylen, surfaced at the weekend in protest at the coach's substitution patterns in the humiliating loss to Boston. He pulled all five of his starters just five minutes into the Celtics loss with the Bulls trailing 13-0 and again in the third quarter of the game, a decision some players felt had embarrassed them.
Boylen had not disguised his plans to be a more confrontational and intense taskmaster on the Bulls' sidelines and he followed through with that threat, insisting his players take part in a lengthy practice the day after the Bulls had played two games in two nights.
Instead of taking part in the scheduled Sunday practice, the Bulls players reportedly held talks with Boylen.
"We were very honest with one another; very direct," Bulls rookie forward Wendell Carter Jr. said to ESPN.com.
Vincent Goodwill of Yahoo Sports reported that one player had even contacted the Players' Association to voice concerns about Boylen's "extreme tactics".
The one bright spot for Chicago has been the return of Finnish forward Lauri Markkanen, who made a crunch-time play to seal a surprising 114-112 win over the Oklahoma City Thunder on Thursday.
Houston Rockets (11-14, Wk8 record 0-3) - Grade D
It turns out Carmelo Anthony wasn't the sole cause of the Rockets' woes after all. The veteran scorer parted ways with Houston but his exit hasn't prompted the team to return to last season's Conference-winning form.
The issue is the regression in their defense. Last season, the Rockets ranked sixth-best in the league with a 106.1 defensive rating. This campaign, without perimeter stoppers Trevor Ariza and Luc Mbah A Moute, an injury-prone Chris Paul one year older and elite defender PJ Tucker stretched way too thin, their defense ranks 25th (with a defensive rating of 113.7).
Over the last seven days, Houston's shortcomings were exposed again in heavy defeats at Minnesota and Utah before they were undone by an 11-point fourth quarter burst by Luka Doncic in a loss at Dallas.
General manager Daryl Morey has work to do to bring much-needed depth to his defensively-challenged roster.
Minnesota Timberwolves (13-14, Wk8 record 2-1) - Grade B
Prior to trading Jimmy Butler to the Philadelphia 76ers, the Minnesota Timberwolves were a dysfunctional mess, their stars Karl-Anthony Towns and Andrew Wiggins underwhelming on offense and absent on defense.
Since Butler's departure, the Wolves have battled back from 5-9 to 13-14 and have won six of their last nine games, including week eight wins over the Houston Rockets and Charlotte Hornets.
Small forward Robert Covington, acquired from the Sixers as part of the Butler trade, takes a lot of credit for the T'Wolves' improvement.
His tenacious two-way play has helped reinvigorate the previously listless Towns and Wiggins and seen the team play with greater intensity. His absence (due to right knee soreness) was keenly felt in Minnesota's sole week eight loss at Portland.
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