NBA report card: Grading the recent performances of five standout teams
Monday 11 November 2019 16:14, UK
Every Monday we look back over the previous week of NBA action and put five teams under the microscope as we grade their recent performances.
With three weeks of the new season now behind us, we're beginning to get an idea of exactly how teams are properly shaping up, as rotations settle and new teammates begin to develop some chemistry.
Here are the five teams we have picked out as noteworthy for their performances in Week 3...
Houston Rockets (6-3, Week 3 record 3-0) Grade - A
Last week, the Rockets received a C- grade on the weekly report card after porous defense and bricky shooting saw them stutter through the seven-day period. Seven days later though, things are looking much better for Mike D'Antoni's men.
The Houston head coach blasted his team for their defensive frailties after the blowout loss to the Miami Heat just over a week ago and the response has been emphatic. They have gone from having net defensive rating of 116.2, second-worst in the NBA to being amongst the league's stingiest teams across the past week, with a defensive rating of 97.5.
That in turn, has fuelled a massive turnaround in form as the Rockets reeled off three straight wins over the Memphis Grizzlies, Golden State Warriors and Chicago Bulls to move from .500 to 6-3 to start the season.
James Harden has also bounced back from his early-season shooting woes and has a clear lead as the league's top scorer, averaging 37.1 points per game - that's more than four points clear of the next closest man, Portland Trail Blazers star Damian Lillard.
It's been a good week for The Beard and for the Rockets and although the wins didn't come against some of the league's stronger sides, the defensive turnaround could prove vitally important moving forward.
Philadelphia 76ers (6-3, Week 3 record 1-3) Grade - D
They might've grabbed a win over Charlotte on Sunday to finish on a positive note but prior to that this week was disastrous for the previously unbeaten 76ers.
None of the losses were by big margins, but losing three on the skid on their Western Conference road trip to Phoenix, Utah and then Denver must have come as a shock to the Sixers. Friday's loss to the Nuggets was the most galling, as they held a 21-point fourth-quarter lead before surrendering to defeat on a Nikola Jokic jumper with just over a second left on the clock.
It saw the Serbian grab his first victory over Joel Embiid in four contests between the two blue-chip NBA centers.
The Process missed the game against the Suns as he served the second game of his suspension following the clash with Karl-Anthony Towns the previous week. His maturity and application were questioned by some commentators after the poor performances on the road upon his return but he responded by leading a balanced scoring effort from his team with 18 points and nine rebounds in the win against the Hornets.
Scoring contributions from across the roster is a plus certainly, but Philly will need more from Embiid and the other members of their league-best starting five if they hope to truly contend for the biggest prize of them all.
Phoenix Suns (6-3, Week 3 record 2-1) Grade - B+
I deliberately held off including Phoenix for the first two weeks of the report card because I wasn't convinced that too much could be read into how well the Arizona ball club were popping in the early-season exchanges.
But now, it very much looks like they legitimately are a good team and are very much in the reckoning to feature in the postseason, even in the stacked Western Conference.
Although they lost one of the games in this week's three-game home stand to the Miami Heat, their resilience to bounce back and blow out the Brooklyn Nets showed just how good this team are.
Devin Booker takes on the bulk of the scoring load - and hit 40 points in an impressive win against the star-heavy 76ers which kicked off the week - but with Ricky Rubio there to soak up some of the playmaking duties Booker took on last year and Aron Baynes thriving in an increased role at center, their well-balanced roster has shown marked improvement on both ends of the floor.
Against the Nets, Kyrie Irving was limited to just 15 points and was outshone by Rubio as the Spaniard scored a season-high 22 points and dished out 12 assists for an impressive double-double.
Other important role players such as Kelly Oubre Jr, Tyler Johnson and Dario Saric all scored in double figures in that game which goes to show that as well as having their star in Booker, the Suns are also deep.
Although they are without the services of DeAndre Ayton, first pick in the 2018 draft, after he was banned for 25 games for testing positive for a prohibited diuretic, they haven't missed him and Baynes has very much stepped up to the plate.
All things considered, new head coach Monty Williams must be delighted with how his team are playing. It's the Suns' best start to a season in a decade and if they carry on like this, they'll have no problems bringing playoff basketball back to Phoenix.
Boston Celtics (7-1, Week 3 record 3-0) Grade - A+
The Celtics were one of the league's big let-downs last season but getting rid of Kyrie Irving, Terry Rozier and Al Horford in the summer has afforded them a new lease of life and allowed Boston's young core to thrive.
They currently have the best record in the league (7-1) and Jaylen Brown, Jayson Tatum, Marcus Smart - and, this season, big man Robert Williams as well, increasingly - are all putting up great numbers.
Seeing so many of his young players making important contributions must delight Brad Stevens and the head coach must be just as pleased to have his offense run by someone who fits perfectly with the ethos of how he likes to play in Kemba Walker.
Last season, it felt like Kyrie Irving's style of play grated against the key principles of the Stevens blueprint and the team never seemed sure of what it should be doing around the superstar point guard to succeed.
Walker, though, has come in and seems to have integrated seamlessly - although the team were aided by the fact the young star trio and Walker got to work together over the summer in the Team USA camp at the FIBA World Cup - and it is has told in how well the team and the ball are moving on the floor. Boston lead the league in assist-to-turnover ratio (2.02), a hallmark of any decent team, showing they value possession and use it well.
Boston racked up three straight wins this week, all on the road, in Cleveland, Charlotte and then impressively on Saturday in San Antonio in the live primetime game on Sky Sports.
It means they've now won seven straight games since losing the season-opener against Philadelphia and the 135-115 blowout of the Spurs was very much a statement victory.
The Celtics look imperious at this point and will surely contend for first seed in the Eastern Conference if they continue in this vein.
The week's only real negative was the loss of Gordon Hayward, who now faces a sustained period on the sideline with a broken left hand.
Atlanta Hawks (3-6, Week 3 record 1-3) Grade - C-
The Hawks had a surprisingly good start to the season, primarily behind Trey Young's red-hot shooting, but the team now seems to be reverting somewhere back towards its pre-season expectations.
This week started well with a win against the San Antonio Spurs, but two disappointing home losses to other potential lottery teams in the Chicago Bulls and Sacramento Kings were followed by an overtime collapse in Portland against the Trail Blazers. Now, the Hawks are sitting around where many people predicted they would finish before the season begun: in the bottom five of the East.
Head coach Lloyd Pierce must be a little disappointed after the good start his team made to the new season and the nature of the defeats must sting a little. They were blown out by 20 points by the Bulls on their home floor and also lost to the Kings by double digits.
The Portland game also ended in a double-digit defeat after Blazers head coach Terry Stotts succeeded in a vital coach's challenge, not the first time he's done that this season, to help force overtime down the stretch.
After the game, Pierce, perhaps appreciating that his young team is very much a work-in-progress, praised their effort saying they had "played their tails off".
Atlanta is still in the top five teams in terms of turning the ball over during a game, following on from last season when they had the league's worst turnover ratio. That's an area they'll need to see a marked improvement on in the short term if they want more wins to follow.
But this is how it's going to be this season for the Hawks, surprising wins and spells of impressive play followed up by some frustrating losses where there is plenty of naivety on show. Player development is going to be crucial throughout the season and moving forward.
