Not a lot of great games this weekend, I have to say. The Knicks went to overtime a couple times, but...well, those games involved the Knicks. But, here's some stuff about two games.
GSW-PHO
So, the Warriors are still frustrating as hell. Who'd have thought? They were in this game for a while, and Azubuike and Curry were having nice nights. With some teams you get the feeling that a couple players are stepping up every night to make a difference, but with this Warriors squad it's more like a bunch of guys are just not doing shit. If that makes sense. Anyway, it was a game for quite a while, but then the Warriors gave up/started sucking, and the collapse led to a somewhat easy Suns victory. They've not exactly started the season in an encouraging fashion, but I still have no idea what we'll get from this team. So I'll just expect more disappointment.
On the Suns' side, they've started quite nicely, albeit with a somewhat favorable schedule. The (once again) wide open offense is working for everyone, as the squad at Gentry's disposal is pretty much ideal for this. Just about every single player is a great fit for this season, so...we're perhaps a few players having truly resurgent seasons away from the Suns being a semi-factor. I don't think they've got a real shot at any sort of meaningful contending, but they could creep into the five or six slot. Possibly.
Here, everyone was efficient as fuck, mostly because the Warriors' D is awful when they put up as little resistance as they did on Friday night. Like I mentioned in their preview, the Suns have five or six really solid guys, and when those guys all have it going they really are a scary team. I'm hoping Leandrinho is going to keep playing well all season, as the NBA is just a little bit less fun when he's not being awesome.
Orlando-Toronto
Christ, what a game. I went into this one wondering if the Magic could pull it off, sans Vince and 'Shard, and who steps up? JJ motherfucking Redick. 27 points on 14 shots, along with 5 dimes. How fucking deep is this team? Christ.
Obviously, it wasn't just Redick. Ryan Anderson has stepped up in a big way for Orlando so far, making that trade look goddamned brilliant, and he got 20 points against the Raptors. Howard and Nelson put up big numbers, but both were at least forced to work for their numbers. Toronto could have lived with the decent but not great production from those two, if it hadn't been for the other guys stepping up. Sort of the same thing I alluded to with GSW, except this time it's in the positive sense.
Toronto fought back well after going down big early on, but Orlando's crazy-awesome three point numbers (17 of 32) really killed them eventually. As we sort of knew from the beginning, this Raptors squad has a lot of offensive threats, and Chris Bosh and Andrea Bargnani really hurt Orlando in this one. Their defensive effort wasn't really awful in this one, as...if the other team's going to go 17 of 32, there's not a ton you can really do. I don't think they are ever going to be the Spurs of days past, but it's hard to blame Toronto's potentially porous defense for this loss. On another day, perhaps they win this game, and I think Toronto would have probably taken one out of two from Orlando and Cleveland if it was offered beforehand.
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You know what. I am going to pick Orlando as the team I root for this year. I mean, I used to root for them back in the Penny days--when I last cared about basketball--and I have sort of been lost in the wilderness ever since then. But yeah, even though I have yet to see them play, they will be my team. I like that.
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