🏀Stock Watch: What's trending in the NBA👀
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Welcome to the latest installment of Stock Watch, a look at what's been trending up and down in the NBA.
⬆️ Knicks' elite defense
Jamie Sabau / Getty Images Sport / Getty
New York Knicks fans watched their team start 10-13 this season while their ideal offseason target, Donovan Mitchell, put up career-best numbers for a rising Cleveland Cavaliers team. However, as the calendar turned to December, the Knicks won eight straight games thanks to a dominant defense.
New York is posting the league's second-best defensive rating this month and only allowed over 100 points twice in regulation during its streak. Mitchell Robinson was a key cog in that effort, as the big man sits within the top 20 in individual defensive rating. The Knicks are 10-5 when he plays at least 25 minutes per game, with the 7-footer a collective plus-136 in those contests. With Jalen Brunson, Julius Randle, and RJ Barrett picking up their offensive games, this well-rounded Knicks team is moving in the right direction heading into 2023.
⬇️ Raptors' nosedive
Michael Reaves / Getty Images Sport / Getty
While a couple of impressive wins against the Knicks and Cavaliers have stopped the bleeding for now, it's been an awful few weeks for the Toronto Raptors. The team had lost six straight games, including two to the lowly Orlando Magic. Worse, a group known for its defense allowed an average of 116 points over that stretch.
Toronto has flaws all over the board. The team lacks offensive creation and has recorded the league's second-worst 3-point percentage. Plus, the Raptors are dead last in 2-point percentage defense due to a lack of interior size. As a projected playoff team in the Eastern Conference's muddy middle, their performance as of late has left much to be desired.
⬆️ JJJ's defensive dominance
Ned Dishman / National Basketball Association / Getty
Jaren Jackson Jr. is the Memphis Grizzlies' X-factor. He raises the ceiling for a potential championship contender due to his defensive impact. Since Jackson returned from offseason foot surgery Nov. 15, the Grizzlies have the second-best defensive rating per 100 possessions at 106.8. They also own a 10-6 record with him in the lineup.
Individually, Jackson has already climbed to ninth in total blocks with 49 through 16 contests. His 3.1 per game would lead the league if he'd played the minimum amount of games required. The 23-year-old also recorded the most blocks per contest at 2.3 and total blocks (177) last season. Paired with Desmond Bane's continued growth as an offensive talent and Ja Morant’s dominance, a new Big Three is emerging in Memphis.
⬇️ Bottom of the East gets worse
Brian Sevald / National Basketball Association / Getty
It doesn't look like the Eastern Conference's basement-dwellers have improved from last season. Even with the Orlando Magic's recent six-game winning streak, the team is lumped in with the likes of the Washington Wizards, Charlotte Hornets, and Detroit Pistons at the bottom of the conference, with the Chicago Bulls and Toronto Raptors a few losses away from joining the pack.
Detroit lost franchise cornerstone Cade Cunningham to a shin injury after 12 games, leaving the Pistons without a positive direction this season. Charlotte got All-Star LaMelo Ball back for five games in November after a preseason ankle injury - until he re-injured the same ankle after stepping on a courtside fan’s foot. Even with his return, the Hornets rank 24th in offensive rating per 100 possessions when Ball's played.
Washington has plummeted out of play-in contention after dropping 10 games in a row. With no major injuries this season except for Delon Wright, the Wizards might've found an avenue out of basketball purgatory and into a future blue-chip prospect. Another long season continues to chug along for these clubs.
⬆️ Nets in crunch time
Adam Hunger / Getty Images Sport / Getty
The Brooklyn Nets are dominating in "clutch" situations. They're 12-3 in games within five points in the final five minutes of regulation or overtime, per NBA.com, with a plus-46 point differential in those situations.
It's not hard to see why the Nets are so good in crunch time. Kevin Durant and Kyrie Irving are two of the league's best isolation players - Irving leads all players in points per possession on isolations, while Durant is in the top 15 (minimum 10% iso frequency). When the chips are down and the game devolves into one-on-one battles, Brooklyn usually has the advantage.
Not coincidentally, Durant is fifth among all players in points per minute in the clutch, while Irving is 10th (minimum 10 clutch games). Irving's game-winning buzzer-beater in Toronto was just one example of what these two can do with the game on the line.
⬇️ West's flawed contenders
Icon Sportswire / Icon Sportswire / Getty
The top of the Western Conference remains murky. The defending champion Golden State Warriors are below .500 after 34 games. The Los Angeles Clippers - a popular preseason pick to win the conference - have struggled to get healthy, and it's fair to question whether Kawhi Leonard can make it through a full campaign. It's also hard to trust the Phoenix Suns, with 37-year-old Chris Paul putting up career lows in scoring and field-goal percentage.
That leaves the Denver Nuggets, Memphis Grizzlies, and New Orleans Pelicans atop the West standings. The Nuggets have an elite offense but a bottom-10 defensive rating, and they've been a disaster whenever Nikola Jokic sits. The Pelicans have shown promise, but it's rare to see a young team make the leap from first-round exit to an NBA Finals appearance. Zion Williamson and Brandon Ingram have hardly played together this season.
Memphis is perhaps the West's most reliable team. The Grizzlies got valuable playoff experience the past two years, and they're in a good position to earn a high seed. Still, they're just 7-10 on the road and rely heavily on transition scoring. It remains to be seen whether Memphis can sustain that in the postseason when games usually slow down.
Sports gambling forum www.thegx.ca/forum copied and pasted this from the web🍻
TheGx sports betting forum copy and paste machines reporting:
Welcome to the latest installment of Stock Watch, a look at what's been trending up and down in the NBA.
⬆️ Knicks' elite defense
Jamie Sabau / Getty Images Sport / Getty
New York Knicks fans watched their team start 10-13 this season while their ideal offseason target, Donovan Mitchell, put up career-best numbers for a rising Cleveland Cavaliers team. However, as the calendar turned to December, the Knicks won eight straight games thanks to a dominant defense.
New York is posting the league's second-best defensive rating this month and only allowed over 100 points twice in regulation during its streak. Mitchell Robinson was a key cog in that effort, as the big man sits within the top 20 in individual defensive rating. The Knicks are 10-5 when he plays at least 25 minutes per game, with the 7-footer a collective plus-136 in those contests. With Jalen Brunson, Julius Randle, and RJ Barrett picking up their offensive games, this well-rounded Knicks team is moving in the right direction heading into 2023.
⬇️ Raptors' nosedive
Michael Reaves / Getty Images Sport / Getty
While a couple of impressive wins against the Knicks and Cavaliers have stopped the bleeding for now, it's been an awful few weeks for the Toronto Raptors. The team had lost six straight games, including two to the lowly Orlando Magic. Worse, a group known for its defense allowed an average of 116 points over that stretch.
Toronto has flaws all over the board. The team lacks offensive creation and has recorded the league's second-worst 3-point percentage. Plus, the Raptors are dead last in 2-point percentage defense due to a lack of interior size. As a projected playoff team in the Eastern Conference's muddy middle, their performance as of late has left much to be desired.
⬆️ JJJ's defensive dominance
Ned Dishman / National Basketball Association / Getty
Jaren Jackson Jr. is the Memphis Grizzlies' X-factor. He raises the ceiling for a potential championship contender due to his defensive impact. Since Jackson returned from offseason foot surgery Nov. 15, the Grizzlies have the second-best defensive rating per 100 possessions at 106.8. They also own a 10-6 record with him in the lineup.
Individually, Jackson has already climbed to ninth in total blocks with 49 through 16 contests. His 3.1 per game would lead the league if he'd played the minimum amount of games required. The 23-year-old also recorded the most blocks per contest at 2.3 and total blocks (177) last season. Paired with Desmond Bane's continued growth as an offensive talent and Ja Morant’s dominance, a new Big Three is emerging in Memphis.
⬇️ Bottom of the East gets worse
Brian Sevald / National Basketball Association / Getty
It doesn't look like the Eastern Conference's basement-dwellers have improved from last season. Even with the Orlando Magic's recent six-game winning streak, the team is lumped in with the likes of the Washington Wizards, Charlotte Hornets, and Detroit Pistons at the bottom of the conference, with the Chicago Bulls and Toronto Raptors a few losses away from joining the pack.
Detroit lost franchise cornerstone Cade Cunningham to a shin injury after 12 games, leaving the Pistons without a positive direction this season. Charlotte got All-Star LaMelo Ball back for five games in November after a preseason ankle injury - until he re-injured the same ankle after stepping on a courtside fan’s foot. Even with his return, the Hornets rank 24th in offensive rating per 100 possessions when Ball's played.
Washington has plummeted out of play-in contention after dropping 10 games in a row. With no major injuries this season except for Delon Wright, the Wizards might've found an avenue out of basketball purgatory and into a future blue-chip prospect. Another long season continues to chug along for these clubs.
⬆️ Nets in crunch time
Adam Hunger / Getty Images Sport / Getty
The Brooklyn Nets are dominating in "clutch" situations. They're 12-3 in games within five points in the final five minutes of regulation or overtime, per NBA.com, with a plus-46 point differential in those situations.
It's not hard to see why the Nets are so good in crunch time. Kevin Durant and Kyrie Irving are two of the league's best isolation players - Irving leads all players in points per possession on isolations, while Durant is in the top 15 (minimum 10% iso frequency). When the chips are down and the game devolves into one-on-one battles, Brooklyn usually has the advantage.
Not coincidentally, Durant is fifth among all players in points per minute in the clutch, while Irving is 10th (minimum 10 clutch games). Irving's game-winning buzzer-beater in Toronto was just one example of what these two can do with the game on the line.
⬇️ West's flawed contenders
Icon Sportswire / Icon Sportswire / Getty
The top of the Western Conference remains murky. The defending champion Golden State Warriors are below .500 after 34 games. The Los Angeles Clippers - a popular preseason pick to win the conference - have struggled to get healthy, and it's fair to question whether Kawhi Leonard can make it through a full campaign. It's also hard to trust the Phoenix Suns, with 37-year-old Chris Paul putting up career lows in scoring and field-goal percentage.
That leaves the Denver Nuggets, Memphis Grizzlies, and New Orleans Pelicans atop the West standings. The Nuggets have an elite offense but a bottom-10 defensive rating, and they've been a disaster whenever Nikola Jokic sits. The Pelicans have shown promise, but it's rare to see a young team make the leap from first-round exit to an NBA Finals appearance. Zion Williamson and Brandon Ingram have hardly played together this season.
Memphis is perhaps the West's most reliable team. The Grizzlies got valuable playoff experience the past two years, and they're in a good position to earn a high seed. Still, they're just 7-10 on the road and rely heavily on transition scoring. It remains to be seen whether Memphis can sustain that in the postseason when games usually slow down.
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