Matthew Pierpont ‘23
We are about a month into the new NBA season, and we have some big surprises from some NBA teams. First off, the defending champs, Golden State Warriors have been off to a slow start, even with Curry averaging 31 PPG. The rest of the roster is scoring under 20 a game, some under 10 a game. This start leaves them 9th in the Western Conference. If they want to go back to back, they better get back into it.
The Cleveland Cavaliers are a big surprise this year, especially after acquiring Donovan Mitchell. He is averaging 30 a game, with shooting 49% from the field overall, and 41% from the 3 point arch. He was always a talented star with the Utah Jazz, leading his team into the playoffs year after year, but he led the Cavs to be 3rd in the Easten Conference after finishing 9th last season. On the other hand, the Miami Heat are also on a slow start as well, after leading the Easten Conference last season. With the star duo of Jimmy Butler and Bam Adebayo, both averaging just over 20 points a game, it still isn’t enough to put them ahead. Kyle Lowry needs to pick it up and go back to the star point guard he was in Toronto.
The Memphis Grizzlies are playing out of their minds so far, with their star player, Ja Morant averaging 28 points per game. He’s leading the team to be 3rd in the Western Conference. Keeping it short and sweet, he will dunk and all of your favorite players. The Brooklyn Nets, so many things are happening with Kyrie Irving. There is too much drama with what he says and does, that it’s hard to say where he will be next season. But, Kevin Durant averaging 29 points just isn’t enough to get them more up the ranks. Ben Simmons, is playing like Ben Simmoms, and nothing like how the predictions said he would.
Finally, the Chicago Bulls, with all this talent, all this fan love, they are only 12th in the Eastern Conference. Lonzo Ball has been out the last few games so no one can blame him too much, but Zach Lavine and DeMar DeRozan both averaging 20+ points a game just isn’t enough to get them up. Seems that NBA teams are just getting better and better and withstanding the rest of the competition. It’s safe to say that the predictions made last month were incorrect. But, there is still the rest of the season to go, so we will see what happens next.
The Salesian Spectator 