NBA News and Views, Week 2: Statistical Anomaly and Opinion with a Slant

Abacus nominates Boston Celtic mic-man Tommy Heinsohn for vivid description of the year so far, and no, it’s not for his incessant ref-baiting.

Familiar voices—Bill Walton does Kings games these days?—offering some colorful commentary seem in midseason form, even if the on-court action is still rounding into shape.

Chris Webber’s a bow tie away from the Urkel Circle, or is he simply flaunting his KD love?

And someone better tell Dennis Scott not to mess with Kobe’s name right about now…Jellybean Junior, indeed!

Can someone tell Abacus why so many play-by-play guys sound the same, exactly the same, same tone, same cadence, same delivery, same everything? Houston’s Bill Worrell is cool and all, but his voice shouldn’t be calling every game.

Well, every non-Celtic game, that is, as there’s no mistaking Mike Gorman or Heinsohn, as he frets over rookie JuJuan Johnson being “all shoulders and not a lot of weight.”

Hope he wasn’t calling him a skinny Herman Munster.

Please forge ahead, as Abacus offers some unique viewpoints on NBA life during this most unusual season.

Back-to-Back-to-Backs

It’s early yet, with results only trickling in from a few precincts (this electoral metaphor would fit better if the doggone season had started on time), but playing games on three consecutive dates has not delivered the anticipated body blow to a team’s psyche or record thus far.

Sunday, the Oklahoma City Thunder became the sixth squad to wrap up the dreaded “three-fer” and the first to sweep.

The “indisposed” teams sport an 11-7 record in these games, a winning percentage (.611) likely to earn some home-court advantage in the playoffs.

Most curious is that all six teams (Lakers, Rockets, Nuggets, Hawks and Kings, along with OKC) won that third game, albeit all at home.

This week’s three-fers: Minnesota (Sunday through Tuesday), Chicago, Philadelphia and Toronto (Monday through Wednesday) and Charlotte (Thursday through Saturday).

Of special note is Chicago at Minnesota Tuesday night—will Rubio have any legs left for Mr. Rose?

The Gangs That Couldn’t Shoot Straight

The current background "music" for this little creative project is Cavs vs. Blazers, which currently stands at 28 apiece halfway through the second quarter, hardly a masterpiece.

Aren’t you getting tired of so many offensively inept showings like this?

Sure the schedule’s condensed; yes, training camp—with all its negotiated limitations and restrictions—was grossly inadequate.

But it’s about time to start scoring some points, boys.

Here’s a look at team point totals for the 119 games of the first two weeks (through Saturday)

	Week 1	Week2	Total
110+	8 games	11 games	19 (Eight percent)
100+	33 games	24 games	57 (24 percent)
90+	40 games	49 games	89 (37 percent)
80+	21 games	29 games	50 (21 percent)
70+	10 games	11 games	21 (Nine percent)
-70	0 games	2 games	2  (One percent)

.

It looks as if the best athletes in the world still make their share of plays.

How about more crisply played games to go along with them?

Poundin’ That Glass

The glory days of the NBA were spurred by the high flying of Dr. J and the excitement generated by Magic and the Showtime Lakers. But Earvin’s coach is famous for saying, “No Rebounds, No Rings,” and Julius never won gold of the NBA variety until teaming up with a monster named Moses.

Offensive rebounds, especially late in a game, can be as deadly as three-point daggers to an opponent.

But is a hefty team offensive rebounding total a frequent path to victory?

It was for the Kings against Milwaukee Thursday night, the close-out game of their three-fer. The Bucks out-shot them, 51-41, percentage-wise, but the scrappy Californians retrieved 23 of their 54 errant shots, led by the enigmatic DeMarcus Cousins with eight and despite a shoulder injury suffered by Hard Luck Chuck Hayes, in a tough 103-100 decision.

That’s a 42.6 offensive rebounding percentage, making Sacramento one of only three teams to exceed 40 percent this season, the others being Cleveland and New Orleans, in a loss, oddly.

Maybe not so oddly in the cold light of factual data.

The Kings’ performance is one of eight games this year where a team has corralled at least 20 offensive rebounds (The Kings and Hornets have done it twice.).

But the other seven of those prolific efforts were all in vain—and all in defeat.

It’s a little strange, actually…teams win with 18 or 19—the Pacers, Dallas, even the Nets.

But 20 seems like the kiss of death…what do you suppose happened to the Kings that night?

Abacus is confused; hardly news to those that know him best.

Defensive Therapy

Through last Friday’s games, there was only one NBA team this season which had caused its opponent to “fail” on more than half its possessions in each and every game (By “fail” here, we mean not score a field goal and also not attempt any free throws before the next change of possession—the defense either tracks down a missed shot or induces a turnover.).

So who is this modern-day practitioner of the D-first philosophy?

Must be Pat Riley’s Heat, right? Close, but no cigar thanks to the Hawks.

Howard’s Magic, Pop’s Spurs? No and no.

Believe it or not, until they and the Spurs entered a time warp Saturday night in Texas and resurrected the ABA to the tune of 238 points, George Karl’s Denver Nuggets had been playing the league’s most impenetrable defense, at least by our pass/fail per possession standard, even in defeat.

They turned in a gem—60 percent efficiency—by shutting down 62 of Sacramento’s 103 possessions Wednesday evening in a lop-sided win.

This is a good thing…George deserves a good year.

But for the good of his team, he needs to stay away from Doug Moe.

Old Doug ought to have a TV gig somewhere.

They could team him up with Heinsohn.

Before you leave, re-visit Opening Week with Abacus.