Anthony Davis Ends Atlanta Hawks 19-Game Win Streak and Monday NBA Takeaways
As the Atlanta Hawks piled up win after win during an undefeated January, it seemed as if it would take an act of God to stop the surge.
Turns out it took Anthony Davis which, if you think about it, is pretty much the same thing.
Davis was divine in the New Orleans Pelicans' 115-100 win over the Hawks, intelligently designing the end of Atlanta's 19-game streak with 29 points, 13 rebounds (eight on the offensive end) and three assists. As has been the case for so many opponents this season, the Hawks had no answer for Davis' otherworldly talent.
Atlanta is as disciplined and attentive to detail as any team in the league, but it's not like there's a scouting report to stop Davis from doing things only he can do.
In addition to the requisite interior dominance, Davis also made sure to flash his signature brand of perimeter defense...which is to say he set about blocking jumpers against lightning-quick point guards. Jeff Teague was the victim on this one, and somebody should probably inform him that no amount of back-and-forth yo-yo dribbling can create enough space to keep AD from recovering.
That's unfair.
Davis had some help, too. Eric Gordon stayed hot from deep, hitting 4-of-6 from downtown. He's drilled 16 of his last 28 long-range tries.
Tyreke Evans chipped in with 15 points and 12 assists. He was key to keeping the ball moving, which pleased head coach Monty Williams, according to The Bird Writes:
Omer Asik grabbed 17 rebounds to go along with his nine points.
New Orleans took a 13-point advantage into halftime and won both the third and fourth quarters by one point each, expanding the ultimate margin to 15. In that final period, the Pelicans could sense the significance of what was happening, and the good vibes were impossible to suppress, as Joseph Billiot of The Bird Writes noted:
"Don't know if it was on tv but Monty just gave @jimmerfredette a huge high five as did the entire team #Pelicans
— Joseph Billiot (@jdbillio) February 3, 2015"
It's tempting to search for incisive explanations for Atlanta's first loss in over a month. You could certainly point to the defensive execution, as Nate Duncan of Basketball Insiders did:
Or you could note the lack of wing depth brought about by Thabo Sefolosha's injury.
You could probably isolate Atlanta's lack of size as a key weakness against the much larger front line of Davis and Asik, perhaps pegging that as an issue in need of help going forward.
You could mention that Kyle Korver only attempted two triples, well below his average. Or that Teague squandered a number of impressive blow-by drives because he struggled to finish at the rim.
There's no shortage of angles here.
The simpler way to analyze this game is to say that the Hawks just couldn't keep winning forever. Nineteen consecutive victories is ridiculous—the longest streak of the season and the fifth-longest in the history of the NBA. It had to end eventually.
And it's not all that surprising that the Pelicans (and Davis) were the ones to stem the tide. As SB Nation's Paul Flannery pointed out, "they're staying in this race":
New Orleans is looking better than it has all season. At 26-22, it's hanging in the fight for the final playoff spot in the West and showing no signs of giving in.
Don't worry about the Hawks. Their talent is real, their system sound. We should expect them to get right back to the business of winning quickly.
It didn't take some kind of miracle to end Atlanta's remarkable run. It took a good team led by a great player.
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The Cavaliers Set Things Right
Last time the Cleveland Cavaliers squared off with the Philadelphia 76ers, Michael Carter-Williams and his tank-tacular pals sent the Cavs (who were without LeBron James and Kyrie Irving) to a 95-92 defeat. If this up-and-down Cavaliers season has had a low point, that might have been it.
As Cleveland's 97-84 defeat of the Sixers on Monday indicated, a lot has changed since then.
James provided 18 points and added 11 assists in the Cavs' 11th straight win, and Irving, freshly minted as the Eastern Conference's Player of the Week, led all scorers with a tidy 24 points on 16 shots.
Kevin Love had a rough shooting night (1-of-7) but found other ways to help. He grabbed 15 rebounds, posted a team-high plus-minus of plus-26 and got everyone excited with his patented full-court outlets.
Everyone's feeling good in Cleveland these days, and Timofey Mozgov is celebrating in his own special way, per Jason Lloyd of the Akron Beacon-Journal:
Good times.
Ricky Rubio Is Here to Help
Ricky Rubio saw his first game action since Nov. 7, and his return was nearly enough to give the Minnesota Timberwolves an unlikely win over the host Dallas Mavericks.
Unfortunately, Rubio was on a minute restriction that forced his exit during what could have been a stirring fourth-quarter surge—one led, of course, by his inimitable vision, as Duncan noted:
Rubio contributed 10 points, four assists and three rebounds in 21 minutes, but it wasn't enough to prevent a more talented Dallas squad from notching a 100-94 victory. Monta Ellis led the Mavs with 23 points, while Dirk Nowitzki helped out with 16 points on 7-of-10 shooting.
As Minnesota plays out the string in a lost year, nothing will be more important than the development of its young talent. Andrew Wiggins and Gorgui Dieng (and even Shabazz Muhammad) are all that matter now, and Rubio showed he's ready to foster their growth.
Westbrook Flies Solo Again
A sprained left big toe kept Kevin Durant out of yet another contest, but the Oklahoma City Thunder got a stat-sheet-stretching triple-double from Russell Westbrook to secure a 104-97 win over the Orlando Magic.
Russ flung 25 points, 14 assists and 11 rebounds at the Magic on 8-of-15 shooting, tacking on four steals just because. It was the sort of takeover effort we've come to expect from Westbrook, but it's one that has been necessary far too often this season.
As usual, though, he approached the task with gusto.
KD's toe woes were supposed to be behind him. He suited up and played 37 minutes in an ugly loss to the Memphis Grizzlies on Jan. 31, but he couldn't quite get right on Monday.
"He didn't feel comfortable," Thunder coach Scott Brooks said before the game, per Royce Young of ESPN.com. "It didn't respond the way we would've liked it."
Fortunately, Westbrook responded exactly as OKC would have liked.
Washington's Slide Continues
Monday's 92-88 slip against the Charlotte Hornets at home, the Washington Wizards' third straight loss, is going to sting.
It wasn't just Washington's third consecutive failure. It was also its fifth defeat in its last seven games. And if you expand the timeline even more broadly, the Wizards are just 12-12 since starting 19-6.
Conversely, the Hornets have pulled themselves together, despite losing Kemba Walker to knee surgery. Thanks to double-doubles from Michael Kidd-Gilchrist (13 points and 13 rebounds) and Al Jefferson (18 points and 12 rebounds), they've now won 11 of their last 14 contests.
Don't look now, but a favorable upcoming schedule with tilts against the Philadelphia 76ers, Indiana Pacers and Detroit Pistons could help Charlotte extend its run a while longer.
As for the Wizards, if not for their longer slide, you might be able to chalk this one up as an anomaly. But this loss highlighted some real issues.
Nene and Marcin Gortat combined for just 12 points and 14 rebounds on 6-of-16 shooting against Charlotte's thin frontcourt, and the offense has now become almost comically dependent on John Wall. The All-Star point guard had 10 assists, but no other Wizards player logged more than two.
A Wednesday meeting with a Hawks team eager to start a new winning streak won't make reversing the slide easy.
Terrence Ross Numbs the Pain
After two overtime wins in their last two games, the Toronto Raptors ran out of gas against an opportunistic Milwaukee Bucks squad. Led by Khris Middleton's 25 points, the Bucks ended Toronto's six-game win streak with a hard-to-watch 82-75 victory.
Toronto shot just 32.1 percent from the field and committed 15 turnovers against 14 assists. It was the work of a tired team.
Well, most of the Raptors were fatigued. Terrence Ross looked like he had his legs (and about 44 inches of air space) under him.
Too bad there weren't seven extra style points awarded for that slam. The Raps could have used them.
Jarrett Jack: Keeping the Mid-Range Pull-Up Jumper Alive All By Himself
That is a long and inefficient heading, which makes it perfectly appropriate to describe Jarrett Jack's game-winning bucket in the Brooklyn Nets' 102-100 defeat of the Los Angeles Clippers.
Jack loves off-the-dribble twos, despite their widely accepted inefficiency and the fact that his effective field-goal percentage is just 41.5 percent on a whopping 5.5 pull-up attempts per game, according to SportVU data provided to NBA.com.
When he hit the big one against the Clippers, he was just 2-of-10 on the night and had missed seven of his previous eight shots from outside the restricted area. Undaunted, he let it fly from 17 feet.
Jack vindicated his affinity for bad shots on this night, but it'll be tough for the Nets to get reliable offense from him if he sticks to his pull-up guns.
For now, let's allow the man to dance. Speaking of Jack's dance, Stefan Bondy of the New York Daily News elaborated on it:
The Clips collapsed down the stretch, so they don't deserve as much (digital) ink as the Nets. But it cannot go unmentioned that DeAndre Jordan went off for 22 points and 20 rebounds in 37 minutes. Although, if he'd been able to hit more than two of his 12 free throws, Jack's shot might not have mattered in the end.
Jeff Green Is Fitting in Nicely
Thanks to Jeff Green's go-ahead bucket and Marc Gasol's big block on Markieff Morris' attempted game-winner at the buzzer, the Memphis Grizzlies escaped the desert with a 102-101 win they might not have totally earned.
The Phoenix Suns played well, and Memphis struggled to execute down the stretch before making critical plays when necessary. Green's three-point play in a scrum was the culmination of the Grizzlies' closing surge.
Memphis is now 10-1 since bringing Green over from the Boston Celtics.
