Super Bowl Sunday is now here and gone. Another NFL season is in the books, which means it’s time for the NBA to kick into full swing.
However, I would like to talk about Super Bowl XLIX for a minute, even though this is a hoops site. In what was probably one of the best football games I’ve, or anyone else, has ever seen, it was a perfect way to end a tumultuous year for the National Football League.
Everyone is startled and shocked about Pete Carroll’s decision to throw the ball instead of run it with Marshawn Lynch. I’m in the same boat here. I’m not sure why he would do that, but who cares. It’s history, and it’s over and done with. The New England Patriots are the Super Bowl Champions, with none other than Tom Brady hoisting the MVP trophy.
Brady’s MVP selection was warranted, of course, but I would have voted for Malcolm Butler for that honor. He was the one who sealed the game with a beautifully timed interception when he jumped that route and left Seahawks players, coaches, and fans alike gasping for breath.
Not only did he make that game-ending play, but a couple of plays before that pick, the Seahawks caught a break when Jermaine Kearse had that bobbling catch that Butler initially broke up. The Patriots cornerback was smart enough to realize that he had actually caught that ball, and went after Kearse and kept him on the ground before he could escape into the end zone.
Okay, sorry for the football ramble, just had to talk a little about the biggest and best football game of the year. Now to basketball!
HOWARD TO MISS AT LEAST A MONTH
Houston Rockets center Dwight Howard has been sitting out recently with a knee injury that already cost him a stretch of ten games earlier on in the season. He’s missed the past four games with the ailment, and could be out for a much longer period of time.
According to Marc Stein of ESPN.com, Howard could be sidelined for at least the next month:
The Houston Rockets are bracing for the loss of Dwight Howard for at least a month due to persistent trouble with his right knee, according to league sources.
Sources told ESPN.com that the Rockets, while confident that Howard has enough time to bounce back for the regular-season stretch run and playoffs, fear their defensive anchor will be lost for a period of “weeks” as opposed to days.
Howard is still in the process of getting additional consultation from various doctors to determine the best treatment course for the knee.
Yet sources told ESPN.com that the Rockets already acknowledge that a period of rest “likely measured in weeks” will be the minimum requirement before their defensive anchor is ready to the return to the lineup. But sources say Houston nonetheless remains confident that Howard will be able to come back “in plenty of time” to ramp up for the postseason, even if the absence stretches into the six-weeks range.
As Stein reported, the Rockets and Howard are looking for multiple opinions on his right knee, and what could be the best route to getting D12 back and ready for the playoffs.
Houston is currently second in the league in defensive efficiency, a large part of that being Dwight’s presence in the paint and rebounding and blocking shots. It will be very interesting to see how Josh Smith, Donatas Motiejunas and Terrence Jones can fill in for the former No.1 overall selection in the 2004 NBA Draft.
HAWKS FINISH PERFECT JANUARY
The Atlanta Hawks are pretty banged up right now, missing key role players in Thabo Sefolosha, DeMarre Carroll and Shelvin Mack. But, that hasn’t stopped them from extending their franchise-record for consecutive wins to 19 this season after the 91-85 win over the Philadelphia 76ers on Saturday night.
Their extension of the franchise-record isn’t the only mark in the record books for the Mike Budenholzer-led squad. This surprising Hawks team is the first team in NBA history to go 17-0 in a calendar month.
From FOXSports.com in Atlanta, here’s more on the historic month for the Hawks:
According to STATS, the Hawks (40-8) are the first team in NBA history to win 17 games without a loss over a single month. Four teams have put together a 16-0 mark, most recently the eventual NBA champion San Antonio Spurs last March.
Also, the 19-game streak is tied for the fifth-longest within a season. The Hawks will travel to New Orleans on Monday night looking to make it 20 in a row, which would match the 1970-71 Milwaukee Bucks. The only longer streaks in NBA history were by the 1971-72 Los Angeles Lakers (33 in a row), the 2012-13 Miami Heat (27), and the 2007-08 Houston Rockets (22).
They have now surpassed the Golden State Warriors as the best team in the NBA, and certainly deserve it. They also lead the league in three-point percentage, and are in the top-ten of almost every major traditional stats category.
Atlanta is now the fifth most efficient team on offense, scoring 107.4 points per 100 possessions, and fourth in the league in defensive efficiency, allowing 99.4 points per 100 possessions.
But, all good things must come to and end, right? Except, we’re not exactly sure when that will happen. FOXSports.com in Atlanta talks about the Hawks’ upcoming schedule in February and the difficulty that lies ahead:
After the Pelicans (25-22), the Hawks return home to face Washington (31-17) on Wednesday night before a much-anticipated game against West-leading Golden State (37-8) on Friday. The Warriors held the top record in the NBA for much of the season, but were passed by the streaking Hawks in the past week.
Despite not losing a game in 2015 so far, the Hawks will surely be tested in the upcoming week or so.
FLIP SAUNDERS RIPS ‘WOLVES FOR “THE RETURN”
The Minnesota Timberwolves had a “tribute” video to welcome back a former player of theirs that meant a lot to the organization and the area.
If you guessed that that player was Kevin Love, you’d technically be right. But, the video was made to troll Love, instead welcoming the return of Cleveland Cavaliers guard/forward Mike Miller. Miller spent the 2008-09 season in the Twin Cities, which just so happened to be Love’s rookie season.
Here’s the video for those who haven’t seen it:
“#TheReturn” was quite the shot at Love, who spent six seasons with the Timberwolves franchise.
What Love thought was hilarious, Timberwolves’ president and head coach Flip Saunders felt quite differently about the video. From Chris Haynes of Cleveland.com, Saunders found the video rather disrespectful:
“I didn’t know about it,” Saunders said. “I didn’t approve of it. I think as an organization, we should be above that. We have to acknowledge that Kevin, when he was here, he was a great player for us. He was an All-Star, won an Olympic gold medal, did a lot of positive things.
“Last year at this time, everyone was patting themselves on the back for helping him get selected as a starter in the All-Star Game. And for us to not to acknowledge that and go the other way, I think it was hypocritical. As I had to address some of the people and I just told them that as an organization, that’s not the direction we want to go.”
Love said the video was “hilarious” on Thursday and added that he had no problem with it at all.
“It doesn’t matter if he thinks it’s funny,” Saunders said. “You have to decide what you want to do as an organization. Would San Antonio do that? No. They wouldn’t do that. Our players didn’t like it. They have to play against him too. They don’t like it. It just doesn’t set the right message and if you’re here and then you leave, all of a sudden it’s not.
“Was it funny? Maybe people thought it was funny. For me it wasn’t. I had to deal with three and half, four hours the last two days having people calling me and talking about it while I’m trying to prepare for games. Maybe you think it’s OK. That’s up to you. You can look at it that way, but I don’t look at it that way. As someone running an organization and has to go out and recruit players and to get those player. He may have thought it was funny, but I know deep down in his heart no one likes it. No one would like that. It’s human nature.”
RICKY RUBIO SET TO RETURN MONDAY
In other Timberwolves news, starting point guard Ricky Rubio is set to return to action on Monday night when Minnesota visits the Dallas Mavericks. Rubio has been out since November 8th with a severely sprained left ankle, missing all but five games in the 2014-15 NBA season.
With the return of center Nikola Pekovic and guard Kevin Martin in the recent weeks, the Timberwolves are getting very close to full strength. Even though their season is lost with an 8-39 record, having most of the roster healthy can help in the development of their younger players, most importantly that of superstar-in-the-making Andrew Wiggins.
The pass first, pass second, shoot never point guard in Rubio, Wiggins and the young ‘Wolves can look to build on where they left off when the Spaniard went down in just the fifth game of the season. He’s phenomenal at getting his teammates open looks, averaging 8.2 assists per game over his career.
Minnesota was actually playing pretty good basketball early in the season with Rubio, who is averaging a career-high 10.0 assists per game in the small sample-size in 2014. They were 2-2 with him in the lineup before going down with the ankle injury.
He played only 13 minutes in the game against the Orlando Magic when he was injured, which the T-Wolves ended up losing. Since his absence from the lineup, they’re boasting an embarrassing 6-37 record.
Rubio’s injury could actually prove beneficial in the worst way for Minnesota. Call it tanking on accident, call it whatever you want, but his injury, among others, have helped them earn the worst record in the NBA.
They now have a great chance at landing the number one pick in the 2015 NBA Draft, and almost assuredly at least a top three pick. Jahlil Okafor, anyone?
All stats via Basketball-Reference.com.