Last week: Beat Philadelphia 106-104, beat Milwaukee 103-100
This week: Monday at Golden State, Tuesday vs. Brooklyn, Friday at Memphis
The Utah Jazz won a couple of narrow decisions against some Eastern Conference heavyweights last week, holding off the 76ers down the stretch after their 13-point lead was cut to two and then beating the Bucks on Bojan Bogdanovic‘s 3-pointer at the buzzer after Milwaukee had come back from 22 points down to tie it.
Bogdanovic sizzled against the Bucks with 33 points and five rebounds, hitting 5-of-10 from deep and was solid in the two games overall, scoring 53 points with 11 rebounds and five assists while shooting 48.6 percent overall and hitting 7-of-15 from long range.
Heading into the season, there were some concerns voiced about Utah’s ability to defend after switching out Derrick Favors for Bogdanovic at the 4. In non-garbage time minutes this season, the Jazz have the best defensive rating in the NBA at 99.1 points per 100 possessions and are holding teams to a league-best 46.6 percent effective field goal percentage.
So, at least through the early part of Utah’s schedule, it appears the defense is going to be just fine, thanks.
Last week: Beat Orlando 107-106, lost to New York 106-102, won at Memphis 138-122
This week: Monday at Boston, Thursday at New York, Saturday vs. Toronto
The Dallas Mavericks stubbed their toe a bit last week, losing to the moribund Knicks — at home — to spoil Kristaps Porzingis’ first game against his former club since last January’s trade. They bounced back with a solid road win over a short-handed Memphis squad that didn’t play Jaren Jackson Jr. or rookies Ja Morant and Brandon Clarke.
Luka Doncic continued to put up numbers, averaging 29.7 points, 11.7 rebounds and 8.3 assists in 33.8 minutes per game on 50.8 percent shooting overall, but was just 6-for-24 from deep (25 percent). Doncic also had six turnovers in the win over the Magic and eight in the loss to the Knicks.
He did have a nice bounce-back game in Memphis, scoring 24 points with 14 rebounds and eight assists, while committing only two turnovers — his lowest single-game total this season.
Doncic is stuffing stat sheets in the early going, currently in the top 10 in scoring (27.7. points per game, sixth) and assists (9.1 per game, second), while just missing in rebounding (10.8 per game, tied for 11th).
Last week: Lost at Phoenix 114-109, lost at Utah 106-104, lost at Denver 100-97, beat Charlotte 114-106
This week: Tuesday vs. Cleveland, Wednesday at Orlando, Friday at Oklahoma City, Sunday at Cleveland
The Philadelphia 76ers were the last undefeated team in the NBA at 5-0, but that went away quickly with three straight losses — including a pair of last-second defeats at Utah and Denver — during a short Western trip.
The 76ers got Joel Embiid back from his two-game suspension, but lost Ben Simmons to a sprained shoulder — he’s missed the last two games for the Sixers. Being without his point guard has had a bit of an effect on Tobias Harris, who averaged 16.8 points, 8.5 rebounds, 3.5 assists, 1.3 steals and 1.0 blocks in 33.6 minutes per game last week.
Harris shot 48.1 percent overall but was just 1-for-10 from 3-point range.
Al Horford had a big game in the loss at Phoenix, scoring 32 points, a season-high, in 35 minutes, hitting 13-of-20 overall and 5-of-8 from 3-point range.