Last week: Lost at Portland 115-87, won at Golden State 124-122 (OT), won at Sacramento 103-101
This week: Sunday at Denver, Tuesday vs. Atlanta, Friday at Miami, Saturday vs. Milwaukee
For the first time this season, the New York Knicks won consecutive games, blowing a 22-point lead before beating Golden State in overtime and then coming back from eight points down to start the fourth quarter at Sacramento to go ahead for good on Elfrid Payton‘s deep mid-range jumper with 3:18 to play.
Julius Randle began to play a bit more like the Knicks expected last week, as well, averaging 21.7 points, 9.7 rebounds and 4.0 assists in 31.5 minutes per game, while shooting 52.3 percent overall and hitting 7-of-16 from 3-point range over New York’s three games last week. This week could be less fun with Denver, Miami and Milwaukee on the docket.
Last week: Lost to Clippers 135-119, lost at Charlotte 114-107, lost at Memphis 128-111
This week: Monday at Detroit, Wednesday vs. Chicago, Friday at Toronto, Saturday at Philadelphia
The Washington Wizards continue to play some fun games with lots of points, but wow, these guys can’t stop anybody. Per Cleaning the Glass, the Wizards are dead last in defensive rating, allowing 118.2 points per 100 possessions with play adjusted to exclude garbage time and end-of-quarter possessions that are highly likely to just be heaves.
Washington is also the worst in effective field goal percentage allowed at 57.1 and they allow opponents to get 27.9 percent of the available offensive rebounds … so even when they get a stop, they can’t finish the possession. Davis Bertans had quite a week, averaging 22.0 points and 4.7 rebounds in 28.0 minutes per game, shooting 50.0 percent overall as well as on 10.0 deep tries.