Oklahoma City Thunder make a move in NBA Power Rankings; Bucks still No. 1
By Phil Watson
Last week: Beat Cleveland 133-113, won at Detroit 112-99, beat Washington 122-118
This week: Sunday vs. Dallas, Monday at Indiana, Wednesday vs. Boston, Saturday vs. Boston
The Toronto Raptors continue to show amazing resilience, rolling to a 3-0 week despite Fred VanVleet missing two of those games and Pascal Siakam being sidelined on Friday with a groin injury. Defensively, the Raptors make it hard to shoot (league-best 49.4 effective field goal percentage) and third-best opponents’ turnover rate (16.3 percent), per Cleaning the Glass.
Kyle Lowry had a terrific week, recording his first triple-double of the season Wednesday at Detroit and averaging 22.0 points, 10.0 assists, 6.0 rebounds and 1.0 steals in 39.0 minutes per game while shooting 40.9 percent overall and 9-for-20 from 3-point range. He had at least 20 points in each game, scoring 26 in the win over the Wizards on Friday.
Last week: Lost at Brooklyn 109-89, lost to Miami 108-104, lost to Dallas 117-98, beat Washington 125-108
This week: Monday at Detroit, Wednesday vs. Milwaukee, Friday at Orlando, Saturday at Miami
The Philadelphia 76ers put things together on Saturday to beat the Wizards and snap a three-game losing streak that matched their longest slide of the season. Two of those games were blowout losses, both at Brooklyn and at home to the Mavericks, as the Sixers are continuing to have depth issues.
Ben Simmons played fairly well over the four games, averaging 15.8 points, 7.0 assists, 6.3 rebounds and 2.5 steals in 35.0 minutes per game. Simmons shot 53.5 percent overall, but had his share of trouble at the line, hitting 60.7 percent overall and going 4-for-9 against the Wizards. Simmons scored 20 points on 7-of-10 shooting in the loss at Brooklyn last Sunday.