The halfway mark is almost here for the '04-'05 season, and little has changed across the NBA landscape. The Western Conference still appears to be beating the East upside their butts with a metal paddle (wooden just doesn't seem harsh enough).
That being said, there are some teams east of the Mississippi that can compete at the professional level. Miami's addition of Shaquille O'Neal has had an isolated effect on the balance of power. LeBron James shares the ball with his Cavalier teammates, and they're all being rewarded for nice play. And don't forget, The Palace of Auburn Hills currently holds the reigning champs.
Then ... there's the new Atlantic Division. Five teams with seemingly one goal. To breathe more stench into the Association than a crosswind over a cow pasture. Entering play on Sunday, each team had more losses than wins.
No team in the division has had a winning streak of more than three games during the season. When you look at the opposite end, every team lost at least four-in-a-row at one point in the last two months.
The biggest problem that squads from this corner of the country seem to face is the concept of playing defense. Only one team allows less than 95 points per game. Four of the squads have given up triple digits in at least 17 games this season. A couple of decades ago, that was the norm in the "run and gun" NBA. These days, that kind of effort won't buy you a pack of Wrigley gum at the store.
In New York, the Knicks (17-19) are seeing the bottom fall out in January. After pushing their record three games above even at the New Year, they've lost six out of their last seven. In that stretch, New York was out-rebounded in five games (including their win) and lost to such impressive teams as the Nets, surging Baby Bulls, and newly-crowned "Or Nots" from New Orleans.
The Celtics actually score more than their opponents (by 0.6 points), but they've been in a constant stumble. Then again, Boston (17-20) did have a winning record this year. It was at 3-2, but hey, baby steps. The good news for the team from Beantown is that they have beaten Seattle twice. The bad news, they don't get to play them again until next winter.
Philadelphia is in the midst of a rebuilding phase. With young bloods like Andre Iguodala, Kyle Korver, and Samuel Dalembert getting a lot of playing time, the Sixers (16-20) are trying to grow into their new skin. This is even more important for Allen Iverson. The scoring machine might not be 30 yet, but his punished body may need more borrowed time from his younger crew.
Let's face it. Toronto is just disgruntled. The Raptors (14-23) have already traded away Vince Carter. Then we've got Rafer "Skip to My Lou" Alston, who gave us this wonderful statement in early December:
"I'm tired of getting into it with my teammates and my coaches," he said. "I don't know if I'm a good fit for this team and I don't know if I'm a good fit for this league. I'm going to take some time off. I might not even play the rest of the season."
Classic sign of an upcoming episode of "When Teammates Go Bad." After beginning the campaign with wins over Houston and Detroit, the guys from north of the border took a southerly turn. However, there are signs are improvement without Vince. Before Air Canada claimed his one-way ticket, the Raptors had losing streaks of five and seven. Since then, the biggest skid they can claim is three. Again, baby steps.
Finally, there's Vince's new team in New Jersey, who sits at 12-24 and in dead last. The Nets have played the best defense in the division (92.7 ppg). Too bad they barely scratch 88 two-thirds of the time. Kenyon Martin's shipping out and Jason Kidd not playing for the first month-plus had quite a bit to do with the team's fall from grace.
Now, the Nets won't have Richard Jefferson for the rest of the season. Unfortunately, this will starve some of the team's youth-driven fire, not to mention devastation in the scoring department. All Lawrence Frank can hope for is to avoid the long losing streak he suffered when Kidd rode the pine.
Since the league started playing 82 games in a season, a divisional champion has finished with a losing record twice. The '71-'72 Baltimore Bullets and '75-'76 Milwaukee Bucks both wore a division crown while going 38-44.
I realize there's still a lot of season to play, but at this rate, there's no guarantee that the record no one wants will stay in its sleeve.
January 25, 2005
cornbread:
That was a nice article but you failed to mention the implications that this new three division scheme has on the playoffs.
Each division winner gets one of the top three seeds in the playoffs. That means if the playoffs started today, the Sixers would be seeded 3rd despite having the 8th best record in the conference, and they would play the 6th seeded Orlando Magic in the first rd. Meanwhile, the team with the second best record, the Wizards, would be seeded 4th and have to play the fourth best team, the Pistons who would be the fifth seed.
Even worse, under this format the two teams with the best record in the conference could meet in the second rd instead of the conference finals. This scenario would never take place under the old, two-divisioni format.
The solution would be to guarantee each of the three division champs at least a playoff spot but only awarded the best two one of the top two seeds. The third team would be in the playoffs but would be seeded according to their record. This way the Sixers would be rightfully be seeded 8th instead of third.