Highlights are awesome on their own. But they’re even better with a little context. Here’s a look back at the best of week three.
Terrence Ross on the tip-back
The dagger three from Rudy Gay that sent Monday night’s game in Houston to double-OT got most of the highlight reel glory, but this freakishly athletic tip-back from Terrence Ross to even the score at 84 in the closing minutes of the fourth was almost as crucial.
Ross has shown a noticeable uptick in his on-court focus and effort in the Raptors’ last two games. It hasn’t ben reflected in his point totals (nine in Houston and eight in Memphis on Wednesday), but Ross has seen a little bump in his rebounding numbers and a massive leap in his offensive efficiency, going 7-for-11 from the field and 2-for-2 from the charity stripe. He’s also really stepped it up on D, and has enjoyed a corresponding jump in his minutes. All great signs from the second-year shooting guard.
Dueling buzzer-beaters
In case you missed it, this was the end of last night’s Warriors-Thunder game—Russell Westbrook hitting a contested three from Beijing to put the Thunder up one, only to be outdone by Andre Iguodala’s game-winner.
Westbrook had a game-high 31 points on the night and his deep ball came on the tail end of a 23–8 OKC run that earned the Thunder their first lead since early in the third. After starting the season 4-for-13 from downtown (through his first four games, all Thunder wins), the all-star point man has picked things up, going 4-for-9 this week.
Not only did Iguodala (an early favourite of “Highlights, in context”) put the game away and notch his 14 points on 5-of-6 shooting, he also came about as close to shutting down Kevin Durant as is possible—holding the league’s scoring leader to “just” 20 points, down from his season average of 29.3 per. Iggy forced five turnovers, dished out nine assists and continued to be an absolute rock for the 6-3 Warriors.
Love goes deep
Let’s start with Kevin Love, a true artist of the outlet pass. Love had four threes and 18 points in the first quarter of the Timberwolves’ game Sunday night against the Lakers—part of a franchise-record 47 points for Minnesota in the opening frame.
Finally healthy after niggling injuries (like breaking his hand doing knuckle push-ups) sidelined him for 64 games last season, the superstar big man has been a statistical beast so far this season, something that’s far from surprising. His per game averages of 27.1 points and 14.2 rebounds, land him second league-wide in both categories, and his four made threes and 5.1 assists are each good for first among power forwards.
The Wolves are second in the league so far this season in fast-break points, racking up 19.7 a night. That’s a huge improvement from the 12.4 per they managed last season, which was good for 20th. Having Love (and Ricky Rubio) healthy and firing full-court dimes helps that number, and so does the addition of Kevin Martin, who’s been shooting the lights out and—at 55.8 percent from downtown—is a serious threat to pull up in transition. But the real key is off-season acquisition Corey Brewer—who’s on the receiving end here.
Coming back to Minnesota after almost two full seasons in George Karl’s full-sprint Denver offence, Brewer can get out and run with the best of ’em. His seven fast-break points a night lead both the Wolves and the league. And even though a clear path foul from Jodie Meeks prevented Love’s beautiful dish from contributing to that total, Brewer did head to the line and cash his free throws. Oh, and he’s a shutdown perimeter defender. Score.
Chalmers’ over-the-shoulder oop to LeBron
LeBron finishing the fast break with a mammoth, one-armed alley-oop dunk. This one, against the Bucks in Tuesday’s 118–95 Heat win, is made a bit sweeter by a cheeky little no-look dump from Mario Chalmers, but this is a play we’ve all seen so often it lives outside of time and context.
A brief appreciation of LeBron, though: James is shooting 58.6 percent from the floor and 50 percent from behind the arc, both career highs. He’s hitting a staggering 75.4 percent of his looks within eight feet of the basket, an area in which he’s taken 53.9 percent of his shots. He’s fifth in the league in scoring (25.5 per) and the only non-point guard in the top-10 in assists per game (tied for eighth with 7.3). He also hauls down 5.5 boards a night. The man is a beast.
Xavier Henry throws down
Good lord. Xavier Henry had 15 points in the Lakers’ 116–95 rout of the Pelicans on Tuesday night. Safe to say this bit of nightmare fuel for poor rookie centre Jeff Withey (a teammate of Henry’s at Kansas) was the highlight of the fourth-year guard’s night.
The first bit of context here is Anthony Davis’s early foul trouble. Davis had a career-high 32 points against the Lakers on Nov. 8, but picked up three fouls in the first half on Tuesday. His fourth came with nearly 10 minutes left in the third and he was benched for Withey. Losing Davis and his 3.1 blocks per game (second behind Roy Hibbert) also meant the Pelicans gave up a good deal of their rim protection. Eight minutes later and Henry is doing his best to get Withey to give up the game of basketball.
The other bit of context: Withey is seven feet tall.