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The Knicks remain the league's hottest team, beating Minnesota 121-114 on Monday for their 10th win in 11 games. New York's streak has been part lineup tinkering, part schedule and a good bit of just playing better. The Knicks are 5-0 since moving Wilson Chandler into the starting lineup at power forward, and 10-1 since Timofey Mozgov was demoted to the second unit. Amar'e Stoudemire has been playing at MVP level from the center position and Ray Felton has been a revelation. Before we get too excited, we have to note that nine of New York's wins in this stretch have come against: Sacramento, Golden State, the L.A. Clippers, Charlotte (twice), Detroit, New Jersey, Toronto and Minnesota. Hey, 10 wins in 11 games is terrific no matter who you play or where you play them. Starting Sunday, however, New York has a three-game stretch against Denver, Boston and Miami. If they are still racking wins 10 days from now, then it'll be time to take notice.
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LIVE AT BASKETBALL PROSPECTUS
1. Kevin Pelton, our resident expert on hoops in the northwest, breaks down Washington's win over Portland--college style. (free preview)
2. Sebastian Pruiti breaks down the Pacers' breakout season using video, text and all sorts of tricks. (premium)
3. The latest Trend Watch looks at the Lakers' slump, Wesley Matthews' ascension and the history of point guard scoring. (premium)
4. Why are so interested in the North Carolina Tar Heels? (Unfiltered)
5. Kevin Pelton reviews FreeDarko Presents the Undisputed Guide to Pro Basketball History. (Unfiltered)
6. Illinois made an early statement by dispatching with Gonzaga in Seattle. (premium)
7. Who sit and who to start. (premium)
8. The Indiana Pacers are off to a great start. (premium)
9. Tennessee springs an early surprise. (premium)
10. Is Arizona's Derrick Williams the player of the year? (premium)
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FANTASY PROJECTIONS
Our downloadable Basketball Fantasy Projection spreadsheets are available for anyone with a premium subscription to Basketball Prospectus. The sheet is updated daily and can be found on your 'Manage Profile' page. The download includes a forecast for the next seven days for every player, game-by-game projections and health status updates.
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HOT FIVES
POWER RATING (POW) GR (12/06/10) WP82 -- ALL WP82 -- ROOKIES
celtics,boston, 63.4 love,kevin, 37.4 james,lebron, 25.6 griffin,blake, 16.8
mavericks,dallas, 61.8 gordon,eric, 36.5 williams,deron, 23.3 wall,john, 8.3
spurs,sanantonio, 61.6 wade,dwyane, 34.9 bryant,kobe, 21.4 bledsoe,eric, 3.6
heat,miami, 55.9 boozer,carlos, 32.8 westbrook,russell, 19.2 cousins,demarcus, 3.0
jazz,utah, 55.7 miles,c.j., 29.8 gordon,eric, 18.9 fields,landry, 3.3
Note: GR leaders are from previous night only.
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MONDAY'S BOX SCORES & RECAPS
NOTE: Glossary is at bottom of page.
PACERS 124, RAPTORS 100 (box)
TOR (8-13) PLY% USG PCP +/- GR IND (10-9) PLY% USG PCP +/- GR
calderon,jose 63% 18% 1.63 -13 21.6 rush,brandon 66% 26% 1.46 +13 21.9
johnson,amir 59% 20% 1.16 - 9 11.8 hibbert,roy 59% 21% 1.15 +14 19.6
bargnani,andrea 66% 16% 0.84 -20 11.5 granger,danny 65% 29% 1.18 +14 19.1
barbosa,leandro 64% 22% 0.92 -15 11.1 dunleavy jr.,mike 60% 9% 1.93 +19 14.6
derozan,demar 69% 10% 1.01 -14 9.5 mcroberts,josh 54% 23% 1.32 +19 11.0
kleiza,linas 36% 39% 0.69 -13 8.1 ford,t.j. 40% 12% 1.46 + 8 8.9
weems,sonny 41% 26% 0.77 - 4 7.8 collison,darren 53% 18% 1.36 +14 8.7
bayless,jerryd 37% 27% 0.62 -11 6.8 jones,solomon 33% 18% 1.05 + 8 8.4
wright,julian 19% 6% 2.53 -13 6.0 posey,james 41% 17% 1.65 + 6 6.6
davis,ed 39% 15% 0.92 - 6 4.7 hansbrough,tyler 14% 10% 2.54 + 1 3.6
dorsey,joey 8% 8% 0.83 - 2 0.5 price,a.j. 8% 23% 0.50 + 2 0.7
stojakovic,peja (DNP) jones,dahntay 8% 12% 0.20 + 2 0.2
PACE: 100.5 ORTG eFG% oRB% TO% FTA% PACE: 100.5 ORTG eFG% oRB% TO% FTA%
raptors,toronto 99.5 .450 .321 .179 .066 pacers,indiana 123.4 .629 .250 .179 .088
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HAWKS 80, MAGIC 74 (box)
ATL (14-8) PLY% USG PCP +/- GR ORL (15-6) PLY% USG PCP +/- GR
smith,josh 83% 24% 1.18 - 2 27.1 carter,vince 65% 32% 0.86 - 1 23.6
horford,al 87% 21% 0.96 + 8 18.0 redick,j.j. 49% 17% 1.42 - 4 15.7
crawford,jamal 60% 32% 0.73 + 5 16.3 howard,dwight 82% 25% 0.78 + 3 13.5
bibby,mike 75% 17% 1.41 +19 13.1 lewis,rashard 77% 14% 0.93 + 1 11.0
powell,josh 39% 22% 0.90 + 9 6.4 bass,brandon 49% 31% 0.67 - 2 7.6
collins,jason 32% 18% 0.67 - 1 4.0 duhon,chris 68% 9% 1.42 - 1 6.2
wilkins,damien 24% 11% 0.86 + 7 2.7 gortat,marcin 18% 10% 1.74 - 9 4.1
pachulia,zaza 26% 2% 4.23 - 3 1.3 williams,jason 31% 22% 0.28 - 7 1.6
williams,marvin 43% 16% 0.19 - 1 0.9 pietrus,mickael 30% 12% 0.09 - 8 0.2
thomas,etan 9% 8% 0.61 - 2 0.3 richardson,quentin 31% 12% 0.01 - 2 0.0
evans,maurice 22% 12% 0.13 - 9 0.2 allen,malik (DNP)
teague,jeff (DNP) nelson,jameer (DNP)
PACE: 88.6 ORTG eFG% oRB% TO% FTA% PACE: 88.6 ORTG eFG% oRB% TO% FTA%
hawks,atlanta 90.3 .418 .222 .158 .060 magic,orlando 83.6 .405 .238 .192 .104
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KNICKS 121, TIMBERWOLVES 114 (box)
UTA (16-6) PLY% USG PCP +/- GR NYK (13-9) PLY% USG PCP +/- GR
love,kevin 87% 24% 1.60 + 7 37.4 chandler,wilson 77% 17% 1.65 +12 28.8
beasley,michael 92% 23% 0.98 - 7 19.6 stoudemire,amare 82% 33% 1.02 + 2 20.9
ridnour,luke 59% 23% 1.26 + 8 16.1 felton,raymond 79% 23% 1.45 +17 20.4
johnson,wesley 70% 8% 1.15 0 12.9 williams,shawne 54% 17% 1.40 + 3 20.4
brewer,corey 69% 13% 0.90 -13 10.6 gallinari,danilo 70% 18% 1.17 - 9 12.1
telfair,sebastian 41% 26% 0.91 -15 9.9 fields,landry 59% 10% 0.92 + 1 9.7
milicic,darko 16% 40% 1.26 + 8 8.3 douglas,toney 43% 17% 1.40 + 3 8.7
ellington,wayne 47% 15% 0.69 -10 5.6 turiaf,ronny 26% 9% 1.90 + 9 4.9
pekovic,nikola 19% 19% 0.05 -13 0.2 mozgov,timofey 10% 17% 0.65 - 3 2.0
gaines,sundiata (DNP) mason,roger (DNP)
hayward,lazar (DNP) randolph,anthony (DNP)
koufos,kosta (DNP) rautins,andy (DNP)
PACE: 94.6 ORTG eFG% oRB% TO% FTA% PACE: 94.6 ORTG eFG% oRB% TO% FTA%
jazz,utah 120.6 .590 .233 .180 .126 knicks,newyork 128.0 .606 .250 .116 .107
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BULLS 99, THUNDER 90 (box)
OKC (14-8) PLY% USG PCP +/- GR CHI (11-8) PLY% USG PCP +/- GR
westbrook,russell 73% 31% 0.81 - 9 28.3 boozer,carlos 75% 30% 1.16 +13 32.8
durant,kevin 69% 36% 1.02 + 2 22.8 rose,derrick 80% 23% 0.93 +13 17.2
krstic,nenad 46% 25% 1.39 + 9 13.6 korver,kyle 43% 30% 1.00 0 16.1
harden,james 58% 27% 0.71 -19 11.0 deng,luol 84% 20% 1.19 +13 13.2
maynor,eric 35% 17% 0.78 - 7 7.7 bogans,keith 34% 18% 1.45 + 4 7.1
green,jeff 71% 13% 0.68 + 3 5.0 gibson,taj 53% 10% 0.91 0 6.3
sefolosha,thabo 55% 10% 1.10 + 7 4.3 noah,joakim 43% 21% 1.19 + 5 5.8
ibaka,serge 40% 2% 1.40 -13 2.3 asik,omer 28% 3% 2.57 0 3.3
collison,nick 52% 1% 1.36 -18 1.7 brewer,ronnie 32% 9% 1.50 + 5 3.3
mullens,byron 2% 54% 0.00 0 0.0 watson,c.j. 27% 12% 0.31 - 8 1.2
ivey,royal (DNP) johnson,james (DNP)
white,d.j. (DNP) scalabrine,brian (DNP)
PACE: 93.2 ORTG eFG% oRB% TO% FTA% PACE: 93.2 ORTG eFG% oRB% TO% FTA%
thunder,oklacity 96.6 .378 .250 .161 .146 bulls,chicago 106.2 .511 .372 .182 .080
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HEAT 88, BUCKS 78 (box)
MIA (14-8) PLY% USG PCP +/- GR MIL (7-13) PLY% USG PCP +/- GR
wade,dwyane 81% 40% 0.88 + 8 34.9 bogut,andrew 82% 17% 1.09 -12 23.3
arroyo,carlos 67% 12% 2.34 + 8 21.5 maggette,corey 61% 30% 1.03 - 4 16.8
james,lebron 81% 24% 1.07 +17 18.0 sanders,larry 60% 21% 0.77 -10 10.0
bosh,chris 80% 26% 0.86 +11 13.3 jennings,brandon 67% 27% 0.80 -18 9.2
jones,james 39% 6% 3.18 - 1 6.4 ilyasova,ersan 48% 11% 1.09 +10 8.8
dampier,erick 50% 4% 1.33 + 7 3.9 salmons,john 67% 22% 0.60 - 5 7.0
chalmers,mario 33% 22% 0.46 0 3.4 mbahamoute,luc 48% 9% 1.09 -16 5.9
howard,juwan 20% 3% 3.78 - 1 1.7 douglas-roberts,chr 33% 10% 2.03 - 5 5.6
ilgauskas,zydrunas 34% 11% 0.00 + 3 0.0 dooling,keyon 22% 22% 0.57 + 6 4.1
anthony,joel (DNP) boykins,earl 10% 10% 0.68 + 2 0.7
house,eddie (DNP) brockman,jon 1% -% 0.00 + 2 0.0
magloire,jamaal (DNP) gooden,drew (DNP)
PACE: 85.4 ORTG eFG% oRB% TO% FTA% PACE: 85.4 ORTG eFG% oRB% TO% FTA%
heat,miami 103.0 .521 .297 .211 .093 bucks,milwaukee 91.3 .372 .196 .129 .129
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JAZZ 94, GRIZZLIES 85 (box)
MEM (8-14) PLY% USG PCP +/- GR UTA (16-6) PLY% USG PCP +/- GR
randolph,zach 84% 22% 1.04 + 6 26.3 miles,c.j. 60% 27% 1.39 + 9 29.8
gasol,marc 72% 12% 1.85 - 8 19.6 williams,deron 74% 35% 1.14 +14 23.9
gay,rudy 82% 32% 0.67 - 2 16.8 bell,raja 79% 7% 2.85 +10 22.0
conley,mike 78% 21% 1.17 - 8 13.3 kirilenko,andrei 55% 25% 0.67 0 8.8
mayo,o.j. 49% 20% 0.76 - 4 10.3 jefferson,al 79% 19% 0.80 + 3 8.2
vasquez,greivis 22% 31% 0.61 - 1 5.8 millsap,paul 68% 18% 0.74 + 6 7.6
arthur,darrell 36% 21% 0.91 - 8 4.0 elson,francisco 17% 16% 1.51 + 3 3.1
henry,xavier 50% 3% 1.27 - 5 1.3 watson,earl 41% 11% 0.78 0 3.0
thabeet,hasheem 7% 14% 0.00 - 8 0.0 fesenko,kyrylo 21% 2% 1.11 + 6 0.9
young,sam (DNP) price,ronnie 6% 14% 0.40 - 6 0.4
allen,tony (DNP) evans,jeremy (DNP)
carroll,demarre (DNP) hayward,gordon (DNP)
PACE: 87.3 ORTG eFG% oRB% TO% FTA% PACE: 87.3 ORTG eFG% oRB% TO% FTA%
grizzlies,memphis 97.3 .424 .317 .160 .116 jazz,utah 107.6 .469 .250 .137 .101
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CLIPPERS 98, KINGS 91 (box)
SAC (4-15) PLY% USG PCP +/- GR LAC (5-17) PLY% USG PCP +/- GR
cousins,demarcus 60% 27% 0.94 - 5 23.1 gordon,eric 76% 27% 1.31 + 7 36.5
landry,carl 71% 15% 1.19 + 8 21.4 bledsoe,eric 58% 25% 1.10 +19 18.5
casspi,omri 71% 16% 1.84 + 8 15.2 griffin,blake 68% 27% 1.00 +12 15.3
jeter,pooh 36% 27% 1.16 +10 12.1 butler,rasual 48% 24% 0.74 - 2 11.7
evans,tyreke 84% 24% 0.74 -14 10.7 gomes,ryan 61% 22% 1.25 + 4 9.6
dalembert,samuel 45% 17% 1.01 - 8 5.8 davis,baron 42% 23% 0.96 -12 5.9
thompson,jason 23% 28% 0.65 - 5 4.2 aminu,alfarouq 37% 12% 0.62 +14 3.7
udrih,beno 58% 18% 0.35 -20 3.2 jordan,deandre 53% 5% 1.69 + 7 3.2
greene,donte 29% 14% 0.25 -15 1.8 collins,jarron 37% 6% 1.00 - 4 1.5
garcia,francisco 23% 6% 0.84 + 6 1.1 smith,craig 21% 2% 0.65 -10 0.3
head,luther (DNP) cook,brian (DNP)
jackson,darnell (DNP) warren,willie (DNP)
PACE: 92.3 ORTG eFG% oRB% TO% FTA% PACE: 92.3 ORTG eFG% oRB% TO% FTA%
kings,sacramento 98.6 .382 .295 .141 .153 clippers,losangele 106.2 .488 .273 .152 .110
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NEWS & MOVES
Minutiae from around the league
NBA: "The New York Knicks' Amar'e Stoudemire and the Oklahoma City Thunder's Russell Westbrook today were named the Eastern and Western Conference Players of the Week, respectively, for games played Monday, Nov. 29, through Sunday, Dec. 5." (press release)
Rather than telling you who should have won, I'll simply submit a chart of last week's GR leaders, on a per-game basis, for all players that appeared in at least three contests:
PLAYER GP GR AVG
curry,stephen 3 91.0 30.3
james,lebron 4 115.9 29.0
nash,steve 3 82.5 27.5
wade,dwyane 4 109.0 27.3
felton,raymond 3 81.2 27.1
stoudemire,amare 3 80.7 26.9
love,kevin 3 78.2 26.1
bryant,kobe 3 76.4 25.5
gordon,eric 3 76.0 25.3
conley,mike 4 98.8 24.7
jefferson,al 3 74.1 24.7
griffin,blake 3 73.1 24.4
evans,tyreke 3 71.6 23.9
farmar,jordan 4 94.1 23.5
granger,danny 3 69.2 23.1
ginobili,manu 4 89.6 22.4
westbrook,russell 4 89.6 22.4
gay,rudy 4 89.4 22.4
miller,andre 4 87.3 21.8
rondo,rajon 3 65.0 21.7
lee,david 3 64.7 21.6
chandler,wilson 3 63.2 21.1
arenas,gilbert 4 83.4 20.9
green,jeff 4 83.3 20.8
nowitzki,dirk 4 81.3 20.3
CLIPPERS: The Clippers' Baron Davis left in the fourth with a sore left hamstring. He returned to the lineup last week after being out since Nov. 9 because of a sore left knee. 'I don't know how bad it is,' coach Vinny Del Negro said." (The Associated Press)
Ugh. Unplayable, untradeable and expensive. Johnny Rotten used to write songs about guys like this.
KINGS: "When asked the last time he hadn't been a regular starter, Samuel Dalembert laughed. That's the new role for Dalembert and Carl Landry as part of the Kings' recent shakeup of the starting lineup." (Sacramento Bee)
This leaves Jason Thompson and DeMarcus Cousins as the starting frontcourt for Paul Westphal. I of course am all for it--when in doubt, play the kids. The Kings may be the league's most disappointing team so far and in a lost campaign, they have to let the young core develop around Tyreke Evans.
KNICKS: "Turiaf will come off the bench for now, D'Antoni said, because he doesn't want to mess with his current lineup, which has Stoudemire starting at center and Wilson Chandler at power forward, and has produced five straight victories." (Bergen Record)
Turiaf has been hurt and he's ready to go now, but Mike D'Antoni is no fool. Chandler has been enjoying a breakout season and with the Knicks riding high, there is no reason to tamper with the team's chemistry.
NETS: "The New Jersey Nets have recalled guard/forward Terrence Williams from their NBA Development League affiliate, The Springfield Armor, Nets General Manager Billy King announced today. In three games with the Armor, all starts, Williams averaged 28.0 points, 11.3 rebounds, 10.7 assists, and 1.3 steals in 41.7 minutes per game." (press release)
From a productivity standpoint, Williams' temporary exile couldn't have gone much better. Williams was also contrite about the quirky behavior that got him sent to the D-League in the first place, and he pledged to do better. Now it's up Avery Johnson to figure out how to get the most out of this talented, multi-skilled player. Though he's a bit undersized for a small forward, you'd hope to see Williams eventually wrest that position from Travis Outlaw, whose true calling is off-the-bench scoring.
ROCKETS: "Second-year guard Jermaine Taylor moved ahead of rookie point guard Ish Smith in the Rockets' rotation and will play in the backcourt off the bench with Courtney Lee sliding over to play the point for stretches behind starter Kyle Lowry." (Houston Chronicle)
Interesting manuever by Rockets coach Rick Adelman, who looks to get some more punch in his second unit. Taylor has explosive scoring ability, but he was also on the verge of being waived back when it looked like Houston was going to sign Erick Dampier. This is quite a turnaround for the kid.
THUNDER: "The Thunder recalled rookie center Cole Aldrich from the Tulsa 66ers of the NBA Development League on Monday. Brooks said the move was fueled by a desire to check on Aldrich's progress. He averaged 7.8 points and 7.2 rebounds in five games for Tulsa." (press release)
Aldrich probably won't see much, if any, game action. OKC coach Scott Brooks said Aldrich was brought back strictly to see how far he's progressed in his time in the D-League. One problem for the former KU center is that he averaged 5.2 fouls in just over 27 minutes per game.
TIMBERWOLVES: "Rambis says there's "zero chance" Flynn plays tonite vs Knicks, will return to D League for 2 games this weekend." (Jerry Zgoda via Twitter)
Guess Flynn's recall from the D-League was premature.
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ON TAP
Tonight in the NBA
WTC VIS @ HOM, GAMETIME NBAPET LINE OFFICIALS
- 2 njn @ atl, 7:00 PM EST [ atl by 11 ] James Capers, Eric Lewis, James Williams
+ 4 den @ cha, 7:00 PM EST [ den by 3 ] David Jones, Marat Kogut, Sean Wright
-10 cle @ phi, 7:00 PM EST [ phi by 12 ] Dan Crawford, Curtis Blair, Tony Brothers
- 2 gsw @ dal, 8:30 PM EST [ dal by 16 ] Bob Delaney, Derrick Collins, Kevin Cutler
- 5 det @ hou, 8:30 PM EST [ hou by 8 ] Jason Phillips, Eric Dalen, David Guthrie
+ 6 phx @ por, 10:00 PM EST [ por by 1 ] Derrick Stafford, Bennie Adams, Derek Richardson
- 8 was @ lal, 10:30 PM EST [ lal by 21 ] Mike Callahan, Pat Fraher, Tre Maddox
Note: WTC is a junk stat rating the "watchability" of a game, taking into
account the quality of the opponents and the likelihood of a close game.
Through Monday, 307 of 1,230 games (25.0%) have been played in the 2010-11 NBA regular season.
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GLOSSARY
+/- (Plus-Minus) Raw data is from official box scores from NBA.com.
GR (Game Rating) Reflects a player's Points Created total, or the portion of his team's offense for which he gets credit based on his box score line. This number is then adjusted for estimated defensive performance based on box score counterpart productivity. GR is pace-adjusted so you can compare players from game to game.
PCP (Points Created Per Possession Used) An estimate of each player's points created per possession used, a measure of offensive efficiency. The stat accounts for a player's entire box score line, not just the scoring categories.
PLY% (Play percentage) An estimate of the percentage of a team's possessions on which the player was on the court.
USG An estimate of how many of those plays a player used by shooting, going to the line or committing a turnover, with a portion the team's offensive rebound total subtracted.
TEAM STATS
PACE: Estimated possessions in the game.
ORTG: A team's points per 100 possessions.
eFG%: Team's shooting percentage with an extra half-point added for each made three-point field goal.
oRB%: Percentage of a team's misses that they retrieved off the offensive glass.
TO%: Percentage of at team's possessions resulting in a turnover.
FTA%: Percentage of a team's possessions resulting in a trip to the foul line.
You can follow Bradford on Twitter at twitter.com/@bbdoolittle.
The 2010-11 Pro Basketball Prospectus is now available in paperback form on Amazon.com. For sample chapters and more information, see our book page.
Bradford Doolittle is an author of Basketball Prospectus.
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On the Beat (12/07)
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