As 2019 comes to a close and 2020 rings in tonight, the first two months of this NBA season are complete, bringing us its share of surprises and breakout players.
Perhaps the league's biggest surprise so far are the Miami Heat, who currently hold a 24-9 record, good for 3rd in the Eastern Conference. Jimmy Butler (20.8/6.6/6.6/2.0) is in the Most Valuable Player conversation, and big man Bam Adebayo is one of a handful (Spencer Dinwiddie, Brandon Ingram, Devonte Graham) gunning for Most Improved Player. Adebayo, in his 3rd season out of Kentucky, is averaging 15.6 points, 10.6 rebounds, and 4.6 assists, and is a complete basketball player. Though undersized at 6'9, he brings great energy and has a total game.
Contributions from Kendrick Nunn (16.0 points), Goran Dragic (15.8 points), and Tyler Herro (13.7) have the Heat as a rather deep team whose ceiling is pretty high. With Butler leading the way and their others playing at a very high level, this team is dangerous.
Another big time player who has put the NBA on notice this month is the Brooklyn Nets' Spencer Dinwiddle, who has started for the team since November 16 in the wake of Kyrie Irving's shoulder impingement injury.
Dinwiddie is averaging 23.5 points in his 21 starts, and kicked off the month of December with 29 points against the Heat. Over the course of the month, he had four straight games of 24 points, followed by 31, a career-high 41, and 39. Last night in an overtime loss to Minnesota, Dinwiddie scored 36 points and had 8 assists.
The 26 year old Los Angeles native has made a strong bid to make the All-Star team with his scoring ability and playmaking. At 6'5 and 215 pounds, he is one of the bigger and stronger point guards in the league, finishes around the basket well and is a very good facilitator, especially in the screen and roll.
In the final big NBA contest of 2019, the Los Angeles Clippers met the Los Angeles Lakers in the showcase Christmas Day game. For the second time this season in their matchup, Kawhi Leonard got the best of LeBron James, with Leonard going for 35 (11/19 from the field, 5/7 from three, 8/8 from the line), 12 rebounds, and 5 assists in 38 minutes. James, even though his final stat line of 23/10/9 said differently, was far from great, going just 9 of 24 from the field and making 2 of his 12 three point attempts. Once again, as he has done sometimes in big games, James looked disinterested and not aggressive. The victory made the Clippers 2-0 versus the Lakers this season, accounting for 2 of the Lakers' 7 losses.
As far as an individual matchup goes, the Christmas contest marked the second game this season that Leonard has outplayed James, which will need to change in the playoffs if the Lakers are to make it to the NBA Finals. We all expect the two finalists in the West to be the Clippers and Lakers, and, though the Clippers won the first two meetings, we should expect a playoff series between the two to be a knock down, drag out affair. For the regular season, the teams meet again on January 28 in what will be a Laker home game, and March 8 which will be a Clipper home game.
Not included in the title of this article is reference to the play of Houston Rocket guard Russell Westbrook, who was outstanding in the month of December.
After just 21.9 in December on 41.1/21.6/72.2, Westbrook upped his point total to 27.0 in December, with 8.8 rebounds, 7.4 assists, and 1.6 steals. His field goal percentage went up slightly to 42.2, and his free throw percentage saw a massive jump to 89.3%. The Rockets were 9-3 in the month, and are currently 4th in the West behind the Lakers, Denver Nuggets, and Clippers.
2019 ends with seven games tonight, as the 76ers take on the Pacers, Celtics facing the Hornets, Clippers facing the Kings, the Warriors playing at the Spurs, the Cavs playing at the Raptors, the Rockets hosting the Nuggets, and the Mavericks visiting the Thunder and their guard Shai-Gilgeous Alexander, who is coming off a career-high 32 points on Sunday.
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