1. The East's Big Three is now the Big Four.
At the beginning of the season, it was generally agreed on that the East was home to three contenders: the Boston Celtics, Cleveland Cavaliers, and Orlando Magic (in alphabetical order, so that no one gets offended)--the same big three as last season.
However, we knew that the young Atlanta Hawks, who were not too far behind to begin with (remember when they took the eventual NBA champion Celtics to 7 games in the first round of the 2008 playoffs?), were bound to catch up, and they've made big strides toward closing the gap. Although the big three currently hold the top 3 spots in the East standings, the Hawks are not far behind, taking the fourth spot at just 4 games behind top-seeded Boston. In fact, some of the Boston media have said that they considered the Hawks, not the Cavs or the Magic, as the biggest threat to them in the East. And why shouldn't they? The Hawks get better every year (and their win-loss record shows it), they rank third in the NBA in point differential (behind only the Celtics and the Los Angeles Lakers), they're young and athletic, for years they've had the same lineup of guys who've been able to grow together, the players have made individual improvements, they have a great relationship with their coach... They have so many things going for them, and I wouldn't be surprised if they manage to upset whichever of the top three teams they face in the second round.
Also, during the first few weeks of the season, it looked like maybe the big three of the East had become just the big two. The Cavs started off on the wrong foot, losing their opening-day home game to the Celtics, and they continued losing to, well, a lot of teams. Shaq looked out of shape and wasn't quite the scoring threat and inside presence everyone thought he'd be. Last year's coach of the year Mike Brown has been criticized for his poor offensive coaching as well as for some of his personnel decisions. Then of course, there is the distraction of LeBron James' free agency after this season. And so, after a preseason that had the Cavs looking like dynamite (in no small part because of their acquisition of Shaq) they began to look like a team that had a lot to figure out.
And figure it out they did. They might not have it all figured out yet, but they've made good progress since their disappointing start. Such good progress, in fact, that they now tie the Celtics for first place in winning percentage in the East (they're currently seeded second because they're 0-1 in their season matchup against the Celtics). Their Christmas Day victory over the Los Angeles Lakers definitively restored them to big three status and reminded everyone that the Cavs are a top contender. Nothing says "we're back" like a beatdown of the reigning NBA champs on their own floor.
2. Two anticipated up-and-comers have disappointed.
I'm talking about the Chicago Bulls and the Portland Trail Blazers. Yes, there are other (perhaps more) disappointing teams (e.g., the Philadelphia 76ers, who after a playoff season are second to last in the East and were desperate enough to sign Allen Iverson, and the LA Clippers, whose number one draft pick Blake Griffin went down with injury before he could even begin to turn the team around like he was expected to). But the Bulls and Blazers are two young teams that everyone was excited about from as early as last postseason. The feisty Bulls, with number-one pick Derrick Rose, took the Celtics to seven games in the first round last season. The Blazers got to the playoffs despite the previous year's number-one pick* Greg Oden missing more than a month because of injuries. Both teams were expected to make big strides and to come into this season even better than they were last season.
Fast-forward to this season, however, and... well, everything that could have gone wrong did go wrong. Although the Bulls are seeded 7th, they are below .500, and the only reason they currently hold a playoff spot is because after the top few teams of the East, everyone else sucks. Derrick Rose, although still a nice player, seems to be going through the dreaded sophomore slump. He is nowhere near as explosive as he was last year and not where we thought he'd be this year. During the offseason, they lost Ben Gordon, their leading scorer, and didn't replace him with someone who could make up for the lost offensive production. The team in general has had a dismal 2009. They allowed the New Jersey Nets one of their mere three wins of the season, on their own floor. They blew a 35-point lead to the Sacramento Kings (at home, and, yes, the Bulls lost). Perhaps the most telling of their passionless, mojo-less state was the shoelace incident during their loss against the Toronto Raptors (I hate to be redundant, but again, this happened at home).
Meanwhile, the Blazers, who entered the season with a deep roster of young, steadily maturing players and with a fully healthy Greg Oden, again lost Oden to injury early in December--for the rest of the season. They've also lost other key players to injury, including Joel Pryzbilla (who is also out for the season), Nicolas Batum, Travis Outlaw, and Rudy Fernandez. Despite this, the Blazers aren't exactly floundering--they're seeded third in the West and trail the top-seeded Lakers by only 5.5 games. Batum, Outlaw, and Fernandez are scheduled to return sometime this month. Nevertheless, with Oden again out for the season, we won't get to see just how far the Blazers could've gone this year at full strength, and that is disappointing.
3. One team anticipated to be mediocre has been anything but.
Again, there may be a number of teams that fall into this category (the Suns and Pistons have been mentioned as surprise teams in an earlier post), but to me, one team stands out: the Houston Rockets. The Rockets started the season without their two superstars, Yao Ming and Tracy McGrady. Nevertheless, they managed to win games and remain seeded for the playoffs with their energy, selflessness, and relentlessness. It's heartwarming to see non-superstar players like rock-solid defender Shane Battier, ex-Laker (thank God) Trevor Ariza, sophomore Aaron Brooks, and pretty much the rest of the Rockets team (players and staff alike) pull together game after game and bring home the Ws. They are an absolute joy to watch, and I'm grateful that there is such a team in the NBA.
*Greg Oden was drafted in 2007-2008 season but missed the entire season because of injuries and subsequent surgery. He was thus classified as a rookie in the 2008-2009 season.
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