Philadelphia 76ers, Portland Trail Blazers and Toronto Raptors have their Week 5 efforts assessed
Monday 25 November 2019 13:56, UK
Every Monday, we’ll look back over the previous week of NBA action and put four teams under the microscope as we grade their recent performances. Who will be hailed as high-achievers and who needs to do better?
Home comforts proved beneficial for the 76ers who, leading into Week 5, had lost five straight road games to slip from 5-0 to 7-5. An expected road win over the struggling Cleveland Cavaliers to kick off the week was followed by three straight home wins over New York, San Antonio and Miami.
While Ben Simmons' hitting the first three-pointer of his NBA career in the win over the Knicks made for nice reading, the Sixers' real attention-grabbing performance came against Miami on Saturday night. Josh Richardson fired for a season-high 32 points (including six three-pointers) against his former team and Joel Embiid muscled his way to 23 points and 11 rebounds.
On the defensive end, the Sixers choked the life out of their former star Jimmy Butler and his young team-mates Kendrick Nunn, Tyler Herro and Bam Adebayo en route to a 113-86 blowout so one-sided that the Heat sat Butler - who was lustily booed by the Philly crowd - for the entire fourth quarter.
The 76ers' congested offense, specifically its lack of spacing and shooting ability, remains a concern. They rank 13th in offensive rating (108.2 points per 100 possession) with Tobias Harris unable to fill the critical late-game closer role vacated by Butler. But the size and length of their defense, the eighth-ranked unit in the league (103.2 points allowed per 100 possessions), has been good enough to help them restore parity with their big-name rivals in the East standings.
Portland continued to pay the price for their summer recruitment mistakes with four defeats from four road games in Week 5. Their latest move to fill the void left by wings Moe Harkless and Al-Farouq Aminu was to bring Carmelo Anthony back to the NBA on a non-guaranteed contract.
Melo's debut in the Blazers' loss to the New Orleans Pelicans was undoubtedly an event but it did nothing to arrest their slide from 2018-19 Conference Finalists to 2019-20 cellar dwellers.
Damian Lillard missed that defeat and the subsequent loss to the Milwaukee Bucks. He returned on Sunday night but could not prevent the Blazers from sliding to another reverse in Cleveland.
The Blazers are committed to making the most of Lillard's prime years after he signed a four-year $191m extension in May. Their holes at the three and four-spots, exacerbated by the injury absence of Zach Collins, are too big for Anthony to fill alone.
It is hard to believe the acquisition of Anthony will mark the end of Portland's in-season moves, but to acquire a difference-making asset - Kevin Love and Danilo Gallinari have been the subject of Portland trade speculation- they will likely have to sacrifice young guard Anfernee Simons or perhaps star shooting guard CJ McCollum.
You could argue that Toronto are making the most quietly-effective defence of the NBA title anyone can remember. Written off after the summer departure of Kawhi Leonard, the Raptors have amassed 11 wins over the season's opening month and indicated they are still very much in the conversation concerning the Eastern Conference's best teams.
The Raptors enjoyed a perfect Week 5, winning all three of their games with minimal fuss. Their closest call came on the road against the Atlanta Hawks, who fought to the end thanks to a 30-point triple-double from their star guard Trae Young.
However, clutch play from Pascal Siakam, who scored 12 of his game-high 34 points in the final six-and-a-half minutes of the fourth quarter, allowed the Raptors to hold on for the win.
Siakam is thriving as Toronto's No 1 option, putting up 25.7 points on 20.3 shots per game. That immense offensive workload might tell later in the season, but his astonishingly-rapid development (he was averaging 20 minutes and 7.3 points a game just two seasons ago) could see him pull off the rare feat of successfully defending the Most Improved Player award he won last season.
The Nuggets haven't hit their stride in the first month of the season. Nikola Jokic is not in top shape. Denver's offense isn't firing and the team are committing too many turnovers. And yet the Nuggets are second in West with a 12-3 record and on a five-game winning streak, including three victories over the last week.
What's more, those wins - all of which came at home - were against three strong teams (the Boston Celtics, the Houston Rockets and the Phoenix Suns) and were built on the foundation of solid Nuggets defense.
Their 96-92 victory over Boston was described by head coach Mike Malone as an "ugly win". But in the same moment, Malone captured the Nuggets' current state perfectly, telling the Denver Post: "It was an ugly game. It's not going to be sent to the Hall of Fame. The defense was great. The turnovers were out of control."
Against the Rockets, Denver again turned up the defensive intensity. Jokic said he and his team-mates "locked in" on defense, trying a little bit of everything to contain James Harden, including Malone deploying the 7ft Jokic in double-teaming the former MVP on the perimeter.
Houston's star playmaker finished with 27 points, snapping his string of eight consecutive games with 36 or more. The Nuggets also ended the Rockets' eight-game winning streak, holding Mike D'Antoni's team under 100 points for the first time this season as they rolled to a 105-95 victory.
