The NBA season is almost to the All-Star break. This has been a season where any team in the league has a shot to win night in and night out. The defending champs are sitting in ninth place in the Western Conference, as the Eastern Conference champs are atop the Atlantic Division, third in the East.
Dallas has shown domination in most of the first half of the season, as Sacramento has come on strong to earn their respect.
Although I strongly feel like the East once again has no chance to win the title in June, it has teams who can hang with the best of them. Coming out of the Eastern Conference this year will be the Nets once again.
First of all, they did it last year, so they know how to win in the playoffs. They definitely have the personnel to get to the finals again. Jason Kidd has played an MVP-type season, averaging 20.7 points per game and 8.5 assists. He also leads the team in steals, with 2.33 per game.
The supporting cast knows its roles, with K-Mart averaging in double-digits and leading the team in rebounding at the power forward spot at 8.3 per contest. Richard Jefferson gets to the basket on a consistent basis, as Kerry Kittles remains the best pure outside shooter.
The Nets have an impressive home record of 19-2. They’ve earned a 29-14 overall record with their best defensive presence, Dikembe Mutombo, sitting on the sideline for almost two months.
I know I’m going to receive some comments about the team I’ve chosen out of the West. Most people know I hate L.A., so it can’t be them. I don’t like Dallas much either, but I’m going with Dallas because I feel like they have too many weapons and haven’t played their best defense yet this season.
If this team can play consistently for 48 minutes every night, it will be very tough to contain. If they can keep up their winning, they will have home-court advantage in the postseason, which will help their chances that much more.
Dallas has the best record in the league at 34-9. It is only 6-4 in the last 10 games. So they are now experiencing the struggle that most top teams do every season. Nash knows how to run this team well and usually when to look for offense. Sean Elliot calls Dirk the “modern-day Larry Bird.” If you ask me, I don’t know a better compliment for a guy like Dirk.
Dirk leads this team with 22.6 points a game and 10.3 rebounds for a nice double-double every night he steps on the hardwood. This team has flat out too many offensive weapons: Dirk, Fin Dogg, Nash, Van Exel, LaFrentz and even Walt the Wizard.
Dallas averages the most points per game in the league with 102.2. It is also leading the league with the most field-goal attempts per game, with 84.9. If it can figure out an effective way to play a man defense, instead of the 2-3 match-up zone its used for most of the season, it will be the team to fear in the last half of the season. We can look for Dallas and New Jersey to cover some ground in these next few months and then on into the 2003 playoffs.