Sunday, November 05, 2006

Kyle Korver can't miss!

The Sixers are still unbeaten with a 107-98 win over the Heat. I certainly didn’t see this coming.

As the headline mentions, Kyle Korver is out of his mind right now. He’s hit nine of his last ten shots from long range, and he’s making it hard for defenses to contain Allen Iverson. A.I. loves to penetrate, and teams have to respect him due to his great scoring ability, so that’s leaving Korver and Iguodala wide open for outside shots. If they keep hitting them, the Sixers will keep winning.

Iverson is such an incredible talent. He’s scored 30+ points in every game so far, and he has that ability to beat you from anywhere. However, he’s also registered two double figure assists games so far, so he’s looking to get everyone else involved.

In other unbeaten team news, I fear I may have been wrong about Carlos Boozer and the Jazz. They certainly have been impressive so far during their 3-0 start. Great starts don’t always amount to great seasons though. Remember the Bucks red-hot start last year?

Phoenix is off to a rough beginning. I think everyone knew that getting Amare Stoudemire back into the flow was going to be a work in progress, but to see him get two points last night against the Clippers is still surprising. The Suns are 1-3 and in last place right now.

The Dallas Mavericks have also looked sluggish as they work their new pieces into the rotation. Houston torched them from the opening tip last night, as Jason Terry couldn’t buy a basket, and no one could stop Yao Ming. Avery Johnson doesn’t seem to be using Devon Harris as much as I expected. I guess he’s still feeling his roster out, but Harris was a spark during their playoff run last year, so it’s a bit surprising he’s not getting more minutes.

Tim Duncan and Spurs had a nice bounce back effort this afternoon in Toronto. Duncan simply dominated Chris Bosh in this game. The Big Boring did whatever he wanted on the offensive end, scoring 26 points on 10 of 15 shooting. Fabricio Oberto and Francisco Elson are adding some new life to the Spurs frontcourt. Elson is really a breath of fresh air since all he does is run the floor and clean up garbage. I still worry about their depth once playoff time rolls around.

The Magic looked sloppy again in Atlanta this afternoon. Dwight Howard got himself into early foul trouble and was a complete non-factor for most of the game. In fact, Zaza Pachulia dominated him at times on both ends of the floor. Where has the Dwight Howard from opening night gone? The good news for Magic fans is that Darko Milicic looked strong on the defensive end and was able to get to the foul line. The problems occurred once he shot his free throws. Ugly. Orlando had 14 first-half turnovers, so they haven’t fixed that problem yet.

By the way, the Atlanta Hawks are leading the Southeast division right now!

Just remember, it’s early. Nothing in this league is for sure until it’s all said and done. The only thing I’m confident in writing right now is that Doc Rivers is officially on the hot seat in Boston. His Celtics look like the worst team in the league so far. Like I wrote in the Atlantic preview, at least they have a dance team now.

No comments: