Welcome back to our NBA Star Power Index -- a weekly gauge of the players who are most controlling the buzz around the league. Reminder: Inclusion on this list isn't necessarily a good thing. It simply means that you're capturing the NBA world's attention. Also, this is not a ranking. The players listed are in no particular order as it pertains to the buzz they're generating. This column will run every week for the rest of the season.
There is one reason, and one reason only, that we are terrified to pick any team in the East other than the Cavaliers to go to the Finals. That reason is LeBron James. On Wednesday, he single-handedly destroyed the "best team in the East" when he hung 35 points, 17 assists and zero turnovers on the Raptors in a statement Cavs win.
Again: 35 points, 17 assists, and ZERO turnovers.
The guy scored or assisted on 80 -- EIGHTY! -- freaking points.
LeBron passing the ball is next level. He has 17 assists with 0 turnovers tonight. Sidenote: K Love back. #NBApic.twitter.com/yklJJYU0MV
— Shawn not Sean (@DefCoPilot) March 22, 2018
That clip you just watched was LeBron's final assist of the night -- a pass to a wide-open Kevin Love for a dagger 3 -- and it sealed the game. As with everything, he makes that pass look easy. It isn't. He gets into the lane, knows exactly where everyone is on the floor, delivers the pass with force and precision with a mere flick of the wrist. Basketball is just so easy for this guy.
But back to the bigger question on everyone's mind: Can LeBron actually drag this otherwise pretty pedestrian Cavs team to the Finals? Well he just took down the Raptors without teammates Rodney Hood, Cedi Osman or Larry Nance Jr. even in uniform. The Raptors were game. It's not a knock on them. It's just ... well .. you know, the best player in the world thing. It's hard to beat that guy unless you're the Warriors.
I will say, the LeBron factor has been somewhat overcooked. Yes, he's been to seven straight Finals, but he's also had the best team in the East, by a long shot, every one of those years. There is actually only one season of evidence that LeBron can drag a subpar team the Finals. He did it in 2007, when the Cavs played Larry Hughes and Boobie Gibson over 53 minutes a night and were swept by the Spurs. Otherwise, LeBron goes to the Finals because he has the best team, and when he hasn't had the best team -- like in, say, 2008, 2009 and 2010 -- he hasn't gone to the Finals.
So there is evidence that for all his greatness, when LeBron doesn't clearly have the best team, he's not enough to get past really good Eastern teams on his own. Personally, I think that will be the case again this year. I'm still picking Toronto. But I'd be lying if I said I was in any way confident in that prediction after watching LeBron Wednesday night.
Houston ended the Blazers' 13-game win streak with a 115-111 win in Portland on Tuesday, and Harden was, you guessed it, ridiculous in posting 42 points, seven assists and six rebounds and shot 5-of-7 from 3-point range. Afterward, Rockets coach Mike D'Antoni -- who has, remember, coached the likes of Kobe Bryant and Steve Nash and has, of course, been in the league through the run of LeBron James and Kevin Durant and so many other all-time players -- had this to say:
D’Antoni just called James Harden “the best offensive player I’ve ever seen”
— Sean Highkin (@highkin) March 21, 2018
D'Antoni called Harden "the best offensive player" he's ever seen. This statement is both hard to believe and hard to argue against. Harden is just completely unstoppable, and Houston put him in such a great position to succeed, simply hunting switches until he gets a big or any other mismatch on an island and then simply letting him go to work on him like a jaguar screwing with a mouse.
Harden took over down the stretch. 🔥 pic.twitter.com/NMD6IVe5YM
— SportsCenter (@SportsCenter) March 21, 2018
The MVP race, as they say, is over.
The bad news for the Blazers? Their 13-game win streak came to an end at the hands of the Rockets. The good news? They played the best team in the league so far this season down to the wire, only losing by four, while Damian Lillard, who has been torching the league like Nero's Rome since the All-Star break, played an uncharacteristically bad game, going just 5 of 17 from the field for 20 points, 10 of which came at the free-throw line.
If you're not taking the Blazers' seriously, you should be. They play both ends, they have one of the best rim protectors in the league in Jusuf Nurkic and one of the quietest stars in CJ McCollum. They also have one of the most lethal killers in the league in Lillard, who should be top-five on every single MVP ballot known to any logical voting man or woman.
Interesting situation for the Blazers: If the season were to end right now they would be the No. 3 seed, and if seeds held, they would play the No. 2-seed Warriors in the second round. You could argue they would be better off falling to the No. 3 seed, which would line up a potential second-round matchup with Houston instead. If they can play right next to the Rockets with Lillard being off his game, as they did on Tuesday, don't tell me they can't put a scare into them if Lillard gets on one of his streaks.
In this year's Rookie of the Year race between Simmons and Donovan Mitchell, there have been two pretty popular narratives developing: Mitchell is the one doing his thing as a No. 1 option, while Simmons' numbers, No. 1 option or not, are historic. I have been in Mitchell's corner most of the season. Its getting harder to stay there.
Get this: Over his last five games, Simmons is one assist and five rebounds from having record five straight triple-doubles. Five. Straight. Here are his lines in those games:
- 13 points, 9 assists, 7 rebounds
- 11 points, 15 assists, 12 rebounds
- 21 points, 12 assists, 8 rebounds
- 13 points, 12 assists, 10 rebounds
- 10 points, 10 assists, 13 rebounds
Oh by the way, the Sixers have won four of their last five and eight of their last 11, and according to SportsLine data specialist Stephen Oh, they are the odds-on favorite to end up with the No. 4 seed in the East with home-court advantage in the first round. With Simmons' numbers and that kind of team success, it's going to be pretty hard to deny him the ROY.
Remember all that talk about Lonzo Ball's improved shooting? Well, over his last seven games he's 10-for-49 from 3-point range, and he hasn't scored in double figures in almost two weeks. Ouch.
So here's what I'll say about this: Lonzo is going to be inconsistent because, one, he's a rookie, and two, he does not have a terribly repeatable shot in terms of mechanics. It just doesn't always come off the same way -- depending on off the dribble or off the catch, or myriad other factors -- because of that form. He'll work on that.
In the meantime, the answer is somewhere in the middle: Lonzo is not as bad a shooter as he looked like to start the season, or as bad as he has looked recently, but he's also not as good a shooter as his numbers would've indicated when he was on fire form downtown not that long ago. At this point, you have to respect his shot, but you certainly don't fear it.
