The NBA season is 10 games in and the storylines are as intriguing as predicted when the offseason produced a flurry of major moves that shifted the balance of power a bit in each conference. Its still too early for real basketball heads to draw any conclusions, but the social media, instant gratification heads are drawing daily conclusions about each team. Narratives change daily and a players favor with fans fluctuates tweet by tweet.
Folks were already anointing Milwaukee Bucks rising Greek God Giannis Antetokounmpo as the MVP over the first couple of weeks of the season.
NBA World on Twitter
NBA MVP predictions: Giannis Antetokounmpo leads the way https://t.co/4ATb8twKD6
Now Knicks superstar Kristaps Porzingis is the flavor of the moment for NBA fans. As the season progresses the names Kyrie Irving, LeBron James, Steph Curry, James Harden and last years MVP Russell Westbrook will begin to surface and take control of that situation. In fact, it’s already happening.
Hoops Reference on Twitter
Week 3 NBA MVP Ladder: 1. James Harden 2. Steph Curry 3. Giannis Antetokounmpo 4. Kristaps Porzingis 5. Demarcus Cousins
Right now, they are cute stories that fit well early in the NBA season before reality starts settling in for pretenders and contenders. Besides, the Bucks and Knicks are two franchises that desperately need a hero. Reporters get tired of writing about Golden State and Cleveland all of the time.
The biggest surprises so far have been Clevelands 4-6 start, and the Knicks opening the year at 5-4. Any sensible person knows that by the end of the season, the Cavs will have at least 15-20 more wins than the Knicks, but the story provides great fodder for talk radio and posts. Needling LeBron, creating controversy when there is none and setting up possible June scenarios based on of the season being played is par for the course these days.
Lonzo Ball has been magnificently average, so all of the Ball groupies – his trash-talking dad LaVar included – have been surprisingly quiet lately. The reality of an NBA season will do that to you.
With all of the uncertainty in the Eastern Conference, aint nothing changed in the West really, where the Rockets and Golden State Warriors are the class of the conference. Golden State is still head-and-shoulders above the Rockets and since starting the season 1-2, have won 7 of 8 including a 97-80 win against the Miami Heat on Monday night to advance to 8-3 on the season.
NBA Panel on Twitter
@KDTrey5 had 21p/8r/6a as the @warriors (8-3) beat the @MiamiHEAT (4-6) 97-80 #heat #nba #nbapanel #DubNation
It was an unusually low scoring game for the high-octane Warriors. KD led the team with just 21-points and Draymond chipped in 18 on a night when the Splash Brothers were quiet. It was the first win for Golden State in which they failed to score 100 points since April 10, 2016.
Dub Nation coach Steve Kerr said after the game, Its good to win ugly.
It was another display of Golden States versatility and superiority over everyone else in the league. The Warriors are just rounding into form this season and we should start to see them pull away from the West division over the next coming weeks.
