Plenty to note already in NBA

Published 12:00 am Monday, October 29, 2018

Two weeks into the NBA’s regular season, and plenty to note has already happened.

Let’s take a look at what’s going on around the league …

• The final two unbeaten teams were probably not the ones you expected.

Toronto and Milwaukee met Monday night, each team without its star player. When the smoke cleared, the Bucks (7-0) came out on top 124-109 at Bradley Center to hand the Raptors (6-1) their first loss of the season.

Kawhi Leonard — who sat out Monday’s game for “rest” purposes — has made an immediate impact in Toronto, averaging 26.6 points and 8.0 rebounds while leading a Raptors team that has flourished under first-year coach Nick Nurse. Veteran point guard Kyle Lowry is leading the league with 10.3 assists per contest.

Milwaukee, meanwhile, was without Most Valuable Player candidate Giannis Antetokounmpo, who sat out while undergoing concussion protocol. The 6-11 “Greek Freak” leads the league with 30 turnovers and is 1 for 16 from 3-point range. But he is also averaging 25.0 points, 14.2 rebounds and 5.7 assists despite playing only 30.7 minutes a game.

• Don’t sleep on Boston. Though the Celtics (4-2) dropped two of their first four games, they’re still the team to beat in the East. They have Kyrie Irving and Gordon Hayward healthy and the deepest bench in the league.

• Golden State (7-1) sits atop the West standings as expected, with Klay Thompson providing fireworks in Monday’s 149-124 victory over Chicago with an NBA-record 14 3-pointers out of 24 attempts. Remember when 24 shots from beyond the arc was considered a lot for a whole team?

• Denver (5-1) was the other one-loss team in the conference after a 116-111 win over New Orleans (4-2) on Monday night. The Pelicans were 4-0 before the loss of another MVP candidate, Anthony Davis, to a sprained right elbow.

• Houston and Oklahoma City (both 1-4) are unexpectedly near the bottom in the West, but both have been slowed by the loss of key players.

The Rockets have been without James Harden and Chris Paul due to injury and suspension for a couple of games each. They are also still adjusting to the loss of stoppers Luc Mbah a Moute and Trevor Ariza while incorporating Carmelo Anthony, whose plusses do not include the proclivity to do much at the defensive end.

OKC lost its first four games, the first two with Russell Westbrook out while recovering from knee surgery. Also missing is defensive-minded guard Andre Roberson (knee), who isn’t expected to return until January. A soft schedule over the next three weeks should help get the Thunder back on track.

• Portland’s Damian Lillard ranks third in the NBA in scoring average at 30.8 points, behind only Golden State’s Stephen Curry (32.5) and Charlotte’s Kemba Walker (31.7), in part due to Lillard getting 9.0 free throws a game and shooting .926 when he gets to the line. Only Davis (10.3) gets more opportunities.

• Among the league’s top scorers are two you didn’t expect — Chicago guard Zach LaVine, eighth at 28.1, and Philadelphia’s Joel Embiid, 12th at 26.4.

LaVine, a fifth-year pro in his second season with the Bulls, played only 71 games total the previous two seasons due to a knee injury.

The 7-foot Embiid, who has missed significant time with foot, knee and back issues in his three NBA seasons, needs only good health to become a superstar.

• Cleveland could be without Kevin Love for more than a month with a toe injury that has lingered since the preseason.

The Lake Oswego native was averaging 19 points and 13.5 rebounds in four games but was shooting only .323 from the field and .292 from 3-point range at the time the Cavaliers chose to shut him down.

Surgery won’t be necessary. Rest is expected to take care of the injury.

It leaves a decidedly weak roster for interim coach Larry Drew, who took over when head coach Tyronn Lue was fired on Sunday, the first coach to be given the pink slip.

The Cavaliers (0-6) will likely be in tank, er, development mode the rest of the season — which is precisely what Love didn’t want to happen when he agreed to sign a four-year, $120-million contract extension in the offseason.

Perhaps the Cavs will do Love, 30, a favor and trade him to a contender, though his large contract will turn off some suitors.

• Phoenix rookie DeAndre Ayton is off to a solid start. The first pick in the June draft is averaging 17.5 points and 10.3 rebounds in six games while shooting .644 from the field and .846 from the foul line. The 7-footer from Arizona is Embiid without the injury history.

• One-time Oregon Duck Damyean Dotson, who finished his collegiate career at Houston, is making an impact with the Knicks. The 6-6 shooting guard, who averaged 4.1 points in 44 games with New York last season, is averaging 13.2 points, 6.4 rebounds and 29.2 minutes in his first five games, including two starts. Dotson was a two-year starter as a freshman and sophomore for the Ducks from 2012-14.

• Former Oregon State center Drew Eubanks, who bucked the odds to make San Antonio’s opening-day roster, has impressed the Spurs’ coaching staff. Eubanks, undrafted after leaving OSU following his junior season, won a roster spot with his performance during the Las Vegas Summer League and in the preseason.

“He’s a guy you almost have to tell, ‘Hey, slow down a bit,’ because he has such an earnest energy to him,” assistant coach Will Hardy tells Tom Orsborn of the San Antonio Express-News. “He is unbelievably tough. He was playing through some pain at summer league, but he’s a guy who keeps coming at you.

“He can take a hit in a game or get dunked on in practice, and it doesn’t faze him at all. He just goes right down to the other end. He can take an elbow in the face and he doesn’t say a word, doesn’t complain for a call, doesn’t look at us like, ‘Hey, did you see that guy elbow me in the face?’ He just keeps moving.”

Eubanks has benefitted from being around veteran big men LaMarcus Aldridge and Pau Gasol, but especially retired ex-Spur Tim Duncan, who frequently participates in practice.

“He is always watching me, always giving me pointers,” says Eubanks, who scored two points in three-minute stints in each of his first two regular-season games. “If I have any questions, he is always happy to answer and give advice.”

• Miami coach Erik Spoelstra continues to be enamored of Chip Kelly, the former Oregon football coach whom he befriended in 2011. Spoelstra visited Kelly — who had taken the Ducks to the BCS Championship Game the previous season — twice that summer in Eugene and watched his team practice.

Spoelstra, a Jesuit High and University of Portland grad, was intrigued with Kelly’s then-innovative spread offense and wondered how it could translate from the football field to the basketball court.

“Chip just helped me, as a basketball coach, to think differently,” Spoelstra tells Ira Winderman of the South Florida Sun Sentinel. Spoelstra’s interest was “in the way he thinks, the way he approaches his teams. He had a great effect on me as a young coach … thinking how to maximize your strengths better for your team. All of it was more philosophical than schematic.”

Spoelstra says he met with Kelly again this summer in Los Angeles, where the Chipster is in his first year coaching at UCLA.

“Every couple of years, I like to check in with Chip,” Spoelstra says. “He’s a brilliant, unique thinker. … I think he is invigorated by the challenge he has right now at UCLA. I could feel the excitement he had being there and the opportunities (the Bruins) have in the Pac-12.”

keggers@portlandtribune.com

@kerryeggers