Despite the Covid-19 pandemic, the NBA appears to have faced security challenges and will begin a near-full-fledged regular season with a slight delay. There are 72 games for each team, but the playoffs should start in early May. It is too early to foresee what this basketball marathon will be like without the presence of fans in the stands, or it will somehow affect the motivation of teams and individual players on the field. Nothing has changed significantly for Latvian basketball fans – most of the games of the clubs we represent will be shown at night, but in the morning a cup of coffee we will be able to see a summary of the most successful activities.
The health of the porter as the cornerstone of the Mavericks’ success
Dallas Mavericks leader Luka Dončič will spend his third season in the NBA, he is considered the main favorite for the league’s most valuable player (MVP) title and it’s hard to imagine that a team with such a leader might not get into the playoffs. This is also confirmed by bookmakers in their forecasts. Someone in Dallas even take second place in the powerful Western Conference, a majority in fourth after both Los Angeles units, the Lakers and Clippers, and Denver’s Nuggets.
In order to achieve more and claim the title, Doncičs and the whole Mavericks organization must hope that Kristaps Porziņģis will be healthy at the crucial moments of the season. The dominant of Dončiča – Porziņģis in the spring was interrupted by a meniscus injury suffered by a Latvian. Although Latvian fans do not want to see it, Porziņģis is a traumatic player and has not spent any full season in his career. 2018./19. The season was completely missed due to the rupture of the knee ligaments, the rest of Kristaps always missed the number of double – digit games for various reasons. If we put our whole career together, Porziņģis has not participated in 39.7 percent of regular season games due to injuries. Liepāja will also miss the beginning of the new season and could appear on the square no earlier than in January. If all goes well, Porziņģis will definitely show a starry basketball. Last year, in the regular season, they averaged 20.4 points per game, even 23.7 in the playoffs. The new season bar should also be installed right there.
How good the Dallas attack was last season, so bad the defense. It is estimated that replacing sniper Seth Curry with Philadelphia and replacing Josh Richardson will reduce the team’s attack power, but the defense will take on completely different features. In addition, another addition to James Johnson is the solid fighting practice in kickboxing and MMA. Directly, it is unlikely to be useful, but a player who is ready to play “bone in the bone” is a valuable benefit.
Bertane next to two stars
At the Wizards camp in Washington, after a two-season break, there are renewed hopes of reaching the playoffs, and sniper Dāvis Bertāns was signed as one of the cornerstones of the team with a five-year and $ 80 million contract. Of course, he will be the third role player after both Wizards superstars Bradley Bill and Russell Westbrook, who won this fall. Fantastic outside line, but there is only one ball during the game. It will be interesting to see how Bill shares it with Westbrook and how much it will fall into Bertan’s hands. Last season, Dāvis threw an average of 8.7 long shots per match with 42.4 percent accuracy and scored 15.4 points.
Bookmakers expect the Wizards to be 7th or 8th in the Eastern Conference, but no lower than the tenth, which would allow them to play in the so-called “play-in” round before being eliminated from the tournament. The winners of the 7th to 10th places of each conference will take part in it. Before the season, Washington is expected to lag behind Milwaukee, Philadelphia, Brooklyn, Miami, Boston and Toronto. The Wizards’ weak spot is still indicated by a defensive game that was worst in the league last season alongside the Cleveland Cavaliers. Another obstacle to achieving higher results is the lack of experience – 13 team players have only three or fewer NBA seasons. “Our goal is not just to get into the playoffs, but to get there from as high a place as possible,” Washington’s 28-year-old Bertan, who has already been called a veteran, expressed his determination to return to the playoffs, which he enjoyed three times as Sanantoio’s Spurs. ”Player.
Pasečnik has been given a month to prove himself
Andrejs Pasečņiks is still in the Wizards districts of Washington, who in November agreed with the management of the club to postpone the term of the full guaranteed contract worth 1.5 million until February 1. Until then, Pasečnik’s account will receive a salary from the minimum contract, but the player must prove his usefulness to the team. A year ago, Pasečnik’s entry into the NBA was a coincidence, when almost all of the players in the center position fell out of the Wizards due to injuries. Angie took his chance, but he can’t be called a stable player on the Wizards. He currently has at least four more competitors with more valuable contracts and, under other circumstances, he would probably no longer be on the team lists. If we remember the final bubble of the previous season of the NBA, which was held in the summer, then in it “Wizards” coach Scott Brooks trusted the Latvian very little. Bookmaker Olybet is even offering to place bets on whether Pasečnik will have a guaranteed contract with Wizards after February 1 and how much more likely it is that Pasečnik will not remain in the NBA.
Kurucs among the applicants for the title
Brooklyn’s “Nets” with two superstars Kevin Durant and Cairo Irving are named NBA champions and anything less than the conference finals will be considered a failure. This is what it looks like on paper, but there are often concerns about the possible health problems of both leaders, but one of the main tasks of the team’s new coach Steve Nash will be to create a good team “chemistry”. “Nets” is a very wide circle of equal players, in which Rodion Kuruc’s place looks closer to the end of the player rotation. There is little chance that Kurucs could be at more than 20 minutes of playing time as in his debut season or at least 14.6 minutes as last year. Most likely – there will be less, and each entry into the square will be an opportunity for self-assertion. The good news is that Nash praised Cēsis in an interview with Nets Daily and added that Kuruca sees a great future in the game and appreciates the amount of work he has done. Otherwise, Nash did not hide that at the depth of the current Nets line-up, Kurucs is fighting for the opportunity to be among the rotating players.
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