Monday 30 December 2019 15:11, UK
Which teams have caught the eye in NBA for both the right and wrong reasons this week? Sky Sports NBA picks out four teams whose performances have been notable across Week 10.
The Miami Heat have featured in Report Card plenty this year and it's no wonder, they've confounded everyone's expectations and sit second in the Eastern Conference.
Erik Spoelstra's magic wand is working wonders again, for sure, but the roster is also legitimately really strong.
Players who weren't on the radar of many NBA teams have been plugged in by the Heat and are performing with consistency and assurance at NBA level.
And it's contributions from around the team. Their balanced attack saw six players hit double-figures in the wins over the Utah Jazz and Indiana Pacers, and seven manage to do so in the overtime win against the contending Philadelphia 76ers. Two of the matches were one-point wins as well - all the sweeter.
Tyler Herro's dagger to win the overtime game against Philly is proof that the rookie, taken 13th in the summer's NBA draft, has brought his college scoring ability to the big league. He also showed a real killer instinct by being so dead-eye in the clutch.
Another stat which stands out is the three-point shooting of Duncan Robinson. The 25-year-old wing is on course to become only the second player in history to shoot 45 per cent or better from three-point range whilst having six or more attempts a night (Stephen Curry has managed the feat twice, in 2013 and 2016).
And those are just two of the players who are prominent. Jimmy Butler is playing like an All-Star, Bam Adebayo is thriving as the lynchpin center and Kendrick Nunn is having an incredible first season in the league - not to mention Goran Dragic's incisive contributions from the bench or Derrick Jones Jr's crazy athleticism.
This is a team which competes hard on every possession, every night, on both ends of the floor. And it has real talent. The win over the Sixers, which saw them move to 15-1 at home, shows they are very much for real this season.
It was a slow start for the Utah Jazz this year and people were speculating that Quin Snyder's revamped roster might not have what it takes to make much of an indent in the playoffs.
And that narrative was a disappointing one after a summer move to bring in point guard Mike Conley, who many people saw as the missing piece in the puzzle in Salt Lake City.
But after a fairly ordinary beginning to the season, the Jazz have roared into life, winning seven of their last eight games.
Although one of the losses came this week, it came against the same Miami Heat side mentioned above who are currently steamrolling most comers.
Star man Donovan Mitchell has muscled his way back into the MVP conversation, and it's no surprise the reversal in Miami came on a surprise off-night for him as he shot 5-for-18 and finished with 13 points.
On the opposing hand, the team are now 9-1 this season when Mitchell scores 30 or more points, and he's equalled or bypassed that number five times during Utah's current eight-game run.
The latest occasion he did so came against came on the road against an LA Clippers team containing both star men in Kawhi Leonard and Paul George - very much a statement result.
This is a team which is whirring into form and this week's trade to acquire Jordan Clarkson from the Cleveland Cavaliers was another statement of intent. He seems to have fitted seamlessly into the Jazz's system and things are very much on the right trajectory for this franchise right now.
At least one team with a losing record is going to get into the playoffs in each of the conferences as things stand at the moment and the Portland Trail Blazers stand a good chance of being that team in the West.
But they have done nothing but harm to those chances recently after three consecutive defeats this week. That run of losses is made even more disappointing given that the team had won their four previous games.
It means they now sit tied with the San Antonio Spurs in the race for the eighth seed, and are ahead on wins alone - having played two more games clocking an extra win and an extra loss for a shared margin of 12 games behind the conference pacesetters the LA Lakers.
The week begun with probably the worst shooting night of Damian Lillard's career as he went 0 for 10 beyond the arc against the New Orleans Pelicans in a 102-94 defeat.
It was also a historically bad night for the franchise shooting-wise as they tied their worst three-point shooting ratio of all-time when shooting at least 25 treys, hitting just four of 29.
After that disappointing defeat in Rip City, the team fell to the Jazz on the road 121-115 and then came back home to lose to the Lakers 128-120.
The Blazers still have just one win against teams above .500 this season and that is a major worry for a team which contested the Western Conference title last season. Portland's depth is nowhere near as strong as the previous campaign and it seems to be having a big effect on results.
Another disappointing week for a franchise which seems to have gone backwards.
It's not been a season New Orleans Pelicans fans will want to remember up until the week just gone.
We're still waiting on Zion Williamson to make his way onto an NBA floor and the team had been cratering to repeated losses throughout the season, with only the odd 'W' sprinkled here and there. After losing to the conference-worst Golden State Warriors towards the end of last week, there wasn't much hope of festive cheer for the Louisiana ball-club.
Santa Claus, though, clearly took pity and has delivered a glut of wins for the suffering fans in New Orleans all in one big Christmas package.
The crazy turnaround began on Christmas Eve in the game where Lillard missed all 10 three-pointers he attempted to help deliver a surprising victory for the Pels.
Then, on Christmas Day, Brandon Ingram scored 31 points, including a career-high seven threes, as New Orleans halted the Denver Nuggets' seven-game winning streak. Another shock win.
The team's newly-found balance between up-tempo, freestyling offense and more stout play on the defensive end was on show once again as they beat the Indiana Pacers in midweek.
And a glorious Christmas period was capped off with Lonzo Ball hitting a career-high seven threes, and a season-high 27 points, as they beat a short-handed Houston Rockets team missing both James Harden and Russell Westbrook last night.
It looks like this young Pelicans roster could really have begun to turn a corner and they're only 3.5 games back from the Blazers in that final playoff spot. Hope springs eternal, and if they keep hitting threes (JJ Redick is also on course for that stat I mentioned in connection with the Heat's Duncan Robinson, incidentally) and playing good defense anything is possible.
A rather bizarre, completely unexpected and altogether sublime week for Alvin Gentry's team.
