1992-93 Season - November / December: (Los) Angel(es) has Fallen
The Opening Day:
20 teams were in action on the opening night of the 1992/93 NBA season that began on the 6th November. There were two, one point victory, games on the opening night. The new look Golden State Warriors edged an up and down game at home to Detroit to win 113-114 whilst the Celtics recorded an excellent 85-84 win in Dallas to open what they hoped would be a more promising campaign than the last. Last season's runners up got off to a winning start, with all eyes on how Tim Hardaway would gel with his new teammates. The answer was pretty well, with 29 points in the first half alone. Hardaway would finish with 37 points as the Knicks eased past the Charlotte Hornets 99-113. The biggest win on the opening day was for the Los Angeles Lakers, who like the Celtics were looking to get back into the playoffs. The Lakers thrashed Minnesota Polars 119-88 in Minnesota thanks to 30 points from Kiki Vandeweghe on debut. There were also away wins for the Chicago Bulls, in Milwaukee (112-108), Phoenix Suns in Miami (124,122), Sacramento Kings in New Jersey (95-85) and most surprisingly for Atlanta Hawks, who won at defending champions Houston 112-105. Reggie Miller had 29 for the Hawks. To wrap up the opening night, Seattle won convincingly at home to Indiana 98-119 and Utah defeated the Clippers at home 100-109.
The East
The Cavaliers gave us a good indication as to how they might fare this season by hitting 50 points in the opening quarter of their first game at home to Tampa Bay. to the season, They would unsurprisingly open with a win and followed that with a second home win against Washington. A first away game resulted in defeat to Minnesota, staling the momentum of the opening two victories. They picked up 4 wins in a row after that loss however, including two excellent wins against the Knicks. In the second of which Mitch Richmond scored 48 points in a 106-110 home win. They would then lose in New York after a 3rd match against the Knicks to open with a 6-2 start. The Cavs then went on a 12-0 run to leave the rest of the East behind at the start of the season. A couple of defeats on the road have bought them back to the pack, but Cleveland maintain their 100% home record going into 1993 (10-0). The Knicks aren't too far behind Cleveland, but have fallen to a few sloppy defeats that does leave them with the third best record in the East. They top the Atlantic Division however, meaning they currently sit 2nd in the East. Tim Hardaway began with that excellent opener at home to Chicago before being injured in the next game in Washington. He missed a few weeks as the Knicks raced into an ominous 5-0 start. After defeat to Cleveland in their 6th game, Hardaway returned to help Jordan & Co win 6 of their next 7 to sit 12-2. Indifferent December form means the Knicks have already lost 8 games by the turn of the year, although Jordan and Hardaway have looked at times unstoppable together. The highlights 47 for Jordan at home to Utah and 37 from Hardaway at home to old rivals the Lakers. Tampa Bay, under new coach Phil Jackson, are once again features at the top of the East. A difficult start to Jackson's tenure saw them lose their opening 4, before winning their next 6 to righten the ship. Chris Mullin seems to have found a new gear so far this season, whilst David Robinson remains dominant at Center. The Bandits begin 1993 on a 4 game winning run. The Boston Celtics revival looks on this season, with a return to the playoffs looking likely. The Celtics lost two of their first four but won eight of their next nine and now sit pretty in the top 4 of the East. The highlight of the season so far 38 from Byron Scott in a tight victory against Philadelphia. Speaking of Philly, the 76ers are certainly in better shape than this time last season. They've averaged over 10 points more per game than last season, whilst also averaging slightly less points against. Shaquille O'Neal made an immediate impression on the league by scoring 42 points on his NBA debut in a 114-101 win in Detroit. O'Neal's haul was just one point short of the record held by Wilt Chamberlain on a NBA debut. The 76ers then lost their next 5 as the young team took time to adjust, but another 39 from O'Neal at home to Indiana in their seventh game got them back on the winning trail and since then they've been more than solid. Michael Williams has been impressive at Point Guard and Sean Elliot is as dependable as ever. Philly's penultimate game of the year was a superb 111-105 win in Houston, with Shaq bagging 35. Detroit also have made improvements this season. A 6 game winning run to start December mainly thanks to the performances of Scottie Pippen have them nicely placed in the East. They were on the end of an embarrassing 68-95 loss in Miami, but as long as that remains a one off Detroit can be confident of a return to the postseason. The Pacers have been the definition of inconsistent this campaign. They're yet to win or lose more than twice in a row but have managed to just about win more than they've lost to sit inside the playoff line at the turn of the year. Billy Owens and Danny Manning have both led the team well, but both may need to improve slightly if the Pacers are to be sure of a top 8 finish by the end of the season. The Bullets got off to a slow start this campaign, winning just 4 of their first 11. A 6 game winning run balanced the books as Derrick Coleman found form and moved the Bullets back into a familiar top 8 position.
The Hawks were just outside the playoff positions heading into 1993 thanks to a relatively campaign so far with a few golden moments sprinkled in. They'd thrashed the Jazz at home 99-130 thanks to 34 from Reggie Miller, won in Houston, Boston and New York but had also lost to lowly teams such as Miami, Toronto and the Clippers. The Hawks must improve their performances against the bottom half teams to have a chance at the playoffs. Just behind Atlanta is the Charlotte Hornets, who finished 1992 with three straight losses to undo what had been an ok start up to that point. Most of their wins have come against teams below them in the East or down the bottom of the West, but they did conjure up an excellent home win against the Knicks thanks to 34 points from Rex Chapman. The Huskies ended November in the playoff spots but an inconsistent November has seen them fall away slightly. The two Anderson's (Nick & Kenny) have both been in good form which has led them to impressive wins against teams such as Atlanta, Phoenix and Indiana. Toronto will definitely still be eyeing up a first ever playoff appearance in 1993. Gregg Poppovic's head coaching career couldn't have started much worse as Miami won just one of their first ten games of the season (Home to Detroit). They've been a little better since, including finishing the year with four wins out of their last five. Rod Strickland has been brilliant, summed up by having 3 40+ point games so far but only winning one of them. The New Jersey Nets have been the surprise of the season so far for all the wrong reasons. Brad Daugherty missed the first month and the Nets struggled to a 2-10 start, which they're yet to recover from even with Daugherty back in the side. Terry Cummings looks to have checked out, and don't be surprised to see him leave before the trade deadline in January.
West:
The Phoenix Suns are the surprise leaders in the West. Phoenix have won their last 9 games, taking advantage of a favourable run of fixtures, to leapfrog a closely bunched top bunch in the West. Steve Smith has been the top points scorer, with Sleepy Floyd proving a valuable provider. Their most impressive win game at home to Dallas, winning comfortable 103-121. The Rockets are within touching distance of Phoenix thanks to the Barkley / Hakeem duo. Both have averaged over 20 PPG and over 10 RPG although Houston have been weakened by the constant injury issues with Dominique Wilkins. It certainly feels like Houston could come alive and spring away from the rest come 1993. Like the Suns, Golden State Warriors finished the year superbly with 6 straight wins. Dale Ellis has brought is New York form across the country and Fat Lever has done the same from Portland. An end to the playoff drought looks likely for the Warriors. The Sacramento Kings struggled slightly to start the season, sitting at 8-7 after 15 games mainly thanks to a tough fixture list to start the season. They put that right by winning their next 9, with Drazen Petrovic really upping his scoring numbers to join Ewing and Stockton to form a now elite trio. They showed they remained a championship contender with a 93-113 win at home to New York as part of that winning run. The Bulls were the early pace setters in the West, losing just 2 of their first 14 games. They've lost 7 out of 12 since then however, with Karl Malone unable to sustain the high number of points he was scoring in November. The Bulls did end the year however on a dominant 90-124 home win to Portland. The Mavericks find themselves a little out of position in what is a very tight top 6 in the West. They got off to a slow start winning just two of their first seven, but have recovered back into positive figures. The top of the roster are a little off form compared to last season, although their bench numbers are up which has kept them close to the top spots. If Thomas, Aguirre and the rest can find that next gear they can still challenge for top seed. The Nuggets are only two games shy of last seasons win total after a much improved start to the season. Dan Issel seems to have made a great impression in his first full season in charge, with Denver recording excellent wins over teams like Dallas and Houston already this season. Rookie Christian Laettner has been superb, if not slightly overshadowed by what Shaquille O'Neal is doing in Philly. The last playoff place currently belongs to Portland, as they look to keep that playoff streak going. They've not been great so far this season, but are benefitting from the bottom of the West being even worse. They did win their opening 3, but the numbers from Drexler, Robinson and Porter are all down from last season. Rookies Alonzo Mourning and Latrell Sprewell have both made good starts and have both found their way into the starting 5.
The Bucks sit outside the playoff spots after losing 7 of their last 9 games of the year. Bernard King did score 46 in a win in Dallas in their last win, but that's been as good as it's got for Milwaukee. Kenny Fields has picked up an injury that could rule him out for the season, leaving the side looking a little thin outside of King to say the least. The Bucks' only saving grace is they've probably only got to be better than either Portland or Denver to make the playoffs this season. Seattle currently sit in between the really bad group and the playoff contender group, although have won only 1 of their last 7. Abdul-Rauf has been unable to match last season's performances and the SuperSonics' results have suffered. They've failed to score more than 100 in any of their last 6 games, and must find improvement in that department if they are to have any chance of the playoffs. The Jazz's season looked so promising when they started with 4 wins out of 4 against the Clippers, Heat, Bucks and a great win in Tampa. Unfortunately, the Jazz would lose their next 8 and with it tumble dramatically down the standings. Glen Rice is the one bright spark in the team, and looks massively out of place in a Jazz team otherwise lacking in any quality. It's not been the start Cotton Fitzsimmons would have been dreaming of as Head Coach of the Lakers. They go into 1993 having won just 1 of their last 17 games, which was a narrow 93-95 win at home to Chicago. The Lakers worst regular season return since being in Los Angeles is 30 wins, and that looks in serious trouble of being broken this season. The Clippers have won their last two games to make their record look slightly more respectable than it might have been. Kevin Johnson has at least put up a bit of a fight from Point Guard, but it's really difficult to see how they can improve much with their current roster. Larry Brown deserves some sort of award for taking this team to one win of the playoffs last campaign, but it doesn't look like the Clippers will get anything near that this time. Jimmy Rodgers has, perhaps unsurprisingly, become the first Head Coach casualty of the season at Minnesota. Rodgers was fired after a 104-88 home loss to Sacramento that left the Polars 4-19 to start the season. Sidney Lowe has been appointed coach until the end of the season, and has already led the Polars to a win at home to Houston in one of his four games in charge.
Other League News:
Dallas Mavericks announced 3 time championship winning coach Dick Motta would step down at the end of the season, after 13 years in charge.
Kevin McHale suffered a dislocated knee in December, ruling him out for potentially the rest of the season.
Michael Jordan won Player of the Month in the East for November, whilst David Robinson took home the December award
in the West, Karl Malone won in November with Hakeem Olajuwon winning in December.
League Leaders:
PPG:
1. Michael Jordan (28.1)
2. Rod Strickland (24.4)
3. Karl Malone (24.0)
RPG:
1. Hakeem Olajuwon (13.0)
2. Benoit Benjamin (12.0)
3. Brad Daugherty (11.8)
APG:
1. Gary Payton (10.9)
2. John Stockton (10.5)
3. Terry Porter (9.7)
SPG:
1. Isiah Thomas (2.6)
2. Tim Hardaway (2.6)
3. Michael Jordan (2.4)
BPG:
1. David Robinson (3.1)
2. Shaquille O'Neal (2.6)
3. Hakeem Olajuwon (2.5)
Up Next: 1993
