HeatCheck – Week 11

Welcome back for our first 2014 edition of HeatCheck.  After a long, hardly-deserved vacation around the holidays, we’re back with a recap of the past month and a half looking at who’s hot and who’s not.

Note: All records and data are accurate through January 13, 2014.

Team	Season Record	Record Since Dec 3rd
New York Knicks	15-22	12-9
It’s been a rough year in sports for New York.  The Giants and Jets were downright pathetic most weeks.  The Nets and Knicks started off playing the same way.  After starting a modest 3-4 on the season, Mike Woodson’s squad dropped their next 9 games and ended up looking like they’d have a top 3 pick in the draft.  However, the Knicks have clawed their way back into the playoff race.  A 12-9 run, including a 5 game winning streak from January 5th to the 13th, have led them directly into the thick of the fight for the 8th spot.  This streak included wins vs the Heat and another Eastern playoff contender in the Pistons.  They also beat down the Mavericks in Dallas, handled the Sixers in Philly, and squeaked by the Suns at home.  After a win against the Spurs on the day after New Year’s, they dropped a very close contest in Houston to Dwight Howard and the Rockets by 2.  They were that close to a 7 game winning streak.  This is the same team that had won roughly 18% of their first 16 games.Carmelo Anthony has obviously been instrumental for the Knicks, averaging a career high in 3-point percentage at nearly 40%, but Andrea Bargnani hasn’t been downright awful either.  However, these two are the only two averaging over 11.5 points per game as nobody has stood out as the 2nd option on offense so far.  The craziest thing is that they’re in the top 10 in points allowed and the Knicks are actually 1st in turnovers per game.  Tough defense and taking care of the ball are two essentials to winning consistently.  If Woodson can keep this team down the right path, they may have a shot at making some noise this year in the playoffs.
Lottery Spin
It appeared that the Knicks would make an unfamiliar trip to New York in June later this year.  They may be used to playing there, but they’re not used to sitting in a room and waiting to see which lottery ball is selected.  Although the future seemed dim early on, the Knicks have rejuvenated their season and have a legitimate chance at not only making the playoffs, but possibly getting a 6th or 7th seed in this conference void of successful teams currently.  Expect the Knicks to miss the Lottery this year and focus more on the luxury tax than draft picks this offseason.

Team	Season Record	Record Since Dec 3rd
Orlando Magic	10-28	4-17
It’s been.. one year since the Magic won.  Cue the Barenaked Ladies.  Ok, so it’s technically not been 365 days since the last winning contest for the southern Florida magicians, but it technically was last year since they won a game.  There’s tanking and then there’s not trying.  I don’t know that the Magic are at that level JUST yet; however they haven’t played well over the past 5-6 weeks.  On the bright side, the Magic seem to be jostling for draft position at the right time.  They now have only Milwaukee to beat for those magical 25.0% odds at Andrew Wiggins (or Jabari Parker possibly).Victor Oladipo has played tremendously (just ask my Fantasy Basketball team), but it’s hardly been enough to make any noticeable difference.  Not only have they been losing; they’ve suffered an embarrassment of losses over this current 8 game losing streak.  The average margin of defeat during the streak is 17 as of Monday night’s 19 point drubbing at the hands of Nowitski’s crew.  The lone wins for the crew over the span beginning in early December have been on the road at Charlotte and Chicago (by 1 in Chi-town), and at home versus Detroit and Atlanta.  Not exactly encouraging wins, but wins nonetheless.  In order for a franchise to become a viable contender, they have to at least play the good teams tough and beat up on the bad teams when needed.  The 17 point win over the Pistons is progress, but the Pistons aren’t exactly killing it this year and they shot very poorly from 2, 3, the charity stripe, and just about everywhere on the court that night.In case you need more of a bright side, here’s a fantastic block by Oladipo on Damian Lillard: [youtube=http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=Crsd0ut-EPs&w=420&h=315] The Magic ended up losing 110-94, but my goodness… Oladipo has a future in this league for sure.
Lottery Spin
I like the Magic.  A young core of Nikola Vucevic, Tobias Harris and Oladipo could serve them well in the future.  Glen Davis has been to the playoffs several times, and Aaron Afflalo and Jameer Nelson are no strangers to the postseason either.  However, this team is spiraling towards a top 3 pick when June comes around.  I fully expect for them to be in the running for guys like Wiggins, Parker, Marcus Smart, and Julius Randle.  I think Smart makes a lot of sense because Nelson is aging, Randle makes sense because there’s no PF on the roster that couldn’t be replaced, Big Baby included, and Parker/Wiggins make sense because of obvious reasons.  I also think that the Magic may have their choice of all but one of these prospects as they’ll very likely pick around second in this year’s draft.

By Jon Elliott
Follow @TheJontlet