October 6, 2024

The Association Examination: Week Eight

Assistant sports editor Jordan Dajani breaks down what happened in the NBA this week

Assistant sports editor Jordan Dajani poses in front of the University of Tennessee-Knoxville's campus on a dark and cloudy day. Photo by the Tennessee Journalist.

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Hello and welcome once again to the Association Examination. Week eight was interesting; we had a quadruple overtime game, Andre Drummond had another full week of double-doubles and LeBron sent a woman to the hospital.

Players of the week

Jimmy Butler- Butler has been on fire recently and his Chicago Bulls only lost one game this week. He had 23 points on Monday, 24 points on Wednesday and 43 points on Friday in the quadruple overtime bout with the Detroit Pistons.

DeMar DeRozan- DeRozan is another player who has been playing extremely well recently. He had 25 points Sunday, 20 points Monday, 31 points on Thursday and 30 points on Friday. The Raptors have been strong this season and are currently fourth in the East.

Andre Drummond- I don’t know what else I can say about this kid. He has had 24 double-doubles so far this season and he shows no signs of slowing down. He had 20 points and 15 rebounds on Monday, 16 points and 12 rebounds on Wednesday and 33 points and 21 rebounds on Friday. Detroit has won four out of their last five games.

Reggie Jackson- Speaking of Detroit, Jackson has been a huge part of their success this season. He had 34 points and 11 rebounds Monday, 23 points on Wednesday and 31 points and 13 assists on Friday.

Kevin Durant- The Thunder have won seven of their last eight games thanks to their main man Durant. He had 31 points on Sunday, 24 points on Wednesday, 25 points on Thursday and 22 points on Saturday.

Games of the week

Raptors at Hornets Thursday night- Jeremy Lin scored 35 points in what was his second start for the Hornets and Kemba Walker added 27 points. The last play in regulation was an intense one. Walker turned the ball over and DeRozan picked it up and shot from near half-court with a second left in the game. He nailed it; but right before he released the ball, the Raptors called timeout so the shot didn’t count and two teams headed to overtime. Charlotte held Toronto to just nine points in the extra period and came away with a 109-99 victory. DeRozan finished with 31 points and Kyle Lowry had 21 points for the Raptors.

Pistons at Bulls Friday night- This game was more of a marathon. It was a quadruple overtime battle where five players scored over 30 points. Both teams scored just 11 points in the second and third overtimes and all of the players looked exhausted, but the Bulls were able to edge out Detroit 147-144. Drummond led the Pistons with 33 points and 21 rebounds and Butler led Chicago with 43 points.

Funny moments

J.J. Redick gave the weirdest post-game interview I’ve ever seen on Monday night. Apparently he sprinted away because the last Clipper into the locker room has to dance for the entire team and Redick wasn’t confident in his dance moves. But to all of us on the outside, he just looked like the weird kid who doesn’t belong in the spotlight.

I don’t know why this continues to happen, but players love to make it harder for other players if one of their shoes falls off. On Monday night, Will Barton threw Trevor Ariza’s shoe away from him after he attempted to put it back on mid-game. The best part about this situation is that this isn’t the first time Ariza has had this joke played on him.

LeBron James tee’d off on PGA champ Jason Day’s wife on Thursday night. I think my favorite part of this video is how LeBron used the swim move on the guy next to him when he tried to get back onto the court after totally destroying this poor woman. Don’t worry, she was o.k.

Play of the week

Drummond is quickly becoming my favorite player in the NBA. While he puts up double-doubles every day, he also showed this week that he can hit half-court shots.  I love how the announcers say that he practices these kinds of shots all the time, I’m glad I’m not the only one.