After last weekend’s games, the Suns and Lakers moved atop the Western Conference together, where they each won six games and lost one. In yesterday’s game, the Lakers assured that the Hornets’ sting was not going to prevent them from extending their winning streak to five games. The Lakers, playing at home, won 104-88 with the evergreen Kobe Bryant leading his team with 28 points. Chris Paul, for the visitors, finished the game with 15 points. The Hornets are on a downward spiral posting two wins in the seven games they have played thus far. For now they are out of the playoff selection pool.
The Suns are the surprise team, who would have thought they would be on top right now. Steve Nash seems to have recaptured the impressive form of his that had somehow fizzled out last season. Though it’s too early to start predicting how things will turn out, the Suns’ heat is surely seen as burning a couple of teams down the road.
The Orlando Magic found themselves on the losing end against Oklahoma City. Time will tell if the Thunders are out of the rough patch they were experiencing last season. Their next game against the Sacramento Kings will be interesting as the Kings are right behind them.
In the Eastern Conference nothing has really changed, the Celtics are still on top followed by the Miami Heat. The team whose steps to watch carefully are the Atlanta Hawks. They’re not a headline-grabbing team as such, but if they want to stay where they are now, they’ll have reason enough to make headlines.
Iverson is an unsettled man on his new Memphis team, having already taken a leave of absence. Since he left the Philadelphia 76ers he has never been the same. The kind of performance he had while playing for the Sixers hasn’t come up again. This cost him a spot representing the US basketball team at last year’s Beijing Olympics. If things don’t change for him, we could be seeing one of the best players in the NBA in his final season. Be that as it may, Iverson has already left an indelible mark. When NBA history is written, a couple of pages will be reserved especially for him.