Luis M. Alvarez / AP Photo

There were seven games on the schedule last night, but the Knicks and Magic didn’t play because Madison Square Garden is not safe. I’ll start with the one game that came down to the wire:

The Wizards beat the Sixers 116-115 in overtime. It wouldn’t have made it to overtime if not for Cartier Martin (representing the D-League) tying the game with a last-second three-pointer that could easily have been an and-one. John Wall could not have been introduced better in the Wizards’ home opener and proceeded to put up a monster line: 29 points (on 16 shots), 13 assists, a franchise record-tying 9 steals, and, gulp, 8 turnovers. Since there are always fun numbers in overtime games, check out some other stats: Lou Williams started 0-8 but finished with 30 points on 16 shots (15-17 FT!), Elton Brand had a super-efficient 21 and 9, and Jrue Holiday had 14 points and 13 assists. I wanted a second overtime, but I was happy that Wizards fans got this win and EXTREMELY happy for Mr. Martin.

The Hawks beat the Cavs 100-88. Great to see Marvin Williams score 22 and get fourth-quarter burn. For Cleveland, J.J. Hickson was awesome. He hit a bunch of mid-range jumpers to start, which opened up his game. He’s coming along quite nicely. Wish I could say the same for Ramon Sessions, who is way better than he’s showing right now. He and the returning Mo Williams combined to shoot 9-31 and dish out only 5 assists. I thought it was over when the Hawks scored 40 points in the first quarter, but Cleveland worked its way back. Byron Scott said he loved the effort.

Portland beat Milwaukee 90-76 in an unsurprisingly slow-paced (87 possessions) game. The Blazers couldn’t hit anything at the outset and the Bucks started off on a roll. It looked like Carlos Delfino was going to do what Luol Deng did to the Blazers a night earlier, but the difference was that Wesley Matthews came in and stopped Delfino like he couldn’t stop Deng. The Bucks’ offense pretty much died near the end of the first, which was when the Blazers’ came to life. 6 turnovers and 0-4 shooting behind the arc was not what I was hoping for from Brandon Jennings after his awesome triple double on Saturday.

There were three blowouts yesterday: Boston 109, Detroit 86; Miami 129, Minnesota 97; and Lakers 124, Grizzlies 97. I won’t discuss these ones, but I will share three great dunks.

Credit to Zach Harper, Ben Golliver, and @jose3030 for the videos in this post.

Before I get to today’s feature, where I’ll quickly take stock of every team in the league after one week of basketball, I want to share a couple of links:

The Wall Street Journal profiled Anthony Morrow, which is awesome because he’s the best damn shooter in the world. There are a bunch of Steve Kerr quotes within.

And I don’t know how this got by me a few days ago, but CelticsBlog interviewed the great Jackie MacMullan. Really great read on her early days in the business, the 80′s in the NBA, Kevin McHale, and a couple of current Celtics.

Week 1 Catch-up

The Hawks are undefeated and they are getting to the line, but they haven’t been tested and it doesn’t look like Jeff Teague is who they hoped he would be.

Rajon Rondo has 67 assists in 4 games and his Celtics are rebounding their way to wins, but Nate Robinson has been bricking everything and they still need to cut down the turnovers.

D.J. Augustin’s been better than expected, Boris Diaw is still playing more than Tyrus Thomas, and Charlotte’s defense is almost the league’s worst after being the league’s best last year.

Derrick Rose is leading the league in usage rate, James Johnson does stuff now, and Keith Bogans has played more minutes for Chicago than Kyle Korver and Ronnie Brewer.

J.J. Hickson looks suited for his bigger role, Antawn Jamison has been all kinds of disappointing, and Ramon Sessions has been about 1/100th as good as I thought he would be in Cleveland.

The Mavericks have been awesome defensively against weak competition and Dirk Nowitzki is too good for Halloween costumes.

Arron Afflalo’s force people to spell his name right and Denver’s playing very good defense, even Al Harrington!

Rodney Stuckey’s getting assists now, the Pistons’ bench is outplaying their starting five, and they’ve looked fairly good in each loss before the C’s game last night.

Andris Biedrins and Brandan Wright get to play now, Monta Ellis is lovable again, and the Warriors really need Stephen Curry’s bum ankle to heal.

The Rockets have lost all three games, two of them close, but Kyle Lowry’s back and Erick Dampier will arrive shortly.

Roy Hibbert’s dominating from the high post and McBob is dunking on everyone in Indiana.

Blake Griffin is everything we hoped he’d be, but his team is still Clippering its way to losses and Baron Davis thinks that, before this season, “getting in shape was never a problem.”

Lamar Odom is shooting 6-8 on threes and 27-38 overall on the season and the Lakers are making me think they could go another month without a loss.

The Grizzlies looked good in half their games, they need Zach Randolph back, and you’re going to have trouble watching Mike Conley play without thinking about his contract.

The Heat are playing incredible defense and they’re going to win tons of games, but we’d like them to start running – the blowout against Minnesota last night was their only fast-paced game.

There are still too many missed jump shots in Milwaukee, but Brandon Jennings had perhaps the best game of his career the other day.

Kevin Love is averaging 15.5 points and 11.3 rebounds and has yet to play over 30 minutes in a game this season.

The Nets look nothing like they did last year and Derrick Favors is not a bust.

Chris Paul has the Hornets undefeated against three playoff teams and Marcus Thornton had 17 points and 7 rebounds in 30 minutes in San Antonio the other night.

Gallo’s been awful, Chandler’s been awesome, and the Knicks are going to need some time to put it together.

The Thunder have not been playing the awesome defense we saw last year, but that should change.

After the Magic lost by 26 in Miami, I can’t wait for the rematch that’s three weeks from today.

Elton Brand’s averaging 16.3 points and 9 rebounds, Evan Turner’s had three 7-rebound games, and the Sixers haven’t won a game yet.

The Suns can’t rebound or stop anybody, but Goran Dragic’s PER is 25.8.

Armon Johnson’s been a pleasant surprise and you have to watch the Blazers play against Oklahoma City tomorrow.

Tyreke-Cousins-Casspi is my favourite young trio and I’d much rather talk about the Kings’ much improved offense than their inconsistent, often-terrible defense.

Hope you’re as excited as I am to see more from Tiago Splitter and Gary Neal for the Spurs against Phoenix tonight.

In Toronto, Andrea Bargnani and Reggie Evans are perfect for one another.

The preseason may have tricked us into forgetting that the Jazz need time to gel, but Paul Millsap deserves your attention right now.

John Wall’s a must-watch, but I wish he had better teammates and wish the “new and improved Yi Jianlian” would put on a Wizards uniform.

The Denver Nuggets were my guilty pleasure last year. My fling. Even in the game which cost Sam Mitchell his job as coach of the Raptors, I couldn’t be mad at them. Why? Well, there are a few reasons.

1: They call him Melo

Back in the old days, you know, 2003, there was a draft in the NBA that was kind of a big deal. I dunno if any of you remember it but it was quite good. Anyway, I was the idiot who said that if the Raptors got the first pick, we should take Carmelo. Okay, so I overrated him juuust a bit. But honestly, if it had shaken out that way, it wouldn’t have been too bad. I mean, he’s averaged 24.2 points per game so far in his career. What’s that, you’re saying it’s because he was jacking shots, taking bad looks, being selfish? Au contraire mon ami. This isn’t an Antoine Walker story. Just look at his advanced stats: from 2006-2008, he had a TS% above 55% (yes, he slipped a bit last year, to 53%, but I’m sure he’ll rebound). He is capable of getting to the foul line, too, and he is an extremely underrated clutch performer. Essentially, when he’s on the court, your offense is way better. You put the ball in his hands, he’ll score. That’s his role, that’s what he does. And he’s VERY good at it. He can shoot from the perimeter, he can take his man one-on-one, he can post up – this man is a threat from everywhere on the court. Yes, LeBron James Is obviously better, as he is a unique beast that we have never seen before. Carmelo isn’t asked to facilitate his team’s offense, though – he’s a traditional scoring 3, the likes of which we’ve seen before from guys like Jamal Mashburn (who was never as efficient a scorer as Carmelo). If you ask me, there’s nothing wrong with being fantastic in a traditional way. In addition, Melo brings a good attitude; generally he’s a hard worker, he doesn’t complain (even when on some seriously dysfunctional teams), and he wants to win. That’s an underrated aspect of any star’s makeup. Some players would like to win and hope they do, but are more concerned with being able to continue to make max money and be able to get big endorsements. Winning is seen as a nice bonus. Carmelo wants to win. I see in Carmelo that same drive, that will to win that’s helped make Kobe great.

2: Mr Big Shot?

I love Chauncey Billups. There, I said it. I drafted him in the 3rd round of my Fantasy Draft last year and was obviously thrilled with his trade to the Nuggets. From a basketball standpoint, I was excited to see him play with some REALLY good ballers on a team that could be one of the best in the West. From a selfish standpoint, I was excited because I thought his fantasy value had doubled or tripled. That didn’t really happen, but I was happy with having another excuse to watch the Nuggets as often as I could. As much as I love Chauncey, though, I’m not a big fan of the name ‘Mr. Big Shot’. He isn’t Robert Horry and that’s not what he brings to the table or what makes him great. What Billups brings is leadership. He brings court vision and a sixth sense for ball-distribution. He is a true field general, a leader amongst men. Rather than spout poetic about him, I’ll simply direct you to an outstanding Outside The Lines piece on the man. Read that, then tell me you don’t want to watch him play with Carmelo Anthony and the rest of the team. Speaking of which….

3: The rest of the team

This is one of the most dangerous rosters in the NBA. Now, for the sake of this article, I’m going to take all my Man Crushes and put them in the next paragraph, so if I left someone out here, that’s why. In related news, if you don’t want to read why I love Joey Graham you may want to skip number 4. But I’m getting ahead of myself, one section at a time. Let me give you some names: Kenyon Martin. Nene. J.R. Smith. Ty Lawson. Renaldo Balkman. In fact, let’s do some math here. Add those names with Carmelo Anthony and Chauncey Billups. Multiply by the x (REALLY pushing the Lakers last year, adding to their already ever-present swagger). The result? Well, we don’t know that yet. But there aren’t a lot of If Statements for these Nuggets. Basically, the If Statement is Nene’s knee. If it holds up, the sky is the limit for these guys. They don’t have the same depth after losing Kleiza (a huge spark off the bench), but replacing Dahntay Jones with Arron Afflalo (and his much more reasonable contract) is one of the most underrated moves of the summer. Jones could defend, yes, but Afflalo isn’t bad on that end either and he is a superior offensive player. They got a steal in the draft, too, with Ty Lawson falling into their laps at #18. Other than that, this is basically the same team that came quite close to the NBA finals last year. Nothing to sneeze at. Now it’s time to put out the warning for graphic content.

4: The Man Crushes

(warning: may contain images not suitable for minors. If blatant man crushes bother you, please skip to the conclusion)

Outside of Melo and Billups? Where do I even start with this club? Well, there’s the Birdman. James and I told anyone who would listen that Bryan Colangelo needed to sign Chris Andersen when he came back from his drug suspension. Sure, Denver overpaid for him, but let’s look at this glass half-full: he took a few years off basketball mid-career, so he doesn’t have the same wear and tear on his body that most players his age do (although I guess most NBA players don’t have a few years of hard drug use under their belts). Anyway, since he has a new lease on life, my hunch is he won’t take much for granted in the future. It’s within the realm of possibility that he keeps his act up for the next few years. Anyway, fine, MAYBE he won’t be worth his contract for the last couple of years of it, but that’s beside the point. Like I mentioned in my Golden State article (link), you can like a player but not the contract. In this case, I don’t just LIKE the player – I LOVE the Birdman. This guy is an athletic freak, his work ethic is beyond reproach, and he loves doing the dirty work. He is a shot-blocking version of “Junk Yard Dog” Jerome Williams (to this day, the only Raptors jersey I wear). I just can’t say enough about this guy. If I could be any NBA player for a day (assuming LeBron and Dwight were on vacation), I’d be him. In fact, he’s so inspiring to me that I snorted an 8-ball while writing this.

Joey Graham: Most Raptors fans had a love/hate relationship with Joey. Not me. I will argue to the death that Sam Mitchell’s incessant hook did more damage to Joey’s career than any of us will ever know. It’s not easy to develop confidence when your boss threatens to fire you after every mistake. Once he was shown some faith, he played well. I challenge any Joey detractor to watch the game against the Lakers in February. The Raptors didn’t have Jose Calderon. Bosh left hurt midway through the game. Pau Gasol had a MONSTER game, and the Raptors almost won. How? Joey. He scored, rebounded, ran the floor, and did an UNREAL job defending Kobe. Sure, Kobe ended up with 36 points, but he needed 38 minutes to get it and he shot 13 of 28 in the process. He’s Kobe, he can do that against great defense. There’s a good reason the last minute of the game the entire Air Canada Centre was on its feet, chanting, “Joey, Joey, Joey”. The effort he gave guarding Kobe one-on-one was something to marvel at. And to have the energy to carry the load offensively was something Raptors fans haven’t seen often. You can claim that I’m cherry-picking Joey’s best game, which is true, but my gut opinion on Joey is that we would have seen many more of these games if the coaching staff had shown confidence in him earlier. Trust me when I tell you this: if Denver shows some faith in him, they will be VERY pleasantly surprised.

Arron Afflalo. I don’t have nearly as much to say about Afflalo. This one is simple: I watched him in college and was smitten. His vision, his shooting stroke, his motor, it’s all good. He was lost in the shuffle in Detroit, especially when they were trying to work out the Iverson/Hamilton thing, but he’s got the skills to play a much bigger role in the NBA. Nuggets fans will see what I mean this year if they didn’t get a chance to watch him at UCLA. As I said earlier, he is a more than capable replacement for Dahntay Jones – in fact, he is better. Massive coup for Denver, getting such a capable two-guard for basically nothing. Daryl Morey-esque.

Then there’s JR Smith. Just watch this.

/dick-sucking and man-whoring, back to basketball.

Is Denver the best team in the western conference? No. Until proven otherwise, the Lakers are the best. But this year I do think they took a step back (Ariza for Artest, plus a psychological thing involving Gasol and Bynum that I’ll get into another time, plus the extra year of age on Kobe and the potential mellowing after achieving his goals), meanwhile Denver has at worst stayed the same as they were last year. In fact, top to bottom I don’t see too many top-tier clubs from the West having improved, Portland notwithstanding. Am I saying they’ll win the Western Conference? Not yet, but it IS possible, and I’ll be cheering for it. My hunch is another loss to the Lakers in the Conference Finals. What I am saying, though, is that this is one of the most enjoyable teams to watch I’ve ever seen, with some of my favourite players on it as a bonus. They’re in a city that’s hard to be down on, plus they’re the underdog. Somehow, they’re underrated as hell, which is remarkable considering they finished 2nd in the West last year in both the regular and post-season. If you’re looking for a 2nd team to support after your own, consider this my pitch for the Nuggets. Portland’s got lots of talent, and I love Roy and Aldridge (both part of my fantasy team so suck on THAT, James), but they just don’t play the same brand of entertaining ball (fun fact: Portland was the slowest team in the L last season). In my G-State column I spoke about charisma – this Nuggets team has charisma. They also have a leader, confidence and more than just raw talent, they have REAL ballers. Don’t sleep on these guys. I will personally guarantee you’ll be satisfied. That’s right, the Nuggets perform or your money back! With that kind of offer, how can you NOT at least give them a chance?