Winners of the NBA Week - 2/6 - 2/13

Miami Heat

The Miami Heat are finally starting to look like the team that went to the Finals last year. After an abysmal start to the season, they have now won 4 straight and have been getting contributions from everyone. Let’s talk about Max Strus. Last year, this man lost out on the last Celtics roster spot to Javonte Green. Thursday against the Rockets, Strus dropped 21 points to help lead Miami to a win. Let’s talk about Gabe Vincent. This man had only played 9 total NBA games before the year. He is now averaging 7 PPG off the Heat bench and has appeared in 16 of their 25 games. The struggles for the Heat early in the year came from injuries and Covid-19 restrictions. Since getting Jimmy Butler completely healthy, the Heat have turned it around. Winning 4 straight and getting contributions for everyone will land you on the winners of the week. Hopefully, the Heat can keep things going and lock themselves into the top 5 of the East where they belong.

(hoopshype.com)

Stephen Curry

Steph Curry has vaulted himself into the MVP conversation with a massive week for the Warriors. Curry is averaging an insane stat line of 40.2 points, 5.2 rebounds, and 4.5 assists over his past 4 games. He is shooting 43.5% from 3 on 11 attempts per game, which is roughly 5 made three pointers per contest. Steph has put up games of 57 points and 60 points already this season and both marks seem destined to be repeated. Curry’s Warriors have remained afloat in the Western Conference solely because of Steph. His numbers this year are comparable to his unanimous MVP season of 2015-16. He is only averaging 0.7 less points and 0.6 less assists this season that in that campaign. Steph would most likely be the MVP frontrunner if his team was playing better. If the Warriors can scrap out some wins, and Curry keeps playing this way, LeBron and Embiid might have some competition at the table.

(Tony Gutierrez/AP)

Western Conference

The entire Western Conference is my big winner of the week. The West is an absolute shark tank this year and this week only proved it. The top two teams so far, the Utah Jazz and Los Angeles Lakers, are both riding winning streaks of 6 and 7 respectively. Neither team has lost in over a week and a half. The number 3 seed, the Los Angeles Clippers, are have one back to back game and 6 of their last 10. The 4th seed Phoenix Suns have won 4 straight and haven’t tasted defeat in over a week. The 5th seed TrailBlazers have won three in a row including a win over the number 1 seed in the East the 76ers. The 8th seeded Warriors have Steph Curry playing out of his mind and the 9th seeded Dallas Mavericks have won 4 straight since starting terribly. The whole conference is on fire right now. As the season goes along, we expect the bad teams to return to form and the good teams to rise, but no one expected it this quickly. The bad teams in the West have completely fallen off and the playoff teams are showing themselves. This NBA season has great intrigue of the unknown. There are multiple contenders in each conference and it’s going to be a blood bath to the finish. Too intense? Maybe. But the Western Conference is the most fun it’s been in a long time right now.

(Kelvin Kuo/USA Today Sports)