NBA 2018-19: Takeaways from NBA Regular Season Week 7
Week 7 of the NBA 2018-19 season has been a great week for the fans, featuring some really good games, a few uncharacteristic wins and blowout losses.
One of the most surprising wins was for the New York Knicks against the Milwaukee Bucks. Another surprise was the under-fire Washington Wizards beating the Houston Rockets in a come from behind win.
Let us take a look at a few takeaways from the games last week.
#1 Nikola Vucevic is playing like an All-Star
Nobody expected the Orlando Magic to be this good. They are 8th in the Eastern Conference with an 11-12 record. They have had a good-news-bad-news stretch that featured a season-series-clinching sweep of the Lakers, nail-biter losses against Toronto and Golden State, and a blowout in Denver.
The reason behind such a rise has been their vastly improved center, Nikola Vucevic. He had shown flashes of his playmaking and three-point shooting abilities last season, but this season has continued to emerge as a bright light in a bad Orlando Magic team and has carried them forward into playoff spots.
The big man for Orlando was thought to be second fiddle to the development of Mo Bamba, who the Magic had drafted in this season's draft. But he has come out all guns blazing, averaging career highs in points scored, rebounds and assists per game.
He is averaging 21 points, 11 rebounds and almost 4 assists per game. The only big men doing better are probably Joel Embiid, Anthony Davis and Giannis Antetokounmpo. He is probably the biggest reason why the Orlando Magic are doing well and will continue to do well as long as he is performing at this level.