Only the Hawks and Trail Blazers have not yet reached the 30th round of the NBA regular season this season, but the league is in an extremely anxious situation. The Timberwolves and Thunder are the most prominent super dark horse teams this season, with the former holding the first place in the West with a 23-7 record after winning the Mavericks. And the interior twin tower combination of Towns and Gobert also helped the Timberwolves play the league's No. 1 defensive efficiency of 108.1, which is why the Timberwolves were able to hold on to the No. 1 position in the West or even the No. 1 position in the league for more than a month. The Thunder's recent form has been even more rapid, after losing to the Lakers, the Thunder won the Timberwolves and the Nuggets successively, and played a wave of 3 consecutive wins to rank second in the West.
There is also no shortage of dark horse teams in the East, with the Pacers beating the Bucks and Celtics in a row to reach the midseason finals at the beginning of the season. Although the team's ranking fell from the top 5 in the East to the 8th in the East due to the holes on the defensive end and the weak interior defense that were frequently targeted by opponents. But the Pacers quickly found a way to balance the offensive and defensive gap and have won two in a row. And the Magic are also a dark horse team that has suddenly risen this season, and contrary to the Pacers, the Magic are in fifth place in the league with a defensive efficiency of 110.7. Despite their bottom-1 three-point shooting percentage in the league, the Magic still stand in the top 5 in the East thanks to their solid defensive foundation.
There are also some old dark horse teams, although they have been able to make the playoffs and achieve good regular season rankings in recent seasons, but they have never been able to make it past the second round or even the first round. The Eastern Knicks are a good example of this, after qualifying directly to the playoffs in the top 6 in the East in the 20 season, the Knicks were eliminated in the first round. 50 points + 38 points + 36 points! From the bench to become the team leader! The head coach will also be angry for you! This also made the Knicks see the potential of the team, and in order to go further in the playoffs, the Knicks targeted Brunson of the Mavericks that offseason, and finally signed a 4-year, 100 million contract. Last season, Brunson averaged 27.8 points, 4.9 rebounds and 5.6 assists per game in the playoffs, playing a whopping 40.3 minutes per game and diching out 5.6 turnovers.
Last season, the Knicks made it all the way to the second round and won six games. This season, the Knicks have brought in DiVincenzo, who has played very well in the Warriors, Barrett, Quickley and Robinson, and Grimes have all ushered in a huge leap this season. Before the loss to the Magic, against the Bucks, Brunson scored 38 points and handed out six assists to win the second-place Bucks in the East after only making one three-pointer. In another game against the Bucks, Brunson once again scored 36 points and had seven assists on more than 55% shooting. Scored 38 + 36 points in two consecutive games. Facing the Suns led by Durant and Booker, and with the Suns duo scoring 57 points combined, Brunson blasted out 50 points, 9 assists, 5 steals, and broke multiple records on 9-of-9 three-point shooting.
After his last game against the Magic, Banchero spoke highly of Brunson, saying that he had practiced with Brunson in the offseason and that he was obsessed with basketball, and that he was made for basketball. And Banchero concluded by saying that Brunson is an excellent court leader for the Knicks. Clearly, Brunson's performance has been recognized by his peers. Brunson was a bench player for the first three seasons of the Mavericks, not playing most of his starters until his final season. After coming to the Knicks, Brunson has gone from being a bench to becoming the leader of the team. Even the iron-blooded head coach Thibodeau is very important to Brunson, you must know that in previous seasons, Thibodeau was an extremely decisive coach who directly excluded Rose, Reddish and others from the rotation.
But this time Thibodeau directly attacked the referees in public for Brunson, saying that no one can bring the ball to the basket better than Brunson, but what he is experiencing now is ridiculous, and many fouls are not blown. Obviously, Thibodeau's behavior is based on past examples of the Alliance, and a fine of at least 25,000 is imposed. Of course, Thibodeau's remarks are out of the ordinary, but is it true? Brunson does average 16.6 shots per game that come from breakaways, which ranks in the top 10 in the league, but is lower than Doncic and Alexander. In addition, Brunson is good at hitting the inside, but most of his endpoints are not near the basket. So far this season, only 16 percent of Brunson's attempts have come from a distance of about 1 meter near the basket, which is a very low number.
Brunson finished most of his finishes in the mid-range area, shaking off opponents with footwork and feints. It's very similar to Curry of the Warriors, who has been complained by a lot of fans that Curry doesn't get the whistle either. But in fact, Curry, like Brunson, will not fight against the defense like Edwards, Fox, Alexander, and Morant when he breaks through, and they don't create vertical cylinder space, so they don't have a fierce collision with the defense. As a result, Curry and Brunson's offensive finishes are often what all small players do against big insiders, which is to dodge the defense and avoid being blocked by the opponent.