The Week in Hoops: April 11, 2011

Another week of traveling and another abbreviated T.W.I.H. this week. The Colton Index numbers are through Saturday instead of Sunday. One more update on Thursday when the season is up.

The Colton Index:

Teams of the Week:

	1. Golden State Warriors(from 20th to 19th)
	2. Cleveland Cavaliers (stays at 30th)
	3. Washington Wizards (from 29th to 28th)

Teams of the Weak:

	1. Los Angeles Lakers(from 1st to 4th)
	2. Atlanta Hawks (stays at 15th)
	3. Philadelphia 76ers (stays at 14th)

Updated with Games as of Saturday April 9th

Rk	Move	Team	W-L	Last 15	Avg Diff	SOS Rk	Colton
1	+1		61-19	8-7	6	18	58.21
2	+1		59-20	13-2	7.33	30	57.35
3	+1		55-24	12-3	7.13	29	55.20
4	-3		55-24	10-5	6.3	21	55.16
5	-		54-25	8-7	3.58	11	53.40
6	-		55-24	8-7	5.81	28	53.03
7	+1		53-26	12-3	3.71	17	52.87
8	-1		49-31	11-4	4.64	14	51.50
9	-		50-29	10-5	5.35	27	50.55
10	-		47-33	10-5	1.7	7	48.27
11	-		45-34	10-5	2.41	13	47.60
12	-		46-33	10-5	1.76	8	47.27
13	-		42-38	9-6	2.09	10	45.12
14	-		41-39	7-8	1.71	25	42.09
15	-		44-36	7-8	-0.6	24	41.93
16	+1		41-38	7-8	1.09	26	40.70
17	-1		38-41	5-10	-0.75	4	40.59
18	+1		37-43	10-5	-0.86	23	37.90
19	+1		35-44	7-8	-2.42	5	37.46
20	-2		37-43	3-12	-2.08	6	37.02
21	-		33-47	7-8	-1	22	35.09
22	-		31-50	6-9	-3.26	3	33.31
23	-		32-47	6-9	-4.18	15	32.71
24	-		28-51	5-10	-3.81	20	29.95
25	-		23-56	8-7	-5.35	2	29.09
26	-		24-55	3-12	-6.3	19	25.07
27	-		21-58	4-11	-6.29	16	24.28
28	+1		22-58	6-9	-7.58	12	24.12
29	-1		17-63	2-13	-6.46	1	22.87
30	-		17-63	5-10	-9.44	9	20.28

Note: Updating from last week...if the NBA combined the conferences and simply took the best 16 teams for the playoffs, the first-round match-ups would look like this if the season ended today (to account for differences in strength of schedule, I use the Colton Index full-season run of just wins and losses to rank order the teams):
1. San Antonio (58-19) vs. 16. Phoenix (37-39)
2. LA Lakers (55-21) vs. 15. Philadelphia (40-37)
3. Chicago (56-20) vs. 14. Houston (41-36)
4. Dallas (53-24) vs. 13. Atlanta (44-33)
5. Miami (54-23) vs. 12. New Orleans (44-33)
6. Boston (53-23) vs. 11. Memphis (44-33)
7. Oklahoma City (50-26) vs. 10. Portland (45-32)
8. Denver (47-29) vs. 9. Orlando (48-29)

Effectively, the bottom two teams in the East would be replaced by Phoenix and Houston.

Plan Accordingly:

Must watch games this week (all times ET):

Mon 4/11: Miami at Atlanta (7:00 PM); Orlando at Philadelphia (7:00 PM); Dallas at Houston (8:30 PM)
Tues 4/12: Chicago at New York (8:00 PM, TNT); Memphis at Portland (10:00 PM); San Antonio at LA Lakers (10:30 PM, TNT) - Hmmm...guess who's going to be in New York on Tuesday night?
Weds 4/13: New York at Boston (8:00 PM); New Orleans at Dallas (8:00 PM, ESPN); Memphis at LA Clippers (10:30 PM, ESPN)

Dunks of the Week:

Here are the top 5 Dunks for the week ending 4/9, as voted on by the Wegobomber Dunk Committee.

5. Blake Griffin bounces off the floor, sheds Brian Cardinal and still has enough to throw it down. Impressive!


4. Earl Watson gets a taste of a (cue Reggie Miller voice) George Heeeel.


3. Impressive one-handed alley oop slam by LeBron James off the inbounds pass.


2. Mo Williams passes up a wide open lay-up so DeAndre Jordan can posterize Dirk.


1. Tyreke Evans summons his inner J.R. Smith and takes flight on (cue Reggie Miller voice) George Heeeel.


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The Week in Hoops: April 4, 2011

An abbreviated T.W.I.H. this week as I'm traveling this week. A new number one in the Colton Index this week.

The Colton Index:

Teams of the Week:

	1. Washington Wizards(stays at 29th)
	2. Portland Trailblazer (from 11th to 10th)
	3. Philadelphia 76ers (or as my 3-year old NBA-logo memorizing son calls them, "the Seventy-Six Sixers") (from 15th to 14th)

Teams of the Weak:

	1. Orlando Magic(from 8th to 9th)
	2. San Antonio Spurs (from 1st to 2nd)
	3. Dallas Mavericks (from 3rd to 4th)

Updated with Games as of Sunday April 3rd

Rk	Move	Team	W-L	Last 15	Avg Diff	SOS Rk	Colton
1	+2		55-21	13-2	6.76	21	57.69
2	-1		58-19	7-8	5.61	16	57.43
3	-1		56-20	13-2	7.22	30	57.12
4	+1		54-23	11-4	7.26	29	55.68
5	-1		53-24	8-7	3.64	9	53.93
6	-		53-23	7-8	5.82	28	52.72
7	+2		47-29	12-3	4.75	18	52.01
8	-1		50-26	11-4	3.51	20	51.79
9	-1		48-29	8-7	5.3	27	49.88
10	+1		45-32	10-5	1.81	4	48.60
11	-1		44-33	10-5	2.42	3	48.44
12	-		44-33	9-6	1.55	2	46.65
13	-		41-36	10-5	2.04	5	46.16
14	+1		40-37	8-7	2	26	43.39
15	-1		44-33	7-8	0.04	25	43.34
16	-		37-39	5-10	-0.71	8	40.37
17	-		38-38	6-9	0.59	24	39.53
18	-		36-41	4-11	-1.91	15	36.92
19	+1		35-43	8-7	-1.35	23	36.59
20	-1		33-44	6-9	-2.86	7	35.69
21	-		31-45	8-7	-1	22	35.14
22	+1		30-47	8-7	-2.97	14	33.67
23	-1		32-44	6-9	-3.97	19	33.41
24	-		26-50	4-11	-4.16	12	29.35
25	-		22-54	7-8	-5.12	10	28.43
26	-		23-53	5-10	-6.18	13	26.06
27	+1		21-55	4-11	-6.2	17	25.03
28	-1		17-60	2-13	-6.25	1	23.49
29	-		20-56	4-11	-7.89	11	22.75
30	-		15-61	3-12	-9.93	6	18.76

Note: Updating from last week...if the NBA combined the conferences and simply took the best 16 teams for the playoffs, the first-round match-ups would look like this if the season ended today (to account for differences in strength of schedule, I use the Colton Index full-season run of just wins and losses to rank order the teams):
1. San Antonio (58-19) vs. 16. Phoenix (37-39)
2. LA Lakers (55-21) vs. 15. Philadelphia (40-37)
3. Chicago (56-20) vs. 14. Houston (41-36)
4. Dallas (53-24) vs. 13. Atlanta (44-33)
5. Miami (54-23) vs. 12. New Orleans (44-33)
6. Boston (53-23) vs. 11. Memphis (44-33)
7. Oklahoma City (50-26) vs. 10. Portland (45-32)
8. Denver (47-29) vs. 9. Orlando (48-29)

Effectively, the bottom two teams in the East would be replaced by Phoenix and Houston.

Plan Accordingly:

Must watch games this week (all times ET):

Mon 4/4: No Games today - Go Butler! I hope Butler wins so Jim Nantz can say "This time, the Butler did it!" or something like that.
Tues 4/5: Miami at Cleveland (7:00 PM) - LeBron's return to Cleveland highlights a weak slate of games, although does anybody really care anymore?
Weds 4/6: San Antonio at Atlanta (7:00 PM); Philadelphia at Boston (7:30 PM) - 3/6 series preview?; Oklahoma City at Denver (9:00 PM) - 4/5 series preview?
Thurs 4/7: Boston at Chicago (8:00 PM, TNT)
Fri 4/8: Denver at Oklahoma City (8:00 PM) - again!; LA Lakers at Portland (10:00 PM)
Sat 4/9: LA Clippers at Houston (8:30 PM)
Sun 4/10: Chicago at Orlando (1:00 PM, ABC); Boston at Miami(3:30 PM, ABC); New Orleans at Memphis (6:00 PM); Oklahoma City at LA Lakers (9:30 PM)

Dunks of the Week:

Here are the top 5 Dunks for the week ending 4/2, as voted on by the Wegobomber Dunk Committee.

5. Lebron James drives to the bucket and throws it down against the Rockets.


4. Tony Allen stuffs it one-handed against the Golden State Warriors.


3. Willie Green may be one of the worst regular rotation players in the league, but we gotta give him props for this putback.


2. Lebron James gets away with a shove and then catches Trevor Booker in an unenviable position.


1. Looking back, Shannon Brown was an oversight from our Top 10 dunkers list. He's added quite a few quality dunks to his resume lately. This switcheroo looks like something that got him a 40 in the dunk contest last year.


Bonus: This Al-Farouq Aminu dunk didn't make the top 5, but it's worth watching. He travels (in more ways than one) about 70 feet down the court, taking 12 or 13 steps while only taking 4 dribbles. Impressive!


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