Around the NBA: Stauskas finds his groove in Portland, Jazz turn to Korver
Sometimes it takes a while for a player to find the right fit for his skills, and often the search is in vain because teams just give up on a guy after a series of failures. Mississauga’s Nik Stauskas — after disappointing stops in Sacramento, Philadelphia and Brooklyn — has found a comfortable home with the Portland Trail Blazers this season. Stauskas made five three-pointers in the first half of Portland’s win over Orlando on Wednesday night. It was the second time this season that Stauskas has made five threes, and he’s shooting a career-best 41 per cent from three-point range.
WORTH A SHOT: The Utah Jazz could be considered the biggest disappointment of the season so far — a very good defensive team that can’t seem to find a way to thrive with the emphasis on offence in today’s NBA. Perhaps the addition of shooting specialist Kyle Korver, obtained for two draft picks and Alec Burke from Cleveland will help. The Jazz need it. Utah is tucked near the bottom of the Western Conference standings with a 10-12 record.
IN SAFE HANDS: There have been a handful of pretty good Los Angeles Clippers teams over the years. None were able to accomplish what this version did earlier this week. In a 104100 win over the Trail Blazers, the Clippers committed just four turnovers. It was their fewest in a game since the team moved to Los Angeles from San Diego prior to the 1984-85 season.
POLISHED NUGGETS: The Denver Nuggets are one of the more pleasant surprises in the NBA, 14-7 and third in the West heading into Thursday night. They’ve done it without a consensus superstar, although Nikola Jokic is pretty darn good. What the Nuggets have is a solid group and it shows in the fact six players — Jokic, Jamal Murray, Gary Harris, Will Barton, Paul Millsap and Trey Lyles — are all average in double figures in scoring.
Information from other publications, websites and sources was used in the compilation of this report.