NBA: ANALYSIS OF STANDINGS; PACERS, HEAT, NUGGETS // MLB---NATIONAL LEAGUE-WEST.

sports-notebook.blogspot.com . . . FOR MORE ANALYSIS, GO TO "MILE HIGH SPORTS RADIO," AM1510 or FM93.7, and to Denver’s best sports blogging team---milehighsports.com. SPORTS NOTEBOOK posts its columns Tuesday and Friday of each week. Ed., Publ., Marvin Leibstone; Copy & Mng. Ed., Gail Kleiner. . . // . . . NBA: ANALYSIS OF STANDINGS; PACERS, HEAT, NUGGETS // MLB---NATIONAL LEAGUE-WEST---SOME OBSERVATIONS. . . . // . . NBA---IN the past week, four NBA second place teams moved ahead in rankings by a game, while remaining first place clubs added two or more wins, and none fell behind unless a number one division team leaped ahead with wins. And no increased sweat required, the Indiana Pacers are not only leading the Eastern Conference-Central still, they are ahead of the entire conference and of the full NBA, at 46 wins, 13 losses. Also, the Pacers have maintained a deep lead ahead of any other division leading franchise, now 13 games atop the East-Central’s second place team, the 33-27 Chicago Bulls. Best of the West is still the Oklahoma City Thunder, at the heels of the Pacers for being tops in the league, at 45-15 while ahead of the Western Conference-Southwest’s leading team, the 41-16 San Antonio Spurs, by only two wins. Moreover, the Thunder’s WC-Northwest’s lead is as tenuous, four games up on the 41-19 Portland Trail Blazers. Of note is that seven of the 30 NBA franchises have won more than half of the current season’s 82 games, each with their more than 41 wins from, depending on team schedules, between 55 and 60 games played as of today. Implied is that it takes almost two thirds of a season to go by before this can be accomplished by even the best among NBA clubs. As for third place teams still chasing a decent finish if not playoff entry, within the East the Atlantic Division’s N.Y. Knicks stagnated this week at 21 wins, and the Southeast’s 27-33 Charlotte Bobcats fell back by two games, to 17 wins behind the 33-26 Toronto Raptors, and the Central Division’s 24-36 Detroit Pistons fell by one, to 22 back of the Pacers. Within the West, the Northwest’s Minnesota Timberwolves added two wins, going to 30-29, 14 wins back of the Thunder and five ahead of fourth place team, the 25-34 Denver Nuggets. And, 14 of the 30 NBA teams are still below .500, and three are hovering at or barely above .500, among them below-the-margin teams that finished the regular season decently a year ago and were expected to be front-runners this season: sad songs are being sung in Boston for the East’s 20-40/.333 Celtics, in Atlanta for the 26-32/.448 Hawks, in Denver for the West’s 25-34/.424 Nuggets, in Utah for the 21-39/350 Jazz, at L.A. for the 21-39/350 Lakers. . . HEAT, PACERS, NUGGETS---THE 43-14 Heat’s LeBron James demonstrated again that he’s the NBA’s top shooter from among the greater variety of challenges to his being that repeatedly, last night accruing 61 points versus the Charlotte Bobcats. This was his career high and a Heat record, bringing the Heat vs. Bobcats win to 124-107, preparing the Heat for what could be a ninth straight win before midweek, vs. the West’s 43-16 Houston Rockets, even if James has but half the points that he scored against the Bobcats. Especially worthy for sustainment of James’ MVP status is that last night he netted eight straight 3-pointer attempts. Shown, then, is high-end value for an NBA franchise, that of having a team phenom, a superstar capable of establishing leads that cannot be overcome. But the Pacers show that there is another way, winning four games in a week mostly via integration of star performance with backoffs to teamwork, to equal ball possession among players on the floor, which hadn’t worked last night for the Denver Nuggets, a team without a James but a player coming close in having guard Ty Lawson, who returned yesterday to the Nuggets starter squad after physical rehab and scored 31 points (his average, 18 ppg), yet the Nuggets lost to the Timberwolves, 132-128. If there’s any good in this outcome, it’s that the Nuggets endgame deficit wasn’t of the greater disparity of several recent lost Nuggets games. Uncoupled from the Nuggets still is the connectivity among players that earlier in the season empowered them to win seven straight games and later to defeat division, conference and NBA leading teams the Pacers, the Thunder and the 40-20 L.A. Clippers. . . // . . MLB---THERE’s no telling with great certainty which teams will rise to the top two positions within an MLB division for the chance to earn a post-season billet. However, true fans know that trying to establish informed guesses as to teams rising to the top of a ladder is irresistible. Stats do reveal, if not always accurately. That said, if we look at last season’s rankings and off-season developments within any division a lot of likely outcomes can appear, example, the NL West, inside which the L.A. Dodgers might take first position early and sustain that by having maintained a starter rotation and batting order similar to that of 2013. There’s a magnificent seven within the Dodger camp---LH Clayton Kershaw (16 wins, ERA 1.8), RH Zack Greinke (15 wins, ERA 2.6), IF Hanley Ramirez (BA, .345, OBP .402), IF Adrian Gonzalez (22 HR’s, 100 RBI’s), OF Matt Kemp (BA .270), OF Yasiel Puig (BA .319), and C A.J. Ellis (BA .238) But the Colorado Rockies could remain close to L.A.’s heels with a mix of keeps and its add-ons, from the still on board RF Michael Cuddyer, SS Troy Tulowitzki, LF/CF Carlos Gonzales, C Wiln Rosario, 3B Nolan Arenado, and, over from the Pittsburgh Pirates, Jutsin Morneau to 1B, plus from the N.Y. Mets, RH LaTroy Hawkins joining the Rockies starter rotation vet’s LH Jorge De La Rosa (16 wins), RH Jhoulys Chacin (ERA 3.4), RH Juan Nicasio (9 wins), RH Tyler Chatwood (8 wins, ERA 3.1) and reliever/closer LH Rex Brothers (ERA under 2.0, 19 saves), Hawkins throwing for under a 3.0 ERA. The Rockies team BA last year was 20 points higher than the NL average, .271, and the team’s OBP, runs-per-game and stolen bases remained higher than the NL average, .323, 4.36 and 112 respectively. Cuddyer was NL batting champion (BA .331), Gonzalez and Tulowitzki not far behind. That the Rockies high individual player and key team achievements couldn’t yield enough game-winning runs last season, pulling the team upward in the rankings, is still in question, though suspected are too many base-runners left in scoring position at third outs and the starter rotation unable to push its ERA average below 4.5, higher than the NL average, 3.8. END/ml