The last month of competition leaves almost every division titles determined. James Harden was the top scorer of the month and Kevin Durant, the first in efficiency.
March has served to strengthen the positions of the best teams in the competition. In the West, Warriors, Spurs, Thunder and Clippers are already in playoffs and, except for any last minute mishap, they will end up in that order. In the East, the Raptors still seem to threaten the Cavs and the Hornets have been the surprise.
The Charlotte team, led by Steve Clifford has been against all odds the best of the conference in the month (13-3) with Kemba Walker and Nico Batum to the head. They were ahead of the Hawks, Cavs and Raptors -both past the front of the table and champions in the Central Division and Atlantic-and have been heavily involved in the exciting fight. Heat, Hawks and Celtics held in the leaderboards final phase.
Meanwhile, Pistons, Pacers, Bulls and, a little further, Wizards fighting for the last 2 positions that give access to the final stage, with the rest now discarded and the Sixers the worst team in the league in March, still with options to match the worst historical mark of a team in the NBA if they can not impose in any of the 6 remaining games they play.
In the West, with the first clear positions, the Warriors (15-2), beating with a large margin record of triples scored in a season, and Spurs (13-3), who left behind a home record set by the Bulls and gave a warning to their main rivals defeating them in San Antonio, both teams were the best in march.
Both are already champions of their respective divisions, Pacific and Southwest, as are the Thunder in the Northwest.
Memphis, despite its long list of injuries that has led him to use 27 players so far this season, and Portland, maintain a minimal advantage over Dallas, the month was bad enough, Utah and Houston, the other 3 teams still struggling to be among the top 8. One of them will not move forward.
Harden, a leader in scoring, and Durant in efficiency.
With regard to individual statistics, James Harden led in scoring by averaging 28.6 points, 6.4 rebounds and 9.5 assists per game, but Kevin Durant was the best in efficiency (30.9) after scoring a little less, with 28.4 points, but with a 51% accuracy in shooting and also providing 9 rebounds and 6.5 assists per night.
Other notables were LeBron James (25.6 points, 8.2 rebounds and 7.7 assists with 53% shooting), DeMarcus Cousins (26.1 points, 12.6 rebounds, 3.8 assists, 1.6 blocks and 2.1 recoveries), Hassan Whiteside (18.3 points with 63% accuracy in shooting, 12.8 rebounds and leading blocks with 3.3) and, of course, Stephen Curry (27.6 points , 5.9 rebounds, 6.2 assists and 1 in steals with 2.4), that has smashed his own record for three pointers made in a season by a single player.
To note also the numbers from Russell Westbrook (21.7 points, 8.2 rebounds and 10.6 assists) who scored 7 triple-doubles in the month, matching a mark set by Michael Jordan, to accumulate 16 so far in the season.
In addition, Andre Drummond was the leader in rebounds, John Wall, author of 2 triple-doubles in 24 hours in assists and Damian Lillard who scored the most in a match, adding 50 points against the Raptors.
On the negative side, premature farewells from injury of men like Anthony Davis, rookie Chandler Parsons or Jahlil Okafor, among others.
Good month for Ricky and Towns in the Wolves
As rookies go, we have to look at the same team, the Wolves. Ricky Rubio had one of his best months with averages of 13.3 points, 4.6 rebounds, 8.5 assists and 2.1 steals and shooting percentages somewhat better than usual, with 43.5% accuracy in the field goal and 40% from the triple addition to scoring 92% of his free throws.
