NBA Tar Heels: Week 19 Review / Week 20 Preview

Each Monday during the NBA regular season, All Tar Heels' Isaac Schade will review the prior week and preview the week ahead for each Tar Heel in the NBA.

Author:
Isaac Schade
Feb 28, 2022 8:00 AM EST

Each Monday during the NBA regular season, All Tar Heels will review the prior week for each Tar Heel in the NBA and preview the week ahead. This week, we are looking back at games from February 24-27 and looking ahead to games from February 28 through March 6.

There are currently 12 Tar Heels on NBA rosters, 11 on full-time contracts and one (Theo Pinson) on a two-way contract.

Coming off the All-Star break, NBA games started on Thursday, so there are only four games worth of stats from last week.

Speaking of the All-Star break, Cole Anthony's team lost in the semifinals of the Rising Stars mini-tournament, but he had the highlight dunk. Similarly, Anthony didn't make it out of the semis of the dunk contest but did have the most talked-about dunk by donning his dad's Knicks jersey and a pair of brand-new Timberlands for his first dunk of the night.

The NBA All-Star break comes not at the midway point of the season but rather about two-thirds of the way in. At the break, teams had played between 57-61 games meaning they each had between 21-25 games remaining, with the regular season ending on Sunday, April 10.

The 12 NBA Heels are on 10 different teams, eight of which found themselves in playoff position at the break:

Suns (Cameron Johnson) - 1st (West)
Bulls (Tony Bradley, Coby White) - 2nd (East)
76ers (Danny Green) - 3rd (East)
Cavaliers (Ed Davis) - 4th (East)
Mavericks (Reggie Bullock, Theo Pinson) - 5th (West)
Nets (Day'Ron Sharpe) - 8th (East)
Lakers (Wayne Ellington) - 9th (West)
Trailblazers (Nassir Little) - 10th (West)

Just two of the NBA Tar Heels are out of playoff position as of the break:

Kings (Harrison Barnes) - 13th (West)
Magic (Cole Anthony) - 15th (East)

Keep an eye on Coby White coming out of the break. He scored 20-plus points in three out of the last four before the break, including 31 in the Bulls last pre-break game. White scored nine and 15 in the Bulls first two games back from the break.

Will Cam Johnson and the Suns run away with things and win the 37th NBA Championship for a Tar Heel (as a player)? It will certainly be more difficult due to an injury to Chris Paul which will keep him out for extended time. In fact, the Suns have now lost two straight, breaking their eight-game winning streak. The good news for Johnson is that he will be thrust into the starting lineup in the meantime.

Note: all times listed are Eastern and PM.