Keeping up: Ohio State Buckeyes in the NBA, week of 11/19-11/25

Both Jared Sullinger and Kosta Koufos look to be penciled in to their team's starting lineups for the near future. Memphis is dealing with the injury to Marc Gasol which means that Koufos will have to pick up the slack for the Grizzlies while Gasol is on the end. With the Celtics looking to be headed for the draft lottery this year the Celtics don't have much to lose by giving Sullinger some starts and seeing what they really have with the player they drafted 21st in the 2012 NBA Draft.

Mike Conley - PG - Memphis Grizzlies

The Grizzlies started out the week with a 88-81 win on Wednesday night over Golden State to extend their winning streak to four games. Conley scored 19 points and grabbed 6 rebounds in the game against the Warriors, but it was the last time that the Grizzlies would win during the week. Friday night saw Conley put up his best scoring numbers of the week, going 12-19 from the field to finish with 28 points in the 102-86 loss to San Antonio. Conley had it going at defensive end of the floor against the Spurs as well, picking up 4 steals in defeat. Monday night the Grizzlies again only scored 86 in losing to a team from Texas, dropping a 93-86 decision to the Rockets. In the game Conley was ice cold, only going 2-14 from the field. With his shot not falling, Conley did his best to try and create for his teammates, dishing out a season-high 10 assists as Memphis dropped their third game in a row at home.

Kosta Koufos - F/C - Memphis Grizzlies

The role of Kosta Koufos for the Grizzlies changed significantly from the beginning of the week to the end of the week. Coming of the bench the first two games of the week saw Koufos doing work on the glass for Memphis, pulling down 8 rebounds in the win over the Warriors, and 7 rebounds in the loss to the Spurs. Then the news came out that Marc Gasol was going to miss a few weeks due to a knee injury, and Koufos picked up his first start of the season against the Rockets on Monday night. Kosta made the most of the 31 minutes he was on the floor for, grabbing 13 rebounds and blocking two shots to go along with the 8 points he scored. While losing Gasol for an extended amount of time would be devastating for any team, having a guy like Koufos that has starting experience can help the Grizzlies weather some of the blow of the Gasol injury. Koufos won't give Memphis quite as much on the offensive end as Gasol was able to, but there shouldn't be too much of a drop-off defensively.

Evan Turner - G/F - Philadelphia 76ers

It wasn't pretty in some games last week, but Turner was able to notch two more double-doubles as the 76ers went 1-2 in the three games they played. Both double-doubles came in games that the 76ers lost, while in the lone win, a 115-107 triumph over Milwaukee, Turner scored 27 points and had 6 rebounds. To start the week in the 108-98 loss to Toronto, Turner only was 4-13 from the field to finish with 13 points to go along with the 10 rebounds and 5 assists he gather. Monday night saw E.T. again struggle from the field, scoring 21 points on 8-26 shooting to go along with his 11 rebounds. A troubling problem that Turner had during the week besides the sloppy shooting was the amount of turnovers he committed. In the three games the 76ers played, Turner turned the ball over 14 times. On a team that is so young, the 76ers need Turner to take better care of the basketball if they want to continuing their surprising early start after many had them pegged to be at the top of next year's draft lottery.

Jared Sullinger - PF - Boston Celtics

Jared Sullinger made the most of his first start of the season, posting a double-double on Wednesday night against the Spurs. San Antonio was just too strong for the Celtics though even with the 19 points and 17 rebounds that Sullinger posted, winning 104-93. Sullinger's performance was so impressive that it earned him starts in the next three games to close out the week. Saturday night saw Sullinger almost pick up another double-double, finishing with 13 points and 9 rebounds in the 94-87 win over Atlanta. Those numbers might have been even better had Sullinger not been dealing with the flu like he was over the weekend. It looks like the Celtics have found a strong starter in the front court, and will be interesting to see how his numbers will look should Sullinger continue to get starters' minutes.

Byron Mullens - F/C - Los Angeles Clippers

Minutes were sparse last week for Mullens, with only 18 combined minutes played over the four games that the Clippers played. The only points that Mullens scored in the week all came in the 121-82 win over Chicago on Sunday night, where Mullens scored 5 points in 6 minutes of floor time. The only other real work that Mullens did in the stat sheet was in Saturday's 103-102 nail-biter win over Sacramento, where in 7 minutes Mullens dished out 2 assists but also ended up picking 3 fouls in that time. The good news for the Clippers is that even with Mullens playing minor minutes, they are still finding a way to win. Last week Los Angeles went 3-1 to boost their season record to 10-5 on the young season.