Category: General NBA insight

These are through NBA games of Sunday, March 20:

Thunder forward Kevin Durant has scored at least 20 points in 55 straight games, one shy of his career high.

The Pacers need one victory at Bankers Life Fieldhouse to secure a winning home record for the 27th consecutive season, the longest active streak in the NBA. Indiana has three home games this week, starting tonight against Philadelphia.

Mavericks forward Dirk Nowitzki needs one three-pointer to pass former teammate Steve Nash (1,685) for sole possession of 15th place on the NBA’s career list. Nowitzki, 37, made three triples as part of a 40-point effort in Sunday’s overtime win over Portland, becoming the oldest player to score 40 points in a game since 39-year-old Karl Malone scored 40 for the Jazz against the Magic on March 12, 2003.

Raptors center Bismack Biyombo has three double-doubles in his last four games, including 16 points and a franchise-record 25 rebounds in a victory at Indiana on March 17.

Jazz guard Shelvin Mack is averaging 16.8 points, 8.7 assists and 5.3 rebounds and shooting 60.9 percent (14-of-23) from three-point range in his last six games – a 5-1 stretch for Utah.

The Cavaliers have made 10 or more three-pointers in a season-high seven consecutive games. Their season average for threes made (10.3) is on pace to be a franchise record.

The Pistons are 2-1 on their franchise-record nine-game homestand.

Bulls forward Doug McDermott has scored at least 20 points in three of his last four games.

Lakers guard Marcelo Huertas, a 32-year-old rookie from Brazil, is averaging 8.6 points and 6.0 assists in his last eight games.

Guard Isaiah Thomas has scored 20 or more points in nine games in a row, the longest streak by a Celtics player since Paul Pierce’s 16-game run in February-March 2006. Thomas is averaging 26.3 points in those nine games.

In the Kings’ win over the Knicks on Sunday, Sacramento center DeMarcus Cousins (24 points, 20 rebounds) and New York center Robin Lopez (23 points, 20 rebounds) became the first opposing players to have at least 20 points and 20 rebounds since Cleveland’s Michael Cage and San Antonio’s David Robinson on Jan. 10, 1996.

Swingman Joe Johnson is averaging 15.7 points and shooting 57.1 percent from the field and 59.0 percent from three-point range in 11 games with the Heat. Miami is 8-3 with Johnson in the lineup.

— NBA Broadcasters Bulletin

Triple-doubles are piling up around the NBA. Through games of Sunday, March 20, the league has produced 59 triple-doubles this season with more than three weeks still to play. That number is a single-season record for a 30-team league, as well as being the fifth most all time and only six behind the second most. The NBA record is 78 triple-doubles in the 1988-89 season, followed by 65 in 1961-62 (when Oscar Robertson recorded 41 and averaged a triple-double). This season’s barrage is led by Thunder guard Russell Westbrook, who on Saturday became the first player to post 11 triple-doubles in a 30-game span in one season since Michael Jordan in 1989; Oklahoma City is 14-0 when he puts up a triple-double this season. Also Saturday, Grizzlies forward Zach Randolph registered his first triple-double in his 974th game, an NBA record for most games before a triple-double.

— NBA Broadcasters Bulletin

Buying online tickets is generally safer these days thanks to many services that use technology to make the transfer of ticket ownership a near certainty. But then stuff like this still happens. Here’s the NY Daily News reporting:

An NCAA racket brought nothing but March sadness to one man who bought $500 in fake tickets off of Craigslist, police said on Sunday.

The 20-year-old man purchased the fraudulent tickets off of someone he met through the online classifieds site on Thursday, police said.

Once at the Barclays Center, just steps from the national college basketball tournament, he was informed the tickets were fakes.

NBA notes from around the league, through games of Sunday, March 13.

The Hornets have won seven consecutive games for the first time since March 2002.

Bucks forward Giannis Antetokounmpo has recorded all four of his career triple-doubles in the last 11 games. He is the first player in franchise history with four triple-doubles in a season.

Spurs big man Tim Duncan needs three points to pass John Havlicek (26,395) for 14th place on the NBA’s all-time scoring list.

After passing Kevin Johnson on Sunday for 19th place on the career assists list, Cavaliers forward LeBron James needs 11 assists to pass Muggsy Bogues (6,726) for the 18th spot.

Warriors guard Klay Thompson has joined teammate Stephen Curry as the only players in NBA history with 200 three-pointers made in four consecutive seasons.

Stephen Curry celebrates his 28th birthday today.

Pistons center Andre Drummond leads the NBA with 55 double-doubles. The franchise single-season record is 69 by Bob Lanier in 1972-73.

With 26 points, 11 rebounds and 10 assists in Friday’s victory over New Orleans, 36-year-old Grizzlies forward Matt Barnes became the oldest player to record his first career triple-double.

Suns rookie Devin Booker has scored 27 or more points in four of his last six games, including recent back-to-back games of 32 and 35 points. He became the first Phoenix rookie with consecutive 30-point games since Walter Davis in 1977.

Jazz center Rudy Gobert is averaging 13.8 rebounds in his last nine games.

The Delaware 87ers, the Philadelphia 76ers’ National Basketball Development League affiliate, are the first NBA D-League or NBA team ever to have four players score 45 or more points in a game in a season. Sean Kilpatrick, Jordan McRae, Russ Smith and Christian Wood have all accomplished the feat.

Kilpatrick, now on his second 10-day contract with the Nets, has scored in double figures in four of his last five games for Brooklyn, including two 19-point performances.

Jazz forward Derrick Favors had 28 points, 11 rebounds and six blocked shots in Saturday’s win over New Orleans, making him the only player this season with more than one game of at least 25 points, 10 boards and five blocks.

Pacers forward Paul George has scored at least 30 points in 20 of 63 games this season. He entered this season with 15 career 30-point performances in 292 games.

Heat guard Goran Dragic is averaging 19.2 points, 7.2 assists and 5.4 rebounds in his last 10 games – an 8-2 stretch for Miami, which has closed within a half-game of Boston for third place in the East.

Miami guard Dwyane Wade needs 70 points to reach 20,000 for his career.

The Mavericks on Sunday played their NBA-high 11th overtime game this season (7-4), three shy of the league record. The 1990-91 76ers played 14 overtime games.

Rockets guard James Harden is averaging 36.6 points, 7.4 assists and 6.0 rebounds in his last seven games.

Suns center Alex Len is averaging 19.0 points and 12.4 rebounds in eight games since the All-Star break.

The Pistons have matched last season’s win total (32) in 63 games.

Nuggets guard D.J. Augustin is averaging 12.8 points in 23.2 minutes over nine games since being acquired from Oklahoma City.

— VIA NBA News

Here’s the Philadelphia Inquirer reporting on Commissioner Adam Silver’s press conference from this evening:

The NBA may make changes to prevent the increasingly more-practiced, and increasingly loathed, hack-a-Shaq tactic.

Hack-a-Shaq is the strategy of fouling a poor free-throw shooter away from the basketball in an effort to limit an opponent’s scoring. The tactic is best known for being implemented against, and named for, former center Shaquille O’Neal.

“It’s an issue that we have been studying for some time now,” NBA commissioner Adam Silver said Saturday night at his all-star weekend news conference.