Giving the most interesting man in the world a run for his money, this new daily feature presents five interesting items from the previous night.
Nine games made up the NBA schedule on this first Saturday of February. The Spurs recorded a team triple-double but lost Tim Duncan to a scary injury, the Knicks ran the Kings out of New York and the Cavs upset the Thunder.
STAY THIRSTY, MY FRIENDS!
- The Spurs extended their home winning streak to 18 games with a win over the Washington Wizards, who had lost the previous night while the Spurs were off. San Antonio is 6–0 this season with at least one day of rest against teams playing the second of games on consecutive days; the Wizards are 0–8 in the second of “back-to-back” games when facing a rested team. Along with winning their 18th straight at home, the Spurs increased their overall win streak to 10 games and their winning streak against the Wizards to 14 games. Tim Duncan left the game in the first half with a knee/ankle injury and did not return, but the Spurs don’t expect the injury to be serious.
- Kyrie Irving scored 35 points to lead the Cavaliers past the Thunder, 115–110. Irving matched the season high for points in a game against the Thunder (Kobe Bryant on December 7) as Oklahoma City lost its fifth straight game (dating back to last February) in which an opposing player scored 35 or more points. The Thunder lost consecutive road games for just the second time this season.
- After falling behind 13-3 to start the game, the New York Knicks then outscored the Sacramento Kings 107-47 before the Kings ended the game on a 21-10 run. Despite his team scoring 120 points, Carmelo Anthony’s streak of 31 straight games with at least 20 points ended as he scored just 9 points. Amar’e Stoudemire scored 21 points off the bench and made all 10 of his field-goal attempts in the Knicks’ 120-81 romp over the Kings. Stoudemire joined Derrick Brown as the only players over the last two seasons to go 10-for-10 or better from the floor in one NBA game. Brown made each of his 10 field-goal attempts for the Bobcats in a loss at Boston on February 7, 2012, and he, like Stoudemire, did it as a non-starter.
- The Milwaukee Bucks snapped a seven-game losing streak against the Orlando Magic in their 107-98 win in Milwaukee. Larry Sanders owned the paint on the defensive side of the court for the Bucks as he became the first player to grab at least six offensive rebounds and block six or more shots in an NBA game this season. The only other player to have such a game for the Bucks over the last 16 seasons is Andrew Bogut (seven offensive boards and seven blocks against the Nets on January 29, 2011). Orlando has now lost 9 straight games and is 2-20 over the last 22 games.
- James Harden recorded the first triple-double of his NBA career while Chandler Parsons and Omer Asik each had double-doubles, but the Rockets needed Patrick Patterson’s scoring to overcome a fourth-quarter deficit and beat the Bobcats, 109-95. Patterson scored 24 points, including 14 in the fourth quarter (6-for-6 from the floor, including a pair of 3-pointers), which was one point shy of his NBA career high for any period of a game. Patterson scored 15 third-period points in a victory over the Raptors on November 27.
Stat Mann is the nom de guerre of our research statistician, who spends a lot of time watching basketball in central Connecticut. Someone would be angry if they discovered he was moonlighting here.