Blessed with a wonderful ability to create, we present you with five interesting items from the previous evening.
Twenty-six of the 30 teams in the NBA saw action on Wednesday night. The Wizards continued their mastery of division leaders, the Heat outlasted the Rockets, the Warriors took another beating, the Pacers completed a “three-peat” and the Celtics stayed hot without their point guard.
Boston takes us to the bump…”I woke up this morning and the sun was gone”
- The Washington Wizards continued their recent solid play by defeating the New York Knicks 106-96 Wednesday night in Washington. John Wall scored 21 points as the Wizards improved to 6-1 at home with him. Despite owning the second worst record in the NBA, the Wizards have beaten five of the six division leaders, New York, Miami, Oklahoma City, the Los Angeles Clippers and Chicago, which was leading the Central when Washington played them on Jan. 26. After the loss, J.R. Smith had constructive criticism for some fans.
- The Heat defeated the Rockets 114-108 in a game filled with masterful performances by star players. James Harden led the Rockets with 36 points, 12 rebounds and seven assists, but he was outdone by Miami’s dynamic duo of LeBron James, who had 32 points, six rebounds and five assists, and Dwyane Wade, who contributed 31 points, five rebounds and eight assists. It was the first NBA non-overtime game in nearly 23 years that featured three players with at least 30 points, five rebounds and five assists. The last time that happened in a regulation game was on March 14, 1990 when the Lakers Magic Johnson and Philadelphia’s Charles Barkley and Johnny Dawkins all did it in a Sixers win.
- The Pacers beat the 76ers by a 19-point margin on Wednesday to win for the third time in three nights. Indiana defeated Chicago by 10 points on Monday and knocked off Atlanta by 11 points on Tuesday. This marks the first time in the Pacers’ NBA history they have won a game on three consecutive nights, all by 10 or more points.
- The Warriors lost to the Thunder by 21 points on Wednesday after taking a 31 point beating by Houston the previous night. Golden State is the first team at least 10 games over .500 to lose games by 20-or-more points on consecutive nights since the Warriors did it on April 1st and 2nd in 2008 (entered the streak with a 45-28 record).
- The Spurs won their 11th straight game as they defeated the Timberwolves to run their record to 39-11. This marks the fourth time that the Spurs have had at least 39 wins through 50 games of a season under Gregg Popovich (they also did that in 2004-05, 2005-06 and 2010-11). Only one other coach has done that as many times as Popovich: Phil Jackson (five; three with the Bulls and two with the Lakers). Could the Spurs be busy at the trading deadline?
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.