After a relaxing break from the everyday monotony of NBA action, SheridanHoops.com is back with the latest edition of Five Fast Facts that will make you the darling of your office and very popular at the water cooler.
Nine games highlighted the NBA schedule on Tuesday night. The time off didn’t seem to help the Warriors who continued their alarming recent trend of double-digit losses, Joe Johnson played the hero twice in Brooklyn, and the Spurs and Nuggets stayed hot.
Strap yourselves in for a phat Tuesday edition of Five Fast Facts.
- In the game of the night, the Brooklyn Nets defeated the Milwaukee Bucks 113-111 in overtime. The win was the first for the Nets over the Bucks in almost four years (March 3, 2009) snapping a 13-game losing streak against them. Joe Johnson saved the Nets at the end of regulation by hitting a game-tying 3-pointer with 1.3 seconds left, then won the game for the Nets in overtime, hitting the GW shot with 1.4 seconds left. Before Joe Johnson, the last player with a game-tying basket in the 4th quarter and a game-winner in overtime – each with less than 2 seconds remaining in the period – was Vince Carter, who did that for the Nets at Toronto on Nov. 21, 2008. Along with Johnson and Carter, Brandon Roy is the only other player to do so in the last five seasons, accomplishing the feat November 8, 2008 against the Timberwolves. Johnson is 8-9 from the field with less than 30 seconds remaining in regulation or overtime this season. Chris Webber had an interesting stat concerning the Nets in our Tweet of the Night.
- The San Antonio Spurs won for the fifth time in six games on their current nine-game rodeo road trip, defeating the Sacramento Kings 108-102. This is nothing new for the Spurs, who have 10 straight wins at Sacramento. San Antonio has posted a double-digit road win streaks against only 2 other teams: 13 straight vs the Grizzlies in Vancouver and Memphis from 1996-2003, 12 in a row at Dallas from 1991-1996. This is the third time in franchise history the Kings have lost 10+ straight home games vs one team (Lakers won 12 straight vs Kings in Kansas City/Sacramento from 1983-88, Celtics won 10 straight vs Royals at Cincinnati from 1958-61). The Spurs have won 15 of their last 16 games overall. Tony Parker led all scorers with 30 points while dishing out 11 assists (his NBA-high 3rd game this season with 30+ points & 10+ assists).
- The Jazz defeated the Warriors 115-101 to hand Golden State their sixth straight loss (four have been by at least 14 points). The Warriors’ 115-101 loss makes it six straight seasons in which Golden State lost its first game after the All-Star break, the longest current drought of that kind for any NBA team. Did David Lee crack the top five in Most Improved Player rankings?
- The Raptors defeated the Wizards 96-88, as John Wall suffered one of the worst games this season. Wall was 1-12 (.083) from the field and committed seven turnovers, the first player to register that low a field-goal percentage (minimum: 10 FGA) along with at least seven TO in one game since Steve Francis was 1-12 with seven turnovers for the Magic on Jan. 28, 2005 against Washington.
- The Denver Nuggets won their eighth straight home game, defeating the Boston Celtics, 97-90. The Nuggets streak of consecutive games scoring at least 100 points was snapped at 13. Ty Lawson had 26 points for Denver, continuing his stellar play in his last four games. Lawson is averaging 27.5 points and shooting 62 percent from the field and 58 percent from 3-point range in those four games. He is also averaging 8.2 assists in that span.
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.