Tuesday night sits on the calendar as the middle child of the week. It’s better than Monday, but not close enough to Friday to start getting excited for the weekend. On the final Tuesday in the month of February 2013, eight games made up the NBA schedule.
The Heat extended their win streak in double O.T., the Pacers continued their recent dominance with another double-digit victory, the Cavaliers snapped a long losing streak against the Bulls and Dirk Nowitzki entertained NBA fans with his version of 20/20.
As the week turns to Wednesday morning you will be the talk of the office and classroom spouting off references from our latest edition of Five Fast Facts.
- In the g ame of the night, LeBron James scored 40 points, dished out a career-high 16 assists and grabbed eight rebounds in the Miami’s 141-129 double O.T. win over the Sacramento Kings. James joined Oscar Robertson as the only two players in NBA history to record multiple games of 40 points, 15 assists and 5 rebounds. Along with James impressive night, Dwyane Wade added 39 points, seven assists and eight rebounds in the Heat’s double-overtime win against the Kings. Only one other pair of teammates each recorded at least 39 points, seven assists and seven rebounds in an NBA game. The Nuggets’ Kiki Vandeweghe (51/8/9) and Alex English (47/7/12) did that in the highest-scoring game in league history, a 186-184 triple-overtime loss to the Pistons in December 1983. This was the 2nd time in the Big 3 Era in which LeBron James (40) and Dwyane Wade (39) have each scored at least 35 points in the same game. The other was March 14, 2012 against the Bulls. The Heat have now won 12 straight games.
- LeBron James was 139 for 217 (.641) from the field in February. That’s the highest field-goal percentage by an NBA player in a calendar month of at least 200 field-goal attempts since Kareem Abdul-Jabbar was 158-for-243 (.650) for the Lakers in March 1983.
- The Pacers’ 108-97 triumph over the Warriors gives them five straight wins by at least 10 points, after Indiana also registered five consecutive double-digit victories from January 30 to February 6. The Pacers are the first team since the 2009-10 Cavaliers to register two separate streaks of five or more wins by at least 10 points within the same season.
- Dirk Nowitzki scored 21 points and pulled down 20 rebounds against the Bucks on Tuesday night, but it wasn’t enough as the Mavericks lost 95-90. It was his first 20/20 game since April 3, 2003, an NBA-record span of nine years and 329 days between 20/20 (points with rebounds or assists) performances. The Mavericks shot 1-17 from 3-point range in the loss.
- In Chicago, the Cavaliers defeated the Bulls 101-98, snapping their 11-game losing streak against the team for the Windy City. The Bulls have now lost three straight home games and seven of their last 10 games overall.
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.