Five Fast Facts from NBA Games: 3.13.13

1. The Miami Heat won their 20th straight game with a 98-94 win at Philadelphia. LeBron James fell one short of his point total (28 – he scored 27) of the last two games and tied his FG made (8) to lead the Heat who have become just the fourth team in NBA history to put together a streak of 20 straight victories. For the 76ers, Thaddeus Young had 24 points and 15 rebounds (2nd such game this season); 1st 76ers player to have multiple 24-15 games in a season since Chris Webber in 2005-06 season. The Heat have also now won 14 straight games against the 76ers and are 10-1 in the second game of back-t0-back games this season.
2. In Atlanta, the Lakers fell to the Hawks 96-92, but suffered a much more meaningful loss at the end of the game. Kobe Bryant , who had a game-high 31 points, injured his ankle with 3.9 seconds remaining in the game, when he landed on the foot of Atlanta forward Dahntay Jones after putting up a potential game-tying 18-footer. The ball bounced out and Bryant stayed down, on the court, in the corner. Bryant is going to be out indefinitely with a severely sprained left ankle. The Hawks won for just the second time in their last eight games by holding the Lakers to just 39.1 percent shooting from the field. However, with the Jazz loss, the Lakers stayed half a game ahead of Utah for the eighth seed in Western Conference.
3. In Sacramento, the Kings dominated the Bulls, 121-79. For the Bulls, this was their worst loss since a 116-74 loss to the Blazers in November of 2008. This was the 3^rd time in NBA history that a team at least 15 games under .500 beat a team with a winning record by 40-or-more points.  The only other times that happened were on March 18, 1972, when the 17-62 Trail Blazers blasted the Knicks (46-31) by 47 points and on March 10, 1987, when the 16-44 Nets topped the Washington Bullets (32-27) by 42 points.
4. The Knicks suffered their second straight embarrassment on Wednesday when they lost 117-94 to the Nuggets. The Knicks have now lost their first two games on this five-game road trip by a combined 52 points. Tyson Chandler injured his knee in the first half and did not return, and his lack of presence was obvious as Denver outscored the Knicks 62-24 in the paint, and had a 53-33 rebounding advantage. Chandler suffered a contusion on the knee and will stay with the team and is probable for the game in Portland on Thursday. Carmelo Anthony also left with a knee injury again, and instead of staying with the team for the remainder of their road trip, will head back to New York. His injury status or amount of time that he will miss is unknown. Wilson Chandler scored 24 points in 25 minutes off the bench for Denver, who have now won 10 straight overall, 14 straight at home where they are an NBA best 29-3.
5. The Pistons fell to 0-13 against the Western Conference this season with a 105-97 loss against the Warriors. Stephen Curry made five of his seven three-point attempts and scored 31 points. It is the tenth time that Curry has shot at least 60 percent while making five-or-more shots from beyond the arc in a game this season. Since the NBA instituted the three-point shot in 1979, only one other player has done that 10 times in a single season: Damon Jones in 2004-05 (10).

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.