Every day in the NBA there is a lot to unpack, so every weekday during the NBA regular season we are here to help you break it all down. Here are three things you need to know from yesterday in the NBA.
1) Luka Doncic passes Jason Kidd to make Dallas history. At age 21. It took 44 games into his rookie season before Luka Doncic racked up his first triple-double, notching it against the Bucks on Jan. 21, 2019.
In the 78 games since then, he has racked up 21 more. The latest came on Wednesday night when he scored 30 points, had 17 rebounds and 10 assists in a Dallas win against New Orleans.
That one moved Doncic past Jason Kidd for the most triple-doubles all-time in Mavericks’ history. Doncic just turned 21 six days ago. Jason Kidd is… well, Hall of Famer Jason Kidd. But also older. And it took him close to 500 games to get there.
Do you want even more record-setting history from the 21-year-old? Here you go:
Luka Doncic becomes the 5th player in @NBAHistory to notch ten 30-point triple-doubles in a season, joining Oscar Robertson, Michael Jordan, James Harden, and Russell Westbrook. @EliasSports pic.twitter.com/jwGcz5q385
— NBA.com/Stats (@nbastats) March 5, 2020
Doncic — who is going to get some down-ballot MVP votes — picked up his 10th assist Wednesday with a sweet pocket pass to Kristaps Porzingis at a crucial point in overtime, this helped seal the Mavericks overtime win.
Luka gets his triple-double and KP throws it down HARD! 😤
— NBA (@NBA) March 5, 2020
📺: ESPN pic.twitter.com/O7QeYFiR3Y
Porzingis had 34 points, 12 rebounds and five blocked shots in the Dallas victory. It continues his run of impressive plays as he has gotten his legs underneath him. It understandably took KP a while to bounce back from ACL surgery and 19 months away from the game — Mark Cuban suggested it would take a full season — but in February he averaged 25.2 points per game and shot 39.8 percent from three. He’s all the way back, and that Doncic/Porzingis pick-and-roll is going to be a problem for whoever gets them in the playoffs.
This was not a good night for the Pelicans, despite 27 from Brandon Ingram, 25 from Lonzo Ball (on 7-of-11 shooting from three), and 21 from Zion Williamson.
This loss, combined with Memphis blowing out Brooklyn, leaves New Orleans five games out of the final playoff spot in the West with 20 games to play. I don’t care how much easier the Pelicans’ schedule is the rest of the way (and it is much softer), that is likely too much ground to make up. We are not going to get our Zion vs. LeBron first-round matchup (not that Ja Morant vs. LeBron is a bad fallback).
2) Stephen Curry returns to the court Thursday night vs. Toronto. It was just four games into the season when Stephen curry suffered a fractured hand, a fluke play where Suns’ center Aron Baynes fell on him. Recovery required two surgeries, one to put pins in to stabilize the bone through the healing process, then a second one to remove those pins once the recovery was far enough along. It has been more than four long months of recovery.
The wait is finally over. After missing 58 games, Curry will return to the court on Thursday night in a Finals rematch against Toronto.
You think Curry is pumped?
About time!!! 😂 pic.twitter.com/yVs6r4UTZI
— Stephen Curry (@StephenCurry30) March 5, 2020
Some fans/pundits had called for Curry to sit out the season and tank, Warriors coach Steve Kerr has emphatically shot that idea down. With the flattened lottery odds, that level of tanking isn’t going to help, and besides, is this a draft worth tanking for? Better off getting Curry and Andrew Wiggins some time on the court together to see if that’s going to work (not “worth what we’ve got to pay Wiggins” level of work, just work at all).
3) Speaking of returns, Damian Lillard is back, scores 22 in Blazers win. Damian Lillard strained his groin in the final minutes of the final game before the All-Star break, which means he had to sit out the actually-interesting All-Star Game plus six games after action resumed.
He was back on Wednesday night and scored 22 as Portland knocked off Washington in a game where Carmelo Anthony led the way with 25 points.
Portland needed the win to keep their playoff hopes alive. The Blazers are just 3.5 games back of the Grizzlies (four games in the loss column) for the final playoff spot in the West with 20 games to play. Portland has a much easier schedule, but they need to keep racking up the wins and get a little help from Memphis to have a shot.
[twitter-follow screen_name=‘basketballtalk’ show_count='yes’ text_color='00ccff’]