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On this date in 1962, Wilt Chamberlain set an NBA record by scoring 100 points in a game. He also set the record for field goals made (36), attempted (63), free throws made (28), field goals in a half (22), field-goal attempts in a half (37), field-goal attempts in a quarter (21) and points in a half (59). Wilt also broke his own record for field goals attempted in a game, which had been 62. In that 62-attempt game, he only scored 78 points. Adrian Dantley later tied Wilt’s record for free throws in a game, while Nikola Jokić tied his record for field-goal attempts in a quarter.
Speaking of Jokić …
Joker Face
Yes this was a dirty play by Lu Dort
The viral moment in Friday night’s awesome 127-121 overtime win by the Thunder over the Nuggets had nothing to do with MVP candidates Jokić and Shai Gilgeous-Alexander’s play on the court. It had everything to do with Lu Dort hip-checking Jokić and what unfolded after that.
First and foremost, I don’t want to be careful about the wording used here. I saw push notifications from other places and carefully crafted social media captions all roughly saying something like, “Dort appears to trip Jokić.” Uh … that’s one way of putting it. I would, personally, use the words, “It looked like Dort tried to re-injure the left knee that cost Jokić 16 straight games earlier this season.” Because that’s exactly how it looked to everybody outside of OKC.
You’re not supposed to come out and say it that bluntly, though. You can take a look for yourself at the play from a little over eight minutes left in the fourth quarter. The angle above of Dort’s hip-check of Jokić’s knee shows it perfectly, and you can determine if you think this seems intentional.
Dort is one of the best defenders in the league. He’s a hyper-intelligent player with a physical style of play. He kind of sets the tone for that great Thunder defense. At the same time, when you type his name into a YouTube search bar, the first options that come up are about dirty plays. There are long videos dedicated to showing some questionable hits over the years. And there is just zero world in which the motion you see above is justified.
This enraged Jokić, who also has a reputation. Aside from his great play over the years, Jokić also has no issue getting in the face of opponents when he’s angry. He invades their space while he yells and makes them continue to back up. Few players have stepped to him and not immediately been physically forced to back down. And, of course, his brothers are always lurking. When he walked up on Dort, the Thunder’s Jaylin Williams decided to intervene, and it got more physical.
As you can see, Jokić didn’t love that! He starts to grab Williams’ hair before swinging his arms to break free of the OKC big man’s attempt to keep Jokić away from Dort. That led to the viral look from Jokić in which he went from Big Honey to downright feral.
Nuggets coach David Adelman did not let it go and called the play by Dort “malicious.” When you see the angle from the baseline camera, as we showed above, it’s hard to view it any other way. The game, plus this incident, made everybody want to sign up for a seven-game series between Denver and OKC sometime in May.
The last 24
🏀 Who’s No. 1? Sam Vecenie has his latest NBA mock draft. There’s still debate at the top, and this class has a chance to be absurdly deep.
☀️ Fun in the sun. Phoenix has been one of the NBA’s surprise teams. The friendship between Dillon Brooks and Devin Booker is a big reason why, Jason Quick writes.
🐺 Howlin’. The Wolves went into Denver and beat the Nuggets on Sunday. They are part of the conversation out West, Sam Amick writes.
🏀 Finally here. The Clippers traded James Harden for Darius Garland at the deadline. Garland makes his Clippers debut tonight.
🎩 Magical tribute. The Hawks turned heads by planning a Magic City Night. This actually makes sense.
Stream the NBA on Fubo (try it for free!) and catch out-of-market games on League Pass.
NBA Stock Report
Streaks snapped for Spurs, Bulls
Every Monday, we walk right into the heart of NBA trends. We stand around in the middle of the floor, look up at the big screens with lots of numbers in green or red fonts and then assess whether teams are headed up or down. Let’s dive into the NBA Stock Market:
📈 Spurs (43-17). Their 11-game win streak got snapped on Sunday by the Knicks, but that doesn’t change how great the Spurs have been over the last month. They didn’t lose a game in February. And their success continues to be fueled by their ridiculous defense, which ranks fourth in the NBA over the past 12 games and is led by Victor Wembanyama’s incredible rim protection. He has 42 blocked shots over the last 12 games.
San Antonio is shooting 49.5 percent from the field, and its top-six scorers over the last 12 games have combined to make 50.5 percent.
📉 Bulls (25-36). It looked like the Bulls were headed toward their 12th straight loss before a 27-0 run against Milwaukee on Sunday. Even with that incredible run, this Bulls team has been rough. The Spurs went undefeated in February; the Bulls balanced that out by going winless. Chicago is 24th in defense and 29th in offense during the last 12 games. The Bulls are turning the ball over nearly 18 percent of the time. They’re not making shots (27th). They’re not grabbing defensive rebounds (23rd).
📈 Hawks (31-31). Since the All-Star break, the Hawks are on fire. They’ve won five of their last six to get to .500. The brightest spot in this stretch might be Jonathan Kuminga. You may remember him as one of the fixtures on Steve Kerr’s bench. But in his three games with the Hawks, he’s averaging 21.3 points, 7.7 rebounds, 3.3 assists and 1.7 steals. He’s also made 67.7 percent of his shots. The Hawks may have gotten the steal of the trade deadline.
📉 Trail Blazers (29-33). The Blazers are 2-4 since getting back from the break, but their play on both ends of the floor is so much worse than that record would indicate. Their offense is a putrid 102.9 rating, and their 117.0 defensive rating in these six games is about as bad as what Washington is doing. The Blazers are making just 29.3 percent of their 3-pointers in these six games. The only 3-point shooters they can rely on right now are Jerami Grant and Donovan Clingan.
📈 Rockets (37-22). Things have looked hectic with the Rockets as of late, but their offense and defense have both stabilized since the All-Star break. They’re sixth in offense and ninth in defense during their last six games (4-2). Offensively, the Rockets have continued to struggle taking care of the ball (26th), but they’re making up for it by posting the second-best effective field-goal and true shooting percentages. That’s been needed, because without Steven Adams, it’s a lot harder to dominate the offensive boards.
📉 Suns’ offense. Without Devin Booker and Dillon Brooks, Phoenix’s offense is cratering. We’re talking football field in Gotham City level of cratering. Before the All-Star break, the Suns ranked 14th in the league with a 114.5 offensive rating. Since then, they have a 100.6 offensive rating. That’s the worst in the NBA. Just to put that into context, the Trust the Process 76ers averaged an offensive rating of 98.75 from 2013 to 2017.
(Check out the full NBA standings here, and read the extended version of the NBA Stock Report every Monday in my NBA Rewind.)
Unrivaled playoffs
Can Vinyl spin a championship in Season 2?
The Unrivaled League’s second season is coming to a close with its semifinals tonight and the championship game on Wednesday. Despite not having league co-founder Napheesa Collier (after tearing three ligaments in her ankle in September), we’ve seen an incredible second season. The 3-on-3 league set the record for the biggest attendance for a professional women’s basketball game with 21,490 in Philadelphia on Jan. 31. We’ve seen the Phantom (11-3) and Mist (10-4) dominate most of the season. And we’ve seen Vinyl (5-9) and Breeze (6-8) sneak into these semifinals.
Here’s what you need to know for tonight’s do-or-die games:
Vinyl vs. Phantom, 7:30 p.m. ET on TNT in Brooklyn
Vinyl nearly won the inaugural championship with Dearica Hamby and Rhyne Howard last year, but it’s the Phantom that come in as a menace in this league. They’ve won seven straight games to be the top team. Kelsey Plum and Aliyah Boston have led the way with Tiffany Hayes’ outside shooting helping a lot. Vinyl got to this game by beating Lacers on Saturday.
Season matchup: Phantom are 2-0 against Vinyl this year. The second win saw Plum and Boston both score 30 in the same game. They were the first teammates to do that in league history.
The star to carry them: The matchup of Hamby versus Boston will likely decide this.
Breeze vs. Mist, 8:45 p.m. ET on TNT in Brooklyn
The Mist have the highest point differential with an absurd plus-109 in their 10-4 season. That’s with the Breeze taking them down by 19 one game. That’s no surprise with Allisha Gray and Breanna Stewart leading the Mist. Paige Bueckers and Dominique Malonga lead the Breeze this season as one of the new teams. They dominated Rose to get to the semifinals.
Season matchup: They’re 1-1 against each other, both with double-digit wins.
The star to carry them: I’m looking for a scoring binge between Bueckers and Stewie
