Rewind Back Time and Do It All Over Again
Cheque out some of the best plays from the showtime calendar month-plus of the 2021-22 flavor.
Record-breaking performances, breakout stars, surprise teams, blockbuster trades and more from the beginning 125 days of the 2021-22 season.
ane. 75th Anniversary Team
Nosotros accept to begin with the unveiling of the 75th Anniversary Team over the start 3 nights of the regular season. Read these numbers from the original announcement once again: A total of 158 NBA championships and 730 NBA All-Star selections. A combined 110 Kia NBA About Valuable Role player Awards and Bill Russell NBA Finals MVP Awards. More than than 1.five million points scored.
A few more central numbers to notation: the 75th Anniversary Team is fabricated up of 76 players due to a tie in the voting, all l members of the 50th Anniversary squad made the listing, equally did 11 active players, including half dozen that were selected for the 2022 All-Star Game, where the 75th Ceremony Squad was honored in a spectacular halftime ceremony.
The sight of seeing legend afterwards legend walk toward the heart court stage while wearing the signature blue blazer with the NBA's 75th Anniversary diamond logo on its chest, could only exist rivaled by the behind-the-scenes footage of the legends of yesterday and today jubilant one another.
two. Curry breaks 3-point tape
Stephen Curry surpasses Ray Allen for the almost 3-pointers in NBA history.
Dec. 14, 2021, Madison Square Garden, New York City. That was the time and identify when Stephen Curry became the NBA's best leader in 3-pointers made and solidified his already well-earned reputation equally the greatest shooter in the history of the NBA. Steph wouldn't telephone call himself the greatest until he had that record.
And with his 2nd 3-pointer in Aureate State's win over the Knicks that night, he reached the magic number of ii,974 – one more than Ray Allen, who was in attendance to congratulate Curry, as was the now tertiary-ranked iii-point shooter, Reggie Miller, who called the game for TNT.
If he couldn't break the tape at habitation, what better stage to exercise it on than The Garden, which was the tertiary game of a iv-game road trip. Leading into Golden Land'due south last dwelling house game before the trip, Curry needed 16 3s to intermission the record, and equally a testament to how slap-up Curry is, in that location was chatter that he could really practice it at dwelling house that night against Portland, which would have topped the all-fourth dimension record of 14 held by Klay Thompson. Well, Back-scratch didn't hit 16 3s against Portland that night, just he did a few months later to shatter the record in the NBA All-Star Game.
A few other notable milestones from the starting time half of the season
- LeBron James reached x,000 career rebounds, becoming the first player with 30,000 points, 10,000 rebounds and 9,000 assists. He enters the second one-half of the season needing only 38 assists to achieve the 30K/10K/10K career triple-double.
- Chris Paul became the first player in NBA history to reach 20,000 career points and 10,000 career assists. As noted above, he is about to get some company.
- Carmelo Anthony climbed to ninth on the NBA's all-fourth dimension scoring list, passing Moses Malone. Melo needs 555 points to laissez passer Shaquille O'Neal for 8th identify, which is unlikely to happen this flavor.
- Curry broke his ain record for most consecutive games with a 3-arrow made; the marking stands at 179 directly games and counting.
3. Kl ay returns after missing 941 days
Check out some of the best plays, baskets and more than from Klay Thompson's 2021-22 season debut.
After missing 941 days due to a pair of catastrophic leg injuries – a torn Achilles and a torn ACL – Klay Thompson finally made his way back to the court in January for the Golden State Warriors. In that location may not exist a player in the league today that is more than universally loved than Klay Thompson, so his return was a crusade for commemoration among all players and fans that love the game of basketball, which is just better when Klay is on the court.
On Jan. ix, 2022 against Cleveland, in his first NBA game since Game 6 of the 2019 Finals, Thompson finished with 17 points on vii-of-18 shooting in 20 minutes every bit the Warriors crush the Cavs. Klay splashed three iii-pointers and threw down a monster running douse that served as an exclamation bespeak to his "I'm Back" moment.
In his start 16 games back, Thompson has averaged 17.ane points on 41.eight% shooting from the field, 37.four% from 3-point range and 93.5% from the free-throw line. He's shown flashes of vintage Klay forth the way as he continues to work his mode back to total strength.
four. Ja Morant and the Grizzlies
Check out the all-time highlights and meridian moments from Ja Morant from the regular season.
There is but i reply to the question of who has been the breakout star of the 2021-22 NBA flavour – and that is Memphis' Ja Morant, who earned his first All-Star selection (as a starter) in his third NBA season thanks to his outstanding and spectacular play on the court each night.
Morant is a highlight waiting to happen every night for the Grizzlies – whether it be a poster dunk, a ii-handed cake a foot in a higher place the rim, a no-expect pass, or a spinning 360 layup to name a few we've seen so far this season. Morant'southward game is much more than than jaw-dropping feats.
At 6-foot-3, Morant leads the NBA in points in the pigment at 16.iv per game and is the catalyst for Memphis' breakout season as a team. The Grizzlies entered the All-Star interruption third in the Western Conference at 41-19, making them one of just iii teams with xl+ wins at the break (Phoenix and Golden Land are the others).
While Morant is the heartbeat of the Grizzlies, he's had enough of help in leading the Grizzlies from beingness in the Play-In Tournament last season, to being in position for dwelling-court advantage to open the playoffs this season. Desmond Bane has fabricated a huge spring in his second season as he averaged 17.9 points and ranks 11th in the NBA in 3-indicate percentage (41.9%); Jaren Jackson Jr. is averaging sixteen.7 points and ranks fourth in the NBA in blocks (2.ii per game); Dillon Brooks, who has not played since Jan. 8 due to an ankle injury but should be back in the side by side few weeks, is Memphis' second-leading scorer (18.4 ppg).
5. Cleveland's resurgence
The Cleveland Cavaliers finished the 2020-21 flavor in 13th place in the Eastern Conference with a 22-l tape – tied for the fourth-worst record in the league – and entered the 2021-22 season with relatively low expectations: see the young roster ameliorate, run across what No. iii pick Evan Mobley could provide as a rookie, and compete night in and night out to try to brand the playoffs, perhaps through the Play-In Tournament.
After a promising 7-4 start to the flavour, the Cavs appear that starting baby-sit Collin Sexton would miss the rest of the flavor due to knee surgery. But that injury (nor the injury to Ricky Rubio six weeks later, which took the veteran guard out for the season with a torn ACL) has been able to derail the Cavaliers' turnaround.
At the break, the Cavs are 35-23 – already 13 wins ahead of concluding season's total with 24 games to play – and sit in quaternary identify in the Eastern Conference. The Cavs are tied with Philadelphia (currently No. 3 due to a tiebreaker) as both teams sit down just two.5 games back of both Miami and Chicago at the pinnacle of the East.
Mobley has been fifty-fifty better than advertised and teams with Jarrett Allen on the frontline, helping Cleveland to a quaternary-ranked defensive efficiency rating (105.eight). Darius Garland has had a breakout flavor in his third year as a pro; he is i of four players to average at least 20 points and viii assists. Both Garland and Allen made their All-Star debuts on Lord's day in front of the hometown Cleveland oversupply.
6. DeMar DeRozan and the Bulls
The Bulls remain tied for 1st in the East coming out of the All-Star break.
Later spending the past three seasons in San Antonio, DeMar DeRozan fabricated the movement to Chicago in a sign-and-trade bargain between the Spurs and Bulls. The deal has paid off amply for Chicago as DeRozan is in the middle of a career-best twelvemonth in his 13th NBA flavor.
DeRozan ranks fourth in the league in scoring (28.one ppg) and ranks second in clutch scoring (114 points in 95 clutch minutes, on 54.1% shooting). DeRozan has a well-earned reputation as the King of the Mid-Range – he leads the NBA in mid-range field goals fabricated (259) and attempted (516) and has 103 more mid-range field goals than whatsoever other thespian (Devin Booker is second at 156). But perhaps his biggest highlights of the yr accept come from behind the arc.
In back-to-back games, on back-to-back nights, beyond two dissimilar calendar years, DeRozan striking a pair of game-winning 3-pointers for the Bulls on the road. He closed out 2021 with a pull-up 28-footer off one leg to sink the Pacers in Indianapolis. Less than 24 hours later on, DeRozan opened 2022 with another game-winning triple, this one in the left corner after pump-faking one defender away and rise upwardly in a higher place another.
If that wasn't enough for DeRozan, he also put himself in incredible visitor in his final x days prior to the All-Star break, condign the first thespian in league history to score at least 35 points on 50% shooting or better for seven direct games. Wilt Chamberlain had held the mark with six straight games, and anytime you can put your name next to or ahead of Wilt in the tape books is special.
7. Large Men dominating – Embiid and Jokic
In each of the by three weeks, Joel Embiid and Nikola Jokic have finished in the summit ii in NBA.com's weekly Kia MVP Ladder, with the two big men trading the top two positions higher up all other players in the league.
Both big men have been absolutely ascendant so far this season. Embiid entered the All-Star break as the NBA's leading scorer at 29.6 points per game as he looks to become the offset middle to win the scoring title since Shaquille O'Neal in 1999-2000 (29.vii ppg). Embiid also ranks eighth in rebounding (xi.2 rpg) and 11th in blocks (1.four bpg) every bit he is a force on both sides of the brawl.
Embiid is one of eight players and so far this season to score 50 or more points in a game as he matched his career-best with 50 points (in just 27:03, the second-fewest minutes in a 50-point game in the shot clock era) against Orlando on January. xix.
Jokic is having just equally expert a flavour – and arguably better – than he did final season when he was named league MVP for the first fourth dimension. Jokic'south counting stats are incredible – 26.0 ppg, 13.8 rpg, 7.ix apg – as he is the only thespian to rank in the top x in points (eighth), rebounds (second) and assists (8th).
He is also on footstep to have the highest PER in league history (32.half-dozen) and his on/off numbers may show his true touch on best. Jokic has a twenty.7 net rating differential: when Jokic is on the court, the Nuggets outscore their opponents by 10.i points per 100 possessions; when Jokic is off the court, the Nuggets are outscored by 10.7 points per 100 possessions.
8. Suns leading the way
A cleaved thumb has sidelined the Suns' point guard -- and possibly put the West up for grabs.
The Suns entered the All-Star pause at 48-10, marking not just the best record in the league, only with seven fewer losses than any other team in the league (Gilt State, 42-17). In that location take been three double-digit win streaks and then far this season – and the Suns business relationship for 2 of them, including a team-tape 18 straight wins from October. 30 to Dec. 2.
So that'southward the good news for the Suns. Now for the bad news. The Suns announced that Chris Paul volition miss the next six-to-8 weeks due to an avulsion fracture in his correct thumb. Paul is so important to everything that the Suns practise; he not only scores 14.nine points per game, he leads the NBA in assists with 10.7 per game, setting up his teammates for easy shots on a nightly basis.
How well volition the Suns fare over the next two months – which accounts for nearly the rest of the regular flavor – without their floor general? Can they hold their lead as the No. 1 seed not just in the Due west but the entire NBA?
9. Harden/Simmons headlines trade deadline
What are the possible outcomes for Ben Simmons and James Harden after their blockbuster trade?
It was a saga that started with Philadelphia's exit from the 2021 playoffs in the Eastern Conference semifinals on June 20, 2021 and was finally resolved at the merchandise borderline on Feb. x, 2022, as Ben Simmons was traded from the Sixers to the Nets (along with Seth Curry, Andre Drummond and ii outset-round picks) in exchange for James Harden and Paul Millsap.
On a trade borderline 24-hour interval that saw a number of teams make moves to increment their run a risk of making a deep playoff run, or just making the playoffs to begin with, the blockbuster between the Nets and Sixers ruled the day. Information technology's not ofttimes that two All-NBA caliber players are traded for 1 some other, allow alone in the same conference equally each has championship aspirations. It'south also rare to see a trade that appears to be a win-win for all parties involved: Simmons get a fresh start in Brooklyn alongside Kevin Durant (when he returns from injury) and Kyrie Irving (for road games but at this indicate), while Harden reunites with Daryl Morey and teams with Joel Embiid.
Of grade, we won't know the truthful outcome of this trade – or any other deal that went down at the deadline – for some time. One thing is for sure, the next few months will be fascinating to watch and the March 10 contest between the Sixers and Nets in Philadelphia is definitely circled on the NBA calendar.
ten. Lakers/Nets currently in Play-In
At the start of each season, NBA.com conducts a survey of the league's general managers to offer predictions on how the season volition play out. The GMs picked the Brooklyn Nets (72%) and Los Angeles Lakers (17%) as the superlative two favorites to win the 2022 NBA Finals – and had each team winning its respective briefing.
At the All-Star interruption, both teams are currently in the Play-In Tournament field in their corresponding conferences: Brooklyn is 8th in the Due east at 31-28, while the Lakers are ninth in the Westward at 27-31. Both teams have had a myriad of issues to deal with throughout the season, whether it exist injuries, Wellness and Condom Protocols, team chemical science and histrion availability.
With less than 25 games remaining for both teams – 23 for Brooklyn, 24 for L.A. – time is of the essence for both superstar-laden teams. Withal, no affair where these teams end up – the Play-In Tournament or the playoffs – they take the talent to be a matchup nightmare for any team they face up when healthy.
hoekstraamens1954.blogspot.com
Source: https://www.nba.com/news/first-half-rewind-10-things-to-know-from-opening-night-to-all-star
0 Response to "Rewind Back Time and Do It All Over Again"
Post a Comment