Wednesday was a good day for amazing basketball stats (admittedly, most days are). With the help of the Elias Sports Bureau, here are some of our favorites:
• Russell Westbrook and James Harden each had triple-doubles in which they scored at least 35 points. Elias notes that the most recent pair of players to have 35-point triple-doubles on the same day were NBA legends Pete Maravich and Kareem Abdul-Jabbar in 1975.
Westbrook had a triple-double in under 30 minutes for the third time this season (second time against the Knicks). His 27 triple-doubles are one shy of Oscar Robertson’s mark (1961-62) for the most before the All-Star Break.
Westbrook and Harden now have 14 total games of 35-10-10 this season, which is more than everyone in the NBA combined to produce in the previous seven seasons (13).
• Also per Elias, Celtics guard Isaiah Thomas is the 17th player in NBA history to have at least 40 straight 20-point games in a season. He joins John Havlicek as the only Celtics to do so.
Of the previous 16, 12 are Hall of Famers. The four who aren’t are Kobe Bryant, Tracy McGrady, LeBron James and Kevin Durant.
• The Raptors trailed by 17 points entering the fourth quarter but came back to beat the Hornets. The Raptors had lost 93 straight games when trailing by at least 17 points entering the fourth quarter (their last such win: Nov. 21, 2004, vs. the Spurs).
• Cavaliers forward Kyle Korver has played the Pacers twice in the past week. He has made 14 of 17 3-pointers in those two games. Korver is now shooting 52 percent from 3-point range since he joined the Cavaliers. He’s 20-of-27 (74 percent) from 3-point range in his past five games and 30-of-47 (64 percent) on 3-pointers in February.
• Bucks guard Giannis Antetokounmpo had his 13th 30-point game of the season (after he had two in his first three seasons combined). His 13 match the number LeBron James (who scored 31 on Wednesday) has this season.
• The Rockets never led in their loss to the Heat. That leaves the Wizards as the only team to hold a lead in every game this season. On the other side of things, the Suns never trailed in their win over the Lakers. They were the last team in the league to have a game in which they never trailed.
• Lastly, from the land of futility, the Nets lost their 16th straight home game Wednesday against the Bucks, tying the third-longest home losing streak in NBA history. Only the 1993-94 Mavericks (19) and 2013-14 76ers (18) had longer home losing streaks. But on the bright side (via Elias), Brook Lopez became the first player to have at least eight blocks and more than two 3-pointers in a game. He had six in his team’s latest defeat.
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