Around the league: History weighs heavy in Los Angeles
It is hardly a bold statement to say that the Lakers are destined to miss the playoffs this spring, and it will be noteworthy that the post-season will unfold without LeBron James being a participant for the first time since 2005.
But there’s some Lakers history at play that’s more telling.
When, not if, Los Angeles qualifies for the draft lottery, it will be sixth straight spring the Lakers have suffered such a fate.
And given that in the entire history of the franchise — in Minneapolis and Los Angeles, from 1948 to 2013 — the Lakers have failed to make the playoffs only five times, there’s some big-time history at play this year. The ageless wonder: Vince Carter, at 42 the oldest player in the NBA, continues to defy logic, and time, with some of his exploits.
Three days after logging an astonishing 45 minutes in a four-overtime game for the Atlanta Hawks against the Chicago Bulls, Carter made seven three-pointers and scored a season-high 21 points when the Hawks were beaten by the Miami Heat on Monday.
It was the first time since the 2013-14 season that Carter had made that many threes in a game and, with the 21 points, he moved past Reggie Miller and into 20th place on the NBA’s all-time scoring list.
Horses for courses: Who knew the one team that could solve the riddle that is the Milwaukee Bucks would be the Phoenix Suns, who are right down there with the New York Knicks as the dregs of the NBA?
The Suns became the only team in the league this season to register two wins over the Bucks when they beat Milwaukee 114-15 on Tuesday night.
For the Bucks, not only did the loss represent the first time they’d been beaten by the same team twice this season, it also gave them their first two-game losing streak.
Visitors thriving: There’s probably nothing really wrong with the Golden State Warriors even though they are just 5-5 in their last 10 games and hold a scant one-game lead on the Denver Nuggets for first in the Western Conference going into Thursday’s games.
The regular season is long and can get boring and the Warriors have enough history on their side for it to be understood they know when to ratchet up the intensity.
But one troubling thing is that they don’t seem as dominant at home. The Warriors are 23-9 at Oracle, which for them is horrible. All of the top teams in the East — Toronto, Milwaukee, Philadelphia and Boston — have won their games in Oakland this season.
A starter again: Amir Johnson was given major credit for being willing to accept an assignment to Philadelphia’s G League affiliate in Delaware a little more than a week ago.
He’d been languishing on the Sixers bench for the better part of a month and he just wanted to play.
It helped him, too. After sitting entirely for 11 of 13 games before his G League assignment, Johnson has started the last two games for the Sixers.
He’s combined for 22 points and 13 rebounds and also played almost 20 minutes in each game. That’s longer than he had played in any other game this season. Information from other publications, wire services and websites was used in the compilation of this report.