Of returns, repeats and three-peats
10 things to watch as the NBA season begins this week
And it's back.
TheNBA's new season starts Tuesday with a pair of games; Kevin Durant and the BrooklynNetswelcoming Durant's former team in Golden State, while the defending champion Los Angeles Lakers open with the Los Angeles Clippers in the renewal of rivals who share a building.
For the first time since March, all 30NBA teams are playing thisweek. When the season resumed in July, only 22 teamswent to theNBAbubble atWalt DisneyWorld in Lake BuenaVista, Florida. So, for eight teams— Golden State, Minnesota, Atlanta, Charlotte, NewYork, Chicago, Detroit and Cleveland— games will be played for the first time sinceMarch.
For others, it's the first time since August. Others, the first time since September. And for the Lakers and MiamiHeat, who met in last season'sNBA Finals, the offseason only started in mid-October.
The league has had 30 teams since 2004, and on Monday, NBACommissionerAdam Silver suggested that it might be time to consider expansion once again. Extra teamswould figure to mean extra revenue, and while nothing is imminent— really, it's years away if it happens— Silver did say that it is something under advisement.
“It's an economic issue and it's a competitive issue for us,” Silver said. “So, it's one thatwe'll continue to study, butwe're spending a little bit more time on it thanwewere pre-pandemic.”
For nowand for the foreseeable future, though, theNBAis 30 teams. The first half of the season goes throughMarch 4, the second half startsMarch 11 and runs throughMay 16, the play-in tournament goes fromMay 18 through May 21, the playoffs start May 22 and the last possible date for theNBA Finals is July 22.
All that is pandemicpermitting, of course. Everything is subject to change.
But OpeningNight, at least, has arrived. Here's some of what to know going into this season:
MVPGIANNIS: Larry
Bird, Bill Russell andWilt Chamberlain are the only players inNBA history to win three consecutiveMVP awards.
Milwaukee's Giannis Antetokounmpo has a chance this season to join their club.
The Bucks' star from Greece— and proud owner of a newly signed supermax extension— is already the first two-timeMVPhailing fromEurope and joined Kareem Abdul-Jabbar and LeBron James as the only players to win the award twice before turning 26.
LEBRON'S STATS: LeBron James is about at the point where every game he plays creates a new entry in theNBA's record book.
He enters this season with 995 consecutive regular-season games with at least 10 points scored, the longest such run inNBA history and in position to reach the 1,000 doubledigit games in a rowmilestone when the Los Angeles Lakers play at San Antonio on Dec. 30— which just happens to be James' 36th birthday.
The last time James didn't have at least 10 points in a regular-season game was Jan. 5, 2007, when he was held to eight at Milwaukee.
Other milestones within reach for James this season: He's six triple-doubles shy of 100; 654 assists from 10,000; 759 points away from35,000; and 1,448 minutes from50,000.
WELCOMEBACK:
Stephen Curry played in only five games last season with Golden State, part of the long list of injured players that derailed any chance theWarriors had of being competitive.
Curry returns this season and likelywon't need long tomove intoNo. 2 on the all-time 3-pointers made list. He enters with 2,495, just 65 away fromReggie Miller's total of 2,560.
Ray Allen holds the all-time mark of 2,973 makes from3-point range. At Curry's current career pace of 3.6 made 3's per game, hewould need 134 more games to catch Allen — which means the record could be his in the latter stages of the 2021-22 season.
WALL'S RETURN: Houston's JohnWall is scheduled to return to the court Wednesday, in what will be his first game since Dec. 26, 2018.
To put in context how much time he's missed while recovering fromheel andAchilles injuries: DannyGreen has appeared in a league-high 158 games sinceWall's last appearance, 114 of them wins; Rockets guard JamesHarden has scored 4,887 points sinceWall's last game; Nikola Jokic has handed out 1,085 assists (and LeBron James has 1,079 going intoTuesday); and Giannis Antetokounmpo has grabbed 1,664 rebounds.
ALLORNOTHING: The MiamiHeat are either going back to theNBA Finals or missing the playoffs entirely.
That is, if the trend from the last seven seasons holds true.
Starting with San Antonio's loss in the 2013 finals, teams that lost the title series one year either go back to it the following year or completely miss the postseason. Of the last seven runners-up: The Spurswon the 2014 title, theHeat missed the 2015
playoffs, Clevelandwon the title in 2016, Golden State won the title in 2017, the Cavaliers lost the finals in 2018 and missed the playoffs in 2019, and theWarriors missed the playoffs last season.
MILESTONE3: Sometime in the coming days— possibly as early asWednesday, more likely during the Christmas games Friday— someone will make the 500,000th 3-pointer in
NBA history, including regular-season and playoff games.
There have been 499,549 made 3's inNBA history. At last season's pace of made 3's, with teams combining for almost 25 per game, the 500,000thwould come during the matchup between theDallasMavericks and Los Angeles Lakers on Christmas night.
So far, 2,337NBA players have made at least one 3-pointer; that's 72.9% of the players who have appeared in the league since the league added the shot in the 1979-80 season. Of the 530 players who appeared in at least one game last season, 463— or 87.4%— made at least one 3-pointer.
FOROPENERS: Toronto enters the season with the longest active streak of season-opening wins; the Raptors have started 1-0 in each of the last seven sea
sons.
Brooklyn is the other end of the spectrum; theNets have started 0-1 in seven consecutive years.
Another note on opening games: San Antonio'sGregg Popovich and Detroit's Dwane Casey are pretty much automatic.
Popovich is entering his 25th season as coach of the Spurs, a stint he started 18 games into the 1996-97 season. He's coached 23 season-openers, going an absurd 21-2 in those games. Casey has gone 10-1 in his openers with Minnesota, Toronto and Detroit— with wins in his last seven.
CLOSEGAMES: Something towatch this season: howthe Los Angeles Clippers handle close games without coach Doc Rivers.
Over the past three seasons, the Clipperswent a league-best 22-8 in onepossession games, including both regular-season and playoff matchups. That .733 winning percentage is the best in the league over that span, well ahead ofNo. 2 Denver (33-16, .673) andNo. 3 Cleveland (22-15, .595).
Rivers is coaching Philadelphia now. The 76ers ranked 21st in theNBA in three-points-or-less games over the last three years, going 20-23 (.465). Could Rivers change that? Time will tell.
The team that has struggled most in games decided by three points or less? Dallas. TheMavericks are 12-27 in those games over the last three seasons and lost a league-high 11 such contests last season. As Luka Doncic's game keeps evolving, as itwill, expect that to change.
THE OG: Miami'sUdonis Haslem— he's 40, turning 41 in June— is the oldest player in theNBA to start the season, nowthatVince Carter is retired.
Jamal Crawford played one game last season; like Carter, he's older than Haslem but isn't currently under contract.
The youngest player in the league right nowis Oklahoma City's Aleksej Pokusevski. If he plays in the Thunder opener on Wednesday atHouston, he'll be able to say he debuted in theNBAat 18— the Serbian rookie doesn't turn 19 until Saturday.
Pokusevski could become the 28th 18-year-old inNBAhistory. Hewon't come anywhere near the record for games played before turning 19; that one is held byKobe Bryant, who appeared in 80 games for the Lakers as an 18-year-old in 1996-97, including playoffs.
Sekou Doumbouya played in five games as an 18-year-old for Detroit last season. Hewas the first 18-year-old in theNBA since Dragan Bender played nine games at that age for Phoenix in 2016.
VIDEORULEBOOK: The NBA doesn't expect fans to like every call. The league alsowon't mind if fans study the rules a bit deeper aswell.
A video rulebook site with hundreds of videos that explain the nuances of certain rules of the game has been revamped and relaunched in recent weeks. The league says it offers “a deeper look at some of the game's most misunderstood rules and violations.”