NBA: Casey could do the honours at all-star game

Don’t look now, but there’s every chance that Dwane Casey will be the head coach of the Eastern Conference all-star team when the festivities unfold in New Orleans in February.

The coach of the team with the best conference record gets the gig but no coach can do it two years in a row. So if Cleveland maintains its slim lead atop the conference and the Raptors remain second, the job is Casey’s.

If Toronto passes Cleveland, he’s in as well.

Troubles in Cleveland: The defending champion Cavaliers still have the best record in the Eastern Conference and still have LeBron James so “troubles” are all relative.

But with news that J.R. Smith is out indefinitely after surgery on his right thumb, and with Kevin Love missing a practice this week because of knee soreness and James averaging almost 40 minutes a game in December, things certainly aren’t perfect.

Shoot early, shoot often: If some eyebrows were raised in late November when the Houston Rockets took an NBA single-game record 50 threepointers against the Sacramento Kings, mouths were agape last week.

The Rockets tried a shocking 61 three-pointers in a win over the New Orleans Pelicans, making a record 24.

“We just played how we play,” James Harden said. “It didn’t feel no different. We shot the basketball, open threes and, you know, they went in.” Happy anniversary: There will be 125th anniversary celebrations sprinkled in throughout the next year as basketball celebrates its beginnings. The big day was actually Wednesday because Dec. 21, 1891 marked the first recorded game at the YMCA college in Springfield, Mass.

It was a game of nine-on-nine under the guidance of founder James Naismith and ended 1-0 thanks to a basket by a fellow named William Chase.

According to reports of the day, he got the ball in the peach basket from 25 feet away.

Yes, a three-pointer was the first bucket ever scored. Thus analytics was born? A Canadian connection: As part of their Hickory Heritage program, the Indiana Pacers honoured high school and college legend Damon Bailey on Thursday night. The Canadian part? In the 1994 NBA draft, the Pacers passed on taking Bailey with the 41st selection, much to the chagrin of the team’s fans, although they made amends by taking him 44th.

With the 41st pick, the Pacers took Will Njoku, a forward from Halifax and Saint Mary’s University.

Neither went on to have an NBA career.