Sign of the times: Celtics join teams with uniform ads

The Boston Celtics this week became the third NBA team to unveil small patches that they will wear on their uniforms next season as the league expands its sponsorship rules to allow advertising on jerseys.

General Electric is Boston’s partner of choice and the small (about six centimetre square) logos will be worn starting next season. The Raptors have yet to come up with a partner. The other two teams to announce deals so far are Philadelphia (StubHub) and Sacramento (Blue Diamond, a brand of almonds).

á Big-city victories: There hasn’t been an awful lot to be happy about for the Phoenix Suns this season, they’re 15-30 and second last in the West and destined for another nonplayoff season.

But they do travel well. In a span of nine days, they won games in Mexico City, New York and Toronto, knocking off games in the three most populous cities in each of their countries.

á A red-hot span: Raptors fans got to see Marc Gasol at his absolute best on Wednesday night when he lit Toronto up for a career-high 42 points, which included a career-best five three-pointers in 10 attempts.

That was just the latest in the best streak of Gasol’s nine-year career, a five-game span in which he scored 154 points — about 31 points per game. á An ignominious defeat: The Los Angeles Lakers have been around in some form for 69 seasons, they’ve won 16 NBA championships and are one of the best teams of all time.

And when they lost 122-73 to the Dallas Mavericks it was the lowwater mark in franchise history. It was the fewest points a Laker team had ever scored in a game and came on the 11th anniversary of the night Kobe Bryant scored 81 by himself over the Raptors.

The Lakers had 28 field goals agains the Mavericks; Bryant had 28 in his big night against Toronto.

á Piling up points: Some week for Andrew Wiggins. The third-year Minnesota Timberwolves wing hit a buzzer-beating shot to beat the Phoenix Suns and also went past 4,000 points for his career.

That made the 21-year-old the sixth youngest player in NBA history to go over the 4,000-point mark.