Tuesday, April 13th, 2021

  The Opening Tip

• Jamal Murray is out for the year. 

• Steph Curry added another distinction to his resume last night.

• A great Allen Iverson story from his old GM.

Today's best matchups

 1. Denver might’ve just lost its best shot at a title        

The Basketball Gods last night played the role of Ricky Bobby’s dad at the end of “Talladega Nights.”Everything was going too well. They had to mess it up. 

• In Ricky Bobby’s dad’s case, he got kicked out of an Applebee’s. 

• In the Basketball Gods’ case, they went and tore Jamal Murray’s left ACL.

The play happened last night during semi-garbage time of Denver’s game against Golden State. It looked bad in the moment, and reports confirmed the ACL injury today. He’s out for the year and probably most of next year, too.

• Murray, 24, was averaging career highs in points (21.2), field goal percentage (.477) and 3-point percentage (.408). He had missed his last four games before the Warriors game with right knee soreness (not the leg he tore his ACL on).

What it means: We were all just starting to believe the Nuggets could actually win the NBA Finals. Entering last night’s loss, they’d won 17-of-20, had (and still have) the likely MVP in Nikola Jokic, and had (and still have) two secondary scorers and playmakers in Aaron Gordon and Michael Porter Jr.A once-in-a-small-market-lifetime moment was forming. Now, Denver will have to try and recapture that feng shui without their second best player, their point guard, and their Ballroom Superstar.We got tricked into thinking the Nuggets could finish first. Maybe the Basketball Gods were high when they said that.

 2. Daily GIF: Steph Curry’s milestone basket       

With the layup above -- it feels wrong that it wasn’t a 3 -- Steph Curry became the Warriors’ all-time leading scorer, surpassing Wilt Chamberlain, who scored 17,783 points with the Philadelphia/San Francisco Warriors.Entering last night, he needed 19 points to hit the mark. He had 21 by the end of the first, 30 by halftime, and 50 for the game.Like him or feel deeply discomforted by his little celebrations (our personal opinion), Curry has a sense of the moment like few other modern NBA players.

 3. Trivia time  

The next three players behind Steph Curry and Wilt Chamberlain on the Warriors’ all-time scoring list are all Hall of Famers.Can you name them?Answers at the bottom.

 4. We must relay to you this badass Allen Iverson story    

Billy King, who spent time as the 76ers’ GM in the early ‘00s, recently went on the “Audacy NBA Show” and shared an enlightening story about Allen Iverson.Iverson, notorious for partying all night then scoring 40 points in 45 minutes, had to be duped out of playing while injured: 

“When he was injured and we knew he couldn’t play we used to hide his jersey. Because he would come to the locker room looking for his jersey, we’d go lock it somewhere so he couldn’t get it," he said.“One time, in New York, he found his jersey but didn’t have any shoes. He was trying to send the ball boy to the Foot Locker around the corner. He said ‘just give me a pair of their Reeboks. I can play in those.’ Then he pointed to an attendant, ‘what size are you, you’re not gonna play, just give me those shoes,’ because he wanted to play so bad.”

(If Iverson looks at you and demands your shoes, it would be a tough no.)The '01 MVP led the league in minutes played seven times, a mark second only to Wilt Chamberlain. In ‘02-03, he played all 82 games and averaged 42.5 minutes per game. This year's leader averages 37.1. 

 5. 2020-21’s triple-double leaders  

What the hell do we make of Russell Westbrook this season? It might be easy for the analytics nerds to dismiss another statistical marvel on a 20-33 team, but it’s not so easy for us, the founding members of the Westbrook-Stockholm club.He again leads the league in triple-doubles; he got his 23rd last night with a 25-14-14 line in a win over Utah.He’s also easily averaging a trip-dub (21.7-10.7-10.8) for a fourth season on a second team. He broke Washington’s franchise trip-dub record weeks ago. He’s like Roger Bannister with the sub four-minute mile, except no one’s followed his lead.We’re not supposed to care about his basketball exploits anymore. We can’t help it. Bring on the basketball perversion.

 6.  Quick hits 

• The Timberwolves’ game last night against the Nets was postponed in response to the unrest following the Sunday police killing of Daunte Wright. It’s going to be made up today at 4 p.m. 

• ICYMI, here’s Myles Bridges’ dunk of the year candidate from over the weekend. 

• Today’s the five-year anniversary of Kobe’s 60-point final game. Highlights. 

• Luka Doncic hit a practice shot yesterday that defies description.

• Here’s Donovan Mitchell’s crossover-3-point move from last night.

 7.  Reads and podcast pick 

• Draymond Green: ‘If WNBA players want to get paid, they should just hitch themselves to once-in-a-lifetime shooters’ [The Onion]

• Duke point guard reemerges with 5 arms after entering interdimensional transfer portal [The Onion]

• There’s good news to spread in New York for a change [The Ringer]