Tuesday, December 17th, 2019

• Chris Paul is stuck in a rich man’s waiting room

• Kristaps Porziņģis showed up against the Bucks

• That time an NBA team lost by 68 points

• David Stern is still in serious condition after a brain hemorrhage last week

Tonight's must-watch games

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 The Lead: All the money in the world can’t buy Chris Paul out of purgatory     

Last night, during Oklahoma City’s comeback win from a 26-point deficit against the Bulls, Chris Paul had a classic Chris Paul game: 

• 30 points, 9 of 12 shooting, 6 of 8 from 3, 10 rebounds, eight assists 

At 34, the Point God, injuries be damned, is aging like a nice Sauvignon Blanc. What he’s missing these days in athleticism he’s gained in world-class basketball intelligence, the quick-thinking ability that pounces on something as minuscule as …  an untucked jersey.He should be helping a title contender march toward glory. Instead, he’s playing for a team backing itself away from the competitive soup.So, why hasn’t he been traded yet, and why is it unlikely he’ll be traded this season at all?He’s too paid: 

• 2019-20 salary: $38.5 million

• 2020-21 salary: $41.3 million

• 2021-22 salary, a player option: $44.2 million

In a vacuum, a team like Miami would scoop him up in a second. In real life, he’s a victim of his own capitalism. Here’s Woj, on Paul’s future: 

“There is no belief in Oklahoma City or even in the CP3 camp that there’s going to be a trade for him. After the season? Another year off of that giant contract? Maybe. He’s played well for them, but $40 million-plus?”

When one of the best players of the last 20 years is forced to live his extended prime in basketball purgatory, it is no good for any fan of the NBA.

One solution,

via Bill Simmons

, is to knock down the percentage amount, from 75 to 50, of salary the theoretical team trading for Chris Paul must match:

“So if I’m trading for Chris Paul, I only need to give up 50 percent of his salary. So if Minnesota wanted him, just trade Jeff Teague ($19 million salary) and a first-round pick, I have Chris Paul.”

 2. Porziņģis over Giannis 

Kristaps Porziņģis with a putback dunk over Giannis in the Mavericks’ 120-116 win over the Bucks last night. Porziņģis, playing without Luka, dropped 26 points.

 3. Longest winning streaks, NBA history   

(Source: Wikipedia)

The Luka-less Mavericks ended the Bucks’ 18-game winning streak last night with a

, which means the Bucks will have to settle for the seventh-most games won in a row in NBA history.

(The Lakers, with 33 in 1971-72, seem untouchable; Golden State’s 28 is a carry-over from the end of 2014-15 to the start of 2015-16; the Washington Capitols, defunct since 1951, had a 20-game streak in 1947 as members of the old BAA, but we didn’t count them.)

Giannis, during the streak, which lasted 39 days: 

• 32.1 points, 12.1 rebounds, 4.4 assists, 56 percent shooting, 34.7 percent from 3, plus-12.8

The margin of victory for all 18 games, from lowest to highest:

• 2, 4, 8, 8, 9, 9, 9, 9, 13, 14, 14, 15, 17, 18, 19, 24, 41, 44

[READ: The Bucks’ 18-game win streak ended as quietly as it began]

 4. QUIZ 

What was Red Auerbach’s first coaching gig in professional basketball?Hint: The answer is in this newsletterAnswer is at the bottom

5. 12/17/1991: An all-time beatdown

(Young Steve Kerr on the 1991 Cleveland Cavaliers. He added five points to the 68-point win.)

On this day 28 years ago,

the Cavaliers beat the expansion Heat, 148-80, breaking the record for largest margin of victory in NBA history. The 68 points still stands as the record, though the lead was actually 73 with 54 seconds to play.

The Heat’s Glen Rice,

on the game

:

"I don't know what we played, but it wasn't basketball."

You can view the box score

here

. A few highlights:

• It was only a 20-point lead at halftime, which means the Cavs outscored Miami by 48 over the final 24 minutes

• Eight Cavs (five of them bench players) scored double-digits, but the highest scorers, Mark Price and David Battle, only had 18

• Per an NBA statement, David Stern, ‘remains in serious condition following emergency surgery to address a sudden brain hemorrhage on Thursday.”

• Here’s a great pic of MJ dunking on a street hoop in college, and here’s the story behind why he’s rocking a UNC-Asheville sweater. 

• Bam Adebayo and LeBron James were Players of the Week in each conference.

• The delusional Knicks still think they can lure Masai Ujiri to New York. 

• Davis Bertans update: Now calling Markieff Morris names.

• LeBron and AD aren’t just good together. They’re historically great. [FiveThirtyEight]

• Thank you, California [SB Nation]

• The 2012 Celtics-Sixers playoff series was a rock fight before it was fodder for ‘Uncut Gems’ [The Ringer]