Tuesday, Dec 29th, 2020

  The Opening Tip

• James Harden is full of champagne and buckets 

• A Curry family member not named Seth or Steph hit a game-winner

• Six things to know through the season’s first week

Tonight's games

 1. Mischievously out-of-shape James Harden is still better than almost everyone in the world at basketball 

James Harden hasn’t been a shining beacon of the one-for-all motto over the last month. Actually, he’s been kind of a huge asshole.To quickly recap: 

• He requested a trade earlier this month and demanded it be to Brooklyn, despite having zero power over where he might end up. 

• He didn’t show up to training camp, and provided no explanation for his absence. 

• He partied with Lil Baby (not Da Baby) and gave Lil Baby a new bag for his birthday with $100,000 cash in it. (Admittedly a baller move.) 

• He was seen on Dec. 21 partying at a club in Houston when he was supposed to be quarantining, landing him a $50,000 fine from the league. (He gives away double that to his friends.)

• He inspired this ESPN tell-all, in which several anonymous sources absolutely buried his behavior over the last eight years. (A pretty weak move by them, but nonetheless.)

In essence: He has spent the last month showing the Rockets how far down basketball currently is on his priority list. When he finally showed up to practice, looking like Jimbo Slice, he got in a confrontation with his entire team and whipped a ball at one of the rookies.He’s been a practice-averse, ball-tossing menace. And, yet, here are his stat lines in two games this season (both losses, full disclosure): 

• Game 1: 44 points, 17 assists, 12-of-21 shooting, 6-of-13 from deep.

• Game 2: 34 points, 8 assists, 10-of-16 shooting, 5-of-9 from deep.

LeBron’s superpower is his ability to never get hurt. Kevin Durant’s is his handle as a seven-footer. Harden’s is his ability to party relentlessly in a raging pandemic while simultaneously waltzing into a 44-point game after a month with almost no practice.

 2. Daily GIF: Famous basketball player outshone by significantly less famous brother-in-law  

Warriors guard Damion Lee nailed the game-winner above on Sunday to beat the Bulls and give Golden State its first win of the season.Lee, a fourth-year role player, was likely not the first option, considering Steph Curry was on the court. 

• The more notable part of the situation is that Lee is Curry’s brother-in-law, having married Steph’s sister, Sydel.

• Although technically unconfirmed, we’d reckon the Sunday game-winner is the first made by a player while sharing the court with his brother-in-law. 

FWIW, Steph was happy for his brother by marriage.

3. Trivia time

Steph Curry became the third member of the 2,500-made-3-pointers club on Sunday, joining Reggie Miller and Ray Allen.Overall, the 2,000-made-3-pointers club currently has nine members. How many can you name?Answers at the bottom.

 4. Six things to know from the early season 

Bill Russell (left) and the late K.C. Jones (right) played together in college, for the U.S. team in the Olympics, and for eight seasons with the Celtics

Read and retain these six nuggets so you can sound like you know what you’re talking about when an over-zealous NBA bro solicits a conversation.

1. K.C. Jones, the eight-time champ with the Celtics of the ‘60s and the two-time champ as coach of the Celtics of the ‘80s, died on Christmas at the age of 88. Jones, the second iconic Celtic to die in a two-month span, was the fourth African-American coach to win a championship. His daughter has posted a handful of great pictures of him on Twitter over the last few days.

2. The Clippers, playing without Kawhi Leonard, were handed a historic 124-73 beatdown on Sunday against the Mavericks. The 50-point halftime lead for Dallas of 77-27 was the highest such lead after two quarters since the shot clock was invented in 1954. “It’s not that big of a deal,” mused Paul George.

3. Kelly Oubre has been, like, historically bad. Golden State’s hopeful replacement for Klay Thompson has scored 17 points in three games on 40 shots, and is 0-for-17 from 3. The Splash Bro era feels so far away. 

4. Four teams are left in the undefeated pool, and they aren’t who you’d guess: Cleveland, Orlando, Atlanta and Indiana are all 3-0. 

5. Zion Williamson has been freed from his minutes restriction, and is averaging 35.3 minutes, 21.7 points and 11.7 rebounds in three games for the 2-1 Pelicans. 

6. Here are Nikola Jokic’s hilariously great PPG stats through three games: 24 points, 12 rebounds, 14 assists, 61.9 percent shooting, 42.9 percent from deep. His 18 assists last night were most by a center since Wilt’s 19 in 1968, when he inexplicably decided he would try and lead the league in assists, a move that led to shameless stat-chasing and a trade the next offseason.

[READ: K.C. Jones was a winner everywhere he went, including his time coaching the Bullets][READ: K.C. Jones never got his due in Boston. Race played a part.]

 5. 12/29/2001: 38-year-old MJ drops 51 points 

On this day 19 years ago, 38-year-old Michael Jordan scored 51 points in his 28th game since returning from his second retirement, making 21 of his 38 shots in 38 minutes in a 17-point win over the first version of the Charlotte Hornets.(Sorry for all the numbers.)The 51 points followed a six-point performance two days earlier -- the first time in 866 games he scored single-digits -- and were the most MJ scored in his two footnote seasons with the Wizards. While he never quite led his team to the playoffs in either year, the creaky and bounceless version of the GOAT still found ways to fill it up.Here are his 10 highest point totals as a Wizard: 

• 51, 45, 45, 44, 43, 41, 41, 40, 39, 37, 35. 

(He also became the first 40-year-old to score 40-plus points on Feb. 21, 2003 against the future Eastern Conference champion Nets.)Watch the highlights/prove to yourself that he actually played in those goofy Wizards jerseys here. 

 6.  Quick hits 

• Injury news: Spencer Dinwiddie will miss the season with a torn ACL, while Ja Morant suffered a sprained ankle last night and had to leave Barclays Center in a wheelchair. 

• Chris Paulpredicted/goaded Luke Walton into taking a timeout on Sunday.

• The Nuggets and Rockets last night gave us a candidate for worst sequence ever.

• Here’s a picture of Christian Wood after going undrafted in 2015.

• Trae Young and Grayson Allen are fighting again.

 7.  Off the press 

• The NBA’s young core rankings [The Ringer]

• Donovan Mitchell, Rudy Gobert reflect after Jazz win in first return to OKC since March 12 [ESPN]

• Inside numbers of Dallas' 51-point win over the Los Angeles Clippers [ESPN]