Tuesday, Feb 16th, 2021

  The Opening Tip

• The Knicks continue their run of shockingly competent basketball.

• We have an important Japanese Raptors fanpage update. 

• We present the All Never-Made-An-All-Star-Game All-Stars.

Tonight's best matchups

 1. This Nets team is James Harden’s basketball nirvana 

Kyrie Irving, who usually makes as much sense as the first half of season six of "The Sopranos," said something self-aware and completely grounded on Saturday: 

"(Harden and I) established that maybe four days ago. I just looked at him and said 'You're the point guard, and I'm gonna play shooting guard.' And that was as simple as that.

Irving, who made nine 3s last night on 11 attempts in a win over the Kings, is right. James Harden is the point guard -- and not in a gimmicky way like in Houston, but in a this is his role of destiny way.His raw stats in Brooklyn (23.5 points, 8.5 rebounds, 11.8 assists, five triple-doubles -- already second most in franchise history) are great, but his efficiency is what’s drastically improved.

• He’s shooting 48.9 percent overall and 40.2 percent from deep, both career highs.

• His true shooting percentage of 65.7 since joining the Nets is a career high, and ranks 10th in the league among guards, especially impressive considering his volume.

Harden has also cut his isolation plays down from 14.5 per game in 2019-20 to 6.5 in 15 games with the Nets this season (which still leads the league), scoring 1.24 points per such possession, easily the most among players averaging at least four iso plays per game.In addition, he's holding the ball less (5.1 seconds per touch this year compared to 6.07 seconds last year) and dribbling less (4.71 dribbles per touch this year compared to 5.6 last year).In essence, his current basketball situation has allowed him to turn his bad habits into hobbies while amplifying what makes him so great. It’s like a redo of his time in OKC nine years later, and it only took a month of abhorrent behavior in Houston to arrive at this point. Follow your dreams, folks. 

 2. Daily GIF: The Knicks are doing undeniably exciting basketball things   

We’re not going to get too crazy here because the Knicks are only 14-15 (and in the sixth spot in the East), but there’s reason for optimism these days at Madison Square Garden.They’ve won three in a row including last night’s 123-112 victory over the Hawks, with Julius Randle scoring 44 points on 22 shots. (He’s the first Knick other than Carmelo to go for 44-plus in a game since Nate Robinson did so in 2008.)New York has: 

1. A deserved All-Star in Randle, who’s averaging 23.1-11.1-5.6 on 47.6-40.6-80.2 shooting splits. 

2. At least two young players to be excited about in RJ Barrett (20) and Immanuel Quickley (21). 

3. A single Derrick Rose, whose talents could probably be used better on a real contender, but still does cool things like the layup above.

 3. Trivia time  

Three Knicks made the All-Star Game during the 1993-94 season. Who were they?Hint: Two big men.

 4. How Yuta Watanabe, a Japanese Raptors fan page, and Charlie Kelly’s “Day Man” character all relate 

Last month, we wrote about an endearing Japanese Raptors fanpage (@RaptorsInfoJPN) inspired by Japanese-born Yuta Watanabe, a role player for Toronto/Tampa Bay. The page mostly posts updates on Watanabe but also has items like this breakdown of Pascal Siakam’s poor performance in the clutch and this message in support of Masai Ujiri’s bogus legal battle stemming from an incident during the 2019 Finals.The best post from @RaptorsInfoJPN in a longtime came on Jan. 31, which aimed to explain Watanabe’s new nickname.  

• The nickname, which appears to have originated on the dark depths of #NBATwitter, is “Day Man,” because "Damn, Yuta is an anagram for tu, Day Man.” It may make little sense, but the nickname is recognized by Basketball Reference, so it has to be legit.

Here’s how the fanpage broke down the news (Japanese to English transitions aren’t always perfect): 

"A new nickname appears for Yuta Watanabe locally 👏 Its name is 'Dayman.' It is a song that appears in the comedy drama series 'Philadelphia is Sunny Today.' The origin is that if you rearrange 'Damn, Yuta,' it becomes 'tu, Dayman' (tu = thank you)."

The referenced "It’s Always Sunny in Philadelphia" scene can be viewed here.But we'll explain it here: After Dennis is kicked out of Mac and Frank’s band, he stumbles upon Charlie (who had also previously been kicked out for singing an ominous song called “Night Man”), who has spent an unspecified amount of time in his apartment huffing paint. Dennis opens the curtain, which exposes the sun, which inspires Charlie to create a new and more cheery song called “Day Man.”Little did Charlie know his song would one day be loosely linked to a Japanese NBA player, which would lead to a Japanese fanpage referring to his “comedy drama series” as "Philadelphia is Sunny Today.”

 5. The All Never-Made-An-All-Star-Game All-Stars 

Cedric Maxwell

Mike Conley might get snubbed from this year's All-Star Game again. If he can’t get the nod this year, when he’s playing so well on the best team by record in the league, he may never make it. So, in his honor, we compiled the

All Never-Made-An-All-Star-Game All-Stars

, which is ironic, because he didn’t make this All-Star list either.

Point guard:

Rod Strickland  

• Dished out 7,987 career assists, but way more importantly, was name-dropped in Wu Tang’s Triumph: It's sickening / Guaranteed, made ‘em jump like Rod Strickland

Shooting guard: Eddie Johnson 

• Scored 19,202 career points -- more than 52 current Hall of Famers -- including 21.5 PPG off the bench during the ‘88-89 season for a 55-win Phoenix team. 

Small forward: Cedric Maxwell

• Won Finals MVP for the ‘81 Celts, and has single-handedly kept Encore Boston Harbor in business during the pandemic. 

Power forward: Lamar Odom 

• Was a pioneer of the “point forward” position who averaged 14.2.-10.6-3.5 for the ‘08 Lakers who reached the NBA Finals. 

Center: Marcus Camby 

• Probably never quite deserved to be an All-Star, but neither did Roy Hibbert, Brad Miller or Mehmet Okur. 

Honorable mention:

Mike Conley, Mike Bibby, Richard Jefferson, Jamal Crawford, Lou Williams, Monta Ellis, Ron Harper, Andre Miller, Sam Perkins.

 6.  Quick hits 

• Steph Curry’s last 10 games: 34.5 PPG, 6.2 made 3s per game, 58-51.2-95.7 shooting splits.

• Anthony Davis strained his calf on Sunday and will miss at least the next two to three weeks. 

• Blake Griffin, who has looked severely washed this season, is taking a leave from the Pistons until they either trade him or buy him out. 

• The Cavaliers are doing a similar thing with Andre Drummond, which set Draymond Green off on a three-minute rant last night.

 7.  Off the press 

• Why a 13-second Zion Williamson highlight sold for $100,000 [ESPN]

• Getting to the NBA is hard, but making it back is even harder [The Ringer]

• When Muggsy Bogues played pro baseball [MLB.com]