Tuesday, May 4th, 2021

Westbrook’s 20-20 — Melo enters the top 10 — The Nets’ first “superteam”

May 04, 2021

Tuesday, May 4th, 2021

  The Opening Tip

  • Russell Westbrook passed Wilt Chamberlain in 20-assist, 20-rebound games last night. 

  • We know what will lead Shaqtin’ a Fool this week. 

  • There’s a new member on the NBA’s top 10 scoring list.

Tonight's best matchups

 1. Russell Westbrook is a modern day myth 

Three times in NBA history a player has recorded 20-plus rebounds and 20-plus assists in one game. 

  • One was by Wilt Chamberlain, retired 48 years and dead 22, whose greatest moments exist mostly as second- and third-hand stories and in the pages of sports books.   

  • The other two are by Russell Westbrook, the 6-foot-3, 32-year-old point guard for the Washington Wizards who plays on TV every other night. 

Westbrook’s first was actually a 20-20-20 game in April, 2019, which he did on a whim because he wanted to honor his friend and late rapper Nipsey Hussle. (The three 20s add up to 60, which was to reference a subgroup of the Crips named the “Rollin’ 60s,” which was a very funny fact to watch sports media try to explain.)His second was last night in a win over the Pacers, where he finished with …

  • 14 points, 21 rebounds, 24 assists. 

LeBron James, for example, has never had a 20-rebound or 20-assist game. Westbrook, five inches shorter and immeasurably more flawed, has done both in the same game, twice. He’s going to average a triple-double for the fourth season, easily (he’s up to 21.8-11.3-11.2). There’s been one other season of such a standard by one player, in the Dick-n-Don era.There is nobody like Westbrook. There may be people who yearn to care as much about anything as he does about gobbling up basketball stats, but there is no one like him.And the best part is, you can still watch him. There’s still time![READ: Russell Westbrook hasn’t changed, but the NBA has]

 2. Daily GIF: “Football is like rock and roll, it's just bam-bam-boo. And basketball is like jazz, you know?” -- Michael Scott     

This blooper last night is about the only thing Bogdan Bogdanovic has done wrong of late. Since the start of April, he’s averaging 21.7 points on 47.8 percent shooting from 3.With last night’s win over Portland, the Hawks are also 21-11 since Nate McMillan took over.

 3. Trivia time  

The lauded 2003 NBA Draft produced nine NBA All-Stars. How many can you name?(We’ll start you off with two hard ones: Mo Williams and Josh Howard.)Answers at the bottom.

 4. Carmelo Anthony enters the top 10 of the NBA’s scoring list 

(Blue = active)

With a 3-pointer last night, Carmelo Anthony passed Elvin Hayes for the 10th spot on the NBA’s all-time scoring list.Melo, who’s 25 days from being 37, is averaging 13.6 PPG on 40.5 percent from 3. He’s also missed only one game this year and could conceivably climb to No. 8 on the list by the end of another healthy season next year.

 5. 05/04/2014: The Nets' first "superteam" wins its only playoff series  

On this day seven years ago, the Nets beat the Raptors in Game 7 of the first round to win its only playoff series of the underwhelming Paul Pierce-Kevin Garnett era.GIF'd above: Pierce's block of Kyle Lowry, which clinched the win and the series. 

  • It may seem silly now ... but that Nets team of Pierce, Garnett, Deron Williams, Brook Lopez and Joe Johnson coached by Jason Kidd ("hit me") had major expectations entering the season.

  • They had the fourth best preseason title odds, an over/under win total of 52.5, and got the hyperbolic headline treatment from Sports Illustrated.  

  • Instead ... they went 44-38 and won five playoff games, with Pierce and Kidd both leaving after the season.

Brooklyn lost the next series in five to Miami, and hasn't won a playoff series since, though they’ve done a better job of loading up on Hall of Famers with a first-year Hall of Fame coach/point guard this time around.

 6. Check out the New Yorker’s latest cover  

“Hoop Dreams in New York” by Mark Ulriksen. 

 7.  Quick hits 

  • LeBron James, whose team was in the play-in game before last night’s win over Denver: “Whoever came up with that shit needs to be fired.”

  • Check out this block on a 3-pointer last night by Anthony Davis. 

  • The Knicks clinched a winning season last night for the first time since 2013. They’re 37-28 and in the fourth seed. 

  • In an interview with German media, Dennis Schröder said he and LeBron were the only two on the Lakers not to get vaccinated. 

  • Here is a very good example of Rudy Gobert’s impact on the game.

  • Derrick Rose scored a season high 25 points last night on the 10th anniversary of being named MVP.

 8.  Reads and podcast pick