Catch up the NBA season 2018-19 so far



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With NBA All-Star 2019 In the back view and a few days to take stock before the return of the action on Thursday, let's take a look at what has happened since the end of the training camp.

Harden can not stop scoring

The last time James Harden scored less than 30 points, the Rockets were sitting at 12-14 and in 14th place in the Western Conference. In the next match, Harden lost 50 points to the Lakers in a win. Then he had 32 at the next match and 47 after … and over 30, over and over, until he was left alone with Wilt Chamberlain, who had already owned all four of them. longer streaks. As we come out of the break from the stars, Harden and Chamberlain are tied for second place with 31 games. Houston will face the Lakers on Thursday (10:30 ET, TNT).

James Harden scored 30 points or more in 31 consecutive games.

Harden ran out of real estate this season on a chance to tie the all-time record – Wilt reached 65 years in a row in 1961-62 – but he's ready to finish with the highest average in the league since the beginning of the season. 37.1 points per game from Michael Jordan in 1986-1987. Harden has also managed to find a largely blunt limit for the ends of his patented rider backwards:

Giannis level up

We all realized that Giannis Antetokounmpo had jumped last season and that the Milwaukee Bucks, led by new coach Mike Budenholzer, could be among the contenders at the Eastern Conference, especially with the transfer of LeBron James towards the West.

Antetokounmpo may not have hoped that Budenholzer and general manager Jon Horst would surround him with shots, shots and other shots as they gave him all the control he needed. Antetokounmpo had a staggering average of 27.2 points (58.1 percent on penalties), 12.7 rebounds, six assists, 1.4 interceptions and 1.4 blocks per game. The Bucks are the best players in the NBA 43-14 at the break, and Antetokounmpo is the current MVP Kia favorite.

In addition, he does things like this:

Giannis Antetokounmpo hits the Pistons with a dunk fadeaway!

North Kawhi

The Toronto Raptors made a bold initiative before the season, sending DeMar DeRozan – the local face of the Toronto franchise revival – to the San Antonio Spurs in a package that returned to the impending free agent Kawhi Leonard, who had disputed than nine games last season while he was injured by a quad.

While he and his team were cautious about back-to-back and overall "charge management", if you thought Kawhi was still not the player who had turned LeBron to win the MVP title of the final in 2014 before the consecutive defensive player campaigns of the year, well …

Leonard has an average of 27.7 points (percentage of 49.2% goals scored, 36.3 percentage points to 3 points), 13.3 rebounds, 3.3 assists and 1.9 flies. He led Toronto – with great support to coach Pascal Siakam – to the league's second record, just two losses away from leader Milwaukee.

The world of Westbrook? Triple-double, every day

Another season, another Oklahoma City star Russell Westbrook has a triple-double average. And this time, it's not close:

Westbrook, despite its efforts to keep its shot north of the field at 25% of the 3-point range and 65% of the line, has an average of 21.7 points, 11.2 rebounds and 11.2 assists per game. And he did so by essentially trusting Paul George as the team's first option – his utilization rate (the percentage of his team's assets used) is at his highest level. low since his second season.

He literally entered unprecedented territory, both with this third season full of statistical prowess and the ongoing series of 11 games with a triple-double.

The previous record – held, of course, by Chamberlain – was ten. Russ had threatened several times in recent years, chaining sleeves of up to seven games. He switches, in fact:

Kings are back

The Sacramento Kingdoms were just their only schedule, but the Sacramento Kings made a collective leap into the NBA dungeon to endanger the longest drought in the league playoffs. Backed by the duo formed by the fast De 'Aaron Fox and Buddy Hield, the Kings went up at 30-27, a good ninth place in the super competitive West – just four games away from Portland, the No. ° 4.

They added Harrison Barnes for running, and should be prepared for more fun moments like Bogdan Bogdanovic's:

Bogdan Bogdanovic sinks the Lakers with this latest soul breaker.

The confusing Celtics

Here are some mini-discs: 10-10, 15-5, 12-6. All Celtics! They're clearly one of the best teams in the East when all the goals come together … but Gordon Hayward did not look perfectly fine all season, he's still losing many defeats between the playoffs. victories. And, from time to time, someone seems Discuss leadership, commitment, pleasure or any other aspect of "It does not hold and we can not tell everything".

Heck, Kyrie Irving even called LeBron to apologize for being a hobo in Cleveland after realizing that he was facing similar situations, now from another point of view, with the young nucleus of the Celtics.

Shaq discusses Kyrie's comments and apologies to his younger teammates.

If the most famous beef in the league, Joel Embiid-Russell Westbrook, can find a solution, anything is possible. Anyway, it may not be time to be very confident as a fan of one of the other contenders in the East until you see the four Ls this spring.

Jimmy Butler is something else

You may have heard Jimmy Butler made an exchange request this summer while he was heading to that contract year that he started with the Timberwolves of Minnesota. If you missed that, you probably heard about the practice. Oh, this practice.

Butler arrived for the first time in months, would have run away the other starters by playing with teammates on the reserve and, ah … maybe was not silent about it.

The Starters wonder if Jimmy Butler's antics have permanently tarnished the Timberwolves.

Four weeks later, he was headed to the Philadelphia 76ers with Justin Patton for Robert Covington, Dario Saric, Jerryd Bayless and a second-round pick of 2022. Butler quickly hit a pair of winners and apparently stirred the system while he was attempting (which is opposed to the facility?) to impose it.

The impending free agency Butler – despite all the comments on the long-term projects of the Sixers with this "Big 4" – will become very interesting.

Turnover in the ranks

Klay breaks the record of 3 points

Here, playing pop-a-shot:

Klay Thompson set an NBA record with 14 3 points against the Bulls.

An error for Steph

We all love Stephen Curry and have a lot of respect for how this great shooting game has changed the game. But let this wipeout toboggan He did not do Shaqtin's A Fool is a tragedy:

A moment of rare humility for the triple champion. Do not expect much more this year, ha.

Magicians can not take a break

John Wall undergoes end-of-season surgery in the heel. Then slipped home and broke the Achilles tendon. Dwight Howard suffered gluteal pain (12 games), followed by low back surgery (35 games). The sigh.

But there are only three games left! And Bradley Beal is an All Star!

Guard Bradley Beal had a star-worthy season for Washington.

Trades, trades and yes, more trades

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