History at The Garden

What’s up, Enjoyers? Whether it’s overtime heroics, monster 50-pieces, or spicy trade rumors, the last couple days of hoops have brought us a little bit of everything. Let’s go ahead and dive in!

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Today's Lineup

Battle in the Garden 🗽🏀: LeBron makes history during OT THRILLER in NYC

Put the Team on His Back 🎒 : An all-time carry job from Luka leads the way on Monday

A Tale of Two Brothers ⛹️⛹️: How this 15 year old trade changed NBA history

Daily Trivia

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Yesterday's Games

LeBron Makes History During 129-123 OT W in MSG

It seems like every other game, LeBron James is climbing his way further up one of the NBA’s all-time leaderboards. Tonight, not only did he deliver a triple-double to lead the Lakers (24-28) to an OT victory over the Knicks (27-25) in his first game at Madison Square Garden in three years, he passed Mark Jackson and Steve Nash to move into fourth on the all-time assist leaderboard, becoming the first player to crack the top five all-time in both scoring and playmaking. And if leaderboards and legacy aren't really your thing, how about a sick no-look half court buzzer-beater courtesy of Dennis Schröder?

Box Score

Heat Defense Stifles Cavs in 100-97 Victory

Miami won this one in typical Heat (29-23) fashion: with stifling, soul-crushing defense. They held the Cavaliers (31-22) star guard duo of Darius Garland and Donovan Mitchell in check, gave up just 12 FTs all game, and got an efficient 7/8 shooting night from Caleb Martin to secure the W. Don't look now, but Jimmy Butler and Co. have clawed their way back up the Eastern Conference standings; at 17-8, they have the fourth-best record in basketball over the last 25 games. 🔥

Box Score

Kawhi Terrorizes the Bulls in 108-103 Clippers Win

The Bulls (23-27) shot 10% better from the field and 23% better from deep than LA, got a monster game from Nikola Vučević, and still managed to lose this game thanks to costly turnovers and a one-man wrecking crew named Kawhi Leonard. The Claw led the way with 33 points and five steals for the Clippers (29-25), who have moved all the way up to fourth place in a crowded Western Conference.

Box Score

Bucks Take Care of Business in 124-115 Victory Over Hornets

In a game that saw plenty of shots and not a whole lot of makes, the result came down to whether the Hornets (15-37) could answer the immortal question: how do you guard Giannis Antetokounmpo? And as it happens in most games, they couldn’t. The Greek Freak dropped an efficient 34 and 18, Wesley Matthews hustled his way off the bench to a team-high +28, and Khris Middleton looked sharp with 18 points in 20 minutes to move the Bucks (34-17) back into second place in the East.

Box Score

Jokic Stuffs the Stat Sheet to Lead Nuggets Past Pelicans 122-113

Yeah … we think Nikola Jokic heard the noise after that loss in Philly the other night. The Serbian superstar became just the fifth player in NBA history to drop at least 26 points, 18 rebounds, and 15 assists in a single game as he and Jamal Murray powered the Nuggets (35-16) to a ship-righting victory over the Pelicans (26-26). A quick shout-out to New Orleans' Herb Jones as well, who had a rare 21 point scoring outburst.

Box Score

Monday Night Notes

Fresh off of an ankle injury, Luka Doncic gave us the mother of all carry-jobs, scoring nearly half of the Mavericks' points in a 111-105 victory against the Pistons (and he still had enough energy to talk some trash). The Magic picked up a huge upset W over the Sixers, thanks to an efficient 29 and 9 from Paolo Banchero and some stifling 4th quarter defense courtesy of Jalen Suggs. And in Golden State, Steph Curry continued his annual tradition of torching the OKC Thunder–this time to the tune of 38, 8, and 12–and beat Wilt Chamberlain's record for most all-time field goals in Warriors franchise history in the process.

Elsewhere, Dejounte Murray dropped a career-high 40 points, only to be outdone by the offensive buzzsaw known as Damian Lillard in a 4 point win for the Blazers. Kristaps Porzingis tied a career-high seven assists to help the Wizards take down the Spurs for their first win in San Antonio this century (yes, you read that right). Kyrie Irving showed some pregame love to Russell Westbrook, only to drop 26 on his head as the Nets cruised to a home W over the Lakers. Chris Paul's return continues to be a revelation for the Suns, who picked up their sixth win in seven games after beating the Raptors. And an explosive night from De’Aaron Fox powered the Kings to an OT win in Minnesota.

Latest Basketball News

Rising Stars Roster Announced

This year's Rising Stars Challenge is about to be a MOVIE. From budding NBA stars like Paolo Banchero and Franz Wagner, all the way to youngsters in the G-League led by projected top-two pick Scoot Henderson, the game will be filled top to bottom with the best and brightest of the NBA’s young talent (albeit with a distinct lack of Shaedon Sharpe). Check out the full rosters below to see if your favorite young hoopers made the cut. 👇

NBA History Spotlight

It’s hard to believe it’s been so long, but it was 15 years ago today that Pau Gasol became a Los Angeles Laker in a league-altering trade that completely changed the direction of two franchises.

One important piece of context that some fans might not remember: this trade was nearly universally panned from the Grizzlies perspective at the time. In 2008 Pau was THE franchise player in Memphis–he was the Grizzlies all-time leading scorer, rebounder, and shot-blocker all while leading the organization’s only period of sustained success up to that point. Combine that with an unspectacular return of Kwame Brown, Javaris Crittenton, Aaron McKie, Pau’s younger brother Marc Gasol, and two Lakers first round picks–which were sure to be in the lower 20s–and you have the recipe for an angry fanbase.

But as we all know, Grizzlies fans wouldn’t stay angry for long. Most of the trade pieces didn’t really pan out for Memphis, except for the addition of a Spanish big man yet to make his NBA debut. Nobody really saw Marc Gasol as a prospect on the same level as his older brother–he was taken 48th overall in the 2007 draft and spent the following season in Spain honing his game. But upon joining the Grizzlies for the 2008 season, Marc let the NBA know that he was every bit as special as his older brother. He patrolled the paint in Memphis for over a decade, and was the beating heart at the center of the beloved Grit and Grind Grizzlies. With 3 All-Star appearances, a DPOY, and multiple franchise records, Marc Gasol cemented himself on the team's Mt. Rushmore alongside his brother Pau.

Speaking of Pau … the trade was a huge success for him and the Lakers as well. The Robin to the late great Kobe Bryant’s Batman, he was integral to the Lakers back-to-back championships in 2009 and 2010. Now retired, Pau’s time in LA put him on the fast-track to the Basketball Hall of Fame, which he’s a finalist for this year.

If you want to read more about win-win trades from hoops history, we talked about this move and others over the summer in our piece on NBA trades that worked out for both teams.

Frozen Moments

• Jokic dropped a dime so wild we’re not sure if it was intentional or not.

• Alex Caruso locked up Kawhi for one magical possession.

• Joe Mazzulla seems less than thrilled to be coaching the All-Star Game.

Good Reads

Jeremy Sochan’s in-season growth has been eye-opening - Marilyn Dubinski (Pounding the Rock)

Giannis Antetokounmpo knows he’s better this season, but the Bucks star isn’t done leveling up - Eric Nehm (The Athletic)

CJ McCollum’s Steady Presence Amid ‘Choppy’ Pelicans Season - Howard Beck (Sports Illustrated)

What We're Enjoying

Shells by nyan: A 19 year-old producer prodigy who made the beat for DJ Khaled’s “Staying Alive" with Drake and Lil Baby - nyan’s debut project “Shells” (which he produced, wrote, and arranged) and his tracks with Drake, 21 Savage and Diddy are on REPEAT!

Let’s Start Here: Lil Yachty releasing a Pink Floyd concept album certainly wasn’t on our 2023 bingo card… yet here we are. Let’s Start Here isn’t just a completely new sonic direction for the Georgia rapper–it’s a strong return to form filled with reverb-soaked vocals and psychedelic guitar riffs. If you’re looking to explore a new sound from a familiar face, this record might be right up your alley.

Daily Poll

Signing Off

That’s all from us today! No matter how your week is going, we hope reading about the latest in hoops helped make it a little better.

Until next time,

-Spencer Poole

Trivia Answer: The answer to today’s trivia is DeAndre Jordan! The long-time Clipper has grabbed 10,062 rebounds since 2010, making him the only player with at least 10,000 rebounds in that time.