10 things to follow throughout the season

Within the opening seconds of Stephen Curry’s NBA profession he bought an help on the primary possession, a steal on the second after which tried a 3-pointer for the primary time on the skilled degree.

It missed.

In that second, there in all probability weren’t very many individuals anticipating he would turn out to be essentially the most prolific 3-point shooter in NBA historical past. But as the new NBA season starts Tuesday night, so does the countdown towards Curry surpassing Ray Allen’s mark for 3’s made in a profession.

Allen retired with 2,973 3-pointers in regular-season video games. Curry is 141 behind, with 2,832 in his profession. At his typical price of three’s made lately — about 5 per recreation — the Golden State sharpshooter might have the report by mid-December.

Curry is the one participant in NBA historical past to common no less than 5 made 3’s per recreation over a full season. He’s carried out it 3 times. Curry additionally has 4 of the 5 seasons of no less than 300 made 3’s, together with a report 402 in 2015-16; James Harden had the opposite 300-plus season on that checklist.

Allen by no means made greater than 269 3’s in a season. Curry has topped that on six totally different events.

Another storylines and milestones to observe this season:

CHASING KAREEM

LeBron James might turn out to be the NBA’s all-time scoring chief subsequent season.

And, technically, this season as nicely.

James enters the season No. 3 on the scoring checklist, 1,561 factors away from No. 2 Karl Malone’s 36,928 factors. Kareem Abdul-Jabbar tops the checklist with 38,387 factors — at the moment 3,020 forward of James.

If James averages 25 factors per recreation, which he did final yr, he would catch Malone in his 63rd recreation this season and will attain Abdul-Jabbar’s mark someday across the midpoint of the 2022-23 marketing campaign.

All these numbers are regular-season video games solely, and for functions of NBA record-keeping, that’s the official tally.

But when including the playoffs, James is in line to turn out to be No. 1 in profession scoring this season. With postseason included, he has scored 42,998 factors, simply 1,151 away from Abdul-Jabbar’s 44,149, that means that’s nicely inside vary for James this season.

James has a number of different milestones inside attain this season. He’s 304 assists shy of 10,000, 21 3-pointers away from 2,000, and one triple-double from having 100 of these.

However maybe the most important stat quirk of James’ 1,310-game profession is that this: He averages 27 factors, seven rebounds and 7 assists per recreation — however, in some way, has by no means had a recreation with precisely 27 factors, seven rebounds and 7 assists.

POP’S TIME

San Antonio’s Gregg Popovich has 1,310 profession regular-season wins, placing him 26 away from outright possession of the NBA report. He’s at the moment third on the checklist, behind solely No. 2 Lenny Wilkens (1,332) and No. 1 Don Nelson (1,335).

Popovich is coming into his twenty sixth season as coach of the Spurs, extending his NBA report for longevity with one franchise.

He doesn’t have quite a lot of contemporaries in different sports activities, both.

Connie Mack managed the Philadelphia Athletics for 50 seasons. George Halas coached the Chicago Bears for 40 years (although not consecutively), John McGraw managed the New York Giants for 31, Tom Landry coached the Dallas Cowboys for 29, Curly Lambeau coached the Inexperienced Bay Packers for 29, and Don Shula coached the Miami Dolphins for 26.

They’re the one coaches within the 4 main U.S. leagues to spend as a lot time with a group as Popovich has with the Spurs.

Invoice Belichick is the NFL chief in present tenure, in Yr 22 with New England. No person else within the main professional leagues is even near Popovich’s complete.

CELEBRATING 75

The NBA is celebrating its 75th anniversary this season. The league’s first recreation was Nov. 1, 1946, when the New York Knicks visited the Toronto Huskies, again in what was then known as the Basketball Affiliation of America.

Toronto and New York play on Nov. 1 this season, too: The Raptors go to the Knicks that evening.

The highest 75 gamers in league historical past shall be unveiled in three 25-player blocks from Tuesday by means of Thursday.

REMEMBERING WILT

The sixtieth anniversary of Wilt Chamberlain’s 100-point recreation is March 2; he had that evening in Hershey, Pennsylvania, for the Philadelphia Warriors in opposition to the New York Knicks.

Philadelphia (the 76ers) will play the Knicks on March 2 this season as nicely, in Philadelphia, not Hershey.

However March 2, 1962, wasn’t the evening that Chamberlain took possession of the scoring report. He’d already had it for about three months at that time.

Chamberlain had 78 factors on Dec. 8, 1961, for the Warriors in a loss to the Los Angeles Lakers, breaking the report of 71 factors set a few yr earlier by Elgin Baylor. So, this yr — once more preserving with the sixtieth anniversary theme — the (now Golden State) Warriors are at house on Dec. 8, enjoying in opposition to Portland.

GOLD RUSH

There are 29 gamers within the NBA this season with no less than one Olympic gold medal, on 15 totally different groups.

The Lakers prepared the ground with six gamers who’ve Olympic gold — LeBron James, Dwight Howard, Carmelo Anthony, Russell Westbrook, Anthony Davis and DeAndre Jordan.

Golden State (Andre Iguodala, Draymond Inexperienced, Klay Thompson) has three Olympic gold medalists, as does Miami (Bam Adebayo, Kyle Lowry, Jimmy Butler) and Brooklyn (Kevin Durant, James Harden, Kyrie Irving).

The groups with two gold medalists are Milwaukee (Jrue Vacation, Khris Middleton), Phoenix (Devin Booker, Chris Paul) and Chicago (DeMar DeRozan, Zach LaVine).

And the opposite eight golf equipment all have one: San Antonio (Keldon Johnson), the Los Angeles Clippers (Paul George), Cleveland (Kevin Love), Detroit (Jerami Grant), Sacramento (Harrison Barnes), Portland (Damian Lillard), Denver (JaVale McGee) and Boston (Jayson Tatum).

Mixed, these 29 gamers have gained 36 golds. Anthony and Durant are three-time Olympic champions, whereas James, Paul and Inexperienced are two-time winners.

TEAM MILESTONES

There are some reachable group won-lost marks to observe.

On the nice aspect: Philadelphia is 51 wins away from 3,000 as a franchise, a milestone that solely the Boston Celtics and Los Angeles Lakers have reached. And Toronto wants 18 victories to achieve the 1,000-win mark.

On the not-so-good aspect: Detroit is 21 losses away from 3,000, which could have them becoming a member of Sacramento, Golden State and New York in that membership.

GIANNIS WATCH

It’s solely a matter of time earlier than reigning NBA Finals MVP Giannis Antetokounmpo turns into Milwaukee’s all-time chief in most main statistical classes.

He enters this season 1,892 factors behind Kareem Abdul-Jabbar (14,211) for the Bucks’ franchise report there, which is definitely attainable in 2021-22 if Antetokounmpo performs near a full season. He’s additionally 1,790 rebounds behind Abdul-Jabbar (7,161), which signifies that group report gained’t realistically be his earlier than the 2022-23 season.

This one, nevertheless, is nicely inside attain: Antetokounmpo is a mere 39 blocked pictures from matching Alton Lister (804) for the Bucks’ profession report.

PRESEASON REDUX

It could be time to remove Golden State, Chicago, Dallas, New York and Sacramento from NBA title competition.

They went undefeated within the exhibitions.

If any of these groups go on to win the 2022 NBA championship, it could mark the primary time {that a} group went unbeaten within the preseason and gained the title because the Chicago Bulls in 1992-93. The Bulls went 9-0 in exhibitions that yr, although when that stretch was over Chicago middle Invoice Cartwright famous that “the preseason’s the preseason, and the season’s the season.”

The Bucks went 0-3 final yr within the preseason and gained the championship, so maybe that’s excellent news for the Lakers (0-6), Portland (0-4) and Washington (0-4) — the one three groups to go winless on this yr’s exhibitions.

However because the Bulls went 9-0 within the season during which they wound up successful a 3rd consecutive title, a champion’s preseason has often been most unremarkable. Since 1993, the common preseason successful share for eventual NBA champions has been .530.

MOVING UP

Another particular person milestones to observe:

— Chris Paul is 59 assists away from matching Mark Jackson for No. 4 on the all-time checklist, and 60 assists away from matching Steve Nash for No. 3. Paul enters this season with 10,275 assists. He’s additionally 113 steals away from tying Gary Payton (2,445) for No. 4 on that profession checklist.

— Jerry West has the fourth-highest profession scoring common (27.030 per recreation), simply forward of No. 5 Kevin Durant (27.017) and No. 6 LeBron James (26.998). Right here’s how shut that race is; if Durant scores 39 factors in his first recreation of the season, he would go West for the No. 4 spot — no less than till the following Brooklyn recreation.

— Golden State’s Andre Iguodala is eight video games shy of 1,200 for his profession. The Lakers’ Carmelo Anthony is 9 away from that milestone, and 200 area objectives away from 10,000.

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