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Elias Says: February 26, 2018

Davis’s last five games: 196 points and 72 rebounds

The Pelicans extended their winning streak to five games with a 123–121 victory at Milwaukee. Anthony Davis, who contributed 27 points and 13 rebounds to Sunday’s victory, has totaled 196 points and 72 rebounds over the team’s last five games (averaging 39.2/14.4 per game).

Davis is the first NBA player since Shaquille O’Neal in March 2000 to produce at least that many points and rebounds over a five-game span and the first since Moses Malone in February 1982 to do so with his team winning all five games. O’Neal had a 209/77 (points/rebounds) stretch over five games for the Lakers, while Malone had a 216/99 span during five straight wins by the Rockets.

Harden scores 40-plus points in each of last two games at Denver

James Harden scored 40 points in the Rockets’ victory at Denver last March and his 41-point effort catapulted Houston to a win at Pepsi Center on Sunday night. The only other visiting players to score at least 40 points in each of two straight NBA games at Denver were Adrian Dantley from 1981 to 1982 and Tracy McGrady from 2003 to 2005.

Spurs sweep LBJ and the Cavs

The Spurs defeated the Cavaliers in San Antonio last month, 114–102, and completed a season sweep with Sunday’s 110–94 triumph at Cleveland. You have to go back 10 years for the last time LeBron James played in each game of a season series of at least two games against a particular opponent and his team lost each game by more than 10 points. That had last happened in the 2007-08 campaign, when the Cavaliers lost their two games against the Nuggets, 122–100 and 113–83.

Beal at his best versus 76ers

Bradley Beal scored a team-high 24 points in the Wizards’ win over the 76ers. Over the last two seasons, Beal is averaging 26.7 points per game against Philadelphia, the fourth-highest among individuals who have played at least five gamers versus the 76ers over that span, behind Jimmy Butler (29.4), LeBron James (29.0) and DeMar DeRozan (26.9).

Hornets win with balance

Balanced scoring highlighted the Hornets’ 114–98 win over the Pistons on Sunday. Dwight Howard and Kemba Walker scored 17 points apiece to lead seven Charlotte players in double figures. The Hornets played only one other game in the last 12 seasons in which they scored at least that many points without any individual contributing at least 20. That happened in a 115–91 victory at Brooklyn in March 2015, when Al Jefferson and Gerald Henderson shared team-high honors with 19 points.

Dramatic hat trick for Rakell

Rickard Rakell completed the first hat trick of his NHL career in dramatic fashion, scoring two goals in the final minute of the third period (at 19:39 and 19:53) to enable the Ducks to overcome a 5–3 deficit and level the scoreline in their game against the Oilers at 5–5. (Edmonton went on to beat Anaheim, 6–5, via a shootout.) Rakell is the first NHL player to tie a game by scoring a pair of goals in the last minute of the third period since defenseman Brad Stuart did so for the Sharks against the Kings on April 4, 2004. (Stuart’s goals were scored at 19:40 and 19:57.) San Jose won that game on an overtime goal by Vincent Damphousse.

Nash traded to Bruins

The Bruins acquired Rick Nash in a trade with the Rangers on Sunday morning and less than eight hours later Nash made his debut for Boston in its game against the Sabres in Buffalo. Nash has scored 434 goals in his 15 seasons in the NHL (289 for the Blue Jackets and 145 for the Rangers). He’s the sixth player to have scored at least 400 NHL goals at the time he played his first game for the Bruins. The others are Jaromir Jagr (679 goals), Mark Recchi (535), Dave Andreychuk (532), Jarome Iginla (530) and Joe Mullen (487).

Rinne blanks Blues

Pekka Rinne notched his sixth shutout of the season with a 4–0 win against the Blues in Nashville on Sunday. Rinne is 23–16–4 with four shutouts in his 43 career games versus St. Louis. He’s the leader among active NHL goaltenders in both wins and shutouts against the Blues. The only retired goaltenders with more regular-season shutouts versus St. Louis than Rinne are Tony Esposito (7), Bernie Parent (6), Curtis Joseph (5) and Chris Osgood (5).

Fiala scores 20th goal

Kevin Fiala scored his 20th goal of the season for the Predators in their 4–0 win against the Blues on Sunday afternoon. The 21-year-old Fiala is the third player in Predators history to score 20 or more goals in one season before turning 22 years old. Alexander Radulov scored his 20th goal for Nashville in 2007–08 when he was 21 years old, and Filip Forsberg did so twice, at age 20 in 2014–15 and age 21 in 2015–16.

Johnson wins against former team

Sabres goaltender Chad Johnson has won only five of the 24 games he’s played this season but two of his wins have been against the Bruins: in Boston on February 10 and Sunday in Buffalo. Johnson, who played 27 games for Boston in 2013–14, is one of only four former Bruins goaltenders to post two or more wins against them within one season since 1970–71. The other ex-Bruins with multiple wins against Boston in one season over that span are Bernie Parent (three wins for the Flyers in 1976–77), Ron Grahame (two wins for the Kings in 1978–79) and Andrew Raycroft (three wins for the Maple Leafs in 2006–07).

Helm hot in February

Darren Helm scored the second goal for the Red Wings in their 3–2 overtime win against the Rangers at Madison Square Garden. Helm has tallied 10 points in the 13 games he has played since February 1, which ties him with Frans Nielsen and Henrik Zetterberg for the team high in points this month. (His total of four goals in February ties him for the Detroit team lead with Danny DeKeyser, Anthony Mantha and Tomas Tatar.) This is the first time in Helm’s 11 seasons in the NHL that he’s recorded a double-digit point total for a calendar month.

Spurgeon scores in OT

The Wild beat the Sharks, 3–2, on defenseman Jared Spurgeon’s goal at the 4:48 mark of overtime. Minnesota has scored eight overtime goals over the last two seasons and five of those eight sudden-death tallies were recorded by defensemen: three by Matt Dumba (one in 2016–17 and two this season) and two by Spurgeon (Dec. 27, 2016 at Nashville and Sunday vs. San Jose).