Luka Doncic and James Harden put on a playmaking party last night in Houston. As far as the winner's side, Doncic continued to impress with an efficient 20 points on 11 shot attempts.
Harden led both teams outright in points (25), rebounds (11), assists (17) and steals (6), but the Rockets fell 128-108 to the Mavericks, losing their fourth straight game. Remarkably, at 9-11, Houston is second to last in the Western Conference standings a season removed from finishing with the best record in the NBA. Houston is now 1-7 when either Chris Paul or Harden sits (0-5 without Paul) and 8-4 when both play this season.
Harden picked up his 36th career triple-double, seven back of Fat Lever for eighth all-time, but also added eight turnovers. Harden has 35 turnovers in his past four games, the most by any player in any four-game span on record (first tracked in 1977-78). Bob McAdoo held the previous distinction, with 34 turnovers in a four-game span back in January of 1978, per Elias.
Harden is averaging 38.0 PPG, 6.3 RPG and 12.8 APG in Houston's past four games and they've lost them all. Harden's fantasy managers, however, stay winning.
The performance marked Doncic's 10th 20-point performance in his 19th career game, becoming the fourth player with 10 20-point games within his first 20 career games during the past 10 seasons. The other three eventually won Rookie of the Year: Tyreke Evans, Kyrie Irving, and Damian Lillard.
With an impressive slash of 19.1 PPG, 6.5 RPG, 4.2 APG, 2.5 3PG and 1 SPG as a 19-year-old import to the league, we find only Paul George currently matching Doncic's production in each of these categories this season. Meanwhile, Doncic is the lone rookie on record to produce that many points, assists, rebounds and 3-pointers.
With Doncic universally rostered in ESPN leagues, it's worth noting just how effective Dallas' bench mob has proven this season. For instance, J.J. Barea is averaging 17 PPG, 9.0 APG, 1.3 3PG and 1.0 SPG during his past three outings, all wins for the Mavs. Barea is available in roughly 85 percent of ESPN leagues as of Thursday morning. Going a bit deeper into Dallas' rotation, we find one Maximilian Kleber, who is one of just seven players averaging at least one made 3-pointer and 1.3 blocks per game this season. Wesley Matthews, for his part, is tied with Devin Booker and Danilo Gallinari with 2.5 made 3-pointers per game.
With an eye on meaningful fantasy performances and relevant statistical trends, let's delve into the night that was in the NBA.
Wednesday recap
Highlights
Giannis Antetokounmpo, Milwaukee Bucks: 36 points (14-21 FG), 11 rebounds, 8 assists, 2 steals, 4 TO
James Harden, Houston Rockets: 25 points (7-15 FG), 11 rebounds, 17 assists, 6 steals, 8 TO
Damian Lillard, Portland Trail Blazers: 41 points (13-22 FG, 10-15 3PG), 8 rebounds, 4 assists, 2 steals, 3 TO
Russell Westbrook, Oklahoma City Thunder: 23 points (10-17 FG), 19 rebounds, 15 assists, 3 TO
Lowlights
Tim Hardaway Jr., New York Knicks: 5 points (1-11 FG), 1 rebound, 3 assists
PJ Tucker, Houston Rockets: 5 points (2-7 FG), 4 rebounds, 2 steals
Wednesday takeaways
For the merited buzz surrounding Jimmy "Buckets" Butler and his clutch stylings for the Sixers, it's worth noting just how well the deal has worked for the Wolves, as well. Minnesota is 7-1 since Robert Covington and Dario Saric joined the fold. More specifically, Covington's dynamic and arguably dominant defensive efforts have the Wolves with the second-best defensive rating (98.6) since he joined the team. Last night, Covington was a plus-44 in drubbing the Spurs, which is the best plus/minus performance for the Wolves since November of 2001. Covington leads the entire league in steals and is the only player with at least 30 steals and 30 blocks, making him the lone player in the top 20 of both defensive metrics. Oh yeah, Covington is rostered in roughly 26 percent of ESPN leagues. Let's change that.
Speaking of that Butler blockbuster, it's fun to note Ben Simmons is averaging 18.8 PPG, 7.8 RPG, 8.5 APG, and 2.3 combined blocks and steals during the past six games. Driving to the basket more, and with more spacing on the floor sans Markelle Fultz, Simmons is once again an elite fantasy option after a somewhat wonky statistical start to the season.
The last player to post at least 23 points, 19 rebounds and 15 assists was Larry Bird in January of 1982 in Atlanta. Last night, Westbrook joined this rare club. Before Bird, we have to go back to Wilt Chamberlain on the 76ers during a magical 1968 campaign for Philly to find another matching performance. Another monster triple-double in the Association resulted in a win as Westbrook posted his 107th career triple-double, tying Jason Kidd for third most all time. Westbrook had his fourth career 15-15-15 game, passing Magic Johnson for third all-time, per Elias. The Thunder improved to 13-3 since starting the season 0-4 and claim the best record in the NBA since October 28.
Lillard has enjoyed his meetings with Orlando this season -- with 41 points in both matchups. Lillard became just the fourth player with 10 3s through 3 quarters in the past five seasons, thanks to hitting a team-record seven 3-pointers in the third quarter last night. Lillard knocked down a Trail Blazers-record 10 3s in the win against the Magic.
Antetokounmpo scored 36 points, grabbed 11 rebounds and dished out eight assists in the Bucks' win against the Bulls, joining Kareem Abdul-Jabbar as only players in Bucks history with four straight 30-point home games, per Elias. Giannis had six dunks in the game to bring his total to 97 in his first 20 games of the season, that's the most by any player through their first 20 games of a season over the past 20 seasons.
The Jazz outscored the Nets 31-13 in the final frame last night to secure a needed road win. Even in the win, Utah went just 9-of-28 on 3-point attempts (31 percent). It makes sense then that the Jazz would want to improve their shooting and spacing by bringing in Kyle Korver for another stint in Utah, as the team traded for the veteran shooter on Wednesday, per ESPN's Adrian Wojnarowski. Korver is shooting 46.3 percent on 3-pointers this season and likely earns a bump in fantasy stock given how variant his minutes and opportunities were with Cleveland.
Since joining the starting lineup in early November, Cleveland's Collin Sexton has averaged 18.9 PPG, 4.4 RPG, 2.8 APG, and 1.1 3PG in 34.4 MPG during a 10-game sample. With 76.5 touches per game since becoming a starter, 20th in the league during this span, Sexton is quickly becoming a viable fantasy asset.
The Suns moved on from Isaiah Canaan. As some have joked, the Lakers could make it a "Canaan Ball" backcourt by signing the point guard, but it's more likely he finds a spot as a scoring microwave on an NBA bench somewhere. As for Phoenix, deep-leaguers will want to make note of Élie Okobo, as the French rookie point guard could be next in line to start. Okobo produced 19 points and three steals in the loss the Clippers last night.
Injuries of note
Malik Monk exited with a right quad injury and didn't return to action in last night's win over Charlotte
Victor Oladipo (knee) is listed as doubtful for tonight's tilt with LeBron James and the Lakers. Shares of Evans and Darren Collison make sense for streaming or stacking tonight.
Stephen Curry will return to action on Saturday against Detroit, ruling him out for tonight's game against Toronto.
Analytics advantage for Thursday
The Warriors face the Raptors tonight in a compelling matchup of contenders. Toronto is one of four teams that haven't beaten the Warriors in the past five seasons, along with the Knicks, Magic and 76ers. Toronto is 0-8 against the Warriors in that span and has played largely from behind in those games. Toronto has trailed for 86 percent of the minutes against the Warriors, the highest percentage in the NBA. The Raptors have trailed for 37 percent of minutes against the rest of the NBA in that time.
The Raptors rank first in the NBA in offensive efficiency (114.3), while the Warriors rank third (114.2). These teams are also tops in field goal percentage this season; the Warriors are first at 49.4 percent and the Raptors are at 49.3 percent.
Per ESPN's NBA Basketball Power Index (BPI), Warriors-Raptors is the second-most likely Finals matchup at 13 percent, trailing only Warriors-Bucks (16 percent). Even without Curry in the lineup, there is clearly enough matchup drama to consider.
Top players to watch tonight
Sticking with this marquee matchup, it will prove riveting to see how Kawhi Leonard and Kevin Durant match up in arguably the top direct competition of the season thus far. Durant is fifth in the league in Player Efficiency Rating (PER), while Leonard continues to sport elite defensive rates this season, as he's eighth in the league in steals per game.