Three things to know: Doncic scores 30+ for ninth straight game, Mavs top Nets

By Kurt HelinNov 8, 2022, 8:39 AM EST

Three Things is NBC’s five-days-a-week wrap-up of the night before in the NBA. Check out NBCSports.com every weekday morning to catch up on what you missed the night before plus the rumors, drama, and dunks that make the NBA must-watch.

Just a note, there will be no “Three Things” on Wednesday morning because the NBA is taking Tuesday night off to encourage people to vote — so do it. Get out and vote. It matters.

1) Luka Doncic scores 30+ for ninth straight game, Mavs top Nets

Luka Doncic eased into the past couple of seasons — in his first six games last season he averaged nine points fewer a game than he did in April, with a true shooting percentage below 50 — something that hurt his MVP case.

Not this season — he’s started the season at a Wilt Chamberlain level (kind of). Coming to training camp out of EuroBasket, and with secondary shot creator Jalen Brunson gone to New York, Doncic has taken on more of the Dallas offense to start the season and has thrived:

Monday night against Brooklyn, Doncic dropped 36 — his ninth straight 30+ game to open the season.

Luka was magical in the @dallasmavs win:

🪄 @luka7doncic: 36 PTS, 6 REB, 6 AST, 2 STL, 5 3PM 🪄 pic.twitter.com/gSXAy9z37m

— NBA (@NBA) November 8, 2022

Doncic now owns the second-longest 30+ point streak to open a season in NBA history (like many things in the NBA record books, it feels like Wilt Chamberlain was putting up video game numbers — he opened the 1962-63 season with 23 consecutive 30+ point nights).

Through nine games, Doncic is averaging 36 points per game on 52.4% shooting, plus 8.4 rebounds and 8.3 assists per game. He is getting to the rim for 31.9% of his shots and finishing 71.6% of those — and he’s breaking ankles along the way. Just ask Ben Simmons.

Ben Simmons gets his ankle broken and lets Josh Green dunk it in front of him 😭pic.twitter.com/Z1nJzLNmqS

— Joe Randazzo (@Yankeelibrarian) November 8, 2022

However, where Doncic has shown real improvement is on short floaters (63.9% shooting from 3-10 feet out) and the midrange (56.5% on shots from 10-16 feet). Doncic’s shooting numbers might only get better, he shot 35.3% from 3 last season but is only at 29.7% to open this season.

Doncic is adding 8.4 rebounds and 8.3 assists, all with a league-highest usage rate of 39.2 — Dallas is leaning into its star like never before, and so far he has carried the load.

Doncic and Kevin Durant — 26 points — put on a show Tuesday night. Well, they did for the first half, then in the third quarter the game became a turnover-filled slog somehow. Doncic and the Mavs broke out of that in the fourth, in part thanks to 17 from Jeff Green, and they got the win.

Doncic entered the season as the MVP betting favorite and has lived up to the hype. No slow start this time around. What that will mean in May — both when the NBA awards are handed out and the playoffs are in full swing — remains to be seen, but Doncic is already off to a historic start.

2) Warriors have issues but they also have Curry — his 47 tops Kings

The Warriors have issues. They have the 27th-ranked defense in the NBA. Their pivot to youth — the “win now and win later” two-timeline idea — has been a mess in practice with Jonathon Kuminga and James Wiseman not living up to the billing. Critical players such as Jordan Poole (30.1% from 3) and Klay Thompson (36% shooting overall) are still finding their shot.

But they have Stephen Curry.

Steph Curry was on a different level tonight:

💦 47 PTS (70.8% FGP), 8 REB, 8 AST, 7 3PM, 0 TOpic.twitter.com/OMUuyg4F7I

— NBA (@NBA) November 8, 2022

Cold-blooded Curry.

STEPH IS COLD BLOODED 🥶 pic.twitter.com/DA4afAK6Tz

— Warriors on NBCS (@NBCSWarriors) November 8, 2022

Curry is playing at an MVP level and is carrying the Warriors early, he dropped 47 on the Kings Monday night. Curry also had eight rebounds and eight assists in the win.

Steve Kerr needs to find a way to reduce Curry’s minutes and workload — they need him rested and healthy in April and May, not carrying a November burden — but until the rest of the team (and the defense) comes around, Kerr will need to lean into Curry to win games. Like he did Monday night.

3) It was Josh Hart‘s turn for a Portland game-winner

Two nights before, it was Jerami Grant with the game-winner for the Trail Blazers.

Monday night Portland appeared headed to overtime after Miami’s Max Strus knocked down a 3-pointer with 6.2 seconds to tie the game.

In a moment of brilliance, Chauncey Billups didn’t call a timeout, he trusted Damian Lillard to make the right play — and that play was to find Josh Hart open in the corner.

JOSH HART CALLS GAME! #TissotBuzzerBeater #ThisIsYourTime pic.twitter.com/94Rcv4qT19

— NBA (@NBA) November 8, 2022

Ballgame.

While Anfernee Simons had 25 for the Trail Blazers, Grant 23, and Damian Lillard returned from his calf strain to score 19, this should be remembered as the Justise Winslow game. It was the Winslow at center minutes that turned the game, that Miami struggled with, and credit Billups for both trying that small-ball look and sticking with it when he saw it worked rather than returning to his conventional lineups. Those minutes turned the game.

It’s another tough loss for Miami, which led by as many as 15 in the second half but lost and falls to 4-7. The Heat had seven players in double figures, but that wasn’t enough on Monday.

Silver says NBA won’t mind if Wembanyama’s debut comes in Sacramento, not Las Vegas

Associated PressJun 6, 2023, 8:16 AM EDT

OLIVIER CHASSIGNOLE/AFP via Getty Images

DENVER (AP) — Victor Wembanyama’s next couple of weeks are now set: He’ll be playing in the French league finals starting this weekend, and then the San Antonio Spurs will almost certainly make him the No. 1 pick in the NBA draft on June 22.

And if that means the French star’s summer league debut comes in Sacramento instead of Las Vegas in early July, the league is fine with that.

NBA Commissioner Adam Silver said the league doesn’t have a preference regarding the site of Wembanyama’s first game with the Spurs. While the NBA Summer League in Las Vegas is the biggest – all 30 teams attend – and commands the most attention, there are smaller summer leagues that precede the Vegas event by a few days. Sacramento plays host to one of those events, and the Spurs are one of six teams headed there this year.

“All summer leagues are NBA Summer Leagues,” Silver told The Associated Press. “I’m very supportive of the Sacramento summer league. I remember when (Kings owner Vivek Ranadive) first came to the league and said this was something he wanted to do. I said, ‘As long as you have enough other teams who support it and players who want to play in it, it’s a good thing.’”

The Kings might be getting a lot more buzz than usual this summer. Not only are the Spurs headed there, but so is Charlotte – which holds the No. 2 pick. And it just so happens that the Spurs and Hornets will open Sacramento summer play against one another, potentially setting the stage for a No. 1 vs. No. 2 matchup a few days before Vegas even starts.

If Wembanyama plays in Sacramento, he’d be the first No. 1 pick that didn’t debut in Las Vegas since Markelle Fultz for Philadelphia in 2017. The 76ers played in Utah’s summer league that year before going to Vegas.

Other recent No. 1 picks have opened in Las Vegas with big-crowd, big-spectacle atmospheres. Paolo Banchero’s debut in Vegas for Orlando last summer had John Wall and DeMar DeRozan sitting courtside, as was Jerry West – three guys who didn’t need to see the scalpers who were working outside the arena for hours before the game. Zion Williamson played only nine minutes in his debut in 2019, in a game that was stopped by an earthquake, and his debut got LeBron James and Anthony Davis to grab courtside seats.

The Spurs have not said whether Wembanyama will play in the Sacramento event, which starts on July 3, and almost certainly won’t address the topic until they actually draft him in a little over two weeks. Wembanyama is expected to be with the Spurs in Las Vegas as well; the league has already announced him as one of the participants for its inaugural NBA Con – which runs there from July 7-9 and will celebrate many aspects of basketball culture.

“What’s made the summer leagues so valuable are really the media rights more than the individuals who buy tickets there, because it’s a very affordable experience,” Silver said. “So, the answer is, I want Victor to get playing court experience and I think the team – assuming it’s San Antonio – should make decisions completely independent of any commercial implications from where he debuts.”

Wembanyama’s Boulogne-Levallois team beat his former team, ASVEL, 3-1 in a French league semifinal series that ended Sunday. Monaco, the top seed in the league, awaits Wembanyama’s team in the best-of-five final that starts Saturday and could go until June 20 – two days before the draft.

“So proud of my guys,” Wembanyama tweeted Sunday after the semifinal win. “Job ain’t done tho.”

Wembanyama said in October that he’s 7-foot-3; some still say he’s 7-foot-4 or 7-foot-5, and given that he’s only 19, it’s certainly possible that he had a bit of growing left in recent months. Either way, he’s a generational talent who’ll come into the NBA with enormous hype, the likes of which probably hasn’t been seen since James went No. 1 overall to Cleveland in 2003.

“What I try to advise players – and I’m not making a prediction that he will or won’t live up to the hype – is to control what you can control, and I think what you can control is doing the work,” Silver said. “If he is in San Antonio, it’s an organization that led the way in terms of international scouting and signing of international players. Certainly, everyone would acknowledge they know how to develop players and particularly big men. And so, if I were in his shoes, or if I’m advising him, I’m saying, ‘Quickly become part of that organization and be a sponge and listen to the advice.’”

Add Jaren Jackson Jr., Brandon Ingram to USA World Cup roster

By Kurt HelinJun 5, 2023, 11:45 PM EDT

Lachlan Cunningham/Getty Images

The Team USA roster heading Manilla for the World Cup this summer just gets deeper and more athletic.

Two more players have committed to playing: Defensive Player of the Year Jaren Jackson Jr. and the Pelicans scoring machine Brandon Ingram, reports Adrian Wojnarowski of ESPN.

We now have eight of the 12 players expected to represent the USA this summer:

Mikal Bridges
Jalen Brunson
Anthony Edwards
Tyrese Haliburton
Brandon Ingram
Jaren Jackson Jr.
Bobby Portis
Austin Reaves

Jackson Jr. brings rim-protecting defense plus the ability to space the floor needed by bigs in the international game. Ingram fits the style of scorer — from Kevin Durant back to Carmelo Anthony — that has always done well for Team USA in international competitions. Ingram averaged 24.7 points per game this season, but missed almost half the season due to a toe injury.

The World Cup takes place this summer in the Philippines, Japan and Indonesia, feating 32 teams from around the world. The USA is in Group C with Greece, New Zealand and Jordan. The World Cup is the primary qualifier for the 2024 Paris Olympics.

Warriors coach Steve Kerr is in charge of Team USA, with his assistant coaches being Erik Spoelstra (Heat), Tyronn Lue (Clippers) and Mark Few (Gonzaga).

The USA will have a training camp in Las Vegas, where they play Puerto Rico in an exhibition before heading to Abu Dhabi and then on to the World Cup, where the USA will play all its games in Manilla.

The World Cup starts Aug. 25 and continues through Sept. 10.

Coaching, front office updates: Sam Cassell headed to Celtics’ bench

By Kurt HelinJun 5, 2023, 2:56 PM EDT

Jesse D. Garrabrant/NBAE via Getty Images

The musical chairs in NBA coaching and front office circles continues at full speed during the NBA Finals.

We’ve done a couple of notebook-style updates. Here’s another:

• Sam Cassell is headed to Boston to be one of the new key assistants for Joe Mazzulla with the Celtics, a story broken by Shams Charania of The Athletic and confirmed by Chris Forsberg at NBC Sports Boston. Cassell had been on Doc Rivers’ bench in Philadelphia the past few seasons and the Los Angeles Clippers before that. This is as close to bringing in a head coach as you can get without hiring a former head coach, plus he had a 15-year NBA career players’ respect.

Cassell can also teach the players a dance that can get them fined.

• Marc Stein reports that the Mavericks are testing the waters to see if former Knicks head coach turned lead broadcaster for ABC/ESPN Jeff Van Gundy — who is currently working the NBA Finals — might want to return to the bench on Jason Kidd’s staff. That seems an incredible long shot, but it never hurts to ask.

• If they can’t get Van Gundy, the Mavericks may turn to former Suns head coach Jeff Hornacek, Stein reports.

• Stein also reports these are the four finalists for the still-open Toronto Raptors head coaching job: Kenny Atkinson (former Nets head coach who is on Steve Kerr’s staff in Golden State), Jordi Fernández (Kings lead assistant), Darko Rajaković (Grizzlies assistant coach) and Sergio Scariolo (Italy’s Virtus Bologna and the Spanish national team head coach). Scariolo will not fly to Toronto for another interview because Virtus Bologna starts the Italian league finals this week.

• Former Rockets head coach Stephen Silas will join the staff of Monty Williams in Detroit as an assistant coach, reports Adrian Wojnarowski of ESPN.

• As expected, the Los Angeles Clippers have promoted from within to replace former GM Michael Winger, who left to become the head of Wizards basketball operations.

LA Clippers promote Redden and Hughes.

— LA Clippers (@LAClippers) June 5, 2023

The Clippers are considered one of the league’s smarter and more stable front offices, one built on collaboration, so it makes sense to promote from within.

Kyrie Irving reportedly reaches out to LeBron about joining Mavericks… good luck with that

By Kurt HelinJun 5, 2023, 1:23 PM EDT

Kevork Djansezian/Getty Images

The NBA’s silly season started during the NBA Finals.

Kyrie Irving has reached out to LeBron James about coming to Dallas and has pushed the Mavericks into looking to acquire LeBron via trade, according to reports from Shams Charania of The Athletic and Chris Haynes of Bleacher Report/TNT.

Sources: Kyrie Irving has reached out to Lakers star LeBron James in attempts to see if James would come to Dallas. Irving is a free agent this offseason.

— Shams Charania (@ShamsCharania) June 5, 2023

https://twitter.com/ChrisBHaynes/status/1665750059420471300

There is no shortage of rumors around the league about Irving and LeBron appearing to warm to the idea of playing together again. That was fueled by Irving being courtside at multiple Lakers playoff games.

There are so many problems with and obstacles to this LeBron in Dallas idea I’ll need to go to bullet points to break them down.

• This was either a tactical leak from the Irving camp to try and make this happen, or, it was a tactical leak by LeBron and Irving to put pressure on the Lakers to bring Irving to Los Angeles this summer. I’m not going to pretend to know Charania’s and Haynes’ sources, but nobody else benefits from this coordinated leak. If it did come from the Irving camp in any way, that’s pretty rich considering days ago he scolded anyone listening to sources and not what he says.

• The Lakers, for their part, are focused on running it back with players such as Austin Reaves and Rui Hachimura and have shown limited if any interest in pursuing a sign-and-trade to land Irving. Dallas has no interest in a sign-and-trade that brings them D'Angelo Russell back. The Lakers bringing in Irving remains an incredible long shot.

• LeBron was not trade eligible at the last trade deadline after signing an off-season extension. Maybe the report was intended to mean Dallas was going to make an offer for a LeBron trade this offseason (before the Lakers run to the Western Conference Finals), but the Lakers could not have traded LeBron at the deadline, even if he wanted it.

• Making a LeBron to Dallas trade come together under the much harsher terms for big spending teams in the new CBA is next to impossible, something Haynes talks about in his story. Luka Dončić is already on the books for $40 million next season, and LeBron will make $46.9 million (plus he has a $50.6 million player option for 2024-25). If you pair those two and pay Irving anywhere near the salary he wants, the Mavericks would be right up against the salary cap with no way to fill out the roster except for minimum contracts. Wasn’t LeBron just on a team that gutted its depth for a third star?

• Along those same lines, if the Lakers sign-and-trade for Irving to put next to LeBron and Anthony Davis, they will have no cap room to round out a contending roster and it would look like the Lakers of a couple of seasons ago, with Irving in the Russell Westbrook role.

• Haynes suggested the numbers work for Dallas if LeBron forces a buyout with the Lakers and then signs in Dallas at a reduced salary. Does anyone think LeBron would even consider that for more than a second?

• If Irving is willing to take a massive discount and play for closer to the mid-level exception things fit a little better, but Irving has shown no interest in doing that. Remember he opted in with the Nets rather than leave to play for less, then pushed for a trade when Brooklyn would not give him the extension he wanted.

• There is no motivation for the Lakers to play along with this and there is no trade the Mavericks can put together that would interest Los Angeles. Technically the numbers work if Dallas trades Davis Bertans, Tim Hardaway Jr. and Maxi Kleber to Los Angeles, but why would the Lakers even consider it? The Lakers have traded almost all their draft picks and put all their energy into building a winner around LeBron and Anthony Davis, they are not trading the guy that fills their building for three rotation players. It would not matter what or how many picks were involved.

• Does LeBron James want to leave his family in Los Angeles, and playing literally down the street from his son Bronny at USC next season, to play for the Mavericks? Especially when they have to gut the roster to get him? If this season goes sideways for the Lakers maybe he feels differently about finishing his career somewhere else, but it’s hard to see right now.

• Adam Silver said he would not release the update on the Ja Morant investigation right now because he didn’t want to distract from the NBA Finals. I would have paid good money to see his face when he saw this news.

1) Luka Doncic scores 30+ for ninth straight game, Mavs top Nets

2) Warriors have issues but they also have Curry — his 47 tops Kings

3) It was Josh Hart‘s turn for a Portland game-winner

Check out the latest on the Mavericks

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