CLEVELAND — Golden State’s Steph Curry might not be Akron, Ohio’s beloved native NBA player. That title belongs to Los Angeles Lakers star LeBron James.
But in Sunday’s All-Star Match, Curry’s star shone brightest with a phenomenal display of 3-stage taking pictures.
Curry scored a recreation-substantial 50 details and set an NBA All-Star Video game file with 16 made 3s. He also set a document for created 3s in a quarter with 7 in the 3rd in regular Steph style — deep 3s and turning all around to go play defense ahead of the ball went by way of the hoop.
Curry was named MVP of the All-Star Game for the initially time in his job after leading Group LeBron to a 163-160 victory above Workforce Durant. Curry obtained the newly redesigned Kobe Bryant All-Star MVP Award trophy that is an homage to Bryant’s jersey quantities, MVPs, All-Star MVPs, championships and Finals MVPs.
“This is absolutely particular,” Curry claimed. “The initially year you bought to honor Kobe and his life and his legacy with this trophy. All the thought that went into it. I are unable to spit it off the major I my head, but I know that every thing on this trophy indicates something in terms of his lifetime and what he represented, accomplishments on the court docket, and to have it be an All-Star MVP trophy and for it to be the 1st a single, it absolutely tends to make it unique.
“I have only received 1, and to have this one particular, it will have a special location at my property.”
Employing the Elam Ending to finish the activity by achieving a targeted score of 163 details, Team LeBron outscored Group Durant 25-21 the fourth quarter and James concluded the recreation with a fadeaway jumper for the victory.
“I played perfectly the full evening. He hit the video game-winner,” Curry stated. “All the background of our collection and the Akron ties, and all that form of likely into how the night time went, so it was really. Can’t genuinely draw it up any other way. It can be suitable on the nose of how it should really go.”
James, who had 24 details, 8 assists, six rebounds and a few steals, appreciates how to select All-Star groups — he’s now 5- considering the fact that the NBA commenced utilizing the main vote-getters from just about every meeting to serve as captains and choose their groups.
Curry begun the day 8 3s guiding James Harden (39 total) for most 3s created in NBA All-Star background. By the halfway place of the third quarter, he had surpassed Harden and James, who designed a 3 previously in the match to tie Harden.
“I suggest, Steph, occur on, male. This dude is from a unique earth,” James reported. “He basically has an automatic sniper linked to his arm, and when he allows it go, not only himself, but all people on the flooring, in the stands, on Television, on their phones, regardless of what you are seeing on, you think it’s likely in just about every time. Nine times out of 10 and in some cases 10 times out of 10 it does go in.
“To be out there and observe that child from Akron as nicely shoot the ball the way he shot it, it was unbelievable. It was pretty awesome.”
Throughout pregame introductions, the pro-Cleveland group booed Curry, who prevented Cleveland from profitable more titles when James’ Cavs performed Curry’s Warriors in the Finals from 2015-18.
With every produced 3, they began cheering, especially when Curry’s results meant achievements for James.
“It obviously implies you will find heritage in this article, and the fans I imagine appreciate it, but it comes out in the variety of boos, and I delight in it because it is not the initially time, not the very last time,” Curry mentioned. “And it requires some electrical power to boo, so you bought to care a large amount to do that.
“I experimented with to channel that into the functionality tonight and just have fun with it. I obtained scorching early and held it going, and tried out to set on a very little little bit of a display. The joy commenced to come out, and ideally most people appreciated it.”
The night started with the Christmas carol “It Came Upon the Midnight Clear” playing while a packed crowd at the Forum in Inglewood nervously wondered if they’d get to watch history happen.
Games in mid-December during the marathon of an NBA calendar rarely have stakes like this. But if the Lakers could win — something they had done 20 consecutive times before — they’d celebrate on the court with a ceremony and in the locker room with champagne.
1971-72 Los Angeles Lakers team photo at the Forum
(Los Angeles Lakers)
On Sunday, Dec. 12, 1971, the Lakers won their 21st consecutive game, setting the record for the longest winning streak in NBA history.
“I’m sure glad it’s over,” Wilt Chamberlain said that night.
Yet the Lakers’ winning streak wasn’t close to ending. And the record they set — the longest winning streak in team sports — is still standing 50 years later.
The Lakers would win 33 straight games, an unfathomable achievement that spanned the course of 65 days during the team’s magical championship season, the franchise’s first after relocating from Minneapolis in 1960.
Lakers guard Jerry West (14) is fouled by Rockets guard John Vallely after driving around a screen by center Wilt Chamberlain on Dec. 27, 1971.
(Associated Press)
The Lakers scored 4,069 points during the streak, beating their opponents by an average of 16 points per game. Only one team, the Phoenix Suns, took them to overtime. And 24 times, opponents couldn’t keep the margin inside 10 points.
Chamberlain, Jerry West, Gail Goodrich, Pat Riley and Bill Sharman — the names on their own are legendary. But as part of the 1971-72 Lakers, they combined to create an accomplishment that’s still standing strong thanks to a combination of excellence, talent, time and place.
“If that 33-game winning streak at the time happened today with all the social media and coverage,” Riley, a backup guard on the team, told The Times, “it would be probably be almost unbearable to do.”
Riley should know. The Miami Heat team he helped assemble, with LeBron James and Chris Bosh joining Dwyane Wade, ripped off 27 consecutive wins in 2013. The Golden State Warriors pushed up against the fringes of the Lakers’ streak, winning 28 in a row over two regular seasons in 2015.
It hasn’t been close to being threatened since then.
“I’ll be honest. I don’t want to see it broken — at least during my lifetime,” said Jim Cleamons, a rookie on the Lakers’ 1971-72 team. “It’s like Joe DiMaggio. I don’t think anybody is going to beat his 56-game hitting streak, so I don’t want anybody to beat our 33-game winning streak. I’ll be honest about that. I don’t want to see it broken.
“I’m just sorry it wasn’t a little bit higher. I would have like to have really put it out there.”
All winning streaks before it and after it have started the same way — following a loss. But only the greatest streak in professional team sports could start with a loss like this.
Elgin Baylor wasn’t just a Laker at the time — he was the Lakers. He followed the team to Los Angeles from Minneapolis, bringing with him an electrifying style of play that would be mimicked by the NBA’s most exciting players for generations to come.
Lakers coach Bill Sharman yells instruction from the bench during the 1971-72 season.
(Art Rogers / Los Angeles Times)
That version of Baylor was gone, an Achilles injury and achy knees slowing the Lakers’ most dynamic player to a crawl. Sharman, the Lakers’ new coach, wanted to make a change and move the 37-year-old Baylor out of the starting lineup.
Baylor, having played in only nine games before the winning streak began, instead retired. He made the decision after the Lakers lost to the Golden State Warriors by four points on Oct. 31, 1971.
“He was not getting the kind of results that he expected of himself,” Goodrich said. “When you’re that good — boy, he was that good — and you start to see your skills diminished a little bit. … And while you can still make a contribution, I think that, you know, his benchmark was so high for himself.”
It was hard to fathom, especially for West.
“My buddy, my friend, my cohort for so many years, I just sat there and said to myself, ‘How the hell is this going to be without him in the locker room?’ ” West remembered wondering. “It just was a shock for me. I had no clue, absolutely no clue that he was going to retire. None. I said, ‘What?’ when I heard about it. … How did this happen? Why?
“That’s why it was so shocking for him not to be there. But as I say, they don’t cancel school when a teacher leaves. So, they’re certainly not cancelling a basketball season, that’s for sure.”
For Sharman, it wasn’t the first time the team’s coach was in the midst of a challenge. Before he lost Baylor, he needed to first convince West to shoot less and distribute the ball more. Admittedly, that sell was easier than the other one he needed to make.
He needed to convince Chamberlain to wake up early.
Sharman was the inventor of the “shootaround” — a morning practice on game days designed to increase players muscle memory and focus before competition. It also meant an extra trip to the arena, with Chamberlain firing back that Sharman would see him at the Forum once per day — either for practice or the game.
Like the best jokes, it was full of truth.
But Sharman had Chamberlain’s respect from his time as Bob Cousy’s backcourt partner during the Boston Celtics’ dynasty. Sharman believed in work ethic, a tone he set during the team’s training camp in Hawaii.
After a lunch with Chamberlain, he got the Lakers center on board.
Like West, he also convinced Chamberlain — owner of another iconic record, his 100-point game — to sacrifice on offense to anchor the Lakers’ defense and rebounding, while playing quarterback for Sharman’s fast-break offense.
After Baylor’s retirement, Sharman turned to West and Chamberlain to be the team’s co-captains. West felt he’d play better without the responsibility, so Chamberlain took on the task alone, he wrote in his autobiography, “Wilt: Just like any other 7-foot black millionaire who lives next door.”
With Chamberlain as the captain and young Jim McMillian replacing Baylor in the starting lineup, the Lakers eased into their new reality with a tight win at home against the Baltimore Bullets.
“McMillian stepped in. He fit right in — a good quality scorer, a very, very good defensive player,” Goodrich said. “And so, at that point, you know, there was there was no drop off. And we were off.”
They wouldn’t lose again for more than two months.
Legendary Lakers broadcaster Chick Hearn narrated a record with highlights of the team’s 33 wins, praising the Lakers for catching their rhythm with a 40-point win in Philadelphia for their fifth consecutive victory.
“One of the best games in the history of the Lakers,” Hearn exclaimed that night.
If there were questions about Chamberlain’s buy-in to Sharman’s plan, he answered them against the Boston Celtics, managing to dominate despite scoring only three points in two shots and one trip to the free-throw line.
Chamberlain finished that win — the Lakers’ eighth in a row — with 31 rebounds, 10 assists and, according to Hearn, 13 blocked shots for one of the strangest triple-doubles in NBA history.
“It was pretty to watch, I’ll say that. It was pretty to watch,” West remembered. “Everyone shared in different ways. And I’ll never forget that before the season started, Bill Sharman asked me, he said, ‘I want you to lead the league in assists.’ I said, ‘I’ll try, if I can.’
“After my knee injury, I wasn’t the same player at all. I think I averaged almost 26 points a game even that way. But these games were easy because you just didn’t feel the pressure to score all the time and it got easier for us. Everyone had a role and they performed it.”
West and Chamberlain were the veterans. Goodrich was the scorer. McMillian provided the two-way support. Happy Hairston was a rebounding machine. Flynn Robinson, the team’s sixth man, could really shoot, and Riley was equally fearless and ferocious. John Trapp and Leroy Ellis reveled in the dirty work.
The Lakers kept piling up wins, even more impressively considering of how differently the NBA was scheduled in 1971-72. The winning streak began with victories on three straight nights. The first five games of the 33 were played in six days. The first eight wins? That happened in 10 days. Add in commercial travel the morning following games, and the physical demands were incredible.
“I think that’s a pretty incredible stat that the a lot of people don’t realize,” Goodrich said.
They fell into routines, Goodrich leaving the court after the same made shot before every game and West playing in the same sneakers throughout the run.
By the time the Lakers hosted the Atlanta Hawks on Dec. 12, people certainly realized the stakes. A win would break the Milwaukee Bucks’ record of 20 straight wins during their championship run the season before, immortalizing Sharman’s team. The fans counted down the final seconds before the 21st win in the streak.
Lakers guard Gail Goodrich (25) and center Wilt Chamberlain (13) defeated guard Dave Wohl and the 76ers during their 33-game winning streak.
(Associated Press)
The postgame locker room was a wild scene, Hearn and partner Lynn Shackleford interviewing players while they celebrated.
“I believe this is the greatest thrill,” Sharman said.
Owner Jack Kent Cooke told Hearn he nearly suffered a heart attack as the Lakers desperately held on.
“But it was all worth it, wasn’t it?” he said to Hearn.
Ten days later in Baltimore, the Lakers got 37 points and nine assists from West to pass the 1916 New York Giants with 27 straight wins. Those Giants had won 26 without a loss, though there was a non-counting tie during their streak.
And in Atlanta on Jan. 7, the Lakers were as dominant as ever, making 58{cfdf3f5372635aeb15fd3e2aecc7cb5d7150695e02bd72e0a44f1581164ad809} of their shots while six players scored in double figures in a blowout win against Pete Maravich and the Hawks.
It was the team’s 33rd win in a row.
Two days later in Milwaukee against the defending NBA champions, the Lakers would finally lose 120-104.
“We went into the locker room after the game and it was over with, the 33 wins a row,” Riley said. “We got on a plane.”
The season would end with another victory that ended another streak: The Lakers finally won an NBA championship after losing seven finals in the first 11 years since moving to L.A. But the memory of the 33-game win streak would always linger.
“Some 2½ months without losing a game,” West said. “Pretty remarkable.”
ORLANDO – John Daly putted so poorly on Saturday that when his son walked off the 18th environmentally friendly at the Ritz-Carlton Golf Club, he questioned a mate, “Teach my dad how to putt, please.”
John II wasn’t kidding but his pricey previous-dad, 55, figured things out with his brief stick on Sunday as Staff Daly poured in 13 birdies and an eagle en route to taking pictures 15-under 57 in the two-particular person scramble structure.
“Hit 7 naturals right now, so I aided the workforce now,” Major John stated of his rediscovered placing prowess.
The 36-hole complete of 27-below 117 was two strokes far better than Tiger and Charlie Woods, breaking the previous tournament scoring report set by Davis Like III/Dru Adore in 2018 by 1 stroke, and acquired Staff Daly the purple-leather-based Willie Park winner’s belts.
“He’s always wanted to gain people belts,” stated Daly’s longtime girlfriend, Anna Cladakis.
John II is a freshman on the University of Arkansas golf staff, his father’s alma mater, and he was decked out in a Razorbacks golf shirt, hat and belt buckle. The 18-year-outdated has been enjoying in this celebration considering the fact that he was 12.
“To watch him grow up to do the factors he could do with a golf ball,” the very pleased papa explained, “and a swing that’s so great, but saving my you-know-what from putting yesterday, and he played phenomenal and I helped him with a couple of photographs right here and there.”
Team Daly put together to birdie just about every gap except two on the inward 9 (Nos. 15, 17). Daly trapped his method at 16 limited for the birdie that would be the difference.
“We are employed to hitting like wedges up there, and I hit a terrible travel,” Big John reported. “I strike a 7-iron in there about a foot and a 50 {cfdf3f5372635aeb15fd3e2aecc7cb5d7150695e02bd72e0a44f1581164ad809} and it was a birdie there. I imagine that was a massive, huge turning stage for this 7 days suitable there.”
“When he produced that, we knew it was essentially about because I checked the leaderboard to see what Tiger finished at,” John II claimed.
Group Daly experienced completed inside the leading-10 in all 6 appearances at the PNC Championship, with a tie for 2nd in 2018, but had never ever gained the belts they so desperately preferred.
“Every year we usually attempt and acquire but this was the calendar year just liked it and staying listed here actively playing with him in the holidays,” John II explained. “I guess that is what comes about, when you earn.”
On this supplied Sunday, Nick Sirianni’s Philadelphia Eagles had the sort of activity when every little thing – each individual aspect of the soccer operation – labored as imagined in a 44-6 get more than the Detroit Lions. It was a brilliant performance from start off to end that includes an offense that punished Detroit with a running match that totaled 236 speeding yards, a protection that smothered quarterback Jared Goff with 6 sacks, and added a scoop and fumble return for a landing and a few field plans and 5 PATs to spotlight a good particular teams general performance.
“Currently was Round 8 (sport 8) for us,” Sirianni reported, applying a boxing analogy. “My concept to them was, ‘Hey, in some cases it just can take a round when you reduce someone, when you get a spherical, to establish some momentum. But, there was no mystery as to why we executed perfectly now. It occurred every day in practice. What happened on Wednesday, Thursday, and Friday – the intensity was so superior, the element was so superior, that was our message – to proceed to improve. The only way to continue to develop is if you are likely to have intensity in exercise and you happen to be heading to have depth.
“I believe the fellas locked into that and practiced very well all 7 days.”
Listed here are some takeaways from a full acquire, the team’s 3rd on the street in 2021 …
1. The functioning video game was wonderful and all three backs chipped in on the exciting. Boston Scott begun and contributed 12 carries, 60 yards, and a pair of scores. He ran hard, he designed defenders skip, and he was individual when needed. Scott didn’t have a have this time till Miles Sanders was wounded in Las Vegas and he ran with power on Sunday.
“We just did our work,” Scott said. “That is what it will come down to at the conclusion of the working day in the NFL. Any time option knocks, that’s when you have bought to move up and generate. We stayed forward of the sticks and we were physical and were effective in the running game. I am a competitor and I’m going to display up and function. I’m not going to let myself and what I want negatively influence the workforce. I wasn’t finding touches (in the initial 6 months of the period), but I was on the scout staff and on distinctive groups and I was accomplishing anything I could to enable the crew earn right until my chance came. That’s what I was dedicated to.”
Jordan Howard, promoted from the observe squad, saw his initially action of the time and ran with huge electricity and energy, attaining 57 yards and two touchdowns on 12 carries. Kenny Gainwell had 13 carries and 27 yards. In advance of he remaining the video game with an ankle damage, receiver Jalen Reagor was a weapon using a pair of handoffs for gains of 11 and 10 yards. He was ready to get to the edge and then he utilised his explosiveness for big gains. Terrific assortment in the playcalling and, as Sirianni reported after the sport, it all began on the line of scrimmage.
2. Quarterback Jalen Hurts played a solid football match. He saw every thing the Lions’ defense gave him – blitzes, a whole lot of pre-snap movement, some coverage curveballs – and he responded with a cool overall performance. Hurts stood tall and shipped from the pocket when he experienced time. He rolled when he wanted to roll left and ideal. Hurts experienced a few chances to run the soccer and he designed the most of them, picking up 71 yards on runs. The enhancement we’ve viewed from Hurts – who designed his 12th NFL start on Sunday – has come in bursts for much of the season, but he was on his game from the to start with engage in of the video game on Sunday and stayed sharp. Perhaps 9-of-14 passing for 103 yards does not glimpse like significantly of a stat line, but you need to take almost everything that went into his functionality. Hurts was quite fantastic.
“We ran the ball really effectively and genuinely dominated at the line of scrimmage for most of the game,” Hurts claimed. “We want to be reliable with that going ahead. The defense performed their butts off. They bought turnovers and sacks. They made huge-time performs in the course of the full recreation. It truly is a fantastic team gain.”
3. Kudos to the offensive line, which dominated a pretty fantastic Detroit front 7 on Sunday. Appropriate guard Jack Driscoll left the game with a hand injury early, replaced by Nate Herbig. The line was physical, on issue from a communications standpoint, and just physically much better than Detroit. The Eagles acquired 126 rushing yards in the first 50 {cfdf3f5372635aeb15fd3e2aecc7cb5d7150695e02bd72e0a44f1581164ad809} and handed the 200-yard mark in the 3rd quarter. The move protection was excellent.
“It was fantastic staying out there managing the line of scrimmage,” still left tackle Jordan Mailata said. “I observed the working backs and how tricky they had been jogging and it fired me up. We ended up all fired up, excited to participate in and we were being bodily. Which is how we want to enjoy each 7 days. It felt great.”
