Week 7 Rewind: 10 NBA things to know from past 7 days
Chris Paul became the first player with three separate 17-game win streaks as the Suns beat the Warriors in their first of two meetings in Week 7.
1. Warriors vs. Suns Showdown Delivers
Entering Week 7, the Phoenix Suns (17-3) were riding a 16-game win streak, but were still looking up at the Golden State Warriors (18-2) in the standings. That changed on Tuesday as the Suns locked up Steph Curry and earned their 17th straight win to tie a franchise record. Curry finished with a season-low 12 points on 4-21 (19%) shooting, while Deandre Ayton paced the Suns with 24 points and 11 boards.
While Round 1 of this heavyweight contest went to the Suns, the Warriors exacted their revenge three days later in San Francisco. Curry bounced back to score a team-best 23 points and knock down six 3-pointers, while the Warriors’ defense held the Suns to a season-low 96 points in a 118-96 win to even the season series. The loss snapped a franchise-best 18-game win streak for the Suns and sets up a rubber match on Christmas Day between these two powerhouses.
2. Chris Paul’s Win Streaks
There have been 24 total win streaks of 17 games or more in NBA history – with 21 of those coming in a single season. Of those 21 streaks, Chris Paul has now been a part of three of them – a first for any player in NBA history. Plus, he’s accomplished those three 17+ game streaks with three different teams: 17 games with the Clippers (2012–13), 17 games with the Rockets (2017–18) and 18 games with the Suns (2021-22).
The @Suns have now won a franchise-record 18 straight games, the longest win streak of Chris Paul's career.
He won 17 straight with both the Clippers and Rockets, making him the 1st player in NBA history to be part of 3 different win streaks of 17+ games (h/t @EliasSports). pic.twitter.com/hNiNwfjZbl
— ESPN Stats & Info (@ESPNStatsInfo) December 3, 2021
3. Houston’s Historic Win Streak
We go from CP3’s individual streak history to one of the craziest win streaks not only in NBA history – but in pro sports history. The Houston Rockets went from losing 15 straight games to closing out Week 7 on a six-game win streak – the longest active win streak in the league. Christian Wood is averaging 19.3 points, 11.5 rebounds and 1.8 blocks to lead the Rockets during the streak.
According to @EliasSports the Rockets are the first team in NBA/NHL/MLB/NFL history to win 6 straight games immediately after a losing streak of 15+ games. pic.twitter.com/aJ9OF4Czqh
— ESPN Stats & Info (@ESPNStatsInfo) December 6, 2021
4. Memphis’ 73-Point Win Over OKC
The Grizzlies made team and league history on Wednesday night in Memphis. They scored a franchise-record 152 points as they beat the Oklahoma City Thunder by an NBA-record margin of 73 points, 152-79.
And they did it without Ja Morant – who has missed the past four games with a knee injury. The Grizzlies have won all four of those games – having never trailed in any of the games – and have seen contributions from up and down the roster. Jaren Jackson Jr (20.5 ppg) has led five Grizzlies in double-figure scoring since Morant has been out.
The Grizzlies have won 4 straight games in wire-to-wire fashion (no ties or lead changes).
That is the longest streak by any team over the last 25 seasons according to @EliasSports. All 4 wins have come without Ja Morant. pic.twitter.com/fJJbSglcNP
— ESPN Stats & Info (@ESPNStatsInfo) December 5, 2021
5. Poster Time
This week’s edition of Dunks of the Week features a number of poster dunks, but the biggest dunk of the week belonged to Golden State’s Juan Toscano-Anderson, who elevated over Phoenix’s JaVale McGee for what JTA described as the best in-game dunk of his career.
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This led to a fun exchange between the two players in that poster, with JaVale telling JTA that he’ll sign the poster for him the next time they meet.
Congrats young fella ill sign it for you! https://t.co/yk9aLQaece
— Javale McGee (@JaValeMcGee) December 4, 2021
Ima bring it Xmas day. https://t.co/g7BXzHonbD
— Juan Toscano Anderson (@juanonjuan10) December 4, 2021
Of course, there were more monster dunks from Week 7. Here are a few to highlight:
– Miles Bridges on Giannis Antetokounmpo
– John Collins with a pair this week: vs. the Sixers and vs. the Hornets
– Anthony Edwards strikes again (watch the bench reaction!)
– Rudy Gobert vs. Jarrett Allen:
– Marcus Smart‘s putback dunk vs. Rudy Gobert:
– DeAnthony Melton vs. OKC
– Jarret Allen‘s and-one alley-oop vs. Miami:
6. The Wild Finish to this Bucks-Hornets game
Let’s look back at the final 10 seconds of the Bucks vs. Hornets game from Wednesday. First, Khris Middleton put the Bucks up by three with a pair of clutch free throws with 8.6 seconds to play. After a Hornets timeout (their final one of the game), LaMelo Ball caught the inbounds pass and launched a 28-foot 3-pointer from the left wing that splashed to tie the game at 125 with 5.9 seconds to play.
After a Bucks timeout, Giannis Antetokounmpo was lineup behind the half-court line before the play started. As the ball was inbounded to Jrue Holiday, Giannis made his move into the frontcourt and was going downhill toward the basket as he received the pass outside the 3-point line, took one dribble, two massive steps through the lane and flipped up a reverse finger-roll with just the right amount of English to spin off the board and through the hoop.
With no timeouts, the Hornets inbounded the Ball to Miles Bridges, who took one dribble and launched a 50-footer from beyond half court that just rimmed out at the buzzer. Watch the final sequence along with Jamal Crawford and Quentin Richardson as this game was featured on HooperVision.
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7. Injury Watch
As much as we enjoy celebrating all the amazing plays on the court, unfortunately, injuries are also part of the game and we had a few this past week. Here’s wishing a speedy recovery and a strong return to the court for these players:
– Brook Lopez underwent back surgery and is out indefinitely
– Bam Adebayo needs right thumb surgery that will likely keep him out until mid-January
– Damian Lillard has a lower abdomen injury that has him out for 10 days, will be reevaluated this week
– Giannis Antetokounmpo has missed Milwaukee’s last two games with calf soreness
– Karl-Anthony Towns has a tailbone injury following a hard fall that kept him out of Friday’s game
– Luka Doncic missed Saturday’s game due to a sore ankle
– Alex Caruso left Saturday’s game after only eight minutes due to a hamstring injury
8. Weekly Stats Leaders (Games Played between Nov. 29 and Dec. 5, minimum 2GP)
– PTS: Donovan Mitchell (UTA) and Karl-Anthony Towns (MIN) – 33.0 PPG (3 games each)
– REB: Domantas Saboinis (IND) – 17.0 RPG (3 games)
– AST: Trae Young (ATL) – 11/7 APG (3 games)
– STL: Chris Paul (PHX) and Miles Bridges (PHX) – 2.7 SPG (3 games each)
– BLK: Mo Bamba (ORL) – 3.7 BPG (3 games)
– 3PM: LaMelo Ball (CHA) – 5.5 3PM (2 games)
9. Curry 3-Point Watch Is On
Stephen Curry (2,951) finished Week 7 needing just 23 3-pointers to break Ray Allen’s all-time record (2,973). Curry is averaging a league-best 5.4 3-pointers made on the season, which puts him on pace to break the record in five games. If he maintains that pace, the target game would be Tuesday, Dec. 14 vs. New York at Madison Square Garden (on TNT). Can’t think of a bigger stage to break one of the league’s hallowed records.
And while tunnel shots like this don’t count toward the record, they’re still amazing to witness.
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10. Plays of the Week
Counting down the TOP-10 plays from Week 7 of the #NBA75 season
The action continues tonight on NBA TV and NBA League Pass! pic.twitter.com/3pLfBcTGVE
— NBA (@NBA) December 6, 2021
