Five Fast Facts from NBA Games: 2.13.13

As everyone prepares for Valentine’s day, we at Sheridanhoops.com decided to give up useless stats for Lent. Prepare yourselves for Wednesday night’s edition of Five Fast Facts.

Twelve games were on the schedule on the final Wednesday before the All-Star break. The Raptors pulled a major upset in New York, the Spurs barely escaped Cleveland, the Mavericks extended their home win streak against the Kings and the Celtics stymied the Bulls.

1. After scoring only 43 points in the first 3 quarters, the Celtics exploded for 28 in the fourth quarter to beat the Bulls 71-69, Boston’s fewest points in a win since 2003. The Celtics scored only 11 points in the second quarter and a meager eight points in the third period.  Boston’s 19 points were the fewest scored by the winning team in consecutive quarters of an NBA game during the shot clock era (1954–1955 to date).
2. Carmelo Anthony scored only 12 points as he made five of 24 shots from the floor while playing 41 minutes in the Knicks’ 92-88 loss to the Raptors.  Anthony complained of a dead arm after getting hit in the biceps early in the first quarter and it showed in his poor shooting. It was only the fourth game of Anthony’s NBA career in which he played at least 40 minutes and scored no more than a dozen points, but it was the first of those games in which he hoisted more than 17 field-goal attempts.
3. The Mavericks extended their home winning streak against the Kings to 18 games with a 123–100 victory at Dallas.  It’s the second-longest current winning streak for any NBA team at home versus one opponent.  The Spurs have won their last 28 home games against the Warriors.
4. Kawhi Leonard’s 3-point field goal with 2.9 seconds remaining in the game gave the Spurs a 96–95 triumph at Cleveland.  It was the 99th regular-season game of Leonard’s NBA career, but it was the first time that he ever attempted a potential game-tying or go-ahead field goal during the final two minutes of either the fourth quarter of a game or of an overtime period.
5. The Pacers downed the Bobcats as Paul George recorded a triple-double that included 23 points, 12 rebounds and 12 assists.  George’s “triple-dozen” was the fourth in the NBA this season (Rajon Rondo, Tony Parker and Paul Pierce have the others) and it was the first for the Pacers since Detlef Schrempf scored 15 points to go along with his 18 rebounds and 12 assists on January 5, 1993 against the Clippers.

Stat Mann is the nom de guerre of our research statistician, who spends a lot of time watching basketball in central Connecticut. Someone would be angry if they discovered he was moonlighting here.