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The Los Angeles Lakers play in Phoenix tonight and will be looking for their seventh win in nine games. More importantly, tonight was supposed to mark the return of Pau Gasol to the Lakers’ lineup.
Gasol unfortunately broke the news this evening that he will not be making his return tonight in Phoenix, but will be back on the court soon.
Sunday was a double-double of it’s own, to use an NBA term, as it was both St. Patrick’s Day and Championship Sunday when they announce the NCAA tournament bracket.
Eight games were on the NBA schedule on Sunday. So what else is new? The sun rises, the Heat win. On Sunday, Miami won their 22nd straight game. Elsewhere, the Knicks continued to fall further down the Eastern Conference with another loss on their west coast road trip, the Lakers learned there might be life without Kobe, the Nets blew a golden chance to catch the Knicks and the Warriors embarrassed the Rockets.
Here is a Championship Sunday edition of Five Fast Facts.
LeBron James scored 27 points, dished out eight assists and grabbed seven rebounds in Miami’s win over Philadelphia on Wednesday in the Heat’s historic 20th consecutive win.
Only three other teams have won at least 20 straight in a single season (the Washington Capitols, who played basketball in the 40′s, won 20 straight spanning two seasons). Two other teams won 19 straight, and all six clubs that won at least 19 in a row had historically great players on their respective squads.
PHILADELPHIA — Only one guy in the Miami Heat locker room has been there, done this.
And no, we are not including LeBron James and his 36-game winning streak at St. Vincent-St. Mary’s High School in Akron.
The only guy who has been through a stretch like this is Shane Battier, who was a member of the 2007-08 Houston Rockets team that strung together 22 consecutive victories — the second longest in NBA history.
Less than three weeks ago, the Los Angeles Lakers were mourning the death of owner Jerry Buss, refuting rumors that Dwight Howard would be traded and staring down the draft lottery.
With his team mired in ninth place in the Western Conference, Kobe Bryant defiantly told Sports Illustrated, “It’s not a question of if we make the playoffs. We will. And when we get there, I have no fear of anyone – Oklahoma City, San Antonio, Denver … whoever. I have zero nervousness about that.”
