The only thing more incredible than Steph Curry breaking Ray Allen’s record for most career three-pointers made is how quickly he accomplished the feat.

On Friday night, Curry made 9 three-pointers in the Warriors’ 119-93 win over the visiting Chicago Bulls, surpassing Jesus Shuttlesworth as the league’s top all-time marksman. Curry recorded his record-breaking triple with 10:44 remaining in the game’s second quarter, and has drilled 3,666 regular season and playoff three-pointers in his career, surpassing Allen’s previous record of 3,358.

It took Curry all of 886 total games, compared to 1,471 for Allen — a whopping 66% fewer.

STEPH CURRY put on a show in front of his college coach

40 PTS (15/25 FG) & 5 AST

36th game with 9+ 3PTS (Dame & Harden have 9 each)

Passes Ray Allen (3,358) for most career 3PTS in regular season + playoffs: 3,366pic.twitter.com/gTiUAuaThd

— Ballislife.com (@Ballislife) November 13, 2021

As LeBron James continues to run down Kareem Abdul-Jabbar’s all-time record for most career points, we can only look back at the production of some of the game’s former giants and marvel at their accomplishments.

The fact that Wilt Chamberlain was able to score 100 points in a single game, to this day, still seems outrageous. Kobe Bryant scored 81, of course, but that took 42 minutes, 46 shots, 20 free throws and astronomical usage. He still wasn’t really able to come that close to 100, which makes Wilt’s accomplishment all the more amazing.

For what it’s worth, Wilt — who didn’t have the benefit of any three-point shots — took 62 field goal attempts and made 28 free throws, so he wasn’t exactly a stranger to high-usage rates, either.

But still.

We look back at Michael Jordan and the fact that he was able to go 6-0 in the Finals and say, “Wow! Will anyone ever be able to do that again?”

MJ’s six championships (and six Finals MVPs) were truly legendary, as was the fact that he was able to complete two separate three-peats. A three-peat is pretty difficult to accomplish, and when you consider that no team since Shaq and Kobe’s Lakers was able to win three straight, that says a lot.

Aside from Jordan’s Bulls, you’d have to go back to the 1960s to find a team that won three straight titles, though there was no shortage of teams that were able to win back-to-back. The third time — which was obviously elusive in this case — from a historical standpoint, is truly the charm.

So here’s some perspective: although we are firmly fixated on LeBron’s quest to become the league’s all-time scorer, we have to consider that he sits third on the all-time list, not second. His 35,516 points trail Karl Malone’s career total of 36,928 by a healthy margin of 1,412.

Although it seems to be a foregone conclusion that LeBron will pass Malone, every missed game increases the possibility that the accomplishment will have to wait until next season. If, however, he’s able to average 24 points per game moving forward, he’d need 59 games to surpass The Mailman. It’s certainly within the realm of possibility to happen this season, and almost certainly next.

Kareem on the other hand? That’s a whole different ballgame.

LeBron currently trails Kareem by 2,871 points. Assuming the same 24 point-per-game scoring clip, he’s 120 games away. There’s no guarantee he’ll get there, but if he’s able to stay relatively healthy — considering his high-level of play — you’ve got to like his chances.

So what does all this have to do with Curry?

This…

He broke Ray Allen’s career three-pointer made mark in a staggering 585 fewer games. That’s seven seasons worth.

It feels like LeBron has been great since forever, and he’s been a 20-point per-game scorer for the entirety of his career. He’s nearly there, but even after all these years, he still has pretty far to go before he surpasses Kareem.

A simple analysis of the numbers gives you a newfound respect for how great (and healthy) Kareem was, and where LeBron fits in his own right.

In the future, history will look at Curry and marvel at his career three-pointers-made mark much in the same way we look at Wilt’s 100 points or Kareem’s all-time mark (or, by then, LeBron’s all-time mark).

Ray Allen made 2.3 threes per contest. To this point, Curry has averaged 3.7 treys a night. Said differently, he’s obliterated Allen’s pace, making 60% more threes than Allen on a per-game basis.

Although Curry has had his share of injuries, he’s had five full regular seasons in which he’s made more than 5 three-pointers per game. This season would be his sixth.

We obviously have no idea when it will end for Curry and how long he can continue at his current level of productivity, but if he is able to play anywhere near his current level — and is able to play at least 75% of his games for another three or four years — it’s very possible that he could make another 1,000 three-pointers. Counting eggs before they hatch is never a good idea, but the true amazement in Curry’s journey is not only about how far he’s come, but how quickly he’s gotten to this point.

Years from now, we’ll be trying to explain to our children and grandchildren how Steph was able to do it. A truly revolutionary player, he’s expanded everyone’s imaginations. His peers, desperately trying to emulate him, are pulling up from the center circle.

He’s single-handedly birthed an entire generation of players who rather drill stepbacks than pull off windmill dunks.

Imagine one of today’s players scoring 48 points per game over the course of his career, or another beating Kareem’s career mark in 12 seasons. That’s the equivalent of what Steph Curry accomplished on Friday night.

Even more incredible, is how much further he has to go.

Produced in association with BasketballNews.com.

Edited by Kristen Butler

Following the Los Angeles Lakers’ 107-83 loss to the Minnesota Timberwolves on Friday night, Anthony Davis didn’t mince words when discussing his team’s struggles — particularly in the third quarter (when Los Angeles was outscored 40-12 by Minnesota).

“We sucked,” Davis said. “No defense. Can’t score. That’s not just this third quarter; every third quarter we’ve played this season, we’ve come out slow, lackadaisical offensively and defensively. We got to get it together. Why? I can’t tell you. But we gotta do a better job. I mean, we scored 12 points in the third quarter, and they scored 40. That’s the game right there.”

Davis is right: The Lakers have been outscored in the third quarter in eight of their 13 games (including five times by double digits). On the season, Los Angeles has been beaten 408-321 in third quarters.

“Obviously, our effort hasn’t been good enough in the third quarter consistently throughout this season,” Lakers head coach Frank Vogel said. “We’re talking about it and we’re challenging our guys to be better. We were getting beat to loose balls, we weren’t keeping our man in front of us, we weren’t taking pride in protecting the rim, and I think we lost four or five loose balls consecutively. We gotta be better with that.”

Davis said that this defeat felt very similar to the Lakers’ loss against the Portland Trail Blazers on Nov. 6, since the team played with barely any effort or energy in both contests.

“We gotta decide who we want to be. A championship team? That’s not us right now,” Davis said. “We’re not winning a championship the way we’re playing. We have to be better, and we have to care more for our wins at home and our wins in general. That was embarrassing. To be up five at the half… obviously, this team shoots a lot of threes and they have guys who can score the basketball, but there was just no effort in the third quarter.”

“No sense of urgency,” Wayne Ellington said. “We come out slow, trying to get into the game instead of coming out at full speed. It’s been a struggle for us and something that we gotta be better at. Tonight, there was no excuse. We were all disappointed.”

“Sometimes, we come out and are fine; sometimes, we don’t,” Russell Westbrook added. “The inconsistency is a problem.”

The Lakers are now 7-6, which puts them in the Western Conference’s seventh seed (and 4.5 games back from the first-place Golden State Warriors).

Los Angeles currently has the NBA’s 23rd-ranked offense (scoring 102.7 points per 100 possessions) and 14th-ranked defense (allowing104.4 points per 100 possessions).

“What we can’t do is point the finger [like], ‘It was you! It was you! This play was you!’ We have to stay together,” Davis said. “And we stay together, but we also got to learn from the film. Film tomorrow is going to be big for us, to have another heart-to-heart about these types of games. We hate feeling this way. Obviously, we’re going to lose games; everyone loses games. But [it’s about] doing it the right way, having a team actually beat us and not beating ourselves. Those are the frustrating ones, when we beat ourselves… We hate losing games like that. But we have to learn from it and, most importantly, we have to stay together.”

While the Lakers were missing LeBron James, Talen Horton-Tucker, Kendrick Nunn, Trevor Ariza and Austin Reaves on Friday night, Davis and his teammates felt that they still should’ve won this game.

“It’s still fairly early — it’s only game 13 — and we still don’t have all of our guys back. But we have enough guys to win basketball games and we gotta continue to do what we do and play Lakers basketball,” Davis explained. “Some games we see it, some games we don’t. We’ll see it for a half, but the other half we don’t… We gotta put together a stretch of games where we’re playing our style of basketball for 48 minutes and live with that result.”

“There’s no excuse for us to come in and have a performance like we did tonight,” Ellington added. “That team is not better than us.”

While the team is frustrated about these recent struggles, it’s important to realize that the Lakers are going through an adjustment period after bringing in so many new players. Only three players returned from last year’s squad: James, Davis and Horton-Tucker. They’ve added 14 new players and while some are familiar faces — like Dwight Howard, Rajon Rondo and Avery Bradley, who were on the team as recently as the 2019-20 championship season — it’s taking time for this group to get on the same page.

“We know that we’re a good team,” Davis said. “You think about the long-term and that big-picture goal, but we want to win now. And it just sucks because we don’t know our full team, our full capability of what guys can bring to the team. But when we get everybody back, we know that we’ll be a great team. But we still gotta do what we do, no matter who’s on the floor. We still have to follow our principles on both ends of the floor.”

“It’s all new, man,” Ellington explained. “We’re all getting adjusted and we’re all still learning each other. Obviously, we want to win games while we learn each other, but [it’s tough]… Guys have been in and out and we really haven’t had a steady lineup yet this season, and we understand that. We see the big picture. But at the same time, we feel like we could be jelling a bit better. But we also understand that it takes time and that this is a marathon. We have a veteran team [with] guys who have played a lot of games in this league, and nobody is ready to go crazy… It’s a process, man. We’re all learning each other and it takes time; it don’t happen overnight… But I feel like it’s going to start coming together, for sure.”

The Lakers will look to bounce back on Sunday afternoon as they host the San Antonio Spurs, followed by a date with the Chicago Bulls on Monday night.

Produced in association with BasketballNews.com.

Edited by Kristen Butler

When the Washington Wizards acquired Kyle Kuzma, Montrezl Harrell and Kentavious Caldwell-Pope in a blockbuster trade that sent Russell Westbrook to the Los Angeles Lakers, the franchise continued to undergo a major facelift that left a lot of unknowns this offseason.

A brand new head coach in Wes Unseld Jr. A fresh-faced starting lineup. Six new players.

And yet, in this case, change has most certainly been welcome.

As of Friday, the Wizards sit with the Chicago Bulls atop the Eastern Conference at 8-3. Make no mistake: this isn’t your par-for-the-course, “Bradley Beal carries and the rest fall in line” group in Washington D.C. that we’ve seen so many different iterations of in the past. It’s a team in every sense of the word.

And the fact that it’s come together this cohesively and this expeditiously, for a franchise that retooled its staff and personnel less than three months ago, is incredibly unique.

“I mean it is a different team. Basically, half the roster’s different. So it is remarkable that they’ve kinda pulled together as quickly as they have,” Unseld said prior to Wednesday’s win in Cleveland. “But I give ’em credit. They were around in September, so we didn’t wait ’til the first official day of training camp to say, ‘Hey, let’s start putting in work.’ Those guys were trying to play together, do a small side of [pickup] games, get workouts [in], finding ways to be on the floor and build that chemistry. So it’s paid off for us thus far.”

“We’ve got a bunch of dogs, man,” Kuzma added. “Obviously, me and KCP, we’ve won. We know how to win in this league. Trezz has always been an underdog his whole entire career being a second-round pick and fighting his way through the G League and all the way to being the Sixth Man [of the Year]. But the people here, too — it’s not just us. It’s a collective group. It’s the coaching staff, it’s us, it’s Brad wanting to win big in this league. It’s [Raul] Neto coming in, being a dog for us, being huge. [Daniel Gafford]. It’s everybody. And it’s all about the culture. It’s all about trying to change cultures and just win. Everything’s good when you win.”

These Wizards are gritty and feisty. These Wizards have that dog mentality. These Wizards are going to make you earn it. Most importantly, these Wizards gut it out.

And while it is still a work in progress, when you have a collection of castoffs with something to prove and with a chip on their shoulder, they’re developing an identity of resiliency.

“It’s not something that I really mapped out. I think it’s a byproduct of who we have and their individual situations, but I think they’ve all bought into team success,” Unseld said. “They understand that when the team thrives, the individual stuff will come. They don’t have to press for certain things or play out of character. [They] play team ball, continue to play our brand and our style, and it’ll work out.

“It’s a long season, so it’s easy to say, ‘Hey we figured it out.’ I don’t believe that’s true. We’re playing well right now, which is terrific, but I think it takes time, maybe a year to say, ‘This is who we are, who we have to be.’ But a lot of times, that changes with your personnel. So I think it’s gonna take some time. It’s easy to say who we want to be. It may be a little different as far as how it plays out.”

Kyle Kuzma’s 4th three of the 4th quarter WINS IT for the @WashWizards! pic.twitter.com/T4MhNm71se

— NBA (@NBA) November 11, 2021

According to Cleaning the Glass, Washington ranks fourth in the NBA with a 103.6 defensive rating and, as specified by NBA.com, is allowing a league-low 8.5 transition points per game and just a 48.3% Effective Field Goal percentage. It all starts with the players guarding out on the perimeter, and keeping their assignments in front of them.

“I think there’s just an urgency to what we’re doing. I’ve said this many times: it’s never perfect. There’s never a game where you walk away and those were a perfect 48 minutes of defense, but there’s urgency to what we’re doing,” Unseld said. “I think there’s an understanding of how we want to play, how we want to guard concepts and situations. Where we were two weeks ago and where we are now, I think we’re in a better place. And just, that’s having gone through it. You can’t simulate those reps enough, but having played [11] games now, you have a foundation you can kinda look back on and there’s validity to it.”

Not even a month into the season, Unseld’s trust in Kuzma is already sky-high.

“We saw it early in the preseason and obviously throughout the regular season, is our ability to switch and keep guys in front, and Kyle’s able to do that,” Unseld said. “He’s able to absorb some of the physical contact of those bigger wings, those power forwards, as well as keep those smalls in front, which is valuable. It keeps you out of rotations. And the way he’s rebounded the ball in general has been dynamic. So if we can put those two things together, and you make a couple threes, you’re a pretty good player.”

Coming over from the West Coast, Kuzma believes that he and his Laker teammates are defensively-oriented people, but he gives much of the credit to Unseld as the reason why the Wizards are so connected on the most important end of the floor.

“I think a lot of times in this league, what separates good teams and bad teams is defensive schemes,” Kuzma said. “I’ve been on both sides. I’ve been on good teams, and I’ve been on bad teams throughout the early part of my career. And one of the reasons why I thought we were bad was because we didn’t really have schemes and whatnot. When you come here, first day of training camp, we want to be a top defensive team. Okay, how do we get that?

“Wes puts us in great situations. It’s really no ‘air’ out there. You kinda know what it is. If it’s a step-up, clear-side, we know what to do. Same thing, if we’re in the lock and the trail, we know what to do. That just clears up a lot of thoughts you may have on the court, so you can just play freely and play.”

Kuzma and Beal have logged the most minutes (307) among Washington duos and have allowed 99.8 points per 100 possessions, according to NBA.com. However, among two-man combinations who have played at least 150 minutes together, Harrell and Deni Avdija carry the top defensive rating (96.0) and net rating (19.1) on the team as a whole.

“I think they did a great job of picking the right head coach, man. As you can see, it’s resulting into our play,” Harrell said. “Coach comes in with a simple game plan, both offensively and defensively, as far as each team goes. But Coach does all the little things that some guys may not want to do at points in time, certain situations. But we’re all bought in and tied in and we support him 100 percent because at the end of the day, it’s a collective group effort. It’s not just the coaches and then the players and then the top staff.

“I think this organization moves at its best when we’re all working together as one, and I think that’s what Coach has done a great a great job of and instilling with everybody — coaching staff, players, even all the way up to the front office with Tommy [Sheppard] and our owner [Ted Leonsis].”

We all know by now that Harrell is a man who’s always going to win the scrap. He uses his upper-body strength and power relentlessly, wearing down frontcourt opponents of all sizes with his multiple efforts. It seems he’s found his footing once again following an unusual situation with the Lakers. Trezz is putting up 18.1 points and 9.3 rebounds per contest on a career-best 70.8% True Shooting percentage, which ranks seventh in the NBA (min. avg. 15 minutes).

He’s establishing quite the rapport with Beal not only in postgame press conferences after wins, but in pick-and-roll situations on the court. According to NBA.com, Harrell is 18-for-30 on passes from Beal. Further, on InStat, Trezz is scoring 1.37 points per possession as a roll man in general and converts on a league-best 88% of his rolls.

Following a hard screen or a slip, you’d be hard pressed to find somebody more aggressive in bolting to the bucket. Add that to his ferocious demeanor on the floor, and Washington has a one-man wrecking crew whose attitude trickles down to the rest of his teammates.

“Trezz plays hard as sh** every night out. You’ve gotta prepare for him,” Kuzma said. “Obviously, an [opposing] team, you’ve got to bring your best every night ’cause he’s coming at you full throttle. He’s crashing the offensive glass every single time, defensive glass. He’s challenging shots. If you give it to him in the pocket and he’s got it in the paint, it’s probably going in the rim. So he’s a beast.

“And that energy, we feed off of it, and it’s important. Especially for 82 games. You can’t bring that type of energy collectively as a group every night. It’s impossible. But when you see guys out there like him doing it every night, it motivates you to play hard.”

Unseld Jr. relays that Harrell’s threat of getting to the rim and the free-throw line both allows Washington to score points and get its defense set, using his 16-point, 5-rebound effort in the first half vs. the Cavaliers as an example.

“His voice carries a lot of weight, but that energy’s contagious. And it’s not just the highlight plays where he’s dunking the ball or he’s the first guy to the floor or he’s getting second possessions. He kinda just galvanizes that group at times,” Unseld said. “Sometimes he does it on his own where he has that stretch in the first half [vs. Cleveland], where he was kinda the lone offense. But it’s also behind the scenes — his voice on the bench, his voice in the locker room. So it’s great to have a guy like that, who’s played in big moments and understands the value of that.”

Number of dunks by the Wizards so far this season…

Montrezl Harrell: 26*
Rest of team: 26

*3rd-most in NBA pic.twitter.com/0iIKgIgorq

— Chase Hughes (@ChaseHughesNBCS) November 8, 2021

Beal is the head of the snake, and newcomer Spencer Dinwiddie has taken quite the load off of him as a ball-handler and initiator. Daniel Gafford is well on his way to becoming a household name. We’ve still yet to see what this all looks like with Rui Hachimura and Thomas Bryant in the mix.

But with Unseld’s approach, championship experience injected into the building and a number of people who know what it takes to be consistent on a nightly basis, the Wizards might have glued together the right parts to give D.C. a winner.

“I think we have an ‘OK’ chemistry right now. Obviously, it’s still early and young in the season, 11 games in. But that [win in Cleveland] is something that can take ‘OK’ chemistry to good chemistry — finding a way on the road, with the crowd against you, with a big frontcourt like they had,” Kuzma said. “For us to pull out a win like that, that’s a big moral victory obviously outside of winning. But for the morale of the team and to keep guys together and see how we molded into one out there that last five minutes of the game was huge.

“I mean we’re picking up wins, but I think we can take it to another level. I think that’s kinda just really plain and simple. Obviously, I think we have ways to go. We have a couple levels that we can take it up to. That’s just kinda next-level thinking — certain things defensively we can be better at, offensively we can be way, way better. Like I said from the jump, it’s gonna take time. Every regular-season game is rehearsals for the playoffs, and by the time we get to March, April and we figure things out, hopefully we’re on the right side of things. Like I said, we’ve got a long ways to go. Obviously it’s great to be 8-3, but it really doesn’t matter in early November.”

As Kuzma tweeted last week: “Capitol Boys out here.”

Edited by Kristen Butler