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What is Pau Gasol worth?

Many believe this is the central question of the Lakers' offseason.

Gasol was integral to three straight Finals appearances. He out-fought and outplayed Dwight Howard and Kevin Garnett in back-to-back Finals victories. But careers and perceptions change quickly in L.A. and, to many, it now appears imminent that Gasol and the remaining $38 million on his contract will be traded this offseason.

Three top Lakers writers break down Gasol's place in the Lakers' future:

• OC Register’s Kevin Ding (who noted Gasol had a plus/minus of minus-53 for the second round): "It's abundantly clear now that the triangle offense is long gone that Lakers can use some perimeter pizzazz and tenacity a lot more than they can use Gasol's versatility-turned-uncertainty. But even if Gasol averages 50 points and 30 rebounds in the Olympics, the Lakers have a further complication in that they are trying to reduce their payroll in the wake of the post-lockout luxury-tax penalties and revenue sharing that have changed their landscape. Because of that, trading Gasol for a great player who has another massive contract isn't what they really want, either. The Lakers might have to go that route and figure out some money things later, as they were willing to do with their aborted deal for Chris Paul before the season."
• ESPN LA’s Dave McMenamin: "Bryant publicly demoted Gasol to the third scoring option during the regular season and then called him out in the playoffs for not being the aggressive scorer he once was. That makes Gasol the first to go. Call up Houston. Call up Chicago. Call up Minnesota. Call up Orlando. See whether interest is still out there. Better yet, call up all 29 other teams and maybe even go the draft pick route. This year's draft is widely considered to be the deepest in nearly a decade. Gasol turns 32 in July. He's played 11 years in the league plus put in a ton of time overseas playing for the Spanish national team. He averaged 12.5 points per game during the playoffs. History will show he was a vital piece of the Lakers' championship lore, but now is not the time for nostalgia. He's the first domino."
• ESPN LA’s Brian Kamenetzky: "He's supremely talented, versatile and a true team player capable of elevating any good team to elite status, and perhaps of pushing a near-elite team over the top. On the other hand, he won't transform a Brooklyn-esque loser, is very expensive, on the downside of his career, and short of being sent to a team in Spain, won't energize a season-ticket base. Finding a new home for Gasol isn't a simple proposition. The same contract prompting the Lakers to move him will make many teams hesitant to take him on."

The analysis above agrees that Pau is: expensive, talented, seven years older than Andrew Bynum and perhaps not the best fit, emotionally, with Kobe Bryant (though that seemed to be working just fine a few years ago).

The Lakers need more depth and fewer gargantuan contracts, so all signals point to Gasol's departure. Indeed, the Lakers have signaled that they are ready to part with him and, though the transaction was canceled by the NBA, the thwarted three-way deal that would have brought Chris Paul to the Lakers still provides the most accurate measure of Gasol's value.

Back in December 2011, the Rockets were willing to give up Kevin Martin, Luis Scola and Goran Dragic in exchange for Gasol.

That’s quite a haul, and a similar trade this summer would supply the Lakers, who counted on Steve Blake and Devin Ebanks for important rotation minutes in the playoffs, with real punch off the pine.

But after a disappointing postseason, does Gasol net the same goodies?

It’s true 2012 was Gasol’s worst scoring season of his NBA career by a point, though his rebounding and assist numbers remained constant. And it’s true that Gasol played farther from the basket on offense than at any time in his career.

It’s also true -- and this is important -- that Pau Gasol is a center. The Lakers managed to end up with two excellent 7-foot players, so Gasol, the more versatile one, plays power forward, but he’s a center. And it’s hard to overvalue a center who rebounds, defends, scores and passes like Gasol. The fact that the Lakers have surplus of this kind of player is borderline obscene and the reason many thought they could contend this season despite their obvious flaws.

They have options.

Perhaps Bynum would draw a better return.

Or maybe instead of ditching Gasol or Bynum, the Lakers could, like the San Antonio Spurs, simply extract more value from their cheaper pieces. After all, the combined salary of Kawhi Leonard, Gary Neal and Danny Green is less than the Lakers pay Steve Blake.

But it won’t be possible for them to get anywhere near the salary cap with their big three -- or even their two bigs -- on the books.

See, here’s the real issue for the Lakers, the one that makes moving Gasol or Bynum seem inevitable: Kobe Bryant’s spectacularly huge contract.

Last offseason, Henry Abbott first noted what an albatross this contract would become:

"Bryant is due to draw a salary of $25,244,493 in 2011-2012, $27,849,149 the following year and $30,453,805 in 2013-2014, when he will be 35. The cold hard question for general manager Mitch Kupchak would become: Which Laker team is better, Bryant and $32 million or so in supporting cast, or $60 million in the best players money can buy without Bryant?

...it may be time to find out if Bryant might consider waiving his no-trade clause. He is such a big name that he may, even under a new CBA, fetch the Lakers a player or two in addition to salary cap relief.

Then there's the final, unthinkable option: It has been discussed that the new CBA may have an amnesty clause, that lets teams buy out players and send them on their way. Depending how it's negotiated, this could include salary cap relief. And if so, would the Lakers use it on Bryant?”

Whether or not they knew league-wide austerity measures were in the offing in 2010, when they gave Bryant his last big extension, there’s no debate that, in basketball terms, the Lakers drastically overvalued their star wing. He is now a volume scorer who is still an excellent player, but the fact is that players better than him -- like Dwight Howard, LeBron James, Kevin Durant and Chris Paul -- are paid way less. Even supposing that, despite his age, Bryant's game somehow remains at its current level, the market price for a superstar has fallen precipitously since his last contract.

By the time Kobe's current contract nears expiration, it will be one of the worst in the NBA -- not because he will have deteriorated beyond recognition, but because the outrageous sum will have such a limiting effect on the Lakers' options.

So perhaps instead of wondering what Pau is worth, we should be asking different questions:

Is it worth $30 million in 2014-15 to see Bryant retire a Laker?

To many, the answer is an emphatic “Yes!”

But what about on the court -- is he worth more than Tony Parker and Manu Ginobili combined?

Because that’s how much he makes.

Is he worth destroying the most formidable frontline in the NBA?

Because, as everyone seems to tacitly acknowledge, that’s how much Kobe Bryant costs.

After a couple of scares in the Western Conference Semifinals, the Oklahoma City Thunder eliminated the Los Angeles Lakers, 4-1.

It’s the Thunder’s fifth straight home playoff win, which is their longest such streak since winning six straight in 2002.

Kevin Durant finished with 25 points, 10 rebounds for his sixth 25-10 playoff game over the last two seasons. That’s tied with Zach Randolph for most in the NBA during that stretch.

For the series, Durant averaged 26.8 points and Russell Westbrook, who scored 28 points in Game 5, averaged 25.6 in the series. It's just the fourth time teammates each averaged at least 25 points in a playoff series against the Lakers. Durant and Westbrook, however, are the only pair to lead their team to a series victory.

A big key to the Thunder’s success was that they outscored the Lakers by 13.8 transition points per game during the series, including by 17 in Game Five.

Westbrook (6.4), Durant (6.4) and James Harden (5.6) all averaged over five transition points per game in the series.

Despite the tight defense, Kobe Bryant did his best to keep the Lakers in Game Five.

His 42 points gave Bryant his 13th, 40-point playoff game, tying Wilt Chamberlain for fourth most all-time. It was the most points Bryant has ever scored in a playoff game when facing elimination.

Bryant accounted for 44.0 percent of the Lakers field goal attempts, but accounted for 52.9 percent of their made field goals in Game Five.

He did struggle however when guarded by Durant, especially in the fourth quarter this series.

Bryant shot 1-for-10 in that situation whereas he shot 41.7 percent (10-24) against all other Thunder defenders. Only two of Bryant's 34 fourth-quarter attempts were inside of five feet and both of those came against Harden.

This is the fifth time the Lakers were down 3-1 with Bryant and they have gone on to lose the series each time.

The Lakers loss means there are seven different teams who have more playoff wins than them over the last two seasons. That includes the Memphis Grizzlies and their longtime rival Boston Celtics.

The Thunder, meanwhile, advance to the Conference Finals for the second-straight season.

The only other time the franchise advanced to the Conference Finals in consecutive seasons was when they made three straight appearance from 1978-1980 as the Seattle SuperSonics.

Statistical support for this story from NBA.com.

Way out beyond the 3-point line, Metta World Peace never had a chance.

Kevin Durant walked forward, confidently bouncing the ball high off his right hip, his Thunder teammates arrayed along the baseline.

This was the definition of an isolation play; there was no way the other Lakers could offer help.

As he neared the 3-point line, Durant executed a hard right-to-left crossover, dipped his shoulder and glided past World Peace, who managed only to helplessly rotate his hips as though one foot was nailed to the ground.

Having summarily dispatched World Peace, Durant wove back to his right and finished past Andrew Bynum.

It was the first shot Durant took in Game 2, and one of just three Durant isolation attempts all game.

The result was no fluke. In fact, Durant isolated in space against Metta World Peace might be one of the most bankable plays in the Thunder’s awesome arsenal of offensive weapons.

As David Thorpe pointed out on TrueHoop TV, while Metta World Peace can still be a valuable defender, his worth is directly related to the distance he is from the rim. Down in the paint -- where his phenomenal strength and lightning quick hands make all the difference -- that’s where he can dominate.

But out on the perimeter, especially when called to move laterally, not so much.

Admittedly, defending Kevin Durant anywhere on the court is like trying to nail Jello to a wall. But Thorpe notes that Metta World Peace remains particularly well-suited to defending one type of Kevin Durant play.

“He can still chase, I think, very well," says Thorpe. "And for years now I’ve suggested he’s one of the best chaser defenders we have in the league, guarding the guys who want to use single-doubles or staggered screens.”

What Thorpe is describing are the pindown sets in which Durant sprints off devastating screens from guys like Kendrick Perkins and Nick Collison. He uses them to create that fraction of daylight necessary to get off his silky jumper, or to create a crease for a tight curl to the rim.

These are the plays that Artest, with his intelligence and strength, still defends quite well. He remains a savvy off-ball defender and knows how to re-route Durant to keep him from catching.

Now for the other half of Thorpe’s take on World Peace’s defense:

“He can run, just fine. He just can’t slide maybe more than a step and a half to two steps and literally stops, very often, when he’s forced to take more than that.”

That’s almost exactly what happened on Durant’s first bucket.

So why didn’t we see it again, and again, and again?

Fancy plays are all well and good, and the Thunder offense has certainly benefited from more nuanced sets. But this matchup demands some good ol’ fashioned four-down isolations that pit Durant’s slick handle and slithery quickness against the leaden feet of Metta World Peace.

LeBron James became the eighth player in NBA history to win three MVP awards Saturday, earning the honor after leading the Miami Heat in points, rebounds and assists this season.

James also led his team in total points, rebounds and assists when he won his first MVP award with the Cavaliers in 2008-09. He joins Wilt Chamberlain as the only players in league history to lead their teams in each of those categories in at least two MVP seasons. (Chamberlain did it three times).

For the sixth time in his nine NBA seasons, James averaged at least 27 points, 7 rebounds and 6 assists per game. The only other player with six such seasons is Oscar Robertson, who did it six times in his 14 seasons.

As James made clear when he accepted the award, he has a "bigger goal" remaining this season: winning his first NBA title. At the moment, James is the only member of the three-MVP club without an NBA championship ring. The other seven players with three or more MVP trophies have combined to win 34 NBA titles, an average of nearly five per player.

James, Karl Malone and Steve Nash are the only players to win multiple MVP awards but not a league title (Malone and Nash have each won the award twice).

James earned 85 first-place votes and 1,074 total points, finishing 185 points ahead of runner-up Kevin Durant in voting. According to multiple metrics, James was the clear choice.

With James on the court, the Heat outscored opponents by 474 points during the regular season, giving James the highest plus-minus rating in the league. James has led the NBA in plus-minus each of the last four seasons since Paul Pierce had an NBA-best +784 rating in 2007-08.

James also led all players in estimated wins added, a metric that estimates the number of wins a player adds to a team over the course of a season above what would be expected from a "replacement" player. The concept is similar to wins above replacement (WAR) in baseball.

James is estimated to have added 23.5 wins to the Heat's season total this season. The top three in estimated wins added mirrored the top three finishers in MVP voting, with Durant (20.0) ranking second and Chris Paul (17.5) coming in third.

It was a bad night for the home teams in the NBA playoffs, as the Dallas Mavericks and New York Knicks combined to score just 149 points and moved within one loss of elimination on Thursday.

On a day where New York Yankees closer Mariano Rivera suffered a torn ACL, the Knicks set an NBA record by losing their 13th straight playoff game. The last time the Knicks won a playoff game was April 29, 2001. Rivera earned career save number 171 on the same day, and has recorded 437 regular-season games since then.

The Knicks led by four points at halftime before being outscored 51-30 in the second half by the Miami Heat. In the fourth period, they were outscored 17-14 … by LeBron James. The 17 points tied a playoff career high for James in the fourth quarter, matching his output against the Orlando Magic in the 2009 Conference Finals.

According to Elias, the Knicks tied the NBA shot-clock era record of 38 consecutive games without scoring 100 points. The last time New York reached a century was on June 9, 1999, a 101-94 win over the Indiana Pacers. The other team to have 38 games between scoring 100 points was the Heat, from 1997 to 2004.

How hard was it for the Knicks to score? They were just 22-for-69 from the field and made only eight field goals in the second half. They shot 32 percent from the field, breaking the franchise record for worst field goal percentage in a playoff game. Their previous low was 33 percent in the 1999 NBA Finals against the San Antonio Spurs.

The home crowd in Dallas wasn’t treated to much more offense. The Mavericks scored 79 points against the Oklahoma City Thunder, their lowest playoff point total since losing 98-74 to the Heat in Game 4 of the 2006 NBA Finals. The Thunder never trailed in the game, and the only time the game was tied was 0-0. In Game 2, there were 16 lead changes and 16 ties.

Kevin Durant had the best shooting night of his playoff career, making 11 of 15 shots. After making on 15 of 44 shots in the first two games (34 percent), he shot a playoff career-high 73 percent from the field on Thursday. His previous playoff high was 59 percent (13-for-22) against the Denver Nuggets last season.

Durant was even better from mid- and long-range. After making only 6 of 21 shots from 15 feet or further in the first two games, he was 8-for-10 in Game 3.

The Mavericks are the second defending champion in NBA history to lose their first three playoff games. The only other defending champ to do so was the Miami Heat, who were swept out of the playoffs in 2007 by the Chicago Bulls.

MEMPHIS, Tenn. -- Do you trust a man without a conscience, one who operates on a different -- even nonexistent -- moral code?

For basketball purists, that’s a tough one. We subscribe to the high-minded principles of “quality shot selection,” of “taking what the defense gives you,” of “not settling.” These tenets make up the basketball code we romanticize in “Hoosiers” and in the longevity of the San Antonio Spurs.

But Los Angeles Clippers’ swingman Nick Young doesn’t subscribe to this code -- not by a long shot. When Young has the ball in his hands, he doesn't factor his decision-making the way coaches, fans and analysts would.

"I'd say I have no conscience, to a certain extent," Young says. "I feel like I can make any shot. That's something that's been in me since I started playing the game."

Young doesn't deny that he takes a few ill-advised shots a game, but he won't apologize for them. And on Sunday in the Clippers' improbable comeback, he had nothing to be sorry about. He went for 19 points on 11 shots, including a trio of 3-pointers in a span of a minute to shave a 12-point deficit to three in a flash.

Most of those shots on Sunday were open looks, but for most of his tenure with the Clippers the degree of difficulty on his shot selection has been astronomical.

"Those shots? I still think I can make them," Young said. "Some people might think, 'He's glad to shoot that shot,' but I practice those shots."

This entire premise can offend certain sensibilities. I ask Young, "Really? You practice taking contested 21-footers inside the arc with two guys on you?"

"I know I can make 'em," Young says.

This certitude can drive an empiricist nuts. An average NBA game has about 94 possessions, and if you have a guy like Young chucking up bad shots on three or four of those possessions, that can kill your efficiency. Look at the point differentials of most NBA teams -- a bucket or two per game is the difference between a top-four seed and a seat at the draft lottery.

Despite these truths, is it possible that Young has a point? Are some of those bad shots loss leaders that ultimately pay off in a game like Sunday night's?

In an effort to try to make sense of whether a lack of conscience can translate to success, I go in search of Gilbert Arenas.

After Arenas dropped 61 points against the Los Angeles Lakers in December 2006, Kobe Bryant famously said of the then-Washington Wizards star, "He doesn't seem to have much of a conscience. I really don't think he does. Some of the shots he took tonight, you miss those, and they're just terrible shots. Awful. You make them and they're unbelievable shots."

Setting aside the irony of the source, Bryant gets to the heart of the matter. Many interpreted his comments as a swipe at Arenas, but it wasn't. Bryant was just delving into the mindset of the unconscionable shooter, who is neither good nor bad -- but just is.

On Monday, Arenas had plenty to offer on the matter:

The best players in any sport in the world have no conscience.

It's like someone who has ADD (attention deficit disorder). They have a creative mind. They can see things that other people can't see. They can do things that other people can't do. But once they take the medicine, it calms them down -- just like a coach who gives a conscience to a guy who doesn't have a conscience.

It's like an assassin. In any movie, he starts off killing everybody, but then he finds the girl who stops him from being an assassin. That's just like players. The reason Steve Nash can make the passes he can make is because nobody has ever told him when he makes a turnover, "Don't make that pass." Same thing with Rondo. It gives them that freedom to expand and create anything he can think of.

I challenge Arenas on the notion that really bad shots are part of the creative process, that a guy somehow can't be both judicious and aggressive, but he rejected the premise that there's anything wrong with taking a 20-footer with a defender in your face and time on the shot clock:

His creativity lets him do that. It's a shot he thinks he can make. Just like Kobe. If you think about the best players in the world, they have no conscience. They try anything. They do anything. Brett Favre -- he threw any pass he thought he could throw. That's his creativity. That's what he's like. He's going to fail and he's also going to win.

But a guy with a conscience won't pull that trigger.

I ask Arenas whether you can be a great player and still have a conscience.

"I don't think so," Arenas says. "Michael Jordan never had a conscience. A.I. didn't have a conscience. Kobe doesn't have a conscience."

I counter that Kevin Garnett has a conscience, that he exercises an uncommon discipline and has still been one of the best players of his time.

Arenas' response?

And that's why he doesn't get the ball in the fourth quarter. That's why they give it to Paul Pierce, because he has no conscience. LeBron has a conscience. He cares what you think about him. But Kevin Durant doesn't have a conscience. D-Wade doesn't have a conscience. But Bosh has a conscience.

You're born with it or you're not. Some people are what I call "killers." Some people have the killer mentality and that's who you want with the ball at the end of the game. You want them taking that shot because they don't care about failing -- even if it's a bad shot.

It's hard to let Arenas off the hook on this point. Does he deny there are bad shots that cost you basketball games?

That's the game of basketball. You can't go around and play like we did yesterday -- like college basketball when you're up 20 with a few minutes left and you're stalling and you do the four corners, and before you know it, you stop being aggressive.

So the Grizzlies developed a conscience at the wrong time in Game 1?

"Yes," Arenas says.

Arenas' theory that conscience is a congenital trait is interesting. In his worldview, a player can't develop -- or rather shed -- his conscience. He's either hard-wired to kill, like Nick Young or, on a larger scale, Kobe Bryant. Or he's not.

Arenas might be half-right, half-wrong:

A lack of conscience might be a necessary ingredient for Arenas' "killers," but those moral vacuums aren't created equally.

On Sunday, we saw the best of Young's nihilism. Without it, the Grizzlies are up 1-0 in this series. But down the road, it's possible a lack of conscience might shoot the Clippers out of a game.

Such is the fickle nature of the code.

At some point in his career, likely in the latter stages of the 16 NBA seasons he’s now amassed in a Los Angeles Lakers uniform, Kobe Bryant stopped caring about the persona we expect a star athlete to have.

Maybe the turn came in midair, on one of the many flights he took in and out of Colorado in 2003 and 2004 while being chastised by the entire country. Perhaps it was after the dust had settled on very public falling outs with the coach and star player from his first three title runs, in which he received the brunt of the blame. Or most likely, it was those status-fortifying fourth and fifth rings, the ones he won. It’s hard to pinpoint exactly, but somewhere lost amidst all the awards and accolades and success, Bryant has accepted and embraced that, despite his immense popularity, he may not be the most well-received player in the public eye. At the very least, he has just stopped caring.

And boy, is it refreshing.

He swears in interviews, so much so that he made it his New Year’s resolution to stop doing so (which didn’t last very long). After winning his fifth title, his immediate response to a question about what it meant to him was, “I just got one more than Shaq.” And he admitted that he went into last year’s All-Star game in L.A. looking to break the scoring record and did everything could to follow up on it (he didn’t, but he came close).

Bryant has always been brash; he took Brandy to his high school prom and wore sunglasses atop his shaved dome as he announced that he’d be skipping college and taking "his talents" to the NBA long before LeBron, as SI's Lee Jenkins reminded us this week. But with a decade-plus of exploits now under his belt and one of the league’s only no-trade clause at his disposal, Bryant has become downright brazen. In the same way your parents are willing to say and maybe wear things that embarrass the heck out of you without any remorse, Kobe’s comfort in his place in the league allows him to do what he wants, which is often to shoot from the hip.

That attitude has both cultivated and hindered his game, as carte blanche is also what affords him all those seemingly unquestioned shot opportunities. But in a league so bogged down by talk of a players’ image and what can and cannot be said, so much so that it may be altering the way some behave and make their decisions, Bryant remains one of the few willing to occasionally step outside of the public- and media-crafted conventions (regardless of whether or not it’s in an attempt to convey or bolster a carefully constructed image of superiority). His feats and maniacal quest for even greater feats may make him seem inhuman or robotic, but the openness with which he lusts after them is both rare and welcome in a sports culture that offers precious few moments of honesty.

The latest example came on the eve of the final night of the 2011-12 regular season, as Bryant and the Lakers head to Sacramento with the year-end scoring title on the line. The 33-year-old Bryant is averaging 27.86 points per game. Kevin Durant is averaging an NBA-best 28.03 points. In order to finish ahead of Durant, Bryant will have to score 38 points or more.

With little to gain against the Kings, the Lakers have said that they will likely sit most of their starters … except, perhaps, Bryant. Kobe will make his final decision at shootaround, but the presumption, based on his declaration last week that he’s “not on vacation” and that Kobe is, well, Kobe, is that he’ll play.

The decision may not be a wise one, especially for a player who just missed seven games because of a shin injury and averages over 38 minutes a game, at age 33. But unlike most players, Kobe has made it clear that statistics and his place in league history matters. A scoring title is a relatively minor accomplishment on a resume like the one Bryant has assembled, but years from now when we’re debating his place in league, such things will be brought up and factored in, and an almost-scoring title, even if it is by a fraction of a point, won’t even register. As frivolous as they may be, those conversations matter to many, including Kobe. And despite quotes to the contrary, it’s naive to think that many, many other players don’t agree.

Kevin Durant has brushed aside any talk about the significance of a third straight scoring belt at the tender age of 23, only feeding into the humble persona that defines both him and this new generation of NBA stars. But a noted fierce competitor, it’s a little hard to believe that Durant is completely disinterested, even if it is an individual award. With his emotions often hidden better than his many tattoos, it’s hard to tell, really.

Besides, while Durant may not have made any blatant attempt to pad his scoring numbers in his final regular-season appearance, a 106-101 loss to the Nuggets in which he had 32 points, the Thunder still had home-court advantage in a potential Miami-Oklahoma City NBA Finals to play for.

The Lakers, however, have very little to gain in their 66^th and final game. Which may seem like an open invitation to shut it all down, but it’s also the perfect opportunity to give Kobe free rein for the night. The risk of injury is looming, but how is playing on this night any more dangerous than it was in the previous games this season, or the 1,000 or so before it?

Just let Kobe be Kobe.

He’s going to be either way.

One of the closest scoring races in NBA history comes down to the final day of the season, as Kevin Durant and Kobe Bryant each take aim at their third scoring title.

The Oklahoma City Thunder lost to the Denver Nuggets on Wednesday to finish the season at 47-19. That .712 winning percentage is the best for the franchise since 1997-98, when the Seattle SuperSonics finished 61-21 – a .744 clip.

Durant scored 32 points in the loss, and finished the season with 1,850 points in 66 games. That computes to 28.03 points per game, so he is currently in position to claim his third straight scoring title.

However, Bryant and the Los Angeles Lakers finish their season on Thursday against the Sacramento Kings. With 38 points, Bryant would pass Durant to claim his third scoring title and first since the 2006-07 season. If Bryant wins the scoring crown, he would be the first player over 30 years of age to lead the league in scoring since Michael Jordan in 1997-98.

Bryant has scored at least 38 points in seven of his 58 games this season. In two games against the Kings, he has netted 29 and 38.

This is one of the closest scoring races in recent NBA history. Two years ago, Durant claimed his first scoring title by 0.44 points per game over LeBron James. The closest scoring race since 1968-69 took place during the 1977-78 season, when George Gervin finished 0.07 points per game ahead of David Thompson. If Bryant finishes with between 34 and 42 points against the Kings, this season would vault to the top of the list.

Bobcats Record Watch
With their 102-95 loss to the Orlando Magic, the Charlotte Bobcats are one loss away from recording the worst win percentage in NBA history. The Bobcats host the New York Knicks on Thursday with a chance to avoid the dubious distinction.

The current record holder is the 1972-73 Philadelphia 76ers, who finished the season with a .110 winning percentage after winning just nine of 73 games. If the Bobcats lose to the Knicks, they’ll have a 7-59 record and .106 win percent.

The Bobcats have lost 22 straight games since beating the Toronto Raptors on March 17. That’s the fourth-longest losing streak within a single season in NBA history. The Cleveland Cavaliers lost 26 straight games during the 2010-11 season. With a loss Thursday, the Bobcats would tie the 1995-96 Vancouver Grizzlies and 1997-98 Nuggets for the second-longest streak.

Full Court Press
• The Los Angeles Clippers finished their season with a 99-93 loss at the Knicks. They ended up with a 16-17 road record. According to the Elias Sports Bureau, the Clippers have never finished with a .500 or better record on the road in their 42-year franchise history.

• Evan Turner scored a career-high 29 points as the 76ers beat the Milwaukee Bucks, who were led by the first career double-double for Tobias Harris.

• The Washington Wizards won their fifth straight game, the longest winning streak for the franchise since they won six straight games in November 2007.

Micah Adams contributed to this post

The first half was an eyesore, as the Thunder led nearly the whole way despite a bevy of turnovers by both teams. Then the Clippers rallied back to drop the Thunder 92-77 on Monday, five nights after Los Angeles went into Oklahoma City and stole one on the Thunder's home court. The game was a revelation for the Clippers, and a nightmare for the Thunder after halftime.

• So many of the Clippers' wins this season have been of the lightning-in-the-bottle variety. Randy Foye will get hot from long range, or Chris Paul will emerge from the bullpen late in the fourth quarter and carry the team to an improbable win. A win is a win -- but the best teams in the league rely on reliable systems and methods to chalk up victories. The Clippers, on the other hand, have been masters of serendipity. But that wasn't the case Monday night, when the Clippers collectively identified Oklahoma City's weaknesses and attacked them. Playing a grown-up brand of basketball, the Clippers threw a steady stream of different defensive coverages at the Thunder. When the Thunder confronted their strengths with strength, the Clippers made reads and found workarounds. This is how mature basketball teams win big games in the NBA and, in taking out the Thunder with substance and savvy, the Clippers played up to their potential Monday. The pyrotechnics will explode at some point; the Clippers' challenge going forward is adopting a series of principles that will guide them when they don't.
• The turning point of the game came toward the end of the third quarter when Nick Young exploded for eight points in three possessions. Prior to Monday, Young had been terrible for the Clippers, failing to shoot over 50 percent from the field in any of his 17 games with the Clippers. That was largely a function of looking for the wrong shots in the wrong spots. But during this stretch of possessions, he played off the Clippers' primary action: the middle pick-and-roll between Paul and Blake Griffin. On the first shot, the Thunder trapped Paul, then the other three OKC defenders converged on Griffin in the lane. Griffin takes a lot of grief as a "one-dimensional" player. Ever seen him move the ball out of a triple-team? That's what he did there to find Young open for two. One possession later, Paul ran a little slip screen with Griffin. This time, Young needed some help, so DeAndre Jordan pinned Kevin Durant (Young's man) out of the play. Young was open for a 3-pointer at a spot a couple of feet deeper than the previous one. On the third possession, the Clippers ran that Paul-Griffin pick-and-roll one more time. Again, a trap and, again, Durant got caught helping middle (to pick up Jordan on a duck-in) rather than staying at home on Young. It's safe to say Paul is a guy who knows how to make hedging defenders look silly. He did here. In a flash, the Clippers shaved the Thunder's lead down to a single point. Young finished with 19 points on 11 true shots without a turnover. The swag was back, at least for a night, and a very opportune one at that.
• In their heyday, the Celtics got away with a lot of turnovers, largely because they were impossible to score against for long stretches of basketball. The Thunder have a reasonably efficient defense, but they can't continue to cough up the ball on nearly a sixth of their possessions, because a team like San Antonio or the Lakers -- or even the Clippers, who protect the ball well -- will punish them for it. Russell Westbrook, who scored the Thunder's first seven points, couldn't find his cutters in the first half, errors that resulted in a slew of turnovers. In the third quarter, Serge Ibaka couldn't make a simple entry pass into the high post, and Westbrook found a wide-open Vinny Del Negro for a kickout. All of it made for very bad news, as the Thunder couldn't get out of their own way.
• The Clippers started dabbling with the zone a couple of months back when their man-to-man defense was in shambles. The schemes weren't terribly effective, but you could see the faint sketch of something that could potentially work. The Clippers are quick and long, and they certainly had the potential to compensate for their lack of reliable isolation defenders by using their size and athleticism in the zone. Gradually, that zone defense has improved, and it hummed just before halftime. Jordan was everywhere, and the Clippers were quick to match up the instant the Thunder found a seam. I caught up with Chauncey Billups after the game to ask him about the Clippers' zone, which gave up only seven points in 13 possessions. Billups was miffed when Flip Saunders installed the zone in Detroit, because he took it as an affront to his Pistons' defensive capabilities. Zone, as Metta World Peace recently told me, was for teams that can't defend in man, and for a certain proud vet, the scheme still carries a stigma. "We looked at it like it was a weakness, like you couldn't stop anybody," Billups said. "But it's a good gimmick to change up a defense." The Clippers, with Jordan anchoring underneath in Chandlerian fashion, are making it work. The Thunder couldn't lay off the long jumpers (though Durant missed a couple of open ones from long range), or they drove recklessly into the teeth of the zone. No flashes, few cuts and little patience.
• Oklahoma City couldn't make sense of the Clippers' varied coverages. The Clippers ran under Westbrook on pick-and-roll plays -- but not the big man -- giving the eager point guard just enough rope to hang himself ... but not too much. The Clippers played Durant straight-up in isolation or in the post, with the occasional trap. Sometimes they'd switch when Durant came off the pindown, sometimes not. "The big thing was to make [Durant] catch as high as possible," Kenyon Martin said. "Sometimes out of timeouts we'd switch the coverage if we saw he was getting low, and sometimes we made a read." Durant shot 7-for-18 from the floor, and drained 10 of 12 from the line.
• Aside from the handful of lousy close-outs, the Thunder didn't play a poor defensive game. Their defensive pick-and-roll strategy can best be characterized as a "long show." The big man -- be it Kendrick Perkins or Ibaka -- stayed with Paul until the point guard gave up the ball, and this creates all sorts of confusion behind this quasi-blitz. The Clippers' wing would stagnate in the corner, while Griffin would shuffle around the high post desperately looking to provide a pressure release for Paul. More times than not, it worked, even against a menace like Paul. The Clippers point guard finished with 12 points (5-for-12 FGAs, 1-for-2 FTAs) and 10 assists. Not bad, but hardly destructive.

Andrew Bynum had a monster night on Wednesday in the Lakers' big road win over the Spurs. He racked up 30 rebounds.

30!

Only eight other players have collected that many boards in a game since the 1985-86 season, and no Laker had accomplished such a feat since Kareem Abdul-Jabbar in 1978. Meanwhile, the entire Spurs team managed only 33 rebounds.

Although Bynum was pleased with his heroics on the glass, he was bothered by his subpar shooting performance from the field. From Kevin Ding of the Orange County Register:

But Bynum also wasn’t satisfied, citing his 7-of-20 shooting from the field to go with 2-of-4 free-throw shooting. In these three road games without Bryant, enabling opposing defenses to trap Bynum faster and stronger, Bynum shot 24 of 64 from the field (37.5 percent).

He said he needs to figure out a way to get his base stronger to shoot with defenses taking away the dribbles he likes to take to get himself in rhythm.

“People are realizing if I get two or three dribbles, I’m going to get a basket very quickly and very easily,” Bynum said.

Bynum described himself in the locker room after a postgame shower as “a little upset” about the shooting that he said will send him into the gym for more work.

“For me, I’ll remember shooting horribly,” he said.

Bynum has an interesting dilemma that most of us face at some point -- what feels comfortable might not be the most efficient way to master a task. He likes to dribble the basketball before going up for his shot. For Bynum, it's a way of clearing his throat, of sorts, before getting into his move. But those dribbles present complications. They provide time for defenses to swarm and also leave him potentially vulnerable to turnovers.

A while back, 82games.com studied the correlation between the number of dribbles of a player taking a shot (or drawing a foul, or committing a turnover) -- in other words, the player whose action is decisive on a given possession. It's no surprise that the research concluded that a player is most likely to score and least likely to commit a turnover or get his shot blocked if he takes zero dribbles.

More of this kind of data is being explored. To wit, check out this clip from the MIT Sloan Sports Analytics Conference, in which Jackie MacMullan shares some findings about the correlation between Kevin Durant's shooting performance and the number of dribbles he takes prior to his shot attempts. For this specific portion for the discussion, please fast forward to the 16:00 mark:

Sunday night at 8 ET on ESPN, the Heat and Thunder square off in the first of two head-to-head matchups this season.

So what can we expect?

With all the athletes on the floor, one might anticipate a track meet. And while the Thunder and Heat rank sixth and seventh in the NBA in fast-break points, it’s actually in the half court where they do the most damage.

According to our video-tracking friends at Synergy Sports, the Thunder average 0.93 points per play and have an effective field goal percentage of 50.2 percent in the half court, both of which rank second in the NBA.

Miami, which ranks third in both categories, is the only team which scores more often in the half court than Oklahoma City, scoring on nearly 45 percent of their half-court plays.

Perhaps most fascinating is that while both teams excel in the half court, they do so in much different ways.

While the Thunder runs a fairly balanced half-court offense, they are particularly strong in pick-and-roll and isolation situations.

With its outside-in trio of Kevin Durant, Russell Westbrook and James Harden running the show, the Thunder are by far most efficient isolation team in the NBA. They rank first in the NBA in points per possession (0.92) and FG pct (45.0), easily exceeding the league averages of 0.79 and 37.2. Durant, Westbrook, and Harden rank fourth, fifth and sixth, respectively, in isolation points per play (min. 75 plays).

Additionally, Oklahoma City runs a higher volume of pick-and-rolls than any other team in the league, as its P&R ball handler accounts for just under 20 percent of the teams’ possessions in the half court.

The quality matches the quantity as the Thunder rank second in points per play from the P&R ball handler, with James Harden the primary facilitator. Of the 79 players with at least 75 plays as the P&R ball handler, Harden’s 1.07 points per play ranks first in the NBA.

The Heat meanwhile rely on spot-up shooting nearly 10 percent more than any other play in the half court, and for good reason, as they rank third in the NBA in points per play (1.01) and effective field goal percentage (51.7).

While Mike Miller leads the NBA in 3-point field goal percentage, the other supporting players have been no slouches either. Of the more than 225 players with at least 50 spot-up plays, Miller, Mario Chalmers and James Jones all rank in the top 15 in points per play.

The biggest difference between the two teams is their ability to score in the post. Whereas less than eight percent of the Thunder’s half-court possessions end in a post-up, it’s the Heat’s second-most utilized play type in the half court.

Miami ranks second in the NBA in points per play in post-up situations. Oklahoma City ranks 23rd.

While LeBron James has been lauded all season long for his new-found willingness to go in the post, Dwyane Wade is quietly doing the same. Among players with at least 100 post-ups, Wade and James rank second and fourth in points per play.

How each team executes in the half court will likely determine the outcome of this potential NBA Finals preview. Can Oklahoma City run its pick-and-roll and isolation sets with a high degree of efficiency? Can Miami spread the floor for its shooters and then pound the post with its physical wings?

Oklahoma City Thunder forward Kevin Durant and guard Russell Westbrook have set a new standard of dynamic-duo performance in the NBA.

In an epic double-overtime matchup with the Minnesota Timberwolves on Friday, the two each surpassed the 40-point mark.

This was the second time this season that both scored at least 40 points in the same NBA game. The Elias Sports Bureau noted that no pair of teammates had done that previously in NBA history.

Timberwolves forward Kevin Love and guard J.J. Barea formed their own statistically special tandem. Love broke Kevin Garnett’s single-game record for points in a game with 51 and Barea recorded his first career triple-double, the NBA’s first by a player born in Latin America.

Only one other time in NBA history has a team had one player score 50 points and another record a triple-double in a losing effort. Elias uncovered that Wilt Chamberlain supplied the scoring and Guy Rodgers had the triple-double for the 1962-63 Warriors.

The Thunder have now won 11 straight games against the Timberwolves.

Heat turn it up on defense
The Miami Heat allowed a season-low 73 points against the Pistons. They held Detroit to only 52 points in half court, 29 fewer than in their previous meeting on Jan. 25.

The Heat had some early offensive success inside. Miami scored 34 points in the paint in the first half, matching its most in a first half for the season.

Dwyane Wade finished with a game-high 24 points and was 7-for-10 from inside 10 feet for the game.

Honorable Mention: Feats of the Night
Steve Nash had his 10th game this season with at least 15 assists for the Phoenix Suns on Friday. Rajon Rondo had his fourth such game. Nash and Rondo rank 1-2 in the NBA in 15-assist games in 2011-12.

Atlanta Hawks forward Josh Smith (30 points, 12 rebounds) joined Love, Durant and LeBron James as the only players in the NBA this season with consecutive games with at least 30 points and 10 rebounds.

Plus/Minus Note of the Night
Phoenix Suns center Channing Frye was a plus-15 in a 113-111 win over the Indiana Pacers. No one else on the Suns was better than a plus-5.

Frye was 5-for-7 from the field in the win. He was 5-for-17 and a minus-15 in his two games prior to this one.

What’s happening now in the NBA happened to the MLB about five years ago.

There’s no denying that the basketball world sits on the brink of a data explosion. A good chunk of the basketball community -- NBA execs, writers, students, casual observers -- who attended this past weekend’s MIT Sloan Sports Analytics Conference in Boston left with a feeling of fiery anticipation of what’s on the horizon.

Thanks to an invasion of super-fancy technology and tracking devices like STATS LLC’s SportVU, the basketball community is on the verge of something big and scary and wonderful. SportVU is a camera system being installed in NBA arenas that will track every movement on the basketball court. The ball, the 10 players, the referees, flying bats, everything. All of it will be digitally tracked and the results will be spit out in a report that features about a million data points per game.

These are exciting times in the sport and there’s no question that it can feel daunting as well. But we’re not alone in this journey. Because about a half-decade ago, a tidal wave of data plowed through another sport, baseball, and it’s never been the same since.

There’s a SportVU already in place for baseball and it’s called Pitch f/x. Back in 2007, a similar technology that is crashing the hardwood already hit the baseball diamond and it has altered the way analysts, teams, writers and fans digested the so-called national pastime. Since then, other products from the Pitch f/x company, Sportvision, have arrived on the scene. Pitch f/x tracks pitches, Hit f/x tracks batted balls, and Field f/x tracks the player movement on the field.

Stat geeks -- and I say that with the utmost respect for fellow numerically-slanted brethren -- pounced on the data and tirelessly crunched the numbers so we could make fun charts that you see in the mainstream today. Or instead of looking at batting average rankings, we can now glance at FanGraphs to see which starting pitcher’s slider has the most horizontal movement. And that’s just what’s out in public.

But the data wasn’t useful for just the nerds. Nowadays, in the palm of your hand, fans can follow a Dodgers-Giants game and learn just how fast Tim Lincecum threw his blazing 0-2 pitch to Matt Kemp, precisely how many inches it broke before it reached the plate and where it hit the catcher’s mitt. Not only that, you can watch an animated trajectory of the pitch within a few seconds after the pitch is released from Lincecum’s hand. All on your handy smartphone.

We don’t have anything like that in the NBA, but if you’re looking into the future of the basketball, take a glance at what’s going on in the MLB. Depending on who you ask, it appears that the baseball world, at least in sheer volume of data and what they’re doing with it, is about 5-10 years ahead of the basketball world. We’re catching up though, thanks to SportVU, Synergy Sports Technology and other tracking services.

So what can we learn from the baseball world?

1. Patience is a virtue
After talking to baseball folks in and around the game, it’s imperative that we preach patience. The revolution will not happen overnight. Having the data and being able to do something meaningful with it are two very different things. And it takes time.

Consider this. According to SportVU, each game produces about 800,000 data points for every game. There are 1,230 NBA games played in a full 82-game season (remember those?). Use the trusty multiplication function on your calculator and you’ll discover that we’re talking 984,000,000 data points in a regular season. Throw in the playoffs and we’re getting into the trillions. And you thought the box score had a lot of numbers.

The lesson is that there will be times early on where ambitious writers can find trends on the spreadsheet surface and do something about it. Take for instance Fangraphs and ESPN Insider writer Dave Cameron, who wrote to the Mariners pitching coach and asked him to let Felix Hernandez know that he throws too many fastballs early on, something he discovered playing around with the data. And it worked. Cameron, through Pitch f/x data, actually altered Hernandez’ pitch selection. Something similar could happen with say, Kevin Durant and his shot selection, but it’s going to take months and possibly years before we get to that place.

2. Computer geeks are the new market inefficiency
There’s a reason why Mike Zarren, the assistant general manager of the Boston Celtics, actually announced to the audience during the Basketball Analytics panel at Sloan that he was looking to hire someone who can build and manage a database from scratch. This really happened. As expected, a stampede of super-smart computer programmers and SQL experts rushed over to Zarren after the panel. Zarren survived. I think.

These quants are in demand. More of this will happen in the NBA and that wave has already happened in baseball (just look at the alumni list of Baseball Prospectus and Hardball Times stats guys – several are with teams now). When Pitch f/x fell into their laps, MLB clubs scooped up computer geeks faster than you can say, “Troy Tulowitzki.”

Because when you look at it, there’s a five step process that NBA teams will adopt in the coming years: Acquire the data, harness the data, analyze the data, translate the data, apply the data. Those last two steps might be the trickiest but the first three tasks will be the jobs of computer geeks. Sure, we could come up with tons of fun, but mostly trivial superlatives (who throws the fastest fastball? Which center jumps the highest for rebounds?) just by sorting a column in the spreadsheet. But the more important stuff comes when you have geophysicists trying to build a model that can detect how Jamie Moyer’s arm angle changes for off-speed pitches (the Rays actually did this very thing prepping for the World Series).

3. The myth of scouts vs. stats
With this data in hand, soon we’ll begin to answer questions like: Who’s the best shooter when given a foot of space to fire off his shot? Who tallies the most hockey assists in the game? Who is the most frequent dribbler across the league? Who’s the slowest baseline-to-baseline player in the game?

We could dabble in those questions from now until the end of time, but really, what can you do with that information? With data analysts, we can answer the “what” part of the question, but often times, the “why?” part is the one that matters. Sure, it could be helpful to know who scores the most when entering the paint, but diagramming and preparing for that is what will end up changing the NBA landscape.

And in order to apply the kernels of data, there needs to be a conversation with the scouts and the coaching staff. When the rise of pitch f/x and data analysts didn’t make scouts extinct; they brought them closer together. If a computer geek discovers that Jonathan Papelbon’s curveball generates more swings and misses on the outside part of the plate, good luck trying to tell him how to pitch. That’s where the scouts and managers (or coaches) come in. If they don’t listen or embrace the data, then how will the team ever get any use out of it?

Quants won’t replace advanced scouts in the NBA, just like they didn’t in MLB. It’s all about the quest for information. That’s why at the Baseball Analytics panel at Sloan, the father of sabermetrics Bill James was probably just as eager to hear what former baseball player Rocco Baldelli had to say as Baldelli was to hear James speak. It's a two-way street. Every team seeks information in all shapes in sizes because every team craves that next competitive edge.

The NBA will look a lot different in 2017 when SportVU and other technologies take their place in the game. But as we’re learning in baseball, there will always be a seat at the table for both scouts and the stats. We’ll never have perfect knowledge of the sport, but with a wave of data in our sights, we’re probably moving in the right direction toward that unreachable ideal.

There were plenty of big performances and notes from around the NBA on Wednesday, but none bigger than the scoring outburst from the Oklahoma City Thunder star trio.

Russell Westbrook scored 31 points, Kevin Durant had 30 and James Harden added a career-high 30 points in the Thunder’s 115-104 win over the Phoenix Suns. According to the Elias Sports Bureau, the last time the franchise had three 30-point scorers in the same game was Feb. 26, 1988.

On that night, the Seattle SuperSonics beat the Sacramento Kings behind 37 points from Dale Ellis, 31 from Xavier McDaniel and 30 from Tom Chambers.

Serge Ibaka added 18 points and a career-high 20 rebounds for Oklahoma City, the first 20-rebound game for the franchise since it moved from Seattle. Kendrick Perkins chipped in six points, and nobody else scored for the Thunder. Elias tells us they’re just the fifth team in the past 25 seasons to score at least 115 points in a game with only five players scoring points.

Other Notable NBA Performances:
• The Washington Wizards defeated the Los Angeles Lakers 106-101, coming back from a 21-point deficit in the third quarter. It’s the largest lead the Lakers have blown since Michael Jordan and the Chicago Bulls came back from 22 down on Dec. 17, 1996.

The Lakers lost their third straight road game -- and second in as many nights to a losing team -- falling to 6-14 on the road this season. That’s the worst road winning percentage among teams currently in playoff positions.

Kobe Bryant had a rough night, shooting 9-for-31 from the floor; his 22 missed shots are tied for the most in an NBA game this season. The only other player to miss 22 shots in a game is Bryant himself. He went 6-for-28 in a loss to the Denver Nuggets on New Year’s Day.

• Kevin Love scored 29 points, grabbed 16 rebounds and went 3-for-5 from 3-point range. According to Elias, Love is the first player ever to record 25 points, 10 rebounds and three 3-pointers in three consecutive games.

• Evan Turner scored a career-high 26 points at the Philadelphia 76ers beat the Boston Celtics 103-71, matching the most a Sixer has scored this season. The Memphis Grizzlies are the only other team that hasn’t had a player exceed 26 points this season.

The Celtics’ 32-point loss is the worst since the start of the 2007-08 season, when they teamed Kevin Garnett and Ray Allen with Paul Pierce.

Kevin Durant had a big game early Thursday and LeBron James returned serve later that night as two of the biggest stars in the NBA continue their monster seasons.

In the Miami Heat's 107-93 victory over the Portland Trail Blazers, James put up a stat line that’s never been recorded in the NBA, finishing with 38 points, 11 rebounds, six assists, five steals, a blocked shot and no turnovers.

According to the Elias Sports Bureau, since individual turnovers were tracked beginning in the 1977-78 season, no NBA player has had a game with 35 points, 10 rebounds, five assists, five steals and no turnovers.

The Miami Heat have won nine straight games, all by at least 12 points. LeBron’s 2008-09 Cleveland Cavaliers are the only other team in NBA history to win nine games in a row, all by at least a dozen.

This all came after Durant nearly outscored the Orlando Magic by himself in the fourth quarter, helping the Oklahoma City Thunder erase an 11-point fourth-quarter lead and win in Orlando for the first time since March 13, 2004. They were the Seattle SuperSonics back then; the franchise had lost seven straight games in Orlando.

Durant had 18 points in the fourth quarter -- the most he’s scored in any quarter this season -- just three fewer than Orlando scored as a team.

Oklahoma City ran its win streak to seven games, tying its longest of the season and just two short of its longest since moving to Oklahoma City.

In his first four NBA games in Orlando, Durant averaged 15.3 points per game and shot less than 32 percent from the field. He was held below 18 points in three of those games -- remember he had 18 in the fourth quarter alone Thursday -- and the SuperSonics/Thunder lost all four.

He's played in Orlando twice in five days this week, including Sunday’s All-Star Game, and they may not want to invite him back. He averaged 37.0 points and 7.5 rebounds per game in two wins and took home the All-Star Game MVP trophy.

Orlando led by as many as 14 in this game, but were outscored by 14 in the fourth quarter alone. The Magic shot 32 percent from the floor while the Thunder went 10-for-15 and Durant made five of his six attempts.

Durant and Russell Westbrook combined for more than half of Oklahoma City’s points (67 of 105), the 19th time they’ve outscored the rest of their teammates this season. According to the Elias Sports Bureau, that’s more than any other NBA duo this season.

It’s been a good formula for the Thunder so far -- they are 14-5 when Durant and Westbrook score more than half the team’s points. The next two duos on the list, Kobe Bryant-Pau Gasol (14) and Bryant-Andrew Bynum (11), have losing records when outscoring their teammates.

The duos of James-Chris Bosh and James-Dwyane Wade are the only others to do that 10 times this season, and the Heat are 7-3 when each duo outscores the rest of the team.