On a day that saw the last of Rasheed Wallace, as well as the NBA’s regular season, we saw the first of something else: the first NBA player to hit 270 three-pointers in one season. Stephen Curry broke Ray Allen‘s record last night in Golden State’s 11-point win over Portland, and while it took him longer than one quarter, as Jarrett Jack originally joked, the 6-3 guard still got it done. Even his brother is happy for him. …
Yesssir!! @StephenCurry30 is in the record books #270 #bangbang
— Seth Curry (@sdotcurry) April 18, 2013
Utah fell apart in the third quarter in Memphis, getting bulldozed by Zach Randolph (25 points, 19 rebounds) in the Grizzlies’ 16-point win. It was a typical Grizzlies win. They wore Utah down, beating them up physically until it was all but too late. Tony Allen had only eight points in 19 minutes, but before the game, he performed Montell Jordan‘s “This Is How We Do It” during a charity karaoke event. Just another reason why TA is the man.
Chicago got 19 points and 15 rebounds from Carlos Boozer to beat Washington by three. Atlanta had already lost to the Knicks, giving up 33 points to Chris Copeland. But it wouldn’t have mattered anyway — with the win, the Bulls are now the No. 5 seed and will start out on the road against Brooklyn while the Hawks travel to Indiana for the No. 3 vs. 6 matchup. The Clippers, because of a close win over Sacramento, will have homecourt advantage on Memphis in the first round. Chris Paul was a monster, scoring 25 points and dishing 11 assists, while Jamal Crawford and Matt Barnes combined for 36 points off the bench.
By the way, the team’s playoff theme song is “All Gold Everything” by Trinidad James. Barnes proclaims he’s the team DJ, and says to get himself fired up, he listens to 2Pac. Nothing wrong with that — he’s from Cali and ‘Pac was super emotional. We definitely like Barnes’ taste in music better than Austin Daye, who told us he listens to Justin Timberlake‘s “Suit & Tie.” “Can’t wait ’til I get you on the floor good-looking” isn’t exactly riding music. … Keep reading to hear how the NBA scoring race ended…
Neither Kevin Durant nor Carmelo Anthony played in their last games of the season, which means ‘Melo won his first career scoring title at 28.7 points per game. Everyone was all over Durant for not giving it a run last night — even though he needed to score 70 points. Blake Griffin joked beforehand that he’d pick up the slack.
Alright everybody I'm gonna try for the scoring title tonight. Can somebody do the math on how many points I need?
— Blake Griffin (@blakegriffin23) April 17, 2013
But the best game of the night went down in Los Angeles, when the Lakers beat Houston in overtime, 99-95. In the end, everything turned out right: the Lakers will start the playoffs in San Antonio, where they have a legitimate chance to beat San Antonio. Meanwhile, James Harden and Houston will travel to OKC for their own series. Does it get any better than that? Pau Gasol (17 points, 20 rebounds, 11 assists) was a monster, finishing with yet another triple-double. Dwight Howard (16 points, 18 rebounds) made all of the big defensive plays down the stretch, eating up at least three or four huge Harden (30 points) drives. Kobe Bryant wasn’t playing, but he was tweeting…
At least they won’t have to worry about Bryant pulling the rug out from under Mike D’Antoni. GM Mitch Kupchak admitted that “There are times during the game when Mike (D’Antoni) or Phil (Jackson) or Mike Brown or Rudy Tomjanovich have taken Kobe out of a game. Then Kobe, at some point, says ‘Well, it’s time for me to go back in.'” Depending on your stance, that’s either Kobe thinking he’s bigger than the team or it’s the justifiable special treatment you get when you’ve scorched and served every defender who’s tried to guard you for the last 17 years. Won’t it always be just about Kobe? Pau Gasol knows what we’re talking about…
Sure, you can stack that mistake up to Bryant still learning how to do this whole Twitter/Instagram thing. But it’s ironically hilarious that he cut out his teammate’s face (the Mamba later corrected it by re-inserting his buddy’s mug).
So with the end of the regular season, the matchups are set for this weekend: Miami/Milwaukee, New York/Boston, Indiana/Atlanta and Brooklyn/Chicago will be the matchups in the East. In the West, it’ll be OKC/Houston, San Antonio/L.A. Lakers, Denver/Golden State and L.A. Clippers/Memphis. That’s it for the NBA’s regular season…
Keep reading to see exclusive Kyrie Irving sneakers and the Kobe’s new signature shoes…
If we’re handing out an MVP to the player who had the hottest Player Exclusives this season, the winner is undoubtedly Rudy Gay. His endless string of PE Hyperposites were some of the hottest kicks we’ve seen in years, even if we have to disagree with some and say the Memphis ones were better than the Toronto ones. But we can’t forget about Kyrie Irving, either. Just a second-year player, his Hyperdunks this year were worthy of someone deep in the game, and yesterday, Nike released a video of Irving dishing on his childhood, his secrets and his sneakers.
In Chicago, Nate Robinson took ESPN inside his ridiculous sneaker closet, and admitted sneakers are more important to him than just about anything else in life. His brother broke into his closest last year and rocked some 4s that Robinson hadn’t even worn yet. You can steal his car, sleep in his bed, hell even use his toothbrush and the lil’ man will forgive you. You just can’t rock his Js. … While Robinson was telling sob stories, 35-year-old Richard Hamilton showed you’re never too old to be a hypebeast.
Yesterday, we also saw the unveiling of another adidas Crazyquick colorway — we’ll call it the “Charlotte Hornets” — as well as Kobe’s latest signature shoe. Bryant unveiled them by writing, “YES! Dominate the boot. Dominate tendons. Dominate the cast. Dominate rehab. Dominate dominating demure dominants domination. Wtf u ask?!? “Your Welcome” #dominatehashtags.”
We’re out like BALL DON’T LIE.
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