NBA Game Notes (Nov. 5, 2022)

Here are the NBA game notes for games that were played on November 5, 2022.

Nov 06, 2022

Banchero’s 🔥 Start

Paolo Banchero’s rookie campaign is off to a historic start, and that only continued in the Magic’s overtime loss to the Kings last night.

Banchero scored 33 points and grabbed 16 rebounds, becoming just the second teenager in NBA history to record a 30-point, 15-rebound game. He joined none other than LeBron James, who performed the feat on Nov. 29, 2003. Coincidentally, James also recorded 33 points and 16 rebounds.

Banchero has now scored at least 15 points in each of his first 10 NBA games. Excluding NBL and ABA veterans, only eight other players have started their NBA careers with 10 such games in a row:

Alex Groza, 1949-50
Wilt Chamberlain, 1959-60
Elvin Hayes, 1968-69
Kareem Abdul-Jabbar, 1969-70
Terry Cummings, 1982-83
Ralph Sampson, 1983-84
Michael Jordan, 1984-85
Patrick Ewing, 1985-86

Finally, Banchero is averaging 22.9 points per game and 8.5 rebounds per game this season. The last player to average at least 20 points per game and 8 rebounds per game through the first 10 games of his career was Shaquille O’Neal in 1992-93.

Scoring Machine

The Nets improved to 2-0 since Kyrie Irving’s suspension, defeating the Hornets 98-92 in Charlotte. Kevin Durant, as usual, led the Nets in scoring with 27 points.

Durant has opened the season with 10 straight 25-point games. Only eight other players have accomplished this feat (a total of 11 instances):

Wilt Chamberlain, 1959-60
Chamberlain, 1961-62
Elgin Baylor, 1961-62
Chamberlain, 1962-63
Jerry West, 1964-65
Rick Barry, 1966-67
Orlando Woolridge, 1985-86
Michael Jordan, 1987-88
Jordan, 1988-89
Allen Iverson, 2005-06
Bradley Beal, 2020-21

As the classic Sesame Street song goes “One of these things is not like the others.” If you’ll recall, Woolridge’s teammate — a guy by the name of Michael Jordan — broke his foot in the third game of the 1985-86 season, leading the Bulls to lean on Woolridge for scoring.

Anyway, Durant — who was 34 years and 37 days old yesterday — is easily the oldest player in this group. Iverson was 30 years and 164 days old when he played his 10th game of the 2005-06 season. They are the only players to accomplish this feat after their 28th birthday.

Dynamic Duo

The Hawks’ new backcourt duo of Trae Young and Dejounte Murray seems to be meshing well, as evidenced in last night’s overtime win over the Pelicans:

Young — 34 points, 10 assists
Murray — 22 points, 10 rebounds, 11 assists

It’s the second time in just nine games that Young and Murray have each recorded at least 20 points and 10 assists in the same game. Since the ABA-NBA merger, only two other backcourt duos have recorded at least two such games over an entire season (a total of three instances):

Magic Johnson and Norm Nixon, 1979-80 Lakers (2 times)
Johnson and Nixon, 1981-82 Lakers (3 times)
Alvin Robertson and Johnny Dawkins, 1987-88 Spurs (3 times)

Young now has 254 points and 85 assists on the season. It’s the second time Young has recorded at least 250 points and 75 assists through his first nine games of a season. He’s the only player since the ABA-NBA merger to achieve this feat more than once; James Harden (2016-17), Russell Westbrook (2016-17), and LeBron James (2017-18) have each done so once.

Joker’s Wild

The Nuggets’ Nikola Jokic put up some impressive numbers despite sitting out the entire fourth quarter of last night’s 126-101 win over the Spurs, as he scored 21 points, dished out 10 assists, and shot 9-10 from the field.

It’s the second time Jokic has recorded a 20-point, 10-assist game while shooting at least 90% from the field. The first occurrence came on Oct. 20, 2018, when he tallied 35 points, 11 rebounds, and 11 assists and shot a perfect 11-11 from the field. Jokic and Wilt Chamberlain are the only players in NBA history to record a 30-point triple-double without missing a shot from the field.

Getting back to last night, Jokic became just the fifth player since the ABA-NBA merger to record multiple games with at least 20 points, 10 assists, and 90% shooting from the field. The four other players are:

John Stockton (6 times)
Muggsy Bogues (3)
Magic Johnson (2)
Steve Nash (2)

Note that Jokic is the only non-point-guard in this group.