Warriors beat writer Danny Emerman shares his thoughts on the NBA
There’s something beautiful about a 20-assist game, and it happened twice this week.
Both Trae Young and Elfrid Payton — hello! — each eclipsed 20 assists in single games, for the first and second instances of the season.
As exciting as 60-point games are, and as impressive as 20-rebound games are, reaching 20 assists is rare for a reason. It’s damn hard to do, and damn fun to watch.
Someone more clever than me should think of a name for the feat, because the 2-dollar club (20 dimes is 200 cents) doesn’t quite roll off the tongue.
The achievement requires teammates knocking down shots, but you can’t fake a 20-assist night. It’s harder to luck into assists than it is to have rebounds fall into your lap. Young and Payton controlled their games with their vision, unselfishness and creativity. Their assists generated 50 and 48 points, respectively.
Let’s dive into some facts and feelings on the wacky milestone.
There have been 234 20-assist games in NBA history (compared to 612 60-point games). That means the odds of a 20-assist game going down are roughly 0.17% — the same as flipping a coin and getting heads nine times in a row.
Since 2000, the feat has only happened 49 times. There were no 20-assist games in the 2002-03, 2003-04, 2013-14, seasons.
Including playoffs, John Stockton has the record for most 20-assist games, with 36.
The Warriors have had two 20-assist games, but the most recent one came from Tim Hardaway in December of 1994 — almost 30 years ago.
The Grizzlies, Heat and Timberwolves are the only three franchises to never have a player notch 20 assists in a single game.
The highest scoring 20-assist game ever? Oscar Robertson, who finished with 44 points and 22 dimes in a 149-145 overtime win over the Knicks in 1966. The lowest scoring? John Lucas, who went scoreless but threw 24 assists in a 1984 win for the Spurs. Lucas joined the elusive club in just 28 minutes, behind only San Diego Rockets legend Art Williams, who registered 22 assists in 27 minutes during a 1970 game against the San Francisco Warriors.
Young, Payton, Chris Paul, James Harden, Russell Westbrook, John Wall (still not retired, technically), Fred VanVleet, Tyrese Haliburton and Luka Doncic, and Reggie Jackson are the only active players with at least one 20-assist game. Payton certainly takes the cake for most random member of the list, though it’s not necessarily a true barometer of the best passers in the league if LeBron James and Nikola Jokic aren’t involved.
So, what does it all mean? Nada. But there’s nothing wrong with going down a rabbit hole every now and then.
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LeBron James’ past four games:
18 points on 7-for-17 shooting, 7 assists, 6 rebounds, 6 turnovers.
18 points on 7-for-16 shooting, 10 assists, 8 rebounds, 5 turnovers.
16 points on 8-for-18 shooting, 11 assists, 10 rebounds, 5 turnovers.
12 points on 5-for-13 shooting, 6 assists, 8 rebounds, 5 turnovers.
The Lakers are 1-3 in that stretch as James is shooting 42% from the field. The 3-point shot he relied on heavily to start the season is suddenly off. His plus-minus in those games are -30, -25, +4 and -12.
Before this stretch, the last time James averaged 16 or fewer points across four games was in 2004.
James is 40 and in his 21st season. It’s remarkable that it has taken this long for his counting numbers to even show signs of falling off.
The Nets are winning…why?
Brooklyn has won three of its last four, with victories over the Warriors, Kings and Suns. If the season ended today, the Nets would be in the play-in round.
The Nets traded valuable future picks and swaps to re-acquire their own 2025 first-round pick from the Rockets this summer so they could tank this year. Yet Jordi Fernandez has his squad playing hard and clicking.
With smoothed lottery odds, teams don’t need to be the worst of the worst, but the Nets are dangerously close to mediocrity so far. Surely they’ll trade some of their veterans like Dennis Schroder, Dorian Finney-Smith or Cam Johnson eventually, but right now, they have a 2.5% shot at Cooper Flagg and that just can’t be the game plan for the organization.
Updated East-West Bowl
Even after some recent strides, East teams have still been abysmal in head-to-head matchups against the West, highlighting the imbalance in quality between the two conferences
Through Friday, the East is 32-49 (.395) against the West. That’s the worst interconference winning percentage for a conference since the East in 2013-14 (.369) and would be the fourth-worst mark this century.
A positive regression candidate
It will benefit the Timberwolves to stay the course with Donte DiVincenzo, who has struggled this season. The former Warrior is shooting 32.6% from 3 — his worst clip since his rookie year.
Although he’s streakier than truly pure shooters in his career, DiVincenzo is bound to find his stroke. He played well in Friday’s fourth quarter against the Clippers and might just need a couple games to catch a rhythm.
Minnesota desperately needs DiVincenzo’s shooting and playmaking from the backcourt. It’ll come.
A LaMelo check-in
Hornets LaMelo Ball became the latest player to suffer an injury, as his strained calf will sideline him for at least two weeks.
At 31.1 points per game, Ball is second in the league in scoring. He has hit circus shots on a nightly basis and ranks eighth in the league in offensive box plus-minus. Even if it’s still reasonable to wonder what his play style would look like in a playoff atmosphere, Ball is having an incredible start to the season.
