The Bounce: Cooper Flagg is figuring it out, and SGA is breaking records

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It doesn’t matter that it came against the Utah Jazz. On Sunday, 32-year-old Steven Adams looked like Shaquille O’Neal in 1994. He blocked Brice Sensabaugh at the rim, then ran the floor and drop-step dunked all over Kyle Filipowski. And, of course, I’m going to link to Thanasis Antetokounmpo putting rookie Ben Saraf on a poster. I know what you sickos want!

NBA Stock Report

Flagg’s on fire; Clippers are a dumpster fire

Every Monday, we tap in with the NBA Stock Market to figure out which teams and players are surging. It also helps us figure out the teams trending toward the area of NBA League Pass where you might not feel compelled to watch. Here’s the latest NBA Stock Report!

📈 Orlando Magic (12-8). After the Magic dropped to 4-6 with a frustrating loss to Boston that had people wondering if Jamahl Mosley would retain his job (hi, I’m people), most of us were left scratching our heads about why this thing wasn’t working. Two games later, Paolo Banchero injured his groin. The Magic have rallied since. They’ve won eight of their last 10 games. During this stretch, Orlando improved from 20th to fourth in offensive rating and 16th to fifth in defensive rating. What does this look like when Paolo is back?

📉 Milwaukee Bucks (9-12). Thankfully for the Bucks, the Nets exist. Milwaukee snapped its seven-game losing streak on Saturday. Granted, most of that happened without Thanasis’ brother, Giannis Antetokounmpo, and the schedule was tough. The Bucks’ issue is finding some kind of system without Giannis on the floor. They are plus-9.5 points per 100 possessions with him and a putrid minus-11.5 per 100 without him. The offense falls 20.1 points per 100 possessions without him.

📈 Los Angeles Lakers (14-4). The Lakers have won seven straight and are sitting in second place in the West. Six of the seven wins were by double digits. Luka Dončić and Austin Reaves have combined for 64.7 points on 51.9 percent shooting from the field and 40.6 percent from deep during this run. Reaves’ scoring increase has allowed LeBron to fit into the action rather than forcing it. Their schedule gets a lot tougher to finish out the calendar year, but I’m not sure you could’ve asked for a better start with LeBron missing so much time.

📉 LA Clippers (5-15). The Clippers have completely fallen off a cliff. After everything was so encouraging last season and the defense carried them through so much, this team is an absolute mess. Do you remember the Clippers started 3-2? They’re 2-13 since! Their offense was bad last year but manageable. That’s pretty much the same this season as they’re 20th in offensive rating. But the defense? Only Sacramento, Brooklyn, Washington and Utah are worse. How’s that possible for Ty Lue’s squad?

📈 Cooper Flagg. Things have definitely picked up for the rookie power forward. Flagg just became the youngest player in NBA history to score 35 points in a game. During these last 10 games, he’s averaging 19.5 points, 6.5 rebounds, 3.9 assists, 1.5 steals and just 2.0 turnovers while putting up 51.3/23.7/71.1 shooting splits. He really can’t shoot 3-pointers at the NBA level yet, but everything else looks really good as of late. When he catches the ball on the move, there isn’t much you can do to stop him from getting to his spots.

📉 Streaks. A bunch of streaks abruptly ended this weekend. The Pistons tied a franchise record with 13 straight victories before the Celtics snapped it. The Raptors were riding a nine-game win streak before Charlotte beat them. Thankfully, the Wizards ended a 14-game losing streak by hammering the Hawks.

The last 24

Knicks look like contenders again

🗽 New York in the house. The Knicks looked disappointing early on. But after their third straight win, “they feel like a team that is figuring out what it takes to be who they want to be,” our James Edwards writes.

🏀 Prospect mining. Our John Hollinger was on the scene in Las Vegas and offered NBA Draft scouting reports for many of the top college basketball players.

🏀 Midwest dominance. Speaking of college hoops, our CJ Moore has his latest Top 25, led by two Big Ten teams off to historic starts.

🏀 Rolling the dice. Chris Finch gambled on his lineup. It paid off with the Timberwolves’ best win of the season.

🖊 Extension agreement. The WNBA and its players union pushed back the deadline for their CBA expiration another six weeks as negotiations continue.

🎧 Tuning in. The latest “NBA Daily” takes stock of the league after a quarter of the season has been played.

Stream the NBA on Fubo (try it for free!) and catch out-of-market games on League Pass.

SGA’s streaking

Thunder star breaks (one of) Wilt’s records

The Oklahoma City Thunder won their 12th straight game on Sunday by getting revenge on the Trail Blazers in Portland, the site of their only loss on the season. As impressive as their 20-1 start is, there’s another Thunder record to watch.

Reigning MVP Shai Gilgeous-Alexander scored 26 points in the 123-115 win over the Blazers. By his standards, it was pretty tepid. He’s averaging over 32 points per game for the second straight season. He’s so good it feels like scoring under 30 is a poor performance for him.

But that showing extended his streak of 20 or more points in a game to 93. It’s the second-longest streak in NBA history, surpassing Wilt Chamberlain’s streak of 92 straight games spanning two seasons in 1963 and 1964. Next on the list? You guessed it … Frank Stallone Wilt again. The Stilt’s NBA record of 126 straight games has felt insurmountable since he did it from 1961 to 1963.

Michael Jordan (72 and 69 for his best streaks) couldn’t come close. Kevin Durant also got to 72 straight games. SGA has left both of them in the dust and now needs “just” 33 more games in a row of 20 or more to tie it. If he keeps going and doesn’t miss a game, the Thunder’s last game before the All-Star break on Feb. 12 would be the record-setter. It seems absurd to consider this even a possibility, but the Thunder are attempting to rewrite all sorts of NBA history this season.

Stats leaders

Let’s check on the early leaders

We’re nearly a quarter of the way through the season for all teams, so before we throw down some report cards later this week, I thought it would be fun to check in on the stats leaders. We’ll do averages and totals for each category.

Points per game | Total points

Takeaway: While Luka isn’t the total points leader yet (he’s tied for eighth), his 35.2 points per game has him aiming to be the 12th player in NBA history to average at least 35 per game. Granted, it’s very early. Only two other players (James Harden with 36.1 in 2018-19 and Kobe Bryant with 35.4 in 2005-06) have done this in the last 35 years. Jordan is the only other player to do it post-merger. He did it twice (35.0 in 1987-88 and 37.1 in 1986-87).

Rebounds per game | Total rebounds

Takeaway: Jokić barely missed on the scoring average list, where he sits sixth with 28.9 per game. But he’s grabbing more rebounds than anybody. Check out second-year big man Ware vacuuming up misses.

Assists per game | Total assists

Takeaway: For those keeping track at home, Jokić is averaging a triple-double. Last season, he joined Russell Westbrook and Oscar Robertson as the only players to do it in a season. He can join Westbrook as the only player to do it in consecutive seasons.

Blocks per game | Total blocks

Takeaway: Once Wemby is back on the court, he’ll leave everybody in the dust. But did anybody have Huff as the total blocks leader after one month? He’s one of the most underrated players in the NBA.

3-pointers made | 3-point percentage

Takeaway: Green isn’t far off from leading the NBA in 3-pointers made and in 3-point accuracy. Nobody has ever done that.

The Bounce: Cooper Flagg is figuring it out, and SGA is breaking records

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