November 28, 2023
The Los Angeles Lakers star; LeBron James made more NBA history on Monday. In the middle of his team’s 138-94 loss to the Philadelphia 76ers, officially played more minutes than anyone else in league history. James surpassed Kareem Abdul-Jabbar’s previous minutes record of 66,297.
James, however, seemed pretty uninterested about the record after the blowout loss.
“That doesn’t mean much to me,” James said.
Karl Malone is third on the list, with more than 62,700 minutes played. Longtime Lakers star Kobe Bryant is fourth, and former Dallas Mavericks big man Dirk Nowitzki is fifth. Chris Paul is the closest active player to James on the all-time minutes list, though he’s at No. 28 with just more than 47,700 minutes played. Kevin Durant is the only other active player in the top 50.
James was already the all-time NBA minutes leader in the postseason. He has played 11,654 playoff minutes, well ahead of Tim Duncan’s 9,370. The next active player on that list is Durant at No. 19, with 6,725 minutes.
May 30, 2023
The Miami Heat are officially headed to the NBA Finals after a 4-3 Win in the Eastern conference Finals.
Caleb Martin and the Miami Heat held off the Boston Celtics on Monday night at TD Garden to take Game 7 of the Eastern Conference finals 103-84. Martin dropped 26 points and shot 11-of-16 from the field in what turned out to be a blowout win in Boston. That snapped a three-game win streak for the Celtics, and kept the Heat from landing on the wrong side of NBA history.
The Celtics were just the fourth team in league history to even force a Game 7 after falling into a 0-3 series hole. No team has ever successfully rallied from that deficit and won the series in 151 attempts.
The Heat are headed to their second NBA Finals in four seasons.
Jaylen Brown led the Celtics with 19 points and 8 rebounds, though he had a career-high 8 turnovers — which set a Celtics franchise record in a Game 7. White finished with 18 points, and Tatum added 14 points and 11 rebounds. Brown, Tatum and Marcus Smart shot a combined 3-of-19 from the 3-point line.
Butler finished with 28 points, 7 rebounds and 6 assists in the win. He was named the Eastern Conference finals MVP after the game, and averaged 24.7 points, 7.6 rebounds and 6.1 assists throughout the series.
June 14, 2019
The Toronto Raptors beat defending champions the Golden State Warriors 114-110 to win their first NBA title.
Kawhi Leonard was named the NBA Finals Most Valuable Player, averaging 28.5 points, as the Raptors won the best-of-seven series 4-2.
The Warriors, who headed into the finals with back-to-back wins and had won three of the past four NBA titles, were without the injured Kevin Durant and lost Klay Thompson to cruciate knee ligament damage in the third quarter.
Steph Curry had a chance to tie the series with a missed three-pointer when the Warriors trailed 111-110, before Leonard sealed the victory for the visitors.
The Raptors are the first Canadian club side to win a major North American sports title since the Toronto Blue Jays captured Major League Baseball’s World Series in 1993.
The NBA was expanded to Canada in 1995 when it incorporated the newly formed Raptors and Vancouver Grizzlies – who later relocated and became the Memphis Grizzlies.
