SAN FRANCISCO – You shouldn't associate Amelia Earhart, DB Cooper and Jimmy Hoffa with Stephen Curry, LeBron James and Jayson Tatum, but in the case of the NBA Play-In Tournament, that might be the case.
Just as the disappearances of Earhart, Cooper and Hoffa will forever be the world's greatest mystery, historic performances in play-in tournaments disappear and disappear after the final buzzer.
Curry's 37 and 39 points in the play-in tournament three years ago are missing from his basketball reference page. James' triple-double of 22 points, 11 rebounds and 10 assists against the Warriors at the arena formerly known as Staples Center, and Tatum's 50-point drop against the Washington Wizards the same night. It's the same.
The play-in tournament is neither the regular season nor the playoffs, but somewhere in between, let's call it the postseason for journalism points. There, statistics are written in invisible ink.
“These are playoff games,” Steve Kerr said Monday in an interview with NBC Sports Bay Area after the Warriors' practice when asked what the league should do about play-in tournament statistics. “I can't believe they're not included in the statistics. The statistics just disappear into thin air, it's crazy.”
Curry quite literally scored 101 points on Tuesday night against the Sacramento Kings, and even if you write that number on a piece of paper and take the best picture of Wilt Chamberlain by his locker, that statistic will never be forgotten. Not counted.
NBC Sports Bay Area asked an NBA spokesperson why such a decision was made and whether it could change in the future with the play-ins clearly continuing. However, the response I received was simply, “Playing in the NBA…” In-tournament is separate from the NBA Playoffs, so the stats are not part of the playoffs or regular season. ”
Playing 40 minutes for a team without Klay Thompson for the second year in a row, with Kent Bazemore starting and Juan Toscano-Anderson, Michael Mulder and second-year Jordan Poole coming off the bench, Curry I tried my best. There were two play-in games in 2021, but the Warriors still fell victim to the Los Angeles Lakers and Memphis Grizzlies. In two games, he scored a total of 76 points and made 12 three-point shots. not enough.
You can find individual box scores for games like this. The competitive animal inside Curry wishes he hadn't been in those two situations, making us shake our heads in the highlights, pulling the stats with Men in Black's Neuralizer. I don't mind being zapped.
“I really don't care. I hope it's not noticed too much in the play-in,” Curry said. It's our job to avoid it every year, but that's the fate we've been given.
“There’s a strange kink in the system.”
Curry also enjoyed the eccentricity.
“Statistically speaking, I might be the leading play-in scorer,” Curry said.
According to NBC Sports Bay Area's Elias Sports Bureau, Curry's 76 play-in points are actually the sixth-most since the first play-in tournament game in 2020. The current format was adopted the following season with Curry and the Warriors. that. The five players ahead of Curry are Jonas Valanciunas (100 points), CJ McCollum (94 points), Ja Morant (90 points), Brandon Ingram (87 points), and Trae Young (87 points). .
However, Curry is the only player to rank in the top 10 in total play-in points in just two games.
Valanciunas appeared in six play-in games and McCollum appeared in four. Morant, Ingram and Young have all had three failures. Curry's 38.0 points per game is the highest among players who played at least two play-in games.
If Curry's total points count toward his career playoff stats, he would be the 11th player in history to score at least 4,000 playoff points. His points per game average will increase slightly from 27.0 points to 27.1 points per game. Curry already trails the NBA's all-time playoff record for 3-pointers with 618, but adding 12 more will increase his number of 3-pointers per game in the playoffs from 4.20 to 4.23, which is the highest number of 3-pointers made per game in the playoffs. The rate would be 39.7. From percent he to 39.8 percent.
All percentage points are counted when the player finally unlaces his sneakers.
The NBA's league-wide 90-foot-by-50-foot eraser erasing the play-in stats was, ironically, a relief for Kerr, but the Warriors coach will be playing his career in the tournament Tuesday night in Sacramento. They are trying to avoid a 0-3 record.
“If there was a bad coaching job tomorrow night and it completely ruined the whole game, at least it would be invisible and no one would notice,” Kerr said.
Remembering what his record would be if the Warriors lost again, Kerr grinned and replied, “What a play-in?” I don't remember that. ”
It's not even in the NBA history books.
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