Rumors

Justin Russo: Kawhi Leonard has the longest streak of 20-point games by a player aged 30 or older in NBA history. Leonard has done it for 44 straight games. The previous record was held by John Havlicek (40 games).

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The big fella wasn’t a stellar foul shooter. Gilgeous-Alexander’s worst season of his past four from the free-throw line came in 2023-24, only his second year as an All-Star, when he shot 87.4 percent on 8.7 attempts — less than half as many average attempts as Chamberlain averaged during his streak. “My grandson criticizes Shai because he says that Shai seeks out fouls, that he’s the guy who’s looking to get fouled and to get to the line,” Meschery said. “I know players who have always done that. In my era of Frank Ramsey, John Havlicek, Sam Jones, they jumped into you. So did Paul Arizin. Paul had a wicked jump shot, but he was always jumping into you, and the referees were always calling him and putting him on the line. It’s not a strategy that hasn’t been used before. But what’s significant about Shai is, he doesn’t necessarily jump into you. He jumps sideways.” “That’s what you tried to do,” Hall of Famer Rick Barry told The Athletic. “When I drove, s—, I was trying to get fouled. I wanted to get fouled. I wanted contact. … Shai’s a 90 percent free-throw shooter. Why the hell would you not want to?”

New York Times

Sean Cunningham: DeMar DeRozan gets to pass two legends on the NBA’s All-Time Scoring list, passing both John Havlicek & Paul Pierce tonight in Houston. DeRozan now 20th on the list trails Stephen Curry.

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Curry had 26 points, seven assists and four steals in a 111-85 victory over the Minnesota Timberwolves. During the game, Curry passed John Havlicek (26,395 points) for 20th on the all-time list and is tied with Paul Pierce for 19th with 26,397 career points.

USA Today Sports

Bill Cartwright: When I came to the league, uh, who are the guys that I admired? I'm playing against Wes Unseld. I'm playing against Dan Issel. Here's Kareem Abdul-Jabbar. Here's Jack Sikma. My second game I played against Julius Erving. And by the way, I blocked his shot. I couldn't believe I blocked his shot. So when I came to the league, those guys were my heroes. So now I come to Chicago, it's like what… People are like, "What was it like to play against Mike?" And I'm like, “He was a good young player." So to me, my heroes are the guys that I played and saw when I was a kid. Rest of you guys are just young kids. You guys are young kids. I couldn't be enamored by you young kids. Because I saw John Havlicek play, right? Bob Cousy. I met Bill Russell when I was in high school. So I was supposed to be impressed by these young guys? Get out of here. My heroes are behind me. 

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During an appearance on NBA on TNT on Tuesday night, Pritchard opened up about his achievement while talking with Ernie Johnson, Shaquille O'Neal, Kenny Smith and Charles Barkley. “I mean, it's just a lot of people in the Celtics organization,” Pritchard said when asked what it's like to be the latest Boston player to win the award that is also named after one of the greatest players of the franchise. “Obviously, John Havlicek being named…Kevin McHale. Obviously, a couple of other guys, Malcolm Brogdon. When I was here with him, I watched him win it. Yeah, Bill Walton. So, yeah, this is definitely an honor.”

Clutch Points

James Harden pushed himself even higher in the history books, as he overtook Kevin Garnett on the NBA all-time scoring list. Harden needed 21 points to become 19th player on the list, and he did just that, dropping 22 with 8 assists in a statement Clippers win. With 26.072 points under his belt, Harden is now chasing John Havlicek, sitting in 18th place with 26.395 points, 323 more than Harden has. This season, Harden averages 20.9 points, 9.2 assists, 7.7 rebounds, and 23.8 EFF, playing all 9 games for the Clippers.

BasketNews

Other than 85-year-old Satch Sanders, who did not come on board until 1960, all of the men who were with Cooz at the beginning of the Celtic dynasty are gone. Red Auerbach died in 2006. Bill Russell died two summers ago. Sam Jones, Tommy Heinsohn, K.C. Jones, and John Havlicek have all died since 2019. Cousy is enjoying these playoffs. “I will take great pride in seeing this,” he said. “This puts us back ahead of the Lakers. To have been a part of that is as good a legacy as I could hope for.”

Boston Globe

Raul Barrigon: Mike Conley passed John Havlicek on the all-time assist list last night. He's No. 37 in NBA history now. He needs nine more to surpass Clyde Drexler.

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Bob Ryan: I certainly never dreamed that in five years — to the day! — I’d be covering the Celtics opening night for the Globe. I could not possibly have imagined that I would wind up following the Celtics as a pure fan, beat writer, and columnist — and now as what I like to call a columnist emeritus — into a sixth decade. I certainly never envisioned that I would get to write clinching stories for six NBA championship teams or that someday one of their key players would be a 7-foot-3-inch Latvian. Books with Bob Cousy, John Havlicek, and Larry Bird? Unimaginable. It is now Year 60. There have been six distinct phases of my personal Celtics experience:

Boston Globe

Celtics co-owner Steve Pagliuca hugged White after his game-winner and told him he’d just crafted his own “Havlicek stole the ball” moment, a reference to Celtics legend John Havlicek’s last-minute steal that sealed Game 7 of the 1965 Eastern Conference finals against the 76ers. White told Pagliuca that he knew he had very little time, so he’d tried to use his fingertips rather than catching the ball with his palms to save whatever milliseconds he might need.

Boston Globe

Jorge Sierra: LeBron James ties Wilt Chamberlain and John Havlicek at No. 2 for most Conference Finals made in league history. Average number of NBA teams during their careers Wilt: 12.08 Havlicek: 13.25 LeBron: 30 Just for context.

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What makes Curry’s heroics in this series even more impressive is the fact that he surpassed no less than seven Hall-of-Famers to climb to the 13th place for the most playoff points in NBA history. Before the Kings series, Steph was 21st. However, after scoring a whopping 236 points in seven games, the Warriors superstar climbed eight spots in the all-time record books with 3,806 career playoff points. In the process, he surpassed Wilt Chamberlain (3,607), Elgin Baylor (3,623), Scottie Pippen (3,642), Dirk Nowitzki (3,663), Magic Johnson (3,701), Hakeem Olajuwon (3,755), and John Havlicek (3,806), per McShpoochen on Reddit.

Clutch Points

Chris Forsberg: Malcolm Brogdon gets the John Havlicek trophy on TNT. pic.twitter.com/BiM5KgTOX0

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