OKC Thunder key takeaways from NBA game of the year
This game served up multiple records and career first for players and the teams. For the Spurs, it was the perimeter shooting, Pops and LaMarcus Aldridge who made history.
San Antonio, treys, Aldridge and Pop set new marks:
The Spurs ended up connecting on 16 of their 19 perimeter attempts or 84 percent which is the highest 3-point percentage in NBA history (minimum 15 makes). *courtesy of Inside the NBA.
At night end fans witnessed Aldridge cradling the ball as he left the court, likely to keep as a souvenir. The irony was this win pushed Gregg Popovich into third All-Time for wins as a coach. Consequently, it was the most Spurs points ever scored by in the Pop era.
In the highest-scoring game of his coaching career, Gregg Popovich moved into 3rd all time in NBA wins as a head coach 🔥 pic.twitter.com/FZM90e0P0X
— ESPN (@espn) January 11, 2019
Aldridge was the first Spurs player to score over 50 points since Tony Parker did it over 10 years ago in 2008. His 56 points are the third most in Spurs history. It was Aldridge’s first 50 point game of his career.
For as much as LaMarcus Aldridge was on fire the same could not be said of DeMar DeRozan who Paul George and Terrance Ferguson did a stellar job defending. DeRozan has always had issues with a taller defender and tonight proved to be no different.