Elias says... 2007feb07

Source: ESPN.com - GEN - Elias Says ...
Address : <http://sports.espn.go.com/espn/news/story?id=2756872>

Updated: Feb. 7, 2007, 2:14 AM ET
Elias Says ...
By Elias Sports Bureau, Inc.
Special to ESPN Insider

A daily glance inside the numbers from the world of sports:

NBA

? The Celtics extended their team-record losing streak to 15 games with a
109-102 loss to the Pistons. So a team whose history dates to 1946 has
finally done something that has been done no fewer than eight times by the
Mavericks, who played their first game in 1980.

Two days after the Super Bowl, the Celtics still haven't won a game since
before the start of the NFL playoffs! Since the NFL introduced its current
12-team playoff format in 1990, and of course excluding the NBA's late-
starting 1998-99 lockout season, the Celtics are just the second NBA team
not to win a game during the entire length of the NFL playoffs (first wild-
card game through Super Bowl).

In the 1997-98 season, the Warriors went winless in 14 games from Dec. 27
through Jan. 24, but then won their first game following the Broncos'
victory over the Falcons in Super Bowl XXXIII in South Florida.

? Amare Stoudemire may be on his way to a monstrous month. He had 36 points
and nine rebounds in the Suns' overtime win at Portland on Tuesday, and now
has amassed 124 points and 55 rebounds in four games in February.

No other NBA player has had so many points and so many rebounds over any
four-game span this season. One player did it last season: Stoudemire's
teammate Shawn Marion (134 points and 75 rebounds over four games, Feb. 22
to March 1).

? The Knicks trailed the Clippers 53-43 at halftime at Madison Square
Garden, but a robust second-half rally led to a 102-90 victory for New
York. And it was one for the books.

It had been nearly 10 years -- going back to a win at Boston on March 7,
1997 -- since the Knicks had overcome a double-digit halftime deficit to
earn a double-digit victory. And their last win of that type at the Garden
came in 1983 against Cleveland, back when Hubie Brown was the coach.

? David Lee developed a big-league shiner after getting hit below the eye
early in the game, but the Knicks' indefatigable rebound machine still
managed to collect 10 rebounds in New York's win.

Despite starting only 12 of the Knicks' 50 games this season, Lee has still
managed to accumulate 10 or more rebounds in 30 of those 50 games. Lee has
averaged 16.85 rebounds per 48 minutes this season; the last Knicks player
to compile that high a rebounds-to-minutes ratio in a season of at least
1,000 minutes was Willis Reed (16.86) in 1970-71.

? When was the last time you saw an NBA player reach 30 points, 10
rebounds, five assists and five blocked shots in the same game? OK, besides
Tuesday night, when Pau Gasol went 30-13-5-5 in the Grizzlies' 98-90 loss
to the Rockets.

Well, even if you had seen every game this season and each of the last two
seasons, you would not have seen it during that time. The last such game
was turned in by Shaquille O'Neal -- then still with the Lakers -- on Feb.
18, 2004.

? Ruben Patterson scored 14 fourth-quarter points in the Bucks' 116-111
victory over the Magic. It was the most points that he had scored in any
quarter since he tallied 15 in the second quarter while playing for Seattle
at Atlanta on Jan. 9, 2001.


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