NBA things to know: As season begins, Celtics chasing Spurs for all-time best record

 

[October 22, 2024]  By TIM REYNOLDS

The Boston Celtics enter this season as the NBA champions. And sometime this season, the Celtics might take over the top spot on another league list.

In the NBA’s all-time won-lost standings, among active franchises, the San Antonio Spurs enter this season with the best record. But the Celtics have a path to passing the Spurs for the top spot in the coming months.

San Antonio’s winning percentage: .596. Boston’s winning percentage: .594.

Let’s assume San Antonio goes 41-41 this season. If that happens, Boston would need to go only 47-35 to jump the Spurs in the all-time standings.

The Los Angeles Lakers enter the season third among all-time teams with a .591 winning percentage, meaning they also have a mathematical chance of getting to the No. 1 or No. 2 spot this season.

In some order, the Spurs, Celtics and Lakers will probably be the top three teams for a while. Utah enters this season fourth on the all-time list with a .540 winning percentage.

The Spurs have ended each of the last 10 seasons — 2014-15 through 2023-24 — as the leader in winning percentage among active NBA teams.

Boston hasn’t ended a season atop the all-time standings since 1996-97. The Lakers took over the following year and held that spot for 17 seasons, before San Antonio climbed to No. 1.

Team milestones looming

Among the team regular-season milestones that are within reach this season:

— New York (26 wins shy) and Golden State (31 wins shy) are both closing in on 3,000 all-time victories. Only Boston, the Lakers and Philadelphia have gotten to that mark.

— Indiana needs 45 or more wins this season to get back to the .500 mark all-time. The Pacers enter this year 1,930-1,938 (so, if they ever get eight over .500 this season, they’d be at .500 all-time).

— Denver is 46 wins from 2,000.

— Memphis is two wins from 1,000.

— Detroit will play its 6,000th game on Friday in Cleveland, its second game of this season.

Jordan, Wilt within Luka’s reach

Dallas’ Luka Doncic averaged 33.9 points in 70 games last season. That pushed his career average up to 28.7 per game, third-best in NBA history.

He might move closer to the top spots this season.

If Doncic duplicates his numbers from last season again in 2024-25, he’ll inch closer to No. 1 Michael Jordan (30.12 per game) and No. 2 Wilt Chamberlain (30.07 per game).

And if he stays at last season’s pace, he’ll pass Jordan and Chamberlain for the best scoring average sometime in the 2026-27 season.

KD, 30K

Kevin Durant of the Phoenix Suns is closing in on 30,000 points in his career, needing 1,076 points to reach the milestone. He would be the eighth player in NBA history to get there.

And he would be the most efficient 30,000-point scorer ever.

Durant enters this season averaging 1.46 points per shot attempt, which is better than each of the seven players ahead of him on the all-time scoring list — LeBron James, Kareem Abdul-Jabbar, Karl Malone, Kobe Bryant, Michael Jordan, Dirk Nowitzki and Wilt Chamberlain.

His true shooting percentage (the advanced stat that measures shooting efficiency) of 61.9% is well ahead of the seven players ahead of him as well.

Happy 20th, CP3

Chris Paul is entering his first season with the San Antonio Spurs and 20th season overall. LeBron James will tie Vince Carter for the most-seasons-played mark with 22, and Paul will become the 11th player in NBA history with at least 20 seasons.

“It’s surreal, actually," Paul said. “It's an unbelievable blessing. ... I mean, a lot of my teammates are head coaches now. So, I’m grateful to not only still be playing, but playing at a high level. It's fun.”

Paul is No. 3 on the all-time assists and steals list. He's within reach of Jason Kidd, No. 2 on both those lists. Kidd retired with 12,091 assists and 2,684 steals; Paul enters this season with 11,894 assists and 2,614 steals.

Coaching milestones

Miami's Erik Spoelstra is entering his 17th season as coach of the Heat, the third-longest consecutive tenure with one team in NBA history behind only San Antonio's Gregg Popovich (entering his 29th year) and Jerry Sloan (who spent 23 seasons with Utah).

San Antonio Spurs head coach Gregg Popovich calls out to players during the first half of an NBA preseason basketball game against the Miami Heat, Tuesday, Oct. 15, 2024, in Miami. (AP Photo/Wilfredo Lee)

Spoelstra is passing Red Auerbach, who coached Boston for 16 seasons.

Among other milestones in play this year:

— Milwaukee’s Doc Rivers is 41 wins away from tying Phil Jackson (1,155) for No. 7 on the all-time list.

— Indiana’s Rick Carlisle’s first win this season will be his 944th, tying Bill Fitch for 11th all-time.

— Carlisle and Rivers are scheduled to have four meetings this season, which would push their total to 92 head-to-head games, including playoffs. That would be the seventh-most by coaches in NBA history. Gene Shue and Red Holzman faced off 109 times, Rick Adelman and Sloan 104, Auerbach and Alex Hannum 100, Don Nelson and Sloan 98, Shue and Jack Ramsay 97, and Auerbach and Al Cervi 95.

— Spoelstra is 10 wins behind No. 18 Nate McMillan (760) and 34 wins behind No. 17 Shue (784).

— Phoenix’s Mike Budenholzer is 16 wins from 500.

— Popovich, the all-time wins leader, is 12 away from 1,400.

Speaking of Pop ...

There have been 350 head coaches all-time entering this season, according to Sportradar. Popovich has coached against 170 of them — nearly half the list — and is set to add at least three more to his all-time coaching opponent matchup club this season.

He'll face the Lakers' JJ Redick for the first time (as a coach, anyway; Redick played 29 regular-season games and seven playoff games against Popovich's Spurs) on Nov. 15. Popovich's first game against new Brooklyn coach Jordi Fernandez is a road contest on Dec. 27, and he'll go up against new Charlotte coach Charles Lee for the first time on Feb. 7.

Moving on up

A look at some players who could move up the all-time lists this season:

— James Harden, Los Angeles Clippers: He starts 20th at 25,885 points and he’s probably going to climb quickly toward the top 10. With just 826 points this season, he would pass No. 19 Kevin Garnett, No. 18 John Havlicek, No. 17 Paul Pierce, No. 16 Tim Duncan, No. 14 Dominique Wilkins and No. 13 Oscar Robertson. Harden is also 33 3-pointers away from No. 2 Ray Allen (2,973) on the all-time list.

— Stephen Curry, Golden State Warriors: The all-time 3-point king is 1,332 points from 25,000 for his career. He would be the 10th player to score that many points with just one franchise.

— DeMar DeRozan, Sacramento Kings: He’s 1,418 points away from 25,000.

— Giannis Antetokounmpo, Milwaukee Bucks: The perennial MVP candidate needs 1,498 points to hit the 20,000 mark.

— Klay Thompson, Dallas Mavericks: He needs 19 3-pointers for 2,500 in his career.

Who's No. 1? It always changes.

In the Western Conference, good luck guessing which team will end up as the No. 1 seed in the playoffs.

This is unprecedented in the current playoff format: There have been seven different No. 1 seeds in the last seven seasons. Houston had that spot in 2018, Golden State in 2019, the Lakers in 2020, Utah in 2021, Phoenix in 2022, Denver in 2023 and Oklahoma City this past season.

Westbrook 1 away from 200

Denver's Russell Westbrook is one triple-double away from 200 in his regular-season career. But to put how unusual his triple-double record — he has 69 more than new Nuggets teammate Nikola Jokic, the MVP in three of the last four seasons — is, consider these, well, nuggets.

— He has more than every other NBA team does except the Lakers (211). The Nuggets have 198 for No. 2 on the list.

— Westbrook has more triple-doubles than players with Charlotte, Orlando, Atlanta, New York, Memphis and Utah have posted combined (190).

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