Page 20 - AT

A20 SPORTS
Wednesday 23 OctOber 2019
10 storylines to follow in the 2019-20 NBA season

By TIM REYNOLDS
AP Basketball Writer
The NBA season starts Tuesday
night, and here are 10 storylines to
follow for the 2019-20 campaign:
___
NO. 2 IN 3'S
Golden State's Stephen Curry is
about to become No. 2 on the
league's all-time 3-pointers made
list.
Curry enters this season with 2,483
made 3-pointers, leaving him 78
away from passing Reggie Miller
for No. 2 on the list.
That will leave only Ray Allen —
2,973 — ahead of Curry.
NO. 2 IN TRIPLE-DOUBLES
Houston's Russell Westbrook is one
triple-double away from passing
Magic Johnson on the NBA's all-
time regular season list.
Westbrook has 138 triple-doubles,
matching Johnson's total. West-
brook enters this year 43 away Golden State Warriors guard Stephen Curry, front, shoots as Los Angeles Lakers forward Devontae Cacok defends during
from the record of 181, held by Os- the first half of a preseason NBA basketball game Monday, Oct. 14, 2019, in Los Angeles.
car Robertson. Associated Press
Westbrook had eight triple-doubles pear in 22 seasons. And if he plays 4 John Stockton, 42 games from mentioned the streak to Pelicans
in his first six seasons. He's had 130 in for Atlanta at Denver on Nov. 12 passing No. 3 Dirk Nowitzki and 80 rookie Zion Williamson, another for-
the five seasons since. — or any game after that — he will games from passing No. 2 Kareem mer Duke player, in their first real
LEBRON'S MILESTONES become the fourth-oldest player Abdul-Jabbar. Parish leads the list conversation about the coming
Los Angeles Lakers forward LeB- to appear in an NBA regular-sea- with 1,611 games. season.
ron James is nearing several mile- son game. DEANDRE DOESN'T MISS "The last thing I said to him was,
stones. The three oldest: Nat Hickey (45 Among players with 2,000 field 'Look man, don't (mess) this up for
He's 1,101 points from passing Kobe years, 363 days in his last appear- goals in NBA history, Brooklyn's De- me,'" Redick said. "He got it."
Bryant for No. 3 on the all-time ance), Kevin Willis (44 years, 224 Andre Jordan has the best shoot- BETTER SHOTS
regular-season scoring list, is two days) and Robert Parish (43 years, ing percentage of anyone — .670 Not only did teams take more shots
games away from becoming the 232 days). On Nov. 12, Carter will entering this season, well ahead of last season than at any time in the
40th player in league history with be 42 years and 290 days old — second-place Artis Gilmore's .599. last 35 years, they were connect-
1,200 appearances, and two starts one day older than Dikembe Mu- To put that in perspective: If Jor- ing a pretty good clip as well.
from passing Bryant again for No. tombo was in his final regular-sea- dan took 554 shots this season and Across the NBA, teams made 46.1%
10 on the career games-started list son game. Carter turns 43 on Jan. missed every one of them, he'd still of their shot attempts last season
with 1,199. 26. He's older than four current NBA be ahead of Gilmore. — the league's second-best rate
He's also 522 field-goal tries away coaches — Charlotte's James Bor- INTERNATIONAL GAMES since 1995-96.
from 24,000, and will be the sixth rego, Memphis' Taylor Jenkins, Min- The NBA is going international for KINGS' DROUGHT
player in league history to get nesota's Ryan Saunders and Sacra- three games this season — two in Sacramento has gone 13 seasons
there. mento's Luke Walton. Mexico City, the other in Paris. without a playoff appearance, the
VINCE IS OLD Carter enters this season with 1,481 The Mexico City matchups have longest such drought in franchise
Vince Carter is about to become games played. That's fifth all-time; Dallas playing Detroit on Dec. 12 history — and tied for the second-
the first player in NBA history to ap- he's 24 games from passing No. and Phoenix playing San Antonio longest in NBA history.
on Dec. 14. In Paris, it'll be Char- The Clippers missed 15 consecu-
lotte against Milwaukee on Jan. 24. tive postseasons from 1977 through
They'll be home games for Detroit, 1991. Minnesota missed 13 in a row
Phoenix and Charlotte. from 2005 through 2017.
Dallas will have a bit of a rarity: The The Kings are one of only four fran-
Mavericks will play in three differ- chises that currently have playoff
ent countries in an 11-day span, droughts of longer than three sea-
starting with the game in Mexico, sons — the Knicks have missed nine
followed by four in the U.S. and in a row, and the Lakers and Knicks
then a trip to Toronto on Dec. 22. have both missed the last six post-
REDICK'S STREAK seasons.
J.J. Redick won a state champion- PLANNING AHEAD
ship in his senior year of high school. For those who want to start plan-
He went to the NCAA Tournament ning, here are some key dates for
in all four of his college seasons at the postseason and draft season
Duke. next spring: Playoffs will start on
And in 13 NBA seasons, he's been April 18, the draft lottery in Chi-
to the playoffs 13 times. cago is on May 19, the draft com-
Atlanta Hawks guards Vince Carter (15) and guard Trae Young (11) celebrate Postseason basketball is an annual bine in Chicago is May 21-24, the
after Carter landed a 3-point shot, while New York Knicks forward Bobby Portis rite for Redick, a streak he's put- NBA Finals will begin on June 4 and
(1) walks past in the final minute of the Hawks' 100-96 victory in a preseason NBA
basketball game in New York, Wednesday, Oct. 16, 2019. ting on the line this season with the Game 7 of the title series — if nec-
Associated Press New Orleans Pelicans. And Redick essary — is on June 21.q