Basketball is not a sport, it's a way of life.

The Storm are pouring it on, Dearica going HAM, Mr. West was basketball's true north...

Quick Hits

• In a city accustomed to downpours, it should be no surprise that it’s raining buckets in Seattle, where the 9-4 Storm, owners of the league’s fourth-best record going into their matchup today against the Phoenix Mercury, have been pouring it in so far this year. The Storm are led by Jewell Lloyd, who last year had the second greatest individual scoring season in league history at 24.7 points per game (Taurasi - 25.3 in ’06), and has continued to be an offensive gem this season, averaging 20.2 points per game, good for fifth in the league thus far. But unlike last season for Seattle, where only Lloyd and teammate Ezi Magbegor managed to average double figures, this year, following the offseason signings of six-time All-Star Skyler Diggins-Smith and eight-time All-Star and former MVP Nneka Ogwumike (‘16), the Storm now have a deluge of offensive options (last one). As of today, Seattle is just 0.1 Magbegor points away from being the only team in the league to have four players averaging 13 points per game or better: Lloyd (27.1), Ogwumike (18.1), Diggins-Smith (15.4), and Magbegor (12.9). If they were able to get there and maintain that pace, they would be just the sixth team in the history of the WNBA to do so (’07 Sun, ’20 Sky, ’22 Aces, ’22 Sun, ’23 Aces).

• Well, praise be to the Mavericks for the beating they gave the Celtics on Friday because at least that means we get a bit more basketball from a Finals that felt as though it was all but over. There remains little doubt that Boston will still pull the series out, lest they become the first of 154 teams to hold a 3-0 lead in a playoff series only to lose, which would be the most brutally poetic irony this side of Edgar Allan Poe being pecked to death by a conspiracy of ravens, particularly considering how close the Celtics came to being the first team to overcome such a deficit last season in their Eastern Conference Finals matchup against the Heat. Since Dallas gave us all at least one more game to live for, let’s take a peek into some more of the statistical silliness happening in this series:

  -  With his five threes in the fourth quarter during garbage time, Tim Hardaway Jr. joined Ray Allen and Steph Curry (3x) as the only players to make five or more threes in a quarter during the Finals in NBA history. Clearly, the stakes were a bit less severe for Hardaway, as his Mavericks held a 92-60 lead going into the final period. In Allen’s case, he hit his five threes in the second quarter of Game 2 of the ’10 Finals, with his Celtics up 29-22 going into the period. Steph, who hit an NBA record six threes in a quarter, did so against the Celtics in the first quarter of Game 1 of the ’22 Finals, as well as five threes in the fourth quarter against the Cavs in Game 3 of the ’15 Finals with his Warriors down 55-72 going into the period. He also hit five threes again against the Cavs in Game 2 in the fourth quarter of the ’18 Finals with his Warriors holding a 10-point lead going into the period (90-80). For Hardaway Jr., who has seen scant playing time in these playoffs—he’s averaging just 13 minutes per game after playing 26.8 minutes per contest during the regular season—and had only made eight threes total during this postseason coming into the game, this may be just the type of confidence boost he needed to potentially become a factor in minutes that actually matter in the series.

  -  While we’re talking about threes, Dereck Lively II hit just his first three of the season—and professional career—on only his third attempt of the entire year (77 games) early in the first quarter, essentially letting us all know it was going to be a weird night. Going back to his one year in college, it is now just the third three that the Mavs rookie center has hit over the last two years of play.

  -  With the Mavericks’ 122-84 win, the 38-point margin of victory was the third largest in the history of the Finals. Here’s a look at the five worst margins of victory in the history of the NBA championship:

  o   1998 Finals, Game 3 – 42 points: Chicago Bulls 96, Utah Jazz 54

  o   2008 Finals, Game 6 – 39 points: Boston Celtics 131, Los Angeles Lakers 92

  o   2024 Finals, Game 4 – 38 points: Dallas Mavericks 122, Boston Celtics 84

  o   2013 Finals, Game 3 – 36 points: San Antonio Spurs 113, Miami Heat 77

  o   1978 Finals, Game 6 – 35 points: Washington Bullets 117, Seattle SuperSonics 82

  -  The Mavericks ended the first half of Game 4 holding a 61-35 lead, with the 26-point halftime deficit representing Boston’s largest ever in the history of the franchise’s 23 Finals appearances. The 35 points Boston scored in the first half was the second lowest in the team’s Finals history (31 against the Lakers in Game 6 of the ’10 Finals).

• I’m not sure that the term “glow-up” is appropriate parlance within sports vernacular, but when it comes to the game of Dearica Hamby, I’m going to go ahead and allow it. For those unfamiliar, the Los Angeles Sparks' 10th-year forward/center has been on an absolute tear this season, as she is in the midst of the type of superstar turn that is typically seen more in the first five years of a player’s career. Hamby, who, in fairness to her, has been a known quantity in the league for a while now, having won Sixth Player of the Year in back-to-back seasons as a member of the Aces in ’19 & ’20 and following up those seasons by becoming an All-Star in ’21 & ’22. This was of course before leaving the team via trade in a messy situation revolving around Hamby filing a complaint of gender discrimination against the Aces and Head Coach Becky Hammon, claiming the organization and coach created an “abusive and hostile” work environment following her informing the team that she was pregnant during the ’22 season. The situation resulted in Hammon being suspended for the first two games of last season and the Aces forfeiting their ’25 first-round pick due to salary cap circumvention that pertained to promises of impermissible benefits to Hamby when she agreed to her contract extension with the team in the summer of ’22. To say the parting of ways was acrimonious is like saying the Grand Canyon is a mild divide. But, after getting situated in Los Angeles last season, Hamby is, well, going HAM this season for a young Sparks team that has needed every bit of her potent game, as they have understandably struggled out of the gates to a 4-9 record, due in no part to Hamby, who is recording career highs basically across the board. Here’s a look at just how damn good Hamby has been so far this season: