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

The Deuce is loose, Domas says "yes mas" to double-doubles, who will vie for DPOY...

QUICK HITS

• I’m not totally sure what it is about Domantas Sabonis that causes him to be so under-regarded, but the poor guy seems to be the Rodney Dangerfield of the NBA. Sabonis, who is leading the league in triple-doubles with 26, in double-doubles at 69, and rebounds per game at 13.6, while also throwing in 19.6 points and 8.3 assists (6^th in the league) on 60.3% from the field (8^th), somehow wasn’t an All-Star this season, even after the injury replacements. So, it’s not really much of a surprise that Sabonis is in the midst of one of the greatest runs of consecutive double-doubles in league history, and in doing so, accomplishing something that hasn’t been done since Elvin Hayes 55 seasons ago, and yet almost no one nationally seems to be talking about besides the Hoops Collective Podcast. Sabonis currently has 56 consecutive double-doubles this season, an incredible streak when you consider the number of variables that could possibly impede a player, including an early injury exit, foul trouble, or just a bad night. But Sabonis comes to work and is ready to bang on a daily basis, delivering the most physical night-to-night experience this side of a sumo match, while not having missed a single game the Kings have played this year. If Sabonis were to finish out the season continuing this run, he will have 65 consecutive games with a double-double, good for ninth all-time in NBA history (he’s already locked into that spot with the 56), but a far first since the league’s merger in ’76.

• While his nickname may be “Deuce,” Knicks third-year guard Miles McBride is playing second to few as of late. Since being inserted into the Knicks' starting lineup in a matchup against the Warriors six games ago, a game in which he exploded for a career-high 29 points—including 19 in the first half—McBride is averaging 19.2 points on 52.6% shooting from the floor and a scorching 47.1% from distance on four makes per contest, while playing a Thibodeauian 44.6 minutes per game—which, of course, is leading the league by four minutes per game during this run. Teammate Josh Hart is second at 40.6 minutes per contest. Thibs doesn’t much like new toys, but when he finds one he does like, he sure as hell will abuse it. For his part, McBride has all the makings of a Thibodeau favorite, as he came into the league from West Virginia known more as a rugged defensive player than the scorer he has flashed of late. Coming into the season for the Knicks, McBride was thought of as an innings eater as the ninth or tenth man for New York, but with the team’s injury luck—or lack thereof—McBride has been cast in a more functional role, as his 18 minutes per game this year are more than a six-minute-per-game increase over last year’s 11.9. And even before this run of late, New York clearly felt they had something worth investing in with McBride, signing him to a three-year $13 million extension in December. A smart piece of business for New York, as their growing trust in McBride rendered Immanuel Quickley disposable—particularly considering the hefty sum he’s sure to demand this offseason in his own contract talks—allowing New York to include Quickley in the deal that brought OG Anunoby to the Knicks. McBride’s current hot streak notwithstanding, Quickley is a significantly more impactful scorer, but McBride’s defensive abilities are a better fit with a New York team that has been winning games with increasingly gritty play on that end over the last month. While McBride will likely return to a far less prominent role come playoff time, when rosters contract as coaches rely on seven to eight-man rotations, he has already had a far greater impact on New York this season than I think any would have expected going into this year and will likely get more than the paltry 2.6 minutes per game of playoff action that he has averaged so far in his career.

• I would state that I was going to say the quiet part out loud, but I’m beginning to think the reality that the Hawks may be better off shopping Trae Young and keeping Dejounte Murray is no longer being said in hushed tones on private lines. After a Thursday night win over the Celtics—the second for the Hawks this week versus Boston after the Celts inexplicably forfeited a thirty-point lead in a loss to the Hawks on Monday—in which Murray nailed his third buzzer-beating game winner of the season, the Atlanta Hawks are now 10-8 since Trae Young went out with a season-ending ligament tear in his left hand. Over that stretch, in which Atlanta has beaten the Magic, the Knicks, the Cavs, the Clippers, and the Celtics, Murray has played his best basketball as a Hawk, averaging 26.1 points, 9.2 assists, and 1.9 steals per game—good for tenth, sixth, and seventh respectively league-wide over that stretch. While his 45.8% from the field—including going an eye-popping 18-44 in Thursday’s win—isn’t exactly the type of efficiency a coach dreams of, it’s not as though Atlanta is unfamiliar with low-efficiency scoring from the point guard position. Murray’s success with Trae out should come as no surprise though, as the pairing has been ill-suited playing alongside each other since Murray was brought in via trade two summers ago. The batterymates too often default to a "your turn, my turn" approach to attacking offensively, rather than highlighting each other’s potential off-ball strengths in an effort to optimize fit. Young should be one of the most dangerous off-ball shooters in the league, ideally drawing defenders and creating space with his gravity, but his reluctance to move when the ball isn’t in his hands, often settling for spot-ups thirty feet from the basket, renders his abilities to draw defenses inert. Murray, for his part, should be a devastating cutter, ala off-ball Kyrie, particularly with his long arms and large hands, but he too often gets stuck settling for catch and shoot opportunities off of Young drives, where Murray has shot a meh 37.6% on those looks this season. The issue in terms of fit really comes down to the fact that Murray is a combo guard who functions best when he can get his offensive game going on-ball and then pick and choose when to be a secondary generator of offense, which makes his current pairing with Bogdan Bogdanović a near-perfect fit, as Bogdanović can play both on and off the ball depending upon how Murray wants to attack. Yet, with Trae out, Murray has flashed playmaking that puts him on par with nearly any guard not named Haliburton this season. And we have seen this type of playmaking from Murray before, as he averaged 9.2 assists per game in his lone all-star season with the Spurs in 2021-22. That breakout year actually rendered Murray a potentially over-priced asset, and the Spurs sent him to Atlanta for a haul of picks and swaps. But with Murray having signed a four-year $120 million extension this past summer, he is now a far more relatively affordable player than Young, who is set to make about $45 million for the next three years. With Atlanta’s record at just 55-60 in games in which both guards have played, but 15-15 in games in which only Murray has been available, it feels certain the Hawks will be looking to trade a guard this offseason, and I don’t think it’ll be Kobe Bufkin. Atlanta’s now two seasons of mediocre play with the pairing, along with the clear disparity in comfort for both players in operating the offense without the other on the floor, would seem to augur a move that separates the duo before we get a third installment in the series. While Young is the better pure talent, the reality is that Trae is just a much more difficult player to build around because of his way of hijacking the style of offense and his limitations defensively. If I were Atlanta, I would be calling Minnesota, Orlando, San Antonio, and whomever else is looking for a point guard to see what Young could fetch.