Live. Breathe. Ball.

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

QUICK HITS

• After a stellar performance in a loss against the 76ers on Friday, a game in which he scored a season-high 33 points along with 10 assists, Fred VanVleet has now already reached a single-season career best in double-doubles at 11. Those 11, accomplished in just 28 games, account for nearly 25% of the total number (45) of VanVleet’s double-doubles over the course of his eight-year career (445 games). In addition, VanVleet’s 8.5 assists per game are a career-best, while he has also scored in double-figures in all but two appearances this season. The Houston Rockets point guard has clearly been the steadying hand the organization hoped for when they invested in the former undrafted product out of Wichita State this past summer.

• I want to get excited over Patrick Williams—for the third time—really, I do. But like a jilted lover who has been hurt too much in the past, I refuse to fall for his siren song once more. Since Zach LaVine’s right foot inflammation helped move him back into the starting lineup 17 games ago, Williams has been averaging a healthy 14.4 points per game, shooting 53% from the field, and 48.4% from distance during that stretch. Numbers that have buoyed many a Bulls fan and Williams stan alike. Yet, I’m not ready to commit to him having turned the corner. If this current hot streak isn’t just that—a hot stretch for a streaky player—then I will gladly eat crow on a Chicago dog-style bun. But the total statistical package for this season tells me that he is who I think he is. The first set of numbers is current season averages, parentheses are last year's. All stats are per game:

minutes: 28.0 (28.3), points: 10.4 (10.2), rebounds: 4.1 (4.0), assists: 1.5 (1.2), steals: .9 (.9), blocks: .9 (.9) field goals made: 3.9 (3.8), field goals attempted: 8.4 (8.3), fg%: 46.0% (46.4%), 3-pointers made: 1.4 (1.4), 3-pointers attempted: 3.3 (3.4), 3pt% 40.7% (41.5%), 2-pointers made: 2.5 (2.4), 2-pointers attempted: 5.1 (4.9), 2pt% 49.4% (49.8%), efg% 54.0% (54.9%), usg%: 15.9 (15.6), tov: 1.1 (1.2)

• I apologize about the length and general 1989 rotary magazine feel to that batch of stats, but holy crap his numbers look like the simulation got really, really lazy. For those keeping score at home, Williams has less than 1% of variation from last season to this season across 18 different statistical measurements. Here’s to consistency, I suppose.

• One of the weirdest stats that you’ll see all season: The Golden State Warriors are both top three in clutch victories at 12 (tied with Denver for 2^nd behind Milwaukee at 13) and bottom three in clutch losses at 13 (tied with Detroit and ahead of only Atlanta at 14).

• This Duncan Robinson remix is a banger. Miami’s sixth-year guard was once one of the league’s most singularly-skilled players: before this season, Robinson averaged only 1.2 two-point attempts to a robust 7.4 three-point attempts per game for his career. Yet, so far this year, Robinson has been far more apt to explore the space inside of the arc, as those numbers are now a far less disparate 3.6 to 7.0. The dampened propensity to solely fling from behind the three-point line isn’t the only major change that has stood out in Robinson’s game, as a player that was once merely a catch-and-shoot specialist has turned himself into a full-fledged attacking playmaker off the dribble. Robinson’s usage percentage (18.5%), assists per game (3.2), assist ratio (20.2%), percentage of team’s total assists (19.2%), points in the paint (3.8%), and percentage of total points that are scored in the paint (26%) are all career highs, and in most cases, by a starkly significant margin.