The Opening Tip

• A Warrior of 57 years retired last week
• Identifying the NBA pretenders through three weeks
• Kyrie Irving’s “personal leave” continues

Tonight's best games

1. The, uh, pandemic is catching up with the NBA

Between yesterday’s postponed Dallas-New Orleans game and tonight’s postponed Celtics-Bulls game, COVID-19 and the league’s related policies have forced the NBA to call off and reschedule four games this year. 

• In addition, there have been circumstances that have ruined competitive balance, like on Saturday night, when the 76ers were forced to play the Nuggets with seven players. (They lost easily, 115-103, but not before backdoor covering with a furious 11-2 run to end the game.) 

Adam Silver and the league tried to trudge on through that situation (“THEY HATE THE PROCESS,” tweeted Embiid), but, on Sunday, as news came that the Celtics would also have to suit up with only seven players, it became clear some postponements would be in order.

Though there’s been no developed discussions on pausing the season, reported Woj on Sunday, the NBA’s “Board of Governors” (whatever that means) will meet later today to discuss how to proceed, and which possible tweaks to the league’s COVID-19 policies there might be.

Also according to Woj, the NBA is considering…

• … limiting how much interactions players on opposite teams can have before and after games.
•  … stricter rules on mask-wearing and restaurant dining. 
• … cutting down on the length of gameday shootarounds and practices.
• ... forbidding players from having a "close friend" visit their hotel rooms while on the road. 

[READ: As postponements pile up, what’s next for the NBA?]

2. Daily GIF: De’Aaron Fox’s game-clinching dunk

If you aren’t familiar with De’Aaron Fox, the man raining dunks upon the Pacers in the GIF above, he’s the guy who will waste away for a few more years in Sacramento before finally getting traded to a competent franchise, thus turning into the All-Star he should have been all those years with the Kings.

In the meantime, he and his teammates (ex: rookie Tyrese Haliburton) are a great late-night streaming option.

3. Trivia time

Who was the last scoring title winner to also win the NBA title in the same season?

Hint: Not MJ.

4. Every candidate for the good- start-terrible-final-record award

This is an award given annually in honor of the Minnesota Timberwolves, who, last year: 

• Started the season 7-4, which is not exactly a 2015-16 Warriors-esque start. 
• Tweeted "tHe WoLvEs aRe GoInG tO bE bAd tHiS sEaSoN," which, when spelt like that, is meant to signify a mocking tone. (As in, remember when you all said we’d be bad this year! Well, we’re 7-4!)
• Finished the season with a 19-45 record, which means they went 12-41 after that tweet. 

The Wolves were an easy target last year, but it happens to a few teams every season. A team wins a few games, then an ex-player goes on ESPN and says something like, Michael Carter-Williams is the next Jason Kidd, only to have that team crash back to the mean and wind up deep in the lottery.

A couple candidates to keep an eye on this year, some of which have already started their descent. 

• The Cavs (5-6), who started the season 3-0, but have since lost six of eight, including last night’s blowout to the Ja Morant-less Grizzlies. 
• The Magic (6-5), who have quelled a 6-2 start by losing three in a row. (They have a history of doing this: In 2017-18 they were 8-4 through 12 games. They finished 25-57.) 
• The Knicks (5-6), who have lost three straight since we polled all of our Knicks fan friends on their excitement level after a 5-3 start. (After they won their fifth game, Austin Rivers said, “I’ve been on bad teams before, this is not one,” which might end up being the less obnoxious version of last year’s "tHe WoLvEs aRe GoInG tO bE bAd tHiS sEaSoN." 
• The Hawks (5-5), who are 1-4 since a 4-1 start, and seem to quickly be growing tired of the Trae Young show.

5. Fred Kast, Warriors scorekeeper for the last 57 years, calls it quits

As archaic as it sounds in the age of digital records, every NBA team has either an official scorekeeper or stats crew, who or which is tasked with recording every assist, rebound, point and so on in a score book, which is sent to the league offices at the end of every season.

Most of the people who hold these jobs are who you’d expect -- old fellas with grey hair who took the job when the league was in its creaky infancy, who have one million stories about Bill Russell or Wilt Chamberlain or some other legend.

Fred Kast, 81, the oldest, greyest and most-storied of them all, retired from his scorekeeper job on Friday after 57 years with the Warriors. He would have liked to stay on until the end of the season, he told the New York TImes in a nice profile, but the pandemic and his wife’s health forced him into an early-late retirement.
 

6.  Quick hits

• Kyrie Irving will miss his fourth game tonight for “personal reasons,” and was recorded at a maskless party last night, which will likely lead to an extended league-mandated quarantine whenever he decides he’s ready to return to the job that pays him $406,452 per regular season game. 
• LaMelo Ball and Mr. Education Reform hooked up for an 85-foot pass and basket last night. 
• Year 18 and LeBron is still doing things like this.
• Pascal Siakam missed a turnaround game-winner on Sunday and a turnaround game-winner on Monday, and now the Raptors are 2-8.

7.  Off the press

• Even fanless arenas can’t stop NBA DJs’ music [The Ringer] 
• Zach Lowe’s 10 likes and dislikes [ESPN]