The Opening Tip

• LeBron reached the ultra rare 35,000-point club last night.
• We hope you didn’t listen to our last piece of betting advice. 
• That time Rasheed Wallace played a single game for the Hawks.

This weekend's best matchups

1. A closer look at the Steph Curry vs. Damian Lillard debate

Last night on the Bill Simmons Podcast, the podcast’s namesake and Yahoo’s Chris Haynes renewed a semi-intriguing debate: Who’s better, Damian Lillard or Steph Curry?

On the court, while Lillard is a great player bound for the Hall of Fame, there isn’t much of a debate. Curry is a three-time champ, a two-time MVP and the greatest shooter ever. This year, he’s taking on opposing defenses (and teammate Kelly Oubre) and averaging 30 PPG on nearly 50-40-90 shooting splits. He revolutionized the game, with players like Lillard following in his pioneering of the outside game.

The off the court/non-basketball comparison is more interesting. Here are a few categories we came up with.

Relationship to Oakland:

• Lillard is from Oakland. 
• Curry played so well in Oakland that he gentrified the Warriors and helped move them away from Oakland and its adoring fanbase. 

Hobbies: 

• Lillard is an awesome rapper. 
• Curry organizes his garage for fun. (His words, not ours.)

Shot celebrations:

• Lillard mean mugs.
• Curry voluntarily does the shimmy thing. Like, he chooses to do that.

• Lillard can make a Hulu commercial cool. 
• Curry partook in the least funny commercial going. 

Signature moment:

• Lillard has hit two series-winning buzzer-beaters, including the one against OKC, where he waved the Thunder goodbye after sticking a contested 38-footer in Paul George’s face.
• Curry hit a similarly-long game-winner against OKC, which was admittedly cool, but in the regular season.

Shoe line: 

• Curry signed with Under Armour, which has uncool written into its patent.
• Lillard at least signed with adidas, though his line is … eh.

In conclusion, there isn’t much of a debate. Curry is the better basketball player. Lillard is the cool friend from home that wins over your college friends in five seconds. 

[LISTEN: BS Podcast: Dame vs. Curry]

2. Daily GIF: LeBron reaches the 35,000-point club

LeBron reached 35,000 career points last night on the free-throw make above.

To put that number in perspective, it’s double or nearly double the total points scored by Hall of Famers like Isiah Thomas (18,822), Scottie Pippen (18,940), Magic Johnson (17,707), Steve Nash (17,387) and Kevin McHale (17,335).

LeBron’s now one of three members in the ultra exclusive club: 

1. Kareem Abdul-Jabbar, 38,387
2. Karl Malone, 36,928
3. LeBron, 35,017

3. Trivia time

The entire 1999-00 Trail Blazers starting five averaged double-digits in points. How many of them can you name?

Hint: Ball don’t lie. Russian. Mighty Mouse.

4. 🎲 Grip vs. the house: We sincerely hope you ignored our last guarantee

Our last piece of betting advice was so comically wrong it should come with a refund. (This whole thing’s free, so it won’t.)

It ran in our Feb. 10 newsletter under the headline, “The Bucks are about to win (and cover) a bunch of games.”

And it even started with a humble brag about how right we were:
 

Here’s every result from Milwaukee since: 

• L: Suns 125, Bucks 124
• L: Jazz 129, Bucks 114
• L: Thunder 114, Bucks 109
• L: Raptors 124, Bucks 113
• L: Raptors 110, Bucks 96

You can’t make that kind of betting ineptitude up.

Nevertheless, we persist. You’re only as wrong as your next wager.

What we’re saying/our one guarantee*: The Jazz has covered a remarkable 17 of its last 18 games. It’s time to zag and take the Clippers (+3.5) against Utah tonight. (Kawhi Leonard is questionable, which means the line will be volatile until his game status is announced.)

Our record in previous guarantees: 1-2

Let’s get that .333 up to .500.

*You know the disclaimer by now.

5. 02/19/2004: The Rasheed Wallace era ends in Atlanta

On this day 17 years ago, the Atlanta Hawks traded Rasheed Wallace to the Pistons, ending one of the best one-game footnotes in NBA history.

The no-background: Wallace had finally pissed enough people in the Trail Blazers’ organization off, so they hastily traded him to Atlanta for Shareef Abdur-Rahim and Theo Ratliff. Atlanta, wanting not much to do with him, immediately began looking for a trade partner. In the meantime, though, Sheed was healthy and down to play, so he suited up for one single game as a Hawk, throwing up this statline: 

• 42 minutes, 20 points, 8-of-24 shooting, 1-of-6 from deep, five blocks, three turnovers in a six-point loss. 

The next day (this day 17 years ago), the Hawks saw enough and traded Sheed to Detroit for a first-rounder that eventually became Josh Smith. The Pistons went on to win the title that season, in-large part because of Sheed, and went on to make another Finals in 2005.

All these years later, a Wallace on the Hawks jersey remains a white whale of sports memorabilia. We managed to find this (probably fake) one on a (probably a scam) website.

6.  Quick hits

• Shaq didn’t know Pascal and Siakam are the same person on Inside the NBA last night. 
• Richard Jefferson to Gilbert Arenas on Arenas’ Hall of Fame chances: "I’m not saying you don’t have a chance, I’m just saying that you’re never ever getting into the Hall of Fame."
• Check out these cool alternate NBA logos drawn up by a Twitter artist. 
• “The Heat really chose Sheen and Sid over James Harden”
• Here’s Fred VanVleet crossing up Giannis in last night’s game.
• Kevin Durant’s reaction to a James Harden 3 last night is a future meme. 

7.  Off the press

• Masochism and magical thinking: Knicks twitter in this maybe kinda respectable season [Sports Illustrated]
• James Harden is making the Nets’ superteam experiment work [The Ringer]

Trivia answers: Scottie Pippen, Steve Smith, Rasheed Wallace, Damon Stoudamire, Arvydas Sabonis.