The Opening Tip

• The Suns’ win streak is getting historic
• Enes Kanter Freedom has a new name and a new angle  
• It doesn’t sound like Kyrie Irving is coming back any time soon

Tonight's best games

1. The beatdowns of all beatdowns happened last night

Last night, the Ja Morant-less Grizzlies beat the Thunder in OKC by 73 (s e v e n t y - t h r e e) points. They entered the third quarter leading by 50 points, then had the courage/ruthlessness/sense of humor to go out there and tack 23 more points onto the lead.

The quarter-by-quarter totals: 31-16, 41-20, 41-20, 39-17

By the numbers: 

• The 73-point win is the largest margin in the history of the league. 68 was the previous high. 
• Memphis’s leading-scorer, Jaren Jackson Jr., had only 27. Eight other Grizzlies scored between 10 and 19 points. 
• OKC’s Luguentz Dort, one of the Thunder’s only good players, led the team with 15 points but also was a team-low minus-53 in 25 minutes. 
• The best plus-minus on the Thunder was Aleksej Pokusevski’s minus-20, which he posted in 19 minutes of play. 
• The best plus-minus on the Grizz was Santi Aldama, who was plus-52 in 28 minutes, which actually sounds impossible. 

Dating back to the second half of last season, OKC is now 9-42 in its last 52 games. In that span, they’ve accrued the largest home loss in NBA history (57 on 05/01/21) and the largest loss in NBA history (73 last night).

But at least they have those draft picks.

2. Daily GIF: The Suns make it 18 straight

With a breezy win over the Pistons last night, Phoenix (19-3) broke its franchise record with an 18th straight win. Only 10 streaks have been longer. 

The Suns’ last loss was in October; after a ‘no loss November,’ they roll the same vibes into tonight’s primetime game vs. the Warriors (18-3).

3. Trivia time

The Kings have the longest playoff drought in the league. When’s the last time they made the playoffs, and who was that team’s leading scorer?

4. Enes Kanter (Freedom)’s latest heel turn is to Fox News

If you haven’t followed the recent foibles of Enes Kanter (Freedom) over the last few months, here you have it: 

1. He decided to go scorched earth on China, which immediately got the Celtics banned from Chinese TV/streaming. 
2. He decided to call out LeBron for his partnership with Nike, instead of someone like, uh, Nike Owner Phil Knight, all while wearing a Celtics jersey with a Nike swoosh on it.  
3. He, on Monday, became an American citizen, tacked the word ‘Freedom’ onto the end of his name, and went on Tucker Carlson Tonight. 

Here’s one of his quotes, delivered to a gleeful Carlson:
 

So … his first order of business as an American and as someone named ‘Freedom’ is to tell other free Americans to shut up and be happy, while also being used as a bad-faith pawn for conservative media, the same way an anti-Trump army vet would be used by liberal media.

And that’s not even the worst part! On TCT, Kanter (Freedom) was introduced as an ‘NBA Star.’

[READ: Enes Kanter Freedom, off the bench and onto Fox News, is a true American now]

5.  Quick Hits

• Shams on Kyrie: “He’s not gonna play basketball unless he’s traded”
• The Bucks and Hornets played a great regular season game on Wednesday: Miles Bridges dunked on Giannis. LaMelo hit a game-tying 3. Giannis hit a game-winner. Bridges *almost* cashed a half-court shot for the win.
• Kemba Walker logged his second DNP-CD in a row on Thursday. He’s out of the rotation. 
• Doc Rivers on Ben Simmons: "I literally don't even talk about it”
• Duncan Robinson this season: 10.4 PPG, nine 3-point attempts per game, 31.8 percent from 3. 
• Trae Young got a few votes in the NYC mayoral race.
• From out new favorite Twitter account: One time a guy sat on top of the hoop to fix a shot clock while an NBA game was going on.

6.  Reads

• How Steph Curry is the new Roger Federer [Wall Street Journal]
• What is the ceiling for Zach LaVine and the Bulls? [The Ringer]
• The Celtics need to break up their core, and Marcus Smart is the one to go [The Boston Globe]

Trivia answer: 2005-06 (Mike Bibby)