THE ASSOCIATIONLIVEThe Association Chronicle
On paper it is the best partnership the league has ever printed: RickJames323496 (1,405 career points, No. 1 all-time) and GoodKarmaa (1,130, No. 2), 1,367 points scored side by side across 35 games together. On the floor, it keeps not working. The pillars went 0-3 as teammates Tuesday — 86-98 in Game 080 despite combining for 53 on a nearly flawless 21-of-24, 84-104 in Game 081, and a 64-74 grinder in the nightcap — dropping their lifetime record together to 16-19. Perfect shooting, shared floor vision, losing basketball. Again.
Then the optimizer split them up, and the quiet part got loud. In Game 082 Karma hung 28 on 10-of-11 while Rick’s six turnovers fed a 107-85 avalanche going the other way. In Game 083 Karma authored a record-tying 16-assistmasterpiece (52 PRF, zero turnovers) and edged Rick’s 26-point counterpunch, 79-73. That’s 2-0 on the night, and Karma now leads the all-time head-to-head 9-7. Paradise, it turns out, has a preferred winner.
Fifty, again. jspalt4 hung 50 on Do Unto Otherss in Game 080 — 18-of-23 overall, a record-shattering 12-of-14 from three, 12 assists — and posted a 78 PRF, breaking BackPackxBUBBA’s all-time mark of 74. The 12 threes destroyed the old single-game record of nine. Then he did it again: 36-4-13 on 8-of-9 from deep in Game 081, a 72 PRF with zero turnovers, back-to-back POTGs. The man now owns three of the four best games ever recorded.
And his running mate matched him shot for shot. Swweetjones337 poured in 25 on 9-of-11 in Game 080 — a spotless 7-of-7from three — then 32 on 11-of-13 in 081, going 10-of-12 from deep. That’s 17-of-19 from three across two games, and his ten made threes in 081 slot in at No. 2 all-time — one game after the record moved to twelve. He shoots 76% from deep for his career. This is no longer a hot streak; it is a fact of life.
