Hindsight is 30-30

I never thought I'd include the Knickerbockers in two consecutive posts, but I never thought Kevin Love would have a 20-20 game, much less a 30-30 evening. He joins an exclusive club populated by a lot of first-name-only members (Kareem, Moses, Wilt). Most 30-30's occurred in a different statistical era (more on that later) with the most recent being when "E.T" was in a theater near you.

In today's NBA, some teams don't pull down thirty rebounds in an entire evening. In fact, Love outrebounded three different franchises last night. The Knicks, for their part, recorded 43 rebounds in the contest versus 56 for the T-Wolves.

So how did this happen? Well, since rebounds are a function of missed shots, poor shooting would be the prime suspect. Both teams obliged, with the Knicks shooting 38% to the T-Wolves 43% and tossing up a LOT of shots in the process. The NBA averaged 82 shots/game for 2009-2010 season - the Knicks chucked up 92 shots last night while the Wolves attempted 101. It also helps to be playing a banged up Knicks team without a real center and a foul-laden Amar'e Stoudamire.

What is truly amazing about Love's performance is that he achieved it in this era. During the 50s and 60s, thirty-thirty games happened at least a half-dozen times or so a season, mostly by some guy named Wilt. From 1969 through 1979 the phenomenon tapered off to a two-or-three-a-year-if-at-all occurrence. Teams shot a lot more in the pre-Watergate era. In 1970-1971, the NBA averaged 99 shots per game compared to 82 last year on 45 & 46% shooting, respectively. In case you were wondering (and even if you weren't,) 1970-1971's 30-30 games were recorded by Willis Reed and Elvin Hayes.

So a big tip of the cap to Kevin Love. I projected him on draft day as being somewhat along the lines of the next Tom Gugliotta. Or Chris Mihm. If you'd have asked me before the season what player (forward or center) could grab 30 boards in a game, Kevin Love would have been pretty far down the list (Top 3: Dwight Howard, David Lee, Joachim Noah. Last 3: Anderson Varejao, Charlie Villaneuva, Troy Murphy.) I'm not ready to crown him the second coming of Kevin McHale or even Bill Laimbeer, but kudos to Mr. Love for a career night.