The Miami Heat and Karl-Anthony Towns each made NBA history in their final games
It might not be much consolation, given that both are headed to the draft lottery, but the Miami Heat and the Minnesota Timberwolves' Karl-Anthony Towns each made history in their regular-season finales.
Let's start with the Heat, who clawed back from the biggest win-loss deficit the NBA has ever seen to finish the year at 41-41. Unfortunately, since the Chicago Bulls owned the tiebreaker in the playoff hunt, Miami just missed out on a postseason berth.
The Heat were 19 games below .500 on Jan. 13; according to ESPN and the Miami broadcast, no team more than 12 games below .500 had made it back to an even record before.
Towns, meanwhile, became the first player in NBA history to score 2,000 points, grab 1,000 rebounds and make 100 3-pointers in a season:
https://twitter.com/Timberwolves/status/852332827190468608
That milestone requires a little bit of context. First, there have been only 47 2,000-point/1,000-rebound seasons in the NBA in the first place, including Towns' 2016-17 campaign (via Basketball-Reference). Second, just 11 of those have come since the NBA instituted the 3-point line. Finally, the previous record for most 3-pointers made in a 2,000/1,000 season was ... three, set by David Robinson in 1995-96.
https://twitter.com/ColinCowherd/status/852342507438342144
Now, with all that said, Towns is going to be an absolute phenom. We can't wait to see what he brings to the table next season.
