A LeBron record. Christmas greetings from Mazzulla. Steph went 0 for 7. Thursday wasn’t boring in the NBA

LeBron James set a record that was good. Stephen Curry set a personal record that wasn’t good.

Detroit had the largest early deficit of any team this season. Golden State had its largest overall deficit of any game this season.

And Victor Wembanyama showed once again that for him the unusual is the usual. A look back at an extremely eventful Thursday in the NBA:

LeBron overtakes Kareem – again

Another record for LeBron James: He has now played more regular season minutes than anyone in NBA history, passing Kareem Abdul-Jabbar.

When counting the playoffs, James had long ago set the minutes record. But this is another entry in the glittering resume, which includes, among many other things, passing Abdul-Jabbar as the NBA’s all-time leading scorer.

“It’s a pretty cool honor,” James said.

Steph goes 0 for 7

This has never happened before: Stephen Curry played more than 11 minutes in a game and didn’t score a single field goal. The Golden State star shot 0-for-7 from the field and 0-for-6 from 3-point range in a 144-93 loss to Memphis.

“Embarrassing,” Curry said.

It was such a night for the Warriors. Because …

The Warriors trail by 57 points and lose by 51 points

…like I said, it was a bad night for Golden State. The Warriors trailed Memphis by 57 points in the fourth quarter and then lost by 51 points.

Both numbers – largest deficit and largest final margin – were the worst in the NBA so far this season.

“You lose by 51, it’s humbling,” Warriors coach Steve Kerr said.

But on the bright side…

There was also a winning team in this 51-point game. It is worth noting that there have been two games this season in which a team won by 45 or more points.

Memphis beat Golden State by 51 on Thursday. And Memphis also beat Portland by 45 on November 10th.

The Pistons have dug a really big hole

Credit to Detroit: The Pistons lost just seven times, 126-119, to Utah on Thursday.

That means the Pistons played really – really – well the last three quarters. Because the first quarter was terrible.

Detroit trailed 48-19 in the first quarter. The 29-point deficit in the first 12 minutes was the worst deficit of any team in a first quarter this season – and the largest such deficit of any Detroit team since at least 1996.

In the same game, Utah’s Jordan Clarkson and Detroit’s Ron Holland were both sent off for lining up as if they were going to fight. No blows were thrown.

Welcome home, KAT

Respect, Minnesota. Timberwolves fans did the right thing and cheered Karl-Anthony Towns in his first game after being traded to the New York Knicks.

Apparently they made him feel like he was home again. Towns had 32 points, 20 rebounds and six assists and the Knicks defeated the Timberwolves 133-107.

Shai’s winning streak continues

Shai Gilgeous-Alexander scored 35 points in Oklahoma City’s 105-99 win over struggling Orlando (which was already without Paolo Banchero and Franz Wagner and lost Jalen Suggs to ankle problems on Thursday).

Gilgeous-Alexander has scored 25 or more points in 16 straight games – with the asterisk there that the NBA Cup Final doesn’t count, since he only had 21 in Tuesday’s loss to Milwaukee.

The 16-game streak is the longest in the league this season.

Merry Christmas. Also nonsense

Celtics stars Jaylen Brown and Jayson Tatum suffered technical fouls in the fourth quarter of Boston’s loss to Chicago on Thursday night, which saw the defending NBA champions fail down the stretch.

Another technical went to Celtics coach Joe Mazzulla, who had some angry words to the refereeing team after the final buzzer of the Bulls’ 117-108 victory.

“I just hadn’t seen her in a while, so Merry Christmas, Happy Holidays, I wasn’t sure if I would see her before the holidays,” Mazzulla explained afterwards with a completely serious face. “I just can’t let a moment go by when you wish the best for someone and their families.”

The video doesn’t seem to indicate he was spreading holiday cheer.

Referee injured

Veteran referee Scott Foster appears to have been injured in Houston.

The longtime NBA Finals referee left the Rockets’ home game against New Orleans with an undisclosed injury in the third quarter. He didn’t return.

Foster has played nearly 2,100 games in his NBA career.

Wemby has another monster line

Victor Wembanyama became the 23rd player in NBA history to make both 15 three-pointers and 12 free throws in a game. Most of the others on this list are Guardians. Wemby is 7-foot-4.

It was another evening at the office for the Spurs star: 42 points, six rebounds, five assists, four blocks, two steals. San Antonio defeated Atlanta in overtime 133-126.

All-Star voting opens

Thursday was the first day of voting for the revamped All-Star Game, a three-game mini-tournament featuring games to 40 points this season.

It’s new. It’s different. It is not unanimously popular. Phoenix star Kevin Durant’s initial reaction was that he “hated it.”

In an interview on FanDuelTV on Thursday, he held back a bit. “Basically, I work for the league. I can’t compete against the league like this,” Durant said. “But that was my opinion.”

___

AP NBA: https://apnews.com/NBA