By , Andrew Lynch
Published April 13, 2017
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 January 13th; according to ESPNand the Miami broadcast, no team more than 12 games below .500 had made it back to an even recordbefore.
Karl-Anthony 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:
That milestone requires a little bit of context. First, there have only been 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.
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.
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https://www.foxnews.com/sports/the-miami-heat-and-karl-anthony-towns-each-made-nba-history-in-their-final-games