NBA schedule and results: Pelicans snap Hawks’ winning streak

Few human beings can grab someone’s jersey in an endearing way. Tony Allen isn’t like most normal human beings. This was his way of showing Jeff Green some love after his game-winning three-point play against the Suns.

Long live Tony Allen Vines.

The Hawks don’t really do moments. They do runs, or more accurately, stretches where everyone plays as if connected on an invisible string. Their genius has been in extending those stretches from a quick blast of excitement into sustained march to yet another victory. Their play the last few months has turned the cold winter doldrums of the NBA season into a kind of performance art.

They had won 19 in a row with their last loss coming all the way back in 2014 and even that doesn’t do it justice. Going all the way back to Nov. 26, they had won 33 of 35, which would have felt impossible if we all hadn’t watched it unfold with metronomic consistency.

The Suns were playing like a team possessed in the fourth quarter against the Grizzlies on Monday night. Isaiah Thomas was on fire, Eric Bledsoe was playing at super speed, and it looked like Phoenix was set to grab its third win the last four games. So much for that.

With Memphis down two, Jeff Green rebounded this Mike Conley three-pointer and finished with the hoop plus the harm. He sank the free throw to give the Grizzlies the go-ahead score, then helped shut down Markieff Morris on the last Suns possession to seal the win.

A simple throw back onto the court would’ve sufficed. But it would not have been even 1/1000th as cool as perfectly heading the ball on the fly.

Let’s be fair: Isaiah Thomas is on fire in the fourth quarter against the Memphis Grizzlies at the moment. By the time we’re publishing this, Thomas already has 11 points in the period. It wasn’t all good, though.

We don’t know what this is, but it’s definitely not going on Thomas’ highlight reel.

Ricky Rubio is playing his first game on Monday night since Nov. 7 thanks to an ankle injury that has kept him sidelined. Minnesota entered the night with the lowest winning percentage in the NBA, but there’s a reason people around the league are excited by the team’s future. The play above is one reason why.

The idea of Rubio surrounded by elite athletes like Andrew Wiggins and Zach LaVine has to be a tantalizing one for Wolves fans. Add in another potential top draft pick this year, and Minnesota might soon be home to the best collection of young talent in the league.

On second thought, maybe Marc Gasol tripped Eric Bledsoe, but WHATEVER. Not gonna be That Guy Who Ruins Highlights.

(Via @BenTBrown)

What a weird game in Brooklyn. The Clippers-Nets contest featured one of the strangest first-quarter lines you’ll ever see, an intentional foul-off between DeAndre Jordan and Mason Plumlee and this. This is a four-point play by Alan Anderson, of all people, to give the Nets a two-point lead.

Oh yeah, there was also this. After the Clippers tied it up, Jarrett Jack won it for the Nets.

Based on how hard he threw down this dunk, Terrence Ross may have a personal issue with the rim in Toronto. He almost took the net off.

Even by Anthony Davis’ standards, this is pretty amazing. Where did he come from? Atlanta has no idea.

This Vine is the worst TO BE CONTINUED cliffhanger TV show ever:

The ball hung on the rim for seven seconds, which as noted in the above Vine, is longer than a single Vine can hold. If the ball becomes wedged in the rim or comes to rest on top of the rim, there’s a jump ball. However, that isn’t the case here: the ball is moving, so it’s still live. And since you’re not allowed to touch the ball while it’s above the cylinder, everybody just had to kind of wait for it to come down.

DeAndre Jordan hit his first four shots against the Nets, but missed his first eight free throws, including this airball.

It’s an exaggerated reflection of the center’s season stats -- he’s shooting a career-high 73.1 percent from the floor, the best figure in the NBA, while shooting 40.6 percent from the line. He’s been even worse in the past -- he’s shot below 40 percent three times in his seven NBA seasons. Such things will happen for a guy who shoots the vast majority of his shots within two feet of the rim and doesn’t really have any need to develop a consistent jumper.

Whiteside’s emergence could be the difference-maker with opponents consistently struggling to stop the former journeyman. After multiple stints in the D-League, Lebanon and China over the prior two seasons, the 7-footer is finally putting it together at age 25.

On Sunday, the Celtics became the latest team unable to stop Whiteside, who put up 20 points, nine rebounds and three blocks in 30 minutes. He didn’t record a single free throw attempt, but took advantage of a career-high 17 shot attempts to score 20-plus points for the second time in his career.