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Plus: Clippers dominate Detroit in overtime
There were some real weird orders in the standings early in this NBA season, like the hot starts from the Spurs and Wizards, who are both near the bottom of their respective conferences now.
Brooklyn is an example of the opposite, rising like a hot air balloon piloted by Steve Urkel after their tumultuous start to their season which included the NBA’s only head coach firing so far this season. Here’s another example of how they’ve turned it around:
Nets play spoiler to Garland’s big night, 125-117
After starting the season 9-11, Brooklyn has now won 13 of their last 14 to place themselves back in the thick of it near the top of the East standings. The win catapults the Nets past the Cavs as the two squads now rank 3rd and 4th respectively in their conference.
Kevin Durant and Kyrie Irving scored 32 each while TJ Warren added another 23 off the bench. The three combined to shoot 14-23 (60.9%) from distance to help their team shoot an elite 18-30 (60.0%) on the night.
This very easily could’ve been Darius Garland’s game as he dominated from start to finish, but especially down the stretch, scoring 18 of his 46 in the fourth alone. Garland also finished with eight assists, matching Ben Simmons’ total for the game-high.
Clippers pull away from Pistons in OT, 142-131
LA was down and (almost) out late in regulation, down 14 with 3:34 remaining. Terrence Mann was critical for the Clips down that final regulation stretch with two assists to start their comeback run as well as the pull-up shot with five seconds remaining to send it to overtime.
In overtime, Paul George took over, accounting for 12 of the Clips’ 14 points in the bonus period. Conversely, Detroit managed only three points on 1-6 shooting in overtime.
Miami holds on for 113-110 win over Minnesota
I’ve tried really hard to give Rudy Gobert some benefit of the doubt recently as he’s obviously been a punching bag at times in his career, but it’s tough to ignore him being a -14 in 31 minutes of this one while no other starter was worse than -2 and his backup, Naz Reid, was a team-high +13 with his 21 and 11 double double.
Miami’s balanced barrage of scoring behind four players with 14+ was enough to get them back to .500 following a two-game losing streak. Their next game will be a Bubble Finals rematch against the Lakers where they’ll have a chance to start a winning streak.
Rockets beat Bulls going away, 133-118
Part of the perks of scoring 133 in a single game usually includes big games for multiple players, and this is definitely one of those cases. To earn Houston’s 10th win on the season, Kevin Porter Jr. finished with game-highs in points (36) and assists (nine, tied with DeMar DeRozan, who added 31 points of his own), while Alperen Sengun did his best Nikola Jokic impression, posting 25 points, 11 rebounds, and six assists.
New Orleans smashes Indiana, 113-93
Utah’s late push comes up short in 122-126 loss against San Antonio
The Jazz outscored the Spurs 40-30 in the fourth quarter, but since the Spurs were scoring consistently enough earlier (30+ in each quarter), the deficit ended up being too much to overcome. Three Spurs accounted for the majority of that scoring, between 20+ from Devin Vassell, Keldon Johnson, and Malaki Branham while four more added 10+.
Blazers pull away from Hornets in second half, win 124-113
Portland turned a 61-67 halftime deficit around thanks in part to a 40-point third quarter in which Jusuf Nurkic turned in 12 points, including two of his career-high five made threes. Nurk finished with 28 points, outdone only by Jerami Grant’s 32 points on 12-19 shooting.
It was a fun point guard matchup between Dame Lillard, posting 17 points and nine assists, and LaMelo Ball, who finished with the trademark LeBron statline, 27 points, seven rebounds, and seven assists. LaMelo, however, made some costly mistakes that Portland was able to take advantage of during their second half run.
