Photo by Sarah Stier/Getty Images
Plus: yet another triple double from Joker and a masterclass in scoring by Markkanen
One thing that I’ve really come to learn firsthand in my first season covering the league at large is that there’s never a shortage of fun things to talk about each night. Even a random Tuesday ahead of Christmas, a day which sees many casual fans start to pay attention to the NBA season, is jam packed with storylines.
There’s one of the league’s premier franchises, NY Knicks, winning its eighth straight game, their longest since they won nine straight in Apr. 2021. There’s Nikola Jokic, trying to win a third straight MVP, posting a second straight triple double. There’s Lauri Markkanen trying his hardest to keep Utah above water in contention for the playoffs.
Here’s the details on every storyline from Tuesday:
Jazz blow out Pistons, 126-111
Utah stays above .500 with this victory, getting a critical win against a bad squad. Lauri Markkanen put on an efficiency clinic, making 13 of his 20 shots, including 9-13 from three. A couple of Detroit’s young pieces, Jaden Ivey and Jalen Duren, joined the clinic and combined to shoot 17-23 for 45 points.
Bulls stop the bleeding with 113-103 win over Heat
Chicago came into this one on a four-game losing streak with talks of internal blow-ups, but winning cures all in the Association. The Bulls took advantage of cold shooting nights from Miami’s premiere starting shooters, Tyler Herro and Max Strus, who combined to shoot 5-18 from distance.
The Bulls were able to turn a 30-7 run near the start of the second half into a double-digit lead the rest of the way on the backs of 20+ point nights from each of Nikola Vucevic (29), DeMar DeRozan (24), and Zach LaVine (21).
After clobbering Warriors, 132-94, Knicks’ win streak up to eight
New York got off to a quick 8-0 start and never trailed; the only tie came at 12-12. Balance has been the name of the game for their win streak, and that was no different in this blowout with five different Knicks scoring 15+ points, led by Immanuel Quickley’s 22 in 23 bench minutes.
In their third straight game since Steph Curry’s injury, the Warriors are now 1-5 in six games without him this season. One of the more glaring performances came from James Wiseman, who played more minutes than Kevon Looney but was noticeably worse with twice as bad of a plus/minus mark (Wiseman’s -29 to Looney’s -14), three more missed shots (three to zero), half as many rebounds (three to six), and two more turnovers (two to zero).
Golden State, at 15-17, remains out of the play-in picture entirely while New York sits just outside of the play-in picture in the good direction at #6 in the East.
Suns melt down, lose 110-113 to Wizards
Double digit leads in the fourth quarter are dime-a-dozen and evaporate just as easily. Leading by 10 midway through the fourth, the Suns stared down a team on a 10-game losing streak and watched them take away that lead, going on a 19-2 run. Now, instead of the Suns going into a bit of a break coming off of a 2-0 back-to-back without Devin Booker, they split the games, hoping to get him back in time for Memphis on Friday.
Nuggets stifle Grizzlies, 105-91
Nikola Jokic has posted yet another triple double, this time of the 13-13-13 variety (must be a lucky number, eh?), marking his sixth of the season (tied with Luka Doncic for the league lead) and second in a row after Sunday’s big 40-27-10 game against Charlotte.
For Memphis, Ja Morant was the only one to show up in any real way, finishing with 35 points and 10 assists, accounting for 56 of Memphis’s 91 points. He shot 3-6 (50%) from distance while the rest of his team shot 2-20 (10%).
