Category: Games

Basketball games blog

LaMelo Ball outplays brother Lonzo in their first NBA game against each other

It was Ball brother against Ball brother on Friday, as the Hornets beat the Pelicans 118-110. with Lonzo Ball starting for the Pelicans and rookie LaMelo Ball coming off the bench for the Hornets, here’s what went down, via the New Orleans Times-Picayune:

LaMelo Ball checked in midway through the first quarter and immediately started guarding Lonzo Ball. In their first game against each other at the NBA level, the brothers were matched up on one another a fair amount. Surprisingly, LaMelo won Round 1 handily. He had 12 points, 10 rebounds and nine assists — a near triple-double. Lonzo had a five-point, three-assist dud.

Nine games into the season, Lonzo doesn’t look like a much different player than he was last year. He is a capable defender, and he makes multiple gorgeous passes every night. He also remains wildly inconsistent, is hesitant to drive the basketball into the paint, and can’t get to the free-throw line.

Remember New Orleans’ opening-night win in Tampa, when Ball attempted six free throws? In the 272 minutes he’s played since then, he’s attempted four free throws. In that same stretch of games, Nicolo Melli has attempted four free throws in 47 minutes, and Willy Hernangomez has attempted four free throws in seven minutes. Ball’s unwillingness to try shots at the rim further restricts the Pelicans in the half court, where they already don’t have much shooting to begin with.

LaMelo is still brand new to the league but is already flashing some very big-time talent.

Raptors make change, start Alex Len at center

The Raptors aren’t off to a good start this season, so it’s no surprise that head coach Nick Nurse is making some rotation adjustments. And today, with the team on the road in Sacramento, Alex Len started at center against the Kings. Via the Toronto Sun:

Nurse didn’t make it official until he was obligated to by league rules, but taking Aron Baynes out of the starting five could not have come as a shock to many.

Baynes, outside of a few early games, has looked rather lost for the Raptors at either end of the floor. He was replaced last night by Alex Len.

When Baynes was performing earlier in the season, he was taking inside passes and converting them into points, but even that has dried up.

Defensively, he just doesn’t seem to be in step with everyone else, whether that’s protecting the rim on drives from the perimeter, or even rebounding the misses to get the Raptors back on offence.

The Raptors came away with a 144-123 victory tonight, but Len and Baynes played little part of it. Len played five minutes, Baynes none. But the team won thanks to big performances from Fred VanValeet, Norman Powell, Pascal Siakam, and Chris Boucher off the bench.

Bradley Beal scores 60, but Wizards lose to Sixers

Wizards shooting guard Bradley Beal had himself a game on Wednesday, shooting 25 of 35 and hitting 7 of 10 three-pointers for 60 points, seven rebounds and five assists, but unfortunately it was one that ended in a loss. Via the Washington Post:

Bradley Beal’s career night was sealed at the free throw line, an anticlimactic ending that belied the thrilling performance the Washington Wizards’ star guard delivered in Philadelphia on Wednesday. Beal came achingly close to breaking Gilbert Arenas’s franchise single-game scoring record set 15 years ago, just as the Wizards nearly completed a stunning comeback against the 76ers.

Beal led his team with 60 points, tying Arenas’s tally from Dec. 17, 2006. But he could not will his team to a win.

The Wizards lost, 141-136, falling just short of a 21-point comeback mounted midway through the third quarter. Beal shot 20-for-35 from the field, 7-for-10 from three and made 13 of 15 at the free throw line, notching his fourth career 50-point game.

He had 57 points through three quarters but shot 1-for-6 in the final 12 minutes.

Malcolm Brogdon steps up for Pacers in win over Rockets

In tonight’s Pacers win over the Rockets, guard Malcolm Brogdon shot 13 of 25 for 35 points, seven assists and three steals. Via the Indianapolis Star:

With Victor Oladipo struggling and another big in foul difficulty for the Indiana Pacers, they still had Malcom Brogdon.

Brogdon, who made the winning shot in the previous game vs. New Orleans, led the Pacers past the Houston Rockets, 114-107, on Wednesday. It was his second consecutive 30-plus-point game at Bankers Life Fieldhouse.

The Pacers (6-2) had 4 shot-clock violations in the fourth quarter, including with the score tied at 103. T.J. McConnell and Oladipo passed up open 3s as they flirted with disaster.

John Wall (28 points) led Houston, which mostly played small-ball.

Video: Game highlights of Stephen Curry’s 62 points

On Sunday, the Warriors beat the Trail Blazers 137-122. In the win, Stephen Curry scored an NBA career-high 62 points. In 36 minutes, Steph shot 18/31 FG, 8/16 from three-point range and 18/19 from the free throw line for 62 points, five rebounds and four assists.

Enjoy these video highlights from Steph’s 62-point game:

Mike Conley steps up for Jazz in win over Clippers

The Jazz beat the Clippers 106-100 Friday night. And Jazz point guard Mike Conley did serious work. Via the Salt Lake Tribune:

The Jazz are gonna need Donovan Mitchell and Bojan Bogdanovic to perform offensively at the level they’re capable of. Neither is right now, but on Friday, it didn’t matter so much with Mike Conley playing arguably his best game in a Jazz uniform.

He didn’t grab the game by the throat — he just let it come to him, making the smart, patient reads he talked about after the Phoenix loss. When he needed to swing the ball, he did. When he needed to let it fly, he did. The former earned him six assists. And when it was the latter, he was incredibly efficient: 33 points on 11-for-20 shooting, including 7 of 14 from deep.

After Conley’s 33, the second-leading Jazz scorer was Donovan Mitchell with a modest 15 points on 14 shots.

In the loss for the Clippers, Paul George had 25 points on 22 shots, plus eight rebounds, four assists, six steals and five turnovers, while Kawhi Leonard had 20 points on 19 shots, plus 16 rebounds, nine assists and three blocks.

After 47-point loss to Bucks, Heat bounce back with win

The Miami Heat got destroyed by the Milwaukee Bucks a few days ago, but quickly got a chance at revenge and were able to capitalize. Via the South Florida Sun Sentinel:

Back in the same building against the same opponent one night after losing by 47 to the Milwaukee Bucks, the Heat this time limited their largest deficit to 14 — instead of the 51 a night earlier — and then drew a line on the AmericanAirlines Arena hardwood.

So from Tuesday night’s 144-97 torment, the Heat made a quick turnaround to Wednesday night’s 119-108 resounding resurgence…

A night after the Bucks shot a record-setting 29 of 51 on 3-pointers, there was a more mundane 16 of 41 from Milwaukee.

Without Jimmy Butler for a second consecutive night, as the All-Star forward deals with a balky right ankle, Spoelstra shuffled his starting lineup and rotation and dealt a winning hand to leave his team with a 2-2 start to the season.

The Heat often do things differently. In this case, their leading scorer was a reserve: Goran Dragic, with 26 points. Their leading rebounder was a guard: Tyler Herro, with 15 rebounds. And their assists leader was their center: Bam Adebayo, with 10 assists.

Knicks forward Julius Randle gets triple-double in win over Cavs

Knicks forward Julius Randle had himself a game tonight. Via the New York Daily News:

They’re not the most talented team on most nights, but efficient 3-point shooting, a commitment to defense and Julius Randle’s all-around excellence has the Knicks on a two-game winning streak.

Randle, the once-maligned power forward, posted an exquisite triple-double in Tuesday’s 95-86 victory in Cleveland, dropping 28 points with 12 rebounds and a career-high 11 assists. He again served as the Knicks’ top playmaker, and countered sporadic sloppy play (nine turnovers) with early All-Star production. The Knicks used the eighth overall pick last month on Randle’s potential replacement, Obi Toppin. But with Toppin injured, Randle continues to solidify his position as the franchise’s top player.

Randle did commit nine turnovers. But let’s overlook that for today.

The Knicks started Elfrid Payton and R.J. Barrett at guard, Reggie Bullock and Randle at forward, and Mitchell Robinson at center. Three players received bench minutes: Kevin Knox, Nerlens Noel and Frank Ntilikina.

Chris Paul Suns debut is a win

The NBA season tipped off Tuesday, and was packed with 12 games of action on Wednesday, not including a 13th game (Thunder vs. Rockets) that was postponed. And in his first regular season game as a member of the Phoenix Suns, veteran star point guard Chris Paul enjoyed victory. Via the Arizona Republic:

Chris Paul showed in the season opener why Phoenix traded four players and a future first-round pick for him.

Devin Booker showed the clutch gene he had on full display in the bubble.

The Suns showed they can close out a playoff team in a tight game as they used a 5-0 spurt to break a tie in a 106-102 victory Wednesday night over Dallas at the renovated Phoenix Suns Arena.

After Booker hit a free throw to put the Suns up a point, Paul connected on his patented fading jumper. Then Booker followed with a basket to put Phoenix up 105-100 with 40.6 seconds left.

Booker scored a team-high 22 points while Paul added eight points, five assists and four rebounds. Mikal Bridges chipped in 18 as Phoenix had six players score in double figures in shooting 48.1% from the field.

CP3 shot just 3-of-9 for eight points, four rebounds, five assists and two steals. He played under 28 minutes.

For the Mavs, Luka Doncic put up 32 points, eight rebounds and five assists, but on 26 FG attempts. And with Kristaps Porzingis starting the season on the injured list, no other Mav scored above 12 points.

Rockets beat Spurs 128-106, finish preseason with 3-1 record

ROCKETS NOTES

With the win tonight, the Rockets finish the preseason with a 3-1 mark. Going back to 2016, Houston has posted a preseason record of 20-6.

Houston scored a preseason-high 128 points, marking its second game with 120+ this preseason. The Rockets scored 120+ points 29 times last season (26-3 mark) and are 97-8 when doing so going back to 2016-17. Houston averaged 114.0 ppg this preseason.

The Rockets outshot the Spurs 52.7% to 40.9%. Houston was 25-3 when outshooting the opposition in 2019-20. The Rockets were 15-1 when shooting 50.0% or better last season and are 59-5 going back to 2016-17. Houston held opponents to 41.0% shooting this preseason.

Houston hit 17 3-pointers on 39.5% shooting tonight while San Antonio had 7 3FGM on 21.2% shooting. The Rockets were 24-1 when shooting 37.0% or better from behind-the-arc in 2019-20 and hit 10 or more 3-pointers than their opponent 11 times (11-0 mark). The opposition shot 30.4% from 3-point range this preseason.

The Rockets had 26 assists with 11 turnovers tonight after recording 38 assists with 36 turnovers the two games prior. Houston recorded 25+ assists in two of its four games this preseason. The Rockets had 25+ assists 18 times in 72 games played in 2019-20.

Christian Wood had a game-high 27 points with a game-high tying 10 rebounds in his preseason debut. He scored 20+ points 15 times for Detroit last season and recorded 12 double-doubles. Wood averaged 24.2 ppg and 9.8 rpg over his final games played for the Pistons last season.

James Harden had 20 points on 8-of-14 shooting tonight after having 12 points while shooting 3-of-10 in his preseason debut against the Spurs on 12/15. The Rockets were 21-5 when he shot 50.0% or better in 2019-20. Harden scored 32 points in 48 minutes of play this preseason. He had 2,335 points in 2,483 minutes of play in 2019-20.

Eric Gordon had 23 points on 9-of-14 shooting, including 4-of-9 from 3-point range. He scored 20+ points six times during the 2020 playoffs after doing so six times in the regular season. Gordon shot 40.7% from 3-point range this preseason.

Bruno Caboclo led the Rockets bench with 12 points on 5-of-8 shooting in 19 minutes of play. He averaged 9.5 ppg, 4.3 rpg, 1.8 apg and 1.8 bpg in 20.4 mpg this preseason. While playing for Memphis in 2018-19, Caboclo averaged 8.3 ppg, 4.6 rpg, 1.5 apg and 0.97 bpg in 23.5 mpg.

Dejounte Murray had 17 points, 10 rebounds and 4 assists for the Spurs. He grabbed 10+ boards six times in 2019-20, including a career-high 14 in the season finale vs. Utah. Last season, Murray joined Alvan Adams (1985-86) as the only players in NBA history to have averaged at least 10.0 ppg, 5.0 rpg and 4.0 apg in fewer than 27.0 mpg in a single season.