We’ll be writing about this ourselves later tonight, but for right now, here’s the Denver Post reporting:
Brooklyn guard Spencer Dinwiddie bullied his way to the rack twice in the final minute as the Nets hung on to beat the Nuggets 105-102. The loss dropped Denver to 14-7 and 1-2 on this road trip with a matchup at Philadelphia on Tuesday.
“They dominated the paint 66-22,” said Nuggets coach Michael Malone. “That third quarter was a joke. … Seemed like it was layup lines out there. We took away the 3-point line, but there was no resistance at the rim.”
The loss spoiled a strong 3-point shooting night from Jerami Grant, who poured in five of Denver’s 18 makes. Nikola Jokic and Jamal Murray combined for 45 points, but Brooklyn’s relentless inside attack undermined their productivity.
The Nets have looked like a blatantly better team with Spencer Dinwiddie running the show lately. Kyrie Irving isn’t set to return just yet, but once he does, Nets head coach Kenny Atkinson will have some interesting decisions to make.
The Kings fell to the Trail Blazers 127-116 in Portland yesterday, but a bright spot for Sacramento was the play of big-man Richaun Holmes.
Here’s the Sacramento Bee:
The Kings (8-12) were playing without guard Bogdan Bogdanovic, who joined point guard De’Aaron Fox and forward Marvin Bagley III on the injured list. Bogdanovic was held out with a right knee contusion, but his left hamstring injury was improving, the team said. He is listed as day-to-day.
C.J. McCollum scored 33 points, Hassan Whiteside turned in a monster performance and Carmelo Anthony had another big game for the Blazers (9-13). Damian Lillard had 24 points and 10 assists. Whiteside put up 22 points, 16 rebounds, seven assists and three blocked shots. Anthony finished with 20 points.
Richaun Holmes had a career-high 28 points and 10 rebounds for the Kings, who have lost 12 in a row in Portland since posting their last win there on Dec. 8, 2012. Buddy Hield scored 23 points. Nemanja Bjelica had 17 points, seven rebounds and four assists.
Holmes shot 11 of 14 as the starting center in this game.
The Kings are now 8-12 for the season. They’ve only had Marvin Bagley in action for one game, and De’Aaron Fox for nine. Neither player is ready to return just yet.
Miami came in with a homewrecking reputation. The Heat was the first road team to win in Milwaukee and Toronto this year — the latter on Tuesday night.
And when the Celtics fell behind by 11 points in the second quarter last night, the locals appeared headed down a familiar path. Ultimately, they remain undefeated at home.
By the time Jaylen Brown had hit his sixth 3-pointer with just under six minutes left last night, though, the threat was cleared away. The Celtics beat Miami, 112-93, with the wing forward scoring a season-high 31 points — one shy of tying his career high. Brown also spent most of his night chasing and being chased by Miami’s Jimmy Butler.
The latter, who has led the Heat’s hot start, led both sides with 37 points and six 3-pointers.
The best East teams early this season have been the Bucks, followed in no particular order by the Raptors, Celtics, Sixers and Heat. Anytime any of these teams play each other is must-watch. And once the Pacers have Victor Oladipo back in action, they’ll be in that mix as well. They’re almost there right now.
The Miami Heat (15-5) visit the Boston Celtics (14-5) tonight in a game that definitely has our interest. Each team’s most recent game results are below.
THE MOST RECENT HEAT GAME
MIAMI HEAT 121, TORONTO RAPTORS 110 [OT] (12/3/19)
The Miami HEAT became the first team to get a win in Toronto this season after defeating the Raptors, 121-110, in overtime. Miami shot 54.2 percent from the field in the first as they took a nine-point, 32-23, lead after one. Toronto was able to cut the HEAT lead by four in the second as Miami held a five-point, 58-53, lead at the half. The Raptors shot 58.8 percent from the field in the third, again cutting the HEAT lead, this time to two, 83-81, entering the fourth quarter. Miami held their lead throughout the fourth until Toronto took a one-point, 108-107, lead with 43.2 seconds remaining. Jimmy Butler would hit 1-of-2 free throws on the HEAT’s next possession as each team missed their final shots, sending the game into overtime. Butler began overtime quickly scoring the first eight points as Miami went on to outscore the Raptors 13-2 in the quarter to take the, 121-100, victory. Butler finished with a 22-point, 13-rebound, 12-assist triple-double as Duncan Robinson scored 22 and Justise Winslow added 17 off the bench. Norman Powell led Toronto with 23.
THE MOST RECENT CELTICS GAME
BOSTON 113, NEW YORK 104 – Madison Square Garden, New York, NY (12/1/19)
The Celtics turned up the defense in the fourth quarter as they came from behind to beat the Knicks 113-104 at MSG…Jayson Tatum scored a game-high 30 points to go along with a career-high seven assists while Jaylen Brown added 28 points and five boards…Kemba Walker picked up his first double-double with 16 points and 10 assists while Enes Kanter also added a double-double with 11 points and a game-high 11 rebounds…The Knicks were led by Julius Randle and his 26 points and five rebounds while Dennis Smith Jr. added 17 points and seven assists off the bench.
Playing 30 minutes and 41 seconds and then sitting out the fourth quarter, the superstar Rockets guard shot 16 of 24, including 8 of 14 from three-point range, and hit 20 of 23 free throws for 60 points, eight assists and three steals.
The Rockets beat the Hawks easily, 158-111.
In the loss, Hawks guard Trae Young put up 37 points and seven assists.
According to ESPN.com, “it was Harden’s fourth career 60-point game, tying him with Michael Jordan for third most in NBA history, trailing only Kobe Bryant (six) and Wilt Chamberlain (32). Harden is the only active player who has scored 60 points more than once.”
The Timberwolves, playing without Jimmy Butler, are struggling lately. Here’s the St Paul Pioneer Press reporting on what went down Thursday:
With five off days to prepare for a pivotal March contest played in front of their home crowd at Target Center and in front of the country on national television, the Timberwolves managed to come out flat.
The Wolves fell 117-109 to Boston on Thursday, marking their first three-game losing streak of the season — which unsurprisingly has come without Jimmy Butler. That streak is in serious danger of running to four with the Warriors coming to town Sunday.
Something needs to change between now and then. And that change is going to have to revolve around the Wolves’ effort. They were outclassed in that department on Thursday by Boston. Boston had 18 second chance points to Minnesota’s nine. The Celtics (46-20) had 14 fast break points to Minnesota’s two.
Here’s the SF Chronicle reporting the results of a matchup we’ll always pay attention to, Kevin Durant and the Warriors against Russell Westbrook and the Thunder. The latest:
Warriors forward Kevin Durant wants his fans and critics to believe that there is nothing special about his games against his former team. More than a year and a half after he last called Oklahoma City home, the nine-time All-Star is trying to silence chatter about his past.
Anyone who saw him revel in the Warriors’ 112-80 rout of the Thunder Saturday night at Oracle Arena, however, knows that the Thunder aren’t just another opponent to him. In helping exorcize the memory of Golden State’s two lopsided losses to Oklahoma City this season, Durant feasted on emotion, pouring in a game-high 28 points.
It was in stark contrast to the night of Russell Westbrook, who paired with sidekick Paul George to shoot a combined 5-for-29 from the field. Oklahoma City, for all its star power, ultimately had no answer for another one of the Warriors’ signature third-quarter blitzes.
The Nets enjoyed an impressive home victory Wednesday night in Brooklyn, beating the Philadelphia 76ers 116-108.
In the win, the enjoyed continued fine play from Spencer Dinwiddie in his breaking season. The point guard, still currently starting as D’Angelo Russell, recently back from injury, is utilized off the bench, shot 6-13 and hit 13-15 free throws for 27 points and four assists.
Russell played just 17 minutes off the bench, but was huge: 8-15 FG for 22 points, five rebounds, three assists, one steal and one block.
And in another nice surprise for the Nets, talented rookie big-man Jarrett Allen, who got the start at center, was excellent, shooting 5-6 FG for 16 points, 12 rebounds, three assists and two blocks in 26 minutes.
In the loss for the Sixers, Joel Embiid shot 8-19 FG but did hit 12-14 free throws for 29 points and 14 rebounds, Ben Simmons shot 11-16 FG for 24 points and seven assists, and JJ Redick shot 4-10 plus 9-10 free throws for 20 points.
Nets Team Notes
The Nets improved to 19-33 this season and 10-14 at Barclays Center with tonight’s victory, while the 76ers fell to 24-24 overall and 12-14 on the road with the loss.
It also gave the Nets consecutive home victories (Brooklyn defeated Miami 101-95 on 1/19 at Barclays Center).
Next up for Brooklyn: The Nets will host the Lakers on Friday, February 2, at 7:30 p.m. EST.
Next up for Philadelphia: The 76ers will return home to host Miami on Friday, February 2, at 8 p.m. EST.
Nets Player Notes
Spencer Dinwiddie scored 27 points (6-of-13 FG, 2-of-4 3FG, 13-of-15 FT) with two rebounds and four assists in 34 minutes tonight. Dinwiddie’s 27 points marked the second-highest scoring game of his career (behind a career-high 31 points on 1/8 vs. Toronto). He set career highs for free throws made (13) and attempted (15) tonight, both of which represented season highs for any Net. Dinwiddie registered his team-leading 13th 20-point game of the season tonight (and his 10th at Barclays Center).
D’Angelo Russell posted 22 points (8-of-15 FG, 2-of-5 3FG, 4-of-5 FT) with five rebounds, three assists, one steal and one block in 17 minutes off the bench vs. Washington. Russell eclipsed the 20-point mark for the seventh time this season and the first time since 11/11 at Utah (26 points). He became the 10th different Net to score 20+ points in a game off the bench this season, which marks both a single-season franchise record and a league high this season.
Jarrett Allen scored a career-high-tying 16 points with a career-high 12 rebounds, a career-high three assists and two blocks in 26 minutes in his second-career start for Brooklyn. He shot 5-of-6 from the field and 6-of-6 from the free-throw line, with his 6 FTM also marking a career high. Allen recorded his second career double-double tonight (previously done on 1/23 at OKC this season). Allen has now extended his career-best streak of games reaching double figures to five. Prior to this stretch, he hadn’t scored in double figures in more than two straight games.
In the month of January, Allen shot .722 (57-of-79) from the field, which marked the highest FG % for a Net in any month since 1983-84 (min. 70 field goal attempts).
Joel Embiid Quotes
Joel Embiid, on 76ers’ defense: “The past couple of games we’ve been getting down a lot in pick and rolls, in OKC. That’s how they win – basically a two-man game, and everybody’s got to help each other and all the things we’ve been doing so far. I guess we’ve gotta go back to the drawing board.”
Embiid on if the team can blame their performance on coming off of a road trip: “No, that’s a game we’ve got to win. They’re a pretty good team, but I feel like we’re better than them. They got a win tonight, but that’s the kind of win we’ve got to get if we want to be a playoff team. Defense every day. If we’re gonna lose these types of games, we don’t deserve to go to the playoffs.”
Embiid on the team’s struggles against supposed-subpar opponents: “I don’t know. Maybe we’re too cocky, going into the game thinking that it’s going to be easy. Got to give them a lot of credit, they play hard, they make a lot of threes, they shoot a lot of threes and we didn’t guard them well today. But we gotta do a better job next time.”
Celtics basketball is a beautiful thing this season. And the magic continued, err, against the Magic. Here’s ESPN.com reporting on the outcome of Friday’s matchup:
Before Friday’s visit to play the Boston Celtics, Orlando Magic coach Frank Vogel offered high praise for Boston big man Al Horford, calling him maybe the “most underrated guy in the league.” Then, his poor Magic team got a reminder of why Horford earned those plaudits.
Horford matched a career high by dishing out 10 assists, seven of which came in the first quarter, as the Celtics bucked their season-long trend of slow starts during a 118-103 triumph over the Magic at TD Garden.
Kyrie Irving scored a game-high 30 points over just 25 minutes, and Terry Rozier snapped out of a recent shooting funk to score a career-best 23 points off the bench. But it was Horford who set the tone after Celtics coach Brad Stevens subtly reminded his team that ball movement would be key to Boston’s avoiding the first-half lulls that plagued the Celtics even during their recent 16-game winning streak.
Here’s the Sacramento Bee reporting on the Kings, who on national TV Wednesday beat the Lakers:
The much-hyped duel between rookie point guards did not serve as the main attraction.
Willie Cauley-Stein scored a season-high 26 points as the Kings ended a two-game skid with a 113-102 win over the Los Angeles Lakers on Wednesday night at Golden 1 Center.
Zach Randolph had a season-high 22 points to go with seven rebounds and seven assists for the Kings (5-13), who shot a season-high 55.3 percent.
Kentavious Caldwell-Pope led the Lakers (8-11) with 20 points. Kyle Kuzma scored 17 points.