- Doncic made the appearance in Sacramento and played his first game with Irving, creating a new star pairing in the league, losing in the California capital in overtime. Fox was the standout, scoring 14 in overtime, with Doncic scoring 27 and Irving 28.
- D’Angelo Russell made his debut in the Lakers and a six-point victory at the Warriors’ Chase Center. The Sixers are still up in the East, winning in Brooklyn, seeing Vaughn go out with Mikal Bridges, Cam Johnson, Dinwwidie, Finney-Smith and Claxton.
- Jokic’s new triple-double, the twentieth so far this year; Josh Hart makes his Knicks debut.
- Where and when to watch the NBA. Best matches of the week
- Everything that happened during the NBA Trade Deadline: Last-minute transfers
RESULTS
| BROKEN | MVP |
| Brooklyn Nets 98-101 Philadelphia 76ers | Joel Embiid |
| Charlotte Hornets 105-119 Denver Nuggets | Nikola Jokic |
| Orlando Magic 103-107 Miami Heat | Jimmy Butler |
| Washington Wizards 127-113 Indiana Pacers | Bradley Beal |
| Atlanta Hawks 125-106 san antonio spurs | Trae Young |
| New York Knicks 126-120 Utah Jazz | Jalen Brunson |
| Cleveland Cavaliers 97-89 Chicago Bulls | Donovan Mitchell |
| Golden State Warriors 103-109 Los Angeles Lakers | Dennis Schroeder |
| Sacramento Kings 133-128 Dallas Mavericks | De’Aaron Fox |
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THE + HIGHLIGHTS
Long Saturday night, with nine games on the line and many of the players exchanged in the Trade Deadline already entering the track with their new shirts, some of them having a certain impact. And the trip in Solobasket we started in San Francisco, with Lakers win over Warriors by six points, debuting D’Angelo Russell back in Lakers and taking down the reigning champions. The point guard was like purple and gold from 2015 to 2017, after being pick two from Draft’15. He had 15 points, six assists and five rebounds, with Steph Curry and LeBron James notably absent. The game was tied at 87 with ten minutes to go, entering a face-to-face where Poole was successful, but Schröder was counteracting several of the actions, authoring 26 points. On the visiting side, they also debuted Vanderbilt with 12 points and eight reboundsMalik Beasley with 4 points, while Davon Reed and Mo Bamba -sanctioned by the NBA- were not debuting.
From the debut of several new Lakers, we head to Brooklyn, having the Sixers visit to the NY neighborhood and victory for the Pennsylvania franchise, having Embiid with 37 points and thirteen rebounds, being perfectly seconded by James Harden with 29 points, in his first game in Brooklyn after leaving a year ago, beginning at that moment the beginning of the end of the trio formed by La Barba, Irving and Durant. Victory would come overtime, after not entering the triple final of Dinwiddie that would have been to reach a second extension. The game left the debut of Mikal Bridges, scoring 23 points as a new Nets player, starting Vaughn with a quintet made up of himself Mikal, Cam Johnson (these first two nicknamed the twins in Suns), Dinwiddie, Finney-Smith and the sole survivor, Claxton.
The Nuggets are on a road trip through the East, making their way to North Carolina on Saturday, and Jokic decided to put on another show and went for another triple-double, which is synonymous with victory. The Serbian had 30 points, 16 rebounds and ten assists, thus building his twentieth triple-double of the course (two years ago he made 16, last year he had 19), in some Nuggets, leaders of the West, without Aaron Gordon and Jamal Murray, cutting the negative balance of four consecutive defeats as visitors. Thomas Bryant did not make his debut in the Colorado team, Jokic himself commenting that he is eager to see what the player from Los Angeles can contribute.
Ricky Rubio’s Cavs stalk the leaders train formed in the East by Celtics-Bucks-Sixers, with a new victory, this time at home against Bulls. Short result, but going into the game the Cavs, their defense prevails over the rest. Donovan Mitchell scored 19 of his 29 in the second half (it was against the Bulls when he scored 71 points on Jan. 2) and Allen helped out with 23 points and 10 rebounds. The Ohioans win their sixth straightToday they continue to have a spectacular home record at Rocket Mortgage FieldHouse at 24-6. The bad success caused by good defenses was the tonic of the 48 minutes, with some Bulls that had LaVine scoring 23, but with many doubts for the coming weeks without having created any exchange before the market closed. Karnisovas, General ManagerHe commented that they are on the lookout for signing one of the players who is currently a free agent, sounding a lot like a possible arrival of Russell Westbrook.
In Sacramento the second game of the weekend was played between kings vs. Mavs and the rematch of Mike Brown’s team arrived after losing Friday. Doncic returned to the starting five and played his first game with Irving, but the great protagonist was De’Aaron Fox, author of 36 pointsadding fourteen in extra time and 26 between the last quarter and the overtime. On the Texas side, Irving scored 28, along with seven rebounds and seven assists and Luka Doncic had 27 points and nine rebounds. The Slovenian commented during yesterday’s session that “we can both play without the ball. For me, it will be a learning process. Only in my first season did I play without the ball. For a guy like Kyrie, it will be easy.“. In this first game of the two together on the parquet, he left an important Irving as a shooter without the ball, alternating between both All-Stars in the final possessions of the even game. Irving will be important after the start during the offseason by Brunson as second manager, unloading the work of the Slovenian who emerged from the Real Madrid youth academy. Irving is the leading scorer per game in the fourth quarter so far this season, scoring 9.5, beating Antetokounmpo, James and Curry. In overtime he scored seven points.
LO + VIRAL
Josh Hart made his debut as a new Knicks player, in the victory at Madison in New York over the Utah Jazz. The new arrival had 11 points, added to seven rebounds and four assists, in the demonstration of Jalen Brunson, author of 38, 22 of them in the first half. The couple, Villanova graduates, start their new relationship in the NBA well.
Washington Wizards scored 80 points in the first half against the Indiana Pacers, coming into halftime at 80-57, shooting in the first three quarters on 70 percent accuracy. Bradley Beal led with 32 points, adding Porzingis and Monte Morris 17 each.
The tests carried out on LeBron James off his left foot He ruled out no serious problems and Darvin Ham hopes to field him in some pre-All-Star game in Salt Lake City. James, the top scorer in NBA history, will set off next Sunday for his 19th appearance in the All-Star game, having 38,390 points in his career.
THE PHRASE OF THE DAY
“It was a little weird, but I’m trying to normalize it. After that first step, you feel comfortable again. When you get traded so many times, the irony comes back with all these teams and just normalizes it.“, commented Russell after his return to the Lakers, being part of the Warriors in 2019-20, playing 33 games. Anthony Davishe would comment, “D’Lo and I literally talk the entire game, about pick and roll, what he sees, what I see, what he likes, what I like… just trying to build that chemistry on the fly, no workouts.“.
James Harden about his first return to Brooklyn and being booed at the start,”I don’t get caught up in homecomings or outside distractions. I think our goal was to come here and win a game and we did a good job tonight.e”.
MVP-SOLOBASKET
Several names have stood out in Saturday’s NBA victories, starting with Nikola Jokic’s triple-double, Joel Embiid’s tremendous performance in Brooklyn, but the most prominent name has been De’Aaron Fox of the Sacramento Kings, author of 36 points at home against the Mavs, scoring 14 of them in overtime, being the most points in those five extra minutes by any player so far this season. Chosen as the new All-Star, he will head to Utah, also adding five assists and having 12 of 23 shooting from the field. New victory in Sacramento and let the ‘ light upLight the Beam‘ in the capital of California.
Cover Photo: NBA