NBA Weekend Recap: Suns Dominate Lakers, Celtics Overwhelmed, and Thunder Make History

2024-01-12 08:00:00

The Phoenix Suns scored a clear win over the Los Angeles Lakers thanks to an explosion. LeBron James and Anthony Davis disappoint. The Boston Celtics are overwhelmed in the summit meeting at the Milwaukee Bucks, Celtics coach Joe Mazzulla takes an unusual measure.

Also: The Oklahoma City Thunder celebrate the fifth-most wins in NBA history.

Cleveland Cavaliers (22-15) – Brooklyn Nets (16-22) 111:102 (BOXSCORE)

The Cavs prevailed against Brooklyn in Paris, with Donovan Mitchell scoring 21 of his 45 points in the fourth quarter. Brooklyn woke up too late, the “guests” only scored 34 points in the first half. Click here for the match report!

Milwaukee Bucks (26-12) – Boston Celtics (29-9) 135:102 (BOXSCORE)

• You don’t see something like that every day. The summit meeting in the east was over after 24 minutes. The Bucks led at halftime thanks to a 25-0 run (!) at 75:38 and what did Celtics coach Joe Mazzulla do? As a result, he left all of the starters to languish on the bench. Milwaukee subsequently expanded the lead to 43 points, and in the fourth quarter the Bucks stars also called it a day.
• Boston remained without points for almost 7 minutes in the second quarter, 31:23 became 56:23, there were still eight minutes to play until halftime. In that run, Bobby Portis (28, 11/18 FG, 5/6 3P) scored ten points, and Giannis Antetokounmpo (24, 10/13, 12 rebounds, 6 assists) contributed another seven. Damian Lillard had 21 points (6/12) and 4 assists in 27 minutes.

• For the Celtics, Jaylen Brown (10, 5/14) and Jayson Tatum (7, 2/6) were completely pale in their few minutes, and Jrue Holiday (6, 2/9) was also on his return to Milwaukee – he was given standing Ovations and a tribute video – not a factor. The guests’ best scorers were Payton Pritchard (21, 6/13) and Sam Hauser (15, 4/8 3P), who made the result somewhat bearable after the break.

Oklahoma City Thunder (26-11) – Portland Trail Blazers (10-27) 139:77 (BOXSCORE)

• Speaking of bearable: The Thunder wiped the floor with Portland and recorded the biggest win in franchise history. It was the fifth-highest win in NBA history, even though OKC played a back-to-back here and was active in Miami the day before. Shai Gilgeous-Alexander only had to play 21 minutes, which was enough for him to reach his season average of 31 points (11/15 FG).
• With a 22:2 run in the first few minutes, the Thunder quickly set the direction, Even such feats as here by Chet Holmgren (19, 9/13) are achieved. Jalen Williams (21, 9/10, 7 assists), who only missed a single shot, was even more efficient.

• Portland, on the other hand, shot just 27.7 percent from the field, which was 5 percentage points worse than the season’s negative record set by the Grizzlies in November. The last time a team was similarly bad was two years ago – it was also Portland. The Blazers’ best scorers were Anfernee Simons (14) and Scoot Henderson (13, 4/21), whose plus-minus value of -56 was the second-worst value in NBA history. You can find out more about the Thunder blowout here.

Dallas Mavericks (23-16) – New York Knicks (22-16) 128:124 (BOXSCORE)

The Knicks lost for the first time with OG Anunoby in the lineup, and a comeback in Dallas comes too late. Kyrie Irving sets a record in the Mavs jersey in the absence of the injured Luka Doncic, but Josh Green scores the decisive points in a thrilling final phase. Click here for the match report!

Los Angeles Lakers (19-20) – Phoenix Suns (20-18) 109:127 (BOXSCORE)

• A liberating blow for the Suns and especially for Bradley Beal, who set a new season high with 37 points (14/21 FG), 20 of which the shooting guard scored in the third quarter when the guests finally nailed it and were already up to Leading by 31 points. The game had gone that way and the Suns didn’t have to worry about whether they could save a lead in the fourth quarter this time.
• However, the Lakers again presented themselves shockingly weak. LeBron James went down early in the second quarter and was barely a factor in the game (10, 3/11, 9 assists), more than this highlight pass wasn’t actually visible to the 39-year-old. Anthony Davis (13, 6/11, 5 rebounds) also didn’t appear as dominant in 32 minutes as the Lakers needed.

• The Suns, on the other hand, led by double digits for almost the entire season, as Devin Booker (31, 11/22) first sank one jumper after the other and later Beal turned it up. With a 15-2 run, the Lakers reduced the deficit to -19 again with six minutes left. A Beal three-pointer, his eighth of the game, took the breath out of the run again. Kevin Durant (18, 7/12, 4 steals) didn’t do more than necessary and concentrated more on defense, while D’Angelo Russell (19, 7/14, 6 assists) was the Lakers’ best scorer.

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