Boston owes its twenty-fourth victory in 34 games and strengthening its record as the best team in the entire league, to Jaylen Brown and Jason Tatum, as the first scored 13 of its 29 points in the last quarter, and the second shone by scoring 41 points.
Tatum played the main role in his team’s victory after he scored 20 points in the third quarter, widening the difference from a point at the beginning of the quarter to 14 points 100-86 at the end, before Brown took the initiative in the last quarter, attacking and defending the Greek Pax star Yannis Antitokonmpo, who scored 27 A point with 9 rebounds, without sparing his team the eleventh defeat in 33 matches.
Tatum commented on the victory, saying: “They are among the best teams in the league and it is always special to play on Christmas Day. All we wanted was to give a gift to our fans and come out victorious.”
Tatum succeeded in 14 of his 22 attempts, adding 7 rebounds and 5 assists.
Tatum had assists in scoring from all the other 11 players who participated in the meeting, especially Brown, who succeeded in 11 of his 19 attempts, including 5 hat-tricks out of 9 attempts.
Tatum praised his teammate Brown, saying, “He was aggressive. He was up to the responsibility when we needed him most, especially at the beginning of the fourth quarter. We always believe in him.”
Eighth win in a row for the Sixers
Cameroonian Joel Embiid and James Harden led the Philadelphia Seventy Sixers to their twenty-eighth consecutive victory in 32 matches, and came at the expense of New York Nice 119-112, after the first scored 35 points with 8 rebounds and the second 29 with 13 assists.
The 35 points scored by Julius Randle were not enough to spare the Knicks their third successive defeat and their sixteenth this season, after a meeting in which they seemed closest to winning as a result of their 14-point lead in the first half.
But the Sixers stayed close to their host, and then the rudder shifted in their favor in the last quarter, thanks to four hat-tricks from Senegalese native George Niang.
The Denver Nuggets achieved its fourth successive and seventh victory in the last eight matches, by defeating the Phoenix Suns 128-125 after extension, reinforcing its lead in the Western Region with 21 wins in 32 games.
The Nuggets owe this victory to Serbian Nikola Jokic, who scored 41 points with 15 rebounds and 15 assists, while Aaron Gordon contributed 28 points with 13 rebounds and Jamal Murray 26 with 5 rebounds and the same number of assists.
Jokic commented on his great performance, saying after achieving the seventh “Triple Double” for the 83rd season of his career, “It’s beautiful, but it’s just one match. Everyone can play one good match.”
And the Nuggets became this victory, which he also owes to Murray, as he was credited with tying the tie 113-113 11 seconds before the end of the fourth quarter with an exhibition basket, taking the lead in the Western region, by a match difference against the Memphis Grizzlies, who lost to the defending champion Golden State Warriors 109-123 in A meeting during which he starred in the ranks of the latter, Jordan Paul, who compensated for the absence of Stephen Curry, who was injured in his shoulder, in the best way, after he scored 32 points despite being sent off in the last 9.20 minutes.
Fourth straight loss for the Lakers
The Los Angeles Lakers suffered their twenty-fourth consecutive defeat this season, by falling to the Dallas Mavericks 115-124 after being unable to stop Slovenian star Luka Doncic, who scored 32 points with 9 rebounds and the same number of assists in a meeting where his host unveiled a statue of his former German star Dirk. Nowitzki, who led him to the league title in 2011.
Despite the efforts of LeBron James, who was the best scorer in the match with 38 points, with 6 rebounds and 5 assists, the Lakers were unable to maintain the progress they built at the end of the first half (54-43), and actually lost the match in the third quarter, which was decided by the Mavericks 51-21. Conjoining his guest with defeat in his fourth match without his other star, Anthony Davis, who was injured in his right foot.