I hope you all had a wonderful weekend and had a chance to watch the Super Bowl. Congratulations to Tom Brady and the Tampa Bay Buccaneers. In the NBA we had an action packed weekend with 25 games, over the three day period.
Let’s start off looking at the New Orleans Pelicans and the Indiana Pacers. They faced off against each other on Friday night, and although the Pelicans took an early lead, and were only barely able to hold on as Brandon Ingram scored 30 points to close out the Pacers 114-113.
The Pelicans carried the momentum into the Saturday night game against the Memphis Grizzlies, and with a weak performance from Ja Morant who had only 16 points, it was not enough to stop Zion Williamson and Brandon Ingram from each having over 25 points a piece, and taking the W, 118-109.
The Pacers on the other hand also kept their momentum but in the opposite way. After losing to the Pelicans, they went on to lose their match to the Utah Jazz on Sunday night, with Donovan Mitchell having a near triple double with 27 points 9 rebounds and 11 assists.
The Utah Jazz, before playing the Pacers on Sunday, faced the Charolette Hornets on Friday and although LaMelo Ball dropped 34 points for a career high, the Jazz outscored, out passed, and out rebounded the Hornets to close them out, 138-121.
After losing to the Utah Jazz, the Charolette Hornets bounced right back against the Washington Wizards - who have been having a rough season - on Sunday night. Bradley Beal had a high scoring night with 31 points, but the rest of his team did not show up, and the Hornets who had 6 players in double digit scoring, took the game easily.
This was not the first loss for the Washington Wizards. Earlier in the weekend they played the Miami Heat. And although Miami is still finding its rhythm after the return of Jimmy Butler, they still blew out the Wizards 122-95.
The Miami Heat went on to make it a perfect weekend as they faced the New York Knicks on Sunday, and closed them out 109-103, with the Heat having 6 players in double digit scoring.
On Saturday the New York Knicks played the Portland Trail-blazers, and although Portland has the dominant record, they lost. Damion Lillard had 29 points and 9 assists along with 5 other Portland players having solid scoring nights, it was not enough to stop Julius Randle and Elfrid Payton from dropping 22 a piece and winning the game 110-99.
Friday night the Chicago Bulls took on the Orlando Magic, and the Magic won this game 123-119. Despite the Bulls playing well and Zach Levine having 26 points, they could not stop Nikola Vucevic from finishing with 43 points and 19 rebounds to close them out.
Chicago did however redeem themselves on Saturday night in a re-match against the Magic, and it was a blowout. It was Zach Levine’s turn to have a 40 points night, and along with the solid play from the rest of the team, Chicago won. 118-92.
A high profile Eastern Conference match-up between the Toronto Raptors and the Brooklyn Nets took place on Friday night This game started off interesting with Kevin Durant coming off of the bench, then leaving in the game during the 3rd quarter due to Covid protocols, and will be missing the next few games as a result. With the absence of their best player, the Nets were not able to stop the Raptors from having a high scoring night and closing them out 123-117.
24 hours later the Raptors played the Atlanta Hawks who have been having a really good start to the season. The Hawks popped Toronto’s bubble and brought them back to earth with an 11 point loss, as Trae Young dropped 28 points and 13 assists to help his team secure the W.
For the Nets the weekend did not get any better either. After the loss to Toronto, they faced the Philadelphia 76er’s, and with absence of Kevin Durant and Kyrie Irving, the Nets got smoked 124-108, as Joel Embiid had one of his usual 30 point nights.
The Milwaukee Bucks and the Cleveland Cavaliers played back to back games on Friday and Saturday. Both games played out the exact same way. The Cavs got blown out, first game they lost 123-105, and the second game they lost 124-99.
The Minnesota Timberwolves and the Oklahoma City Thunder also played back to back games on Friday and Saturday. Although the Wolves are still missing Karl Anthony Towns, they took the first game down to the wire and won by three points, 106-103.
The Thunder would have their revenge just the next night though, as Shai Gilgeous-Alexander dropped 31 points as well 6 other teammates in double digit scoring to close out the Wolves 120-118.
The Detroit Pistons took on the Phoenix Suns on Friday night, and while Detroit has proven that they can cause trouble for teams, their record to start the season has been terrible. The Suns made easy work of them, taking a lead and not looking back, beating the Pistons 109-92.
Detroit faced off against LeBron James and the Los Angeles Lakers on Saturday night, and while Detroit did push the game in to double overtime, LeBron had 33 points and 11 assists, plus he hit back to back three pointer in the 2nd OT to close out the game 135-129.
The Phoenix Suns continued their fantastic play in their Sunday match-up against the Boston Celtics and it was not a high scoring game. No one for the Suns had over 20 points and Jason Tatum only had 23. The Suns still managed to pull a W, 100-91.
Earlier in the weekend the Celtics did find success against the Los Angeles Clippers (who were missing Paul George) on their Friday night match-up. Jason Tatum went head to head against Kawhi Leonard, and not only did Tatum come up victorious by helping his team win 119-115, he outscored Kawhi having 34 points to Kawhi’s 28.
The Clippers went on to face off against the Sacremento Kings on Sunday, and with the continued absence of Paul George, the Kings were able to take the W, with De’Aaron Fox dropping 36 points to win the game, 113-110.
It was a fine weekend for Sacremento, because on Saturday, before they faced the Clippers, the Kings played the Denver Nuggets, who are one of the best teams in the league this year. But despite Nikola Jokić scoring 50 points, the absence of Jamal Murray took its toll, and the Nuggets lost 119-114.
It was a Texas Showdown between the Houston Rockets and the San Antonio Spurs on Saturday and the Rockets have landed on their feet after the monster James Harden trade. Houston lost this game 111-106, and John Wall was outscored by DeMar Derozan by 3 points and handed the L as well.
And last but not least, the Golden State Warriors matched up against the Dallas Mavericks. Now usually when Luka Donćic drops 42 points it’s a real spectacle that everyone talks about. But in the game, he was over shadowed by Stephen Curry’s 57 point performance with 11 three pointers. The good news for Luka is that they took home the win that night, narrowly beating the Warriors 134-132.
This has been the Weekend Edition of Briefly In Depth
Check back in Wednesday for the Mid-Week Report
Yaakov Pliner
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