Bulls have many stars in win over the Cavs
Rajon Rondo registered 15 points, 11 rebounds and 12 assists and the Bulls received 26 points from Jimmy Butler, 24 from Dwyane Wade and 23 from Taj Gibson in their win over the Cavaliers on Friday night. It marked the first time in nearly 43 years that the Bulls had a player produce a triple-double and three other players score 20 or more points in the same game. The last time that happened was on December 8, 1973, when Norm Van Lier had 26 points, 13 rebounds and 11 assists and Bob Love (28), Chet Walker (21) and Jerry Sloan (20) each produced 20 or more points in a win over the Celtics.
Leonard’s late bucket gives Spurs another win over the Wizards
Kawhi Leonard’s go-ahead field-goal with six seconds remaining in the fourth quarter lifted the Spurs to a 107-105 win over the Wizards on Friday night. It marked the third time Leonard made a go-ahead field-goal within the last 10 seconds of the fourth quarter or overtime this calendar year, having also done that on February 10 and April 5. The only other player to make three such shots since January 1, 2016 is Emmanuel Mudiay, who did it twice in March and once in November. Two of Mudiay’s go-ahead shots came in games in which his team lost while all three of Leonard’s came in victories.
The Spurs have now won 17 consecutive home games against the Wizards. That’s the second-longest current home winning streak any NBA team has against another behind San Antonio’s 18-game winning streak on its home court against Atlanta.
An all around bad night for the Lakers
The Lakers made only 34.4 percent of their field-goal attempts, converted 58.8 percent of their free-throw attempts and turned the ball over 18 times in a 113-80 loss to the Raptors on Friday. Los Angeles has played 3745 games since the NBA began tracking team turnovers in 1970-71, but Friday’s contest marked only the second of those games in which it made less than 35 percent of its field-goal attempts, fewer than 60 percent of its free-throw attempts and committed 15 or more turnovers. The Lakers only other game of that type occurred on November 27, 2012 in a loss to the Pacers. Prior to Friday night, Toronto’s largest margin of victory in a game against the Lakers was just 12 points (106-94 on December 8, 2013).
Paul produces another double-digit assist game in his former home
Chris Paul produced 17 points and 13 assists lifting the Clippers to a win over the Pelicans in New Orleans. It’s the 107th time Paul produced a double-digit assist game at the Smoothie King Center in his career, which is over five times higher than the total number of 10-assist games for any other player in the Pelicans’ current home. Paul had 101 games with 10-or-more assist at the Smoothie King Center while he played for New Orleans and has done it six times as a visitor. The second highest total is 20 by Tyreke Evans and Greivis Vasquez.
Pistons score big road win against a winning team
The Pistons belted the Hawks by a score of 121-85 in Atlanta on Friday night. Detroit’s 36-point margin of victory was its second-highest in a road game against a team that entered the contest with a winning record. The Pistons beat the Celtics, who entered the game with a 26-19 record, by 52 points in Boston on January 31, 2003.
Horford brings back memories of McHale and Parish
Al Horford registered 26 points and six blocked shots in Boston’s win over the Kings on Friday. Horford became the first Celtics player in over 25 years to record at least 25 points and six blocks in a game, since Kevin McHale netted 33 points and rejected six shots against the Magic on April 18, 1990. McHale (four times) and Robert Parish (eight times) are the only other Celtics players to do that since the NBA began tracking blocked shots in 1973-74.
Vucevic lifts Magic off the bench
Nikola Vucevic scored 12 points, hauled down 11 rebounds and handed out five assists in 27 minutes off the bench in Orlando’s victory over Philadelphia on Friday night. Vucevic is the third player to produce double-digits in points and rebounds and five or more assists in a winning effort off the bench this season, joining Milwaukee’s Greg Monroe (16 points, 16 rebounds, seven assists on November 3) and Denver’s Wilson Chandler (28 points, 11 rebounds, five assists on November 16).
O’Quinn fills in admirably for Noah
Kyle O’Quinn, filling in for Joakim Noah in the starting lineup, produced 20 points and 13 rebounds in the Knicks’ win over Minnesota at Madison Square Garden on Friday. New York’s starting centers were averaging just 4.1 points per game entering the contest, the lowest average for any NBA team. It marked the first time in exactly two years that O’Quinn had 20 or more points in a game, having last done that on December 2, 2014 against the Warriors while he was with the Magic.
Flames offense continues to sputter
Kris Versteeg and Sean Monahan scored on both of the Calgary Flames’ attempts in the shootout that gave them a win over the Minnesota Wild after the teams played to a 2–2 deadlock. The Flames’ offense has been sputtering for the last month. This was the 18th consecutive game in which Calgary scored no more than three goals, which is the team’s longest such streak within one season since the Flames had a franchise-record 24-game skein in 2002–03. The Flames’ current streak of scoring three or fewer goals is the longest in the NHL this season and it matches the longest streaks of this kind last season: 18 games by the Flyers, Avalanche and Hurricanes.
