Cleveland were well beaten by Boston on Monday, going down in a 98-109 defeat. Cleveland shot out of the gates for an 11-3 lead but it was a short-lived high for Kenny Atkinson’s team, as they trailed 26-35 by the end of the first quarter and never saw the lead from there. A terrible 10-21 second quarter was essentially the nail in the coffin for the hosts, contributing to another sub-par offensive game, even with Donovan Mitchell back in the team and providing a standout 30 points, seven rebounds, five assists and two blocks. Evan Mobley had 24 points, eight rebounds and three blocks and James Harden was impressive with 10 assists and no turnovers, but his 6/16 shooting was rough.
Philadelphia slipped to their third loss in four games on Sunday, falling to Atlanta 116-125. With Joel Embiid (oblique) and VJ Edgecombe (lumbar contusion) both on the sidelines, the visitors were quite undermanned in this contest, seeing Tyrese Maxey have another big offensive load, and he responded with 31 points, five assists and four steals before picking up a finger injury late in the game. Quentin Grimes had 41 minutes in Edgecombe’s absence and largely impressed with 26 points and three assists, but he and Maxey combined for nine turnovers, contributing to 19 team turnovers and a woeful 20.8% turnover percentage. That saw Philly fade away from the game in the fourth quarter and record another loss without Embiid.
With Embiid out again on Tuesday and with Maxey ruled out, it’s going to be another tough slog for Philadelphia. They have a -2.9 net rating in their minutes without Embiid this season and they’re going to have no reliable source of offence. Tie that in with Cleveland’s offensive struggles of late, and we have a low-scoring game on our hands.
Oklahoma City are back on a win streak, with five consecutive victories now under their belts after getting past Golden State with a 104-97 win on Sunday. OKC led the entire way, but were made to sweat on a couple of occasions, especially in the final couple of minutes as the visitors came back to within two points at 99-97. However, Shai Gilgeous-Alexander hit a huge three and scored the team’s last five points and seal the win in another strong two-way performance. The reigning MVP finished with 27 points, five rebounds, five assists, one steal and one block, while going 14/15 from the free throw line to make up for a 6/15 FG performance. It came as Jalen Williams, Chet Holmgren, Isaiah Hartenstein, Alex Caruso and Ajay Mitchell all were out with illness or injury, forcing SGA to essentially be Oklahoma City’s sole source of offence. Isaiah Joe was solid with 18 points and three assists and Kenrich Williams had a valuable 13 points and seven rebounds off the bench.
Denver were humiliated by New York 103-142 on Saturday in what was by far their worst game of the season. At 29-27 after one quarter, the hosts took a small lead into the first break, but New York went on an 18-6 run to start the second quarter, opening up a double-digit margin, and things only got worse for Denver in the second half as New York continued to increase the buffer in a humiliating result for David Adelman’s side. Jamal Murray left the game in the second quarter with an ankle injury, and that sent Denver into freefall, even with Nikola Jokić having a big offensive night. He finished with 38 points, eight rebounds and five assists but was a -18 as New York dominated the battle of the boards and shot the lights out in the win. Aaron Gordon was rusty in his return from injury, with three points and three assists in 21 minutes, and that was the common trend across this disappointing Denver squad.
Murray is questionable for Tuesday’s clash, but I expect Denver to really challenge the hosts in this one. With Hartenstein still out and Caruso questionable, two of OKC’s top defensive options to put onto Jokić may be sidelined. Gordon will almost certainly be better in his second game back, and as big underdogs, I think Denver will really test the defending champs.
The Clippers got back to winning ways with a 123-120 win over Memphis on Saturday. It was a tense finish as the hosts took a 117-118 lead in the final minutes, but a steal from Kawhi Leonard followed by a block from Isaiah Jackson on consecutive defensive possessions for LA essentially won them the contest, with Ty Jerome’s attempted game-tying three missing at the death. It came after a horror opening quarter saw LA trail 23-41, only to rapidly bounce back and hit the front before halftime. Things were tense across the second half, but LA’s defence ended up showing up late on for the win, in another great Kawhi Leonard outing. The star forward had 28 points, five rebounds and two steals and Bennedict Mathurin continued to excel at his new club, with 21 points and 10 boards. Jackson also impressed, with 12 points, 12 rebounds and one block, while Garland had 21 points and six assists in just his third game back.
New York couldn’t back up their shock beatdown of Denver, losing to the Lakers 97-110 on Monday. The hosts always looked comfortable in this game, despite being without LeBron James, and a 20-34 third quarter was where they really took control of the game, helping build a 23-point lead early in the fourth quarter. NY’s 98.0 offensive rating in this game was their sixth-worst of the season, as they coughed up 18 turnovers and shot just 8/34 from three-point range, making for a rough outing at Crypto.com Arena. Karl-Anthony Towns was NY’s best, dropping 25 points, 16 rebounds, one steal and one block, while Jalen Brunson had an up-and-down 24 points, six rebounds, seven assists and seven turnovers. Mikal Bridges was in foul trouble for a lot of the night and laid an egg for zero points, six rebounds and five assists and NY’s bench provided little value, making for a bad loss in LA.
On night two of their back-to-back, New York have a tough job in front of them. NY have not been great on the road this season and I don’t like them as favourites in this spot. Brunson played 42 minutes on Monday and Towns played 34, meaning we will see some tired legs from this New York team. Against a Clippers team whose defence has been steadily improving, I expect this game to be very tight.