Luka Doncic and his Mavericks defeated the Portland Trail Blazers last night, while up north, in Canada, the reigning champions Toronto Raptors set a franchise record in point scored.
Doncic and Hardaway Jr. Splashing Threes
Luka and Hardaway combined for 13 threes in this contest, with the young Slovenian hitting 8 of them, and TH adding five. The two guys were unstoppable, eventually demolishing the Blazers from all positions.
Doncic scored 35 points, was 8 of 12 from downtown, and with 8 boards and 7 assists. Meanwhile, Hardaway scored 29 points, five for eight from behind the arc with four boards.
The guests from Oregon started the game furiously with a 14-3 run but lost the wing until the end of the period. Dallas reached its usual pace and started making stops on the defensive end, slowing down the offense of the guests, and eventually taking the command on the floor. They were up 72-63 at the break and were looking much better.
That trend continued in the third frame, with the hosts reaching a 94-77 edge. From that moment on, Portland had one push midway through the fourth, but without too much success.
Damian Lillard failed to show up in the final 12 minutes, making just one shot in six attempts. He did end the night with 34 points, but that wasn’t enough. Besides that, Dame added 10 assists. Carmelo Anthony delivered 22, and Hassan Whiteside scored 21 with 18 boards and 5 blocks. CJ McCollum left this one due to ankle injury.
Toronto’s Superb Offense
The Raptors scored a franchise-record number of buckets against the Wizards in their 140-111 victory at the Scotiabank Arena. The NBA champions drilled 22 threes, the highest in history with a percentage of 51.2%. Toronto is slowly getting all its top players back and is starting to reach the full potential, so just think how are they going to look in some two or three weeks.
After missing 12 games, Marc Gasol scored 20 points, shooting from downtown 6 of 7. The Spaniard was stretching the Wizards defense in so many ways because he had five assists also. Terence Davis had 23 buckets with five threes, and Norman Powell delivered a team-high 28 buckets with four long-distance hits.
There was no need for Pascal Siakam and Kyle Lowery to overload too much. The first one had 12 points, while Lowry scored 11. OG Anynoby ended with 18.
The hosts controlled the pace right from the start and were extremely confident, not allowing the Wizards to have the slightest chances to make some kind of a breakthrough. Troy Brown Jr. was their best player with 22 points, while Bradley Beal added 14, but played only 23 minutes because Toronto already crushed the resistance of the Wizards early on.
In other games of the night, the Atlanta Hawks had a superb final period during which they rallied back to defeat the San Antonio Spurs, 121-120.
The Miami Heat posted another home win, this time against the Oklahoma City Thunder, 115-108, and the 76ers did the same only against the Chicago Bulls, 100-89.
Indiana Pacers edged out the Timberwolves with 116-114, and that is a big win for Nate McMillan’s crew. Finally, the Grizzlies easily routed the Cavaliers at home 113-109.
