Best of the NBA: December 26th - January 2nd
Was there ever a more crazy, action-packed day in the NBA than New Year's Eve 2017? One single night saw enough action and excitement for an entire month. In addition to a blowout of the Memphis Grizzlies by the Golden State Warriors, the Utah Jazz beating the Cleveland Cavaliers in front of an eclectic home crowd with a star-making performance from Donovan Mitchell, five games ended with teams separated by five points.
Two games in particular stood out; the Dallas Mavericks refusing to relent to the Oklahoma City Thunder:
And this double-overtime thriller between the Los Angeles Lakers and the Houston Rockets:
Earlier in the week, the Denver Nuggets travelled to the Target Centre in Minnesota to take on the Timberwolves. Denver played fantastically in the paint, while Jimmy Butler led the Timberwolves with a superb all-around performance, finishing with 39 points. A three-pointer from Will Barton turned the game around with seconds left, shaking the T-Wolves' hold on the game and sending proceedings to overtime. With the extra period constantly shifting back and forth, the Nuggets looked poised to take the win, but Butler continued his slick, accurate shooting to ensure a home victory for the Timberwolves.
However, Minnesota's joy would not last long - two days later the Milwaukee Bucks rallied from 20 points down mid-way through the first half to top the Timberwolves 102-96. It wouldn't be that long before another come-from-behind victory, either.
At the TD Garden, the Houston Rockets out-scored the Boston Celtics by twenty points in the first quarter, at one point leading by as much as 26. They did not make it easy for the Celtics, but Boston took their time to get back into the game. Containing James Harden, the Celtics out-scored the Rockets 61-36 in the second half to cap off an incredible 99-98 win.
The Phoenix Suns started 2018 in style. Trailing the Atlanta Hawks by 12 points after the first quarter, they rallied in the following period to lead by one at the half. Atlanta's Ersan Ilyasova and ever-reliable Dennis Schroeder put the team up by double-digits once more, but behind Devin Booker (34 points, 7 Assists) and TJ Warren (31 points) led the Suns to a one-point lead at the death. Marquese Chriss blocked a final layup attempt from Kent Bazemore to seal a highly impressive victory for the Phoenix Suns:
This week saw 52 points from DeMar DeRozan and Dallas's Dennis Smith Jr. recording his first career triple-double against the Pelicans. One of the many notable highlights of New Years Eve was during the Clippers-Hornets game: Kemba Walker's 30 points were eclipsed by an even more impressive 40 points off the bench from Lou Williams, which helped seal the win for the Clippers and won Williams the title of Western Conference Player of the Week:
Out in the east, Bradley Beal got as close to a triple-double as possible, with 9 rebounds and 9 assists to go with his 39 points against the Chicago Bulls at the Capital One Centre. A stand-out individual performance in the Eastern Conference this week, which prolonged the misery for the Bulls, but was a source of great joy for Wizards fans and for Beal, who would go on to be named Player of the Week in the East.
Vince Carter was 40 years and 341 days old when his Sacramento Kings took on the Cleveland Cavaliers - no one seems to have told him that, though. His presence has done wonders for Sacramento's form this season, this week leading his team to victory against the Cavaliers, in which he scored 24 points and was 10 of 12 shooting from the floor. It seems time can not stop this man:
