(Basketball news) Lakers suffered an embarrassing loss to Timberwolves as they lost 110-92. For the Wolves, Karl-Anthony Towns had 28 points and 10 rebounds, and the Minnesota Timberwolves defeated the Los Angeles Lakers for a second time this season as Malik Beasley and D'Angelo Russell each had 17 points and Jarred Vanderbilt grabbed a career-high 16 rebounds to help them win their third straight game. They played without star Anthony Edwards, who was under NBA's health and safety protocols. For the Lakers, their squad was depleted with Covid protocols as LeBron James had a quiet 18 points and 10 rebounds, Isaiah Thomas made his season debut with 19 points, Russell Westbrook had 14 points and Kent Bazemore had a season high with 11 points. With this result the Lakers stayed 6th in the Western Conference with a record of 16-14.

''I'm going to let people make their assumptions and make their judgment. I just know that every day when I come here I play the game with a tremendous amount of confidence .I wanted to set the standard. I wanted to try to impose myself into the game real quick, understanding Ant's not here,'' Towns said.

“They definitely played a more physical brand of basketball tonight, and we've got to be better,'' Lakers coach Frank Vogel said.

The Golden State Warriors extended their winning run as they won 111-107 against the Boston Celtics. Andrew Wiggins scored 27 and Kevon Looney had 10 rebounds for the Warriors as Steph Curry top scored with 30 points, who won their third straight game on an East Coast road trip. It was Kerr's 400th victory as a coach in 576 games over eight seasons. He is third on the franchise win list, behind Al Attles (557) and Don Nelson (422). For the Celtics, Jayson Tatum scored 27 points, and Jaylen Brown had 20 points and nine rebounds for the Celtics. With this win the Warriors reclaimed their top spot in the Western conference with a record of 24-5. 

''We're coming off the emotional roller coaster ... a lot going on around the league,'' Curry said after scoring 30 points in a 111-107 victory over the Celtics on Friday night. ''You try not to get distracted by all the things that are outside the locker room.''

''On a five-game trip, guaranteeing us at least three wins makes this a good trip,'' coach Steve Kerr said. ''Now tomorrow is more of a free swing.''

''It means I'm incredibly lucky to coach a bunch of talented guys,'' said Kerr, who won the NBA championship in his first season and two more in the next three years. ''From my first game coaching in the NBA until now, I've had nothing but talented teams.''

Also read: Suns go joint top as the Nets extended their lead in the Eastern Conference

The results of the other matches were:

• Magic 105 - 115 Heat
• Hawks 115 - 133 Nuggets
• Pelicans 116 - 112 Bucks
• Jazz 126 - 128 Spurs
• Kings 105 - 124 Grizzlies
• Trail Blazers 125 - 116 Hornets

The matches for tomorrow are:

• Celtics vs Knicks
• Nets vs Magic
• Raptors vs Warriors
• Thunder vs Clippers
• Bucks vs Cavaliers
• Jazz vs Wizards

 

(Basketball news) Lakers beat the Boston Celtics 117-102 in the latest chapter of the NBA's most heated rivalry. LeBron James scored 30 points, Westbrook added 24 points and 11 assists, Anthony Davis had 17 points and 16 rebounds for the Lakers, who produced one of their best recent performances in their fourth victory in six games overall. Los Angeles made 56.5% of its shots in the first three quarters and shut down Jayson Tatum's with their defense. For the Celtics Jason Tatum scored 34 points as he scored 14 of his 34 points in an incredible early first-quarter blitz for the Celtics, who dropped to 1-2 on their four-game West Coast trip, Jaylen Brown sat out his third straight game with a strained right hamstring, as Robert Williams III's 13 points for Boston was the second most. With this victory the Lakers improved their record to 13-12 as they moved up to 6th in the Western Conference.

''As a player like myself, you want to make sure you approach all games the same while also understanding the significance of this particular game,'' Westbrook said. ''That makes it a good win for us.''

''I just like the way we competed tonight on both sides of the floor,'' James said. ''We had a lot of intensity, a lot of ball movement. Guys were attacking the rim. I think defensively, besides the first 14-point avalanche on Tatum's part, we locked in from that point forward.''

“I think at the beginning of the year, Russ was a little bit passive,'' Davis said. ''He was trying to get guys involved, pass the ball. ... We told him, 'The more you're aggressive, the more it will open up for everyone else.' The last seven to 10 games, he's been very, very aggressive, and when he does that, it opens up the floor for everyone else as far as shooting. He's just been in attack mode. That's why we brought him here, to be Russell Westbrook and not anybody else but that.''

The Brooklyn Nets defeated the Dallas Mavericks 102-99 as they made a 17 point comeback in the second half. Kevin Durant scored 24 points, Harden had 23 points and 12 assists as they handed the Mavericks their fifth consecutive home loss. For the Mavericks, Luka Doncic scored 28 points but had another rough night from 3-point range, Kristaps Porzingis had 17 points and 12 rebounds. In three games since setting a franchise record by shooting 68.7% in a 32-point victory at New Orleans, Dallas is down to 38% shooting from the arc. With this result the Nets improved their record to 17-7 which is subsequently the best in the Eastern Conference. 

''We've been in this league long enough to know it's winning time. It's go time,'' said Harden, who also had nine rebounds. ''Throughout the course of the game, I feel like we got good shots. We just missed them. We just kept sticking with it and kept sticking with it. You've got to just keep shooting, especially if that's what you do.''

''We had a lot of open looks there in the fourth quarter that just didn't go down,'' Dallas coach Jason Kidd said. ''And then Timmy has a wide-open look. You couldn't ask for a better look to tie up the game.''

''It's a character win where you just want to make the right plays to get back in the game and you want to turn the momentum to your side,'' said Durant, who was 10 of 22 from the field and had seven rebounds. ''I think we did that tonight”.

Also read: NBA: Phoenix Suns and Golden State Warriors became the first teams to win 20 matches this season

The tomorrow's fixtures are:

• Pistons vs Wizards
• Hornets vs 76ers
• Cavaliers vs Bulls
• Pacers vs Knicks
• Heat vs Bucks
• Raptors vs Thunder
• Grizzlies vs Mavericks
• Timberwolves vs Jazz
• Pelicans vs Nuggets
• Rockets vs Nets
• Kings vs Magic
• Warriors vs Trail Blazers
• Clippers vs Celtics
   

(Basketball news) James delivered tiebreaking and back-breaking 3-pointers in overtime and finished with 39 points to help the Los Angeles Lakers rally past Indiana 124-116. After drawing his first suspension in his career, LeBron James looked like a man on a mission as the Lakers missed Anthony Davis through fever. Russell Westbrook had 20 points, seven rebounds and five assists while Monk had 17 points. Carmelo Anthony and Ellington each added 14 but James was 13 of 29 from the field and had six assists and five rebounds. For the Pacers,  Brogdon added seven rebounds, Domantas Sabonis had 14 points, 12 rebounds and six assists while Myles Turner had 12 points, six rebounds and two blocks. LeBron James forced overtime by scoring seven straight points to give the Lakers their 10th victory of the season. With this result the Lakers improved their record to 10-10 as they lie 9th place in Western Conference. 

“I know he wanted to get this W,''' coach Frank Vogel said. ''He really wanted to play in that Knicks game, he looks forward to that every year. So to bounce back tonight, to quarterback the defense and carry the offense the way he did, that's just a performance for the ages.”

“I was excited about being in the lineup. Me not playing last night on the second night of a back to back, I knew I could kind of give our guys a boost of energy with me not playing last night'' said James.

The Brooklyn Nets defeated the Boston Celtics 123-103 as Kevin Durant scored 21 points to overtake Allen Iverson in the all time scoring charts to enter the top 25 of the NBA's all-time scoring list. Patty Mills scored 23  and James Harden had 20 points and 11 assists for Brooklyn. LaMarcus Aldridge scored 17 points with nine rebounds for the Nets, who have won four in a row, seven out of eight and 12 of their last 14 games. For the Celtics, Marcus Smart had 20 points and eight assists for Boston, which had won three in a row. Jayson Tatum had 15 points and eight rebounds as they tried their best to cut the massive lead the Nets made up in the first three quarters. Next up on the scoring list for Durant is Ray Allen, who has 24,505 points to become the 24th highest scorer in the league. 

''To pass him on the list, to end up there with some of the greats on that list is incredible,'' said Durant, who entered the night with 24,367 points, one behind Iverson, and passed him on a jumper in the first two minutes. ''I've just gotta keep going,'' he concluded.

“It's a quality road win against a team that's been playing great basketball,'' Nets coach Steve Nash said.

The Golden State Warriors continued their magnificent start to the season with a 116-96 victory over the Philadelphia 76ers. Stephen Curry and his entire supporting cast in the second-half were defensively very sound to shut down younger brother Seth. Stephen Curry scored 25 points to Seth's 24, and the Golden State Warriors surged back after halftime to beat Philadelphia to make it five straight victories. Juan Toscano-Anderson came off the bench in the second half to score 13 points to go with six rebounds and six assists. Steph Curry shot 9 for 16 with six 3-pointers and added 10 assists as they improved their record to 16-2 which is the best in the league. Steph’s younger brother Seth Curry top scored for the 76ers with 24 points and Tyrese Maxey added 19 points for them.

“We were on our heels most of the entire first 18 minutes. Our identity is our defense. We can score with the best of them but we flipped the switch and got stops and made them take tough shots, especially in the second half and turned that into offense,'' Curry said. ''It was pretty impressive just the energy flip that happened after that first quarter”.

''We got great performances off the bench from Gary and Juan, two of our better defenders, and the defense led to the offense and the ball started to move because we were in transition,'' coach Steve Kerr said. ''It was a beautiful second half.''

Also read: NBA: The New York Knicks defeated the Lakers and Mavericks needed overtime to defeat the Clippers

The other results were:

• Magic 99 - 106 Hornets
• Cavaliers 115 - 120 Suns
• Pelicans 127 - 102 Wizards
• Rockets 118 - 113 Bulls
• Timberwolves 113 - 101 Heat
• Thunder 104 - 110 Jazz
• Bucks 114 - 93 Pistons
• Grizzlies 113 - 126 Raptors
• Kings 125 - 121 Trail Blazers

The Saturday fixtures are:

• Clippers vs Pistons
• Magic vs Bulls
• Knicks vs Suns
• Hornets vs Timberwolves
• Grizzlies vs Hawks
• Thunder vs Wizards
• Pacers vs Raptors
• Spurs vs Celtics
• Nuggets vs Bucks
• Jazz vs Pelicans
• Warriors vs Trail Blazers
• Lakers vs Kings
   

(Basketball news) The match between the Suns and Nuggets was a story of two halves, ultimately the Denver Nuggets came out on top as they used lockdown defence and clutch 3 point shots to start off their campaign with a 110-98 victory. Last year's MVP Nikola Jokic started off the campaign with 27 points and 13 rebounds on 13 of 22 shooting from the field as he was too much for the Suns defence to handle, on the other hand Mikal Bridges top scored with 16 points as Chris Paul and co couldn’t get themselves in a groove in the second half

Knicks edged out Celtics 138-134 after playing two overtimes, in what was an enthralling game between these two historical franchises. Evan Fournier in his first match for the New York Knicks scored a career high with 32 points and also hit the game winning three pointer with 56 seconds left in the second overtime. Earlier Jaylen Brown scored 46 points to inspire his team to make a comeback in the fourth quarter as they were down by 11 points, subsequently Brown broke the franchise record for the highest number of points scored on the opening night but ultimately his efforts went in vain as they lost by 4 points in the end. Last year’s most improved player Julius Randle top scored for the Knicks with 35 points, 9 assist and 8 rebounds to help inspire them to a historic victory.

The Chicago Bulls won 94-88 against the Detroit Pistons, this season the Bulls have made significant changes to their roster adding the likes of DeMar DeRozan and Lonzo Ball. These players made their debut and did not disappoint as they scored 17 and 12 points respectively but all the headlines were grabbed by their franchise cornerstone for years Zach Lavine who top scored with 34 points, 7 rebounds and 4 assist. Jerami Grant did his best to inspire a comeback but his 24 points wasn’t enough for them as the Bulls defeated the Pistons for the eight consecutive time.

In tomorrow's matches, the two next generation superstars Trae Young and Luka Doncic go head to head as Hawks take on the Mavericks. Last year's surprise package Hawks will be looking to continue from where they left off from last season as they made it to the Eastern Conference finals under coach Nate McMillan in his first full season. For the Mavericks they will be heading into a new era as coach Rick Carlisle will not be in there for the first time since the 2007-08 season as they have appointed former Dallas player Jason Kidd as their new head coach. 

Also read: NBA: Lakers and Nets both lose their first match of the season as Giannis and Steph Curry both shine on the opening day.

The Miami Heat will play their first match against defending champions Milwaukee Bucks. The Heat will have a renewed vigour and passion to make this year's final after a disappointing season last year, this season Miami have added some extra firepower in the form of former NBA champion Kyle Lowry and also Victor Oldapio who was added to their roster last season will come back from a recurring injury. Miami mainstays Jimmy Butler and along with Bam Adebayo will be hoping that they inspire them to go all the way and win a NBA championship together. This season the Heats have been portrayed as the dark horse for the Championship by the former players and experts.

Last year's Western Conference Finalist LA Clippers will take on Steph Curry’s Golden State Warriors. The Warriors are coming off good form after beating the Lakers and will hope to repeat the same against their city rivals. For Clippers, the task in hand will be difficult as their talisman Kawhi Leonard will be out for quite some time as he suffered an ACL injury in the Western Conference Finals. All the onus will be on Paul George to lead the franchise before Kawhi Leonard comes back.

The other significant results were:

• Trail Blazers 121 - 124 Kings
• Jazz 107 - 86 Thunder
• Spurs 123 - 97 Magic
• Grizzlies 132 - 121 Cavaliers
• Pelicans 97 - 117 76ers
• Raptors 83 - 98 Wizards 
• Hornets 123 - 122 Pacers
• Timberwolves 124 - 106 Rockets
   

(Basketball news) Steph Curry lit up the night with his first triple double since January 2016 as he scored 21 points 10 rebounds and 10 assists for Golden State Warriors who came back from 10 points to stun Lebron James and the new Los Angeles Lakers by 121-114 in the season opener.

The Lakers were dominant all throughout the first three quarters as LeBron James and Anthony Davis showed the world why they are the best duo in the league, James scored 34 points and 11 rebounds while Davis had 30 points and 11 rebounds. Ultimately it was the fourth quarter that proved to be decisive as they got out scored 38-29, no other Laker players even scored in double figures as Frank Vogel and his coaching team will try to get the best out of this roster. Newly added star player Russell Westbrook couldn’t make a big impression as he shot 4 of 13 for 8 points in his Lakers debut.

Giannis and the Milwaukee Bucks didn’t let their first title in their history distract them from their title defence as they breezed past the Nets in the opening night. Although Kevin Durant and Patty Mills scored 32 and 21 points respectively, the bucks were too strong in the end as they won 127-104. Although Bucks won the game, it came at a cost as their star player Jrue Holiday got injured with a bruised right heel and subsequently sat out the second half of the game.

Nets were missing star guard Kyrie Irving after his refusal to take the Covid-19 vaccine, James Harden had to step up but couldn’t deliver up to his expectations as he scored 20 points making 6 of 16 shots. On the other hand after Holiday’s injury, Khris Middleton and Pat Connaughton stepped up their game and each scored 20 points to secure a comprehensive victory over the Brooklyn Nets.

“We can’t give a team 20 more shots than us. Imagine coming to a game and saying, here, take the ball 20 times on offense before we get an offensive position. This is one game out of 82 of them. We’ll look at it that way. Every team will look at it that way. The Bucks won today, but they are still trying to fine-tune what they do, too. I think every team in the league is going to look at their first few games, first few weeks and see where their team is going and then make adjustments” said Kevin Durant after the loss to the bucks.

Antetokounmpo said. ''I'm excited. But now it's over with. We've got to focus on building good habits, keep moving forward and keep playing good basketball and hopefully we can repeat this again this year, next year and all the years that we're going to be here down the road.''

Brooklyn coach Steve Nash said. ''We weren't very good, If you're not playing at a high level against the champs, you're not going to win.''

In tomorrow’s matches we will see last year’s finalist Phoenix Sun take on Denver Nuggets as just one of the marquee fixtures tomorrow. The Nuggets will most likely be without last year's MVP Nikola Jokic as he is recovering from an ankle injury as they will have to heavily rely on Aaron Gordon to score the majority of the points to get a win over the rampant Suns who will head into the match with a fully fit squad. The New York Knicks take on the Boston Celtics in their opening fixtures, the Knicks last season were a surprise package making the playoffs after 10 years but this season after the acquisition of Kemba Walker and Evan Fournier they will be hoping to make the conference final at least. As for the Celtics they are going through a transition period as they will heavily rely on their young players Jason Tatum and Jaylen Brown to produce the goods.

Also read: Everything to know about the 75th NBA season as Lakers and Nets start as favourites for the Championship

The other fixtures for tomorrow are:

• Hornets vs Pacers
• Pistons vs Bulls
• Raptors vs Wizards
• Timberwolves vs Rockets
• Pelicans vs 76ers
• Grizzlies vs Cavaliers
• Jazz vs Thunder
• Trail Blazers vs Kings
•  Spurs vs Magic   

 

It was the first matchup between last year’s East finalists that ended in a nail biting finish, with Payton Pritchard’s putback two tenths of a second left sealing the win for Boston Celtics. Jayson Tayton scored 27 points and Jaylen Brown had 21 points in a matchup that saw Celtics wastefully let go of an early 17 point lead and a 10 point lead until the final minute, to eventually get the edge over Miami Heat. For Miami, Jimmy Butler had 26 points, Duncan Robinson got 16, Bam Adebayo with 15 and 14 from Goran Dragic. Miami Heat made an inspiring comeback to score 10 points in 55 seconds to tie the game, thanks to a pair of 3-pointers by Robinson and another one from Dragic. The Heat fell short at the end with Pritchard swooping in from a rebound with only two tenths of a second left on the clock. The Celtics made it difficult for themselves considering they made five 3-pointers in the first 5:45 to lead 21 - 9 and also held Miami to one field goal in the second quarter for eight minutes to lead by 17. It’s a testament to the spirit shown by Miami Heat players to cut the lead by eight by halftime and overturn the deficit by five in the third quarter. Both teams were tied at 80 with 12 minutes left on the clock thanks to Grant Williams putback in the final second of the third quarter.