James Harden said he left the Brooklyn Nets "for a reason" after he and Joel Embiid starred in the Philadelphia 76ers' win over his former team, describing his time in Brooklyn as "frustrating".
Harden scored 29 points with six rebounds and six assists on his first appearance at Barclays Center since pushing for a trade to Philadelphia last year, helping the Sixers record a 101-98 win.
The 2018 NBA MVP and 10-time All-Star was criticised for his decision to seek a Nets exit just over a year after being acquired from the Houston Rockets.
Harden was keen to get a few things off his chest after Saturday's win over Brooklyn, who are working with a new-look roster after the recent departure of Kevin Durant and Kyrie Irving.
Asked if he could have foreseen a situation where both of those stars followed him through the exit door, Harden said: "Yeah. I didn't just ask to leave for no reason. It wasn't right.
"I was in a really good place in Houston. Obviously, we didn't have a chance to win a championship, but I was comfortable.
"So for me to up and leave my family, all the things I created there, to come to Brooklyn for a year and a half to try to just get up and leave, it was for a reason, you know what I mean?"
Pushed on whether the Nets could have done anything to keep him, the guard added: "Yeah, there was. Like, a lot of things.
"But it was just a lot of dysfunction, clearly. A lot of internal things that I'm not going to ever say or put in the media or anything. That was one of the reasons why I chose to make my decision.
"But now, fast-forward to this date, I don't look like the crazy one. I don't look like the quitter or whatever the media want to call me.
"I knew what was going on and I just decided, 'hey, I'm not built for this'. I don't want to deal with that. I want to play basketball and have fun and enjoy doing it. Fast-forward to today, they've got a whole new roster."
Asked to sum up his time in Brooklyn, Harden described it as "frustrating", bemoaning his lack of game-time alongside Durant and Irving after the trio only played 16 times together.
"The reason I made that decision to get out of my comfort zone, to leave Houston and do everything that I did to get out of there was to come in and play with KD and Kyrie," he said.
"That didn't happen as much as I would like to or probably the organisation wanted to. It was just something where I knew it wasn't going to change. I had to make an individual decision for the betterment of my family and my career
"It's a lot of what-ifs when you play less than 20 games together. So it's a little bit frustrating, but it is what it is. Hopefully, everybody's in a good place now and we can move on."
Joel Embiid and James Harden led the Philadelphia 76ers to a hard-fought 101-98 win against the Brooklyn Nets at Barclays Center on Saturday.
The Nets, now shorn of Kevin Durant and Kyrie Irving, had to face another of their former stars in Harden, who had no problem showing them the kind of form he rarely displayed in Brooklyn on his first appearance there since leaving last year, scoring 29 points with six rebounds and six assists.
Embiid had an even better outing, with the Cameroonian finishing with 37 points and 13 rebounds, making 12 of his 18 field-goal attempts.
Mikal Bridges scored 23 on debut for Brooklyn after his arrival as part of the Durant deal with the Phoenix Suns, with fellow debutant Cam Johnson adding 12, while Joe Harris managed 18 points from just over 16 minutes on court.
The two players the Nets acquired as part of the Irving deal, Dorian Finney-Smith and Spencer Dinwiddie, struggled against the Sixers.
Finney-Smith made just two of his eight field-goal attempts, while Dinwiddie fared even worse with two from 10, and zero from four shots from beyond the arc.
Dinwiddie thought he had forced overtime at least when a three-pointer finally went in, but it was ruled out of time after a review as Philadelphia secured the victory.
Doncic and Irving outfoxed by De'Aaron
In their first outing together for the Dallas Mavericks, Luka Doncic and Irving could not get the W as De'Aaron Fox helped the Sacramento Kings to an overtime victory.
Both Doncic and Irving spent more than 40 minutes on the court, scoring 27 and 28 points respectively in a tight game in which neither team ended a quarter with more than a two-point lead.
Fox particularly shone in the latter stages as he recorded 26 points in the fourth quarter and overtime, including six free throws in the final 18.4 seconds to help seal a 133-128 win at Golden 1 Center.
Jokic makes history, Young's assist bonanza
Nikola Jokic became only the fifth player in NBA history to record 20+ triple-doubles in a single season as he led the Denver Nuggets to a 119-105 win at the Charlotte Hornets.
The two-time MVP scored 30 points, with 16 rebounds and 10 assists, while Trae Young also had a productive game as the Atlanta Hawks beat the San Antonio Spurs 125-106.
Young provided an impressive season-high 17 assists for his team to go with his 24 points to make it a 12-game losing streak for the Spurs, their longest since 1988-89 (13).
A much-changed Los Angeles Lakers pulled off a 109-103 victory against the Golden State Warriors, with Dennis Schroder top-scoring with 26 points, while the returning D'Angelo Russell added 15 and Anthony Davis recorded 16 rebounds.
LeBron James will miss his second consecutive game with soreness in his left ankle.
James became the NBA's all-time leading points scorer this week, breaking the record against the Oklahoma City Thunder on Tuesday.
Yet the 38-year-old sat out Thursday's loss to the Milwaukee Bucks and will not feature on Saturday against the Golden State Warriors.
It marks the 13th missed game this season for James, though it appears to be a primarily precautionary move.
Medical imaging on the affected area has not shown any significant damage other than general wear and tear, according to Lakers coach Darvin Ham.
"We're grateful that things came back clean and good," Lakers vice president of basketball operations and general manager Rob Pelinka said on a conference call on Saturday.
The Lakers are expected to have newcomers D'Angelo Russell, Jarred Vanderbilt, Malik Beasley and Davon Reed available to face the Warriors.
Mo Bamba, who was also acquired at the deadline, will finish serving his four-game suspension stemming from an altercation in a February 3 game between the Orlando Magic and the Minnesota Timberwolves.
James ranks seventh in the league in scoring (30.2 points per game) and his absence leaves a huge void for Los Angeles, who are 13th in the Western Conference and facing an uphill climb to make the playoffs.
Paul George is keen to see the Los Angeles Clippers work out a deal for Russell Westbrook as "we need a point guard".
The Clippers traded Reggie Jackson and John Wall away at Thursday's deadline, while Westbrook ended a difficult spell with the Los Angeles Lakers as he was traded to the Utah Jazz.
Sixth in the Western Conference, the Clippers were beaten 119-106 by the Milwaukee Bucks on Friday to fall to 31-28.
Speaking after the defeat – in which he surpassed 16,000 career points – George outlined his desire to be reunited with Westbrook, who was a team-mate on the Oklahoma City Thunder and could seek a buyout from the Jazz.
"If there's somebody out there, Russell," George said when asked if the Clippers should bring in a point guard. "If it makes sense, and obviously it goes with our team, we're all for it.
"We need a point guard. But [at] the same [time], I think we're good as well. If nothing happened, we got enough in this locker room to be able to make it work.
"But it would definitely improve our team if we had that traditional point guard to get us in things and make the game easy. So, hopefully, Russell sees this, and we figure something out."
Westbrook averaged 15.9 points, 7.5 assists and 6.2 rebounds on the Lakers this season, but Marcus Morris claims he could "play freely" and "be dangerous" at the Clippers.
"I'm campaigning, too, for him then," said Morris.
"He hasn't had an opportunity to play on a team where he could be himself and be able to play freely. Playing with the Lakers, it's like media, media, media.
"And from the outside looking in, like every time something bad went wrong – Russell Westbrook. Nobody else was really getting no blame, and it just kept spiralling down.
"But we accept him [with] open arms. Let him be himself. We need the personality, we need the veteran. He's been in the playoffs a lot of times, been to the championship.
"I want him to come. I think that you can't kill a wounded dog. You give him an opportunity to come back, it could be dangerous."
Luka Doncic is hoping to play alongside Kyrie Irving for the first time on Saturday, calling his new team-mate "probably the best ball handler ever".
Doncic was forced to sit out the Dallas Mavericks' 122-114 win at the Sacramento Kings on Friday with a heel injury, but is hopeful of featuring in the second game of a double-header against the Kings.
Irving – who joined the Mavs from the Brooklyn Nets ahead of this week's trade deadline – recorded 25 points and 10 assists at Golden 1 Center, with Dallas scoring 45 points in the first quarter to take control.
The Mavericks traded Dorian Finney-Smith and Spencer Dinwiddie for Irving, and Doncic was sorry to see his former team-mates leave, but is excited to see what Irving can bring.
"We'll obviously miss them here, but Kyrie's Kyrie, man," he said prior to Friday's game.
"NBA champion. Probably the best ball handler ever in the game. Amazing player, and he's going to be fun to play with.
"I never played with a guy like Kyrie, so it's obviously going to be a work in progress. But I think it's going to be fine. We both can play on the ball.
"For me, I think it's going to be a learning process, for sure. Outside of my first season, I didn't play off the ball. But with a guy like him it's going to be different."
On his recovery from injury, the Slovenian added: "Hopefully [Saturday] I can be back. Still painful. But it's way better every day."
The feeling appears to be mutual, as Irving said after Friday's victory: "I'm excited to see what that looks like with Luka out there.
"I'm constantly out on those breaks, so as much as we can make the game easier for each other and keep the pace going, that would be a benefit for us.
"But I'm looking forward to seeing what that looks like with Luka out there and me running the wing, just shooters getting to their spots, and then if we don't have anything, just settling in the half court, we got some great options out there."
The Milwaukee Bucks made it 10 wins on the bounce as they beat the Los Angeles Clippers 119-106, though Jrue Holiday had to be reminded of the fact.
Giannis Antetokounmpo was again the star of the show at the Crypto.com Arena, scoring 35 points along with eight rebounds and six assists, while Brook Lopez recorded 15 rebounds to go with his 22 points.
Antetokounmpo has scored 373 points during the successful 10-game period, the second-most points during a 10-0 stretch in NBA history, behind only Wilt Chamberlain, who had 416 as a rookie in 1959-60.
Asked after the win about the growing number of influential overseas players in the NBA, the Greek was glowing in his praise for his fellow international stars.
"It's been incredible," he told reporters. "It doesn't really matter where you're from right now, guys can come and compete and win games, guys can carry teams, you can be a franchise player.
"I feel like when I came in 10 years ago it was kind of hard, you saw I think only Dirk [Nowitzki] but now it's way more, from Luka [Doncic], to [Nikola] Jokic, from [Joel] Embiid, from [Pascal] Siakam, me, [Rudy] Gobert, both of the Bogdanovic's [Bojan and Bogdan], you see guys that are stepping up and helping their team win.
"People before set the path for us... and we have to set the path for the next generation, for people from overseas that 'you can come to the NBA and be that guy'."
Meanwhile, Holiday – who ended the game with 19 points – admitted he had not even realised he and his team-mates had won 10 in a row.
"There's a point in the season when things get repetitive, and winning has been," he said after the victory, emphasising the calm focus the Bucks have had in the last few weeks.
Bucks coach Mike Budenholzer was pleased with his team after they followed up wins on the road over the Portland Trail Blazers and Los Angeles Lakers with another against the Clippers.
"The guys' focus has been good, we're obviously in a good rhythm, it's good," he said.
"Now we have a couple of days without a game, catch up on our bodies and things like that so it was a very good road trip for us."
Friday marked two games with Kyrie Irving in the line-up, and two wins for the Dallas Mavericks as they beat the Sacramento Kings 122-114 on the road.
Irving – who was acquired before the trade deadline in exchange for Spencer Dinwiddie, Dorian Finney-Smith and three draft picks – led the Mavericks in scoring for the second game in a row as superstar Luka Doncic continues to recover from a heel injury.
He had 25 points against the Kings on five-of-14 shooting, hitting all 12 of his free throws, while also tying his season-high with 10 assists.
Irving was supported strongly by 22-year-old emerging Australian Josh Green, who chipped in 17 points on seven-of-12 shooting and a season-high seven assists, and rookie Jaden Hardy hit four of his five three-point attempts off the bench.
The Mavericks had been flailing without Doncic, having lost the first six games he missed this season, but they have now won three in a row during his current absence.
For the Kings, De'Aaron Fox was terrific with a game-high 33 points on 10-of-16 shooting, adding six rebounds and five assists, while All-Star selection Domantas Sabonis had 18 points, 11 rebounds and seven assists.
With the victory, the Mavericks are now 31-26, sitting fourth in the Western Conference, while the 31-24 Kings are third.
Giannis accomplishes feat not seen since Wilt
The Milwaukee Bucks are the hottest team in the NBA and collected their 10th consecutive win with a 119-106 triumph against the Los Angeles Clippers.
Giannis Antetokounmpo led the way with 35 points (13-of-25 shooting), eight rebounds, six assists and two steals, giving him a total of 373 points during the 10-game winning streak. That is the most points by one player during a 10-game winning streak since Wilt Chamberlain's 416 during his rookie season in 1959-60.
At 39-17, the Bucks are just one game behind the 40-16 Boston Celtics in the race for the best record in the Eastern Conference, and the league.
Embiid dominates the Knicks
Joel Embiid was unstoppable as his Philadelphia 76ers defended home court 119-108 against the visiting New York Knicks.
Embiid scored a game-high 35 points on 14-of-18 shooting, and his field goal percentage of 77.8 set a new season-high. He also added 11 rebounds, six assists, two steals and a block.
James Harden delivered, dishing a game-high 12 assists to go with his 20 points (seven-of-17) and eight rebounds, while Tyrese Maxey exploded for 27 points (nine-of-16) off the bench.
The 76ers (35-19) climbed up to third place in the East, while the Knicks (30-27) occupy the seventh seed.
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