Kevin Durant edged Stephen Curry's season-best mark with 51 points as the Brooklyn Nets defeated the Detroit Pistons 116-104 in the NBA on Sunday.
Durant was dominant after the Nets opted to rest fellow superstar James Harden for the first time this season, with the former MVP shooting 16 of 31 from the field, including five three-pointers.
The two-time champion and Finals MVP also had seven rebounds, nine assists, two block and one steal in a remarkable all-round display for the Eastern Conference-leading Nets.
The haul was Durant's eighth 50-point game of his NBA career, while it bettered Stephen Curry's season-best 50 points against the Atlanta Hawks on November 8.
Struggling Detroit challenged the Nets, leading by five points at the final change before a 30-13 fourth quarter for the Nets.
Number one draft pick Cade Cunningham had 26 points, eight rebounds, six assists and three steals for the Pistons.
Triple-doubles for Giannis and LeBron
Giannis Antetokounmpo recorded his first triple-double for the season with 20 points, 10 rebounds and 11 assists in the Milwaukee Bucks' 112-97 victory over the New York Knicks. Khris Middleton added 24 points with four triples, while Bobby Portis grabbed a double-double with 19 points and 10 rebounds for the defending champions.
LeBron James also had a triple-double, the 101st of his illustrious NBA career. James scored 30 points, 11 rebounds and 10 assists for the Los Angeles Lakers as they trumped the Orlando Magic 106-94. The Lakers enjoyed a 23-0 third-quarter run on their way to victory.
The Dallas Mavericks won for the first time this season without star Luka Doncic, easing past the Oklahoma City Thunder 103-84, while Karl-Anthony Towns had 23 points with 10 rebounds as the Minnesota Timberwolves beat the Portland Trail Blazers 116-111.
Randle silenced as Knicks beaten
Julius Randle's struggles this season continued against the Bucks, managing only eight points with seven turnovers. Randle shot two of nine from the field.
Brooklyn Nets head coach Steve Nash labelled Kevin Durant "incredible" after scoring an NBA season-high 51 points in the team's 116-104 victory over the Detroit Pistons on Sunday.
The Eastern Conference-leading Nets took down the lowly Pistons thanks to Durant, who shot 16 of 31 from the field, including five three-pointers in a dominant offensive display in the absence of rested team-mate James Harden.
Durant's 51 points usurped Golden State Warriors superstar Stephen Curry's 50-point mark for the previous top individual score this season, while the former also had nine assists and seven rebounds.
"Kevin was incredible," Nash said at the post-game news conference. "Not an easy night. They played extremely hard. Tonnes of energy.
"We were playing different line-ups. I think there were different guys out there at different times trying to find the spacing and the spots, where to be, so there are some challenges there for us.
"For him to be able to score 51, nine assists, seven rebounds, two blocks and a steal, it's incredible."
The haul was Durant's eighth 50-point game of his NBA career, while it was the 10th 50-point game in Brooklyn's franchise history.
Durant dominated the second and third quarters for the Nets, scoring 35 of his team's 55 points during that stretch, as the struggling Pistons challenged.
"I felt like we started the game with a nice energy and then the second quarter they upped the pressure a bit," Durant told reporters.
"I felt like we turned it over a lot in the second and third quarter. I just tried to keep the ball in our hands and take a shot every time as I was turning it over too. I was able to make some."
Nash added that he could not remember such a dominant period by one individual.
"I'm sure it's happened but I can't remember it. He was just outstanding," Nash said.
"I thought his leadership and a willingness to keep us in it, also his defense, was unbelievable."
All-Star guard Zach LaVine is the latest Chicago Bulls player to enter the NBA's health and safety protocols amid a COVID-19 outbreak within the team.
LaVine and team-mate Tony Brown Jr. entered the NBA's health and safety protocols on Sunday, bringing the Bulls' total to nine players since the start of December.
The pair follow DeMar DeRozan, Coby White, Javonte Green, Matt Thomas, Derrick Jones Jr., Ayo Dosunmu and Stanley Johnson in being sidelined.
Once players enter protocols, they must quarantine for 10 days or until they return two negative PCR tests within a 24-hour window.
The Bulls (17-10) are not in action again until Tuesday when they host the Detroit Pistons, where they may have only nine available players.
White and Green will have completed their mandatory isolation period by Tuesday and could be cleared to play.
Under NBA rules, a minimum of eight players are required for a team before postponing a game during an outbreak.
LaVine is enjoying an excellent season, averaging 26.0 points, 4.2 assists and a career-high 5.3 rebounds per game.
Dallas Mavericks head coach Jason Kidd confirmed Luka Doncic will miss multiple games as the star continues to struggle with a sore left ankle.
Doncic sprained his left ankle against the Denver Nuggets on November 15 and missed the following three games.
The Slovenian guard re-aggravated the ankle in Friday's 106-93 defeat to the Indiana Pacers and Kidd confirmed he will sit for Sunday's game with the Oklahoma City Thunder and Monday's clash against the Charlotte Hornets.
Dallas (12-13) have a busy upcoming schedule, with a game against the Los Angeles Lakers on Wednesday, and it remains unclear how long Doncic will be sidelined.
"He continues to get treatment, and we'll see how he feels for Wednesday's game," Kidd told reporters.
The Mavericks have lost all four games with Doncic absent this season, having also missed a December 4 defeat to the Memphis Grizzlies with ankle soreness.
Doncic is averaging 25.6 points, 8.0 rebounds and 8.5 assists this season.
The 22-year-old had a career-best scoring return in the 2019-20 season with 28.8 points per game.
Kevin Durant has been fined $25,000 for aiming obscene language at a fan during the Brooklyn Nets' 113-105 victory over the Atlanta Hawks.
Durant powered in 31 points against the Hawks on Friday but has been punished for an apparent verbal spray towards a member of the crowd during the second quarter.
The NBA's president of league operations Byron Spruell announced the fine on Sunday in a statement that said: "Brooklyn Nets forward Kevin Durant has been fined $25,000 for directing obscene language toward a fan.
"The incident took place with 28 seconds remaining in the second quarter of the Nets' 113-105 win over the Atlanta Hawks on December 10 at State Farm Arena."
It is not the first time that Durant has been in trouble with the NBA this season either, given the 33-year-old was fined the same amount at the end of October.
The forward's previous misdemeanour occurred against the Indiana Pacers, when he was reprimanded for "forcefully throwing the game ball into the spectator stands" during the third quarter of the Nets' win.
Fortunately for Brooklyn, Durant will not be suspended for any matches and the Nets will be delighted to keep their star in action, given he is averaging 28.5 points per game across 24 outings in the 2021-22 campaign.
Brooklyn, who hold a slender lead over the Milwaukee Bucks for the best record in the Eastern Conference, were due in action later on Sunday in a game against the Detroit Pistons.
Nikola Vucevic would like to be able to do more to help the Chicago Bulls amid their coronavirus outbreak but has no explanation for his shooting woes.
The Bulls lost two more players to health and safety protocols ahead of Saturday's defeat to the Miami Heat, meaning they now have seven players out due to COVID-19.
Among them is DeMar DeRozan, whose team-high 26.4 points per game this season have helped transform Chicago into contenders in the East.
Two-time All-Star Vucevic missed seven games earlier in the year after returning a positive test, although his below-par displays so far in 2021-22 mean the former Orlando Magic center was not quite such a big miss.
Through the first three weeks of the season before his lay-off, Vucevic shot 39.5 per cent from the field and averaged 13.6 points.
There has been slight improvement since the 31-year-old's return, shooting 41.3 per cent and scoring 17.0 points, boosted by a 30-point game against the Charlotte Hornets, but his marks for the season (40.4 per cent shooting, 15.2 points per game) remain well down on 2020-21 (47.7 per cent, 23.4).
Among players to play in 70 per cent of team games, only Jonas Valanciunas (59.2 to 51.7) has suffered a larger decline in field-goal shooting percentage from this season to last, while Bradley Beal (31.3 to 22.5) is the sole NBA star to see a greater drop-off in points output.
The 118-92 loss to the Heat saw Vucevic's worst shooting game of the season, making just three of 15 attempts from the field (20.0 per cent) for 10 points.
"I don't really have an explanation for what's going on with my shot," the 49.3-per-cent career shooter said afterwards.
"It's something I was always very consistent with, really good throughout my whole career, around a 50-per-cent shooter, so I don't know."
The Bulls' overall improvement – now 17-10 after last year's 31-41 record, representing the league's third-largest increase in winning percentage – had largely hidden Vucevic's poor form until now.
"It's tough when you want to go out there, play well and help the team win," he said. "You want to do your job. It's obviously frustrating.
"I have a lot of pride in myself and put in the work and everything, but it's just not working for me right now.
"I've never been through a slump like this, and I just have to work myself out of it. There's no other way.
"Obviously I'm not playing well right now, I'm not doing what I'm supposed to do, not doing my job, and I've just got to figure it out – it's plain and simple."
He added: "There are games where maybe I didn't play as well, but we were winning and it's not that big of a deal.
"When you lose and you don't play well, you feel like it's even more of your responsibility, your fault."
Coach Billy Donovan has sympathy for his players amid the uncertainty around the team, although he wants more from Vucevic.
"Everybody's probably a little bit out of sorts right now, just because we keep losing players and we're throwing different guys in and need more from different guys," he said.
The coach at least knows Vucevic's performances are not for a lack of effort.
"With some of the scoring that's missing from our team, we're going to need him and Lonzo to pick up the slack in different ways," Donovan added.
"I thought he had some pretty decent looks. But I trust him and believe in him – maybe I wouldn't feel that way if I didn't see him working."
Stephen Curry says the lure of breaking Ray Allen's all-time three-pointers record did not play a part in his poor shooting night in the Golden State Warriors 102-93 loss the Philadelphia 76ers on Saturday.
Curry shot six of 20 from the field, finishing with 18 points and making only three of 14 attempts from beyond the arc.
The two-time MVP's three triples moved him within seven three-pointers of breaking Allen's all-time NBA record of 2,973 three-point attempts made.
"If you take away the context of these last couple of games, I've played the exact same way," Curry said at the post-game news conference. "You’ve got to make shots and understand the opposition is not going to want that [breaking the record] to happen on their home floor.
"They defend accordingly. For the most part [I am] trying to keep it out of my head and just play basketball and take the shots I normally take and play the game I normally do.
"There was obviously a lot of attention on it which is well deserved as it's an all-time NBA record and one that been around for 10-11 years.
"I appreciate the attention on it. It'll happen when it happens. I'll continue to keep winning NBA games in the process."
Curry has made 24 three-pointers in his past five games as he closes in on the NBA record with attention swirling about the milestone held by Allen since 2011 when he surpassed Reggie Miller's mark of 2,560.
The point guard attributed his 30 percent field goal percentage to pressure from the 76ers and Matisse Thybulle, who marked him closely, rather than the impending record.
"They pressured all night long. Thybulle is a pretty hard defender," Curry said. "They were trying to force us into the paint and make the extra pass and we did that early.
"We didn't shoot as effectively as we wanted. We made that third quarter run but then got cold. They slowly walked us down."
Curry's next chance at breaking Allen's record occurs on Monday when the Warriors face the Indiana Pacers.
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