Kevin Durant came off the bench for the first time in his NBA career after missing the start of the Brooklyn Nets' clash against the Toronto Raptors due to health and safety protocols.
Durant was initially named to start on Friday, but was later removed from the lineup due to the protocols.
ESPN reported the 2014 NBA MVP was going through contact tracing, and Durant ended up entering the game late in the first quarter.
After 866 NBA starts, it marked the first time he had come off the bench.
The Nets trailed 34-23 after the first quarter against the Raptors.
Los Angeles Lakers star LeBron James branded the decision to hold an NBA All-Star game this season as "pretty much a slap in the face".
The league and the National Basketball Players Association (NBPA) have agreed to stage the event in Atlanta on March 7, according to The Athletic.
The traditional February exhibition, initially set to be held in Indianapolis, was cancelled before the season started due to the impact of the coronavirus pandemic.
James had expected the game not to go ahead and was anticipating a much-needed break after the Lakers go to the Sacramento Kings on March 4.
Speaking after leading the Lakers to a 114-93 win over the Denver Nuggets on Thursday, James proclaimed he has "Zero energy and zero excitement about an All-Star game this year", adding: "I don't even know why we're having an All-Star game."
He said: "A short offseason for myself and my team-mates, and coming into the season, we were told we wouldn't have an All-Star game so we get a nice little break, five days from the fifth to the 10th, an opportunity for me to kind of recalibrate for the second half of the season.
"Then they throw an All-Star game on us like this. It's pretty much a slap in the face. We're still dealing with a pandemic, with everything that's been going on, and we're going to bring the whole league into one city that's open.
"You guys can see I'm not very happy about it but it's out of my hands. I'll be there physically [if I'm selected], but not mentally."
James was speaking after posting a second triple-double of the season – 27 points, 10 rebounds and 10 assists – against the Nuggets as the Lakers moved to 17-6.
The 36-year-old is enjoying a 23-game streak of recording at least 15 points, five rebounds and five assists to start the season. It is the longest such run in NBA history, surpassing his own record of 22 set back in 2011-12.
James scored the 12,682nd field goal of his storied career, overtaking the great Wilt Chamberlain for the third-most in NBA history, with only Kareem Abdul-Jabbar (15,837) and Karl Malone (13,528) now above him.
"The association with a legend like Wilt Chamberlain, that does something for me," James said. "I'm someone who grew up reading about the game, studying the game. Wilt obviously was a big staple of that. It's very humbling."
LeBron James inspired reigning NBA champions the Los Angeles Lakers to a 114-93 win over the Denver Nuggets on Thursday.
James posted his second triple-double of the season – 27 points, 10 rebounds and 10 assists – to guide the Lakers past the visiting Nuggets in Los Angeles.
With the 12,682nd bucket of his illustrious career, Lakers superstar James surpassed Wilt Chamberlain for the third-most field goals made in NBA history.
James' 23-game streak of recording 15-plus points, five-plus rebounds and five-plus assists to start the season is the longest run in NBA history, surpassing his own record of 22 in a row in 2011-12.
The Lakers recorded their third consecutive win after overturning a 12-point deficit against Western Conference rivals the Nuggets.
According to Stats Perform, it is the largest margin of victory in franchise history after trailing by double digits at half-time. The previous high was a 20-point win at the Phoenix Suns on Christmas Day in 1968.
Night to remember for Oubre
Kelly Oubre Jr. scored a career-high 40 points as the Golden State Warriors overpowered the Dallas Mavericks 147-116. Stephen Curry had 28 points for the Warriors in Dallas.
Joel Embiid hurt his knee but had a game-high 37 points in the Philadelphia 76ers' shock 121-105 loss at home to the Portland Trail Blazers, who were without stars Damian Lillard and CJ McCollum.
Scoreless Rondo
Rajon Rondo did not score a point in the Atlanta Hawks' 112-91 defeat to the Utah Jazz. Rondo was 0 of seven from the field, while he missed all three of his attempts from beyond the arc in 28 minutes.
Embiid did not have much support in Philadelphia as the 76ers struggled without Ben Simmons. Tobias Harris finished with 12 points on just five-of-14 shooting from the field. The All-Star hopeful missed both of his three-point efforts.
The Houston Rockets beat the Memphis Grizzlies 115-103, however P.J. Tucker was one-of-eight from the field, and one-of-seven from three-point range for three points in 34 minutes.
The LeBron show
James was at his brilliant best against the Nuggets, showcasing his elite shooting and passing skills.
Thursday's results
Utah Jazz 112-91 Atlanta Hawks
Golden State Warriors 147-116 Dallas Mavericks
Portland Trail Blazers 121-105 Philadelphia 76ers
Houston Rockets 115-103 Memphis Grizzlies
Los Angeles Lakers 114-93 Denver Nuggets
Raptors at Nets
The star-studded Brooklyn Nets (14-9) will host the Toronto Raptors (9-12) on Friday. The Los Angeles Clippers (17-6) and Milwaukee Bucks (13-8) will also be in action.
The first fan returns of the NBA’s All-Star voting for 2021 were revealed on Thursday, and the Brooklyn Nets’ Kevin Durant and the Los Angeles Lakers’ LeBron James lead their respective conferences.
Durant leads all vote getters with 2,302,705 votes, while James has garnered 2,288,676.
Among guards, the Golden State Warriors’ Stephen Curry leads the Western Conference with 2,113,178 votes, while 1,273,817 fans have selected the Washington Wizards’ Bradley Beal in the East.
The Nets’ Kyrie Irving is second among East guards in voting, while the Milwaukee Bucks’ Giannis Antetokounmpo and the Philadelphia 76ers’ Joel Embiid are second and third among East frontcourt players.
In the West, the Denver Nuggets’ Nikola Jokic and the Los Angeles Clippers’ Kawhi Leonard are second and third in voting behind James among frontcourt players, while the Dallas Mavericks’ Luka Doncic is second among guards.
The starting five for the All-Star teams will be made up of two guards and three frontcourt players.
Fan voting makes up 50 per cent of the formula that determines the All-Star starters, with 25 per cent coming from a media panel and 25 per cent based on votes from players.
In addition to the starting five, the All-Star team reserves will consist of a pair of backcourt players, three frontcourt players plus two additional wild cards.
Voting runs through February 16, and the starters will be announced two days later. The reserves, who are selected by the league’s head coaches, are revealed on February 23.
It’s still uncertain at this point if there will be an All-Star Game or if the voting is merely a way to recognise those individuals playing at an All-Star level.
It wasn't the most celebrated or impactful trade of the Summer of 2019 – the newest gold banner that is waiting to be unveiled at the Staples Center answers that question.
Still, when browsing the current state of affairs in the Western Conference, it's hard to deny the significance of another deal that went down shortly after the franchise-defining blockbuster that landed Anthony Davis alongside LeBron James in Los Angeles and shifted the balance of power within the NBA.
With the aftershock of the Davis deal still reverberating, the Memphis Grizzlies were making a more under-the-radar move to set their own new course. Just days after the gigantic trade, Memphis sent the franchise's all-time leading scorer and arguably most popular player, Mike Conley, to the Utah Jazz, formally closing the door on the moderately successful 'Grit and Grind' era of the previous decade.
It's fair to say the trade is working out quite well for both teams, though. The Jazz presently sport the NBA's best record at 16-5 with Conley superbly manning the point following a somewhat trying first season in Salt Lake City. The Grizzlies currently stand as the surprise leader of a suspect Southwest Division and are seemingly well ahead of schedule on a rebuilding plan young general manager Zach Kleiman has so far orchestrated with a master stroke.
Memphis' swift rise to respectability was hard to see coming, and neither was the considerable effect so far generated by a trade centered around a player who has never made an All-Star team in 13 NBA seasons. That may change in Conley's 14th, however. The 33-year-old has been a major force on both ends of the court in what has been a terrific bounce-back campaign to date, as his 124.2 offensive rating is the highest of his career and his 2.35 steals per 48 minutes is his best mark since making the NBA All-Defensive Team in 2012-13.
Perhaps most importantly, however, is how the Jazz have performed with Conley on the court as opposed to him off it. The veteran point guard's plus-minus rating of 11.0 per game trails only Clippers star Kawhi Leonard for the best in the league among players averaging at least 15 minutes per outing and who have appeared in at least half of their team's games, and the following chart illustrates how much better Utah has been when Conley is on the floor:
JAZZ, WITH/WITHOUT MIKE CONLEY ON COURT, 2020-21
With/Without stats (/100 = per 100 possessions)
Points/100: 116.5/108.8
Opp Points/100: 99.9/113.8
Point Diff/100: +16.6/-5.0
FG Pct: .470/.444
Opp FG Pct: .427/.475
Turnovers/100: 13.4/16.6
Conley's presence also allows Donovan Mitchell, Utah's leading scorer and their highest usage player, to play more off the ball where he is most effective, as the numbers demonstrate:
DONOVAN MITCHELL, WITH/WITHOUT MIKE CONLEY ON COURT, 2020-21
With/Without stats (/100 = per 100 possessions)
Points/100: 35.0/32.9
Rebounds/100: 6.8/5.5
Assists/100: 5.4/8.1
Turnovers/100: 3.5/5.7
FG Pct: .451/.409
3-Pt Pct: .446/.343
With Conley playing at an elite level and a pair of All-Stars in Mitchell and two-time NBA Defensive Player of the Year Rudy Gobert, the question can now be raised: Have the Jazz finally achieved the status of a legitimate challenger to the West's upper crust after four years of consistently winning in the regular season but never seriously threatening in the playoffs?
Quite possibly.
The Jazz are the only team that currently ranks in the NBA's top five in both offensive and defensive rating. They have never finished a season higher than ninth in the former category under coach Quin Snyder, but there is reason to believe this team differs from its predecessors. It has been hitting 3-pointers at a historic rate (16.9 per game) with both impressive efficiency (39.8 percent) and variety. Six of the Jazz's top seven scorers are shooting better than 38 percent from beyond the arc while taking at least four attempts per game, the most in the league.
Only one team in NBA history has shot 40 percent or better from 3-point range while making 12 or more 3s per game, and that is the 2015-16 Warriors that set an NBA record with 73 regular-season wins. Granted, there are three other teams that currently fall under that category this season, and they are all pretty good as well: The Clippers, Bucks and Nets.
So, we have discussed how the Conley trade has benefited the Jazz. How about the Grizzlies, who received Jae Crowder, Kyle Korver, Grayson Allen, a 2019 first-round pick and a future first-rounder in the deal?
Korver was immediately traded to Phoenix in a swap that brought back De'Anthony Melton, Memphis' best wing defender, and a 2020 second-round pick that turned into center Xavier Tillman, who has quickly emerged as a solid rotational piece as a rookie.
Crowder was later shipped to Miami, with capable veteran Gorgui Dieng and the still-injured Justise Winslow the return.
Last year's first-rounder was ultimately used on Brandon Clarke, one of only five players from the 2019 class to average 12 points and 5.5 rebounds per game through his first season-plus.
All told, that is five viable contributors (Clarke, Allen, Dieng, Melton, Tillman) and a possible sixth if Winslow can ever get healthy. And Melton may have a chance to be something more than that if he continues to make strides with his still-developing shot.
And we have yet to mention the primary motive for moving Conley, which was to clear a path at the point guard spot for the electric Ja Morant. Though Memphis was able to go 4-4 in the eight games the 2019-20 NBA Rookie of the Year missed with a sprained ankle earlier this season thanks to the enviable depth Kleiman has assembled, there is no question the Grizzlies are a more dangerous team with the 2019 No. 2 overall pick in the lineup.
Here are the numbers to back it up: The Grizzlies average 117.4 points with him, compared to 103.1 in his absence. Their field goal percentage (.479 compared to .451) and 3-point percentage (.381 compared to .331) are also unsurprisingly better, while the turnovers drop by just over one per game (13.5 with him, 14.9 without).
If the Grizzlies could maintain that points-per-game average throughout the season, they would rank third in the league behind only the power-laden Nets and Bucks. Combine it with their other strengths, an opportunistic defense that leads the NBA in steals per game and a rotation that boasts a league-high 11 players averaging 8.0 points or more (min. 50 percent of team’s games played), and it is no stretch to proclaim they will be a formidable playoff foe for any team should they get in – especially if budding star Jaren Jackson Jr. makes it back from the knee injury that has sidelined him all season thus far.
Memphis are still not ready to realistically threaten the league's championship contenders, but there is a lot to like about this team going forward. The Grizzlies have one bona fide star in Morant, a potential second in Jackson and a young and promising supporting cast – most of whom are under contract for at least two more years. They are also set up to be flush in cap space and a potential dark horse player in free agency come the 2021 offseason.
The Grizzlies have the NBA's third-youngest roster, its youngest GM in Kleiman and third-youngest head coach in 36-year-old Taylor Jenkins. It looks like their rebuild is maturing beyond its years , too.
The Los Angeles Lakers and the Denver Nuggets meet for the first time since last season's Western Conference Finals on Thursday.
A 4-1 series win for the Lakers paved the way for the franchise to win their first NBA championship since 2010 and they are the favourites to repeat the feat this season.
After a gruelling two-week road trip in which they went 5-2, they will be back in the familiar surroundings of Staples Center to start a five-game home stand.
The Lakers are 4-4 on their home court this season and the Nuggets have only dropped three of their 10 road games, while LeBron James and Nikola Jokic have started the campaign in form befitting MVP candidates.
The stage is set for an intriguing battle between two of the West's heavyweights.
TOP PERFORMERS
LeBron James – Los Angeles Lakers
An average of 25 points per game may not be on a par with previous prolific seasons, but James is enjoying a career year from beyond the arc.
He is shooting at 40.9 per cent from three-point range and is averaging over twice as many attempts per game (6.8 compared to 3.3) as when he set his previous high of 40.6 per cent in the 2012-13 season.
He has improved from downtown year on year with the Lakers but operates at 27.1 per cent from three against the Nuggets since his arrival in Los Angeles in 2018. He only made more than one three-pointer in one of their Western Conference Finals meetings last season.
Nikola Jokic – Denver Nuggets
Denver's Serbian center has made an incredible start to the 2020-21 season.
While tying his career high of 47 points and ending the Utah Jazz's 11-game winning streak, he registered his 20th straight double-double to start the season – Bill Walton is the only other player to have achieved that feat, though he went on to record 34 straight in the 1976-77 season.
The last team to deny him a double-double? That's right, it was the Lakers. Jokic only had one double-double in the Nuggets' 4-1 series loss to the Lakers in the bubble.
KEY BATTLE: CONTROL OF THE PAINT
Only Zion Williamson (173), Giannis Antetokounmpo (165) and Domantas Sabonis (157) have made more field goals in the paint than Jokic this season, with the centre averaging 14.8 points per game in the key.
However, for the Lakers, Anthony Davis and LeBron have each made 111 field goals in the paint, while Montrezl Harrell also places inside the top 20 with 107.
Through Davis and James alone the Lakers average 21.8 points per game in the paint and the former shoots at 69.8 per cent in that area – better than Jokic's 65.2 success rate and the fifth best in the NBA among players to have attempted at least 100 such shots.
HEAD TO HEAD
The Nuggets have only won four of their 12 meetings with the Lakers in the regular season and playoffs since LeBron arrived at Staples Center.
Davis has particularly enjoyed playing against Denver since becoming a Laker too, averaging 30.3 points and 7.6 assists across nine meetings with the Nuggets. The only side he has averaged more points against in the same time frame – with a minimum of two games played – is his former team the New Orleans Pelicans (31.3).
Denver will therefore likely need Jamal Murray to shine alongside Jokic. However, he had one of his worst games over the past two seasons against the Lakers December 2019, when he had just six points on 3-of-17 shooting. Only once has he scored fewer in at least 24 minutes on the floor – he had four points against the Brooklyn Nets a month prior.
Giannis Antetokounmpo thinks increased maturity is enabling him to enjoy more of a playmaking role for the Milwaukee Bucks this season.
Reigning NBA MVP Antetokounmpo displayed a fine array of passing as he racked up 10 assists alongside 21 points and 14 rebounds through three quarters in a 130-110 victory over the Indiana Pacers on Wednesday.
He moved past Quinn Buckner for fourth on the Bucks' all-time assist list when he reached 2,392 by finding Brook Lopez out of a double-team in the low post.
It was Antetokounmpo's third triple-double of the season and he used his spare time in the fourth quarter to take some courtside photographs of his brother Thanasis.
Antetokounmpo had not felt the need to shoulder the burden for scoring on his own as the Bucks made 21 three-pointers. It was the fifth time this season they have made at least 20 shots from beyond the arc – they only had four such games in franchise history prior to 2020-21.
"It's a new thing. Probably last year and the year before and the year before that, I'll go into a game and I'm just too stubborn to not be at my best every single night and I try to go through guys," said Antetokounmpo.
"Three guys are guarding me and I still try to get in the paint. I think that this is just a step forward to this leadership.
"Last year, I felt like, and the previous year, that in order for us to win, I have to be at my best. I have to get 30, 35 ... 25, 20 and 10 or whatever the case might be. Be everywhere, do everything.
"But now, I think our team is a great team; and this year, if my team needs me to pass the ball, I've got to pass the ball."
He added: "Next year might be different. The team might need me to go crazy every single night, but I think that's being mature. Obviously, I'm still young. I'm 26, but 26 is older than 25 and 24, and I kind of like it. I kind of like being this way.
"I kind of like being in a good place, making the right play and just seeing my team-mates having fun. But at the end of the day, always, we've got to win the game. I'm here to win games; I'm not just here to mess around and all that."
Coach Mike Budenholzer lauded the development in Antetokounmpo's ability to read the game and provide exactly what is needed at the right moment.
"I just think he's playing really, really unselfishly," said Budenholzer.
"He's seeing things and making the right read, the right passes, and I just think he's in a great place, mindset-wise. He's aggressive and attacking when it's needed, and he's finding his team-mates and finding opportunities for everybody else when it's needed. He's playing really at a high level."
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