Having coffee and five hour energy at the ready, SheridanHoops.com’s newest daily feature presents five interesting items from the previous night in the NBA.
Seven games were on the schedule Monday. The Nuggets rallied after blowing a big lead, the Kings outlasted the Wizards on a late floater and the Rockets made history in Utah.
Barney Stinson leads us to the bump…”this is going to be LEGEN – wait for it – DARY!!!”
- The Houston Rockets handed the Utah Jazz their worst home loss in franchise history, defeating the Jazz 125-80. This was the first game this season which a team outscored their opponent by 6+ pts in each quarter. The last visiting team to outscore its opponent by 6+ pts in each quarter was the Oklahoma City Thunder (April 15, 2009 at Los Angeles Clippers). This was also the second largest road win in Houston Rockets team history. They defeated the 76ers in Philadelphia by 50 points on March 18, 2007.
- The Golden State Warriors defeated the Toronto Raptors 114-102. David Lee had 21 pts, 12 reb, 7 ast, the second game this season in which Lee reached those minimums in each of those three categories. Only other NBA players to have more than one such game this season are LeBron James (4), Kevin Durant (3) and Josh Smith (3). Stephen Curry left the game with an ankle injury in the third quarter, prompting a unique tweet.
- In Brooklyn, the Nets stayed hot and improved to 13-4 under interim head coach P.J. Carlesimo, defeating the Orlando Magic 97-77. This was the fifth time the Nets defeated an opponent by 20 points this season (they had 0 20-pt wins last season).The Nets swept the season series with an average margin of victory (19.75 pts) that matched franchise high in a series sweep of 4+ games (same margin vs Bulls in 2001-02).
- After missing his first four FT attempts in the fourth quarter, Andre Iguodala hit the first of two FTs with 0.4 seconds left to push the Denver Nuggets past the Indiana Pacers, 102-101. Denver has now won four straight and is 11-3 in January. The Pacers had allowed 100 points just six times in their first 42 games but have allowed their last three opponents to eclipse the century mark. They are 1-8 when allowing 100 or more points this season.
- Isaiah Thomas scored 10 of his 22 points in the fourth quarter, including the game-winning floater with 1.9 seconds remaining as the Sacramento Kings snapped a four-game losing streak with a 96-94 win over the Washington Wizards on Monday night. This was the Wizards’ seventh loss this season when leading in final 90 seconds (regulation or overtime), tied with the Mavericks and Raptors for most such losses in NBA.
Stat Mann is the nom de guerre of our research statistician, who spends a lot of time watching basketball in central Connecticut. Someone would be angry if they discovered he was moonlighting here.