While Monday Night Football caught the attention of the NFL community, the NBA put on eight games featuring 16 teams. There was a change of the guard atop the NBA, a record-matching performance, and a number of players pulling out clutch heroics.
Here’s everything you need to know about last night’s games.
1. The Indiana Pacers lost their first home game of the season. The Detroit Pistons pulled out the 101-96 upset behind 30 points from Josh Smith, 18 points and eight assists from Brandon Jennings, and a double-double of 13 points and 12 rebounds from Greg Monroe.
With the Pacers’ loss, the Portland Trail Blazers now own the best record in the NBA at 21-4 and the Oklahoma City Thunder are the only team with an undefeated home record at 12-0. Indiana is 20-4 overall and 11-1 at home.
2. After failing to hit 30 points in any of his first 24 games with the Pistons, Josh Smith has done it in consecutive outings. It’s the first time he’s scored at least 30 points in back-to-back games since March 23, 2012.
3. The Brooklyn Nets had an offensive eruption during a 130-94 victory over the Philadelphia 76ers. That’s the Nets’ highest regulation scoring total since posting 131 on February 8, 2000.
Brooklyn improves to 9-15 and has won four of five.
4. Joe Johnson led the Nets with a season-high 37 points, seven rebounds, five assists, one block and one steal on 13-of-20 shooting from the field, 10-of-14 from the 3-point line and 1-of-1 from the free throw line. Johnson tied an NBA record with eight 3-point field goals in one quarter during his 29-point outburst in the third.
Even more surprisingly, the Nets had been held to less than 29 points in 78 of 92 quarters entering last night.
5. Remember when the Sixers were playing quality basketball? That’s long gone. Philadelphia has allowed at least 21 3-point field goals in consecutive games. That’s not good.
6. Al Horford posted 19 points and 11 rebounds, Paul Millsap added 18 and nine, and Jeff Teague tallied 17 points and 10 assists to lead the Atlanta Hawks to a 114-100 win over the Los Angeles Lakers. Nick Young scored 23 points, Jordan Hill tallied 21, Xavier Henry put up 18 and Pau Gasol finished with 16 and 10 rebounds in the loss.
Unfortunately, Kobe Bryant was just 4-of-14 from the field for eight points and six assists. Kyle Korver, meanwhile, extended his NBA-record streak to 94 straight games with at least one 3-point field goal.
7. LeBron James scored 30 points, Dwyane Wade tallied 27 and Chris Bosh added 20 to lead the Miami Heat to a 117-94 victory over the visiting Utah Jazz. LeBron added nine rebounds and nine assists for the second consecutive game, Norris Cole scored 13 points off of the bench and Mario Chalmers tallied 12 on a perfect 3-of-3 shooting from beyond the arc.
After doing it just one time through the months of October and November, the Big Three have topped 20 points in the same game in consecutive outings.
8. Jared Sullinger and Kevin Love dueled as the Boston Celtics defeated the Minnesota Timberwolves 101-97. Sullinger finished with 24 points, 11 rebounds and five assists, while Love put up 27 points and 14 rebounds on 9-of-26 shooting from the field and 2-of-11 from 3-point range.
Sullinger is quietly averaging strong numbers of 14.0 points and 7.1 rebounds after undergoing back surgery during his rookie season.
9. Bradley Beal scored the Washington Wizards’ final eight points, including two on the game-winning layup with six seconds remaining, to lead Randy Wittman’s crew to a 102-101 win over the New York Knicks. Beal finished with 21 points, while John Wall put up 20 and eight assists, and Martell Webster scored a team-high 30 off of the bench.
Carmelo Anthony put up 32 points on 12-of-20 shooting, but the rest of the Knicks shot just 35.6 percent from the field.
10. The Los Angeles Clippers secured a statement win over the San Antonio Spurs by a score of 115-92. Blake Griffin led the charge with a game-high 27 points and nine rebounds, while Chris Paul flirted with a triple-double at 23 points, eight rebounds, seven assists and four steals on 8-of-13 shooting.
The Clippers have held six of their past seven opponents to less than 100 points after allowing teams to hit the century mark in 13 of their first 19 outings.
Bonus Fact: During the Jazz’s loss, Alec Burks scored 31 points. The starting lineup scored 38.