On a night that was filled with overtime thrillers and buzzer-beaters, there was plenty of action Friday night that kept fans on their toes in arenas and on the edge of their sofas in their living rooms.
There were nine games, three of which went to overtime.
Need a rundown without having to click your mouse two dozen times?
That’s what we’re here for.
Here are 10 Fast Facts from last night’s games, plus video highlights at the bottom of this post.
1. Evan Turner showed us once again how he has improved into the star player that Philadelphia has been waiting for ever since they drafted him No. 2 overall in 2010. Turner scored 29 points – including the game-winning basket at the buzzer – to lead the Sixers to a 121-120 victory in overtime over the Brooklyn Nets. It was Turner’s first career buzzer-beater, and Philadelphia improved to 4-1 in OT games.
2. In a game that the Hawks never trailed, Lou Williams had a tremendous outing, scoring 25 points to lead the Hawks to a 118-85 rout over the Utah Jazz. An interesting stat: The Hawks have scored 110 or more points for the last three straight games. Kyle Korver extended his 3-point streak to 96 consecutive games.
3. Kyrie Irving had a great game once again despite his battle with the flu. Irving scored 39 points, including four free throws in the final 21 seconds of overtime, to lead his Cavs to the 114-111 win over the Bucks. Irving has had most 30-point games of anyone in his 2011 draft class thus far by a large margin. Irving has 19 career 30-point games, the rest of the draft class has 29 such games combined.
4. The Bobcats came from 14 points down in the fourth quarter to beat the Pistons 116-106. Kemba Walker led all scorers with 34 points, but Al Jefferson stole the show scoring 13 points during the 16-3 run Charlotte made to start the 4th quarter. The ‘Cats outscored the Pistins 41-17 in the fourth quarter.
5. The Miami Heat put up a season high for points in their 122-103 win over the Sacramento Kings. LeBron James put up great stats –18 points, eight assists, and six rebounds — before sitting out the entire 4th quarter. Miami has now won 18 straight games over Western Conference opponents, two away from matching the longest regular-season streak ever posted by an Eastern Conference team. Boston won 20 straight over the West during a nine-month span of 1973.
6. The Pacers bounced back from their loss versus the Heat from Wednesday night with a 114-81 win over the Rockets. Paul George had an impressive game with 24 points and 9 rebounds. Danny Granger saw his first action of the season and shot 1-for-7 in 22 minutes with five turnovers.
7. DeMar DeRozan keeps improving more and more and more. After hitting the go-ahead basket on a wild shot in overtime, the Raptors went on to defeat the Mavericks 109-108. DeRozan finished with 15 points. Former Raptor Jose Calderon made seven 3-pointers and scored a team-high 23 points.
8. It seems like the Lakers can’t catch a break with all of the injuries their players are sustaining this season, but they still compete every night. Xavier Henry led all scorers on the Lakers with 21 points and the Lakers went on to win 104-91 over the Timberwolves. Kevin Love scored 20 of his 25 points in the first half and grabbed 13 rebounds for Minnesota but was held scoreless in the fourth quarter.
9. Pau Gasol, the only player to start all 26 games for the Lakers this season, had 21 points, 13 rebounds and eight assists.
Looking for Lakers tickets? Look no further.
10. Playing on the road in what was the league’s toughest arena for opponents last season, the Phoenix Suns outscored Denver 31-17 in the fourth quarter to improve to 15-10 as Jeff Hornacek kept himself squarely in the mix for Coach of the Year honors. The Nuggets are 7-5 at home on the season. They were a franchise-best 38-3 last season.
Dedrick Hendrix is the latest addition to the SheridanHoops.com writing team. Follow him on Twitter.