If you’ve grown tired of limited NBA action, your prayers for more games were answered. 18 teams took center stage on Thursday, January 2, 2014. A league-record was set and three of the top championship contenders fell at home.
Here’s everything that you need to know about last night’s action.
1. Wesley Matthews scored 25 points on 8-of-11 shooting from the floor and Damian Lillard added 24 points on a mark of 9-of-13 to lead the Portland Trail Blazers to a 134-104 win over the Charlotte Bobcats. Portland made 21 3-point field goals in the win, thus becoming the first team in NBA history to sink at least 20 in two separate games in one season.
The story of the game for Charlotte was Chris Douglas-Roberts, who scored 20 points. That’s CDR’s highest scoring total since January 24, 2011.
2. The Golden State Warriors went on the road and lit up the Miami Heat with 15 3-pointers en route to a 123-114 win. Stephen Curry stepped up with 36 points and 12 assists, and David Lee tallied 32 points and 14 rebounds for the Warriors. LeBron James had 26 points, but also committed eight turnovers.
Golden State has won seven straight games. Miami has lost two home games against Western Conference teams since December 12, 2012. Both times, those losses came against the Warriors.
3. In what was easily the most surprising result of the night, Deron Williams scored 29 points and Joe Johnson sank the game-winner to lead the Brooklyn Nets to a 95-93 road victory over the Oklahoma City Thunder. Brooklyn hadn’t previously won on the road since December 7, when it defeated the Milwaukee Bucks 90-82.
As for OKC, it’s lost consecutive regular season home games for the first time since March 16, 2012.
4. Joe Johnson hit the game-winning buzzer-beater for the Nets. He leads all players with five game-winning shots made in the final 10 seconds of the fourth quarter or overtime since the beginning of the 2012-13 season.
5. If not Brooklyn, then the most surprising result of the evening goes to the other team from Gotham: the New York Knicks. Carmelo Anthony returned from a three-game injury absence to post 27 points, 12 rebounds and four assists as the 10-21 Knicks to a 105-101 upset the 25-8 San Antonio Spurs on the road.
Marco Belinelli scored a career-high 32 points in defeat.
6. Despite receiving a career-high 33 points from Goran Dragic, the Phoenix Suns fell 99-91 against the Memphis Grizzlies. Zach Randolph led the charge with 20 points and 15 rebounds, and Ed Davis came off of the bench for 16 points, 11 rebounds, two assists and two steals in 28 minutes.
Memphis improves to 7-6 on the road. It’s 7-11 at home.
7. Despite playing without Kyrie Irving, the Cleveland Cavaliers defeated the Orlando Magic 87-81. Anderson Varejao led the charge with a season-high 18 points and a career-high 25 rebounds. Varejao has a double-double in three straight games for the first time since December 8, 2012.
Varejao matched Cleveland’s franchise record with 25 boards.
8. Derrick Favors stepped up with 21 points, 11 rebounds and four steals as the Utah Jazz defeated the Milwaukee Bucks 96-87. Larry Sanders was close to perfection for Milwaukee, finishing with 16 points, eight rebounds, two assists, two blocks and two steals on 7-of-7 shooting from the field and 2-of-2 at the charity stripe.
Utah has won consecutive games for just the second time this season.
9. Thaddeus Young dropped 28 points and a career-high six steals to lead the Philadelphia 76ers to a rare road win over the Sacramento Kings, 113-104. Evan Turner added 24 points, 10 rebounds, six assists and two steals as Philadelphia improved to 4-13 away from home.
DeMarcus Cousins put up another monster slash line with 33 points, 14 rebounds, two assists, two steals and a block in defeat.
10. Joakim Noah flirted with a triple-double, tallying 17 points, 11 rebounds and nine assists as the Chicago Bulls defeated the Boston Celtics 94-82. Chicago improves to 11-7 when it scores at least 90 points and 2-11 when it fails to reach that plateau.
It doesn’t get any more clear-cut than that.
Bonus Fact: Golden State (96) and Portland (100) scored more points in three quarters than Cleveland (87) and Orlando (81) did with overtime.