The 2014-15 NBA regular season continued on Thursday, November 6 with just two games featuring four teams. All four squads involved were championship contenders, but not everyone showed it.
Going head-to-head with the NFL’s Thursday Night Football, the NBA attempted to bring its best shot. Unfortunately, the association mirrored their counterparts with blowouts to show for their efforts.
Here’s how it all transpired in the NBA.
1. Dwight Howard went off for 32 points, 16 rebounds, two blocks and one steal to lead the Houston Rockets to a lopsided 98-91 victory over the San Antonio Spurs. James Haren added 20 points and eight turnovers, and Jason Terry chipped in 16 points in 21 minutes for the victorious Rockets.
Howard has 100 double-doubles since the beginning of 2012-13. That’s tops in the NBA.
2. Houston is the second team to start 6-0 with six separate double-digit victories. The last team to do that was the 1985-86 Denver Nuggets.
3. Aron Baynes registered the first double-double of his NBA career with 12 points and 12 rebounds in 31 minutes.
4. LaMarcus Aldridge scored 20 points, Damian Lillard had 18 and Nicolas Batum stuffed the stat sheet to lift the Portland Trail Blazers past the Dallas Mavericks 108-87. Dirk Nowitzki scored 17 points, but converted just 6-of-17 field goal attempts compared to 10-of-16 shooting by Aldridge.
Dallas made all 16 of its free throws and committed just seven turnovers, but it shot 36.7 percent from the field, 21.7 percent from distance and lost the rebound battle by a margin of 53-34.
5. Portland’s margins of victory this season: 17 points over Russell Westbrook and the Oklahoma City Thunder, 19 points over LeBron James and the Cleveland Cavaliers, and 21 points over Nowitzki and the Mavericks.
Bonus Fact: The Rockets have opened the season at 6-0 three times since 1993-94. In those three campaigns, Houston won titles in 1994 and 1995, and reached the Western Conference Finals in 1997.