Nikola Jokic for Denver, the eternal LeBron James, author of 40 points at 39 years old for the Los Angeles Lakers, and the Slovenian Luka Doncic for Dallas shone on Sunday in the NBA. Without forgetting Victor Wembanyama with the Spurs…
Reigning champions, the Denver Nuggets revived after two defeats with a success against the Cleveland Cavaliers. The Nuggets were carried by their Serbian pivot Nikola Jokic (26 points, 18 rebounds, 16 assists), in a triple-double for the 23rd time this season. “We were in a hurry, we really wanted victory at all costs, to regain confidence, and to be ready before the play-offs,” commented fullback Kentavious Caldwell-Pope.
This victory allows Denver (52 wins – 23 losses) to take advantage of Minnesota’s defeat against Chicago (109-101) to regain second place in the West.
The Oklahoma City Thunder remains in the lead (52-22) thanks to its success against the New York Knicks (113-112). Canadian Shai Gilgeous-Alexander (19 points) scored the winning basket in a difficult position two seconds from time, before Jalen Brunson (30 points) missed a final shot at the siren.
The dean of the league LeBron James (39), once again showed that he was still a dominant player with a 40-point evening, including nine out of ten successful three-point shots, his record, during a victory for the Los Angeles Lakers at Brooklyn (116-104).
James validated the 77th game of his career with 40 points or more, tying legend Oscar Robertson for 7th place in this ranking led by Wilt Chamberlain (271).
“I love this game, I give it everything and it pays me back. Every time I am compared to the greatest – obviously the big O (Robertson) was an inspiration during my apprenticeship – I find it rather cool,” said the “King”.
Slovenian Luka Doncic pulled out all the stops with 47 points to help his Dallas Mavericks dominate the Houston Rockets (125-107), who remained on 11 consecutive victories. Dallas, on a series of seven successes, thus presents the same record as the New Orleans Pelicans (45 victories – 29 defeats), in the fight for 5th place in the West.
Frenchman Victor Wembanyama, author of his points record (40) on Friday, once again had a big scoring match with 32 points. But the San Antonio Spurs failed to string together a fourth success for the first time this season and fell at home to the Golden State Warriors (117-113) of Stephen Curry (33 points, 8 assists).
“Wemby” started the evening with a block on Curry, then compiled 9 rebounds, 5 assists, 4 steals and 3 blocks, being very active to help the Spurs threaten the Warriors at the end of the game.
The 20-year-old Frenchman explained that his game had evolved through “a lot of refinement”, to be “more decisive”.
“The majority of the time when I don’t score it’s purely my fault. I sometimes struggle to locate my body and how I can be most effective. Looking at the video it seems obvious but it is not easy to apply,” he explained.