8 games in the NBA today.

76ers beat Mavericks 120-116 Clippers beat Timberwolves 89-88 Celtics beat Warriors 140-88 Magic beat Pistons 113-91 Raptors beat Hornets 111-106 Spurs beat Pacers 117-105 Knicks beat Cavaliers 107-98 Thunder beat Suns 118-110

I'm happy the Raptors got a win, even though it was against the Hornets. I'll take whatever win that we can get. Bad news was that another starter got injured. Jakob Poeltl suffered a dislocated finger late in the first half and did not return for the rest of the game. Hopefully he won't be out for too long. The Raps had a pretty solid game, with 6 guys in double digits, among them, Barrett got 23 and IQ got 22 points, 11 assists. I'm glad that was enough to get the job done against the Hornets.

Speaking of injury, the already short roster of the Knicks had Jalen Brunson injured today in the early seconds of the game. Knicks initially called it knee soreness and later revealed that it was a left knee contusion. Brunson did not return for the rest of the game. The Knicks, without most of their starters, still went on to beat the Cavs. Mitchell did not play and the Cavs did not shoot particularly well in the game. Donte DiVincenzo had 28 and Bojan Bogdanovic had 20.

The Thunder showed their dominance by beating the Suns. SGA almost got a triple double having 35 points, 9 assists, 9 rebounds. Jalen Williams had 22. Bradley Beal exploded for 31 points, probably trying to make up for his bad game and ejection yesterday. KD had 20 points and Nurkic had a monster 31 rebounds paired with 14 points and 4 assists. Again, that's 31 rebounds all by himself! But still not enough to make the Wilt and Bill list though; apparently, the cutoff is 38 rebounds.

And do we need to talk about the Magic vs Pistons game or the Celtics vs Warriors game? I guess one word sums it up: ownage.

The Pacers vs Spurs game was fun. Wemby put on a show again in front of their home crowd, getting 31 points, 6 assists, 12 rebounds, and 6 blocks. His block average is still leading the league but improved from 3.3 to 3.4 due to the last several games having at least 5 blocks. Spurs got the lead in the 1st quarter, but Pacers would battle back and get within 1 near the end of the 2nd quarter. Spurs started to run away from the Pacers late in the 3rd and kept the lead throughout the 4th to come up with the win.

For the Mavericks vs 76ers game, Luka had another triple double, with 38 points, 10 assists, and 11 rebounds, while Kyrie got 28. But it wasn't enough to beat the 76ers. 76ers came out strong and had the lead early; they also played a very strong 3rd quarter. Mavs tried to battle back in the 4th but it was too little too late. Tobias Harris had 28, Tyrese Maxey had 24, and Kelly Oubre Jr. had 21.

The Clippers vs Timberwolves game was quite something. The Timberwolves came out strong, leading the Clippers by as much as 16 points in the 1st quarter. The Clippers defended well and chipped away at the lead bit by bit, eventually taking the lead just over 3 minutes into the 2nd quarter. The rest of the game was low scoring, well defended, and hard fought. Although I might attribute to some of the low scoring to players from both teams not shooting well. Harden went for 0/10, PG13 5/16, Clippers are lucky they still have Kawhi and Norman Powell remember how to shoot. Not much better for the Timberwolves, as KAT went for 7/18 and Naz Reid for 0/7, as well, they are lucky to have Ant who still remembers how to shoot. The score was very close towards the end of the game, but Clippers got the lead and did not allow the Timberwolves to retake the lead. The Timberwolves fall to number 2 in the west after this loss with the Thunder taking the top spot.

My subjective play of the day belongs to this windmill dunk by Norman Powell near the end of a close scoring game. Powell must have very high confidence in his hops and dunking ability.

Thank you for going over my recap. Feel free to leave a comment to share what you have in mind. Cheers and have a good night!