Knicks 111 (16-19), Hawks 97 (21-14)
The Garden was awfully sleepy on this Sunday, but Arron Afflalo shot the lights out to the tune of 38 points, including making all 7 of his three-point attempts. The most curious storyline from Atlanta’s side of the ball was that Dennis Schroder picked up his second straight DNP-CD. Unless there’s an injury that the Hawks aren’t disclosing, it’s a mystery why Schroder is in Coach Bud’s doghouse. Shelvin Mack played the backup PG minutes behind Jeff Teague.
Bulls 115 (20-12), Raptors 113 (21-14)
We could string together a few sentences here but honestly, we really only need two words to describe this one: JIMMY BUTLER.
Heat 97 (20-13), Wizards 75 (15-17)
Hassan Whiteside continues to be a beast of late: he scored just six points, but he had 13 rebounds and six blocked shots. John Wall had 14 points, 5 dimes and 0 turnovers, but he shot just 6-for-21, and as a team Washington shot just 34 percent from the field. The banged-up Wizards scored only 7 points in the second quarter and finished with a season-low for the game. Woof.
Blazers 112 (15-21), Nuggets 106 (12-23)
CJ McCollum remains on fire (25 points, 7 assists) and oddly enough, the Blazers were up 61-56 at halftime despite not having a single fast break point. Lowkey, Portland’s won 4 of the last 5 including two wins over the Nuggets. P.S. The fact that Kenneth Faried was in the starting lineup after spending the night in the hospital is pretty crazy. Just saying. Hope he’s really okay.
Lakers 97 (7-27), Suns 77 (12-24)
The Suns’ dysfunction is reaching epic levels these days. How obvious is it? They just lost to the Lakers… With no Kobe. Phoenix scored a total of 22 points in the first half, and three of their five starters were -30 or worse in +/- on the night. Meanwhile they allowed Lou Williams to scored 30 points in the game. Jordan Clarkson put the exclamation point on the win with this drive and dunk:
WOAH, @JClark5on! (via @Lakers) https://t.co/YZ2400zV31
— SLAM (@SLAMonline) January 4, 2016
