He NBA Cup 2024 It continued on Friday night and what a night of wild action it brought with 11 games on the slate. We had a 60-point game, a winning shot and block, and the third-longest winning streak to start an extended season.
Before we get to the main takeaways, here are all the results from Friday night’s NBA Cup action, and you can find the Cup. classification here.
- Heat 124, Pacers 111
- Magic 98, 76ers 86
- Pistons 99, Raptors 95
- Falcons 129, Wizards 117
- Knights 144, Bulls 126
- Knicks 124, Nets 122
- Lakers 120, Spurs 115
- Rockets 125, Clippers 104
- Pelicans 101, Nuggets 94
- Thunder 99, Suns 83
- Warriors 123, Grizzlies 118
- Timberwolves 130, Reyes 126 (overtime)
The Cavaliers are still perfect
The Cleveland Cavaliers improved to 14-0, the longest winning streak in franchise history at any point in a season, with Friday’s 144-126 home victory over the Chicago Bulls. The Cavs, now 1-0 in the NBA Cup, are more than halfway to their best start in NBA history, which belongs to the 2015-16 Golden State Warriors who won their first 24 games.
Friday’s final result was misleading. This was a four-point game with less than three minutes left, but the Cavaliers closed with a 21-7 burst to make it look much more lopsided on paper.
Cleveland’s 14 consecutive wins to open the season tie the 2002-03 Dallas Mavericks and the 1957-58 Boston Celtics for third place on the all-time list. The Cavaliers can match the second-best start in history, that of the 1993-94 Houston Rockets, who won the championship, if they can beat the Charlotte Hornets on Sunday for their 15th consecutive victory.
Cleveland beat Chicago without the services of Evan Mobley, who was out with an illness. It’s not a big deal. All his teammate Jarrett Allen did was add 24 points, 10 rebounds, three assists, three steals and two blocks on 11 of 15 shooting.
If we add to that a combined 66 points from Donovan Mitchell (37) and Darius Garland (29) with 11 of 20 triples, plus 22 points and four more triples from the bench for Caris LeVert and the Cavs, who shot 43 triples and connected them at a 48% pace, he had plenty of offense to go around.
Chicago was led by Coby White (29 points and six three-pointers) and Nikola Vucevic, who continued his splendid start to the season with 25 points on 11 of 16 shooting.
Brunson and Bridges save the Knicks
The New York Knicks are doing everything they can to stay afloat right now. The offense has been spectacular, the defense has been the complete opposite, and it has added up to a 6-6 record after Jalen Brunson scored a game-winning goal to defeat the Brooklyn Nets, 124-122, on Friday.
New York, which is tied with Orlando atop Group A of the NBA Cup East with a 2-0 record, didn’t make it easy. After leading by 21 in the final seconds of the third quarter, the Knicks managed just four points in the first four minutes of the fourth quarter. The drought allowed the Nets to rally, and the Knicks found themselves trailing by one point when they called a timeout with 11 seconds left in the game.
That’s when Brunson did his thing, isolating himself against Dorian Finney-Smith in the left corner, clearing space with a swing and rising for the go-ahead three-pointer.
The shot didn’t officially end it all, however, because the Nets, now trailing by two, still had six seconds to work with. It looked like Dennis Schroder was on his way to a game-tying layup as he ran back down the court and got behind Knicks forward Mikal Bridges with a clear path to the rim. But Bridges stayed within range and was able to block Schroder’s shot from behind to finish off Brooklyn.
Brunson and Bridges each finished with season-high scoring totals, Brunson with 37 and Bridges with 22. Bridges, who has shot lights from inside the arc this season but had yet to hit his 3-point shot (30% before on Friday). , made four of his seven 3-pointers, while Brunson finished 12 of 20 overall and 10 of 12 from the free throw line with 16 points in the fourth quarter.
De’Aaron Fox scores 60 in loss
Fox lit up the Timberwolves for the first 60-point game of the 2024-25 NBA season, which included a 20-point fourth-quarter barrage as the Kings, playing without DeMar DeRozan and Malik Monk, rallied from a deficit of 16 points. at the end of three to force overtime, where the Kings ultimately came up short against Minnesota, 130-126.
Interesting note here on the 60 point performances. from our Sam Quinn:
In the entire history of the NBA, only 25 teams have lost a game in which one of their players scored 60 points. However, five of those games have come in calendar year 2024 alone. Karl-Anthony Towns, Devin Booker, Stephen Curry and Jalen Brunson lost those games between January and March 2024. Brunson and Curry also did so in overtime.
LeBron gets another triple-double
It’s a career-high four straight trips for James, who finished with 15 points, 16 rebounds and 12 assists in the Lakers’ 120-115 victory over Victor Wembanyama and the San Antonio Spurs. This LeBron experiment with rushing points is working out pretty well.
Imagine that. One of the greatest passers and overall smartest players ever, the 6-foot-8 player who continues to possess incredible scoring leverage is an effective offensive orchestrator. Who would have thought? Maybe the Lakers didn’t need to look to Russell Westbrook to “take the playmaking burden” off of James’ shoulders. Never hesitate to put the ball in this guy’s hands. I don’t care how old he is.
The Lakers are 1-0 in the NBA Cup, tied atop the West Group with Oklahoma City (OKC, which defeated the Suns 99-83 on Friday, has the advantage by virtue of its plus differential). 16 points compared to the Lakers’ plus-16 points). five).
AD’s MVP season continues
Anthony Davis had 40 points and 12 rebounds on San Antonio. For the season, Davis is averaging 31.1 points, 10.9 rebounds and 2.1 blocks on…get this…56/42/80 shooting splits. Yes, Davis is hitting 42% (well, 41.7 if you want to get technical) of his three-pointers. He’s 10 of his last 14 from deep in his last five games!
Davis is simply an absolute beast on both sides and has to be near the top of any credible MVP discussion.
Harden ties Ray Allen for career three-pointers
With a step-back corner 3-pointer at the 2:21 mark of the first quarter, LA Clippers guard James Harden tied Ray Allen for second all-time with 2,973 career 3-pointers.
Somehow, Harden failed to score another the rest of the way as the Clippers fell to the Rockets, but it won’t be long before Harden ranks above every 3-point shooter in history not named Stephen Curry .
The warriors keep rolling
Are the Golden State Warriors really that good? With a win over Memphis on Friday, they moved to 10-2 on the season (2-0 in the NBA Cup, good enough for first place in Group C of the West). They didn’t even need a big game from Stephen Curry, who finished with just 13 points on nine shots. Curry had eight rebounds, five assists and four steals, and was a game-high plus-nine. His impact, even when he’s not scoring, is always elite.
Buddy Hield, who has been throwing flames all season, led the Warriors with 18 points and made 4 of 8 three-pointers. Golden State played 12 players for at least 11 minutes and no one over 30, and six guys scored in double figures. The depth of this team is unmatched in the entire league.
The 76ers are in the tank.
If you thought Paul George and Joel Embiid finally getting on the court would magically fix the mess the Philadelphia 76ers have had this season, think again.
The Sixers are now 0-2 with George and Embiid together in the lineup (and just 1-5 with George), with the most recent blowout coming at the hands of the Orlando Magic, 98-86, on Friday. The Sixers, now 2-10 overall, sit in last place in Group A of the East with an 0-2 record in the NBA Cup and a -24 point differential so far.
George and Embiid combined to miss 21 of their 30 shots and 11 of 14 3-pointers on Friday. Embiid was able to score 20 points because he made 10 free throws. Tyrese Maxey is out and the Sixers’ situation on the ground is still pretty sad.
Reminder of the NBA Cup format…
With the 30 teams divided into six groups of five teams, everyone will have played at least one game by the end of Friday. And with only four games in the group, there isn’t much room for error. Here is a summary of how the tournament works:
- The 30 NBA teams have been divided into six groups of five teams: three groups in the Eastern Conference and three groups in the Western Conference.
- Teams will play the other four teams in their group in a round-robin style on Tuesdays and Fridays between November 12 and December 3.
- Eight teams (the six group winners plus one wild card team from each conference) will advance to the knockout round. Ranking will be determined by overall record, head-to-head record, and point difference if a tiebreaker is needed (there are even more tiebreakers if necessary).
- The elimination round will be single elimination. The four East teams will be on one side of the draw, the four West teams will be on the other. The final between the East and West winners will take place on December 17 in Las Vegas.
The NBA Cup will continue on November 19 with six games, including the undefeated Cavs against the defending champion Celtics.
