NBA schedule and results: Spurs prevail in showdown with Cavaliers

The Cavaliers won just one quarter, the first one, but they won it big, holding a 32-20 lead after the opening 12-minute salvos were exchanged. After that, San Antonio turned the game into a steady grind, slowing climbing back into the action before finally charging ahead with a strong push to begin the final frame. After that, they didn’t give up the lead again.

So yeah, if I’m the Pistons, that’s at least a sore wound. Really a buzzkill way to lose a game. And then on Thursday, Memphis saw that, pulled up in a fire truck and hosed down the wound with hydrogen peroxide with this finish right here.

Kobe Bryant has had a lot of injuries in the last few years of his career. That point can’t be argued. Whether or not he deserved to be put down because of them, well Jerry West has some thoughts.

Okay, so technically Jerry West didn’t say he would euthanize Kobe Bryant but he didn’t not say it either. Basically, Jerry West thinks Kobe should have been put down at some point, he was just too scared to fully admit it.

A big fourth quarter by the Utah Jazz had them tied with the Kings with just a few seconds remaining. Then Rudy Gay happened.

Gay finished the evening with 24 points, obviously none more important than the last two. The win for the Kings pulled them within a game of the 8th-place Jazz, and within a game of a playoff spot. Pretty big road win for a Kings team with enough talent to be dangerous.

Instead, Parker scored 24 points on Thursday, showing his typical array of dazzling finishes and lightning-bolt drives that has made him such a sensational player over the years. Although he’s playing the fewest minutes of his career, Parker is shooting 53 percent and nailing 45 percent of his shots behind the arc, all while averaging more than five assists. On a stacked Spurs team, that’s all San Antonio needs him to do.

Plus, he had another classic interview with Craig Sager:

The Grizzlies beat the Pistons earlier this season on a last-second buzzer beater. Thursday night, they did it again.

Oh man, what a brutal finish. The Pistons had managed to strip Mario Chalmers on his initial shot attempt, but he was able to get his hands on the ball and lob the game winner up and in. Let’s check in on Pistons fans:

Free throws aren’t as easy as the name implies, but this is pretty brutal.

Tristan Thompson is a career 63 percent free throw shooter. This shot alone should lower that to like 40% somehow. I don’t know how math works, but it seems well-deserved.

Joakim Noah is a professional basketball player. This is not a professional basketball jump shot.

That was roughly two seconds of spotting up to not only miss short and to the left, but to miss THE WHOLE FREAKING BASKET short and to the left. The technical basketball term for this is “good lord that was terrible.”

Being a sports fan is fun sometimes! Usually it’s the worst thing that can ever happen to you.

The Chicago Bulls spent the better part of the first half getting their butts kicked by the notedly bad Philadelphia 76ers, and this kid cannot take it. I’m glad they cut the camera away from him, because he was definitely about to start crying.

You wouldn’t expect Toronto’s Patrick Patterson to make a play like this. He’d blocked just 12 shots this season through 39 games and isn’t known as an athletic high-flyer.

But that’s exactly how he was able to lure Victor Oladipo into a false sense of security and then erase his dunk attempt during the NBA’s annual London game. Be careful when attacking the basket against Patrick Patterson.

January is typically a quiet time in the NBA. It’s the period between the unofficial start of the season on Christmas and the crazy, unpredictable stretch that leads up to the trade deadline in February. This year, however, January will offer fans the three biggest games of the regular season.

Yet all three haven’t really been tested against elite opposition. That will soon change.