Comeback season in the NBA, and 10 other things from Thursday night in the NBA

This was comeback night at its finest in the NBA.

There were spectacular performances everywhere you looked. The Rockets blew a 26-point lead to the Celtics in a half. The 76ers blew a 13-point lead in the fourth quarter to the Trail Blazers. And I probably blew a muscle jumping up and down from all the excitement.

No lead is safe in the NBA anymore. Teams hit too many threes. Defenses are too smart. There’s too much variance in the open court. Basketball is just so much fun.

This ain’t your Dad’s NBA. It’s probably not even your older cousin’s NBA. The league has changed; everything moves so fast. You’ve legitimately got to be up 30 to have a safe lead in this NBA and that’s insane. It’s complete chaos, and we love it.

The Celtics should’ve lost on Thursday, but they pulled through for a win against Houston somehow. Still, it’s fair to wonder how long the Celtics can keep this up — even they’re wondering. Especially when Kyrie Irving is talking like a man who’s gassed:

The Celtics will play again on Sunday but will have four games in a week. Then they’ll have a huge break between Jan. 6 and Jan. 11 when they play in London. They’ll be fine, but it’s fair to wonder what fine looks like when they come out of this rut.

James Harden wasn’t happy with the officiating during the game on Thursday night. There were only two officials available on Thursday night because Mark Lindsay was out with a bad back:

And Harden was having none of it:

Oop. Tell us how you feel, James.

For what it’s worth, the Rockets had 23 fouls and the Celtics had 22. Harden made only seven shots but made it to the free-throw line 15 times.

¯\_(ツ)_/¯

What kind of cheat code? The type that makes eurostep dunks happen:

At least he was kind enough to step around everyone before he put them in his poster. That Giannis — what a nice guy.

Napier dropped a career high 23 points and dropped some absolutely incredible dimes in place of Damian Lillard, who missed his third game in a row.

Bazz was outchea doing things like this:

That gave me flashbacks to his UConn days. It’s great to see an unsung role player shine like that in a comeback victory. He was everything the Trail Blazers needed and more last night.

It’s good to see them get another win at home finally. They’d lost six straight home games prior to Thursday night’s and were struggling without Lillard. They really needed this win and earned it with defense. They held the 76ers to just four field goals and eight turnovers in the fourth quarter to close things out.

Magic 102, Pistons 89 (Detroit Bad Boys recap | Orlando Pinstripe Post recap)

Celtics 99, Rockets 98 (The Dream Shake recap | Celtics Blog recap)

Bucks 102, Timberwolves 96 (Canis Hoopus recap | Brewhoop recap)

Spurs 119, Knicks 107 (Posting and Toasting recap | Pounding the Rock recap)

Trail Blazers 114, 76ers 110 (Liberty Ballers recap | Blazers Edge recap)