NBA Scores: Western Conference star guards battle for supremacy

As is the case with your run-of-the-mill regular season Wednesday in the NBA, the action was spread far and wide, featuring cream of the crop stars and some blockbuster team matchups. Steph Curry and Shai Gilgeous-Alexander shined brightest individually, but only one was able to come away with the win.

This one was all knotted up going into the fourth, but Rookie of the Year candidate favorite Bennedict Mathurin opened the frame on a 10-4 run by himself (with LaMelo Ball scoring all four of Charlotte’s points). The Hornets only led once from then on out at 104-102 just inside of six minutes remaining.

Speaking of LaMelo, he finished with a season-high 26 points (10-17 FG) in his third game since returning from a sprained left ankle. He rolled the same ankle late in this game when he stepped on a fan’s foot courtside and left the game.

Only two ties (0-0 and 4-4) and zero Orlando leads in this one. Ant Man nearly outscored the Magic by himself in the first quarter, 19-24. That’s also more in one quarter than all but two Magic players finished with.

Over on that end, the Bol Bol agenda is thriving with 26 points, 12 rebounds, and 3 blocks, but is maybe too good of a tank commander for his own good, finishing -22 in 35 minutes.

If you say “SGA top 10” three times in the mirror, an OKC-owned Twitter account will appear saying “top 5.” And at this point, they might be right. He’s now scored 30+ in 10 out of 14 games, including the game-winner in this one, finishing with 42 on 21 (!!!) shots.

Joe Mazzulla has these boys in green defending their freakin’ tails off. They were top 10 in defensive efficiency coming into the game during their 7-game win streak that’s now 8, and this game will only help that column. Nothing says elite defense like holding the Hawks (6th in pace) to just 101 points.

The three-point discrepancy was quite eye-opening as well. Boston literally made three times as many on much better efficiency — 21-46 (45.7%) to 7-32 (21.9%). Also impressed by the Celtics getting seven different guys to score 14+ each.

It can’t be overstated how incredibly Raptors this game was. From a 32 & 10 night for Anunoby to 19/6/6 from Scottie to a starting point guard that’s 6-8 to shooting 7-26 from three and still winning. And doing all that without MVP candidate Pascal Siakam! Toronto was just incredibly on brand on their way to their 9th win.

Miami was too, with six players scoring at least 13. Maybe a seventh would’ve made the difference!

Down by as much as 10 with 8:44 remaining, 8 fourth quarter points from each of Julius Randle (finished with 34/11/4 and 4 steals) and Jalen Brunson (21/5/7). Denver ran out of steam down the stretch sans the back-to-back defending MVP, Nikola Jokic, shooting 7-21 in the fourth and 2-12 from deep.

Remember the point about Shai getting his 10th 30-point game? Steph did the same, but it only took him one half to get there (31 on 10-13). He finished with 50/9/6 on 17-28 shooting, but was ultimately overpowered by Phoenix, whom Zach Lowe described as a “machine” in pre-game.

Led by Booker (27p, 9a, 3b), Payne (career-high 29p, 7a), and Bridges (23p, 9r, career-high 9a), Phoenix shot 21-40 (52.5%) from deep and looked like one of the league’s prime contenders, even without CP3, Cam Johnson, and “the roster spot formerly known as Jae Crowder”.