Luka and Kyrie make Mavs history with 40+ point efforts vs. Sixers

It must’ve had something to do with the home cooking on a 4-game night in the Association as home teams finished the night 4-0.

Over the entire season, home teams are 562-382 (.595) now and each conference’s record is nearly identical; the West is slightly ahead at 282-190 compared with the East’s 280-192.

Home teams didn’t struggle much on Thursday either; all but one winner won by double-digits and the only one that didn’t (Dallas) led by 19 going into the fourth. It’s nothing new you’re hearing, but here’s some solid betting advice: when in doubt, go with the home team.

Toronto’s final lead came at 11:34 in the second quarter as Washington outshot them from three 46.7% to 27.3%. Kyle Kuzma was solid with 30 points (10-24 FG), five rebounds, and five assists while Kristaps Porzingis added 25 points (8-12) of his own.

With the win, the Wizards close the gap with the Raptors for #9 in the East. They both have a tiny bit of room for error with making the play-in tournament with a game and a half ahead of Chicago at #11.

If nothing else is true, the Luka Doncic / Kyrie Irving pairing is working exquisitely on offense. In the win, Luka and Kyrie became the first Mavs teammates — and third pairing this season (De’Aaron Fox and Malik Monk, Donovan Mitchell and Caris LeVert) — to each have at least 40 in a game.

Coming into the game, Dallas was 1-4 in clutch games since adding Kyrie Irving. They entered the fourth up 19, but the Sixers came as close as within five points in the final minute. Tyrese Maxey did most of the damage in the comeback attempt, scoring 17 of his 29 points in the fourth.

With less than 20 games remaining, San Antonio has picked up their fourth double-digit win of the season. It was hardly in doubt too as they never trailed in the second half. Lottery rookie Jeremy Sochan was the main catalyst with a team-high 22 points on a career-high 26 shots. Spurs have now won three games in a row, matching their best win streak of the season, and are 3.0 games back of the top spot on Tankathon.

Per TNT’s Ernie Johnson on Inside the NBA, this is the first case in the shot clock era where in two games in a row a team has been down by 10+ at the half then won by 15+. It was never worse for the Clippers than a 49-13 run over the course of about 15 and a half second half minutes.

Jordan Poole led the way for the Warriors with 34 points (9-20 FG) while Klay Thompson and Jonathan Kuminga each added 19 more on seven made shots each. The win puts them just one game back of the #4 Suns in the West, but Phoenix holds the tiebreaker.

Russell Westbrook struggled mightily in his third game as a Clipper, finishing with just eight points (3-12 FG), zero rebounds, and six assists with four turnovers in 28 minutes. He’s also a combined -27 over the three games without a positive game yet.