The Memphis Grizzlies, who knocked out the Atlanta Hawks 128-103 on Monday night in the NBA, are firmly clinging to 2nd place in the Western Conference, while the Nets, winners in Washington of the Wizards (112-100), sign their fourth victory in a row and follow Cleveland (3rd) in the Eastern Conference standings.
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The Grizzlies, who did not seem affected by the absence of one of their leaders, Ja Morant, largely dominated the Hawks, with 22 points from Tyus Jones and a big game from Jaren Jackson, who scored only 15 points but had eight blocks.
In this exercise, he equals the record for a Grizzlies player.
Only until now the brothers Marc Gasol and Pau Gasol and Stromile Swift had achieved such a performance.
This figure illustrates the defensive efforts of the Grizzlies, who annihilated the attack of the Hawks, certainly deprived of its best trigger, Trae Young, injured in the back, who returned only 37 of their 104 shots (35.6% success ).
Memphis, where Ja Morant was absent due to muscle pain in the right thigh, won its sixth straight victory and consolidates its 2nd place in the Western Conference.
In the East, Kevin Durant treats
In the East, the Brooklyn Nets have secured a fourth straight victory in Washington, their eighth in their last nine games.
Their star Kevin Durant contributed 30 points, nine rebounds and six assists to this success (112-100).
After a bad start to the season that cost coach Steve Nash his place and then the Kyrie Irving affair, suspended for eight games in November for posting a link to an anti-Semitic film on social networks, the Nets are on a dynamic positive.
Fourth in the Eastern Conference, they come back at a gallop on the Cleveland Cavaliers, third.
"Today I liked the quality of play that we produced on both sides of the court most of the time," said Kevin Durant.
His training has indeed shown continuity, winning every quarter.
“We are building something.
We now have to fine-tune a few details,” added the double Olympic champion.
Los Angeles suffocates Boston
Nothing is going well with the Wizards, however, who have suffered their seventh consecutive defeat and are languishing in 12th place in the Eastern Conference.
Brooklyn now has Cleveland, still third but beaten by a breath in San Antonio (112-111), in focus.
Their strong reaction in a very suspenseful end of the match, when they were trailing by ten points 4 min 35 seconds from the buzzer, was not enough for Cleveland, who came to die one point behind Spurs, led by Josh Richardson who scored 24 points.
Evan Mobley, with a three-point shot, had put the Cavaliers in front with 38 seconds remaining.
But Donovan Mitchell then saw his shot blocked by Keldon Johnson, then Darius Garland missed a winning shot before Devin Vassell, off the bench, sealed the success of the Nets with a final basket.
The leader of this Eastern Conference, Boston, suffered the law in California from the Los Angeles Clippers, which left the Celtics at twenty lengths (113-93), with Paul George (26 points) and Kawhi Leonard (25 points, 9 rebounds , six assists) with the wand.
This is the second time this season that Boston has suffered two losses in a row, and the first time that it has scored less than 100 points.
Among the other matches of the evening, Portland managed the biggest score by beating Minnesota 133 to 112 with a twirling Damian Lillard, author of 38 points with a success percentage greater than 60% at two points and even higher (nearly 65%) at three points.
The good performance of French Rudy Gobert, who took 20 rebounds and scored 16 points, was not enough for the Timberwolves.