Raptors 113-99 Timberwolves
The Raptors win 113-99 over the Timberwolves. Williams scores 18 points Derozan scores 17 points. Wiggins scores 25 points, LaVine scores 22 for the Timberwolves. Coach Saunders:
They keep on wearing you down, You try to relax a little bit and you’re a half-step slower contesting on 3s and they’re making shots. That gets you into a whirlwind.
Ross:
When the ball’s moving, you can know that the ball’s going to find you. You just have to be ready. It’s always fun when the ball’s moving and you have an open shot.
Coach Dwane Casey:
We’ve got to have a defensive approach, a defensive identity with effort, with focus, each and every night we step out. Because in this league anybody can beat anybody.
Celtics 100-87 Pacers
The Celtics wins 100-87 against the Pacers. Olynyk scores 19 points, Turner scores a triple-double (13 points, 12 assists and 11 rebounds). Hill scores 21 points and Stuckey scores 16 points for the Pacers. Coach Stevens on Olynyk injuries:
He felt OK. It was more of a vision thing; how well could he see? He was saying he could see pretty well and the doctors felt pretty good about him playing. They stitched him up. I think it looked a little worse than it felt. I think that’s an obvious statement.
Olynyk on eye injuries:
When I first did it, I went in there and they told me I won’t be playing. Then when I went in to see the doctor, they wanted to dilate my eye, but your vision would be blurry. I told them not to, because I wanted to play. They sewed it up. I came back and wanted to give it a try.
Hill:
It’s very frustrating, Everything is on the line and we’re just blowing it away and giving it away.
Wizards 106-93 76ers
The Wizards beat the 76ers 106-93 76ers. Gortat scores a double-double (23 points and 14 rebounds), Beal scores 20 points and Wall scores 13 points and 15 assists. Smith scores 23 points and Canaan scores 18 points. Coach Wittman on Gortat’s performance:
Rolling to the basket instead of floating a little bit. That was really good because he’s got great hands, he can get to the basket. That was as good (a game) probably that he’s had from the standpoint of rolling out of there.
Gortat:
They were passing me the ball. I was doing the same thing I’m doing every single game.
Coach Brown on Wizard’s Performance:
And we got jumped. I think it’s a fantastic experience for our guys. We knew this was going to be the landscape. But it’s still hard to navigate.
Mavericks 135-131 Thunders
The Mavericks wbeat Thunder 135-131. Ellis scores 26 points, Chandler scores a double-double (14points,10 rebounds), Rondo scores 10 points and 10 assists. Westbrook scores a triple-double (31 points, 11 rebounds, 11 assists), Kanter scores a double-double (30 points and 16 rebounds) for the Thunder. Coach Carlisle:
It was a great basketball game. Every once in a while, you stand over there and you say, ‘This is an unbelievable game to be a part of,’ and it was. The extreme momentum swings back and forth – the shot making was breathtaking.
Kanter:
I think we just got beat on a lot of pick-and-rolls, and I think we just have to work on it.
Parsons:
Being patient and staying aggressive and just trying to make some big plays down the stretch for our team. We all know how important this game was. We needed this win in a bad way.
Nets 100-98 Knicks
The Nets wins 100-98 against the Knicks. Williams scores 26 points, seven rebounds, seven assists, Lopez scores 18 points. Bargani scores 22 points, Early scores 14 points for the Knicks. Williams:
We’re just finding ways to win ballgames. We start off great and have some lulls. Tonight we had two, but at the end we buckled down and did what we had to do to win.
Lopez:
D-Will got a good look. He was being aggressive like he had been all night. I was right there around the rim and just tried to keep it alive.
Smith:
It’s tough, but we kind of put ourselves in a hole earlier in the game, It wasn’t just that last play.
Warriors 110-106 Clippers
The Warriors wins 110-106 over the Clippers. Curry scores 27 points, Thompson scores 24 points, Lee scores 17 points. Griffin scores 40 points, Paul scores 27 for the Clippers. Paul says of Curry:
The man is tough. They run him off a ton of screens. Three of those shots I was in his chest and he still made them.
Curry:
I knew he was trailing and I thought I could make a move toward the basket and get some creativity in between,As soon as I saw him kind of go down, I knew I had to shoot it and just see what happened. You kind of get a little adrenaline rush because those are kind of cool moments. Thankfully, the shot went in. I didn’t see the bench’s reaction, but they said everybody was going crazy.
Thompson:
We weren’t playing that well but that’s what we’ve been doing all year: bouncing back.
Pistons 105-95 Hawks
The Pistons win 105-95 against the Hawks. Drummond scores 22 points and 13 rebounds, Tolliver scores 13 points and ten rebounds. Sefolosha scores 19 points, Horford scores 16 points. Coach Budenholzer:
We wanted to really give the starting group with Jeff (Teague), Kyle (Korver), DeMarre (Carroll) and Paul (Millsap) a lot of reps together and a lot of time together.
Jackson:
I was a little under the weather, and I felt it before the game, but I tried to give the guys everything I could.
Coach Van Gundy:
Joel is always ready to give us great defense and John hadn’t played in weeks, but when we needed him tonight, he was there to get us through the game. Caron and Tayshaun, too. This is just a great group of veterans working with a young core.
Nets 111-106 Pacers
The Nets beat the Pacers 111-106. Lopez has a double-double (24 points and 11 rebounds), Johnson scores 21 points. Hill scores 28 points for the Pacers. Coach Vogel:
We’ve got a game tomorrow night. There’s plenty of basketball still to be played.
Williams:
It’s just a mentality, I guess, sense of urgency. Realizing we have a chance to make these playoffs and we’re just trying to make a push.
Hill:
We’ve just got to bring it more and take away the loss and how bad it feels.
Spurs 95-81 Heat
The Spurs wins 95-81 over Heat. Leonard scores 22 points, nine rebounds and four steals, Parker scores 16 points and plays his 1,000 the NBA game, Duncan has a double-double (12 points, 11 rebounds). Dragic scores 19 points, Wade scores 15 points. Coach Popovich:
We played good D.
Parker:
When you see all of the names and obviously all of the history in the NBA, that’s pretty cool.
Coach Spoelstra:
He has a way of knocking it all sideways.
Celtics 116-104 Hornets
The Celtics beat the Hornets 116-104. Bradley scores 30 points, eight rebounds, Evan Turner scores 15 points. Walker scores 28 points and 12 assists for the Hornets. Coach Stevens:
Avery was terrific on both ends of the floor.
Turner:
Every game is important, so we came and toughed it out.
Walker:
I’m pretty disappointed, especially because we had to play catch-up throughout the whole game.
Hawks 101-88 Bucks
The Hawks win 101-88 against the Bucks. Caroll scores 23 points. Antetokounmpo scores 18 points for the Bucks. The Hawks has the number one seed in the East and plays an easy schedule and plans to stay healthy for the playoffs. Caroll:
We’re trying to get our mojo back, get our momentum back going to the playoffs.
Korver:
I’m so tired of wearing this mask. I can’t wait for it to be over.
Coach Kidd:
When you play against the best in the East, you have to compete.
Lakers 113-111 76ers
The Lakers wins 113-111 over the 76ers. Clarkson scores 26 points, Brown scores 20 points. Noel get his ninth double-double of the month (19 points, 14 rebounds), Canaan scores 18 points for the 76ers. Coach Scott:
He’s not afraid of the moment, You’ve got to like to that.
Clarkson:
I was trying to get myself in a good position to rebound the ball and Wayne got space to shoot it.
Coach Brown:
I’m at a stage personally where I have confidence that he’s going to step up and not be intimidated by the moment.
Rockets 99-91Wizards
The Rockets win 99-91 against the Wizards. Harden scores 24 points, Howard scores 11 points and 10 rebounds. Wall scores 25 points, 12 assists and eight rebounds for the Wizards. Wall:
We show a sense of urgency one game, and another game, we take it off. To be where we want to be and go as far as we did last year, we have to turn it around or … we’ll be done quick.
Coach McHale:
It’s nice to win the games, but it would be really nice to get healthy. That’s our biggest thing.
Howard:
I was surprised he got up there. He’s not known for blocking shots.
Thunder 109-97 Suns
The Thunder wins 109-97 over the Suns. Russell Westbrook scores 33 points, nine rebounds and seven assists, Steve Adams scores 13 points and 16 rebounds. Markieff Morris scores 24 points, T.J. Warren scores 18 points for the Suns. Coach Hornacheck:
I told the guys, this is mathematically not over.
Westbrook:
It was a huge game, and we played with a playoff mindset.
Morris:
This is a tough blow.
Coach Brooks:
What changed was we went out there and played a scrappy brand of basketball.
Hornets 115-100 Hawks
The Hornets win 115-100 aginst the Hawks. Walker scores 21 points, Williams scores 18 points. Bazemore scores a career-high 20 points, Muscala scores 18 points and 10 rebounds for the Hawks. Coach Budenholzer:
Defensively was where there was the most slippage, but they played the way we want to play and did a lot of things.
Bazenmore:
I did get some pull-up jumpers to go down and shot some 3s.
Coach Clifford:
Obviously we caught a break with them resting their guys.
Pistons 111-97 Magic
The Pistons win 111-97 over Magic. Jackson scores a triple-double ( 26 points, 11 rebounds, 10 assists) for the team. Harris score 21 points for the Magic. Coach Van Gundy:
Reggie sort of had a tough start, but he started to attack (in the third quarter) and that really gets him going. When he’s playing laterally, east and west, he’s not as good. When he’s on the attack, he’s really good.
Lakers 101 – 99 Wolves
The Lakers win 101-99 Wolves in overtime. Clarkson takes 20 points and two steals.
I think I took a few steps back. I didn’t take care of the ball well, held the ball a little too much on the offensive end. I’ve just got to keep growing, man, go back and watch the film, learn from it
Rockets 95 – 93 Pelicans
The Rockets wins 95-93 Pelicans. Harden has 25 points and 10 assists. Howard had seven rebounds and a block on Anthony Davis. Howard:
We came back from a big deficit and the one thing I kept telling the fellas was, we’ve got to stop playing around with the game. We’re on a big mission to win a championship, and we’ve got to wake up and play. I felt pretty good. It seemed like as soon as I got out there it was time to sit back down, so it was kind of an adjustment. I’m just happy to be back out there playing. The main thing for me is just really helping the team on the defensive end. The other stuff will come.
Cavaliers 111 – 89 Grizzlies
The Cavaliers wins 111-89 Grizzlies. Love has 20 points and 10 rebounds, James scores 20 points. Coach Blatt:
We came to play. We were focused on having a defensive presence in the first quarter, and I thought we had that right from the get go
Love:
Everyone really stepped up in the third quarter. So it was really, really good basketball.
James:
We obviously know how great they are defensively, especially in this building. For us to move the ball and share the ball like we did in the facet that we did was very impressive.
Spurs 130 – 91 Thunder
The Spurs win 130-91 The Thunder. Parker gets 21 points and six assists. Coach Popovich:
I think in general we played the way that we have to play to win a basketball game.