Kristaps Porzingis rising

By Eurohoops team/ info@eurohoops.net

Kristaps Porzingis has his best game since his return from the ACL injury to lead the Dallas Mavericks back to wins. The Latvian big man scored a season-high 38 points on 10/20 shots and grabbed 12 rebounds as the Luka Doncic-less Mavericks beat the Indiana Pacers 112 – 103 on the road.

This performance came three days after Porzingis scored 35 in a 128 – 121 loss to the Houston Rockets.

Domantas Sabonis came one assist short of his third career triple-double by finishing with 26 points, 10 rebounds, and nine dimes. Porzingis wasn’t exactly happy with how the Lithuanian center played against him.

“I take a lot of pride in my defense and I feel like Sabonis made some good moves on me,” Porzingis said, per AP. “He got deep in the paint. I was a half-step late on a lot of those shots. I’m disappointed in that sense, but I’m glad we got the win.”

Maxi Kleber had five points and eight rebounds as a starter for the Mavericks.

Jonas Valanciunas posted a monster double-double of 26 points and 17 rebounds against Andre Drummond to lead the Memphis Grizzlies to a 96 – 82 win over the Detroit Pistons. Sekou Doumbouya faced a couple of struggles making a basket (six points, 2/15 shots) in the 26 minutes as a starter for Detroit.

In Sacramento, Bogdan Bogdanovic dropped 23 points on 4/5 3-pointers to help the Kings defeat the Minnesota Timberwolves 113 – 109. He also hit five key free throws in the last 70 seconds of the game.

Bogdanovic’s Serbian national team teammate Nemanja Bjelica added 12 points.

The Orlando Magic were coming off five defeats in a row in the match vs. the Charlotte Hornets. Enter Nikola Vucevic and his 22 points, seven rebounds and five assists that pushed his team to get a 112 – 100 win.

Evan Fournier contributed 17 points to Magic’s victory. Willy Hernangomez had eight points for Charlotte.

The Miami Heat crushed the Philadelphia 76ers 137 – 136 at home with Goran Dragic causing damage via points (24 points) and passing (six assists). Furkan Korkmaz scored 6 points for the Sixers.

The rest of Monday’s NBA results and Euro scorers:

Washington Wizards – Golden State Warriors 117 – 125 (Davis Bertans 19 points, Moe Wagner 9 points)

Cleveland Cavaliers – New York Knicks 134 – 139 (Cedi Osman 15 points, Frank Ntilikina 9 points)

Brooklyn Nets – Phoenix Suns 119 – 97 (Timothe Luwawu-Cabarrot 13 points, Rodions Kurucs 5 points, Ricky Rubio 8 points)

Atlanta Hawks – Boston Celtics 115 – 123 (Daniel Theis 9 points, Enes Kanter 8 points)

Los Angeles Clippers – San Antonio Spurs 108 – 105 (Ivica Zubac 9 points, Jakob Poetl 4 points)

Standings (via NBA.com)