Bogdan Bogdanovic had one of the top performances of his NBA career by notching season-highs 25 points plus 10 assists off the bench to lead the D’Aaron Fox-less Sacramento Kings to a 107 – 99 win over the Portland Trail Blazers.
It was the best game of 2019-2020 so far for fellow Serbian player Nemanja Bjelica as well since he contributed season-highs 19 points and 12 rebounds to push Sacramento towards gettiing their fourth victory in five games.
“He needed this kind of game,” Bjelica said on Bogdanovic. “He was feeling good. He made the right decisions in the second half and was doing his stuff.”
Mario Hezonja finished with two points, three rebounds and two assists for the Blazers that are now 4-7 after suffering their fifth defeat in the last six games.
The Indiana Pacers extended their winning streak to 4-0 by defeating the Oklahoma City Thunder 111 – 85 with Domantas Sabonis finishing with a double-double of 18 points and 16 rebounds, seven of them on offense.
Sabonis was also +27 in +/- as the Pacers improved to 7-4. Danilo Gallinari scored 14 points for the Thunder.
Rudy Gobert had a spotless game of 18 points on 8/10 shots plus 15 rebounds as the Utah Jazz got their fourth straight win by downing the Brooklyn Nets. The French center also scored consecutive baskets in crunch time, including the go-ahead dunk for the 116 – 114 with 55 seconds to play.
Bojan Bogdanovic added 12 points (5/13 shots) for the Jazz. From Brooklyn, Dzanan Musa finished with nine points on 5/6 from the field in 15 minutes off the bench.
In Miami, Goran Dragic helped the Heat defeat the Detroit Pistons 117 – 108 with his 18 points and six assists. Svi Mykhailiuk played six minutes and scored six points for the Pistons.
Alex Len had season-highs 17 points and seven rebounds as the Atlanta Hawks beat the Denver Nuggets 125 – 121. Nikola Jokic had a couple of shooting struggles (1/8 3-pointers) en route to finishing with 20 points and seven assists.
Furkan Korkmaz was the one to celebrate the win in the match of the Philadelphia 76ers against the Cleveland Cavaliers and his Turkish national team teammate Cedi Osman. Korkmaz scored 10 points as a starter in the Sixers‘ 98 – 97 victory over the Cavs. Osman finished with four points.
The Los Angeles Lakers were too much for the Phoenix Suns that lost 123 – 115 despite some fine performances by Ricky Rubio (21 points and 10 assists for his fourth season double-double) plus Dario Saric (18 points, seven rebounds).
The rest of Tuesday’s (12/11) results and European scorers:
Chicago Bulls – New York Knicks 120 – 112 (Lauri Markkanen 13 points, eight rebounds – Tomas Satoransky five points, Frank Ntilikina three points, four assists)
