What a win.

At halftime, the Atlanta Hawks looked to be dead in the water. The Milwaukee Bucks finished the second quarter with a flurry to claim a 64-44 lead at the break and, with the way that Atlanta has been playing in the recent past, there was little reason for optimism. However, the Hawks made a heroic comeback down the stretch on the road and, in the end, it was enough to steal a four-point victory by the final score of 114-110.

Marc Gasol poured in 36 and Toney Douglas played hero late as the Grizzlies won another dramatic thriller.

Lineup Notes

Memphis continues to play with just 10 warm bodies, with Carter, Conley, Ennis, Parsons, and Wright all still inactive.

Game Story

After a rough 1-8 start, Portland soon found a rhythm led by C.J. McCollum’s 15 points on 5 shots. As the Grizzlies headed into the locker room down 7 at half, Fizdale stayed on the court just long enough to get T’d up for, you know, suggesting things to the officials.

The Mavs responded after their bad loss against the Kings to look impressive against a good Pacers team.

Well that was surprising. Just a couple days ago the Kings beat the Mavericks so bad Rick Carlisle had to have his first post-game film session in 15 years as a head coach. The loss dropped the Mavs back to the worst record in the league.

So a Pacers team that beat them earlier was a tall task but the Mavs responded. Dallas hung in and led at the half by two and then used a really good third quarter to take control of the game and eventually win 111-103 Friday night in Dallas.

All these Raptors want to do is entertain you. As they exhibited once again their their 124-110 win over the Wolves on Thursday night, the Raptors are still looking for cohesion on defense. Against the league’s top squads, Toronto’s inability to lock in has resulted in some narrow, high-scoring defeats. But against an energetic, freaky-athletic and utterly inexperienced team like Minnesota, sloppy play and shaky defense tends to breed ultimately harmless entertainment.

Because the Raptors have a still-historically efficient offense capable of posting 131.2 points per 100 possessions over the course of a game, Toronto tends to come out on top in these types of uproarious shootouts.

It wasn’t always pretty, but it counts in the win column just the same.

The Rockets overcame some fourth-quarter doldrums that were self-inflicted and some horrid calls by the officials down the stretch, and they also got 21 points, 9 rebounds and 12 assists from James Harden told hold off the Oklahoma City Thunder for a 102 - 99 victory and their fifth straight win.

Houston also got one heck of a gutsy performance from Patrick Beverley, who finished with only 3 points on 1-8 shooting, but also had 12 rebounds, 5 assists and 2 steals. In addition, he harassed Russell Westbrook into an 8-25 shooting night, and despite allowing Westbrook his seventh straight triple double, Beverley locked him down into a miss with some nasty defense with under 10 seconds remaining to help seal the Houston win.

It wasn't pretty but the Dubs used every bit of their roster to handle the short-handed Jazz

The Warriors headed into Utah on Thursday night to take on the junior-varsity version of the Jazz (without 4 out of 5 starters). They walked out with a victory after almost blowing a 25-point lead in the second half, looking exhausted after the tough back-to-back. Every Warrior who entered the game scored multiple baskets, including 5 players in double-figures. The Jazz were lead by Rudy Gobert (20 points, 17 rebounds) and the Aussie Bomber Joe Ingles (21 points, 5-9 from three).

The Bulls got back on track this evening with a solid win over one of the best teams in the NBA.

If you haven’t figured out yet that the Bulls are must-not-miss-television on Thursday night TNT games, then you are missing out.

The Chicago Bulls took down the San Antonio Spurs 95-91 at the United Center this evening, which marks the first road loss for the Spurs all season. Despite Jimmy Butler getting held to his first scoreless half of the season, the Bulls managed to get solid enough performances from the rest of their starters to crank out a victory in which the Bulls never trailed.

The Warriors blew the Clippers out, and they didn’t even shoot that well. It was a thorough domination.

The Clippers’ home game against the Warriors was a litmus test, a chance to prove they were a worthy playoff contender to the league’s most terrifying team, and they failed miserably. And while a 115-98 final score is awful, it actually could have been even worse.

Kevin Durant made his first three-pointer in the Warriors-Clippers game with 6:27 left in the third quarter. Durant and Stephen Curry had combined to miss 10 three-point attempts during the first 30 minutes of the game. When Durant’s shot finally swished in from 25 feet, the Warriors were already up by 24 points anyway.