Giannis and Jabari show up their southern rivals again with 62 combined points

So maybe it wasn’t a trouncing till the fourth quarter, but the Bucks eventually laid their third smackdown on the Chicago Bulls this season, 116-96. A near even first half split wide open in the second, as the Bucks’ terrific tandem twisted their way through Bulls’ defenders time and again.

The Phoenix Suns got a feel-good win over the Toronto Raptors while ALSO playing all of their rookies in the same game!

The Phoenix Suns and Toronto Raptors were both on the second game of a back-to-back. The Suns were more ready to play.

The Raptors just could not find the range and were down 14 points going into the 4th quarter before going on a big run - making their first 4 threes of the quarter - and even pulled within 5 points with 2:52 to play. They pulled to 5 points again within the final minute, going with four guards most of the 4th to get the Suns nervous.

Harrison Barnes shot well, but the shorthanded Mavs were no match for the Warriors. Led by Klay Thompson, the Warriors easily put away the Mavericks to end 2016.

In 2015, the Warriors went 72-12, the most wins in a calendar year in NBA history. With their win against the Mavericks on Friday, the Warriors went 72-12 once again, an amazingly dominant two-year run.

The Cavaliers survived a late push to top the Celtics.

The Cleveland Cavaliers beat the Boston Celtics 124-118 on TNT on Thursday night. The matchup pitted the heavy Eastern Conference favorites against one of the few teams with a hope of beating them. The Cavaliers stepped up to the challenge, bouncing back from the Monday loss to the Pistons. Kyrie Irving and Kevin Love lead the team to victory, each had a double double, but overall the Cavaliers put on a stellar offensive showing.

The exciting identity promised on day one of the Alvin Gentry era might finally be here.

Alvin Gentry moved Anthony Davis to the starting center position on Monday against the Dallas Mavericks. The New Orleans Pelicans scored 29 fast break points (!) en route to a big win against Chris Paul and the Los Angeles Clippers on Wednesday. Tonight, the home team added another 30 fast break points (!!), this time in a rather comfortable victory against the Knicks.

Miami loses their sixth straight road game thanks to Kemba Walker’s heroics.

Another game, another Miami Heat loss at the hands of a true go-to scorer. This time it was a 91-82 defeat to Kemba Walker and the Charlotte Hornets on Thursday night, marking their sixth consecutive road loss.

Harden’s 11th triple-double and Harrell’s career-high 29 lead the Rockets to their third straight

The Rockets scored their third win in a row as they routed the Clippers 140-116. It was Houston’s season-high in points and Houston is now 3.5 games into third place in the Western Conference behind Los Angeles.

The game started out with a full Rocket offensive blitz with 37 first-quarter points, and James Harden almost had a double-double in the first quarter alone, scoring 17 and grabbing 9 rebounds. The lead ballooned into the twenties before Clippers PG Austin Rivers was ejected in the second quarter.

NEW YORK -- The National Basketball Association (NBA) announced today that 10-time Grammy® Award-winning recording artist John Legend will headline the 66th NBA All-Star Game halftime show on Sunday, Feb. 19 at Smoothie King Center in New Orleans.  All-Star Game coverage begins at 8 p.m. ET on TNT, and the game and all NBA All-Star 2017 Entertainment Series Presented by JBL performances will be seen by fans in more than 200 countries and territories in more than 40 languages.