Boston’s starting backcourt came up big, and Gerald Green added some much needed offense off the bench.

The last time Isaiah Thomas played the Grizzlies, he dropped a career high 44 points. He didn’t quite match that, but he still kept up his “Eastern Conference Player of the Week” form. He extended his 20-points-in-a-game streak to 16, the longest in the NBA this season. He wasn’t alone though, as Avery Bradley (23 points) and Gerald Green (19) posted some nice scoring numbers as well.

The Raptors started Monday’s game in Portland a little slow, sputtered a bit in the fourth quarter, but managed to come out of it with a 95-91 win over a short-handed Blazers team without starting point guard Damian Lillard to improve to 22-8 on the season and 11-3 on the road.

The Spurs won their fifth Christmas Day game (out of 11 in franchise history) and their first since 2008 (over the Phoenix Suns) as they took care of the Chicago Bulls on Sunday afternoon in the AT&T Center.

The two biggest stars on the team carried the bulk of the load for San Antonio as Kawhi Leonard and LaMarcus Aldridge had efficient nights while the team as a whole played well and shared the ball. The team finished with 30 assists on their 48 buckets.

The Nuggets beat a Clippers team on the road, which is huge, even without three of the Clippers stars suiting up.

In the wake of the holidays, the Denver Nuggets gave their fans something to cheer about with a 106-102 victory against the Los Angeles Clippers.

The Nuggets were gifted a late holiday gift today with news that in addition to Blake Griffin remaining sidelined after knee surgery, Chris Paul and J.J. Redick each sat out with hamstring injuries. The Clippers started Austin Rivers, Jamal Crawford, Luc Mbah a Moute, Wesley Johnson, and DeAndre Jordan, while the Nuggets came out with their normal five-man group.

The Cleveland Cavaliers won Christmas Day in a last-second fracas.

The Cleveland Cavaliers topped the Golden State Warriors 108-109 in a memorable Christmas Day rematch that featured old man Richard Jefferson having flashbacks to 2004, Stephen Curry bottled by aggressively physical defense, mental lapses on both sides, and a wild last two minutes.

The Warriors led for 40+ minutes of the game, including a double-digit lead in the early part of the fourth quarter built off the outstanding performance by Kevin Durant. 2016, however, is the year of the Cavalier comeback. The game served as a microcosm of the 2016 NBA Finals, replete with late-game heroics by Kyrie Irving and Draymond Green turnovers borne from senseless aggression.

Schröder fuels Atlanta’s comeback with another big performance.

Dennis Schröder came into this season as a bit of a question mark but he is quickly establishing himself as a go-to player for the Atlanta Hawks.

After a somewhat up and down start to the season, Schröder has put together one of the best months of his career in December. That was on display Friday night when he scored 12 of his 27 points in the fourth quarter to help Atlanta steal a road win in Denver.

Rockets are now 9-0 following a loss this season

Houston gave their fans a late Christmas gift as they defeated the Suns 131-115 on Monday night. The Rockets improved to 9-0 following a loss and have yet to lose consecutive games this season.

I was fortunate enough to go to this game and watching them live is something else. This team is so exciting to watch on TV, and they are twice as fun live. They definitely give their fans their money’s worth and the win is the cherry on top. If you have a chance to catch a game at Toyota Center this season, please take the opportunity.

There’s still some bitterness there, apparently

Game 30 @Portland: Spurs 110, Trail Blazers 90

Record: 24-6 1st in Southwest, 2nd in West Streak: W-1

Friday night’s game at Portland was unusual in several respects. For one, it was a meeting of two winning franchises in the ultra-rare occasion of them both being in grouchy moods.