A busy Sunday of preseason NBA basketball, that included the San Antonio Spurs presenting LaMarcus Aldridge to their fans in a win over the Detroit Pistons, the Cleveland Cavaliers with Kevin Love but without LeBron James losing again, this time to the Toronto Raptors, and the Oklahoma City Thunder firing on all cylinders with Kevin Durant and Russell Westbrook in a win over the Denver Nuggets.
Philadelphia 76ers 91 Brooklyn Nets 92: Brook Lopez looked great with 24 points and Thad Young added 15 points. For the Sixers, playing with both Nerlens Noel and Jahlil Okafor, the combination worked quite well. Noel scored 15 points, Okafor had 14.
Detroit Pistons 92 San Antonio Spurs 96: The Spurs gave their fans, finally, a look of the new team with LaMarcus Aldridge in it. Tony Parker wasn’t playing, but Kawhi Leonard was, scoring 21 points to lead the team, while Aldridge finished with 9 points on 4-of-14 from the field. Reggie Jackson led the Pistons with 20 points.
Minnesota Timberwolves 68 Memphis Grizzlies 90: The Griz are still perfect in the preseason Courtney Lee leading the way scoring 18 points, helped out by Tony Allen (13), Mike Conley and Marc Gasol, both with 12. The Timberwolves looked bad as Ricky Rubio returned but other key players (Nikola Pekovic, Tyus Jones, Kevin Martin) were out. Gorgui Dieng with 12 points led them in scoring.
Cleveland Cavaliers 81 Toronto Raptors 87: No LeBron James, but yet to Kevin Love, who scored 6 points while the Cavs still look for their first preseason win. Jonas Valanciunas led the Raptors with 12 points, Cory Joseph helped out off the bench with 11.
Miami Heat 101 Atlanta Hawks 92: No Hassan Whiteside or Justise Winslow for the Heat, but another great game from Gerald Green (19 points) and Tyler Ennis joining him (19 as well) did the job, while Chris Bosh scored 14. For the Hawks, it was Mike Scott leading with 19 of his own.
Denver Nuggets 98 Oklahoma City Thunder 111: The Thunder got plenty of scoring from all the guys they expect to step up. Kevin Durant with 23, followed by Serge Ibaka and Enes Kanter with 17 each, while Russell Westbrook and Dion Waiters each scored 17. Emmanuel Mudiay led the Nuggets with 22.
Utah Jazz 111 Portland Trail Blazers 116: The Blazers win in overtime with the duo that’s going to do most of the scoring for them this season. Damian Lillard had 32 points, aided by C.J. McCollum scoring 26. Trey Burke led the Jazz with 22 points, helped out by Joe Ingles with 16 and Rodney Hood scoring 15.