After his most recent game came under scrutiny earlier this week, the Timberwolves forward Julius Randle responded with consecutive 20/8/8 wins over the Dallas Mavericks and Houston Rockets.

On Friday night, Randle scored 27 points, eight rebounds and eight assists in a thrilling 113-112 win over the Houston Rockets. His teammate Anthony Edwards hit a three-pointer with 23 seconds left to complete his 16-point comeback in the second half of the fourth quarter.

Randle, who shot just 39% from the field (22-56) in Minnesota’s four games from Dec. 15-15. The 22-year-old was a victim on NBA Twitter of Timberwolves fans who are still upset about it Karl Anthony cities Trading in the off-season.

However, due to a three-time NBA All-Star appearance in the last two games, the Timberwolves are 2-0 and have improved to 16-14 overall. Minnesota is currently in 8th place in the Western Conference.

On the other side of the ball, however Reed Sheppard continues to struggle in his rookie season. Sheppard, who was selected with the No. 3 overall pick in the 2024 NBA Draft, failed to score a point in four minutes of play. In 29 games this season, Sheppard is averaging just 3.4 PTS (29th among rookies), 1.2 AST (T-18 among rookies), and 1.3 REB (34th among rookies).

Jamal Murray scores 27 points in loss to Cleveland Cavaliers

The Denver Nuggets were good on Friday night, but the Cleveland Cavaliers were even better.

Jamal Murray (27 points and 11 assists) and Nikola Jokic (27 points, 14 rebounds and 13 assists) weren’t enough to defeat the Cavs, who held off the Nuggets 149-135. Denver, which started the season as one of the favorites to win the Western Conference, is now 16-13 overall and in seventh place in the Western Conference.

In his last five games, Murray averaged 23.8 PTS and 7.4 AST. During that span, however, the Nuggets are only 2-3 with wins over the weaker New Orleans Pelicans and Portland Trail Blazers.

Additional BBNBA Notes:

• The Karl Anthony cities The New York experiment continues to be a success as KAT posted 16 points and eight rebounds in a dominant 108-85 win over the Orlando Magic on Friday night. KAT is currently fifth on BasketballReference.com’s NBA MVP Award Tracker.
• Keldon Johnson and the San Antonio Spurs defeated the Brooklyn Nets 96-87, improving to 16-15 and just over .500. Johnson scored 15 points and grabbed six rebounds in the win.
• Surprise, surprise, the New Orleans Pelicans lost. Again. Brandon Boston Jr. He contributed seven points with 3-4 shooting off the bench, but New Orleans lost to Memphis 132-124. The Pelicans have now lost 18 of their last 19 games.
• Friday evening became fight night for PJ Washingtonwho was ejected with 9:02 left in the third quarter following a scuffle between Phoenix’s Jusuf Nurkic and Dallas’ Naji Marshall. Washington scored just seven points in 20 minutes of play.

12/27/2024 BBNBA statistics: