NBA Game Notes (Dec. 5, 2023)
Here are the NBA game notes for games that were played on December 5, 2023.
Bucks Rout Knicks
The Milwaukee Bucks established a season high for points, routing the New York Knicks 146-122 to advance to the semifinals of the NBA’s inaugural In-Season Tournament. The Bucks will face the Indiana Pacers in Las Vegas on Thursday.
Giannis Antetokounmpo compiled team highs of 35 points, 10 assists, eight rebounds (tied), and three steals (tied) to power the Bucks. Antetokounmpo shot 15-22 from the field, but made just four of his nine free throw attempts.
Antetokounmpo became just the fourth player in the last 50 seasons to record at least 30 points and 10 assists with 65% shooting from the field in back-to-back games:
Otis Birdsong (Jan. 26 & 28, 1979)
Tony Parker (March 24 & 25, 2009)
Nikola Jokic (March 6 & 7, 2022)
Giannis Antetokounmpo (Dec. 2 & 5, 2023)
The second member of the Bucks’ dynamic duo, Damian Lillard, scored 28 points and dished out seven assists. Lillard shot 8-13 from the field — including 5-7 from 3-point range — and made seven of his eight free throws.
Lillard has scored at least 25 points in nine of his last 11 games. He’s averaging 27.7 PPG and 8.5 APG with 48/41/91 shooting splits over that span.
As a team, the Bucks shot 55-91 from the field and 23-38 from 3-point range, an effective field goal percentage of 73.1%. That’s the second-highest such figure in franchise history, trailing only the 74.0% they posted on Nov. 26, 2021.
The Knicks were led by Julius Randle, who scored a season-high 41 points with six rebounds and five assists. Randle made 14 of his 19 attempts from the field and went 11-12 from the free throw line.
Randle now has 10 career 40-point games with the Knicks. He’s the fifth player in franchise history to reach that mark:
30 — Patrick Ewing
23 — Bernard King
17 — Carmelo Anthony
14 — Richie Guerin
10 — Julius Randle
Jalen Brunson (24 points) and RJ Barrett (23) also had 20-point outings for the Knicks. Brunson added a team-high six assists, while Barrett led in rebounds with eight.
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Lakers Edge Suns
Thanks to a brilliant fourth quarter from the ageless LeBron James, the Los Angeles Lakers edged the Phoenix Suns 106-103 in an In-Season Tournament quarterfinal. The Lakers move on to Las Vegas, where they will meet the New Orleans Pelicans Thursday night.
The 38-year-old James scored 15 of his team-high 31 points in the final period. James also distributed a game-high 11 assists, grabbed eight rebounds, and recorded five steals.
Since the NBA began tracking steals in 1973-74, James is by far the oldest player to record at least 30 points, 10 assists, and five steals in a game. In fact, no other player is within five years of him.
Lakers center Anthony Davis scored 27 points and hauled in a game-high 15 rebounds, although he made just 10 of his 26 shots from the field. It’s the 88th time Davis has recorded at least 25 points and 15 rebounds in a game, seven more such games than any other active player.
The Suns’ Kevin Durant scored 31 points on 12-17 shooting from the floor to share game-high honors with James. Durant has scored at least 25 points in each of his last 18 games, the longest such streak in franchise history by seven games. It’s the second-longest streak of 25-point games in NBA history by a player age 35 years or older, trailing only a 23-game run by James.
Teammate Devin Booker scored 21 points and produced team highs of 11 rebounds and six assists. However, Booker misfired on 10 of his 16 field goal attempts and committed a game-high seven turnovers.
Booker scored his 13,000th career point on a free throw in the second quarter. He’s the 10th-youngest player in NBA history to reach that mark, and just the third player in franchise history to do so, joining Walter Davis and Alvan Adams.
The Suns’ Grayson Allen (21 points) and the Lakers’ Austin Reaves (20) also had 20-point outings. This was just the eighth game in NBA history in which at least six players recorded a 20-point game but no other players scored more than eight points. The last time it occurred was April 16, 1997 in a game between the Philadelphia 76ers and New Jersey Nets.