News from December 15. The NBA named James Harden (Hou) and John Wall (Was) as Players of the Week for the week ending December 14. Harden averaged 34 points and 7.3 assists as Houston went 2-1. Wall averaged 18.3 points and 11.8 assists as Washington went 4-0. Sacramento fired head coach Michael Malone and named assistant coach Tyrone Corbin as interim coach. Josh McRoberts (Mia) has been diagnosed with a torn right meniscus that will require surgery (and may be out for the season). Robin Lopez (Por) suffered a broken right hand during Monday's Por-SA game. Philadelphia signed Furkan Aldemir. Boston activated Avery Bradley and placed Marcus Thornton (calf injury) on IL. Toronto activated Lucas Nogueira and placed Bruno Caboclo on IL. LAC 113, Det 91 at LAC Blake Griffin (LAC) had 18 points, 7 rebounds, and 7 assists. DeAndre Jordan (LAC) had 16 points including 7-9 FG and 15 rebounds including 8 offensive. Jordan Farmar (LAC) had 15 points and 5 assists. Andre Drummond (Det) had 18 points and 13 rebounds including 8 offensive. Jodie Meeks (Det) had 20 points. LAC shot 53.8% (43-80) FG and Det shot 42.2% (35-83) FG. Por 108, SA 95 at Por LaMarcus Aldridge (Por) had 23 points and 4 rebounds including 5 offensive. Damian Lillard (Por) had 23 points, 10 rebounds, and 6 assists. Wesley Matthews (Por) had 14 points and 3 steals. Kawhi Leonard (SA) had 21 points and 9 rebounds. Aron Baynes (SA) had 15 points and 9 rebounds. Tim Duncan (SA, rest), Manu Ginobili (SA, lower back bruise), and Tiago Splitter (SA, high calf injury) did not play. Mil 96, Pho 94 at Pho Brandon Knight (Mil) had 20 points, 7 rebounds, and 7 turnovers. Zaza Pachulia (Mil) had 13 points and 5 assists. Khris Middleton (Mil) had 14 points including the game winning 3-pointer at the buzzer. Markieff Morris (Pho) had 25 points including 9-13 FG, 7 rebounds, and 6 turnovers. Isaiah Thomas (Pho) had 20 points including 4-7 3-pointers. Damien Inglis (Mil, injured right ankle) did not play. Tor 95, Orl 82 at Tor Kyle Lowry (Tor) had 17 points including 4-6 3-pointers, 5 rebounds, and 8 assists. Patrick Patterson (Tor) had 10 points and 6 assists. Louis Williams (Tor) had 18 points. Tobias Harris (Orl) had 18 points and 6 rebounds. Ben Gordon (Orl) had 16 points on 7-11 FG. Tor out-scored Orl 51-30 in the 2nd half. Tor shot 10-15 FT and Orl shot 6-8 FT. Atl 93, Chi 86 at Atl Paul Millsap (Atl) had 17 points, 8 rebounds, and 4 steals. Al Horford (Atl) had 21 points, 10 rebounds, 6 assists, and 5 turnovers. Jeff Teague (Atl) had 12 points and 7 assists. Taj Gibson (Chi) had 15 points including 7-11 FG and 17 rebounds including 5 offensive. Jimmy Butler (Chi) had 22 points and 9 rebounds. Bos 105, Phi 87 at Phi Avery Bradley (Bos) had 15 points including 6-20 FG and 1-11 3-pointers. Jeff Green (Bos) had 14 points and 5 rebounds. Kelly Olynyk (Bos) had 30 points including 12-17 FG, 9 rebounds, and 3 steals. Nerlens Noel (Phi) had 19 points including 9-12 FG, 8 rebounds, and 3 steals. Michael Carter-Williams (Phi) had 13 points, 5 rebounds, 6 assists, and 5 turnovers. Bos out-scored Phi 57-38 in the 1st half. Ind 110, LAL 91 at Ind Rodney Stuckey (Ind) had 20 points including 8-10 FT, 10 rebounds, and 7 assists. C.J. Miles (Ind) had 20 points. Donald Sloan (Ind) had 17 points including 3-4 3-pointers and 6 rebounds. Kobe Bryant (LAL) had 21 points including 8-26 FG. Nick Young (LAL) had 18 points. Ind shot 48.2% (40-83) FG and LAL shot 33% (29-88) FG. Ian Mahinmi (Ind, torn left plantar fascia), Xavier Henry (LAL, torn left Achilles), and Ryan Kelly (LAL, torn right hamstring) did not play. Cle 97, Cha 88 at Cle LeBron James (Cle) had 27 points including 11-19 FG, 7 rebounds, 13 assists, 3 blocks, and 5 turnovers. Kevin Love (Cle) had 22 points including 4-9 3-pointers, 18 rebounds, 5 assists, and 4 steals. Kyrie Irving (Cle) had 16 points and 5 assists. Kemba Walker (Cha) had 24 points, 5 rebounds, and 5 assists. Al Jefferson (Cha) had 14 points and 8 rebounds. Schedule for Tuesday, December 16 (All times Central) Minnesota @ Washington 6:00 pm Miami @ Brooklyn 6:30 pm Golden State @ Memphis 7:00 pm Utah @ New Orleans 7:00 pm Dallas @ New York 7:00 pm ESPN Oklahoma City @ Sacramento 9:30 pm ESPN Schedule for Wednesday, December 17 (All times Central) Phoenix @ Charlotte 6:00 pm Atlanta @ Cleveland 6:00 pm Orlando @ Boston 6:30 pm Dallas @ Detroit 6:30 pm Utah @ Miami 6:30 pm Brooklyn @ Toronto 7:00 pm ESPN Memphis @ San Antonio 7:30 pm Milwaukee @ Portland 9:00 pm Indiana @ LA Clippers 9:30 pm Houston @ Denver 9:30 pm ESPN On the lighter side: During the 12/13/14 Golden State at Dallas game, Marreese Speights lost his shoe on Golden State's offensive end and it was kicked out of the way to near half court and he continued to play without the shoe. Golden State turned the ball over and Dallas missed on their end. As Stephen Curry brought the ball over half court, he bent down picked up the shoe and tossed it towards Speights (behind him) - BUT Tyson Chandler saw the in-air shoe and swatted it out of bounds! Play was stopped seconds later when Jae Crowder was called for a foul and Speights was able to put his shoe back on. A little bit of irony was that Dallas actually had no blocks (of shots) in the game. ---- Patricia Bender pbender@eskimo.com For Trianglons puzzles: http://www.trianglons.com For NBA stuff: http://www.eskimo.com/~pbender/index.html For Mavs stuff: http://www.eskimo.com/~pbender/mavs.html