BY AGENCE FRANCE-PRESSE
LOS ANGELES (AFP) — Donovan Mitchell lit up Paris, scoring 45 points to lead the Cleveland Cavaliers to a 111-102 victory over the Brooklyn Nets as the NBA returned to France on Thursday, Jan. 11.
The Cavs’ victory was just one dominant performance on a day that saw the Milwaukee Bucks rout the league-leading Boston Celtics 135-102 and the Oklahoma City Thunder crush the Portland Trail Blazers 139-77.
Mitchell, a four-time NBA All-Star, added six assists and four steals and said he loved his Paris experience — and would like to repeat it at the Olympic Games later this year.
“Definitely I’d love to come back and play in the Olympics,” Mitchell said. “This is a very electric basketball city. Just being able to see this experience, to be a part of it and do it with the NBA, do it with my teammates — incredible.
“I’ve had a lot of fun and I’m glad we got the win as well.”
Cavs coach J.B. Bickerstaff said Mitchell’s aggressive approach “set the tone for everybody” on the team.
“I thought Donovan was phenomenal at giving the audience and us what they came to see and what we needed to win the game,” Bickerstaff said.
Mikal Bridges and Cam Thomas scored 26 points apiece for Brooklyn, but the Nets offered little resistance in a game Cleveland led from start to finish.
Back home the Bucks were even more dominant, demolishing the Celtics in Milwaukee.
Reserve Bobby Portis and two-time NBA Most Valuable Player Giannis Antetokounmpo both had double-doubles for the Bucks, Portis scoring 28 and Antetokounmpo 24 and both grabbing 12 rebounds.
Portis and Antetokounmpo combined to score 20 straight points as the Bucks put together a 25-0 scoring run bridging the first and second quarters that pushed their lead to 56-23.
Damian Lillard added 21 points to help the Bucks notch just their second win in six games.
One night after a draining overtime victory over the Minnesota Timberwolves in a battle of the league’s best teams, the Celtics started slow and never recovered.
A dunk from Boston’s Oshae Brissett cut Milwaukee’s lead to 31-21 with 2:14 left in the first quarter.
But the Celtics wouldn’t score again for more than six minutes, Jaylen Brown ending the drought with a dunk.
Boston coach Joe Mazzulla pulled his weary starters for the second half, Brown finishing the night with 10 points and Jayson Tatum with seven.
Payton Pritchard led Boston in scoring with 21 points.
“I think we did a good job just playing together,” Antetokounmpo said of a Bucks team that had lost four of their last five. “We were aggressive defensively. We set the tone the first minute.”
Celtics coach Joe Mazzulla said he was confident the game was an anomaly.
“I trust our character, I trust our team,” Mazzulla said. “Things like this happen.”
– Thunder roll –
The trend of lopsided victories continued in Oklahoma City, where the Thunder’s 62-point margin of victory tied for the fifth-largest in NBA history.
The Thunder themselves suffered the biggest loss ever in the NBA, a 73-point loss to Memphis in December of 2021.
Shai Gilgeous-Alexander scored 31 points and Jalen Williams added 21 for the Thunder, who were already up by 62 going into the fourth quarter.
Josh Giddey notched a triple-double of 13 points, 10 rebounds and 12 assists for the Thunder, who matched Minnesota for best record in the Western Conference at 26-11.
It was another rout in Los Angeles, where Bradley Beal scored 37 points and Devin Booker added 31 to lead the Phoenix Suns to a 127-109 victory over the Lakers.
Superstar LeBron James scored just 10 points and Anthony Davis added 13 for the Lakers, whose starters sat out the fourth quarter with the game out of hand.
In Dallas, Kyrie Irving scored 44 points and handed out 10 assists to lead the Mavericks in a 128-124 wire-to-wire victory over the New York Knicks.
Dallas, with star Luka Doncic sidelined with a sprained ankle, led by 20 early in the fourth quarter, fending off a furious rally by the Knicks who cut the deficit to one with 1:08 to play.
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