Basketball – NBA: The Utah Jazz stalls in Washington (121-112), the Boston Celtics continue in Detroit (108-117)

Certainly, Utah retains the lead in the West. But the Jazz saw, Saturday night in Washington, its pretty winning streak come to an end at five. Blame it on the overexcited Wizards (121-112) and carried by a Kristaps Porzingis of the big nights (31 points). The Boston Celtics, currently in full swing, added for their part a sixth success in a row, at the expense of the Detroit Pistons (108-117). Jayson Tatum, untenable this week, still scored 43 points (and took 10 rebounds) , enough to compensate for the combined absences of Jaylen Brown, Al Horford and Malcolm Brogdon.

Kevin Durant and the Brooklyn Nets beat the Los Angeles Clippers (95-110) and won their fourth victory in five games since the team’s other star, Kyrie Irving, was suspended for anti-Semitic remarks. Irving has already missed five games, but Nets coach Jacque Vaughn said before the game on Saturday that he won’t be back for Sunday’s clash against the Lakers: “We miss him and we have to get the points elsewhere, but the guys are doing the right thing as a group”he pointed out.

Durant in the footsteps of Jordan

Durant was excellent in all areas, scoring 27 points to add on six rebounds, three assists, two blocked fly balls and two stolen fly balls. And he was well helped by the reserve Seth Curry, author of 14 of his 22 points in the last quarter of a very lively game. At 34, Durant is the first player to start a season by 13 games in a row to more than 25 points since Michael Jordan (16) at the start of the 1988-89 season. His success also compensates for the repeated absences of Ben Simmons, who came off the bench to score a single basket.

At the Clippers, Paul George could only score 17 points, faced with the iron defense of the Nets, center Ivica Zubac 16 points (and 15 rebounds), Marcus Morris 13. The pressure on the Nets was maintained until to an 18-2 New Yorkers in the final minutes. In Dallas, Luka Doncic ended a two-game losing streak for the Mavericks this week and scored his third triple-double of the season (42 points, 13 rebounds and 10 assists) to defeat the Trail Blazers (117-112) .

LaMelo Ball, spoiled comeback

It is already the 49th triple-double for the young Slovenian star (23 years old) and the 4th with more than 40 points. The Blazers could not do anything, while they remained on three consecutive victories and were 2nd in the Western Conference. Deprived of their center Jusuf Nurkic, injured, they relied on Damian Lillard, author of 29 points and 12 assists, but that was not enough.

In Philadelphia, Joel Embiid did almost as well as Tatum: 42 points (and 10 rebounds) to allow the 76ers to beat the Hawks (121-109) and therefore take immediate revenge on Thursday’s loss to Atlanta (104-95 ). Finally, the Miami Heat spoiled the return of LaMelo Ball by beating the Charlotte Hornets (132-115). Ball had missed Charlotte’s first 13 games with a sprained ankle. He scored 15 points in 28 minutes on the floor but the Hornets could not do anything against the Heat of Max Strus (31 points).