BBNBA: Keldon Johnson scores 20 in huge win over Bucks

Welcome to a fairly light recap of yesterday’s NBA action. Let’s get down to it.

RECAP

No need for multiple headlines today, we’ll just run through the small handful of guys who saw the court last night. Starting with Keldon Johnson.

Johnson’s Spurs were in a standings free fall last week and were dropping into dangerous territory, barely holding onto the 10-seed in the West (the last play-in spot). Last night they picked up a major win over the Milwaukee Bucks.

They kicked some deer tail, winning 146-125 with Keldon contributing 20 points and 7 rebounds on 6-9 shooting from the field. It’s an odd stat, but in the last week, San Antonio went 2-3 with Johnson scoring 6 in each loss and averaging 18 in the two wins. Seems like when he plays well, the Spurs win.

The two teams sandwiching San Antonio in the standings, Memphis and New Orleans, played a close one yesterday. New Orleans was threatening the 10-spot last week, but now they’ve lost two of three and San Antonio is comfortably ahead.

In a losing effort, Eric Bledsoe scored 11 and recorded 5 assists and 5 rebounds. The other UK Pelican, Wenyen Gabriel had his third-highest scoring game of the year. Don’t get excited though, he only finished with 8 and a pair of made threes. Still, it’s nice to see a guy like Wenyen — who nobody imagined would make the league — find a way to stick on several different teams over the past few seasons.

Elsewhere, Enes Kanter finished with 6 and 10 as the Trail Blazers won 140-129 over Houston. The only other Cat who got playing time yesterday was Mychal Mulder.

He’s seen a spike in his playing time and production recently. Mulder has played 19 minutes or more in nine of Golden State’s last ten games after only playing 19 in one other game this season; and during that stretch, he’s had 26 and 25-point performances.

This isn’t garbage time production. A lot of teams have had nobodies go for 25 or 30 points in the final week or so of the season (or all year in Houston), but the Warriors have playoff position to fight for and a Stephen Curry that’s scoring obscenely. Mulder is cracking further into the Dubs rotation and is in line to see his first playoff minutes in the coming weeks.

That’s all we got for today, so check out the boxscore:

[table id=780 /]

TODAY IN THE NBA

7:00: Nuggets @ Hornets (Monk, Washington, Richards)

7:00: Timberwolves (Towns) @ Pistons (Diallo)

7:30: Heat (Herro, Adebayo) @ Celtics

7:30: Clippers (Patterson, Rondo, Cousins) @ Raptors

8:00: 76ers (Maxey) @ Pacers

8:00: Nets @ Bulls

8:00: Mavericks (Cauley-Stein) @ Grizzlies

9:00: Magic @ Bucks

10:00: Suns (Booker) @ Warriors (Mulder)

10:00: Thunder @ Kings

10:00: Knicks (Randle, Quickley, Noel, Knox) @ Lakers (Davis)