Thompson & Warriors continue domination

The Golden State Warriors (42-4) cruised to their fifth straight victory, this time against the Dallas Mavericks, behind Klay Thompson’s 45 points and a “quiet” night from Steph Curry (14 points, nine assists), and we will wonder who will get the nod to the Western Conference All-Star reserves team to be announce tonight. Tunisian Salah Mejri started his third game in a row for Dallas, but spent just below 14 minutes on the floor and recorded two points and three rebounds. Meanwhile in Cleveland the Cavs got their groove back on a night they blew out the Suns at home. Cavs’ Tyronn Lue was chosen to coach the Eastern Conference team with Jahlil Okafor, Clint Capela and Emmanuel Mudiay selected to represent ties to Africa in the BBVA Rising Star Challenge at All-Star Weekend in February. With some games on the line again and star players put on the spot to deliver, this was yet another exciting night in the NBA.

Clippers win without Griffin: Blake Griffin did apologise yesterday and the Clippers (30-16) are trying to focus on the next opponent and remove any distraction. It was not easy in Atlanta (27-20), but it was the second game which they closed with a two-point margin and once again Cameroon’s Luc Mbah a Moute played its part in defending against the opponent’s last posession. After Indiana, it was the Hawks’ turn. Jamal Crawford had 21 points, Chris Paul added 11 points and 10 assists for the Clippers. Paul Millsap tried to tie the score going against Mbah a Moute, but missed his one hander close to the basket. It was the Clippers’ 14th win in 17 games!

Dieng shines in Wolves’ loss: Gorgui Dieng came out in the starting line-up at Power Forward for the Wolves (14-33) and along with Karl Anthony Towns (19 points, 13 rebounds), Zach LaVine (35 points) and Andrew Wiggins (20 points) kept Minnesota close against the Thunder (35-13). Dieng scored 21 points on 10-for-13 shooting and had six offensive rebounds. And even though the Wolves were outrebounded, it could have gone their way if not for Kevin Durant’s big shots in the last two minutes. Durant had 27 points and nine rebounds, Westbrook finished with 24 points, 15 assists and eight rebounds for the Thunder.

Spurs shrug off Golden State loss, dismantle Rockets: Led by LaMarcus Aldridge (25 points, 10 rebounds), the Spurs (39-7) came out blazing versus the Rockets (25-23) last night. They won each and every quarter and there was no way the score could have gone any other way. James Harden got 20 and Howard added 13 for Houston while Clint Capela played off the bench. Popovich refused to put a timeline on Tim Dunan’s come back “because they never work”.