Memphis Grizzlies have fallen to a 123-109 defeat to the shorthanded Golden State Warriors as part of the NBA's slate of Christmas Day (local time) games.
In a rematch of last season's Western Conference Finals, the Grizzlies' Kiwi centre Steven Adams put on a dominant performance on the glass, pulling down a game-high 14 rebounds, including seven on the offensive end, adding six points and a block.
But it wasn't enough to stave off a scoring explosion from Warriors guard Jordan Poole, who bombed in a team-high 32 points before getting ejected
Playing without Stephen Curry and Andrew Wiggins, the Warriors still managed to outscore the Grizzlies 54-27 from three-point range en route to their 13th home win in 15 attempts this season.
Ja Morant led all scorers with 36 points for Memphis, which played most of the night without Jaren Jackson Jr. (21 minutes) and Dillon Brooks (30 minutes), both of whom fought foul trouble.
The Warriors won for just the third time in 10 games. The Grizzlies finished a nine-day road trip with a 1-3 mark.
Earlier Jayson Tatum posted his fifth straight 30-point game, leading the Boston Celtics with 41 en route to a 139-118 win over the visiting Milwaukee Bucks.
Tatum and Jaylen Brown (29 points) combined for 70 points in a game for the eighth time in their careers. Tatum added seven rebounds, five assists and three steals as Boston won back-to-back games.
Derrick White, Grant Williams and Al Horford also scored in double figures, helping Boston shoot 19 of 39 from 3-point range.
Luka Doncic scored 32 points, grabbed nine rebounds and dished out nine assists, and the Dallas Mavericks outscored the visiting Los Angeles Lakers by 30 points in the third quarter to take control in a 124-115 win
The Lakers held a 54-43 lead at halftime behind LeBron James' strong start, but gave up a season-high 51 points to the Mavericks in a pivotal third quarter. James went on to finish with 38 points, six rebounds and five assists.
Dallas' 51-21 eruption in the stanza flipped what had been a Los Angeles advantage of as many as 14 points in the first half to a 21-point Mavericks lead in the second half.
In the first game of the day's slate, Joel Embiid had 35 points and eight rebounds, James Harden added 29 points and 13 assists and the Philadelphia 76ers defeated the host New York Knicks 119-112 .
Georges Niang contributed 16 points and De'Anthony Melton had 15 for the Sixers, who won their eighth in a row without injured guard Tyrese Maxey.
Julius Randle led the Knicks with 35 points and eight rebounds while Jalen Brunson added 23 points and 11 assists.
Reuters/Newshub.
