NBA week 20: Blake Griffin, Dwyane Wade, James Harden and more making noise on and off the court
Tuesday 5 March 2019 09:22, UK
Every week, we'll look back over the previous seven days of NBA action and identify the players who made noise on – and in some cases - off the court. Which players dominated the headlines in NBA week 20?
Blake Griffin - Detroit Pistons
The Pistons are making a playoff push in the East, winning nine of their last 11 games to rise to sixth in the conference standings.
Franchise star Griffin poured in 27 points as the Pistons outlasted the second-seeded Toronto Raptors to score an impressive 112-107 overtime win.
It would have been 29 points had his outrageous Larry Bird-esque shot over the backboard not been wiped off by the officials for a pre-shot foul by Raptors center Marc Gasol.
To Griffin's credit, he will not be satisfied with a sixth-place finish in the East, telling Rod Beard of The Detroit News: "What have we done? We've had a good stretch and a lot of teams have had good stretches. Being in the sixth or seventh seed is absolutely nothing to be proud of. We tricked off two months of basketball."
Dwyane Wade - Miami Heat
In his final NBA season, Wade's 'Last Dance' stepped up a level in Week 20 as he added clutch game-winning shooting to his now-familiar jersey swaps with opposition players.
Wade rolled back the years to hit a miracle shot at the buzzer to earn Miami a sensational 126-125 win over the Golden State Warriors on Thursday night.
What are reliably referred to as 'scenes' ensued, with Wade celebrating wildly with his team-mates before climbing on the scorer's table to beat his chest and milk the adulation from the fans for whom he delivered three NBA titles.
Although Wade was unable to repeat the trick one night later against the Houston Rockets, he still found time to swap jerseys with his old mucker Chris Paul.
The Heat sit 10th in the East but are just half a game out of the eighth seed. Will Wade's last dance end with a final postseason appearance?
Enes Kanter - Portland Trail Blazers
A busy week for Portland's Turkish center Kanter, who joined the Blazers after being released by the New York Knicks.
Kanter was slotted in quickly as back-up to Blazers center Jusuf Nurkic and has played meaningful minutes off the bench to help Portland to five wins from six on their current seven-game road trip.
He's been even better off the court, posting a video on Twitter as the Blazers squad got stuck in a lift on the way to practice ahead of their 97-92 win over the Boston Celtics.
Kanter was forced to sit out his team's trip to Toronto because of security concerns relating to his outspoken criticism of Turkish president Recep Tayyip Erdogan. The Turkish government have issued an international arrest warrant for Kanter and he fears arrest by Interpol if he leaves the United States.
Kanter took to Twitter to explain his absence from the Blazers-Raptors clash in classic fashion.
Donovan Mitchell and Rudy Gobert - Utah Jazz
The Utah Jazz are cementing their reputation of one of the NBA's strongest 'second half' teams, putting their early season troubles in their rear view mirror, coming on strong since the turn of the year and rocketing up the Western Conference standings as a result.
Mitchell and Gobert have been integral to Utah's recent good run, a stretch in which they have won seven of their last 10 games. The Jazz rolled to four straight victories, three of which came in Week 20 over the Los Angeles Clippers, the Denver Nuggets and the league-leading Milwaukee Bucks.
Gobert produced one of his best defensive performances of the season to shut down All-Star Nikola Jokic in Utah's 111-104 win in Denver.
Thanks to the close attention of the 'Stifle Tower', the Nuggets' Serbian center made just five of his 15 shots, was in foul trouble and left frustrated at his inability to be effective against Gobert.
Second-year guard Mitchell shone at the offensive end throughout the week, scoring 32 points in the 111-105 win over the Clippers (and giving a pair of autographed shoes to a 102-year-old Jazz fan afterwards) before pouring in 24 against the Nuggets.
Mitchell saved his best for the Bucks, outduelling MVP favourite Giannis Antetokounmpo as he erupted for a career-best 46 points as the Jazz rallied from 17 points down to defeat the Eastern Conference leaders.
James Harden - Houston Rockets
Speaking of candidates for the Most Valuable Player award, James Harden's campaign to win back-to-back MVPs gathered pace in Week 20.
Harden's streak of 30-plus-point games ended at 32 games as the Rockets beat the Atlanta Hawks 119-11 on February 25 but he bounced back from that with a vengeance in Houston's three subsequent contests.
Harden recorded a 30-point outing in the Rockets' 118-113 win over Charlotte on Thursday night before taking his talents to South Beach 24 hours later and lighting up the Miami Heat with 58 points to lead the Rockets to another win.
On Sunday night, Harden's 42 points against Boston earned Houston their fifth consecutive victory in dominant fashion (and prompted the Celtics crowd to boo their own team off at half-time).
The Rockets Instagram staff reacted to Harden's superb performances in memorable fashion.
In MVP terms, over to you, Giannis!
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