To be fair Fred Vanvleet was missing, and that looked like the biggest difference maker for Rockets. While I know he is not the top scorer for the team, he is definitely a good playmaker and spreads the floor very well too, so losing him definitely hurt their chances and that's why they didn't win. Obviously they didn't suck or played terrible, if they started the game a bit better then they would have been better, but defensively they weren't that great neither, 132 points isn't good, it looks alright because they scored 127 compared to that, but they should have better defense at least.

I can see them getting better without a doubt, we are talking about a huge deal here and because of that I am not really seeing how things could change with one game, they will be fine and will be in playoffs and they will probably do alright. They don't have any playoff experience with this squad, so it is going to be fun for them to have a better squad without a doubt.

Denver Nuggets managed to win the game. Miami Heat is not very strong this year, it was good to see Butler supporting the team on the court again. But the Denver Nuggets played very well, Jokic and his friends came out willingly as if they were in a playoff game.

Butler contributed 18 points to the team in this match. His remaining statistics are not very good, someone who wanted to leave the team could only perform this much

With Jokic back on Nuggets plus full line-up I guess Heat even with Jimmy Butler can’t handle Nuggets with their current roster. They even put Highsmith and Robinson as starter  on this year line-up while they failed to beat Nuggets before on much better line-up and on fire Jimmy Butler.

It’s a complete mismatch. However, it’s indeed good to see that Butler is using his remaining time on Heat by helping them since he is getting paid which might backfire him in the future in case he will be traded.

Great win by the Suns over the home team Detroit. I thought that they are going to lose this game as it is a very very close. But KD took over the 3rd and the 4th quarter and it looks like he is on the mission right now.

First game by Nick Richards who was acquired from the Hornets and he had a immediate impact on the game, with a huge debut finished with 29 points and 11 rebounds. While KD and Booker combine with 71 big points, as KD had 36 and then Booker with 35.

They are still way below in the standings though, with the Kings, them and then the Warriors supporting with a 21-20 record.

Well that's great for showing professionalism to teams who trust him and he didn't show any jerk like attitude the same with other big star when they want to get traded to other team.

I guess Jimmy just want best for his career since he knows that he's not getting younger anymore. Provably its not about the money now and for sure he's chasing for a ring since its good to retire that he get this achievement since he became always relevant on the discussion if he retire a champion. No doubt he's so talented and lets see which team he could get those rings that he wanted.

Detroit is back to the losing mode. They need that energy back when they are playing the last few weeks. They are still in the 8th spot but they must secure it in case they do play in the tournament and they will only need 1 win to advance in the playoffs. But I can say the frustration of their fans is a bit minimized, unlike last year when the fans were yelling to sell the team.

The Suns won but the Pistons made it hard for them. Truly, Cunningham was the key to making the Pistons better again but they need more good roleplayers surrounding him because he is also a good passer. Let's see if the Pistons will move some before the trade deadline. According to rumors, they are a potential buyer before the deadline.

Not an easy win for the Suns unlike before when playing against Piston, now they are really playing good competition and like what you mentioned Cunningham needs additional role players who can adds up though Tobias also adding something but to continue winning games they need someone who can give them decent numbers both defense and offense, as of now they still have that place to move forward they just need to push more wins and play as competitive as possible to reached the playoffs..

The Suns though will need to be consistent, they have one of the best scorer in KD and Booker, but it seems the something, like a good role players. Maybe they can make it to the playoff, but still there's no guarantee for them as the West is loaded.

Kings, after firing their head coach, seems to be doing good, perhaps it was a breathe of fresh air for them.

For the Warriors, Curry is getting older and so is Draymond, and the team is build differently when Klay left them, to be honest. When we thought that Buddy Hield could be a good addition to them, it's worst though.

Currently, Defensive team is the one that leading the NBA when it comes to winning. Most of the team now has strong 3 points shooting capability after the GSW era use this strategy to dominate the league.

But right now having a strong offensive skills is already not enough to win the game if the opponent defense is strong that makes shooter missed while can still score at the same time.

Suns need to rebuild their Roster and start adding players with D rather than pure shooting that sometimes has low accuracy,

Hard to image the Suns need to rebuild when the have Booker and KD, but I think they rushed things to get them help with Beal who turned out to not be so great. Their last hope is to somehow offload Beal to the Lakers and pickup Jimmy Butler. Otherwise I think they might need to blow up the roster and start over.