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A rather slow Sunday for the NBA's opening weekend, just seven games played yesterday. A couple of former Wildcats had very nice games, but there were more inactives to list.
The Houston Rockets were without starting power forward Terrence Jones in their 109-89 loss to the Miami Heat due to a facial laceration suffered in their previous game. The Boston Celtics (1-2) have yet to have James Young touch the court in three games, for reasons unknown to this point. The Charlotte Hornets took a tough 94-92 defeat to the Atlanta Hawks, with Michael-Kidd Gilchrist still out with a shoulder injury.
Julius Randle had what was by far the best performance of his young career; taking advantage of an good matchup with the aging Dirk Nowitzki, who had 25 points himself, and went to work. Putting up a career-best 22 points with 15 rebounds 4 assists and 4 steals. The Los Angeles Lakers took the defeat against the Dallas Mavericks 103-93, but it's still a great sign for the Lakers to have their young star have the kind of game he did after missing all of last year with a broken leg.
The only other ex-Kentucky player to take action last night was Patrick Patterson; who helped the Toronto Raptors defeat the Milwaukee Bucks 106-87. Patterson had a very efficient performance, scoring 16 points on 6/9 from the field and 4/5 from three point range. Patterson is becoming a three point specialist off the bench up in the north; now shooting 53% from deep so far this season.