Points have been at a premium for the Portland Trail Blazers, who may finally have a chance to post some gaudy offensive numbers when they visit the Brooklyn Nets on Friday. The Blazers shot a season-low 33.7 percent in a 101-81 loss at Philadelphia on Wednesday, their widest margin of defeat of the season.

Tim Hardaway Jr. played 130 games with Hawks from 2015-17 before signing a free-agent contract with New York, and the move has paid big dividends for a Knicks team that visits Atlanta on Friday night. Hardaway scored a career-best 38 points Wednesday, including 12 during a dizzying 28-0 burst in the third quarter, to lift the Knicks from a double-digit halftime deficit to a 108-100 victory over Toronto - New York’s sixth victory when trailing by 10 points or more.

The Boston Celtics hope to begin another winning streak when they return home to take on the struggling Orlando Magic on Friday night. The Celtics saw their 16-game run - tied for the fourth-longest in franchise history - come to an end Wednesday when they shot only 41.7 percent from the floor and 70.4 from the free-throw line in a 104-98 loss at Miami.

LeBron James isn't willing to give up his spot as the best player in the NBA, no matter how many minutes he has to play and games he has to drag his team through. James will try to follow up his latest transcendent performance and guide the Cleveland Cavaliers to a seventh straight win when they host the Charlotte Hornets on Friday.

The Indiana Pacers are suddenly one of the hotter teams in the NBA and can look forward to a stretch of the schedule filled with home games, beginning with a visit from the Toronto Raptors on Friday. The matchup begins a three-game homestand for the Pacers, who also play six in a row in Indianapolis early next month and 17 out of 24 at Bankers Life Fieldhouse through the middle of January.

The Miami Heat just ended the NBA's longest winning streak, and their reward is a four-game road trip. The Heat, who knocked off the NBA-best Boston Celtics at home on Friday, will begin their trek by visiting the Minnesota Timberwolves on Friday.

Russell Westbrook put forth an MVP-caliber performance and the up-and-down Oklahoma City Thunder finally had the look of a dominant unit. They will try to build off a victory over the defending NBA champs when they wrap up a two-game homestand against the Detroit Pistons on Friday.

The Denver Nuggets lost one of their best players for an extended period and then suffered an embarrassing loss to finish out a three-game road trip. The Nuggets will try not to let a key injury push them into a slide like it did for the Memphis Grizzlies, who will be trying to avoid a seventh consecutive setback when they visit Denver on Friday.

The New Orleans Pelicans look to match their longest winning streak of the season and avoid looking too far ahead when they begin a tough road back-to-back at the Phoenix Suns on Friday. The Pelicans will leave Arizona to take on defending champion Golden State the following night, providing a significant road test for a team coming off an impressive two-game homestand.

The defending champion Golden State Warriors endured some frustrating performances on their just-completed road trip and will try to avoid back-to-back losses for the first time this season when they return home to host the Chicago Bulls on Friday. The Warriors dropped two of four on the trip and struggled at times in the two victories.