The Boston Celtics suffered their third loss in the pass three games after they were defeated by the Denver Nuggets 96-92 at the Pepsi Center on Friday. What hurt the team even more was that the Celtics' All-Star point guard Kemba Walker had to exit the game on a stretcher after hurting his neck.

When there were less than four minutes to go in the second quarter, Walker ran head-first into the abdomen area of teammate Semi Ojeleye and immediately fell to the floor. According to ESPN, early indications showed that Walker's injury was not significant.

Brad Stevens, head coach of the Celtics said after the game that though he did not have an update on Walker's condition, the half-time scan results were good.

"I saw him in the ambulance at half-time that took him to the hospital, and he was – he had his wherewithal, and in pretty decent spirits, which was good, obviously," said Stevens. Later, the team announced that Walker suffered concussion-like symptoms and he will be reevaluated on Saturday.

Having been struggling with their shooting, Boston were baffled in front of Denver's layer defense. Meanwhile, the disadvantage in size hurt the visiting team in defense as they couldn't stop Nikola Jokic and Paul Millsap to have their way in Boston's paint. As a result, Jokic dropped a triple-double of 18 points, 16 rebounds, 10 assists and Millsap scored 14 points, 10 rebounds.

The Celtics launched their counterstrike via Jaylen Brown and Jayson Tatum. The former kept assaulting the Nuggets' defensive line with his athleticism, hoping to change the opponents' defense; the latter put his incredible isolation talents into full play to continuously drop points in the second half, helping the Celtics catch up step by step.

Boston again narrowed the score difference down to one point (79-78) in the fourth quarter as Tatum made a layup at the 44th minute. Nonetheless, Millsap and Jamal Murray joined hands to score 14 points together in rest of the game, maintaining the lead for Denver and gave Boston their first loss streak of the season.

Be careful, Luka Magic is here!

The Dallas Mavericks took their fourth consecutive win after the team crashed the visiting Cleveland Cavaliers 143-101 at the American Airlines Center. In the past two games, the Mavericks defeated the opponents by a total of 90 points.

Such impressive record had too much to do with the team's second-year rookie Luka Doncic. Having played only 28 minutes, the 20-year-old young star put down 30 points, seven rebounds and 14 assists, making himself the second player to score 30+points in three games in a row in franchise history after Dirk Nowitzki. As a happy accident, the German legend was also watching the game at the home court.

By contrast, the Cavaliers were apparently not happy with the 42-point loss. The team posted "Final from Dallas. Back to The Land" accompanied with a photo saying "image not found" on Twitter.

Time to start over

The San Antonio Spurs had watch their losing trend grow as suffered the eighth straight loss of 115-104 to the Philadelphia 76ers at the Wells Fargo Center. Tobias Harris got 26 points and Joel Embiid had a double-double of 21 points, 14 rebounds. Ben Simmons dropped a mini triple-double of 10 points, 10 rebounds and 13 assists.

This was a completely loss for the Spurs. They trailed in almost everything from rebounds, assists to 3-pointers, and turnover points. The last time the team suffered eight losses in a row happened 23 years ago, in the season general manager Gregg Popovich fired head coach Bob Hill, took over the team and selected Tim Duncan to be the No. 1 pick in the draft in summer.

Irving is embarrassed

The Brooklyn Nets claimed an easy win of 116-97 over the visiting Sacramento Kings at the Barclays Center. Spencer Dinwiddie scored 23 points and seven assists. The Nets led in every quarter and turned the game into a blowout before the fourth quarter.

This was the team's third victory in the past four games and it again raised questioning over Kyrie Irving's leadership because the Nets won these games without him. Furthermore, the team announced that Irving will miss another three games in the future, including the one against the Celtics at the TD Garden November 27.

Kendrick Perkins, former champion center of the Celtics laughed at Irving on Twitter: "Kyrie looked at the schedule before the season started and planned this whole injury thing because he didn't want to go back to Boston this upcoming week!!! He didn't want that smoke in the Bean Town. Smh."

Other games on Friday included (home teams in bold):

Atlanta Hawks 103-128 Detroit Pistons

Charlotte Hornets 118-125 Washington Wizards

Miami Heat 116-108 Chicago Bulls

Los Angeles Lakers 130-127 Oklahoma City Thunder

Golden State Warriors 109-113 Utah Jazz

Houston Rockets 119-122 Los Angeles Clippers