76ers edge Pelicans, Knicks stun struggling Celtics, Rockets outduel Pistons
Thursday 22 November 2018 08:13, UK
The struggling Golden State Warriors fell to their fourth successive defeat, hammered 123-95 by the rampant Oklahoma City Thunder.
Russell Westbrook recorded his first triple-double of the season as Oklahoma City defeated the Golden State Warriors 123-95 on Wednesday night in a game in which Thunder rookie Hamidou Diallo was carted off on a stretcher with 7:17 left with an apparent left leg injury.
Diallo's left leg was stabilised as he was wheeled away to applause from the Oracle Arena crowd. Diallo was credited for rebounding Jonas Jerebko's missed layup when they both went down hard.
Westbrook began 1-for-6, but hit his stride later, finishing with 11 points, 13 assists, 11 rebounds. Paul George had 25 points, nine rebounds and five assists and Steven Adams contributed 20 points and 11 rebounds as the Thunder sent the two-time defending NBA champions to their first four-game skid in nearly six years.
Kevin Durant and Klay Thompson scored 27 points apiece with Durant grabbing a season-best 14 rebounds for the Warriors, who were again playing without All-Star starters Stephen Curry and Draymond Green, as well as key reserve Alfonzo McKinnie.
The Warriors trailed 60-46 at half-time with just 11 assists to 10 turnovers but opened the third with a 13-2 run to get within 62-59.
The Thunder also lost Terrance Ferguson to injury during their win. He went down at the 5:41 mark of the first quarter with a sprained left ankle and didn't return to the game.
Giannis Antetokounmpo took advantage of a fatigued Portland team as he scored a season-high-equalling 33 points and finished an assist short of a triple-double in three quarters as the Milwaukee Bucks romped to a 143-100 win over the Trail Blazers.
Antetokounmpo added 16 rebounds and nine assists in 30 minutes as the Bucks avenged an early season loss to Portland in a rematch of teams off to fast starts.
Milwaukee, who lost at Portland 118-103 on November 6, led the entire way and picked up their 13th win in 17 games. The Blazers were coming off a 118-114 victory in New York against the Knicks.
CJ McCollum and Damian Lillard each had 22 points for the Trail Blazers, who entered with the best record in the Western Conference and slipped to 12-6.
The New York Knicks stunned the host Boston Celtics with a 27-7 flurry in the second quarter, then held on for a 117-109 victory over the struggling defending Eastern Conference runners-up.
Trey Burke, Noah Vonleh and Enes Kanter all recorded double-doubles as the Knicks, who had lost six straight, dropped the Celtics back to .500 at 9-9.
New York wasted little time taking charge, leading by as many as 12 in the first quarter and running away to a 57-31 lead with 3:34 left in the half.
The Celtics got as close as 10 in the third quarter, and were within 94-84 after a three-pointer by Al Horford with 7:25 remaining in the game.
But Burke and Frank Ntilikina hit back-to-back hoops to stall the Boston rally. The Knicks were able to keep the Celtics at arm's length the rest of the way, thanks in large part to Burke's fourth three-pointer with 12.9 seconds left.
Burke led all scorers with 29 points to go with a season-best 11 assists for New York. Vonleh had 16 points and 10 rebounds, while Kanter put together 10 points and 10 boards.
James Harden scored 29 of his game-high 43 points in the second half, and the Houston Rockets extended their winning streak to five games with a 126-124 victory over the visiting Detroit Pistons.
Harden finished 10-of-20 from the floor and 19-of-19 from the foul line to offset a strong performance from Pistons forward Blake Griffin, who scored 19 fourth-quarter points en route to a 37-point, 11-rebound effort. Griffin hit 6-of-9 three-pointers but also posted nine turnovers.
Andre Drummond added a double-double for the Pistons with 20 points and 11 rebounds. His counterpart for Houston, Clint Capela, also recorded a double-double (27 points, 15 boards).
The Pistons, last in the NBA in field-goal percentage, hit 16 of 34 threes but could not slow the Rockets, who shot 55.6 per cent overall. Chris Paul had 20 points and seven assists for Houston.
Joel Embiid outdueled Anthony Davis as the Philadelphia 76ers extended their winning streak to four games and ended New Orleans' streak at three with a 121-120 victory.
Embiid had 31 points and 19 rebounds, Ben Simmons added 22 points and Jimmy Butler, JJ Redick and Wilson Chandler scored 13 each.
Jrue Holiday and E'Twaun More scored 30 apiece and Holiday added 10 assists for the Pelicans, who had won six of their last seven as they began a three-game East Coast road trip.
Julius Randle came off the bench to add 22 points and 10 rebounds and Nikola Mirotic had 13 points and 13 rebounds.
Davis, who scored his 10,000th career point, finished with 12 points and 16 rebounds, but missed a free throw that would have tied the game with 2.5 seconds left.
Paul Millsap produced 25 points, five rebounds and five steals while Jamal Murray added 18 as the Denver Nuggets enjoyed a 35-point third quarter en route to a 103-101 victory over the Minnesota Timberwolves.
Karl-Anthony Towns led Minnesota with 22 points, and Derrick Rose added 20 off the bench. The Timberwolves outscored Denver in three of the four quarters, but still lost their second straight game .
The Nuggets, who had lost six of seven after starting the year 9-1, trailed 56-50 at the half.
Millsap started the pivotal third quarter with five points in a quick 7-0 run that put Denver on top 57-56. He then scored on a fast break, connected on a jumper and hit a three-pointer to push his shooting totals to 10-for-11 on the night.
But Millsap's scoring binge was interrupted when he hit the floor hard in a collision with Towns midway through the third quarter. He went to the locker room holding a towel to his head and received stitches for a facial laceration.
Murray picked up where Millsap left off, hitting his second and third three-pointers of the quarter and dropping in a floater to push Denver's lead to 80-67.
Millsap returned with 7:02 to play in the fourth quarter and played the rest of the way, helping Denver hang on after a 12-0 Minnesota run all but erased the Nuggets' lead. His floater from the baseline gave the Nuggets a 101-95 advantage with less than two minutes to play to seal the win.
Kyle Lowry had a triple-double and center Jonas Valanciunas scored a season-high 24 points to lead the Toronto Raptors to a 124-108 road win over the Atlanta Hawks, who fell to their ninth consecutive defeat.
Lowry scored 21 points, hitting 3-of-6 from three-point range, to go with 12 rebounds and 17 assists, the latter matching his season high.
Valanciunas set the pace with 17 points in the first half. He hit 9-of-12 shots from the field overall and added 13 rebounds. Toronto also got 22 points from Pascal Siakam, one shy of his career high, and 19 points and nine rebounds from Serge Ibaka.
The Raptors were playing without Kawhi Leonard, who was given the night off. Leonard has not played on any of the team's back-to-back games this season.
Atlanta's veteran Vince Carter scored 14 against his former club, becoming the 22nd player in NBA history to pass 25,000 career points.
Kemba Walker was good but not great, yet the rest of the Charlotte Hornets responded with one of their best performances of the season in a 127-109 victory over the visiting Indiana Pacers.
Walker, the NBA's leading scorer at 29.6 points per game, finished with 16 points and 11 assists for his first double-double of the season, sitting out the entire fourth quarter after the Hornets led by as many as 26.
The veteran guard had erupted for 60 points against the Philadelphia 76ers and 43 against the Boston Celtics in his previous two games. Walker took just 10 field-goal attempts against the Pacers, making half of them.
Jeremy Lamb led the Hornets with 21 points, including five three-pointers on a night when Charlotte hit 18 triples, two shy of a franchise record.
The Hornets also got 18 points from Dwayne Bacon, 15 from Cody Zeller, 15 from Malik Monk, and 11 each from Nicolas Batum and Frank Kaminsky.
LeBron James scored 32 points, grabbed 14 rebounds and dished out seven assists to lead the Los Angeles Lakers to a come-from-behind 109-105 win on Wednesday in his return to Cleveland.
The Lakers, sparked by James, went on a 16-3 run late in the fourth quarter to erase a 99-91 Cavaliers' lead.
Former Laker Jordan Clarkson scored 20 points and ignited a 13-4 fourth-quarter run in which the Cavs turned an 87-86 deficit into a 99-91 lead with 5:41 to go.
But Kyle Kuzma's 24-foot three-pointer cut the Cavaliers' lead to 99-94, and then No 23 took over - an all-too-familiar site for Cleveland fans. Only this time, it spelled another defeat for the home crowd.
James made two free throws, connected on a three-point jumper and made three more foul shots to put the Lakers up 102-99.
From there it was a matter of the Lakers making free throws to ice the game, and while James struggled on the night from the charity stripe, going 8-for-12, Kentavious Caldwell-Pope calmly made four straight to seal the win for the Lakers.
All five Los Angeles starters scored in double figures, and Caldwell-Pope added 13 off the bench. Cedi Osman led Cleveland with 21 points.
Zach LaVine scored 29 points on 10-for-20 shooting as the Chicago Bulls held on for a 124-116 win over the visiting Phoenix Suns.
Jabari Parker added 20 points, 13 rebounds and eight assists for Chicago (5-13), who snapped a four-game losing streak. Ryan Arcidiacono (14 points), Antonio Blakeney (14), Wendell Carter Jr. (14) and Justin Holiday (11) also scored in double digits for the Bulls.
Devin Booker led the Suns with 23 points and six assists, and center Deandre Ayton recorded his 10th double-double in 17 games, finishing with 18 points and 12 rebounds, plus five assists.
Phoenix (3-14) lost their third straight game and dropped to 0-8 on the road.
The Bulls closed out the game with a layup by Carter Jr and a pair of free throws by LaVine in the final minute.
A fourth-quarter burst from reserves JJ Barea and Devin Harris allowed the Dallas Mavericks to record a 119-113 victory over the visiting Brooklyn Nets.
Harris and Barea scored Dallas' first 12 points of the fourth quarter and combined for 17 in a row going back to the third. Their outburst paced a 16-6 Dallas run for a 103-93 advantage after the Nets, down by as many as 14 points in the second quarter, and 61-50 at the half, clawed back to tie the game at 87-87.
Harrison Barnes scored a game-high 27 points and was also clutch late in a close game, with seven points in the final 6:35.
Brooklyn was led by Allen Crabbe's 28 points, 12 of which came in consecutive fashion - all on three-pointers - to make it close in the fourth quarter. But the Nets never could get over the hump and regain the lead after going up 8-7 early in the game.
Marc Gasol converted the game-tying and winning free throws with 0.7 seconds to play as part of his 20-point, 10-rebound performance, and Mike Conley poured in 30 points as the visiting Memphis Grizzlies outlasted the San Antonio Spurs 104-103.
The lead see-sawed over the final three-and-a-half minutes until San Antonio's DeMar DeRozan canned a contested jumper over Conley with 1.2 seconds remaining.
After a timeout, Memphis got the ball to Gasol, who was fouled by San Antonio's Rudy Gay with 0.7 seconds to play and calmly made the free throws.
JaMychal Green added 12 points off the bench for Memphis, who have won five games in a row and seven of their last eight. Omri Casspi added 11 more off the bench.
DeRozan led the Spurs with 24 points, with Gay adding 21, LaMarcus Aldridge scoring 19 and taking 11 rebounds and Patty Mills scoring 15 points off the bench for San Antonio, who fell to their fifth loss in their last six games.
Willie Cauley-Stein scored 23 points, while De'Aaron Fox added 17 points, 13 assists and seven rebounds, to help the Sacramento Kings pull away for a 119-110 win over the host Utah Jazz.
Nemanja Bjelica added 18 points, including a trio of critical three-pointers, for the Kings.
Sacramento prevailed after shooting 53 per cent from the field and 44 per cent from three-point range.
Donovan Mitchell poured in 35 points to lead Utah. Jae Crowder added 16 points off the bench, while Rudy Gobert chipped in 13 points and 15 rebounds. The Jazz lost for the fourth time in five games.
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