Portland rout 76ers; Towns scores 34 as Timberwolves down Heat; Leonard leads the Raptors against the Bulls; Doncic and Smith Jr. star for the Mavs
Monday 31 December 2018 08:34, UK
The Los Angeles Lakers won for the first time in three games without the injured LeBron James as a late rally against the Sacramento Kings snapped their losing streak.
Kentavious Caldwell-Pope scored 26 points off the bench while Brandon Ingram was key to the Los Angeles Lakers' late rally in a 121-114 victory over the Sacramento Kings.
As well as winning for the first time in three games without James, the Lakers also avenged their last-second defeat at Sacramento on Thursday when Bogdan Bogdanovic hit a three-pointer at the buzzer.
The Lakers went on a 12-0 run late in the fourth quarter Sunday to turn a 110-103 deficit with 4:30 remaining into a 115-110 lead with less than two minutes left. The Lakers ended the game on an 18-4 run.
De'Aaron Fox scored 26 points while Bogdanovic and Buddy Hield added 21 each as the Kings lost for the second time in three games, with both of the defeats in Los Angeles. The Kings lost to the Clippers 127-118 on Wednesday.
Josh Hart scored a season-high 22 points for the Lakers, while Kyle Kuzma added 18.
Ingram and Kuzma, who combined for 16 rebounds and 15 assists, have been tasked with picking up the slack for an injured James, who still has no timetable for a return from his groin injury. James was injured in a Christmas Day game at Golden State.
The Lakers were tied with the Kings 101-101 with 9:27 to play before Sacramento opened a 110-103 lead on a Fox fadeaway jumper.
The Lakers started their game-winning rally from there.
Willie Cauley-Stein had 11 points and 12 rebounds for the Kings, whose biggest deficit was nine points. In the Kings' last three victories, they managed to overcome deficits of 19, 19 and 15 points.
CJ McCollum scored 35 points in just 28 minutes as the Portland Trail Blazers routed the visiting Philadelphia 76ers 129-95.
Al-Farouq Aminu had 16 points, Damian Lillard 15 and Jusuf Nurkic 14 for the Trail Blazers in their largest margin of victory of the season. Portland beat the Minnesota Timberwolves 111-81 on Nov. 4.
Ben Simmons scored 19 points for the 76ers, who were without Joel Embiid, who sat out the game with a sore left knee.
Portland matched its season high in scoring in a first half in running out to a 70-41 lead. McCollum led the way with 26 points on 10-for-14 shooting for the Blazers, who shot .674 from the field and owned a 28-13 advantage on the boards at the break.
The Blazers extended the margin to 86-54 midway through the third quarter.
Portland's edge was 106-67 heading into the final period. The Blazers upped the margin to 117-74 with six minutes remaining. The 76ers got no closer than 33 points the rest of the way.
Karl-Anthony Towns produced 34 points, 18 rebounds, seven assists and a career-high-tying six blocks to lead the Minnesota Timberwolves past hosts Miami Heat 113-104.
Towns, who made 12-of-24 shots from the floor, including 3-of-6 on three-pointers, fouled out with 34 seconds left. It was his fourth foul-out of the season, but he had already done enough to lead Minnesota to victory.
Minnesota also scored 24 points off of 20 Miami turnovers.
Dwyane Wade led Miami with 21 points off the bench, including seven in the fourth quarter. Also for Miami, Josh Richardson added 17 points, and Hassan Whiteside had 13 rebounds to go with eight points.
The Timberwolves were without their top two point guards -- Jeff Teague and Derrick Rose -- due to ankle injuries. Instead, third-string point guard Tyus Jones started his fourth game of the season and had 12 points and five assists.
Miami were without forward James Johnson, who is battling an illness. In Johnson's place was Derrick Jones Jr., who made his fifth start of the season and had 16 points and nine rebounds.
Minnesota held a 55-54 lead at half-time as Towns had a double-double in the first 24 minutes alone -- 13 points and 12 rebounds.
In the third quarter, the Timberwolves stretched their lead to 86-77. Towns had 11 points and five rebounds in the period.
Towns had 10 more points in the fourth quarter as he was just too much for Miami.
Kawhi Leonard scored 27 points and grabbed nine rebounds and the Toronto Raptors defeated the visiting Chicago Bulls 95-89.
Pascal Siakam added 20 points and 12 rebounds for the Raptors while Fred VanVleet and Danny Green added 10 points each.
Lauri Markkanen scored 18 points and 10 rebounds for the Bulls. Wendell Carter Jr. added 16 points and 11 rebounds, Kris Dunn had 14 points, Zach LaVine scored 13, and Justin Holiday and Chandler Hutchison had 11 each.
The Raptors, whose biggest lead of the game had been seven points, opened the fourth quarter on a 6-0 run to lead by nine points.
The Bulls responded with the next four points, trimming the lead to five before VanVleet's three-pointer bumped the lead back to eight.
Dunn's driving dunk reduced that lead to four points with 3:05 to play.
Toronto regained a six-point lead on Leonard's layup, giving him at least 20 points in a career-best 13 straight games. Markkanen's three-pointer with 1:21 remaining cut Toronto's lead to 85-82.
Leonard's two free throws and two more free throws by Siakam made it a seven-point game with 25 seconds left.
Teenage rookie Luka Doncic scored 25 points, young backcourt mate Dennis Smith Jr. hit the go-ahead layup in the final minute as the Dallas Mavericks beat the Oklahoma City Thunder 105-103.
Paul George scored the last 13 points for Oklahoma City and finished with 36, but he missed a pull-up jumper over Smith with two seconds left in the first of two straight meetings on back-to-back nights for these regional rivals.
The Thunder still had a chance with 1.7 seconds left, but Russell Westbrook missed a three-pointer at the buzzer to wrap up a rough night for the 2017 MVP. He was 4-of-22 from the field for nine points with nine rebounds and eight assists.
The Thunder led by as many as six in the final two minutes after consecutive three's from George, but the Mavericks chipped away thanks to missed shots and turnovers by Oklahoma City.
Smith's layup came after he dribbled away from the basket and reversed course to the hoop. The second-year guard who turned 21 last month scored 14 points.
Evan Fournier's running jumper as the buzzer sounded gave the Orlando Magic a 109-107 win over the Detroit Pistons.
D.J. Augustin led the Magic with 26 points and eight assists, and Nikola Vucevic and Aaron Gordon each scored 22 points. Fournier finished with 13.
Luke Kennard scored 16 points to lead the Pistons. Reggie Bullock and Blake Griffin had 15 apiece and Andre Drummond had 14 points and 15 rebounds.
Fournier's winning basket ended a wild finish in which Detroit wiped out an eight-point deficit in the final three minutes only to lose for the 11th time in their last 14 games.
Neither team led by more than six points in the second half until Augustin sparked an 8-0 run with back-to-back three-pointers and fed Jonathan Isaac for a fastbreak layup that gave Orlando a 95-87 lead with 7:07 left in the game.
Later in the quarter, Augustin stole a rebound from Drummond, drove the lane and whipped a pass to Vucevic for an uncontested layup that made it 104-95 with three minutes to go.
Detroit rallied quickly, getting three-pointers from Bruce Brown and Bullock. A layup by Reggie Jackson cut the deficit to 105-104 with 8.9 seconds remaining.
Terrence Ross got loose for a breakaway dunk with 5.4 seconds to go but Bullock was fouled on a three-point attempt by Orlando's Jerian Grant with 2.5 seconds and made all three free throws to tie the game at 107-107.
Fournier took the inbounds pass and immediately drove into the lane, lofting his shot just before the buzzer sounded to give Orlando their second straight win.
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