Siakam leads Raptors past Nets; Hayward impresses in Celtics win at Heat; Magic beat Knicks to move into final playoff spot
Thursday 4 April 2019 08:19, UK
James Harden, Chris Paul and Clint Capela each played starring roles as the Houston Rockets cruised to a 135-103 road win over the Los Angeles Clippers on Wednesday night.
Harden scored 31 points, grabbed seven rebounds and dished out seven assists, Paul added 29 points and seven assists and Capela had 24 points and 15 rebounds as the trio combined in a way they have rarely done so this season.
Houston remained a half-game ahead of Portland, who also won on Wednesday, for third place in the Western Conference. With the loss, the Clippers fell 1.5 games behind Utah, a winner earlier in the evening, in the race for the fifth seed in the West.
Shai Gilgeous-Alexander scored 20 points to pace the Clippers, who lost for just the third time in 16 games. Danilo Gallinari added 16, and Lou Williams scored 14 off the bench.
Coming into Wednesday's game, the Clippers had been the only team in the West not to have lost to the Rockets this season, having defeated Houston twice in October. The Rockets made sure that streak ended by grabbing the lead early and never giving it up.
The Rockets made 10 of 19 from beyond the arc and outrebounded the Clippers in the first half, 25-16.
Houston never was threatened in the second half, although Los Angeles got as close as 16 on JaMychal Green's 3-pointer that made the score 82-66. Harden scored the next eight points to quash any hope the Clippers had of staging a comeback.
Pascal Siakam scored 28 points and Kawhi Leonard added 26 as the Toronto Raptors continued their preparation for the postseason with a 115-105 victory over the Brooklyn Nets in New York.
The Raptors, who likely will be the No. 2 seed in the Eastern Conference, won their fifth straight game.
Serge Ibaka tied a career high with five three-pointers and contributed 23 points and 12 rebounds off the bench as the Raptors beat the Nets for the 15th time in the past 16 meetings between the teams.
The Nets lost for the seventh time in 10 games and missed a chance to move into sixth place past Detroit.
Instead, the Nets are tied with Orlando for the final two playoff spots in the East. D'Angelo Russell led the Nets with 27 points, and Spencer Dinwiddie added 14.
Nikola Jokic and Jamal Murray produced strong all-round games as the Denver Nuggets eased to a 113-85 victory over the San Antonio Spurs, who had head coach Gregg Popovich ejected just 63 seconds into the game.
Jokic had 20 points, 11 rebounds and nine assists and Murray finished with 14 points, 11 assists as the Nuggets moved closer to clinching home-court advantage for at least the first round of the playoffs.
Monte Morris and Malik Beasley scored 19 points apiece, and Gary Harris and Will Barton scored 11 each for Denver.
Popovich called a timeout after Murray's dunk gave Denver a 5-0 lead. He immediately started talking to official Mark Ayotte, who hit him with a technical.
Popovich kept talking as he followed Ayotte and then was hit with a second technical. It was the second time in three games Popovich has been ejected, after he was tossed against Sacramento on Sunday.
Gordon Hayward scored a game-high 25 points and Kyrie Irving added 23 to lift the Boston Celtics to a crucial 112-102 road victory over the Miami Heat on Wednesday night.
The Celtics' Jayson Tatum scored nine consecutive points in the fourth quarter to help Boston hold ground in the race for home-court advantage in their upcoming four-seed versus five-seed playoff matchup.
Al Horford tallied 21 points, Tatum 16 and Aron Baynes ten, with a team-high ten rebounds for the Celtics, who won their second straight game and fourth in their last five.
Boston (47-32), the fourth-seed in the Eastern Conference, kept pace with Indiana. The Pacers (47-32) also won, defeating the Detroit Pistons 108-89.
Dion Waiters had 21 points, Hassan Whiteside 18 points and 15 rebounds, Dwyane Wade 17 points, Bam Adebayo 12, Goran Dragic 11 and Kelly Olynyk 10 for the Heat, who lost their second straight.
Miami (38-40) slipped to the No 9 seed in the conference behind the Orlando Magic (39-40), who defeated the New York Knicks 114-100.
Thaddeus Young had 21 points, eight rebounds and four assists as the Indiana Pacers recorded a 108-89 victory to defeat the Detroit Pistons for the second time in three nights.
Bojan Bogdanovic and Myles Turner had 17 points apiece as the Pacers snapped the Pistons' 11-game home winning streak. Indiana defeat Detroit 111-102 on Monday in Indianapolis.
Andre Drummond carried the Pistons with 28 points, 19 rebounds, three assists, three steals and three blocks. Wayne Ellington had 24 points for Detroit.
Both teams continued to deal with injury issues. Pistons All-Star forward Blake Griffin missed his third consecutive game due to a sore left knee. The Pacers' usual starting backcourt of Darren Collison (groin) and Wesley Matthews (hamstring) also sat out for the second straight game.
The Pacers shot 46.7 percent from the field and held the Pistons to 38.8 percent shooting. Indiana dominated inside, outscoring Detroit 62-36 in the paint.
Nikola Vucevic had 29 points and 13 rebounds as the Orlando Magic moved into a playoff spot with a 114-100 victory over the New York Knicks.
Orlando began the night a half-game behind Miami for the eighth and final playoff position in the East, but with the victory and the Heat's loss, the Magic moved into a tie with Brooklyn for seventh in the conference.
Terrence Ross added 23 points off the bench for the Magic, and Aaron Gordon and Evan Fournier scored 19 points each.
Mario Hezonja led the Knicks with 29 points while collecting nine rebounds and five assists against his former team. Hezonja was selected No. 5 overall by the Magic in the 2015 NBA Draft.
New York owns the worst record in the league and has secured one of the three lottery slots with a 14 percent chance of landing the No. 1 pick.
Trae Young and John Collins combined to score 58 points as the Atlanta Hawks won 130-122 for a third straight victory over the Philadelphia 76ers.
Young scored 33 points, including a three-pointer with 1:32 remaining that allowed Atlanta to stretch its dwindling lead back to eight points.
Philadelphia missed a great opportunity with 32.5 seconds left when Jimmy Butler drew a flagrant-one foul.
Butler missed both free throws and a three-point try when play resumed as Philadelphia could not cut into Atlanta's five-point lead.
Philadelphia, who have lost two straight and four of six, were led by JJ Redick with 30 points. He made six three-pointers but uncharacteristically missed three free throws.
The Sixers also got 21 points from Tobias Harris, 16 points from Butler, and 15 points and 15 rebounds from Ben Simmons.
Donovan Mitchell scored 29 points, Joe Ingles added 27 and Rudy Gobert surpassed Karl Malone in as the Utah Jazz eased to a 118-97 win over the Phoenix Suns.
Gobert scored 17 points, collected 13 rebounds and blocked five shots for the Jazz -- his franchise-record 63rd point-rebound double-double of the season, topping Malone's 62 in the 1987-88 season.
Ingles also hit a milestone. He appeared in his 300th consecutive game for the Jazz, the longest active streak in the NBA.
Richaun Holmes tallied 16 points and nine rebounds to lead the Suns, and Elie Okobo scored 15 points.
Phoenix's Devin Booker played only eight minutes in the first quarter before sustaining a left ankle sprain. He finished with eight points on 3-of-4 shooting.
Utah won for the 11th time in 12 games, strengthening their grip on the fifth seed in the Western Conference, moving 1.5 games ahead of the Los Angeles Clippers.
Enes Kanter, Damian Lillard and Evan Turner led the way as the Portland Trail Blazers rolled to a 116-89 victory over visiting Memphis to remain fourth in the Western Conference.
Kanter collected 21 points and 15 rebounds, and Lillard scored 20 points and dished out 10 assists for the Trail Blazers, who have won 11 of their past 13 games and remain a half-game behind the Houston Rockets.
Turner registered his second straight triple-double with 13 points, 12 rebounds and 11 assists in 28 minutes off the bench.
Portland shot 51.1 percent from the field despite making only 10 of 31 attempts from the three-point arc. The Blazers had a whopping advantage in rebounds (54-32) and points in the paint (68-34) against a Memphis team that had no true centers available.
Chandler Parsons scored 16 points for the Grizzlies, who have lost seven of their last 10 outings. Memphis suited up only 10 players due to numerous injuries.
Kemba Walker scored 32 points as the visiting Charlotte Hornets kept their playoff hopes mathematically alive with a 115-109 victory over the New Orleans Pelicans.
Walker helped the Hornets salvage the final game of a four-game road trip that began with losses to the Los Angeles Lakers, Golden State Warriors and Utah Jazz.
Frank Kaminsky added 21 points, including 18 in the second half, Devonte' Graham had 13 and Jeremy Lamb 12 for Charlotte, who are in 10th place in the Eastern Conference.
Julius Randle had 34 points and 11 rebounds, his 22nd game this season with at least 20 points and 10 rebounds, to lead the Pelicans.
The Pelicans lost for the 11th time in 13 games as they concluded a five-game homestand that featured just one win. Ian Clark and Stanley Johnson added 17 points each.
Karl-Anthony Towns had a monster night with 28 points and 13 rebounds and Andrew Wiggins scored the winning basket with 19 seconds to go to lift Minnesota to a 110-108 victory over the Dallas Mavericks.
Towns was brilliant throughout, hitting 12 of his 15 shots, including his last two, a jumper to tie with 1:15 to go and then a sweet dribble-drive for a finger roll and a 108-106 lead with 48 seconds to play.
Dallas rookie guard Jalen Brunson tied it with 36 seconds to go, but after Wiggins reclaimed the lead for Minnesota, Brunson missed Dallas' 32nd three-point attempt of the game.
Fellow Mavs rookie Luka Doncic finished with 27 points, 12 rebounds and six assists in his first game back after sitting out two.
Dwight Powell added 25 points on 8 of 9 shooting, with eight rebounds, and Burke had 12 points for the Mavericks. Dirk Nowitzki, winding down his 21st and possibly final season, had nine points, but was 1 of 8 from beyond the arc in 22 minutes.
Wiggins finished with 19 points for the Wolves, ending a streak of seven consecutive 20-point games. Tyus Jones had 15 points and nailed all three of his three-point attempts.
Walt Lemon Jr. scored a game-high 24 points, the last two coming on free throws with 1.8 seconds left, to give the Chicago Bulls a 115-114 victory over the Washington Wizards.
The win snapped a five-game Chicago losing streak. The Bulls have had a tough time in the last several games as they were again missing some of their top scorers due to injuries.
Zach LaVine, Lauri Markkanen, Otto Porter Jr. and Kris Dunn all were out again, and each has missed at least four consecutive games.
Thomas Bryant and Bobby Portis both led Washington with 20 points in a battle between two teams out of the playoff race.
