Aaron Gordon leads Magic past Nets; CJ McCollum, Damian Lillard star for Blazers against Luka Doncic's Mavs; Donovan Mitchell inspires Jazz to 30th win of the season; Jamal Murray and Nikola Jokic go off against the Bulls; wins for the Suns, Warriors, Pistons, Pacers, Kings and Spurs.
Saturday 20 March 2021 09:18, UK
Aaron Gordon's heroics helped the Orlando Magic hold off a late fightback from the Brooklyn Nets as they clinched their first win since February on Friday night.
Gordon scored a season-high 38 points and the Magic broke a nine-game losing streak with a 121-113 victory over the Nets, marking their first win since beating Detroit on February 21.
The Magic led most of the way and seized control in the third quarter, then withstood a Brooklyn comeback attempt in the fourth. The Nets lost for only the second time in 16 games, saw a six-game winning streak stopped and had their eight-game road winning streak stopped.
Gordon finished three shy of his career high by shooting 14 of 20 from the field and hitting seven of eight on three-pointers as the Magic halted their longest skid since December 2017.
Evan Fournier added a season-high 31 points just one night after committing a costly turnover in the final seconds of the Magic's 94-93 loss to the host New York Knicks. Nikola Vucevic totalled 22, 14 rebounds and eight assists as Orlando shot 51.2 per cent and hit a season high 21 3 pointers.
Kyrie Irving returned after missing Wednesday's game with a sore groin and scored a season-high 43 points for the Nets, who shot 47.3 per cent and made only 10 of 37 from long range. James Harden added 19 and nine assists but shot four of 15 from the field.
Orlando led 64-62 at the half having held a 12-point lead at one point in the second quarter. The Nets briefly took a one-point lead on the first possession of the third but the Magic seized control again with a 14-4 run that made it 95-78 with 2:51 on Vucevic's 13-footer.
The hosts then held a 103-84 lead entering the fourth after Dwayne Bacon hit a three-pointer with one second left. Brooklyn stormed back with a 16-1 run to start the fourth and was within 104-100 on Irving's 14-footer with 7:32 remaining, before Orlando finally clinched it on a Gordon three-point with 1:39 remaining.
CJ McCollum scored 32 points and Damian Lillard added 31 as the Blazers opened a two-game set against the visiting Mavericks with a 125-119 victory.
Billed as a duel of superstars, Lillard got help from McCollum to earn the win over the Mavericks and Luka Doncic, who scored 38 points. Portland's Terry Stotts earned his 500th career victory as an NBA head coach.
Portland, who led 64-60 at the half, used a 9-0 run late in the game to turn a 110-106 deficit into a 115-110 advantage, Lillard capped it with a pair of baskets, the second one with 2:51 remaining.
The victory was the seventh in the past nine games for the Trail Blazers and the third consecutive since McCollum returned from a two-month absence caused by a hairline fracture in his foot. Carmelo Anthony had 18 points off the bench for Portland, and Enes Kanter contributed 14 points and nine rebounds.
Doncic added nine rebounds and nine assists for the Mavericks while Tim Hardaway had 25 points and Maxi Kleber added 16. Dallas lost for the third time in the past five games.
While McCollum was part of the supporting cast in consecutive victories this week upon his return, he took more of a starring role Friday. He shot 11 of 23 from the field and sealed the victory on a step-back three-pointer with 1:17 remaining that gave Portland a 118-112 advantage.
Donovan Mitchell scored 31 points, including a go-ahead pull-up jumper with 29.1 seconds left, to lead the Utah Jazz to a 115-112 victory over the Toronto Raptors.
Mitchell went 15-of-16 from the free throw line for the Jazz. He scored all eight points in an 8-0 run that put Utah up 113-110 with 12.4 seconds left. Pascal Siakam barely missed a three-pointer at the buzzer that would have forced overtime.
Joe Ingles added 19 points and Mike Conley chipped in 15 for Utah, who became the first team to reach 30 wins this season. Rudy Gobert also tallied 15 points and added 16 rebounds while playing with a hip contusion.
Siakam had 27 points and nine assists to lead the Raptors, who lost their seventh straight game. Fred VanVleet added 17 points and nine assists, and Kyle Lowry chipped in 14 points and eight assists.
The Jazz shot just 30.4 per cent from the field in the first quarter after missing nine of ten shots over a five-minute stretch during the quarter. Their sluggish shooting opened the door for the Raptors to stake out an 18-12 lead behind an 11-5 run fuelled by a pair of three-pointers from Lowry and one each from Anunoby, and Powell.
Utah came from behind to level it up at 38-38 in the second quarter before earning a 55-51 lead thanks to a 13-2 run after three straight steals from Mitchell.
Toronto led 84-82 in the fourth until the Jazz scored on six consecutive baskets to pull ahead. Conley assisted on three straight baskets to fuel the run, and Gobert finished it off with back-to-back baskets, giving Utah a 94-84 lead.
The Raptors surged back ahead late in the fourth quarter, Powell and Lowry draining back-to-back 3-pointers to put them up 110-105. But that wasn't enough.
Jamal Murray scored 22 of his 34 points after the third quarter, including a last-second three-pointer to send the game to overtime as the Denver Nuggets rallied to beat the Chicago Bulls 131-127.
Nikola Jokic also had 34 points to go with 15 rebounds and nine assists, Michael Porter Jr. scored 19 points, Will Barton had 16 and JaMychal Green added 10 for the Nuggets.
Zach LaVine scored 32 points, Otto Porter Jr. had 22, Coby White scored 17, Thaddeus Young had 11 points and 10 rebounds and Lauri Markkanen finished with 10 for the Bulls, who led by 14 early in the fourth only for Denver, who trailed for most of the game, to rally late.
White was called for a flagrant-1 foul on Porter Jr.'s three-point attempt and it turned into a four-point trip for Denver. Two turnovers by the Bulls led to a jumper by Jokic and a layup from Murray to make it 103-97 with 6:06 left. The Nuggets kept coming, and Murray drained a three-pointer to give the Nuggets a 108-107 lead, their first since early in the game.
Otto Porter Jr. answered with a three-pointer, and after Denver turned it over, LaVine hit a foul-line jumper to make it 112-108 with 1:14 left. The Nuggets had two chances to get closer but missed both shots, and White hit a layup to make it a six-point lead with 45 seconds left.
Jokic hit a three-pointer from the top of the circle, and a steal by Facundo Campazzo led to a Murray layup. LaVine hit two free throws to extend the lead to 116-113, but Murray sent it to overtime with a corner three-pointer with 0.4 seconds left.
After the Nuggets had 125-123 with 1.13 to play, Jokic and LaVine each scored four points to keep it a two-point game with 30 seconds left before Murray hit a baseline jumper with 10.3 seconds left to seal it.
Chris Paul recorded 20 points and nine assists to help the Phoenix Suns post a 113-101 win over the Minnesota Timberwolves.
Mikal Bridges added 17 points and Devin Booker scored 16 as the Suns won for the 19th time in the past 24 games. Langston Galloway added 14 points, fellow reserve Cameron Payne had 11 and Jae Crowder and Abdel Nader 10 apiece as Phoenix split a back-to-back with the Timberwolves.
Karl-Anthony Towns recorded 24 points and nine rebounds, and Ricky Rubio contributed 21 points and 10 assists for Minnesota. Anthony Edwards had 11 points and 10 rebounds, but the 19-year-old rookie made just four of 18 shots one night after becoming the third-youngest player in NBA history to score 40 or more points on Thursday night.
Jaylen Nowell added 14 points for the Timberwolves, who connected on 46.8 per cent of their shots and were 13 of 35 from behind the arc.
Phoenix led by 10 at the break before Minnesota ripped off the first 15 points of the third quarter. Edwards capped the burst with a three-pointer to give the Timberwolves a 69-64 lead with 7:39 remaining in the stanza, before the Suns finally got going behind Paul's seven straight points to eventually take an 83-78 advantage into the final quarter.
Phoenix rattled off eight consecutive points early in the fourth quarter to increase the margin to 13. Crowder's four-point play pushed the Suns' lead to 107-89 with 3:27 left, and Paul followed with a jumper to make it a 20-point game. Phoenix's lead topped out at 21 while closing it out.
Andrew Wiggins exploded for a season-best 40 points and Jordan Poole, subbing for injured Stephen Curry, missed his season-high by one with 25, lifting the short-handed Golden State Warriors to a 116-103 victory over the Memphis Grizzlies in the opener of a two-day, two-game series.
Despite playing without Curry, who suffered a bruised tailbone on Wednesday in a win over Houston, and key reserves James Wiseman and Eric Paschall, both out for COVID-related reasons, the Warriors took the lead for good in the 10th minute of the game on a Kent Bazemore layup.
En route to a second straight win on a three-game trip, the Warriors went up by as many as 21 in the second quarter and 25 in the third before coasting home.
Ja Morant and Grayson Allen had 14 points apiece for Memphis, who lost for the fourth time in its last five games. Jonas Valanciunas also grabbed a game-high 16 rebounds as part of a double-double with 10 points for the Grizzlies.
Wiggins' 40-point game was the ninth of his career, with the previous eight all having come while he was with the Minnesota Timberwolves. It fell seven points shy of his career-high of 47 points for the Timberwolves against the Los Angeles Lakers in November 2016. He connected on a season-high six three-pointers, which was one shy of his career-high.
Poole, who has been productive off the bench since a stint in the G League, made the most of his first start of the season. His 25 points came up just short of his career-high of 26, which he set at Phoenix, also in Curry's absence, on March 4.
Frank Jackson scored a season-high 23 points as the Detroit Pistons handed the Houston Rockets their 19th consecutive loss, 113-100.
Saddiq Bey had 20 points and six rebounds while Jerami Grant contributed 18 points as the Pistons won in back-to-back outings for just the second time this season. They defeated the Toronto Raptors on Wednesday in Detroit.
Josh Jackson tossed in 15 points, Isaiah Stewart supplied 13 points and nine rebounds and Mason Plumlee pulled down 16 rebounds for Detroit.
John Wall put up 21 points and seven rebounds for the Rockets, whose skid was already the worst in franchise history. Victor Oladipo finished with 19 points and Christian Wood had 18 points and 11 rebounds, while Jae'Sean Tate added 12 points and four steals. The Rockets shot just 28.1 per cent (nine of 32) from three-point range.
Frank Jackson scored eight points in the first four-plus minutes of the second half to give Detroit a 65-59 lead, before Josh Jackson's three-pointer with 3:40 remaining in the quarter made it 76-67.
The Pistons established their first double-digit advantage at 82-71 on a Bey three-pointer with two minutes left in the period. Danuel House Jr. cut Detroit's lead to seven by the end of the stanza with a trey of his own.
Having trailed 89-77 with 10.39 left, the Rockets stuck around to pull within 96-91 until the Pistons regained control with 11 unanswered points as Houston went scoreless for more than four minutes.
Reserve guard T.J. McConnell had 16 points and game highs in assists (15) and steals (three), sparking the Indiana Pacers to a 137-110 victory over the Miami Heat. The 137 team points represents a season high for the Pacers
Malcolm Brogdon was Indiana's scoring star with a game-high 27 points on 10-for-12 shooting, including seven-of-nine on three-pointers. 2021 All-Star Domanta Sabonis recorded his 30th double-double of the season with a game-high 15 rebounds alongside 13 points, and Myles Turner added a game-high five blocks to go with 12 points and five rebounds as the Pacers snapped a two-game losing streak.
McConnell made 8-of-9 shots from the floor. His only "miss" came with 4:25 left in the game as Goran Dragic blocked his drive.
Miami, who lost consecutive games for the first time since February 13-17, were led by Bam Adebayo, who had 20 points, eight rebounds and five assists. They also got 17 points from Jimmy Butler, 16 by Dragic and 15 from Tyler Herro.
A 20-5 run from Indiana earned them a 68-58 advantage at half-time after making 62.8 per cent of their attempts from the field, before they stretched the lead to 99-82 in the third. The fourth then turned into a runaway for Indiana, other than a 9-0 run by Miami early in the quarter.
For the game, Indiana shot 58.4 per cent from the floor, including 20-for-36 on three-pointers (55.6 per cent). Miami shot 44.6 per cent, including 9-for-34 on three-pointers (26.5 per cent).
Keldon Johnson collected 23 points and a career-high 21 rebounds to lift the San Antonio Spurs to a 116-110 victory over the Cleveland Cavaliers.
Johnson recorded 11 offensive boards to highlight his sixth double-double of the season for the Spurs, who led wire-to-wire en route to winning their third straight game. San Antonio's Dejounte Murray had 22 points, DeMar DeRozan added 20 in his return from a four-game absence following the passing of his father, and Derrick White chipped in with 17.
Collin Sexton scored 16 of his 29 points in the second half and Darius Garland also had 29 points for the Cavaliers, who have lost five of their past six games. Lamar Stevens and Jarrett Allen each collected 15 points and 11 rebounds in a losing effort.
San Antonio secured a 54-42 lead at intermission after shooting 48.9 per cent from the floor and kept their foot on the gas in the third, with DeRozan scoring six quick points in a 59-second sequence to stake his team to a 64-46 lead.
The Spurs pushed their advantage to a game-high 22 points at 75-53 after Patty Mills drained three-pointers on back-to-back possessions. Stevens scored 10 of Cleveland's next 12 points to trim its deficit to 84-74 with 8:41 remaining in the fourth quarter.
Brodric Thomas' three-pointer got the Cavaliers within four with 8.9 seconds to play before the Spurs put the game away.
De'Aaron Fox led all scorers with 29 points, and the Sacramento Kings held the Boston Celtics to just 42.9 per cent shooting from the floor en route to a 107-96 win.
Sacramento, playing the fourth in a six-game, Eastern Conference road swing, jumped out to a 10-point lead in the first quarter, but Boston hung within striking distance before taking a lead in the fourth quarter.
Jaylen Brown scored two of his team-high 19 points on a floater with 4:31 remaining, giving the Celtics a 91-90 lead. The Kings took command from there.
Fox scored seven of Sacramento's points in a decisive, 13-2 run. Buddy Hield, who finished with 22 points, knocked down one of his six three-pointers in that stretch, and Richaun Holmes sank his lone attempt from behind the arc amid the run.
Holmes was one of two Kings to record a double-double, posting 25 points and 11 rebounds, while Harrison Barnes added 15 points and a game-high 13 rebounds.
Boston, who suffered their fourth loss in the last five games, struggled to find a consistent offensive rhythm. Jayson Tatum finished with 15 points, more than 10 below his season average, on six-of-16 shooting from the floor. Kemba Walker scored 16 points and passed for seven assists, Daniel Theis had 14 points and eight rebounds, and Brown grabbed 11 rebounds.
