Hornets score 158 to thrash the Pacers; Suns make it eight straight wins with their victory away at Jazz; Morant top-scores for Grizzlies to see off the Spurs; Mavericks ease past depleted Blazers
Thursday 27 January 2022 08:20, UK
Charlotte Hornets racked up the highest points total of the season in their win over the Indiana Pacers, while Phoenix Suns extended their winning streak to eight games. Round-up of Wednesday's NBA action...
Devin Booker scored 43 points and grabbed 12 rebounds as the Phoenix Suns increased their winning streak to eight with a 105-97 victory over the Utah Jazz in Salt Lake City.
Booker scored 21 points in the first quarter, helping the Suns take an early 21-point lead, and then took turns with teammate Chris Paul hitting clutch jumpers down the stretch to thwart Utah's comeback attempt. Paul finished with 21 points.
Jordan Clarkson picked up some of the scoring slack for the Jazz, putting up 26 points and sinking six three-pointers. Mike Conley contributed 16 points and 10 assists, while fill-in starting center Hassan Whiteside chipped in 16 points and 11 rebounds.
Onyeka Okongwu and Bogdan Bogdanovic scored 18 points apiece and Trae Young added 17 as the Atlanta Hawks capitalized on a huge scheduling advantage to thump the visiting Sacramento Kings 121-104.
Playing at home for the fifth time in their past six games, and having had the two previous days off, the Hawks exploded for 46 points in the second quarter against a Kings club that had flown into town early in the morning after a similar-sized blowout loss at Boston on Tuesday.
Returning from a five-day absence caused by a sore right knee, Bogdanovic shot 6-for-11 overall and 3-for-8 on three-point attempts, helping the Hawks win their fifth straight game. Harrison Barnes had a game-high 28 points and rookie Davion Mitchell, starting in place of injured De'Aaron Fox, chipped in with 20 for Sacramento.
Kelly Oubre Jr connected on 10 shots from three-point range on his way to 39 points and LaMelo Ball had a triple-double as the Charlotte Hornets overwhelmed the Indiana Pacers in a 158-126 rout.
Oubre shot 12-for-18 from the field. That included a 10-for-15 mark on treys, with five of those long-range buckets coming in the fourth quarter. His total of made three-pointers tied a franchise record.
Ball poured in 29 points to go with 13 assists and 10 rebounds. Charlotte had a season-high point total, with its previous best mark in regulation having been 140 points.
Amir Coffey had 19 points, six rebounds and five assists as the Los Angeles Clippers followed up the largest comeback in franchise history with a 111-102 win over the host Orlando Magic.
The Clippers, who trailed by as many as 14 points in the first half, outscored Orlando 35-24 in the fourth quarter. Los Angeles converted 23 of 25 free throws in the final period after having only two total attempts through three quarters.
Luke Kennard added 17 points as the Clippers completed a back-to-back sweep and improved to 3-2 on their current eight-game road trip. Los Angeles was coming off a 116-115 victory over the Washington Wizards on Tuesday, when the Clippers overcome a 35-point, first-half deficit.
Kristaps Porzingis scored 22 points to lead seven players in double figures as the visiting Dallas Mavericks led wire to wire in a 132-112 win over the depleted Portland Trail Blazers.
Jalen Brunson contributed 20 points, 11 assists and six rebounds for Dallas, which led by as many as 23 and won for the 12th time in 15 games. Luka Doncic recorded 15 points, 15 assists and 15 rebounds.
Anfernee Simons paced Portland - without several key players - with 23 points. CJ McCollum scored 20 points and Norman Powell added 19 points and nine rebounds while Jusuf Nurkic tallied 18 points and eight rebounds.
Ja Morant scored 41 points to tie his season-high and nailed four big free throws in the final 1:08 as the visiting Memphis Grizzlies outlasted the San Antonio Spurs 118-110.
The Grizzlies led by three points at halftime and by 94-86 after three periods. San Antonio roared back to tie the game at 106 on Dejounte Murray's jumper with 4:52 left. Jaren Jackson Jr.'s three-pointer a minute later allowed Memphis to move in front for good, and Morant finished things off with his work from the charity stripe in the end game.
Jackson added 22 points for the Grizzlies, with Desmond Bane hitting for 20 and Ziaire Williams scoring 11. Murray led the Spurs with 16 points, 10 rebounds and 11 assists, racking up his 10th triple-double of the season, second in the NBA to Denver's Nikola Jokic (11).
DeMar DeRozan went for 29 points, seven rebounds and seven assists, and Zach LaVine scored 23 points, grabbed eight rebounds and dished eight assists to lead the Chicago Bulls past the Toronto Raptors 111-105.
DeRozan set the tone against his former team, shooting eight of 14 in the first half as the Bulls built a 67-50 lead by intermission. Chicago leveraged a 68-46 scoring advantage in the paint to lead most of the way, but Toronto battled back to pull ahead 103-102 with 3:11 remaining.
Gary Trent Jr. scored 32 points for a second consecutive game to lead Toronto and shot six of 10 from the three-point line. On the last attempt of his 11-of-22 shooting night, Trent pulled the Raptors to within two at 107-105 with 2:03 to play but was then ejected when he received his second technical foul of the night.
LaVine made the ensuing technical-foul free throw, and after Nikola Vucevic grabbed his game-high 15th rebound, Vucevic hit a three-pointer to put the game away. He added 17 points and passed for eight assists.
Nikola Jokic totalled 26 points, 10 rebounds and eight assists as the Denver Nuggets held the slumping Brooklyn Nets to five points over the final 5:18 of a 124-118 in New York.
Denver won its third straight and improved to 11-5 in its past 16 games thanks to a balanced offense that placed six in double figures. Jokic made eight of 13 shots overall and scored nine points in the fourth quarter.
Reserve Austin Rivers tied a career high with seven three-pointers and added 25 points, 22 in the second half, as Denver erased an 11-point halftime deficit. Will Barton added 21 points and 10 rebounds, while DeMarcus Cousins chipped in 13 points.
Duncan Robinson scored a game-high 25 points, leading the host Miami Heat to a 110-96 win over the New York Knicks. The Heat never trailed in the game, and they have beaten the Knicks 10 times in their past 12 meetings.
Miami's Jimmy Butler added 22 points and Tyler Herro, who had missed the past three games due to COVID protocol, scored 21. P.J. Tucker had one of his best games of the season with 20 points.
Heat center Bam Adebayo scored just six points but added a game-high 11 assists to go with eight rebounds, two steals and one block. New York, who have lost five of their past six games, were led by Obi Toppin, who had 18 points off the bench.
Kevin Love and Cedi Osman scored 25 and 23 points off the bench, respectively, to lift the host Cleveland Cavaliers to a 115-99 victory over the Milwaukee Bucks.
Love, who also grabbed nine rebounds, sank five three-pointers, and Osman added six more from beyond the arc. Osman entered the contest having made just one of 20 attempts from three-point range over his previous five games.
Cleveland's Darius Garland celebrated his 22nd birthday by collecting 19 points and eight assists. Milwaukee's Giannis Antetokounmpo had 26 points and nine rebounds in his return from a one-game absence caused by right knee soreness.
