Martin Luther King Jr Day wins for Boston Celtics, Brooklyn Nets and New Orleans Pelicans
Tuesday 22 January 2019 11:24, UK
Joel Embiid posted a 32-point, 14-rebound double-double to lead the Philadelphia 76ers to a blow out victory over the Houston Rockets.
Joel Embiid scored 32 points and grabbed 14 rebounds to carry the host Philadelphia 76ers to an easy 121-93 victory over the Houston Rockets on Monday night.
It was the 39th double-double this season for Embiid, who had been listed as questionable for the game due to a sore lower back.
Embiid played only 26 minutes before leaving with the Sixers up by 30 points early in the fourth quarter.
Landry Shamet scored 18 points and JJ Redick added 16 points for the Sixers, who played without guard Jimmy Butler (sprained right wrist). TJ McConnell contributed 12 points and Corey Brewer had 11.
James Harden paced the Rockets with 37 points, his 20th consecutive game with at least 30. Gerald Green scored 18 points while Kenneth Faried contributed 13 after joining Houston earlier in the day after the team waived James Nunnally.
The Rockets continue to be short-handed without key injured players such as center Clint Capela and guard Chris Paul.
The Sixers bolted to a 77-52 lead early in the third quarter as the Rockets struggled with their shooting, misfiring on their first nine shots in the period. Philadelphia continued with relentless defensive pressure and pushed to a 94-63 advantage at the end of the third.
The Sixers built more than enough of a cushion to cruise the entire fourth on their way to another home win, their 20th in 25 home games this season.
Kyrie Irving posted his 11th double-double of the season with 26 points and 10 assists, leading the host Boston Celtics to a 107-99 win over the Miami Heat.
Irving added a career-high eight steals, falling just short of triple-double. He has been hot lately, averaging 30.5 points in the four games leading up to Monday.
The Celtics improved to 18-5 at home this season, including nine straight wins. They haven't lost a home game since December 21 against the Milwaukee Bucks.
Miami, who trailed by as many as 22 points in the third quarter before rallying in the fourth, were led by two reserves. Forward Derrick Jones scored a career-high 18 points. Guard Dion Waiters, who last week complained about a lack of playing time, also had 18 points.
Besides Irving, Boston also got a double-double from power forward Al Horford, who had 16 points and 12 rebounds to go with four assists and three blocks. Two other Celtics forwards also scored in double figures: Jayson Tatum had 19 points, and Marcus Morris added 17.
Miami's bench led a fourth-quarter rally, getting as close as five points with 4:29 left. But Irving answered with three straight Boston baskets as the Celtics prevailed.
Damian Lillard scored 26 points and Jusuf Nurkic added 22 before fouling out in the final minute to lead the visiting Portland Trail Blazers to a 109-104 victory over the Utah Jazz in Salt Lake City.
Lillard also tallied eight rebounds and eight assists while Nurkic added nine boards and seven assists to lead the Blazers. CJ McCollum chipped in 14 points and Jake Layman added 12 off the bench.
Donovan Mitchell scored 36 points to lead Utah. Jae Crowder added 15 and Rudy Gobert chipped in 10 points, 13 rebounds and four blocks.
Ricky Rubio returned to the court for Utah after missing six games with a strained hamstring. He finished with 12 points in 14 minutes off the bench.
Utah rallied at the start of the fourth quarter and took an 86-83 lead on a three-pointer from Crowder. Portland answered with a 15-4 run, bookended by baskets from Layman, to go back in front 98-90.
The Blazers extended their lead to 106-94 on a three-pointer from McCollum before Mitchell hit four straight baskets and a pair of free throws to slice the deficit to 108-104 with 41.4 seconds left.
Joe Ingles missed a corner three that would have cut it to one and Lillard hit a pair of free throws to ice it with 5.8 seconds remaining.
D'Angelo Russell scored 31 points as the Brooklyn Nets extended their home winning streak to six games with a 123-94 victory over the Sacramento Kings.
Russell shot 12-of-25 and made 7-of-14 three-pointers. He became the first Net in franchise history to hit at least seven three-pointers in consecutive games and also recorded his eighth game of at least 30 points this season.
Russell's latest strong performance occurred after he was named Eastern Conference Player of the Week. He helped the Nets win for the 17th time in their last 22 games to match the best 22-game stretch since the team moved to Brooklyn in 2012.
The 22-year-old guard was particularly effective in the third quarter, when the Nets shot 70 per cent (14-of-20) and outscored Sacramento 38-25. He gave the Nets the lead for good with a three-pointer that put Brooklyn up 66-64 with 9:14 left in the frame and hit two more during an 11-0 run to give Brooklyn a 77-66 lead with about six minutes left.
Russell scored 14 points in the third on 5-of-6 shooting, and Brooklyn carried a 93-85 lead into the fourth. The Nets secured their latest win early in the fourth by opening the quarter with a 15-4 run, and Russell reached 30 points when he hit a floater in the lane for a 114-92 advantage with about five-and-a-half minutes left.
Joe Harris added 19 points for the Nets while rookie Rodions Kurucs chipped in 16. Bogdan Bogdanovic led the Kings with 22 points, but Buddy Hield was held to 11 on 4-of-10 shooting.
Klay Thompson scored 23 of his 44 points in the third quarter, setting an NBA record by connecting on his first 10 three-point attempts of the game, as the visiting Golden State Warriors extended their winning streak to eight games with a 130-111 victory over the Los Angeles Lakers.
Thompson went 3-for-3 from three-point range in the first half before hitting his first seven attempts from behind the arc in the third quarter. He wound up 10 of 11 from long distance on the night.
The four-time All-Star finished with his 13th career game of at least 40 points and made 10 or more three-pointers for the fifth time in his career.
Ivica Zubac scored 18 points, Brandon Ingram had 17 and Kyle Kuzma added 16 as the Lakers lost for the fourth time in their past six games. They fell to 5-9 without LeBron James, who has been out since coming away with a groin injury on Christmas Day against the Warriors in Oakland.
Kevin Durant scored 20 points as the Warriors won their seventh consecutive road game. Golden State are 10-1 over their past 11 games overall.
Stephen Curry had 11 points, going just 2-of-10 from three-point range, ending his streak of hitting at least three three-pointers at nine games.
Evan Fournier and Nikola Vucevic scored 29 points apiece and combined for 20 in the decisive third quarter as the Orlando Magic pulled away from the host Atlanta Hawks for a 122-103 victory.
Playing for a second consecutive game without Aaron Gordon, out with a sore back, the Magic fell behind by as many as nine points in the first quarter before dominating the final three periods en route to snapping a three-game losing streak.
Fournier complemented his points with seven assists, while Vucevic completed a double-double with a game-high 14 rebounds.
Dewayne Dedmon matched his career highs of 24 points and five three-pointers for Atlanta. Trae Young added 21 for the Hawks, who were playing without Kevin Huerter, a late scratch with a sore neck.
John Collins had a 14-point, 10-rebound double-double for Atlanta, who lost their second straight game, while Jeremy Lin had 15 points and DeAndre' Bembry 11 points to go with a team-high seven assists.
No Anthony Davis, no problem for the New Orleans Pelicans, as the visitors routed the Memphis Grizzlies 105-85 in their first game without their injured All-Star. Davis suffered a sprained left index finger in a loss at Portland on Friday night and is expected to miss a week or two.
Jahlil Okafor earned the start in place of Davis and made the most of it, scoring 20 points on 9-of-11 shooting and pulling down 10 rebounds. Jrue Holiday and Nikola Mirotic each scored 21 for New Orleans. Mirotic made five three-pointers off the bench. Julius Randle also scored 20 and pulled down a team-high 12 rebounds.
Memphis' Marc Gasol led all scorers with 22 after missing the team's last game with a sore back. Mike Conley added 20 in the loss.
It was a tale of two halves behind the three-point line for the Pelicans, who hit just one three-pointer in the first half on 12 attempts. But they nailed eight triples in 14 attempts in the second to pull away from the Grizzlies, who lost their sixth consecutive game and 12th in the past 13.
The Pelicans, just 7-19 on the road this year, salvaged the final game of their five-game trip to go 2-3. The game was tied 63-63 with 6:31 remaining in the third quarter, but the Pelicans outscored Memphis 42-22 the rest of the way.
