Booker scores 30 as Suns shock Clippers; Young fires for 39 in Hawks win; DeRozan strikes late as Spurs beat Wizards
Sunday 27 October 2019 08:01, UK
Tobias Harris had 29 points and Al Horford tossed in 23 points, including a late flurry that lifted the visiting Philadelphia 76ers over the Detroit Pistons 117-111 on Saturday night.
Tobias Harris had 29 points and Al Horford tossed in 23 points, including a late flurry that lifted the visiting Philadelphia 76ers over the Detroit Pistons 117-111 on Saturday night.
Both sides were missing key players. Sixers center Joel Embiid sat out with a right ankle sprain. Pistons All-Star forward Blake Griffin (hamstring, knee) remained sidelined.
Horford also contributed nine rebounds and five assists. Ben Simmons filled the stat sheet with 13 points, 10 assists and seven steals, and Mike Scott added 17 points off the bench, including five three-point makes. Josh Richardson and Shake Milton chipped in 10 points apiece.
Derrick Rose carried the Pistons with 31 points off the bench. Markieff Morris had 17 points and six rebounds, Luke Kennard tossed in 16 points and Andre Drummond chipped in 13 points and 12 rebounds while battling foul problems.
Scott made a three in the final minute of the quarter to tie the game at 83 heading into the fourth. He hit another triple with 7:17 remaining to give Philadelphia a 93-91 lead. Rose hit a jumper with 5:49 left to tie it at 95-all.
Simmons made a lay-up after Drummond missed one to give the Sixers a 101-97 lead. Horford hit a three, then converted a three-point play after a Pistons turnover to increase Philadelphia's lead to 10. Another Horford long ball with 2:28 left effectively clinched the Sixers' win.
Devin Booker had 30 points and eight assists and Frank Kaminsky had 18 points, eight rebounds and six assists off the bench as the host Phoenix Suns beat the LA Clippers 130-122 to break a 13-game losing streak in the series.
Kelly Oubre Jr had 20 points and made all nine of his free-throw attempts and Dario Saric had 15 points and 10 rebounds for the Suns, who have split two games since center Deandre Ayton was suspended Thursday for 25 games for violating the NBA/NBPA anti-drug program.
Kawhi Leonard had 27 points, 10 assists and eight rebounds and Montrezl Harrell and Lou Williams combined for 51 points off the bench for the Clippers, who were attempting to become the first team in the league to three victories. Harrell had 28 points and seven rebounds. Williams made three three-pointers.
Phoenix stretched their lead to 15 points at 115-100 with just over five minutes left, fueled by nine points from Booker, before the Clippers closed to 115-108 on a pair of triples by Williams and a put-back by Harrell. But the Clippers never got closer than six the rest of the way.
Reserve guard Goran Dragic had a team-high 25 points - including six in overtime - and eight assists as the Miami Heat rallied from 21 points down to beat the host Milwaukee Bucks 131-126 in overtime.
The Bucks sent the game to an extra sessions overtime on a put-back by Giannis Antetokounmpo just a split-second before the regulation buzzer. Antetokounmpo had rebounded an air ball by Khris Middleton to tie the score 121-121.
Antetokounmpo, the NBA's reigning MVP, fouled out with 2:31 left in overtime, finishing with 29 points, 17 rebounds, nine assists, three steals and two blocks. But he also committed eight turnovers, missed all five of his three-point attempts and fouled out for his second straight game.
Earlier in the game, Milwaukee blew a 21-point third-quarter lead, as Miami seemingly took control. The Heat had a nine-point lead with 3:33 left in the fourth quarter. But Miami missed three straight free throws with 3.3 seconds left - one by Bam Adebayo and two by Justise Winslow - setting the stage for Antetokounmpo's dramatic put-back.
The Bucks, who made 14-of-30 three-pointers in the first half, shot just 3-for-24 from deep after intermission.
Adebayo, who also missed two free throws with six seconds left in overtime, made a saving block on a late Eric Bledsoe dunk attempt to make up for his accuracy issues. He finished with 19 points, 13 rebounds and a career-high-tying eight assists.
Russell Westbrook surpassed Magic Johnson in career triple-doubles as the host Houston Rockets held on for a 126-123 win over the short-handed New Orleans Pelicans.
Westbrook notched 28 points, 10 rebounds and 13 assists for his 139th triple-double, moving past Johnson for second place in NBA history. His two free throws with 6.1 seconds left built the lead to three.
The Rockets then clamped down defensively and forced a difficult shot from Josh Hart, who missed a three-pointer at the buzzer. Hart scored 16 of his 23 points in the second half.
Brandon Ingram was exceptional for the Pelicans, who played without guard Jrue Holiday (knee). Ingram paired 35 points with 15 rebounds, both game-highs, and added five assists. He received support from Lonzo Ball (18 points, 10 assists) and JJ Redick (14 points).
The Rockets trailed by as many as eight points late in the third quarter before stabilising themselves, committing just two turnovers in the fourth quarter after allowing 23 points on 17 turnovers before that point. Westbrook was the lynchpin of the run to the lead, fuelling a critical 13-0 spree from the final minute of the third through the first two minutes of the fourth.
Pascal Siakam scored 19 points and Serge Ibaka added 18 to lead five players in double figures and boost the visiting Toronto Raptors to a 108-84 victory against the Chicago Bulls.
OG Anunoby chipped in 17 points for the Raptors, Fred VanVleet had 16 and Kyle Lowry had 11.
Chicago, who scored 235 total points in their first two games, struggled offensively throughout their home opener. Wendell Carter Jr led Chicago with 12 points, while Zach LaVine followed with 11. Carter Jr added a game-high 11 rebounds.
The Raptors erupted for 36 points in the third quarter behind 14-for-23 (60.9 per cent) shooting, including a 6-for-12 effort from behind the three-point arc.
Toronto led by 22 points after three quarters before taking its largest advantage of the night, 26 points, when Terence Davis hit a pair of free-throws with 21 seconds to go.
Marcus Smart scored 12 points off the bench, including a three-pointer during an 8-0 Boston run to start the fourth quarter, as the Celtics pulled away for a 118-95 victory over the host New York Knicks.
Kemba Walker had a game-high 32 points, a majority of them on seven made three-pointers, as the Celtics overcame a horrible start to sweep a back-to-back sequence that began with a home win over Toronto on Friday.
RJ Barrett went for 26 points for the Knicks, who lost their home opener after tipping off the season with a pair of defeats on the road.
Barrett and Julius Randle combined for 12 points when the Knicks, coming off a 113-109 loss at Brooklyn on Friday night, blitzed the Celtics early with a 16-4 run to open the game.
But Boston dominated most of the rest of the action, building an 82-76 lead by the end of the third quarter and then pulling away quickly in the final period.
Bojan Bogdanovic scored 23 of his 26 points in the first half to help the Utah Jazz roll to a 113-81 whipping of the visiting Sacramento Kings in Salt Lake City.
Donovan Mitchell added 15 points and Mike Conley recorded 12 points and eight assists for the Jazz.
Utah shot 56.4 per cent from the field and drained 18-of-37 three-point attempts. Bogdanovic made five and the 18 makes fell two shy of the franchise record, accomplished twice last season.
Dewayne Dedmon scored 11 points for Sacramento, who dropped to 0-3 under new coach Luke Walton. Bogdan Bogdanovic - no relation to Bojan - added 10 points for the Kings.
Kings point guard De'Aaron Fox, who was a game-time decision after injuring his hip against the Portland Trail Blazers on Friday night, had nine points and five assists in 20 minutes. He sat out most of the second half with the contest being so one-sided.
Trae Young had 39 points, seven rebounds and nine assists to lead the Atlanta Hawks to a 103-99 win against the visiting Orlando Magic.
Kevin Huerter and Jabari Parker scored 10 points each off the bench, and John Collins finished with nine points and 12 rebounds for Atlanta.
Evan Fournier scored 23 points, Nikola Vucevic had 16 points and 10 rebounds, DJ Augustin scored 14 and Markelle Fultz had 12 off the bench for the Magic.
Orlando scored six straight points to take their biggest lead at 90-85 with 6:43 left, but Young would twice pull the Hawks even with baskets before giving them the lead for good with a layup with 1:02 left.
He followed with a dagger three-pointer with 26.2 seconds remaining to make the game safe.
Kevin Love came one assist shy of a triple-double and Tristan Thompson scored 25 points as the host Cleveland Cavaliers held off a late rally to beat the Indiana Pacers 110-99 at Rocket Mortgage FieldHouse.
Cleveland led almost wire-to-wire in the Central Division matchup, building an advantage that swelled to as many as 24 points.
The front-court duo of Love and Thompson set the tone, with Love registering 21 points, 13 rebounds and nine assists, and Thompson posting a double-double with 13 rebounds. His team-high 25 points included his first career three-pointer.
Behind a game-high 30 points from guard Malcolm Brogdon, Indiana sliced the gap to seven points in the final two minutes of regulation. A Thompson jumper and free throws from guard Collin Sexton, who finished with 18 points, stemmed the rally.
The win is the first of Cavaliers coach John Beilein's professional career. He took over in Cleveland this season after 754 wins and nearly four decades in the college ranks, the last 12 of which were spent at the University of Michigan.
DeMar DeRozan connected from short range with 5.5 seconds remaining to break the 10th tie of the fourth quarter, giving the host San Antonio Spurs a 124-122 victory over the Washington Wizards.
Derrick White blocked Bradley Beal's buzzer-beating runner in the lane, preserving the Spurs' second straight win to open the season.
The loss capped a 1-2 season-opening trip for the Wizards, who were playing the second night of a back-to-back after winning at Oklahoma City on Friday.
In a fourth quarter that featured six lead changes as well as the 10 ties, LaMarcus Aldridge tipped in his own miss to draw San Antonio even at 120-all with 2:08 to play in the tightly contested affair.
After Beal missed a lay-up, DeRozan put the Spurs in front with a 15-footer with 1:26 to go. But after missing a three-pointer that could have given the Wizards the lead, Beal drew a foul from White and made two free throws with 26.5 seconds remaining to create one final tie at 122-all.
DeRozan and White then combined for their heroics at both ends of the court to give San Antonio the win.
