Jokic hits game-winner as Denver top Philly; Bogdanovic buzzer-beater sees Jazz beat Bucks; Lillard hits 60 in Blazers loss to Nets; Russell drops 52 in Warriors OT loss
Saturday 9 November 2019 08:59, UK
Anthony Davis had 26 points as the Los Angeles Lakers strangled the Miami Heat 95-80 to notch their seventh consecutive victory
Anthony Davis had 26 points and nine rebounds, and LeBron James scored 12 of his 25 points in the fourth quarter of the Los Angeles Lakers' seventh consecutive victory, 95-80 over the Miami Heat on Friday night.
James hit a pair of clutch three-pointers in the waning minutes to seal another victory for the NBA-leading Lakers, who haven't lost since their season opener against the Clippers.
Los Angeles' superstar duo teamed up impressively again, but the Lakers held off Jimmy Butler and the Heat with solid team defense.
The Lakers held Miami to one field goal and six points in the final 8:54, limiting the Heat to 6-of-35 shooting on three-pointers and outrebounding them 48-37 to win a meeting of division leaders off to outstanding starts to the new season.
Butler scored 22 points and Goran Dragic added 19 for the Heat, who still lead the Southeast Division despite losing twice on their three-game Western road trip.
The Lakers returned home looking good after a 3-0 road trip with tough victories at Dallas and San Antonio. Davis and James have already formed a fluid partnership, and their complementary players are growing into their roles while the Lakers play already solid defense.
Nikola Jokic hit a 20-foot jumper with 2.2 seconds left as the host Denver Nuggets rallied from 21 down to beat the Philadelphia 76ers 100-97.
Jokic scored 16 of his game-high 26 points in the fourth quarter and also had 11 rebounds. Jamal Murray had 22 points and 11 assists, Will Barton scored 20 points and Paul Millsap finished with 15 for Denver, who have won three straight.
Joel Embiid had 19 points, 15 rebounds and eight turnovers before fouling out, Tobias Harris scored 13 and grabbed 10 boards and Raul Neto had 13 points for the Sixers, who played without guard Ben Simmons. Philadelphia has lost three straight games after winning their first five.
Philadelphia led 91-77 midway through the fourth when Denver rallied. Jokic hit lay-ups sandwiched around a Millsap dunk off an alley-oop to bring Denver within 91-83 with 4:43 left, and after Embiid hit one of two free throws, Jokic and Millsap hit three-pointers during a run to get the Nuggets within 93-91.
They had a chance to tie but Josh Richardson stole the ball and fed Harris for an alley-oop that made it 95-91 with 1:27 left. Barton hit a three-pointer, Embiid and Murray traded lay-ups and Al Horford shot an airball with 15 seconds left.
Denver called timeout and got the ball inside to Millsap, who was triple-teamed. He passed to Jokic, who hit a high-arching shot to put the Nuggets up 98-97. Embiid was called for an offensive foul on the next play and Barton closed it out with two free throws.
Damian Lillard became the first NBA player this season to score 60 points, but it wasn't enough as Joe Harris ignited a late run that propelled the visiting Brooklyn Nets to 119-115 victory over the Portland Trail Blazers.
Lillard drilled a running 34-footer at the final horn, allowing him to surpass his previous career high of 59 points set in April 2017 against the Utah Jazz. He finished 19-for-33 from the field, 7-for-16 on three-point tries and 15-for-15 from the free-throw line.
The one-man show wasn't enough to overcome 10 combined three-pointers from Spencer Dinwiddie and Kyrie Irving. Dinwiddie led Brooklyn with 34 points off the bench and Irving added 33 points.
Brooklyn led for most of the first 40 minutes, including by 10 in the second quarter, before a pair of Lillard hoops put Portland on top 99-98 with 7:31 remaining.
The Nets' deficit was 103-98 with 5:45 to go before Dinwiddie scored from the interior and Harris drilled his back-to-back threes, producing a 106-103 lead.
Brooklyn never trailed again, completing a 17-2 run with a 3-pointer by Irving with 1:41 to go that created a 10-point margin at 115-105.
Lillard scored seven straight Portland points to get the host as close as 115-112 with 40.4 seconds to go, but Irving countered with a 9-footer with 17.8 seconds left to clinch it.
Bojan Bogdanovic drained the game-winning three-pointer as time expired to lift the host Utah Jazz, who withstood a series of furious second-half comebacks by the visiting Milwaukee Bucks, to a 103-100 victory in Salt Lake City.
The Jazz have won two straight. The Bucks, who trailed by as many as 22 in the first half and entered the locker room down 20, had a four-game winning streak snapped.
Bogdanovic's winner gave him a game-high 33 points and capped a wild final 90 seconds in which the Jazz squandered an eight-point lead, the bulk of which was blown as Bucks superstar Giannis Antetokounmpo sat on the bench after fouling out.
Eric Bledsoe scored the first four points of the run for the Bucks before Sterling Brown hit a driving lay-up to pull Milwaukee within 100-98. Bogdanovic missed a three-pointer and Rudy Gobert was whistled for a foul on the rebound. Khris Middleton hit both free throws to tie the score at 100 with eight seconds to play.
Bucks guard George Hill then stole the ball from Donovan Mitchell as the latter tried driving the lane. Hill called time out to set up a last play for the Bucks, but Middleton was whistled for traveling.
After a Jazz timeout, Joe Ingles dished the in-bounds pass to Bogdanovic, who broke free long enough to get an open look in the corner. His shot over the outstretched arms of Middleton hit nothing but net as time expired.
Mike Conley finished with 20 points for the Jazz while Royce O'Neale had 11 points and 11 rebounds. Mitchell scored 19 points and Gobert pulled down 17 rebounds.
Antetokounmpo scored 28 of his team-high 30 points after half-time for the Bucks. He added 13 rebounds. Middleton had 26 points and 11 rebounds while Bledsoe finished with 22 points.
Andrew Wiggins capped a season-best 40-point effort with a key three-pointer with 23.5 seconds remaining in overtime as the host Minnesota Timberwolves overcame a career-high 52-point performance by D'Angelo Russell to edge the Golden State Warriors 125-119.
Wiggins' point total was seven shy of his career-best and the eighth time he has topped 40. Russell's 52 points topped the 44 he poured in for Brooklyn against Sacramento last March. It was the NBA's third 50-point game of the season, with James Harden having gone for 59 at Washington and Kyrie Irving 50 against these same Timberwolves.
After blowing a late lead in regulation, the Warriors took one final lead at 113-112 on a dunk by Willie Cauley-Stein with 4:05 remaining in overtime. The game was tied at 116-all after a Russell three-pointer with 3:03 to go, before Josh Okogie put the Timberwolves ahead for good with a tip-in with 2:35 to play.
Wiggins eventually extended the lead to four at 123-119 with his back-breaking three-pointer with 23.5 seconds to go.
The Timberwolves scored the last four points of regulation, sandwiching a Warriors turnover with 14.4 seconds left when, with Minnesota in a full-court press, Robert Covington tied up Alec Burks for a jump ball. Covington controlled the tip and Wiggins converted the Golden State miscue into a game-tying lay-up with 5.6 seconds left.
The Warriors, who led by eight in the first minute of the final period, had a shot at a win, but Russell misfired on a 3-pointer shortly before the horn.
Karl-Anthony Towns (20 points, 14 rebounds) and Covington (17 points, 11 rebounds) recorded double-doubles for the Timberwolves, who snapped a two-game losing streak.
Pascal Siakam scored 44 points and grabbed 10 rebounds as the visiting Toronto Raptors routed the reeling New Orleans Pelicans 122-104.
Siakam made 17-of-28 field goals and matched his career-high as the Raptors began a five-game road trip. OG Anunoby added 21 points, Normal Powell scored 18 off the bench and Fred VanVleet had 12 points and 11 assists.
Brandon Ingram scored 27 points, Jrue Holiday added 16 and Frank Jackson and rookie Nickeil Alexander-Walker had 13 points each off the bench for New Orleans, who have won just one of eight games this season.
The Raptors, who made 19-of-43 three-pointers in the game, led by 22 points at half-time and increased their lead to as many as 27 points before the Pelicans cut the deficit to 97-75 at the end of the third quarter.
Alexander-Walker made two 3-pointers during a New Orleans spurt that got it within 100-88. A two-point basket by Alexander-Walker got the Pelicans within 11 at 101-90 but they could never get any closer.
Marcus Morris matched a season-high with 29 points as the visiting New York Knicks overcame a triple-double by Luka Doncic and ended a four-game losing streak by holding on for a 106-102 victory over the Dallas Mavericks.
The Knicks bounced back nicely from consecutive blowout losses to Sacramento and Detroit by overcoming Doncic's fourth triple-double of the season and winning their first meeting against their former center Kristaps Porzingis.
Doncic set a career-high with 38 points while collecting 14 rebounds and 10 assists, but he also committed eight turnovers - one shy of his career-high.
Porzingis added 28 and nine rebounds before fouling out in his first meeting since the trade from New York on January 31. After the game, he shared a handshake with Knicks coach David Fizdale.
Morris helped the Knicks get their second win by hitting 10-of-22 shots, including 4-of-8 from three-point range. New York held on down the stretch and overcame going 18-of-31 from the foul line.
Domantas Sabonis, TJ McConnell and TJ Warren led a well-balanced attack with 17 points apiece as the host Indiana Pacers downed the Detroit Pistons 112-106.
Sabonis also supplied 14 rebounds and six assists, while McConnell dished out nine assists for Indiana, who gained some revenge for two losses to Detroit earlier this season. Justin Holiday had 16 points, Doug McDermott tossed in 14 and Malcolm Brogdon added 11 for the Pacers.
Luke Kennard poured in 29 points for the Pistons. Langston Galloway contributed 19 points off the bench, while Andre Drummond had 15 points, 13 rebounds and eight assists despite foul trouble. Markieff Morris added 13 points and Tony Snell chipped in 11.
Indiana took control of the game with a 15-2 run to open the second half. Drummond collected his fourth foul during that span and soon went back to the bench. Warren was the sparkplug, scoring nine of those points.
In the fourth quarter, Snell drained a three-pointer with two minutes left to cut Indiana's lead to 108-102. He had a chance to make it a three-point game but missed his next deep try and a Sabonis tap-in finished off the Pistons.
Buddy Hield scored 22 points and Bogdan Bogdanovic drained five three-pointers as the visiting Sacramento Kings recorded a 121-109 victory over the Atlanta Hawks.
Bogdanovic finished with 20 points, and De'Aaron Fox added 17 and nine assists for the Kings, who have won three of their past four games following an 0-5 start to the season.
Hawks guard Trae Young scored 16 of his 30 points in the third quarter and added 12 assists, but Atlanta ran out of gas after shaving a 21-point deficit down to one early in the fourth quarter.
Jabari Parker scored 25 points, and Kevin Huerter chipped in with 17 for the Hawks, who have dropped four in a row to Sacramento.
The Hawks benefited from a 36-point third quarter and scored 10 of the first 13 points in the fourth to trim the deficit to 94-93. However, Sacramento regained its stroke from long range to keep Atlanta at bay. Bogdanovic drained a pair of three-pointers and Cory Joseph, Trevor Ariza and Harrison Barnes also connected from beyond the arc to highlight a 15-5 run to halt the Hawks' momentum.
Nikola Vucevic recorded 23 points and 16 rebounds as a dominant fourth quarter powered the Orlando Magic to a 118-86 win over the visiting Memphis Grizzlies.
Ahead by six after three periods, Orlando opened the final quarter with a Michael Carter-Williams three-pointer followed on the next possession by an Aaron Gordon thunderous reverse dunk in traffic off a pass from Carter-Williams.
The two quick scores kicked off a 13-0 run, and the Magic never looked back. Memphis scored just eight in the decisive fourth period while Orlando put up 34.
Jonathan Isaac scored 22 points and grabbed eight rebounds for Orlando. Evan Fournier registered 19 points, seven rebounds and six assists. Gordon added 17 points, including two momentum-swinging dunks in the second half.
Center Jonas Valanciunas, one of only three players to score in double figures, led the Grizzlies with 15 points. Jaren Jackson Jr notched 14 after and Brandon Clarke hit for 13 off the bench. The Magic held Memphis' leading scorer on the season, rookie Ja Morant, to a career-low eight points on 3-of-13 shooting.
Tristan Thompson led seven Cavaliers in double figures with 21 points and visiting Cleveland held off the Washington Wizards for a 113-100 win.
Washington, who trailed by as many as 21 points, pulled within one point twice in the fourth quarter.
Kevin Love and Collin Sexton scored 16 points each for the Cavaliers. Thompson and Love grabbed 12 rebounds apiece. Thomas Bryant led Washington with 23 points, Rui Hachimura added 21 points on 10-of-13 shooting and Bradley Beal scored 20 points.
Back-to-back three-pointers by Davis Bertans and Ish Smith capped a 27-9 run that pulled Washington within 88-84 after three quarters. The Wizards pulled within one early in the fourth quarter but never took the lead and the Cavaliers pushed the margin back to seven points on Jordan Clarkson's tip-in.
Washington got no closer than within six points the rest of the way and Sexton's three-pointer made it 111-100 with 1:41 left.
