Los Angeles Clippers rally behind reserves to stun Atlanta Hawks from 22 points down
Los Angeles Clippers overturn 22-point deficit to beat Atlanta Hawks; Jrue Holiday stars in Milwaukee Bucks victory; Ja Morant leads Memphis Grizzlies to overtime win against Boston Celtics; Houston Rockets end 20-game losing streak; plus wins for Jazz, Hornets, Thunder and Kings.
Tuesday 23 March 2021 08:50, UK
The Los Angeles Clippers reserves starred on Monday night as they inspired a comeback from 22 points down to snap the Atlanta Hawks' winning run, while elsewhere Ja Morant led the Memphis Grizzlies to an overtime victory against the Boston Celtics and Jrue Holiday shone for the Milwaukee Bucks.
Atlanta Hawks 110-119 Los Angeles Clippers
Led by their second unit, the Clippers battled back from a 22-point deficit in the second half to earn a 119-110 victory over the visiting Hawks, who saw their eight-game winning streak come to an end.
Clippers head coach Tyronn Lue pulled his starters midway through the third quarter, by the end of which the second unit had cut the Hawks' lead to eight with a half-court heave by Luke Kennard, who finished eight-for-eight with 20 points, seven rebounds and four assists in 18 minutes.
Lue put starters Kawhi Leonard and Paul George back in the game when the second unit cut Atlanta's advance to four points early in the fourth. The Clippers then managed to tie the game at 105-all with just under four minutes left and took the lead for good at 110-108 with a Terance Mann three-pointer from the corner with 2:42 left. Mann finished with 21 points and 10 rebounds.
Leonard led the Clippers with 25 points and Marcus Morris Sr. added 19 points on five for eight shooting from beyond the arc.
The Clippers held a moment of silence before tip-off for Elgin Baylor, who died of natural causes at the age of 86 years old on Monday. Baylor served as general manager of the Clippers for 22 seasons and was named NBA Executive of the Year for the 2015-16 season.
Young paced the Hawks with 28 points, including 20 in the second half, as well as providing eight assists and five rebounds. John Collins contributed 23 points and seven rebounds, while Clint Capela added 12 points and 14 rebounds for Atlanta. The Clippers' bench outscored Atlanta's bench 52-32.
Indiana Pacers 113-140 Milwaukee Bucks
Holiday recorded season-highs of 28 points and 14 assists as the Bucks extended their season-best winning streak to seven games with a convincing 140-113 triumph over the Indiana Pacers.
The Bucks played without two-time reigning NBA MVP Giannis Antetokounmpo (knee) but didn't miss their star as they racked up 83 first-half points.
Khris Middleton registered 25 points, eight rebounds and six assists and Pat Connaughton contributed 20 points and nine rebounds to help Milwaukee win for the 12th time in the past 13 games.
Domantas Sabonis had 22 points and nine rebounds for Indiana, who fell for the ninth time in the past 13 games. Jeremy Lamb scored 21 points, Doug McDermott had 20 and Caris LeVert 19. T.J. McConnell also added 13 points and seven assists and Goga Bitadze another 10 points for the Pacers, who shot 40.5 percent from the field and made 12 of 50 from behind the arc.
Connaughton made a career-best six three-pointers, Holiday made five, and Middleton and Bryn Forbes connected on four apiece for the Bucks, who were 24 of 39 (61.5 percent) from deep.
Overall, Milwaukee made 56.4 percent of their field-goal attempts and owned a 55-40 rebounding edge. Bobby Portis had 18 points and 10 rebounds, Brook Lopez also scored 18 points, Forbes had 12 and Donte DiVincenzo matched his career-high of 13 rebounds.
The Bucks had built a 25-point cushion early in the second quarter and entered the break up 83-60, before pulling away in the second half to see it out.
Boston Celtics 126-132 Memphis Grizzlies (OT)
Morant scored 29 points and dished out nine assists to help the Grizzlies edge the Celtics 132-126 in overtime.
Morant hit three of four free throws in the closing seconds of the extra period to help Memphis secure its third win in four games. Dillon Brooks also scored five of his 24 points in overtime to help the Grizzlies outscore Boston 15-9.
Jonas Valanciunas contributed 16 points and a game-high 19 rebounds as the Grizzlies secured a split of the two-game season series against Boston, while Kyle Anderson totalled 14 points, seven assists and five rebounds alongside Desmond Bane's 13 points off the bench.
Playing without Jayson Tatum, who sat out due to an illness, and Kemba Walker, sidelined due to left knee injury management, the Celtics fell to 2-5 since the All-Star break.
Jaylen Brown scored 20 of his 27 points after halftime and finished with nine rebounds and five assists for Boston. Jeff Teague, who started for Tatum, had 26 points and six assists. Robert Williams III meanwhile finished with 17 points, six rebounds and four assists off the bench.
The Celtics used a 13-4 surge capped by Teague's layup to tie the game at 111 with 1:51 left in the fourth quarter. With Boston trailing 117-113, Teague scored inside again to cut the deficit to two with 47.7 seconds to go.
After the Grizzlies missed two shots at the other end, Daniel Theis tied the game at 117 with 7.6 seconds left off an alley-oop from Marcus Smart. Morant then missed a 3-point attempt from the top of the key at the end of regulation.
Utah Jazz 120-95 Chicago Bulls
Rudy Gobert had 21 points, 10 rebounds and a career-high nine blocked shots, and the Utah Jazz pulled away for a 120-95 win over the Chicago Bulls.
Donovan Mitchell scored a team-high 30 points for Utah, who wrapped a five-game road trip with a 3-2 record. Joe Ingles (17 points), Jordan Clarkson (16) and Mike Conley (15) also scored in double digits for the league-leading Jazz.
Gobert set a personal record when he swatted away a layup attempt by Coby White midway through the fourth quarter. He surpassed his previous high of eight blocked shots, which he established against the Indiana Pacers on March 20, 2017.
Zach LaVine finished with 27 points to lead the Bulls, Thaddeus Young contributed 14 points and nine rebounds, Tomas Satoransky scored 13 and White had 10.
The Jazz, who had entered the break up 56-42, led 89-71 at the end of the third quarter, Clarkson capping the period with a floating jump shot off an assist from Conley with 3.1 seconds to go.
Chicago opened with a 20-15 lead after White drained a three-pointer with 4:07 remaining in the first quarter, but the advantage did not last for long as Utah closed the quarter on a 14-3 run to go ahead 29-23. The Jazz extended their lead to as many as 17 points in the second to take control.
Charlotte Hornets 100-97 San Antonio Spurs
Gordon Hayward scored 27 points and Terry Rozier added 24, 17 of those in the second half, as the Charlotte Hornets held on for a 100-97 win over the San Antonio Spurs.
The Hornets led by 10 points at the half and by five heading into the fourth. San Antonio rallied to tie the game on DeMar DeRozan's three-point play with 1:45 left, but Rozier answered with a three-pointer that put the Hornets back on top with 1:26 to play.
The Spurs' Derrick White canned two free throws with 22.4 seconds remaining, before Rozier then made two free throws with 18.4 seconds left as the lead went back to three.
DeRozan's dunk with 9.2 seconds remaining cut the Charlotte lead to one point again, but Hayward promptly hit two free throws to force San Antonio into a last-second three-point attempt, which Patty Mills missed with 6.7 seconds left.
Malik Monk and Bismack Biyombo added 11 points each for the Hornets, who ended a three-game losing streak, and P.J. Washington finished with 10 points and 13 rebounds.
DeRozan ended up with 28 points for San Antonio, White scored 21, and Mills and Rudy Gay hit for 10 apiece. Jakob Poeltl paced the Spurs with 11 rebounds.
Oklahoma City Thunder 112-103 Minnesota Timberwolves
Shai Gilgeous-Alexander scored 31 points to lead the Oklahoma City Thunder to a 112-103 win over the Minnesota Timberwolves.
Svi Mykhailiuk, playing in his third game with the Thunder after being acquired in a trade earlier in the month, heated up during a 15-2 run early in the fourth quarter. The surge helped Oklahoma City stretch its lead to a game-high 18 points and take control for good.
Mykhailiuk hit three-pointers on back-to-back possessions, then on the next possession passed up what would have been a contested shot from the corner to pitch it to Kenrich Williams on the wing for a better look. Williams sank a trey. He then hit a midrange jumper on the next possession before finding Justin Jackson for a corner 3-pointer to keep Oklahoma City's hot stretch going.
Gilgeous-Alexander hit four 3-pointers while Ty Jerome hit all five he attempted to finish with 15 points off the bench, which combined for 46 points. Moses Brown had a career-high 17 rebounds for the Thunder, and Aleksej Pokusevski finished with 13 points and 10 boards.
Minnesota cut the lead to six with just more than a minute remaining, but Karl-Anthony Towns missed a three-point attempt that would've made it a one-possession game, Gilgeous-Alexander grabbed the rebound, and Oklahoma City put the game away at the free-throw line.
Towns led the Timberwolves with 33 points overall but shot just 10 of 28 from the field. He also pulled down 10 rebounds. Anthony Edwards scored 16, Jaylen Nowell added 14, and Ricky Rubio contributed 11 points and 11 assists.
Toronto Raptors 99-117 Houston Rockets
Christian Wood scored 19 points, all in the second half, while John Wall produced a triple-double as the Houston Rockets snapped their franchise-record 20-game losing streak with a 117-99 victory over the Toronto Raptors.
Wood, held scoreless after picking up three fouls in the first half, was the linchpin of the Rockets' run to a double-digit lead in the third quarter. He scored 12 points in the period, and his floater at the 3:08 mark lifted Houston to an 86-73 lead. As with everything during their skid, things quickly grew difficult for the Rockets.
Toronto closed the third with a 13-2 run that included two Fred VanVleet three-pointers and a Chris Boucher three-point play, eventually moving to within 88-87 on a free throw early in the fourth. But Houston didn't fold.
Wall finished with 19 points, 11 rebounds and 10 assists while Jae'Sean Tate added 22 points, six boards and five assists. Sterling Brown added 20 points and 10 rebounds for the Rockets, who were without Victor Oladipo, Kevin Porter Jr., Eric Gordon and David Nwaba.
VanVleet led the Raptors with 27 points. Pascal Siakam added 21 points and 10 rebounds, Norman Powell scored 19 points and Kyle Lowry 17. Toronto dropped its ninth consecutive game.
Momentum swung like a pendulum in the second, with the Raptors taking a 49-46 lead with an 8-0 run only for the Rockets to match with an 8-0 run that moved them ahead 54-49. The final minute of the half produced end-to-end action, with Wall scoring twice before Siakam converted a three-point play prior to Danuel House Jr. hitting a 51-foot, buzzer-beating three-pointer. Houston led 65-60 at the break.
Sacramento Kings 119-105 Cleveland Cavaliers
De'Aaron Fox scored 30 points, Tyrese Haliburton added a career-high 28 points on 11-of-15 shooting and the Sacramento Kings ended their six-game Eastern Conference road swing with a 119-105 win over the Cleveland Cavaliers.
JaVale McGee led the way for Cleveland with 18 points and nine rebounds in 19 minutes off the bench. Sacramento used a dominant third quarter, including a 14-1 run over six-plus minutes, to give it separation through the second half.
The Kings held the Cavaliers to just 17 points in the period while pushing their lead as high as 18. Cleveland struggled to hit shots all night from both inside and beyond the three-point arc, going four-of-17 from long range while shooting 42.7 percent from the floor.
Collin Sexton was held to 15 points, more than nine below his season average, after shooting 6-of-15 from the floor. Buddy Hield finished with 19 points, Richaun Holmes had 17 points and a game-high 16 rebounds, Sexton dished a team-high seven assists and Harrison Barnes flirted with a triple-double with nine points, 10 rebounds and eight assists.
Darius Garland scored 17 points for Cleveland, while Jarrett Allen and reserve Dean Wade added 11 apiece. Allen also collected nine rebounds.
Cavaliers coach J.B. Bickerstaff subbed out the entire starting five midway through the first quarter after a slow start. Cleveland tied the score at 59 before a Haliburton layup gave the Kings a 63-59 lead at the break.
