76ERS 118, CELTICS
115
PHILADELPHIA -- Joel Embiid had
37 points, 22 rebounds and a key block on Kyrie Irving with
35 seconds remaining, and Jimmy Butler scored
15 of his 22 points in the fourth quarter to lead the 76ers over the Boston
Celtics for their sixth straight victory.
Tobias Harris added
21 points for the 76ers, who avoided a season sweep by the Celtics.
Philadelphia (47-25) holds the No. 3 seed in the Eastern Conference playoff
race, three games ahead of idle Indiana and four in front of fifth-place
Boston.
Irving scored 36 points for the Celtics.
The game was tied at 113 with a minute left before Ben Simmons converted
a three-point play. He banked in a shot with his right hand and got fouled
by Marcus Morris,
hitting the free throw to make it 116-113 with 40.8 seconds to go. Embiid then
rejected a driving Irving on the Celtics' ensuing possession and Butler sealed
it with a long jumper from the wing with 4.7 ticks remaining.
GRIZZLIES 126, ROCKETS 125, OT
MEMPHIS, Tenn. -- James Harden scored
57 points but the Memphis
Grizzlies outlasted Houston, handing the Rockets only their
second loss in the last 14 games.
Mike Conley scored
35 points for Memphis and Jonas
Valanciunas had a career-best 33, including the game-winning
free throw with less than a second left.
Valanciunas made the first of two free throws with 0.1
seconds remaining after he was fouled by Clint Capela under
the Grizzlies basket. The clock ran out after Valanciunas, who also had 15
rebounds, missed the second foul shot.
Harden scored 15 during a 17-2 fourth-quarter burst that
helped the Rockets tie the game at 115 at the end of regulation. Harden's three
free throws with 4 seconds left tied it.
HEAT 110, SPURS 105
SAN ANTONIO -- Goran Dragic had
22 points and the Miami Heat snapped
the Spurs' nine-game winning streak, sending Dwyane Wade home
a winner in his final game in San Antonio.
Dion Waiters added
18 points and Josh
Richardson had 15 for Miami, which has won three straight.
San Antonio's previous loss was Feb. 25 in Brooklyn as part
of their 1-7 Rodeo Road Trip. The Spurs had won 11 straight at home.
The Spurs had six players in double figures, but only two
starters. LaMarcus
Aldridge scored 17 points and DeRozan added 16. Patty Mills and Marco
Belinelli added 17 apiece.
CAVALIERS 107, BUCKS 102
CLEVELAND -- Rookie Collin Sexton scored
25 points, Jordan
Clarkson added 23 and the Cavaliers delayed Milwaukee from
clinching the Central Division with a win over the bruised Bucks, who were
without superstar Giannis
Antetokounmpo.
Sexton made a 3-pointer with 1:42 left and dropped a driving
layup one minute later as the Cavs held on. Down 105-102, Milwaukee had a
chance to tie it but had an ugly turnover without getting a shot off.
Sexton became the only rookie in team history to score at
least 23 points in seven straight games. Austin Carr (1972) did it six times.
Sexton also became the first NBA rookie to score 23 points in seven straight
games since Tim Duncan.
Khris
Middleton scored 26 points and Eric Bledsoe 24
for the Bucks, who couldn't wrap up their first division title since 2001. They
were at a disadvantage as Antetokounmpo sat his second straight game with a
sprained right ankle.
Cleveland's Kevin Love,
who missed Monday's game in Detroit with a sore lower back, left in the third
quarter with an apparent head injury.
MAGIC 119, PELICANS 96
ORLANDO, Fla. -- Evan Fournier scored
22 points and Aaron Gordon added
20 and the Magic routed the New Orleans
Pelicans.
Terrence Ross had
19 points and Nikola
Vucevic added 15 points and 17 rebounds for Orlando, which won
its third straight.
New Orleans played without All-Star center Anthony Davis,
who flew home Wednesday morning. The team said Davis was excused to attend a
family matter.
Stanley
Johnson led the Pelicans with 18 points. New Orleans' Elfrid Payton had
his streak of triple-doubles end at five straight games. He finished with seven
points, two assists and three rebounds. The only other NBA players with a
triple-double in five straight games are Russell
Westbrook (four times), Oscar Robertson (three), Wilt
Chamberlain (two) and Michael Jordan
(one).
JAZZ 137, KNICKS 116
NEW YORK -- Donovan
Mitchell scored 30 points, Rudy Gobert made
all seven shots and added 18 points, and the Utah Jazz romped
to their fifth straight lopsided victory by beating the Knicks.
Joe Ingles made
six 3-pointers and also scored 18, while Mitchell made five 3-pointers as the
Jazz finished 20 of 42 (48 percent) from behind the arc.
The Jazz led by as much as 37 in a game that was even easier
than their recent easy victories. They started their winning streak with a
17-point win over Phoenix, and then beat Minnesota by 20, Brooklyn by 16 and
Washington by 21.
Kevin Knox scored
27 points and Mario Hezonja had
23 for the Knicks, who lost for the 10th time in 11 games in the opener of a
six-game homestand that keeps them home into early next month.
BULLS 126, WIZARDS 120, OT
CHICAGO -- Lauri
Markkanen had 32 points and 13 rebounds, Kris Dunn scored
a season-high 26 -- including eight in overtime -- to go with 13 assists, and
the short-handed Bulls beat the fading Washington
Wizards.
Shaquille
Harrison scored 18, and Cristiano
Felicio 15 for the Bulls, who won their second straight after
dropping five in a row, despite leading scorer Zach LaVine (bruised
right thigh, right knee tendinitis) and Otto Porter
Jr. (strained right rotator cuff) not playing because of injuries.
Jabari Parker led
Washington with 28 points against his former team. Bradley Beal scored
27 and hit the tying jumper in the closing seconds of regulation. But the
Wizards lost for the third time in four games.
TRAIL BLAZERS 126, MAVERICKS 118
PORTLAND, Ore. -- Damian
Lillard had 33 points and 12 assists to lead the Trail Blazers
past the Dallas
Mavericks.
Seth Curry scored
20 off the bench for the Blazers, who have won five of six as they try to
secure home-court advantage in the first round of the playoffs. Portland
(44-27) led by as many as 25 and Lillard hit six of the team's 16 3-pointers.
Luka Doncic had
24 points for the Mavericks, who have lost nine of 10 and sit in second-to-last
place in the West, ahead of the Phoenix Suns.
Portland rested Lillard in the fourth quarter. Enes Kanter had
14 points and 10 rebounds off the bench for his first double-double since
joining the Blazers just before the All-Star break.
RAPTORS 123, THUNDER 114
OKLAHOMA CITY -- Pascal Siakam had
33 points and 13 rebounds, Fred VanVleet added
23 points and six assists and the Toronto
Raptors won the first of two games in three days against
Oklahoma City, blowing a 20-point lead in the second half before beating the
Thunder.
Atlantic Division-leading Toronto snapped a four-game losing
streak against Oklahoma City despite the absence of starting guard Kyle Lowry,
who sat out with a sprained right ankle sustained Monday in a win over
the New York
Knicks. The Raptors did so with balance scoring, good ball movement
-- four players had six assists -- and strong shooting, making 51.7 percent
overall and 38.9 percent from 3-point range (14 of 36). Kawhi Leonard added
22 points and 10 rebounds, while Danny Green scored
17.
In his return after a one-game suspension for accumulating
too many technical fouls, Russell Westbrook had 42 points, 11 rebounds and six
assists for Oklahoma City, which has lost four straight games and 10 of 14.
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