NBA opener: San Antonio wins one-point thriller against Dallas Mavericks in first game of season
TONY Parker scored 23 points as the San Antonio Spurs began their title defence with a 101-100 win over Dallas on the opening night of the NBA season.
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TONY Parker scored 23 points as the San Antonio Spurs began their title defence with a 101-100 win over Dallas in one of three opening-night NBA contests.
The Spurs, despite their superb record in ring ceremony games, needed every minute of the contest to hold off their Texas-state rivals, who gave them their most difficult challenge of last year’s playoffs.
The Spurs rolled to their fifth title in June by dismantling the LeBron James-led Miami Heat. But first they had to get past the Mavericks in an epic seven-game series in the Western Conference semi-finals.
“We moved the ball much better in the second half,” said Spurs guard Manu Ginobili, who came off the bench to score 20 points.
“The defence was great. Tony had a couple of big baskets it was a very close game. Anything could have happened.”
Australian tall Aron Baynes made the most of his limited opportunities for the Spurs, finishing with four points and two rebounds.
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PELICANS 101 MAGIC 84
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The opening day three-game set to start the 2014-15 regular season also saw Anthony Davis fall one block shy of a triple-double as the New Orleans Pelicans pulled away from the Orlando Magic for a 101-84 home win.
Kobe Bryant’s Los Angeles Lakers were taking on the Houston Rockets in the late contest.
San Antonio received their championship rings in a pre-game ceremony that also included raising their fifth championship banner in franchise history. The Spurs are now 5-0 in games where they received their championship rings.
“The ring ceremony got me emotional,” said Ginobili. “This is a great start. I can’t complain.” Parker scored the go ahead three-pointer with under a minute left.
Ginobili also had six assists off the bench and Tim Duncan totalled 14 points and 13 rebounds for San Antonio.
Monta Ellis led Dallas with 26 points on 11-of-21 shooting and Dirk Nowitzki added 18 points with six rebounds in the loss.
San Antonio returned almost everyone from last year’s team but they had to play the season-opener without NBA finals MVP Kawhi Leonard, who is sidelined by a right eye infection.
Tiago Splitter also sat with a calf injury and Australian Patty Mills will miss the first few months after shoulder surgery.
San Antonio has now won 10 straight regular-season games over the Mavericks, including eight straight at home.
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LAKERS 90 ROCKETS 108
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In the late game, injury woes continued to mount for the Los Angeles Lakers as rookie forward Julius Randle broke his leg in their opening fixture.
With just under seven minutes to play in a blowout 108-90 Houston Rockets win, Randle fell hard after a drive to the lane, breaking his tibia, the Lakers announced.
“The last three or four minutes, obviously we weren’t thinking a whole lot about basketball,” Lakers coach Byron Scott said. “We were just thinking about Julius, and hoping he’s OK.”
The Lakers, who lost Kobe Bryant to injury for all but six games of last season, had already been hit with injuries even before Randle got hurt.
Future hall of famer Steve Nash is expected to miss the entire season, possibly ending his career with a back injury.
Randle, the No.7 overall pick in the NBA entry draft, was stretchered off the court after being treated by doctors, who put his leg in an air cast.
The six-foot-nine, 250-pound Randle was one-for-three from the floor for two points in 13 minutes of playing time.
“We’ll help him through this, and he’ll come back a better basketball player,” Bryant said. “That’s the goal, is to try to find a silver lining in this. He’ll use the time to come back and be stronger.”
James Harden scored 32 points, Dwight Howard added 13 points and 11 rebounds for the Rockets before getting into an exchange with Bryant.
Bryant scored 19 points in his first game back at Staples Center after missing most of the Lakers’ worst season in a half-century (losing 55 games) with two major injuries.
A few moments before Randle’s injury, Howard and Bryant received matching technical fouls when Howard elbowed Bryant in the face after grabbing a rebound in the fourth quarter, setting off a lengthy stretch of shouting and finger-pointing between the former teammates.
Although teammates stepped between them, Bryant appeared to yell “Try me!” at Howard, who wore his usual broad grin while responding.
“There’s no need to go into it. We won the game,” Howard said. “It’s over with. It’s about basketball. I’m not even focused on it.”
Originally published as NBA opener: San Antonio wins one-point thriller against Dallas Mavericks in first game of season
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