NBA wrap: San Antonio coach Gregg Popovich reaches 1,000 wins, Wizard’s Wall puts spell on Magic
SAN Antonio coach Gregg Popovich reaches 1,000 NBA wins after the Spurs edge the Pacers and a Wizard performs a magic trick against Orlando. It’s all in the NBA wrap.
SAN Antonio coach Gregg Popovich reaches 1,000 NBA wins after the Spurs scraped past the Pacers and the Wizard’s John Wall put a spell on the Magic.
It’s all in the NBA wrap.
AUSSIES IN ACTION
Patty Mills made a strong contribution off the bench in San Antonio’s win over Indiana. The point guard had nine points and an assist in his 18 minutes on court. Fellow Aussie and Spurs big man, Aaron Baynes, had four points and three rebounds.
Dante Exum repaid the faith shown to him by coach Quin Snyder, scoring eight points and notching five assists in Utah’s win over New Orleans. Exum’s Aussie teammate, Joe Ingles, didn’t play in the win.
Andrew Bogut scored a disappointing four points in 30 minutes game time, but he was strong on the defensive end of the court, grabbing nine rebounds, two blocks and one steal.
SAN ANTONIO 95, INDIANA 93
THE San Antonio Spurs’ huge fourth-quarter rally helped Gregg Popovich reach 1,000 NBA wins milestone Monday.
Marco Belinelli’s baseline jumper with 2.1 seconds left capped San Antonio’s 95-93 victory at Indiana.
Popovich became the ninth coach with 1,000th regular-season wins and became the third-fastest to achieve the feat. He also joined former Utah coach Jerry Sloan as the only coaches in league history to win 1,000 games with one team.
Tony Parker led the Spurs with 19 points. Tim Duncan had 15.
Rodney Stuckey scored 18 for Indiana, which had its season-best winning streak end at three.
The Pacers appeared to take control by building a 79-65 lead after three quarters.
But the Spurs scored nine straight to tie the score at 91, tied it again at 93, took the lead on Belinelli’s shot and held on when George Hill’s 3-pointer bounced off the rim.
UTAH 100, NEW ORLEANS 96
Gordon Hayward scored 25 of his 32 points in the second half, and the Utah Jazz overcame a 14-point, third-quarter deficit to beat the New Orleans Pelicans, 100-96 on Monday.
Derrick Favors scored 18 and Enes Kanter had 14 points and 11 rebounds for Utah, which won its second straight while handing the Pelicans their second straight loss.
Eric Gordon tied a career high with seven 3s on eight attempts and finished with 31 points, while Tyreke Evans added 18 points and 10 assists.
But the Pelicans were unable to overcome the absence of leading scorer and rebounder Anthony Davis, who sprained his right shoulder on Saturday, and Ryan Anderson, who has a sore right elbow.
Steve Novak added 12 points for Utah, hitting four of five 3-pointers.
GOLDEN STATE 89, PILADELPHIA 84
Stephen Curry scored 20 points, Leandro Barbosa had 16 off the bench and the Golden State Warriors snapped Philadelphia’s four-game home winning streak with an 89-84 win over the 76ers on Monday.
Klay Thompson and former Sixer Andre Iguodala added 13 points apiece for the Warriors (41-9), who have won four of five and two straight after opening their four-game road trip with a loss to the Hawks on Friday.
Robert Covington scored 21 points to pace the 76ers (12-41), who committed 27 turnovers and shot 7 for 24 from 3-point range. Luc Mbah a Moute had 13 points and nine rebounds.
Golden State, the NBA’s second-best 3-point shooting team, shot just 7 for 29 from behind the arc.
With the game tied at 46 early in the first half, the Warriors reeled off a quick 9-0 run to take the lead for good.
WASHINGTON 96, ORLANDO 80
John Wall fell one point shy of his first triple-double of the season, Marcin Gortat had 14 points and 14 rebounds, and the Washington Wizards beat the Orlando Magic 96-80 on Monday night to sweep the season series.
Presented by Wizards owner Ted Leonsis with an NBA All-Star jersey before the opening tip, Wall hit a 3-pointer a little more than a minute into the third quarter — the first shot made from beyond the arc by either team — to open an 11-0 run that put Washington in control.
Wall wound up with nine points, 10 assists and 10 rebounds after missing a floater with about 50 seconds left.
The Wizards have won two in a row following a five-game losing streak. They went 4-0 against the Magic this season and have won the past eight match-ups.
Evan Fournier scored 18 for Orlando, which is 1-2 under interim coach James Borrego. Overall, the Magic have lost 12 of their past 13 games, including the last 10 under Jacque Vaughn, who was fired as head coach last week.
Coming off a one-point loss to Chicago on Sunday night, Orlando started slowly against Washington, missing its first five shots. The Wizards, meanwhile, got their first 10 field goals in the paint, including four dunks by Nene, who finished with 14 points.
The basketball was not all that good for segments. There were 18 turnovers in the first half, 12 by the Wizards. The teams combined to go 0 for 18 on 3s in the first half, with 11 misses by Orlando. And in one particularly futile stretch, the teams went scoreless for about 2 1/2 minutes, missing a total of eight field-goal attempts.
But Wall got Washington going after halftime. After his 3, Garrett Temple hit another on the Wizards’ next possession, and then Paul Pierce made one, too, to help turn a 43-35 lead after two quarters into a 54-37 margin.
A three-point play by Drew Gooden with 3 seconds left in the third quarter gave Washington its largest cushion, 74-54, heading into the fourth.
ATLANTA 117, MINNESOTA 105
Al Horford scored a season-high 28 points and grabbed eight rebounds, and DeMarre Carroll added a career-best 26 points to lift the Atlanta Hawks to a 117-105 win over the Minnesota Timberwolves on Monday.
Paul Millsap had 19 points, nine rebounds and seven assists for the Hawks (43-10), who bounced back from a loss to Memphis the previous night. The NBA-leading Hawks still have not lost back-to-back games since Nov. 18. They shot 51 percent and outscored Minnesota 58-44 in the paint.
Kevin Martin scored 21 points and Shabazz Muhammad had 18 points and eight rebounds in his first game since Jan. 9 because of a strained oblique for Minnesota. The Timberwolves lost for the first time in four games.
Kyle Korver scored 12 points on 4-for-9 shooting from 3-point range for Atlanta. The Hawks let rejuvenated Minnesota hang around in the first half thanks to the Wolves’ dominance on the boards, but turned up the defensive pressure in the third quarter to gradually pull away.
The Hawks went 10 for 21 on 3s, while Minnesota was 5 for 16. The Wolves pulled within 12 early in the third quarter, but Horford scored nine straight for Atlanta to end any threat.
Andrew Wiggins had 15 points and six rebounds and Gorgui Dieng had 12 boards and five blocks for the Wolves, who outrebounded Atlanta 50-36 and grabbed 23 offensive boards. The Wolves were starting to build some momentum with wins over the Heat, Grizzlies and Pistons after getting Nikola Pekovic, Martin and Ricky Rubio back from long absences.
Then the Hawks brought them back down to earth in a big way.
If the Hawks have shown any weakness while steamrolling through the league during the first of the season, it’s been on the boards. Almost 15 percent of their points allowed this season have been scored on second chances, the worst percentage in the league. They were hammered on the glass by Memphis on Sunday night, 55-37, and outscored in second-chance points 22-6.
It was more of the same in the first half Mon. Wiggins and the Timberwolves crashed the glass every time the ball left a teammate’s hand, racking up 12 offensive rebounds in the first 17 minutes. Dieng’s put back gave Minnesota a 45-38 lead in the second quarter, but the Hawks responded with a 20-5 run to start to pull away.
MILWAUKEE 103, BROOKLYN 97
Khris Middleton scored 12 of his 18 points in the third quarter, and the Milwaukee Bucks rallied from a 17-point deficit to beat the Brooklyn Nets 103-97 on Monday.
Jared Dudley had 19 points for Milwaukee, which won its fifth straight home game. Giannis Antetokounmpo added 12 points, nine rebounds, eight assists and three steals.
After a poor-shooting first half, the Bucks turned up the defensive pressure and forced eight turnovers in a third quarter in which they outscored Brooklyn by 16.
Jarrett Jack had 26 points for the Nets.
But mistakes doomed Brooklyn. It closed to 89-84 midway through the fourth quarter, but Mason Plumlee’s turnover turned into an easy transition layup for Middleton that put the Bucks back up by nine with 3:14 left.
The young Bucks swarmed the veteran Nets in the back-court and filled passing lanes. Middleton had three steals in the third quarter and used his soft baseline jumper to dent Brooklyn for easy buckets.
The Bucks were so good in the third that it was hard to believe that they struggled so much earlier in the evening.
A 0-for-12 drought spanning the first and second quarters left the Bucks trailing 41-24 with 7:45 left. Brooklyn found success inside, going 11 of 15 on shots in the paint in the first half.
The Bucks slowly chipped away despite shooting 33 percent in the first half. Antetokounmpo and Dudley kept the Bucks in the game, with Dudley going 4 of 4 from 3-point range in the first half to help them get within 52-47 at halftime.
Brooklyn’s Joe Johnson finished with 19 points and six assists.
LA CLIPPERS 115, DALLAS 98
DeAndre Jordan had 22 points and a career-high 27 rebounds, and the Los Angeles Clippers won without Blake Griffin, beating Dallas 115-98 Monday night after the Mavericks lost Tyson Chandler and Monta Ellis to injuries in the first 4 minutes.
With Dallas’ interior defence and rebounding gutted by the loss of Chandler, Jordan dominated while Chris Paul led the Clippers with 25 points and 13 assists.
Chandler injured his left ankle just 39 seconds in and went to the locker room about a minute later. Ellis joined him there with 8:03 left in the first quarter after hurting his left hip.
The Dallas injuries came on a night that started with news that Griffin would be out three to four weeks after surgery for a staph infection in his right elbow.
MIAMI 109, NEW YORK 95
Chris Bosh scored 32 points, Mario Chalmers added 18 and the Miami Heat pulled away from the New York Knicks for a 109-95 win on Monday.
Luol Deng and Norris Cole each scored 12 and Chris Andersen finished with 10 for Miami, which posted its biggest comeback win of the season after being down 14 early.
Carmelo Anthony scored 26 points for the Knicks, who became the first NBA team this season to be guaranteed of finishing with a sub-.500 record. Anthony left in the fourth quarter to get his knee re-taped, but never returned.
Amare Stoudemire scored 14 for New York.
The Heat outscored New York 32-18 in the fourth, with Andersen throwing a behind-the-back assist to Bosh to help spark the runaway, and then Bosh sealed it by hitting a 3-pointer as the shot clock was expiring with 4:18 left. Bosh added another jumper on the next possession to push the Miami lead to 14 and the outcome was academic from there.
Bosh also had six assists, tying his most as a member of the Heat — who were again without Dwyane Wade, still sidelined by a strained hamstring.
Anthony didn’t take a shot until the game was nearly 4 minutes old. But once he started shooting, good things started happening in a hurry for the Knicks.
He made his first five shots, four of them from 3-point range and barely threatening the rim with any of them. Anthony’s 14 first-quarter points matched a season high, the Knicks led by as many as 14 in the opening minutes and were up 32-23 when the period ended.
Bosh came alive with 13 points in the second quarter as Miami got within four at the break, and the third quarter — a big problem for the Heat all season — helped the hosts take the lead, with Chalmers hitting a 3-pointer in the final seconds for a 77-74 edge going into the final 12 minutes.
Then the fourth was all Miami.
OKLAHOMA CITY, DENVER 114
Kevin Durant scored 40 points, Russell Westbrook had 26 and the Oklahoma City Thunder beat Denver 124-114 on Monday to hand the Nuggets their sixth loss in a row.
Durant matched a career best by hitting seven 3-pointers and finished 13 of 19 from the floor. Mitch McGary added 17 points and 10 rebounds for the Thunder.
The Nuggets, who have lost 13 of 14, were led by Wilson Chandler’s 23 points. Kenneth Faried and Ty Lawson each added 22 for Denver, which also lost its sixth straight at home -- its longest home skid since dropping seven in a row at the Pepsi Center from Feb. 6 to March 2, 2003.
Trailing by 14 at halftime, the Nuggets scored the first nine points of the third quarter to pull to 73-68. But Westbrook countered with a 3 to spark a 13-3 burst that put the Thunder back in front by 15. Durant added three more 3-pointers later in the third, and Oklahoma City led 106-92 going into the final period.
The Nuggets used a 9-0 burst capped by Lawson’s running jumper to cut Oklahoma City’s lead to 115-106 with 5:29 remaining. The Thunder responded with a burst of their own, going in front by 13 on Westbrook’s bank shot with 3:47 left and maintaining a double-digit advantage the rest of the way.
Durant scored 16 during Oklahoma City’s 41-point second quarter, including two 3s in the last 1:46 before halftime, to help the Thunder take a 73-59 lead at the break.
Oklahoma City led by as many as 22 early on, but a 13-4 spurt by the Nuggets midway through the second period helped narrow the gap.
Originally published as NBA wrap: San Antonio coach Gregg Popovich reaches 1,000 wins, Wizard’s Wall puts spell on Magic
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