NBA Wrap: Kobe Bryant leads Los Angeles Lakers to win, DeMarcus Cousins stars for Sacramento
KOBE Bryant led Los Angeles to just its fourth win of the season, while DeMarcus Cousins was big for Sacramento. It’s all in the NBA Wrap.
RETIRING Laker Kobe Bryant led Los Angeles to just its fourth win of the season, while DeMarcus Cousins was big for Sacramento.
It’s all in the NBA Wrap.
AUSSIES IN ACTION
Matthew Dellavadova started at point guard for Cleveland and finished with two points, four assists, a rebound and a steal in the Cavaliers’ 89-77 win over Boston.
LOS ANGELES LAKERS 113, MILWAUKEE BUCKS 95
Kobe Bryant had 22 points and six assists during the Los Angeles Lakers’ 113-95 victory over the Bucks in Milwaukee’s first game since ending Golden State’s 24-0 start to the season.
D’Angelo Russell had 19 points and seven assists as the Lakers took a 22-point lead in the third quarter and cruised to their second victory in 15 games, improving to 4-21 in Bryant’s farewell season.
Michael Carter-Williams scored 19 points for the Bucks, who played without leading scorer Greg Monroe in their first game since snapping the Warriors’ 28-game winning streak dating to last season.
Monroe was a late scratch with a sore left knee for the Bucks, who have lost 10 straight road games.
The Lakers pushed their lead to 18 points in the third quarter on a four-point play by Bryant. Moments later, Los Angeles was up by 22 — its largest lead at any point in the entire season.
Lou Williams scored 16 points, while Julius Randle had 14 points and 14 rebounds. The Lakers had a season-high 26 assists and produced seven double-digit scorers for the first time this year.
CLEVELAND CAVALIERS 89, BOSTON CELTICS 77
No apologies. No retaliation. Just another Cleveland victory.
LeBron James scored 24 points and Kevin Love returned to Boston to score 20 with eight rebounds, helping the Cavaliers beat the Celtics 89-77 in an uneventful rematch of last season’s bruising — but one-sided — first-round playoff series.
It was Cleveland’s first trip back to the new Boston Garden since Love’s shoulder was yanked out of the socket by Boston’s Kelly Olynyk in the finale of the Cavaliers’ four-game sweep. Jae Crowder, who took a punch in the jaw from J.R. Smith in the series, scored 14 for the Celtics.
“Time heals all wounds,” said Love, who had no exchange with Olynyk during the game. “I’ll remember my first playoff run and that fourth game being particularly tough. But as time goes on it’ll be another game against a really good team.”
Timofey Mozgov had nine points and a season-high 10 rebounds, scoring seven with five boards in the third quarter when Cleveland turned a five-point deficit into a 10-point lead. The Cavaliers have won three in a row since losing three straight to start the month.
Avery Bradley scored 17 points for Boston, which was back home for the first time since nearly ending the Warriors’ unbeaten start.
SACRAMENTO KINGS 107, HOUSTON ROCKETS 97
Sacramento star DeMarcus Cousins’ manager was ejected for slapping at Rockets guard Jason Terry during the Kings’ 107-97 win over Houston.
Trailing the play on a dunk by Sacramento’s Ben McLemore, Terry put his hand out to slow down as he neared fans sitting along the baseline.
Andrew Rogers, Cousins’ manager, slapped at Terry’s arm. Terry stopped, turned around and started to step toward Rogers, who was then ejected from his seat.
Cousins had 26 points and 12 rebounds. The Kings never trailed after the midway point in the second quarter in a sloppy game that included 49 turnovers and three technical fouls, one on Cousins.
Starting for suspended Rajon Rondo, Darren Collison had 14 points, a season-high 13 assists and six rebounds as the Kings won their third in a row. Rondo was penalised one game by the NBA for using a gay slur toward official Bill Kennedy in a recent game.
James Harden had 33 points for Houston.
DENVER NUGGETS 112, MINNESOTA TIMBERWOLVES 100
A game against the suddenly defensive challenged Minnesota Timberwolves in the familiar confines of Target Center couldn’t have come at a better time for the slumping Randy Foye.
Foye scored 19 points, and the Denver Nuggets picked up their sixth win in seven games with a 112-100 victory over the Minnesota Timberwolves.
Kenneth Faried added 19 points and 10 rebounds, Will Barton had 14 points, seven boards and five assists, and the Nuggets (11-14) shot 56 per cent against the porous Timberwolves defence. Foye broke out of a season-long slump to hit 5 of 6 3-pointers, and the Nuggets hit 10 of 18 from deep as a team.
“This is a shooter’s gym, just how the court is set up and usually how the seats are set up,” said Foye, who played the first three seasons of his career in Minnesota. “That’s what it is for me, so I felt good from pregame warm-up and it just carried over into the game.”
Zach LaVine had 20 points and five assists and Andrew Wiggins scored 23 points for the Timberwolves, who have lost seven of their last eight games. They are 3-10 at home this season.
“We’re not doing our job,” said Ricky Rubio, who had 13 points, nine assists and four rebounds. “On defence we’re kind of lazy now and we’re losing games that we should be winning.”
The Nuggets rallied from 18 down in the third quarter to beat the Timberwolves in Denver on Friday night, but needed no such effort in the second night of a back-to-back on Tuesday. They scored 18 points off of 10 Minnesota turnovers and outrebounded the Wolves 39-31 to cruise to the win.
Originally published as NBA Wrap: Kobe Bryant leads Los Angeles Lakers to win, DeMarcus Cousins stars for Sacramento
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