NBA Wrap: Pelicans overpower Lakers, Hawks down Jazz, Trail Blazers smash Nuggets, Pacers too cool for Heat
THE Lakers’ season continues to trudge along in disappointing fashion. Check out the wrap of today’s games.
THE Lakers’ season continues to trudge along in disappointing fashion. Try as he might, Kobe Bryant couldn’t help a slow start from LA, as the purple and gold lost to New Orleans.
AUSSIES IN ACTION
It was another quiet outing for Utah players Dante Exum and Joe Ingles, the only Australians in action on the day.
Exum scored just two points, one rebound and one block in 18.49 minutes on court, while Ingles had four assists, but could not convert on his two three-point attempts and was kept scoreless on the night.
PELICANS 109, LAKERS 102
Anthony Davis had 25 points, 12 rebounds and six blocked shots, and the Pelicans opened a 23-point lead on their way to a 109-102 victory Wednesday night.
Tyreke Evans had 19 points and 11 assists for New Orleans one game after going 2-for-14 in a loss at Cleveland. Ryan Anderson and Jrue Holiday each added 17 points for New Orleans.
Kobe Bryant finished with 33, the most a player has scored against New Orleans this season, but had to take 28 shots to do it. He missed 18, one night after setting the NBA record for most missed field goals in a career.
Bryant sounded less concerned about his offense than his team’s defence.
New Orleans dominated inside, outscoring Los Angeles 60-34 in the paint. The Pelicans shot 54.9 per cent (45 of 82), compared to 41.7 per cent (35 of 84) for the Lakers.
Carlos Boozer had 16 points and Jeremy Lin 15 for the Lakers, who lost their second straight and dropped to 1-7 this season.
Asik grabbed 13 rebounds for New Orleans, which outrebounded Los Angeles 44-38.
HAWKS 100, JAZZ 97
Paul Millsap had 30 points and 17 rebounds, and Jeff Teague added 17 points to help Atlanta beat Utah.
Kyle Korver’s 3-pointer from the left wing with 58 seconds to play put the Hawks up 100-97 and marked the game’s 18th lead change.
Alec Burks finished with 22 points and Derrick Favors scored 20 for the Jazz.
Utah led by eight with 4:34 remaining, but the Jazz failed to score again, missing their final seven shots.
Korver had 17 points and 10 rebounds for Atlanta, which has won three straight. The only other points scored in the final minute were a pair of free throws from Teague with 5.7 seconds remaining.
THUNDER 109, CELTICS 94
Reggie Jackson had 28 points and eight assists, and Anthony Morrow scored 28 to lift injury-riddled Oklahoma City over Boston.
It was the second win in six games for the Thunder, who are missing stars Kevin Durant and Russell Westbrook.
Jackson, a standout at nearby Boston College from 2008-11, posted his big game a night after scoring a career-high 29 in a loss at Milwaukee.
Rajon Rondo just missed his second triple-double of the season with 20 points, 12 assists and nine rebounds. Avery Bradley added 17 points for Boston, which had won its last two.
The Celtics went 9 for 33 from beyond the 3-point line.
TRAIL BLAZERS 130, NUGGETS 113
Damian Lillard scored 27 points and had nine assists Wednesday and the Portland Trail Blazers used a historic first-half effort to rout the Denver Nuggets 130-113.
Portland produced 39 points in the first quarter and 45 in the second to become only the third NBA team since 1992 to score 84 points in the first half. The Trail Blazers matched a 41-year-old team record for second quarter points.
Robin Lopez scored 15 of his 19 points in the first half while LaMarcus Aldridge scored nine of his 12 in the opening half while blocking six shots in just over 18 minutes on the court in the first two quarters.
Chris Kaman added 16 points and C.J. McCollum scored 15 in reserve roles for Portland, which won for the fifth time in six games and improved to 6-3, the only team in the Northwest division with a winning record.
Ty Lawson scored a game-high 32 points in a losing cause. The Nuggets, who have lost six meetings in a row to Portland, fell to 1-6.
ROCKETS 113, TIMBERWOLVES 101
James Harden scored 23 points and Dwight Howard added 22 to lead the Houston Rockets over Minnesota 113-101 Wednesday in only the second NBA regular-season game played in Mexico City.
Harden passed out 10 assists and Howard pulled down 10 rebounds for the Rockets, who defeated Dallas in 1997 in the NBA’s only prior regular-season matchup in Mexico City.
The Timberwolves were supposed to have played the San Antonio Spurs last season in Mexico’s capital. But the game was called off after a generator malfunction sent smoke pouring into the arena, forcing an evacuation 45 minutes before the planned tip-off.
This time, 18,996 spectators watched as the Rockets improved to 7-1, matching Toronto and Memphis for the best record in the league, while the T-Wolves fell to 2-5. The Rockets have now defeated Minnesota in 21 of their past 27 meetings.
Trevor Ariza added 19 points for the Rockets, who also had 14 points off the bench from Greek forward Kostas Papanikolaou. Corey Brewer scored 18 points off the bench to lead Minnesota, while Andrew Wiggins added 15 points and Montenegrin centre Nikola Pekovic contributed 11 points and 13 rebounds.
SUNS 112, NETS 104
Done in by a poor second half and unable to stop the Phoenix Suns’ surge, the Brooklyn Nets succumbed to Phoenix in a 112-104 loss at US Airways Center.
Johnson had 21 points, five rebounds and three assists to lead the Nets (4-3), who had their two-game winning streak snapped. After pouring in 16 first-half points, Brook Lopez was a non-factor in the second half, going scoreless and missing all six shots. Gerald Green paced the Suns (5-3) with 28 points.
Consecutive buckets by Isaiah Thomas, who had 21 points, vaulted the Suns to a 97-94 lead with 4:28 remaining and Phoenix never trailed again, putting the finishing touches on the Nets and giving them a rough start to their three-game road trip.
When Alex Len nailed a 14-footer with 51.9 seconds left in the third quarter to hand Phoenix a 78-77 advantage, it dropped the Nets into a hole for the first time since they trailed 2-0 1:17 into the game. But the Nets hung in and scored the last seven points of the quarter, punctuated with Bojan Bogdanovic’s 27-foot, three-point heave that propelled them to a 84-78 lead and set up a frantic fourth-quarter finish.
WIZARDS 107, PISTONS 103
The Wizards made the key plays in the last 1:10 — a 10-footer from John Wall, a Marcin Gortat dunk and a Paul Pierce offensive rebound off a missed free throw — to move to 6-2 on the season.
Gortat had 14 points and 13 rebounds and Rasual Butler had 18 huge points off the bench for the Wizards. The Pistons dropped the second game of the four-game trip with the next game coming Friday night at Oklahoma City.
Greg Monroe had 18 points and nine rebounds and Kentavious Caldwell-Pope scored 20 on 8-for-14 shooting. Brandon Jennings went for 32 points and 10 assists in 34 minutes.
Andre Drummond and Josh Smith were plagued with foul trouble and they combined for only eight points on 4-for-13 shooting.
MAGIC 97, KNICKS 95
The Orlando Magic finally won a road game against a team other than the Philadelphia 76ers.
The Magic beat the struggling New York Knicks 97-95 at Madison Square Garden on Wednesday night as Evan Fournier scored 28 points. Orlando trailed by five points with 8:40 remaining in the fourth quarter, but the Magic took an 86-85 lead on a turnaround jumper by Nik Vucevic with 6:16 to go. The Magic never trailed again.
With the win, the Magic (3-6) won for just the third time in 33 road games this calendar year. The previous two victories came in Philadelphia.
Carmelo Anthony scored 27 points for the Knicks (2-7), who lost their sixth consecutive game.
For the second consecutive game, Magic coach Jacque Vaughn chose to play Luke Ridnour at point guard for almost the entire fourth quarter instead of rookie Elfrid Payton.
Ridnour finished with eight points and five assists. Payton scored no points and had eight assists.
Vucevic contributed 20 points and grabbed 13 rebounds.
With Orlando up 96-95 with 3.8 seconds to go, Fournier made one of two free throws to leave the Knicks a chance to tie the game on a 2-pointer or win it with a trey. But J.R. Smith missed a long 3-point try as time expired.
PACERS 81, HEAT 75
Pummeled 53-28 on the boards and just 8 of 18 from the foul line, the Heat put together arguably their worst performance of the season.
Limited by early foul trouble, Heat centre Chris Bosh closed 3 of 13, including a late airball on a 3-point attempt, for nine points, with just two rebounds.
After scoring 11 points in the first quarter, Heat guard Dwyane Wade closed with 20.
Roy Hibbert, essentially the last man standing for Indiana, helped take control of the game for the Pacers, closing with 16 points and 15 rebounds.
With David West, Paul George and Indiana point guard George Hill sidelined by injuries, and with Lance Stephenson having already done his damage to the Heat last week as a member of the Charlotte Hornets, the Pacers turned Wednesday’s nationally televised contest into a needed grind.
The Pacers also were without sidelined contributors Rodney Stuckey, C.J. Miles and C.J. Watson.
The teams’ four-game season series next continues in Indiana on New Year’s Eve. Next up for the Heat is a Friday game against the Atlanta Hawks at Philips Arena.
Originally published as NBA Wrap: Pelicans overpower Lakers, Hawks down Jazz, Trail Blazers smash Nuggets, Pacers too cool for Heat
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