LA Lakers’ winning run ends at seven as Toronto Raptors claim victory
Written by News on 11/11/2019
Pascal Siakam scored 24 points and grabbed 11 rebounds, and the short-handed Toronto Raptors used a second-half surge to defeat the host Los Angeles Lakers 113-104.
Toronto Raptors 113-104 LA Lakers
Pascal Siakam scored 24 points and grabbed 11 rebounds, and the short-handed Toronto Raptors used a second-half surge to defeat the host Los Angeles Lakers 113-104 on Sunday night.
Fred VanVleet had 23 points and 10 assists for the Raptors, who snapped the Lakers’ seven-game winning streak. Toronto prevailed despite playing without guard Kyle Lowry, who sustained a fractured in his left thumb, and forward Serge Ibaka, who suffered a severe right ankle sprain in the team’s win in New Orleans on Friday night.
Chris Boucher scored 15 points, Norman Powell added 14 and Terence Davis chipped in 13 points for the Raptors, who have won six of their last seven contests.
Anthony Davis led the Lakers with 27 points to go along with eight rebounds and four blocks. LeBron James recorded his fourth triple-double in five games, finishing with 13 points, 15 assists and 13 rebounds. Kyle Kuzma had 15 points off the bench for Los Angeles.
Consecutive three-pointers by Kuzma and two free throws by James pulled the Lakers within 104-100 with 2:26 remaining. But a dunk and a bucket by Siakam, who also had three blocks overall, clinched the win for Raptors, who have beaten the Lakers 10 consecutive times.
Toronto outshot Los Angeles 48.3 per cent to 43.6 per cent. The Lakers won the rebounding battle 51-43, including a 13-7 edge on the offensive end.
Denver Nuggets 100-98 Minnesota Timberwolves (OT)
Nikola Jokic hit a 15-foot jumper with 3.3 seconds left in overtime, and the Denver Nuggets beat the Minnesota Timberwolves, 100-98, in Minneapolis on Sunday.
Jokic finished with 20 points and hit a last-second game winner for the second consecutive game. Paul Millsap had 14 points and 10 rebounds, and Will Barton scored six of his 13 points in overtime and added 12 rebounds.
Denver has now won four straight, despite allowing a 16-0 Timberwolves run in the final 6:43 of regulation to force overtime.
Karl-Anthony Towns had 25 points, 16 rebounds and six assists, Andrew Wiggins also scored 25 and Josh Okogie had 17 points for Minnesota. The Timberwolves played without their two top point guards. Jeff Teague was out due to illness, and Shabazz Napier sat with a right hamstring strain. Denver guard Malik Beasley also sat out the second half with an illness.
The Nuggets went eight minutes and three seconds without a point before Jokic had a putback with 3:40 left in overtime. Barton hit a three with 3:07 left, then hit another to put Denver ahead 98-94 with 1:52 left, but Minnesota rallied to tie it with 26.2 seconds to play.
Barton passed it to Jokic on the wing, and he hit a fadeaway jumper over Towns to put the Nuggets ahead. Okogie missed a desperation three-pointer from the corner as time expired.
Milwaukee Bucks 121-119 Oklahoma City Thunder
Giannis Antetokounmpo collected 35 points and 16 rebounds and Brook Lopez sank a go-ahead three with 25.4 seconds left as the visiting Milwaukee Bucks recorded a 121-119 victory over the Oklahoma City Thunder on Sunday.
Eric Bledsoe finished with a season-best 25 points, marking the fourth consecutive game that he has scored at least 20 after being held to 18 or fewer in each of his first six contests.
Lopez joined Bledsoe in making a trio of three-pointers for the Bucks, but none bigger than the one he sank after Oklahoma City went on a 13-2 run to forge a tie at 114.
Dennis Schroder shot 9-of-12 for 25 points and Shai Gilgeous-Alexander added 22 for the Thunder, who saw their four-game home winning streak come to a halt.
Milwaukee’s Khris Middleton had 10 points, five assists and four rebounds before exiting the contest with a left thigh contusion in the third quarter.
Oklahoma City’s Nerlens Noel scored 14 points in place of Steven Adams, who sat out with a left knee contusion.
Charlotte Hornets 106-114 Philadelphia 76ers
Six players scored in double-figures for the Philadelphia 76ers, as they rallied from a halftime deficit on Sunday to beat the visiting Charlotte Hornets, 114-106.
Philadelphia returned home to Wells Fargo Arena for the first time since October 30, sputtering on a three-game losing streak to end its four-game Western Conference road swing. A sluggish second quarter against the Hornets suggested the 76ers’ skid might continue.
Charlotte outscored Philadelphia in the second, 34-20. Center Cody Zeller scored 14 of his game-high 24 in the period, while reserve guard and season-long Hornets leading scorer Devonte’ Graham provided his usual spark off the bench and finished with 19 points and a game-high 10 assists.
The 76ers regrouped with a 35-23 third quarter, and the Philadelphia lead swelled to as much as 19 points in the fourth. Tobias Harris, one of the 76ers scoring in double-figures, came alive in that stretch. He finished with 14 points.
Philadelphia head coach Brett Brown, tinkering with the backcourt rotation while star Ben Simmons is out with a shoulder injury, used a rotation of Josh Richardson, Trey Burke and Furkan Korkmaz. Richardson scored 11 points, getting the start and finishing plus-20 in 32 minutes, while Burke and Korkmaz scored 12 and 17, respectively, off the bench.
The Hornets also got 15 points off the bench from Malik Monk. Monk also led Charlotte with eight rebounds on a night the Hornets were battered on the glass.
Philadelphia controlled the boards with 49 rebounds to Charlotte’s 31. Joel Embiid’s nine set the pace. He also scored a team-high 18 points.
Brooklyn Nets 112-138 Phoenix Suns
Devin Booker had 27 points and nine assists, Ricky Rubio had his third straight double-double with 22 points and 12 assists, and the host Phoenix Suns made a season-high 19 3-pointers in a 138-112 victory over the Brooklyn Nets on Sunday.
Kelly Oubre Jr. had 18 points, rookie Cam Johnson had a season-high 15 points, and Aron Baynes and Tyler Johnson had 14 apiece for the Suns, who at 6-3 are off to their best start since the 2009-10 team won eight of its first nine.
Spencer Dinwiddie had 18 points off the bench, reserve center DeAndre Jordan had 16 points and 12 rebounds and Kyrie Irving had a season-low 15 points for the Nets, playing the second game of a five-game road trip.
Booker made four three-pointers, reserves Tyler Johnson and Cam Johnson made three, and starters Baynes, Rubio, Oubre and Dario Saric had two apiece. Mikal Bridges had one.
Irving, third in the league with a 31.9 scoring average, was 7-of-16 from the field in 25 minutes. He had five assists.
Indiana Pacers 109-102 Orlando Magic
Domantas Sabonis led a balanced attack with 21 points Sunday night as the Indiana Pacers rallied from a halftime deficit to turn back the host Orlando Magic 109-102.
T.J. Warren and Malcolm Brogdon chipped in with 19 points apiece and Doug McDermott added 18 off the bench as the Pacers, down 60-51 at the half, dominated the final 24 minutes en route to their third straight win.
Evan Fournier paced Orlando with 22 points.
Brogdon hit three consecutive hoops at the end of a 12-0 Pacers run that opened the second half and turned their nine-point deficit into a 63-60 lead and that proved key as Orlando’s offense, which functioned well in the first half, stagnated in the second.
T.J. McConnell (12 points) and Holiday (11) also scored in double figures for Indiana, which outshot Orlando 52.2 percent to 46.1 percent.
Sabonis added a team-high 16 rebounds, and his seven assists were one shy of Brogdon’s and McConnell’s team-best eight.
Nikola Vucevic grabbed a game-high 17 rebounds to go with 18 points for the Magic, who were coming off a 32-point win over Memphis.
Gordon added 13 points, Terrence Ross 12 and Jonathan Isaac 10 for Orlando.
Atlanta Hawks 113-124 Portland Trail Blazers (OT)
Outscoring the Atlanta Hawks 17-6 in the overtime period, the Portland Trail Blazers broke a four-game losing streak with a 124-113 home victory Sunday night.
Kent Bazemore, the former Hawk traded to Portland in the offseason, catalysed the Blazers offense in the extra period, scoring the first six points on a pair of three-pointers. He finished with 13 points took on the difficult task of guarding Atlanta guard Trae Young, who scored a team-high 35 points but shot just 9-of-30 from the field.
Damian Lillard led Portland with 30 points, supplemented by 23 from CJ McCollum, 21 points and 12 rebounds from Hassan Whiteside and 20 points off the bench from Anfernee Simons. Atlanta got 27 points and 11 rebounds from Jabari Parker and 15 from Kevin Huerter.
The latter minutes of the fourth quarter had no shortage of drama, with Blazers coach Terry Stotts succeeding on a coach’s challenge once again.
A foul on Whiteside against a driving Young was overturned with 1:09 to go, giving Portland the ball with a one-point lead. After McCollum hit a step-back, mid-range jumper to give Portland a three-point lead, Huerter shed the defense of McCollum and hit a corner three to tie the game at 105 with 27.9 seconds left.
Lillard’s euro step layup with 7.6 seconds left would have been the game-winner were it not for Huerter’s sweeping layup with 0.7 seconds left, which sent the game to overtime.
Cleveland Cavaliers 108-87 New York Knicks
Collin Sexton scored a career-high 31 points and the Cleveland Cavaliers posted a wire-to-wire 108-87 victory over the New York Knicks on Sunday to win their 11th consecutive game at Madison Square Garden.
The Cavaliers led by double digits for the last 30-plus minutes, won consecutive games for the first time this season and remained unbeaten in New York against the Knicks since January 2014. According to the Elias Sports Bureau, it is the longest winning streak by any opposing team at Madison Square Garden.
Sexton helped the Cavaliers beat the Knicks for the 16th time in the last 18 overall meetings by shooting 10 of 16 and tying a career high with five three-pointers.
Kevin Love added 17 points and eight rebounds while reserve Jordan Clarkson also contributed 17 as the Cavaliers shot 43.9 percent (36 of 82) and made 28 of 31 free throws. Rookie point guard Darius Garland added 12 points for Cleveland.
Julius Randle led the Knicks with 20 points and 16 rebounds, but New York shot a dreadful 36 percent (31 of 86), a woeful 64 percent (16 of 25) from the free-throw line and committed 21 turnovers. Allonzo Trier added 13 points and Damyean Dotson contributed 10, but Marcus Morris and rookie RJ Barrett were held to nine points apiece.
(c) Sky Sports 2019: LA Lakers’ winning run ends at seven as Toronto Raptors claim victory
