Karl-Anthony Towns finished two assists shy of a triple-double and was the linchpin of a remarkable closing stretch for the Minnesota Timberwolves, who erased a 19-point deficit in the second-half to defeat the Houston Rockets 107-101 on Friday in Minneapolis.
Towns finished with 29 points, 16 rebounds and eight assists, tallying 14 points and two assists while the Timberwolves closed the game on a 22-0 run. They ended a three-game losing skid.
Juan Hernangomez scored 19 points with nine rebounds and Naz Reid scored 16, with both coming off the Minnesota bench.
Christian Wood had 24 points and nine rebounds to lead the Rockets. Ben McLemore tied his season high with 21 points. John Wall paired 14 points with a season-high 15 assists, but he made only 6 of 25 from the floor and committed seven turnovers.
Brooklyn Nets 113 – Detroit Pistons 111
James Harden piled up 44 points, 14 rebounds and eight assists and visiting Brooklyn held off Detroit.
Harden, who missed Brooklyn’s previous game with a neck injury, made 14 of 30 field goal attempts and 12 of 14 free throws. Blake Griffin, playing against his former team for the first time, supplied 17 points off the bench.
Jerami Grant’s 19 points topped the Pistons. Saddiq Bey and Frank Jackson contributed 14 points apiece, and Mason Plumlee added 13 points, 10 rebounds and five assists.
Los Angeles Lakers 100 – Cleveland Cavaliers 86
Montrezl Harrell had 24 points and 10 rebounds and Dennis Schroder added 17 points as host Los Angeles came alive to open the second half and pulled away to defeat Cleveland.
Los Angeles ended a four-game losing streak. Finally winning a game without LeBron James (ankle), who missed his fourth consecutive contest, the Lakers used a 19-2 run immediately after halftime to storm past the Cavaliers.
Larry Nance Jr. had 17 points and 10 rebounds while Darius Garland added 14 for the Cavaliers, who were playing without leading scorer Collin Sexton (hamstring) for the second consecutive game.
Portland Trail Blazers 112 – Orlando Magic 105
Norman Powell made an immediate impact in his first game with Portland as he and CJ McCollum each scored 22 points to lead the Blazers to a road victory over host Orlando.
Playing without Damian Lillard, who sat out the second of back-to-back games with a bruised left knee, Powell shot 7-for-13, including 5-for-7 from 3-point range. Enes Kanter provided Portland with a boost off the bench, finishing with 15 points and 15 rebounds.
Orlando got a balanced scoring effort nonetheless with seven players scoring in double figures, led by Chuma Okeke’s 22 points.
Atlanta Hawks 124 – Golden State Warriors 108
John Collins poured in a career-best 38 points and Atlanta made nine consecutive shots in a second-quarter flurry that propelled them to a victory over reeling Golden State in San Francisco.
Collins added 12 rebounds, Trae Young had 21 points and game-high 15 assists and Clint Capela registered 18 points and a game-high 15 rebounds for the Hawks. Atlanta evened its record four games into an eight-game trip at 2-2.
Andrew Wiggins had a team-high 29 points for the Warriors, who lost their fourth straight and ninth in their past 12.
Boston Celtics 122 – Milwaukee Bucks 114
Jayson Tatum scored a game-high 34 points and Marcus Smart shot 7 of 10 from 3-point range en route to 23 points as Boston ended host Milwaukee’s eight-game winning streak.
Boston shot 22 of 47 from behind the 3-point arc as a team, including Tatum’s 4 of 7 and a 4-of-9 effort from Jaylen Brown, who scored 18 points. Kemba Walker, who scored 21 points, added another three treys.
Khris Middleton led Milwaukee with 19 points, Jrue Holiday scored 17 points and Giannis Antetokounmpo scored 16 points with eight rebounds and five assists in limited action.
Utah Jazz 117 – Memphis Grizzlies 114
Donovan Mitchell made five 3-pointers and recorded 35 points as Utah survived a comeback bid by Memphis in Salt Lake City.
Rudy Gobert registered 25 points on 11-of-14 shooting and collected nine rebounds as Utah won its fourth straight contest. Ja Morant notched 32 points and 11 assists and Dillon Brooks scored 22 points for Memphis, which had a three-game winning streak halted.
Memphis trailed the NBA-best Jazz by 21 early in the third quarter but pulled within 117-114 on a 3-pointer by Brooks with 34.3 seconds to play. Brooks later had a chance to tie it, but his 3-point attempt caromed off the rim with 5.5 seconds left.
Indiana Pacers 109 – Dallas Mavericks 94
Malcolm Brogdon sank six 3-pointers to highlight a 22-point performance as Indiana prevailed at Dallas.
Domantas Sabonis recorded 22 points and 15 rebounds for the Pacers, who have won four of their past five games. Dallas’ Kristaps Porzingis collected 31 points and a career-high-tying 18 rebounds, with 15 and 13, respectively, coming in the first half.
The Mavericks were unable to overcome the absence of two-time All-Star guard Luka Doncic (lower back tightness). It was not immediately known if Doncic would be able to play Saturday at New Orleans.
Phoenix Suns 104 – Toronto Raptors 100
Deandre Ayton scored 19 points and grabbed nine rebounds, Chris Paul had 19 points and eight assists and Phoenix defeated Toronto in Tampa.
Devin Booker added 16 points for the Suns, who won both games between the teams this season. Pascal Siakam had 26 points and 11 rebounds for the Raptors, who fell for the 10th time in 11 games. Fred VanVleet added 22 points for Toronto.
Gary Trent Jr., whom the Raptors obtained with Rodney Hood in a trade Thursday that sent Norman Powell to the Portland Trail Blazers, started and had eight points in 31 minutes. Hood scored two points in 18 minutes off the bench.
Denver Nuggets 113 – New Orleans Pelicans 108
Nikola Jokic scored 37 points and Denver held off Zion Williamson and host New Orleans.
Michael Porter Jr. added 25 points, Jamal Murray had 23 points and 11 assists and Paul Millsap scored 16 as the Nuggets beat the Pelicans by the same score that the Pelicans beat them last Sunday in Denver.
Williamson had 39 points and 10 rebounds, but his layup with 2:07 left provided the last New Orleans points. Eric Bledsoe added 16 points and Nickeil Alexander-Walker scored 14. Trailing by three points, New Orleans missed a chance to tie on a when it turned the ball over on a shot-clock violation with 5.1 seconds left.
Charlotte Hornets 110 – Miami Heat 105
Malik Monk scored 32 points, Terry Rozier added 26 points and 11 assists and host Charlotte added to Miami’s slump.
The Hornets, winners of three consecutive games, shot 62.5 percent from the floor in the first quarter and never trailed. Charlotte, up by as many as 30 points in the second quarter, hit 49.4 percent of its field-goal attempts for the game, including 18 of 43 (41.9 percent) from 3-point range.
Miami, which is on a season-worst six-game losing streak, got Jimmy Butler back in the lineup. Butler, who missed one game due to a stomach ailment, had 20 points and nine assists. Duncan Robinson also scored 20 points for Miami, which dominated the second half but never had the ball with a chance to tie the score late in the game.
–Field Level Media
