NBA Wrap: Kevin Durant drops 32 points as Dubs down Cavs, Ben Simmons ejected for the first time
IN the wildest day of the NBA regular season so far, Kevin Durant dropped 32 points on the Cleveland Cavaliers, to lead his Golden State Warriors to a 118-108 win on the road.
This marks the last time the two will meet in the regular season, and the Warriors looked a class above, with Steph Curry adding 23 points in the winning effort.
LeBron James led the way for the Cavs, putting up 32 points, eight rebounds and six assists.
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But it was around the league where things got weird.
Ben Simmons was ejected in Philadelphia’s win over the Toronto Raptors, Chris Paul’s return to LA ended in bizarre fashion as Paul and his teammates stormed the Clippers locker room post-game, and the Atlanta Hawks stunned the Spurs.
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EJECTED: ‘I’M NOT GOING TO TAKE S*** FROM ANYBODY’
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All that and more in this wild edition of the NBA Wrap!
Ben Simmons finished with 12 points and four assists in the Philadelphia 76ers’ 117-111 win over the Toronto Raptors.
Simmons was ejected after an altercation with Kyle Lowry, marking the first time the Australian point guard had been thrown out of a game.
Thon Maker posted four points, two rebounds, and two steals, in the Milwaukee Bucks’ 104-105 win over the Washington Wizards.
In the same game, Matthew Dellavedova dished out three assists in 15 minutes off action off the bench.
Patty Mills made an impact off the bench, posting 13 points, three rebounds, and two assists in the San Antonio Spurs’ 102-99 loss to the Atlanta Hawks.
Joe Ingles had a quiet night for the Utah Jazz as they went down to the Indiana Pacers 109-94.
The Aussie went scoreless in his 20 minutes, adding just a single assist and steal.
AROUND THE LEAGUE
GOLDEN STATE WARRIORS 118 — CLEVELAND CAVALIERS 108
Kevin Durant scored 32 points, Stephen Curry added 23 and the Golden State Warriors extended their road winning streak to 13 games with a 118-108 Martin Luther King holiday victory Monday night over the Cleveland Cavaliers, their struggling NBA Finals foes.
Durant scored 16 in the third quarter for the defending NBA champions, who haven’t lost outside Oracle Arena since Nov. 22.
LeBron James scored 32 points and Kevin Love 17 for Cleveland, which had its home winning streak stopped at 13. Isaiah Thomas, getting his first taste of the Warriors-Cavaliers rivalry, had 19 points in a season-high 32 minutes as he works his way back from a hip injury.
It was Golden State’s second straight win over the Cavs, who have dropped eight of 10 dating to a loss to the Warriors on Christmas Day. Cleveland was down just 93-91 entering the fourth, but the Cavs missed 17 of 19 shots to open the period, allowing Golden State to throttle away.
CHARLOTTE HORNETS 118 — DETROIT PISTONS 107
Kemba Walker scored 17 of his 20 points in the second half, and Charlotte pulled away in the fourth quarter of a win over Detroit. Dwight Howard had 21 points and 17 rebounds for the Hornets, who trailed 56-50 at halftime before dominating the final two quarters. A 10-0 run in the fourth put Charlotte ahead 106-88, and although Detroit answered with nine quick points, the Hornets were never in much danger of losing down the stretch. Andre Drummond of the Pistons had only three points and 10 rebounds, and his day was summed up late in the fourth when he went up for a powerful, one-handed dunk - only to have Howard easily swat the ball away.
TORONTO RAPTORS 111 — PHILADELPHIA 76ERS 117
Joel Embiid had 34 points and 11 rebounds and Philadelphia narrowly avoided blowing another big lead in a 117-111 victory over cold- shooting Toronto.
T.J. McConnell added a career-high 18 points and JJ Redick scored 15 before leaving with a left leg injury for the Sixers, who shook off Ben Simmons’ foul trouble to win for the fifth time in six games.
The Sixers blew a 22-point lead in a loss to Boston in London in their last game and coughed up a 22-point lead in a loss in Toronto’s previous visit last month. They saw a 21-point lead cut to 102-101 on DeMar DeRozan’s 3-pointer with 3:01 left. Simmons responded with a driving layup and Dario Saric hit a 3 on the next possession to get the lead back to six.
MILWAUKEE BUCKS 104 — WASHINGTON WIZARDS 95
Giannis Antetokounmpo scored 27 points and grabbed a career- high 20 rebounds as the Milwaukee Bucks beat the Washington Wizards for the second time in 10 days with a 104-95 victory Monday.
Like it was on Jan. 6, it was tight late before Antetokounmpo took over. He led Milwaukee on an 11-0 run in the final minutes and finished 9 of 23 from the field, dribbling out the clock to “M-V-P!” chants from Bucks fans in attendance for the annual Martin Luther King Jr. Day matinee in Washington. Eric Bledsoe had 23 points for the Bucks in outdueling former University of Kentucky teammate John Wall, who led the Wizards with 27 points. Washington committed 23 turnovers, tying a season high; 17 of them came in the first half. The Bucks, who came in ranked 28th in the NBA in 3-point shooting at 34.6 per cent, made half of their attempts against the league leaders in 3-point defence.
SAN ANTONIO SPURS 99 — ATLANTA HAWKS 102
Dennis Schroder scored 26 points, Ersan Ilyasova added 20 and Atlanta held off San Antonio in the closing seconds.
LaMarcus Aldridge had 25 points and 11 rebounds for San Antonio, which dropped to 10-14 on the road.
The Hawks (11-31), who came in with the NBA’s worst record and had lost five of six, never trailed after John Collins’ tip-in made it 78-76 with 9:23 remaining. Danny Green’s 3-pointer with 31 seconds left cut the lead to one, but Schroder answered by dribbling down the shot clock and hitting a layup to put Atlanta up by three with 10 seconds left.
Atlanta hit four free throws and the Spurs hit two before Green’s 3-point attempt bounced off the back of the rim with 2 seconds left.
NEW YORK KNICKS 119 — BROOKLYN NETS 104
Kristaps Porzingis had 26 points and nine rebounds, Michael Beasley added 23 points and 10 boards, and New York opened its longest road trip in nearly 30 years by beating Brooklyn.
A day after blowing a 19-point lead in the third quarter of a loss to New Orleans, the Knicks lost most of a 14-point advantage heading to the fourth. But they opened the period with 11 straight points and went on to beat the Nets comfortably for the third time this season.
Rookie Frank Ntilikina finished with 10 points, 10 assists and seven rebounds as the Knicks snapped a three-game losing streak and won for the third time in 13 games. They played without Tim Hardaway Jr., who was rested after playing 33 minutes Sunday in his second game back from a stress injury to his lower left leg.
MIAMI HEAT 111 — CHICAGO BULLS 119
Zach LaVine scored 18 points in his second game for Chicago, Justin Holiday made a career-best seven 3s and scored 25 points, and the Bulls ended Miami’s seven-game winning streak.
The Bulls have won three straight and 14 of their last 21.
LaVine tore an ACL last season with Minnesota and was traded in a package for Jimmy Butler in the off-season. He scored 14 points in his Bulls debut Saturday against Detroit.
The Bulls are limiting LaVine to 20 minutes per game in his first week back. He scored 13 points in 12 minutes in the first half, and his four-point play with 0.9 seconds left before the break put the Bulls ahead 55-48. He also had five rebounds, five assists and two steals.
LOS ANGELES LAKERS 114 — MEMPHIS GRIZZLIES 123
Dillon Brooks matched his season best with 19 points and eight Memphis players finished in double figures.
Marc Gasol had 17 points and seven rebounds for Memphis, while Tyreke Evans had 15 points and 12 assists. Wayne Selden and James Ennis III added 13 points each. The Lakers ended a four-game winning streak. They were without Lonzo Ball, who injured his left knee in Saturday’s overtime win at Dallas, and Brandon Ingram also didn’t play because of a left ankle sprain.
Kentavious Caldwell-Pope led the Lakers with 27 points, while Kyle Kuzma finished with 18. Josh Hart had 16 points, including 10 in the fourth quarter when Los Angeles cut a 20-point lead down to single-digits in the final minutes.
SACRAMENTO KINGS 88 — OKLAHOMA CITY THUNDER 95
Russell Westbrook had 19 points, 16 rebounds and nine assists before being ejected, and the Oklahoma City Thunder rallied from a 15-point first-half deficit to beat the Sacramento Kings 95-88 on Monday night. Carmelo Anthony added 20 points, Paul George scored 18 and Steven Adams had 13 points and 13 rebounds for the Thunder, who avoided what would have been a fourth straight home loss.
Buddy Hield scored 16 points and Willie Cauley-Stein added 15 for Sacramento, which is 1-16 on the road against Oklahoma City since the Thunder franchise moved from Seattle.
INDIANA PACERS 109 — UTAH JAZZ 94
Victor Oladipo scored 28 points and the Indiana Pacers shot 54 per cent from 3-point range in a 109-94 win over the Utah Jazz on Monday night.
Oladipo got going late in the second quarter during a 15-2 run that gave Indiana a 14-point lead. Then his back-to-back buckets early in the third capped a 9-0 surge to push the advantage to 67-47. He also had six rebounds and six assists. Domantas Sabonis finished with 15 points and eight rebounds for the Pacers, and Thaddeus Young scored 17.
Donovan Mitchell scored 23 for the Jazz, while Derrick Favors added 16 points and seven rebounds.
The Jazz put themselves in a hole with seven first-quarter turnovers, but rallied with a 14-0 spurt in the second to cut the deficit to 38-37. They never got that close again.
HOUSTON ROCKETS 102 — 113 LOS ANGELES CLIPPERS
Lou Williams scored 31 points, Blake Griffin added 29 before his ejection, and the Los Angeles Clippers defeated the Houston Rockets 113-102 on Monday night in Chris Paul’s heated return to Staples Center against his old team.
Buoyed by Williams’ 13th straight game of 20 or more points, the Clippers won their fifth in a row.
Paul had 19 points, six rebounds and seven assists.
Things got testy with around 3 minutes to go. Griffin scored under the basket and Paul was called for a foul. Paul ran over to the referees in disbelief, while Rockets coach Mike D’Antoni appeared to unleash expletives in Griffin’s direction. The referees reviewed video of the play and confirmed the foul on Paul, while also assessing double technicals to Griffin and D’Antoni.
After the game, reports surfaced that a number of Houston Rockets players, including Chris Paul tried to enter the Clippers locker room, only to be escorted out by security.