JAZZ IN BLUES
HARDEN SCORES 56; HOUSTON PUMMELS UTAH
James Harden scored a career-high 56 points and added 13 assists in just 35 minutes to lead the Houston Rockets to a 137-110 victory over the Utah Jazz on Sunday night.
Harden finished 19 of 25 from the field after missing his last three attempts. The MVP runner-up was 7 for 7 from beyond the arc until he missed a stepback 3-pointer midway through the fourth quarter as the shot clock was about to expire.
Even when the Jazz could deny Harden his shot, he passed it off for someone else to score. Eric Gordon scored 20 points, Trevor Ariza had 14 and Nene scored 13 off the bench.
Harden received a standing ovation from the Toyota Center crowd, which rained down “MVP! MVP!” chants at multiple points during the game. He had 22 points in both the first and third quarters, 30 at halftime and sat for the final 7:32 of the blowout. Donovan Mitchell led Utah with 17 points.
HAWKS 117, CAVALIERS 115
In Cleveland, ( AP) — Dennis Schroeder scored 28 points and injury-riddled Atlanta beat Cleveland to end an eight-game losing streak.
Missing five players, Atlanta won for the first time since topping Dallas in the season opener.
Cleveland’s Kevin Love was taken to a hospital with an illness, Cavaliers coach Tyronn Lue said without disclosing the problem. Love left in the third quarter.
Coming off his 57-point performance Friday night at Washington, LeBron James had 26 points and 13 assists for Cleveland. The Cavaliers have lost five of seven.
WIZARDS 107, RAPTORS 96
In Toronto, Bradley Beal scored 38 points, Otto Porter Jr. had 19 and Washington overcame the absence of All-Star point guard John Wall to beat Toronto, winning for the second time in 11 meetings with the Raptors.
Marcin Gortat had 11 points and 12 rebounds, and Markieff Morris and Kelly Oubre Jr. each scored 10 points for the Wizards. Wall sat out because of a sprained left shoulder sustained Friday in a 130-122 loss to Cleveland. He is expected to return for Tuesday’s home game against Dallas.
TRAIL BLAZERS 103, THUNDER 99
In Portland, Damian Lillard had 36 points and 13 assists, Jusuf Nurkic added 25 points and Portland held off Oklahoma City.
Lillard, scoring at least 30 points in his fourth consecutive game, scored on a driving layup with 29.5 seconds to give the Blazers a 98-94 lead that the Thunder were unable to overcome.
Nurkic hit 11 of 15 shots and grabbed eight rebounds. C. J. McCollum made six 3-pointers and scored 22 points for the Blazers, who hit 50 percent from the floor (37 of 74). /