Spurs repeat over Lakers
SAN ANTONIO (AP) — The Spurs are still working to develop a comfort and chemistry with one another, but have already discovered they can count on DeMar DeRozan to come through late.
DeRozan had 30 points, 12 rebounds and eight assists and the Spurs rallied in the fourth quarter, overcoming 35 points and 11 rebounds from LeBron James to beat the Los Angeles Lakers 110-106 on Saturday night.
DeRozan had 14 points in the second half, including eight in the fourth quarter, for his second doubledouble in five games after failing to get any last season with Toronto.
"Whenever we're down, it's kind of natural to me to just try to be more aggressive," DeRozan said. "Go out there, whether it's to score or try to find guys and just try to get us going."
San Antonio fed off the energy, rebounding from a 20-point loss against Indiana as Gregg Popovich became the fifth coach to win 1,200 games and the first to do so with one team.
The Spurs' first lead came at 93-91 with 10 minutes remaining when DeRozan laid in his own miss after beating three Lakers to the rebound.
"I just wanted to kind of get that bucket, kind of get the crowd into it, get your teammates into it, the bench gets into and we all kind of feed off the energy after that," he said.
San Antonio would build the lead to eight points before James cut it to 106-105 with four straight points an assist to Josh Hart on a 3-pointer. DeRozan responded with a fadeaway jumper on Hart with 15.9 seconds remaining to help preserve the lead and the eventual win.
With Jaylen Brown struggling offensive so far this season, Brad Stevens still asked him if he wanted a shot at defending one of the NBA's hottest players.
Not only did Brown slow down the much bigger Blake Griffin, his offense also perked up in the process.
Brown scored 19 points and Marcus Morris added 18 for the Boston Celtics in a victory over the Detroit Pistons, who lost their first game of the season.
Brown came in averaging 8.6 points per game this season, down from 14.5 last year.
"I wasn't tripping," Brown said. "And I've guarded bigs before, especially my rookie year. Actually when Blake was (with the Los Angeles Clippers), I guarded him a little bit. So I was familiar when Brad asked me."
Giannis Antetokounmpo scored 21 points and Khris Middleton had 18 as the Milwaukee Bucks beat the Orlando Magic.
The Bucks have won six consecutive games to start the season, one shy of the record set by the 197172 team.
Coming off a 125-95 blowout of the Minnesota Timberwolves on the road on Friday night in which they made 19 3-pointers on 46 attempts, both season highs, Milwaukee connected on just 10-of30 shots from long range against the Magic.
Antetokounmpo added seven rebounds in a seasonlow 19 minutes, a night after playing just 23 minutes.
Nikola Vucevic had 16 points and nine rebounds for Orlando. D.J. Augustin added 11, all in the first half. The Magic shot 32 percent from the field overall and 23 percent for three-point range.