Happy Holiday! Indiana edge Raptors
LOS ANGELES: Aaron Holiday finished with 19 points and made two clutch three-pointers in overtime as the Pacers snapped the Toronto Raptors five-game winning streak with a 120-115 win in Indianapolis on Monday.
Myles Turner and TJ Warren also had 24 points each, and Holiday added 10 assists in the win over the injurydepleted Raptors who were coming off their biggest comeback win in franchise history.
“It’s a big win for us,” said Holiday, who finished with 19 points in getting the start at point guard for the injured Malcolm Brogdon.
“It’s fun playing with emotion, especially in big games.”
Kyle Lowry had 30 points and nine assists for Toronto, who defeated the Dallas Mavericks on Sunday after trailing by 30 points in the third quarter.
“We gutted it out, we played our butts off and gave ourselves a chance to win at the end,” Lowry said of the Raptors. “Unfortunately, we came up short.” But the Raptors, who were missing several starters, ran out of gas on Monday in front of the crowd of 17,100 at Bankers Life Fieldhouse arena in Indianapolis.
This time, Toronto were forced to come back from a 15-point deficit but couldn’t pull out the victory.
Elsewhere, Ben Simmons notched a triple-double, and the Philadelphia 76ers handed the hosts Detroit Pistons their fifth straight loss 125-109.
Tobias Harris made 14 of 21 field goal attempts, including four three-pointers and finished with 35 points. Simmons tallied 16 points, 13 rebounds and 17 assists in the win.
Furkan Korkmaz came off the bench to score 21 points, and Joel Embiid had 20 points and eight rebounds for the Sixers, who shot 54 percent from the field.
LaMarcus Aldridge scored 28 of his season-high 40 points in the first half, and DeMar DeRozan added 26 points and 10 assists as the visiting San Antonio Spurs breezed to a 145-115 victory over the Memphis Grizzlies.
At San Francisco, D’Angelo Russell capped a 30-point performance with two clinching free throws with 19.7 seconds remaining as Golden State won for a second straight time for the first time all season, beating Minnesota 113-104.
In a rematch of last month’s game at Minnesota in which Russell outscored Andrew Wiggins 52-40 in one of the season’s top scoring duels, the Warriors guard got the better of his opponents again, with the Timberwolves standout going for 22 points this time in his team’s 11th straight loss.