Siakam scores career-high 33 points to lead Raptors to win
LeBron gets Durant with top choice, then picks Davis and Wade for All-Star Game
ATLANTA — Former New Mexico State standout Pascal Siakam scored a career-high 33 points, Fred VanVleet added a career-best 30 and the Toronto Raptors rallied after trailing by 17 points in the first half to beat the Atlanta Hawks 119-101 on Thursday night.
Toronto, which pulled within 1½ games of Eastern Conference leader Milwaukee, acquired center Marc Gasol from Memphis before Thursday’s trade deadline for Jonas Valanciunas, C.J. Miles and Delon Wright, and a 2024 second-round draft pick.
LAKERS 129, CELTICS 128: In Boston, Rajon Rondo hit a 20-foot jumper as time expired to lift Los Angeles over Boston.
LeBron James had 28 points, 12 rebounds and 12 assists. Kyle Kuzma added 25 points and Rondo had 17 points and 10 assists to help Los Angeles bounce back after a 42-point loss at Indiana on Tuesday.
Kyrie Irving led Boston with 24 points and eight assists.
THUNDER 117, GRIZZLIES 95: In Oklahoma City, Russell Westbrook had his eighth straight triple-double, and Oklahoma City rolled past depleted Memphis.
Westbrook finished with 15 points, 15 assists and 13 rebounds. He has the longest triple-double streak of his career and is one short of Wilt Chamberlain’s NBA record of nine straight set in 1968.
PACERS 116, CLIPPERS 92: In Indianapolis, Bojan Bogdanovic had 29 points and seven rebounds to lead Indiana over Los Angeles.
Myles Turner had 17 points and six blocked shots, while Thaddeus Young and Darren Collison each scored 14 points for the Pacers.
MAGIC 122, TIMBERWOLVES 112: In Orlando, Fla., Terrence Ross scored 32 points and came up with a big defensive play to help Orlando beat Minnesota.
Ross came off the bench to make six 3-pointers and 13-of-23 shots overall.
ALL-STAR DRAFT: LeBron James finally has Anthony Davis as a teammate.
For one game.
His Los Angeles Lakers were unable to swing a deal for Davis, but James drafted the New Orleans Pelicans star on Thursday when he and fellow captain Giannis Antetokounmpo sat down to choose their teams for the Feb. 17 All-Star Game in Charlotte.
Davis told the Pelicans he wanted a trade, and James has made it clear that he’d love to play with him. But the Pelicans kept Davis as the trade deadline passed, so for now, their time as teammates will be limited to All-Star weekend and James pounced at the chance to grab him with the second pick of the reserve round.
“I’m very sure of that,” James said, when asked by TNT host Ernie Johnson if he was sure he wanted Davis as a teammate.
“Isn’t that tampering?” Antetokounmpo asked.
James chose Golden State’s Kevin Durant with the No. 1 overall pick, as he did last year in the All-Star draft, to be one of his starters. They’ll be joined in the Team LeBron starting five by Boston’s Kyrie Irving, Toronto’s Kawhi Leonard and Houston’s James Harden. Team Giannis, in addition to Antetokounmpo, will start Golden State’s Stephen Curry, Philadelphia’s Joel Embiid, Oklahoma City’s Paul George and Charlotte hometown favorite Kemba Walker of the Hornets.
Antetokounmpo took his Milwaukee teammate Khris Middleton with the first pick in the reserve round, along with Denver’s Nikola Jokic, Philadelphia’s Ben Simmons, Detroit’s Blake Griffin, Brooklyn’s D’Angelo Russell, Orlando’s Nikola Vucevic and Toronto’s Kyle Lowry. James took Davis, Golden State’s Klay Thompson, Portland’s Damian Lillard, Oklahoma City’s Russell Westbrook, San Antonio’s LaMarcus Aldridge, Minnesota’s Karl-Anthony Towns and Washington’s Bradley Beal.
James managed to make a trade, convincing Antetokounmpo to swap Westbrook for Simmons — and give the Bucks’ star the chance to have Westbrook and Embiid together, as he said he wanted. The NBA signed off on the trade.
That left the third round and the decision between the two special additions to the game by NBA Commissioner Adam Silver — those being Miami’s Dwyane Wade and Dallas’ Dirk Nowitzki. James took Wade, his former Miami and Cleveland teammate and longtime close friend. That left Nowitzki for Antetokounmpo’s side.
It was the second year of the captain’s-choice format. James and Curry were the captains last year, but the order of their picks were not revealed or aired.