Morant, Grizzlies are too much for Nuggets
Ja Morant had 23 points and seven rebounds as the host Memphis Grizzlies raced to an early lead and coasted to a 112-94 victory over the Denver Nuggets on Saturday night in a matchup of the Western Conference's top teams.
Tyus Jones finished with 17 points, and Luke Kennard, Xavier Tillman and Dillon Brooks scored 12 apiece for Memphis, which trails Denver by six games in the conference race.
Nikola Jokic led the Nuggets with 15 points and 13 rebounds, and Jeff Green added 12 points. Kentavious Caldwell-Pope and Christian Braun each scored 11 points as Denver's four-game winning streak came to an end. Denver was hampered by a 40% shooting game. The Nuggets' starters were 17 of 47 from the field.
Denver's 94 total points was a season low.
Jayson Tatum buried a goahead 3-pointer for visiting Boston with 1.3 seconds left, Joel Embiid didn't get his desperation heave off in time to tie and the Celtics emerged victorious. Tatum finished with 18 points, 13 rebounds and six assists. Jaylen Brown scored 26 points for Boston. Embiid finished with 41 points and 12 rebounds. James Harden scored 21 points. The lategame thriller proved worthy of a showdown between two of the top teams in the East.
Myles Turner scored 24 points and Tyrese Haliburton had 15 points and 14 assists for visiting Indiana. Indiana shot 59% in the second half. Bennedict Mathurin scored 19 points and Jordan Nwora had 18, both off the bench for the Pacers, while Jalen Smith added seven rebounds and
Memphis guard Ja Morant (12) scored 23 points in the Grizzlies' win over Denver.
five blocks. Franz Wagner led Orlando with 21 points and Paolo Banchero scored 19 point.
Gordon Hayward scored 21 points and rookie center Mark Williams posted career highs with 18 points and 20 rebounds for host Charlotte. LaMelo Ball had 16 of his 19 points in the second half and finished with 13 assists for his sixth straight double-double. Tyler Herro had 33 points and Jimmy Butler added 28 points for Miami. Kevin Love added 13 points and 13 rebounds.
Pascal Siakam had 29 points and eight rebounds for visiting Toronto in its fourth straight win. Gary Trent Jr. scored 19 points and Scottie Barnes added 12 for the Raptors. Isaiah Livers, Hamidou Diallo and Bojan Bogdanovic had 11 points apiece for the Pistons.
Julius Randle scored 28 points and RJ Barrett had 25 to lead host New York. Jalen Brunson added 20 points and Mitchell Robinson had 11 points and 13 rebounds for the Knicks. Brandon Ingram led New Orleans with 19 points and Josh Richardson scored 16.
Lauri Markkanen scored 27 points to lead host Utah and Kris Dunn and Ochai Agbaji scored 15 and 14, respectively. Jeremy Sochan led San Antonio with 22 points; Keldon Johnson had 18.
Scoring 175 points was entertaining certainly, great theater and even “crazy” as Clippers coach Tyronn Lue said.
But to lose Friday night's high-scoring game exposed a flawed defense that cost the Clippers a chance to gain ground in the Western Conference standings. And with just 20 regular-season games left to integrate four new players, that's a heavy expense.
The Clippers squandered numerous chances to close out the double-overtime game, first in regulation and again in both overtime periods and lost 176-175 to the Sacramento Kings because they couldn't come up with timely stops.
The Kings, who are playing some of their best basketball in a decade, used a 22-8 run to close out regulation, overcoming a 14-point deficit in the final 4:25. Confusion on defense by the Clippers allowed Malik Monk to score a 3-pointer off an assist from De'Aaron Fox on the final play of the fourth quarter to send the game into overtime.
“I think it was just a little miscommunication,” Paul George said. “He (Monk) got a great look for a great 3-point shooter and a guy that was hot all night, and you can't give that up.”
Monk scored a careerhigh 45 points, while Fox added 42 points and 12 assists.
In the first overtime, the Clippers held a 162-156 lead with three minutes left, but the Kings didn't stop finding open spots and went on an 8-2 run to force another overtime period.
The Clippers again led by six points in the second overtime as Russell Westbrook found his new teammates with timely passes and Norman Powell's free throws gave them a 175-169 lead with 1:57 left to play.
In those two minutes, though, the Clippers turned the ball over two more times, commit two more fouls and allowed the Kings to score the final seven points to clinch the second-highest scoring game in NBA history.
In total, the Clippers allowed 42 points off 25 turnovers, gave up 88 points in the paint and stood around as the Kings scored 41 fastbreak points.
“They just kept applying pressure,” George said. “They played desperate those last moments, got them back in the game and that's just Sacramento. They play at a high intensity; they play fast paced and they're going to keep coming at you. They play Sacramento ball.”
“We did some good things and just defensively, I just thought we had a lot of breakdowns,” Lue said, singling out Fox's attacking style in leading the