Caris LeVert’s 34 lead Nets to win over Wizards
LAKE BUENA VISTA, FLA. » Caris LeVert scored 25 of his 34 points in the second half to help the Brooklyn Nets beat the Washington Wizards
118-110 on Sunday and move closer to a playoff berth.
Joe Harris scored a season-high 27 points and Jarrett Allen added 22 points and 15 rebounds for the Nets, who bounced back from a loss to Orlando in their first seeding game. The Nets are now seven games ahead of ninth-place Washington in the Eastern Conference standings.
Thomas Bryant had a careerhigh 30 points and 13 rebounds, and Troy Brown Jr. added 22 points, 10 rebounds and eight assists for the Wizards. CLETICS 128, TRAIL BLAZERS
124 » Jayson Tatum scored 34 points, Jaylen Brown added
30 and the Boston Celtics built a big lead early before holding on for a 128-124 victory over the Portland Trail Blazers on Sunday.
Tatum rebounded from a terrible performance in a loss to Milwaukee on Friday when he scored just five points on 2-of-18 shooting.
Damian Lillard had 30 points and 16 assists for Portland. Jusuf Nurkic added 30 points in his second official game back after breaking his leg in March 2019.
Boston led by as many as
24 in the second quarter, but Portland opened the fourth quarter with a 15-4 run, with three 3-pointers from Lillard and two from CJ McCollum, to put them on top 101-98.
Gary Trent Jr. hit a
3-pointer with less than 2 minutes to go before the Celtics used a 7-0 run to take a
125-119 lead with about 30 seconds left.
Carmelo Anthony got the Blazers within three with a 3-pointer and Gordon Hayward was called for a backcourt violation to give Portland the ball back. Lillard lost the ball and the Celtics were called for a foul to give Portland another possession with 6.8 seconds to go. SPURS 108, GRIZZLIES 106 » DeMar DeRozan made two free throws with a second to play, giving the San Antonio Spurs a 108-106 victory over the Memphis Grizzlies on Sunday that moved them into ninth place in the Western Conference.
The Spurs built an 11-point lead in the fourth quarter but needed a bunch of big plays down the stretch from DeRozan after the Grizzlies rallied.
“He’s a superstar in this league, one of the top players in this league,” the Grizzlies’ Ja Morant said. “I feel like that’s a good job. I’m not surprised at all that he goes out and delivered for his team late in the game at all.”
DeRozan brought the ball down court after Jaren Jackson
Jr. had tied the game for Memphis with a corner 3-pointer with 10.6 seconds to play. DeRozan pumpfaked Dillon Brooks into the air and drew the foul, then knocked down the foul shots.
Jackson missed a long 3 on the final possession.
“We just kept playing,” Spurs coach Gregg Popovich said. “We went to the next play, and that was the best part of the deal. We made it tough on ourselves in several different ways, but they kept playing, and that’s what’s important.”
The Spurs are trying to qualify for the postseason for what would be an NBArecord 23rd consecutive season. They arrived at Walt Disney World in 12th place in the West, but after victories over Sacramento and Memphis are just two games behind the eighth-place Grizzlies.
“Like I said, we’ve got to continue to go out like every game is our last and we’ve got another one tomorrow,” Spurs guard Dejounte Murray said. “We won one tonight, bumped up a spot and we’ve got to continue to go out, play together and win basketball games.”
Murray had 21 points and
10 rebounds for the Spurs. Derrick White added 16 points and DeRozan had 14.
Morant finished with 25 points, nine rebounds and nine assists. Jackson scored
21 points.
MAGIC 132, KINGS 116 . » Nikola Vucevic had 23 points and
11 rebounds, Aaron Gordon scored 19 of his 22 points in the first half and the Orlando Magic continued a strong restart with a 132-116 victory over the Sacramento Kings on Sunday.
Terrence Ross scored 25 points as the Magic won a season-best fifth straight game going back to before the pandemic-forced shutdown in March.
Orlando won the last three before the hiatus and beat Brooklyn, the team it is battling for the seventh seed in the Eastern Conference, to open the restart.
But the Magic lost Jonathan Isaac again when he reinjured the left knee he hurt Jan. 1 that kept him out until the restart.
De’Aaron Fox scored 13 points after a career-high 39 in the restart opener for the Kings, who have lost both games in the bubble as they try to get in position for a shot at the final playoff spot in the West. Harry Giles III led Sacramento with a career-high 23 points.
Markelle Fultz beat the buzzer in the first quarter by draining a three-quarter court shot that tied the franchise record for first-quarter points and gave Orlando a 44-26 lead. Fultz finished with 14 points.