Heat claim last-second road W over Raptors
Blazers beat host Thunder Nowitzki, Mavs topple Magic Lakers earn 2nd straight victory
Wayne Ellington scored the decisive basket with 0.3 seconds remaining to give the Miami Heat a dramatic 90-89 victory over the Toronto Raptors on Tuesday night in Toronto.
DeMar DeRozan put the Raptors ahead by tipping in his own miss with 3.1 seconds left before Ellington answered with the layup that gave Miami its fifth consecutive victory. Ellington received an inbounds pass in the right corner and drove the baseline for the winning points.
Goran Dragic scored 24 points and collected a career-best 12 rebounds for the Heat. Bam Adebayo recorded 16 points and career bests of 15 rebounds and five blocked shots, Ellington scored 15 points, and Hassan Whiteside contributed 13 points and 15 rebounds.
DeRozan scored 25 points for the Raptors, who had their five-game winning streak halted. Delon Wright scored 13 points while starting in place of point guard Kyle Lowry, who is day-to-day due to a bruised tailbone and back spasms.
Trail Blazers 117, Thunder 106
C.J. McCollum scored 15 of his 27 points in the third quarter as visiting Portland opened things up en route to a victory over Oklahoma City.
Shabazz Napier scored 21 points and Jusuf Nurkic collected 20 points and eight rebounds for the Trail Blazers, who moved ahead of the Thunder and into fifth place in the Western Conference standings.
Russell Westbrook and Paul George each scored 22 points for Oklahoma City, and Carmelo Anthony finished with 19 points. Westbrook added 12 assists and nine rebounds.
Nurkic scored 14 first-half points and McCollum and Napier had 12 apiece as the Blazers carried a 54-50 edge into halftime.
The Blazers were without point guard Damian Lillard, who had 36 points and 13 assists in Portland’s 103-99 win over Oklahoma City on November 5. Lillard, who has missed seven of the Blazers’ last nine games, has been sidelined for the past two contests due to a calf injury.
The Thunder were minus starting shooting guard Andre Roberson, who also missed the Wednesday game against the Minnesota Timberwolves with a sore knee.
Mavericks 114, Magic 99
Dirk Nowitzki turned back the clock and matched his season high of 20 points to help Dallas defeat visiting Orlando.
It marked just the second time all season that the 39-year-old Nowitzki reached the 20-point mark.
Dennis Smith Jr. also scored 20 points for the Mavericks, who ended a three-game slide while notching their sixth consecutive home victory over the Magic.
Wesley Matthews scored 16 points for Dallas and Harrison Barnes and Yogi Ferrell each added 15.
Aaron Gordon scored 19 points and D.J. Augustin added 18 for Orlando, which has dropped five straight games and 14 of its past 15.
Mario Hezonja scored 14 points and Marreese Speights added 13 points and 10 rebounds but couldn’t prevent the Magic from losing to Dallas for the 11th time in the past 13 meetings.
The Mavericks committed just four turnovers, made 19-of-22 free throws and scored 71 second-half points in a solid effort. Dallas shot 69.2 percent in the second half to finish at 51.8 percent.
Lakers 99, Kings 86
Julius Randle contributed 22 points, 14 rebounds and six assists as Los Angeles cruised to a victory over visiting Sacramento.
Brook Lopez scored 18 points and Kentavious Caldwell-Pope added 16 for the Lakers, who have won back-toback games after losing nine straight. Brandon Ingram scored 15 points, and Lonzo Ball had 11 rebounds, 11 assists and five steals despite scoring only five points on 2-of-10 shooting.
Bogdan Bogdanovic scored 19 points for Sacramento, which has lost seven of its last nine games. De’Aaron Fox tallied 15 points and Buddy Hield had 13 for the Kings, who shot just 34.5 percent from the field and committed 16 turnovers.
The Lakers committed 26 turnovers, but won with their defense by holding the Kings to 12 fourth-quarter points on 5-of-22 shooting. Los Angeles made 48.1 percent of its field-goal attempts.
The consecutive wins are the first for Los Angeles since December 7-9
(Reuters)