Rivers stings dad’s team
Hornets beat Celtics, James makes NBA history
BOSTON: Austin Rivers won his first NBA game against his father as the New Orleans Hornets beat coach Doc Rivers’ Boston Celtics 90-78 on Wednesday.
Greivis Vasquez scored 15 points with 11 rebounds and Al-Farouq Aminu had 18 points and nine rebounds for New Orleans, who won for the sixth time in seven games and stopped Boston’s six-game winning streak. Rivers scored eight points against his dad’s team; they became the fourth father-son matchup in NBA history.
Paul Pierce scored 12 points with 10 rebounds before fouling out in the final minutes.
Anthony Davis had 10 points and 10 rebounds for the Hornets.
Miami’s LeBron James became the youngest player in NBA history to score 20,000 points and also surpassed 5,000 assists to lead the Heat to a 92-75 win over the Golden State Warriors.
“It means everything,” James said. “It means I’m healthy, I’m able to be out there on the floor and also my team-mates have allowed me to get to this milestone.”
The previous youngest to reach the 20,000-point mark was Lakers star Kobe Bryant, who got there when he was 29 years, 122 days old, while James was 28 years and 17 days old.
“Twenty-thousand points is bigtime,” James said. “I know the list is small and I’m humbled by it, but also 5,000 assists means a lot as well because I’ve had some good teammates over the years and I appreciate every single one of them.”
James became the 13th player with 20,000 points and 5,000 assists.
James finished with 25 points, 10 assists and seven rebounds to eclipse both marks before half-time as he helped Miami go ahead by 34 points in the third quarter and allowed coach Erik Spoelstra to rest his starters for the fourth. Tony Parker had 17 points and 11 assists for San Antonio and Tim Duncan scored 19 to help the Spurs beat the Memphis Grizzlies 103-82 and extend their home winning streak to 13 games.
At Oklahoma City, Russell Westbrook scored 32 points and Kevin Martin had 20 as the Thunder ended the Denver Nuggets’ six-game winning streak with a 117-97 victory.
Atlanta’s Jeff Teague had a careerhigh 28 points and 11 assists as the short-handed Hawks ended Brooklyn’s seven-game winning streak with a 109-95 defeat of the Nets, while Dirk Nowitzki scored 19 points as the Dallas Mavericks held off a Jeremy Lin-led surge to beat the Houston Rockets 105-100.
In other games, the Orlando Magic beat the Indiana Pacers 97-86, the Cleveland Cavaliers defeated the Portland Trail Blazers 93-88 and the Sacramento Kings edged the Washington Wizards 95-94. —