Booker, Suns roll over Pacers Bennett’s hat trick propels Panthers
Devin Booker scored 35 points, Deandre Ayton had 27 points and 12 rebounds and the NBA-leading Phoenix Suns beat the Indiana Pacers 112-94 on Friday night.
Chris Paul added 12 points and nine assist for Phoenix, and Cam Payne had 11 points and five assists. The Suns finished the first half of the season 32-9, their secondbest record in franchise history through the first 41 games.
Warriors 139, Bulls 96 —
Andrew Wiggins scored 21 points, Stephen Curry added 19 and the Golden State rolled past Chicago for its most-lopsided victory of the season.
Rookie Jonathan Kuminga finished with 25 points, and Jordan Poole had 22. The Warriors broke out of their rut in a huge way, pulling away early after dropping four of five.
The Bulls lost star Zach LaVine to a left knee injury in the opening minutes.
Heat 124, Hawks 118 — Tyler Herro scored 24 points, Jimmy Butler returned from a three-game absence with a sprained ankle to add 23 and Miami rallied to beat Atlanta.
Omer Yurtseven had 17 points and 11 rebounds, and P.J. Tucker also had 17 points to help Miami move within a game of Chicago for first place in the Eastern Conference. The Heat have won seven in a row at home.
Magic 116, Hornets 109 —
Moritz Wagner scored a season-high 26 points, younger brother Franz added 19 points and seven assists and Orlando beat Charlotte to snap a 10-game losing streak.
Pistons 103, Raptors 87 —
Trey Lyles scored 21 points, Cade Cunningham and Hamidou Diallo each added 18 and Detroit beat Toronto.
The Pistons are 5-3 in 2022 after finishing 2021 with 18 losses in their last 19 games.
Sam Bennett scored his second hat trick this season and added an assist to lead the Florida Panthers over the Dallas Stars 7-1 on Friday night.
Jonathan Huberdeau had a goal and three assists to give him 51 points. Gustav Forsling scored his first of the season, Anthony Duclair had a goal and two assists, and Carter Verhaeghe also scored for the Panthers.
Brandon Montour had two assists, and Sergei Bobrovsky made 28 saves.
Bennett also had three goals Oct. 16 against the Islanders, the second game of the season.
The Panthers are 7-0-1 since the extended Christmas break and they improved to 19-3-0 at home.
Jake Oettinger allowed four goals on 17 shots. He was replaced by Anton Khudobin with 13:57 left in the second period. Khudobin finished with 19 saves.
Roope Hintz scored for Dallas. The Stars fell to 4-11-1 on the road.
Wild 7, Ducks 3 — Matt Boldy and Mats Zuccarello scored four seconds apart early in a four-goal third for Minnesota.
Zuccarello finished with two goals and an assist, Boldy and Ryan Hartman had one of each, and Kirill Kaprizov added two assists in his return.
Kaapo Kahkonen made 39 saves for the rested Wild, who won their 10th straight against the Ducks — the longest win streak against one opponent in team history.
Boldy scored on a deflection off a defender 30 seconds into the third before Zuccarello scored on a wrister from the slot to make it 4-1. The team record for fastest two goals is three seconds set by Jim Dowd and Richard Park on Jan. 21, 2004.