Leonard leads comeback over Bulls
LOS ANGELES — Kawhi Leonard scored a seasonhigh 35 points, going over 10,000 in his career, and the Los Angeles Clippers rallied to beat the Chicago Bulls 130-127 on Sunday.
Leonard reached the milestone on one of his five 3-pointers in the third quarter, when he scored 21 points. His points and 3-pointers made were the most in a single quarter in his career. Leonard’s last 3-pointer in the quarter gave the Clippers their first lead since they scored the game’s first basket. In all, he had seven 3-pointers, tying his career high.
Paul George had 28 points, seven rebounds and nine assists for the Clippers, who avoided their first three-game losing streak of the season.
Zach LaVine led six Bulls in double figures with a season-high 45 points.
TIMBERWOLVES 96 SPURS 88
D’Angelo Russell had 27 points, five rebounds and five assists as hosting Minnesota snapped a sevengame losing streak withover San Antonio.
Russell scored eight of his points in the fourth quarter, including a 3pointer to tie the score with 7:02 left and two free
throws to ice it with 31.5 seconds remaining.
WARRIORS 106 RAPTORS 105
Damion Lee converted the tying and go-ahead free throws with 3.3 seconds left and Golden State withstood a rough fourth quarter to hold off visiting Toronto despite uncharacteristic struggles by Stephen Curry.
Pascal Siakam missed a jumper as the buzzer sounded but finished with 25 points for Toronto in a rematch of the 2019 NBA Finals won in six games by the Raptors.
THUNDER 129, NETS 116
Shai Gilgeous-Alexander scored 31 points to lead
Oklahoma City to a road win over Brooklyn.
Hamidou Diallo finished with 25 points, Al Horford had 22, George Hill added 14, and Lugentz Dort and Isaiah Roby had 13 each.
NUGGETS 114, KNICKS 89
Nikola Jokic had 22 points, 10 rebounds and five assists in another short night, and Denver reached .500 for the first time this season with a victory over New York on the road.
The Nuggets opened 1-4 after reaching the Western Conference finals last season but have now answered with four wins in five games.
This was the first time the Nuggets allowed fewer than 100 points this season.
JAZZ 96, PISTONS 86
Donovan Mitchell scored 13 of his 28 points in a decisive first quarter, and Utah held on for a road victory over Detroit.
The Pistons were coming off an overtime win over Phoenix on Friday night in which they rallied from a 23-point deficit, but they couldn’t climb out of another big hole.
Jerami Grant scored 28 points for the Pistons, who cut the deficit to six late in the third quarter.
Conley finished with 22 points.
HEAT AT CELTICS, PPD.
Sunday’s game between Boston and Miami was postponed because of contact tracing concerns within the Heat, a person familiar with the situation told The Associated Press.
The Celtics would have been without seven players for the game in accordance with the NBA’s health and safety protocols for dealing with COVID-19, all of them ruled out earlier Sunday — along with two others because of injury. That would have left Boston with only eight available players, the league minimum.