Lillard pushes Blazers past Pelicans
NEW ORLEANS — Damian Lillard scored 43 points, including a goahead three-point play with 16.5 seconds left, to lift the Portland Trail Blazers to their sixth consecutive victory, 126-124 over the New Orleans Pelicans on Wednesday night.
Lillard had 11 fourthquarter points and was clutch in the final seven minutes.
The Pelicans led for the final time at 124-123 with 26.4 seconds left after Zion Williamson made two free throws. Williamson’s finished with 36 points.
But Lillard drove past Lonzo Ball for a layup and drew contact to put Portland up 126-124.
The Pelicans had a final chance, but Ball missed a 3-pointer and Brandon Ingram threw up an airball at the buzzer.
WIZARDS 130, NUGGETS 128
Bradley Beal made two free throws with a tenth of a second left to give host Washington its third straight victory.
Davis Bertans had career highs with nine 3pointers and 35 points, Beal finished with 25 points and a season-high 10 assists, and former Rocket Russell Westbrook had a triple-double with 12 points, 13 rebounds and 12 assists.
Washington’s threegame winning streak is its first since Dec. 1-5, 2018.
Jamal Murray led Denver with 35 points, and Nikola Jokic scored 33 points. Murray scored Denver’s
final 11 points, including a 3-pointer that tied it at 128 with 2.1 seconds left.
JAZZ 114, CLIPPERS 96
Donovan Mitchell scored 24 points, Rudy Gobert had 23 points and 20 rebounds, and visiting Utah rolled past shorthanded Los Angeles for its ninth consecutive victory.
Jordan Clarkson scored 18 points for the NBA-leading Jazz, who improved to 24-5 with their 20th win in 21 games. After three tight quarters, Utah broke it open in the fourth to win this matchup of Western Conference powerhouses — although it wasn’t a proper showdown with the Clippers missing injured superstars Kawhi Leonard
and Paul George.
WARRIORS 120 HEAT 112 (OT)
Kent Bazemore scored 26 points off the bench, including the tying basket in regulation and four points in overtime, as Golden State defeated Miami at San Francisco.
HAWKS 122, CELTICS 114
Trae Young had 40 points and eight assists as visiting Atlanta snapped a four-game losing streak.
Former Rockets center Clint Capela finished with 24 points and 13 rebounds to help Atlanta earn its first victory over Boston since April 8, 2018, ending a seven-game losing streak.
Jayson Tatum had 35 points for the Celtics, who have lost five of seven.
GRIZZLIES 122, THUNDER 113
Grayson Allen and Jonas Valanciunas each scored 22 points and Ja Morant posted his first tripledouble of the season as Memphis defeated visiting Oklahoma City.
Morant finished with 15 points, 11 rebounds and 12 assists for the third tripledouble in his career.
PACERS 134 TIMBERWOLVES 128 (OT)
Domantas Sabonis had 36 points, 17 rebounds and 10 rebounds, and Malcolm Brogdon added 32 points and nine rebounds as Indiana beat Minnesota in overtime at Minneapolis.
MAGIC 107, KNICKS 89
Terrence Ross scored 18 of his season-high 30 points in the second half as host Orlando used a decisive third-quarter run to beat New York.
BULLS 105, PISTONS 102
Zach LaVine scored 37 points as Chicago won at home on short notice.
The Bulls were scheduled to visit Charlotte, with the Pistons at Dallas. Those games got called off Tuesday because of COVID-19 contact tracing concerns with the Hornets and power outages in Texas. The Bulls and Pistons were then scheduled to play each other instead.
Jerami Grant scored a career-high 43 points for the Pistons.