Raptors win in anniversary of NBA’s 1st game
NEW YORK — OG Anunoby scored a career-high 36 points and the Toronto Raptors won their fourth straight by beating the New York Knicks 113-104 on Monday night in the 75th anniversary of the NBA’s first game.
Gary Trent Jr. added 26 points for the Raptors, who surged into the lead by outscoring the Knicks 38-22 in the third quarter. Fred VanVleet finished with 17 points, nine rebounds and seven assists.
The Raptors took the lead for good during the period when Svi Mykhailiuk’s 3-pointer made it 68-66 — the same score by which the Knicks beat the Toronto Huskies on Nov. 1, 1946, at Maple Leaf Gardens.
Mykhailiuk finished with 15 points in place of Scottie Barnes, who was leading all rookies with 18.1 points and 8.9 rebounds per game. He has a sprained right thumb.
RJ Barrett scored 27 points for the Knicks, who were trying for their first 6-1 start since 2012-13. Julius Randle had 22 points, nine rebounds and five assists.
Cavaliers 113, Hornets 110
CHARLOTTE, N.C. — Jarrett Allen had 24 points and 16 rebounds as Cleveland held off a frantic fourth-quarter rally by Charlotte to win 113-110 and close out a five-game trip on a positive note.
Lauri Markkanen scored 21 points, Evan Mobley added 15 points and 10 rebounds and Darius Garland had 16 points — including two clutch free throws with 14.9 seconds left — as the Cavaliers went 3-2 on the road.
LaMelo Ball finished with 30 points and Terry Rozier added 23 for Charlotte, which overcame a sloppy first half to cut a 17-point fourth-quarter deficit to two before falling short.
The Cavaliers took advantage of eight Charlotte turnovers in the first quarter to jump out to a 40-21 lead. By halftime, the Hornets had turned it over 13 times, leading to 22 Cleveland points and trailed by 16.
But Charlotte didn’t quit, and would get as close as two on a drive by Rozier with 20 seconds left, but Garland’s two free throws helped seal the win.
76ersS 113, Trail Blazers 103
PHILADELPHIA — Seth Curry stepped up in Joel Embiid’s absence, scoring 23 points — including several key buckets late — to lead short-handed Philadelphia over Portland.
Embiid, the team’s leading scorer
and four-time All-Star, was out to rest — his first missed game of the season. The 76ers also were without Tobias Harris (health and safety protocols), who was a late scratch, and lost starter Danny Green in the third quarter due to hamstring tightness but not before he scored 11 points.
It was the first of three games in four nights for Philadelphia, which has won three straight. Georges Niang added 21 points for the 76ers.
Norman Powell led the Trail Blazers with 22 points. Damian Lillard had 20 points and 10 assists and C.J. McCollum also had 20 points.
Bulls 128, Celtics 114
BOSTON — DeMar DeRozan scored 37 points and Chicago rallied from a 19-point, second-half deficit to beat Boston and improve to 6-1 for the season.
Zach LaVine scored 26 points and Nikola Vucevic had 11 points, 10 rebounds and nine assists for the Bulls, who outscored Boston 39-11 in the fourth quarter to turn a 14-point lead into a 14-point victory.
Jaylen Brown scored 28 for the Celtics, who have lost three in a row and left their home court to boos after falling to 2-5 in new coach Ime Udoka’s first season. Al Horford had 20 points and 10 rebounds, and Jayson Tatum scored 20 for Boston.
The Celtics led 94-75 with about three minutes left in the third quarter and still had a 103-89 lead entering the fourth. But Chicago scored the first 12 points in the fourth to cut the deficit to two points, 103101, with just over 8 minutes left.
Ayo Dosunmu, a second-round draft pick who had his first double-digit NBA game with 14 points, hit a 3-pointer with 6:53 left to put the Bulls up 106-105. The Celtics
briefly retook the lead before Chicago scored 18 of the next 20 points.
Hawks 118, Wizards 111
ATLANTA — Trae Young scored 26 points and Clint Capela had 16 points and 12 rebounds to help Atlanta beat Washington.
Bradley Beal scored 19 of his 24 points in the first half for Washington, which had its threegame win streak halted and lost its fifth in a row at State Farm Arena. A victory would’ve given 5-2 Washington its best beginning to a season the 1974-75 Bullets got off to a 7-0 start.
Young went 11 for 11 from the free-throw line as Atlanta finished 29 for 29 on foul shots.
The Hawks, who lost 122111 at Washington last week, snapped a two-game skid. Bogdan Bogdanovich finished with 16 points for Atlanta, and Cam Reddish added 15 off the bench.
Pacers 131, Spurs 118
INDIANAPOLIS — Domantas Sabonis had 24 points and 13 rebounds, and Myles Turner added 19 points to lead Indiana past struggling San Antonio.
It was a welcome change for the Pacers, who snapped a four-game losing streak and won for just the second time in eight games under new coach Rick Carlisle.
Dejounte Murray finished with 16 points and Derrick White had 13 to lead San Antonio. The Spurs have lost four of their last five with the only win coming Saturday at defending NBA champion Milwaukee.
But after the opening minutes in Indianapolis, the Spurs never had a chance. San Antonio couldn’t get closer than 18 until the final minutes in its most lopsided loss this season.