WASHINGTON — Kyrie Irving scored 11 of his 23 points in overtime, including a tiebreaking 3-pointer with 35 seconds left, and the Cleveland Cavaliers edged the Washington Wizards 140-135 in a playoff-type atmosphere Monday night.

The loud, sellout crowd was standing, and so were the players on both benches, when James somehow missed a gimme layup late in the fourth quarter. Moments later, he banked in a maximum-degree-of-difficulty, step-back 3 with 0.3 seconds left to send the game to overtime, where he fouled out and Irving took over for Cleveland.

James finished with 32 points and a career-high 17 assists. Kevin Love had 39 points and 12 rebounds for the Eastern Conference leaders, who ended surging Washington’s winning streaks of 17 in a row at home and seven in a row overall.

RAPTORS 118, CLIPPERS 109: DeMar DeRozan had 31 points and Toronto overcame a triple-double from Blake Griffin to beat Los Angeles in Toronto.

Griffin, who had his fifth career triple-double and first of the season in three quarters, finished with 26 points, 11 rebounds and 11 assists. It wasn’t enough to prevent the Clippers from a third straight defeat against the Raptors and their seventh in eight games in Toronto.

DeRozan, who had missed seven of Toronto’s last eight games with a sprained ankle, was 11 of 22 from the floor, while Kyle Lowry scored 24 points and Jonas Valanciunas had 21 points and 12 rebounds for his 20th double-double of the season. The Raptors were 3-4 in DeRozan’s absence and won for just the fourth time in their last 12 games.

Advertisement

PISTONS 113, 76ers 96: Andre Drummond had 16 points and 17 rebounds, and Detroit pulled away at the start of the third quarter for an easy victory over Philadelphia in Auburn Hills, Michigan.

Detroit led 55-46 at halftime, then made its first six shots of the third quarter. The Pistons went on to outscore Philadelphia 34-21 in the period and were never seriously challenged after that.

PACERS 93, THUNDER 90: Paul George had 21 points and eight rebounds, Jeff Teague scored 17 points and Indiana rallied from an 11-point halftime deficit to beat Oklahoma City in Indianapolis.

Russell Westbrook led Oklahoma City with 27 points, a season-high 18 rebounds and nine assists, falling just short of his 26th triple-double this season.

JAZZ 120, HAWKS 95: Gordon Hayward scored 30 points and Utah broke open a close game with 10 straight points in the third quarter to win in Atlanta.

LAKERS 121, KNICKS 107: Lou Williams scored 22 points, Nick Young had 17 and Los Angeles handed New York an embarrassing defeat in New York to stop a 12-game losing streak on the road.

PELICANS 111, SUNS 106: Anthony Davis capped his 34-point night with a key rebound and six free throws in the final half-minute, Jrue Holiday scored five of his 30 points in the last minute and a half, and New Orleans ended a four-game slide with a victory over Phoenix in New Orleans.

Copy the Story Link

Only subscribers are eligible to post comments. Please subscribe or login first for digital access. Here’s why.

Use the form below to reset your password. When you've submitted your account email, we will send an email with a reset code.