ATLANTA — Stephen Curry scored 28 points, including 15 in the final seven minutes of the first half after returning from an ankle injury, and the Golden State Warriors beat the Atlanta Hawks 114-109 on Friday night for their fifth straight victory.
Curry turned his right ankle and left the game in the first quarter. He returned for his high-scoring second period before returning to the locker room for good in the third. The Warriors said a “tweaked right ankle” was the reason Curry would not return.
Kevin Durant also had 28 points for the Warriors, who are unbeaten since the All-Star break.
Atlanta’s Dennis Schroder, who had 27 points, sank three free throws with 19 seconds remaining to cut Golden State’s lead to 111-109. Durant made only one of two free throws to push the lead to three points, but Andre Iguodala’s steal from Kent Bazemore and layup clinched the win.
Bazemore led the Hawks with 29 points.
76ERS 110, HORNETS 99: Joel Embiid had 23 points and 14 rebounds to help Philadelphia pull away down the stretch in a win at home.
The Sixers won their 13th straight game at the Wells Fargo Center and looked strong in the fourth quarter on the second night of a back-to-back. JJ Redick and newly signed Ersan Ilyasova scored clutch buckets in the final minutes to continue the Sixers’ late charge up the East standings.
The Sixers were coming off a win over the Cavaliers on Thursday night that ended an 11-game losing streak against the Eastern Conference champions.
MAGIC 115, PISTONS 106: Aaron Gordon had 27 points and 13 rebounds to help host Orlando stop a seven-game losing streak with an overtime victory over Detroit.
Nikola Vucevic added 22 points and 12 rebounds, and D.J. Augustin had 20 points and nine assists for the Magic. Evan Fournier scored 17, including seven in the extra period.
James Ennis and Reggie Bullock led Detroit with 21 points apiece. The Pistons have lost seven of nine.
NOTES
CAVALIERS: Starting guard J.R. Smith was suspended one game by the team for throwing a bowl of soup at assistant coach Damon Jones.
The soup tossing happened after the team’s morning shootaround, and Smith sat out Thursday night’s loss against Philadelphia, a person with direct knowledge of the situation told The Associated Press on Friday.
LAKERS: Rookie Josh Hart will be sidelined four to six weeks after undergoing surgery to repair his broken left hand, sustained in practice Wednesday.
Copy the Story LinkSend questions/comments to the editors.
Success. Please wait for the page to reload. If the page does not reload within 5 seconds, please refresh the page.
Enter your email and password to access comments.
Hi, to comment on stories you must . This profile is in addition to your subscription and website login.
Already have a commenting profile? .
Invalid username/password.
Please check your email to confirm and complete your registration.
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.