PHILADELPHIA — Ben Simmons hit the first 3-pointer of his career and had 18 points and 13 assists to lead the Philadelphia 76ers to a 109-104 victory over the New York Knicks on Wednesday night.
Mike Scott’s fourth 3-pointer of the game with 1:29 left stretched the Sixers’ lead to 99-95, and they held on after New York’s Marcus Morris hit a pair of 3s in the final 10 seconds.
Joel Embiid had 23 points and 13 rebounds, and Scott scored 12 points.
Simmons did the improbable when he fired a 24-footer from the corner in front of the 76ers’ bench, sending the crowd into a frenzy. Simmons received a lengthy standing ovation for the first 3-pointer after 17 misses (and one more miss in the postseason).
Morris led the Knicks with 22 points.
MAVERICKS 142, WARRIORS 94: Luka Doncic scored 33 of his 35 points in the first half and had yet another triple-double to help Dallas rout visiting Golden State.
The second-year star from Slovenia had 22 points, five assists and five rebounds in the first quarter. He played only 25 minutes total, but still managed 10 rebounds and 11 assists.
WIZARDS 138, SPURS 132: Bradley Beal shot 9 for 9 in a 21-point third quarter and finished with 33 points to help Washington hand visiting San Antonio its seventh consecutive loss.
Davis Bertans, acquired by Washington from San Antonio in the offseason, scored 21 points, as did Ish Smith.
DeMar DeRozan scored 31 points for San Antonio.
BUCKS 135, HAWKS 127: Giannis Antetokounmpo had 33 points and 11 rebounds, Eric Bledsoe scored 28 and visiting Milwaukee won its fifth straight game.
RAPTORS 113, MAGIC 97: Fred VanVleet scored 24 points, Pascal Siakam had 18 points and 11 rebounds as Toronto won at home, snapping Orlando’s winning streak at three.
Orlando lost center Nikola Vucevic and forward Aaron Gordon to right ankle injuries in the second quarter.
Toronto improved to 6-0 at home.
Evan Fournier scored 21 points for Orlando.
HEAT 124, CAVALIERS 100: York native Duncan Robinson set Miami records for 3-pointers in a quarter and a half on his way to 29 points, and the Heat remained unbeaten at home.
Playing in front of his college coach at Michigan – the Cavaliers’ John Beilein — the second-year guard was 9 for 15 from the field, with all those shots coming from behind the arc. Robinson set team marks with seven 3-pointers in the second quarter and eight in the first half.
His flurry helped Miami tie a franchise mark with 75 first-half points.
Tyler Herro added 22 points for Miami.
Kevin Love had 25 points and 13 rebounds for Cleveland.
JAZZ 103, TIMBERWOLVES 95: Bojan Bogdanovic scored 30 points, Donovan Mitchell added 26 and Utah won at Minnesota.
Andrew Wiggins had 22 points for Minnesota after missing three games because of personal reasons and an illness. Karl-Anthony Towns was held to 14 points and struggled with foul trouble most of the night.
NETS 101, HORNETS 91: Jarrett Allen had 22 points and 17 rebounds in Brooklyn’s victory over visiting Charlotte.
Taurean Prince and Spencer Dinwiddie added 20 points apiece. Brooklyn was without Kyrie Irving for the third straight game because of a right shoulder injury.
Terry Rozier had 18 points for Charlotte.
BULLS 109, PISTONS 89: Lauri Markkanen scored 24 points to bust out of a slump, Wendell Carter Jr. had 12 points and 15 rebounds, and Chicago won at home.
Derrick Rose had 18 points and Blake Griffin – in his third game of the season – added 16 for Detroit.
NOTES
TRAIL BLAZERS: Portland waived center Pau Gasol, but his career with the team may not be over.
Gasol, who hasn’t played in a game for the Trail Blazers, announced on social media that the team had released him. In a video he posted, Gasol said he is still recovering from surgery on his left foot in May.
“I underwent surgery in hopes that it would expedite my return, but unfortunately in the last few days we have assessed that my recovery is going to take longer than we had originally hoped for,” he said.
Gasol said he plans to remain in Portland to continue his rehabilitation, and he is discussing a new role with the Trail Blazers.
“I have the same excitement and passion for the game of basketball that I had when I first started playing, and I will work as hard as I can on my recovery with a clear goal in mind: To get healthy in order to continue to play the game that I love,” Gasol said.
Gasol signed with the Portland as a free agent.
He played in three games for the Milwaukee Bucks last season before undergoing surgery for the stress fracture.
A six-time All Star and 18-season NBA veteran, Gasol is among just four players with over 20,000 points, 11,000 rebounds, 3,500 assists and 1,500 blocks in his career, along with Kareem Abdul-Jabbar, Tim Duncan and Kevin Garnett.
CHARLES BARKLEY issued an apology for a comment he made to a female political reporter about hitting her.
Axios reporter Alexi McCammond wrote Tuesday night on Twitter that when she questioned Barkley on his indecisiveness over the Democratic presidential hopefuls, Barkley told her “I don’t hit women but if I did I would hit you.” McCammond says when she objected to his remarks, Barkley told her she “couldn’t take a joke.”
Barkley, a former player who works as a basketball analyst for TNT’s Inside the NBA, issued an apology on Wednesday through TurnerSportsPR on Twitter saying his comment was “inappropriate and unacceptable.”
Barley said in the statement that “it was an attempted joke that wasn’t funny at all. There’s no excuse for it and I apologize.”
BULLS: Forward Otto Porter Jr. has a bone bruise in his left foot and will be reassessed in two weeks.
Porter, averaging 11.2 points in nine games, has been sidelined since he sprained his left foot at Atlanta on Nov. 6.
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