Indiana assistant coach Lloyd Pierce talks with Kelan Martin during the first half of the Pacers’ 106-93 win over Dallas on Friday in Indianapolis. Pierce was coaching in place of Rick Carlisle, who is in the NBA’s COVID-19 protocols. AP
INDIANAPOLIS — Caris LeVert scored 26 points and Domantas Sabonis added 22 points and 10 rebounds Friday night to lead the Indiana Pacers past the Dallas Mavericks 106-93.
Indiana won its third straight game for the first time this season — this one coming without Coach Rick Carlisle, who entered the NBA’s health and safety protocols Thursday after testing positive for COVID-19. Assistant coach Lloyd Pierce replaced Carlisle on the bench.
Luka Doncic fell just short of his 39th career triple-double with 27 points, nine rebounds and nine assists for Dallas. Kristaps Porzingis added 22 as the Mavericks lost for the fourth time in five games.
The Pacers led most of the final three quarters, but Dallas used a 13-4 to jump out to an 80-75 lead late in the third quarter. Indiana answered with the final seven points of the third and the first five of the fourth to make it 87-80.
NETS 113, HAWKS 105: Kevin Durant scored 31 points, including a go-ahead jumper midway through the fourth quarter, and Brooklyn proved to be resilient once again, winning in Atlanta.
The Nets, protecting their slim lead over Chicago for the best record in the Eastern Conference, improved to 8-0 following losses this season. Durant and LaMarcus Aldridge, who had 15 points, were rested in Wednesday night’s 114-104 loss at Houston.
James Harden had 20 points and 11 assists for Brooklyn, which is 2-0 against Atlanta this season.
Trae Young led Atlanta with 31 points. John Collins had 20 and Kevin Huerter added 19.
KINGS 124, HORNETS 123: Sacramento’s three-game winning streak ended after a frantic ending when De’Aaron Fox missed two free throws with 2.4 seconds left to give host Charlotte.
Charlotte rookie James Bouknight, the 11th pick in the 2021 NBA draft, poured in a career-high 24 points on six 3-pointers, Miles Bridges added 23 points, eight assists and seven rebounds, and Kelly Oubre had 22 points. The Hornets have seven players out due to illness and NBA health and safety protocols.
Fox had 31 points to lead the Kings, but his two missed free throws proved critical. With the game tied with 20.2 seconds left, the Hornets were looking for one shot with the shot clock turned off.
RAPTORS 90, KNICKS 87: Gary Trent Jr. scored 24 points, Fred VanVleet had 17 points and 11 assists, and Raptors won its 10th straight home meeting against New York, in Toronto.
Scottie Barnes had 12 points and a career-high 15 rebounds and Pascal Siakam had 13 points and 12 rebounds for the Raptors, who let a 20-point first quarter lead slip away but held on to win their third in four games.
The Knicks’ Obi Toppin scored a career-high 19 points and added 10 rebounds, Julius Randle had 13 points and 14 rebounds, and RJ Barrett scored 19 points. New York lost for the sixth time in their past eight.
CAVALIERS 123, TIMBERWOLVES 106: Jarrett Allen scored 21 points and added 10 rebounds, Darius Garland and Kevin Love also had double-doubles, and Cleveland used a fast start to cruise to a win in Minneapolis.
Love scored 18 points and had 13 rebounds off the bench against his former team, and Garland scored 12 points to go with 12 assists. All told, Cleveland had seven players score in double digits: Lauri Markkanen (19), Isaac Okoro (16), Cedi Osman (13) and Evan Mobley (11).
Karl-Anthony Towns scored 12 of his 21 points in garbage time, Malik Beasley had 15 points off the bench and Anthony Edwards scored 13 for Minnesota, which shot 39.1% from the field and again missed too many layups and other close shots.
LAKERS 116, THUNDER 95: LeBron James scored 33 points on 13-of-20 shooting, and visiting Los Angeles rolled past Oklahoma City.
James – who sat out the Lakers’ first two games against the Thunder this season, both losses – had six assists and five rebounds. Avery Bradley added a season-high 22 points for the Lakers, who moved one game above .500.
Rookie Tre Mann scored a season-high 19 points for Oklahoma City. Leading scorer Shai Gilgeous-Alexander, who came in averaging 21.9 points per game, finished with 11 points on 5-of-12 shooting.
MILWAUKEE 123, HOUSTON 114: Giannis Antetokounmpo had 41 points and 17 rebounds, and Milwaukee snapped Houston’s seven-game winning streak with a victory in Houston.
Houston had been red hot following the 15-game slide that preceded this run. The Rockets led by 10 at one point and hung around until the Bucks pulled away in the fourth.
Eric Gordon’s 3-pointer got Houston within 1 before Khris Middleton scored the last five points of a 7-0 stretch to extend Milwaukee’s lead to 117-109 with about four minutes to go.
Houston scored the next three points, with a layup by Christian Wood. But Jrue Holiday intercepted a bad pass by Garrison Mathews and dished it to Antetokounmpo for a dunk that made it 119-112 with less than a minute left and sent fans toward the exits.
PELICANS 109, PISTONS 93: Brandon Ingram scored 26 points and New Orleans defeated visiting Detroit, extending the Pistons’ losing streak to 11 games.
Jonas Valanciunas had 17 points and 11 rebounds for New Orleans, which trailed by as many as 15 points in the second quarter but led by as many as 27 in the second half.
Josh Hart had 14 points and 13 rebounds, and Nickeil Alexander-Walker also scored 14 for the Pelicans, who’ve showed signs of improvement in recent weeks while awaiting star forward Zion Williamson’s return from an offseason foot fracture. Since starting 1-12, New Orleans has won seven of 15 games.
NOTES
WIZARDS: The NBA fined Washington forward Kyle Kuzma $15,000 for directing an obscene gesture toward a fan and Memphis Grizzlies guard-forward Dillon Brooks $25,000 for aggressively confronting a game official and failing to leave the court in a timely manner upon his ejection.
Kuzma’s incident took place in the fourth quarter of the Wizards’ 119-116 overtime win over the Detroit Pistons on Wednesday night at Little Caesars Arena. Kuzma hit a 3 with 0.6 seconds left in overtime to lift the Wizards to the victory and hand the Pistons their 10th straight loss.
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