Washington’s Kristaps Porzingis reacts after he hit a 3-point shot in the second half against the 76ers Tuesday night in Washington. Nick Wass/Associated Press
WASHINGTON — Kristaps Porzingis scored 24 points, Bradley Beal added 19 and the Washington Wizards ended Philadelphia’s eight-game winning streak with a 116-111 victory over the 76ers on Tuesday night.
The Wizards withstood a 48-point effort by Joel Embiid and a 26-point, 13-assist performance by James Harden. The 76ers cut a 16-point deficit to one late in the game but couldn’t overtake Washington, which played the final 4:17 without Beal.
Beal appeared to injure himself when he collided with Embiid and left the game immediately. It wasn’t clear what was wrong, but he seemed frustrated as he walked toward the tunnel.
There were some ugly shot attempts by the Wizards without their star guard on the floor, but they made enough plays defensively to hold on.
Embiid cut the lead to one when he threw down an alley-oop dunk from Harden, but Porzingis made a 3-pointer to make it 111-107. With 2:05 remaining, Embiid missed the first of two free throws – his only miss in 14 attempts from the line.
With the score 111-108, Embiid fell while driving and lost the ball out of bounds with 1:29 to play. About a minute later he again had the ball down three, and this time Washington’s Deni Avdija reached in and knocked it away.
LAKERS 129, MAGIC 110: LeBron James scored 28 points, Russell Westbrook had a triple-double and visiting Los Angeles stopped a four-game slide.
James also had seven rebounds and five assists in 31 minutes. The four-time NBA MVP had scored at least 30 points in each of his last seven games.
Thomas Bryant added 21 points and 10 rebounds for the Lakers, who shot 54.4% from the field. Westbrook finished with 15 points, 13 assists and 12 rebounds in a reserve role.
Markelle Fultz led Orlando with 16 points.
PACERS 129, HAWKS 114: Buddy Hield made six 3-pointers on his way to 28 points, and Indiana beat visiting Atlanta.
Hield hit 11 of 16 shots, including 6 of 7 from deep. He leads the NBA with 132 3s this season.
THUNDER 130, SPURS 114: Shai Gilgeous-Alexander had 28 points, eight assists and six rebounds, and Oklahoma City closed a season-high, seven-game homestand by beating San Antonio.
Mike Muscala, pressed into extended action due to an early injury to starting forward Aleksej Pokusevski, hit 3 of 5 3-point attempts and scored 19 points. Tre Mann had 17 and rookie Jalen Williams added 15 points and nine rebounds.
The Thunder never trailed after the 1:59 mark of the first quarter, but needed a 14-3 run to open the fourth quarter to secure the win. Oklahoma City hit 13 of 24 3-point attempts (54.2%).
Devin Vassell scored 20 points for the Spurs.
CLIPPERS 124, RAPTORS 113: Paul George scored 23 points, and visiting Los Angeles won for the seventh time in nine games.
Ivica Zubac had 23 points and 16 rebounds for Los Angeles, and Reggie Jackson scored 20 points.
Norman Powell scored 22 points and Kawhi Leonard had 15.
Pascal Siakam scored 36 points, topping 25 for the career-high fifth straight game, and Scottie Barnes had 17 points and 13 rebounds as the Raptors’ home losing streak reached four.
NOTES
KINGS: Coach Mike Brown missed the game against the Denver Nuggets after entering the league’s health and safety protocols.
The team announced Brown will be out and associate coach Jordi Fernandez will run the team in his absence.
Brown will be out until he gets clearance to return from the COVID protocols.
The Kings will also be without star center Domantas Sabonis, who has an avulsion fracture of the ulnar collateral ligament in his right thumb. Sabonis is day to day after getting hurt last Friday.
KNICKS: Jalen Brunson missed his first Dallas reunion after the New York Knicks’ point guard was ruled out of a meeting with the Mavericks with a sore right hip.
The club announced the decision not long before the start of Tuesday night’s game. Brunson played when the Knicks lost to the Mavericks 121-100 in New York in early December. The rematch was his first missed game of the season.
Brunson was drafted in the second round by Dallas in 2018, the same year Mavs superstar Luka Doncic went third overall.
A two-time NCAA champion at Villanova, Brunson grew into quite the sidekick for Doncic before signing with the Knicks as a free agent this past summer.
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