PHILADELPHIA (AP) -On a night Julius Erving and Philadelphia’s 1983 championship team was honored, Andrew Bynum and the Lakers spoiled the celebration.
Bynum scored a career-high 24 points and grabbed 11 rebounds and Lamar Odom had 21 and 11 to lead Los Angeles to a 106-101 win over the Sixers on Friday night.
Erving tried to motivate the Sixers with a speech at the morning shootaround. The Sixers could have used the Hall of Famer in his prime instead.
Andre Miller scored 21 points, Andre Iguodala had 20, and Samuel Dalembert had 10 points and 14 rebounds.
Kobe Bryant took 10 of his 20 shots in the first quarter and finished with 19 points. Bryant failed to thrill his hometown fans, but he did leave Philly with a more memorable keepsake: the Lakers’ first regular season win in the city since February 2000.
Derek Fisher scored eight straight points during a 10-0 run late in the third, including a go-ahead jumper off the break, that put the Lakers ahead for good and helped them take an 84-81 lead into the fourth. He finished with 21 points.
Celtics 107, Bulls 82
BOSTON (AP) – Paul Pierce scored 15 of his 22 points in the third quarter, going 4-for-4 from 3-point range in the third before sitting out the fourth in Bosoton’s easy bounce-back victory.
Recovering quickly from their only home loss of the season, Boston never trailed in the game and never gave up its double-digit lead after scoring 10 consecutive points to make it 40-22 with 7:50 left in the first half. Ray Allen scored 18 for the Celtics, who have the best record in the NBA (21-3).
Ben Gordon scored 19 for Chicago, and rookie Aaron Gray had 14 to reach a career-high filling in for the injured Ben Wallace.
Kevin Garnett, who had 12 points and seven rebounds, also sat out the entire fourth quarter. Garnett had a scare late in the first half when he was poked in the right eye by Joakim while fighting for a rebound; he did not leave the game.
Pistons 92, Grizzlies 67
AUBURN HILLS, Mich. (AP) – Tayshaun Prince scored 16 points and Antonio McDyess added 11 points and 11 rebounds to lead Detroit to its fourth straight victory.
The Pistons, who have won 11 of 13, got 14 points each from Chauncey Billups and Richard Hamilton. Rookie Arron Afflalo added a career-best 12.
Rudy Gay led the Grizzlies with 18 points. Pau Gasol returned to the Memphis lineup after missing four games with a toe injury. He finished with 10 points and 10 rebounds in 31 minutes, but went 4-for-14 from the floor as Memphis shot 33.8 percent.
Jazz 113, Magic 94
ORLANDO, Fla. (AP) – Paul Millsap scored a career-high 28 points to help Utah end a seven-game road losing streak.
The Magic, who went 13-4 in November, have now lost six of eight. They haven’t won a home game since Nov. 24.
The Jazz hadn’t won road game since Nov. 28, but made this one look easy.
Carlos Boozer had 24 points and nine rebounds for the Jazz. Deron Williams had 17 points and seven assists and Matt Harpring and C.J. Miles each added 10.
Hedo Turkoglu scored a season-high 27 for Orlando and Dwight Howard had 20 points and 13 rebounds.
Hawks 97, Wizards 92
WASHINGTON (AP) – Joe Johnson scored half of his 32 points in the final quarter and Atlanta moved past the Wizards and into second place in the Southeast Division.
Marvin Williams added 22 points and Josh Smith had 16 points and 14 rebounds for the Hawks, who hadn’t won at Washington since December 2003.
Antawn Jamison led the Wizards with 30 points and nine rebounds, but the team’s top scorer, Caron Butler, was limited to 13 points on 5-of-14 shooting.
As the teams went back and forth early in the fourth quarter, Johnson scored 10 straight Hawks points. Then, with the game tied at 86 and a little more than a minute to go, Johnson set up Smith’s 3-pointer to give Atlanta the lead for good.
Bobcats 105, Knicks 95
CHARLOTTE, N.C. (AP) – Gerald Wallace scored 27 points and Charlotte dominated New York.
Nazr Mohammed added 20 points and 14 rebounds and Jason Richardson and Emeka Okafor scored 17 points apiece for the Bobcats, who rolled out to a 24-point second-quarter lead.
While the Knicks made it respectable late, the game was never in doubt as Charlotte won its second straight game since part-owner Michael Jordan practiced with the team.
With point guard Stephen Marbury not with the Knicks again as he continues to grieve his father’s death, New York proved incapable of building off a blowout win over Cleveland on Wednesday.
Nate Robinson scored 20 points for the Knicks, who dropped to 1-10 on the road and failed to win consecutive games for the first time in nearly a month.
Timberwolves 131, Pacers 118
MINNEAPOLIS (AP) – Playing on a gimpy ankle, Antoine Walker made six 3-pointers and scored 23 points to help Minnesota Timberwolves beat Indiana.
Al Jefferson scored 15 of his 29 points in the third quarter and added 13 rebounds and Sebastian Telfair had 27 points and 11 assists in all 48 minutes for the Timberwolves, who snapped a six-game losing streak and won just their fourth game of the season.
Mike Dunleavy had 30 points and six rebounds for the Pacers, who led by as many as 21 points in the first half before Walker ignited the Wolves.
Add A Comment