Rockets run win streak to 16, beat Thunder 122-112
OKLAHOMA CITY (AP) Chris Paul scored 25 points and the Houston Rockets beat the Oklahoma City Thunder 122-112 on Tuesday night for their 16th straight win.
James Harden had 23 points and 11 assists, and Trevor Ariza added 15 points for the Rockets, who are on the second-longest win streak in franchise history.
Russell Westbrook scored 32 points and Carmelo Anthony added 23 for Oklahoma City, which is in a logjam of teams trying to fight their way into third place in the West.
Oklahoma City had beaten several of the league's top teams this season. The Thunder have two wins over Golden State, a victory over Toronto and a win over Cleveland this season. The Rockets avoided that fate by going 17 of 33 on 3-pointers and 29 of 34 on free throws.
LOS ANGELES (AP) - Anthony Davis scored 41 points despite a rib contusion and New Orleans won its ninth straight.
Davis tied his career high with four 3-pointers and had 13 rebounds.
He briefly left the game after banging bodies with DeAndre Jordan going for a rebound. Davis grabbed his side before going to the locker room for an X-ray, which was negative. He returned wearing extra padding and exploded for 19 points in the third quarter, capping it with a buzzer-beating 3-pointer.
Tobias Harris and Lou Williams scored 27 points apiece for the Clippers, who had their two-game winning streak snapped. Harris added 11 rebounds and Williams had 11 assists. Montrezl Harrell had 26 points, and DeAndre Jordan had 10 points and 20 rebounds.
OAKLAND, Calif. (AP) - Stephen Curry scored 34 points with six 3-pointers, and Golden State won its sixth straight since the All-Star break by beating Brooklyn.
Kevin Durant added 19 points and six rebounds for the defending champions, who are still trying to put together four steady quarters.
D'Angelo Russell had 22 points for the Nets, who hung tough through three quarters but couldn't last. They lost by three points at the Clippers on Sunday.
TRAIL BLAZERS 111, KNICKS 87
PORTLAND, Ore. (AP) - Damian Lillard scored 37 points and made eight 3-pointers, and Portland won its eighth straight game.
CJ McCollum added 19 points for the Blazers, on their longest winning streak since winning nine in a row in 2014. They have moved into third place in the Western Conference standings.
The Blazers hit a season-high 20 3-pointers in 33 attempts (60 percent). Lillard's 3s were one shy of his career high.
Enes Kanter had 18 points and 11 rebounds for the Knicks, who lost their fifth straight. It was Kanter's 32nd double-double this season, a career high. Tim Hardaway Jr. finished with 19 points.
WASHINGTON (AP) - Bradley Beal scored 30 points on 12-of-16 shooting and Washington had its best 3-point shooting night of the season to beat Miami.
Beal went 6 of 7 from beyond the arc, leading a Washington team that finished 14 for 24 there while snapping its first three-game losing streak of the season.
Tomas Satoransky added 19 points and Markieff Morris had 16 points and 13 rebounds. Morris' baseline 3-pointer off Beal's feed made it 113-109 with 1:06 left in overtime.
The fifth-place Wizards improved to 11-6 in their extended stretch without All-Star point guard John Wall as he recovers from knee surgery. They moved within a half-game of Indiana and maintained a one-game lead on Philadelphia in the Eastern Conference.
Dwyane Wade scored 22 points but missed on a potential game-tying jumper with 4.1 seconds left in overtime for Miami.
TORONTO (AP) - DeMar DeRozan scored 25 points, Jonas Valanciunas had 15 and Toronto beat Atlanta for its fifth straight win.
C.J. Miles added 14 points, and Delon Wright and Serge Ibaka each had 10 as the Eastern Conference leaders won for the 12th time in 13 games and completed their first season sweep of the Hawks since 2001-02.
The Raptors are 27-5 at home, the best record in the NBA. Toronto, which trailed by one to begin the fourth quarter, improved to 4-16 when behind through three.
Toronto outscored Atlanta 30-13 in the fourth. The Hawks shot 6 for 18 in the quarter and committed eight turnovers.
CHARLOTTE, N.C. (AP) - Robert Covington scored 22 points, Ben Simmons flirted with a triple-double and Philadelphia handed Charlotte its fourth straight loss.
Simmons had 16 points, 13 assists and eight rebounds as the 76ers won for the third time in the last four games.
Dario Saric scored 19 points, Joel Embiid added 18 and JJ Redick chipped in with 14 as seven 76ers finished in double digits in what might have been the final blow to the Hornets' playoff hopes.
While the 76ers shot 57.5 percent from field - including 16 of 33 from 3-point range - Charlotte's All-Star point guard Kemba Walker couldn't find the bottom of the net. Walker was limited to a season-low five points on 1-of-9 shooting.
Dwight Howard had a season-high 30 points and grabbed six rebounds, while Nic Batum had 12 points and 10 assists for Charlotte, which fell seven games out of the final playoff spot in the Eastern Conference with 17 games remaining.
DALLAS (AP) - Yogi Ferrell rode hot 3-point shooting to a season-high 24 points, Dirk Nowitzki also was strong from long range to score 17 and Dallas beat Denver.
Ferrell and Nowitzki both made their first five 3s, and Ferrell finished 9 of 11 from the field to help one of the NBA's worst teams hand the Nuggets a loss they didn't need in the tight Western Conference playoff race.
A second-year guard who came to Dallas on a 10-day contract last season, Ferrell finished 6 of 7 from long range. The 39-year-old Nowitzki, in his 20th season, all with the Mavericks, was 5 of 7.
Rookie Dennis Smith Jr. had 18 points and a career-high 11 assists as the Mavericks won for just the second time in nine games.
Wilson Chandler scored 21 points for the Nuggets, who couldn't follow up a win at Cleveland with a chance to sweep a three-game road trip.
