Mavs pull magic on Wizards
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WASHINGTON — Monta Ellis scored 23 points, Vince Carter had 13 and the Dallas Mavericks held the Washington Wizards scoreless for more than four minutes late in the fourth quarter of an 87-78 victory Wednesday night.
The Wizards led 74-70 with 4:58 to play, but the Mavericks scored nine straight points on a 3-pointer by Carter, a hook shoot by Brandan Wright, two free throws by Carter and a jumper by Ellis to give Dallas a 79-74 lead with 2:14 to play.
Washington didn’t score again until John Wall, who led the Wizards with 22 points, made two free throws with 46 seconds to play.
Trevor Booker had 10 points and a career-high 19 rebounds for Washington.
It was Dallas’ fourth straight win on the road and their eighth straight over the Wizards (14-15), who failed in their attempt to rise above .500 for the first time since Oct. 31, 2009.
Raptors 95, Pacers 82
TORONTO — DeMar DeRozan scored 26 points, Kyle Lowry had 13 points and a season-high 14 assists and the Toronto Raptors extended their season-best winning streak to four games.
Terrence Ross scored 18 points and Jonas Valanciunas had 13 points and nine rebounds as the Raptors (15-15) snapped Indiana’s five-game winning streak and improved to .500 after 30 games for the first time since Jan. 6, 2010.
The Raptors have won eight of 10 games since Dec. 13, when the majority of the players acquired from Sacramento in the Rudy Gay deal made their Toronto debuts.
Tuesday’s Games
Trail Blazers 98, Thunder 94
OKLAHOMA CITY — LaMarcus Aldridge had 25 points and 14 rebounds and the Portland Trail Blazers rallied from a 13-point, second-half deficit in a showdown of Western Conference heavyweights.
Damian Lillard added 21 points and 11 assists and hit a pair of clinching free throws with 2.1 seconds left for Portland, which beat Oklahoma City for the second time in December. Portland (25-7) snapped a two-game losing streak but still trails Oklahoma City (25-6) by a half-game in the Northwest Division standings.
Pacers 91, Cavaliers 76
INDIANAPOLIS — Paul George scored 21 points, Roy Hibbert added 19 and Indiana used a dominant fourth quarter to blow out Cleveland.
Indiana has won five straight overall to improve to 25-5. The Pacers have won eight in a row against Cleveland, their longest active streak against any opponent. They limited the Cavs to 3-of-16 shooting and forced seven turnovers in the final period.
Kings 110, Rockets 106
HOUSTON — Rudy Gay had 25 points and DeMarcus Cousins took over late in the fourth quarter to lift Sacramento.
The Kings trailed by three points before Cousins scored four quick points to make it 105-104. He then stole the ball from James Harden and passed to Ben McLemore for an easy layup. On the next play, Cousin took a charge from Harden to give the Kings the ball back.
Spurs 113, Nets 92
SAN ANTONIO — Tony Parker had 18 points and San Antonio rolled past listless Brooklyn.
Manu Ginobili and Tim Duncan had 15 points each and Tiago Splitter and Patty Mills each had 12.
Hawks 92, Celtics 91
BOSTON — Paul Millsap had season highs with 34 points and 15 rebounds in Atlanta’s comeback victory.
Jeff Teague added 16 points for Atlanta, including a pair of free that put Atlanta up 92-91 with 1:30 left in the fourth quarter. Kyle Korver scored 14 points and extended his NBA-record 3-pointers streak to 101 games.
Warriors 94, Magic 81
ORLANDO, Fla. — David Lee had 22 points and Klay Thompson added 15 in Golden State’s victory.
Kent Bazemore scored 12 points, and Marreese Speights had 10 to help the Warriors win their sixth straight game. Stephen Curry had nine points, eight assists and five rebounds, but he and the rest of the Warriors’ starters sat out the entire fourth quarter.
Raptors 85, Bulls 79
CHICAGO — Jonas Valanciunas scored 15 points and Toronto rallied to beat Chicago.
Valanciunas made two free throws to seal the game in the final minute after Toronto had missed three of four from the line down the stretch. Luol Deng led Chicago with 16 points in his return to the court after missing five games due to a sore left Achilles tendon.
