HOUSTON (AP) — Rookie Kon Knueppel had 24 points and LaMelo Ball added 20 to help the Charlotte Hornets roll to a 109-99 victory over the Houston Rockets on Thursday night and extend their winning streak to eight games.
Charlotte’s streak is the franchise’s longest since winning nine in a row in the 1998-99 season.
The Hornets led by 16 after three quarters and Brandon Miller scored the first five points of the fourth to extend the lead to 96-75 with about 11 minutes to go. A 5-0 run by Charlotte, with a 3-pointer by Sion James, made it 103-81 with about eight minutes remaining and Houston coach Ime Udoka pulled his starters.
It’s a second straight lopsided defeat for the Rockets, who lost 114-93 Wednesday night to a Boston team playing without star Jaylen Brown.
Kevin Durant led Houston, which entered Thursday in fourth place in the Western Conference, with 31 points and Jabari Smith Jr. added 17. It was a tough night for Alperen Sengun, who was averaging 21.2 points, and scored just seven on 3-of-11 shooting.
Miles Bridges added 18 points for the Hornets and Miller finished with 11 after sitting out the entire second quarter after getting three fouls in the first.
WIZARDS 126, PISTONS 117
DETROIT (AP) — Will Riley scored 20 points, Sharife Cooper added 18 and Washington upset Eastern Conference-leading Detroit.
The Wizards only dressed 10 players — Cooper was one of three on two-way contracts — a day after a trade with the Dallas Mavericks, but beat a Pistons team that had won five of six. The Wizards improved to 14-36, while Pistons fell to 37-13.
Justin Champagnie and Tristan Vukcevic each scored 14 points for Washington, which has won four of six since a nine-game losing streak. The Wizards got 69 points from their reserves.
Cade Cunningham had 30 points, eight rebounds and eight assists for the Pistons, who went 9 for 33 (27.3%) on 3-pointers. All-Star center Jalen Duren had four points and three rebounds in 13 minutes left before leaving game with knee soreness.
After trailing by 17 in the third quarter, the Pistons cut it to 112-107 on Duncan Robinson’s 4-point play with 4:15 to go. Bilal Coulibay banked in a 3-point shot as the shot clock expired to make it 117-110, and Detroit couldn’t get enough stops.
RAPTORS 123, BULLS 107
TORONTO (AP) — Brandon Ingram scored 33 points, Immanuel Quickley had 24 and Toronto beat new-look Chicago.
Collin Murray-Boyles and Sandro Mamukelashvili each scored 17 points and Scottie Barnes added 13 as Toronto snapped a four-game losing streak against Chicago.
Toronto has 31 wins in its first 53rd games, eclipsing last season’s win total.
Anfernee Simons scored 22 points in his first game with Chicago and Matas Buzelis had 18. Guerschon Yabusele marked his Bulls’ debut with 15 points and 11 rebounds.
Jaden Ivey and Jalen Smith each scored 13 points and Isaac Okoro added 10 for the Bulls, who overhauled their roster by making seven trades ahead of Thursday afternoon’s deadline.
MAGIC 118, NETS 98
ORLANDO, Fla. (AP) — Jalen Suggs had 15 points, 11 rebounds and 11 assists for his first career triple-double, Desmond Bane scored 23 points and Paolo Banchero added 22 to lead Orlando to a win over Brooklyn.
Playing 29 minutes in his seventh game after missing eight games with a right knee injury, Suggs also blocked four shots and had three steals.
Egor Demin led the Nets with a career-high 26 points, shooting 6 of 10 from 3-point range. Fellow rookie Nolan Traore matched his career high with 21 points and added seven assists.
Michael Porter Jr., Brooklyn’s leading scorer, shot 2 of 13 and scored nine points.
Anthony Black had 18 points and five assists for Orlando and Mo Wagner came off the bench with 14 points and five rebounds in 12 minutes.
The loss was was the 15th in 17 games for the Nets, who came in as the lowest-scoring (107.1) and poorest field-goal shooting (44.3%) team in the NBA. They shot 41.5% and had 19 turnovers.
HAWKS 121, JAZZ 119
ATLANTA (AP) — Nickeil Alexander-Walker broke a tie on a short jumper with 1.3 seconds left and had 23 points in Atlanta's victory over Utah.
Newly acquired Jock Landale had a season-high 29 points and hit a go-ahead 3-pointer with 45 seconds. He had a career-high five 3-pointers and set season highs in blocks with four and assists with five.
Jalen Johnson had his third straight triple-double, giving him 10 on the season. He finished with 22 points, 16 rebounds and 15 assists. His 10 triple-doubles are second only to Nikola Jokic league-wide.
The Hawks traded for Landale on Wednesday shortly after he was a part of an eight-player deal that sent him to Utah from Memphis. The Jazz sent the veteran big man to Atlanta for cash considerations. He started in place of the injured Onyeka Okongwu, who missed his fourth game due to a dental fracture.
Jazz rookie Ace Bailey tied it at 119 with a 3-pointer with nine seconds left, setting up Alexander-Walker’s winner.
SPURS 135, MAVERICKS 123
DALLAS (AP) — Victor Wembanyama had 29 points and 11 rebounds, and San Antonio overcame rookie No. 1 pick Cooper Flagg’s fourth consecutive 30-point game in a victory over Dallas.
Flagg scored 32 points to extend his NBA record for consecutive games with at least 30 points by a teenager. The 19-year-old joined Michael Jordan, Bernard King, Allen Iverson and Jalen Green as the only rookies to score at least 30 in four straight games since the NBA-ABA merger in 1976-77.
Dallas lost all four games and is on a six-game losing streak, its longest of the season.
Harrison Barnes was another of seven San Antonio players in double figures with 19 points, and De’Aaron Fox scored 17 points while pushing through a rough shooting night with two clutch 3-pointers in the fourth quarter. The second came on Wembanyama’s sixth assist and gave the Spurs a 131-123 lead with 1:24 remaining.
Stephon Castle had 18 points and seven rebounds, the last board coming on his empathic and punctating follow dunk for the final points.
LAKERS 119, 76ERS 115
LOS ANGELES (AP) — Austin Reaves scored 35 points in just 25 minutes, and Los Angeles overcame Luka Doncic’s departure with a left leg injury for a victory over Philadelphia.
LeBron James had 17 points and 10 assists for the Lakers, who snapped Philadelphia’s five-game winning streak with a big second-half rally in their first game back from a draining eight-game road trip.
Joel Embiid had 35 points and Tyrese Maxey added 26 points and 13 assists for the 76ers, who blew a 14-point lead and nearly came back from a 16-point deficit in the second half of their first loss since Jan. 26.
The Lakers led 110-94 with four minutes left, but Philadelphia closed the gap to 116-113 when rookie VJ Edgecombe stole James’ inbounds pass and hit a 3-pointer with 36 seconds to play. James made eight turnovers.
But Maxi Kleber fed Rui Hachimura for a dunk with 12 seconds left, and the Lakers hung on.
With 12-of-17 shooting and five 3-pointers while coming off the bench, Reaves was phenomenal despite playing on a minutes restriction in his second game back from a 5 1/2-week absence with a calf injury.
WARRIORS 101, SUNS 97
PHOENIX (AP) — Pat Spencer scored a career-high 20 points, Gui Santos added 18 and shorthanded Golden State erased a 14-point deficit in the fourth quarter to beat Phoenix.
The Suns had a chance to pull ahead in the final seconds, but Dillon Brooks missed a 3-pointer and Golden State’s Gary Payton II came up with the rebound before Moses Moody fed De’Anthony Melton for a layup as time expired.
Phoenix took an 82-76 lead into the fourth quarter after holding Golden State to 17 points in the third. The Suns pushed the advantage to 90-76 less than two minutes into the fourth after Collin Gillespie hit 3s on back-to-back offensive possessions.
But the Warriors weren’t done, methodically cutting into the advantage before Melton made a layup to tie the game at 97-all with 55.8 seconds remaining. Santos made a fast-break layup with 28.7 seconds remaining to put Golden State up 99-97.
Brooks led the Suns with 24 points. Grayson Allen had 21. Phoenix made just six field goals in the fourth quarter, scoring just 15 points.
