Damian Lillard made a driving layup with 3.9 seconds remaining and had a hand in the game’s final seven points as the Milwaukee Bucks eked out a 101-100 victory over the visiting Houston Rockets on Monday.
After Alperen Sengun (18 points, seven rebounds) gave Houston a 100-94 lead by tipping in his miss with 1:58 to play, Lillard sank two free throws before assisting on an AJ Green 3-pointer at the 1:17 mark. Lillard (18 points, 10 assists) converted the game-winner after Giannis Antetokounmpo blocked a short jumper from Sengun with 19.1 seconds left.
Brook Lopez led the Bucks with 27 points and five 3-pointers while adding 10 rebounds and four blocks. Antetokounmpo paired 20 rebounds with 13 rebounds to help Milwaukee snap the Rockets’ five-game winning streak.
Fred VanVleet scored a team-high 26 points including 17 in the third quarter to pull the Rockets back from a 14-point deficit. He tallied 12 consecutive points for Houston and assisted on a Sengun three-point play with 44.2 seconds left that cut the margin to 83-80 after three quarters.
Jalen Green took the baton from VanVleet to open the fourth, hitting a pair of 3s around an Aaron Holiday layup to lift the Rockets to an 88-83 lead. Houston led by as many as seven in the final period before Lillard led the comeback in the waning moments
Green had 21 points — including 10 in the fourth quarter — and nine rebounds for Houston.
The Rockets scored the opening nine points of the game and extended to a 13-point lead before Lopez engineered a comeback. He recorded the Bucks’ first basket with a tip-in of a missed free throw from Antetokounmpo and later drilled a pair of 3-pointers that, coupled with an Antetokounmpo layup, cut the deficit to 18-14 with 4:30 left in the period.
Lopez added another 3 before the close of the first and posted 13 points in the period. Houston clung to a 28-27 lead entering the second but Bobby Portis erased that margin with the first of six 3-pointers in the period for the Bucks. Gary Trent Jr. nailed three of those 3s and when Antetokounmpo hit a jump hook in the lane, Milwaukee secured a 48-38 cushion.
Lopez and Trent each sank four 3-pointers in the first half and combined for 28 points to help Milwaukee to a 57-45 lead at the break. While the Bucks hit 11 of 23 from deep before the break, the Rockets were 0-for-5 on 3-pointers in the second and shot 26.9 percent overall in the period.
RJ Barrett pumps in 39 as Raptors dump Pacers
RJ Barrett scored a season-best 39 points, Jakob Poeltl added 30 points and 15 rebounds and the Toronto Raptors defeated the visiting Indiana Pacers 130-119 on Monday.
Barrett, who pulled down nine rebounds, scored 15 points in the fourth quarter.
Gradey Dick added 15 points for the Raptors, who ended a seven-game losing streak. Davion Mitchell and Ochai Agbaji chipped in with 11 points apiece.
Former Raptor Pascal Siakam had 25 points and 10 rebounds for the Pacers, who opened a three-game road trip. Bennedict Mathurin added 28 points and Obi Toppin scored 19 points. Tyrese Haliburton had 16 points and five steals while T.J. McConnell put up 10 points.
Indiana’s Jarace Walker (six points) and rookie Enrique Freeman (three points) both started an NBA game for the first time.
The Pacers have lost three of four. Toronto led 34-27 after the first quarter.
Siakam grabbed a defensive rebound and produced a running layup at the other end to give the Pacers their first lead at 41-40 with 7:33 remaining in the second quarter.
Toronto answered with nine straight points. The gap reached 18 points with 1:26 left in the period on Barrett’s layup. Indiana finished the first half on an 8-2 surge to cut the deficit to 69-57.
Toronto shot 57.4 percent (27-for-47) in the first half while Indiana shot 44.2 percent (23-for-52).
The Raptors scored the first five points of the third quarter to bump their lead to 17. Mitchell’s 3-pointer increased the margin to 20 with 6:20 remaining in the third. Poeltl banked in a hook shot to give Toronto a 22-point lead with 5:26 to go before Indiana answered with a 10-2 run. The Raptors led 96-82 after three quarters.
Toppin scored five straight points to cut the lead to 11 with 9:30 remaining in the fourth quarter. Haliburton’s steal set up Mathurin’s layup to trim the margin to seven, but a layup by Barrett had Toronto ahead by 12 with 5:32 to play. The visitors never got closer than nine points the rest of the way.
The Raptors wound up outshooting the Pacers 58.5 percent to 44.4 percent from the floor, 48.3 percent (14 of 29) to 37.5 percent (15 of 40) from 3-point range.
Magic eclipse Suns, run win streak to six games
Franz Wagner matched a season high with 32 points as the visiting Orlando Magic won their sixth straight game, beating the Phoenix Suns 109-99 on Monday.
Anthony Black posted season bests of 20 points and nine assists, and Goga Bitadze had a season-high 17 points to go with 10 rebounds for Orlando, which led by as many as 19 points and held its opponent under 100 points for the sixth straight game.
Phoenix trailed 94-78 before battling back to cut the deficit to 98-91 on Devin Booker’s 3-pointer with 3:36 remaining. Orlando answered with a 7-2 run to seal the victory.
Jalen Suggs chipped in 12 points for the Magic, who improved to 2-6 on the road, compared to 7-0 at home.
The Suns played their sixth straight game without Kevin Durant and the fourth consecutive minus Bradley Beal. Both All-Stars are out with left calf strains.
Tyus Jones led Phoenix with 18 points and eight assists. Booker and Grayson Allen had 17 points apiece, Oso Ighodaro scored a career-high 12 in his first-career start, and Josh Okogie had 11.
Orlando scored the game’s first seven points and led 26-22 at the end of the first quarter.
After missing 10 of their first 11 attempts from 3-point range to start the game, the Magic made three straight triples to move ahead 45-34 with 6:03 left in the second quarter.
Wagner’s 3-pointer capped a 10-2 run and put the Magic ahead 64-48 at halftime. Wagner and Bitadze had 15 points apiece in the opening half.
Orlando extended its lead to 67-48 on Suggs’ trey early in the third quarter, and Black hit a 3-pointer with three seconds left to give the Magic an 84-68 lead at the end of the period.
Wagner has scored at least 20 points in eight straight games for Orlando, which shot 51.3 percent from the field and 11 of 29 (37.9 percent) from beyond the arc.
Mason Plumlee had 11 rebounds for the Suns, who shot 29.3 percent (12 of 41) from 3-point range.
Magic center Wendell Carter Jr. missed his eighth straight game with left foot plantar fasciitis.
Last-second defense assures Hawks’ win over Kings
Dyson Daniels knocked the ball away from red-hot De’Aaron Fox just prior to the buzzer to give the Atlanta Hawks a 109-108 victory over the host Sacramento Kings on Monday night.
De’Andre Hunter scored 24 points to pace the Hawks, who won for the third time in the past four games.
Fox netted 28 points to raise his three-game total to 137 and was hunting a game-winning shot as he operated to the left of the hoop. Daniels got his hand in and batted the ball away as Fox was about to shoot.
Daniels collected the ball and passed it to Trae Young and time expired.
Keon Ellis established career highs of 33 points and nine 3-pointers for Sacramento. Trey Lyles added 12 points and 10 rebounds.
Zaccharie Risacher scored 18 points for Atlanta. Clint Capela had 14 points and 14 rebounds, and Daniels had 14 points, eight rebounds and four blocked shots.
Young registered 19 assists, one shy of his career high, but had just seven points on 1-of-7 shooting.
Sacramento played without DeMar DeRozan (back), Malik Monk (ankle) and Domantas Sabonis (back).
Atlanta shot 47 percent from the field, including 16 of 38 from 3-point range.
The Kings made 43.5 percent and were 20 of 46 from behind the arc. Fox scored a franchise-record 60 points and then 49 over the last two games.
A 3-pointer by Ellis gave the Kings an 85-77 advantage with five minutes left in the third quarter.
Hunter’s trey capped a 9-3 push that moved Atlanta within 88-86 with 2:21 remaining.
Sacramento led 93-89 entering the final stanza, but the Hawks later used a 10-2 run to hold a 106-101 lead with 3:21 left.
Ellis made two free throws with 49.4 seconds left as the Kings pulled within 109-108 before the final sequence.
Ellis scored 18 points on six 3-pointers in the first half to help the Kings hold a 66-64 lead at the break. Fox had 14 in the half for Sacramento, while Hunter had 13 for the Hawks.
The Kings missed 11 of their first 13 shots of the game and the Hawks used a 17-2 surge to take a 22-6 advantage less than seven minutes left in the opening period.
Sacramento scurried back to trail 32-31 at the end of the quarter. Ellis then sank four treys in less than two minutes as the Kings took a 46-37 lead with 8:46 left in the period.