NEW ORLEANS — Draymond Green irritated the other team, nearly started a fight, ignited a torrent of boos from opposing fans — and backed it up with an all-around performance punctuated by a clutch defensive play in the final seconds.
NEW ORLEANS — Draymond Green irritated the other team, nearly started a fight, ignited a torrent of boos from opposing fans — and backed it up with an all-around performance punctuated by a clutch defensive play in the final seconds.
In other words, it was a typical performance for the Warriors’ feisty forward.
Green recorded his 15th-career triple-double with 12 points, 12 rebounds and 10 assists, and it was the last of his four steals — against star Anthony Davis, no less — that helped the Golden State Warriors hold off the New Orleans Pelicans 113-109 on Tuesday night.
“I love playing defense, so when it comes to a situation where you’ve got to get a stop to win the game, I enjoy that moment,” Green said of his steal, which he executed while the Warriors held a tenuous 111-109 lead.
Davis, who had 28 points, five blocks and two steals, was furious that officials deemed Green’s steal a clean play and drew a technical foul for disputing the officials’ decision. There was contact between the two players, but Green said Davis initiated it.
“I hit the ball as he was trying to throw his shoulder into me. I thought it was really clean,” said Green, who also noted that he wasn’t worried about the risk of putting Davis on the foul line if officials had seen it differently.
“We’re up two (at the time) and we’ve got three of the greatest scorers in the world,” he said, referring to Stephen Curry, who had a game-high 30 points, Kevin Durant, who scored 27 and Klay Thompson, who added 17 points.
Davis’ disappointment was evident in his eyes as he largely avoided discussing the play — a wise move if he didn’t want to make headlines or draw a fine for criticizing officials.
When asked to describe what happened, Davis said he was “trying to score,” and then waited in silence for the next question.
Earlier in the game, after Davis had rejected Green’s shot, the two bumped one another and appeared to exchange words while fans bombarded Green with boos. Later, when Green was rejected by Alexis Ajinca, the crowd went wild. But was Green was able to celebrate Golden State’s 13th road win in 15 games away from home.
CAVALIERS 103, GRIZZLIES 86
CLEVELAND — Kevin Love scored 29 points, J.R. Smith found his aim — for one half — and LeBron James added 23 points as the Cleveland Cavaliers won their fifth straight, 103-86 on Tuesday night over the Memphis Grizzlies.
Memphis rested center Marc Gasol for the first of back-to-back games against the defending NBA champions.
Cavs coach Tyronn Lue said after the game that James, Love and Irving will not travel for the game Wednesday.
Smith, who has been in a season-long shooting slump, scored 17 of his 23 points in the first half as the Cavs, who gave star point guard Kyrie Irving the night off, built a 22-point lead and ended the Grizzlies’ six-game winning streak.
Zach Randolph replaced Gasol in the starting lineup and scored 18 points to lead the Grizzlies. The reigning Western Conference player of the week, Gasol is expected to play Wednesday in Memphis to complete a brutal three-game stretch for the Grizzlies, who beat Golden State by 21 on Saturday.
TIMBERWOLVES 99, BULLS 94
CHICAGO — Zach LaVine scored 24 points, Andrew Wiggins added 23 and Minnesota won in coach Tom Thibodeau’s return to Chicago.
The Timberwolves wiped out a 21-point deficit and got Thibodeau a victory in his first game in Chicago since the Bulls fired him in an acrimonious split in 2015.
Gorgui Dieng and Karl-Anthony Towns each scored 16 points, and the Timberwolves snapped a four-game losing streak.
Jimmy Butler led Chicago with 27 points, and Robin Lopez added 14. But the Bulls continued a pattern of letdowns against losing teams, this time falling to one that came in tied for the NBA’s worst record.
WARRIORS 113, PELICANS 109
NEW ORLEANS — Stephen Curry scored 30 points, Kevin Durant added 27 to go with a big block on Anthony Davis in the final minute and Golden State held off New Orleans.
Draymond Green recorded a triple-double with 12 points, 12 rebounds and 10 assists, and it was the last of his four steals — on Davis in the waning seconds — that sealed the victory. Davis angrily contended he’d been fouled, only to be assessed a technical foul.
Klay Thompson added 17 points for the Warriors, who combined for 14 3-pointers, five by Curry.
Davis finished with 28 points, five blocked shots and two steals but turned the ball over six times.
SUNS 113, KNICKS 111, OT
PHOENIX — Eric Bledsoe scored the go-ahead points on a driving, left-handed layup with 30 seconds to play and Phoenix gave New York its second loss in eight games.
Bledsoe scored eight consecutive points late in OT and finished with 31, his third consecutive 30-point game.
Kristaps Porzingis scored 34 points for New York, one shy of his career high, before fouling out with 1:34 left in OT.
Carmelo Anthony capped a 3-for-15 shooting night with an air ball that resulted in a 24-second clock violation with 5.9 seconds left.
TRAIL BLAZERS 114, THUNDER 95
PORTLAND, Ore. (AP) — Damian Lillard had 17 points and nine assists before sitting out the fourth quarter and Portland snapped a four-game losing streak.
Russell Westbrook was off his league-leading average of 31.1 points a game with 20 for the Thunder, who have lost two of their last three after a six-game winning streak.
Mason Plumlee added 18 points for the Blazers, who led by 26 points in Portland’s first game back after a 1-4 road trip. Six Portland players finished in double figures in the second of a back-to-back.
MAGIC 131, HAWKS 120
ATLANTA — Serge Ibaka scored 29 points, Elfrid Payton reached career highs with 26 points and 14 assists and Orlando snapped a three-game losing streak.
Orlando began the night ranked 29th in scoring and played without center Nikola Vucevic, but it got big production from the bench. Payton, Jodie Meeks and Jeff Green combined for 62 points, while starting guard Evan Fournier scored 23.
Dwight Howard had 20 points and 16 rebounds and Dennis Schroder had 19 points and 13 assists for the Hawks, who thought they were on a good trajectory after rallying from 20 points down in last Friday’s win at Milwaukee.
