Dirk Nowitzki scored 40 points and Deron Williams had 31 points and 16 assists to lead the Dallas Mavericks to a 132-120 overtime win over the Portland Trail Blazers on Sunday.
Nowitzki and Williams capped season-high scoring efforts with the first 11 points in overtime. Williams made a tiebreaking three-pointer before Nowitzki scored eight straight points.
The Mavericks’ victory moved them within half a game of the Trail Blazers for the sixth playoff position in the Western Conference. Dallas have 12 games to play, and Portland 11.
Photo: AP
The Mavericks (35-35) also gained a tiebreaker by winning the first two of three games in the season series against the Trail Blazers (36-35). The teams play again in Portland tomorrow.
Damian Lillard led the Trail Blazers with 26 points. Allen Crabbe scored 24 points, and C.J. McCollum had 22. Miles Plumlee had 14 points and 19 rebounds.
RAPTORS 105, MAGIC 100
In Toronto, DeMar DeRozan scored 25 points to lead Toronto to the win.
Luis Scola had 20 points as the Raptors moved within one game of idle Cleveland for the top spot in the Eastern Conference.
Evan Fournier and Victor Oladipo each had 21 points for Orlando, who lost their seventh straight game in Toronto and have now lost 13 of their past 14 meetings with the Raptors.
A three-pointer from Fournier with 1 minute, 11 seconds remaining trimmed Toronto’s lead to 97-96, but DeRozan responded with a floating jumper with 53.9 seconds left and added the free throw after being fouled by Ersan Ilyasova.
PELICANS 109, CLIPPERS 105
In New Orleans, Jrue Holiday scored 22 points to help the injury-riddled Pelicans to the victory.
Omer Asik scored a season-high 15 points and tied his season best with 14 rebounds for New Orleans, while Dante Cunningham scored a season-high 19 points. Reserve guard Tim Frazier added a season-high 17 points.
Chris Paul and J.J. Redick each scored 24 points, and Paul also had 13 assists for the Clippers, who lost in Memphis on Saturday night and were playing their second game in less than 24 hours.
Los Angeles missed 19 three-point attempts and 13 free throws.
The Pelicans tipped off shortly after announcing All-Star forward Anthony Davis, who hurt his left knee on Friday night, would miss the rest of the season to treat that injury as well as a torn labrum in his left shoulder that he played with for much of the season.
In other results, it was:
‧ Kings 88, Knicks 80
‧ Celtics 120, 76ers 105
‧ Jazz 94, Bucks 85
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