Kawhi Leonard scored 31 points on Tuesday as the Toronto Raptors bounced back from their first loss of the season to defeat the Philadelphia 76ers in a hard-fought Eastern Conference duel.
Leonard, who had been rested on Monday during Toronto’s defeat against the Milwaukee Bucks, also had seven rebounds and four assists after the Raptors saw off a late charge from the Sixers to seal a 129-112 win.
The victory saw Toronto improve to 7-1, while the Sixers are 4-4 after another uneven performance from Brett Brown’s side.
Photo: John E. Sokolowski-USA TODAY
Jonas Valanciunas scored 23 points, while Kyle Lowry added 20 for the Raptors, who built up a comfortable 35-26 lead in the first quarter to take control of the contest thereafter.
“Good bounce back, good win,” Lowry said afterward. “It was a good win. We were very active tonight. We were all over the place. It was a very scrappy night defensively and our guys played really great on defense.”
Toronto led 67-53 at halftime and looked to be cruising to victory until a fightback from the Sixers late in the fourth quarter.
A three-pointer from Joel Embiid got the Sixers back to within striking distance at 117-111 with 3 minutes, 30 seconds left in the fourth quarter before Toronto went on a 12-0 run to clinch the game.
Cameroon star Embiid led the scoring for the Sixers with 31 points, while Robert Covington had 15 points. J.J. Redick had 13 off the bench.
CELTICS 108, PISTONS 105
In Boston, Kyrie Irving scored 31 points to lead the Celtics to a 108-105 win over the Detroit Pistons.
Blake Griffin had another solid outing for the Pistons with 24 points, but the Celtics subdued a fourth quarter Pistons rally to improve to 5-2 and move up to third in the Eastern Conference table.
TRAIL BLAZERS 104, ROCKETS 85
In Houston, Texas, the Rockets’ sluggish start to the season suffered another setback with a defeat to the Portland Trail Blazers.
Damian Lillard and Jusuf Nurkic each scored 22 points as the Blazers completed a 104-85 win over the Rockets, who have won just one game in six outings. Chris Paul led the scoring for the Rockets with 17 points.
CAVALIERS 136, HAWKS 114
The Cleveland Cavaliers snagged their first win of the season, two days after firing head coach Tyronn Lue.
The Cavs have made a disastrous start to the post-LeBron James era, losing all six of their opening matches and prompting team owners on Sunday to hand Lue his marching orders.
However, the Cavs finally found their scoring touch against the Atlanta Hawks, winning by a score of 136-114. Trae Young had 24 points, while Alex Len added 22 for the Cavs. Jeremy Lin added 12 points off the bench as five Cleveland players cracked double figures.
“To be perfectly honest, I didn’t know what was going to happen tonight,” Cavs acting head coach Larry Drew said afterward. “I just wanted these guys to put the first six games behind them as quickly as they could and turn the page. And they came out and took the challenge — they played well.”
The Cavs were without star forward Kevin Love, who confirmed earlier on Tuesday that he faces several weeks on the sidelines with a big-toe injury on his left foot.
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