The Los Angeles Lakers on Thursday shook off the early exit of injured star Luka Doncic, rallying without him in the second half for a 119-115 victory over the Philadelphia 76ers.
Austin Reaves, again coming off the bench in his second game back from a 19-game injury absence, scored 13 of his 35 points in the fourth quarter, drilling a pair of back-to-back three-pointers to give the Lakers their first lead of the game early in the final frame.
“Losing Luka, you know nothing’s going to be easy after that because he does so much for us, but we bonded together,” said Reaves, who connected on 12 of 17 shots, including five three-pointers.
Photo: Jayne Kamin-Oncea-Imagn Images
LeBron James scored 17 points and handed out 10 assists for Los Angeles, who halted the 76ers’ five-game winning streak.
The Lakers withstood a 35-point performance from Sixers center Joel Embiid. Tyrese Maxey added 26 points and 13 assists for Philadelphia.
Doncic, who came into the contest leading the league in scoring with 33.4 points per game, exited late in the second quarter with what Lakers coach J.J. Redick later confirmed was a sore left hamstring.
The Lakers were down by nine when Doncic departed, rubbing the back of his left thigh, and grimacing in discomfort and clear frustration.
With Doncic absent, the 76ers opened the third quarter on a 6-0 scoring run to push their lead to 14.
“We didn’t break,” Reaves said.
“We continue to play hard on every possession and good things happen,” he said.
The short-handed Washington Wizards pulled off a 126-117 upset of the Eastern Conference-leading Detroit Pistons.
The struggling Wizards landed a big name at the NBA trade deadline this week in acquiring Anthony Davis from Dallas, but with new arrivals yet to be available, the Wizards had just 10 players in uniform, and that proved enough as Will Riley scored 20 points and Sharife Cooper added 18 to lead six Washington players to score in double figures.
The Washington Wizards drilled 18 three-pointers as the Pistons, who had won five of their previous six games, made just eight.
Cade Cunningham led Detroit with 30 points, eight rebounds and eight assists. Duncan Robinson added 21 points for Detroit, who saw All-Star Jalen Duren depart early with a sore right knee.
Charlotte rookie Kon Knueppel scored 24 points to lead the Hornets to an eighth straight victory, 109-99 over the Rockets in Houston, Texas.
LaMelo Ball added 20 points for the Hornets, who took a 16-point lead into the fourth quarter and pushed the advantage to as many as 22.
Kevin Durant scored 31 points for Houston, who slumped to another defeat one night after a lopsided loss to the Boston Celtics.
San Antonio superstar Victor Wembanyama scored 29 points and pulled down 11 rebounds to propel the Spurs to a 135-123 victory over the Mavericks in Dallas.
Wembanyama added six assists, two steals and three blocked shots, connecting on nine of 14 shots, including five three-pointers.
Sensational Dallas rookie Cooper Flagg scored 32 points for his fourth straight game of 30 or more. Naji Marshall also scored 32, but the Mavs never led in the second half.
Golden State’s Pat Spencer scored a career-high 20 points and Gui Santos chipped in 18 to help the short-handed Warriors rally from a 14-point fourth-quarter deficit for a 101-97 victory over the Suns in Phoenix.
Dillon Brooks led the Suns with 24 points, but missed a potential go-ahead basket in the waning seconds as the Warriors, with star Stephen Curry sidelined by a sore knee, escaped with the win.
Elsewhere, the Raptors bullied the Bulls 123-107, the Magic mastered the Nets 118-98 and the Hawks silenced the Jazz 121-119.
Additional reporting by staff writer
US national team star Folarin Balogun was among the scorers as AS Monaco on Friday won 3-1 at Paris Saint-Germain, dealing a blow to the side from the French capital before they face Chelsea in a crunch UEFA Champions League round-of-16 tie. Maghnes Akliouche gave Monaco a first-half lead at the Parc des Princes, and Aleksandr Golovin doubled their advantage early in the second half of the French Ligue 1 clash. Bradley Barcola pulled one back for the reigning European champions, but Balogun struck shortly after with a fifth goal in his last five games as Monaco claimed a precious
Teenage star Lamine Yamal’s superbly-taken goal on Saturday earned Barcelona a 1-0 win at Athletic Bilbao in Spanish La Liga. The champions restored their four-point lead over second-placed Real Madrid, who had on Friday temporarily closed the gap by beating Celta Vigo. Atletico Madrid tightened their grip on third with an entertaining 3-2 win over Real Sociedad. Yamal, 18, curled into the top corner after 68 minutes to split the sides at Athletic’s San Mames stadium. “We’re already seeing what Lamine can do — he puts it right in the top corner, and there’s nothing the keeper can do,” Barca
CHANCE TO QUALIFY: Both teams now have three points from two games, and Taiwan sit ahead of Vietnam and behind Japan, who last night beat India 11-0 Taiwan yesterday defeated Vietnam 1-0 to move into second place in Group C at the AFC Women’s Asian Cup with one match remaining. Su Yu-hsuan scored the decisive goal in the 26th minute after Taiwan midfielder Saki Matsunaga’s shot hit the crossbar, leaving Su to nod the rebound into an empty net for the team which won the last of their three Asian Cup titles in 1981. It was a deserved victory for Taiwan, 2-0 losers to Japan on Wednesday, who created several chances to extend their lead. Vietnam, the 2022 quarter-finalist, beat India in their opener, but struggled to
Thousands of Taiwanese fans yesterday descended on the Tokyo Dome for the World Baseball Classic (WBC) opener, displaying banners proclaiming “Team Taiwan” as opposed to their official designation in the tournament, Chinese Taipei. Taiwan has long competed in international sport as “Chinese Taipei” to avoid objections from China. Outside the Tokyo Dome, self-described “fan activists” clad in the red, white and blue of Taiwan’s flag led chants of “Go Taiwan” in Mandarin and “Team Taiwan” in English. “Of course we hope to compete under the name Taiwan, so that in the future there will no longer be a ‘Chinese Taipei’ anymore — it
RSS