TAMPA, Fla. — Norman Powell scored 30 points, Kyle Lowry had a triple-double and the depleted Toronto Raptors beat the Houston Rockets 122-111 on Friday night.
The Raptors were without head coach Nick Norse, five assistant coaches and starting forward Pascal Siakam in accordance with the NBA’s health and safety protocols regarding the coronavirus. Assistant coach Sergio Scariolo directed the team. He had been away from the Raptors while coaching Spain in FIBA’s EuroBasket 2022 qualifiers and just cleared quarantine Friday.
Scariolo has extensive experience as a head coach, winning championships of leagues in Italy, Spain and Russia, plus has been Spain’s national coach — helping that team win medals at the 2012 London Games and 2016 Rio de Janiero Olympics, plus capture the Basketball World Cup title in 2019.
Siakam was listed as out about two hours before the game, indicating that he either has a testing issue or a contact tracing issue. He played Wednesday night in Miami in the Raptors’ loss to the Heat.
Lowry had 20 points, 11 rebounds and 10 assists to help the Raptors hand the Rockets their 10th straight loss. Fred VanVleet added 25 points, making 5 of 11 3-pointers. Lowry was 4 of 5 from long range, and Powell 4 of 8.
Victor Oladipo led the Rockets with 27 points, and John Wall had 21 points and 12 assists.
HEAT 124, JAZZ 116
MIAMI (AP) — Jimmy Butler scored a season-high 33 points, Goran Dragic tied his season best with 26 and Miami help on to beat NBA-leading Utah, handing the Jazz their third loss in their last 25 games.
Bam Adebayo had 19 points and 11 rebounds for Miami in its fifth straight victory.
Donovan Mitchell scored 30 for the Jazz. They dropped to 26-7.
CELTICS 118, PACERS 112
BOSTON (AP) — Kemba Walker made two late free throws and scored a season-high 32 points to help Boston beat Indiana and snap a three-game losing streak.
Daniel Theis added 17 points, and Jaylen Brown had 15.
Indiana led by as many as 14 points in the first half, but never led in the final 24 minutes in losing for the third time in four games. Domantas Sabonis led the Pacers with 24 points and nine assists.
CLIPPERS 119, GRIZZLIES 99
MEMPHIS, Tenn. (AP) — Kawhi Leonard scored 30 points, Lou Williams added 17 and Los Angeles beat Memphis to split a two-game series.
Terance Mann, Nicolas Batum and Paul George each had 13 points for the Clippers, 122-94 losers on Thursday night.
Jonas Valanciunas led Memphis with 22 points and 11 rebounds. Ja Morant scored 20 points before he was ejected, receiving a pair of technical for arguing a no-call with 2:18 remaining. De’Anthony Melton scored 16 points.
SUNS 106, BULLS 97
CHICAGO (AP) — Devin Booker and Deandre Ayton each scored 22 points and Phoenix rallied to beat Chicago.
Chris Paul, who’ll join Booker at the All-Star Game, added 14 points, 15 assists and six rebounds to help the Suns win for the 10th time in 12 games.
Zach LaVine scored 24 points for Chicago. The Bulls had won three in a row.
Phoenix wiped out an 87-80 deficit with a 9-0 run early in the fourth quarter, then took the lead for good with five minutes to play on Paul’s short jumper. That started a 10-0 spurt that included 3s from Mikal Bridges and Cameron Johnson.
THUNDER 118, HAWKS 109
OKLAHOMA CITY (AP) — Shai Gilgeous-Alexander scored 24 points and Oklahoma City beat Atlanta after changing uniforms at halftime because a mix-up left the teams wearing similar colours at the start.
The Thunder began the game wearing their sunset orange uniforms while the Hawks wore red, making it difficult to distinguish between the teams. Oklahoma City said in a statement that the Hawks wore the incorrect uniform colour. The team said the league should have caught the error, but because the Hawks only brought red uniforms on their trip, the Thunder changed to white for the second half.
John Collins scored 25 points for the Hawks.
KINGS 110, PISTONS 107
DETROIT (AP) — De’Aaron Fox scored 27 points and Sacramento beat Detroit to snap a nine-game losing streak.
Sacramento blew a 17-point first-quarter lead, then rallied from an eight-point deficit in the final quarter.
Jerami Grant led Detroit with 30 points.
The Associated Press