INDIANAPOLIS (AP) — Cam Thomas scored a career-high 33 points, Patty Mills added 24 and the Brooklyn Nets won while resting their top seven scorers, rallying to beat the Indiana Pacers 136-133 on Saturday night.
Brooklyn won its third straight and for the sixth time in seven games, playing without All-Stars Kevin Durant and Kyrie Irving and five more. And the Nets did it by outrebounding the Pacers 59-30 overall and 29-7 on the offensive end.
Tyrese Haliburton finished with 35 points, the most since he joined the Pacers in February, and nine assists.
The Nets had to sweat out Andrew Nembhard’s 3 to force overtime at the buzzer before celebrating a win that came with only nine players in uniform. Somehow Brooklyn managed to keep it close and then turned it around after trailing 120-113 with 5:04 to play.
SPURS 115, HEAT 111
MIAMI (AP) — Keldon Johnson scored 21 points, Romeo Langford added 19 and San Antonio celebrated the 26th anniversary of Gregg Popovich’s first game as coach by beating Miami.
Devin Vassell had 18 points for the Spurs, hitting a jumper with 1:13 left that put them ahead to stay. Jimmy Butler scored 30 points for Miami.
The Spurs were up 113-111 and used two timeouts with 14.7 seconds left to try to get the ball inbounds. But Zach Collins was called for his sixth foul on the second inbounds attempt, and Miami got the ball back with a chance to tie or win.
The Heat elected to go for the win — Tyler Herro missed a 3-pointer, then Caleb Martin missed a right-wing 3 as well, and the Spurs finished it off at the line.
The game was played 26 years to the day of Popovich’s debut — a 93-76 loss at Phoenix on Dec. 10, 1996.
CLIPPERS 114, WIZARDS 107
WASHINGTON (AP) — Nicolas Batum made a tiebreaking 3-pointer with 23.8 seconds remaining and Los Angeles sent Washington to its sixth straight loss.
Paul George scored 36 points for the Clippers and John Wall added 13 in his return to Washington, but it was Batum who made big shots in the final quarter. He hit three 3-pointers in the last 4:52 and finished with 12 points.
Kyle Kuzma scored 25 of his 35 points in the first half for Washington. Kristaps Porzingis had 30 points and 15 rebounds.
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