PORTLAND, Ore. (AP) – Damian Lillard had 24 points and the Portland Trail Blazers snapped a two-game slide with a confidence-boosting 128-122 victory over the NBA-leading Toronto Raptors on Friday night.
Zach Collins scored 16 points and Seth Curry added a season-high 13, including three key 3-pointers at the start of the fourth quarter. Both were part of a Portland bench that outscored Toronto’s reserves, 58-26.
Kawhi Leonard returned after missing two games and had 28 points for the Raptors (23-8), who played without All-Star point guard Kyle Lowry. Danny Green added 19 points and 11 rebounds, matching his season high with five 3s.
Portland led by 16 in the fourth quarter but Leonard and C.J. Miles made consecutive 3s to pull the Raptors to 117-113 with 2:44 left.
Lillard hit a 3-pointer for Portland before Leonard had another 3 and Fred VanVleet made a layup to get Toronto to 120-118. CJ McCollum and Al Farouq-Aminu answered with consecutive 3s to extend Portland’s lead to 126-118 with just under a minute to go. Leonard dunked on the other end, but the Raptors couldn’t get any closer.
WARRIORS 130, KINGS 125
In Sacramento, Klay Thompson made a go-ahead 3-pointer with 38.5 seconds left, Stephen Curry added four free throws down the stretch and the Golden State Warriors ended the game on a big run after a sluggish start to the fourth quarter, beating the Sacramento Kings, 130-125, on Friday night.
Curry finished with 35 points, seven rebounds and six assists. Thompson had 27 points and nine rebounds while Kevin Durant added 33 points, eight rebounds and eight assists.
Two days after a 20-point home loss to NBA-leading Toronto, the Warriors put up 103 points through three quarters, went stagnant for more than eight minutes in the fourth before outscoring the Kings 17-2 over the final 3:03.
Durant had 13 points in the fourth quarter, including eight of the first 10 during Golden State’s late surge, but Thompson came up with the biggest shot with his fourth 3-pointer of the night.
CELTICS 129, HAWKS 108
BOSTON– Kyrie Irving scored 24 points in three quarters and the Boston Celtics beat the Atlanta Hawks 129-108 on Friday night for their eighth straight victory.
Irving also had five assists, five rebounds and four steals. He scored 12 points in the first quarter and helped Boston race to a 23-5 lead. The Celtics topped 100 points with 2 minutes left in the third.
Jayson Tatum had 22 points for Boston, Marcus Morris added 20, Gordon Hayward had 19 points and five assists, Daniel Theis scored 18 points and rookie Robert Williams III blocked five shots.
Kevin Huerter led Atlanta with 19 points, and John Collins had 11 points and 14 rebounds. The Hawks, losers of six of seven, had nine of their 24 turnovers in the first quarter.
