By ASSOCIATED PRESS
MIAMI (AP) — Jimmy Butler scored a season-high 30 points in his return from a sprained ankle, Tyler Herro added 18 and the Miami Heat erased an early 19-point deficit to beat the Philadelphia 76ers, 106-89, on Monday night, Nov. 18.
Duncan Robinson scored 13 and Dru Smith added 10 for Miami, which played its first home game in two weeks. The Heat — who were outscored 137-71 in third quarters in their first four home games — outscored Philadelphia 35-16 in that period.
Jared McCain scored 20 points, Paul George added 18 and former Heat forward Caleb Martin finished with 12 for Philadelphia, which has lost 11 of 13 games to open the season.
Joel Embiid played for the third time this season; the Olympic gold medalist from this past summer scored 11 points in 31 minutes for the 76ers.
Meanwhile in Inglewood, Norman Powell scored 23 points and the Los Angeles Clippers held off the Golden State Warriors, 102-99, to win their fifth in a row at home.
James Harden added 12 points and 16 assists for the Clippers, who had lost their first four games at their new arena. Ivica Zubac had 17 rebounds.
Stephen Curry led the Warriors with 26 points and Andrew Wiggins added 22. Their only lead came on a 3-pointer by Lindy Waters III to start the game, but they closed within three points in the game’s final minutes. Their three-game winning streak ended.
The Warriors nearly caught the Clippers, who were on the second night of a back-to-back, in the closing seconds. But Curry missed a potential tying 3 and Gary Payton II also missed on the Warriors’ final shot of the game.
In Milwaukee, Damian Lillard hit a driving layup with 3.9 seconds left to give the Bucks a 101-100 victory over Houston that snapped the Rockets’ five-game winning streak Monday night.
Lillard scored 18 points after missing the previous three games while in the concussion protocol.
The Rockets rallied from a 14-point, third-quarter deficit to take the lead early in the fourth quarter and stayed ahead until Lillard’s decisive basket. Giannis Antetokounmpo blocked a shot by Houston’s Alperen Sengun with 20 seconds left.
In Phoenix, Franz Wagner scored 32 points, Anthony Black added 20 and the Orlando Magic beat the struggling Phoenix Suns, 109-99.
Tyus Jones had 18 points for Phoenix. Devin Booker — coming off a season-high 44 points — had 17.
The Suns had three starters out due to injury, including Kevin Durant, Bradley Beal and Jusuf Nurkic. It was Durant’s sixth straight game out of the lineup. Phoenix is 1-5 over that stretch, including losing four straight.
In Toronto, RJ Barrett scored a season-high 39 points, Jakob Poeltl had 30 points and 15 rebounds for his third straight double-double and the Raptors snapped a seven-game losing streak by beating the Indiana Pacers, 130-119.
Toronto came in with the NBA’s worst record at 2-12 and won for the first time since beating Sacramento in overtime on Nov. 2.
Earlier in New York, Jalen Brunson had 26 points and 11 assists, and the Knicks rolled to a 134-106 victory that extended the Washington Wizards’ losing streak to nine games.
Karl-Anthony Towns added 24 points and 12 rebounds in just 25 minutes for the Knicks, who were off and running right from the start even while playing for the second straight night. They rang up 40 points in the first quarter and put up 36 more in the third, building the lead to 109-75 at the end of the period.
