Nuggets beat Heat to snap 6-game skid

Nuggets beat Heat to snap 6-game skid

Nuggets beat Heat to snap 6-game skid
NBA

Nuggets beat Heat to snap 6-game skid

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Nikola Jokic returned and scored 24 points, Aaron Gordon added 20 and the Denver Nuggets snapped their longest losing streak in nearly six years by beating the short-handed Miami Heat 120-111 on Monday night.

Bones Hyland scored 19 and Will Barton added 14 for the Nuggets, who had dropped six straight. Jokic hadn’t played in the last four of those because of a wrist injury but finished with 15 rebounds and seven assists.

Jeff Green scored 12 for Denver, which shot 58% on the day it was revealed Michael Porter Jr. will need back surgery. Porter has been limited to nine games this season.

Bam Adebayo finished with 24 points and 13 rebounds for Miami, which was without its two leading scorers — Jimmy Butler was out with a bruised tailbone, and Tyler Herro missed the game with what the Heat called general body soreness.

Kyle Lowry had 17 points and 14 assists.

76ERS 101, MAGIC 96

PHILADELPHIA (AP) — Seth Curry scored 24 points, Tobias Harris had 17 and Philadelphia needed free throws in the final minute to beat Orlando.

The Magic (4-18) showed grit in a fiery second half and rallied from 16 down to tie it 93-all on Mo Bamba’s dunk with 57 seconds left.

The Sixers just hung on from the line. Ty Maxey made two for the lead, Joel Embiid hit 3 of 4 and Maxey added two more to help the Sixers avoid an embarrassing defeat. Embiid scored 16 points on 4-for-16 shooting.

Franz Wagner led the Magic with 27 points.

TIMBERWOLVES 100, PACERS 98

MINNEAPOLIS (AP) — Karl-Anthony Towns scored 16 of his 32 points in the third quarter and Anthony Edwards added 21 as Minnesota rallied past Indiana.

The Timberwolves trailed by 12 early in the third before Towns led a comeback that sent them to their seventh win in eight games. Michael Beasley hit a tiebreaking 3-pointer for Minnesota with 51.5 seconds left in the fourth.

D’Angelo Russell had 21 points and a season-high 11 assists for the Timberwolves.

Domantas Sabonis had 16 points, a career-high 25 rebounds and 10 assists for Indiana. Malcolm Brogdon added 25 points but the Pacers lost for the third time in four games.

BULLS 133, HORNETS 119

CHICAGO (AP) — Lonzo Ball and the Chicago Bulls won the battle of the Ball brothers, riding a stellar performance by Nikola Vucevic to a victory over LaMelo Ball and the Charlotte Hornets.

Chicago shot a season-high 59.6% from the field and had five players score in double figures. Vucevic had a season-best 30 points and grabbed 14 rebounds. DeMar DeRozan scored 28 points, and Zach LaVine, a game-time decision because of an illness, finished with 25.

With patriarch LaVar Ball watching and wearing a black hat that read “I Told You So,” Lonzo Ball improved to 2-1 in three NBA meetings with the youngest of his two brothers. He had 16 points and eight assists, and LaMelo Ball had 18 points and 13 assists.

Terry Rozier scored 31 points for the Hornets. Charlotte trimmed a 23-point deficit to four with 7:31 left, but Chicago responded with a 9-0 run.