Ellis scores 20 points, Mavs beat Cavs 109-90 

 

CLEVELAND: While the wins keep piling up for the Dallas Mavericks, all the Cavaliers keep adding are injuries.

Monta Ellis scored 20 points, Dirk Nowitzki added 15 and the Mavericks won their fifth straight game Sunday, a 109-90 victory over the Cavaliers, whose news on the injury front gets worse by the day.

Cleveland again played without LeBron James, who is out with knee and back soreness. Kyrie Irving left in the third quarter with lower back tightness and won't make the trip to Philadelphia for Monday night's game.

James missed his fourth game in a row and fifth of the season. The Cavaliers are 1-4 when the four-time MVP doesn't play and have dropped 5 of 7 overall.

Nowitzki has 27,397 career points and is 12 shy of tying Moses Malone for seventh place all-time.

Kevin Love scored a season-high 30 points, but the Cavaliers couldn't stay with the Mavericks, who had six players in double figures.

Before the game, Cavaliers general manager David Griffin said speculation about coach David Blatt's job status was "ridiculous" and added no change would be made.

The Mavericks, who wrap up this three-game trip Monday in Brooklyn, are 10-0 on the road against the Eastern Conference this season and have won 14 straight overall against the East.

Dallas went ahead for good late in the first quarter and built a 57-42 lead two minutes before halftime. The margin grew to 20 in the third.

Chandler Parsons, Tyson Chandler and J.J. Barea scored 14 points apiece for Dallas, which shot 56 percent and made 12 of 26 3-pointers.

Rajon Rondo, who scored a season-high 29 points Friday against Boston, was held to four points and had eight assists in 27 minutes. Dallas is 6-2 since acquiring Rondo from the Celtics 

 

 

 

Jennings leads Pistons to 114-95 win over Kings

                                         

 

AUBURN HILLS: For once, the Detroit Pistons aren't playing like a team in disarray.

The Pistons routed the Sacramento Kings 114-95 Sunday, giving them their first five-game winning streak in more than five years.

The Kings, on the other hand, look as if they have significant problems.

At the same time, the Pistons have been rejuvenated since releasing Josh Smith in late December. The Pistons are 5-0 without the player that was signed to restore the franchise to glory only 18 months ago.

The difference on the floor is obvious. The offense is now running through Brandon Jennings instead of Smith, and the point guard responded with 35 points against the Kings.

Andre Drummond had 15 points and 14 rebounds and Greg Monroe had 14 points 11 rebounds for Detroit

Cousins led the Kings with 18 points and 15 rebounds

The Pistons held the Kings to 46 points on 53 possessions in the first half to build a nine-point lead. Sacramento had zero second-chance points in the half - it only had two offensive rebounds  and didn't make a 3-pointer

Detroit, whose winning streak has been sparked by improved shooting, made 10 jumpers in the half, including six 3-pointers.

Sacramento, cut the margin to four at the start of the third quarter, but couldn't get any closer until Derrick Williams had a three-point play to pull the Kings to 78-77 in the last minute of the period.

Jennings, though, hit a 3-pointer at the end of the quarter. The Pistons kept hitting shots and getting stops in the fourth quarter, and pulled away for the easy win. 

Kobe Bryant rallies Lakers past Pacers, 88-87

 

 

LOS ANGELES : Kobe Bryant has gradually accepted that it's a good idea to miss a few games this season to keep his 36-year-old body in top shape for the rest of the Los Angeles Lakers' schedule.

With a day off coming up, he put everything into another vintage late-game performance against the Indiana Pacers.

Bryant scored 20 points and hit the go-ahead short jumper with 12.4 seconds to play, leading the Lakers to an 88-87 comeback victory Sunday night.

Bryant is learning to accept his 36-year-old body's limitations, and he agreed with coach Byron Scott's decision to leave him home from Monday's game at Portland. While playing just 32 minutes against Indiana, Bryant scored nine points in the final 2:32 after the Lakers rallied from a 13-point deficit in the second half.

 

It wasn't utter domination, but resilience: Bryant hit a contested 3-pointer from the corner to put the Lakers up 84-82 with 2 minutes to play, but Solomon Hill answered with a 3-pointer for the Pacers, who repeatedly grabbed key offensive rebounds. Bryant then missed a 3-footer with 50 seconds left, but buried the winning 4-footer.

He has missed several potential go-ahead shots in the final seconds this season, but Kobe still isn't flinching in the clutch.

 

Nick Young also scored 10 of his 22 points in the fourth quarter for the Lakers.

Roy Hibbert missed a difficult jumper off a broken play as time expired to end the Lakers' third win in 10 games.

 

C.J. Miles had 19 points to lead six Pacers scoring in double figures. Despite outrebounding the Lakers 50-37, Indiana failed to secure its first three-game winning streak of the season.

With point guards George Hill and C.J. Watson sidelined by injuries, Donald Sloan had 16 points, nine assists and seven rebounds in the third-stringer's second straight start after not playing in the previous three games.

After Young made a steal and a buzzer-beating 3-pointer to end the first half with the Lakers down 48-41, Indiana opened its largest lead in the third quarter. The Lakers erased it gradually, pulling even on Young's behind-the-head layup while falling down with 7:20 to play. 

Results:

Dallas Mavericks- 109 beat Cleveland Cavaliers- 90, Detroit Pistons-114 beat Sacramento Kings- 95, Miami Heat- 88 beat Brooklyn Nets-84, Milwaukee Bucks- 95 beat New York Knicks- 82, Phoenix Suns- 125 beat Toronto Raptors- 109, Los Angeles Lakers- 88 beat Indiana Pacers- 87

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