Damian Lillard matched his season-high with 39 points and the Milwaukee Bucks took down the Houston Rockets 128-119 to win their fourth game in a row and improve to 19-7 overall.
Lillard shot 11-of-19 from the field with five triples and 12-of-13 from the free throw line, adding 11 assists and three steals in a masterful performance.
Meanwhile Giannis Antetokounmpo passed Kareem Abdul-Jabbar to move into first all-time in Bucks total rebounds (7,165) after racking up 26 points with 17 boards in the win.
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Morant returns from suspension next week | 01:03
The Bucks remained in control of this one from the opening tip, never allowing the Rockets to get closer than five points in the second and third quarters.
Houston chipped away at the scoreboard in the last term, but whenever they got close, Lillard or Antetokounmpo responded at the other end of the floor.
Inside the last 38 seconds of the game, Dillon Brooks was issued a technical foul by the referee for allegedly flopping when flying for a loose ball before he went off at the official.
It resulted in Brooks and both Rockets coach Ime Udoaka being ejected from the game for arguing the call.
Fred Valvleet’s 22 points led all five Rockets in double figures, but they fell to 13-10 overall.
ELSEWHERE …
The Golden State Warriors might be struggling this season, but Steph Curry is still the same amazing Steph Curry.
During the second quarter of the Warriors’116-114 win over the Portland Trail Blazers, Curry reached into his bag of tricks with an epic near full court behind-the-back assist.
The Warriors forced a turnover before Curry gathered the ball at Portland’s three-point line and dished it behind his back past to DeAndre Ayton to Moses Moody at the other end of the floor for an easy slam.
Despite the win, Curry was held to a season-low seven points including shooting 0-of-8 beyond the arc in the game. It marked Curry’s first regular season game without a three-pointer since November 2018, snapping a 268-game streak – the longest in NBA history.
With the sharpshooter down on form, Klay Thompson (28 points on 11-of-16 shooting, 5-of-10 from downtown) and Andrew Wiggins (25 points on 9-of-12 shooting, 4-of-6 from three) stepped up as the Warriors crept closer to .500 at 12-14 and improved to 2-1 since Draymond Green’s suspension.
Earlier, Boston improved their perfect NBA home record to 14-0 as Jaylen Brown keyed a fourth-quarter surge that saw the Celtics pull away for a 114-97 victory over the Orlando Magic.
Brown scored 17 of his 31 points in the final period to help the Celtics, who led by nine through three quarters, push their lead to as many as 23.
Jayson Tatum scored 23 points, and Kristaps Porzingis added 15 points and 10 rebounds in his return from a one-game absence.
The Celtics withstood a 36-point, 10-rebound performance from Orlando’s Paolo Banchero to beat the Magic for the second time in three days.
Stung by that defeat on Saturday, the Magic raced to an early 10-point lead, but the Celtics turned the tide in the second quarter and never trailed after the break.
The Celtics had dropped four straight to the Magic before beating them on Saturday in a win Brown called their biggest of the year.
“We can’t skip no steps,” he said.
“Orlando has been one of those teams that has had our number in the last year and a half… We take the right mentality and we come out on top, and I like that.” Brown, who added five rebounds, six assists, one steal and one block, said his fourth-quarter burst was just a matter of falling into a rhythm.
“I’m a do whatever our team needs kind of guy,” he said. “First quarter, fourth quarter, it don’t matter, I just take advantage of the opportunities I get.”
Brunson Burner drops 50 on Suns! | 01:30
In other early action, the New Orleans Pelicans drilled a franchise record 22 three-pointers in a dominant 146-110 victory over the Spurs in San Antonio.
CJ McCollum made six of his seven three-point attempts on the way to 29 points. Brandon Ingram was five-of-seven from beyond the arc and scored 26 points for the Pelicans, who threw some cold water on the Spurs’ halftime ceremony honouring Tony Parker’s induction into the Hall of Fame in August.
Rookie sensation Victor Wembanyama scored 17 points and grabbed 13 rebounds under the eye of fellow Frenchman Parker, his childhood idol.
The Spurs, who snapped their 18-game losing streak with a victory over LeBron James and the Los Angeles Lakers on Saturday, took a 6-0 lead on Wembanyama’s alley-oop dunk in the opening minutes but had little to celebrate the rest of the way.
After missing their first five shots, the Pelicans found their range. They led by 13 after the first quarter and never looked back.
Zion Williamson finished with 15 points, Jonas Valanciunas added 15 with 15 rebounds and Jose Alvarado added 16 points off the bench for New Orleans.
ALL RESULTS
MAGIC 97 CELTICS 114
PELICANS 146 SPURS 110
ROCKETS 119 BUCKS 128
WIZARDS 108 SUNS 112
WARRIORS 116 TRAIL BLAZERS 114