(The Sports Xchange) – Highlights of Sunday’s National Basketball Association games:
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Clippers 100, Heat 93
The Los Angeles Clippers, the second-best road team in the NBA this season, survived poor shooting early to defeat the Miami Heat 100-93 on Sunday afternoon at AmericanAirlines Arena.
Chris Paul, who missed his first nine shots, rallied to score a game-high 22 points. Jamal Crawford had 20 points, and DeAndre Jordan added nine points, 11 rebounds and three blocks. He made just 3 of 14 from the foul line.
Three Heat players scored 17 points — Chris Bosh, Dwyane Wade and Goran Dragic. Luol Deng added 15 points, and Hassan Whiteside had 10 points and 10 rebounds.
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Celtics 128, Kings 119
Boston took advantage of the defense-less team that may be in the process of getting coach George Karl fired, running over Sacramento.
Isaiah Thomas finished with 22 points and four rebounds, Avery Bradley scored 25 points, Jared Sullinger matched his season high with 21 and Tyler Zeller came off the bench and posted a season-high 17 points, seven rebounds and two blocked shots for the Celtics.
DeMarcus Cousins scored 16 of his 31 points in the fourth quarter and had seven rebounds and six assists for the Kings while Rajon Rondo had 14 points, five assists and six steals. Marco Belinelli and Darren Collison both had 16 points and rookie center Willie Cauley-Stein 15 in the loss.
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Magic 96, Hawks 94
Nikola Vucevic scored 22 points, including a game-winning fallaway jumper from 15 feet as time expired, to lead Orlando over Atlanta.
Evan Fournier scored 21 points and Victor Oladipo had 19 points to help the Magic snap a three-game losing streak.
The Hawks were led by Jeff Teague with 24 points and five assists. Kent Bazemore, who tied the game at 94 with 48 seconds remaining, had 23 points and eight rebounds. Paul Millsap had 14 points and nine rebounds and Al Horford had 11 points, six rebounds and six assists.
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Nuggets 101, Knicks 96
Danilo Gallinari and Will Barton scored 19 points apiece to provide Denver with a win over New York at Madison Square Garden.
Barton added 11 rebounds for the Nuggets and rookie Emmanuel Mudiay scored 15 points, including nine key points in the fourth quarter.
Carmelo Anthony and Kristaps Porzingis poured in 21 points each in New York’s season-high five straight loss.