by CLEVELAND, Sporting Alert – NBA scores and results from the list of fixtures that were played on November 8.
Dennis Schroder scored a career-high 28 points and Dwight Howard dominated the glass once again and the Atlanta Hawks handed the Cleveland Cavaliers their first loss of the season, 110-106 on Tuesday night.
Schroder, who also dished out six assists, shot 10 of 16 from the floor and made three of his six 3-point attempts to lead the way for the Hawks (5-2), while Howard pulled down 17 rebounds and three blocks in the win.
Kent Bazemore finished with 25 points, six rebounds and three assists and Paul Millsap supported with 21 points and five boards for Atlanta, which ended an 11-game losing streak to the Cavaliers.
Kyrie Irving led the Cavs in scoring with 29 points, while Kevin Love added 24 points, 12 rebounds and two steals in the defeat.
LeBron James, who missed his first four shots of the game didn’t score until 2:35 was left in the first half, finished with 23 points on 8 of 17 shooting to go with nine rebounds, five assists and three steals for the Cavaliers (6-1).
James played 16:29 minutes in the first half and went just 1 of 5 for two points.
”Give them a lot of credit,” he said. ”They played a heck of a game. You know toward the end of the season they’ll be right there.”
Channing Frye finished with 13 points and seven rebounds, while Tristan Thompson was held scoreless with two rebounds in 25 minutes and JR Smith scored just six points for the reigning NBA champions.
”It was a weird game,” said James.
Hawks coach Mike Budenholzer said, ”I think they might have had one of those nights, but our guys were really committed out there.
”Our defense in the first half gave us a cushion, and we were able to hold them off.”
In the Western Conference, Damian Lillard made key free throws in the closing seconds of the game en route to scoring 38 points, and the Portland Trail Blazers held off the Phoenix Suns 124-121 on Tuesday night.
Lillard, who shot 52.2 percent from the field, made six free throws in the final minute of the game to help seal the win for Portland (5-3).
C.J. McCollum added 33 points on 11 of 18 shooting to go with seven assists, six rebounds and two steals, with Maurice Harkless ended with 20 points and six boards.
Mason Plumlee was 5 of 6 on shooting and finished with 10 points, five rebounds and five assists in the win for the Trail Blazers, who almost blew an 18 points early lead.
”We talk about just being able to play the way we want to play for longer spans of time,” Lillard said.
”We’ll play really well for seven minutes, and then in four minutes we’ll give up a 15-2 run and give up everything we just worked for.
“We got to continue to work on that. The good thing is, we’re able to find a way to win games while we work on it.”
Portland shot 55.6 percent overall from the floor and 45.2 percent from long-range.
Eric Bledsoe finished with 31 points on 9 of 13 shooting, while Devin Booker added 23 points for the Phoenix Suns.
”It’s not tough for us to come back, we come back a lot,” Suns coach Earl Watson said.
”That’s what we do. Our team is really close and we have a lot of belief.”
NBA Scores and Results
Tuesday, November 8
Atlanta Hawks 110, Cleveland Cavaliers 106
Brooklyn Nets 119, Minnesota Timberwolves 110
Memphis Grizzlies 108, Denver Nuggets 107
Portland Trail Blazers 124, Phoenix Suns 121
Dallas Mavericks 109, Los Angeles Lakers 97
Sacramento Kings 102, New Orleans Pelicans 94
