MIAMI, FL, Sporting Alert – NBA Scores and results from the games that took place on Wednesday night with the LA Lakers, Heat and Thunder all scoring wins.
NBA Conference Standings 2016-17
Luke Walton made his debut as head coach on a winning note, as the Los Angeles Lakers outscored the Houston Rockets in the fourth quarter en route to a 120-114 victory in the season opener for both sides at STAPLES Center.
Jordan Clarkson paced the Lakers with 25 points off the bench, including 12 in the fourth quarter, while D’Angelo Russell scored 20 points and three assists and Julius Randle had 18 points on 9-of-11 shooting, with seven rebounds and six assists in the win.
Timofey Mozgov ended with 12 points and eight rebounds and Louis Williams added 12 points for the Lakers, which held off the Rockets.
James Harden had 34 points and a career-high 17 assists to lead the way for Houston and Eric Gordon ended with 19 points and five rebounds.
Clint Capela, who got the starting nod at center, collected 16 points on 8-of-11 shooting to go with nine rebounds and Ryan Anderson had 14 points and six boards in the defeat.
The Oklahoma City Thunder won their first game without Kevin Durant, but needed to dig deep into their reserves to secure a 103-97 victory over the Philadelphia 76ers on Wednesday night.
Russell Westbrook started slowly, but as expected, picked up the pace and took over late to finish with 32 points, 12 rebounds and nine assists for the Thunder at Wells Fargo Center.
Westbrook, however, missed out on making it four consecutive triple-doubles against Philadelphia.
NBA Conference Standings 2016-17
Enes Kanter contributed 17 points and 12 rebounds off the bench, Steven Adams had 16 points, five rebounds and three steals, and Victor Oladipo and Ersan Ilyasova both had 10 points and five boards apiece for Oklahoma City, which shot 41.5 percent from the floor.
Joel Embiid, in his delayed debut, posted 20 points, seven rebounds and two blocks in 22 minutes for the Sixers.
Nik Stauskas score 13 points, Sergio Rodriguez had 12 points and nine assists without a turnover, while Jerami Grant and Robert Covington each ended with 10 points in Wednesday’s loss.
Meanwhile, the Miami Heat also started their post-Dwayne Wade journey on a winning note.
Aggressive center Hassan White poured in 18 points, 14 rebounds and four blocked shots and five others scored in double figures and the Heat beat state rivals Orlando Magic 108-96 in the season opener for both clubs.
Point guard Goran Dragic had 16 points and six assists, Justin Winslow scored 15 points and had eight rebounds, four assists and two blocks, while Tyler Johnson ended with 15 points and six boards and James Johnson finished with 11 points and six assists for Miami.
Willie Reed supported with 10 points and six boards and Dion Waiters finished with nine points, six rebounds and four assists for the Heat.
Evan Fournier led the Magic with 20 points, Nikola Vucevic finished with 17 points and 14 rebounds and Serge Ibaka finished with 14 points and seven boards in the defeat for Orlando.
In other NBA scores on Wednesday night, Anthony Davis erupted for 50 points, 16 rebounds, seven steals, five assists and four blocks but couldn’t prevent the New Orleans Pelicans from going down 107-102 to the Denver Nuggets.
Jusuf Nurkic scored 23 points and Will Barton added 22 to help the Nuggets survived Davis’ outstanding regular-season opening performance.
“We gave them too many easy looks in the beginning of the game,” Davis said.
“We gave ourselves a chance. We’ve just got to play like we played in the third and fourth quarter in the beginning of the game.”
Elsewhere, DeMar DeRozan scored 40 points to lead the Raptors to a 109-91 victory over the Pistons, Celtics topped the Nets 122-117 and Pacers beat the Mavericks 130-121 in overtime.
NBA Scores and Results
Wednesday, October 26
NBA Conference Standings 2016-17
Miami 108, Orlando 96
Indiana 130, Dallas 121 (OT)
Boston 122, Brooklyn 117
Toronto 109, Detroit 91
Charlotte 107, Milwaukee 96
Memphis 102, Minnesota 98
Denver 107, New Orleans 102
Oklahoma City 103, Philadelphia 97
Sacramento 113, Phoenix 94
Los Angeles Lakers 120, Houston 114
