Trail Blazers 105, Knicks 100
The Portland Trail Blazers overcame Carmelo Anthony’s season high-tying 45 points and spoiled Amare Stoudemire’s season debut, beating the host New York Knicks.
Nicolas Batum scored 26 points, Damian Lillard had 21 points, six assists and five rebounds, and LaMarcus Aldridge had 19 points and 14 rebounds for Portland.
Stoudemire finished with six points on 3-of-8 shooting and one rebound in 17 minutes off the bench in his return from knee surgery. Anthony shot 14-of-24 and nearly led the Knicks back from 19 points down after missing two games with a knee injury, but the Trail Blazers had too many options.
J.J. Hickson scored all of his 18 points in the first half as Portland won for the third time in four games.
Anthony had missed the previous two games with a hyperextended left knee. The Knicks are still without point guard Raymond Felton because of a broken pinky finger and struggled to get their offense going until too late, losing for the third time in four games.
J.R. Smith had 28 points and 11 rebounds for the Knicks.
Stoudemire had surgery on Oct. 31 to clean up tissue in his left knee and decided to play after going through a couple of practices this week, though adding he wasn’t yet 100 percent. The former All-Star who has battled injuries in recent years was clearly rusty but showed he can still finish at the rim when set up properly.
Mavericks 103, Wizards 94
Vince Carter scored 23 points, O.J. Mayo and Darren Collison each added 15 to help the visiting Dallas Mavericks break their six-game losing streak.
When the Wizards, who are now 4-25, took a 14-point lead early in the second quarter, Dallas, which had arrived in Washington in the midst of its longest skid in nearly 14 years, rallied. They trailed by four at the half, and then outscored the Wizards 35-19 in the third quarter to take an 83-71 lead.
The Mavericks were ahead 99-84 with 3:28 to play, but Washington scored eight straight to cut the lead to seven, but Carter, making just the second start of the season threw down an emphatic dunk with 1:11 to play to make it 101-93.
Six players scored in double figures for Dallas. Chris Kaman scored 12 points and Shawn Marion had 11 points with a season-high 14 rebounds. Dirk Nowitzki played in just his fifth game since returning from right knee surgery and added 11.
Bradley Beal equaled a career high with 22 points for the Wizards. Emeka Okafor had 14 and 11 rebounds. Martel Webster also had 14.
Dallas arrived in Washington in the midst of its longest skid in nearly 14 years. The Mavericks hadn’t been losing close games. Just one of the six losses was by fewer than 10 points, and were by an average of 19 points, and were by an average of 19 points.
Hawks 95, Hornets 86
Josh Smith scored 10 of his 23 points in the third quarter to lead the visiting Atlanta Hawks over the New Orleans Hornets. Al Horford added 20 points, Kyle Korver 14 and Zaza Pachulia 12 for the Hawks, who spoiled the homecoming of Hornets guard Eric Gordon.
Gordon, playing in his first home game this season, scored 11 points on 5-of-17 shooting. He made his season debut in a victory over Charlotte on Saturday after spending most of the season recovering from a knee injury. Ryan Anderson scored 23 points and Greivis Vasquez added 17 for the Hornets.
Pistons 103, Kings 97
Greg Monroe had 18 points and 11 rebounds, and the host Detroit Pistons held off the Sacramento Kings for their first three-game winning streak of the season. Sacramento cut a 16-point fourth-quarter deficit to one, and Detroit led 100-97 when Austin Daye made a 3-pointer with the shot clock running down with 11.5 seconds left.
Detroit has won five of six, in large part because of terrific play from its reserves. The group scored 44 points despite losing Charlie Villanueva to a second-quarter ejection.
