Kings hold off Warriors, Lakers top Bulls
AFP – The Sacramento Kings, fueled by a career-high 39 points from Harrison Barnes, edged the Golden State Warriors 134-133 on Thursday as Lakers star LeBron James celebrated his record-setting 20th NBA All-Star nod with a win.
Domantas Sabonis’s dunk with 22.1 seconds remaining sealed a dramatic win for Sacramento after back-to-back dunks by Jonathan Kuminga gave the Warriors their first lead of the second half at 133-132.
Golden State had a chance to close it out, but Kuminga was denied by Barnes and superstar Stephen Curry, under fierce pressure from De’Aaron Fox, and lost the ball in the final second.
Sabonis posted his 26th-straight double-double with 18 points and 13 assists and Fox added 29 points for the Kings.
Curry scored 33 points to lead the Warriors, who were playing their second game since the death of assistant coach Dejan Milojevic from a heart attack last week.
In Los Angeles, James scored 25 points and handed out 12 assists in the Lakers’ 141-132 victory over the Chicago Bulls, which came hours after James was named an All-Star Game starter for the 20th consecutive year – a streak stretching back to his second season in the league.
D’Angelo Russell hit eight three-pointers on the way to 29 points, leading seven Lakers players in double-figures in the dominant victory.
Elsewhere, Pascal Siakam’s triple-double propelled the Indiana Pacers to a 134-122 victory over Philadelphia that snapped the 76ers’ six-game winning streak.
The Boston Celtics routed Miami 143-110 in an Eastern Conference final rematch, the New York Knicks thumped the defending champion Denver Nuggets 122-84 and Western Conference leaders Minnesota held on for a 96-94 victory over the Nets in Brooklyn.
The Pacers were in charge throughout in Indianapolis, where Siakam scored 26 points with 13 rebounds and 10 assists to lead the charge against the sluggish 76ers.
Philadelphia’s reigning NBA MVP Joel Embiid scored 31 points, but coach Nick Nurse pulled Embiid and the rest of his starters for the fourth quarter as the Pacers romped despite the continued absence of injured Tyrese Haliburton.