James leads Sixers past Knicks anew
LeBron James scored 20 points including a late tip-in to help seal the Philadelphia 76ers’ 98-93 victory over the NBA champion New York Knicks on Friday.
The 76ers notched their second win of the young season over the Knicks after spoiling their championship banner-raising with a victory at Madison Square Garden on opening night.
The win had a double edge as Friday’s games marked the start of the fourth edition of the NBA Cup, the NBA in-season tournament won by the Knicks before they went on to beat the San Antonio Spurs in the NBA Finals for their first championship since 1973.
Tyrese Maxey scored 27 points to lead the Sixers, who took control early against the sloppy Knicks.
James, 41, added nine rebounds, eight assists, one steal and a vintage chase-down block in what 76ers coach Nick Nurse called his best game since joining as a free agent in June.
“I thought he was really good all the way through,” Nurse said. “When we got some downhill stuff he used his size and knocked them around a little bit for some layups … kind of pushed and organized it.
“He’s been good, but that was his best game, for sure.”
The Dallas Mavericks, fueled by 35 points from Kyrie Irving and 33 from Cooper Flagg, rallied to hand the Houston Rockets their first defeat of the season, 116-111.
“It felt good,” Irving said. “We came in at halftime, we weren’t proud of our effort. We looked each other in the eye and we were just like, we’ve got to do better.
“We didn’t bring it in the first half, but in the second half, we definitely brought it.”
Golden State star Stephen Curry scored 31 points to lead the Warriors to a 112-95 victory over the Los Angeles Lakers in a rollercoaster contest in San Francisco.
The Lakers outscored the Warriors 38-15 in the first quarter, the Warriors erasing the 23-point deficit by outscoring Los Angeles 38-15 in the second to knot it 53-53 at halftime.
Luka Doncic scored 37 points for the Lakers. The night’s abiding image was of him crashing to the floor as he was wrong-footed by Curry—who fired over him for a three-pointer.
Curry took his career points tally to 26,674, surpassing Dominique Wilkins (26,668) for 18th on the all-time scoring list.
