ATLANTA — Dejounte Murray scored 25 points, rookie A.J. Griffin came off the bench in Trae Young’s absence to add a career-high 24 and the Atlanta Hawks snapped the Milwaukee Bucks’ season-opening, nine-game winning streak with a 117-98 victory on Monday night.
Giannis Antetokounmpo returned from a one-game absence with a sore left knee to score 25 points for the Bucks, who were attempting to become the first team to begin a season 10-0 since the 2014-15 Golden State Warriors got off to a 24-0 start.
Young, Atlanta’s leader in points and assists, missed the game with right shin soreness. Griffin filled in admirably, logging 31 minutes and going 10 of 15 from the field.
Milwaukee committed a season-high 19 turnovers, leading to 22 Atlanta points.
Milwaukee’s winning streak was tied for the second-longest under fifth-year coach Mike Budenholzer and the longest since winning 18 in a row in 2019-20.
ROCKETS 134, MAGIC 127: Jalen Green scored 34 points, K.J. Martin came off the bench to add 21 and visiting Houston snapped a six-game losing streak.
Green and Martin were among nine Rockets who made 3-pointers in the game. Houston was 24 for 48 (50%) from behind the arc. Coming into the game as the NBA’s poorest shooting team (42.4%), the Rockets shot 52.9% (46 for 87) in the win.
Alperen Sengun finished with 20 points and 10 rebounds, and Eric Gordon added 19 points and four assists for the Rockets.
Paolo Banchero led the Magic with 30 points.
WIZARDS 108, HORNETS 100: Kyle Kuzma scored 20 points and visiting Washington handed slumping Charlotte its fifth straight loss.
Kristaps Porzingis had 19 points and eight rebounds, Jordan Goodwin scored 17 points and Rui Hachimura added 16 more off the bench for the Wizards, who had lost five of their previous six games.
BULLS 111, RAPTORS 97: Zach LaVine scored a season-high 30 points as the Chicago beat visiting Toronto.
PISTONS 112, THUNDER 103: Saddiq Bey scored 25 points, Cade Cunningham had 21 points and 11 rebounds, and Detroit beat visiting Oklahoma City.
The Pistons outscored the Thunder 64-40 in the second half.
Shai Gilgeous-Alexander scored 33 points for the Thunder, but none of the other starters reached double figures.
PACERS 129, PELICANS 122: Myles Turner had season highs of 37 points and 12 rebounds, and Indiana beat visiting New Orleans for its fourth win in five games.
Tyrese Haliburton added 20 points and 13 assists for the Pacers, making six 3-pointers. Buddy Hield had 20 points with five 3-pointers. Jalen Smith added 15 points and 11 rebounds.
TRAIL BLAZERS 110, HEAT 107: Josh Hart’s 3-pointer as time expired gave Portland a win at Miami.
Max Strus made a 3-pointer for Miami with 6.2 seconds remaining to tie the game. The Trail Blazers opted not to call timeout and Damian Lillard dribbled most of the way downcourt before finding Hart in the left corner near the Heat bench.
76ERS 100, SUNS 88: Joel Embiid had 33 points and 10 rebounds in his return after missing three games with the flu, Georges Niang scored 21 points on 7-for-11 shooting on 3-pointers, and Philadelphia beat visiting Phoenix.
Send questions/comments to the editors.
Comments are no longer available on this story