DALLAS (AP) — Luka Doncic scored 42 points, Kyrie Irving added 40 and the new All-Star pairing shone during Thursday night’s Dallas Mavericks 133-126 win over the Philadelphia 76ers.
Doncic won a matchup of the NBA’s top two scorers as Joel Embiid finished with 35 points for the 76ers, who played without their all-star center a night after a win in Miami.
Irving and Doncic (12 assists) became the first Dallas teammates to score at least 40 goals in the same game.
They had 20 points each in the first half while totaling 45 points, and then combined for 10 points in the first 102 seconds of the third quarter to start a 20-4 run for a 91-71 lead for Dallas .
Tyrese Maxey scored 29 points for Philadelphia and James Harden, making his first 11 shots, finished the game with 19 points and 10 assists.
WIZARDS 119, RAPTORS 108
WASHINGTON (AP) — Kyle Kuzma scored the first 10 points of the game and finished the game with 30, Kristaps Porzingis added 25 points and Washington defeated Toronto in the opener of a two-game set between the Eastern Conference playoff contenders.
Daniel Gafford had 18 points and Delon Wright had a season-high 11 assists for the Wizards (30-32), who were just a few percentage points behind the ninth-placed Raptors (31-33) in the East standings.
OG Anunoby scored 26 points and Jakob Pöltl had 23 points and 13 rebounds for the Raptors, who had won five of their previous six games. Pascal Siakam had 13 points and 11 rebounds for Toronto. Scottie Barnes and Fred VanVleet each had 14 points.
SPURS 110, PACERS 99
SAN ANTONIO (AP) — Jeremy Sochan had 22 points and 13 rebounds for his first double-double of his career and San Antonio beat Indiana with Spurs coach Gregg Popovich out with illness.
Devin Vassell scored 18 points for Spurs on his return after missing 25 games following arthroscopic surgery on his left knee. In his first game since Jan. 2, he shot 8 for 15.
Popovich and senior assistant Brett Brown were traveling with non-COVID-19 medical conditions. Popovich is expected to return for Saturday’s home game against Houston. Spurs assistant Mitch Johnson got his first win.
San Antonio has won back-to-back after breaking a franchise record 16 straight times.
Buddy Hield had 27 points to lead the Pacers and Chris Duarte had 18.
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