(The Sports Xchange) – Highlights of Tuesday’s National Basketball Association games:
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Cavaliers 93, Nuggets 87
LeBron James scored 34 points and Iman Shumpert had a season-high 16 as Cleveland beat Denver 93-87 on Tuesday.
Will Barton led the Nuggets with 29 points and Joffrey Lauvergne scored 14 as Denver lost for the sixth time in seven games.
The Cavaliers were playing their fourth game in five nights on a Western Conference road trip. They lost a tough one to Golden State in an NBA Finals rematch on Christmas Day before winning the last two to finish .500.
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Grizzlies 99, Heat 90 (OT)
Center Marc Gasol scored a game-high 23 points — seven of them in overtime — as the Memphis Grizzlies defeated the Miami Heat 99-90 at FedExForum.
With the score tied 83-83 at the end of regulation, Memphis jumped out to an 89-83 advantage in overtime and the Heat never drew closer than three points. Gasol also had eight rebounds, six assists and four blocks.
The Grizzlies (18-16) did not make a field goal over the last 6:32 of the fourth quarter as the Heat (18-13) erased a nine-point deficit and tied the game at 83-83 with 2:57 to play on a hook shot by center Hassan Whiteside.
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Thunder 131, Bucks 123
Russell Westbrook and Kevin Durant combined for 53 points and 15 assists to lead Oklahoma City to a victory over Milwaukee at the Chesapeake Energy Arena.
Westbrook posted 27 points on 10-of-22 shooting to go along with seven rebounds and seven assists. Durant collected 26 points, six boards and eight assists to keep alive an active streak of 18 straight games with 20 or more points.
Enes Kanter came off the bench to post 23 points and eight rebounds. Cameron Payne added 16 points to help Oklahoma City improve to 22-10.
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Hawks 121, Rockets 115
Horford and Paul Millsap posted double-doubles and Atlanta rallied from a 19-point deficit to spring past Houston at Toyota Center.
Horford finished with 30 points and 14 rebounds while Millsap added 22 points and 14 boards plus a block of Rockets center Dwight Howard with the Hawks clinging to a 117-115 lead with 11 seconds left.
Hawks forward Kent Bazemore added 26 points on five of nine three-point shooting while Jeff Teague paired 22 points with eight assists to snap the Rockets’ seven-game home winning streak.
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Knicks 108, Pistons 96
New York ended a four-game losing streak, turning back Detroit at Madison Square Garden.
Knicks forward Carmelo Anthony poured in 24 points, passing former Philadelphia 76er Hal Greer for 32nd place on the NBA’s all-time scoring list.
Greer recorded 21,586 points; Anthony now has 21,604 points. Just ahead of Anthony is Larry Bird with 21,791 points.
Jose Calderon added 15 points, Derrick Williams and Kyle O’Quinn contributed 18 and 12 points, respectively, off the bench. Williams scored 17 points in the fourth quarter.
