Chicago Bulls storm back from early deficit to beat Milwaukee Bucks in NBA

Norman Powell has scored 25 points, and rookie Caleb Wilson has added 21 to help the visiting Chicago Bulls earn a 132-125 victory over the Milwaukee Bucks.

Leonard Miller had 19 points on Friday while Jalen Smith chipped in 14 points and 13 rebounds for Chicago, who rebounded after suffering a 43-point loss to the Toronto Raptors on Wednesday.

Buddy Hield scored 13, Isaac Okoro had 12 and Tre Jones tallied 11 points and eight assists for the Bulls, who trailed by 15 points after the first quarter.

Tyler Herro led Milwaukee with 34 points, followed by Jaime Jaquez Jr’s 19 points and 11 boards. Kyle Kuzma scored 14, and Myles Turner had 12 while Ryan Rollins, AJ Green and Kel’el Ware scored 11 apiece for the Bucks, who lost their second straight game to open the season.

Rookie Brayden Burries made a three-pointer, and Ware scored around the rim to give the Bucks a five-point lead with 2:55 left in the third quarter. Smith beat the third-quarter buzzer with a dunk that cut the Bulls’ deficit to 104-102 entering the fourth.

Chicago scored the first six points of the final quarter and grabbed a 108-104 lead on Wilson’s slam. The Bulls pushed the lead to eight on Hield’s trey with 7:19 remaining.

With Milwaukee trailing by five, Herro connected on back-to-back three-pointers, returning the lead to the Bucks.

Wilson made two free throws to put the Bulls ahead 124-123 with 1:16 left.

After Jones picked off Rollins’s pass, Wilson made another pair from the foul line to push the lead to three. A missed three-pointer by Herro and two more free throws from Powell gave the Bulls a five-point cushion with 20 seconds left.

Wilson’s steal and Jones’s subsequent two foul shots sealed Chicago’s victory.

Milwaukee jumped out to a 19-6 lead on Herro’s first triple less than five minutes in. Green sank a three-pointer in the closing seconds of the first quarter to give the Bucks a 32-17 advantage.

Matas Buzelis’s slam pulled the Bulls within seven, but Kasparas Jakucionis and Rollins hit consecutive treys to build the margin to 44-31 with 8:35 left in the first half.

Chicago answered again and took a 55-51 lead on Hield’s three-pointer, which stamped a 16-0 run.

Kuzma made a layup with three seconds left in the first half to give the Bucks a 62-61 halftime edge.

Hawks crush Hornets, set franchise mark for largest win

Jalen Johnson and reserve Aaron Wiggins each scored 19 points as visiting Atlanta blew out the Charlotte Hornets 128-81, the ‌biggest margin of victory in Hawks history.

The 47-point gap topped the old record of 46 set in a 126-80 victory over the Sacramento Kings in 2017. Nickeil Alexander-Walker put up 14 points, CJ McCollum posted 13 points, Dyson Daniels contributed 11 points, nine rebounds and ⁠seven steals and Corey Kispert also had 11 points for Atlanta, which ⁠won its second straight to start the season.

It was a miserable home opener for the Hornets, who won two nights earlier at Brooklyn to start their campaign. They committed 27 turnovers. Naz Reid scored 17 points for Charlotte and Grayson Allen came off the bench for 11 points. Both players were in their home debuts with the Hornets. Reserve Tidjane Salaun also scored 11 points.

The gap reached 97-62 by the end of the third quarter. The Hornets couldn’t even get it cranked ⁠up when the margin was out of hand, needing about six and a half minutes to reach a double-digit total in the fourth quarter.

Celtics send Knicks to second straight loss

Jayson Tatum scored a game-high 36 points, including nine late in the fourth quarter, as the Boston Celtics withstood a late comeback bid by the visiting New York Knicks to escape with a 107-103 victory.

Tatum finished with nine rebounds and seven assists for the Celtics, who have split their first two games. Paul George and reserve Neemias Queta had 15 points apiece while Derrick White added 12 points.

Celtics centre Mitchell Robinson, the lone member of the Knicks’ rotation who didn’t return to the defending NBA champions, had four points and four rebounds in 22-plus minutes.

Karl-Anthony Towns (22 points, 10 rebounds), OG Anunoby (20 points, 10 rebounds) and Josh Hart (10 points, 12 rebounds) all had double-doubles for the Knicks, who have lost their first two games.

New York has taken consecutive losses for the first time since dropping Games 2 and 3 of an Eastern Conference first-round playoff series against the Atlanta Hawks in April, after which the Knicks won 15 of the next 16 games to clinch their first title since 1973.

Miles McBride scored 20 points off the New York bench while Jalen Brunson had 19 points.

The Celtics led by as many as 12 points three times in the fourth quarter, the last at 94-82 on a three-point play by Queta, before the Knicks mounted a 9-0 run. Boston missed seven consecutive shots as New York rallied.

Towns dunked to pull the Knicks within 94-91 with 4:09 left, but he missed a long three-point attempt 28 seconds later, and Tatum responded with a layup to end the Celtics’ drought.

The Knicks got within 99-98 on Brunson’s fallaway jumper with 1:41 remaining, but Tatum sank a turnaround over Hart after a timeout, and Towns was whistled for an illegal screen on the next possession. Tatum then hit a long corner fallaway, again over Hart, to extend the lead to 103-98.

Anunoby answered with two free throws, but Tatum hit a three-pointer on the next possession. McBride sank a three-pointer before Payton Pritchard iced the win by splitting a pair of free throws with 11 seconds left.

Lakers ride 39-point third quarter to surge past Clippers

Austin Reaves scored 28 points and added nine assists while Luka Doncic recorded 23 points as the Los Angeles Lakers used a third-quarter surge to stay perfect through two games with a 125-117 victory over the visiting Los Angeles Clippers.

Walker Kessler scored 22 points, Ziaire Williams contributed 14 and Matisse Thybulle and Quentin Grimes each had 13 as the Lakers won for the ninth time in their past 13 games against the cross-town Clippers.

Kessler hit 10 of 14 shots from the floor and is now 22 of 26 over two games with his new team after a trade from the Utah Jazz in July. The Lakers had 13 steals and forced the Clippers into 26 turnovers, which they turned into 33 points.

Doncic committed 11 turnovers while Kessler and Grimes led all rebounders with eight apiece.

Darius Garland scored 26 points, and Brook Lopez added 22 as the Clippers dropped their first road game of the season. Derrick Jones Jr and Rui Hachimura each scored 16 points.

The Clippers shot 49.4 percent from the floor and 43.2 percent from three-point range but lost as the Lakers shot 58.2 percent from the floor and 43.8 percent from distance.

The Lakers led 77-76 with 7:18 remaining in the third quarter when a three-pointer from Thybulle kicked off a 14-1 run that gave them a 91-77 lead with 3:43 remaining in the period.

The Lakers took a 103-90 lead into the fourth quarter after scoring 39 points in the third while shooting 72.7 percent from the floor.

The Clippers used an 8-0 run to pull within 119-113 on a three-pointer from Garland with 3:21 to play before Grimes sealed the victory on two free throws with 40.9 seconds remaining for a 125-117 lead.

The Clippers led 31-27 after one quarter and went up by as many as 11 points less than three minutes into the second before the Lakers closed the gap. A three-point play by Doncic with 5.6 seconds remaining tied the game 64-64 at the half.

Doncic led all scorers with 16 points before the break.