DENVER (AP) — Kevin Durant scored 31 points, Reed Sheppard scored the final 11 points of the third quarter to blow open a close game, and the Houston Rockets rolled past the Denver Nuggets 115-101 on Saturday.
Sheppard was 6 for 9 from long range and scored 28 points. His last bucket came on a steal and a slam after the Nuggets reserves had trimmed a 21-point deficit to 107-97 in the closing minutes.
The Rockets avenged a loss earlier in the week at Denver and snapped the Nuggets’ six-game winning streak. Durant was 5 for 6 from 3-point range and Jabari Smith was 5 for 11 from long range for 22 points.
The Rockets shot 19 of 35 from long range (54%) to Denver’s 8 of 29 (27%).
Nikola Jokic led Denver with 25 points and Jamal Murray scored 16.
76ERS 121, MAVERICKS 114
PHILADELPHIA (AP) — Tyrese Maxey scored 38 points, including seven during a key fourth-quarter stretch, and VJ Edgecombe added 26 as Philadelphia defeated.
Dominick Barlow added 21 points for Philadelphia, which played without Joel Embiid (illness/right knee injury management) and Paul George (left knee injury management). Embiid missed his second consecutive game and 16th of the season.
The 76ers have won six of eight.
Cooper Flagg and Anthony Davis each scored 24 points for Dallas.
CELTICS 112, RAPTORS 69
TORONTO (AP) — Payton Pritchard scored 19 of his 33 points in the third quarter, Derrick White and Anfernee Simons each had 15, and short-handed Boston beat Toronto.
Neemias Queta scored 14 points, Luka Garza had 12 and Hugo Gonzalez added 10 as the Celtics won their third straight meeting with Toronto.
Boston’s Jaylen Brown, who scored 30 points in Friday’s home win over the Miami Heat, sat out…