Hawks bring down Rockets

LOS ANGELES — The Atlanta Hawks rallied from a 19-point deficit to snap Houston’s home win streak, and LeBron James received an early birthday gift as the Cleveland Cavaliers defeated Denver Tuesday night. Al Horford and Paul Millsap posted double-doubles and the Hawks rallied to win a Texas-style shootout over the Rockets by a score of 121-115 at Toyota Center in Houston. Horford finished with 30 points and 14 rebounds while Millsap tallied 22 points and 14 rebounds for the Hawks, who have now won their last four meetings with the Rockets. Millsap also had a block of Rockets centre Dwight Howard with 11 seconds left on the clock and Atlanta clinging to a 117-115 lead. Hawks forward Kent Bazemore added 26 points on five of nine three-point shooting, while guard Jeff Teague finished with 22 points with eight assists in their final game of 2015. Atlanta overcame another miserable shooting effort from slumping guard Kyle Korver, who missed all 11 of his field-goal attempts. That included a record of zero-for-10 on three-pointers. Houston led 47-28 early in the second quarter, 71-56 at the half and 98-88 with 10:32 remaining but scored just one field goal following a Howard dunk with just over eight minutes remaining. Howard matched Horford with 30 points and added 16 rebounds, while Rockets guard James Harden scored 26 points, grabbed 10 boards and dished out eight assists. Cavaliers 93, Nuggets 87: LeBron James scored 34 points and Iman Shumpert had a season-high 16 as Cleveland beat Denver 93-87. 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. 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. 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. 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.