The Albany Gazette - Pacers halt Cavaliers' NBA winning streak, Celtics edge Pelicans

Andrew Nembhard scored 19 points, Pascal Siakam added 18 and Myles Turner had 15 points and 10 rebounds for the Pacers, who weathered the half-time departure of star guard Tyrese Haliburton with a tight left hamstring.

Indiana handed the Cavaliers just their second home defeat of the season, notching their own sixth straight victory by a double-digit margin.

"It's nothing to lose," Nembhard said of the Pacers' second-half push. "This is the best team in the league right now. We just had to play hard, play together, put some more physicality in the game on the defensive side and play off that."

Darius Garland scored 20 points and handed out seven assists to lead the Cavaliers, who led 53-40 at half-time and pushed the advantage to 60-45 early in the third quarter.

Pacers forward Bennedict Mathurin and reserve Obi Toppin scored 10 points apiece in the third as Indiana outscored Cleveland 37-18 to turn the tide.

Toppin's 12 points total were part of a strong performance from the Indiana bench, which outscored the Cleveland reserves 42-24.

In Boston, Jayson Tatum scored 38 points and pulled down 11 rebounds to fuel the reigning champion Celtics in a 120-119 victory over the New Orleans Pelicans.

The Pels, buoyed by the return of Zion Williamson from a one-game team suspension for violating team policy, led by as many as 11 points in the first quarter.

Trey Murphy III scored 30 points and Williamson added 16, but the Celtics eked out the victory despite connecting on just 43.6 percent of their shots from the field and just 13 of 44 from three-point range.

Oklahoma City star Shai Gilgeous-Alexander also endured a tough shooting night, making just five of 17 shots from the floor but drilling 16 of his 17 free-throw attempts to score 27 in the Thunder's lopsided 136-95 victory over the Washington Wizards.

Aaron Wiggins added 23 points off the bench for Oklahoma City, which had seven players score in double figures.

- Nuggets battle back -

The Denver Nuggets, fired by standout performances from Russell Westbrook and Nikola Jokic, rallied from a 19-point third-quarter deficit to beat the Mavericks 112-101 in Dallas.

Westbrook scored 21 points with 10 rebounds and seven assists, reigning NBA Most Valuable Player Jokic scored 19 points with 18 rebounds and nine assists and the Nuggets outscored the Mavs 33-12 in the fourth quarter to seize the victory in Texas.

The Nuggets put together two impressive comeback runs, erasing a seven-point deficit to take a one-point lead early in the third quarter only for the Mavericks to race away again.

Denver took the lead for good on Westbrook's running layup for a 97-96 lead with 5:21 to play. Jokic drove for a basket and Westbrook added another layup and the Nuggets pulled away.

Klay Thompson scored 25 points to lead the Mavericks, who were again without star guards Luka Doncic and Kyrie Irving.

"I believe we lead the league in double-figure comebacks, and that's a catch-22 because I don't like the fact that we've been down that many times double figures," Nuggets coach Michael Malone said.

"What I love about this group is how resilient they are. We get down, we stay the course, there is no panic ... we stay the course and try to find a way."

In New York, Jalen Brunson scored 44 points and Karl-Anthony Towns added 30 points and 18 rebounds to lead the Knicks in a 140-106 rout of the Milwaukee Bucks.

Brunson set a tone with 23 points in the first quarter and shook off a hard fall early in the third as the Knicks rebounded from a lopsided loss to the Oklahoma City Thunder on Friday.

Giannis Antetokounmpo scored 24 points and Damian Lillard added 22 for the Bucks, whose three-game winning streak ended.

(T.Wright--TAG)