Cleveland Cavaliers forward LeBron James (left) tries to dribble past James Johnson of the Toronto Raptors in their NBA game at the Air Canada Centre in Toronto on Friday. The Raptors won 99-97. — AP
Cleveland Cavaliers forward LeBron James (left) tries to dribble past James Johnson of the Toronto Raptors in their NBA game at the Air Canada Centre in Toronto on Friday. The Raptors won 99-97. — AP
Kyle Lowry scored a career-high 43 points to help the Toronto Raptors beat the Eastern Conference-leading Cleveland Cavaliers 99-97 on Friday.
Terrence Ross added 15 points for Toronto, which won its 10th straight at home to tie a franchise record previously set between March 24 and November 4, 2002. Raptors leading scorer DeMar DeRozan had a season-low six points while battling flu-like symptoms.
LeBron James had 25 points and Kevin Love added 20 for the Cavaliers, who had their lead over Atlantic Division-leading Toronto in the East cut to two games.
Lowry tied the score at 97 with a hook shot with 51.9 seconds remaining. After J.R. Smith’s miss gave the Raptors the ball with 28.9 seconds left, Lowry made a pull-up jumper with 3.8 seconds left to put Toronto back in front.
Following a Cleveland timeout, James unleashed what would have been a game-winning 3-pointer, but it missed the rim completely as time expired.
With the win, the Raptors clinched the season series 2-1.
Jeff Teague scored 19 points, Al Horford added 18 and Atlanta Hawks snapped a three-game losing streak with a 103-88 victory over short-handed Chicago Bulls.
Paul Millsap had 12 points and 13 rebounds for the Hawks, who ended a four-game home skid — their longest since April 2007. Atlanta moved into fifth place in the East.
Chicago, which had won three straight, played without its top three scorers because Jimmy Butler, Derrick Rose and Nikola Mirotic were nursing injuries. A sore right hamstring sidelined Rose for the second straight game. Doug McDermott finished with 20 points and Paul Gasol had 16 points and 17 rebounds for the Bulls.
Kemba Walker scored 22 points and hit the game-winning shot with 2.4 seconds left to lift Charlotte Hornets over Indiana Pacers 96-95.
Monta Ellis gave Indiana the lead with a layup over Walker with 16.2 seconds to go. Walker then split two defenders above the 3-point line to get to the rim and sank a left-handed scoop shot over Paul George.
The Pacers had a chance at the buzzer, but George’s shot from the top of the key missed. George finished with 32 points.
Marvin Williams had 26 points and 13 rebounds for the Hornets, tied with Chicago for seventh place in the Eastern Conference, 1 1/2 games ahead of Detroit. Charlotte won for the second time this month at Indiana after dropping 12 straight on the Pacers’ home court.
Chris Paul scored a season-high 40 points and added 13 assists with eight rebounds to propel Los Angeles Clippers past Sacramento 117-110.
Sparked by the scoring of Paul, the Clippers ran off 20 consecutive points in the third quarter.
