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Pacers beat Wizards for 6th straight home win

Good enough to beat the Wizards, not good enough to satisfy Paul George.

George had 29 points and 14 rebounds, leading the Indiana Pacers to an 89-81 victory over Washington on Wednesday night.

”I’m glad we got this win but we’ve got to look past this,” George said. ”We didn’t do a good enough job executing.

”Luckily we made enough shots to win, but we didn’t do a good job at all of executing. We let them pressure us and get us out of stuff; we play tough teams and that’s not going to fly.”

The Wizards (4-26) came into the game with the NBA’s worst record, and had lost eight straight against the Central Division-leading Pacers (19-13)…

Roy Hibbert added 13 points for the Pacers, who won their sixth straight home game. Ian Mahinmi added nine points and 11 rebounds.

Jordan Crawford scored 20 points to lead Washington, which fell to 1-14 on the road this season. Kevin Seraphin scored 16, Nene added 15 points and Bradley Beal scored 14 for the Wizards, who never led in losing for the third straight game.

— Reported by Andy Proffet of the Associated Press

Suns beat 76ers to end six-game skid

Luis Scola and the Phoenix Suns have watched a lot of late leads vanish. On Wednesday, they found a way to hold on.

Scola scored 19 of his 21 points in the second half and the Suns beat the Philadelphia 76ers 95-89 to snap a six-game losing streak.

”It’s only one win but we needed one win,” Scola said…

Dragic added 20, Shannon Brown scored 12, and Marcin Gortat had 11 points and 14 rebounds for the Suns…

Holliday had 16 points, 10 rebounds and 10 assists for his second career triple-double for the 76ers, who are 2-7 in the second half of back-to-back games. Wright and Thaddeus Young had 14 points apiece for Philadelphia…

Scola has scored 20 or more in three straight games. … Phoenix has won five of its past seven at home. . The Sixers are six games into a season-high, eight-game holiday road trip.

— Reported by Jonathan Dalton of the Associated Press

Spurs beat Bucks for seventh straight victory

After a 69-point outburst in the first half, it would have been easy for the San Antonio Spurs to believe they were going to capture their seventh consecutive win with little resistance.

Instead, the Spurs had to withstand a pair of second half rallies from the Milwaukee Bucks to hang on for a 117-110 victory Wednesday night.

”We knew they were going to make a run at some point,” said San Antonio forward Tim Duncan, who had 28 points, 13 rebounds and six assists. ”They made a run there at the end. They are very good in this building and we knew that. They’ve come back on a lot of people here.” …

”We were in a good groove but in the second half (Milwaukee) played hard,” said Tony Parker, who added 23 points and 11 assists for the Spurs, who shot 52 percent from the field for the game. ”They played with a lot of energy and came back on us. They played very physical.”

Brandon Jennings paced Milwaukee with 31 points. Henson scored a career-high 20 points and added nine rebounds. Mike Dunleavy had 19 points…

Spurs guard Gary Neal returned to the lineup Wednesday after missing four consecutive games with a strained right calf. ”He’s a dangerous player. I’m really happy for him because he finally has an NBA career,” San Antonio coach Gregg Popovich said of Neal, who played four seasons overseas before joining the Spurs in 2010.

— Reported by Rich Rovito of the Associated Press

Mike Conley, Grizzlies hold off Celtics

Tony Allen scored a season-high 15 points to help his current team beat his old one. Then he went down the sideline trading fist-bumps and hugs with his former teammates and coaches.

Mike Conley had 23 points and nine assists, and Allen had nine points and four of his five rebounds in the second half on Wednesday night to lead the Memphis Grizzlies to a 93-83 victory over the Boston Celtics. It was the fourth consecutive loss for Boston, which won its 17th NBA title with Allen in 2008…

Rudy Gay scored 19 points for Memphis, which shot 61 percent from the floor – and 62.5 percent from 3-point range – in the first half. The Grizzlies led by 18 early in the fourth quarter, then made 8 of 11 free throws down the stretch after the Celtics made it a five-point game…

Paul Pierce scored 17 for Boston, but he had just one basket in the third quarter and none in the fourth while missing seven of his last eight shots.

Rajon Rondo had 11 points and 10 assists for the Celtics, who trailed by 79-61 after the opening basket of the fourth quarter but closed the gap to 83-78 with under 5 minutes to play on back-to-back 3-pointers from Jason Terry. Boston began fouling and the Grizzlies made their shots.

— Reported by Jimmy Golen of the Associated Press

Carlos Boozer scores 31, Bulls beat Magic

The Chicago Bulls haven’t felt like themselves for much of the past few weeks.

They’re hoping a much-needed win is the first step in finding their way back.

Carlos Boozer had a season-high 31 points and 11 rebounds, Luol Deng scored 23 points and the Bulls hung on to beat the Orlando Magic 96-94 on Wednesday night.

Taj Gibson added 21 points and 10 rebounds for the Bulls, who played without center Joakim Noah. Chicago was outrebounded 37-34 in Noah’s absence but exploited an injury-plagued Magic front court, outscoring them 42-32 in the paint.

Jameer Nelson missed a leaning jumper in the closing seconds that would have tied it, sending Orlando to its seventh straight loss overall and fifth in a row at home…

Nelson returned to the lineup after missing two games with a sore hip and scored a season-high 32 points. Nik Vucevic finished with 20 points and 12 rebounds, and Arron Afflalo added 19 points for the Magic.

— Reported by Kyle Hightower of the Associated Press

Terrence Ross scores 26, hot Raptors beat Trail Blazers

The last time they played Portland, the Toronto Raptors were at their worst. On Wednesday night, they showed just how much they’ve turned things around.

Terrence Ross scored a career-high 26 points, DeMar DeRozan had 24 and the Raptors snapped an eight-game losing streak against Portland by beating the Trail Blazers 102-79.

”This team beat us by a lot last time,” Ross said. ”We had to get our revenge.”

Ross and the Raptors were bent on reversing what happened in their most recent meeting with the Blazers: an 18-point loss at Portland on Dec. 10, the final game in an 0-5 road trip in which starters Kyle Lowry and Andrea Bargnani left injured, Amir Johnson was ejected for throwing his mouthguard at a referee and the Blazers won despite setting an NBA record for shooting futility, missing all 20 of their 3-point attempts.

”They hit bottom when they came to Portland,” Blazers coach Terry Stotts said before the rematch.

Things sure have changed. This was Toronto’s eighth win in nine games, a surge that has wiped out talk of coaching changes and locker room discord…

Ed Davis had 19 points and Amir Johnson 17 in Toronto’s first victory over the Trail Blazers since a 116-109 double-overtime win on Jan. 13, 2008.

Ross had a career-best six 3-pointers as the Raptors opened their season-high six-game homestand in style, never trailing and leading by as many as 25.

— Reported by Ian Harrison of the Associated Press

NBA fines Charlie Villanueva $25,000 for flagrant foul on Isaiah Thomas

Detroit Pistons forward Charlie Villanueva has been fined $25,000 for his Flagrant Foul Two on Sacramento Kings guard Isaiah Thomas, it was announced today by Stu Jackson, Executive Vice President, Basketball Operations.

The incident occurred with four seconds remaining in the second quarter of the Pistons’ 103-97 win over the Kings at The Palace of Auburn Hills on Jan. 1.

Anderson Varejao remains out with knee injury

Cavaliers center Anderson Varejao is out for Cleveland’s game against Sacramento because of a bruised right knee.

Varejao, the NBA’s leading rebounder, will miss his seventh straight game. He hasn’t played since Dec. 18 when he injured the knee against Toronto.

Varejao returned to practice in a limited role Monday, but hasn’t gone through contact drills.

— Reported by the Associated Press

Larry Drew, Vinny Del Negro named NBA Coaches of Month for December

Atlanta Hawks coach Larry Drew and Los Angeles Clippers coach Vinny Del Negro today were named the NBA Eastern and Western Conference Coaches of the Month, respectively, for games played in December.

Drew led the Hawks to a 10-5 (.667) month, including a 4-3 record on the road. Atlanta notched victories over the Denver Nuggets, Memphis Grizzlies and Chicago Bulls during December, a month in which the Hawks shot .456 from the field as a team and .384 from three-point range. For the first time in team history, the Hawks connected on 10-or-more three-pointers in four consecutive games (Dec. 22-29).

Del Negro led the Clippers to a perfect 16-0 record in December, including wins over the Boston Celtics and three wins over the Utah Jazz. The Clippers’ franchise-best 17-game winning streak, which included the sixteen December wins, ended with their first game in January. The streak stands as the longest in the NBA since the 2008 season when Boston won 19 consecutive games.

Other nominees for Coach of the Month were Golden State’s Mark Jackson, Indiana’s Frank Vogel, Miami’s Erik Spoelstra, New York’s Mike Woodson, Oklahoma City’s Scott Brooks and Portland’s Terry Stotts.

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Patience wearing thin around the Lakers

Dwight Howard sat sullenly in front of his locker Tuesday night and tried to explain what is wrong with the Lakers. Like how can they one night can beat a team by 17 points and the next fall to the Philadelphia 76ers, 103-99?

“The games we’ve won, blowing teams out, we’ve played a certain way,” Howard said. “The games we’ve lost, we’ve played a different way, so we need to find a balance.”

Finding that equilibrium, however has been difficult for the Lakers this season. They’re up, they’re down. They’re winning, they’re losing. Mostly, however, they seem to be stuck in neutral and the frustration is mounting.

“It is frustrating,” Steve Nash said. “Obviously we haven’t been able to find that understanding. We’ve had it in moments, but overall we’re still looking for our chemistry.”

Both Howard and Nash said the team — and Lakers fans — needs to be patient.

— Reported by Janis Carr of the Orange County Register