BASKETBALL
Wembanyama helps Spurs rout Pacers in Paris
San Antonio Spurs star centre Victor Wembanyama felt right at home playing his first NBA game in his native France.
Wembanyama had 30 points, 11 rebounds, six assists and five blocked shots in helping lead the Spurs to a 140-110 win over the Indiana Pacers in Paris on Thursday.
In one of the Spurs' best all-around performances in years, San Antonio (20-22) pulled away with a 22-point advantage in the third quarter after leading 60-57 at half-time.
The Spurs shot 60.4 per cent from the floor – their highest in a game since December 23, 2019 – with Harrison Barnes making 9 of his 10 shots for 20 points.
San Antonio also drained half of its 36 shots from 3-point range and had a 57-31 edge in rebounding in winning for only the second time in its last eight games.
Bennedict Mathurin led the Pacers (24-20) with 24 points on 11-of-14 shooting, while Pascal Siakam added 18.
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Jokic has rare triple-double to lead Nuggets over Kings
Nikola Jokic had 35 points, 22 rebounds and a season-high 17 assists to help the Denver Nuggets beat the Sacramento Kings 132-123.
Since the NBA-ABA merger, no single player had reached all three of those single-game stats over the course of a season, and Jokic did it in one game.
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It was the fifth consecutive triple-double for Jokic, who leads the NBA with 20 - 11 more than the next name on the list (LeBron James). Jokic was voted an All-Star earlier in the day as the top vote-getter from the Western Conference.
Christian Braun scored 21 points and Michael Porter Jr. added 20 for the Nuggets (28-16), who have won four in a row and eight of nine.
Domantas Sabonis paced the Kings with 23 points and 17 rebounds, and is now averaging 26 points and 18.3 boards in his last three games.
The loss was just the third in 13 games for Sacramento (23-21) since Doug Christie took over as interim coach.
Balanced Lakers cruise past Celtics
A matchup between historic rivals was a mismatch, as the Los Angeles Lakers rolled to a 117-96 win over the Boston Celtics.
Anthony Davis led the Lakers with 24, while Austin Reaves scored 23 and LeBron James added 20 points and 14 rebounds after being selected an All-Star starter for a record 21st consecutive season.
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Los Angeles (24-18) led by as many as 28 points in winning for the fourth time in five games to move a season high-tying six games over .500.
The Celtics (31-14), meanwhile, were held to their second-lowest point total of the season, one night after outlasting the Los Angeles Clippers 117-113 in overtime.
Kristaps Porzingis led Boston with 22 points, while Jaylen Brown scored 17.
Jayson Tatum, who was also voted an All-Star Game starter, had 16 points - 11 points less than his season average.