HOUSTON (AP) - Damian Lillard had 21 points and 10 assists to lead a balanced scoring attack and the Portland Trail Blazers built a big lead early and rolled to an easy 96-79 win over the Houston Rockets on Saturday.
The Trail Blazers were up by 19 at halftime and scored the first six points of the third quarter to make it 61-36 with about 10 minutes left in the quarter.
James Harden made four quick points after that before the Trail Blazers used a 13-2 run - with 3s from Lillard, C.J. McCollum and Al-Farouq Aminu - to push the lead to 74-42.
The Rockets scored the last 11 points of the quarter, with the first nine from Harden, to cut the lead to 74-53 entering the fourth. But Portland opened the fourth with an 8-2 spurt.
Harden led the Rockets with 33 points.
PACERS 112, PISTONS 104
INDIANAPOLIS (AP) - Paul George scored 30 points to help the Pacers hold on for a win over the Pistons.
Indiana (27-24) nearly squandered a 20-point third quarter lead, but held on thanks to five missed free throws from Andre Drummond in the game's final 3:30. Leading 104-100 with just more than a minute to play, Monta Ellis and George Hill hit the two shots Indiana needed to seal the win.
Reggie Jackson led Detroit (27-25) with 26 points. Anthony Tolliver scored a season-high 17 points. Drummond finished with 10 points and 13 rebounds for his 43rd double-double through 52 games.
George Hill scored 17 points and Myles Turner added 16 for the Pacers.
HORNETS 108, WIZARDS 104
CHARLOTTE, N.C. (AP) - Nicolas Batum had 26 points and 11 rebounds, and the Hornets rallied in the second half to beat the Wizards.
Kemba Walker added 23 points, Marvin Williams also had a double-double with 13 points and 10 rebounds, and Spencer Hawes scored 14 points for the Hornets, who trailed by as many as 19 points in the second quarter.
John Wall scored 23 points, Bradley Beal had 22 and Otto Porter Jr. 20 for the Wizards, who led 58-48 at the half and were up by 12 points early in the third quarter.
Washington led 64-52 with 8:44 left in the quarter, but Charlotte went on to outscore the Wizards 26-11 over the rest of the period for a 78-75 lead. The Wizards rallied in the fourth quarter, swapping the lead four times with the Hornets before Walker's layup with 2:13 remaining put the Hornets ahead to stay.
CAVALIERS 99, PELICANS 94
CLEVELAND (AP) - Kyrie Irving scored 29 points, LeBron James added 27 and the Cavaliers bounced back from two straight losses with a win over the Pelicans.
Irving and James combined for 17 points in the fourth quarter as Cleveland improved to 6-3 since Tyronn Lue replaced David Blatt as head coach on Jan. 22.
Kevin Love was out with a bruised left thigh, but the Cavaliers went ahead early in the game and never gave up the lead despite a strong rally by New Orleans in the second half.
Norris Cole scored a career-high 26 points while Anthony Davis scored 24 points with 11 rebounds for New Orleans, which has lost four straight.
Cleveland nearly blew a 15-point lead for the second straight night. The Cavaliers were ahead 54-39 late in the second quarter, but the Pelicans cut the lead to four on several occasions in the second half.
76ERS 103, NETS 98
PHILADELPHIA (AP) - Jahlil Okafor had 22 points and 17 rebounds and Nerlens Noel added 18 points, including a key dunk late in the fourth quarter, to lead the 76ers to a victory over the Nets.
Rookie T.J. McConnell, filling in for injured point guard Ish Smith, tied his career-high with 17 points to go with six assists for the 76ers, who earned their eighth win of the season while snapping a four-game losing streak.
Thaddeus Young scored all 22 of his points after halftime for Brooklyn, which was trying to win consecutive games for the first time since Dec. 10. Young added 10 rebounds and Brook Lopez had 17 points for the Nets. Markel Brown, who entered averaging just 2.5 per game, was perfect from the field while setting a season-high with 15 points for the Nets. Brown made all five of his shots, including three 3-pointers.
TIMBERWOLVES 112, BULLS 105
MINNEAPOLIS (AP) - Andrew Wiggins scored six of his 21 points in the final 90 seconds to help the Timberwolves surge past the Bulls.
Trailing by five with 2:30 to play, the Wolves closed the game with a 12-0 surge to win it. Wiggins scored the final six of the run, including a pullup jumper with 20 seconds to go that gave them a five-point lead. Karl-Anthony Towns had 26 points and 17 rebounds and Gorgui Dieng added a career-high 24 points, 13 rebounds and seven assists for the Wolves, who have won two in a row.
Pau Gasol had 25 points and eight rebounds and Derrick Rose had 18 points, 10 assists and five rebounds for the Bulls in their first game without All-Star guard Jimmy Butler, how strained his left knee on Friday night against Denver.
There is no timetable for Butler's return, but the team was encouraged when an MRI showed no structural damage to his knee.