The China Mail - Hornets sting NBA Warriors in overtime, Kings grab first win

Gordon Hayward scored 23 points for Charlotte and Kelly Oubre added 18 as the Hornets once again spoiled Warriors star Stephen Curry's trip to Charlotte, where he played high school basketball and his father, Dell Curry, starred for the Hornets.

The Warriors haven't won in Charlotte since February of 2019, and the Hornets kept that streak alive despite the absence of injured LaMelo Ball and Terry Rozier.

Curry led the Warriors with 31 points and 11 rebounds. He missed a contested three-pointer at the end of regulation that would have given Golden State the win. He also tossed up an airball from three-point range in overtime as he finished the night just 3-of-13 from beyond the arc.

The Warriors, trailing 62-50 at halftime, battled back to seize a four-point lead on Andrew Wiggins' dunk with 62 seconds left in the fourth quarter, but baskets from Washington and Dennis Smith tied it at 107-107 with 23.1 seconds remaining.

Curry had the ball as the clock ticked down, but could barely get the shot up in the face of swarming defense by Smith.

In overtime, Jalen McDaniels turned the tide for the Hornets with a three-pointer that put them up 114-111 with 2:01 remaining. Smith followed with a driving layup as the Hornets pulled away.

- Pacers stun Nets -

In Brooklyn, the Nets' early-season struggles continued with a 125-116 loss to the Indiana Pacers.

The Nets, featuring the superstar duo of Kevin Durant and Kyrie Irving, have lost four in a row to fall to 1-5 in the young season.

Rookie Bennedict Mathurin scored a career-high 32 points for the Pacers, including a career-best six three-pointers.

Overall, the Pacers poured in 23 three-pointers, tying the record for most three-pointers made against the Nets in a game.

The Pacers also out-rebounded the Nets 53-34.

Irving scored 35 points and Durant added 26. But the Nets heard boos from frustrated Brooklyn fans as another game slipped away.

The Milwaukee Bucks, meanwhile, improved to 5-0 with a 123-115 victory over the Atlanta Hawks.

Giannis Antetokounmpo scored 30 of his 34 points in the second half and Jrue Holiday poured in another 34 for the Bucks, who battled back after slipping behind by one in the fourth quarter of a game in which they led by as many as 12.

Antetokounmpo also pulled down 17 rebounds and Holiday handed out 12 assists as the Bucks withstood a 42-point performance from Atlanta's Trae Young.

In Sacramento, Kevin Huerter drained seven three-pointers on the way to 27 points to help the Kings post their first victory of the young season, 119-113 over the Miami Heat.

The victory left the LeBron James-led Los Angeles Lakers as the last remaining winless team in the league, and gave Mike Brown, hired to coach the Kings in the off-season, his first victory at the helm.

The Kings led wire-to-wire, pushing the advantage to as many as 22 points.

Miami sliced the deficit to one point midway through the fourth quarter, and the Kings were up by just four when Huerter was fouled with 14.2 seconds remaining, Huerter calmly sinking both free throws to effectively clinch the win.

Kings rookie Keegan Murray scored a career-best 22 points while De'Aaron Fox finished with 17 points and a career-high 13 rebounds.

Tyler Herro led Miami with 34 points. Bam Adebayo added 23 and Kyle Lowry 15. Jimmy Butler's 13 points were his lowest total of the season.

"I think that we played well," Murray said, adding that despite their slow start to the season the Kings believed in themselves.

"It's what we expect -- we expect to win games," he said.

Z.Huang--ThChM