Pacers roll past Memphis 95-79 to stay unbeaten
Indiana Pacers forward Luis Scola, right, and Memphis Grizzlies guard Jamaal Franklin go to the floor for a loose ball in the second half of an NBA basketball game in Indianapolis, Monday, Nov. 11, 2013. The Pacers defeated the Grizzlies 95-79. AP/Michael Conroy
INDIANAPOLIS — The Indiana Pacers remained the NBA’s only unbeaten team this season after Paul George scored 23 points and Lance Stephenson had the first triple-double of his career in a 95-79 victory over the Memphis Grizzlies on Monday.
Indiana became the NBA’s seventh team to open the season with eight wins and no losses since 2000 — two more wins than the club’s previous best start. And they followed a familiar script in the battle between last season’s conference runner-ups by dominating the glass, dominating the second half and divvying up top honors.
Stephenson finished with 13 points, 11 rebounds and a career-high 12 assists. George Hill scored 13 points and Roy Hibbert added five more blocks to his NBA-leading total.
Memphis was led by Marc Gasol with 15 points and Zach Randolph with 12.
San Antonio rolled to an easy 109-85 victory over the Philadelphia 76ers as Danny Green scored 18 points and Tony Parker had 14.
The defending Western Conference champions are off to a 7-1 start following consecutive wins in New York and Philadelphia.
Evan Turner scored 20 points and Spencer Hawes had 17 for the Sixers, who couldn’t give coach Brett Brown a better effort in his first game against his former team.
Atlanta’s Al Horford scored 24 points as the Hawks handed Charlotte Bobcats coach Steve Clifford a 103-94 loss in his first game back since undergoing a heart procedure.
Clifford missed Charlotte’s game last Friday night against the New York Knicks after having two stents placed in his heart.
Jeff Teague had 14 points and 12 assists, while Cartier Martin chipped in with 16 points.
Josh McRoberts led the Bobcats with 19 points and seven assists. Michael Kidd-Gilchrist had 16 points, but none in the second half. Al Jefferson had 10 points and seven rebounds in his first game back from an ankle injury.
At Boston, Avery Bradley scored 24 points as the Celtics beat the Orlando Magic for the second time in four days with a 120-105 win.
Kelly Olynyk, Jordan Crawford and Jeff Green each had 16 points for Boston, which has won four straight after opening the season with four losses under first-year coach Brad Stevens.
Arron Afflalo had 18 points and seven assists, Victor Oladipo scored 17 points and Nikola Vucevic had 15 points and 10 boards for Orlando, which dropped its 16th straight road game.
Blake Griffin had 25 points and 10 rebounds for the Clippers and Chris Paul added 21 points as Los Angeles Clippers held off the Minnesota Timberwolves 109-107 after Nikola Pekovic missed a tip-in at the buzzer.
Love missed first and Pekovic came up just short to end the Wolves’ two-game winning streak.
Paul had 11 assists, Jamal Crawford scored 18 points and DeAndre Jordan had 14 points and 11 rebounds to help the Clippers improve to 3-0 at home.
Kevin Martin scored 30 points Pekovic had 25 points, and Love had 23 points and 19 rebounds for the Wolves.
In other games, Chicago’s Derrick Rose had 16 points before leaving in the fourth quarter with an apparent injury as the Bulls beat the Cleveland Cavaliers 96-81, the Houston Rockets beat the Toronto Raptors 110-104 in overtime, the Portland Trail Blazers defeated the Detroit Pistons 109-103 and the Denver Nuggets downed the Utah Jazz 100-81.
