NBA

Wizards and Raptors reached the first victory of the season, Detroit Pistons beat Utah Jazz 92-87

Washington Wizards and Toronto Raptors won their NBA season opener. Detroit Pistons improve to 2-0 on season.

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Orlando Magic 87-88 Washington Wizards

Orlando built an eight-point lead early on the fourth quarter, before a 12-0 spurt by the Wizards erased it. A 3-pointer by rookie Mario Hezonja and dunk by Tobias Harris capped a 9-0 Magic response to put them back on top 87-82 with less than two minutes to play. The Magic had a chance to win in the closing seconds, but Vucevic’s jumper bounced off the rim as time expired.

Bradley Beal led the Wizards with 24 points and 6 rebounds, followed by Wall with 22 points, 7 rebounds, 6 assists and five blocks. Humphries added 11 points, and Gortat 10 for Wizards.

“We have a new system. For the first game it was really good but we still have a lot of things we need to work on. But we’re 1-0. We just want to continue to stay the course,” Beal said.

Victor Oladipo led the Magic with 17 points and 11 rebounds. Harris added 15 points.

The fifth overall pick in the draft Mario Hezonja added 11, 3 of 5 from the 3 point line. He made only one preseason start, but showed the scoring versatility he was known for in Europe.

“The thing we’re trying to weigh with him is we want him to feel comfortable. I don’t want to call it jitters because he’s really confident. There’s just a little uncertainly out there. (Starting) is certainly something we’re going to continue to look at, for sure,” Magic coach Scott Skiles said about Hezonja.

Detroit Pistons 92-87 Utah Jazz

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The Detroit Pistons are two games over .500 for the first time in more than six years. Pistons was up 16-15 after the first quarter and trailed 44-41 at the half buth they scored the first six points of the third and seven consecutive points late in the fourth quarter and took an 87-86 lead on Gordon Hayward’s driving bank shot with 23 seconds to play. After a timeout, Detroit’s Reggie Jackson got to the basket quickly for a layup with 17 seconds left to put Detroit ahead. Alec Burks missed a jumper for Utah, and Kentavious Caldwell-Pope made two free throws to put the Pistons ahead by three.

Drummond had 18 points and 10 rebounds, going 8 of 11 from the line. He shot 39 percent on free throws last season.

“He made six in the first half, then he shot three that didn’t look good at all, and then he comes back and hits two big ones,” coach Stan Van Gundy said. “Great for him to be 8 for 11. We’re seeing that in practice. It’s nice to see him bring it into the game.”

Jackson had 19 points and 4 assist. Caldwell-Pope added 16 and Marcus Morris 14 for the Pistons.

Derrick Favors led Utah with 26 points.  Alec Burks finished with 18, and Hood added 12 with 6 assists.

“We had our shots, we had some good looks on offense and Reggie Jackson made a heck of a play. We got a couple big stops to get right there and couldn’t get one at the end,” Jazz coach Quin Snyder said.

Toronto Raptors 106-99 Indiana Pacers

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Indiana battled back to take a 95-93 lead with 2:18 left. Monta Ellis scored six straight points for the Pacers, including a pair of free throws, George added a jumper off an inbounds pass and Ian Mahinmi added a key layup. Valanciunas and DeRozan put the Raptors up 98-95 with 1:29 remaining. George was fouled as he banked in a jumper at the other end, but missed the free throw. After a Toronto timeout, DeRozan give the Raptors a three-point edge with 50 seconds left. Toronto closed it out by making six of eight at the line.

DeRozan scored 25 points, and had 6 assists and 5 rebounds. Jonas Valanciunas had 21 points and 15 rebounds for Toronto, and Kyle Lowry scored 23 points and added 6 assist. In his Raptors debut, DeMarre Carroll had 14 points, 8 rebounds and 4 assists.

George, who missed all but six games last season after breaking his right leg while playing in a scrimmage with Team USA before last year’s World Cup, finished with 17 points (4 for 17 from the field), 12 rebounds and eight assists. “I was very comfortable, felt great. It’s the best I’ve felt all preseason to now,” George said.

“He was good at finding people. Sometimes you’re going to have a tough shooting night and you’ve got to impact the game in other ways. I thought he did that,” Vogel said.

George Hill added 19 points for the Pacers, Miles 18 and Stuckey 16.

Toronto has won its last five games against Indiana.