erican markets with two or more major pro teams to not have won a title.

JJ Redick scored 28 points and the surging Philadelphia 76ers set a franchise record with their 15th consecutive victory Kalen Ballage Color Rush Jersey , holding off the Atlanta Hawks 121-113 Tuesday night to move a step closer to locking up the No. 3 seed in the Eastern Conference.

The 76ers overcame a tough outing for rookie star Ben Simmons, who missed the morning shootaround after coming down with the stomach flu. He still managed to put up 14 points, 10 rebounds and six assists before fouling out with 7 seconds remaining.

His teammates helped pick up the slack. Redick hit 6 of 9 from beyond the 3-point arc, while former Atlanta players Ersan Ilyasova and Marco Belinelli burned their old team. Ilyasova scored 26 points, Belinelli added 20 and the duo combined for nine 3-pointers.

Philadelphia went 17 of 37 beyond the arc.

Taurean Prince led the Hawks with 27 points.

JAZZ 119, WARRIORS 79

SALT LAKE CITY (AP) – Donovan Mitchell scored 22 points and set an NBA rookie record for 3-pointers, Derrick Favors added 16 points and nine rebounds, and Utah cruised to a victory over Golden State.

Jonas Jerebko scored 14 points, and Rudy Gobert and Ricky Rubio added 13 points apiece for the Jazz. Utah (48-33) won its sixth straight game and went 3-1 in the season series with Golden State. The Jazz can claim the No. 3 seed in the Western Conference with a win over Portland on Wednesday night.

Even with a loss to the Blazers, Utah is assured of falling no lower than the No. 5 seed.

Klay Thompson scored 23 points and Kevin Durant added 13 for the Warriors, who finished the season at 58-24. Golden State, the No. 2 seed in the West, never led in the game and shot just 35 percent from the field.

WIZARDS 113, CELTICS 101

WASHINGTON (AP) – John Wall surpassed 5,000 career assists and Washington beat Boston despite Jaylen Brown’s 21 first-quarter points to remain in play for the No. 6 http://www.bengalsauthorizedshops.com/authentic-preston-brown-jersey , No. 7 or No. 8 seed in the Eastern Conference.

For now, the Wizards are eighth in the East, and potentially more worrisome is this: Starting small forward Otto Porter Jr. left at halftime with a right lower leg strain and did not return.

Wall finished with 29 points and 12 assists as Washington ended its four-game losing streak. The Wizards will wrap up the regular season at Orlando on Wednesday.

That result, along with how Miami fares against Toronto and what Milwaukee does at Philadelphia, will determine where the Wizards, Heat and Bucks all wind up in the standings ahead of the playoffs.

Brown wound up with 27 points.

ROCKETS 105, LAKERS 99

LOS ANGELES (AP) – Chris Paul scored 22 points, James Harden had 21 points and 10 assists, and Houston kept steamrolling toward the playoffs with its 31st victory in 34 games.

Gerald Green scored 16 points as Houston hung on late to avoid its first back-to-back losses since Jan. 6. But in the first half, the Rockets lost backup forward Luc Mbah a Moute to a dislocated right shoulder in a meaningless game.

Andre Ingram scored 19 points with four 3-pointers for the Lakers in the 32-year-old guard’s impressive NBA debut. Los Angeles promoted the 10-year G League veteran from its South Bay affiliate for the final two games of the regular season, and the developmental league’s career leader in 3-pointers hit a 3 on his first NBA shot.

Ingram’s fourth 3-pointer with 51 seconds left trimmed Houston’s lead to 102-99, but the Lakers couldn’t score again. Ingram finished 6 for 8 from the field and 4 for 5 on 3-pointers along with three rebounds, three blocked shots and a steal.

HORNETS 119, PACERS 93

INDIANAPOLIS (AP) – Dwight Howard finished with 14 points and 17 rebounds, and Frank Kaminsky tied his career high with 24 points to lead Charlotte past Indiana.

Charlotte ended the season with two wins in its last seven games.

The Pacers Mike Marjama Seattle Mariners Jersey , who are locked into the No. 5 seed in the Eastern Conference, lost for the second time in three games with three starters sitting out. Darren Collison, T.J. Leaf and Glenn Robinson III all scored 13 points for Indiana.

SUNS 124, MAVERICKS 97

DALLAS (AP) – Rookie Alec Peters scored a career-high 36 points and Phoenix beat Dallas in a reserve-filled finale for two teams headed to the lottery.

The Mavericks (24-58) entered the game tied for the third-worst record in the NBA and stayed that way while sitting eight players. That included star Dirk Nowitzki, whose 20th season ended last week when he had ankle surgery.

Atlanta finished with the same record after losing at home to Philadelphia 121-113. Orlando can join the Mavericks and Hawks with a loss at home to Washington on Wednesday.

Phoenix (21-61), which had already clinched the worst record and best lottery odds for the No. 1 pick in the draft in June, also didn’t dress eight players. The Suns won for the second time in 19 games to wrap up their third straight season with at least 58 losses.
The Buffalo Bills were so dull during their lean years, comedian Nick Bakay feared his body would fuse to the couch while watching them play.

”It’s an incredibly disturbing image,” Bakay said of wasting away Sundays witnessing his hometown team sleepwalk through one loss after another during a 17-season playoff drought that ended last year.

”I never missed a Bills game. But I was always slumped on my couch. I was never sitting forward. I was never jumping to my feet,” said Bakay, who wrote ”Paul Blart: Mall Cop” and its sequel, and produced and appeared on the TV sitcom ”King of Queens.” ”You sit on your couch, and your couch slowly eats you.”

No different for fans of Buffalo’s other pro sports franchise, the NHL’s Sabres, who finished last for the third time in five years and extended their franchise-worst playoff drought to a seventh season.

In a shot-and-a-beer town where the winters are interminably long Weston Richburg Color Rush Jersey , Buffalo sports fans ride things out on the notion of renewal always being just around the corner.

And there’s a new, palpable optimism for this hearty fan base, thanks to a three-day stretch which showed potential to alter the trajectory of both teams.

First, the Bills made a pair of splashes in the first round of the NFL draft on April 26 by trading up to select Wyoming quarterback Josh Allen and Virginia Tech linebacker Tremaine Edmunds.

Two days later, the Sabres won the NHL draft lottery – something Buffalo lost the previous two times it finished last – and the opportunity to select projected No. 1 pick, Swedish defenseman Rasmus Dahlin.

During the NFL draft, CBS Evening News anchor Jeff Glor got dirty looks from his wife during a rare dinner date sneaking peeks at the Bills’ picks. He then yelped with excitement upon learning the Sabres won the lottery while attending the White House Correspondents’ Association dinner in Washington.

”I had just resigned myself to never winning it,” Glor said. ”But listen, I always have hope.”

In Buffalo, there’s a fine line between affection and affliction for hope.

”I always try to keep it in check a little bit,” said Glor, who grew up in the Buffalo suburb of Tonawanda.

”Unfortunately, you get conditioned to where there are times you can be defeatist. And you try not to be. But you just don’t give up.”

Fans have little choice but to persevere in a place where nickname-worthy moments are tied to losses.

For the Bills, it’s ”Wide Right,” after kicker Scott Norwood missed a last-second field-goal attempt in a 20-19 loss to the New York Giants in the 1991 Super Bowl – the first of four consecutive Super Bowl losses.

For the Sabres http://www.ravensauthorizedshops.com/authentic-kenny-young-jersey , it’s ”No Goal,” following a 2-1, triple-overtime loss to Dallas in Game 6 of the 1999 Stanley Cup Final. Brett Hull’s Cup-clinching goal stood even though replays showed his skate in the crease.

Those were the so-called glory days.

The Bills and Sabres have won five playoff games combined since 2008. By comparison, the NHL’s expansion Vegas Golden Knights have already won eight in their first year of existence.

Buffalo joins Nashville, Tennessee, and Charlotte, North Carolina, as the only North American markets with two or more major pro teams to not have won a title.

”I think it builds character in a way. I joke with my friends that one day my kids will have to go through therapy because we are Sabres, Bills and Mets fans,” said former VH1-cable TV chief Tom Calderone, who’s from Long Island, New York, but got his broadcasting start in Buffalo and maintains a home in the city. ”It’s easy to be a Cowboys fan or a Patriots fan. But it takes true dedication to be a Bills or Sabres fan.”

Calderone sees more hope reflected in signs of resurgence for the city itself.

The former site of the Erie Canal has been transformed from vacant gravel lots to parkland, a water park that doubles as an ice rink in winter, and an entertainment/hockey complex built by Bills and Sabres owner Terry Pegula.

Housing prices have tripled and a medical corridor is newly bustling along Main Street Cody Latimer Color Rush Jersey , where shuttered and boarded-up buildings have been renovated or replaced by new steel and glass structures.

Buffalo still has its rust-belt blemishes as one of the nation’s poorest cities. Racial inequities, failing schools and a crumbling infrastructure remain issues.

The Bills and Sabres aren’t immune to troubling headlines. Last week, the two teams’ president Russ Brandon resigned amid allegations of having inappropriate relationships with female employees.

Buffalo might never regain the industrial-age prominence it held in the late 19th and early 20th centuries, when the city became a Great Lakes shipping hub as the gateway to the Erie Canal.

Nor, however, should it become the punchline comedian Jon Stewart once delivered during a stop in Buffalo, calling the city the gateway to the Ontario border town of Fort Erie just across the Niagara River – population 30,000.

Watching a documentary on former Bills running back O.J. Simpson, Bakay was reminded of the gloomy times in the 1970s when the steel mills began closing and legions of people left to find jobs.

”It depressed me so much,” he said. ”Every shot of Buffalo looked like a moose that farted into the sky.”

The decline led to Buffalo investing its psyche into its sports teams as a way of remaining part of the national conversation.

”Our teams were the only way we could punch back and say, `Yeah, we.