{"id":544474,"date":"2026-01-18T10:30:19","date_gmt":"2026-01-18T10:30:19","guid":{"rendered":"https:\/\/www.rawchili.com\/nba\/544474\/"},"modified":"2026-01-18T10:30:19","modified_gmt":"2026-01-18T10:30:19","slug":"harden-steps-up-late-as-clippers-edge-raptors-in-overtime-national-2","status":"publish","type":"post","link":"https:\/\/www.rawchili.com\/nba\/544474\/","title":{"rendered":"Harden steps up late as Clippers edge Raptors in overtime | National"},"content":{"rendered":"<p>James Harden scored 31 points and came up big in overtime to help the Los Angeles Clippers erase a double-digit deficit on the way to a 121-117 NBA victory over the Toronto Raptors on Friday.<\/p>\n<p>Harden scored 16 points in the fourth quarter and overtime as the Clippers pushed their wining steak to five games despite the absence of star Kawhi Leonard with a sprained right ankle.<\/p>\n<p>The Clippers trailed by 11 entering the fourth quarter, but Harden drilled a pair of free-throws with 1:24 left in regulation to tie it and after misses from both teams they went to the extra session.<\/p>\n<p>Harden made four free-throws to open overtime as the Clippers pulled away, scoring eight of their 12 points in the decisive extra frame.<\/p>\n<p>Scottie Barnes scored 24 points to lead seven Raptors players to score in double figures.<\/p>\n<p>With their 12th victory in 14 games the Clippers have climbed into 10th place in the Western Conference, thrusting themselves into the post-season picture after a disastrous start to the season.<\/p>\n<p>Evan Mobley threw down the game-winning dunk with 4.8 seconds left to play as the Cleveland Cavaliers edged the 76ers 117-115 in Philadelphia.<\/p>\n<p>Three days after they were blown out by the Cavs, the 76ers were unable to turn the tables despite leading by as many as 11 points with 8:47 left to play.<\/p>\n<p>Cleveland forward Jaylon Tyson, making a rare start with Darius Garland and Sam Merrill sidelined by injury, led all scorers with a career-high 39 points and fed Mobley for the game-winner.<\/p>\n<p>Mobley scored 15 and Donovan Mitchell scored 13 points with nine rebounds and 12 assists.<\/p>\n<p>Joel Embiid led the 76ers with 33 points. Tyrese Maxey added 22 but missed a half-court desperation heave at the buzzer.<\/p>\n<p>In Brooklyn, the Nets squandered a 20-point fourth quarter lead before clawing out a 112-109 victory over Chicago that snapped their five-game losing streak.<\/p>\n<p>The Bulls, trailing 92-72 with 11:20 remaining, had taken a 109-108 lead on Tre Jones&#8217;s fastbreak layup with 11.4 seconds to go.<\/p>\n<p>Michael Porter Jr. responded with a layup that put the Nets back on top and Noah Clowney sank a pair of free throws to seal the victory.<\/p>\n<p>Porter led the Nets with 26 points and Clowney chipped in 23 points and 11 rebounds. Center Nikola Vucevic led the Bulls with 19 points.<\/p>\n<p>&#8220;This is how a losing team becomes a winning team, learning how to win games like this,&#8221; Porter said. &#8220;We&#8217;re growing, we&#8217;re getting better, so it&#8217;s great.&#8221;<\/p>\n<p>bb\/sla<\/p>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"James Harden scored 31 points and came up big in overtime to help the Los Angeles Clippers erase&hellip;\n","protected":false},"author":2,"featured_media":544475,"comment_status":"","ping_status":"","sticky":false,"template":"","format":"standard","meta":{"footnotes":""},"categories":[3789],"tags":[22985,7,329,559,529,4034,192,4032,251,135,4033,4031,736,1407,6,207,476],"class_list":{"0":"post-544474","1":"post","2":"type-post","3":"status-publish","4":"format-standard","5":"has-post-thumbnail","7":"category-los-angeles-clippers","8":"tag-afp","9":"tag-basketball","10":"tag-chicago-bulls","11":"tag-clippers","12":"tag-kawhi-leonard","13":"tag-la","14":"tag-la-clippers","15":"tag-laclippers","16":"tag-los-angeles","17":"tag-los-angeles-clippers","18":"tag-losangeles","19":"tag-losangelesclippers","20":"tag-men","21":"tag-national-basketball-association","22":"tag-nba","23":"tag-philadelphia-76ers","24":"tag-toronto-raptors"},"share_on_mastodon":{"url":"https:\/\/channels.im\/@nba\/115915652701349259","error":""},"_links":{"self":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.rawchili.com\/nba\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/544474","targetHints":{"allow":["GET"]}}],"collection":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.rawchili.com\/nba\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts"}],"about":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.rawchili.com\/nba\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/types\/post"}],"author":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.rawchili.com\/nba\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/users\/2"}],"replies":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.rawchili.com\/nba\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/comments?post=544474"}],"version-history":[{"count":0,"href":"https:\/\/www.rawchili.com\/nba\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/544474\/revisions"}],"wp:featuredmedia":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.rawchili.com\/nba\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media\/544475"}],"wp:attachment":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.rawchili.com\/nba\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media?parent=544474"}],"wp:term":[{"taxonomy":"category","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.rawchili.com\/nba\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/categories?post=544474"},{"taxonomy":"post_tag","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.rawchili.com\/nba\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/tags?post=544474"}],"curies":[{"name":"wp","href":"https:\/\/api.w.org\/{rel}","templated":true}]}}