NBA: Brooklyn Nets hammer Orlando to complete season sweep

Andrew Bogut returned from a three-month injury lay-off to inspire the Golden State Warriors to victory over Toronto, while James Harden helped Houston rout Utah Jazz.

Golden State's Andrew Bogut guards Toronto's Josh Lucas.
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The Brooklyn Nets used a dominant fourth-quarter display to power themselves to a 97-77 victory over the struggling Orlando Magic.

Deron Williams had 20 points and nine assists, Brook Lopez added 16 and the Nets gave P.J. Carlesimo a welcome victory after suffering consecutive defeats for the first time since he took over from the fired Avery Johnson last month.

"We played two bad games," said Keith Bogans afterwards. "We know we didn't play the way we're capable of playing.

"We wanted to come back and try to not make the mistakes we made in Memphis and Houston."

Playing in front of their home crowd, Brooklyn took a 56-40 halftime lead and finished strongly to hand the Magic a sixth straight loss.

The Magic had pulled to within 70-63 at the end of the third quarter but the Nets scored the first nine points of the final session to seal the contest.

Bogans, who finished with 12 points, opened the fourth with a trio of three-pointers to lead the late shooting spree.

"We made a good push but obviously it was not good enough," Orlando's Jameer Nelson admitted afterwards.

Brooklyn's win completed a four-game season sweep of Orlando, who are struggling in their first season since trading away All-Star centre Dwight Howard.

Australian big man Andrew Bogut played his first NBA game in nearly three months, scoring 12 points and grabbing eight rebounds for the Golden State Warriors in a 114-102 victory.

Bogut, who started and also blocked four shots and made a steal in 23 minutes on the court, had not played since November 7 to allow his surgically repaired left ankle time to strengthen.

The 7-foot Aussie centre, who was the top pick of the 2005 NBA Draft, was traded from Milwaukee to the Warriors last March and only one month later underwent microfracture surgery on his left ankle.

Bogut was among six double-digit scorers for the Warriors, who were led by forward David Lee's 21 points and 12 rebounds. Klay Thompson added 19 points and seven rebounds while fellow guard Stephen Curry added 17 points.

Golden State improved to 27-17, fifth in the Western Conference, while the Raptors, led by 22 points from Aaron Gray, fell to 16-29, 11th in the Eastern Conference.

Elsewhere James Harden scored 25 points as the Houston Rockets embarrassed the Utah Jazz 125-80 in Salt Lake City.

The crushing defeat, Utah's worst at home in franchise history, ended a run of six straight wins at EnergySolutions Arena.

Marcus Morris scored 16 points for the Rockets off the bench, while Omer Asik pulled down 19 rebounds.

Danilo Gallinari poured in 27 points as the Denver Nuggets edged out the Indiana Pacers 102-101.

The Nuggets sealed the victory on an Andre Iguodala free throw with 0.4 seconds on the clock.

Paul George led the Pacers with 23 points and 10 rebounds.

There was also a tight finish in Washington where Isaiah Thomas sunk a floater with 1.9 seconds remaining to give the Sacramento Kings a 96-94 victory over the Washington Wizards.

Thomas had 22 points overall while Washington's Emeka Okafor led all scorers with 23 points and 15 rebounds.

Marc Gasol and Rudy Gay combined for 53 points as the Memphis Grizzlies overcame the Philadelphia 76ers 103-100.

Gasol had 27 points and Gay 26 for the Grizzlies, who were 17 points down at one stage, while Jerryd Bayless contributed 21.

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