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Ty Lawson beat the buzzer with a driving layup to give the Denver Nuggets a two point win on Saturday night in the NBA preseason opener for both teams 106-104. Kenneth Faried led the Nuggets with 18 points and Jordan Hamilton added 17 in the Nuggets first win. Eric Bledsoe scored 24 points for the Clippers in the losing cause. Blake Griffin played 22 minutes in his first action since knee surgery this summer. He had six points and seven rebounds. Chris Paul did not get in the game.

In Sunday’s NBA action, the Boston Celtics evened their record in their European road trip. They beat Milan 105-75 to get the taste of a loss in Istanbul on Friday out of their mouths. Rajon Rondo scored 17 points, all in the first quarter. Jeff Green also had 17 points in the contest for the Celtics. Boston will now travel back to the states and will rest up for their next game against the New York Knicks in Hartford next weekend.

The Orlando Magic began the post Dwight Howard/Ryan Anderson era with an 85-80 loss in Mexico City to the New Orleans Hornets. E’Twaun Moore led the Magic with 16 points . Brian Roberts led the Hornets with 17 points in front of over 18,000 fans in Mexico.

The Charlotte Bobcats, owners of one of the NBA’s all time bad records a year ago, got their preseason off to a good start by beating the Washington Wizards 100-88. Gerald Henderson scored 19 points, Byron Mullens had 18 points and Ben Gordon added 16 points for the Bobcats. The Wizards got 18 points from their first round draft pick Bradley Beal from the University of Florida. The Bobcats first round pick, Michael Kidd-Gilchrist from Kentucky scored 14.

The World Champion Miami Heat opened their preseason with a loss to the Atlanta Hawks 92-79. Josh Smith led the Hawks with 21 points while Lou Williams 18. Chris Bosh led the Heat with 22 points while Lebron James added 10.