SAN FRANCISCO -- Draymond Green scored 16 of his 20 points in the second half, Damion Lee had 22 points and a career-high 15 rebounds and the Golden State Warriors beat the Houston Rockets 116-104 on Wednesday.

D'Angelo Russell added 20 points, and Glenn Robinson III had 18 to help the Warriors win their third straight and end the Rockets' four-game winning streak. Injury-ravaged Golden State improved to 8-24.

Russell Westbrook had 30 points and 12 rebounds for Houston. James Harden had 24 points and 11 assists, and Danuel House Jr. had 18 points. Westbrook had his ninth consecutive game of at least 20 points, the longest by any Rockets player other than Harden since Tracy McGrady did it in 10 straight games in 2007.

Ky Bowman hit a driving layup at the buzzer to give the Warriors an 92-87 edge heading into the final quarter.

After falling behind by eight points midway through the first quarter, the Rockets outscored Golden State 48-17 over the next 13 minutes to open a 53-40 advantage. Russell hit a short jumper in the final minute of the second and the Warriors drew to 68-64 by halftime.

TIP INS

Rockets: Thabo Sefolosha missed his second straight game with an illness.

Warriors: Willie Cauley-Stein scored 10 points. Green also had 11 rebounds. ... Robinson returned to the lineup after missing Monday night's game against Minnesota with a right ankle sprain. . Kevon Looney missed the game with left abdominal soreness.

UP NEXT

Rockets: Hosts Brooklyn on Saturday night.

Warriors State: Hosts Phoenix on Friday night.

SOMERTON, Ariz. – The first green flag for the 10th annual IMCA Wild West Tour flies at Cocopah Speedway.

IMCA Modifieds, IMCA Sunoco Stock Cars and Karl Kustoms Northern SportMods make their first tour visit to Arizona on April 17-18.

Following Friday-Saturday doubleheaders are May 15-16 at Aztec, N.M., Speedway; June 19-20 at Sweetwater Speedway in Rock Springs, Wyo., July 17-18 at Winnemucca, Nev., Regional Raceway, Aug. 14-15 at Idaho Falls, Idaho, Raceway and Sept. 18-19 at Desert Thunder Raceway in Price, Utah.

“Registrations are already coming in,” reported Tour Director Ken Hansen. “We averaged 75 cars across three divisions this year and hope to have 100 cars next year.”

The Wild West Tour for Modifieds ran from 2007-2014, with Stock Cars and Northern SportMods joining race programs when the tour resumed in 2019.

“Modified car counts were consistent and we averaged around 20 Northern SportMods a night this year, which was very good for the first year they were part of the tour,” noted Hansen. “We had eight different winners in nine Stock Car events in 2019 and I expect numbers to grow in that division as well.”

Car counts again determine nightly purses, with Modifieds racing for a minimum of $1,000 to win and as much as $2,500 to win their Fast Shafts All-Star Invitational ballot qualifiers. Stock Cars and Northern SportMods both vie for top checks of at least $750 and as much as $1,600.

IMCA Speedway Motors Weekly Racing National, E3 Spark Plugs State, series and track points will be awarded each night. Modifieds also earn Shaw Race Cars Western Region points and Stock Cars race for EQ Cylinder Heads Northern or Southern Region points.

Tour point leaders will be eligible to compete in race of champions qualifying for their respective divisions at the IMCA Speedway Motors Super Nationals fueled by Casey’s.

METAIRIE, La. -- Sean Payton didn't hesitate when asked whether the New Orleans Saints might consider resting starters at Carolina in Week 17.

"No, no, no, no, no, no. Absolutely no," Payton said. "We're still playing for the 1-, 2- or 3-seed."

That is true. The Saints (12-3) are projected to be the No. 3 seed in the NFC. But they can become the No. 1 seed if they win, the Green Bay Packers (12-3) lose at Detroit and the San Francisco 49ers (12-3) lose at Seattle.

The Saints can become the No. 2 seed if they win and the Packers or 49ers lose.

However, there is a quirky reason the question was worth asking: If the Packers win, as expected, it won't actually matter whether the Saints win or lose.

The Saints would still become the No. 2 seed with a loss if Green Bay beats Detroit and the Seahawks (11-4) beat San Francisco. In that scenario, Seattle would win the NFC West and the Saints would win a tiebreaker over Seattle at 12-4.

So that means the only way New Orleans can truly benefit by playing its starters is if the Lions (3-11-1) pull off a major upset over the Packers. As of Wednesday, the Lions are 12.5-point underdogs, according to Caesars Sportsbook.

The Saints faced a very similar situation at the end of the 2010 season, when they had an outside chance at the No. 1 seed instead of the No. 5 seed. That year, the Saints played their starters, but they didn't get the help they needed. And they wound up losing four key players to injuries that knocked them out of their playoff loss the next week (Malcolm Jenkins, Jimmy Graham, Chris Ivory and Danny Clark).

Payton later expressed regret over his decision to play his starters in that Week 17 game because it was such a long shot.

But when asked about that memory Wednesday, Payton said, "I don't think this is a long shot that we need this week."

The Saints have a handful of injured starters whose status might be in doubt regardless of Payton's approach. Safety Vonn Bell (knee) and guards Larry Warford (knee) and Andrus Peat (arm) were all inactive last week because of injuries. And cornerback Eli Apple (ankle) and safety Marcus Williams (groin) left last week's game early with injuries -- though the severity is unknown.

Receiver Michael Thomas was also wearing a wrap around his hand and pinkie finger this week during charity appearances, but sources suggested it was not a significant ailment.

The Saints will release their first injury report of the week later Wednesday.

TORONTO -- Jaylen Brown had never won a game here against the Raptors in his NBA career.

All it took to change that was arguably the best game of his career.

Behind a sensational third quarter, in which Brown scored 16 points and went 5-for-5 from the floor (including 3-for-3 from three-point range), the fourth-year forward finished with a game-high 30 points to lead the Boston Celtics to a 118-102 victory over the Toronto Raptors, who were hosting their first-ever Christmas Day game.

"It was good to get a win here on Christmas," Brown said. "I'd never won here, period, so it was great to get one."

It also was a big change from the way the past three Christmas Day games have gone for Brown, as his third quarter outburst was more than the 12 points he'd scored in all three of those games combined.

"I was feeling good," said Brown, who scored those 30 points while going 10-for-13 from the field. "I was just trying to play within the game. Not a lot of play calls.

"[I was] just scoring within the game, and that kind of just led to making baskets, and continuing to be efficient regardless of whatever how it goes out there, just take advantage of whatever opportunities you can get."

For both Brown and the Celtics, the opportunity was to finally win a game here against the Raptors -- something none of the players in uniform had done while playing in Boston. Not only was the game the first the Raptors have hosted on Christmas since the franchise's inception in 1995, it also was the first time in more than four years -- since Nov. 10, 2015 against the New York Knicks -- that the Raptors lost a home game against an Atlantic Division opponent. Per Elias Sports Bureau, that intra-division home winning streak -- which totaled 34 games -- was the longest in NBA history.

Toronto, which made a comeback here from being down 30 points late in the third quarter Sunday against the Dallas Mavericks and then lost in overtime at Indiana Monday, was led by Fred VanVleet's 27 points. And playing without Pascal Siakam (groin), Norman Powell (shoulder) and Marc Gasol (hamstring), it appeared the Raptors ran out of gas as the game wore on -- something coach Nick Nurse admitted afterward.

"A little bit," he said. "I think our spirit was a little up and down then I think we caught it ... I think he had a chance to cut it to 10 there in the fourth after slapping on the press, and we lost our spirit quickly.

"I'm not sure why. But we lost our spirit quickly, and that was it."

That allowed Boston to pull away and win here for the first time since April 4, 2015 -- a one-point overtime win in what was Brad Stevens' second season on the sidelines. The Celtics had lost eight games in a row here since then, and Stevens had gone just 1-11 here heading into Wednesday's game. The only player on the team who was on the roster then was Marcus Smart -- who missed his seventh straight game on Christmas as he continues to recover from a diabolical eye infection that spread to both eyes and left him bedridden for much of the past two weeks.

The fact that streak finally ended was largely because of Brown's spectacular play -- especially in the third quarter, when he helped the Celtics grow what was an eight-point halftime advantage into a 19-point lead after three quarters, all but ending the game.

"Just being aggressive," Brown said, when asked what changed in the third quarter. "Just trying to get involved. I didn't take a lot of shots, so I was just trying to be efficient as possible."

Brown reached the 30-point plateau for the third time this season -- after getting there just twice in his first three seasons in the NBA. It's just one of many signs of the significant leap forward Brown has made in his game this season -- a leap that has him possibly en route to making his first-ever All-Star Game in February.

"He's just playing with confidence," said Raptors guard Kyle Lowry, who played on Christmas for the first time in his 14th NBA season. "He played with extreme confidence. He played with some bounce tonight.

"I think his overall game was just flowing tonight. When he's making his three, it makes him really difficult to guard."

That was certainly the case in this one, as Brown went 5-for-7 from deep. He combined with Kemba Walker, who scored 22 points, to go 10-for-17 from three-point range on the night. Both of them finished one triple shy of tying the single-game record for three-pointers made on Christmas Day, which Kyle Kuzma, Kevin Love and Ryan Anderson each have done. As a team, Boston finished with 14 three-pointers -- which was one shy of the team record for three-pointers made in a Christmas Day game before the Philadelphia 76ers shattered it with 21 in the second game of Wednesday's quintuple header of NBA action.

None of that will matter much to the Celtics, though, who have now won four games in a row, got Gordon Hayward (14 points, five rebounds and six assists in 26 minutes) back after missing three games with a nerve issue in his left foot, have Smart potentially returning by the end of the month and sit in second place in the Eastern Conference standings -- despite rarely having their full complement of players available to them this season.

"I've said it, but we have good players from top to bottom," Hayward said. "And when we space correctly, and we play within ourselves and within the system of how we want to play, we're pretty tough."

DAYTONA BEACH, Fla. – Jr III Racing will field the father-son duo of Greg and Eric Palmer in the IMSA Prototype Challenge opener at Daytona Int’l Speedway on Jan. 4.

The Palmer duo will drive the No. 3 Copps Industries Ligier JS P3 Prototype during the three-hour event.

Greg Palmer drove for Kelly Moss Road and Race in 2017-18 in the IMSA Porsche GT3 Cup Challenge USA before joining his son last year, co-driving an Audi R8 in the SRO World Challenge.  Prior to that, Palmer coached his son at track days before Eric began competing in the Battery Tender Global Mazda MX-5 Cup in 2019, driving for Copeland Motorsports.

The move to the LMP3 ranks marks a new chapter for the Palmers as they grow their racing resume.

“It’s going to be kind of overwhelming to be racing in a new series at Daytona,” Greg Palmer said. “Hopefully, Eric and I will be driving with big smiles on our faces when we drive on the big oval for the first time. Getting to be at a legendary track with an amazing car is going to be an incredible experience.”

Jr III Racing made a pair of exploratory outings at the end of the 2019 campaign, resulting in a pair of Bronze Cup victories for veteran driver Kris Wilson. Driving a Ligier JS P3 prepared by accomplished engineer Rick Cameron, Wilson finished ninth at Virginia Int’l Raceway and eighth in the season finale at Road Atlanta to claim the Bronze Cup.

“We tested the Ligier with Jr III at Carolina Motorsports Park a few weeks ago,” Greg Palmer said. “I loved the car. I’ve been watching those types of cars for years, but my only time in one before was running five laps in a Ligier at Road America two years ago at a private test. To me, the Ligier feels like a real race car. The Porsche and the Audi were great, but the Ligier is the full experience – the sound, the vibration, the seating position, the ability to be at eye-level with the apex – is perfect. It’s exactly what I’m looking for.”

Eric, 20, is finishing his final exams at Lake Forest College near Chicago.

“For years, Eric and I had our eyes on the Prototype as the ultimate race car,” Greg Palmer said. “I wanted to see if he was ready at the Carolina test. He got out of the car with his eyes wide open, and now he’s ready to race it at Daytona.”

Greg Palmer read about Jr III’s progress and after reaching out to team owner Billy Glavin, was pleased with the full time team that Glavin has assembled. The team also prepares cars for major vintage and historic sports car racing.

“I saw there was a new team and they were looking for drivers,” Greg Palmer said. “I started talking to team owner Billy Glavin. I liked his approach and his organization. Then I saw he was a technical person by degree, and that was of interest to me. As we started talking back and forth, everything seemed to be well organized. We decided to do the test, and we liked the way everything was prepared and all set up. It really worked out well.

“Our expectations for Daytona is to have a great time and walk away with a terrific experience,” Greg Palmer said. “If we like it enough, we’ll keep moving on and do the Sebring event in March.”

Jr III Racing has a second brand-new Ligier LMP3 platform that could be utilized as soon as Sebring (March 18-21) based on how programs come together for the re-formatted IMSA Prototype Challenge category.

“We learned a lot in our first two IMSA races last year, and we are looking forward to building on that with Greg and Eric,” said Jr III team owner Glavin. “I’m really happy that everything has come together for Daytona and my guys are geared up for the weekend. There is a lot that goes into these weekends, and especially so for a three hour race like Daytona so it was great to have everything finalized with the Copp Industries car to be able to check everything off our list before heading down there after the New Year.”

PITTSBURGH -- Ben Roethlisberger delivered a pretty good Christmas present to Steelers fans Wednesday morning.

The franchise quarterback, who has been on the injured reserve list since his Week 2 injury, tweeted reassurances he'd be back on the field in 2020.

P.S. Contrary to recent reports out there about my football future and my 'uncertainty' about playing again, I am working hard and am more determined than ever to come back stronger and better than ever next year!

— BigBen7.com (@_BigBen7) December 25, 2019

ESPN's Chris Mortensen reported earlier this week that Roethlisberger had elbow surgery after his injury to reattach three tendons. The quarterback hasn't been cleared to throw yet, but he is tracking to be back for the 2020 season.

Although he hasn't been able to play, Roethlisberger has been around the team throughout his rehab and has been on the sideline for almost all of the games. He also has helped rookie undrafted quarterback Devlin "Duck" Hodges, who will start this week's regular-season finale in Baltimore after Mason Rudolph went on IR with a season-ending sternoclavicular joint shoulder injury suffered against the New York Jets.

"Obviously, Ben, playing as long as he has, I'm sure he's been in some of these must-win games," Hodges said Wednesday. "I believe they were in a must-win game last year. Mason, obviously being around me. Both those guys, they help me out with little things here and there. It's good to have those guys around."

Indiana Pacers guard Victor Oladipo is hopeful to return to the lineup by early February -- and perhaps as soon as late January -- from a ruptured right quad tendon, league sources told ESPN.

Oladipo's looming return to the Pacers -- which will partner him with All-Star candidate Malcolm Brogdon in the backcourt -- could ultimately become the most significant addition to an Eastern Conference contender around the NBA's trade deadline, which is Feb. 6.

Oladipo, an All-Star last season, has undergone an arduous rehabilitation program after rupturing the quad tendon 11 months ago. He has been ramping up on-court workouts with the Pacers in recent weeks.

The Pacers are 21-10, only 1½ games behind second-place Boston in the Eastern Conference standings.

Oladipo had his best NBA season in Indiana in 2017-18 after a trade from the Oklahoma City Thunder, averaging 23 points, 5.2 rebounds, 4.3 assists and 2.4 steals.

WILMETTE, Ill. — As the racing season was winding down, there was another major an­nounc­e­ment in motorsports finance; and it caught almost everyone in the industry by surprise.

Penske Corp. will acquire the principal operating assets of Hulman & Co., including Indianapolis Motor Speedway, the NTT IndyCar Series and IMS Productions.

The history of the legendary speedway is well documented. It was built in 1909, purchased by Eddie Rickenbacker in 1927 and sold to Tony Hulman in 1975. For 74 years, the facility was under the ownership and guidance of the Hulman-George family.

Was this transaction expected? Not really. The longevity of the Hulman-George family is a remarkable achievement. They operated in the public domain — under the gaze of race fans — while maintaining a generous philanthropic role in the Ind­­ian­apolis community and generating economic returns.

The May 2019 sale of Clabber Girl Corp. to B&G Foods for $80 million may have been an indication.  Hulman & Co. divested this well-known brand to an industry leader with depth in the category.

It is not uncommon for a family business to evaluate options when a unique opportunity arises. Wealth creation is a key goal in capitalism. This may allow current and future generations the ability to explore entrepreneurism and may have the flexibility to continue stewardship in different areas.

Penske Corp.’s Roger Penske is no stranger to Indianapolis Motor Speedway. He first visited the 2.5-mile track in 1951 with his father and Team Penske has 18 Indy 500 victories, including this year with driver Simon Pagenaud.

Penske’s off-track business acumen is unrivaled. He is listed on the Forbes 400 with an estimated net worth of $1.6 billion.

Penske Corp. is a closely held diversified transportation services company located in Bloomfield Hills, Mich. It operates in many sectors including retail automotive, truck leasing, transportation logistics and professional motorsports. These businesses have consolidated revenues of $32 billion, operating in 3,660 locations while employing more than 64,000 people worldwide.

Their racing-related entities include Ilmor Engineering and Team Penske. Teams compete in open wheel, stock car, sports car and touring car racing. Team Penske is headquartered in Mooresville, N.C., occupying  425,000 square feet in a former electronics manufacturing factory, with more than 400 employees.

It should be noted Penske has a long history of owning motorsports facilities. He first purchased Michigan Int’l Speedway out of bankruptcy in 1973. Over the years, he expanded his ownership interests to include Nazareth Speedway, North Carolina Speedway, Auto Club Speedway and the Detroit Grand Prix.

Penske Motorsports (SPWY) went public on NASDAQ in February 1996 at $17 per share, raising $60 million. These proceeds were used toward the construction of California’s Auto Club Speedway.

Three years later, in July 1999, Penske Motorsports merged with International Speedway Corp., doubling ISC’s revenue and the number of tracks it operated. The offer price was a combo of stock and cash, valued at $50 per share, and resulted in a $691 million transaction.

Penske sold a portion of his holdings three years later for $100 million. Greg Penske was CEO of Penske Motorsports at the time of the ISC merger and held a seat on the board of directors until 2007.

Keeping anything confidential in racing is difficult. This deal was an exception. The number of people involved on both sides was limited to four from each team. Mark Miles, CEO of Hulman & Co., met with Penske in Detroit on weekends.

The Nov. 4 press conference provided details that Tony George approached Penske on the grid at the IndyCar season finale in September.

After an initial discussion, the transaction moved into the fast lane, taking seven weeks until the announcement.

The deal is expected to close in early January. Hulman & Co.’s financial advisor is Allen & Co. and its legal counsel is Ice Miller LLP.

Debate over conflict of interest was raised by some since the combination of track, series and team ownership could lead to decisions favoring a few.

Centralized ownership is not uncommon in motorsports — the France family, NASCAR and ISC provide the most recent example. This illustrates a strong commitment to motorsports from an operational and financial perspective.

There has been favorable reception of the sale of Hulman & Co. to Penske Corp. The stewardship of a storied institution is being passed from one legendary company to another.

The next century for the Brickyard is bright.

TORONTO -- Boston Celtics guard Marcus Smart had a simple Christmas wish: to wake up and open his eyes without discomfort.

After he dealt with a diabolical case of viral conjunctivitis that caused an infection in both of his eyes -- an ailment that, including Boston's Christmas Day game here against the Toronto Raptors, has cost him seven straight games -- that was enough to make Smart smile Wednesday morning.

"Hell," he said when asked to describe what the past few weeks have been like, while sitting in the visitors locker room here at Scotiabank Arena. "I thought I was going to go blind for a while. I think it was the worst case of viral conjunctivitis that they've seen. So, basically, I was a guinea pig to see how to handle this if it ever happens again to anybody else.

"It was the worst pain that I've been through in a very long time. I don't wish it on anybody. But I'm here."

Smart, who has been out since Boston's win over the Denver Nuggets on Dec. 6 because of the condition, said he's finally feeling better and is able to smile and laugh about what he has dealt with the past few weeks. But hearing him describe how he was feeling made it clear that this was no laughing matter.

"So it was painful, it was burning ... it was really hard," Smart said. "I couldn't see. I had outdoor sunglasses everywhere. Even in the dark I was wearing sunglasses. It was that bad. Just every morning I would wake up just having sticky discharge coming out of my eyes, sealing my eyes shut. It was really just gross. It got so bad that my eyes, my eyelids started forming these mucus membranes, and they literally had to go in and pry the mucus membranes out.

"I actually have a picture that I showed the guys. It was pretty gross. I was bleeding tears every time they did it, for like a day. They did that for about four days straight. The first day was probably the worst, just because it built up so much that it started to scab under my eyelids, and they had to open the scab and then pull it out. It felt like they were putting needles in my eyes. They were using tweezers and vise grips to hold my eyes and actually get into my eyelids, the bottom and top.

"It was definitely some pain, and I never want to go through it again, and, like I said, I never want anybody else to go through it."

Smart said it was a confluence of bad luck that led him to be bedridden for most of the past two weeks, unable to even watch television because of how painful the light would be for his eyes. The combination of getting an allergic reaction and a really bad cold in the wake of that game against the Nuggets broke down his immune system -- and set the stage for him to be knocked flat by this virus.

There were even concerns about his vision.

"They were so worried about it infecting my cornea and my vision, so it was really scary," Smart said. "At first we thought it was an allergic reaction because I broke out in hives like the day before my eyes started having an allergic reaction. We caught it so early, the same symptoms came out. Then about three days later it transferred from my left eye to my right eye, and that's when we ruled out that an allergic reaction was the cause. They said it was a virus. ... It was caused by having a cold already and being sick."

Smart said he has made it past the contagious part of the illness, has been cleared to begin working out again and is slowly working himself back into game shape. He reiterated what Celtics coach Brad Stevens said after the team's practice on Christmas Eve: that his hope is to be back sometime before the end of the month.

"I'd say about 80 percent," Smart said of his game readiness. "I was able to get the last two days' workouts in. I just was really getting my body back to playing shape and adjusting and making sure I've got my strength back and my conditioning and air back.

"If it was up to me, obviously I would try to play tonight. But with just everything happening, being more cautious than ever, and just giving myself and my body extra time to recuperate and get back into shape."

Smart clearly wasn't fully right, though. He still was having trouble, even in the locker room, fully opening his eyes. Doing so under the bright lights of an NBA court would take even more work.

Smart added that he still had to take two sets of special eye drops four times a day -- though, he added, that was down from the three sets of them he had been taking, which he jokingly called progress. And he said he lost several pounds while he was sick because he couldn't eat for the first week, and did little but lie in bed.

Still, it was a far cry from where he was before, and he said he's just happy to be able to be moving past it, and closer to getting back on the court again.

"My eyes feel better," he said. "I'm still trying to adjust to some lights. But everything the contagious part is gone. [The doctors] cleared me. They said from here on, everything should be OK. I still have to see them on kind of a daily basis so my cornea doesn't get white-spotted behind it and mess up my eyesight.

"So it's definitely a process. It's an annoying process. But I'm just blessed to be able to come back and get through this."

Gordon Hayward returned Wednesday for the Celtics after missing the past three games because of nerve pain in his left foot.