Kyrie Irving made his first seven shots, sparked a big bench celebration with a one-handed follow slam after he finally missed and scored 27 points as Brooklyn beat San Antonio Spurs to earn a 12th straight victory.
Kevin Durant added 25 points and 11 assists for the Nets (25-12), who have ridden the longest winning streak in the NBA this season to within a game of Boston for the best record in the league. Brooklyn has won 16 of its last 17 games.
Irving shot 11-for-14, Durant was 10-for-14 and neither played in the fourth quarter for the Nets, who are 23-7 under Jacque Vaughn. T.J. Warren finished with 18 points and Brooklyn shot 62 percent from the field.
The Brooklyn Nets won their 12th straight with Kyrie Irving’s help, as the guard had 27 points
STUNNER: Yuta Watanabe, of the Nets, was awed by Irving’s dunk in the first half vs. the Spurs
Keldon Johnson scored 22 points for the Spurs, as they linguish above the last-place Houston Rockets in the Western Conference.
WARRIORS 143, HAWKS 141, 2 OT
Klay Thompson scored a season-best 54 points and Kevon Looney tipped in his own miss at the buzzer in the second overtime as Golden State outlasted Atlanta.
Trae Young tied the score for the Hawks on a layup with 8.2 seconds remaining before the Warriors won it. Young made four crucial free throws late in the first OT and finished with 30 points and 14 assists.
Looney had a career-high 21 rebounds to go with 14 points and five assists. Draymond Green hit his only 3-point attempt of the game with 43.8 seconds left in the second OT and finished with 13 rebounds and 11 assists.
Thompson shot 21-for-39 and his 10 3-pointers matched a season high. He drained a go-ahead three with 18 seconds left in the first overtime after his tying three with 1:55 to go in the initial extra period.
Donte DiVincenzo knocked down a tying three for the Warriors with 0.6 seconds remaining in regulation.
Klay Thompson scored 54 points against the Hawks, just six points shy of his personal best, 60
76ERS 120, PELICANS 111
Joel Embiid had 42 points and 11 rebounds, James Harden scored 27 and the Philadelphia 76ers beat a New Orleans team that lost Zion Williamson to a strained right hamstring.
Williamson scored 26 points on 10-of-12 shooting through three quarters before he left for the locker room in the fourth.
The 22-year-old pulled up on a fastbreak and handed off the ball late in the third.
Williamson, averaging 26 points, gingerly ran to the corner and lingered on the court for a bit before he was lifted from the game.
CJ McCollum scored 26 points for the Pelicans.
BIG MEN BATTLE: Joel Embiid scored 42 points against an injured Zion Williamson and the Pels
LAKERS 121, HORNETS 115
LeBron James scored 43 points to pull within 500 of Kareem Abdul-Jabbar’s NBA career scoring record, and Los Angeles avenged last month’s home loss to Charlotte.
James had two dunks on alley-oops, including a high-flying reverse slam off a feed from Dennis Schroder, to push his career total to 37,903 points, leaving him 484 behind Abdul-Jabbar’s long-standing record of 38,387.
Thomas Bryant had 18 points and 15 rebounds, and Austin Reaves and Schroder each had 15 points as the Lakers finished a 3-2 road trip.
Terry Rozier had 27 points to lead the Hornets, who have lost 13 of their last 16 games.
LaMelo Ball added 24 points and Mason Plumlee had 18 points and 14 rebounds for Charlotte.
LeBron James had more than 40 points for the second straight game as L.A. beat the Hornets
HEAT 110, CLIPPERS 100
Bam Adebayo had 31 points and 13 rebounds, and Miami recovered from blowing a 21-point lead to beat Los Angeles.
Tyler Herro added 23 points and Victor Oladipo scored 15 off the bench for the Heat, who have won four-of-five.
They swept the two-game season series for the first time since 2017-18.
Paul George had 25 points and seven assists to lead the Clippers, who were without Kawhi Leonard in dropping their third straight. He sat out with a non-COVID-19 illness.
Miami’s Bam Adebayo scored 31 points & had 13 rebounds against a Kawhi-less Clippers team
KNICKS 102, SUNS 83
Julius Randle had 28 points and 16 rebounds to lead New York over Phoenix.
Jalen Brunson scored 24 points after missing three games with a sore right hip. Immanuel Quickley added 15, Quentin Grimes had 12 and Mitchell Robinson finished with 10 points and 10 rebounds for the Knicks.
Deandre Ayton led Phoenix with 12 points, and Chris Paul had 11.
The Suns, who lost for the sixth time in seven games, scored the first four points.
The Knicks followed with the next 14 and led the rest of the way to snap a three-game home losing streak.
KING JULIUS: The Knicks dominated the Suns, as the 28-year-old Julius Randle had 28 points
PACERS 122, RAPTORS 114
Bennedict Mathurin scored 21 points and Buddy Hield added 19 to lead Indiana to their fourth consecutive victory.
Myles Turner had 18 points and 11 rebounds, and Tyrese Haliburton added 16 points and eight assists for the Pacers. T.J. McConnell scored 15 off the bench.
Gary Trent Jr. scored 32 points and Pascal Siakam had 26 for Toronto.
Scottie Barnes added 23.
Indiana’s rookie guard Bennedict Mathurin, 20, scored 21 points against the Toronto Raptors
MAVERICKS 111, ROCKETS 106
Luka Doncic had 39 points, 12 rebounds and eight assists as Dallas rallied from an 18-point second half deficit to beat Houston for the Mavericks’ seventh straight win.
Doncic scored 29 of his points in the second half to lead the comeback.
The 23-year-old Slovenian has scored at least 32 points in each of the last six games, including three 50-point games during that span.
Christian Wood added 21 points, and Tim Hardaway Jr. scored 21 points for Dallas, which has their longest winning streak since the 2010-11 season.
Kevin Porter Jr. had 25 points, Jalen Green added 20 points and Eric Gordon scored 19 points for the Rockets, who lost their fourth straight and seventh straight at home.
The Mavericks’ Luka Doncic led Dallas back from an 18-point second half to beat the Rockets
TIMBERWOLVES 124, NUGGETS 111
Anthony Edwards scored 29 points, including 15 in the third quarter, to help Minnesota withstand a push by Denver.
Jaden McDaniels had 21 points and Kyle Anderson added 19 for Minnesota, which snapped a six-game losing streak and won its fourth in a row against Denver.
Nikola Jokic finished with 24 points, seven rebounds and nine assists for the Nuggets, and Jamal Murray added 14 points after a scoreless first half.
Bones Hyland added 18 points off the bench, but Denver was undone by its sluggish start on the second game of a back-to-back following Sunday´s home win against Boston.
The Nuggets had won 10 of their previous 12 games.
Anthony Edwards scored 29 points to lead a struggling Timberwolves team past the Nuggets
TRAIL BLAZERS 135, PISTONS 106
Jerami Grant scored 36 points against his former team, Anfernee Simons added 30 and Portland cruised past Detroit.
Gary Payton II played 14 minutes in his Portland debut, finishing with seven points, four assists and two steals. The son of Hall of Fame guard Gary Payton missed the first 35 games this season following surgery for a core muscle injury.
He signed with the Trail Blazers as a free agent after winning an NBA championship with Golden State last June.
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Grant was 12-for-17 from the field, including five-of-eight from three-point range, and Payton’s debut buoyed a Blazers team that had lost four-of-five.
Damian Lillard had 19 points, 10 assists and four steals.
Bojan Bogdanovic scored 21 points to lead the Pistons.
Portland’s head coach Chauncey Billups talks with 30-year-old season debutant Gary Payton II
