NEW YORK (AP) — Darius Garland scored 13 of his 26 points in the fourth quarter to lead the Cleveland Cavaliers’ comeback from 23 points down for a 108-102 victory Friday night over the New York Knicks, who finished 0-8 against the top two teams in the Eastern Conference.
The Knicks were locked into the No. 3 seed in the East during the game when the Indiana Pacers, resting all five starters, were routed by the Orlando Magic to end their hopes of passing New York.
But no matter where the Knicks finished, they look a step below the teams above them. The top-seeded Cavaliers completed a four-game sweep, just as the No. 2 Boston Celtics did with their overtime victory at Madison Square Garden on Tuesday.
The Cavaliers played without All-Star Donovan Mitchell and key reserves Ty Jerome and De’Andre Hunter, but went with their other four starters.
Jalen Brunson scored 27 points for the Knicks, who rested All-Star center Karl-Anthony Towns but otherwise had their regular starting lineup in their third straight loss.
The Knicks made 10 of their first 13 3-point attempts to open a 48-25 lead in the first half, but the Cavaliers outscored them 30-16 in the fourth quarter.
BUCKS 125, PISTONS 119
DETROIT (AP) — Giannis Antetokounmpo had 32 points, 15 assists and 11 rebounds to lead Milwaukee in a win over Detroit, securing the No. 5 seed in the Eastern Conference playoffs.
Antetokounmpo has a career-high 11 triple-doubles this season, surpassing his total from last year by one.
Cade Cunningham scored 36 points on 15-of-21 shooting for the Pistons, who will be seeded sixth in their first postseason appearance since 2019.
Detroit’s Malik Beasley connected on a 3-pointer to make it 122-119 with 17 seconds left, but the Bucks sealed the win in the closely contested game with free throws.
Milwaukee’s Bobby Portis Jr. had 17 points and 10 rebounds, Kevin Porter Jr. scored 16, Brook Lopez had 15 points and seven rebounds and Kyle Kuzma added 10 points.
Beasley scored 21 points, Jalen Duren had 11 points and 16 rebounds, Tobias Harris scored 17, Dennis Schroder had 12 points and Ausar Thompson chipped in with 11 points.
CELTICS 130, HORNETS 94
BOSTON (AP) — Payton Pritchard scored 22 points, Sam Hauser had 20 and Boston beat Charlotte for its 60th victory of the season.
The teams will meet again in Boston on Sunday.
Derrick White added 19 points, Jayson Tatum had 16 points, eight rebounds and eight assists, and Al Horford had 13 points with 11 rebounds for the Celtics (60-21). Boston coach Joe Mazzulla rested his starters in the final quarter.
Celtics star Jaylen Brown was out with a sore right knee that’s hampered him the past month, making him ineligible for postseason awards because he didn’t reach the league’s threshold for games played.
Seth Curry led the Hornets with 17 points and hit his 82nd 3-pointer, which qualifies him for the NBA’s percentage lead. He went 5 of 7 on 3s and is at 45.6%.
MAGIC 129, PACERS 115
INDIANAPOLIS (AP) — Trevelin Queen scored a career-high 25 points and Anthony Black added 21 points, six rebounds and seven assists to help Orlando pull away from Indiana in a battle of backups Friday night.
Queen made five 3-pointers for the Magic, who won their fifth straight despite benching four starters after locking up a spot in the play-in tournament. Guard Cory Joseph, the other starter, only played 6 minutes, 16 seconds.
All five of Indiana’s starters also sat out one day after securing home-court advantage in its first playoff series since 2014. Bennedict Mathurin led the Pacers with 20 points and eight rebounds. Johnny Furphy had 17 points and six rebounds as Indiana’s six-game winning streak was snapped.
The loss locked the Pacers into the No. 4 seed in the Eastern Conference and creates a first-round rematch against the Milwaukee Bucks. Indiana won that series last season.
HAWKS 124, 76ERS 110
PHILADELPHIA (AP) — Trae Young hit six 3-pointers and had 36 points and 11 assists, Caris LeVert added 31 points and Atlanta beat Philadelphia, securing an Eastern Conference play-in spot.
Georges Niang scored 16 points and Mouhamed Gueye added 10 points and a career-high 18 rebounds for the Hawks. Dyson Daniels had 10 rebounds to go with eight points, eight assists, three steals and two blocks. The 6-foot-7 forward has 229 steals this season, the most since Gary Payton (231) in 1995-96.
Jared Butler led the 76ers with 25 points and seven assists and Marcus Bagley chipped in career highs of 20 points, 10 rebounds and five assists. Bagley, who went into the game 1 for 21 from 3-point range in his eight-game NBA career, hit four 3s in the final 5 1/2 minutes of the first half.
HEAT 153, PELICANS 104
NEW ORLEANS (AP) — Bam Adebayo had 23 points and 12 rebounds in just 22 minutes, and Miami defeated reeling and injury-depleted New Orleans in what became its most lopsided regular-season loss in franchise history.
Tyler Herro, who also played just 22 minutes, scored 22 points on 7-of-10 shooting, and Duncan Robinson scored 21 points in 19 minutes for Miami, which never trailed and led by as many as 52.
Despite the victory, the Heat’s chances of moving up to the ninth seed in the Eastern Conference vanished when Chicago also won to clinch that spot.
The Heat will be the 10th seed, and open the postseason with a play-in game on Wednesday night at Chicago. The victor will need to win a second play-in contest to advance to a first-round playoff series.
Jamal Cain scored 25 points and Antonio Reeves added 19 points for the Pelicans, who’ve lost six straight. Elfrid Payton had 13 assists and 10 rebounds.
MAVERICKS 124, RAPTORS 102
DALLAS (AP) — Anthony Davis had 23 points, 13 rebounds and 10 assists for his fourth career triple-double, and Dallas beat Toronto to snap a three-game losing streak.
Davis also had a season-high seven blocks.
Reserves Max Christie and Brandon Williams scored 17 points each as the Mavericks pulled away in the second quarter, outscoring the Raptors 31-13. Dallas led by as many as 38 points.
Dallas (39-42) will play Sacramento on Wednesday in the Western Conference play-in elimination game matching the ninth- and 10th-place teams.
Scottie Barnes scored 26 points and Ochai Agbaji added 24, matching a career high with six 3-pointers, for the Raptors (30-51).
The Mavericks enjoyed a 16-0 run in the second quarter and led 66-38 at halftime. Dallas shot 65% in the quarter while Toronto shot 19.4%, missing all nine 3-point attempts and going five minutes without a field goal.
Agbaji scored 17 points in the first period to match a team high for a quarter this season.
BULLS 119, WIZARDS 89
CHICAGO (AP) — Julian Phillips scored a career-high 23 points on 7-of-9 shooting, Nikola Vucevic finished with 15 points, 12 rebounds and eight assists and Chicago beat Washington.
Matas Buzelis added 20 points and Coby White scored 16 with nine rebounds for the Bulls.
Justin Champagnie led the Wizards with 22 points and 14 rebounds and rookie Bub Carrington had 18 points and a season-high 11 assists. Tristan Vukcevic scored 17 points and Kyshawn George 10.
The Bulls are ninth in the Eastern Conference and will play a loser-out home game against the 10th-place Miami Heat in the play-in on Wednesday.
NUGGETS 117, GRIZZLIES 109
DENVER (AP) — Nikola Jokic became the third player in NBA history to average a triple-double for a season, Jamal Murray hit several clutch shots in his return and the Denver Nuggets beat the Memphis Grizzlies 117-109 on Friday night.
After a slow start offensively, Jokic had his 34rd triple-double with 26 points, 16 rebounds and a dozen assists. He wrapped up a triple-double average with his fourth assist of the night. The other players to average a triple-double for a full season: Russell Westbrook, Jokic’s current Denver teammate, and Basketball Hall of Famer Oscar Robertson.
Aaron Gordon led Denver with 33 points, and Murray chipped in 15 points in his return from a sprained right ankle that sidelined him six games.
Desmond Bane led Memphis with 24 points. Ja Morant added 21 for the Grizzlies, who led by as many as 15 in the first half but watched the Nuggets chip away until closing the game on a 14-1 run over the final six minutes.
TIMBERWOLVES 117, NETS 91
MINNEAPOLIS (AP) — Rudy Gobert matched his career high with 35 points and had 11 rebounds for Minnesota in a victory over Brooklyn that put the Timberwolves on the brink of a top-six finish that would avoid the play-in games.
Julius Randle added 21 points for the Timberwolves (48-33), who would win the majority of multi-team tiebreakers within the cluster of clubs that have pinballed back and forth for weeks in the Western Conference from third through eighth place.
One problem: Anthony Edwards picked up his 18th technical foul of the season. That prompted an automatic suspension for the next game on Sunday that the Timberwolves will need to win to improve their seed.
Edwards had just nine points while shooting 1 for 7 from 3-point range. He scored 44 points and went 7 for 11 from deep to lead Minnesota’s 141-125 win at Memphis the night before.
Keon Johnson scored 20 points for the Nets.
THUNDER 145, JAZZ 111
SALT LAKE CITY (AP) — Aaron Wiggins scored 35 points and Isaiah Joe added 32 on a career-high 10 3-pointers to lead Oklahoma City to a victory over Utah.
Jaylin Williams added 15 points, 11 rebounds, and 10 assists to help power the Thunder to their 31st road victory this season — second only to Boston.
Svi Mykhailiuk led Utah with a career-high 27 points. Brice Sensabaugh added 25 points and six assists. The Jazz never led on the way to their 20th loss in 22 games.
Utah cut a 12-point deficit to 48-44 early in the second quarter after Keyonte George capped a 10-2 run with a pair of free throws. Oklahoma City rebuilt a double-digit lead before halftime behind hot outside shooting. The Thunder made 13 3-pointers and shot 45% from the perimeter in the first half.
Joe punctuated the barrage with a long-distance buzzer beater — his fifth 3-pointer of the half — to give Oklahoma City a 73-58 halftime lead. The Thunder led by 26 in the third quarter, going up 90-64 on another 3-pointer by Joe.
SUNS 117, SPURS 98
PHOENIX (AP) — Ryan Dunn scored 26 points, Bradley Beal added 21 and Phoenix ended an eight-game losing streak with a win over San Antonio in its home finale.
The Suns overcame a shaky start to lead by 28 after three quarters, allowing Beal and Devin Booker (18 points) to sit out the fourth quarter.
Julian Champagnie had 23 points and Sandro Mamukelashvili added 19 to lead the Spurs.
WARRIORS 103, TRAIL BLAZERS 86
PORTLAND, Ore. (AP) — Jimmy Butler III scored 24 points and Golden State routed Portland, but did not clinch a playoff spot with one game remaining.
Because Minnesota beat Brooklyn 117-91, the Warriors will have to wait until Sunday’s regular-season finale against the Clippers to learn their postseason fate in the tight Western Conference.
Stephen Curry added 14 points for Golden State, which led by as many as 27 points.
Jabari Walker scored 19 points to lead the Blazers, who were already eliminated from the postseason. The team did better than expected with the development of young stars Shaedon Sharpe, Scoot Henderson and Toumani Camara.
CLIPPERS 101, KINGS 100
SACRAMENTO, Calif. (AP) — James Harden had 23 points, 11 rebounds and 10 assists, Kawhi Leonard scored 28 points and the Los Angeles Clippers held off a late flurry in the final two minutes and beat Sacramento.
Ivica Zubic had 17 points and 10 rebounds for the Clippers, and Norman Powell added 16 points.
With one regular-season game remaining the Clippers are tied with the Denver Nuggets at 49-32 for the No. 4 seed in the Western Conference.
The Clippers led comfortably most of the game until the Kings surged in the fourth quarter and got within 100-98 with 1:04 minutes remaining. After Sacramento’s Zach Lavine made two free throws with 3.9 seconds left, the Kings stole the inbounds pass. But DeMar DeRozan’s contested 3-point try at the buzzer clanged off the backboard.
DeRozan scored 16 points and moved past Reggie Miller into 25th place on the NBA’s career scoring list.
LAKERS 140, ROCKETS 109
LOS ANGELES (AP) — Luka Doncic had 39 points, eight rebounds and seven assists and the Los Angeles Lakers clinched the No. 3 seed in the Western Conference playoffs with a victory over Houston.
Austin Reaves scored 23 points for the Lakers, who also clinched the Pacific Division title for only the second time in the last 13 seasons and won 50 games for just the second time in 14 years.
LeBron James scored 14 points before sitting out the final 19 minutes of Los Angeles’ sixth win in eight games. Doncic played only the first three quarters.
Taking care of business against Houston likely means James and Doncic will get at least a full week off between this game and the start of the playoffs.
Alperen Sengun, Dillon Brooks, Fred VanVleet, Amen Thompson, Jabari Smith Jr., Tari Eason and Jae’Sean Tate all sat out for the Rockets, leaving Houston without six of its top seven scorers.
Cam Whitmore scored a career-high 34 points for Houston, which clinched the No. 2 seed in the West on Tuesday when the Lakers lost at Oklahoma City. Four starters then sat out Wednesday while the Rockets lost to the Clippers.
The Associated Press
