De’Aaron Fox scored 16 of his season-high 43 points in the fourth quarter and the Sacramento Kings won their fifth straight, 129-120 over the San Antonio Spurs to remain perfect in the In-Season Tournament on Friday.
Domantas Sabonis had 28 points and Malik Monk added 20 as the Kings won their fourth in a row in San Antonio and moved to 2-0 in the West Group C standings of the tournament.
Victor Wembanyama had 27 points on 12-of-26 shooting and nine rebounds after scoring a season-low eight points in Tuesday’s loss at Oklahoma City.
Zach Collins scored 28 points and Keldon Johnson contributed 20, but the Spurs lost their seventh straight and dropped to 0-3 in the in-season tournament.
Durant stars as Suns beat Jazz
Kevin Durant scored 38 points and came up just shy of a triple-double and Devin Booker had 24 points and 15 assists to lead the Phoenix Suns to a 131-128 victory over the Utah Jazz.
Durant had nine rebounds and nine assists and scored at least 25 points for the 11th straight game, the longest active streak in the NBA.
Durant’s 3-pointer gave Phoenix a 124-115 lead before Utah rallied to get within one in the final minute. He struck again with his sixth 3 of the game with 18 seconds to play.
Jordan Clarkson had a season-high 37 points for Utah and Lauri Markkanen added 21.
Harden hits key 3-pointer as Clippers snap skid
James Harden drilled a tiebreaking 3-pointer while getting fouled with six seconds remaining and the Los Angeles Clippers ended a six-game losing streak with a 106-100 win over the Houston Rockets.
Harden sank a 26-footer from atop the key and completed the rare four-point play to seal his first win since joining the Clippers, who had lost their last five games since acquiring the superstar.
Kawhi Leonard added two free throws in the final second and finished with 26 points, while Harden added 24 points, nine rebounds and seven assists.
Alperen Sengun scored 23 points for the Rockets, whose six-game win streak was stopped after allowing Los Angeles to close the game on a 12-1 run.
Bronny James medically cleared to play in NBA
LeBron James may have moved one step closer to making his dream of playing with his son a reality Monday after Bronny James was cleared to play in the NBA.
According to reports, teams were notified by the league that Bronny was cleared by a fitness-to-play panel that consists of three doctors who review medical records.
The clearance comes nearly a year after Bronny suffered cardiac arrest in practice with USC last July and underwent a procedure to repair a congenital heart defect.
He missed USC’s first eight games of the season before making his collegiate debut on December 10. Bronny played in the Trojans’ final 25 contests (including six starts) and averaged 4.8 points, 2.8 rebounds and 2.1 assists in 19.2 minutes per game.
LeBron, who just completed his 21st season in the NBA and is the league’s all-time leading scorer with 40,474 points, has said many times that he would love to play on the same NBA team with Bronny.
He can opt out of his contract with the Los Angeles Lakers this summer, possibly setting him up to sign with whatever team drafts Bronny.
After the Lakers were eliminated in five games by the defending champion Denver Nuggets in the first round of the playoffs on April 29, LeBron discussed Bronny’s future.
“The kid has to do what he wants to do - and I don’t even want to say kid no more - the young man will decide what he wants to do and how he wants his career to go," LeBron said.
“I just think the fact that we’re even having the conversation is pretty cool in the sense of that. Obviously, we'll see what happens.”
Bronny is expected to take part in the NBA Draft combine this week in Chicago and undergo medical examinations.
Brunson: Injuries and fatigue 'no excuse' for Knicks' heavy Game 4 defeat
Jalen Brunson refused to make excuses for the New York Knicks after injuries and fatigue hampered them in their Game 4 defeat to the Indiana Pacers on Sunday.
The Pacers recorded a dominant 121-89 win at Gainbridge Fieldhouse to level the teams' Eastern Conference semifinal series at 2-2, with Tyrese Haliburton scoring a team-high 20 points.
Haliburton was one of six Indiana players in double figures but it was their defense that did the hard yards, limiting Brunson to just 18 points in support of Alec Burks, who had 20 points of his own.
Brunson entered the contest averaging a league-high 34.6 points this postseason, but he was 6-of-17 shooting and received little support from elsewhere as Josh Hart had two points in 24 minutes and Donte DiVincenzo tallied seven.
The Knicks were sluggish from the off as they played a second straight game without defensive stopper OG Anunoby, who sustained a hamstring injury in Game 2.
Brunson, however, was not about to excuse their poor performance.
"We can talk about fresher legs and you can give us all the pity that we want," he said. "Yeah, we're shorthanded, but that doesn't matter right now.
"We have what we have and we need to go forward with that. There is no excuse. There's no excuse whatsoever. If we lose, we lose. That's what that was."
The series will now head back to Madison Square Garden on Tuesday for Game 5, and Pacers coach Rick Carlisle expects a strong response from their opponents.
"New York is a team that has shown that it has an indomitable will to compete and rise above anything people say they can't do," Carlisle said.
"We've seen it throughout the season. We've seen it in this series. We're believers in that, and so we've got to focus on us.
"Everything is going to be a situation where you've got your hands completely full."
'Never underestimate the heart of a champion' – Malone hails Nuggets after series-levelling win
Denver Nuggets coach Michael Malone quoted former Houston Rockets coach Rudy Tomjanovich after watching his team level their Western Conference semifinal series on Sunday, saying: "Never underestimate the heart of a champion."
The Nuggets levelled their series with the Minnesota Timberwolves at 2-2 with a dominant road performance, triumphing 115-107 at Target Center.
Denver never trailed after taking a 23-22 lead on Aaron Gordon's three-point play near the end of the first quarter, stretching their advantage to as many as 18 points early in the third.
While Minnesota pulled within seven with just under two minutes remaining, they failed to make another basket as the Nuggets levelled things up ahead of Game 5 on Tuesday.
Gordon amassed 27 points on 11-of-12 shooting while NBA MVP Nikola Jokic had 35 points, with 16 of those coming in the fourth quarter.
The reigning champions are now slight favourites to reach the NBA Finals as they prepare to host Game 5, leading Malone to hail their mentality.
"What I found is Rudy T is right, man, 'never underestimate the heart of a champion'," Malone said, referring to Tomjanovich's infamous quote in the aftermath of Houston's 1995 championship.
"They were quick to write us off, but these guys, we won a championship a year ago. We went into Miami [in the Finals], won two games in a row.
"This team has been tested time and time again, and we found a way to solve whatever's been thrown at us.
"This series is a long way from being over. We're not celebrating. It's 2-2, but what I found about our group is that they do believe in themselves.
"More importantly, they believe in the man next to them. We have a group that is acting as you would hope a championship team would act."
Gordon echoed his coach's sentiments, saying: "I love it when people count us out.
"A lot of these guys have been counted out before in their careers. They've been the underdogs or the dark horse in their careers before.
"So, I don't think it was anything new to the individuals. It was new to our collective, but I liked the challenge, and I'm glad we accepted it and put ourselves in a good position with home court."
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