Lakers win, lock up No. 1 slot in the West
Williamson gets extensive minutes for New Orleans
LAKE BUENA VISTA, Fla. — Anthony Davis had 42 points and 12 rebounds, and the Los Angeles Lakers clinched the No. 1 seed in the Western Conference playoffs by beating the Utah Jazz 116-108 on Monday night.
The Lakers (51-15) own a six-game lead over the second-place Los Angeles Clippers and have five seeding games let before starting their first playoff run since 2013. Utah (42-25) has clinched a playoff berth and is fifth in the West, a half-game behind Houston and a half-game ahead of Oklahoma City.
Davis’ final basket resulted in a fourpoint play with 42 seconds left, as he sank a 3-pointer while getting fouled by Rudy Gobert and made the ensuing free throw to give the Lakers a 114-104 lead.
The Lakers were coming off a 107-102 loss to Toronto in which Davis shot just 2 of 7 and scored 14 points. Davis was much more active Monday right from the start, as he scored 13 points in the first quarter alone.
LeBron James scored 22 points for the Lakers.
PELICANS 109, GRIZZLIES 99: Brandon Ingram scored 24 points and New Orleans got a much-needed victory over Memphis.
Zion Williamson had 23 points, seven rebounds and tied a career high with five assists in his most extensive playing time for New Orleans since returning to the NBA bubble.
After being limited to a combined 29 minutes in his first two games since the restart, Williamson played 25 minutes.
The Pelicans are 2½ games behind the eighth-place Grizzlies in the West. The ninth-place team can qualify for a play-in matchup against the eighth-place team as long as it is within four games.
RAPTORS 107, HEAT 103: Fred VanVleet scored a career-high 36 points and made seven 3-pointers, and defending NBA champion Toronto added to its strong restart with a victory over Miami.
VanVleet finished 7 of 12 from beyond the 3-point arc and was a perfect 13 of 13 from the foul line.
Former New Mexico State product Pascal Siakam added 22 points for the Raptors.
NUGGETS 121, THUNDER 113 (OT):
Michael Porter Jr. scored a career-high 37 points and Nikola Jokic had a triple-double to help Denver top Oklahoma City.
Jokic had 30 points, 12 rebounds and 10 assists. He scored 13 points in the fourth quarter and overtime to help Denver strengthen its hold on third place in the Western Conference standings.
Porter, who averages just 7.5 points, had the big performance in only his third start of the season. His previous career high was 25 points. He also grabbed 12 rebounds.
76ERS 132, SPURS 130: Shake Milton made a go-ahead 3-pointer with 7.2 seconds remaining and Philadelphia beat San Antonio.
Joel Embiid had 27 points and nine rebounds for the 76ers, finishing the scoring with a free throw with 0.4 seconds to play.
PACERS 111, WIZARDS 100: T.J. Warren kept up his red-hot restart with 34 more points, helping Indiana pull away from Washington.
Two nights after scoring a career-best 53 points in the Pacers’ first game at Disney, Warren had 16 points in the third quarter to spark a 22-2 run after Washington had fought back into the game.