Durant, Nets rally past Knicks Carlson’s 4-point night lifts Capitals
Kevin Durant had 32 points, 11 assists and 10 rebounds, leading the Brooklyn Nets back from 21 points down to a 110-98 victory over the New York Knicks on Wednesday night that strengthened their chances of the best spot possible next week in the Eastern Conference play-in tournament.
After watching the Nets come back from 28 down when he was hurt in their last visit to Madison Square Garden, Durant scored 23 points in the second half to fuel this comeback that pulled Brooklyn within a game of Cleveland for seventh place in the East.
The Nets host the Cavaliers on Friday night. If they win that and then beat Indiana on Sunday in their regular-season finale, they would finish seventh and need to win one game in two chances at home in the play-in to qualify for the postseason.
Jazz 137, Thunder 101 — Bojan Bogdanovic scored 27 points, Rudy Gobert added 20 points and 10 rebounds and Utah beat Oklahoma City.
Jordan Clarkson had 18 points and a season-high 10 assists for the Jazz.
Mavericks 131, Pistons 113 —
Luka Doncic had 26 points, 14 assists and eight assists and Dallas beat Detroit to reach 50 victories for the first time in seven years.
Jalen Brunson added 24 points for Dallas, The Mavs have won five of six.
Cade Cunningham had 25 points, nine assists and seven rebounds for Detroit.
Hawks 118, Wizards 103 — Trae Young scored 16 of his 30 points in the third period to help Atlanta stretch its lead against Washington.
Kristaps Porzingis led Washington with 26 points and 18 rebounds.
The Hawks are ninth in the Eastern Conference, thanks to Brooklyn’s tiebreaker edge for eighth, and bound for the play-in tournament with two games remaining in the regular season.
John Carlson was better than good, Alex Ovechkin reached another milestone and the Washington Capitals handed the Tampa Bay Lightning a third consecutive loss.
Carlson scored twice and added two assists for a fourpoint game, Ovechkin reached 1,400 career points with his 43rd goal of the season and the Capitals beat the back-to-back defending Stanley Cup champions 4-3 on Wednesday night to snap their own skid at two.
Chuck Berry’s “Johnny B. Goode” — Carlson’s goal song — came on perfect shots on the power play to beat reigning playoff MVP Andrei Vasilevskiy.
Ovechkin also beat his countryman on a broken play to notch his 773rd goal. He became the 21st player in NHL history to reach 1,400 points, and fans gave the longtime captain and face of the franchise a standing ovation for reaching his latest plateau.
Blues 4, Kraken 1 — Ville Husso made 27 saves, and Robert Thomas, Justin Faulk, Jordan Kyrou and Ryan O’Reilly each scored to help St. Louis to a win over Seattle.
Husso, who has supplanted Jordan Binnington as the Blues’ top netminder, stopped the first 17 shots to record his third win over the Kraken this season. Husso is 13-2-1 at home this season.
Jordan Eberle scored for Seattle and Chris Driedger made 32 saves.
Red Wings 3, Jets 1 — Sam Gagner scored twice to top 500 career points, and Detroit beat Winnipeg.
Michael Rasmussen had the tiebreaking goal at 9:11 of the third period for Detroit, Dylan Larkin had two assists and Thomas Greiss finished with 32 saves.
Mark Scheifele scored for the Winnipeg, which has lost three straight.