Brunson’s 38 points powers Knicks past Jazz

Jalen Brunson scored 22 of his 38 points in the first half, Josh Hart had 11 points off the bench in his Knicks debut and New York outlasted Utah.jazz in a 126-120 win on Saturday.

Julius Randle added 31 for New York, which has won three of four to improve to 31-27. R.J. Barrett scored 20 points before fouling out, and Immanuel Quickley finished with 15.

Hart, acquired Wednesday night from Portland, made a quick impact on his new team while adding seven rebounds and four assists.

Lauri Markkanen scored 29 points to lead the Jazz, who lost for the fourth time in five games. Jordan Clarkson had 24 and Talen Horton-tucker added 23 off the bench.

Joel Embiid had 37 points and 13 rebounds, James Harden scored 29 points in his first game in Brooklyn since being traded a year ago to begin a Big Three breakup, and Philadelphia beat the Nets.

The 76ers got a victory instead of overtime when Spencer Dinwiddie’s 3-pointer was ruled too late after a video review.

Harden added six rebounds and six assists after being booed in introductions and then early in the game. He arrived in January 2021 to play with Kevin Durant and Kyrie Irving, then asked out and was gone just 13 months later, swapped in a deal for Ben Simmons at last year’s trade deadline.

Mikal Bridges scored 23 points in his first game with the Nets, but missed a layup that would have given the Nets the lead with about 2 seconds left. Harden then made two free throws with 0.9 seconds to go, and Dinwiddie’s shot after a timeout was too late.

All-star Donovan Mitchell scored 19 of his 29 points in the second half and Jarrett Allen had 23 points and 10 rebounds, rallying Cleveland past Chicago.

Mitchell added 10 rebounds and Darius Garland

scored 19 for Cleveland, which trailed 61-48 in the third quarter before unleashing a 43-17 run to go up by 13. The Cavaliers won their sixth straight and are 24-6 at Rocket Mortgage Fieldhouse.

Zach Lavine scored 23 points, Nikola Vucevic had 14 points and 14 rebounds, and All-star Demar Derozan had 16 points and six assists for the Bulls. Chicago was outscored 20-4 to start the fourth and dropped its third in a row.