Lakers clinch West’s No. 1 seed
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 4-point 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.
Utah’s Donovan Mitchell answered with a 4-point play of his own that cut the margin to 114-106 with 36 seconds remaining, but the Jazz couldn’t get any closer. Davis made two free throws with 5.2 seconds left to wrap up the scoring.
Lebron James scored 22 points, Dwight Howard had 11 and Kentavious Caldwell-pope added 10 for the Lakers.
Nuggets 121, Thunder 113, OT:
Michael Porter Jr. scored a career-high 37 points and Nikola Jokic had a triple-double to help the Denver top Oklahoma City in overtime.
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.
Pacers 111, Wizards 100:
With star guard Victor Oladipo sitting out for rest, T.J. Warren kept up his red-hot restart with 34 more points, helping Indiana pull away from Washington for a victory.
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.
Raptors 107, Heat 103:
Fred Vanvleet scored a career-high 36 points and made seven 3-pointers, and defending champion Toronto added to its strong restart with a victory over Miami.
Pascal Siakam added 22 points and Kyle Lowry had 14 points and eight rebounds for the Raptors, who improved to 2-0 in the bubble. Toronto resumed its season by beating the Lakers and remains in second place in the Eastern Conference.
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 since returning to the NBA bubble. Now the Pelicans are 2½ games behind the eighth-place Grizzlies.
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.