Leonard reaches 10,000 points; Clippers beat Bulls 130-127

LOS ANGELES — Kawhi Leonard scored a season-high 35 points, going over 10,000 in his career, and the Los Angeles Clippers rallied to beat the Chicago Bulls 130-127 on Sunday.

Leonard reached the milestone on one of his five 3-pointers in the third quarter, when he scored 21 points. His points and 3-pointers made were the most in a single quarter in his career. Leonard’s last 3-pointer in the quarter gave the Clippers their first lead since they scored the game’s first basket. In all, he had seven 3-pointers, tying his career high.

Paul George had 28 points, seven rebounds and nine assists for the Clippers, who avoided their first three-game losing streak of the season. Lou Williams added 21 points off the bench.

Zach LaVine led six Bulls in double figures with a season-high 45 points — four off his career high — and he made a season-best 10 3-pointers. Garrett Temple added 18 points and Patrick Williams had 17 points. Coby White had a career-high 13 assists. Chicago dropped its third in a row for the first time since starting the season 0-3.

The Clippers chased the Bulls through the first three quarters, falling behind by 13. Lou Williams’ basket tied the game at 94 heading into the fourth.

Los Angeles led by six in the fourth before Temple’s three-point play put the Bulls ahead 119-118. Nicolas Batum hit a 3-pointer in front of the Clippers’ bench with Thaddeus Young in his face, got fouled and made the free throw, launching an 8-0 run that gave Los Angeles a 126-119 lead.

LAKERS 120, ROCKETS 102

HOUSTON — Anthony Davis had 27 points, LeBron James added 18 and Los Angeles won for the sixth time in seven games with a victory over Houston.

“( Tonight) was just A.D. being A.D. and just having him back in the lineup gives us a whole other dynamic both offensively and defensively,” James said.

It was a testy game that included five technical fouls, two flagrant fouls and the first-half ejections of Markieff Morris and DeMarcus Cousins.

Davis, who sat out on Friday with a groin strain, helped the Lakers finish with 62 points in the paint in a game in which they led by as many as 27.

The Lakers were up by double figures for most of the night and opened the fourth quarter with a 10-4 run to push the lead to 98-79 with about nine minutes remaining. Houston used a 7-2 run, with a 3-pointer from Ben McLemore, later in the quarter to get within 15 with about five minutes to go.

But former Rocket Montrezl Harrell scored four quick points to make it 10889 and both teams took out most of their starters soon after that.

THUNDER 129, NETS 116

NEW YORK — Shai Gilgeous-Alexander scored 31 points to lead Oklahoma City to a win over Brooklyn.

Kevin Durant scored 36 points to lead Brooklyn, which lost its second straight.

NUGGETS 114, KNICKS 89

NEW YORK — Nikola Jokic had 22 points, 10 rebounds and five assists in another short night, and Denver reached .500 for the first time this season with a victory over New York.

HEAT-CELTICS POSTPONED

The NBA is continuing its season as planned even after concerns about COVID-19 exposure forced the postponement of Miami’s game at Boston, a day where no fewer than 15 players around the league were officially declared unable to play for virus-related reasons.

The Celtics had seven of those players and Miami had another. But after Heat guard Avery Bradley was ruled out for Sunday — his test result was not announced, just his status — the rest of the Miami players needed their contact-tracing data analyzed to determine if they had been potentially exposed.