Harden, Durant score 20 each in Nets’ victory

James Harden and Kevin Durant each scored 20 points despite three relatively quiet quarters, and the Brooklyn Nets broke away with a big run in the fourth to beat the Miami Heat 98-85 on Monday night.

Kyrie Irving added 16 points for the Nets, who completed a sweep of the Heat in two games that couldn’t have been more different. Brooklyn won 128-124 on Saturday, then took the rematch despite barely topping its lowestscoring game of the season.

Harden had only 10 points and four shots through three, then scored 10 more in the 18-2 spurt that turned a tie game into a 96-80 lead. Durant shot just 4 for 17 through three, then hit two 3-pointers in the fourth, the latter snapping a 78-all tie and igniting the big run.

Bam Adebayo had 26 points, 10 rebounds and five assists in a strong follow-up to his career-high 41 points Saturday. But outside of Goran Dragic’s 21 points, there was little else for a shorthanded Heat team that is without Jimmy Butler and Avery Bradley because of health and safety protocols. Tyler Herro, Meyers Leonard and Maurice Harkless are injured.

LAKERS 115, CAVALIERS 108 >> LeBron James went on tear in the fourth quarter on his former home court, scoring 23 of his 46 points to keep the Los Angeles Lakers unbeaten on the road with a 115-108 win over the Cleveland Cavaliers on Monday night.

Anthony Davis added 17 points as the defending NBA champions improved to 10-0 away from home. The win for Los Angeles came on the eve of the oneyear anniversary of Lakers legend Kobe Bryant’s tragic death in a helicopter crash.

He made 9 of 10 shots in the fourth, posing to hold his form after draining a 34-foot 3-pointer just before the 24-second clock expired to put the Lakers ahead 103-98.

MAGIC 117, HORNETS 108 >> Nikola Vucevic scored 28 points, and rookie point guard Cole Anthony added a career-high 21 points as the Orlando Magic defeated the Charlotte Hornets.

Orlando snapped a twogame losing streak and bounced back from squandering a double-digit lead in the fourth quarter a night earlier in a loss to the Hornets.

On Monday, Orlando led by as many as 20 points in the third quarter and took an 11-point lead into the fourth before Charlotte made a charge. The Hornets closed within 101-94 and later 115-108, but the Magic were able to hold their division rivals off behind the stellar play of Vucevic. The 7-footer also had 12 rebounds for his 13th doubledouble of the season.

PACERS 129, RAPTORS 114 >> Malcolm Brogdon scored a career-high 36 points, and Myles Turner scored 11 of his 21 in the final 8 1/2 minutes Monday night to help the Indiana Pacers pull away for a 129-114 victory over the Toronto Raptors.

Brogdon also had nine assists and seven rebounds. Jeremy Lamb matched his season-high with 22 points as Indiana earned a split in the two-game set against the Raptors. Toronto was led by Fred VanVleet’s 25 points and six rebounds.

PISTONS 119, 76ERS 104 >> Delon Wright scored a careerhigh 28 points and Wayne Ellington had another impressive shooting night for Detroit, leading the Pistons to victory over the Eastern Conference-leading Philadelphia 76ers.

Jerami Grant scored 25 points for the Pistons (413), who still have the NBA’s worst record but took advantage of Joel Embiid’s absence. due to back tightness.

SAGO, SCHROEDER PART OF NBA’S FIRST TWO-WOMAN REFCREW>> With more female referees now in the NBA than ever before, it was only a matter of time before two women would be scheduled to work the same game.

And Monday was that day.

Natalie Sago and Jenna Schroeder made up twothirds of the crew assigned to the Charlotte at Orlando game, the first time in NBA history that two women were assigned to work a regular-season contest together. Sean Wright was picked to be crew chief, Sago the referee and Schroeder the umpire.

LEAGUE DISCUSSES ALLSTAR GAME FOR HBCU BENEFIT>> The NBA, the National Basketball Players Association and representatives from historically Black institutions met to discuss how a possible All-Star Game this year could benefit HBCUs as well as COVID-19 relief efforts, said a person with direct knowledge of the conversation.

There are multiple cities being discussed as potential hosts, Atlanta among them.

This year’s All-Star weekend was scheduled to be held in Indianapolis before the coronavirus pandemic forced changes to those plans. The league released its block of hotel rooms that were being held in Indianapolis in August, then formally moved the city’s AllStar weekend to 2024 in November.

COVID-19 ISSUES AFFECT

GAMES >> San Antonio’s game in New Orleans was called off Monday night in the latest virus-related postponement for the NBA, one that came when the league determined that neither team would have enough players available.

Also Monday: Kawhi Leonard and Paul George, the two best players on the Los Angeles Clippers, were ruled out for today’s game in Atlanta because of the league’s health and safety protocols.

As has been the case with most of the other games that have been postponed, contact tracing was cited as the cause of the Spurs-Pelicans postponement. But instead of it involving just one team — as has been the case with each of the season’s previous 21 postponements prior to Monday — this one involved both clubs.