Doncic leads Mavericks over Hornets
CHARLOTTE, N.C. — Luka Doncic had 34 points, 13 rebounds, nine assists and a career-high four blocks, Kristaps Porzingis scored 16 points in his return from a knee injury and the Dallas Mavericks beat the Charlotte Hornets 104-93 on Wednesday night.
Tim Hardaway Jr. added 18 points to help Rick Carlisle become the 16th coach in NBA history to win 800 games. The Mavericks have won four straight after opening 2-4.
Porzingis played for the first time since having knee surgery in October.
LAKERS 128, THUNDER 99
LeBron James scored 26 points and Los Angeles routed host Oklahoma City for a franchise-record seventh straight road victory to start the season.
NETS 116, KNICKS 109
Kevin Durant scored 26 points as the solo superstar before soon centering a Big Three, leading Brooklyn — short-handed after agreeing to a trade for James Harden — past host New York.
With point guard Kyrie Irving missing a fifth straight game for personal reasons, the Nets had only nine players.
BUCKS 110, PISTONS 101
Giannis Antetokounmpo had 22 points, 10 rebounds and 10 assists, and Milwaukee won easily at Detroit.
GRIZZLIES 118 TIMBERWOLVES 107
Jonas Valanciunas had 24 points and 16 rebounds, Grayson Allen scored a season-high 20 off the bench and visiting Memphis won at Minnesota.
Malik Beasley had 28 points for Minnesota. D’Angelo Russell added 25 and Karl-Anthony Towns finished with 25 points and 14 rebounds.
CLIPPERS 111, PELICANS 106
Kawhi Leonard scored 28 points, Paul George added 27 and host Los Angeles Clippers defeated New Orleans.
Nickeil AlexanderWalker led the Pelicans with 37 points.
TRAIL BLAZERS 132 KINGS 126
Damian Lillard had 40 points and 13 assists and CJ McCollum scored 28 points to go with 10 assists as Portland set a franchise record with 23 3-pointers in a win at Sacramento.
MORE GAMES POSTPONED
Contact tracing issues involving the Phoenix Suns and Washington Wizards forced the NBA to postpone three more games Wednesday, raising the leaguewide total from this week alone to eight.
The NBA also revealed that 16 players — by far the most in a one-week period since training camps started — returned positive COVID-19 tests between Jan. 6 and Tuesday. With 497 players tested, that reflects a positivity rate of 3.2 percent.
Phoenix’s home game Wednesday against Atlanta was called off, as was the Suns’ home game with Golden State on Friday. Also called: Friday’s game where the Wizards would have gone to Detroit.
That Suns-Hawks game was the third on Wednesday’s schedule to be called, joining Utah at Washington and Orlando at Boston.