Bucks 130, Heat 116

Giannis Antetokounmpo and Khris Middleton scored 33 points each, and Milwaukee overcame a huge early deficit to get a win over Miami on Thursday to clinch the top seed in the Eastern Conference.

The Heat led by as many as 23 points in a first half where the team piled up 73 points despite playing without Jimmy Butler and Goran Dragic. Miami cooled off after the break and the Bucks took the lead in the third quarter but were down by 6 to start the fourth.

Antetokounmpo sat out about five minutes of the fourth quarter after collecting his fifth foul with 11 minutes to go. Milwaukee trailed by 1 with about five minutes remaining before using a 20-0 run, with three dunks from Antetokounmpo, to make it 130-111 with less than a minute to go and cruise to the victory.

“They were just getting everything they wanted in the first half," Milwaukee coach Mike Budenholzer said. “We just felt like we made it more difficult on them in the second half. We wore them down."

Antetokounmpo and Middleton played 30 and 34 minutes respectively after the stars both sat out the entire second half of their last game on Tuesday.

Duncan Robinson had 21 points for the Heat, who lost to Milwaukee for the first time this season after winning the first two meetings.

It's the second straight year the Bucks have had the best record in the East.

“It’s a tribute to our players and what they’ve done every night and how they’ve brought it ... (but) we have a lot more work to do," Budenholzer said.

The Heat led by 6 with about 11 minutes left in the fourth quarter when Antetokounmpo picked up his fifth foul on a charge and headed to the bench. Andre Iguodala made a 3 for Miami before the Bucks scored the next 13 points, capped by a 3 from Bledsoe, to take a 107-103 lead with about seven minutes remaining.

Robinson made a 3-pointer to end a scoring drought of almost four minutes for Miami with about 6 ½ minutes to go and Antetokounmpo re-entered the game soon after that.

The Heat led by 12 with about 10 minutes left in third quarter before Milwaukee used a 16-3 run to take an 82-81 lead with five minutes left in the quarter. Antetokounmpo and Wesley Matthews each had five points each in that span to help close the gap.

The Bucks cut the lead to 3 with a dunk by Antetokounmpo late in the third. But the Heat wrapped up the quarter with a 5-2 spurt to take a 98-92 lead into the fourth.

“It’s not like we were up 40. The way the NBA game is now you have to play consistently for 48 minutes," Heat coach Erik Spoelstra said. “There’s going to be a lot of ebbs and flows back and forth. You have to give them credit. They stepped up their pressure. We felt that more in the second half."

Miami had 19 turnovers.

Butler missed his second straight game with a sore right ankle. Dragic sat out with a sprained left ankle after injuring it Tuesday.

Bledsoe had nine points and five assists in his second game back after missing the first two games in the bubble after testing positive for the coronavirus.

It was the second straight game where Milwaukee allowed 73 points in the first half after the Nets also had 73 before halftime en route to a 119-116 win on Tuesday.

Rockets 113, Lakers 97

James Harden had 39 points and 12 assists to lead Houston over the Lakers, which were playing without LeBron James.

The Lakers, who clinched the top seed in the Western Conference on Monday, didn’t have James because of a sore right groin.

The Rockets were also short-handed, missing Russell Westbrook because of a bruised right quadriceps. But the combination of Harden’s big game and Houston’s long-range shooting were enough to take care of the Lakers. The Rockets made 21 of 57 3’s while Los Angeles hit just 2 of 19.

Kyle Kuzma led the Lakers with 21 points and Anthony Davis added 17 points with 12 rebounds.

Suns 114, Pacers 99

Deandre Ayton had 23 points and 10 rebounds, and Phoenix continued its improbable run in the NBA bubble, beating Indiana for its fourth straight win.

Devin Booker added 20 points and 10 assists and Cameron Johnson had 14 points and 12 rebounds as the Suns pulled away with a 21-0 run that bridged the end of the third quarter and the start of the fourth.

Malcolm Brogdon had 25 points, six assists and six rebounds to lead the Pacers, who fell to 3-1 in Orlando.

Trailing 75-72 with 2:10 left in the third quarter, Dario Saric scored nine of Phoenix’s 14 points and Cameron Payne added the other five as the Suns finished the quarter on a 14-0 tear. Saric also had four rebounds during the stretch.

The Suns did most of their damage with Booker on the bench with five fouls.

Saric finished with 16 points and eight rebounds, while Payne chipped in with 15 points.

The win pulls the Suns out of the basement in the Western Conference among the teams in Orlando, passing Zion Williamson and the Pelicans. New Orleans lost to the Kings 140-125 earlier in the day.

Kings 140, Pelicans 125

Bogdan Bogdanovic scored a career-high 35 points to help Sacramento beat New Orleans.

De’Aaron Fox had 30 points and 10 assists and Harrison Barnes added 22 points for the Kings, who got their first win in four tries since the restart. The Kings shot 54%.

Zion Williamson and Brandon Ingram each scored 24 points for the Pelicans. Williamson made his first eight shots and ended up making 10 of 12 overall in just under 22 minutes.

JJ Redick scored 18 points and Jrue Holiday added 17 for the Pelicans, who shot 57%. New Orleans fell to 1-3 in the restart.

Both teams are chasing a spot in the Western Conference playoffs. The Kings pulled even with the Pelicans in the standings and now are 2 1/2 games behind eighth-place Memphis with four games remaining. A team needs to be in ninth place and within four games of the eighth-place team to force a playoff.

Clippers 126, Mavericks 111

Kawhi Leonard scored 29 points to help the Clippers beat Dallas in a possible playoff preview.

Paul George scored 24 points and Ivica Zubac added 21 points on 10-for-10 shooting and 15 rebounds for the Clippers, who strengthened their hold on the No. 2 spot in the Western Conference standings.

The Clippers entered the night a just half game ahead of Denver, but they shot 54% against the Mavericks to improve to 2-2 in the restart.

Kristaps Porzingis scored 30 points and Luka Doncic added 29 for Dallas, which fell to 1-3 in the restart. Dallas likely will finish as the No. 7 seed, making a first-round matchup with the Clippers a strong possibility.

Doncic was coming off a monster game — 34 points, 20 rebounds and 12 assists against the Sacramento Kings on Tuesday. He made 10 of 21 shots against the Clippers, including 6 of 13 3-pointers.

Trail Blazers 125, Nuggets 115

Damian Lillard tied his franchise record with 11 3-pointers and scored 45 points, and Portland moved closer to the No. 8 spot in the Western Conference by beating Denver.

Lillard was 11 for 18 from 3-point range, plus had 12 assists for Portland. The Blazers (32-38) closed to within a half-game of Memphis in the race for eighth in the West, where a play-in series for the last playoff berth -- and the right to face the Los Angeles Lakers in the opening round -- now seems almost certain.

Gary Trent Jr. had 27 off the bench and Jusuf Nurkic scored 22 for Portland.

Michael Porter Jr. scored 27 points and grabbed 12 rebounds for Denver (45-24), which remained in the West’s No. 3 spot. The Nuggets played most of the fourth quarter with reserves on the floor, limiting Nikola Jokic to 24 minutes.

Jokic finished with eight points, five rebounds and 13 assists. Jerami Grant scored 18 for Denver, which — even with the reserve lineup — got within six on a 3-pointer by PJ Dozier with 1:16 left. But Nurkic got free for a dunk, Denver threw the ball away on the ensuing possession and Portland would hang on from there.