Brandon Ingram scored 30 points and Jonas Valanciunas added 26 points and 15 rebounds as the host New Orleans Pelicans defeated the Phoenix Suns 118-103 on Sunday night to even their first-round playoff series 2-2.

Game 5 is set for Tuesday in Phoenix.

Ingram scored 16 points as the Pelicans outscored the Suns 35-23 in the third quarter. Valanciunas finished with a career playoff high in points, CJ McCollum scored 18 and Herbert Jones Jr. 13.

Deandre Ayton scored 23 points, JaVale McGee had 14, Cameron Johnson 13 and Jae Crowder 11 to lead the top-seeded Suns. Chris Paul had 11 assists, but scored just four points on 2 of 8 shooting.

The Suns remained without leading scorer Devin Booker, who suffered a hamstring injury in Game 2.

Ingram made three straight baskets then assisted on consecutive baskets by Valanciunas and Jaxson Hayes to start the third quarter. The resulting 10-2 run gave the Pelicans a 59-53 lead.

New Orleans led by as many as seven before Crowder made three free throws to trim the lead to 65-63.

Devonte’ Graham made two free throws to give the Pelicans their biggest lead to that point at the end of the third quarter, 84-74.

Phoenix scored the first five points of the fourth quarter, but New Orleans rebuilt the lead to nine.

Landry Shamet’s jumper pulled the Suns within 89-85 before Valanciunas answered with seven straight points. Jones scored three and Jose Alvarado made two free throws to complete a 12-0 run that gave the Pelicans a 101-85 lead.

Crowder’s steal and layup ended a three-minute scoring drought for the Suns and got them within 14 points, but they couldn’t get any closer.

The Pelicans led for most of the first quarter and finished the period with a 25-22 edge as Ingram scored 11 points. Ayton had 10 points, but the Suns missed all five of their 3-point attempts.

McCollum made three baskets to help New Orleans take its largest lead of the half at 39-31.

The Pelicans didn’t make a field goal during the final six minutes of the half. Phoenix pulled even on a basket by Cameron Payne, and Crowder’s 3-pointer helped provide a 51-49 halftime lead.

–Field Level Media

Jimmy Butler posted 36 points, 10 rebounds, four assists and four steals as the Miami Heat defeated the host Atlanta Hawks, 110-86, on Sunday night in a first-round Eastern Conference playoff series.

Miami leads the best-of-7 series, 3-1. The Heat can clinch the series on Tuesday night in Miami.

Hawks star Trae Young, who led the NBA this season in total points and assists, had a quiet night. Young finished with nine points and five assists, and he was charged with five turnovers. He shot just 3-of-11 from the floor, including 3-of-10 on 3-pointers.

The Hawks were led by De’Andre Hunter, who scored 24 points on 9-for-13 shooting, including 4-of-6 on 3-pointers.

Heat star Tyler Herro scored just three points on 1-for-8 shooting. But the Heat got 14 points each from P.J. Tucker and Bam Adebayo.

Miami played without starting point guard Kyle Lowry, who suffered a hamstring injury in Game 3. Lowry was replaced by Gabe Vincent, who posted 11 points and four assists.

Starting center Clint Capela returned for Atlanta, posting two points and seven rebounds. He had been out since suffering a right-knee injury on April 10 in a play-in game against the Cleveland Cavaliers.

Hunter led Atlanta to a 26-25 first-quarter lead. Hunter had a quarter-high 11 points on 4-for-4 shooting, including 3-for-3 on 3-pointers.

With 16 seconds left in the first quarter, Atlanta’s Onyeka Okongwu made a spectacular block on Butler, forcing a jump ball.

The second quarter featured a 9-0 Hawks run, giving them a 35-27 lead. But Miami answered with a 15-0 stretch, taking a 55-41 lead into halftime.

In the third quarter, Tucker was charged with a technical foul after he jostled with Okongwu.

Even so, the Heat stretched their lead to 80-61 by the end of the third quarter.

Miami cruised in the fourth quarter, and the Heat finished with a 48-26 edge in paint points for the game.

The Heat, charged with just seven turnovers in the game, shot 43.5 percent from the floor, including 13-for-42 on 3-pointers (31.0 percent).

Atlanta shot 40.0 percent from the floor, including 15-for-42 on 3-pointers (35.7 percent).

–Field Level Media

Utah Jazz center Rudy Gobert was fined $25,000 Sunday for using profanity in a postgame television interview immediately following Utah’s Game 4 victory over the Dallas Mavericks on Saturday.

Gobert made a go-ahead dunk on a lob from teammate Donovan Mitchell as the Jazz won 100-99. In an interview on NBA TV, Gobert was asked what his team’s potential was.

“(Expletive) the talk,” Gobert replied. “We’re just trying to be the best team we can be. We’re trying to enjoy the moment, and whatever happens happens.”

The Jazz — who bowed out in the second round of last year’s playoffs despite owning the league’s best record — have faced criticism, particularly regarding the relationship between Gobert and Mitchell. Utah is now tied with the Mavericks 2-2 in their first-round series. Game 5 is set for Monday in Dallas.

–Field Level Media

Luka Doncic was just 40 seconds away from having a storybook ending to his first game of the 2022 playoffs.

The Dallas Mavericks’ superstar had scored 30 points, including a step-back 3-pointer with 39.6 seconds left, and hauled in 10 rebounds with four assists after missing the three previous first-round games against the Utah Jazz due to a strained left calf.

“I missed basketball,” Doncic said. “I’m just excited to be back. Playing basketball is having fun. What can be better than playoff basketball? I’m just excited to be back.”

Game 4 did turn out to be somewhat of a storybook ending — just not for Doncic and the Mavs, who lost to the Jazz 100-99 and host Utah in Game 5 on Monday night in Dallas with the series tied 2-2.

After Doncic gave Dallas a seemingly safe four-point lead — only four teams had rallied out of a similar deficit with 40 seconds left in the past 10 postseasons — everything went the Jazz’s way.

With 31.2 seconds remaining, Donovan Mitchell rebounded his own miss for a putback layup and then hit the ensuing free throw after being fouled by Doncic.

With 19.8 to go, Mitchell fouled Dwight Powell, and the Mavericks big man missed both attempts.

Rudy Gobert snared a rebound and, with 11 seconds remaining, Mitchell made a lob pass to Gobert for an alley-oop dunk that was reminiscent of a Stockton-to-Malone play.

In half a minute, the Mavs went from being up four to trailing by one. Dallas chose to advance the ball full court after a timeout, and the Utah defense forced Jalen Brunson and a double-teamed Doncic into deferring the final attempt.

Spencer Dinwiddie’s rushed buzzer-beating attempt from the deep elbow sealed the series-tying win for Utah.

“We didn’t really execute it well,” Doncic said. “We should’ve gotten a better shot.”

Brunson said the Mavs “can’t hang our heads” after losing a game in which they overcame Utah’s 16-point lead in the first half.

“We actually are in a great position. Utah’s in a great position. It’s best-of-three now,” Brunson said. “We’ve got to go out there, play our style of basketball, play together, and that’s basically what we’ve got to keep doing.”

Health-wise, Doncic said his calf felt good, but his conditioning was a bit off after missing two weeks.

The Jazz, who’ve been surrounded by rumors of chemistry issues, were happy to see that an energetic defensive performance and unselfish basketball paid off to prolong a postseason that seemed perilously close to ending early.

Utah cherished the Mitchell-to-Gobert connection after much had been made on social media about the All-Star guard being unwilling to pass to the All-Star center.

“I think it’s funny. It wasn’t even the first pass. There was a bunch of them,” Mitchell said. “It feels good. You hear it. I don’t think he and I sit here and think there’s nothing, but you hear it. And it’s good to see that and do it on a stage like that.”

Mitchell finished with 23 points, seven assists and six rebounds, and Gobert contributed 17 points and 15 rebounds. It’s clear the Jazz need both All-Stars to play well, and play well together.

It also helped to get a defensive effort like Bojan Bogdanovic gave, along with the offensive outburst provided by 2021 Sixth Man of the Year Jordan Clarkson, who led Utah with 25 points.

“We gave everything we had. It started with Bojan pressuring the ball, and then it became all of us — Jordan, Don, Mike (Conley), everyone — everyone that came to the game was playing with intensity, defensively,” Gobert said. “We can feel it. Regardless of what happens at the end of the game, if you play that way, you deserve to win.”

–Field Level Media