Lauri Markkanen scored 29 points and Keyonte George added 28 to lead the Utah Jazz to a 133-125 victory over the Houston Rockets on Monday in Salt Lake City.

Jusuf Nurkic added 18 points and a team-high nine rebounds for the Jazz in a rematch of Houston’s 129-101 win at Salt Lake City on Sunday. George had a team-high eight assists. Seven players scored in double figures to help Utah earn its second win in three games.

Kevin Durant led the Rockets with 32 points and nine rebounds. Alperen Sengun chipped in 31 points and 14 assists while Amen Thompson added 23 points, but their efforts were not enough to extend Houston’s five-game road winning streak. The Rockets have won eight of their past 10 games overall.

The Rockets ended the third quarter on a 12-0 run to cut a 21-point deficit to single digits. Houston pulled within 114-113 with 5:12 left following back-to-back baskets from Durant, a dunk and a 3-pointer.

George and Markkanen knocked down back-to-back treys to keep the Rockets from completing the comeback, pushing Utah’s lead to 120-113 with 4:21 to go.

Sengun drove for a layup to slice the deficit to 126-123 with 52.7 seconds left. George hit 5 of 6 free throws and came up with a critical steal down the stretch to help secure the victory for the Jazz.

Utah started much stronger after quickly falling into a double-digit hole during the first quarter a day earlier. The Rockets scratched out a four-point lead four times during the first quarter, the final time on Thompson’s dunk that made it 26-22.

Houston trailed through much of the second quarter, however, after the Jazz went ahead 40-37 on a three-point play from Walter Clayton Jr. Utah eventually extended that lead to 68-57 at halftime.

The Rockets scored just one basket over the final 2:58 of the first half. George made two baskets and a pair of free throws in that stretch to help the Jazz build a double-digit lead.

Utah kept rolling in the third quarter. Back-to-back baskets from George and Kevin Love ignited a 16-7 run that put the Jazz up 98-77. Nurkic punctuated the spurt with a hook shot.

–Field Level Media

Ryan Nembhard finished with 28 points and 10 assists, both career-highs, Anthony Davis scored a season-high 32 points and grabbed 13 rebounds, and the visiting Dallas Mavericks beat the Denver Nuggets 131-121 on Monday night.

Cooper Flagg had 24 points and Klay Thompson added 15 for Dallas, which has won consecutive games for the first time this season.

Spencer Jones scored 28 points to set a career-high for the second straight game and Nikola Jokic had 29 points, 20 rebounds and 13 assists for Denver.

Nuggets guard Jamal Murray went to the floor while ballhandling early in the third quarter and walked to the locker room with 56 seconds gone in the period.

He returned a few minutes later but didn’t play in the fourth quarter. He finished with 10 points and nine assists.

Peyton Watson contributed 15 points and Tim Hardaway Jr. also scored 13 points for Denver, which has lost four straight at home.

Jones scored a career-high 16 points in Phoenix on Saturday night and nearly had that in the first quarter when he scored 14 on 6-for-6 shooting.

Jokic notched his 11th triple-double of the season and 175th of his career with his 10th assist with 7:12 left in the third quarter.

The Nuggets went ahead 112-108 on a Jones dunk early in the fourth but Dallas hit a trio of 3-pointers to lead 118-114. Jokic hit a 3-pointer, Denver’s last of the game, but the Mavericks closed it out with a 13-4 run.

The Nuggets missed 10 straight shots — six from 3-point range — in the final 6:12.

Denver raced out to a 21-4 lead and led by 14 with 5:59 left in the second quarter but Dallas caught fire. The Mavericks scored 16 straight points and outscored the Nuggets 22-7 the rest of the period and took a 69-68 lead into halftime.

Denver quickly grabbed a four-point lead in the third quarter but Dallas rallied again and took a 98-96 lead on a Flagg alley-oop from Nembhard.

The Nuggets closed out the quarter strong to lead 104-102 heading into the fourth.

–Field Level Media

Anthony Black saved five of his 22 points for a late surge, Desmond Bane capped a 37-point effort with a late go-ahead 3-pointer and the Orlando Magic held off the visiting Chicago Bulls 125-120 on Monday night for their third consecutive win.

Scoring 21 of the second half’s first 27 points, the Bulls led by as many as 15 in the third period and retained a 109-104 advantage after a Julian Phillips dunk with 5:07 to play.

Black’s 3-pointer nearly a minute later closed the gap to 110-109, and after a Matas Buzelis free throw for the Bulls, Bane drilled his third long-distance shot to put the Magic in front 112-111.

Black followed with a lead-extending layup at the 2:41 mark, after which Bane’s two free throws and a Wendell Carter Jr. dunk in the final 35.3 seconds kept the Bulls at arm’s length.

Bane shot 12 for 17 overall and 10 for 10 at the foul line in running up a season-high-tying point total. He also found time for six rebounds and five assists.

Black complemented his 22 points with a team-high nine rebounds, while Franz Wagner chipped in with 25 points, Carter 17 and Jalen Suggs 10. Tyus Jones contributed a team-high six assists to the Orlando cause off the bench on a scoreless night.

Josh Giddey paced a balanced Chicago attack with 22 points. He was joined with 20 or more by Buzelis with 21 and Nikola Vucevic and Tre Jones with 20 apiece. Ayo Dosunmu nearly joined the club with 18 points to go with a game-high seven assists.

Vucevic completed a double-double with a game-high 11 rebounds, while Giddey filled out his box score line with nine rebounds, six assists, three steals and a block.

The Bulls completed a winless four-game trip despite outscoring the hosts 48-27 from beyond the arc. Dosunmu converted four of six from deep.

Giddey and Vucevic had eight points apiece in the Bulls’ flurry at the start of the second half, which came after the teams went into the break tied at 53-all.

–Field Level Media

Norman Powell sank six of the Heat’s franchise-record-tying 24 3-pointers as Miami blew out the visiting Los Angeles Clippers 140-123 on Monday.

Powell put up 30 points and shot 6-for-10 from long distance for the Heat, who won for the seventh time in eight games. Bam Adebayo set a career high with five treys while scoring 27 points and grabbing a season-high 14 rebounds.

Miami’s Andrew Wiggins and Tyler Herro each added 22 points, and Davion Mitchell scored 16 points, going 4-for-4 from 3-point range, and dished out 12 assists. Herro also sank four treys.

It was the fifth time this season that the Heat scored 140 points or more in a game. Miami completed a 3-1 homestand and improved to 10-2 at home.

Los Angeles’ Kawhi Leonard led all scorers with 36 points, 19 of them coming in the fourth quarter when the result was essentially settled. James Harden finished with 11 points in only 20 minutes, and Ivica Zubac contributed 16 points and 13 rebounds.

The Clippers took their fifth loss in a row and fell for the eighth time in nine games. The Monday contest was the opener of a five-game road trip.

The game was tied before Miami closed out the first half on a 32-12 run to lead 76-56 at the break.

Miami went 14-for-21 from 3-point distance in the first half. The Clippers were 3-for-15 from beyond the arc.

The second half was more of the same for the Heat as Adebayo and Powell continued their barrage from distance. Miami went on a 12-0 run to open the half, featuring two 3-pointers from Adebayo and one apiece from Mitchell and Powell.

Following a Clippers timeout, Los Angeles coach Tyronn Lue chose to sit all five of his starters with 10:36 left in the third quarter. Harden never checked back into the game.

The Clippers outscored the Heat 41-26 in the fourth quarter and were able to cut the deficit as low as 12 points after trailing by 38 in the third.

The Heat wound up 24-for-46 (52.2%) on 3-point attempts, while the Clippers finished 9-for-29 (31%).

–Field Level Media

Michael Porter Jr. scored a season-high 35 points as the Brooklyn Nets ended their nine-game home losing streak to start the season with a 116-103 victory over the Charlotte Hornets on Monday night in New York.

Porter returned after missing the previous two games due to back tightness that flared up during last Monday’s 113-100 loss to the New York Knicks. He made 13 of 24 shots, including seven 3-pointers, one shy of his career high.

Noah Clowney added 18 points, including a thunderous dunk in the fourth quarter when the Nets started pulling away. Nic Claxton contributed 13 and 11 rebounds for Brooklyn, which stopped a four-game skid and ended the longest home losing streak to start a season in franchise history.

Drake Powell chipped in 10 points and fellow rookie Danny Wolf finished with all 10 of his points in the fourth quarter as the Nets shot 44.8% from the field overall, hit 17 3s, scored 27 points off 18 Charlotte turnovers and finished with a season-best 33 assists.

Rookie Kon Knueppel scored a game-high 18 points for the Hornets, who were denied a third straight win and dropped their eighth straight road game. Collin Sexton added 15 points while LaMelo Ball collected 12 and 14 assists as the Hornets shot 44.7% and were outscored 57-44 in the second half.

Miles Bridges was held to eight points on 4-of-15 shooting from the floor after scoring 35 in Charlotte’s comeback win over the Toronto Raptors on Saturday.

After Charlotte took a 27-26 lead through the opening quarter, it began getting separation and took its first double-digit lead at 50-39 on a Sexton 3 with 6:14 left in the opening half. The Nets outscored the Hornets 20-9 the rest of the half and forged a 59-59 tie on a hoop by Clowney with 4.9 seconds left.

The Nets made a small surge in the final minutes of the third and held an 88-82 lead going into the fourth. Porter reached 30 points when he sank a 12-footer for a 100-93 lead with 6:16 left. Clowney’s right-handed dunk over Ryan Kalkbrenner opened a 105-95 lead with 4:34 left.

The Nets finished it off when Wolf dunked over Bridges and completed a three-point with 2:01 left for a 115-100 lead.

–Field Level Media