Los Angeles Lakers superstar LeBron James has been upgraded from doubtful to questionable for Sunday’s game against the visiting Chicago Bulls.

That move comes one day after the team elevated James from out to doubtful for the contest.

James, 38, has sat out the team’s last 13 games after sustaining a tendon injury in his right foot on Feb. 26. The Lakers (37-37) have gone 8-5 in that stretch and reside in eighth place in the Western Conference.

ESPN reported that James will test his foot during pregame warmups to see if he can play.

Should James be unable to play on Sunday, the 19-time All-Star’s next opportunity to return to the court comes in the rematch versus the Bulls on Wednesday in Chicago.

James is averaging 29.5 points, 8.4 rebounds and 6.9 assists in 47 games this season.

–Field Level Media

The New York Knicks are signing guard/forward DaQuan Jeffries to a multi-year deal, The Athletic reported Sunday.

Jeffries, 25, has been playing for the NBA G League’s Westchester Knicks, averaging 21.3 points in 21 games.

He just completed his second 10-day contract with the Knicks.

Undrafted in 2019 out of Oral Roberts, he has averaged 3.8 points and 1.9 rebounds in 47 NBA games (five starts) for the Sacramento Kings, Houston Rockets and Memphis Grizzlies.

–Field Level Media

The Milwaukee Bucks wore down in a battle of conference leaders on Saturday. They’ll look to rebound against a struggling team that they’ve dominated in recent years.

Following a 129-106 loss at Denver, the Bucks visit Detroit in the third contest of a four-game road swing. Milwaukee (53-21) has won 16 of the last 17 meetings against its Central Division rival and can sweep the season series with a victory.

Detroit (16-58) has lost its last five games and 16 of its last 17.

The Bucks blew out Utah by 28 points on Friday night but couldn’t sustain that energy and production in the Mile High City. The Bucks led 66-63 at halftime but were outscored 34-19 in the third quarter and 32-21 in the fourth.

“We love competing against the best, whether we’re fresh or not,” Milwaukee forward Khris Middleton said. “(Saturday) it came off a back-to-back, we’ve still got to be better. There’s no excuses about that. I’m sure for a lot of fans, a lot of people out there that would love to see healthy teams or not off back-to-backs play the top teams in each conference.”

Denver shot 52.8 percent from the field and made 15 3-pointers. Milwaukee was held to 44.3 percent shooting and connected on just 25 percent of its 3-point attempts.

In the showdown of Most Valuable Player award candidates, the Nuggets’ Nikola Jokic had 31 points, 11 assists and six rebounds. The Bucks’ Giannis Antetokounmpo also scored 31 points and added nine rebounds, four assists and four steals.

“You just want to make things tough for him,” Milwaukee center Brook Lopez said of Jokic. “He’s obviously very talented offensively so you just want to make things as tough as possible and obviously be smart as well, too, because he’s great at drawing fouls and getting to the line. I appreciate that trust (to guard him one-on-one). It’s a great challenge and I’m up to that challenge. I’m here for it.”

Bucks coach Mike Budenholzer felt ball and player movement were lacking in the second half.

“Credit to Denver. They played well in the third quarter, fourth quarter,” he said. “They just had us in the second half. We can be better.”

The Pistons have been playing with depleted lineups over the past month and the results have been predictable. They have lost by at least nine points in each of their last five games.

In their last outing on Friday, the Raptors romped past them 118-97. Toronto scored 38 points in the first quarter and led 72-52 at halftime.

“With all of our leading guys out, our young guys didn’t approach it with the proper disposition,” coach Dwane Casey said. “Toronto is playing for a playoff spot and our guys didn’t play with the intensity you have to have against a team fighting for the playoffs.”

Rookie guard Jaden Ivey led the Pistons with 20 points and eight assists but also committed nine of their 22 turnovers, which led to 23 Raptors points.

“That was a big difference, too,” Casey said. “That was a great lesson for him.”

The Bucks wrap up their road trip at Indiana on Wednesday. The Pistons begin a three-game road trip at Oklahoma City on Wednesday.

–Field Level Media

Brooklyn Nets coach Jacque Vaughn said he felt his team needed to treat Saturday’s visit to the Miami Heat as a single-elimination NCAA Tournament game.

After their impressive comeback, the Nets will attempt to enhance their chances at avoiding a play-in game Sunday night when they visit the Orlando Magic.

Brooklyn (40-34) is a half-game up on the Heat in their bid for the sixth and final guaranteed playoff berth in the Eastern Conference. The Nets also are 1 1/2 games behind the New York Knicks in a bid to finish fifth in the East.

The Nets are back in their favorable position in the race because of what unfolded in a 129-100 win on Saturday against Miami. Brooklyn dominated the second half to pull off its biggest margin of victory since a 36-point home win over the San Antonio Spurs on Jan. 2.

“You see how this March Madness is and you’re one (loss) and you’re done,” Vaughn said. “And that’s part of it. I have not discussed any of the standings with this group. Really, we have gone day to day and tried to get a win.”

Brooklyn’s previous five bids to get a win culminated in Thursday’s 116-114 loss to the visiting Cleveland Cavaliers. The Nets allowed a last-second 3-pointer by Isaac Okoro after holding an eight-point lead with 2:13 remaining.

In Miami, the Nets cut a 14-point deficit down to four by halftime. Then Brooklyn opened with a 31-6 run to start the third quarter and outscored Miami 64-31 in the second half.

“Coming in I thought it was a must-win, I thought the whole locker room did,” Brooklyn’s Cameron Johnson said. “This is as close to a playoff game with big implications as you’ll get in the regular season. So this was a big one for us.”

Mikal Bridges and Johnson helped the Nets successfully avoid losing even more ground. Bridges scored 27 points while Johnson added 23 and hit five of Brooklyn’s 18 3-pointers.

Orlando (31-43) holds flickering hopes at qualifying for the play-in game. The Magic head into play Sunday 4 1/2 games behind the 10th-place Chicago Bulls while needing to surpass the Indiana Pacers and Washington Wizards.

The Magic are seeking to win three in a row for the first time since putting six straight victories together from Dec. 7-18.

Orlando has been off since following up a 122-112 home win over Washington on Tuesday with a 111-106 win over the visiting New York Knicks on Thursday. It marked the fourth time in the past five games that the Magic played a game decided by six points or fewer.

“Honestly I feel like we haven’t played a game this year that wasn’t meaningful,” rookie Paolo Banchero said after his 21-point performance versus the Knicks. “Every game has been competitive. Teams trying to get into playoff position are desperate and it makes it more fun when the level gets raised. We’re happy to compete.”

Brooklyn took the first meeting when it posted a 109-102 home victory on Nov. 28. It has won nine of the past 12 encounters.

–Field Level Media

Nikola Jokic scored 31 points and dished out 11 assists, Jamal Murray finished with 26 points and nine assists, and the host Denver Nuggets beat the Milwaukee Bucks 129-106 on Saturday night.

Michael Porter Jr. scored 19 points and Kentavious Caldwell-Pope and Bruce Brown had 11 points each for the Nuggets, who won their 50th game of the season in a battle between the top teams in each conference.

Giannis Antetokounmpo matched Jokic with 31 points and grabbed nine rebounds, Khris Middleton, Grayson Allen and Brook Lopez scored 13 each, and Bobby Portis Jr. added 11 points for the Bucks.

Antetokounmpo was aggressive from the start, with 13 points in the first quarter and 24 at halftime. But the Bucks went 4:10 without a point in the fourth period as the Nuggets built a 20-point lead. Antetokounmpo was hit with a technical foul with 6:41 left — Milwaukee’s fourth of the game — and went to the bench for the rest of the night with 5:54 remaining.

Suns 125, 76ers 105

Devin Booker scored 29 points and T.J. Warren, Terrence Ross and Cameron Payne combined for 45 points off the bench as host Phoenix ended a three-game skid by beating Philadelphia.

Phoenix shot 50.5 percent from the floor as a team and used its balanced scoring to take control in the second half. The Suns went on a 13-3 run early in the fourth quarter that effectively put the game away.

Booker led six Suns scoring at least 13 points. Fellow starters Chris Paul and Bismack Biyombo finished with 13 and 17, respectively. Biyombo also grabbed a game-high 13 rebounds. The 76ers got a game-high 37 points from Tyrese Maxey, while Most Valuable Player candidate Joel Embiid added 28 points and 10 rebounds.

Hawks 143, Pacers 130

John Collins scored 21 points and Dejounte Murray added 20 as Atlanta overcame an ejection to leading scorer Trae Young and took a win over visiting Indiana.

Young was given a technical foul and ejected for throwing the ball harshly back to the referee. The game was tied 84-84 with 7:25 left in the third quarter when the incident occurred. Young was still frustrated about having a 3-pointer taken away and turned into an offensive foul. He finished with 14 points and five assists.

Indiana was led by reserve Jordan Nwora with 33 points, one shy of his career high. Tyrese Haliburton added 19 points and 13 assists. The Pacers led 74-72 at halftime thanks to Nwora, who set a regular-season franchise record with 25 points in the second quarter.

Nets 129, Heat 100

Mikal Bridges scored 27 points and Brooklyn snapped a season-worst, five-game losing streak by putting together a dominant second half in a victory over host Miami.

Brooklyn turned a 14-point deficit into a blowout after halftime. The Nets outscored Miami 39-18 in the third quarter and 64-31 in the final 24 minutes. Cameron Johnson added 23 points and hit five of Brooklyn’s 18 threes. Brooklyn shot 49.4 percent overall and a blistering 59.3 percent in the decisive third quarter.

Tyler Herro and Max Strus scored 23 points apiece to lead the Heat, who shot 47.5 percent but were a dreadful 6 of 19 in the third. Strus scored all of his points by halftime, shooting 9-for-10.

Kings 121, Jazz 113

Kevin Huerter poured in a team-high 27 points, Harrison Barnes led a third-quarter surge and Sacramento moved within one win of clinching its first playoff berth in 17 years with a victory over visiting Utah.

Keegan Murray chipped in with 22 points and Barnes had 18. Domantas Sabonis recorded 16 to go with a game-high 15 rebounds and team-high seven assists for the Kings (45-29).

The loss was a costly one for the Jazz (35-39), who began the night tied with the Oklahoma City Thunder and Dallas Mavericks in the loss column in their duel for the final play-in spot in the Western Conference.

Pelicans 131, Clippers 110

Brandon Ingram and Jonas Valanciunas had double-doubles and visiting New Orleans dominated Los Angeles.

Ingram, coming off his first career triple-double, had 32 points and a career-high 13 assists, and Valanciunas had 17 points and 13 rebounds as the Pelicans (37-37) won their fourth consecutive game to start a crucial four-game road trip.

Bones Hyland scored 18 points to lead the Clippers (39-36). Eric Gordon had 15, Russell Westbrook had 14, Ivica Zubac and Nicolas Batum had 13 each, Kawhi Leonard added 12 and Robert Covington 11.

–Field Level Media

The Memphis Grizzlies will put their five-game winning streak on the line and continue their quest to earn the top playoff seed in the Western Conference on Sunday when they travel to Atlanta to play a Hawks team looking to clarify its postseason situation.

The Grizzlies (46-27) are currently second in the Western Conference and trail Denver by 3 1/2 games with nine remaining. Memphis already has clinched a playoff spot and locked up its second straight Southwest Division title. The Grizzlies are coming off a 151-114 win over Houston on Friday.

The Hawks (37-37) climbed back to .500 with Saturday’s 143-130 win over Indiana and remain No. 8 in the Eastern Conference.

This is the final game between Memphis and Atlanta this season. The Grizzlies won the first contest 128-103 on Dec. 12 in Memphis. Tyus Jones had 22 points and 11 rebounds and Jaren Jackson Jr. tied a single-game franchise record for the Grizzlies with eight blocks. Atlanta was without Trae Young, Dejounte Murray, Clint Capela and Bogdan Bogdanovic, while the Grizzlies played without Ja Morant.

Atlanta will need to slow the 3-point shooting of Luke Kennard, who set a franchise record by making 10 3-pointers on 11 attempts against Houston. Kennard was acquired from the Los Angeles Clippers at the trade deadline. He matched his career high with 30 points and tied the NBA record for the highest 3-point percentage by a player with 10 in a game, a record shared by Ty Lawson and Klay Thompson.

“When you start hitting a couple in a row, usually about three for me, I start feeling it a little bit,” Kennard said. “It’s the kind of thing where once it leaves your hand, you think it’s going in. So, it was pretty fun.”

Memphis coach Taylor Jenkins said, “And he had three assists and was competing on defense. This is why we made the trade for him. Hopefully he can make 10 3s every night he goes out there.”

The Grizzlies are working Morant back into the lineup after he served an eight-game suspension for posting a video in which he was shown waving a gun at a Denver-area nightclub. Morant, who averages 26.7 points, 5.9 rebounds and 8.1 assists, has come off the bench in the two games since his return and totaled 35 points and 13 assists.

The Hawks got a much-needed lift off the bench on Saturday from Garrison Mathews, who was picked up from Houston at the trade deadline. Mathews made four 3-pointers and scored 14 points, his most with the Hawks, to help overcome the loss of Young, who was ejected in the third quarter of the game after throwing the ball in the direction of an official while arguing a call.

“It’s about time,” Mathews said. “I haven’t felt like that in a long time. It’s taken me a few games to get my rhythm. We’ve had a few guys out and my role hasn’t been consistent but hopefully I can knock some shots down when I can. … The thing for us is how much we can compete defensively. We’ve got some of the best scorers in the league. Comes down to can we compete and can we guard harder than the other team.”

–Field Level Media

Brandon Ingram and Jonas Valanciunas had double-doubles and the visiting New Orleans Pelicans dominated the Los Angeles Clippers 131-110 on Saturday night.

Ingram, coming off his first career triple-double, had 32 points and a career-high 13 assists, and Valanciunas had 17 points and 13 rebounds as the Pelicans (37-37) won their fourth consecutive game to start a crucial four-game road trip.

New Orleans made a season-high 21 3-pointers, led by Trey Murphy III’s career-high 10 on 12 attempts. CJ McCollum added 21 points and Josh Richardson scored 13 as New Orleans clinched the season series against L.A., improving to 2-0 with one game remaining April 1 in New Orleans.

Bones Hyland scored 18 points to lead the Clippers (39-36). Eric Gordon had 15, Russell Westbrook had 14, Ivica Zubac and Nicolas Batum had 13 each, Kawhi Leonard added 12 and Robert Covington 11.

Ingram had four points and Murphy made a 3-pointer as New Orleans extended its 12-point halftime lead to 81-63 early in the third quarter.

The lead grew to 21 points four times before the Clippers trimmed it to 12, and the Pelicans held a 99-85 lead at the end of the third quarter.

Valanciunas scored New Orleans’ first seven points of the fourth quarter and Murphy added two 3-pointers as the lead swelled to 119-94.

The Pelicans scored the first eight points of the game and Ingram had eight points and two assists as they extended the lead to 16-7.

Murphy made all four of his 3-point attempts and New Orleans finished 9 of 11 from beyond the arc to take a 37-26 lead at the end of the first quarter.

The Pelicans started the second quarter with a 10-2 run, but the Clippers used an 11-0 run to get within 47-39.

L.A. got as close as seven points before Ingram and Murphy each made a 3-pointer to help New Orleans take a 68-56 halftime lead.

The Pelicans finished with 14 3-pointers in the half but did not attempt a free throw. They finished 8 of 9 on free throws.

–Field Level Media

Kevin Huerter poured in a team-high 27 points, Harrison Barnes led a third-quarter surge and the Sacramento Kings moved within one win of clinching their first playoff berth in 17 years with a 121-113 victory over the visiting Utah Jazz on Saturday night.

Keegan Murray chipped in with 22 points and Barnes had 18. Domantas Sabonis recorded 16 to go with a game-high 15 rebounds and team-high seven assists for the Kings (45-29), who could have clinched their first postseason berth since 2006 had the Phoenix Suns lost to the Philadelphia 76ers.

The Suns prevailed, however, meaning the Kings’ magic number for clinching dropped to one. Their next game is Monday at home against the Minnesota Timberwolves.

The loss was a costly one for the Jazz (35-39), who began the night tied with the Oklahoma City Thunder and Dallas Mavericks in the loss column in their duel for the final play-in spot in the Western Conference.

Playing for the second consecutive night — as were the Jazz — the Kings trailed 61-55 at halftime and 67-62 with 9:41 left in the third period before taking charge with an 18-4 run. Barnes contributed nine points and Murray five to the run, which flipped the five-point deficit into an 80-71 lead. Sacramento never trailed again.

The Kings overcame a 51.6 percent to 46.3 percent deficit in overall shooting in large part by outscoring the visitors 48-27 on 3-pointers.

Murray had 18 of his 22 points on 3-pointers, going 6-for-12 from beyond the arc.

Huerter, who had 29 points in Friday’s 135-127 home win over the Suns, also found time for seven rebounds, four assists and three steals.

Davion Mitchell (11 points) and Trey Lyles (10) also scored in double figures for the Kings, who topped 120 points for the 39th time this season.

Walker Kessler had a game-high and season-best 31 points and Ochai Agbaji added 20 for Utah, which played without its three leading scorers — Lauri Markkanen, Jordan Clarkson and Collin Sexton.

Kessler completed his 19th double-double of the year with a team-high 11 rebounds.

Kelly Olynyk (17 points, game-high 10 assists) also had a double-double for the Jazz, while Jarrell Brantley added 13 points and Kris Dunn 12 in the club’s third straight loss.

–Field Level Media