Anthony Davis scored 30 points with 15 rebounds and LeBron James added 26 points as the visiting Los Angeles Lakers won the battle of dynamic duos with a 111-108 victory Sunday over the Dallas Mavericks.

In his fifth game with the Lakers, Jarred Vanderbilt added 15 points and a season-high 17 rebounds as Los Angeles stretched its winning streak to three games.

The Mavericks had Luka Doncic and Kyrie Irving on the court together for the fourth time, but fell to 1-3 with the newly-formed partnership. Doncic scored 26 points with nine rebounds, while Irving had 21 points and 11 assists.

Dallas failed to protect a 27-point first-half lead while losing for the fourth time in its last five games.

After the Mavericks pulled within 109-108 on a 3-pointer from Justin Holiday with 6.5 seconds remaining, the Lakers’ Dennis Schroder made two free throws for the final margin, with Irving missing a half-court shot at the buzzer.

Schroder had 16 points for the Lakers, while Tim Hardaway Jr. had 17 points for the Mavericks and Christian Wood had 14.

Trailing 48-21 with 7:08 remaining in the first half, the Lakers closed the second quarter on a 10-2 run to trail 61-47 at halftime. The Los Angeles rally continued into the third quarter, as it cut the deficit to three points just over nine minutes into the period.

Los Angeles turned a five-point scoring burst by James to open the fourth quarter into an 83-81 lead. After he tweaked his right ankle with 3:15 remaining in the third quarter, James was on the Lakers bench receiving treatment when Los Angeles opened a 93-90 lead on an Austin Reaves layup with 6:49 remaining.

The teams traded the lead until a Davis dunk with two minutes remaining and James scored inside with 1:26 left as the Lakers took a 106-103 advantage. Irving scored inside for Dallas with 32 seconds remaining before Davis scored over Doncic for a 108-105 lead with 18.8 seconds left.

–Field Level Media

DeMar DeRozan scored 11 of his game-high 29 points in the fourth quarter and Zach LaVine added 27 points to help the host Chicago Bulls defeat the Washington Wizards 102-82 on Sunday afternoon for their second straight victory.

Washington has lost two straight, as its lead over Chicago for the final spot in the Eastern Conference play-in tournament shrank to a half-game.

Coby White scored 17 points for the Bulls, who led by as many as 21 points. Nikola Vucevic added 16 points and 13 rebounds for his 39th double-double of the season, third most in the NBA.

Long-range shooting doomed both teams. The Bulls shot 8-for-30 (26.7 percent) from 3-point land, while the Wizards were 6-for-28 (21.4 percent).

Still, timely treys helped the Bulls close things out in the fourth quarter. White hit a trey to put the hosts ahead 84-72 with 8:11 to play before LaVine connected with 3:14 to go for a 16-point lead.

Chicago earned a split of the season series with Washington, with the home team winning each of the four matchups between the teams. The first three games were decided by nine combined points.

Bradley Beal had 18 points, eight assists and seven rebounds for Washington. Daniel Gafford had a double-double of 15 points and 11 rebounds, while Delon Wright (14 points) and Kyle Kuzma (10) also scored in double figures.

Chicago has limited foes to 169 points in the past two games.

The Wizards were without two starters but started strong, leading by as many as six points in the first quarter.

Washington’s Kristaps Porzingis, the team’s top rebounder and second-leading scorer entering Sunday, sat out with a left knee injury, while Monte Morris was held out with low back soreness.

Chicago led 47-45 at halftime behind the effective one-two punch of LaVine (17 points) and DeRozan (15). Gafford and Wright had 10 points apiece for the Wizards.

Washington committed eight turnovers before the break.

The Bulls have won eight of their past 11 meetings with the Wizards.

–Field Level Media

The Charlotte Hornets qualify as one of the hottest teams in the NBA while on a four-game winning streak that they take into Monday night’s matchup against the visiting Detroit Pistons.

Only two teams held longer winning streaks heading into play Sunday, and with the Pistons the only team in the Eastern Conference with a worse record than Charlotte, the Hornets will sample the role as favorite for Monday’s game.

“Just keep it going,” Charlotte guard Kelly Oubre Jr. said.

The Pistons will arrive with a four-game losing streak, although a chunk of their rare success this season has come when facing the Hornets.

The Hornets won their final two games prior to the All-Star break and came back to action and picked up where they left off, winning Friday night on the road against the Minnesota Timberwolves and Saturday night at home against the Miami Heat.

“I do think we’re playing better defensively,” Hornets coach Steve Clifford said.

It has helped the Hornets that Oubre has returned to action following an hand injury that cost him nearly two months of the season. Rookie center Mark Williams continues to emerge in a heightened role since the trade of Mason Plumlee to the Los Angeles Clippers.

“I think everybody viewed him as a talented defensive (player), rim protector,” Clifford said. “But he also has a chance to be a very good offensive player, too.”

Williams had career highs with 18 points and 20 rebounds against the Heat. No Charlotte rookie had produced a game with at least 15 points and 20 rebounds since Alonzo Mourning in 1993.

“It feels great to make those plays and to have those plays end up in a win,” Williams said. “It was electric in there for sure. The fans were loud. I think just finding a way to win was really the biggest thing. I think it’s just another stepping stone for us.”

Williams has been clicking with point guard LaMelo Ball.

“It’s just chemistry that has just grown as I’ve been playing with him more and more,” Williams said. “Playing with him is really fun and I enjoy it, for sure.”

Detroit’s last two losses have come by a combined six points to the Orlando Magic and Toronto Raptors.

“We’ve become a good rebounding team, but you’re not going to beat too many teams shooting 40 percent (from the field), 25 percent from 3,” Pistons coach Dwane Casey said.

The Pistons could receive a jolt of energy from Marvin Bagley III, who was in action Saturday for the first time since Jan. 2 due to a hand injury. He racked up 21 points and a career-high 18 rebounds in the Toronto game.

The Pistons have won just two games in February. The first of those was a 118-112 home victory Feb. 3 against the Hornets. Jaden Ivey’s 24 points led the way, although that’s one of only two games in the last 14 when the rookie guard has reached the 20-point mark.

Detroit also won at Charlotte with a 141-134 overtime victory Dec. 14. Bagley logged only 10 minutes in that game.

–Field Level Media

Trae Young scored 34 points and sank the game-winner at the buzzer to lift the Atlanta Hawks to a 129-127 win over the visiting Brooklyn Nets on Sunday for their second straight win.

The Nets tied the game at 127-127 on Cam Johnson’s 3-pointer with 7.1 seconds remaining. After a timeout, Young took the inbounds pass from Dejounte Murray, dribbled and scored on a 12-foot pullup jumper as the horn sounded.

Young, who also had eight assists, was one of three Hawks with 20-plus points, joining Murray with 28 and Bogdan Bogdanovic with 22.

Johnson led Brooklyn with 27 points. Mikal Bridges scored 24, Cam Thomas had 22 and Spencer Dinwiddie added 20 points and eight assists. The Nets have lost two straight and four of their last five games.

The Hawks picked up where they left off in scoring 136 points against Cleveland on Friday. They put up 37 in the first quarter, led by as many as 18 points and took a 64-57 lead into halftime. Both teams had key contributions off the bench — 12 points for Atlanta’s Bogdanovic, all on 3-point baskets, and 13 for Brooklyn’s Thomas.

Brooklyn continued to whittle the lead. The Nets outscored the Hawks 15-7 to start the third quarter and took a 72-71 lead when Finney-Smith tipped in his own missed shot at 8:18. Brooklyn stretched the lead to five, but Atlanta came back to regain the lead 97-94 entering the fourth.

Atlanta has scored 100-plus points in 36 straight games, the second-longest active streak in the NBA and the fourth-longest streak in franchise history.

Brooklyn leads the season series 2-1. The final meeting between the two clubs will be March 31 at Brooklyn. The Nets have won the season series for the last five years.

Atlanta continues its homestand Tuesday against Washington. Brooklyn returns home on Tuesday to host Milwaukee.

–Field Level Media

The New Orleans Pelicans are trying to hold on to a play-in spot in the Western Conference.

The Orlando Magic have some catching up to do if they’re going to grab a play-in spot in the Eastern Conference.

Both teams are struggling to reach the postseason as they prepare to meet Monday night in New Orleans.

The 10th-place Pelicans have lost both of their games since the All-Star break. After losing by five points at Toronto on Thursday, New Orleans went to New York and fell behind the Knicks by 20 points in the first quarter of a 128-106 loss on Saturday.

“The first order of business for us is we have to play harder,” Pelicans coach Willie Green said. “We have to play better and I’ve got to hold our guys more accountable, hold myself more accountable. That standard in which we played with tonight is not us.”

New York, which scored 42 first-quarter points, finished 13 of 26 on 3-pointers and New Orleans made 2 of 19.

“They kicked our butts,” Green said. “They made shots early. It demoralized us. We hung our heads. We moped. We pouted. They just ran the ball down the floor and made more shots.”

The Pelicans, who lost three of four on the road trip, are playing a home game for the first time in 17 days before leaving again for a three-game road trip. New Orleans is 20-10 at home.

“It starts with our sense of urgency,” Green said of a potential turnaround. “It starts with us playing hard. We haven’t been doing that lately or consistently.”

The Magic sit in 13th place in the East, four games out of the final play-in spot after a 121-108 home loss against 12th-place Indiana on Saturday.

“There’s always a sense of urgency when you have a chance to get a play-in spot,” forward Paolo Banchero said.

The Magic shot just 38.9 percent (35 of 90) from the floor and 20.7 percent (6 of 29) on 3-pointers. The Pacers took command by starting the third quarter with a 17-2 run that produced a 68-54 lead.

“I think something happened that we can’t let happen,” forward Franz Wagner said. “After a couple of shots being missed or us not getting what we wanted, we let it affect how we played on the other end. That’s when they made that run.”

Wagner led Orlando with 21 points, Banchero scored 19 and Markelle Fultz had 18.

Magic coach Jamahl Mosley agreed that the team allowed its offensive struggles to have a negative impact on its defense.

“That’s not really like us,” Mosley said. “First time that has happened in a while. We have to shake this one off because we have a road trip coming up.”

Orlando, which is 10-20 on the road, visits Milwaukee on Wednesday and Charlotte on Friday before returning home.

The Magic are looking to sweep the season series against the Pelicans. Wagner finished with 30 points and Orlando outscored visiting New Orleans 35-19 in the fourth quarter of a 123-110 victory on Jan. 20.

–Field Level Media

A win over the Boston Celtics a month ago was one of the early highlights of a season-saving surge for the New York Knicks.

On Monday night, the Celtics visit the Knicks in a rematch between longtime rivals as the NBA’s top team embarks upon another potentially defining stretch. The Knicks will look to continue their climb into the upper echelon of the Eastern Conference playoff race.

Both teams were off Sunday after earning victories Saturday night. The Knicks never trailed in a 128-106 victory over the visiting New Orleans Pelicans, while the Celtics edged the host Philadelphia 76ers 110-107 in a wild back-and-forth game.

The win was the fifth straight for the Knicks, who have gone 10-4 since Jan. 24 to move into sixth place and the last guaranteed playoff spot in the Eastern Conference.

New York entered Sunday 2 1/2 games ahead of the seventh-place Miami Heat as well as a half-game behind the fifth-place Brooklyn Nets and 2 1/2 games back of the fourth-place Cleveland Cavaliers. The top four teams will have home-court advantage in the first round of the playoffs.

The Knicks’ recent 10-4 run includes wins over four of the five teams ahead of them in the East — including the Celtics, whom New York edged 120-117 on the road in overtime on Jan. 26.

Monday’s game marks the beginning of a four-game stretch this week in which the Knicks will face the Celtics twice — the two teams are slated to play again at Boston next Sunday — as well as the Nets and Heat.

“We knew we had this challenge coming off the break,” said power forward Julius Randle, who scored 74 points in the Knicks’ first two games following the All-Star break. “We knew that before we went to break. So I think mentally we prepared for it.”

The defending Eastern Conference champion Celtics have gotten a further taste of postseason-like intensity while going 9-2 since their loss to the Knicks. The run has helped them to maintain their slim margin in the race for the No. 1 seed.

Boston entered Sunday one game ahead of the second-place Milwaukee Bucks and four games ahead of the third-place 76ers.

After squandering a 10-point halftime lead and outlasting the Indiana Pacers 142-138 in overtime on Thursday night, the Celtics fell behind 67-52 early in the third quarter Saturday against the 76ers before mounting a 45-20 run to take a 97-87 lead midway through the fourth.

The 76ers then stormed back before the Celtics’ Jayson Tatum drained the game-winning 26-footer with 1.3 seconds left. Philadelphia superstar Joel Embiid followed by hitting a potentially game-tying 75-footer, but the ball did not leave his hand before the buzzer.

“Our guys have been there,” said first-year Celtics head coach Joe Mazzulla, who was an assistant with Boston last season. “They’ve been through it all.”

–Field Level Media

Jrue Holiday scored 33 points, Brook Lopez recorded 22 points and 13 rebounds and the Milwaukee Bucks rallied despite playing without Giannis Antetokounmpo, picking up their 14th consecutive win in a 104-101 decision over the visiting Phoenix Suns on Sunday.

Antetokounmpo was a scratch from the lineup, stemming from exiting Milwaukee’s win over the Miami Heat on Friday with a quad contusion. Despite playing without the 31.2 points-per-game scorer, the Bucks led Sunday’s rematch of the 2021 NBA Finals for the entirety of the second and third quarters — but never by more than 11 points.

Staying in striking distance allowed Phoenix to surge ahead in the fourth quarter, building a lead of as many as seven points in the period.

Deandre Ayton scored the last of his 22 points on a layup with 5:47 remaining, giving the Suns their biggest lead. Ayton also grabbed a team-high 11 rebounds and blocked three shots.

From there, the Bucks went on a 13-4 run that spanned 3:15. Phoenix scored only one field goal over that stretch and went more than five minutes total without scoring from the floor. The Milwaukee run culminated with Holiday knocking down a go-ahead 3-pointer to give the Bucks a 100-98 lead with 2:12 left.

Milwaukee took the lead for good when Lopez scored at the rim with 24.8 seconds left off of a Khris Middleton assist.

Former Suns forward Jae Crowder — part of the deal for Phoenix to acquire Kevin Durant from Brooklyn — made back-to-back 3-pointers during the pivotal Milwaukee run for six of his seven points on the game.

Crowder also provided critical defense against leading Suns scorer Devin Booker, who scored 24 points — including a jumper to tie the score at 100 with 33 seconds remaining — but committed a critical turnover with 11.3 seconds to go.

Booker also missed 2 of 3 free throws awarded when he was fouled on a 3-point attempt with 0.9 left and Phoenix trailing by four points.

–Field Level Media

The Charlotte Hornets converted rookie guard Bryce McGowens’ contract to a four-year, $7.4 million deal, ESPN reported Sunday, with the fourth year a team option.

McGowens, 20, was a second-round selection by the Minnesota Timberwolves out of Nebraska in the 2022 draft and was traded to the Hornets on draft night.

He was on a two-way deal with Charlotte, scoring 4.1 points with 1.7 rebounds and 1.0 assists in 26 games (one start).

McGowens was inactive for the Hornets’ past two games after scoring 11 points in 26 minutes of a victory against the San Antonio Spurs on Feb. 15. He has five double-digit point efforts this season, including a career-best 12 points against the Memphis Grizzlies on Nov. 4.

–Field Level Media

Free agent guard Michael Carter-Williams will return to the Orlando Magic on a two-year contract, The Athletic reported Sunday.

Carter-Williams, 31, played three seasons with the Magic, through the 2020-21 season, but did not play last season following left ankle surgery. He was waived by Orlando in February of last year. The second year of his new deal is a team option.

In three seasons with the Magic, Carter-Williams averaged 7.5 points, 3.3 assists and 1.0 steals per game.

His best season came as a rookie in 2013-14 when he scored 16.7 points with 6.3 assists and 6.2 rebounds after he was the 11th overall draft pick out of Syracuse, earning Rookie of the Year honors with Philadelphia.

In eight NBA seasons, Carter Williams has averaged 10.3 points, 4.4 rebounds and 4.4 assists in 391 games (217 starts) for the Sixers, Magic, Milwaukee Bucks, Charlotte Hornets, Chicago Bulls and Houston Rockets.

–Field Level Media