sport news NBA ROUND-UP: Brooklyn Nets extend their winning streak to 11 with victory over ... trends now
The Brooklyn Nets ran their winning streak to 11, beating the Charlotte Hornets 123-106 on Saturday night.
Brooklyn never trailed and led by 10 points in the first quarter, 15 in the second, 18 in the third and 22 in the fourth to improve to 24-12.
Kyrie Irving scored 18 of his 28 points in the first half, Kevin Durant added 23 points.
The Brooklyn Nets ran their winning streak to 11, beating the Charlotte Hornets 123-106
'We held them to 22 points in the first quarter, so we put our stamp on the game in a hurry,' Nets coach Jacque Vaughn said. 'I think we were able to use or rotations and depth to extends our leads a little bit.
'We wanted to come out with the right mindset, which we did.
Royce O´Neale and Nic Claxton added 14 points apiece for Brooklyn, Yuta Watanabe had 11 and T.J. Warren 10.
LaMelo Ball had 23 points, seven rebounds and 11 assists for Charlotte. Mason Plumlee added 22 points. The Hornets dropped to 10-27.
Kevin Durant (right) scored added 23 points to Kyrie Irving's haul of 28 points
After Charlotte cut it to 71-65 early in the third quarter, Irving and Durant combined to score 11 of the Nets´ next 13 points and sparked Brooklyn´s 28-14 surge for a 97-79 lead entering the fourth quarter.
'We knew that this team could get hot,' Durant said about Charlotte. 'They hit some 3s there in the first half so we knew they could get hot there in the third quarter. And they did. They cut it to six.
'We've been in this position before so we knew what to do. And the first play out of the timeout, we executed and finished with a win.'
DALLAS MAVERICKS 126-125 SAN ANTONIO SPURS
Luka Doncic scored 51 points and the Dallas Mavericks escaped with a 126-125 victory over the San Antonio Spurs on Saturday night for their sixth straight victory.
Doncic had his third 50-point outing in his past five games, including 60 points, 21 rebounds and 10 assists Tuesday night in an overtime victory over New York. He's the first player in NBA history with 250-plus points, 50-plus rebounds and 50-plus assists in a five-game span.
Christian Wood added 25 points in Dallas´ fifth straight victory over San Antonio.
sizzling Luka Doncic (left) had his third 50-point outing in his past five games in Mavs' win
Keldon Johnson had 30 points for Sam Antonio, Jeremy Sochan added 20 and Jakob Poeltl had 19 points and 15 rebounds.
After leading by 17 points, the Mavericks had to scramble in the final minute.
San Antonio guard Tre Jones was fouled by Dallas forward Davis Bertans after Jones intentionally missed the second of two free throws with the Spurs trailing 126-124. Jones then made the first free throw, but missed the second.
NEW YORK KNICKS 108-88 HOUSTON ROCKETS
The New York Knicks snapped a five-game skid with a 108-88 win over the Houston Rockets as Julius Randle scored 35 points and Immanuel Quickley added 27 on Saturday night.
'It´s the nature of the league,' coach Tom Thibodeau said. 'You win eight in a row and then you have some tough losses ... that´s part of it. How do you respond to it? We took a haymaker ... and we bounced back.'
Julius Randle (center) racked up 35 points to help the Knicks to end their five-game skid
The Rockets led for most of the first half, but the Knicks went on top just before the break and lead by double-digits for most of the second half.
Houston cut the lead to eight points on a basket by Tari Eason with about nine minutes to go before the Knicks scored the next seven points, capped by a 3 from Evan Fournier that made it 91-76.
The Rockets scored the next four points, but New York answered with an 8-0 run, with 3s from Quickley and Quentin Grimes, to extend the lead to 99-80 with about four minutes to go.
CLEVELAND CAVALIERS 103-102 CHICAGO BULLS
Caris LeVert scored 23 points, Kevin Love added 20 points and nine rebounds and the Cleveland Cavaliers ended a three-game skid with a 103-102 victory over the Chicago Bulls on Saturday night.
DeMar DeRozan had 21 points and Ayo Dosunmu added 19 for Chicago, which had won two straight.
'We did everything we could to lose that game, but we just have to survive and advance,' said Love, who made five 3-pointers. 'It felt like March Madness tonight.
The Cleveland Cavaliers ended a three-game skid with a 103-102 win over the Chicago Bulls
'Really ugly game, but again, we have to win ugly sometimes and we´re thankful we did that.'
Cleveland led 84-77 after three quarters and never trailed in the