NBA roundup: Mitchell scores 36 as Cavs beat Bulls to remain perfect

Donovan Mitchell scored a season-high 36 points and Evan Mobley had a double-double of 15 points and 11 rebounds and the visiting Cleveland Cavaliers remained undefeated with a 119-113 win against the Chicago Bulls on Monday.

Cleveland continued the best start in franchise history with its 12th victory in as many games. The Cavaliers trailed by nine points in the third quarter but recovered to keep coach Kenny Atkinson unblemished in his first season on the Cavaliers’ bench.

Mitchell drilled seven 3-pointers and had eight rebounds. The Bulls shot 49.4 percent but committed 21 turnovers leading to 35 Cavaliers points.

Zach LaVine hit a turnaround fadeaway jumper with 5:06 left to tie the game at 106. The Cavaliers scored 13 of the game’s last 20 points.

LaVine sparked six Bulls players in double figures with 26 points. Coby White and Nikola Vucevic both followed with 20 points and Josh Giddey (18), Patrick Williams (13) and Ayo Dosunmu (10) were next.

Williams grabbed 10 rebounds for a double-double. Giddey added eight boards and seven assists.

Darius Garland scored 17 points for Cleveland. Georges Niang, Ty Jerome and Caris LeVert added 12 each.

Dosunmu swished a pair of free throws with 4:26 remaining in the third quarter to stretch the Chicago advantage to 85-76, its largest lead of the night.

Cleveland responded with nine straight points over the next 1:33 to tie the game. Another pair of Dosunmu free throws gave the Bulls the upper hand again, but they never led after the 2:24 mark of the quarter as the Cavaliers closed the third on a 19-7 run.

LeVert contributed seven points during the surge.

Cleveland led 67-66 at halftime behind a 25-point effort from Mitchell, who went 9-for-15 from the field before the break. He twisted for a cutting, 360-degree layup as part of a 10-0 run early in the second quarter.

Five double-figure scorers helped keep Chicago afloat, with White (16) and LaVine (13) setting the pace.

Jalen Smith, who was coming off a 10-point night during Saturday’s win at Atlanta, missed the game for the Bulls due to illness.

Cleveland has won eight of the past nine meetings against Chicago.

Wembanyama’s double-double helps Spurs wallop Kings

Victor Wembanyama amassed 34 points and 14 rebounds to lead the San Antonio Spurs to a 116-96 win on Monday night over the visiting Sacramento Kings.

Sacramento was playing the second game of a road back-to-back and was worse for wear in the second half when the Kings were outscored by San Antonio 56-41.

The Spurs expanded a five-point lead at halftime to 13 points with a stirring third-quarter run and didn’t allow the Kings to get back into the game. Despite San Antonio’s lead, both teams played their starters into the final minutes, with Wembanyama wrapping up his stellar evening with a putback dunk with 58 seconds to play.

He was 13 of 22 from the field, including 6 of 12 from 3-point range, and made both free throws. Wembanyama added six assists, three blocks and one steal.

Julian Champagnie added 13 points for the Spurs, with Devin Vassell and Chris Paul hitting for 12 each, Keldon Johnson scoring 11 and Harrison Barnes and Stephon Castle tallying 10 apiece. Paul also had 11 assists.

De’Aaron Fox led the Kings with 24 points while Domantas Sabonis racked up 23 points and 11 boards and DeMar DeRozan scored 21 points.

Malik Monk, the Kings’ stellar sixth man, did not suit up after injuring his right ankle in an OT win at Phoenix on Sunday.

The Spurs built a five-point edge at the 6:22 mark of the first quarter on a Castle 3-pointer before Sacramento answered, leapfrogging to the front at 21-20 when Sabonis scored on a running layup with 2:57 remaining in the period. The Kings led 26-22 lead after 12 minutes of play.

Sacramento stoked its advantage to nine points early in the second quarter, but the Spurs swung back, retaking the lead at 37-36 when Wembanyama canned a 3-pointer with 7:38 to play in the period. The lead switched hands three times over the remaining minutes of the half until San Antonio reeled off a 5-0 run to garner a 60-55 edge at the break.

Wembanyama’s 16 points led all scorers at halftime while Barnes added 10 for the Spurs. Sabonis had 12 points for Sacramento, with DeRozan hitting for 11.

San Antonio led by four points a minute and a half into the third before ripping off a 10-0 run culminated by Champagnie’s layup with 6:40 to play in the period. Wembanyama made a driving layup with 57 seconds remaining to give the Spurs an 84-71 advantage heading into the final quarter.

Gilgeous-Alexander pours in 45, lifts Thunder past Clippers

Shai Gilgeous-Alexander scored a career-high 45 points to lead the host Oklahoma City Thunder to a 134-128 win over the Los Angeles Clippers on Monday night.

Oklahoma City is 3-0 this season on the second night of a back-to-back. The loss snapped a four-game winning streak by the Clippers.

The Clippers cut what was a 20-point deficit to three with just more than two minutes remaining before Gilgeous-Alexander answered with a step-back 3-pointer.

Ivica Zubac’s three-point play with 42 seconds left cut the deficit to 130-128 before Gilgeous-Alexander hit a pair of free throws and Luguentz Dort had a steal leading to a Jalen Williams dunk in the closing seconds to put the game away.

Playing a day after Chet Holmgren suffered a pelvic fracture in a loss to Golden State, the Thunder leaned heavily on Gilgeous-Alexander and Williams.

Gilgeous-Alexander was 13 of 21 from the field and hit a season-high four 3-pointers while Williams added 28 points on 11-of-16 shooting.

The Thunder shot 51.6 percent from the floor and were 22 of 23 from the free-throw line. Holmgren will be evaluated in eight to 10 weeks, the Thunder announced before the game.

Playing without Holmgren, and with several other frontcourt players injured as well, the Thunder went with a smaller lineup.

Oklahoma City thrived for much of the game after starting Williams with Aaron Wiggins and Dort in the frontcourt.

The Thunder led for much of the game, building their lead to 20 by midway through the third.

But the Clippers finally had success on the interior over the last half of the quarter, reeling off a 25-10 run to cut the deficit to five heading into the fourth.

Zubac had six points and a block during the run, while Norman Powell had 12 points.

Powell had a pair of steals in the final two minutes of the quarter that led to points on the other end.

Powell scored 18 of his 31 points in the third quarter and finished with five 3-pointers.

Zubac finished with 22 points and 14 rebounds as the Clippers outrebounded Oklahoma City 56-34.

Sengun dominates as Houston knocks off Wizards

Alperen Sengun produced his eighth double-double and helped the Houston Rockets fend off a fourth-quarter charge from the visiting Washington Wizards in a 107-92 victory on Monday.

Sengun paired 27 points with 17 rebounds to pace the Rockets, who overcame the absence of point guard Fred VanVleet (hamstring). Houston recorded only 13 assists, relying on transition opportunities and a dominant performance from Sengun in the paint to survive.

Kyle Kuzma scored eight points during an 11-4 Wizards run that opened the fourth and cut the deficit to 86-80. Following a Houston timeout, Sengun converted a dunk and a driving layup before nailing a 3-pointer to help the Rockets reclaim control and a double-digit lead at 93-80.

Jalen Green added 18 points for the Rockets. Amen Thompson added 13 points, eight rebounds and four steals, while Aaron Holiday and Jabari Smith Jr. tallied 11 points each.

Houston recorded 23 fast-break points and dominated the Wizards on the glass, finishing with a 58-34 rebounding advantage, with Smith chipping in nine boards and Tari Eason adding 10 points, six rebounds and three steals.

Kuzma led the Wizards, who have dropped five consecutive games, with 18 points. However, he needed 18 shots to reach that total, reflecting the poor shooting from the Wizards (35.5 percent). Jordan Poole missed 9 of 14 shots en route to 11 points, while Alexandre Sarr, the second overall pick in the NBA draft, shot 2 of 9 for five points.

Both the Rockets and Wizards quickly recovered from ragged starts.

In the first quarter, Washington got a combined 15 points from Carlton Carrington and Bilal Coulibaly to offset a balanced scoring attack from Houston, which got six points apiece from Smith, Sengun and Green. Washington shot 52.2 percent in the opening period but trailed 30-28 entering the second due partly to the Rockets’ aggressiveness, which yielded 10 free throws compared to four for the Wizards.

When the Rockets threatened to run away late in the second, Kuzma helped the Wizards fashion a response. Houston extended to its largest lead of the half at 55-40 on back-to-back steals and transition layups from Green and Eason. But Kuzma drilled a 3-pointer and converted a driving layup to pull Washington to within 57-49 at the intermission.

The Rockets shot 51.2 percent before the break despite recording only four assists.