ORLANDO, Fla. (AP) — Franz Wagner had 34 points and 13 rebounds, and the Orlando Magic held the Cleveland Cavaliers scoreless for a second-half stretch of almost seven minutes Saturday in a 112-89 victory that tied the Eastern Conference first-round series at 2-2.
Wagner had 10 points in the first five minutes of the third quarter, matching Cleveland’s total for the entire period, when the Magic outscored them 37-10 and turned what had been a nine-point halftime deficit into their second straight romp.
Jonathan Isaac (14 points, including Orlando’s only two 3-pointers of the first half) and Markelle Fultz (12 points, four rebounds) gave the Magic major help off the bench. Paolo Banchero, who had 35 points in Orlando’s 121-83 win in Game 3 on Thursday night, finished with nine points and five assists.
Jarrett Allen had 21 points and nine rebounds for the Cavaliers. Donovan Mitchell had 18 points, all in the first half, and six assists.
THUNDER 106, PELICANS 85
NEW ORLEANS (AP) — Shai Gilgeous-Alexander scored 24 points and Oklahoma City beat New Orleans to take a 3-0 lead in their first-round playoff series.
Jalen Williams and Josh Giddey each scored 21 for the Thunder, who escaped Game 1 with a two-point victory before posting victory margins of 32 in Game 2 and 21 in Game 3.
Top-seeded Oklahoma City hit 17 of 36 (47.2%) from 3-point range and held a lead of 10 points or more throughout the second half, going up by as many as 24 in the fourth quarter.
The eighth-seeded Pelicans, who’ve been without star forward Zion Williamson during the series because of his hamstring injury, will try to avoid elimination at home in Game 4 on Monday night. But even if they do, history is not on their side. No team in NBA history has come back from a 3-0 series deficit.
CELTICS 104, HEAT 84
MIAMI (AP) — Jayson Tatum and Jaylen Brown each scored 22 points, and Boston soundly beat Miami to a take a 2-1 lead in their Eastern Conference first-round playoff series.
Tatum added 10 rebounds and six assists for the Celtics, who led Game 3 wire-to-wire and reclaimed the home-court edge that they lost when Miami won Game 2 in Boston. Kristaps Porzingis had 18 points and Derrick White scored 16 for the Celtics, who used runs of 12-3, 11-0 and 20-8 in the first half to take full control.
Bam Adebayo scored 20 points for eighth-seeded Miami, which remains without starters Jimmy Butler and Terry Rozier because of injuries. Nikola Jovic and Tyler Herro each scored 15 for the Heat, who got 12 from Jaime Jaquez Jr.
Game 4 is Monday in Miami, where the Celtics are 9-2 in their last 11 games and 6-1 in their last seven playoff games.
LAKERS 119, NUGGETS 108
LOS ANGELES (AP) — LeBron James scored 30 points, Anthony Davis added 25 points and 23 rebounds, and the Los Angeles Lakers avoided playoff elimination with a victory over Denver in Game 4 of their first-round series.
D’Angelo Russell and Austin Reaves scored 21 points apiece for the seventh-seeded Lakers, who snapped their 11-game losing streak against the defending NBA champions with their first win over the Nuggets since December 2022.
Denver swept Los Angeles out of the Western Conference finals last season, but the current Lakers responded to this 0-3 deficit with a performance more worthy of a team that rolled into the postseason with 12 wins in 15 games. James scored 14 points in the fourth quarter on 6-of-8 shooting, again carrying the Lakers late in his 21st NBA season.
Nikola Jokic had 33 points, 14 rebounds and 14 assists in the two-time MVP’s 18th career triple-double and second in this series.
Game 5 is Monday night in Denver.
Orlando Magic guard Markelle Fultz (20) makes a basket ahead of Cleveland Cavaliers center Tristan Thompson during the second half of Game 4 of an NBA basketball first-round playoff series, Saturday, April 27, 2024, in Orlando, Fla. (AP Photo/John Raoux)
RAFAH, Gaza Strip (AP) — Israeli forces were battling Palestinian militants across the Gaza Strip on Sunday, including in parts of the devastated north that the military said it had cleared months ago, where Hamas has exploited a security vacuum to regroup.
Israel has portrayed the southern Gaza city of Rafah as Hamas' last stronghold, saying it must invade in order to succeed in its goals of dismantling the group and returning scores of hostages. A limited operation there has expanded in recent days, forcing some 300,000 people to flee and drawing warnings from Egypt, where an official said it is putting the country's decades-old peace treaty with Israel at risk.
But the rest of the war-ravaged territory seems to provide ample opportunities for Hamas. Israel has yet to offer a detailed plan for postwar governance in Gaza, saying only that it will maintain open-ended security control over the coastal enclave, which is home to some 2.3 million Palestinians.
Prime Minister Benjamin Netanyahu has rejected postwar plans proposed by the United States for the Palestinian Authority, which administers parts of the Israeli-occupied West Bank, to govern Gaza with support from Arab and Muslim countries. Those plans depend on progress toward the creation of a Palestinian state, something to which Netanyahu's government is deeply opposed.
With the two close allies divided, Gaza has been left without a functioning government, leading to a breakdown in public order and allowing Hamas to reconstitute itself in even the hardest-hit areas.
Palestinians reported heavy Israeli bombardment overnight in the urban Jabaliya refugee camp and other areas in the northern Gaza Strip, which has suffered widespread devastation and been largely isolated by Israeli forces for months. U.N. officials say there is a “full-blown famine” there.
Residents said Israeli warplanes and artillery struck across the camp and the Zeitoun area east of Gaza City, where troops have been battling Palestinian militants for over a week. They have called on tens of thousands of people to relocate to nearby areas.
“It was a very difficult night,” said Abdel-Kareem Radwan, a 48-year-old Palestinian from Jabaliya. He said they could hear intense and constant bombing since midday Saturday. “This is madness.”
First responders with the Palestinian Civil Defense said they were unable to respond to multiple calls for help from both areas, as well as Rafah, on the southern edge of Gaza. Israeli troops have been battling militants there since the army seized the nearby border crossing with Egypt last week.
Rear Adm. Daniel Hagari, the top Israeli military spokesman, said troops are fighting in all parts of Gaza, “in areas where we have not yet operated and in places where we have.”
He said that in addition to Jabaliya and Zeitoun, forces were also operating in Beit Lahiya and Beit Hanoun, towns near Gaza's northern border with Israel that were heavily bombed in the opening days of the war.
The military “is now going into Jabaliya for the second time and into Zeitoun for the third time, and it will continue to go in and out,” columnist Ben Caspit wrote in Israel's Maariv daily, channeling the growing frustration felt by many Israelis more than seven months into the war.
“Hamas’ regime cannot be toppled without preparing an alternative to that regime,” he wrote, drawing comparisons with the American wars in Iraq and Afghanistan. “The only people who can govern Gaza after the war are Gazans, with a lot of support and help from the outside.”
Five Israeli soldiers were killed in Zeitoun on Friday, and Palestinian militants fired a barrage of 14 rockets toward the Israeli city of Beersheba that night. Another rocket launched overnight damaged a home in the Israeli city of Ashkelon, the military said Sunday.
The United Nations' agency for Palestinian refugees, the main provider of aid in Gaza, meanwhile said 300,000 people have fled Rafah since the operation began there. Most are heading to the heavily damaged nearby city of Khan Younis or Mawasi, a crowded tent camp on the coast where some 450,000 people are already living in squalid conditions.
Rafah was sheltering some 1.3 million Palestinians before the Israeli operation began, most of whom had fled fighting elsewhere in the territory.
Israel has now evacuated the eastern third of Rafah, and Hagari said dozens of militants had been killed there as “targeted operations continued.” The United Nations has warned that a planned full-scale Rafah invasion would further cripple humanitarian operations and cause a surge in civilian deaths.
Rafah borders Egypt near the main aid entry points, which are already affected. Israeli troops have captured the Gaza side of the Rafah crossing, forcing it to shut down. Egypt has refused to coordinate with Israel on the delivery of aid though the crossing because of “the unacceptable Israeli escalation,” the state-owned Al Qahera News television channel reported, citing an unnamed official.
A senior Egyptian official told The Associated Press that Cairo has lodged protests with Israel, the United States and European governments, saying the offensive has put its peace treaty with Israel — a cornerstone of regional stability — at high risk.
The official was not authorized to brief media and spoke on condition of anonymity.
U.S. President Joe Biden has said he won't provide offensive weapons to Israel for Rafah. On Friday, his administration said there was “reasonable” evidence that Israel had breached international law protecting civilians — Washington's strongest statement yet on the matter.
Israel rejects those allegations, saying it tries to avoid harming civilians. It blames Hamas for the high toll because the militants fight in dense, residential areas.
The war began when Hamas and other militants attacked southern Israel on Oct. 7, killing around 1,200 people, mostly civilians, and taking another 250 hostage. They still hold about 100 captives and the remains of more than 30.
Israel’s air, land and sea offensive has killed more than 34,800 Palestinians, mostly women and children, according to Gaza's Health Ministry, which doesn't distinguish between civilians and combatants in its figures. Israel says it has killed over 13,000 militants, without providing evidence.
Krauss reported from Jerusalem and Magdy from Cairo.
Follow AP’s coverage of the war at https://apnews.com/hub/israel-hamas-war
A Palestinian woman chants slogans against Israel during a protest called by Palestinian Islamic Jihad movement, in solidarity with the Palestinian people in Gaza, at the Palestinian refugee camp of Chatila in Beirut, Lebanon, Saturday, May 11, 2024. The Arabic on his headband reads: "No God but Allah and Muhammed is his messenger, top, Al-Quds Brigades, center, and The Islamic Jihad group in Palestine." (AP Photo/Hassan Ammar)
Protesters holding Palestinian flags shout slogans during a protest rally at Syntagma Square, central Athens, Greece, Saturday, May 11, 2024. Activist groups and Palestinians living in Greece rallied in front of the Parliament and marched to protest Israel's military operations in the Gaza Strip. (AP Photo/Michael Varaklas)
People protest against Israeli Prime Minister Benjamin Netanyahu's government and call for the release of hostages held in the Gaza Strip by the Hamas militant group in Tel Aviv, Israel, Saturday, May 11, 2024. (AP Photo/Ariel Schalit)
Palestinian medics treat a wounded man in the Israeli bombardment of the Gaza Strip at Al Aqsa hospital in Deir al Balah, Gaza Strip, on Saturday, May 11, 2024. (AP Photo/Saher Alghorra)
Police use water cannon to disperse demonstrators during a protest against Israeli Prime Minister Benjamin Netanyahu's government, and calling for the release of hostages held in the Gaza Strip by the Hamas militant group, in Tel Aviv, Israel, Saturday, May 11, 2024. (AP Photo/Ariel Schalit)
Palestinians mourn relatives killed in the Israeli bombardments of the Gaza Strip in front of the morgue of the Al Aqsa Hospital in Deir al Balah, Gaza Strip, on Saturday, May 11, 2024. (AP Photo/Abdel Kareem Hana)
Palestinians mourn their child relative killed in the Israeli bombardment of the Gaza Strip, at Al Aqsa Hospital in Deir al Balah, Gaza Strip, early Sunday, May 12, 2024. (AP Photo/Saher Alghorra)
Palestinians mourn their relative killed in the Israeli bombardment of the Gaza Strip, at Al Aqsa Hospital in Deir al Balah, Gaza Strip, early Sunday, May 12, 2024. (AP Photo/Saher Alghorra)
A Palestinian woman mourns her child, Mahmoud Essa, 12, who was killed in the Israeli bombardment of the Gaza Strip, at Al Aqsa Hospital in Deir al Balah, Gaza Strip, early Sunday, May 12, 2024. (AP Photo/Saher Alghorra)
