NEW ORLEANS (AP) — Austin Reaves scored 31, Luka Doncic had 24 points and 12 assists, and the Los Angeles Lakers cruised to a 118-104 victory over the New Orleans Pelicans in an NBA Cup game on Friday night.
Deandre Ayton made 10 of 11 shots and finished with 20 points, 16 rebounds, two steals and a block for the Lakers, who improved to 2-0 in cup play to remain atop West Group B.
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New Orleans Pelicans guard Jeremiah Fears (0) goes to the basket over Los Angeles Lakers guard Marcus Smart (36) in the first half of an NBA Cup basketball game, Friday, Nov. 14, 2025, in New Orleans. (AP Photo/Gerald Herbert)
Los Angeles Lakers guard Marcus Smart (36) goes to the basket past New Orleans Pelicans guard Jeremiah Fears (0) in the first half of an NBA Cup basketball game, Friday, Nov. 14, 2025, in New Orleans. (AP Photo/Gerald Herbert)
New Orleans Pelicans forward Herbert Jones (2) goes to the basket against Los Angeles Lakers forward Jarred Vanderbilt (2) in the first half of an NBA Cup basketball game, Friday, Nov. 14, 2025, in New Orleans. (AP Photo/Gerald Herbert)
Los Angeles Lakers center Deandre Ayton (5) goes to the basket against New Orleans Pelicans forward Kevon Looney (55) in the first half of an NBA Cup basketball game, Friday, Nov. 14, 2025, in New Orleans. (AP Photo/Gerald Herbert)
Los Angeles Lakers guard Luka Doncic (77) leaps for a rebound against the New Orleans Pelicans in the first half of an NBA Cup basketball game, Friday, Nov. 14, 2025, in New Orleans. (AP Photo/Gerald Herbert)
Trey Murphy III scored 35 for the Pelicans, who lost their fourth straight game, fell to 0-2 in the in-season tournament, and to a Western Conference-worst 2-10 overall.
Rui Hachimura scored 14 and Marcus Smart 13 for the Lakers, who led 65-52 at halftime after Doncic fed Ayton for an alley-oop dunk.
Doncic, Ayton and Reaves all scored during an 11-0 third quarter run that pushed Los Angeles' lead to 88-66, a surged capped by Reaves' 16-foot driving floater as he was fouled by Jose Alvarado.
The Pelicans briefly trimmed the Lakers' lead to eight when Alvarado and Saddiq Bey hit back-to-back 3s to make it 96-88 with more than eight minutes left.
Doncic hit a 12-foot fade and Reaves, who was 11 of 13 on free throws, hit five late foul shots — along with a 13-foot pullup — to help Los Angeles keep New Orleans at bay.
Murphy surpassed 34 points for the second time in four games for New Orleans. Jeremiah Fears had 19 points and eight steals, and Herb Jones scored 13, Bey scored 11 and Derik Queen grabbed 10 rebounds.
Both teams played without their biggest stars. The Lakers' LeBron James is still working his way back from a preseason bout with sciatica and the Pelicans' Zion Williamson remained sidelined by a recent left hamstring strain.
Lakers: Visit the Milwaukee Bucks on Saturday.
Pelicans: Host the Golden State Warriors on Sunday.
AP NBA: https://apnews.com/hub/nba
New Orleans Pelicans guard Jeremiah Fears (0) goes to the basket over Los Angeles Lakers guard Marcus Smart (36) in the first half of an NBA Cup basketball game, Friday, Nov. 14, 2025, in New Orleans. (AP Photo/Gerald Herbert)
Los Angeles Lakers guard Marcus Smart (36) goes to the basket past New Orleans Pelicans guard Jeremiah Fears (0) in the first half of an NBA Cup basketball game, Friday, Nov. 14, 2025, in New Orleans. (AP Photo/Gerald Herbert)
New Orleans Pelicans forward Herbert Jones (2) goes to the basket against Los Angeles Lakers forward Jarred Vanderbilt (2) in the first half of an NBA Cup basketball game, Friday, Nov. 14, 2025, in New Orleans. (AP Photo/Gerald Herbert)
Los Angeles Lakers center Deandre Ayton (5) goes to the basket against New Orleans Pelicans forward Kevon Looney (55) in the first half of an NBA Cup basketball game, Friday, Nov. 14, 2025, in New Orleans. (AP Photo/Gerald Herbert)
Los Angeles Lakers guard Luka Doncic (77) leaps for a rebound against the New Orleans Pelicans in the first half of an NBA Cup basketball game, Friday, Nov. 14, 2025, in New Orleans. (AP Photo/Gerald Herbert)
DUBAI, United Arab Emirates (AP) — Airstrikes targeting an air base in southeastern Iran killed at least 13 Iranian troops there, local media reported.
The semiofficial Tasnim news agency and the Hammihan daily newspaper reported the strike in Kerman, 800 kilometers (500 miles) southeast from Iran’s capital, Tehran.
The Kerman Air Base is known to house military helicopters.
THIS IS A BREAKING NEWS UPDATE. AP’s earlier story follows below.
DUBAI, United Arab Emirates (AP) — Iran struck the U.S. Embassy in Saudi Arabia’s capital with a drone early Tuesday as it kept hitting targets around the region, while the United States and Israel pounded Iran with airstrikes in what U.S. President Donald Trump suggested was just the start of a relentless campaign that could last more than a month.
The attack from two drones on the U.S. Embassy in Riyadh caused a “limited fire” and minor damage, according to Saudi Arabia’s Defense Ministry, and the embassy urged Americans to avoid the compound. It followed an attack on the U.S. Embassy in Kuwait, which announced Tuesday it had been closed until further notice. The U.S. State Department also ordered the evacuation of non-emergency personnel and family in Kuwait, as well as Bahrain, Iraq, Qatar and Jordan as a precaution.
Across Iran’s capital, explosions rang out throughout the night into the early morning, with witnesses describing hearing aircraft overhead. It was not immediately clear what had been hit. And in Lebanon, Israel launched more strikes on Hezbollah, the Iran-backed militia group, and said its soldiers are “operating in southern Lebanon.” Explosions could be heard and smoke seen in a southern suburb of Beirut.
The expansion of Iranian retaliation across the Gulf and the intensity of the Israeli and American attacks, the killing of Iranian Supreme Leader Ayatollah Ali Khamenei and the lack of any apparent exit plan portend a possibly prolonged conflict with far-reaching consequences.
Many countries deemed safe havens in the Mideast have been hit by Iran in retaliation for the U.S. and Israeli strikes, with recent targets including two Amazon data centers in the United Arab Emirates and a drone impact near another in Bahrain that caused damage, the company said Tuesday. Iran has also hit energy facilities in Qatar and Saudi Arabia, and attacked several ships Strait of Hormuz, the narrow mouth of the Persian Gulf through which a fifth of all oil traded passes, sending global oil and natural gas prices soaring.
“The Strait of Hormuz is closed," declared Iranian Brig. Gen. Ebrahim Jabbari, an adviser to the paramilitary Revolutionary Guard, threatening to set fire to any ships attempting to transit. “Don’t come to this region.”
The U.S. State Department urged U.S. citizens to leave more than a dozen Middle Eastern countries due to safety risks, as have many other countries, though with much of the airspace closed many remain stranded.
Trump said operations are likely to last four to five weeks but that he was prepared “to go far longer than that.”
He later added on social media that the U.S. had a “virtually unlimited supply” of munitions and pre-positioned “high grade weaponry.”
“Wars can be fought ‘forever,’ and very successfully, using just these supplies,” he wrote.
The Iranian Red Crescent Society said the U.S.-Israeli operation has killed at least 555 people. In Israel, where several locations were hit by Iranian missiles, 11 people were killed. Israel’s retaliatory strikes against Hezbollah killed 52 people in Lebanon.
“Military escalation would force more families from their homes and hit civilians hard,” said Amy Pope, director general of the International Organization on Migration as she called Tuesday for the international community to press for de-escalation.
“Millions are already displaced in the region,” she said.
The U.S. military has confirmed six deaths of American service members. All six were Army soldiers in a logistics unit in Kuwait, according to a U.S. official who was not authorized to comment publicly and spoke on condition of anonymity.
Three people were killed in the United Arab Emirates, and one each in Kuwait and Bahrain.
The chaos of the conflict became apparent when the U.S. military said Kuwait had “mistakenly shot down” three American fighter jets while Iran was attacking it with aircraft, ballistic missiles and drones. U.S. Central Command said all six pilots ejected safely.
Iranian state TV said strikes caused two explosions early Tuesday at a broadcasting facility in Tehran, but said no one was injured.
Reza Najafi, Iran’s ambassador to the International Atomic Energy Agency, told reporters that airstrikes targeted the Natanz nuclear enrichment site on Sunday.
“Their justification that Iran wants to develop nuclear weapons is simply a big lie,” he said.
Israel and the U.S. have not acknowledged strikes at the site, which the U.S. bombed in the 12-day war between Iran and Israel in June. Israel has said it is targeting the “leadership and nuclear infrastructure.”
Trump said the military campaign’s objectives are to destroy Iran’s missile capabilities, wipe out its navy, prevent it from obtaining a nuclear weapon and ensure that it cannot continue to support allied groups like Lebanon’s Hezbollah, which fired missiles at Israel on Monday.
Iran has said it has not enriched uranium since June, though it has maintained its right to do so and says its nuclear program is peaceful.
Israeli Prime Minister Benjamin Netanyahu maintained, however, that Iran was rebuilding “new sites, new places” underground for making atomic bombs in an interview broadcast late Monday on Fox News Channel’s Hannity.
“We had to take the action now and we did,” said Netanyahu, who offered no evidence to support his claim.
Satellite photos analyzed by The Associated Press showed limited activity at two nuclear sites in Iran before the war. Analysts said Tehran was likely assessing damage from the 2025 U.S. strikes and possibly salvaging what remained.
The conflict has also spread to Lebanon, where the Iranian-supported militant group Hezbollah fired missiles at Israel on Monday, prompting Israel to retaliate.
At least 52 people have been killed and 154 wounded so far, according to Lebanese authorities.
Israel hit Beirut with more airstrikes early Tuesday morning, saying it was targeting “Hezbollah command centers and weapons storage facilities.”
Hezbollah also said it launched drones targeting an Israeli air base. The Israeli military said it downed two drones.
An Iranian-linked militant in Iraq has also claimed strikes on U.S. military facilities there. The Israeli military said its troops operating in southern Lebanon were positioned at several points near the border in what it described as a “forward defense posture.”
It said the deployment is part of a broader effort to increase security for residents in northern Israel near the border with Lebanon. It has also beefed up troops and air defenses in the area.
The army said there are no plans to evacuate Israeli residents of border areas.
Melanie Lidman in Tel Aviv, Israel, Hallie Golden in Seattle, Washington and Giovanna Dell'Orto in Miami contributed to this report. Rising reported from Bangkok and Magdy from Cairo.
Smoke rises from Israeli airstrikes in Dahiyeh, a southern suburb of Beirut, Lebanon, Tuesday, March 3, 2026. (AP Photo/Hussein Malla)
Smoke rises from Israeli airstrikes in Dahiyeh, a southern suburb of Beirut, Lebanon, early Tuesday, March 3, 2026. (AP Photo/Bilal Hussein)
This image provided by U.S. Central Command shows a F-35C Lightning II preparing for launch on the flight deck of the USS Abraham Lincoln (CVN 72) in support of Operation Epic Fury on Monday, March 2, 2026. (U.S. Navy via AP)
Mourners take cover while air-raid sirens warn of incoming missiles launched by Iran toward Israel during the funeral of Sarah Elimelech and her daughter Ronit who were killed in an Iranian missile attack, in Beit Shemesh, Israel, Monday, March 2, 2026. (AP Photo/Ohad Zwigenberg)
A worker instals a billboard on an overpass containing a portrait of the late Iranian Supreme Leader Ayatollah Ali Khamenei, who was killed during the ongoing joint U.S.-Israeli military campaign, in Tehran, Iran, Monday, March 2, 2026. (AP Photo/Vahid Salemi)
Smoke engulfs a street after a strike in Tehran, Iran, Monday, March 2, 2026. (AP Photo/Mohsen Ganji)
