Donovan Mitchell scores 37 points, takes over in 3rd in Cavaliers' 120-105 win over Clippers

CLEVELAND (AP) — Donovan Mitchell scored 37 points and took over when the game got close, leading the Cleveland Cavaliers to a 120-105 victory over the Los Angeles Clippers on Sunday night.

Mitchell helped the Cavs pull away with a flurry of plays late in the third quarter. He finished with five 3-pointers, eight rebounds and six assists.

Evan Mobley had 18 points and 10 rebounds and De'Andre Hunter scored 17 points as Cleveland went 4-2 on a six-game homestand.

Ivica Zubac paced the Clippers with 33 points — two off his career high — and 18 rebounds.

James Harden, who ha d a franchise-record 55 points for Los Angeles in a win at Charlotte on Saturday, missed all eight 3-point shots and finished with 19 points.

Kawhi Leonard scored 20 points in his return to the Clippers' lineup after missing 10 games with a sprained right ankle. LA went 2-8 while Leonard was out.

Los Angeles trimmed a 13-point deficit to one in the third when Mitchell went to work.

The six-time All-Star had consecutive 3-point plays, dropped a 3-pointer and had two assists in the final 3:06 as the Cavs closed the quarter with a 15-3 run to open a 92-79 lead.

Mitchell then made another 3-pointer and had two more assists in the opening minutes of the fourth as the Cavs pushed their lead to 18.

The Cavaliers were without several key players as starting center Jarrett Allen (finger) and guards Lonzo Ball (knee), Sam Merrill (hand) and Craig Porter Jr. (hamstring) sat with injuries.

Cleveland has played 10 different starting lineups while combating injuries.

Clippers guard Chris Paul picked up five assists in 17 minutes. Paul announced his retirement on Saturday via social media, and the 12-time All-Star received a warm ovation from Cleveland's crowd when he checked into the game.

Clippers: At Los Angeles Lakers on Tuesday night.

Cavaliers: At Toronto on Monday night.

AP NBA: https://apnews.com/hub/NBA

Los Angeles Clippers forward John Collins, front, shoots in front of Cleveland Cavaliers center Evan Mobley, rear, in the first half of an NBA basketball game Sunday, Nov. 23, 2025, in Cleveland. (AP Photo/Sue Ogrocki)

Cleveland Cavaliers center Evan Mobley (4) shoots between Los Angeles Clippers forward Kawhi Leonard, left, and center Ivica Zubac (40) in the first half of an NBA basketball game Sunday, Nov. 23, 2025, in Cleveland. (AP Photo/Sue Ogrocki)

Los Angeles Clippers guard Kobe Sanders, left, and Cleveland Cavaliers guard Jaylon Tyson (20) reach for the ball in the first half of an NBA basketball game Sunday, Nov. 23, 2025, in Cleveland. (AP Photo/Sue Ogrocki)

Cleveland Cavaliers forward De'Andre Hunter, top, goes to the basket between Indiana Pacers guard T.J. McConnell (9) and forward Isaiah Jackson, right, in the second half of an NBA Cup basketball game Friday, Nov. 21, 2025, in Cleveland. (AP Photo/Sue Ogrocki)

Cleveland Cavaliers guard Donovan Mitchell, right, looks to shoot as Indiana Pacers center Jay Huff (32) defends in the second half of an NBA Cup basketball game Friday, Nov. 21, 2025, in Cleveland. (AP Photo/Sue Ogrocki)

CAPE TOWN, South Africa (AP) — A mass shooting carried out Saturday by multiple suspects in an unlicensed bar near the South African capital left at least 12 people dead, police said. The victims included three children aged 3, 12 and 16.

Another 13 people were wounded and being treated in the hospital. Police didn’t give details of the ages of those who were injured or their conditions.

Police adjusted the death toll after they said a 12th victim died in the hospital.

The shooting happened at a bar inside a hostel in the Saulsville township west of the administrative capital of Pretoria in the early hours of Saturday. Ten of the victims died at the scene and two others died at the hospital, police said.

The children killed were a 3-year-old boy, a 12-year-old boy and a 16-year-old girl. Police said they were searching for three male suspects.

“We are told that at least three unknown gunmen entered this hostel where a group of people were drinking and they started randomly shooting,” police spokesperson Brig. Athlenda Mathe told national broadcaster SABC. She said the motive for the killings was not clear. The shootings happened at around 4.15 a.m., she said, but police were only alerted at 6 a.m.

South Africa has one of the highest homicide rates in the world and recorded more than 26,000 homicides in 2024 — an average of more than 70 a day. Firearms are by far the leading cause of death in homicides.

The country of 62 million people has relatively strict gun ownership laws, but many killings are committed with illegal guns, authorities say.

There have been several mass shootings at bars — sometimes called shebeens or taverns in South Africa — in recent years, including one that killed 16 people in the Johannesburg township of Soweto in 2022. On the same day, four people were killed in a mass shooting at a bar in another province.

Mathe said that mass shootings at unlicensed bars were becoming a serious problem and police had shut down more than 11,000 illegal taverns between April and September this year and arrested more than 18,000 people for involvement in illegal liquor sales.

Recent mass killings in South Africa have not been confined to bars, however. Police said 18 people were killed, 15 of them women, in mass shootings minutes apart at two houses on the same road in a rural part of Eastern Cape province in September last year.

Seven men were arrested for those shootings and face multiple charges of murder, while police recovered three AK-style assault rifles they believe were used in the shootings.

AP Africa news: https://apnews.com/hub/africa

A man sits outside a scene where the bodies of the victims of a mass shooting were found, at a bar near Pretoria, South Africa, Saturday, Dec. 6, 2025. (AP Photo/STR)

Forensic personnel is seen at a scene where bodies of the victims of a mass shooting where found at a bar near Pretoria, South Africa, Saturday, Dec. 6, 2025. (AP Photo)

Police officers carry the body of a person on a stretcher after a mass shooting at a bar near Pretoria, South Africa, Saturday, Dec. 6, 2025. (AP Photo)