LAS VEGAS (AP) — Jalen Brunson scored at least 30 points for the fourth consecutive game, his season-high 40 leading the Knicks past the Orlando Magic 132-120 on Saturday and putting New York in the NBA Cup final.
The Knicks, who have won five in a row and nine of 10, will play San Antonio on Tuesday night for the championship.
Brunson also had eight assists and made 16 of 27 shots, including a 3-pointer in the third quarter after Orlando’s Anthony Black fell backward onto the floor. Karl-Anthony Towns had 29 points and OG Anunoby scored 24 for the Knicks.
Jalen Suggs scored 25 of his 26 points in the first half for the Magic before leaving in the fourth quarter because of a sore left hip. Paolo Banchero added 25 points and Desmond Bane scored 18.
SPURS 111, THUNDER 109
LAS VEGAS (AP) — Victor Wembanyama returned from a 12-game absence with 22 points and nine rebounds, giving San Antonio a surge and Oklahoma City just its second loss.
The Spurs play the New York Knicks in Tuesday night’s final.
Oklahoma’s last defeat was Nov. 5 at Portland, and the Thunder carried a 16-game winning streak into this game. They now are 24-2, the second-best start behind only the 25-1 record by Golden State in 2015-16.
This is the Thunder’s second loss in a row in Las Vegas. They also lost last year’s final to Milwaukee 97-81.
Wembanyama, who received “M-V-P” chants from the pro-Spurs crowd, had a plus-21 rating in 21 minutes. Teammate Devin Vassell scored 23 points and De’Aaron Fox and Stephon Castle each scored 22.
Shai Gilgeous-Alexander led the Thunder with 29 points, Chet Holmgren and Jalen Williams each totaled 17.
New York Knicks center Mitchell Robinson (23) grabs a rebound near Orlando Magic center Wendell Carter Jr. (34) during the first half of an NBA Cup semifinals basketball game, Saturday, Dec. 13, 2025, in Las Vegas. (AP Photo/Ronda Churchill)
BUNIA, Congo (AP) — A tent used for treatment of the Ebola outbreak in eastern Congo was set on fire for the second time this week, and 18 people suspected of infection escaped, a local hospital director said Saturday.
Unidentified people arrived at the clinic in Mongbwalu, a town at the center of the outbreak of the Bundibugyo virus, a rare type of Ebola, on Friday night and set fire to a tent set up by the Doctors Without Borders humanitarian group for suspected and confirmed Ebola cases, Dr. Richard Lokudi, director of the Mongbwalu General Reference Hospital, told The Associated Press.
“We strongly condemn this act, as it caused panic among the staff of the Mongbwalu Referral Hospital and also resulted in the escape of 18 suspected cases into the community," he said.
On Thursday, another treatment center in the town of Rwampara was burned down after family members were prohibited from retrieving the body of a local man.
The bodies of those who died of Ebola can be highly contagious and lead to further spread when people prepare them for burial and gather for funerals. The dangerous work of burying suspected victims is being managed wherever possible by authorities, which can be met by protests from families and friends.
A burial for Ebola patients in Rwampara took place on Saturday under tight security as tensions between health workers and the local community ran high, said David Basima, a team leader with the Red Cross overseeing burials.
“Arriving at the (healthcare) structure, we experienced a lot of difficulties, including resistance from young people and the community. So we were forced to alert the authorities so that they could come to our aid, just for safety,” said Basima.
Authorities in northeastern Congo on Friday banned funeral wakes and gatherings of more than 50 people in an effort to curb the spread of the virus. The World Health Organization said that the outbreak now poses a “very high” risk for Congo — up from a previous categorization of “high” — but that the risk of the disease spreading globally remains low.
WHO Director-General Tedros Adhanom Ghebreyesus said Friday that 82 cases and seven deaths have been confirmed in Congo, but that the outbreak is believed to be “much larger.”
There is no available vaccine for the Bundibugyo virus, which spread undetected for weeks in Congo’s Ituri province following the first known death while authorities tested for another, more common, Ebola virus and came up negative. There are now 750 suspected cases and 177 suspected deaths, though more are expected as surveillance expands.
Dr. Jean Kaseya, director-general of the Africa Centers for Disease Control and Prevention, said a response to the outbreak must include building trust with communities.
The International Federation of Red Cross and Red Crescent Societies said on Saturday that three of its volunteers had died from the outbreak in Mongbwalu. The agency said it believed the three healthcare workers contracted the virus while carrying out dead body management activities on March 27 as part of a humanitarian mission unrelated to Ebola.
This would significantly push back the timeline of the outbreak from the previous first confirmed death in late April in the town of Bunia, the capital of Ituri.
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McMakin reported from Dakar, Senegal.
A sanitation worker from the Bunia city government sprays chlorine to disinfect the central market, as Ituri province continues to combat an Ebola outbreak, in Bunia, Congo, Saturday, May 23, 2026. (AP Photo/Moses Sawasawa)
Motorcycle taxi riders and their passengers wait at the entrance to the central market while sanitation workers disinfect the area, as Ituri province continues to combat an Ebola outbreak in Bunia, Congo, Saturday, May 23, 2026. (AP Photo/Moses Sawasawa)
Members of the Congo Scouts movement carry an Ebola awareness banner along a street during a public sensitisation campaign amid the Ebola outbreak in Bunia, Congo, Saturday, May 23, 2026. (AP Photo/Moses Sawasawa)
Motorcycle taxi riders and their passengers wait at the entrance to the central market while sanitation workers disinfect the area, as Ituri province continues to combat an Ebola outbreak in Bunia, Congo, Saturday, May 23, 2026. (AP Photo/Moses Sawasawa)
A sanitation worker from the Bunia city government sprays chlorine to disinfect the central market, as Ituri province continues to combat an Ebola outbreak, in Bunia, Congo, Saturday, May 23, 2026. (AP Photo/Moses Sawasawa)
Sanitation workers from Bunia city government spray disinfectant in the central market area near a rubbish truck in Ituri province, as they continue efforts to combat the Ebola outbreak in Bunia, Congo, Saturday, May 23, 2026. (AP Photo/Moses Sawasawa)
