PHILADELPHIA (AP) — Jalen Brunson scored 31 points, OG Anunoby added 23 and the New York Knicks followed their most lopsided win in franchise history with a 112-109 victory over the Philadelphia 76ers on Saturday.
The Knicks crushed the Nets 120-66 on Wednesday and then exploded with a 30-point third quarter in a stiffer road test that sent them to their first win in three tries this season over the 76ers.
Joel Embiid had 38 points and 11 rebounds, but turned the ball over on the final play of the game after the Knicks seemingly tried to intentionally foul him. Tyrese Maxey scored 22 points for the Sixers but shot an airball on a late tying 3-point attempt from near halfcourt as he anticipated an intentional foul that didn’t come.
The 76ers had pulled within two late until Anunoby and Landry Shamet followed with consecutive 3s that helped the Knicks stave off the late-game collapse.
Led by Brunson, the Knicks opened the quarter on a 21-7 run and made Philly sound a bit like the inside of Madison Square Garden. The “Let’s go Knicks!” chants that had largely been tamped down by boos in a competitive first half, instead filled the arena with each big Knicks bucket.
Brunson gave a little wave after he buried a 3 for an 84-72 lead. Embiid tried to rally the Sixers and his three-point play in the fourth — aided by a sixth foul on Karl-AnthonyTowns — cut it to 98-92.
It wasn’t enough and a Knicks team that had lost nine of its previous 11 games heading into the Nets game has now won two straight. Modest, yes, but good enough to ensure the Sixers didn’t gain ground on them in the East standings.
HORNETS 119, WIZARDS 115
CHARLOTE, N.C. (AP) — Brandon Miller scored 21 points as the Charlotte Hornets beat Washington, sending the Wizards to their ninth straight loss.
Miles Bridges and LaMelo Ball each scored 20 points, Kon Knueppel added 16 and Moussa Diabate 11 as the Hornets won consecutive games for the first time since January 3-5 against Chicago and Oklahoma City.
Tre Johnson had career-highs of 26 points and six assists for the Wizards, who, according to the Elias Sports Bureau, fielded the youngest starting lineup, by average age, since the NBA began tracking starters in 1970-71. Washington’s starting five, at an average age of 20.64 years old, beat the previous youngest lineup of 20.74, fielded by Oklahoma City on April 10, 2021 against Philadelphia.
CAVALIERS 119, MAGIC 105
ORLANDO, Fla. (AP) — Donovan Mitchell scored 27 of his 36 points in the second half and Cleveland pulled away to a win over Orlando.
Jaylon Tyson added 17 points for the Cavaliers and Evan Mobley had 13 points and seven rebounds.
Paolo Banchero led the Magic with 27 points. Desmond Bane added 20 points and Anthony Black finished with 16 points, five rebounds and five assists.
Jalen Suggs returned after missing eight games with a bruised right knee and had 9 points and six assists in 24 minutes for Orlando.
Playing without Darius Garland (sore toe) and DeAndre Hunter (sore knee), the Cavaliers won for the fifth time in six games.
After Mitchell scored on four layups and a short bank shot in the third quarter, Cleveland got 3-pointers from Lonzo Ball, Mobley and Tyrese Proctor in the first 3 1/2 minutes of the fourth quarter to take a 97-79 lead, the largest of the game.
Banchero hit three 3-pointers in the final period, but the Magic could get no closer than nine.
Mitchell made 15 of 30 shots and had nine assists and two steals.
BULLS 114, CELTICS 111
CHICAGO (AP) — Kevin Huerter made a 3-pointer just before the buzzer, lifting Chicago past Boston before retiring Derrick Rose’s jersey number.
Coby White scored 22 points and hit five of Chicago’s 21 3s, helping the Bulls win their fourth straight.
Rose entered rarified air after the game when the Bulls sent his No. 1 to the rafters, putting the Chicago product alongside Michael Jordan, Scottie Pippen, Jerry Sloan and Bob Love as the only players with numbers retired by the team.
The Bulls gave their crowd plenty to cheer before they honored the South Side product and former MVP by squeezing out a win over the Eastern Conference’s second-place team, even though Jaylen Brown scored 33 for Boston.
Chicago led 111-109 when White missed a driving layup and Smith missed the putback with 20 seconds remaining. Brown got the rebound and drove for a layup to tie it with 14 seconds left.
The Bulls called a timeout and worked the ball to Huerter, who nailed a 3 from the corner with less than a second remaining. Huerter arrived at United Center wearing a No. 1 jersey in honor of Rose.
Nikola Vucevic scored 16 for Chicago, and Smith and Matas Buzelis added 14 points apiece.
LAKERS 116, MAVERICKS 110
DALLAS (AP) — Luka Doncic had 33 points and 11 assists, and the Lakers erased a 15-point deficit in the final seven minutes of a victory over the Mavericks in the star guard’s second visit to Dallas since his shocking trade to Los Angeles almost a year ago.
LeBron James scored 11 of his 17 points in the fourth quarter, when Rui Hachimura had a four-point play before another 3-pointer on the next possession to put the Lakers in front for good as Doncic improved to 4-0 against his former team.
Hachimura’s 3-pointer for a 108-106 lead started an 11-2 run that Doncic capped with a driving layup for an eight-point edge, prompting the Slovenian star to turn his old bench and declare the game over.
Max Christie, who came to Dallas along with injured 10-time All-Star Anthony Davis in the trade for Doncic, scored 24 points. Naji Marshall had 21 points and 11 rebounds as Dallas’ season-best four-game winning streak ended.
The Mavericks outscored the Lakers 41-14 from the start of the third quarter until early in the fourth, turning a 13-point deficit into a 14-point lead. Brandon Williams, who scored 20 points, had eight on a 10-2 run to finish the third, which started with a 20-4 Dallas burst.
The lead was 15 points with less than 7 minutes remaining when the Lakers started their rally, sparked by James after a slow start had him with a minus-28 rating early in the fourth.
HEAT 147, JAZZ 116
SALT LAKE CITY (AP) — Bam Adebayo had 26 points and 15 rebounds to lead Miami to a victory over Utah.
Nikola Jovic added 23 points and Pelle Larsson had 20 as the Heat matched their most points in a game this season. Miami beat Denver 147-123 last month.
The Heat, who are 2-2 on their five-game West Coast road trip, narrowly ended its streak of nine straight games allowing 117 points or more.
Jusuf Nurkic had 17 points, 12 assists and 10 rebounds to become the first player in Jazz history with three consecutive triple-doubles. He had only one triple-double in his career before this streak, and the last came on Jan. 16, 2019, while playing for Portland.
Brice Sensabaugh scored 23 points for the Jazz, which has lost six of seven. Keyonte George finished with 19 points.
The Heat took the lead for good with 6:44 remaining in the first quarter and cruised to a 73-52 lead at halftime.
New York Knicks' Ariel Hukporti, left, blocks the shot by Philadelphia 76ers' Joel Embiid, right, during the second half of an NBA basketball game, Saturday, Jan. 24, 2026, in Philadelphia. (AP Photo/Chris Szagola)
DUBAI, United Arab Emirates (AP) — Iran attacked commercial ships on Wednesday and targeted Dubai International Airport, escalating a campaign of bottling up the oil-rich Persian Gulf as global energy concerns mounted and American and Israeli airstrikes pounded the Islamic Republic.
Iran's response to the surprise Israeli and U.S. bombardment 12 days ago has upended trade routes, choked supplies of fuel and fertilizer coming out of the Gulf and threatened air traffic through one of the world's most-traveled regions. Both sides have dug in, hoping to outlast the other.
An Israeli intelligence assessment found that Iran's new supreme leader, Ayatollah Mojtaba Khamenei, was wounded at the start of the war — on the day when his father and predecessor, Ayatollah Ali Khamenei, was killed in an Israeli airstrike.
An Israeli intelligence official and a reservist with knowledge of the assessment spoke on condition of anonymity because they were not authorized to discuss the matter with the media. They gave no details on the nature of the injuries.
The 56-year-old, whose wife was also killed in the Israeli strike, has not been seen since becoming supreme leader on Monday. Yousef Pezeshkian, the son of Iranian President Masoud Pezeshkian, wrote on social media that he had heard Mojtaba was wounded but that friends said “he is healthy and there is no problem.”
The fallout across the Middle East has widened as Israel strikes what it says are targets connected to Iran-backed Hezbollah militants in Lebanon. The U.N. refugee agency said at least 759,000 people have been internally displaced in Lebanon, while more than 92,000 others have crossed into neighboring Syria.
In a separate development, Iran’s sports minister said it cannot take part in the upcoming soccer World Cup in North America in June because of the “wicked acts” of the United States. Ahmad Donyamali told Iranian state TV that “it’s not possible for us to take part in the World Cup” after the U.S. launched two wars against Iran in less than a year. He said Iranian players would not be safe in the United States.
Two Iranian drones hit near the Dubai airport, home to the long-haul carrier Emirates and the world’s busiest for international travel. Four people were wounded but flights continued, the Dubai Media Office said.
A projectile hit a Thai cargo ship off the coast of Oman in the Strait of Hormuz, setting it ablaze. Authorities are searching for three missing crew members from the Mayuree Naree after 20 were rescued by the Omani navy, according to Thailand’s Marine Department.
At least 12 incidents have been confirmed involving vessels in and around the Strait of Hormuz, through which a fifth of all traded oil passes, since the war began, according to two global trackers. The International Maritime Organization says at least seven mariners have been killed.
Iran has effectively stopped cargo traffic through the narrow strait. It has also targeted oil fields and refineries in Gulf Arab nations, aiming at generating enough global economic pain to pressure the United States and Israel to end their strikes.
The United States has pledged to keep the strait open and has carried out intense airstrikes targeting Iran's navy and the port city of Bandar Abbas.
The U.S. military said Tuesday it had destroyed 16 Iranian minelayers near the strait, though U.S. President Donald Trump said in social media posts that there were no reports yet of Iran mining the passage.
Some tankers, believed linked to Iran, are continuing to get through the strait, making so-called “dark” transits -- meaning they aren’t turning on trackers that show where they are. Vessels carrying sanctioned Iranian crude often turn off their trackers.
The commodity-tracking firm Kpler said Iran has restarted crude exports through its Jask oil terminal on the Gulf of Oman. A tanker loaded roughly 2 million barrels at Jask on March 7, it said.
Oil prices remained well below Monday’s peaks but the price of Brent crude, the international standard, was still up some 20% Wednesday from when the war began. Consumers around the world are already feeling the pain at the pump.
The International Energy Agency agreed Wednesday to release the largest volume of emergency oil reserves in its history, in a bid to counter the war’s impact on energy markets.
The Paris-based organization said it will make 400 million barrels of oil available from its member countries’ emergency reserves, more than twice the amount they released four years ago in response to Russia’s invasion of Ukraine.
Israeli strikes set a building ablaze in central Beirut, engulfing the top two floors. Lebanon’s Health Ministry said four people were wounded.
Other Israeli strikes on southern and eastern Lebanon killed 14 people, and a Red Cross worker also died Wednesday of wounds sustained Monday, when his team was hit by an Israeli strike while they were rescuing people from an earlier attack.
Lebanon's Health Ministry said Wednesday that 570 people have been killed in the country since the latest fighting began.
Iranian authorities say more than 1,300 people have been killed there, and Israel has reported 12 people dead. The U.S. has lost seven soldiers while another eight have suffered severe injuries.
Iran’s joint military command said it would start targeting banks and financial institutions in the Middle East. That would put at risk particularly Dubai, in the United Arab Emirates, which is home to many international financial institutions, as well as Saudi Arabia and the island kingdom of Bahrain.
The threat came after a Tehran location of Bank Sepah, a state-owned financial institution sanctioned by the U.S. over funding its armed forces, came under attack Wednesday, killing staffers there, according to the state-run IRNA news agency.
This story has been corrected to fix an earlier misspelling of Mojtaba Khamenei’s first name.
Mednick reported from Tel Aviv, Israel and Rising from Bangkok. Associated Press writers Samy Magdy in Cairo, Sally Abou AIJoud in Beirut, Giovanna Dell’Orto in Miami, Jamey Keaten in Geneva, Cara Anna in Lowville, New York, Kirsten Grieshaber in Berlin and Samuel Petrequin in Paris contributed to this story.
A man holds a picture of late Defense Minister Aziz Nasirzadeh beside his coffin as mourners attend the funeral procession for senior Iranian military officials and civilians killed during the U.S.-Israel campaign in Tehran, Iran, Wednesday, March 11, 2026. (AP Photo/Vahid Salemi)
A mourner holds a poster depicting Ayatollah Mojtaba Khamenei, right, the successor to his late father Ayatollah Ali Khamenei, left, as supreme leader, during the funeral procession for senior Iranian military officials and civilians killed during the U.S.-Israel campaign in Tehran, Iran, Wednesday, March 11, 2026. (AP Photo/Vahid Salemi)
Smoke rises from a building following an Israeli airstrike in Dahiyeh, Beirut's southern suburb, Wednesday, March 11, 2026. (AP Photo/Hassan Ammar)
Mourners attend the funeral procession for senior Iranian military officials and some civilians killed during the U.S.-Israel campaign, in Tehran, Iran, Wednesday, March 11, 2026. (AP Photo/Vahid Salemi)
FILE - A plume of smoke rises after a strike in Tehran, Iran, Monday, March 2, 2026. (AP Photo/Mohsen Ganji, File)
Rescue workers gather at the site where Israeli airstrikes hit apartments in Beirut, Lebanon, Wednesday, March 11, 2026. (AP Photo/Hussein Malla)
People take shelter in an underground metro station as air raid sirens warn of incoming Iranian missile strike, in Ramat Gan, Israel, Tuesday, March 10, 2026. (AP Photo/Oded Balilty)
A man passes in front of a destroyed building that housed a branch of Al-Qard Al-Hassan, a non-bank financial institution run by Hezbollah, which was hit by an Israeli airstrike in Dahiyeh, Beirut's southern suburbs, Lebanon, Tuesday, March 10, 2026. (AP Photo/Hussein Malla)
People walk past closed shops at the nearly empty traditional main bazaar in Tehran, Iran, Tuesday, March 10, 2026. (AP Photo/Vahid Salemi)
Motorbikes drive past a billboard depicting Iran’s late Supreme Leader Ayatollah Ali Khamenei, center, handing the country’s flag to his son and successor Ayatollah Mojtaba Khamenei, right, as the late revolutionary founder Ayatollah Ruhollah Khomeini stands at left, in a square in downtown Tehran, Iran, Tuesday, March 10, 2026. (AP Photo/Vahid Salemi)
Smoke rises from an Israeli airstrike in Dahiyeh, Beirut's southern suburbs, Lebanon, Tuesday, March 10, 2026. (AP Photo/Bilal Hussein)
