CHARLOTTE, N.C. (AP) — Jayson Tatum scored 29 points, Payton Pritchard had 22 points on six 3-pointers and the Boston Celtics beat the Charlotte Hornets 113-103 for the second straight night at the Spectrum Center on Saturday.
Derrick White added 18 points and eight rebounds for the Celtics, who beat the Hornets 124-109 on Friday night. Boston improved to 6-1.
Charlotte’s LaMelo Ball eclipsed the 30-point barrier for the fourth time this season, finishing with 36 points on 15-of-26 shooting before fouling out for the second straight game. Brandon Miller had 16 points in his return from a strained glute,
Tatum was just 1 of 9 from beyond the arc, but converted 14 of 17 free throws.
GRIZZLIES 124, 76ERS 107
PHILADELPHIA (AP) — Jaren Jackson Jr. scored 27 points and Memphis rolled to a 124-107 victory over the Philadelphia 76ers on Saturday night.
Jay Huff added 20 points, and Ja Morant had 18. The Grizzlies have won two straight road games to improve to 4-3.
Tyrese Maxey scored 23 points for Philadelphia. The 76ers lost for the fourth time in five games and fell to 0-3 at home.
The Grizzlies outrebounded the 76ers 52-33. They had a 70-34 margin in the paint, taking advantage of Philadelphia star Joel Embiid’s absence.
RAPTORS 131, KINGS 128, OT
TORONTO (AP) — RJ Barrett scored 31 points, Chris Boucher had a season-high 24, and Toronto snapped a four-game losing streak by beating Sacramento.
Toronto’s Ochai Agbaji scored a season-high 22 points, and Gradey Dick also had 22.
Domantas Sabonis had 17 points, 20 rebounds and 10 assists for his 60th career triple-double, but it wasn’t enough to keep the Kings’ three-game win streak alive.
Former Raptor DeMar DeRozan scored 33 points for Sacramento but also missed two 3-pointers to tie in the final minute of overtime.
After DeRozan’s first miss, Barrett missed a pair of free throws with nine seconds to go. Both DeRozan and De’Aaron Fox missed 3-pointers on Sacramento’s final possession.
WARRIORS 127, ROCKETS 121, OT
HOUSTON (AP) — Buddy Hield scored 27 points and Golden State squandered a huge lead before outlasting Houston in overtime.
It’s Golden State’s 14th straight-regular season win over the Rockets and the eighth in a row in Houston.
The Warriors led by 31 points in the first half. The Rockets tied it with an 18-2 run to open the fourth quarter.
Golden State scored the first six points in overtime to make it 125-119 and went on to a third straight win without Steph Curry, who is out with a sprained left ankle.
The Warriors led by five before a 3-pointer by Jabari Smith Jr. cut the lead to 119-117 with 15.5 seconds to go in regulation. Aaron Holiday stole the ball from Draymond Green and he fouled out a few seconds later. Tari Eason made two free throws after that to send it to overtime.
CAVALIERS 114, BUCKS 113
MILWAUKEE (AP) — Donovan Mitchell scored 30 points including a jumper with three-tenths of a second left and Cleveland remained unbeaten with a victory over Milwaukee.
The 7-0 Cavaliers are one win away from matching their best start in franchise history. They won their first eight games in 1976-77.
Milwaukee has lost five straight since winning its opener. The Bucks wasted a brilliant performance from Damian Lillard, who had 41 points with nine assists and shot 10 of 15 from 3-point range.
Lillard had put Milwaukee ahead by hitting a step-back jumper with 9.8 seconds remaining.
SPURS 113, TIMBERWOLVES 103
SAN ANTONIO (AP) — Keldon Johnson had 25 points, Chris Paul added 15 points and 13 assists, and San Antonio beat Minnesota without coach Gregg Popovich, who missed the game due to illness.
Jeremy Sochan added 19 points and 10 rebounds for San Antonio, and Victor Wembanyama had 17 points and six rebounds.
The 39-year-old Paul became the second-oldest player in NBA history with 10 assists in consecutive games. Hall of Fame point guard John Stockton of the Utah Jazz accomplished the feat at age 41.
Julius Randle scored 21 points and Anthony Edwards had 18 for Minnesota, playing on the second night of a back-to-back. The Timberwolves arrived at their hotel in San Antonio about 4:15 a.m. after rallying in the final minutes to defeat Denver 119-116 at home Friday night.
HEAT 118, WIZARDS 98
MEXICO CITY (AP) — Bam Adebayo scored 20 of his 32 points in the first half and Miami beat Washington in the 14th NBA regular-season game in Mexico.
Adebayo had 14 rebounds and shot 12 of 24 from the field. Jimmy Butler added 18 points, Tyler Herro had 15 and Terry Rozier 12 to help Miami improve to 3-2.
Kel’El Ware added 15 points coming of the bench. Jaime Jaquez Jr. scored eight points in his first game playing in his father’s country.
Bilal Coulibaly led Washington (2-3) with 22 points. Jordan Poole added 21 points and Alexandre Sarr had 17.
Before the game, NBA Commissioner Adam Silver said the league had reached an agreement with local organizers to play more games in Mexico.
NUGGETS 129, JAZZ 103
DENVER (AP) — Nikola Jokic scored 27 points and Michael Porter Jr. had 20 as Denver used a third-quarter offensive surge to beat Utah for their first win of the season at home.
Julian Strawther added 19 points and Christian Braun 17 for the Nuggets, who sent the Jazz to their sixth consecutive loss to start the season. Jokic also had 16 rebounds and nine assists, finishing one assist shy of another triple double.
Utah, the only winless team in the league, was led by Walker Kessler’s 18 points and 14 rebounds. Johnny Juzang added 17 points.
SUNS 103, TRAIL BLAZERS 97
PHOENIX (AP) — Devin Booker had 28 points, nine rebounds and nine assists, and Phoenix used a dominant third quarter to beat Portland.
Kevin Durant scored 21 points for Phoenix, which won its fourth in a row.
The Suns led by as many as 26 points, but the Trail Blazers cut the deficit to 99-97 in the final minute. Booker and Tyus Jones each made two free throws in the final 21 seconds to seal the win.
Grayson Allen scored 18 off the bench, making a team-high four 3-pointers. Jones and Bradley Beal each finished with 15 points, while Jusuf Nurkic had a game-high 15 rebounds.
Trailing 47-43 at halftime, Phoenix scored 44 in the third quarter to take a 22-point lead by the end of the period. The Suns had zero turnovers in the third quarter after committing nine in the first half.
THUNDER 105, CLIPPERS 92
INGLEWOOD, Calif. (AP) — Shai Gilgeous-Alexander had 25 points and Oklahoma City extended their undefeated start to the season by beating Los Angeles.
All five Thunder starters scored in double figures, and the six straight wins to begin the season marked the team’s best start since moving to Oklahoma City from Seattle in 2008.
Norman Powell scored 24 points and James Harden added 12 points and 13 rebounds, but the Clippers dropped to 0-4 in their new arena despite holding double-digit leads in each of those defeats.
Charlotte Hornets guard LaMelo Ball, forward Brandon Miller (24), and Boston Celtics guard Jrue Holiday (4) battle for the ball during the second half of an NBA basketball game, Saturday, Nov. 2, 2024, in Charlotte, N.C. (AP Photo/Matt Kelley)
Israeli airstrikes killed at least 40 people on Thursday across central and southern Gaza, including an attack on a sprawling tent camp that Israel has repeatedly bombed despite designating it a humanitarian safe zone. Israel said the strike targeted a righ-ranking police officer, and blames Hamas for civilian deaths.
Israeli Prime Minister Benjamin Netanyahu’s office said Thursday he authorized a delegation from the country's intelligence services and military to continue negotiations in Qatar toward a ceasefire deal in Gaza. There was no immediate comment from Hamas.
American, Qatari and Egyptian mediators have spent nearly a year trying to broker a ceasefire and hostage release, but their efforts have repeatedly stalled.
The Israeli military also claimed responsibility Thursday for a commando raid in western Syria last September that destroyed what it said was an Iranian-led missile factory.
Israel’s war in Gaza has killed over 45,500 Palestinians, according to local health officials, who say women and children make up more than half the fatalities. The officials do not distinguish between civilians and combatants in their tally.
The war was sparked by Hamas-led militants' Oct. 7, 2023 attack into Israel. They killed some 1,200 people, mostly civilians, and abducted around 250 that day. Around 100 hostages are still inside Gaza, at least a third of whom are believed to be dead.
Here's the latest:
DEIR AL-BALAH, Gaza Strip — Israeli strikes in the Maghazi and Nuseirat refugee camps in central Gaza killed at least 14 people late Thursday, including four women and five children.
They were taken to Al-Aqsa Martyrs Hospital, where an Associated Press journalist counted the bodies, bringing the death toll on Thursday to at least 40 people.
The Israeli army did not immediately comment on the strikes, but says it only targets militants and blames Hamas for civilian deaths.
Earlier Israeli strikes killed dozens more people throughout central and southern Gaza, including inside a sprawling tent camp that Israel designated a humanitarian safe zone but has repeatedly targeted. Israel's military said that strike killed a high-ranking police officer who was involved in gathering intelligence used by Hamas’ armed wing in attacks on Israeli forces.
GENEVA — The head of the U.N. World Health Organization says Israel is still allowing only a trickle of sick and wounded people in the Gaza Strip to travel abroad for life-saving medical treatment.
At least 5,383 patients have been evacuated with the WHO's help since the war broke out in October 2023, leaving more than 12,000 Palestinians still waiting to leave Gaza, said WHO director Tedros Adhanom Ghebreyesus in a statement Thursday.
The rate of evacuations plunged when the Rafah border crossing shut down in May after Israeli troops took it over — since then, only 436 patients have left Gaza, Tedros said.
“At this rate, it would take 5-10 years to evacuate all these critically ill patients, including thousands of children,” Tedros said. “In the meantime, their conditions get worse and some die.”
He urged Israel to increase the approval rate for medical evacuations, including no denials of child patients, and to allow all possible corridors and border crossings to be used. Israel controls all the entry and exit points for Gaza.
COGAT, the Israeli military agency in charge of humanitarian affairs for Palestinians, has said it does everything it can to approve medical evacuations, which are contingent upon a security check. It did not respond when asked for comment on the latest WHO figures.
BEIRUT — Israel's military said Thursday it struck rocket launchers used by Hezbollah militants in southern Lebanon, a rare attack outside the border areas where Israeli forces conduct near-daily operations since a ceasefire went into effect last November, according to Lebanese state media.
Under the ceasefire agreement, Israel has until Jan. 25 to withdraw its forces from Lebanon, while Hezbollah militants must relocate north of the Litani River.
Israel says it has the right to attack Hezbollah anywhere for alleged ceasefire violations, and that Thursday's strikes were in Nabatiyeh province, which straddles both sides of the Litani.
Video circulated on social media of a strike in Jbaa, in the Iqlim al-Tuffah region, showing large flames and secondary explosions.
No casualties were reported by Lebanon’s National News Agency. Hezbollah did not immediately comment on the attack.
Israeli operations in Lebanon since the ceasefire have included gunfire, house demolitions, excavations, tank shelling and airstrikes. These actions have killed at least 27 people, wounded more than 30 and destroyed residential buildings.
JERUSALEM — Israeli Prime Minister Benjamin Netanyahu’s office says he has authorized a delegation from the Mossad intelligence agency, the Shin Bet internal security agency and the military to continue negotiations in Qatar toward a ceasefire deal in Gaza.
The statement had no further details, but Israeli media said the delegation would depart Friday.
There was no immediate comment from the Hamas militant group.
The U.S.-led talks have repeatedly stalled, and at one point last year Qatar suspended its mediation efforts, expressing frustration. Egypt also is a mediator.
DEIR AL-BALAH, Gaza Strip — Israeli airstrikes killed at least 26 Palestinians across the Gaza Strip on Thursday as the 15-month war with Hamas dragged on.
A strike killed five policemen in the southern city of Khan Younis and their bodies were taken to Nasser Hospital, medical officials there said.
Three Palestinians were killed in a separate Israeli strike in central Gaza that hit a group of people walking in the street in the built-up Maghazi refugee camp, according to Al-Aqsa Martyrs Hospital.
An earlier strike in nearby Deir al-Balah killed eight people who were helping secure humanitarian aid convoys, the hospital said.
At least 10 people were also killed Thursday morning by an airstrike in southern Gaza's Muwasi area, inside an Israeli-declared humanitarian zone. The dead included three children and two senior police officers. Israel said that strike targeted a senior member of Hamas’ internal security apparatus.
Israel has repeatedly targeted Gaza's police force, which was part of the Hamas-run government, contributing to a breakdown of law and order that has made it difficult for humanitarian groups to deliver aid. Israel accuses Hamas of hijacking aid for its own purposes.
JERUSALEM -- The Israeli military has claimed responsibility for a nighttime raid in Syria last September in which it says dozens of commandos destroyed a top-secret Iranian-led missile factory.
Israeli military spokesman Lt. Col. Nadav Shoshani said Thursday that Iran, working with its Syrian and the Hezbollah allies, planned to build hundreds of precision guided missiles per year at the factory that could be transferred to Lebanon. He said the facility was located in western Syria around the town of Masyaf near the Lebanese border.
He said Israel had been monitoring the underground facility for several years, but decided to strike at a time when Israel was at war with Hezbollah and the factory was becoming operational.
“This facility posed a clear threat to the state of Israel and this is why we had to take action,” he said.
Shoshani said over 100 special force soldiers took part in the Sept. 8 raid, backed by dozens of aircraft. Calling it one of Israel’s most complex operations in years, he said soldiers arrived by helicopter and entered the facility, which he said was dug deep into the side of a mountain.
In bodycam footage released by the Israeli military, special forces are seen moving through wide underground hallways and seizing documents, before a large explosion destroys the site. The video, which could not be independently verified, also showed images of what the army said was missile-manufacturing equipment.
At the time, Syrian state media reported 18 deaths from a series of Israeli airstrikes in the area. Shoshani said there were no Israeli casualties, and that Israel also damaged another missile-production facility in Lebanon during the war.
Israel and Hezbollah reached a cease-fire in late November, halting nearly 14 months of fighting.
JERUSALEM — Israeli Prime Minister Benjamin Netanyahu was released from the hospital Thursday after recovering from prostate surgery Sunday.
Doctors at Hadassah Ein Kerem Hospital said Netanyahu was recuperating satisfactorily, although he still has a period of recovery ahead. Medical follow-ups will continue as usual, according to a hospital statement.
Despite doctor’s orders to remain hospitalized, the 75-year-old leader had briefly left the facility to participate in a vote in Israel’s parliament on Tuesday.
KYIV, Ukraine – Ukraine’s president says his country is poised to reestablish diplomatic ties with Syria after the fall of President Bashar Assad and sharply increase agricultural exports to Lebanon despite being engaged in an almost three-year war with Russia.
The developments came after a recent visit to those countries by Ukraine’s top diplomat and its government minister for farming, according to a statement from Ukrainian President Volodymyr Zelenskyy on Thursday. Ukraine is aiming to build up its security and trade relations in the Middle East, he said.
Ukraine and Syria are assessing cooperation within international organizations, and Syria could this year become a “reliable partner” for Ukraine, Zelenskyy said.
The Ukrainian officials met with Syria’s new de facto authorities led by the Islamist group Hayat Tahrir al-Sham. The insurgents had ousted Assad, a longtime ally of Russian President Vladimir Putin, in early December.
Ukrainian agricultural exports to Lebanon are around $400 million a year but Zelenskyy said he hopes to at least double that.
Ukraine is a leading world producer of wheat, corn, barley, sunflower oil and other food products.
JERUSALEM — The Israeli military says it targeted a senior member of Hamas’ internal security apparatus in a strike in the Gaza Strip that Palestinian officials say killed nine other people, including three children.
The strike early Thursday hit a tent in an Israeli-declared humanitarian zone known as Muwasi, where hundreds of thousands of displaced people are sheltering in tents during the cold and rainy winter.
The military said Hossam Shahwan, a senior officer in the Hamas-run police force in Gaza, was involved in gathering intelligence used by Hamas’ armed wing in attacks on Israeli forces.
Maj. Gen. Mahmoud Salah, another senior police official, was also killed in the strike.
The military says Hamas militants hide among civilians and blames the group for their deaths in the nearly 15-month war, which was ignited by Hamas’ Oct. 7, 2023 attack into Israel.
The Hamas-run government had a police force numbering in the tens of thousands that maintained a high degree of public security before the war while also violently suppressing dissent.
The police have largely vanished from the streets in many areas after being targeted by Israel, contributing to the breakdown of law and order that has hindered the delivery of desperately needed humanitarian aid.
DAMASCUS, Syria — The forces together with armed vehicles were deployed in the city of Homs Thursday to look for the militants affiliated with ousted President Bashar Assad, state media reported.
SANA, citing a military official, said that the new de facto authorities led by the Islamist group Hayat Tahrir al-Sham had set up centers in Syria’s third-largest city for former soldiers and militants to hand over their weapons, similar to other parts of Syria.
In early December, a lightning insurgency took out the decades-long rule of Assad in less than two weeks. HTS has since run much of war-torn Syria under the authority of its leader Ahmad al-Sharaa.
Officials who were part of Assad's notorious web of intelligence and security apparatus have been arrested over the past few weeks.
DEIR AL-BALAH, Gaza Strip — An Israeli strike has killed at least eight Palestinian men in the central Gaza Strip.
The dead were members of local committees that help secure aid convoys, according to Al-Aqsa Martyrs Hospital, which received the bodies. An Associated Press reporter at the hospital confirmed the toll.
Earlier on Thursday, an Israeli airstrike in southern Gaza killed at least 10 people, including three children and two senior officers in the Hamas-run police.
There was no immediate comment from the Israeli military on the strikes.
Israel has repeatedly targeted the police, contributing to a breakdown of law and order in the territory that has made it difficult for humanitarian groups to deliver aid. Israel accuses Hamas of hijacking aid for its own purposes.
DUBAI, United Arab Emirates — Al Jazeera has condemned the Palestinian Authority’s decision to bar it from operating in the occupied West Bank, saying the decision was “in line” with similar actions taken by Israel.
In a statement Thursday, the Qatar-based broadcaster accused the Western-backed authority of seeking to “hide the truth about events in the occupied territories, especially what is happening in Jenin and its camps.”
The Palestinian Authority, which cooperates with Israel on security matters, launched a rare crackdown on anti-Israel militants in the urban Jenin refugee camp last month. The authority has international support but is unpopular among many Palestinians, with critics portraying it as a subcontractor of the Israeli occupation.
The Palestinian Authority announced the suspension of Al Jazeera’s activities on Wednesday, accusing it of incitement and interfering in Palestinian internal affairs. The Palestinian Authority exercises limited autonomy in parts of the Israeli-occupied West Bank.
Israel banned Al Jazeera last year, accusing it of being a mouthpiece of Hamas. Israeli strikes have killed or wounded several Al Jazeera reporters in Gaza, and Israel has accused some of them of being militants. Israeli forces raided Al Jazeera’s West Bank headquarters last year, but the broadcaster has continued to operate in the territory.
Al Jazeera denies the allegations and accuses Israel of trying to silence its coverage. Its 24-hour reporting from Gaza has focused on the deaths of Palestinian civilians. It has also broadcast Hamas and other militant videos in their entirety, showing attacks on Israeli forces and hostages speaking under duress.
People stand outside their homes at a residential area as members of the new security forces take part in an operation to detain, according to the state media, militiamen affiliated with ousted president Bashar Assad in Homs, Syria, Thursday, Jan. 2, 2025. (AP Photo/Leo Correa)
People stand outside their homes at a residential area as members of the new security forces take part in an operation to detain, according to the state media, militiamen affiliated with ousted president Bashar Assad in Homs, Syria, Thursday, Jan. 2, 2025. (AP Photo/Leo Correa)
Palestinian children play next to a building destroyed by Israeli army strikes in the central Gaza Strip town of Khan Younis, Wednesday, Jan. 1, 2025. (AP Photo/Abdel Kareem Hana)
Israeli soldiers stand in a bullet-ridden house during a tour for army personnel to observe the damage caused by the Oct. 7 Hamas onslaught at Kibbutz Kfar Aza, near the Israeli-Gaza border, in Israel, Thursday, Jan. 2, 2025. (AP Photo/Matias Delacroix)
An Israeli soldier jumps off an armoured vehicle at a staging area near the Gaza border in southern Israel, Thursday Jan. 2, 2025. (AP Photo/Tsafrir Abayov))
Palestinians prepare the body for the funeral of a man killed during an Israeli army strike in Deir al-Balah in the central Gaza Strip, Thursday Jan. 2, 2025. The strike killed at least eight men members of local committees that help secure aid convoys, according to the Al-Aqsa Martyrs Hospital, which received the bodies.(AP Photo/Abdel Kareem Hana)
A man reacts in grief as the body of 8-year-old Adam Farajallah is brought to Al-Aqsa Martyrs Hospital following an airstrike on a house in the Bureij refugee camp, in the central Gaza Strip town of Deir al-Balah Wednesday, Jan. 1, 2025. (AP Photo/Abdel Kareem Hana)
A man mourns over the body of a Palestinian man killed during an Israeli army strike in Deir al-Balah in the central Gaza Strip, Thursday Jan. 2, 2025. The strike killed at least eight men members of local committees that help secure aid convoys, according to the Al-Aqsa Martyrs Hospital, which received the bodies.(AP Photo/Abdel Kareem Hana)
Palestinian girls collect donated food at a food distribution center in Deir al-Balah, central Gaza Strip, Thursday Jan. 2, 2025. (AP Photo/Abdel Kareem Hana)
An Israeli soldier covers his ears as an artillery gunner fires into the Gaza Strip from a position in southern Israel, Thursday, Jan. 2, 2025.(AP Photo/Matias Delacroix)
A destroyed part of Gaza City as seen from southern Israel, Thursday Jan. 2, 2025. (AP Photo/Tsafrir Abayov))
Palestinians inspect the site of an earlier Israeli army strike in the Muwasi area, in Khan Younis, central Gaza Strip, Thursday Jan. 2, 2025. According to Palestinian medical officials, the airstrike killed at least 10 people, including three children and two senior police officers, in an Israeli-designated humanitarian zone in the Gaza Strip. (AP Photo/Abdel Kareem Hana)
