Lakers sweep 2-game set against Kings with a win

SACRAMENTO, Calif. (AP) — LeBron James had 32 points and the Los Angeles Lakers beat the Sacramento Kings 103-99 to sweep a two-game set on Saturday.

Trailing 101-99 with 12 seconds left, the Kings had a chance to tie after Anthony Davis missed two free throws but squandered the opportunity after they couldn’t secure the rebound. Austin Reaves was fouled and made both free throws to put the game away.

Reaves finished with 16 points, and Davis had 10 points and 15 rebounds as the Lakers completed the sweep after beating the Kings 113-100 on Thursday.

De’Aaron Fox led Sacramento with 31 points. Domantas Sabonis had 19 points and 19 rebounds, and DeMar DeRozan added 12 points for the Kings.

Davis earned his 642nd block and passed Kobe Bryant for the fifth most in franchise history.

MAGIC 121, HEAT 114

ORLANDO, Fla. (AP) — Cole Anthony scored 27 of his 35 points in the second half and Orlando tied their largest comeback in franchise history to beat Miami after trailing by 25 points.

The Magic also trailed by 22 entering the fourth quarter before outscoring the Heat 37-8. Their 25-point comeback ties a mark set on Nov. 8, 1989 against the Cleveland Cavaliers.

Anthony also had eight rebounds and nine assists. Kentavious Caldwell-Pope scored 24 points and Goga Bitadze added 18 points and 13 rebounds for the Magic, who lost center Mo Wagner to a knee injury in the first quarter and center Wendell Carter Jr. to an ejection before halftime.

Bam Adebayo and Terry Rozier led Miami with 23 points each, and Tyler Herro added 22.

GRIZZLIES 128, HAWKS 112

ATLANTA (AP) — Desmond Bane scored 23 points and Memphis, without star player Ja Morant, beat skidding Atlanta.

Scotty Pippen Jr. added 22 points and nine assists. Morant, who injured his back in the Grizzlies’ Dec. 19 win over Golden State, was ruled out with low back soreness before Saturday night’s game.

De’Andre Hunter led Atlanta with 26 points and Jalen Johnson added 13 points and 11 rebounds.

The Hawks were also without their own star in Trae Young, who was ruled out before the game with a right heel contusion. After winning its first three games in December, Atlanta has now lost four of its last five games.

JAZZ 105, NETS 94

NEW YORK (AP) — Lauri Markkanen scored 21 points, Collin Sexton and Svi Mykhailiuk each had 18 points, and Utah beat Brooklyn.

The Jazz, who at 7-20 have one of the worst records in the NBA, have now won consecutive games for the first time this season. They beat the Pistons 126-119 on Thursday.

Both victories have come on the road, where they improved to 5-20.

John Collins finished with 13 points and 11 rebounds while Jordan Clarkson chipped in 16 points for a struggling Utah team that had lost 12 of its previous 15 games.

Cam Johnson had 18 points and Ben Simmons added 15 points and 10 assists for the Nets, who have lost seven of their last nine.

CAVALIERS 126, 76ERS 99

CLEVELAND (AP) — Darius Garland scored 26 points and Evan Mobley had 22 points, 13 rebounds and seven assists, sending NBA-leading Cleveland to a victory over Philadelphia.

Donovan Mitchell had 19 points and Georges Niang added 13 points off the bench for Cleveland, which is 25-4 for the top record in the league.

The Cavaliers tied their season high with 22 3-pointers -- Garland made 6 of 7 -- and improved to an NBA-best 16-1 at home.

Tyrese Maxey scored 13 of his 27 points in the third quarter and Paul George had 11 points for Philadelphia. Kelly Oubre Jr. had nine points, but the 76ers were outscored by 34 in his 27 minutes.

CELTICS 123, BULLS 98

CHICAGO (AP) — Jayson Tatum scored a season-high 43 points, grabbed 16 rebounds and dished out 10 assists for his third career triple-double and Boston beat Chicago.

Kristaps Porzingis scored 22 points and Jaylen Brown added 19 to help the Celtics rebound from a 117-108 loss to the Bulls in Boston on Thursday night.

Tatum, the five-time All-Star, scored 18 points in the third quarter as Boston used a 19-8 run to open a 93-77 lead heading into the fourth.

Nikola Vucevic scored 19 points and 10 assists to lead the Bulls, whose season-high three-game winning streak ended. Zach LaVine, Coby White and Patrick Williams had 14 points each.

BUCKS 112, WIZARDS 101

MILWAUKEE (AP) — Bobby Portis replaced Giannis Antetokounmpo in the starting lineup and scored a season-high 34 points, leading Milwaukee to a victory over Washington.

Khris Middleton had 18 points, six rebounds and eight assists for the Bucks, while Portis finished with 10 rebounds and eight assists.

Antetokounmpo (back spasms) missed his third game of the season and the Bucks also played again without Damian Lillard (right calf strain) after winning the NBA Cup earlier this week.

Milwaukee coach Doc Rivers said Lillard could play Monday against Chicago.

Rookie Ryan Rollins started at point guard in Lillard’s absence and contributed 14 points in 31 minutes. Center Brook Lopez also had 14 and Gary Trent Jr. had 15 points and seven rebounds.

WARRIORS 113, TIMBERWOLVES 13

MINNEAPOLIS (AP) — Stephen Curry scored 11 straight points in the fourth quarter and 31 for the night as Golden State beat Minnesota.

Trayce Jackson-Davis had 15 points and nine rebounds, while Brandin Podziemski had 12 and Curry — who made seven 3-pointers — added 10 assists for the Warriors.

Anthony Edwards and Donte DiVincenzo led Minnesota with 19 points apiece. Rudy Gobert had 18 points and 12 boards for Minnesota.

Curry hit three 3-pointers and a pair of free throws in a 90-second span that helped the Warriors pull away after blowing a 21-point first-half lead.

KNICKS 104, PELICANS 93

NEW ORLEANS (AP) — Jalen Brunson scored 29 of his season-high 39 points in the second half to power New York to a victory over New Orleans.

All-NBA defensive player Herb Jones pressured Brunson in the first half, picking him up at three-quarters court. That pressure led to the Knicks’ 35.6% shooting in the first half, when New Orleans held a 49-45 lead.

But Brunson caught fire in the third quarter, scoring 16 points, including 13 straight, in a 22-6 run that erased a 65-52 deficit and gave New York a 74-71 lead. Brunson scored nine of the Knicks’ first 13 points of the fourth quarter to extend the lead to 95-81.

New Orleans, which lost for the 15th time in its last 16 games, was paced by Trey Murphy III with 26 points. Dejounte Murray added 14 points for New Orleans.

The Knicks also got 18 points from Mikal Bridges and 16 from OG Anunoby.

MAVERICKS 113, CLIPPERS 97

DALLAS (AP) — Quentin Grimes scored 20 points off the bench, 14 in the fourth quarter, leading eight Mavericks in double figures as Dallas beat Los Angeles despite missing leading scorer Luka Doncic.

Doncic, fifth in the NBA with 28.9 points per game, missed his second consecutive game with a left heel contusion.

Klay Thompson scored 16 points, and Kyrie Irving and Spencer Dinwiddie had 15 apiece.

Norman Powell scored 28 points for the Clippers, who split a two-game series at Dallas. James Harden and Kevin Porter Jr. each added 19.

The Mavericks outscored the Clippers 31-18 in the second period to lead 54-40 at halftime, outshooting them 47.8% to 22.2%.

SPURS 114, TRAIL BLAZERS 94

SAN ANTONIO (AP) — Victor Wembanyama scored 30 points and tied a career high with 10 blocks as San Antonio rolled to a victory against Portland.

Wembanyama added seven rebounds while sitting out the final 8 1/2 minutes of the fourth quarter with San Antonio headed to its largest margin of victory this season.

Wembanyama is the first player with four 3-pointers and 10 blocks in a game in NBA history and the first player under 21 with multiple games with double-figure blocks since the league began keeping track of blocks in 1974.

Charles Bassey added 16 points and 12 rebounds and Devin Vassell had 11 points for the Spurs, who have won four straight against the Trail Blazers.

Shaedon Sharpe scored 25 points and Anfernee Simons had 18 points for Portland.

PISTONS 133, SUNS 125

PHOENIX (AP) — Cade Cunningham scored 28 points and had 13 assists, Jalen Duren added 17 points and 11 rebounds and Detroit beat Phoenix.

The Pistons dominated the majority of the game and didn’t trail after the first few minutes. The Suns cut their deficit to 122-119 with 2:26 left on a pair of free throws by Kevin Durant, but Malik Beasley responded with a corner 3 to thwart the comeback attempt.

Durant scored a season-high 43 points on 14-of-26 shooting and made all 11 of his free throws. Bradley Beal added 26, but the Suns couldn’t overcome 19 turnovers.

Seven Detroit players scored in double figures. Jaden Ivey had 20, Beasley added 18 and Tim Hardaway Jr. scored 16.

Detroit jumped out to a 41-26 lead by the end of the first quarter, scoring 16 points off of seven Phoenix turnovers. The Suns cut the margin to 64-59 by halftime.

Sacramento Kings guard De'Aaron Fox (5) attempts a shot over Los Angeles Lakers guard Austin Reaves (15) during the second half of an NBA basketball game, Saturday, Dec. 21, 2024, in Sacramento, Calif. (AP Photo/Sara Nevis)

KHAN YOUNIS, Gaza Strip (AP) — Winter is hitting the Gaza Strip and many of the nearly 2 million Palestinians displaced by the devastating 14-month war with Israel are struggling to protect themselves from the wind, cold and rain.

There is a shortage of blankets and warm clothing, little wood for fires, and the tents and patched-together tarps families are living in have grown increasingly threadbare after months of heavy use, according to aid workers and residents.

Shadia Aiyada, who was displaced from the southern city of Rafah to the coastal area of Muwasi, has only one blanket and a hot water bottle to keep her eight children from shivering inside their fragile tent.

“We get scared every time we learn from the weather forecast that rainy and windy days are coming up because our tents are lifted with the wind. We fear that strong windy weather would knock out our tents one day while we’re inside,” she said.

With nighttime temperatures that can drop into the 40s (the mid-to-high single digits Celsius), Aiyada fears that her kids will get sick without warm clothing.

When they fled their home, her children only had their summer clothes, she said. They have been forced to borrow some from relatives and friends to keep warm.

The United Nations warns of people living in precarious makeshift shelters that might not survive the winter. At least 945,000 people need winterization supplies, which have become prohibitively expensive in Gaza, the U.N. said in an update Tuesday. The U.N. also fears infectious disease, which spiked last winter, will climb again amid rising malnutrition.

The U.N. Agency for Palestinian Refugees, known as UNRWA, has been planning all year for winter in Gaza, but the aid it was able to get into the territory is “not even close to being enough for people,” said Louise Wateridge, an agency spokeswoman.

UNRWA distributed 6,000 tents over the past four weeks in northern Gaza but was unable to get them to other parts of the Strip, including areas where there has been fighting. About 22,000 tents have been stuck in Jordan and 600,000 blankets and 33 truckloads of mattresses have been sitting in Egypt since the summer because the agency doesn’t have Israeli approval or a safe route to bring them into Gaza and because it had to prioritize desperately needed food aid, Wateridge said.

Many of the mattresses and blankets have since been looted or destroyed by the weather and rodents, she said.

The International Rescue Committee is struggling to bring in children’s winter clothing because there “are a lot of approvals to get from relevant authorities,” said Dionne Wong, the organization’s deputy director of programs for the occupied Palestinian territories.

“The ability for Palestinians to prepare for winter is essentially very limited,” Wong said.

The Israeli government agency responsible for coordinating aid shipments into Gaza said in a statement that Israel has worked for months with international organizations to prepare Gaza for the winter, including facilitating the shipment of heaters, warm clothing, tents and blankets into the territory.

More than 45,000 Palestinians have been killed in the war in Gaza, according to the Gaza Health Ministry. The ministry's count doesn't distinguish between civilians and combatants, but it has said more than half of the fatalities are women and children. The Israeli military says it has killed more than 17,000 militants, without providing evidence.

The war was sparked by Hamas’ October 2023 attack on southern Israel, where the militant group killed 1,200 people and took 250 hostages in Gaza.

Negotiators say Israel and Hamas are inching toward a ceasefire deal, which would include a surge in aid into the territory.

For now, the winter clothing for sale in Gaza's markets is far too expensive for most people to afford, residents and aid workers said.

Reda Abu Zarada, 50, who was displaced from northern Gaza with her family, said the adults sleep with the children in their arms to keep them warm inside their tent.

“Rats walk on us at night because we don’t have doors and tents are torn. The blankets don’t keep us warm. We feel frost coming out from the ground. We wake up freezing in the morning,” she said. “I’m scared of waking up one day to find one of the children frozen to death.”

On Thursday night, she fought through knee pain exacerbated by cold weather to fry zucchini over a fire made of paper and cardboard scraps outside their tent. She hoped the small meal would warm the children before bed.

Omar Shabet, who is displaced from Gaza City and staying with his three children, feared that lighting a fire outside his tent would make his family a target for Israeli warplanes.

“We go inside our tents after sunset and don’t go out because it is very cold and it gets colder by midnight,” he said. “My 7-year-old daughter almost cries at night because of how cold she is.”

Grandchildren of Reda Abu Zarada, displaced from Jabaliya in northern Gaza, play next to their tent at a camp in Khan Younis, Gaza Strip, Thursday, Dec. 19, 2024. (AP Photo/Abdel Kareem Hana)

One of Reda Abu Zarada's grandchildren, displaced from Jabaliya in northern Gaza, sits on the dirt wearing torn socks while playing near their tent at a camp in Khan Younis, Gaza Strip, Thursday Dec. 19, 2024. (AP Photo/Abdel Kareem Hana)

Grandchildren of Reda Abu Zarada, displaced from Jabaliya in northern Gaza, play with sand next to their tent at a camp in Khan Younis, Gaza Strip, Thursday, Dec. 19, 2024. (AP Photo/Abdel Kareem Hana)

Grandchildren of Reda Abu Zarada, displaced from Jabaliya in northern Gaza, play next to their tent at a camp in Khan Younis, Gaza Strip, Thursday, Dec. 19, 2024. (AP Photo/Abdel Kareem Hana)

Grandchildren of Reda Abu Zarada, displaced from Jabaliya in northern Gaza, play next to their tent at a camp in Khan Younis, Gaza Strip, Thursday, Dec. 19, 2024. (AP Photo/Abdel Kareem Hana)

Reda Abu Zarada wraps herself and her grandchildren in blankets as they prepare to sleep in their tent at a camp in Khan Younis, Gaza Strip, Thursday, Dec. 19, 2024. (AP Photo/Abdel Kareem Hana)

The grandchildren of Reda Abu Zarada sit by a fire at a camp by the sea in Khan Younis, Gaza Strip, Thursday, Dec. 19, 2024. (AP Photo/Abdel Kareem Hana)

Reda Abu Zarada, 50, displaced from Jabaliya in northern Gaza, warms up by a fire with her grandchildren at a camp in Khan Younis, Gaza Strip, Thursday, Dec. 19, 2024. (AP Photo/Abdel Kareem Hana)

Reda Abu Zarada wraps herself and her grandchildren in blankets as they prepare to sleep in their tent at a camp in Khan Younis, Gaza Strip, Thursday Dec. 19, 2024. (AP Photo/Abdel Kareem Hana)

Amani Abu Zarada, fourth from left, feeds one of her children with fried zucchini made over a fire made of paper and cardboard scraps outside their tent in a camp in Khan Younis, Gaza Strip, Thursday, Dec. 19, 2024. (AP Photo/Abdel Kareem Hana)

Reda Abu Zarada, left, and her daughter, Amani, standing, displaced from Jabaliya in northern Gaza, feed their children and grandchildren with fried zucchini made over a fire made of paper and cardboard scraps outside their tent in a camp in Khan Younis, Gaza Strip, Thursday, Dec. 19, 2024. (AP Photo/Abdel Kareem Hana)

Reda Abu Zarada, 50, displaced from Jabaliya in nothern Gaza, sits by a fire with her grandchildren at a camp by the sea in Khan Younis, Gaza Strip, Thursday, Dec. 19, 2024. (AP Photo/Abdel Kareem Hana)