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Jazz

DENVER (AP) &mdash; Nikola Jokic had 31 points and 11 assists, Jamal Murray finished with 26 points and nine assists, and the Denver Nuggets beat the Milwaukee Bucks 129-106 on Saturday night in a late-season showdown of the NBA&rsquo;s conference leaders.
Michael Porter Jr. scored 19 points for West-leading Denver (50-24), which outscored East-leading Milwaukee 68-40 in the second half.
Giannis Antetokounmpo scored 31 points -- just seven in the second half -- and grabbed nine rebounds for the Bucks (53-20).
The battle of the top teams in each conference -- and two strong MVP candidates -- was more competitive than the teams&rsquo; first meeting, won by the Bucks 107-99.
SUNS 125, 76ERS 105
PHOENIX (AP) &mdash; Devin Booker scored 29 points, Bismack Biyombo added 17 points, 13 rebounds and five blocks, and the Phoenix Suns snapped a three-game losing streak.
Phoenix got good minutes from most of their bench players, particularly Terrence Ross and T.J. Warren. Warren finished with 16 points, while Ross had 15. Booker shot 9 of 18 from the field and hit all nine of his free throws.
The Suns won despite a huge game from Sixers guard Tyrese Maxey, who finished with 37 points on 14-of-19 shooting, including 7 of 11 from 3-point range. Joel Embiid added 28 points and 10 rebounds.
KINGS 121, JAZZ 113
SACRAMENTO, Calif. (AP) &mdash; Kevin Huerter scored 27 points, had seven rebounds and four assists and Sacramento beat Utah.
Domantas Sabonis finished with 16 points, 15 rebounds and seven assists for his NBA-leading 60th double-double of the season. Harrison Barnes added 18 points. Keegan Murray scored 14 of his 22 total points in the first quarter and knocked down six three-pointers for the Kings.
Jazz rookie Walker Kessler scored a career-high 31 points for the Jazz. Kessler added 11 rebounds and finished 14 of 16 from the floor. Kelly Olynyk finished with 17 points and 10 assists, Ochai Agbaji scored 20 and Jarrell Brantley added 13 off the bench for Utah.
NETS 129, HEAT 100
MIAMI (AP) &mdash; Mikal Bridges scored 27 points, and the Brooklyn Nets opened the third quarter on a 31-6 run on the way to rolling past Miami and leapfrogging the Heat back into the No. 6 spot in the Eastern Conference.
Cam Johnson added 23 points and Spencer Dinwiddie scored 15 for the Nets (40-34), who snapped a five-game slide. They&rsquo;re only a half-game up on Miami (40-35) in the race for the sixth and final guaranteed playoff berth, but swept the Heat 3-0 this season and would also own a head-to-head tiebreaker.
Max Strus scored 23 for the Heat, all of them in the first half. Tyler Herro scored 23, Jimmy Butler had 18 and Bam Adebayo finished with 16 for the Heat. Miami was outscored 64-31 after halftime.
HAWKS 143, PACERS 130
ATLANTA (AP) &mdash; John Collins led eight Atlanta scorers in double figures with 21 points and the Hawks overcame Jordan Nwora&rsquo;s season-high 33 points and protected their shaky hold on the No. 8 spot in the Eastern Conference playoff standings
Trae Young was ejected in the third quarter after firing an unusually hard pass to referee Scott Wall during a timeout. Wall caught the ball. Young was immediately called for a technical foul and ejected. Young had 14 points and five assists. Dejounte Murray had 20 points in his return after missing two games with a non-COVID illness. Saddiq Bey led Atlanta&rsquo;s bench with 18 points.
Tyrese Haliburton scored 19 points and Buddy Hield had 16 for Indiana.
PELICANS 131, CLIPPERS 110
LOS ANGELES (AP) &mdash; Trey Murphy III scored 32 points, Brandon Ingram had 32 points and 13 assists, and the New Orleans Pelicans never trailed against the Los Angeles Clippers.
C.J. McCollum had 21 points, eight rebounds and eight assists for the Pelicans, who have won four in a row.
Bones Hyland scored 18 points and Kawhi Leonard added 12 points and six rebounds for the Clippers, who have lost three of four.
At risk of falling out of the play-in tournament with a loss, the energized Pelicans started out hot, scoring the first eight points, and never let up.

A recap of Saturday's slate of NBA hoops includes the East and West's best going head-to-head.

Conference leaders clash as Nuggets top Bucks 129-106

Bojan Bogdanovic knew the Jazz would look to him to take a leading role with three of Utah's primary players out.
Bogdanovic scored 23 points and Donovan Mitchell added 22 as the Utah Jazz beat the struggling Oklahoma City Thunder 106-96 on Tuesday night.
&ldquo;We had guys out on this back-to-back, so we&rsquo;re ran way more sets of fences for me so I was able to get to the basket and draw the fouls,&rdquo; Bogdanovic said.
Luguentz Dort scored a career-high 42 points and Moses Brown had 12 points and 15 rebounds for the Thunder, who have lost seven in a row and 10 of 11.
<blockquote class="twitter-tweet" data-theme="dark">
CAREER NIGHT FOR LUGUENTZ DORT ‼️ 42 PTS (career high) 7-11 3PM (career high) 7 REB 4 STL 64.9 FPTS (career high) <a href="https://t.co/YoNdQkKtcQ">pic.twitter.com/YoNdQkKtcQ</a>
&mdash; NBA Fantasy (@NBAFantasy) <a href="https://twitter.com/NBAFantasy/status/1382176643041665034?ref_src=twsrc%5Etfw">April 14, 2021</a></blockquote>

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Bogdanovic, who scored a season-high 33 points in his last game, left his familiar spot on the perimeter and repeatedly took the ball to the basket. He finished with a season-high 10-for-10 shooting from the free throw line.
&ldquo;I knew I had to be more aggressive these last two games,&rdquo; Bogdanovic said.
In pain, Bogdanovic held his right wrist after getting knocked to the floor in the third quarter. Surgery on that wrist ended his season before the bubble last season. Bogdanovic kept playing and was a key to Utah&rsquo;s 66-38 scoring advantage in the second and third quarters.
Mitchell, who averaged over 40 points in his previous four games, didn&rsquo;t need to be nearly as dominant against the Thunder.
Rudy Gobert had 13 points, 14 rebounds and seven blocks for Utah, which held the Thunder to 38.7% shooting.
The Jazz used a 12-0 run after a 55-53 halftime edge to blow open a close game. Mitchell made consecutive 3-pointers to cap the run.
The Thunder never got within single digits until the final couple minutes, as Utah pushed the lead to as many as 25 points.
Mike Conley, who rested the first half of the back-to-back when the Jazz had their 24-game home win streak snapped, had 15 points and a season-high 14 assists for league-leading Utah (41-14).
Georges Niang made his first start of the season and the second of his five-year career for the short-handed Jazz and scored 18 points, including six 3-pointers. He had a season-high 10 rebounds.
&ldquo;He didn&rsquo;t get outside of himself. That&rsquo;s what he&rsquo;s been doing. He just got more opportunity, more minutes, and sometimes when that happens, guys try to do more, but in George&rsquo;s case, what he did was plenty. I thought he really let the game come to him,&rdquo; Utah coach Quin Snyder said.
Coming into the game, The Thunder&rsquo;s point differential over their six-game losing streak was 28.5 points per loss, the worst mark for any team in 17 years. They seemed determined to change that right from the tip.
Known for his defensive prowess rather than his shooting, Dort scored 18 points &mdash; a career-high in a quarter &ndash; to power the Thunder to a 31-14 lead in the first period.
&ldquo;He was sensational. And the thing that goes really unnoticed with him is he guarded Mitchell the whole night. There are guys who get 40 in the NBA on certain nights, but I&rsquo;m not sure many have guarded a guy like Mitchell as effectively as Lu did,&rdquo; OKC coach Mark Daigneault said.
Dort looked unstoppable in his second game after missing seven contests in the concussion protocol. The Jazz paid more attention to him in the middle quarters, but he finished with a flurry to make the margin respectable.
&ldquo;I&rsquo;ve just have been working on my game a lot. To have the opportunity every day to showcase my game and just to prove and show that I&rsquo;m improving, it felt good tonight,&rdquo; Dort said.
The game was the third in four nights for the Jazz, who have won nine straight on zero days rest and are 10-1 overall on the second game of back-to-back sets.
&ldquo;They blitzed us so our backs were up against the wall. We had to respond and we have a great group of guys that are resilient, so we got back to playing Jazz basketball,&rdquo; Niang said.
IT&rsquo;S NOT JUST THE BLOCKS
Whether Gobert, a two-time Defensive Player of the Year, has one block or seven, his value on defense is making opponents uncomfortable.
&ldquo;I just try to do the same thing that I always do, which is: make sure the other team doesn&rsquo;t score. &hellip; I want them taking shots that are not comfortable taking and contested. Tonight, they kept attacking the rim, so I kept being there,&rdquo; he said.
As the game went on, it took an obvious toll on the Thunder&rsquo;s effectiveness.
&ldquo;That&rsquo;s why he&rsquo;s good. He can make you timid and you can&rsquo;t play like that against them. You can&rsquo;t play scared of your own shadow down there,&rdquo; Daigneault said.
TIP-INS
Thunder: Aleksej Pokusevski (sore arm), Shai Gilgeous-Alexander (sore foot) and Mike Muscala (sprained ankle) missed the game. &hellip; Dort scored his previous career high of 26 points against the Jazz in December. He went 9 of- 1 from the field and 5 of 7 from 3-point range in that game. &hellip; At Bazley&rsquo;s urging, Daigneault successfully challenged a foul on Bogdanovic&rsquo;s 3-point shot.
Jazz: Royce O&rsquo;Neale (rest), Joe Ingles (sore knee) and Jordan Clarkson (sprained ankle) were Utah regulars who sat out. &hellip; Jarrell Brantley had a season-best 10 points. &hellip; Gobert had four blocks in the third quarter.
UP NEXT
Thunder: Host the Golden State Warriors on Wednesday.
Jazz: Host the Indiana Pacers in a rare day game on Friday.
___
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The Jazz used a 12-0 run after a 55-53 halftime edge to blow open a close game.